[VOY] Cynics Corner Review: "Repentance"
David E. Sluss
O
R Star Trek: Voyager: "Repentance"
N as reviewed by David E. Sluss
E
R copyright (c) 2001 Tiger Bay Publishing
Spoilers ahead!
THE BOTTOM LINE: A potentially interesting show, but the writers
display all the subtlety of a two-by-four to the head, and can't
resist a space attack and phaser fight with Surly Forehead Aliens.
CYNICS CORNER RATING:
LAUGH LINE OF THE WEEK: Janeway: "We have a Prime Directive to
follow." Yeah? Since when?
SUBTLETY OF THE WEEK: Oh, sorry, there wasn't any. Subtlety went
AWOL this week, as this topical, "ripped from the headlines" episode
presented the capital punishment issue with a strictly simple-minded
and by-the-numbers approach, with much of the dialog sounding as if it
had been lifted verbatim from Time magazine. Particularly bad was the
early exchange between James Carville (The Doctor) and Mary Matalin
(Seven of Nine), in which just about every line could be anticipated
in advance. Then of course, we have the typical deck-stacking, in
which the warden and his men can't just be reasonable people doing a
tough job in difficult circumstances, but instead are brutal thugs.
STARFLEET INSECURITY OF THE WEEK: Tuvok and his security personnel
didn't exactly cover themselves in glory this week. We have the usual
Keystone Kops stuff, such as security personnel standing stationary so
they can be shot and Tuvok walking nonchalantly around the corridors
while the escaped prisoners are running around the ship. Given the
layout of the cells in the cargo bay, the escaped prisoners should
have been like fish in a barrel. All the security guys had to do is
stand at the door and fire phasers on wide sweep at anything that
moved out of the cells. Tuvok's men weren't entirely at fault,
though. Three shots from a pissant alien vessel bring down the
forcefields, which apparently have no back-up power supply; maybe good
old-fashioned iron bars would be better? On the bright side, Harry
managed to keep unauthorized folks out of the shuttlebay for the first
time in his career. Where's that promotion?
ILLOGIC OF THE WEEK: A number of alternatives that might have saved
Voyager some trouble were never explored. For instance, while the
prison ship didn't look to be in very good shape, we never saw it
destroyed, and it's possible that it could have been repaired.
Another possibility, given how dangerous the prisoners were and
Security's less than luminous record, was putting all the prisoners in
stasis for the duration. Voyager's people either have bunches of them
in stock, or the ability to create them fairly easily, according to
the episode "One."
UNPUNISHED OFFENSE OF THE WEEK: Since it's doubtful anyone in charge
would have approved it, Neelix's transmission to the brother of that
one con (F. J. Rio, incidently, who played Muniz in a couple of
episodes of DS9) had to be unauthorized; so why hasn't Neelix been
dumped out an airlock? Not that you need a reason...
CONTRIVANCE OF THE WEEK: The "Seven as hostage" bit in sickbay was
pretty bogus, only there as a dramatic moment in the teaser to keep us
from switching over to "The West Wing." First of all, the two
prisoners beamed to sickbay both had lifesigns that were extremely
weak; yet the Con with a Heart of Gold seemed to be in pretty good
shape, able to move quickly enough to grab a weapon as well as a
reflex-enhanced ex-Borg. Then we have Seven held at knifepoint. Good
heavens! Any reason why they couldn't be beamed out of sickbay with
the knife filtered out? Any reason Tuvok couldn't just "shoot first
and ask questions later," i.e. stun the perp, and if he happened to
stun Seven too, so what?
WIMPS OF THE WEEK: Why does Janeway put up with these little pissant
ships damaging Voyager? She and the crew literally do nothing until
after the power goes out on four decks! Is there some Starfleet
regulation that says that you can't shoot back until shields fall
below 60%? And if so, why is that the one regulation Janeway sees fit
to obey?
NEXT WEEK: Klingon Klaptrap comes to the Delta Quadrant. Bring your
pain sticks...
--
// David E. Sluss (The Cynic) \\ // "I'm impatient with \\
//____ sluss%cynicscorner.org _____\\//__ stupidity. My people have __\\
\\ The Cynics Corner //\\ learned to live without it." //
\\ http://www.cynicscorner.org // \\ Klaatu //