Prodigy: Preparing for Part 2

The reveals of Picard's third season trailer might have distracted you from the fact that Prodigy's first season (part two) is set for return this October. 

As I said a few months back, rather than individually go through every episode I wanted to be able to have a more educated overview and look back in sections. This, for Prodigy, seems like a good point to take stock.

My thoughts ahead of it airing offered very low expectations of the show. It was for kids, I even grumbled at the animation in the first episode and wasn't planning on giving it a great deal of my time.

How wrong was i. Because I went in without demanding greatness from the first frames and was aware that it wouldn't be as adult-orientated as Discovery or Picard likely made a big difference.

While Burnham's journey in the 32nd Century seems to have meandered a little, Prodigy has remained untainted. The wokeness and community servicing that Discovery in particular has gone to town on is nowhere to be seen. Now, I get that Star Trek should be discussing current issues and scripting allegories just as Gene Roddenberry himself did back in the 1960's but there are some that would say Discovery is trying too hard to accommodate.

Prodigy on the other hand isn't. This is a straight up action adventure that provides a gateway into the world of Star Trek for a younger generation. It still talks about teamwork, family and has a story and characters who are already developing but it's kept things simple and, ironically, quite down to Earth.

Assembling a crew of aliens is one thing but to actually show character advancement in what is, at the core, a kids show is brilliant. All of the leads feel as though they are on individual journeys with some more prominent than others. Dal and Gwyn do tend to take the lead as the "acting captain" and the daughter of their nemesis, The Diviner but Rok too has been provided with serious development albeit in one episode.

But let's not get too ahead. Prodigy's first season has been wholeheartedly (to this mid-point) a brilliant success. These first ten episodes have successfully introduced the cast, a new ship, told a mini story arc and still managed to step way for a few weeks with a great cliffhanger.

With a strong learning towards its new elements and only sprinkling in a minor amount of existing Trek lore, Prodigy has done well to avoid the franchise's own self-loving and aim to embrace a totally new audience. The basics of the show, the Federation and our new crew have been set over this initial run of episodes and the writers have done a magnificent job of avoiding in-jokes and keeping their stories open and accessible.

The ship is a very clear Starfleet design with the over-hull nacelles and a distinct primary/secondary hull shape that can be traced all the way back to its most original form in USS Enterprise NCC-1701. Yes, it's got some neat twists; lots of surface landings, a 3D vehicle printer, that extremely open glass-topped bridge, the Janeway hologram and the incredible protowarp drive - but it's still recognisably Starfleet and I goddamn want one.

The crew are oddly relatable. Dal might be the captain-elect (by himself) but he has to share that centre stage with the equally capable and more mature Gwyn. But Dal is the new viewer to Star Trek, excited, interested and wanting to know it all. He is the avenue into the franchise that the Nickleodeon audience should be following. Rok has come on in leaps and, well, leaps from background to essential. Zero's Medusan nature has been touched on and visualised in one of the larger callbacks to the history of the franchise (Is There in Truth No Beauty? TOS S3) although Murf remains a complete enigma however completely indestructible he/she/they are.

The only character to really have been left at the kerb a little is Tellarite Jankom Pog. He feels almost as neutered as the Maquis after Caretaker and the argumentative nature played on right from the first episode has been frittered way in weeks. Hopefully he won't be relegated to the Inspector Gadget of the team with his extendable arm as his only "thing".

Now (spoilers) I had expected the Diviner arc to last more than the first half of the season but it has meant that this line of storytelling hasn't overstayed its welcome. It felt right to go in the direction the show took this plot and it felt conclusive and also the end of the beginning. The mid-season two-parter returning the Protostar and its crew to the mining colony where we started out ensured that loose ends were tied up although we know that there have been hints at the ship's purpose and final mission through these ten episodes.

Nor at any point has Hologram Janeway felt intrusive. Kate Mulgrew's return has been a masterstroke. It has greatly benefitted the series and of all the returning characters we've seen across the recent shows, certainly Prodigy has nailed it both with this leading lady and the assembling of the crew for Dal's Kobayashi Maru sim.

For long term fans there is still a sense of familiarity through the reminders of Starfleet, the design of the ship both internally and externally and, of course, that cliffhanger which leaves no doubt that the universe is all coming together. Would I be surprised to see one of the Prodigy cast turn up in a live series at some point? Not in the slightest and with the hints of an upcoming Academy show it might be sooner rather than later.

