Hope and Fear

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"Hope and Fear"
Star Trek: Voyager episode
Episode no. Season 4
Episode 26
Directed by Winrich Kolbe
Teleplay by <templatestyles src="Plainlist/styles.css"/>
Story by <templatestyles src="Plainlist/styles.css"/>
Featured music Dennis McCarthy
Cinematography by Marvin V. Rush
Production code 194
Original air date May 20, 1998 (1998-05-20)
Guest actors
  • Ray Wise – Arturis
  • Jack Shearer – Admiral Hayes
Episode chronology
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"Night"
List of Star Trek: Voyager episodes

"Hope and Fear" is the 26th and final episode of the fourth season of the American science fiction television series Star Trek: Voyager. The episode first aired on the UPN network on May 20, 1998. Directed by Winrich Kolbe, it was developed from a story by Rick Berman, Brannon Braga and Joe Menosky into a teleplay by Menosky and Braga.

Set in the 24th century, the series follows the adventures of the Starfleet and Maquis crew of the starship USS Voyager after they were stranded in the Delta Quadrant far from the rest of the Federation. In this episode, the Voyager crew discover a ship sent from Starfleet that could take them back to the Alpha Quadrant in just 3 months, but it will mean abandoning their vessel.

Plot

Captain Janeway (Kate Mulgrew) continues to struggle in deciphering an encrypted Starfleet message that they previously obtained through the Hirogen relay system ("Hunters"). Neelix (Ethan Phillips) returns to Voyager with a guest, Arturis (Ray Wise), who helped him obtain supplies. Arturis learns of the encoded message and offers to help decrypt it. He is successful, and finds that the message is from Starfleet Command, with a nearby set of coordinates where their means of getting back home can be found. Though the rest of the crew is elated at this news, Seven of Nine (Jeri Ryan) remains cautious, given that the Borg have never been able to assimilate Arturis' species. Voyager arrives at the provided coordinates to find an unmanned Starfleet vessel, the Dauntless, of unknown design. Aboard, they find the ship uses quantum slipstream technology, which will allow them to arrive back in the Alpha Quadrant within a few months.

Janeway begins to share Seven's suspicions and warns the crew to stay alert, but remains optimistic. The new engine system is compatible with Voyager, but the ship wouldn't be able to stand the stresses of the slipstream for long. The crew would have to abandon the ship to use the Dauntless to travel home. Seven states to Janeway that she would opt to stay behind, feeling that she would not be able to integrate back on Earth. Janeway reviews the message decoded by Arturis, and discovers the message to be fake. She transports to the Dauntless to confront Arturis. He tries to pin the blame on Seven, but Janeway rejects his claims. Arturis activates a panel on the ship, igniting the engines. All but Janeway and Seven are able to be transported out before the ship enters the slipstream.

Commander Chakotay (Robert Beltran) orders Voyager to follow the Dauntless into the slipstream, aware that the system has not been fully tested yet. The Dauntless is revealed to be Arturis' own ship, masked as a Starfleet vessel. He explains that his homeworld had been recently assimilated by the Borg, an event that might not have happened if the Borg were still at war with Species 8472. He directly blames Janeway and her crew for interfering in that war and vows to bring as many of Voyager's crew as possible to the Borg for assimilation; Arturis sets the navigation for his homeworld, now a point deep in Borg space, and then destroys the controls. Suddenly Voyager appears and targets the shields on Arturis' ship, allowing them to transport Janeway and Seven off the ship. Voyager breaks off pursuit and alters slipstream trajectory away from Borg space, while Arturis finds himself deep among an array of Borg cubes approaching his position. Though the slipstream technology is deemed unusable for the immediate future, Voyager's brief use of it has shaved 300 light years off their journey home.

Production

Writing

115px
A man in a black shirt speaks into a microphone.
Bryan Fuller and Kenneth Biller (pictured left to right) were two of the writers working on the Voyager fourth season finale.

