Star Trek: Voyager – S02E12, Resistance

Resistance: Janeway, Tuvok, Torres and Neelix are on a planet and, disguised as locals, are plotting something in a market. Neelix has managed to obtain a seemingly useful substance but, when he reunites with the others, some black-uniformed Mokra guards attack them and the Talaxian is the only one who can return aboard the USS Voyager. And that’s great, as we find out that without that particular substance the ship would have lost warp ability forever! A bit of a strong premise, but at least there’s a reason behind the risky covert mission on the planet.

The problem is that Tuvok and B’Elanna Torres are taken prisoner, while Janeway, injured, has been saved by an old man, Caylem (played by Oscar winner Joel Gray), who talks to her as if she were her daughter. The rest of the episode is spent on Chakotay’s attempts to find the missing crew members (naturally, there’s a security barrier which makes teleportation unusable) and on the three crewmen on the planet trying to escape.

On paper, it’s a good episode. Unfortunately, I didn’t appreciate much the predictable plot developments (I immediately guessed the ending, for instance), some sketchy dialogues, a mediocre and sometimes confusing direction (even though the director is Winrich Kolbe, a Star Trek veteran), and Gray’s interpretation which is too over the top for my taste. The highlight of the whole episode for me was the interpretation of Alan Scarfe who plays the evil Mokra commander called Augris: his deep voice is really scary and the scenes with him are by far the best of the episode.

Too bad, because the producers really pulled out the big guns here: look at the main guest star, the sets, the number of extras… And, for once, Kate Mulgrew convinced me with her performance! Well, it’s true that the captain shouldn’t even be on the planet in the first place, the first officer should have led the away mission… but ok, this is nerd nitpicking. Besides, the story wouldn’t work with Chakotay, a woman was needed to be Caylem’s daughter! Ciao!

PS: By the way, why does Janeway meddle with the Mokras now since she said (in Prime Factors) that this was something forbidden by the rules of the Federation?

PPS: And why do the Mokra guards wear helmets but still get stunned by punches in the face? What kind of helmets are those? I know that it’s just a detail, but is it so hard to think about it when staging a scene? It looks ridiculous!

PPPS: The Delta Flyers podcast shoutout: Like many listeners, I also noticed that Robert Duncan McNeill has been very soft with his judgments lately… in the episode dedicated to Resistance, he praised Joel Gray a lot, and I understand that, but Garrett Wang was much more honest in admitting that Resistance is not that great.

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