Thursday, 29 February 2024

The Hunt

 DVD, Stargate Universe S2 (The Hunt)

Not quite up to the recent standard, going a little soapy (a little more than usual, I mean). It's good to have some time on a planet, but it does make it more like a conventional, relatively unambitious story, the kind of filler they could do on a semi-regular basis in 'SG-1' and even 'Atlantis.' Nothing wrong with it as such, just that it doesn't have the fascinating sci-fi angle that makes an episode stand out, and I'm not sure about some of the choices. Making Greer into someone that's lost his nerve and now second-guesses himself, while a dramatic development, isn't the kind of thing that appealed, nor is Volker's teddy bear pining over the injured Dr. Parke. The only storyline with real potential was the one where Rush plays a prank on Eli and Brody. It's a little manipulative and creepy that he would go to these lengths, but that's how Rush works, in more ways than one: he insensitively puts Volker off from his dreams, while teaching any dissent a lesson. Eli finds the stasis pod room that will become integral to the end of the season (and series, sob!), and Rush suggests they leave until they can check up on it in the database, no doubt having heard Eli complaining about taking orders from him. He must have already discovered it or know about it from the Bridge interface, but it must have been him that activated the pod when Brody's in it (I ask you, why would you stand inside one!), to put some heat under Eli and prove that once again he's right and they should just follow his lead.

I liked the technology and wished the plot had been extended so Eli roped in various others, not just Chloe, in an effort to free Brody without informing Rush, but it was just some light comic relief to jump to between the other stories. The main one is tracking down the lair of a sabre-toothed bear-wolf creature on this forest planet that has conveniently captured TJ and another guy alive to feed on later. It's a bit ho-hum, and including CGI creatures isn't a great idea at the best of times, even in big budget films it never looks right, and that was the case here with the bear-wolf and the deer, but they were going to do it because they could. They do try to mitigate the effects by showing as much as possible from the perspective of the animal and having it move really fast, but even so you can't disguise unreality. What was most unreal was that it turns out to have cutesy eyes like Gollum when Greer faces it down in its lair and he and TJ theorise it's actually intelligent because it looks at their fire! I understand they were trying to pay off that he was getting over his fear in doing that, but it seemed entirely unreasonable that these creatures were intelligent enough to understand they had to let their prey go - I mean they'd already killed several people (apparently all that were left of the Lucian Alliance prisoners other than Varo!), and violently taken these other two for later, so they were predators, why would they just calmly let the prey walk away! Ludicrous. At least Greer didn't become a vegetarian out of the experience as we see the crew enjoying a long-awaited barbecue at the end!

The way Varo and the others were crashing about in the forest, having a conversation at normal speaking levels, even walking upright with little attempt at concealment or using torches at night, suggests their hunter credentials may not be quite as impressive as they like to make out, so that took a lot of the reality out of the situation: they should have been barely speaking at all, crouching double and creeping along as silently as they could, but then they couldn't so easily have the conversations about Greer being a liability and needing to use his fear, not be fearless. I like Varo, and it's good that because of his actions in this episode he's no longer considered a threat. But wasn't he already pardoned and one of the crew? And when Young gave him a small hand gun when he allows him to take over the mission I couldn't help thinking a bigger weapon would have been a better and fairer option. I was also forced to wonder where they get all their bullets from because they must have a finite source and have used a fair few since they got to Destiny? I suppose we're not supposed to think about things like that in the same way on 'Voyager' they could always get new shuttles, etc. The difference there was they did at least have Replicator technology and could manufacture parts if they found enough energy.

Wasn't so keen on the tension at the end when Young finds Varo and TJ together, we really don't need more of that kind of thing that was going on earlier in the series between him and Telford, but it's not like we need to worry about it as there's only a handful of episodes left. That's my biggest complaint about this episode: it was too much of a time-waster, not really adding much to the series when there's so little time to play with. Why did it have to be TJ with a nondescript guest soldier, why couldn't it have been someone we knew? Though I did like her rousing 'speech' about him having two choices, either he fights and holds his head high when they get back to the ship, or she saves him and he'll feel ashamed of himself. Good one! Otherwise I would much rather be doing stories where they explore the ship and uncover more about it which is what the Eli/Brody part could have been if it didn't degenerate into a comedy tinged with the sinister edge of Rush's manipulation of people to his will. He seems remarkably calm having just lost his great love Amanda Perry - so I suppose she was right and he didn't really care that much after all? And the philosophising about death between Greer and James was interesting and different, but maybe didn't suit their gung-ho characters much.

**

Good Shepherd (2)

 DVD, Voyager S6 (Good Shepherd) (2)

Captain Janeway cares. For all her flaws and inconsistencies in the role of Captain she does have that maternal instinct, or perhaps parental instinct, to include the other Captains, too, which understands people are different. Starfleet is a military organisation and so it needs its people to conform to its standards, wear the uniform and act within the constraints of the service, not be loose cannons, loners or so individualistic they can't work in a team. I don't like to be bringing it up so early, but this is the kind of thing modern Trek, following modern societal trends to 'be yourself,' finds it hard to accept and act within, and this episode is a terrific example of how individuals work within a team, and how a great leader can bring people out of themselves so they can contribute in meaningful ways as well as develop themselves. It's a guide to management that would be recommended viewing for anyone who has to deal with subordinates in any station in life. It's far from being the first such story in Trek - I can't recall anything specific from 'TOS,' though Kirk demonstrated these qualities, in 'TNG' the episode 'Lower Decks' is an easy comparison, and we've seen similar scenes if not whole episodes in all the Treks (the old ones), even down to the recent Season 4 'DSC' episode where Tilly has to survive with some cadets on a similar Away Mission shuttle scenario. All the Captains of old have been given this chance (as have others, too - I immediately think of Tuvok training the similarly out of kilter Maquis crewmen of 'Learning Curve'), and Janeway is very much suited to the task having already cracked the hardest nut of her career with her resident Borg drone. After Seven, anyone should be easy!

Talking of Seven, she's the impetus behind this story as she's somehow been allowed to front an efficiency drive with reviews for the whole ship. As the episode progressed it struck me I'm not sure what her position on the ship is. She hasn't gone through Starfleet Academy, even many of the Maquis had done that, she hasn't taken any training courses I'm aware of, and while she's made great strides in her ability to work with, and as part of the crew, it doesn't seem right she should have any role in supervising others, especially those who are actual Starfleet officers (which is almost everyone!). Let her teach the Borg children and Naomi, let her use her expertise in Astrometrics and any other area in which she can be useful, but she's still on the road to learning how to be human, let alone manage people! It stood out when Tal says Seven doesn't let her do anything important in Astrometrics - that sounds as if Seven acts as her superior, unless she's simply taken over the department because of her prowess. Starfleet isn't a meritocracy, you don't get to do what you're best at without jumping through any hoops. I know they're in a unique situation and Janeway has to call on whatever resources she has at her disposal, but just as Maquis were sometimes given roles over their Starfleet counterparts I can see this being contentious. The Maquis case was different, Janeway had to bind the two crews into one, and that meant showing some respect for the outsiders. I also see the need for Seven to have more latitude to allow room for growth, and it does suggest the beginnings of her later Captaincy in 'Picard,' but I never had her down as command material, she's too much of an individual, ironically, considering her Borg 'upbringing,' and she's actually more like Mortimer Harren in that she's most fulfilled when she's getting on with her own stuff alone (I can identify!).

Talking of Harren, he now reminds me of a less genius-level, younger version of Dr. McKay from 'Stargate' in that he enjoys the theory, and isn't so keen on the practical, being indoors at a screen is more favourable than out on some alien planet (or even Earth!). I like the setup that there could be this guy right down in the bowels of the ship, in the Plasma Relay Room I don't remember ever hearing of before, but at the same time it is hard to believe they really need someone down there (several from what we saw - including a cameo from a famous musician, admittedly one whom I'd never heard of and only learned of in retrospect: Tom Morello is Crewman Mitchell, the bald guy who directs Janeway to the right room, named in the end credits as Junction Operator - they liked having little cameos from famous people now and again, The Rock being another one this season). Wouldn't it be just as easy for the computer to operate whatever goes on down there, would they really need to send a crewman down with a PADD to relay instructions as if it's a submarine? In a crisis I could imagine it happening, as we saw in an episode of 'DS9' when comms and other systems go down and they use Nog to send messages back and forth aboard the Defiant, something that worked very well, but not necessarily smoothly enough to be useful on a regular basis. I understand that it was a narrative conceit to show the distance this guy is from others physically as well as emotionally and mentally so it's not that I disliked it, but I can't see it happening in a crisis!

Talking of crisis, William Telfer is a walking medical alert, a hypochondriac in the Barclay vein, who's not only afraid of medication, but even counselling (maybe he met Deanna Troi once?). You'd think someone like Barclay would be one in a million considering how many advancements in medicine for both the body and mind must have been made (a head cold is mentioned, but I thought the common cold had been cured by the 24th Century?), and as we've seen in so many examples. And yet there do still seem to be some people that have problems which can't easily be solved even in this 'perfect' human world Gene Roddenberry was intent on showing us. Of course that perfection is long behind us, they didn't even really keep that going through the whole of 'TNG' realising human nature doesn't change. People can be heroes, but they can also still be weak or fail to excel. I think also there's a wish to see themselves from so many audiences, especially now when so many are confused about their identity and rather than see something to aspire to be or be inspired by, as in most Trek characters, they prefer to see flawed people who are more like them, trying to fit themselves into the place of hero rather than understanding the need to overcome personal deficiency. At this stage of Trek of course they still lived by the inspiration of the franchise which is why these old episodes will never cease to attract and deliver what Trek most needs to give: not action adventure, romance or any genre specifics, but good stories that inspire about overcoming the odds.

