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 EPISODE REVIEWS | ||
 | "Revulsion"
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|| Airdate: October 1, 1997 Written by: Lisa Klink Directed by: Kenneth Biller Short Take: Not a particularly outstanding episode, but with enough good lines to make it worth watching. The low point of the season, however. Brief Summary: Torres and The Doctor fall into danger when a holographic Janitor they try to help turns out to be a little sloppy in his attitude toward human life. Meanwhile, Kim finds himself interested in Seven, but both are too socially maladjusted to do anything about it (Was that mean? Well, this episode made me loopy, okay?) Review: Oh boy. Last week, I thought we had a stinker coming. That preview sure did smell. "There's a woman under there... if you'd bother to look." And don't forget, "Take off your clothes." Ugh. To say the least, I was embarassed for the entire Star Trek franchise that those words ever made it to an episode preview. And I was ready to destroy this episode as a result. Alas, that didn't happen. Despite another Holographic Wackiness (trademark, please) scenario, this episode wasn't a complete wash, and the Seven subpot, while not as intriguing as previous ones dealing with her, had its moments of insight and humor. Three things make this episode hard to hate. The first was the janitor himself. There's something inspired about the idea of a hologram and a janitor wrapped into one. It seems so appropriate, as in both instances the entity involved isn't treated with much dignity by others. (Even there, I loosely referred to both as "entities" as if they were nothing more space sprites or other oddball aliens of the week.) Holograms have always been fun to play around with as characters, and the thought seeing how one as a janitor would turn out is awfully hard as a concept to resist. The result is a completely maladjusted and almost completely bye" for making holograms such health hazards. We've had way too many holographic such-and-such gone bad shows, and while they make for creepy and even thought-provoking fare, after awhile they become very predictable, very packaged. This show had no reprecussions. It was the exercise in a nifty idea, a throwaway concept, and unlike "Nemesis" had little to distinguish it in the long run. Even in terms of pure plot, things went unfulfilled. Esssentially, the show just ended - no twists, no surprises. Torres doesn't have to say, "That's right - I'm an engineer" as O'Brien did in "Empok Nor"to make the end inventive, but, darn it, do something more than the obvious. Twice she defeated the Janitor at the last possible second through very by-the-book means. Plus, she kept getting hurt - she had a punctured heart for crying out loud - but she get on tickin'. Not too believable. The Doc essentially acted like a numbskull, and though I can't say I wouldn't put that past his personality, it would have been nice if he played some role with regards to the episode's climax. He would supposedly have mixed feelings about killing the Janitor, after all. With that said, however, this episode was pretty darn funny in places, easily the most humorous we've had all year. Quick, smart dialogue seems to be Lisa Klink's strong point, and this dialogue was the second redeeming feature of the show. I'll spare you all the lines since you heard them yourselves, but the little witty retorts, particularly with the Doctor, were funny without making the characters involved seem silly. Tuvok's promotion had the nice, simple touch of people who know and care for each other interacting in a very human way, while Tom promoting the idea that he and B'elanna can have a mutual understanding was funny without being excessively garter-tearing. Good work in this department. The rest was devote to Seven and Harry. It's hard to say much about this, since nothing was actually resolved. It makes sense that the issue of Seven and sexuality would have to be explored - after all, that's one thing the she was most certainly deprived of while in the Collective that would provide a definite complication to adjusting to human society. But sexuality really wasn't the issue here. It was, once again, how she views the world differently compared to the rest of the crew. While nothing profound was brought up, an effective job of showing how far she still had to go was done. She clearly sees herself as different - her remark about her humanity reasserting itself showed that - but she also wants to fit in. That's a nice conflict that hopefully will be the theme of next week's show. The "take off your clothes scene" went far better than expected and even had me laughing - in the sincere, not the mocking, way. The funniest part, however, was Chakotay, who clearly knew what was going on, chosing to torture poor Kim. Seven's story had the benefit of allowing us to see another character interact with her, and while there's nothing extraordinary about what was done with Kim, I can certainly sympathize with him all too well. A dream girl, with no contact with humanity, working with you? Heck, I'd have a crush too... "Repulsion" wasn't as bad as I make it sound, and if it is the low-end benchmark for Voyager this year, the show is in very good shape. However, judging by upcoming episode spoilers, we have at least another holographic adventure and another wacky, packaged premise show. The show's shown definite improvement, but it doesn't need to burn up rehashed plots every week if it wants long term attention. Some short takes: - You know, Torres reading that alien tech really tees me off. Argh! They don't speak English or Fed Basic or whatever! Make it complicated, just once, to make me happy. - Why is Seven wearing high heels? And on ladders? - Paris as nurse is not beyond belief, since that was an early role for him, but I hope they get a recurring character to replace Kes - say, Enisign Wildman? - What was the deal with the Ensign with the George Clooney haircut? ER Live must have had a profound historical impact... - There's really little to say about Tuvok's promotion, save, after being in Starfleet over a century, it's about time. Vulcan logic, as well as a long life span, apparently hasn't made him too concerned about career ambition. - Two weeks ago, Tom was hitting on Seven. Could his advice to Harry be hypocrisy, or did the writers forget what they had written already? Writing: The dialogue itself went very well, but the story was less than gripping. Acting: Doc, Torres, the Janitor, and Seven all fine. Kim was Kim. Directing: For a directorial debut (Ken Biller is a writer for Voyager), surprisingly few problems. Rating: 6.4 out of 10.0 Quote:
Next week: Did the fans ask for more? T'is The Raven, which means the Borg. (Okay, bad rhyme...) Discuss This Episode and/or Review in the Fan Comm Link Discussion Board! | |
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