I'm very much drawn towards Strange New Worlds and Lower Decks but in Prodigy there is the hidden gem of the current Star Trek catalogue and something that is wildly accessible by every generation with enough in there to draw in Voyager fans as well as a new, young generation who can then go on and discover the shows of the '90's.

Leaving the season on a cliffhanger and by introducing the real Janeway aboard a very real USS Dauntless, the show has dropped a massive bombshell and a sharp left at the same time. Where is Chakotay? Will the Dauntless catch the Protostar and what the hell is Murf?

Prodigy has a ton and a half of things to offer and is just heading in its own direction. Whether it's possible to dovetail it into one of the series occurring at the same time has yet to be seen yet it remains absolutely unique just as each other series has managed so far in this Kurtzman era.

 

Perhaps the stories haven't minded much depth with the plots fairly straight-forward but it has managed to keep the audience interest at all levels and you can bet the second half of the season will deliver just as much if not more.

Enjoyed this article? Why not like and share to spread the word!

Like our page on Facebook 

Follow us on Twitter

Les(s) Than Miserable: Val Jean Attack Wing Expansion Pack

Struck another bargain this month!

In a continuing search for some sort of completism, I've managed to pick up a Maquis Raider Val Jean expansion for a few quid (less than a fiver including postage!). Not a bad find and one I had looked at in order to build up a ragtag Independent fleet.

How I'll integrate it I'm not sure but at present I'm just planning on getting used to adding this one in and seeing how quickly I end up losing.

A rather compact little ship, this pack is themed off the back of Voyager's pilot Caretaker and I do see some possibilities of playing a scenario versus the Kazon to recreate that final battle which stranded Janeway and Chakotay's crews in the Delta Quadrant.

Anyhow, let's dive in with our usual first look at the model. Well....for effort it would get a solid eight out of ten just for the fact that the hull has some fantastic surface panelling and detailing but the paint scheme is a flippin' nightmare. 

The red highlights aren't really picking up any of the finer points of the Val Jean leaving it feeling a bit stale and half-finished. Honestly, there's some cracking surface mechanics coupled with a capable mould but the final touches do ruin this one and I'm left to begrudgingly like it. I do have a suspicion that in the near future it may get at least a dirt wash if not significantly more TLC.

So to the stats and this one's no heavyweight capital ship. Punching at featherweight levels with a two for attack and threes on defence, hull and shields, the Maquis Raider is one of those ships you're more likely to be using to dip in and out of the fight in support of your larger craft sticking in four or five dice attacks at minimum. 

That's not to say that she's without any teeth because the Val Jean is complete with the Scan, Target Lock, Battle Stations and Evade Actions plus two optional Crew and Weapon slots with a cost of 22 points. Don't underestimate her defensive capabilities either because the small raider can add up to three defence dice to its roll in the Combat Phase at the cost of up to three equipped Upgrades. She's not big on armament but there's a fair certainty this one will be in the fight to the end.

As to the fancy footwork and with a top speed of four, the Val Jean offers a full set of banks and turns at speeds two and three with banks and forward at speed one. Add in there a 180 spin at speed three and this one can be weaving in and out of larger ships all day long. If you want to take the generic version out for a run, you'll lose a shield point, the Unique Action and one of the Crew upgrades with a slight cost reduction down to 20 points.


So who's in the hot seat for this expansion? 

Taking a closer line to Caretaker than any other episode, the pack comes with (Maquis) Chakotay costing four points and a skill of six. Now, I've never really taken advantage of the characters where you can add additional upgrade slots because I've usually maxed out in other areas when squad building and here Chakotay provides one more Crew or Weapon for your craft. 

He also lets you perform a second maneuver from your dial with a speed of three or less at the cost of an Auxiliary Power Token. Again, this makes the raider very useful in skitting in and out of the way of your opponents since effectively you could perform a seven forward move to escape!

Lining up as your alternative pack commander is The Maquis two-parter's Calvin Hudson. Costing three and skilled to level five, Hudson does open the chance to add a Tech slot to your craft alongside a Crew or Weapon option as provided by Chakotay. For usefulness at helping max out your craft, Hudson, in my opinion is actually the better choice since he also reduces the cost of all your upgrades on the Independent ship he captains by a point - and thus makes the additional upgrade slot more tempting.

