Star Trek: Voyager (1995 - 2001) - Random Musings

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Janeway takes the idea of confronting herself literally.

Much to my surprise, Voyager's first season was actually promising. Not brilliant, to be sure - fully half the cast still didn't work very well by the end of the year, and there was a distinct lack of ambition in the storytelling. Still, the best episodes of Season One, notably and Faces showed just how good Voyager could be. At the very least, barring a few bad episodes, Season One was generally fun to watch.

Season Two takes that potential and... squanders it. Most of Season One's flaws are magnified. The first year's storytelling was unadventurous; the second year's is outright hackneye. But though I come largely to bury Voyager and not to praise it, I will be fair enough to first discuss the one area in which the series actually improved.

Episodes like Meld help make Tim Russ's Tuvok
the season's most improved character.

CHARACTERIZATION: THE GOOD

The regular characters were better-served in Season Two than in Season One. This is particularly evident among the male cast, who except for the holographic doctor seemed fairly weak in the first season. Robert Duncan McNeill's Tom Paris, intermittently promising last year, is consistently good this year. Critical to this is that the writers are now tuning their scripts to McNeill's strengths and away from his weaknesses. Gone are the ill-conceived attempts to turn Tom into an edgy anti-hero. Instead, he is shown to be flawed but sincere in his desire to do right by his post, his ship, and his captain.

Tim Russ' Tuvok is even better, so much so that I'd rate him as the season's most improved character. In Season One, Russ too often fell on the wrong side of the line between "reserved" and "robot." This year, he nails the characterization, capably showing a man who keeps his emotions in reserve but who still genuinely reacts to situations. It helps that he gets some of the season's best writing. Meld particularly allows him to show his range, presenting an episode that not only shows Tuvok's darkest side, but also his inherent sense of honor. Even in lesser episodes, such as the enjoyable yet flawed Resolutions or the entirely expendable Innocence, Russ manages to impress.

If they had written Tuvok out after Season One, I don't think I would have cared at all. After Season Two, his character is one of the ones I'm actively looking forward to seeing more of.

Seska tortures Chakotay. Which is only fair
given how much Chakotay tortures the audience.

CHARACTERIZATION: THE BAD

Kes was a character who worked. In fact, she was one of two characters (the other being the doctor) who worked right away. In Season One, the writers made good use of her. She was a supporting character, but she was visible and important throughout. This is no longer the case in Season Two.

Kes still gets good episodes here and there. But outside of a handful of shows, she is almost perpetually sidelined. Her relationship with the doctor, one of her defining ones, is diminished in importance, as is her friendship with Tom. Jennifer Lien is still good, and retains her knack for making the most of the scraps she's given. But those scraps have grown a lot leaner, and it seems evident that the writers have lost interest in her.

Lien's spark at least keeps the character engaging during her limited screentime. The same cannot be said of either Harry Kim or Chakotay. These characters (and actors) did not work in Season One, and they still don't work in Season Two.

At least Harry gets The Thaw, an episode which shows that the character could have worked. It's not that there are any traits here that don't exist in other episodes. He's still the technobabble expert, he still has absolute faith in Janeway, and he's still so rigidly moral that it actually becomes a fault. However, he is examined in greater depth, made human by revelations of his greatest fears, and this allows Garrett Wang a thus-far unique opportunity to show that he actually can act... if only the other 25 scripts per season would be kind enough to allow him to.

Chakotay doesn't even get that much. Even in good episodes, nothing is done to make him stand out. We either are reminded that he is Native American and therefore mystical, or we see him responding to the manipulations of others (mostly Seska). As a character unto himself, all that's there is a facial tattoo in a uniform. Making mattes worse, actor Robert Beltran is wooden even in good episodes. He's downright oak-like in bad ones.

And the worst part of this? While Harry at least is only spotlighted occasionally, the Seska arc means that Chakotay gets a lot of screentime this season... almost all of it dull.

Neelix is jealous of Tom's friendship with Kes.
Amazingly, this isn't him at his worst.

CHARACTERIZATION: THE UGLY

Which brings me to Neelix. In my overview of Season One, I stated that I was undecided about him. Well, Season Two has me off the fence. I can now state with some confidence that I do not like him, not one little bit.

Ethan Phillips is a capable actor. He does well with the few good moments he gets, notably in Alliances and Investigations, two episodes in which Neelix actually gets to be competent and useful. But he and his character are utterly sabotaged by the scripts. It's as if, upon discovering that many were irritated by Neelix, the writers passive-aggressively decided to show the audience the true meaning of "annoying."

