Rise

DVD, Voyager S3 (Rise)

It never struck me before this viewing how similar this story is to the 'DS9' episode 'The Ascent.' They both have titles reflective of their need to reach higher ground for the survival of the characters, both a shuttle crash, and both feature their series' odd couples that could trace their roots back to the 60s, and McCoy and Spock. Not to mention they were both created in the same season of TV, though 'The Ascent' came first by a long way. The 'DS9' story is one of the best Trek episodes ever, and this falls way below that on the mag-lev carriage scale, but that's not to say there's nothing of value or entertainment to be had. Just as it was a great pleasure whenever Odo and Quark were plumped together, Tuvok and Neelix' opposing attitudes and experiences are one of those interactions that work so well. Tuvok has lived a long and logical life, while Neelix has been an odd job man all over the place, having gained his own unique perspective on the universe. It's just tough that he finds himself in an environment which is so constrained by regulations, though his reason for joining was that he saw his skills would be needed by this wandering crew - he probably harboured hopes of loosening them up a bit, too, which he succeeded admirably at, while still learning to follow the rules that made Janeway and her crew's attitude to life and other races so appealing to him in the first place.

Neelix loves to help, and that being true, he also loves to push himself further, to keep learning new skills so he can contribute to Voyager's journey - only last episode I was wondering what the future held for Kes and Neelix now their primary function of commenting together on human behaviour had ended (we do get to see them in the same room and pretty much talking to each other in this one, though it's only business when Neelix comes to sickbay for supplies), and this is an ideal episode in which to demonstrate that Neelix still has much to offer even though his main role as guide was no more once they'd reached the Nekrit Expanse. At the same time, rather than comment on humanity, he's given the speeches this time to comment on Vulcans, or specifically, Mr. Vulcan himself, Tuvok. I can't agree with all that Neelix says, I think he was being a bit sensitive when he hotly berates Tuvok for being so sarcastic and intolerant towards him, always looking down on him and being so superior. It's just the Vulcan way, and if Neelix came from the Alpha Quadrant I'm sure he'd understand that better.

I could agree with his attitude to the Away Mission of rescuing Dr. Vatm: when he and Tuvok are trapped on the planet with a band of strangers, Neelix tries to break the ice with Lillias, a woman he could have harboured a grudge against after she gave him such a violent welcome, holding a knife to his throat. But Neelix of all people understands what it is to be afraid and has a massively generous spirit, so he forgives, forgets and tries to make friends, earning him perhaps his first sign of affection since Kes. He may not have been single-mindedly carrying out his orders as Tuvok points out, but what the Vulcan is forgetting or ignoring, is that they aren't with a group of Starfleet officers, they're with aliens and strangers - Tuvok would probably cite this as an even greater imperative that Neelix behave as a Starfleet officer (even though he isn't one), but Neelix was right to treat the situation differently and try to get the team working together. Tuvok assumes that everyone will follow his lead to ensure survival, but they aren't logical like that, he hasn't factored in their feelings. It brings to mind another classic episode, this time from 'TOS' - when Spock faces similar challenges from his Landing Party who don't react well to cold logic in the face of death. At least Spock didn't have to climb onto the roof of the Galileo mid-flight as Tuvok does!

There's something about Vulcans which makes them the coolest aliens of all, and my personal favourites. We see many aspects of this in the episode, from a nerve pinch to disable the fleeing Vatm, to Tuvok's calm and efficient use of force against the thug, Hanjuan, who thinks he can intimidate the Vulcan and gets a crushed fist for his trouble in a Superman-like manoeuvre from Tuvok. There's also his logic and intelligence, the ability to work normally in extreme conditions, and control in any situation, but something that always stands out is that most Vulcans (until we got to 'Enterprise' where Vulcans were made as unpopular as possible!), do listen to the others in a group and act accordingly. When Neelix goes on strike, not allowing the mag-lev carriage to move any further until someone's gone up to the roof to retrieve the dead Dr. Vatm's mystery object, Tuvok does everything in his power to dissuade them from it, and that Vatm was delirious, but when he can do nothing else and has to acquiesce to the demands he takes the burden on himself to carry out the task, just as Spock planned to stay behind in 'The Galileo Seven.'

