Star Trek: VOY: The [In]Complete TV Movies
Dirs. Various / 12 feature-length TV Movies / 1008 mins (approx total)
I've no plans to cover the individual seasons of Voyager on The 7th and Last blog, but because I did the TV 'Movies' for both The Next Generation and Deep Space Nine, I wanted to finish that timeline. There are twelve VOY two-parters in all and once again this post will be longer than the usual length. For the record, I won't ever be doing the same for Enterprise or Discovery.
Dir. Winrich Kolbe / S1 Pilot (Eps 01 + 02)
★ Stardate: 48315.6 ★
Objectively speaking, as Pilot episodes go Caretaker gets a lot of things right. The scrolling text introduction that opens proceedings gives much-needed information about the political situation along the Cardassian border without feeling like an info-dump. Thereafter it introduces its cast in situations that are themselves valid attempts at characterisation. It even manages to include a fan-pleasing crossover event aboard Deep Space Nine (whose own Pilot had one with TNG).
The basic set-up has the Intrepid-class USS Voyager (NCC-74656) hit by a technobabble wave and hurled deep into the Delta Quadrant, more than 70,000 light-years away. Their primary goal is to get home, while adhering (mostly) to Starfleet rules and ethics. It's a solid idea that allows for an unlimited number of new races in a rarely seen part of galaxy that's previously uncharted.
Unfortunately, that's where the praise ends - and to a large degree the objectivity. While the characters are a varied bunch, the majority of them are badly cast, pathetic in actuality, and spend the entire time tipping the scales toward either mediocrity or outright annoyance.
Kathryn Janeway is respected for being the first major female captain in a Star Trek show. New perspectives are always welcome, but I don't feel that Kate Mulgrew was the best choice to bring her to life. I'm glad we didn't get another overbearing Major Kira-esque personality, but the attempted balance between non-gender influenced leader whilst in public and behind closed ready room doors bleeding-heart is woeful, and on a personal level I find Mulgrew's voice to be uncomfortable listening. That's not intended as any kind of attack on the actress herself; it's simply a response to stimuli put into words. I'm sure many people find her voice heavenly.
- Captain Janeway overflowing with enthusiasm for the finished product. -
And Janeway isn't even the worst casting decision! That shit-crown goes to Chuckles (Robert Beltran), who's blisteringly boring and supremely unconvincing in every facet of human behaviour besides indifference. Even with a facial tattoo, in a crowd of wooden spoons he'd blend in.
Helm-boy Tom Paris (Robert Duncan McNeill), initially presented as a bad-ass, an individual opposed to stifling Starfleet regulations, is more of a family-friendly soap opera rogue, a 24th century Pinocchio who hopes one day to develop a real personality.
Ensign Harry Kim (Garrett Wang) was surely someone's lapdog in a former life, or a timid child's cotton safety blanket. Defined often by his friendship with Paris more than anything else, it's as if he was doomed to be blank from the beginning. He somehow managed to avoid being axed during Season 03. Rumours of a planned cardboard cut-out replacement are unfounded.
Lieutenant B'Elanna Torres (Roxann Dawson) is a half-human half-Klingon engineer with a fiery temper. Oh, look, we didn't escape the Major Kira model after all. What a joy.
The ship's Vulcan, Tuvok (Tim Russ) is a typical Vulcan, like a Haynes Manual that talks.
I won't mention the others until later because their inclusion is a part of the plot. One of them is my personal favourite character, and the other is as welcome as a dirty dishrag in the face.
- Tweedle-Tom and Tweedle-Kim; two halves of a smacked arse. -
The episode ends with some new friends, a new enemy, and a mission statement speech that sets a tone for future adventures. Ultimately, it's a decent pilot that's ruined by shit casting.
NOTE: if you're interested, the episode Cold Fire (S 02: Ep 10) is a direct sequel to Caretaker. Set ten months later, it picks up a thread that the Pilot purposefully left unfinished.
Dir. Winrich Kolbe / S2: Ep 26 + S3: Ep 01
★ Stardate: Unknown ★
Ensign Lon Suder (Brad Dourif) plays a pivotal role in Basics. For back-story on the sociopathic betazoid you'll need to have seen the episode Meld (S2: Ep 16). I’ll avoid further commentary on his actions there because it would be spoiler for anyone wishing to see it, but I will say that Dourif's honed persona brings a dangerous edge to the show that it usually lacks. Previously, his influence even managed to make the Tuvok character less dull — which is an achievement in itself — and gave Tim Russ a rare opportunity to flex his acting muscles beyond one-note Vulcan-ism.
