Review of Star Trek V: The Final Frontier

Originally posted on MI6Forums Jun 3 2009


"Well, gentlemen. I wrote and directed my very own Star Trek movie. What did you think?"


"The film scored 21% on Rotten Tomatoes, making it the worst of the original series."




"Yeah, but it sure as hell beats NuTrek."


"Damn straight."

STAR TREK V: THE FINAL FRONTIER

Not bad, Shatner. Not bad at all.

In a way it's a shame Shatner had to compromise his vision to all the suits at Paramount, though conversely I don't think a Trek film with the Judeo-Christian Devil as the villain would ever have worked.

At the end of the day the only major flaw of this movie is how cheaply it was done for, which I can't really blame on Shatner -- only Paramount. Other than that there's some weaknesses in the writing, for example without the epic escape from Hell originally planned (complete with army of rockmen) the climax of the movie falls spectacularly flat. And really, the climax of a movie must be strong as its the last impression the audience has. Also, as many have pointed out, the Scotty/Uhura relationship is really weird and comes out of nowhere. (Hrrrmm, that comment feels familiar...)

Also, a minor thing that always weirded me out about this movie is that it's ostensibly set six months after Star Trek II, and yet, through movies II-IV Uhura has black hair, and here she's gone grey. Yet in Star Trek VI, set ten years after Trek II, she has black hair again.

Yes, the movie is cheap, but Shatner's a good director given what little he had. And with the exception of the third act, the writing is strong too. This is the best Trek movie for demonstrating the Trinity. The character moments given to Kirk-Spock-Bones are superbly done.

Sybok is a great character, with a neat arc, and well played by Larry Luckinbill. I think a modern film dealing with a religious zealot leading a terrorist army would probably have a lot more weight than this did in 1988.

All in all I think this movie gets a bum rap. It's misunderstood. Yes, the effects are awful but that was Paramount's decision -- and besides, the effects for TOS weren't always great either. I like the storyline. I like the questions the movie asks, the statements it makes about religious fanatics like Sybok (the bit where he is shown to think of himself as God is excellent).

All in all it's a good movie -- it's just unfortunate in that it comes between the enormously popular Trek IV and the fantastically good Trek VI. That and that all the Trek movies feel like movies, and this feels like a TV movie -- like Return to Gilligan's Island or something. It just doesn't have the epic scope and scale of the other films -- which is sad because Shatner had intended it to be the most epic Trek of all.

The score is nice, too. Other than that damn TMP/TNG theme, I like the music. Some beats sound like Proto-First Contact, but the main "family" theme is nice.

There are little touches I like, for example how the Klingons consistently speak the language, as opposed to speaking English sometimes and Klingon other times.

But I'm glad Nick Meyer repainted that bridge.

6/10

1. STAR TREK II: THE WRATH OF KHAN
2. STAR TREK IV: THE VOYAGE HOME
3. STAR TREK: THE MOTION PICTURE
4. STAR TREK III: THE SEARCH FOR SPOCK
5. STAR TREK V: THE FINAL FRONTIER
6. STAR TREK

Review of Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country

Originally posted on MI6Forums Jun 6 2009


- "You volunteered!?"
- "There is an old Vulcan proverb -- only Moore could reboot BSG"


"They wrote Transformers!"


"Bill, the franchise is dying."



STAR TREK VI: THE UNDISCOVERED COUNTRY

Full disclosure: This is my favourite Star Trek movie.

Does it most excellently showcase the most admirable qualities of the Trek franchise? No. I would argue movies I, III-V do that quite a bit. But it doesn't matter. I like Trek VI the best.

Maybe because I feel it's a movie that has everything. An engaging political conspiracy plot, a murder mystery, allegory, thematic content, character investigation, rousing battle scenes, an atmosphere that mixes dread with determination and immediacy with reflection and excitement with melancholy. It hits all these notes while never seeming schizophrenic and maintaining a rousing storyline that follows logically from A to B while never feeling rushed.

One of the things I love in this movie is the music. I know I'm a minority opinion on this, but I love Cliff Eidelman's score. It not only accentuates the dramatic action but also perfectly underscores the more low-key, character moments in the film. Three scenes really stand out for me -- the first scene between Spock and Valeris in his quarters, the scene where Kirk and McCoy beam aboard Kronos One, and the long helicopter shots of Kirk, McCoy and Martia trekking across the surface of Rura Penthe. It also expresses the brooding, mysterious quality of the film, that sense of the unknown and dangerous. The music manages to evoke a Trek feel, without feeling derivative of the other scores. Indeed, it has a rousingly unique feel to it.

The real strength of this movie, in my opinion, is the examinations it makes of the Kirk and Spock characters. After all this time, after all their adventures, these are the men they have become. Others have strongly criticize the portrayal of Kirk in this movie -- I embrace it. It feels real, it feels human. In my eyes its a perfectly natural attitude for Kirk to adopt after all these years, and everything that's happened to him. And, of course, it's beautifully played by William Shatner, who in my mind gives such a strong performance that it sells the idea to anyone who might doubt it. I'm torn as to whether this or Trek II is Shatner's best performance as Kirk, and at the end of the day I''d say that Trek II is more iconic Kirk, but Trek VI is the better, more nuanced performance.
As for Spock -- I feel that both the arc written for Spock and Nimoy's performance of the character really bring him to the strongest point he's been as a character -- a real culmination of the growth and development in that character since 1964. I love the scenes of anger that Nimoy gives Spock (an element I first saw surface in Trek V's line "Damn you, sir! You will try!"). I love his confrontation of Valeris in sickbay and the hurt, betrayed feeling his gives when he (let's face it) mind rapes her on the bridge. My favourite Spock scenes of all time are the two in his quarters in this movie, the first with Valeris ("Logic is the beginning of wisdom, Lieutenant, not the end,") and the second with Kirk. That second scene with Kirk perfectly encapsulates those two characters and their relationship as far as I'm concerned. "Is it possible that we two, you and I, have grown so old and inflexible that we have outlived our usefulness?" And I love Kirk's line, "You're a great one for logic. I'm a great one for rushing in where angels fear to tread. We're both extremists. Reality is somewhere in between."

One of the other highlights of the film is, of course, Chris Plummer as General Chang. Shatner and Plummer had been colleagues at the Stratford Shakespeare Festival in Canada, and had received the same training as actors -- and indeed it's a sight to see the two of them spar with one another, two men truly on the same level as each other. I love it, and I love the character of Chang. He gets some of the film's best lines, especially "Don't wait for the translation, answer me now!"

The Klingons are great in this picture. I love the sort've feudal, Elizabethan vibe we get from them. I know that Nimoy felt that in the finished film they weren't explored enough, but I think we got enough lectures on Klingon culture from Worf in TNG to make up for it. Indeed, I'm glad the Rura Penthe section was not as originally written. I like that Kirk realizes his flaws by himself in his own self-reflection, it suggests a strength of character in him -- rather than the audience getting some long, condescending scenes out of an after-school special where Kirk meets some Klingons and realizes that they're people too or some such rubbish.

This time watching the film I was really looking for what Tux was saying about it slowing down in the Rura Penthe section and feeling like a TV movie -- but I didn't get that at all. Indeed, I think Trek VI has a very unique story in the movie canon, a murder mystery/political thriller, and that's not a bad thing. Indeed, it gives the film a life and spirit much stronger than just another Trek II retread (*cough* Treks X and XI).

Some have argued, including Gene Roddenberry, that the movie is out of place in the Trek universe for portraying conspiracy within Starfleet and prejudice in the crew of the Enterprise, but I have two thoughts on this. One is that the Gene Roddenberry who disapproved of this movie is the same Roddenberry who created the boring characters and ludicrous restrictions of TNG. The other is that I feel that in showing these people work against prejudice, showing Kirk and Azetbur come together at the end of the movie, showing the Klingons and Federation signing that peace treaty after all the events we've seen, that in fact Star Trek VI really embodies the essence of the anti-prejudice message of Star Trek. I think it exemplifies Tux's theory of Star Trek that rather than show a bunch of perfect people who live in a utopia, show real people rising above themselves to work towards a utopia.

Some may state that this film lacks the exploratory sense of Star Trek, that idea of going into the unknown of space and learning something new, but again I disagree, in that we are in fact going out and exploring another culture, another world, a new future. Here the unknown we are confronting is that of the unknown world of peace. The idea of co-existing as friends with the Klingons. It's a very powerful idea and I think that Trek VI is a very powerful film.

I like, too, that this film gives us a look at the broader political scope of the Star Trek universe. In most of the Original Series to this point we only ever heard about these sort've events and elements, while the Enterprise was off at the edge of space confronting alien puppets and papier mache computer gods.

So indeed, I love this movie because it brings us everything. A Holmesian mystery, political intrigue, rich allegory and metaphor for a contemporary situation (something that Star Trek was built for), and the culmination of character arcs and journeys started twenty-five years earlier. Superbly written, directed, acted, film, and produced all around.

To The Undiscovered Country!

The future.

9.5/10

1. STAR TREK VI: THE UNDISCOVERED COUNTRY
2. STAR TREK II: THE WRATH OF KHAN
3. STAR TREK IV: THE VOYAGE HOME
4. STAR TREK: THE MOTION PICTURE
5. STAR TREK III: THE SEARCH FOR SPOCK
6. STAR TREK V: THE FINAL FRONTIER
7. STAR TREK

Whaddya know! I followed the even-numbers pattern.

Review of Star Trek (XI)

Originally Posted on MI6Forums May 8 2009



WARNING --- THE FOLLOWING POST ENDED UP BEING MUCH LONGER THAN I ORIGINALLY ENDED -- READ AT YOUR OWN PERIL

Dear lord. Um. I knew it was gonna be dumbed down -- but really? Really? Sweet Jesus.

Ohkay, I'll start with the positives? Right? Positives...

The score was good. I actually really liked the new theme.
On the other hand, the Beastie Boys was RETARDED and the "OMG THIS IS SERIOUS!" choir and villain music was completely hamfisted.

The movie looks great. I loved the costumes. This was the best Starfleet uniforms have ever looked. I loved the sound effects.
On the other hand, the set design is practically nonsensical. The bridge of the Enterprise, while clearly it's own deck on the outside, is also clearly on the same level as many other rooms in the interior. The engineering areas not only do not look like the same ship, they don't look like any ship. They don't even look functional. Nero's ship falls prey to questions like "why is it full of bottomless holes and why are there no railings on any of this dangerous walkways over the bottomless hole?"

Hrrmm --- this isn't going well...

Okay, the cinematography. Well -- this is the best looking Star Trek movie, ever. Paramount finally decided to put some money into things. But while the costumes and the bridge look great, I really wish I had more of a chance to see them because Abrams keeps pointing flashlights at me and swinging the camera around wildly so I never get a good look at where all the money is going.
Every time there was an action sequence I had to strain to figure out what was happening because the staging, cinematography, and editing was so haphazardly done.
It's a bad sign when the first shot of the movie is so completely disorienting that I have no idea what's going on for a good minute.

Kay, positives, right -- let's try again --

The cast. Okay. I'm gonna go down the IMDB list. Chris Pine was surprisingly good as Kirk. Not strong enough to lead the cast, mind you, but much better than I expected. He has all the swagger Kirk needs, without aping Shatner. Zachary Quinto on the other hand, let me down as Spock. He's got all the inner turmoil, but he comes off as a huge prick the entire movie. Leonard Nimoy's scenes are golden. He's given some of the worst lines in the movie, but he sells it because he's the only real actor in this cast. Anybody could've played Nero -- the role is barely there and hardly interesting. Bruce Greenwood is the strongest member of the new cast as Captain Pike -- he really grounded the film and made things seem at least somewhat plausible when he said them. Karl Urban was great as McCoy, just great, and I wish he could've been used more. Zoe Saldana had a quiet grace and confidence as Uhura that I liked. Simon Pegg was hilarious as Scotty, but severely underused. John Cho was great as Sulu. And Bong was absolutely right -- Anton Yelchin steals the show as Chekov and makes the most out of every line he's got. Good on him.
Probably the weakest members of the cast are Winona Ryder and Ben Cross as Spock's parents. Ryder never really gets me to care enough about Amanda so when the moment comes it has no impact. Ben Cross isn't so much terrible, as he's up against Mark Lenard -- so yeah, he's terrible.

So the movie looks great, the score's good, it's competently acted -- what's the problem? It's retarded. The story just had far too many contrivances for me to buy it. And also it basically takes the "sci" right out of "sci-fi" and replaces it with lens flare. (Previous statement open for pithy quotation)

Okay, okay. Screw this. I can't organize this properly so here's how it's gonna be -- stream of consciousness: from one end of the movie to another, my thoughts and nitpicks as we go. If you want a more coherent review, go read my other one in the other thread. Also -- spoilers ahead. Sorry, can't really do it otherwise. So don't say I didn't warn you.

So a bunch of other reviewers have single out the opening sequence as an emotional sucker-punch that immediately draws you into the film. I respectfully disagree. Two reasons this sequence did not work for me at all. One was that I'm being asked to care about characters who I know nothing about. Basically my only connection to George Kirk is that he's James Tiberius' father. So what? I don't care. I never get to know these characters, so I don't care when they all die.
My second reason is a nitpick:
Why is Winona Kirk on the USS Kelvin? I'm sorry, but the writers must be as ignorant to the workings of biology as they are to physics. Pregnancy isn't some sudden thing that comes on so quick you don't have time to process it. If a female officer onboard a Starfleet vessel got pregnant she would be off on maternity leave within three months. No way would a nine-months pregnant woman be on a border-patrol scout ship. And don't tell me she's a civilian, because Starfleet didn't start carrying families aboard until about 230 years later. That was my first facepalm of the movie, it was stupid.

A belated facepalm was the appearance of Nero on the Kelvin viewscreen. Why does the Captain of the Kelvin recognize Nero as a Romulan? Humans have never seen a Romulan at this point. The Captain should be like "WTF? A Vulcan?" Pay attention to this facepalm, I'll be bringing it up later.

Time for a fan nitpick -- In Gene Roddenberry's novelization of The Motion Picture, he states the following explanation of James T. Kirk's name: "James" for his uncle (brother of his father, George Samuel Kirk, Sr) and "Tiberius" for the Roman Emperor, who had always fascinated his grandfather, Samuel Kirk. Why the fascination? Because "Tiberius" was a successful general who became a ruthless and terrible emperor, and Kirk's grandfather liked the lesson of "stick with what you're good at". Kirk later used his middle name of a reminder of how easy it is to lose compassion in a position of command.
Okay, sounds good, right?
In this movie, it's "James" after his mother's father and "Tiberius" after his father's father. Yawn/facepalm.

At least they got his year of birth right -- 2233.

We hit one of the story's biggest head scratchers. Nero, our big planet destroying villain, then sits around doing nothing for 25 years. He claims later that he was plotting his revenge, but his plot turns out to be destroy every planet in the Federation. Christ, took him 25 years to come up with that? Gonna take him a while, too. He should've spent the 25 years getting a head start.

Anyways, after the main titles we get the "Corvette" scene. Why the **** is this in the movie? We get a *hint* of Kirk's abusive uncle (but not really) and all this scene does is establish Kirk as a troublemaker -- oh, and makes no sense. We've got the STUPID Beastie Boys song, as well as the 1957 Corvette with 23rd century Nokia radio. Kirk's uncle says its an "antique" -- DUDE IT'S 300 YEARS OLD!!! A farmer in Iowa owning a 300 year old car is like a farmer today owning a 1700s era ANYTHING -- improbable as ****. And in working condition? And young Kirk can drive it?? Most 12-year-olds NOW can't drive a stick shift off-the-cuff and cars are something we're familiar with! FACEPALM.

Next up -- some Vulcan stuff with young Spock. To be honest, the early Vulcan stuff with Spock is great. Well written, well done. The only weaknesses are Ryder as Amanda and Cross as Sarek. They both suck. Oh, and the LUDICROUS dutch angle intro to the Vulcan Science Council scene -- I mean, whaaat? It also would've been nice to get a bit of conflict between Spock and Sarek over Spock's infamous choice to join Starfleet -- after all, this is what supposedly severs their relationship as father and son (hint: this is handled way better in Shatner's book, Collision Course ) Still, the Kolinahr and katric arks references were cool.

Cut to Iowa bar scene. The film starts falling apart.

I'm gonna address something right here and now. The character ages make no sense. I made this realization months ago, I'm gonna spell it out now --

The film takes place in 2258 -- it's established that Kirk joins Starfleet three years earlier, in 2255. This would mean he joined five years later than in the standard timeline, where his academy days were 2250-54. It also means he's about 25 in this movie. Okay. Based on that -- Uhura should be 19 (meaning she should be 16 when we first see her in the bar), Sulu should be 21, and Chekov should be 13 (he explicitly says he's 17 in the movie). Sorry, Nero blowing up the Kelvin in 2233 does not change the ages of the characters. But never mind, I made that point months ago and there's still more plot holes to go.

Okay, my question -- why are a bunch of Academy cadets spending their leave time in a bar in the middle of nowhere in Riverside, Iowa?? The Academy is in San Francisco -- are there no more nightspots on the western seaboard? And why is Captain Pike with them?

Oh. Right. So the movie can contrive a reason for Kirk to meet Uhura and subsequently meet Pike.

This is called BAD WRITING.

"The Riverside shipyards" says Pike. Riiiiight. That are building one ship only. Which ship is being built in Riverside in the year 2255?

The one built in San Francisco in 2245 you say? Well, then!

Okay, so Nero's time meddling for some reason delayed the Enterprise's construction by ten years. Seems that in this timeline, "The Cage" (Roddenberry's original Star Trek story) NEVER HAPPENED, since it was set aboard the Enterprise in 2254, a full year before it was built in this film.

Ahem. Anyways. Jesus this post is going to be loooong. I apologize.

I liked the scene where Kirk gets on the shuttle to go to the Academy (though I totally called the scene where he gives his motorcycle to some dude). The Kirk/McCoy interaction was great, and I liked the friendship that the film developed between them. I also liked the acknowledgement that McCoy's older than Kirk, and the recognition of his failed marriage. It's weird that the film followed canon in some respects, and disregarded it completely in others.

Then we flash forward three years. To me this was a big wasted opportunity -- promised a movie about the beginnings of Kirk and Spock, we really get neither.

One of the funny things about this movie is that it's clear intention is to get people who've never seen a Star Trek to get into the franchise. Yet they do a **** job of explaining anything to the uninitiated. If I knew nothing about Star Trek -- okay, you briefly give me Starfleet and the Federation --- but who are the Klingons? The Romulans? The Romulans are the main villains, yet if I was a newbie watching the movie I'd wonder -- wait, why do these guys look exactly the same as Vulcans. It's about an hour and a half into the movie that Spock finally says "Romulans and Vulcans share a common ancestor".

A smart writer might've taken advantage of the Academy setting to throw in a "history class" expository scene where we set up that the Romulans were offshoots of the Vulcans who left when the Vulcans imposed their philosophy of logic. This would not only explain our villains, but also help new audience members understand why Vulcans lack, yet still have, emotions.

Anyways, instead we get Kirk cheating on the Kobayashi Maru test. Which was fun, and cool, but IMO a little too obvious. I always got the impression it was a bit more of a devious cheat that this OBVIOUS haxors move. Still a fun scene, only taken down by the mention of the "USS Kobayashi Maru."

It's a freighter, not a Starfleet vessel. Therefore "SS Kobayashi Maru", not "USS".
Am I going to nitpick every last detail of this movie?
Well I'm going to sure as hell try. What else have you been waiting for?

The detail that Spock programmed the test is neat, but I don't think necessarily what the writers of TWOK had in mind when they said he never took the test.

The movie almost starts talking about some themes like fear and emotion and no-win scenarios, but then it remembers that **** like that is totally lamzorz and where's all the explosions?

So we begin the first instance of what is clearly the writers complete and utter lack of understanding what the word "verisimilitude" means -- or even the beginnings of how things like "chain-of-command" work.

Turns out that Vulcan is being threatened and because the ENTIRE STARFLEET is all in the Laurentian System (named after the pencil crayons, no doubt), the Cadets of Starfleet Academy are all being pressed into service into the ships in Earth orbit (which are presumably on "defend the **** out of Earth" duty).

Okay --- so I know this is the new film's version of "you're the only ship in the area", but still -- WHAT THE FLYING ****?? Um, no. The entire **** Starfleet is NOT in one **** system. The film NEVER EVER EVER adequately answers the question of WHY all of Starfleet is off in the Laurentian System, it just sticks them there for the ENTIRE MOVIE.

Soooo -- all our cadets are pressed into service. Vulcan is a major planet, one of the five founders of the Federation. Does it not have some ships of it's own? Is there no ships in the Vulcan area that can help with the evacuation?? *sigh*

So next thing we know (after some hijinks) we get all our friends onboard the Enterprise. Spock is the first officer to Pike (Number One does not exist in this timeline, evidently), while our cadets are all commissioned into their original series ranks except Kirk, who's on academic suspension for cheating and McCoy sneaks on in order to facillitate the Nutty Professor swollen hands gag that's completely pointless.

And hello! There's 13 -- ahem -- I mean 17 year old Chekov as our navigator. This begins the writers complete lack of understanding of shipboard positions. At this point in the movie Chekov issues a shipwide communique about the mission (usually Uhura's job) while later in the film Uhura gives Spock bearing and heading info on Nero's ship (logically Chekov's job). Later Sulu asks Chekov to allocate him certain amounts of power at certain points for precision maneuvers (usually Scotty's job). Facepalm.

Chekov's main role in the film is to have a funny accent. It's charming, it's funny, but man is it overplayed. Walter Koenig never layed it on that thick.

Turns out Sulu's here because the regular helmsman is sick with the flu. No jokes.

Uhura gets promoted to senior communications officer when it turns out the perfectly qualified experienced officer in the post can't tell Romulan from Vulcan.

McCoy becomes the doctor because the original doctor is killed in Nero's attack. (Boyce? Noooooooo!) Still, the Chapel reference was HIGHLY appreciated (again, schizophrenic canon adherence).

So the Enterprise arrives at Vulcan, despite Cadet Kirk warning --

and the entire cadet-manned fleet is instantly destroyed by Nero's mining ship's superior 24th century technology. Well, except the Enterprise of course.

Her transporters get taken out (good! an explanation!) so Kirk, Sulu, and Ensign Expendable get choosen by Pike to skydive to Nero's planet destroying drill to destroy it while Pike goes to reason with Nero. Two important things -- Ensign Expendable not only dies a classic redshirt death, but actually was the Enterprise's chief engineer, Lt. Cmdr. Olsen. That'll be important later, when Simon Pegg decides to show up.

Oh, and as Pike's leaving he declares Spock to be Acting Captain and Kirk to be Acting First Officer. Other than the fact that promoting a suspended cadet to First Officer makes no sense, okay fine. Remember this -- it becomes important.

So Kirk and Sulu get a cool action scene fighting Romulan baddies who pop out of hatches in the floor of the drill (why? so we can have an action scene, of course!!), while Pike gets swiftly captured and Spock uttterly fails to save his planet.

The planet Vulcan and all its inhabitants die a redshirt death. Spock briefly muses on the genocide of his entire race in his log, but the impact of this is largely glossed over. Except for when the film finds it convenient.

Like the first massive WTF moment. Spock goes into a turbolift shaft to brood. Good so far. Uhura follows him. Okay. Uhura comforts him on the loss of his race. Okay. She does this by frenching him. Repeatedly. Which Spock totally goes along with.

Kay, WHAAAT??? Where did this come from? The movie completely springs this on us as if its normal. It's not. Seeing Spock and Uhura make out is as weird as seeing my parents make out.

Don't worry -- it's never explained or developed. It also becomes Uhura's sole role in the movie from here on out.

Spock decides that this is all Kirk's fault. Kirk wants to chase Nero to Earth, while Spock wants to rendezvous with the fleet in the Pencil Crayon System. No one thinks of hailing the fleet and saying "YO DAWG! MOBILIZE EVERYTHING!! GET TO EARTH! MEET YOU THERE!!!"

For doing the job of a First Officer and questioning the Captain, Kirk is summarily exiled by Spock to Delta Vega.

Hmmmm -- they happened to pass by a planet that is less than a day (on impulse) away from the edge of the galaxy (1,000 light years from Earth) while on their way between Vulcan (16 light years from Earth) and Earth itself. Facepalm.

After running from monsters, Kirk runs into NimoySpock, who was exiled there by Nero, and Scotty, who was exiled there by Starfleet.
Delta Vega -- your one-stop out of the way spot for exiles.

Nimoy nearly saves the film. His performance is touching and really gets to you. Too bad he's required to give the exposition necessary to explain the FUBAR of a plot. Supernovas cannot expand and threaten the galaxy. Why is it Ambassador Spock who volunteers to save Romulus with a black hole? How is it that Romulus is suddenly destroyed with no warning? Supernovas are not sudden things that come out of nowhere.
Black holes do not equal time travel. (Nevermind that the black hole is inconsistent -- one moment it equals time travel, the next -- destruction!)

Now, Star Trek has always played fast and loose with science, but at least it's always respected the basics, respected the ideals and the principles, and when breaking it always tried to come up with a halfway decent bullsh*t explanation.

But no, this just shows that the writers really had no desire to do any homework to make their plot.

But again, like every other implausible thing in this script, this is dealt with quickly and not elaborated on -- we're meant to forget it and move on.

I would say this was the point when the film lost my suspension of disbelief.

Spock Prime convinces Kirk that being in command of the Enterprise is important and gives Scotty some advanced future knowledge that helps them beam to the Enterprise. Scotty ends up in a water pipe and "hilarity" ensues.

Kirk then pulls a "This Side of Paradise" and insults Spock until he loses it, and so declares Spock unfit for command, and so declares himself Captain, since Pike declared him First Officer a whole act ago.

I would've loved to have seen a Lieutenant Commander go "excuse me? You're a cadet. No." But oh well. Dramatic tension would've slowed things down -- we have an explosive finale to get to.

It was around this time that I realized the excuse for a plot was basically the plot of Nemesis again. Rogue Romulan with big-ass spaceship has a superweapon and is going to blow up Earth. Only this time with TOS characters and some time travel BS.

Anyways, with Kirk in command, we intercept Nero and have a big fight. Kirk and Spock beam over and pew pew laser guns with Nero's crew and I scratch my head at Nero's nonsensical ship design. I wish we had learned more about Nero and the villains. As it is I just don't care.

Some more Nemesis parallels as Spock pilots a small vessel around within the big ship shooting stuff, and then rams it into the ship, getting beamed out in the nick of time.

They manage to suck Nero and his big ship up into a black hole (the same black hole that earlier sent **** through time) and then escape said black hole by *ahem* ejecting the warp core and blowing it up and then riding the explosion out. Scotty specifically says "warp core" singular, but something like nine cores come flying out of the ship. Why? Same reason why King Kong fought three T-rexes in the remake instead of one -- more is cooler, dawg.

The question of why the explosion of nine warp cores doesn't just destroy the Enterprise (when the explosion of just one destroyed the Ent-D in Generations) doesn't matter because I stopped expecting this story to make sense about an hour and a half ago.

In gratitude for saving Earth, Kirk & Co. are all promoted to their familiar TOS positions officially, while Pike gets a (normal) wheelchair and a promotion to Admiral. No stem cell legs? No robot legs? Jeez, the future sucks.

One of my big facepalms in this movie was I kept getting dropped out of the idea that it was the 23rd Century. From the product placement (pretty sure commercialization didn't exist in Roddenberry's idea of the future) to the car/Beastie Boys to Pike in a normal wheelchair, the world has changed very little.

I have no idea where everyone keeps getting this idea that the utopian optimism is intact. I didn't see it. Yeah the future isn't shown as a dystopian wasteland, but I still didn't see Roddenberry's utopia in evidence.

And yeah, this story isn't about anything. No social commentary, no philosophical ideas, no deep thought. Just a fun action/adventure.

Mainly the point of this film was moving all the chess pieces around the board to get us in the position to do a sequel with all the familiar characters on board, only ten years younger than they were in the classic series.

In a good film, the director's job is to unify the various departments of a film to fit a coherent, consistent vision. Everything works together. That does not happen in this film. The costumes and sound effects tastefully update the old show, while the sets are completely different (and schizophrenic in and of itself). The film looks polished and beautiful, but the cinematography and editing is so haphazard and spastic that it's hard to see any of it. The CGI looks good in ONE SHOT -- the first reveal of the Enterprise (which is the same shot as our first sight, too) and that shot looks like a well-made model. The rest of the film is CGI. And meh CGI at that. I have no idea what Abrams was doing, because this film is a mish-mash of ideas and efforts, some great, some bland, and none of it coherent or consistent.

The movie's fun, it's got some good performances, it's got some good acting, it looks polished, the score is cool.

But damn is the story a massive facepalm.

I know people will say -- you're just being a and nitpicking little details and ignoring that the film is a great fun time -- but gods damnit thjerk e story was NON-EXISTANT! The movie was written by retarded five-year-olds with no idea how to realistically portray a Navy (even a future navy) or Science. At all. Even all the character development was just a rush to get from one CGI setpiece to another.

I have and always will maintain that intelligence and verisimilitude need not be sacrificed to tell a fun and entertaining story. I will maintain that view for as long as I live. I don't care that modern Hollywood seems to hold that "smart" and "fun" are incompatible -- I refuse to go along with that view!

As a Trekkie, I give this movie

4.5/10

And I apologize for the long, rambling, nit-picking, spoiler-filled post, I really do.

For any Trekkies who side with my (apparently extreme minority) opinion, I strongly continue to recommend William Shatner's new book Star Trek Academy: Collision Course

Review of Star Trek Generations

Originally posted on MI6Forums Dec 22 2010


"Captain, I need you to come to the future with me and save the galaxy."


"You know, I've got hot tail waiting for me upstairs, and I had a good send-off in Star Trek VI. For all I've done for it,"


"The galaxy can go f*ck itself. And so can you, Picard."


"I'll get Chris Pine to do it."


"Pleasure to work with you, where do I sign up?"

Well, my opinion of it hasn't changed very much. I still believe the movie has three problems:
1) While destroying the Enterprise-D and killing the Duras sisters is major, the movie for the most part feels like an extended episode of the show rather than a MOVIE. Unsurprising since it was written by TV writers, produced by a TV producer and directed by a TV director, with production starting only a week after the TV show wrapped.
2) The movie loses all its momentum once Picard wakes up in the Nexus for his family Christmas thing. You just tune out and stop caring.
3) The entire GENERATIONS aspect of the movie. The whole movie is a NEXT GEN movie dealing with NEXT GEN issues and storylines, and Kirk is really just superfluous. Picard doesn't need KIRK, he needs A GUY to distract Soren while he sabotages the missile. So Kirk just feels shoehorned into the beginning and end.

That being said, the movie isn't awful. We do get some good things, like fine acting from Stewart, and the chance to see how good the Ent-D and her sets could've looked if lit in any style other than BLAND. The movie is in no way bad, just mediocre and forgettable. Certainly not the big event that Paramount wanted for the Trekgasm that was 1995 -- this movie was supposed to be the meeting of TOS and TNG coming on the heels of the successful finale of TNG and heralding the big premiere of VOY and UPN in time to celebrate the 30th anniversary of Trek. Instead we got Picard and Kirk making eggs and riding horses while Data engages in schtick.

But Malcolm McDowell is good and I liked the involvment of Guinan in the plot and I liked putting a cap on the Duras sisters storyline finally and I love the spectacle of blowing up the Ent-D and crashing it. So there's stuff to like here.

It's just no one involved really knew how to make a MOVIE. Yet...

6/10

1. STAR TREK VI: THE UNDISCOVERED COUNTRY
2. STAR TREK II: THE WRATH OF KHAN
3. STAR TREK IV: THE VOYAGE HOME
4. STAR TREK: THE MOTION PICTURE
5. STAR TREK III: THE SEARCH FOR SPOCK
6. STAR TREK GENERATIONS
7. STAR TREK V: THE FINAL FRONTIER
8. STAR TREK

Star Trek: Voyager Season 2 Review

First posted on MI6Forums and BondandBeyond from Jan 29 2011 to Apr 18 2011

"Initiations"
So this episode obviously has two intentions: One is to develop Chakotay, who was woefully underdeveloped in Season 1 after the pilot. The other is to develop the Kazon, for whom the same can be said. On the Kazon end, the episode succeeds, despite making a few mistakes. On the other, its a complete failure. The biggest problem with Chakotay in Season 1 was that for an angry Maquis terrorist leader and contrarian, he was too passive. The writers decided to put too much emphasis on the whole wise Native New Age mystic crap. And they make that same mistake here. Chakotay spends the whole episode being tolerant and accepting and New Age-y. Meanwhile Aron Eisenberg and the other Kazon actors in this episode really sell the race in a way Season 1 episodes didn't, but the emphasis on honour in battle (and the make-up) makes the Kazon come across way too much as watered down Klingons -- although the whole sects/gang/youth thing are really cool. All in all, this is a good VOY episode for focussing on developing characters and the Delta Quadrant, and for having fairly dark themes, as opposed to a high concept sci-fi technoadventure. Also -- Neelix gets to do something important! Wow, its amazing how unannoying Ethan Phillips is when he's not written stupidly.
# of Crew: 152 Total -- 133 Starfleet, 17 Maquis, 2 Civilians
# of Shuttles: 9
# of Warp Cores: 2
# of Photon Torpedoes: 37
# of Gel Packs: 47
Time Ens. Wildman has been pregnant: 248 days (8 months)
Distance to Alpha Quadrant: 74,538.8 lightyears

"Non Sequitur"
Having given Chakotay and the Kazon some love, Season 2's second episode pays some attention to Harry Kim, who has done NOTHING essentially since the pilot. This is great! The whole episode is a really cool mystery, a fun look back at Earth and the Alpha Quadrant, and a fun "what if" scenario for Kim and Paris. Also -- holy ****, it's the Admiral who dies later in First Contact! So its a fairly fun and interesting VOY episode that succeeds in developing Kim, although I think its the most development he ever gets, ever. Am I mistaken?
# of Crew: 152 Total -- 133 Starfleet, 17 Maquis, 2 Civilians
# of Shuttles: 8
# of Warp Cores: 2
# of Photon Torpedoes: 37
# of Gel Packs: 47
Time Ens. Wildman has been pregnant: 250 days (8 months)
Distance to Alpha Quadrant: 74,536.7 lightyears
2 shuttles destroyed in back-to-back episodes -- not good, USS Voyager, not good.

"Parturition"
In the Alpha Quadrant, the Klingons and the Federation have ended 79 years of peace and the Klingons and Cardassians are at war, while the Dominion looks on, ominiously.
Meanwhile, in the DQ, Paris and Neelix settle their differences by caring for an animatronic puppet dinosaur in the cave set. And that's the A-Plot!
Also, Janeway tries a new hairdo (her third) and we're three for three this season on shuttle crashes. Way to conserve, guys!
But really, I don't mind reconciling Neelix and Paris and closing that whole storyline, but it should've been a B plot in a better episode -- like the Kazons attack and Seska's trying to kill Chakotay and Neelix and Paris are trapped in a cargo bay and have to work together to survive sorta thing -- but instead we get a full episode with the two of them in the cave set with the puppet.
In a show frontloaded with conflict (Voy vs the DQ, Starfleet vs Maquis, Paris vs Everyone) its annoying that the only conflict developed regularly has been this petty jealousy between Paris and Neelix.
Anyways, this episode bored me to tears and was awful.
# of Crew: 152 Total -- 133 Starfleet, 17 Maquis, 2 Civilians
# of Shuttles: 7
# of Warp Cores: 2
# of Photon Torpedoes: 37
# of Gel Packs: 47
Time Ens. Wildman has been pregnant: 271 days (8.7 months)
Distance to Alpha Quadrant: 74,516.2 lightyears
A note about my shuttle count: It's not TECHNICALLY accurate. Voyager is supposed to have 3 type 6 shuttles, 3 type 8 shuttles, 2 shuttlepods and 2 work EVAs, but for my purposes I decided to EXTREMELY generous and say that they had 10 shuttles period, of any type. Strictly speaking, as of this episode, we are already out of type 8 shuttles.
Also -- this week's plot was initiated because we were down to 30% of food stores, so we stopped at the planet of the week because we thought there was food there. There wasn't, actually, but then the "plot" started and by the end of the episode we completely forgot that the crew is starving.

"Persistance of Vision"
Yet another "strange events on the Voyager mess with the crew's heads" high concept trip, but this one gets a pass from me because it is in the interests of CHARACTER. We return to issues of Janeway, Paris, Torres etc as PEOPLE which have not been dealt with in some time. For that it gets a passing grade. I even love the villain, a very ominous and threatening character who SHOULD have appeared again if they hadn't given his species the complete and utter rip off name of BOTHAN. But a fairly good episode.
# of Crew: 152 Total -- 133 Starfleet, 17 Maquis, 2 Civilians
# of Shuttles: 7
# of Warp Cores: 2
# of Photon Torpedoes: 37
# of Gel Packs: 47
Time Ens. Wildman has been pregnant: 282 days (9.1 months)
Distance to Alpha Quadrant: 74,504.4 lightyears

"Tattoo"
Chakotay gets character development. As much as I like and respect what they were trying to do here, I find major elements of this episode insulting and offensive. Insulting to my intelligence because I'm supposed to believe that there was a Native American sect on Earth that had **** Klingon foreheads and NO ONE NOTICED THIS or considered it something worth FREAKING OUT ABOUT even though its as obvious as ****, and that Chakotay's people are descended from them but don't have the same foreheads. That makes no sense. Offensive because its yet another bit of science fiction that insists that the Mayans must have had help from Aliens, which is just ludicrous White Supremist nonsense. So there's no way that Egyptians or Mayans could have built pyramids all by themselves, but Western civilization of course achieved all its glories on its own? What a crock of ****. If aliens had helped the Mayans, why where they so incredibly LESS advanced than us, the group without alien assistance, when we showed up??
The other stupid thing about this episode is it has yet ANOTHER alien race be responsible for the god myths of a primitive culture when "Who Mourns for Adonais?" [TOS], "The Paradise Syndrome" [TOS] and "Sharper than a Serpent's Tooth" [TAS] had already done so -- and two of those three involved Native American/Mayan cultures!! Yeesh, ancient Earth sure was a popular stop for Aliens!
But yes, it was good character development for Chakotay.
# of Crew: 152 Total -- 133 Starfleet, 17 Maquis, 2 Civilians
# of Shuttles: 7
# of Warp Cores: 2
# of Photon Torpedoes: 37
# of Gel Packs: 47
Time Ens. Wildman has been pregnant: 293 days (9.5 months)
Distance to Alpha Quadrant: 74,473.6 lightyears

"Cold Fire"
This is an absolutely great VOYAGER episode until the very final moments. Developing Kes, the Ocampa, and the Nacene races introduced in the pilot, furthering along the core VOYAGER story arc, and featuring some great moments from Jennifer Lien and Tim Russ, the whole episode crackles with a dramatic energy the show has lacked for a while. Its biggest failure comes with how it deals with Suspiria. The episode sets up a mysterious, powerful and ruthless enemy, and when she appears there's that great scene of the little girl with the old voice inflicting pain and suffering on Janeway, Tuvok and Torres. Its all immensely effective until Suspiria is convinced, out of nowhere, that in fact Janeway was truthful about not being responsible for the Caretaker's death, and then just goes away, no problem, no questions asked. Yet! Even though Suspiria KNEW Janeway wanted to be spent home, and HAD the ability to do so, and was no longer Janeway's enemy -- she doesn't. For no reason. Then Janeway decides to keep on a course for Earth, hoping maybe they might bump into Suspiria again someday. Maybe? Bump into? You JUST DID BUMP INTO. She was RIGHT THERE! You KNOW she's still gonna hang out in the same area because there's an Array RIGHT THERE and a bunch of Ocampa she actively interacts with! Just hang around the Array until she comes back! Hell, you don't even need her! All the tech you need to go home is ON THAT ARRAY!!
ARRRRGH! Frakkin' Janeway!! I would've SO mutinied by now.
# of Crew: 152 Total -- 133 Starfleet, 17 Maquis, 2 Civilians
# of Shuttles: 7
# of Warp Cores: 2
# of Photon Torpedoes: 37
# of Gel Packs: 47
Time Ens. Wildman has been pregnant: 305 days (9.8 months)
Distance to Alpha Quadrant: 74,450 lightyears

"Maneuvers"
This was another pretty good VOYAGER episode dealing with the series premise and running series villains the Kazon. To be honest, its kind've ridiculous that after so many months we'd encounter the same sect and Maj as in "State of Flux" last season? Are we not making any progress? Also, what was Seska waiting around for before making her move? Her Cardassianess to come back? Anyways, aside from these questions its a great episode with a lot of good dramatic tension and action.
# of Crew: 152 Total -- 133 Starfleet, 17 Maquis, 2 Civilians
# of Shuttles: 7
# of Warp Cores: 2
# of Photon Torpedoes: 37
# of Gel Packs: 47
Time Ens. Wildman has been pregnant: 321 days (10.4 months)
Distance to Alpha Quadrant: 74,207.2 lightyears

"Resistance"
This episode really tried to be dramatic, dark and emotionally involving. At times it was like VOY trying really hard to be DS9 (first or second season DS9, but still). But it all falls totally flat. Because I don't care. The episode asks us to become emotionally involved in a resistance movement against a totalitarian dictatorship but the only reason it gives is because the bad guys are bad. We don't know the history -- we don't know why this planet is like it is, why there's a dictatorship, who the resistance is or what they're fighting for. Its just heroes and villains but it still wants us to care. And I still don't because I also know that none of this matters because I will never see this planet or these people ever again -- there are no consequences. Whereas when DS9 looks at terrorism and rebellion and war, whether it be the Bajorans or the Maquis or whoever, I know there is an ongoing significance.
But, one thing this episode does have going for it is showing a kind of situation Voyager should be getting into more often: desperate for vital supplies, Janeway is clandestinely trading with the resistance fighters against the knowledge of the government. This is interesting, this is central to the series premise but... WHERE DID THIS COME FROM? It would mean more if we had any sense before this episode that Voyager was running low on fuel. It would also make more sense if we had gotten any build up in Janeway's character to explain this sudden about face in her personal beliefs: given that this action goes against her hard stance in "Prime Factors" back in first season. Its not that the change itself is bad, but that its sudden, unexplained, and unremarked upon. The Captain suddenly has completely different values just to serve the plot of an episode. Its something I could never conceive of seeing in the handling of Kirk, Picard or Sisko's characterization.
# of Crew: 152 Total -- 133 Starfleet, 17 Maquis, 2 Civilians
# of Shuttles: 7
# of Warp Cores: 2
# of Photon Torpedoes: 37
# of Gel Packs: 47
Time Ens. Wildman has been pregnant: 332 days (10.7 months)
Distance to Alpha Quadrant: 74,024.8 lightyears
This is why I'm watching VOY and DS9 at the same time. It makes VOY more bearable (even if it actually acentuates how terrible it is at the same time). Its interesting the difference, for example, between how a VOY episode tries to be exciting, while a DS9 episode is genuinely exciting. Let's compare:
In a VOY episode, the ship might get attacked by an alien vessel with far superior armaments, with a chance the crew might all be killed. That seems exciting, but it really isn't, because
a) We know the main characters won't die, cause then there's no series and
b) Even if they did, what does it matter? Anything could happen to Voyager and it has no consequences or repercussions anywhere else.
Whereas on DS9, the Romulan/Cardassian Alliance has sent a fleet into the Gamma Quadrant on a pre-emptive strike against the Dominion and it's genuinely exciting because
a) We have no idea if they will succeed or fail and
b) Either way it will have massive repercussions for the galaxy and for the series.

Anyways,

"Prototype"
Despite a lot of cliches and a plot that will never impact this series again, this was a pretty good episode. I liked the moral conundrum, I liked the twist on the moral conundrum. For once, a "Prime Directive Episode" shows us why the Prime Directive is a GOOD thing. Usually we run up against the Prime Directive, have a discussion, and violate it anyways because its more interesting and then everything turns out better than expected (see: TOS). This episode showed us WHY the Prime Directive is there -- we violate it, and tip the balance in a Robot War. So that was great. I also liked that the robots ended up being coldhearted merciless killing machines -- that's a fun and unexpected twist for Trek, which usually makes everyone nice and understandable at heart. Finally, I loved the robots themselves -- I loved that instead of trying to look like detailed, complex, believeable 90s style robots, they were unabashedly tin men in suits, simple, basic, primal, 50s style robots -- robots with a capital R. So an enjoyable episode overall.
# of Crew: 152 Total -- 133 Starfleet, 17 Maquis, 2 Civilians
# of Shuttles: 7
# of Warp Cores: 2
# of Photon Torpedoes: 37
# of Gel Packs: 47
Time Ens. Wildman has been pregnant: 343 days (11 months)
Distance to Alpha Quadrant: 73,857.6 lightyears

"Death Wish"
An episode after Janeway WON'T let Torres CREATE life because it MIGHT have unexpected consequences for a REGION of space, Janeway is perfectly willing to END life which WILL have unexpected consequences on the INFINITY of SPACE/TIME. Lol, inconsistent characterization indeed.
But I digress, this is a great episode of Voyager. Probably one of the all time, classic, must-see top ten for sures. Its also the only one of the Voyager "Q" episodes that's any good. (A good rule of thumb for Q episodes is "is the title a pun?" If no, episode is good.) This is a great episode that really examines the issues of life vs. death, individual vs. the state, chaos vs. order, etc etc. Of course, it has a courtroom structure -- Trek courtroom episodes RARELY fail. Thumbs up all around on this one.
# of Crew: 152 Total -- 133 Starfleet, 17 Maquis, 2 Civilians
# of Shuttles: 7
# of Warp Cores: 2
# of Photon Torpedoes: 37
# of Gel Packs: 47
Time Ens. Wildman has been pregnant: 355 days (11.5 months)
Distance to Alpha Quadrant: 73,856.3 lightyears

"Alliances"
Now this was a good episode of VOYAGER. Not just a good episode of STAR TREK, like "Death Wish" was, but specifically Voyager. It dealt with the major themes of the series -- lost in an unknown part of the galaxy, no support, no allies, beset by enemies on all sides, torn between the values of Starfleet and the pragmatism of the Maquis. The episode explores these themes not only with intelligence, but with drama and excitement -- although to be honest it gets points just for exploring them at all, since VOY ignores its own premise so often. My only real complaints are that the extremely severe damage Voyager sustains in Act One is easily repaired between commercial breaks -- and that Janeway's solution to the problem is anti-climatic. Here was an episode that seemed like its whole point was to finally shake the crew into realizing they were going to have to change and adapt to their new situation, that this would have lasting repurcussions on the series -- but the writers manipulate the situation into giving Janeway a justification to declare that, in fact, they must be truer to their ideals than every -- in other words, that nothing will change, so that the reset button is pushed and its all the same by the next episode.
# of Crew: 149 Total -- 131 Starfleet, 16 Maquis, 2 Civilians
# of Shuttles: 7
# of Warp Cores: 2
# of Photon Torpedoes: 34
# of Gel Packs: 47
Time Ens. Wildman has been pregnant: 370 days (11.9 months)
Distance to Alpha Quadrant: 73,854.9 lightyears

"Threshold"
And WHAT a next episode! What I can I say about "Threshold" that hasn't already been said? Nothing here is worthwhile. The whole thing can be unequivocably shoved out the airlock. Achieving warp 10 is absurd, achieving warp 10 with the limited resources of this ship is more absurd, achieving warp 10 in a shuttle is even more absurd -- and may I point out that this is the first appearance of the type 9 shuttle, a kind of shuttle Voyager wasn't even stocked with when they left (we had type 6s and type 8s and we've destroyed all the type 8s even though we keep seeing them anyway). They NEVER in the episode explain why going warp 10 causes Paris to mutate, or how warp 10 knows what course human evolution is going to take (since evolution is influenced by environmental factors, even if Paris' individual evolution was hyperstimulated, wouldn't he just evolve into a lifeform supersuited to life on a starship, not a salamander puppet?). And if Paris is evolving, how can evolution take him from being mammalian to reptillian? Then there's the mating with Janeway thing. Why JANEWAY? Why not Kes, someone who the show has already established that Paris has repressed romantic feelings for her? Also, the show has tiptoed around giving Janeway ANY romantic entanglements because it was feared doing so would diminish her position as Captain, and the first time they do it is to her conn officer and they have 3 mutant salamander kids and the only reason its done is for the LULZ??
Finally, the reason warp 10 tech is supposedly abandoned is implied to be this crazy mutation stuff. But the doctor MAGICALLY restored the captain and Paris from salamander puppets to COMPLETELY NORMAL almost INSTANTLY, so can't we just warp 10 to Earth and when we all mutate the Doc will just magically restore us all?
Fuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuck.
(Meanwhile, Crewman Jonas is engaging in under the table communications with the Kazon, continuing a subplot from "Alliances". Continuing storylines on Voyager?? OMG!!)
# of Crew: 149 Total -- 131 Starfleet, 16 Maquis, 2 Civilians
# of Shuttles: 7
# of Warp Cores: 2
# of Photon Torpedoes: 34
# of Gel Packs: 47
Time Ens. Wildman has been pregnant: 379 days (12.2 months)
Distance to Alpha Quadrant: 73,899.5 lightyears

"Meld"
Now here, on the other hand, was an episode I like. I like Tuvok, I like criminal investigations, and I like psychopaths, so I think the idea of putting a Vulcan against a random psycho killer with no rational motivation was a great idea on the writers part and produced a fantastic episode. Brad Dourif is great as Suder and honestly I like him wherever he shows up (he's a bright spot in Alien: Resurrection). Russ gives a great performance as well. This is a thumbs up episode.
# of Crew: 148 Total -- 130 Starfleet, 16 Maquis, 2 Civilians
# of Shuttles: 7
# of Warp Cores: 2
# of Photon Torpedoes: 34
# of Gel Packs: 47
Time Ens. Wildman has been pregnant: 393 days (12.7 months)
Distance to Alpha Quadrant: 73,686.7 lightyears
I must note that after tiptoeing around killing crewmembers for a whole season (after the pilot we only lost one in all of season one) we finally started killing some people off. DUN DUN DUN.
On a different note -- it annnoys me that the stock shots of Voyager that the producer's use for establishing shots or over Captain's Logs are almost always shots of the ship at IMPULSE, even if we aren't stopping or engaging within a planetary system or anything. For example, we never went anywhere specific in either "Death Wish" or "Meld", we were just moving the whole time, yet the effects shots create the impression we were cruising at impulse. Why?? Are the crew in NO hurry to get to Earth?? At full impulse it would take 294,746 years to get home!!! Show the ship at warp!!

