the muse star trek voyager

The Muse (episode)

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A mysterious woman helps Jake write a novel; Lwaxana Troi, pregnant with a son, asks Odo to help her escape her husband.

1.2 Act One
1.3 Act Two
1.4 Act Three
1.5 Act Four
1.6 Act Five
2 Memorable quotes
3.1 Story and script
3.2 Production
3.3 Reception
3.6 Video and DVD releases
4.1 Starring
4.2 Also starring
4.3 Guest stars
4.4 Special guest star
4.5 Uncredited co-stars
4.6.1 Starship references
4.7 External links

Summary [ ]

Jake Sisko is standing on the upper level of the Promenade watching passengers disembark a transport and trying to come up with character ideas based on what he sees on the space station . An alien female emerges from the airlock and catches the eye of Jake before walking away. Odo walks into his office to find Lwaxana Troi crying because she's pregnant .

Act One [ ]

Lwaxana Troi is pregnant with a male child and her husband, Jeyal , is a Tavnian . The problem, as Odo finds out, is that Tavnian children are raised by the parent that is the same sex as the child, never to be seen by the other parent until reaching the age of sixteen. Lwaxana wants to be a part of her child's life, and Jeyal said that would be possible, but apparently he changed his mind when he found out she was pregnant with a boy. Lwaxana has come to Odo for help, but Odo is reluctant to assist.

Later, in the Replimat , Jake is working on a story when the alien woman he saw coming out of the airlock sits down next to him and starts talking. Her name is Onaya and it turns out she has a thing for artists . Onaya talks about how she knew Tavor Kell , a famous Cardassian architect and how she helped him to "stop censoring himself". Jake becomes interested and she joins him at his table. She reveals to Jake that she can teach him exercises to help bring out his creativity and help him be remembered as an artist; Jake is intrigued as he seems to have a case of writer's block and hesitantly admits that he does want to be remembered. They agree to meet later at her quarters on the station.

Act Two [ ]

Back in his quarters , Jake is working on a story when his father, Benjamin Sisko , shows up asking if he's packed for the trip he has planned with his father and Kasidy to the Bajoran outback for three days. Jake says he doesn't want to go because he really needs to focus on this story, and his father understands – although his father doesn't know about Onaya.

In Quark's , Lwaxana is depressed and is telling Worf , Dax , and Kira how she feels like a prisoner in her own home. Being a telepath , Lwaxana's mood seems to be affecting the emotional states of all those around her. Quark asks Odo to get rid of her, and Odo abides, taking her on a walk around the station. When the two arrive at Odo's quarters, Lwaxana tells Odo her food replicator is broken and asks if she can come in and use his. Odo agrees, but finds out it was just an excuse for her to spend more time with him. Exhausted, Lwaxana sits down on Odo's floor (since he doesn't have any furniture) and falls asleep in Odo's arms. Odo graciously transforms one of his arms into a blanket and the other into a pillow – he doesn't seem to mind the situation at all.

Jake arrives at Onaya's quarters, where he feels a little uncomfortable. Onaya assures him there is nothing to worry about – he's there to work. Onaya gives Jake the pen of the famous writer Revalus , and tells Jake to start writing – on paper . Jake says he's never used paper before, but Onaya tells him to write the first line, and then urges him to just keep writing. Onaya starts to bring out Jake's creativity while simultaneously draining his life little by little.

Act Three [ ]

The next morning, Lwaxana and Odo are playing a game of hide and seek . Odo takes on the shape of an object in the room, and Lwaxana tries to guess what or where he is. Their fun is cut short when Odo is informed by one of his deputies that Jeyal, Lwaxana's husband, has arrived on the station. Odo has Jeyal brought to his security office where he informs him that Lwaxana has no intentions of giving up her child to him. Odo then reveals a loophole in Tavnian law which states the male child is the property of the mother's husband and not the child's father. When Lwaxana has her baby, Jeyal will no longer be her husband because Odo plans to marry Lwaxana in a legal Tavnian ceremony. This will end her marriage to Jeyal and allow her to keep the baby. Odo and Lwaxana will remain married for a few months to satisfy Tavnian law and then get an annulment. The only problem is that Odo will have to convince Jeyal that he really wants to marry Lwaxana for the marriage to be valid.

Jake is still busy writing his latest story, and Onaya is still slowly drawing out his creativity and draining his life. Jake comments that he can hardly keep up with the flood of ideas he's having. Suddenly, Jake has a minor nosebleed . Onaya tells Jake he should rest, but Jake is too determined to stop now and keeps on writing.

Act Four [ ]

" I present to you my beloved wife. "

Odo arranges a surprise wedding with Lwaxana where he must convince Jeyal and all those present that his love for Lwaxana is true. Otherwise, someone can challenge the validity of the marriage if they doubt the groom's sincerity – and Jeyal will be one tough critic. The ceremony proceeds, and Odo delivers his speech which sounds superficial. Jeyal calls it a pale declaration of love, but Odo becomes more genuine and talks of how when he first met Lwaxana, she accepted him for who he was and how much that changed him. Jeyal accepts the ceremony, and Odo and Lwaxana are married according to Tavnian law. The child is safe. Quark invites the newly married couple to his bar for a wedding party. After everyone leaves, Lwaxana tells Odo they should probably tell them the truth about their phony marriage but they decide to tell them after the party.

Jake is still writing and appears very tired. Onaya again tells Jake he needs to stop, but he refuses, feeling that he is on a roll. Onaya forces Jake to stop by taking his pen and tells Jake his writing will be even better if he is well rested. Jake agrees and starts to head home, but decides to stop at the Replimat for a drink. He orders an orange juice , but collapses before he can sit down. In the infirmary , Dr. Bashir informs Sisko, who is back from his trip, that Jake's brain has been overstimulated and his cerebral cortex was on the verge of synaptic collapse . Dr. Bashir assures Sisko that Jake will eventually be all right, but he needs to remain in a neural stabilization field for a while. Jake regains consciousness just long enough to say, " Onaya, where is she? " and Sisko begins looking for Onaya.

During the night, Onaya materializes from an energy cloud in the infirmary and knocks out the nurse on duty. She wakes Jake up and tells him it's time to finish what he started and takes him to an access conduit junction near the reactor core .

Act Five [ ]

Jake is again determined to keep writing and gets another nosebleed while Onaya drains his life more quickly. O'Brien scans the infirmary and finds traces of psionic energy and informs Odo to tell his search teams to modify their tricorders to search for psionic energy. Dr. Bashir tells him they need to hurry because psionic residue decays within minutes. Sisko picks up a psionic energy trace and finds Onaya and Jake. Sisko, armed with a phaser , tells Onaya to get away from Jake and asks what she is. Onaya reveals that she unlocks the potential of artists and, in the process, kills them but gives them immortality through their art. The energy and life she drains from her victims helps her survive. Onaya turns into an energy cloud and flies off into space.

Back in the security office, Lwaxana informs Odo that she's going back to Betazed and that she's imposed on Odo long enough. Odo tries to convince her to stay, but she's afraid the marriage would fail if she stayed because of their differing feelings for each other. She truly loves him, and she would want him to feel the same passion. But she knows that while he enjoys her company, he just wants someone to take care of; he doesn't really love her. He asks if that isn't enough, but she says in time she would come to resent the unevenness of their relationship. She has decided to return to her home world and eventually end the marriage so the two can remain friends. She tells him, " Goodbye, husband. " Understanding, he replies, " Goodbye… wife. "

Later, after Jake has recovered, Sisko reads his story and tells him he has a good start on a novel, which he has titled Anslem , but the spelling is terrible. Jake agrees, but doesn't feel it's really his work. Sisko reminds him that they were his words – Onaya just helped bring them out.

Memorable quotes [ ]

" In a Tavnian wedding the groom must stand before the bride and tell her why he wants to marry her. And then, in front of his family and friends, he must proclaim his love for her and convince her to accept him as her husband. " " I trust I can count on you to accept me even if I just stand there and read last week's criminal activity report. "

" I can spot a creative soul a galaxy away. "

" Ahem. " " Odo, would you like to join the party? " " Actually, I have some free time, and was wondering if you would like to take a walk? " " I would… "

" Before I met her, my world was… a much smaller place. I kept to myself, I didn't need anyone else, and I took pride in that. The truth is, I was ashamed of what I was, afraid that if people saw how truly different I was, they would recoil from me. Lwaxana saw how different I was… and she didn't recoil. She wanted to see more. For the first time in my life, someone wanted me as I was. And that changed me forever. The day I met her is the day I stopped being alone. And I want her to be part of my life from this day on. "

" Someone once said, 'Life is a search to find the peace that you once had when you were safe inside your mother.' " " I didn't have a mother. " " Don't worry, it's alright. You'll find your peace. "

" The dialogue is sharp, the story's involving, the characters are real… the spelling is terrible! "

Background information [ ]

Story and script [ ].

The original title of this episode was "Playing House", before the Onaya plot became the A-story. ( Star Trek: Deep Space Nine Companion - A Series Guide and Script Library )
The original idea for this episode came from Majel Barrett Roddenberry who pitched an idea to Ira Steven Behr that Lwaxana Troi becomes pregnant, and claims that the baby is Odo 's. This led René Echevarria to write an episode with four primary storylines, all focusing on couples: Rom and Leeta , Sisko and Kasidy Yates , O'Brien and Keiko , and Odo and Lwaxana. However nobody was happy with the concept. According to Behr, the script meeting for a standard episode usually lasts two days, three if there are problems. The script meeting for "The Muse" lasted six days – the longest script meeting in the entire seven year run of Deep Space Nine . ( Star Trek: Deep Space Nine Companion , p. ? )
Because Echevarria's story wasn't working out, the producers decided to try to pad it with a good B-story. They'd wanted to do something involving Jake 's creativity ever since the popular reception of " The Visitor ", so Ronald D. Moore suggested that if Jake became involved with a woman who inspires his writing, it would fit into the overall design of the episode. That idea ultimately evolved into having him getting involved with a much older woman who is interested in him only because he is a writer. That, in turn, evolved into the character of Onaya . The planned four romances were reduced to two, and the Odo/Lwaxana A-story was switched with the Jake/Onaya B-story, so the episode became more about Jake than Lwaxana (hence the change in title).
However, even with this all sorted out, the producers were unhappy. According to Moore, " the notion of this exotic, beautiful, older woman who comes to you and gets excited by watching you write is like the most ridiculous idea! Only a writer would come up with that. Think of it. You're sitting there writing and she's just entranced. We watched that scene in dailies and we thought, are we insane? What are we doing? How did we get here ? " ( Star Trek: Deep Space Nine Companion , p. ? )
Onaya , the titular Muse, inspired artists but took their lives at a young age, similarly to the Leanan Sidhe of Irish folklore. She lists a "Keats" as one of the artists she's inspired. John Keats (1795-1821) was an English poet who died at the age of 25 yet is widely considered among the most accomplished poets in English literary history. The other two names she mentions are Catullus (a 1st century BC Roman poet ) and Tarbolde (an alien from Canopus Planet who wrote the poem " Nightingale Woman " which Gary Mitchell quotes in the Original Series episode " Where No Man Has Gone Before "). Interestingly, when writing the teleplay for this episode, René Echevarria was instructed by Rick Berman to use one Human name and two alien names. After Echevarria had decided on Keats and Tarbolde, Robert Hewitt Wolfe then chose Catullus because, being an ancient Roman poet, the concept of muses would have been very important to him. However, in the episode itself, Meg Foster mispronounces the name, which disappointed Hewitt because it now sounds " like some wacky alien name ." ( Star Trek: Deep Space Nine Companion , p. ? )
Robert Hewitt Wolfe commented " We finally came up with the idea of this space vampire , but to do it with a twist. To do what they would have done on the original series ". ( Captains' Logs Supplemental - The Unauthorized Guide to the New Trek Voyages p 118)

Production [ ]

One of the alien individuals who board Deep Space 9 at the start of the episode was played by John Paul Lona , who won the walk-on role by designing the winning makeup for the alien in a competition run by Playmates Toys . Among the judges of the competition were Rick Berman , Michael Westmore , Robert Blackman and Dan Madsen . Lona named the character Runepp and the species the Rasiinians . ( Star Trek: Communicator issue 105 , p. 4)

Reception [ ]

"The Muse" proved to not be a popular episode among some members of the crew. For example, director David Livingston confesses, " I think it's one of my poorer efforts. I let the material down, because I just didn't know what to do with it ." Similarly, executive producer Ira Steven Behr admits, " the script had problems ." Ronald D. Moore concurs, " we always start with good ideas. And there's always a reason why we try something, but they just don't always come out right ." René Echevarria simply says, " I had no feeling for either story ." ( Star Trek: Deep Space Nine Companion , p. ? )
Ira Steven Behr commented: " When we came up the story, it was such a wacky idea – the danger of creation. History is filled with self-destructive writers. It would be nice to find out why writers can be so self-destructive, and we did. It was kind of a demented yet interesting attempt. It's a weird show. It's a show that we enjoyed. I haven't heard much reaction from the fans. I do think we gave Majel some good stuff to play, and I think Odo helps. Rene [Auberjonois] really helps sell those scenes ". ( Captains' Logs Supplemental - The Unauthorized Guide to the New Trek Voyages , p 118)
In 2012 , the episode's director, David Livingston, stated that he wished "The Muse" had never been produced, remarking " that was not good. " [1]
One thing that the crew did love about the episode however was the performance of actress Meg Foster . According to René Echevarria , " Meg Foster was perfection ." Indeed, Ira Steven Behr specifically sought Foster out to play the role. Behr says of her performance, " she's so seductive and interesting. You know, you can fall inside those eyes ." ( Star Trek: Deep Space Nine Companion , p. ? )
Meg Foster enjoyed the episode, particularly for meeting Majel Barrett during filming. ("Eyes Wide Shut", Star Trek Monthly issue 77 )
" Anslem ", Jake Sisko 's first novel, appeared for the second time in this season. The first appearance was in " The Visitor ".
Lwaxana Troi recalls the death of her daughter Kestra as described in the Star Trek: The Next Generation episode " Dark Page ".
This episode is Majel Barrett 's last appearance as Lwaxana Troi in Star Trek and her final on-screen Star Trek appearance.
The first time Jeyal meets Odo, he pronounces Lwaxana's name as "Laxwana".
Jake is reading a Horatio Hornblower novel by C.S. Forester when his father enters the room, the same novel he was reading in 2372 . (" The Visitor ")
Michael Ansara previously played Kang in TOS : " Day of the Dove " and DS9 : " Blood Oath " and would later reprise his role in VOY : " Flashback ".
This episode was nominated for an Emmy Award for Outstanding Costume Design for a Series ( Robert Blackman ).

Video and DVD releases [ ]

UK VHS release (two-episode tapes, CIC Video ): Volume 4.11, 28 October 1996
As part of the DS9 Season 4 DVD collection

Links and references [ ]

Starring [ ].

Avery Brooks as Captain Sisko

Also starring [ ]

Rene Auberjonois as Odo
Michael Dorn as Lt. Commander Worf
Terry Farrell as Lt. Commander Dax
Cirroc Lofton as Jake Sisko
Colm Meaney as Chief O'Brien
Armin Shimerman as Quark
Alexander Siddig as Doctor Bashir
Nana Visitor as Major Kira

Guest stars [ ]

Majel Barrett as Lwaxana Troi
Michael Ansara as Jeyal

Special guest star [ ]

Meg Foster as Onaya

References [ ]

2336 ; 47 references ; Alpha Quadrant ; annulment ; architect ; artist ; baby ; Bajoran ; Bajoran Militia uniform ; Bajoran outback ; Betazed ; Betazoid ; Bolian ; buildings ; Camelot ; candle ; canvas ; capillary ; Cardassian ; Catullus ; cerebral cortex ; Changeling ; character sketch ; child ; corporeal ; cup ; daughter ; death ; Deep Space 9 ; dialogue ; dozen ; Earth ; energy being ; exile ; Ferengi ; First Minister ; foramen magnum ; friend ; Gavaline tea ; heart ; holosuite ; house ; humble ; husband ; hybrid ; Indian ; Keats, John ; Kell, Tavor ; King Arthur ; Klingon ; Lwaxana's parents ; Lwaxana's sister ; Lwaxana's son ; main character ; matchmaker ; meter ; Milky Way Galaxy ; monk ; mother ; neural stabilizer ; novel ; Onaya's artists ; orange juice ; paint brush ; parent ; parson ; Pennington School ; phenomenon ; pregnancy ; Promenade ; Quark's ; qui'lari ; Rasiinian ; replicator ; Revalus ; sculpture ; sex ; Shakaar Edon ; shape-shift ; sister ; son ; spelling ; Tarbolde ; Tavnian ; Tavnian law ; Tavnian wedding ; Terok Nor -type ; thief ; toupée ; tricorder ; Trill ; Troi, Ian Andrew ; Troi, Kestra ; Umani sector ; visceral writing ; Vulcan ; wedding ; Yates, Kasidy

Starship references [ ]

alien freighter ; Bajoran interceptor ( unnamed ); Bajoran vessel ( Bajoran transport ); Betazed transport ; cargo management unit ( unnamed ); Umani sector transport ; Xhosa , SS

External links [ ]

" The Muse " at Memory Beta , the wiki for licensed Star Trek works
" The Muse " at Wikipedia
" The Muse " at MissionLogPodcast.com , a Roddenberry Star Trek podcast
"The Muse" script at Star Trek Minutiae
" The Muse " at the Internet Movie Database
1 Daniels (Crewman)
3 Calypso (episode)

Muse (Star Trek: Voyager)

22nd episode of the 6th season of star trek: voyager / from wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, dear wikiwand ai, let's keep it short by simply answering these key questions:.

Can you list the top facts and stats about Muse (Star Trek: Voyager)?

Summarize this article for a 10 year old

" Muse " is the 142nd episode of Star Trek: Voyager , the 22nd episode of the sixth season .

The main cast character B'Elanna Torres is stranded in an ancient Greek -like society on an away mission gone wrong. Voyager struggles with a search.

The episode costumes were nominated for an Emmy award . [1]

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Joseph Will

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Kellie Waymire

Tony Amendola

Jack Axelrod

Michael Houston King

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Star Trek: Voyager – Muse (Review)

In its own way, Muse marks the end of an era for Star Trek: Voyager , as Joe Menosky’s last solo script for the series.

To be fair, this is not Menosky’s last script credit on the series. Menosky would collaborate with Brannon Braga on the season-bridging two-parter Unimatrix Zero, Part I and Unimatrix Zero, Part II . In fact, those episodes have themes that play directly into Menosky’s interests; the two-parter is a story about dreams and narratives, about worlds that exist beyond the literal and the concrete. More than that, Menosky would work on the writing staff of Star Trek: Discovery , contributing the script to Lethe , one of the season’s stand-out episodes that was also about narratives – albeit internalised ones.

Dropping the mask.

However, Muse still feels like it marks the end of an era. Menosky had been a fixture of the Berman era of Star Trek dating back to the fourth season of Star Trek: The Next Generation , making his debut with Legacy and arguably making his biggest impression with Darmok early the following season. Menosky’s involvement with the franchise ebbed and flowed in the intervening years, but his influence was often felt. Indeed, Menosky even contributed a handful of scripts and stories to Star Trek: Deep Space Nine , including the teleplay for the underrated Dramatis Personae .

With Menosky’s departure from Voyager at the end of the sixth season, Brannon Braga would become the longest-serving writer working on the Star Trek franchise. His tenure on the television franchise would surpass that of Ronald D. Moore, and of any writer who hadn’t spanned the gap from the end of the original Star Trek to the early seasons of The Next Generation , with the arguable exception of producer Rick Berman. As such, Muse feels very much like the end of an era. It marks the departure of one of the guiding light of the Star Trek franchise, albeit one often overlooked or ignored.

Storyteller.

Muse is an episode that speaks to Menosky’s key interests within the Star Trek franchise, the idea of Star Trek as something akin to a modern mythology. More than any other writer on Star Trek , Menosky is invested in stories that are fundamentally about stories. His influence on Voyager is more subtle than that of Michael Piller, Jeri Taylor or Brannon Braga, but can felt in the recurring idea that Voyager itself is a Delta Quadrant myth. More than any of the other Star Trek series, Voyager feels like it is a story about a collection of archetypes rather than characters.

Menosky first articulated this idea in the closing scene of his otherwise forgettable script for False Profits , but reinforced it in episodes like Distant Origin , Living Witness and Blink of an Eye . It could reasonably be argued that this idea became part of the show’s identity, to the point that it can even be traced through episodes not explicitly credited to Menosky, like Live Fast and Prosper . It seems appropriate that this idea should serve as the central theme of Muse , an episode that might be read as a thesis statement on Menosky’s approach to the franchise.

Acting out.

Menosky’s departure was a big deal. The writer had been a fixture of the franchise for the better part of a decade, and his work had been hugely influential. In particular, writer Bryan Fuller articulated this sense of loss to Cinefantastique :

He’s just such an amazing guy, and such a prolific writer, in a way that no one else is on the staff. He has such a wide range of talent. It’s going to be difficult to go on without him, but we will.

Fuller has described Menosky as “a mentor” to him, and it’s telling that Fuller brought Menosky back as the only other veteran Star Trek writer to work on Discovery . ( In this light, it may also be revealing that Menosky departed Discovery shortly after Fuller left .)

Restaging a familiar story.

Menosky has been a major influence on Voyager , shaping a lot of what the show became from its third season onwards. This is perhaps most obvious in his contributions as Brannon Braga’s writing partner on the epic sweeping two-parters like Future’s End, Part I and Future’s End, Part II , Scorpion, Part I and Scorpion, Part II or Year of Hell, Part I and Year of Hell, Part II . Menosky is a writer whose interests and whose style informs Voyager as a television show, almost as much as those of showrunner Brannon Braga.

To be fair, there might be some criticisms that can be made of Menosky’s influence. Menosky’s interest in myth and archetypes might have contributed to the very broad quality of Voyager , the show’s lack of specificity when it comes to character and narrative. Both Jeri Taylor and Brannon Braga consciously pushed Voyager towards a generic and vague “Star-Trek-ness” in contrast to the more distinct flavour of Deep Space Nine . Menosky’s recurring interest in writing stories that are fundamentally about what it is to be Star Trek may have contributed to Voyager ‘s lack of a unique identity within the Star Trek canon.

Performing per forma .

At the same time, Menosky did help to provide Voyager with an identity. The blockbuster storytelling obvious in his collaborations with Braga (in episodes like Timeless and Dragon’s Teeth ) was part of what distinguished Voyager from The Next Generation or Deep Space Nine . More than that, Menosky was one of the series’ strongest writer on its core themes of identity and history; Remember , Latent Image , 11:59 . That identity was more abstract and less pronounced than the identity of Deep Space Nine , but Menosky was one of its key architects.

As such, it makes sense that Menosky should be given the opportunity to write what amounts to a closing statement before departing, providing a summary of how he approached the series (and the larger franchise) before taking his bow. After all, Michael Piller has talked about how he intended for Basics, Part I and Basics, Part II to serve as his own appeal for a “back to basics” approach on Voyager . As Deep Space Nine was winding down, Ronald D. Moore used Tacking into the Wind (his last solo script credit) as an opportunity to wrap up threads in his writing reaching back to Sins of the Father , one of his first scripts.

Meanwhile, on Voyager…

Muse feels like an epilogue to Menosky’s work with the franchise, a fond farewell from one of its most influential voices, closing the book on his time working with the Berman era of the franchise. Muse is a story about mythology and stories, a meditation upon the art of writing, a reflection on what it means to actually write for Star Trek . There is something endearingly philosophical about the episode, which feels much more lyrical and abstract than Voyager is often allowed to be.

To be fair, Muse has its share of problems. The episode suffers from a number of structural issues that hinder the development of its core ideas. This is most obvious with the addition of a subplot that seems to exist both to extend the episode runtime and to give the bulk of the primary cast something to do. This is not a problem unique to Muse . Even in its most experimental season, Deep Space Nine often struggled with pacing episodes like Honour Among Thieves or Change of Heart due to the need to include scenes focusing on the show’s credited leads in stories that might have benefited from a tighter focus.

This sort of storytelling is not everyone’s cup of tea.

