Renaissance Man (2)

 DVD, Voyager S7 (Renaissance Man) (2)

What better way to close out the standard run of episodes before we get the feature-length series finale than with a Doctor story that cleverly integrates most of the characters in a 'Mission: Impossible' type of spy drama where he's wearing the 'face masks' of his friends and colleagues to save the Captain's life? I do think it's a classic of the series, completely standalone, which may or may not irk, depending on your stance on how they chose to close out the series without preamble or setup. I just think of it as a strong episode rather than a stepping stone towards the conclusion of the series and its characters, one you could watch without consideration for what went before or after - for example, Neelix' absence has no effect, it simply feels like he's on the ship, but not involved as was too often the case (he even gets a mention by the Doctor at the end which had nothing to do with his leaving, so again, if you didn't know he was gone it wouldn't be out of place at all). At the same time there are noticeable little bits of ephemera that allow a keen observer of the series to realise they're deliberately throwing in a few 'last' things - Vorik has no bearing on the story, he's just there, but it's nice that he got one more appearance. Mr. Ayala, the Maquis guy who was quite visible in the pilot as one of Chakotay's men, simply because he was quite lanky, and was seen as an extra throughout the series, generally without lines, gets a prominent position on the Bridge at Helm, and even some lines. We see a holographic emitter on the ceiling of Sickbay, which hadn't been there before, and nooks and crannies of the ship, like the upper level in Engineering or a little side cupboard behind the Doc's office. They know this is the only time they have to do such things and despite the lack of connection to the series winding down, it still gives out a slight atmosphere of that.

It's really a bottle episode, but while it's mostly the Doctor running round the ship, they also have some fun with various special effects, from his leap through the office window in Sickbay, to running up the wall and flipping over Tuvok, to a Holodeck full of Doctors, they didn't hold back and had some fun (to the extent I kept thinking of 'The Matrix' and sequels, which was only two years old at the date of this production, while the sequels had yet to arrive - in both cases the effects were less realistic seeing them nowadays, but it was the intent and use that worked). I'm not entirely sure on the tone of the episode, whether it veers too much into comedy when there's a strong undercurrent of horror and creepiness, or if it should have been even more broad (the Doctor's deathbed confession would fit plum into that category!). Right from the first scene in which the Doc sings opera while piloting the Flyer (and we also learn he's writing a paper and taking holo-photos at the same time), a sprightly, energetic pace flows throughout, while also setting the humorous style, in keeping with the Doc's personality. It could just as easily have been played more sinister from the moment 'Janeway' turns on Chakotay to hypospray him and the First Officer isn't strong enough to push 'her' arm away since it's really the Doctor in disguise and holograms have seemingly no limit to their strength as it's merely programming (although later that's called into question as the Doc grapples with the Hierarchy alien and holds him at an impasse without being able to overpower him - they must have dense muscular structure in their large potato-head bodies that test a hologram's limits).

The sets are quite murky throughout which only adds to the sense of foreboding and uncertainty, with Janeway highly suspicious right away, returning from a mission and summarily deciding the only option is to settle on an M-class world, though that creepiness is stripped away quite early when we learn the Doctor is in control of his actions, he's only trying to save his Captain's life by obeying the instructions of their captors. Again, the tone isn't sure of itself as the Hierarchy were very much comedic villains in the Ferengi vein, and while it's nice to have an established 'Voyager' species be behind the villainy (we learn they like mud baths, which was fitting!), there is some question over whether they have the cachet to cause real harm to trained Starfleet officers, especially when there's only two of them. The lead is the only true villain, the other guy was more of a tinkerer whose skills were being exploited and along with the simple desire to get some cash together in order to open a used parts shop since he loves fixing things - incidentally, although Janeway was trying to get on his side by suggesting they could purchase his entire inventory, I don't think she quite understood he wouldn't want to sell everything, he'd want to potter around in an acquired location, make a name for himself as a fixer of old parts and so on, it wasn't just the selling that interested him, but he never has a chance to respond to her offer before his boss or partner intervenes. Still, the Hierarchy would provide a suitable opponent to the Doctor, whom, for all his abilities, can still be quite naive.

We'll have to lay it down to that, that he failed to trust his friends enough to find a way to warn them about their Captain's situation. I know he was being watched all the time, everything he saw and heard was relayed back, but surely he could have found a way to alert them somehow (as with the musical clue). I rather think it was more to do with that worrying attitude he displayed at the start when saying how he used to wish he could be flesh and blood, but came to the conclusion holograms are superior. It's a concerning admission, especially because it seems to be a recurring belief among holograms - we'd seen such examples as Dejaren in 'Revulsion' who killed his entire crew because he was disgusted by organic life, and the holograms the Hirogen fought in 'Flesh and Blood' had similar beliefs about themselves. But the scene between the Doctor and Janeway is played humorously, it's just the same old pomposity we've grown to love in him, and yet I also felt there was room for exploration of that theme - to some degree you could say it was explored in the sense that the Doctor needs the help of his 'inferior' organic fellows and is unable to win out alone, as might have been the outcome if showing holographic superiority were the goal. Strangely, it's his humanity that actually betrays him because he does take it all on himself and does a good job of tricking people for some time (a bit like Data in 'Brothers' where he takes over the Enterprise, except that was overt rather than clandestine), but ultimately slips up.

