Scientific Method

DVD, Voyager S4 (Scientific Method)

Old-age, bald Chakotay. Italian Renaissance Doctor. Mylean Neelix. Headache-suffering Janeway. Adolescent Paris and Torres. Gold suit Seven of Nine. The action figure potential alone was off the scale for this episode, and if the 'Voyager' figures had been as successful as the 'TNG' ones, you can be almost certain we would have got some of these variations. If they could release Tom Paris Mutated from 'Threshold,' they could have released anything! But seriously, it's like the cast requested the dressing up box be brought out so they could have some fun, there are so many costumes and prosthetics. And it is fun to see them in alternate guise. Usually it's either an artificially created disguise to infiltrate an alien world, or some genetic shenanigans, and in this instance it is the latter. This was one of the few from Season 4 that I always considered as good, but not great, perhaps because it doesn't have any bearing on the series, it's just a one-off, isolated story, which in fairness many of them were (and this does carry forward the growing kinship between Tom and B'Elanna, as well as solidifying Seven's alliance with the crew, since it's up to her to save them). But with all the intriguing integration of Seven in recent episodes, and the question of what the ongoing threats are going to be in this region of space (successor to Kazon, Vidiian and Borg), it feels very much in the vein of a 'TNG' instalment, right down to creepy aliens interfering with the crew, just like 'Schisms,' among others.

Except other episodes did this better. There was a lot of humour in the episode, from Tom and B'Elanna being caught in the unprofessional act of smooching by Tuvok, and their lack of propriety, to Janeway massaged by the Doctor (she shouldn't have given up her Victorian holonovel - then again, last time she was desperate for relaxation the holo-characters attacked her!), to Neelix and Chakotay trading ailments, dissipating much of the tension. It was also the ideal time to bring the Vidiians back as the villain, since the aliens we do encounter, mild, elf-like, Ocampa-ish medical research scientists trying to expand the bounds of medical knowledge, weren't frightening in the least, beyond their ability to move cloaked around the ship without detection, along with advanced technology that could be attached to their victims and also be out of phase (otherwise Janeway would have been banging those probes on the sides of doors or unable to lie down in the massage bed!). But one of the limitations, some might say creative spurs, of the series, was that by the very nature of their journey through space, they were going to leave most races behind, whether they were popular successes or failures (the exception being the Borg with their transwarp conduits allowing them to pop up conveniently whenever the story demanded). So I can see why they didn't bring back the Vidiians in this case, my point is just that that race was far more terrible and having them reach the point where they could sneak up on a ship and integrate into its daily running undetected, would have upped their creepiness to new heights.

If the aliens were a milder form of a previously popular creation of the series, it's also true that there are better versions of the episode - 'Renaissance Man' is the obvious improvement, with the Doctor forced to act without his crew mates' knowledge in order to protect them, a lot more dramatically. There's also 'Clues' on 'TNG' where Data must prevent his friends from learning the truth, and 'The Assignment' on 'DS9' where O'Brien acts alone when his wife is used as leverage by a Pah-Wraith. And there are probably others in the same line. It's always a good watch when it's up to one member of the crew to deal with a ship-wide problem without anyone else's help, and that side of it was really good. It shows how much Seven has become part of the crew that she's now actively saving them from an external threat. You could still imagine her going back to the Borg if she faced the easy opportunity, but she's also bonded with this new group enough that she will act for them after what Janeway and the Doctor have done for her, as well as the emanations of friendship and acceptance she's received from everyone over recent episodes. All except B'Elanna, and even that animosity is overridden in the beautiful opening scene in which Torres flares up at Seven's unauthorised redistribution of power in a Jefferies Tube, then catches herself giving the same lecture Janeway gave to her when she first became part of the crew. Her anger turns to encouragement, soliciting an apology for the inconvenience caused from Seven. As unexpected a moment to begin the episode, as any!

I suppose they were trying to show how much Seven is a part of the crew now, that even an encounter with her least appreciative colleague can become a hopeful exchange of goodwill, so that when it's down to her to save the ship and crew it doesn't seem the least bit strange. Only a few episodes ago Seven would have been certain to have used the situation to her advantage, and either escaped or sent a strong signal to the Borg, but we can see that she's accepted her position and is making the best of it. It doesn't mean B'Elanna will never get upset with her again (she would, many times!), or that she'd always feel comfortable aboard Voyager, but it was a big step in showing her successful integration, so much of which was down to Janeway and her tough love. We see evidence of this tough love for her crew in the reaction the Captain takes when she's pushed to the limit by the aliens' experimentation on her, her dedication to the job a strong theme as she takes reckless action to dislodge the invaders at the end. When one is caught, she smugly and detachedly throws out that they were wondering how much she would be able to take in their personal experimentation on her. Wrong move! We see a rare example of Thug Janeway (another action figure variation), slamming the alien up against the wall, something you'd expect from Worf or Sisko, but not so much from scientist Janeway (and another…). Tom and B'Elanna should have been glad they didn't get the same treatment, instead Janeway giving a traditional dressing down for their adolescent behaviour which the whole ship has noticed!

