DVD, Voyager S6 (Pathfinder)
'These Are The Voyages...' was the episode that sprang to mind while watching this. For some reason that appears to be an unloved gem while I get the impression 'Pathfinder' is much more warmly received. I love them both. I don't think it was Deanna Troi's participation so much as it was a flashback combined with a holographic setting that sent my mind towards the finale of 'Enterprise' (sadly there's no Riker, but he had at least appeared in the series already, back in Season 2's 'Death Wish' - Riker should appear in every Trek series!). That wasn't the only connection I made, of course: we've got a post-'Insurrection,' pre-
'Nemesis' Troi for one thing, and it's lovely to drop in on her, or I should say, see her drop-in on Reg Barclay, who himself had last appeared in 'First Contact' for an enjoyable little cameo - interestingly he was in 21st Century getup in that scene, being part of the team sent down to Earth at that time, so this is the first time he ever wore the (greatest of all time), purple or grey (depending on your point of view), ribbed shoulders of late-24th Century Starfleet (or one of them, as we see it changed several times after, but then when did it ever stay the same for long, other than on Voyager...). For me it was a statement of my favourite Trek's continuation, since 'DS9' had taken those uniforms and made them their own, much more than the sporadic appearance of the 'TNG' crew every few years ever could - the station gets a much appreciated mention as sending an 'interstellar phenomena forecast' which influences Barclay, so are we to assume it became a space weather station after the Dominion War?
I recently read in an old edition of Star Trek Monthly from September 1999 (I'm going through all the old issues), that Barry Jenner said he'd been asked to reprise the role of Admiral Ross in an episode of the sixth season of 'Voyager' and I naturally wondered if this could have been the one? We are a good few episodes into the season at this point, so it's possible it was a story that never got off the ground (maybe tied to Ron Moore's short-lived posting to the writer's room), or Jenner wasn't available by the time they got around to offering him a specific episode, or it could be that they had the scenario in mind that they were going to be getting into regular contact with little Voyager lost, but then realised if they were going to have an Admiral they needed it to be Owen Paris, Tom's Dad, since that would carry far more weight for this series and characters. It's a shame in one way that they couldn't get the original actor, Warren Munson, back, since he'd portrayed the character not only way back in a vision of Tom's from Season 2's 'Persistence of Vision,' but even reprised the role as late as Season 5's 'Thirty Days.' I'd love to know the reasoning behind not keeping to the continuity by recasting the role, but that's not to say Richard Herd didn't do a fine job - like Munson he too had been on 'TNG' previously, though he had the extra Trek cred from being William Shatner's boss in 'TJ Hooker,' too! It's just I was never sure he was right for the role, remembering him being quite jolly and upbeat, quite different from the impression Tom gave of his Father, or the Munson version, but at least in this initial appearance of his four, Herd is as stern and stone-faced as you'd expect.
It's not just characters from the past reappearing, or a sense of the wider Trek universe continuing back home in spite of Voyager's (and our), absence from it, 'DS9' still there, the Enterprise under Picard still off on missions (how sad we got see so few of them), indeed, in orbit of Earth during this episode, and the Captain's mentioned by Deanna, as is Geordi who would have liked to visit Barclay (but again, he'd already made a kind of visit to the series when a future timeline version of him as Captain of the USS Challenger was involved in last season's 'Timeless'), even Data and his cat Spot score references! It wasn't in the same overwhelming avalanche as some of our current Treks have tended to throw in ('Lower Decks' being egregious in this respect early on - I hear they've recently visited 'Voyager' itself, too, as they did with 'DS9,' so only the Enterprises -E and NX-01 to go then, yes?), but it was wonderful to hear of familiar friends again, especially at this time of Trek's life when the series had become the only new Trek in production. And the joy wasn't restricted to other series', as Voyager's own past is enjoyably implemented in the way that the vast majority of the story takes place on Reg's holographic recreation of the ship, and of course the images and characterisations come from when the ship had launched because, although Voyager had managed to make contact back in Season 4, sending physical profiles in order for Starfleet to create a more accurate simulation of them was not going to be high on the priority list!
