DVD, Voyager S4 (The Raven)
Although Seven of Nine has been heavily featured in the episodes of Season 4 so far (aside from her absence in 'Nemesis' - side note: she was planned to appear in the film of the same name and didn't, so maybe Jeri Ryan was against being in productions of that name!), it hadn't become 'Star Trek: Seven' just yet - while she's either been at the forefront, or a regular focus of the B-story, this episode is actually the first wholly Seven of Nine slot. We've seen her interact with a number of the main cast, and here we get more, with Tuvok and Neelix getting key scenes, not to mention the beginnings of Janeway's mentoring that would become so prevalent as the series progressed. I had felt Tuvok an ideal person to deal with the former Borg drone - not in the obvious fact that he's not human and shares her outsider perspective, but because he resembles much of what she is: an emotional being with strong feelings, but kept under control; an emphasis on relevance and paring things down to the necessary, not focusing on the relaxation, social interaction and unclear boundaries outside of the distinct bounds of duty and routine tasks. So I was very pleased when I saw Tuvok selected as the man to go after Seven when she does a Data and is 'activated' by a beacon that leads her 'home.' Such things would become the purview of Janeway who took on personal responsibility, sometimes ahead of her ship (such as when she would rescue Seven from the Borg in subsequent seasons), but Tuvok's role as Security Chief hadn't yet been forgotten.
He's a reassuring presence, and while he is strict and doesn't tend to take into consideration his crew-mates' feelings in his actions, that rock-solid dependability is what gives the security of the ship its soundness. He's open to the daring course of action, though always for the logical reason, not for some faux-heroic daredevil-may-care swashbuckling. So when he beams aboard the stolen shuttlecraft with the Doctor's hypospray in order to subdue his quarry and bring her back to Voyager, he does it out of duty and care, his only flaw being that he underestimates the deviousness of the former Borg and loses the one thing in his favour, the element of surprise. Perhaps he still considered her an automaton, reacting, not planning, but far from Data's automatic recall in 'Brothers,' Seven is fully cognisant, talks normally, but is conflicted with the strongest urge to reach the location of the Borg beacon. It's a really cool moment when we see the powerful Vulcan subdued by the slight, but intense exoskeletal force of Seven, in the most humiliating way possible: with the equivalent of a Vulcan Nerve Pinch! We're reminded beyond doubt just how dangerous Seven is, in case we'd forgotten thanks to the slow, but steady integration she'd shown, with things at a stage where she's discussing recreation on the Holodeck with the Captain.
The sequence where Janeway shows her round the da Vinci program for a 3D Photoshop lesson experimenting with clay (though a human head might have been a little ambitious for her first lesson - even Kira, when she went back to her family's caste system to become an artist, began with birds!), and suggesting that designing a holoprogram might be a good use of her leisure time is a bit of a jump from being accepted aboard and allowed to contribute to the Engineering section. Her development is happening in leaps and bounds compared with the much slower pace of the Doctor's own gaining of rights and learning to live, not just existing for the purpose he was constructed. At least she'd been granted the freedom from her constricting silver catsuit, with a much less showy and more respectable brown outfit (to match the clay she was working on - at least if she got any on her clothing it wouldn't matter…). Crafting a holoprogram was an interesting idea, something Tom Paris would have been happy to teach considering how he was always the holo-maestro (with Tuvok a close second, though his designs were functional, not recreational). It's not something I ever recall Seven doing, but then she never really found art to be her interest: plotting stellar phenomenon and doing something with a purpose would become her thing, rather than art for art's sake.
Pleasure and leisure were still beyond her understanding and outside of a slowly widening comfort zone. Just as Neelix performed admirably when cheering up B'Elanna in 'Day of Honour,' he's happy to take on the challenge of the ex-Borg when she's sent to him to begin taking food and drink - as with Dejaren's view last episode, I can sympathise with the position that consuming nutrients through the mouth and stomach does sound quite disgusting when you think about it. I'm sure Seven was more prepared for the beginning of the process than the end… A bit like Deanna Troi's crashing of both Enterprises-D and -E, it wasn't really the Talaxian's fault that tasting his food for the first time triggered her violent escape run, to steal a shuttle, exit the ship and fly away as fast as she could! It's a good joke, but in reality he was at his best, remaining sunny and welcoming in spite of her blunt order of food, fielding suggestive comments about the ease with which his race was assimilated, used as if she's testing his patience, like a teenager sent to do something she doesn't want to and finding a way of getting back at authority. You can tell Neelix is slightly rattled inside, but doesn't take offence - you think back to all the people he lost and how he reacted in 'Jetrel,' but he's come a long way through forgiveness and generosity, and has become a far better person on Voyager, able to withstand such minor attacks in good grace. Neelix must be one of the most inspiring characters of Trek when you realise all he's been through and that he's not all that skilful, but he's carved out a niche doing whatever he can to the best of his ability and with a cheerful heart. Again, an ideal person for Seven to learn from (including sitting which she does for the first time!).
Unfortunately for him, he becomes the next person to be 'bowled over' by Seven's 'charm' (read: knocked to the floor when she goes crazy), after the Harry Kim incident where she took her freedom and ran with it (though I think the embarrassment of Kim's attachment to her caused him more trouble, with B'Elanna teasing him about it here, and Janeway discussing it with him when they're forced to examine Seven's personal logs for clues to her radical departure). It was nobody's fault, however, but a latent in-built instinct to follow a Borg signal that causes her to leave in such an ignominious manner, complete with walking through forcefields and using her own Borg shield to withstand phaser fire, which was a surprise to see - I sort of imagined they needed a lot of onboard hardware to generate the famous adaptive shielding, but it appears a few nanoprobes can do the job (the effect of the implant bursting through the skin wasn't quite as realistic as the ones in 'First Contact'). It makes me think they should have made it so she could still pull that party trick in future as it would be an ideal defence on an Away Team: "Everyone stand behind Seven!" Dream imagery is always effective in Trek, whether it's the nightmares of Androids (Data very much a model for Seven's experiences, it would seem), or Orb visions, they never fail to add mystery and suspense to a story as, like the unexplored reaches of the Delta Quadrant, the mind is still the greatest source of exploration, and most identifiable for human viewers, that Trek can address (as Q hinted in the 'TNG' finale).
While Levar Burton as Director isn't shabby with the action, there were moments where it wasn't entirely satisfying (such as when Seven exits the Turbolift, which could have been a lot more dramatic), but the important, meaningful stuff is where he excels: the strange dreams of Borg coming for Seven, a screeching black bird, and the warning cries of her human name, Annika, give the episode its atmosphere. It's not quite one of dread and portent, but it is a strong motivator to get us to where we need to go: Seven's childhood home of the SS Raven, a Starfleet vessel used by her parents. How did the ship end up there, so far not only from the Federation, but also Borg space, deep in B'omar territory, a secretive and highly guarded race - they also look a bit silly with their wire face guards, like some kind of baseball helmet, and coloured plastic - it's good to be reminded that not every weekly alien was a winner, and some, like the Dosi of 'DS9,' were more interesting for being ridiculous than for aesthetic achievement, though it only added to the B'omar's idiotic mien and made it easier for us to accept Janeway's defiance of their wishes, to rescue her crewmembers! And why was there a beacon on the Raven? Both questions can be answered smoothly by its Borgification - it could be standard practice to leave an active homing signal for wayward drones, and if it's been used by the Borg it could end up anywhere in the Galaxy since they can travel vast distances. It may even have drifted into B'omar space and crashed of its own accord, though with that race's penchant for detecting every little thing that crossed their borders, it does seem a little unlikely to have escaped their attention, just as it was for Paris' shuttle to glide over the border without detection!
It's not the technical details and plot we're questioning during the episode, though, and that's the mark of good writing (another one from Bryan Fuller…). What I cared about was that this is the first indication of Seven's life pre-Borg, one of the reasons the story was so involving when I first saw it, because we're learning snippets about her as we go and this was certainly the biggest examination of her past so far. And yet, there is some loss of tension in the way Janeway tells Seven that information on her parents is available in the Starfleet database and she can read it at any time. At the moment she's not ready to do that digging into her personal life, but it's an artificial way of stringing out our knowledge of her life to give the writers plenty of time to come up with more, or more detailed stories in future. It would have been better if almost nothing was known about them, if their lives, and how they got hold of a Starfleet ship had been a mystery - Section 31 could have been involved, maybe they were operatives tasked with finding the source of rumours about cybernetic creatures? At the time it was enough to get to see a flashback of her parents as they get dragged away, and it is a great moment when Janeway solves the puzzle and realises what the bird represents in Seven's hallucinations, but nowadays I can't imagine they'd wait so long before uncovering the mystery.
In a way, that's a shame, because although 'Voyager' had become a lot less serialised compared to parts of the first three seasons, it was still planned to last a few years and to be around long enough to discover more, eke out the information and developments rather than rush headlong to setup constant mysteries that have to be quickly revealed in order to hold the short attention spans of many of today's viewers. That's something that could well be the case with the new Trek series to come, and is a good reminder of why I like the 90s Trek, because it does give you so much time to experience and live in that world. It's not like 'Battlestar Galactica' where it's a constant battle to survive and so many things need to be serviced, setup and resolved. In 'Voyager' we get to see the characters grow, we experience so much more of their lives and what it's like to live on such a ship because we're given the time. So although we only really learn that Annika was assimilated aboard the Raven with her parents, and that they were unconventional, I couldn't say it was unsatisfying. Partly because I know the full story, and also because it was so early in Seven's run that we learn something so momentous for her, and I could have imagined them keeping it back for much longer. Maybe back then in the late-90s they were already trying to keep viewers coming back by dangling the possibility of learning more about this intriguing new character?
We're not even told her parents' names at this stage, and it's a shame they didn't get the same actors back to reprise the important retrospective roles, as they did with Kira's Father on 'DS9' - such a small role, but they went to the trouble. They were seen in flashback in 'Scorpion, Part II,' but not even recorded in the uncredited costars section on Memory Alpha, so I couldn't say if it's the same people in this one, though for later appearances they were different actors entirely. It's a shocking moment when we see the small child hiding under the console, and Seven relives the terrifying ordeal. At least Tuvok was there to bring her back to reality, and it was also useful that they were both stronger than the average humanoid to be able to move the wreckage of the broken ship and escape. It was difficult to see the design of the vessel, but it had the look of a Runabout, though less sophisticated, and it would have been nice if they could have brought up a schematic or an image on a monitor so we could see it in its full glory. With the dismantling of the Raven it's like the last vestiges of her past have fallen away from Seven. As traumatic as it was, the experiences were important to aid in her recovery of her true nature, providing us with an exciting journey and enjoyable interactions between her and more of the crew. Janeway's eagerness for the project of Seven's regeneration is most apparent here, and the great facets of her character and abilities are showcased in some of the coolest ways. Seven continues to inject a vibrancy and added depth to the series that makes you hope for more episodes that deal with her.
****
Tuesday, 31 May 2016
Revulsion
DVD, Voyager S4 (Revulsion)
I'm not sure who had the more uncomfortable assignment, B'Elanna going on an Away Mission with the Doctor or Harry given the task of working with Seven of Nine. Alright, I'm being flippant, what I really meant was B'Elanna having to deal with a psychopathic hologram, as she actually gets on quite well with the Doc these days. The embryonic stages of a few things that would develop into hallmarks of the series are either continued or begun in this episode, none more so than the Doc's eagerness at new opportunities. His overzealousness would become a familiar comedic element in the character's exploits as he's gone from being completely repressed and dry to delighting in the potential others have seen in himself and the Captain allowed him to realise. We see this overriding excitement in his immediate response to the hologram, Dejaren, whose distress call fires the Doctor's interest so that he practically orders an Away Team and puts himself at its head, much to Janeway's restrained amusement. But she sees how much meeting another of his 'kind' would mean to him, and graciously acquiesces, while at the same time reminding him of his place. A hologram's place is very much at the heart of the episode, both narratively and figuratively, but it's not so much the Doctor as it is his 'patient,' or the being that became a sort of personal project (good job he didn't get too invested, thanks to Dejaren's unstable attitude, or he might have blamed himself for B'Elanna's injuries), whom he was able to encourage and represent the achievements he'd succeeded in for holographic life.
Life. A small, simple word, and yet that's what the Doctor had long attained. No longer is he considered a part of the ship's advanced technology, he's a person in his own right, and thanks to the 29th Century emitter, with a measure of freedom, though as we witness again here, his life is as fragile as an 'organic's,' if in a different way: the holoemitter can be damaged where he couldn't, and since his mobility depends on it, it provides a weakness to an otherwise superhuman character. Cleverly, a limitation that both unveils a broad canvas of freedom, but also restricts - there's no replacement emitter if this one's damaged, unless they want to hop into the future. The Doc isn't the only character on Voyager to have superpowers - it used to be limited to him and Tuvok, whose mystical Vulcan ways are as old as Trek on TV, and now that Kes and her telepathic abilities had departed, only one other could be said to be in this category: Seven. She has far better visual acuity than an ordinary human (as proved when she notes Kim's biological changes when she enters a room!), and her Borg exoskeleton allows her to withstand extreme charges, this latter ability giving her an understandably careless attitude toward Starfleet safety protocols (though she isn't invulnerable: presumably the Borg were able to repair their organic parts with nanoprobes, yet Seven still has these in her, so why can't she fix her gashed hand? Probably doesn't have enough). But her least controlled power is over Kim himself, with a cool, unemotional response to his nervousness, only agreeing to work with him to fit in with this crew.
So she puts up with Harry's odd behaviour until she realises he's attracted to her, and in the same blunt manner states that she's willing to explore this side of her humanity, instructing the Ensign to take off his clothes. It's an amusing moment and deals with the rather obvious (some would say cynical), visual presentation of the character, wrapped tightly as she is in silver foil. It's the aspect of Seven that was the elephant in the room, the reason she was added to the cast, though they allowed Jeri Ryan to show her acting prowess before broaching the subject, which demonstrated they had their priorities right, and I like that the fact she stands out so much among the crew is addressed in a humorous way (in fact she wouldn't get a real romance until near the end of the series!). It's all wrapped up in a neat package of the dichotomy of her character: she appears to be accepting her human heritage, though she doesn't fully understand the nuances and intricacy of interaction (no wonder, since she's still a virtual prisoner of the Cargo Bay, having little else to do than regenerate, read the Starfleet database or contemplate her existence, since she sees pretty much everything else as irrelevant). Outwardly, her beauty shows how human she is, yet inwardly she has a long way to go to throw off the shackles and hive mentality of the Collective. I think it's these contrasts that attract Kim, even though he didn't want to work with her in the first place - she points out why he would have misgivings: she attacked him and tried to contact the Borg last time they worked together!
Thus was born the recurring theme of Kim's inability to pick a partner, with Paris referring back to the last time he had this problem with 'the hologram' (although she actually turned out to be more than a hologram, see 'Alter Ego'), a fitting reference for this episode in particular, neatly tying the two stories together, if the fact that the odd couple theme wasn't enough. When the stakes are down, Kim just has to suffer a little embarrassment (not least where we get a rare view of Chakotay's quarters when the Ensign goes to suggest he and Seven stop working together only to find that she'd already spoken with the Commander and given him the Borg seal of approval, calling him 'competent,' or words to that effect, the equivalent of praise from Seven, much to Chakotay's enjoyment), whereas Torres gets a massage of the heart even Kim wouldn't have wanted. The ominous tone of the episode's opening, where we see Dejaren haul a dead humanoid through the decks of a darkened, empty vessel, blood trailing behind, was an excellent way to put us in the mood. I'm not sure if we're supposed to be immediately suspicious of the hologram as being the cause, though the dark portent of the music (very accomplished, almost fairytale, full of mood), might point towards it. It's difficult to know how I first saw it, when now I'm watching with the sure knowledge that this guy is deranged, though it's quickly apparent that he's lying by the fact he says the crew died from a virus, yet the body he dragged had obviously died violently against a bulkhead.