What's special about the episode is this understanding between Neelix and Tuvok, their reliance on each other, and the teamwork that gets them through. It's the first stage in a thawing of their personalities - they may not be compatible, but they learnt to accept each other's foibles for the mutual good. After this episode there's a slightly softer interaction between them because they've both been through something together - Neelix had always respected Tuvok, he was the first member of the crew he met on arrival, and now he'd been able to let off the steam that had built up about the Vulcan not respecting him in return (you could say Tuvok had already let off the steam of Neelix being incredibly irritating by killing a holographic version of him in 'Meld'!) - as I noted before, I think he was mistaken, as Tuvok values each individual's contribution and only seeks to bend it more to the rules of Starfleet that he upholds. I'm sure he always respected the knowledge Neelix could give of the local area and his other skills even if they hadn't been moulded to Starfleet standard. But Neelix has made great strides to learn his place on Voyager, taking on numerous roles because he's not a trained specialist and being useful because of it.

My first thoughts on the episode that stood out for me right away, were on clothing! The Nezu looked to be wearing Romulan garb with the same wing-like shoulder pads, though they had the more muted hues of later Romulan uniforms. Then I was thinking about Neelix' own wardrobe - though he's allowed on an Away Mission (which, by the sound of it I was expecting to consist of several members of the crew on each - we never saw the other two teams, but you'd think Tuvok would have been assigned more than just Neelix), he still doesn't get to wear a uniform, not even the exercise clothing seen recently in 'Blood Fever'! He has something that looks a bit more serious than his usual colourful dress, but still appears to be from his own collection. Why not give him a uniform? I would guess it's because he hasn't technically earned the right to wear one as he hasn't gone through the Academy, but then even Wesley was awarded one when he had an Acting Ensign rank. Okay, so he had gone through exams and had been working towards the Academy, but I began to think further on the subject and question why he and Kes didn't both get uniforms when they first joined Voyager? Not all the Maquis members had been to Starfleet Academy, yet they all became fully fledged, uniform-wearing members. Was it because Neelix and Kes were aliens and they didn't really know how they were going to settle in to the hierarchy of the ship, or just a production-led desire for more colour and variety than if all the cast wore the same outfits?

The episode's story is very much in the 'TNG' mould of a mission to help a planet from a natural disaster, something we'd seen the Enterprise-D crew do on many occasions. I liked that we were able to see something of that again, even though that's not Voyager's primary goal they can still stop by and help those in need. What also works is the decision to throw us right in the middle of the plan with Voyager shooting an incoming asteroid before it can damage the Nezu homeworld. I imagine this must have been a tough episode for a Director to handle as most of the scenes take place in the confines of a metal box, the carriage they use to travel the tether up above the atmosphere so Voyager can beam them out. The set had enough dark corners to be visually interesting, or not a dull, clearly laid out box - for example you don't immediately understand where everything is and when Vatm shut himself in in order to escape the surface and leave them all behind since he didn't know if he could trust anyone, I wasn't entirely sure where the carriage ended and its station began, except for the sealed door.

That sequence begs the question that if Vatm planned to take the carriage alone why did he bother concealing the datapad on the roof? Maybe he didn't expect to get away with it or it was a spur of the moment thing to steal a ride. For that matter it turned out they didn't need to escape the impact of a massive asteroid after all since in reality it was an Etanian invasion ship (those aliens looked good, so it was a shame we only saw one on a viewscreen), though they weren't to know that, and Voyager needed the tactical information contained on the datapad or they wouldn't have been able to stop the vessel. It's not explained how Vatm learned this information, but perhaps he had contacts somewhere that had passed it on… I don't know, but it's not really important - it becomes clear the spy was Sklar. This might also explain why Tuvok had an equal opponent to fight with in the overweight alien - had he actually been an Etanian he might have been stronger, though you can also point to Tuvok using much of his strength in the recent ordeal of hanging onto the outside of the platform, and that air was being sucked out, and that Sklar had a bar to beat the Vulcan with.

