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| Janeway and Tuvok try to decipher alien teleportation technology. |
Dammar (Kenneth Tigar), a Nyrian who claims to have been simply walking in the street of his home city, is abruptly transported to Voyager, triggering the start of a mystery that may just cost the humans their ship! Dammar is taken to sickbay to allow the Doctor to run tests for some clue as to where he came from. That's when they discover that Kes vanished from the ship at the same moment Dammar appeared.
These exchanges continue at the rate of once every 9 minutes: a Nyrian appears and a Voyager crew member vanishes. The Nyrians appear completely innocent, even bewildered. But Janeway feels that something is wrong, and orders them kept under guard even as their numbers swell and her forces are winnowed away.
When the crew complement is reduced to only a handful, the Nyrians prove Janeway's worst suspicions correct. They emerge with weapons and methodically take the ship. Soon, the entire crew has been transported to a very comfortable biosphere. It's an idyllic prison, but it's still a prison. One from which Janeway is determined to escape...
CHARACTERS
Capt. Janeway: Is immediately concerned - not just because of the displacement, but because if it continues the entire crew will be replaced in 18 hours. She doesn't rush to judgment against the Nyrians, but she does order them kept under guard in case they aren't as innocent as they seem. Her suspicions prove correct too late to keep the aliens from taking Voyager, but Janeway is able to gain the upper hand by using their own technology against them and transporting them to the least comfortable environment possible - right into an arctic biosphere, where she very happily engages in some old-fashioned shotgun diplomacy.
Chakotay: By the time it becomes clear that the Nyrians are responsible for the exchanges, he is one of only a couple of humans still left on the ship. He wages a guerrilla war against the intruders, sabotaging as many of Voyager's systems as possible in the time he has left. This is a role that suits him well. Given his Maquis background, this is the kind of thing we should see him doing much more often.
Tuvok: In his youth, he survived alone for months in the harsh desert with a ceremonial knife as his only possession, all as part of a Vulcan ritual. Starfleet survival training was easy by comparison. He gets a lot to do in this episode, scavenging parts from their comfortable prison and assembling two makeshift phasers to aid in their escape. The last part of the episode puts him in his most accustomed role, as Janeway's right hand, backing her up as she works with the Nyrian technology and acting as Voice of Exposition for her and the audience alike.
Tom/Torres: Continue their flinty progress toward a relationship. At this point, the pattern appears to be Torres gets angry, Tom makes a joke, Torres gets angrier, then they have a semi-serious conversation a few scenes later... a pattern that is followed twice in the course of this single episode. It's less tedious than it sounds, because the two actors are good and play well opposite each other. Also, both are allowed to be individually competent, with Torres figuring out that the displacement is due to technology and Tom keeping them alive when the Nyrians are pursuing them.
THOUGHTS
When I saw the credit, "Written by Lisa Klink," I cringed. Klink's previous episodes have included Season Two's mediocre Innocence and this season's dreadful Blood Fever and Favorite Son. True, she's also written a couple decent episodes... but it's fair to say that her name is not one that fills me with optimism.
That makes Displaced something of a pleasant surprise. Despite some plot holes (or at least extreme plot conveniences), this is an enjoyable episode. It also is one that makes particularly good use of the ensemble. Janeway, Chakotay, Tuvok, Torres, Tom, the Doctor, and Neelix all get at least one good scene or moment, and all of them are given a chance to contribute something to the story. Given that balancing the ensemble tends to be a Voyager weakness, it's always nice to see an episode that actually manages it.
The episode is easily divided into three segments, each of which run roughly a third of the episode. The first part sets up the situation and gradually unveils what is happening. The middle third sees the Voyager crew preparing an escape using the meager items they have available to them. The final third is the big escape and climax.
The first of these movements is the best, with the mystery of why crewmen are being exchanged for the Nyrians creating some early intrigue. Refreshingly, it's not instantly apparent what's happening. We know only as much as the crew does. Even when members of the crew become suspicious, we still aren't certain that the aliens are responsible for this. That makes the opening effective as a mystery, which moves nicely into an action-based sequence with Chakotay acting as guerrilla warrior.
The middle portion is less effective, though still entertaining thanks to some decent character scenes and the amusing interactions between Janeway and the barter-happy Jarleth (Mark L. Taylor). The idea of different biospheres for different imprisoned species is also one that sparks interest... though virtually nothing is done with this idea, the budget presumably not extending to actually seeing any of the other races within those biospheres.
The last third sees Janeway and her crew make their escape, and this is where the story is at its weakest. Tuvok bypasses the Nyrian security systems with virtually no difficulty, and Janeway figures out how to turn the aliens' greatest weapon against them offscreen. In one scene, she's still trying to decipher the control codes, and in the next scene we see her exerting full control. Also, her deal with the Nyrians involves letting them go after she destroys that device... But if it's their technology in the first place, surely that isn't the only such device they have. Even if it is, surely it would be within their power to eventually create another one.
I also can't help but wonder, given how much is made of the Nyrians' lack of tolerance to bright light or cold, why Chakotay barely uses this against them when sabotaging their taking of the ship. Shouldn't his first steps be to drastically raise the light level throughout the ship, and at the same time to drastically lower the temperature? Other than one bit in which he brings on all the lights in Engineering, he barely attacks these weaknesses.
For all the bumps in the plot, I had a good time watching Displaced. It will take a lot more than this for me to revise my impression of Lisa Klink's Voyager output overall... but this is a solid step in the right direction.
Overall Rating: 6/10.
Previous Episode: Distant Origin
Next Episode: Worst Case Scenario
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