2.9 prototype

What is the ‘thing’ that has been beamed into engineering? As the show opens, we see a crackly black and white image of Torres, Janeway and Tuvok discussing whether to try to feed it power or deactivate it. Against Tuvok’s better judgement, Kim pumps some power into it, and, still through its eyes, we see it scan the room until it is looking at itself in a monitor – it’s a humanoid-shaped ‘robot’. Nice scene. Torres takes a personal interest in getting it working again; she succeeds. She learns that the bot was made by the ‘builders’, humanoids who were at war with another race. The builders are now dead, and the bot asks her to build more power units, so their race can ‘procreate’. But Janeway refuses, believing this to be a violation of the prime directive. However, the bot kidnaps Torres and takes her back to his ship. Their superior weaponry forces Torres to agree to build the unit. As she finishes, another robot ship, manned by a hostile group, begins to attack, and Torres learns that this other group was built, similarly, by humanoids that were at war and are now dead. It turns out that the war had ended, and when the humanoids went to turn off the mechanized warriors, who were no longer of use, the warriors saw them as the enemy and wiped them out. Now, by allowing this group to reproduce, Torres has upset the balance and created a very powerful and lethal killing group. She ‘kills’ her creation just before Voyager uses the distraction of the battle to beam her out. Great concept – captivating show.

2.8 resistance

An away team is interrupted while obtaining a needed item for the warp engines; Tuvok and Torres are captured by this suspicious police state race called the Mochra, and Janeway is sheltered by an old man (Joel Gray) who believes she is his daughter. She tries to extricate herself from him, but begins to get drawn in by the sadness of his life. When she goes on a rescue mission, he proves useful, for a while, and she uses her charm to masquerade as a lady of the evening to get inside the prison. In the course of the struggle, Janeway rescues Tuvok and Torres, and the old man kills the evil leader (who was responsible for the killing of his real wife and daughter), but is then shot by guards. Not one of my favorite episodes, it seems to move slowly and seem kind of boring. Gray’s quirky performance may or may not elicit sympathy. The title may also refer to Janeway’s attempt to resist being drawn into the emotional sadness, which she does not.

But there is one redeeming factor – an A-1 nit: when Joel Gray dies, his head falls to the left and he does a death stare. In the next scene, his head is facing to the right! Either that was a continuity problem, or this race does a strange after-death rigor-mortis head flop.

2.7 maneuvers

Voyager investigates a signal from a Federation beacon, hoping it is a probe sent from the Alpha quadrant, but it is a trap set by the Kaizon Nistra sect – with the help of their new technical advisor, Seska (who deserted to the Kaizon a few episodes ago). With a clever attack the Kaizon steal transporter technology. Chakotay feels responsible and steals a shuttlecraft to go on a solo kamikaze mission to recapture the technology. He does, but is captured – his automated beacon telling Voyager not to rescue him almost convinces Janeway, but a couple of passionate speeches by Torres change her mind. Unable to beam Chakotay out, Janeway instead beams the leaders of the various Kaizon sects in, and holds them hostage until Chakotay is returned. Chakotay is put on report, and hopes his problems with Seska are over, until, in the final scene, an automated message from Seska informs Chakotay that she stole some of his DNA while he was a captive, and she has now impregnated herself and is carrying his baby. Good episode, although Chakotay’s reasons for so obviously defying orders seems out of character with all of his other behavior, including his very strident attitude toward any subordinates who have attempted to do the same thing.

2.6 cold fire

The trail to the second ‘caretaker’, who has the power to send Voyager back to the alpha quadrant, leads to an array similar but smaller to the original, and a community of Ocampa (same as Kes). These Ocampa, along with their caretaker Sisteria (who remains hidden), have developed their psychic powers. Their leader wants Kes to join them, and for good reason; Sisteria blames Voyager for killing the first caretaker and plans to destroy the ship. Sisteria appears in the form of a little girl and starts suspending bleeding (but unharmed) members of the crew in mid air, including Janeway, but Kes uses her rapidly developing powers to stop her. Tuvok traps her behind a force field, but Janeway insists on letting her be free, at which she realizes that she was probably wrong about Voyager killing the other caretaker. Unfortunately, she leaves, once again meaning that Voyager is still stranded in the delta quadrant and the show must go on.