If he'd been coldly logical and computer-like he may have carried it on longer, but either way he's betrayed by his manipulator. Whenever someone tells you to lower your shields you have to have a bad feeling - when the alien villain gives him that order it made me think of Kirk doing the same to Khan in 'Star Trek II' ("Here it comes"). I did wonder when they decide to send a shuttle after the aliens and the Flyer, why not use all the shuttles and pursue with an attack fleet? For that matter we don't actually know how many they have aboard and have always liked to keep it vague (unlike 'DS9' where you could just about keep track of the Runabouts' fortunes over the years, which were all named), and perhaps it wouldn't have been stealthy enough, but it is interesting that we don't see Starfleet use their shuttles like fighters - could be budgetary reasons, but I like to think it's because the shuttles aren't considered offensive weapons, like a Tricorder they're there to perform sensor scans and other non-invasive necessities, and I like that. It's not about fitting heavy weapons on and blasting enemies out of the space-lanes, although in this case they could've done with all the firepower they could muster.

There isn't all that much room for development, but even this late in the day we learn the Doctor wishes he could socialise more with the Captain, citing her dinners with Chakotay and playing Velocity with Seven (which I think we only saw once in Season 4), as signs of her behaviour with others. It makes sense for him to have an individual connection with Janeway since he is the Chief Medical Officer and you could say that even after all these years there is some unconscious bias about him, but it's more that he's very sensitive and Janeway has a lot to deal with, it's not a normal situation being stuck in the Delta Quadrant for years. Still, it ends the episode on a happy note when Janeway takes him up on his suggestion - I also like that rather than the usual dressing down he'd earned by disobeying her orders and thinking he knew best, she punishes him by denying access to his mobile emitter for a week, and as he's been reclusive in Sickbay for that time, he's already served the punishment. I do think there was something to be played with Seven in all this - it's ironic, isn't it, that she's really taken quite a back seat over the season, especially the second half and in recent episodes has been mostly background, but in this one it felt like there should be some response to the Doctor's declaration of love for her. It was done in a theatrical way while he thinks he's dying, but it was so sensitively handled in 'Someone To Watch Over Me' that I can't help feel it was not quite right to throw it out there in front of her and the others, and they were only doing it because there'd be not time for repercussions. But a scene in which she shows up in Sickbay and sets things right again would have been appropriate.

Chakotay, Tuvok and B'Elanna all benefit in this one, characters too often overlooked - we even get a shot of Torres not pregnant as a little gag since unlike other times (Season 4), or characters (Kira), she was playing pregnant, but actually wasn't so they could do that, the only time we see her that way in the season. I do have to ask why the crew have holo-templates of themselves in the first place, that seems a very strange idea. I could understand if the Doctor had tapped into the leftovers of the Maquis program or something similar, but no mention was made and it appeared they simply have templates of themselves in the ship's database. Creepy! Though necessary for the story, I suppose. Another idea that barely had any airing was how the 'R'Kaal' were anti-warp travel as they believed it damaged subspace, an issue dealt with on 'TNG,' then never mentioned again, but the rationale (non-canon I suppose, since it was never mentioned onscreen), for Voyager's Warp Nacelles angled up for warp travel was a direct answer to the problems discussed in 'Force of Nature' and this would have been the perfect time to make that canon and give insight into a key ship's system in its penultimate appearance, but at the same time the story wasn't relevant because the R'Kaal were an invention of the Doctor. It was fun to see the Warp Core eject (though I think it'd been done before), though it must have been a budgetary constraint that they fail to show a Core-less Engineering when scenes are there post-ejection - we view the angle from the Core's POV.

I considered it should be more difficult for the EMH to become the ECH, Emergency Command Hologram, than the Doctor ordering it without any authorisation from Janeway since he'd be a major security risk if anyone tampered with him, but the point of it is so that if the Captain is somehow incapacitated he can take over (even though there is a hierarchy, which is the whole point...), but then it was generally a little bit of amusement and a touch hard to take the Doctor being in command seriously (as we saw last time with Kim). The horror aspect of the Doctor going around knocking people out, impersonating them and then hiding their bodies in the Morgue (have we see that location before?), then collecting their Combadges together like trophies, could have been played up quite uncomfortably, but since we knew the Doctor was in the right it couldn't be, so that was a small flaw. Maybe it'd have been better to keep the tension and not let on what was happening until later. One thing Janeway got right was suggesting the Doctor would outlive them all, and according to 'Starfleet Academy' (the series that finally broke the back of modern Trek, and which I have yet to see), he survived a thousand years!

I suspected it wasn't Robert Picardo in the Hierarchy makeup when they give him the potato-head skin to infiltrate their own planet and use him for other nefarious criminal activities, since it was unnecessary and would take time for Picardo to get in the makeup - it's confirmed in the end credits with J.R. Quinonez noted as 'Overseer/Doctor' (who also appeared uncredited as Kol in 'The Price' on 'TNG,' apparently). It was another actor, David Sparrow, playing the R'Kaal alien the Doctor impersonated. As well as being Alexander Enberg's final appearance as Vorik the Vulcan (and indeed his last part in all of Trek), and Tarik Ergin getting a rare credit (Tactical N.D. - usually stands for Non-Dialogue, except he definitely spoke, but he usually appeared in blue, though I'm sure he also showed up in gold, so either he fulfils multiple roles in various departments, or it's a case of Mr. Leslie in 'TOS' and there's more than one of him!), we also have another returning face as Andy Milder played Nar, one of the Hierarchy aliens - he couldn't have been more unrecognisable from his previous role as Boq'ta in 'Empok Nor' from 'DS9,' the Bolian quite thin and small, while Nar was as burly as all the other potato-heads we'd seen, though they were both gentle, concerned types.