What helps to raise the episode beyond merely competent (as Kim was awarded), is the shift in tone between the two story-lines, as well as a warm, familial post-credits opening where we see all the main characters together, celebrating (I especially liked hearing about how Janeway first met him, nine years previous), and ripping Tuvok as he's promoted to Lieutenant Commander (though he gets some good ripostes in, as you'd expect from any good Vulcan). Paris would have got on well with Dax, I think, both having a propensity for practical jokes on their precise, ordered comrades; Paris on Tuvok, Dax on Odo! I wonder how many takes it took them to get that right? Quite a few, if the stories of the actors' antics on set are true, with their well known reputation for corpsing and having fun, perhaps to rival only the 'TNG' cast. Often, the best horror episodes have moments of lightness, humour and warmth to provide greater contrast to the darkness and evil, and the scene serves its purpose very well, Dejaren's ship cold, empty and very dark, these chilling senses only heightened by coming directly from a good-humoured party of friends. I'd have liked Tuvok's promotion to be for a specific reason, rather than his general service, and it would be have been appreciated if such an important change had occurred because of some mission he'd carried out, a reward we saw earned in heroism. Maybe that's not how these things work. But his promotion could easily have been the focus of an episode in itself.
While the humour of Kim's dance with Seven serves to continue to heighten the danger aboard the alien vessel, that's really the A-story. And it is a grim story, the Doctor inadvertently cementing the wayward hologram's prejudices against 'organics' in a way he couldn't have imagined. The mood aboard ship isn't felt by B'Elanna and the Doctor right away, but there's certainly one there for the audience. Like 'Empok Nor' of 'DS9,' and countless other episodes where our heroes board an apparently empty or damaged ship, it's very dark, the Engineer has to go down deep to bring things back online, and something nasty in the shadows waits… Like the aforementioned episode, it even has that same scene where we watch them going about their tasks from the dark corner and point of view of a malevolent observer. Dejaren's twitchy, corpselike figure could be explained as his fear of being alone rather than guilt after murder, or two sides of him: one knowing that he needs these people to repair his ship, the other desperately full of an almost uncontrollable rage to snuff out every organic life he can, in payment for bad treatment. He's a tragic figure, and it's only the Doctor's revelations about having a life beyond his occupation, the time and ability to explore art and literature, that keeps him from killing Torres right away, I suspect. His own wish to get the ship working again is conflicted - he can't exist in a ship that won't go anywhere and will slowly break down, but he doesn't want to go back to his old life either.
Though Dejaren suggests he and the Doctor escape their organic-controlled lives once the ship is fully operational, and the Doctor does seem to give it consideration, being tempted by the chance to get to know one of his own kind (probably for less than a second, though for a hologram that is an eternity…), at this stage of his development he wouldn't seriously consider abandoning his friends on Voyager. He was still learning to be a 'real boy,' still needed the support and guiding hand of Janeway and her crew, although the more egotistical he would become later, the more he would give thought to his own existence. Though he talks of the arts, and interest in such things, holographic life would eventually become tired of these trifles because they're all geared towards organics, and the resentment that holograms don't have their own culture would eventually overpower the desire to examine such things, I think. Ultimately, the question of whether holographic life in Trek is genuine life, is answered by the fact that it is not: they could perhaps program other holograms themselves, but they'd have to learn those skills from organics. They could become self-sufficient from humans, say, but they'd still need a level of technology which we've seen in the 24th Century is beyond what is capable - perhaps by the 29th Century, holograms are creating holograms, but the fact remains that they can't exist in the real world separately from technology. It's part of their existence. While I couldn't help but agree to an extent with some of Dejaren's speech, railing against the disgusting nature of organic life (because when you think about it, it is all a bit gross), he depends on that life to sustain himself - he may not need meat and plant material, ingested into a pit of acid, but he does need energy, and a continual supply. His raving about B'Elanna being the prisoner in a cage of blood and bone, was a fascinating concept (and true when you realise the physical world isn't all that exists), but he was the true prisoner.
As much as I like the Doctor, he couldn't live his life separate from his creators, and though we see holograms doing that later ('Flesh and Blood'), tech as it stands can't free them from this nature, an artificially created existence, designed with intelligence so that complex tasks can be completed, sometimes in situations that organic life couldn't survive. As a useful tool, a holographic crewman has the potential to become vital, but my speculation would be that all races would eventually realise that unless they were going to give these artificial races equal right to existence (and it wouldn't be in their best interests to do that), then they would eventually cease the invention of sentient technology for all the confusion, moral issues and threat to survival that creation brings, and instead only use basic level intelligence for a specific task, as we use robots today. If holograms ever did become fully divorced from the technology holding them together (some kind of self-sustaining matrix housed within their own bodies), then perhaps they could be considered a race in their own right, but to do that they'd have to lose some of the abilities they had (such as phasing in and out), making them less holographic and more solid. It's the same theme as that explored in much of 'DS9' where The Changelings were such a radically different form of life that it came to war of the entire Quadrant as their need to control 'solids' gave them licence to do so, in their minds. But I've strayed from the episode quite a bit now - it shows that Trek continued to provide food for thought, even in its fourth TV show!
Getting back to the episode, it's not quite fully formed in its narrative. We don't get the punch at the end that the Doctor's eagerness to rush in and respond to whatever his feelings tell him to, resulted in B'Elanna's injury, so it wasn't so much of a lesson-learning experience for him. It shows again that he is capable of going on Away Missions, though Janeway is still concerned about the holoemitter, knowing the loss of that would put him almost back to square one. Before he got it they'd begun to placing emitters throughout the ship, and that would have been the natural development of his freedom (though with the caveat that you never know when holograms are going to start appearing, or whether you can trust your eyes, another deeply fascinating scenario, covered partially in 'Persistence of Vision,' though not as much as could have been - it's another aspect of the advance of technology that leaves you wondering about the implications of basically turning real life into a Holodeck). Her concern is justified when Dejaren strikes the emitter, disabling the Doctor completely. No doubt if he'd managed to off Torres, he'd have stolen the emitter and rampaged murderously through the galaxy. But even his own kind found him to be a disturbed individual, the Doctor at first finding excuses for his odd behaviour, though ultimately having to concede the depths of his character.
It makes sense that other races would have developed holographic servants, if not slaves, though at this stage in most technology there isn't the power resource for a ship full of them, just one. I wonder if advancements like this have been one reason why no Trek series has been developed since, that went further than the 24th Century? Perhaps it was felt that things were becoming too fantastical and it would be tricky to deal with half-holographic crews and suchlike. They jumped back to the beginning of space exploration with 'Enterprise' and now, with the new series approaching, it so far appears that again they're going for a prequel before 'TNG,' so they still aren't in a position to address holographic rights, wrongs and wherefores. It remains a juicy topic for discussion, however, and I hope one day we do see Trek's timeline expand ever more into the future - perhaps not where time travel is a tool in the arsenal of Starfleet as that could truly prove problematic, but that wasn't until the 26th Century, I believe, so there are still decades and decades we could see unfold.
It's a good episode for the Doctor, because, in spite of no digital soul-searching at the end, it does temper his enthusiasm a bit and reminds him that not all holograms are like Starfleet holograms, just as not all spacefarers are like Starfleet, and it's good to get back to the bright, comforting surroundings of his Sickbay after the horrible events. Because he hadn't yet attained quite the level of gung-ho enthusiasm of subsequent seasons, he didn't have so far to climb down, as he was hardly advocating Dejaren's right to murder his unfriendly crew! The end scene is more of a jokey acceptance of the untidiness of his crew-mates to cover the chilling nature of what they've just been through - his fastidiousness and sense of order would be something he'd share with Seven, so I'm surprised they hadn't yet had scenes together, but you want to see her interact with each and every cast member as it's interesting to see the results between established characters and one so different and yet so compelling. We've already seen B'Elanna being less than friendly to Seven, her Klingon hot temper evident, and in this episode her Klingon nature almost gets her killed: if she'd carried on working at the console when Dejaren came a-killing, she'd have deactivated him in no time, but she had to take the aggressive stance and attempt to strike him, never a wise move since holograms can phase out so matter passes through, and they don't feel pain anyway, so it would only have damaged Torres' fist!
At first when we see Dejaren (in a superb performance from Leland Orser, who later appeared in the far less interesting 'Enterprise' episode, 'Carpenter Street' his most easily recognisable performances, but had also been in a couple of 'DS9' episodes - I hope he gets a role in the new series as it would be shame for his Trek career to have ended on a low), I thought he shouldn't be showing effort when dragging the dead body through the bowels of the ship, but I must concede that he did it in a very robotic manner, and may have been programmed to show organic traits, though murder wasn't one of them. There was more to his character than a simple urge towards violent disgust, as seen by his having created a secret pet fish, Spectrum, a fellow hologram, presumably in a holographic jar of holographic water, which showed that he keenly required like companionship (long before Doc Zimmerman and his holographic menagerie). He was almost as compelling a character as Suder had been, though not quite, as he never got his redemption. I'd have loved to have heard what happened about the Serosian ship, and felt a Captain's Log was needed to round off the episode's story before we had the humorous final scene. Did they send a message to the race it belonged to, letting them know what had happened, or just leave it floating in space, not their responsibility? A vessel of the dead with only a dangerously unhinged hologram aboard that might one day find a way to re-stabilise its program… a sequel would have been great!
I was glad the Tom and B'Elanna declaration at the end of 'Day of Honor' was addressed - according to Paris it only happened three days previous as that's how long they've been avoiding each other, and as I said in that review, it could easily have been an admission under the duress of certain death, but B'Elanna says it wasn't, so that clears things up. As well as the beginnings of their great friendship, we also have Neelix going on his first mission as official Ambassador (although I thought he already held that post in episodes such as 'Macrocosm,' but perhaps it wasn't felt he'd quite earned the official title then); Paris officially appointed Doctor's Nurse - he'd played the role since the early seasons, but it was usually only for emergencies, and with Kes gone he was being made to fulfil regular obligations of three duty shifts a week. That's the way it is when you don't have new crewmembers to take up posts, though I'd have thought one of the Vulcans aboard might have been just as good a bet since they could learn efficiently, and quickly, and would have been accepting of the needs of the many outweighing the needs of the few, or the one. Maybe the Doc secretly prefers Tom, despite the disrespect he tends to show him! The genesis of the Astrometrics Lab begins here, which is the project Kim and Seven are working on, a location that would become Seven's main haunt away from the chamber of horrors Cargo bay.
I should also point out the excellent direction of Ken Biller, seen best in the scene following Tuvok's promotion where we rove slickly to and fro between various conversations, though all the stuff aboard Dejaren's ship was very atmospheric and equally as accomplished. I don't tend to have a very high opinion of Biller as he took over as an Executive Producer in the final season, which was also a weak period of the series, so it's good to realise how much he did bring to the series in episodes like this. And this was another episode with one of the many one word titles beginning with 'R,' including 'Resistance,' 'Resolutions,' 'Remember,' 'Repression' and 'Repentance.' Now I'd better stop leaving my oily residue on this keyboard and finish.
****
I'm not sure who had the more uncomfortable assignment, B'Elanna going on an Away Mission with the Doctor or Harry given the task of working with Seven of Nine. Alright, I'm being flippant, what I really meant was B'Elanna having to deal with a psychopathic hologram, as she actually gets on quite well with the Doc these days. The embryonic stages of a few things that would develop into hallmarks of the series are either continued or begun in this episode, none more so than the Doc's eagerness at new opportunities. His overzealousness would become a familiar comedic element in the character's exploits as he's gone from being completely repressed and dry to delighting in the potential others have seen in himself and the Captain allowed him to realise. We see this overriding excitement in his immediate response to the hologram, Dejaren, whose distress call fires the Doctor's interest so that he practically orders an Away Team and puts himself at its head, much to Janeway's restrained amusement. But she sees how much meeting another of his 'kind' would mean to him, and graciously acquiesces, while at the same time reminding him of his place. A hologram's place is very much at the heart of the episode, both narratively and figuratively, but it's not so much the Doctor as it is his 'patient,' or the being that became a sort of personal project (good job he didn't get too invested, thanks to Dejaren's unstable attitude, or he might have blamed himself for B'Elanna's injuries), whom he was able to encourage and represent the achievements he'd succeeded in for holographic life.
Life. A small, simple word, and yet that's what the Doctor had long attained. No longer is he considered a part of the ship's advanced technology, he's a person in his own right, and thanks to the 29th Century emitter, with a measure of freedom, though as we witness again here, his life is as fragile as an 'organic's,' if in a different way: the holoemitter can be damaged where he couldn't, and since his mobility depends on it, it provides a weakness to an otherwise superhuman character. Cleverly, a limitation that both unveils a broad canvas of freedom, but also restricts - there's no replacement emitter if this one's damaged, unless they want to hop into the future. The Doc isn't the only character on Voyager to have superpowers - it used to be limited to him and Tuvok, whose mystical Vulcan ways are as old as Trek on TV, and now that Kes and her telepathic abilities had departed, only one other could be said to be in this category: Seven. She has far better visual acuity than an ordinary human (as proved when she notes Kim's biological changes when she enters a room!), and her Borg exoskeleton allows her to withstand extreme charges, this latter ability giving her an understandably careless attitude toward Starfleet safety protocols (though she isn't invulnerable: presumably the Borg were able to repair their organic parts with nanoprobes, yet Seven still has these in her, so why can't she fix her gashed hand? Probably doesn't have enough). But her least controlled power is over Kim himself, with a cool, unemotional response to his nervousness, only agreeing to work with him to fit in with this crew.
So she puts up with Harry's odd behaviour until she realises he's attracted to her, and in the same blunt manner states that she's willing to explore this side of her humanity, instructing the Ensign to take off his clothes. It's an amusing moment and deals with the rather obvious (some would say cynical), visual presentation of the character, wrapped tightly as she is in silver foil. It's the aspect of Seven that was the elephant in the room, the reason she was added to the cast, though they allowed Jeri Ryan to show her acting prowess before broaching the subject, which demonstrated they had their priorities right, and I like that the fact she stands out so much among the crew is addressed in a humorous way (in fact she wouldn't get a real romance until near the end of the series!). It's all wrapped up in a neat package of the dichotomy of her character: she appears to be accepting her human heritage, though she doesn't fully understand the nuances and intricacy of interaction (no wonder, since she's still a virtual prisoner of the Cargo Bay, having little else to do than regenerate, read the Starfleet database or contemplate her existence, since she sees pretty much everything else as irrelevant). Outwardly, her beauty shows how human she is, yet inwardly she has a long way to go to throw off the shackles and hive mentality of the Collective. I think it's these contrasts that attract Kim, even though he didn't want to work with her in the first place - she points out why he would have misgivings: she attacked him and tried to contact the Borg last time they worked together!
Thus was born the recurring theme of Kim's inability to pick a partner, with Paris referring back to the last time he had this problem with 'the hologram' (although she actually turned out to be more than a hologram, see 'Alter Ego'), a fitting reference for this episode in particular, neatly tying the two stories together, if the fact that the odd couple theme wasn't enough. When the stakes are down, Kim just has to suffer a little embarrassment (not least where we get a rare view of Chakotay's quarters when the Ensign goes to suggest he and Seven stop working together only to find that she'd already spoken with the Commander and given him the Borg seal of approval, calling him 'competent,' or words to that effect, the equivalent of praise from Seven, much to Chakotay's enjoyment), whereas Torres gets a massage of the heart even Kim wouldn't have wanted. The ominous tone of the episode's opening, where we see Dejaren haul a dead humanoid through the decks of a darkened, empty vessel, blood trailing behind, was an excellent way to put us in the mood. I'm not sure if we're supposed to be immediately suspicious of the hologram as being the cause, though the dark portent of the music (very accomplished, almost fairytale, full of mood), might point towards it. It's difficult to know how I first saw it, when now I'm watching with the sure knowledge that this guy is deranged, though it's quickly apparent that he's lying by the fact he says the crew died from a virus, yet the body he dragged had obviously died violently against a bulkhead.
