Retro Review: The Thaw
- Thread starter TrekToday
- Start date
On the first few viewings, I absolutely despised "The Thaw" but with every subsequent re-watch I have grown to like it more and more. Perhaps even love.
Initially, I hated it because it stank of the original series. Psychedelic weirdness and creepy creatures of the mind forcing crew members to neigh like demented horses whilst being ridden by a bemused dwarf. No thanks. That shit is too ridiculous to take seriously and it's part of the reason why I have never much cared for the OS. The new shows in the franchise shouldn't arse about with malignant clowns and mincing dwarves. No sir.
But with each new watch, I just find myself enjoying the thing immensely. I can't quite put my finger on it. Maybe I appreciate the OS more than I'd realised and find the unapologetic embracing of in-your-face quirkiness appealing. Maybe because it's a very internal episode (has a bottle episode feel to it) that deals with being trapped both by the mind and by a piece of technology. Dunno. I just like it.
Yes, it's all extremely silly but that just adds to the charm. The performances are a ham-tastic over-the-top pleasure and frankly, the only actor that makes a pig's ear of it is Wang. His acting was never stellar but he especially struggles with the more embarrassing "Trek acting" that all Trek actors eventually have to do. Even Stewart would act his balls off for the cause during the sillier... I'm being eaten by a talking shoe... scenes.
I agree that a crew debate about the apparently sentient artificial captor's right to exist was disappointingly missing from the episode. It makes the solution easier to sell but it should have been in there somewhere to put further meat on the bones of the dilemma they were up against. A definite mark against it.
I adore the ending. Janeway has outwitted the clown and signs off the scene (and the whole episode) with some of my favourite ever dialogue. The last two words escaping from Janeway with a sinister whisper.
Initially, I hated it because it stank of the original series. Psychedelic weirdness and creepy creatures of the mind forcing crew members to neigh like demented horses whilst being ridden by a bemused dwarf. No thanks. That shit is too ridiculous to take seriously and it's part of the reason why I have never much cared for the OS. The new shows in the franchise shouldn't arse about with malignant clowns and mincing dwarves. No sir.
But with each new watch, I just find myself enjoying the thing immensely. I can't quite put my finger on it. Maybe I appreciate the OS more than I'd realised and find the unapologetic embracing of in-your-face quirkiness appealing. Maybe because it's a very internal episode (has a bottle episode feel to it) that deals with being trapped both by the mind and by a piece of technology. Dunno. I just like it.
Yes, it's all extremely silly but that just adds to the charm. The performances are a ham-tastic over-the-top pleasure and frankly, the only actor that makes a pig's ear of it is Wang. His acting was never stellar but he especially struggles with the more embarrassing "Trek acting" that all Trek actors eventually have to do. Even Stewart would act his balls off for the cause during the sillier... I'm being eaten by a talking shoe... scenes.
I agree that a crew debate about the apparently sentient artificial captor's right to exist was disappointingly missing from the episode. It makes the solution easier to sell but it should have been in there somewhere to put further meat on the bones of the dilemma they were up against. A definite mark against it.
I adore the ending. Janeway has outwitted the clown and signs off the scene (and the whole episode) with some of my favourite ever dialogue. The last two words escaping from Janeway with a sinister whisper.
Last edited:
I was all excited to read about this episode and then MEG called it the one of the worst episodes of Star Trek of all time. That's a bummer because I love this episode. I love what it says about Fear and the ending with Janeway and the Clown. I love that whimsical atmosphere (One of the reasons I love Masks) and McKean as the Clown was eerily creepy.
This is about as TOS as Voyager got. Campy. Weird. I appreciate what the writers were trying to do and I realize so many people like this but I agree with the reviewer. I wish I had seen the 'actual' fears of each individual crew member instead a scene full of random psycho characters. IF we knew that Ensign Kim was really afraid of clowns that might have means something. Instead we saw him trapped inside someone else's imagination.
I just never care for it but then I've never been into the 'horror' side of sci-fi and fantasy. The Tom Baker years on Doctor Who are probably my least favorite. I know, blasphemy but it is what it is.
This just seemed pointless and another excuse to torture Ensign Kim.
I just never care for it but then I've never been into the 'horror' side of sci-fi and fantasy. The Tom Baker years on Doctor Who are probably my least favorite. I know, blasphemy but it is what it is.
This just seemed pointless and another excuse to torture Ensign Kim.