More than that, Voyager has generally been a narratively conservative show. One of the show’s big recurring fears is the idea that a view might stumble on an episode of Voyager and not immediately know that they are watching an episode of Star Trek . Many of the more experimental episodes like Voyager are undercut by a need to conform to formula and to provide subplots that reinforce the archetypal “Star-Trek-ness” of the story being told; the intimate story about memory in The Swarm is intercut with a story about an alien menace, the family drama of Real Life is grafted on to an “anomaly of the week” plot.

There is an element of that to the sequences set on board Voyager in Muse . It often feels like the episode might have worked a lot better had the production team decided to keep the focus on Torres on the planet surface; indeed, a braver episode would have been told entirely from Kelis’ perspective, with Torres disappearing at the end into the the ether. However, even accepting that there was simply no way that Voyager could construct a story featuring only one (or even two) of its credited leads on only one (heavily altered) standing set, the ship-based subplot feels like a spectacular miscalculation.

The Laughing Vulcan.

Torres and Kim have been lost. Voyager is unable to find them. The crew is working around the clock. There is every possibility that they are dead. Paris is snapping angrily at Janeway in meetings, threatening to take out a shuttle by himself to look for his lost lover and best friend. All of this makes a certain amount of sense. However, none of this accounts for the decision to build an entire subplot about the fact that Tuvok is very tired, culminating in a sequence where Paris playfully teases him about the fact, apparently having forgotten that Torres and Kim may be lost forever.

There is something incredibly tone deaf in the execution of the subplot. Of course Tuvok is exhausted; he has been working around the clock. However, this seems a strange focus for a story like Muse . Most obviously, Tuvok has most likely been through situations like this before; when Seven of Nine was abducted by the Borg Queen in Dark Frontier, Part I and Dark Frontier, Part II , when Chakotay was lost in Nemesis , when Paris and Kim were arrested in The Chute , when Paris and Torres were captured by the Vidiians in Faces . Why is this situation different?

Staging a revolution.

However, accepting that this situation might somehow be a special case, and that Tuvok has been pushing himself beyond his limits to recover Torres and Kim, how is this a comedy subplot? Surely every other member of the senior staff should pushing themselves to their limits as well? Episodes like Resistance , Alter Ego and Juggernaut have suggested that Tuvok was a mentor to both Kim and Torres, but he is neither character’s strongest relationship on Voyager. Why isn’t Janeway also exhausted? Why isn’t Paris pushing himself to the brink? More than that, why is Paris mocking Tuvok for pushing himself to exhaustion?

Still, accepting that the subplot within Muse is a spectacular misfire, the episode still has a lot to offer. Although it is not Menosky’s last work on either the Star Trek franchise or even on Voyager itself, it does feel like a script the puts a cap on a lot of the writer’s recurring themes and ideas. It is a story about stories, opening with the familiar expository log entry as delivered by a greek chorus and developing into an adaptation of a disastrous away mission performed in an alien amphitheater. Naturally, this is not just a story; it is a fictionalised account of the poet’s encounter with Torres in the woods.

“We are not a-muse-d.”

Fuller explained the mechanics of the episode to Cinefantastique , confessing that Muse was in many ways an episode about Star Trek :

The episode that Joe wrote called Muse is a Torres story, and it is just absolutely delightful. It’s kind of our version of Shakespeare in Love. It’s one of my favorite episodes of the season, because it is so rich. It is all about Star Trek storytelling, and you get to see B’Elanna in a new light.

Fuller is entirely correct. Muse is unashamedly about the art of writing for Star Trek .

Kelis in Love.

As an aside, it is interesting that Fuller compares Muse to Shakespeare in Love . John Madden’s playful postmodern historical romantic comedy had become a surprise hit in 1998, winning the Best Picture Oscar ahead of Saving Private Ryan and The Thin Red Line . It was a potent cultural force. This would not be the only time that Voyager borrowed heavily from contemporaneous cinema. While Deep Space Nine preferred to nod towards classic Hollywood, Voyager tended to have a more modern sensibility; Vis à Vis riffed on Face/Off , Prey prefigured Alien vs. Predator , Random Thoughts recalled Strange Days .

The choice of Torres as a focal character is also interesting. In some ways, it demonstrates Menosky’s tendency towards writing archetypes as much as characters, to the point that it is easy enough to imagine a version of Muse that would work just as well as Chakotay or Kim in the lead role. Chakotay and Kim are the show’s Swiss Army Characters, after all. They are the most hazily defined characters on a show populated by hazily defined characters, often the first choices to be slotted into episodes without strong specific character hooks; Unforgettable , The Fight , One Small Step , Ashes to Ashes .

Those sorts of stories don’t phaser in the slightest.

Muse affords Roxann Dawson something more than the stock “Torres wrestles with her emotions, specifically anger” or “Torres wrestles with her Klingon heritage” stories that arrive almost once-a-season; Faces , Dreadnought , Blood Fever , Day of Honour , Extreme Risk , Juggernaut , Barge of the Dead . The use of Torres in Muse is charming. She gradually warms towards Kelis, allowing herself to be seduced by his enthusiasm. There’s a nice character arc there, a journey from aggressive opposition, to grudging partnership, to genuine concern. When she eventually smiles at him, and when she later intervenes on his behalf, it feel earned.

However, despite the charming (if archetypal and broad) character arc, Muse works best as a metaphorical meditation on the nature of storytelling. This is most obvious in the fact that the episode is literally about a storytelling producing work for an audience, with Kelis repurposing the logs of the crashed Delta Flyer to inspire his own writing, and how that writing evolves from a direct translation at the start of the episode to bolder fan fiction featuring the insane twist that Seven of Nine is really “Queen of the Borg.”

Borg on board.

It should be noted that Kelis is effectively engaging in the art of fan fiction here, translating premises and archetypes from one setting to another. After all, in the modern world, “coffee shop fic” is a specific subgenre of fan fiction which imagines iconic characters in the setting of a coffee shop. It is the process of taking recognisable elements of a story making them unique, as Charlotte Geater argues :

We see people in comics, and in films, and everywhere. We all wrestle with feelings and we can recognise them in stories when we see them. We don’t need for them to be sanctioned. It doesn’t matter what the writer intended, or what the artists intended. More importantly, it doesn’t matter how Disney wants me to interact with the stories that they bankroll.

It should be noted that the Star Trek franchise was one of the first entertainment franchises to push the boundaries of ownership in terms of this repurposing. In the late nineties, Viacom engaged in an aggressive “cease and desist” campaign against many fans for using recognisable elements on their websites . In recent years, Paramount seemed to reach a detente with fan films and productions , until Star Trek: Axanar pushed too hard and ruined it for everybody .

Crossing the B’Elanna.

There is something very interesting and revealing in this, in the way that Kelis takes a familiar story and repurposes it as his own. In some ways, it prefigures the modern franchise era of popular culture, where popular consciousness is dominated by reimaginings of existing intellectual property that uses old ideas to articulate new thoughts; remakes and reinventions of properties like Battlestar Galactica , Westworld , 21 Jump Street , Miami Vice , along with belated sequels to films like Blade Runner and Star Wars .

To be fair, the Star Trek franchise was ahead of the curve in that regard, one of the first franchises to build such a complicated and popular shared universe built on intricate connections and references. Deep Space Nine and Voyager can obviously be appreciated on their own terms, but they exist in conversation with the franchise’s history and legacy in ways that provide a sense of greater meaning and context. In a way, many Star Trek writers are effectively doing what Kelis is attempting, stitching together past story elements to create an original narrative.

The end is (engi)neer…

There is a legitimate concern about the way in which modern culture has embraced nostalgia, in which it seems to have moved away from new ideas and towards familiar comforts. However, documentarian Kirby Ferguson argues that this is just how storytelling works :

All our creations have precursors, just like all people have parents. Without these other works, we’d be painting on the walls of caves. Needless to say, the property metaphor has also been a boon to creativity because it allowed many of us to make a living. I’m not a radical and don’t propose eliminating intellectual property. I just think we need to be aware that, in important ways, ideas are not like property.

There is something legitimate about works of art that exist in conversation with earlier pieces; Chimera exists primarily as a commentary on the Star Trek franchise’s very poor treatment of LGBTQ issues, while Course: Oblivion is engaged with the episodic nature of Voyager .

Into darkness.

More to the point, episodes like Blink of an Eye and Muse are stories about Star Trek , and cannot be properly considered without acknowledging the weight of the thirty-odd years of continuity leading up to them. Star Trek and Star Trek Into Darkness are both feature films that ask questions about what it means to be Star Trek during the War on Terror. In doing so, they raise important questions about continuity of identity and ideas from one stretch of history into another. If the popular imagination felt one way at one moment, what is revealed by exploring how it feels at another moment?

As such, Kelis’ appropriation of the story of the Delta Flyer is an interesting story about reinvention and reimagining. Kelis takes a story from another time and place, and then gradually makes it specific to his own culture. He begins by literally lifting dialogue directly from Torres’ log entry, and then begins a process of reworking particular elements. Eventually, using elements from the story of Voyager, Kelis constructs a story that speaks directly to his patron about the folly of warfare and destruction created by cycles of violence.

Of chorus it is.

This is very similar to how stories work in the real world, where familiar elements can be lifted from their initial context and become something radically different when reinvented. Voyager itself might just be an extension of the premise of the original Star Trek series, but it is also a show that reflects its own time and place. It uses these existing archetypal elements to speak to its own cultural moment and context. Episodes like Memorial mean something different at the end of the twentieth century than they would have during the height of the Cold War.

There is something intriguing and compelling about how these familiar elements can be given new meaning through this process of reimagining and reinvention. This is particularly true of something as broad and archetypal as Star Trek , which is in many ways an extrapolation of American self-interest into the distant future. How is that self-image affected by factors like the end of the Cold War or the start of the War on Terror. Even using a similar set of codifiers, Voyager and Into Darkness have very different things to say about the American experience, by virtue of arriving at different times.

A shot in the dark.

Muse even teasingly suggests that every good artist a good critic; if not of art, then of the larger world. When Torres explains that she is trying to fix the Delta Flyer, Kelis wryly observes, “From the looks of it, you’re not doing so well.” Torres snaps, “Are you a poet or a critic?” However, Muse suggests that the two functions are inevitably interlinked. After all, Kelis’ masterpiece at the climax of the story was created in part as a criticism of the larger political system and of his patron’s role in perpetuating suffering and strife.

At the same time, Muse argues that although the context of these stories can change – Voyager becoming a sailing ship rather than a space craft, the long-simmering tension between Janeway and Seven repurposed as a metaphor for a contemporary political crisis – the underlying mechanics of storytelling remain relatively consistent. Muse features characters ruminating on basic story construction and the difficulty in translating fairly simple real-life events into satisfying narrative frameworks.

Can Kelis hold a candle to his inspiration?

When Torres points out that it is entirely possible for Voyager to just swoop in and rescue her at the last minute, which is what actually happens in her story thread, Kelis responds by pointing out why that (perfectly reasonable chain of events) would be frustrating to an audience. “Where is the mistaken identity, the discovery, the sudden reversal?” he demands. “Mistaken identity, a character who is someone else. Discovery, the moment when that identity is revealed. Reversal, a situation that turns from good to bad in a blink of an eye.”

This prompts a criticism from one of his actors, “Find the truth of your story and you won’t need all those tricks. I don’t know how things are done across the Eastern Sea, but here poets have become lazy. They rely on manipulation to move their audience. It wasn’t always that way.” There is something delightfully ironic in this. On the one hand, the actor’s criticism plays like a parody of broad nostalgia for simpler times; after all, even Shakespeare adhered to those dramatic principles. On the other hand, it seems to prefigure criticisms of twenty-first century entertainment (including Discovery ) as too heavily reliant on twists .

Acting on impulse.

Muse has a very romantic idea of the role of storytelling works, and the capacity to change the world with the right narrative at the right time. When Kelis discovers that his people are marching towards another war, he vows to do everything that he can to prevent the destruction and begs Torres to help him. “We Eternals aren’t supposed to take sides,” Torres warns him. Kelis replies, “I’m not asking you to fight. I need a way to change his mind.” He elaborates, “I believe the right kind of play can turn the mind from violent thoughts. The perfect play might even stop a war.”

This is a very idealistic interpretation of the writer’s role in popular discourse, but it is not without merit. Studies suggest that feature films can have a profound impact on the way that certain viewers approach big political or social questions . There has been an argument made that the media has the capacity to sway public opinions on issues like gay rights by normalising ideas that were once deemed incompatible with the existing social framework . Even beyond these big sweeping political or social issues, there is evidence to suggest that art can change an individual’s life in small and meaningful ways .

War of the worlds.

This is true of Star Trek itself, a television series that has had a profound impact upon the modern world in manners both large and small. The franchise inspired an entire generation of technologists and futurists , but it also helped to demonstrate to women and people of colour what was possible :

In the post performance Q&A, Nichols revealed that she was asked by NASA to recruit women and minorities for the space shuttle program. She relayed her response to NASA with a mischievous twinkle in her eye, “I am going to bring you so many qualified women and minority astronaut applicants for this position that if you don’t choose one… everybody in the newspapers across the country will know about it.” Nichols credited Star Trek with the success of her recruiting efforts. “Suddenly the people who were responding were the bigger Trekkers you ever saw. They truly believed what I said… it was a very successful endeavor. It changed the face of the astronaut corp forever.”

Women of colour like Whoopi Goldberg and Mae Jemison were inspired by the mere sight of Uhura on their television screens, regardless of how the show treated the character in episodes like The Changeling or Plato’s Stepchildren . It is no exaggeration to say that Star Trek changed the world.

Greekin’ out.

Muse is an ode to the power of words and stories to change minds, to shape the cultural discourse. “You can’t change somebody’s way of life with a few lines of dialogue,” Torres protests. Kelis responds, “Yes, you can. It’s been done before. Do you know what this place used to be a hundred years ago? A temple, and this was the altar stone. Every year a victim would be sacrificed on it in honour of winter. And then one year, nobody remembers exactly when or why, a play took the place of the ritual, and no one had to die here again. Why can’t my play take the place of a war?”

To be fair, there is something just a little bit self-congratulatory in all of this, particularly in the specific context of Voyager . After all, the Star Trek franchise was in decline, and so was highly unlikely to ever produce an episode of television that might the same cultural reach as something like Let That Be Your Last Battlefield . More than that, Voyager had a tendency to be quite reflexive and reactionary, the Star Trek franchise largely squandering its opportunity to say something bold or profound under Rick Berman by shying away from important contemporary issues like homosexuality.

Romancing the stone age. (Well, bronze.)

Similarly, there is a sense that Muse is indulging some of the franchise’s self-importance. Torres reacts with horror to the idea of interpersonal relationships between the characters, to the idea of emotion-driven storytelling. Instead, she favours spectacle, such as a sequence in which Seven betrays Janeway. “It’s much better than all that kissing,” she muses. This seems to be a defense of Voyager ‘s long-standing aversion to character development and interpersonal relationships, most obvious in the writing staff’s refusal to develop the dynamic between Janeway and Chakotay and their indifference to Torres and Paris.

This is a very condescending approach to art, a very prescriptive argument about what art can be that dismisses art that might involve “all that kissing.” It is an incredibly self-important assertion, and it might even be gendered; it pointedly discounts romance in favour of action. It also overlooks the fact that these elements are not mutually incompatible. Deep Space Nine was able to tell ambitious and epic political narratives, while also focusing on more intimate interpersonal dynamics and developing relationships among the major characters. Muse is very much defending Voyager ‘s lack of interest in its characters.

Writing him off.

Indeed, there’s an aspect of Muse that plays almost as a commentary on writing for Voyager , when Kelis is confronted with performers who struggle with his material. After all, Vulcans and Borg exist outside their frame of reference. As far as they are concerned, these entities may as well not exist. As a result, Kelis has to couch his actors on how to perform as alien entities that act in manners that do not fit with their expectations of how people behave and which exist far beyond their own frame of reference.

“I can’t blame my performers,” Kelis tells Torres. “These Eternals on Voyager are difficult to understand.” He elaborates, “This Tuvok, for example. He’s not like anybody I’ve ever met. No emotions? How is that possible?” Torres offers a handwave that every executive producer has ever offered any struggling Star Trek writer in this situation. “It just is.” There is something very insightful in this, in the observation of how different it must be to write for Star Trek than it would be to script for Law & Order or N.Y.P.D. Blue .

Way(mire) off base.

In fact, there’s something prophetic in Muse . The episode foreshadows Star Trek: Enterprise in a number of interesting ways, most obviously in the casting of actors Joseph Will and Kellie Waymire. Those two performers would play two of the handful of recurring minor characters on Enterprise , appearing in early episodes like Strange New World , Dear Doctor , Vox Sola and Two Days and Two Nights . However, the larger discussion about what it was like to write Star Trek foreshadows some of the difficulties that Brannon Braga would face in trying to put together a team of writers for Enterprise .

When building a writers’ room for Enterprise , Braga made a conscious effort to avoid familiar faces. Instead, Braga sought to hire talented writers without any grounding in Star Trek . His idea was that good writing was good writing, and that the Star Trek aspect of the writing could be taught to these new recruits. Braga actually managed to attract a number of impressive writers. André and Marie Jacquemetton would win three Emmys for their work on Mad Men . Fred Dekker was a frequent collaborator with Shane Black. However, as the first season of Enterprise attests, it was hard to teach these writers to write Star Trek .

Network notes.

Braga confessed his difficulties managing that (relatively) inexperienced staff in The Fifty-Year Mission :

It was a large staff of ten people, and Star Trek was notoriously difficult to find writers for, because it was a hard show to write. I don’t even want to say hard; it’s unique, and it just had a specific voice, and I had this writing staff that was new to the genre. Out of ten people, I think just a couple survived that first year.

These difficulties can be attested by the fact that Braga has at least a story credit on eighteen of that first season’s twenty-five episodes. That is a lot .

Bushwhacked.

Muse touches on the idea that writing for the fictional world of Star Trek is different than writing any other form of drama, with its own particular rules and its own distinct language. It’s easy to imagine Menosky relating to Kelis as a writer, as the young scribe struggles to articulate concepts like Vulcans or the Borg without no prior knowledge of either. In fact, Kelis doesn’t just have to understand these concepts and translate them for the audience, he also has to explain them to his performers.

Kelis objects to Jero’s overwrought melodramatics in the role of Tuvok. “The land of Vulcan has no laughter, and it has no tears,” Kelis asserts. “It is a very quiet place. Calm, just like Tuvok.” It’s an interesting argument. “I can’t believe that,” Jero responds. “The audience won’t believe it either. They’ll either think Tuvok is an unfeeling monster, or that I am a bad performer.” Kelis pushes the point, “They’ll realise that beneath your unfeeling exterior is a heart that’s breaking, silently, and in more pain than any of us can possibly understand, because that’s what it is to be Vulcan.”

An audience with the autarch.

These sorts of discussions are common between actors and writers in film and television, with actors longing to understand their character’s motivation beyond what’s on the page. That is especially true on a show like Star Trek . Indeed, Menosky was a writer who seemed particularly in tune with the Voyager cast. Appropriately enough, Tim Russ singled out Menosky as his default point of contact in an interview with Cinefantastique :

I usually am on the phone with them before the final draft is done, if I can get them to give that information. Sometimes they’re reluctant, because a few of us will want our hands in the pie as it’s being put together. I definitely talk to the writers. If it’s Brannon [Braga] script, I talk directly to him. Generally I go to Joe Menosky. If it’s a Jeri [Taylor] script or if it’s one of the other writers I go to Jeri and ask for some changes to be made. And I usually get them. You manage to come to some kind of compromise. They’re writing for the whole story and all of the elements that come together, and their attention is in different places. They may have overlooked something specific to your character

As such, there’s no small irony in the fact that Kelis has the greatest difficulty writing for Tuvok in an episode with a pointedly clumsy Tuvok-related subplot, and that Kelis has his strongest argument about characterisation with the actor playing Tuvok, when Tim Russ was especially prone to discuss his character with Menosky. Of course, it should be noted that other actors would also consult Menosky, particularly Robert Picardo .

A tough act.

Indeed, there’s something playfully “meta” and self-aware about Muse , and the way in which Menosky layers his script so that Kelis’ play mirrors what is unfolding in the world around it – even unaware to the writer itself. Kelis writes Seven of Nine as a character betraying Janeway, while the actor Layna plots to betray Torres. Seven of Nine might be “the viper in [Janeway’s] nest” , but Layna is “the viper in [Kelis’] nest.” The character Seven of Nine declares, “I, Seven of Nine, have no intention of finding B’Elanna Torres.” At the same time, Layna attempts to blackmail Torres into disappearing.

At the episode’s climax, Layna even tries to expose Torres as an alien to the play’s patron, but the quick thinking of another actor folds that beat out of real life into the play itself. “The lead actress, in a fit of jealousy, brands her rival an Eternal,” declares the chorus, improvising effectively. “Our patron rises to his feet to stop the play.” Reality becomes fiction. In this way, it is rendered harmless. The patron smiles, reading this betrayal and double-cross as nothing more than a crack in the fourth wall, canny audience participation. “Nicely done. I almost believed you.”

In dialogue.

Menosky is being playful, and there is something infectious in the way that he structures the layers of the story to echo back on one another and outside the confines of the narrative. Scenes of Paris arguing with Janeway on Voyager give way to scenes in which Kelis imagines Seven of Nine giving comfort to Paris, inviting the audience to wonder if the episode might have played better were all those exposition scenes on Voyager merely imagined by Kelis. Even beyond that, the tension between the staged versions of Seven of Nine and Janeway might be a commentary on the tension between Kate Mulgrew and Jeri Ryan.

At the same time, there is something a little cliché and a little awkward in the way that Menosky casts Layna as the villain of Muse , motivated by her clearly unrequited love for Kelis. Part of this simply the awkward cliché of a writer scripting a self-aware love story in which a beautiful young actor’s sole defining trait is her adoration of a character who can be read as an author avatar. Part of this exists within the episode’s general contempt for the idea of characters having rich and vivid emotional lives, suggesting that such feelings are below a real writer, and solely the domain of volatile (and hazily defined) women.

A fresh angle.

Similarly, the climax of Muse is a little hazy on how exactly Kelis plans to use his words to stop a war between the patron and his rivals. Part of this is down to little attention Muse pays to the political situation, beyond the idea that the patron “has been insulted by his enemy to the north.” Without any context for the fighting, there can be no context for the resolution. That said, this isn’t really a problem. Muse is not about this specific conflict or this specific crisis. It is a broader tribute to the culturally transformative power of art.

At the same time, the episode largely writes around the mechanics of how Kelis’ words are supposed to change his patron’s mind. To be fair, this is an issue with all writing about great writing; how is Muse supposed to produce a string of words beautiful enough to stop a war on demand? As a result, the closing sentiment of Muse hues towards the generic. “These stories will continue for as long as we have the breath to tell them,” Kelis contends. “And as long as our patrons remain wise and compassionate. And Voyager will continue on her journey to the gleaming cities of Earth, where peace reigns and hatred has no home.”

Don’t hate the player…

On the one hand, this is a commendable sentiment. It speaks to the power of Star Trek in the simple act of imagining a future where mankind is (mostly) at peace and has (mostly) conquered its demons. This is a very broad “this is what Star Trek is” statement, which seeks to encapsulate the appeal of the franchise in the broadest possible terms within a few simple lines. The very act of imagining a peaceful future makes that future more tangible and attainable than it might otherwise be.

However, there is also something very shallow and reflexive in this. It is not an argument for the enduring power of Star Trek from first principles, but instead an argument for the enduring power of Star Trek by reference to the popular perception of the enduring power of Star Trek . It is pointedly short on specifics, which is perhaps reflective of some of the larger issues with the Berman era as a whole. During the Berman era, the Star Trek franchise repeatedly celebrated and asserted its position as a socially progressive force on the right side of history.

However, it did so while consciously avoiding any actively progressive social positions. The franchise would only casually and fleetingly acknowledge the struggles of homosexuals and transexuals for recognition, in ambiguous episodes like Rejoined . The franchise steered clear of articulating how exactly this utopia had been constructed in terms of politics and economics, despite that being the entire point of Enterprise as a television series. A franchise that lauded the progressive (if complicated) stances of episodes like Let That Be Your Last Battlefield or Plato’s Stepchildren was unwilling to take similar stances itself.