What helps to raise the episode beyond merely competent (as Kim was awarded), is the shift in tone between the two story-lines, as well as a warm, familial post-credits opening where we see all the main characters together, celebrating (I especially liked hearing about how Janeway first met him, nine years previous), and ripping Tuvok as he's promoted to Lieutenant Commander (though he gets some good ripostes in, as you'd expect from any good Vulcan). Paris would have got on well with Dax, I think, both having a propensity for practical jokes on their precise, ordered comrades; Paris on Tuvok, Dax on Odo! I wonder how many takes it took them to get that right? Quite a few, if the stories of the actors' antics on set are true, with their well known reputation for corpsing and having fun, perhaps to rival only the 'TNG' cast. Often, the best horror episodes have moments of lightness, humour and warmth to provide greater contrast to the darkness and evil, and the scene serves its purpose very well, Dejaren's ship cold, empty and very dark, these chilling senses only heightened by coming directly from a good-humoured party of friends. I'd have liked Tuvok's promotion to be for a specific reason, rather than his general service, and it would be have been appreciated if such an important change had occurred because of some mission he'd carried out, a reward we saw earned in heroism. Maybe that's not how these things work. But his promotion could easily have been the focus of an episode in itself.
While the humour of Kim's dance with Seven serves to continue to heighten the danger aboard the alien vessel, that's really the A-story. And it is a grim story, the Doctor inadvertently cementing the wayward hologram's prejudices against 'organics' in a way he couldn't have imagined. The mood aboard ship isn't felt by B'Elanna and the Doctor right away, but there's certainly one there for the audience. Like 'Empok Nor' of 'DS9,' and countless other episodes where our heroes board an apparently empty or damaged ship, it's very dark, the Engineer has to go down deep to bring things back online, and something nasty in the shadows waits… Like the aforementioned episode, it even has that same scene where we watch them going about their tasks from the dark corner and point of view of a malevolent observer. Dejaren's twitchy, corpselike figure could be explained as his fear of being alone rather than guilt after murder, or two sides of him: one knowing that he needs these people to repair his ship, the other desperately full of an almost uncontrollable rage to snuff out every organic life he can, in payment for bad treatment. He's a tragic figure, and it's only the Doctor's revelations about having a life beyond his occupation, the time and ability to explore art and literature, that keeps him from killing Torres right away, I suspect. His own wish to get the ship working again is conflicted - he can't exist in a ship that won't go anywhere and will slowly break down, but he doesn't want to go back to his old life either.
Though Dejaren suggests he and the Doctor escape their organic-controlled lives once the ship is fully operational, and the Doctor does seem to give it consideration, being tempted by the chance to get to know one of his own kind (probably for less than a second, though for a hologram that is an eternity…), at this stage of his development he wouldn't seriously consider abandoning his friends on Voyager. He was still learning to be a 'real boy,' still needed the support and guiding hand of Janeway and her crew, although the more egotistical he would become later, the more he would give thought to his own existence. Though he talks of the arts, and interest in such things, holographic life would eventually become tired of these trifles because they're all geared towards organics, and the resentment that holograms don't have their own culture would eventually overpower the desire to examine such things, I think. Ultimately, the question of whether holographic life in Trek is genuine life, is answered by the fact that it is not: they could perhaps program other holograms themselves, but they'd have to learn those skills from organics. They could become self-sufficient from humans, say, but they'd still need a level of technology which we've seen in the 24th Century is beyond what is capable - perhaps by the 29th Century, holograms are creating holograms, but the fact remains that they can't exist in the real world separately from technology. It's part of their existence. While I couldn't help but agree to an extent with some of Dejaren's speech, railing against the disgusting nature of organic life (because when you think about it, it is all a bit gross), he depends on that life to sustain himself - he may not need meat and plant material, ingested into a pit of acid, but he does need energy, and a continual supply. His raving about B'Elanna being the prisoner in a cage of blood and bone, was a fascinating concept (and true when you realise the physical world isn't all that exists), but he was the true prisoner.
As much as I like the Doctor, he couldn't live his life separate from his creators, and though we see holograms doing that later ('Flesh and Blood'), tech as it stands can't free them from this nature, an artificially created existence, designed with intelligence so that complex tasks can be completed, sometimes in situations that organic life couldn't survive. As a useful tool, a holographic crewman has the potential to become vital, but my speculation would be that all races would eventually realise that unless they were going to give these artificial races equal right to existence (and it wouldn't be in their best interests to do that), then they would eventually cease the invention of sentient technology for all the confusion, moral issues and threat to survival that creation brings, and instead only use basic level intelligence for a specific task, as we use robots today. If holograms ever did become fully divorced from the technology holding them together (some kind of self-sustaining matrix housed within their own bodies), then perhaps they could be considered a race in their own right, but to do that they'd have to lose some of the abilities they had (such as phasing in and out), making them less holographic and more solid. It's the same theme as that explored in much of 'DS9' where The Changelings were such a radically different form of life that it came to war of the entire Quadrant as their need to control 'solids' gave them licence to do so, in their minds. But I've strayed from the episode quite a bit now - it shows that Trek continued to provide food for thought, even in its fourth TV show!
Getting back to the episode, it's not quite fully formed in its narrative. We don't get the punch at the end that the Doctor's eagerness to rush in and respond to whatever his feelings tell him to, resulted in B'Elanna's injury, so it wasn't so much of a lesson-learning experience for him. It shows again that he is capable of going on Away Missions, though Janeway is still concerned about the holoemitter, knowing the loss of that would put him almost back to square one. Before he got it they'd begun to placing emitters throughout the ship, and that would have been the natural development of his freedom (though with the caveat that you never know when holograms are going to start appearing, or whether you can trust your eyes, another deeply fascinating scenario, covered partially in 'Persistence of Vision,' though not as much as could have been - it's another aspect of the advance of technology that leaves you wondering about the implications of basically turning real life into a Holodeck). Her concern is justified when Dejaren strikes the emitter, disabling the Doctor completely. No doubt if he'd managed to off Torres, he'd have stolen the emitter and rampaged murderously through the galaxy. But even his own kind found him to be a disturbed individual, the Doctor at first finding excuses for his odd behaviour, though ultimately having to concede the depths of his character.
It makes sense that other races would have developed holographic servants, if not slaves, though at this stage in most technology there isn't the power resource for a ship full of them, just one. I wonder if advancements like this have been one reason why no Trek series has been developed since, that went further than the 24th Century? Perhaps it was felt that things were becoming too fantastical and it would be tricky to deal with half-holographic crews and suchlike. They jumped back to the beginning of space exploration with 'Enterprise' and now, with the new series approaching, it so far appears that again they're going for a prequel before 'TNG,' so they still aren't in a position to address holographic rights, wrongs and wherefores. It remains a juicy topic for discussion, however, and I hope one day we do see Trek's timeline expand ever more into the future - perhaps not where time travel is a tool in the arsenal of Starfleet as that could truly prove problematic, but that wasn't until the 26th Century, I believe, so there are still decades and decades we could see unfold.
It's a good episode for the Doctor, because, in spite of no digital soul-searching at the end, it does temper his enthusiasm a bit and reminds him that not all holograms are like Starfleet holograms, just as not all spacefarers are like Starfleet, and it's good to get back to the bright, comforting surroundings of his Sickbay after the horrible events. Because he hadn't yet attained quite the level of gung-ho enthusiasm of subsequent seasons, he didn't have so far to climb down, as he was hardly advocating Dejaren's right to murder his unfriendly crew! The end scene is more of a jokey acceptance of the untidiness of his crew-mates to cover the chilling nature of what they've just been through - his fastidiousness and sense of order would be something he'd share with Seven, so I'm surprised they hadn't yet had scenes together, but you want to see her interact with each and every cast member as it's interesting to see the results between established characters and one so different and yet so compelling. We've already seen B'Elanna being less than friendly to Seven, her Klingon hot temper evident, and in this episode her Klingon nature almost gets her killed: if she'd carried on working at the console when Dejaren came a-killing, she'd have deactivated him in no time, but she had to take the aggressive stance and attempt to strike him, never a wise move since holograms can phase out so matter passes through, and they don't feel pain anyway, so it would only have damaged Torres' fist!
At first when we see Dejaren (in a superb performance from Leland Orser, who later appeared in the far less interesting 'Enterprise' episode, 'Carpenter Street' his most easily recognisable performances, but had also been in a couple of 'DS9' episodes - I hope he gets a role in the new series as it would be shame for his Trek career to have ended on a low), I thought he shouldn't be showing effort when dragging the dead body through the bowels of the ship, but I must concede that he did it in a very robotic manner, and may have been programmed to show organic traits, though murder wasn't one of them. There was more to his character than a simple urge towards violent disgust, as seen by his having created a secret pet fish, Spectrum, a fellow hologram, presumably in a holographic jar of holographic water, which showed that he keenly required like companionship (long before Doc Zimmerman and his holographic menagerie). He was almost as compelling a character as Suder had been, though not quite, as he never got his redemption. I'd have loved to have heard what happened about the Serosian ship, and felt a Captain's Log was needed to round off the episode's story before we had the humorous final scene. Did they send a message to the race it belonged to, letting them know what had happened, or just leave it floating in space, not their responsibility? A vessel of the dead with only a dangerously unhinged hologram aboard that might one day find a way to re-stabilise its program… a sequel would have been great!
I was glad the Tom and B'Elanna declaration at the end of 'Day of Honor' was addressed - according to Paris it only happened three days previous as that's how long they've been avoiding each other, and as I said in that review, it could easily have been an admission under the duress of certain death, but B'Elanna says it wasn't, so that clears things up. As well as the beginnings of their great friendship, we also have Neelix going on his first mission as official Ambassador (although I thought he already held that post in episodes such as 'Macrocosm,' but perhaps it wasn't felt he'd quite earned the official title then); Paris officially appointed Doctor's Nurse - he'd played the role since the early seasons, but it was usually only for emergencies, and with Kes gone he was being made to fulfil regular obligations of three duty shifts a week. That's the way it is when you don't have new crewmembers to take up posts, though I'd have thought one of the Vulcans aboard might have been just as good a bet since they could learn efficiently, and quickly, and would have been accepting of the needs of the many outweighing the needs of the few, or the one. Maybe the Doc secretly prefers Tom, despite the disrespect he tends to show him! The genesis of the Astrometrics Lab begins here, which is the project Kim and Seven are working on, a location that would become Seven's main haunt away from the chamber of horrors Cargo bay.
I should also point out the excellent direction of Ken Biller, seen best in the scene following Tuvok's promotion where we rove slickly to and fro between various conversations, though all the stuff aboard Dejaren's ship was very atmospheric and equally as accomplished. I don't tend to have a very high opinion of Biller as he took over as an Executive Producer in the final season, which was also a weak period of the series, so it's good to realise how much he did bring to the series in episodes like this. And this was another episode with one of the many one word titles beginning with 'R,' including 'Resistance,' 'Resolutions,' 'Remember,' 'Repression' and 'Repentance.' Now I'd better stop leaving my oily residue on this keyboard and finish.
****
Tuesday, 17 May 2016
Icon
DVD, Stargate SG-1 S8 (Icon)
'It wasn't our fault,' says Daniel Jackson at the end, and from one perspective he's right: they couldn't have known that visiting this particular planet (home to three factions: the main body, the Rand Protectorate, the opposing forces in cold war of the Caledonian Federation, and a group of religious zealots that cling on to the ancient beliefs of the Goa'uld as returning gods that will one day do just that), would result in the apocalyptic warhead war that devastated the planet and changed it forever. I'm sure they would like to go to each new planet and have a happy ending, to see change only in the positive sense of enlightening the ex-human populations as to their place in the galaxy, their true home, and the history of the race that enslaved and brought their ancestors to wherever it is they live now. But things don't often happen that way, and it's probably not helped by the fact that a planet's stability and safety isn't the number one goal of the missions: that is to find technology, and possibly allies, to improve Earth's defences against the Goa'uld (and anyone else out there). It's a very American thing to do, and plays out with a very American attitude (no surprise as it's an American TV show!), and although at least fifty percent of the main cast (Daniel and Sam), tend to be more pragmatic and sympathetic to other races' needs, at heart it is a military search and recover operation, in general.
In the SGC's defence, there isn't a lot they did wrong here, it's just their existence that sparks off this world's problems, giving Soren, leader of the religious group, just the proof he needed of the old beliefs to swell interest and sentiment so that he took up arms against the legitimate powers. It was the Caledonians who actually began the war with the launch of warheads designed to take out the Rand's missile complexes, Soren retaliates, and then every city is wiped out. There's not a bad approximation of the damage, but it is slim and far between, mostly the episode takes place in the environs of an attractive country house where Daniel convalesces and becomes attached to a high-up officer's wife. As usual, there's not a lot of depth to what happens, so although Kane is a bit peeved about his wife and Daniel becoming close, it was he who ordered her to look after him, and he never really shows much unrestraint, except in the needless killing of a potentially surrendering Soren - it's unclear if he was actually going to surrender and live to fight another day as he never dropped the gun as he was ordered to, and there would have been no condemnation of Kane if he'd fired on the man had he turned the gun on them. But he didn't give him time to do that and you can see the disgust in Daniel's face.
For the first proper off-world adventure under General O'Neill's command, he does quite well. His usual indistinct and vague command style remains, warning Daniel to get off the planet if things become 'squirly,' but when he announces it's time he talked to Soren, who's taken control of the main political bunker and the 'gate, we think as Sam does from the look on her face, that it's probably not the best course of action to inflame the situation further with a dose of the General's unique approach to diplomacy. But he must have been in a good mood because he actually remains diplomatic and it's up to Teal'c to provide the bite in their discussion with Soren. It's still a bit sad that he isn't one of the team when they first visit the planet (seems very unlikely that this Stargate, which has become a museum piece, would still work - where does the power come from, where was the DHD, etc?), but on the other hand it might make first contact scenarios a little less problematic without that traditional casual non-diplomacy that he always used to display, and Colonel Carter is more than capable of being in those shoes, though she doesn't have the same ruthless or decisive streak that O'Neill had in command. I'm surprised they still haven't been assigned a fourth team member as you'd think exceptions wouldn't be made, but I can see why from a TV perspective as it would essentially be a new cast member and they don't necessarily want to do that again - they should have brought back Jonas Quinn, he'd have been a good choice.
It's no good, the SGC really needs to develop some kind of… directive - call it The Prime Directive and make it about not interfering. It's a lot trickier to invoke the famous 'Star Trek' order, since in that universe you can just beam down, observe the inhabitants from space or if nothing else, go into all-out espionage mode, whereas the SG-1 team can only learn from going through the 'gate, and by that time it's often too late to alter first impressions or make a reasonable choice on whether to proceed. We've seen this play out many times (Carter even says something to that effect), I think the most obvious one might have been Jonas' people, or maybe it was another race that had a planet divided and knowledge of its place in the universe, courtesy of SG-1, didn't make things better, but worse. The point is, by now they should be ready with contingency plans, options for divided worlds to take when dealing with them or simply refuse to deal unless all parties agree, which is hard enough as it is. Maybe it's time for DSG-1? That's Diplomacy Stargate Team 1, a group of trained diplomats that realise that gunplay and soldierly tactics may have been fine for the initial years of the Stargate Programme when things were unclear and they were taking baby steps, but now that it's established it needs more complex methods to secure that which will save our planet. There you go, that's a new series, and it could be just as compelling as the more simplistic, action-based series it was based on…
The action is reasonable (though the only moment that really means anything is when we see the chilling screen graphics of missiles being launched, helpless to stop the horror), and I like the country house, though Daniel's scene with the wife do drag a bit. As usual, he's the one that wants to do everything he can to help, although the main objective has to be to get him back through the 'gate, and it could equally mean that his superiors shut it down and refuse to treat with the planet after all that had happened. I also felt that some of the shooting scenes in the bunker didn't look right, like a cheap soundstage production - maybe they had started filming in digital or some technical alteration had occurred, but whatever it was, things didn't look good, and I know they can pull off some dramatic and well-paced battle scenes as they did in the finale of Season 7. Taking everything into consideration it's very much a mediocre episode that doesn't go anywhere or have any relevance except to remind us of how the characters generally act in these situations. It's nice from a sentimental perspective because we're seeing what could easily have been from any season, old or new, but the approach is exactly the same and it's looking tired because of it. And the same reason those episodes were adequate viewing experiences holds true here: because of the main characters. Sadly, despite the jumping around in the narrative as Daniel recalls what happened, and the interesting notion that this particular event was spread over three months, we don't get much of the characters together. And that's what I want to see.
