Star Trek 489: Prototype

489. Prototype

FORMULA: Let This Be Your Last Battlefield + The Changeling + The Robots of Death

WHY WE LIKE IT: Art deco robots. The teaser.

WHY WE DON'T: An ending that tries too hard.

REVIEW: Prototype has a pretty cool opening with the robot's glitchy video POV with static and Terminator Vision(TM), and the robots are interesting and low tech, a cross between Doctor Who's deco Robots of Death and the polite Hal 2000. I know director Jonathan Frakes thought they looked cheap and stupid, but they're a nice change of pace from "actor" androids like Data (who gets name-checked, natch).

The plot features your standard sf twists, with the polite veneer hiding the fact that these are killer machines. 3947 may seem sentient, but he is a slave to his illogical (or too logical) programming. The robots turn out to have killed their now-mythical builders and are ready to do so again to Builder B'Elanna. Standard, but not telegraphed, so it's watchable enough, with a Prime Directive dilemma thrown in for good measure.

B'Elanna's attitude is the episode's flaw. It's never quite revealed why she's so keen to repair 3947 or why she goes to bat for him and his plan to repopulate his model (not to say species). She's downright obsessive about it. Is there sure a thing as Frankenstein Syndrome? The ending where she and Janeway discuss the destruction of the prototype as if she'd been forced to kill a baby attempts to invest the episode with way too much emotion. It doesn't work because it's really not warranted. Come on girls, all B'Elanna really created is a new kind of battery, not "life".

A note on Neelix who's either a clown or a wise man depending on an episode's needs. His stories seem like irrelevant blather, but are usually the perfect advice for the situation at hand. Almost like zen parables. I don't dislike this idea, though he's basically acting out the Guinan role in those scenes. Is it really him?

LESSON: Robots will take over the world. This is your only warning.

REWATCHABILITY - Medium: A fair episode with a strong, if somewhat ordinary, science-fiction premise. It would be better if the characters weren't a touch out of character.