[VOY] Lynch's Spoiler Review: "Resistance"
Timothy W. Lynch
"Resistance".
In brief: Good. Very, very good.
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Written by: Michael Jan Friedman & Kevin Ryan (story); Lisa Klink
(teleplay)
Directed by: Winrich Kolbe
Brief summary: When Tuvok and Torres are captured by an
oppressive regime known as the Mokra, it falls to Janeway to attempt
their rescue -- in the company of a man who mistakenly believes she is
his daughter.
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"Resistance" is a good example of what *can* be done with the "no
significant changes" policy that has all but defined VOY as a series,
especially lately. Despite the fact that this show had essentially
nothing to do with Voyager's quest to get home, despite the fact that
the characters came out essentially unchanged by their experiences
here, and despite the fact that "Resistance" used an antagonist that
we've never seen before and likely never will again, it came off
extremely successfully.
From a writing standpoint, this was due to several reasons. One of
those is that although Voyager's technical needs (a good use of the
series premise in itself) figured strongly in the episode, they were
*not* the primary point of the story, but rather a goad needed to get
the players in the proper place. The initial problem faced by the ship
*was* solved, and solved within the first ten minutes of the hour.
Seeing the consequences of desperate actions is often a lot more
interesting than the desperate actions themselves, I think, and we got
to see them here. (It was also nice to see that the crew can concentrate
on more than one thing at a time; Chakotay was still getting details
from Neelix while letting those more expert handle the repairs.)
Another interesting touch to the show was the return of an issue that
surfaced recently in "Cold Fire", namely that of Voyager's reputation
in the Delta Quadrant. This is twice now in three weeks that we've
heard about Voyager engendering a lot more hostility than friendship
since its arrival, and given their actions I tend to think that's at least
partly appropriate. (Given the fact that the ones able to tell tales are
usually the ones on the receiving end of Voyager's "friendship" and
thus able to write history to their own liking, however, I think the rep
is entirely understandable.) I'm not sure if this is going to lead
somewhere, or even if it should lead to any "event" -- but I rather like
it as a backdrop, as it lends a slightly different flavor to the show.
Not only is Voyager without their old allies, but they don't really have
any new ones either.
Another good point to the writing was the set of situations the
characters ended up in. Although there are likely to be no real
character changes as a result of this episode, we saw a great many
contrasts between characters and between different actions of the same
character as the show went on. Janeway's turnaround from
considering Caylem a nuisance to looking on him with genuine respect
and affection is certainly the most obvious and important example of
it, but the contrast between Tuvok's stoic acceptance of his pain and
his quick action as soon as physical action *was* in a position to be
effective was also striking (not to mention cheering, as the episode
had set things up until we really wanted to see Tuvok drop
*somebody*). Chakotay's slow move from a diplomatic approach to
a more martial one was also noteworthy, though hardly unexpected.
In any event, a great many characters got to show a range of emotions
and reactions over the course of the episode, which is nearly always a
good thing.
There was also some nice ambiguity here and there, though --
including, most interestingly, the loyalties of Darod, Neelix's
resistance contact. Chakotay asked early on if Neelix's contact could
have been a Mokra agent, and Neelix dismissed it as unlikely.
However, I'm not entirely certain it's so unlikely; Darod seemed to be
everywhere the Mokra were, often right before they were. One
certainly *could* interpret the trap surrounding Janeway's attempt to
gain weapons as a consequence of Darod being arrested -- but it's
equally simple to speculate that Darod had the whole thing planned as
a setup from the start. After all, his cry of "guards!" during the final
confrontation in the prison was also ambiguous -- was it a warning to
Janeway and company, or a summons? I don't think there's a clear-
cut answer either way, and I like that a lot.
I think the absolute best feature of the episode, however, was some
truly outstanding acting on the part of several people, both regulars
and guests. On the side of the regular cast, I think Robert Beltran,
Kate Mulgrew, and Tim Russ all deserve notes of praise. Mulgrew's
the obvious one, as she had the most to do and pulled it all off quite
well; but Beltran has rarely gotten to show Chakotay's command side,
as Chakotay's rarely had command of the ship -- and Russ, of course,
had to deal with his character being tortured. All came off very well.
On the guest star side, Alan Scarfe did a good job with a somewhat
one-note character (Augris, the Mokra representative). Even though
all he really had to do was be a fairly nasty villain, he was an
extremely good one -- far better, I think, than his earlier turns as
Romulan admirals in TNG ("Data's Day" and "Birthright, Part II").