2.5 tattoo

While Chakotay and his away team investigate a storm-ravaged rainforested planet, Chakotay flashes back to a trip he made as a disgruntled teen, into the rainforest with his father, searching for their ancestors. At that time, they found the ‘sky-spirits’, which meant so much to his father, but nothing to him. He was about to leave the tribe and join Starfleet. But after his father died, he took up the cause and bore the tattoo his father did. Here, in this unlikely place, he discovers the real ‘sky spirits’, the aliens that visited earth and shared genetic info with indigenous people. He understands the full picture, and he is finally able to make spiritual contact with his father.

Meanwhile, the doctor is showing no compassion for sick people in pain. Kes is appalled and suggests that he should know what it feels like to be sick. The doctor complies and gives himself a 29 hour flu, but when hour 30 comes and he is still very sick, he begins to feel lost, helpless, like he is fading away – just what he needed, and all because Kes reprogrammed the flu to run a bit longer than the doc expected.

2.4 persistence of vision

Janeway’s normally tame holo-novel turns lurid, as the male professes his love for her and kisses her. She leaves the holodeck, but begins to see items and characters from the holo-novel in real life. Soon, all members of the crew are experiencing hallucinations which make them into zombies, all but Kes and the doctor. It’s up to Kes to use her rapidly developing powers to fight off the alien responsible and save the ship. Some of the hallucinations are interesting. It makes me wonder if some of the other famous incidents where members of expeditions went stir crazy might also have been caused by aliens.

2.3 parturition

Another episode title designed to expand your vocabulary. Tom Paris is infatuated with Kes, and, although Kes has no interest in him and is completely dedicated to Neelix, this doesn’t stop Neelix from having another fit of jealousy which culminates in a pasta-covered brawl. But Janeway assigns the two on a shuttlecraft mission to a mysterious planet in an attempt to replenish their dwindling food supplies. No food is found, but an egg hatches a half-reptile, half humanoid cute little thing that is going to grow up to be a big thing. While Paris wants to leave it, concerned that the mother will soon be back, Neelix insists on caring for it and waiting to ensure that the hatchling won’t be rejected. This little incident bonds the two, the hatchling is not rejected, and they beam out just in time. Just before beaming out, Paris makes a very well-written speech about his feelings for Kes and how he would never do anything about it because he respects Neelix, and how all Neelix has to do is look in Kes’ eyes and he can see he has nothing to worry about. It’s a great speech, and Neelix is finally convinced; the three of them leave the transporter room arm in arm. That speech should stop any further jealous Neelix rages for at least four episodes.

My general nit with this episode and others is: I am in amazement that Neelix can serve a single lunch special and expect the crew (which are made up of varying species from all over the galaxy) to eat it. You can’t even get people on one planet (earth) to agree on what to eat! I am also amazed that Kes and Neelix can sit down to dinner and eat the same foods, as they are from very different species.

2.2 non sequitur

Kim awakens to find himself back on Earth, laying in bed next to his girlfriend (now fiancée) Libby, and the last thing he can remember is being in a shuttlecraft. He has been transported to a different reality, where he was rejected for the Voyager crew, and is instead a successful engineer who has just designed a revolutionary new runabout called the Yellowstone. To everyone around him, he seems to be crazy or to be a spy. Needing help, he finds Tom Paris, who also didn’t make it to Voyager and has instead turned to a life of drinking, hanging out in pool halls and forgetting to shave. Kim explains to the doubting Paris what the other reality is like, and, eventually, Paris comes to his aid. Together, using the directions of one of the aliens that live in the time stream that caught Kim, they steal the Yellowstone and duplicate the conditions of the original accident. Paris is even willing to die in the explosion just for the chance of becoming part of the Voyager crew and the other reality – which of course he does. Okay, it doesn’t make any sense. If Kim plopped into another reality, where is the Kim that was in the other reality? But it is still cool to see Kim out of his element.