The Caretaker dominant theme runs off into the Crew cards too with all four being members of Chakotay's ensemble that joined Voyager.

Costing a high five points we have Seska in her Bajoran disguise and acting in a Support Services capacity. For such a high cost she also requires a fairly sizeable sacrifice of both herself and another upgrade card to target a ship within range three and stop it from attacking. Seska continues the "indestructible and annoying" theme of the Val Jean  keeping it alive and out of trouble for one more round.

B'Elanna Torres (four points) takes a more offensive stance for the ship, allowing the Val Jean to maximise its firepower at long distance. Your opponent gains an additional defence die at range three but with B'Elanna disabled you gain one attack die or TWO if the ship she's aboard has a hull value of three or less. That means the raider would gain the latter advantage and attack with four.

Classed as an Independent (but I reckon he could have been dual-faction), Tuvok (three points) adds more manoeuvrability to the Val Jean with a potential one move after you've attacked. He is disabled to make this happen, allowing for multiple uses and I can see this being most effective when coupled with Torres and Chakotay - lots of moves plus a big attack at long range that can't be returned.

Finally the two point Kenneth Dalby provides further regenerative abilities to be either disabled to repair a shield or a hull point or discarded to repair two hull or shield points. He's one more useful towards the later stages to ensure the longevity of the Raider - and I've experienced this when I played it out against Kazon opposition last week.

Two Weapon choices come with the pack to fill out the other two Upgrade slots on the Val Jean. The tried and tested Photon Torpedoes card for five points is the early wave variant with the card disabled to perform the five dice attack at ranges two or three. One Battle Station result can be converted to Critical Damage and it allows the ship to launch attacks from the rear as well as the primary forward facing weapons.

Ramming Attack is a bt more severe. Taking a lead from Chakotay's final action in command of his ship, you can discard the card and perform a speed one move forward. It's a card you need to be in a specific location to use since if the Raider is over the base of another craft it is destroyed and you get to roll six attack dice against which your enemy rolls three less defence dice than usual. Ramming Attack can only be used for smaller ships with hull values of three or less and, understandably you can't use it alongside the USS Enterprise's Cheat Death Elite Action. 

If you're still looking to fill slots, Chakotay has the Elite Action emblem which provides you with Be Creative or Evasive Pattern Omega if you're running pack pure. 

Be Creative certainly is that, letting you disable the card at any time (wow!) to then swap an Evade, Scan or Battle Stations token in play beside the ship with one of those three choices. A nice way to mislead your opponent or cleverly change strategy if something comes up you weren't expecting. For five points this might be a useful card to have ready...

Then finally we come to the three point Evasive Pattern Omega which is one of those annoyingly situational cards that can only be played when you are in the forward arc of another ship but it is not in yours. Definitely a chance to spin in a chance attack off the cuff , it's not labelled as an Action so this "freebie" can be played alone but only after everyone has moved, allowing you to work out the tactical advantage first!

Packed in with your upgrades, the Val Jean's mission is Escape which sees it navigating the Badlands plasma storms to evade an enemy craft. Ideally it's noted as a Galor Class Cardassian ship as per the opening minutes of Caretaker and on a twist, you have to keep touching at least one mission token in play and for the Maquis ship it needs to touch and therefore collect seven of these before leaving the play area. This means there are less for the Cardassian/Dominion ship to be able to touch on each move, leading to it gaining damage - which means it will need to eliminate the Val Jean before it's too late!

The Val Jean is surprisingly nimble and can really be maxed out even with just the Independent pack that you get with it, especially when linked in with the Calvin Hudson card to reduce costs and even open up a Tech slot if required. It's a real Fly in the Ointment ship, one that will be buzzing around and taking a point here, a shield there just to wear down the enemy fleet. I love the concept behind this and in reviewing it I've seen a lot more opportunities to utilise the pack to its full potential that I didn't explore in my first exploitative game with the pack.

Enjoyed this article? Why not like and share to spread the word!

Like our page on Facebook 

Follow us on Twitter

Find us on Tumblr 

Star Trek: Voyager - Protectors - Long Awaited Return...?

Since the announcement of a new Star Trek: Voyager book I had been unable to contain my excitement, especially as I was asked by +Clive Burrell to do the review. 

