This episode is an episode within an episode.
It is a play based on the episode being created and performed within the episode.
It's not the technical aspects of Star Trek that we need to focus on here, those things never have been important. Doesn't really matter whether the science is correct or not or feasible or not.
The science has always been part of the "wagon train to the stars" which Gene Roddenberry created back in the 60s, instead of a wagon train being drawn by horses across the country to lands that nobody had ever seen other than Native American tribes, The enterprise, voyager, the ships in deep space nine, NX01 enterprise, and even Discovery (Discovery even more so, actually- because they have gone the furthest any Trek has gone before in space and time)- these are the wagon trains that Janeway and her crew are riding. "It's always about the journey".
Kelis the Poet has accidentally stumbled onto a gold mine, as most of the best entertainments in our time are based partially on real events, and all of the best writers for movies and television write from the perspective of things that they had personally seen firsthand: Kelis finds The Delta flyer on a rocky ridge, with one survivor intact.
He listens to the Flyer's logs and is able to piece together the plot of this episode which he turns into a play.
But the ongoing plight of Torres gives him even more material, and they become necessary collaborators.
Kellie Waymire (RIP) plays his GF and co-actor, who gets a little miffed because of the time Kelis is putting into his tale of the "voyager eternals"
"Shining voyager, far from home"
Despite this unusual episode being an episode within an episode, there is a lot of theatrical truth that Kelis gives us. He talks about the power of theatre, and the ability to change the direction of a leader. Which is a good thing. I wish we had an actual leader that could be moved by theater, but in 2019 we don't, perhaps after 2020, we will.
One thing that I've never noticed before (despite the Trivia entry that talks about this) is that the masks that the "Kelis Players" use in the production are pretty fair representational images of the various voyager crew that are being depicted. That is something I had not noticed and I have seen this episode at least a dozen times.
This episode is an important behind the scenes look at the creation of any show and of voyager in general, and how one story is created. We see Kelis discussing his play in a room with his other actors which are also pitching in, this is how any modern show operates as well, they have a room where they pitch ideas back-and-forth. This is generally called "the bull-pen", and it is used in comicbook creation as well. It's a time honored tradition.
It is a play based on the episode being created and performed within the episode.
It's not the technical aspects of Star Trek that we need to focus on here, those things never have been important. Doesn't really matter whether the science is correct or not or feasible or not.
The science has always been part of the "wagon train to the stars" which Gene Roddenberry created back in the 60s, instead of a wagon train being drawn by horses across the country to lands that nobody had ever seen other than Native American tribes, The enterprise, voyager, the ships in deep space nine, NX01 enterprise, and even Discovery (Discovery even more so, actually- because they have gone the furthest any Trek has gone before in space and time)- these are the wagon trains that Janeway and her crew are riding. "It's always about the journey".
Kelis the Poet has accidentally stumbled onto a gold mine, as most of the best entertainments in our time are based partially on real events, and all of the best writers for movies and television write from the perspective of things that they had personally seen firsthand: Kelis finds The Delta flyer on a rocky ridge, with one survivor intact.
He listens to the Flyer's logs and is able to piece together the plot of this episode which he turns into a play.
But the ongoing plight of Torres gives him even more material, and they become necessary collaborators.
Kellie Waymire (RIP) plays his GF and co-actor, who gets a little miffed because of the time Kelis is putting into his tale of the "voyager eternals"
"Shining voyager, far from home"
Despite this unusual episode being an episode within an episode, there is a lot of theatrical truth that Kelis gives us. He talks about the power of theatre, and the ability to change the direction of a leader. Which is a good thing. I wish we had an actual leader that could be moved by theater, but in 2019 we don't, perhaps after 2020, we will.
One thing that I've never noticed before (despite the Trivia entry that talks about this) is that the masks that the "Kelis Players" use in the production are pretty fair representational images of the various voyager crew that are being depicted. That is something I had not noticed and I have seen this episode at least a dozen times.
This episode is an important behind the scenes look at the creation of any show and of voyager in general, and how one story is created. We see Kelis discussing his play in a room with his other actors which are also pitching in, this is how any modern show operates as well, they have a room where they pitch ideas back-and-forth. This is generally called "the bull-pen", and it is used in comicbook creation as well. It's a time honored tradition.