- "I've never met Reg Barclay. Is he famous?" -
The primary threat, however, is a Kazon invasion force led by a familiar face. It sparks a reaction in Chuckles, who goes on a personal mission, while back on the ship there's a powerful scene of herding prisoners that's briefly reminiscent of a real world atrocity.
It's perhaps a coincidence, but in addition to having Dourif, who played Piter De Vries in David Lynch's Dune (1984), the episode has a dry planet, mention of water rationing, and a large worm. That's where the comparison/homage ends, though, because its certainly no Dune.
The Kazon part of the story has a memorable element, but the best part for me was the cruel irony that vexes Ensign Lon Suder. Alongside his uncanny ability to show menace and threat, Dourif is fully capable of adding a deeply sympathetic aura that gives pathos to a role.
Dirs. David Livingston (Part I) + Cliff Bole (Part II) / S3: Eps 08 + 09
★ Stardate: 50312.5 ★
The ship gets sucked back in time to 1996, which is the same year that the episodes first aired on TV. Partly set on location in Los Angeles, Voyager's bridge crew must prevent a time paradox from ever happening, while ensuring that their attempt to change the future doesn't change the future in other ways. It's a timeline tall order. Where's Data and Picard when we need them?!
Speaking of earlier incarnations of Trek, they've each had similar 'past event' episodes in which the timeline was in peril: TOS had The City on the Edge of Forever, TNG had Time's Arrow, and DS9 had Past Tense, all of which are superior to Future's End. For comparison, Shatner and Joan Collins or Robert Duncan McNeill and Sarah Silverman. That about sums VOY up.
One notable thing happens, however, leading to big changes for the holographic doctor (Robert Picardo) and by extension benefits the entire crew thereafter.
Dirs. David Livingston (Part I) + Winrich Kolbe (Part II) / S3: Ep 26 + S4: Ep 01
★ Stardate: 50984.3 ★
A brief but dramatic pre-credits scene effectively creates interest for what follows, provided you like the Borg because although technically not the first time a member of the Collective is seen in the series, Scorpion is VOY's first proper Borg episode.
It was established in the TNG episode Q Who (S2: Ep 16) that the Delta Quadrant had a Borg presence, so it was only a matter of time before Voyager encountered them. Considering how much of an appeal the race had with fans, I'm genuinely surprised it took the writers as long as it did to include them. Their use was both a blessing and curse in the long run, but Scorpion is arguably one of the best two-part episodes of the show's entre seven year run.
I won't say what Scorpion is best remembered for, because it's a spoiler, but it's notable also for introducing an entirely new race, one that even the Borg fear — because there's always a bigger fish and everything preys on something — and for being the first appearance of a famous Renaissance painter on the ship (played by John Rhys-Davies), albeit in hologram form.
The build up is arguably better than the pay off, but what's apparent throughout is that dogged determination and anger suit Kate Mulgrew much better than the fawning sympathetic version of Janeway. Credit where it's due, when not croaking like a frog, more than once she did well.
- ABBA are popular even in the 24th Century. -
And finally, I like that Kes (Jennifer Lien) actually gets something consequential to do in the story; she's the character I alluded to in the Caretaker post above, the one I like.
Dirs. Allan Kroeker (Part I) + Mike Vejar (Part II) / S4: Eps: 08 + 09
★ Stardate: 51268.4 ★
Numerous internet 'Best Of...' polls that collate fan opinion into presentable statistics that can be assimilated quickly and have no opinion of their own seem to suggest that many VOY fans consider Year of Hell to be one of the series' best adventures. I don't class myself as a fan of VOY, so it's perhaps to be expected that I don't like Year of Hell at all.
It features Kurtwood Smith as a man named Annorax, which — in Britain, at least — although spelled differently is phonetically similar to a derogatory term applied to people who have a hobby that many other folks would consider to be boring (e.g., train spotting, scrapbooking, etc).
What Annorax does is more than just a hobby, however; it's an obsession that destroys lives. In VOY speak it's a "temporal incursion". He's a character that's driven by two goals, one political and the other personal, but one definitely takes precedence over the other.
