Last week was a topical episode with almost no action, which was boring as hell. This episode is about the same in terms of action, but is it as boring? Let’s take a look.
Premise:
Voyager arrives at a planet that recently suffered an ecological disaster. They find a set of stasis pods containing five aliens, only three are still alive. It appears there brains are tied into a central computer. Kim and Torres volunteer to be connected to investigate why they can’t get out.
They end up in a VR circus environment with a strange Clown leading the group. The Clown the begins tormenting Kim and Torres, who learn that the VR program coalesced all their fears into The Clown, who can read their minds and know everything they are thinking. The Clown refuses to let Kim and Torres escape at first, but then let’s Torres go to warn others. The Clown is torturing Kim when The Doctor intervenes.
The Doctor offers The Clown a compromise which The Clown sees right through and rejects. While Torres dismantles the simulation, The Clown kills one of the aliens who tipped Torres off on how to destroy the program. Janeway offers to trade herself as a hostage for the others. The Clown agrees..only to realize to late that Janeway was a hologram. Her mind is only minimally connected to the system. As the system is disabled, The Clown vanishes into the nothingness that spawned him.
What I Liked:
Michael McKean plays The Clown and he is absolutely fantastic in this role. He seems to be having a ball and he sells the character. He seems jovial and fun but is damn scary-often at the same time. And that final scene of him fading away is downright spooky. I’m a huge fan of McKean he is great in everything he’s in going all the way back to Laverne & Shirley. And his interaction with The Doctor is gold. This was early Voyager when The Doctor didn’t get out much, so not only was it nice to see The Doctor get out but he worked beautifully off McKean.
This episode really feels like something from the original series. The way they uncover the mystery and then work to solve it. I especially love how Janeway out thinks him. One of the reasons The Clown’s antics are good is because we also get some character development in there. For Harry anyway. It’s finally stated out lout ow fond he is of Janeway, and The Clown reveals a deep fear that he has hidden for years involving hospitals. The whole discussion on fear is handled nicely. Trek doesn’t always have to be subtle, and the topic of fear is a compelling one hat I think this episode touches on very well. Talking about how fear is there to protect us and remind us of our limits, but what happens when fear holds us hostage? My favorite is the last part. Janeway comments that The Clown was secretly hoping Janeway would defeat her, because fear only exists for one reason- to be conquered.
One of the best Neelix moments happens in this episode. At one point when the crew id discussing their situation and how to conquer fear, Neelix suggests making The Clown laugh. The suggestion is met with blank stares from the others. Nice to see him not indulged for once.
What I Hated:
Ok some of the stuff in the VR world is kind of silly. Remember how I said this felt like it could be an original episode? Well the VR world presents a “carnival” feels like it’s from the 60’s. Course it doesn’t help I hate Cirque De Soleil. And the references to Earth culture is a little hard to take, how in the world could The Clowm know any of this stuff? But the biggest annoyance is the way the episode ends. The clown fades away and we see the last two aliens being saved…and that’s it. I would have liked an epilogue or something but sadly we don’t get one here. The last shot is McKean slowly fading away while admitting he’s scared. It’s effective, even chilling, but I felt like I was missing a final scene.
This series has a way of really under using Torres. Or abusing Harry. It’s Torres and Kim who first go into the VR world. But hardly anything happens to her! Maybe you could argue that The Clown figured out Harry is much more fun to mess with. But she is practically absent as the episode ends. And yes Harry is held captive, tortured, and needs to be saved. Shocking isn’t it?
When it first aired this episode was advertised as being scary as hell. It is, for a little bit. The scene where The Clown taunts Harry with his big fear comes close to be terrifying. But once the Doctor enters the VR world it isn’t scary anymore. It’s just another “rescue the trapped crewman before it’s to late” episode. Even the scene when The Clown kills on the aliens doesn’t land quite the way I think they wanted it to. Don’t get me wrong McKean is amazing as I said but it never rises to the level the promo indicated.
No Seven of Nine at this point in the series. Sigh. Though in all seriousness this episode really underscores how pointless Kes would have been once The Doctor would get his mobile emitter. Oh and one little thing-the title is really stupid.
Fast Forward Moment:If the opening scene between Paris and Kim seems pointless, it could be because it was filmed for a different episode! Yeah it was cut from that episode so they used it here since it was so generic. By the way Paris basically vanishes after the teaser, guess we didn’t need him in this one.
Final Thoughts:A lot of people hate this episode because they focus on the more goofy aspects of it, and complain that it has similarities to other piece’s of work like “IT” and “The Matrix”. But I maintain while there are similarities to those things, this episode is an example of what Trek does best. Strong characters with memorable scenes as they explore some aspect of the human condition (in this case, fear) in a sci fi format. For me, this is a great Trek episode especially from Voyager.
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