All posts by Paul

“Equinox”

Woah, this episode is really crappy.
“Whoa, this episode is really crappy.”

Voyager rescues another Starfleet ship, the Equinox — a small science vessel that is critically damaged after attacks by some supposedly unknown aliens. We later learn that the ship has had a rougher go of it than Voyager after being swept across the galaxy, and eventually resorted to killing some weird aliens from another realm to fuel an enhanced warp drive. After Janeway learns of this, Equinox Captain Ransom (John Savage) steals some equipment from Voyager and escapes with Seven and the Doctor, leaving Voyager open to attacks from the aliens. Voyager repels the attacks (after two no-name crew members kick the bucket, naturally) and Janeway goes crazy to find the Equinox. She nearly kills a captured Equinox crew member in hopes of gaining information, relieves Chakotay of duty after he objects and later promises the aliens that she’ll hand over the Equinox in exchange for stopping the attacks. Eventually, Ransom realizes he’s in the wrong and helps Voyager, despite objections from some of his crew — but he and most of the Equinoxers are killed in the process and the ship itself is destroyed. Voyager resumes course, with a few Equinox crew members now on board and Janeway and Chakotay (sigh) back to business as usual.

Why it’s important

As we’ve discussed elsewhere, Voyager and Starfleet have a pretty bad reputation in the Delta Quadrant. Even though the damage portrayed in this episode wasn’t all Voyager’s fault, some of it was — so we figured it made sense to include. Also, this episode is important in understanding some of Voyager’s key failings.

Despite me performing unethical procedures on you, I imagine we'll continue our friendship next week as if nothing has happened.
“Despite me performing unethical procedures on you, I imagine we’ll continue our friendship next week as if nothing has happened.”

What doesn’t hold up

Pardon my French, but this two-parter is just a shit show — mostly because of what we don’t see after it and because of Janeway’s unhinged actions. Let’s start with what’s wrong in the two-parter itself.

Much of the badness comes in part two, with Janeway just losing her mind. Given that she called out Ransom’s decisions — questioning whether he continued being a human — her decisions to nearly kill an Equinox crew member and offer to trade the Equinox for Voyager’s safety are, frankly, not in keeping with Starfleet or Federation principles and appallingly hypocritical for the main hero of a Star Trek series. A show that was smarter and that had not pissed away its main premise from nearly day one would have done better on these counts (check out DS9’s controversial but smarter “In the Pale Moonlight”). As it is, this — and “Year from Hell”“Deadlock” and the series finale — are the four best examples of Voyager’s main failings.

A smaller issue in this episode happens when the Doctor, after Ransom deletes his ethical subroutines, is cool with conducting a dangerous procedure on Seven to extract some information. The whole thing was FAR too easy, and the Doctor is portrayed as pleased with himself that he’s now unencumbered and can take actions that might kill Seven! Shouldn’t a medical program, even without ethical subroutines, be concerned with doing no harm? This is sort of like how holographic bullets can kill if holodeck safeties are disengaged. Why make the holograms potentially lethal in the first place?

Another smaller point is that Voyager and the Equinox would even have found each other after both were swept into the Delta Quadrant by the Caretaker (as discussed in part one). Given all the times Voyager jumped ahead — and all the times Equinox jumped ahead using the technology in this episode — it’s implausible that the two ships would run into each other. It’s too bad the creators didn’t just have the Equinox get to the Delta Quadrant in a different way with a different starting point.

Then, there’s the whole matter with Janeway and Chakotay. Chakotay plays (effectively) the voice of reason in this episode (which is ironic, given that he was the Starfleet-officer-turned-terrorist when the series began). In a better example of showing a schism between Janeway and Chakotay (in “Scorpion”) the two ultimately worked together to defeat the Borg after a major disagreement — but one that was more tactical than philosophical. Here, there’s no resolution, even though the disagreement between them is FAR more troubling. They simply shrug off the fact that Chakotay was relieved of duty and that Janeway nearly committed crimes. And that’s just ridiculous. Even Ronald D. Moore — who briefly came over from DS9 at this time — is on record as questioning the creators here.

Finally, why don’t we ever see the Equinox crew members who joined Voyager after this episode? Obviously, there’s an easy answer — because the Voyager creators, almost ALWAYS took the easy way out in situations like this. What a waste.

Captain... captain. Are you playing Words with Friends instead of listening to me?!
“Captain? Captain? Are you playing Words with Friends instead of listening to me?!”

Final thoughts

Yeesh. What a mess. The two-parter is somewhat compelling — and part one is much less objectionable — but when you look at Janeway’s actions, the missed opportunities and the complete lack of continuity afterward, it makes you shake your head. Actually, that’s more of how Voyager could be described, overall. Is it time for “Enterprise” yet?

