Chakotay’s shuttle is shot down while he is investigating ore deposits on a planet – he finds himself in the middle of a war between the troops he has joined (who look human) and an evil, ugly enemy they call ‘the nemesis’. Initially, he refuses to get involved, but circumstances force him to bond with some of the soldiers, and when he stays at a small town and then sees the innocent townspeople marched to their death, he begins getting emotionally and physically involved. In the meantime, Voyager has found the remains of his shuttle and has contacted the ambassador of the planet, who confirms that there is a terrible enemy called ‘the nemesis’, and hopes that Chakotay has not been captured by these evil people. The ambassador agrees to help search for Chakotay, and is beamed aboard Voyager – surprise! He is from the race that Chakotay and his friends refer to as ‘the nemesis’! With their help, Tuvok finds Chakotay, but Chakotay views him as one of the evil ones, and almost kills him, before Tuvok can convince him that he has been subjected to an intensive brainwashing campaign and simulation to get him to fight. Tuvok brings Chakotay back to the village, where the villagers – many of whom Chakotay had seen killed – greet him in the same manner as the first time, with no memory of having seen him before. Back on the ship, it is determined that psychotropic drugs and holographic scenarios combined to make Chakotay believe what he saw. The ambassador arrives to express his gratitude that Chakotay was not injured, but Chakotay cannot face him. He leaves the room and tells Janeway, "If only it was as easy to stop hating as it is to start."
This is an interesting episode with one manipulation and one problem. It’s too bad that the ‘good guys’ had to be portrayed as human-looking, while the ‘bad guys’ had to be portrayed as relatively ugly. And I have to once again question this universal translator. I wonder what the aliens were saying when the translator interpreted it as ‘Close your glimpses’ (instead of ‘close your eyes’) or ‘in the soon after’ (instead of ‘in the near future’). Could the UT be sophisticated enough to be able to not only translate alien speech into human speech, but also translate alien colloquialisms into human colloquialisms? I believe a linguist could address this point and give the odds.
The fact that the 'good' guys are 'human looking' was the entire point! We naturally feel more empathy to that which is similar and good-looking and this episode was a critique of that. In fact, there is indication that the simulation purposely made all the inhabitants of the village look 'human' i.e. exactly like Chakotay (no forehead bumps or anything!) and there is also indication that Vori actually look exactly like the Kradin: a general tells his soldiers to recognize the brown uniform as Vori, vs the black uniform of the Kradin... which would be of course completely irrelevant if the Vori looked like humans. As for the translator working the way it did, it could be a consequence of the hallucinatory brainwashing, or done on purpose. As Chakotay becomes indoctrinated into the Vori cause he begins to adopt Vori speech patterns.
ReplyDeleteI loved the way they changed a few words, but we still understood exactly what they were saying.
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