Juggernaut

 DVD, Voyager S5 (Juggernaut)

Further evidence that Season 5 was finely tuned, achieving a balance with the characters that had been lost when Seven joined the ship, and which would affect the ensemble negatively in the last two seasons: this time the favourites are most definitely in supporting roles, with Janeway, the Doctor and Seven all reduced in screen time, while B'Elanna, Neelix and Chakotay are elevated to leading roles, and it's a pleasure to see. If it were merely the balance of the cast it would be no guarantee of a great episode, but we also have a strong story that displays a masterclass in dramatic structure and makes me wish we could have seen Bryan Fuller's 'Discovery' because it would undoubtedly have been superior to what we actually got in that series when you see the kind of quality he was involved in here. There's a ticking clock, a risky mission, a dark, eerie ship to progress through, and a personal stake with Torres' temper cropping up again as a detriment to her service on Voyager. There is the impression of the series turning back time, grasping at the past of the first two or three seasons to give us the drama we had then, back when B'Elanna was a loose cannon, barely controlled by her respect for her former commanding officer in the Maquis, Chakotay, and he was much sterner and stricter, dishing out Maquis justice to enforce cooperation with Janeway, while Neelix was the go-to expert always a high priority to bring along on a mission.

It is a little strange that these characterisations should return since things had become a lot friendlier, a lot more relaxed, but it can easily be justified by events that had happened in the past year or so: dealing with the Borg, Seven of Nine proving a thorn in B'Elanna's side and somewhat taking her place under the Captain's wing - not that she needed it, she'd learned to soar thanks to Janeway's trust and tutelage, and the Captain once again shows what a strong understanding she has of her Chief Engineer when she refuses Tuvok's advice to send him to take over the Away Team, stamping the brand of faith on her crew-woman, a faith justified. But the biggest change was the very personal and violent reaction Torres had experienced regarding news of the Maquis' annihilation by the Jem'Hadar, as seen in 'Extreme Risk' where she was throwing caution to the wind as a reaction to her emotional problems. This would appear to be an outgrowth of that experience, showing the series could do ongoing arcs if it chose to, another aspect more common in the early part of the series. It's true that Torres has appeared to regress, but she's been through some trauma and this story was a way to further address that. I must admit, the ending did leave me wondering if her difficulty controlling her temper was to be an ongoing plot as we see her reliving the violence she was forced to inflict upon the unfortunate core labourer intent on sabotaging the giant time bomb that was the Malon freighter, as she relaxed in the sonic shower (showing it in operation for the first time ever, unless you count 'The Motion Picture'!), yet haunted by her actions.

It was strange, because I was getting a warm and pleasant reaction to the moment she's about to bludgeon the enemy to death, but then does the Trek thing and instead resorts to talking it out. That's what Picard would do! It showed her maturity, already seen on so many occasions in the development of the character, only this time she's unable to appeal to the opposition's reason and is ultimately forced to beat him down to prevent the catastrophe he's trying to ensure. It reminded me of Suder, the Betazoid murderer from Season 2 who was similarly counselled by Tuvok, just as B'Elanna is here, and then, just like her, was forced into using his violent side again to protect the ship when the Kazon took over. This story doesn't have the same power as those of 'Basics,' which were among the best in the series, but there was certainly a sense of parallel there I picked up on. The downside is that, while it's more realistic that she had to use her last resort, it's not quite as true to the Trek ideal that the enemy can pretty much always be reasoned with, that they will respond rationally and sensibly. Clearly much more realistic in this approach of only understanding force as the solution, though not as inspirational. But it was true to Trek that she at least made an impassioned effort. It just means we don't get to see a satisfying coda in which she talks about what happened and we feel she learned something and everything's secure and safe. Instead we don't know if she's traumatised, whether this will come back in future... You could say it was more dramatic and perhaps a decision not to do what was expected, the usual happy ever after moral takeaway to underline a theme.

Something that was very much in the Trek mould was 'humanising' an enemy race, getting to know them, showing them within their own context, and who would have thought the Malon would have had that opportunity! If they represent a trait of humanity, it would be the rubbish men, coming to take our refuse away, with a side order of environmental issues. We'd seen Borg rehabilitated, Jem'Hadar on 'DS9,' even the scourge of our galaxy, Species 8472 had been given the humanisation treatment, it's just one of those things that made Trek what it was. I say made, and that's because modern Trek has little to do with the kind of hardware-based, philosophical exploring, sci-fi ideas and character exploration that worked so well for so long - I was even thinking in the scene where Torres tries to talk the labourer to stop what he's doing, that modern Trek wouldn't bother with that, they'd just have her come in swinging, and be a lot more violent about it, too! But though there was that element of desperate discussion, she did have to fight in the end so old Trek didn't have the absolute moral high ground (and when they said about the Vihaar myth I immediately thought of Vahar'ai, the process Kelpiens experience - new Trek has contaminated me!).

To get back on topic, the Malon are presented for the first time as three-dimensional beings with families back home, a beautiful planet, and rational explanations for their behaviour instead of merely being demonised as these disgusting, hateful people that care nothing for anyone. It doesn't mean they aren't those things, too, but they carefully picked a guest cast of Trek veterans, actors who knew how to act through the bulky prosthetics, wigs and costume, to go as far as making the Malon at least partially sympathetic in this situation, and that was an impressive aspect of the story. When guest characters are shown to be more than merely enemies it adds nuance and makes them far more interesting than mere targets to be taken down. I found it most telling that these workers, scarred by freighter blight as they are, contaminated by radiation, were still able to have children and are doing what they do so their families will have a better life - and the worst job is practically a death sentence yet some are willing to take on the task knowing even if they likely won't survive, their family will be taken care of. Nobility in the Malon? Surely not! Of course if they'd wanted to do more episodes they could have gone into even further detail on the race, perhaps shown that some unscrupulous types actually round up the unwanted from society and force them into the role of core labourers, and explore the areas where Malon society could be further at fault, but there were no other Malon stories, they'd served their purpose. This episode was their justification, making right what had been a simplistic villain at the start of the season.

There's nothing like a steamy, slimy mass of machinery to crawl through for evoking the danger and claustrophobia of a ticking time bomb, and B'Elanna gets to strip down to her vest, much like Janeway in Macrocosm, or Picard in 'First Contact' and 'Insurrection,' and get sweaty - the grey Starfleet vest was a great invention from Robert Blackman when he created what I consider the best uniforms Trek ever had: the grey-ribbed shoulder uniform of 'First Contact.' Technically, the grey vest came about earlier because it was often seen as an undershirt on 'DS9' and then 'Voyager' in the years before 'First Contact,' but the film made it acceptable for Starfleet officers to shed their outer garment and clamber around in the peak of physical condition you'd expect (O'Brien's years of standing around in the Transporter Room notwithstanding!), and it was used to great effect in episodes like this to the extent that Chakotay actually looks overdressed in comparison to Torres stripping down to streamlined proportions. Even Neelix gets to wear a sleek outfit because obviously he never wears a uniform not having been through the Academy where he'd need to earn the right to wear the uniform, and the same for Seven. I wonder why he wasn't wearing the grey or bluish Away Team outfit that had been used in previous episodes like 'Blood Fever,' they seemed to have dispensed with those, perhaps because they now had the option of the vest. Regardless, the look really suits Torres' role and her mood, as well as the very non-Starfleet locale because you know whenever someone removes their jacket they mean business.

I'm not sure why Neelix was selected for the mission rather than, say, the Doctor, whose medical assistance could (and was), required in such a place and he was obviously someone who wouldn't be affected by a dangerous environment other than the risk to his mobile emitter. Or Tuvok could have been a sensible choice, but then drama sometimes requires the 'weaker' or less experienced characters to go through a situation (as happened with Seven over Tuvok in the previous episode), and while neither Torres nor Neelix are weak, they also have more pressure points than Tuvok, for instance. And just on a viewing level, it was lovely to see scenes of two characters that rarely have meaningful interactions together. If they were stripped of some pertinent characters they were also put into a less typical position of having to do without their basic equipment, another theme that is always worth exploring with relish because without their technology they're forced to rely on the training and expertise that we know they have. So in this case they couldn't use their Tricorders as it would attract electrical damage, and then when B'Elanna would use her Phaser to deal with the intruder, she can't because it would ignite the gas, so it really brings out their best when they have to improvise.