Still, Muse could not possibly answer all of these challenges. It does not attempt to do so. Instead, it serves as a broad celebration of the very idea of Star Trek , and a reflection on the process of writing for Star Trek . There is an infectious joy in Muse , perhaps best illustrated by how often Muse allows Roxann Dawson to smile. Torres is a character in large part defined by negative emotions; her anger, her resentment, her self-loathing. As such, there is something wonderful in watching her enthusiasm for the mere act of creation. (Seeing Torres smile on Voyager is like seeing Sisko smile on Deep Space Nine . It feels earned.)

Smiles and smiles to go.

Mike Vejar’s direction is also notable. As a rule, the Berman era of Star Trek could be quite flat from a visual perspective, with lots of very conventional angles and a host of familiar set-ups. Part of this is undoubtedly due to the demands of shooting twenty-six episodes a year, with directors punished for running behind schedule and so encouraged to shoot conservatively unless absolutely necessary. Part of this was also down to the general aesthetic of the Berman era, which didn’t trust elements that intruded too forcefully into the fictional world.

The Berman era consciously alienated a number of stylistically confident television directors. Directors like Kim Manners and Rob Bowman worked on the early seasons of The Next Generation , but did not become franchise fixtures. Instead, they would redefine what was possible in television direction by working on The X-Files . Interestingly, Mike Vejar was a director who had worked on the first season of The Next Generation , but did not return to the franchise until the fifth season of Deep Space Nine a decade later.

This mission is a write-off.

To be fair, the Berman era could embrace a strong directorial voice when the script absolutely demanded it. Among Vejar’s first credits on returning to the Star Trek fold were Bryan Fuller’s two stories for the fifth season of Deep Space Nine , the horror-tinged The Darkness and the Light and Empok Nor . Both episodes adopt the tone of a gothic horror movie, which lends itself to a heightened stylistic approach. Vejar helped to create a rich and evocative atmosphere in both cases, creating episodes that looked and felt markedly different to a lot of the Star Trek released around them.

Conceptually, Muse is a much more sedate episode. It is an episode that could easily have been shot in a much flatter manner, using more conventional angles and with more familiar framing. Instead, Vejar gives Muse a unique texture, ensuring that the episode feels markedly different from stories like Good Shepherd or Fury . There is some great use of lighting, particularly inside the crashed Delta Flyer. There are some wonderful uses of depth of field, particularly in conversations between characters and during staged scenes. There is some striking framing that makes use of the episode’s wonderful sets. Muse looks great.

A flyer finish.

Muse is an imperfect episode in many ways, most obviously in its subplot focusing on the rest of the cast and in the clumsiness of its climax. However, it’s also a fun and intriguing piece of television that speaks to the power of stories and the power of Star Trek . Although Joe Menosky is not yet done with Voyager , this feels like a fitting bow from one of the franchise’s most enduring and influential voices, the writer taking to the stage to articulate how he sees his work. It’s hard not to be moved by that.

5 Responses

I think you meant Roxann Dawson.

Corrected. Thank you!

I kind of liked that this episode had so little ‘action’ and was so meta and cerebral (for Voyager). It feels like they let this send-off go in a more quiet direction, as a special permission.

My favourite part of the episode was the set designs, lighting, and depiction of an archetypical vaguely Greek bronze-age culture. Though the helmets of the soldiers were a bit much, and came off as comedic in shape/size. Also the bronze-age race’s forehead ridges often had a sort of labia look to them which was weird.

Torres was good in this episode – more playful and real. This was a weird episode, but that made it better than many others in the season.

This is ‘my’ final episode of Star Trek.

The writer is explicit: “If our elites want artists to produce weekly episodes of Star Trek than you cannot choose the path of militarism”

This is not a threat, the artists all bow their head in submission, but it is a deep truth: a culture that descends into petty wars of revenge cannot produce art that allows the light to shine through it.

After flirting with war during the 1990s American elites made their final choice on September 12th 2001 – and the lights went out all across North America. Now people watch explorations of the endless darkness (soparno, mad men, got, breaking bad) and tell themselves its a ‘golden age’.

There are about 15 excellent Star Trek episodes/movies spread across 1966-2001 (including fan ones) and I consider this to be the final one.

This review/episode makes the point that art, and/or television, and/or even Star Trek specifically, has the power to shift culture and/or government policy. But it clearly singles out the ending of wars. The main alien character says this directly, and not in any throwaway line, as in fact a big plot point centers around it. It’s hard to miss the “art stops war” message of ‘Muse.’

AFAICT, the episode will have have been conceived/written in 1999 (and in the production process in circa late 1999 / early 2000).

It’s worth stressing that there was no current “war controversy” in America in 1999/2000 when this episode, “Muse,” was written and produced (unless you count Kosovo, which became a totally forgotten intervention in American consciousness pretty quickly, even if the US-backed Kosovo project goes on even now with very little discussion). ‘Muse’ came before the invasion of Iraq and before September 11 2001. There may have been lots of foreign military or quasi-military commitments (including the “policing” of Iraq’s skies, a commitment which allowed the drift into the later invasion and occupation) but no “wars.”

Since there was such thin anti-war gruel to deal with in the late 1990s, it must be the case that the “art stops wars” lines are a conscious reference to the past. I think it’s Vietnam. A reference to the idea that popular culture, and Star Trek itself at the forefront, helped turn the tide of opinion against the Vietnam War. As such, this was a pretty safe line to take in 1999/2000. If ‘Muse’ had instead been a 2002/2003 episode it would have been much braver, but also unlikely to have ever make it to production given changed conditions.

With this hypothetical “Star Trek ode to ‘art defeats war’ in 2003” we do run into the practical problem of timing, and how it relates to the role of television (and Star Trek specifically) on influencing wars, and the nature of US interventions themselves adjusted in part for new technology.

The US government and media were clearly ramping up to war against Iraq from mid-2002 or so, giving all the pretenses of grappling with a shocking emergency and crisis, playing out a semi-scripted drama of their own (which raises the opposite point that drama/art[?] can also promote wars). Then the attack, “regime toppling,” and occupation were accomplished within a few weeks in March/April 2003. That is, what, nine months. Just not long enough at all to go from cultural problem, to television-script idea, to written script, to rewriting and etc., to production, to airing on television, to influencing discourse. No way that can all be done even under most favorable conditions in under nine months.

Vietnam, meanwhile, was largely an unmoving target, with heavy US involvement beginning under Lyndon Johnson, really ramping up by 1965, and continuing into 1969 when Nixon took over (on a promise to end the war “with honor”), a rime frame of course coinciding with “Star Trek, The Original Series.” So rather than months, we are talking about five+ years of the active intervention in Vietnam, the issue just sitting there, a sitting duck for cultural criticism. Combined with the soaring youth population of the cohorts of the Baby Boom coming of age, who were both interested in “art” and interested in “causes.”

And so one more thought occurs to me, on Joe Menosky, a major focus of this review. I assume he is born and raised in the US. I don’t know how old he is and don’t want to look it up. But this episode’s cultural-change, and anti-war message specifically, strikes me as also a tribute to the Baby Boomer generation and its supposed role in ending the Vietnam War. (There are also clearly Vietnam War and and anti-war themes in the other 1999/2000 episode “Memorial.”) It ended up an important part of Baby Boomer generational-mythology that they “underwent the Vietnam War” and “ended the Vietnam War” (some being a little shyer on embracing the latter), and by 1999/2000 with the Vietnam-era b.1940s Baby Boomers in their fifties, it was an easier position to insert into an episode like ‘Muse,’ almost one of nostalgia.

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Star Trek: Voyager

“Muse”

Air date: 4/26/2000 Written by Joe Menosky Directed by Mike Vejar

Review by Jamahl Epsicokhan

"Find the truth of your story and you won't need all those tricks. I don't know how things are done across the Eastern Sea, but here poets have become lazy; they rely on manipulation to move their audience. It wasn't always that way." — Old man

Review Text

Nutshell: Slow, self-reflective, and different. Not slam-bang excitement, but certainly one of the season's most interesting shows to ponder.

It helps knowing going in that "Muse" is Joe Menosky's farewell script to Voyager (since, as many know, the writer/producer will not be returning for the series' final season). The episode ends up being the ultimate Voyager self-reflective commentary on the process of writing for an audience. As I watched the show, I realized I wasn't so much watching people on the screen as I was watching a writer making comments through characters who were living out that same writing process. "Muse" is an allegory rolled into a Voyager tale which itself is rolled into a myth.

Menosky often uses themes of myth, legend, or history in his stories, like the society in " Blink of an Eye " or Janeway's past in " 11:59 " as recent examples, or the truly unique " Darmok " (a TNG classic) as a more distant one. Even bizarre power-play/mental-takeover premises like " Dramatis Personae " ( DS9 ) or the failed " Masks " ( TNG ) revolved around the re-enactment of ancient conflicts that were more legendary than they were tangible.

"Muse," which centers on an alien playwright who vies to make a difference with the written word, is a return to the idea of myths while also being an oddly, almost pointedly self-aware Voyager episode. This is not an entertainment in the usual Voyager sense; it's slow-paced and cerebral, in a storytelling universe that generally prefers to be fast-paced, simple, and stylized. It's a story that seems more personal, and it refuses to supply the immediate-gratification type of payoffs.

I found it a compelling hour, simply because of the way the real writer's voice comes through as a melding of the fictional writer's experiences in telling his own story. That fictional story is of the starship Voyager and its travels, a story inspired by "actual" events. The playwright is a man on a primitive world. His name is Kelis (Joseph Will). As the episode begins, his troupe is performing the story of Voyager , as learned through the logs of the Delta Flyer, which along with its lone passenger, B'Elanna Torres, has crashed near Kelis' thinking grounds.

Might as well get the obvious gripe out of the way: Yes, "Muse" employs a major cliché by crashing the Delta Flyer—again. What's more is how by episode's end it's not even made clear whether it will be salvaged (one line of dialog would've sufficed), although we can obviously assume so simply because of the Law of the Reset Button™. (Away missions in shuttles or the Flyer are more dangerous than they can possibly be worth; when was the last time one didn't end with a crisis or crash?)

Anyway, Torres has lay unconscious for eight days (isn't that pretty serious?), and when she awakens, Kelis wants her help. He needs to write a sequel play for his acting troupe to perform, and he needs Torres to supply him with new material about this ship called Voyager . Kelis' troupe performs for the local patron, the guy who holds the power in this particular clan in this society's caste system. The world is apparently a fragmented place of often-warring factions. Kelis' patron liked the first Voyager play and wants another, and has given Kelis one week to have it ready for performance. Kelis isn't sure what to do next; he needs his muse, as it were, and B'Elanna turns out to be it.

"Muse" is patient in a way that is rare these days for Voyager . There are a lot of scenes where we've just got B'Elanna and Kelis in a room talking, which is what a lot of Trek used to be about.

I found B'Elanna's approach to Kelis to be true in its pragmatism; she isn't very nice to him initially. Kelis believes B'Elanna is an "eternal," though given the situation and conversations I never quite understood the nature of this people's belief system concerning the eternals (do the apparently mortal gods routinely fall from the sky, and are they routinely nursed back to health by the people?). B'Elanna uses her influence as an eternal—and especially as Kelis' new muse—to obtain resources she needs to repair the Flyer's communication system. When Kelis says he'll be executed if caught trespassing on his patron's grounds while looking for B'Elanna's dilithium, B'Elanna responds with, well, don't get caught. So after Kelis helps B'Elanna, she has to spill her guts in the interests of fairness, and Kelis gets his new material. The next day he announces to his actors, "I've been visited by inspiration herself." Indeed.

The alien society is perhaps excessively humanesque, but no matter—the point here is the issue of storytelling, and that's where "Muse" is insightful. The story frequently employs the common Shakespearean device of the play within a play, and we see several rehearsals that are sort of funny in their truthful, understated way.

I liked the subtle take on the actor versus the writer, which certainly happens in television production. Kelis, trying to convey Tuvok truthfully, has written an emotionless part the actor doesn't want to perform. The buried dialog here is a take on the TV actor who says, "You don't understand my character," while the writer is saying, "No, you don't understand the character I'm writing for you." At the same time, the burden of responsibility lies on the writer; it's hard to completely blame an actor if the character as written truly doesn't make sense.

Perhaps the most intriguing moments are the direct reflections on writing for an audience on a weekly deadline. When you have to turn out a script in seven days (or even less), what happens if you have no idea how the story ends? I'm not sure how often that happens in real life for TV writers (considering a staff's story break process, etc.), but Kelis' problem is that he's writing on the fly, knowing he has to come up with something that's satisfying in its journey from A to B, all the while not knowing what exactly B is. That makes the process an exercise in non-scientific spur-of-the-moment improvisation.

Hence, standby elements and contrivances. Oh, we know all about Voyager 's use of those (see crash of Delta Flyer above). But so do the writers. And there's almost a sense of lament in "Muse" that stories have to utilize formula and contrivances in order to get where they need to go. There's a point where Kelis is baffled as to where his story is going. He needs something to surprise the audience—a sudden twist, a reversal of fortune. What he needs is a mechanical contrivance that's entertaining (like Icheb turning out to be a bio-engineered time bomb in " Child's Play "; one of Kelis' twists here is that Seven is really the Borg Queen). A Wise Old Man emerges from the shadows to remind Kelis that success lies in finding the truth of the story, and he says that poets these days are looking for the quick gimmick to manipulate the audience. "It wasn't always that way," he muses. (And just which road into storytelling hell is Voyager —and all of us, for that matter—driving down, or should we ask if that's the subtext here?)

Menosky seems to be doing some jibing here. Jibing himself, jibing other writers, jibing the audience (for demanding certain qualities that lead shows like " Tsunkatse " to be the highest rated of the season for reasons that aren't about matters of the intellect), and maybe even jibing the studio (for dumb-down marketing of said products strictly in terms of their would-be visceral impact). When should entertainment be art, and when should it just be potboiler silliness for the masses? (Exercise: Juxtapose Hamlet and Titus Andronicus .)

There are plenty more interesting touches here, including the in-joke where Kelis scripts Janeway and Chakotay into kissing. This is a fan fantasy you will never see carried out on the real Voyager , and we're obviously getting major winkage on behalf of the writers. What's enlightening is the conversation afterward where B'Elanna doesn't see the point of all the frivolous kissing scenes. ("Harry kissing the Delaney sisters?") How is this relevant beyond getting an easy rise out of the audience? Of course, Voyager has its own version of this: Lately I've been calling it the Voyager Action Insert—an "action" scene that exists solely for the sake of action that might appeal to a mass audience but is fundamentally unnecessary to the story actually being told. (The VAI was most recently used in "Child's Play" and " Ashes to Ashes .")

Kelis says his hope is to use love as the language to instill peace into his patron's heart, doing his part to change the ways of the world. ("The perfect play might even stop a war," he says hopefully.) Pretty idealistic, but is it plausible? The story seems optimistic on this point, though it doesn't expect overnight results. Of course, today in our world, anyone expecting to change the world with a script is probably just delusional. Perhaps the best a screenwriter could hope for is a film like Titanic , which has appeal to every demographic conceivable. Sure, a lot of people appreciate it, but it doesn't change the world.

As we rise out of the subtext and back into the "text" for a moment, I'd like to say that the routine plot regarding the search for Torres and Kim was executed with an understated solemnity that was more effective than I had anticipated. There's a lot here conveyed with looks and pauses rather than dialog, and it seemed the crew actually for once believed the possibility that they'd lost two officers. The way the episode keeps Harry completely out of the show for the first few acts also carries with it a weird sense of uncertainty; the plot allows us to wonder exactly what happened while the story involving Kelis is kept at the forefront.

I also enjoyed Tuvok's silent quest through sleepless nights as he worked to figure out ways of tracking down the missing Flyer. It shows a humanistic concern for his fellow crew members in a Vulcan-like way, which is never spelled out in dialog. His scenes are intercut with scenes on the planet where an actor fears that the Tuvok character will come off as an unsympathetic monster if he isn't allowed to act out his emotions. (Ah, but not if the writing establishes the character well.) I also got a kick out of Tuvok falling asleep on the bridge after days without sleep. After all, he's a Vulcan, not Superman.

Other touches are subtle too, like the relationship between Kelis and one of his actresses, Layna (Kellie Waymire), which turns slightly messy when Layna becomes convinced Kelis is having an affair with the mysterious woman whom she suspects is an eternal, perhaps even B'Elanna Torres herself. There's a brief, nicely acted scene where Layna confronts B'Elanna in the Flyer and asks her to stay away. A scene that could've come across as forced comes across as sincere; Waymire does a good job with a small moment.

The central crisis of the story involves Kelis having no idea how he's going to end his B'Elanna-centered play, right up to opening night, and even as the play is being performed. He needs the answer from B'Elanna, who decides to help him in the eleventh hour, just as Voyager has located the survivors and is beginning its rescue operation. (Harry turns up not long before this, having landed on the same planet in an escape pod. His role here isn't that important.)

What I thought fell a bit short was the payoff, where the real world meets the poet's world. I see what Menosky was going for here, but there's some awkwardness in the execution. The end of Kelis' play is unscripted onstage improvisation, with the real B'Elanna deciding to write the end by making her actual departure the one that also supplies the play's (ending with the spectacular "special effect" of her beam-out). But there's some off-kilter-ness to the way Layna attempts to expose B'Elanna and the way the patron assumes it to be part of the act. And most notably, I didn't think B'Elanna's sentimentality here was believable. When she says goodbye she's practically breaking down into tears, which seems a bit much. This is too clearly Menosky's sentiment rather than B'Elanna's. I didn't buy it, although I did find the entire notion of fiction meeting reality to be clever.

The episode was directed by Mike Vejar, Trek 's current best. He often shows a cinematic slickness to his approach, and isn't afraid to move cameras around or even occasionally go hand-held. Here he's content to underplay, go slow, and nail down the camera, which is exactly what the material warrants.

Ironically, "Muse" strikes me as something that's precisely what Voyager typically does not represent. It has no action, no explosions, very little use of sci-fi technology or jargon, and minimal FX used only for the purposes of advancing the story at hand. And frankly, if Voyager were like this every week, I suspect very few people would be tuning in, because we do want to see stuff gettin' blowed up (me as much as the next person). But that doesn't mean it can't be well thought out in the meantime. When something explodes and we care, that's a lot better than when we don't.

So what's the answer? Is television simply entertainment that shouldn't be scrutinized, analyzed, or held to a standard other than sheer, dumb entertainment value? Or should we demand more intellect, more patience, more depth in our stories and characters, even if it means ignoring the "wisdom" of demographics, abandoning quick payoffs, and hoping the sizable portion of us will stick it out and wait for the slower realizations? The subtext in "Muse" seems to argue that it's all about the balance between those two extremes. The hard part is finding it—week after week, on deadline.

Next week: The wrath of Kes.

Previous episode: Live Fast and Prosper Next episode: Fury

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Comment Section

131 comments on this post.

I'll take a thoughtful story-line like this over the typical sensationalistic garbage every time. Well done, Menosky, Vejar, and all!

This is actually my favorite episode of Voyager. It's a great send-off for Menosky, who certainly wasn't shy about how he felt writing for Voyager. This is also one of your best written reviews. After first watching this episode my wife didn't care for it, so I made her read you review and you swayed her.

This episode clearly drew a lot of inspiration from Ancient Greece, so the idea of 'Eternals' having flaws (sickness, rivalry, love) like the Greek gods and demigods didn't seem strange. Similarly Kelis' belief that a play could bring about change is more plausible in an age that's less media-saturated than our own.

tonyinjapan

Nice. I like the concluding speech by Kelis at the end, and the cast of the play bowing to the audience. Quite moving, especially given the context.

It was fun how Kelis was also a clear "duplicate" of Shakespeare. Having to write to patrons, having his own party and writing shows that were under constant revision and rewriting. Not to mention that Seven being a Borg Queen would be exactly something he would have written, if he'd done Star Trek...

This is the one episode of Voyager that's really stuck with me since I first saw it. It's unique.

Along with Tinker Tenor and Living Witness, I consider this one of Voyager's best. (Then again, I like Macrocosm, so take my opinion for what it's worth.) It's unconventional, an interesting look at the crew from an outside perspective (and perhaps, in some ways, subtly Belanna's view of her fellow crew), and a fantastic ending practically begging for a follow-up, but all the stronger for instead being left to the imagination and used as food for thought.

Ken Egervari

Surpringly a good episode, although a bit slow at parts. The ending was rather nice. The one thing I don't get with this series... is how does this fit into the bigger picture? What is the point? And more over... why does the episode happen at all? Why do any of these shuttle crash shows happen? Why are they out in shuttles in the first place? Isn't the point to go home? Why explore every nick and granny of the galaxy for? I know the show has brought this point up... and sometimes, it makes sense. Other times, I just don't understand why Voyager is 10 light years away as they send their shuttles out in another direction for. Why doesn't voyager just go itself? I just never understand this. I don't understand how shuttles have faster propulsion systems to go faster than Voyager. Makes no sense. I don't understand why Voyager can't do any of the things these shuttles do... I mean... what does Voyager do... sit around and do nothing while 2 or 4 crew members go off and do something "more important"? Even if a shuttle was needed to explore something Voyager couldn't... why is Voyager so damn far away for? And then they lose track of the shuttles over and over again on these episodes... never questioning why they send the shuttles out in the first place. Rediculous. And what's up Tuvok? Does his mini sleepless story have any point at all? Even a Vulvan thinks not sleeping for 10+ days is logical? Why isn't anyone else looking for B'Elanna and Harry? Why is it only Tuvok... where he has to spend his entire resources by himself to look for them? Don't they have a freaking crew to help? While the episode is good... the premise on how it comes out to be is absurd... as are all the shuttle crash episodes. It makes no sense how they came to be. None at all.

3.5 stars; are you serious!?! Jammer, my friend, if this is 3.5 stars, then the last couple of episodes should be awarded THIRTY-FIVE stars!!! This show is totally devoid of both science and fiction (certainly 24th-century-relevant fiction); it's totally without nuance or a meaningful point. It's basically 38 minutes of Torres' interaction with a primitive thespian or about the primitive thespians themselves, with 2 minutes of her poking around the Delta Flier assaying to repair some of its functions. They may as well have shown a histrionic cast from ancient Greece rehearsing some crap from Euripides. Torres ends up on a medieval planet one of whose knuckle-dragging inhabitants figured out how to play the log recordings that are part of the shuttle's computer. Yeah, like William Shakespeare would've been able to reformat a hard drive in the 1500s. Jesus... The majority of the show is mind-numbingly BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOORIIIIIIIIIIIIIING to hell and back! Harry "Can't-Get-A-Lock" Kim turns up at a point - mercifully, near the end of the show - after trekking for 200km. I'm surprised he didn't sprain his ankle on a dandelion somewhere along the way. I was half expecting him to volunteer to act in the "play." Instead, it's Torres who does it. Oh, brother... BTW, the "aliens" show their support for the actors by clapping, just like the humans. How likely is that? Neelix The Asspain strutting around with a pot of coffee and plonking himself down next to Tuvok to give him a pep-talk. Are such scenes really necessary?? Oh, there are SO many things stupid and ludicrous about this episode that it's futile to even attempt to critique it. This kind of trash belongs in the Chronicles of Narnia, NOT A SCI-FI SCHOW!!!!! PLEEEAAASE bring back that Fair Haven dreck: Even that's more interesting than this cerebral palsy of an episode. The ONLY bit worth anything was the 20-second shot of Tuvok snoring on the bridge. It still has no redeeming value vis-a-vis the remaining 41 minutes. Zero stars. And that's being extremely magnanimous. The guy who wrote it should be exiled to Cuba.

Only the execrable "Threshold" saves this from being the lamest episode of the series.

I had no problem with this being a slow and quiet show. I liked the way the show made a reflection on the process of writing an episode. I was even slightly (to an infinitesimal degree) moved in some scenes. Regardless of this I disliked this episode because of it's often absurdly cliche, and blatantly contrived nature. If the good elements had blended more seamlessly into a reasonable, believable whole I would probably really like it. Also; at this point there has been several consecutive "special", "outside in look" episodes. At least spread them out a bit and pay some attention to the main story. Unfortunately Voyager barely has a main story to pay attention to. I guess I just don't like episodes that are obviously and completely constructed around a point that's trying to be made with very little subtlety or integration into the overall show. The plot is irrelevant and exists merely for the point, at least try to make the two coexist. Then again, this might be demanding too much of the writers. I certainly couldn't have done it better myself.

