Year of Hell

DVD, Voyager S4 (Year of Hell)

We finally reach the epic scope of The Year of Hell, a concept that had originally been introduced in the Kes episode 'Before and After,' during the previous season, though back then it was little more than a hint of potential trouble ahead. The writers were perfectly within their rights (not to mention their MO), to ignore the possibility of such a concept playing out within the series - an alternate timeline, a road not taken, whatever excuse they needed. But in fact, the plan was one hundred and eighty degrees the other way: I believe it may have been a concept on the table to do a season-long serial, delving into the USS Voyager's troubled mission to get home in a way never before seen on Trek. In truth, I'm glad they didn't go that far as I've never been as comfortable with complete serialisation as I have with continuing arcs and multi-episode stories (as seen best on 'DS9,' but also effective in Season 4 of 'Enterprise'), the Season 3 Xindi arc of 'Enterprise' proving patchy, and far from the grand turnaround that some claim it to be (though almost any change would have been preferable to Season 2, but that's another story), and a mixed bag for the final half-season of 'DS9,' with some terrific episodes, but also some looser, less satisfying ones, constrained a little by the need to traverse all the points to get from one episode to the next. I can imagine 'Voyager' Season 4 being much more like the reimagined 'Battlestar Galactica,' a series I've enjoyed, but is nowhere close to my taste in Trek.

There are certainly hints of the starker, harsher reality of 'BSG' in this episode, with moments like the Doctor having to close the escape hatch on a couple of crewmembers trapped in the deck that's about to explode. Or Chakotay's birthday gift, replicated with hard saved rations over a long period, rebuffed because it will be better used as a reconstituted meal or a pair of boots. Uncompromising, bleak, but with a humanity to the characters, not to mention the visible damage to the ship's insides, the bridge a mess of dropped girders, blackened debris, dirt and dust all around - not the usual exploding consoles and pipes belching smoke out onto the carpeting. That's because we're literally seeing the effects of weeks, stretching to months, of a continual cycle of battle damage as the Voyager comes up against the impossible-to-defend-against temporal torpedoes from the superior force of the Krenim Imperium. There's no reset button allowing a week or two to pass until we see the ship again, so we experience the degradation of the vessel, no time for permanent repairs or succour. I must admit, I didn't quite get the impression of how vast Krenim space must be (in this time stream), and there's a surprising lack of exterior shots of the ship, which took away some of the excitement. You want to see them warping away from attacking vessels, or performing evasive manoeuvres, but for such a large scale, battle-focused plot, it stays a lot within the confines of Voyager. Perhaps that was to increase the tension, perhaps it was because showing much damage to the ship's hull would be too expensive back then, but either way it does the episode some disservice.

Despite this, there's plenty to carry the episode along, with so many good character moments, from the aforementioned reminder it's Janeway's birthday (20th May), from her First Officer, to the Doctor's speech summing up the crew as family, and what an achievement they've made to get so far, to the trivia challenge between Harry and B'Elanna (intriguing to think that old films have been adapted for a Holodeck, although she could have been referring to seeing 'To Catch A Thief' in that environment rather than it being turned into a three-dimensional experience you could join in). Leaving aside its reputation as an action story, this two-parter (certainly Part I, anyway), is very much character based. And that bodes well for the sixth TV series fast approaching us, for the simple fact that Joe Menosky, co-writer with Brannon Braga, has been named as a writer on the series, which adds a frisson of interest to any episode he'd written in Trek's illustrious past. I'm not going to divert into the topic of the new series here, I don't want to take it away from 'Voyager,' but the fact that Menosky wrote scaled up 'Star Trek,' with big ideas, yet didn't forget the importance of staying focused strongly on the characters, should tell us to look forward to Series 6, or 'Star Trek 2017,' or 'Star Trek All Access' (or whatever temporary monicker you think best), because he knows his stuff. I'm sure Braga has a lot of credit in this one, too, and I can imagine he'll eventually be back on that series to write more Trek, assuming it lasts more than a season - it's only a matter of time…