I eagerly awaited its arrival looking forward to spending some time with my favourite characters in the Trek universe. I anticipated it would take me a week tops to read this book being one of those obsessive people that when I start something I'm like a dog with a bone. 4 weeks later I finished the book, and that's only because I spent six hours on a train with nothing else to do.

Let's start at the beginning....

That appears to be an ironic statement in itself as unbeknownst to me this is book four? of an on-going series. Not normally one to be phased by this situation, like my colleague +Mark Thwaite  I love Star Trek and have never had any problems jumping into the middle of a storyline before. With this book I felt like an original series red-shirt, beamed down to a planet to face my impending death.

The book beings with Vice Admiral Janeway; having been offered command of the Full Circle fleet, or what remains of it following the events in the previous books, she has been ordered back to Starfleet headquarters for a review following her assimilation by the Borg, her death and subsequent reanimation by Q. This storyline centres more on the political aspect of Starfleet command and their attempt to remove Janeway from service. 

Her time is spent with various counsellors discussing her actions following the destruction of the transwarp hub in the series finale Endgame; her mother and sister; and a subplot involving the Paris family whereby Tom Paris' mother is attempting to gain custody of his daughter Miral and Janeway is attempting to resolve the situation.

This plot explores the vulnerable side of Admiral Janeway and her insecurities in leading the fleet. Feeling responsible for the devastation by the Borg following Voyager's return Beyer shows a different side to Janeway, one which didn't sit right with me. I don't know whether this was because I've always seen Janeway as a strong character who plays a motherly role to her crew and now she is doubting herself and all the decisions she has made. Is this something Janeway would do? I don't think so. Can I also add that the relationship between Janeway and Chakotay... Really, did no-one else watch seven seasons of Voyager because there was no chemistry there!!!

Meanwhile in the Delta Quandrant, the USS Voyager commanded by Captain Chakotay and USS Demeter commanded by Commander O'Donnell have travelled back to a system that was referenced in the season two episode Twisted. In order to prove to Starfleet that continuing exploration in the Delta Quadrant is worthwhile, Harry Kim convinces Chakotay that the waveform first encountered nine years ago downloaded a distress call into Voyager's database which wasn't discovered until years later after Harry had deciphered the message. Voyager sets course, with the aid of the newly installed slipstream drive, to find the waveform and offer assistance. However, nothing can be that straight forward can it? 

This was an interesting take by Beyer on what really can only be described as a classic Star Trek episode, something weird happens and that's the end of it. Not really exciting enough to continue, Ms Beyer would disagree. I think Voyager encountered a lot more interesting species that could have been continued in a novel but it seems that opinion isn't shared.

Discovering a cloaked area of space inhabited by the titular "Protectors" who are trying to save a dying ecosystem called the Ark Planet, both Chakotay and O'Donnell must decide whether to help the Protectors and if this violates the Prime Directive. The relationship between O'Donnell and his first officer is quite strange with O'Donnell spending most of the time in his quarters while his first office is in his place on the bridge. This may be explained in a previous book but is very confusing to a new reader to the saga.

This is the main arc of the book and centres around what can be described as a first contact mission and finding ways to circumvent that pesky prime directive in order to help the waveforms. Sound boring? Yeah it is. It's one of the 'nothing really happens' episodes in the middle of the season and is forgotten quite quickly. In fact I've got the book to hand as I type this because I'm struggling to remember what it was actually about.

Can things get more interesting I hear you ask? Well.... there is another plot set in the Beta Quadrant that involves a Borg who has been severed from the collective. Starbase 185 encounters a ship heading towards them with unrecognisable life signs. The occupier of the ship is beamed to the Starbase and it is later revealed to be Axum, last seen in season seven's episode Unimatrix Zero. A former love interest of Seven of Nine, Axum was able to experience Unimatrix Zero whilst regenerating. Following the destruction of Unimatrix Zero, Axum became a resistance leader in the Beta Quadrant and was never heard from again. How will Seven of Nine react to this news I wonder.....

Being near death there is only one person in the universe they can call to save the day, and that would be Voyager's very own Doctor. This is where I imagined things would get complicated, the classic love triangle comes into play, but the Doctor's behaviour wasn't right, he was indifferent to Seven of Nine. At first I thought the translation of the character onto a different medium couldn't match the talents of Robert Picardo, but it seems that someone has been playing with the Doctor's programming which is explained towards the end of the book.