Talking about overcoming, let's talk about Tal. She's the Bajoran who feels she was only selected for Starfleet on sympathy grounds. I love that they work in some Trek backstory, referring to her race's position in the galaxy. All three of these lost sheep have something in common: they all see themselves as victims, and watching this now it stood out even more thanks to the society we live in today where we have a powerful victim culture where it's okay to lean on what's happened to you, how you've been treated, what your expectations are, a crutch to beat people with and claw back what should be coming to you. As ever, it's not that there are no victims, it's just the wrong attitude to start with and nothing says that better than Janeway in this episode: Telfer considers himself a victim of maladies, Harren a victim of circumstance, and Tal a victim of her own failures, none of them wanting or believing they have a place on Voyager and merely trying to escape as much as possible. When Harren claims his victimhood for being lost in the Delta Quadrant when he had other plans, Janeway sees it entirely differently: their situation has been an opportunity, and one she's relished. It could be considered about the worst thing to happen to a starship, lost, far away from all the people, races and planets they ever knew, but for Janeway it's been exactly what Trek should be: a chance to seek and explore in a way that's never been done before. To go where no woman has gone before!

Talking of which, she goes to a new place here when she takes on the mantle of another great leader: Jesus himself! The title is a reference to a Biblical parable and though the connection isn't made (oh no, we can't remind viewers of the strong influence of the Bible on our Western culture, no, no, no!), the story is told in brief by Janeway about the good shepherd being the one to go after even the one sheep that strays from the flock. Naturally I'd have preferred a stronger emphasis on that theme throughout, but I loved that it's there at all - I can't imagine modern Trek writers including something like that since we've retreated so far from Christian influence in the culture today, if today's writers ever even knew the story in the first place! That's not the only 'religious' reference either, as the Doctor, perhaps continuing his Fair Haven role (which for all we know he continues to perform on a regular basis), as the Father of the Irish holoprogram's church, when he mentions the saying, 'the Devil makes work for idle hands,' in response to Seven's bringing up certain crewmembers not having enough work to do. He says it in a humorous way, but it's no less true. The humour in the episode was very well judged, my favourite being B'Elanna setting up Tom to get burned by the spiky Harren when he expresses sympathy for him (real humour, not crass or rude or gory, just a funny situation, 'Lower Decks' take note!), in opposition to her own expressed management style: "It's not my job to make everyone who works for me happy." Yes, that about sums up her style...

And talking of style, it does make for fascinating viewing to compare the various characters' ways of managing. Torres is there to ensure things run smoothly, not bring out the best in everyone by making it a party. Janeway however, has to see the whole picture, not just Engineering's needs. I think B'Elanna is right, it's not about pleasing everyone, you can't do that, but perhaps there is some room for acknowledgement that her own attitude can be less helpful and she could spend more time encouraging and working out ways to include everyone no matter what. The real thrill of the episode is seeing how Janeway handles each of these people and it shows how much more advanced along the path of managing others than Torres is. She has natural empathy, but she's not so friendly and approachable that she can't deal with the darts or barbs of Harren, for example. It's easy to be offended by someone's cold shoulder nature that can so easily take the wind out of anything less than genuine concern. She knows when to be personable and when to be the boss and he shows himself to be problematic not only by his attitude but in the way he defies orders to avoid shooting the alien intruder because he doesn't have confidence in his Captain to make the right decision. Trust is the key issue and I'm not sure the theme was fully resolved by the end. We see Harren go so far as to leave the Delta Flyer on a (rare shot of an), escape pod.

Talking of defying orders, the whole lot of them do that, so maybe they haven't learnt their lesson? It's difficult to say because Janeway is taking the initiative in a crunch, this is no longer a pal-sy little get-to-know-you mission to iron out some crew instability and she's quick to take full responsibility in getting her crew to safety so she can deal with the threat herself. Maybe that was the wrong choice in itself since the whole point of the mission was to get these three working together and now they are, but she also didn't have time to be generous, devote time to checking up on them all, or be soft with them. They're ready to step up and rather than abandon their Captain to her own devices they stand with her. Except Harren, but even he tries to be selfless in his own way by making himself the target for these pursuing creatures since he was the one responsible for ending communications with them. But Janeway's plan gave them all a chance to survive and this is where she puts her Good Shepherd theory into practice, swooping back around to save Harren, too. Maybe he didn't learn to be part of the crew properly and maybe the theme didn't entirely play out, but then you have to remember none of these are main characters, they're all guests so what the episode is really about is Janeway's abilities as a leader not the guest crew's abilities as her crew, which is why it possibly could have been even better, but then this is an atypical story for the series in general in that it removes the main cast for guest stars.

I can talk of guests stars often making or breaking Trek episodes, and I fully believe it, but even more when those characters take up the lion's share of a story. All the main cast get in their line or two, and I like that Seven and the Doctor are as reduced as all the others (let's be honest, Neelix and B'Elanna's small contributions are about normal for most episodes at this point!), though it's the third member of the trio of most written characters, Janeway, who takes another episode for herself. And only right and proper it is, too, since she's the Captain. In 'Lower Decks' (the episode, not the animated series as we'll have to differentiate for ever more!), it really was about those minor characters and seeing the events unfold from their perspective. There isn't quite as much of that here, we certainly don't have any major surprises as we're kept in the loop, but while it's almost the same story, it's from a different perspective and that makes it well worth the time spent. The key for the three misfits, as one of them calls themselves, is that they were good for each other, they all have their issues, but the others can comment on that and it feels more like equals so they're not being given charity or special treatment and that makes it easier to accept the criticism from each other. I don't think that was Janeway's intent, to get them to show each other up, but it was a side effect.

Which leads me on to talk about the effects work of this episode, which is very good and shows the capabilities of CGI that couldn't be done with models. We get two great zoom shots that bookend the teaser, one going in through Janeway's Ready Room window and the other coming out of Harren's station on Voyager's underbelly. I was always impressed when they tried something new like that, but it's also the beauty shots of space that improve the visuals. In Trek of today we get colourful backdrops to space all the time, they aren't special at all and space seems more full than empty, but in 90s Trek it was a different impression and when colour came into a spacescape it was something to admire. Going into the rings of the gas giant was another highlight, and even the body horror of the eel creature rippling about under Telfer's skin was expertly realised, leaving it mostly to the imagination created through the actor's performance. The new characters are also fully realised even in the space of this one episode, it being completely in Harren's style to assume their own distress call being played back to them is a taunt while Janeway is more open to believing it a means of communication. Harren reacts with fear and nearly gets them all killed while Janeway reasons out the situation. It's Harren's loose discipline, failing to trust the Captain and obey her orders that causes them so much trouble.

Harren's talk is all opposite to the way Trek espouses: hopefulness, positive attitude and desire to work hard. He has a couple of key lines that show where he's coming from, either comparing Voyager's meandering route home as stumbling about like an insect drawn to a light source, and then demonstrating his negative view of humanity by saying they have an inexhaustible capacity to avoid the truth. That doesn't sound very true to the tenets of Trek, though in modern Trek that's exactly the kind of thing you hear on a far too regular basis (and is the kind of thing shown to be true, too, depressing us with reality). The problem is that if there are people like this on a starship they can usually be transferred, and this was a rich vein of storytelling they didn't get into enough. So much complaining from viewers stemmed from the Maquis settling down with the Starfleet crew too easily, and while I don't agree with that I'd still have liked to have seen a little more on occasion, and especially the development of recurring characters. Wouldn't it have been great if we could have had some previous examples return - one of the guys from 'Learning Curve' was even a Bajoran! I can see why they didn't, the writers prefer to make up their own creations, it's easier than having to manipulate previously created characters for a new story, and also probably cheaper (look at Tom Paris, the ultimate replacement when it could have been Nick Locarno!), but it is very sad they weren't able to develop a whole recurring cast like 'DS9,' as I've said many a time.

Janeway talks of them never having been on an Away Mission and Chakotay corrects her that they get off the ship when there's general leave, but as she says, it's not the same. They haven't been shown the trust in them, Tal thinks she's not really a part of the ship, she just lives there, and that's a touchingly sad realisation that any of them could feel so out of place. Chakotay's solution was quite radical (he'd have made quite a radical Captain, I suspect), suggesting they relieve the three of duty and allow them to pursue their own interests. But that gets everyone off the hook and as Janeway's said in the past, there's no room for passengers. Was Telfer sharing a bunk bed in his Quarters as there seemed to be a blanket hanging down from above, and we certainly see another person in Tal's Quarters which helps to show how low down the totem pole they are that they have to share. I had to wonder if slippers and dressing gown are Starfleet issue as Telfer shows up in Sickbay wearing or carrying them and it looks quite funny. We've seen characters in nighties before, but most of the time they chuck on their uniform any time they have to get out of bed during the night. I'm surprised they didn't show them clearly with big Starfleet logos on so they could sell merchandise (I'm getting confused with 'DSC' which loves putting logos on every piece of Starfleet equipment they can...). You know Janeway's serious when she talks to Seven about never abandoning a member of her crew, which has clear subtext about the trials they went through together.

