Retro Review: Elogium
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I find this episode embarrassingly bad.
Rewatching it is like a time trip back to the period talk at school in year 5.
Rewatching it is like a time trip back to the period talk at school in year 5.
The review entirely skips over the relationship between Neelix and Kes. A relationship that has already shown itself to be a little dodgy to say the least. I've never liked this episode and specifically, it's because of what we learn about this couple.
I know people disagree but I'm sorry, you do not use the words "I want you to mate with me" if you're already in a sexual relationship. You just don't. And Neelix saying he is "honoured" is even more telling (and creepy). This relationship is all kinds of wrong and does nothing but damage both characters. This episode simply highlights that for me.
The one thing I did like in Elogium was the discussion about crew getting together and this being a unique situation. I really hoped they meant it.
Sadly, that was the last we heard or saw of crew actually pairing off. Tom and B'Elanna and that was pretty much it. One of the things I've always disliked about the show is how they present it as just another conventional starship on a mission in space. It wasn't that and relationships and kids should have be a bigger part of the journey.
I know people disagree but I'm sorry, you do not use the words "I want you to mate with me" if you're already in a sexual relationship. You just don't. And Neelix saying he is "honoured" is even more telling (and creepy). This relationship is all kinds of wrong and does nothing but damage both characters. This episode simply highlights that for me.
The one thing I did like in Elogium was the discussion about crew getting together and this being a unique situation. I really hoped they meant it.
Sadly, that was the last we heard or saw of crew actually pairing off. Tom and B'Elanna and that was pretty much it. One of the things I've always disliked about the show is how they present it as just another conventional starship on a mission in space. It wasn't that and relationships and kids should have be a bigger part of the journey.
I vaguely remember (don't know the episode) a scene of Tom and Seven walking down a hall to be met by a man and woman running in the other direction. Seven mentioned that they were 'frequently late'. I assumed they were a couple.
But apart from that and the couple making out in the turbo lift there wasn't a lot going on that the viewer knew about.
Part of that might have been the network and the family friendly ideal of US Prime time viewing. Can't turn Voyager into the Love Boat. In my head canon in the first few months there was probably shock to begin with with only people like Paris thinking ahead to who the best 'choices' were. I can imagine a period of time similar to high school where people started to get together, there were break ups, drama, heartbreaks and all sorts of goings on until things stabilized into a more mature atmosphere. People either made a choice and stuck with it like P/T or they went through times of serial monogamy (I suppose Kes and Neelix would be the best example of this). There were probably some like Tuvok who decided to hold onto hope that they would eventually be reunited with their partner back home. He would phrase it differently of course.
Getting back to the episode I thought it was just...strange. It was all' Let's go crazy and see what strange things the writers can come up when they tell the story of an alien's love life and reproduction'. Left me feeling more confused than anything else. I didn't mind the sub plot about the space creatures. I did like Tuvok's line 'It appears we have lost our sex appeal'.
It does make me wonder about the episode 'Before and After' (assuming the viewer accepts that it really happened, just in an alternate future). Tom Paris, knowing what we know about him, would be willing to wait until she went through the Elogium? And then just once? I suppose anything is possible....
This is one of the few episodes with Kes as one of the main characters which doesn't work for me. Kes is funny to watch when she eats beetles and freaks out but the story itself leads nowhere. There are also some total crazy things in this story, such as: Ocampa can have only one child per lifetime, Ocampa females freak out and eat beetles, they got sticky fingers, have to have sex for a couple of days (or hours, or whatever it was) and before that one of the woman's parents must massage her feet until her tongue swells!
And they deliver their child from the back!
Talk about ruining a species. Sometimes I wonder if the "writers" were on something when they came up with that rubbish.
I'll give it 1 point out of 5
And they deliver their child from the back!
Talk about ruining a species. Sometimes I wonder if the "writers" were on something when they came up with that rubbish.
I'll give it 1 point out of 5
I completely agree. I will never forget that long interview with Ron D. Moore after his very brief stint as a writer for the show (after DS9 ended), in which he articulated all sorts of ideas of what the show should really be about. And the 'life on a lost ship' aspect was part of that. There is simply no way the ship would still be so impeccably clean and in mint condition. And there is simply no way the social structure of a starship wouldn't mutate dramatically into something more complicated and messy. Elogium gives us just a glimpse of 'what could have been.'
They had a great premise, and then chickened out on it only a few episodes in. GAh! Gets me riled up every time I think about it! lol
Ha! I actually like this episode (mostly), but I totally agree about it feeling like the period talk. Especially Janeway's line about "Humans go through the same thing. It's called puberty." That line made me feel like I was watching a cheesy after school special!
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