The episode formed the final work on Star Trek for executive producer Jeri Taylor.[1] Pre-production began 24 days prior to shooting,[2] with a morning meeting attended by Taylor, Brannon Braga, Joe Menosky, Kenneth Biller, Lisa Klink and Bryan Fuller.[1] The initial idea presented was one which had been considered as the cliffhanger for the third season, which involved duplicates of the Voyager crew; the general premise would be used in the episode "Demon" instead. But in the season finale pitch, those crew would manage to return to the Alpha Quadrant to Deep Space Nine but it turns out to be an invasion of some description by those aliens.[2]

That idea was shelved once more as the producers felt it would undermine the impact when the real Voyager returned home, which was intended to occur during the life of the series. A second idea was proposed, based on the Starfleet communication the ship received in "Hunters". It would have seen Janeway work out a means to decode the transmission herself, which revealed it to be plans for a "slipstream" drive. Seven was wary of the technology as the Borg had been attempting to us it, but every test had resulted in the ship being lost. Despite this modifications are made to Voyager, who enters a slipstream and finds itself on an "intergalactic freeway" with other vessels travelling so fast as to make the ship look like a horse and buggy in comparison.[3]

Several ideas were then proposed. One involved Seven's Borg implants suffering severe side effects from being in the slipstream, but this was discarded as it felt similar to the episode "One", which was due to air immediately prior to the finale.[3] This was followed by an alternative which involved a battle in the slipstream with an alien vessel, which results in that crew abandoning it and Seven suggesting that they use the new ship to take the crew all the way home. Janeway disagrees, but somehow Seven ends up in command of the alien vessel and for some sort of dangerous situation to occur which Janeway must save her from. The group discussed how this would work, and came to a conversation about the crew of the alien vessel. It was proposed that there was some reason why they attacked Voyager, and Taylor suggested "vengeance", which was well received by the others.[4]

File:Brannon Braga WonderCon 2015.jpg
Brannon Braga wrote the initial beat-sheet for "Hope and Fear", crediting Rick Berman and Joe Menosky.

The writing team reconvene later that day,[4] after Braga had met with executive producer Rick Berman separately. Berman had made several suggestions for the plot; that Janeway shouldn't decode the message immediately at the start of the episode,[5] and that the vengeance seeking alien should be decrepit and attempting to deceive the crew. As they began to plan out a brief overview of the episode on a whiteboard, the alien was once again discussed. The idea of having him be of a species which had already been assimilated by the Borg was warmly received, with Menosky suggesting that it could be one of the first races assimilated. Braga countered by suggesting that it could be an early race, one that was not too early or that it could be an El-Aurian. Taylor dismissed that suggestion as she wanted the alien to have more interesting makeup. The writers begin to refer to the alien as "Yoda".[6] During the course of that second meeting, the idea of the episode up until the reveal of a new spacecraft was developed. The "silver bullet" style ship was one which had been suggested by Braga for some time, but until now had not found an appropriate episode.[7]

A smaller team reconvened during the morning of February 3, as Biller was preparing for directing the episode "One", while Menosky was completing the script for "Living Witness". There were concerns about the pace of the episode being slowed by an exploration of the new ship and the budget that such scenes would required, however as it was suggested that the episode could only have a single guest star that this cost could be offset.[7] Menosky and Biller joined them after lunch, with the duo agreeing that the alien's ruse was going to be a problem, instead suggesting that the episode should be played "straight" with the main drama focused around the Janeway/Seven conflict. Braga took the work on the episode away,[8] in order to work on it overnight. He later said that this was the first "wall" the writers had hit all season. In the early hours of February 4, Braga worked out how to fit everything together by having the episode become a retrospection of the entire season and called Menosky to discuss it. The following day, Braga sent a beat-sheet crediting himself, Berman and Menosky as writers to the department heads on the show.[9] This set the episode out in five acts, those which appeared very similar to those in the final version.[10] February 17 saw the delivery of a 68-page teleplay to production staff. The episode was now entitled "Hope and Fear", and the alien vessel had received the name Dauntless. This name had originated from a conversation between Berman and Braga over a year earlier, and it had been kept by Braga for a future purpose.[11]

Set and ship design

Set design began on February 9, with production designer Richard James looking at the creation of the new Starfleet vessel specified in Braga's beat-sheet. The description he had to work from was "a sleek, sparkling STARSHIP (which we'll call the "silver bullet") floating in space. Scans reveal – it's a Starfleet vessel!"[10] James took into account the set space available, with the primary position begin on Stage 16 at the Paramount lot between the museum set built for "Living Witness" and one under construction at that time for "One". He decided that the majority of the sets would have to be redresses of the Voyager standing sets in order to reduce cost, but that the new bridge and engineering rooms would need to be built. The bridge set would be difficult as despite it needing to look like a Starfleet vessel inside, it would need to "instantaneously change" to an alien appearance as required by the beat-sheet. He wanted to repeat the expected sleekness of the exterior by curving the walls of the bridge, something which was too difficult with a wooden set. Instead, he used several steel grids with a muslin cover. He hit upon the idea that these would be backlit in Starfleet colors, and when required they could switch instantly to something more alien.[12] In order to enable the change in the bridge from Starfleet to alien, it was built in the alien configuration but then with additional panels and props created which could affix to the set in order to lend it a more familiar appearance.[13]

