'Bleak and Sad from the Get-Go' (The Delta Flyers, s1 e15)

Let's have another quick look at a Voyager episode I more or less skipped during my watchthrough as a result of my grudge (since overcome) against this guy:

Ethan Phillips as Neelix.

When I first saw this one I wrote: "This episode is probably pretty good; it's not them it's me. I'm not the guy to properly evaluate this - I just can't with this guy." 

Am I the proper guy to evaluate it now? Probably still no. But I'm a fan of Neelix now, so I feel a mild obligation to re-visit all those episodes I unfairly maligned previously. And it gives me an excuse to dig up the “Jetrel” episode of The Delta Flyers and see what Robbie and Garrett had to say about it all.

(A side-note: my Monday morning tradition is to listen to the new Delta Flyers episode. This morning’s - I started working on this Monday morning - was “Tattoo” and was a hoot. I've been wanting them to get Picardo on the show and they finally did via phone.)

Anyway, back to today's revisit. The plot:

Jetrel, the man who invented the Metreon Cascade, a deadly weapon which destroyed Neelix's home on the Talaxian moon Rinax during the war between Neelix's and Jetrel's people, comes aboard Voyager claiming to seek test subjects for a treatment to a disease caused by exposure to the Cascade. It is, however, a ruse. He wants to use Voyager's transporter technology to try and rematerialize the disassociated remains of the victims of the Cascade. The experiment fails, and Neelix forgives a dying Jetrel.

Well. It's not a terrible episode, but it's still not a favorite. Ethan Phillips does some good bits here and there, and the reveal at episode's end about his own misrepresentations/ guilt is a worthy twist. But, as RDM notes (I pulled one of his quips for the title of this post) it's all a bit one-note, and the b-story doesn't really match/ mirror the A-story. Which is like Trek 101 of the Berman era. 

He also mentions another Drama 101 sort of moment when he notes how the episode deprives the audience of the "full meal" of the monomyth/ hero's journey. Most stories utilize this structure; it's what an "arc" is. (May I interject here and say I really like RDM's thoughts on drama in general? I find his insights into the biz and drama to be consistently worth listening to.) What this episode lacks is both dramaturgical story structure - something I bet even the most passive viewer recognizes as missing without even knowing the terms of the workflow - and utilization of the camera. 

The ending (again this is all riffing on RDM's comments from the episode) is a good example. Neelix's hero's journey is complete. His inner shame has been revealed, his fury re-negotiated, he's a new man, forgiven. Yet the camera stays on the guest (Jetrel) while Neelix returns and leaves. What? It's Neelix's journey, not Jetrel's! Well, it's both, but Neelix is the hero of the stroy, not to mention (duh) the actual cast member. The camera should be on him and used to show the "flip" in Neelix's journey. RDM relays something Rick Berman told him: it's motion pictures, not still life. The screen should capture movement, and the movement should tell the story. The camera is a narrator.

All this sort of talk really blows my skirt up. I like this kind of stuff a lot. Listening to artists and writers talk about the mechanics and symbolism of storytelling always fascinates me, as does anything through a sort of Joseph Campbell/monomyth lens. 

Speaking of Rick Berman, Garrett mentions here how Jetrel (James Sloyan) is basically doing a Berman impersonation throughout, either intentionally or accidentally. Interesting. 

And speaking of Sloyan, this is now my third opportunity to say "Oh hey, James Sloyan, I like that guy." He does good work everywhere he appears. Sure, like some asshole, I called him "Jason Sloyan" in my original write-up of "Jetrel" but let's not let that retcon my sincere appreciation for the actor's work, on Trek and elsewhere. 

Couple of notes from my re-watch:

- In the pre-credits sequence Tuvok refers to logic when planning his billiards shot. Is it really logic that dictates the geometry of billiards? It's logical to assume a controlled force plus trajectory/ angle will result in the desired outcome, sure, but the way he puts it is slightly... well, illogical.

- Jetrel is supposed to be Oppenheimer, I guess. I'm not sure if it's mentioned whether the Talaxians had a similar "Manhattan Project" brewing. Not that it needs to be an exact one-to-one; I mean, a sci-fi spin on a real-world moral quandary is pretty much why we're here. No problem with that, but it adds to rather subtracts from the one-note-ness. 

- Along those lines, if you want to tell this kind of story but have no intention of rising to the level of Rush's "Manhattan Project," just skip it. Make that the bar to clear, whatever your intention.

- I had as one of my notes that Ethan Phillips plays this one a little too angrily for me, but then it makes sense in the end. He's filled with shame and disgust with himself as well as trauma and rage, etc. The choice makes sense as an actor. He does some stuff with just his eyes and mouth that impressed me. Sounds kinda wrong.

- Another note that I had to change due to plot events: “I mean how many Talaxians are left for this cure to work on?” Not many, right? Jetrel's cover story is kind of flimsy. I guess he's relying on Neelix to be distracted by his own emotions. (Correctly, as it turns out.) 

- I still don’t quite get Neelix/ Kes. I was glad they talked a little about this in another episode of The Delta Flyers, but it's implied that their relationship is never consummated. So in what sense are they a couple? It's perfectly fine to have a non-sexual relationship, of course, but their dancing around certain things is confusing. Especially given her age and that whole Kes-mating-cycle episode. 

- The big monologue of horrors in the big scene between Neelix and Jetrel is the kind of thing that looks good on paper but is just too much when actually done. These sorts of things - when a character delivers the "I still smell the charred bodies..." sort of script, with slow zoom and appropriate keyboard tones - never work. 