The whole Tom and B'Elanna thing reminded me of 'Star Trek: Insurrection,' with Riker and Troi rekindling lost love thanks to the intervention of the rejuvenating effect of the Briar Patch, which regressed them to younger days. Torres and Paris use the aliens' presence as an excuse not to feel guilty, though I think they knew very well that it was nothing to do with science that had drawn them together, unless it were chemistry… It's apparently only been a couple of weeks since 'Day of Honour,' as Paris mentions that had been how long since she realised she loved him, so it's been interesting to see such a serialised approach taken, something that was much more common in the first couple of seasons and dropped off a bit in Season 3 once the Kazon and Seska had been fully dealt with, or Tom and Neelix' jealousy over Kes had been sorted out. It's a shame they didn't go further, not to make it a fully serialised series as 'Battlestar Galactica' would be, but taking full advantage of a recurring cast, as 'DS9' did, and reaching their full potential by delving into the community of Voyager (Ensign Wildman warrants a mention, as Tom swapped shifts with her to be with B'Elanna). But as I've noted before, they didn't want to be like 'DS9,' rivalry putting a dampener on what they could have achieved, which is a tragic result, but they were still able to develop many great and satisfying stories.

It wasn't purely story faults not fully engaging the episode, as it does have the occasional technical flaw which wasn't all that common with 90s Trek, so often a smooth, oiled, and sophisticated machine pumping out inspiration juice like there was no tomorrow. The biggest booboo was a boom mike dipping into a shot in the scene where Janeway confronts the alien scientist in the Brig. I also felt the veiny makeup of a dead crewmember on the bridge wasn't assisted by the closeup view chosen, which made some of the seams visible. No doubt when the series gets its High Definition makeover as is surely inevitable, despite current prevarication, such things will be much more noticeable, but usually they're good at hiding inconsistency. It may have been that the prosthetics weren't intended for such intense exposure and it was an on-the-spot decision by the Director. Another area that could have done with improvement was the rattling ride through the binary pulsars which looked a bit flat. The lack of dimension to those white clouds might not have drawn my attention if the rest of the CG work hadn't been so good, with the pulsars themselves a beauty to behold, and some excellent closeup X-ray views as the aliens examine their victims. Seven's green-tinged vision, able to see the spectrum in which the aliens operated, was also a brilliant visualisation, as if she was underwater, and those sequences were the best in the episode, heaving with tension as she walks the decks trying not to look as if she could see them ('Walk closer. But don't look as if you're walking closer. I don't know, walk casual!').

Seven's use as the means for salvation brings all Janeway's work to light, and it was a great turning point in the character's journey. It was also the beginning of a regular role for her which would be continued many times, even in this season where in 'One' Seven would be the only person able to get the crew through a dangerous region. It could be seen as demeaning to her humanity that she was being used like a tool, her audio and ocular implants allowing for special abilities. But like so many amazing characters before her (Spock, Data, Odo, to name a few), I think it enhanced her character, made her even more special. Yes, they could have turned her fully human and played out her development in mental and psychological terms (look how well they were able to do that with Picard in 'Family' and 'Star Trek: First Contact'), but it's worth remembering that this is science fiction, and science inspiration and speculation is as important as character and story. Because you could do much of the human drama of Trek in any format, whether police, western, whatever, but you can't explore superhuman abilities and the use of them in those settings, making Trek a far more compelling potential mix of personal drama and creative exploration than almost anything else, and the reason we're drawn to it.

The success of this episode comes from the considered use of the whole ensemble, everyone getting their moments. I can point to Chakotay, Neelix and Harry as getting shortest shrift, in line with what would become common, but even they get nuggets to play: I love seeing Neelix with his joviality at breakfast, happy in his work and eager to please, which only makes his seizure moments later all the more horrid, shaking on the floor, pupils dilating to unnatural size. We also learn a little more about him, that he's one-eighth Mylean from his great-Grandfather, a race that intermarried with Talaxians - a leopard can't change its spots, but a genetically manipulated Neelix certainly can! We get to see what Chakotay would look like with a Mohican haircut when he starts pulling away his hair - I mentioned the mutant Tom Paris of 'Threshold,' well Chakotay looked very similar, and with the genetic messing about you could believe he was going to go the same way. Indeed, the episode could have pushed things further along the 'Genesis' line with the manipulation growing even more radical. I must say I preferred this episode to the 'TNG' one, but they could have learned a bit about increasing the tension from that story. Instead, Chakotay deals with progeria, though I would have loved more information on what is a real life condition for some people. It encouraged by saying it was a syndrome of the past that had long been cured, but that could have been the episode, Chakotay having to deal with premature old age. Not that they were great at the issue, since that was Kes' whole USP, and look what happened to her…

