I have finished reviewing the first and last episodes of each of the televised Star Trek incarnations (with the exception of the animated series, which is barely considered canon anyway) and now it is time to finish up this long, involved endeavor by reviewing the recent J.J. Abrams helmed reboot, titled simply Star Trek.

As the movie is so new there is a lot of easily accessible discussion and analysis of the film. Because of this I find it difficult to comment on it without responding to some of those critiques. Thus, I will offer two reviews–my initial response and then a direct response to some of the criticisms.

As Captain Kirk says near the end of the movie, “buckle up!”

My Thoughts

I saw the movie on May 8, 2009, the night it opened in theaters. I attended with my two older brothers, the same people with whom I watched just about every episode of The Next Generation and the first seven movies, as well as every episode of The Original Series I had seen before I picked up this task of reviewing Star Trek from a feminist perspective.

While I had fond nostalgic memories of the original series as it relates to my family, I was never truly a fan. A lot of it gave me nightmares in fact. An episode where Spock gets attacked by a pancake-like creature that somehow sucks the life out of him actually made unwelcome appearances in my dreams, and The Wrath of Khan terrified me so much I still get chills just hearing the title.

Star Trek was a thing that I was always aware was important to the rest of my family in some way or another that I never really understood. While I was able to feel a certain connection with the characters and stories of TNG and DS9, and Voyager, The Original Series always eluded me. It brought me occasional enjoyment and was a strangely large part of my childhood and yet it always seemed, in a sense, inaccessible.

It was with these thoughts in my head that I sat in a theater with my two older brothers, in a rare gathering that did not involve the rest of the family and a Christmas tree, to experience a new story about the same space-farers that we had watched together in our youth. I wasn’t too excited about a movie full of characters I never really cared about, played by a bunch of people I’d never heard of, but I was excited about the experience, and I was excited to feel a part of the larger Trek universe.

So what did I think of it?

I loved it, and I gotta say, the more I watch it, the more I’m impressed with it. Every time I notice something else, some other small detail that is just so perfect, and the more I read about it, the more I see how deep and complex this reboot is. To use a catchphrase of one of my professors, “it’s really quite remarkable.”

When it came to the task of giving new life to the franchise, the filmmakers behind Star Trek had a difficult task. They needed to appeal to the older, hard-core fans while still making it new and non-geeky enough to appeal to the uninitiated. There was also a parallel task of remaining true to the look and feel of the original series without making it seem woefully outdated. They found an interesting way around both of these problems, and that was by SPOILER ALERT!! creating a new timeline.

The movie begins with a Romulan coming from the future, altering the timeline for our beloved franchise. So all those stories in all those episodes I’ve reviewed (with the exception of Enterprise which happened 100 or so years before we pick up)… those may never happen, or at least they happen in another parallel universe. I guess it all depends on how you understand time travel. This means the filmmakers are more or less able to do just about anything they want without contradicting canon, and it also raises the dramatic stakes as now anything can happen, even things hard-core fans know didn’t in the original series.

It was a smart move on behalf of the filmmakers to set the reboot up in that fashion. They managed to remain true to the characters and stories by referencing the elements that fans grew to love while letting them branch out into something new and fresh. The movie paid homage to the past while opening up new doors of possibility for the characters and the Star Trek universe. The movie had some crazy high stakes, and I think it did an amazing job.

You’ll notice I didn’t mention anything about feminism, portrayal of women or minority groups, etc., and that’s because I have nothing particular to say. Nothing stuck out at me, and even after watching multiple times, there’s still not really anything that I think is unjustified.

This movie was about introducing us to the crew. Would I like to see more women in varied roles? Of course, but I don’t see how they could have fit more women into this movie and still reintroduce these characters and this universe as efficiently as they did. Of course, that means I will expect more of future installments, but for this movie, I’m not angered or offended by the disparity.

To say it differently, I see this movie as a set up. This movie had a very specific task and accomplishing that was its primary goal. It needed to start over. This movie transported these characters 40 years into the future. The next one will have to show they belong there.

Common Criticisms

To address some of the criticisms I figure the best way is to post some links.

First off, my academic hero/Star Trek fan/extra in the movie Henry Jenkins makes a number of interesting observations about the new movie, including some thoughts on Uhura;

In the new film, Uhura asserts her professional competence but she never really demonstrates it. How does that make her different from many of the female professionals in classic Trek who are introduced in terms of their professional abilities and then reduced to being the girlfriend of the week for one of the primary characters? Here, more screen time is devoted to her but she’s ultimately a love object in some kind of still to be explored romantic triangle between Kirk and Spock.

In the comments to that post were some links to more interesting analyses of Uhura among other thoughts on the progressiveness (or lack thereof) in the reboot, including…

Susan Doyle at the Guardian;

I should probably let you know: after several scenes in which Uhura is established as a strong, independent woman who will not, repeat, not be reduced to a sex object, she does in fact end up dating one of the leads. Also, her uniform still doesn’t come with trousers. Like Nichelle Nichols before her, Zoe Saldana pulls off this dangerous wardrobe mission with grace, dignity, and few or no visible panty sightings, for which I salute her.

Ariel Wetzel at FeministSF comments on the representation of women in the film as well as the economic and legal situation presented;

The filmmakers were comfortable revising the economic system to assure we see representations of multinational corporations existing in the future, why couldn’t we see less of a patriarchal culture, too? Probably because representing a feminist future is less profitable than a capitalist one. I love science fiction because it can represent a future without oppression and exploitation, whether it’s economic or gendered. The new Star Trek doesn’t represent either.

tealrose39 at feministing.com has four big problems with Uhura in the new movie including, “Uhura can’t fight physically,” “Uhura has an underwear scene,” “Uhura, and Starfleet women, wear mini-skirts,” and “Uhura and Spock are together.”

Response

I have, as of late, had great difficulty articulating things. Luckily, someone else responded to many of these criticisms far better than I ever could. In her livejournal, taraljc confonts criticisms of Uhura’s costume, the role she plays in the story, her relationship with Spock as well as discussing Spock’s relationship with his mother and the relevance of it. I highly encourage you to check it out if you agreed with any of the criticisms above or are just interested in hearing the thoughts of an insightful Trekkie.

It’s hard to pick out nuggets from her analysis (another reason for you to read it), so instead I’ll highlight a couple of things in the comments, first taraljc discussing the scene of Uhura in her undies;

Considering a) her undressing was not in a sexual context, unlike Jim and Gaila in that scene and b) Kirk was also running around in nothing but his pants, I am not as fussed about her getting her kit off as I would be if Kirk had been fully clothed. I guess for me, context does matter? It was equal opportunity objectification, with Jim’s voyeurism being displayed as a negative personality trait.

And from carmen_sandiego;

For my own $0.02 – And if we’re putting on feminist goggles we also have to acknowledge that not all male characters are drawn with the same brush either – it is a big huge deal to me that [Zachary Quinto]‘s Spock gets to wrestle with his emotions and have ‘the feelings’ over his mother. (For real, name me three other beloved sci fi male leads who have done this in such an front-and-centre way). Here, Spock gets to be emotionally affected and grow from it. Isn’t this the sort of thing we need from more men in this world?

Seriously, though. Just read the whole thing. And if you have time read her comparison of Uhura and McCoy and her defense of Kirk. Good stuff. All of it.

Lastly, I would just like to point out that although many of the women are wearing mini-skirts there are also numerous women wearing pants in various scenes. They’re sometimes harder to spot because they blend in with the guys, but they are most definitely there. The mini-skirt is a choice, and considering Uhura’s job does not involve combat, and the skirt is a valid Starfleet uniform option, there’s no reason she shouldn’t be allowed to choose it. Also, other than Kirk, none of the men sexualize women in any way (the only sexual comment I can think of is Scotty’s thoughts regarding the Enterprise). It’s totally believable that in 300 years we would get to the point where people can dress in ways that make some of their skin visible without it being considered inappropriately or unnecessarily sexual.

Having said everything I can think to say I would love to hear from others. Whether you are new to the franchise, a long-time fan, or a Trek virgin, I want to hear your thoughts. Do you see progress or problems? Was there something that bugged you that wasn’t addressed here? Please share.

Star Trek: Enterprise – the final episode “These are the Voyages…”

Original Airdate: May 13, 2005

The final episode of Enterprise doesn’t quite seem as epic as it could have. TNG and Voyager both ended with a look ahead to the future as well as a nod to the past. DS9 left everyone parting ways with a farewell that served the characters and audience equally well. Enterprise, however, falls flat.

The episode takes us 6 years into the future (from the perspective of the last episode, 10 years after the pilot). The Enterprise is returning to earth where it will be decommissioned as the new, faster fleet comes to take its place. Captain Archer will give a speech honoring a new charter between humans and a handful other alien races. A hitch in the trip home comes when a former acquaintance, Shran, shows up. Apparently Archer owes this guy a favor, so the Enterprise helps him get his kidnapped daughter back.

(Click the link to check out the rest of the entry, but I’m putting SPOILER ALERT on this post. If you ever plan on watching Enterprise you might want elements of this episode to remain a surprise. The episode itself actually spoils those moments early on, but, well… I’m warning you anyway.)

The crew of the Enterprise helps Shran successfully get his daughter back, until the mean guys that initially kidnapped the daughter show up on the Enterprise itself and threaten to kill Captain Archer if he doesn’t turn over Shran to them. Trip, worried the Captain will be killed, jumps to action. He tells the mean guys he can lead them to Shran as long as they don’t kill the Captain. Captain Archer reprimand’s Trip’s behavior and tells him to calm down and stop getting so worked out, so Trip tells the bad guys to knock Captain Archer unconscious with the butt of a gun so Trip can defy his superior officer’s authority more easily. Trip leads the bad guys to a conduit that he says is a comm unit, but is, in fact…. Well, I’m not sure what it is, but Trip tells the bad guys to go to hell and then connects two cords causing an explosion that takes out everyone in the general area, including Trip. That’s right. Apparently someone decided that the most hated Star Trek series ever should kill off a main character in the last episode for no apparent reason. Because if you’re going to go down in history as the lamest in the franchise, you might as well go all out.

The Enterprise then makes its way back to Earth where, upon arrival, most of the crew whine about their bad seats and T’Pol and Phlox wish their captain good luck with his speech. After a heartfelt hug between Archer and T’Pol (the only successfully sentimental part of the episode), Archer heroically approaches the podium to give an important speech to hundreds of listeners about the new charter. The speech apparently is so epic that schoolchildren centuries later are still encouraged to memorize it in school. We in the viewing audience, however, never get to hear it.

This whole story (which is really uncomplicated) is framed as being part of the shenanigans of a couple characters from The Next Generation, primarily Commander Riker. Actually, nothing of what we see is actually real. It’s merely a holographic simulation Riker is running to help him make a difficult decision. Riker is in the 7th season of TNG, in the episode “The Pegasus.” Counsellor Troi occasionally joins him on his holo-viewing.

“These are the Voyages…” was super controversial when it first aired. Many in the cast publicly expressed their distaste. Jolene Blalock, avid Trekkie, supposedly even intentionally delivered her lines strangely as a form of protest against the ridiculous ending. I haven’t found any hard evidence to support this, but it would explain why T’Pol, a vulcan, seems uncharacteristically super emotional throughout and in her last shot on the show shakes and grooves like a weed in the wind as Archer makes his epic farewell.

