Very Hottest Photos

Now we know how they all got fat.

Which one is Kes?

Jennifer Lien these days:

I thought Kes was deadweight on VOY...your thoughts regarding the character?

The only reason one might think Kes was dead weight is because she was terribly underutilized. Not that she was the only one in that boat. None of the characters were particularly well developed at any point. Even the Maquis v. Starfleet friction that was supposed to be the catalyst for the main drama was jettisoned shortly after being introduced. So complaining Kes is deadweight is like complaining one corpse is more motionless than another.

Nevertheless, I thought she had fascinating potential. It was hinted early on she possessed incredible powers that she did not know how to use. This promised gradual discovery of new abilities as the show progressed. As far as unique Delta Quadrant elements went, she was it. Were you fascinated by Kazon street gangs, the Vidiian scavenging leper colony, or horny paramecium? I was not. Kes was all we got.

But they never did anything with her. She became the doctor’s assistant, and that is pretty much it. The only thing fans really remember about her is how incredibly unbelievable it is she was in love with a toady, emotionally disturbed jerk like Neelix.

Then they dumped her from the show for the most shallow of reasons. Garrett Wang was going to be fired because, as a character, there was not much for Harry to do. But People named him one of the fifty most beautiful people in the world, so they kept him on for the good publicity. She was essentially replaced by Seven, whose character arc consisted of wearing a skin tight cat suit and learning a tacked on lesson about being human in every episode whether she was prominent in it or not.

When it comes down to it, I defend Kes as a good character because she was done very poorly considering g her potential. To add insult to injury, she was replaced by a shallow character who was added solely for her sex appeal. It is insulting the powers that be at VOY thought I would prefer such things over making Kes a complex, unique character.

Are the Borg allegory for communism or capitalism taken to its most extreme?

I may get ripped for this, but they are both.

The Borg are a collective mind which robs the assimilated of individuality in service to the collective while otherwise supplying all needs. So there is communist ideology there. But the Borg also exist to do nothing but consume. Everything is a product to be used, every place strip mined without regard of value or usefulness for any other purpose, so the Borg are also unfettered capitalists, as well.

Weighing the evidence, I would say the more menacing aspect of Borg nature is their communist ways. They genuinely believe they are doing you a favor by robbing you of your identity because all your needs will be taken care of in return. You will never painful emotions. Never want for anything. Never be alone. Of course, you will also be expandable should the collective require your sacrifice. There are a lot of negatives there.

Truth be told, I have a tough time wrapping my mind around the negatives of capitalism. Free markets have lifted more people out of poverty than collectivism ever has ort will. I do not find consumerism evil. It is the desire for a bigger house, faster car, and cooler gadget that grows an economy. Call me naïve, but I do not buy into the Captain Planet assertion that companies purposefully destroy the environment in order to make a buck. Sure, I suppose capitalism has a habit of turning God’s country into real estate, but even my panic over the Kelo decision a few years ago has subsided. So it is difficult to visualize how the Botg as extreme capitalists is a scary as borg as perfect communists.

I have heard arguments the Borg are a comment on the destruction of social skills caused by over stimulation of electronics. That is a retroactive assumption. The borg were introduced in 1989 and were not well defined as an assimilating force of nature until 1990, which is well before the internet, cell phones, iPods, and such became such a “necessary” part of life. Nevertheless, I suppose the obsession with owning the latest gadget is a negative stereotype of consumerism.

Not that communist as a threat allegory was all that timely with the end of the Cold War in 1989-90 anymore than the race for buying the cooler gadget. Star Trek,’s reputation for timely social commentary has been greatly exaggerated.

Think of a happy place. Think of a happy place…

We took a vote earlier, and you all decided you wanted to see reviews for Star Trek: Voyager next. So, for the following 172 excruciating days, we are going to suffer in in the purgatory known as the second worst Star Trek series ever. It must be my penance for spending a year reviewing The Wild wild West and The X-Files.

If I have not beaten you over the head with the concept yet, I think VOY, as I will henceforth call it for short, is a bad series. It would not have lasted beyond the third season if the fledgling UPN network had not been so desperate for content. Indeed, the network eventually did kill a poorly performing Star Trek series before merging with another network in order to save each other. I have hinted at my distaste for the series before and been met with criticism I am being too harsh. In response, I have built up a case for why I dislike VOY.

First, the writing is very poor. For the most part, when TNG rode off into the sunset, its writing staff split in two. Like the movie Twins, in which all the good genetic material went into Arnold and all the bad went into Danny DeVito, the best writers went over to DS9 while VOY got what was left. It is a wonder, considering how desperately paramount needed VOY to succeed. But it is difficult to argue VOY got gypped in the writing department.

