Episode Review – The Haunting of Deck Twelve (Voyager, Season 6)

For those who are new to my episode reviews, you can find the post where I establish my point criteria here.

Overview – The crew prepares the ship for a total powering down as it is about to enter a J-class nebula. Neelix, after securing the mess hall, is asked by Seven to supervise the Borg children during the power outage. As the power goes out, the children awaken in their alcoves to be greeted by Neelix. As they press Neelix with questions about what is transpiring, Mezoti asks if Deck 12 is related to any of it. Neelix proceeds to tell them about an incident that occurred several months earlier, before the Borg children came aboard Voyager. While collecting deuterium from another J-class nebula, a mysterious, alien entity comes aboard. When Voyager leaves the nebula, the ship begins to experience malfunctions, as if the ship was haunted. Neelix continues the story, recalling the events of how the lifeform tried to take over the ship before Janeway agreed to take it back to its home nebula. When they reach the nebula’s coordinates, they discover the nebula has dissipated. After more threats to Janeway, which results in the rest of the crew abandoning ship, Janeway works out an arrangement to get the lifeform to another nebula.

Score: 7/10 – This is an entertaining tale that gives us a “ghost story” experience and showcases Neelix’s child care skills. The fun part of this story is to try to decipher how much of it is real, and how much is Neelix’s story-telling exaggerations. There is enough suspense and mystery to give us some intrigue, although this is somewhat negated by our knowing that all turns out OK due to the facts that the ship is still in one piece and Neelix is telling the tale. While this episode may not be striking any strong chords with the audience, it is pleasant enough with some cool makeup effects for various injuries, some interesting visual effects, and a few nice Neelix moments. The Borg kids do a great job of mixing child-like wonder at a scary story with Borg-like attitudes. Overall, worth the watch.

Relevance – 1 point. I suppose I could score a point for seeing Tal Celes for the last time. We saw her in “The Good Shepherd” and this is the only one of Janeway’s special projects from that episode to make a second appearance. Interestingly enough, the events of the story occurred before “The Good Shepherd”, so we are seeing Celes for the “first” time, before Janeway took special interest in her, and yet this is the “last” time we see her. That, sadly, is the only thing that is relevant to anything else in the franchise or the series. It would have been interesting if the writers, knowing that this story was coming down pipe, could have written in little tidbits about the mystery around Deck 12 for several episodes leading up to this one. A missed opportunity for Voyager, especially considering that they had done similar things in the past, such as the Crewman Jonas storyline from Season 2.

Continuity - 3 points. Character continuity works. I like how Neelix is the one sent to tend to the children, although it might have been nice to have included Naomi Wildman in the mix. If the characters had displayed anything that might have been slightly off from the usual, it could be explained through the reasoning that the inconsistencies are a result of Neelix’s storytelling. Story continuity is also good, and again, anything that might be amiss could be explained away with the fact that this is a retelling of a story. Universe continuity also remains intact, so we score full marks in this category.

Character Development – 1 point. Telling the story does not really develop Neelix’s character. It gives him some good moments, but we really don’t see anything that moves his character along. Likewise, there are some good moments for other members of the crew, especially Janeway when she is fighting with the lifeform over control of the ship. While seeing the good Captain put her own life on the line in the ultimate game of chicken, we must also remember that this was a story being told, so it is difficult to know how much of it was the truth and how much was Neelix’s embellishment.

Social Commentary – 0 points. As fun as this episode may be, it teaches us nothing. That is often the nature of ghost stories. They frighten us, startle us, and yet have little of a message. That is what such stories are supposed to do, so while this does not weaken the episode, it does not score the bonus points for this episode.

Cool Stuff – 2 points. The injury makeup of Tom Paris and Tuvok, as well as other injured crewmembers, is very impressive and noteworthy. I quite enjoyed it, so it gets a point here. I will also score a point for the hallucinations of the nebula that Neelix had seeing the nebular gases.

Rank – Lieutenant (14 points). A spooky campfire story (ok, power cell story) that gives us another episode with the Borg kids and serves as a nice distraction. While it is not a stellar episode and for many it could be considered filler, it is enjoyable and amusing enough to be worth a viewing as you go through the series.