If you don't mind the uneven tone and just go with the comedy, and you're not concerned about 'wasting' a precious story on what amounts to a 'mere' bottle episode without the dignity of allowing a seven-year series to wind down, this is great fun and continued to demonstrate the quality of action and adventure they could achieve. It was clever in that while the Doctor is the focus, another character to be noted for taking more than his fair share of the limelight over the years, they found a way to make sure other characters were more involved thanks to the impersonations. For that reason I would say it stands the test of time, and even while the CGI isn't quite right at times, provided a good ensemble story to finish a season that can be maligned and in general isn't as strong as the last few (as is usually the case with final seasons). The Doctor is a ham, but he shows he can also act subtly if the stakes are high enough, and they were high for him with the protection of Janeway. Loyal to the end, a hologram is a Captain's best friend.

****

Trolls

 Amiga 1200, Trolls (1993) game

This must be about the easiest Amiga game to complete I've ever played! I was very surprised it only took me three sessions, a smattering of hours to complete every level and hit the big wooden door at the end expecting 'the final challenge' mentioned in the manual. All I got was a 'Congratulations' screen. An admittedly bright and attractive piece of artwork, very Hobbity, maybe even a touch 'Settlers,' but still... I was anticipating at least one last partial level, maybe a difficult boss battle, something to increase the chances of dying and having to play through all the levels again. But no, unless I'm missing something, that's it, you get seven levels of mostly well-worn themes (Toyland! Candyland! Fairground Land!), with the toughest challenge in the game being thumbing through the manual and counting down the lines of text on a given page to find the correct word for inputting to satisfy the copy protection... That's another thing, I couldn't copy the disks, they come up as NDOS, meaning not a DOS disk and therefore Workbench, the Amiga operating system, won't let you copy them. I'm always wary of using original disks, especially today, so long after they were manufactured, so I went into this game with the mental caveat I might not be able to finish it, reliant on the disks holding out. I needn't have worried, the game didn't last long enough for me to experience any issues like that, and I can't say I'd have been disappointed if it had, other than for the sake of completeness.

Actually, I did experience some issues like that: the game was a bit glitchy - I understand, as I said, it's very old and a wonder it even still works (they used to make things to last back then!), but I did once get stuck in the scenery with only the relief of a nearby monster moth killing me to prevent me having to restart from the beginning (the manual claims you can restart by pressing F2, or quit with ESC, but neither of those options worked, so maybe that was referring to the PC version only?), and that was only in a few hours of play. The worst glitch was when the Bonus levels for each world, doorways with spinning question marks only accessible when a world has been completed, would crash the game if you tried to enter them (on a side note: are these Worlds or Levels, because the manual calls them Level Doors, but then mentions how 'you can see a silhouette of the World you will enter through that door' and later calls them 'Multi-Level Worlds' - I just like to get the terminology right in a game. And don't get me started on the weird choice not to have the name over the door, but to have to guess from the silhouette what level/world you're about to enter!). Oddly, the Bonus (or Bogus, depending on which of the B-O-N(or G)-U-S letters you collected), levels that automatically loaded up after a successful completion of a level with all letters collected, worked fine, so I don't understand what the problem was?

Let's tally up so far: extremely short, confusing, options that don't work, glitches... It's not that I went in with high expectations, I was fully anticipating a basic 2-star average joe of a game, and now that I've played it I feel bad for having marked 'Sleepwalker' and 'Magic Pockets' down to that last year when they were more inventive or a far more energising challenge (though it was for specific reasons: the glitchy end of the former, the hard graft for the latter). I selected 'Trolls' as my big Amiga title this year simply due to the fact it was about the only platform game I could find in our collection that worked, worked on the 1200, and was a platformer, as I wanted to recreate the fun of the last couple of years where I've rediscovered the genre on the console. In truth I really wanted to play the James Pond games (especially Robocod), but couldn't locate them. I had absolutely no connection to 'Trolls' whatsoever, having never played it back in the day (I don't even know what 'era' we got it in, I imagine it was among one of the later batches of collections that came our way). There are some titles I'd love to play: 'Fire and Ice' (begun, then forcibly abandoned due to the 1500 dying), 'Soccer Kid' (where are the disks?), 'Zool' (doesn't work on the 1200, or maybe just doesn't work), but 'Trolls' had to suffice and just shows what a gap there is between the greats and the also-rans of the genre.

