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 EPISODE REVIEWS | ||
 | "Favorite
Son" - Week of Mar. 17th - Mar. 21st File Photo
|| Airdate: March
19th, 1997 Written by: Lisa
Klink Directed by:
Marvin H. Rush Brief Summary:
When Voyager is approached by an alien ship, Ensign Kim
instinctively foresees their imminent attack, taking control of
the weapons systems and initiating combat between the two ships.
Kim's visions continue, and he is drawn towards a mysterious
planet where the inhabitants claim that Kim is not human, but
shares their heritage. Review Well here comes
another lower than average episode of Voyager. Hopefully it's not
a sign of things to come, especially after such a string of great
episodes. The trailer not only insulted many of us, but was
another example of how Voyager holds nothing sacred, tarnishing
the Star Trek name for a cheap attempt to bring in the
uninitiated less sophisticated masses. Frankly after Lisa Klink
gave us "Remember" earlier in the season I guess we
shouldn't have expected much. The story was pretty hopeless, and
it was all director Marvin Rush could do to make the beginning
twenty minutes exciting. This must've been a terror for Rush,
after directing the riveting "The Thaw." First of all,
Iemme just say that the teaser and the opening 20 minutes really
made me think that the trailer didn't do a good episode justice.
The prelude was thoroughly shocking and exciting. This continued
into the beginning of the show, with the threat of attack, the
soul-searching of Kim, and the mysterious voyage to a planet that
offered a pleasant twist. Even though we have had stories in the
past dealing with aliens who need the energy and/or fertilization
substances of a cast member, I thought that it was at least
mildly original the way this particular story was going. I was
sorely mistaken. Then began the
horror. They beam down to a room of terrible (yet incredibly
beautiful) actresses; at this point I was still trying to enjoy
the story, but it quickly deteriorated. I'm not usually one to
care about sexually connotated dialogue or degrading
suggestiveness, but I must say that the females ogling at Kim got
to the point where it was obviously an attempt to appeal to the
lesser-sophisticated tendencies within the viewer, and frankly I
was insulted. Not to mention that the actresses couldn't act and
Garret Wang's performance was LESS than great (hell, Roxann
Dawson gave a better performance in what amounted to be a cameo
for her). I think something
that the writers haven't done is develop the premises of the
characters, especially Janeway who is more of a figurehead than a
Captain. I've noticed in MANY episodes, including this one that
Janeway doesn't command and make decisions but rather gets a
recommendation from someone (usually Tuvok) and then does what
they say. For instance, in this outing when the threat of enemy
ships in pursuit is imminent, Tuvok gives his analysis of
tactical and then "recommends not to get into a
confrontation". This shouldn't have been his line, Janeway
should've vocalized that herself. Now although this situation
didn't take a rocket scientist to make a decision on, it is still
important for Janeway to be shown making decisions. This was seen
later when Tuvok recommended negotiating with the enemy aliens
(their name escapes me) and Janeway here at least made half a
decision, but basically did what Tuvok said. As far as the
story in this particular episode, once Voyager got the warning
from the enemy aliens the rest was completely predictable.
Voyager locked out, Kim wooed, twist discovered, Kim rescued. The
only entertaining scene in what amounted be the last third of the
show was Kim's deception of the women in his quarters. Served
them right; typical women (hehe, no sexism intended, just playing
a little). Did anyone else see the resemblance between the dead
Taresian (or whatever species he used to be) and the Borg corpse
in "Blood Fever"? Well, my biggest gripe about the end
was that although it was entirely believable and all, the Voyager
beam-out of Kim was WAY too simple and dull. I mean come on; they
need to start coming up with someone more clever, original, and
risky. Now Some
Smaller Points: - When the
Taresians said that Kim's father had travelled to Earth, even
though this was later resolved, it was never resolved to Janeway,
and without asking wouldn't she logically assume (like I) that
the Taresians must've had some fast form of travel, since Kim was
so young? Why didn't she inquire, and get a simple explanation
from them? In fact, no one inquired, the explanation was just
misplaced and spread throughout. Losing believability..... - I don't suppose
that Chakotay's line regarding Kim pulling a shuttle-craft out of
a hat was a nod to the discrepancy the writers created? Nah,
couldn't be..... - The Doctor
brightened things up again with his usual satisfaction at his own
genius. I really like that about him, and think he is a good
cross of McCoy, Data, Spock, and Bashir. (you figure that one
out) - Yet again,
Voyager gets another enemy. Is it really plausible to believe
that all these species are out to get Voyager thus becoming an
enemy? Can't they just goto a planet sometime and meet someone
friendly with some other strange plot all just for the sake of
"This planet looks fascinating.." ? - I do like how
the end of Voyager episodes are beginning to be more like TOS,
with the closing humor and all. I thought the Kim/Paris exchange
was good. Writing:
Pretty lame, you know why. Directing:
Tried his best with a bad script, first third was exciting. Acting:
Nothing extraordinary. Kim was bad, and those Taresian women were
horrible. Of course they all had cheesy lines. Overall
Verdict: This episode was insulting, and once again HAS NO
BEARING ON FUTURE EPISODES. Rating: 4
out of 5. Next Week:
Don't ya love it when they not only insult us with an episode
like "Favorite Son," but the only reason they had this
episode in between reruns was because they wanted to make sure
people don't stop watching during the reruns?!?!?!! Discuss This
Episode and/or Review in the Fan Comm Link Discussion Board! | |
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