"Worst Case Scenario" is my latest VOY rev-visit and I'm doing a total 180 on my previous opinion that making it a late season 3 entry as a holodeck fantasy should have been "real life" season 1 or 2 instead.
The holodeck fantasy structure, as told by Tuvok, is a fairly brilliant way to justify this scenario given how comparatively late in the series it was. It also opens opportunities to discuss how interactive stories can be written and this material is very deftly handled, without alienating or insulting the viewer in the process.
I adore how Tuvok is told to lighten up and not taking the program seriously since 2 years had passed and they're on better terms.
Neelix also gets to chime in since Tuvok wrote his holo-character at odds with his other claim of keeping character continuity.
Janeway bringing up dues ex machina at the end not being outdated had my in stitches. But I'm getting ahead of myself.
The episode is sprinked with numerous quips, like the aforementioned fourth wall bits, and others, which given their tactful use alone make this a robust "A" grade. This is humor done right. Works with the plot and maintains a balance. This truly is a fantastic script, one of all of Trek's finest.
That said, there are some plot contrivances, especially after 31:30, to facilitate the change in tone in the script. These gave me ambivalence since they seem to now be trying too hard to get the story wrapped up in its remaining 15 minutes. At the same time, there's almost a vibe that this plot twist falls perfectly into the story's narrative themes and may, intentionally or otherwise, be written for the precise reason of getting the audience to think outside the box* - something I hadn't fathomed before but if they were it only sweetens the end result that much more.
Okay, by 39:00 or so, the conveniences really start to pile up and the episode starts to derail, albeit surprisingly only slightly. We have seen the holodeck be able to control real ship functions before**, but surely there would be anti-malware safeguards to prevent what Seska conjured up before she was killed in season 2. (It's lovely to see the Martha Hackett back, who is clearly relishing this script along with everyone else. And just about stealing the show in the process.)
Something harder to justify is Janeway and co being able to reprogram something as complex as a hologram character in such a small span of time. Does the program have a user-friendly UX front-end with a bunch of giant Fischer-Price style buttons to set parameters on the fly, or is it more like C++ or Python where they have to dig through a zillion lines of code? If it's the former, they're not really programming in any conventional if not actual sense. Or rather, "high level UX button pressing != low level programming".
But back to what works unequivocally well:
Kudos to the EMH scene, which was icing on the cake in this episode. Like Beltran, Picardo was having a field day with this script and it's way too easy to see why.
Also, the Maquis' sartorial taste in action is so nice to see again.
In the end, the first 67% of the episode is absolutely bullteproof and fantastic; the script's handling and giveaway of the holodeck allows it to explore more of Tuvok's quaint little controversial program, which also leads to an incredible reveal and reason as to why Tuvok hadn't finished it. The story's plot twist and denouement for the remaining 33% gave me ambivalence over its leading to a few rushed conveniences***, but at the same time it could easily be as a clever 4th wall break as other moments in the story****, and this story is clever in so many other ways that it's a very likely probability, probably...
Lastly, who else wanted to see Neelix induce torture with a hot frying pan as Paris was getting worried about? Ethan Philips had shown he's a whiz with doing villainous acting in "Menage a Troi" from TNG season 3, but time was a constraint so we got exposition instead of another chance for Ethan to sock it to the audience with a tour de force moment.
Rating: A/A+ cusp.
* the glass CRT with 4:3 aspect ratio and requiring "bunny ears" antennas to pick up channels 14 and higher. As anyone with an Atari or Nintendo knows, keep the RF channel set to VHS channel 3 or 4, noting there is no region in the US where both channels are used. That said, thank goodness for composite video... See appendix 8675309 for more on this, as I digressed...
** like an auxiliary control room of sorts in case the main bridge is blown to bits when one of the Duras family flies by with full disruptors at the ready, aimed at Will... there I go digressing again
*** could this have been even better as a 2-part story, fleshing out more details for the initial ruse, revelation, then Seska's revenge story really kicking in. The story is clearly strong enough to make use of an extra 45 minutes without boring the viewer or padding up the story in the process.