It's amazing how much younger the cast looked in this episode, I couldn't work out if they'd gone to the trouble of exercising and carrying themselves in the way they did in Season 1, or if it was simply the old hairstyles that did it, but whatever they did it felt like genuinely stepping back to the beginnings of the series (not for the first, or last time, see 'Relativity' as an example) - even B'Elanna and Chakotay wear the old Maquis outfits they started out in, which was so much fun, and their hair is especially noticeable because it's changed so much since then. Neelix and Seven do not appear simply because there would be no physical records of them, even though Starfleet knew of their existence (Reg even naming his cat after the Talaxian cook), so not having Seven was another way in which the series had reverted back, though they could have done with Kes - even then she wouldn't show up for the same reason Neelix didn't, so it's hard to find fault! About the only questionable note in the whole thing is that the Doctor makes no mention of having met Barclay. The crew toast this guy they don't know, responsible for giving them a morale boost, but the Doc had already met a holographic recreation of him back in Season 2's 'Projections.' I can't remember how much he would have remembered of that time, and he's since had revisions to his program, maybe been restarted from scratch due to events like 'Latent Image' and 'The Swarm.' I can't recall the lore to be able to say definitively he should remember Barclay, but it would have been nice if they could have acknowledged Dwight Schultz's first appearance somehow.
Trek history in general isn't the only thing nicely picked up on in what is a kind of celebration of its past and present. Barclay's own personal history, introduced as someone who had a serious case of holo-addiction back in 'TNG' ('Hollow Pursuits'), returns to haunt him as people around him, even Deanna, believe he's had a relapse, and it does appear that way: once again he's living his life more fully in the Holodeck than in reality, failing to connect with real people and wishing he could spend all his time with his artificial friends: he's become obsessed by Voyager, something plenty of Trekkers can probably identify with, that desire to live in Trek and through it, seeing the characters as your friends more than real flesh and blood people, so they were talking to the very ones who loved this series in much the same way one of the themes of 'Generations' had been fantasy being an ultimately empty experience compared with reality. Whether viewers would take on board or even see themselves reflected in Barclay is another question, but it made for someone you can at least sympathise with. Saying that, I must admit Barclay did irritate a bit this time round. I don't know if my tolerance level has been eroded thanks to some of the terrible characters of modern Trek (I think in this case mainly of Sylvia Tilly, I can see a lot of Reg in her, but also the irritations and disgust with Georgiou, Burnham, Jurati, Raffi... the list could go on!), but that may explain why I didn't feel so generous towards Barclay's stuttering, whining speech and I don't know if it was more over the top than it had been in other performances to justify Commander Pete Harkins' belief he's regressed.
Not to say I didn't love his arc and it was joyous to see one of these classic characters interacting with my Voyager crew, even a version of them from several years before, and it's only a regret that Troi didn't also have scenes with them. I will say that I loved the beautiful setting for the story, somehow evoking Kirk's apartment in 'Star Trek III' when he has friends to visit. It was that same kind of wall-sized window looking out on the world, and in this case we get a sense of time passing as Barclay tells his story to Deanna in broad daylight, then sunset, finally night falling with all the skyscrapers beyond lit up making it a very cosy episode to watch, complete with that futuristic 'fire,' a sort of glowing bend of glass or metal. I thought I'd spotted one little moment when a hover-car flew past in the distance, but on checking I find that it was as Barclay stood by his window a piece of Neelix' cat fur wafts away from his hand and that's what caught my attention! It was wise of Trek to largely avoid such things (unlike now, when they do that sort of thing all the time - it's too much tying down what the future is, like when they had 'DSC' characters brushing their teeth, for example), about the only example I can think of from the original era (1966-2005), was a scene in 'All Good Things...' where an establishing shot of Data's university has some vehicles flying around, though that may not be the only time. They do make some efforts to show technology moving forward in small ways, such as the transparent version of the PADDs we're used to and mentioning an attempt to build a transwarp probe as one effort to get in contact with Voyager.
