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.

**

Repression (2)

 DVD, Voyager S7 (Repression) (2)

The last great Vulcan episode? Certainly the last Maquis story. And since I love both of those this makes it the first great Season 7 story! I do enjoy a creepy episode where you don't quite know what's going on, and even though you do once you've seen it the first time, I didn't recall the details, such as bringing back some of the Maquis characters (Chell the Bolian, not seen since 'Learning Curve'! Mr. Ayala, one of those background actors who almost never had a line, but was memorable as Chakotay's 'heavy' in the pilot and seen many times since, though not so much in these last seasons), busting out the Maquis togs (maybe Chakotay and the gang have a sentimental attachment to that stage of their life and so never put the old clothes in the Replicator?), tying in to the Maquis story... (Is that the first time we ever saw Chakotay's ship named on screen, the 'Val Jean'?). It's all so much pudding for canon-continuity lovers, but it's also a reminder of what the series could have been like if it had followed the 'DS9' style of building up the background characters into recurring roles, having a greater sense of community and reality aboard ship, and yet after the first two, maybe three seasons, they went away from that - of course they always had some characters and connection to the past, Naomi Wildman even gets a mention (as being able to rule her out of suspicion as too short to be the attacker - amusing from Kim), but more than anything I loved the feel of being smack bang back in somewhere like the middle of Season 2 when so much was unknown, the ship was so divorced from the 'main' Trek world of 'DS9' and the 'TNG' films, and it was a pure adventure, self contained and just 'itself.'

Not that I didn't appreciate the unfolding into what could be called the Seven Era ('Retrospect' came to mind as being a similar style to this one, but starring Seven), but from Season 4 things did become somewhat different as it focused heavily on that character and her ongoing battles with Janeway, and I think one of the greatest factors that makes this episode feel like something out of the series' past is Seven largely being absent. She's so often the solution to the series' problems, whether singlehandedly going through the ship and taking out Maquis as she might have done, or being the one with a mental issue as Tuvok has here, it reminds me that she took on so many of the other characters' qualities, stifling them to some degree. It makes it so much more refreshing to see Tuvok in that old guise as lone investigator, responsible for the safety of the ship and recalls such greats as 'Meld' or (not so greats like) 'Ex Post Facto,' or even any of the investigative Odo stories on 'DS9' (he also unknowingly investigated himself in 'The Alternate'!), and feels reassuringly and dedicatedly old-style Trek, and when you've been dosed up on the current era as much as I have (almost watched as much as exists now), and having gone through dislike, to a period of some appreciation, to now realising I'm heading back to dislike again, it's so good to go back to Trek's greatness. As I said, this may be the last great Vulcan episode since I don't recall 'Enterprise' being specifically strong in that regard, episodes about T'Pol not especially among the best, and certainly since then with the new stuff they've absolutely stomped all over not just the species, but former greats like Sarek and Spock, ruining any sense of dignity and quality they once had.

Vulcans have always been my favourite race, and a good example for the over-emotionality of our current time, prizing logic and reason above irrationality and quick emotive reactions, and Tuvok is my favourite example, probably my favourite character of this series, so to see him star again was gratifying. Tying in to the past of the series, not merely returning to that style of some of the creepy early episodes ('Cathexis,' 'Persistence of Vision,' etc), made it even more special. At the time of first viewing it was another example of connecting to the post-'DS9' Alpha Quadrant, although in this case, ironically, the threat comes thanks to their ability to communicate with Earth which puts a new and sinister spin on the advantage they achieved in the latter part of the series (relevant again later this season with the Ferengi episode, just as it wouldn't be the last time we connected to early season versions of characters, as in 'Shattered'!). Merely having a Bajoran character of the week was terrific, and the fact it was some creepy Vedek who was into mind control as a recruiting tactic for the Maquis made it doubly interesting, as was the fact he was played by Keith Szarabajka (a memorable guest star who would go on to have a less memorable role in 'Rogue Planet' on 'Enterprise' and be in films such as 'The Dark Knight'). Teero was shown to be one of those malicious lost souls that tended to gravitate towards the Maquis, like Suder and his penchant for playing out his violent tendencies in battle.