For the most part, I must say I agree with the dislike. The whole episode seems a little contrived and Trip’s death seems totally nonsensical. He and Archer had gotten out of worse scrapes before. Additionally, it did seem more like an episode of TNG than Enterprise. There were the appearances of Riker and Troi (and a voice cameo by Data) as well as various shout-outs to the earlier series. Reed remarks “All good things…” uttering the name of TNG’s series finale, and at another time Riker offers a toast “to the next generation.” Also I haven’t heard it mentioned anywhere else, but there also seemed to be a lot of shout-outs to Quantum Leap with mirror shots and such, but I digress.

Back to the point… let’s see how this episode measures up.

What Made Me Happy:

• I never cared for Counsellor Troi much during The Next Generation. She always seemed highly dramatic and a little… boring. I love her, however, in everything in which she has appeared since TNG has gone off the air, including her appearances on Voyager and here. Although I think this episode’s reliance on TNG is lame, I do love that the awesome, laid-back, fun yet professional Troi is along for the ride.
• We don’t see a lot of Archer’s behavior in terms of his relationship with other races, but it seems there’s been some improvement. He and T’Pol are now great friends, and Archer is clearly one of those behind a charter that will eventually lead to the Federation where multiples species and cultures live together in peace.
• No decon chamber!

What Irked Me:

Other than the most ridiculous main character death in television history and the fact that this whole episode only exists on the holodeck, there’s not much in this episode that really bugs me.

Final Score: 7

Improvement Score: +2 (good, but not back up to DS9’s high of

Final Thoughts:

Next in the series I’ll review the new movie, but because movies are different than TV and the franchise is basically being started anew with new people behind it, I figure now is the time to reflect on the franchise up to this point.

I’ll be the first to admit my scoring was incredibly arbitrary and subjective, but it’s quite obvious that Star Trek as a franchise improved substantially over the years. That’s to be expected, however, given its 40 year run. There were some small steps back (Seven’s catsuits), and some larger ones (the decon chamber), but all in all Star Trek has been rather reflective of the changing role of women in American society, and occasionally has been a little ahead of the curve. Although, that didn’t stop them from reverting back to the original “where no man has gone before in the last 30 seconds of the show…

In the end this is all my own personal opinion. What do you think? Am I being too hard on Enterprise? Thinking too highly of DS9 and Voyager? Overlooking subtle progressive messages in the original series? I’m interested to hear your thoughts. I can’t be the only Trekkie around here.

“The truth is that domestic violence touches many of us. It is very possible that someone you know – a friend, sister, daughter or colleague – is experiencing abuse…  This violence is not a private matter. Behind closed doors it is shielded and hidden and it only intensifies. It is protected by silence – everyone’s silence…  Most people find the idea of violence against women – and sometimes, though rarely, against men – abhorrent, but do nothing to challenge it.”

- Patrick Stewart

Patrick Stewart is an English actor best known for his role as Captain Jean Luc Picard on Star Trek: The Next Generation.  This quote is from a piece Stewart himself wrote for The Guardian on the dangers of domestic violence, his own experiences of witnessing the abuse of his mother at the hands of his father, and his activism in the Refuge group and it’s Four Ways to Speak Out campaign.

Enterprise – the first episode “Broken Bow”

Original Airdate: Sept. 26, 2001

After a long break, I bring you the next installment in “Star Trek Through the Years.” We’ve made it past the beginnings of the franchise, through the three middle series, each achieving seven year runs, and we have now made it to the ever-controversial (among Trekkies) Enterprise.

Notice that’s just Enterprise. No “Star Trek” in that title. Part of the goal of Enterprise was to rejuvenate the series, try something new while bringing it back to its roots. So they went back in time, in terms of Trek chronology, to 2151 (for those looking for a frame of reference, the Original Series took place in 2265). The show chronicles the adventures of the first Enterprise and Starfleet’s (and mankind’s) first steps into the great beyond of space.

The ship is led by Captain Jonathan Archer. His dad worked hard on developing warp vessels with the Vulcans (the first alien race aliens encountered–that story is chronicled in the movie Star Trek: First Contact). The senior Archer never really got to see his ship take off, however, because the Vulcan’s were never too willing to give away information and Mr. Archer died before they perfected the technology. Due to this Cpt. Archer’s got a chip on his shoulder. He’s not a fan of Vulcans and likes to mock them snarkily whenever possible.

This becomes problematic when Commander T’Pol, a Vulcan woman, is ordered to accompany him on his first mission. By the end of the episode she’s reassigned to stay aboard the Enterprise to chaperone them through space as Vulcan’s have already done a bit of exploring and Starfleet wants access to some of their information.

Others on the crew include:

• Phlox, a Denobulan doctor. Denobulans are a new species to the Star Trek canon and new odd details are learned about them throughout the series.
• Travis Mayweather (helmsman) – an African-American ensign who spent his life aboard a cargo ship where his parents work. He will go on to be one of the least developed characters on the series
• Malcom Reed (armory officer) – Reed is a british man with a strong military tradition in his family. From what I recall from a later episode, he loves pineapple cake.
• Hoshi Sato (communications officer) – Born in Japan, Sato is an incredibly skilled linguist, however, she’s kind of terrified of being on a space ship and going on missions and the like
• Charles Tucker III (engineer) – Tucker, or Trip as he’s often known, is a youngish southerner. Not the noble plantation-style southerner, more along the lines of grits-eating, steak-loving, good ol’ American style southerner.
• Porthos – okay, he’s not so much a part of the crew, but considering he’s one of my favorite characters, I’m mentioning him. He’s Captain Archer’s pet beagle (if you’ve seen the new movie, you may have heard mention of him)

As a first episode, much of “Broken Bow” is about establishing the characters and the relationships that will unfold throughout the rest of the show. We meet the characters, we learn that Starfleet is just learning what a Klingon is, that most people on the ship have never set foot on alien soil, and transporters are brand new and everyone’s a little skeptical of their success.

Now that we know the basics, let’s skip ahead to the good stuff.

What Irked Me:

This crew (with the exception of T’Pol) is culturally elitist. They’re not very accepting of other cultures. This comes up a few times throughout the first episode. Many on the crew (especially Archer) reject the Vulcan’s lack of emotion and their desire to follow a more “teach a man to fish” mentality. Archer is also super peeved that the Vulcans want to take an injured, unconscious Klingon off life support as would follow Klingon customs. Tucker also freaks out when he sees a mother taking an oxygen mask away from her child causing him to gasp for air. She puts it back over his face so he can breathe again and then proceeds to take it away. Tucker yells at her only to have T’Pol explain that up to a certain age this species can only breathe a certain kind of gas. The mother is weaning her child.

We have a Ms. Fanservice in the case of T’Pol. She’s quite attractive and because she’s not a part of Starfleet, she’s not expected to wear the jumpsuit uniform worn by all the other officers. Instead she wears a Vulcan uniform which is conveniently form-fitting.

Beyond T’Pol there’s unnecessary objectification elsewhere. There are very few women in this episode, and more often than not they’re hypersexualized. At one point Reed and Mayweather chat happily about some alien species that has 3… the sentence is never finished but you can infer what you will based on Mayweather’s response that he knows “first hand and second hand and third hand.” One of them points out that that’s one of the perks of space travel. Yes, because the best reason to explore the cosmos is to establish a new intergalactic dating service.

Later, members of the crew visit a bar/club establishment on some planet where girls in tight spandex suits up on a podium (like strippers) eat butterflies with frog-like tongues that stick out and grab them. Kinda creepy, but the guys find it sexy.

Meanwhile Archer is seduced by an attractive woman. She turns out to be Suliban (kind of the villain of the series) but it nonetheless establishes this show as a return to the Kirk-like trek through space where the captain hooks up with all sorts of hot-looking alien women.

As for the crew itself, Hoshi Sato is problematic in that they kind of make her a wuss. She’s wildly intelligent and clearly capable, but space travel terrifies her. It makes her seem a little fragile and considering she’s one of only two (visible) women on the crew, it bugs me. Also, at one point she gets into a little verbal sparring match with T’Pol. Can’t the women get along?

Also, the racial diversity is much more limited. The cast is smaller, certainly, but there are only two aliens among the seven main crew members, and there are only two non-white characters. While it makes sense there wouldn’t be a ton of aliens (this is Starfleet’s first exploratory vessel… not a lot of aliens are even known about yet) one would imagine the racial and ethnic diversity would be a little more evident in the year 2151.

Lastly, the thing that bugs me most about this show: the decontamination chamber. It’s like softcore space porn. Seriously. I don’t know who came up with this idea (but I imagine it was quite popular among many of the male Trekkies in the audience). The decontamination chamber is where the crew members must go every time they return from a foreign planet so they can clear themselves of any foreign bacteria and the like they may have encountered. They do this by rubbing themselves (and each other) with gel. It’s basically an excuse to get the crew half naked on a semi-regular basis. So I guess it’s handy they hired an actress that doubles as a model and a couple male actors that are in impeccable shape, 6-pack abs and all. I gotta say, it’s a really lazy way to display sexual tension. (T’Pol is paired with Archer [loosely] and Trip throughout the series and the decontamination crops up often). This show has a lot of problems, but out of all of them, the stupid decon gel is the one that makes me want to gag.

What Made Me Happy:

Despite the Ms. Fanservice, in this series there is an obvious attempt at Estrogen Brigade Bait in Trip as well as in Captain Archer (who roams around his quarters in his undies for one whole scene in this episode). Brannon Braga (executive producer of the show) acknowledges this rather explicitly in an interview excerpt posted over at Entertainment Weekly’s Popwatch blog;

Me: I just watched the last three episodes of season 3, so hopefully I’ll sound somewhat intelligent as we talk about season 4.

Braga: You’re not a Star Trek fan, are you?

Me: I’m not. But I tried to be prepared, and I enjoyed the shot of Scott Bakula shirtless very much.

Braga: We always try to get that in there. Look, the guy’s got a great body, and we definitely get him topless as much as we can. But it was not a conscious effort in the last three episodes.

This makes me happy merely because it suggests the sexual objectification is not as lopsided on the side of the women in this series.

Also, although not in this episode, there are a few episodes throughout the series where T’Pol points out that the men are making decisions with their pants instead of their brains, and when she does this, I get very happy. Of course this doesn’t stop them thinking with their pants (and causing trouble in the process) but it at least acknowledges it, making the mean appear more silly than if she hadn’t.

Along those lines, T’Pol is generally a good character. She’s intelligent, confident, high-ranking and generally no-nonsense. Much of that comes from her Vulcan nature, but nonetheless, she doesn’t let the random drama on the ship get to her and she does her job well (despite a lot of antagonism from the humans)

Hoshi is also not a bad character. She has plenty of positive traits including her intelligence. She may be a communications officer, but unlike Uhura that means more than being a cosmic secretary.

Also, Porthos makes me happy.

Final Score: 5

Improvement Score: -3 (ooh… not good)

Additional Comments:

The thing about Enterprise is they somewhat justify their own quasi-sexism, culturalism and other such things in the fact that the show takes place years before the Original Series. So while it’s implied that the future portrayed in all the other Star Trek series is totally egalitarian and progressive, this is before all that. This is when humans were just learning to explore, learning how to interact with other species. Part of the show is this crew coming to be the Starfleet that we know and love. Therefore there needs to be room for progress. Based on what’s seen in this episode, there is plenty of room for improvement.

Star Trek: Voyager – the Final Episode “Endgame”
Original Airdate: May 23, 2001

Voyager swoops in over San Fransisco, a fireworks show adding to the glory of the display. Crowds gather below and cheer. A news voice exposits that this celebration is honoring 10th anniversary of the return of Voyager.

