Season 5 Ep 21 / 22 "Juggernaut"/ "Someone To Watch Over Me"
Feb 11, 2016 15:32:34 GMT -5
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Post by Prole Hole on Feb 11, 2016 15:32:34 GMT -5
Season Five, Episode 21 - "Juggernaut"
Alien slime - green
Four for four, "Juggernaut" continues the surprising trait of the back half of Season Five by continuing to push at the borders of what the show can do. Here, it's a straight up horror movie, and, like the three preceding episodes, there hasn't really been another episode of Voyager that's quite functioned in this way. There's "Macrocosm", which moves in this direction but goes more for Die Hard than Alien (despite a couple of overt nods to the latter movie, like the acid blood) and there's "Revulsion", which.. isn't entirely convincing on that front, I think it would be safe to say, or even the exploration of the Borg Cube in "Scorpion". But a straight-up horror piece, with creatures of dread lurking in dripping, smoke-filled corridors, stalking the crew and driving terror in to their very hearts? Nope, definitely not been anything quite like that.
This is definitely an episode where the roots are showing, that much is obvious. It's a creature feature, pure and simple, and like all the best creature features, the "monster" is kept off screen for the majority of time, its actions and consequences speaking far more than any lines of dialogue could until The Big Showdown. And like all the best creature features, the "monster" is largely sympathetic, even while causing untold damage. This isn't exactly revelatory, yet it fits astonishingly well within Voyager's wheelhouse even as its not something we've properly seen before. In this, using the Malon seems like a good choice, and their mix of filth and radioactivity immediately recalls both Swamp Thing (created by chemicals) and Godzilla (awoken due to nuclear tests). Even the fact that the creature is being caused by radiation, rather than nanoprobes, mutogenic viruses or some other 24th century analogue, gives the episode an appropriately 50's feel, and it's very easy to parse the Malon vs Voyager as a Cold War... well analogy is probably too strong, but the tense, who-blinks-first negotiations feel very Cold War without necessarily invoking a specific incident. Everything feels very backwards looking, but without indulging in obvious nods or winks, nor any of the other dregs of nostalgia - in other words this works as a clearly affectionate homage without becoming overly self-indulgent. It's obviously not the first time that B-movie roots have been shown off in Voyager - we have Captain Proton for that - but we're addressing a later period in B-movies here, and by moving that focus from 30's serials to 50s creature features, it places this episode in its own, highly unusual little bubble, and it's all the more effective for it.
What's all the more startling here is that "Juggernaut", whilst obviously owing such a big debt to the past, also manages to be legitimately tense and scary in its own right. This isn't some cheesy recreation of the past, this is an episode where the stakes are genuinely high, there's a very real and present danger, and everything is unbelievably taut and strained. This is a filthy episode, again in a way we haven't seen in Voyager before, which lends everything a tactile, sticky, dripping sense of reality. We see waste oozing down pipes, gouts of gas, explosions... the full works. Nothing in terms of the grimy environment the crew find themselves in is implicit - we get to see just how nasty a Malon ship really is, and we get to see the effects it has on the crew first-hand. Ah yes the crew - that's another place that "Juggernaut" really scores, because even though, a couple of Malon redshirts aside, we only have two characters we spend any time with, they both come across as fully-rounded individuals, with lives and dimension beyond the screen. Maybe it's not the most subtle piece of writing to see one of them playing with a toy spaceship he's built for his son, but the purpose is still clear - this is a character with background, and history, and family. Even the gentle teasing between Fesek and Pelk - being told that if he had a son of his own he'd have an excuse to play with toys - feels pleasing real. How many Star Wars or Star Trek fans must have been told exactly the same thing? It's sweetly affectionate rather than critical or condescending, and it's those little nuances that help us as the audience to care about what they're going through, rather than just showing them in their traditional bad-guy role. Indeed, there's some effort put into making them if not sympathetic then at the very least relatable, and it all adds up to the most details picture we've had of how Malon society functions, even while the normal criticisms of them - and the obvious environmentalism parallels - remain. Purely as characters it's probably the best outing the Malon get, in fact.
