Uploaded:
7 July 2011 - 7:15pmAvailable formats:
- NTSC
Not since Andy Warhol's Sleep has the screen crackled with such a dynamic sleeping performance as Robert Beltran delivers in the ST:V episode "Cathexis." Your heart will pound as he sleeps while Torres puts rocks on him! Your spine will tingle as he sleeps while the Doctor looks at him! Your brain might literally explode as he sleeps while Neelix stands near him! Please do not view unless sitting on a tarp!
All this hot sleeping action takes place before an equally thrilling backdrop: what begins as a standard Brannon Braga authored WTF-fest takes a shocking twist when it is revealed that an alien may be aboard Voyager! With this radically unusual turn of events, no one can be trusted, and Voyager's only hoping of restoring sanity (cough) is to place their faith in Chakotay's pseudo-spiritual talisman things because Native American!
Did I mention Robert Beltran got paid to sleep for a week? How are those TPS reports coming along?
Join J.C. Walsh watching his first ever Star Trek episode (I mentioned that too, right?) and jump in your PJs for the most sopor-IFIC! episode of Voyager ever!
man, this is a weird episode. i'd always viewed souls/spirituality in the ST universe as something like pets. It's totally cool if you want to have one & no one's going to judge you for that or even find it strange, no matter how hairless or big it might be, but it's a personal choice and not something that actually MEANS anything. Like, a cat person is no righter or wronger than a fish person, etc. (on ST, sometimes literally). Voyager, however, not only over the years seems to imply pretty heavily that the Native Americans are, in fact, 100% correct in everything, but also ... well, I won't spoil this ep, but let's just say JC is totally correct in pointing out that this seems to counteract a LOT of theologies in really disturbing ways (our intrepid heroes barely blink, of course, cuz that's what they do. At least you'd think Janeway would be like, 'I am highly disturbed by what just happened in this room,' but no. Not even that).
JC does a great job providing a running sardonic commentary on all the events. I'll admit, either his or my political bias actually raised its head during this as all the health care gags just fell flat for me, but I was also happy that someone who is apparently "the enemy" (rar! hiss!) is also really damned funny.
I think ST:V disc three was all about kind of balls-to-the-wall insanity, but you can feel we're bringing this train to a halt now, I think, slowly gearing down for an ending. Not that it's less funny, it's just more ... if disc 3 was spritzer cans and a trip to Disneyland, disc four looks to be a kind of quiet evening with a Dewars and Coke while crickets chirp through the porch screen. Great stuff.