This is easily the most tedious of Voyager episodes, and that's really, really saying something.

Well, if some of the comments to this review prove anything, it's that the Voyager writers knew their audience all too well.

Our resident 12 year old in "ranting about the episode having talking in it" shocker A quiet and thoughtful episode and I didn't really give it the attention it deserved (was distracted with other things) I didn't realise the story behind why this episode came about. It seems very clever, to put forward all these thoughts and acknowledgements of a writer's weaknesses, a bit of fan service etc, whilst making the story itself work well enough that you don't realise unless you know already that it's more a commentary than an episode. May re-watch. Of course the Flyer will be absolutely spotless next episode :)

@Cloudane: Maybe some of us have a life outside Star Trek and go to Star Trek for a bit of sci-fi entertainment. Maybe some of us prefer to develop our characters and are interested in real-life real-world characters. Maybe some of us have a life, period. If you want talking, try a talk-show or some emotional drama. "Development" of fictional characters in a fictional world? What's the point!? BTW, never watched DS9. Whenever I tuned in, it was showing a scene in a bar or somesuch with a few guys yapping on about the entanglements in their relationships. Wow, rivetting...

Michael - we're commenting on every episode of an old Star Trek series, and not a very good one at that. I don't think either of us can really make comment on how much of a life we have. Having said that I do get out and have friends and listen to them etc. I'm guessing you probably tell them to shut up and drink, or whatever activity it may be. Character development adds depth. What's the point in any theme (sci-fi, fantasy, you name it) if there's nothing to relate to? If you have stock characters with no personality, no thoughts, no insights? Seems pretty dull to me. I could just as easily say if you want nothing but sci-fi, go and watch a documentary.

Hehehe True re having a life! :D No, real people I DO very much talk with and listen to. The keyword is REAL. Star Trek I enjoy for the science (O.K., pseudoscience). If it didn't have that, it might as well be called Alice in the Delta Quadrant. SNOOZERS! I simply don't like fiction and therefore don't care about fictional characters. I watch sitcoms for the humor, not characters. I watch action movie for the action, not the characters. I watch sci-fi for the "sci," not the "fi." It's my taste and, as the Romans used to say: De gustibus (et coloribus!) non est disputandum. So yeah, I come across strongly in my comments. SO what? It's my opinion. You think I'm immature for not caring about Torres' netherworld barge nonsense and finding it irritating; I can't fathom that anyone but a dreamy kid without friends to engage in fantasy-world games would find that interesting in a sci-fi show. If Torres had spent the 45 minutes in The Barge harping on about an ancestor of hers who was a descendant of Moses and then traversed the Biblical lineage, can you seriously tell me you'd find that enjoyable or in any way instructive?!?

@ mike and claudaine ... red alert.. please take your meds...

No I just find the OMG LOTS OF CAPS AND EXCLAMATIONS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Just makes things come across as a little immature. To each his own taste in sci(-fi).. carry on

I've already had this debate with Michael. I already explained to him in another episode (I forget which one) that Science Fiction does in fact include "fiction". I also brought up the whole documentary point as well. Like I said in my other post, the only problem with this episode is the premise. I simply don't understand why Voyager sends out so many shuttles for, only to have them get shot down, crash or be taken hostage repeatedly. You'd think Janeway would just learn her lesson and stop sending out shuttles. One thing I'd like to know is what the hell Voyager is doing when all of this is going on. And not just in this episode - but in any of the episodes where Janeway decides to leave a shuttle and 1 or more crew members stranded somewhere many light years away from Voyager. Let's think about the practicability here... Voyager needs to get home. Doesn't sending a shuttle off in some other far off location slow the entire mission down? Don't they eventually have to meet up? How the hell is the shuttle supposed to "catch up" with Voyager? Seems to me that Voyager will have to backtrack and waste time, or wait for the shuttle. I just don't see any reason why Voyager can't do the things the shuttles do. I never understood this. And let's not forget, just about every time they send a shuttle somewhere, something bad happens. I mean really, how many times does the shit need to hit the fan where they finally say, "Okay, maybe we shouldn't be sending out defenseless shuttles 30 light years away from Voyager anymore." It's just annoying. You'd think the writers could think up another premise, but they've been doing this crap since Season 1 or 2 constantly, like leaving Chakotay alone in the Delta Quandrant in Kazon space, as just an example. You'd think the crew would just like to get home. That's really the only blemish on otherwise good episode. If you take it in isolation, the show is good. But in the context of the series? It sucks.

Meh, this episode had its moments (the Chaokotay/Janeway scene for instance) and the rehearsal scenes were good. I've done a bit of acting and I empathise with the guy who thought playing Tuvok would make him look like a bad actor. But as a whole, I just wasn't that interested in it. Maybe if it had focused on another character than Torres - I must admit I just can't warm to her even though I think Dawson's one of the better Voyager actors. Then again I loved Tsunkatse, so what do I know?

BlightedSight

Jammer: Torres has lay unconscious for eight days (isn't that pretty serious?) It depends on how long a day would be on this planet. For all you know, a day might be 2 earth hours long.

Loved this ep!! A unique story (although slightly spoiled by the fact it's hot on the heels of another episode that's about people impersonating the Voyager crew...oopsie), well told and surprisingly self-aware. I think Joe Menosky was definitely taking a few parting shots at the nature of the TV beast, and perhaps Voyager in particular. I found it clever, insightful and compelling. As Jammer said (great review btw), this style of storytelling is perhaps not aimed at Voyager's target demographic (exhibit A: Michael's response above!). But heck, this is what I'm looking for in my Trek. I love intelligent TV and that's one of the reasons I love the previous incarnations of Trek and struggle with Voyager and Enterprise. This episode seemed very Trekkian and I'm glad to see any break from the usual formula and mindless action scenes. Like the best television, it has a pertinent message and it makes you think.

great episode. 5 popcorns

If Tuvok's snoring scene had been featured in the previews, it would be the most accurate teaser a Star Trek episode ever had.

Good episode. I didn't really care for the end, but it certainly kept my interest.

I thought it was a quiet but interesting episode. I admit I was also planting seeds in a tray to grow seedlings for my garden while I was watching it but I don't think that enhanced the experience in some actiony-adventurey way. lol I do vaguely remember that when I was a kid, this episode coming off as booooring... but today I see some of the meaning behind it, instead of only looking at the surface. As for the characters debate in the comments... personally, if I don't like the characters I won't be interested in a show. (Incidentally, that's exactly the problem with a book I'm currently reading. I have no interest in the characters so I'm not enjoying the book, even though it's filled with descriptions of sci-fi 'splosions. But I digress.) It's not because I don't have any friends or have no life, as Micheal would suggest, but because that's what pulls me into the story. I don't need it to go too far, (I gave up on Stargate Universe after a half a season) but I don't care if the characters live or die, I don't care how they get out of whatever mess they're in this week. Seems Micheal would prefer watching a modern "remake" of Captain Proton, or a screensaver depicting robots shooting fireworks, but I'd get bored of that fast. To each their own, not everyone has the same taste, but Trek is generally supposed to be about more than things going 'splody. Might want to try another show, there's plenty more.

Cappo - I agree with your point verbatim... if the audience doesn't feel that they would lose something if one of the characters is suddenly gone, then why would they care what happens at all? This is one of the reasons I loved Firefly so much, in that the series established their characters so well right out of the gate, it was a thoroughly captivating show. I really liked this episode, as it felt more like a good TNG outing than standard Voyager fare... even better knowing what drove it into existence. Unfortunately there was one directorial flaw that sent my nitpicker into overdrive and actually distracted me WAY more than it should have... particularly in the first few scenes, the Flyer was supposedly lying at a sharp angle... this obviously would lend to the perception that it was a particularly nasty crash this time... but, why, oh WHY did they have all of those candles burning if they were just going to tilt the camera to bring this across? All of the flames being perpendicular to the deck and not to the "real" horizon completely destroyed the illusion, and my sub-conscious immediately started playing the theme to the 1960's Batman series in my head.

Captain Jim

Sheesh, if some of these comments prove anything, Jammer, it's that a lot of people evidently *do* watch Star Trek just to see things blow up. They evidently can't handle anything more thoughtful than that.

I just want to say that the old man's improv during the final act was phenomonal. I was laughing and clapping with how he just completely "fixed" every scene for the Patron haha Same old man that lectured on lazy poets these days haha!

I really liked this episode, a bit far fetched on some things, but overall a great episode.

Jammer, I agree with Josh that this is one of your absolute BEST reviews that I've read, and you've got some damn good ones. Truly insightful, in-depth, and thought provoking. I don't recall that I particularly liked or disliked "Muse" when I first watched it, but now I am really looking forward to re-watching it armed with the perspective you've provided. Mucho kudos and thanks for the brain candy.

I love this episode- it's definitely in my top five, if not my favourite VOY episode of all time. I am stunned by the posters above who gave it zero. It's whip-smart, meta-reflexive, funny, touching, amazing script and performance from Dawson. I just love it. It's almost an apologia for all the crap VOY has given us this season, but I think it's also about Star Trek itself- the 'play that can bring peace'. Star Trek really did change the world, and I think Menosky's swansong was a tribute to that idea. I love this episode. 4 Stars.

It's funny that DS9 and VOY both had episodes with the same name, and both were steaming piles.

Take it easy

@BlightedSight Tuvok hadn't slept for 10 days and I remember hearing Janeway saying they are looking for them for 2 weeks (I think). So she should have been out for 8 normal days or so at a minimum. But how the alien saying "8 days" from his perspective will be translated to us in 'earth' days? Is it earth days? BTW when they talk about days in StarTrek is it earth days? What about Vulcans and Klingons, they follow earth days in the ship?

About character development, etc, I watch Star Trek because of SCI-fi and it is fascinating about star ships, future technology, etc. I too love the characters but I don't need them talking forever to establish their character. It should be part of the story plot and not standalone scenes for the sake of character development. I am not much of an action fan, just a little bit for story sake. But I like more science and technology. Jammer's reviews are more about character development and most of the time I don't agree with the ratings. The only reason I am reading this is because I can read episode by episode since I am watching it for the first time and don't want to read or discuss about episodes I haven't seen. This and cynicscorner are two places I know which I can read episode by episode.

Sometimes it burns when I tinkle.

B'Elanna beaming (read: disappearing) in front of the audience is clearly a violation of the Prime Directive.

ProgHead777

I enjoyed this episode quite a lot. It reminded me A LOT of TOS in its tone and story while simultaneously being one of the most original stories Voyager told in its entire run. I found the scene where Chakotay informs Janeway of the content of the Delta Flyer's distress call to be very real and Janeway's stifled sob after Chakotay leaves the room nearly brought tears to my eyes. It's that sort of realistic depiction of human emotions that Voyager, and actually Trek in general, could have used a lot more of. I also ADORED the whole classical Greek theater motif of Kelis' plays. I think it would be quite a treat to see a few of Trek's greatest stories depicted in that genre.

I always enjoy reading Michael's comments. I tend to follow along his way of watching SCI FI. i like the temporal changes and mysteries and plots. while i can enjoy shows like this episode, it is not my most favorite or memorable. i like the "Macrocosm" shows better. 1.5 Stars for entertainment. 3 stars for depth of a show.

With a title like, "Muse," I fully expected this episode to be about Jeri Ryan's character, Seven of Nine. Maybe the REAL difference with this episode is that Seven has no dialog for a change. (JK!)

(sigh) I remember when I was satisfied with sci-fi that had no real character development. It was back when I was 12 and Empire Strikes Back had just come out. To be young again... I fell asleep during this episode. I guess that's all I have to say about it. :)

The comments about "earth days" are landing smack in the middle of one of my biggest gripes with Star Trek. In a galaxy populated by thousands of sentient species, Earth customs seem to be suprisingly universal. This episode ("Muse") alone shows us a few of them: "a day" seems to universally be an Earth day, although we are quite frequently dealing with species from other planets; the customs of (from a human point of view) completely alien species are exactly the same as human cuatoms - in everything from using applause to show your appreciation (as seen in this episode), also including standing ovation; and the list goes on and on and on, from the "universal translator" (try coming up with a good explanation as to how THAT thing actually works) to aliens from worlds that have never heard of Earth calling a flower something like a "Talaxian Petunia" (or whatever). An ENORMOUS amount os stuff in Star Trek doesn't make any sense. At all. And that's not even including the weird psudoscience. While I aknowledge that it DOES seem necessary to ignore lots of the obstacles between cultures and species from entirely different planets in order to get the story moving along, a lot of it just seems so incredibly ludicrous, that I'm having a hard time ignoring it in order to enjoy the stories. The funny thing is, that I (of course) had the same gripes with Next Generation and DS9 - but both of those shows frequently made me buy into the story and the characters in such a way, that I forgot the general shortcomings of the Star Trek universe. I'm afraid Voyager very, very seldomly plays that same "trick" on me. This epsiode is an example of that. I kind of liked it. Nothing more, nothing less. I wasn't seduced, swept away or thoruoghly entertained. It's just ... kind of there. Meh.

I know what you mean Caine. More often than not, voyager aimed for lowest common denominator in terms of plot and challenging its audience, or lack there of. Other sci-fi shows of the day, such as Lexx, Farscape, and Babylon 5, didn't have the big budget of Star Trek, yet were able to push the boundaries of the genre to provide 45 minutes of thought provoking entertainment. However, if one can accept the conceits of the voyager universe, that species are all bipedal and breath the same mixture of o2 ect... This episode stands on the shoulders of previous Star Trek plots --- STOS the conscious of the king, and stTNG Darmok --- all episodes dependant on dialogue and abstract human ideals, minus special effect.

I left out some episodes while watching the entire series on DVD: If I watch a Sy-Fy Series I want to see new ideas, new technologies, new lifeforms, new places .... What I don't want to see is the VOY-Cast playing WW2 scenes, or being part of a black/white movie, or becoming citizens of an old fake Irish town and I don't want to see any more aliens being the exact copy of humans from a certain era in world history!!! That was my problem with this episode as well: Torres having the hundredths or so shuttle-crash of the Voyager Bridge officers - playing theater with the local Greeks or Romans or what so ever. I don't need that - so I passed it. Then I reed this high rating here and thought I give it a second chance ... and you won't believe it but it was ... BORING !!! ;-) Sorry ... maybe it's somehow interesting when you know the background of the writer ... but besides that it was meaningless for me!

Menosky does a good job with the story by creating good drama, and entertains well. Aside from them cut, copy, paste approach, shuttle crash, stranded 30 light years away, I enjoyed the thespian style. Contrite ending violating the Prime Directive by 'ascending' via the transporter. In front of a Bronze age culture no less. Aren't the writers ever look ing at a Star Trek encyclopedia or a writers bible? This was one of the better episodes of Voyager.I certainl agree with Jammer on his ep. Review.

MEta-fiction is hard to rate, some people like it and others hate it. I am also a fan of the Scream series, because the producer understands the issues with horror story writing and the genre. For that movie series, you can enjoy the story and the meta references within it. A story within a story is an ancient tool of writing; it is introspective, but entertaining for thought if you like to dig deeper in to minutia. Star Trek is a hybrid of high thinking stories and low brow action, which our comments prove. Some of us do like high concept stories like these and others prefer action sequences with torpedoes, shields, and "It's a good day to die!" repeated a million times. What Star Trek does well is blend both to create entertainment, look at the movie Star Trek: "First Contact", a perfect blend of action and higher ideals of our first meeting with an extra-terrestial species. For me, I give this episode 9.5/10 as a meta story and 3.5/10 as an action story.

This episode isn’t a masterpiece (there are a few too many convenient events) but it’s pretty close. The novelty of hearing the captain’s log recited by a Greek chorus was itself worth the price of admission, but of course there is a lot more going on here. Yes, writing is a constant tight-rope walk between pleasing your audience and actually saying what you want to say. It’s very difficult to wholly accomplish both, most of the time you end up falling on one side or the other. But then, that’s why when it actually happens, you can appreciate it for its genius — because it’s so rare. It didn’t occur to me while I watched it that the « searching for lost cremates » scenes on the ship were more realistic than usual, but Jammer has a point. Why isn’t it always like this instead of the boring procedural scenes we usually get?

This is certainly not a bad episode. But I really do not understand how much people seem to like it. More, I let a sudden laugh happen when I read Jammer saying: "So what's the answer? Is television simply entertainment that shouldn't be scrutinized, analyzed, or held to a standard other than sheer, dumb entertainment value? Or should we demand more intellect, more patience, more depth in our stories and characters, even if it means ignoring the "wisdom" of demographics, abandoning quick payoffs, and hoping the sizable portion of us will stick it out and wait for the slower realizations? " It makes you feel that this episode was super philosophically deep, intellectually challenging, intrinsically demanding. Well, it was not. I would not go as far as to stay it was dumb or flat, for sure. It had some good mind-food to offer. However, I fell that the evaluation Jammer did was caught in that trap that, in times of Hollywood action silliness, equalizes slow to deep. What is in line with the unfair critics he usually made (in this review as well) about Voyager lacking these paced thoughtful moments. Having a faster pace, more action, explosions or FX never refrained Voyager from delivering some of the best character development in all Trek. The problems this show perhaps had (an many of which correctly pointed by Jammer's reviews) have, however, nothing to do with such characteristics. Sort of nice episode. No more than that.

Andy's Friend

THE ODYSSEY The opening lines: “Tell me, O muse, of that ingenious hero who travelled far and wide after he had sacked the famous town of Troy. Many cities did he visit, and many were the nations with whose manners and customs he was acquainted; moreover he suffered much by sea while trying to save his own life and bring his men safely home.” ― Samuel Butler (1900) “Sing in me, Muse, and through me tell the story of that man skilled in all ways of contending, the wanderer, harried for years on end, after he plundered the stronghold on the proud height of Troy. He saw the townlands and learned the minds of many distant men, and weathered many bitter nights and days in his deep heart at sea, while he fought only to save his life, to bring his shipmates home.” ― Robert Fitzgerald (1961) “Tell me, Muse, of the man of many ways, who was driven far journeys, after he had sacked Troy’s sacred citadel. Many were they whose cities he saw, whose minds he learned of, many the pains he suffered in his spirit on the wide sea, struggling for his own life and the homecoming of his companions.” ― Richard Lattimore (1965) ...and Robert Fagles (1996): “Sing to me of the man, Muse, the man of twists and turns driven time and again off course, once he had plundered the hallowed heights of Troy. Many cities of men he saw and learned their minds, many pains he suffered, heartsick on the open sea, fighting to save his life and bring his comrades home.”

^ MUSE The Opening lines: CHORUS: “Captain’s log, stardate 53896. B’Elanna Torres has requested permission to take the Delta Flyer and search for dilithium. Shining Voyager, far from home, far from the gleaming cities of Earth! Headstrong B’Elanna Torres and young Harry Kim speed away from Voyager on the Delta Flyer in search of their treasures.” YOUNG HARRY KIM: “I've timmed the sails, but the sea is rough. Maybe we should return.” HEADSTRONG B’ELANNA TORRES: “I know what I am doing.” CHORUS: “A wave as high as a mountain struck the Delta Flyer. […] Young Harry Kim left her side, and B’Elanna Torres was thrown against the rocks. The rocks of our very shore.”” KELIS: “Which is where I, Kelis the poet, found her. Broken, dying. She told me her story. And now I’ve told you.” [Applause] PATRON: “An excellent conceit, that you discovered her yourself. But now that B’Elanna Torres has come to our shore, what will happen? Does Captain Janeway come searching for her, or does she give her up for lost?” … “Here the townsfolk on the shore of the sea were offering sacrifice of black bulls to the dark-haired Earth-shaker. Nine companies there were, and five hundred men sat in each, and in each they held nine bulls ready for sacrifice. Now when they had tasted the inner parts and were burning the thigh-pieces to the god, the others put straight in to the shore, and hauled up and furled the sail of the shapely ship, and moored her, and themselves stepped forth. Forth too from the ship stepped Telemachus, and Athena led the way. And the goddess, flashing-eyed Athena, spake first to him, and said: “Telemachus, no longer hast thou need to feel shame, no, not a whit. For to this end hast thou sailed over the sea, that thou mightest seek tidings of thy father ― where the earth covered him, and what fate he met…” (The Odyssey, Book III)

People may not realize that this episode is taken straight from Greek theater. Many will recognize the chorus and the masks, but there are three types of plot twists that are included. Two were described by Aristotle – the reversal of fortune (Peripeteia) and the moment of recognition (Anagnorisis). Then there is the Deus ex Machina at the end.

"that lead shows like "Tsunkatse" to be the highest rated of the season for reasons that aren't about matters of the intellect)" Tsunkatse was the highest rated show of the season becasue it had The Rock in it and Smackdown (on the same network) drew 6 million viewers a week.

Brodey Bishop

Great review :) I loved this episode! BTW: The Delta flyer would have been beamed to a cargo hold. B'Elanna's emotion at the end reflected that Kelis had gradually worn down her indifference. She had come to care for his goal (as evidenced by her bending the prime directive), and was genuinely touched by his goodbye (after all it is a case of meeting people you like and will never see again). Overall: nicely acted! I loved that the play within the play was purposely imperfect, as it felt more genuine. "...and the viper in her nest" 7 of 9: "Queen of the Borg" lol (nice) Waymire: Best supporting actress in this episode. Sad she passed so young; I would have liked to see her in a lead role in something. Great supporting acting overall: From old man to the Patron (who looked like a little boy glued to the set of his favorite cartoon). Even the audience acted well ie (One man stands at exciting part... or waiting to clap in the first play until the patron gave " permission" with his response. Many small touches in this episode. Bravo, refreshing and fun!

Okay. I agree with everything being said by those who like it. A few problems for me: I must agree, Jammer. 8 days unconscious is serious. Very serious. She would've been suffering from all of the terrible effects of starvation and dehydration, not to mention possibly a concussion (or worse)...untreated coma with no nutrition, sitting tied to a chair in your own waste? Because I don't recall Kellis the Poet changing out B'eLanna's bedpan. And B'eLanna suffers no adverse effects from an 8 day coma? C'mon. I really hate that I have to live with that BS just so Capt. Jane can fret over Harry's status. 8 days was an egregious error. Ridiculous. And then it's 10 days? And Harry has been grooming himself pretty well. Couldn't they have given us some stubble or some grime or ANY indication that this guy is roaming the countryside, traveling by night, for a week and a half, an alien in hiding on a strange, relatively undeveloped world. Uh. The B'eLanna thing....unconscious for 8 days? Puhleeeeze.

I didn't like this episode one bit. A play? A shakespearean play based on the adventures of Voyager and B'elanna in particular? Yawnfest. I'll admit, I didn't quite get all the actors vs writers details this episode obviously alludes to. I'm one of those people who doesn't need to know what goes on behind the screens. I don't need to see how magic tricks are done, how awesome actionpacked scenes are put together, how they make big explosions seem real etc etc. It completely ruins the whole point of it. This whole episode feels like that. A look behind the scenes of an ancient play of some backwater aliens trying to grasp the concept of a civilzation millenia ahead of their time. And it's a mess. A jumbled, boring, confusing mess. Big waste of time. Could not care less where it was going or how it ended. I like my sci-fi a little more flashy. If that's shallow, when then that's shallow. I like flash over substance for my entertainment. Sue me. While Star Trek is not generally all that flashy (Abrams movie reboots notwithstanding), it still delivers on this front often enough to warrant watching. I suppose that means I have to take the good with the bad and stomach the occasional episode I know I won't like, like this one. So be it, then.

Rather than grabbing the low-hanging fruit of mocking the whiny manbabies who can't stand any sort of introspection, I'll just ask: how the hell did this Iron Age dude access the ship's logs in the first place? Pretty sure he doesn't have Starfleet clearance. (Also I guess the computers themselves utilize the universal translator. Makes sense.)

I loved this episode, easily 4 stars IMO. Menosky is a great writer, and he clearly was trying to make a point with this script, in that today's audiences don't want intellectual, make-you-think stories, they just want to see phasers, torpedos, running fire fights, and as Jammer says, stuff getting blowed up. I enjoy action scenes as well, but only when they serve the plot, not run over the plot... Enterprise needed more stories like this, instead of the nonsense that Berman and Braga kept writing.