I will give it credit for a cheery little intro sequence as if all the energy and time went on that to sell the game, a jaunty theme, and even game credits (which is why I suppose they're missing at the end). Then you have a colourful image of the titular Troll and some of his enemies before the game starts properly. I will also give credit for allowing the player to tackle the seven Worlds in any order he likes: once I'd got a handle on how the game played, what the various collectables meant, and explored the levels, it made sense to start with the last one, 'Candyland,' and work backwards since the difficulty was slightly upped with the later ones, as is the norm for these things. Not that there was ever much real difficulty, it's far from taxing for any experienced platformer veteran and even with the slight impression of an unresponsive control scheme, you can win through quickly - you're helped by the occasional hidden warping area that if jumped into will deliver you to the end of the level, bypassing all the threats, the main ones being falling off the bottom of the screen since you get three hearts to start with, and space for a fourth to be filled, three lives (falling off uses one), and maybe four continues? Find a 'Super Cool White Rabbit' and it adds another continue, score 5000 points and get another life... Even if you die the number of Baby Trolls collected is held over so you don't have to pick them up again, so there are a lot of helping hands - if you're careful and don't go bouncing off the screen too much, you can get through with minimal losses.

It can get confusing over what you can and can't do - early on I wasn't sure if I was losing a heart every time I bounced on a monster, or not (you have to hit them directly from above or you suffer damage). And when I collected various items I'd often see no change in the score, so does it wait for the end of level screen to award the points? I think so, but then some things do give you points there and then, like the essential Baby Trolls (a number of which you have to rescue before heading for the 'Pigstop' - it's a flying pig, the 'Pigasus,' rather than a bus for reasons of game creator whimsy, though I do wish they'd put a little more thought into Troll culture, if that doesn't sound too pretentious, and worked the worlds around that, rather than just flinging in the usual environmental features and creatures you'd expect), of which you have to collect a certain number in each level, so it didn't seem to be very consistent. To make it even easier there are 'Big Red Elephants' (which look a bit like Welephant, the fire safety mascot, if you remember him!), which will mark your position in a level so if you lose a life you'll jump to him instead of starting at the beginning. They were nothing if not generous, but maybe this was the dawn of games becoming easier since they were cottoning on to the fact that players will be more likely to buy your game if they can actually do well in it.

Some minor irritations are that you collect items hidden in balloons by hitting the balloon, but then have to wait for the item to jump into the air and come back down, and if you move from that spot, you'll miss it. It had the effect of slowing the game down because instead of bouncing madly round screens as you would in most games of this style, you have to wait, or at least leap into the air in a direct line above you, to ensure you collect the points, and when you have enemies approaching, that's not always possible. Even more so when you're in the Bonus/Bogus levels (the difference between them being that you double the points collected if you play a Bogus level, but lose all, including a life, if you fail to get to the exit in time), where you have a strict time limit in which to explore and gather up as many points as possible, while still making it to the Elephant-shaped Exit before the time runs out. I never saw any correspondence between the balloon's colour and what it contained, either, so you don't know if something's worth waiting for until you hit the balloon and play close attention to what flies out of it. Then there are the enemies that all reappear the moment you come back into their area after stepping away, even if you've dispatched them! The Troll's hair changing colour depending on what Special Power he gets was a nice touch (that's the kind of thing I'm talking about when I say 'Troll culture' - expand on that!), but a couple of them are negative effects (Ball & Chain slowing you down, Beer making movements unresponsive - realistic, but is this really suitable for a game aimed at children!), so there's a bit of penalising the player for the sake of it.

To cap it all, I wasn't able to note down my score (153,000, or thereabouts? I'm not sure), at the very end because unlike every other level door, you don't need to press down on the Joystick to access the final wooden door, just touch it, which was a final annoyance since when the 'Congratulations' message comes up that's it, there's no way back, no saving, nothing, you have to reset the Amiga to exit, how annoying is that! In gameplay terms it was pleasant enough, though disappointing you only get music in the Toymaker's Shelves hub (the Toymaker himself seems to be a dog for some reason...), or the Bonus/Bogus levels, though sound effects were attractive enough, as were the visuals. 'Fableland' with its rolling green hills and little Hobbit dwellings in the hillside, was probably the best looking. 'Candyland' just seems like a complete rip-off of 'Zool,' though I suppose 'Media Land' was trying something different with its largely black and white landscape and amusing giant-sized Troll-related headlines. You've got to have the obligatory underwater levels with Sodapop Land (with added jeopardy thanks to the need to reset oxygen before it depletes by collecting bubbles from balloons, though again you have no idea which balloons hold them!), so where was the 'Space Land' where you jump higher or fly in zero-gravity? The Yo-Yo was a fun addition, allowing you to swing from platforms and even jump up to higher ones, but it could be fiddly to use (press fire and the direction you want to throw it, but if you get it wrong you'll end up running in that direction and hitting an enemy with your body, taking damage instead of damaging the foe - argh!), and should have been standard equipment rather than something you had to track down every level (and lose every time you die, sometimes stifling your progress).

Maybe I was expecting too much, but I don't think so, I think 'Trolls' just comes across as a bit of a rush job and even the artwork on the box looks quite amateurish. Translated into the digital environments it's a lush, happy funscape, but when you're even feeling inclined to be critical of the product's box and manual you can't help but feel that there's something fundamentally wrong with it! Not really true, I did get some enjoyment, but it was very far from being a challenge and when you've steeled yourself to battle through seven levels and an eighth final challenge, probably taking a good few weeks of teeth-grindingly repetitive effort, to complete it so quickly makes me feel like I've been let out of work halfway through the shift and don't know what to do with the rest of my day.