2.1 Initiations

While Chakotay is alone on a shuttlecraft to perform a private indigenous ceremony celebrating the birthday of his father, he is attacked by a young Kaizon (Aron Eisenberg; ‘Nog’ on Deep Space Nine) who is trying to earn his warrior name by killing an enemy. Chakotay destroys his ship and saves the lad by beaming him aboard. Then, captured by the Kaizons, Chakotay learns that the boy has been disgraced throughout life and death and will now be sacrificed – by Chakotay – for his failure. Chakotay escapes and the boy comes with him. Over the course of the next few hours, they get to know each other, and, when rescue is imminent, Chakotay, realizing that the boy will not come with him, tells the young Kaizon to kill him so that he can earn his name and re-enter Kaizon society – and Chakotay assures him that even if he is brain-dead he can be revived within two minutes of death in sick bay. However, the boy turns his phaser on the Kaizon who would have killed him, and offers himself to the next in command. The final scene is very touching, as Chakotay resumes his ceremony, this time in his quarters, and asks his father to continue to protect him.

Of course, there are a couple of nits. One is that someone is going to have to explain to me why killing a fellow Kaizon would get the boy accepted back into society. The other is this practice the Kaizon have of only allowing a warrior one chance to prove themselves, and if they fail, even allowing the enemy to kill the failed warrior. Sure lose a lot of potential warriors that way.

1.19 the 37s

In what seems like a bad comedy skit, Voyager encounters a rusting old truck floating through space. Following the trail, they find (and land on - great sfx) a planet with 8 humans in stasis – all from 1937 – and one is Amelia Earhart. After a tense standoff when none of the ancients believe that they have just missed the last 400 years, they agree to check out the ship – but then some aliens start attacking. Janeway creeps around and thwarts the attack, and discovers that the aliens are descendants of the original 37s (of which there were 300), all abducted by an alien race. The locals invite Janeway and their crew to check out the 3 very beautiful cities they have built "…just 50 miles from here." Interestingly, although the entire crew visits, we never get to see these cities, I assume due to budget restraints. The crew is invited to stay, and, reluctantly, Janeway agrees to allow each crewperson to decide on their own whether they will or not. With trepidation, Janeway and Chakotay approach the closed doors of the cargo bay where she has asked all those wanting to go to assemble. Chakotay puts a hand on her shoulder and assures her that "We will make it [home]", and they enter: and the room is empty. The next shot of the bridge and the little nods and reaction shots that Janeway gets are very emotional.

By the way, during this episode I noticed that all of the wide shots of Voyager, after landing, had its lower area hidden behind a big rock formation. It seemed strange to keep portraying the ship that way. Later, after reading about this episode in ‘Star Trek Voyager: A Vision of the Future’ by Stephen Edward Poe, I learned that in post-production, it was deemed that the landing struts looked flimsy, so it was decided to hide them as much as possible.

1.18 twisted

Another one of those bizarre clouds envelopes the ship and begins to distort physical matter. Only the French café on the holodeck is immune, and it is closing in fast. People wander around the ship, ending up at the wrong place, and no one can get to the bridge. Eventually, the majority of the crew ends up in the holodeck, and, as they have exhausted all logical alternatives, Tuvok suggests that they just ‘let it happen’. The wave moves towards them, and there is a (literally) touching moment, as Be’Lanna grasps Chakotay’s hand, Paris does a manly clamp of Kim’s shoulder, and Tuvok moves his hand close to, but not touching, the unconscious and reposed body of Captain Janeway (obviously, Tuvok was torn between showing physical affection and the possibility of a sexual harassment suit). The wave passes through, and everyone and everything is okay. Darned if it wasn’t just one of them there alien races again, trying to communicate. The wave downloaded Voyager’s entire database and uploaded a few gigaquads of info too. That’s just how they say ‘Hello’ in that culture.

1.17 elogium

Voyager investigates a swarm of space-dwelling organisms and is drawn into their midst. The energy they emit causes Kes to go into early elogium (puberty). It’s a one-off opportunity, so she and Neelix have to quickly decide if they want to have a child. This ‘theme’ episode is all about sex and procreation: Chakotay catches two officers kissing in the turbolift, he and Janeway discuss the implications of relationships and ‘pairing off’ as they begin their 75 year journey back (and she gives him a few good long looks during this discussion, although she mentions her boyfriend Mark – you can just hear the erotic fiction writer’s keyboards clicking), and Voyager has to resort to anti-mating tactics to escape the swarm. Best line is from Tuvok: "We appear to have lost our sex appeal." Most unbelievable: that Neelix would have to think twice before accepting the chance to mate with Kes for six days straight.