File:Griffith Observatory 2012 05.jpg
Brannon Braga compared director Winrich Kolbe's idea for the alien engineering set to the Foucault pendulum in the rotunda at Griffith Observatory (pictured).

Director Winrich Kolbe had some ideas about how the engineering set, suggesting that it should be a dangerous place with the Voyager crew looking down on the engine core. Braga compared the idea to the Foucault pendulum in the rotunda at Griffith Observatory. James' designs aren't as elaborate as Kolbe suggests, but together with visual effects supervisor Ronald B. Moore they work out a means of enabling the director to film from above. They planned to raise the set 20 feet (6.1 m) over a blue screen to enable it to be backlit properly.[14] Kolbe had a further impact on the design of the set, suggesting in a production meeting on February 25 that the change of lighting suggesting by James for the bridge should shift from the Starfleet colors to orange in order to maximise the alien effect.[15] James produced a foamcore model of the Dauntless bridge,[16] to both illustrate the final construction and to enable for Kolbe to plan out his camera angles while it was still being built.[15]

The exterior of the Dauntless was developed by illustrator Rick Sternbach,[17] who had previously designed several vessels and props for the Star Trek franchise including the USS Voyager itself.[18] He had created a series of diamond shaped design for the Dauntless, with a protruding bridge. The producers approved one of the designs, but asked him to remove the protrusion of the bridge in order to give as sleek an appearance as possible.[17] He created a series of drawings to that specification on March 5, passing them to Moore, who sent those designs onto Adam "Mojo" Lebowitz at Foundation Imaging to create a CGI model of the ship.[19] The production team had opted for a computer generated version of the ship rather than a physical model due to the time constraints, and the difficulty that would have caused for the effects shot when the slipstream drive is activated.[20] Sternbach suggested to Moore for the hull of the Dauntless to have a warmer coppery color rather than the typical Starfleet grey.[21]

A temporary version for the production team was created using LightWave 3D by Lightwave employee Brandon McDougal while the final CGI version was under construction.[22] The visual effects on "Hope and Fear" were extensive for a Voyager episode, which usually averages around 40 such shots. While some had been as low as 12 effects, there were more than 70 for "Hope and Fear". Foundation Imaging delivered the required effects on time, prior to the deadline of April 30, even though they were still working on other episodes until two days prior.[23] One shot which was not required, but was delivered was the final image of the Dauntless as it arrives in Borg space. The composite footage, using models developed for The Next Generation and the film Star Trek: First Contact did not appear in the script, but had been added by Koji Kuramura and Emile Smith. It was well received by the production team, and appeared in the final version of the episode.[24]

Arturis

Ray Wise, who portrayed Arturis in "Hope and Fear", was not required to audition for the role.

During the writing the process, the "Yoda" character gradually became younger. Taylor later explained that this was not a specific decision but instead something that just occurred naturally. Casting director Ron Surma contacted agents of a few well known actors in the hope that they could get a notable actor to portray the character, now named Arturis. One of those actors who were not required to audition was Ray Wise, as he had previously appeared in the Star Trek: The Next Generation episode "Who Watches the Watchers". Meanwhile, Taylor and Braga auditioned over 50 unknown actors. The crew hoped to get a classically trained actor, as they wanted to ensure that they did not show any 20th century mannerisms in their portrayal of a futuristic character.[25]

Wise was given the role, which required a lengthy makeup routine for each day's performance. The prosthetics were created by makeup supervisor Michael Westmore, who wanted him to have a human appearance in profile but when seen from the side to appear more alien. Rather than create a case from Wise's head for the skull extension, Westmore based it off an earlier prosthetic created for the Vorgons in The Next Generation episode "Captain's Holiday".[26] The design had been created by Westmore a year earlier for another series.[27] A cast was taken of Wise's face, and some pieces were created to help the prosthetics appear seamless. The application of the makeup would typically take just over an hour and a half each day.[26]

