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| The starship Voyager, in its icy grave. |
On a desolate, ice-covered planet, a ship has been discovered. Under a layer of ice lies a lifeless husk that had the misfortune to crash on this world 15 years earlier. The ship's designation: Voyager!
15 years earlier, the Voyager crew prepares to use the finally-ready slipstream technology to travel directly home. The crew is celebrating - save for Tom Paris, who has discovered a phase variance in the slipstream system. He and Harry test this out in the holodeck, and simulation after simulation ends with Voyager's destruction.
Harry comes up with a plan, however. If he flies ahead of Voyager in the Delta Flyer, then he can send phase corrections back, allowing the starship to compensate for the variance. Janeway authorizes the plan, with Chakotay piloting the shuttle as Harry works on the math. And so the great ship's fate is sealed...
15 years later, an older, guilt-ridden Harry and Chakotay have come up with a new plan. Salvaging Borg technology from Seven of Nine's remains, they now have the ability to send a message back in time. Harry made a mistake in his calculations, leading to the ship's destruction. If he can send the correct calculations to Voyager just before the accident, then he can save his crew - and alter the course of history!
CHARACTERS
Capt. Janeway: Chakotay believes Harry's plan is too much of a risk, and Janeway admits that by the book he's correct - But the responsibility for the crew weighs heavily on her, and she decides to take the chance. This ties in with her depression in Night, in which she shut herself away and blamed herself for every day and every death that the crew had experienced in the Delta Quadrant. Chakotay's right about the risk being unwise - But Janeway so badly wants to get her crew home, that her guilt overrides her judgment.
Chakotay: Just as determined to alter history to save Voyager as Harry is - But he isn't as guilt-ridden. He's actually moved on with his life, starting a relationship with Tessa Omond (Christine Harnos), who assists him and Harry on the mission. He even voices reservations about moving forward with a plan that will erase their relationship from the timeline, though that does not stop him from going through with it.
Doctor: When Chakotay and Harry investigate the wreckage of Voyager, they discover that the Doctor's program is still working, as is his mobile emitter. This allows them to bring him along to assist their efforts. The choice to include the Doctor is an inspired one. It makes sense for him to be "alive" when the rest of the crew are dead; and since he's been out of commission for the entire 15 years between the crash and the discovery of the wreckage, all the backstory can be explained to him without it feeling like a forced infodump. Finally, it allows the Doctor to act as a foil for Harry, urging him to abandon the doomed effort to get the ship home and instead settle for simply saving it from destruction.
Capt. Geordi LaForge: Sent to stop Chakotay and Harry from changing the past. He is genuinely sympathetic to the Voyager survivors' desire to save their crew. But as he points out, his duty is to protect the last 15 years of history, a history in which Voyager was destroyed. Throughout the conflict that follows, he gives every chance for Chakotay to drop his shields and be beamed to safety, and it's clear that he takes no pleasure in targeting the Delta Flyer. At the same time, his position is absolutely justified, and he does his duty.
HARRY KIM AND TIMELESS
OK, where did this Harry come from, and can we keep him?
A handful of previous episodes have shown that Wang is more than capable of giving a good performance when the writers can be bothered to give him good material. The Chute and The Killing Game both showcased an edgier Harry, beaten down and left weary and angry. Those traits are built on with the brusque, embittered future Harry of this episode. The result is something I'd have sworn was impossible - A Harry Kim who is a genuinely compelling character.
Since it's clear Wang is at his best playing a Harry with a bit of en edge, why not make that a permanent part of his personality? The couple of earlier good Harry Kim episodes made it clear that the problem with the character was never the actor. Timeless shows that the writing staff knows how to make Harry work... Which means that, going forward, there is no longer any excuse for him to continue being a failed character. If he goes back to being wallpaper (which I unfortunately expect will be the case), then the blame belongs solely to the writers.
THOUGHTS
Timeless is a terrific episode from top to bottom. It's easily Season Five's best episode to date, and is among the highlights of the entire series. Brannon Braga and Joe Menosky have delivered an outstanding script, and director Levar Burton makes the transitions between the Voyager of the show's present and future seamless without ever being confusing.
The episode opens with the discovery of Voyager under the ice - a fantastic visual flourish that takes us to credits, eager to discover exactly what is going on. The entire first Act continues in the future, with the disaster that befell the ship imparted piece by piece as backstory. Only with the revelation that Harry and Chakotay plan to change history does the episode finally move back in time to "our" Voyager, on the eve of its fateful slipstream flight.
Act Two follows the Voyager of the series' present, with our knowledge of the ship's fate hanging over the proceedings. Harry's desperate attempts to first deny the phase variance, then to improvise a risky solution for it, explains much about Future Harry's guilt. His eagerness to get back home leads him to pushing for reckless action. But the blame isn't ultimately his. Janeway is as affected by guilt as the future Harry is, and her ongoing sense of responsibility for stranding her ship leads to her authorizing a plan that she knows she shouldn't.
The rest of the episode intercuts present and future until, at last, they fully merge. With the sending of the messages through time, Future Harry interacts with Present Voyager, with Geordi's intervention raising the stakes and the suspense for a highly effective climax.
There's a tag scene, and it's a good one. Janeway gives Harry a message from his future self, one that loops back onto an earlier scene and provides additional context for it. The final word belongs to the Harry from a future that now will never be, sending us out of the episode on a very strong note.
Overall Rating: 10/10.
Previous Episode: Once Upon a Time
Next Episode: Infinite Regress
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