We can talk all day about how good this episode is, and I'll say it's very good, but this must be the only episode in Trek history to have such a big onscreen blooper - yes, once in a while you might get the hint of a boom mike dipping into shot, but an arrow pointer used for a mouse on a modern computer when Harren's using his screen aboard the escape pod? Unless it wasn't a massive mistake and the escape pod runs on a much older operating system, like Mac OS maybe... I know they don't get used much, but really! It's not important in the grand scheme, but what is important and sad, is that most of these characters never returned - Zoe McLellan as Tal Celes the only one to reappear, once more, later in the season in 'The Haunting of Deck 12.' As I said before, I know it's about Janeway really, not them, but the series had such rich pickings, they even set themselves up for it with additions to the crew like the remnants of the Equinox. Those folks, these folks, some of the Maquis, they all deserved more development than the Borg children! Talk about your priorities. But talk is cheap, while I can denigrate the series to a small degree it can't take away from the quality here. Quality and leadership qualities, there's so much to talk about, and now I have. I wouldn't call it the Good Shepherd, I'd call it the Great Shepherd!

****

Impossible Mission

Amiga 1200, Impossible Mission (1993/1984) game


Your starting position is the top left of the map in the underground lair of your foe: Elvin Atombender. His plan, to trigger the launch codes for the world's nuclear missiles that will destroy the planet. Your mission, should you choose to accept it, is to search every room in search of puzzle pieces hidden in furniture that when combined will unlock Elvin's Main Control Room and prevent his evil plan. But it's not as simple as that: Elvin has programmed numerous robots to guard his complex, two different types being those that trundle along the floor and large black balls, floating orbs that can travel anywhere within a room. On your side you have acrobatic skill (you can jump), an indefatigable energy and the assistance of Snooze codes and Lift Resets which send robots to sleep for a short period or reset the position of the lifts in a room. Yep, it's a simple platform game, but it's also original and inventive. The name? Not so much, it's a clear ripoff of 'Mission: Impossible,' but back in the wild west gaming of the 80s such things weren't so strange.

This game was a real surprise to me. For one thing I hadn't planned on playing it particularly soon, but when I recently came to use my Amiga 1500 for the first time this year and began playing 'Fire and Ice,' about five minutes in, sound and vision cut out and the disk drive went dead, and though the fan was still whirring there seemed nothing I could do to sort it out. I was geared up for playing an Amiga game, in fact I've had a pile of game boxes in my room since last year, selected from the garden shed's store of plastic tote boxes full of them, so I wasn't to be defeated so easily. Still wanting to play something for the Amiga I picked out 'Impossible Mission' to try on my 1200 and was pleased to discover it worked... But this really is a trip back in time, the game originally released in the 80s, myself playing it in the early 90s when we first got our Commodore 64/128. I was never able to get very far in those days being quite young (I seem to remember my Father completing it and calling me over to see the ending - "NO! NO! NOOO!" See attached video), but the patience needed to get through so many rooms when most games on the system were short plays for me, mainly because they were so tough I couldn't survive more than a few minutes before I'd be sent back to the beginning again, was too much to ask. My claim to glory is that I did complete two games on that system ('Yogi Bear' and 'Ninja Massacre'), but that was a few years later.

Dedicating potentially six hours to a game in those days would have been an impossible mission in itself. That's one of the innovative aspects of this title: rather than having an energy bar or lives, the traditional form of regulating progress and extending a game's lifespan, time is your life gauge. You have six hours, since you begin at 12:00 and have until the timer reaches 6:00 to complete the mission. The catch is that every time you die, be that falling through a hole at the bottom of a room (oddly, you can fall any number of floors within a room without penalty), touching one of the robots or being caught in their Force Lightning electrical blasts, you lose ten minutes of real time. What a great idea! This then adds a tactical dimension to proceedings that I hadn't expected and engaged me more than I'd have expected of an ancient 2D platformer - should you go through each room cautiously, paying attention to the varied patterns of movement of the robots to plan your route to each piece of furniture you need to search, or dash madly along acting on instinct alone? A bit of both, I found, since running and leaping about keeps you in that state of stimulation that means you're more likely to react quickly to whatever you encounter. But I definitely erred more on the side of caution when I finally did beat the game. I played it a number of times before I was successful because you do feel a sense of urgency with a timer on your movements and are more likely to be reckless, especially if you've had a few silly deaths early on.

For my winning run I was fortunate in the layout of the rooms, which, in another innovation, are randomly distributed across the map. I began with both Code Rooms as my initial two locations - these are game rooms in which you play a simple memory test on a large checkerboard screen where several squares light up and play a note which must be selected in ascending order to win either a Snooze or Lift Init code. They begin with only three notes and add one to the random pattern each time you succeed. This is another way to increase the tension as you can stand there and play the game to increase your codes which will then make rooms easier, but how long do you commit, especially as it gets harder to select the right notes quickly? I think I got up to about six or seven squares before I felt enough time had been spent and that set me up nicely for the mission. I suppose ideally they'd come somewhere in the middle of the stronghold as you can find these codes within furniture, too, so the game rooms aren't the only source, and suddenly having codes to make life easier later would be a good morale booster. But I'd played the game enough times to know there were only a few rooms that really required these codes, as with patience and care you could search most rooms without too much incident since the patterns of the robots and layouts never change, so it's just a case of learning them.

On this occasion the most difficult rooms came later so there was less pressure on me since I knew I'd collected most of the puzzle pieces and could afford a few deaths or to take it slow, and as it turned out, I succeeded on the hardest rooms without any trouble anyway. Just as important, the entrance to the Main Control Room was also in one of the last lift columns so I didn't have lengthy backtracking or risk-taking to traverse already completed rooms in order to reach the goal (that was another side of it - you didn't have to search every piece of furniture in a room, you could always come back later, but I preferred to completely clear a room rather than try to remember where I'd left anything behind). Everything fell into place for me and I had plenty of time in which to complete the final part of the game: solving the puzzles. With four parts to each puzzle and nine puzzles in the game I felt this was actually more likely to be a challenge than the action, although I'd also got the impression it didn't really matter which four bits went together as long as they were the same colour. That did seem to be the case and may have been a fault, I'm not sure, but I at least tried to put the correct pieces together as much as possible. I used the Pocket Computer to orient each two pieces in view at the time correctly (two minutes are lost each time you request the computer's help), so I only had to change the colour and put them together, but even then it took a while to get the right pieces together. I managed to get a few complete blocks with the little holes, old-fashioned computer punch cards, but by the end I was flinging together any remaining ones just to get finished.

And then it was all over, the puzzles spell 'ASPARAGUS' (I have a feeling there was some backstory in the original C64 manual about Elvin hating his vegetables or something along those lines [goes away to check manual] - no, actually it doesn't, but I recommend reading the manual, it's good fun). You enter the Control Room, get an image of a horrified Elvin beaten, as you can see in the video, and you get a score. Like most games of that era, the high score is the important thing to encourage replaying, though scores for scores' sake were never much of an incentive then, and still aren't. I was pleased with my score of 19,856, even so, and it is tempting to go back into the game again. What I like about it is the beauty of its simplicity, the clean lines, the good design of the layout, whether that be the rooms themselves with their nicely crafted furniture, the cute robots and their not so cute electrical discharges, and the sound effects - there's no music, but to have digitised speech at home in 1984... well, we were impressed in the late-90s when the N64 began to feature speech in games like 'TWINE' or 'Perfect Dark' (2000 actually, but there were other games before that, like 'Rogue Squadron' or 'Turok 2'), or Amiga games earlier ("It's such a shame he's dead." "At least he tried hard"), so I can only imagine the wow factor of hearing it in 1990 or so when I first encountered it! Indeed, the yell as you fall to your doom, and Elvin's opening statement ("Another visitor. Stay awhile. Stay Forever!"), has gone down in our family as one of those things we can always reference!

I was impressed by the animation, particularly of Special Agent 4125, the character you play - rotoscoped animation wouldn't have been used in games that far back, I'm pretty sure, with later titles 'Prince of Persia' and 'Flashback' really bringing their characters to life in impressive fashion. But I felt the animation was very good, and the hollow footsteps provide a precision of sound to it that makes you feel like you're having real interaction with the environment. That extends to the whirring of the lifts as you travel up and down in very pleasing fashion, and even the way you could log onto a computer terminal. Now it's nothing special to be able to pull up a menu on screen at will, but in those days to be able to enter a computer screen was another level of immersion. It's as simple as selecting options to either put the robots to sleep, reset the lifts, or exit the terminal, but it's one more way you're pulled into this world even more. The other notable thing is the colourful style, each lift shaft a different colour so you have a better idea where you are, not every area the same generic colour, and the rooms have different backdrops - it all adds to the game environment to make it a pleasure to play. In fact I was close to giving it classic status with four stars, except there isn't really enough to keep going back to once you've beaten it unless you're intent on high scoring.

This particular copy of the game was bundled in with 'Impossible Mission 2025: The Special Edition' - I never even gave the date a thought at first, then I almost considered playing it next year in the year it's set, except I don't have fond memories of that one and I'm into this type of game right now so I'll be going straight onto that next. It's funny the original should so overshadow the remake, which I recall as being dull in both gameplay and visuals, all brown and grey as the 90s loved, thinking dark colour meant a more serious game. I shouldn't judge it yet as I haven't played it, but I had much less interest in revisiting the 2025 version than the original. I actually remember the game being bought in what would have been the late-90s when we first had our Amigas, and Electronics Boutique (before it became GAME), was still selling a small selection of Amiga titles. I remember by Father buying it and, as I say, being underwhelmed by the main 2025 game, which probably didn't endear me to the original either since they were both of the same ilk and by then I'd played many more impressive and advanced titles and genres on Game Boy and Amiga so I doubt I really appreciated 'Impossible Mission' at the time. That only makes it more special to rediscover it now and accomplish yet another completion I wasn't able to when I was younger. Attractive in its simplicity, a touch of tension, and a lovely design to it all mean this remains a good prospect (and I haven't even mentioned the revolutionary idea of having a Pocket Computer, or the fact you had a User Interface, and the simple, but useful map, or... "Destroy, my robots!").

