Season 2: Twisted. Another reason Voyager outshines other shows

I watched this episode where Voyager gets into one of those weird anomalies that turn up on every Trek show. This one turns the ship into an ever changing maze and no one can get to the bridge or engineering.
Now we've seen this kind of situation before. A starship enveloped by something weird with time running out. But this time it gets the Voyager twist.
The story begins on the holodeck during Kes' birthday party. The Doctor is playing bartender and fending off the amorous attention of the holographic bar owner. Tom Paris gives Kes a locket, a gesture that would be sweet if he wasn't such a cad. Neelix gets jealous.
Tuvok calls the holodeck from the bridge and tells them they've encountered a spacial anomaly or something. People leave the holodeck to go to their stations...but they can't get to their destinations. They all end up lost. The Doctor can't even transfer himself to sickbay without ending up back on the holodeck.
Once it becomes obvious that Voyager is in another fine mess, Janeway is struck unconscious and tensions between Tuvok and Chakotay surface about the best course of action.
Lot's of great character moments in this episode.
And when things look their worst, and the crew begins to admit they can't win this one, you see something you never see in any other Star Trek series: a crew that really bonds and admits that they truly value each others friendships...and mean it.
Again, the more I watch of Voyager the more I can't help but see that it was really the best of Star Trek.

 

My reactions to this rather bold statement range from "uh-huh" to "well - now - but" to "it had its moments".

But I have to admit, Twisted is a very lovely character-driven anomaly story. Credit where credit is due.

The only thing that always bothered me is how the anomaly seemed to realize where one room ended and the next one began. Everything was still neatly separated. The ship should have been way more twisted, with rooms being weird amalgamations of bridge/transporter room/main engineering.

 

It didn't bother me as much as the one from TNG where Ro and Geordi were out of phase with the universe, passing through everyone and everything, but still able to walk on the floor and ride turbolifts.

 

I guess this is where the viewer is asked to suspend [even more] disbelief in favor of the larger story being told.

I loved "Twisted" - I'd forgotten how great the interplay between Chakotay and Tuvok was when it came time to make decisions. It was still early on in the series when the shock of Tuvok's "betrayal" of Chakotay was new, as well as the shock of Chakotay being made first office over Tuvok. It made for a awesome tension.

 

I very much agree here. I always found this one WAY more interesting than any other similar episodes on the other Trek series.

However, I have found multiple times when reading reviews and/or simple fan reactions to this episode that many DO NOT like the episode. And why? Because of the conclusion of the episode - wherein Tuvok announces that perhaps the most logical course of action is to "do nothing". And the crew simply has to go along with it, and it turns out to be their only escape. No Janeway suddenly finding her mojo again to save the day; no magical "it's a long shot but it just might work" plan concocted by B'elanna and Harry. They simply have to wait.

For some strange reason, a lot of fans seem offended by this.

I think that's the inevitable result of a franchise that implicitly assumes that these smart people, these super scientifically knowledgeable, "evolved" modern ppl can overcome anything that life or the whole entirety of the eminently vast universe throws at them with the proper adaptation, analysis, and resourcefulness. I like that Twisted does something, throughout it's entire episode in fact, to show us that is clearly not always not the case, and in the process managed to squeeze out some very good characterization.

3 1/2 stars.

 

They should have suffocated immediately because they were out of phase with the air as well. Or explode because they were lacking any kind of air or other external pressure. Then they (or pieces of them) just would've hung there until the Enterprise moved away from under their dead asses (or is that pieces of asses?). Depressing - yes, gross - to be sure, but scientifically proper!

 

That's really too bad. Any people who are out in space and confronted with real dangers could conceivably find themselves in a situation like this. The Voyager crew tries their best all through the episode.
But any human being would probably wonder if the last three minutes of the ticking clock would be better spent preparing for what might be about to happen. It's a very real moment. People on airplanes when they are about to crash go through that moment. And the passengers of the Titanic.
There is a point where, having used every scientific instrument and device to get out of a hole without results, you must realize that it is out of your hands.
But the fans who hate Voyager for stuff like this are not interested in such realistic moments. Their loss.