**
'It wasn't our fault,' says Daniel Jackson at the end, and from one perspective he's right: they couldn't have known that visiting this particular planet (home to three factions: the main body, the Rand Protectorate, the opposing forces in cold war of the Caledonian Federation, and a group of religious zealots that cling on to the ancient beliefs of the Goa'uld as returning gods that will one day do just that), would result in the apocalyptic warhead war that devastated the planet and changed it forever. I'm sure they would like to go to each new planet and have a happy ending, to see change only in the positive sense of enlightening the ex-human populations as to their place in the galaxy, their true home, and the history of the race that enslaved and brought their ancestors to wherever it is they live now. But things don't often happen that way, and it's probably not helped by the fact that a planet's stability and safety isn't the number one goal of the missions: that is to find technology, and possibly allies, to improve Earth's defences against the Goa'uld (and anyone else out there). It's a very American thing to do, and plays out with a very American attitude (no surprise as it's an American TV show!), and although at least fifty percent of the main cast (Daniel and Sam), tend to be more pragmatic and sympathetic to other races' needs, at heart it is a military search and recover operation, in general.
In the SGC's defence, there isn't a lot they did wrong here, it's just their existence that sparks off this world's problems, giving Soren, leader of the religious group, just the proof he needed of the old beliefs to swell interest and sentiment so that he took up arms against the legitimate powers. It was the Caledonians who actually began the war with the launch of warheads designed to take out the Rand's missile complexes, Soren retaliates, and then every city is wiped out. There's not a bad approximation of the damage, but it is slim and far between, mostly the episode takes place in the environs of an attractive country house where Daniel convalesces and becomes attached to a high-up officer's wife. As usual, there's not a lot of depth to what happens, so although Kane is a bit peeved about his wife and Daniel becoming close, it was he who ordered her to look after him, and he never really shows much unrestraint, except in the needless killing of a potentially surrendering Soren - it's unclear if he was actually going to surrender and live to fight another day as he never dropped the gun as he was ordered to, and there would have been no condemnation of Kane if he'd fired on the man had he turned the gun on them. But he didn't give him time to do that and you can see the disgust in Daniel's face.
For the first proper off-world adventure under General O'Neill's command, he does quite well. His usual indistinct and vague command style remains, warning Daniel to get off the planet if things become 'squirly,' but when he announces it's time he talked to Soren, who's taken control of the main political bunker and the 'gate, we think as Sam does from the look on her face, that it's probably not the best course of action to inflame the situation further with a dose of the General's unique approach to diplomacy. But he must have been in a good mood because he actually remains diplomatic and it's up to Teal'c to provide the bite in their discussion with Soren. It's still a bit sad that he isn't one of the team when they first visit the planet (seems very unlikely that this Stargate, which has become a museum piece, would still work - where does the power come from, where was the DHD, etc?), but on the other hand it might make first contact scenarios a little less problematic without that traditional casual non-diplomacy that he always used to display, and Colonel Carter is more than capable of being in those shoes, though she doesn't have the same ruthless or decisive streak that O'Neill had in command. I'm surprised they still haven't been assigned a fourth team member as you'd think exceptions wouldn't be made, but I can see why from a TV perspective as it would essentially be a new cast member and they don't necessarily want to do that again - they should have brought back Jonas Quinn, he'd have been a good choice.
It's no good, the SGC really needs to develop some kind of… directive - call it The Prime Directive and make it about not interfering. It's a lot trickier to invoke the famous 'Star Trek' order, since in that universe you can just beam down, observe the inhabitants from space or if nothing else, go into all-out espionage mode, whereas the SG-1 team can only learn from going through the 'gate, and by that time it's often too late to alter first impressions or make a reasonable choice on whether to proceed. We've seen this play out many times (Carter even says something to that effect), I think the most obvious one might have been Jonas' people, or maybe it was another race that had a planet divided and knowledge of its place in the universe, courtesy of SG-1, didn't make things better, but worse. The point is, by now they should be ready with contingency plans, options for divided worlds to take when dealing with them or simply refuse to deal unless all parties agree, which is hard enough as it is. Maybe it's time for DSG-1? That's Diplomacy Stargate Team 1, a group of trained diplomats that realise that gunplay and soldierly tactics may have been fine for the initial years of the Stargate Programme when things were unclear and they were taking baby steps, but now that it's established it needs more complex methods to secure that which will save our planet. There you go, that's a new series, and it could be just as compelling as the more simplistic, action-based series it was based on…
The action is reasonable (though the only moment that really means anything is when we see the chilling screen graphics of missiles being launched, helpless to stop the horror), and I like the country house, though Daniel's scene with the wife do drag a bit. As usual, he's the one that wants to do everything he can to help, although the main objective has to be to get him back through the 'gate, and it could equally mean that his superiors shut it down and refuse to treat with the planet after all that had happened. I also felt that some of the shooting scenes in the bunker didn't look right, like a cheap soundstage production - maybe they had started filming in digital or some technical alteration had occurred, but whatever it was, things didn't look good, and I know they can pull off some dramatic and well-paced battle scenes as they did in the finale of Season 7. Taking everything into consideration it's very much a mediocre episode that doesn't go anywhere or have any relevance except to remind us of how the characters generally act in these situations. It's nice from a sentimental perspective because we're seeing what could easily have been from any season, old or new, but the approach is exactly the same and it's looking tired because of it. And the same reason those episodes were adequate viewing experiences holds true here: because of the main characters. Sadly, despite the jumping around in the narrative as Daniel recalls what happened, and the interesting notion that this particular event was spread over three months, we don't get much of the characters together. And that's what I want to see.
**
Nemesis
DVD, Voyager S4 (Nemesis)
Not that one. Not the disappointing end to the cinematic adventures of the 'TNG' crew, 'Nemesis.' It's interesting to me that two of the 'TNG' films shared titles with episodes, and that 'First Contact' was far superior to the episode of the same name, while 'Nemesis' was inferior to the episode. Coming to it now, it's maybe not the great episode memory had categorised it, but is still a more than solid outing for Commander Chakotay, a character that was going to increasingly get lost in the share-out shuffle from season to season. So it remains a pleasure to see him acting alone on an alien planet, slowly coming to respect the Vori who assisted him, and, affected by psychotropic drugs, wanting to fight the evil Krady-beasts that are the Vori's sworn nemesis. It's a good one for him, because as a man largely of peace, he also knows how to fight, and will do in the right interest. Recalling his history with the Maquis fighting against the Cardassians, which is good to hear him talk about again, I'd have liked that side of the story to have been played up. Perhaps it would have been a bit of a stretch to have Cardassians actually show up (although they managed alright with getting one of their weapons into the Delta Quadrant in 'Dreadnought,' so why not?), and certainly would have been harder to craft the essential twist to the story that turns this simple war plot into a piece on propaganda. But how good would it have been if Chakotay had flashbacks to land battles against the Cardassians, associating them with his current situation? It would have been one way to connect with the Alpha Quadrant again in a satisfying way.
The story was fine in and of itself, and I especially like the nonstandard structure, with a good chunk of the episode not going off planet so we don't see anything outside of Chakotay's experiences. If we were in space we might begin to expect holo-tricks or some other unreality - that's what it usually means when there are no establishing shots of starships, but because we're in a natural environment we don't suspect this could all be, wait for it… a simulation! It was a good twist, because even though I couldn't remember exactly how the Vori turned out to be the bad guys, and the Kradin good, I knew, or thought I knew that that was the outcome of the story, and I was struggling to see how all the horrors were going to be explained away. In reality it was a little more shaded than that, neither side clearly right, though the Kradin appear slightly more acceptable by the assistance they give to Voyager in locating and rescuing Chakotay - I love that Tuvok is the one to go on a commando mission into enemy territory to bring him back, Vulcans well suited to this kind of necessary violence or daring, which in other races would appear to be adventure-seeking. The best moment of the episode is when a Kradin, all protruding teeth and facial talons, dreadlocks and bony visage, approaches the Commander and tries to break through the drug-induced haze - Chakotay sees Tuvok as a Kradin (I'd forgotten that Tim Russ actually had to dress up in full makeup, but it certainly looks like him as the vision shifts between Kradin and Vulcan, and I always like it when we see a character 'play' a different alien), and it takes all his self-discipline not to just shoot after all the indoctrination he's experienced.
It's easy for Tuvok to convince him of reality because he can take him to the village that was supposedly destroyed and all the people appear as they did before, run over with the same greetings and no recognition. It's a shock for poor Chakotay and the moral of the story is that manipulation by a nation or state can be extremely damaging: as Chakotay says in the poignant last line of the episode, "I wish it was as easy to stop hating as it is to start." For him, everything he'd gone through was real and he can't stop seeing the Kradin as vicious, heartless beasts, their distorted voices full of nightmarish menace. His mind tells him one thing, and he eventually learns the truth, but the propaganda methods had done their work. It's also more true that one side wasn't the perfect good guys Voyager must help, because we don't know what methods the Kradin use on their end, so it could be that both sides are as bad as each other. It's just a fascinating examination of what assumptions, based on second hand information and outer appearances, can do: the Vori appear human and relatable, noble and strong. The Kradin, well, even their faces denote cruelty and danger, with a mix of Nausicaan and, what was probably the biggest influence, Predator alien. In fact, when you think about it, it's very much a Predator film setup with muscular combat soldiers doing battle with projectile weapons against a terrible foe in a jungle environment - you could almost imagine Schwarzenegger crashing through the undergrowth with Chakotay!
It all looks good (and sounds good, too, with the typical late-'DS9'/'Voyager' aural quality to the music and effects), and I wasn't sure how much was on location and if some of it was studio-based with a well-dressed greens set as they did so effectively with 'Change of Heart.' The lighting was quite low a lot of the time so I could well believe that all of it was filmed externally. In story terms I wonder what exactly the simulation was - it appeared to be a real environment with only holographic characters (as seen in 'Shadowplay'), but there could equally have been hallucinations derived from the drugs Chakotay had in his system. Again, I like the concept of holography taking place in a natural location rather than a Holodeck as it adds to the reality (as we'd see again later in Season 7's 'Flesh and Blood'). It's not the typical exploration of the nature of reality, but it does deal with this - as I mentioned before, it was all real to Chakotay and he can't just turn off the emotions he felt for the loyal Vori against the atrocities of the Kradin, so much so that he can't even stand to be in Sickbay with one of them. I have to wonder what the endgame of the Vori's abduction would have been: was he just a soldier of the week that they hoped to get a few kills out of? I can't imagine, even with continual drugging and manipulation, that Chakotay wouldn't have wanted to eventually get to his ship, if only to demand Janeway's help against the nemesis and would have found out the truth then.
This must be the most Chakotay-centric episode of the entire series, with the rest of the cast playing very minor roles, and a rare no-show from Seven. Everyone else has brief exposure, and I particularly appreciated Paris' guilt and feelings of loyalty to Chakotay (I always wish they'd tap into the animosity of the pilot, the life debt stuff that evaporated immediately), as he felt he should have gone with him on the shuttlecraft - there really needs to be a solid policy on taking out these important commodities, that you have to have at least two people, maybe even three. This wouldn't be an issue after the Delta Flyer made its debut, but that's two shuttlecraft lost in the space of two episodes, and there's really no concern shown about that. At the time it's natural they'd be more worried about the Commander, but you'd think we would have had more discussion of how important it is to keep these small ships safe, because it must take a lot of energy and time to construct a new one, even for such a technologically advanced and self-sustaining starship as Voyager!
Chakotay claims when talking to the young girl whose brother may have been lost, that hate isn't something he understands very well, but in the same episode he's already spoken about the Maquis and their struggle against the Cardassians, so it's hard to imagine he didn't hate them, even a little bit. At the same time he gets to propound the Federation's belief in diplomacy and discussion over clashing, which shows that the drugs had to accomplish quite a lot for him to become dedicated to the Vori side and take up arms against the Kradin. I liked the Vori slang, which was just a little away from normal speech, but not too far that we couldn't immediately glimpse their meaning in the soonafter. Often when they want to show how villainous a race is they'll have them wear the black, ribbed uniforms that the Kradin model here - we'd previously seen them in 'Warlord' and 'Resistance,' and in fact, Tuvok was wearing them for a second time as I believe he dressed in the same uniform when undercover in 'Warlord'! One thing that might have further improved the episode is if Tuvok had done a mind meld to recall Chakotay to reality as he was uniquely gifted to be able to do that and in the right place at the right time. The only thing is that Chakotay wasn't in a very approachable mood, so he might have objected to hands on his face!
While it is a strong, highly competent episode (a bit like Chakotay), I felt the moral of the story was sacrificed a little to retain the surprise when we learn that Voyager's crew, which appear to be talking about the Kradin in the negative and the Vori in the positive, turns out to be reversed. It's a great twist, as is the unravelling of Chakotay's situation and the brave (if he weren't a Vulcan), confrontation of a gun-wielding Chakotay by Tuvok. They prefer to leave the thinking time up to us at the end of the episode with the stark reality of the Commander's inescapable prejudices, rather than examining propaganda and its effects in more detail. It's an effective and surprising story and on seeing it for the first time you really don't know where it's going, but on subsequent viewings I find myself wanting a little more from it, as much as I like it. Still, it's good to be reminded that Chakotay can be used well, and putting a peaceful former warrior in amidst the struggle of clash was an ideal catalyst for drama, even if not pushed fully to its limits where it's a little too easy for him to kill. Just a bit of a shame that the Kradin were only aliens of the week as the design was strong enough to be recurring. It was so strong I didn't even realise underneath Ambassador Treen's visage was 'DS9' actor Terrence Evans who had been in both 'Progress' and 'Cardassians' as Bajorans, and who died in 2015.
***
Not that one. Not the disappointing end to the cinematic adventures of the 'TNG' crew, 'Nemesis.' It's interesting to me that two of the 'TNG' films shared titles with episodes, and that 'First Contact' was far superior to the episode of the same name, while 'Nemesis' was inferior to the episode. Coming to it now, it's maybe not the great episode memory had categorised it, but is still a more than solid outing for Commander Chakotay, a character that was going to increasingly get lost in the share-out shuffle from season to season. So it remains a pleasure to see him acting alone on an alien planet, slowly coming to respect the Vori who assisted him, and, affected by psychotropic drugs, wanting to fight the evil Krady-beasts that are the Vori's sworn nemesis. It's a good one for him, because as a man largely of peace, he also knows how to fight, and will do in the right interest. Recalling his history with the Maquis fighting against the Cardassians, which is good to hear him talk about again, I'd have liked that side of the story to have been played up. Perhaps it would have been a bit of a stretch to have Cardassians actually show up (although they managed alright with getting one of their weapons into the Delta Quadrant in 'Dreadnought,' so why not?), and certainly would have been harder to craft the essential twist to the story that turns this simple war plot into a piece on propaganda. But how good would it have been if Chakotay had flashbacks to land battles against the Cardassians, associating them with his current situation? It would have been one way to connect with the Alpha Quadrant again in a satisfying way.
