TNG – Power Play

Plot – An entirely plot bound episode that trudges from A to B to C without much of the way of sparkle (aside from the execution) in the script. The dialogue is purely functional, dealing with the planet, the possessed crew and finding a way to get the regulars back. On a character level there is absolutely nothing. It is practically hollow.

Character – It is very interesting to watch Power Play back and watch the performances of Spiner, Sirtis and Meaney after they have been possessed but before it has been revealed. They stand in the background of scenes taking in everything, apparently innocuous.

Performance – God bless Marina Sirtis who is given something decent to do for a change but has to be possessed by an alien in order to do so. She’s gloriously over the top in Power Play, far more pantomime than Spiner or Meaney and I could watch her overdone theatrics all day long. She walks into Ten Forward and starts gunning everybody down. I wish she was this vicious on a regular basis, she’s so much more fun. Listen to how Sirtis says ‘Picard, you are mine…’ She is loving this. The two men are far more menacing because they play their parts as disturbing wife beaters, the sort of underplayed aggression I imagined women face when the door is closed and no-one can see. It’s really rather disturbing. O’Brien deliberately choosing to murder his wife is pure sadism.

Production – David Livingston was the top director for many years on Trek before people like Mike Vejar and Allan Kroeker came along and raised the game of the franchise. Livingston was the one director who seemed willing to break out of that point and shoot direction that plagued the middle seasons of TNG and the early seasons and try and inject some life into the stories. By the time he transferred over to Voyager he was attacking the scripts with energy and imagination – remember Deadlock? Even a simple scene like Troi coming onto the Bridge at the beginning of this episode was achieved craftily with all the dialogue taking place in the foreground but tracking Troi as she walks around the Bridge to join them. The camerawork remains fluidic throughout, especially during the exciting sequence when the possessed crewmembers show their true colours.

Some good old fashioned horror atmosphere is generated on the planet with a fierce wind machine, lightning and a nice dark smoky set. TNG very often goes for green and pleasant lands so it is fun for them to stretch their wings and create a world which is entirely inhospitable.

Best moment – There’s some suspense in trying to take out all three possessed crewmembers in the forcefield circle. Again the direction is doing most of the work.

Worst moment – You’ve got a Klingon warrior and a former terrorist on the Bridge and O’Brien manages to take them both out. His special skills? Engineering.

Troi and O’Brien writhing on the floor in pain, wailing. It’s just blissful.

I wish they hadn’t done that – For all the smart direction there is no getting away from the fact that the shuttle going through the storm is a box being rocked by stage hands whilst the actors hang on for dear life. Also the shuttle that the actors crawl out from seems to be a lot smaller than the usual full size version. It must have been awfully cramped in there.

By the climax I had completely lost interest in what was going on. Even the hysterical direction had calmed down to the usual TNG level of competence. When the conclusion relies on the potentially interesting idea of the spirit of a vengeful Federation Officer actually turning out to be a bog standard malevolent alien who is acting out you’re going to lose my interest rapidly. There’s no punch to the last ten minutes, no surprises, no development of the characters. It’s an exercise in pushing the reset button.

A reason to watch this episode again – Power Play used to be a favourite of mine when I was a nipper because it takes an unusual approach of going for the jugular in a period of TNG that is so languid it is falling into a coma. Livingston delivers some pleasing shocks and scares along the way and the actors get the chance to stretch their muscles and play nasty versions of themselves. O’Brien and Data are quite frightening whereas Marina Sirtis hams it up brilliantly as evil Troi. However, this is an entirely plot driven exercise and as an adult my tastes have changed a lot and so the atmosphere can take me so far but after that I need something substantial to keep me interested and that is where Power Play falters. It falls into a predictable hostage scenario and features some quirk of technobabble to get them out of trouble. That’s not compelling television, it is watching the writers get out their toys and play with them and then put them back a little too easily.

*** out of *****

Clue for tomorrow's review:

Donna Noble Kidnapped! Out of this World written by Jacqueline Rayner and directed by Barnaby Edwards

What’s it about: Donna’s home, but she’s not quite herself. Sylvia has some ideas to bring her out of herself – involving an old friend, and speed-dating... As schoolgirl BFFs Donna and Natalie get reacquainted, a mysterious stranger dogs their steps. Is the Doctor keeping tabs on her, or is the truth far more sinister?

Tempestuous Temp: Coming home and picking up life might have become a trope during the Moffat era but it was quite the novelty at this stage of the game and the creators of this set have chosen the perfect moment in Donna’s run for her to want to come home a heal before heading out and travelling with the Doctor again. Her experiences in Library were traumatic in the extreme (being handed a domestic life and having it cruelly and sadistically snatched away) and a little time with her Gramps (less so her mother) and some retail therapy and friends is just the ticket. But with Sylvia giving her the usual gob and setting her up for speed dating, things aren’t going to be quiet. Donna’s outrageous lies in the speed dating sequence will have you howling. She’s a card, that one. Donna is quick to react when she thinks that somebody is following her, thinking the Doctor has sent one of his UNIT pals to keep tabs on her. She’s been having nightmares, talking in her sleep after her recent upset. Since the Library, Donna has found herself questioning the nature of reality. To her friends questioning the nature of reality makes her sounds like a total nut (especially when she keeps going on about her ‘Doctor’) but to those in the know this is intriguing fallout to her personal crisis in VR. It’s the sort of cracks between stories development we often miss with the new series because we need to get on with the next adventure and I’m really pleased to see it explored here. Donna’s glorious scene with the Doctor at the end of Forest of the Dead is still one of the best ever Doctor/companion scenes (‘Is alright special Time Lord code for not being alright at all?’ ‘Why?’ ‘Because I’m alight too’) and Kidnapped! shows what happened next. With Donna and Nat kidnapped it delivers the advantageous format of having Donna as the experienced time traveller with Nat as her green companion. It makes Donna the shining star we always knew she was. Give me more.