An old, white-haired Janeway ends the display and looks out her window.

Endgame starts with a look at the future of the Voyager crew. I’ve never watched the finale right after the pilot before and I gotta say it’s interesting. If these were the only two episodes of the show you’d seen, it would be quite the change. B’elanna’s not yelling. The Doc isn’t worrying about being deactivated any time soon (he’s roaming wherever he wants to go with a wife, no less), Harry, the super-green ensign is now running a ship on years-long missions, and the former prisoner Tom Paris is now writing holo-stories as his wife goes out and patches up fights with the Klingons (remember how she whined about her Klingon past). Seriously…. this is a different group, folks.

As for the rest of the crew… Janeway is an Admiral, Tuvok is ill. He has some sort of mental deterioration; a Vulcan Alzheimers almost. Seven is dead. As is Chakotay. All in all, the future brought some sadness, but there’s also a pleasant contentment.

Janeway will have none of it.

With the help of Miral Paris (the daughter that B’elanna was pregnant with last time we saw her) as well as the Doctor and Captain Harry Kim, Janeway gathers together various things she will need to go back in time to Voyager (at the time regular viewers last left off) and get them home then instead of 16 years later as in the timeline we’ve been seeing since the beginning of the episode.

Aside: I find the average time travel plot rather amusing. It gets the mind working trying to unravel various pretzels, but this episode I dislike (for reasons I’ll probably divulge later). Also, it’s super hard to write about time travel without it getting very confusing. I hope you’ll bear with me.

Admiral Janeway finds herself back on Voyager which freaks out everyone, not least of all Captain Janeway. Admiral tells them she’s going to get them home. She tries to convince Captain to listen to her just by being stern and using various forms of logic and reason. When that doesn’t work she decides to get a little dramatic. Admiral tells Captain that if they don’t do Admiral’s plan and go home now, Seven will die. She pauses to give Captain plenty of time to be shocked and then throws in that Chakotay will, too–heart-broken over the death of Seven… his wife! (Say what? Seriously… even watching the relationship beginning to unfold in the “present” timeline is a shock to anyone who’s been watching the show. Completely out of the blue and awkward.) and Tuvok will get sick. She just sneaks those little details in as though they pale in comparison to the shock of Seven dying. Not that I’m totally into Tuvok or Chakotay as characters, but I still find the unequal attention a little mean.

So Captain takes Admiral up on her offer and they attempt her little plan.

Basically, they infect a Borg ship with a virus that debilitates them. It all happens in a really dramatic scene where the Borg Queen (thinking she’s bested the Admiral) begins to completely falls apart (literally, her limbs break off) as she realizes she’s lost this battle. Her demise causes chaos and many of the borg ships in the area blow to smithereens allowing Voyager to fly through a transwarp hub (a collection of artificially created wormholes that allow the borg to travel to various parts of space from one location). Voyager flies through it and afterwards destroys it from the inside, effectively bringing them home and setting the borg back quite a bit.

When Voyager arrives back in the Alpha Quadrant they’re met by a giant fleet of vessels who are preparing for attack borg cubes (the ones that were chasing Voyager before the virus got the best of them). They are pleased, surprised and confused to find that Voyager is there and no borg are. Admiral Paris (Tom’s dad) opens communications with Voyager. He barely gets a question out before Janeway tells him it will all be in her report.

As the commlink closes the Doctor contacts the bridge. A baby coos and then the Doctor affirms what we all know, the Torres-Paris baby has arrived. Tom scurries off the bridge as Janeway sits in her captain’s chair and makes an order she’s made before, but which now seems a little more real: “Set a course. For home.”

What Irked Me:

So much about the plot of this episode irks me, but I’ll try to focus on the issues pertaining to feminism.

If you haven’t figured it out yet, I hate the Seven and Chakotay romance. There was absolutely no lead-up (and an episode of her fantasizing about him in the holodeck does not count), and the Seven we see “in love” is not the Seven that’s been hanging out on Voyager for the last four years. I’m not saying Seven would never be involved in a relationship, but only 4 years after re-establishing her humanity, and with a guy she’s previously had very little contact with, who’s as emotional and “spiritual” as Chakotay is way too much of a stretch. I read a rumor that the romance was written in on a dare. If that’s the case I’m a little saddened that the people involved had such little respect for the show and the fans.

I read a great dissertation a while back that highlighted some of the issues with this episode (it’s right here if you have access to Proquest. The stuff I refer to begins on page 207). It pointed out that by the finale all of the women are relegated to “safe” places. Janeway firmly establishes herself as the “mother” of Voyager by sacrificing herself to save her crew, Seven ends up in a happy heterosexual relationship, and B’elanna, already married, finds herself finishing the show by popping out a baby rather than kicking butt at her console as per usual (this one is especially disappointing considering that Roxann Dawson told the writers she’d be excited about her character being pregnant as long as she didn’t finish up the show in stirrups). The men aren’t sequestered into stereotypical roles themselves, giving some credence to these observations. (However, I would argue the author’s final comment about Voyager “ejaculating” through the borg explosion in some sort of symbol of maleness is a little bit of a stretch).

Oh, and I gotta mention the introduction in the 4th season of Ms. Fanservice in the case of the aforementioned Seven, although there’s the qualifier that the character is, arguably, incredibly awesome.

What Made Me Happy:

Despite what I said about the females being shoved into accepted feminine roles, I do think the show deserves praise for it’s portrayal of a futuristic marriage with the seventh season marriage of Tom and B’elanna. Their individual roles on the ship don’t change, and more often than not it’s Tom that’s seen doing the traditionally wifely things. He’s the one setting tables in preparation for meals, making breakfast, chasing his wife asking for attention (in a way that’s respectful of her busy schedule). Not to mention one of his two actual jobs on the ship is head nurse. Really, Tom’s changes the most for the relationship by learning not to be a chauvinist and have a little respect for women. B’elanna simply continues being the best engineer in the quadrant (but with a little less self-hatred).

Final Score (out of 10): 8

Improvement Score: 0 – I originally had a higher score, but realized Voyager is no better than DS9 (and both are great), so I knocked Voyager down one. I guess it’s up to Enterprise to get a perfect 10 (although I doubt the possibility of that).

Star Trek: Deep Space Nine – The Final Episode “What You Leave Behind”
Original Airdate: June 2, 1999

Story:

I mentioned in my review of the DS9 pilot “Emissary” that this third Star Trek series is different that the ones preceding it. One thing that really set it apart was the complicated story arcs that extended across multiple episodes. Not only is there the story about the orbs and prophets and celestial temple that resonates throughout the entire show, but as the show went on there was also a war that broke out, the politics of which are relatively difficult for a casual viewer to discern. The finale of the show is difficult to sum up because of this. The last episode itself is 2 hours, but it’s really more like 10 hours as the series was finished off with an epic nine-part conclusion.

Memory Alpha (the Star Trek wiki) offers this episode summary: “In this final adventure, the Federation Alliance prepares a final invasion of Cardassia. Meanwhile on Bajor, Kai Winn releases the Pah-wraiths from the Fire Caves which threatens the safety of not only Bajor, but the entire Alpha Quadrant.”

The action picks up on the morning of the final invasion. First off, we see Julian Bashir and Ezri Dax wake up in bed together.Ezri was new to DS9 in season seven. After Jadzia’s death at the end of the sixth season, the Dax symbiont was transferred into Ezri. She’s a little spunkier than Jadzia but they are also very similar (having shared a symbiont).

Miles and Keiko are still together and they now have two children: Molly and Kirayoshi. Miles has decided to take a teaching job at Starfleet Academy on Earth but he hasn’t yet told Julian. He’s not sure how he’ll take the news. He tells him later while on board the Defiant. He’s sad, but understanding.

Benjamin Sisko is saying goodbye to his wife. Yup, Sisko got hitched! To Kasidy Yates, the captain of a freight vessel that delivered cargo to various Bajoran colonies. She’s pregnant, so her morning sickness gets in the way of Benjamin’s attempts to wish her farewell. Jake is also around and walks his dad to the Defiant.

Odo and Kira are a couple, and they both play a large role in ending the war. I don’t know all the details (war always confuses me–I just don’t have the mind for it) but the war is against the Dominion (other Changelings like Odo) and the leader is a Female Changeling. She’s gotten the Cardassians to join forces with the Dominion in an attack against the Federation. Odo eventually ends the war by curing the Changelings of a disease that’s hit them. This is, of course, after they started losing hope as the Cardassians ended their support of the Dominion. Why the sudden change of heart?

Because Kira is awesome. She’s been down on Cardassia hiding in some nice old woman’s house making plans with a couple Cardassian friends for the Cardassian rebellion. Once they convince Cardassia to join the Federation the war is all but over. And with Odo’s merciful gesture it’s officially done.

Worf is around and does important things. He came over to DS9 after The Next Generation ended.

Quark stays back on DS9 while everyone is fighting the war. You can tell he misses everyone. It’s kinda sweet.

After the war is successfully concluded, everyone comes back to the station for a final farewell. Miles will be leaving for Earth, Odo plans on rejoining his people in the Gamma Quadrant and the station will be changing. They have a party in their favorite holodeck program to say their well-wishes and part ways.

After the farewells there is one more, unexpected departure. A Cardassian man, Dukat, and a Bajoran woman, Winn are attempting to destroy the prophets. Sisko realizes that some of the messages he’s been given by the prophets were referring to what he needed to do now: stop Winn and Dukat from destroying the Celestial Temple. He wishes Kasidy farewell and goes to the fire caves where the Cardassian and Bajoran are attempting to release the Pah-Wraiths (bad creatures that would destroy the prophets). Sisko struggles with Dukat and they both (along with a nasty book Dukat was holding) fall into the fire pit. Sisko finds himself meeting with the prophets. They tell him because Dukat and the book were destroyed the Pah-Wraiths will be trapped in the fire caves forever.

They also add that now that Sisko has fulfilled his mission he will be unable to return to his corporeal self. Despite this, Sisko is able to appear to Kasidy briefly (in her mind) to tell her what’s happened and promise her that he will return “in a year, or maybe… yesterday.”

What made me happy:

As Trek gets better at its inclusion of female characters, it’s harder to come up with things I like and don’t like. It’s all just good, which I think is as it should be. If I have to come up with something, though…

Kira is given a highly important and dangerous assignment and pulls it off without a hitch, because she’s awesome and can handle kicking butt.

Also, Kasidy is very level-headed and strong. I like that.

What irked me:

The two primary villains in this episode were women. I’m not sure what that’s about. At least they’re smart, for the most part.

The cast is also still pretty uneven. There’s Kasidy, Kira and Ezri, but other than that it’s a whole lot of men.

Also, Kira and Odo as a couple irk me. Not because there’s anything sexist or inappropriate about it, I just don’t really care for it. I feel like Odo’s a little too dull for Kira. Meh.

Score: 8

Improvement Score: 0 – I see no reason to increase or decrease the score. Good stuff is good stuff.

Additional Comments:

From notes about this episode: In the original script Sisko promised Kasidy that he’d be back, but then ends up losing his corporeal self and never returns again. This concerned Avery Brooks who was afraid it would play into the stereotype of black men abandoning their families. The writers listened to his concerns and changed it so that he promises he will be back. At some point. Somehow.

