First 'Haunting Of Deck Twelve' Reviews

Over at AnotherUniverse's Mania Magazine, Michelle Erica Green has put up her review of 'The Haunting Of Deck Twelve', yesterday's new Voyager. Here's a snippet from the review:

Kate Mulgrew and Robbie McNeill played this episode the way it should have been played by everyone: as a fable created by Neelix, totally unbelievable and over-the-top, with screaming during disasters and Shatnerian posturing. Mulgrew was in particularly fine form during Janeway's near-death scene ranting that she would never surrender - put this woman in Galaxy Quest! Everyone else seemed to be taking their roles seriously, which is too bad. Tuvok sounded silly formalizing his Jeffries tube meditation exercises; in fact, the only giveaway that we were watching fake events during that scene came when Tuvok told Neelix to fill his lungs. We all know Neelix only has one lung - the one he got from Kes way back in first season's "Phage." I have a feeling that the use of the plural was a screw-up on the part of the new writers rather than a conscious decision to reveal the story as a story, since Neelix himself could have corrected it, but what the heck.

A bit more positive than Green is Michael Marek at Cinescape:

"The Haunting of Deck Twelve" has all of the warning signs of a hackneyed Star Trek episode -- an alien life force takes up residence in the ship's computers and causes system failures, trying to take over the ship. I expected very little when I sat down to watch this episode.

What I got, however, was a delightful episode -- well written, with drama, humor and just the right touch of mystery.

Finally, reviewer O. Deus has put up his own analysis of the episode at TrekWeb, also praising the episode in his conclusion:

Like a campfire story "The Haunting of Deck Twelve" isn't particularly substantial but also like a campfire story, Haunting is fun. The episode knows where it's going, manages to combine horror and humor while also taking a look at how Voyager functions, showing us the ship with fresh eyes and even including some nice character work on a usually neglected Voyager character. This is a lot in a small package but likely to be more appreciated by those who like the show to begin with than those watching just because they can't find anything better on TV. And at two-percent of the budget and without the benefit of Liam Neeson, Michael Douglas's girlfriend or a multi-million dollar FX budget, "The Haunting of Deck Twelve" manages to be a much better presentation then the actual "Haunting" movie and unlike the movie, this one comes free. More importantly it comes a lot closer to the true essence of what horror is and the psychology behind it. Horror is the dark side of imagination and imagination is the foundation of Star Trek. Haunting purges that dark side and the monster, leaving both Neelix and the crew, to appreciate the monster for what it truly is, a fascinating, amazing alien-being who is the product of human (or inhuman?) imagination.

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