Written By: Brannon Braga
Directed By: Alexander Singer
Rating: **** (out of 5)
We have the aliens who use hosts, have the ability to dissolve walls (the acid for blood) and assemble their victims in one place and hide before suddenly jumping out. We have the Janeway/Ripley similarities with the clothing, sweat and big guns and finally we have the dark areas and shadows for atmosphere. The only thing missing is the Queen. Apart from copying �Aliens,� �Macrocosm� reminds me a great deal of the memorably hated TNG episode �Genesis� which I also enjoyed to an extent.
Despite the similarities to one of my favorite movies and despite the fact that it has many cliches and uses science that I would guess is not even probable enough to think about (Hey, I�m 16! Who knows what these clever scientists have discovered!)? I still found myself enjoying �Macrocosm.� I might be the only one but I found the thoughtless fun here to be a nice time-waster and at a good time too because �The Q and the Grey� was a rather heavy, if misguided, episode.
So with mindless action being the thrust of the episode there isn�t much else to really mention in terms of deciphering any visual metaphors or trying to dish out any Trek mythology. �Macrocosm� has nothing else to offer that is rich and interesting or even original.
I personally liked the idea of these macrocosmic aliens. They were also nicely animated for a TV series. Some of the CGI integration was surprisingly good like when Janeway stabbed one of the aliens and when the Doc went to inject one of them. On the other hand some of it was horrid, when Janeway was fighting off the alien at the end was most notably pathetic. Overall I�m still quite impressed, even if the animators didn�t have to contend with the �slippery floor� too much which often makes animation look unrealistic. (A �slippery floor� is what animators call the real ground when adding animation. It�s really hard to get the animation actually looking like it is standing!)
The story lacks any character work at all and only attempts to get Kate Mulgrew into Sigourney Weaver mode. The story even is a little forced to simply get as many cliches into 44 minutes as Brannon Braga possibly can.
The only other point to mention is the Tak-Tak who are just too ridiculous to think about. I hope these idiots don�t become reoccurring characters, they�d beat the Kazon in silliness any day!
Well, I�m just going around in circles now. There isn�t much here to speak of but I still enjoyed it. �Macrocosm� is cliched, forced, rushed and � fun! It seems that fun is Season 3�s attitude!