This was one of the things I found really cool when reading about DS9. Although the show takes place in the future, the writers (with the help of Mr. Brooks) remembered that the show they’re making exists right now. Viewers are coming to it with a certain amount of baggage and completely ignoring that “because the show exists in the future” could be to the show’s detriment. So they acknowledged it.

Another Example: The crew have become fond of a holoprogram of the 1950s casino. The crew enjoyed hanging out there befriended the lounge singer there, Vic Fontaine. In one episode the crew plans a heist to win back the casino from some mobsters who took it over (a side effect of the program creator’s attempt to keep it interesting). Sisko participates in the heist, but only after expressing discomfort with how the holoprogram gives the illusion that black people were fully integrated with no social conflicts at the time. It’s a short scene that justifies the premise while still acknowledging a less progressive historical truth.

If you’re interested, there’s also an entire episode devoted to racism (sexism is referenced as well) called “Far Beyond the Stars.” It’s a very touching episode. Plus, almost all of it takes place in 1953, so if you don’t like space ships and aliens and what not, you might still like it.

Now I leave you with the sweetest conclusion to any Star Trek series ever:

Star Trek: Voyager – The First Episode “Caretaker”
Original Airdate: January 16, 1995

Voyager is my favorite Star Trek. After watching some DS9 (for the sake of writing these reviews and to up my own nerd quotient) I’ve determined that it is by far the best, but Voyager is still my favorite. Despite that, I’ll try not to get too rambly. Then again, this is the first series with a woman in command, so it’s bound to be a little lengthy anyway.

Story:

This new series starts with a Star Wars-style scroll reminding Trekkie’s and informing newbies about the existence of the Maquis. They’re a group of federation colonists that believe a new treaty is unfair, so they continue to fight Cardassia, making them outlaws to both their targets and the Federation.

Chakotay, Tuvok and B’elanna are part of this group. Their ship is being attacked so they hide in a plasma storm. Unfortunately, although they escape the Cardassian ship that’s trying to destroy them, they find themselves being “chased” by some sort of energy wave. The screen flashes to white as the wave engulfs them.

Captain Kathryn Janeway looks confidently and commandingly down on a youngish blond man who’s shining a futuristic light-ray on a metal contraption. He’s repairing something as part of his prison sentence. Not for long, however, because Janeway is here to offer him help at his next out-mate review if he will accompany her on her next mission. Paris, along with being the son of one of Janeway’s mentors, was a fantastic pilot before his involvement with the Maquis landed him in jail and Janeway wants his help finding her security officer who was serving as a spy aboard a Maquis vessel (Tuvok).

We get a little backstory on some of the characters here. Tom was asked to resign from Starfleet (for reasons we don’t yet know) and was then “willing to fight for anyone who’d pay [his] bar bills.” For a brief time, until he was arrested and ended up here, that person was Chakotay. Chakotay, we learn, resigned from Starfleet to fight for the Maquis cause.

Paris apparently agrees to help the captain, because in the next scene we see him on a shuttlecraft hitting on the woman flying him to Deep Space 9 where Voyager is docked.

Tom: Stadi, you’re changing my mind about Betazoids.
Stadi: Good.
Tom: (now practically breathing down her neck) Oh, that’s not a compliment. Until today I always thought of your people as warm and sensual.
Stadi: I can be warm and sensual.
Tom: Just not to me.
Stadi: Do you always fly at women at warp speed, Mr. Paris.?Tom: Only if they’re in visual range.

So, Tom isn’t exactly the most progressive guy Star Trek has ever seen. He’s actually the biggest skeazebag we’ve seen thus far (not counting Ferengi, at least).

Speaking of Ferengi, after seeing some exterior shots of Voyager we find ourselves at Quark’s, where Quark himself is trying to sell some “priceless goods” to a naive young Asian in a Starfleet uniform. This man is Harry Kim, Voyagers Operations officer. Tom saves him from being swindled by the big-eared bandit and it’s off to Voyager.

Once everyone’s settled aboard the ship (and it’s been firmly established that no one likes Mr. Paris), Janeway explains to Paris and Kim how she prefers to be addressed–“Ma’am is okay in a pinch, but I prefer Captain.” Voyager then sets off on what is supposed to be a little mission, but turns into… well… I don’t want to ruin the surprise.

Tom orders some soup in the mess hall and finds that Harry has heard the story about why everybody hates him. Tom acts all tough while reiterating what Harry’s heard and offering his own perspective; that he did the right thing and ‘fessed up to his pilot error. He couches it all in sarcasm. He also says he regrets coming forward. He also regrets getting caught while doing odd jobs for the Maquis. Tom then tells Harry to not hang around him, and Harry responds similarly to how Harry Potter did when Malfoy was trash-talking Ron, “I don’t need anyone to choose my friends for me.” I wonder what other things the Boy Wizard and the Boy Ops Officer have in common. Will Harry Kim’s two best friends, a super-smart “mudblood” and a dorky but well-intentioned bloke, help him get through the various bits of trouble all while the two suffer through a long, rocky and eventually realized romance? I do hope so!

Everyone’s called to the bridge for what appears to be an ion storm. They try to avoid whatever danger may lay in store, but their attempts fail and they get pushed through a pinkish/peachish plasma field like debris caught in a nasty wave.

The ship gets tousled about and Janeway’s hair gets tousled out of it’s nifty little bun. With her hair in disarray Janeway attempts to help people get medical help.

Voyager learns they have stumbled onto the other side of the galaxy. Before them lays some weird space-station style contraption with a pulse shooting out of it. Not only are they on the other side of the galaxy, they’ve lost sight of the Maquis ship they were chasing.
Janeway runs down to engineering to help out “in case there’s a warp core breach” and, on her way, manages to readjust her hair so it looks perfect. How she does this is beyond me. Maybe they offer a class at the Academy.

Harry, in sickbay, initializes the Emergency Medical Hologram (which is exactly what it sounds like) who whines because he’s for emergency, short-term use only and they want him to replace an entire medical staff indefinitely.

While in engineering, saving the day, Janeway is informed that the Array is scanning Voyager. While she tries to figure out what’s going on, everyone is beamed off the ship. The EMH doesn’t like this as no one has deactivated him, so he’s trapped alone, with no way to turn himself off in a dark, empty sickbay. Aww…

Meanwhile, the crew find themselves in what appears to be the US South but is likely a holographic projection. They see a fancy house with a Paula Deen type woman offering them food and beverages. Janeway starts questioning Paula but is ignored. Soon the typical  “county fair” crowd shows up. Old people, young people, all simple, innocent-looking, wearing denim and overalls. The Starfleeters are thoroughly confused and don’t seem too interested in joining the hoe-down that ensues.

The crew goes looking for explanations but all they get is Paula telling Janeway she should just wait. “Wait for what?” Janeway inquires. Paula walks away offering others food.

Harry and Paris go searching for more answers but a young, country girl starts cuddling up to Tom. Harry points out she’s just a hologram but Paris doesn’t care (if you haven’t figured it out by now, Paris is supposed to be the devil-may-care bad boy and that includes total disrespect of women. Granted, in this case, the hologram’s hoping for it).

Harry detects life signs in a barn. Janeway shows up, and despite the holograms’ best efforts to distract them, the Starfleeters find what they were being kept from and the holographic projections disappear and the crew find themselves staring into a long, creepy hallway.

Lining the hallway are Maquis officers laying on beds, their arms hanging down below them. After a cut we find the Voyager officers in the same position, with black wrapped around their midsection and giant needles piercing them and incurring screams of agony. Moments later (it seemed. It was actually three days) the crew finds themselves back on their own ship, exactly where they were when they left. With the exception of Ensign Kim who is missing. Turns out Chakotay has lost one of his crew-members as well. The two captains decide to work together to solve the problem. It’s then that Chakotay learns that Tuvok was a spy. Chakotay also claims the “hates Tom Paris the most” prize when he practically slugs the guy on the bridge. I wonder if they’ll learn to get along…

Janeway takes some people to go back to the array to find Torres and Kim. Tom wants to go with them. He doesn’t want to see anything happen to Harry. (Let the slash fiction begin.)

Janeway, Paris and Chakotay stumble onto an old man playing the banjo. He mocks them and tells them they’re not what he needs, but the two he kept might be. Old man says he has no choice. There’s not enough time left. He must honor a debt that can never be repaid, “But my search is not going well.” Janeway wants to know what he’s looking for so they can help. He says they can’t do anything to help. He also says he doesn’t have time to send them back to the right part of the galaxy. With a wave of his hand, everyone is back aboard Voyager.

Harry wakes up in a large white room, with a couple people standing over him speaking to him telepathically. He finds weird bumps and sores on his body. On the bed next to him is a woman who looks a little Klingon, but not a lot Klingon, and she starts beating on the nurses and trying to escape. But she gets tazered and that puts an end to that. They put her back in her bed and Harry wonders what the hell is going on.

Voyager determines that the array is sending pulses to a planet that’s no longer able to grow things. The pulses are getting closer together. Janeway decides to visit the planet when the ship is fixed and then she begins a somewhat depressing soliloquy about Harry and his mom and his clarinet and Janeway promises to get her crew home. Tuvok tells her to get some sleep before she starts getting too emotional.

Near the planet they find a vessel with a humanoid on board. He’s funky-looking, his name is Neelix and he’s very protective of the space trash-heap he finds himself in. He’s also not impressed by Janeway’s namby pamby title. Paris seems to be able to smell Neelix through the viewscreen and he doesn’t like it.

Neelix then tells Captain the caretaker has been bringing ships to the area for months now. He also inquires if she’s lost members of her crew. He tells her they were brought to the Ocampa. Janeway asks for help and offers to give Neelix the water he’s so excited to obtain in exchange for his assistance.

Back in the white room, Harry and B’elanna start chatting. She’s angry and a little violent, and he’s trying to stay calm and gets snarky at the snotty little Klingon. B’elanna starts banging on the door and Harry tells her to calm down, or they’ll be sedated again. She admits he’s right, but in a super angry way. “It’s the Klingon half of me. It’s just… It’s hard to control it sometimes.” That’s right. She’s only half Klingon, and she says her name correctly. That only happens about 4 more times in the series, so enjoy it.

A guy comes to talk to them and provides some exposition. These people are the Ocampa. They live in a subterranean world because something terrible happened and they were no longer able to live above ground. That’s when the Caretaker started taking care of them. The old Ocampan man believes the caretaker separated Harry and B’elanna from their friends to protect them from the disease (their weird bumps) and old guy informs them that they’re not the first to show up in their sickbay-ish thing, but everyone else who shows up dies. B’elanna doesn’t like the sounds of that, but is able to restrain her Klingon half and doesn’t start swinging at him and yelling Klingon obscenities. Good job, B’elanna.

An away team beams down to the surface. Neelix introduces them to the Kazon Olga, mean gang of crazy-haired aliens, who grab Neelix and carry him away and then point guns at him. They don’t treat the crew much better. Paris shows the Kazon the water he brought. One Kazon drinks some and the pigs ears scattered throughout his hair stand up in excitement. Janeway asks him if he knows anything about the Ocampa. He introduces a young scrawny little Ocampan he has and exposits some interesting info. Ocampa only live for nine years, for example. He also tells them it’s very rare an Ocampan makes it to the surface (like one they have). Neelix then tries to hold leader guy hostage and tells everyone to drop their weapons. Starfleet peeps then pick up their weapons and point them at anything dangerous. Neelix grabs the young Ocampan woman and they all beam back to safety. It is then we learn that Neelix and this young woman are an item, and there’s a collective squick heard round the nation.