Meanwhile on board Voyager Seven of Nine is having vivid dreams of Axum which doesn't sit too well with her current beau Counsellor Cambridge. (That's right, the budding romance between Chakotay and Seven of Nine didn't develop following the conclusion of the season finale, one of the many changes that Beyer has introduced into the series that I struggled to follow).  A new Borg concept is explored here, drones severed from the collective contain technology known as 'catoms'. This isn't explained particularly well, it seems that they play a part in healing an injured drone, something which Starfleet Medical are very interested in. As Seven of Nine has these catoms in her body Starfleet Medical have requested her presence in the Alpha Quadrant.

Another thread to this plot is a disease that Starfleet Medical believe is spread by these catoms hinting they have ulterior motives for both Seven of Nine and Axum, something which isn't explored in this book but looks set to continue in the next instalment. I guess we'll just have to wait and see.

The book moved at impulse speed right up until the end when we suddenly jumped to warp seven with an ambush and a space battle. This was as exciting as the book got and it wasn't until this point that I actually wanted to continue reading. Split between space exploration and the personal lives of the crew I felt like something was missing..... excitement maybe.

Phrases such as "Like most expectant mothers, B’Elanna had been hoping for ten little fingers and ten little toes. The rest, including the child’s gender, was gravy. But something in the knowledge that this was her son, Tom’s son, filled her with awe." Didn't endear me to the book.

This quote is taken from the first chapter of the book and using the phrase gravy in a Star Trek book isn't something I expected and filled me with a preconceived notion of where it was all heading.

 I wanted to love this book but found myself deeply disappointed with ninety per cent of it. The redeeming feature was the last couple of chapters where something exciting finally happened. Would I go back and read the other books in the series?... No, I'm afraid Beyer hasn't drawn me into the series with this book which felt very much like a filler to tie the readers over until Acts of Contrition will be released in September. Although this is something that can be done in a television series I don't believe a book should be setting the scene for the forthcoming instalments. A television series is commissioned for a season so filler episodes are expected but a viewer only has to wait a week for the saga to continue. With a novel the reader has to wait considerably longer and may have forgotten about the sequel altogether, something that is likely to happen with this book.  Will I read the forthcoming continuation? I think I will, the last few chapters peeked my interest and I'm hoping that the author was just setting the scene for the upcoming epic battles about to happen. Looking at the synopsis for the sequel it seems I might be in luck. Janeway has taken her rightful place in the Delta Quadrant commanding the full circle fleet and several of Voyager's old adversaries have come together to form a pact to bring down Voyager's new alliance with the ominous Confederacy of the Worlds. Sounds promising to me.

Star Trek: Voyager: Protectors is available now from Simon and Schuster priced £6.99 ISBN 9781476738543

One of Seven: Voyager Year One – Part Two

Continuing a look back at Star Trek: Voyager Series One. A gourmet extravaganza of adventure helmed by Matt Goddard

 

In part one of this retrospective I looked at the premise of Star Trek: Voyager and its persistence in working against that in its first season.  It was unlucky, coming as the third live-action sequel, but its lofty mission was derailed by the perceived confines of the Star Trek series.  Now it’s time to look at the cast of Voyager, considering some of its strengths and mulling over the best and worst episodes before thinking long and hard about the worst season finale in Star Trek history.

Help! They've beamed out my lungs!

Novelty Characters

I completed part one of this retrospective considering how Voyager had simplified the Star Trek message.  An unfortunate an inevitable implication of this was that Voyager stuck religiously with the character of the week format.  As with other Star Trek series, that immediately put a lot of strain on characters who were difficult to warm to.  Novelty characters Neelix and Kes were hit the hardest.  Within three stories Kes’ nascent psychic abilities had emerged in the episode was (surely) wryly titled Time and Again.  Within five stores Neelix had his lungs transported out.  Neelix!  Sadly that episode wasn’t called They’ve Beamed out my Lungs! but that’s right - we were supposed to care about the Talaxian Morale officer’s fatal condition just five episodes in.  Both actors tried with their difficult and often blandly obvious characters.  Special mention should go to Jennifer Lien’s wonderfully level voice - but a nine year lifespan and insatiable swotting does not a likeable character make.  Fuse in the sudden telepathy - then ignored for several shows - and the comparisons with another counsellor are unflattering.

The show had strengths from the off though, don’t get me wrong.   Many of those weak points are shared with other Star Trek series.  The show was kept together by Kate Mulgrew’s sturdy performance and Robert Picardo’s brilliance. 

