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.

***