Did you ever go to the circus and notice those creepy guys in the baggy pants? You did? Did you ever notice the guy who played Lenny of Laverne and Shirley can actually act? You did? Did you ever notice that Kim and the Doctor can be really great characters when they get into the right sort of story? You did? Did you ever notice you have too much money for your own good? You did? Well, e-mail me right now!
As for the rest of you, please continue reading and you will get Julia Houston's spoiler-filled review of the Star Trek Voyager episode, "The Thaw." It's got thrills and chills galore (the episode, anyway), and I write this expressly for the enjoyment of Voyager fans. Janeway gets to kick some tail, and we get to peek into the dark recesses of the human soul, and somewhere in there we get a glimpse of Paris. Doesn't that sound like fun?
It doesn't? Well, then, please go elsewhere for fun today.
How about The Official SCRABBLE® Homepage?
Go on, amaze your friends by beating them senseless with "zygote."
Not interested? Okay then....
INITIAL VIEW EXPERIENCE
I'd love to mention here that the opening reminds me a lot of when the Heart of Gold goes to Magrathea, but I've already made too many Hitchhiker's Guide references in these reviews...What an appallingly creeeeepy place!...Yeah! the Doctor gets to be genuinely helpful, and formidable...Poor Harry!...Go, Janeway!
PLOT
Kim practices his clarinet while Paris sprawls on his couch and reads a padd. Angry at never being seen on screen, the phantom Batehart pounds on the wall. Kim complains about the lack of soundproofing and explains that he's preparing for a very important performance with the oboe-playing Susan Nicoletti. Paris is impressed; he's been chasing her for six months, and, considering what a small ship it is, you think he'd have caught her by now!
Yuck yuck yuck (Julia squirts water from a flower and honks her big red nose).
Ahem. They get called to bridge, where we see Kohl, a planet Neelix says used to be a major trading post colony, but which was frozen up by solar flares about nineteen years ago. The sensors report that the biosphere is now recovering from the glacial freeze, but that there are no more signs of advanced life.
An auto-greeting clicks on, and we now see Viorsa on the viewscreen, the leader of this world, who says that he and some others are waiting out the solar flares on the planet, and would very much like not to be disturbed for the next fifteen years.
Janeway would be happy to follow the directive, but she can't help noticing that their wake-up call is four years overdue. Kim tries scanning below the surface and finds, exactly 2.3 kilometers down, five stasis pods with three living occupants and two dead ones. Janeway has the five pods beamed up to a cargo bay and goes to check them out with Kim and Kes. The pods hold Viorsa, two corpses, a woman and another man, all linked together through a central computer.
At a senior staff conference, Kim explains that this central computer is keeping the Kohlians' brains active inside a shared virtual environment. Moreover, inside that environment, the Kohlians can determine whether or not they want to wake up. For four years, they've had an exit available to them, but not taken it. Now, it may be that the Kohlians simply don't want to wake up, but the Doctor, speaking from his screen, says that the dead bodies show signs of extreme fear. He also explains that the brains and the computer are linked so complexly that they cannot simply unplug the people from the machine without severe brain damage.
What they need to do is ask these people face-to-face why they don't want to come out, so Kim and Torres hook themselves up to the computer, using those two empty pods, for a five-minute visit.
Well, the virtual environment seems kind of fun at first, and Kim and Torres walk around with somewhat bemused smiles. There are acrobats and silly-looking monsters and a little woman who seems friendly...sort of...and there's a clown with half his face gray and the other half white. The camera lingers on him and his name is Fear.
Torres and Kim get the first clue that something's really wrong under the big top when they find a platform upon which stands a pink guillotine. When the circus people test out the guillotine on some fruit, Kim and Torres decide it might be prudent to withdraw, but they are swarmed with brightly colored spandex and nylon and mocking laughter, and Kim is grabbed and brought to the guillotine. Torres fights, but her blows have no effect, and soon Kim is being placed inside that pink head remover. Torres screams Harry's name, the acrobats all mock her, and it looks like Kim's going to die again when Viorsa and the other Kohlians show up and warn Fear the Clown that Kim and Torres' shipmates will doubtlessly shut down this program if they are hurt.