Sidechick: Such a smart idea bringing in Wardley from Tate’s comedy show to play Donna’s ‘companion’ for this set. They already have an established chemistry which is obvious from the outset and Wardley has experience with audio drama and sounds perfectly at home with this style of acting. Donna has always been honest with her friends, and so even if she is saying crazy things Nat knows that what she is saying has merit. I love the fact that their first scene together made me frightened that this was going to wind up being a four hour long Catherine Tate sketch (I happen to love the show but I wouldn’t want one sketch to be elongated to 240 minutes and by the end of the story they had become a thoroughly engaging investigative duo (albeit with acidic one liners and pop culture references galore). It bodes extremely well for the set ahead.

Mother from Hell: Sylvia loathes the Doctor because all he brings to their door is death and disaster. Frankly hers is the most natural response to him tumbling into your life and turning it upside down. Whilst there are some laughs along the way, Sylvia is right, he does tend to leave people shaken and not in a positive way. Had Donna listened to her mother she might have been spared the heartache of having her life with the Doctor stolen away. But then she would also have been denied the trip of a lifetime (for her and us) and that simply would not do. Nobody says no to Sylvia, she’s scary. And she proves it when she thinks Donna’s life is in danger and attacks a man with a golf club!

Mockney Dude: The Doctor doesn’t ring the doorbell. He isn’t a ring the doorbell sort of person. He’s more likely to blow it off its hinges and make an entrance.

Standout Performance: Catherine Tate sounds a little unsure in the first scene but is at her absolute best by the end of the story. She’s a hugely adaptative actress. Her and Wardley together is magic.

Sparkling Dialogue: ‘He’s clearly about a 2 and I’m a strong 9 and he didn’t tick me!’

Great Ideas: Sometimes you know something is going to be good just because of the people who are involved with its creation. Here you have some Big Finish’s most accomplished writers (Rayner, Dorney, Goss – just take a look at their credits), the most polished and engaged director (Barnaby Edwards, the man who brought us The Chimes of Midnight) and a musician who never fails to make my heart cheer (Howard Carter, whose rendition of the Jago & Litefoot series 5 theme tune is my happy place to this day). I would take a punt and listen to anything that was being conjured up by these five people but add in the fact that Catherine Tate is involved and spotlighted (Donna is still my favourite new series companion, and one of my favourite companions out of the entirety of Doctor Who) and I was foaming at the mouth to try this. The great news is that between the two tenth Doctor sets, Donna Noble Kidnapped! and the Destiny of the Doctor and Short Trips stories we have the equivalent of an entire second season with Donna and we can only be thankful to Big Finish for that. In my rare single days, I feared that speed dating would turn out to be Hammers House of Horrors, so it’s nice to have that confirmed here. I’ve seen the ‘terror in the dating columns’ before (The X-Files pretty much had it covered in 2Shy) but throwing Donna into the mix means that this is a wildly original approach, especially with her recent domestic disturbance. Adrian is an alien whose organs are failing but he has a way of extracting what he needs from humans to repair himself…he just needs to lure them in first and the speed dating scene seemed like the most efficient way of doing that. He wants Donna’s liver because it has a little extra artron fizz to it.

Musical Cues: The series four version of the theme is still the best by a country mile. It still gets my heart racing. Accept no imitations. Especially compared to some of the ghastly compositions that came after it.

Isn’t it Odd: I’m not mad on the cover that seems to have been hastily cobbled together out of publicity shots without much thought. I’d have given this one over to Tate and Wardley and taken the time to have arranged a proper shoot. This is a pretty prestige set, and so it deserves prestige packaging.

Standout Scene: There’s a wonderfully poignant moment when the sitcom banter between Sylvia and Donna transforms into powerful drama and she admits that after losing her husband, she doesn’t want to lose anyone else. Davies is too good a writer to skip over the loss of Geoffrey Noble without tapping the emotion of grief (although how he does it in The End of Time Part Two is wonderfully unexpected and uplifting) but we never got the heart to heart between Donna and her mother where they talk about their shared loss, which is rectified here. I always loved those moments when Donna and Sylvia dropped their rivalry and you can see the blinding love that they share for each other underneath.

Result: With Catherine Tate spearheading the box set, Jaqueline King on form and Niky Wardley back at Big Finish for a second (and I would say more successful) stint, Out of this World is a story with three strong female protagonists and written by the most prolific female writers. And it’s hugely enjoyable. Whilst we’re in a time where a female-centric production shouldn’t need to be celebrated, it is worth noting that this simply has not been Big Finish’s strongest point over the years and it is something that they making great strides at rectifying. Not just more women working behind the microphone, but with box sets devoted to Donna, River, Benny, Missy, Lady Christina, Leela and Romana, Lucie Miller, Jenny, UNIT, The Paternoster Gang and ATA Girl, there is a strong emphasis on levelling the gender playing field creatively too. It’s about damn time. I’ve heard some anti-Donna opinions of late but the impression I still get all these years after her single season stint on the show is that she is a much-loved companion and she made quite an impact on fandom. She certainly did on me. I thought at first this was going to be all sitcom antics and light comedy but this transpires to have some awesome development of Donna and Sylvia that genuinely enhances series four as a result. Donna leading her own investigation is exactly what we saw in Partners in Crime (and The Unicorn and the Wasp, Turn Left) and so this feels perfectly in tune with the era. She’s a surprising protagonist because she is blisteringly funny for the most part but can turn on a dime into the seriousness of the drama and that makes for unpredictable (in the best possible way) listening. The confidence of the writing and the production (Barnaby Edwards always brings a sheen and charisma to his direction of proceedings) shines through and if you’re looking for an accomplished diversion in a difficult time and happen to be a big fan of series four, this is custom made for you (and me). Touching, funny, surprising and engaging: 8/10

