Flesh & Blood (2)

 DVD, Voyager S7 (Flesh & Blood) (2)

A little slice of 'DS9' is sort of how I see this, but it's also a big slice of 'Voyager' mid-season extravaganza, as became a bit of a tradition (if missed in Season 6, a little like 'TNG' skipped a Q appearance one year). I enjoyed it more last time I saw it compared to my initial impressions and felt it was something you could get your teeth into thanks to the feature-length running time of two episodes in one, not done since Season 5's 'Dark Frontier.' Before that viewing I was a little underwhelmed, since I had lofty expectations for the Hirogen (they should be seven-foot monsters as they were in their first appearances), but that species trait had already been broken in the same season they first appeared, most likely due to a lack of sizeable actors to fill dramatic roles, so I became more resigned that their uniqueness had been lost and simply sat back and enjoyed the runaround - I had the same experience this time, too, seeing it as the closest we can get to a 'Voyager' film. At the same time, like most blockbusters, and a lot of Trek films (especially the recent Kelvin Timeline series, which has thankfully been finally put out of its misery, nine years after the last one failed to strain above mediocre), it's more action and running around than anything much deeper (literally in the Doctor's case - we've rarely seen him move so quickly!), but as Trek of the old often did, it has more going on between the ears and in the chest cavity departments, and it's those things that still resonate even while the physical drama isn't quite as thrilling as it once would have been.

The idea of holographic life is a rich seam to mine, but due to Voyager being lost (can we still say they're lost - they know where they're going and they're getting increasingly closer as the series progresses), in the Delta Quadrant, we didn't have all that much space to develop the concept, one of the most intriguing situations of this period of later 24th Century life that the return of Voyager could have greatly impacted. 'DS9' had dealt with it a little, but not so much in the sense that holo-characters could be a 'real' life form that grew and became more than it was designed to be, primarily through Vic Fontaine who was self-aware, but also content to remain within his fiction, a much more realistic approach those writers took to both have fun with the concept of holograms, but also admit that there is more to it than just light and forcefields. If you think too deeply about it, it doesn't really, entirely make sense. As far back as Moriarty on 'TNG' we'd learnt what it might be like if a hologram took on ideas of its own, but that was played merely for villainy, a fictional character trying to become fact. With 'Voyager' they couldn't escape the ramifications of what they'd done by relying so heavily on this revolutionary EMH program by necessity, and in the same way Janeway admits some responsibility for the situation the Hirogen find themselves in here, it was also down to her that the Doctor became who he was in the latitude she gave to what was a tool, or extension, of the ship itself. Actually, that might have been interesting if the Doctor had represented Voyager herself, spoken on behalf, acted on the ship's requirements, but then it would have been more 'Farscape' than Trek and a very different series.

If Voyager had been on missions in the Alpha Quadrant the Doctor either wouldn't have needed to remain online and be required to grow beyond his programming, or if he had, he'd have been examined back at base whenever they did get home. Modifications could have been made to ensure his model didn't develop these unique personality traits and all that went into his makeup as a person, because it is pretty ludicrous when you think about it: it's something we created, Starfleet basically playing God without realising it, since holograms are meant to be there to service real life, they're computer programs, and though we'd already been through all this to determine whether Data was a person or a computer, property, himself, he was much harder to recreate (until we get into the murky realm of 'Picard' and all the damage that series did to the tech and the lore...), so it wasn't like another Data could be spontaneously birthed into the world, while a hologram can be conjured up wherever holoemitters exist. At the same time, though they can have physicality and interact with the real world, they are merely projections of a program. This is why it's hard to accept Iden's idea of building a holographic society on a Class-Y world - that they can live in inhospitable conditions was a good sense idea, that they can find ways to have a meaningful existence when they don't grow old, have families, have any needs, is much harder to accept and is a major flaw in the idea of them being real, sentient beings.

Just as much a flaw in the idea is the fact that they require technology for basic survival, always at the risk of their computers degrading, especially in the harsh environment of the planet Iden chose for home. There's occasionally talk of what they're going to do with their time ('anything' is too wide a concept), without realising, for example, that the Doctor's purpose in life is to heal. Remove that purpose and yes, he still has other interests: opera singing, photography, but what value would any of it have without a concrete purpose in 'life,' replaced with merely an existence in opposition to that serving organics. Perhaps the issue of purpose should have been central to the story and rather than making Iden into the standard megalomaniacal cult leader, the group could have fallen apart from the realisation they wouldn't have a purpose to their existence, not enough to be away from what they were designed to do. I wasn't quite sure where these holo-characters came from, either - obviously materially they were generated from Voyager's databases, but were they meant to be based on real people or were they just a set of parameters for what certain races were like. There's a whole discussion between B'Elanna and Kejal about stereotypes and it does raise the issue of the outer skin of a person being irrelevant, it's what comes from the inside, the intellect and the emotions and the character that is important, which is why none of these holograms are actually the races they portray, but all holographic, and yet they are also all programmed to behave a certain way or display certain attributes inherent to the characters as designed.

They're all actually based on the Doctor's program which is how we can believe they were able to adapt and move beyond merely being actors in a simulation, which is what holograms usually are, not designed to be more than that because self-determination and sentience would actually interfere with the purpose for which they were created (Vic notwithstanding!), but if they were meant to learn and develop as the Doctor did then that presents a far more credible way to accept how we got to this situation, compounded by the fact that Donik, who is clearly an inexperienced technician (which makes me ask how he was able to learn in the first place, and if there aren't many such people, how do the Hirogen create ships and weapons - in the same way the Klingons mostly seem like warriors, though we had seen others to show there were innovators and scientists among them), enhances or perhaps messes up their programming to make them more deadly in the hunt. Perhaps it is this that made Iden a dangerously immoral character, purportedly a serious follower of the Bajoran religion, praying to the Prophets that the dead Hirogen will find their way to the Celestial Temple, but was that all an act or was it he was simply unhinged? He could have been putting on a show for the Doctor, or he could have genuinely believed up to the point at which it might interfere with his own goals, or he may have been misguided entirely about what it all meant, we never really know, since you'd think if he hated organics so much (like Dejaren in 'Revulsion'), he'd throw off the shackles of everything related to them.

Except holograms can't ever completely divorce themselves from those that made them because they know for a fact they were made, they can't escape it, short of denying the truth, and the unintended parallels between them and us who have denied God in our culture, building up myths to replace him, have not been lost on me! It would be interesting to see (much like the space seed of Khan planted on a planet and allowed time to grow!), if this society had played out on that planet, what would have sprung up - would they have eventually denied the truth of their past, they are after all unreal creations that can exist in a fantasy world just as real to them as the real world? What would have been the result of such a society? We don't get to explore the ideas fully because we go off on that Iden madness tangent of an idealistic leader who turns out to be evil, as cruel and oppressive as those he claims to oppose. The society will survive, or I think that was the idea at the end, with Donik going with Kejal to repair the damage, but the questions still remain about how will they fill their time even if they were led by stable government? They could build physical things, but certainly not on the kind of barren, empty planet that would best serve their needs for security (though it wouldn't have prevented aerial bombardment unless they lived in underground caves), or they could build holographic things, but what would be the point, they might as well learn to program and be done with it. It's a bit like AI now - we could just let it design and build everything, but where would the creativity and sense of satisfaction come from?

Really the episode throws up all kinds of questions about holographic life without answering them, and perhaps I'm making it more complicated in my own mind than the implications allow, but it's such a deep concept to explore you'd need a lot more time and patience to sift through and examine, and when it's all about a life form that can be blinked out with the press of a button, maybe all the agonising and headache-inducing isn't worth the effort and we should simply take it as it is. That's pretty much how holograms were treated by Kurtzman-era Trek: it's as if there was no development on whether these are slaves that should be freed from captivity, an essential resource to be used, or a mere unnecessary technology that could be in danger of replacing people in so many tasks. But I'm digressing rather, this should be about the episode and not the wider implications of the entire concept of holographic nature. It's quite shocking, for example, that the Doctor does ally himself with Iden and the gang, believing they have so much in common, because he shares about as much with them as they did with the primitive holograms Iden 'liberates' from the alien ship, since they don't have the Doc's 'DNA,' and are merely functional tools and nothing more, which is what the majority of holograms would be.

What I like about this one, apart from the speculation it creates, is that it's a direct sequel to the great 'The Killing Game' when Janeway left the Hirogen with holographic technology (not sure how, since it's a system integrated to the ship, but maybe it was just the schematics?), something that really seemed unwise when you think the Federation shouldn't be giving out such things, but then as Chakotay said, the technology isn't inherently violent, it's what the Hirogen did with it that made it that way, something you could see as a comment on entertainment today - it's like we've been handed the ability to make films, TV, games, etc, but we exceed the morality of what went before (which wasn't always moral then, obviously, but there's a definite downward trend, as shown by even Trek these days). It seemed at the time as if Janeway's decision was a benevolent assistance, a nonlethal form for them to release their hunting tendencies, but which didn't take into account the species' desire for more and more carnage. On the other hand, Donik would have had to train as a hunter, something he didn't want to do, so he became a technician thanks to Janeway and also had a sense of responsibility towards his creation. It's a shame we didn't get a deeper exploration of Hirogen culture and life for them, just these little hints, as it could have had so much more impact if we'd seen their homeworld or a colony and how it all works, in the way we saw Klingon life through so many episodes. But however deep Trek goes we always want it to delve deeper, that's the nature of fanatical interest, I suppose!

