Three New Voyager Reviews

O. Deus of TrekWeb.com has posted his review of 'Repression', yesterday's Voyager episode. He was not particularly happy with the episode.

From a charming beginning featuring Paris and Torres trying to watch 3D movies on the holodeck to the early investigation, Repression manages to generate a certain paranoid resonance by drawing out the mystery so that it actually seems intriguing. Voyager has never had a really good detective story, despite several lackluster attempts, and for the first twenty minutes Repression seems almost ready to provide one. The Maquis in the Delta Quadrant may not be the most compelling subject matter but the notion of buried tensions on board Voyager or some deep dark secrets in the Maquis past had plenty of potential for a good story. However once Repression begins to veer away from the actual mystery and towards yet another "Tuvok InnerConflict Story(TM)", it becomes doomed to feature scenes of Tuvok desperately scrabbling at his face as if he is trying to dig his brain out with his fingernails. Twenty minutes of Tim Russ staggering about in a frenzy, twitching his face as if there are ants under his skin and wandering around with a glazed psychotic expression might be entertaining at a Halloween party but closeup shots of Tuvok's frenzied expression don't make good dinner entertainment and contrary to what Russ and the director may have thought, they make really poor drama.

For the full review, click here.
• The second Voyager review today comes courtesy of our own Ed Hines at Trek Nation, who found last week's episode, 'Drive' to be pretty ok.

  After a string of episodes (extending back into S6) detailing much doom-and-gloom, "Drive" at last provides VGR with a chance to kick back and soften its usually serious face. Still a mystery, however, is the reason why the producers decided to show "Drive" after last week's "Imperfection." The production numbers (given on startrek.com) indicate that "Imperfection" was filmed first (No. 248, while "Drive" is No. 249). Clearly, however, the new Delta Flyer (bereft of a distinguishing "A" or "2") is just being flight-tested in "Drive," and Paris and Torres are not yet married. In "Imperfection," Janeway used the apparently flight-ready Delta Flyer on an almost two-week journey round-trip to the Borg debris field, and Paris was shown wearing his wedding band in Sickbay. Occasionally, episodes are filmed out of sequence to conform to various production issues, but later shown in their correct order. It seems, however, that someone may have dropped the ball in determining the proper airdates for "Drive" and "Imperfection."

  For the full review, of course, click here to get to Trek Nation.

• Finally, review number three, which is the second 'Drive' review for the day, is by Jeff Bond of the Tube Reviews. He wasn't quite as pleased by the episode, finding Paris and Torres' problems too light-weight to be taken seriously.

  Lovers of schmaltz get not one but two romances in "Drive," as Paris and Torres attempt to sort out their relationship and Harry Kim gets a crush on alien pilot Irina (Cyia Batten). Garrett Wong's performance as Harry Kim–well, I wish him all the best and hope he's invested his VOYAGER salary wisely. Wong just can't deliver a line convincingly unless it's idle patter (he's got that down). Check out his blurting of the line "What the HELL is going on here?!?" if you doubt me. Oddly, again it's Janeway who comes off best in this episode. Kate Mulgrew's performance has just the right light comic tone for the piece (compare this to Ethan Phillips' continually annoying Neelix–he's a good actor trapped in an insultingly juvenile role). As for the long-awaited resolution of Paris and Torres' "relationship," you'll have to forgive me for just not caring. Tom Paris was actually an interesting character during VOYAGER's first few seasons, a guy who seemed to be blowing off his immense self-image problems by throwing all his energy into hobbies and jokes. Since he seemingly solved all of his emotional problems, he is now defined entirely by his hobbies and so comes off as an infuriatingly lightweight character even though Robert Patrick MacNeill has more than enough acting chops to carry the day.

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  Find more episode info in the Episode Guide.