The Doctor's begins to break down, first losing his memory of medical procedures, then his memory of his own crewmates. His only hope is a diagnostic hologram of Lewis Zimmerman, the original creator of his program. Meanwhile, Voyager attempts to traverse the space of a mysterious, powerful alien race.
This episode was reportedly pitched as "the Doctor has Alzheimer's disease." But in the drafting of the script, it was decided the idea wasn't full enough to sustain an episode on its own. The alien swarm was invented to fill the gap, ultimately taking the episode's title even though it was just a tacked-on B plot. Perhaps, you'd think, this is because they were being positioned as new villains to replace the Kazon and Vidiians for the next phase of the series. But no, despite Neelix hyping them up as Delta Quadrant boogeyman, these aliens are never seen again. (Perhaps because the type of menace they offer is quite similar to the Borg.)
So then, what to make of the main plot? Well, there is a lot to like here. It's nice to see characters rally around the idea of the Doctor as a person worthy of care like any flesh and blood crew member. Kes is particularly strong in her advocacy here, with Jennifer Lien performing well in a number of pivotal scenes. B'Elanna also interacts with the Doctor for more or less the first time as "more than a program."
Robert Picardo has a fantastic episode. From the Doctor's opening comedic squabbles with a holographic opera diva to his eventual fear, confusion, and rage in the face of failing memories, he gives a great performance -- a recognizable representation of Alzheimer's. And then he gives another great performance as Lewis Zimmerman, whose curmudgeonly ways out-Doctor the Doctor. (And prove so fun that the writers of Deep Space Nine would call him later in the same season to reprise the role on their series.)
And yet, there's little satisfying about the Doctor's story outside of the performances themselves. His condition comes out of nowhere, neither caused nor influenced by any outside inciting incident. The solution also comes from out of nowhere... and is not even presented as a complete solution. There's no telling whether this could happen to the Doctor again some day, and no telling whether he is indeed cured at all. An ambiguous ending leaves you to believe anything from "the Doctor will be back to himself soon" to "he's forgotten everything but opera," and there's no follow-up episode to show us his recovery.
Other observations:
- This episode starts with a "Helmsman's Log" by Tom Paris. I suppose there could be such a thing, but the fact that we've never heard of it before (on any Star Trek series, I think) makes it feel quite odd.
- We do get the first hints of a real flirtation between Paris and B'Elanna, which at least is a story the writers are interested in pursuing. Still, Paris asking her out while she's trapped on a shuttle with him is not a good look. At least he takes her "no" in stride.
- The Doctor's argument with the diva about "rushing" and "lagging" makes me think of Whiplash. I should watch that again. I loved it.
- The Star Trek writers are always serving up analogies to explain their science fiction conceits. But Kim's line "like a snake through the tube" must qualify for the all-time weirdest and worst. Is that actually a saying I just don't know about?
- What is happening when the swarm aliens who board Voyager get shot? Are the phasers set to vaporize? Do the aliens self-vaporize upon death? Are they being beamed away?
On the back of great work by Robert Picardo and Jennifer Lien, I'll give "The Swarm" a B-. Still, I think the episode is a pale shadow of what it might have been had the script been better, or had the writers teased out some of these ideas across more episodes.
No comments:
Post a Comment