The story was fine in and of itself, and I especially like the nonstandard structure, with a good chunk of the episode not going off planet so we don't see anything outside of Chakotay's experiences. If we were in space we might begin to expect holo-tricks or some other unreality - that's what it usually means when there are no establishing shots of starships, but because we're in a natural environment we don't suspect this could all be, wait for it… a simulation! It was a good twist, because even though I couldn't remember exactly how the Vori turned out to be the bad guys, and the Kradin good, I knew, or thought I knew that that was the outcome of the story, and I was struggling to see how all the horrors were going to be explained away. In reality it was a little more shaded than that, neither side clearly right, though the Kradin appear slightly more acceptable by the assistance they give to Voyager in locating and rescuing Chakotay - I love that Tuvok is the one to go on a commando mission into enemy territory to bring him back, Vulcans well suited to this kind of necessary violence or daring, which in other races would appear to be adventure-seeking. The best moment of the episode is when a Kradin, all protruding teeth and facial talons, dreadlocks and bony visage, approaches the Commander and tries to break through the drug-induced haze - Chakotay sees Tuvok as a Kradin (I'd forgotten that Tim Russ actually had to dress up in full makeup, but it certainly looks like him as the vision shifts between Kradin and Vulcan, and I always like it when we see a character 'play' a different alien), and it takes all his self-discipline not to just shoot after all the indoctrination he's experienced.
It's easy for Tuvok to convince him of reality because he can take him to the village that was supposedly destroyed and all the people appear as they did before, run over with the same greetings and no recognition. It's a shock for poor Chakotay and the moral of the story is that manipulation by a nation or state can be extremely damaging: as Chakotay says in the poignant last line of the episode, "I wish it was as easy to stop hating as it is to start." For him, everything he'd gone through was real and he can't stop seeing the Kradin as vicious, heartless beasts, their distorted voices full of nightmarish menace. His mind tells him one thing, and he eventually learns the truth, but the propaganda methods had done their work. It's also more true that one side wasn't the perfect good guys Voyager must help, because we don't know what methods the Kradin use on their end, so it could be that both sides are as bad as each other. It's just a fascinating examination of what assumptions, based on second hand information and outer appearances, can do: the Vori appear human and relatable, noble and strong. The Kradin, well, even their faces denote cruelty and danger, with a mix of Nausicaan and, what was probably the biggest influence, Predator alien. In fact, when you think about it, it's very much a Predator film setup with muscular combat soldiers doing battle with projectile weapons against a terrible foe in a jungle environment - you could almost imagine Schwarzenegger crashing through the undergrowth with Chakotay!
It all looks good (and sounds good, too, with the typical late-'DS9'/'Voyager' aural quality to the music and effects), and I wasn't sure how much was on location and if some of it was studio-based with a well-dressed greens set as they did so effectively with 'Change of Heart.' The lighting was quite low a lot of the time so I could well believe that all of it was filmed externally. In story terms I wonder what exactly the simulation was - it appeared to be a real environment with only holographic characters (as seen in 'Shadowplay'), but there could equally have been hallucinations derived from the drugs Chakotay had in his system. Again, I like the concept of holography taking place in a natural location rather than a Holodeck as it adds to the reality (as we'd see again later in Season 7's 'Flesh and Blood'). It's not the typical exploration of the nature of reality, but it does deal with this - as I mentioned before, it was all real to Chakotay and he can't just turn off the emotions he felt for the loyal Vori against the atrocities of the Kradin, so much so that he can't even stand to be in Sickbay with one of them. I have to wonder what the endgame of the Vori's abduction would have been: was he just a soldier of the week that they hoped to get a few kills out of? I can't imagine, even with continual drugging and manipulation, that Chakotay wouldn't have wanted to eventually get to his ship, if only to demand Janeway's help against the nemesis and would have found out the truth then.
This must be the most Chakotay-centric episode of the entire series, with the rest of the cast playing very minor roles, and a rare no-show from Seven. Everyone else has brief exposure, and I particularly appreciated Paris' guilt and feelings of loyalty to Chakotay (I always wish they'd tap into the animosity of the pilot, the life debt stuff that evaporated immediately), as he felt he should have gone with him on the shuttlecraft - there really needs to be a solid policy on taking out these important commodities, that you have to have at least two people, maybe even three. This wouldn't be an issue after the Delta Flyer made its debut, but that's two shuttlecraft lost in the space of two episodes, and there's really no concern shown about that. At the time it's natural they'd be more worried about the Commander, but you'd think we would have had more discussion of how important it is to keep these small ships safe, because it must take a lot of energy and time to construct a new one, even for such a technologically advanced and self-sustaining starship as Voyager!
Chakotay claims when talking to the young girl whose brother may have been lost, that hate isn't something he understands very well, but in the same episode he's already spoken about the Maquis and their struggle against the Cardassians, so it's hard to imagine he didn't hate them, even a little bit. At the same time he gets to propound the Federation's belief in diplomacy and discussion over clashing, which shows that the drugs had to accomplish quite a lot for him to become dedicated to the Vori side and take up arms against the Kradin. I liked the Vori slang, which was just a little away from normal speech, but not too far that we couldn't immediately glimpse their meaning in the soonafter. Often when they want to show how villainous a race is they'll have them wear the black, ribbed uniforms that the Kradin model here - we'd previously seen them in 'Warlord' and 'Resistance,' and in fact, Tuvok was wearing them for a second time as I believe he dressed in the same uniform when undercover in 'Warlord'! One thing that might have further improved the episode is if Tuvok had done a mind meld to recall Chakotay to reality as he was uniquely gifted to be able to do that and in the right place at the right time. The only thing is that Chakotay wasn't in a very approachable mood, so he might have objected to hands on his face!
While it is a strong, highly competent episode (a bit like Chakotay), I felt the moral of the story was sacrificed a little to retain the surprise when we learn that Voyager's crew, which appear to be talking about the Kradin in the negative and the Vori in the positive, turns out to be reversed. It's a great twist, as is the unravelling of Chakotay's situation and the brave (if he weren't a Vulcan), confrontation of a gun-wielding Chakotay by Tuvok. They prefer to leave the thinking time up to us at the end of the episode with the stark reality of the Commander's inescapable prejudices, rather than examining propaganda and its effects in more detail. It's an effective and surprising story and on seeing it for the first time you really don't know where it's going, but on subsequent viewings I find myself wanting a little more from it, as much as I like it. Still, it's good to be reminded that Chakotay can be used well, and putting a peaceful former warrior in amidst the struggle of clash was an ideal catalyst for drama, even if not pushed fully to its limits where it's a little too easy for him to kill. Just a bit of a shame that the Kradin were only aliens of the week as the design was strong enough to be recurring. It was so strong I didn't even realise underneath Ambassador Treen's visage was 'DS9' actor Terrence Evans who had been in both 'Progress' and 'Cardassians' as Bajorans, and who died in 2015.
***
Tuesday, 10 May 2016
Zero Hour
DVD, Stargate SG-1 S8 (Zero Hour)
Quite a thoughtful one, really. It examines how General O'Neill is dealing with his role in absolute authority of the SGC, and it turns out that it's not too well. In fact, he's realised that he'd overreached himself, and that the diplomacy and ability to juggle paperwork while sorting out internal problems and worrying about his friends and subordinates doesn't appear to have any upsides. But gradually, like some kind of redemptive blanket, a warmth sweeps through the base and he realises by the end that he can deal with it, and will. And all done in that offbeat, quirky, kind of British embarrassment that the series excels at. It's a bit of a jumble of stories going on in the background, the main one being the three-man (or two-man and one woman… or one-man, one woman and an alien, to be precise…), SG-1 team getting trapped in an old base of Anubis' while Baal, whose servants must have been observing, claims he has them in captivity and wishes to deal them for the asylum-seeking Camulus. Camulus himself, infuriated at being kept prisoner despite his asylum, eventually succumbs and tells them about a device on another planet that he thinks Baal wants. So they retrieve it only to discover (from another side story of an alien plant growing out of control all over the base, and the solution to getting rid of it), that it's actually booby-trapped and would have taken out the entire Solar System had it been plugged into the device in Antarctica. Thanks, Cammy.
It's all happening on O'Neill's watch, and no wonder he's feeling discouraged, not helped by the addition of a new assistant to aid him, sent along by General Hammond (sadly we don't even get a cameo of Don S. Davis' voice on the phone), but whose secret assignment is to report back to the President on O'Neill's suitability for the post he's in before a Presidential visit of the SGC. I thought he was going to be some kind of Kinsey-ite, or follower of one of those shady government organisations, but no, it's just a legitimate investigation into O'Neill's character. And he does fine, probably because Hammond let him in on the secret, and rather than play up and make life a misery for the 'spy,' he just acts normally, which is to say, as Walter does at the start, "He's not like other people." It probably helped that he was writing his resignation letter to Hammond throughout the episode, so he's not going to be too worried about what anybody thinks, even if he did at the best of times. He just does what he does ("It's what I do," he explains, in a mirror of the character based on him in 'Wormhole X-Treme!').
His unique approach to diplomacy shows that he has a fair way to go when it comes to dealing with others not under his command: locking the two Amran delegates in a room for a few days so they're forced to work out their differences did eventually pay off, it seems (though we don't get to see the pay-off, and I was expecting him to suddenly realise that he'd forgotten all about them, dash over to the cell and find them amicably discussing a treaty, whereas it's actually conveyed in dialogue); and as it turns out, antagonising Baal makes no difference either way because he was lying about having SG-1, and it must be better for him to realise that the humans aren't afraid of him than for O'Neill to be polite and submissive. But when it comes to dealing with those under his command he's as strong as ever, not wanting SG-1 to go on recon without some backup, not losing his temper with mad scientist Dr. Lee when you can imagine Hammond almost blowing his top and maybe keeping the scientist under a much tighter leash. But it's the proud moment that Reynolds and the other soldiers meet him to reconfirm their loyalty to his leadership, just when he's at his lowest ebb, doubting himself and his ability to deal with all that's happening (and hatred of paperwork!), it helps to turn things around. I suspect he was also a little bit stubborn, thinking the President had the gall to question his place in the role, albeit secretly.
So I'm glad he came to his senses, and as much as we'd like to see him going off on adventures with his team, that's not how things happen: promotions are awarded, people move on, and at least this way he has a solid background role to play, even if it's not in the same way as he's (and we've), been used to. On the other side, I felt the plant story was a little silly and it was odd to have two consecutive base-based episodes rather than one where they go off to seek out new technology to protect themselves with, as the episode initially appeared. It could easily have been a story about the team being stuck in the temple and overcoming traps, etc. Not that we haven't seen that before, of course, but it was fairly light on the other main cast, though I'm sure the balance will shift away from O'Neill soon and I'll be wishing we had more of him in it. The light tone of the episode was a little jarring at first, considering the apparent capture of SG-1, but the supporting cast did a good job (even if Gary Jones as Walter looked like he was barely keeping from laughing in his scenes with the General). A pleasant episode, in summation, though they could easily have done more with Camulus as I thought a Goa'uld seeking asylum with humans was a ripe storyline to explore. As it turned out they could trust him as much as any other Goa'uld we've seen, so I suppose it was unlikely, but it would have been fascinating to run with it a bit.
**
Quite a thoughtful one, really. It examines how General O'Neill is dealing with his role in absolute authority of the SGC, and it turns out that it's not too well. In fact, he's realised that he'd overreached himself, and that the diplomacy and ability to juggle paperwork while sorting out internal problems and worrying about his friends and subordinates doesn't appear to have any upsides. But gradually, like some kind of redemptive blanket, a warmth sweeps through the base and he realises by the end that he can deal with it, and will. And all done in that offbeat, quirky, kind of British embarrassment that the series excels at. It's a bit of a jumble of stories going on in the background, the main one being the three-man (or two-man and one woman… or one-man, one woman and an alien, to be precise…), SG-1 team getting trapped in an old base of Anubis' while Baal, whose servants must have been observing, claims he has them in captivity and wishes to deal them for the asylum-seeking Camulus. Camulus himself, infuriated at being kept prisoner despite his asylum, eventually succumbs and tells them about a device on another planet that he thinks Baal wants. So they retrieve it only to discover (from another side story of an alien plant growing out of control all over the base, and the solution to getting rid of it), that it's actually booby-trapped and would have taken out the entire Solar System had it been plugged into the device in Antarctica. Thanks, Cammy.
It's all happening on O'Neill's watch, and no wonder he's feeling discouraged, not helped by the addition of a new assistant to aid him, sent along by General Hammond (sadly we don't even get a cameo of Don S. Davis' voice on the phone), but whose secret assignment is to report back to the President on O'Neill's suitability for the post he's in before a Presidential visit of the SGC. I thought he was going to be some kind of Kinsey-ite, or follower of one of those shady government organisations, but no, it's just a legitimate investigation into O'Neill's character. And he does fine, probably because Hammond let him in on the secret, and rather than play up and make life a misery for the 'spy,' he just acts normally, which is to say, as Walter does at the start, "He's not like other people." It probably helped that he was writing his resignation letter to Hammond throughout the episode, so he's not going to be too worried about what anybody thinks, even if he did at the best of times. He just does what he does ("It's what I do," he explains, in a mirror of the character based on him in 'Wormhole X-Treme!').
His unique approach to diplomacy shows that he has a fair way to go when it comes to dealing with others not under his command: locking the two Amran delegates in a room for a few days so they're forced to work out their differences did eventually pay off, it seems (though we don't get to see the pay-off, and I was expecting him to suddenly realise that he'd forgotten all about them, dash over to the cell and find them amicably discussing a treaty, whereas it's actually conveyed in dialogue); and as it turns out, antagonising Baal makes no difference either way because he was lying about having SG-1, and it must be better for him to realise that the humans aren't afraid of him than for O'Neill to be polite and submissive. But when it comes to dealing with those under his command he's as strong as ever, not wanting SG-1 to go on recon without some backup, not losing his temper with mad scientist Dr. Lee when you can imagine Hammond almost blowing his top and maybe keeping the scientist under a much tighter leash. But it's the proud moment that Reynolds and the other soldiers meet him to reconfirm their loyalty to his leadership, just when he's at his lowest ebb, doubting himself and his ability to deal with all that's happening (and hatred of paperwork!), it helps to turn things around. I suspect he was also a little bit stubborn, thinking the President had the gall to question his place in the role, albeit secretly.
So I'm glad he came to his senses, and as much as we'd like to see him going off on adventures with his team, that's not how things happen: promotions are awarded, people move on, and at least this way he has a solid background role to play, even if it's not in the same way as he's (and we've), been used to. On the other side, I felt the plant story was a little silly and it was odd to have two consecutive base-based episodes rather than one where they go off to seek out new technology to protect themselves with, as the episode initially appeared. It could easily have been a story about the team being stuck in the temple and overcoming traps, etc. Not that we haven't seen that before, of course, but it was fairly light on the other main cast, though I'm sure the balance will shift away from O'Neill soon and I'll be wishing we had more of him in it. The light tone of the episode was a little jarring at first, considering the apparent capture of SG-1, but the supporting cast did a good job (even if Gary Jones as Walter looked like he was barely keeping from laughing in his scenes with the General). A pleasant episode, in summation, though they could easily have done more with Camulus as I thought a Goa'uld seeking asylum with humans was a ripe storyline to explore. As it turned out they could trust him as much as any other Goa'uld we've seen, so I suppose it was unlikely, but it would have been fascinating to run with it a bit.
**
Star Trek 2017 TV Series - Based in Canada & Weekly
Star Trek 2017 TV Series - Based in Canada & Weekly
A couple of new developments to comment on: when I first heard the series was going to be based in Canada (Toronto specifically), it didn't really register. I just thought 'Oh, okay, filmed in Canada,' but after thinking about it for a few days it dawned on me that this was quite a major step. The first 'Star Trek' not to be based at Paramount. Now, of course Paramount doesn't make the TV shows any more, it's CBS, and I'd never considered the logistics of this split in geographical terms, but it makes sense that they weren't going to be using the old soundstages where every modern Trek series was homed, maybe even where 'TOS' was shot, though I can't remember the exact details of that (I think those soundstages from the 60s would have been replaced). It hit me that a large slice of the history of Trek had been permanently sealed off, and that's quite sad in and of itself, though more for sentimental reasons. However, there are also practical issues with the new location, which is what I'm really curious to see the results of, and that is the distancing from the old pool of talented writers, production staff and guest stars that we took for granted for so many years of their tenure on modern Trek.
