'The Thaw'

Stardate: Unknown
Written By: Richard Gadas and Micheal Piller
Directed By: Marvin Rush
Rating: ** (out of 5)

�The Thaw,� like many Voyager episodes, had potential to be a fascinating episode.  Fascinating as a Harry episode, fascinating in examining alien cultures and fascinating in examining the emotion of fear.  But what we unfortunately get is an episode that believes it is riveting and suspenseful, but is in fact a bit ridiculous and often un-watchable hour.

I say un-watchable because the way the clowns� act (well, like clowns) and the way it was directed seemed silly.  We have clowns jumping around, doing stupid things, ridiculous music, silly acting and even sillier costumes.  The music is definitely the worst!  It seems to me this episode didn�t want to take anything seriously in it�s look and feel, and yet we have quite a serious plot!  It just doesn�t work.

I must admit that I enjoyed Michael McKean�s performance as the �Fear Clown,� he manages to put a lot of energy into dialogue, even if he does look silly!

One unique edge �The Thaw� does have, and you must give it credit, is that fear is normally manifested as creatures and gore, but here it manifests itself into an evil clown.  I realize that the computer creating these images probably couldn�t create creatures etc, but its interesting to see how a clown can become �fear.�

I found it strange that the clowns didn�t actually kill, but the person killed themselves from fright and that shows us that fear dominates us when around.  I also found the conflict between Janeway and the Clown.  Janeway tries to imagine fear as an embodiment to try and out wit it.

This could�ve been a good Harry episode if he confronted the fears inside him and we got to see how these fears make the Harry we know.  Instead we get one isolated incident that has no real meaning for the episode or Harry.  And even Janeway could�ve got some character work in here with her fears and perhaps even on her experiences with the emotion fear.  Maybe Janeway somehow learnt not to be dominated by fear and therefore can outwit it.

But no, we get no character work and therefore nothing riveting.  So without any character work or any real tension, we get virtually a waste of an episode.

I did however enjoy how the plot was set up with the stasis units and the people who are governed by fear and have created the Clown from their doubts, even if Voyager broke the Prime Directive in the process.  Funny how the Prime Directive is only an issue when the writers say so.  I found that the �he takes a while to read the thoughts� and �he gets distracted from the thought reading� plot elements to be too obviously setup for the �climax.�

I did enjoy the attempts by Janeway, and the Doc who was put into the program because his thoughts can�t be read, to trick the Clown into releasing the hostages.  I enjoyed how Janeway was put into the hologram via some tech holographic trick and how at the end everything just went dark and we roll to credits.

But what�s to happen with the survivors?  Do they go back to their planet?  Do they get a shuttle and find another world?  Do they stay on Voyager for a while?  It�s okay bringing up issues in a story, but ignoring them to suite another part of the story isn�t too good.

In the end, another wasted opportunity on the �Voyagers Wasted Opportunities� list, an episode that could�ve been an intriguing episode into fear and dealing with fear, but instead falls flat on its face, without even trying to get up.