Sfdebris.net

http://sfdebris.com/videos/startrek/v819.php

I actually remembered quite liking this episode back when I first saw it way back when, and have seen it since... and even after his review, I still don't think it was bad at all. O_o

Sure the pseudo-science is moronic, but it usually is with voyager and I tend to look past that. I really don't get why this episode deserves a 1. I'd personally give it a 6. It did a good job building and maintaining suspense, even if it goes nowhere as usual, but that's expecting golden apples from a crab apple tree. At least the journey was enjoyable even if the destination was same old same old.

Then again, I was amazed the Amelia Earhart episode got a 5. That's one I'd almost give 1 just for the premise being so damn stupid and utterly non-nonsensical, on top of being creatively braindead. Twisted was sure as hell more creative and interesting than that episode.

planescaped wrote: Sure the pseudo-science is moronic, but it usually is with voyager and I tend to look past that. I really don't get why this episode deserves a 1. I'd personally give it a 6. It did a good job building and maintaining suspense, even if it goes nowhere as usual, but that's expecting golden apples from a crab apple tree. At least the journey was enjoyable even if the destination was same old same old.

"Twisted" is generally rated poorly among Voyager episodes because, it's not of great interest to watch people literally run around in circles. There are no great moments in that episode that merit much for continuity, either. It also blends in with "The Fight" - both being tales about distorted space that don't have much punch.

There's nothing about having a different perspective, though. There are precious few episodes of Voyager that have any sort of mystery at all.

I think the main handicaps the episode had to being entertaining, besides Chuck's personal dislike of the FPH, was the deliberate choice that decision making was the opposite of how to solve the crisis. Be that "Don't fly in 3-dimensional space" on the bridge, the Lt taking orders from the ensign, Tuvok outright slapped down for trying to solve the anomaly with his filthy white man "science" (or at least that's how Beltrand's reading always came off to me), or that, even though this is a mystery plot, none of the scooby-doo clue hunting gives them any information; only Janeway's telepathic possession does that. Torres even says figuring out what it is is useless, nooooot a great selling point for mystery plot.

Even for "pulp sci-fi sherlock holmes", it is really, really bad at the mystery thing.

planescaped wrote:http://sfdebris.com/videos/startrek/v819.php

I actually remembered quite liking this episode back when I first saw it way back when, and have seen it since... and even after his review, I still don't think it was bad at all. O_o

Sure the pseudo-science is moronic, but it usually is with voyager and I tend to look past that. I really don't get why this episode deserves a 1. I'd personally give it a 6. It did a good job building and maintaining suspense, even if it goes nowhere as usual, but that's expecting golden apples from a crab apple tree. At least the journey was enjoyable even if the destination was same old same old.

Then again, I was amazed the Amelia Earhart episode got a 5. That's one I'd almost give 1 just for the premise being so damn stupid and utterly non-nonsensical, on top of being creatively braindead. Twisted was sure as hell more creative and interesting than that episode.

With all due respect, you're probably the kind of Voyager fan Chuck is complaining about when he brings up the fans of the show writing nasty messages to him for his scathing reviews of episodes like this.

If you enjoy this episode for whatever reason, that's fine, but as he says in his videos, it's just an 'opinionated' guide and I feel that a lot of Chuck's criticisms of this episode are perfectly justified.

I don't hate it myself, but this is an absolute lazy mess of an episode. The mystery angle goes absolutely nowhere, the 'character development is meaningless and comes out of nowhere (Janeway just deciding to commendate Harry in the middle of a crisis for no real reason? Granted you could possibly justify this by saying she's just trying to raise his spirits.) Plus the ending is silly as hell, even by Trek standards, this 'infodump' the alien puts in their computer never comes up again.

As for your criticism of the Earhart episode, I don't see how that episode is anymore 'braindead' or 'nonsensical' than this one. Voyager is pretty much lowbrow, pulpy sci-fi but that episode did a much better job of being entertaining pulp sci-fi than this one, plus as Chuck pointed out, that episode had actual potential to be something even better.

I must admit I kinda enjoyed Twisted. It was dumb, but a special type of dumb that -in isolation- it circled back around to being entertaining. The big problem I had with Twisted was that it was a dumb episode in amidst of a bunch of other dumb episodes. If it had been a dumb but fun episode among some smart episodes, or even in among some regular quality episodes, then it would be forgivable, but as part of the tsunami of dumbness it aired in then it just hurt to watch. The Beowulf episode was better than this, and it was a hackneyed Holodeck Gone Wrong story.