Series: Star Trek: Voyager
Season 2, Episode 6
Original Air Date: October 2, 1995
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| via Memory Alpha |
During a birthday party for Kes, Voyager gets caught in an inversion field. What begins as a problem with the comm system becomes more serious as the very fabric of reality becomes physically twisted. Will our friends survive?
This one's bad. "Twisted" is the last of four episodes that were written and produced for the first season but weren't aired until the second. It was the last of the four because it was considered the weakest. It's cited by many of the principal cast as one so bad they were surprised it aired at all. Such are the choices you make when you're under pressure to generate 26ish episodes each season.
Why is it so awful? Weak writing is at the heart of the matter. Then the story was too short so they had to tack on extra scenes last-minute, including a subplot with the Doctor being pursued romantically by Sandrine, the proprietress at a holodeck-replicated Marseille bar. Jealous Neelix also rears his ugly head (supposedly for the last time).
It's also part of an ongoing issue with the series: they go to the space-time anomaly well far too often, to the point where they can hardly be considered anomalies any more. Can't we please get back to good old-fashioned, intelligent life encounters?
And once again, the seed for a more interesting story was right there for the planting. As the crisis moment approaches, with Janeway incapacitated, there is tension over what to do next. Torres has one idea, Tuvok another. Chakotay makes the call in favor of Torres and the showdown between Chakotay and Tuvok is the juiciest moment in the whole episode. This tension could have been the narrative driver - hell, it could have been worth a season or more. After all, these aren't just any three characters. These are all former Maquis and why not push on lingering resentment between them? I'd have been all in on that story. How disappointing that the writers didn't see it.
Can you tell I'm getting impatient with this series?
Acting Notes
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| via Wikipedia |
Judy Geeson (Sandrine) was born in Arundel, Sussex, England, September 10, 1948. "Twisted" was her second of two appearances as Sandrine. She trained at the Corona Stage Academy in west London. She performed with the Royal Shakespeare Company in Titus Andronicus and Section Nine, then later off-Broadway in The Common Pursuit.
Geeson has a solid television resume on both sides of the Atlantic. In the UK, she had principal roles on The Newcomers and Poldark. In the US, she had recurring roles on both Mad About You (33 episodes) and Gilmore Girls (3). Films include To Sir, with Love, Fear in the Night and The Eagle Has Landed.
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