Character Insight No. 218: Doctor Chaotica

Welcome back to Character Insight! This week, we review another recurring holodeck villain, this time it's Doctor Chaotica from Voyager.

https://archive.org/details/CharacterInsightEp218

Although the holodeck is a piece of technology that was overused as a story-telling crutch in some iterations of Star Trek, it did give us some interesting ancillary characters who showed up on a recurring basis. Perhaps the first of these is Dr. Moriarty from TNG, but a sillier version is this Doctor Chaotica from Voyager.

Doctor Chaotica is a sworn enemy of the planet Earth in the comic book-like holodeck program Captain Proton. This is a 50's or 60's style black and white show, as portrayed on the screen.  As you might expect, this is a favorite fantasy world escape for Tom Paris and Harry Kim during the Delta Quadrant voyage. Chaotica appears in three episodes, but he is most prevalent in an episode called Bride of Chaotica.

In that episode, the Voyager ship is stuck in subspace and photonic lifeforms encounter the ship, mistaking the Captain Proton holodeck program for the real personnel aboard the ship. Doctor Chaotica kills one of the aliens, beginning a war which can only be prevented by the crew taking some prominent roles in the Captain Proton story. This includes Tom and Harry as the usual protagonists, and also Captain Janeway as Queen Arachnia, who Doctor Choatica has a serious crush on. If it sounds ridiculous, it absolutely is, but you could tell Janeway and the other characters were reveling in the chance to act a stage play while also saving Voyager from a minor crisis.

QUOTE:
Dr. Chaotica: But this is my greatest achievement...the death ray.
Janeway (as Queen Arachnia): it looks like a formidable weapon.
Dr. Chaotica: the greatest in the cosmos.

That story was also a little more believable than your average "holodeck gone mad" episode because the problems were brought on by aliens misinterpreting the technology on Voyager rather than a malfunction. Chaotica's other best appearance is in the season 7 episode Shattered, but he plays just a small role in that multiple timeframe or timeline episode. Nevertheless, it lets Janeway revisit the Queen Arachnia character once again.

Sometimes it is fun to have a silly supervillain rather than a serious conflict every single week on a Star Trek show. For that purpose, Doctor Chaotica was one of the best recurring characters, at least if you take those episodes in that frame of mind. Plus, it's also fun and understandable to want to revisit the good old days of simple comic book and television with clear bad guys and good guys, in view of the complex shades of gray real life is during Voyager's timeline as well as our own modern era.
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Character Insight No. 217: New Year's Celebrations

Welcome back to Character Insight! This week, we enjoy this festive holiday season by reviewing the New Year's Holiday and its role in Star Trek.

https://archive.org/details/CharacterInsightEp217

Two years ago we took a look at how Star Trek covers Christmas, and it was admittedly a little thin. However, just like that holiday, Star Trek has run into New Year's on a couple occasions, showing that this holiday is still celebrated on some level in the 24th century. That's a bit strange considering space travel kind of breaks the whole reason for setting a certain time period as a year, but life does go on at Earth and other planets, which explains why this holiday tradition is still around.

The most memorable episode centering on the concept of New Year's Day was a bit of a flashback episode in season 5 of Voyager, entitled 11:59. In that episode, Janeway researches and tells the story of an ancestor Shannon O'Donnell, who she believed was an astronaut legacy in the year 2000, but it turns out that she was just a struggling failed astronaut. She ends up falling in love with a bookstore owner named Henry Janeway from a small Indiana rural town, and she convinces him to stop protesting construction of a Millennium Gate right before a deadline on, you guessed it, New Year's Eve of 2000.

That episode, which aired in 1999, was an opportunity for the show writers to throw a joke at the then-current Y2K craze with the following dialogue:

QUOTE:
O'Donnell - "everyone was convinced it was the dawn of a new era. But when the world didn't end and the flying saucers didn't land and the Y2K bug didn't turn off a single light bulb, you'd think everybody would have realized it was a number on a calendar. But, oh, no, they had to listen to all those hucksters who told them the real millennium was 2001. So this New Year's Eve will be as boring as last year."

The other time we see New Year's festivities referred to is in the Deep Space Nine season 3 episode Explorers. Dr. Bashir finds out that a former classmate who beat him out for valedictorian at Starfleet Academy doesn't recognize him because she was told that he was an Andorian at a New Year's party of a mutual friend. So punking and silly jokes while drunk is still a tradition of the holiday in the 24th century.