If there is a flaw with the episode it is that we didn't learn enough about Teero: what personal events in his life made him as fanatical as to want to preserve a little remainder of the Maquis in the Delta Quadrant, against all reason for any good that it would do? And did the Federation catch him after this episode or did he get away with his little foiled plot scot-free? He's exactly the sort of loose end that could have gone on to plague Starfleet in future had the 24th Century been continued (I'm sure they brought him back in the books!), but he was really just one of the many who'd been affected by the Bajoran Occupation of Cardassians, whether it was the Bajorans themselves, or their oppressors (see 'Duet' and 'The Darkness and The Light'), but due to his galactic distance he couldn't really be part of the episode other than in the minds of those he affected through Tuvok. And it was a very effective and devious way to set up a sleeper agent - instead of exposing Tuvok (who knows how he found out his Starfleet mission, but presumably he just chose to experiment and discovered it in Tuvok's mind?), he bides his time, which again shows he was more interested in power over people than actually helping the Maquis cause. The writing cunningly deals with established facts about where people were and what they were doing and yet weaves in the new story and that's exactly the kind of thing I find missing from modern Trek. They go big on bringing in famous ships, races and characters, but they don't have the nuance and cleverness to do something like this, at least for the most part, I can't think of anything off the top of my head. Janeway states the Maquis' rebellion ended three years ago, which was during 'DS9' Season 5 once the Cardassians had allied with the Dominion and the Jem'Hadar were used to crush all Maquis resistance with extreme prejudice - they'd already acknowledged the change in status of the 'home' Maquis in 'Extreme Risk,' so it's nice they were able to say 'the story isn't over.'

That's what this is really all about, Teero's inability to accept the organisation he was part of was defeated, and he'd been kicked out anyway so maybe there was an element of wanting to prove his experiments right. They're actually in a time of peace now, post-Dominion War, and yet he hasn't been able to let go, even vowing in the past to keep the fight going even if he were the last man, which is essentially what he's doing in a small, pitiful way. I love that Tuvok being a double agent becomes Tuvok being a triple agent: he was working for Starfleet to infiltrate the Maquis, then he was implanted with something that could be activated at a given moment which turned him to the Maquis for real! It was no real benefit to Teero, other than to have satisfaction that his mind control techniques worked (and impressive he could do them on a Vulcan, that shows how powerful they must have been - he's a dangerous man!), and to gum up Starfleet's works a little, since they were as much the enemy as the Cardassians in the Maquis' mindset. It did seem a little too 'easy' when Chakotay is completely transformed back to the suspicious Maquis Captain he was, untrusting of Janeway despite their many escapades together, cutting through all the bonding they had, the personal feelings, every little occurrence that happened over almost seven years, but that's the strength of a mind meld, it must have been repressing so much of his memories and personality, but in that case I feel Beltran should have played it a little differently, perhaps not quite so sure and certain, but as if there was a slight element of his mind fighting within, a slight confusion maybe.

I'm not complaining about anyone's performances, it was lovely to see Chakotay and B'Elanna back in that guise and I assume the early meeting in the Mess Hall consisted of all the Maquis members aboard when it first becomes apparent they're being targeted, so we get some familiar faces, but also a female Vulcan (not sure how well that holds up - did we know there were multiple members of that species aboard, other than Tuvok and Vorik?), and I suppose they felt they could reveal something like the whole former crew since we're coming to the end of the series and don't need to be as vague, although even there we can assume some may have been on duty and unavailable for the meeting since someone said they made up a quarter of the crew, so that's around fifty people. Even though I didn't remember exactly how the story played out I loved the dawning realisation that only Tuvok was going to be able to save them: the man who was used as the tool of their destruction became the source of their salvation, and that was a very positive message (as was the one I took from it that laying your mind open to outside forces thanks to meditation is dangerous, even if that wasn't what they intended!). He even looked younger somehow once he was in the undershirt - perhaps it was the show of surprise, confusion and fear, or maybe it was the incongruent informality of an incomplete uniform itself, but he seemed to regress to an earlier Tuvok. There was also an element of going back to the 'TOS' films where Spock was gruff and mysterious, like when dying in 'II,' a heavy weight on their Vulcan shoulders.

There was one major, possibly minor, flaw in logic: when Tuvok took off his outer jacket his combadge should have been attached to that, and indeed it is - if you check back you see him flee his Quarters in a hurry without it, then when he arrives at the Holodeck he's wearing it, so unless he stopped on the way to get a new one that's a bit of an oversight. I wouldn't have ever thought of it except for the fact it was integral to carrying out the plan later on since he had to communicate with the awakened Chakotay. I suppose they could have had the Commander come to the Brig, but then it wouldn't have had the same power as seeing our First Officer suddenly activated like a Borg drone, and then activating others to the mutinous cause! So I can forgive that issue for the sake of the drama. They probably should have removed the combadge before transferring him into the cell, too, since we know such devices can be used for all sorts of things in the right hands, and Tuvok was always the right hands for improvisation! The mind meld was so effective that not only does it counteract years of natural affinity between Chakotay and Janeway, but even B'Elanna's love for her new husband, Tom Paris - she coolly states that he and Harry attempted a breakout but have been contained, apparently quite detached from them. Nice to see Paris as a nurse again, another thing that brings it back to the early seasons. One trivial little detail I noticed which I don't think had ever been done before, is someone asking the computer where someone else is, and the computer announcing they're in that very room as they suddenly enter. Answers the question of whether it would call Chakotay in the corridor outside Sickbay or in Sickbay since by the time the words had been spoken his location would have changed!