Neelix's jealousy of Tom's friendship with Kes is irritating enough. But I really hate his constant needling of Tuvok. It may be an attempt to create a Spock/McCoy dynamic. But it suffers from the same problem that plagued the early interactions of Dr. Pulaski and Data in Season Two of TNG: Namely, when one party stoically accepts the needling of the other rather than fighting back, it just becomes bullying. Bullying done with cheerfulness and a smile isn't any more endearing than when it's done with a scowl. TNG figured this out quickly and moved to a friendlier Pulaski/Data dynamic. Voyager doesn't even seem to realize that there's a problem.

Salamander Janeway and Salamander Tom Paris in Threshold, the season's most infamous episode.

Threshold really isn't the worst episode of Star Trek
- but it just might be the strangest.

"WHO CARES WHAT HAPPENS NEXT?"

Despite the continuing weakness of Chakotay and Harry Kim and the aggravation of Neelix, characterization in Season Two is mostly an improvement. The rest of the cast now works, offering several characters who are at least enjoyable to follow.

But one other component is needed for success: I have to be interested in seeing what these characters do and/or what happens to them. This is the area in which Voyager's second season not only stumbles, but most of the time falls smack onto its face.

It's not so much an issue of quality control. There are some bad episodes, sure, including one hilariously bad one. But most of the individual episodes are at least watchable, and several are quite good. Death Wish and The Thaw provide the series with its first truly great episodes, ones that I think rival the best of other Trek shows.

It's all fine enough episode by episode. It's only when you string the episodes together that the problem becomes clear: Namely, that there is nothing hooking me into wanting to see what happens next. This isn't specifically an appeal for arc-based television. In fact, there is an arc that runs through the second half of the season, involving the Kazon and Seska, which comes complete with a subsidiary arc involving a turncoat member of the crew. That's more multi-episode storytelling than you'll find within most TNG seasons.

Butthere's no sense that events actually matter. Things happen to the characters, but mostly they don't have any impact. Even Seska shoving a stolen son at Chakotay doesn't change his character (pity), save for in the first half of Basics. The external threats appear and are vanquished, with little sense of any impact on the crew.

Suder (Brad Dourif) goes out in a blaze of glory. Because
keeping him around might be messy, and we can't have that.

BACK TO BASICS

It's fitting that the season cliffhanger is titled Basics, given that the 2-parter's wrap-up basically ejects any elements that might create interesting complications for Season Three. Chakotay's half-Cardassian son? Turns out the other half is Kazon, and Chakotay has no connection with the child at all. Recurring villain Seska, with her personal connection to Chakotay? Unceremoniously killed off... which will hopefully at least reduce Chakotay's screen time, though it deprives the series of its only effective recurring villain in the process.

As for the unstable Suder, so wonderfully played by veteran actor Brad Dourif? He's exactly the kind of character Voyager needs. He's a man who has fierce demons he's trying to control. He's a potential wild card, someone who could help or harm the crew at any given turn. He's not someone you want to see as a regular, which would inevitably lead to toning down the very elements which make him interesting in the first place. But he's a worthy recurring character, someone to check in on maybe 3 - 4 times per season.

So of course, he gets to die in a blaze of glory. The net result is that we are left with only the Starfleet faithful. Well, and the Maquis, but since they all behave exactly like Starfleet faithful (another missed opportunity), that hardly registers as a difference.

The series goes back to basics in the most depressing way possible: By removing anything that might create mess in a situation that by all rights should be extremely, even inherently, messy.

GOODBYE, MR. PILLER

Season Two of Voyager marks the end of Michael Piller's regular association with Star Trek. Part Two of Basics is his final Voyager script, with his only writing credit for the franchise after this being the movie, Star Trek: Insurrection.

Given how good Piller's work was for TNG and DS9, I wish I could feel sorry that his contribution ends here. But I can't... because his Voyager work isn't of the same standard. The only Piller script of Season Two that has the resonance of his best scripts is Death Wish - a story that is all about Q, with this series' regulars little more than plot devices.

I retain enormous respect for Piller's role in making TNG into a genuinely good series. But I think he had already given Star Trek everything he had, and I doubt that Voyager will be much the poorer for his exit. Honestly, if it gets much poorer, I'm unlikely to still be watching come the end of the journey.

Michael McKean as an evil clown in The Thaw,
one of several episodes showing Voyager's potential.

SEASON THREE WISHLIST

That the show gets better? All right, I'll be more specific...

First and foremost... NO MORE KAZON!!! Seska's an interesting character, well-played by Martha Hackett. But she spends the entire season shackled to this troupe of dullards, who are about as menacing as a group of renegade Smurfs. The latter half of Season Two is heavily occupied with the machinations of the Kazon (a phrase I simply can't type with a straight face), and every episode just reinforces how tediously inept they are.