If you would like to read other reviews from Star Trek: Voyager, click on the link here.

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Episode Review – Fair Trade (Voyager, Season 3)

For those who are new to my episode reviews, you can find the post where I establish my point criteria here.

Episode Overview – The crew of the USS Voyager approach the Nekrit Expanse, an uncharted, vast and dangerous region of the delta Quadrant. This is also the end of the part of space that Neelix is familiar with. Fearing his usefulness to the crew is at an end, Neelix finds himself desperate to be able to be useful to the crew again, and he ends up embroiled in more trouble than he bargained for.

Episode Score – 8/10. This is a very good Neelix-centric episode. Ethan Phillips gives a great performance, and the storyline makes a lot of sense. We also get a great performance from James Nardini, who plays Wixiban, an old Talaxian friend and former partner of Neelix. The music is done well, and the sets for the space station are great.

Relevance – 2 points. The Nekrit expanse becomes the setting for the crew over the next while in the show. Also we see the station again in a later episode called “Distant Origin”. We also see the debut of Vulcan engineer, Enisgn Vorik, who goes on to appear in at least one episode for all of the seasons from here on in.

Continuity – 3 points. Character continuity get a point. I especially liked how Neelix approaches Tom Paris for advice on his situation, given the evolution of their friendship. I gave a point for universe continuity. The Nekrit expanse is perfect for the explanation as to why we don’t see many Vidians and Kazon in the later seasons of Voyager nor does the future encounters of powerful species (Borg and Hirogen) in the earlier seasons. As far as story continuity, everything fits with what has happened or will happen, so this gets a point as well.

Character Development – 2 points. This is Neelix’s show. We learn more about him in this single episode than we do in entire seasons of the series. We learn about his less than stellar past and gain a better appreciation of how far he has come since joining Voyager. As I said before, Ethan Phillips puts in a very strong performance. I know that Neelix has his fair shares of haters out there, but they would have to give the character props in this episode. He shows true depth as his loyalties are torn. Unfortunately, while it is nice to get such a great story for Neelix, it comes at the expense of the other characters. Kes and the Doctor only appear in one scene, and Ensign Kim is nowhere to be found. For the rest of the crew, they are just there to move the story along. There was a scene that was deleted that could have pushed this up an extra point as it provided some closure for the end of Kes and Neelix’s romantic relationship. From what has been said of it, it was cut simply for time reasons. Hopefully it will be restored in a future Blu-Ray collection.

Social Commentary – 3 points. Integrity and a desire to be useful are universal concepts that most if not all of us are familiar with. It is important to feel that we provide a meaningful contribution to whatever organization we are affiliated with. Sometimes that desire comes into conflict with doing the right thing. We also see in Neelix’s story the risk of good intentions leading us down the proverbial road to hell as he attempts to do something meaningful to his crewmates. The testing of loyalties is also a common experience. Janeway gives a speech reminiscent of Picard’s dressing down of Cadet Crusher when she tells Neelix that a Starfleet Officer’s first duty is to the truth, which I think should apply to everyone, Starfleet or not.

Cool Factor – 2 points. In this episode we see two veteran Trek guest stars in another of multiple characters. Carlos Carrasco makes his only Voyager appearance as Bahrat, the station manager. This is Carrasco’s third of four characters he has played in Trek (the other three were in DS9). James Horan, who has appeared in every trek spin-off, appears as Tosin, a violent Kolaati trader, making his third of five appearances. This scores one point for “Cool Factor”. A second point is scored with the Ensign Vorik, played by Alexander Enberg. Enberg first played a young Vulcan Starfleet officer in the TNG episode “Lower Decks”. Jeri Taylor, producer of the show (and mother of the actor in question), has said that the two characters could easily be twin brothers.

Rank – Captain (20 points). Between this and “Jetrel”, it is hard to say which is the best Neelix story. While I get that Neelix is great for comedy, it was always nice to see the writers add some depth to his character, and this episode does a fine job of it. It is also simply a well-crafted and acted episode.