[VOY] Lynch's Spoiler Review: "Time and Again"
Timothy W. Lynch
latest episode, "Time and Again". Be warned.
Not a bad bit of plotting ... but where were the characters?
======
Brief summary: The "Voyager" crew investigates a planetary catastrophe
that destroyed an entire population, only to see Janeway and Paris vanish
into the past ... just before that catastrophe takes place.
======
"Time and Again" is an interesting contrast to "Parallax". In
"Parallax" last week, I had some problems with weird plot points, but
thought the characters were superbly written and that the
character-related plots were terrific. Here, on the other hand, I
think the plotting was a bit sharper, but the characters were
Let's start with the plot, as it's both more interesting and easier to
describe. :-) Aside from the complaint a co-worker of mine asked in
anguish, namely "is effect ALWAYS going to precede cause on this
show?", I thought the idea of the crew's own investigations causing
the damage they were investigating was a neat one. It strikes me as
the temporal equivalent of one phrasing of the uncertainty principle:
by observing a system, you're inevitably disturbing it. (In this
case, of course, the disturbance was a bit more pronounced.) Some of
the routes used to get to that plot were a little tortuous for my
liking (subspace "icebergs"? Effects propagating back in time that
are nevertheless fallen into in the future? Um ... check, please),
but nonetheless I thought the basic plot was intriguing, and many of
the "catches" in the rescue (such as the fact that each attempt was
extremely localized and a one-shot to boot) were sound.
What's more, I liked the way in which Janeway and Paris were stuck in
the trap. The cleverest moment I saw in the show, in many ways, had
to be when the protesters noted Janeway's own exposure to polaric
radiation, and pointed out that either they'd been present at a
polaric disaster bigger than any the planet had seen, or that they
were lying about never having been in the power plant the day before.
I love seeing characters get caught in Catch- 22's (except when
they're the result of artificially dumbing down the characters, but
this didn't), and this was no exception -- they were stuck either
exposing their situation (thus violating the Prime Directive, and
probably not being believed in any case, as was later shown), or
letting the protesters believe they'd been infiltrated.
I have somewhat mixed feelings about Janeway's rush to judgment,
however. Her immediate conclusion of "we've made them move up their
timetable, so therefore we must have caused the accident" seems very
silly -- for all we know, moving up their timetable might make them
successfully sabotage the plant before something goes wrong inside of
it. Now, if she'd said that there was a good chance their actions had
now contributed to the accident, and that chance was good enough to
justify exposing their identities, that's fine; but she presented it
as the only possible option. That seems a little much to me,
particularly since it was never acknowledged later that she was dead
*wrong*. The fact that she was wrong, however, is a nice plus; it's
good to have captains human enough to screw up! (It's also worth
pointing out that their actions clearly *were* changing things, so it
might be worth it to try to change them back regardless; but again,
that point wasn't made.)
Although I'm sure not everyone did, I also appreciated Janeway's
defense of the Prime Directive, and her emphatic point that no, it
might *not* be for the best to save this particular planet. (My
unspoken thought was "what if these guys turn out to be the next
Borg?" or something similar. Yes, it would be best for this planet
were it to be saved -- but if they destroyed themselves, it might not
be best for the region to save the planet from itself.) Although
there are certainly situations where the PD is questionable, I think
the point here was relatively clear-cut given their initial
assumptions, and it was good to see the policy given some respect.
Finally (in terms of plot), there's Kes's breaking out into telepathic
abilities. This one has me a little worried, because I see the
possibility of Kes being neglected the way Deanna Troi was on TNG.
Hopefully, this won't be the case -- I'd love to see a telepath done
*well* in Trek, and I think Jennifer Lien's already shown that she can
emote a bit better than Marina Sirtis did initially. However, if Kes
is to be a Troi-figure, she really does need to be handled more deftly
than Troi was, and I'm not sure "Time and Again" suggests that such
will be the case. [I did, however, like the justification that Kes's
extensive time in space might be causing her brain to adapt
differently from other Ocampa. That makes some sense to me.]