***



Seizure

 DVD, Stargate Universe S2 (Seizure)

I didn't have many memories of this particular season, especially the latter half, but one thing that stood out was having both Dr. McKay and Wolsey back, characters that originated in 'SG-1' and (eventually), both became main characters of 'Atlantis.' While I hadn't seen the latter series when I watched 'Universe' originally, I enjoyed those characters, particularly McKay, and having seen more of them since then, I have even more connection. It's a real treat whenever they can get characters from other 'Stargate' into a series, and due to the difficulty in doing that with this series (much like 'Voyager'), I appreciate it even more. However... The episode is a trifle messy, it throws in too many things for one episode and in consequence you have several scenes where people rattle off dialogue apace so it's not the most comfortable plot or easy to follow. It didn't help that I wasn't entirely sure whether I knew the Langarans or not - were they Colm Meaney's planet from 'Atlantis,' as they certainly had similar World War II era tech, but they could just as easily have come from the many races at that level of development in 'SG-1'? I felt like I recognised the name, but again, it was all happening so fast it was a challenge to keep up, which meant I wasn't getting into it as much as I'd like. (Looking back it seems they were Jonas Quinn's people).

Then you have the messiness of two key storylines playing out. Ordinarily that wouldn't be a problem, I'd even expect it - you jump between A and B plots to build anticipation for the story you're not showing, but in this case they were both such huge developments that they deserved to have all the running time to themselves. The main story was enough on its own with a typically wrongheaded move on the SGC's part (or Homeworld Command, or the IOC, or Earth in general - that was one of the confusing things, I wasn't clear on what the authority for this plan was), to override an ally's reservations and refusal to allow their planet to be a testing ground for another attempt at dialling Destiny. Since in both previous times the attempt itself destroyed the planet from which it was tried, you can understand the Legarans staunch attitude against it. Humans come across as incredibly arrogant and even bullying in their choice to trick them into a test, and all on the mistaken belief they're working with the Lucian Alliance, the tragedy of which is that actually they were good, solid allies! I will say the mechanics of doing that were superb: using the communication stones as a weapon to kidnap key personnel was a brilliant solution, nefarious as it was, and leaving aside the ethical implications for a moment, it was a great plan. But you can't leave the ethics aside and the only reason they don't succeed in the end is because suspicion falls on this sudden change of heart - they aren't as simple and green as our heroes have taken them for.

It's a very interesting situation from a viewer's perspective - we've seen characters do shady things for the greater good, or perhaps their greater good, before, Young is always pulling stunts like that (well, once in a while, and he usually feels bad afterwards, but he still does morally questionable things). I doubt there'll be much soul-searching after this episode, it seemed cut and dried for them and it ultimately failed. I suppose Young gets some credit for ending the test before it got to the Ninth Chevron, but then he didn't really have much choice with all those soldiers pointing weapons at them. It was either back down or set off a deadly firefight. They'd already done enough to damage relations to an extreme level and it will be a wonder if the Legarans ever trust them again. We know they're the 'good' guys, and we know McKay is a genius, but he can still be wrong and if there was any hint of discomfort for the host planet in complying with this experiment, they should never have done it, no matter the cost. They should have continued to apply diplomatic pressure, continued to be friendly and just hope that the Legaran scientists were able to come to understand what they were doing before the next Lucian Alliance attack (I'm still not sure what use Destiny is to the Alliance!). That was their in and they blew it for the sake of saving time.

Deception is also the theme of the other story where Dr. Amanda Perry and Rush have been able to work a way whereby he can come into her world through the Chair. This was another fairly messy plot as it was a little hard to follow what was actually happening. I don't mean Rush being trapped in this simulation which is simulating reality when he thinks he's exited the actual simulation, that's par for the course and almost glossed over. That's a shame because I've always loved episodes, be they Trek or 'Stargate,' that explore the idea of the unreality of reality, or the uncertainty of a reality. It's a fascinatingly creepy concept, but here it was tough to feel that since it's all being run by his girlfriend so she's not going to do anything to harm him. As such. Keeping him trapped in the simulation was obviously harm, but it seemed she wasn't keeping him there, her original parameters were... I know, it is a bit sloppy in the writing department. Boils down to them loving each other as the basis for the simulation and it turns out his affection is feigned? Or is it that he thinks he loves her, but doesn't? Or could it be a program malfunction? I don't know, it was all a bit hokey by that point and I was more anxious for Rush to be spending time with McKay - just imagine the two of them together, we were robbed!

That's one of those tantalising suggestions thrown out there: how about Rodney joining the Destiny if they can get people aboard? Obviously they didn't achieve the connection, but I'm sure they were floating the idea, dangling it in front of avid viewers to, one, boost interest, and two, prepare for him to join the cast if Season 3 had gone ahead. It's not like in 'Enterprise' where we'd have got Jeffrey Combs as Shran if Season 5 had happened, the situation's different here because McKay had already been spun off into a new 'Stargate' so we did at least get plenty of him (one of the best characters the franchise created), but it is a cruel reality that we never got to see that. Wolsey I can take or leave - I like Robert Picardo a lot, but his character wasn't generally much more than a bureaucrat, and while it was nice he became a full-time cast member during 'Atlantis' I wouldn't have been as excited for him to join the cast of 'Universe' had it continued, as much as it was great to see him again, and on his third 'Stargate' series. We have a nice little reference to Sheppard to show Telford knows him or has at least spoken to him at some point, and of course O'Neill gets mentioned several times, so it's nice for continuity and adds a further sense of 'Universe' being 'Stargate' and not just any sci-fi series. I noted Telford continues to try and gain control of Destiny in his need to return there, setting up McKay as potentially his scientist 'puppet,' perhaps in opposition to 'Young's' Rush, as they have some sort of understanding, at least. I can imagine that would have played out very interestingly had the series continued, though Rush would run rings round Rodney in the cunning stakes, as we can imagine!

At least Gin and Perry weren't permanently deleted as I thought was going to happen - Eli wouldn't erase her existence even to get Rush back, and he's bitter enough about them being rerouted to some separate system as it is. Whether that means they're out of the story for now and would have been brought back at a later date, I don't know. It does seem as if that storyline has been played out unless they could find a way to transfer their consciousness to new bodies - it just isn't the same going into a Holodeck to meet them on their terms. It could easily be just one of those threads the series might have left to come back to, but never had the chance. Otherwise it was a tentatively good episode, McKay behaves exactly as he always did, and is just as fun for it, perhaps the other 'Universe' characters get a little overshadowed by the guest stars, and as I said, the two stories didn't really compliment each other, but they're still doing interesting stuff and I'll keep saying: it was criminal they didn't get longer to tell their story.

***

Friday, 16 February 2024

Hope

 DVD, Stargate Universe S2 (Hope)

Amanda Perry coming back as part of the ship's computer, I remembered. Gin coming back, I did not. For all the high concept sci-fi plotting going on I must admit that the hardest part to believe was that TJ could perform a successful kidney transplant! I know, she had help from Perry, the support of their colleagues and friends, but as Greer 'reassured' Volker, 'this isn't a hospital and she isn't a doctor.' In a way I wish there had been some kind of Ancient tech involved as that would have made it a bit easier to believe in, but this apparently searchable database doesn't seem all that easy to navigate, by the sound of it! And it is a high point for TJ, performing at a level she never expected to - the usual protocol would be to bring a doctor or two aboard via the communication stones, but at the start of this episode we learn they still haven't heard back from Earth about whether the Lucian Alliance bomb went off. So that option's off the table and the pressure's on TJ. Though there is tension, this is a much quieter episode than is normal for the series, much more of an examination of consciousness. When I say 'examination' it makes it sound like a rigorous exploration of the concept, and it's not that. What it is, is more of a fumbling look from a personal nature, and that's fine.

Less important than the fact that Gin and Amanda still exist, despite the fact both of their bodies died, is how this affects Eli and Rush who both thought they'd lost them forever. Now there's at least hope (so the title works), even if it's slim. On the other side is Scott whose concern is naturally for Chloe, the only one with legitimate reason to inhabit her body. While I could have done with a more detailed drive into what it means to be a consciousness in somebody else's body, or where the disembodied go when they aren't present, 'Stargate' isn't generally that hard into its sci-fi, it tends to be surface level. It's the characters this franchise does well, so it's no surprise they lean on them for their drama. I was glad Matt wasn't getting hysterical and demanding the Colonel stop them endangering his girlfriend's body. He shows his haste to get things sorted, but Chloe is the barometer for his character and she is typically selfless, wanting Gin (as she's the only one they know about at that point), to have every chance for life, regardless of her own personal safety. She's not the only one happy to jump into the unknown for a dead person: Volker is found to have end-stage kidney failure and desperately needs a transplant, a walking dead man. He's fortunate that one of the two best matches on board is macho man Ron Greer. He's only too happy to leap into action immediately and give up one of his kidneys, doesn't even want any pain medication when they're taking a bone marrow sample from his hip! Yes, he is Mr. Macho.