I might have liked this episode better if it had been focused on any other character other than B'Elanna. I like the character in and of herself but for whatever reason I just cannot get into the B'Elanna centric episodes. I doubt that I will rewatch this one much.

If I had to pick a favorite Voyager episode, this is it. "Living Witness" is undoubtedly the best, but this one I love for (probably) mostly personal reasons. I think my history of studying and acting in theater is why I love it so much. That it first aired while I was in undergrad surely helped, too. Maybe Kelis' ideals are a little overstated, but I can't help but think that most writers hope they can change the minds of their audience, so I didn't have a problem with it. If anything, I'd rather creative minds be ambitious than not. The numerous references to classical theater were fantastic (Greek chorus, masks, etc). Admittedly the plausibility is low here, but I never get hung up on whether it's believable that a planet on the other side of the galaxy would develop its culture in any way analogous to our own so long as the story is worthwhile, and this story definitely is. Besides Star Trek always uses alien societies to reflect on our own, so this worked for me. So yes, several scenes that show the acting process in a realistic way, a cool storytelling device, and even using sci-fi technology as a special effect! Winner!

I agree with those above who liked this episode. Great review Jammer. @Ken - I believe Voyager has shuttles constantly scouting for sources of fuels and food in different directions than Voyager. They all meet up at some designated rendezvous point, somewhere down the "road" so to speak. This way they can cover more territory. I doubt Voyager is just sitting in one spot waiting. For example: At the beginning of Memorial, Paris tells Janeway that after 14 days, they scanned 15 planets and that they have a Cargo-hold overflowing with dilithium ore. However, I had a huge problem with Torres' use of the transporter in front of these aliens. Kelis was already contaminated by discovering the shuttle and an Eternal, but who would believe a guy whose job it is to make up stories. Fine. But, with Torres Ascending to the Heavens, in front of the Patron no less, she is reinforcing their beliefs in Eternals. Those who have seen the TNG "Who Watches The Watchers" knows that this is the worst violation of the Prime Directive there could be. These aliens are now not only going to believe in Eternals, but also about other species, the Borg etc... - Janeway should have wiped the short-term memories of all the witnesses and reprimanded Torres severely. Just another example of Janeway's incompetence as a captain. Picard - she is not.

Diamond Dave

I wanted to enjoy this a lot more than I actually did in the end. It's got a really clever twist to a bog-standard shuttle crash idea and has meta up the ying-yang. The final scene is something of a triumph. But in all honesty I found the rest of it to be not all that interesting. I surely don't need explosions and actions every week, but I do like to be entertained. And this wasn't that entertaining to me. I suspect it's because I never got on with Menosky's flights of fancy (I hated Darmok, so what do I know, right?). 2 stars only.

I didn't know this was Joe Menosky's last episode, although it does make sense. It was pretty self-referential at times, and a bit self-congratulatory regarding the importance of writers. That's something I tend not to like. Ah well, Menosky gave us Darmok, he's earned the right to be self-indulgent. The choice of B'Elanna as the Muse of this poet was perfect for two reasons. For one, she's Maquis, not Starfleet, and so doesn't have the affection for the Prime Directive that others might have. If that was Picard down there, he would be more deeply concerned with the impact he was having on the society than his own predicament. But Torres, what does she care? She pays lip service to the Prime Directive, of course, but it's not ingrained into her like with the others. Thus, she can give more information to the poet, and care about the poet, without struggling too much with her internal philosophy. Only Paris or Neelix would have been comparable (and Seven, I guess, but she might not have even paid lip service to the PD). But neither of them would have worked, because they are too extroverted. Torres, being the standoffish character with a disdain for others, was the only one who could grow to care about what this poet was doing. And that's important, because those interactions between the two made this episode what it was. Perhaps I'm a bit biased here, because I came to care about the episode more and more as it went forward at roughly the same pace that Torres did. Like I said, I tend to take a negative view of writers writing about writing. So I was worried about this going in. But their interactions, and the way they were both so dependent on each other, despite neither one fully trusting or understanding the other, won me over. Sure, B'Elanna's over-emotional speech at the end was probably too over-the-top, but I'll let it pass. It helps that the episode seemed to do all the little things right, a rarity for Voyager. The scenes on Voyager were well paced and had the emotional weight that the potential loss of Kim and Torres deserved. One bit I liked was the emphasis on the actor playing Tuvok, questioning whether the audience will understand such an emotionless character, and then switching back to the real Tuvok, where we can see his intense emotions buried beneath his calm exterior. B'Elanna's attempts to fix the shuttle were likewise well done, eschewing the usual technobabble and waving blinky lights around for spreading random wires around and needing specific metals to connect everything. And Harry's return felt very natural too. So basically, everything clicked. And most of all, I liked B'Ellana. It's refreshing to see an episode focusing on her that's not about her Klingoness or temper. I mean, it kinda is about her standoffish nature, but it's far more subtle than the likes of Juggernaut. She's simply sarcastic and aiming to shut down conversations as fast as possible. But eventually, she ends up getting around to listening to his play. She ends up talking about it, giving advice (and not just about telling what the real Voyager is like). And in the end, when she realizes that the poet can't finish his story without her help, she decides to run back and help. It not only works thematically, but works with the plot as well. In the first play, we learned that the poet inserted himself into the story. So it makes sense that the story ends with the poet as well. A touching ending that won me over just as much as it did the audience of the show. Like Darmok, I wouldn't want this sort of show to become common on Trek, but as a one-shot it worked very well.

Unlike Darmok, these primitive aliens apparently speak and read fluent English. This isn't a unique contrivance for Voyager, or Star Trek altogether, but it works best when you barely notice. This time it was really noticeable for some reason.

One of my personal favorites. Fantastic review Jammer. Couple reason I enjoy this one. It's a B'Elanna episode for starters. As always Roxann's right on the mark. Another is Kelly Waymire. She just has such a great screen presence to me. Love her in Enterprise as Crewman Cutler and loved her here as well. So sad she left us early. I love how our Maquis/quick tempered/half-Klingon Chief Engineer handled this situation. I'm not sure she would have reacted so maturely early on in the series. Just a classy episode. Touching ending. I'm also VERY pleased Mr. Joe Menosky has been added to our new series coming up in January. He's penned some trek classics, of which I think this is one. 4 stars from me.

Didnt hate this episode but did find it pretty slow. It was very watchable in no small part due to the fact the poet guy and some of his crew were rather easy on the eye :)

watchable (**)

When I saw this was the next episode I almost skipped it. It's been a few years since I last watched voyager and my memory isn't what it could be, but I had the feeling this was a dud. But then I checked and saw that Jammer gave it 3.5 stars, so I thought I must have been mistaken. That was my real mistake. This was truly awful. I wish I'd gone with my gut. I'm stunned that so many people enjoyed it. Each to their own I suppose... @mephyve: what's gotten into you? I expected you to hate this even more than i did! Poet guy: "I believe the right kind of play can turn the mind from violent thoughts ". The reverse is also true. This episode made me want to punch someone. . 5 stars

Damn, Bellana! Prime Directive much?!?

Clapping, standing ovation, greek tragedy elements, human social organization and monogamous sexual conventions, 8-day coma without water and no renal failure, non-stubbly Harry, shuttle crash trope, zero character development, jealous girlfriend without a real resolution, primitive alien accessing logs: way way too many distractions to allow any appreciation of the pseudo-deep message that has impressed the lowest common denominator crowd here. Weak episode.

grumpy_otter

@Yanks--I am so sorry you mentioned Kellie Waymire--I too really loved ehr performance in this. To learn she is dead is almost too tragic. Well, she left behind at least one amazing performance. I'll join the chorus (yuk yuk) of those who love this episode, and I'll also admit I can totally say that I completely understand why some don't like it--AND THAT'S OKAY! We don't have to like all the same things! Wouldn't the world be boring if we did? I love how the writers comment on writing in this--it is too hilarious. Watching it, i feel like the writers think i am smart and can get hints. A nice change from the moments when the writes explain things TOO much. For me the greatest and most amazing moment of character development is when Tuvok admits he has not slept for days. I honestly didn't think he cared THAT much--it really moved me. When he snored on the bridge I felt nothing but sympathy.

Ferdinand Cesarano

What I thought was incoherent was the nature of these people. Are they space-faring? At first it seemed not, as Kelis apparently thought that the references to "captain" and "ship" were nautical. The whole notion of considering the Voyager crew to be mythic creatures ("Eternals") would suggest an unfamiliarity with the concept of space travel. And B'Elanna seemed at first to be playing along with this idea. But then she said the words "starship" and "Starfleet". So does Kelis actually understand that Earth is another planet, and not some land across the eastern sea? There was a more practical problem: if the Delta Flyer' s power was failing, how was the universal translator operating? We just had an episode in which Ballard was speaking Kobali on the ship, and B'Elanna couldn't understand her (which raises the separate question of why the translator wasn't working then). So how could B'Elanna and Kelis understand each other on a powered-down shuttle? Do the com badges have this translating function? Even if they do, that doesn't explain how B'Elanna could read the note that Kelis wrote in his own language. I am perfectly willing to accept the ubiquity of the universal translator. But there's no way to reconcile this story even with that.

This episode was so full of itself and the ego of the writer, that everything 'realistic' was lost in the shuffle (or as 'real' as star trek can be anyway). A shuttle crashing yet again? no problem. 8 day coma? no problem. Harry crossing 120 miles of wilderness on an L class planet in 8 days with just a tricorder pointing in the right direction? no problem. A planet on the other side of the galaxy that is exactly like medievel England, complete with Shakespeare? no problem. And on and on. The thing that pulled me right out of the episode completely was when Torres asks Shakespeare to get her a thin sheet of tin and bronze alloy plated with gold, as if she would even ask him in the first place, and then he comes back the next day with one. lol. I couldn't get one of those made nowadays in less than a week probably. But apparently they just have them lying around on his primitive planet. Just like the dilithium, which of course he recognized immediately from a crystal looking thing on a computer screen as 'winter's tears'. The screen alone would have made him shit himself just seeing it. And I know that when I see a picture of a crystal I can identify the specific one it is and exactly where to find them, especially if it is located in only one spot that I would never know about because I wasn't allowed to go there ever in the first place or risk being killed. And why was the flyer out of dilithium anyway? It hadn't been running for over a week. What, they only carry the exact amount of dilithium to last exactly the length of their original mission, and if you go past that by a few hours you're screwed I guess? And apparently they have no food on the flyer either, since Torres had to bargain for some with Shakespeare. Maybe they use a replicator, but the escape pods have at least a weeks worth, and there should be 2 escape pods left on the flyer. So the whole situation there makes no sense. And Shakespeare listened to some log entries and knew every detail about everyone on the ship? Would the logs even mention that seven says 'you will be assimilated' and 'I will comply' etc. and that Tuvok is a vulcan with no emotions, and that there is a subtext of a love between Chakotay and Janeway, and that Harry was interested in kissing the twins, and that Paris and Torres are in love? etc. etc. Even if they did, he discovered all of that in the thousands and thousands of log entries, that he somehow knew how to listen to, and somehow could understand, despite 90% of it being technobabble that he wouldn't comprehend in the slightest about warp signatures and transporters and away missions and tritanium and holodecks and EMP's and alien monsters that eat starships and on and on, and wrote it into a play and rehearsed it and performed it, all in a week. oh yes. Another absurd episode from this absurd show where the writers just don't care about what they are actually writing about, just as long as they can force a 'moral' down our throats. And oh my. What an original 'moral' it was too. Violence is bad. Oh really. 1 star. Mostly for the Tuvok scenes.

Startrekwatcher

Not a fan of meta-commentary. 2 stars

"In a galaxy populated by thousands of sentient species, Earth customs seem to be suprisingly universal." This is a bit of a problem. It is generally canonically accepted now that Vulcan orbits the star 40 Eridani A, which is an orange star smaller than our Sun. Thus, a year on Vulcan is probably only about half of an Earth year, so Vulcans' longevity, adjusted for their own "year", could mean that they really don't live any longer than humans do.

OK episode with some imagination but ultimately I'm not that impressed. Mostly wooden guest actors although Dawson always does well when she's acting the main character. The first time Kelis shows up I thought it was Keanu Reaves making a guest appearance. In any case, that Torres is left tied up in a chair after a crash landing for 8 days and seems to take it pretty well doesn't jive with the fiery half-Klingon. The whole whatever about writing a play and trying to find the right ending, the old man's words about how writing a play used to be etc. didn't do anything for me. I just found this episode slow and somewhat frustrating for long stretches. But what was interesting was the ancient race trying to portray Voyager's adventures from their own perspectives through the play. That had a certain simplicity and imagination to it. I kept thinking and waiting for the episode to really pick up but the ending was underwhelming with the other lady trying to claim Torres is an eternal and the patron getting involved in the play. It seemed like it should not have worked out to achieve whatever effect. And the whole idea of an "eternal" -- is that supposed to be something like a divine being to this alien race? But then Kelis ties the "eternal" up for 8 days and then it helps him write his play? Bizarre. Some things didn't play out as one thinks they should. I thought this could have turned into that Stephen King book "Misery". The scenes on Voyager with the search and Tuvok not sleeping were compelling enough. 2.5 stars for "Muse" -- the strong part of the episode is Dawson's acting although I think it should have been written differently (showing more anger/frustration). There is the bit about peace in the end from Kelis, which came across as a bit trite, but it is well-intentioned and I think that is a uniquely Trekkian quality about some episodes. Overall not very satisfying or significant.

@Ferdinand Cesarano: I think it's established in the series that by Voyager's time, combadges also serve double-duty as universal translators. So the shuttle's computer being off-line would not have been a problem. That said, I particularly dislike how often the universal translator is misused throughout most of Star Trek. Quite often it's portrayed encountering a totally foreign language, from a newly discovered species, and making perfect translations on the fly. Not to mention the fact that it most also be somehow using holographic projection to make sure that the alien's lips match perfect English. And it ensures that facial expressions and body language never TOO foreign to the bearer of the UT. It's lazy writing, and only a few episodes actually deal with the concept of first contact, without over reliance on the UT. It feels like a lazy hand-waving way to get around the actual formidable challenges Voyager or the Enterprise should encounter every time they meet a new species. I get that the writers can't get too bogged down in this kind of detail, but it's never really paid more than just lip service (if you'll forgive the pun).

Prince of Space

OK... while we’re on the subject of the Universal Translator, my favorite part is how when they first hail a brand new species it works right off the bat before the other species has even said anything. Now *that’s* some damn fancy technology right there. But yeah, we all get it. The show would be tedious if every time they met a new species, 20 minutes was devoted to them spewing gibberish at each other until the UT could accumulate enough data to function. I’m OCD enough to kind of let these sorts of things bother me, yet whimsical enough to usually be able to ignore them. But not always. The hailing a brand new species and the UT working right off the bat gets me every time. haha

I like this episode and the general meta-commentary, and the way the episode dances back and forth between the play-Voyager and the real one. Self-indulgent? Sure, but that's appropriate for a send-off for Menosky (even if he does write Unimatrix Zero, which, uh, let's count this one as his last real one), who can't help but compare himself to the Bard when he exits (see also opening Emergence with The Tempest). The idea that storytelling can Change The World is a starry-eyed hopeless dreamer romantic's attitude, and, hey, it's part of the Trek mythos that Star Trek helped change the world, so we can maybe let them get a little carried away. B'Elanna mostly is a good presence in the episode, too, and I appreciate that the episode elides her Klingon-ness almost entirely. However, the episode still runs into problems with the ending: not only is B'Elanna's insistence that she must go and fix the play's ending weird in and of itself, and not only is the depth of her emotion unearned, but I really can't even make out what her transporting away is supposed to even mean. Is she trying to show that she was a real alien all along? Wow the patron with special effects? The most likely explanation I have is that it really is a combination of the two, and that she really does want to show that she's a magical creature for these puny mortals, which will give the play some heft by showing that there really is a real Voyager fantasy place where dreams can come true, but you know, I know she's not the most dutiful rule-follower, but I'm straining to think -- isn't there some kind of...first...order...about revealing yourself to be an alien or god to some pre-warp civilization? Given that this is a metanarrative episode about Star Trek, you would think that one of the defining rules of the franchise would maybe come up, when relevant. It's weird of course that she had already let her forehead ridges (and lack of whatever the people on this planet have) go without comment, but at least there was some hint that maybe she was supposed to be just a normal person with a weird head, that that's the way things were Over There, rather than being an actual Eternal or whatever the transporter beamout would seem to suggest. I think on the metafictional level, though, I think maybe the ending is actually meant to be between Menosky and Voyager, the characters and the show: Menosky, as the poet, actually gets a chance to meet and be saved by the fictional character, who leaves him behind, back to his life. It is touching, in its way. It's a little slighter than I'd remembered and I find the ending unsatisfying, but still a strong showing -- 3 stars.

toast crunch

good episode. It actually painted belanna in good light and gave her some needed character development as she tries to forge peace between the land she is in and the unseen neighbor. 69 stars out of 71.

Lavenderchartreuse

Very interesting review..thank you for the extra depth...excellent commentary on your part. I mostly enjoyed the episode, but found the ending a little confusing. I didn't really see how B'elanna disappearing made any sense in the plays storyline, but maybe I missed something. I generally DO like an occasional episode that show us a bit of depth of character, or something that is playfully different. I love sci-fi, but I only buy into it if I care about the people and, as long as every episode doesn't turn into a soap opera, I enjoy a little excursion into something unusual or insightful. On the negative side, (Its possible someone already mentioned this, I didn't read through everyone's responses), the thing that jarred me out of the story was that B'elanna could read the note that she was given by the messenger. Uh, either he can write in her language, or she can read his. What?! Lol. Otherwise, I enjoyed it.

A couple of things: - Beaming out in front of a not advanced civilisation: they were already believing in “Eternals”. This didn’t change much. It did help if it prevented a war. - universal translator: it has long been established that when it works, it works flawlessly as if everyone speaks English. It is a standard Trek convention so that a story can be told in 40’ People shouldn’t get stuck in trivial issues and instead should try to enjoy the fiction part. Otherwise, Wikipedia has some amazing articles that are highly scientifically and historically accurate ;)

At first I was quite afraid of the episode being boring but it won me over. Reading in the review that this was the last episode written by a longstanding write of Trek makes everything come together. The basic story of the episode is that of the struggle between a writer and the need to a satisfy a needing patron who demands a new spectacle every week. It seems Menosky knows the Trek audience quite well, judging from the angry comments if the people who missed their hardcore “science” dose for a week ;) This was at at the of the sixth season out of seven, so the show can be allowed some self-reflection and the writers comparing themselves with Aristophanes and Shakespeare :) More explosions and technobabble next week!

Interesting concept, well done. Our guest star does a good job. I was confused about how B'Ellana survived eight days in the shuttle, unconscious . . . I guess I can assume our rescuer managed to get some liquids down her. I liked the way the "play" was done. Well done! Haven't read the review or comments yet but am quite curious to do so, as this was an unusual outing. Later, gators.

Comments on the commentary: --I liked Tuvok's sleeplessness and snoring. I think it helped make a point the episode repeated in various ways: Caring isn't ultimately expressed emotions (kissing, crying). It's expressed by effort, by actions, not lip service. --The use of the shuttles in Voyager: I've always had the impression that this was to allow the shop to do several things at once: Get supplies, explore, etc. --The UT: No use worrying about this aspect.

B'Elanna is awesome and I thought she looked hot in this episode, therefore I liked it.

Sean Hagins

A very good episode. Different-and I wouldn't want the entire series to be like this, but it makes a nice change. I like how the episode ends without telling us the patron's reaction. Will he lay aside his pride and warmongering ways? Let us hope so, but we will never know. I too liked Kelly Waymire-I always thought she was quite talented-and cute too. A shame about her early death, but I believe in the bible's promise of a resurrection, so soon she can live again. Despite the lack of flashy things one associates with sci-fi, this episode is typical Star Trek to me. It is entertaining, and also shows us that we can put aside pride and violent tendencies if we decide to. I don't have the problem with Harry Kim that many have here, so I didn't mind his last minute appearance-in fact worrying/wondering what happened to him for most of the episode adds spice to the show!

Jeffrey Jakucyk

When this episode came up during my rewatch, I pondered momentarily the idea of skipping it. In all of 90s-era Star Trek (TNG, DS9, and VOY) the only episode I generally skip is TNG's Shades of Grey. I can enjoy the bad ones for their badness and generally don't get as flustered about it as others do. So why do I dislike this one so much? I'm still not really sure. I consider it very boring, but not because it's talky and non-action-y. I like plenty of episodes that fall into that category (The Measure of a Man, The Drumhead, The Inner Light, Family, Duet, The Wire, Far Beyond the Stars, Living Witness, Author Author). I applaud them for not inserting a space battle with the hard-headed alien of the week this time. Maybe part of it is that I don't care for theater or theatrical acting. In that case perhaps the scenes of Barclay and Riker acting for Crusher's plays in TNG are short enough that they don't bother me. Picard's "bad" acting for DaiMon Tog's sake at the end of Ménage à Troi is a highlight of the series ("My love...is a fever.") The similarly bombastic style of Kovat, Chief O'Brien's public conservator in Tribunal is also fun and silly. I guess this episode was just too plodding and serious? It might also be that I'm not a fiction writer. I do some writing, but it's of an historical nature, documentarian, so this tale of inspiration and contemplation just doesn't resonate with me, I guess. I'd much rather watch the previous episode, Live Fast and Prosper, for all its campiness and wink-winks to the audience, despite its clichéd tropes and plot holes.

I felt like Tuvok during this episode. Zzzzzzzz

Matthew Siegel

I weirdly liked this a lot, even though on its face it doesn't seem that interesting... the way it gradually became about the creative process as a whole was just engaging. Perhaps because I did not expect that to be the theme of the episode, but it's a unique and interesting theme that works here.

Todayshorse

Hmm Torres manages to land on a planet full of luvvies. Luvvuies who manage to speak in a slightly damok style and one manages to annoy the almost Seven rivaling Torres for hotness in her figure hugging grey under uniform. And annoy her he does with just about every word he says...'Vulcan!' Grrrrrrrr

To be or not to be! @Ken Egervari (very belatedly) If I may address one of your concerns of why Voyager goes-a-exploring along the way, I have a real life example about the famous BOUNTY vessel, in which Fletcher Christian led a mutiny and Put Captain Bligh and twenty of his crew adrift in a 21 foot launch in the Pacific ocean. Too long to relate the entire story here of course, but Bligh managed to sail in that little open boat over 3600 miles to safety with the loss of just ONE man! The point here is that in spite of the sheer terror of their predicament, Bligh still drew maps, charted islands, studied and recorded new plant and animal species, measured coastlines, etc. You see....he was a commander but also a professional...a scientist. This type of professionalism was and is today expected conduct of the true professional. Contrast that with Captain Edwards....the man charged with bringing in the mutineers.... Edwards just sailed to and from the island of Tahiti (near where the Mutiny took place) without so much as a look out his cabin window....and lost his ship to boot! This episode is interesting, but for my personal reflections it was marred by having one of my least favorite characters in Torres. In a way, after reading through the past comments I wonder if even some of the most serious detractors of this show might have all written more favorable reviews if they had known what was in store for the future of this great show. After Voyager and then Enterprise, there was the drought and then this travesty of an imitation called ST Discovery (my apologies to those that may like this show). For me, I have the rest of the series (VOYAGER) to view for the wonderfully first time!! So even if there is a less than great episode I will probably rate it as a work of a modern Shakespeare!

I thoroughly enjoyed "Muse". I liked watching the play within a play, and how Kelis used the Flyer's records to write his plays. (Why is some of that information in the records anyway?) Kim's part may have been unnecessary, but seeing B'Lanna happily greet him by name made me think back to when she was calling him "starfleet". Quite a change after all they've been through as one crew. And the fact that B'Lanna found the kissing extraneous, when it was she who wanted more romance in Tuvok's holonovel from "Worst Case Scenario". And Kelis' last lines, talking about Earth as a place where hate had no home, almost moved me to tears, wishing it were so. Sometimes Trek writers really know how to touch my heart, schmaltzy as it is.