Controlling technology is useful, but as the episode demonstrates it is self-control that is just as, or even more, important to succeeding: B'Elanna had a good point that 'you can't order someone to meditate,' and there's a sense of that slightly playful, though ultimately serious First Officer/older brother friendship she always had with Chakotay where he's her commander, but obviously their history goes back further than Voyager, and that he's tried to help with her temper in the past. Fortunately we didn't get all that mumbo-jumbo about vision quests and suspect spirituality that was one of the negatives of the early seasons, and instead we get Vulcan mumbo-jumbo which, for reasons of being invented make it less problematic, even if it appears to be bog-standard meditation Tuvok's teaching (reminded me pleasantly of his tutoring of Kes in the old days), though it was more like a session of counselling to me! I do like it when Tuvok has the chance to help his fellow crew-members with logic and control, and while Torres seemed to have mellowed in the last couple of years, becoming more settled with her role and relying more on Paris as support, it's true that she does have deep-seated anger that had never gone away, mainly from the way she was treated for her Klingon heritage, which shows that children were still being obnoxious even in this idealised future, and once again reminding us of the fallen state of human nature rather than reiterating the mistaken belief that humanity is by nature good. I'm sure people will be pulling out the Paris quote about Ferengi, except that however you look at it, it was generally true!

One quote I enjoyed, and that had nothing really to do with the episode, was an observation by Seven in one of her few scenes that the Captain 'does seem to succeed more often than random chance would allow,' which could be seen as a little bit of breaking the fourth wall as it reminds us that Janeway leads a charmed life as the Captain of a Trek series. And I must say, I was very impressed with the Chakotay we got in this episode, continuing the trend of the season that gave him good, authoritative lines and actions that never took away from Janeway's ultimate superiority, and as I remember it, would be lost in Seasons 6 and 7, sadly. But he's forceful when he needs to be, clamping down on Torres, but also being supportive. You can tell he's worried at certain points, but he makes decisions and stands by them, and he'd have made a great Captain in Starfleet, I'm sure. The only thing he did wrong was to look back: never look back, just keep on going, and because of that he was injured and taken out of the picture. But that was all part of the escalating drama as if this was some kind of action disaster film - and it is a major catastrophe where everything in three lightyears will be destroyed if this freighter goes up. The stakes are high and things keep going wrong, they have to twist and turn to solve each problem, it's people you don't often see working together, and you have the timbrous tones of Ron Canada to sell the Malon as more than mere rubbish men.

There's really nothing to dislike, it has good production value, room for characters to breathe and reminds us of who these people are. You could almost believe this was a lost Season 1 episode with B'Elanna's volatility, Neelix slaving over a hot stove, Tuvok back in his mentoring role, and Chakotay given the reins of commanding an Away Team, back to... I won't say a better time because I think Seasons 4 and 5 are actually the richest, most exciting and best put together all-round, while the early seasons were much more patchy, but also had that unpredictability that meant they could be shocking or surprising but also held a strongly reassuring, family feel. Even the villain could have been mistaken for a Vidiian, so I'd say it took the best qualities of the early episodes and continued that along with the quality of these middle season stories and production value. Maybe it could be argued we'd already had something similar with 'Dreadnought,' another B'Elanna episode in which she has to go aboard a dangerous vessel and stop it before it does some serious damage, but that was positively genteel compared to the rigours of this grimy, stinking hull and I'm sure watched back to back would provide an intense contrast!

It also helps to have Ron Canada (in his last Trek role), having previously played a not particularly memorable role on 'TNG' ('The Masterpiece Society'), and a very memorable role as Worf's Klingon accuser Ch'Pok in 'DS9' ('Rules of Engagement'). Shame he didn't get more as his distinctive voice was a big selling point in the characters he played. He's assisted by another familiar Trek name, Lee Arenberg, who'd already had several roles across 'TNG' and 'DS9' and would go on to be a Tellarite in 'Enterprise' (in the great Andorian trilogy of Season 4). There's even a nice little uncredited role for Alexander Enberg as the Malon sent down to the core much against his will - I knew I recognised the voice: he was Vorik! Almost his final appearance in Trek, except for one more episode as Vorik right at the end of the series. Even the Vihaar creature who was actually just an irradiated crewman, was played by someone who'd return, Scott Klace, though he probably doesn't want the 'Enterprise' episode on his CV as it was one of the worst ('Precious Cargo')! I do like it when they use the extended family of Trek names - not all the time, it's good to have fresh blood, too, but when the roles are so different and heavily covered in makeup it can work really well, adding an extra layer of trivia to enjoy. This episode was anything but trivial, it succeeds on just about every level (maybe some of the CGI wasn't the best, though seeing Voyager peel away from the freighter and then speeding away as it explodes in the star was still dramatically exciting for the speed and sense of power, just that CG explosions don't often come off well), and proves you can do thrilling action stories within the constraints of cerebrally satisfying sci-fi ideas. It was truly a juggernaut of an episode!

****

Enemy At The Gate

 DVD, Stargate Atlantis S5 (Enemy At The Gate)

I wanted nostalgia - I got it. I wanted an epic finale - I got it. The only thing missing (because there were very few faces not to appear!), was a feature-length running time to match the dramatic scale of the story. And a sense of closure. For this was the finale of the 'Atlantis' and somewhat of a finale for 'traditional' 'Stargate' itself since the sequel, 'Universe,' would be very different in style and tone. But it leaves the characters in a very open-ended manner - not to say it doesn't leave them in a good place, and certainly not to say any one of them could have been killed, and that they weren't I am grateful, even though I've already seen 'Universe' and know who appears and who doesn't. But there was no end to the Wraith threat as there was for the Goa'uld, no certainty about Atlantis' mission in Pegasus from this point on: will they be permitted to return? Will they have enough power to return? I wanted some of these questions, not to be resolved as such, but at least to be set in motion so that we know Rodney's working towards getting the old city back on its home patch. Of course the real question is where would they go since they ended the series on a different planet to that which they began on (and I don't mean Earth!), so they'd already shown they didn't have a set place to exist in that galaxy. There's a certain kind of sadness inherent in the idea of this permanent city that has no permanent resting place, and perhaps that contributed to a bittersweet ending, as all endings should be.

I was concerned from the direction of the season, the uneven storytelling and the limp to the end, that they'd bungle this finale, have no time for sentiment amid action, or fail to have big action due to limited budget of a series going down. It's a real shame they 'only' made it to five seasons, an achievement in itself since this was in the days of twenty-odd episode seasons (who'd have thought that time would pass?), but it could easily have continued for five more, just as its predecessor did, and I don't know what precipitated its cancellation, perhaps people were just becoming tired of its brand of sci-fi by then. They certainly chose to shake the formula up with the sequel series that came after. For me, 'Atlantis' could have been the 'DS9' to 'SG-1's position as 'TNG,' the mother show that birthed something more ambitious in scale and intent, but it didn't quite work out that way. I respect the series and think it may have had a better like-for-like quality than 'SG-1,' but in the end nothing can replace those beloved characters, though John Sheppard, Teyla, Ronon, Jennifer Keller and especially Rodney McKay were certainly up there and it was lovely to see some of them interact with the older characters at times. We get Amanda Tapping back once more as Samantha Carter, fitting since she played such an important role taking over last season when Weir was lost, and she spearheaded the nostalgia I was looking for: we did get the SGC (for the last time in its original guise?), we saw the old Wormhole in that same old place under the Cheyenne Mountain Complex, and mention of renaming the latest ship from Phoenix to General Hammond as he's apparently died from a heart attack - don't know if the actor had died, too, or just a way to remember the character, and although it's sad, I appreciated the reference.

