A Take On, Hailing Frequencies And BBK

• Despite having no new reviews yet over at Mania this week, Michelle Erica Green has uploaded the latest edition of her weekly 'Hailing Frequencies' column. This week she looks at the UPN/Chris-Craft deal, Lineage spoilers and last week's Voyager episode, 'Shattered' (warning: the following excerpt may contain spoilers).

  I wouldn`t expect Trek to tackle a volatile issue like abortion head-on. It`s nice to see an episode that at least touches on the incredible complexities that technology won`t erase. One wonders whether the Prime Directive would prevent a doctor from forcing an expectant mother to have corrective surgery like the kind Torres has for the spinal curvature if she refused for religious reasons. Surely this has all been legislated by the 24th century, but Janeway doesn`t attempt to cite precedent, she merely backs her Doctor`s orders...and the Doctor doesn`t offer any compelling ethical debate, just insists that parents can neither know nor control what their children might become, no matter how they might try.

  Could Janeway arrest Torres for what she tries to do? Even if she`s willing to excuse the parental transgression, what about the fact that Torres performed surgery on the Doctor against his will? On the one hand, that shows a terrifying lack of respect for the individuality not only of her unborn daughter but of her fellow crewmate. On the other hand, the Doctor`s a hologram, Janeway`s already had him reprogrammed once, and the Doctor has more than once tried to impose his own ethical standards on his patients -- which, considering that he is the only doctor on board, is deeply troubling.

  To read Michelle's full thoughts, please follow this link to Fandom.com

• Secondly, SyFy World, a part of the Trek Nation, has posted the second instalment in their mini-theme 'Campaign' series. Last time, you may remember, they spoke with one of the co co-ordinators of the 'Deep Space Nine: Horizons' campaign. This week, however, they look into a campaign that wants, not a whole show back, but a single character – Kirk. To read the full, two-page article by Michael Hinman, which includes a partial interview of three of the BBK officials, Marc, Joe Beaudoin and Jason Turner, please follow this link.

• Last, but certainly not least, we'd like to welcome back Trek Nation's own Fred Shedian after taking some time off for medical reasons, and the return of his weekly 'Take on Trek' column. This week he takes a look at Voyager's latest offering, not to mention Andromeda's last episode.

  The integration of different time periods into one episode was done flawlessly. When "All Good Things" showed us the final small screen adventure of Captain Picard and crew, they had an advantage when attempting to portray different time periods. Being honest, it was a simple thing...the uniform. You could very clearly see the difference between the current uniform, the first season's setup and the futuristic version. However, on Voyager, this advantage doesn't exist outside of the first episode of the show. The writer's ability to quickly explain what time Chakotay and Janeway were in is what made this adventure work. Beyond built in suspense, it took no more than five seconds to figure out about what time period you were looking at.

  In addition to the writing abilities, I am very pleased that Robert Beltran's character was chosen to play the primary role in this episode. The character itself was not so much developed any further than it already was, however what was already there was finally shown to the audience. Years of not having much screen time, in place of another female character, were caught up during this forty minute mission. For the first time in my memory, Commander Chakotay actually assumed the role of First Officer in a fashion similar Riker on The Next Generation. I could finally see him as a legitimate XO aboard the U.S.S. Voyager, not a "temporary replacement put in due to staff shortages." Perhaps most importantly, within the confines of the Trek universe, his portrayal of events and the character's actions seemed plausible. Unlike many episodes on Voyager, Chakotay took logical steps to try and determine what was going on. He then attempted to solve the problem the best way one could imagine. Even more of a surprise was the unique ending of this episode. By quarter til, I was thinking Chakotay and Janeway would be captured by Seska who would somehow manage to return from the dead. Instead, Kate Mulgrew's character comes up with something I personally didn't see coming. Perhaps this has something to do with the limited use of Seven of Nine?

  Again, to read the rest of Fred's column, please follow this link.

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