Warlord

DVD, Voyager S3 (Warlord)

You shouldn't judge a Kes by her cover, though judging from how well black suited her, maybe she should remove her usual pastel shaded wardrobe and switch to military uniforms on a permanent basis. If it were the Holodeck she could just order a change immediately, just like the barman in Neelix' new holoprogram… I always thought the 'beach villa' setting was a recreation of Risa, but here I learnt it was actually a Talaxian location called Paxau Resort, and the inhabitants are from other programs, added by Harry and Tom. One thing we did get for the first time was a view of a Talaxian female, as I don't think we'd ever seen one before, and if we did, we certainly never saw how far the spots go (just like the age-old Trill question), petering out above the elbow. Another first for the series was the appearance of Neelix' Hobbity-troll feet, which I'm pretty sure we didn't see in 'Caretaker' when he got out of the tub! Like Dr. Phlox on 'Enterprise,' Neelix has quite an alien anatomy to what we're used to, though we never saw as much of him as we did Phlox (which was for the best). On the same note, we see more of Torres than we usually would when she dons a bathing suit, but interestingly she has none of the exoskeletal features Mr. Worf, Kurn or other Klingons have displayed. This could mean female Klingons don't have such a pronounced bone structure, or Torres' human genes could be responsible.

None of this has anything to do with the story, just as the teaser is completely unrelated, but it does fit with the episode because of that disparity - the whole episode is topsy-turvy, unexpected and a little bit crazy! The concept of body-swapping is, of course, nothing new, and even the method used of transferring consciousness via the fingertips had been done on 'DS9' ('The Passenger'). This time we don't see the moment of transferral, which adds a bit more mystery, and for anyone that doesn't know the story, surprise at Kes' treatment of poor Neelix. Maybe it was the grass on her plate that underwhelmed her, but it's shocking to see her flare up at her beloved like that. That was nothing compared to the way she flares up in the Transporter Room, killing two people and forcing Janeway to slam her up against a wall. It's a great way to break the facade and reveal Kes as not being Kes, although technically no one knows that is what had happened at this point.

When Tieran is laid out in sickbay, his wife hovering by her own biobed, I wondered what would have happened if she'd come over and… oh, she just did. I wondered what would have happened if she had been the recipient of her husband's consciousness. Would she have ceased to exist, being a willing host, or would she have been willing? Is it his new form that puts her off him later, or a sign that her loyalty only ran as deep as her comfort allowed? The whole body-hopping thing made me think of the Trill, and what happened to the person whose body it had been. Janeway's told early on that Kes is lost, but whether this was just Demmas spinning the truth a little to get her to accept that Kes' body may as well be killed, or a myth he believed, is uncertain. The two times we see Tieran transfer into and then out of a new host, they both survive: Kes through her mental fortitude, and Ameron, though only a host for a few seconds, and probably not a willing one. So the question remains what happens to the conscious mind of a willing host? Do they simply recede as Tieran takes over, like a Trill inheriting the memories of previous hosts, or do they survive until their body is killed, experiencing what he experienced?

The semantics of the episode weren't the only thought-provoking aspects, the action is well-handled and the story rattles along well, helped by a standout performance from Jennifer Lien. On original transmission of the series I never warmed to her character and she remained one of my least favourites, but re-watching on DVD, I saw what a great actress she was, so much so that I felt it was a tragic loss to the programme when she left - I'm not suggesting they shouldn't have brought on Seven of Nine, an equally good, if not better character, but Kes didn't need to be cut loose. I wonder if the writers or producers had her exit in mind as early as this episode which might account for the unfortunate changes made to her? I wouldn't have thought so, it could be that they made the wrong decision to alter her character permanently as regards Neelix. Maybe they thought they were enhancing her, allowing her to break free from the only partnership she'd ever known, and that it was supposed to be like the freedom given to the Doctor in the previous episode? If so, it didn't work.

Not that it's made clear Kes and Neelix are no longer a couple, and one of the problems lies in the fact that they never truly addressed the situation. The episode does end slightly on a downer without the kind of scene you'd hope and expect to see: Neelix cheering Kes up. There's no scene between the two of them, and that leaves a feeling of uncertainty in the air. All we do get is Neelix standing next to Kes, and her not meeting his questioning eyes. I liked that they had the scene with Tuvok, her mentor, and actually the bond between them was only strengthened by what they went through. It was also important for her growth that they addressed her mental abilities again, which had fallen by the wayside since Season 2, with only the occasional mention that Tuvok was still working with her. In this episode her powers are, if not fully awakened, given a boost she hadn't experienced since meeting the space Ocampa and their female caretaker in 'Cold Fire'. Like the Doc last episode she's a superhero, or a Jedi-type, choking people, chucking them into walls, and sensing the presence of people she knows!

Credit should go to Lien for her storming of the role, allowed to strike out of her usual soft demeanour and chew the place up. Probably most, if not all, of the main Trek characters got to play an alternate version of themselves, and some did better than others. Marina Sirtis, for example was never quite chilling enough, though she did a great job, too. Here, Lien shows what an actor she is, charging around, shouting and being bigger than her small stature should allow. She's had her moments before, such as the off the wall behaviour in 'Elogium,' but never for an entire episode. When you see the title, Kes is the last person you would associate with it! She does a fantastic job of showing the cracks in Tieran's control, the way she mirrors the earlier scene when checking under guard's veils for Tuvok by screaming around uncontrollably ripping their veils off, convinced Tuvok's in the room again, though she knows he's held captive. And in the way little facets of Kes shine through - she's throwing stuff around in the palace hall until she comes to a flowering plant, which makes her pause and pluck the flower. Even more so when she states that each of her people must have a garden because she loves gardens so much.