Coming next week …

That guy who played Murdock on the “A-Team” returns to Trek.

“Dark Frontier”

I just watched an old earth film called "Ocean's 11" and now I'm in the mood for a zany heist.
“I just watched an old Earth film called ‘Ocean’s 11’ and now I’m in the mood for a zany heist.”

Janeway gets it into her head to try to steal a transwarp coil from a Borg ship (Bad Idea Jeans, Kathy). She enlists Seven to help with the mission, and asks her to read the diaries (somehow) obtained from her parents’ ship back in “The Raven” as background research or something. As the crew prepares, Seven is contacted by the Borg Queen (Susanna Thompson, apparently replacing the Queen we met in “Star Trek: First Contact”) who tells her that she’ll assimilate Voyager unless Seven comes back to the Borg. During the mission, Seven does just that — despite a puzzled Janeway, who does manage to get the warp coil. Later, the Queen tells Seven that the Borg actually LET Seven leave the collective and join Voyager’s crew (back in “Scorpion”) as a way to get more information about humans in hopes of actually successfully assimilating humanity (uh-huh). Janeway equips the Delta Flyer with the transwarp coil and manages to find Seven and eventually rescues her by convincing her where she really belongs (for like the 100th time) outsmarting the Queen (or something).

I find it helps to picture a species naked when addressing a crowd of them.
“I find it helps to picture a species naked when addressing a crowd of them.”

Why it’s important

We learn a lot more about Seven’s backstory — which is actually a lot of the human/Borg backstory. Her parents, the Hansens, weren’t just zany explorers who ran into the Borg. They were commissioned by the Federation to go LOOK for the Borg. Hmmm.

Meanwhile, Voyager gets access to transwarp technology in this episode — and does get 20 years closer to home before it gives out. So, even though Janeway’s plan is ridiculously dangerous, it does sort of work. Hmmm.

What doesn’t hold up

The Hansen backstory is, simply, infuriating. It’s classic Voyager in that it re-wrote Star Trek history in ways the creators must have (wrongly) thought would increase the drama. Joe Menosky, one of the top people at Voyager back in the day, said (essentially) that continuity should be disregarded when it gets in the way of a good story. That could be one way to look back at Voyager as a series — except that more often than not, the creators didn’t have to disregard continuity to achieve their ultimate goal.

This episode, like so many others, was a situation where the creators could have had their cake and eaten it, too. The Hansens didn’t need to be explorers looking for the Borg. They could have just been unorthodox explorers who happened upon the Borg, which was sort of the implication when Seven was first introduced in “Scorpion” and when her backstory was fleshed out in “The Raven”. That way, the idea that Picard and Co. (and, presumably, the Federation, generally) didn’t know about the Borg back in “Q Who?” could have been preserved. That said, this episode does try to explain how the Hansens got to the Delta Quadrant, which was an open question back in “The Raven”, with a line of dialogue about following a Borg ship into a transwarp conduit.

There’s also the whole idea that the Borg let Seven leave as part of a bigger plan. Assuming the Queen wasn’t just lying to manipulate Seven (possible, I suppose) it seems like a goofy idea. How many times was Voyager almost destroyed since “Scorpion”?

But the biggest thing that blows my mind is that Janeway would attempt to take on the Borg and steal a warp coil, putting her entire crew at risk against an implacable foe. Voyager’s captain has had some pretty questionable decisions over the years, but I wouldn’t have called her “reckless” until this episode. It’s just unbelievable that she would risk having the Voyager “family” assimilated — and that she would then risk the much-coveted warp coil (not to mention her own life, Paris, Tuvok and the Doctor) to save Seven and Seven alone. The idea that Starfleet captains don’t leave their crew behind isn’t a bad one — but when going after one of them puts everyone else in SUCH great risk, you have to question Kathy’s judgment.

There are issues with some of the Borg Queen’s dialog. She says the Borg have tried to assimilate Earth once (actually twice) and that Seven is the first human to leave the collective after being assimilated — and that’s just laughably false. Jean-Luc Picard says “hi.”

Last thing: The Borg Queen, in an effort to convince Seven that she belongs with the Borg, brings out her father, who is still a working drone. While this is a shocking moment, it’s not used to much effect. And wouldn’t Seven have tried to save her father — or been more torn apart by seeing him after she’s saved?

Last, last thing: The Hansen diaries that Janeway has Seven read allegedly came from Seven and Tuvok’s visit to the Hansens’ ship in “The Raven”. But Seven and Tuvok didn’t download anything while in the ship in that episode — and they barely made it out with their lives as it was being destroyed.