And why has so much time been spent on the Kazon when the series has already introduced a far more effective recurring villain? The Vidiians are everything the Kazon aren't: Creepy to the point of being genuinely terrifying, multidimensional with a backstory that makes them victims as well as villains, and possessing technology that makes them the equals of our regulars, meaning that they actually pose a threat! There are very few good Kazon episodes and no great ones. There have been no bad Vidiian episodes to date, and shows such as Faces hint at the potential for greatness.

It may be that the very things that make the Vidiians so menacing also doom them to only occasional appearances. They are extremely disturbing. Moments such as the Vidiians casually marching into sickbay and extracting organs from helpless victims, or a Vidiian scientist turning to camera to reveal that he's wearing the face of a dead crewman... These are the stuff of nightmares. It may be that a show like Voyager, a series that plays it safe at every turn, was uncomfortable exploring them too thoroughly. Any serious exploration of the Vidiians would get messy... and Voyager can't abide a mess.

Which brings me to my biggest wish for the future: MAKE IT MESSY!!! The characters are in a desperate situation. They are far from home, with no realistic hope of ever seeing it again. The crew is (theoretically) made up of two groups that were in conflict not long ago, and many of these crew members should have minimal loyalty to Janeway and none at all to Starfleet. They're now taking some casualties, while resources are steadily depleted.

But it never feels like this is the situation. We see no sign of dwindling resources and little sign of emotional strain or tension among the crew. Most episodes might as well be set in the Alpha Quadrant, with a Starbase in hailing distance, for all the difference it would make to the tone or the storytelling.

If the situation could be allowed to seem as desperate as it should be, this would be a far more interesting series. Unfortunately, Voyager doesn't want to do anything other than pay occasional lip-service to that situation.

After all, to do otherwise might be messy.

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Suder (Brad Dourif)'s moment of glory.

THE PLOT

Voyager receives an urgent, hurried message from Seska: a plea for help. Her child has been born - revealing to Culluh (Anthony De Longis) that he is Chakotay's child and not his. Janeway and Chakotay realize that there's a good chance this is a trap - but they can't take the chance of Chakotay's son being sold into a life of slavery, and so they prepare a rescue mission right into Kazon-Nistrim space.

They haven't gone very far into Kazon space when they intercept a badly damaged shuttle with a sole occupant: Tierna (John Gegenhuber), one of Seska's aides. Tierna tells them that Seska is dead, murdered by Culluh. He helps them plot a course into Nistrim space, one that will allow them to avoid the worst of the Kazon defenses.

On this course, the ship becomes subject to repeated attacks. All of them are minor attacks by ships that can pose no serious threat, but each is focused on the same area of the ship. "It feels like we're being pecked to death by ducks," Janeway reflects. They have taken precautions against attack, however, ones that should secure them against all anticipated obstacles.

But they haven't anticipated everything...

CHARACTERS

Capt. Janeway: Her compassion for Chakotay overrides her judgment, in my opinion. An obvious trap set for one crewman, even the ship's First Officer, should not one that a captain walks straight into. She may strive to take every precaution, but she admits that she knows Seska would be prepared for their wariness. It's pure, reckless sentiment, and all casualties are her fault for willingly tripping Seska's trap. That said, the Trek universe has rarely seen ruthlessness from its captains. Kate Mulgrew does give a commanding performance, particularly when coordinating Voyager's response to the Kazon battle in Part One.

Chakotay: His first impulse is to ignore Seska's message. He never volunteered for fatherhood, after all - Seska stole his DNA. But as the vision of his father (Henry Darrow) points out, the child is himself innocent of the mother's crimes. The boy is Chakotay's child and "a child of our people," his father points out, making the message impossible for him to ignore. Even so, he remains particularly suspicious of Tierna, ordering him confined to secure quarters at the first sign of trouble. A shame he didn't think to have a watch put on him as well...

Tuvok: Though that's more Tuvok's failing, given that the Vulcan is chief of security. You would think that keeping a likely spy/saboteur under constant surveillance, even when confined, would be basic stuff. But that would interfere with the plot, so Tuvok is rendered incompetent in this area. Better is the development of Tuvok's mentoring of Suder (Brad Dourif), with Tuvok taking obvious pride in Suder's botanical studies and equally obvious concern at his occasional lapses.

