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Retro Review: Faces

TrekToday

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The Vidiians divide Torres into separate Klingon and Human individuals, hoping that the Klingon’s DNA will provide a cure for the phage. Plot Summary: A group of Vidiians abducts Torres along with Paris and Durst while the crewmembers study magnesite formations on a mineral-rich planet. Torres wakes in a room to discover that all the […]

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This episode really freaked me out. And where was that deadly force Janeway promised? Bye-Bye, Durst. We weren't surprised. Just hoping to be wrong.
 
An idiotic episode that actually suggests that having Human and Klingon DNA is some kind of internal struggle between two different people. Is that how DNA works? Whenever I watch E.T and cry, is it because I'm losing the battle with my female self. Oh shut up!

Trek has never been very good at complexity. It's all very black & white (especially the culture of a species) and this episode only furthers that view with the idea that a mixed race species is literally two people.

Why would human B'Elanna be incapable of being strong or brave? What? Because it's a Klingon trait. Arghhhh!! Only a few minutes later, Paris (a human) demonstrates that he is capable of those very things (therefore instantly making that plot point redundant).

Then we have the science. People are so quick to mock Threshold but episodes like this one seem to go under the radar despite being equally (or more) ridiculous. If you separate a person's genetic elements, you end up with two separate self-aware personalities?

Interesting to note that Faces (one person is separated into two) and Tuvix (two people are fused into one) were both written by Kenneth Biller.

It's not an episode I enjoy at all but it does allow Dawson to show off her acting chops at least.

Bye bye Durst.
 
A great B'Elanna Torres episode.

The scenes where we have two B'Elannas are exciting and a bit scary. The Vidiians are really scary in this episode too, especially the Chief surgeon Sulan.

The plot with the separated B'Elanna is a bit over the top though. If the Vidiians are that good at medicals science, why haven't they found a cure to the phage?

And why didn't the Voyager crew bother to liberate the other prisoners? That poor Talaxian who had been there for so many years......

Not to mention that Janeway had promised to strike back with deadly force if the Vidiians threatened her crew again (The episode "Phage")

But it's a good episode. I'll give it 3 points out of 5
 
Why, oh why, did I enjoy this very episode the first few times I watched it, while I found out later how bad it really is?????
 
I shouldn't, but I do enjoy this episode.

The premise is ridiculous and I don't care for Torres but I loved the horror story element to it. The Vidiians were arguably the best species Voyager introduced. They were twisted and tragic in equal measure. The face transplant scene shocked me when I first saw it. I never expected Trek to do something so sick. I'd already been grossed out by the Vidiians in their previous appearance and didn't think anything would top the sight of them. I was wrong. Poor Durst.

I agree splitting Torres into two people was absurd but I much preferred the full on Klingon version. Torres always came across as arrogant, rude, humourless and whiney. I could never take to her. The Klingon version was unapologetic and self assured.

The Vidiians were great villains. Should have been used more instead of the Kazon.
 
One thing I never understood about Torres is if she hated her forehead ridges so much why didn't she have herself surgically altered? It was apparently happened all the time in the Star Trek Universe. I know we could all spout off all the times when someone from the main cast of any of the shows had their appearance altered. Was it only reserved for specific people in specific circumstances?

I do of course realize that would have interfered with her arc of self acceptance and we wouldn't get the whole 'people liked her for who she really was' moral of the story.
 
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