Sacred Ground is another episode I don't have any recollection of ever having seen before. And I really didn't miss anything! It was boring and decidedly un-Trekkian. The focus on Janeway didn't help either.
It's supposed to be about faith versus reason, with Janeway obviously in the rational scientific camp, but it fell flat. I could commend Janeway for not screaming in frustration at the incoherent psychobabble from her guides and "spirits", but damn I wish she had. The message of the episode is surprisingly that science isn't everything and that you must have faith (in this case to save Kes), which strikes me as not being in the spirit (pardon the pun) of Trek. But the writers want to have their cake and eat it too, so in the end they have the Doctor give a scientific explanation for her cure.
The thing is that you cannot really force a belief on someone, like those aliens tried to do with Janeway. This is especially true in this case, where time was of the essence. You cannot reasonably tell some unbeliever that if they don't believe, then, in this case, someone is going to die. For one thing, why should you believe in something that is being that cruel? Either you have faith or you don't. You don't acquire it in a few days just because you're pressed for time, especially in a religion that was basically unknown to you the day before.
I have great respect for religious beliefs and I consider myself a Christian, but an episode like Sacred Ground shows no such respect in its simplistic and confused storyline. It's like the writers want to show tolerance to a concept that is unfamiliar to them, thus getting it all wrong. In that, the episode is like Emanations, which dealt with the concept of life after death - another eating and still having the cake episode.
Finally, I think it's odd that almost all species that we encounter in Trek have some religious belief systems, with the notable exception of humanity itself (except Chakotay's Indian beliefs). It's like Earth in the 24th century have "evolved" beyond religion but keep an unarticulated and perhaps unconscious condescending tolerance for those who do believe in something. The same goes for the writers who create episodes like this one.
There's nothing sacred about the grade of 1 I give to Sacred Ground.
3-08 Future's End, Part I
I thoroughly enjoyed this goofy, fun episode. While time travel gets overused in Trek I can forgive it if it's handled like in this two-parter. The 1996 setting dates the episode, much like the 1986 movie The Voyage Home did, but it's a smart move for the producers as it limits what the have to do.
The plot wisely doesn’t linger too long on the temporal mechanics and paradoxes (they give Janeway a headache). Suffice to say is that the late 20th century computer revolution wouldn't have happened had it not been for a nefarious ex-hippie using the tech from a stranded 29th century timeship. Now this Henry Starling character (Ed Begley, Jr.) must be stopped before he goes forward and unwittingly causes a solar system-wide destruction.
Starling is of course rather obnoxious, not to mention the villain of the story. But he's pretty one-dimensional. Sarah Silverman's Rain Robinson is much better. She's quirky and fun and has great chemistry with Tom Paris. Nowadays I think Silverman is annoying and often vulgar, but back in 1996 she was kinda cute and charming. Oh well…
Like in the aforementioned movie The Voyage Home a lot of the fun stems from seeing our characters walking around and trying to cope in a contemporary setting. Especially seeing Tuvok and Paris is great. They make the most unconvincing secret agents! A brief scene with Kes and Neelix getting hooked on some soap opera was hilarious. But couldn't they have watched Star Trek instead?
Any Trek fan worth his salt would remember that 1996 is a time when the Eugenics Wars is supposed to have happened. But aside from a model of the SS Botany Bay in Rain Robinson's office, there's no mention of it. I think that's wise, since that reference, originally from Space Seed, has been overcome with real events.
We'll see how it concludes in the next part, but I'll give Future's End, Part I a grade of 8- out of 10.
3-09 Future's End, Part II
Second parts of Trek episodes seldom live up to the expectations of the first part, and so it is with Future's End, Part II, albeit to a lesser degree. It's still quite fun, but feels repetitive at times. I hesitate to think of how they could've filled a four-part story, which was actually considered at one point.
The most fun was seeing the Doctor on and about, not just outside the confines of Sickbay, but walking around in Los Angeles in 1996. This thanks to the mobile holo-emitter Starling has made using 29th century tech. And he gets to keep it too, making him, well, mobile for the rest of Voyager's run. Not too soon in my book, because up until now it has limited his participation in Voyager's adventures. They conveniently disregard that this is in effect a violation of the Temporal Prime Directive, but I can live with that.
What brings this episode down a notch are the unnecessary scenes with Chakotay and Torres getting captured by some caricatured anti-government rednecks. It serves no purpose to the rest of the plot. Perhaps it was what was left of a storyline that got axed when the producers decided that there wasn't going to be a third or fourth part.
Even if Starling has future tech available I'm surprised that he actually managed to outsmart Voyager on numerous occasions. He's still just a 20th century human after all. But I must admit that it did create some needed plot tensions.
In the end his timeship gets torpedoed and timecop Braxton reappears, now seemingly from another timeline, which raises the question about what happened to the hobo version of him down on Earth, not to mention all of Starling's actions. Was that also nullified when his timeship was destroyed? Wisely they decided not to answer these questions, since temporal mechanics gives me a headache too. And I suppose it's preferable to having a Bill Gates instead of a Henry Starling starting the computer revolution.
Of course Braxton guides Voyager back to the future, and the Delta quadrant, but I wonder why Janeway missed that she could've tried the slingshot-around-the-sun maneuver that Kirk has done a few times before.
Anyhow, I'll give Future's End, Part II one lesser grade than I gave part one, a 7- out of 10.