This was another way to bring familiar Trek to the Delta Quadrant, so we get Vulcans, Romulans, Cardassians, Bajorans, Borg, humans, Klingons (not the last we'd see this season), even Jem'Hadar and Breen (the last time for the latter until 'Lower Decks' Season 3 - I don't count the awful 'DSC' versions, even if they're calling them Breen! And for Jem'Hadar we haven't seen them at all, not even in 'Picard' Season 3, which you'd have expected with the Dominion connection...), and when B'Elanna gets kidnapped and says about it being like an Alpha Quadrant summit, I was thinking it was like a Trek convention, everyone dressed as their favourite race! But it is fantastic to get all these familiar faces (especially the Breen, whose machine language we get to hear once again!), and this is a kind of throwback to what we know that would nowadays be called 'fan service' in a derogatory sense, as if giving people what they want, callbacks to the familiar, was something negative when in fact it's about firmly reminding us of the world we're in, the shorthand of the universe, and no doubt was meant to appeal to those that had seen 'TNG' and 'DS9' but may have been put off by the fact 'Voyager' was out in an entirely other 'world.' In fact I thought they might have even gone further with this, perhaps brought back a famous face or two, such as Martok (J.G. Hertzler had already popped up on the series in another role - a Hirogen, coincidentally!), or even a famous 'TNG' or 'DS9' character. They're all holograms so it would've been justified, but then that's the territory people complain about with modern Trek, I suppose, and could take attention away from the story they were trying to tell.

It certainly appeals to me that they were able to bring in connections to the wider Trek world, even in Season 1 they had a Romulan show up, and a mix of the new and old was good for the series, I feel. Speaking of which, Vaughn Armstrong (who'd already been in the series as that aforementioned Romulan, and two other roles on this series), made his seventh role in Trek with an Hirogen, though he doesn't last long or have much impact on the story. And Paul Eckstein had previously played a Hirogen in the story this was a sequel to, 'The Killing Game,' back again as a Hirogen, but a different character (he was another familiar name across 'DS9' and 'Voyager'). I didn't recognise where I knew him from, but the aggressive holographic Starfleet officer, Weiss, Iden's second, was played by Spencer Garrett whose face was recognisable as Simon Tarses from 'The Drumhead' on 'TNG,' a fun connection. Cindy Katz had been in a Cardassian-heavy episode of 'DS9,' 'Second Skin,' though hadn't been a Cardassian in that one (and technically, isn't in this one either, though that's her holographic appearance), so it was a nice selection of familiar faces and voices to some degree or another, though of course this was actually two episodes, no doubt the budget reflecting that.

It may not have been such a great episode for many of the main cast since so much time is given over to guest stars, which can be a problem if the guests aren't up to standard, but perhaps because so many were Trek veterans of some description it wasn't bad to watch them and didn't take away from the cast, but when you think back, most of them weren't very involved. It's more like one of those early episodes where one character would have the meat of the story, this time the Doctor, but it maybe should have been a B'Elanna story - there were some parallels with her Season 2 episode, 'Dreadnought,' in which she's kidnapped and forced to work on a Cardassian weapon. This was eerily similar, since holograms are a program like the Cardassian weapon, but this time she has more impact mentally. The Doctor had to be at the centre of it all because it's about the rights and responsibilities, but I felt like he'd been through this before ('Revulsion' comes to mind again, but maybe other experiences, too), though unlike so many early episodes where Janeway would show up in Sickbay where an errant crewman had messed up once again, she doesn't give the Doctor a dressing down or punish him in any way. It was all well and good to say that it was her fault in some way, but it was like she didn't have anywhere to go with that since in the early episodes, if she was disappointed by his behaviour or choices, she could express the suggestion maybe she'd been wrong to indulge his wish for more rights, but it's too late to go back to all that now. There should have been some kind of punishment, since he did effectively mutiny and it was only Iden's desire to win him over that Voyager was allowed to live, otherwise the series could have been over prematurely!

We get some nice little bits of continuity, such as B'Elanna showing discomfort when Kejal is assigned to assist her on the holograms' ship, as she would, having fought the Cardassians as part of the Maquis. The Doc even mentioned the Maquis, and that was what I thought of when Chakotay suggests his turning was not due to a malfunction, but the draw of the cause (as Ro Laren did on 'TNG' - it's been nice to have her story resolved since), something he knew about only too well. Tom Paris as a medic again, and a couple of alien species Voyager had encountered recently (the Nuu'bari and Lokirrim, though I later realised the former were new to this episode, they just looked familiar), were referenced as societies that had holographic life forms. The delineation between the Doctor and these programs that have come from his template, and the basic alien versions was a good reminder how special and unique he is. But still, most of the cast are underserved - Neelix, for example only gets one important moment when he plays the old macho card of the Hirogen not wanting it to get out they were beaten by holograms, when trying to persuade them not to demand their rights to the technology (though I don't see how they could prevent them from rebuilding it). I wonder if by this time of the series' run he was really feeling the discomfort of the makeup and they were writing him in less in consequence, although the character was often given shorter shrift as the series had gone on anyway.

One thing that wasn't answered or even addressed, was how Voyager would surely be well away from Hirogen space by now - how could they have been given this technology in Season 4, but show up three years later in Voyager's path! Unless our ship was meandering around and going back on itself, and even then it would have to be a society-wide sharing of tech, the chances of Voyager stumbling on the exact group of Hirogen that had holo-tech otherwise a practical impossibility in the vastness of space! Not that I mind that massive plot hole myself, it was good to go back to a popular race one more time, but it was a drawback with Voyager that it was always moving on and so made it difficult to create ongoing stories. It's even bopped right on the nose when Chakotay says their reputation has preceded them, but surely they were going in the other direction, it doesn't make sense! I was unclear why they didn't realise the space station they beamed down to was a holographic environment - I suppose it could have been bio-domes or something, with only the 'sunlight' being artificial, but it just seemed they were too surprised by it all. I did like Janeway coaxing Donik to understand they weren't holograms, other than the Doctor - we just take for granted so much of what happens between the holograms and the physical world, like he phases out when Donik throws a tray at him, or they fizz out when their programs are malfunctioning, or the little zip when they come into the correct phase or when the Doc or Iden connect to his holoemitter. Little things, but so effective you don't even think of it all in the moment as we're so used to Trek selling this stuff so well.

They didn't do that in every area: it was a touch incongruent to see camp beds set up in the Mess Hall as you'd think they'd have something a little more futuristic and effective than that! I'm sure we'd seen them used before whenever there was an epidemic and Sickbay was swamped, but they stood out to me. It was also strange to see blood on the Hirogen - that on the Bat'leth made sense as it's a piercing weapon, but after they were attacked from the pond with Phasers and Phaser Rifles, surely such weapons would cauterise wounds, not leave blood splashes. Regarding that scene, it was certainly effective, but I couldn't help wish they'd made it even more outlandish by having a Breen, a Jem'Hadar, a Cardassian along with a Starfleet officer, rising out of the water, rather than all human-like characters, as that might have created even more impact for the scene. And I felt Donik could have been a nice addition to the crew if he hadn't gone off at the end - I was imagining he and Icheb getting on well as they were similar characters, perhaps they could have done a story where they competed for Seven's attention. Actually, even she's largely absent, and I thought when Chakotay selects her for the Away Team and then calls her with him when they split into two groups, this might give us at least one small moment between them that could hint at what was to come at the end of the season, but it seems that was entirely unplanned so they probably had no idea at this point. I found it interesting that Bajorans might believe all dead are on a journey to the Prophets, I'm not sure we ever got that impression before, and any mistake that doesn't line up with what 'DS9' may have said on the subject can easily be avoided since it's a hologram saying it, and while he may be accurate, he may also have twisted Bajoran beliefs or interpreted them entirely wrongly.

To be honest it was just lovely to hear mention of the Prophets and the Celestial Temple (wonder what Iden thought of Sisko? A mention of the Emissary would have been fun), to see a Bajoran uniform, not to mention all the other races and uniforms we get, and a good excuse to use some old props and costumes, I'm sure, to put a more cynical spin on it! But the story was a good one, if not fully thought through, sidetracked by Iden's malicious tendencies, but also a valuable reminder of what happens when a group try to throw off the 'normality' and values of a society in order to remake it in their own image: they want to be God and they don't care how many lives are taken to do it, so even more pertinent for today's times, I felt, and the idea of these fake beings playacting a life on some barren rock to escape the apparent servitude they felt they were under was ripe for much more investigation. It had some big questions and some heart-tugging moments and was the last feature-length episode other than the finale, so it has a special place for me, and one I still feel is great for just losing yourself in that isn't always possible with forty-five minute stories. Perhaps the Doctor gets off scot-free at the end, but you can see how deeply it's affected his conscience and also reminds us of the hope of grace when Janeway leaves him unpunished and he picks up the holoemitter, the symbol of his freedom. In reality he hadn't even earned that as it was a piece of tech stolen from the future, but that's an entire other issue and one we'll have to see addressed when they get back to Earth... Yeah, right!

