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| Capt. Sulu (George Takei) needles the young Tuvok. |
THE PLOT
Voyager has altered course to investigate a nebula with a high amount of sirillium, an energy source which can help keep the ship's systems operating during its long journey. They are just preparing to collect the sirillium when Tuvok sudenly becomes disoriented, experiencing flashbacks of himself, as a child, failing to save the life of a young girl dangling from a cliffside. Tuvok has no actual memory of the incident, leading the Doctor to suspect it is a repressed memory.
Vulcan physiology being the magical plot device that it is, repressed memories pose grave risks to Vulcans if untreated. Janeway agrees to mind-meld with Tuvok to bring out the memory and integrate it, while the Doctor and Kes monitor the procedure. But when Tuvok initiates the meld, they are not taken back to the Vulcan's childhood. Instead, they find themselves on the bridge of the U. S. S. Excelsior, under the command of Capt. Sulu (George Takei), in the midst of an unauthorized attempt to rescue Capt. Kirk from the Klingon homeworld (Star Trek VI).
What is the connection between the events on the Excelsior and Tuvok's flashbacks? If Janeway and Tuvok cannot determine the cause soon, then Tuvok's mind will literally shut down - possibly taking Janeway's right along with it!
CHARACTERS
Capt. Janeway: Janeway's bond with Tuvok is a major component of this episode. Tuvok turns to her because she is the person he most trusts on the ship. She expresses their relationship to the Doctor even more bluntly, stating that she's the closest thing to family the Vulcan has on board. Though she believes Tuvok was is right to argue against the rescue mission, she also admits her admiration for Sulu and, by extension, Kirk and his comrades. "They were a little slower to invoke the Prime Directive, and a little quicker to pull their phasers. Of course, the whole bunch of them would be booted out of Starfleet today. But I have to admit, I would have loved to ride shotgun at least once with a group of officers like that."
Capt. Sulu: His loyalty to Kirk and Dr. McCoy is the catalyst for the action within the flashback. When Tuvok argues against the rescue mission as a violation of Starfleet orders, Sulu shows patience in taking time to explain himself. He acknowledges that Tuvok is right about the regulations, but that there is more to serving in Starfleet than simply following orders. "There is a sense of loyalty to the men and women you serve with, a sense of family. Those two men on trial - I served with them for a long time. I owe them my life a dozen times over. And right now they're in trouble and I'm going to help them. Let the regulations be damned!" George Takei provides the episode with a solid presence, and he is a dominant enough presence within the episode to keep fans from feeling cheated, but used sparingly enough that he doesn't overshadow the regulars.
Tuvok: "Ever since I entered the academy, I've had to endure the egocentric nature of humanity. You believe that everyone in the galaxy should be like you, that we should all share your sense of humour and your human values." Flashback is a Tuvok episode, one that fleshes out his background considerably. We learn that he joined Starfleet under pressure from his parents, only to leave at the end of his first deep space assignment. Young Tuvok is much like our version, only more rigid - a rigidity that has made his interactions with humans unpleasant for him. It was only after he returned to Vulcan and started a family of his own that he realized that he actually could learn from humans, that - as Spock observed back in Star Trek: The Motion Picture, "logic is not enough."
The Doctor: Carries the Technobabble phase of the episode, diagnosing Tuvok and monitoring his vitals through the mind meld. He breaks the meld at one trouble spot to provide us with a fadeout to commercial. At the critical point in the episode, he is unable to break the meld, providing us with our crisis for the Final Act. Though largely a plot device in this episode, Robert Picardo continues to excel in making him distinct even as he spouts reams of near-meaningless jargon at us.
Kang: Only in for a cameo appearance, but Michael Ansara is always a welcome presence. He is largely the typical "Klingon heavy" in this episode, though the thin veneer of politeness he shows to Sulu is well-portrayed, as is the threat beneath that veneer.
THOUGHTS
Flashback is two types of episodes, very effectively bound up in one. It is a nice nostalgia episode for TOS fans, who get to revisit not only Sulu, but also Kang and Janice Rand (Grace Lee Whitney), in a story that runs parallel to the events of Star Trek VI. With some well-judged re-use of footage from that movie, and some re-staging of scenes from the film to make them match with the surrounding episode, it blends into a very satisfying bit of fan fulfillment.
But it doesn't forget to filter this through the regulars. George Takei may be the big guest star, but this isn't Sulu's episode. Sulu is complete as an individual by the time he is captain of the Excelsior. It's not his role to learn, but to (try to) teach. Tuvok is the episode's focus, and our view of Sulu and the other TOS holdovers is filtered through his point of view.
This is where Flashback's greatest success lies: As a character episode. Not what you'd normally expect from writer Brannon Braga, but he does very well at fleshing out Tuvok's backstory and in contrasting his attitudes as a young man with his current ones. There is a lot of "our" Tuvok in the 29-year-old in the flashbacks, but the older Tuvok has apparently taken the advice of Sulu to heart. He has a distinct sense of humor, albeit a dry one, and he is able to interact with others, both traits which elude his younger self. He is able to recognize when his behavior toward Kes or Chakotay may come across as rude, and readily apologizes for it, something again which his younger self wouldn't bother doing. In one episode, by showing both Tuvok now and Tuvok as "the boy (he) was," we can see just how far he has come.
The episode is paced very quickly, with several clever moments. Sulu and Tuvok evading Kang by igniting the gas inside a nebula is a particularly nice sequence, wonderfully directed by stalwart David Livingston. Though the medical Technobabble invoked to explain "the memory" is the usual Trek non-science, the visual sequence of the same memory being traced from one person to another is memorable.
A well-directed, quickly-paced episode which satisfies both as a strong character piece and as a nice nostalgic nod to the original incarnation of Star Trek. An episode worthy of not only a positive review, but probably a re-watch or two sometime down the road.
Overall Rating: 8/10.
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I agree... I just saw this episode for the first time (2017, for shame). It is a good character/sci-fi episode as a stand-alone episode. The fact that it crosses genres to link the TOS with Voyager is just icing on the cake! Also Sulu gave a great performance without stealing the show. And the matching of TV scenes with the movie footage was fantastic... I give this one a 9.
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