Fear realizes this is true and has Kim and Torres brought to him. Fear says he knows all about them now, including that Torres is a "little of this and a little of that" racially, and that Kim's mind is full of tech stuff. Kim asks if Fear is an alien lifeform or virus, much to Fear's amusement. Then Fear sobers and explains that if they remove the Kohlians from the program, he and the other circus people will disappear.
Kim realizes that Fear and Co. are generated by the computer program, and don't want that program shut down, as will be the case if the brains which feed the program, including Kim and Torres', are removed.
The exit program appears in the wall and Kim and Torres go towards it, but Fear says he will kill Viorsa if they leave. Kim realizes the other two Kohlians, the corpses, were scared to death by Fear and his guillotine.
Janeway, Tuvok and Kes wonder why Torres and Kim aren't coming out. They try to override the system and retrieve their people, but Kim shuts down the retrieval from the inside. Fear wants him to get rid of the exit controls all together, but he points out that Fear needs someone to announce his demands to the outside world. Fear says it's impossible to lie to him. He knows how much Kim misses Libby and how he can't hit that G sharp in Mozart's Concerto. Kim says Janeway won't just leave him and Torres in there.
Fear huddles with the other circus people in a conference, and Kim and Torres learn from the Kohlians that when they configured the computer to create an environment based on their brains, they wanted the environment to respond to their wishes. But they didn't realize the computer would provide them with all of their wishes. Fear is a manifestation of their doubts and concerns and, well, their fears. Now they're held hostage by Fear and can't get away from him. He can read their minds, though it takes a few minutes for individual thoughts to make it from their brains, through the system, and then to Fear.
Fear returns and says that Torres will go back to announce his demands, but Kim will stay here and be his best friend because Janeway is like a dear old mother to him and she would never do anything to hurt him. Torres leaves, and in another twelve minutes she's back in the real world.
At a gloomy conference that's missing Kim, Janeway paces and asks if there's some way to give Fear what he wants while freeing the hostages. Torres and the Doctor agree that at least one person would have to stay online to keep the system going. Janeway wonders if they could speed up the revival process, but Doc says the quickest would be about ten minutes. All the hostages could be dead by then.
Janeway wonders, how does one negotiate with fear, or Fear? Neelix creates an awkward moment by suggesting a joke, and Janeway wonders if Torres could rig up an artificial brain.
While the creepy circus goes on, Kim tries to give the Kohlians a Kim-sized pep talk. Fear gets mad at Kim for thinking about escape, and turns him into an old man, then into a baby (very cute) that he tosses around a bit. Then he tumbles Kim back on the floor, where the ensign says that this is all just an illusion.
"When your only reality is an illusion then illusion is a reality," says Fear.
Taking up this duel of quotes and quips, Kim digs down in his bag o' thoughts and comes up with Churchill, "The only thing we have to fear is fear itself," which really isn't the best thing to say to Fear itself.
So Fear and his chorus line use the quote to taunt Kim while Fear straps him down on a bed and reminds him of the time he saw injured people in a field hospital at some disaster site. He's just about to cut into a now screaming Kim with a big scalpel when --
"Excuse me," says the Doctor, taking Fear's scalpel-holding hand away from Kim's chest. "You're not holding that properly."
Doc then throws away the knife and frees Kim while Fear tries to figure out who this officious man could be. The Doctor says he's Janeway's representative, but Fear doesn't want to negotiate with someone he has no advantage over. Doc suggests the use of artificial brain in return for the hostages, but Fear isn't at all interested. Viorsa breaks in with some talk of the optronic pathways, but Fear shouts him down. The Doctor presses his case, and Fear demands to know who Janeway thinks she is trying to tell him what to do.
"She's the one out there," Doc says, "with the off switch in her hand." Kim agrees that Janeway knows he'd rather die than stay here, and Fear pouts and tells the Doctor to go away, he's very disappointed in Janeway.
"Well," says Janeway as the Doctor makes his report, "I'm sorry I don't live up to his expectations." Then she asks Doc just how much brain damage the people would get if they just yanked them out of there. The Doctor isn't sure. Perhaps Kim could hold his clarinet afterwards, perhaps not.
Torres says Fear was right to turn down the offer of a simulated brain, since it isn't complicated enough, and the Doctor, after making a remark about not taking offense, says Viorsa said it could be done with the optronic pathways. Torres realizes that this is actually Viorsa’s suggestion that they try to remove the environmental generators from the people, rather than the other way around.