I'm wondering if people such as Michael and Denise Okuda, the backbones of Trek continuity, Doug Drexler, designer supreme, and other big names that were so essential to the smooth running of the machine that was Trek in the 90s, and even into the early 2000s, would be willing to up sticks and move to Toronto to ensure they were part of this new Trek into the unknown. Part of me thinks that of course they'd be willing, but time moves on, people get older, and it may be that Fuller, Meyer and the new gang in charge wanted it that way so they aren't tied to those from the old system who could well still be willing and able to jump in if it was closer to its original location. I hope this isn't the case, because I'd love those guiding hands there to keep things on track, and as much as it's a pleasure to see such a team of creatives from Trek's past heading up its future, the production side is almost as important in that regard. There's also the issue of the familiar troupe of Trek guest actors that developed across the four modern series', people such as Jeffrey Combs, Marc Alaimo, Andrew Robinson, Vaughn Armstrong and so many others that made their mark, in many cases in multiple roles. Again, I can see the desire to break free from the past, but I was hoping some familiar names would be guesting, even if not part of the main cast (though Tony Todd's supposed to be a part of it, so that gives me hope that the old names won't be forgotten).
If you're fascinated and drawn to every detail of something, then it's likely you'll also get concerned about those details. I'm not trying to blow this development out of proportion, it's really only a minor change to the way Trek was run before, so I'm certainly not worried about it. It's just that it does make me wonder. One thing that appears to be marking this series out as being more traditional than some might have been expecting is the news that, contrary to some opinion, it will be a weekly series. This means that it won't be a fling-it-all-out-there for people to binge on in as quick a time as they like, but will be released in the same way 'TOS' was back in the 60s: one episode per week. This may seem a backward step for a service that is supposed to be taking on the challenge of the modern era of viewing habits, since CBS All Access, the service Americans will have to use to watch it, is in earnest at becoming a competitor for the established streaming services. But I rather like that - there's still no word on how we in the UK will see our favourite franchise continue, whether it will be via the BBC (who became the go-to home of Trek throughout the 90s if you didn't have Sky), or Channel 4 (who hosted 'Enterprise,' though not, eventually, in a very good time slot, squashed into Sunday afternoons), or even Channel 5 (who sometimes pay out for big US shows such as 'Marvel Agents of SHIELD').
However it's broadcast, the weekly rollout leads me to suspect this will be in the upper region of total episodes, in line with 'SHIELD' and others, rather than going all out for super high production values a la 'Game of Thrones,' but fewer episodes. I prefer the former model, not just because it gives greater coverage year-round, but also because, though some complain about so-called 'filler' episodes, I've always enjoyed these as an alternative to the big episodes. If 'TNG' had been putting out only 10-13 episodes a season, would we have had 'Family' after 'Best of Both Worlds'? How many episodes of 'DS9' in which we learnt so much about the characters through their personal experiences as the focus of a story, would have been cut out if they were constricted by low episode numbers? I also feel that even if you condense a season to halve the old Trek's output (26, which sounds massive now), you'd probably still get some weaker episodes. But surely, if you love a series, a situation and its characters, you want to spend as much time there as possible? Whatever happens, we still know almost nothing about the premise (though early announcements pointed to a traditional ship-based exploration series), but little details like it being weekly lead me to suspect it will be fairly familiar, and I hope this is the case.
Anticipation Rating: ****
A couple of new developments to comment on: when I first heard the series was going to be based in Canada (Toronto specifically), it didn't really register. I just thought 'Oh, okay, filmed in Canada,' but after thinking about it for a few days it dawned on me that this was quite a major step. The first 'Star Trek' not to be based at Paramount. Now, of course Paramount doesn't make the TV shows any more, it's CBS, and I'd never considered the logistics of this split in geographical terms, but it makes sense that they weren't going to be using the old soundstages where every modern Trek series was homed, maybe even where 'TOS' was shot, though I can't remember the exact details of that (I think those soundstages from the 60s would have been replaced). It hit me that a large slice of the history of Trek had been permanently sealed off, and that's quite sad in and of itself, though more for sentimental reasons. However, there are also practical issues with the new location, which is what I'm really curious to see the results of, and that is the distancing from the old pool of talented writers, production staff and guest stars that we took for granted for so many years of their tenure on modern Trek.
I'm wondering if people such as Michael and Denise Okuda, the backbones of Trek continuity, Doug Drexler, designer supreme, and other big names that were so essential to the smooth running of the machine that was Trek in the 90s, and even into the early 2000s, would be willing to up sticks and move to Toronto to ensure they were part of this new Trek into the unknown. Part of me thinks that of course they'd be willing, but time moves on, people get older, and it may be that Fuller, Meyer and the new gang in charge wanted it that way so they aren't tied to those from the old system who could well still be willing and able to jump in if it was closer to its original location. I hope this isn't the case, because I'd love those guiding hands there to keep things on track, and as much as it's a pleasure to see such a team of creatives from Trek's past heading up its future, the production side is almost as important in that regard. There's also the issue of the familiar troupe of Trek guest actors that developed across the four modern series', people such as Jeffrey Combs, Marc Alaimo, Andrew Robinson, Vaughn Armstrong and so many others that made their mark, in many cases in multiple roles. Again, I can see the desire to break free from the past, but I was hoping some familiar names would be guesting, even if not part of the main cast (though Tony Todd's supposed to be a part of it, so that gives me hope that the old names won't be forgotten).
If you're fascinated and drawn to every detail of something, then it's likely you'll also get concerned about those details. I'm not trying to blow this development out of proportion, it's really only a minor change to the way Trek was run before, so I'm certainly not worried about it. It's just that it does make me wonder. One thing that appears to be marking this series out as being more traditional than some might have been expecting is the news that, contrary to some opinion, it will be a weekly series. This means that it won't be a fling-it-all-out-there for people to binge on in as quick a time as they like, but will be released in the same way 'TOS' was back in the 60s: one episode per week. This may seem a backward step for a service that is supposed to be taking on the challenge of the modern era of viewing habits, since CBS All Access, the service Americans will have to use to watch it, is in earnest at becoming a competitor for the established streaming services. But I rather like that - there's still no word on how we in the UK will see our favourite franchise continue, whether it will be via the BBC (who became the go-to home of Trek throughout the 90s if you didn't have Sky), or Channel 4 (who hosted 'Enterprise,' though not, eventually, in a very good time slot, squashed into Sunday afternoons), or even Channel 5 (who sometimes pay out for big US shows such as 'Marvel Agents of SHIELD').
However it's broadcast, the weekly rollout leads me to suspect this will be in the upper region of total episodes, in line with 'SHIELD' and others, rather than going all out for super high production values a la 'Game of Thrones,' but fewer episodes. I prefer the former model, not just because it gives greater coverage year-round, but also because, though some complain about so-called 'filler' episodes, I've always enjoyed these as an alternative to the big episodes. If 'TNG' had been putting out only 10-13 episodes a season, would we have had 'Family' after 'Best of Both Worlds'? How many episodes of 'DS9' in which we learnt so much about the characters through their personal experiences as the focus of a story, would have been cut out if they were constricted by low episode numbers? I also feel that even if you condense a season to halve the old Trek's output (26, which sounds massive now), you'd probably still get some weaker episodes. But surely, if you love a series, a situation and its characters, you want to spend as much time there as possible? Whatever happens, we still know almost nothing about the premise (though early announcements pointed to a traditional ship-based exploration series), but little details like it being weekly lead me to suspect it will be fairly familiar, and I hope this is the case.
Anticipation Rating: ****
Day of Honor
DVD, Voyager S4 (Day of Honor)
I had always considered this one of the weakest in a strong season, and analysing my reasoning I have to conclude that it was because I was comparing it to an average Klingon episode of 'DS9,' and in that light it does come up short. The Day of Honour had never been mentioned prior to this, so it's not like we can even give it bonus points for unearthing some new lore on the popular race that would be useful to explore again in future. It is logical that the series struggled with Klingon episodes in general, since its only Klingon character (half-Klingon, to be precise), hated her heritage and had nothing but bad feelings toward it, blaming it for her volcanic temper and deep-rooted feelings of angst. That was to change from this episode onwards, with the support of Tom Paris in a surprise twist where we discover they love each other. That's another issue I always had with the story: the sudden, out of nowhere declaration of love from B'Elanna - out of character, except in the area of impulsiveness, it didn't ring true and really had no discernible buildup. They got on fine and had fun together, but that's why the ending didn't satisfy, because they're about to die, floating in their EVA suits, and it's just as easy to see that as a 'dying declaration' under duress than Torres' true feelings with no evidence to the contrary. The only indication that it might be more than the usual reset is that it ends with them being rescued and there's no tag scene, which we usually see (such as Quark and Odo reasserting that they hate each other at the end of 'The Ascent'), leaving it unresolved.
I was expecting them to be beamed aboard just before she admitted it and then backpedal once they were comfortably on the ship. Instead it leaves us with the question of what this means for Tom and B'Elanna? Tune in next week, or in a few weeks, to find out. Anyone complaining the series had no serialisation in its storytelling (leaving aside the fact there were actual episodic arcs in the first three seasons), can see that there really was in the character development department. It just wasn't necessarily as regular and satisfying as, say, 'DS9' was. In fact I felt both plots of this episode weren't fully resolved, with Seven's (as she becomes known here), understanding of compassion a quick-fix solution to a problem, engineered to ingratiate her with the crew a little and give her a purpose beyond standing in the Cargo Bay all the time. It's ironic that she requests duty in Engineering on the very day that Torres is having such an awful time, and is just bad timing on her part, though in her Vulcan-like way she fails to understand and respond to the barbs from the half-Klingon - with almost no emotion, the hostility could just as well be the accepted norm for Starfleet personnel from her naive perspective. Probably for the best that she doesn't realise when she's being insulted or verbally assaulted as that might have set her human development back quite a ways. But at this stage she's still barely human, despite losing the tubes and lasers, unable to even realise how badly she fits in so that she can't get upset about it. But that would come, for good or bad.
My theory (and I say theory because I can't recall exactly what happens over the next few episodes, but I'm pretty sure she goes against her promise not to try to return to the Borg), is that everything she does is a strategy to ensure her chances of rejoining the Collective are maximised: she wants to perform some kind of task, but in reality she could be learning ship's systems, probing for weaknesses, having access to the sensitive systems of Engineering and formulating a plan of escape or a way to send a message. She's like Data, she can do multiple things at the same time in her computer-like way, so it does stand to reason that her choices are based on that ultimate goal (not to mention the Borg Queen's plan for her, which we'd learn of next season). The way Seven talks of the Borg's existence, having no lies, no secrets, sounds almost appealing, and it furthers our understanding of why an individual, once detached from them, would wish to rejoin. It's a kind of sanctuary, a lack of responsibility, part of something greater, not having to think for oneself… It's very much a view on modern consumerist society, I believe, and is much more effective than the Ferengi, who more blatantly symbolised this. So many people want to belong to a group, to be accepted, and laziness is prevalent, with films in particular showing the trend towards simplistic, lowest common denominator entertainment, away from the thoughtful approach of Trek.
Of course, even the 'idyllic' existence of the Borg isn't entirely so: for one, it's murderous to the individual, all rights rescinded, not just responsibilities, and literally, thousands of drones will be sacrificed if it serves a purpose, life far from precious. And two, when Seven claims to be unaccustomed to deception she's not being entirely honest, because if, as I suggest, at this point she's constantly planning escape then she's deceiving them completely. She could carry both views at once, because, just like B'Elanna, she has a half-human, half-alien nature to balance, and unlike Torres, she hasn't any experience yet. It's a shame Torres couldn't see this and make it her mission to help this new crewmember fit in, just as Janeway showed faith in her. It's another example of something people throw at post-'TOS' Trek - in this case that there's no conflict and they're all perfect, which isn't true. Thanks to her Maquis background we can understand why B'Elanna is the way she is, which is to say she's improved greatly over the seasons, but she's still not at a stage where she's overly helpful. I also felt this would have been an excellent chance to add something to Tuvok's character - now that his former pupil, Kes, has moved on, he could take on Seven, who, as she does with Torres, shares strong similarities with him. Instead, the only time they really share the screen here is when he's escorting the Caatati representative and, even though he must have known the aliens' history of being assimilated, the remnant forced to flee and live as pariahs, he fully answers the alien's question upon seeing Seven: she's human, formerly Borg. Surely even a Vulcan would realise the trouble he'd stir up - it would've been easier, and still truthful just to say she was human.
Now we come to another element of the episode that didn't entirely work: the Caatati themselves, and specifically the main example, aren't well fleshed out and the performance wasn't entirely faultless - in the scene mentioned above, he overreacts as if he already knew she was Borg. One thing I was confused about was who was whom. I thought the Caatati leader, Rahmin was the main alien we saw throughout, but he was only seen on the viewscreen, and it was actually Lumas that boards Voyager and makes the case for his people. I was so sure it was Alan Altshuld (whose long face was familiar from a couple of 'TNG' episodes, and the sandal maker in 'False Profits'), and I was going to comment on the uneven performance by him, but he was credited as Lumas, and in the 'Voyager Companion' the text says it was Rahmin (or, wrongly, Rashmin!), who is outraged by seeing an ex-Borg on Voyager. Obviously the synopsis is rather condensed, and I believe this must be referring to the initial viewscreen contact (though why would Lumas be so surprised to see an ex-Borg if his leader had already spotted her? Maybe that explains his overreaction, he was just waiting to jump on her?), and it was Altshuld that was a bit all over the place. Maybe that's why he never worked on Trek again? The actor that played Rahmin had also appeared before, Michael A. Krawic had been a Maquis member in 'DS9,' and went on to appear as a Vulcan on 'Enterprise' ('Carbon Creek'), but although the Caatati's look (an intricate and fascinating design, another Westmore wonder), and name worked well, they weren't one of the best defined races Voyager ran into.
Partly, to be fair, it's because of the manipulative, conniving nature of these beings - it's hard to feel sympathy for such a people, even though their situation is one to be sympathetic about (they haven't been welcomed anywhere - maybe they should shack up with the Voth, who share a similar look!). They're the type that use all the emotional blackmail they can, have a false humility in their despair, but are really rats that will take you for everything - not everyone who's a good cause reacts to assistance in the right way, a good lesson to remember. Don't confuse poverty with meanness. I suppose they are fairly dimensional when you think of them that way, as initially they appear to be the usual helpless race that politely request Voyager's help, then their request goes up a gear when they don't feel they're getting as much as they could out of the Starfleet crew, unpleasantly plying on the pressure to take more than full advantage of the charity, which before the episode is out, turns to ungrateful demand. It's clear when their situations are reversed and he has the superior numbers, that they wouldn't be helpful to Voyager in the same situation, which once again reminds us how different our crew are. But he also misjudges people terribly, both in small ways (he walks up to Tuvok when wheedling about them sleeping easier knowing the children have been fed, when a Vulcan doesn't have the same kind of emotional connection or a guilty conscience to be roused!), and in large - fails to hear the steel in Janeway's voice or realise how far she'll go to protect her own crew. Not the woman to give ultimatums to!
Lumas was flighty and inconsistent, which is the main reason we don't feel the same compassion that Seven develops (somewhat mechanically, but it does appear to be there), and takes away from the satisfaction of the conclusion of that strand. In reality we're not as happy to see these people go merrily on their way, Janeway would have been in her rights to punish their actions, as what happens to you doesn't give you the right to take advantage of others (best represented by Janeway's decision that stranded them in the Delta Quadrant in the first place). I also found it far too convenient that they would suddenly trust this former Borg to create a piece of technology that wouldn't blow up in their faces - they were suspicious and mean-natured enough to question her motives, but Lumas is happy to take the generator. Again, I can see what terrible troubles they've been through, and that must be why Janeway goes easy on them when in reality they threatened her entire ship and its homeward bound mission by stealing the Warp Core. It's also a very pertinent issue for today, with so much refugee migration across the world, and shows us how we should be dealing with such people: even if some don't display the most honourable of intentions, they should still be given the chance and assistance they need. That's what Janeway would do.