The Doctor: "One hologram and one sociopath may not be much of a match for the Kazon, but we'll have to do."Some very good material for Robert Picardo here. The first half sees the Doctor contributing to the ship's tactics, coming up with a suggestion to use a hologram in battle to distract the enemy. The suggestion is effective, even if its implementation leaves the Doctor briefly in the midst of a space battle, and hints that the Doctor's contribution to the ship could easily extend beyond medicine if the series wants to explore that option. The Doctor also does well with Suder in Part Two, having to effectively act as the troubled man's commanding officer to re-take the ship from the Kazon.

Seska: It's not much of a spoiler to reveal that no, Seska isn't dead. Recurring villains don't get offscreen deaths unless something happened with the actor, and it's fairly obvious from the start that this is all a trap. The tension between Seska and Culluh remains apparent, however, with Culluh aware that Seska is essentially giving the orders but uncertain what to do about it. It's a shame that this dynamic is all but ignored in Part Two, with the resolution of the Seska storyline coming in the easiest and least complicated of ways.

Suder: Even though the meld with Tuvok has granted Suder self-discipline, his old violence is churning just below the surface. When he asks Tuvok and Janeway to allow him to contribute to the ship, the urgency of his request is off-putting, and his response to Janeway's hesitation is almost threatening. These very traits make him into a hero in Part Two, however, as his capacity for violence comes in handy once the Kazon take control ofVoyager. Brad Dourif is again excellent, and his return for this two-parter is one of this episode's most welcome elements.

THOUGHTS

Basics provides Voyager with its first season cliffhanger. The cliffhanger is no "Locutus of Borg," but it's still a pretty good one: The Kazon in control of Voyager, the crew exiled to a seismically unstable world, and the Doctor and the murderous Suder the only Starfleet presence remaining on the Kazon-controlled starship. As he ends Part One, writer Michael Piller leaves the show in a situation where it could pursue a number of options.

This being Voyager, Part Two pursues the safest course. All loose ends are tied off neatly, leaving ship and show to continue on its near continuity-free way. But at least it's mostly fun getting there, with Part One particularly good as the crew fly into a trap knowing full well that is what they're doing, only to find themselves unable to anticipate the full extent of Seska's deception.

Part Two remains entertaining, with the Doctor/Suder double-act making for some strong scenes. But the second part is made much less compelling because of the intrusion of Saturday Matinee serial fodder, in the form of the adventures of the marooned crew on the One-Shot Volcanic Planet. None of these scenes connect to the main plot at all, and none of the material involving alien cave men and reptilian monsters in tunnels is anywhere near as interesting as the Kazon story. But I suppose Michael Piller felt that he needed to give the regulars something to do, even if it meant distracting from the meat of the story.

In the end, Basics is a miscrocosm of Voyager as a series: It's very entertaining and extremely well-made. But it doesn't miss a chance to play things safe, and it spends entirely too much time focusing on the wrong elements. As an adventure story, it largely works, even if the second half fails to deliver on the promise of the first. But much like the series it belongs to, it feels like this could have and should have been more.

Overall Rating: 6/10.

Previous Episode: Resolutions
Next Episode: Flashback

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Neelix gets too close to the truth.

THE PLOT

Capt. Janeway has approved A Briefing with Neelix, a morning show for the Talaxian morale officer to extoll the day's good news for the benefit of the crew. The show's debut coincides with the beginning of a run of bad news - starting with the departure of Tom Paris. The discontented Paris has responded to being relieved of duty by asking to leave the ship entirely, and arrangements have been made for him to join a Talaxian convoy.

Not long after, Voyager learns that the Talaxians were attacked by the Kazon. No supplies were stolen. The Kazon were after only one thing: Tom. That's when Neelix discovers that transmissions have been sent from Voyager, transmissions that have been expertly deleted. The ship has been home to a traitor - and all the evidence points to Tom Paris...

CHARACTERS

Capt. Janeway: Remains compassionate toward her crew, but practical at the same time. She appreciates Neelix's "tribute to Tom" broadcast after Tom leaves the ship, but she doesn't hesitate to ask about replacements for him. When Neelix's investigations implicate Tom, she takes him into her confidence regarding the deception. It's only then that she tells Chakotay the truth, as well. When Chakotay bristles, she responds that she needed "a good performance," but it does raise a question that I would love to see more fully addressed in future scripts: Does Janeway really fully trust her ex-Maquis First Officer?

Tom Paris: He tells Neelix and, later, Seska that he has genuinely tried his best to fit in on Voyager, but that he just can't make himself be a proper Starfleet officer. He has always regarded himself as a drifter, and he muses about having self-sabotaged every opportunity that has come his way. It's no surprise that his behavior is an act... but it would be good character work to build on those elements anyway, as there's a feeling of truth to it when he talks about these feelings.

