Saturday, May 10, 2008

6.08 one small step

An anomaly almost swallows Voyager; the discovery of an inner core containing elements of various vessels it has absorbed also finds traces of a famous command module from 2032, piloted by Commander Kelley, whose exploits in space inspired many. He’s a boyhood hero of Chakotay, who leads an away mission with Paris and Seven. Seven has been sent by Janeway to gain an appreciation of history, since she has none. Inside the anomaly in the modified Delta Flyer, the command module in found almost intact. As Chakotay prepares to drag it out with a tractor beam, Voyager’s sensors pick up an imminent collision between the anomaly and a dark star asteroid. Fearing turbulence, Janeway orders Chakotay to return to Voyager immediately, but his insistence on taking the module along causes Voyager to move too slowly, and to be repelled back inside the anomaly, badly damaged. Chakotay is also badly injured by a pulse. Unable to effect repairs on the ship with the parts they have, they must borrow a compatible fuel injector from the command module. Seven is sent to do this task, and she discovers that Kelley lived after being absorbed by the anomaly, and continued to keep logs until the last minute, even shutting down life support so that more data could be collected. As Seven works to free the part needed, she listens to these logs and gains appreciation for what the man did to further space travel. Before beaming back to the Flyer, she downloads his database and also has his remains, preserved in the vacuum of space, beamed back as well. The repairs work, and the Flyer is able to escape just before the anomaly returns to sub-space. Back on Voyager, an official ceremony is held for Kelley, and it is Seven who chooses to say a few words – she whispers to him, ‘The Yankees’, answering his question about who won the World Series.

This episode doesn’t really work for me. I wasn’t sufficiently inspired by Kelley to care. And of course, that made Seven’s change of mind unbelievable. Additionally, I was glad that Chakotay got more to do in this episode, although he was knocked out and unconscious for awhile, and he did act foolishly to disobey an order.

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