Star Trek 593: Memorial

593. Memorial

FORMULA: Remember + Nemesis + Schisms + It's Only a Paper Moon

WHY WE LIKE IT: Hockey makes its first appearance in Trek.

WHY WE DON'T: Nothing else is on its first appearance.

REVIEW: An away team comes back infected with Vietnam flashbacks, leaving the crew no choice but to investigate and also fall prey to this phenomenon. Though troups returning shellshocked or traumatized, struggling with the morality of what they've done, is a worthy subject, I'm afraid there's little point to it when the characters' memories aren't their own. Even if the flashbacks were riveting, which they're not, they still wouldn't star the show's characters. Bottom line: You can't outdo DS9's war stories by cheating.

There are some good moments amidst the bla bla bla of everyone telling the memorial's story, like Seven having the resolve to daily face her assimilation guilt and Neelix making an impassioned speech about the value of memory. Robert Duncan MacNeil does a particularly good job of coming home the angry soldier. Neelix puts Naomi in danger adding to his own guilt (was she not affected? that would be pretty harsh for a little girl). It's your basic anti-war story padded with a lot of talking, and if you already know the final reveal, it gets very boring indeed.

Chakotay is once again off-character, I thought, much too hungry to destroy the memorial rather than respect the historical lesson it tried to teach. Doesn't seem like him. Janeway has the better and more respectful solution. Note also the appearance of a tv set in Tom's quarters, which B'Elanna's programmed with vintage 50s programming, including commercials. My question: Is there nothing Starfleet computers DON'T have on file?

LESSON: If a Star Trek series was being made today, it would be wall-to-wall anti-war message.

REWATCHABILITY - Medium-Low: Nothing we haven't seen done better elsewhere.