5-6. Timeless.

The starship Voyager, in its icy grave.

THE PLOT

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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4-6. The Raven.

Seven of Nine's human side wars with her Borg side...

THE PLOT

Seven of Nine is having issues: Waking nightmares of the Borg Collective trying to re-assimilate her. She cannot understand why she feels fear of the Borg; to her, the Collective is still "home." She also cannot understand why each of her visions includes a raven. She does her duty and reports the issue, but the Doctor can find nothing wrong with her and, with Voyager negotiating with the xenophobic B'omar for rights to travel directly through their territory rather than around it, Janeway's attention is focused there.

And it is during a negotiation with B'omar officials that Seven's Borg nature suddenly reasserts itself. She assaults Neelix in the mess hall, then moves like an automaton through the corridors, brushing past every attempt to stop her on her way to the shuttle bay. She takes a shuttle, then heads directly into B'omar space.

The outraged B'omar insist that they will deal with Seven, flatly stating that she will be "found and destroyed," and that any attempt by Voyager to go after her will be considered an act of aggression. Tom and Tuvok find a way to slip a shuttle into their space to go after Seven independently. But with the Doctor reporting that her last scan shows her Borg nanoprobes regenerating, the question becomes: Are they recovering a shipmate, or preparing for a confrontation with a Borg drone?


CHARACTERS

Capt. Janeway: Shows a nurturing, almost maternal attitude toward Seven. She pushes the former Borg to develop her creative side. She spends time talking to her and listens to her perspective without showing judgment. When Seven reverts and escapes with a shuttle, Janeway refuses to believe she is lost to them. "She was responding to us," Janeway insists. "She was adapting to this environment and to this crew." This drives her to approve a risky mission for Tom and Tuvok, though she does tell them that if Seven responds violently to use whatever force may be necessary.

Seven of Nine: Has by this point accepted the idea of her humanity reasserting itself, though she still finds much of the Voyager crew's activities to be inefficient and pointless. Despite her efforts, she still inadvertently creates awkwardness when interacting with Neelix, mentioning the assimilation of various Talaxians. She does acknowledge genuine appreciation of Janeway's kindness toward her, though she still considers the Collective more as "home" than the ship.

Tuvok: After previous episodes have shown him considering Seven as a security risk, this episode... Well, basically proves him right. Yet instead of giving him an adversarial role, when he finally catches up with Seven he is patient and almost compassionate. He observes the inconsistencies in her behavior versus that of a full Borg - such as her voicing appreciation for Janeway's kindness, or her offering to let him go rather than assimilate him. The last part of the episode makes them a genuine team, and perhaps establishes a sort of working friendship that I would love to see developed in future episodes.

2-17. Dreadnought.

B'Elanna tries to de-activate the Dreadnought.

THE PLOT

Voyager encounters debris from an unmanned ship. Analysis shows that the ship was destroyed by Cardassian weaponry. When Janeway orders further investigation, Torres is shocked to recognize the weapons signature. It belongs to Dreadnought, a Cardassian weapon that she personally reprogrammed two years earlier. She had sent Dreadnought to attack a Cardassian base, but the weapon disappeared. It's now clear that it was caught by the Caretaker before it could reach its destination.

It is on course to an inhabited world, which it has mistaken for its target. Torres beams over to disarm the device. The Dreadnought, however, decides that Torres is acting under Cardassian influence, and takes off at Warp 9. If Voyager can't find a way to stop the weapon from reaching its target, then the cost will be millions of innocent lives, all on Torres' conscience!


CHARACTERS

Capt. Janeway: As soon as it's clear Dreadnought has targeted an inhabited world, Janeway works tirelessly to stop it. She doesn't hesitate to contact the planet to give them time to prepare a defense and an evacuation. Finally, when all options appear exhausted, she determines to destroy Voyager to prevent the weapon from reaching its destination - though she makes sure her crew are evacuated from the ship first.

Torres: Roxann Biggs-Dawson continues to impress, and this time she gets a much better script than was the case in Prototype. From the moment she recognizes Dreadnought, B'Elanna feels immense guilt. She considers that anything that happens from here is here fault, because she made the choice to reprogram the weapon. This lends a note of desperation to her actions, particularly as the episode approaches its climax. There's some genuine tension and cleverness to the scripting as Torres and the Dreadnought computer attempt to outwit each other, and the episode's final minutes are some of the most suspenseful this series has seen to date.

Tom Paris: What I had assumed was simply a minor subplot in Meld actually gets some follow up, as Tom continues to behave in a way that more closely resembles his reputation rather than his normal behavior. At this point, I'm guessing he and Chakotay are collaborating on some kind of undercover scheme. Tom's misbehavior is a little too rapid for me to really put it down to anything else. Besides, every instance we have seen has been minor: a betting pool, arriving a few minutes late and disheveled to a meeting, showing a bad attitude. It's behavior designed to draw attention.  In terms of actually doing his job, he continues to perform with his usual competence. A trap for Seska's spy, perhaps? I'm guessing we'll have to wait until the season's end to find out.


THOUGHTS

OK, I think at this point that Voyager's second season is finally recovering from its dismal start. This makes three of the last four episodes that have been substantially above the series' average. After a long period of finding Voyager wanting, I'm starting to feel optimistic again.

I appreciate the recurring threads that appear in this script. Michael Jonas (Raphael Sbarge) continues to surreptitiously work with the Kazon, though he is clearly growing frustrated at being blocked from direct communication with Seska. Voyager's poor reputation in the Delta Quadrant is raised again, with the people of the planet Dreadnought has targeted initially convinced this is an attack by the Federation ship. And, of course, the Tom subplot is emerging as a running element. All of these create a more unified show. The second season has suffered from a feeling that none of the episodes are building to anything, that the series isn't actually going anywhere. These running plots, however, have the potential to fix that problem. As the season nears its end, the show is again starting to seem like it might actually build to something - which is starting to make me interested again, instead of just watching an episode every so often out of sense of duty.

Dreadnought is principally a suspense/action episode. A good one, with a driving pace and an increasing sense of urgency. The script makes sure to let us know how high the stakes are, while Janeway's communications with First Minister Kellan (Dan Kern) on the planet put a likable face to the potential victims of the Dreadnought. It's directed with polish by Levar Burton, who uses varied lighting and close-ups to heighten the most suspenseful dramatic moments.

I do think the episode misses a trick in the ending - Imagine how much of a gut punch it would be to the characters if they had failed. B'Elanna would have suffered devastating guilt, as would Janeway, while Voyager's reputation in the Delta Quadrant would have been dealt an unrecoverable blow. Still, asking Voyager to go to such places is not realistic. This is a very strong episode. I just hope the series is able to continue in this vein, rather than returning to the bland formula that has made up far too much of this season.


Overall Rating: 8/10.

Previous Episode: Meld
Next Episode: Death Wish

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