The inauguration of Astrometrics is heralded with a little gathering within it - it shows how keen they were on Seven, because they pretty much built this set just for her, and it would become the equivalent of her office (complete with, typically Borg, standing room only, no chairs!). In case she needed to get even more into the crew's good books, Seven also manages to knock five whole years off the journey home, thanks to careful planning and route-mapping of the improved technology. I did like the effects of space that we see beginning the episode, post credits, with a true sense of three-dimensionality that we rarely saw (I think of the Stellar Cartography in 'Star Trek: Generations'), and it's a really warm scene all round. Some of the effects in the episode work better than others, with the Krenim weapon ship, that can change the course of time, a forbidding, yet gorgeous design whose size and shape is as impressive as its capability. Even for effects work now, the work they did on that still looks great today. It's not just the outside that impress, internally it's just as fascinating, with the many wall screens displaying complex ribbons of multiple timelines (I assume), for every major action or race in the area - somehow these Krenim boys know how to read it all, too! The temporal shockwave Annorax and crew use to alter the timeline was another matter, appearing flat and lightweight in comparison to the other effects - I suppose particle effects just weren't up to scratch back then, which is a shame as the effect is a key element of the story.

There are other issues, too: when Voyager blows out torpedoes like mines at the Krenim, they look outsized in comparison to the ship (a bit like when the Enterprise-JJ drops its warp cores to escape the black hole in 'Star Trek XI'). Or the question of why the Krenim seem so weak compared with the Federation vessel, or at another point, they mention they're a pre-warp civilisation, so how can Voyager be facing a Krenim ship then? The last two can be easily explained away as part of the plot, because Annorax is changing the balance of power in the region with his time-meddling, so a change here makes the Krenim a huge imperialist power, whereas a tweak there alters their history to make them weak. What can't so easily be rationalised is why Tuvok's inner eyelids didn't save him from blindness in the explosion in the Jefferies Tube. It's always Tuvok that seems to get the bad rap - forget O'Brien and the annual quest to torture him, and ignore Harry Kim, with his penchant for dying or falling in love with the most inappropriate of persons: Tuvok is the real whipping boy of Trek. Didn't Kes almost cook him once, and doesn't he end up going mad in the finale? And so many other stresses and strains were thrown at him over the years, if he weren't a typical stoic Vulcan he might not have survived it all! At least Seven feels responsible enough for the accident to care for him, but he's shown not to be a victim, he still operates his station and is fully involved ('activate tactile interface' was a really cool moment!). He's not one for electric shavers, either (or sonic shavers as they probably would be then), as we see him use a cutthroat blade which looked more akin to Klingon aesthetics than Vulcan.

If only Quark had been in the Jefferies Tube, he could have defused the torpedo, just like he did in 'Starship Down,' which, incidentally, put him with costar James Cromwell, who went on to play Zefram Cochrane in 'Star Trek: First Contact,' who was mentioned in Harry's trivia game in a wonderful piece of referencing to satisfy regular viewers of all things Trek (another reason to be hopeful about Menosky's contribution to the new series). Even better, we get a little insider knowledge from Seven, who rescues him and B'Elanna from the Turbolift they're stuck in, answering the question of what the name of his ship was, easily (the Phoenix), because the Borg were there, but it was a long story. A gleeful use of the tools at their disposal from the writers, and great fun for the audience in the know! Tuvok's troubles don't end with his blindness, however, I can imagine they just begin, since (just as we saw in 'Before and After'), Neelix is now part of Security, gold uniform and all (a sight so bizarre, apparently, that Playmates decided to make an action figure out of it!). It's good continuity to see something minor like that, but so different from the norm as to take us back to the Year of Hell we witnessed in the earlier episode (and yet another reason to be hopeful about the new series!). But then, it makes sense that the characters would have to change and adapt to their new circumstances.

Chakotay has tended to be the one who's most adaptable, quite happy to posit the question of settling down on that planet back in 'The 37's,' his whole life has been about adapting to the vagaries of change, whether that was Starfleet, so different from his heritage, to joining the Maquis in their fight against Cardassian oppression, to accepting Janeway's authority above his own. So it's perfectly within character for him to suggest an alternative to continuing the fight against the Krenim, to split up the crew in escape pods so there's a greater chance of survival. It's what any good First Officer is supposed to do, provide his Captain with options. Unsurprisingly, Janeway turns him down - for a start she doesn't like being threatened (perhaps a weakness, as once her hackles rise, her judgement can be impaired sometimes, and she'll go all out to fight back when sometimes prudence dictates a more peaceful option, something Picard was best at), and she's not the one to abandon ship, nor does she feel it would be safer to split up, but to stick together through thick and thin. In Chakotay's favour, he wasn't wholeheartedly comfortable with the idea himself, and it only further strengthens the bond between Captain and First Officer at a crucial time. Ironically, once he's gone, captured by the Krenim, is when Janeway chooses to implement the suggestion, an emotionally taut sendoff for the crew with a reassuring speech, while bolstering her shaken crew, (a beautiful moment when she squeezes B'Elanna as she talks about going back to rescue Paris and Chakotay), then a lump in the throat, terrifically sad final shot of the escape pods blasting off into lonely space, just like in 'First Contact.'