There is a message, even in such an isolated episode, perhaps easier to include because of its self-contained position: the captured alien reasons out her group's position, saying that they take care of their own, just as Janeway would do in the same situation, but Janeway explodes that it's exploitation. Granted, it's not the deepest exploration of a theme, but Janeway's condemnation of ends justifying means was heartening. And we've seen plenty of instances where she's been forced by the Prime Directive or moral code to put others before the wellbeing of her own crew, because that's what Starfleet officers do, and very inspiring it is (the whole result of saving the Ocampa in 'Caretaker' was what stranded them in the Delta Quadrant, then there were incidents such as the denial of the Sikarians' Spatial Trajector that could have seen them home far sooner), so the alien's assertion that Janeway would do as they did if it came to it, along with the weak justification that they share all medical knowledge learned from their victims and it can cure so many conditions that it's worth the loss of life, sounds hollow and selfish in comparison. It made them seem slightly more benevolent than the Vidiians, since the 'scientists' of that race charged in with absolutely no regard for the victim, intent on their own survival, or those that they cared for, stealing life without remorse as a living (a bit like the Son'a in 'Insurrection'!), at the expense of strangers. Except they're no better because if the victims learn what's happening and retaliate they must comply or be killed.

I appreciated the throwbacks to the series' or the characters' past, with Torres' heartfelt realisation of being in the same position Janeway was in when taking her on, when confronting Seven. And a reminder of the old roguish Tom when he lies to the Doctor to leave his Sickbay shift and beam in with flowers for B'Elanna. The Captain, too, tells Tuvok that she hasn't been so tense since the first day of command (though I'm not sure if she meant command of Voyager, or whether she had a command before this ship, which would seem likely). What was even more poignant was Tuvok being there as he used to be at her moment of need to set her course straight or be the guiding compass she needs. A bit like Spock and McCoy were for Kirk, except they did lose track of that important role to quite a large extent, getting lost in the mix of Seven, the Doctor and Janeway's triumvirate of screen-hogging in future seasons. It's heartening to see it still in operation at this point in the series, and actually Tuvok is well used in the story with a couple of good one-liners (asking Janeway if he should flog the crew as well, was so expertly inserted at just the moment she needed it!), and even gets to say the odds when Janeway asks him what they are for getting through the pulsars without being crushed - I was disappointed it was a whole number, though, and not to a decimal place as the Vulcan custom for precision is usually expressed. Mind you, Tuvok's knocked about with humans for far longer than Spock ever did, so he probably knew she didn't want that level of calculation!

As Security Chief it was also good judgement not to trust Seven when she's following Doctor's orders to reroute power, as interference in ship's systems is exactly the kind of thing she'd done a couple of times in order to escape. I wanted her to request a mind meld so he could see what she saw, but it was probably for the best that they didn't thrown in a meld willy-nilly, and he'd probably have refused anyway, as a likely deception. It wasn't for Tuvok to know that Seven was fully allied to her crew and acting in their best interests (another, superior example comes to mind: 'Relativity'). Although it was cool that the Doctor used her implants to contact her on a private signal the aliens couldn't detect, and that he was able to adjust her ocular implants to unmask the aliens (I loved the manner in which the computer replicated his required tool by dropping it, clunk, in a bucket next to the hidden console in the da Vinci program!), what was most impressive was her ability to improvise when the aliens realise she can see them, phasering one and holding it hostage when it becomes clear the original plan isn't going to work, thanks to Tuvok's intervention. As a Borg, adaptability is second nature, but she'd thrown off their shackles and was forced cold turkey into living as an individual, so it's her own initiative that guides her actions and shows there's hope for the unlocking of her potential.

One way that potential would flow out was through her role in Astrometrics, which is again mentioned (the reason she was rerouting power, to Torres' chagrin), but still remains unseen as yet. We do get to see the Science Lab, which is a rarity - was it a redress of Sickbay? It had the same curved back wall, but that could have simply been continuing the style of the ship. One interesting piece of information we find out is exactly how many rooms Voyager actually has, when the Doctor advises her she's only got two hundred and fifty-six more to search after scanning the Holodeck! And we see her in the third outfit after the famous silver suit, and the muddy brown one, this time in a dark gold, surprising for its novelty - I didn't remember she ever had a gold one, so perhaps this was the only episode it was trialled in and they decided it didn't 'suit'? I wonder what the in-universe justification for different colours was, because I can't imagine Seven ever getting up (i.e., stepping down from her regeneration alcove), and trying to decide which outfit matched her mood today. After all, choice is irrelevant, isn't it?

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