[VOY] Review -- "Nemesis"
Jonathan Harrington
"Nemesis"
There's a good idea in this episode somewhere. Possibly several. As it
turned out, though, this episode ended up being quite a mess -- and ended up
being about far less than it seems.
I actually enjoyed the episode for a good long time. It seemed to do what
Voyager ought to do more of -- that is, get involved with alien cultures,
find out what makes them tick, have adventures, etc. All that good Trek-type
stuff. And I even enjoyed the highly stylized language of the natives
Chakotay ended up with -- it helped to create a believably consistent alien
culture. The conflict that the group was involved in seemed to be
potentially interesting, as long as the mystery played out in an creative
way. And the military overtones provided for a refreshing,
out-of-the-Trek-norm atmosphere.
But, this all couldn't last forever. There were signs of trouble early, of
course -- yet another solo shuttle mission far away from the Voyager, which
ended in the inevitable shuttle crash -- that makes three shuttles destroyed
in four episodes, which seems like a collective "screw you!" from the
writers to the viewers. But about halfway through the episodes, the problems
with the story start to become apparent. We see what's going on back on
board Voyager, and Neelix and Janeway discuss meeting with a delegate from
the planet who might be able to help them find Chakotay -- but they don't
mention what group the representative is from. This, it is obvious, means
that the nice, friendly aliens Janeway is going to talk to are the evil
Nemesis that Chakotay is fighting. Not very innovative, and obvious ten
miles back. When the representative beams on board, we are obviously
supposed to be shocked -- shocked! -- that he's a snaggle-tooth, and Janeway
gives him a ludicrously conspiratorial smile, which drives the final nail in
the coffin of that scene.
At this point, it's still not entirely clear what the episode is about. We
can see that Chakotay is getting ever closer to the point of view of his
comrades in arms, seeing the Nemesis as the enemy. This is, though, only
natural, given what he's seen -- murder, rape, desecration, etc -- any
rational person would see such guys as the enemy. Now, it does strike the
viewer that some of this is over-the-top and propagandistic, which I suppose
counts as a clue, but given the low level of the quality of Voyager writing
in general, it's usually best not to read too much into anything. We can see
that there's going to be some attempt at making a point that you can't
always tell who the bad guys are, but surely, the viewer thinks, there's got
to be more than that. Well....
The big reveal at the end of the episode is supposed to come as a great
surprise -- which I suppose it does -- and is obviously supposed to be
meaningful, which it isn't. We find out that everything Chakotay experienced
was a drug-and technology- induced propaganda campaign. And that's *all* we
find out. We know that these events we've seen didn't happen. And, at the
end of the episode, that's all we know -- apart from the fact that there are
two species at war with each other. We don't know what they're fighting
about; we don't know if events just like the ones we've seen may have
happened; we don't know what terrible things the human-types may have done
or may not have done; we know nothing at all about anything. This seems,
somehow, to have been the point, I suppose -- that it's hard to know who to
trust, or something. The problem is, we know so little that really, the
episode can't possibly be about anything. All we know is, there are two
alien groups fighting. And that's it. What are we supposed to draw from
that? Why should we care? What's the point? There are no answers suggested
by the episode. In the end, it is, literally, about nothing.
You might be tempted to make the argument that the episode is really about
Chakotay, about his reaction to these circumstances -- but the writers, in
their craven cowardice, eliminate even this possibility. Chakotay's
reactions, you see, were drug- induced -- he can't be held responsible for
anything he thought or felt throughout the entire ordeal. So we learn
*nothing* about Chakotay, either, because the reactions weren't his. Never
mind that his reactions were perfectly understandable, and don't *need* to
be explained -- on Voyager, no one has a negative thought that isn't induced
by an alien somehow. It's that kind of blandness, of punch-pulling, that
makes Voyager such a lifeless show so much of the time -- and it's the
absence of that timidity that makes DS9 so richly rewarding.
It's also worth noting that the characterization of Chakotay is wildly
inconsistent and incomprehensible. Near the beginning of the episode,
Chakotay says that back where he comes from, people don't settle disputes
through violence -- they use treaty and negotiation. He doesn't believe in
violence. WHAT?!?!?! This from a Maquis leader, a terrorist, who dedicated
his life to fighting, violently, a negotiated treaty? What kind of crap is
this? Or are we to believe that this, too, is a drug-induced pacifism?
Later, Chakotay remembers he was a terrorist, and talks about fighting the
Cardassians -- but no attempt is ever made to explain how he manages the
apparent internal contradiction of being a guy who believes in negotiation,
but fights against it -- which would have been an awfully nice thing to
learn about Chakotay's character. But no, this episode is 100% insight-free.
One last thing -- this has got to be the least efficient recruitment method
in the history of sentient civilizations. Wait for a ship to pass by, shoot
it down, hope someone survives, and subject them to days of labor- and
resource- intensive brainwashing to make them fight for you. It rivals, for
sheer preposterousness, the story about the DNA- altering brainwashing done
by the women in "Favorite Son." And how on earth did the Voyager production
team avoid a trademark infringement suit, given how blatantly they ripped
off the movie "Predator" both in the design of the aliens and in the jungle
commando atmosphere? Amazing.
Summing up: An episode that is actually pretty engaging and enjoyable for
the first half or so, but which is completely undermined by a staggeringly
ill-advised ending. It had laid the groundwork for an episode about
propaganda; or about the difficulty of determining the good guys from the
bad guys; or about Chakotay's impulses towards hatred and aggression; or
just a good old-fashioned action-packed alien-hunting story. But in the end,
it's none of these -- it's some kind of nightmarish Seinfeld Trek episode: a
show about nothing.
- Jon Harrington
jhar...@students.wisc.edu
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