Back to Harry and B’elanna. B’elanna seems to be in pain, and they’re both at a loss for what to do. A nurse woman comes to see them and offers them some medicine that might be helpful and tells them going to the surface would be against the Caretaker’s wishes, but he has been acting strangely lately, so here’s some tunnels that might lead you safely to the surface of the planet.

Back in sickbay, the Doctor is treating Kes. When the EMH tries to kick everyone else out, Janeway deactivates him. Against Neelix’s wishes, Kes insists that because the Voyager crew helped him, they need to do what they can to return the favor.

Kes, Tuvok and a few others beam down to the city in a breach in the security wall. They ask around about visitors. A guy informs them they can’t find the crewpeople. Kes gives some speech about how the Ocampans are a bunch of sissies who lost some really cool super powers their ancestors had because they stopped using them. Score one for the “if you don’t use it, you will lose it” camp. Older dude thinks she’s young and silly. She thinks he’s old and stuck in his ways and she leaves to help the crew find their people.

We catch up with B’elanna and Harry as they walk and stair-climb through some underground tunnels. Harry’s too weak to continue without any Klingon blood. B’elanna says it’s more trouble than it’s worth (subtly introducing B’elanna’s self-hatred). Harry starts bemoaning that he’ll die on his first mission but then starts chatting with B’elanna about Starfleet Academy (she dropped out in her second year). The little reminiscence is interrupted when B’elanna notices the pulses from the array getting closer together for a while and then stopping.

Kes, Paris and a nameless crew-person go to investigate the ancient tunnels to find Harry and B’elanna. The array then starts shooting things at the planet to try to close the conduits. Tuvok hypothesizes that the Caretaker is dying, and that’s why he’s been shooting them extra energy. Up until now the Caretaker was repaying a debt to the planet, and he will soon be gone.

Tom uses his fancy new technology to determine which tunnel Harry and B’elanna are in. He and the others find them and get them to the surface. (Slightly random note here: as the crew all run away on the surface only Kes helps Harry, but Neelix and Tom both help B’elanna. I find that silly considering B’elanna and her Klingon blood was the stronger one in the cave, and Kes is by far the weakest of the bunch.) Tom (and Neelix, because he begged, and I don’t think Tom would worry too much if the poor guy got lost somewhere) go back to help Tuvok, Chakotay and Janeway to the top as the others are beamed to the ship.

Trapped in the tunnels, Chakotay’s leg is broken. Janeway, Neelix and Tuvok make their way to the surface and Tom goes after Chakotay who’s stuck on a ladder that’s about to break off. Chakotay tells Tom to go away so the stairs don’t collapse, but Tom goes down the stairs anyway to get to Chakotay “If I save your life, it belongs to me.” Tom says “Isn’t that some kind of Indian custom” “Wrong tribe.” Chakotay responds. He doesn’t seem thrilled about having Tom help him, but he finally lets his pride go, and Tom makes more stereotypical comments about Indians, and Chakotay responds by calling Tom fat. Okay, so he only says, “you’re too heavy” but I still find it amusing considering the way Paris’ weight fluctuates throughout the series.

They all get beamed to the ship and find themselves in sickbay. Someone reports to Janeway that Kazon ships are targeting the array, and everyone runs to the bridge, leaving the Doc alone, again, still not deactivated. Poor guy. You wouldn’t guess it by his tiny, one-note role here, but by the seventh season half the episodes revolve around the Doctor.

Janeway brings the weapons online and calls red alert (man I hate that sound). Someone wants to  shoot down the array, which annoys Janeway because she wanted to beam over to it and see if she could be of any help. So she problem solves. She gives Tom the conn (to which he replies, “Yes, ma’am” in a way that makes one question if he forgot her previous discussed preferences for titles, or he’s just cocky and bastardly enough to not care. I think it’s a little bit of each). Janeway and Tuvok beam over to the array while the Maquis ship holds off the Kazon. Janeway asks the Caretaker to send them back to where they belong. The Caretaker says he can’t. He has to seal the conduits or else the Kazon will steal what little the Ocampans have, but he realizes it doesn’t even really matter, because after the Ocampans run out of energy in five years, they’ll all die anyway.

It turns out the Caretaker (and a friend that’s still around somewhere) are explorers from a different galaxy. They didn’t realize their technology would be so destructive. They damaged the Ocampa, so he’s sticking around to care for them to make up for what he did. He’s been finding people from all over the galaxy and bringing them to him to try to see if they were compatible to take over his work. Janeway suggests he give the Ocampa a chance to survive on their own. “It’s what helps them to evolve,” she argues.

Just then Kim comms her to tell her they have problems on the ship. Chakotay decides to set a collision course, so he can ram it into the Kazon ship that’s trying to destroy the array so Janeway can have more time to talk with the Caretaker. The rest of his crew beams aboard Voyager.

Tuvok figured out how to send them back to Voyager, but it would take hours. They need the Caretaker’s help, but he won’t help them. He tells Janeway and Tuvok they need to leave now. Just then the Kazon vessel collides with the array and the barn/country setting they were standing in begins to fade as the actual appearance of the inside of the array takes over. Tuvok and Janeway roam the array, as the Caretaker shape-shifts. He nonetheless is able to tell them that the self-destruct function has been broken but informs Janeway and Tuvok the array must be destroyed or the Kazon will annihilate the Ocampa. he then deflates and condenses into a rock. Tuvok asks if he should set the program to send them back. She worries about the Ocampa. Tuvok invokes the Prime Directive. Janeway says it doesn’t really matter in this situation, because they’re already involved (which is highly debatable).

Janeway shows up back on the bridge. She warns the Kazon to back off because she’s going to destroy the array. She cuts off the transmission before the Kazon man can argue, so B’elanna does it for him. “That’s our only way to get back home.” Janeway doesn’t think it’s fair to trade their convenience for the lives of the Ocampans. B’elanna asks why her opinion matters so much. Chakotay says, “Because she’s the captain.” Really? Didn’t take him long to go all Starfleety, now did it?

They destroy the array. The Kazon guy shows up on the viewscreen to notify her she’s made an enemy (as if she didn’t know).

Later Janeway informs Paris she’s invited the Maquis to join the ship. Apparently Chakotay’s gonna make sure the Maquis don’t give Tom too hard a time. She also tells him Chakotay will be first officer and Tom is the new chief Conn Officer. Pretty good for a guy who just a week ago was stuck in prison. Janeway’s only sorry his father won’t know. Paris informs her he will, “when we get back.”

As he leaves Neelix and Kes stroll in and beg to stay aboard Voyager. She agrees.

Everyone is on the bridge, everyone at their positions with the exceptions of Kes and Neelix, who are just there for kicks, and B’elanna who’s standing near the bridge engineering console with her arms crossed looking angry. Janeway gives a nice little speech about how they’re going to explore the strange new worlds they’re likely to encounter, but their primary goal will be to find a way home; “somewhere, along this journey, we’ll find a way back. Mr. Paris, set a course. For home.” “Aye, Captain.” Ah, good, a little respect this time. Voyager shoots off at high warp, towards home. I wonder if it will take them the 75 predicted years.

What Irked Me:

It’s hard to complain with a woman in command, but there are a few things worth mentioning. For one, the ratio of the main cast is still skewed at 2:1 male:female.

Secondly, it’s interesting they felt the need to establish that Janeway was engaged. The romantic lives of Kirk and Picard, while discussed occasionally, was not established in their first episodes as though it’s necessary exposition, but here we see a scene between Janeway and her husband-to-be chatting about feminine things like taking care of things (in this case dogs). It’s like the writers are saying “she’s still normal and wants to settle down, but she was forced into another situation.” Basically, it’s accepted that a man will forgo marriage for the pursuit of a career, but for a woman it’s not.

Also, Tom is obnoxious.

What Made Me Happy:

Janeway is awesome. She’s commanding, decisive and doesn’t care if she makes a few enemies on her way to being kick-ass. As for the other women, they seemed to go to great length to establish ways in which B’elanna and Kes are not your stereotypical women. Although Kes is first seen as a victim, and always seems a tad frail and childish, she’s got moxie as evidenced by her thinking outside the box and escaping the naive beliefs of her people. B’elanna, on the other hand, is incredibly intelligent (Chakotay’s engineer) and quite strong (that Klingon blood).

Also, there’s no Ms. Fanservice (yet)

Final Score (out of 10): 8

Improvement Score: +3 (back to being on par with the premiere of DS9)

Additional Comments:

Janeway’s hair cost the production a ton of money.

They shot quite a few scenes with Kate Mulgrew’s natural shoulder-length hair, but somebody decided it wasn’t the right style for a captain. After much debate and deliberation they decided a bun would be more fitting, so Mulgrew got herself fitted for a wig and they re-shot everything. This is after they already wasted a day or two (and all the money that entails) on filming scenes with a different actress in the Captain’s role. Kate Mulgrew commented on the debacle;

They tried to kill me with the hair. Oh yes. They were so concerned that they had actually hired a woman to play the role that they couldn’t quite – and this is also anthropologically fascinating – couldn’t quite get to it on a real level, so they targeted the symbol, which was the hair.

Now I watched this with great curiosity because I love to see how men deal with their deepest anxieties… about will this franchise succeed or will it not, with this woman at the helm. ‘Well let’s find something that we can all busy ourselves with to such distraction that we go mad.’ It was the hair.

They changed it five times in the first season, two, three times in the second. You know, my message to Patrick Stewart is, ‘You lucky devil.’ I mean, it was just constantly a source of anxiety for them, and of course it had nothing to do with the reality.

They should have just left it alone. It didn’t come down very often. Had to be real bad war for that hair to come down, and it was down and then it was up and then it was … it was a million things. Of very little interest to me.

Star Trek: The Next Generation – the last episode “All Good Things…”
Original Airdate: May 23, 1994

Story:

I have to admit, it was kind of a struggle to make it through this. I found the whole episode rather boring, which is somewhat surprising to me, because I really love TNG. I’m pretty alone on my distaste for this episode. It won a Hugo award for Best Dramatic Presentation and Entertainment Weekly listed it at #5 of the top 10 episodes. I don’t know what my problem is: too many mentions of anomalies and tachyon pulses in a two-hour block? I wasn’t invested enough in the characters to care enough about their relationships or what happened to them? Or maybe the fact that nothing really seemed to happen anyway, except for in the mind of Picard? Don’t get me started on temporal paradoxes. I used to find them fascinating and amusing. Too much Star Trek, however, and now they just give me a headache. My point is, if this isn’t exactly what happened, I hope you’ll forgive me, because I’m going with what I could ascertain between the many times I mentally dozed off.

In this episode Picard finds himself in three different time periods, the present (2370, following the continuity of the series), the past (2364, “Encounter at Farpoint”), and the future (circa 2395). In the present he’s ordered on a mission to go hang out at the border of the Neutral Zone in the Devron System, which he does. In the future he’s an Ambassador who’s retired at home in France and is getting a visit from Geordi (who’s now married and has some kids). In the past, he’s meeting everyone the way he did the first time around, except for this time the orders are changed. Instead of going to Farpoint Station, the Enterprise is supposed to go to the edge of the Neutral Zone in the Devron System. Sound Familiar? It should, but this time it’s because a spatial anomaly’s been detected.

In the future and the present Picard tells his friends about his time-jumping and they attempt to problem solve. An anomaly is being seen in two of the time periods (although it’s much larger in the past) so all three ships (the Enterprise in the past and present, and the Pasteur, a medical ship under the command of Beverly Picard–that’s right–in the future) shoot it with a tachyon pulse to scan it.

