OVEG: Jetrel

Description: We open, and Neelix is playing pool with Tuvok, which is typical of the teasers we've had this half of the season. Tuvok and Tom are both still in uniform since they're off duty, of course. It's not as if they have real clothes or anything. Neelix gets called to the bridge because a Haakonian shuttle has approached wanting to speak to him. Neelix explains that the Haakonians conquered his homeworld after being at war with Talaxians for the better part of the decade. Naturally, I like them already. The sole occupant is Jetrel, whom Neelix hates, which is all the more reason for me to like him. It turns out that Jetrel discovered something called the metreon cascade, then led the team that turned it into a weapon that was later dropped on the moon of Rinax over Talax; it killed 300,000 people, which makes him a mass murderer in Neelix's book.

Oh, I wonder where this is going.

Just to show my geek creds, the Star Trek: The Next Generation Technical Manual says that the warhead of a photon torpedo contains 1.5 kg of anti-matter and an appropriate amount of matter, which means you get roughly a sixty megaton bomb in one of those things. This is much larger than most modern nuclear weapons, so it's only logical to extrapolate from that that Voyager itself is capable of causing far, far more deaths with their own arsenal of weapons. In fact, the mere fact that they have interstellar travel means both species are capable of causing far greater damage, because any species capable of achieving the power necessary for warp drive is going to have to at least discovered practical nuclear energy, and we all know that that came long after the development of atomic bombs. And even taking that aside, the ability to move at high speeds should allow them to drop objects on a planet at highly relativistic speeds, causing massive damage as well. In other words, a weapon that kills 300,000 people is nothing nice certainly, but it's not as if weapons that far outdid it aren't already a part of their arsenal.

This leads into the main problem of this episode: what was the point? The episode wants so badly to be a serious examination of morality in science and warfare, yet what we'll see in an episode that goes on and on about cowardice in all its forms, is that the episode itself is too afraid to actually let the audience truly judge the situation. It's obvious that this is a take on the US bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, an issue that has been hotly debated for over half a century and will more than likely continue for generations to come; there is reasonable support for the bombing, and there is reasonable support to condemn it. Likewise there are legitimate arguments on both sides of the issue of the Manhattan Project, which produced the bomb that was used. But because they feared the audience might actually side with Jetrel over Neelix, the entire story is skewed to paint the Talaxians as the victims and Jetrel as a monster. Even when Jetrel later accounts for himself, his only support was that he had to do it in the name of science. It calls to mind the film Just Cause where Sean Connery debates a hot political topic. The details are not relevant, but suffice to say that because the writers believed in a certain opinion on that topic, his opponent's arguments were anemic and torn to shreds, and he quickly concedes. Likewise, rather than allowing Jetrel to attempt to justify what he'd done, he's allowed little reasonable defense. The episode hamstrings him while simultaneously trying to tell the story of a man seeking redemption from one of his victims; it could have worked so much better if the creators hadn't been such cowards.

A simple way to account for all of this would be to say that the techno-BS of the weapon was capable of wiping out all life on a world, so that we see why a weapon that killed 300,000 is significant to species that can annihilate cities with a single bomb. This explains away the illogic of the weapon AND gives a greater understanding of why Jetrel did what he did (we do know that in the episode, Talax surrendered unconditionally the following day, which I hope you see makes no sense, or points out the cowering nature of Neelix's people, whichever answer you'd prefer; they're probably equally valid). However, like I said, that could leave room for sympathy for him; he's got to be a scientist so obsessed with his toy that he can't see all the death that will come from it. You could tell that story if you want, but this episode goes about that all wrong, as we see as things unroll.

Anyway, back to the episode. Jetrel shows up and says that Neelix needs to be checked for a possibly fatal disease he may have picked up during the rescue efforts after the weapon went off. He explains that the disease attacks the body "on the molecular level" and that eventually the atomic structure "will undergo fission." You know what's funny? When he said the "on the molecular level" part, I actually thought (showing my Trek experience here) "Hey, at least they didn't say something moronic like subatomic." Then the next sentence he says something that not only contradicts the first part, it fulfills my "moronic" alternative AND compounds it with something idiotic in its own right. If there's anything in the body that could logically fission (how the hell would you fission hydrogen, which only has one particle in its nucleus) it's going to be present in only the most trace of amounts. Otherwise, it's going to take an influx of energy to do it, and we're not talking about an extra Twinkie or two.