In terms of characters, however, I'm far less satisfied with "Time and
Again" than I was with either of the two episodes before it. The only
people who really had any life in them, so far as I could tell, were
Paris and Janeway -- everyone left behind to deal with the problem was
shackled hand and foot to the plot, with the result that no one got to
be particularly unique. With only a couple of exceptions, there was
nothing in the characters' actions that felt *wrong* from what we've
seen of them -- it just did nothing further to tell us who these
people are, and this early in the series I'd be more comfortable
seeing that.
One very positive exception to that statement, however, was the
doctor, whom I'm finally beginning to like. In particular, I adored
his reaction to hearing about Kes, the Maquis, and Janeway's
disappearance all in one: "Seems I've found myself on a voyage of the
damned." We just lost it after we heard that. :-) (Hopefully it will
turn out not to be a "meta-line", that being a line applicable to the
series as a whole.)
One *negative* exception, to counterbalance that, was B'Elanna
referring at one point to the place "where the captain and Tom
disappeared." Tom? This near-feral person who's disliked most things
about Starfleet we've seen so far, who wouldn't even call Harry Kim by
name after a day with him, is calling Paris *Tom*? It's only a word,
granted, but it's one that jumped out at me as not fitting Torres as a
character at all.
The other character I found myself intensely disliking was Latika, the
kid who ends up in the middle of Janeway and Paris's mess. While I'm
not sure whether he was written particularly badly, the actor had a
sneering way of talking that I really, *really* found annoying. After
he was caught by the protesters, I found myself agreeing with Lisa,
who answered the protester's question "what should I do with him?"
with a simple "Twist." I'm not sure why the character was used in the
first place, except perhaps for the hostage situation, but I hope to
see the series relatively free of annoying kids like him.
That leaves us with the ending, which unfortunately left me a little
cold. While Janeway's matter-of-fact "I am a hostage" gambit was an
excellent one, it's not at all clear to me just what the heck happened
when she managed to derail her own rescue attempt. Were all of the
Voyager crew thrown back in time? Were we just seeing history
"resetting" itself? Was the show short a minute in time, forcing us
to see the same scene a second time? :-) What exactly happened?
While I don't like comparing different episodes to each other directly
most of the time, this ending felt a *lot* like TNG's "Clues", except
that "Clues" did it a lot more smartly.
[I also thought Janeway took her own sweet time going after the
protesters. Geez, Kathryn, time's a-wasting; stop speechmaking and GO
already!]
That pretty much covers the main points. So, some short takes:
-- The Paris/Kim scene was fine (as long as we don't see something
like it every week). I liked the fact that "pairing off" is getting
mentioned given the long time they have before they get home, and I
particularly liked Paris's offhand "so who are they gonna check it
with?" response to Kim's indignation.
-- Another from the "Tim Servo and Lisa C. Robot" file of talking back
to the show:
Kes: "I saw them burn...their bones turning to ash!"
Me: "No, no, that was the T2 video we saw last night -- what about your
*vision*?"
-- I liked seeing Janeway's and Paris's uniforms on sale right after they
bought new clothes. That seemed very fitting.
-- I also liked the parallel scenes with the combadges; very cutely done.
-- Interestingly, "Voyager" seems to have departed from normal Trek
format, in that we're seeing a *four*-act structure instead of five.
Intriguing; I wonder why.
-- And, lastly, just because I feel like causing trouble, I should
point out that the preponderance of humanoids *here* as well makes
many of the plot points in "The Chase" pretty forced at best. Ha.
:-)
That's about it. So, wrapping up:
Writing: Good plotting, for the most part; kind of generic characterization.
Directing: Generally pretty solid, though nothing earth-shaking.
Acting: Little in the way of huge praise, but no real complaints either.
OVERALL: Call it a 6.5; a little bit lower than "Parallax", but not much.
NEXT WEEK:
Neelix loses his lunch ... sorry, *lungs*.
Tim Lynch (Harvard-Westlake School, Science Dept.)
tly...@alumni.caltech.edu
"So where's the child?"
"We ate him. Because we *are* demons, and we *eat* children, and I
haven't had my *supper* yet!"
-- Latika and Paris
--
Copyright 1995, Timothy W. Lynch. All rights reserved, but feel free to ask...
This article is explicitly prohibited from being used in any off-net
compilation without due attribution and *express written consent of the
author*. Walnut Creek and other CD-ROM distributors, take note.
Todd Horowitz
Timothy W. Lynch <tly...@alumni.caltech.edu> wrote:
>WARNING: This article contains spoilers for "Star Trek: Voyager"'s
>latest episode, "Time and Again". Be warned.
>Not a bad bit of plotting ... but where were the characters?
Well, that's a relief. After reading your review of "Life Support",
I fugred that either one of us had gone off the deep end, orI had been
transported to an alternate universe where Tim Lynch was evil ;)
However, you pretty mcuh captured my opinions about this episode,
so I can breath freely.
just a few comments, then:
>Although I'm sure not everyone did, I also appreciated Janeway's
>defense of the Prime Directive, and her emphatic point that no, it
>might *not* be for the best to save this particular planet. (My
>unspoken thought was "what if these guys turn out to be the next
>Borg?" or something similar. Yes, it would be best for this planet
>were it to be saved -- but if they destroyed themselves, it might not
>be best for the region to save the planet from itself.) Although
>there are certainly situations where the PD is questionable, I think
>the point here was relatively clear-cut given their initial
>assumptions, and it was good to see the policy given some respect.
"what if they turn out to be the next Borg?" is not the
best defense I can think of for Janeway's stand on the Prime Directive.
My thoughts were more on the order of "These people aren't being destroyed
by some natural disaster, they're destroying themselves by making foolish
choices. Even in the new timeline, the polaric power plants are going to
go up at some point; the only way to stop that is to force them to make
different risk:convenience tradeoffs, to essentially restructure their
system of economic decisionmaking."
>[I did, however, like the justification that Kes's
>extensive time in space might be causing her brain to adapt
>differently from other Ocampa. That makes some sense to me.]
Um.. how? It's not like she's in zero gravity. It's not like she didn't
grow up in a controlled environment with filtered, recirculated air and
synthetic foodstuffs. the only way that you can tell that your on a starship
and not in the Ocampa Towne Center Mall is that you don;t have those big
skylights and the clothing is more colorful.
>-- And, lastly, just because I feel like causing trouble, I should
>point out that the preponderance of humanoids *here* as well makes
>many of the plot points in "The Chase" pretty forced at best. Ha.
>:-)
Huh? Didn't the Progenitors spread their seed throughout the Galaxy?
-todd
Tom Thatcher
>In article <3h42i2$r...@gap.cco.caltech.edu>,
>Timothy W. Lynch <tly...@alumni.caltech.edu> wrote:
>>WARNING: This article contains spoilers for "Star Trek: Voyager"'s
>>latest episode, "Time and Again". Be warned.
>
>>Although I'm sure not everyone did, I also appreciated Janeway's
>>defense of the Prime Directive, and her emphatic point that no, it
>>might *not* be for the best to save this particular planet. (My
>>unspoken thought was "what if these guys turn out to be the next
>>Borg?" or something similar. Yes, it would be best for this planet
>>were it to be saved -- but if they destroyed themselves, it might not
>>be best for the region to save the planet from itself.) Although
>>there are certainly situations where the PD is questionable, I think
>>the point here was relatively clear-cut given their initial
>>assumptions, and it was good to see the policy given some respect.
> "what if they turn out to be the next Borg?" is not the
>best defense I can think of for Janeway's stand on the Prime Directive.
>My thoughts were more on the order of "These people aren't being destroyed
>by some natural disaster, they're destroying themselves by making foolish
>choices. Even in the new timeline, the polaric power plants are going to
>go up at some point; the only way to stop that is to force them to make
>different risk:convenience tradeoffs, to essentially restructure their
>system of economic decisionmaking."
Agreed--a better justification for non-interference in this case.
But what do you do if, for example, you find a planet-killing asteroid
on a collision course with a pre-industrial planet. You can divert
it with one photorp without even being detected by the inhabitants.
Do you do it?
>>[I did, however, like the justification that Kes's
>>extensive time in space might be causing her brain to adapt
>>differently from other Ocampa. That makes some sense to me.]
>Um.. how? It's not like she's in zero gravity. It's not like she didn't
>grow up in a controlled environment with filtered, recirculated air and
>synthetic foodstuffs. the only way that you can tell that your on a starship
>and not in the Ocampa Towne Center Mall is that you don;t have those big
>skylights and the clothing is more colorful.
It's not the physical parameters of the environment that are important,
its the pyschological ones. Previously Kes was part of a completely
dependent society, independant thought or action was discouraged.
Now she is exposed to new people who think differently, new ideas,
new places. She must think and act for herself much more than the Ocampa
left behind. Plus, the Ocampa had these powers long ago. Assuming that
the physical structure of the brain hasn't changed over time to make
them impossible, its perfectly natural that her powers would awaken.
BTW, I wouldn't be surprised to see this happen to the rest of the Ocampa
as they struggle to adjust to life without the Caretaker.
>>-- And, lastly, just because I feel like causing trouble, I should
>>point out that the preponderance of humanoids *here* as well makes
>>many of the plot points in "The Chase" pretty forced at best. Ha.
>>:-)
> Huh? Didn't the Progenitors spread their seed throughout the Galaxy?
But the computer program hidden in the DNA code was located on planets
within a reasonable distance of the Federation. Also, the holo-progenitor
said something about being alone in this part of the galaxy. Maybe they
went all over and left multiple copies of their message.
--
Tom Thatcher | You can give a PC to a Homo habilis,
University of Rochester Cancer Center | and he'll use it, but he'll use it
tt...@uhura.cc.rochester.edu | to crack nuts.
David G. Homerick
: But what do you do if, for example, you find a planet-killing asteroid
: on a collision course with a pre-industrial planet. You can divert
: it with one photorp without even being detected by the inhabitants.
: Do you do it?
Yes. But first, you get your captain stranded on the planet, and
make him think he's an Indian Warrior God.
;^)
David Homerick sac5...@saclink.csus.edu
Chris Meadows
>latest episode, "Time and Again". Be warned.
>they're the result of artificially dumbing down the characters, but
>this didn't), and this was no exception -- they were stuck either
>exposing their situation (thus violating the Prime Directive, and
>probably not being believed in any case, as was later shown), or
>letting the protesters believe they'd been infiltrated.
<snip>
>Although I'm sure not everyone did, I also appreciated Janeway's
>defense of the Prime Directive, and her emphatic point that no, it
>might *not* be for the best to save this particular planet. (My
>unspoken thought was "what if these guys turn out to be the next
>Borg?" or something similar. Yes, it would be best for this planet
>were it to be saved -- but if they destroyed themselves, it might not
>be best for the region to save the planet from itself.) Although
>there are certainly situations where the PD is questionable, I think
>the point here was relatively clear-cut given their initial
>assumptions, and it was good to see the policy given some respect.
Am I the only one who is rather annoyed by the Prime Directive? Back when
the old series was running, the Prime Directive was used in ways that, for
the most part, made a lot more sense. And Captain Kirk knew how and when
to break that directive, and that was okay too. But nowadays, the Prime
Directive is typically used as an excuse for sermonizing and shoddy
plotting (example: the episode with Worf's foster brother, the
malfunctioning holodecks, and the stupidity on the part of the crew who
didn't think of using anaesthezine (sp) gas on the tribe). It gets to the
point where I groan internally whenever someone brings up the Prime
Directive, "Oh, geez, not again...not another five minute bloody speech on
the bloody prime directive..." I hope that as the series develops,
Janeway becomes as adept at breaking the Prime Directive as her spiritual
predecessor James T. Kirk...
>That leaves us with the ending, which unfortunately left me a little
>cold. While Janeway's matter-of-fact "I am a hostage" gambit was an
>excellent one, it's not at all clear to me just what the heck happened
>when she managed to derail her own rescue attempt. Were all of the
>Voyager crew thrown back in time? Were we just seeing history
>"resetting" itself? Was the show short a minute in time, forcing us
>to see the same scene a second time? :-) What exactly happened?
>While I don't like comparing different episodes to each other directly
>most of the time, this ending felt a *lot* like TNG's "Clues", except
>that "Clues" did it a lot more smartly.
I was reminded more of the ending to "Yesterday's Enterprize." I
generally don't like endings like that which prevent the events of the
entire episode (and the subsequent characterization) from happening, but
this one wasn't really too bad...I can't wait 'til the next season; it'll
REALLY get good...
--
Chris Meadows | Author, Team M.E.C.H.A., Crapshoot & Co.,
CHM...@NIC.SMSU.EDU | on the Superguy Listserv (bit.listserv.superguy)
CMEA...@NYX.CS.DU.EDU | Check out the Superguy WorldWideWeb site:
CMEA...@NOX.CS.DU.EDU | http://www.halcyon.com/superguy/superguy.html
Susan E Stone
: Am I the only one who is rather annoyed by the Prime Directive? Back when
: the old series was running, the Prime Directive was used in ways that, for
: the most part, made a lot more sense. And Captain Kirk knew how and when
: to break that directive, and that was okay too. But nowadays, the Prime
: Directive is typically used as an excuse for sermonizing and shoddy
: plotting (example: the episode with Worf's foster brother, the
: malfunctioning holodecks, and the stupidity on the part of the crew who
: didn't think of using anaesthezine (sp) gas on the tribe). It gets to the
: point where I groan internally whenever someone brings up the Prime
: Directive, "Oh, geez, not again...not another five minute bloody speech on
: the bloody prime directive..."
Well, I'm not familiar with TOS, so I can't compare the present with how
it was handled then, but yes, the Prime Directive is often annoying. The
anti-imperialist theory that I suppose is behind it is fine, but the
application is often simply crazy. I think the episode that annoyed me
the most was the one on TNG where the one planet was addicted to a drug
that was the only product of another planet in the system. Dr. Crusher
wanted to cure the addiction, but Picard wouldn't let her because doing
so was a violation of the Prime Directive. Come on! If a similar
situation happened on Earth--explorers/anthropologists from a more
advanced civilization discovered a people who were addicted to a drug
that limited their potential but didn't know it, wouldn't the only
responsible and humane thing be to tell them and help them break the
cycle? It's not like these people deliberately chose to become drug
addicts. Anyway, it seems to me that Picard in particular was legalistic
in his application of the Prime Directive. Janeway seems to have more
common sense and humanity. I like her style better.
--Susan
Allen Newman
>In article <3h42i2$r...@gap.cco.caltech.edu>,
>Timothy W. Lynch <tly...@alumni.caltech.edu> wrote:
>
>>[I did, however, like the justification that Kes's
>>extensive time in space might be causing her brain to adapt
>>differently from other Ocampa. That makes some sense to me.]
>
>Um.. how? It's not like she's in zero gravity. It's not like she didn't
>grow up in a controlled environment with filtered, recirculated air and
>synthetic foodstuffs. the only way that you can tell that your on a starship
>and not in the Ocampa Towne Center Mall is that you don;t have those big
>skylights and the clothing is more colorful.
TNG's "Starship Mine" said that warp fields cause some kind of gradual
contamination to the ship's structure; maybe there's a harmless but
detectable effect on people who travel on warp ships.
----------------------- _ | | ___ | |
Allen G. Newman |_| | | |__ |\|
ane...@charlie.usd.edu | | |__ |__ |__ | |
ec...@cid.aes.doe.ca
Timothy W. Lynch (tly...@alumni.caltech.edu) wrote:
: WARNING: This article contains spoilers for "Star Trek: Voyager"'s
: latest episode, "Time and Again". Be warned.
<Stuff deleted>
: Although I'm sure not everyone did, I also appreciated Janeway's
: defense of the Prime Directive, and her emphatic point that no, it
Uh, I didn't think it was so hot. Primarily because it was
inconsistent with the pilot in which she violated the PD by
interfering with the course of events -- and for much less lives.
: might *not* be for the best to save this particular planet. (My
: unspoken thought was "what if these guys turn out to be the next
: Borg?" or something similar. Yes, it would be best for this planet
: were it to be saved -- but if they destroyed themselves, it might not
: be best for the region to save the planet from itself.) Although
: there are certainly situations where the PD is questionable, I think
: the point here was relatively clear-cut given their initial
: assumptions, and it was good to see the policy given some respect.
What?! So it's ok to violate the PD if the culture in question is
non-threatening but not so if they are not?
: Finally (in terms of plot), there's Kes's breaking out into telepathic
: abilities. This one has me a little worried, because I see the
: possibility of Kes being neglected the way Deanna Troi was on TNG.
: Hopefully, this won't be the case -- I'd love to see a telepath done
: *well* in Trek, and I think Jennifer Lien's already shown that she can
: emote a bit better than Marina Sirtis did initially. However, if Kes
: is to be a Troi-figure, she really does need to be handled more deftly
: than Troi was, and I'm not sure "Time and Again" suggests that such
: will be the case. [I did, however, like the justification that Kes's
: extensive time in space might be causing her brain to adapt
: differently from other Ocampa. That makes some sense to me.]
You know it's not the acting which precludes ST from
having a good telepathy episode, it the lack of writing ablitly.
The only remotely decent telepathy espidoe was Tin Man, and this was
an almost complete rip-off from Julian May's book, "The Many Colored
Lands".(If I remember the title corretly)
: One very positive exception to that statement, however, was the
: doctor, whom I'm finally beginning to like. In particular, I adored
: his reaction to hearing about Kes, the Maquis, and Janeway's
Yeah the Doctor is a vary cool character. Ironically, he's the only
character which life, so far.
: That leaves us with the ending, which unfortunately left me a little
: cold. While Janeway's matter-of-fact "I am a hostage" gambit was an
: excellent one, it's not at all clear to me just what the heck happened
: when she managed to derail her own rescue attempt. Were all of the
: Voyager crew thrown back in time? Were we just seeing history
: "resetting" itself? Was the show short a minute in time, forcing us
: to see the same scene a second time? :-) What exactly happened?
Yep, seems that the writers hated the espisode so much, that they wrote
the ending so that it cancelled the whole episode.
It never happened. :)
--
Ellison Chan
Todd Horowitz
>By now everyone should have see it, but what the heck:
Some people might not have seen it when first broadcast, and are
waiting for the rerun.
>: Although I'm sure not everyone did, I also appreciated Janeway's
>: defense of the Prime Directive, and her emphatic point that no, it
>Uh, I didn't think it was so hot. Primarily because it was
>inconsistent with the pilot in which she violated the PD by
>interfering with the course of events -- and for much less lives.
Janeway didn't violate the PD in the pilot. Her actions in
"Time and Again" are perfectly consistent with her interpretation of
the PD in "The Caretaker". In both situations, her course of action is
to undue whatever her initial interference may have caused (this is also
consistent with Picard's intervention in "Who Watches the Watchers").
In the pilot, had the _Voyager_ (why do they never refer to their ship with
an article, like everybody else?) not happened along, the Caretaker would have
blown up the array, and the Kazon would have to wait five years to get at the
Ocampa. Because of the Voyager's battle with the Quayzon, the array is damaged
and cannot self-destruct. By destroying the array, Janeway returns the situation
to what it had been before. Her solution to the Lifesaver Planet problem in
"Time and Again" is an example of the same logic at work.
I'm not saying that I *agree* with it, mind you, only that it is
consistent.
>You know it's not the acting which precludes ST from
>having a good telepathy episode, it the lack of writing ablitly.
That's what Tim SAYS.
>The only remotely decent telepathy espidoe was Tin Man, and this was
>an almost complete rip-off from Julian May's book, "The Many Colored
>Lands".(If I remember the title corretly)
What did "Tin Man" have to do with "The Many Colored Land"? I mean,
there is mental telepathy of a sort in both, but that's about it!
I thought that Bischoff had based "Tin Man" on one of his own
stories (in the tradition of Larry Niven; why write an original episode when
you can just adapt one of your short stories?).
-todd
Todd Horowitz
Allen Newman <ane...@charlie.usd.edu> wrote:
>TNG's "Starship Mine" said that warp fields cause some kind of gradual
>contamination to the ship's structure; maybe there's a harmless but
>detectable effect on people who travel on warp ships.
Could be (and let's not forget "Force of Nature"... on the other hand,
let's forget "Force ofNature"), but I'm not sure how that would bring out
the apocryphal Ocampan "cognitive abilities".
Nitpick: as a cognitive psychologist, I don't really thing that
telepathy counts as a "cognitive" ability, but rather a generic
mental or extrasensory ability. Cognition usually is used to refer to the
processing of information; telepathy involes adding an extra SOURCEof
information, not a newway to PROCESS information.
Nitpick mode deactivated.
-todd