Perhaps the door to Tabor's Quarters shouldn't have required overriding when Tuvok went there since his friend Jor was already in there, and that does look a bit suspicious since if she really went in there only to retrieve a book she wouldn't have needed to lock the door. On a side note, great to see physical books again, too, another reminder that characters in Trek appreciate old things and the touch of physical things, they don't live in a sterile environment devoid of the physical, or at least if they do it makes them appreciate and value objects when Tabor could just as easily have had all his books and more on an iPad... sorry, PADD! I was also pleased to see another discussion of what Kim calls 'privacy protocols' - that someone can't simply read someone else's mail, except, as we hear from Tuvok, the Chief of Security has the right to do so if he thinks it important to the safety of the ship, but it was good to be reminded of such things and that Starfleet takes them seriously. Although it may have been inadvertent, I took Tuvok's talk of a 'Time of Awakening,' part of Teero's control, to link nicely with that period of Vulcan history when they were savage and violent. And if you know Tuvok's the perpetrator of the comas it makes more sense when the Doctor mentions 'subdermal contusions' on the shoulder since we see Tuvok do another Nerve Pinch when subduing Chakotay later, so some excellent attention to detail as you can usually expect from the writers of past Trek in stark contrast to the modern ones.

One thing I was disappointed about was that the Bajoran wasn't Gerron from 'Learning Curve,' but at least Tabor had been in the series previously, and not for a couple of years, too (he was in 'Nothing Human' in Season 5), good reaching into the past, and maybe they couldn't get the other guy? I'd have liked to see a bit more of the retaking of the ship, but I accept the point had been made once Chakotay and B'Elanna were dealt with, and if it had been an all-action affair I'd have been complaining it wasn't cerebral enough so the story was handled very well. Fun to see Tom and B'Elanna doing something together, and while I often feel uncomfortable by characters in modern Trek seeming to know and talk about our pop culture, which is clearly ridiculous in most cases, seeing a half-alien (and the rest of the crew at the end), dealing with 3D glasses and all the trappings of an old film theatre was great fun, although she was right about Tom going overboard on the authenticity when she gets gum on her shoe - that's the great thing about a holoprogram, you can have the good stuff and avoid the bad! It does raise the question why the program was running before they entered and what Tabor was doing in there - he claims he was doing repairs, but it would have been better if Tom had asked him to make sure the program was tiptop before they got there as otherwise it's a bit strange he'd be in there when they'd obviously booked some Holodeck time - equally, they might have been wondering if he'd finished and would have been less surprised by the anomaly of a guy slumped at the front. But a very effective introduction to the threatening atmosphere of the story, as was the reveal when Tuvok comes out of the shadows in the Cargo Bay. Like the best of Trek: a standalone that utilises the vast canon of Trek to make its story work.

****

Drive (2)

 DVD, Voyager S7 (Drive) (2)

It's always nice to be pleasantly surprised when it comes to an episode you've considered one of the weaker stories of the season - I actually did like this the last time I watched (and reviewed) it, but still, my initial thoughts of a space race being a bad idea were lodged in my brain. Every space series has to do a multi-species race, possibly due to 'Star Wars Episode I' and its pod-race (even though that wasn't even in space!), especially around the time this was made with that film still fresh in the memory, but this isn't really about a space race and that's why it works. In modern Trek we're used to space being depicted in rainbow colours all the time, full of sights to see and 'marvel' at, but old Trek tended to be more conservative in its depiction, so often going for what space really is: empty. In this one they make an effort to pretty it up, because one of the worst things about racing through space is that there's nothing there, no obstacles, no environmental danger, other than the competitors, no real thrill or excitement to be had - that wasn't the case in this particular example as they have a 'small wormhole with a big attitude' as Tom Paris puts it, one which blocks out all sensors. Which makes it seem a bit of a pointless route for a race since spectators won't be able to track the racers for the last third when it should be at its most thrilling, not to mention any of these participants could pull off some dirty tricks while out of the limelight. It turns out the dirty trick is set to go off at the very end of the race when a triumphant Delta Flyer would've crossed the line and blown everyone at the finish line to smithereens, reigniting the war between these four races, and collapsing everything the race was meant to stand for.

