After repeated attacks by the Kazon and mounting casualties, Janeway and Chakotay start thinking that they need to change their approach to survive in the Delta Quadrant. They wonder if they can build alliances with some Kazon sects in hopes of getting through their space unscathed. That largely doesn’t work — negotiations with our buddies in the Kazon Nistrim don’t pan out when Maje Culluh makes goofy demands — but Neelix runs into a group of people called the Trabe, once enslavers of the Kazon who were overthrown decades earlier and now are essentially nomads. After an introduction by Neelix, Janeway bonds with Trabe leader Mabus (Charles Lucia) who seems more civilized than the Kazon thugs Voyager has generally dealt with. Janeway and Mabus (who has a small fleet of ships) form an alliance and organize a peace summit among the Kazon sects. But it turns out Mabus actually is using Voyager to get all the Kazon leaders together in one place so he can assassinate them. Janeway foils the plot at the last minute and Voyager escapes — and ends the episode telling her crew that her mistake was going against tried-and-true Starfleet principles. Oh, Kathy. This is why we can’t have nice things.

Why it’s important

If regular readers think we’ve been focusing on the Kazon a lot in recent reviews, it’s because the Kazon are the biggest story thread in Voyager’s second season. This episode furthers that and likely puts Voyager in the crosshairs of the entire Kazon race. As a concept — and given the payoff at season’s end — this episode works pretty well and a lot of the execution (up until Janeway’s goofy closing speech) is strong.

Give Voyager credit, too, for its strong run of continuity. The Trabe had actually been mentioned in the previous two episodes we’ve reviewed (“Initiations” and “Maneuvers”). This episode is also the first time we see former Maquis Michael Jonas (Raphael Sbarge) conduct his covert communications with the Nistrim, which is a big domino in the next several episodes. While the Kazon were not great villains in that they came across as dumb thugs, the creators clearly developed a pretty extensive backstory and plot outline for them. A for effort, C for execution.

What doesn’t hold up

The declaration by Janeway at the end of the episode — that Voyager erred by going against Federation principles — deserves scrutiny. While it’s true that allying with one of the Kazon sects would have been a usual no-no — something Janeway acknowledges during a nice scene with Tuvok but something that doesn’t actually happen — can the same be said about making friends with the Trabe?

The Trabe were, most definitely, separate from the Kazon, so forming an alliance with them didn’t really go against any higher Federation values regarding internal politics. True, allying Voyager with the Kazon’s most hated enemies might not have been a smart tactical decision and you could argue that Janeway was too quick to trust Mabus. But things didn’t go to hell in this episode because Janeway ignored Federation principles. They went to hell because the Voyager crew acted out of desperation and/or were bad judges of character.

The episode would have been stronger if Janeway had done a different kind of soul searching before the credits rolled. As it stands, it feels like the creators were looking for a way to justify Voyager’s essential “TNG in the Delta Quadrant” approach as to why the unique premise that they came up wasn’t being utilized. Having the show’s star essentially say that “Because we’re the Federation, damnit!” as an explanation for nearly everything that went wrong in this episode was mostly inaccurate and was an odd meta moment — a rather disappointing one.

Really, one lesson Janeway ought to have learned is that the ship should kick it up to the much-vaunted warp 9.975 maximum cruising velocity until it exited Kazon space. I know her initial declaration in “Caretaker” was that the ship would continue to explore. But high-tailing it out of a particularly nasty area — in which exploring would have been difficult given the near-constant Kazon attacks — would have been prudent. Of course, as the episode ends and after the ship flees the planet of the peace summit, we see the ship moving along at impulse — a recurring oddity throughout the series that we mentioned in our last review.

Final thoughts

Basically, this episode is where the Voyager creators took their ball and went home as far as doing anything new and different in a large, series-shaping way. And that’s a shame. Even if Voyager hadn’t ended up being akin to the rebooted “Battlestar Galactica” (which aired a decade later) making the Voyager crew struggle more wouldn’t have been that difficult. A power shortage here, more shots of the ship traveling at high warp there, a lack of torpedoes there, not having an endless supply of shuttles there …

Coming next week …

One of Voyager’s best episodes, as we explore the Q in a truly great, sci-fi way.

