[VOY] "Ex Post Facto" Review

WARNING:  Spoilers for VOY's "Ex
Post Facto" lurk within this article.  Anyone not wishing to relive
those spoilers again and again had best turn away now.

In brief:  "Voyager"'s first episode to fall pretty firmly flat.


Brief summary:  While the Voyager crew works to clear the name
of Tom Paris, Paris himself is forced to relive the murder he's accused
of committing--from his victim's point of view.


This makes the fourth time, by my reckoning, that Trek has tried to do a
detective story in the past decade or so:  DS9
had "Necessary Evil", which was tremendous,
and TNG had "Suspicions" and "A Matter of Perspective", which weren't.
Unfortunately, "Ex Post Facto" has a lot more in common
with the latter two, "A Matter of Perspective" in particular, and the show as a
whole didn't come off particularly well.

One of the parallels between the two is that Paris, like Riker, stood
accused not only of murder, but of murder due to lust for the victim's
wife.  While this is a tried and true literary technique, when done
poorly it ends up as nothing more than really soppy melodrama.  "Twin
Peaks" had probably the most dreadful example I've seen of this
a few years ago with its "James-and-the-blonde" subplot--and
unfortunately, the vast majority of the dialogue during the various
flashbacks in "Ex Post Facto" reminded me of
that plot, in spades.  Phrases like "Don't... don't get involved" and
"Good can get very...  [breath]... very... [breath]... boring" are so
overboard as to be almost cartoon-like, I think; and any sense of
credibility the episode had was lost when it appeared that all the
flashbacks were taken directly from old daytime soap footage.  No,
thank you.

Scripting aside, the story had at least one saving grace:  the mystery
was not a simple case of "wife kills husband and frames another for
it", as I'd feared as of about a quarter of the way in (right after
Kim's flashback).  While I'm not sure I buy into the idea that this
elaborate frame was the only real way to get Tolin's information off
the planet to the Numiri, I can buy it just enough to make the
conclusion somewhat convincing.  Tuvok's detective work was fairly
methodical and workable, if not always particularly interesting to
watch (particularly his interview with Lidell; the "sultry goddess"
role was so overwritten that all her poses were rather embarrassingly
forced and blatant), and the somewhat-hyped use of the mind meld also
worked, if somewhat less ritualistic in its beginnings than I'd have
expected.

Good use was made of some of the regulars, as well.  While Paris was
trapped in a [horrible]  script, Neelix got to actually
be useful to the crew--his advice and observations were, for once,
fairly on-target and effective in getting us to wonder what was
going on [particularly his "In Numiri terms, that greeting was
downright friendly" line, I think].

As for Chakotay, his exchanges with Janeway during the first Numiri
attack made for one of the few really entertaining moments of the
show--while I'd still prefer to see the tension that must exist between
the two crews dealt with from time to time, at least we had an
acknowledgment of different styles here--and jokingly or not, we also
saw some evidence that all may not be well if the crew ever does
get home.  [I particularly liked the exchange right after their feint
works:  "That's one trick you won't be able to use when we get back."
"I have more."  Grin.]

Once Tuvok had figured out what was going on, the double resolution was
a half-and-half affair.  The trap to lure in the Numiri was well done
(except for the one intense close-up on Janeway, which I found very
off-putting and forced), with some apt dialogue.  The "get all the
suspects in one room and reveal everything" scene on the planet,
however, didn't work at all--particularly the surprise [?] use of the
dog as witness.  This makes twice we've seen dogs as central to
Trek mysteries; the other was "Aquiel", which combined with this
suggests that they're viciously bad luck.

All in all, then, while the story of "Ex Post
Facto" was a bit on the clich&eacute;d side, it would have been
okay if not for the Execution From Hell [tm].  The awful
dialogue given to Paris and Lidell throughout the show, combined with
directing far weaker than what LeVar
Burton's done in the past ["Second Chances" and "The Pegasus" were
both well done], undercuts almost any strength the show had, to the
point that one really just wanted to get it over with.

Given that, I've really not much else to say about the show.  So, a few
short takes:

-- Starting the show in the middle of things was a good idea, but I
almost wonder if it wouldn't have been even stronger to have us see
Harry's return before we know anything about Paris.  There might
have been a real sense of "whoa, what the heck's going on?" about
it.

-- The "find a name" scene for the doctor was cute so far as it went,
but I hope it doesn't last more than about another episode.  Let's get
it done.  ["Doctor... Spock", however, was priceless.]

-- The show was written (primarily, anyway)
by Evan Carlos Somers, who
was also responsible for DS9's "Melora".  This does not seem a promising track
record, alas.  (Then again, Peter
Allan Fields's first Trek work was "Cost of Living", and
he certainly improved quite a bit!)

-- Tolin was a somewhat stereotypical scientist, but I've been around
enough of them that are like him that I'm prepared to call him
semi-realistic.  :-)  [For those wondering where they've seen the actor
before, by the way, Ray Reinhardt
appeared ages ago as Admiral Aaron back in TNG's "Conspiracy".]

-- I have a somewhat hard time believing that Tuvok's been married 67
years.  That would make him 74 (assuming he means since the
betrothal)--and even though Vulcans are long-lived, Tuvok looks too
young to be that old.

-- The effects during the initial Numiri attack are quite good,
particularly their "regenerative shields".  Nicely done.

-- The final scene between Paris and Tuvok seemed good.  While Paris's
dialogue was nothing to speak of, Tim Russ definitely has Vulcan
mannerisms down; the last shot of him sitting and reading struck me as
one of the few true notes the show struck.

That about covers it; this was really VOY's first full-fledged
flop (how's THAT for alliteration?  :-)&nbsp;), and it's a shame it's
the last one before a rerun break.  Ah, well.

So, wrapping up:


Writing:A reasonable plot, but wrapped up in a wretched
    script.  Too bad.
Directing:Paris's visions were reasonable, as was most of the
    ship-based stuff, but the planet-bound stuff played like bad film
    noir.
Acting:Tim
    Russ managed to rise above the material, and Beltran
    lucked out by not being trapped in the script.  Other than that,
    nothing to speak of.

OVERALL:Call it a 3.5.  Not a total bomb, but not a pleasant
prospect either.


NEXT WEEK:  A rerun of "Time and Again".  [Gee,
from one T&amp;A show to another... so to speak.  :-)&nbsp;]


Tim Lynch (Harvard-Westlake School, Science Dept.)
tlynch@alumni.caltech.edu
"Not to belittle Maquis tactics, Commander, but this is a very old trick."
"It worked against those Starfleet runabouts."
"You're lucky I wasn't commanding one of them."
			-- Janeway and Chakotay
--
Copyright 1995, Timothy W. Lynch.  All rights reserved, but feel free to ask...
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