 "Concerning Flight" |
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by David E. Sluss |
9 December 1997 |
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Home >> Voyager Season 4 >> >> Episode Review
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THE BOTTOM LINE: Voyager gets mugged, and Maestro DaVinci must go all out to get the loot back. CYNICS CORNER RATING: 4.5 (F) PLOT CONTRIVANCE OF THE WEEK: The computer's main processor is stolen, and various systems are affected, but there seems to be no rhyme or reason to the effect. Engines are affected, transporters aren't. Weapons are affected, stellar cartography isn't. It seems as though, "whatever systems we want to have unavailable," just happen to be the ones that are down. It seems to me that without the "main processor," virtually nothing on the ship should be functioning, and they should still be adrift. But, that's Star Trek for you. ADDICT OF THE WEEK: The Doctor, who's become entirely too dependent on the holo-emitter. I half-expected him to start begging Seven of Nine for a "fix." ADDICT OF THE WEEK RUNNERUP: It's got to be Janeway and her holo-addiction, which seems to be getting worse. It seems to me that she's gotten entirely too attached to this DaVinci simulation, to a degree that I think is unhealthy. She seems closer to that hologram than to anyone else on the ship, and it's seemed that way since she consulted with it on the eve of battle in "Scorpion" rather than with her command staff. I note that this is not her first over-attachment to a holo-character. Recall, if you dare, the gothic holonovel she used to run; she seemed to get a little too personally involved in that, as well, before The Powers That Be pulled the plug. We've seen characters with holo-addiction problems before, notably Commander Sucker with Minuet and Geordi with Dr. Brahms (not to mention Barclay), but in those cases, the writers clearly portrayed the officers as having a problem. In the case of Janeway's behavior, I don't get the sense that anyone in the crew or on the writing staff thinks there's a problem here, and I find that a bit troubling. CULTURAL GENOCIDE OF THE WEEK: With their focus squarely on getting the processor back, Voyager's crew was awfully cavalier about leaving all those other trinkets behind. I though it was vital not to leave Starfleet technology in the hands of these Delta Quadrant rubes? Chump-otay lets one clown leave the ship with Starfleet tech instead of confiscating it? I think Rep. Burton will want to hold hearings. I mean, wasn't one of those gizmos a phaser rifle? Even if it isn't, it doesn't belong in the Delta Quadrant, not even on a sundae. ASTUTE OBSERVATION OF THE WEEK: After a half-dozen items dematerialize from Voyager, Chump-otay notes that "It's some kind of transporter beam!" No spit. Very good, Commander, we'll make a Riker out of you yet. GRAVE-SPINNER OF THE WEEK: It is fashionable for fans (or non-fans) to sneer at a Star Trek episode they don't like by claiming that "Roddenberry is spinning in his grave," the fact that the man credited with creating Star Trek was cremated notwithstanding. but this week, I believe it's safe to say that Leonardo DaVinci would be spinning in his own grave if he could see the disgraceful way the DaVinci simulation is treated. He is portrayed as an ignorant backwater bumpkin and is repeatedly talked down to by Janeway. That's not to say that he (or the simulation, I should say) would be able to understand the tech he saw, but the real DaVinci, I trust, wouldn't be as out of it as to think that that alien marketplace was in America or that Tuvok was Scandinavian. We can chalk it up to lousy holo-programming by Barclay, Zimmerman, and the other humps at the Jupiter station, I suppose... BUDGET-CUTTING SET DESIGN OF THE WEEK: Gee, the Prince's stronghold looked a lot like a current era refinery or factory of some sort. In California, perhaps? :) BABYLON 5 RIP-OFF OF THE WEEK: I noticed in the background of the astrometrics lab the famous "stellar nursery" photo from the Hubble Space Telescope. But jms already used that photo in Babylon 5. Theft!! :) POOR ESCAPE METHOD OF THE WEEK: "Maestro, here's what we'll do. We'll beam out of the city using this site-to-site transporter that just happens to be here when we need it, and then we'll stand around in a field debating the meaning of life long enough for our pursuers to catch up. Andiamo, Maestro!" POOR PURSUIT METHOD OF THE WEEK: Hey, Prince, when your quarry takes
off in a hang-glider, don't just stand there, tongue flapping like a tall dog. Keep firing
at it. |
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© 1997 David E. Sluss |
