'Muse' Reviews

Over at the Trek Nation, Ed Hines has put up his review of 'Muse', the most recent Voyager episode. Here's a snippet from the review, in which Ed looks at how the episode commented on Trek itself:

You don't need a translator, however, to catch VGR poking fun at itself - commenting subtly yet snidely on the perceived recklessness of its stories, rampant mischaracterization and the general flouting of Star Trek standards and continuity. One of the old chorus members (read: core Star Trek fans) complains that Kelis stocks his plays with manipulative "tricks," not truth, but Kelis (read: VGR's producers) insists that truth is "old fashioned" and "audiences today want excitement ... passion!" This was a clever jab by outgoing co-executive producer Joe Menosky, who has been notably outspoken in his willingness to forgo Star Trek continuity in the interests of a good story.

Also new is Julia Houston's review of the episode, up at About.com's Star Trek Fans. It's a lengthy review of the episode as part of Voyager's tradition of examining the power and function of fiction:

The story seems simple enough. Torres crashes on a planet, inadvertently revealing her "story" to a local playwright, Kelis. He then trades goods and services for more of her story, hoping that his play about the "eternals" will convince his bloodthirsty patron to turn away from his warplans.

But things aren't so simple. What at first appears to be merely self-consciousness evolves into reflection upon reflection as the episode directly addresses Voyager's knowledge of itself, as well as Voyager's knowledge of itself.

It's pretty obvious to everyone, especially Voyager's crew, that if they really wanted to obey the Prime Directive, they should have blown themselves up along with the Caretaker's array. A stranger can't travel through a strange land without affecting the local culture. Should Torres have told Kelis about Voyager? According to the dictates of the PD, no.

But...

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