DS9 – Homefront

Plot – The episode opens with a clever piece of misdirection on the part of the writers with the wormhole opening and closing at random, making it look as if the Dominion are somehow sneaking cloaked ships into the Quadrant. I like a story plotted so neatly that the very first shot is the sleight of hand that the writers pull to convince you of Dominion duplicity.

A changeling terror attack on Earth opens up an insane amount of storytelling opportunities and dramatic avenues to go down. It was the bravest direction the writers could have taken because it forces humanity to look at themselves and question who they really are in moments like this. Defiant or cowardly? Hostile or understanding? Lives have been lost and there is a being that can turn itself into anyone or anything on the planet. How long will it be until the next attack? ‘We’re not looking to destroy paradise, Mr President….we’re looking to save it’ says Sisko but it is a fine line between precautions and martial law.

The demonstration that Sisko and Leyton pull off for the President by showing him how easy it would be for a changeling to infiltrate his office, kill him and replace him, is highly effective.

Character – Jadzia and Odo are a pairing that isn’t given a great deal of consideration across seven seasons. I can only think of a handful of occasions when they are paired up together and only one episode where it is the central feature (Shadowplay). She’s behaving very mischievously here, deliberately destroying his sense of order in his quarters much to his chagrin. It reveals how the changelings like a sense of order to their lives, which humanoids often lack. It goes some way to explaining why his people are attempting to impose that very sense of direction into their lives on Earth and beyond.

Sisko was promoted at the end of the last season and now he is being promoted again as acting head of Starfleet Security. It’s almost enough to go to your head. The way up from here is to ascend to Godhood, which fortunately is a development that is coming Sisko’s way. His admission to Odo that he wished he had never found his people is said in a moment of desperation but it’s his true feelings spilling out.

What a lovely way to re-introduce Nog to the series, who left for Earth in Little Green Men, and catch up with how he is getting on in the Academy. The Jake/Nog scenes have always been a likeable ingredient in this show but one strand that has been developing since Heart of Stone are the Nog/Sisko scenes, which are a highlight here. Avery Brooks has this awkward, humorous tic when Nog is trying to extract favours from him that is a joy to watch.

Performance - Watch how effortlessly the Sisko’s are moulded into a family unit in Homefront with the introduction of the glorious Brock Peters as Joseph. He’s not above telling off his son, even if he is head of Starfleet security but he clearly loves him and his grandson deeply. He’s also one of those stalwart old men who refuses to slow down in his dotage, despite his declining health and will stick up for what he believes in, especially if people are trying to push him around or make him do things against his will. Watching both Ben and Jake having to deal with charming old curmudgeon is delightful and the chemistry between Brooks, Peters and Lofton lifts from the screen. It feels like they truly are a family. You might be one of those people that say that the scenes between the Sisko’s help to pad out this episode but given the real sense of warmth between them, the character development they receive and how they use the intimacy of this group of people to show the differing reactions to the changeling threat I simply cannot join you in that opinion. I like how they try and gently bully Joseph into taking the advice of the Doctors and how he cuts through all of that by threatening to set Jake to work in the kitchen and makes a grand statement that he is only willing to say once. He is clearly the head of this household.

Production – The cliff-hanger is trying to be a super dramatic moment by showing Starfleet military officers beaming onto the streets of Earth but it feels far too low budget to really have the impact it was going for. We needed to see soldiers beaming into every corner of the world really, to sell the idea.

Best moment – ‘Then the Andorian says…that’s not my antennae…’ Quark is telling Morn obscene jokes again, but this time he doesn’t get it at all.

Bashir’s panic when Odo offers to go visit people for him whilst he is on Earth. It’s over a year until we find out about his dark history but it is being set up perfectly here.

Odo unveiling the changeling impersonating Leyton is a great moment because it proves that even though things are afoot in Starfleet, there is a genuine threat and they can infiltrate high ranking officers. All the acts of retribution that happen after this are happening for a reason, and not just because the Admiral is paranoid. The threat is there, and he is trying to make sure the response is suitable.

The best scene amongst a sea of awesome scenes featuring Joe Sisko comes towards the climax when he is adamant that he is not going to have a blood screening because that is taking away his rights as a human being. He defies security and his son’s pleas for him to capitulate. When he is arguing and preparing food at the same time he cuts his hand in a moment of fury and Ben leans in to see if it changes into changeling goo. What follows is the best ever example of seeing fear in the face of the changeling threat. Joe is horrified that his son would for one second think he was an infiltrator and bares his teeth when he accuses him of having a mind twisted by paranoia and suspicion. It’s loaded with drama and you can see both points of view easily and that makes the conflict far more complex because there isn’t an easy side to fall on. Which then makes both of their reactions authentic. Joe’s anger expresses that of the whole of humanity, the ones who refuse to give in to fear.