Having it be more than a mere test of piloting and speed, but instead the linchpin upon which a new treaty between former enemies is cemented, adds a lot more weight to the drama and gives a good reason why we, and especially Voyager itself, should care - Tom sounds like a young teen trying to convince his parents to let him stay out late or get a dog when he brings his petition to join in to the Captain and senior officers. Fortunately for him it came at just the right time: Janeway deciding the crew needs some R&R, while also providing a useful diplomatic function and hopefully winning them some new friends in the area. The only person who doesn't benefit is B'Elanna who'd already planned some romance for her and Tom (or 'kissy time' as he later monickers it!), only to find he's back to the big boy's toys again (just like in 'Alice,' only this time it's an outside force that causes the trouble rather than his own ship...), but ultimately it benefits her even more as she receives the commitment she's been longing for, having arrived at the conclusion she and Tom aren't well matched, despite their longevity. Torres seemed especially vulnerable and contemplative, quite different from the young, brash woman earlier in the series. Perhaps it's all to do with the biological clock, maybe it's a dissatisfaction with not getting enough A-stories to keep her busy, but whatever it is, she seems to have arrived at a crossroads that demands some kind of change, never easy on a relatively compact ship like Voyager, and one with no prospects for separation.

A touching scene is when she goes to the Mess and Neelix gives her the benefit of his wisdom - I at first took it she was in a foul mood, the way she flounced down on the sofa tapping away at her phone– sorry, her PADD! But then you realise she must have expected Neelix to be there, he so often is, and if she really wanted solitude she'd have gone to her Quarters or some deep part of the ship, or even hid in Engineering (like Seven did last week), so she must have needed someone to talk to and maybe a spot of sympathy. She sounds quite self-pitying, not wanting Tom to act differently, just wallowing in the fact her carefully constructed plans fell through, but she won't speak to him about it because then he could do something about it. She's just plain miserable, which is much more deadly than the Klingon rage we've seen so many times before: a quiet 'realisation' is much more effective, and it sounded as if Roxann Dawson was suffering from a sore throat or a cold, which only enhances the scene - Peter Jackson was right: pain is temporary, film is forever! Neelix is such a good listener, reminding us why he wasn't written out when he could no longer be a guide since Voyager had travelled beyond the bounds of his knowledge, and he understands people, too, hence why he appeals to that Klingon side of her by suggesting it doesn't seem very honourable to keep all this from Tom.

The resolution works really well, B'Elanna forcing herself into Tom's orbit by replacing Harry as co-pilot, thus it becomes a couple's adventure rather than the boy's own, and whether she realised it or not, was a way to test his loyalty and push him to a point where things change, either way. All very interesting psychology that I wouldn't have understood as a teen on first viewing, perhaps why it appeals more now. Also appealing is that it's all very realistic, unlike so much of Trek nowadays - yes, Tom could be said to be the proto-Trek character of modern times, the guy who talks so much more casually and isn't above ducking protocols (like in the mini-race Irina challenges him to, he always has a justification, in this case it's a test flight for the new Delta Flyer, so why not test it! It makes me wonder if she let him win since she was trying to create a mug to carry her bomb into the race, ensuring he was fully committed, but it could also be that she was seeing whether he had the skill to win or at least be at the finish line among the first...). Harry had to be the guy who ends up taking her copilot's seat (did the original copilot find out what she was doing?), his misadventures with the ladies being the running joke of the series in the same way O'Brien always had to be tortured on 'DS9' - Paris tends to remind us of the list of failures, this time citing Borg (Seven), hologram (the Irish program most likely, but could also cover the one from 'Alter Ego'), and dead (Lyndsey Ballard of 'Ashes To Ashes'). And now we can add terrorist to that growing list - it is funny, but perhaps a little unkind that Kim is still so eager and naive (when he likes Irina you know she's the villain!), but then that is his character and we love him for it.

There was actually a fair bit of good, gentle humour throughout, whether it was Torres' joke she took Harry's place aboard by reassigning him to diagnostic duty, or responding to Paris' insistence she remember the piloting rhymes that got him through the Academy by reminding him he was expelled (although, she's one to talk...), to the idea of Seven being the one to commentate on the race, only giving updates every few minutes until Neelix comes to the crew's rescue and shows her how it's done ('andthey'recominguptothenextbendwhaddanovertakingthispilotknowsnofearthisisanonstopthrillofarace' kind of thing!). Nothing nasty, nothing cruel and unpleasant, just the exact kind of positive storytelling and warmth that Trek got so good at and has now lost in exchange for crudeness, nastiness and silliness. It's not a standout episode, but it is very pleasant even with serious threats underlying the story. It's as relevant now as it ever was, being about the dangers of people anarchically taking their views into their own hands and using violence to push back against those they hate, whether it be those with conservative or liberal values doing the pushing. And it's not political, you notice, there's no 'side' other than Irina's xenophobic group that wants to disrupt and end the mini-Federation within which these four races have come together (incidentally, I counted five species, unless there are others from outside this former war-zone just here to compete).