****

Nightingale (2)

 DVD, Voyager S7 (Nightingale) (2)

Captain Kim-caid! The unique situation of Voyager means that the natural progression most Starfleet officers would make up the ranks is limited by the number of people they have available, but as we can see with this story, that doesn't mean the crew aren't qualified, or does it? I feel the idea worked in both ways, in one sense this could be the most experienced crew a starship has had since they've been through so much while keeping to the command hierarchy and protocols demanded by Captain Janeway, but the other side of that is they could also be comfortable in the roles that have been so long established and haven't had to confront the change of superiors or the mix of fellow crewmembers they work with which could turn a team stale. Don't forget, though, this is Starfleet, they're meant to be the best of the best, it's mere degrees of expertise that separate them from each other, and also, this isn't the first ship to be out on its own for years on end - we have the impression, whether founded in canon or not, that five year missions are about the standard length of a long-range cruiser type of starship, and while Voyager was meant for science missions, and wasn't designed for the long-term position they're in, it was state of the art at launch and we've seen how well it's adapted to the requirements made upon it. None of this means that a junior officer such as Ensign Harry Kim can't see himself as Captain material, but what it does mean is he rarely gets the chance outside of the Holodeck.

One of the joys of this episode is seeing him fired up and ready to progress, to show what he's made of instead of being the sidekick - he gets that excellent scene with Tom where he expresses disenchantment with being Buster Kincaid all the time to Tom's Captain Proton, and for once gets one over on his old buddy who just wants out of cleaning duties to come along, yet despite a demotion, would still be Kim's superior on a mission. It's actually very interesting to see the rigid nature of command protocol in action since we can sometimes have the impression of looser structure than previous Treks had shown in general, and in an age where Trek has almost thrown off the 'shackles' of hierarchy and structure to its great detriment in exchange for non-Starfleet personnel, or ex-Starfleet, or simply an attitude of friendship rather than professionalism, it's so reassuring to have these ideals front and centre as a great reminder of why these things matter in the face of an increasingly fantasy-driven way of looking at the world we see in modern society where everyone's views are as valid, discipline is lax and respect is uncommon. Here we have all of those things and yet Captain Kim still fails to a large degree. Or does he? It was a very sensitive scenario to find himself in, but also quite rare to have him in the situation of being senior officer on a mission, only Neelix and Seven with him, both of whom would be as experienced in many ways, if not more so, or if not experienced then owning a greater range of knowledge.

Take Neelix, he's been a Captain himself, albeit of his own small ship, and not for a few years, but he was always shown to be a man about galaxy, and offers the valuable advice not to show indecision in the role. Seven has much of the accumulated knowledge of the Borg on tap, plus the rigorous training Janeway gave her during an intensive Season 4 acclimatisation schedule so she among anyone has been able to study the qualities of a great Captain firsthand - you'd think Kim would have been equal in sucking up command knowledge, and over a greater number of years, but sometimes it takes an outside view to see the bigger picture, and while he's intent on making it, he fails to see the value of building up his crew, being over-managerial and intent on making the right decision while failing to see the need to include them. You could say even his first act to get involved in an armed conflict was rash, as much as it appeared to be the fair thing to do when an apparently humanitarian medical ship is attacked by a more dangerous warship. Perhaps if the Annari hadn't fired on the Flyer Kim would have had less grounds for what he did, entering the conflict on one side. But it's difficult, the same way if one person was being attacked on the street by multiple opponents, it's just that natural aversion to inequality that would encourage someone to come and help the oppressed party even if you don't know the reasons behind it. But that's the difficulty Starfleet officers can face wherever they go, whether to get involved or remain aloof, and it must be one of the most tricky decisions to make under pressure.

I wonder if the fact the Annari were reminiscent of Cardassians in their mass of dark hair and much facial bone structure, and their military superiority, while their opponents were more fresh-faced, plus the nose ridge look of Bajorans added to the Trek shorthand of who was in the right or wrong. It could have been subversion on the part of the production, we've certainly seen that played out before (such as in 'Nemesis' where the Kradin looked fearsomely like Predator aliens, while their enemies appeared human), and to some extent it was, since the Kraylor were lying to Kim from the start about their real intentions, but it wasn't as simple a situation as one side good, one side bad, though it's clear the aggressors were the Annari, especially as they were more actively opposed to our characters. It's a tough position to be in, Kim isn't experienced enough to know exactly what was right, but Janeway even admits she'd probably have done the same (even if she's not always the best example to follow, of course). It's interesting to speculate on what each of the main cast might have done in the same situation, Torres would have been more aggressive, especially if the Annari had fired on them, while Tuvok I suspect would've been more prudent. You can tell the same story with any of them and it would be a fascinating divergence, but then that's the great thing about Trek, the characters are so well defined we can see this or a similar scenario in many episodes and how it plays out each time.

Harry has been one of the characters not to be given many strong roles in the later part of the series and this was unequivocally his episode (sadly, I think the only Kim-centric episode of the season), even while he had Seven along with him, what would have been an unusual pairing had it not been for the fact only the previous episode had them trapped together on an alien ship! But it's a rich dynamic with her an unofficial member of the crew (it's said she has no rank, though I'd have thought she'd at least be Crewman, but not knowing enough about rank in general I don't know if this isn't considered a rank), so below Kim in authority, yet clearly with a level of knowledge gleaned from Borg, Janeway or even her interactions with the Doctor, that give her insight. What works about all this is that Kim is quite commanding, even from the first encounter with the aliens, behaving more like a Captain should and making a bold decision quickly, in turn giving him confidence to push for this as his mission. At the same time there are some warning signs even right away, since this ship is supposedly on a mission of peaceful medical aid, yet they travel cloaked, which is an underhanded way to operate according to Roddenberry himself, knowing full well that if such technology existed in this universe for one race then the Federation should be able to come up with its own variation, except it's not their style (USS Defiant's fudging notwithstanding - they were able to justify it quite nicely, once again proving it's not what you do, but how you do it).

About the cloak: they say it's their best defence, but apparently the Annari could still detect them since that's how we see them first attack the Kraylor, so it wasn't as effective as it might have been. The important thing is seeing a character excelling, making the right moves, showing their training, it's a delight to have Kim come into his own, but that only makes it a harder lesson to learn and a more satisfying one to watch. If it was all plain sailing, Kim carried out his mission, navigating the bumps, showed himself to be ideal Captain material, where would he go this late in the series (or really, anywhere in it!). For it to be a worthwhile story there had to be some growth, and while it may not be a cheering success for him to admit to Neelix he's not a Captain at the end, in typical optimistic style he adds the caveat, 'not yet,' promising hope for the future and a desire to become better, which is what Trek is all about. It was also important for it to be a serious story, not another one where Kim falls in with the wrong girl, something which had become a running joke for the series, though they couldn't help but reference it when Tom assumes this is his reason for wanting to get involved after Kim zings him with the riposte that now he's married he should leave such missions to the young, unattached guys!

As usual, I can't help but imagine how modern Trek would approach such a story and it's such a relief we don't have Kim joking about needing to have a catchphrase, simply stealing from the best and saying 'engage!' This is how to do it realistically, not being mates with the crew, but holding himself apart to some level, except in his case it's more that he disregards the capabilities and needs of those under him to the point where they find it easy to mutiny until he returns to give his expertise and ensure the mission's success even if it wasn't the mission he thought it was. The acceptability of being involved in an alien war is a grey area, they're both warp capable (I noticed the cloaked Kraylor vessel even had a warp flash when it went to warp, which must be a bit of giveaway to enemy ships!), but it's less about the morality of involvement and more about how Kim handles himself despite all this. If it had been an early season he might have had a dressing down from the Captain, but a lot of it wasn't his fault - I thought it was a strange parallel that the actor who played Geordi, LeVar Burton, directed the episode, when his character was famously sent to his death by another junior officer (in command terms, at least in experience), Dr. Crusher, in her Holodeck training scenario, and that's what Kim did here, inadvertently, the Kraylor woman, Dayla, repairing the ship, staying to her death, though it was really the fake doctor's commands she was following, so Kim couldn't feel too badly, especially as she volunteered for the job - it could have been Seven, maybe that made it more sharp to Kim's conscience?

We're halfway through the episode before Kim even gets to take over command of the Kraylor ship he christens Nightingale - that was maybe the only indulgence towards modern Trek style, having him gibe it a new name, but I always forget why the episode is named that, and it's because he calls the ship after Florence Nightingale who did so much for nursing, so that gives it more weight. Seven comes across very wise with her simple reminder that a Holodeck program can be turned off, while reality can't, there are going to be consequences, but her pep talk at least brings Kim to the realisation he can still make a difference to the ship's chances, even if he isn't entirely sure of the appropriateness of the military mission it's turned into. I wasn't quite sure why he deemed it necessary to bring a saxophone along, though Seven questions this very point and he says it's basically to make it more his place, an investment in the ship. He always used to be a clarinet player so I don't know why a saxophone was his instrument of choice, but perhaps he's less attached to that and so didn't mind if something happened to it rather than his prized clarinet, or maybe it was a symbol of moving away from his parents' wishes, however incremental, that he now prefers that instrument rather than the one they'd had him studying? Either way, it was a valuable lesson learned on his first command without a safety net, and what to put in the Ready Room is the garnish to the position, not the meat.

Sadly, the B-story, as fun as it is, doesn't end with a lesson learned, since B'Elanna doesn't have the energy to put Icheb straight when the latter believes she's pursuing him romantically. He makes the mistake of going to the Doctor for advice, only too happy to oblige and I'm sure it made his day, and it's not so much the advice as the fact Icheb doesn't give him all the facts, so it's a skewed appraisal of the situation (I'm sure if B'Elanna ever finds out the Doc's role in it, she'll give him a hard time!). I do enjoy Icheb, he's like a more diligent and less forceful version of Seven when she was liberated from the Collective, so a different spin on familiar events, again like Kim in that respect, both are dealing with unknown situations, getting advice from trusted colleagues, but Icheb's situation is more of a joke, a fun one, but where he didn't really learn, or not the right way. It might have been better if Torres had been set on putting him right instead of humouring him, but at least he learnt something. It's amusing in itself that B'Elanna would be the one to teach him how to have fun - shame we never saw them using the rock-climbing holoprogram, or for that matter actually going outside and tackling those rocky mountains, but they probably didn't have the budget to spare for that. We do get some nice views of Voyager on the planet, a rare sight in the series, and interesting to see crew walking on the hull (if some of the animation is a bit weak), and especially the one-man hover platforms some are using to repair the Nacelle, which I don't think we'd ever seen or heard of before.