The absolute standout of the episode, however, was Joel Grey as
Caylem. Grey had that slightly unfocused look of the disturbed about
him the entire time, which did a marvelous job of putting the viewer
slightly ill at ease even despite the pathos the character was usually
supposed to provoke. (The alternately halting and rushed speech
patterns helped as well.) By the time the episode was over, we'd seen
Caylem put through the wringer, what with the accusations of
cowardice and his "fool's dance" in the street, both of which one
could surmise he'd been through countless times before. It takes
some doing to put on something like Caylem's street act and evoke
sympathy in the process -- but Grey managed it. His simple "it's all
right ... they're gone now" actually came close to bringing a lump to
my throat. Even through all that, however, one remembered the
exchange between Caylem and Janeway, where his impassioned "I'm
not afraid" was rebutted immediately with "-- and that could get both
of us killed." Grey was simply magnificent -- I only wish he'd do
guest work like this more often.
On the whole, then, "Resistance" was probably the best show VOY
has done this season -- certainly the richest. I do have some
objections, but they're mostly nitpicks, and both revolve around the
same point. First, I liked the quick start to the episode, but I have
problems with Janeway being down on a hostile planet at all. The
presence of each of the others was justified: Tuvok was head of
security, Torres knew the engineering needs, and Neelix had the
contacts. But Janeway's only purpose seemed to be to rescue the
others, and that smacks of being artificial. Similarly, I have to
wonder why Paris was the leader (or, apparently only member) of the
rescue party. I quickly thought "well, he *was* Maquis", but that
quickly turned into "yeah, and a damned inept one, since he got
captured his first time out." This felt like an excuse to give Paris a
little more screen time.
That's really about it for any real negatives to the show, however, and
that's pretty good indeed. Some other small points:
-- One wonders if Caylem's guilt over his wife's capture is what
finally drove him over the edge into madness.
-- The "feelings" question from Torres to Tuvok was somewhat
annoying to hear, since I thought that question had been long settled.
However, the fact that Tuvok basically didn't answer it helps a lot.
-- Given that I've been basically underwhelmed by those novels of
Michael Jan Friedman that I've read, I didn't expect to like this. It's
nice to be surprised. (I haven't read any of Ryan's work, which is
why I'm not commenting there.)
-- I very much liked the fact that what little <tech> we got on the ship
concerning the rescue was (1) easy to do, and (2) ultimately fruitless.
All they really managed to do was hold out long enough for Janeway
and company to make their own luck. (Paris's manner was awfully
non-urgent when he finally made it down to the planet, however; since
the ship was getting pummeled up in orbit, you'd think he'd try to
hurry them along.)
-- How'd Janeway get all the codes she was using in the prison?
From Darod?
-- I like the general idea of the "hide in the fog" strategy that Chakotay
and Kim had, but as stated it didn't seem to make sense; given that the
sensor net is around the whole planet, there's no way to stay above
one point on the planet and hide from *everything*.
-- I hope the implication that Paris beamed down and the rest beamed
back up through Voyager's shields wasn't meant to be read that way.
If so, it'll be the second week in a row that a basic staple of Trek
technology has been totally goofed. (I don't consider those huge
goofs, but it does grate.)
That really covers it. "Resistance" is only about the second show this
season that I can really recommend wholeheartedly -- after
"Projections", and this one was better. If these shows came along
more often, I'd be a lot happier.
So, wrapping up:
Writing: One or two convenient plot devices to set things up, but on
the whole the plotting was smart and the characterization solid.
Directing: Tense and taut; works for me.
Acting: No real weak links, and many strong ones. Grey was stellar.
OVERALL: 9.5, I think; just enough little gripes to keep it from a 10.
Marvelous work.
NEXT WEEK: A rerun of "The 37's". Earhart, anyone?
Tim Lynch (Harvard-Westlake School, Science Dept.)
tly...@alumni.caltech.edu
"Give me some good news, Mr. Kim."
"There's a disruption in the shields around the prison."
"That qualifies."
-- Chakotay and Kim
--
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
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M. Kubler
than just ".5" better than this. Also do you score DS9 and Voy
on the same scale? (i.e. 8=8) or are they weighted for each show.
--
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Michael Kubler
email kub...@u.washington.edu
WWW http://weber.u.washington.edu/~kubler/ Home of the Ichthyophonus