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Waking Moments
|| Airdate: January 14, 1998 Written by: Andre Bormanis (Teleplay); Kenneth Biller (Story) Directed by: Alexander Singer Short Take: A show with its moments, waking or otherwise, but missing out on some potentially great characterization. Brief Summary:Mysterious dreams turn out to have hostile origins when the crew of Voyager begins to fall into a deep sleep. Review:"Waking Moments," thank God, was nowhere near as bad as its preview indicated it would be. How many times now have previews done something they shouldn't have, from making the upcoming episode sound kinky, as they did with "Revulsion" and this episode, or spoil the entire show, as they did with "The Chute"? Hello, Paramount, take a cue from DS9 and every other show on TV and do a normal preview, because it certainly is one of the more obvious things hurting Trek's public images. Oh, that's right! I'm reviewing the episode. "Waking Moments" did have its, well, moments of great enjoyment. Looking back the show was quite a ride, with some nice twists and turns that even had ever-suspicious me guessing. Yes, I suspected that there might be a plot twist in there at about the thirty minute mark, but acting like Chakotay was no longer dreaming, only to enter a larger collective dream (I think I got that right...) worked rather nicely. The episode could have easily fallen apart logically, as "Year of Hell" did toward the end and "Concerning Flight" did from the start, but upon further review, what happened made sense, at least in terms of actual plot dynamics. This is not to say it couldn't have been done better though. I can't say I totally bought the lucid dream technique, though using the moon as a sort of visual cue for both Chakotay and the audience worked well. Another strong point of the show was the fact it went straight into the problem right away, but even it had a couple of problems. First fo all, as I mentioned above, the viewer can't help but surmise that a plot twist has to be thrown in, since the problem can't be solved that quickly. Second of all, I thought by going for straight plot so early on, the writer missed a nice opportunity to do *something* intriguing with the dreams. I'll discuss that further below. All in all, "Moments" was a hell of a ride - too fast in places I'm afraid, since we never got the time to stop and appreciate the scenery. I thought another nice aspect to the show was how it treated the crew as a family, something we're seeing more and more of on Voyager. It's a little reminder that this isn't your normal by-the-book Federation starshp. The final scene, with Paris, Tuvok, Kim, and Neelix all dropping by the Mess Hall for something to do at the same time, was a real human touch I thought. Yes, scenes such as the one where Torres, Kim, Neelix and Tuvok discuss their dreams can be very funny, but more importantly they do the best job of highlighting these people as characters. We shouldn't try to look at the plot too hard, but we might as well. How and why do these aliens control dreams from such large distances escapes me. But I think its problems go further than that. In many ways, the plot didn't reach far enough, opting not to be truly inventive with the possibilities of dream reality. Why not play around a bit ,as was done with Neelix's vision quest in "Mortal Coil"? I try not to offer my own alternatives while I review, as that tends to make the review not so much a judging of the show's actual elements but how I would do the show instead, but here I think it is appropriate. The show needed some meat somewhere, and that would have best come with some more quirky, symbolic dreams, as opposed to pat stuff about people in crashing shuttlecraft. And that not only hurts the plot but the characters too. Several times this year Voyager has almost reached out to offer some truly compelling character work, where the people involved are placed in some very raw and personal situations. We've had three dream-heavy shows now. But for some reason the writers don't want to use the dreams to expand the characters. Why not give Tuvok a violent dream as in "Random Thoughts"? And what was the significance of Chakotay's dream? That he is a vegetarian? There are other possibilities, too, like the potential for a major character revelation in one of these dreams, but that's not the ultimate point. We had a situation that shouted for intriguing character work... and we got leola root stew. Voyager has probably had the weakest alien encounters in the history of Trek, partly because so much of the show is confined to the ship - meaning any aliens would have to come to them instead of vice versa, making the aliens almost automatically hostile - but also because the writers just don't take the time to give the aliens actual beliefs and personalities. Both of those things happened here. The aliens (Did they have a name?) really stood for... nothing, and after viewing them I'm only left with questions about their motivations and existence. Why not flesh them out a tad? How did a sleeping species evolve that far? And don't make them aggressors for once. When the alien threatened Chakotay in his first dream, I winced in pain, for he sounded like a cackling villian, not a normal sentient being just wanting to portect himself. All it would have taken would be a little detail, like a hibernation cycle, that would have made their existence a little more plausible and given them some justification for protecting themselves. It irritates me, because it really isn't that hard to do, writers! "Waking Moments" was a lot of fun to watch, but not exactly food for the mind. I must say this worries me, because this it comes off almost as an intentional attempt by Voyager's writers to pander totally to the new viewers WTIHOUT EVEN BOTHERING TO MAKE THE STORY INTELLIGENT. It wouldn't confuse the dumb people to make the dreams a little more substantial... but they don't seem to care anyway. Perhaps I'm just having a bad day, but this development has me very worried. I probably have no need for concern, since it will be *very* hard to screw up a story like "Message in a Bottle." Then again, "Waking" sounded good on paper too. Some short takes: -Andre Bormanis is the show's science consultant. Tell me Andre, can you detect neurogenic fields a parsec away? -ARRRRRRRGGGH! Two mentions of Chakotay's elders in two weeks. -Raise your hand if you winced when Janeway started packin' heat. Too bad phaser rifles don't have something you can cock and make a nice "Ker-chung, ker-chung" noise with. No more action hero please. -If I were Kim, I'd be asking to go to the bathroom after sleeping for thirty-seven hours! Writing: No major plot holes and good humor, but also no characterization Acting: Beltran seemed stronger this week, perhaps because he had actual lines Directing:Actually quite strong, as Singer kept the twists and turns nicely flowing Rating: 7.4 out of 10.0 Quote:Neelix: "Exiled on a planet.. where the only form of communication is laughter!" -Neelix, discussing Tuvok's ultimate nightmare Next week: What is with the preview? It almost intentionally distracts from what the episode will be about... Romulans!!!! 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