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Heavy Stuff for Tuvok Gravity Review by Steve Perry Airdate: February 3, 1999 Written by: Bryan Fuller and Nicholas Sagan (Teleplay); Jimmy Diggs (Story) Directed by:Terry Windell Short Take: Been there with the plot, but not with Tuvok Brief Summary: Tuvok finds love in all the wrong places Review:Many on our very wise Trekweb board have pointed out the similarities between it and that TOS episode with Spock and the hot redhead. It's not completely true... actually sort of turned on its head. She fell in love with him and he rebuffed her, actually. And, with the exception that the redhead was hotter than Lori Petty (who incidentally did a very nice job, I thought), "Gravity" was better all around. "Gravity" seemed more mature. Tuvok resisting love, and in the process allowing us to get to the bottom of the Vulcan psyche, is a lot more intriguing than Spock all hot for a redheaded chick. Case in point: whereas Kirk basically had to beat on Spock to get him back through the portal before it closed, here Paris had to go to Tuvok to try to advise him on love. Yes, the dialogue Paris was somewhat cheesy (yes, we know you love Belanna, Tom), but it probably an appropriate schmaltz needed t break through that very cold Vulcan interior. The best part were the flashbacks. The first made for a nice intro (Voyager I must confess is the best Trek at teaser intros), and together they both gave us a good story about Tuvok's past that also said a lot about him. (Incidentally, was that story from Pathways?) It was simply well written, giving us everything from tidbits about the Vulcan education system to good acting to some good, cryptic philosophical babble that I always can dig. Most importantly, it showed what was at the bottom of Vulcanism, warts and all. Love does seem to be the root from all other emotions grow. Even hate cannot be without love as an opposite, and you cannot hate unless you seek to preserve something you love. Controverisal, but they may have a point. I left wanting more of it. It's a shame, because we didn't. We get a lot of time was spent on getting the rest of the cast in, with these bad aliens closing the portal and having a meeting and blah blah blah. Just dead air, IMHO, though Kim looked nice talking tough with the alien. The real problem with "Gravity" is the problem with many Voyager episodes - the standard plot that does have similarities to past episodes. We knew Tuvok would go and save her. I was pleasantly surprised that she lived, but not that once was alive, she was returned to her home world, in a detour that no doubt took Voyager a week or two. "Gravity" is not the best Voyager episode this year, but it took a mediocre plot and gave it the good meaty characterization it needed to work. That heartens me, because it says that, even when the writers are stumped for ideas, they can take a fare story and make it a good one just by using the characters. If Voyager can make it without dropping the ball on this on, then, yes, it is having a good year. Some short takes: - Ouch, those mattes were obvious. - The technobabble was bad too. How about saying "we ran into an unstable conduit created by aliens 100 years ago." That way, it makes sense that the termination point is a planet! - I liked the broken universal translator, too. It gave Petty room to act and it sounded kinda cool I thought. - Were the spiders CGI, then replaced by dummies once they were stabbed? Rating: B-/B Next week: Moby Dick in space? Hasn't Trek done this before? | |
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