Two More 'Imperfection' Reviews

So far today two new reviews of Wednesday's Voyager episode, 'Imperfection', have been posted.

• First of the bat today is a short one from Michael Marek of Cinescape Online who thought the episode had some good character development and did a nice job putting a new spin on a rather formulaic concept.

  In this episode, Voyager explores the emotions of the terminally ill, and of those who love them. Seven first declines to think about her condition, and then worries about her legacy after her death. Janeway, Seven's mentor and mother figure, is willing to risk an encounter with the Borg to find a replacement node. Seven and B'Elanna discuss the possibilities of life after death. Icheb is willing to risk his own health, similar to the way a family member today might offer a kidney for transplant. Seven at first rejects Icheb's plan, but is finally convinced in a moving argument. Seven, he says, would do anything to save another member of the crew, but she can't bring herself to rely on someone else, and to allow them to help her.

  Character development makes good drama, and this story has lots of it. It is also spiced by just the right dose of action, as the Delta Flyer visits a Borg debris field and fights off an alien salvage ship. The visuals of the Flyer zooming through the remnants of a Borg cube are spectacular.

  The full review can be found, of course, here.

• Jason Bates of IGN Sci-fi, however, was rather less positive about the episode, rating it only 2 out of 5.

  And in the context of a single episode review I'm not even going to get into the atrociously heavy-handed, 'She can do no wrong, she is perfect, she can perform surgery, fly a ship, beat people up, repair a warp core' concept that is Janeway. Instead I'll get back to a point I made earlier: the inability of the writers on this show, or whoever's editing their scripts, or executive-producing, to convey anything akin to drama. Compare the maudlin opening and closing scenes of this episode, in which Seven of Nine ostentatiously sheds a tear, and everyone points it out, practically running around banging gongs -- it's about as understated as a Hawaiian shirt at a funeral -- to the more sedate but more believable scene where Torres is hiding Seven in the engine room and they actually have a conversation (!), or even the scene where Janeway is babbling on about Indiana and jamming herself like an uncomfortable puppet up against the bulkhead in an attempt to appear casual.

  This is why I call it The Jeri Ryan Show. Because at least you know if it's an episode about Seven, there will be some attempt to bring some emotion and development to bear, and some good, earnest acting to back it up, even if Janeway usually gets in the way.

  The full review, which also says some nice things about Robert Picardo (the Doctor) and some not-so-nice things about the character of Captain Janeway (which seems to be the standard IGN take) can be found here.

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  Find more episode info in the Episode Guide.