The One Eyed Monster.

Or Ro regains faith in his destiny... (A Star Trek: Odyssey review- Vile Gods)


I must say that after re-watching the entirety of Star Trek fan production "New Voyages," (or Phase II) The lower production values on Hidden Frontier spin-off "Star Trek: Odyssey" took a little getting used to.
Fortunately its not the production values i value in my fanfilms.
Once i had gotten reacquainted with the green screen-esque aura surrounding the cast, i was back in my element again.
I love this series. I love this series so much.
I told my partner recently that "Odyssey does it better than Voyager" and I'm sticking to my convictions.
The story was fairly simple; Ro Nevin gets taken into custody and sentanced to death for the destruction of Omega. While this act no doubt did the Kelvan a favour, it was still a violation of Kelvan law. As a consequence, Sub-Commander T'Lorra takes command. Well, to quote Stadi "that's the rules.." This was a wonderful opportunity and something I've been dying to see- A Romulan in command of a Federation ship!
This episode, at least in my head seemed to deal, again with Ro thrust into a position he wasn't ready for- and using a religion he didn't particularly ascribe to as a storytelling medium.
It was a great idea, a great story- but then HF stories are always good. I think perhaps its because they don't have the flash and the glamour that NV has, and therefore, are under more pressure to tell a great story.
I would like to tell our new Ro how hot i think he is...
Also he's a good actor.. You can See Ro's pain and fear in him when he acts, but generally i just zone out and get lost in his hotness. So really what I'm trying to say is, that i cant really be an objective Brandon critic, i think I'm physically incapable of it.

Doesn't Dr Vaughn just get better! He is such a soulful character. Something about him suggests a dark and troubled past, he just screams "give me an episode all to myself and i'll amaze you."

T'Lorra- We may have seen some hidden depths here, she did good in this episode. I even think Stadi may be beginning to accept her. The HF guys have done something great with her- She didn't become Starfleet's lapdog ala Voyager's Maquis. I hope she's Romulan til the end!

Stadi is as cute as a button. There was a jokey thread on the HF forums about stalking Julia.. I'd probably be right behind them. I love the bounce she has- despite the drama of the situation she is still a breath of fresh air. Unfortunately she seems to have "T'Lorra's antagonist" written all over her. It would be nice to see her develop to be more than that.

The archein storyline in this series is one of the best i've seen in any Star Trek. Especially how Odyssey and the Helena Chronicles merge into one another rather than crossover. Its a fairly massive undertaking, creative a species and culture from scratch. Fortunately it worked with The Grey, so here's hoping.

It caught my attention how the Kelvans had kitted out the exterior of the Arhein ship to make it their own- The skull and crossbones was a nice touch- and from an anthropological stand point, makes sense. What i mean to say is that the skull and crossbones image has been seen throughout human culture, usually to signify a warning of some sort, or to signify death- or both. As often in Star Trek, cultures evolve to parallel one another, (if you want to know why, see my earlier post with the section on panspermia/exogenesis) so it makes some sense that our space pirates would stick that on the side of their ship. I always enjoy seeing parallels to human society on star trek.

OK, here comes the mean part... Its Tybiss, our one eyed guy- i really didn't find him to be all that impressive- i didn't particularly enjoy his acting, although that could be to do with the fact that i didn't like the character- I just don't see him as a very good villain. Our Archein lady Majan is a much better menace.
I can't seem to be able to put my finger on exactly why i disliked the Tybiss character, i just found him to be.. Grating.

I hope he doesn't come back.

Regards
T'Leisha