Another rarity for those that are interested in the smallest detail, is the sight of a Starfleet boot - usually they're covered over by the hem of the trouser legs, but when Kim's on the floor repairing the alien ship you can actually see the whole boot! Something else of interest gave rise to speculation: when Icheb comes to repair the Doctor's holoemitters in Sickbay the Doctor claims his legs disappear when he moves to a corner of the surgical bay, but wouldn't he fall over? Are his simulated legs supporting his simulated weight, or is he effectively floating in the air and as such doesn't physically need legs? I imagine both scenarios are possible since he is a projection after all, it's just not something I generally consider when thinking about him - we know he can be solid or not as he chooses, but the full details have never been explained, to my knowledge. For once no guest stars had been in Trek before, unless you count Icheb, only his second appearance this season. And this was LeVar Burton's first directing job of the season, returning for the first time since Season 5's 'Timeless,' and did a fine, anonymous job as usual, which is what you want from a Director, nothing too flashy, but everything in its place and right. It's not a breakout kind of episode, it's simply an enjoyable experience. For us, if maybe not so much for Kim.

***

Body and Soul (2)

 DVD, Voyager S7 (Body and Soul) (2)

Companionship, of all the morals and messages of this story, may be the most important, despite this being in many ways an issue-driven episode that packs in some rather sensitive subjects, it was Seven's thoughtful friendship with the Doctor that had the biggest impact coming right at the end when she attempts to sympathise with living in his 'skin,' unable to experience the many experiences and delights organic form allows us, a touching conclusion as they 'share' a meal by Seven explaining the experiences to include him, and while it may seem small comfort to someone unable to taste and smell, it was the best gift she could have given him, a symbol of understanding between them. So all's well between them after the Doctor couldn't help himself in exploring the opportunity of the senses provided by his enforced incarceration within Seven's implant to escape a hologram-averse race who are fighting a war with 'photonic' insurgents. We don't get a lot of information on how this holographic uprising developed (and it was a theme further explored later this season), but it sounds as if the Lokirrim were much the same level of technological development as the Federation (which doesn't explain how they've never developed the Replicator, which, considering holograms are matter-energy conversion themselves, shouldn't have been missing from their culture, you'd think), using holograms as useful tools, but as we've seen in 'Voyager,' the Doctor became much more than that.

It's true that Starfleet is still in early days of that route of holographic assistance and this 'late' in the time we'd have in the 24th Century it's a shame such ideas hadn't been considered much earlier as it is a fascinating rabbit hole to go down: should artificially created beings have rights? Can they develop a personality unique to themselves? Even so, can they still be considered sentient? If they can be, what does that mean for the Federation's pursuit of such technology, isn't it akin to slavery or would it develop into consensual servanthood instead? So many questions were thrown up by the Doctor's blossoming into such a character across this series, and one more reason to be intrigued and excited  by the possibilities of Voyager's return home, since we'd seen little of the implications in brother-series 'DS9' (some details of the direction Starfleet was going in thanks to 'Dr. Bashir, I Presume'), but alas, we never got to see the fulfilment of so much potential, even if the status of holograms was addressed later in this season. Treks set later avoided going into the issues since Trek became mere action adventure more than anything else, no time in 'Picard' (or 32nd Century-set 'DSC'), to explore such things, though holograms were still used. We can only assume they reached a level where they could program them to be tools and go no further, negating the need for them to develop into beings that required rights, but the details have never been hammered out (probably for the best considering how weak the writing has been on modern Trek in general).

They could have delved into the issue side of the story, but instead they preferred to throw out a comedy - not the kind we'd find in modern Trek which would have dealt with much of this subject matter in a juvenile, lowest common denominator way, but as a showcase for Jeri Ryan, displaying just how great an actress she was. It's strange how many similarities can be seen with this version being run by the Doctor, and the future Seven of 'Picard' - in that future she's learned to become a hard-drinker, somehow getting round the effect alcohol has on Borg physiology (aha, a new way to defeat them: get them drunk!). Then we see her in a rare chance at literally letting her hair down, the same look she'd sport decades later. And of course she has little restraint since the Doctor is expressing himself through her... just like latter-day Seven. Could it be... Is there some sort of conspiracy... Seven in 'Picard' has the Doctor living in her implant again??? It would be a fun theory except for all the un-Doctor-like harshness and wanton violence she enacts on her enemies, as he would have reined her in from such a destructive path. But joking aside, that could explain her extremely different behaviour in 'Picard' if it was to be revealed that another personality were inhabiting her body through her Borg tech, and would make all the horrible things they did with that character go away!

Ryan is really good here, which is why it's hard to understand how little she was able to return to the voice of Seven in recent years (and we never got that reunion with the Doctor, despite both of them acting in modern Trek - the only hope now is that a holographic version of her interacts with him in 'Starfleet Academy,' but I suspect the chances are slim, though the beauty of that situation, the Doc's own pupil returning in his form, would be delicious!), and she does an excellent job of portraying the Doctor's mannerisms, vocal style and all-round attitude. It's entirely believable he'd be unable to resist the temptation to try out the experiences as much as possible, even justifying it for a medical paper on the subject, almost completely forgetting the ethics of using someone else's body, or in Seven's words 'abusing her body'! Not something you'd ever have imagined the character accusing her mentor of! As I said, if this had been 'Lower Decks,' 'SNW' or whatever, they'd have gone down the entirely inappropriate paths with this body swap comedy, to the extreme, but while certain issues crop up, they were dealt with in a mostly adult way, in the good sense of that word rather than the modern sense of being more juvenile and explicit. Trek was meant to be family entertainment, quite far from what it's become to modern viewers, so yes, we get the Doctor being attracted to Trek guest returnee Megan Gallagher's nurse (another nurse!), while still in Seven's body, and quickly realising what's going on and getting a hold of himself quick-smart.

It's just enough to amuse without becoming uncomfortable, the same with the Captain of the Lokirrim ship finding 'Seven' so wonderful and going as far as kissing her, which the Doctor was completely oblivious to, perhaps caught up in the sensory pleasures of seeing and hearing the spatial phenomenon, although since sight and sound is something he experiences normally perhaps he should have been more aware, but he had no inkling what the signs were leading to (perhaps another good little message there for young people?). This could have been the last gender-swapping comedy judging by how the agenda has become a real and frightening possibility in today's world of science that does whatever it chooses because it can, instead of asking real questions about whether it should, except that even 'SNW' has done such a story in the 2020s! I suppose that's a good sign, really, that we can still enjoy the incongruity despite such a worrying move towards taking such ideas seriously, other than in counselling and mental health assistance. But the body swap is a long-standing tradition in entertainment, and even in Trek, so it's lovely to see it played out between two of this series' best characters (even if it's yet again falling into that trap of them being the fountain of story possibility, while others barely get a moment...), and highlights their differences so well. They didn't even have the Doctor say the obvious line about being a doctor, not a spy (though he'd been one before, last season), but I did like him saying Seven would make an excellent hologram, mirroring the Borg Queen when she said Data (or was it Picard, I forget?), will make an excellent drone, and when it's about an ex-drone like Seven that had to have been deliberate!

We learn some interesting insight into Seven's makeup, because according to the Doctor her senses are extremely acute. Of course we're only going on his perspective of not having felt such things before, so not necessarily a guarantee we can take it as said, but he is also a Doctor and well aware of everything in theory, just the reality is something he hasn't encountered. At the same time if he could smell Harry Kim's sweat in that holding cell (in which they're very free with their talk -  they could have been recorded for all they knew!), then Seven must have the nasal sensitivity of a Vulcan - that was especially enjoyable, well before 'Enterprise' revealed the fact Vulcans think human stink and take a nasal numbing agent to get by when around them, we're once again told how a Trek character smells, something you can never get from merely watching! In 'DS9' Worf was said to smell earthy, peaty (with a touch of lilac!), and here Kim smells like something the Doctor considers could be an airborne toxic sent to poison them, while Seven herself apparently smells like a rose! It makes me wonder what other Trek characters smell like... One note on that, though: I was wondering how Harry would be sweating so much when I always had the impression Starfleet uniforms and their futuristic fabrics were able to prevent perspiration, so we might have to speculate that it was malfunctioning (if such a thing were possible), or had been affected by rough handling, or Harry himself was just prone to sweat more under the circumstances (he is the 'senior officer' after all, despite only being an Ensign, although technically the Doctor must have seniority, I'd have thought, especially as it was his mission).