Worst moment – They needed to show a President who would be excellent during peacetime but falls apart during the threat of war, which they do convincingly in the script. I’m not sure that Herschel Sparber is up to the task of bringing the complexities of this man back to life. Either that or the director (the usually excellent David Livingston) asked him to play it far, far too quietly.

A reason to watch this episode again – A society losing its identity in paranoia and suspicion following a terror attack? Does any of this ring true right now? Taking place precisely in the midway point of DS9, this is a good chance to assess where the series was right at its heart, what lessons it had learnt and where it was going. This is a fine episode, one that presents the ultimate shock impression of Earth under the thrall of a changeling attack. Does the home planet continue to allow civil liberties in the wake of a terror attack or does it impose martial law in order to protect everybody? The Gene Roddenberry approach is to have a feeling of moral superiority and behave like nobody can touch them. The Ira Steven Behr approach is to face your demons an prepare for the worst. Homefront is the happy medium between those opposing points and both arguments are made. It’s intelligently written, sensitively acted and tightly directed. Homefront has a terrifying premise and takes it to an extreme but always tells its story through the characters we know and love so it is entirely relatable. Halfway through its run and DS9 is knocking them out of the park.

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

Clue for tomorrow's review:

VOY – Barge of the Dead

Plot – Season six of Voyager is the point where this was the only Trek show delivering content. If there was ever a moment to shine, this was it because there was nothing to compete against. It’s the oddest season of Trek in that it has what I feel is a complete 50/50 split in terms of quality and it lurches dramatically between very good episodes and really terrible ones. Instalments such as Survival Instinct, Tinker Tenor Doctor Spy, Pathfinder, Memorial and Muse rub shoulders with Alice, Riddles, Virtuoso, Spirit Folk and Fury. The good stuff is very good, perhaps the best Voyager ever delivered. The bad stuff is about as bad as Trek can sink. I don’t think there has ever been another season quite like it.

Character – Janeway calling Torres ‘Lanna’ is a watershed moment between them. There’s a maternal relationship that has been fascinating to follow from the start of the series, but was kind of put on hold for a few seasons once Seven of Nine was introduced. A shame because it is as interesting a relationship as far as I am concerned and given Torres’ tricky relationship with her mum it produces fireworks from time to time that are glorious to watch. This episode explicitly makes that Captain/Engineer relationship Mother/Daughter, which I appreciated very much.

Torres thinks she inherited the forehead and the bad attitude but that is as far she goes as a Klingon. How penetrating to not go down the obvious route of Torres complaining about her Klingon half but to have to accept that her mother might be punished and sent to hell because she rejected everything that it is to be a Klingon. They strike me as just prideful and obsessed with their own self image to do that to somebody after they have died. She has to look at herself and try and understand why she hates that part of herself so much and try to come to terms with it to rescue her mother. On every level this is satisfying; as an examination of Torres and her established racism, as an examination of her relationship with her mother and as a chance for Torres to finally come to terms with the part of herself that she always tries to hide. This is where Kira was in season one DS9 when she faces the death of an honourable, dead Cardassian and claims that his hating him for the race he comes from isn’t enough. The fact that Voyager got there in season six (and still had time for some further scrutiny in season seven) is a shame but I still applaud the effort to let Torres come to terms with these things.

Whilst Neelix’s intentions are always pure, I don’t know why somebody doesn’t just sit him down and explain that they don’t need him to spend his time creating events that ram the cultures of the crew down their throats. He’s trying to do a nice thing here but celebrating Kilngon culture is the last thing that Torres would ever want to indulge in. And if he spent as much time with her as he thinks he does he would understand that. She hasn’t exactly been quiet about it. Just say ‘many thanks for thinking of me Neelix, but why not worry about your own empty existence for a while and stop trying to busy yourself with the personal affairs of other people.’ She even specifically asks him not to do this. Clearly wasting five barrels of blood wine is more important than protecting the feelings of a member of the crew to this morale officer. Later he presents food and tells people to eat it or he will force it down the gullet of their corpse. To be fair he’s been doing that since season one. Perhaps I should cut him some slack, he’s only an illusion after all.

The Paris/Torres relationship is a tricky one for me because in the hands of the shows better writers it is an authentic, loving relationship between two people from different cultures who are very drawn to each other. In the hands of the lesser writers (and when it comes to character I would certain put Braga in that category) they come across as dozy sitcom lovers who can’t keep their hands off each other or fly into a jealous rage for no good reason. The relationship swings alarmingly between the two with an unfortunate emphasis on the latter. Torres suggesting she wants to simulate a near death experience in order to contact and save her mother in the afterlife provokes an emotional reaction from Tom. He loves B’lanna and doesn’t want her to die and yet he is uniquely qualified to understand how she feels about her people, and her mother. How he steps back respectfully whilst still making it clear he wishes she wouldn’t proceed is the perfect handling of this relationship.

Performance – A wonderfully written, sweet, believable scene between Torres and Chakotay. God how I missed those in the later seasons. They were the bread and butter of the early ones. Beltran responds really well to the opportunity.

Production – In an episode where the execution is impressive throughout, the opening shots of the Delta Flyer coming into to land on Voyager from the point of view of the pilot are really impressively done.

The Barge itself is an impressive piece of design, wonderfully gothic and travelling on a sea of blood through wind and lightning towards the most ominous set of doors imagine. It’s some of the more commanding imagery that Voyager indulged in. It feels like one of the planets that they conjured up on Farscape, heavy with atmospherics. Watch as the Klingon falls into the sea of blood and is immediately set upon by hungry creatures.

