Story By: Mike Sussman
Directed By: David Livingston
Rating: *** (out of 5)
One thing which is standout in �The Haunting of Deck 12� is the dark and creepy directing from David Livingston. Livingston creates a wonderful feeling of darkness similar to his directing in the Season 5 opener �Night� which Livingston also directed. The directing almost creates a horror feel to it, except only once did I get some kind of a fright, when Neelix is frightened by Tuvok near an out of control Turbolift door, and that was mild anyway.
But no matter how good the directing, it�s the story that really drives an episode, and in the case of �The Haunting of Deck 12� the story is, well, a different story. I can see how the writer�s formulated this episode, they started off by saying �Well, we have these kids, we�ve only made two good uses of them since they arrived (�Ashes to Ashes� and �Child�s Play�) so we need to use them again to show the viewers that we didn�t make a mistake by picking these guys up in �Collective�.� It�s obvious that the writers are showing us that despite all their Borg perfection and knowledge they are still children and have child-like reactions to certain situations; in this case fear and their imaginations.
It�s a good enough point and it comes across really well here as Neelix tells his story. Unfortunately the story that Neelix does tell the kids I feel would�ve been great without the need for Neelix to make it up. I feel it had some good conflict and some nice subtle character work, and if it wasn�t focused Neelix�s imagination it could�ve actually been scarier. At the same time, the fact that it is all made up by Neelix serves other good purposes. How many time has Star Trek had a story of a gaseous life-form take over the ship or a cloud that has some kind of life in it? How many times has it been done with Voyager alone?! I�d say enough times to make it as cliched a holodeck disaster episode. So by having the episode take place within the confines of Neelix�s mind the story can be about anything. Continuity doesn�t matter, scientific detail is irrelevant (as Icheb points out) and the character�s can behave in any way Neelix says. Sounds like the writers needed an excuse for the norm, the last episode of Voyager will probably be that Voyager was all the imagination of Neelix who is still a garbage trader near Ocampa wishing for a better life.
But what�s missing? �The Haunting of Deck 12� seems as though it should�ve a wonderful episode that is light, fun and atmospheric. And it is! But for some reason there was something about �The Haunting of Deck 12� that just shouted �filler� to me. I believe that one reason that this isn�t completely successful is the fact that we never find out what exactly Voyager is doing in the middle of the Nebula. The writer�s may have done that to add some mysticism and realism to Neelix�s story, but it just comes across as a plot-hole. I also believe that Neelix�s story was too realistic and not imaginative enough. You can understand that because the story is being told too children that it wouldn�t follow the normal patterns of a Trek story and it wouldn�t be as connected as normal (for example Chakotay�s Turbolift incident would�ve had no point if this was �real�), but more imagination might�ve made this better.
Apart from the superb directing by Livingston, there is also some fun acting here. I really enjoyed Kate Mulgrew here as she spoke with both versions of Voyager (the alien and just normal). All of the children where great here, I particularly liked Manu Intiraymi (Icheb) at the end denying that he believed the story. He might look to old for stories like that, but without a proper childhood he�s be just a gullible as little Mezoti, and Mazoti, don�t forget, is just as smart as Icheb. I enjoyed Mazoti�s input to the story here too. I really enjoyed the cameo by the beautiful Zoe McLellen as Tal Celes, the Bajoran from �Good Shepherd.� I hope we see much more of Celes, and the other misfits, in the future. CGI-wise, there was nothing standout here, the odd cool effect showed up.
I�m in two minds about �The Haunting of Deck 12.� In one hand it everything seems logical and I had some fun here, on the other hand this episode seems wasted. I think this is slightly above average so I�ll settle on ***, saved by David Lingston�s directing.