There were so many cameos of characters from either 'SG-1' or this series it made a suitable memorial to the 'Stargate' franchise. Let me see, who was there? Colonel Caldwell and Marks on the Daedalus; Colonel Ellis of the Apollo; Carter, Walter and Major Davis at the SGC; Kavanagh, and obviously Zelenka and Lorne, and Dr. Beckett. And of course Christopher Heyerdahl back in the guise of semi-ally 'Todd,' a more fitting role for him than the minor part he had at the opening of the series as Halling, leader of Teyla's people, the Athosians. The only people really missing were the half-expected cameos of Elizabeth Weir somehow, and Ford, somehow (and maybe General O'Neill, who does get mentioned), but I can see why they couldn't squeeze them in as I'd thought they might: it was a bit of a rushed story with only the standard length of time and other than a brief mention of the message sent from the alternate universe of the previous episode (the less said about the better), nothing to do with that, except for the motivation to get this Super-Hive to Earth. The story can be pulled apart a little bit in terms of how this Super-Hive suddenly comes into existence out of nowhere, how Todd's people have been working on it for so long, how it can just zip to Earth in another galaxy, how Todd just happens to have a stash of ZPMs hidden away, and how Atlantis can, using these things and an idea Rodney left behind (Zelenka must be cleverer than he gets credit for!), get to Earth just in time.... But... It was all done stylishly, it slotted neatly together, and it gave me exactly what I wanted to see: one more heroic mission for our characters, doing what they do best.

The way Sheppard is so intent on committing to a suicide run as the only way to save Earth is inspirational, as is the demeanour of the others when they realise their time is up, they don't have time to escape to the 'gate before the Super-Hive must be destroyed, and although Rodney whines a bit, as is his wont, and is expected of him, it's telling that he's the one holding the switch when the time comes and however unwillingly, gives it up to Sheppard as they're all resigned to their deaths. It's a terrific moment, even Sheppard looks lost by the look in his eyes, these are relatively young people, they don't want to die, but if it's necessary they will. For Ronon, it is, he actually gets stabbed to death, a great feint by the writers as I really thought they'd killed him off - despite it being such a puny knife and an ignominious way to go out I could see Jason Momoa asking for it as a surprising to his character. You get that hit of horror and sadness as he dies protecting McKay, and the aftermath of telling Sheppard, but then the Wraith's own smug sense of the power they have over life and death, to give and take away, is used to great effect to bring Ronon back to life and it was a relief because it wouldn't have been a worthy way for him to die. I did think Sheppard was going to die when he explained his plan to blow the ship from the inside, but it just shows how much drama and stakes you can build without executing characters as TV loves to do so much nowadays.

There are some great moments as the city looms into view, protecting Earth and Wolsey does well in command of it. Maybe Keller could have been used better, but someone is always going to suffer when you have so little screen time and I can imagine there being more personal character scenes inserted if the episode had been a double as it deserved. But then again, did it deserve that? It ended, it had a definite sense of success in saving Earth and the team are all together looking out on the Golden Gate Bridge from a balcony of Atlantis, but nothing further than that in closure terms, and it did seem to be of relatively lower quality this season. At least it had that final moment, though, unlike 'Universe' which wasn't even granted an ending, leaving 'Stargate' to slip quietly away as if it had never existed, almost. Five seasons and a rip-roaring finale is good going by anyone's reckoning, and though I've been judgemental and occasionally unappreciative of its choices and simplistic stance, it has been a good, solid series that I will look forward to viewing in whole again sometime, and I can't say any fairer than that - it has put the subsequent Trek revival to shame as being closer to old Trek's quality of character and story, had semi-serialised tales, and showed that a successful sci-fi series can spin off an equally successful idea. I salute 'Atlantis' and all who sailed in her, perhaps the last truly good series of the genre.

***

Think Tank

DVD, Voyager S5 (Think Tank)

When I think 'tank' I think aquarium. I think military vehicle. I think cistern. But is there more 'think' than 'tank' in this episode, or more 'tank' than 'think'? I'm beginning to sound like Kurros and his whimsical attitude to existence - he reminded me of the Vorta; sneaky, cunning, sly and manipulative, while still taking a certain delight in the 'game,' whatever that might mean, which fits in perfectly with the view I developed of this think tank as being a miniature Dominion, an anti-Federation on a small scale, a mirror of what our noble Federation could have (and could still, if current Trek doesn't pull itself together), become. It may be mini, but it's also reminiscent of the Borg: a search for perfection through knowledge, but knowledge at all cost, removed from compassion. They still have their lines they won't cross, specifically genocide or the production of weapons of mass destruction, but even in that worthy code their definition appears to be merely semantics since they admit they're happy to destroy a planet, and if that isn't mass destruction I don't know what is! Indeed, I thought at first the Hazari boobytrap was the blue-faced guy's planet, revenge for holding back payment at first for services they'd rendered. But as Janeway observes when they're considering if the Malon might be responsible for setting bounty hunters on Voyager, revenge isn't profitable. I wonder if genocide or WMDs were suitably profitable, whether the tank would cross that line, though most of the time it doesn't pay to wipe out potential customers, and I'm sure they'd have absolutely no compunction in playing both sides, untrustworthy as they are!

It'd been a long time since I'd seen this episode, and once only, since it was one of a few I missed on transmission, catching up years later in the DVD age, so I didn't remember all the details, but right from Kurros' slimy and dangerous demeanour I guessed they were going to have been responsible for hiring the bounty hunters, they were too manipulative not to have been behind it, and too knowledgeable not to know exactly what they wanted and how to get it. What did surprise me was the problem to be solved being relatively small fry in comparison to Voyager's real jeopardy, so I didn't feel the story got to the heart of the series' predicament - it would have been more dramatic if the stakes were Voyager's chance at getting home (though perhaps that was considered overdone), at the cost of Seven. I have no doubt the think tank could have found a way to achieve that, albeit much like the later Equinox crew to come at the end of the season, through unethical means. I found it interesting that despite Janeway having her qualms about their morality it didn't preclude the possibility of working together. Perhaps that's a lesson for today when social and political views are so wide apart as not to allow even the possibility of cooperation. Of course they ultimately ask for one tiny thing more than Janeway can agree to: the life of Seven of Nine. It wasn't quite as simple as that, however, Kurros is offering her the chance to go for perfection above remaining within the limited confines of her life on Voyager, and to a former Borg that's a tempting offer. But it's a failure on Kurros' part to understand how much she's grown in the past year and a half by learning from her Voyager family - he hasn't known her as a person, only a commodity.

That would seem to be this group's flaw: not having compassion or interest on a personal level, only in what they can gain. They set themselves up as kindred spirits with Voyager's crew, explorers just like them, except their goal is pure knowledge. They don't wish to assimilate people (other than very select minds), but they do wish to exercise their particular skills of problem-solving and could have been a great source of aid in making the Delta Quadrant a better place - in some ways they already have, listing various accomplishments to have benefited many races, including such a dramatic reveal as their success in curing the dreaded, debilitating Phage suffered by the Vidiians (nice to hear there was a happy ending for that species, or new beginning), sometimes for seemingly small remuneration such as a secret recipe. Yet even in this goodness you see them enjoying the pleasure of power in playing God with other races. They want what they want on a whim, motivated by greed, much like the collector Kivas Fajo, who wanted Data for his priceless collection. These people are more abstract in their desires, perhaps reflecting the fact they're quite an abstract collection of beings. They have a vague goal of acquiring more and greater knowledge, but I never discerned an ultimate purpose other than seeking what they don't have in order to possess it. In that way they're a little Ferengi, and a little V'Ger, but their motivation isn't a positive one as evidenced by how they go about it, willing to deceive and manipulate.

Fear was at the core of Dominion philosophy, greed is central here, but we don't know enough about the individuals concerned to be able to judge why this should be. Tellingly, Kurros was the price for his world's saving, forced to join as a child, which can explain some of why he is the way he is. I wonder why they'd want a child, presumably they could tell he was some kind of genius and with their assistance could grow up to be quite useful as another brain in their group, though it can't be ignored he was effectively sold into slavery, not having a choice, being a child. In theme and visual terms I can see a preparation for the Xindi of 'Enterprise' as this was written by Berman and Braga who would go on to create that Dominion-like threat to Earth, almost a transition point from the 'DS9' anti-Federation to the later series' imitation: partly it's the variety of alien life that makes up this group, but specifically, Bebox, the aquatic life form in a tank we only see glimpses of as we peer through the little viewing window, as well as the non-human (for want of a better word), speech of some members. In fact, the Universal Translator can't even understand some of the creatures' dialogue, which makes you wonder how 'universal' it really is! The teaser was appropriate for setting up so much alienness as it's one of those few that has nothing to do with Voyager, either ship or characters, all aliens on the stage, and they look good, especially the blue guy that tries to rip them off, although spikey-head (Fennim), looked a little too similar to the attackers of 'Latent Image,' as good as the design was.