Neelix: Season One's Jetrel showed how good Ethan Phillips can be when Neelix is written as a proper character, rather than a sketch comedy creation. Though I had issues with the episode itself, Phillips was superb in showing a thoughtful and 3-dimensional version of Neelix who nevertheless still possessed all the character flaws so evident in the rest of the series. We see some of that again here. This episode's Neelix is intelligent and dogged. He can see that something about the communication logs is off, and he is determined to figure out what. We also see his much-touted but rarely-glimpsed survival skills, as he handles himself quite well in the ending fight with Jonas and is able to quickly and confidently shut down Jonas's sabotage afterwards.

Doctor: What do you do for annoying comedy relief in a Neelix-centric episode in which Neelix is mostly pretty well-written? Apparently, you take one of the characters who's normally among the show's most reliable and regress him into irritating comedy relief. The writers of this episode have taken the Doctor's vanity and turned it into his defining trait. The result is a rarity: a Voyager episode in which I cringed any time the Doctor came on-camera.

Michael Jonas: The end of the Michael Jonas plot. Which is a surprise, as I honestly thought this thread would run until the season finale. Jonas is a villain, but not an unambiguous one. He thinks about killing Neelix to stop the investigation, but he hesitates for quite a long time before the opportunity finally passes. He sets up Tom to take the blame... but then, Tom has already left the ship at this point. Even at the finale, he clearly doesn't want to hurt Neelix, practically begging him to just stay out of the way. He only finally grapples with Neelix after the Talaxian has initiated the fight.

THOUGHTS

"A Neelix episode. Oh, joy."

This was my first thought as the teaser unfolded. I figured we were in for a bad comedy episode, in which the writers would double-down on making Neelix as insufferable as possible.

Instead, the Voyager creative team have done something quite clever: They've hidden the payoff to a multi-episode arc inside a Neelix-centered script. Not unlike when DS9 tucked its first references to the Dominion within a Ferengi episode. The result is a pretty decent suspense/adventure episode. And for the first sustained occasion since Jetrel, we see how good Ethan Phillips can be when he's not being forced to do bad comedy.

One thing Jeri Taylor's script does very well is to keep others' reactions to Neelix consistent with the rest of the series. Neelix is on the right track with his investigation, he follows it up seriously, and the discrepancies he's found are genuine. But the crew instinctively react to his efforts as a trivial annoyance. Torres doesn't even bother to hide her impatience with him. This has the effect of putting us more on Neelix's side, when in most episodes we would agree with Torres that the best thing the Talaxian could do would be to just keep out of the way.

Though the Jonas plot is wrapped up, it's clear that Seska isn't about to stop trying to take control of Voyager. As she said last episode, she's not about to let her child be born on a Kazon ship. With the season finale only a handful of episodes away now, I'm guessing that's going to come to a head very soon.

Overall Rating: 7/10.

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The Doctor enjoys an unlikely romance.

THE PLOT

A distress signal leads Voyager to a one-man ship. They receive no response to hails, but detect a single life sign aboard - a Vidiian female who is obviously dying. Janeway orders the woman beamed to sickbay. Discovering a brain implant that stores the woman's higher functions to supplement their interaction with her desperately ill body, the Doctor puts her into stasis and transfers her consciousness into a healthy holographic version of her.

"Cured" of the Phage in holographic form, the Vidiian introduces herself as Denara Pel (Susan Diol). Denara is a hematologist who had been helping to treat a Phage outbreak when her own condition suddenly worsened. She and the Doctor are drawn to each other. But when the Doctor's treatment reaches the point at which he is ready to transfer her consciousness back to her body, she is faced with the prospect of a return to a life of illness and resists - even if that resistance leads to her own death!

CHARACTERS

Capt. Janeway: Though she has been protective of Tom Paris in the past, when Chakotay comes to her with Tom's increasingly erratic behavior, she gives him discretion to handle the problem as he sees fit. She backs that up, too, refusing to intercede on Tom's behalf when Chakotay disciplines him, then ordering him taken to the brig when he strikes Chakotay.

Doctor: Though a "Doctor in love" episode could have been painful, this turns out surprisingly well. Robert Picardo is terrific. I love the multitude of tiny half-expressions that cross his face as he looks toward Denara, then away from her and back again, even in the midst of talking about medical matters or pointing out features of the Mars sky in the holodeck. Kenneth Biller's script is well-judged, too, structuring the Doctor's emotional awakening. He at first tries to focus on his role as Denara's doctor, rerouting every conversational tangent to her treatment. He doesn't know how to approach the idea of a relationship. When Kes finally prods him to do so, he just blurts it out while in the midst of treatment, asking if she feels the same in the exact same tone of voice he would use to ask a patient to describe symptoms. Good writing and good acting, working in concert - You can hardly ask better than that!