Again, how much was this a genuine act of kindness from the emotionally stifled ex-Borg, and how much was it an opportunity to get in the good graces of the crew. Clearly she feels no remorse for her people's actions toward the Caatati, but if she were doing it to prove her use and lull her shipmates' concerns about her, then Seven would have strong motive to do what she can. In this reading, it does rather negate the warm and inspirational ending of overcoming enmity (though she didn't feel anything personally to them). The same could be levelled at her for being so willing to give herself up, one of the conditions the Caatati imposed upon Voyager. I'm sure she could have handled herself on a shipload of the aliens, despite their lynch mob mentality, and this could have been an ideal situation to garner her escape from Voyager, especially as I'm sure she didn't rate them very highly as captors. At least it gives us a genuine vindication for her, and acceptance from Janeway, who chooses to believe that it wasn't her actions that led to the Warp Core having to be ejected (although, again, very suspicious that on her first day in Engineering the most important component that's powering Voyager further and further away from Borg space, is the thing that's ejected!). More should have been made of the scene, though as it stands it's still a great moment when the Captain says she's one of their group now and they'll protect her. Is this the first time we see a Core ejected in Trek, now that CGI had reached an acceptable level?
The stakes were superficially high with Tom and B'Elanna floating and about to asphyxiate, and the loss of the Warp Core would have been game over as far as the series' premise was concerned, so the real stakes had to be in the personal lessons Torres and Seven learnt: that compassion can come from any quarter, and that B'Elanna felt she was a coward, having pushed others away all her life, as well as her heritage. But if I've been down on the episode, pointing out it's inconsistencies, the lack of good aliens, and unresolved or unclear motivations, on balance it's still a fairly strong episode by the standards of most TV, with its fair share of inspiring goodness. Age helps, I think, as when I first saw it I'd never had a job, and while you can identify with certain aspects of B'Elanna's bad day, it's harder to understand how people's emotional life and mental existence is affected by what happens around them, when you're younger. With experience you do begin to fathom how someone could feel in that situation, and no longer does B'Elanna seem a moody old troublemaker, she has genuine problems and a great deal of responsibility. Even so, you'd think that a ritual in which she could let out her frustrations in violence and endurance, all fully acceptable within regs, would make her jump at the chance. Except that it's all tied to how she feels about the Klingon heritage, and that it stood for everything that tore her apart. Enter the Talaxian…
Neelix doesn't have much, but what he does do shows his beautiful nature of understanding. The Neelix we first met was a talker and a bit of a con artist, and despite being constantly goodnatured, he was also rather selfish. His time with Voyager (and Kes), taught him the benefits of sharing and community, and although Torres hasn't got to the stage in her life where she can help Seven, Neelix is far more than a clownish Morale Officer in name only: he displays nuance, knowing about her rituals because he's taken time to do research, and because he's 'supposed' to know these things, but where the Neelix of old would have tried to cheer her up, he sees what she needs and offers to be a pressure valve for her to blow off steam onto. That's a brave thing to say to such a person, but it's also evidence of his great capacity for caring. Just when you think the character is spent, with nowhere to go in development after Kes had left and his knowledge of the Delta Quadrant exhausted, he reminds us why he's such a loveable and essential member of the crew. It's a wonderful character scene that ten space battles couldn't better, and as much as it would have been thrilling to see an early season 'DS9'-style Runabouts versus enemy ships, I'd rather have this. I also like that Neelix is pro tradition (something we'd further explore in 'Mortal Coil' later in the season), and is all about keeping old ways alive, encouraging B'Elanna. And how else were we going to see Klingons on 'Voyager' but with a Holoprogram (well…), not to mention painstiks! Ah, painstiks - takes me back to those early seasons of 'TNG'…
There are a few technological and strategic questions the episode raised for me: as great as it is to see the EVA suits of 'First Contact' return, I can't help wondering why in over a century they hadn't fitted boosters to the design, as Spock did in 'The Motion Picture,' allowing him a measure of spatial control and autonomy - it seems like an obvious thing to include, especially as technology's improved so much since then that miniaturisation surely could have given them the option of a minor propulsion unit of some kind. Not that it would have made much difference, as Voyager was too far away, but at least they could have dodged any space-borne ephemera or, in the case of a slippage on a ship's hull, would mean they would have a way to get back if they began to float into the void! They also don't appear to be very sturdy since a slight jolt causes Paris' air to leak (though they must be very easy to put on considering the short time they had to suit up!). We could argue that the suits do have a thruster component, but they're either separate and they didn't have any in the shuttle, or hadn't been topped up after the last mission. And maybe these suits have had a lot of use (which we never saw), weakening the structural integrity… Yeah, that must be it. Sad to see the shuttlecraft Cochrane bite it - the Caatati must have had some weapon to be able to disable and set it on a course for destruction with one feedback pulse! And, most importantly, why did they not send every shuttle they had to pick up the single most essential piece of tech they own? They didn't appear too concerned, as if kicking out the Core and retrieving it later were a common occurrence!
It's well trod ground for B'Elanna to refuse to acknowledge her Klingon side, but not the less affecting, and Paris showed himself to be a true friend (though I don't recall him reciprocating B'Elanna's declaration!), though in the context of the story he had as much reason to end up with Seven as Torres, since he showed friendship and support to the neglected ex-Borg during the episode. It must have been floating in the cold depths of space that confirmed it. It was quite a dramatic thing for them to do, actually have a couple of crew hanging in zero-g, something difficult to recreate realistically. They didn't do a bad job, but I wasn't fully sold on the setup: I felt their clothing and masks should have frozen quickly and more could have been done to get an impression of the scope of their environment when they generally were zoomed right up close, sticking the camera right in their faces. I can understand why, as they needed to be able to make their expressions as visible as possible within the confines of the helmet, but it came across as claustrophobic rather than two tiny pinpoints of light in the vastness of nothing, worse than floating on an ocean. It's difficult to simulate such an environment and to have the actors move naturally rather than overdoing it or appearing too still, but it wasn't bad and the shot of Voyager approaching in the reflection of B'Elanna's mask worked.
The cast was pretty well used - the Neelix scene the clear standout, but most of the cast have their moments (though the EMH never appears, despite Sickbay featuring as the location Seven and Janeway hand over the Thorium generator, which was odd as it seemed like an appropriate moment to have his 'contractual' appearance!). There was a good sense of things getting on top of Torres, what with Seven foisted upon her, her 'favourite' Vulcan, Vorik, much in evidence, Chakotay pulling rank to remind her of her duties, and even Paris almost doing the same when she won't leave from the destabilising Warp Core, reminding her he outranks her! I didn't actually realise he did, since they were both outcasts at the beginning, both Starfleet dropouts, but Chief Engineer is more important than Conn, you'd think. Whatever, Paris would be demoted next season, anyway… It was good to refer back to the Academy, and also how, when he and Torres first met, she didn't have a very high opinion of him, but then she never does until she gets to know people, as shown by her attitude to Seven when as far as I know she hadn't lost anyone at Wolf 359 or had any particular reason for animosity to the Borg beyond shared hatred of the idea. Nor was the Day of Honour ever mentioned again in any series, as far as I recall, though the book series of the same name, second of the then-annual releases where the then-four series would be tied by a common theme, which apparently inspired this episode. And lastly, Torres claims they don't know anything about transwarp tech, but she must have forgotten the Excelsior of 'Star Trek III' (as had the writers!).
***
I had always considered this one of the weakest in a strong season, and analysing my reasoning I have to conclude that it was because I was comparing it to an average Klingon episode of 'DS9,' and in that light it does come up short. The Day of Honour had never been mentioned prior to this, so it's not like we can even give it bonus points for unearthing some new lore on the popular race that would be useful to explore again in future. It is logical that the series struggled with Klingon episodes in general, since its only Klingon character (half-Klingon, to be precise), hated her heritage and had nothing but bad feelings toward it, blaming it for her volcanic temper and deep-rooted feelings of angst. That was to change from this episode onwards, with the support of Tom Paris in a surprise twist where we discover they love each other. That's another issue I always had with the story: the sudden, out of nowhere declaration of love from B'Elanna - out of character, except in the area of impulsiveness, it didn't ring true and really had no discernible buildup. They got on fine and had fun together, but that's why the ending didn't satisfy, because they're about to die, floating in their EVA suits, and it's just as easy to see that as a 'dying declaration' under duress than Torres' true feelings with no evidence to the contrary. The only indication that it might be more than the usual reset is that it ends with them being rescued and there's no tag scene, which we usually see (such as Quark and Odo reasserting that they hate each other at the end of 'The Ascent'), leaving it unresolved.
I was expecting them to be beamed aboard just before she admitted it and then backpedal once they were comfortably on the ship. Instead it leaves us with the question of what this means for Tom and B'Elanna? Tune in next week, or in a few weeks, to find out. Anyone complaining the series had no serialisation in its storytelling (leaving aside the fact there were actual episodic arcs in the first three seasons), can see that there really was in the character development department. It just wasn't necessarily as regular and satisfying as, say, 'DS9' was. In fact I felt both plots of this episode weren't fully resolved, with Seven's (as she becomes known here), understanding of compassion a quick-fix solution to a problem, engineered to ingratiate her with the crew a little and give her a purpose beyond standing in the Cargo Bay all the time. It's ironic that she requests duty in Engineering on the very day that Torres is having such an awful time, and is just bad timing on her part, though in her Vulcan-like way she fails to understand and respond to the barbs from the half-Klingon - with almost no emotion, the hostility could just as well be the accepted norm for Starfleet personnel from her naive perspective. Probably for the best that she doesn't realise when she's being insulted or verbally assaulted as that might have set her human development back quite a ways. But at this stage she's still barely human, despite losing the tubes and lasers, unable to even realise how badly she fits in so that she can't get upset about it. But that would come, for good or bad.
My theory (and I say theory because I can't recall exactly what happens over the next few episodes, but I'm pretty sure she goes against her promise not to try to return to the Borg), is that everything she does is a strategy to ensure her chances of rejoining the Collective are maximised: she wants to perform some kind of task, but in reality she could be learning ship's systems, probing for weaknesses, having access to the sensitive systems of Engineering and formulating a plan of escape or a way to send a message. She's like Data, she can do multiple things at the same time in her computer-like way, so it does stand to reason that her choices are based on that ultimate goal (not to mention the Borg Queen's plan for her, which we'd learn of next season). The way Seven talks of the Borg's existence, having no lies, no secrets, sounds almost appealing, and it furthers our understanding of why an individual, once detached from them, would wish to rejoin. It's a kind of sanctuary, a lack of responsibility, part of something greater, not having to think for oneself… It's very much a view on modern consumerist society, I believe, and is much more effective than the Ferengi, who more blatantly symbolised this. So many people want to belong to a group, to be accepted, and laziness is prevalent, with films in particular showing the trend towards simplistic, lowest common denominator entertainment, away from the thoughtful approach of Trek.
Of course, even the 'idyllic' existence of the Borg isn't entirely so: for one, it's murderous to the individual, all rights rescinded, not just responsibilities, and literally, thousands of drones will be sacrificed if it serves a purpose, life far from precious. And two, when Seven claims to be unaccustomed to deception she's not being entirely honest, because if, as I suggest, at this point she's constantly planning escape then she's deceiving them completely. She could carry both views at once, because, just like B'Elanna, she has a half-human, half-alien nature to balance, and unlike Torres, she hasn't any experience yet. It's a shame Torres couldn't see this and make it her mission to help this new crewmember fit in, just as Janeway showed faith in her. It's another example of something people throw at post-'TOS' Trek - in this case that there's no conflict and they're all perfect, which isn't true. Thanks to her Maquis background we can understand why B'Elanna is the way she is, which is to say she's improved greatly over the seasons, but she's still not at a stage where she's overly helpful. I also felt this would have been an excellent chance to add something to Tuvok's character - now that his former pupil, Kes, has moved on, he could take on Seven, who, as she does with Torres, shares strong similarities with him. Instead, the only time they really share the screen here is when he's escorting the Caatati representative and, even though he must have known the aliens' history of being assimilated, the remnant forced to flee and live as pariahs, he fully answers the alien's question upon seeing Seven: she's human, formerly Borg. Surely even a Vulcan would realise the trouble he'd stir up - it would've been easier, and still truthful just to say she was human.
Now we come to another element of the episode that didn't entirely work: the Caatati themselves, and specifically the main example, aren't well fleshed out and the performance wasn't entirely faultless - in the scene mentioned above, he overreacts as if he already knew she was Borg. One thing I was confused about was who was whom. I thought the Caatati leader, Rahmin was the main alien we saw throughout, but he was only seen on the viewscreen, and it was actually Lumas that boards Voyager and makes the case for his people. I was so sure it was Alan Altshuld (whose long face was familiar from a couple of 'TNG' episodes, and the sandal maker in 'False Profits'), and I was going to comment on the uneven performance by him, but he was credited as Lumas, and in the 'Voyager Companion' the text says it was Rahmin (or, wrongly, Rashmin!), who is outraged by seeing an ex-Borg on Voyager. Obviously the synopsis is rather condensed, and I believe this must be referring to the initial viewscreen contact (though why would Lumas be so surprised to see an ex-Borg if his leader had already spotted her? Maybe that explains his overreaction, he was just waiting to jump on her?), and it was Altshuld that was a bit all over the place. Maybe that's why he never worked on Trek again? The actor that played Rahmin had also appeared before, Michael A. Krawic had been a Maquis member in 'DS9,' and went on to appear as a Vulcan on 'Enterprise' ('Carbon Creek'), but although the Caatati's look (an intricate and fascinating design, another Westmore wonder), and name worked well, they weren't one of the best defined races Voyager ran into.
Partly, to be fair, it's because of the manipulative, conniving nature of these beings - it's hard to feel sympathy for such a people, even though their situation is one to be sympathetic about (they haven't been welcomed anywhere - maybe they should shack up with the Voth, who share a similar look!). They're the type that use all the emotional blackmail they can, have a false humility in their despair, but are really rats that will take you for everything - not everyone who's a good cause reacts to assistance in the right way, a good lesson to remember. Don't confuse poverty with meanness. I suppose they are fairly dimensional when you think of them that way, as initially they appear to be the usual helpless race that politely request Voyager's help, then their request goes up a gear when they don't feel they're getting as much as they could out of the Starfleet crew, unpleasantly plying on the pressure to take more than full advantage of the charity, which before the episode is out, turns to ungrateful demand. It's clear when their situations are reversed and he has the superior numbers, that they wouldn't be helpful to Voyager in the same situation, which once again reminds us how different our crew are. But he also misjudges people terribly, both in small ways (he walks up to Tuvok when wheedling about them sleeping easier knowing the children have been fed, when a Vulcan doesn't have the same kind of emotional connection or a guilty conscience to be roused!), and in large - fails to hear the steel in Janeway's voice or realise how far she'll go to protect her own crew. Not the woman to give ultimatums to!
Lumas was flighty and inconsistent, which is the main reason we don't feel the same compassion that Seven develops (somewhat mechanically, but it does appear to be there), and takes away from the satisfaction of the conclusion of that strand. In reality we're not as happy to see these people go merrily on their way, Janeway would have been in her rights to punish their actions, as what happens to you doesn't give you the right to take advantage of others (best represented by Janeway's decision that stranded them in the Delta Quadrant in the first place). I also found it far too convenient that they would suddenly trust this former Borg to create a piece of technology that wouldn't blow up in their faces - they were suspicious and mean-natured enough to question her motives, but Lumas is happy to take the generator. Again, I can see what terrible troubles they've been through, and that must be why Janeway goes easy on them when in reality they threatened her entire ship and its homeward bound mission by stealing the Warp Core. It's also a very pertinent issue for today, with so much refugee migration across the world, and shows us how we should be dealing with such people: even if some don't display the most honourable of intentions, they should still be given the chance and assistance they need. That's what Janeway would do.
