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One File Photo || Mission Log Hopeful End to Voyager's Year?
Airdate: May 20, 1998 Written by: Brannon Braga and Joe Menosky (teleplay); Brannon Braga & Joe Menosky and Rick Berman (story) Directed by: Winrich Kolbe In short: The revenge of the Gilligan Island Syndrome, but a strong hour nonetheless Brief Summary: With the help of an alien genius, Voyager finds the USS Dauntless, a Starfleet ship sent to bring them home Review:I can't I was terribly excited about this episode when I first read the spoilers a couple of months back. Season finales are supposed to be big, but this... this seemed underwhelming, unexciting, and worst of all, unoriginal. "Hope and Fear" on paper was the Gilligan Island Syndrome redux, an tired, old concept about the possibility of bringing the crew home that falls through in the end because "it just wasn't meant to be." In other words, a rotten egg McGuffin. A McGuffin plot is one where the solution is obvious, since the premise dictates what happens. Voyager can't go home since it's suppose to be lost - that's the premise of the show. Without even reading spoilers I could have told you what quadrant Voyager was going to be in before the episode ended. Not exactly the makings of a great episode. "Hope and Fear" turned out to be a McGuffin plot, allright, but not a rotten egg one. In fact it had some of Voyager's strongest character work ever, bringing closure to Janeway and Seven's troubles with a rather sensitive touch. In retrospect it seems that the Voyager writers did know what they were doing with Seven, primarily I feel because they laid out a course for the character and followed it to its logical conclusion in "Hope" - something that in turn gives me hope that the rest of the show's characters can be treated as well, hopefully without giving them the large chunks of screen time that it took to take Seven where she went. "Hope and Fear" I hope will be views years from now as the first episode of the Braga era, not the last of the Taylor one. Once again we had Seven prominently featured, and I quickly grew worried that the episode would actually be hurt by this, despite the fact that she has done so well this year. I first I had problems with Seven being so scared of going home. Come on, it's such a small thing to devote an episode around. She's an outsider, of course she'd be scared, blah blah cry like a big baby Seven, now get on with the episode. But then I realized how isolated Seven truly was from human society. I'll be honest with you - I found Seven's statement that she has her own set of values to be disturbing, but disturbing in the good sort of way, if that exists. She's right of course, since she does view the world *very* differently, but for some reason I found that powerful. For the first time we have a major character in the Trek universe who is a little messed up and with an outlook very different from the almost blind utopianism that all the other characters display. I like it. I like it because it challenges Federation ideas and ideals, but I also like it because in challenging those values we can have *character* development. And the best way to do that is have a representative of those ideas and ideals clash with Seven - namely, Janeway. I love this because it seems so well though out, and it's from the Voyager people! The episode was all about Seven and Janeway coming to terms, Janeway trying to find if you will the ability to muster Federation tolerance for Seven's outlook while Seven tried to understand the need for values larger than her own self-interest, values embodied in the Federation way. It's not the mother/daughter relationship that excites me about Seven/Janeway (ok, "excite" and "Seven/Janeway" sounds like one of those fanfics...), it's the Federation/anti-Federation one. Of course, some will argue that post-Tuvix Janeway cannot embody Federation values. Folks, it's suppose to be that way! She is suppose to have problems, to make controversial decisions on the one in "Scorpion." The Federation isn't perfect. Giving Janeway flaws is a realistic move that deserves applause. It's good writing, and, besides, I agreed with Janeway's call in "Scorpion," arrogant though it may have been. Another move that deserves even more applause was making her answer for her mistakes. It worked so well because it relied on past events, something I feel is important because it shows, once again, that the writers are thinking. The rationale behind Arturis's evil scheme was a good one, not just because it relied on past events but *controversial* past events - namely, Janeway's decision to help the Borg in "Scorpion" that I mentioned above. Yes, the fact that Arturis went to such ridiculous lengths to punish Voyager was hard to believe (and I do wonder how he figured out Voyage's role - maybe his people were just that smart?!?), but he was backed up with a big enough motivation to make such an insane plan plausible thematically if not dramatically. My only regret is that we essentially only had one