Kes: Her medical competence continues to progress. She acts in concert with the Doctor in the teaser and makes several correct diagnostic calls, for which he compliments her. She remains a good friend and support to the Doctor. When she realizes that he's attracted to Denara, she urges him to tell her. After Denara's initial rejection of the Doctor, Kes recognizes that she actually does have feelings for him. She prods Denara much the way she prodded the Doctor and, with a little help from Tom Paris, is able to make something happen between the two of them.

Tom Paris: Continues to make a big show of displaying a bad attitude. I retain my certainty that this is an act. We again see in the teaser that he draws as much attention to himself as possible when arriving late to the bridge. But once a situation presents itself, he is totally focused on his job. Even if the overall disposition is a put-on, I wonder if some of his resentment toward Chakotay isn't genuine. When he complains about Chakotay not letting him truly do his job, and adds that he is far from the only person complaining about the ex-Maquis First Officer, there's a ring of truth to his accusations. That would be interesting to see followed up, once this particular subplot gets wrapped up at least.

Michael Jonas: Has reached the point of no return as a double-agent for Seska. Asked to go beyond simply passing along information and to actually sabotage the ship, he balks. Then he finally gets what he's been pushing for - direct communication with Seska. She plays him as skillfully as she's been playing the Kazon. By the end of her scene, she seems to have convinced Jonas to assist her in taking over Voyager!

THOUGHTS

Another strong episode, though putting the spotlight onto Robert Picardo is usually a safe bet for good results. Picardo and guest star Susan Diol turn in top-notch performances. They work well together, too, making for a convincing screen couple. Wisely, Kenneth Biller doesn't impose any outside alien threat on the situation. Beyond the developing Michael Jonas subplot, the story is allowed to exist on its own pleasantly low-key terms.

Good character beats are not restricted to just the Doctor and Denara. There's a particularly good scene involving Torres, who endured a nightmarish experience at the hands of the Vidiians. In a series where internal continuity has not been a strength, it's encouraging to see this addressed. Torres retains resentment against her previous captivity, and refuses to allow the Doctor to use her Phage-resistant Klingon DNA to assist Denara. Only when Denara comes in, apologizing for Torres' treatment at the hands of her people and letting her know that she accepts whatever decision the engineer chooses to make, does Torres change her mind and agree to the procedure.

Denara is the only Vidiian seen here, but the episode does actually expand what we know of them. By showing us Denara as she would be without the Phage, we put a human face on a race that has previously existed only as a horror. We also learn that not all Vidiians are infected, and that the healthy shun the sick out of fear for contracting the disease. Vidiian culture has evolved around the illness, with laws restricting public gatherings as a health hazard. We see Denara flinching away from touches by Neelix and a holographic gigolo - though I suppose one could find reasons other than fear of disease for not wanting to be touched by either of them. In any case, all of this makes the Vidiians more sympathetic than they were before, particularly after Faces.

Hopefully, we see more of the Vidiians - a race I find a lot more interesting than the Kazon, both as villains and as victims. In any event, this is a solid outing, a nice change of pace and an all-around good episode.

Overall Rating: 8/10.

Previous Episode: Death Wish
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Previous Episode: Prototype

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Janeway deals with a Kazon attack.

THE PLOT

Kazon attacks on Voyager have increased, to the point that the ship has been attacked four times within the past two weeks! The ship has only barely fought off the most recent raid, and sustained heavy damage in the process. After this latest attack, Chakotay proposes that Janeway consider bending the rules of Starfleet for the sake of survival. After much consideration, Janeway agrees to explore the idea of making an alliance with one or two Kazon sects.

The effort seems doomed from the start. An attempt to deal with Seska (Martha Hackett) and Culluh (Anthony De Longis) falls apart before the negotiations have hardly begun, with Culluh's refusal to deal on an equal basis with a woman making discussion impossible. Neelix's attempt to contact a Kazon acquaintance gets him imprisoned with the Trabe, sworn enemies of the Kazon. Neelix manages to escape with the Trabe, whose friendly and reasonable manner seem to offer another hope for an alliance. But will an alliance with the enemy of all Kazon make Voyager even more a target than it is already?

