Friday, May 9, 2008

4.22 unforgettable

Two cloaked alien ships battle it out close by; one is destroyed; the other ship contains an alien that knows Chakotay and Voyager by name, and asks for help and eventually asylum. Although no one remembers her, she says that she spent a month on board Voyager, and that she and Chakotay fell in love. Initially, all are suspicious of her motives, but, although they can find no evidence that she was there before, there is also no evidence that she is telling a lie. Her species does not show up on sensors, the doctor cannot tri-corder her, and she says that they physiologically do not remain in anyone’s memory. They are also forbidden to leave their world or reveal any detail, and two ‘tracers’ are tracking her down at the moment. Initially dubious and caught off-guard, Chakotay once again falls in love with her, and tries to protect her, but a tracer gets on board and exacts the prescribed punishment; he wipes her mind of all recent events. Before she forgets, she asks Chakotay to remind her of all that they had. He tries, but she finds it hard to believe, and instead agrees to return to her home world.

Although this episode isn’t wholly satisfying and has lots of nits, I still rate it highly for its cleverness and for Chakotay’s performance.

Nit #1: When the alien’s ship approaches, Harry reports that there has been an explosion on board, and that "Life Support is off-line." Chakotay asks if he can take an away team, and Janeway agrees. Chakotay beams over the Paris and Tuvok. The ship is in ruins, and Tuvok checks his tricorder and reports, "Oxygen levels are dangerously low." Wouldn’t the oxygen level be something you would already want to be aware of before beaming over without environmental suits?

Nit #2: Without seeing the alien, with only hearing the voice, Janeway and Chakotay refer to her as ‘her’. Isn’t this judgement on sex being made solely on the pitch of the alien’s voice? Wouldn’t it be safe to assume that by now, Starfleet has encountered some alien races where the females speak in a lower pitch than the males?

Nit #3: Twice, the aliens use a computer virus to successfully wipe out all trace of their existence on the ship. But wouldn’t Voyager keep off-line data backups of logs? And how would the virus affect these backups?

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