Although the holiday is not prominent in Star Trek lore, the tradition of reflecting on a time period and being nostalgic is certainly something that still goes on, as alluded to by the entire Voyager episode we just discussed. With 2016 being cruel on many fronts including the loss of Anton Yelchin, we can only hope for a much better 2017 to go with that fancy new Star Trek Discovery show launching soon.

Happy New Year, friends and Trek fans.
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Character Insight No. 216: Best of Dr. Phlox

Welcome back to Character Insight! This week, we continue the "Best Of" series for Enterprise with a profile of Dr. Phlox, the chief medical officer. [FAITH OF THE HEART]

https://archive.org/details/CharacterInsightEp216

In the season 1 episode Dear Doctor, Phlox explains his reasoning for serving as medical officer aboard Archer's Enterprise, which explains a lot of how his character acts over the entirety of the show:

[from Phlox's reply to Dr. Lucas, his Human colleague]
Dr. Phlox: You'll be pleased to hear that the crew finally seems to be growing accustomed to an alien doctor on board. I must admit, I wasn't planning to stay this long, but the opportunity to observe your species on their first deep space venture has proven irresistible.

That episode also involves interesting debates between Captain Archer and Dr. Phlox about whether to intervene in another world's medical emergency. Phlox makes the case that Neanderthals weren't helped over humans, leading to this exchange:

Captain Jonathan Archer: They've asked for our help. I am not prepared to walk away, based on a theory.
Dr. Phlox: Evolution is more than a theory. It is a fundamental scientific principle. Forgive me for saying so - but I believe your compassion for these people is affecting your judgment.
Captain Jonathan Archer: My compassion guides my judgment...Can you find a cure?
...
Dr. Phlox: [after a long pause] I already have.

Archer and Phlox also interact a lot in the season 2 episode A Night In Sickbay, when Phlox has to treat the Captain's dog Porthos. It leads to more conversations about Phlox's world and background:

Captain Jonathan Archer: Does your expertise on... sexual tension come from professional training or... firsthand experience?
Dr. Phlox: I do have three wives.
...
Captain Jonathan Archer: Sounds very complicated.
Dr. Phlox: Very. Why else be polygamous?

In the season 2 episode Vanishing Point, Dr. Phlox shows a little wariness of technology in a similar manner to some other old doctor you may remember from Star Trek:

Dr. Phlox: Transporter technology is, er, very new. I'm sure Humans were equally frightened when the automobile was introduced, or the aeroplane. New forms of transport take a while to get used to. I'm not at all surprised at your reaction; you wouldn't catch me using that apparatus.

Finally, we couldn't leave out the other obvious Dr. McCoy callback from season 3's Doctor's Orders, where Phlox must keep the ship running by himself:

Dr. Phlox: I'm a physician, not an engineer!

Dr. Phlox, much like T'Pol, provides an exterior perspective on the humans as they make their first deep space travel adventures. That allows him to bring humor and a unique perspective that is a big net positive on this iteration of Trek.

Character Insight No. 215: Best of Malcolm Reed

Welcome back to Character Insight! This week, we continue the "Best Of" series for Enterprise. [FAITH OF THE HEART] We continue our reviews with Lieutenant Malcolm Reed, the armory officer aboard Archer's ship.

https://archive.org/details/CharacterInsightEp215


In the season 1 episode Shuttlepod One, Reed and Trip are stranded in a shuttlecraft adrift with limited time left to breath and live. We learn a lot about the background of both characters, and the usually prickly Reed explains how he was just beginning to find a family on Enterprise.

Lt. Reed: I lost nearly everyone I cared about on that ship...Never got very close to my family either, for that matter. Not that it's any business of yours. But with the crew of the Enterprise it was different. I was really starting to feel... comfortable with them. And now the only one that's left thinks I'm the bloody Angel of Death.

Trip becomes close with Reed, but Reed also has an interesting relationship with Dr. Phlox. These two don't always see eye to eye, but they are always there for good quips and jabs as shown in these clips from the season 2 episode Dead Stop. 

Lieutenant Malcolm Reed: It can't be ethical to cause a patient this much pain.
Dr. Phlox: It's unethical to harm a patient; I can inflict as much pain as I like.

Dr. Phlox: The wound might heal faster if you'd allow me to apply a few more Regulan bloodworms.
Lieutenant Malcolm Reed: You're not putting any more of those things inside my leg. You still haven't found the last one.

Later on, in the season 3 episode Proving Ground, Reed must work alongside Andorians who save Enterprise from an anomaly when trying to track down the Xindi Weapon. He shows off his character and charm with sayings like this.