I didn’t mind the episode, I just didn’t really understand that playwright’s own obstacle- isn’t “Janeway” showing mercy on the “Queen of the Borg” for the sake of both societies a clear enough conclusion? What exactly did B’lanna’s appearance add or clarify?

"(Away missions in shuttles or the Flyer are more dangerous than they can possibly be worth; when was the last time one didn't end with a crisis or crash?)" One could argue that there were many away missions that were uneventful, and were never shown as episodes.

Sleeper Agent

This is the second time in a row now, that we get an episode with barely no Seven; but instead it's all about B'Ellana, and thank God for that! A beautifully paced story with a wonderful theme and a flawless performance by Roxann Dawson. I really like B'Ellana and unfortunately I feel many of the episodes focusing on her lacks in story and execution. Therefore "Muse" is a real delight. 3-3,5 Stars.

After barely stomaching Alice, I was wary of watching this. I always loved B'Ellana the character, but the writers made her very one dimensional for no good reason. I don't count her interactions with Paris as a positive - he's been a wet noodle of a character from the start and ought to have been tossed out an airlock early on. That said, Dawson gives a hell of a performance here in a unique story that has given me more respect for Voyager. I can't fathom why they sidelined so many excellent actors. Is there even one Chakotay episode? There are dozens about the doctor who is an emotional infant and rarely has a scene I'd call challenging. I found the story inventive and unpredictable, which is what I love about SF. Fearless writing that, I'm sorry to say, was rarely seen outside of DS9.

Three and half stars? Seriously?

I would have given it 1 star, but after reading your review, you’ve swayed me up to 2. Knowing this was Joe Menosky’s Voyager swan song, that feels about right. Menosky has written some of my Trek all time favorites and all time duds, so right in the middle is fitting. I appreciate what he did here, and the acting was great, it was just a little too on the nose for me. I found it to be rather pretentious as well. Not a terrible episode, but the pedestal you put it on is a little too elevated.

Tannhaeuser

This is one of the best. A thing about these so called "science fictions" on TV. There is no science in them, but technobabbles and excuses to blow up in unrealistic ways to satisfy certain juvenile impulses that we all have. The fictions are more important and this writer always put fiction first and spectacles last. Darmok is another.

EventualZen

@Nathan Tue, Apr 1, 2014, 1:53am I was also thinking that they breached the prime directive by beaming up B'Elanna in front of a pre-industrial society. It's things like this that make me sympathise with people who think Janeway flip-flops on her ideals. Don't get me wrong, I like Voyager but I can see their point.

Very different, I enjoyed it. They really need to keep tethers on the delta and those darn shuttles. Have they ever flown one without a crash?

Bob ( a different one)

This is one of the best written episodes in all of Trek. Menosky expertly blends science fiction, Greek theater, and a metanarrative about writing for network television while adding new facets to the characters of Tuvok and B'Elanna. Oh, and he also manages to wrap everything up with an optimistic Trekian message. All in a 45 minute script. ..... Jammer said: "But there's some off-kilter-ness to the way Layna attempts to expose B'Elanna and the way the patron assumes it to be part of the act. " The patron makes that assumption because the events parallel the common theater tropes that Kellis listed. From the script: KELIS: That's exactly the problem. Where is the mistaken identity, the discovery, the sudden reversal? Mistaken identity, a character who is someone else. Discovery, the moment when that identity is revealed. Reversal, a situation that turns from good to bad in a blink of an eye. .... Jammer and others also have a problem with Torres being emotional at the end. Torres has been plagued by doubt and self recriminations her entire life. Now she has met someone who literally thinks she is an inspiration, a Muse, a goddess, someone whose mere words can bring about peace. I can see how someone who has always hated herself could get emotional when meeting someone who not only accepts her, but venerates her. ......... Some people mentioned a possible Prime Directive violation by B'Elanna at the end when she beams up in clear view of the audience. Take note of this comment by Victoria G: "People may not realize that this episode is taken straight from Greek theater. Many will recognize the chorus and the masks, but there are three types of plot twists that are included. Two were described by Aristotle – the reversal of fortune (Peripeteia) and the moment of recognition (Anagnorisis). Then there is the Deus ex Machina at the end." "Deus ex Machina" From Wikipedia: The term was coined from the conventions of ancient Greek theater, where actors who were playing gods were brought onto stage using a machine. The machine could be either a crane (mechane) used to lower actors from above or a riser which brought them up through a trapdoor. B'Elanna was just giving the audience exactly what they expected. P.S. R.I.P. Kellie Waymire

Loved it, thoughtful, different, VERY meta. Thanks for your comment Bob (a different one), quite interesting Also RIP Kellie

Bob (a different one)

Thank you very much, Facundo. This really is a very underrated episode, imo. p.s. One odd thing about this one - what happened to John Schuck? He's an actor with an extensive resume and has made numerous Star Trek appearances, but he's little more than an extra in this episode. I think he has only one line in the entire script outside of the chorus scene. Odder still, he gets a billing in the opening credits. Memory Alpha says that there were numerous rewrites during filming so maybe he lost some lines. If that's the case, it's a shame that they couldn't have given him the part of the actor playing "Logical Tuvok."

Here by way of search '"Muse" best Voyager episode ever'. I disagree with the author's claims we all want splozhuns. Nope. Nope. Nope. Depends what you call 'entertaining'. Seriously, I'm so bored with the 'action' sequences i simply mute the TV and play with the phone til it's over? Who's the implied majority who can't think? Better train them up- the future of human civilisation depends on it, because using them as factory fodder for capitalism is just working so well, isn't it 😜 I love this ep's devotion to the ancient art of storytelling. What a great premise (unmentioned in this article): how would a Star Trek story come across if told in a formalistic ancient fashion with zero frills? Kind of Lars von Triers Dogme style. It honours our history beautifully. I also disagree that you can't change the world with storytelling. In fact, you can ONLY change the world with storytelling. It's the scripts people live by -what they believe is possible/ appropriate/ expected of/ by people- that directs their every life decision! That includes people in positions of political/ economic etc power. The trick is: how to tell the story, to whom and to what for? The best STV ep ever.

""(Away missions in shuttles or the Flyer are more dangerous than they can possibly be worth; when was the last time one didn't end with a crisis or crash?)" One could argue that there were many away missions that were uneventful, and were never shown as episodes." Stef, beautiful 👌😄😄

Jeffery's Tube

I love this episode like crazy, although I fully understand why some people do not. My favorite part is B'Elanna raising two middle fingers to the Prime Directive at the end and beaming off the stage in front of the entire audience. Listen, B'Elanna Torres ain't Starfleet. Not really, when it comes down to it. And you just KNOW she didn't put that part in her report to Janeway. If you don't get a good chuckle out of that, I don't know what to tell you. She recognized it was a dramatic moment to make her exit and she took it. Oh and also how the magistrate afterward looks back at the actress who'd just called B'Elanna out for being an actual "eternal" and she just makes this gesture like "TOLD you!" Amazing. Listen, yes, I know it's something she really shouldn't have done. It seems relatively harmless, but the harm it may cause isn't always foreseeable, and that's the whole idea behind the Prime Directive. But the whole episode isn't really structured as being very "real." I mean, in the universe of the show, it's really happening, yes. But you know what I mean. I love that for once, rather than stringently playing by the "rules" and doing the right thing that show knows it should have done, instead it just winked at the audience and said "eh the hell with it, let's go with fun." I'm willing to accept that everything works out for the best for that society anyway despite the violation of the Prime Directive, like the show asks me to believe. Let's give this episode that supposition so that we can have our fun. The show can't ask this of us every time, or even multiple times, and expect us to respect it, but it can ask it of us once. Why not?

"as learned through the logs of the Delta Flyer, which along with its lone passenger, B'Elanna Torres, has crashed" I clearly recall Janeway telling Seven soon after she joined the crew that "I'm not accustomed to sending an away team of one".

Stevensa128

@Jaxon - Harry was on the mission as well. He'd taken an escape pod before the flyer crashed. He comes along later on in the episode and finds Torres having landed somewhere else on the planet.

@Nathan (April 1, 2014) "Contrite ending violating the Prime Directive by 'ascending' via the transporter. In front of a Bronze age culture no less. Aren't the writers ever looking at a Star Trek encyclopedia or a writers bible?" I, like you so many years ago, lament that the writers apparently never did take the time to index their own episodes. A decent index would have allowed them to increase the number of continuity references in their scripts enormously, while at the same time obviating discordant retcon stumbles. Such improvements would have made a lot of viewers happier. Although a lot of the mistakes are just funny and allow us to harmlessly nitpick them as a hobby, IMO. Glad to see the prime directive violated -- B'Elanna Torres' "ascending" gave this Bronze Age culture a visual rush of precisely the kind of phenomena it already seemed to believe in. @Jeffrey's Tube (June 22, 2021)-- good & valid point that B'Elanna "ain't Starfleet"... wouldn't it be interesting to have a character who aced everything at the academy, but who walked out after bombing on a prime directive pop quiz. An exploration of what the Maquis attitude about the prime directive might have been, would have made for a good episode or two, had the writers chosen to do that back in olden times (pre-2001). Add me to the list of episode-likers. It was quiet and controlled, devoid of extrovert-catering. Loved the ending sequence especially. Clearly this was inspired by ancient Hellenic culture...specifically warring city states in the pre-classical era, styled maybe like c. 630 BC...patron modelled on Cypselus of Corinth perhaps? although I can't say what theatrical traditions had developed specifically in Corinth at this juncture. Not a student of theatre. "Muse" is a good show! And it establishes as canon that some Vulcans do snore. Jammer's review is 'spot on.'

Chattering Chaingang

I like Jammer's review and I see the merits of the ep from his perspective, but how does he miss the major flaw that ruins what Menoskey was going for? Jammer and others admire it being a "character show" and like the understated emotion of the crew searching for B'Lanna while the stand-in Ancient Greek poet details the same story from an outsider's viewpoint. But where in this is B'lanna's emotion or motivation? Her drive to fix the Flyer and leave could be due to pragmatic survival issues and nothing else going by the script. Why isn't she having moments like Paris, Janeway, et al, fearing she'll never see those she cares about? Why isn't she in danger of hyperventilating at the thought of how important she is to the Voyager actually making it home, or caring about what they're doing to her engine room in her absence? She comes across as a the only stock character in a quiet character show about her. And, bizarrely, she seems to have deeper feelings about the poet she just met than everyone on Voyager. This ruined the episode for me, though I wanted to love it. I've always been impressed how fiction can, in fact, have a sometimes profound effect on people to the point of changing cultures (look at the effect Trek had on advancing technology, or culturally the famous scene of a white man kissing a black woman). In history I think of Ivan Turgenev writing A Sportsman's Sketches which after reading it caused Tsar Alexander II to free the serfs. The written word can indeed be powerful.

This really was something special. One good thing about having previously skipped episodes that sounded awful ("stranded during an away mission, Torres finds herself for a young poet's art"), I've at least left myself in the position of having personal "lost" classic episodes.

@Chattering Chaingang I'll agree Torres was acting strangely, but I assume she was delirious from injury, perhaps feverish. I don't think there's anything that directly indicates this, but she was unconscious for a week, suggesting a coma. Her all but complete disregard for the Prime Directive might point to that. Perhaps her inability to fix the Flyer's com system suggests this as well, despite being a famed Starfleet engineer. Plus, this world is steeped in dreamy archetypes, perhaps based on Greek archetypes. The Poet has an uncanny ability to convey the world of Voyager, even if imprecisely. The jilted lover behaves powerfully but obliquely.

And of course for Voyager, the trailer was ridiculously misleading: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=45fF7thHz98 Was that footage of the Flyer before crashing actually filmed then cut, or was it just taken from another episode? I never understood why Voyager's trailers were almost always misleading and way over sensationalized. It's a TV show, not a one off movie you might trick people into watching. And if a deceptive trailer works by bringing in viewers, those viewers aren't likely to be pleased. Meanwhile, a viewer who might have wanted to watch this quirky quiet episode may skip it.

"I never understood why Voyager's trailers were almost always misleading and way over sensationalized." It certainly wasn't limited to Voyager. The TNG promos were awful, always showing any battle, danger, or heightened drama or conflict, no matter how ancillary to the actual story. The trailer for Hollow Pursuits is a classic. It goes on about the Enterprise speeding to destruction out of control. Can the crew shut down the engines in time to avert disaster? No mention of Reg Barclay whatsoever, you know, the A plot.

True. What I really like in this episode is it just feels like a starship in operation. Losing a shuttle in the vast regions of space in an entirely unknown region isn't solved in a couple minutes of technobabble. Tuvok staying awake for days isn't relevant to the resolution, nor is Neelix all but demanding he go to bed. In weaker scripts, somehow that would be key. Here, it's just an officer worried about a lost crew. Even Janeway having to ask Chakotay how long Harry could survive in an escape pod is excellent. It certainly feels like a retcon because Janeway would usually have that information on the tip of her tongue. In the actual situation of Voyager in the Delta Quadrant, I do believe Janeway would have this information down cold, but it is nice to see how the captain would usually need this information from her XO. I do believe Voyager had a much longer weaning period than TNG and DS9, but imho, it had a fantastic late series run. Seven was part of that but it wasn't just her.

TheRealTrent

IMO this is one of "Voyager's" greatest episodes, and a good parting-shot by Joe Menosky, one of Trek's most interesting writers. What I liked most about this episode was its self-reflexivity: this is essentially an episode in which a guy writes a script in which a character uses a heavy-handed monologue to convince a warlord not to massacre his enemies. To me, this encapsulates one of Trek's best features: the ability of a good, righteous monologue - often employed by Kirk or Picard - to save the day. Yes, that's hokey, and arguably naive or overly optimistic, but I like Menosky's enthusiasm for this very Trekkian trope. The episode's final cut-to-black is also particularly strong. We're never actually sure if the writer's sermon has any effect. For all we know, he's swiftly massacred by his patron. In this sense, you might say the cut-to-black both questions and preserves a certain kind of optimism (Schrödinger's utopia!). Beyond this, I thought the episode had a bravura quality. It takes skill and daring to set an entire episode almost entirely on just two sets. I wish modern Trek was more open to doing this- science fiction has a long history of conjuring whole worlds and cultures with just a few, simple gestures. This leads to a certain intensity when done right. On my recent rewatch of Voyager, I've noticed Torres has far more great episodes than I previously realized. Torres is almost up there with the Doc, Seven and Janeway in terms of excellent scripts dedicated to her. In contrast, someone like Tom Paris arguably only has one or two (The Chute? What else?).

@TheRealTrent Exactly This is quite ingenious because it runs on a TOS level conceit, of an Athens on another world, yet treats it earnestly with decades later production skill. It's completely meta but without the slightest moment of mocking the original show. I don't think a late 60s tv show with its inherent weaknesses should be unflinchingly worshipped, but this is a very nice way to do update it.

A truly great episode of Trek and among the best of Voyager's entire run. There are so many layers to this story's meta-textual ideas (including the elusiveness of artistic inspiration, the internal and external pressures artists navigate, and the challenges of working within prevailing social constructs), but the grandest of them is one that draws from the very essence of Trek. Stories, at their best and most enduring, are myths with archetypes who have the unparalleled ability to stir our hearts and our minds; to imagine different and better paths; to change individual lives and transform societies; to preserve the hope and dream of human betterment. 4 stars unequivocally.

"Blow" is an irregular verb. The correct sentence would be "... stuff getting blown up."

Thanks, but I will continue to use "blowed up" until my inner child has fully growed up. https://youtu.be/uHkvD7-u7y8 https://youtu.be/td4VEGiIQmk

JJ Not Abrams 8-)

A wonderful episode and it's ok that it doesn't work for all viewers. What does work for everyone is Jammer Reviews, happy to see people posting so many years after these Trek episodes premiered.

It's crazy, I've watched this a couple dozen times-- in under a year-- and it always works for me. Despite having about the worst premise possible for me... it might as well have been "Neelix takes knitting lessons in Fair Haven". The even crazier thing... I loved it without getting any of writer Menosky's meta subtext about this being about the challenges of writing for the actual show. I'll apologize to Jammer: I never read his review on this until just now and so I posted without reading it. I certainly don't usually do that. I don't recall why, I suspect I thought the review was ridiculously long for a stupid sounding premise, then posted because I was thrilled. This episode is like a Mandelbrot plot. No matter which part you look at, it's interesting and no matter how deep you look at it, it's interesting.

I like the plodding weird ones at times because I'm polymorphously perverse, but you're right, they should change the name of that little ship to the Delta Crasher.

A thoroughly ridiculous episode. Not sure what some of you are seeing in it. It's not science fiction or entertaining.

Black Oatmeal

What we see in it is good writing. If you've been watching a lot of post-DS9 Trek recently you may have forgotten what it looks like. The episode is working on multiple levels. There's more going on than just another show about a crashed shuttle. Read some more of the more thoughtful comments in this thread and give it another watch.

Actually, I despise post trek. If you think this episode was well written sci-fil you have very low standards. it's hardly Cause and Effect - or any number of great episodes. This one is a meandering bore fest - and a pretentious one at that.

Gilligan’s Starship

@Silly Agreed. If you were to tell me the premise of this episode, I would have no interest in watching it & you couldn’t convince me that something like this would even work. Even as I watched it, I kept wondering “How are they pulling this off so well?” The writing was great, but they also cast competent actors in the guest star roles (something that Trek can be very hit-and-miss with). And the main cast all turned in solid, believable performances, as well. 👏👏👏

From earlier posts, the issue of the Prime Directive ... It's a good point that Torres isn't Starfleet because I'm sure an officer would be court martialed from that transporter stunt at the end. In a broader sense, I'm quite happy the episode didn't get into the horribly tiresome Prime Directive morass. Done to death and then some. But while I love the episode, it strikes me that this civilization may be a poster child for why the PD exists in the first place. Getting some "A Piece of the Action" vibes here: Kellis showed a dazzling ability to learn Starfleet tech. He learned to talk to the computer well enough to run the logs and figure out a surprisingly accurate account of Voyager's plight. He lives in a world without even electricity. He also makes notable intuitive leaps, such as realizing the Flyer has a "memory" and that "winter's tears" is dilithium. This gets worrying when you realize that Kellis's Patron would almost certainly want to learn more about what happened to Torres, and that he likely has the means to get it out of Kellis.

This is a special episode I think and a clear 4 star for me. You can nitpick details but the premise was so excellent that it outweighs any criticism. It's clearly science fiction too, not sure where people are getting that idea...it's about a futuristic alien interacting with a bronze age culture through the retelling of stories which are science fiction to us. Top 5 VOY episode.

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You Talking Trek to Me? (Best of Voyager) – “Muse”

“Muse” Star Trek: Voyager (Season 6, Episode 22)

The episode I covered just last week was a heavily meta-textual adventure that poked fun at some aspects of Star Trek itself. Interestingly, the very next episode in the season manages to be a less goofy but an even more self-referential romp that peers into the basic appeal of Trek . It’s a fun and clever story that’s incredibly charming and one of the best and underappreciated gems of Voyager .

As I said in the write-up of “Live Fast and Prosper,” one of the quirky aspects of Voyager was a self-referential predilection for exploring its own continuity that at times crossed over to navel-gazing territory. It didn’t always work – for as much as I love self-reference, deconstruction, and internal callbacks, it can come off as lazy and cheap storytelling. Instead of exploring something new or pushing the boundaries of the show, let’s take yet another trip down memory lane of our own past. “Muse” doesn’t fall into this trap because it uses the timeline and mythos of Star Trek: Voyager to tell a unique story that highlights the appeal of the franchise as a whole.

The episode opens on a primitive planet with a not-Greek (but Greek) alien chorus giving a dramatic re-enactment of a log entry. It’s really clever, explaining that Torres and Kim were on a mission to search for precious dilithium in the Delta Flyer but got lost and crashed, their ship swept away by “stormy weather.” The theater’s regal patron listens in rapt attention and is eager to hear more tales of the “ Voyager Eternals.” The poet (and troupe leader) Kelis promises more, but is fuzzy on when that will be. The patron however, is adamant that he see the next chapter in a week. Fans can be so demanding!

Kelis travels into the mountains where the wreckage of the Delta Flyer sits, filled with candles. He awakes Torres and announces he is her servant. She’s been feverish and unconscious for about a week following the crash. Kelis has been doing some good ol’ bloodletting to cure her fever and has, uh, tied her up so she doesn’t escape – as inspiration often does, he says.

One of the pleasant aspects of the episode is that it sidesteps the usual “primitive aliens amazed and confounded by technology” plot point these stories tend to have, as well as the anxiety over cultural contamination . Plus, it’s been done already in a multitude of ways across many Trek series ( especially on Voyager ). Kelis believes Torres to be an Eternal so in that context, her mystical, otherworldy chariot and its technological wonders makes sense to him. Case in point – how does he already know so much about Voyager and Torres’ ill-fated mission? He demonstrates by tapping on a control panel that plays the audio of her last transmission to Voyager before getting lost and crash-landing. By listening to it he gleaned enough info to create the first chapter of his epic play.

It’s refreshing that he’s not ooh-ing and ahh-ing over this marvelous technology, and it serves multiple story functions – it moves the plot along without bogging down in minutiae, places him on more equal character footing with B’Elanna, and shows how single-minded he is when it comes to playwriting. Yeah, all this godly magic is cool and all, but my boss wants a play on his desk in one week! There’s something relatable about that – for as much as it would be life-changing and reality-bending to discover an alien/god, it doesn’t just make our regular lives (and all the concerns they entail) disappear, you know? (There’s a documentary film called Suburban Commando that covers this, it’s very educational and highly recommended)

It also establishes that Kelis, though not a bad person, is a bit self-centered and very ambitious, even greedy – he’s come upon an incredible resource to elevate his plays and he’s not about to just let it fly away… even if it means technically, kinda imprisoning someone?

Fortunately the episode does away with this detail and it’s not long before Torres convinces him to untie her. Grabbing a phaser, she quickly shoos him away and gets started trying to repair the Flyer’s communication systems. The next day, Kelis – apparently totally undeterred – returns with some food for her and pesters her with questions about Voyager. She begrudgingly tells him how the Caretaker blew the ship off course with a “great storm” and how they’ve been trying to get back to the beautiful blue and green “island” of Earth ever since. It’s fun to hear Voyager’s history retold through more primitive, non-science fiction terms. It’s also a great thematic connection to the ancient not-Greek (but Greek) overtones of the story – Voyager’s ill-fated journey sounds a lot like that of Odysseus’. It speaks to the basic, universal appeal of the series’ premise that goes back thousands of years to the time of Homer.

Torres is patient with Kelis up to a point, but she’s as focused on getting the Flyer operational as he is about writing his play. Showing him an image of dilithium crystals, he recognizes them as “winter’s tears” and is aware of their existence. She demands he retrieve her some so that she can share more of Voyager’s journey. He’s hesitant since dilithium deposits are valuable, guarded, and trespassing could get him killed. She demands again, and as she does, a thunderclap conveniently (and hilariously) strikes at that moment. Scared, he leaves to go get her winter’s tears. It’s great.

He later returns with the crystals, and she’s come up with an idea for his play – The Rescue of B’Elanna Torres . Soon enough, Kelis’ troupe is rehearsing scenes of the play and he continues to ask her about the elements of Voyager’s world, including the emotionless Vulcans, which he’s simply unable to understand – how can someone not have emotions? Torres hits a roadblock in her repairs and demands that he custom make her a piece of metal. But Kelis plays the reverse card and demand that she tell him more or he won’t get her metal. He crosses his arms defiantly.

The low-level power struggle between them is fun to watch (they’re both stubborn people butting heads), and it’s nice that the story places equal weight on both the characters and their situations. There’s an almost Shakespearean, love-hate dynamic between them (which totally fits in with the episode’s theme). Torres’ life isn’t in danger, but she would like to get off this planet. Kelis’ life isn’t directly threatened either, but his troupe needs to work (and eat) and he has their collective livelihood on his shoulders (as well as something greater, we’ll learn). Both of their missions are critically important to each of them, and they’ve found themselves in a situation where those objectives are intertwined. Despite the great disparities in their backgrounds (and levels of technology), they have a lot in common and need each other, and there’s something profoundly Trek -ian about this notion that powers the story.