Primarily, though, it's entertaining - it has its message, which in fact isn't even a message, we're simply shown that this exists and we don't go any deeper (such as there could be reasonable concerns within this xenophobia that have been ignored, exacerbating these people and adding fuel to their fire so extremists take it as a call to action), so it's not a complex picture, but then all of that is really window dressing for the personal story of Tom and B'Elanna - it's taken three episodes to address them and where they are, but now we know why, and while Trek shouldn't be a soap, it's good to explore the characters so they're more than merely two-dimensional creations having adventures all the time. At the same time there are a few points I would raise: firstly the idea of Voyager becoming this impartial outsider to help strengthen the alliance between these races, and yet they also have a dog in the race - and what good would it have done for them to win it, it could have discouraged all the 'legitimate' competitors! As much as I enjoy the brand new white-shouldered racing outfits, are they really necessary? There didn't seem to be any justification within the episode and I'm sure it doesn't take all that much replicating (plus it's good to have something different visually from time to time), but they did used to mention how they only have certain Replicator privileges (they wouldn't be seen again for over twenty years until they showed up in 'Lower Decks,' but then just about everything does!).

One thing that made perfect sense was how Tom and Harry would know and can communicate through Morse code, Paris saying it's something they use in the Captain Proton holoprogram, so it was beneficial, after all! I was also appreciative of the reminder about how warp travel has to be in a straight line, a reason why the race isn't at warp speed (yet another key idea apparently forgotten in modern Trek for the sake of 'looking good'). Of minor note was that the race Assan represented looked very much like a different coloured Benzite, so I assume they repurposed those old masks or built on them, as so often happened in those days. Not to say they didn't look good. I thought it was interesting they show Assan as this separate individual who stands apart at the party, solitude written all over his body language, which Paris ignores, yet in the same scene you see his copilot in the background happily chatting away to Starfleet: either he isn't as standoffish as Assan, or else they didn't consider what a background character did and failed to advise him to act disdainfully. No, the biggest issue is the Delta Flyer itself, which Tom suggests putting through its paces as it's newly rebuilt, except we saw Janeway already do that in 'Imperfection' with the alien scavengers. The continuity flub was because this was written and filmed out fo sequence, while being shown after. It's not that big a problem since you could say Paris is talking about his own experience being in full control with this test flight, but it doesn't quite ring true. And lastly, they mention Irina is a 'Terrellian,' but aren't they an Alpha Quadrant race? Or is that... the Terellians... Yes, it's that perennial Trek favourite of the confusingly similar named races beginning with 'T' and ending in 'ian.' Best not to even try and work it out.

The episode ends strongly, both in a general sense when Tom shows B'Elanna means more to him than anything else (as he probably should have realised before requesting to take part in the rally in the first place, but it just shows that what is important to one person in their head may not automatically be quite as much to another - a good life lesson, I'm sure!), halting the Flyer mid-race to hash out what's bothering her, proposing, then the pair of them bravely speeding the Flyer out of the racing zone to ensure no one dies when their Warp Core's about to breach (always a fertile source of danger and drama!), and then the very last shot when they're going off on a honeymoon with 'Just Married' scrawled on the back of the Flyer and strings of barrels tied to it. Okay, maybe that was a step too far into silliness, but it closed out the episode amusingly and warmly. They could have shown the actual wedding and I'm sure some (female) viewers would feel shortchanged on the omission, but we had already seen a version of that when their doubles got married in Season 5's 'Course: Oblivion,' and it was elegantly handled in the sense there wasn't time for anything more to the story at that point unless they decided the next episode was going to be a traditional 'build up to the wedding' story, but that only worked on 'DS9' because it followed an intense seven-episode serial and was a light capper to the heavy opening of Season 6. I'm just glad he made an honest woman of her.

The guest cast deserves some examination, not so much for playing particularly impressive roles (there's no James Sloyan or Jeff Combs), but for their return to Trek having previously portrayed other, more memorable characters: Cyia Batten, as terrorist Irina, would be the most recognisable name here since she played the original Tora Ziyal on 'DS9,' making two appearances as Gul Dukat's daughter, and after this 'Voyager' episode went on to appear in 'Enterprise' as one of the green-skinned Orion slave girls of 'Bound.' Brian George was the harried ambassador trying to keep this whole Antarian Trans-Stellar Rally from falling apart, but stuck in the memory far more (I'd forgotten he even had another Trek role!), as Dr. Bashir's Father, Richard, in 'Dr. Bashir, I Presume.' And Patrick Kilpatrick, the man with the best name in Trek (is it his real name?), had previously been in this series as the imperious Kazon, Razik in this series' 'Initiations,' and on 'DS9' as the scary human soldier, Reese in 'The Siege of AR-558,' so his role as intense former fighter pilot Assan wasn't out of his comfort zone, although the writers weren't being very imaginative calling his species the 'Imhotep'! Been reading about the ancient Egyptians at all?