None of this would add up to much, however, if we weren't equally invested in the struggles of our own crew, and once again "Juggernaut" comes through on this front. This is the best Neelix has been for... well I can't even remember the last time he was this good, in fact. Remember that little bit of back story several seasons ago when Neelix mentioned he'd once worked on a garbage scow? Probably not, but the writers did, and here it is, being put to excellent use. Phillips is quite simply terrific here (soup scene aside, but it's doubtful anyone could have got that to work, it's not actively toe-curling, and does again show him having come up with workaround solutions before Voyager arrived) with Neelx's use on the mission logically consistent with what we know of his character and background, yet with his tensions levels dialled up to 11. Furious, driven Neelix really seems to be the best Neelix and it give such a terrific boost to the idea that the chipper surface image he puts on masks something much darker and angrier. It's exactly the characterization he needs - there's been a lot of character work this season, but none of it's been for him, so it's the first occasion in Season Five Neelix has had to really come out of his shell, and Phillips completely embraces it. But however good he Is (and again, he really is excellent here), this is a Roxann Dawson joint, and she owns the episode in the same way she owns every episode where she gets to take the lead. The Big Moments for her in the episode - attempting meditation with Tuvok, the Big Showdown - she sells as she always does, but it's the smaller details that really bring home just what great actor Dawson is, and just how well-developed B'Elanna has become. Those smaller moments - just something as simple as a walk-down-the-corridor-to-the-transporter-room scene - are given flesh as Dawson brings B'Elanna's irritation, yet at the very last moment softens enough to let Tom's affection and concern in. It really is a tiny moment, but it's a synecdoche of everything that's great about B'Elanna and just how skilled her portrayal has become. And we get to see B'Elanna working as an engineer in a way we hardly ever have before, not just pressing a few buttons and rattling off bafflegab, but getting down and dirty (very dirty, in fact) in the guts of the Malon ship. This isn't the improbably-clean interior of "Dreadnaught" - here she's streaked with oil, hair matted, and she's depending on her strength and intelligence to win through the day. I'm not going to call this feminist - the decision to have her pared down her grey undervest while nobody else does is rather unfortunately undermining on that front, which is a shame - but it's a fantastic use of her character nonetheless.
I could go on like this for some time, to be honest. Robert Betran is brilliant here too, in what's definitely a supporting role, but one where he really gets to show Chakotay' inner steel. His scene in Engineering, when he really makes B'Elanna take her rank and position seriously shows just what an effective First Officer he can be, and it works equally well when he faces down the Malon on their own vessel... all great stuff for him. All the guest cast are great. There's the usual terrific support from the other regulars. The conclusion - where B'Elanna is forced to kill a sympathetic character for the sake of the ship, the crew and the sector, is exactly the kind of character conflict that makes B'Elanna such a compelling role, and gives real weight to her scenes with Tuvok earlier. Really, people should talk about "Juggernaut" a lot more. It's just great.
Any Other Business:
• I would be remiss if I didn't mention two things that are not great though. The pipe that files towards Chakotay to knock him out is lamentably poor. As is the decision to show B'Elanna, topelss and shot from behind, in the sonic shower. Yes, yes, I know on board the Malon ship she dreams of it, and as we see the sonic shower lifting the grime from her I get that it's a symbolic lifting of what she's gone through. But it still looks like a bit of cheap titillation.
• But other than that, I can't think of anything that's wrong with this episode. Really, why is it forgotten? A real, under-rated, lost gem. Can't recommend it highly enough.
• The Tuvok and B'Elanna scenes at the beginning, back in the lush purples and dark shadows of Tuvok's joint, are extremely reminiscent of the scenes where Tuvok did the same with Kes. B'Elanna's ongoing temper issues have been a thread throughout the show, so it's nice to see a little scene of them being addressed.
• Janeway's logic in not sending Tuvok over to the Malon ship is a bit spurious - OK she wants B'Elanna to understand Janeway has confidence in her, but at the risk of an environmental catastrophe? In any case, sending another person over isn't necessarily undermining to B'Elanna, it's just that more people there increases the chance of success.
• I didn't mentioned the reveal of the "monster" in the review, because reviews can only go on so long, but it really is brilliantly handled. A Core Labourer, irradiated, bitter and desperate for revenge, wholly sympathetic yet absolutely someone that has to be stopped. B'Elanna's frantic, frenzied attempts to get through to him, before finally being forced to resort to violence, is a high point in an episode with many, many high points, and Dawson is just perfect during those scenes.
• A quick nod to the make-up artists here, who do really sterling work.