Fear is sulking, and the other circus people suggest that he take it out on Kim and the Kohlians. Fear decides this is a good time to play "The Insect Game," but just as it's getting started, Doc shows up and offers Fear a cloaking device to hide his computer from other alien visitors.
This is all serving as a distraction while Torres and Janeway work to turn off those optronic pathways. Fear notices what's going on and puts Viorsa in the guillotine. Doc and the others fight the best they can, but Viorsa is killed and the woman is next. Janeway calls off the attempt. Fear celebrates his victory.
Janeway asks the returned Doctor, isn't there more to Fear than the desire to resist? Children like to scare themselves on roller coasters, but what does Fear get at the end of the ride?
Fear and his band are partying clown-style, but this is all brought to an abrupt halt by the Doctor, who says that Janeway will terminate the program in sixty seconds unless Fear agrees to her terms. Janeway will trade herself for all the other hostages. Fear agrees, delighted at the thought of having Janeway there.
In the real world, Janeway gets into one of the pods and gets hooked into the system.
In the virtual world, Fear has his minions cleaning up and getting the place ready for Janeway. Oooh, he can feel her getting on the system. It really is so noble of her to do this! he cries.
All the other circus people besides Fear disappear as Janeway arrives in the environment. Kim, standing with the others by the exit controls, promises that they'll find some way to get her out of this, but she says that won't be necessary. Kim and the others disappear.
We see everyone start to revive inside their pods.
Janeway asks Fear if it's true he won't be able to read her thoughts for a few minutes, and he says that waiting for it is a lifetime of anticipation. Janeway then asks him if he doesn't really want this to be over as much as she does. Fear says he's never letting her go now and calls up a mirror to admire them in.
"I'm not Captain Janeway," she says.
"Could have fooled me," says Fear.
"I'm afraid I did." The she explains that she's a hologram of Janeway, programmed to respond as she would. The real Janeway is on the system but not in stasis. The environment starts to decay, growing blacker.
In the real world we see a conscious Janeway and the reviving pod people.
The environment is almost completely dark now, and Janeway says he wanted her in his world because he sensed that she could conquer him, and that's what Fear really wanted all along.
"What will become of us...of me?" he asks.
"Like all fear, you eventually vanish."
"I'm afraid," Fear says.
"I know," Janeway whispers.
"Drat."
CHARACTER
Well, this one is full of character stuff, and we might as well start with the guest star.
Fear is creepy, really, really, creepy, and for a lot of reasons.
I suppose there are people out there who really like clowns, and if you're one of them then let me begin by saying that I don't want to hurt anyone's feelings. However, I've never liked clowns myself, and I know a lot of people who don't either. They're big and loud and harsh when I was a kid they were even bigger and louder.
Now, I've doubtlessly been influenced by those mean clowns in Dumbo and that horrible clown doll in Poltergeist, but as soon as Fear showed up I knew he was bad news. His half-and-half make-up does a great job suggesting that something which is supposed to be light on one side may well be dark on the other. The reason clowns are so scary may be that even when they're being funny they're so inhuman, so covered up and over the top and fake, like that painted-on smile. Fear doesn't have the baggy shoes or the red nose, but he loves masks, loves making others fear what might be behind that mask, and, because he can read minds, he can look behind other people's masks without revealing what lies behind his own. And that's really scary.
Those of you who don't like it when I compare characters should skip this paragraph, because I see Fear as a darker, very petty version of Q. Within this virtual reality he has all the power, and he enjoys tormenting people. However, he has none of Q's redeeming characteristics, and is ultimately not a lifeform, not even a sentient artificial one. The writers do a good job making him shallow and unmotivated by anything other than his simple nature: he is fear. His purpose is to jump out and say "Boo!" Janeway seems to be right, in the end, that he exists only to be conquered.
And he's good at his job. He immediately harps on Torres' biggest fear: that of her Klingon half. He efficiently presents us with some of Kim's inner demons, and he has that inexhaustible quality I associate with clowns: always laughing, always making jokes, always on stage and whooping it up. (shudder) It's really amazing the Kohlians are sane. I can only assume that he provided them with breaks over the years.
And what's really good too is the end of Fear: not with a bang but with a whimper.
Kim gets some development here in an area he really needs developed. What does this eager young ensign fear, anyway? He doesn't like being the baby of the crew, but that's hardly a bogey-man type fear. The childhood trauma in the hospital is good for him, just the sort of naughtiness that probably made him all the quicker to obey his parents in future.