Last, last, last thing: On the Borg ship, Seven’s connection to the collective seems like not much of a connection. She actually saves a small group of no-name aliens from being assimilated — a group that seems to be far too down with what’s happening to them, BTW — but the Queen doesn’t figure it out until after it happens. So much for “Our thoughts are one.”

Hello. Daughter Unit.
“Hello, Daughter Unit.”

Final thoughts

All complaints aside, this is an entertaining two-parter — provided you leave some logic at the door. It’s about as cartoonish as Voyager gets, as even the Borg ship looks more colorful and less mechanical. The most poignant moment, though, comes when Seven questions her parents’ ridiculous decision to go after the Borg with a young child in tow. Janeway doesn’t exactly defend them, but she does give them credit for their ingenuity. I suppose they did manage to surreptitiously monitor and study the Borg for a while, but ultimately, they were complete failures and their YOUNG DAUGHTER BECAME A BORG.

Coming later this week …

Another Starfleet ship in the Delta Quadrant? Jigga-what?

“Timeless”

We've waited 4+ years captain, can't we run a few more simulations? No, now eat up your last supper is getting cold.
“We’ve waited 4+ years, Captain. Can’t we run a few more simulations?” “No, now eat up — your last supper is getting cold.”

Chakotay and Kim — 15 years since we last saw them — unearth the remains of a crashed Voyager near the edge of the Alpha Quadrant on a frozen planet. Turns out the two were in the Delta Flyer working in tandem with Voyager to use adapted quantum slipstream technology (from “Hope and Fear”) in hopes of getting home. The Flyer made it, but Voyager was lost, and the two have been looking for the ship ever since (long after Starfleet gave up). Now, Chakotay and Kim are renegades who stole the Flyer and some Borg technology that they hope can be used to contact Seven prior to the accident, sending her information that will change history. Despite tangling with Starfleet (led by Captain Geordi La Forge on a Galaxy-class ship), Chakotay and Kim are successful. Voyager avoids the original accident, shaves about 10,000 light years off its journey and present-day Kim gets a message from future Kim explaining (generally) what happened.

Now every time you look at Seven you'll think of her skull.
Now every time you look at Seven you’ll just see her bronze skull. Enjoy!

Why it’s important

Well, like many of Voyager’s more daring episodes — don’t even get me started on “Year from Hell” — much of what happens here is reset by timeline shenanigans. But Voyager gonna be Voyager, I suppose. That said, Voyager DOES get significantly closer to home in this episode, so it’s Tapestry-worthy. Although one wonders why Janeway has the quantum slipstream drive dismantled after the episode. Why not keep fine-tuning?

This won't work Chakotay. Take a look. It's in a book...
“This won’t work Chakotay. Take a look. It’s in a book…”

What doesn’t hold up

Putting aside the timeline issues — how would future Kim’s message have still existed in the past if future Kim never really existed? — and the annoying reset noted above, there’s a LOT to like in this episode. It’s easily Garrett Wang’s best showing as Kim (proving the failings of that character were mostly on the writers) and future Chakotay works in a quiet, understated way. Plus, the cross-cutting between present-day Voyager’s attempt to use the slipstream drive and future Chakotay and Kim’s attempts to complete their mission works very well. LeVar Burton, who directed the episode, should be lauded — as this is one of Voyager’s best-paced and best-made episodes.

Good stuff aside, it’s pretty convenient that Voyager crashed on a frozen waste of a planet, preserving Seven and her Borg stuff.

I guess the only other issue is the ease at which Chakotay and Kim must have been able to steal the Flyer and the Borg technology and escape for long enough to find Voyager. It’s not totally implausible, but it makes Starfleet security look pretty sloppy. It’s inferred that neither Chakotay or Kim is in Starfleet when they start their plot. All that said, it’s a conceit I’ll mostly grant because the episode works so well.

Are you crying Harry?! There's no crying in Starfleet!
“Are you crying Harry?! There’s no crying in Starfleet!”

Final thoughts

This is probably Voyager’s best episode, even with its flaws. I’m not exactly sure why what we see here is less annoying to me than “Year of Hell”, as both provide what-if scenarios that are promptly erased — allowing the creators to go back to “TNG in the Delta Quadrant” status quo. Maybe “Timeless” isn’t as objectionable as it doesn’t erase as much time, or maybe it’s because “Timeless” doesn’t show a what-if scenario that very well could have been Voyager’s entire run as a series. In other words, “Timeless” is less of a tease.

Coming next week …

More Borg and more Seven, as Voyager goes full-comic book on our asses.