• "Is there a plan D?" drawls Tuvok after Seven tells him she's taken the initiative to find an alternative solution, should the mission to the Malon ship fail. Yet her Plan C saves the day! Show a little gratitude, Tuvok!
• The design work here is magnificent, the Malon ship itself a real presence and a thoroughly real environment throughout the whole episode. You can practically feel the dirt on your skin watching it, and the camera work and direction really re-enforce what a cramped, claustrophobic, dangerous environment this is. Full marks to all involved, it's rare indeed that anywhere has such a sense of presence about it.
• Ok, I'll stop now! But it's a real mark of how good things are here that I could quite easily carry on...
Season Five, Episode 22 - "Someone To Watch Over Me"
Sandrine A Little Dream Of Me
One of the most surprising things about Season Five is that it is, in fact, surprising. At this point the show ought really to be running on fumes, knocking out a coupe of meh seasons before rallying for the big Season Seven push to give people something to remember the show by. Yet that's really not what the show is doing. Following on from the experimental nature of the last few episodes, we have something here that's rather more straightforward, which is basically a rom-com. If that description doesn’t exactly inspire confidence, well that's entirely understandable, yet of all the surprises that Season Five could have given us, a successful episode revolving around romance, and a Neelix comedy bit that isn't straight-up awful, might just be the most surprising of all. Now, before I go any further I should make one thing perfectly clear - this episode is about as far from original as its possible to imagine, because it is, very clearly, Pygmalion (or if you prefer, My Fair Lady). "Someone To Watch Over Me" doesn't have an original thought in it's head, not a single one But... you know, it works.
But it so very easily couldn't, and so very much of the credit for this goes to Robert Picardo and Jeri Ryan, because this could have, in the hands of less gifted performers, been utterly excruciating. It very nearly is. Seven's "first date" has all the hallmarks of a scene just ripe for disaster, not from a character standpoint, whereby Seven's faltering first attempts at social integration make sense, but from a laboured comedy perspective. Ha ha, someone can't eat lobster! And it gets flicked unceremoniously onto their date! Tee hee! Sounds awful, doesn't it? Yet somehow it... isn't. The utterly deadpan way Ryan plays it helps, but she's assisted by a surprisingly decent anonymous crew member, and a production that doesn’t feel the need to slather the whole scene in "comedy" music, in case we miss the point. In fact, in many ways this scene is key to why the episode manages to be successful, because although it's a "funny" scene it's actually played almost entirely straight, so while Seven does make mis-steps, and while Chapman (he of this week's random crew member) is appropriately awkward, the whole scene works because it allows both characters a degree of authenticity. Of course Seven isn't going to get her first date right, but ultimately that's not the point - the point is that she tried, and that's where the emphasis of the scene lies. Similarly, Chapman isn't some clichéd ship-board lothario, he's just some awkward guy who unexpectedly finds himself on a date with someone he probably would never have dreamed of actually getting to go out with. Yet despite the fact that he's on screen for roughly five minutes, and ends his date with torn ligaments, he's still allowed a degree of dignity, even in what is on the surface an extremely silly situation. So both characters are given agency, and the episode plays fair with them by not reducing either character to a sad trombone cliché. It sounds like an easy line to walk, but after endless crap Harry-has-a-romance episodes it's clear that it takes quite some skill on behalf of both the writers and the performers to carry it off.
Still the interactions between the Doctor and Seven are really the core of the episode, and as I said earlier, it really is Ryan and Picardo who make this material sing. Picardo is astonishingly good at playing heartbroken, and he's given plenty of scope to do so, as the Doctor vacillates between obvious desire to help his pupil, personal desire that his feelings are growing to be more, and final acceptance as he's knocked back in the nicest way possible. Again, this all sounds fairly rote - the teacher falling for the pupil is hardly a unique or brand new take on relationships - but describing what happens is entirely divorced from the experience of watching it play out on screen because what ought to be a series of obvious character steps still feels like genuine movement. While Seven has had plenty of attention, character wise, it's been a long time since the Doctor had any, but because the series has spent a lot of time developing the relationship between Seven and the Doctor the way he slowly, gradually realizes he's falling for her feels very real, in a way that it just wouldn’t had it only been dropped in for this episode. The thing about the relationship between the Doctor and Seven is that it's rarely been the focus of anything, yet the occasional comments about her social lessons, or how they spent time together, or even how the Doctor designed her clothing, really add to so much more when pulled into focus by an episode like this. His romantic feelings are thus rendered plausible, but the story needs to function in the other direction too - it needs to be clear why Seven doesn't think the relationship could work. That solution - that she just doesn't see him that way - is the simplest but also the most devastating result of all for the Doctor, yet it works because Seven really doesn't see the student-mentor relationship in that way. For her it's a simple statement of fact, for him it's a crushing blow. Both of these are true to the characters - the Doctor's over-investment leading to him being wounded, Seven's practical non-nonsense approach to everything allowing her emotional distance - and because they are rooted in the truth of the characters the non-start to their potential getting together works without seeming like it's raising a possibility only to side-step it for convenience. If only all relationship developments were handled this well.