Best moment – I love the scene between B’lanna and Tuvok that swings from meditation to combat. I was rolling my eyes at yet another session of candle watching with our resident Vulcan when things took a disturbing turn and he started taunting her and questioning her authenticity as a Klingon. As far as a Klingon is concerned this is real therapy, not getting in touch with your feelings but grabbing a weapon and fighting your personality. I wish the real Tuvok performed therapy in this fashion, the Voyager crew could do with the wake up call.

Watching the Voyager crew get cut down in slow motion by a bunch of blood hungry Klingons might be in my top ten favourite scenes on this show. I don’t hate all the characters but watching the ones I don’t get along with get stabbed in the stomach fills me with glee. If anybody questions that Mike Vejar was one of the most technically impressive of directors in the Trek franchise then they only need to watch this sequence. The lighting, the camerawork, the performances, it all comes together to create an atmosphere of horror and suspense.

The climax is a labyrinth of scenes packed with vivid imagery but are always rooted in character. Torres wakes up in hell and it is depicted as Voyager. Does that mean that her life there hiding away from her Klingon heritage is what she considers to be hell? All her friends chip in to tell her what a stubborn, dishonourable, unsociable woman she is. It’s the voices in her head. What is she supposed to be? A good Starfleet officer? Maquis? Lover? Klingon? This is all very healthy characterisation.

I wish they hadn’t done that – At this point I have come to accept that Voyager still wants to play about with the Alpha Quadrant races and will go to any lengths to include them. The creators know what makes Star Trek that the fans want to watch. Ferengi. Klingons. Borg. Cardassians. It should annoy because it is more pandering to where this show wants to be rather than exploring where it is but this is season six and it is past time to complain about such things. In the twilight of a series nothing is going to change and so as long as it is doing something worth watching with established continuity, that’s fine by me.

A reason to watch this episode again – Klingon episodes are not my thing (something to do with the macho posturing and the emphasis on ritual and fighting, I’m sure) and so it is no small thing for me to say that this is one of my favourite episodes of Voyager. In the long term it has no real impact but it takes hold of a character that I happen to really like, and one that has been ignored for some years now in favour of new arrivals, and takes the time to examine her in some depth and give Roxan Dawson a chance to prove what an incredible actress she can be. It has a powerful visual style and proves to be a genuinely creepy experience at times. More importantly it has a character thread that I can fully comprehend – always having difficulties getting on with your mother and having to deal with that after she has died – which is handled deftly and comes to some definitive conclusion about. Barge of the Dead is a diversion from the usual bland Delta Quadrant nonsense and nose dive into dark psychology and it has Ronald D. Moore’s fingers all over it. It’s such a shame that he ducked out of Voyager so quickly because the four episodes that surround his involvement were all very good. I can only guess what he would have gone on to do with the final two seasons.

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

Clue for tomorrow's episode: 

TNG – Time’s Arrow

Plot – It’s one of those stories that starts at the end – the discovery of Data’s head – and then goes to great lengths to show us how it got there.

Character – Because all of his friends have developed feelings for Data it is hard for them to understand how he can so dispassionately examine his own corpse (or part of it) to find the method of his demise. They have literally forgotten that he is an android that does experience fear of mortality but a machine that works with pure facts. How everybody walks around him on eggshells and looks at him longingly because of their feelings for Data is understandable but also kind of amusing. It would be like me discovering that my Alexa would be discovered far in the past one day, battered and charred, and sitting down to breakfast each day and asking her for the news of the day and bursting into tears. It was perhaps cruel of Dr Soong to create a machine in the shape of a man, not only because of Data’s desire to become human but because those around him can so easily perceive him to be human and transmit their own values and feelings onto it. The best scene that springs from Data’s discovery of his death is his reveal that he is happy to know that like all other humanoids he will now live a finite life. I am mortal, he states touchingly.

Back in the 1900s you have a number of reasonably colourful characters for Data to interact with. Jack London is a sweetheart and actually displays more charm than many of the regular TNG crowd. I also enjoy the grisly old 49er and his words of wisdom to Data for fleecing people of money in exchange for feeling good about themselves. It’s nice to see Marc Alaimo out of make up but I’m used to seeing him play a much more nuanced character than this. Jerry Hardin throws himself into the role of Samuel Clements with some gusto and I could imagine this character turning up on stage at some point. This is pure theatre; he’s practically winking out at the audience. The scenes between him and Guinan are basically the writers jettisoning the series as we recognise it and going all out for a historical movie featuring Whoopi Goldberg. It’s watchable stuff, but it doesn’t carry any weight whatsoever.

Performance – This is a lovely ensemble piece and the best moments come from the well-oiled cast all acting their socks off together as they come terms with the idea of Data’s death. A scene in the turbolift between Riker, Data and Troi sees the personal relationships between the cast spilling onto the screen for all to see.

Production – Another innovation of the Paramount backlot. It’s not the most imaginative use of the facility and despite some nice historical trappings it does feel exactly what it is, a modern day set dressed up to look like the past.

Best moment – The most impressive moment comes in the pre-titles sequence when Data’s head is revealed at the excavation site of the 19th century mine. It opens a huge can of worms about what he was doing there, his method of death (which can be ascertained now) and his participation in historical events.

Whoopi Goldberg is always good value and her scene with Picard is vague, mysterious and very well written and played.

Worst moment – The 49er is killed by the blandest set of aliens in the blandest way imaginable. It’s as if the director knew this and decided to shoot it in the mildest possible method. It hardly gets the anticipation going like the re-introduction of the Borg at the end of season three.