In the comments section of my original review aforelinked, Bryant Burnette wrote something worth quoting here: "This is a good example of the series taking advantage of the conceits which are particular to it. The whole thing only works if transporter technology is unknown to the races who are involved; so it couldn't have been done on TNG unless the role of Neelix was filled out by a guest star; and then, it loses a lot of its impact. DS9 could get closer, thanks to the wormhole, but it's still got the same problem. So good on ya, Voyager! This was an example of you being quintessentially you."

Good point. And this would be an excellent list to make for Voyager: episodes that could only work in the Delta Quadrant.

I bet it would be unfortunately brief. I love Voyager, but I do wish some of its Delta-Quadrant-ness had been isolated and augmented in the mix more. 

In closing: voted dead last in my initial rankings, I'd probably move it up into the top ten now, maybe just below "Phage." 

'Look Dejected and Go to the Weed Patch' (The Delta Flyers, s2, e7)

I’ve been enjoying The Delta Flyers, the podcast Garret Wang and Robert Duncan MacNeill have been updating faithfully week-after-week for the past five months. Which on one hand is not surprising: they both certainly seem like affable company from the characters they played on Voyager, or intelligent guys from interviews over the years. But it’s not always a given that an actor will be good company in other contexts, particularly when the subject is his or her work, or a franchise to which he or she is attached, so it’s always a relief when it happens. 

Here they are both pleasant hosts and their insights into Trek, Trek Inc., storytelling, the biz, and the craft are all modestly and cogently delivered. I’m just glad they haven’t gotten sick of doing it.

This past week’s episode was devoted to: 

the seventh episode of Voyager’s second season, written by Thomas E. Szollosi and directed by Mr. Jonathan Frakes. Neelix is working out his jealousy of Tom; Tom’s working out his feelings for Kes. They crash-land on an away mission and discover a newborn dinosaur-bird-looking-thing, which activates a mutual instinct to keep it alive. Which they do until its parent returns (looking like one of the Cenobites) and, now friends, beam back to Voyager.

Ethan Phillips is a guest on the episode and is great fun. His chemistry with the guys is effortless, like they're just picking up what they were doing twenty years ago without missing a beat. The anecdotes from both the Voyager days and any back-in-the-day days are always fun on this podcast, but Ethan had some great ones. He revealed that the very first direction he ever received as an actor was “Look dejected and go to the weed patch.” This prompted McNeill to say something like it was inspiration that as an actor he never forgot and Ethan deadpans “(slight pause) I took it to heart.” I don't do it justice, it's a wonderful little bit. Still laughing about it, and my brain has filed it for something or other down the line.

Lots of great moments like that. I hope they get everyone from the cast sooner or later. Beltran's been on and I think they had a recurring guest star (apologies for no link - tough to quickly google this info) but I hope they reach out to Braga, Berman, Jeri Taylor, everyone.

Their reverie on the episode, too, made me wonder where it landed in my own rankings of season two and so I looked it up:

“I don't recall too much about this one besides being annoyed to discover I'd be spending my lunch hour with Neelix's goddamn jealousy issues. I did grade it, though, which is how I know where to place it in the countdown.”

Oh. That's right, I was unfortunately dismissive of Neelix until I don’t know, season six or so of my Voyager watch-through and there are plenty of snarky comments like that one. I feel bad about that now. This is the eternal peril of committing your snark-ass opinions to print ("print"). What do you do when you change your mind on something down the line? By the time I finally softened enough on the character to start to admire various things Ethan Phillips was doing I was practically done with the show. 

This slight will not stand, and so I plan to blog up those Neelix-centric episodes to which I previously gave short shrift. They'll all show up in this space sometime over the next few months. 

I figured I’d start with this one, since I enjoyed listening to them talk about it.

I like the general idea of two men overcoming their more violent impulses by mutually nurturing an alien infant. It’s not played for laughs or drama, and of course it all takes place between the forty-odd minute grid of episodic TV, but it all comes across warmly. A shuttlecraft hits the same kind of Berman-era storm and two characters working out some issues take refuge in a Berman-era cave. Like the one with Geordi and the Romulan, but with a dinosaur baby, and with more at stake as it's two principal cast members and not just one. I think it's McNeill who mentions during the podcast how Jonathan Frakes loves actors, so he's very attentive to things actor like to do or may need or want to avoid, etc. This is not a quality always present in a director, particularly the directors of episodic television. (So I'm told)

The performances flesh out the spirit of the title (which could be interpreted as "calving," which is kind of gross to us non-farm kids) quite well. They give birth to their friendship. And from here on out in the series Paris and Neelix are friends. So that’s nice. It's a little cheesy, I guess, but everyone involved does a good job. 

Much of the dialogue over the alien infant puzzled me though. Are reptiles really the same, planet to planet, quadrant to quadrant? Paris objects at one point to the idea of a cordazine shot. Fair enough but he says “We can’t pump it full of drugs without knowing its body chemistry.” Well – they have a working tricorder, so… they certainly do know its body chemistry. They don't know its drug interactions, sure, but that's different. I get that the alien is probably not in the database and all, but they already established some other baseline-terran-based-reptile stuff. This isn't just medical-tricorder-inconsistencies, though, here’s what I’m getting at: it’d have both added drama and seemed more Trekky to me had they gone with the cordrazine and then they had the added dramatic complication of a side effect and guilt.

Also: they lose a shuttlecraft. It's become something of a cliché to mention re: Voyager but one can't help but remark on it. Harry's talking about saving up replicator rations to make a clarinet at the beginning FFS but the ship cranks out replacement shuttlecraft on demand. I guess that's an appropriate hierarchy of demand; you wouldn't want to serve on a ship where that situation was reversed. 

I ranked it twenty-second out of twenty-six in my season two overview. I think I like it more than that on a second viewing. Let the record be corrected to reflect it is now my nineteenth or twentieth favorite episode of season two. 

Alert the media and inform the crew!