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 EPISODE REVIEWS | ||
 | "The Raven"
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|| Airdate: October 8, 1997 Written by: Bryan Fuller (Teleplay); Bryan Fuller and Henry "Doc" Kloor (story) Directed by: LeVar Burton Short Take: Essentially an episode about nothing. Unlike Seinfeld, there was little funny about it. Brief Summary: Seven of Nine suddenly finds herself longing to return to the collective, so she hijacks a shuttle. Tuvok tracks her down and leads her to the real source of the Borg signal - the crashed remains of her family's ship, the USS Raven. Review: Little to rave about "The Raven." (Sorry.) What a let down. I knew enough ahead of time to know not to expect 15 cubes this episode. But I also knew enough to expect a powerful character drama. I didn't get that. Seven moved a tad bit forward, but the story itself was more than a bit lacking, and what depth could have been explored was ignored before the opening act was even done. The plot moved terribly slow. What tension was there was mostly artificial. We knew Seven would escape, and before too long we knew where she was going. Janeway knew what the raven in Seven's vision meant, but it was withheld intentionally to heighten tension. Not that we couldn't have guessed once we realized it was not a Borg ship Seven was going to find. The first thirty minutes were Seven simply getting up to escape, a la TNG's "Brothers," and once the "secret" was out, little else was done, except have her and Tuvok dodge scrap metal. The attempt to compensate for such a lack of tension was nearly met with the Bohmar. An interesting species with quite a quirky streak to them, even if they didn't seem too threatening. I tended to like them, despite their resemblance to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. Their cockiness mixed with xenophobia made for quite a good bit of humor. What was the line? "Is your translator not working?" He he. But they, like the rest of the story, weren't followed up on. They proved to be a gag and an obstacle, not the sign of much thought behind the script. Had these plot flaws been the only problem, I could have left satisfied. However, little in terms of meaning was followed up on either. The story didn't even use the obvious symbols it was given. Seven molding a human head shouted out for some sort of symbolism, but it was only barely touched on. And why a raven? Because it is spooky? Is there some sort of symbolism there I missed? The dream sequences were done extremely well, but tossing in a bird that a six year old Annika might not even be familiar with makes no sense at all, even if her family's ship was named that. If Seven with her encyclopedic knowledge doesn't know what a raven is, how would the six year old girl? That's a shame, since we had the chance for some good character work and psychology. Seven cringing in fear like a child emphasized her childlike state, just as her learning how to eat via the shuttle-and-hangar method did. (That Neelix scene, by the way, was the second time this year a Neelix scene has been a true treat.) Past episodes dealing with Seven, most notably "The Gift," had noticeable leaps in character development. Here, she learns of her human heritage, and the largest step she takes is to have the doctor remove her ability to detect the collective. That's certainly a big step, but unlike "The Gift" it lacked anything thought provoking beneath. We didn't have the talk of personal choice versus community awareness, or a debate about community versus collective. The episode at times moved at a standstill, not only in terms of story, but in terms of Seven's development as well. That's not to say the character work was terrible. Most of the interaction between her and Tuvok did an excellent job of showing her ambiguity toward the Borg. I found her telling Tuvok to thank Captain Janeway to be particularly poignant, especially after she had just told Tuvok she would allow him to escape. For a moment I could see the humanity in her asserting itself. For a moment. There were a few funny moments, though I'm not sure if all of them were intentional. One was Seven's reaction to Neelix's cooking. "Revulsion" indeed. The scene itself, as mentioned, was a nice piece of writing. Another one that stands out was Torres' goading of the young Ensign Kim, as well as his admission to Janeway that he is fairly easy to read. The last came when Janeway was questioned by the quarterback of the Bohmar. He asked if she was incompetent, and the way that queston hung in the air I couldn't help but think the answer was yes. That's mean, I know. Janeway hasn't made too many bad decisions this season so far. I tend to think she handled the situation in "The Raven" well, including the judgment call about how much force would be necessary to stop Seven. The plot being somewhat contrived, it's amazing she didn't come off looking worse. I usually don't comment on directing, but I feel I must here. It was terrible. The FX were off, many of the sets looked artificial, and camera angles seemed shaky. Anyone else notice the voicover by Tuvok in the shuttle as he was talking to Seven? Sloppy. Then there was the obvious blue screen following the escape from the shuttle. Burton should stick to filming Klingon episodes. That way the set's so dark that no one can notice many of the directorial flaws. I'm being a little hard on this episode. It aspired high, and the dialogue between Seven and Tuvok was good. It wanted to be a good character episode so badly. But it felt like it was going nowhere, and once it did go somewhere, it didn't do much with it. Voyager started strong, and while "Revulsion" wasn't bad by any means, it was a step down from previous shows. With "The Raven" failing despite the much ballyhooed promise of Seven of Nine, I am now somewhat worried. Let's hope the answer Voyager's writers give to future shows like "The Raven" is "nevermore." Some short takes: - The FX with Seven attacking the Bohmar ships was nice and makes up for some of the poorer FX scenes. - My word, no shuttles died. Presumably the second one was beamed or remote controlled up. -It is good to see continuity, as seen with Ensign Kim and Seven's non-relationship being followed up on. - Why is a non-military craft like the Raven given a USS designation? - The Bohmar seemed pretty unaware about that Federation ship... maybe those dust particles were never tracked. And how did they miss a Borg cube? Writing: Predictable and lacking in depth. Acting: Strong from Ryan, sufficient from everyone else. Directing: Burton needs to take a look in book about directing on the next Reading Rainbow. Rating: 5.3 out of 10.0 Quote: Kim: "What's that suppose to mean... we had a working relationship." Torres: "What's that suppose to mean?" Kim: "It's not what you're thinking." Torres: "What am I thinking, Harry?" - Torres to Kim about his "interest" in Seven Next week: UPN tries seduction to convince us early season reruns are good. Discuss This Episode and/or Review in the Fan Comm Link Discussion Board! | |
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