{"id":5613,"date":"2016-06-03T13:00:24","date_gmt":"2016-06-03T20:00:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/markwatches.net\/reviews\/?p=5613"},"modified":"2016-05-20T15:13:59","modified_gmt":"2016-05-20T22:13:59","slug":"mark-watches-voyager-s02e05-non-sequitur","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/markwatches.net\/reviews\/2016\/06\/mark-watches-voyager-s02e05-non-sequitur\/","title":{"rendered":"Mark Watches ‘Voyager’: S02E05 – Non Sequitur"},"content":{"rendered":"

In the fifth episode of the second season of\u00c2\u00a0Voyager<\/i>, Harry is transported through time to a reality where he never boarded the\u00c2\u00a0Voyager<\/i>. Intrigued? Then it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s time for Mark to watch\u00c2\u00a0Star Trek<\/i>.<\/p>\n

I really did want to like this episode because, as you all know, I am obsessed with parallel universes. OBSESSED IS NOT EVEN STRONG ENOUGH OF A WORD. So it speaks to the weakness of this script that I spent a good portion of this episode bored. Uniterested. Wishing that the writers had done\u00c2\u00a0anything<\/i>\u00c2\u00a0with such a goldmine of potential rather than have Harry Kim wander through San Francisco with not much to do.<\/p>\n

On the one hand, that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s frustrating to me because I really\u00c2\u00a0like<\/i>\u00c2\u00a0Kim as a character. He\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s more or less the newbie on\u00c2\u00a0Voyager<\/i>, and you would think that the show would exploit this by isolating him from his friends and exploring how he\u00e2\u20ac\u2122d react to a disaster like this. But for some reason, Garrett Wang was apparently told to mute his portrayal. I say that without any knowledge of what went on behind-the-scenes; it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s just that in the final scenes, Harry is suddenly alive. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s as if he slept through most of \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Non Sequitur\u00e2\u20ac\u009d until that last shuttlecraft flight, then awoke to realize that HE WAS STEALING A SHIP FROM STARFLEET.<\/p>\n

Indeed, most of this episode left me perplexed. After the events of \u00e2\u20ac\u0153The 37\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d you would think that a\u00c2\u00a0Voyager<\/i>\u00c2\u00a0crew member who gets to go back to Earth would be excited and overwhelmed by the experience. What about the chance to have non-replicated food from San Francisco? What about the joy of standing on Earth? What about Harry\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s family??? We heard so much about them and how much Harry missed them in the first season, and yet?<\/p>\n

Look, my issue here is that for some reason, Wang was directed to drift through his scenes with wide eyes and a numb reaction. I get it; shock can make people react strangely or in unexpected ways. But Harry is\u00c2\u00a0home<\/i>. He did the impossible, and when it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s revealed to be a very real thing, he still never seems to appreciate it. Oh, we\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re told that it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a big struggle for him knowing that his friend Danny took his place, or that Tom Paris is living a much different (and less awesome) life. But these are realities that deal with\u00c2\u00a0other people<\/i>. What does Harry Kim want? What drives him to stay on Earth or to go back to\u00c2\u00a0Voyager<\/i>? Ultimately, it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s other characters and the lives and their development that motivate Harry, and that feels like a cop out. Why even center this story on Harry if he\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s not going to matter much to it anyway?<\/p>\n

It sucks because this truly felt like the first time Harry Kim got a huge story devoted entirely to him. But there\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s no chemistry between him and his fiance\u00c3\u00a9. They gave the story of a crew member refusing to go home on these terms to the one character who is\u00c2\u00a0most<\/i>\u00c2\u00a0homesick out of the bunch. Plus, I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t actually understand the mechanics of the temporal shift. When Harry returns to his timeline, does the other one erase, or is his fiance\u00c3\u00a9 just waiting there for someone who will never, ever return? Did Tom die in the explosion, or did that act reset the timeline? Who were the aliens in the timestream???<\/p>\n

Too many unanswered questions for my taste, y\u00e2\u20ac\u2122all.<\/p>\n

The video for \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Non Sequitur\u00e2\u20ac\u009d can be downloaded\u00c2\u00a0here for $0.99<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Mark Links Stuff<\/b><\/p>\n

– I am now on Patreon<\/a><\/b>!!! MANY SURPRISES ARE IN STORE FOR YOU IF YOU SUPPORT ME<\/a>.
\n– I\u00c2\u00a0will be at numerous conventions in 2016! Check the full list of events on my Tour Dates \/ Appearances page.<\/a>
\n– My Master Schedule<\/a> is updated for the near and distant future for most projects, so please check it often.\u00c2\u00a0My next Double Features for Mark Watches will be Death Note<\/em>\u00c2\u00a0and\u00c2\u00a0Neon Genesis Evangelion<\/em>. On Mark Reads, Diane Duane’s Young Wizards<\/i> series will replace the Emelan books.
\n<\/b>-\u00c2\u00a0Mark Does Stuff is on Facebook!<\/a>\u00c2\u00a0I’ve got a community page up that I’m running. Guaranteed shenanigans!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"