5-5. Once Upon a Time.

Neelix uses a holo-novel to shield his goddaughter from reality.

THE PLOT

Neelix has been entrusted with the care of his goddaughter, young Naomi Wildman (Scarlett Pomers), while her mother, Samantha (Nancy Hower) is on a mission with Tom and Tuvok in the Delta Flyer. In a transmission to Neelix, Samantha reveals that the ship has been damaged by an ion storm and that another storm is approaching. When that second storm leaves the shuttle limping off course, Voyager prepares a rescue mission.

Guided by his own devastation at the deaths of his family members, Neelix decides not to mention the situation to Naomi - at least, not until they have a clearer picture on how much danger the shuttle crew is in. Janeway initially supports this, and Neelix happily distracts Naomi with a fairy tale-like holo-novel set in an enchanted forest. But as the Delta Flyer's situation grows ever more serious, Janeway starts pushing Neelix to tell the child the truth - finally stating that if Neelix doesn't tell her, then she will!


CHARACTERS

Capt. Janeway: Clearly does sympathize with Neelix's feelings, both his protectiveness of Naomi and his identification with the girl's situation. That doesn't stop her from insisting Neelix reveal the truth when she decides his actions are less for the child and more for himself - But she does deal with him as gently as possible, while still making it clear that she expects him to follow her instructions.

Neelix: His relationship with the Wildmans is carried forward from last season's Mortal Coil. I give points to the show for remembering and building on that. Neelix dodges Naomi's questions about his family, but his grief is evident in both face and tone even as he pretends to the young girl that they're simply "far away." That same sense of loss, remembering how much it hurt him when his family was killed, leads to him shielding Naomi from the truth about her mother's situation, long past the point at which he should be telling her.

TuvoK: Receives one of the episode's most effective moments. When it looks all but certain that she, Tuvok, and Tom will run out of air before rescue comes, she worries about what will become of Naomi. Tuvok, the other parent in the shuttle, manages to be genuinely reassuring without in any way compromising his Vulcan reserve: "My youngest child has been without a father for four years, yet I am certain of her well-being, that I conveyed my values to her before leaving... You have been an exemplary mother to Naomi, and she is in the hands of people you trust. She will survive and prosper, no matter what becomes of us."


THOUGHTS

Glancing around the Internet, it's clear that Once Upon a Time is a badly-regarded episode. I can't argue with many of the criticisms. The holodeck fairy tale, clearly the basis for the episode's title, all but vanishes in the second half; far more interesting narrative use could have been made of continuing the fairy tale through the episode and intercutting it with the Delta Flyer plot. It also is blatantly emotionally manipulative, to the point that you can almost hear writer Michael Taylor (who penned DS9's far superior The Visitor) urging you to be affected, dammit!

All these complaints are valid, and I can't deny them in the slightest. But I have to admit, I enjoyed this episode in spite of that. The manipulations are blatant and heavy-handed... But enough of it does strike a cord. While watching, I found myself rolling my eyes at an extended recording of a deathbed message, but still being affected by the scene even as a part of me mentally mocked it. And the episode's central dilemma - Neelix's emotional turmoil wrestling with a situation that hits so close to home - is perfectly consistent with his overall characterization and is well-played by Ethan Phillips.

I will say that a big part of me wonders if it mightn't have been more interesting had Samantha Wildman died during the mission. That would leave Neelix having to act as a father to Naomi, perhaps allowing his character to develop under this new responsibility - And would also give real emotional consequences to his refusal to tell Naomi the truth. This being Voyager, however, such does not occur, nor does the viewer ever really believe there's any danger of it.

Overall, I can't argue with the episode's poor reputation, but I also can't condemn an episode that I genuinely enjoyed. For all its faults, the story kept me engrossed enough in the character drama to overlook the heavy-handedness. It's too flawed for me to label it a good episode - But I liked it too much to label it a bad one.


Overall Rating: 6/10.

Previous Episode: In the Flesh
Next Episode: Timeless

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4-12. Mortal Coil.

Neelix ponders the afterlife, or lack thereof.

THE PLOT

Neelix is dead.

While helping to gather a sample of protomatter from a nebula, he is struck by a beam of energy that kills him instantly. However, with no underlying damage to his brain, Seven believes she can revive him using Borg nanoprobes. Janeway authorizes the procedure, and the operation proves to be a success. Neelix is revived, with minimal side effects.

But he is shaken when he learns that he was not merely unconscious, but actually dead. Per his beliefs, he should have seen all his loved ones waiting for him in The Great Forest, at the Guiding Tree. Instead, he experienced... nothing. Leaving him to wrestle with the increasing certainty that his beliefs, which have kept him going cheerfully through war and loss, are nothing but myths.