“In the Flesh”

🎶Mama don't taaaakkeee my holochrome awaaaaaaayyyy.🎶
🎶Mama don’t taaaakkeee my holochrome awaaaaaaayyyy.🎶

Voyager encounters what appears to be Starfleet headquarters in the middle of the Delta Quadrant. Chakotay and Tuvok check it out, and determine that it’s actually a simulation built by Species 8472 (back from “Scorpion”) as a way to learn about the Federation, complete with members of the species posing as Starfleet officers (hmmm) and a recreation of Boothby (Ray Walston) whom we met back in TNG’s “The First Duty”. 8472 is using the recreation to prep for war against the Federation after Janeway allied Voyager with the Borg (way to go, Kathy). Eventually, Janeway and Co. talk down the now reasonable 8472s –Voyager agrees to let 8472 look at the weapons developed in “Scorpion” — and the sides cease hostilities.

Why it’s important

Reaching a tentative peace with Species 8472 is pretty significant, considering how dangerous they seemed back in “Scorpion”. What looked to be a new enemy with the intent of conquering the galaxy fades away here, and that (as we’ll discuss) is a problem.

intheflesh_279
“Did we say ‘the weak shall perish’? That was a universal translator problem. We meant ‘This week we’ll recreate Paris'”

What doesn’t hold up

Species 8472, when we first meet them, were freaking terrifying. Their motto — “the weak shall perish” — was right up there with anything the Borg or the Jem’Hadar threw at our heroes. And even being touched by an 8472 (initially) caused humans (and presumably all humanoids) to be eaten alive and transformed.

But this episode seriously undercuts all of that and makes  8472 appear pretty freaking reasonable — too reasonable, really. I guess the idea is that their experiment playing humans (and other Federation races) and their interaction in this episode with Voyager gave them the insight that the Federation wasn’t actually a big threat to them. But it all comes together way too easily, considering the hand the creators dealt themselves in “Scorpion”. Having representatives of 8472 sitting (as humans) at Voyager’s conference table and working out a peaceful deal was just … weak.

Beyond that, how did the 8472s not spot Chakotay as an outsider more easily? I hate to single out such a small thing, but he was at “Starfleet headquarters” with his Maquis rank insignia (which looks a lot different than what normal Starfleet officers wear on their collars). And really, the whole idea that the 8472s needed to set up a fake Starfleet HQ to better understand the Federation is pretty weird. If you’ll recall, they could read Kes’ thoughts back in “Scorpion”. What info did they think they’d get that would be worth such an elaborate setup in this episode? I’m not saying that the experiment couldn’t have yielded some interesting info — but would it have been enough to justify the effort? I doubt it. And keep in mind that Boothby mentions several other facilities conducting similar activities.

Oh, and Chakotay makes reference to the last time he was at Starfleet HQ, in March 2368, when he resigned to join the Maquis. As we’ve discussed before, this is part of Voyager’s attempt to retcon the Maquis’s existence well before we first learned about them in “The Maquis”. Chakotay could have resigned in protest of the new treaty with the Cardassians in March 2368. But if he resigned and joined the Maquis, he probably should have been written as a founding member.

🎶When you're gooooing to a recreation of San Francisco. Be sure to get a flower from an extra-galactic species bent on destruction.🎶
🎶When you’re gooooing to a recreation of San Francisco … be sure to get a flower from an extra-galactic species bent on destruction.🎶

Final thoughts

Some readers might wonder why we didn’t review “Hope and Fear”, the final episode of Voyager’s fourth season. It’s pretty rare when the events of a season finale don’t make it onto the Tapestry, but that episode really didn’t tell us anything we didn’t already know and didn’t advance Trek’s bigger storylines. The most interesting idea in that episode is that Janeway’s controversial moves in “Scorpion” to help the Borg pissed off some Delta Quadrant residents who then plotted revenge. Whoops. But, hey, that’s our Kathy!

That said, we almost reviewed the episode because it shaved a few months off of Voyager’s trip home (thanks to the quantum slipstream drive). But a few months just didn’t seem significant enough.

Finally, we learn something interesting in this episode: Voyager’s crew is down to 127. This means about 25 have been lost since the crews integrated in “Caretaker”. Frankly, that’s a lot — about 17 percent of the crew — but we really don’t see any staffing issues, other than Paris’ presence starting in season four as a medic in sickbay. That so many people were lost (and that more will be lost) is extremely notable given Janeway’s actions going forward. But it also sort of makes sense, given everything we’ve seen previously.

Of course, Voyager’s crew magically goes back to just under 150 in a a later episode. Maybe some of the 8472s posing as humans stuck around as crew replacements?