Picardo: A bargin at five times the size

Cast off

So, the crew of Voyager.  Mulgrew really is great.  She has that a distinctive voice and eye acting that fuses Picard and Sisko.  A good thing too, considering how central she is to the show.  Often the camera often just hangs around her, and unsurprisingly so.  Picardo plays a classic sci-fi trope but produces moments of great comedy that Ethan Phillips in his irritating role can only hope for.  The Doctor is instinctively funny from the off even if the concept doesn’t actually make much sense.  Elsewhere in the crew, Robert Duncan McNeill isn’t bad despite being given little to do except brat on about his piloting skills.  The result is a slightly more developed clone of The Next Generation season one La Forge. Kim isn’t too bad either...  Just a dull Star Trek trope that would be shown up far more in Enterprise when the same blandness was shared across several characters. Combine the two however, and their early exchanges relationships are excruciating.

The direction, budget and design were more sophisticated on Voyager than on earlier Trek series and that shone some unfortunate spotlights.   Robert Beltran puts in some great moments, but has a bit of a rough ride as a more spiritual Riker clone. It would be a few years before Beltran started to publically express his boredom with the show, but he seems a little distracted.  With every sweeping camera shot that keeps Kate Mulgrew’s nuanced performance in focus, his red decked form is slumping despondently in the background blur. That’s a bit of a shame. 

Full Klingon Torres: Mid sulk

In Voyager, the Spock archetype was fielded to Torres, who must contend with being both Klingon and human – despite reaching her mid-20s without doing so. It’s an episode like Faces that show the range that Roxann Biggs Dawson could bring to the show.  But as is probably realistic, the end result of the hybrid is a booming, glaring, mid-sulk teen.  Ah, but there’s a character arc with her and Starfleet you say?  Yes, at least three episodes of it.

Then there was Tuvok, good old reliable Tuvok.  There’s a reason that Spock was half human, why Romulans are great villains: full Vulcans are dull. Following Worf and ahead of Reed’s gung ho weapons lust in Enterprise, he really falls flat.  The position of confidant to the Captain is an interesting one, but worth so much less when the Maquis dynamic isn’t properly followed explored.  Tim Russ can’t be faulted for his performance which offers a slightly different Vulcan and even a hint of exasperated disapproval - if such a thing were possible.  It’s not a terrible thing that he has garnered more Vulcan screen time than anybody else.

It’s clear that all characters would have benefited from full serial arcs rather than the jumping between standard single episodes featuring the lesser characters – just as season three of Enterprise did.  

Seska: Not keeping up with Cardassians

That said, Voyager was a show was seeded more than many other Star Trek series.  Seska is interesting for one, creeping into the show in much the same way as O’Brien in The Next Generation.  Her reveal is a nice distraction late in the season, but draws another unfortunate comparison with Deep Space Nine.  While true to Cardassians’ stereotypical treachery, it’s a bit of a step back from Deep Space Nine’s subtly.  Just a few episodes later we see Tuvok attempting to discipline Maquis (yes, all four of them)...  And Seska’s name doesn’t even come up.  Chakotay’s inner-turmoil is a nice touch but it can only go so far as a metaphor for Maquis integration.  I can also see that Torres’ promotion scrap as a microcosm for the paperwork surrounding other Marquis crew members’ positioning (if I look really hard) but it’s all rather, to use a word, Basics.  Thinking about it, the fact there were so many Maquis on one ship in the Badlands seems very out of character.

The Best and the Worst

The first series has more than its fair share of generic Star Trek episodes, but there are glimmers.  An episode like Emanations really does go when no one has gone before; a believable, other quadrant conundrum. The two appearances by the Vidiians show that there are some good aliens on the horizon.  By Faces, they’re injecting some good old fashioned body horror into proceedings (poor old Durst, he’d only had one line before)