You know what would be great? Just once for someone to give one of those technobabble things, then have the character nod and go "You're lying. What you just said is not only impossible, it's also stupid. Beam him out of here."

Anyway, Jetrel says that he's examining Talaxians to see if he can one day develop a cure. Janeway brings this to Neelix, but Neelix wants nothing to do with him. Neelix describes Jetrel as "a man who has made it his life's work to develop a weapon to destroy as many Talaxians as possible." Well, I guess we can see now why the writers were afraid we'd side with Jetrel, huh? And speaking of which, the next scene offers us another bit of what I was referring to earlier. In the middle of discussing Neelix's treatment, Neelix decides to bring up the war again. Jetrel is provided a pathetic defense in the fact that he wasn't the one who deployed the weapon, allowing Neelix to pound on him. They undermine their efforts to make Jetrel a tragic figure by making his arguments nonsensical.

By the way, at this point I should probably just mention that whatever my own opinions are on science, warfare, and morality are, that has no basis for my opinion of this episode. What I am annoyed about in all of this is that they have tried to pass a character off on us whose personality traits are self-contradicting. He's an amoral man on a moral crusade, a genius whose arguments are moronic. That's not complexity, that's stupidity. If he's sorry for what he did, have him show that he is in some way rather than presenting idiotic justifications for what he's done. If he's not, then don't pretend that he is. The writers are either too terrified that the audience might side with the bad guy to make him realistic, or are so poor at their craft they've no idea how to construct a rational argument for their own villain.

Anyway, down in Sickbay, Jetrel is looking Neelix over. Neelix takes the time to tell a story that's meant to be a parable on how bad Jetrel is, blah blah blah, and it turns out he's got the syndrome. Too bad for you, shithead, got a story to go with that?

What follows is the hard point in any Neelix-centric story: the Stupid Neelix Moment. Nevertheless, this one manages to pull it out. Neelix, talking to Kes, says that one good thing comes from this: at least now Kes isn't going to die first. You know, only Neelix can find a way to take a fatal disease and still make it sound like he's a selfish prick.

Jetrel goes to Janeway with a plan to use the transporter to isolate the isotope from the explosion to create an antibody to the disease. Janeway contacts Chakotay and tells him to change course to Talaxia. "That's a significant detour, captain," Chakotay says. "I'm aware of that commander, but it may mean saving Neelix's life," Janeway answers. "Oh," Chakotay answers, "in that case, f*ck him! F*ck him long and hard and deep until the moment when he feels the icy hand of death upon his beating heart, then slowly close to still it, MWAHAHAHAHAHA!!!"

Oh wait, sorry, that's what I said. Won't happen again.

Anyway, Neelix is back in Sickbay again with Jetrel, so it's time for more of this stupid debate. This time, however, it's obvious that Neelix is just being a dick. He starts going on about the military choice to deploy the weapon, that it was wrong for the military to choose the moon. What a pity that he's pissing and moaning to someone who isn't in the military. Of course, since Jetrel must lose every single argument, he counters with yet another fairly lame argument about science and all that. I won't go over all this again; by now you get the point and have likely reached your own conclusions.

Anyway, more stuff, more stories, Jetrel talks about his family abandoning him, Neelix talks about the rescue attempts, and then we find out that Jetrel is dying. Cut to the next part, which is a Neelix dream sequence... pardon me while I shudder at that thought. However, as part of my credit where it's due thing, it's back in the pool hall with Neelix playing against Jetrel with the issue of "calling a safety" (a way of leaving the opponent with no shot when you're afraid they'll run the table) that was the center of that opening is brought up in a wholly relevant manner, thus making the teaser actually a meaningful contribution to the episode instead of a waste of air time, as is so often the case with Voyager. Boy, it's really pathetic that between this and Faces, my greatest compliments are the existence of proper storytelling techniques instead of garbage.

Previously I've professed on this site that despite my loathing of Janeway, that I've felt that the flaws of the character are despite the efforts of Kate Mulgrew, not because of them, that her talents still are on display. Likewise, my disdain for Neelix is everywhere -obviously, it's in every episode in one form or another- yet I also believe that Ethan Philips isn't responsible for this. I think the character was improperly conceived, and that the makeup job undermined the rest, so that the character was never able to move beyond just being... just being a shithead. If you've seen him outside Voyager, you know he's not a bad actor, and occasionally, when he's not trying to be funny, or self-centered, or butting in, or bossing people around, or telling stories, or you know, being alive... okay, let me start again. On very, very, very rare moments, Philips is given dialogue and direction that let him use his talents in spite of the character he's playing. The description of the attack on the moon is one, and another is the scene that follows in the mess hall. It really doesn't help the character of Neelix so much as it allows Philips to show that he could have done better if the character hadn't been ruined from the get-go.