Another issue that cropped up related to Trek tech was Seven getting drunk on alcohol out of the Replicator. At first I thought it was merely a sugar high, the Doctor unused to eating such rich and delicious foods, but the Lokirrim Captain, Ranek, also seemed a little tipsy. So I was pleased when Seven says in the next scene that Synthehol interferes with her Borg implants, therefore it wasn't genuine alcohol after all, preserving the rules of Trek which I love to see being observed. Although, technically Synthehol can make you somewhat drunk, it's just that you have the ability to snap out of it at a moment's notice if you need to, and there are no aftereffects, though I'm not sure that's ever actually been said onscreen and is therefore not necessarily canon (but should be, if it isn't!). It's funny that Seven is disgusted by the Doctor's indulgence, while he describes the pleasure of feeling the prison rations sliding down her oesophagus, something his fellow hologram, Dejaren from 'Revulsion,' would have been utterly disgusted by. It shows that holograms really do have their own personalities, if we didn't already know that (perhaps if Dejaren had been able to stomach food himself he might have turned out entirely differently?). The Doctor loves being organic so much he suggests he should be given a holographic stomach in order to experience eating in future (surely a Bob Picardo suggestion!), but surely that would be a waste of resources Voyager needs, even if it was a temporary use of them, merely to satisfy the Doctor's sensations, since he couldn't gain any nutrition from it.

It might have made more sense for him to simply eat holographic food, that way it could be programmed to react as if it was real, and his 'throat' could be programmed to feel it. That's really the point of holographic technology, to simulate something, so holographic life should be able to feel whatever organic life does since they're simulated as much as their environment. We see a very different use of the holographic (fortunately not graphic...), in the B-story regarding Tuvok going through the Pon Farr (which is never actually named in the episode, but it's clear they know what's going on). It didn't seem as if it would be worthy to be called a B-story at first since it appeared resolved after a couple of scenes once he gets a hologram of his wife (T'Pel's name spoken by him during the ritual, and played by Marva Hicks, the same actress from 'Persistence of Vision' way back in Season 2, Kimber Lee Renay went uncredited portraying her in 'Bliss'), but then we come under attack from another Lokirrim ship and suddenly all Holodecks must be shut down. Tuvok merely returns to his post, little worse for wear, they even resist the urge to have him throw Neelix' pot of soup across the Bridge in parallel with Spock ad Nurse Chapel when the Talaxian thinks he really does have Tarkalean flu (just take Tarkalean tea, obviously!). I was imagining something akin to that scene where Tuvok attacks him in 'Meld,' ironically a holographic scenario Tuvok had devised to help him vent his extreme emotions, but no, he somehow remains steadfastly in control.

The Vulcan mating cycle is a sensitive issue, and we get the sense even here, a century on from when Spock was forced to go through it while aboard a ship full of humans, the most embarrassing place to get it, the race still want privacy. Perhaps Tuvok being a full Vulcan made a difference and he was more intense, but also had more control, but you'd think it would be like a pressure valve: the more pressure, the more steam would need to be let off. In the end it was a little too easy a way of dealing with the situation, though I was surprised how caring and professional Tom Paris was as the ship's deputy medical man, not making jokes as he once would have, having discernment in how to deal with this to preserve Tuvok's dignity among the crew (although perhaps lying to the Captain about his real illness may have been a step too far - for one thing it would have been good to see the old friendship that exists between them which rarely shows itself in these later seasons). At the same time you'd think if Pon Farr is regular as clockwork every seven years every Vulcan would know to the day when it's likely to start, they're accurate like that, and there should surely be a schedule in all Starfleet records regarding them so a Captain would be aware when it'll happen. Not so that the ship has to kowtow to their ways, but so they'd have time to address it for themselves, perhaps a leave of absence pencilled in well in advance. That wouldn't help Tuvok, of course, which is why people were always wondering what would happen when he inevitably went through it.

They could have got around it by saying older Vulcans no longer get this neurological imbalance, or it's a far milder version as they get older, but Tuvok actually confirms the older a Vulcan gets the stronger the urge. In some ways it's a bit disappointing how they dealt with it here, much in the same way T'Pol's Pon Farr was a mere B-story in 'Enterprise.' I suppose to some degree they felt the story had been done in 'TOS' so they only needed to pay reference to it rather than be the star attraction, and 'Voyager' at least had already addressed it through Vorik way back in Season 3 (perhaps one reason Tom stays so sober about the reality of the situation, having seen it firsthand with his now-wife). But I was always under the impression there was a mental side to it, too, since Vulcans are touch-telepaths, something that couldn't be recreated holographically since there would be no mind there. Still, Tuvok doesn't want to talk about it, understandably, so we don't know whether it was the hologram combined with the Doctor's miracle cure plus Vulcan meditation that all worked together to pull him through. It does seem a little hard to believe the Doctor would be able to create something that solved an age-old Vulcan problem - with this Vulcans will no longer have that mating urge to return home, which could in turn have dire consequences for their race's propagation. That being said, modern Trek (and I'd have to admit 'Enterprise' being largely responsible for it, too), has shown Vulcans to be as promiscuous and out of control when it comes to physical interactions as any human, helping to ruin what made the race special (and what's more, destroying all semblance of Spock as a character, disastrously, merely to make him more accessible by today's immorality).

I will say I felt the whole Vulcan thing was dealt with delicately, conscious of this being a family series (even though they'd gone into much more explicit territory in 'Blood Fever'!), talking of the breaking of wedding vows and whether Holodeck recreation could be considered immoral, basically, something I can't imagine the values of modern America reflecting favourably as seen in modern Trek or TV generally. So quite the litany of issues explored or dealt with in what was really a comedic episode, which is impressive. The Doctor even turns the Lokirrim ship upon which he'd been captive into a love boat, helping to nudge the Captain and nurse along. They were quite good characters, Gallagher always plays a greater depth in the Trek roles she's had, both prior ones being a bit more memorable in 'DS9' (the girlfriend of John Glover in 'Invasive Procedures' and another nurse and girlfriend in 1940s Earth of 'Little Green Men'), but this was sadly her final role in Trek. Her Captain was also played by a 'DS9' actor, Fritz Sperberg (a Jem'Hadar in 'One Little Ship'), not to be confused with the great Fritz Weaver, one of the best guest actors in 'DS9,' or Herschel Sparber the Federation President also in that series! A society that has a hatred for the photonic lifeforms wasn't new ('Counterpoint' has one example), but that they'd turned on them out of a place in society was different and I'd have liked to have gone into that in more detail, though the nature of the series was that they were always moving on, sadly.

Other characters don't get a lot to do, even Harry is mostly banged up in the cell, but what about poor Chakotay, relegated to sitting in the First Officer position with about one line (no wonder Beltran became so disenchanted with his role, but then I suppose the emasculation of the male lead is the price they were willing to pay for a female Captain, as good as Janeway was). Janeway demonstrates the art of bluffing when she threatens to destroy the initial Lokirrim ship, being in the fortunate and rare position of having the more powerful vessel - one case when no advance reputation of the Federation and its peaceful ways was an advantage since the aliens didn't know she wouldn't carry out such a threat, and indeed, merely disables them when the time comes. You know she means business when she says she'll disable the second ship if she has to as that is much more likely. This then turns into the Captain trying to overload his ship's power, or something, and only succeeds in giving himself an injury leading to the Doctor showing that his kind can be compassionate too as his medical instincts mean he won't leave until he's helped the injured man, despite them being his captors, a shining example of true Christian behaviour. It was interesting to me at the start of the episode (which began with a comet streaking by that made me think it could almost be an episode of 'DS9'!), that despite talking up his excitement over the nutty evolutionary process, he also calls it 'the miracle of creation' in the same speech, so even within an entertainment property with such a biased worldview, it's amazing they can't help but talk truth!

One other thing that impressed me was the idea that Seven insists on denying herself in the Doctor's eyes. With all these sensations and feelings around her, she continues to act more like a Vulcan (another very self-denying race), and I felt that was a strong message, something run roughshod over by the 'Picard' writers all those years later, and yet here Seven seems so much happier and contented having found her place and role. The Doctor doesn't have the chance to do anything but deny himself because he can't have the sensations his organic crew-mates do, but he always manages to do as much as possible and it's never enough, be that opera singing or mooning over lost love. Perhaps somewhere in between Seven and the Doctor lies the sweet spot of being able to enjoy life and yet know what's most important, to enjoy without indulgence, to have self control, but also be able to let the hair down. I don't know if it was intentional, but even in the teaser when Seven is acting herself she's become a lot more familiar and comfortable in herself, joking with Kim about the Doctor, so that the transition, while still wild, isn't quite as jarring. And she'd go on becoming more naturalistic towards the end of the series, so I wonder if the lessons learned here contributed to that. For a comedy they did a fine job of tucking in a lot of solid stuff, and I'd completely forgotten while watching it that Robert Duncan McNeill was directing, the mark of a good Director, and no surprise he went on to direct as a career (though oddly never directed more Trek after 'Enterprise').

****

Inside Man (2)

 DVD, Voyager S7 (Inside Man) (2)

I'll bet Dwight Schultz enjoyed playing a different version of his famous character, a Reg Barclay hologram that is the direct inversion of a previous foray into the Voyager world when he recreated their ship holographically back home in the Alpha Quadrant - now he can be suave, sophisticated, the life and soul of the party all rolled into one exceptional personality program, but his words ring with propaganda. He dubs Voyager 'the miracle ship,' he encourages and urges on the least (Neelix as morale officer), to the greatest (Seven as the inspiration for all those who've lost someone to the Borg), handling seasoned Starfleet officers with aplomb - if those Ferengi can't make Latinum via Borg nanoprobes you'd think they'd have a sterling career as holo-authors! But maybe they don't want to wait or put in all the grind to make it big in the world of holoprograms, instead concentrating on this instant get-rich-quick scheme as their sole endeavour. It's a fun story and I always loved when the series was able to tie into Alpha Quadrant lore (as we'd seen only recently with 'Repression' in which another force from home seeks to cause harm to the crew - I didn't realise such a similar story was coming so soon!). You get the familiar races mentioned, the Borg, the Romulans, we have Ferengi, all long before we were ever going to get these things in an ongoing series again. With 'Enterprise' on the way there would be more Trek to come, but aside from minor side visits from such notables we'd be bereft, and one could argue even in this new age of Trek we've been missing regular encounters with some of the staple species of old.