**

Homestead (2)

 DVD, Voyager S7 (Homestead) (2)

I did wonder if this story would have the same power as it used to - it's been a long time since I last watched it, 'Voyager' and its conclusion has always been patchy in my mind and the series didn't always show the qualities that it was capable of, but the exit of the friendly Talaxian, Neelix, remains as sensitive and fitting as ever and is really the kicking off of the end, as late as it was, the decision having been made not to conclude with multiple episodes, bring back all the old faces, or really do anything other than show the unexpectedness of the ship's success or failure in its main mission of returning home, no one knowing until the last moment whether the drive of the series would be satisfied or left hanging. I'd love to know what it would have been like to see this episode without knowing it was Neelix' last - at the time its terrestrial premiere was first broadcast on TV in 2002 I'd been reading Star Trek Monthly for years and had become well used to knowing all about episodes before seeing them, but I can imagine for more casual viewers it would have been quite a shock to see a member of the main cast leave out of the blue, even if you were aware the series was almost at an end, and while Neelix could be something of a divisive character for many, those of us who loved his foibles and flaws, and saw his heroism and usefulness, were very sad to say goodbye, and in some ways for me this was more of a series finale than 'Endgame' which was much more concerned with sweeping action and high-concept drama, much in the way of 'All Good Things...' While the 'DS9' finale, 'What You Leave Behind,' had its share of slam-bang action, it was more notable for the sensitive handling of the characters and the sense of closure - 'Homestead' is more along those lines.

We didn't get to see much of a farewell among the crew in the series finale so perhaps that's one of the main draws for me here, but the atmosphere is also heavy with expectation of the change in Neelix' life: the next chapter of a varied existence that has thrived on moving from place to place, doing odd jobs, fitting in wherever he can. There's also a sadness about the character best summed up when he shows Dexa the Bridge and her son, Brax (brats?), asks where Neelix' station is. It's both rewarding, but also telling when Kim and Chakotay praise him as being multi-talented (the 'most versatile' member of the crew), the series essentially pointing out his mercurial nature: enough to fit any role he was given, and while his friends and crew-mates were well-intentioned, he really didn't have an essential position within the hierarchy of the crew. It makes you realise that despite being welcomed into the family of Voyager, with it also a professional organisation, that's still not quite enough, and Neelix was left with a gap in his life, not helped by the split from Kes and her subsequent exit at the beginning of Season 4. He was resourceful and he always found a new role that needed him, but if you think back to the early seasons his only other major turning point was with 'Fair Trade' when he realised his unique usefulness as guide was at an end when Voyager was leaving the territory he knew - interestingly that was another episode that featured a Talaxian, his friend Wixiban and may have been the last time he ever met a real life member of his species until this episode which once again shows a missing piece in his life that he wasn't able to commune with those that shared his culture, history and the personal things that made him: his home, his people.

Neelix was gregarious and put effort into getting to know others, he was kind, which covered a multitude of ineptitudes or mistakes and made him such a lovable character, but rarely did he get the chance to show his inner vulnerabilities, he was always putting on the brave face, always the strong, optimistic one, even while struggling to restrain his emotions and all this comes out in that one scene where he realises he doesn't really have a strong anchor tying him to Voyager any more. I'm so glad they got Naomi Wildman in the episode (I was surprised to realise this was her final appearance - you could even say it's a bit harsh in the way Neelix learns his job is pretty much done in that quarter as Naomi is so blasé) - he goes to her in his confusion or disquiet to remind himself of his responsibility on a personal level, but finds she's becoming an independent child already whom no longer needs the kind of personal care and attention he'd devoted to her. I say sadly, but this was the only thing really holding him back from embracing a new life and I feel sure that his principles were so strong that if she had still needed him as Godfather, he would have sacrificed all potential happiness and fulfilment in order that she got what she needed from him - he was just that kind of man, the biggest heart in Trek, I think it's fair to say. That understanding allowed him to reach his decision, or at least start him considering going where he was most needed and could fulfil an essential role that tied in with his own personal needs, leaving the place he'd come to call home to expand and develop, which makes it such an affecting story.

For that reason it is the closest we got to goodbyes as Neelix is pleasantly surprised and moved to find the corridors lined with the crew come to salute him off the ship. A terrific scene and I love that Neelix says not a word as if he couldn't trust himself to speak, it's such a powerful moment and nothing need be said, the others do that for him. But even earlier when he's almost sneaking off Voyager to his own ship, head down, body language suggesting a slinking, sheepish exit until he's intercepted by Janeway, it reinforces the impression that he is a bit of a man alone, not constrained by the crew's adherence to the Prime Directive, still holding onto a piece of his old life with the small ship Voyager's kept in its belly the whole trip since the pilot. He doesn't go to anyone, doesn't confide in his friends, just sees a way he can help - all thanks to Tuvok's surprise encouragement that boosts him up and helps him realise he could do more to realise his full potential. Being the self-effacing person he is, it was needed. Now there are some issues with all of this: it's a bit convenient that the Prime Directive is cited since the Talaxians aren't a pre-warp species and are dealing with a similarly warp-capable opponent in the miners so I don't see how it applies at all, I'm sure Voyager has stepped in many times when a greater force was bullying a smaller, it's purely to set up Neelix as the only man who can help the Talaxian colony, in turn giving him the importance required to develop. But again, Neelix is just as bound by the Directive as anyone else under Janeway's command, though it helps to spell out that, for example, while Tuvok might have the skill to lead them in a tactical engagement, Neelix has the understanding of the Talaxians themselves, historically a 'beaten' people.

