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 EPISODE REVIEWS | ||
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Warhead Review by Steve Perry Airdate: May 19, 1999 Written by: Michael Taylor and Ken Biller (teleplay); Brannon Braga (story) Directed by: John Kretchmer Short Take:Nice concept handled a bit clunkily Brief Summary:Voyager tries to outsmart a smart bomb Note:Yes, I know they are late. In only saw this episode last week, so work with me, people! Review:"Warhead" was a needed episode. Fresh off "Relativity," the wild and essentially time travel fest, we needed an episode to remind us what Trek was actually about. This time around, the writers developed a story that brings back an old Trek idea in a fascinating way. We've had many stories about machines that endanger humans and machines seeking sentience. See TOS's "The Changeling." We've also had stories about smart weapons. See Voyager's own "Dreadnought." We haven't had one, however, that explored the actual implications of the smart weapon - namely, that if you make it smart enough, it will be sentient, but with a caveat. It's whole purpose will be to destroy, certainly an interesting job for something for whom life should be so precious, and an interesting philosophical question, since it asks if any sentient being can be anything more than what its "programming" tells it can be. Naturally, the answer is "yes" according to the episode. I think the obviousness of the answer is one of its weaknesses. We know the bomb won't blow up and we know the bomb will be convinced to change its way. There's a certain patness to this - in the end, the bomb knows what is right, so it sacrifices itself to kill the other bombs, since for whatever reason they can't listen to reason. This doesn't bother me that much. What does bother me is how the missle was convinced of what was right. It sorta... happened. It played out like Crimson Tide... do you believe the order to stand down or not? It came off as somewhat of a mess. The issue needs to be a clean, philosophical one, not the minutiae of whether or not a message is legit. Along these lines, the strongest scene in the episode was Kim's valiant effort to appeal to the machine's conscience. Belanna sure liked it. I did too. Wang actually acted well and it had a good point. Somehow the episode needed to translate that into actual plot - someway of showing how killing was wrong, since a mixed message from mission command wasn't doing it. Do, don't say. That brings up what is arguably the episode's best twist. Maybe it had shades of Darkling (as well as Revulsion wit the Doc showing concerning for other technological life), but using the Doc as spokesman for the bomb gave his case a visual dimension that cheesy looking warhead just couldn't offer. It also was a nice bit of irony. :) The episode had a genuinely interesting premise, at least to me, one that was surprisingly fresh despite ground all around it being previously covered. The problem lies, as it often does with Braga-Trek, in execution. Nonethless, I'll take it. Some short takes: - The subplot about Kim being given responsibility actually worked, too. He's probably a hopeless character, but you can't say that Braga isn't trying... - Fresh off the slick set from Relativity, they dump this very cheap planet set on us. :) Rating:B-/B | |
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