As this is happening, Picard gets a visit from Q, who he suspected might be behind all this. He finds himself once again as the representative of humanity which is still on trial for being barbaric. Q acknowledges that he’s behind Picard’s time-jumping, and he time-jumps with Picard back to the beginning of life on earth as the first Amino Acids form together to create the beginnings of life. Picard notices the same anomaly that’s being seen by the ships in the past and present, only here it’s HUGE. Q draws Picard’s attention to the Amino Acids and points out that this time, they don’t join. Picard has done something to prevent life from existing!?!

Picard brainstorms with his crews again, and we get to see more of the future crew. Troi is dead and Worf and Riker hate each other because Troi was kind of with Worf, but apparently he didn’t really want to do anything because he knew of Troi’s history with Riker. Why Worf hates Riker I don’t know, but they’re all catty towards each other. Picard and Beverly are divorced. Data, on the other hand, seems happy. He’s the dean of Cambridge and has a bunch of cats that keep him company. He’s also added a white streak to his hair which he thinks makes him look more dignified but which everyone else (viewers included) finds ridiculous.

The brainstorming is successful, and they determine that they may have caused the anomaly that they’re now seeing. They realize the anomaly is anti-time, which is analogous to anti-matter as it relates to matter (if that means something to you I’m happy, it means nothing to me). Think of it as the opposite of time, I guess…

Anyway, they realize they’re causing the anomaly by scanning it, so when Picard jumps into the different time periods he tells the ships to turn off the tachyon pulse. Then, for some reason I don’t fully comprehend, the three ships need to fly into the anomaly. They all meet on the inside of the anomaly where they’re creating warp shield bubbles (or some other technobabble). While inside, the ships don’t have enough stability to hold position with the warp shield and one by one the ships explode.

Picard then meets with Q and learns humanity has passed the test yet again, but humans will always be on trial, according to Q.

Back in the present time, Picard runs into the hall in his jammies (the same thing he did in the beginning of the episode) and discovers that all is well.

The last scene is a cute little closer that I enjoyed far more than the rest of the episode. The entire crew (minus the captain) are hanging out and playing a game of poker (as they do often throughout the series). They’re wondering why Picard told them everything that happened in the future he saw considering it’s totally against the temporal prime directive. Data points out that the timeline they’re in is already different, so he wasn’t breaking any rules. Then one of them suggests Picard may have told them what happened so they can make sure it doesn’t happen this time around. Just as they’re about to begin dealing, the captain walks in. The crew is confused. Is something wrong? Picard assures them everything is fine, but he wonders if he could join them. “I should have done this a long time ago,” Picard says as he begins to deal, “Five Card Stud. Nothing wild. And the sky’s the limit.”

What Made Me Happy:

Captain Beverly Picard! If there’s anyone in TNG that could make an awesome captain, it’s Beverly Crusher, so while I know the future where she is a captain never really happens anywhere other than in Picard’s head (kinda), it’s still cool to see her in command of her own ship.

Also, it was nice to see the return of Tasha Yar. The actress who portrayed her left the show after the first season because she felt her character was never expanded on as the other characters were. While the show attempted to even out the gender ranks by including recurring women characters throughout the remainder of the series, the main cast remained very lopsided (3:1 or 5:2 male to female, depending on whether Wesley’s around). It was nice to see her back and being important.

What Irked Me:

I hate Troi’s purple uniform thing, but that’s more a matter of taste (and the fact that the show was made 15 years ago).

It also annoys me a little that Crusher changed her name to Picard and kept it that way even after they broke up. It doesn’t make me furious or anything, but after her long and successful career, to change her name in the first place seems antiquated and unnecessary, unless she was hoping the Picard thing would help bolster her professionally, but you’d think serving aboard his ship for 7+ years would serve that purpose. Then again, maybe she was married to Picard for longer. I mean, the future we see might be a future from a different timeline. It’s hard to say what’s changed. Regardless, Crusher should stay Crusher.

Score: 5

While it’s a tad unfair the way I’m doing this–only reviewing two episodes in a sort of leaky vacuum–this episode just isn’t that great. Sure there are a lot of women around, and three in particular play a large role, each in their own way even willing to call out men for being irrational or wrong, but at the end of the day it’s a man’s story. Picard is really the only one that matters in the long run. He was the one initiating things, he was the one who was able to orchestrate events in the way necessary, and he was the one that saved the day. Q also played a huge role (he was the one that started it, after all) and Data and Geordi and Worf were the ones that furthered along the plot, developing new understanding of what was going on. The women were in many respects nagging housewives asking the men to think and act rationally and responsibly before apprehensively following directions.

Improvement Score: -3. Not good.

Additional Comments:

I could say this irked me, because it does, but it’s more because of story reasons than any sort of feminist ideals. Therefore, I’m putting it here.

In the first episode I pointed out that they suggested possible relationships between Picard and Crusher and between Troi and Riker. Very little developed in regard to either relationship, but here in the future timeline of the finale Picard and Crusher are divorced and Riker’s very snotty to Worf for kinda maybe almost having a thing with Troi. The men really come across as the more obnoxious halves of their respective couplings for various reasons, and everyone was paired off (with the exception of Data who isn’t even human), making it hard to make any judgments based on gender. Nevertheless, Troi died embroiled in a love triangle and Crusher married off which could easily annoy some people.

I don’t like it because I don’t care so much about the Worf/Troi/Riker drama and because it seems a tad out of character and forced. I just find it silly. The same can be said of the Picard/Crusher relationship. I love them flirting and being cutesy, but being divorced just doesn’t jive with me. I’m 90% positive that both were done in an attempt to appeal to fans. Picard/Crusher was a very popular pairing, and the Riker/Troi/Worf drama I’m sure had some fans in tizzies of various sorts, so alluding to both in an alternate reality is a way of appeasing those fans without having to actually commit to anything. Additionally, when the present crew all agree to make their future better than the one we saw, fans can imagine that all their favorite pairings (Riker/Troi, Crusher/Picard) but without all the unnecessary drama they now know to avoid. It’s a way to give a shout-out to fans, give them hope, but also not having to deal with any of the consequences. Because I was not a fan of any of those particular ships, however, I just got bored.

On a similar note, it’s awkward to review this episode apart from the series (which I just did anyway) because the entire premise is really to reward fans of the show. The look back at where they came from as a nostalgic “remember when…,” and the look forward to where all the characters might end up to appease some fans and whip others into writing more fic thus furthering the love. When ending a show like this (and by “like this” I mean any long-running show with a giant, committed fan base) it needs to be done in a way that rewards the fans for going on this journey and being involved with the show. More than offering closure to the characters in the story, the show needs to bring closure to the viewers, closing a chapter in their TV lives. That can be done by having all the characters go their separate ways, thus defining an end of an era (think of the finale of Friends) or by doing what The Next Generation did. No one’s leaving the Enterprise (they needed to stay together for the subsequent movies, the first of which was going to start shooting 10 days after the finale wrapped), so instead they took a look back and tied up the only real story arc TNG had (Q) and offered a look at a slightly dystopian future that is now guaranteed not to happen.

The episode may have bored me to near tears, but I fully recognize that it did what it needed to do and it did it well. I just still don’t care. Apparently I’m just not as big a fan as I thought I was.

Star Trek: Deep Space 9 – The first episode “Emissary”
Original Airdate: January 3, 1993

I’m reviewing episodes in chronological order of airdate, therefore, fans of Next Generation will have to wait until my next post for my review of the finale episode “All Good Things….”

Story:

DS9 begins with the most emotional opener yet as we meet up with a ship in the middle of a Borg attack.

A little background here: At one point, Picard got kidnapped by the borg and assimilated and led a borg attack on the Saratoga, a Starfleet vessel. Aboard that ship was Benjamin Sisko, who orders a ship-wide evacuation and then goes in search of his wife and son. While he finds them both, his wife dies before anyone’s able to help her. After watching his wife die, Benjamin Sisko joins his son on an escape pod, and as they go to warp, he looks back to see the ship he was on, along with the body of the woman he loved, blown to smithereens by a borg cube.

By the end of this opening sequence, the show has already established itself as more character-driven than previous Trek (at least the Trek I’ve reviewed). As such the major premise of this episode doesn’t revolve around some big scary alien (like Q or the salt-creature). Sure there are Cardassians and wormhole aliens, but the big over-arching story of “Emissary” is Sisko’s personal journey from sad and bitter to happy and hopeful.

Sisko’s been assigned to Deep Space Nine, a space station in orbit of the planet Bajor. Until recently Bajor has been occupied by the Cardassians who built the station. The Cardassians eventually left due to the strength of the Bajoran resistance and the Bajorans set up a new provisional government. The station, which was previously a mining operation, was to be opened with a Starfleet officer in command and staffed by a combination of Starfleet and non-Starfleet officers. Sisko is the one given the command, two years after the Borg attack on the Saratoga. Before I get to Sisko and his journey throughout this episode, let’s meet the other characters.

Jake Sisko: Commander Sisko’s 14 year-old son. We first meet him while he’s fishing on a lake which turns out to be a holodeck. He’s not terribly excited about living on the space station, but Sisko tries to help him see the positives. He reminds his son there will be kids and it will be just like shore leave. Jake’s still not convinced, especially after seeing the crappy, mess of a station that is DS9. The atmosphere controls are broken leaving the station at a balmy 32C (89.6F) and he’s forced to sleep on a bunk borrowed from the Enterprise. Oh, and he has to stay in his quarters because there’s all sorts of crime going on. Can’t blame the kid for being a little mopey.

Quark: Owner and manager of Quark’s Bar, Grill, Gaming House and Holosuite Arcade. He is a Ferengi, a species known for being incredibly greedy. Wealth is revered in their culture and they’re known for being cheap cheats, and manipulative businessman. Early in the episode his nephew Nog is caught robbing the station and it’s suspected that Quark was the one that put him up to it. Nog is put in “jail” until Quark agrees to be a community leader of sorts and keep his establishment open after the station changes into Federation hands. His decision to do so is made much easier after the events of the episode

Major Kira Nerys: Bajoran first officer. She’s been a part of the resistance since she “was big enough to pick up a phaser.” Although she’s excited to see the Cardassian’s leave, she’s weary of the Federation suddenly coming in, fearing another Occupation-like situation. She’s very opinionated about things and in her first scene we see her yelling at one of her superiors whose ideas she disagrees with. She knows how to get things done, isn’t afraid of getting her hands dirty and is very devoted to her planet and its people.

Constable Odo: Lead security officer. Odo is a Changeling, otherwise known as a shape-shifter, which means what it sounds like. He can become any shape he desires. He’s always been disconnected from other Changelings and doesn’t know anything about beings similar to him or even where he came from. He’s spent his entire existence taking the form of humanoids, trying to fit in on Bajor.

Jadzia Dax: Science officer. Jadzia Dax is a Trill. Trill are a joined species, meaning select members of the humanoid population become hosts for a symbiont, a worm-like creature that retains all the memories, knowledge and experiences of all its previous hosts. Thus, Jadzia became a host for the Dax symbiont. The Dax symbiont has been in any number of different hosts (Jadzia is the 8th according the Memory Alpha). Just before Jadzia, the Dax symbiont was hosted by Curzon, a friend, mentor and co-worker of Commander Sisko. Sisko is thus very excited to be working with Dax again, and although Jadzia is a young (28) year-old woman, Sisko affectionately refers to her by his old nickname for Curzon Dax: Old Man.