Unlike the last couple of episodes I can't say this was much of a character piece, which is usually more affecting or moving, though Janeway was certainly front and centre as she dynamically takes risks (with that potentially crippling manoeuvre to blast their way out of the gas cloud), forces her people to think, forges alliance with their enemies, and tricks the tricksters. 'Who Tricks The Tricksters?' could have been the title! But she's not up to her standard of 'Counterpoint' where she was against a similarly deceiving foe and played him like a piano. It's one of those episodes where the Captain and Seven are crucial and it all revolves around them, a template for perhaps too many stories of the series, though it hadn't been attempted as much this season. It's not that it's bad to focus on a couple of characters, or specifically them, but it can upset the balance at the expense of the others. I don't feel B'Elanna got a fair shake in this one, for example: as Chief Engineer she should have been at the forefront of coming up with ideas to deal with Kurros and co., yet although they mention she had an idea she's very much a background presence in the story, her natural role failing to bring her forward as it once would. Less so, but still apparent, was Tuvok's role - you'd think as Chief of Security he would naturally go on an away mission to a suspicious alien vessel, but then they couldn't have had the reveal that Seven was attending an 'interview.' Also, he mentions a mind meld attempt on the Hazari they capture, but it was unsuccessful and spoken of in a throwaway line, reiterating the focus is not on him.

I prefer when people's individual abilities are allowed to shine as it cements that impression of inspirational teamwork so important to Trek's mindset and style. Some of the characters aren't the only thing missing - they preferred not to show the battle with the Hazari when they're on the attack, perhaps due to budget constraints, since there are a lot of ship shots in the episode generally. I'm not usually one to advocate more screen time given over to action shots, but in this case I felt the episode could have done with a bit more of a jolt of energy than it had, perhaps leaning towards the cerebral with all the 'thinks' going on. Not showing what's happening externally can work very well (as evidenced in 'DS9' and plenty of other episodes of Trek), but there wasn't quite enough tension in this one. Lots of interest, but not so much tension. I enjoy references to other races and they covered that with the Malon (was Jason Alexander under all that or was it just a stand-in?), Devore and the Phage. And it made sense for Paris to be responsible for ship-wide crazes, but would they all have spare Replicator rations to be able to make copies of this electronic game, 'Sheer Lunacy' - is it a real game, it sounds like it? Perhaps mention of the previous craze being yo-yos was an attempt by the series to comment on the zeitgeist as I certainly remember in the Nineties there was always 'the next craze,' yo-yos being one of them! The Replicator rations question can be filed directly under the series' faults when it came to shuttlecraft, as we have to assume Voyager lost yet another one aboard the think tank's ship since Seven 'stole' a shuttle to get aboard, then was beamed back to safety - apparently through alien shields, no less, as we see shields up as the Hazari are attacking the vessel! They could easily have explained that due to Kurros' regular appearances in isomorphic projection form, there was a trail of particles between the ships that enabled a signal to be forced through - and that only took me seconds to think up! But the series was never one of the higher on the list of papering over inconsistencies, perhaps setting the course for later Treks to come, to its detriment.

Regarding the isomorphic projection, reminiscent of the misguided holo-comms of 'DSC,' I wanted to understand that better - okay, so he can drink Janeway's coffee, taste it, and it doesn't splatter on the deck, so is it like it's being beamed to his real body? Also, he appears with the list of demands with one of Voyager's own PADDs and hands it to Janeway. So... did he beam that in with the projection, and if so, why go to the trouble of projecting at all and just beam yourself in? All very fancy to make him look technologically superior, I suppose. I have yet to see 'Star Trek: Prodigy,' one of the current animated spinoffs, but from publicity I've seen it looks like their characters are a mix of non-humanoid creatures and I wondered if this think tank menagerie, shall we say, was an inspiration for that? Especially since it's supposed to be the most connected to 'Voyager' of any other series... As long as they didn't take inspiration from Seven's moral lesson of the episode: cheating is more efficient! I don't think that was the real message of the story, it was more about 'blue-sky thinking': thinking outside the box: being abstract, maybe? In that regard Starfleet officers can usually be relied upon to come up with unconventional solutions, as long as they're not unethical: using knowledge, but unlike Kurros and his cronies, not at all costs. Seven was very pragmatic and practical in her approach to the offer to go with them: it was logical she should be given up so the ship could be saved, not an emotional response, an acceptance of what needed to be done, though not recognising compassion for herself - as positive a message as self-sacrifice is, it needn't be jumped to as a default response, after all she's only got one life. Janeway could see that and would never give up her crew - would even Kirk have let Spock sacrifice himself in the warp core in 'Star Trek II'? It's hard to believe. What do you think of my solution, Admiral [to the no-win scenario]?

They weren't at the stage of a no-win scenario, even if the Hazari had so many ships they were more like an entire fleet than the traditional image of the bounty hunter as a lone individual. As Neelix said in his great moment, they'd been through worse before and he had faith in his Captain, which was warming to see and probably the most heartfelt moment in a cerebral-focused episode. I wish they'd use him as a sounding board more often, as he used to be in the first three seasons. Just because Voyager passed beyond the regions of space he knew, doesn't mean he isn't full of his own kind of wisdom from lived experience, and failing that, the constant reassurance of dedicated friendship (the same can be said for Tuvok). The only downer of the episode is Kurros' eerily prescient words that if Seven chooses to remain with Voyager she'll never be satisfied within those limitations, something that has proved true if you can accept the horrible things they did to her in 'Picard' - with Season 2 we know Starfleet kicked her out for Borg-ness (sure, sure, exactly what you'd expect from their modern view of the organisation), and that somehow caused her to go so far from her Voyager family, and I couldn't help noting the warning in this episode, even though it came from someone trying to manipulate, or hitting back at her rejection. The blue guy, Saowin, was played by Christopher Shea, who'd previously been the Vorta, Keevan, and would go on to play an Andorian and a Suliban, and another Christopher, Darga, played Klingons in 'DS9' and 'Enterprise,' here as the main Hazari. Steve Dennis (Fennim), had already been an alien in 'Warhead' and would return in 'Equinox,' plus in 'Enterprise' as an Andorian. I would say of this episode, it doesn't tank, but could definitely have done with a little more think.

**

Vegas

 DVD, Stargate Atlantis S5 (Vegas)

Cutting loose and having fun, that seemed to be about the size of it - both written and directed by Robert C. Cooper and he appeared to throw everything into this. By that I mean every cliché and familiar trope that could be squeezed in: a dishevelled detective, heavy rock soundtrack, black vehicles, secret government organisations in secret government bases. Gamblers, gangsters, chases... I was waiting for the penny to drop, or the other shoe, whatever the expression is - first I'm thinking it's Sheppard, he's back on Earth and pretending to be a detective, but when he meets Keller doing the autopsy on the Wraith victim you quickly realise it's not that. So it's got to be some coma after an accident or an adventure happening in someone's mind, probably Sheppard's. When it comes, the answer's a rather disappointing revelation that puts the whole episode into perspective as something of a waste of time: it's a parallel universe, which means in the penultimate episode of the entire series we don't get a single appearance by any of the main characters! Instead, we see Sheppard, Keller, McKay and Wolsey, as well as Walter from 'SG-1' again, and Zelenka, but they're all alternates in their own alternate world. I wasn't fond of the over-blown, and I'm sure deliberately so, directing choices, where it's all super-stylised and out of kilter for the series. It's like watching a dull police procedural and Cooper appears to be playing out all his Vegas fantasies and revelling in the medium rather than telling a good story. It looks and feels like a film, or at least a section of a film, because you can't do a lot in forty-five minutes, and has the depth that that implies, too...

