514. MacrocosmFORMULA: Genesis + Starship Mine + (The Immunity Syndrome x.000000001) + Aliens
WHY WE LIKE IT: That itchy sensation.
WHY WE DON'T: More running through corridors than your average episode of Doctor Who.
REVIEW: The teaser for Macrocosm features the Tak Tak, a people who have very specific body language, and as such seem to me much more realistic than the "humans with stuff on their face" that are usually encountered in Star Trek. Communication between us and aliens SHOULD be difficult. Anyway, Janeway very much fails this first contact, and might even have been killed if not for Neelix's diplomatic skills. If she's not a diplomat, maybe she's a fighter.
The rest of the episode has Janeway do a lot of running around corridors and conduits in a sweaty sleeveless shirt holding a rifle in front of her. You'd think this was the scene from First Contact Patrick Stewart worked out for. Taking a page from Aliens, she's very much cast in the Ripley role, fighting CGI monsters that have taken over Voyager (without killing anyone, mind you, not even baby Naomi). The camera work is good at keeping things edgy, with lots of shaking and insect POVs, but the atmosphere only takes you so far. They can't hide the fact that it's just a lot of running around looking scared, and not a lot of plot.
The monsters, well hidden from the audience for the first 20 minutes, are giant viruses with a peculiar life cycle. You may or may not believe they're possible, but you have to admit that whole deal with flies coming out of hosts is really effective. Man, I itch all over just thinking about it. My usual reaction to Voyager's body horror fetish is to wince and call foul, but here, it works. Of course, the larger variety is less credible. Where do they get their mass? How can they fly like they were swimming in blood plasma? How can there spit eat through a floor, but not through Neelix? And I'm sorry, but the knife fight looks really, really stupid.
LESSON: One man's middle finger is another man's obscene gesture.
REWATCHABILITY - Medium: Ably directed as a sci-fi thriller/horror film, but the plot is really thin and relies too much on the CGI creatures.
Comments
That said... the Tak-tak just totally murdered all of those miners, right? 'Purifying' them like they were trying to do with Voyager? Because that's what I took away from the end of the episode- that all those poor, innocent miners that the Doctor had compassion for had been mercilessly slaughtered by a monstrous, aggressive race- but that point gets completely glossed over with bemused aggravation, and a little light jazz.