VOY - Warlord

Plot: Lisa Klink is a rare female name writing for 90s Trek and I realised whilst looking her up that I had no idea what episodes she had helmed, which surprised me when I saw that she had 12 instalments under her belt. It's an eclectic bunch of episodes too, with a couple of standouts (Resistance, Dreadnought, Remember) and just as many duds (this, Sacred Ground, Favourite Son) and some real vanilla shows in between (Displaced, Scientific Method, The Omega Directive). She's credited as writing the teleplays more often than not which means she is responsible for the dialogue rather than the story, which might explain why it is such a variable cluster of episodes. She might be able to put Shakespeare into the mouths of the characters but that doesn't mean she can turn premises such as 'Harry Kim discovers his long lost race in the Delta Quadrant' into art. 

Character: The worst excesses of Neelix's characterisation hit during his relationship with Kes where he turned out to be controlling, jealous and childish. We see glimpses of that here but because Kes is inhabited by Tieran for the majority of the episode and this is where she breaks up with him we don't get to see an actual conversation between the two characters where 'our' Kes gets to express that the way Neelix behaves in a relationship is unacceptable. Instead our sympathies are supposed to be with him because she appears to rather summarily dump him on a date. I really needed Neelix to understand that he wasn't cut adrift because of a random Star Trek plot but because he treated her unacceptably for two seasons. For the half season that Kex remains single on the ship what emerges is a rather sweet friendship between the two of them, which is probably what it should have been all along. It is certainly less icky. Ethan Phillips was under the impression that a scene filmed for Fair Trade later in the season that saw the break up of the two characters cemented had made it into the episode but was later corrected and he was left with the feeling their their separation in this episode is a bit muddy. He's not wrong. 

Performance: There is nothing subtle about Lien's performance as Tieran as Jennifer Lien chews the scenery with remarkable gusto and declares every line as if her life is dependant on it...but let's be honest it is far more entertaining then her usual flat delivery and she injecting some real gusto into an episode that is utterly predictably and obviously plotted. The joy of these possession episodes is to see the regular actors behaving out of character and Lien is going for Shatner high camp rather than Rosalind Chao sinister (The Assignment) but it is still a fun turn. She's completely uninhabited, which is rather refreshing, and makes me wonder if we have wasted Lien's potential as she played the good girl for three years. What's astonishing are the moments where Kes fights back in for control of her mind and we see her teeth as she takes him out. I would have loved to have seen a lot more of this Kes. 'I'll find every crack in your defences, you'll feel yourself crumbling from within, your sanity slipping away. I won't stop until you're broken, and helpless. There's nowhere you can go to get away from me. I'll be relentless and merciless...just like you. 

The Good: There's a great scuffle in the transporter pad where Mulgrew elbows Lien's into the wall violently and she retaliates by punching her in the face. It's so weird to see these two characters in combat that it really bites. 

There's some interesting sexuality on display because Kes is inhabited by man. Tieran is not above coming on strong to Ameron whilst he is in the body of Kes, which is close to a male/male flirting scene that you are going to see on Voyager and Lien plays the scenes where Tieran flirts with Tieran's girlfriend with an overt sense of wanting to get her into bed as soon as possible. Tieran is suggesting a polygamous relationship with Nori and Ameron, which he is clearly up for but she resists. There's plenty of cheating going on here (it takes possession for characters to express gay tendencies) but I appreciate the effort all the same. For Berman era Trek, this is erring on daring. The moment where Tieran uses Kes to force herself on Tuvok certainly made me sit up and pay attention. 

The Bad: Any episode that starts with a close up on Neelix's face as he experiences orgasmic joy whilst a woman in the hideous Talaxian male up massages his hideous webbed feet is asking for trouble. The Paxau resort on Talax is our holodeck locale of the season and it is every bit as tedious as Lord Burleigh's manor in the previous season. What baffles me is that this show is capable of getting this sort of thing right; Sandrine's and the Captain Proton programmes were fun and visually different but more often than not we are stuck with stuff like this and Fair Haven. There's nothing wrong with the idea of Voyager's crew hanging out on a beach resort but this clearly isn't a beach resort but the 90s Star Trek colony set redressed slightly (only slightly) and given some artificial sunbathing lighting. It's not a locale with any substance or any style. That's my problem. Add in Tom Paris' revisions, which is to add a bunch of women in skimpy leotards and some Caribbean music and you're in for a wonderful (I jest) time. According to my co-host on Untitled Star Trek Project, Nathan Bottomley, the pre-credits sequence usually indicates exactly what we are in for for the rest of the episode but there is no sign of that here. Just educating us on how revolting Neelix's feet are (as if we couldn't have guessed that already) as he dances with said women because the camera ensures that we get full disclosure before the end because the make up team have bothered to dress them up. 

No good ever comes of helping survivors of a wreckage in Star Trek. Remember when Bashir beamed aboard the Kobliad ship in The Passenger and the evil conscience of war criminal Rao Vantika is transferred into his body. You should, because this episode is ripping off the plot beat for beat. We should have been immediately suspicious of Kes' behaviour because it is pretty unusual of her to throw her arms around grieving patients in the Infirmary. Remember, when Star Trek characters act out of the ordinary it is always because they have a malicious conscience inside of them.

The same thing that makes this such an entertaining bit of old tosh (the fact that this society seems to be a bunch of corrupt turncoats) is exactly why it is impossible to give any kind of a fig about the planet of the week, or believe in them for a second. 

Five minutes from the end of the episode and Tieran is still in full control of the planet. That can only mean one thing. We're in for a shift and unsatisfactory resolution to the episode. 

Result: The joy of Warlord is that we get to spend most of the episode behind the lines with a bunch of backstabbing villainous types who are all trying to kill and betray each other, and in watching Jennifer Lien give the archest performance as the villain since side of season three of TOS. That means that this episode is essentially a massive comic strip that you can't take at all seriously and with some obvious plotting and insanely over the top lines it ends up being a bit too broad to get a handle on. Kes goes evil isn't the worst premise of the season and her extreme behaviour (murdering and coming on to anyone that comes in sight) means that at least we are seeing something novel. I just wonder if with a little more restraint that this might have been a lot more impactful, and potentially frightening. Instead it's hilarious, and not for all the right reasons. This is basically Game of Thrones as a theatrical comedy. Take of that what you will. 

**1/2 out of *****