Jammersreviews

Warning: This review contains significant spoilers for Voyager's
"Nightingale." If you haven't seen the episode yet, beware.


In brief: A nigh-perfect example of too little, too late.

Plot description: Ensign Kim finds himself making the hard choices of
mission commander when he agrees to help the crew of a ship in need.

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Star Trek: Voyager -- "Nightingale"

Airdate: 11/22/2000 (USA)
Teleplay by Andre Bormanis
Story by Robert Lederman & Dave Long
Directed by LeVar Burton

Review by Jamahl Epsicokhan
Rating out of 4: **

"I scanned you."
"You scanned me?"
"In the Jeffries tube. Your blood pressure and neurotransmitter readings
indicated a state of arousal."
"It was hot!"
   -- Icheb and B'Elanna
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"Nightingale" didn't do much for me. I'm not entirely sure whether to blame
the episode or the series as a whole, so I'll do the honorable thing and
blame both.

But in all seriousness, an episode like "Nightingale" suffers all the more
because it's an example of the adage "too little, too late."

Well, too bad.

Ensign Harry Kim, as many people undoubtedly know, is by far not my favorite
Voyager character. In my view, he's the best candidate for ripping apart and
making fun. The writers apparently share that view, and frequently give him
episodes where he's the butt of the joke. (The story break meetings must
boil down to: "That darn Harry! He's such a funny, naive kid! How green can
we make him this week?") Witness the very end of "Inside Man," for example,
and you see Harry being the victim of a joke that seems to reinforce the
fact that he hasn't advanced a step forward since day one. Besides, when the
character is saddled with episodes like "Favorite Son" or "The Disease," how
can we possibly believe the writers see him as anything more than the
lovable goofball who gets some of the worst shows?

Now we get "Nightingale," which seems to be a last-ditch effort by the
writing staff to redeem themselves for years of Harry non-growth. Does it
work? Not really. Could it have? I'm honestly not sure. The show wants us to
accept Harry as a starship captain. That's sort of like asking us to accept
Tuvok as a stand-up comedian.

Harry ends up in command of a ship by complete accident, which is perhaps a
telling sign. Wandering into an alien conflict by chance, Harry makes a
choice while on a Delta Flyer mission with Seven and Neelix: He opts to stop
one ship from firing on another. Strictly speaking as a matter of policy,
the conflict is not his concern, but humanitarian instincts tell him that
saving the crippled ship under attack is the right thing to do.

The decision he makes is not a bad one, though it will raise complications
later. When the Delta Flyer crew boards the vessel to tend to survivors,
Harry finds that the ship's captain and senior officers have all been killed
(how convenient!), and this crippled ship needs the help of experienced
personnel to make repairs. They're called the Kraylor, and they say they're
are on a mission of mercy to deliver medicine to their world. They need
protection from the Annari, who are the ones who attacked them. They are
particularly vulnerable without their cloaking device working.

Harry offers them help in making repairs, after which they ask if he would
be willing to take command of their ship and take them to safety. He routes
them to Voyager's position and asks Janeway for an opportunity to see this
mission through. There's a speech here where Harry makes his case for
getting his first "real command" -- which is a relevant idea after all these
years -- and he even makes mention of the fact he's been an ensign for the
past six years ("If we were back home, I'd be a lieutenant by now -- maybe
even a lieutenant commander"). Not that Janeway couldn't have given him a
field promotion at any time; she gave rank to the Maquis officers and
promoted Tuvok (and Paris, after demoting him), but never mind.

So Janeway gives Harry his chance to sit in the big chair of this Kraylor
vessel. Harry takes command of the Kraylor ship and quickly names it the
Nightingale, hence the episode's title. There's a complication here: The
Annari, the Kraylor's enemies, are in the middle of some trade negotiations
with Voyager, so Harry's mission must be conducted outside their knowledge.

The problem with "Nightingale" is that the crises are far too obvious and
the story is not subtle enough. Harry takes command, and it's almost as if
the power of the captain's chair instantly rushes straight to his head and
turns him into a magnified version of his already blatantly naive self. As
captain, he's an annoying micromanager, giving an order to his officer and
then practically shoving the officer out of the way to do it himself, so
it's done right.

Also, Harry carries an air of arrogance that practically snuffs out our
sympathy for him. He doesn't gain the respect of those under him and instead
assumes he has it because he sits in the captain's chair. Frankly, if I were
serving under him, he wouldn't have my respect either. (Does Harry have a
single character trait besides being green?)

The best scenes are probably the ones where Seven kicks Harry in the rear
with her direct opinions ("There is a malfunction in one of the ship's
systems -- it's captain.") whenever he makes a mistake. But he should
already be realizing these mistakes if he ever commanded Voyager during the
night shift. By throwing us such ham-fisted Harry actions, the story doesn't
really give us a sampling of Harry's abilities but instead examples of why
he shouldn't even be in the chair in the first place.

There's some extra plotting to "Nightingale" involving the hidden motives of
the Kraylor, as mostly filtered through the mysterious character of Dr.
Loken (Ron Glass). They aren't trying to deliver medical supplies but
instead the ship's prototype cloaking device. This exposed deception leads
Harry to order the mission abandoned, at which point the crew answers in
mutiny by refusing to follow his order to turn around. Harry decides it best
to flee the ship in an escape pod rather than be a party to delivering
military equipment. But then he changes his mind after getting dressed down
by Seven and decides to see the mission through anyway, at which point I
wondered if a crew would really accept him back. (Somewhat indulgent is the
show's portrayal of Harry as heroic for coming to this decision, and making
so much of his return to the bridge.)

There's a B-story in "Nightingale" that goes down as one of the most
disposable filler B-stories in some time. It involves Icheb coming to terms
with an unexpected crush on B'Elanna. Being unfamiliar with romantic
signals, he perceives simple friendliness as signs that B'Elanna has an
interest in him. While not offensive, this subplot is the lightest of
lightweight and not one bit necessary or interesting. The comic "twist" is
when Icheb confuses the facts until *he's* telling B'Elanna they must "stop
seeing each other." The story misses its lighthearted payoff moment by
showing B'Elanna annoyed after the strange misunderstanding instead of
smiling at the absurdity of it. (C'mon, 'Lanna -- lighten up!)

Now that I think about it, I don't know that this show could've actually
succeeded. It's probably unfair that "Nightingale" suffers from the mistakes
that were made before -- and perhaps it reveals my bias against a character
long reduced to a single joke. But this is a show that can't really work as
entertainment unless we feel the central dilemma about Harry is worth our
time. All the alien conflicts and hidden agendas are just stock McGuffin
material (and too mediocre to be compelling); the real story is about Harry.
And I can't really say that the real story is anything but mediocre either.
The ending in particularly doesn't ring true, because it shows that Harry
seems to think he's captain material. He's not. But the episode seems to
want us to think he is, or at least might that he might be someday down the
road.

I dunno. By the end of the episode I didn't get the sense that Harry learned
much of anything. What's more, I didn't really care.

--
Next week: Doc is pulled into the plight of a group of sentient holograms.

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Copyright 2000 Jamahl Epsicokhan. All rights reserved.
Unauthorized reproduction or distribution of this article is prohibited.

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