Coming later this week …

Voyager crashes and only Kim and Chakotay survive.

“Message in a Bottle”

It says "Welcome to the AT&T Long Distance Network. Please insert 25 cents to place a call"
“It says, ‘Welcome to the AT&T Long Distance Network. Please insert 25 cents to place a call’.”

Voyager finds an ancient relay network that allows Seven to spot a Starfleet ship thousands of light years away. When a traditional message can’t get through to the ship, Janeway sends the Doctor to make contact. But the ship (the experimental U.S.S. Prometheus) has been taken over by Romulans, and the Doctor must work with the vessel’s holographic doctor (Andy Dick) to save the vessel. Amid some fairly witty banter, the two EMHs are successful, the prototype ship is returned to Starfleet and the Doctor returns to Voyager with news that he’s informed the Federation of Voyager’s whereabouts.

Why it’s important

Voyager making brief contact with the Federation is hugely important, even if the ability is relatively short-lived. The cartoonish bad guys who control the relay network (the Hirogen) destroy it in the subsequent episode and Voyager doesn’t again have regular contact with Starfleet for a while.

As bad guys go, the Hirogen are pretty stupid, though the creators seemed to put a lot of time into their development and they show up a lot in season four. Still, we only mention their introduction here as a side note. The Hirogen aren’t that significant in the larger scope of Voyager or Star Trek as a whole.

The USS Voltron everyone.
The USS Voltron, everyone.

What doesn’t hold up

While this is a fun episode, there is just so much that makes me scratch my head.

For one thing, how did the Romulans get aboard the Prometheus in the first place? I don’t expect a ton of backstory on that — only so much plot and dialogue can fit in a 45-minute show — but presumably, they got there on a ship, and it’s odd that we don’t see that ship escorting the Prometheus back to Romulus.

This episode also is probably Trek’s worst example of using extras who clearly can’t have lines of dialogue. The most glaring moment is in sickbay when Neelix speaks for crew members suffering from indigestion (thanks to Neelix’s chili). Paris and Neelix talk as if the crew members have no ability to talk! The Romulan commander and helm officer on the Prometheus also seem to be the only two Romulans with verbal abilities. Oh, and did anyone else notice that the Doctor and EMH-2 talk openly about their plot while an injured Romulan is nearby and clearly conscious?

Last point. EMH-2 mentions the Federation’s war with the Dominion, which was going on at this time — with Voyager unaware — on DS9. But it’s weird that the Voyager crew seems to have no knowledge of the Dominion (the Doctor has none and Chakotay and Torres are seemingly unaware in the next episode), even though hostilities with the Dominion started a half-season before Voyager’s trip to the Delta Quadrant. But, bigger picture, shouldn’t the events here have pretty much killed any chances of a Federation/Romulan alliance against the Dominion? At least one Romulan ship appears to have been destroyed. Granted, a few months pass before Sisko’s skulduggery in “In the Pale Moonlight”. But still. I know this is supposed to be a light-hearted episode, but there was a major war going on in the Alpha Quadrant at the time — and the Federation and Romulans doing battle in previous Trek was always viewed as something that could lead to war.

Our antics are just about the only redeeming thing in this episode.
“Our antics are just about the only redeeming thing in this episode!”

Final thoughts

This episode is classic Voyager, and that’s not entirely a compliment.

It’s well-acted and amusing (Picardo really shines) and the side stories back on Voyager as the crew waits for word are actually pretty amusing. But there are just so many goofy logic and continuity issues. Hell, you could argue that Janeway was reckless sending the Doctor to the Alpha Quadrant when he had a good chance of being lost and considering that Paris is the ship’s next most qualified medic. At this point in the series, there’s no word of a backup Doctor.

Aside from that, the EMHs might be the luckiest photonic beings in the universe, given how they activate the “multi-vector” attack mode in a way that defeats the Romulans. Everything else on the ship requires a lot of specific knowledge that the EMHs, not surprisingly, don’t have. But EMH-2 accidentally hits a button and everything is fixed? Weak.

All that said, it was a nice development — with follow up in the next episode — that allows Voyager to communicate with Starfleet and let their families know they’re still alive. There are some things that don’t get mentioned — like the 10-20 Voyager crewmen who died in the previous three years and whether Janeway notified Starfleet about them. It’s also odd that there’s no discussion (yet) of how Starfleet would likely view the Maquis on board as criminals. Again, these aren’t items that wreck this episode or the next one. But not addressing them was a missed opportunity, IMO.

Coming next week …

Species 8472 is back — and it’s pissed.