Lieutenant Talas: You don't trust me.
Lieutenant Malcolm Reed: No offense, but when it comes to our weapons frequencies, I wouldn't trust my own mother.
Lieutenant Talas: Is your mother considered a security risk?
Lieutenant Malcolm Reed: It's... just an expression.
Lieutenant Talas: An odd one. My mother's security clearance is higher than mine.

In the season 4 episode Divergence, Reed finds himself in the brig along with a Klingon saboteur of Enterprise during a dangerous mission. He can't help but investigate the Klingon way of life to try and understand another being who is deemed prickly.

Lieutenant Malcolm Reed: Do you ever... question why you fight?
Marab: Soldiers don't question, they obey.
Lieutenant Malcolm Reed: What if your superiors are wrong?
Marab: They're imprisoned - or killed.
Lieutenant Malcolm Reed: That's not how we do things in Starfleet.
Marab: Which is why the Klingon Empire will defeat you.
Lieutenant Malcolm Reed: Then how come... you're in the same brig that I'm in?

Reed provides a unique character who is an interesting mix of a throwback by-the-book solider type who is also soft spoken and shy in certain circumstances. He develops a lot thanks to integrating close relationships on the Enterprise crew, and actor Dominic Keating helps pull off one of the better character arcs in this show's run.

Character Insight No. 214: Best of T'Pol

Welcome back to Character Insight! This week, we return to the "Best Of" series, which will now cover the main characters of the most recent Star Trek show, Enterprise. [FAITH OF THE HEART] We begin this week with Commander T'Pol.

https://archive.org/details/CharacterInsightEp214

T'Pol develops feelings for Trip and eventually mates with him in the show, but it takes a long time for this romance to actually fire successfully. In one of T'Pol's best vulnerable moments in the Season 3 episode Similitude, she confesses her feelings to Sim, a mimetic symbiote which is about to die following a short two week life.

T'Pol: I just wanted to say, how much your absence will affect the crew....and how much it will affect me.
Sim: I appreciate that. All in all, I guess I've had a pretty good life.

The bond between Trip and T'Pol begins with much humor, as shown in the Season 1 episode Unexpected and this memorable moment:

Sub-Commander T'Pol: I've run a check through the Starfleet database. You might be pleased to know that this is the first recorded incident of a Human male becoming pregnant.
Commander Charles 'Trip' Tucker III: Just how I always wanted to get into the history books.

Another great episode is the Season 2 Carbon Creek, where T'Pol recounts a story to Archer and Trip of her Vulcan grandmother, also played by Jolene Blalock, is stranded in 1950s America. It builds needed warmth between these top characters while also allowing T'Pol to show off her wit and dry sense of humor.

Commander Charles 'Trip' Tucker III: [after the story] Do you realize you've just rewritten our history books?
Sub-Commander T'Pol: A footnote at best.
Commander Charles 'Trip' Tucker III: Footnote? This is like finding out Neil Armstrong wasn't the first man to walk on the moon!
Sub-Commander T'Pol: Perhaps he wasn't.

That same sense of humor comes out when Archer and Trip insist on having T'Pol join the crew for movie night and a scary movie marathon (in the episode Horizon). It gives us a chance as viewers to see how silly some of our thrills can be, when taken from an outsider's perspective, which is what T'Pol adds to the show.

Sub-Commander T'Pol: I don't understand why Humans would feel compelled to frighten themselves.
Captain Jonathan Archer: Gets the heart pumping.
Sub-Commander T'Pol: Cardiovascular activity would be more efficient.

Finally, the episode Stigma is another where the character of T'Pol is used in a brilliant way to explore in allegory form the issues facing Earth today. In this case, it is the unwarranted oppression and prosecution of a minority, in this case based on a disease, and T'Pol refuses to escape when she wants to make a point about how this is wrong.

Sub-Commander T'Pol: I have Pa'nar Syndrome. It doesn't make a difference how I contracted it.
Captain Jonathan Archer: It makes a lot of difference. You're not a member of this minority. He forced himself on you, you said it yourself.
Dr. Phlox: He's right, T'Pol, you should tell them.
Sub-Commander T'Pol: He is not right. If I used that as a defense as a way to keep from being taken off Enterprise, I'd be condoning their prejudice, and in the process indicting every member of the minority. I won't do that.

Much like the character of Spock, T'Pol is a crucial piece of character added to investigate outsider takes on human society as well as be a conduit for her own allegories. Jolene Blalock should definitely be commended as a bright spot in this Trek iteration. She can most recently be seen acting in the movies Killing Frisco and Sex Tape from 2014.