Again, how much was this a genuine act of kindness from the emotionally stifled ex-Borg, and how much was it an opportunity to get in the good graces of the crew. Clearly she feels no remorse for her people's actions toward the Caatati, but if she were doing it to prove her use and lull her shipmates' concerns about her, then Seven would have strong motive to do what she can. In this reading, it does rather negate the warm and inspirational ending of overcoming enmity (though she didn't feel anything personally to them). The same could be levelled at her for being so willing to give herself up, one of the conditions the Caatati imposed upon Voyager. I'm sure she could have handled herself on a shipload of the aliens, despite their lynch mob mentality, and this could have been an ideal situation to garner her escape from Voyager, especially as I'm sure she didn't rate them very highly as captors. At least it gives us a genuine vindication for her, and acceptance from Janeway, who chooses to believe that it wasn't her actions that led to the Warp Core having to be ejected (although, again, very suspicious that on her first day in Engineering the most important component that's powering Voyager further and further away from Borg space, is the thing that's ejected!). More should have been made of the scene, though as it stands it's still a great moment when the Captain says she's one of their group now and they'll protect her. Is this the first time we see a Core ejected in Trek, now that CGI had reached an acceptable level?
The stakes were superficially high with Tom and B'Elanna floating and about to asphyxiate, and the loss of the Warp Core would have been game over as far as the series' premise was concerned, so the real stakes had to be in the personal lessons Torres and Seven learnt: that compassion can come from any quarter, and that B'Elanna felt she was a coward, having pushed others away all her life, as well as her heritage. But if I've been down on the episode, pointing out it's inconsistencies, the lack of good aliens, and unresolved or unclear motivations, on balance it's still a fairly strong episode by the standards of most TV, with its fair share of inspiring goodness. Age helps, I think, as when I first saw it I'd never had a job, and while you can identify with certain aspects of B'Elanna's bad day, it's harder to understand how people's emotional life and mental existence is affected by what happens around them, when you're younger. With experience you do begin to fathom how someone could feel in that situation, and no longer does B'Elanna seem a moody old troublemaker, she has genuine problems and a great deal of responsibility. Even so, you'd think that a ritual in which she could let out her frustrations in violence and endurance, all fully acceptable within regs, would make her jump at the chance. Except that it's all tied to how she feels about the Klingon heritage, and that it stood for everything that tore her apart. Enter the Talaxian…
Neelix doesn't have much, but what he does do shows his beautiful nature of understanding. The Neelix we first met was a talker and a bit of a con artist, and despite being constantly goodnatured, he was also rather selfish. His time with Voyager (and Kes), taught him the benefits of sharing and community, and although Torres hasn't got to the stage in her life where she can help Seven, Neelix is far more than a clownish Morale Officer in name only: he displays nuance, knowing about her rituals because he's taken time to do research, and because he's 'supposed' to know these things, but where the Neelix of old would have tried to cheer her up, he sees what she needs and offers to be a pressure valve for her to blow off steam onto. That's a brave thing to say to such a person, but it's also evidence of his great capacity for caring. Just when you think the character is spent, with nowhere to go in development after Kes had left and his knowledge of the Delta Quadrant exhausted, he reminds us why he's such a loveable and essential member of the crew. It's a wonderful character scene that ten space battles couldn't better, and as much as it would have been thrilling to see an early season 'DS9'-style Runabouts versus enemy ships, I'd rather have this. I also like that Neelix is pro tradition (something we'd further explore in 'Mortal Coil' later in the season), and is all about keeping old ways alive, encouraging B'Elanna. And how else were we going to see Klingons on 'Voyager' but with a Holoprogram (well…), not to mention painstiks! Ah, painstiks - takes me back to those early seasons of 'TNG'…
There are a few technological and strategic questions the episode raised for me: as great as it is to see the EVA suits of 'First Contact' return, I can't help wondering why in over a century they hadn't fitted boosters to the design, as Spock did in 'The Motion Picture,' allowing him a measure of spatial control and autonomy - it seems like an obvious thing to include, especially as technology's improved so much since then that miniaturisation surely could have given them the option of a minor propulsion unit of some kind. Not that it would have made much difference, as Voyager was too far away, but at least they could have dodged any space-borne ephemera or, in the case of a slippage on a ship's hull, would mean they would have a way to get back if they began to float into the void! They also don't appear to be very sturdy since a slight jolt causes Paris' air to leak (though they must be very easy to put on considering the short time they had to suit up!). We could argue that the suits do have a thruster component, but they're either separate and they didn't have any in the shuttle, or hadn't been topped up after the last mission. And maybe these suits have had a lot of use (which we never saw), weakening the structural integrity… Yeah, that must be it. Sad to see the shuttlecraft Cochrane bite it - the Caatati must have had some weapon to be able to disable and set it on a course for destruction with one feedback pulse! And, most importantly, why did they not send every shuttle they had to pick up the single most essential piece of tech they own? They didn't appear too concerned, as if kicking out the Core and retrieving it later were a common occurrence!
It's well trod ground for B'Elanna to refuse to acknowledge her Klingon side, but not the less affecting, and Paris showed himself to be a true friend (though I don't recall him reciprocating B'Elanna's declaration!), though in the context of the story he had as much reason to end up with Seven as Torres, since he showed friendship and support to the neglected ex-Borg during the episode. It must have been floating in the cold depths of space that confirmed it. It was quite a dramatic thing for them to do, actually have a couple of crew hanging in zero-g, something difficult to recreate realistically. They didn't do a bad job, but I wasn't fully sold on the setup: I felt their clothing and masks should have frozen quickly and more could have been done to get an impression of the scope of their environment when they generally were zoomed right up close, sticking the camera right in their faces. I can understand why, as they needed to be able to make their expressions as visible as possible within the confines of the helmet, but it came across as claustrophobic rather than two tiny pinpoints of light in the vastness of nothing, worse than floating on an ocean. It's difficult to simulate such an environment and to have the actors move naturally rather than overdoing it or appearing too still, but it wasn't bad and the shot of Voyager approaching in the reflection of B'Elanna's mask worked.
The cast was pretty well used - the Neelix scene the clear standout, but most of the cast have their moments (though the EMH never appears, despite Sickbay featuring as the location Seven and Janeway hand over the Thorium generator, which was odd as it seemed like an appropriate moment to have his 'contractual' appearance!). There was a good sense of things getting on top of Torres, what with Seven foisted upon her, her 'favourite' Vulcan, Vorik, much in evidence, Chakotay pulling rank to remind her of her duties, and even Paris almost doing the same when she won't leave from the destabilising Warp Core, reminding her he outranks her! I didn't actually realise he did, since they were both outcasts at the beginning, both Starfleet dropouts, but Chief Engineer is more important than Conn, you'd think. Whatever, Paris would be demoted next season, anyway… It was good to refer back to the Academy, and also how, when he and Torres first met, she didn't have a very high opinion of him, but then she never does until she gets to know people, as shown by her attitude to Seven when as far as I know she hadn't lost anyone at Wolf 359 or had any particular reason for animosity to the Borg beyond shared hatred of the idea. Nor was the Day of Honour ever mentioned again in any series, as far as I recall, though the book series of the same name, second of the then-annual releases where the then-four series would be tied by a common theme, which apparently inspired this episode. And lastly, Torres claims they don't know anything about transwarp tech, but she must have forgotten the Excelsior of 'Star Trek III' (as had the writers!).
***
Lockdown
DVD, Stargate SG-1 S8 (Lockdown)
It's been done before, many times, but it's one of those stories which saves them money and is a reasonable enough runaround on the base, so I won't judge it too harshly. Saying that, base-under-siege plots can be done well and… not so well. It depends on whether we buy into the paranoia and there's enough tension to carry the episode. In this case, it didn't quite work. The only moment a chill runs up the spine came when Daniel reveals that it's not some alien at random haunting the halls of the SGC and possessing its residents, it's none other than Anubis himself, whom, they conjecture, lost the shield that kept his life force or whatever, together, when his fleet was wiped out, and then what remained of him was trapped within a piece of debris orbiting Earth, which he wasn't able to break free from. We'd already witnessed the floating form pass into the International Space Station (a nice attempt at making the series more realistic by adding in real world elements), and it becomes very clear that Anubis can hover through any physical object, even the thick walls of Stargate Command, so he couldn't have been affected by the pull of gravity. I can only assume he could float but slowly through the void, and it would have taken him centuries to get anywhere by propelling himself through space, so the Stargate was a much-needed shortcut to… wherever he wanted to get to. He's a bad guy, so no doubt he has some lair somewhere that holds a backup shield or some such device. They really should have made a note to explore the coordinates he dialled before Carter changed it…
The ending was suitably chilling, the expendable Russian Colonel Vaselov who carried Anubis into the base, is the same man that gets him out, saving General O'Neill's life in the process - were we supposed to really believe he'd shoot O'Neill and himself dead if Anubis didn't leave the General's body and take his? It was a mighty big bluff, since Anubis could easily have fled into some other unfortunate, nearby, and do we even know for certain he had to have a corporeal form to go through the 'gate? Whatever the logic problems, it was still a self-sacrificial act, but it doesn't change the fact that this Russian guy turns up and then gets killed in the space of the episode, and his only real motivation is how much he respects O'Neill and wants to be a part of the programme (or was that Anubis speaking?). It was a good final shot of the trapped Anubis sunk to his knees in the form of the Colonel, frozen in a snowy waste. Cold wouldn't affect a non-corporeal entity, I'm sure, but it stops him from doing anything physical while leaving the door open for them to use Anubis again in future should they wish.
If we're talking frigid we should mention Dr. Brightman, the medic taking over from Dr. Fraiser. I wasn't clear whether she'd been in it before, or whether she'd even taken over, but she's the Doctor, and a series like this needs one, so I'd assume she's to be a recurring role, though they could just as easily have a new one each time they need one. She didn't have the warmth of Fraiser, but I don't know if they deliberately wrote her that way or it was a conscious decision on the part of the actress, or whether she is in fact, just an expendable guest of the week. But she did survive, so we'll see. At least we got Sergeant Siler again, so things don't feel completely new. O'Neill's finds his new position on the base comes with stacks of paperwork, but he still gets his usual offbeat comments in (such as when Carter asks him if he'd noticed anything strange about Daniel and he replies that shooting up the 'gate room was pretty strange!). He seems to have become resigned to the fact that he'll have to get a replacement for SG-1 to go off world, but I thought the reason he took the promotion was that he got to do what he wanted, so why can't he just appoint himself to remain part of the team? For now he leaps on Carter's assertion that there's no rule saying a team has to have four people, but it would be a shame if we didn't get the four of them going off on missions again.
The 'foothold' situation had been done before, as had alien possession, and even though it strains originality a little that it's the same story again, it was more the lack of danger and fear in the episode that prevented it being much of a success. While there was the odd scene that left a warm glow, such as Daniel's reassurance of the Vaselov, who knows he's likely to die, it was mainly people fumbling around waiting for Anubis to make the next move. Was O'Neill really using this situation as an excuse not to make the decision about his replacement, since the base is locked down for several days until the President himself phones up and gives him an ultimatum? Either way, the fact that Anubis could leave at any time and roam the Earth rather dissipated than increased the tension levels. I also felt it was ridiculously poor security to have a self-destruct sequence that can be foiled with a few taps of a keyboard from Carter! You'd think they could have come up with a non-technological solution so that a technical genius wouldn't be able to hack it. And Carter could have been possessed again herself and deactivated it that way if it was so easy. They really need to issue zat guns to every soldier on duty in the base, especially when it's clear that friendlies could be enemies, making death and wounding very likely! The ability to stun would be essential in that scenario. So a little more thought about the story logic and the best way to create drama, was necessary, but it's still nice to spend time in the SG-1 team's presence, even if it's within the dull, grey concrete of the SGC instead of rich, natural landscapes (and lots of trees, gotta have lots of trees!), that is their standard habitat. Not the best start to the season, then, but passable.
**
It's been done before, many times, but it's one of those stories which saves them money and is a reasonable enough runaround on the base, so I won't judge it too harshly. Saying that, base-under-siege plots can be done well and… not so well. It depends on whether we buy into the paranoia and there's enough tension to carry the episode. In this case, it didn't quite work. The only moment a chill runs up the spine came when Daniel reveals that it's not some alien at random haunting the halls of the SGC and possessing its residents, it's none other than Anubis himself, whom, they conjecture, lost the shield that kept his life force or whatever, together, when his fleet was wiped out, and then what remained of him was trapped within a piece of debris orbiting Earth, which he wasn't able to break free from. We'd already witnessed the floating form pass into the International Space Station (a nice attempt at making the series more realistic by adding in real world elements), and it becomes very clear that Anubis can hover through any physical object, even the thick walls of Stargate Command, so he couldn't have been affected by the pull of gravity. I can only assume he could float but slowly through the void, and it would have taken him centuries to get anywhere by propelling himself through space, so the Stargate was a much-needed shortcut to… wherever he wanted to get to. He's a bad guy, so no doubt he has some lair somewhere that holds a backup shield or some such device. They really should have made a note to explore the coordinates he dialled before Carter changed it…
The ending was suitably chilling, the expendable Russian Colonel Vaselov who carried Anubis into the base, is the same man that gets him out, saving General O'Neill's life in the process - were we supposed to really believe he'd shoot O'Neill and himself dead if Anubis didn't leave the General's body and take his? It was a mighty big bluff, since Anubis could easily have fled into some other unfortunate, nearby, and do we even know for certain he had to have a corporeal form to go through the 'gate? Whatever the logic problems, it was still a self-sacrificial act, but it doesn't change the fact that this Russian guy turns up and then gets killed in the space of the episode, and his only real motivation is how much he respects O'Neill and wants to be a part of the programme (or was that Anubis speaking?). It was a good final shot of the trapped Anubis sunk to his knees in the form of the Colonel, frozen in a snowy waste. Cold wouldn't affect a non-corporeal entity, I'm sure, but it stops him from doing anything physical while leaving the door open for them to use Anubis again in future should they wish.
If we're talking frigid we should mention Dr. Brightman, the medic taking over from Dr. Fraiser. I wasn't clear whether she'd been in it before, or whether she'd even taken over, but she's the Doctor, and a series like this needs one, so I'd assume she's to be a recurring role, though they could just as easily have a new one each time they need one. She didn't have the warmth of Fraiser, but I don't know if they deliberately wrote her that way or it was a conscious decision on the part of the actress, or whether she is in fact, just an expendable guest of the week. But she did survive, so we'll see. At least we got Sergeant Siler again, so things don't feel completely new. O'Neill's finds his new position on the base comes with stacks of paperwork, but he still gets his usual offbeat comments in (such as when Carter asks him if he'd noticed anything strange about Daniel and he replies that shooting up the 'gate room was pretty strange!). He seems to have become resigned to the fact that he'll have to get a replacement for SG-1 to go off world, but I thought the reason he took the promotion was that he got to do what he wanted, so why can't he just appoint himself to remain part of the team? For now he leaps on Carter's assertion that there's no rule saying a team has to have four people, but it would be a shame if we didn't get the four of them going off on missions again.
The 'foothold' situation had been done before, as had alien possession, and even though it strains originality a little that it's the same story again, it was more the lack of danger and fear in the episode that prevented it being much of a success. While there was the odd scene that left a warm glow, such as Daniel's reassurance of the Vaselov, who knows he's likely to die, it was mainly people fumbling around waiting for Anubis to make the next move. Was O'Neill really using this situation as an excuse not to make the decision about his replacement, since the base is locked down for several days until the President himself phones up and gives him an ultimatum? Either way, the fact that Anubis could leave at any time and roam the Earth rather dissipated than increased the tension levels. I also felt it was ridiculously poor security to have a self-destruct sequence that can be foiled with a few taps of a keyboard from Carter! You'd think they could have come up with a non-technological solution so that a technical genius wouldn't be able to hack it. And Carter could have been possessed again herself and deactivated it that way if it was so easy. They really need to issue zat guns to every soldier on duty in the base, especially when it's clear that friendlies could be enemies, making death and wounding very likely! The ability to stun would be essential in that scenario. So a little more thought about the story logic and the best way to create drama, was necessary, but it's still nice to spend time in the SG-1 team's presence, even if it's within the dull, grey concrete of the SGC instead of rich, natural landscapes (and lots of trees, gotta have lots of trees!), that is their standard habitat. Not the best start to the season, then, but passable.
**
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