Three New Voyager Reviews

Jason Bates of IGN SciFi has uploaded his review of this week's Voyager episode, 'Drive'. Jason seemed to like the episode (either that or, as he says he's just become easy to please), giving it a four out of five.

"So if I spent last week's episode complaining about how every member of the crew not named Janeway or Seven of Nine is apparently dead, then I should be reasonably happy with this Torres-Paris-centric outing, right?

Well yeah, actually I was. And that's in spite of the fact that someone uttered the dreaded R-word -- "relationship" -- and then further compounded that crime by expressing a "wish to talk about it." Those words always send a chill my spine. They make me feel like that guy in Clockwork Orange, strapped to a chair with his eyelids peeled back, forced to watch horror after horror unfold on the screen. You can almost sense Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan knocking in the window, asking to be let in.

Mercifully however the scenes between Paris and Torres were not Days of Our Lives on a starship: the writers restrained their dark urges to sententiously weep or preach; the actors managed to look the part of a long-established if seldom-actually-on-camera couple; and their lines reasonably approximated things that real people might actually say -- if real people in the midst of a lover's quarrel acted like Vulcans on Valium rather than irrational emotional beasts who occasionally kick and scream."

For the full review, drop by here at IGN SciFi.
• Our own Trek Nation reviewer, Ed Hines, has added his review of last week's episode, 'Imperfection' to our database. While, as many reviewers have commented, it was yet another Seven episode, he found it to be a touching episode that capitalized on the emotion of the characters.

  "Whether by accident or design, "Imperfection" is the fourth-consecutive No. 2 episode in a season to focus on Seven of Nine. This informal quadrilogy — which includes S4's "The Gift," S5's "Drone" and S6's "Survival Instinct" — comprises story lines that depict Seven in some kind of emotional crisis. In "The Gift," it is the shock of being separated from the Borg Collective. In "Drone," she is overcome with grief at the death of the futuristic Borg drone named One. In "Survival Instinct," Seven feels remorse for having condemned three former drones to death because of actions she took several years earlier.

  "Imperfection" depicts Seven confronting her own mortality and the regret she feels not only for herself, but also for Janeway. It seems strange — particularly after her jolted emotional awareness in "Unimatrix Zero" — to see Seven still denying her emotions in the real world, even after three years as an individual. Nevertheless, "Imperfection" is a touching episode that capitalizes on the vibrant emotional interplay not only between Janeway and Seven, but also between Seven and Icheb. Actor Manu Intiraymi has an undeniably moving quality that infuses Icheb with vibrancy too powerful to ignore. Thankfully, he survives not only the "general housecleaning" that saw the abrupt exit of his fellow Borg youngsters, but also what could have been the expected, hackneyed denouement resulting in his death."

  Check out Ed's full review at Trek Nation.

• Finally, SF Site reviewer Rick Norwood has had a look at the season premiere, 'Unimatrix Zero II'. He was disappointed with the episode, commenting in particular on the re-used footage in the episode.

  "It is still Star Trek, which means it is more complex, more intelligent, and has more interesting characters than any other SF on TV (now that B5 is gone).

  That said, the season premiere has all the usual faults: not enough plot, not enough action, flat or forced characterization. To which I add a new complaint: obviously reused special effects. That same Borg cube is moving in the same way across the background of the Borg Queen's Hive on at least two separate occasions.

  I'm a big fan of Disney animation, but there was a period between Walt's death and The Little Mermaid where the studio really began to cut corners. One way they cut corners was to reuse the same animation. (Watch the snake in The Jungle Book, for example.) Evidently filmmakers think audiences won't notice reused footage. This only shows how out of touch with their audience they are. The human eye is very sensitive to repetition, and reused footage always strikes a false note."

  For the full review, click here to be whisked away to SF Site.

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