Yet I believe it, and in him. I don't think he's doing it to impress anyone, he just loves to throw himself into whatever's dangerous, maybe to test himself, to see how far he can go, maybe because he knows this is Volker's best chance. I don't really know because we don't really know Greer the man underneath that toughness all that well. He had issues with his Father, a hard upbringing, we know he loves to help those he considers friends, as he did getting Eli and Gin together in the first place. He's just a naturally heroic person willing to give up things for others, just as Colonel Young would do, or Matthew Scott... It certainly is a good advert for the US army! Or maybe the SGC? It's not just limited to giving up a piece of himself to someone that needs it, either, he shows remarkable sensitivity by giving Volker an equivalent of what he's missing: sitting in his 'backyard' looking up at the stars. An agreeable Greer, how novel! However you dice it up this episode shows a lot of heroism, people stepping up to the plate to grapple with the unknown, dealing with risk and coming through. For that reason it's a very optimistic, positive watch, quite different from many episodes of the series. Who knows, if they'd had more of this along the way the series might have caught on and been given the time to tell its full story? But it's possible we needed to go through all that misery, distrust, complaining, etc, the hard times, to get to this stage of the characters working together as friends - not without conflict, but they know each other, they know how their fellows will act, and that in turn makes them act better as people.

The real issue hanging over the episode is whether there really is a genuine hope. They don't have many episodes in which to find bodies for Gin and Amanda before the series' cruelly cut short demise - I liked that it's mentioned they've known races that have the ability to download a consciousness into a body (as much as that opens up all kinds of difficult questions about whether anyone should ever die, which is problematic - something they tried in 'Picard' and then promptly failed with, almost ignoring it after that), it's just a fact that they these people aren't accessible for the Destiny. Although now that I think of it, it would have been a great way to get a familiar race (or character, for that matter), into the series: an Asgard, say, as we know some of the SGC ships had one aboard. Or maybe a Jaffa (Teal'c needed to show up!). I have no doubt as the series progressed they'd have tried to include more traditional 'Stargate' elements and connections, it's a matter of course for series' that are part of a greater franchise. They like to start off their own way, but the pendulum swings back towards recognition of established continuity eventually. As we know, this series never got its chance at that (though we will still see some key characters from other parts of the franchise before the end!).

However they were going to deal with the floating apparitions the reality is that things can never be as they were, as much as Eli thinks spending time with a disembodied persona will be like old times. That's why it's a joyful end (especially with Telford making a cameo to confirm Earth is safe and it was merely some repair work to the communication device that prevented contact for a few days), but also one tempered by bittersweetness. Are we going to see Franklin again? I'd like to see the three of them; him, Gin and Perry, talking things out, but he seemed to be more affected by what happened to him than the other two, or was it because he was uploaded from a catatonic state that he was so different, more mysterious and integrated with the ship itself? It's got a lot of story potential, only there isn't much time left to tell it in. I don't remember, but I hope they were successful. As for this one, it's another win, and it doesn't rely on action or melodrama, simply good drama and likeable people working together to solve problems. More, please. Maybe the neural interface chair is a bit of a solve-all maguffin, but it's mysterious enough and tied into 'Stargate' mythology enough that I buy it! You know the episode's going to end well whatever happens because otherwise bringing Gin back only for her to die again would be an entirely pointless exercise and a waste of an episode, unless you consider it a chance for Eli to say goodbye. But it's not goodbye for now: it's not the end, it's time to be Gin.

***

The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time

 N64, The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time (1998) game


N64 Magazine said it best in their review when they compared this game to great works of art and I couldn't be more poetic about it than they were. I came to the N64 late, a year after this game was released, but I already had a prior connection to it in a couple of different ways - the more immediate was an associate at school who was playing it and was happy to relay the wonders of it when asked, but I also had a great affection and excitement about 'The Legend of Zelda' itself since my greatest gaming moment had been discovering 'Link's Awakening' on the Game Boy, which my Father gave me as, I think, a birthday present, something he'd read was one of the best games on the system. We'd both played it and it was one of those once in a lifetime experiences when you encounter something so new and revolutionary compared with previous experiences as to forever cement it in my mind as possibly the best game I ever played (I've since come to view 'The Settlers' on Amiga as the true greatest, but that's beside the point). Understandably, the idea that I could play a game like that, but which had been uplifted and advanced into a fully three-dimensional world away from the simple 2D interaction of old, was an intoxicating concept and one of the motivating factors in my gradually increasing desire to get an N64 myself.

Oddly, it was actually the far less groundbreaking 'Star Wars Racer' that actually tipped me over the edge when deciding which console to buy, but as it turned out I got 'Zelda' with the machine as I bought it secondhand from someone I knew, which included a number of games, many of them the best on the system. My favourite was instantly 'Ocarina of Time.' It was everything I could have imagined from what I'd been told or my own expectations based on the earlier game, a thrilling, wondrous experience that I don't think I even fully understood at that time was such a revolution as it was. Every aspect of the game was reaching untold heights of what was achievable in a game, a work of art really is the best way to describe it! I revelled in its freedoms to the extent that at first it was enough merely to exist in that world: to run around Kokiri Forest with its sparkling fairy dust floating all about, climbing fences, talking to characters, exploring and enjoying, but it's not until actually exiting that first area, having defeated the evil within the Deku Tree, the first dungeon, and setting out into Hyrule Field, that the breathtaking scope of such potential hit. It was a game that had so much in it, and though for the uninitiated player it was very possible to get stuck and find the breadth of possible places to go and things to try to get out of that position could be overwhelming, that's about the only criticism that could be levelled at it.

What was so amazing was that they were able to translate what had been so successful in the previous, 2D games, and yet in turning the formula into a vast 3D world it didn't lose the immediacy and simple pleasures that had been enjoyed before, but actually enhanced them. Many of the same monsters and creatures you meet, interact with, and fight, were taken from past entries, but intelligently implemented into what was a truly brave new world that required extremely complex thought to create. That alone is worthy of attention, but that they were able to do it so strongly and with such attention to detail sustained over many tens of hours is an absolute testament to the skill of these artists, programmers and creators. Take something as simple as jumping. In a 2D space you only have to worry about a couple of levels, maybe three at the most: the ground, areas above from which, in 'Awakening,' you could drop down, and perhaps an underground area which you could fall into. But you didn't need to worry much about the location of the character within that space. In 'Awakening' you could get the Roc's Feather which enabled your otherwise grounded Link to jump in the air to hop over holes, but in 3D you now have so much more scope and space to cover and account for. And they didn't even have a jump button! Context-sensitive movement (and in many aspects of the game), could be restrictive (I think of the Don Bluth games like 'Space Ace,' etc), where you need to press a button to achieve something at a specific moment. Here, it was about providing what would be best suited to your needs.

I'm sure I went into it on the 'Majora's Mask' review I wrote a few years ago, but the intelligence of the game to know when you were leaping off into the unknown or had stumbled over the edge by mistake, is very clever, but that was merely one revolutionary approach to existing in a 3D environment. Z-Targeting was another, where you have the ability to lock on to something or someone which changes how the controls respond. I'm getting into the dry realms of technical expertise here, and that's really not what the game is about, but the fact these things were so intuitive and natural in enabling existence within a 3D space can easily be overlooked because of countless games that came after. 'Citizen Kane' still impresses today, but its ways and technicalities are taken for granted all the same because so much has been taken from it by what came after. It's the same for this game and others that pioneered the 3D genre, it's so easy to take it all for granted and that's one reason some subsequent 'Zelda' titles haven't rated so highly with me - I've seen it all before, its lustre has rubbed off, and certainly it's very hard to create something really new and different that doesn't stray too far beyond the confines of the series. But this was where it all (or most of it), began and seeing it through those eyes helps to remind me why it stays in my top three games of all time (behind the aforementioned 'Settlers' and 'Awakening').

I hadn't played it in probably twenty years. I think I played through it at least twice, but it's the 'Zelda' I know best because I also watched other family members and relatives play through chunks of it (and even assisted on occasion). I'd gone back into it to record some of the music over the years, but in my usual reticence to delete old save files there came a time when I couldn't replay it without deleting another file, something that put me off. That and being so familiar with it, as I thought, and not just because of the game itself, but so much was taken and used in sequels up to 'Twilight Princess' (and beyond of course, but that was the furthest I'd played until my recent play of the Wii's 'Skyward Sword' in Christmas 2022), so there was an impression of over-familiarity. I may even have had a sneaking suspicion it could be slightly boring to replay this one since I knew it so 'well,' and also because I'd found myself, as in general, but also in specific, underwhelmed by games in the GameCube era. I didn't think particularly well of 'Twilight' and only revisiting it again on another recent Christmas made me appreciate it more and reevaluate it and understand that my disillusion was partly down to my place in life when I'd originally played it, so much was seen through that view. Another reason I hadn't gone back to 'OOT' was that I would have eventually played the 'Master Quest' version on the disc that came with 'Wind Waker,' but in recent years, losing my old Amiga monitor and finding my Dell screen didn't play 60hz games I was stymied.

At the same time I was gearing up to it year on year as playing a 'Zelda' at Christmas became a fast tradition and I was running out of options. The other reason to take it on was that it was my last truly great N64 game that I hadn't replayed during the last fifteen years (!) of writing for this blog and so I had no other option. I was not disappointed, no amount of lustre-scrubbing or familiarity breeding contempt had dulled or dimmed its power, and probably because I hadn't played it for such a long time it was like travelling back to college days. What really made me happy, however, was another technical aspect: playing it as good as it ever looked thanks to accidentally discovering how to enhance the Dell's image quality. This really made an impact (and how I wish I'd found it years ago when I was going through so many other great N64 games, 'Jet Force Gemini,' 'Body Harvest,' 'Majora's Mask,' the list goes on, titles that would have benefited from visual perfection!), and made me love the experience even more - it's not that I can't enjoy games with inferior graphics, just as I can still appreciate black and white films, because it's not about the medium: with the former it's about the gameplay, and with the latter, the story and character. With games like 'OOT' that line was blurred, you really do notice the quality of storytelling increase with the capabilities of the technical side. Saying that, even 'Awakening' could make you care about character and story with its simple graphics, but now they could make it cinematic in scope and style.