***

Imperfection (2)

 DVD, Voyager S7 (Imperfection) (2)

Probably the definitive Icheb episode, despite it being about Seven and how she deals with a seemingly unavoidable death from illness. It's as much about the crew's reaction to this as it is the event itself and is one of those thinking episodes, a good antidote after the more action-oriented season premiere, which explores various themes and ideas of the kind almost entirely missing from... yes, sorry, I'm about to denigrate the current state of Trek again, but this is exactly the kind of episode which shows to the full the kind of deep connection viewers could have with it, an emotional intelligence which is about as far from the effects-heavy melodrama and over the top emotionalism all too prevalent in the modern series'. It's understated and subtle so that a single tear carries much meaning, and finds the time to explore issues in a realistic manner. I can't help but think of the one episode in which Icheb and Seven both appear in the modern era: the only thing they got right with that horrific abuse of once-great characters was noting his cortical node was missing, and when they torture and murder him, referring directly back to this episode. We see in 'Picard' that Seven went on to have a long, though rather unhappy life in the years after Voyager, worse for Icheb, his life cut short. But none of that future rubbish should affect the power of this story of a person going through the stages of coming to accept death, while someone else is willing to do everything in his power to prevent it, even at the cost of his own life, a pointed redemption story of sacrifice, but one that has a happy ending insofar as it isn't the end, but then that was the point!

One thing that sticks out are some of the lesser used characters being given time for good scenes: B'Elanna wasn't a big part of 'Unimatrix Zero, Part II,' even while she was in the midst of the action, while Neelix was barely even seen, but here both have fitting scenes with Seven. It could be complained that they still only exist to serve Seven's story rather than having independent stories for themselves (we still haven't had a proper moment for Tom and B'Elanna yet and we're now two episodes into the season, you'd think they'd make time to check in on these friendships and partnerships that we'd been waiting for!), but that could often be the case, mainly because Seven was such a terrific and potent source of successful drama. It could also be complained that we'd just had a big Borg two-parter, so going back to them yet again was a bit much (apparently it was meant to be shown as the fourth episode of the season, which is why we have the Delta Flyer magically okay after it was destroyed in the Season 6 finale with no reference to that at all!), but I suppose these stories come along organically, they weren't necessarily plotting out the entire season, someone had this idea and they went for it, and in its defence, at least we weren't actually up against the Borg (other than in the sense of the finiteness of their technology, which in itself raises all sorts of questions: can full matured Borg ever really be saved if they're dependent upon a cortical node that can never be replaced except at the cost of another drone's life?), we visit a debris field to harvest for parts (a bit like 'Empok Nor,' without being as creepy), but that avenue is closed off by the Kazon scavengers...

I mean, really! Did they not realise how closely these pirates resembled Kazon? Not that it was a bad look, just that they were far too derivative, not one of Michael Westmore's better days! It did cause me to speculate whether their unfortunate resemblance to the recurring warrior gang species our heroes repeatedly encountered in the early seasons was what led Janeway to underestimate them and almost got her killed if it hadn't been for Paris' split-second beam-out! She holds one of the aliens hostage with a laser scalpel and not only does he take the risk to swat her away like a fly, Tuvok gets shot (and we never see him for the rest of the episode - I'll bet Tim Russ was annoyed they ignored any implication for his character's health, at least show him in Sickbay, but they probably didn't want to do anything to distract from Seven's situation), and Janeway's hand gets stepped on as she's about to be executed, a narrow escape. But at least it wasn't the Borg coming back for their technology as we know they can and do, even though, apparently, they don't bother repairing things. It was a little bit of a cop-out to say they couldn't replicate the node because 'it's too complicated,' but they had to remove all easy options from the table. Janeway shows her dedication to Seven by considering going in to extract a live Borg since the debris field didn't yield the necessary results. Aside from the danger to the entire ship, especially after just riling up the Queen so much, the Doctor is aghast that she could contemplate taking one life to save another (akin to his psychological episode in 'Latent Image'), though she famously had done just that in 'Tuvix.'