It's a fudging and it's a grey area, but it sets up a wonderful 'Seven Samurai'/'The Magnificent Seven' (or for that matter the Andy Lau film, 'Battle of Wits'), situation with Neelix as the lone gunslinger coming in to help the surrounded villagers who need leadership to defend themselves, so I don't have a problem with it - when it comes to it Janeway gets fully involved anyway, zipping in aboard the Delta Flyer to take out the last explosive when Neelix was about to make the ultimate sacrifice of himself and his ship, stopping it with his own life, and there was something of the Han Solo manoeuvre at the end of 'Star Wars' in her sudden and unexpected appearance. But we know Janeway's interpretation of when to invoke the Prime Directive or not was one of her most unstable characteristics so again, I don't mind in the context of the story - even though I knew Neelix was going to survive to stay with the colony at the end I still felt the imminence of death when he chooses to put himself in the path of the weapon and he's all the more endearing for his choice. I think the only real problem with the episode is the lack of Samantha Wildman - if you hadn't followed the story you could easily be forgiven for assuming she'd died seasons back since she'd only made three appearances since the end of Season 2, the last in the previous season's 'Fury,' and her absence is keenly felt in such moments as Neelix realising Naomi doesn't need him any more (I could imagine seeing it on her face - reading the situation, pained she can't do anything to help him, while potentially giving him a little nudge towards his convictions to go and help those people), and especially when his friends line the corridor, her absence is surprising.

I can imagine only a select few of the crew were able to see Neelix off, the ship's operations coming first, of course (an excuse for why there are clearly not two hundred people there!), and it's easy to make a case for any absentees being unable to get away from their duties, but in Wildman's case she was so close to him that it makes no sense for her not to be there. I can see she was just one of those elements deemed unnecessary in the time they had, maybe Nancy Hower was unavailable, but either way I do wish they'd made an effort to bring her back. It could have seemed a bit out of the blue since she and the other recurring characters (even the upper tier ones like Naomi and Icheb), hadn't been used consistently, unlike 'DS9' where you had great development and closure for everyone, and even though she hadn't been showing up on a regular basis (something that made the early seasons have so much more of a family or community feel), it would have felt right to see her in a couple of scenes as we can imagine her being around even when we don't see her. But the series had moved on from a lot of the things that made it what it was, as all series' do change over time so I can't judge too harshly, especially as this was such a strong episode to showcase Neelix, whether it be that sense of isolation of a man out of his culture, or someone willing to stand up for others: probably his strongest moment is when he stands in front of Brax when the miners are going to punish him for throwing a rock at their leader, Neelix pushed aside by one of the Cardassian-like aliens only for the Talaxian to use all his training from Voyager (right down to the famous Starfleet double-fisted hammer punch possibly created by Captain Kirk!), take him down and disarm him, the aliens surprised that one of these pacifist aliens would stand up to them.

That's the message of the story, all about violence not being the answer, but also the necessity to be bold and stand up for yourself or your family even if the consequences can be at high cost (as Dexa's husband found out at a previous colony). In this regard Neelix is exemplary, though his own sense of being inferior to the intelligence and skill of his Starfleet friends is what held him back from realising his full potential as someone who is diplomatic (like Janeway), tactical (like Tuvok), with the sense of when to act offensively or not (like Chakotay). It's pleasing to see all these qualities he's learned or unearthed through his time on Voyager and most gratifying for it to be Tuvok who inspires him. It's quite ironic it should be the Vulcan who suggests an emotional attachment to their colony could be an asset in getting them to defend themselves, but then Mr. Vulcan makes a few un-Vulcan moves in this episode: he claims that some of Neelix' tendencies can be annoying, but surely Vulcans are in control of whether they allow annoyance to annoy them. Similarly, he claims Vulcans do not experience fear - is this an example of the old issue of 'Vulcans never lie,' except they do if it's convenient or logical to do so? I like the idea that Vulcans can so bury such things as fear that they essentially don't experience it, one of the things I love most about the race which has sadly been lost in modern depictions (or I should say post-'Voyager' depictions!). More than anything it's his compliment that Neelix is perhaps (still with the typical Vulcan qualification in the sentence, you've got to have that!), the most resourceful individual he'd ever known, and 'more than capable.'

I'd have liked more information on how this group of Talaxians came to be so far from the homeworld since we know Dexa lived there at some point and shares Neelix' preferences about it, but she didn't look that old (difficult to tell alien ages, of course), so they must have made the journey, staying in various places, in a few years - but we know Voyager has travelled thousands of lightyears from that area of space, mainly thanks to bonuses like Kes pushing them along, so it's hard to get the idea of how they could end up so far out. All we hear is that they were a caravan of ships (again, if they were stopping at other planets to build a life why didn't they dismantle the ships there for whatever colony they made, or did they have to reassemble them to move on, like American Indians and their teepees?), and had bad experiences with aliens that have made them suspicious and slow to trust outsiders. It was fun to imagine there could be others out there called Neelix, as Dexa says her Uncle had the same name, but it also brings home a sense of homeliness for him: people that know the significance of names or places and share his experiences. He'd kept a bottle of some Talaxian beverage for fifteen years and opens it for Dexa (symbolic of opening himself up to her, maybe?), which is surprising when you think how close he was to Kes that he never shared it with her - you'd think he'd have cracked it open in 'Caretaker' after saving her to celebrate joining Voyager (perhaps she was too young to drink - she was only a one-year-old then, and Neelix was more going along with Kes who was enthused by Voyager and its mission - he'd have been happy enough to fly off into the sunset with her instead!).