It is interesting to view the series from both the context of the time it was made, and now, a quarter of a century later. Back then it was a thrill merely to see the grey-shouldered 'DS9' uniforms as a reminder that time had moved on since the USS Voyager got dragged into the Delta Quadrant away from all they held dear. Seeing Starfleet buildings, ships (although I note we never got to see the USS Carolina, sadly), officers, not to mention an actual Ferengi vessel, the D'Kora-class Marauder which hadn't been on screen in a few years - I don't recall if they were shown on 'DS9' so it could be as far back as 'TNG,' although there is a dichotomy between the supposedly huge size of these vessels and the relatively small Bridge, which is all we see internally. There was a lot of empty space in there, perhaps that was meant to emphasise the size, but it was simply a pleasure to be aboard the familiar technology when in all likelihood we were 'never' going to see such a ship again. Because who knew what the next series would be and how long Trek would continue? One regret is that, while they made use of an old antagonist for the villain of the piece, they didn't do anything to develop them further, the Ferengi were simply there, doing what they always did and causing trouble for profit. The episode might have been enhanced by a greater attempt at giving the individuals concerned more depth and personality instead of merely using them as basic villains. It's like they'd reverted to the 'TNG' days of simplistic villainy, ignoring the work 'DS9' put in to round them out as an interesting people.

We aren't given any sense of what Ferengi society may have developed into under Grand Nagus Rom, and if you're going to play in the Trek world you can do it best by using the canon to your advantage. Perhaps something as simple as having one of them decry the state of the Alliance these days and how there are so few Ferengi left willing to go these lengths for their profit, at least give us a sense of change in the air, but there's none of that. I wouldn't say it hurts the episode, it's just more clear as I age how the little details can enhance the appreciation of that world, especially in the light of so much canon violation and destruction nowadays. What is a pleasure is reuniting the little troupe of Alpha Quadrant characters that had appeared a couple of times before last season: Barclay, Troi (looking her best, and here in her final appearance until 'Nemesis'... then the 'Enterprise' finale, then 'Lower Decks,' then 'Picard'...), Pete Harkins and Admiral Paris. Again, it would have been nice to incorporate a little more of their character into the story, though I do understand time was limited for such things. Connection with Starfleet could have been played up even more than the couple of times a season they were going for, making the recurring nature of this parallel storyline a larger part of the conclusion to the series (which they did near the end of the season, granted). Strangely, I couldn't help thinking about the 'Enterprise' finale, 'These Are The Voyages...' and the furore from some quarters over a 'TNG' episode taking over, something I've never been against, but perhaps if that story had been somehow told (probably in modified form), in the middle of a season like this one it might have been more widely accepted for what it was.

This one shifts plenty of attention and time over to guest characters, but I suspect at this stage of the series, even early on in the season, the main cast would have been grateful to have less work to do and only too happy for others to share the load. Barclay is noticeably less extreme in his ticks and mannerisms, almost as if this project to bring Voyager home, and specifically the idea of sending a hologram had given him better grounding and sense of purpose in life. In real world terms it may have been felt the previous appearances in 'Pathfinder' and 'Life Line' were a touch excessive and they wanted Schultz to rein it in a little, but either way it's a fine line to balance upon - he's still lacking in self-awareness or reading those around him, such as when he shows up on the beach where Deanna's relaxing, or when he, as this large bear of a man, comes storming into Harkins' tour of the facility for a group of children that might have been frightened by some great, booming guy charging in shouting about the Borg! But it's always great to see Barclay again, it's sad that out of all the various returnees of the modern era he's never been brought back. Mind you, he wouldn't seem as special or outlandish now when we have so many wacky characters in modern Trek, whereas in those days he was surrounded by straitlaced professionals. Okay, so Tom and B'Elanna are able to pull off a good tease on Harry when they claim a new way home has just been found, but our Voyager people are serious, grounded crewmembers.

There are missing characters in this one, we're back to barely seeing Tuvok, Chakotay or Neelix, but for once it's less due to Seven, the Doctor or Janeway taking more than their share, and more to do with the increase of guest characters. One of which is the seasoned Ferengi player, Frank Corsentino (who died in 2007), as Gegis who'd been two of the race on 'TNG' going back as far as Season 1's 'The Battle,' so no wonder these examples appeared much more like the old versions than later iterations had given us. The Barclay hologram's ability to do 'impressions' of people, or more specifically, recreations in the same creepy way Data could mimic the exact voices, was both funny and creepy, later to be much more the latter when he impersonates Seven - what happened to her, did he put his fingers in her brain? What then, does that mean she died, since solid matter pushed into your skull would surely do severe damage, but we never see her after that incident and have to assume she was okay? I didn't quite understand what happened with the escape pod, they must have beamed her and the program back, but it wasn't a very definitive ending. I actually liked that Voyager didn't find out exactly what had occurred in this episode since they can only communicate with home once a month, apparently, so good sticking to canon, even if it is a bit strange that they're left to speculate rather than the usual finality of learning from the experience. Continuity is well served as Tom brings up a couple of previous examples of times they were fooled into thinking they were about to get a quick ride home: with Arturis in 'Hope and Fear,' and the plant in 'Bliss.'

You'd think Harry would have heard of the Iconians and would know they were no longer around, something that immediately flags up Tom's 'news' that they've found another way home as suspicious to the Trek initiated - they may have only been important to a couple of episodes ('Contagion' in 'TNG' and 'To The Death' in 'DS9'), but they're one of those mysteries never to have been resolved, along with the parasite creatures of 'Conspiracy,' who the Hur'q really were, and what the Breen actually look like (whoops, thanks to 'Discovery' we did get the latter, but it was a wa-wa-wa-waaaaaah moment). It's exciting to hear such things even mentioned in passing, the same for Troi dropping in at the end that she and Will are going to Tiburon for their holiday - it sounded like she was inviting Reg along for dinner there, which suggests it's not very far, but I had the impression the place Dr. Sevrin studied at (in 'The Way To Eden' from 'TOS'), was a long way out. Admiral Paris was also a long way out: in his pronunciation of the Ferengi - he calls them Feren-gay, so I don't know where he got that. He may have erred there, but I was definitely in favour of the Doctor's point about erring on the side of caution when it came to the ship and crew's safety. For that matter Tuvok should have been much more in evidence as it was all too easy to accept this herald of a shortcut home, especially after a missing communication the previous month which should have set his hackles rising.

Yet another episode with certain styles or impressions of the early seasons, this time the Doc being stuck in Sickbay or the Holodeck when Reg borrows his emitter to go gallivanting off around the ship, supposedly on business. Easy to see his complaints as personal issues and overreaction, but Janeway knows him well enough that he's worth listening to and he shows himself to have progressed when he publicly apologises to the Barclay program when it appears his concern was unfounded, even though he was actually right. The episode is a little messy in some regards towards the end, but I also felt the main plot the Ferengi were following, as much as I want them to be involved, would surely have been more effort than it was worth: to bring Voyager back from the Delta Quadrant merely to seize nanoprobes from Seven's corpse... Surely it would have been easier to find an abandoned or crashed Borg vessel and harvest what they want from there. I know there would be risk (the riskier the road, the greater the profit!), but it would seem less effort and more chance of success. One thing only barely touched on is when fake Barclay asks what Seven will do when she returns home and, practical as ever, she states she'll attend to repairing Voyager. Only after he's given her this whole spiel about how she was Borg so she's given everyone back home hope for anyone that's ever lost someone to them, which is a far more realistic and Trek-worthy attitude (whether it's true or not, coming from a fake hologram), than what we eventually saw in 'Picard' where she's basically a miserable outcast. 'Voyager' was made when Trek was still hopeful, a big reason it still resonates today.

***

Critical Care (2)

 DVD, Voyager S7 (Critical Care) (2)

Essential care or judgemental care - 'critical' can mean either. Then there's critical analysis which is something this episode allows much of to cogitate over... I tend to think of this as one of the weaker ones. It doesn't have Phaser fights, the investigative trail to track down the thief who stole the Doctor is leisurely and consists mostly of the Captain talking to people on the Viewscreen (without forgetting the joy of her pretending Tuvok's 'her man'), and there's little likelihood the Doctor's actions would lead to lasting change: as soon as he's gone and Chellik's had his injection no doubt everyone involved would be out on their ear and everything returned to the frightening normality of acceptance of an unfair system because 'we're saving a society.' But the point of the story, in much the same way Christopher Nolan's film 'Insomnia' isn't really about what you think it is, instead forensically isolating the moral position of one character at the very end, and whether she chooses the right path or not, and this was the inverse of that scenario: the Doctor commits an unethical act for the greater good. I'm relieved they do at least raise the issue, our resident healer expressing doubts in his program to Seven (whose only small role in the final scene is... critical!), who confirms he's operating normally. It's the kind of uncertain ending you didn't often get on this series - it leaves you wondering about the Doctor, the state of his program and whether he was right to do what he did, or not, and that room for speculation allows the mind and imagination to propel discussion, something which raises the quality of the episode.