It's good that Kim manages to stay determined in Fear's realm, but I noticed with satisfaction that his shiny everything's-going-to-be-okay face dims considerably. He keeps the Kohlians going and refuses to be Fear's puppet, and, considering the circumstances, that's about all he can really do.
Now, if we can just keep him from quoting old war heroes...
The doctor really gets to shine. I like the idea of the writers working hard to figure out ways to get him out of Sickbay or the holodeck, and he does his job as representative admirably. Of course, Fear can't hurt him, but he does a good job not displaying fear for the sake of the others either. His prissy qualities serve him very well in dealing with this emotional manifestation, and it suggests that such an attitude serves him well at his job too. A frightened doctor isn't a lot of use.
More to the point, it's nice to see the Doctor somewhere that his holographic nature gives him strength rather than limitations. The show hasn't really explored yet all the ways that a semi-sentient (or at least very colorful) hologram could help out his crew, and this way is quite interesting indeed. The Doctor has power here without just being a doctor. No wonder he wants a name.
Hologram or not, Janeway is fabulous with Fear. Her cool detachment and his drooling admiration really suggested interesting times ahead for the duo, even though I'm sure we're all glad those times didn't come to pass. Their mutual destruction works really nicely, the holographic captain both sympathizing just a tiny bit with Fear and enjoying immensely his demise. She tells Fear she's learned to trust the emotion, and it's easy to believe her. Fear's mistake is in trusting her. Fear should know better than to be over-confident.
THOUGHT
This episode does a good job letting the solution flow out of the information we get during the show. We learn about the time delay before Fear can sense thoughts and about their ability to send in a hologram well before the close of the show. Janeway's solution is simply to put the two together by not going into stasis (and therefore not actually going inside the environment) when she hooks into the computer system.
The idea of giving form and personality to an emotion is hardly a new one. I love the idea of a Scary Clown for Fear, and so I'd like to offer a few suggestions of my own:
Indigestion: Teenager Clutching Two Forms of Photo-ID For The SAT Test.
Drunken Stupor: Same Teenage Right After Test.
Embarrassment: Teenager.
Anger: AOL Customer.
Panic: Woman Trying On Jeans Who Doesn't Realize The Size 32 She's Holding Is Actually a 28.
Pain: Same Woman's Husband/Boyfriend After He Has A Good Laugh.
Happiness: Woman Trying on Jeans Who Doesn't Realize The Size 28 She's Holding Is A 32.
Idealism: Devoted Trekker.
Insanity: Overly Devoted Trekker.
Boredom: Devoted Trekker In The Summer.
Insane Idealistic Boredom: Heaven's Gaters.
SPECTACLE
I've seen some people complaining that the circus people look creepy, which strikes me as majorly missing the point. It looks like some circus Kafka went to when he was small.
It's not terribly appropriate or insightful, but when Fear was holding Baby Kim in that Starfleet uniform, I suddenly had a flash of couples at conventions who do that to their kids. It's cute, and sometimes, well, Kim reminds me a little bit of the son the rest of them have taken along for the ride.
DICTION
I already used up a lot of the good lines in this one in PLOT, especially that wonderful ending. I managed to save a few, though.
"How am I supposed to negotiate if I don't know what you're thinking?" -- Fear. A great line all by itself, but it gets a nice response too:
"I have a very trustworthy face." -- The Doctor.
"Well, you certainly know how to bring a party to a halt." "I don't get out very much." Fear and Doc again.
SONG
Great music, and nicely creepy during the carnival scenes, and all from non-CGI people!
And now for the baggage...
STAR TREK ELEMENTS WE (OR I, ANYWAY) LOVE
Trek writers have a real knack for setting up terrific situations and then giving us throw-away lines that work perfectly. "The Insect Game" only gets a couple seconds, but what a wonderfully suggestive idea. Imagine all the horrible games and things Fear has come up with over the years, torturing these people with: the "Monster Under the Bed Game" and the "Bind Date Game" and the "What's That in Your Food? Game."
STAR TREK ELEMENTS WE (OR I, ANYWAY) HATE
Nothing comes to mind now. Perhaps later.
Well, show's over for tonight!
Star Trek Voyager Reviews
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