CHARACTERS

Capt. Janeway: As with Prototype, this episode is designed to make Janeway's initial stance the correct one. But even the details of the episode don't fully support that. After taking a hard-line position that she would rather destroy Voyager than share anything with the Kazon, she modifies her stance and agrees to explore an alliance. But it takes less than two minutes for her to go from that to deciding to contact Seska - overruling Chakotay's worries that this is a bad idea by saying, "If you want to get in the mud with the Kazon, you can't start complaining that you might get dirty." As if making an alliance with one or two Kazon sects is automatically equivalent to trying to deal with someone they all know to be untrustworthy.

Any attempt to form alliances within an unstable region will, by necessity, be a process marked by at least as many failures as successes. Yet Janeway makes two (simultaneous) efforts to form alliances for Voyager's benefit. These fail, so she naturally decides that a good next step would be to call a council to create peace through the quadrant. Because that's likely to work, when she can't even make a successful alliance with one sect. After that falls apart, she (and the episode) present the failure as proof that such efforts were misguided to start with. Frankly, Culluh is right when he calls her a hypocrite, and Mabus (Charles O. Lucia) is right when he calls her naive. And if the show would recognize this, then it would instantly become a much more interesting series.

Chakotay: Does what a First Officer should do. He sees that the ship is in an untenable situation, and goes to the captain to make a proposal to fix this. He doesn't argue with her in front of the crew, saving his arguments for when they are in private. He also presents his case calmly and rationally.

Neelix: Attempts to create an alliance with a Kazon sect familiar to him. But (surprise!) Neelix managed to burn his bridges with his Kazon contact, and he is soon taken prisoner and marked for death. Neelix does manage to escape by allying himself with the Trabe, and he is genuinely useful in providing both Janeway and the viewers with some backstory that makes the Trabe/Kazon relationship halfway plausible. It's a pretty strong Neelix episode all-around, actually, and an example of how well this character can work when he's not being written as ham-handed comic relief.

Seska: Continues to guide and manipulate Culluh, but she's clearly becoming weary of his obstinance. She knows that there is real potential in forming an alliance with Voyager, and is frustrated when she can only watch as Culluh destroys this potential advantage. I suspect it won't be long before Culluh becomes too much of a liability to remain breathing.

THOUGHTS

Alliances presents a situation that should have been explored quite some time ago. Voyager is on its own, in unfamiliar territory, in a desperate situation. It shouldn't have taken this long for it to occur to somebody that it might be a good idea to seek allies. I do have issues with several aspects of the episode, but I applaud the series both for finally tackling such an obvious course of action and for making the results of the crew's efforts so messy.

Jeri Taylor wouldn't be my go-to writer for fast-paced or densely packed scripts. Both of these descriptors apply, however. The episode is packed with incident. The first Act is dominated by the argument between making an alliance or sticking rigidly to Starfleet regulations. Then we see two failed attempts at forming an alliance, one of which leads to the crew meeting a new race with its own backstory and its own relationship with the Kazon.

The Trabe have potential in themselves, and I hope we see them again. Their backstory also lends an extra dimension to the Kazon, who have been badly in need of some trait other than just "poor man's Klingons." Now we know that the Kazon are victims in their own way, with their tribal nature and their aggression both the result of their past circumstances. It doesn't quite make them interesting - but it makes them a lot less one-note than they were before.

Alliances is very good, but not quite great. The script is a bit too eager to make Janeway entirely right. What we actually see is Janeway making a token effort, then declaring its failure as proof that she's right to stick to rigid principles... and the script insists on agreeing with her.

Mind you, part of the reason for it coming across that way is that Alliances should not be just one episode. This material should be a 2-parter at a minimum, and ideally should be a 3 - 4 episode arc. That would allow some proper build, with a couple of failures (and Neelix's encounter and escape with the Trabe an episode in itself). Then maybe a success with one sect, leading to the attempted council as an episode entirely in itself. That would make the efforts feel a lot more committed, and would make the final failure that much more of a blow for both Janeway and the viewers. But Voyager's aversion to arc storytelling restricts this entire narrative to a single show. I'm frankly surprised that it works as well as it does, given that limitation.

It does work as a good piece of Star Trek, and in fact is probably the best of the season to date. Even better, the episode plants some seeds for the future. Voyager is not simply left back where it started; the ship is left in a worse position, having made more enemies. At least one member of the crew is acting against orders, leaving the ship more vulnerable to Seska and Culluh than it was before. Voyager is now on the run, something Janeway is obviously aware of as the episode ends. I'm hopeful this will lead to something interesting in the near future.

But first: Threshold. The infamous "Worst Star Trek Episode Ever!" I have to admit, I'm quite looking forward to it

Overall Rating: 8/10.