Which leaves us with the Neelix comedy bit. Which is, remarkably, funny. It's the only bit of the episode that isn't a straight Pygmalion lift, though that's not to say it's original, because it's not. It's another in a very long line of whacky-adventures-with-visiting-delegates, which we've seen about a million times in TNG and DS9, not to mention Voyager itself. Yet it works here at least in part because Neelix is for once played as the straight man, trying to keep the increasingly silly demands of his guests under control, rather than him being the one delivering the comedy. Neelix is, in fact, a surprisingly good straight man and I can't really recall the character being used in quite this way before. It's a rare occasion indeed that we get to see Neelix undertake any ambassadorial duties, but even when he does it's more typically very straight-laced and full of respect as Neelix tries to live up to the responsibilities Janeway's given him. That's how things start out here, but they fall apart quickly and seeing Neelix scramble to keep up with Tomin, his increasingly intoxicated visitor, actually manages to be generally amusing. It doesn't take up a big chunk of the episode, so it gets through a few funny scenes and then gets out before the whole thing becomes tiresome. A visiting race of overly-sensitive, easily offended diplomats again sounds like it ought to be a recipe for disaster, but it even has an against-type and rather sweet capper when the Abbot gently reprimands Tomin for not taking the chance to explore local culture while Tomin himself is doing his level best to hide a killer hangover. Again, it's nothing astoundingly new nor is it fall-off-the-sofa-funny, but it all works when, on paper, it really sounds like it shouldn’t. So credit where credit is due.
And, well, that's it. A sweet, amiable episode that's incredibly easy to like without it especially lingering. Given its place in the season it feels like Voyager catching its breath a little bit, but there's absolutely nothing wrong with that when the episode is as entertaining as this. It's perfectly fair to quibble with the lack of originality, and it's certainly true that to an extent Ryan and Picardo (and Phillips) are lifting the material far in excess of what it necessarily deserves, but there's real satisfaction from watching an episode where everything just works, as it does here. And we get to see Sandrine's again, as the entirely logical location for Seven's date! So, really, what's not to like?
Any Other Business:
• If there's a flaw here, it's that the script really does hew far too close to Pygmalion, right down to the bet being discovered by Seven and her taking umbrage over it. It's all too on-the-nose, though it's in no way a fatal flaw.
• One thing that definitely helps the script overcome its lack of originality is some sparkling dialogue and a lot of witty one-liners, which helps keep things moving along.
• "You're teaching Seven how to date? Talk about the blind leading the blind".
• Harry's clumsy attempt at getting a date with Seven, whereby he points out he plays clarinet when she expresses an interest in people who are into music, finally closes off Harry's attempts to woo her as she makes it quite clear he's not in contention. It also manages to be both sweet and funny.
• The Doctor's description of egg fertilization - "here we see how Fortress Ovum is besieged by countless little warriors..." - is certainly a memorable way of relating the beginnings of life...
• The only bit of the episode which is a bit odd is early on, with the casting of Seven as something of a Peeping Tom when it comes to B'Elanna and Tom's love life. The idea that Seven might behave in this way isn't especially problematic - it's her usual blunt way of approaching things - but it's the only bit of the episode that doesn't really tie in to anything else, so it feels a bit orphaned. Quite funny, though, when we get the exchange between B'Elanna and Seven: "How the hell do you know when we're having intimate relations?" "There is nobody on Deck 9, Section 12, who doesn't know when you're having intimidate relations."
• As ever, the view of relationships, marriage and children is exceedingly heterogeneous, without even a hint or the merest suggestion that, for example, Seven could pursue a relationship with a woman on the ship, rather than just the available men. Not that she needs to actually do it, but the Doctor is meant to be teaching her about human relationships, so even a mention of the possibility wouldn't have been too much to ask for.
