Voyager 1x12 "Heroes and Demons"

rating: ****

the story: The Doctor enters the story of Beowulf.

what it's all about: This is one of those episodes where if I tell you it's a classic, you'll agree, because most fans, even the ones who don't generally like Voyager, will say the same thing.  It's hugely entertaining, and a great spotlight for the Doctor.

That it's a "holodeck episode," where some sort of malfunction means the holodeck is more than just entertainment, is well beside the point, as with the best "holodeck episodes." 

The Doctor had an uphill battle, in a lot of ways, right from the start.  On a superficial level, he was already a redundant character, the second franchise artificial life form, after Next Generation's android Data.  The Doctor, of course, was, as his full title explains, an Emergency Medical Hologram, forced by circumstances to remain in operation far longer than originally intended.  This had the effect of making him grumpy, and until "Heroes and Demons" that was pretty much all there was to him.

"Heroes" supersizes the character into an instant icon of the series.  He doesn't even interact with the crew for most of the episode, but rather characters in a Beowulf program, including a buxom warrior so electrifying in the episode the actress playing her (Marjorie Monaghan) would later be considered for the part of Enterprise's T'Pol.  (It's kind of sad she never makes another Star Trek appearance, although maybe that's the price for being that distinctive the first time out, rather than impressing with supporting roles like Michelle Forbes and Jeffrey Combs before her.)

The episode makes the Doctor instantly sympathetic in ways he hadn't been before, shoving him well out of his comfort zone and exploring his full potential, which would lead to six seasons of highlights that would've been previously unimaginable, and a level of poignancy that's tough to match in the rest of the franchise.  The simple search for a name, seemingly attained in "Heroes" and all but abandoned in it, too, because of the events therein, became a hallmark that stretched into an alternate timeline during the final episode ("Endgame"), where he settles on...Joe.

And at its heart, it really is just a retelling of Beowulf, right down to how the Doctor ends up being selected for the "away mission" in the first place.  One of the cleverest episodes ever, really.

criteria analysis:

• franchise - Really hard not to love.
• series - Helps make the Doctor a standout and pillar of the crew.
• character - See the above.
• essential - See the above.

notable guest-stars:
Marjorie Monaghan
Michael Keenan

Deep Space Nine 7x5 "Chrysalis"

rating: ***

the story: Bashir gets a chance to show the genetically-enhanced but painfully withdrawn Sarina her true potential.

what it's all about: Until the J.J. Abrams reboot movies, I'm not sure how clear it really was that Star Trek was always about characters who were extreme exceptions to society.  It was clear, to a certain extent, in Next Generation and Deep Space Nine, but seeing these characters so often, no matter the stories that made it obvious, tended to dull the impact, because at the end of the day they always had a family to turn to, the crew at the heart of that particular series.  Abrams put the alienation inherent to the lives of Kirk and Spock front and center.  But "Chrysalis" got there first.

"Chrysalis" is a follow-up to "Statistical Probabilities," one of the more innovative war stories from the sixth season, where we first meet the Jack Pack, genetically-enhanced misfits crippled by their genius, riddled with personality quirks that only compounded their problems.  This was very much a Bashir episode, in which the revelations of the still-earlier "Doctor Bashir, I Presume?" were finally made clear.  While "Chrysalis" clearly features Bashir, too, it's almost more Sarina's story.  Sarina had been the least obnoxious member of the Jack Pack (so-called because Jack was the most obnoxious member), because she was more or less in a catatonic state.  She'd had no chance to assert herself.

Bashir pulls an Awakenings (it's a great Robin Williams movie, and it's a great Robert De Niro movie; do yourself a favor and see it if you can't imagine how that can possibly be true) and allows Sarina to flourish, but in doing so she discovers something worse than her previous existence: she no longer fits in with the rest of the Jack Pack. 