Next Episode: Threshold

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Previous Episode: Cold Fire

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Chakotay is interrogated by Seska (Martha Hackett).

THE PLOT

A Federation signal lures Voyager into a Kazon ambush. The attack has been meticulously planned. Voyager's shields are pierced to allow a Kazon boarding party to steal transporter technology before using the Starfleet ship's own transporter to escape. The plan was the brainchild of Seska (Martha Hackett), the former Voyager crew member who was revealed to be a Cardassian double-agent, and whose knowledge of Voyager's systems and security has helped to win her a place of influence alongside Culluh (Anthony de Longis), the leader of this Kazon sect.

Janeway cannot allow the transporter technology to remain with the Kazon. Even as Chakotay points out that Seska is leading Voyager into a trap, Janeway resolves to pursue as soon as the damage from the attack is repaired. So Chakotay takes matters into his own hands - stealing a shuttlecraft and pursuing Seska on his own. But Chakotay may not be as good at manipulating Seska as she is at manipulating him...

CHARACTERS

Capt. Janeway: Feels personally hurt by Chakotay's disregard for her authority. Torres manages to ease her anger, but she still expresses her disappointment to Chakotay in surprisingly emotional terms. Her hands remain tied with regard to discipline - as she observes, putting someone on report means little this far from home. But Chakotay assures her that it means something to him, apologizing for letting her down.

Chakotay: Another good episode for Chakotay. A few more like this, and I might stop thinking of him as one of the show's weak links. Chakotay's previous relationship with Seska clouds his judgment, as he makes personal issues that impact the entire ship. He does at least hatch a solid strategy to get the technology away from Seska and the Kazon, but he makes himself their prisoner in the bargain. His scenes opposite Seska show more to Chakotay than we've seen in most previous episodes - and do so with no Native American cliches thrown into the mix, a nice bonus.

Torres: Remains steadfast in her loyalty to Chakotay. In the early parts of the episode, she urges him to remain calm, reminding him that his inner turmoil is exactly what Seska wants. After he steals the shuttlecraft and leaves the ship, Torres pleads his case to Janeway. Her passionate defense does much to quell the captain's anger, without which Janeway might have leaned toward Tuvok's argument to leave Chakotay in Kazon hands.

Tuvok: A group of Kazon are in the midst of a violent, thus far all-too-successful raid on the ship. The Voyager crew not only are armed, but have weapons that will stun a person instead of just killing him. So exactly why does Tuvok warn the Kazon not to move, when he and his team could simply stun them where they stand and then interrogate them later? Oh, right. If Tuvok doesn't behave like an idiot, then he might actually stop the Kazon intrusion. If that happens, then there won't be an episode. That's not even mentioning Tuvok's failure to change any of the ship's security systems after Seska's betrayal was revealed roughly half a season ago! This is a good episode - but I still hate idiot plotting.

Seska: This episode marks the return of Martha Hackett's Seska. One of the most interesting characters from Season One, her previous episode represented one of the few genuine surprises the show has yet thrown our way. She then went all but unmentioned for a very long stretch of time. It is very good to see her back. Maneuvers raises the ante by presenting her off the Voyager leash. With her true identity revealed, she is free to taunt Chakotay and openly manipulate him, even as she manipulates Culluh. Hackett is marvelous, and I hope it's not too long before she appears again.

THOUGHTS

Maneuvers is another good episode, which at this point probably means that the early Season Two slump can be officially declared over. More importantly, it's the first episode in a while to strongly follow up on events of previous episodes. The return of Seska means the return of a lot of backstory that Season Two has mostly ignored up to this point. We get mentions of the Maquis, including an intriguing note by Torres that members of the Maquis often performed operations that would not be acceptable in Starfleet. That's an area this series should feel free to explore.

We also revisit the Kazon. Seska's influence is turning Culluh's Kazon tribe into an effective enemy. Culluh is himself a character with potential. It is clear that Seska is in control in their relationship - but it is clear to him, too, and he doesn't particularly like it. There are a few scenes indicating that Seska isn't entirely safe with him, notably the one in which she picks up on his ire and suddenly becomes very kittenish and submissive. Chakotay tells him flat-out that Seska will eventually kill him. I hope that's followed up on, and I even hope it's followed up in a way that's not entirely predictable.

The episode's effectiveness is blunted by a weak final Act in which Torres Technobabbles something with the transporter and a dampening field. Everything is resolved by transporting through raised shields - something that's been established as impossible in previous Trek series, which seems to have been forgotten here. As compensation, we have Seska's ending message to Chakotay, one which promises another return in which things will be even more personal.

Overall Rating: 7/10.

Next Episode: Resistance

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