1.16 projections

The doctor finds he has been activated and is alone on the ship after a Kaizon attack. But he is not alone – Torres and Janeway are still on board. But tricorders are not recording their life signs. What is going on? Who is the hologram and who is real? And why is Lt Barclay trying to convince the doc to destroy the ship? Incredibly entangled and clever episode – you won’t guess this one. Interesting, too, the way the holodeck is used to reveal the character’s usually hidden feelings and desires. One can only wonder just how many naked-green-skinned-alien-women fantasies James Kirk would have enjoyed had the old Enterprise been fitted with a holodeck.

1.15 learning curve

The ship’s partially living gel energy packs are infested with a virus caused by Neelix’s cheese. Meanwhile, Tuvok is attempting to train 4 recalcitrant former Maquis people. He gets a little help from Chakotay, who coolly punches one of them in the mouth in a great scene. Eventually, Tuvok wins them over by being completely non-logical, with a little helpful advice from Neelix, who redeems himself in this episode. Great scene of everyone’s sweaty faces when the life support systems are turned off.

1.14 jetrel

Voyager is visited by the scientist who invented the weapon of mass destruction that leveled Neelix’ home world – and killed his sister. Neelix hates him, but Jetrel is here to examine Neelix for a disease survivors of the blast contracted. Sure enough, Neelix has the disease, but Jetrel has his own agenda, which involves a plan to free himself of the curse of his invention by retrieving the people lost in the blast – their biomolecular info may still be floating around in a cloud that still exists around the planet. Farfetched maybe, and that image of the lost soul almost being reformed is spooky, but there’s something way too neat about this episode – it tries to do way too much in 42 minutes. Only recommended if you like half-men / half hyenas.

1.13 faces

An away team of Torres, Paris, and Durst is captured by Vidiians. Paris and Durst (who, in the great tradition of ST, is going to die because he is not a regular) are put to work in the mines, digging tunnels. Torres has her Klingon DNA extracted and used to create a copy of herself that is full Klingon, leaving two of Torres: one aggressive toothy Klingon, and one relatively wimpy and initially scared human. They overcome their differences to work together to escape, with the help of Chakotay, who has been surgically altered to look like a Vidiian.

Nitpick: Supposedly, the Vedeans need prisoners to dig tunnels because they are weak. This race has highly developed technology, some of it much more highly developed than the Federation. Can’t they simply blast tunnels using phasers or more advanced tools? Do they still need people to carry rocks?

1.12 cathexis

Chakotay and Tuvok (what is it with these two trouble-finders – in the last episode they were both ‘killed’ on the holodeck) return from a shuttlecraft away mission injured. Chakotay is ‘brain-dead’; he is missing all of his consciousness. Tuvok is injured but recovers. According to Tuvok, they were zapped by an alien ship that hides out in a nebula. As Voyager heads for the nebula, various members of the crew are taken over by an alien presence that keeps changing the ship’s course away from the nebula. A clever little mystery.

1.11 heroes and demons

When Harry Kim disappears on the holodeck while taking part in the ‘Beowulf’ legend, Chakotay and Tuvok investigate, but they are zapped by a mysterious surge of photonic energy. Are they all dead, or could their energy matrix be recoverable? Only the holographic doctor can safely venture in to find out. It’s the doctor’s first away mission, his first interaction with mythical characters from the middle ages - and his first kiss. A fun episode.

1.10 state of flux

A Kaizon ship sends out a distress call. Subsequent investigation proves that someone from Voyager has been giving Federation technology to the Kaizon. The evidence points to former Maquis crewperson Seska, although she denies it to her former lover Chakotay. He doesn’t know what to think – but he’s smart enough to play along with a clever trap to find out who the traitor is. In the end, Seska beams to the Kaizon ship and gets away. Hopefully, she can do something about their sideshow Bob-like hair. Another interesting episode. Great line by Tuvok to Chakotay: "And how may I be honest with you today?"

Nitpick: Torres examines the wreckage, and determines that because it contains the bio circuitry used on Voyager, and that Voyager is the only ship to have this circuitry, that it must have come from Voyager. My question: could it not have come from a ship from the future? Every second episode deals with time travel.