• This is the last time we see Sandrine's in Voyager. Bon nuit, fair venue!
Alien slime - green
Four for four, "Juggernaut" continues the surprising trait of the back half of Season Five by continuing to push at the borders of what the show can do. Here, it's a straight up horror movie, and, like the three preceding episodes, there hasn't really been another episode of Voyager that's quite functioned in this way. There's "Macrocosm", which moves in this direction but goes more for Die Hard than Alien (despite a couple of overt nods to the latter movie, like the acid blood) and there's "Revulsion", which.. isn't entirely convincing on that front, I think it would be safe to say, or even the exploration of the Borg Cube in "Scorpion". But a straight-up horror piece, with creatures of dread lurking in dripping, smoke-filled corridors, stalking the crew and driving terror in to their very hearts? Nope, definitely not been anything quite like that.
This is definitely an episode where the roots are showing, that much is obvious. It's a creature feature, pure and simple, and like all the best creature features, the "monster" is kept off screen for the majority of time, its actions and consequences speaking far more than any lines of dialogue could until The Big Showdown. And like all the best creature features, the "monster" is largely sympathetic, even while causing untold damage. This isn't exactly revelatory, yet it fits astonishingly well within Voyager's wheelhouse even as its not something we've properly seen before. In this, using the Malon seems like a good choice, and their mix of filth and radioactivity immediately recalls both Swamp Thing (created by chemicals) and Godzilla (awoken due to nuclear tests). Even the fact that the creature is being caused by radiation, rather than nanoprobes, mutogenic viruses or some other 24th century analogue, gives the episode an appropriately 50's feel, and it's very easy to parse the Malon vs Voyager as a Cold War... well analogy is probably too strong, but the tense, who-blinks-first negotiations feel very Cold War without necessarily invoking a specific incident. Everything feels very backwards looking, but without indulging in obvious nods or winks, nor any of the other dregs of nostalgia - in other words this works as a clearly affectionate homage without becoming overly self-indulgent. It's obviously not the first time that B-movie roots have been shown off in Voyager - we have Captain Proton for that - but we're addressing a later period in B-movies here, and by moving that focus from 30's serials to 50s creature features, it places this episode in its own, highly unusual little bubble, and it's all the more effective for it.
What's all the more startling here is that "Juggernaut", whilst obviously owing such a big debt to the past, also manages to be legitimately tense and scary in its own right. This isn't some cheesy recreation of the past, this is an episode where the stakes are genuinely high, there's a very real and present danger, and everything is unbelievably taut and strained. This is a filthy episode, again in a way we haven't seen in Voyager before, which lends everything a tactile, sticky, dripping sense of reality. We see waste oozing down pipes, gouts of gas, explosions... the full works. Nothing in terms of the grimy environment the crew find themselves in is implicit - we get to see just how nasty a Malon ship really is, and we get to see the effects it has on the crew first-hand. Ah yes the crew - that's another place that "Juggernaut" really scores, because even though, a couple of Malon redshirts aside, we only have two characters we spend any time with, they both come across as fully-rounded individuals, with lives and dimension beyond the screen. Maybe it's not the most subtle piece of writing to see one of them playing with a toy spaceship he's built for his son, but the purpose is still clear - this is a character with background, and history, and family. Even the gentle teasing between Fesek and Pelk - being told that if he had a son of his own he'd have an excuse to play with toys - feels pleasing real. How many Star Wars or Star Trek fans must have been told exactly the same thing? It's sweetly affectionate rather than critical or condescending, and it's those little nuances that help us as the audience to care about what they're going through, rather than just showing them in their traditional bad-guy role. Indeed, there's some effort put into making them if not sympathetic then at the very least relatable, and it all adds up to the most details picture we've had of how Malon society functions, even while the normal criticisms of them - and the obvious environmentalism parallels - remain. Purely as characters it's probably the best outing the Malon get, in fact.