"Dreadnought"
Now here was a good, exciting episode, with some legitimate dramatic tension. I was especially impressed with Roxann Dawson's performance -- she's effectively having to act all by herself, then come in and ADR the other half of the scene playing against her earlier performance, and make the two sides convincingly similar, yet completely different. It turns out great. Its a little incredulous that the Dreadnought was ALSO pulled into the Delta Quadrant and that two years later Voyager runs into it when Voyager is bee-lining to Earth while Dreadnought is following a random course -- but honestly the episode is good enough to overlook it.
Also -- Voyager has the easiest self destruct mechanism to arm ever, no confirmation needed, just Janeway.
But yeah, good, fun episode, with B'Elanna's terrorist past coming back to haunt her -- sort've a good exploration of who she was versus who she is now.
# of Crew: 148 Total -- 130 Starfleet, 16 Maquis, 2 Civilians
# of Shuttles: 7
# of Warp Cores: 2
# of Photon Torpedoes: 27
# of Gel Packs: 47
Time Ens. Wildman has been pregnant: 406 days (13 months)
Distance to Alpha Quadrant: 73,480.3 lightyears

"Lifesigns"
This is a nice, quiet, enjoyable episode. I think this is the first really important "Doctor" episode for me -- "Heroes and Demons" took him out of sickbay and "Projections" questioned his nature, but this is the first time where we don't just look at the Doctor as more than a hologram -- we look at him as more than a Doctor. The scenes between Denara and "Dr. Shmullus" (as she dubs him) have genuine chemistry and really work. Then there's the continuing storylines (on Voyager! GASP!) of Jonas the Traitor and Unruly Paris. The weirdest part of all is that Denara lives through the episode and we end without the standard "and then their romance was tragically ruined" ending. In fact, they don't even give a reason as to why the Doc wouldn't just keep using Shmullus as a name...
# of Crew: 148 Total -- 130 Starfleet, 16 Maquis, 2 Civilians
# of Shuttles: 7
# of Warp Cores: 2
# of Photon Torpedoes: 27
# of Gel Packs: 47
Time Ens. Wildman has been pregnant: 420 days (13.5 months)
Distance to Alpha Quadrant: 73,412.2 lightyears

"Investigations"
And so this subplot that has run through the series for six episodes comes to a head here -- in a Neelix episode. This episode is trying, but it's just not worth all the build up to this point. Neelix reaches an all time high for annoyance levels so far in this episode, Jonas dies by falling into a hole that opens up from nowhere in Engineering, and the whole thing just isn't as good as it should have been. It's not that the episode is bad, it's pretty entertaining most of the way, it's just not up to potential. Sort've VOYAGER in a microcosm, I guess.
# of Crew: 147 Total -- 130 Starfleet, 15 Maquis, 2 Civilians
# of Shuttles: 7
# of Warp Cores: 2
# of Photon Torpedoes: 27
# of Gel Packs: 47
Time Ens. Wildman has been pregnant: 427 days (13.8 months)
Distance to Alpha Quadrant: 73,409 lightyears

"Deadlock"
I think, taken on its own, it's a fairly strong episode. It even AVOIDs a reset button plot by having the Voyager that survives of the two duplicates be the horrifically damaged one. Two things ruin the episode. One is that we are meant to believe that a force of 347 Vidiians board Voyager, outnumbering the crew and taking over the ship -- which is undermined when we only see about two or three of them walking around mostly empty corridors at any one time. The other is the infamous "damage" issue -- the USS Voyager, a ship without access to starbases, spacedock, or any normal forms of supply or support is left at the end of this episode with a destroyed bridge, destroyed warp coils, a hull breach on decks 14-16, and microfractures throughout the hull. And then at the start of the next episode EVERYTHING IS FINE. I mean, if the Producers didn't want to follow up on the issue of all this damage, then they should've made the duplicate Voyager with no damage be the one that survives. Instead they leave us like this, and then everything is magically repaired between episodes. One would think it would be easier for production to just leave things all scorched and broken for another week, mention that repairs are underway or something, perhaps with the help of the planet of the week aliens, and then be back to normal for the week after that. However, its hard to fault "Deadlock" itself for this, but rather the Producers as a whole and the next episode in particular.
# of Crew: 148 Total -- 130 Starfleet, 15 Maquis, 3 Civilians
# of Shuttles: 7
# of Warp Cores: 2
# of Photon Torpedoes: 27
# of Gel Packs: 47
Time Ens. Wildman was pregnant: 444 days (14.3 months) -- also, her half-human half-Ktarian baby looks nothing like a Ktarian.
Distance to Alpha Quadrant: 73,401.3 lightyears

"Innocence"
Unless its DS9, Star Trek and children just does not mix. Also, this episode's entire premise is based on the fact that the aliens conveniently neglect to mention a very obvious fact, and the whole thing is really stupid in retrospect. Like THE SIXTH SENSE.
# of Crew: 147 Total -- 129 Starfleet, 15 Maquis, 3 Civilians
# of Shuttles: 7
# of Warp Cores: 2
# of Photon Torpedoes: 27
# of Gel Packs: 47
Distance to Alpha Quadrant: 73,401.3 lightyears

"The Thaw"
This was actually a really cool, interesting episode from Joe "Weird as Fuck" Menosky. Reminded me of a TOS episode.
# of Crew: 147 Total -- 129 Starfleet, 15 Maquis, 3 Civilians
# of Shuttles: 7
# of Warp Cores: 2
# of Photon Torpedoes: 27
# of Gel Packs: 47
Distance to Alpha Quadrant: 73,356.4 lightyears

"Tuvix"
As much as I like Tuvok, I much prefer the option of Tuvix to the option of Tuvok and Neelix. Tuvix seems like a super legit guy from what we see here.
I would like to declare this as officially the point where I lost all sympathy with this crew, except for Dr. Schmullus (the EMH). Seriously, not ONE person stood up for Tuvix? They just stood by while Janeway killed him? Fuck that. Also, I declare this episode the official beginning of sociopath Janeway. Not even kidding this time. She actually demonstrates mental disorder IN THIS SOLE EPISODE. She goes from sympathy and friendship to cold determined murder within a single shot. Look at the last shot of the episode. She walks out of the room with this look on her face like she's privately ashamed/sorry for what she's done, but then her face morphs into a solid state of hatred and evil and she marchs down the hall. Fuck Janeway. Sociopath with a crew of sheep. Except the Doc, who refused to perform the operation, respecting the patient's right over his own body.
# of Crew: 147 Total -- 129 Starfleet, 15 Maquis, 2 Civilians
# of Shuttles: 7
# of Warp Cores: 2
# of Photon Torpedoes: 27
# of Gel Packs: 47
Distance to Alpha Quadrant: 73,320 lightyears

"Resolutions"
Aka Jeri Taylor teases all the Janeway/Chakotay shippers.
The entire planetside story is a massive yawn, and worthless because all of the great near-romantic bonding the pair do is clearly forgotten and tossed aside at the end of the episode. The shipside storyline with Tuvok in command was good, and all of the continuity tosses back to previous Vidiian storylines were very appreciated, but for the most part this episode is a real time waster. Seriously. Takes place over 97 days. 97 days where no progress is made getting back home.
# of Crew: 147 Total -- 129 Starfleet, 15 Maquis, 3 Civilians
# of Shuttles: 7
# of Warp Cores: 2
# of Photon Torpedoes: 24
# of Gel Packs: 47
Distance to Alpha Quadrant: 73,304.6 lightyears

"Basics, Part I"
Okay, so I gotta admit that this was a great, dramatic cliffhanger episode from Michael Piller. Certainly no "Best of Both Worlds", but it made a great use of a lot of elements from earlier in the season, from Suder to the Kazons, to help give a feel as if Season 2 was a cohesive whole, building on itself and leading up to this. Which was appreciated. Not exactly DS9 levels of good serial style writing, but at least appreciated. The cliffhanger itself isn't so much "omg will they survive?" but "omg how will they survive?" and I think the episode does a reasonably good job of being dramatic and exciting and leaving the audience excited for the conclusion.
# of Crew: 147 Total -- 129 Starfleet, 15 Maquis, 3 Civilians
# of Shuttles: 7
# of Warp Cores: 2
# of Photon Torpedoes: 18 (I point out we now have less than half of our original torpedo complement, and haven't even run into the Borg yet)
# of Gel Packs: 47
Distance to Alpha Quadrant: 73,267.1 lightyears