If I wasn't fond of the unappealing stylisation, which I almost took to be the guy in charge accepting the series' demise by doing whatever he felt like and only loosely connecting it to itself, then I was even less fond of the revelation that it was all, basically, using up an episode! I was expecting it to tie in somehow right at the end, and of course it did, but so much for my hopes for a great two-part finale to lead out the series to pasture. Maybe part two will justify this episode, but it could just as easily have been a teaser, explaining what happened rather than running around anarchically, filling up time. This is where, once again, I would love to know how far in advance the series' end was known, and whether the approach to this episode was to simply throw all caution to the wind and do whatever they felt like. It may well have pleased Cooper, but to me it really squandered the little time we had left to enjoy these characters, and in a season that has been rather uneven, especially towards the end. Was this a reaction to cancellation or am I reading too much into the madcap approach of doing a detective drama in a parallel universe? Waste is what I felt - I'm not even sure whether or not it was meant to be seen as one long episode like the pilot, as on the DVD it says 'Extended Episode' over each part, yet this was the usual forty-five minutes, and there was no option to watch both parts as one. I'm not saying this was the worst episode of the season, that dishonour still goes to the pointless clips episode, but it was hard not to be disappointed! It made me think of the 'Enterprise' two-parter, 'In A Mirror, Darkly' (funnily enough, the guy who played the gangster in that series' final season, Steven R. Schirripa, also had a small role in this, and it was also fun to note Composer Joel Goldsmith was part of the poker game, from the credits, now sadly long dead), which similarly used precious time to tell an alternate universe story right near the end of that series' run (and ironically was when they found out they wouldn't get a Season 5), but that was a very different situation, setting up the famous Mirror Universe and playing with nostalgia and continuity in a much more pleasing way.

Unlike this episode, which despite connecting to a parallel universe we'd seen before, didn't achieve much - if it'd been set around the halls of the SGC (instead of what looked like the base out of 'Seven Days'), they might have been able to leverage some nostalgia points at least, but the trouble was, and something the franchise as a whole had been guilty of, is that the audience are ahead of the characters - we're waiting for John to track down this serial killer and discover he's not human, or for the secrets of the galaxy to be revealed to him. But we know all that! I really wanted to see the team doing what they do: Ronon, Teyla, Keller, McKay, Sheppard on a mission. I know they want to go out with a bang, but it's always hard to care about other universes, as Wolsey said, right now he only cares about 'us.' It was too much of other influences (vampires; 'Highlander' was the thing that came to mind most, with this secret battle being fought, guys that 'die,' but then get up again, jump off a building to escape, then recover, etc), and not enough of itself. You even get the bit where science fiction's mentioned and the hero says he's not into it. One joke I did like was mention of Star Trek: The Experience and it's Robert Picardo's character (who was involved in the real thing!), who sadly says it's closed. It's like a last little dig at their Trek rivals and it seemed about right for this anarchic penultimate episode, and a franchise that has always failed to live up to Trek's highest standards (though it's much closer to Trek's past series' than the current crop, so I give them praise for that!). Can our universe be saved? Tune in next week to find out.

**

Identity

 DVD, Stargate Atlantis S5 (Identity)

A happy ending, a good staple sci-fi idea, a semi-sequel to an 'SG-1' story, and lots of running around in the woods... So why is it, like the last few episodes it still feels somehow insubstantial? They chose a different way of portraying the body swap between Keller and this interstellar thief - rather than letting Jewel Staite exercise her acting muscles and play someone completely different pretending to fit in, they had the model play herself, in the same way they used to do it on 'Quantum Leap,' and now that I come to think of it, they even show her real self in reflections, as if in tribute, so that can't be a coincidence, can it? There appeared to be many more influences than the 90s time travel series. My first thought when Zelenka's compassion is met with brutal violence was a similarity to the freak-of-the-week episodes of 'Smallville' - the same domestic (-ish), setting, sudden violence from someone behaving weirdly. On the other hand, they'd already done a mysterious woman comes to Atlantis in the Wolsey episode, 'Remnants.' Then things went a bit 'Rambo' with jungle drums and chases in the forest as three different groups shoot at each other. It was a bit of a mixed episode, all told. I enjoyed the reference to King Arthur's cave from 'SG-1,' and vaguely remembered these communication stones, but only just. I'm not sure the episode knew what it was supposed to be.

For instance, what if Neva, this murderous, despicable thief, had performed a bit better instead of quickly raising suspicions? They kept it going for a while, but that could have been the whole story, notwithstanding that the franchise had done that kind of thing before, and probably on more than one occasion! I'd have liked to see Keller acting out of character, maybe they didn't have faith in the actress' ability? There is the added uncertainty of people living to the end of the series (at least the ones that don't appear in the next spinoff, 'Universe'), so I did wonder if Zelenka would survive his stabbing with what appeared to be a pair of pliers, which must have made a gaping wound. Then Keller, might she be killed off, it certainly was close? Fortunately we're not in the age of main characters being killed off for the 'fun' of it back then, so it had to mean something - talking of which, Dr. Beckett makes another visit, and this time seems just like he's a regular part of the Atlantis team now, not strange that he's coming in. That did rather undermine the dramatic death his character originally had and it is oddly bland to see him just there, even though it's not the first time. I'm still wondering if they'll bring Weir and Ford back before, or at, the end and make the group complete, but they probably didn't have the will or the budget by then.

Having someone strapped to a gurney in an observation room really reminded me of 'SG-1,' I'm sure they did that all the time. And that whole thing with the 'mystery' of who stabbed Zelenka should have been solved because you'd expect them to have CCTV in a lab if they have it in other places. Or don't they? At least they resisted the trope of 'One Day Earlier' coming up, instead the flashback turns up naturally when Neva finally tells the truth and we don't have an overly dramatic and overused opening, other than for poor Zelenka, of course! It's all fine, another episode that's entertaining, has all the cast together, looks nice and ends well. There's a hard edge to things when Sheppard presents a threatening aspect to the Magistrate of the village, and Neva gets her comeuppance from a furious former accomplice, and the moment when an axe is about to fall on Keller's neck, and surprisingly it's the criminals who save her rather than her friends who would have been too late, but: at least the happy ending.

Again, as with too many recent episodes this season, it lacks ambition and the fully exploiting of the characters, which they seemed to be doing in Seasons 3 and 4 and some of this season, a common complaint I've been making. Once again I appreciate the chance to have all the characters working together, but I do feel the series is either treading water a bit, or has reverted to its early years when they weren't quite as assured in their writing. I'd love to know at what point they knew they weren't coming back for a Season 6, because this story ends ambiguously as to the fate of Neva, and maybe she escaped, which sounds like they were leaving threads for potential future stories. There's only two episodes left now and I imagine they'll be linked. I really hope they don't squander the potential, because it's too late to say the season lives up to what went before.

**

The Fight

 DVD, Voyager S5 (The Fight)

In the bllllluuuuuuue corner we have the scourge of the Alpha Quadrant, the Maquis Mauler, Commander Chakoooooo-tay. And in the red corner we have the damage-dealer of the Delta Quadrant, Kiiiiiiiiiiid Chaos! Get ready for the fight of your lives as these two battle for the ult-iiiii-mate priiiiiiiize! Finally Chakotay gets an episode worthy of him - not since Season 4's 'Unforgettable' had he starred in a vehicle for himself, and that was, as has been said before, quite forgettable! At last he stars and gets something juicy. Somehow boxing fits his personality like hand in boxing glove (I assume Robert Beltran liked the sport since he's supposed to be the origin of the idea for his character's hobby). It's strange, because obviously he often seems like a pacifist, someone who would prefer to fight and run away, to live to fight another day, discretion the better part of valour, but that's not to say he wasn't valorous or willing to go into combat if there was no other option (the mark of a good Starfleet officer), and yet I don't believe we'd ever heard about his interest in boxing before. Indeed, he even tells the Captain at the end that he likes to box to unwind, implying his pastime wasn't well known to his crew-mates. I'm sure he wasn't hiding it, but he's quite a restrained, private man who doesn't need to put himself in the spotlight with others. And though on the face of it, it might seem strange someone of his gentle demeanour would enjoy a violent bloodsport known for how much damage you must do to bring your opponent down, it's also about discipline, and as Boothby says, defeating yourself, and Chakotay's always been a big chunky lad so you can imagine he didn't get like that through being inactive or sitting around on vision quests all day!

