In these series of articles I will be looking at some of the famous and infamous episodes of Star Trek, ones which I felt were the best and the worst of what the franchise has on offer. Starting off with Star Trek Voyager: Threshold
The Writer and Director
The initial story of the episode came from renowned producer and screenwriter Michael De Luca (pictured right), who had previous experience as the writer of the TV series Freddy’s Nightmares before becoming an associate producer on Leatherface – The Texas Chainsaw Massacre III. He then wrote and produced Freddy’s Dead: The Final Nightmare. His experience wasn’t limited to the horror genre, however, as he also co-wrote, with William Wisher Jnr, the story for the film adaptation of Judge Dread, which starred Sylvester Stallone and grossed $113 million worldwide. In 1996, De Luca was approached by Star Trek producers Brannon Braga and Ronald D. Moore to write an episode for the second season of the Star Trek Voyager franchise; this ultimately turned into Threshold.
The Director for this episode was Alexander Singer, who had considerable experience with the Star Trek franchise, having been a director previously on Star Trek the Next Generation and Star Trek Deep Space Nine.
The plot (Beware spoilers ahead)
Critical Reception
The episode did not receive favourable reviews and has been ridiculed by fans. For some, it tarnished the rest of the series entirely. Following criticism of the episode, many showbiz and entertainment channels included it in their list of the worst Star Trek Episodes.
The showrunners themselves had a hard time understanding what was supposed to be happening, with Robert Duncan McNeill describing the script as “bizarre”. Even the episode's producer, Brannon Braga, later described it within the DVD commentary as a "royal, steaming stinker". He went on further to explain in In Captains' Logs Supplemental - The Unauthorized Guide to the New Trek Voyages by Edward Gross and Mark A. Altman, that he had edited away the exposition which may have helped the episode make more sense. Braga went on to say:
The next section is my opinion; others may take a different view, and that’s fantastic, but for me, the biggest issue with this episode is that it violated two very important rules of Science Fiction.
1. Never break the rules established in previous episodes without good reason.
2. Never try to be a real science show – it’s science fiction; the clue is in the name. Whilst you can use the basic rules of physics to
help tell stories and can suspend a few with technology, never try to be a science class – you’ll end up looking stupid. (as this episode shows).
To me, this was clearly an episode written by someone who likely hasn’t watched much Star Trek - and that's a problem many Science Fiction shows face.
In this episode, the audience is told categorically that you cannot travel beyond Warp 10 because, at that speed, you will occupy every part of the universe at the same time. Ok, great – but what about the episodes of The Next Generation that show ships travelling faster than Warp 10? What about the “Grand Experiment” with the Excelsior NCC-2000, which would almost certainly have travelled at Trans-warp speeds without Captain Scott sabotaging its state of the art trans-warp drive?
(I know - its labouring the point - but I love this scene from Star Trek III so had to include it!)
If the writers had picked Warp 15, for example, and explained that inertial dampeners were not advanced enough to maintain the structural integrity of the ship or those inside it beyond that speed, that would have been perfectly acceptable; it would have felt correct within the existing canon and made sense to the mind of a Star Trek fan. Instead, the notion that someone can be everywhere at the same time, is just bonkers. It makes no scientific sense, sounds silly, and doesn’t sound as if it is based on any “real” laws of astrophysics. The result is that the audience also considers it silly; therefore, a big part of your episode is a joke.
Since this episode, fans have been told that there are different warp scales, but this falls into the same trap that both Star Trek Discovery fell into with “Spore Drive” and Star Wars The Acolyte fell into with the Force. If you must meddle with a fundamental rule of the show to make your story work, you better have a good reason and explanation – and this episode doesn’t. This new universal speed limit was just introduced as a new rule for the audience to accept, and we just didn’t. It was stupid, and when you’re asked to accept something stupid, it tends to get rejected and damages the episode.
However, what takes the episode to the land of farce is the final shocking reveal. Paris and Janeway have evolved into a completely different life form, mated and produced offspring – in three days. Now, setting aside the clear junk science about creatures evolving into completely different lifeforms, this section of the episode was so unnecessary. It added an even sillier element to an episode that was already verging on a sketch from Monty Python. Introducing weird sexual tension between two characters where there was none needed and just making everything seem sillier.
Final thoughts
Whilst not every episode of a franchise series can be a winner, Threshold should teach writers not to treat their subject as silly. Don’t try to teach sci-fi fans about science; they will undoubtedly know more than you think. Stop feeling that you need to break canon to tell your story. If your story can’t respect what’s already been established, maybe you should try to tell a different story or your story differently.
What did you think of Threshold as an episode? Do you have any suggestions for other episodes we should look at? Leave your thoughts and comments below.
WRITTEN BY WoorLord
EDITED BY WoorLord
IMAGES SOURCED FROM Star Trek - Oscars Wiki