Voyager Limps into Its Seventh and Final Season
By
Kristin Battestella
After
all its ups and downs, cast changes, and 75,000 light years from earth trials
and tribulations, Star Trek: Voyager somehow
goes even further off the deep end and apathetically rushes thru its seventh
and final year.
Captain
Katherine Janeway (Kate Mulgrew) and the lost in the Delta Quadrant starship
Voyager are close enough to home to signal Starfleet, and the crew anticipates
returning to earth with both excitement and uncertainty. The holographic Doctor
(Robert Picardo) must fight for photonic rights while ex-Borg drone Seven of
Nine (Jeri Ryan) struggles with attachments to her Borg past. Pilot Tom Paris (Robert Duncan McNeill) and Chief
Engineer B’Elanna Torres (Roxann Dawson) face difficulties with their Human and
Klingon courtship while alien friends and foes old and new disturb Voyager’s final
approach towards home.
With
all its action, Borg, and multiple places both real and virtual, “Unimatrix
Zero Part II” opens the season with a confusing, all over the place, and far-fetched
load of iffy. Folks are able to be assimilated and completely restored problem
free and with no after effects yet “Imperfection” adds more Borg happenings and
it is all so inconsistent. The Borg kid storylines are fortunately resolved,
and Manu Intiraymi as Icheb creates a nice family dynamic for Seven. I’d like
to think he’s Wesley Crusher as he should have been, but it’s too late in the
series to waste yet another character like this. Dwight Schultz as Barclay and
Marina Sirtis as Deanna Troi also return for the uneven “Inside Man.” The
novelty of old friends and Ferengi hijinks wears off quickly, and it’s weird
that after all this time, Voyager is
still reaching for Alpha Quadrant clichés. I still think an unknown character should
have been used for the ‘phone home’ Pathfinder connection, otherwise these Next Generation names takeover and
ultimately don’t help Voyager. Likewise,
the big “Endgame” double episode series finale is a letdown. Unlike The Original Series’ cut short five year
mission, here we have an obvious conclusion for a series ending – the only
worthwhile reason to see Voyager now
is to see Voyager get home. Unfortunately, too much time is wasted on cliché
dialogue and time travel. Instead of delivering on all of Voyager’s potential, the finale feels like an afterthought with no
homecoming pay off whatsoever. Longtime fans may very well be angry at this
unfulfilling, “That’s it?” conclusion.
Kate
Mulgrew does fine work in Janeway’s efforts to stick to her Federation morals
in “The Void,” but the interesting alien prospects and opportunity for Voyager
to get some real damage so close to home is gone easy peesy by the next
episode. Though fine photography and dark filming add some seriousness, Voyager repeatedly uses this trapped in
a dark anomaly thing way too many times. Thankfully, the “Workforce” two-parter
gives everyone his or her moment. Time is taken to get the whole ensemble
involved – rather than leaving the flawed characters along the wayside – and
this is how the show ought to have been all along. It’s a big arc that’s not Borg
related! Yes, the subject matter becomes
dry – this is an idea stretched too long and not well thought out in the
end. Once again, all of Voyager’s
problems are resolved with a handshake and no consequences. Pity. “Q2” also has
some fun thanks to the cast, but surprise, surprise we’ve seen the unruly kid Q
treatment before. I take this episode as definitive proof that the production
team is merely going thru the motions, filling an episode order, and tossing
anything at viewers ahead of the finale.
Q gives Janeway specifications to shorten Voyager’s journey but refuses
to take them all the way – and we never get an exact count of how many years
his information takes off the trip. Once a long time ago, this light year clock
was so important to Voyager’s identity
and its Starfleet ship lost in space premise. Now, however, they don’t care,
and by default, neither does any remaining audience. Way to drop the ball on
the one yard line! “Friendship One” almost redeems Voyager with its mission from Starfleet to find a lost probe, but
the pre-prime directive consequences and aftermath are dropped completely –
after all, the show would be over in five more episodes, no time to do anything
significant, oh no.
Once
again, Robert Picardo stands out in the lovely “Critical Care.” There’s Trek
dilemma and some commentary on today and “Flesh and Blood” is a supersized hologram
escapade, too. The evil holograms and stereotypes on the photonic versus
organic parallels may be typical, but the Doctor is always good fun. “Body and
Soul” has nice moments between the Doctor and Jeri Ryan’s Seven as the Doctor,
but most of the episode is just too awkward. Seven’s appearances have become
increasingly gimmicky by this point. The girl stands out in a crowd and viewers
notice when she is standing on the bridge just for the sake of being there. Her
tossed in one or two lines techno babble appearances often have nothing to do with
plot, and you noticed the absence of more qualified players at her forced in presence.
Where other regulars hardly appear, Seven never misses an episode. “Human Error”
is so wrong in so many ways. Not only do we see yet more familiar TNG concepts like holographic addiction
and rights of the crew, but Seven is getting it on with a holographic Chakotay? Oiy. “Author Author,” by contrast, does a
fine job of hinting at the reception the Doctor will receive at home, and his
slightly off holonovel is a fun mirror way to depict Voyager. We have seen these
kinds of character on trial shows and alternative simulations before, oh yes
indeed, and fine player performances are hampered by Voyager’s now overly convenient
contact with Starfleet. Again, wasn’t the point of the show supposed to be that
an Admiral or a JAG weren’t handy? Ethan
Phillips’ exit as Neelix in “Homestead”
and the Doctor’s dénouement in “Renaissance Man” are charming little shows,
finally. Sadly, they come too late for Voyager.
“Shattered”
is also a weird time travel attempt revisiting scenes from the series’ past
thanks to Voyager’s barely there
First Officer. Robert Beltran’s Chakotay has been the wooden bane of this
series, we know. Why do they go there? The wool is pulled over him yet again,
and this repeating, one trick Maqui stuff is beyond old. Unfortunately,
“Repression” erroneously reduces Tim Russ’ Tuvok to Vulcan misuses and excuses.
So much more could have been done with Tuvok, indeed. His pon farr –the Vulcan of Vulcan issue
we’ve been waiting for- is relegated to a blink and you miss it B storyline in
“Body and Soul.” Ironically, “Nightingale”
tries to strengthen Garrett Wang’s Harry Kim by making an onscreen
acknowledgement of how he’s been screwed for the past seven years – and then
screws him again. Robert Duncan McNeill and Roxann Dawson as Tom Paris and
B’Elanna Torres also internally diss Harry Kim in “Drive,” but it is nice to
see the couple have their moments in “Lineage” and “Repentance,” too. These
sci-fi death penalty dilemmas and the Klingon pregnancy woes in “Prophecy” get
unfortunately lost in the shuffle of Voyager’s
too little too late.
I
feel like I’ve been overly critical of Voyager’s
run, but there was a lot to criticize. The consistency and quality problems
of Deep Space Nine ballooned into
glaring flaws in this subsequent spin off.
Star Trek got worse thanks to Voyager, not better as a new series
should do for its franchise. Viewers and
fans can’t even ignore this installment because it is the one that drove the
franchise into the ground thanks to it’s under developed characters, overuses
of aliens and science fiction standards, and overall short sightedness. Though tolerable thanks to a few shining
players and episodes, I’ve long been ready for Voyager to end. Despite it’s rehashing of common 24th
century pieces and plots, the merely basic SF at best here often doesn’t even
resemble what one expects from Star Trek.
Where there was once such promise, Voyager
ends with no backbone, and that’s a damn shame. Casual audiences looking
for a touch of non committal Trek, science
fiction background noise, or a few hours in which you don’t really have to pay
attention too much can take Voyager’s final
season for what it is, meh.
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