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| Janeway looks out into the void... |
Voyager has spent two months traveling through a void, a region of space containing no star systems for 2,500 light years - or two years of their journey. Chakotay is concerned. Crew morale is already dropping, and Capt. Janeway has secluded herself in her quarters. Every viewport shows nothing but endless blackness, tempers are fraying, and there is no relief in sight.
Until they are attacked by aliens, that is. These unnamed aliens attack the ship, draining its power. They ignore all hails, and Voyager is saved only by the intervention of Emck (Ken Magee), who introduces himself as a Malon. Emck offers Voyager a shortcut through the void - a nearby vortex, which allows direct passage to his home on the other side.
One of the unnamed aliens, captured by Seven of Nine, tells the crew that Emck is poisoning them, dumping toxic waste in their space. Emck does not deny this when confronted, and he seems unbothered by the deaths of the aliens. The Voyager crew resolves to stop him from continuing his destructive work - Even if doing so may mean the destruction of the very vortex that can get them both out of this void, and two years closer to home!
CHARACTERS
Capt. Janeway: Two months in the void has given her a long time to think about her decision to destroy the Caretaker instead of using it to bring them home. Shutting herself away in her quarters, she wallows in self-recrimination, insisting that her decision was selfish and short-sighted... Basically, voicing what many of the show's more critical fans had said. This exists largely to set up a somewhat forced, but passably effective, bit in which she attempts to sacrifice herself later in the episode, until the members of her command staff remind her just how much she is needed.
Chakotay: With Janeway in seclusion, Chakotay is left to carry much of the episode. He runs the department head meetings, deflecting questions about the captain's status by reminding the others that she has no obligation to be constantly present when there's no emergency. When alone with Janeway, he argues the reverse - That her seclusion is bad for the crew's morale. Even when she's stirred by the crisis with the aliens, he recognizes that she is in a dangerous frame of mind, and enlists Tuvok's agreement to save her from herself if the need arises.
Tuvok: He meditates in Astrometrics, drily observing to Seven of Nine that "the view from (his) quarters has been less than stellar lately." He expresses surprise at Chakotay approaching him, indicating that the two have regarded each other with mistrust and kept their distance - That's something I wish we'd actually seen in the background of earlier episodes, because it would have made sense for both characters and might been interesting! Ah, well. As Janeway's friend, he is aware of her tendency toward self-sacrifice, and agrees with Chakotay about watching her closely.
Neelix: The void is particularly difficult for him. He discovers that he suffers from "nihiliphobia - the fear of nothingness." He does his best to put on a cheerful face for the crew. He also endeavors to do his job properly, making genuinely good suggestions at the department head meeting to improve crew morale and arguing forcefully with Chakotay that this is not the time for Janeway to be unapproachable. When the alien interference results in a shipwide blackout, his phobia leaves him huddling in a corner, but he is one of the first to spot an alien on board. "I may be nihiliphobic, but my eyes work just fine!"
THOUGHTS
Night kicks off Season Five with an hour that is really two stories in one... Which is unfortunate, because one of those stories is a whole lot better than the other.
The first part is a genuinely interesting psychological and character piece. The regulars are stuck on the ship with no external stimuli. No aliens to encounter, whether friendly or hostile; no planets to visit; not even stars in the sky. Just themselves, the familiar corridors of the ship, and an endless night outside. Left in this state with only two years of the same to look forward to, they begin to fracture - Tom and B'Elanna bickering about nothing, Neelix discovering a new fear he didn't know he had, and even Tuvok rattled enough to seek out a nicer view for his meditations. It's refreshingly different than anything the show has done before, and it's entirely convincing on a character level.
So of course they have to bring some generic aliens in to blow stuff up in the second half. With a heavy-handed "message" about toxic waste grafted on for good measure.
This second half is pure formula. A two-dimensional villainous alien acts solely to profit himself, not caring that he is bringing death to two-dimensional pathetic victim aliens. Emck sneers at Janeway's offer of technological assistance to remove the need for toxic waste by observing that this would just put him out of business. His villainy fully revealed, we are left to savor in his comeuppance and nod sagely as Janeway delivers the message of the week, all in time for the convenient vortex to throw the ship out of the void so that crew and audience can pretend none of this ever happened.
If you had asked me to predict my score at any point before the aliens turned up, I'd have said this was on track to an "8." But the rote, predictable second half drained my interest in this like a vampire drinking its victim dry. It's not by any means unwatchable, even at its lowest point - But given how good the first part of the episode is, the change to generic action runaround comes as a bitterly disappointing blow.
Overall Rating: 4/10.
Previous Episode: Hope and Fear
Next Episode: Drone
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