516. Alter EgoFORMULA: 11001001 + Hollow Pursuits + Heroes and Demons + Past Imperfect
WHY WE LIKE IT: The luau of death!
WHY WE DON'T: That soapy feeling.
REVIEW: Harry Kim's latest loser predicament - he's fallen in love with a hologram (not the Doctor) and now wants Tuvok to rid him of these pesky emotions. At least it turns out the light fixture of his affections, Marayna, is more intriguing than your usual hologram, so as Tuvok investigates, Harry gets jealous. Then Marayna goes all Fatal Attraction on Tuvok and it's revealed she's an alien hiding in a nebula who's just lonely. If I make it sound like a bad soap opera, it's because it is. In fact, the whole episode strains under the schmaltzy melodrama.
Thankfully for the episode, it's saved by many details included in the script. Tuvok's dissection of human emotion, for example, gives us some insight into Vulcan logic and emotional suppression. We also see kal-toh for the first time. For all of Tuvok's snobbery, isn't it just the Vulcans' answer to pick-up sticks? And speaking of Vulcans, Vorik is starting to make his play on B'Elanna in this episode, and I must admit to liking his particular brand of emotionlessness. Everything seems matter of fact to him.
Meanwhile, an attraction seems to be brewing between B'Elanna and Tom Paris, at least from his side of their conversations. They've got a good banter going, and Tom seems bothered as hell by Vorik's advances. Another couple on show is Janeway and Chakotay, who are by all accounts on a date. Between this and Chakotay's pangs of jealousy in The Q and the Grey, it's got me thinking that the events of Resolutions weren't really swept under the carpet. I would have liked to see this continue as a kind of covert relationship that even the audience doesn't get much insight into. Visually acknowledged, if never mentioned.
The episode also has one wickedly funny luau fight, with pretty Polynesian girls in grass skirts trying to choke the crew with leis. Might be worth the price of admission alone. One last note: This episode once again makes reference to something that happened on the Enterprise, this time the events of Ship in a Bottle, and I've got to say I find these more annoying than anything. I'm not suggesting they ignore continuity, but it really calls attention to itself when they only ever namecheck events we've seen on one of the other shows, as if there weren't hundreds of ships part of Starfleet history. At least the reference turned out to be a red herring this time.
LESSON: Be careful who you give attention to.
REWATCHABILITY - Medium: The emotional throughline is insupportable, but there are still quite a few likable elements.
Comments
Other than the first Barkley one which I loved.
In a similar vein, it's always bugged me when any Star Trek show always references entertainment from the 20th century or earlier. I obviously understand why, but it makes it seems like there was no culture whatsoever after the 20th century.
I thought DS9 did the best job of avoiding this, having characters mention interests/hobbies/inspiration familiar to the audience alongside made-up future ones.
The whole "only having fantasies from our time" thing never bothered me nearly as much as the TNG thing of "Oh no, no television or pop music for us, here in the future we strictly put on our own amateur Shakespeare productions and listen to Opera. Riker's jazz thing is as far as we'll go."
DS9's mentions of things like Federation news helped to dispel this silliness to a degree. To be fair, the Doctor's fake holo-son's thing for Klingon Metal did too, though on the other hand the Doctor's whole opera thing didn't help.