conversation about the subject with a couple of sneering bad guy one-liners about it later on. It's a big issue, and I applaud the writers for addressing it. Just give us more - we're Trek fans, we can handle intelligent conversations. The "Scorpion" reference and the characterization saved the episode from the mediocrity of its actual plot. Janeway was right to be suspicious (and thank goodness she was, as that was a nice touch of realism), since Arturis's arrival was contrived from its clumsy introduction to his overblown demise (that's a lot of cubes to assimilate one ship), with numerous hints of his evilness dropped in between. Boy, let's not focus the camera on him TOO long. Geez. The episode referred to Seven's situation in "The Gift." Perhaps it should have referred to "The Gift"'s unfortunately underwhelming finish, where Voyager made through Borg space in a flash. Here, Voyager fixed the slipstream just long enough to where they made it back to where they were and then some - but then it broke down and it can't be used again. YEAH RIGHT. No, I'm not asking that Voyager be stranded in Borg space next season, though I can't say I wouldn't be mad at the writers if they did do such a gutsy move. But a show like Voyager needs more than "we need to get home" to make it interesting. It needs constant threats, too - like the Borg. Braga said they'd be Voyager's Klingons... if so, now would be a good time to start. Note that I'm not saying that the season finale must have explosions. It certainly doesn't to be a good season finale, nonetheless just a good episode. But the idea of the season finale is to tease you into watching next year, to make you excited over the summer as to what will happen. If you'll look around you'll notice that even Law and Order is ending the season with a cliffhanger. It makes me, the fan, want to watch, and considering Voyager's ratings, it needs it. On one hand I have to admire the staff's willingness to close the book on the Taylor era quickly and simply. Yet at the same time, they were so eager to be nonconformists compared to the rest of the cliffhanger-crazed TV world that they tied everything a little too easily. The one issue that needed to enter a new phase, the Seven/Janeway relationship, did just that. But it may not work out, and having some sort of failsafe would be nice. Other ideas should have been left on the table, and I'm not sure why they weren't. Why not, after all, leave that message undecoded for a rainy day? Why not leave them close to Borg space? So much could have been done that not doing it suggest, to me at least, that the writers want to keep the show's formula simple, despite the great character arc between Seven and Janeway. That's what baffles me. We need new ground for stories, and so much of that can come with character work similar to the work done between Seven and Janeway. They just need to do it. So, while "Hope and Fear" mostly worked, I can't say it inspired much hope or fear in me for next year, since I don't have a clue as to what's coming. We need to move past one conflict between two characters to conflicts between several characters, hopefully by not making who's- in-love-with-who an issue like on Melrose Place and Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Braga has the chance to make things very interesting for Voyager next year, and I don't mean by tossing up the usual assortment of subspace anomalies, though I'm sure it will be... interesting. I mean real character growth for everyone, not just Janeway and Seven. "Hope and Fear" showed it could be done. It will be looked back on as the episode that made or broke this show, and possibly this franchise. How's that for pressure? Some short takes: - Somebody check - has B'elanna used Klingon before? The episode says she hardly knows it - We've never seen "Velocity" before, but it did seem like a good idea for a game, and I hope we see it again. - The actor who played Arturis was in TNG's "Who Watches the Watchers," in case you thought he looked familiar. - The set for the Dauntless almost surely will be used in ST 9 - too expensive to be otherwise - By the way, I find REALLY hard to believe that you can learn a language through a few utterances.... like, impossible, since one must know the VOCABULARY!!! Making Arturis a human universal translator just didn't work. - This was Rick Berman's first script credit since "First Contact." His last TV credit was for "Caretaker," the Voyager premiere. - About the Admiral Hayes controversy: at first, I thought, "Well he's dead - that's how we know it's a trick!" Then it turns out that the old foag is ALIVE. What was Braga thinking? He did write First Contact, right? Right?!? Rating: B+. Tied up a lot of loose thread like a season finale should but forgot to start new ones - something Voyager will need plenty of next year Next week: "The Year of Hell," arriving over half a year after it was first shown Discuss This Episode and/or Review in the Fan Comm Link Discussion Board! | |||
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