"Like a hologram, we just disappear into nothing."


CHARACTERS

Capt. Janeway: She authorizes Seven to attempt to revive Neelix, but only after a significant hesitation as she weighs the potential harm. Beyond that, Janeway is very much in the background of this episode.

Chakotay: One has to wonder at his tactlessness in showing a recently-revived Neelix a holodeck recreation of his death! Other than that, this is another good showing for the most surprisingly improved character of this season. Chakotay, a character who has had minimal previous interaction with Neelix, acts as a surprisingly good friend. He listens as Neelix describes his crisis of faith. He accepts Neelix's request to help him take a Vision Quest, but only after exacting a promise that the Talaxian will discuss what he has seen afterwards (a promise Neelix doesn't live up to). Refreshingly, Chakotay treats the Vision Quest in psychological terms, telling Neelix that it's hardly surprising that his doubts are so strongly reflected by the experience.

Neelix: The three items he selects for his Medicine Bag are very revealing: A pendant made by his sister, killed in the war against the Haakonian Order; a flower from Kes' garden - the garden of the lover who first left him and then left the ship entirely; and a model of The Guiding Tree, a representation of the faith he no longer has. All three represent things he valued but lost. He brings nothing to his Vision Quest that is truly part of his present. We see in his relationship with Ensign Wildman's daughter Naomi that he does still have strong bonds. But he is so shaken by his crisis of faith that he cannot appreciate them. Ethan Phillips is stunningly good throughout, and Neelix's emotional pain during his final conversation with Chakotay is so raw that it's uncomfortable to watch. It continues to bewilder me that an actor capable of this level of emotion (showcased as early as Season One's Jetrel) is so often reduced to bad comedy relief.

Seven of Nine: When she states that Neelix's "function in this crew is diverse," there is the sense that she's delivered a genuine and meaningful compliment. She cannot fully grasp the crew's fear of death, in part because Borg never truly die. "When a drone is damaged beyond repair, it is discarded, but its memories continue to exist in the Collective consciousness. To use a human term, the Borg are immortal." She seems very slightly shaken, however, when Tuvok reminds her that she is no longer linked to the Borg. If she dies, all that she has experienced in the past several months will die with her - something she seems to be digesting as the conversation ends.


THOUGHTS

After finishing Mortal Coil, I scanned the Internet to see what overall audience reaction to it was. From what I can glean, it appears to be a generally respected episode, but not particularly more than that.

For me, however, this is probably my new favorite episode of Star Trek: Voyager. Bryan Fuller's script is emotional but intelligent, a meditation on faith and doubt that refreshingly doesn't attempt to provide an "answer." There's no endorsement of religion here, nor is there a denunciation. Even the Vision Quest scene isn't presented as an answer; Chakotay frames it in terms of dream therapy, a look at Neelix's subconscious, which of course reflects the doubt that dominates his thoughts.

It may seem strange that this episode was done as a Neelix story, as he's never been presented as spiritual. But it works, because it ties in perfectly with Neelix's established background. He's probably not as invested in all the trappings of his people's religion - But the Guiding Tree, the place where the people he's lost will be restored... That is something that has meaning because, as we saw in Jetrel, he lost so much so violently. His pain when that is taken away from him feels real because there is genuine emotional truth in it.

Director Allan Kroeker, usually a reliable hand, surpasses himself with striking visual direction. There's a moment in which we see Neelix watching as the crew celebrate his return to life, clearly feeling distant from them. We get a point-of-view shot of the crew, through Neelix's eyes, just distorted enough for us to really feel that separation. Kroeker also is judicious with closeups. Many of Neelix's most emotional moments are in tight close-ups, where the camera is just a bit further back when focusing on other characters or conversations, visually emphasizing that this is Neelix's story and keeping us firmly with Neelix.

I do have some reservations about the tag, which sees Neelix recovering a little too much, a little too quickly. I would think he'd be under close observation after his suicide attempt, and I would tend to believe he'd be fighting bouts of depression on and off for a while. But that's part and parcel of 1990's episodic television: No mid-'90's Star Trek series was going to willfully give a regular an ongoing psychological problem. Neelix's recovery here doesn't feel so much like a total reset as a determination to keep going, which helps it to avoid feeling insulting, and the way in which he moves on has been woven into the episode from the very beginning... and if I can blink at O'Brien suffering no lasting effects after a mental life prison sentence, then I can also accept that this personal crisis of Neelix's will almost certainly never be mentioned again without docking the episode for it.

