Story: Ashes to Ashes
Written By: Bryan Fuller
Series: Star Trek: Voyager
Year: 2000
An alien arrives at Voyager claiming to be a former (dead) crew member of the ship. She claims to have been resurrected and transformed into some alien being. Sure. Then we are stuck listening to her and Harry and other members of the crew reminisce about the good ol’ days that never happened. The problem with a story like this is that there was no character. We never saw her before, so having her return and having the characters act like they all liked her so much feels very false. This show never took risks, it rarely let you get to know recurring characters (few exceptions like Vorik), and the never killed off a main or recurring character, so having one return just means nothing. If this was like TNG and it was Yar that returned in some new form (oh wait...) then it might have some emotional resonance, here it is just really phony and hollow.
The much smaller B-story involving Seven and the Borg children and how she deals with them is interesting and kinda funny, but it really is sidelined for this completely un-emotional and completely fake A-plot.
NEXT TIME: Seven’s Maternal Instincts
Written By: Bryan Fuller
Series: Star Trek: Voyager
Year: 2000
An alien arrives at Voyager claiming to be a former (dead) crew member of the ship. She claims to have been resurrected and transformed into some alien being. Sure. Then we are stuck listening to her and Harry and other members of the crew reminisce about the good ol’ days that never happened. The problem with a story like this is that there was no character. We never saw her before, so having her return and having the characters act like they all liked her so much feels very false. This show never took risks, it rarely let you get to know recurring characters (few exceptions like Vorik), and the never killed off a main or recurring character, so having one return just means nothing. If this was like TNG and it was Yar that returned in some new form (oh wait...) then it might have some emotional resonance, here it is just really phony and hollow.
NEXT TIME: Seven’s Maternal Instincts