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!

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