Others' opinions may vary as they will. For me, at least, this was a genuinely great episode, a challenging and intelligent character drama in a series that has had far too few of them.


Overall Rating: 10/10.

Previous Episode: Concerning Flight
Next Episode: Waking Moments


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2-21. Deadlock.

Captain Janeway meets... Captain Janeway.

THE PLOT

Voyager's course has taken the ship to the edge of a Vidiian system. Not wanting to risk attack, Janeway orders a detour through a plasma drift, to disguise them from Vidiian sensors. The detour works - they are not detected. Howevever, as the ship emerges from the drift, there's turbulence, followed by a loss of power. And when Torres prepares to deal with that situation by using proton bursts to keep the engines going, there's a sudden series of explosions!

As wounded flood sickbay, Torres determines the explosions are the result of proton bursts. "But I never initiated the procedure!" she protests. As the bursts continue, the ship becomes more and more destabilized. There are casualties and hull breaches. Then, when Kes leaves sickbay to retrieve a wounded crew member, she disappears into a spatial rift...

...and reappears - on a completely undamaged, fully functioning Voyager!


CHARACTERS

Capt. Janeway: Her background as a science officer plays a big part in the way this episode unfolds. Whereas other captains would have to rely on their engineers almost entirely in a situation like this, Janeway plays an active part in trying to find a solution. The interplay between Janeway and Torres is almost that of a professor and her star pupil. Both Janeways express willingness to sacrifice their versions of Voyager to save the other, if only one variant of the ship ends up being viable. She also gets a wonderful moment facing down the Vidiians near the end. "Welcome to the bridge," indeed!

Doctor/Kes: Kes' compassion is as evident as ever in her interactions with Wildman. The Doctor actually shows a surprising level of compassion, too, promising Wildman that he will do everything in his power to make sure of her baby's survival, even as he handles an increasing medical emergency, with wounded flooding both sickbay and the holodeck. Though their interactions with each other are minor in this episode, they do get a couple nice moments: one in which the Doctor reassures the Kes from the damaged [I}Voyager,[/I] both about the health of this version of Wildman's baby and that "her" Doctor is doubtless able to keep up with any emergency; and a second when that Kes returns, and the Doctor immediately asks if the other Doctor has a name.

Harry Kim: Dies - and as expected, that makes no difference. Of course, through the magic of spatial anomalies, he's back to life long before the episode ends.  OK, it's a Harry from a slightly different reality, but it's a difference that makes no difference (the divergence accounting for all of a few hours' different experiences), so Harry's musing about how "weird" that is will be the sum total impact this will likely ever have. Much like the swapped O'Briens on Deep Space 9, come to think of it.


THOUGHTS

A Brannon Braga script that opens with the ship suffering a catastrophe, before showing us a version of the ship that's perfectly intact and running smoothly? Yes, Braga is mining TNG's excellent Cause and Effect. Still, I suppose if you're going to steal from your own past work, it at least makes sense to steal from arguably your best past work.

Deadlock is techno-babble heavy, with a script full of "proton bursts" and "osmotic pressure" and spatial scissions and phase variance. It's not up there with Time and Again for technobabble overload, but there's definitely more than is strictly needed to make the episode work, while some potential character opportunities are all but ignored. Shouldn't Kes be affected by seeing a second Kes, one who has obviously undergone a traumatic experience? Shouldn't Harry be disturbed at learning that the other Harry died, and died rather pointlessly? There isn't even time for the two Janeways to have any interesting interplay. Character takes a back seat to technobabble - which is itself one of the biggest ongoing problems with Voyager as a show.

Deadlock does work extremely well as a piece of action entertainment. The opening twenty minutes are the best, as the crew grapples with the rising devastation within the ship, explosions wracking the hull with no apparent cause. David Livingston, probably Voyager's best director, milks these scenes for atmosphere.  The battered and darkened corridors are so effective that it's actually a disappointment to cut back to the normal, flood-lit Voyager bridge. The Vidiians' attack at the end is also one of the strongest action pieces yet of the series, not least of which because of how easily the Vidiians seem to be winning and how utterly emotionless they are about it.

That said, the Vidiian attack is one reason why this episode is getting a "7" instead of an "8." The episode sets up a dilemma, in that one version of Voyager has to be destroyed for the other to survive. Then, instead of having to let the two Janeways work that out and/or try to act against that, we get the easiest of all possible solutions - an implacable enemy who both outnumbers and outguns the crew attacks one version of the ship (but not the other), making the entire thing a moot point. An external force decides the fates of the two crews for them, making Janeway's decision an easy one instead of a hard one.


Overall Rating: 7/10.

Previous Episode: Investigations
Next Episode: Innocence

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