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Posted:
09:34:21 on May 17 2001
By: Steve Krutzler
Dept: Reviews - Voyager
Reviews Ex Deus
"Renaissance Man"
Written for TrekWeb by O. Deus
Summary: A "perfectly functional" episode that pretty much ties up the
Doctor's development and offers a somewhat decent adventure plot to boot.
And it's always fun to see the Doctor take Tuvok down a notch or two.
Renaissance Man isn't a particularly inspiring episode but it is, as a
Vulcan might say, "perfectly adequate." It doesn't remotely measure up to the
wild brillance of Tinker Tailor, the episode it serves as a sequel to. But
it does put the Doctor's character under real pressure and creates genuine
tension and conflict, something very few of the season's adventure stories
have managed so far.
Like Tinker Tailor, Renaissance Man's villains are once again the
Hierarchy race. And they use their ability to see what the Doctor sees to
keep him under control. There is also the tension between the supervisor
character and a more imaginatively-minded and kinder subordinate. But the
episode, by attempting to recreate Tinker Tailor, misses the things that made
that episode work. Where the office drone dynamic of Tinker Tailor provided
a character we could relate to and linked him to the Doctor's own troubles,
Renaissance Man employs the aliens as stock characters: "bad alien" and "decent but
spineless sidekick". It's been done more times than can be counted and
Renaissance Man, unlike Tinker Tailor, brings nothing new to the table.
Indeed, the only reason for this stock relationship is to lead up to the
predictable ending where the spineless alien will finally turn on his
master. Worse, it's the only reason the aliens are turned into renegades
disconnected from the hierarchy. This makes the entire thing look ridiculous
since basically Janeway is being held hostage by two fat guys, only one of
whom is even any kind of threat. You don't see Kirk or Picard or Sisko
remaining imprisoned for long under these circumstances. But they seem to
manage to produce complete chaos on Voyager. This is more than a little
reminscent of Janeway's embarassing struggle with two Ferengi.
On the Voyager end, though, the Doctor outwitting and even physically
defeating most of the Voyager crew is certainly entertaining. The ECH once
again makes a case for his abilities as he outwits Tuvok and then defeats
him in hand to hand combat. He poses as three different officers, fends off
Paris's romantic overtures and knocks out Chakotay and Kim and stows them in
the overhead compartment. He takes over and runs Voyager and watching him do
it is fun, even if his complete capitulation to the kidnapper's demands is a
little odd. He may be fearful for Janeway's safety but the ECH's tactical
scenarios should have told him that the best way to assaure a hostage's
safety doesn't rest in complete compliance with a kidnapper's demands. The
constant monitoring is an important tool for reinforcing the plausibility of
his actions but it's not quite enough.
Indeed, much of this episode seems to be setting up material for the
series finale. That may be appropriate as Renaissance Man is the last
episode before the finale but it seems weak and misplaced because the
Doctor's behavior and Janeway's attitudes both seem a little odd. This is
why arcs help set up changes in character behavior, instead of sudden
changes occuring in the context of an episode. But it does serve to cap off
the Doctor's character development.
The EMH proclaims that he's happy to be a hologram and doesn't want to
be human. He confesses his love for Seven and begins developing a friendship
with Janeway. He demonstrates his ability to do just about anything and even
gets to sing again. And considering that the reality is that the Doctor was
always Voyager's breakout character, far more so than Seven of Nine, and
its main character as well, it's only appropriate that he be assigned the next to
last Voyager episode. Voyager's Renaissance Man.
Next week: Voyager's series finale. Hey, it made Mulgrew cry.