The characters were a little bland, this was hardly '12 Angry Men' in space in terms of dialogue, though it was fun to see a twist that almost made it into a 'Poirot' story with the suspects to murder all gathered in a room, a genre Tuvok is adept at, being an investigator. In this case he puts the case on the back burner, having to concentrate on ensuring their journey to safety succeeds, which may have been unwise, with hindsight. It shows appearances can be deceiving as each of the characters doesn't look like the kind of person they are: Lillias is a frustrated person, worried about her missing sister (the message she's been located at the end is icing on the cake), though she seems a tough and desperate figure at first, and Neelix is able to connect to her because of the loss of his own sister, Alixia, who'd been mentioned before and would be seen in the following season, a bit of a reminder of his Talaxian past that still hangs over him, though his guilt had been purged by forgiveness in 'Jetrel.' Sklar is a fat and genial alien who doesn't look the sort to pose a threat; Hanjuan a troublemaker who might rough you up, yet is actually quite a jolly fellow as demonstrated when he shows his joy at reaching safety by spontaneously hugging Tuvok, much to his displeasure; and Dr. Vatm looks more like a vampire or gangster than a respected scientist! Though the episode as a whole can feel a little bland, there are bright character gems scattered along the path of the narrative - it would have been better if we'd got to know the guest characters more, but that might have risked lessening the mystery.

Outside of the carriage it was great to see some external work done as Tuvok really looks like he's up in a cloudy sky, though that was all CGI. The images of the moving carriage, or Sklar falling out don't hold up so well now, really looking unnatural or jerky, which is a problem that sometimes crept into Voyager since they were the series that most embraced computer generated imagery even thought it was at such an early stage for TV. The physical effects worked very well, such as the clouds roiling against the window in transit, or the gusts Tuvok has to brace against on the roof. Interesting that the Director tried something a little different on the bridge: usually we cut from one station to another, but this time it was done with a whip-pan (I think that's the technical term when the camera moves at blurring speed then stops), probably because he felt so constrained by the rest of the episode he needed to have some fun where he could! The Nezu Ambassador that remains on the bridge was played by Alan Oppenheimer who'd previously been on both 'TNG' (as a Klingon advisor to Kahless in 'Rightful Heir'), and 'DS9' (the ill-fated Captain Keogh, who's Galaxy-Class starship is the first Federation casualty to the Jem'Hadar), though he doesn't have much to do here.

With a good episode for Kes just gone, and now this for Neelix, it's reassuring to see that they were slowly being reeled back into the series after the shock of 'Warlord.' In retrospect that may have been a bad move for just the immediate gratification of doing something radical which left the characters out in the cold with no clear future, though I suppose you could have said that before that episode. It's telling that both characters left before the series ended, that they were thought of as secondary in many ways and not fully realised, or maybe discovered to be lacking in depth. That's not quite fair to them as Neelix had already lived an interesting and varied life, and most of Kes' life was on Voyager, but these things didn't often come into play as options to be picked up and used for stories. That said, it was especially pleasing to hear more of Neelix' past and see him return to the confident, independently-minded man with a clear purpose and goal, able to apply his resourcefulness and wide knowledge base to the best effect. It's a story about how he and Tuvok deal with each other under duress, and it works, despite production not being as fantastic as, say, climbing up a mountain was in 'The Ascent,' with even a satisfying tag scene to round things off nicely in which Neelix and Tuvok have a funny exchange about who gets the last word. I do. (For some reason both the DVD set booklet and the 'Voyager Companion' book wrongly give this title an exclamation mark - only two episodes in the history had one; 'Operation- Annihilate!' from 'TOS' and this series' own 'Bride of Chaotica!').

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