The Kazon Nistrim lure Voyager into a trap and steal a transporter module. The Nistrim is aided by Seska (after joining forces with the sect in “State of Flux”) and Seska mocks Janeway and Chakotay before escaping. After making repairs, Voyager pursues the Nistrim ship and a humiliated Chakotay steals a shuttle, intent on recovering or destroying the transporter technology without endangering the rest of the crew. Chakotay eventually destroys the transporter but is captured in the process, while Seska and Nistrim Maje Cullah try to build a coalition of rival sects to capture Voyager when it comes for Chakotay. Seska’s plan doesn’t work and Chakotay and the shuttle are recovered. But Seska sends a message to Voyager as the episode ends, telling Chakotay she stole his DNA while he was captured … and that she is now pregnant with his child.

Why it’s important

While we learned a lot more about the Kazon in “Initiations”, this episode sets up the continuing storyline involving Seska/Cullah that we see throughout the rest of the season. The plot involving Seska carrying Chakotay’s child is probably the biggest domino in Voyager’s early years.

We also see the beginning of Seska’s plotting to build an alliance of the fractious Kazon sects to capture Voyager. That the series built on “State of Flux” from season one and continued a sort of arc is an indication that the creators were trying to do something with this series that most people don’t remember. It’s possible that the poor execution of the arc is why the creators went more episodic in later years …

What doesn’t hold up

This is a really strange episode. There are some great parts and good acting. And some of the actions — Chakotay’s decision to go rogue, Torres defending him, Janeway to go with her gut to save him — are all believable moments that worked. But there are just so many other glaring oddities.

For one thing, the details around Chakotay stealing the shuttle are quite odd. Around that time, we see Voyager traveling at warp to catch up with Cullah’s ship. For some reason that’s not explained, the ship must have stopped — otherwise, Chakotay couldn’t have left with the shuttle. Beyond that, shortly after Chakotay takes off, Tuvok says he has a three-hour headstart. But … how? Why didn’t the ship immediately pursue Chakotay’s shuttle? Keep in mind that Voyager was warp capable right before Chakotay took off — and there’s no indication he disabled the ship.

Then, there’s the matter of the shuttle. Chakotay flies it toward the Kazon ship in a sort of stealth mode. When he’s eventually detected, he beams to the Kazon ship and destroys the transporter (though it’s not clear how he knew where to find the thing). Seska then gloats that she has the shuttle, but Chakotay says it’s worthless because he wiped the computer core before he beamed over. Seska seemingly agrees that this makes the shuttle worthless.

But, that doesn’t make any sense. Something on the shuttle would have been usable to the Kazon — shuttles have warp cores, don’t they? — even if they were only able to get the raw materials. And at the end of the episode, there’s dialogue that Voyager was able to recover the supposedly worthless shuttle. If it was worthless, why bother? Honestly, Chakotay should have just destroyed the shuttle as he beamed over.

The problem with an episode like this (other examples include DS9’s “Blaze of Glory“,  TNG’s “Bloodlines” and the upcoming “Investigations”) is that the intricate plots are just too intricate to work or are flawed when you look at the logic behind them. Or, maybe put another way, the writing isn’t strong enough to make the “maneuvers” believable.

Last thing. Voyager is traveling at impulse at the end of this episode. This is something that happens a lot — establishing shots of the ship traveling slowly or not at all — when the ship should almost constantly be at warp on the way back to the Alpha Quadrant. It’s really one of the strangest things about the series, and we’ll call it out again.