 

I found this episode very silly and weak with a thoroughly unconvicing antagonist, I kinda liked the holodeck bar and a few character moments, but is this episode a patch on TNG's "Disaster" in terms of ship crew in peril on their own vessel? No. Or is it as panic inducing and claustrophobic as VOY's "Projections"? No again.

Sorry, not a fan.

 

I thought this was one of the worst episodes of Voyager, that I've seen, it was better than "Threshold" but I can at least watch that again.

 

But Neelix came off as a jealous stalker, it was fricking hilarious!

Watching him try to figure who Kes wants and who wants Kes.

 

Yes, this episode seems to get irrational hatred. The episode quality is mediocre, but the idea of a twisted, distorted ship is neat.

That was one of Voyager's strengths. They tried out weird ideas. We got subspace sinkholes, subspace sandbars, Voyager suckered into a giant space beast that eats starships (wonder what other space creatures it ate before interstellar travel became common), giant nebulae the crew needs to go into stasis through, a true waterworld, 2 kinds of voids, that planet that was a graveyard for mummified bodies passed through portals, a ship constantly mending the weave of history, that duplication field that created a 2nd Voyager, and that ellipsoid that gathered junk from all over the galaxy.

What TNG encountered seemed more conventional usually than what Voyager did. They really seemed to embrace the idea of an exotic frontier. Sometimes you get transwarp salamanders, distortion rings, chaotic space AKA galactic heavyweight boxing, hyperevolved dinosaurs, and impostor/mimic Voyagers out of it, but hey, it made things interesting. And we also got slipstream, catapults, a space elevator (hadn't really been used in tv sci-fi before), and a detailed look at transwarp and other things like those macroviruses, and with the crew by stranding them on a prehistoric planet, brainwashing the entire crew. Would they have done that with TNG?

Picard: "Number One! Try to reason with that pack of velociraptors. I will try and negotiate with the local primitive tribe. Oh, and take Worf and 4 security officers with you. I expect only you and Worf to return with superficial injuries, fake blood, and harrowing tales of what happened to the goldshirts".

 

This episode is amazing to watch drunk.

That said, while the A plot is sort of silly, a recent re-watch really made me appreciate the character moments (particularly the Chakotay/Tuvok sparring) that a lot of people here have mentioned.

EDIT: An episode about Riker reasoning with a bunch of velociraptors would be incredible.

 

This kind of baffles me. How many "anomalies," "energy being," and "unexplained readings" do ALL of the Trek shows have.
99 percent of the Trek antagonists really could be dismissed as unconvincing. I think what it comes down to for some people is, "I just like this show less because it doesn't have.....Kirk, Picard, my favorite character with testicles in it."

 

I think there's a difference between unconvincing and unrealistic.

 

It wasn't even an "antagonist". It wasn't trying to hurt them or anything, it was an explorer like them and it even gave them stuff in return for any troubles it caused.

My only problem with this episode is that they never followed up on the "it's given us a ton of information" ending.

 

They never talk about the nature of said information, though. It could have been spam.

12,000,000,000 e-mails with the subject line "Impress Her fast With Your new Larger Size!"

 

LOL!



(And yes, I love this episode. It's so much fun to watch. :] )

 

That's probably it.

 

But with no Ferengi aboard.......

Wait, were you referring to lobes?

 

How typical it would be to go through all of the twisting and have nothing but spam to show for it.

I think this is yet another episode that had a good idea as a concept that was a misfire in execution. I think the best part of the episode is watching how the crew act during their 'final' minutes. Tuvok reaches out for Janeway which is a brilliant moment. Chakotay acting all calm and rational, much to B'Elanna's disgust, is also well played.