Ah, Boothby. And ah, Ray Walston. Leaving aside the boxing angle, which this episode really isn't about, but I'll get to that, the thing that always intrigued me about this episode was how they managed to bring back an existing character out of the blue: and what a choice! 'Voyager' had difficulty in crossing over guest stars from other Treks, much in the same way as 'Enterprise' - the latter's problem was being set at least a hundred years before most of the characters we knew, the former's that they were very far away. Not that it had entirely stopped them, Riker being a big name guest back in Season 2 (not forgetting Quark and Morn in the pilot), ironically one of the few who also appeared on 'Enterprise' since you can't keep William T. down. There was Captain Sulu, Rand and the Klingon, Kang in Season 3, and recently the Borg Queen (though not the original), and who else this very season? Why, only Groundskeeper Boothby himself! Okay, so it wasn't actually him, but a Species 8472 recreation within a facsimile of Starfleet Academy in 'In The Flesh,' oddly another episode Chakotay had more exposure in, though it couldn't be called his episode like this one. Walston must have got on so well with everyone, probably charmed them all, that they wanted to bring him back soon, and since we learn Chakotay has a boxing simulation why not have it be headed by Boothby? It was a fine way to bring back a character you'd never have thought would return after 'TNG' ended, but it shows the respect and love for Walston that they made the effort twice this year. I'd love to know how it all came about and if this was his final acting role, I know he died in 2001, during the series' seventh season, so he might well have reappeared if he'd been able.

The episode isn't about Boothby, in the same way it isn't about boxing, and while both of those things are fascinating to see in Trek, the heart of the matter is the mind over matter, or the matter over mind: specifically the fear of losing it, something that haunts us to this day and has only become a larger spectre for many. It's really Chakotay's personal fear that he'll end up like his Grandfather, since he has the 'crazy gene.' In many ways for him it was an irrational fear since he had the gene suppressed before birth (interesting that this was allowed since we know Trek's views on genetic alteration have always been strictly anti, as reiterated in 'DS9' with the reaction to Bashir's genetic modification, but perhaps they allowed the suppression of dangerous genes as a matter of course, and only 'enhancement' was banned?), and it was only because his Grandfather refused his medication (a rare example of superstitious belief affecting someone in the Trek world negatively as usually they don't like to show any belief system to be against a person's wellbeing, though it's countered by the fact this genetic defect becomes useful in the situation Chakotay faces), which he clearly didn't need, and even if he did, he wouldn't have refused. I don't think it's that he believes he'll end up confused like his Grandfather naturally, rather that this experience with the aliens puts him through the wringer and opens up the possibility of the cognitive disorder he so fears, and the episode becomes about that taste of hallucination and bewilderment, and confronting that which you fear head-on.

In that respect it gets back to the Trek tradition of being inspirational in the way we see someone overcome an issue for their own sake, but also to save their ship. We'd just had an episode in 'Course: Oblivion' where the ship had gone all shimmery and was in grave danger of coming apart, and here we are with a similar thing happening (though of course last time it wasn't the real Voyager). I'm not quite sure on the timeline of this episode because I've always watched it after that previous episode, but the production number is 108, putting it directly after 'Bride of Chaotica!' and before 'Bliss,' as listed in 'The Star Trek Encyclopedia,' so I assume production order was different than aired, perhaps to accommodate Walston? At least they were stuck in Chaotic Space and not Chaotica Space as that would have made it a very different episode... As it is, it's a semi-Holodeck story as part of it does take place there, and that becomes the backdrop. One thing I noted was the quality and inventiveness of the directing: you have little shots like a corridor scene beginning with a reflection of Janeway and Chakotay in a wall panel, or the introduction of the Holodeck program panning from the lockers round to view the ring. The scenes I loved most, however, were both the aliens' recreation of the ring with its moody lighting, a single ceiling lamp swinging above and creating great shadows everywhere, with the misshapen ring, and the soft focus 'dream' sequences where Chakotay uses a punchbag on the Bridge and we glance across through the open door of first the Briefing Room for a character to speak up while the others ignore it, then the Ready Room, and another corner of the Bridge.

It emphasised the otherworldliness of Chakotay's experiences because you never see shots like that normally, looking through open doors into other rooms from a distance, making it a unique vision of familiar surroundings. Much of those sequences reminded me of the creepiness whenever the Prophets would be in contact with someone in 'DS9,' specifically you get that same effect of multiple cuts of characters in situations we'd already seen, like the aliens were using very recent memories of Chakotay in order to form coherent communication, and I've always loved that strangeness, though in this case it was much quicker and snappier. Like 'Course: Oblivion' this was another example of the nature of reality, one man going through the uncertainty this time, reaching out with his mind to try and grasp what's going on. I thought it was a bit naive of the Doctor to be so positive towards the aliens, telling Chakotay to trust them at first, when there was no real evidence to suggest they should. He later changes his tune and shares the opposite view when Janeway is saying the same thing, since they don't know what the aliens' intentions are, so he's not very consistent, but she uses logic to show that their best option is to trust since they're already in grave danger so what would the aliens have to gain (of course there's always the possibility they might be leading Voyager to its doom to feast upon them, as happened to the Captain herself in 'Coda,' and especially more recently in 'Bliss,' so perhaps they should have been a bit more reticent!), and her encouragement for Chakotay to go through with it is also sound logic: keeping his sanity will do him no good if they're all marooned in Chaotic Space! It's not the first time in Trek aliens have made oblique contact (I think of Deanna in 'Night Terrors'), or would be the last time aliens had dealings with the Holodeck (next season's 'Tinker, Tenor, Doctor, Spy,' though those aliens were belligerent rather than benevolent).

Talking of logic, I did enjoy the little aside when Paris is able to persuade Tuvok to change his mind: they're already in danger so speeding up a bit makes logical sense. Tuvok isn't in the episode a lot, but he has that great moment when Chakotay, seeing boxing gloves in a hallucination on the Bridge shakes off the Security Officer's hand and then takes a swing at him, boxing him, only for the Vulcan to easily dodge and nerve pinch his Commander! It's one of those effortless little scenes which show how cool Vulcans are, despite their reserved demeanour and generally contained physicality. The boxing gloves threw up an interesting question for me when we first see them in Chakotay's Quarters, but not for long because when he looks back they're not there so we realise they're a hallucination. Until then my brain was ticking over on whether he'd be able to spare Replicator rations for something like that, especially when you consider Harry Kim back in the day had to save up quite a lot before he was able to replicate his clarinet. I justified it by assuming they were well stocked with food and had oodles of energy at this specific juncture, but as I said, it proved not to be real anyway. The same thing happened when Chakotay related the story of his Grandfather's condition and I wondered why he wouldn't have had the gene suppressed, since you'd think such advances would have happened long before then, but we quickly discover he had his problems because of refusing medication, so even though he hadn't suppressed the gene he could have been treated.

Another similarity with 'Course: Oblivion' is that we see an alien ship, even hear the voice of one of its crew, but don't see them. This time they're all dead, not having the gene which the aliens who live in that region of space were able to use to contact Chakotay - their ship reminded me of the Romulan Drone Ship in 'Enterprise,' though obviously this predated that design by years. I assume this was also a CGI creation since it's seen only briefly and not focused on, and by this time CGI had become common in Trek as the capability for greater complexity and detail had increased. A good point about the alien ship was that it is said to have superior sensors to Voyager's own, and yet they weren't able to escape the ravages of Chaotic Space, which shows that simply having the best tools doesn't prove an advantage unless you have other qualities to go with it, in the Voyager crew's case, their curiosity and deliberate and methodical exploration of a problem. Add Seven's report about only one Borg Cube ever escaping from such phenomena, and the odds don't look good for our intrepid crew, which of course only makes Chakotay's sacrifice to put himself on the line, risking his deepest fear, that much more heroic. The Doctor has a rousing semi-speech as he grapples with Chakotay losing his nerve in the face of what he risks, talking about the fear of the unknown, and that's the key theme of the episode: dealing with yourself and your own natural impulse not to get hurt, conquering fear, not the external forces you may be dealing with, but the internal ones, and that makes for a powerful message.