The cliff-hanger is even more disappointing because it features plenty of weird stuff going on as the crew are surrounded by spirits in an electric blue continuum and they find themselves drawn into a light that invades the scene. Yeah, that’s it. There’s no danger, no real understanding of what is going on, no tension and no suspense. It’s essentially our heroes stepping through (a particularly dramatic) door. Big wows. Even the aliens sit around looking a bit bored after they have gone and the credits roll.

I wish they hadn’t done that – It might have been tastier had the pre-titles sequence occurred at the beginning of the season and the reason for them finding it took place at the end. That would create some sense of mystique and suspense around the idea that Data is going to die. To have the mystery brought up, have it stated that at some point in the future he will be transported back in time, only for that moment to come literally hours later is an incredible co-incidence.

A reason to watch this episode again – Time’s Arrow strikes me as typical season five TNG; serviceable, well-acted, well intentioned and slightly bland. It has all the hallmarks of a mid-season filler episode, which is unfortunate because it is the season finale and coming on the heels of The Best of Both Worlds and Redemption. From the mighty Borg two parter the finales get consecutively weaker and this has none of the drama and drive of Redemption but it certainly isn’t as camp or meek as Descent. There is a sense of mystery but a complete lack of momentum to the episode so it feels like it has stalled in its opening stages. The aliens that are responsible for all of this are nondescript, the scenes in the past are cute but nowhere near as atmospheric as other examples of this kind of thing and the cliff-hanger lacks any punch. You shouldn’t end a season shrugging your shoulders and asking yourself if you want to keep going. It’s very nicely acted and some character scenes hit home but you would expect that of any episode of TNG at this point, and not to be the highlights of the season finale. In context this is the same point in DS9 and VOY’s run as Call to Arms and Equinox. Enough said. City on the Edge of Forever this aint.

*** out of *****

ENT - Stigma

Plot – Star Trek has a desire to provoke a reaction in people with its compulsion to push an analogy to contemporary social issues in a science fiction setting. Drugs? Check out the ‘just say no speech’ in Symbiosis. Racism? Far Beyond the Stars attacks that with fervour. Homelessness? Past Tense is all over that shit. Rape? Violations explores the horror of that and then some. Homosexuality? Rejoined has a thinly veiled metaphor in place. I have to applaud Enterprise for daring to tackle the thorny subject of HIV/AIDS in such a bold and obvious way and to make its analogy so in your face.

A sub culture whose behaviour is neither tolerated or sanctioned – that is how the minority group is described here and it could very be a description of homosexuality from the 1980s. ‘Since Panar Syndrome is transmitted by these people a cure is not a priority’ is very much a 1980s way of thinking about gay men and HIV. Was the purpose of this episode to expose how the establishment used to feel about homosexuality and AIDS? What possible relevance would that have when this episode aired? It’s obvious and unsubtle and far too bureaucratic an approach to be anywhere near provocative. ‘There’s more intolerance today than there was a thousand years ago’ says one of the Vulcan Doctors, and that is very true of our society too. Certainly, during the Roman Empire homosexuality was considered a free and unrestricted practice. I’m not sufficiently au fait with history to understand what happened to change all that but I can imagine the bible and religion had its influences.

Character – It does strike me in fiction if characters were just a little more honest with one another then things could be resolved a lot more easily. Had Trip just said ‘I don’t want to insult you but you’re really not my type and I am finding your come-ons really awkward’ then this entire subplot could have been dealt with in five seconds flat.

Archer is such a canon ball of anger and his ‘prejudice is bad!’ approach left me with my head in my hands. Just about any other Captain (maybe not Sisko, he would punch their lights out) would make a more reasonable, less emotional case. A more nuanced one.

The irony of the only black character on this show talking about monkey in the middle was clearly lost on the writers.

Performance – Jolene Balock doesn’t deserve material as weak as this, and for her character to be on the periphery of something potentially ground-breaking but ultimately vanilla. Frankly it would have been far more interesting for her as an actress if it was revealed that T’Pol was engaging in illegal mental acts instead of a victim of circumstance. That’s the angle they go with in season three with her drug addiction and it provides Balock with material far more substantial and gutsier to get to grips with. Making T’Pol a victim of mind rape rather than somebody that perpetuates mind meld pushes her far too easily into the role of a victim and takes any substance out of her involvement in this episode. It’s a double injustice, both the way she is treated and how it happened in the first place whereas a more balanced, complex approach would have had her complicit and facing the consequences.

Production – I’m at a loss with the CGI on Enterprise. Sometimes it blows my mind with some stunning vistas of alien worlds and sophisticated action sequences. However, at times it leans far too heavily on CGI to establish places and stretches the limits of the technology to breaking point and things wind up looking cartoonish. There’s a wonderful sweep over the medical facility that should have been about five seconds long but it goes on and on and gets into the detail of showing people walking about in some detail. Or not as the case is here…the people literally look like little cartoons that move with all the realism of CGI creations rather than actors. I felt the CGI on DS9 and Voyager worked much better because they started from a point of ‘can we achieve this?’ and then poured money into it if they thought they could. Enterprise is far more ambitious but falls on its face far more because of it. I actually burst out laughing at the innocence of the effects here and I’m sure that wasn’t the reaction they were going for. The old matte shots of Bajor, Cardassia and the like might have been simple but they were artful and striking in comparison.

