{"id":4954,"date":"2018-12-17T06:29:27","date_gmt":"2018-12-17T06:29:27","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/225-Resolutions"},"modified":"2018-12-17T06:29:27","modified_gmt":"2018-12-17T06:29:27","slug":"225-resolutions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/relivethemajesty.com\/index.php\/2018\/12\/17\/225-resolutions\/","title":{"rendered":"2.25 — \u201cResolutions\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"\n \n

2.25 — \u201cResolutions\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Plot:<\/strong> Janeway and Chakotay are stranded together on a planet they dub \u201cNew Earth.\u201d They have contracted a fatal, incurable virus that can only be contained if they remain on the planet. As they cope with their indefinite future as mutual castaways, the crew aboard Voyager<\/em> struggles with the loss of the top two in their chain of command.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Thoughts:<\/strong> We have a scandalous, salacious episode of Voyager<\/em>. It raises questions: Will Harry Kim give up on his captain? What carpentry project will Chakotay start next? Will Janeway\u2019s towel slip? Will they do it?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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I have another question. Is that all there is? There is no pretense of a traditional Star Trek story here; it\u2019s purely a dramatic potboiler. And one that could be more interesting. There have been better \u201cstranded together\u201d stories–Picard and Crusher in TNG 7.8, \u201cAttached,\u201d Kira and Dukat in DS9 4.5, \u201cIndiscretion,\u201d and Picard and Wesley in TNG 4.9, \u201cFinal Mission.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Janeway seems unnaturally chipper about the situation in the beginning. Is that her extraordinary leadership? We learn Janeway is \u201can able scientist,\u201d which strikes me as a curious co-specialty with captaincy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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I kept waiting for her to be attacked by a Mugato, but ’twas not to be. The planet is completely boring and has no mysteries, which shows a distinct lack of imagination or ambition on the part of the writers. What if Janeway and Chakotay had been driven to explore the planet, rather than stay in place and explore science experiments and carpentry projects? What if the planet had fought back?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Chakotay gets only one name. Like Geronimo. He\u2019s exotic. I could make do with less \u201cMy people have a saying\u201d and \u201cAn ancient legend among my people…\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The scenes with Tuvok in command of a restive, rebellious crew recall “The Gallileo Seven” and “The Tholian Web,” when Spock found himself in a similar position and predicament. In those episodes, there was a clear racial undercurrent–the Earth crew didn’t want to be commanded by a Vulcan. This was uncomfortable (I don’t love those episodes), but timely in the 1960s and evidently would still be timely today. The scenes on board ship work better than any other part of the episode, but I still feel like they cheat by making this about a questionable command decision, which is so wrapped up in the Deus Ex Technobabble that strands Chakotay and Janeway on the planet that the right and wrong of the decision are fairly obscure. Does Tuvok have insufficient faith in the scientific resources of the crew? Or is rescuing the captain a pipe dream? Who knows? There certainly isn’t any suspense over whether the captain will<\/em> be rescued at the end of the hour, so Tuvok mostly just looks bad.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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What this episode should be about is the principle behind Kirk’s rebuke to Spock in Star Trek III<\/em>: the needs of the one outweigh the needs of the many. All for one and one for all, which is the impulse the crew has to rally around Janeway and Tuvok instead of cutting bait and running, is a better guiding principle for moral decision-making than Spock’s more famous “needs of the many” speech. Spock was not necessarily wrong to sacrifice himself in Wrath of Khan<\/em>, but he was wrong to generalize.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Otherwise I find not much notable about this episode, except that it establishes Tuvok as the third in command. When he becomes acting captain, he should switch to command red.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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2.5 out of 5 monkeys. How bad can it be, when there are monkeys?<\/p>\n\n\n

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