As one of the actors rehearses the part of Tuvok, he lets a tear slip and Kelis castigates him over it – there’s no crying on Vulcan! The actor, also having difficulty with the idea of a character without emotions – responds with one of my favorite lines of the whole show – “If I don’t show emotion, people will think I’m a bad actor!” It speaks to the inherent difficulty of portraying an emotionless character that audiences can relate to (something Leonard Nimoy excelled at as Spock). Another actor interrupts to give some bad news – their patron has declared war on another nearby noble over some slight and battle will soon commence.

Kelis brings Torres her piece of metal but it’s too impure to function in her repairs. He’s intent on crafting the perfect play that will stop the war from happening. Torres is incredulous that a play could even do such a thing, but Kelis insists that she come to their theater to help him with the material. If war breaks out, the mountains will be teeming with war parties and she could be discovered – it’s in both of their best interests to do what they can to prevent a conflict.

Torres agrees and soon enough he’s introducing her as a colleague from a distant land. Again, nobody really makes any hay about the fact that she has a totally different, alien forehead than them (to the story’s benefit). Kelis reviews where the story is, and speaks of common story gimmicks to insert into the narrative – stunning reversals, romantic crescendos, etc. One of the older actors speaks disparagingly of these kinds of tricks and encourages Kelis not to rely on them. Kelis is dismissive, citing modern audiences’ enthusiasm for excitement and passion.

It’s all very clever and there are so many ideas at play – Kelis’ dedication to rigid principles of storytelling, the push and pull of generational attitudes towards entertainment, the backstage vagaries of putting together a production. When Trek gets meta, it’s typically about the outward tropes and surface level story themes. But this is a level of meta that we’ve never seen before – it’s about the actual backstage production of Star Trek itself, a process I’ve always been fascinated by. The writers of the episode are writing about themselves, and though that sounds like it could easily be nauseating, it’s not. I like how much they depict the process as flying by the seat of their pants. Even in a big professional TV production setting, every episode that comes together is a miracle – a confluence of countless moving parts and players. There’s a chaotic alchemy to how it coalesces into a coherent final product that can’t be overstated. It’s even magical, and that especially applies to performance art.

Kelis still doesn’t have an end to the play, though. Torres is unimpressed by the preponderance of romance in his play and unconvinced it’s going to change anyone’s mind about going to war. But Kelis is insistent that it can, and explains how the theater they perform in used to be a temple a century ago where people were ritually sacrificed every winter (another meaning of “winter’s tears?”). One year a play took the place of the sacrifice instead, and the bloody tradition never returned. He’s convinced that drama has the power to stop violence, and yearns to create a play that can. As vain and self-centered as Kelis has been up to this point, we see that he’s driven by a more noble cause. He wants to make the world a better place through his art.

From the beginning of its run, Star Trek has been a heavily metaphorical property and it’s featured many an allegorical tale to highlight social, political, and historical issues. Shining a light on the evils (and absurdities) of prejudice, racism, war, and other human vices can enlighten and perhaps even prevent them in the future. An educated and intelligently-entertained society is a better and more humane one, and Star Trek’s hopeful and optimistic tone is often cited by its fans as one of its major appeals. It’s the same quality that Kelis wants to inject into his play, but he’s stumped as to how to put it together.

Torres notes that when war is on the horizon, the last thing anyone want to think about is romance, so all the kissing in Kelis’ play borders on nonsensical and isn’t true to life. In the play, Captain Janeway and Seven of Nine (the Borg queen) are heading towards war. Frustrated, Torres says that as a Starfleet officer Janeway doesn’t want to destroy the Borg – she’d make peace with them if she could. Kelis finally understands, and excitedly crafts the ending story arc – Janeway defeats Seven in battle, but throws down her weapon before making the killing blow and shows her mercy instead. Peace instead of war, life instead of mutual destruction. It’s a great scene because it depicts the back-and-forth spitballing that happens in every writers’ room as they try to find the story. There’s that glorious moment when you realize the perfect story angle and everything falls into place – it’s there beneath all the dead ends and unusable material, you just have to find it.

Torres likes and approves of the ending. Kelis asks her to stay and help him write it, but she declines. He jokingly threatens to kill off her character. It’s adorable.

Returning to the Flyer, Torres runs into Layna, a woman from Kelis’ troupe. It’s the low point of the episode because it injects an unnecessary love triangle into the story. Layna clearly carries a torch for Kelis but the feeling doesn’t appear to be mutual – either because he’s not interested in her, or because he’s too interested in his plays. At any rate, Layna tells Torres to leave her and her man alone or else she’ll spill the beans to everyone (exact words). I guess there’s a need to throw in some sort of wrench/complication at this point in the story, but it’s a little hackneyed and relies on a one-dimensional Jealous Woman character. Although maybe it’s a clever meta-callback to Kelis’ insistence that romantic angles need to be shoehorned in where they don’t belong? OK, you got me there! I don’t hate it.

She leaves, and immediately Torres gets another visitor – Harry Kim (remember that guy?), alive and well! He also crashed on the planet, but like 100 miles away and it took him forever to get here. Fortunately, he has just the component Torres needs to get the communication system up and running. They eventually do, and are able to send a signal to Voyager to let them know where they are.

The hour of the performance is drawing near and the ending scene is still not written, to the chagrin of all the actors. Kelis sends a messenger into the mountains to deliver a note to Torres. She realizes he still needs help, and decides to intervene – otherwise he’ll “kill” her character. “Who cares?!” a confused Harry asks. But she tells him to wait for her signal and beams herself into town. I just love that although their rescue by Voyager is imminent, she’s invested enough in Kelis’ play to want to swoop in and rescue him. And I also love how dumbfounded Harry is – this is so below the paygrade of a standard Trek hero and he can’t understand why she’s bothering. As far as the standard stakes go, they’re about as low as they can get here. But it’s still important and just as vital to see it happen.

On stage, Janeway holds Seven at spearpoint, but doesn’t make the kill. She says that this path of destruction will not end with them; their people will continue to fight until there is nothing left. The patron watches attentively, spellbound. Backstage, Torres appears to Kelis’ delight and says that she’ll return to her realm before everyone’s eyes. Layna makes good on her threat by outing Torres as an Eternal to the audience. It’s the ol’ “angry/jealous woman ruins everything” trope, but fortunately, one of the older actors swoops in and improvises a bit to explain the interruption and convince the patron it’s all part of the show.

Facing one another on stage, Torres bids farewell to Kelis, who asks her to stay. It’s a sweet, genuine moment – they’re not lines he’s reading, but his actual feelings. He’s clearly infatuated with her – poetically, and perhaps romantically too (you can’t really blame him). Despite Layna’s fears, the episode doesn’t make this angle explicit, which I appreciate. But there seems to be an undercurrent of it. She represents a higher plane of existence, a wellspring of dramatic inspiration, and an unlikely friendship that he’ll miss. B’Elanna seems a little taken with him herself, or perhaps just the idea of being someone’s muse. It’s a magical and tragical situation of two people from different worlds having to say goodbye – that motif always gets to me extra hard (see Picard and Lily’s farewell at the end of First Contact ).

Torres beams out to the shock and amazement of the audience, and the not-Greek (but Greek) chorus concludes the play, stating that Voyager will continue her journey to the gleaming cities of Earth where hatred has no home. Roll credits, Paramount logo.

What will happen next is left ambiguous, which I respect. Did it sway the patron enough to not go to war? We don’t find out, since like Torres and the crew of Voyager , it’s time to leave. The patron certainly seemed gripped and impressed by the play (especially that SFX-laden ending!), and like the best and most affecting works of fiction, it will be with him for a long time, perhaps including the next time there is war. It’s naive to think that it will provide the stunning and dramatic reversal that Kelis dreams of, but just nudging someone can be enough to make a difference. Has Star Trek itself ever stopped a war from happening? Who knows. Watching it has definitely made me a more thoughtful and hopeful person, and I know it has done the same for others, including those with actual influence and power. It’s always worth trying to make the world better in any way we can, including art.

“Muse” is an unexpected delight of an episode. Like the primitive culture Torres finds herself enmeshed in, its appeal sneaks up and provides a surprisingly gripping experience. Never have the nuts and bolts of Star Trek itself been laid so bare in such a self-referential way. An excessive amount of tinkering and disassembly can rob something of its magic, but like a finely-crafted watch, breaking Trek down into its components only reminds us of the indefinable traits that make it such a compelling and extraordinary machine of drama and allegory. “Muse” performs a clever and immensely satisfying trick – breaking Star Trek down into its parts and reassembling them before our eyes, without losing any of that old magic that playwrights have been using for thousands of years to entertain and enlighten.

Stray Observations:

The subplot of the episode it pretty brief and largely unnecessary, but it does come to an amusing head. As Voyager searches for the Flyer , Tuvok exhausts himself in the search by foregoing sleep. It’s pretty weird and random – Tuvok doesn’t really seem to like anyone outside of Janeway, so the notion of running himself ragged over a missing Kim and Torres doesn’t jibe with who he is at all. Like, who is this guy that likes and misses his colleagues all of a sudden? But the entire thing leads to the gag of him falling asleep in the command seat on the bridge, loudly snoring for all to hear. Tom gently wakes him up, to which Tuvok loudly orders “As you were,” as if nothing happened. Fun times.

I appreciate the costuming, set, and makeup effort that went into the not-Greek (but Greek) chorus. As well as the conceptual aspect of it. Everyone is robed and carries masks (that evoke the characters’ appearances) that they raise or lower depending on whether they’re speaking out loud or internally monologuing. And they put on head-shadow makeup to give themselves more dramatic appearances.

Universal translators are all well and good, but how did Torres read the note Kelis sent??? Sure hope someone got fired for that blunder 20 years ago.
Layna is played by the late Kellie Waymire, who was also the recurring Ensign Cutler on Enterprise (a much better and more likable character). I’ll always remember her as the flame of George’s who shared his fetish for salted, cured meats on Seinfeld. Despite how thin her character is here, she does put a lot of emotion into it and you do feel her pain – she’s not evil or hateful, just hurt and angry over someone usurping the object of her affection’s complete attention. It’s a shame she died so young. 🙁
I love the part where Torres scares Kelis with the phaser – by pointing it at a nearby tree and vaporizing it in front of him. That poor tree! (“Hey, what did I do?!”) Also, how does that not just start a forest fire?

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Recap / Star Trek Voyager S 6 E 22 Muse

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This episode has the following tropes:

Adaptational Villainy : Kelis' play portrays Seven not as a reformed former Borg drone, but as the Borg's secret Queen whose Heel–Face Turn was simply a ruse intended to allow her onboard Voyager as the Collective's double agent.
All Part of the Show : When B'Elanna herself steps onto the stage, Lanya denounces her to everyone as an Eternal. Some quick improv by Chorus Guy convinces the Autarch of this trope, and no one dares contradict him.
Ancient Astronauts : It's implied Eternals are spacefaring aliens who've visited the planet in the past. Kelis says they have "The power to make the ground open up and the sky to fall — all the strange events sung by the ancient poets." Certainly Voyager can make the ground open with a photon torpedo or phaser volley, and the sky fall by having a main character take out a shuttlecraft on a routine mission near a Conveniently Close Planet .
An Aesop : Kelis knows what message he wants to send; the problem is how to put it in a form that will make his ruler take it to heart .
And the Adventure Continues : At the end of the episode B'Elanna beams up to Voyager in front of the astonished audience, and Kelis gives the Final Speech of his play. Kelis: These stories will continue for as long as we have the breath to tell them, and as long as our patrons remain wise and compassionate. And Voyager will continue on her journey to the gleaming cities of Earth where peace reigns, and hatred has no home.
Aside Comment : In the play, Seven of Nine does this for The Reveal that she's actually the Queen of the Borg , plotting revenge against Captain Janeway. "Say nothing, or you too will be assimilated ." Once she leaves the stage Captain Janeway does the same, telling the audience she knows Seven's true identity and is planning a Batman Gambit . "Say nothing, or I will lose my advantage…and my ship as well."
Beneath the Mask : Captain Janeway looks distraught when it appears Harry Kim didn't survive.
Big Damn Heroes : After hiking 200 kilometers across country, Harry turns up with the transmitter component B'Elanna needs to let Voyager know where they are. B'Elanna: Harry Kim saves the day. Just the ending I was looking for.
But Now I Must Go : In the final scene of his play, Kelis asks B'Elanna (the real one) to stay and continue to be his muse. B'Elanna replies that Voyager needs her, and he has all the inspiration he needs.
Call-Back : To "Worst Case Scenario" with its arguments over the writing process and Leaning on the Fourth Wall humor.
Lanya denounces B'Elanna as an Eternal – no one believes her.
According to Kelis' first play, Harry advised B'Elanna to turn back to Voyager on hitting the subspace eddies, but she pressed on regardless.
Chief Engineer Crash : Headstrong B'Elanna Torres wrecks the Delta Flyer .
Composite Character : In-Universe . The play depicts Seven as the Borg Queen.
Conveniently Close Planet : Justified; B'Elanna and Harry were searching for dilithium, and there's a deposit on the world where they crashed.
Cool Old Guy : The unnamed old guy who leads the Chorus; even a real Eternal ascending to the heavens in front of him doesn't throw off his ability to Improv !
Denser and Wackier : The Voyager crew are mythologized as hammy, horny Greek gods!
B'Elanna Torres provides one for Kelis, who's short of a dramatic ending for his play.
Stealth Pun : Kelis finds B'Elanna in the wreck of the Delta Flyer and believes her to be an Eternal, which, in effect, makes her a "god from the machine."
Discussed Trope : In-Universe ; Kelis gets into an argument with one of his older cast members, who doesn't like the 'tricks' playwrights use to move their audience as opposed to finding the truth of the story.
When one realizes that this was writer Joe Menosky's final Voyager script, one better realizes the correlation between the writer in the script, and the writers in the show's Writer's Room .
Kelis arguing with an actor about his portrayal of Tuvok resembles a Paramount director trying to educate an actor who's never watched Star Trek on how to portray a Vulcan.
The first chapter shows B'Elanna dying on the shore after her shipwreck. Executive Meddling forces Kelis to bring back the character (who fortunately hasn't died on him after all), but when the real B'Elanna won't provide a climatic ending… Kelis: B'Elanna Torres dies tragically. B'Elanna: (smiling) You wouldn't dare.
When Kelis still can't think of an ending by performance time, he sends his muse a note: "Without inspiration, B'Elanna Torres will perish." B'Elanna turns up in time to provide the dramatic yet Happy Ending he wanted.
Dramatic Necklace Removal : The Autarch casually plucks a jewel from his Hot Consort and tosses it to Kelis as a reward for his first play.
Dramatic Thunder : B'Elanna wants Kelis to get dilithium from the Autarch's hunting grounds. As he'd be executed if found there, Kelis is understandably reluctant. At that moment a coincidental roll of thunder sounds. Kelis' eyes widen as he says, "Did you...?" B'Elanna plays it beautifully, leaning forward and saying with menace, " Don't get caught."
Escape Pod : There's one on the Delta Flyer (as established two episodes before in " Good Shepherd "), but only with the resources to survive around nine days — Janeway then discovers Harry had to eject ten days after this happened. We later find that Harry followed the Flyer 's warp trail, rather than try to get back to Voyager .
Faceless Goons : The Autarch has two helmeted bodyguards.
Flanderization : The protagonists in Kelis' play are all defined by a single characteristic. Headstrong B'Elanna Torres , Young Harry Kim , Logical Tuvok , Captain Janeway versus Seven of Nine aka the Queen of the Borg . This fits with the classic Greek play vibe of the episode, e.g. "Wise Penelope" from The Odyssey .
Foreshadowing : Kelis complains of the lack of drama in his play. "Where is the mistaken identity, the discovery, the sudden reversal? Mistaken identity — a character who is someone else. Discovery — the moment when that identity is revealed. Reversal — a situation that turns from good to bad in a blink of an eye." All of these events happen to Kelis and B'Elanna.
Giant Wall of Watery Doom Chorus: A wave as high as a mountain struck the Delta Flyer...
God Guise : Downplayed in that the crew inspire a play as opposed to a religion. The locals view of Eternals is of powerful beings to be wary of, rather than gods to be worshipped. For instance, Kelis warns B'Elanna that if the Autarch captures her, he will force her to fight his enemies .
The Great Repair : B'Elanna can't fix the Delta Flyer (among other things, all propulsion is damaged, and the front window is shattered) but she does succeed in repairing the subspace transmitter.
Greek Chorus : In their traditional role as The Narrator .
Green-Eyed Monster : Lanya walks off in a huff when Kelis introduces B'Elanna as another poet. When she discovers the truth she's even more upset; how can she compete with an Eternal , who might well be the very B'Elanna Torres her lover is obsessed over? She begs B'Elanna to leave and threatens to expose her if she turns up at the performance.
Ice Queen : Lanya has trouble enacting Seven's haughty demeanour. Kelis: No, no, no, no! Seven of Nine is a Borg — the scourge of the Eternals. You're portraying her like a shy bride on her wedding night!
Infinite Supplies : Averted; the Delta Flyer crashes, but is presumably recovered as always. The mission itself was a search for dilithium.
Leaning on the Fourth Wall : The entire episode is this for Voyager's writers, perhaps even Star Trek writing as a whole.
The Men First : In Kelis' first play, Headstrong B'Elanna Torres orders Young Harry Kim to Abandon Ship while she pilots the Delta Flyer on the verge of a warp core breach. He refuses, saying " We die together. " B'Elanna replies, "No one is going to die — go!"
Most Writers Are Writers
Mr. Fixit : Lampshaded by B'Elanna. "I'm an engineer — I fix things." The damage to the Flyer , however, is too extensive to repair on her own, and even the alloy component Kelis has made using local craftsmen has too many impurities for her to use it with the subspace transmitter. Then Harry turns up with the emergency transmitter from his escape pod, enabling her to construct a rudimentary Subspace Ansible .
The Muse : B'Elanna for Kelis.
Muse Abuse : Seven of Nine (whom B'Elanna always finds annoying) is the villain of the play, seducing Tom Paris and plotting to destroy Captain Janeway. In fairness, B'Elanna isn't taking the play very seriously and much of this is likely Kelis's idea for Rule of Drama .
The Needless : After forgoing sleep to search for their missing crewman (he is, after all, Vulcan, and can go for weeks without sleep ), Tuvok falls asleep on the bridge, snoring loudly.
Not So Above It All : B'Elanna gradually gets swept up in Kelis' enthusiasm, delaying her own rescue to provide him with the dramatic ending he wanted.
Obscured Special Effects : When B'Elanna walks on stage and announces that she's going to ascend in a dazzling blaze of light , the elderly Chorus Guy quickly improvs the line "On a far away snow-covered peak", no doubt with this trope in mind.

Overworked Sleep : Tuvok, you really should've had a nap or something. Then you wouldn't be falling asleep in front of the crew, in the captain's chair.
Paper-Thin Disguise : Kelis introduces B'Elanna as a poet from across the Eastern sea, even though she's got a different kind of forehead . Presumably, his fellow performers just assume everyone from the mysterious East looks like that .
Patrick Stewart Speech : Captain Janeway to Seven of Nine/The Borg Queen, in the climax of Kelis' play. Janeway: The battle is over. Go home! Seven/Queen: How foolish of you to let me go. Free to attack you again! Janeway: And again. And again. Until all your drones and all my crew are destroyed, until everything we value is gone and there is nothing left...but our hatred .
The Power of Love : Kelis thinks that by filling the play with romance, his patron's heart will be filled with love instead of anger. B'Elanna points out that it's not that simple — from the Autarch's point of view, he's surrounded by hostile enemies, so love is the last thing on his mind. Coming from one half of Voyager 's Official Couple , this might not be convincing to fans, but it does apply to Captain Janeway , who deals with a life-threatening crisis every week .
Prime Directive B'Elanna: What exactly do you want to know? Kelis: Everything. B'Elanna: It's not possible. We Eternals have our rules. We can't just... give everything away.
Reaction Shot : The expressions shown by the Autarch as he watches the play show it is making an impact, but as everyone knows, a bad ending could still ruin everything.
Self-Insert Fic : The Autarch assumes this is why Kelis had himself finding a dying B'Elanna after she crashed.
Shipper On Stage : Kelis proudly shows off Voyager 's first on-screen J/C Fan Fic . Tanis-Janeway: Chakotay, why must I be denied what every other female officer on this ship can have? Jero-Chakotay: Captain? Tanis-Janeway: The privilege of your touch. Cue Big Damn Kiss . B'Elanna gives Kelis a WTF? look.
The Show Must Go Wrong : By performance time, Kelis still hasn't thought up an ending to his play and his patron turns up in foul mood. When B'Elanna arrives to save the show, his jealous lover publicly denounces her to his patron.
Space Is an Ocean : Literally, as a poet who doesn't even know about Outer Space tries to put what he's heard into Layman's Terms his audience can understand. The Delta Flyer becomes a sailing vessel swamped by a huge wave. Voyager is a great ship searching for the beautiful island of Earth, after being blown off course by a storm. More or less accurate, actually.
Spear Over Head : In the play's climax, Captain Janeway refuses to kill the Queen of the Borg, throwing aside her spear for a Patrick Stewart Speech on the futility of their Cycle of Revenge .
The Stoic : Kelis gets into an argument with Jero, who portrays Logical Tuvok shedding a tear over his absent friends . Kelis: The land of Vulcan has no laughter, and it has no tears. It is a very quiet place. Calm, just like Tuvok. Jero: I can't believe that. Kelis: You don't have to, just don't cry. Jero: The audience won't believe it either. They'll either think Tuvok is an unfeeling monster, or that I am a bad performer. Kelis: They'll realise that beneath your unfeeling exterior is a heart that's breaking. Silently, and in more pain than any of us can possibly understand, because that's what it is to be Vulcan!
Swiss-Cheese Security : Kelis is able to play the Captain's Log . Admittedly, the Flyer is smashed up, damaging who-knows-what security systems, and the log was probably running when the shuttle crashed.
Tastes Like Friendship : B'Elanna's initial response to Kelis' desire for inspiration is to drive him away at phaser point. But knowing B'Elanna hasn't eaten for a while, he just returns the next day with some berries that break down her resistance. Kelis: Tell me about Earth. B'Elanna: I have to sing for my supper, huh? Kelis: We all do, in one way or another.
A Threesome Is Hot : But not hot enough; B'Elanna tells Kelis he'll have to do better than Harry kissing the Delaney sisters to win his patron over.
The Unreveal : Kelis explicitly hoped that his play would convince the Autarch to avoid a war(which is likely at least part of the reason B'Elanna decided to help save the play). While the Autarch does seem moved by the performance, the episode ends as soon as the play does, and we never find out whether it worked.
Waking Non Sequitur : Paris: (whispering to Tuvok, asleep in the captain's chair) Tuvok. Tuvok. Tuvok: (startled awake) As you were!
Worst Aid : Kelis cuts B'Elanna to release the heat of her fever. She insists he let her use a dermal regenerator instead.
Writing by the Seat of Your Pants : In-Universe . Kelis has only one week to write and perform a play that will please his patron. By the time of performance, he doesn't have an ending, and his actors point out that they won't have time to learn it anyway.
Star Trek: Voyager S6 E21: "Live Fast and Prosper"
Recap/Star Trek: Voyager
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Star Trek: Voyager

A well-meaning alien poet discovers an unconscious B'Elanna Torres after her crash landing in the Delta Flyer . He uses her Voyager stories to inspire his theatrical work, composing plays based on the crew and their life on the ship to win favor with his Warlord.

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Star Trek: Voyager (TV Series)

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‘Star Trek: Prodigy’ Season 2 Coming To Netflix In July

| June 3, 2024 | By: TrekMovie.com Staff 57 comments so far

Just a couple weeks after the producers asked for patience , there is finally news on the release of the second season of Star Trek: Prodigy .

Start your July with new Prodigy

Today the second season of Star Trek: Prodigy showed up on the “Coming Soon” tab for Netflix Kids, listing Monday, July 1 for the release. TrekMovie has confirmed this with CBS Studios. However, we were not yet able to confirm if the release will include all 20 episodes of season 2 . [ See our UPDATE: Netflix To Release All 20 Episodes Of ‘Star Trek: Prodigy’ Season 2 In July; Also Coming To SkyShowtime ]

The listing on Netflix also includes a new synopsis:

Now Starfleet trainees, Dal and his friends embark on another adventure to solve the mystery of the Protostar and save the planet from destruction.