Best moment – How delightful to meet one of Phlox’s three wives and it is even more delightful that instead of falling into each other’s arms and kissing as a human couple might, they end up sniffing each other and getting off on their pheromones. Phlox remains the most fun character on this show by some margin across the entire four seasons. It’s the least alien-centric crew and so the pay off is that the few alien characters characteristics are accentuated. Yeah, try saying that three times fast. The Denobulans seem to have invented the key to a successful marriage. One where you can spend up to four years apart at a time. The best scene comes when Phlox says ‘your loss’ with a smile when Trip says he refuses to play about with another mans wife.

Worst moment – The antiseptic nature of the episode guts it of its power. If this is supposed to be a reminder of how bad things could be if you contracted HIV in the 80s as a gay man then the episode should have pushed so much further. Ostracised T’Pol socially and professionally, and face serious pressure to step from the shadows and publicly shame herself. What people went through was diabolical and insulting. They weren’t lepers and they weren’t victims. Society handled the situation without subtlety, grace or humanity. By taking an administrative angle to this episode rather than an emotional one, it feels as though the worst T’Pol suffers is a little cultural embarrassment. We should be seeing the results of these mind melds, with no medical aid, as blatant undignified suffering, just like developing countries suffering with AIDS. It wouldn’t be entirely tasteful but to shove the horror of what is happening under people’s noses would make people sit up and pay attention. Instead the most I could get from this was ‘wow, having AIDS must be a minor inconvenience.’ Past Tense might not have been subtle but it took the rawness of living on the streets; dirty, smelly, poverty-stricken, mentally sick and it smeared it all over the audience. I left that two parter determined to do something about homelessness in my area, which I still do to this day.

The climax, which sees the Vulcan Doctor that performs ‘abhorrent acts’ standing up and saying that he is a normal person who shouldn’t be condemned for how he explores his feelings made me want to hurl something at the TV. If Rick Berman and Brannon Braga think this is tackling a subject, they need to seriously think about running a TV show. It reduces the themes addressed here to their simplest possible formula.

I wish they hadn’t done that – My partner has HIV. Anybody with a grain of intelligence can seek out information that proves that, with the correct medication, sleeping with somebody with HIV is potentially the safest sex you can possibly have because their viral count is under control and they are living and dealing with the knowledge of the infection. Undetectable is untransmittable, as the literature goes. What’s sad is that this was released at a time when there was far more stigma and far less treatment, which means the analogy tells only half of the story. Had this come out now there could be a real lesson to be learnt about just how safe a relationship and sexual exploration is with somebody with HIV who is doing all the right things. Instead Stigma pushes the drama, and makes a monster of the ‘disease’ and the unfortunate result is to perhaps buy into people’s fears. And that’s a shame because this is an example of television that could educate and do some real good.

A reason to watch this episode again – This episode had to be prompted, which shows how committed the writers were to exploring the issues in question. Mind, you only have to watch the episode to see how committed they were to exploring the oppression of sexual minorities and sexually transmitted diseases. About the only truly inflammatory thing about Stigma is that it exists. It is the least risky issue-based show I can remember seeing in Trek and an issue show that refuses to tread dangerous ground is the most sterilised piece of television I can imagine. It portrays the Vulcan medical practioners as prejudicial and backwards thinking and does further damage to a species that this series has gone to some lengths to demonise. The sub plot reveals a cute polygamous side to Denobulan culture, which is played for laughs, but Trip’s reaction to the share and share alike nature of their relationships made me uneasy. You would have thought human beings of the future would have been more enlightened. We’re halfway there already. Kudos for tackling two thorny subjects so openly, but a massive slap around the face for the cack-handed and spineless exploration of both. It is insultingly gutless. It never even attempts to get under the skin of the prejudice, which is baffling.

*1/2 out of *****

Clue for tomorrow's episode: 

VOY – State of Flux

Plot – The left Seska’s identity just long enough to establish her amongst the crew as a loyal but outspoken ex-Maquis, a good friend of Torres and someone who is a little too close with Chakotay. I was perfectly convinced at this point that she was going to be the Kira of this show, the early character that spoke her mind and that it would get her in trouble more often than not. I certainly never imagined they would have taken such a brilliant risk with an established character, revealing her to be a Russian doll of surprises. Both Kazon sympathiser and Cardassian in nature, State of Flux takes its time to dish out these twists and to deal with the emotional ramifications of these shocks. This episode has Michael Piller’s fingertips all over it, the way he commanded character suspense was second to none. What’s terrific about the writing is that the story could have gone either way, that’s how uncertain I was of Seska’s intentions. Perhaps she was as innocent as she claims and the crew’s paranoia is driving me to think otherwise. That’s plausible. And perhaps she is a traitor and a sell out and she has some nefarious motive for doing so. That’s plausible too. Not many episodes can claim to have two potential outcomes that would make perfect sense, especially when they are diametrically opposed.

Torres says that a food replicator isn’t worth dying for but in an area of space where such technology isn’t viable it would be the ultimate provider. They have already established the lack of water in this region (although oddly that is something that is quickly dropped) and so this technology would be like the holy grail. It could alter the balance of power and then some.

Character – Neelix is written in a very enjoyable way here, showing his expertise of this part of the Quadrant and revealing sources of food on worlds that will sustain them. His proclamation that humans aren’t used to roughing it is valid and Chakotay’s reaction to turning away a valuable food source (when they need to conserve their power away from the replicators) just goes to show the level of luxury that Starfleet (or even Maquis) are used to.