The Jack Pack, basically, is Star Trek in all its ideals taken to a ridiculous extreme.  These guys are brilliant, but they overthink everything.  Imagine if all the heroics in the franchise existed only in the minds of the characters (say, Data processing possible outcomes in the span of nanoseconds, expanded into whole episodes).  Now, what happens when you find one of these guys is able to put the nonsense of the acumen aside, and just do it?  Sarina is basically Kirk.  Yeah.  She's basically Kirk, and every other roguish hero in the franchise, every other character capable of cutting through what's merely possible and making the leap of faith into the impossible. 
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Maybe I'm not explaining it well.  Suffice to say, but "Chrysalis" is a profile of an outsider realizing they're an outsider.  That better?  Anyway, I think it's one of those episodes that just really had to happen.

criteria analysis:

• franchise - Speaks to the heart of what Star Trek is really all about, finding your full potential.
• series - Rounds out several previous episodes.
• character - Bashir ends up taking a backseat to Sarina.
• essential - Does for a guest character what proved to be so hard to do for main characters throughout the franchise.

notable guest-stars:
Faith Salie (Sarina)
Tim Ransom (Jack)
Michael Keenan (Patrick)
Hilary Shepard (Lauren)
Aron Eisenberg (Nog)

Deep Space Nine 6x9 "Statistical Probabilities"

rating: ****

the story: Bashir becomes guardian to a team of eccentric fellow "augments."

what it's all about: Chances are if you had a problem with revelation of Bashir's childhood genetic enhancements as revealed in last season's "Doctor Bashir, I Presume?," "Statistical Probabilities" is the episode that completely justifies it.  It's also a completely unique franchise take on the genius think tank concept usually depicted by a given series' main cast, characters capable of and interested in solving problems.  If this had been an original series episode (and actually, just about every other incarnation), the guest characters in "Probabilities" would've turned out to not only be horribly misguided but the source for a giant problem that ends up imperiling everyone (think Richard Daystrom in "The Ultimate Computer").

But the misfit geniuses in "Probabilities" are a direct commentary on Bashir himself, and the viewer's newfound awareness that he possesses an typically brilliant mind, too.  He and his new friends are applying their smarts to calculating the expected outcome of the Dominion War, and they don't come up with good results.  The episode is mostly about how even smart people can outsmart themselves, overthink something so that they end up with a distorted viewpoint, and that's pretty clever for a franchise that so often glorifies smart people (think Spock or Data or Seven).  Besides the fact that no one ends up looking like a villain, which is refreshing in and of itself, "Probabilities" also probes the nature of outcasts, another thing frequently at the heart of the franchise, and just as typically exhibited by those same geniuses.  It's actually more common for Star Trek to feature isolated individuals who really only fit in with the specific colleagues that comprise each cast, than anything.  But rarely is this actually explored.  Later, in the Abrams movies, it would become much more common, but originally it was more or less taken for granted.  This is the rare exception.

When I use the term "misfits," it's no exaggeration.  These are neurotic individuals, exemplified by the manic Jack, who actually becomes endearing throughout the course of the episode.  The whole "Jack Pack" actually returns in the seventh season's "Chrysalis," in which we see another side of Sarina, the quiet girl and the only one of them, as a result, not sabotaging herself by an abrasive personality (such as the overly sexual Lauren or sad sack Patrick).  In The X-Files, this group had a parallel in the Lone Gunmen, who were fortunate enough to gain a short-lived spin-off.  That was never going to happen with the Jack Pack, of course, but it would certainly have been unique!

The other thing that's refreshing about the episode is how it handles the Dominion War, as more of a concept than reality, which works extremely well as a standalone episode set during the arc but without needing to fight any of the battles that otherwise typified it.  This was a purely intellectual affair.  Pity poor Bashir...But at least there's newfound respect for how he tempered his own exaggerated sense of self over the course of the series, so that he could at last embrace his own potential.  Some people aren't as lucky, alas.

One last tidbit: We get a glimpse at Damar's elevation to the forefront of Dominion affairs, which is a crucial development for the character as he marches ever forward to his destiny...

criteria analysis:

• franchise - A clever look at a defining Star Trek characteristic: the smart guys.
• series - An equally clever look at the Dominion War arc.
• character - A Bashir spotlight that helps put him in context.
• essential - Much too fun to even consider dismissing.

notable guest-stars:
Tim Ransom (Jack)
Faith Salie (Sarina)
Hilary Shepard (Lauren)
Michael Keenan (Patrick)
Casey Biggs (Damar)
Jeffrey Combs (Weyoun)