Re: A Hater Revisits Voyager
I'm sure we can all agree that that would be much better than an episode where the ship gets stuck in a region of space and they'll all die if they don't escape, but one crewmember receives visions from some strange aliens and those visions help them to escape. That's right, I'm talking about TNG's
Night Terrors. Whoops, I meant
The Fight.
How dare you compare "Night Terrors" to "The Fight".
"The Fight" was horrible.
"Night Terrors” is a great episode. It has it all-a creepy atmosphere, great character moments and is anchored by an intriguing mystery. The episode gets off on the right note with a lost, adrift starship and great ominous, moody music.
It also boasts quite a tantalizing mystery(What went on here? What nightmare took place? Did they encounter a malevolent alien race? A space anomaly?) for the crew to solve in regards to what caused the crew of the Brattain to violently kill each other in the throes of some bizarre mental breakdown. The show was also nicely graphic with the depiction of the violence that had taken place on the Brattain.
There were tons of different elements that I really enjoyed--The officer talking to O’Brien about the old man in the old-style Starfleet uniform seen lurching in engineering(creeeeepy); the sobering realization that the crew are finding themselves in the same exact situation as the Brattain and the the same tragic fate that befell that ship is beginning to take place on the Enterprise unlike "The Fight" where there was no tension whatsoever with the crew in danger. The tension was also well-realized at the end when the bussard collectors released the hydrogen and everyone waited to see if it worked.
Picard’s story of his grandfather’s senility reinforcing the strong fear for Picard the loss of his mind which is only heightened coming off the heels of his recent assimilation and nicely foreshadows AGT and the Irumodic Syndrome is heads and shoulders above the anemic attempts at character insight with Chakotay and his grandfather. And while "Night Terrors" wasn't a primarily character-driven episode it did sprinkle in some nice moments for the entire cast amidst the crisis along with little touches such as Crusher missing her comm-badge on the first attempt because of her deteriorating condition the unsettling moment where a young ensign hears something on the Brattain and then Geordi, the more experienced senior officer, offering reassurance to him that his reaction is only normal given the horrific events that transpired on the ship or when Riker displays irritability when Picard suggests he gets some rest acts almost like a child ordered to bed by a parent--something I could definitely see coming from Riker. Then we see Worf contemplating suicide because the fear he is experiencing isn't some physical adversary he can strike down with a bat'leth. Good stuff.
The images were also much more effective such as the moment when the corpses bolt up inside the makeshift morgue. "Night Terrors" even had continuity with the nice touch of putting into use a previously attempted tactic with the deflector dish from BoBW in their attempt to break free of the Tyken's rift. And unlike a shoe-horned appearance of Boothby NT has a natural, well-placed and wonderfully done scene with everyone’s favorite enigmatic bartender pulling out her huge phaser and taking control of the situation--classic Guinan.
Another striking difference between the two episodes was the acting. I loved Patrick Stewart’s performance. Even when he does something that would be embarrassing to someone else he always seems to maintain his dignity; Troi gets to play a significant part in saving the day with Worf or the ship; the O’Briens have some good scenes.
Brent turned in another good showing with his android nature allowing him to be the crew’s one hope for survival. It was an interesting contrast to see Data unaffected while the rest of the crew looks awful.
I also liked the deadends that kept cropping up. Everytime the crew thought they were onto something(ie the Tyken’s rift) it didn’t go anywhere ultimately. I also liked there were multiple mysteries. First what was affecting the crew then what was the meaning of “Eyes in the dark. One moon circles…”—I liked how the answer was staring me in the face the whole time. Now
that is a clever subtle explanation rather than the incoherent stuff that littered "The Fight".
As is often the case with TNG’s mystery-based stories the payoff is worthy of the preceeding build-up of suspense and intrigue unlike VOY who would tease us with an intriguing mystery but fail to deliver when it came time for the big reveal. I especially loved the way the writers used the fairly original idea of REM deprivation as well as the unique idea of a distress signal where aliens use dream frequencies to communicate. And the riddle of hydrogen was brilliant. And in this one episode TNG did a better job at capturing the isolation and danger of deep space. The directing was also superior. The way it was filmed had an almost dream-like feel. The emphasis by the crew of being out of contact made it truly feel like there were two lone ships trapped in the void of cold, deep space far from any outpost, starbase or help and at the mercy of some incomprehensible & unknown force determined to insidiously destroy them. I really liked that.
The episode also demonstrated effectively how an innocent act such as an SOS can ultimately lead to a critical situation when it involves an alien lifeform. The shots of the binary stars and the way in certain scenes the light would briefly strike the lens and reflect was nice. I always enjoy seeing another ship and bridge even if it was a redress. And I liked the final scene where Data orders Picard to bed which is a much better coda than Chakotay getting ready to spar.
Those two episodes just demonstrate how TNG consistently hit the mark when it came to executing high concept/mysterious sci-fi episodes and how VOY botched them big time. I could go on with all the well done TNG stories of this type--"Cause and Effect", "Timescape", "Parallels", "Clues", "The Survivors", "Remember Me", "Disaster", "All Good Things..." and have to really think about VOY's contribution.