Beyond being a Trill, Dax is a very competent science officer and object of Lt. Julian Bashir’s affections.

Julian Bashir: Station doctor. The script (which I found online and seems real) describes him as “human, male, mid-twenties, wide-shouldered with a boyish face, cocky with a little too much confidence.”  asked to be assigned to DS9 because he was looking for adventure and he decided that happens out in the “wilderness” in the “farthest reaches of the galaxy.” Kira doesn’t much appreciation his talking of her homeland as though it’s the old west and thus he doesn’t help her distrust of Starfleet.

Miles O’Brien: He doesn’t get quite the same introduction as the others because he’s not new to Star Trek. He’s been on Next Generation since the first episode (he pilots the battle bridge and is left behind when the others are put on trial by Q). O’Brien is now the operations officer aboard DS9. He’s married to Keiko, a botanist that had served aboard the Enterprise and who’s not all that excited about being relocated to a broken-down space station. They have a 2 year-old daughter, Molly.

These are the characters that surround Sisko as he goes on an interesting journey. Shortly after arriving at the station and meeting Kira, he learns that there are still a number of factions on Bajor that are having trouble with the Bajoran Provisional Government, and the only chance there is of unifying them and keeping the planet intact politically would be if Kai Opaka, Bajor’s spiritual leader, would call for unity. Sisko decides to go visit her to see what he can learn.

What he learns is explained to him in bits and pieces. Upon first meeting the Kai she shows him an object. As Sisko looks at it he’s pulled back to the beach where he first met his wife. He meets her again and he excitedly recreates his first encounter with her, once again asking her out and enjoying the chance to see her again.

Not long after “arriving” on the beach, Sisko is brought back to the present with the Kai. She explains to him the object he was looking at was the Orb of Prophecy, one of nine known orbs. The Cardassians have taken the other eight during the Occupation. She then tells him they’ve been waiting for an Emissary, a person who will find the Celestial Temple, the home of the Prophets, and the place from which the orbs originated. She tells Sisko that he is that Emissary and gives him the remaining orb to study so that he can find the Temple.

Sisko gives the orb to Dax to research, and after having a vision of her own (the moment when the symbiont was transferred from Curzon into herself), she begins her study.

Meanwhile, problems arise when Gul Dukat, the former commander of DS9 comes looking for information about the final orb, as he wants it and any information he can get about it or the other orbs.

In Dax’ research she finds what appears to the originating location of all the orbs and Odo creates a diversion (with the help of Kira, Quark and O’Brien) so she and Sisko can go to check out the location without tipping off the Cardassians. As they near the area, a wormhole develops in front of them and they are pulled into it. As they are shot out of the wormhole they discover they are in the Gamma Quadrant, 70,000 light years from where they just were. Realizing that the wormhole is stable and suspecting it might be the source of the orbs, Sisko and Dax return through it to the Alpha Quadrant. While in the wormhole, however, the runabout they’re in begins to lose power and they detect a “planet” with a breathable atmosphere which they then land on. They emerge from the runabout and Dax sees a lush, gorgeous landscape; sun shining down on thick shrubs and hillsides. Sisko, on the other hand sees a barren landscape of hard rocks jutting towards him under a dark, gloomy sky. An orb appears and scans them both. Before either of them knows what’s happening Dax disappears and is transported directly onto DS9 and Sisko is taken to the celestial temple and a stream of visions begin.

Through these various visions Sisko begins to communicate with non-corporeal entities that appear as various people in his life. They don’t understand Sisko and the fact that he’s corporeal and is tied to linear time and embraces ignorance of the future. While searching Sisko’s memories and experiences they take him back to a picnic with Jennifer, and then to the Saratoga when Jennifer died. He tells them he doesn’t like this memory. The entities then implore him: if he doesn’t like that memory, then why does he exist there? He doesn’t understand, but they keep repeating that he exists there.

While Sisko talks with the entities, Gul Dukat attempts to hunt down Sisko by flying through the wormhole. Once he gets to the Gamma Quadrant, the wormhole entities close the wormhole. Apparently whenever someone travels through, their existence is disrupted. The wormhole aliens suggest that corporeal entities and their linear time are inherently destructive which he refutes, explaining that it’s not knowing the future and not knowing everything that’s going to happen that makes life interesting. Life is about exploring and expanding knowledge. The wormhole entities then get very confused; “If what you say is true, then why do you exist here?” Once gain Sisko is aboard the Saratoga looking down at the dead body of his wife. When Sisko inquires why the aliens keep bringing him back to that painful moment, they say that he is bringing them back there. He has the power to take them to other memories and he should know why he chooses that one. He notes that he would have died right there with her.

Earlier Sisko had been explaining that humans make decisions knowing the potential consequences, and the aliens point out that, despite any foresight, he was not prepared for the consequence that was losing his wife. Sisko finally realizes what they mean by saying he “exists” there. He’s never truly accepted his wife’s death and has never been able to move on to new adventures.

While Sisko is experiencing a personal transformation trouble is brewing on the station as the Cardassians begin questioning DS9 about the whereabouts of Gul Dukat. They refuse to believe there’s a wormhole as there’s no evidence such a thing exists. And because the aliens have closed the wormhole DS9 is having trouble proving it’s existence.

Just as they’re losing hope in their attempt to fight off the Cardassians, however, Sisko in the runabout emerge from it towing Gul Dukat behind him. DS9 is vindicated and Sisko informs them that the aliens “have agreed to allow safe passage for all ships traveling to the Gamma Quadrant.” The Cardassians leave, and Deep Space 9 becomes an important point of commerce and exploration while Sisko happily and with great optimism, continues his command, now with the added title of Emissary.

What Irked Me:

Male:Female ratio is 3:1, which is the worst of the modern Treks.
Women are scantily clad and treated as objects to be bought and sold by Quark. Then again, he treats everything as objects to be bought and sold.

What Made Me Happy:

Kira is a strong, opinionated leader that takes chances and is fiercely loyal to her planet and its people.

Dax is also a really cool character that transcends stereotypes and assumptions through really interesting Trill-induced gender-bending. Because she is both Jadzia and Dax she is a woman but has the experiences and memories of all sorts of people of different genders and as such her present self doesn’t fit into any tidy boxes.

I also love the positive portrayal of a single father family. It’s not often you see such a scenario on television without there being a woman present to take over the “motherly” responsibilities of cooking and cleaning or the whole thing turning into a Mr. Mom-like situation.

Also, DS9 is the most diverse of all the Star Treks in terms of its characters. It has the most non-human characters (4 out 8 ) and only one of those humans is caucasian and he’s not American. In terms of real life cast, the diversity is less pronounced (just three of the actors aren’t caucasian) but it’s still pretty neat.

Final Score (out of 10): 8

Improvement Score: 2

Additional Comments:

It doesn’t so much irk me, but I find it fascinating that Trek portrays so many interracial relationships and yet more often than not they’re the first such relationship. It’s another way of saying that I think Star Trek is too homogenized, but I noticed it clearly in regard to the O’Brien marriage. In their case, they’re involved in an interracial relationship and no one even acknowledges they come from two different cultures as though it’s super common for such a thing to happen, and yet both individuals are very much rooted in their own ethnic identity with no evidence of interracial relationships in their family trees. Miles is Irish in both appearance, accent, and family history (he apparently can trace his family history back to Boru, an Irish King who died in 1014) and Keiko is proudly Japanese. She got married in a (futuristic version of a) traditional Japanese gown, listens to Japanese music, grows Bonsai trees and was born and raised in Kumamoto. I guess it’s more a critique of the show’s vision of the future, but I find it incredibly hard to believe that 400 years in the future when Earth has colonized multiple planets and moons and transporters can take you from point A to point B as fast as you can say “hey” that there wouldn’t be more cross-cultural relationships until the characters we meet.

That observation got me thinking, though. It would seem to make sense that as the world gets smaller and more homogenized, people would hold more tightly to their own traditions and histories lest they disappear forever. I wonder how Molly (and her eventual brother Kirayoshi) will hold onto both their Irish and Japanese heritage as they grow up.

Star Trek: The Next Generation – The first episode “Encounter at Farpoint”
Original Airdate: September 28, 1987

Story:

Next Generation is the Star Trek show I grew up on. Every Saturday until I was 9 my family would heat up a frozen pizza in time to watch the latest episode at 6:00. I wonder what stereotypes and ideologies were being fed to me without my knowing…

We get an idea immediately with the opening narration: “Space. The final frontier…” It’s the same Kirk said every episode of the Original Series with one difference. While Kirk ended it with “to boldly go where no man has gone before,” Picard offers a more egalitarian “where no one has gone before.” A small change, but a telling and important one.

When the 2-hour pilot “Encounter at Farpoint” begins, the Enterprise, newly under the command of Jean-Luc Picard, is going to investigate a mysterious space station on the far side of the galaxy.

As Picard records his log entry he roams through the ship and we see at least two women in Engineering. They’re easy to spot in their super short mini-skirts. He then walks on to the bridge and the first thing we see there is a woman (in pants!!) standing at a console. As Picard glances over the rest of the bridge and takes his position in his chair, we see another woman on the bridge (in another super short skirt).

Troi (mini-skirt) starts sensing a powerful mind and the space around the enterprise starts going goofy and the Enterprise becomes trapped in some giant chain cage or forcefield.

A man dressed like one of the three musketeers shows up on the bridge telling the Enterprise to go back to their own star system. His name is Q, and while changing into various “captains” (old-fashioned naval and WWII–and some futuristic military guy) and freezing a redshirt to prove he’s powerful, this strange creature explains that he’s witnessed humans and understands that they’re a savage race. He threatens to kill Picard and such if the ship doesn’t go back to where they came from.

Everyone including Chief of Security Tasha Yar wants to get rid of Q, but Picard wants to talk. He acknowledges humans used to be pretty bad they’ve made a lot of progress. Q doesn’t really listen and eventually disappears. Troi suggests they avoid future contact with him. Picard decides to take him (although, still confused by the entity he refers to him as “them”) by surprise. Oh, he has no idea what he’s getting into. Outrun Q? Silly Picard.

While Picard embarrasses himself with his attempt to run away from something that’s inescapable, he asks Troi for guesses about what they just met. She tells him it’s beyond any kind of life form. Yar points out they’re not getting away from it.

When they can’t outrun Q (and the strange marble-ish ball he’s become), Picard orders an emergency saucer separation which is a huge risk at such a high warp speed. So Worf (disappointed about “escaping battle”) is given control of the saucer section and Picard heads to the battle bridge.

On the way we learn that not just women wear the super short (and not very attractive) mini-skirt uniforms. Apparently men wear them, too (and they’re called “scants,” apparently). So they’re not necessarily silly and objectifying, they’re just an approved uniform for anyone that chooses to dress in a way not conducive to space travel. Alright then.

Once on the battle bridge both Yar and Troi get to manage stations as they complete a saucer separation in what is a super long segment devoted entirely to special effects that by today’s standards are incredibly unexciting but by any decade’s standards are completely superfluous to the story.

Realizing that they can’t outrun the creature, nor destroy it, Picard surrenders. The weird cage surrounds them again and the crew of the battle bridge are transplanted into a strange, “historical” (by Star Trek time) room filled with crazy people. It appears the crew is now on trial and Q is the judge. Yar starts kicking the crap out of some of the security guards. The crowd goes wild.

When it’s their job to defend the race, Tasha gives an angry speech, creates an outburst and is frozen by Q who thaws her when Picard makes a deal about it.