Something else the episode did well was to remind us of history: the state of Neelix' homeworld, Talax, still controlled by their enemies, the Haakonians, was a stark reminder of this race being forced to live nomadic lives if they want to be free, a tragic part of Neelix' existence that rarely, if ever, got spoken about. The Talaxians are a little bit like the Jews in that regard and so this colony mirrors their home situation (so it's interesting the aliens were very Cardassian in style and attitude since that race appeared heavily influenced by the Nazis with the Bajorans as the Jews in that case). Had 'Voyager' returned in some way (and now hopes of ever seeing a revival other than the semi-return of 'Prodigy' are just about extinguished), it would have been fascinating to be able to see the Talaxians return home and live in their promised land in freedom once again, but more than likely if 'Voyager' had made a film it would have been generic action featuring the Borg, I expect! I was surprised the miners weren't furious at Voyager getting involved in helping the Talaxians, but perhaps they realised their mining ships were no match for the plucky Federation starship - may even have been why they agreed to a meeting on Voyager in the first place. They certainly came across badly, but at the same time they weren't entirely devoid of reason, they were more like the Ferengi or the Malon, intent on their own self-interest and the pressure of their society's needs rather than out-and-out villains as the Cardassians tended to be portrayed (I did like the silvery-grey chessboard square design of their makeup though I feel we'd seen it before).

Levar Burton's last role as Director on the series was a good one for him, though he'd be back the following season for 'Enterprise,' this being his third episode of the final season after 'Nightingale' and 'Q2,' 'Homestead' by far the best of the three. I can imagine they didn't have a whole lot of money at this point in the season as they were gearing up for the big finale, but they sold the idea of this asteroid colony very well, presumably that's the age-old cave set, yet that never occurred to me once while watching as it was so well disguised with all kinds of equipment and mechanical structure. The effects were pretty good - the Flyer's crash-landing on the asteroid wasn't nearly as spectacular as Burton's 'Timeless' where Voyager crashed on the ice planet, but it was more than functional, and seeing Neelix' ship one last time was a pleasant reminder of how the series started for him as it's been rare to glimpse it through the series even though they chose to keep it in storage which always seemed a little unlikely considering how little space (and how many shuttlecraft!), they had aboard. But the asteroid field worked well as it always does to see such a variety of shapes to break up the blackness of space and give us a better sense of scale and position when space is usually mostly empty and... spacious!

What I found most entertaining was the idea that First Contact Day (celebrating the 315th anniversary here), is an invention of Neelix! At least that was the impression I was left with when Tuvok says the ceremony was entirely an invention of Neelix, though it would be just as easy to say he was referring to the need for a Vulcan to say the first words spoken by a Vulcan to humans at first contact. But I just like the idea the whole thing was Neelix' to boost morale for the wayward ship - it's also such a nice way of connecting this series, so far from home and all they held dear, to the wider Trek universe by referencing the key history of Zefram Cochrane and First Contact with the Vulcans, the former of which dated back to 'TOS,' the latter depicted in the most recent film but one ('Insurrection' taking the title of most recent, released during Season 5). It was always a good, strong link to bring in, ramped up even further with 'Enterprise' (where they actually brought Cochrane himself in briefly), and much, much later, 'Lower Decks' (a ridiculous, but amusing First Contact theme park complete with holo-Cochrane), a character running through the entirety of Trek like a name through a stick of rock that helps to bind the Universe together (until it was so badly messed around with in recent productions - couldn't miss a swipe, could I?). It was also a chance to show Mr. Neelix at his best: as morale officer, the host of a party, and an excuse to get the main cast together since most of them don't actually have meaningful scenes with Neelix, so at least they're in the same room.

Perhaps we are missing scenes shared with Neelix between such people as Seven or Tom Paris who loomed large in his life aboard the ship, but then they needed to emphasise the loneliness of being away from his own kind in order for the story to fit. Ethan Phillips always (well, after the first two or three seasons), played his character with a hint of sadness or pain behind the eyes, I don't know whether this was planned or just a reaction to the difficult makeup he had to endure for so long, but it added so much depth to the character and the mark of a great episode is that it can make you look again and reappraise a character and a performance and this one certainly does that: it brings out so much of what made Neelix a terrific character, and even those who felt he was the Jar Jar Binks of Trek (another hated character I love!), must surely buy into this finale for him as both fitting finale and showcase for Phillips. It's only sad he wasn't given more of this calibre in the latter seasons, too often relegated to minor appearances as if they, like the Captain, could never quite find a definitive role for him. It's really very moving that Janeway makes it so easy for Neelix to leave - she immediately cottons on to his drift about joining the colony and even holds open the door that it's a position she wants him to hold as Ambassador to the Delta Quadrant. It's just words in terms of making him feel he's not abandoning his duties, because when you think about it, had the series and mission continued for more seasons, Neelix would have left a gaping hole in the Mess Hall and in the lives of so many of his shipmates that it would have been painful not to have this cheery, upbeat, heart-on-his-sleeve jack-of-all-trades, master of fun along any more and it's only thanks to the series ending we can take it.