You could say she makes that kind of decision on a regular basis - even Icheb mentions how they risk the safety of the ship to respond to a distress call for strangers, part of the powerful argument he makes at the end to change Seven's stony mind from refusing treatment. One of the most fascinating discussions happens when Seven remarks on the mission Janeway's been on to get the crew home, and that it's been at the cost of various lives (mentioning a few, such as Lyndsey Ballard whom we met last season in 'Ashes To Ashes,' in a nice bit of continuity), which is true. But she also mistakes Janeway's motivations when she believes the only reason she refuses to accept her coming death is because she's an unfinished project and that she's failed her Captain because of that. There is an issue about different characters getting different treatment, but Seven required all the extra work Janeway gave her, she was the 'good shepherd' (another episode in itself!), who goes out for the one sheep lost from the flock, and I suppose you could say there was a greater investment in her than in the average crewmember, though I don't think Janeway would agree in the sense she cares for all of them and if any needed her special attention she'd more than give it to them. Was the journey home worth the lives lost, that's the question, but if they had simply settled on a planet there'd have been risks in that, too, there's also duty to consider and that those who died made a serious commitment to Starfleet, even if for some they never imagined it leading to extremes so early in their career in the same way a soldier goes to war, but doesn't expect to be killed in the first action they're part of.

Janeway's a good Captain, but it's surprising that even at this stage she hasn't learned she needs to trust her crew, not merely protect them: in the same way that Seven is more valuable to them all alive, the Captain of the ship is integral to their greater survival, even more in this particular case when she's essentially the matriarch of their community. So when she was all for going into the debris field alone, it was clearly in protection of her crew, but very unwise, so I appreciated Tom and Tuvok piping up to insist on accompanying her. It would also be good practice to bring a Security Team along, but that so often falls through the cracks on this series! I suppose it was so they didn't get 'redshirted' all the time as there were very limited crew numbers and they couldn't afford to be losing people every week like in 'TOS,' but having an Away Team without specialists seems mad. As it was, Janeway would undoubtedly have been kidnapped and possibly killed by the unspecified aliens - I loved the humour of the moment when Paris has beamed her and Tuvok back and basically orders her to take Tactical. She just complies with an emphatic "Aye, SIR!" That's the kind of humour that works, no undercutting the drama, not being a 'witty' smart-aleck, but acknowledging the uniqueness of the situation, yet also getting on with things because there's no time for Janeway to take offence or put Paris back in his place - it's obviously something he'd more likely do aboard the Delta Flyer since it's basically his ship in the same way the Defiant was almost Worf's ship, except when Sisko was aboard, who's presence would overwhelm everything!

The Doctor is one to be out in a difficult position throughout, and yet responds in good grace and, surprisingly, wisdom with all kinds of things to deal with, such as the thorny issue of a patient's wishes. Seven points out she shouldn't be treated differently to any other member of the crew in the sense her state of health is personal, with doctor/patient confidentiality important. It's not through a good sentiment she says this, as Icheb later shows her, she prefers to be independent and face things alone rather than admit her condition to the crew, part of his powerfully persuasive argument that shows minds can be changed with reason, while also accepting he does it in a passionate way: intellect and emotion together forging a strong battering ram to have at the wall Seven puts up when she believes there could be even a chance Icheb would be put at risk by giving up his node for her. The Doctor can't treat her before this because she as the patient refuses the treatment, and Janeway can't order her to take it because medical matters dictate the authority, but the key is that Seven can be talked round - actually, she wasn't talked round exactly, Icheb had to perform self-surgery in order to prove he could survive, and only then does he enter into his carefully constructed argument, flinging back her criticism about him being too dependent on her as motivation for wanting her to live, though I'm sure if she examined her reasoning she'd have to admit she was only saying that to make it an excuse for not putting him in danger.

It was lovely to see the motherly side of Seven again, as we'd seen before with Naomi (who strangely isn't there to see off the Borg children as they find new homes - let's hope they have a better time than Icheb did when he returned home last season...), a touching sendoff for her little brood of Borg, but also dealing with her 'teenage son' in Icheb. Throughout, their interactions are a joy: so often stilted and emotionless like a Vulcan Mother and child, yet also fierce and combative in a mirror of how Janeway and Seven interacted so much in Season 4. Icheb has really grown by this point, eager to stay with Starfleet and make it official, well thought-through ambitions. Rather than being dependent on Seven it's clear to see he's flourishing on his own, as he proves by making the selfless decision to do whatever he can to save her when she has given up. I imagine this would be a good episode to watch if you have an illness yourself, even if it's not a terminal one, since it's quite an inspiring story, the kind Trek used to do so well, showing how people can deal with real world troubles, perhaps one reason why it became so special to so many while the modern variations come across as mere entertainment without that special spark of reality and the ability to put yourself in the shoes of the characters through the distancing of them being like superheroes more than relatable people who act heroically and professionally.