Seven of Nine (Jeri Ryan) is now a fully fledged member of the crew, and although she comes with a high level of personal baggage, her Borg knowledge of merging together technologies from different species gives the Starfleet vessel a handy advantage that it didn't have before.
Janeway has a new haircut, which wouldn't be very noteworthy in itself except it makes her seem less schoolmarm-ish. Her character seems tougher, too, which suits Mulgrew more than the captain's usual required demeanour.
The story drags its heels in the latter half and is visually dreary, but it remains somewhat interesting thanks to its sci-fi ideas and the mindset and philosophy of Annorax. Unfortunately, a full appreciation of the emotional content requires concern for Voyager's crew, which is something that I lacked. I didn't give a damn about any of them.
It includes a nod to Star Trek: First Contact, which came out the year before. And interestingly, the 'Year of Hell' itself was referenced prior to its happening, in S3 (Ep 21: Before and After).
Dir. David Livingston / S4: Eps: 18 + 19
★ Stardate: Unknown ★
The USS Voyager is taken over by an alien race known as the Hirogen (first introduced in S4: Ep 14: Message in a Bottle), who recreate violent conflicts on the holodeck, scenarios in which the Hirogen themselves are the aggressors and the ship's original crew are their prey. There's an interesting parallel in Part One between the French resistance as it was during WWII and the actions of the crew on the occupied Voyager ship, but it wasn't enough to keep my interest.
When starting this project I convinced myself that I could tolerate the VOY cast members for twelve TV movies well-enough, but my resolve is wearing thin. (When totalled up it's almost 17 hours!) It's predominantly the sci-fi setting that's kept me from throwing in the towel thus far. On this occasion, with the setting largely changed, I could take no more. I didn't watch Part Two.
Dirs. Cliff Bole (Part I) + Terry Windell (Part II) / S5: Eps 15 + 16
★ Stardate: 52619.2 ★
We live in a world that more often than not favours TV ratings over integrity, so it's hardly surprising that Dark Frontier ignores the accepted continuity of one of Star Trek's most feared antagonists (as established in TNG), but to then mimic in large part the pinnacle of that thing that you so casually trample upon is more than a little shameful. I could be less vague in what I'm referring to, but then I'd be deep in spoiler territory. The crux of the matter is that VOY tries to outdo a TNG feature film on a TV budget and instead ends up shoehorning its captain and its most interesting crew member into shapes that resemble TNG's respective versions of the same.
And yet, it's regarded as one of the show's best episodes. It'll come across as unkind when I say that such a feeling in itself paints a picture of how much I feel the show failed to meet its own aspirations across the board, but I want to acknowledge the good intentions and hard work of the two previously mentioned members of the Voyager crew - it's not their fault that they were written into a template, and it seems like they enjoyed doing something different to their norm.
Nevertheless, as successful as Dark Frontier's build-up is, the end result is the poorer cousin of the thing that it tries to exceed and is poorer for the effort, which is oddly ironic.
I did finish the episode this time, but it was a struggle. Seeing as how I've already failed to do what I set out to do, I see no reason to suffer further bad writing from this point onwards (or subject you to more of mine - baduum-tssh!). I'll leave the headers and basic episode info to give an indication of how much was left to do, but there's no content written to go under them.
Dir. David Livingston / S5: Ep 26 + S6: Ep 01
★ Stardate: Unknown ★
[No Content.]
Dir. Allan Kroeker (Part I) + Mike Vejar (Part II) / S6: Ep 26 + S7: Ep 01
★ Stardate: Unknown ★
[No Content.]
Dirs. Mike Vejar (Part I) + David Livingston (Part II) / S7: Eps 9 + 10
★ Stardate: 54315.3 ★
[No Content.]
Dirs. Allan Kroeker (Part I) + Roxann Dawson (Part II) / S7: Eps 16 + 17
★ Stardate: 54584.3 ★
[No Content.]
Dir. Allan Kroeker / S7: Eps 25 + 26
★ Stardate: 54973.4 ★
[No Content.]
USS Voyager (NCC-74656). Intrepid-Class. Length: 343 metres / Width: 116 metres / Max Speed: Warp 9.975 / Decks: 15 / Crew Complement Capacity: 160 approx.
Armaments: Tricobalt Devices / Photon and Transphasic Torpedoes / Phasers / Bio-molecular Warheads / Defences: Deflector Shields / Ablative Armour.
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