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Timeless Airdate: November 18, 1998 Written by: Everyone and their cousin Directed by: LeVar Burton File Photo || Mission Log || Opinion Poll Short Take: Well, not City on the Edge of Forever, but a solid hour Brief Summary: Who gave Kim the flux capacitor? Review:You have to give Braga credit. In all this time travel craziness, he still manages to come up with plots just enough different from the last time travel show that we can call him original. "Timeless" is just enough different to make it new idea, but I'm not sure if it's different enough to feel fresh. All too often it felt like the warmed over time travel fun Trek has done before. On the positive side, it had some gutsy characterization. I only wish what happened in the episode's events were as gutsy. One thing's for sure: they have the writing dynamic for these type of shows down pat. Yes, we knew Voyager would be ok in the end, but for the most part the episode was smartly written, keeping me guessing as to the resolution when everything appeared to be failing. The scene shifts also kept me on my toes, thanks to a script that deftly put them into place as well as Burton's direction . I said above the show kept me guessing. That was because what I assumed was the obvious answer - sending a message back in time that says "Don't do it!" wouldn't be used, since technobabble wouldn't allow it. The technobabble was present enough to be a nuisance, though to the writers' credit it didn't overwhelm the plot. Indeed, "Timeless" is a bit of a relief since it involved only a *message* being sent back in time, and not a bunch of actual time travel hooey. It even used established tech, however problematic that tech may be (ever wonder why the Borg don't send a message back in time to themselves?). Still, in the end, all that was needed was a simple message, not a bunch of calculations, making you wonder why we went through 42 minutes of very well done FX. I suppose you could say that Kim was overanalyzing in a quest to right his wrong *and* get Voyager home, but on screen that wasn't presented, or at least not presented that way well. In my never ending quest to act smart, I offer what I think would have given the episode a little less predictability, with a lot more implications. If Harry had sent the message "Don't go" back in time to a DRUNK Seven...wow. Harry doesn't remember that she was drunk, and only sends a "Don't go" message to some time before takeoff (makes more sense than some fancy numbers he calculated real quick). As a result, she either a)gets it, but no one believes her, so she goes on her own (maybe with present Harry's help, when she convinces him him it was from future Harry) and stops things, and everyone hates her for it. A nice way to end for her, and we can keep the message from Harry explaining it all. Harry may not want to show it, since it's personal, so Seven's still screwed. Screwed as in she's in trouble. But he can, and vindicate Seven. It adds a wrinkle, I think, without taking up too much time. And it saves all the phase adjustment decompression viscosity talk. b)Or she is too drunk to remember and they die. This would of course tell the end of the series and would require a little date shifting (say, set the slipstream takeoff another four years from now). This would have been gutsy as hell (and maybe a bad idea, since as B5 has shown showing the end of your series a couple of years ahead of time is a bad idea). But it would also be more memorable, and make for a better epsiode 100. I'd certainly like to see the show end that way as opposed to them getting home. (Aren't I mean?). I would like to see a time travel episode where they only screw things up. We almost got it when Harry caused the crash again, but not quite. With that said, "Timeless" was a lot gutsier in one important regard than most time travel fun. It actually dealt with time travel's implications on the people involved, from erasing whole crews (nice point by LaForge) to showing how it changes the characters we love over time. Even if they didn't get the temporal paradoxical quantum Tully-Fisher Heisenberg mechanical blah blah blah aspect of it right, they got the characters right. Chakotay was his old Maquis self, yet a little deflated (Beltran, acting deflated???). And Kim... Kim! Garrett Wang can ACT!!!! He ws blunt (love that "They're having sex line"), guilty, desperate.... he was clearly a man about to snap, thanks to Wang's portrayal and some good lines. No reset, either, thank Ahura Mazda. It would have only been a nifty mystery had Kim not gotten that message. It wasn't just "Hi, Harry, don't go to that brothel on Risa when you get back." It was placing a burden on our Harry. I can see mean, future Harry doing that, and I can see our Harry responding to it... if the writers show it. The bottom line is that it is better than what we got with "Year of Hell." "Timeless" is no doubt hurt in my mind by the hype... not because it wasn't "City on the Edge of Forever," but because it didn't feel like Episode 100. There was no survey of what happened before and what will happen next (and, no, I'm not asking for a clip show). It felt like a well-done, well-considered sweeps episode, but not a grand summation of what the series has been about so far. Perhaps that's because the series hasn't necessarily found its identity. This season will hopefully change that. Some short takes: - I've noticed a substantial improvement in the dialogue, from Janeway warning about her cooking to Chakotay's "I'd like to thank the Borg Collective..." They're talking like actual people! - Geordi was in the episode? Yes, his cameo was well written and acting, and it was good to make it understated. LeVar has to direct the episode, after all. - By the way, a much more impressive directorial job for him than with "The Raven." - The FX (excepting the Delta Flyer explosion) were simply some of the best ever done on TV. Rating: B+/A- Next week: Braga is in charge! First time travel, now psychadelia... Rankings: 1)"In the Flesh" 2)"Timeless" 3)"Drone" 4)"Night" 5)"Once Upon a Time" 6)"Extreme Risk" | |
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