Ironically, not that much really happens in this first part. Voyager just happens to stumble into an area of space where Annorax' mission to restore his race's might and dominance, is altering space-time. It's probably changing the timeline in the whole Galaxy, except that there weren't likely to be big changes beyond the region, however large, Krenim space had covered. Fascinatingly, their mission had been ongoing for at least two centuries, so that's some long-lasting technology there. Or it would be, except that I get the impression the crew and its equipment never ages, protected as they are from the ravages of time. No doubt their loyalty to Annorax and their own pride in their civilisation is what kept them at it for so long, but we start to see the slight cracks in resolve, represented by Obrist, who sees 98% restoration, which is what they achieve, as an accomplishment of their goal, only for his superior to contradict his own words of moments ago, that their goal will never be finished until they reach 100%, an impossible task. Effectively, they're trapped within an unending task, like some kind of medieval vision of Hell.

The real reason Annorax won't settle for less than 100% restoration is hinted at, but not specifically stated, as we see him holding a transparent container in which a lock of hair is displayed, and his question about whether a particular colony has been restored or not. Like Soran and Nero, and so many other villains, his motivation will turn out to be a dead wife - maybe all these villains should get together (The Dead Wives Club), and threaten the Galaxy with their plots and plans, because it has become something of a major cliche. Back then it was still a new thing to me, which is why Part II ends with such resonance, but I'm getting ahead of myself. Annorax is an intriguing villain, not mad or shouty, he has the weight of all time upon him, as shown in his conversation with Janeway where he doesn't threaten or get excitable, he just tells it as he sees it. He's a man that demands precision, whether from his ship or his crew, words as well as deeds, simultaneously the best and worst man to be charged with the restoration of his race, because he'll never settle for 'nearly,' right down to "every blade of grass." It's a chilling thought that he and his crew could be stuck in their timeless bubble for eternity, never quite reaching the exacting, perfect standards demanded by their leader. The weapon itself is worse than the Genesis Device - with that you could only transform one planet at a time, but with this you can erase entire races with one foul blast of a temporal wave, a genocidal weapon beyond comprehension. I've known people I wouldn't mind having erased from time as if they never existed, but not an entire race!

The episode is quite different from your standard Trek episode, and that's good, you want something a little different sometimes, and this delivers, from the long time period of months (something rarely seen - I think of 'The Visitor' which occurs over Jake Sisko's entire life, another episode which dealt with time travel from a new perspective), with the day number appearing on screen to denote the passage of time, to the concept of time as a weapon, to seeing character-changing moments such as Tuvok learning to deal with blindness, or Paris' medical training in triage as the Doctor lets out his frustration at having had to lose two crewmembers to save the ship (though he doesn't agonise over it like he would in 'Latent Image,' perhaps because that was more personal and precise, where this was a necessary tactical decision in the heat of battle, in order to save the ship), by having a go at Tom for concentrating on the injured, but not dying, Torres, when he should be treating the worst affected, impressing the need for professional detachment. The splintered timeline isn't untidy like 'Shattered,' but then we have Annorax' precision for that, he's not a man to do anything messily. Kurtwood Smith gives us a sympathetic opponent we can understand, and was a Trek veteran, having appeared as Federation President in 'Star Trek VI,' and a Cardassian in 'DS9.' His fellow Krenim, the unnamed Commandant, was played by Peter Slutsker who strangely had made a name for himself as Ferengi, having played three on 'TNG.' Even the minor role of a Zahl official was played by Rick Fitts who'd been on 'TNG,' so it was quite full of both in-universe and production continuity, fitting for a story about the restoration of such.

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