Ed Hines Reviews 'Fury'

Over at the Trek Nation, Ed Hines has put up his review of 'Fury', over a month after his 'Muse' review. The amount of time taken for the review shows, though, as this is likely the longest review Ed has ever written, and also one of the more negative, presenting the episode with just one star. Here's a snippet from the review, in which Ed talks about the inconsistency caused by the episode:

The point, however, is the existence of foreknowledge where there was none before. This time around, Janeway, Tuvok and Young Kes will end their second month in the Delta Quadrant knowing that three years later, an older Kes will leave Voyager and return three years hence to seek vengeance. Armed with this information, the new Voyager time line should evolve significantly differently.

Think about it. If you're Janeway, wouldn't you regard Kes a little more warily from now on? Might you even consider putting her off the ship at the first sign of trouble (maybe even after "Elogium")? If you're Tuvok, wouldn't you be likely to consider Kes a possible security risk? Wouldn't you be tempted to restrict her movements or at least have her monitored? How might Kes-centered episodes like "Elogium," "Cold Fire," "Warlord" and "Before and After" have evolved differently? The big question, of course, has to do with her telepathic and telekinetic abilities. If you're Tuvok instructing Kes, wouldn't such unknown quantities make you want to curtail their development as much as possible?

How about Young Kes herself? Surely there's more to her story than simply recording that holomessage. Isn't it possible that she would begin to regard her budding abilities as dangerous, both to herself and her friends on Voyager? Would she agree to curtailing their development? Would she have pursued their development at all? If yes, then might she have elected to stay with Tanis and the other advanced Ocampa? If no, then would Species 8472 have succeeded in destroying Voyager in the "Scorpion" two-part episode? Barring that catastrophe, wouldn't Seven of Nine have died in "The Gift" for lack of Kes's advanced ability to "see" into her head and "dissolve" an offending bioimplant?

As you can see, the new "Fury" time line erroneously does not account for the possibilities and character reactions that come from the presence of foreknowledge. Young Kes simply records the holomessage and then she, Janeway and Tuvok conveniently "forget" the matter (as is so common in VGR), the new time line "resets" itself as the old one and events proceed as they did until Old Kes's malevolent appearance.

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