Character Insight No. 213: Lieutenant Kelowitz

Welcome back to Character Insight! This week, we profile Lieutenant Kelowitz, a tactical aide serving aboard Kirk's Enterprise in TOS.

https://archive.org/details/CharacterInsightEp213

Kelowitz serves in the sciences division, which entitles him to a blue shirt and the right to survive away missions. Most of his appearances are on these away missions, and he survives some really notable trips off Enterprise.

When the shuttlecraft Galileo goes missing in the episode The Galileo Seven, Kelowitz leads one of the landing parties who is searching the Taurus II planet for the shuttle. His party is ambushed by the planet's inhabitants, leading to a death and some injuries. Kelowitz survives though, as the party leader and someone now wearing the dreaded red of security.

The tactical aide is next seen in the episode Arena, where he accompanies Kirk to investigate the destruction of an observation outpost on Cestus III. Kelowitz helps Kirk force the Gorn back to their ship by executing a flanking maneuver, which leads to the eventual chase and showdown between the Gorn captain and Kirk caused by the Metrons.

QUOTE (from Arena)

Kirk: Kelowitz, head over there.

Later on, in the episode This Side of Paradise, Kelowitz is again accompanying a landing party to investigate a mystery about a colony there. He is taken over by alien spores, but is saved when the spores are destroyed by a subsonic transmitter. Despite being put in a lot of dangerous situations, Kelowitz survives and keeps on serving during the 5-year mission. 

Interestingly, these latter two roles for Kelowitz were originally written for other characters, a new one named Molton and for Crewman Dimont. However, by re-using Kelowitz and making him a recurring character, it brings more continuity to the show, making you cheer for his survival and success much more than an unknown face in the crowd. His blue uniform while serving in a tactical role is fairly unusual, but it has been explained in novels and other works to be a sign of him working as a generalist officer in many departments, with the viewer only seeing him in the tactical role of away missions.

Kelowitz was played by Grant Woods, who was an actor and stuntman after retiring from the Navy around 1960. Woods died at age 36 in a motorcycle accident, just one year after filming these appearances on Star Trek. His final work was as a regular on the Custer TV series and associated movie.

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Character Insight No. 212: Tomalak

Welcome back to Character Insight! This week, we profile Commander Tomalak, a Romulan ship captain who faces off against Picard on multiple occasions in TNG.

https://archive.org/details/CharacterInsightEp212

In his first appearance in the episode The Enemy, Tomalak violates the Romulan-Federation Neutral Zone in an effort to rescue the crew of a scout ship which had previously violated the same Neutral Zone and crashed on a planet. He threatens to fire on the Enterprise after Picard confronts him and his warbird, but the Romulans back down when one of the stranded crew members is returned safely to them. Indeed, this crew member helps Geordi La Forge escape the planet alive, giving both sides reason to keep the cease fire.

Like all powerful Romulans, Tomalak is of course involved in an elaborate conspiracy to trick the Federation into a trap during his next appearance in the episode The Defector. His trap involves allowing a Romulan defector Jarok to go go the Federation with fake news of a supposed Romulan build up on a planet in the Neutral Zone, to lure a Federation ship there. Picard's Enterprise is the lucky victim of this trap, but thankfully he was smart enough to have some Klingon reinforcements with him when breaking into the Neutral Zone. The Klingons force Tomalak to back down before he takes the Enterprise and its crew hostage.

QUOTE (from The Defector)

Captain Jean-Luc Picard: What shall it be, Tomalak?
Commander Tomalak: You will still not survive our assault.
Captain Jean-Luc Picard: And you will not survive ours. Shall we die together?

Tomalak does not match wits with Picard again on this level, but he is an antagonist which is interesting and memorable enough to appear in a couple more episodes of the latter seasons of the show. In Future Imperfect, he is part of an elaborate hologram hoax set by a lonely abandoned boy who wants company and deceives Riker into being with him for a time. 

In the finale All Good Things, he appears in an alternate timeline and decides to let a single ship going a single Federation ship into the Neutral Zone to investigate an eruption in that Zone. Thus, even though he is left to holograms and alternate realities, this Romulan leader becomes one of the few recurring villains in this TV series. He is also a character brought up in many of the Star Trek books, for those who want more.

Just like the Sela character profiled a few weeks ago, Tomalak provides some much-needed consistency on the other side of the long Romulan-Federation tension storylines. It would've been interesting to see him make a cameo in the Nemesis movie, but I suppose an appearance in the finale episode, which was much like the scope of a feature film, was enough of a nod to the importance of this character.

Tomalak was played by Andreas Katsulas, who passed away in February of this year after being out of acting for the last 10 years. His other recurring role was as G'Kar on Babylon 5, and he also appeared in the Harrison Ford movie The Fugitive.

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