Character Insight No. 333: Li Nalas

Welcome back to Character Insight!  This week, we review Li Nalas, a recurring Bajoran character from Deep Space 9.

https://archive.org/details/characterinsightep333 

Li Nalas served in the ore processing center aboard the Terek Nor station before becoming a leader in one of the minor resistance cells during the Cardassian occupation of Bajor. He became legend largely as a result of a mistake, after many of his cell were killed in an ambush by Cardassians in the Sahving Valley. 

Li and two companions survived, and when they left hiding to find food and water, Li was the lead scout and killed a surprised Cardassian coming out of a bath in the Valley lake. Li's companions found him with the Cardassian Gul collapsed on top of him and they assumed Li won a great hand-to-hand combat. That made Li a folk hero in the resistance, above his rejections of the story of this battle with the Gul.

Li was captured by the Cardassians and assumed dead for 10 years, but he is discovered in a labor camp by Major Kira and Miles O'Brien when they gain access to the camp to rescue Bajorans. When he comes back into free society, he is very uncomfortable with his hero status and fame. He tries to escape on a ship headed for the Gamma Quadrant, but he is found out and has to explain himself and the story of his legend to Ben Sisko.

For a short time, Li replaces Major Kira as the liaison officer aboard Deep Space 9 under orders from Minister Jaro Essa, who wants to get Kira out of power and move Li away from his plots on Bajor. However, Li doesn't stay in the role long, as he helps uncover another plot to do a coup d'état on Bajor and saves Major Kira from insurgents trying to take over the government. He defends the station against an attack and saves Ben Sisko's life, while sacrificing his own in the process, thereby finally living up to his hero status.

QUOTE (from The Siege)

Where are you running to? This is Bajor. We're Bajorans. We fought a war to regain our homeland. How can you abandon it like frightened Cardassian voles? These ships are for our guests who must leave because it's no longer safe for them. We're Bajorans. I say we stay and solve our problems together. Are you willing to join me?

Li Nalas provides more background on Bajoran history wrapped in a familiar hero discovery journey, and it allowed the show writers to shake things up on station for a brief period. Overall, this was a good addition to the series, albeit a brief one.

Li was played by Richard Beymer, who is best known for playing the starring role of Tony in the 1961 film West Side Story as well as his role as Benjamin Home in the Twin Peaks series. He's been retired from acting since 2000 except for a reappearance in the Twin Peaks reboot last year, at the ripe old age of 79.

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Character Insight No. 332: Captain Ransom

Welcome back to Character Insight!  This week, we review Captain Rudolph Ransom, a memorable character from the two-part episode Equinox in Voyager. 

https://archive.org/details/characterinsightep332 

Captain Ransom is the captain of science vessel USS Equinox, and he earns his command after making first contact with a species called the Yridians. However, this Captain was not as well suited to the rigors of command as others, as became apparent when he and his crew were stranded in the Delta Quadrant by the Caretaker, the same entity that pulled Voyager to the Delta Quadrant.

The Equinox found themselves in a part of the Delta Quadrant controlled by the Krowtonan Guard, a territorial species that did not take kindly to others being in their space. As Ransom wanted to avoid being stranded for the rest of his life, he makes the command decision to try and go through the Krowtonan space to head back towards Earth. This decision was costly, as the Krowtonans attacked frequently and ended up killing 39 of the crew members on board Equinox.

This put the Equinox on a much poorer path than Voyager was on during the first 5 years after both ships were pulled away from home. The crew was starving and the ship's dilithium was drained, and they found themselves desperate to reach an M-class planet to try and survive. The planet they go to has an inhabitant race called the Ankari, who introduce the Equinox crew to nucleogenic lifeforms. The Equinox crew discovers that these lifeforms emit antimatter that could be used to modify their warp drive to get home faster.

Thus, Captain Ransom and his crew make the decision to begin murdering these lifeforms and converting their remains to augment the Equinox warp drive. They begin to come under constant attacks from the nucleogenic lifeforms, at which point Voyager discovers this other Starfleet ship and rescues them from destruction. When the actions of the Equinox are discovered, needless to say that's not copacetic for old Captain by-the-book Janeway.

QUOTE

"Starfleet Regulation 3, Paragraph 12: In the event of imminent destruction, a captain is authorized to preserve the lives of his crew by any justifiable means."
"I doubt that protocol covers mass murder."
"In my judgment, it did."
"Unacceptable."

We find out the history of Captain Ransom and the Equinox in this encounter, and Ransom proves to be someone who favors misdirection over direct confrontations. That gives Janeway and her crew the advantage when the Equinox and Voyager face off with one another over this mass murder issue. Seven of Nine saves the day by encoding the power relays to prevent the Equinox crew from using them. Ransom even goes so far as to order torture of Seven of Nine before he relents under the guilt of all the actions he has taken. When he finally decides to surrender, his crew mutinies and it leads him to transport all his crew to Voyager before going out on his ship in a warp core breach blaze of glory. 

The character of Captain Rudy Ransom provides an interesting comparison or look in the mirror for Janeway and the Voyager crew. While Voyager did tend to bend the rules to survive in the tough environments of the Delta Quadrant, they never got so desperate as to lose their core principles, as Ransom and his crew do. It's a really dark two-part episode, but one of the best in Voyager thanks to this leader of the Equinox.

Captain Ransom was played by John Savage, who had breakout moments as a Vietnam war prisoner in the 1978 film The Deer Hunter and as Claude in the 1979 film adaptation of the Broadway play Hair. He continues to act today, including in the recent movie The Last Full Measure. 

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Character Insight No. 331: Vosk

Welcome back to Character Insight!  This week, we review Vosk, a recurring character from the Temporal Cold War storyline of Enterprise.

https://archive.org/details/characterinsightep331 

Vosk is a Na'Kuhl, a faction in the 29th Century that believes that it was their rights to use time travel to benefit their race. He leads the charge against Daniels and the Temporal Accord, the interstellar treaty that prohibited the use of time travel to change history, which was signed in 2769.  Instead of limiting his time travel to scientific pursuits and research, Vosk is firmly of the mindset to use the technology for personal gain.

In a callback to the appearance of Nazis in TOS, Enterprise brings in the Germans from Earth history in Vosk's story.  He travels back in time to 1944 thanks to a stealth form of time travel that could not be detected and stopped by Daniels.  He then helps the German Nazi forces, which in this timeline had successfully invaded the east coast of the United States.  In exchange for his advanced technology to wage the world war, Vosk receives the resources he needs to build a new temporal conduit to return to the future.

Nobody seems to be bothered by his alien appearance in the German military uniform in this timeline, but we are already in a strange world with the Nazis having military strategy discussions within the White House.  But I digress...

QUOTE

Vosk was in conflict with the German general major and ends up killing him to end his alliance with the Nazis after he acquires what he needs to travel back to the future.  He launches back into the future with attacks on Daniels and other factions, breaking the temporal cold war open into a full blown conflict.  Daniels relies on our his old favorite Captain Archer and the Enterprise crew to travel back to the 1940's and stop Vosk.  Which of course they do, because Nazis and bad guys are dumb.

Vosk added a bit of good flavor to the temporal storylines we see in Enterprise, but unfortunately, instead of making him a long-term villain, they use up the character and kill him in his first interaction with Archer's crew.

Vosk was played by Jack Gwaltney, who has enjoyed over 30 years in an acting career mostly focused on small television roles.  He is perhaps best known for his role as a detective in the Jason Statham movie Safe, and he can most recently be seen in the movie Mohawk.

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Character Insight No. 330: Trek crossovers into The Orville

Welcome back to Character Insight!  This week, we wish Mike and Darrell a happy 400 episodes and do a fun segment looking at Trek actor crossovers to the current Fox show The Orville.

https://archive.org/details/characterinsightep330 

First and foremost, a hearty congratulations to Mike and Darrell on 400 episodes, and also to all those who have contributed along the way like Ken, Chris on Twitter, and Cara to name a few.  This has been on the air longer than any single Trek show at this point, and we've gotten to experience together the rise of new Trek after a long break.

Speaking of new Trek, we come to our segment for today, and that's The Orville, which is a science fiction show created and produced by Trek super-fan Seth MacFarlane.  The Orville has had two seasons so far, spanning 26 total episodes.  While the show was initially pitched as a mix of comedy and science fiction as a true spoof of Trek, and the first season is full of MacFarlane-type humor, the second season became much more of a regular science fiction show.  It truly feels like The Next Generation or something of that ilk is back on the air when you watch some of the second season episodes. 

It should come as no surprise with all this homage to 80s and 90s Trek that MacFarlane has brought in a lot of Trek connections to play guest roles and to direct some episodes.  The director chair has seen Trek producer Brannon Braga, James Conway, Jonathan Frakes, and Robert Duncan McNeill so far in the first 26 episodes.  It's telling that Frakes is directing both new Star Trek episodes for CBS and The Orville episodes, and perhaps we should adopt this series like many have adopted Galaxy Quest as a Star Trek type movie.

Moving to the guest roles, the most notable came in the season two episode Home, in which former Voyager holographic EMH Robert Picardo and former Enterprise doctor John Billingsley play key roles aside one another.  However, a total of 18 actors from Trek have already made Orville appearances.  Most notably beyond the doctor duo include Jason Alexander, Tim Russ, and Marina Sirtis.

Trek has not just made an impact on the personnel of The Orville.  MacFarlane made the decision to use a traditional physical studio model of the ship The Orville rather than modern CGI to again give the same visual impression as those old shows.  CGI is used a lot, but the physical model shots are still interspersed where possible, especially in the show's intro, which evokes 80s and 90s Trek as much as anything.

As we enjoy this holiday weekend and the 400th show for This Week in Trek, don't overlook the chance to see a lot of former Trek actors, producers, and fans make what is really the closest thing to classic Star Trek we will have on TV.  Discovery and the upcoming Picard show are great modern versions of Trek, but if you yearn for TNG era Trek, do yourself a favor and watch at least season 2 of The Orville.  

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Contact me with segment suggestions @BuckeyeFitzy on Twitter! Thanks!