That's not always a good thing, there has been the danger of story eclipsing interactivity so that you're just pressing a button and essentially watching cut-scenes, but not at this time and not with this game, its immediacy and extension of your own fingers never puts you in that situation and in turn only enhances your connection to the world so that when you do watch the story unfold you're even more involved. Every moment of the story being relayed is perfectly judged, whether it be grand visions or the use of silence and pauses, it shows a fluency in language of cinema that shows a more advanced development of the technology than 'Super Mario 64,' which comes off as almost a tech demo in comparison. 'OOT' is where you actually feel for what's happening as much as you explore the freedoms of exploration and gradually unfolding access to a larger and larger world. It would have been enough to have done all these things: the exquisite controls mapped to the Controller, the involvement of the story, the fulness of the world, but on top of that they beautifully push the boundaries with the addition of time that makes a difference to how you approach things. There is beauty to be had gazing over the misty waters of Lake Hylia as dawn breaks, or Kakariko Village bathed in the red glow of a suspended sunset, or a mournful solitude to the night as crows caw above you, all this further pulling you into such a fully realised world that almost goes down to the micro level when you see butterflies hovering or tiny bugs burrowing into the ground. With the backdrop of vast mountains and tall towers the scale is incredible!

Not that the graphics are amazing to modern eyes - obviously that has all dated, there's a sense of simplicity in the fact that everywhere is walled in, no matter how large the area. They hadn't been able to disguise that and it does look unnatural, but crucially it doesn't take anything away from the game and the textures remain very impressive, selling the different environments perfectly with the addition of expertly judged sound effects: the crunch of snow underfoot, the plash of water, the pat-pat of footsteps across grass, sand, or rock. And the textures aren't always static, either: the first great use (other than the mere beauty of the forest environment right from the start), is how they show the sad death of the Deku Tree, texture rippling up his form to simulate his shrivelling state, Ganondorf riding through planes of fire, or the watery reflections on the walls of the Water Temple. It really is astounding how much they were able to achieve at this time in one of the earliest 3D games Nintendo had made and the first in this series! The environments may be clichés of green forest, red fiery lava, white snow, and so on, but it's those familiar hallmarks that instantly make it engaging and real, we have an instinctive understanding of how environment and colour affects each area and in turn what we can do to affect it ourselves.

The breadth of things to do can be overwhelming, and I can well remember in the old days becoming stuck and not knowing exactly what to do to progress. Now I'm so well versed there's practically no chance for me to get stuck, not because of specific memory, but a sort of muscle memory that means I know how the puzzles work, I know the extent of the game's logic (sometimes I forgot, such as during the trading sequence where you're supposed to find the Cucco lady's brother in the woods to give him some medicine, but when you return he's not there - I spent ages searching every part of the Lost Woods until I eventually went back and just showed it to the little Kokiri Girl, all that was required!) - about the only thing that required dull, plodding repetition was searching for the hidden holes in the ground that can only be discovered with the use of a Rumble Pak (since the N64 Controller didn't come with rumble built in). It's not that heavy an addition to the Controller, but it does make it more bulky and requires batteries, too, so I wasn't planning to use it. It just got to the point at the end where I'd done everything else in the game and I didn't quite want to let it go, so I carried on searching for the final Gold Skulltulas and Heart Pieces, and I suspected some of them were in the hidden holes so that necessitated running back and forth across every location in Hyrule, bar the dungeons. But even here the holes were in pretty logical locations next to a landmark or in an obvious site (such as the fenced off area between Hyrule Field and Lake Hylia). Finding the last two Skulltulas was a real achievement for me as, even with the help of the Prima guide back in the day I'd only managed 98 and so my goal had been to get every one this time.


I'm glad to say I never used the guide, or any other kind of help. Perhaps I can't say I was completely pure in my gameplay as I was also trying to complete the game with 000 on the death counter, so reset the N64 during battles with the final bosses of both Water and Spirit dungeons since I was about to die, so you could call that cheating, but it was the only liberty I took (and you still need to win the battles). That, and doing a quick internet search to narrow the parameters on the hidden holes, which I wouldn't have realised some had to be activated with the Song of Storms, not bombs. By then, I'd completed the game proper and done everything else, so I can live with these minor compromises, and I still had to do the legwork to find the holes themselves! Even so, I had to admit defeat on the Heart Pieces, succeeding with 32 out of 34 (I missed one in the grave since I'd never have thought to play the Sun's Song, and I never went back to the frogs after playing them all the non-warp tunes on my Ocarina, and never found the butterfly-chomping game), checking the guide book to discover which two I'd missed. But still, it was a very successful campaign - I'm always looking to improve on a previous game-playing performance and I did that in every other way (back then I used the guide and still couldn't track down the last Piece for some reason!): maximum 2000 points in horseback archery, knocked a few seconds off the foot race against the runner, to 1:08, caught the biggest fish it's possible to catch in the pond as both child and adult (including the Hyrule Loach which I was overjoyed about), and even knocked one almost impossible second off the Lon Lon Ranch horse race, at 0:47 seconds.


 Not to blow my own trumpet, but I was highly motivated to keep trying at all the challenges because it was simply a joy to be in the world. In other 'Zelda' games I haven't had the same dedication, preferring to finish it out then move onto something new, but this was The One, the special game, and I was drawn to do everything. The main game itself is long enough with a total of eight dungeons and a couple of mini-dungeons, even if the first two as child Link are almost mini-dungeons themselves. But I appreciated the artistry involved in dealing the player in gently, introducing the concepts and modes of play, the many weapons and pieces of equipment that would make up your growing arsenal - as in all 'Zelda' games. The difficulty curve was excellent, although I was surprised to find the Water dungeon not as brain-scramblingly difficult as I'd envisaged, and the last two dungeons aren't as mentally taxing after that one. I'd even go so far as to say the Spirit dungeon is relatively easy, but that's a side effect of both having so much experience by the time you reach that stage, and being fully empowered by your armoury that no opposition or puzzle can stand in your way. It becomes more a pleasure of style variation in those last two dungeons than true challenge, as you're either dealing with changing visibility in locations, enemies and items, or the clever splitting of the final one between both times.


Perhaps that was one step too far at the end of such a lengthy and fully developed project, which might explain why it's not taken as far as it might have - imagine puzzles that required time travel to solve, alternately flitting between child and adult. That wasn't going to be a reality as the time travel itself is quite restrictive - you have to go to the Temple of Time to do it, necessary for the entire game world to work with the tasks you have to accomplish. It would be a very different game if you did have time travel at will from anywhere in the land, which is something that the next game, 'Majora's Mask' took to a new level. It also gave them somewhere to go and encouraged them to put out another game in the series on the same system, and for that I'm grateful because the series has always been known for long gestation periods, and even to this day it's more likely there'll only be one game per generation. This one would have been enough for the N64 to be able to say it was the king of the genre, but we were afforded a sequel, too, time saved by reusing many of the character models and the whole style and look of the game. 'Ocarina' has to be acknowledged as the superior, simply for the extent of its revolutionary nature, and while 'Majora' squeezed out its own revolution, it was still standing on the shoulders of this giant.

It really is sad to bid it goodbye, it almost made me want to play 'Majora' again, if only to see that in better quality than when I played it only a few years ago, and it's no question that the ability to see it with improved visuals enhanced my love for it. But it's still the build of the world, the music, the sounds, the detail that drew me on. Running up a green hill, slicing up plants in one swinging attack, riding across the land while loosing off arrows at Poes. Revisiting locations tied to an earlier time in my own real life (I still remember messing about at Lake Hylia on a Saturday morning long ago - in fact I had to choose whether to play until 12pm on days like that or play after 12pm. The second was always better because it meant you had many more hours, but then you had to have patience to get through the morning doing something else!). The atmospheres that were so successfully generated, whether gloomy caverns haunted by the screech of those mummies or other creatures, the giant hand dropping from the ceiling with a whoosh. Or the happy folk of the towns and the various oddball characters you meet all over the place. Entire cultures in the Gorons, Zoras, and Gerudo. The desolation of the world seven years later as you go forward and make right what Ganondorf has ruined. And it all made sense, too: he allowed you to go about your business rather than crushing you like a fly in order to flush Princess Zelda out! That was a great revelation. It's not that you need it to make sense, it's very heavily a fantasy, and unlike sci-fi, in that realm anything goes. It wouldn't affect how you enjoyed the puzzling or tests of skill and timing, but it's the final layer on top that makes it more than mere actions, as enjoyable as the actions are. It's a great story and worked really well in the 'Zelda' tradition.