1.09 prime factors

Voyager is intercepted by an alien ship, from a race of people known to Neelix and renowned for their hospitality. They allow shore leave on their home world and shower the crew of Voyager with gifts. Harry Kim gets chummy with a female alien. She loves his stories; she uses a special transporter device to take him to one of her favorite places. Kim asks her how far away it is, and is excited to find out it is 40,000 light years away! He bursts in on Janeway and the ‘head’ alien just as they are about to kiss, and asks if they can use the device to transport Voyager. Though it is physically feasible, the aliens have a strict code about sharing their technology less it is misused, and the alien leader declines. Janeway proposes a swap of the ship’s entire library – with millions of ‘stories’, but while the leader negotiates, Kim is taken to an unauthorized alien who is willing to trade the technology for stories. Kim takes the offer to the captain, but, meanwhile, Seska and others are plotting to take it upon themselves to use the technology, and B’Elanna has to choose sides. Eventually, the evil Seska convinces her to get and use the technology, but just as they are about to beam down to get it, Tuvok of all people shows up and says he will make the exchange. The part is tested but is incompatible and almost destroys the ship. Faced with the opportunity to cover it up, B’Elanna insists on reporting the truth and taking her medicine. Tuvok admits to being the senior officer involved, saying that he felt it was his logical duty to compensate for Janeway’s inability to get the crew home within the bounds of her obligation to follow Starfleet laws.

Nit: I think it was contrived for Tuvok to use logic to break the chain of command. This is even less believable than when Chakotay stole a shuttlecraft on a Kamikaze mission to deal with Seska (see ‘basics’).

1.08 emanations

Investigating high energy readings, Chakotay leads an away mission to the source: an asteroid. Dead alien bodies are found there, with more appearing every minute. While Chakotay is lecturing the away team on proper etiquette in burial grounds, an energy wave permeates the cabin. An emergency beam-out only nets Chakotay, B’Elanna, and a new dead body; Kim finds himself on a planet, inside a pod. The doctor is able to revive the freshly deceased body. The alien believed it was going to an afterlife, a ‘second life’, where she would maintain corporeal shape and continue to live, and to see all those who ‘died’ before her. Kim, meanwhile, is believed to have come from this emanation, although he tries to explain carefully that in his reality, all he saw were a bunch of dead bodies. Considered a threat by the people in charge, he begins to influence one alien who has just been convinced to die by family pressure. As Kim is about to be whisked even further away for more study, he devises a plan whereby he will take the place of the alien, allowing the alien to escape into the hills and continue to live; Kim will die, but is banking on the doctor being able to revive him. Fortunately, it works, and Kim also gets a few days off, and is advised by Janeway to take the time to think about what has happened.

1.07 ex post facto

On an alien world, Tom Paris is accused and convicted of murdering the ageing husband of a sexy young woman whom he has gotten involved with. "Nothing happened," explains Tom; then he adds, "Well, almost nothing." We'll leave the meaning of this to your imagination. Paris' punishment is to relive the crime through the eyes of his victim, over and over, every 14 hours, and the implants that accomplish this are destroying his brain. It's up to Tuvok to dispassionately investigate and discover the truth. Lauren Bacall she is not, but that woman is sexy, and I like the revealing yet subtle outfits that are designed for her.

1.06 eye of the needle

Janeway and the crew are excited by the long-range discovery of a wormhole. However, upon closer inspection, the hole is only a few millimeters wide, offering no escape from the Delta quadrant. A micro-probe reveals that the Alpha quadrant is on the other side of the wormhole, as is something that is scanning the probe. This turns out to be a Romulan ship, whose commander is quite suspicious of Voyager’s intent and doubts their location. Slowly, he begins to believe Janeway’s sincere speeches and to empathize with their plight. Meanwhile, Torres discovers a way to transport matter through the wormhole. The Romulan agrees to be the first being to transport. It is when he is on Voyager that Tuvok discovers that he is from 20 years in the past, meaning that the crew cannot beam over without polluting the timeline.

In the meantime, Kes asks the captain to help the doctor gain more respect from the crew. She even kisses the doctor goodbye when she thinks she is going to have to leave his program aboard the ship when they transport to the alpha quadrant.

A good episode, filled with ups and downs, and with good character development by the doctor, who ends the episode by asking for a name.