3x06 Remember

[6.3/10] The core ideas of “Remember” are interesting. A seemingly kind society’s grievous sins. The forced relocation and implied extermination of undesirables. A young woman whose natural empathy was overcome by indoctrination and justification. An old woman’s regret and desire to let the truth be known. A humble bystander forced to experience this in live terms who becomes just as strident an advocate of exposing the crimes she inadvertently witnessed firsthand through the latest potent sci-fi phenomena. With the right execution, this could have been Voyager’s “Inner Light.”

Instead, the writers decide to filter it all through tired tropes and drippy romance.

I get what they’re trying to do. In a vacuum, it’s laudable, even necessary, to add a personal angle to broad political events. It’s one of the things Star Trek does best -- take a grand diplomatic or scientific problem and help us connect to it through how it affects a character we know and can sympathize with.

Through that lens, you can understand why they would throw B’Elanna-as-Corinna into a flashback romance with a member of the “repressives” -- the people that the Inarans (our aliens-of-the-week) marginalize within their society. We’re meant to invest in her relationship with Dathan, a young man who represents that class, to where his death seems like a tragedy and her turning on him seems like a betrayal. Rooting the societal in the personal is a smart tack.

But maybe I’m a crusty old grump now, but it’s hard to be too invested in a stock faux-teenage romance. Dathan is a big block of wood. The actors have minimal chemistry, and there’s a tonal oddness to seeing grown adults playing as lovestruck teenagers. The “cute boy comes through my window but daddy doesn’t approve” setup is a gigantic cliche. Nothing about the romance feels real or compelling enough to serve the script’s purposes.

The vibe doesn’t work either. I’m no prude, but between B’Elanna’s dream sex and Janeway’s mostly-nude painting ritual in “Sacred Ground”, you can practically hear Rick Berman shouting, “We need more sex appeal!” at the writing staff. Worse yet, since it takes a while for the story to tap into the political point to all of these, the early going here feels concerningly akin to the candle ghost drek of TNG’s “Sub Rosa”. This isn’t a setup for a serious examination of long-held regrets and whitewashed oppression; it’s more bad romance novel shtick.

It doesn’t help that the source of the “mystery” is pretty obvious. I’m always a bit hesitant to slate 1990s Trek for having easy-to-figure-out solutions because I watched Voyager as a kid. I don’t remember this episode off-hand, but who knows, maybe the details were lodged in my brain somewhere.

Still, if you’ve watched enough Star Trek to get this far, chances are you know that when a crewmember is experiencing some weird psychic phenomenon, and some telepathic aliens just hopped on board, there’s probably a connection. (See also: TNG’s “Violations”.) The episode’s efforts to suggest other explanations rather than an Inaran deliberately giving B’Elanna these dreams are pretty unconvincing. Savvy viewers probably put two-and-two together here pretty quickly, even if this was a first-time watch.

Nonetheless, I appreciate the fact that the feints serve a purpose. Jor Brel, the head Inaran, coming up with implausible alternative explanations serves the larger theme of Inaran leaders lying about and covering up their genocide. Jora Mirell, the real Corinna, trying to give an outsider the facts through telepathy and personal experience, but doing so surreptitiously to work around the cover-up, adds an interesting angle to the answer. Ahe fact that Jora Mirell will give her life to share this truth adds more force to her message. (Though it’s not really clear to me why she picked B’Elanna in particular.)

That's what’s so frustrating about this episode to me. On paper, it’s sound. The romance is stock, but serves an important narrative purpose. The mystery is obvious, but the answer ties into the themes and the big character choices here. The execution is just poor, or at least middling, to where you can see the seams at every turn.

Credit where it’s due, this episode asks a lot of Roxann Dawson, and while it’s not a sparkling performance necessarily, she’s very game and clearly giving it her all. While she’s not able to sell this tepid romance, and her righteous indignation once she learns what happened is solid yet unspectacular, the changes in her expression when Corinna goes from trying to protect Dathan to gradually internalizing her father’s venom is truly strong work. This might not be a Star Trek masterclass, but Dawson acquits herself a fair bit better than poor overmatched Garrett Wang and Robert Duncan McNeill did just a few episodes ago in “Chute”.

Likewise, guest star Bruce Davison does a superb job overcoming the cliches as Corinna’s dad and delivering a subtly malevolent performance that underscores the insidiousness of his character’s indoctrination and extermination plans. To that end, there's thematic potency here. I’m not sure what the real life analogue is meant to be here. (Armenian Genocide, maybe? The forced relocation makes me think of America’s treatment of indigenous peoples.) There's plenty of meat to this one.

“Remember” simply struggles to capitalize on it. The episode ends on an uplifting note, despite the grievous crimes uncovered. Janeway rightfully plays the noninterference card, but all but nudges B'Elanna to tell Corinna’s story. B’Elanna convincing a young Inaran to experience the same truth using the same psychic powers is a nice middle ground. B’Elanna doesn’t get to go bursting into the Inaran town square revealing the truth, but she gets to make a difference, and start spreading the word to someone who is a part of that society. In that, the real Corinna’s sacrifice and attempt to rectify her mistakes can bear fruit. That's a heartening suggestion of success and progress.

That's the big thing here -- on paper this episode should work. It has all the ingredients. But by spending so much time in a setup detached from our characters and their world, unable to establish lived-in relationships or romance in a short period of time, the actual rendition of all those strong ideas comes out disappointing, and sometimes downright dull. “Remember” has noble intentions, with its narrative and with its message, but can’t quite deliver on them.