{"id":5720,"date":"2016-07-18T13:00:26","date_gmt":"2016-07-18T20:00:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/markwatches.net\/reviews\/?p=5720"},"modified":"2016-07-14T09:26:53","modified_gmt":"2016-07-14T16:26:53","slug":"mark-watches-voyager-s02e19-lifesigns","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/markwatches.net\/reviews\/2016\/07\/mark-watches-voyager-s02e19-lifesigns\/","title":{"rendered":"Mark Watches ‘Voyager’: S02E19 – Lifesigns"},"content":{"rendered":"

In the nineteenth episode of the second season of\u00c2\u00a0Voyager<\/i>, the Doctor gets a hologram companion. Sort of. Intrigued? Then it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s time for Mark to watch\u00c2\u00a0Star Trek<\/i>.<\/p>\n

This episode is so much better than it should be. The whole \u00e2\u20ac\u0153romance-of-the-week\u00e2\u20ac\u009d story that we\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve experienced in countless\u00c2\u00a0Star Trek<\/i>\u00c2\u00a0episodes never strays too far from a familiar pattern. I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t know that \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Lifesigns\u00e2\u20ac\u009d fares all that better in that area, but I still adored this experience. Robert Picardo is so good! There\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s so much chemistry between him and Susan Diol! EVERYTHING HURTS.<\/p>\n

Paris<\/b><\/p>\n

Before I get to the meat of this episode, I wanted to address the largely jarring subplot involving Tom Paris. There\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s an interesting story within \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Lifesigns\u00e2\u20ac\u009d about Paris feeling ignored and dismissed, but it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s buried within a whole lot of telling instead of showing. We don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t ever\u00c2\u00a0see<\/i>\u00c2\u00a0Chakotay do any of the things that Tom describes, so we have no emotional basis for his problem. Instead, Tom comes across as spoiled and prone to throwing tantrums about the chain of command. Chakotay, on the other hand, has the patience of a saint throughout \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Lifesigns.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d He tries to pull Janeway into this situation, hoping she might have a better chance of getting through to Tom. Even after Tom shoves him on the bridge (!!!!! WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOU !!!!!), he still barely reacts. CHAKOTAY FOR PRESIDENT, I SWEAR.<\/p>\n

So, Tom\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s in the brig. That\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s bad. But this felt tacked on, incomplete, and unsatisfying. Perhaps we\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll get more in the episode, but I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m comfortable theorizing that this would have been better had it been given more time.<\/p>\n

YET I WOULD NOT TAKE ANYTHING AWAY FROM THE OTHER PLOT.<\/p>\n

Dr. Denara Pel<\/b><\/p>\n

Again, I should not like this as much as I do, BUT I CAN\u00e2\u20ac\u2122T HELP IT. Much must be said of Picardo\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s incredible performance here as a hologram adapting to the human experience. In this specific instance, he learns what attraction feels like, how a burgeoning love can destroy you as much as it can uplift you, how much rejection hurts, and how great it is to experience romantic reciprocation. This all happens in forty minutes, it feels believable, and it HURTS THE HEART.<\/p>\n

How is that possible? Well, thats one major reason that the Tom Paris subplot suffers as much as it does. The bulk of this episode follows the Doctor and Dr. Pel, so much so that aside from Kes, most of the characters don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t even appear in the episode aside from a few minutes overall. That\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s okay, though, because it gives the writers room to explore this entire phenomenon. The Doctor gets to experience the first prickles of attraction, and we get to see it in his facial expressions. When the two of them begin to develop an affinity for each other, it feels\u00c2\u00a0real<\/i>. It doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t seem like a gimmick or a contrivance.<\/p>\n

And I love that! I love that\u00c2\u00a0both<\/i>\u00c2\u00a0characters don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t take this experience for granted. The Doctor never considered that he\u00e2\u20ac\u2122d ever have to deal with love. But neither did Dr. Pel, though her reason is a whole lot sadder. Since she\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s had the Phage since she was a child, she just assumed that she\u00e2\u20ac\u2122d never have a companion. And that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s something brilliant about this episode: the writers build an entire world for the Vidiians all through Dr. Pel\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s dialogue. We learn of how her non-infected friends abandoned her; we discover that Vidiians aren\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t allowed to socialize in groups; we learn that companionship is viewed as an impossibility for people like Dr. Pel. Thus, her behavior makes perfect sense, from the way she backs away from the Doctor to the way she rushes towards him a couple scenes later. Romance is a myth to her until it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s suddenly not.<\/p>\n

Of course, I kept expecting the worst. Romance is simply not allowed to happen in the\u00c2\u00a0Star Trek<\/i>\u00c2\u00a0in any significant way. Would Dr. Pel\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s brain transplant take, and would she move on? Or would her body die, taking her hologram self with her? I admit I was initially shocked that she tried to kill off her body, but I came to understand why she\u00e2\u20ac\u2122d be so afraid of being returned to her previous state. Her entire understanding of her own body is filtered through the lens of having the Phage. She can\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t even conceive of someone loving her in a body that is controlled by a disease she cannot control or cure. Yet that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s the power of love, at least shown to us through the Doctor. He can\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t conceive of a life\u00c2\u00a0without<\/i>\u00c2\u00a0Dr. Pel, and he doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t love her \u00e2\u20ac\u0153despite\u00e2\u20ac\u009d her disease. He loves her as a whole person.<\/p>\n

So\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6 is she sticking around??? The end of this episode is satisfying in an immediate sense, but Dr. Pel isn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t killed off. She doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t return home. Indeed, there\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s no future hinted at in \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Lifesigns.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d MIGHT\u00c2\u00a0VOYAGER<\/i>\u00c2\u00a0BREAK WITH TRADITION??? I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll have to see.<\/p>\n

The video for \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Lifesigns\u00e2\u20ac\u009d can be downloaded here for $0.99<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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

– I am now on Patreon<\/a>! There are various levels of support, from $1 up to whatever you want! You’ll get to read a private blog, extra reviews, and other such rewards.<\/b>
\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 have been announced here.<\/a>
\n<\/b>-\u00c2\u00a0 Mark 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":"