Scenes of Seska bringing food to Chakotay’s quarters and having a romantic dinner with him are not too dissimilar to scenes we would get later in the shows run between Paris and Torres, and shows how this relationship might have progressed had Seska not been chosen to front the villains on this series. Watching her reveal her thieving activities and then flirt her way out of trouble with Chakotay reveals just how expertly she is manipulating him. She’s got him on a short string.

It’s interesting that Chakotay is happy to hear that Seska has been winding Neelix up (he’s not above a laugh at the morale officers’ expense) but immediately grows cold when he learns that she took food out of the mouths of the crew (he has a strong moral core). It’s exactly that dichotomy that this episode explores, his love for Seska is real and perfectly natural but his reservations about her behaviour and that she might potentially be the person that is selling them out to the Kazon causes him to doubt her every move. Chakotay sounds like a right mug in the last ten minutes, as though he is buying Seska’s every lie. It pleases me that this was all an act to expose her. I wish he had been written with that incisiveness more often.

Performance – Listen to Kate Mulgrew go all GI Jane when she demands Cullah ‘get off this ship!’ I did stifle a giggle. ‘I’m really easy to get along with most of the time. But I don’t like bullies. And I don’t like threats. And I don’t like you Cullah.’ And thus begins their bitter rivalry over the next two seasons.

Hackett is wonderful; kittenish early on, then the picture of innocence as the questions about her identity start stacking up and finally plunges into pure villainy as her true motives and feelings spill out. Seska’s condemnation of Janeway is so vicious it is like a slap in the face for the Captain. How glorious that this show was fronted by a female Captain and a female lead villain during its first two seasons. What a shame Mulgrew and Hackett didn’t get many opportunities to lock horns because their scenes together here sizzle. ‘You are a fool, Captain. And you’re a fool to follow her.’ Ouch. When Seska started ripping into the Federation, I practically wanted to applaud. Sometimes I worry about my anti-Federation agenda because the two characters that truly tear into the hypocrisy of the operation (Seska and Eddington) and I find myself nodding my head in agreement.

Production – Beautiful location work, realistic looking caves (dripping with water) and smart effects (the Kazon mangled into rock thanks to Starfleet technology is unforgettable); Voyager commanded an expensive look right from the off.

Best moment – This is an incredibly sharp script. Even small moments like Torres telling Janeway that when she says that she can do a job by tomorrow, she means tomorrow are right on the money. I also loved Seska taking the piss out of Chakotay’s Indian mysticism, which it turns out was a load of kablooey made up by an ‘expert’ in the field.

Seska planting evidence that she did it to point the finger at Carey is genius. What a mind.

Worst moment – Carey and Hogan. Whatever happened to them? Well one was eaten by a giant worm in the great Jeri Taylor cull of season three and the other…goodness knows. Doesn’t he show up again in season seven? Voyager was trying to pull together a distinctive secondary cast in the first two seasons, it’s a shame that that stopped.

I wish they hadn’t done that – The Kazon. Is there anybody, from their creators to the audience at large, that thinks that these Klingon wannabes were a good idea in retrospect? They get more of an opportunity to establish themselves than most Star Trek villains, spreading across three seasons with countless appearances. We do get a chance to explore their culture in some depth across a spread of episodes from their rituals, their young, their clans to their easy manipulation, power hungry leaders and in fighting and politics. I could count the effective number of appearances that they make on one hand and ultimately there is little to distinguish them from Klingons aside from their crazy hair and red faces and even then the make up job feels familiar and slighter than their counterparts. It is a shame that Voyager’s first attempt to build a race up fails so spectacularly. It means that they fall back on Trek staples like the Borg more often than not rather than populating this area of space with any races that are truly inspired. Even the Hirogen and Species 8472 fail to impress me and the less said about those Slimer wannanbes from Equinox, the better. The only race to truly fire my imagination are the Vidiians but we push out of their space in season three so that leaves five season without a solid bad guy.

I think that Jeri Taylor and I simply have a different idea of what makes good Star Trek. She was only mildly happy with this episode whereas I think it is easily a top 20 Voyager. When it comes to her opinion of individual episodes we usually diverge completely and I rate her own episodes (TNG and Voyager) as some of the poorest and the point where she had the most creative control of the series (season three) and possibly the weakest season of Trek overall, bar a few examples (TNG 1 and 7, TOS 3).

I’m baffled as to how Chakotay has grey hair in the first season and it gets considerably darker as each season progresses. I see Starfleet has its own brand of Just for Men. To be honest he looks so much more distinguished with a hint of grey.

A reason to watch this episode again – It’s worth stating this again because I often damn Voyager with faint praise (if anything I am coming to realise that despite my reservations about the show, which I still cling on to, I am enjoying it far more on a rewatch, especially as I am including TOS and Enterprise in my viewing experience) that at this point in the shows run it is a superior show to TNG, DS9 and ENT. With Caretaker, Phage, Eye of the Needle, Prime Factors, State of Flux, Faces and Jetrel, the first 15 episodes of Voyager show a great deal of promise. This might be the best of that bunch, an episode that delivers a gut punch to the Voyager crew by revealing a snake amongst the crew and revealing a venomous opinion of Janeway and her softly softly approach to getting home. It’s an episode that grows organically out of the shows central premise, sets up fascinating consequences for the future and forces a character we know and love to face betrayal, humiliation and downfall. It has a riveting plot, powerhouse character work and scorching dialogue. I cannot wax lyrical enough. A poke in the eye to anyone who might suggest that all early Voyager is bad Voyager, State of Flux just gets better with re-viewings when you know what comes later.

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

Clue for tomorrow's episode: