[VOY] Aaron's Review: "Alice" (spoilers)
ASP 7485
Aaron's Review:
Star Trek: Voyager
"Alice"
Story by: Juliann deLayne
Teleplay by: Bryan Fuller and Michael Taylor
Music by: David Bell
Directed by: David Livingston
Plot: Tom becomes infatuated with an alien ship and it takes over his mind.
Before I get into my review, a short apology. By my standards this review is
late (I try to get them about before Monday after the show has aired). I have
been bogged down with homework lately and haven't had a chance to write this.
Sorry! But now, on with itÖ
..
When I think of "Alice, the word "cliched" comes to mind. How many times
has the premise of "machine comes to life!" been used? Plenty. "Contrived"
also comes to mind. Voyager has only had one instance where its power supply
became a problem, "Demon," but that show is probably better left forgotten.
Now, all of a sudden, and for no apparent reason, Tom can't replicate the
parts he needs to finish repairs to his ship because the power supply is low.
This did lead to a nice conflict with B'Elanna, but it became cliched when the
ship tried to kill her, also something that's been done a few thousand times.
And, any kind of hard feelings, which aren't evident in the first place, can be
rationalized away by saying, "Well, Tom didn't meant to do what he did, he was
under mind control." This is the easy way out. As a result "Alice" came off
as being by the numbers.
What makes this show good is its performances and production values. Not
everyone did well this week, but generally the performances were quite good.
They make what could be a really dull show into a, somewhat, nice one. This is
a major contrast to "Tinker, Tenor, Doctor, Spy" where I thought the
performances *were* the show's problem. However, Kim had me cringing at his
every line. The delivery came off as being very stilted and artificial. His
line "So does Chaotica!" made me want to jump in my TV and knock him over that
guard rail!
I think we were supposed to see some kind of symbolism of a kid (Tom) who
gets accepted into a group of friends and his other friends (Harry) get blown
off, but, thanks to another horrible performance from Garret Wang, that was
botched.
However, two characters that I thought were above par this week were
Torres and Chakotay. We definitely saw a new Torres, the one who said she
would change in "Barge of the Dead." That really made me grin. Before things
got heated with Tom, I think she displayed a lot of affection for him that we
haven't seen before (partly due to the fact that their relationship was
basically ignored last year). I think these two really had a lot of chemistry
together. The final scene in sickbay, while not nearly as moving as the final
scene in "Barge," was still nice.
Chakotay, however, had me entirely shocked this week. He was played
skillfully by Robert Beltran, who I am actually beginning to admire as a
performer. I'm not exactly sure what it was about him that got this reaction
out of me, but I sure hope Robert Beltran keeps it up!
The scenes with the trader were very good. John Fleck turned in a
marvelous performance, he managed to be very amusing during his early scenes
and *extremely* riveting in his later ones. It was nice to see Voyager
encounter another non-xenophobe this season, but I wonder how the junkyard
managed to just appear on the sensors so suddenly without any warning. But
that's not a big deal, because it did give someone else for Neelix to play off,
and that also came off very well. I was afraid I would get rather bored when
it became obvious Neelix would be the "ambassador" to the trader, but I found
myself enjoying Neelix very much.
The scene in the briefing room where he sees his version of Alice was very
well done, I thought. I sat up and really took notice.
The scenes with Alice and many others were also helped by amazing
directing and a very nice score from David Bell. But they had their weak
points as well. The montage scene where Paris is fixing up the ship made me
want to leave the room. They were hokey, and the score was terrible.
Most of the other scenes were fine. The scenes where Tom and Alice are
arguing were also very riveting (even though I didn't care for the actress at
all), thanks to superb directing. David Bell did a nice job with the score,
which made the scenes all the more moody.
But, as I said above, this whole thing can just be rationalized away,
which is very disappointing. This show could've been a lot better if it had a
goal, like to show the Paris/ Torres relationship under pressure. It did show
Tom getting really obsessed, and did that will a little skill, but that is just
not enough to justify an hour of Star Trek. We need to see some kind of
growth, or some kind of lasting dramatic effect, i.e. a break-up. But we all
know this will be swept under the rug and never heard from again. Case closed!
To finish up, you probably shouldn't expect a good character piece from
"Alice," or you'll be very disappointed. Watch this show for its performances
and you will be satisfied. But I would recommend forgetting this show
immediately after viewing, that seems to be the writer's intention anyway.
GRADE: C+
NEXT WEEK: "I will return to the Borg." Sound familiar?
-Aaron Page
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