Customer Reviews

Star Trek - Voyager, Episode 19: Twisted [VHS]

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

The "Voyager" crew has a surprise second birthday party for Kes (Jennifer Lien), which is nice since Occampans do not have too many of those. But during the festivities the ship is surrounded by a strange spatial distortion, which not only shuts down most of the systems but also appears to change the structural layout of the starship. The next thing we know Captain Janeway (Kate Mulgrew) cannot find her way back to the Bridge, B'Elanna (Roxann Biggs-Dawson) keeps getting lost on the way to Engineering, and everyone is getting frustrated and confused. Meanwhile, the spatial distortion keeps growing smaller, threatening to crush "Voyager." When Janeway ends up being knocked unconscious it is up to Chakotay (Robert Beltran) to take command and find a way to save the ship and crew. However, this does not sit too well with Tuvok (Tim Russ).

Episode 19, "Twisted" (Story by Arnold Rudnick & Rich Hosek & Arnold Rudnick & Rich Hosek, Teleplay by Kenneth Biller, Aired October 2, 1995) is yet another in a long line of "Star Trek" episodes in which something strange is happening to the ship and the crew has to solve the mystery and save the day. However, it breaks the mold in two significant ways. First, the crew fails to solve the mystery, at least not in time to do anything about what is happening. Admittedly, this is a flip on normal expectations, and when we realize the crew has indeed exhausted its bag of tricks it is something of a minor shock. Second, and more importantly, "Twisted" is an episode where character interaction and development takes on more significance than the solving of the mystery. The key is Janeway being out of action, because this is what allows the simmering tension between Chakotay and Tuvok to boil over. Remember, the "Voyager" Security Chief had infiltrated Chakotay's team when the First Officer was captain of a Maquis raider and just because Janeway trusts them both is no reason for either of them to follow suit.

The payoff comes at the end of the episode when the crew essentially pairs up to face what they think is an inevitable death. Ultimately the mystery was just an interesting contrivance to set up these poignant vignettes. This might seem like the long way around to get to this point, but since it comes as a surprise that the episode reaches this point, you have to agree it works well as a set up. The result is not a classic episode of "Star Trek: Voyager," but certainly well above average.

This episode opens with a surprise birthday party for Kes in Chez Sandrines, a holographic recreation of Tom's favorite getaway in France. The entire bridge crew is there to celebrate when Voyager is surrounded by a spatial distortion ring that slowly engulfs the ship. As a result, corridors and areas on Voyager are compressed and twisted which continually changes the layout of the ship. This constantly confuses the crew as they get lost attempting to reach their destinations. No matter where they try to go they always end up at their original starting point at Chez Sandrines, in the center of the ship. They realize that the distortion ring is pushing them to this location, the only place that isn't currently effected by the ring. To further complicate matters, Captain Janeway comes into brief contact with the distortion and is semi-conscious and incoherent. The bridge crew's attempts to stop the distortion and escape, fail and they see the distortion coming toward them. Out of options, they know they must accept the inevitable and each makes peace in his or her own way as they surrender to the anomaly.

At the end of the show, we get to see the friendships and bonds of the bridge crew as they "pair up" to meet their supposed death. I thought it was actually quite touching especially when Tuvok reached out to Janeway. A somewhat unique episode in the Star Trek saga, one of my favorites.

That phrase was first heard in the classic Paul Newman film "Cool Hand Luke" and it works just as well here. When the Voyager and crew encounter a spatial distortion wave moving through space their attempts to maneuver around it are ineffectual. Since the majority of the bridge officers are gathered in Paris's holodeck recreation of Chez Sandrine to throw a surprise party for Kess who is turning two that day, Tuvok is presently in command on the bridge and he increases the starship's speed in order to travel through the phenomenon as quickly as possible. When Voyager comes into contact with the wave they soon notice that the integrity and shape of the ship is constantly changing. Practically helpless and kept thoroughly confused by the current state of flux, the officers gathered in the holodeck separate into pairs in an attempt to reach different locations to try and solve the ever-increasing emergency situation. This results in Janeway coming into direct contact with the distortion wave that disorients her; she has to be confined to a couch available in the Chez Sandrine where The Doctor can give her no medical aid because of their stranded state. Each effort that the separate teams attempt has no effect and in fact increases the dire straits they find themselves in. Finally Tuvok proposes the only reasonable and foreseeable solution to the problem - but it seems too outrageous and incredible to work...or is it?

'Twisted' is one of the more memorable episodes from Voyager's second season, stressing character interaction and new developments between the crewmembers. Neelix's jealousy of Tom Paris first surfaces here; when Janeway and Harry attempt to reach the bridge through a Jefferies tube she tells Harry he's "been one of the bright spots of their challenging mission"; Chakotay and Tuvok clear the air between them and learn to trust each other in the process; The Doctor has a moment in the episodes' finale where he softens a bit, offering uncharacteristic compassion to Kess; Neelix and Chakotay have a brief but notable conversation concerning jealousy. All of these character building oriented scenes aren't wasted as they help to advance the story and are incorporated perfectly into the action that is taking place. The credible, unexpected climax and the revelation about the nature of the distortion wave further add to the success of 'Twisted', making it an exceptional episode well worth purchasing for your collection.

In this episode Voyager encounters a distortion ring and the ship gets distorted out of shape and the crew try to find a way to survive

I enjoyed this episode because, for once on Star Trek, we saw that doing nothing is sometimes the best thing we can do. An unusual premise given Star Trek's long and colorful history of action, action, action!

In this episode, the crew with the never ending stream of "brilliant-ideas-in-a-scrape" tried them all and came up empty...and in the end finally had to just sit down and "let it happen", not knowing at all what the outcome would be. Very interesting concept for a Star Trek episode!

I also felt that the last few minutes of the show were very telling...not knowing whether they were going to live or die, we got to see what each of the characters would choose to do in the last moments of life....who they would choose to speak with and what they would say.

Very enjoyable episode.

Not the best episode of Voyager, but certainly not the worst either. This episode is sort of confusing, and I remember reading that one of the actors of Voyager really didn't like this episode. However, the premise of doing nothing is an interesting plot twist for Star Trek, and it works. An interesting idea to a confusing episode!

How can anyone not like this episode? Certainly, some parts of it are wobbly...but there are great character interactions here, between Chakotay and Tuvok, Janeway and Harry...wonderful ensemble feel. Season One had a lovely feeling of growing intimacy between the characters, wonderfully exemplified by this episode. The climax is superb--and deeply revealing. The warmth of the characterizations here transcend the gimmicky plot.

This episode was a waste of film. It was simply another pointless story that failed to entertain or enlighten the audience except for one or two interesting character moments. One of the worse episodes of Voyager and that's saying something!!