This was a story ripe for one of those 'One Day Earlier' captions so beloved by far too many TV dramas, and which I've come to find a lazy tool applied in an attempt to pique casual viewer interest. Here, we do go back to before Chakotay was afflicted, but the amount of time that's passed is of no real consequence. I suppose it wouldn't be Trek without some kind of moral viewpoint on something as divisive as the sport of boxing, and the Doctor does get off his message from a medical point of view, saying it shouldn't even be in the Holodeck database, which is a bit extreme (he also gets to play a version similar to his creator, Dr. Zimmerman, when he wears a white medical coat and is quite obnoxious in Chakotay's dream). Surely with the safeties on, the boxing wouldn't do any actual harm, you wouldn't feel the effect of a punch, though that does bring up the question of incremental degrees of violence or feedback: in this case you'd think some push back would be required, otherwise you wouldn't be experiencing the force of actual boxing, but then if you did it could be potentially detrimental to the body, so it can't always be as simple as safeties on or off, you'd need varying degrees of contact for something like this. Either that or Chakotay just turns off the safeties every time. His opponent, Kid Chaos, the one he was fighting on the Holodeck, as opposed to the Ghost of Christmas Future whom he takes on under the same guise in the vision, was apparently a Terellian. But was he a Terellian or was he a Terrellian, or even a Tarellian, that is the question? (According to Memory Alpha he's 'Terrellian'). And on the subject of spelling, did Boothby deliberately say 'Maquis of Queensbury' rules rather than 'Marquis' or do Americans pronounce it the same way? If not, I liked the Maquis reference.

I do like a good Chakotay episode, he was an underrated character who deserved a lot better than he was given, but at least in this season he still had worthwhile stories centred around his character. I like the spare, empty design of the places in which many of the scenes occur, whether that be the bare, rocky area Chakotay meets his Grandfather in a vision, or the boxing scenes, they force the focus upon the drama and what it's all about rather than concentrating on extraneous prettying up and overly detailed sets. Almost makes me think of the surreal, abstract setting of 'Spectre of The Gun,' though not as extreme. It reminds you that Trek is about content: story and character, not ephemeral effects, though of course the imagery of Voyager as it travels through this rippling region was excellent. It was wonderful to give Ray Walston one last appearance in Trek, a fitting tribute to his long career and the important place his character had in the lore, dating from 'TNG,' but it was almost as good to meet Chakotay's Grandfather, albeit a vision of him, just as we met a vision of his Father back in 'Basics.' Even better, he was played by Ned Romero who not only played a similar Indian character in 'TNG' ('Journey's End'), looking much the same, but dates all the way back to 'TOS' when he played Krell the Klingon in 'A Private Little War,' one of very few actors to have been in both original and 90s Trek, my favourite trivia for the episode! I always love seeing a family member of the characters we know, it fills out their backstory a little more and gives us another way to relate to them. I never liked the vision quest stuff, but I have the feeling this may have been the last time Chakotay performed one on the series. He'd be shortchanged in the last couple of seasons, as I remember them, but this episode is one that has grown on me to the point I number it among the classics, yet one more reason Season 5 stands tall, like the champion Chakotay after a hard-fought round, his opponent down for the count.

****

Course: Oblivion

 DVD, Voyager S5 (Course: Oblivion)

The nature of reality. This was always going to be a favourite of mine since I love those episodes where what appears to be reality is questioned, probably dating back to 'Frame of Mind,' one of the few 'TNG' episodes I saw as a child, but perhaps even further still with 'TOS' episodes such as Kirk wandering the empty corridors of what looks like his Enterprise, and perhaps even going right back to my beginnings with Trek, my earliest memory being of 'Miri' where that man suddenly rushes out on the Landing Party and dies clutching the tricycle. There's a sense of wonder, but also horror as the truth is revealed, while even before that we know something is not right. Trek did so many of these episodes in the 24th Century era ('Enterprise' had 'Vanishing Point,' but that was a bit of an 'it was all a dream' cop-out!), always close to normality, but slightly askew. In contrast, I've never really loved mystery stories, like crime whodunits, so there was something very specific to the Trek interpretation of mystery that has always struck some nerve with me. This episode is about as far as you could possibly go in the exploration of a false reality, so it was going to rate highly, but it's also one of those very rare examples of the sequel being superior to the original. I think of the Eddington arc that began in 'For The Cause' as another example of that - while it was a great episode, 'Blaze of Glory' was even better, and though that was actually the second sequel, or finale of a trilogy after 'For The Uniform,' my point still stands.

Generally in Trek the second part of a two-parter, often even a cliffhanger ending and follow-up at the start of the next season, wasn't quite as strong as the first part, simply because the writers were so accomplished at creating these incredible situations for the characters to be stuck in ('The Best of Both Worlds' comes to mind, first and foremost), though I wouldn't denigrate the sequels, they were following greatness after all, which is very hard to do as successfully. But with 'Course: Oblivion' I found it to be a classic derived from a pretty good episode ('Demon'), but which took the whole concept further (I liked they brought back original Director Anson Williams, too). One thing 'Voyager' was criticised for, and I've done my own share of criticism in these reviews, is that it didn't reach its full potential, it became a little lazy, for want of a better word, it didn't exploit the premise for arc stories enough or explore the recurring characters, had all but written them out by this time in the series (Ensign Wildman, Vorik, etc), seemingly in opposition to the 'DS9' style of giving everyone depth and a place in that world - an example in this episode is that even when 'Janeway' (I'll stop putting quotes around the names henceforth!), gathers the crew together to tell them of this radical revelation of their situation, all we see are a handful of officers in a corner of the Mess Hall. At least show her words being pumped round the ship, people stopping in corridors, others at their stations, just to present the idea of the crew consisting of more than ten! With crowd numbers it's usually a budgetary constraint (regular Trek Director David Livingston famous for trying to get big crowds when he could, while also denying them to other directors in his role as Producer!), and that's one of the few criticisms I could level at this episode.

That's because it's so well done, even coming to it with the foreknowledge of what it's all about, which you'd think would diminish the power of the story. Not so, it only makes things that much more tragic when you know what's coming. I wasn't sure it would still hold up as a classic judging by the first chunk of the episode. Not that it wasn't fun to see a wedding take place on the ship, everyone threaded up to the nines in their dress uniforms, an absolute rarity, especially on this series since there were no Starfleet functions to attend, the marriage of Thomas Eugene Paris and B'Elanna Torres, prefiguring (and standing in for, but that wasn't this episode's fault), the actual happy event to come later in the series. I've always loved slow motion, especially when it's emphasising an important moment, the coming together of these two that had been 'courting' for over a year, but there was also a sense of something not quite right even in that (it's almost like you have to take everything with a pinch of salt, or perhaps rice...). I don't know if Tuvok's line, "When it comes to affairs of the human heart, it is wise to look beyond logic," was a deliberate attempt to sound a discordant note in the proceedings, but that's how I took it. It just didn't seem like the kind of thing Tuvok would say - Spock, yes, half-human, much later in his journey of balancing Vulcan and human experience, but not Tuvok. Then there was the conversation in the Jefferies Tube between Torres and Seven with the latter effectively expressing her belief that being joined with one person to life would be boring. B'Elanna's response about her not going into stasis for the rest of her life could be mistaken for a vote for promiscuity and not honouring her husband (something notably absent from her self-made vows at the ceremony), though they were talking generally about social situations, so I don't think anything untoward was meant.

Anything that seems out of place or out of character can easily be explained away, because, and at this point in the review I feel I can reveal it, since the episode is only a little way in before the truth comes to light: they aren't the real crew. Or the real Voyager. But they are part of the real universe and timeline, that's the uniqueness of this episode's conundrum: they are duplicates. And in keeping with that quote that some character said in Trek once, 'everyone's human,' they keep hold of the humanity they don't really have, even to death. In itself it wasn't an original idea, even the series' second episode dealt with the ship encountering a duplicate of itself ('Parallax'), though in that case it was a time-related issue. There were others, too, 'Deadlock' being an obvious example with two Voyagers, and in fact Harry and Naomi are both from that other reality. The crew of Voyager roaming the galaxy and being part of events and contacts the real one wasn't would later be explored from an entirely different and more comedic angle in the following season's 'Live Fast and Prosper,' so duplication, for whatever reason, could be a rich vein of storytelling. As I always say in relation to Trek stories: you can do anything, it's not what you do, it's how you do it. And this was a most poignant and tragic exploration of what it would mean if everything you knew and believed in was proved to be false. Or perhaps not false, but not relevant to you. In fact this episode very much demonstrates the power of belief and that it can achieve great things or be responsible for great mistakes, both are in evidence, mainly through Janeway's actions.

She is the quintessential example of the Captain, pigheaded in her resistance to what she sees as giving up what has become her life's mission, butting heads with her First Officer once again, all for the idea of reaching a home that isn't hers to reach, but eventually coming to realise what's best for her crew. It's a touching and heartfelt story that reaches out for the best of what it means to be Starfleet, the moral values so important to this organisation, exemplified in these officers. They aren't real so why should they strive to get 'home' to a place that wouldn't even receive them with joy if the truth were known? Why should they follow Janeway's orders, she's not a real Captain, she hasn't been to the Academy, none of them have? They could have simply dropped into despondency and refused to do anything further, the whole nature of discipline and motivation suddenly pulled out from under them. As Tom says, why follow orders, reverting to a version of the real Paris who was always a little rebellious in the early days, though even here he doesn't mutiny or actively oppose Janeway's decisions, if he does become sarcastic and questioning. Harry is, as he usually is, more supportive of authority and it's fascinating to see the traits of these characters so firmly portrayed in their duplicates, showing how close they are to the originals. That goes for the technology, too. Somehow, this 'silver blood' as it was called, can create warp capable engines, Holodecks (Neelix is giving Paris options for his honeymoon), and even the holographic Doctor. They really do travel at warp, so this silver blood would be an amazing asset if it could be a harnessed resource developed for practical use, though that isn't the point of the episode!

The main point I took is about identity, and is a lesson for today's world as much as it was then. Their belief system was integral to keeping this crew together instead of splitting off and going their separate ways. They trusted in Janeway's leadership in spite of her not being the original, and she in turn led them in strict accordance with the protocols they knew, the guiding principles. They could have destroyed that alien ship (the voice of whose occupant or Captain went uncredited), when it denied them safe landing on a Class-Y planet that could have served to save them, or at the very least provide rest and recuperation until they moved on, in one of many heartbreaking moments in the episode. But in their worst moment they don't give up their principles - it can be argued Janeway's salmon-like urge to return home (planning to pass through the centre of the Milky Way - but what about the Great Barrier, had it been taken down since the events of 'Star Trek V'?), was detrimental to herself and her crew, the idea that feelings drove her, but she eventually fights this inherent nature to realise what is best, only it was too late, and that's the real tragedy. But getting there is the sweet inspiration of our real characters, showing what even copies of Starfleet heroes are capable of. This sweet, nutritional storytelling is what made Trek great and which the current era has lost (ironic, given Bryan Fuller who kicked it all off wrote this episode!), in a big way: at their most desperate need they're turned away from sanctuary and it leads to their destruction, but they continue to act with integrity no matter the cost, and that's amazing and beyond what you could expect from people.

The episode could very easily have been laughable and gone down in the series' history as lamentable as many see 'Threshold' (though I find it generally pretty good, apart from the loose approach to Trek's internal reality!). Trek has numerous examples of being overzealous with the makeup and turning characters into wacky monsters: look at 'Genesis' on 'TNG' (for all its great design, it's still pretty wacky), or 'Extinction' on 'Enterprise'! When characters begin to slime up and look mouldy it could have been bizarre, even Janeway gets it slathered all over her face, but it's in how they exhibited good character beneath that which made it so poignant. The last time I think Neelix was covered in gunk was in the disgusting end of the terrific 'Persistence of Vision' when he's bleeding slime from pores all over his skin in an effort to distract Kes from reality (another great 'nature of reality' episode!), but here he has the dignity and the resilience to carry on, even appointed Chief Medical Officer in a fine moment of Janeway reinforcing the trust she's always placed in him (and I loved his comeback about now he's CMO he can relieve her of duty if she refuses to rest!). The last time Kim was slimed up was in 'Scorpion' after he'd been attacked by Species 8472, and yet here he ends up Captaining the ship as everyone's dead, the last man on the Bridge, ordering Seven to eject the Warp Core... Even Chakotay is back to his best as the voice of reason to counter Janeway's excesses. Though none of these characters had yet been lost in the shuffle, they'd be lessened in the last two years of the series, and knowing that adds more poignance and is one reason I feel Season 5 was the last great year for the series.

Being strict, there are other negatives to the episode apart from what I've already mentioned: why would B'Elanna put Seven in charge of the Core when she was 'going away' for her honeymoon, she does have subordinates, does she not? And what does Seven make of it - just like Troi driving the Enterprises-D and -E to destruction (I know, I know: unfair!), she ends up ejecting it! Don't put her in charge down there again... Joking aside, we should have been shown the Core ejection, that's one of the things about Trek convention they stuck to, except in the inverse: when reality wasn't real, like a Holodeck for example, you'd never see the external views because of course they wouldn't exist. In this case they were a real ship in the real Galaxy, so it would have been better to show a real Warp Core eject sequence, though we had already seen it once, I believe. Not that it harms the episode, just that it could have enhanced it further. A minor thing I noticed was when preparing to land on the planet they went to Red Alert rather than the correct procedure, Blue Alert, though that's one of those things that can easily be explained away by them not necessarily following the exact procedure the real Voyager would (though they mention Grey Mode, which was just as rare!), a slim argument since they were so exactly duplicated they appeared to behave and think, with all the same memories, like the real crew. That can also go for the reference to Painstiks which Janeway says at the wedding they'll forgo, but Painstiks had nothing to do with weddings, they're confusing them with ma'stakas, the ceremonial clubs used to 'attack' the bride and groom and seen in 'You Are Cordially Invited...'! Again, easily explainable as part of their degradation, but in reality I suspect it was a mistake on the part of the writers. Oh dear...

There was also the curious fact that while their skin had these mottled abrasions and the ship was shimmering apart, you never see their uniforms do the same, though they must be made of the same material as everything else - this was unlike the similar effect of the Changelings in 'DS9' where you would see even their clothing affected, such as when they were desiccating. Probably another item we can put down to time and budget concerns. There's the fact they somehow catch up with where Voyager is now, though they could have been travelling ever since we saw them in 'Demon,' and an experimental Warp Drive is mentioned. And I felt the sequence where the rice falls through the wibbly-wobbly floor (shades of 'Twisted,' most notably in the Jefferies Tube where it's first noticed), of the Mess Hall wasn't quite... I don't know, it looked okay, but it was just a strange choice as the way to flag up something was wrong and I can't imagine how difficult turning the script directions into actual filmed images was to achieve because it's almost abstract - these small grains of rice bouncing on the pattern of the carpet (never have we had such a close look at the flooring on the series, with the full focus of the frame upon it!), and falling through, you'd be forgiven for not quite understanding what was going on.

Perhaps it could represent another theme of the episode: dust to dust, ashes to ashes. Which brings me round again to the tragic nature of this reality and the conflict between the course of action they should take. They're quite quick to accept the bizarre notion of their true nature, because to all outside knowledge they appear to be what they thought they were, and only digging deeper reveals the truth. At least they don't reject the truth for a lie because it doesn't suit how they feel about themselves. And it doesn't change their struggles, they are certainly real to each other, and though Chakotay says belief alone won't hold the ship together, knowing the truth and still holding on to the identity they'd been given was what encouraged them to push on. In the end there was nowhere to go and, much like the ending of 'Time and Again,' no one really knows what happened. In that case it was a happy ending because the disaster Voyager was originally responsible for, was averted, and with this one there isn't even that poignancy of learning a lesson, such as the profound experience Picard went through in 'The Inner Light,' but because there was absolutely nothing to be gained, nothing was left but desolation, not even their experiences, logs and memories could be passed on, and that makes it even more tragic and has a huge impact on the viewer because we're the only ones that share this knowledge and will remember this courageous group that were so like the people we knew.

If Voyager had found out who these people were and had been able to glean anything of their short existence it would have robbed the story of its final, powerful conclusion, and perhaps this could be a last theme: that one day we'll all be forgotten and end up like that ship and its crew. It's one of the advantages of the short story medium to be able to so fully grasp a situation or a set-up and play it out in a brief period of time. At the same time, because this was a direct sequel to an established episode, it had an extra layer of sadness: that this group were once known of by the real Voyager, but never will be again. At the same time it can't be entirely without a degree of creepiness to the concept, because these people were hoping to get back to Earth and could have met their 'families' as if they were the real versions, though from the integrity shown, especially from their Captain, you know they'd have been as honourable as the originals they'd duplicated. It wasn't 'all a dream,' it was real to them as they were real to each other, friendships, marriage, trust in each other... All to end up as a footnote in Janeway's log, a distress call that was answered but too late. I wouldn't want every episode to end like this one, hope and reward, even on a small scale are important, but sometimes the nature of reality is such that we need a dose of that reality to remind us of our reality.

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