**** Biller's script clearly is working on multiple levels, even metatextual***** ones
***** And yes, I'm somewhat fatigued of these footnote placeholder asterisks gone wild too
The holodeck fantasy structure, as told by Tuvok, is a fairly brilliant way to justify this scenario given how comparatively late in the series it was. It also opens opportunities to discuss how interactive stories can be written and this material is very deftly handled, without alienating or insulting the viewer in the process.
I adore how Tuvok is told to lighten up and not taking the program seriously since 2 years had passed and they're on better terms.
Neelix also gets to chime in since Tuvok wrote his holo-character at odds with his other claim of keeping character continuity.
Janeway bringing up dues ex machina at the end not being outdated had my in stitches. But I'm getting ahead of myself.
The episode is sprinked with numerous quips, like the aforementioned fourth wall bits, and others, which given their tactful use alone make this a robust "A" grade. This is humor done right. Works with the plot and maintains a balance. This truly is a fantastic script, one of all of Trek's finest.
That said, there are some plot contrivances, especially after 31:30, to facilitate the change in tone in the script. These gave me ambivalence since they seem to now be trying too hard to get the story wrapped up in its remaining 15 minutes. At the same time, there's almost a vibe that this plot twist falls perfectly into the story's narrative themes and may, intentionally or otherwise, be written for the precise reason of getting the audience to think outside the box* - something I hadn't fathomed before but if they were it only sweetens the end result that much more.
Okay, by 39:00 or so, the conveniences really start to pile up and the episode starts to derail, albeit surprisingly only slightly. We have seen the holodeck be able to control real ship functions before**, but surely there would be anti-malware safeguards to prevent what Seska conjured up before she was killed in season 2. (It's lovely to see the Martha Hackett back, who is clearly relishing this script along with everyone else. And just about stealing the show in the process.)
Something harder to justify is Janeway and co being able to reprogram something as complex as a hologram character in such a small span of time. Does the program have a user-friendly UX front-end with a bunch of giant Fischer-Price style buttons to set parameters on the fly, or is it more like C++ or Python where they have to dig through a zillion lines of code? If it's the former, they're not really programming in any conventional if not actual sense. Or rather, "high level UX button pressing != low level programming".
But back to what works unequivocally well:
Kudos to the EMH scene, which was icing on the cake in this episode. Like Beltran, Picardo was having a field day with this script and it's way too easy to see why.
Also, the Maquis' sartorial taste in action is so nice to see again.
In the end, the first 67% of the episode is absolutely bullteproof and fantastic; the script's handling and giveaway of the holodeck allows it to explore more of Tuvok's quaint little controversial program, which also leads to an incredible reveal and reason as to why Tuvok hadn't finished it. The story's plot twist and denouement for the remaining 33% gave me ambivalence over its leading to a few rushed conveniences***, but at the same time it could easily be as a clever 4th wall break as other moments in the story****, and this story is clever in so many other ways that it's a very likely probability, probably...
Lastly, who else wanted to see Neelix induce torture with a hot frying pan as Paris was getting worried about? Ethan Philips had shown he's a whiz with doing villainous acting in "Menage a Troi" from TNG season 3, but time was a constraint so we got exposition instead of another chance for Ethan to sock it to the audience with a tour de force moment.
Rating: A/A+ cusp.
* the glass CRT with 4:3 aspect ratio and requiring "bunny ears" antennas to pick up channels 14 and higher. As anyone with an Atari or Nintendo knows, keep the RF channel set to VHS channel 3 or 4, noting there is no region in the US where both channels are used. That said, thank goodness for composite video... See appendix 8675309 for more on this, as I digressed...
** like an auxiliary control room of sorts in case the main bridge is blown to bits when one of the Duras family flies by with full disruptors at the ready, aimed at Will... there I go digressing again
*** could this have been even better as a 2-part story, fleshing out more details for the initial ruse, revelation, then Seska's revenge story really kicking in. The story is clearly strong enough to make use of an extra 45 minutes without boring the viewer or padding up the story in the process.
**** Biller's script clearly is working on multiple levels, even metatextual***** ones
***** And yes, I'm somewhat fatigued of these footnote placeholder asterisks gone wild too