Costume designer Robert Blackman created the costume for Arturis, who noted that the character was "diabolical" but didn't want this to be given away through the costume immediately. In order to make him look "curious and affable", he placed the character in a shirt and pair of trousers.[28] Where the script called for him to be shot by weapons fire, a burn on the shirt was created by key costumer Kimberley Shull using the hair color product Streaks and Tips. It was initially darker than intended, but the residue cleaned off to the desired level.[29] Prop creator Alan Sims created Arturis' pistol weapon, intending for it to be held horizontally to give it a more alien appearance. It was made from two molds of a generic pistol weapon created for The Next Generation.[30]

Filming, editing and music

Filming began late in the day on February 28, as the shoot on "One" had overrun.[31] It was originally hoped to have "Hope and Fear" underway the day prior.[32] The two scenes which were filmed on that day both took place on the standing Voyager sets,[31] with adjustments made to the lighting by cinematographer Marvin V. Rush.[33] The shooting wraps for the day at 1:45am on the Saturday morning, with four of the six planned scenes unfilmed and needing to be fit into the schedule elsewhere.[34] The seventh day of filming on March 9 saw the movement of the shoot to the Dauntless engineering set. The design proposed by Kolbe did not make it into production due to the cost and complexity of it, but he was still pleased with the final result as it enabled some different shooting positions than the usual Voyager set.[35]

The engineering set did provide some challenges; a health and safety brief was required for the actors on it as it was still raised off the ground. Furthermore, the results of the bubbles being sent through the water tubes that represented part of the engine core created issues for the sound technicians; they asked for it to be turned off whenever it wasn't placed in shot.[36] One of the special effects went wrong, causing an actual explosion behind Jeri Ryan rather than simply creating sparks following the weapons fire which would be edited in during post-optical effects. But the effect remained in the final cut.[37] The final day of the shoot took place on March 10; taking the filming period to eight days, a day longer than normal for Voyager episodes. It took place on the set of the Dauntless bridge, revealed in the alien orange colors and with the Starfleet covers removed.[38] The final full scene filmed was of the scene at the close where the Dauntless returns to Borg space and Arturis realises he is about to be assimilated, and after an hour of closeups for various scenes, the shoot ends at 12:50am on March 11.[39]

Editing began later that same day, with the first rough cut completed on March 18.[40] A version was screened on March 30 for Moore, Peter Lauritson, Dan Curry, J. P. Farrell and Dawn Velazquez to better inform the post-production optical effects which were under production at the time.[41] Cast audio re-recording began to take place from April 9 onwards depending on the individual actor's availability, supervised by Velazquez. Composer Dennis McCarthy first saw a cut of the episode on April 21, the first time he had been exposed to the episode as he deliberately avoids reading scripts so as to work with the final product rather than basing music on the intention of the screenwriters.[42] He worked with Velazquez and music editor Gerry Sackman to develop some musical cues which could recur throughout the episode as well as working out what type of work will need to be completed. For example, although he couldn't see the visual effects at the time as they were not yet complete, Velazquez explained what they should look like.[43]

The deadline for the final cut, including the visual effects was April 30. All elements of the episode had been completed with the exception of the soundtrack, the recording for which began on May 5. The recording was light hearted, with McCarthy working some jokes into the titles of the musical pieces, such as The War of the Buttons and a reference to the end of the season, in the closing composition of the episode entitled An Ode to Summer.[44] In two of the pieces, McCarthy worked in Jerry Goldsmith's Voyager theme, both at the end of the episode and several bars of it as the ship engages the Dauntless in the slipstream.[45]

Reception

Ratings

"Hope and Fear" was first broadcast on May 20, 1998, on UPN at 9pm Eastern Standard Time. According to Nielsen Media Research, it received ratings of 4.1/7 percent. This meant that it was watched by 4.1 percent of all televisions in the United States, and 7 percent of those watching television at the time. This placed it in 76th place overall for the week,[46] higher than all other programmes on UPN and The WB with the exception of Dawson's Creek.[47] It was an increase of 0.2 percent from the previous episode, "One", and was the highest rated episode since the second part of "The Killing Game" on March 4.[46] But it saw a decrease from the season three finale, the first part of "Scorpion", of 1.5 percent.[47] It also saw a decline in viewers since the opening episode of season four, the second half of "Scorpion", which was watched by 6.5/10 percent of viewers.[46]

