2-26, 3-1. Basics.

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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2-14. Alliances.

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.

Previous Episode: Prototype

Next Episode: Threshold

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2-11. Maneuvers.

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.

Previous Episode: Cold Fire

Next Episode: Resistance

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