This is a classic and I loved it! One of the best of S1-3 IMHO. 
Surprised at MEG's review. This is one of my favorites.
A creepy and exciting story.
The Clown is actually both scary and funny at the same time. Definitely one of my favorite Voyager villains because I have a certain liking for characters who are both men, scary and funny at the same time. Probably because of my twisted sense of humor.
The whole episode have its funny moments too which makes this episode both funny and exciting to watch.
I'll give it 4 points out of 5
The Clown is actually both scary and funny at the same time. Definitely one of my favorite Voyager villains because I have a certain liking for characters who are both men, scary and funny at the same time. Probably because of my twisted sense of humor.
The whole episode have its funny moments too which makes this episode both funny and exciting to watch.
I'll give it 4 points out of 5
I think I know who your favorite Batman villain would be.
In retrospect, yeah, this was a strange episode, but I think it works, if only on the strength of its guest star, Michael McKean.
Yeah, maybe it would've been scarier if they'd done something like forcing people relive their fears, like in "Violations", but I'm not sure that would've fit with the whimsical element. I think it's more supposed to be a case of being trapped at some circus/carnival long after it stops being fun.
On a side, we get a nice timid appearance by Thomas Kopache. He's one of the few repertory players in Trek who never really got a recurring role to get him noticed, and most of the characters he plays come to a bad end, as does poor Viorsa here.
I was actually going to mention The Joker in my previous post. Definitely one of my favorite characters of all time.I think I know who your favorite Batman villain would be.
In retrospect, yeah, this was a strange episode, but I think it works, if only on the strength of its guest star, Michael McKean.
Yeah, maybe it would've been scarier if they'd done something like forcing people relive their fears, like in "Violations", but I'm not sure that would've fit with the whimsical element. I think it's more supposed to be a case of being trapped at some circus/carnival long after it stops being fun.
On a side, we get a nice timid appearance by Thomas Kopache. He's one of the few repertory players in Trek who never really got a recurring role to get him noticed, and most of the characters he plays come to a bad end, as does poor Viorsa here.
However, my favorite Voyager villain is Henry Starling, although I really like The Clown.
He's actually horrible to poor Harry in the episode, not to mention to Viorsa but I can't help laughing at his comments and his behavior.
And yes, Michael McKean is brilliant in this episode.
I appreciate the comments comparing it to TOS, but I think that conceptually, conceding my ignorance of many, many episodes from the entire canon, this quite an outlier for Trek. It has an unfriendly, perhaps malignant vision of the supposed gaiety of a fun house, that I find more redolent of certain episodes of the Prisoner or The Outer Limits. The personification of a basic element of the emotional continuum, artificially induced as it was and presented in this seemingly whimsical milieu, took pains to make some serious and telling comments on the foundations and implications of how it manifests itself, the purpose it serves, and its ubiquity as a generic condition among species everywhere. That such an expert balance between the sublime and the ridiculous was achieved, can be mainly credited to the knowing and intuitive performance by Michael McKean.
I also found the set design, attitude exuded by Fear's creepy cohorts, and the judicious use of special effects to be significant contributors to the clear evocation of mood throughout the piece. There have been some posts lately in other threads remarking on the synthesis between the vivid use of color in TOS and the commercial promotion of the burgeoning color TV market at the time. Well, I think that this episode would have been as exemplary of an effective display for that purpose as just about any presentation of the original, at least that I can immediately bring to mind. I also appreciated what I found was a pleasing underplaying of an overly technically burdened rendering of the artifice of the conceit and even the explication of the ultimate undoing of the antagonist, as foully as he protested about being unfairly conquered.
Overall, I believe it was one of the finest and most distinctive episodes of the series. To top it off, we even got to see Mimi!!!
I also found the set design, attitude exuded by Fear's creepy cohorts, and the judicious use of special effects to be significant contributors to the clear evocation of mood throughout the piece. There have been some posts lately in other threads remarking on the synthesis between the vivid use of color in TOS and the commercial promotion of the burgeoning color TV market at the time. Well, I think that this episode would have been as exemplary of an effective display for that purpose as just about any presentation of the original, at least that I can immediately bring to mind. I also appreciated what I found was a pleasing underplaying of an overly technically burdened rendering of the artifice of the conceit and even the explication of the ultimate undoing of the antagonist, as foully as he protested about being unfairly conquered.
Overall, I believe it was one of the finest and most distinctive episodes of the series. To top it off, we even got to see Mimi!!!