Critical reception

Lisa Granshaw listed "Hope and Fear" as one of the top ten episodes of Voyager for Blastr, saying that it showed an important step in the development of Seven of Nine as the character declares that she does not want to return to the Borg.[48] Juliette Harrisson at Den of Geek described the fourth season as the strongest in the series, and highlighted "Hope and Fear" as one of seven episodes to watch from that season.[49]

Home media release and legacy

"Hope and Fear" was first released for home media use on VHS within the United Kingdom as part of the collection of two-episode issues alongside "One" in 1998.[50] The episode was first released on DVD as part of the fourth season release on September 28, 2004 in the United States.[51] This was followed by a release in the United Kingdom on November 1,[52] which was subsequently re-released on September 24, 2007.[53]

The Dauntless was subsequently included in video games and merchandise spin-offs. It was added to the massively multiplayer online role-playing game Star Trek Online in 2014, initially as part of the "Delta Rising: Operations Pack" in conjunction with the Delta Rising expansion.[54] In 2015, it was released as an expansion to Star Trek: Attack Wing, a wargame produced by WizKids.[55] The ship was also the subject of issue 17 of the Official Starship Collection based on the franchise and released by Eaglemoss Publications.[56]

See also

Notes

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 Erdmann & Block (1998): p. 4
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 Erdmann & Block (1998): p. 5
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 Erdmann & Block (1998): p. 6
  4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 Erdmann & Block (1998): p. 7
  5. ↑ Erdmann & Block (1998): p. 8
  6. ↑ Erdmann & Block (1998): p. 9
  7. ↑ 7.0 7.1 Erdmann & Block (1998): p. 10
  8. ↑ Erdmann & Block (1998): p. 11
  9. ↑ Erdmann & Block (1998): p. 12
  10. ↑ 10.0 10.1 Erdmann & Block (1998): p. 13
  11. ↑ Erdmann & Block (1998): p. 20
  12. ↑ Erdmann & Block (1998): p. 15
  13. ↑ Erdmann & Block (1998): p. 44
  14. ↑ Erdmann & Block (1998): p. 22
  15. ↑ 15.0 15.1 Erdmann & Block (1998): p. 27
  16. ↑ Erdmann & Block (1998): p. 26
  17. ↑ 17.0 17.1 Erdmann & Block (1998): p. 42
  18. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  19. ↑ Erdmann & Block (1998): p. 45
  20. ↑ Erdmann & Block (1998): p. 81
  21. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  22. ↑ Erdmann & Block (1998): p. 47
  23. ↑ Erdmann & Block (1998): p. 88
  24. ↑ Erdmann & Block (1998): p. 87
  25. ↑ Erdmann & Block (1998): p. 23
  26. ↑ 26.0 26.1 Erdmann & Block (1998): pp. 66 – 67
  27. ↑ Erdmann & Block (1998): p. 68
  28. ↑ Erdmann & Block (1998): p. 70
  29. ↑ Erdmann & Block (1998): p. 71
  30. ↑ Erdmann & Block (1998): p. 72
  31. ↑ 31.0 31.1 Erdmann & Block (1998): pp. 32 – 33
  32. ↑ Erdmann & Block (1998): p. 28
  33. ↑ Erdmann & Block (1998): p. 35
  34. ↑ Erdmann & Block (1998): p. 41
  35. ↑ Erdmann & Block (1998): p. 48
  36. ↑ Erdmann & Block (1998): p. 55
  37. ↑ Erdmann & Block (1998): p. 60
  38. ↑ Erdmann & Block (1998): p. 61
  39. ↑ Erdmann & Block (1998): p. 75
  40. ↑ Erdmann & Block (1998): p. 76
  41. ↑ Erdmann & Block (1998): p. 82
  42. ↑ Erdmann & Block (1998): p. 83
  43. ↑ Erdmann & Block (1998): p. 84
  44. ↑ Erdmann & Block (1998): p. 89
  45. ↑ Erdmann & Block (1998): p. 93
  46. ↑ 46.0 46.1 46.2 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  47. ↑ 47.0 47.1 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  48. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  49. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  50. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  51. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  52. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  53. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  54. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  55. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  56. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.

References

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External links

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