{"id":5966,"date":"2016-11-17T13:00:11","date_gmt":"2016-11-17T21:00:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/markwatches.net\/reviews\/?p=5966"},"modified":"2016-10-30T17:25:20","modified_gmt":"2016-10-31T00:25:20","slug":"mark-watches-voyager-s04e08-year-of-hell-part-i","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/markwatches.net\/reviews\/2016\/11\/mark-watches-voyager-s04e08-year-of-hell-part-i\/","title":{"rendered":"Mark Watches ‘Voyager’: S04E08 – Year of Hell, Part I"},"content":{"rendered":"

In the eighth episode of the fourth season of\u00c2\u00a0Voyager<\/i>, THIS IS ALL YOUR FAULT. Intrigued? Then it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s time for Mark to watch\u00c2\u00a0Star Trek<\/i>.\u00c2\u00a0<\/p>\n

Trigger Warning: For mentions of genocide.<\/b><\/p>\n

I sat down to write this review, convinced that something about the whole \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Year in Hell\u00e2\u20ac\u009d thing was familiar, and lo and behold,\u00c2\u00a0LOOK WHAT I DID<\/a>. I had no idea. I HAD NO IDEA THAT \u00e2\u20ac\u0153BEFORE AND AFTER\u00e2\u20ac\u009d WOULD WORK AS FORESHADOWING FOR AN\u00c2\u00a0ACTUAL YEAR OF HELL<\/i>. Now, I have to admit that this whole premise is rooted in temporal disruptions, so it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s highly probable that the end of this episode will just reset the timeline. But in the meantime? The writers flesh out one of the most horrifying ideas in the whole\u00c2\u00a0Star Trek<\/i>\u00c2\u00a0universe and THIS COMES AFTER \u00e2\u20ac\u0153SCIENTIFIC METHOD.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Can this ship please just get a break??? Please? Actually, just give\u00c2\u00a0me<\/i>\u00c2\u00a0a break, because this\u00c2\u00a0hurts<\/i>.<\/p>\n

Time Wars<\/b><\/p>\n

I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m super into the idea that time is being used as a weapon. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s not a time travel story that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s common, and it is used to a devastating end in \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Year of Hell, Part I.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d If that image of\u00c2\u00a0Voyager<\/i>\u00c2\u00a0with the damaged hull in \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Before and After\u00e2\u20ac\u009d made me feel uncomfortable, then here\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s an entire arc where I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m made to feel A BILLION TIMES WORSE. Annorax is introduced in a chilling sequence during the cold open of \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Year of Hell,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d and it sets up a nasty, horrifying journey, one where\u00c2\u00a0Voyager<\/i>\u00c2\u00a0is only accidentally embroiled in a bitter war for control. Well, from\u00c2\u00a0Voyager\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s<\/i>\u00c2\u00a0perspective, that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s all the Krenim want. But the writers complicate matters by hinting at a deeper motivation for Annorax. That clip of hair he has (WHOA, KIND OF CREEPY) suggests that he\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s not trying to return the Krenim Imperium to its former power so much as he\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s trying to bring back a specific person.<\/p>\n

And he does so by constantly eliminating worlds. Entire species. Rewriting time with his weapon and his calculations, all in the hope that someone who he lost will return to the timelines he creates. Through this, though,\u00c2\u00a0Voyager<\/i>\u00c2\u00a0is snapped into a world where the Krenim are not a nuisance, as they are when Janeway first encounters them, but an aggressive and oppressive force. It was easy to see how \u00e2\u20ac\u015333\u00e2\u20ac\u009d from\u00c2\u00a0Battlestar Galactica<\/i>\u00c2\u00a0might have had a root in this episode because\u00c2\u00a0Voyager<\/i>\u00c2\u00a0crafts a relentless and exhausting nightmare for its crew.<\/p>\n

It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a year of hell in every literal and metaphorical sense imaginable. The show achieves this through some impressive and admirable means. The lighting, for instance, is perhaps one of my favorite elements of this episode. Gone are the brightly lit corridors and rooms onboard\u00c2\u00a0Voyager<\/i>. Instead, the darkest timeline feels literal in this sense, and the more power that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s drained or lost from the ship, the worst it gets, so much so that sometimes it was difficult to make out what part of the ship I was looking at. That\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s how complete these transformations felt! The same goes for the make-up. As the episode progressed, you could see more smudges of dirt and grim on everyone\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s faces, implying that one of the privileges people lost was the sonic showers. Chakotay\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s stubble becomes more prominent. And much praise must be rained upon this cast, as all of them manage to convey exhaustion, irritation, and dejection\u00c2\u00a0perfectly<\/i>. Kate Mulgrew in particular is just unreal here, but are any of us surprised? She\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s such a fantastic actress!<\/p>\n

Progress<\/b><\/p>\n

I also want to talk about the script itself. This story gives us an incredible sense of the passage of time. By the end of part one, seventy-three days have passed, and I absolutely believed it. How do the writers accomplish this? Through\u00c2\u00a0a persistent sense of \u00c2\u00a0tragedy and loss, punctuated with brief moments of progress. The Krenim attacks on\u00c2\u00a0Voyager<\/i>\u00c2\u00a0are relentless, so much so that even\u00c2\u00a0I<\/i>\u00c2\u00a0found myself groaning every time the crew was interrupted by another red alert. They never, ever got to rest in any scene in this episode, at least long enough to accomplish much. Even as Seven of Nine makes progress on the shields to protect the ship from chroniton torpedos, there\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s still loss: Tuvok is blinded by a torpedo exploding in the same Jeffries tube as him. (I will say that the writers do that thing where they use disability to represent a darker timeline, which is super common in genre fiction.)<\/p>\n

And then, once the crew manages to find a defense against the torpedoes that have torn them apart, their progress is met with another setback: Annorax. I wouldn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t say he\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a sympathetic character. Like, I get that he misses someone he cares about, but dude. Don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t go out and commit\u00c2\u00a0genocide<\/i>\u00c2\u00a0just to get them back. Plus, he views\u00c2\u00a0Voyager<\/i>\u00c2\u00a0as nothing more than another calculation. You get a sense that he feels a bit sorry that they got wrapped up in this, but in the end, he wants what he wants.<\/p>\n

He doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t get it, since\u00c2\u00a0Voyager<\/i>\u00c2\u00a0escapes, but the cost is RIDICULOUS. Look, I started to get choked up when Janeway was making her speech about the rendezvous outside of Krenim space. HOW COULD THEY EVACUATE\u00c2\u00a0VOYAGER<\/i>. IT WAS AN UTTER TRAGEDY. But Tom and Chakotay got kidnapped, and Annorax is deadset on eliminating them. What was Janeway supposed to do?<\/p>\n

I can\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t believe I have to wait to see the next episode. This is patently unfair.<\/p>\n

The video for \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Year of Hell, Part I\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>! 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. I POST A LOT OF CUTE PHOTOS, OKAY. Think of it like a private Tumblr blog that only SPECIAL PEOPLE get to read.<\/b>
\n– I have updated my list of conventions and events for the remainder of the year and much of next year.\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0 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":"