It wouldn't be Neelix' final appearance, he'd stay in comm-range as long as possible, but for the character as a regular member of the crew, it was over. The episode benefits from some Trek guest stars to shore it up even further: I recognised Julianne Christie's voice as Dexa, but it wasn't until the end I made the connection with Xyrillian Ah'Len, in 'Enterprise' (when Brax asks what a Holodeck is Dexa should have turned round and said 'we invented it, dear'!), which she'd have performed the following season, though no other Trek roles to her name. I loved how real she played Dexa, you can tell she's pained by living without her husband and sees in Neelix many of the good qualities he exhibits, but she's not overt about anything, she's very restrained, appreciating his help, disappointed in him when he can't help them, there's so much subtext which you don't get in modern Trek when everything is so on the nose and simplistic because people act so unguardedly and don't restrain themselves. There are also some returning faces from past 'Voyager' with Christian R. Conrad as 'Miner' (one of), most recognisable as villain Henry Starling's henchman, Dunbar, in the 'Future's End' two-parter, and John Kenton Shull as Nocona, leader of the miners, who dated back to Season 3's 'Basics, Part II' as the Hanon medicine man, but had most recently portrayed a Klingon in previous season's 'Barge of The Dead,' (among other Trek roles in 'TNG' and 'DS9'). Lastly, Rob LaBelle completed his trilogy of 'Voyager' roles (and his only ones in Trek), with Oxilon, the Talaxian leader - he'd played another Talaxian in Season 1's 'Faces' and another role in 'False Profits,' though more recognisable to me for a recurring role on 'Smallville.' A nice cadre of Trek names with which to usher Neelix out of the series. Three cheers for Neelix, perhaps the most underrated character (and maybe actor, too), in Trek history: hurrah!

****

Wave Race 64

 N64, Wave Race 64 (1996) game

Hard to believe this game is 30 years old, one of the launch games of the N64, or at least one of the very earliest titles. My connection with it was a mere few days borrowing from a mate in 2000, my nostalgia-meter centred on the GameCube sequel, 'Blue Storm' which was obviously far more technically impressive being, again, a launch game or close enough, and one to show off the new consoles' capabilities. The earlier title (which actually wasn't even the first in the series - that honour goes to the humble Game Boy, a proving ground for many later great Nintendo franchises like 'Zelda' and 'Metroid'), still holds its charms despite being little more than a tech demo for the amount of game actually there: it's very easy to finish everything within a few hours, and despite the tough difficulty curve, any experienced racer will see the end very swiftly. If it can be called an end when there isn't even any rolling credits that was becoming standard! The slim content can't hide the fun and challenge, however brief it may be, and why I call this a technical demo is down to the incredibly advanced physics and realistic movement of the waves - I think this would have been Nintendo's first truly 3D racer and on the N64 the start of an unofficial mini 'extreme' sports series that encompassed greats '1080º Snowboarding' and 'Excitebike 64,' but the important thing here is its ability to successfully evoke riding the waves.

Not enough to simply slalom between the bouncing buoys, you also have to read the currents and pull of the water in much the same way you'd later experience with the snow of '1080' and the soil of 'Excitebike,' giving it a unique quality not often seen in the racing genre, other than perhaps rally games, and certainly uncommon in the late-90s. There are only three opponents to race against (who'd return for the sequel), the usual small/manoeuvrable, medium, and unwieldy/high top speed custom racing options, so it's not doing anything outrageous, at the same time it's a beautifully crafted experience in every way (perhaps my only criticism, other than the extreme brevity, would be the absence of a rear view since you can see icons of racers close on your tail at the bottom of the screen and it would have been useful to get a better idea of distance sometimes, though not essential). It's also beautiful graphically speaking, another harking to its tech demo style in my eyes, with the expected wide range of water conditions and locations: the smooth glide of Drake Lake (with its tricky weave through wooden posts at the end), to the inherent glow of Sunset Bay, and includes little flourishes such as dolphins or the odd killer whale, even a helicopter, to show off some power and it's all so well judged and designed and relies on such pure control skill - just the kind of racing I like.

The lack of options can't prevent it from being considered a classic, and there are still a few things to do: aside from the Championship which consists of four difficulty levels (including an actual reverse of all tracks rather than the usual mirror mode, which puts a different spin on things), there's Time Trial in which you have to decide whether to corner sharply and drop in speed, or keep the speed up, but corner more widely, and if you should take jumps or weave around them. Only two-player simultaneous play was possible at this point in the N64's young life, but another technical limitation was evident in the black borders at top and bottom of the screen which has the advantage of making it appear to be a surprisingly early widescreen display, unless you play it on a widescreen monitor and realise it's not the aspect ratio! Lastly, there's Score Mode with scattered rings to amplify your score, and a number of fancy tricks to be performed. Fun, but basic, and I always feel score-based gameplay is only ever of interest if you have other humans on the scoreboard. But as the origins of a Nintendo sub-genre which they should bring back if they haven't already on Switch, it deserves a place in positive memory.

***