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| Suder (Brad Dourif)'s moment of glory. |
THE PLOT
Voyager receives an urgent, hurried message from Seska: a plea for help. Her child has been born - revealing to Culluh (Anthony De Longis) that he is Chakotay's child and not his. Janeway and Chakotay realize that there's a good chance this is a trap - but they can't take the chance of Chakotay's son being sold into a life of slavery, and so they prepare a rescue mission right into Kazon-Nistrim space.
They haven't gone very far into Kazon space when they intercept a badly damaged shuttle with a sole occupant: Tierna (John Gegenhuber), one of Seska's aides. Tierna tells them that Seska is dead, murdered by Culluh. He helps them plot a course into Nistrim space, one that will allow them to avoid the worst of the Kazon defenses.
On this course, the ship becomes subject to repeated attacks. All of them are minor attacks by ships that can pose no serious threat, but each is focused on the same area of the ship. "It feels like we're being pecked to death by ducks," Janeway reflects. They have taken precautions against attack, however, ones that should secure them against all anticipated obstacles.
But they haven't anticipated everything...
CHARACTERS
Capt. Janeway: Her compassion for Chakotay overrides her judgment, in my opinion. An obvious trap set for one crewman, even the ship's First Officer, should not one that a captain walks straight into. She may strive to take every precaution, but she admits that she knows Seska would be prepared for their wariness. It's pure, reckless sentiment, and all casualties are her fault for willingly tripping Seska's trap. That said, the Trek universe has rarely seen ruthlessness from its captains. Kate Mulgrew does give a commanding performance, particularly when coordinating Voyager's response to the Kazon battle in Part One.
Chakotay: His first impulse is to ignore Seska's message. He never volunteered for fatherhood, after all - Seska stole his DNA. But as the vision of his father (Henry Darrow) points out, the child is himself innocent of the mother's crimes. The boy is Chakotay's child and "a child of our people," his father points out, making the message impossible for him to ignore. Even so, he remains particularly suspicious of Tierna, ordering him confined to secure quarters at the first sign of trouble. A shame he didn't think to have a watch put on him as well...
Tuvok: Though that's more Tuvok's failing, given that the Vulcan is chief of security. You would think that keeping a likely spy/saboteur under constant surveillance, even when confined, would be basic stuff. But that would interfere with the plot, so Tuvok is rendered incompetent in this area. Better is the development of Tuvok's mentoring of Suder (Brad Dourif), with Tuvok taking obvious pride in Suder's botanical studies and equally obvious concern at his occasional lapses.
The Doctor: "One hologram and one sociopath may not be much of a match for the Kazon, but we'll have to do."Some very good material for Robert Picardo here. The first half sees the Doctor contributing to the ship's tactics, coming up with a suggestion to use a hologram in battle to distract the enemy. The suggestion is effective, even if its implementation leaves the Doctor briefly in the midst of a space battle, and hints that the Doctor's contribution to the ship could easily extend beyond medicine if the series wants to explore that option. The Doctor also does well with Suder in Part Two, having to effectively act as the troubled man's commanding officer to re-take the ship from the Kazon.
Seska: It's not much of a spoiler to reveal that no, Seska isn't dead. Recurring villains don't get offscreen deaths unless something happened with the actor, and it's fairly obvious from the start that this is all a trap. The tension between Seska and Culluh remains apparent, however, with Culluh aware that Seska is essentially giving the orders but uncertain what to do about it. It's a shame that this dynamic is all but ignored in Part Two, with the resolution of the Seska storyline coming in the easiest and least complicated of ways.
Suder: Even though the meld with Tuvok has granted Suder self-discipline, his old violence is churning just below the surface. When he asks Tuvok and Janeway to allow him to contribute to the ship, the urgency of his request is off-putting, and his response to Janeway's hesitation is almost threatening. These very traits make him into a hero in Part Two, however, as his capacity for violence comes in handy once the Kazon take control ofVoyager. Brad Dourif is again excellent, and his return for this two-parter is one of this episode's most welcome elements.
THOUGHTS
Basics provides Voyager with its first season cliffhanger. The cliffhanger is no "Locutus of Borg," but it's still a pretty good one: The Kazon in control of Voyager, the crew exiled to a seismically unstable world, and the Doctor and the murderous Suder the only Starfleet presence remaining on the Kazon-controlled starship. As he ends Part One, writer Michael Piller leaves the show in a situation where it could pursue a number of options.
This being Voyager, Part Two pursues the safest course. All loose ends are tied off neatly, leaving ship and show to continue on its near continuity-free way. But at least it's mostly fun getting there, with Part One particularly good as the crew fly into a trap knowing full well that is what they're doing, only to find themselves unable to anticipate the full extent of Seska's deception.
Part Two remains entertaining, with the Doctor/Suder double-act making for some strong scenes. But the second part is made much less compelling because of the intrusion of Saturday Matinee serial fodder, in the form of the adventures of the marooned crew on the One-Shot Volcanic Planet. None of these scenes connect to the main plot at all, and none of the material involving alien cave men and reptilian monsters in tunnels is anywhere near as interesting as the Kazon story. But I suppose Michael Piller felt that he needed to give the regulars something to do, even if it meant distracting from the meat of the story.
In the end, Basics is a miscrocosm of Voyager as a series: It's very entertaining and extremely well-made. But it doesn't miss a chance to play things safe, and it spends entirely too much time focusing on the wrong elements. As an adventure story, it largely works, even if the second half fails to deliver on the promise of the first. But much like the series it belongs to, it feels like this could have and should have been more.
Overall Rating: 6/10.
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