Kes finds Neelix in the mess hall, hiding. He admits that all his stories about the war and his heroism were lies, that in fact he went into hiding to avoid having to fight. He says that he felt that he thought the war was unjust and that Talax was fighting for reasons that weren't killing for (another opportunity, by the way, that is cast aside. If Talax were the instigators and aggressors of this war, and Jetrel's people the ones who had been fighting to defend themselves, it would have cast his actions in a far different light, but I'll explore that further in a moment). But, he adds, that those were just lies he told himself, that the truth was that he was a coward.

And then, once again, the cowardice of the creators comes into play. Kes asks him about what the penalty for what he did was, and he said it would have been death. Thus, Kes reasons, there was nothing cowardly about it. Oh please. See, the writers trip over themselves here trying to have their cake and eat it too: you can't make Neelix's actions noble while simultaneously making Jetrel's unjustifiable without obfuscating the facts. They could have given a reasonable self-justification for Jetrel, an internally logical and understandable reason why he did what he did (not about the morality, but simply for motivation), that would also make this point with Neelix more poignant. If Talax were the vicious and brutal aggressors, then both men's motivations are covered! Instead the writers themselves have called a safety so that heaven forbid the issue not be clear cut on who's the good guy and who isn't here. Neelix is the good guy; he can do no wrong. Jetrel is the bad guy; he can do no right.

Kes compounds the issues, going on about the horrible burden Neelix has had to carry, how much he must have suffered by being a coward and a liar for so long. Bitch, please. Sometimes you can really tell this character is one year old.

One good bit that does come of this is the recognition that Neelix's obsessive need to insult and deride Jetrel at every opportunity is because of his own self-loathing; that it's easy to hate Jetrel, so all the anger at his own failure can be directed at a convenient target. Of course, it's so surrounded by Neelix the martyr that it loses its impact, but it's something.

Down in Sickbay, Jetrel turns the Doctor off. Given that Janeway said she'd give him the ability to prevent that, I guess we see how well Voyager can follow through on even the simplest tasks. While he's off, Jetrel does something to the jar full of gas, and now it becomes a jar full of snot, which is a great advance for science certainly, unrivaled even by the great laboratories of Nickelodian. Neelix shows up to talk and sees said mucus, and plans to go to the captain, so Jetrel grabs a hypospray. Bzzt, off!

Janeway calls down to Sickbay to check on the progress, but when there's no response she activates the Doctor, who fills her in. They ask the computer to locate Jetrel, and it turns out he's in Transporter Room 1. Of course, he doesn't have a comm badge, which prevented the computer from finding Neelix before, but inconsistency is always par for the course on Voyager. Jetrel starts begging that they let him continue; he believes he can bring back the people who were killed by his weapon. Neelix says he's out of his mind, and for once I'm in agreement with him. Jetrel spills out his theory, and I can't help but hear Gene Wilder in Young Frankenstein, "You are talking about the nonsensical ravings of a lunatic mind. Dead is dead." Even Janeway think this sounds nutty, and she's cracked event horizons and nearly killed a cloud, so that's like Art Bell telling you you're being too mistrustful of the government.

Jetrel starts to plead at this point; he wants to show that his theories are not evil, but simply a tool that can be used to heal as well as destroy. This goes a little way towards making him a likeable character. Then he admits that he lied when he said that Neelix was dying, which means he was just seriously messing with Neelix's head, and that goes a long way towards making him a likeable character. Neelix finally pleads on Jetrel's behalf, so they try the kooky theory, and something begins to take form. However, faster than you can say "BRRRRAAAAAAIIIIINNNNNSSSSS" things go bad and Abner Cadaver is lost for good. Jetrel collapses and eventually winds up in Sickbay. Neelix shows up and forgives him, which, you know, I could give a shit about, and apparently Jetrel feels the same, because he just grunts and dies. No more Voyager for him, lucky bastard.

Rating: 5

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