Brannon Braga and Rick Berman are responsible for some decent TNG episodes. Whether they are better when only having to write two episodes a season or have the George Lucas problem that no one is willing to call them on their bad ideas, I cannot say. But when they have to write a dozen episodes a year, it is mediocre material spread way too thin. Jeri Taylor is living vicariously through Janeway, whom she believes is awesome no matter what she does and everyone knows it. Kenneth Biller cares more about touchy feely political correctness, especially the benignly racist kind progressives routinely get away with, than story structure. Lisa Klink is the worst writer in trek history. That is saying a lot when you consider Maurice Hurley was once in charge of TNG. His excuse was he was too busy patting Gates McFadden’s tush to worry about decent scripts. Klink must have been distracted by her five game run on Jeopardy!

I will give some props to Nicholas Corea, Joe Menosky, Nick Sagan, and Ronald D. Moore. They contributed some really good scripts for the series. Corea’s final script before succumbing to cancer is one of my favorite VOY episodes, in fact. But I think it is telling that Moore left the series after a season because breman and Braga kept nixing his input Which bring me to my next point…

Second, VOY never felt like a show dealing with being stranded hopelessly far from home. I relate this to Moore because the ideas he wanted to incorporate, those which Berman and Braga nixed, eventually showed up three years after VOY’s cancellation in the remained Battlestar Galactica. Voyager did occasionally have troubles with supplies and crew members going bonkers with cabin fever, but only when a story demanded it. other times, the show was like touring the Delta Quadrant in a cruise liner. More roughing it that TNG’s Enterprise, but not by much. The crew just never acted like it was seventy-five years from home with a few billion Borg standing in the way. Was not the point of the series to deal with that tension?

Third, the conflict between Starfleet and the Maquis was, save for an episode or so a year, largely forgotten. What was supposed to further complicate matters was half the crew hated the other half. There was supposed to be a conflict from the Starfleet and Maquis people thrown together, but it rarely materialized. After a few episodes, a viewer is hard pressed to recall which crew member was originally loyal to whom. The shameful part is the Maquis were introduced and developed in TNG and DS9 so the audience would already know who they were by the time VOY premiered. As it turns out, TNG and DS9 were the only series to do good stories with the Maquis.

Think about what the Maquis is. The federation signed an unwise peace treaty with the Cardassians to end years of border skirmishes. For whatever reason, the federation abandoned a number of their colonies to the Cardassians in a DMZ. The Cardassians subsequently provoked the unarmed colonies until they had no choice but to create an illegal militia called the maquis in order to fight back. These colonists have not only been abandoned by the federation, but are militarily opposed by Starfleet. You really cannot blame them for hating the federation or taking up arms. They have a good argument. Better than the federation, who are trying to cover up the poor, unworkable peace treaty they agreed to enter. But this is all dropped.

(Trek geek note: Spock and Sarek’s last falling out was over the Cardassian peace treaty Sarek was negotiating. While it is never overtly said, I bet Spock foresaw the problems of redrawing the Cardassian border over part of the federation, but Sarek thought that was logical.

There is a touch of dark humor in the fact the Maquis are eventually wiped out off screen in DS9. It is mentioned only in passing by Sisko the Dominion foot soldiers willed them all. Fitting, considering how dismissive VOY was of them, too. Doubly so since the show was supposed to be largely about them.

Fourth, Janeway is crazy. No, really. She is nuttier than squirrel poop. She makes bad decisions that doom members of her crew. She makes genocidal decisions regarding other aliens, often touting a Federation policy that she may very well contradict in the next episode. But--and this is especially true if Taylor is writing the episode--Janeway is awesome and everybody knows it. It would be laughable if it were not so pitifully earnest. You will be hearing a lot of this from me. Janeway’s mental issues run all the way through the final episode. Naturally, she makes admiral ahead of Picard. Such derangement must be rewarded.

Finally, the show eventually becomes focused almost exclusively on the doctor and Seven. I do not complain too much about the former. Robert Picardo is head and shoulders above the other cast members. Eventually, he was allowed to write his own dialogue because he thought the scripts were awful and no one could much argue with him. But he should not have to do so much heavy lifting. Unfortunately, everyone else is a one trick pony. Janeway is crazy. Chakotay is the progrssive fantasy of a Native American. Took is frustrated. Tom is an immature cad. Harry is closeted gay constantly put upon. Torres has anger issues. Neelix is a jealous, annoying jerk. They pretty much stay this way until the end.

But Seven. Look, I realize she was put on the show for the sex appeal. I will bet there was a giant suction sound when she pulled off that cat suit ever day after filming. I get all that. But you cannot overlook the severe psychological problem a person would have after spending twenty years listening to billions of voices commanding every move she makes. Seven would be a catatonic vegetable after being released from assimilation. There is no way she could be a useful character. I have a difficult time accepting her. I like Jeri Ryan, too, but Seven just does not fly. The powers that be overlooked reality in order to rope fourteen year old virgins into watching the show.

There are other minor issues, but these are the big ones I will be revisiting until the point you are sick of hearing about them. Literally, the same issues arise again and again. If the production staff of VOY ever paid attention to any of the criticism, it is most certainly not evident by what they put on screen. Be warned, folks. You are in for a bumpy ride.

Did you know Gales McFadden was allegedly fired from TNG for refusing sexual advances from Maurice Hurley?

Yes, I have heard that, but long after I had written those reviews. Had I known, I would have mentioned the controversy over the accusations, but even now, it is tough to find out the truth about any behind the scenes drama with Trek. The powers that be kept a tight lid on everything even from the very beginning. Grace Lee Whitney was allegedly sexually assaulted by someone high up in production on TOS nearly fifty years ago, and we still do not know what that was all about. Voyager suffered from a lot of grumbling from the actors I will not have much definite to elaborate on, either.

The official line is that Gates McFadden was fired because Gene Roddenberry was looking to shake up the dynamic. He supposedly wanted to cause more friction among the characters. Rumors have McFadden left TNG because Maurice Hurley was sexually harassing her. Which is true?

I am skeptical of the official line, no doubt. Roddenberry believed his superior 24th century humans were perfect. They would be too far above having any sort of personal conflicts among themselves. Such flaws were saved for filthy aliens who had not yet been introduced to the wonders of secular humanism as Roddenberry saw it. Of course, Pulaski was a royal witch from the get go, so there is that.

Was Hurley a sexual harasser? I have no evidence to go by other than the McFadden rumor. It may pay to note that open leaving TNG, Hurley spent a decade working on Baywatch and Baywatch Nights. I am unaware of any accusations of sexual harassment having gone on there, but considering the purpose of those shows and the “special “qualifications the actresses were required to have, they may have considered such things the cost of doing business. Somehow, I doubt Pamela Anderson, Yasmine Bleeth, and Carmen Electra would care about tush grabbing and boob gawking quite like McFadden would, assuming it went on.

McFadden did return seamlessly once Hurley had moved on. Coincidence? Who knows. We do not have enough facts to decide. As with speculation Denise Crosby’s character was unidentifiably killed off by an oil slick because she had a dispute with Roddenberry, and only returned to the show after he was dead, the evidence is only circumstantial.

Which do you prefer- TNG movies or the Star Wars prequels?

I have no interest in watching any of them again, so I really cannot say. It is like asking if I would rather have a headache or toothache. Either is an unpleasant pain in its own way.

Why do you think a DS9 movie was never made?

Deep Space Nine was a relatively low rated show thanks to it airing at different times in various markets. Only about 6% of households watched the show every week versus 11% for The Next Generation at its peak. So popularity was a big factor.

Once Voyager premiered, the bulk of Paramount’s promotional effort went towards that series because it was the lynchpin of the new UPN network. Ironically, DS9 earned better ratings in syndication than VOY did on the fledgling network, but it was more important for VOY to stay on the air than to create a DS9 movie.

You have to look at reality. There was only a brief period of time DS9 stood as the only Trek out there. Its early ratings were good because of the excitement Tng brought to it. A lot of markets paired the two with TNG as the lead in. Both stations offering TNG on my cable system did so. The TNG movies got the lion’s share of publicity over DS9 and VOY, and we have already established VOY got more attention than DS9. Perhaps most importantly, there is a hefty segment of fandom that think DS9 is a betrayal of Gene Roddenberry’s ideals. As the low ratings of VOY, poor box office of Nemesis, and the quick cancellation of Enterprise, Trekkies will not necessarily eat up whatever crap Paramount decides to put out there. If fan do not like DS9 in the first place, there is no reason to risk millions on producing a film.

Why were there kids on the Enterprise?

The rationale is that the Federation is not a military organization, but one of exploration. The Enterprise was supposed to be a flying city on an indefinite voyage of exploration. Hence, the crew should have the comfort of family with them. From a narrative perspective, the inclusion of children was to promote character development--as much character development as Trek could muster, at any rate.

There was probably also a misguided notion children would watch the show and fantasize they could be on the Enterprise, too. That would be a misguided notion because children fantasize about being a Starfleet officer battling aliens, not being a kid watching it all from the sidelines. It makes you wonder if the geniuses coming up with thse ideas were ever children themselves.

The truth is, I suspect Gene Roddenberry had the same problem as George Lucas--there was no one around influential enough to tell him when his ideas were bad. In this case, he is putting children in imminent danger every week, but justifying it because the Enterprise is out there studying stars and asteroids on a mission of peace when some filthy aliens attack. Once Picard sets them straight with some perfectly rationalized 24th century secular humanism, the kids are all safe. You see, it is not the Federation that puts the children in perpetual danger.

Like a lot of aspects of trek, the reality there are children on board is either utilized or completely ignored when drama calls for it . You know there are children on the Enterprise when one is sick and needs to get to a Starbase in a certain period of time, but Data has hijacked the ship while under Noonian Soongh;s control, but the fact is ignored when the Enterprise is entering the Neutral Zone to look for a hidden base, participating in a blockade of the Klingon Empire, or planning to ram a Borg Cube. It is an admission having children on board is impossible to rationalize.