I will say that I was surprised how much iffy stuff was in the game - I've always felt the series has become much more supernatural and inappropriate as time's gone on, but I can't deny there's a very large amount of that here, goddesses and evil beings (even other suspect content, such as the Poe hunter that compliments you on your looks and suggests you could get into some 'other' business if you wanted). So it's far from being spotless and pure. There are also the many little mysteries that crop up which foxed me severely until I had a search of the internet when I had no other way of finding out: the big one was after you finish the Water dungeon and speak to Sheik. Maybe I wasn't paying enough attention, but I suddenly noticed someone plop into the lake and could never find anything or anyone there. Turned out it was just Sheik making an escape, but because all the other times it's done by using a Deku Seed or some such thing to make a flash and vanish, and because it happens so far away you can't make it out, it confused me. Same with the room in the Spirit dungeon with the switch that activates a small ring of fire, with a block activated by the Song of Time, neither of which have any apparent purpose, though I read you're meant to lure the enemies in that room into the fire - unnecessary since you have fire arrows!

What proved a great help was making notes: in every area, whenever Navi would show up green, indicating something of interest, I'd write it down. Same with every Gold Skulltula, so I always knew where to go back to once I had whatever was necessary to be able to access them. I'd leave question marks if I wasn't sure what a location contained or meant, and in that way I was easily able to break down each location, be it the over-world or the dungeons, and that was a lot easier than relying on memory! I wouldn't normally write notes, other than for the purposes of preparation for a review, but I was so focused on getting every Skulltula token this seemed the best way. And so it was eventually all over. I discovered things I'd never known about before (playing certain songs where Navi goes green can release a special 'pink orb' fairy that can't be captured in a bottle, but can be used there and then, restoring all hearts and replenishing the magic meter, too). This time I felt I really got to the bottom of the game, much more than ever before, with only two outstanding questions left (I never found any song to do anything to the heraldic device above the gatehouse in front of Hyrule Castle, though Navi goes green there, and I was never able to get a butterfly to land on a Deku Stick), but otherwise I got everything I could have wished for from the game.

Even the items themselves can be enjoyable to use - launching yourself across large spaces with the aid of the Hookshot, uncovering invisible walls with the Lens of Truth, the masks (something taken to a whole new level in the sequel), even the ability to change your attire, and of course the Ocarina itself which allows you to play it as you see fit, just like a real instrument! But the basics are the most fun, as they should be: just swinging a sword about or using your shield (especially the swanky, shiny Mirror Shield!), the sense of progression as you upgrade various equipment... Perhaps it can be said the animation on some of the characters is a bit basic in that they just stand there and jig about or whatever, but this is the sort of thing that becomes noticeable based on later games improving them, and as a whole the design and movement of everything was top notch. The variety of the places to explore, completely different architectural and cultural styles, all packed into one little game cartridge... I could go on and on: the beautiful end sequence with all those characters having a party and the Sages flying over them up into the mountains, and looking down on Hyrule. The fight with Ganondorf, the rush back down the tower as it's collapsing, then a final fight with Ganon... Especially the beautiful moment at the very end, that final scene of Link going back to visit young Zelda for the first time...

It's a shame there isn't a proper continuity - after this one 'Majora' could easily fit in, and the earlier ones to some extent if they came later, but with the 'Cube games and on they didn't stick to the history that had been so cleverly established, preferring to reset the characters to give them more leeway. I can understand why, and it is a 'legend,' not a history, but what was set up here was brilliant and they should have used it as a springboard for all that came after rather than merely taking the design cues, races and puzzles. That's not this game's fault, it will always exist in its own pocket of time, just as my playing of it will. Now that I think of it, though I wasn't a child when I first played it, time has moved on massively, much more than the seven years in-game, and perhaps that adds one further little connection to going back to it after so long? There isn't anything else to say, or rather there is much you could say, pointing out every little detail, ruminating on the story, commenting on every aspect of every part of the world, indeed a big book could be written about it all. But then you'd be better finding out for yourself firsthand: and that's what you should do, if you've never played this game get on it, and if you have, go back to it. You won't be disappointed either way.

*****


 

Child's Play (2)

 DVD, Voyager S6 (Child's Play) (2)

Borg children again, urrrrrgh... That's the only reason I can assume my attitude changed on this one, the last time I saw it, as I did originally like it, but when I first rewatched the series on DVD, years ago, the Borg children were out of favour with me. This time round I haven't been put off (so far), I quite like Icheb (ignoring the terrible disservice made to his character decades later in 'Picard,' a thankless, pointless torture and murder that is one of the lowest points of that series, and that's saying a lot!), and seeing Seven's little gang as a chance for her to become a parent and experience the same kind of things Janeway did with her has been a good new way to further develop her. The downside is that it is solidly in the camp of the Seven/Janeway/Doctor focus of the series, with the other characters barely getting a line in each. That's really the only complaint: in episodes like this, slowly, very slowly is the emphasis on that triumvirate of characters increasing and we're not getting the same impression of a crew working together as a team. Sure, they all still play their part, but when Paris' role is to warn it's going to be tricky for him to fly away from the Borg instead of concentrating on giving him a hero moment, or Tuvok's big moment is providing a countdown in which to amp up the tension before Seven does what's needed to save them, or also in that moment, surely an engineering solution if ever there was one, B'Elanna is left not just unseen, but even un-called for, not any part of that key scene at all... Let's just say you know something's wrong with the balance!

Neelix gets a line where he puts his foot in it, and I'm not saying that wasn't a good moment, Ethan Phillips plays a lot in such brief exposure for his character (assisted by great direction), but it's all to serve Seven's story. Chakotay's on the Bridge as you'd expect the First Officer to be in an expected encounter with the Borg, Harry's at his station doing his job, but how much impact do any of these people have on the episode? Again, it's a criticism of the way these things are handled rather than a specific problem of this episode because here it all slots neatly together, there was no real need or room for a B-story like last time (another Seven story, ironically wanting to give up her role as mentor to her young wards!). The Doctor doesn't have much, but his one scene with Icheb is integral and is a chance to reflect on his own position - he has the task of explaining to Icheb the need for parents, from the man who has no parents, and Icheb even points this out, as he should! The Doc could be held as proof that a 'found family' can work, as seems to be an increasingly popular idea, continuing the belief you can choose every aspect of your being, even down to the physical: body, gender, family... at the expense of reality. From that perspective it's quite creepy, though I'm sure at that time they weren't espousing an anti-family agenda, it's just a theme of our times that can be easily seen in retrospect. The Doc admits he had his programming to fall back on. To this Icheb responds asking how his programming would respond to being asked to live with strangers - it would've been an ideal time to bring up his experience in 'Blink of An Eye' earlier this season where that exact thing happened: trapped on a planet running at a different rate of time and living out his life among strangers!

They aren't always good at appositely referring back to events of the series unless it's for a specific high-concept type of story, like time travel, but I liked that I remembered and it coloured my perception of how the Doctor would respond in such a situation. If it had been 'DS9' they probably would have cottoned on to the potential for more connection between doctor and patient through that, but this being 'Voyager' it doesn't get taken to the next level. Still, this remains a good episode in my eyes, the ending especially is terrifically Trekky: does Icheb throw himself upon the jagged rocks of despair in reaction to his whole existence being predicated on being planned as a weapon, reject his people, his parents, his whole genetic makeup and wish self-destruction on himself in a fury of emotion and confusion? Or does he look objectively at his situation, realise he has so much and 'assimilate' back into his old life (or his new life; his recent life, you could call it), learning something about himself? It's the latter. It's possible it was easier on him because he was just coming into his own on Voyager, he really didn't want to leave, he was entirely opposed until he began to see his duty to his people, that they could use his expertise perhaps more even than Voyager. It wouldn't be as it had been for him, it may not even have been better, but it would have been right. Now that has been removed and he has no duty to them, no obligation after their abuse of him. But he doesn't even seem to blame them for using him, as their only way of countering the Borg.

Importantly for him, Seven acknowledges he's grown up from his considered, balanced reaction to what was a horrible abuse, and shows it in as simple a way as basically allowing him to make his own decision about when to go to bed. It really is that simple, and its simplicity is its joy. The problems with the story logic come when you begin to think about the position of this race, the Brunali: right from the start I was wondering why the Borg wouldn't have finished them off in one fell swoop? We don't ever get any mercy from them, they're a practical set of beings, not sure we can really call Borg a race since they're a bit like the species that procreated by stealing the dead of other races in the last episode - in other words they take what's there and make it their own. So why would they leave prime drone material to live on? Usually, you get the impression, the Borg strip mine everything of a people and their planet, they don't discriminate (hence the news they didn't want the Kazon is such a good putdown on them!), they only assimilate (hey, that's a good slogan, maybe they should use that instead of 'resistance is futile'?), they need every able-bodied being to spread their search for 'perfection,' so it made little sense they'd leave any viable biological subjects behind (especially as they're physically active, being farmers of the land who exercise and eat well). That's when Voyager should have been asking the question: how come there are survivors?

The first problem is solved when we learn the Borg have a reason to leave them alone: like when a predator picks on a skunk and ends up running away, or innumerable other examples in nature of creatures making themselves a bad meal, if the Borg suffered from a virus genetically passed on they might stay away from that people (more likely they'd just eradicate everyone on the planet, but then there wouldn't be a story!), and it mirrors what eventually happened to them at the end of the series on a larger scale. So it does make sense to some extent the Brunali can continue their lives. But still, you'd think the Borg would send more than one vessel (as they do this time, sending a Sphere), over time, but maybe that's answered by the Brunali's lack of technological development, so they pass under the radar, though I don't buy they'd have no interest at all in non-tech planets. Although that makes you wonder why the Borg came in the first place - we know, or think we know, they were attracted to something they'd built, but that was just the story Leucon tells to avoid the real story of Icheb's assimilation as a child sacrifice in space. And that's what it boils down to - they may well be technologically sophisticated enough to be able to travel into space, and they know the Borg aren't 'gods,' but they behave like a pagan culture: sending off a child to its death to 'save' themselves by 'appeasing' (countering), forces more powerful than them. It shows the Brunali are not backward due to their mode of living (healthily working the land and living off what they produce is actually sensible), but due to their mode of expression, the choice they make to save themselves at the expense of their offspring.