In the past I've struggled to associate the story of this alien medical system to my own British one because the point of the NHS is to provide a free service to anyone, but as the system crumbles it's clear to see, for all the good it's done, we're either in, or not far off the situation shown here where the rich members of society can afford superior private care. Even more with the line the Doctor has about them not simply rationing healthcare, but actively getting rid of the sick and the weak: with new legislation potentially coming in to approve assisted suicide, increased abortion for any reason, the lives of people as it affects the financial position of the state appears to be in the balance, and when a life is decided on the basis of monetary value, 'better to remove as many people as possible' will come to be the attitude. It's a scary prospect and so this episode gains new reality as all the best Trek episodes do. The Doctor expresses his belief in the Hippocratic Oath at one end of the episode and he's broken it at the other end and we're left without the get-out clause of all this kidnapping and interfacing with an alien computer to cover his change in behaviour. There's logic to his actions (as I'm sure Tuvok would agree), and I even found myself wondering if Voje, the young doctor who seems like he cares, was the one in Chellik's position, would we be more inclined to allow his point of view since we don't know the state of this society - maybe they are at a point where they're so desperate on the edge of destruction in general they truly can justify treating only those who are having the greatest impact?

I don't think so, but Chellik, while not being a moustache-twirler, is much easier to see as a villain with his ungainly physique (not flattered by a skintight silver suit!), and facial markings that look more like a rash than the usual alien facial patterns. He's entirely focused on the running of this medical ship that hovers over an alien city like a vast black bug, legs splayed out on every side. He looks shifty, he's rude to a character we like, and I got the impression he's a contractor brought in to improve things, in no way is he a sympathetic character, so you could say the episode is very one-sided. It's all very well for the Doctor to come in with his unlimited Replicator resources (okay, so Voyager specifically isn't unlimited - though you wouldn't know it from the way Tom and Harry are wearing full hockey gear from their jaunt in the Holodeck! - but it comes from a society that is used to that advantage), and expect everyone to get what they need when they need it, but in the best tradition of 'TNG' he's swanning off at the end of the episode never to be seen again so has no ties or ongoing involvement in the Dinaali's plight. We really need to know more about the situation on the planet - is it a Prime Directive issue? Could Voyager pass on Replicator technology to allow them to have as much medication as they require? For that matter shouldn't Voyager (and every other starship for that matter!), be desperately speeding round the galaxy making sure everyone has access to the ability to create resources from energy?

Of course it's not as simple as that and we can't think too much down that mental road without the whole Trek universe unravelling, that's another reason why it's best to concentrate on the real issue at hand: that of the Doctor deliberately poisoning a patient who could have died in order to try and rebel against a system he only has a little knowledge of, and what that says about the state of his program now. He has ethical subroutines to prevent this sort of thing so does that mean he's 'outgrown' the shackles his creator put upon him, for good or ill? It's a fascinating situation in the same way Data appeared to go against his programming at the end of 'The Most Toys,' potentially about to murder someone. The Great Reset is usually the way they go with this, and it's not like we haven't seen strange anomalies in the Doc's program before (I think of an episode such as 'Latent Image' as a good example of this). It's clear how the writers consider his change of 'heart' in that they outright have him compared to the Borg, of all things, by a former drone herself, Seven saying he was ready to sacrifice an individual to save a collective (or to put it another way, how a Vulcan might: 'the needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few, or the one,' which is just as worrying when you think about it in the same way as Infinite Diversity in Infinite Combinations says there is no such thing as wrong - creepy and illogical!), though she says it in an understanding way rather than a judgemental (or critical!) way.

At least there's room for discussion in an episode like this, which I don't find much of in modern Trek (oh yeah, you knew it was coming at some point!), and I don't find myself having much to think about at the end of most episodes today. That's why 'Voyager' is so good, it has that depth and thoughtfulness on a regular basis and can do drama, comedy, mystery, whatever genre you care to name, without sacrificing the potential for story or bashing you over the head with a political viewpoint. This episode I found myself enjoying the subtle turns and deft adjustments from scenes of reassuring familial pleasantness (such as Neelix feeling responsible for the Doctor's kidnap, while Janeway only has words of comfort in response), or humour (Janeway grabbing Tuvok's hand as part of her insightful dealing with the 'Adulteress' as the end credits name the woman with whom Gar ran off! Incidentally, Debi A. Monahan had already played a holographic woman in 'His Way' on 'DS9'). Tuvok threatening to use a mind meld on the captured Gar, Neelix giving him internal pains by poisoning his food... everyone seemed to be acting immorally, or contemplating it, not something you'd usually expect from the Starfleet realm. Perhaps there was a sub-message underneath all of this that it's okay to do whatever's necessary to right a wrong, which I don't think is true at all, even if it can be practical. Yet there was also a lot of sensitivity, especially from the Doctor who has become a very rounded individual compared to his early appearances.

It's a delight to see him make friends wherever he goes, enlisting aid, tweaking views, because everyone's just going along with this unfair system simply because they don't think outside of it, just accept it since it's what they know and understand. It takes the Doctor's bending of the rules for them to slowly realise better help could be given and we leave the society in a state where it could either clamp down even harder and make sure no one can fool The Allocator (a computer that sounds so much like something from 'TOS,' I loved it!), in the same way Janeway wants safeguards looked into for accessing even the lowest level files from now on. Or the people involved could start an opposition to the system they're under, for all we know (and you'd hope, judging by the Allocator not being completely omniscient and omnipotent, so there may still be hope...), one is already in existence that could benefit from the knowledge and experience of Dysek and Voje, perhaps the Doctor has ignited a protest that will break through the inertia and general acceptance. But then that's the Prime Directive's reason for existence: don't interfere because you don't know what will come from that, what unforeseen consequences could have a negative effect. But then if you don't do anything then negatives could be even more prevalent... It's like time travel, it makes your head spin and you just have to try to be wise and make the right decision in your time and place and not second-guess everything, I suppose.

The episode looks very nice and the difference between Level Red and Level Blue is stark - Blue could be a Starfleet Sickbay, all spotless whites and greys, great carpeting and space aplenty, while Red is crowded, dark and miserable, reminding me of the frontline medical care seen in 'Nor The Battle To The Strong,' another great doctor episode. I can't quite say the same for the CGI, which is up and down - the opening shot as Gar's ship flies across the cloudy skies to the hospital ship would have been better served with an establishing matte painting to better sell the reality better, but other times in the episode (the great black bug shot), it worked well, so perhaps movement is what makes the difference and I'm so used to a detailed, but largely static matte than I am too-smooth early CG work. What makes the episode work best is seeing a character, in this case the Doctor, do what he does best (no, I don't mean talk - Janeway even speculates he would have been most receptive to Gar's questioning him about the mobile holoemitter when he was aboard so they know their crewman!), and that's always a pleasure to see. Also a pleasure is seeing the odd returning face. I mentioned Monahan, but Gregory Itzin is the big name here as Dysek, his third role following two memorable appearances in 'DS9.' He'd go on to play a couple more roles in 'Enterprise,' but was sadly never used in modern Trek before his death in 2022 (Larry Drake who played Chellik also died in 2016). John Durbin was less recognisable as 'Alien Miner,' but the name was familiar, going back to Season 1 'TNG,' a later role in that series, and one in 'DS9.'

In some ways this was another episode that hearkened back to one of the early seasons: we even get a version of that restrained Doctor when an old training file is used to replace the real version by Gar, so that was fun. Going on a hunt for someone also seemed like something they'd have done back then, dealing with the Kazon or whomever. The Doctor couldn't have been so easily removed in those days since his holoemitter didn't come into the picture until Season 3, but a character being trapped in some alien world where they think quite differently about things brought 'Emanations' to mind. And of course Tom and Harry doing matey stuff together, no Seven (until the final scene), and Tuvok more involved than later seasons all contributed to the feel. I didn't used to like this one, and often low expectations can enhance the appeal of an episode, but it's just as likely to be that I rate modern Trek episodes too generously despite my general dislike compared with past estimates and so when I come across something with actual merit I find myself needing to bump it up a bit, plus things have changed in society since I last watched and reviewed this one (The Allocator as AI assistant has new meaning now), and Trek has a way of speaking to different times in different ways so this has become a good example in the interim.

***

Operation Winback

 N64, Operation Winback (1999) game

Another N64 game done and dusted. This was one of those titles I'd always been interested in playing, but could never find, or find for a reasonable price (even on ebay), and like 'Rocket: Robot On Wheels,' remained unattainable until recent years (although I still haven't got the latter in my collection!). I could say it's very much of its time, but the drab greys and browns that make up most of the visuals had certainly been proved unnecessary by such examples as 'Perfect Dark' and 'The World Is Not Enough' in the First Person Shooter genre, but even in Third Person Action games such as 'Hybrid Heaven' they achieved a better graphical range, so 'OW' didn't have an excuse, coming in the middle of the console's life. It actually reminded me of certain sections in 'Ocarina of Time' - whenever you're creeping around maze-like areas that are walled off. Being compared to a 'Zelda' game would ordinarily be a great compliment, but those parts were a little lacklustre, dull and showing the limitations of the machine, so it's really not a positive comparison, though I can say it was made up of similarly pleasantly chunky figures and objects. The music, too, was entirely unmemorable and basic, though like 'Zelda' it does include the nice touch of context sensitivity - most of the time it's quite quiet and restrained, but when health is depleted it starts to heat up and become quite energetic to match the rising intensity, so that was a point in its favour.

