SPOCK MIND MELD PICTURE PLACE OVER SERIAL
SPOCK MIND MELD PICTURE PLACE OVER FULL
SPOCK MIND MELD PICTURE PLACE OVER SERIES

The crew had come together rather smoothly. Parallax made it clear that everybody was going to get along perfectly when Prime Factors established Seska as a troublemaker who had difficulty fitting in, State of Flux promptly exiled her from the ship. The show has had trouble exploring the integration of the Starfleet and Maquis crews, abandoning any real hint of tension early on. Meld takes a number of the attributes that make Voyager unique, and weaves them into the foundation of the story. There was often little real sense of the creative decisions that had made Voyager unique, with the show feeling like a bland amalgam of Star Trek clichés.

SPOCK MIND MELD PICTURE PLACE OVER SERIES

A lot of Voyager could be dismissed as a halfhearted imitation of a formula that worked on The Next Generation, with the series doing very little to capitalise on the basic “starship lost” premise established in the pilot. In many ways, it is the most successful exploitation of Voyager‘s premise since Caretaker. Dourif might just be the best guest star ever to appear in Voyager, and one of the franchise’s all-time greats. A lot of that is down to the novelty of a fundamentally violent character in a Starfleet uniform, but Dourif is absolutely brilliant in the part. Lon Suder is one of the most fascinating guest characters in the history of the Star Trek franchise, and perhaps the only recurring character member of the Voyager crew who made any impression. That said, it is Brad Dourif who steals the show here. Tuvok (and Russ) deserved more attention than the show afforded him. It is a shame, as Russ has a great deal of fun channeling Nimoy in his portrayal of the franchise’s first full-blooded Vulcan regular. Russ was always one of the more under-utilised members of the Voyager ensemble, particularly when his “obligatory emotionally detached character” role was usurped by Seven of Nine in the fourth season. The episode also benefits from two mesmerising central performances from guest star Brad Dourif and Tim Russ. I thought Braga murdered Darwin last week.” Bole’s directorial choices are consciously stylised, with delightful little touches like the band of light across Tuvok’s eyes when the body is discovered.

SPOCK MIND MELD PICTURE PLACE OVER SERIAL

Following on from the robot wars of Prototype and the body horror of Threshold, Meld plays like a Star Trek serial killer thriller. Meld could be seen as a continuation of the second season’s b-movie charms. Cliff Bole does great work in bringing a very unconventional Star Trek episode to life. While the script for Meld is exceptionally well-written, the episode is elevated by a combination of factors.

SPOCK MIND MELD PICTURE PLACE OVER FULL

At the same time, it is also Mike Sussman’s first story credit on the franchise Sussman would go on to join the show’s writing staff in its final season and would be one of the few writers to serve a full four seasons on Star Trek: Enterprise. Meld may be the last truly great Star Trek script written by Michael Piller, the writer who helped to define the modern iteration of the franchise with his work on the third season of Star Trek: The Next Generation. In a way, Meld represents a collision of the franchise’s past and future. Unlike many of the surrounding episodes, Meld actually manages to make good use of the show’s Delta Quadrant setting to heighten the dramatic stakes. In many respects, Meld is a more scathing criticism of the death penalty than Repentance, the seventh season episode explicitly written as a death penalty allegory. It is a story about the horrors and arbitrariness of unprovoked violence, but also about the cycles of violence that such actions can create. Meld is an episode about violence, in its many forms. It is certainly the best use of Tuvok that the show managed in its seven year run. It is, in many respects, one of the strongest and most compelling exploration of themes that have been bubbling around in the background since Caretaker, offering a more thoughtful and insightful exploration of the nineties culture of fear and anxiety than anything involving the Kazon. There is perhaps a reasonable argument to be made that it is one of the best episodes that the series ever produced. It is the best episode of Star Trek: Voyager to date. This September and October, we’re taking a look at the 1995 to 1996 season of Star Trek, including Star Trek: Deep Space Nine and Star Trek: Voyager.

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