Ex Post Facto: Hercule Tuvok takes the floor

So, the best and worst:  A nadir has to be Ex Post Facto, where an interesting approach to a Star Trek Ex Post Facto’s a poor attempt at making a Voyager version of a Deep Space Nine ‘Give O’Brien Hell’ episode.  Aside from the monochrome flashbacks we also see Tuvok as Poirot – he even gathers the suspects in a room at the end! In retrospect a Vulcan is not the most charismatic of detectives, but there any strengths firmly end ...  We’re just weeks into a new quadrant and the Baneans are only the second civilisation that the Voyager crew meets.  Having initially sent off two scouts, Janeway then diverts the ship to free her man – Voyager's adherence to the Second Directive (the needs of the few) falls flat as soon as Paris and Chakotay make-up in Caretaker Part II.  There’s a cordial meeting with the alien race, with not a hint of translation issues. They even shake hands as standard and they let Tuvok into their prison facility with a phaser!  It’s incredibly sloppy but exposes where the creators’ interests lay.  They were willing to forgo consistency to pursue an idea. The episode collapses as if they completely forgot what they were making. Yes, it’s even worse than Neelix losing his lungs. Evoking a noir crime thriller at the beginning,

Eye of the Needle: Never trust a Vulcan Captain...

On the flip side, one highlight is Eye of the Needle. I’d been looking forward to it actually - I remembered its interesting temporal element and of course, it features a Romulan!  It is a neat, if slight 44 minutes.  It’s mainly let down by the delivery of its denouement.  Laugh a minute Tuvok chooses a rather un-dramatic (and illogical) time to check the Ship logs and tell the crew that the Romulan died some years previously.  “I thought I’d wait until the Romulan had gone before I ruined your day’” effectively. That said, it’s not a clean-cut story and although it’s narratively undermined, it’s the kind of science fiction that Voyager should strive for.

Special mention should also to the great holodeck romp Heroes and Demons.  Mainly because it’s a Picardo-centric episode and had the courage to draw parallels with one of the earliest works of the English language.  Brave.

No! Not Piller-filler...

Language and Legacy

It’s difficult to consider Voyager without thinking about its script and language.  That’s one thing that Voyager didn’t simplify.  Its use of technobabble is truly atrocious.  It really does feel like it was deliberately ramped up because that’s what viewers wanted.  I presume that the same would have happened in DS9 had they spent more time phasing anti-time and less time talking politics.  In Voyager, it’s off-putting and in Janeway’s case it diminishes her hands-on nature as a scientist.   It was a trick that The Next Generation never resorted to – or was it?  On that revered show, the cast called it ‘Piller-filler’ in reference to executive Producer Michael Piller.

The late Michael Piller is not just regarded as a legend of Star Trek.  The first episode of Best of Both Worlds remains one of the greatest pieces of television ever made.  But with Star Trek: Voyager, something went a little awry.  Was it him or co-creators Rick Berman or Jeri Taylor..?  Was the many producers including Braga and Biller?  It’s not just that the The Next Generation crew had split – for instance Klingon specialist Ronald Moore had jumped to Deep Space Nine and time fetishist Brannon Braga had been left to Voyager for the majority; split like Maquis and Starfleet.  Everyone involved has produced great film and television at points, but here the premise, the crew construction, the approach to the conceit... While it must have looked good on paper, it wilfully bucked growing TV trends.  

If anything Voyager was a show that looked back to the 1980s and not forward to the 21^st century.  There should have been the courage to commit to the innate drama of the series and not find a middle-ground by including at least ten stories that would look extremely average in any Alpha Quadrant set show.  Voyager would have been far better off finding a different solution to its pitch than the 75,000 light year trek.

A Simple Quest

As it is, Voyager took on one of simplest tales – the quest.  It’s The Odyssey, exactly The Odyssey.  It’s the search for the Grail. It’s the powerful, instinctively human quest story that has been told for millennia, the kind that Joseph Campbell’s eyes would widen at.  This was Star Trek’s only prolonged stab at something that monumental.  And they kind of missed. 

Sure, Enterprise’s stab at the Prometheus myth would later similarly flounder in its first season, but Voyager always niggles the most.   As I look on to Voyager’s following six seasons, I find one fact hard to avoid.  In the final episode of an admittedly shortened season one (16 episodes), just when you expect a cliff-hanger in true Star Trek style...  The antagonist turns out to be actual cheese.

"Get the cheese to sickbay"?  How did they let that one through?

Sadly, at the end of the first season it looked as though Voyager, unlike the villainous cheese, may take a long time to mature.

(NB - the actual season finale was supposed to have been The 37's but the last four episodes produced for season one were shipped to the beginning of season two. A shame as the ending of The 37's makes a hell of a lot more sense as a season closer than Learning Curve - Clive)

You can also read Part One of this article right now by following this link