None of this would add up to much, however, if we weren't equally invested in the struggles of our own crew, and once again "Juggernaut" comes through on this front. This is the best Neelix has been for... well I can't even remember the last time he was this good, in fact. Remember that little bit of back story several seasons ago when Neelix mentioned he'd once worked on a garbage scow? Probably not, but the writers did, and here it is, being put to excellent use. Phillips is quite simply terrific here (soup scene aside, but it's doubtful anyone could have got that to work, it's not actively toe-curling, and does again show him having come up with workaround solutions before Voyager arrived) with Neelx's use on the mission logically consistent with what we know of his character and background, yet with his tensions levels dialled up to 11. Furious, driven Neelix really seems to be the best Neelix and it give such a terrific boost to the idea that the chipper surface image he puts on masks something much darker and angrier. It's exactly the characterization he needs - there's been a lot of character work this season, but none of it's been for him, so it's the first occasion in Season Five Neelix has had to really come out of his shell, and Phillips completely embraces it. But however good he Is (and again, he really is excellent here), this is a Roxann Dawson joint, and she owns the episode in the same way she owns every episode where she gets to take the lead. The Big Moments for her in the episode - attempting meditation with Tuvok, the Big Showdown - she sells as she always does, but it's the smaller details that really bring home just what great actor Dawson is, and just how well-developed B'Elanna has become. Those smaller moments - just something as simple as a walk-down-the-corridor-to-the-transporter-room scene - are given flesh as Dawson brings B'Elanna's irritation, yet at the very last moment softens enough to let Tom's affection and concern in. It really is a tiny moment, but it's a synecdoche of everything that's great about B'Elanna and just how skilled her portrayal has become. And we get to see B'Elanna working as an engineer in a way we hardly ever have before, not just pressing a few buttons and rattling off bafflegab, but getting down and dirty (very dirty, in fact) in the guts of the Malon ship. This isn't the improbably-clean interior of "Dreadnaught" - here she's streaked with oil, hair matted, and she's depending on her strength and intelligence to win through the day. I'm not going to call this feminist - the decision to have her pared down her grey undervest while nobody else does is rather unfortunately undermining on that front, which is a shame - but it's a fantastic use of her character nonetheless.
I could go on like this for some time, to be honest. Robert Betran is brilliant here too, in what's definitely a supporting role, but one where he really gets to show Chakotay' inner steel. His scene in Engineering, when he really makes B'Elanna take her rank and position seriously shows just what an effective First Officer he can be, and it works equally well when he faces down the Malon on their own vessel... all great stuff for him. All the guest cast are great. There's the usual terrific support from the other regulars. The conclusion - where B'Elanna is forced to kill a sympathetic character for the sake of the ship, the crew and the sector, is exactly the kind of character conflict that makes B'Elanna such a compelling role, and gives real weight to her scenes with Tuvok earlier. Really, people should talk about "Juggernaut" a lot more. It's just great.
Any Other Business:
• I would be remiss if I didn't mention two things that are not great though. The pipe that files towards Chakotay to knock him out is lamentably poor. As is the decision to show B'Elanna, topelss and shot from behind, in the sonic shower. Yes, yes, I know on board the Malon ship she dreams of it, and as we see the sonic shower lifting the grime from her I get that it's a symbolic lifting of what she's gone through. But it still looks like a bit of cheap titillation.
• But other than that, I can't think of anything that's wrong with this episode. Really, why is it forgotten? A real, under-rated, lost gem. Can't recommend it highly enough.
• The Tuvok and B'Elanna scenes at the beginning, back in the lush purples and dark shadows of Tuvok's joint, are extremely reminiscent of the scenes where Tuvok did the same with Kes. B'Elanna's ongoing temper issues have been a thread throughout the show, so it's nice to see a little scene of them being addressed.
• Janeway's logic in not sending Tuvok over to the Malon ship is a bit spurious - OK she wants B'Elanna to understand Janeway has confidence in her, but at the risk of an environmental catastrophe? In any case, sending another person over isn't necessarily undermining to B'Elanna, it's just that more people there increases the chance of success.
• I didn't mentioned the reveal of the "monster" in the review, because reviews can only go on so long, but it really is brilliantly handled. A Core Labourer, irradiated, bitter and desperate for revenge, wholly sympathetic yet absolutely someone that has to be stopped. B'Elanna's frantic, frenzied attempts to get through to him, before finally being forced to resort to violence, is a high point in an episode with many, many high points, and Dawson is just perfect during those scenes.
• A quick nod to the make-up artists here, who do really sterling work.
• "Is there a plan D?" drawls Tuvok after Seven tells him she's taken the initiative to find an alternative solution, should the mission to the Malon ship fail. Yet her Plan C saves the day! Show a little gratitude, Tuvok!
• The design work here is magnificent, the Malon ship itself a real presence and a thoroughly real environment throughout the whole episode. You can practically feel the dirt on your skin watching it, and the camera work and direction really re-enforce what a cramped, claustrophobic, dangerous environment this is. Full marks to all involved, it's rare indeed that anywhere has such a sense of presence about it.
• Ok, I'll stop now! But it's a real mark of how good things are here that I could quite easily carry on...
Season Five, Episode 22 - "Someone To Watch Over Me"
Sandrine A Little Dream Of Me
One of the most surprising things about Season Five is that it is, in fact, surprising. At this point the show ought really to be running on fumes, knocking out a coupe of meh seasons before rallying for the big Season Seven push to give people something to remember the show by. Yet that's really not what the show is doing. Following on from the experimental nature of the last few episodes, we have something here that's rather more straightforward, which is basically a rom-com. If that description doesn’t exactly inspire confidence, well that's entirely understandable, yet of all the surprises that Season Five could have given us, a successful episode revolving around romance, and a Neelix comedy bit that isn't straight-up awful, might just be the most surprising of all. Now, before I go any further I should make one thing perfectly clear - this episode is about as far from original as its possible to imagine, because it is, very clearly, Pygmalion (or if you prefer, My Fair Lady). "Someone To Watch Over Me" doesn't have an original thought in it's head, not a single one But... you know, it works.
But it so very easily couldn't, and so very much of the credit for this goes to Robert Picardo and Jeri Ryan, because this could have, in the hands of less gifted performers, been utterly excruciating. It very nearly is. Seven's "first date" has all the hallmarks of a scene just ripe for disaster, not from a character standpoint, whereby Seven's faltering first attempts at social integration make sense, but from a laboured comedy perspective. Ha ha, someone can't eat lobster! And it gets flicked unceremoniously onto their date! Tee hee! Sounds awful, doesn't it? Yet somehow it... isn't. The utterly deadpan way Ryan plays it helps, but she's assisted by a surprisingly decent anonymous crew member, and a production that doesn’t feel the need to slather the whole scene in "comedy" music, in case we miss the point. In fact, in many ways this scene is key to why the episode manages to be successful, because although it's a "funny" scene it's actually played almost entirely straight, so while Seven does make mis-steps, and while Chapman (he of this week's random crew member) is appropriately awkward, the whole scene works because it allows both characters a degree of authenticity. Of course Seven isn't going to get her first date right, but ultimately that's not the point - the point is that she tried, and that's where the emphasis of the scene lies. Similarly, Chapman isn't some clichéd ship-board lothario, he's just some awkward guy who unexpectedly finds himself on a date with someone he probably would never have dreamed of actually getting to go out with. Yet despite the fact that he's on screen for roughly five minutes, and ends his date with torn ligaments, he's still allowed a degree of dignity, even in what is on the surface an extremely silly situation. So both characters are given agency, and the episode plays fair with them by not reducing either character to a sad trombone cliché. It sounds like an easy line to walk, but after endless crap Harry-has-a-romance episodes it's clear that it takes quite some skill on behalf of both the writers and the performers to carry it off.
Still the interactions between the Doctor and Seven are really the core of the episode, and as I said earlier, it really is Ryan and Picardo who make this material sing. Picardo is astonishingly good at playing heartbroken, and he's given plenty of scope to do so, as the Doctor vacillates between obvious desire to help his pupil, personal desire that his feelings are growing to be more, and final acceptance as he's knocked back in the nicest way possible. Again, this all sounds fairly rote - the teacher falling for the pupil is hardly a unique or brand new take on relationships - but describing what happens is entirely divorced from the experience of watching it play out on screen because what ought to be a series of obvious character steps still feels like genuine movement. While Seven has had plenty of attention, character wise, it's been a long time since the Doctor had any, but because the series has spent a lot of time developing the relationship between Seven and the Doctor the way he slowly, gradually realizes he's falling for her feels very real, in a way that it just wouldn’t had it only been dropped in for this episode. The thing about the relationship between the Doctor and Seven is that it's rarely been the focus of anything, yet the occasional comments about her social lessons, or how they spent time together, or even how the Doctor designed her clothing, really add to so much more when pulled into focus by an episode like this. His romantic feelings are thus rendered plausible, but the story needs to function in the other direction too - it needs to be clear why Seven doesn't think the relationship could work. That solution - that she just doesn't see him that way - is the simplest but also the most devastating result of all for the Doctor, yet it works because Seven really doesn't see the student-mentor relationship in that way. For her it's a simple statement of fact, for him it's a crushing blow. Both of these are true to the characters - the Doctor's over-investment leading to him being wounded, Seven's practical non-nonsense approach to everything allowing her emotional distance - and because they are rooted in the truth of the characters the non-start to their potential getting together works without seeming like it's raising a possibility only to side-step it for convenience. If only all relationship developments were handled this well.
Which leaves us with the Neelix comedy bit. Which is, remarkably, funny. It's the only bit of the episode that isn't a straight Pygmalion lift, though that's not to say it's original, because it's not. It's another in a very long line of whacky-adventures-with-visiting-delegates, which we've seen about a million times in TNG and DS9, not to mention Voyager itself. Yet it works here at least in part because Neelix is for once played as the straight man, trying to keep the increasingly silly demands of his guests under control, rather than him being the one delivering the comedy. Neelix is, in fact, a surprisingly good straight man and I can't really recall the character being used in quite this way before. It's a rare occasion indeed that we get to see Neelix undertake any ambassadorial duties, but even when he does it's more typically very straight-laced and full of respect as Neelix tries to live up to the responsibilities Janeway's given him. That's how things start out here, but they fall apart quickly and seeing Neelix scramble to keep up with Tomin, his increasingly intoxicated visitor, actually manages to be generally amusing. It doesn't take up a big chunk of the episode, so it gets through a few funny scenes and then gets out before the whole thing becomes tiresome. A visiting race of overly-sensitive, easily offended diplomats again sounds like it ought to be a recipe for disaster, but it even has an against-type and rather sweet capper when the Abbot gently reprimands Tomin for not taking the chance to explore local culture while Tomin himself is doing his level best to hide a killer hangover. Again, it's nothing astoundingly new nor is it fall-off-the-sofa-funny, but it all works when, on paper, it really sounds like it shouldn’t. So credit where credit is due.
And, well, that's it. A sweet, amiable episode that's incredibly easy to like without it especially lingering. Given its place in the season it feels like Voyager catching its breath a little bit, but there's absolutely nothing wrong with that when the episode is as entertaining as this. It's perfectly fair to quibble with the lack of originality, and it's certainly true that to an extent Ryan and Picardo (and Phillips) are lifting the material far in excess of what it necessarily deserves, but there's real satisfaction from watching an episode where everything just works, as it does here. And we get to see Sandrine's again, as the entirely logical location for Seven's date! So, really, what's not to like?
Any Other Business:
• If there's a flaw here, it's that the script really does hew far too close to Pygmalion, right down to the bet being discovered by Seven and her taking umbrage over it. It's all too on-the-nose, though it's in no way a fatal flaw.
• One thing that definitely helps the script overcome its lack of originality is some sparkling dialogue and a lot of witty one-liners, which helps keep things moving along.
• "You're teaching Seven how to date? Talk about the blind leading the blind".
• Harry's clumsy attempt at getting a date with Seven, whereby he points out he plays clarinet when she expresses an interest in people who are into music, finally closes off Harry's attempts to woo her as she makes it quite clear he's not in contention. It also manages to be both sweet and funny.
• The Doctor's description of egg fertilization - "here we see how Fortress Ovum is besieged by countless little warriors..." - is certainly a memorable way of relating the beginnings of life...
• The only bit of the episode which is a bit odd is early on, with the casting of Seven as something of a Peeping Tom when it comes to B'Elanna and Tom's love life. The idea that Seven might behave in this way isn't especially problematic - it's her usual blunt way of approaching things - but it's the only bit of the episode that doesn't really tie in to anything else, so it feels a bit orphaned. Quite funny, though, when we get the exchange between B'Elanna and Seven: "How the hell do you know when we're having intimate relations?" "There is nobody on Deck 9, Section 12, who doesn't know when you're having intimidate relations."
• As ever, the view of relationships, marriage and children is exceedingly heterogeneous, without even a hint or the merest suggestion that, for example, Seven could pursue a relationship with a woman on the ship, rather than just the available men. Not that she needs to actually do it, but the Doctor is meant to be teaching her about human relationships, so even a mention of the possibility wouldn't have been too much to ask for.
• This is the last time we see Sandrine's in Voyager. Bon nuit, fair venue!
