{"id":4853,"date":"2018-05-24T18:15:32","date_gmt":"2018-05-24T18:15:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/22-Initiations"},"modified":"2018-05-24T18:15:32","modified_gmt":"2018-05-24T18:15:32","slug":"22-initiations","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/relivethemajesty.com\/index.php\/2018\/05\/24\/22-initiations\/","title":{"rendered":"2.2 — \u201cInitiations\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"\n \n

2.2 — \u201cInitiations\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Plot:<\/strong> Chakotay\u2019s solitary retreat in a shuttlecraft is interrupted by confrontation with the Kazon. Soon his fate is tied to a young adolescent, Kar, who attempts to earn a warrior’s name by killing his Federation enemy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Thoughts:<\/strong> A lot of scrambling occurred in the production of this episode, the first produced for Voyager\u2019s<\/em> second season (episodes 1, 3, 4, and 6 being holdovers from First Season). The producers scrambled to find a 14-year-old actor capable of portraying the nuance they hoped for for the character of Kar, finally settling in desperation on Aron Eisenberg, the diminutive-sized and distinctive-voiced adult actor who already played Nog on Deep Space Nine<\/em>. Finally, there was a lot of scrambling to get the portrayal of the Kazon right, with Michael Piller, newly returned from sabbatical, ordering last-minute rewrites to prevent them from seeming too much like \u201cwarmed over Klingons.\u201d The idea was for the Kazon would be based on L.A. street gangs, a topic that was frequently in the news in 1995.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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If I read Memory Alpha correctly, the product of this was a pile of regrets–that the presence of Eisenberg was so distracting to viewers, and that the other elements of the story didn\u2019t come together well enough to be more than \u201creasonably successful,\u201d in the words of Jeri Taylor.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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I see a long string of clich\u00e9s. Villains who announce their plans and future intentions at the end of each scene and have the patience to allow their prisoners to roam unfettered through the ship and debate them about their weaknesses in front of their whole crew. I don\u2019t believe any of it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Meanwhile, we again have a spacefaring race that behaves in a manner that seems completely incompatible with developing spacefaring technology. No scientists, trial by combat, the whole nine yards. I was relieved to hear a brief explanation–that the Kazon fought a war of independence against those who \u201cshared their homeworld\u201d 26 years ago, but VOY doesn\u2019t seem to be very interested in developing or exploring this backstory. Hint to the producers: the Kazon will never be interesting without a good backstory.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Finding common ground with a sworn enemy by demonstrating Federation values is well-worn story in the Star Trek wheelhouse. It feels like there is little in this belief-stretching story that hasn\u2019t been seen before, and done better, in other episodes. Although I do think Aron Eisenberg was pretty good as Kar.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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2 out of 5 Kazon hairdos.<\/p>\n\n\n

http:\/\/memory-alpha.wikia.com\/wiki\/Initiations_(episode)<\/a>