David Livingston should get a lot of the credit for his direction. Two of the most amazing scenes of the episode, and my favourites, are so strong: when Kes comes to interrogate Tuvok and the Vulcan character once again comes out looking so cool (in a way that 21st Century Trek rarely achieved), referencing how it will be no use torturing him, but then Tieran/Kes demonstrate the mental powers, which could be stronger than Tuvok, until he grabs Kes and does a kind of mind meld and the real Kes breaks through, the camera zoomed right in, and her face looking up in a pool of light, fighting all the time. The other great sequence is when we see Tieran losing the ability to stay awake, and we slide into his mind and see the battle between the 'little girl' Kes and this great, hairy warrior. The device of showing Kes' quarters on Voyager when her point of view is coming across, and the palace chamber when it's Tieran's, was a masterstroke, and leads to a visual signpost that Kes is gaining the upper hand when the whole setting becomes Voyager. Kes then shows her awesome ferocity as she presses home the advantage, eventually forcing Tieran back against a wall, just as Janeway had done earlier.

The story is greatly improved by having a villain that isn't a one-dimensional bad guy. We learn of his pain and suffering and the hard life he's endured, but equally Kes points out that it doesn't justify what he's become. He doesn't want to be seen as a monster, he wants to be accepted as the leader of his people, failing to realise he's had his time, refusing to give up power he shouldn't have, just as Kes refuses to give up fighting - her tenacious spirit is what ultimately defeats him. I felt Leigh J. McCloskey was playing the role of Tieran much more in the typical baddie mode than Lien, trying to influence her, yet getting annoyed at her ability to remain focused. But that was right for the situation he's playing in because it's the true, inner self of Tieran, without any of the facade he displays outwardly, and he's talking to someone he's sharing a mind with, so there's nowhere to hide the inner turmoil - it only enhances Kes' incredible determination not to give up. The actor would go on to play a similar role (standing over a small woman trying to get her to give in to her weaknesses) on 'DS9' in 'Field of Fire'. His wife in this, Nori (Galyn Gorg), had previously been Jake Sisko's future wife in 'The Visitor'.

The issues brought up by a person inhabiting a new body were a little discomfiting, something that was dealt with more directly on 'DS9,' though fortunately wasn't gone into as much detail here, and this was as risque as the series ever got in that regard. It's a realistic issue, I suppose, that if people could body-hop there would be confusion between genders and established marriages, though I never felt it was appropriate for a family programme to be delving into such subject matter. It certainly made the character much more disquieting and off-balance, because you never knew quite what he/she was going to do next, though not being a woman, Tieran wasn't as adept at spinning such webs as the Intendant of the Mirror Universe.

Production-wise I was impressed with the look of both the sets and aliens. Although the design was another cloth-around-the-head style, as seen with the Enarans a few episodes ago (and the aliens from 'Ex Post Facto'), the addition of the four extra nostrils made them different enough, especially when it became a design feature, having the nostrils bleed on queue (though I pitied the poor guy that had to have blood running into his eyes!). I also liked the uniforms they used, which don't always work with aliens of the week, but this time suited the action perfectly. I felt Demmas' outfit looked similar to the new Starfleet uniforms that were just coming in at that time on 'First Contact' and 'DS9' (and which I always wished had come to 'Voyager'), with black all over except for the shoulders which had vertical piping. The guards looked suspiciously like the Albino's soldiers in 'Blood Oath,' only painted black, but even then the veils added an extra something to the design. The palace chamber looked really good as did the details inside it, and although the external matte painting wasn't particularly special, it added to the mood.

The production values and detail, both in terms of physical props and referencing established cultural details, helped up the scale of the episode into a bigger story, even though there weren't location shoots, etc, like the previous episode. It shows what a certain style of direction can bring. There's even an exciting end with Janeway leading the assault (Chakotay wouldn't dare cite Starfleet principles of the Captain staying safely behind), phaser beams slicing through the air, and Neelix once again showing how devoted he was to Kes, which makes it even more disheartening when there's no reciprocation from her - I even saw him leap over a table to get to her. The hardest thing for him must have been when he was forced to shoot her, however, so she collapses like a wounded spider. But what happened to Tieran's consciousness once it was extracted into the device? In 'The Passenger' a similar gadget is vaporised, but we don't find out what happens this time.

If Kes hadn't been involved I suspect this might have been another case of internal affairs, Janeway likely not interfering, though that might have been a good story in itself - if Tieran had hopped into his wife, then claimed asylum on Voyager it would have set up other conundrums. I wonder what he planned to do when Kes' expected nine year lifespan was over. He enjoyed having mind powers and probably would have looked for another host with special abilities as he'd have become reliant on them by then - the horror of opening his eyes to the possibility of harnessing superpowers wasn't something that came up, but Kes was already guilty enough. Okay, it was good that a character was forced to reevaluate her life because of an experience she went through, but it wasn't necessary to abandon Neelix and that whole storyline - life-changing events had happened to characters before without them becoming estranged from their closest friends, but it seemed like a case of the writers wanting to try something new. It's just a shame that in this case it didn't work out, and the character had an even shorter life expectancy than she should've had. Little of which is this episode's fault, but it was the beginning, not just of Kes' alteration, but the stripping away of what made Neelix, Neelix. For once the ending leaves us wondering about Kes' questioning uncertainty, but not wholly in a positive way.

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