Picard reads the charges Q hands to him and sees none that are against the four crew members currently “standing trial” and insists Q is being unfair. He then pleads guilty. Provisionally. He agrees there’s evidence to support that humans have been savage, but asks Q to test them to see if this is still true, offering himself as an example of what humanity has become.

According to Q, Farpoint Station will be test enough. Court is adjourned, and everyone finds themselves back on the ship.

We then meet Commander Riker. He’s waiting for the Enterprise at Farpoint Station but first he meets the administrator of the station. There’s a nice touch here where the administrator, Zorn, offers Riker his hand for a handshake. He does it awkwardly, not fully understanding the tradition.

As Riker is chatting with the administrator he mentions how he’d like some apples and they magically appear. Riker also finds it interesting that everything is so well-suited to humans and so well-built. He doesn’t really get any explanations for it, however, and he leaves. When he’s out of the room, Zorn starts talking to something we can’t see saying he doesn’t want their suspicion aroused. Hmm… mystery.

Riker goes looking for Dr. Crusher. He meets her and her son Wesley as they’re doing some shopping. As an introduction, Wes tells Riker his mom’s shy around men she doesn’t know. Talk about irrelevant and inappropriate. The group then look at fabric. Dr. Crusher discovers exactly what she asks for when it wasn’t there before. They’re all a little confused, but continue on and discuss the Enterprise. When Riker shows surprise that Crusher knows Picard, Wes offers him some background: “When I was little, [Picard] brought my daddy’s body home to us.” You know, I gotta say, I always loved Wes. He was a kid. I was a kid. He was always my favorite character and I very much noticed his absence when he left after the fourth season. When I grew up and learned everybody hated him I didn’t quite get it. Then I watched this episode. Even I hate him after that scene.

Riker is beamed to the Enterprise and Yar takes him to the battle bridge. Picard tells Yar to recap everything for Riker, so she sits him down in front of a monitor and he gets to watch a rerun of the first half of this episode. When he’s fully caught up and meets the captain, Picard is angry and unfriendly and insists Riker manually dock the ship. Is it a test mayhaps? Riker does so successfully. Everyone’s impressed with his abilities. Yar looks like she wants him to ask her to the prom.

Picard’s not as impressed as everyone else. But he does have some questions for Riker. For one, why does Riker like to second-guess captains he works for? Response: he won’t back out from protecting the captain. Picard asks Riker to keep him from making an ass of himself around kids, cuz he kinda hates them. The friendly captain we see throughout the rest of the show finally comes out.

There’s then a scene of exposition involving Geordi and his eyes. He’s blind, so his visor lets him see things human eyes can’t, but he can’t see what human eyes can. This is followed by a scene for all the Trekkie’s in the crowd in which Data guides Admiral “Bones” McCoy back to his shuttle. Thus begins the tradition of each Trek series handing off the reigns to the next. Cute scene. Unnecessary, but cute. Before the action really gets underway there’s one more pointless scene: Riker first sees Troi on the bridge and really dramatic, cheesy music starts playing and she starts talking to him telepathically. He seems smitten with her, and it’s divulged they have some sort of history.

Enough time-wasting. On to the fun. An away team goes to visit Farpoint. We learn that the Zorn doesn’t like Betazoids (Troi is a Betazoid. That’s how she senses things). They question how Farpoint is so good at constructing things. Zorn doesn’t want to answer questions and says he might seek an alliance with the Ferengi. Troi senses loneliness and despair, Zorn keeps evading questions, and they decide they won’t learn anything new for the time being.

Oh, I was wrong, more exposition… Riker walks into the holodeck where Data is chillaxin’ (the best an android can). It’s a dense forest. But a deciduous style forest… kinda. Reminds me of Peter Pan as opposed to the Amazon. When Riker finds him, Data is trying to whistle, but can’t. Riker helps. Riker is uncomfortable with Data, but Data would give up his superiority to be human.

Data briefly explains the technology of the holodeck (it’s light and energy but feels and appears real) and Wesley shows up and falls into the water. Data rescues him by simply holding him up with one hand.

Back in his quarters, Wes tells his mom how super awesome the ship is, but it’d even more super awesome if he could see the bridge. Dr. Crusher says it’s against the rules, so Wes complains that Picard is mean and then pesters his mom until she caves.

Meanwhile… back at Farpoint… Tasha, Geordi and Troi go to the underside of the station to look for anything fishy while Data and Riker explore on the surface.

Yar finds something interesting. The tunnel walls are something Geordi’s never seen before. When Troi opens her mind she senses only “pain… such pain… pain.” She concludes that whatever it is, it isn’t anything like “us.”

Back on the bridge, Dr. Crusher arrives via turbolift and guess who’s in there with her? Picard makes a big deal about how there are no children on the bridge. Beverly points out he’s not actually on the bridge, and then Picard realizes who this kid is and starts feeling a little sentimental. Picard tells Wes he knew his father and invites him to look around (“But don’t touch anything!”). Wes does so and he’s in awe. Picard invites Wes to try out the captain’s chair. As Picard tries to explain the technology Wes keeps interrupting, by showing off his own uncanny knowledge of the ship and the captains chair. “How the hell do you know that boy?” Picard demands. Then Wes discovers a perimeter alert, much to the annoyance of the captain. Poor, annoying Wes.

A strange vessel is nearby and encroaching on the ship. They hail it, but it doesn’t respond. They raise shields and ready phasers. Dun dun dun.

Picard asks Zorn who it is. Might it be the Ferengi? It’s 12 times the volume of the Enterprise… it’s big. It shoots a purple ray through the Enterprise to scan it.

Troi feels close to an answer of some kind. Someone’s shielding the communicators. Someone doesn’t want them to get in touch with the ship. Hmm…

Big Giant Ship starts firing at Farpoint planet and destroying things. The away team starts running for the surface. The women (and Geordi) beam up to the surface.

Zorn begs the Enterprise for help. The abandoned cities are being destroyed. Riker doesn’t object to Picard’s suggestion of an illegal kidnapping of Mr. Zorn. Nice. Nothing like disobeying the Prime Directive on your first mission.

Q shows up and points out savage life forms don’t even follow their own rules (referring to the kidnapping). Q also insults them for readying phasers even though they’re not necessarily at risk. He also says they should be helping casualties, but Picard totally pwns him when he proves that the medical team is already on it and then zings Q by pointing out he’s uncivilized for letting people die even when he knew they would and thus could have prevented it.

On the planet Data and Riker find Zorn who’s crying. They try out their reverse psychology skills by saying they’ll leave, because apparently Zorn knows nothing. Then, just as he starts to explain, Zorn gets beamed away and Troi starts sensing satisfaction.

Q tells an away team to beam over to the Big Giant Ship. Riker leads it.

Picard goes to Bev to apologize for treating her son badly and not going to meet her when she first showed up. Picard invites her to leave the ship because it might be awkward to work with Picard. She tells him “I wanted this assignment.” He seems surprised, but then welcomes her aboard. “I hope we can be friends.”

Riker and his away team of Data, Troi and Yar beam over to the mystery Big Giant Ship. Looks pretty boring to me, but they find it interesting. They point out it matches the underground tunnels, but there’s no sign of any power or machines or controls or a crew. Troi senses something much more powerful than what was on the planet. Hate is being directed at the old city.

Then they hear Zorn yelling in agony. “No more. Please make it stop.” They find him trapped in a weird wind-tunnelish thing. He knows what the one alien that’s there wants, but he lies and says he doesn’t. Lucky for him, when he gets phasered out of the vortex he falls into a pillow. How handy. The ship starts turning purple and Picard insists the crew beam back, but he can’t communicate with anyone.

Q shows up in a Starfleet uniform “Time’s up.” Picard begs Q to let him help his people. “I’ll do whatever you say.” Just like that, they all appear on the bridge. While the immediate transport seems to be Q’s doing, it’s not.

Zorn wants Picard to destroy the Big Giant Ship, but when Picard demands to know why it’s destroying Farpoint Station, everything becomes clear. Zorn found an “injured creature” and Zorn and his people helped it. It’s a creature that can turn energy into matter, and Zorn and his people were using it to build Farpoint Station. Just like that. Mystery solved. As everything is explained, the Big Giant Ship turns into a giant space jelly-fish.

Picard tells everyone on the station to evacuate so they don’t die from the “gunfire” of the jelly-fish in the sky. The Enterprise then starts shooting some energy at the giant alien on the planet to help heal it. The creature on the planet, now healed, joins its mate in the sky. The two jelly-fish join each other and hold hands in the cheesiest display of CG love I’ve ever seen.

Troi narrates the reunion: “Sir. Wonderful. A feeling of great joy. And gratitude. Great joy. And gratitude. From both of them.” The creatures float away.

Picard kicks Q off the ship because they passed the test. Q says he’ll go “only because it suits me to leave,” however, his exit sets him up for a reappearance every now and again.

Picard, glad to have solved the mystery and gotten rid of Q for the time-being, focuses on what’s next. “Let’s see what’s out there. Engage.”

What Irked Me:

It seems every Star Trek series has one female character that is forced to fill the void of Ms. Fanservice, and in this case it’s Counsellor Troi. As such, although she’s made an integral part of the show and paid respect by all of the characters, she’s forced into a ridiculous mini-skirt number reminiscent of the original series and wears all sorts of other tight-fitting, non-uniforms until, I don’t know, the movies, when she finally wears a traditional Starfleet uniform.

Also, it’s been pointed out before, so I’ll point it out here: the women tend to fill traditionally female (caregiver) roles: counselor and doctor, for example. This doesn’t necessarily bug me. Doctor is a profession that was mostly relegated to men for years (with women serving as nurses) and although Troi is a counselor, the nature of her character establishes that she’s in that profession primarily because she’s part Betazoid and the characteristics of her species make her well-suited to the role.

Also, while Tasha Yar is chief of security (which is awesome, by the way), I will point out that Tasha reacts rashly and kind of stupidly on various occasions throughout the pilot. Of course, Worf also does and says his own share of stupid things, so it’s not necessarily a female thing. It’s apparently a symptom of hanging out in the back part of the bridge.

What Made Me Happy:

This show actually has women. That talk and are part of the crew! They include the Chief Medical Officer, Head of Security and Ship’s Counsellor. Not to mention the various other women roaming the corridors and working on Farpoint Station. Not only are they around, they talk and give ideas and are treated with respect.

Most of the women wear normal uniforms. And have normal hair. They’re just other members of the crew. And, as mentioned before, those women that are wearing mini-skirts aren’t wearing anything men don’t sometimes wear (apparently).

Final Score (out of 10): 6 (Okay, so this scoring this is a lot harder than I thought it’d be)

Roddenberry finally got closer to that 1:1 ratio he was looking for on the ship. Unfortunately on the main crew it’s still only 2:1. But all the women are given important positions and are allowed “with the boys.” I just wish Troi wasn’t in that lame mini-skirt and the women actually kind of mattered to the plot. Then again, I’m not sure anyone really matters a lot in this episode, other than Q and Picard.

Also, it seemed from this episode that two of the women were set up as romantic interests for the men (Troi for Riker, Crusher for Picard) which is a form of pigeon-holing them. My foreknowledge that neither of those pairing comes to fruition (at least for a very long time) doesn’t prevent me from knocking this episode down a little further than I otherwise would have.

Improvement Score: 5! Not bad…for 20 years.

Additional Comments:

I think I’ve said enough.