We don't know how many times this may have happened. We don't know if the whole community was in on it or they really were simply glad to see their friend again. You would think to be safe they'd need to be 'growing' a whole host of children ready for next time the Borg might venture near, in which case why would they need Icheb so badly to fulfil the 'destiny' he wonders is his? Perhaps the story should have taken an even more horrifying turn and we could have learned that all their children are programmed to carry this virus that will attack the Borg. This would at least make them innocent when they call for Icheb to play games with them. That would suggest that either his friends were good actors and were trying to lull him into a false security, or, more likely, they were genuine and knew nothing of what his parents did. There didn't seem to be a community leader who was urging the parents to go through with the plan again, it was down to his Mother and Father to argue about it. Were they the leaders, or were they simply more advanced in genetics and in charge of that side of things? You do wonder how much complicity there was in the adult community because it does seem to come entirely from them. That's probably more to do with budget and not having room for more characters to make that point since we already have a crowd of extras on location, but thinking about it afterwards it is strange that it all comes from the parents.

It did look good, both the planet setting and the effects work that went into Voyager's encounter with the Sphere - it was noticeable they were trying some different shots, like the ship passing through the camera which could only be achieved with CGI, and the last-second warp effect as the Borg explode, worked very well. It's good to see they're no longer tied to the specific stock shots, as much as it's good to have those for a reassuring sense of continuity from week to week, giving us new imagery is good, too. I wondered if the Brunali settlement itself, within the huge, gouged-out crater of what must have been the Borg attack, was a modified reuse of the matte from 'The Best of Both Worlds' as it looked similar and panned round in the same way, too. I wouldn't be surprised, and it would make sense since they're both examples of Borg attacks. A clue that all was not right, despite the episode technically not needing anything beyond Icheb having to adjust to a new life, and more importantly Seven to adjust to life without him, is one, that there's still a third of the episode left when he leaves the ship, and two, I didn't believe they'd pass up the chance for goodbyes between Icheb and the other Borg children - they never showed that and it felt off. You could argue that Seven is the important character here, and they all had a scene earlier where they were questioning what was going to happen to him, but even so...

One other thing that worked well was Seven's honesty. It's far from the first time she's called the Captain in the middle of the night and espoused a wacky conspiracy theory (I can think of 'Retrospect' and 'The Voyager Conspiracy' off the bat, but I'm sure there were other examples), but in the past she had an arrogance about her rightness, brooking no argument. Here she's much more humble, admitting her emotional involvement, the parallels with her anger at her own parents' fault for getting herself and them assimilated, she understands she has a dog in the race because she can't bear to see Icheb leave just when he's developing so well, but at the same time her Borg brain has hold of the facts and they don't add up. Janeway, too, has been in this situation before, but now she trusts Seven and sees that she has self-knowledge and isn't acting out of selfish motives or wild fear. These kinds of developing character dynamics are what makes Trek tick (it's a shame the writing is generally so average and dull in the modern era that they're unable to pull off simple good writing like this), and it is a delight to see them play out. I'm not suggesting this one is anything close to a classic, it may even be that they didn't allow enough screen time to get Icheb to the point where Seven looks on him as a proud Mother would, but they might have just edged it in that regard. Either way, this episode does sell her deep affection for him and the others, her maternal qualities, stiff and formal as they may be, and though Icheb's real Mother seems warm and caring, in reality she doesn't have anything more than a hardness when it comes to his role.

Leucon, his Father, is much more nuanced. At first he seems merely combative and more openly hostile to Seven's, admittedly, bluntly framed questions. His pride in his people and their minor achievements compared to the level Starfleet is at makes him seem a little backward, and of course they wear rugged outdoor clothing, simple and agrarian, and don't fit into the highly technological, uniform environment aboard Voyager, emphasising a distance between them and Icheb. That changes when he tastes something his Mother used to make and realises there is a connection there, but it's a real tragedy that it's all a ruse. Going back to Leucon, we realise the reason he's so spiky isn't down to personal flaws, it's because he wants his son back, he doesn't want to go through with the plan which is wife is so set on carrying out, though he proves to be too weak to prevent it. It seemed wanton and wasteful that they knock him out and send him off in a ship (like the opposite of Superman!), to take out a Borg vessel. Were they anticipating the Borg returning soon and were buying more time? Did she just have a hatred of the Borg and was desperate to have the opportunity to hurt more of them, in which case to sacrifice Icheb was a waste - how much time would it really buy? It made it all the more chilling that it was the Mother who was instigator, in stark opposition to the natural maternal instinct you'd expect, and though neither of the characters I would say were likeable, they were well played (if I didn't already remember they had a nefarious plot!).

Was Icheb showing he hadn't rejected them when he's studying genetics at the end? Or was he only digging into the plot they created him for? I got the impression of the former, partly because he states his parents believed he would have an aptitude for it, and partly because he isn't raging about it and seems at peace with what happened. If only his parents could have seen that I think they might have changed their minds about him, that he was truly worth more than the initial conception, had become more. You could say that he's learned so much since being aboard Voyager, even though it's been such a short time, proving the positive environment there allows people to flourish. That's something that happens in all (well, maybe not so much in modern-era stuff), Trek, but 'Voyager' especially seemed to make that point about what a good system being in Starfleet, or with Starfleet, could be: Neelix, Kes, Seven, the Doctor... All these people bloomed thanks to being aboard and Icheb has, too. It was the first prospect of losing the Borg children, Seven's little collective, and you'd think Janeway would have told her about contact being made with Icheb's parents as soon as it had happened, not wait until the Science Fair! An example of the vagaries of television, needing to insert drama, but not having enough time elsewhere, I suppose. Icheb, too, although I grant there was more need for tact and care in how to break it to him.

One other theme is strong in this episode, and that's the importance of Home. Voyager has become home to so many of them, but still, as Leucon says, despite all their advances and all the opportunities they have to explore, their primary goal is still to get home. Icheb recognises that and thinks he's found his home, only to be rejected and used, and rediscovers home on Voyager. The Brunali act out of how much they value their home rather than fleeing to somewhere safer. It's important, especially this late in the series to reiterate that it's all about getting home. I know those in charge, Rick Berman and others, claimed they felt Voyager was pointing the wrong way and should have been about boldly going out rather than concentrating on going back, but I think that was one of the series' unique features that made it different to all that had come before. I believe they were just trying to rationalise why viewing figures were going down over time, but it was more to do with shifting tastes and a changing world than that Trek wasn't firing any more. There's something poignant about getting home, returning to a place that nurtured you or has special memories - it's no surprise that getting home for Christmas, for example, is such a strong concept, and such an attractive one. There are things you can't change about yourself, no matter how much the world says you can, and family is one of them. You're forced to live with those you have no choice about (in the same way you can't choose your neighbours, other than moving to escape!), and sometimes that works and sometimes it doesn't.

For Icheb it didn't work so he was fortunate to have a foster Mother who cared about him, provided for him, wanted the best for him, and there lay a great representation of what it's like to be someone that takes a child or young person under their wing. Seven hadn't had the experience of dealing with ex-family members so she was abrasive and hard with those she saw as having failed her charge. Though she didn't know it went far beyond mistakes I'm sure she would have learned to temper her own feelings when dealing with the same situation in future. I don't remember how much they did with the other children leaving the ship, but this was invaluable experience just on that level. And it created a strong bond between her and Icheb for the rest of their lives, only tragic how it was abused by the 'Picard' writers for shock value. To undo that there's very little that could be done unless we went back to a time shortly after Voyager reached its goal and saw them as they were back then. It's unlikely that would ever happen and we just have to accept that modern Trek has done so much damage in so many ways to the veracity, quality and greatness of these and other characters. I'm not saying it's all wrong, but the general attitude and tone is far more wrong than it's ever right, and watching episodes of the 'Voyager' era serves to remind me that Trek really was a powerful and good source of inspiration back then.

Naomi Wildman gets another small role, talking about her homeworld as a project in the Science Fair. The writers seemed to forget the planet had already been named Ktaria VII, because it gets an alternate name of Katarus here! I'm not against planets having more than one name (the Klingon's home planet is called Kling, Kronos and Qo'noS, variously), as it adds more texture to a species. At the same time the Ktarians are such an undeveloped C- or even D-species given they had so little attention paid to them - I think the only other example of their race was Etana Jol in 'The Game' from 'TNG' and you can see Naomi (half-human as she was), was picked as that race merely as a fun little nod to Trek history rather than as a potential to flesh out a named species more fully. So I'd have preferred this particular reference to underline what we already knew, in this case calling the planet Ktaria VII, because it makes the writers look like they didn't remember what had been established... Another planet that gets a little onscreen reference is Nimbus III (on the Astrometrics display), along with a few other Trek worlds such as Organia. I probably wouldn't have noticed that so much in the past, but now I'm more careful to pause and take a look. And it was nice to see Janeway reading in her Quarters - not a PADD, but a real, physical book, another example of the kind of reverence for the past that Trek used to exhibit. And finally, Leucon is played by Mark A. Sheppard, as opposed to Mark Allen Shepherd (Morn in 'DS9,' and cameoed in this series don't forget!), the son of the great W. Morgan Sheppard, a familiar face across various Treks, and indeed 'Voyager,' too.

***