Final thoughts

While it’s not a logical gaffe, Seska impregnating herself is arguably the most cartoonish/soap opera move in the history of Trek villains. It’s a somewhat compelling moment and ups the stakes. But it makes Seska look less like the tactical genius from “State of Flux” and more of a spurned lover. Someone will argue that Seska’s move here was designed as a way to get leverage over Chakotay — leverage that is put to good use later in the season. But I don’t buy that. There are too many variables that could have had her plan — if it was a plan — blow up in her face. More on that in later reviews.

That said, this episode does have redeeming character moments and shows, again, that the creators really put a lot of thought into mapping out the Kazon as bad guys. The execution just isn’t there.

Coming later this week …

The Kazon, again. And one of the pivotal moments in Voyager’s history. Really.

Chakotay, in a shuttle in private meditation, is attacked by the Kazon Ogla (from back in “Caretaker”). The attacker is a Kazon boy named Kar (Aron Eisenberg, Nog from DS9) trying to earn his adult name by killing an enemy. After damaging Kar’s fighter, Chakotay rescues him, but Chakotay’s shuttle is quickly captured by a Kazon mothership. Kar begs Chakotay to kill him, as he believes he will suffer a worse fate back with his people. The two eventually escape and end up on a barren planet the Ogla use for training. Voyager comes to the rescue and the Ogla leadership closes in, as well. Chakotay offers to let Kar kill him — figuring Voyager can recover and save him quickly — but Kar instead kills the Ogla leader and is given his name by the second in command (who is elevated to the top spot by Kar’s actions). Voyager then goes about its merry way.

Why it’s important

This episode, in many ways, could fit into TOS or TNG (in fact, it’s similar to TNG’s “The Enemy” in many respects). It’s the classic story of two enemies having to work together and eventually coming to a better understanding.

But the episode is especially significant because it provides so much backstory for the Kazon — an indication that the creators really mapped them out as the bad guys for season two. In this episode, we learn more about the infighting among the Kazon sects, about their weird honor code and how their young men are indoctrinated into their ways and how they were once subjected by another race called the Trabe (who become big players in a key episode later this season).

Voyager is often criticized for being too episodic, but it’s clear that the creators tried something serial in season two — and really began it here. We’ll discuss how successful they were as the season progresses — hint, not all that much — but the effort was definitely there, based on the first items mentioned in “Initiations”.

What doesn’t hold up

This is the first episode we’ve reviewed that gets into Voyager’s seemingly endless supply of shuttles. For a ship with limited resources, the fact that shuttles were wrecked so often was one of Voyager’s most obnoxious cliches.

Also, it’s odd that the Kazon Ogla shows up here. Assuming Voyager is moving quickly toward the Alpha Quadrant, shouldn’t they at least be running into a different sect (an easy fix, by the way)? Put another way, if Ogla territory covers this much area, shouldn’t they have been able to find water and not been so stunned by it in “Caretaker”? I know, I know — I’ll get off the whole water thing from the pilot, eventually.

Last point, Voyager somehow got a new type of phaser (along with the rest of Starfleet) while in the Delta Quadrant. In season one, the Voyager crew used the flat-handled phasers we’d seen throughout TNG and in DS9. But, starting in this episode, we see the curved-handled phasers that also appear around the same time on DS9. Hmmmm.

Final thoughts

It is interesting that Chakotay (in dialog with Kar) would make such a big deal about how much the Starfleet uniform means to him when he, you know, was an enemy of the Federation who had sworn off the uniform less than a year earlier. This isn’t necessarily a problem, but it’s too bad that he didn’t say something like, “I once forgot how much this uniform means to me … ” This is the kind of nod to continuity that Voyager almost always seemed unwilling to weave in — even when doing so would have been extremely easy. It’s not as if a line of dialog like that would have required more exposition.

That said, Chakotay’s dialog with Kar is pretty well done, if heavy-handed at points. Chakotay was probably the most empathetic character among the main Voyager crew (with the exception of Kes) and it’s believable that he would gain the trust of a young Kazon — or, at least, more believable than if another character had been in his place.

Coming next week …

More Kazon Kraziness.