3x19 Rise

[5.5/10] I ragged on the previous episode, “Darkling”, quite a bit. But you know what? “Darkling” is memorable. It’s a terrible episode, but something about Robert Picardo’s campy performance, the various historical figures being experimented with in comical ways, the cornball melodrama villain “I’m going to throw the damsel over a cliff!” routine at least make it entertaining in a ridiculous sort of way.

“Rise” is undoubtedly a better episode. The foundations of the story are sound. The character focus is well-intentioned. And there’s a legitimate emotional core at play. All three are things the creative team working on “Darkling” would hopefully have killed for.

But “Rise” is also painfully boring, predictable, and vanilla. I’ve often said before that I wonder how these episodes play for people who haven't watched as much Star Trek as I have. But in 1997, there had already been a decade’s worth of episodes from this era of Star Trek. This episode is a collection of familiar tropes from almost all of them, delivered in a fine enough, but completely unremarkable manner.

I often think about Zack Handlen’s comment on Star Trek being like jazz, it’s not about the tunes you play, which aren’t necessarily original, but the flourishes and embellishments you add onto them that make it distinct in your own. “Rise” is Star Trek with no embellishments to speak of, just the most solid, but perfunctory rendition of story beats even the casual fan would likely see coming from a mile away, with nothing memorable in either the construction or the presentation of the story.

The premise sees Voyager helping some barely-sketched locals dealing with a barrage of asteroids hurtling toward their colonies. Neelix volunteers for a rescue mission headed by Tuvok, to retrieve a scientist named Dr. Vatm who claims to have vital info about the asteroids, but isn’t volunteering it. After a shuttle craft, the unlikely duo have to work with a few locals to restore an orbital lift that could get them into transporter range.

Nothing about that premise is exciting in a vacuum, but it’s a solid setup when it comes to Star Trek plots. You have a major problem with a ticking clock in the form of the impending asteroids. You have an immediate problem in the form of needing to repair the lift that can get them in range of Voyager. And you have a mystery, about what Dr. Vatm knows that he isn’t saying, and why, especially when hints of foul play and sabotage.

The problem is that nothing in the characters or the situation itself is interesting. We know basically nothing about the Nezu, the aliens-of-the-week who our heroes are working with, so their plight comes off generic. The theoretical wrinkles to using an old, jury-rigged lift like thin oxygen and the risk of plummeting never feel especially perilous or serious. Part of that’s due to budget limitations. Voyager runs into the same obvious green screen problems Deep Space Nine did when visiting the Founders' homeworld. I don’t want to slate the episode too harshly for that. The fact remains though that there’s never enough tension (no pun intended) as the situation would seem to warrant.

That said, much of it comes down to the fact that all of the guest characters involved are one-dimensional, if that. “Rise” is kind of a murder mystery, with a hidden saboteur involved. The problem is that we barely know the other four characters on board the lift: Dr. Vatm, a diplomatic type, a mine-worker, and a foundry survivor, to where it doesn’t really matter which one is the culprit. Neelix has some generic back-and-forths with the female foundry worker that gives her the slightest bit of shading, but it’s not much.

So when it turns out to be Sklar, the diplomat, it’s mildly surprising because he’s a paunchy geek type, but it elicits more of a yawn than a gasp because none of the other characters really matter. Hell, the reveal that he was in cahoots with some random invading aliens the whole time comes off like a head-scratcher, since it doesn’t explain his motives. Likewise, the fact that the aliens “invade” by masquerading projectiles as asteroids is kind of cool, but it barely matters to the story.

It’s also strange that Janeway goes full ham against those invading aliens, risking her ship and her crew over the confrontation. It’s barely a sidequest here, so it doesn’t really affect the quality of the episode much. But it’s strange, to say the least, that when the aliens show up claiming that the Nezu planet is there, the Captain doesn’t try to resolve this diplomatically, or decipher whose claim is true, or do any investigation really. She’s just like, “Well, these random colonists on this random planet told me it’s theirs, so that’s good enough for me to go to war over!” The whole thing amounts to about one minute in the episode, but the whole thing feels strange and miscalibrated.

The only truly commendable, and essential element of this one is the fact that it strives to advance the Neelix/Tuvok relationship. The pair have always been prickly, and Voyager likes to play that for laughs. Tuvok and Neelix have a bit of a Bert and Ernie dynamic, and I enjoy seeing the colorful one annoy the uptight one in most settings. (See also: Q and Picard, SpongeBob and Squidward, etc.)

But Neelix has been growing this season. His choice to take on new duties, to try to prove his value to the crew after “Fair Trade”, makes him worthy of recognition and reevaluation from his Vulcan doubting thomas. Pairing the two of them up on what ends up being a survival mission is a canny way to bring out their issues, and show Neelix’s value in a way that maybe Tuvok can start to appreciate him.

In that, “Rise” plays a bit like a reverse of “The Galileo Seven” from The Original Series. There, the stuffy, pragmatic Vulcan was accused of being heartless, but he ended up having the skills and courage necessary to save them in a desperate situation. Here, it’s the opposite. Tuvok is the skeptical Vulcan who looks askance at Neelix’s “intuition” and efforts at interpersonal camaraderie. But it ends up being Neelix’s ability to suss out that something is off with their fellow passengers that helps save them, and his sticking with a hunch that does the same.

It’s a nice idea! Neelix dirty challenging Tuvok on failing to appreciate him or his growth is an encouraging moment in the evolution of their relationship. And I like the idea of dramatizing the fact that Tuvok gets it by having him spur Neelix to action by calling to mind the memory of Neelix’s beloved and dearly departed sister. Much of this episode is about acknowledging Neelix’s growth and value, but I like that Tuvok grows a little himself, seeing the value in the more personal side of crew dynamics that comes more naturally to his Talaxian counterpart.

The problem with the emotional part is the same as the problem with the rest of the episode. The execution is simply dull and uninvolving. The actual dialogue where Neelix confronts Tuvok on this is on-the-nose, and lays out their issues in a strictly superficial manner. An even Tuvok’s bit with reviving Neelix via conjuring the memory of his sister is a fairly stock beat.

There’s few things explicitly wrong with “Rise”. There’s scores of things that can be improved, but this is a sound script with all the components that make for a good Star Trek episode. Grand and immediate problems, meaningful personal relationships, personal breakthroughs that connect to the sci-fi phenomenon of the week are all there.

But the best episodes of Star Trek, and even the interesting failures, don't just run through those elements with a sense of bland competence. They do it with a certain flair, a certain humanity, a certain something extra that makes the story feel personal and true in some way. “Rise” hits all the expected notes, but never finds the melody in them.