It's especially rewarding to see Seven in a vulnerable position (and I don't mean lying on a Biobed in Sickbay in full view of anyone that walks in, without even a covering to go over her catsuit - you'd think there'd at least be a curtain or the energy field equivalent to allow her privacy!), not able to deal with the approach of death, an attitude we'll all have to go through (if we're fortunate and don't die suddenly without warning), needing time alone and taking out her discomfort in anger on Icheb. The Doctor was right in saying she needed to deal with it in her own way and with dignity. It's all so far from the tough nut hard-drinker rebel we saw in 'Picard,' and it's not because Seven is weak here, she's of very strong character, but even the strongest have to deal with things that shake them and there's a fascination in seeing that without resorting to cliches like a glass of whisky (quite apart from the message that sends to viewers!). She's vulnerable in a different way at the end, a healthier way when she sheds a tear for Icheb - not bawling, sobbing or otherwise making a fool of herself, but a dignified emotional reaction that also shows she's becoming more and more human with each passing season, more connected to the feelings that had been locked off within the Borg. She even has time to discuss the afterlife with B'Elanna, the half-Klingon's important scene when she, who used to be so riled up by this combative figure, gives her the compliment of saying Seven's legacy is that she's made an impact on every member of the crew, high praise indeed.

I loved that she respected her wish for solitariness, escaping from the Doctor by hiding in the upper level of Engineering, and finding excuse for her to remain there, as well as allowing room for discussion on what she thinks of post-death: she's the perfect character to be questioned about such a divisive topic since she went through some kind of experience in 'Barge of The Dead,' though she seems to remain uncertain of what that really was since she hopes there's something after death rather than having wholehearted belief. For Klingons it's about how honourable a death they receive, which is a sad thing to think of that a whole life could be good and honourable, only for a slip-up at the end to mean eternal damnation. It's these kinds of issues that don't get much time in modern Trek in general which is too busy being flippant and going after excitement than it is addressing the questions of human experience. It's not that they come down on one side or another, it's that they raise the question and leave it to the audience to ponder, a healthy approach, especially given Trek's 'science is all' attitude, because they clearly know science only goes so far in reality, it can't explain everything, nor can the faith in it one day explaining everything be a comfort here and now. In fact, B'Elanna's initial reaction to Seven's thought process is that she shouldn't be thinking of death at a time like this, when, on the contrary, on the verge of facing it seems to be the most important time to consider such questions.

Neelix is the other person Seven interacts with outside Janeway and the Doctor, the comforting attitudes of the Talaxian a warm and dependable friend that whether she admits it or not, is something she needs as much as the self-imposed tasks she uses to distract herself, even if the Doctor and Neelix have to use a charming little reverse psychology tactic to get her to play Kadis-kot. My favourite line was probably her polite, but dismissive acceptance of Neelix' kindness by saying she'll 'admire the flowers later,' in typical Seven style: flicking on or off a switch for things that would be natural to most people (like 'fun will now commence'). The same way she thinks it best to deactivate the Borg children's regeneration alcoves as soon as they've left the ship because they'll be a drain on the ship's power, when inactive they must be like leaving something on standby for us, only a minuscule drain - either she was trying to be especially practical or it gave her something to do related to her former charges that would help to cover dealing with the loss. Technology is very important in the story, obviously the key to survival being the cortical node, though it made me wonder if that means all Borg have a shelf life - their memories may live on in the Hive forever, but if repairs aren't considered worthwhile does that mean becoming Borg is a death sentence after all, as we used to think when they were introduced? Even if you become assimilated you're only safe for as long as this node functions? There's still so much we don't know about the Borg, and probably never will, but it's incredible they kept finding ways to peel back the onion with this race.

We also see the old 'leaving your Combadge behind' trick to fool the computer into thinking you're still in that location when in reality you've moved. This is actually a very promising reminder of the importance of the individual right to privacy as I've mentioned in other reviews, because clearly the computer is capable of detecting bio-signs so Starfleet could easily track each person, it just hasn't been programmed to do that, and in an age when digital ID cards are becoming ever higher on the agenda in order to track and give governments more control over their populace, it's a pleasing suggestion of Trek's superior moral use of technology once again. In other notes, it was nice to see Tom as a nurse, not something we so often in these later seasons, though you'd think the Doctor would have trained one or two other dedicated crewmembers by now! And Harry Kim doesn't get much, but he does call the Captain 'Ma'am' when she orders him to locate the Borg debris field - I don't think it's quite crunch time yet, Mr. Kim! Maybe that was the equivalent of a strong swearword in modern Trek that Kim was so surprised they would head back to a Borg location? The accolades go to Manu Intiraymi for his portrayal of a student who refuses to give up on his mentor, both Jeri Ryan and he showing what they're capable of in a number of ways, and if it hadn't already been long cemented, showing once again what a deep bond these two characters have - did I hear right that Seven was also going to take the Starfleet test Icheb was going for? It'd make sense.

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