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 EPISODE REVIEWS | ||
 | "Year of Hell Pt. 2"
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|| Airdate: November 12th, 1997 Written by: Joe Menosky and Brannon Directed by: Mike Vejar Short Take: Probably the most frustrating show of the year. Despite a weak plot and the curse of the reset button, a lot of good stuff was there. Brief Summary: Janeway and the remaining senior staff put together an alliance to attack Annorex. Meanwhile, Chakotay and Tom try to defeat him by causing a mutiny onboard the timeship. Review:Trek two parters conclusions are notoriously bad since they typically exist only to get the crew out of the mess they encountered in the first part of the two-parter. The point of part two of Year of Hell was certainly to do that, this time with a very large pressing of the reset button. But strangely enough, it didn't really do well in that department, producing an slow, anticlimatic plot, reset button irrelevant. Even more bizarre, the supposed stuffing to this plot was what redeemed the episode. It managed to do the little things right, the stuff that normally gets lost in action fests. In the actual action, the story was plodding, almost a distraction from the character pieces. It was the character pieces that saved this story. Clearly thought was put into this two-parter. The name "Annorax" proved to be more than a 20,000 Leagues allusion. Part Two had many of the same elements as the book. Particularly chilling was the dinner feast of lost civilizations. Sorta makes your skin crawl. Visual parallels like the glass of wine/crew mugs in mess hall, as well as the lock of hair this week with Janeway's teacup last week, helped give the story visual flavor. The ending, despite some plot problems, had a nice touch too. Nothing beats an omnious parting shot of the calculations of a weapon of doom. Still, the plot needed serious reworking. Where did the rest of the crew go? I thought it would have been a great idea to have Annorax hunt them down one by one. That's rather minor, but it would have at least given us something to watch. Watching Annorax pontificate and Janeway race through fires is nice, but when the grand sum of it all is a (gasp) fleet of five whole ships being sent after Annorax, it's hard to keep focused on watching the show. Making matters worse, much of it felt like an action movie minus the action. "Time's up!" was trite and made me wince. Janeway seeing the timeship through the hole in the viewscreen was bad as well. It's one thing to create a fast-paced story with mucho explosions; it's another to make a parody of a fast-paced story with mucho explosions. I completely understand why destroying the ship reset everything. In fact, I'm embarassed I didn't guess that sooner. I do not understand how time went back to "normal." Annorax was aboard the ship, yes? Then why was he not erased from history? Or would his parents have given birth to him anyway? Furthermore, why was he at Day One? He lived like 70,000 days before Voyager entered the sector. Why did the timeline not begin again due to the ship being planned out again, as the episode's final shot showed? And how exactly did Voyager not wind up in Krenim space in the final timeline? Did the shift somehow effect the interstellar cartography? It's possible to say that without the timeship civilizations survived that changed the political scene. But we don't know, and that is frustrating. Despite all these rather sever plot complications, a couple of vey positive things can be pointed out. The first is Captain Janeway. As in Scorpion, the show centered a great deal around her, or more precisely her compulsion to get her ship home at all costs. This led to some wonderful moments here. Seeing Janeway simply compelled to do *something* made me appreciate the fact that she can be not just a good captain, but a good captain with character flaws - when the writers try. I must admit that her scene with Tuvok nearly move me to tears, and the scene where she recovered the watch was nice as well. I hummed the song "Time, time it's on your side" whenever she walked around with the watch. And as cheesy as it seems, Janeway willing to sacrifice herself for her ship was a touching moment. This is especially true I think when you consider that Annorax could have restored the timeline by destroying his own ship but he didn't - a wonderful example of how compulsion taken too far can have both heroic and selfish aspects to it. A fascinating character portrayal. Annorax, as I just mentioned, mirrored Janeway in his obsession in many ways, and as a result I found him compelling too. His persecution complex toward time fascinated me, particularly his insistence that time had moods and could be instinctually felt. The man clearly knew what he was doing was wrong, but kept doing it because he had convinced hismelf that he if he made enough correct calculations could restore the timeline he wanted, wife included. Before it was over he became a tragic figure, a man who knew he was wasting for no good cause, but unlike Janeway willing to sacrifice himself to accomplish it. When he pointed out to Chakotay that both his task and Janeway's quest to get home were both near impossible to achieve, yet both of them kept trying anyway, both he adn Janeway seemed similar. But Janeway cared for ship and for others around her - he cared for himself. And hat destroyed him. Chakotay's postion was a little stranger. He was simply the wrong person for the job here. The supposedly angry warrior whose people had a troubled past seemed strangely sympathetic to Annorax's policy of genocide. Tom was a bit of hothead for my tastes, but at least I could understand his antagonism. I could not understand Chakotay's compliance. Beltran's acting was uninspired, and his role in the plot was little more than getting Annorex to talk. A disappointment which made an already slow mutiny plot on the ship even slower. I'm not sure if there's much else to say. The reset button was used, as expected, but what I had hoped for - the crew retaining the memories of the events - did not happen. That is unfortuante, because it is tempting to just dismiss the show as completely irrelevant. "All Good Things" at least had Picard remembering what happenned, after all. I wouldn't go so far as to dismiss "Year of Hell" though. It was a wonderful "What If?" situation that provided for some of the best character interaction Voyager has had this year. Yes, it stings that it was wiped away in an instant. But what we saw was, for lack of better words, way cool, and every once and awhile we need "way cool," if not to entertain us, then at least to bloster the Nielsens. Some short takes: - The CGI did not impress me at all, particularly after "Sacrifice of Angels." Mojo evidently likes his old job with B5, as the timeship was nearly indentical to the B5 station, faux shininess and all. - I'm no scientist, but how does an antibody from one species protect another? Why not say the erased aliens found a cure for a Krenim disease? -For the record, Kes was not mentioned in the script because that scene was cut apparently. -No one wore goggles while clearing the nebula? -I'm sorry, but no show in the history of Trek has had as many aliens races mentioned in one hour, and I'm still not sure if half of their names were actually pronouncible. Writing: Schizophrenic. A lot of intelligent stuff there, but it all almost got lost in a very weak plot. Acting: Mulgrew was outstanding, Beltran... well, not. Kurtwood Smith was simply excellent. Directing: A few nice touches but mostly neutral. Rating: 7.9 out of 10.0. Plot was worst then expected, but the reset was relatively inoffensive thanks to excellent character work good. Quote: -Tuvok to Janeway, knowing that she will die Discuss This Episode and/or Review in the Fan Comm Link Discussion Board! | |
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