Did they know they'd be bringing Reg back on more occasions? I wonder because it does seem as if his story effectively gets some kind of closure: he's vindicated in his dogged pursuit of the plan to contact Voyager for one thing, he hasn't relapsed into his old ways, but also there's hope for his future as Pete wants him to meet his sister-in-law leaving us with the impression Barclay's coming out of his shell again, finding a new place after the sadness of leaving the Enterprise. I don't think it was made clear why he left the ship. It would have made more sense if he hadn't shown up in 'First Contact' as there was already a sadness about losing the family base of 'TNG' as seen in Worf's uncertainty when he speaks of the time post-'Generations,' but Reg clearly had been one of the many to transfer to the next ship to bear the name, Enterprise. There's still some kind of sadness as although we'd seen the 'E' in 'Insurrection' it was uncertain when the next film would be, and with 'DS9' ending there was no longer even a regular member of the film crew showing up any more. All of which made it more special when Deanna arrives for her chat with Reg. I think that's the main reason it reminded me of 'These Are The Voyages...' Not so much the content, but the form: two characters from another series using the current series to explore a problem. And using a holographic version of the crew of that ship, of course! Maybe if 'Voyages...' hadn't been the final ever episode of its series people might have been more accepting towards it, though I loved it from the first time I saw it.
There's so much to love about this episode, too, whether it be the format of starting the episode far from Voyager and not even seeing the real live version until near the end in almost the same way as in 'Course: Oblivion' though this has a much happier ending, and just as poignant. In fact I'd say the moment they make contact, despite having already done so on the series, was the more personal and meaningful. It was the promise of closer contact in future and a voice from home. Somehow seeing the story of how Project Pathfinder (or is it Project Voyager now, as that's how Admiral Paris refers to it?), was a success from the point of view of those involved, Barclay in particular, while keeping our characters off screen most of the time only made it a relief, and it's the magnitude of the achievement that is a turning point for the series. It was preparing us for much closer contact in future that should have eventually turned into Voyager being ordered on missions, perhaps even with some conflict as they were ordered to do things remotely that the crew might not like, but though by the end of the series they did do one or two actual missions, it was too little and too late, this didn't develop into what it should have, one of the series' failings. Still, at this stage the possibilities for both the ship and other stories that could be told with characters from the Alpha Quadrant were exciting, and while I could always have done with more, they did fulfil some of that promise.
One thing that really stood out to me was Admiral Paris' professionalism when he states he won't let his personal feelings for his son interfere with Starfleet procedure when there's some conflict over Reg being removed from the project and he visits him at his office (was that Starfleet Command or Starfleet Academy, I wasn't clear?). You can't help but compare such an attitude to current Treks (especially 'DSC' where I've recently been watching Season 4 and Captain Burnham has her boyfriend hanging around on the ship to argue with her!), and the greater emphasis on doing what feels right rather than what is right, ignoring procedure or altering it to fit such attitudes and it reminded me of one more thing that set old Trek apart. I did question Barclay's maths when he says Voyager is sixty-thousand lightyears away, but he was in a high dudgeon and may not have remembered how much had been cut off the ship's journey. But then if that was the case how could he narrow it down to three sectors that it should be in? Especially as they only recently made a big jump with the catapult so that should put all calculations out of whack. It's true I don't know exactly how many lightyears had been shaved off the journey over the course of the series, but I was sure it would be more than ten thousand lightyears (it was twenty-thousand in 'Dark Frontier' alone!).
Richard McGonagle (Pete), had been Ja'Dar in 'New Ground' on 'TNG' and would return to play Pete again in Season 7's 'Inside Man.' And Victor Bevine, one of the Security Guards, had minor roles with each of the then-modern crews. One other point is worthy of note: that this was the last ever episode to have its first transmission in the Nineties. Why should that matter? Well, for me and probably for many, that decade marked the Golden Age of Trek. It's not that there were never great episode before or after, but it was a time of great creative blossoming, a time when Trek's reach grew and grew, when they went from strength to strength, and when they reached a pinnacle of writing quality whose consistency has never been matched. Whether you think the highlight was 1994 when 'TNG' ended, 'DS9' continued, 'Voyager' was being filmed, and 'Generations,' featuring both 'TOS' and 'TNG' characters, came to cinemas, or 1996 when the 30th Anniversary hit home with 'First Contact' and the one-two punch of 'DS9' and 'Voyager' both well into, or coming into, their own, this was the time when Trek fired on all cylinders for the longest period and I'm glad that 'mini' era was closed out with such a worthy example of quality Trek as it did with this episode.
****
Friday, 13 October 2023
Pathfinder
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