From Netflix app

Season 2 of Prodigy will feature the return of Star Trek: Voyager’s Robert Picardo as the Holographic Doctor, now serving on the new USS Voyager-A under the command of Vice Admiral Janeway. The Doctor will be tasked with minding the new trainees Dal R’El, Rok-Tahk, Zero, and Jankom Pog along with their Melenoid slime worm companion Murf.

Earlier this year Picardo had high praise for the Prodigy writers and their approach to his character…

“What’s wonderful about the writing of the show is that they maintain what I love most about doing Voyager itself, which was I could be a comic relief, but on a dime I could turn and it could get quite serious when it was a dire situation. [ Prodigy ] used me for comic relief, believe me, in a lot of scenes, in a lot of episodes. But there are some dramatic moments which was really a pleasure to do as well.”

Gwyn will still be a big part of the show in season 2. She has a mission of her own, to save her people the Vau N’Akat on the planet Solum.

The doctor gives the provisional cadets a briefing in preview of season 2

The first season of Prodigy wrapped up on Paramount+ in December 2022. Season 1 was re-released worldwide on Netflix last Christmas after Paramount+ removed the series in the summer of 2023. Netflix previously announced that season 2 would arrive in 2024 and today is the first time there has been a specific date. In March all 20 episodes were unexpectedly released early on French TV (dubbed in French).

We are awaiting more details and the release of preview images or possibly even a trailer. A clip from season 2 was released by CBS last summer .

This is a developing story. We will provide updates as soon as they are available.

Keep up with news about the Star Trek Universe .

Star Trek: Prodigy

Netflix To Release All 20 Episodes Of ‘Star Trek: Prodigy’ Season 2 In July; Also Coming To SkyShowtime

‘Star Trek: Prodigy’ Producers Urge Fans To Be Patient Waiting For Season 2 On Netflix

‘Star Trek: Prodigy’ Creators Say “Miscommunication” Led To Unexpected Early Release Of Season 2 In France

All Access Star Trek podcast episode 176 - TrekMovie - Star Trek: Discovery at SXSW

All Access Star Trek Podcast , Discovery , Lower Decks , Star Trek: Picard , Star Trek: Prodigy , Starfleet Academy , Strange New Worlds

Podcast: All Access Goes To SXSW For The ‘Star Trek: Discovery’ Season 5 Premiere

It’s been a long road, getting from there to here. Welcome back cadets! Can’t wait to see The Doctor :)

It’s been a long road, getting from there to here.

I said the same thing on Facebook and X, lol.

Yes, so excited to see the Doctor back!!! I cannot wait to see him and Janeway in a room again. It’s been far too long.

Oh cool, I didn’t expect any more Trek for a long while.

I liked the first season although it lost something when it became too Voyager. Was never a fan of Voyager so not sure how I feel about this. We’ll see.

“I liked the first season although it lost something when it became too Voyager. Was never a fan of Voyager.”

This is where I am, too.

I’m the opposite, the more Voyager the better. Bring it on if you ask me.

Sane bro…same! 👍

Voyager was my first show into Star Trek so always happy to see more of it.

How does this work for Canada? It is usually shown on CTV Sci Fi and is not on Netflix here currently.

We will be following up with more info including international release for those countries outside the current Netflix countries. This includes Eastern European countries with SkyShowtime and Canada with CTVScifi

In Canada, it used to be that Star Trek shows were on CTV (a network) and Crave (a streaming service), both of which are owned by Bell Media. Now the only way to watch Prodigy is via CTV, which I think requires a cable TV subscription; there’s no streaming service that carries it. Any chance this might change…?

You can use a VPN to make your device look like it’s in the US. I recommend Surfshark, IP Vanish or Express VPN. I use Surfshark. I watch Netflix from the US, London, UK or Budapest, Hungary.All from the comfort of my home from the GTA. (Greater Traffic Area..)

So far, season 1 is still available on CRAVE. I haven’t seen anything in the listings for CTV Sci-Fi or CRAVE regarding season 2 yet. I’m in Montreal, so I will check the Videotron guide to see if the Prodigy season 2 is listed in the guide at that time. But I think I can only look 2 weeks ahead.

This is very very exciting!

I just watched season one for the first time literally a month ago and I was so impressed with this show. I adored practically everything about it; especially having Janeway back. But all the new characters were great and enjoyed all their arcs Dal went from my least favorite to favorite after the first half of the season.

Other than Picard season 3, this is the only other show in NuTrek I have truly loved. Hopefully we will see more Voyager characters along the way

Well I’m still so happy you finally found something else in NuTrek to be excited about! It sounds like you finished the season and loved it! :)

As far as more legacy characters showing up, I am 100% convinced at least one more Voyager character will appear, even if it’s just a cameo or something. But they have said there will be another major legacy character involved in the season outside the Doctor and not from Voyager. So most likely TNG or (hopefully) DS9.

And I’m also happy to see you can post your thoughts without feeling harassed over it as you were but I will digress on that. Most people here are actually very open, friendly and civil, but yes like yourself, VERY passionate lol.

Haha, thanks!

Yes it is really nice to be enjoying another show outside of Picard. But I didn’t watch it because I thought it was bad, but simply not for me being geared to young children. But you and others were so right, it really does speak to adults as much as kids. I just appreciate it’s telling authentic Star Trek stories again. I know the others try but I have other issues with them beyond just that.

I would truly love anyone from TNG or DS9. I was actually a bit irked we didn’t get anyone from DS9 at all on Picard. I didn’t expect Odo for obvious reasons even though the season dealt with the changelings, but Kira or Bashir popping up would’ve been fabulous. Let’s hope we get another shot on Prodigy!

And yes everyone has been super lovely outside of that one individual I won’t name; just happy they are gone. But I haven’t had an issue with anyone else and have always had pleasant conversations, even when we do disagree from time to time. As you said, we are all passionate and sometimes resolute in our opinions; but that’s no excuse to be a bully to others because you can’t handle a difference of opinion that’s frankly been said many times over by others anyway. If you can’t have a civil conversation without getting so triggered over it, just keep scrolling. But I want to reiterate, this has been a great board to pop my head in from time to time to give a few random opinions and talk to you lovely people the last few months. :)

And I haven’t really posted here or other boards much lately anyway since I decided not to watch Discovery this season (but really hoped you and others liked it) and there haven’t been a lot of other things that have interested me. This show definitely has my attention now though.

Okay that’s good to know! 😊

Sadly that’s so much of the Internet these days so we’re all used to it but this board is very small as it is and it’s sad when someone new comes along who has never bothered anyone and is treated that way really bothered me. I’m guessing all the shouting and meltdowns over shows and movies we have here probably keep most new people away as it is lol. But it’s different when you are being harassed or attacked for simply having an opinion.

And most of the strife has mostly been over Discovery IMO. Passions just run very high on that show on either side. But the irony is the last season has been an absolute delight to discuss lol. Seriously, very little fighting has happened over it. There are still people who hate it as others who love it but very little infighting or trolling over it

Part of it has to do with certain personalities finally being banned who kept all the silly fights going in the first place as you experienced yourself, but there has just been a lot less people talking about the show overall for some reason and more people seem to generally like the season including me. That always helps lol. All in all it was actually a pretty tame, chill and frankly a dull place at times to discuss the show for a change.

Now that’s it’s over these boards will probably take a turn for the better overall since the other current shows are just more well liked or just less bitterness over them lol. Prodigy is one of those shows that gets 50 posts on a GOOD week discussing an episode and there is very little strife over it. People obviously disagree here and there but it’s a pretty easy going show to discuss so can’t wait. Prodigy brings more good vibes!

(See I got it back on topic ;))

And definitely would love to see Kira or Bashir. Anyone from DS9 would be a plus. Give me 10 episodes with Brunt and I won’t complain lol.

I think we’re going to get a great season either way!

I guess things become better on boards when you eliminate the elderly children who wants to throw a temper tantrum towards others when they don’t get their way haha.

And I’m very happy you enjoyed this season of Discovery. I haven’t read any of the articles or the comments about the season so not sure how others felt about it. Someone I talk to on FB watched it and it sounds like she liked it too and she’s not a big fan of the show either. I did watch a YouTube video discussing the finale yesterday to see how they handled the Progenitors. It sounded fine but not something I need to watch personally. But I hope its fans enjoyed the ending.😊

But I’m still in the middle of my Enterprise rewatch I started a month ago and currently on season 3. By the time I finish Prodigy may have already started!

So a good way to pass the time along until it gets here. 😄

And I would have no problems if Brunt joined the show lol. Jeffrey Combs is a Star Trek treasure.

It’s always great to talk to you. You’re always so sweet.

LOL thanks. And yes very excited about Prodigy. I really had no idea how I would ultimately feel about this season of Discovery considering I haven’t been a big fan of the last four lol. And while it did come out a little better as I hoped, it still wasn’t a complete home run either. But I felt it did just enough to feel it ended OK at least and that’s really all I can ask for at this point. I still have zero interest to rewatch it anytime soon though.

With Prodigy my expectations are much much higher because I trust the people who make that show 100%. They knocked it out of the park in the first season and I imagine it will be just as solid next season as well.

And enjoy your Enterprise marathon. Although I know you didn’t watch Discovery this season I know you’re obviously aware about the big reveal in the finale and one of the reasons why I liked it so much. Just a cool tie in although I know others are more mixed on the revelation. Not me, I thought it was great and I just love how it basically bookends Enterprise and Discovery together. :)

they did get Ro in, who was supposed to be in DS9 but ms forbes declined the role.

“What’s wonderful about the writing of the show is that they maintain what I love most about doing Voyager itself, which was I could be a comic relief, but on a dime I could turn and it could get quite serious when it was a dire situation.”

What I love about Prodigy is that they didn’t change the legacy characters so much that they were unrecognizable. They feel like a plausible continuation of the characters.

I’m rewatching S1 now and it’s so much fun. These writers can put in so much story in 23 minutes and it works. I can’t wait for S2. I’m hoping for a S3 or maybe a TV or theatrical movie.

This is amazing news!

Prodigy is my favorite show in the modern era and just tick all the boxes of great Star Trek for me! It’s also cool we now have less than a month for the next show.

As Janeway would say, do it!

Amazing News! Can’t wait to see what Kevin & Dan and their incredible team have in store for us.

Great news!

Yay! Have Anthony & Laurie talked about how they are going to review the season if they are all dropped at once? Like maybe 2 per week or something like that?

I hope they at least have a little break between batches of episodes. Dropping all 20 would be ridiculous. They’d be gobbled up in a flash and fan conversations wouldn’t be as fun.

I prefer this format. Having the freedom to choose when/how to watch each episode is a gift. Specially with Prodigy!

I feel like 10 episode releases with a short break a la Bridgerton is getting plenty. We all benefit from being able to talk about these shows on relatively the same timeline. Watching a show on my own time is fine, but I enjoy talking about them as they happen. With Netflix shows it’s always a case of, “OMG did you see episode 6 yet? No? Oh. Okay, well let me know when you get there!” or “Oh man I’m not there yet! Bummer.” The immediacy of conversations is stifled a bit. I find the majority of people gobble up binge shows like candy in one big bender, and everyone from the fans to the creators doing publicity chatters excitedly for maybe a month… and then the audience moves on to the next content that must be consumed. Binge models lead to longer hiatuses too. Even beyond Ted Sarandos’ inane comments, I lament what Netflix has done to the industry more than the convenient disruptions it has pioneered.

I assume TrekMovie will stagger reviews for episodes that have come out and it could become a big jumble of different schedules.

I’m hoping they at least divide the season up and we get 10 in July and maybe the other 10 in September or something. Give people wanting more. But don’t space it out too much. I really feel a big reason the show failed on P+ is because after they dropped the first half of the season, it took a full year to get the second half and most people (especially kids) just moved on by then.

Precisely, this is what modern animators don’t seem to understand. Kids grow up fast, which means you need to get the content to them quickly. In thine olden times there use to be 65 episodes spread over 13 weeks to tell the show’s story. If it was really successful it would get an order for the next year.

I’m of the opposite opinion. I hope they drop the entire season so that it can be binged. That seems to be the dominant strategy at Netflix.

I get it. And Prodigy’s team are going to be delighted it’s being seen at all and supported. It just would be nice if it were over the span of 20 weeks at a decent ebb.

This show is really great with the addition of the Voyager characters. Can’t wait to see The Doctor.

More Voyager please!

I wish that I could muster-up the level of enthusiasm the show’s biggest boosters (saluting you, Tiger 2) have for it, but I’m happy for them and will certainly be checking it out myself. From my perspective it’s fine for what it is: a children’s show set in the Trek universe. There’s nothing at all wrong with that in principle, and the best Pixar outings can easily transcend the demographic they’re pitched to accommodate. It’s just not particularly what I come to Star Trek for.

And speaking of Pixar, whatever reservations I have about Prodigy — man, is it gorgeous to look at. Many years ago, before TAS premiered, I remember Roddenberry boasting that the level of animation at Filmation Studios was on a par with Disney. . . a claim that, to be generous, was pretty generous. But that the level of cinematography and production design in Prodigy often compares favorably with feature films is just what you happen to see on the screen. It’s stellar work.

I laughed pretty hard over that first sentence.

And at the end of the day, you gave it a chance and it’s not really your thing. That’s all anyone can ask for. And yes, if nothing else, the show is stunningly beautiful to look at. Why it’s disappointing it didn’t reach the original target audience as it was meant to; or not as many as Paramount hoped I guess. Maybe it will have a better shot being on Netflix.

We’ll now know soon!

In regards to the visual quality, I agree it’s stunning to see. And it’s even more impressive considering it’s apparently about half as expensive to make compared to other animated shows (according to what the Hagemans have said), and they were working during the height of the pandemic which would have created certain hurdles getting it done.

Well…my patience died a couple weeks ago, but maybe I should have tried to be just a tiny bit more patient to begin with, because I am surprised Netflix isn’t waiting until December like I was thinking they were going to. So, this month The Acolyte, and next month Prodigy!

Even if they do drop them all at once, I will be watching one per week.

Alright, maybe two or three per week.

This is great news to have confirmed at last. Now the big question for me is will season 2 get a physical blu-ray/DVD release later down the line? Netflix are very against this, but Paramount are for it. Wonder which way it will go.

Not saying it’s a guarantee, but Netflix shows that were produced by outside studios have gotten physical releases. The Crown and Narcos come to mind.

I hope they release all 20 eps at once. The once-a-week thing is getting tiring…

I’m with you on that. Poor Anthony and Laurie though.

I prefer the once a week releases. But they will probably release 10 or 20 at once.

Erich Anderson r i p

If this ends up being the last season, as I’m suspecting it will be, I hope they get a chance to wrap things up.

I was thrilled to see this yesterday. After all that the show went through, and all the waiting for a release date, it’s great to finally know we’re in the home stretch. I loved this show. The biggest surprise of the modern era for me (though Lower Decks was a close second in that regard). So excited to see what’s in store for season 2. I’ve been hearing nothing but great things from those who’ve seen it (and thankfully no spoilers either).

YAY!! The wait is over. PROD rocks!!!

Finally! I was about to start learning French.

Will they Release all 10 or 20 Episodes all at once or will they get released weekly

Netflix typically releases episodes all at once. So we’ll probably either get all 20 on July 1, or get the first ten then and get the second half at a later date.

YES! Definitely keeping my Netflix subscription. CANT WAIT FOR SEASON 2! Seeing the Doc again will bring a tear to my eye I bet.

The Doctor was one of my 2 favorite Voyager characters (hard to choose between him and Seven), so I’m thrilled we’re getting him back. And I could easily imagine him being great on Prodigy, with these writers. He should have great interactions with everyone, including very likely having scenes with Janeway.

Yes I love the Doctor so much as well. I was hoping he showed up on Picard at some point but sadly not to be. But this is actually better because he will be a full time character and back on another Voyager with Janeway! I can’t wait for their scenes together. That’s music to my ears.

Doctor who?

Yep the Doctor is one of my favorite characters as well. I was so happy to hear he’s coming back on this show.

I’m ecstatic with all the Voyager love we’re getting on this show. And it’s so great how accurate canon has been on it. They have honored the Star Trek universe well.

Good news, time for a rewatch of season one.

We’re getting our beloved Prodigy back in less than a month and I can’t wait! Absolutely love this show. We have to show up in force and let Netflix know we want a third season!

This show and LDS is what I’m excited to see this year! It’s great to have them back even if it’s their final seasons.

IMAGES

Star Trek
Muse (2000)
Screenshot: CBS
The Muse
Watch Star Trek: Voyager Season 6 Episode 22: The Muse
Star Trek: Voyager Rewatch: “Muse”

VIDEO

Voyager Reviewed! (by a pedant) S3E12: MACROCOSM
M. Moussorgsky. Sun rise at the Moscow-river. М.П. Мусоргский. Рассвет на Москве-реке
Star Trek: Voyager
muse
Star Trek Voyager
Voyager Reviewed! (by a pedant) S6E22: MUSE

COMMENTS

Muse (Star Trek: Voyager)
List of episodes. " Muse " is the 142nd episode of Star Trek: Voyager, the 22nd episode of the sixth season . The main cast character B'Elanna Torres is stranded in an ancient Greek -like society on an away mission gone wrong. Voyager struggles with a search. The episode costumes were nominated for an Emmy award.
"Star Trek: Voyager" Muse (TV Episode 2000)
Muse: Directed by Michael Vejar. With Kate Mulgrew, Robert Beltran, Roxann Dawson, Robert Duncan McNeill. An alien playwright discovers B'Elanna Torres, crash landed in the Delta Flier, and uses her and her logs as story material to please his patron.
Muse (episode)
Torres is stranded on a pre-industrial planet where she becomes the inspiration for a local poet. In an open-air theater, a Greek-style Chorus recites a "Captain's log entry" outlining an away mission by "B'Elanna Torres" and "Harry Kim" to search for "Dilithium". Kelis the poet appears and describes the journey as though it were that of a sailing ship: the ship is struck by "a wave as high as ...
The Muse (episode)
A mysterious woman helps Jake write a novel; Lwaxana Troi, pregnant with a son, asks Odo to help her escape her husband. Jake Sisko is standing on the upper level of the Promenade watching passengers disembark a transport and trying to come up with character ideas based on what he sees on the space station. An alien female emerges from the airlock and catches the eye of Jake before walking ...
"Star Trek: Voyager" Muse (TV Episode 2000)
"Star Trek: Voyager" Muse (TV Episode 2000) cast and crew credits, including actors, actresses, directors, writers and more. Menu. ... STAR TREK VOYAGER SEASON 6 (1999) (9.0/10) a list of 26 titles created 12 Aug 2012 Star Trek a list of 902 titles created 03 Oct 2017 ...
"Star Trek: Voyager" Muse (TV Episode 2000)
Almost fully enjoyable by anyone without a knowledge of Star Trek or Voyager, or a particular affinity with science-fiction at large. Especially recommended for such minds that enjoy exploring the ways to apply Tragic Drama -or ancient cultures in general- within a contemporary framework. One of my top Star Trek (1965-2005) episodes.
Muse (Star Trek: Voyager)
"Muse" is the 142nd episode of Star Trek: Voyager, the 22nd episode of the sixth season.
The Muse
Stranded during an away mission, B'Elanna finds herself the inspiration for a young poet's art.
The Muse
B'Elanna's life aboard Voyager provides inspiration for an alien playwright whose ability to entertain his warlord king is a matter of life and death.
The Muse
Star Trek: Voyager The Muse Sci-Fi 26 Apr 2000 43 min Paramount+ Available on Paramount+ S6 E22: B'Elanna's life aboard Voyager provides inspiration for an alien playwright whose ability to entertain his warlord king is a matter of life and death. Sci-Fi 26 Apr 2000 43 min ...
A Look at Muse (Voyager)
Opinionated Voyager Episode Guide gives us another Torres episode, with another ship she needs to fix, and a play that needs fixing. Everything needs fixing ...
Why Voyager
Celebrating the 25th Anniversary of Star Trek: Voyager, this is one of 50 episode reviews of the 4th live-action series in the Star Trek franchise.Tweet us @...
Star Trek: Voyager
Muse is an episode that speaks to Menosky's key interests within the Star Trek franchise, the idea of Star Trek as something akin to a modern mythology. More than any other writer on Star Trek, Menosky is invested in stories that are fundamentally about stories. His influence on Voyager is more subtle than that of Michael Piller, Jeri Taylor or Brannon Braga, but can felt in the recurring ...
"Muse"
In-depth critical reviews of Star Trek and some other sci-fi series. Includes all episodes of Star Trek: The Original Series, The Animated Series, The Next Generation, Deep Space Nine, Voyager, Enterprise, Discovery, Picard, Lower Decks, Prodigy, and Strange New Worlds. Also, Star Wars, the new Battlestar Galactica, and The Orville.
You Talking Trek to Me? (Best of Voyager)
"Muse" Star Trek: Voyager (Season 6, Episode 22) The episode I covered just last week was a heavily meta-textual adventure that poked fun at some aspects of Star Trek itself. Interestingly, the very next episode in the season manages to be a less goofy but an even more self-referential romp that peers into the basic appeal of Trek.
Episode Preview: The Muse
© 2024 CBS Studios Inc., Paramount Pictures Corporation, and CBS Interactive Inc., Paramount companies. STAR TREK and related marks are trademarks of CBS Studios Inc.
Star Trek Voyager S 6 E 22 Muse / Recap
Recap /. Star Trek Voyager S 6 E 22 Muse. B'Elanna finds herself mixed up with a community theater group, which allows Voyager to get a little meta. B'Elanna Torres crashes the Delta Flyer on a planet with a Bronze Age civilisation. She is discovered by Kelis, a playwright who mistakes her for a mythical being called an Eternal.
Muse
Episode Guide for Star Trek: Voyager 6x22: Muse. Episode summary, trailer and screencaps; guest stars and main cast list; and more.
The Muse (Star Trek: Deep Space Nine)
"The Muse" is the 93rd episode of the television series Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, the 20th episode of the fourth season. Set in the 24th century, the series follows the adventures on the space station Deep Space Nine.In this episode, budding writer Jake Sisko falls under the spell of a mysterious woman, while Constable Odo helps Ambassador Lwaxana Troi escape her controlling husband.
"Star Trek: Voyager" Muse (TV Episode 2000)
Almost fully enjoyable by anyone without a knowledge of Star Trek or Voyager, or a particular affinity with science-fiction at large. Especially recommended for such minds that enjoy exploring the ways to apply Tragic Drama -or ancient cultures in general- within a contemporary framework. One of my top Star Trek (1965-2005) episodes.
Star Trek: Voyager
Star Trek: Voyager is an American science fiction television series created by Rick Berman, Michael Piller and Jeri Taylor.It aired from January 16, 1995, to May 23, 2001, on UPN, with 172 episodes over seven seasons.It is the fourth series in the Star Trek franchise. Set in the 24th century, when Earth is part of a United Federation of Planets, it follows the adventures of the Starfleet ...
These poor guards barely able to watch or hear the performance
Episode is Muse, they are watching the Greek style tale of Belanna Torres. Just what you want - guards with an extremely limited field of vision and who can't hear an assassin's steps. Helmets notwithstanding, I absolutely love this episode. I was bored by it as a kid but it's grown on me so much as an adult.
Watch Star Trek: Voyager Season 6 Episode 22: Star Trek: Voyager
Stranded during an away mission, B'Elanna finds herself the inspiration for a young poet's art.
Star Trek: Voyager · Season 6 Episode 22 · Muse
Where to watch Star Trek: Voyager · Season 6 Episode 22 · Muse starring Kate Mulgrew, Jeri Ryan, Robert Picardo and directed by Michael Vejar.
'Star Trek: Prodigy' Season 2 Coming To Netflix In July
Season 2 of Prodigy will feature the return of Star Trek: Voyager's Robert Picardo as the Holographic Doctor, now serving on the new USS Voyager-A under the command of Vice Admiral Janeway.The ...

The Muse (episode)

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Muse (Star Trek: Voyager)

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Star Trek: Voyager – Muse (Review)

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You Talking Trek to Me? (Best of Voyager) – “Muse”

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Episode Preview: The Muse

Recap / Star Trek Voyager S 6 E 22 Muse

This episode has the following tropes: