[VOY] Lynch's Spoiler Review: "Eye of the Needle"
Stew Barnes
Yet another nifty review deleted.
> I should also mention the "make the doctor a real crewmember" subplot
> we had running. While the general idea was a good one, and most of
> the scenes, particularly Janeway/Doc and the final scene in sickbay,
> worked fine, bits of the execution were screaming "'The Measure of a
> Man' Lite!" to me -- so "lite", in fact, as to be downright fluffy.
> That sort of "sure, he's programmed, but he's still a person" issue
> has been done _to death_ with Data -- unless we end up seeing new
> avenues of it explored (which I wouldn't mind), it'll get tired very
> quickly.
I have to disagree; the Doctor is the aspect of Voyager that I find most
interesting. Dr. Soong's reticence in sharing or explaining positronic
technology left the workings of Data's mind a mystery (the driving plot
for "TMoaM"); thus it was rather easy for the crew to accept him. In
Voyager, we have several people on board the ship who probably understand
Holodeck technology and theory; to them, the emergence of a sentient
Holocharacter would be akin to having the Mac I'm typing this on come to
life and start discussing the current baseball strike. The familiarity of
the characters with the incredibly complex creations of the holodeck makes
it very difficult for them to conceive that the Doc is actually alive.
Kes, otoh, can spot his behavior for what it is because she hasn't grown
comfortable with the holodeck yet. I like the very slow recognition of
the crew (first Kes, now Janeway) that the 'deck may be something more
than they first thought.
The "he's programmed, but he's still a person" issue is a nice change of
pace, because our heroes (tm) have cavalierly dismissed this very line of
reasoning, and are only gradually having to change their beliefs.
Also, I like the obvious conflict within the Doc himself (itself?). It is
obvious that he is confused by his circumstances as much as any member of
the crew.
I would have expected someone to reference the development of the
"Moriarity" persona on the Enterprise, but I guess even such important
events can be lost in a galaxy of trillions of beings.
S
Timothy W. Lynch
problems, and I haven't been able to post since Saturday evening.
2) I don't care what Mike Shappe says; "VOY" is the right acronym.
:-)]
WARNING: This article contains spoiler information regarding "Eye of
the Needle", the latest episode of "Voyager". Those not wishing to
follow the thread of the article to the spoilers are advised to seek
greener pastures.
In brief: A little thin getting going, but the first real test of a
major part of VOY's premise -- and a test it passes handily.
======
Brief summary: The crew attempts to communicate with the Alpha
Quadrant via a small wormhole, only to find unexpected
complications when the receiving ship turns out to be of Romulan
origin.
======
I said back in my review of "Voyager"'s premiere that the "stranded in
the Delta Quadrant" premise could lead to two types of stories
probably best left avoided: stories where they find a way home but
somehow screw up and miss it (i.e. "Gilligan's Island" stories), and
stories where they find a way home but must for some reason choose not
to take it (i.e. "Land of the Lost" stories). "Eye of the Needle", I
think, falls pretty firmly into the latter category.
However, this doesn't mean the story was a failure. It's possible to
do "nobly avoid the solution" stories correctly, *if* you're careful
about the reasons you can't solve your problem. And I think the
particular anti-solution chosen, namely that the wormhole turned out
to be a time rift as well, worked quite nicely, for two reasons.
First, it was a fairly non-obvious choice, and one that managed to
take me (and most other people I've talked to about it) by surprise.
I tend to like twist endings, provided that they're sensible after the
fact -- and given some of the clues dropped, I think this was. (I
don't mean the "phase variance" line repeated ad nauseam, but the fact
that on at least two occasions the Romulan captain was surprised by
Federation technology; of *course* he was, if it's twenty years ahead
of where the Federation was at his time.) I also liked it because,
despite the "don't pollute the timeline" reasoning being sound, it's
the sort of argument that some people *will* protest -- and my
estimation of the show jumped up a notch when Harry Kim did just that.
So, the basic premise of the episode was on fairly firm footing. The
details were a somewhat mixed bag, though, both in plot and in
characterization.
In terms of characters, there were two main things I noticed. The
first was the feelings that the crew had to be going through as the
situation re: the wormhole changed from hour to hour. The
emotional roller-coaster ride was displayed pretty well, I thought,
particularly with Kim and with the Janeway/Torres scene where
Torres has just figured out that a transporter beam might work. The
layer of calmness that the officers are supposed to have was cracking
a bit, but in all the expected ways here -- and that worked well.
[Tuvok's reticence to get involved was also very workable, and I
thought Janeway's alternating elation and disappointment was
wonderfully evident.]
What did *not* work well was the sudden absence of any sort of
Maquis-related tension. Torres calling Kim "Starfleet" again, aside,
there was nothing suggesting any sort of difficulty integrating the
crews -- or more to the point, nothing suggesting that they'd even
come from two different ships in the first place. This popped up when
Chakotay was vetoing Telek's suggestion that he hint to Starfleet that
they abort the mission which ended up sending Voyager out to the Delta
Quadrant. While his point that they'd already had an impact there
that couldn't be turned back was a valid one, there was a much
stronger one that *someone* from the Maquis ship, be it Chakotay or
Torres, had to make, namely "Well, gee, that's all well and good for
YOU, but some of us would then be even more stuck out here, without
even a decent-sized ship to use for the trip back!" The fact that
neither one seemed to even consider that Telek's solution would strand
the Maquis even worse suggests that the Fed/Maquis issue was
forgotten, and it shouldn't be.
In terms of the plot, I've a few concerns. The first is simply that
it took a bit of time to really get going; while the second half of
the show was interesting and compelling, the first half was a bit
sluggish. The rest, however, are story problems, either within the
show or rather strongly ignoring past continuity under the rug. For
instance:
-- Last time out, replicator energy was so scarce that everyone was
on rations. This time, Janeway orders up something for herself and
Kes with no problems. Was she awarded unlimited points or
something?
-- Janeway leaves the bridge while Kim is trying to raise the
Romulans again. That's no problem, but I have to wonder why she
chose that moment to talk to the doctor about his own problems. The
timing just struck me as very odd for some reason.
-- Janeway made a big mistake while talking to the Romulan from her
quarters. (By the way, the fact that the Romulan was suspicious of
their story was completely understandable, and a nice touch.)
They'd told her they were a cargo vessel; the only reason Janeway
knew they were a science ship was from Tuvok's analyses. Given
that the Romulans were already convinced that Voyager was a
surveillance ship, it seems like an unwise move to let on that you
know they're a science ship.
-- Telek's offer of a troop ship to transport them home, so that they
don't have to board Telek's own ship was nonsense. As was stated
repeatedly, there was a lot of time pressure at work here, and there's
no way Telek could get a troop ship there that quickly. A better
solution would have been for Janeway and company to offer to come
aboard and surrender; perhaps not as sound from a military
standpoint, but eminently more practical.
-- Lastly, I have to wonder why no one had spotted the "temporal
displacement" effect that gave Telek away in the test cylinders.
Since they came from Voyager itself, it could be that the effect
canceled itself out, which would explain it -- but that would imply
they never tried beaming anything one-way, from the Romulan ship to
Voyager. Hmm. (On the other hand, maybe such displacement is really
only noticeable in living beings. Sure, I'll buy that this time. :-) )
Despite all of these glitches, though, I have to say that I found "Eye
of the Needle" one of the stronger shows "Voyager"'s done to date.
There's nothing like a powerful ending to help a show -- and the final
scene in the transporter room, where the crew realizes that not only
are their dreams of home on indefinite hold, but that they don't even
know if the messages they sent ever reached Starfleet or not, was
stark and painful. That sort of meat lets me overlook at least a few
smaller problems.
I should also mention the "make the doctor a real crewmember" subplot
we had running. While the general idea was a good one, and most of
the scenes, particularly Janeway/Doc and the final scene in sickbay,
worked fine, bits of the execution were screaming "'The Measure of a
Man' Lite!" to me -- so "lite", in fact, as to be downright fluffy.
That sort of "sure, he's programmed, but he's still a person" issue
has been done _to death_ with Data -- unless we end up seeing new
avenues of it explored (which I wouldn't mind), it'll get tired very
quickly.
That seems to about do it. So, some shorter takes:
-- Speaking of replicator energy, a lot of people have responded to my
complaint in "The Cloud" about Paris using the holodeck. The
statement was made earlier in the season that "holodeck energy is
incompatible with the rest of the ship's systems", and apparently this
is to be taken as permission to use the holodeck all the time. While
I'm glad that the attempt was at least made, I think that particular
claim is absurd. It's like saying "oh, we can't read by the air
conditioner, so let's use it all the time and we don't need to worry
about electricity for the lights." Unless the holodeck possesses both
an independent power source _and_ a perpetual motion machine somewhere
creating all this energy, it's a drain.
-- While Janeway's playing upon Telek's feelings to get him to speed
up the Romulan bureaucracy was understandable and reasonably well
done, I found myself saying "I had an Aunt Em myself once!" by the
end of it. :-)
-- In the "now you're one race, now you're not" category: Vaughn
Armstrong, who played Telek, was also Korris, the first Klingon we
saw in TNG other than Worf, way back in "Heart of Glory". Now if
he ends up as a Cardassian, we're all set.
-- Kes: "It would be interesting to see an autopsy someday." Be
careful what you wish for...
That would seem to do it. "Eye of the Needle" had a few glitches
that marred it, but on the whole was the first sound test of the
"stranded" portion of the show's rationale -- and seemed to be on
solid footing.
So, to wrap up:
Writing: Mixed. A solid basic story, and generally good plotting
and characterization -- but a few minor problems here and
there.
Directing: Excellent once real contact with the Romulans is made,
but the episode was a bit glacial up to that point.
Acting: Solid. Vaughn Armstrong was particularly good as Telek.
OVERALL: The feel of the show was so solid that I think it's an 8
despite problems. Nicely done.
NEXT WEEK:
Paris finds out how the other half dies.
Tim Lynch (Harvard-Westlake School, Science Dept.)
tly...@alumni.caltech.edu
"And I think you'd be convinced that [the messages] are nothing more
than the heartfelt words of some ... very lonely people."
-- Janeway
--
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.
Ted McCoy
Timothy W. Lynch <tly...@alumni.caltech.edu> wrote:
>WARNING: This article contains spoiler information regarding "Eye of
>the Needle", the latest episode of "Voyager". Those not wishing to
>follow the thread of the article to the spoilers are advised to seek
>greener pastures.
>In brief: A little thin getting going, but the first real test of a
>major part of VOY's premise -- and a test it passes handily.
>======
>Brief summary: The crew attempts to communicate with the Alpha
>Quadrant via a small wormhole, only to find unexpected
>complications when the receiving ship turns out to be of Romulan
>origin.
>======
>
>I said back in my review of "Voyager"'s premiere that the "stranded in
>the Delta Quadrant" premise could lead to two types of stories
>probably best left avoided: stories where they find a way home but
>somehow screw up and miss it (i.e. "Gilligan's Island" stories), and
>stories where they find a way home but must for some reason choose not
>to take it (i.e. "Land of the Lost" stories). "Eye of the Needle", I
>think, falls pretty firmly into the latter category.
Heh, Land of the Lost was cool. The original, I mean. The new one sucked.
>In terms of the plot, I've a few concerns. The first is simply that
>it took a bit of time to really get going; while the second half of
>the show was interesting and compelling, the first half was a bit
>sluggish. The rest, however, are story problems, either within the
>show or rather strongly ignoring past continuity under the rug. For
>instance:
I really liked the sense of discovery in the first half of the episode.
More of a sense of exploration and adventure than we often get on Trek,
lately anyway (or on any other sf shows for that matter -- the good non-Trek
sf shows seem to be sticking to mystery, politics, and intrigue). Part of
the problem with the episode, from a viewer's standpoint, may have been
that every single plot development in the first half hour was given away
by the preview. Based on the preview, I think some people expected the
setup to happen more quickly.
>-- Last time out, replicator energy was so scarce that everyone was
>on rations. This time, Janeway orders up something for herself and
>Kes with no problems. Was she awarded unlimited points or
>something?
They must've found more energy on that planet they were heading towards,
I guess.
>I should also mention the "make the doctor a real crewmember" subplot
>we had running. While the general idea was a good one, and most of
>the scenes, particularly Janeway/Doc and the final scene in sickbay,
>worked fine, bits of the execution were screaming "'The Measure of a
>Man' Lite!" to me -- so "lite", in fact, as to be downright fluffy.
>That sort of "sure, he's programmed, but he's still a person" issue
>has been done _to death_ with Data -- unless we end up seeing new
>avenues of it explored (which I wouldn't mind), it'll get tired very
>quickly.
For me, the differences in personality between the holodeck doc and Data
are what make the situations so different.
Ted
eni...@news.dorsai.org
: to be a time rift as well, worked quite nicely, for two reasons.
: First, it was a fairly non-obvious choice, and one that managed to
: take me (and most other people I've talked to about it) by surprise.
: I tend to like twist endings, provided that they're sensible after the
: fact -- and given some of the clues dropped, I think this was. (I
Maybe that's the problem I had with this episode. I wasn't surprised at
the "twist" ending. Guess I've been watching to many "Twilight Zone"
episodes. Check out the one with the guy who loves to read but then his
only pair of glasses break on him at the end. It's a classic.
The second problem is that you know the week before during the promo that
they're NOT going to get home. Unfortunately we're going to get a ton of
these stories where they're not going to get home. And the promo will
start with..
"Has the Voyager found a way home?...."
And I'll note that it's still early in the show's run and answer with a NO!
So please no more of these OK!
Victor
Timothy W. Lynch
far]
Stew replies:
>I have to disagree; the Doctor is the aspect of Voyager that I find most
>interesting.
[argument deleted; basically, it says that the crew is less likely to
accept him than Data, because it knows more about what makes him tick]
Agreed on the potential of this storyline, and on the differences
between him and Data. What I'm saying is that so far, much of the
"acceptance story" we've seen has been executed in ways so remarkably
similar to Data that it *feels* like old hat even when it isn't. If
we can have those differences sharpened and exploited a bit better,
I'm with you.
Tim Lynch