[VOY] JMM's Review: "Nemesis"
James McFadden
Usual spoiler space:
OK, that's enough.
"Nemesis"
Season 4, Episode 4
"Nemesis" is a vaguely interesting episode that kept me thinking, "Is
this the moral? Or is this?"
I didn't know what to think about the episode from the ads, so I
didn't have any preconceived ideas. The beginning, silhouettes running
through the forest really didn't interest me in the least. I knew
Chakotay would be one of those runners.
When the episode really began, the first thing I thought of was how
reminiscent things were of the Vietnam War. Well, actually, the
Vietnam War movies. As the episode started up, I started to wonder,
"OK, what's it about." As the show went on I kept getting fooled into
thinking it was one message, then thinking it was another.
What's the message?:
#1- War is hell. I knew this would be a major theme, and I was hoping
it wasn't the only theme. I understand war is terrible and horrible
and bloody. The only problem is, after sitting through movies like
"Platoon," I didn't think I'd see anything knew in the plot.
#2 - Everyone has fear. Chakotay's discussion with the young soldier
about being afraid made me assume this was the message. Once I thought
this was the message, I immeadiately thought of DS9's "Nor the Battle
to the Strong" where Jake Sisko learns that there's a fine line
between courage and cowardice, to paraphrase. Once again, I thought,
"This isn't new. I've heard it and seen it before."
#3 - Hate is bad. A common Trek theme is the struggle against fear,
anger and hate. All that's bad about people. Chakotay said that he
doesn't really know hate. About the same time he said his people
settle things peacefully. I suppose the Maquis is a debate club, huh,
Commander? Anyway, I began to assume Chakotay would learn how to hate
the enemy, especially when we saw the atrocities the bad guys were
capable of. But, they'd pull the rug out from under us again, later
on.
#4 - Hatred of the enemy in war is subjective. When I saw Voyager had
contacted the "bad guys," I had to admit I was surprised. And any TV
show that can surprise me these days gets some extra points. At this
point I thought we would see an interesting twist. I assumed that the
"bad guys" were still the bad guys, but that they had lied to Janeway.
I was hoping that would make for an interesting confrontation. But,
alas, the ending would throw that idea out the window.
#5 - Propaganda can make you hate a supposed "enemy" and each side
lies about the other. This, apparently is the main theme. Here's where
I had to struggle to figure out this message, because I got it from
only the line saying that it was a form of propaganda. The
brainwashing, I mean. Oh, did I forget to mention that. It was the
old, "everything was fake" bit. Sometimes, this is done cleverly on
Trek ("Ship in a Bottle" (TNG); "Future Imperfect" (TNG)). Here, it
just ticked me off.
Why does it tick me off? Well, first of all, there was never any
indication of this. I hate a total surprise in some stories. There
should have been little hints in the story, to make it more of a
mysteruy. Secondly, I found the first 30 - 45 minutes horribly boring.
When a scene of Voyager first appeared, I said "Thank God!" out loud.
Finally, a break from black forests and olive drab T-Shirts. Thirdly,
the confusing change of "What's the message" that I experienced, as
seen above, just left me forcing myself to see the moral, and the
final revelation came to close to the end of the show.
Let's put it this way: The moral of our story was interesting, but was
totally lacking anything vaguely exciting. All the fighting scenes
were nothing I hadn't seen dozens of times on TV and movies.
The modified machine guns only made it more boring. Phaser beams
would've at least added some color. When I'm asking for more pretty
colors, you can see how much I loved this episode [sarcasm intended].
OKAY, that said, here are the usual Voyager-type plot complaints:
1. I couldn't believe they wrote it. I couldn't believe they said it.
But it all happened. Neelix tells them all about the aliens' war.
"What's wrong with that," you ask? "They did that all the time
before," you say? We all had to listen to Neelix whine about how they
already passed the area of space known to him, and that was 2 years
ago!!! (Maybe 3) On top of that, they're ten years further along in
their trip then before!!! Don't mean to get upset, but could there be
a bigger plot oversight?
2. I won't even get into the crashed shuttlecraft bit...
3. The aliens: What do you get when you cross a Nausicaan with the
Predator....?
4. Where's Seven of Nine. She was supposed to be the show's salvation.
Or is that "salivation"?
In conclusion (applause all around):
Looking at the S.O.S. episode rating guide, we find the review ratings
decreasing slowly every episode this season. I fear that once again,
Voyager will drop back into the abyss after reaching a mountaintop of
entertainment (like Scorpion). I hope my fears don't come true.
Next week: Seven of Nine's feeling her oats...
--Seven of Nine: "Take off your clothes."
--Harry's most appropriate response: "OK!!"
Next week also promises the return of DS9.
Praise be to God.
-------------------------------------
Questions? Comments? Complaints?
Send 'em to: jmmc...@holycross.edu
--
Moderated by Scott Forbes.
Article submissions: trek-r...@ravenna.com
Moderator contact: trek-revie...@ravenna.com