VOY: Memorial

The schedule says that I should be doing a Battlestar Galactica review here, but because it's Memorial Day and I'm tired from attending grad parties all day, I'll be writing a brief review on the Star Trek: Voyager episode Memorial. If I ever run through the Voyager series I'll be able to do a more in-depth review on this episode, but for now I just wanted to share my thoughts on this one.

After returning from an away mission to retrieve Dilithium, Tom Paris, Harry Kim, and Neelix begin having hallucinations of a bloody battle on an alien planet. Soon people across the entire ship being having symptoms that are indicative of post-traumatic stress disorder. It turns out that the crew have had new memories implanted by a monument within range of Voyager that has been equipped with a synaptic transmitter. The actual event happened over 300 years before Voyager got there, but it was the aliens' intent that the massacre be remembered by literally placing memories into the brains of people who happen to pass by. After some deliberation, Janeway decides that a warning buoy be placed to warn unsuspecting crews.

Tom Paris discovers "Lost"

I think this is a cool idea for an episode, and it really makes you think about how we should remember and learn from mistakes in the past, especially those that deal with war. The actors also seem way more interested in giving a convincing performance, although some of it is over-the-top.

Score: 8

Best Quote: "It was a shame that we had to cut the lecture short, but the warp core overloaded and then the Borg invaded and we were all assimilated."

Best Moment: Neelix holding Tuvok at bay in the mess hall.

TZ: Where is Everybody

Before you read this review, or any subsequent reviews on the Twilight Zone, I highly recommend that you view the actual episode first. The most fulfilling part about watching the Twilight Zone is anticipating the twist ending that more or less explains everything that was going on in the episode. These reviews will contain spoilers about the endings, so if you care about that stuff, then go watch the episode first.

After the famous Twilight Zone intro and opening music, we see a man walking down a road. He looks slightly confused as he enters a small cafe. He calls for the bartender, only to find that nobody is there. In fact, when he enters Hill Valley(not really, but it's the same set as Back to the Future), he finds the town completely deserted. He also reveals that he has no idea who he actually is.

Does this mean that Marty McFly was in the Twilight Zone?

The main part of the episode involves him wandering around Hill Valley, continually telling himself that he's having a nightmare and that he just needs to wake up. He thinks he sees a woman in a car, but it's just a mannequin. He tries to dial a number in the phone booth, but it doesn't work. It's a really eerie thought. If you suddenly found yourself as the last man on Earth, how would you entertain yourself? How would you keep yourself sane? The man in this story ends up talking to himself through mirrors, messing with things behind desks, and even playing a solo game of tic tac toe.

Life before Solitaire

A few odd occurrences really pushes him towards the edge. He first finds a cigar still smoking in a police station, then a clue that leads him to believe that he's in the air force, and a movie theater that lights up and spontaneously starts playing movies. He becomes more and more paranoid until we reach the climax of the story and it is revealed that he was just hooked up to some virtual simulation.

Apparently the machine was supposed to simulate being enclosed in a shuttle on the way to the moon. The machine would gave him nutrition and other things he needed to survive, while the people in the real world monitored his progress. The town was just a delusion that the man had while his mind started to go crazy without any social interaction.

This episode was an excellent start to the Twilight Zone. It developed the creepy, dreamy feel that was to become the standard for future Twilight Zone episodes, and the acting was pretty good. The only complaint that I have for this episode is the twist. Why do they have to send only one person to the moon? Why not a group of people? Still, it's interesting to think that in only 10 years after this episode aired, man had accomplished the goal of landing on the moon.

Score: 8

Best Quote: "Next time it won't just be a box in a hanger, will it?"

Best Moment: The man runs into a mirror

Cheesy 60s Moment: The man yells "Where is everybody!"

ST:TOS The Cage

So here we are at the first episode of Star Trek ever produced. Technically The Cage is not part of Star Trek canon because NBC rejected it and it never became the pilot. They made the daring move of ordering a second pilot, Where No Man Has Gone Before, that actually began the series. I decided to review The Cage this week anyway because it is nevertheless science fiction.

The most interesting thing about this episode is how different it is from the Star Trek we know and love. For one thing, the characters are completely different. Captain Pike is in Kirk's place, and is played by Jeffrey Hunter instead of William Shatner. The bridge crew is less diverse than it is in the real Star Trek, and only a few cast members, like Leonard Nimoy and Majel Barrett, appear in later episodes.

The bridge is also a bit less colorful, and the uniforms are somewhat different. The crew also carry different looking weapons.

I'm okay with most of the original elements that they later changed for the real pilot, except for the characters. The characters in The Cage are mostly boring and not very interesting to watch. They don't quite have the appeal that the Kirk, Spock, and Bones team have on screen.

It is logical to suppress all emotion, except when dealing with blue leaves

But let's get to the actual plot of the episode. The Enterprise crew picks up an 18 year old distress call, and they find that it's originating from a planet that doesn't appear to have much on it except for a few forms of plant life and a few scientists who were on an expedition. A group of aliens with pulsing veins on their huge heads capture Pike and imprison him in a cell with one of the surviving scientists, named Vina. They have the ability to create illusions, so they put Pike and Vina into several virtual situations in attempt to get Pike interested in Vina. Their main goal is to study how humans of the opposite gender interact. The aliens are surprised to learn that the humans hate being imprisoned. Huh, what a thought.

Despite their intelligence and the "illusion torture" that Pike receives when he does not comply with the situation, Pike resists and eventually takes one of the aliens hostage, using him to escape.

Back on the surface of the planet, the aliens reveal Vina in her actual, deformed look under all the illusions. Vina decides to stay on the planet with a virtual Pike, while the Enterprise crew leaves.

Yeah, 18 years without Proactive will do that do you

This episode feels more like a 60s movie than a Star Trek episode. The plot is original and actually pretty interesting, but it just doesn't work for a pilot episode. The characters are pretty bland and don't do anything to make them deserve any special attention. Spock is actually the most interesting character, but he is portrayed differently than in other episodes. In fact, the main reasons that NBC rejected the pilot was because Spock was not what they had wanted him to be, and the story was too cerebral(no pun intended) and slow-moving for a 60s audience. If this episode had aired as the pilot, I probably wouldn't have watched any other episodes.

Score: 4

Best Quote: "Sometimes, a man will tell his bartender things he'll never tell his doctor."

Best Moment: Pike taking the alien hostage.

Red Shirt Deaths: 0. Red shirts don't exist in this episode.

Hello!

Hello and welcome to The Sci-Fi Expedition. So, what exactly is this? Well, it's an attempt to relive some of the Science Fiction television shows that have passed us by within the past 50 years or so. I'm talking about shows like Star Trek, Battlestar Galactica, Twilight Zone, etc. that are difficult to catch on television nowadays. I'll also be including some more recent shows such as Stargate: Atlantis and Lost.

By "reliving" a show, I mean that I will be watching every episode from start to finish, writing up a little review on each one, and giving it a score from 1 to 10. You can think of the scale as looking something like this:

10 - Amazing
9 - Awesome
8 - Great
7 - Cool
6 - Good
5 - Average
4 - Meh
3 - Poor
2 - Bad
1 - Complete and Utter Garbage

The shows will obviously change as I complete them, but initially the schedule will be:
Fridays-Lost
Saturdays-Star Trek(The Original Series)
Sundays-Twilight Zone
Mondays-Battlestar Galactica(reimagined)
Wednesdays-Babylon 5

So, first up is Star Trek TOS. If you're willing, feel free to join in :). Until then, see ya!