There's not much to be said for the story, such as it is, which is really only an excuse to stitch the various levels together and provide a brief rest from the action, generally scenes of your character meeting up with his various teammates only to decide to split up again. I'm sure it was more to do with the pain of having to program AI allies, which this game being released when it was, would have still been a technical challenge, although I think 'Turok: Rage Wars' came out that same year, and while that was geared entirely to bot battles in dedicated arenas, you'd think a good coding team might have been able to handle at least one coop member - I'd suggest including 2-player cooperative play, but the graphics were muddy enough as it was that shrinking the size of the play screen down to half would only exacerbate the problem. The way these team members moved in and out of the picture made me highly suspicious that someone was going to be revealed as a traitor, so that wasn't a very big surprise (after all, you can't rely entirely on your main villain to be the threat if he's called 'Cecile'! What kind of threatening name is that, or did they do it for a joke?). But yes, it made very little sense for all these various squad members to be working individually when they could simply storm through as a team.

Sense in story and weak graphical clout were only a couple of issues that stood out for me. Another was the decision to make it a third-person perspective in the first place as I'm sure it would have been a much more accessible experience had it been seen through the eyes of Jean-Luc Cougar, your dramatically-named hero character (who looked a little like Chris Pine). For one thing the bad camera wouldn't have been an issue, but here, you can often find yourself fighting it or running into scenery - the unique control scheme where you hold R-Trigger for auto-aim, then hammer A to fire, was a bit clumsy (and it's clear why the auto-aim is so integral since otherwise it's almost impossible to react quickly as your sight swings wildly, but also slowly, making you vulnerable), the camera not always being in the right place for you to see just round the corner where your auto-aim has locked on - the result is you can be firing at an enemy you can't actually see and only know he's been dispatched by the auto-aim breaking off. You also can't adjust the camera once you've locked on, which is a frustration, and as for multiple targets... Well, you can have an assailant running at you whom is obviously the most dangerous and you want to shoot, but the auto-aim has locked onto someone else. You can switch between targets, but it's not always responsive enough, and in the panic of a charging foe it often appears easier to simply disconnect, turn tail and run. But here's another problem, albeit one that makes the game more realistic: you're much more vulnerable from behind, sometimes being killed with one shot.

The game really doesn't want you to run away because if you do the camera can sometimes go haywire as you're trying to adjust to your new direction and I had many a death through camera malfunction which would easily have been avoided if the game had been played through Cougar's eyes. There's almost no point to the third-person style, it's not like you can lay flat on the floor or crawl to present a smaller target (you can crouch and roll, but that's it), nor can you climb even small obstacles at waist height! It's gaming convention, I know, that simple actions aren't possible because they'll upset the carefully laid traps and advancement (similarly only certain parts of the environment can be shot), and the game is very linear with little in the way of offshoots, just the occasional blind alley or room you don't absolutely have to enter, though usually these places have extra equipment such as ammo, torch or medical kit. But the real reason for the perspective is so they could include irritating sections where you have to time a roll to duck under a laser beam to progress. This was yet another vast irritation to me since they generally come in multiples and you have to get each timing just right to get past them. If you touch one it's instant death! Yes, another gaming convention, I understand, but it's fully frustrating. The only balm is that they generally give you a Checkpoint just before so you don't have to travel a long level only for instant death because you mistimed a roll.

In that sense the game was actually pretty easy. It's mostly a question of taking cover, then leaning or jumping out to pump the bad guys with bullets, take cover again and repeat. Levels tend to be fairly short until you get near the end when there are thirty or forty minute jobs, though part of that is working out where the enemies are going to attack, and once you know all the patterns it's not too difficult. Medical kits that replenish health are scattered around, not liberally, but enough to make it far from a daunting prospect to reach the end of most levels. There is a bit of tactical play regarding these kits, since unlike ammo you can't pick them up and take them with you, you either use it there and then, or if you think you don't need it quite yet, memorise where you left it and go back for it, though it's a risk since once you're through a Checkpoint you can't go back unless you restart the level from the beginning. I will say as another positive, your man is well animated, even if it weirdly cuts off when you climb a ladder for example, though perhaps that was to do with loading the next section? But once you've got used to the clunky control method you do feel some liberation, crouching, walking crouched, popping up to hit an enemy, rolling, peering round corners. But it still irks you can't do simple things like climb up onto a crate.

Things are kept fairly simple when it comes to your arsenal: you have your basic pistol, a shotgun and an automatic. You can also find the occasional silenced pistol, though I didn't find it of much value since you don't get any replacement ammo and can burn through it quickly. Equally, the rocket launcher was a nice touch, but cumbersome to use and you often find yourself being exposed for longer as you go through the operation of firing and watching the shell shoot off. Your pistol has unlimited ammo, so that's not very realistic, but if it had then the game would have been much, much tougher (you get extra points for completing a level with only the pistol or without using any medical kits). Most of the time it's almost easier to use the pistol, even though it's less powerful (and has a shorter range - it's important to reserve some machine gun ammo in case you do have enemies in the distance), because you know exactly how many bullets you have and how long it'll take to reload - the annoying thing about reloading the larger weapons especially is that it takes time for the animation to play out and if you get hit in the meantime that prevents you reloading, so you can be desperately trying to fill your gun with bullets only to keep getting shot, which is when you feel the best course is to simply run away, the camera fights you, then you get shot in the back and die! Most enemies are fairly simple propositions to deal with, but the scary ones are the guys with knives who come charging at you and often one swipe will kill so there are moments of high tension. Also the gun emplacements which just rattle away, obliterating health when all you're trying to do is work out how to get past them, but it adds to the puzzle element.

The environments aren't exactly varied, hence the complaint about it all being rather brown or grey, but there is enough difference between them to mark them out as separate areas, be that wading through sewers or dodging between crates in warehouses. It even starts outside as your goal is to traverse various parts of this building that's been taken over by terrorists. I can't say I really took in the story, you're acting on behalf of the government to stop these terrorists taking control of some satellite or something, but narrative isn't its strong point. Actually I'm not sure what is its strong point! I do have a slight nostalgia as I think back through all those tricky bits I had to redo over and over, and if it wasn't for that the game would have been very short since my total playing time, adding up all the levels, came to a paltry 5 hours, 56 minutes, but that doesn't take into account the endless numbers of attempts - I was able to complete it in the space of one month so there was probably more like twenty-forty actual hours of playing time. But I can't say I really enjoyed it until the last two or three levels when it became a lot more involved, challenging and varied. If the whole game had been like that I'd have added another star to the score, but although I was playing it on Normal difficulty, most of the levels weren't too much of a challenge, very repetitive and a stop-start style of gameplay rather than flowing. Part of that was getting used to the controls, admittedly, and I'm not judging it based on modern ideals, just comparing it to other titles on the machine which showed what was possible.

It could be glitchy, occasionally crashing, although part of the reason seemed to be it didn't like the Expansion Pak being in the N64 (which isn't so good seeing as that came out the same year!), so for the first time in I don't know how many years I had to replace the Jumper Pak which I never thought I'd be doing! It could still crash on occasion even after that, but wasn't as unreliable. Sometimes it was just my own stupidity that caused me pause: when I first picked up a 'magazine' I went into my inventory to see it, forgetting ammunition comes in magazines and it wasn't some glossy read! The inventory could have been a greater part of the game, too, but I rarely checked it or used what was there. You have a torch which can be useful in dark areas, so that's another nice touch, and plastic explosives that can be laid and then shot or activated to explode, but it was a bit fiddly so I rarely used it. You unlock 'Max Power Mode' on completion which enables all weapons with infinite ammo from the start, though it would only serve to make the game even easier, and you also unlock characters for multiplayer. That's something which may have been fun back in the day when there were three or four of us playing N64 games regularly - I fired it up just to see what it was like. Unfortunately, as you'd expect judging by the rest of the game, there aren't any computer controlled bots to play against, it's humans only, and it really is a bit hard to see when the screen's quartered (2-4 players are possible), so I don't know how well it would have gone down when I think back to how even bright, colourful third-person combat games like 'Jet Force Gemini' and 'DK64' weren't very popular. You can't even save to cartridge but are required to have a Controller Pak, the mark of technical inefficiency in a game.

In terms of the end of the game, beating the turncoat was fairly easy, though Cecile was a little more of a challenge. The dialogue throughout is all a bit melodramatic with added swearing and blasphemy as if they thought that made the game 'grown-up.' But there isn't any blood or gore so it doesn't fit with the visual tone. Then again it's best to leave aside the 'qualities' of the story which is all told in text rather than actual speech. Interestingly there are little speech samples as enemies shout or grunt so it's not like there's no human speech at all. I imagine the game was inspired by such titles of the late-90s as 'Metal Gear Solid' with its weird boss characters to fight and an emphasis on sneaking around, and it made me wonder why more software companies didn't use 'Goldeneye' as their model? It seems obvious, but it shows how much talent and expertise were behind games such as that classic. It also made me think of 'Splinter Cell' which came a few short years later on GameCube, another third-person action game of creeping around with the same style of 'music,' though more options in the physical department. I hasten to add that 'OW' isn't a bad game, though its initials do sum up a lot of feelings inspired by it. It's the sort of thing I can imagine going back in ten years or so to complete on Hard, but isn't something I'd particularly look forward to playing again. Which is a shame because it did go sit in my mind as something well worth exploring for the right price - perhaps I'd have enjoyed it more closer to its time, but even then 'PD' and 'TWINE' put it to shame.

**