4-26. Hope and Fear.

Janeway and Seven clash.  Again.

THE PLOT

A visit to a trading colony brings back an assortment of supplies and one passenger: Arturis (Ray Wise), a member of a race of gifted linguists who is described as a "living Universal Translator." When Arturis reveals that computational languages are as easy for him as biological ones, Janeway seizes on the opportunity to decipher the fragmented Starfleet message that was interrupted months ago by the destruction of the Hirogen communications relay.

Arturis quickly deciphers it, revealing coordinates to a nearby star system. Once there,Voyager discovers the Dauntless, an advanced starship with quantum slipstream technology - A mode of travel that will enable them to journey home in months rather than decades! The crew is eager to begin preparations for the journey home, even though it will mean leaving Voyager behind.

Janeway worries that this is a little too easy, and orders Tuvok to carefully and completely investigate this new vessel. But are her fears well-founded, or will her own paranoia disrupt the best hope they have had of returning home?


CHARACTERS

Capt. Janeway: Remains committed to getting her crew home. At the same time, her experiences in the Delta Quadrant have made her wary of anything that looks overly convenient. She remains at odds with Seven, their differing values and personalities resulting in clashes even over something as simple as a game on the holodeck. The hurt is tangible in Janeway's face when Seven tells her that the captain has failed to instill her own value system - But the end of the episode indicates that the two may now be able to work toward mutual respect even with their differing values.

Seven of Nine: Still insists on identifying as Borg. She recognizes Arturis' species by its Borg designation, observing that the Collective has not been able to assimilate them yet, and she insists that she would be fine on her own because, in her words: "I am Borg. I will adapt." But in the previous episode, her hallucinations of the Collective were frightening to her, indicating that she no longer wished to return. Instead of yearning for a return to her former existence, we see instead that she is afraid of how people on Earth would react to her as a former Borg drone.

The Rest of the Crew: Are basically there for Janeway or Seven to interact with. Tuvok gets to be a sounding board for Janeway's doubts about the Dauntless, while Chakotay gets to be a sounding board as she discusses her issues with Seven. B'Elanna and Harry unintentionally make Seven fearful of reaching Earth. The other regulars... Well, they appear around the edges. In short, this is firmly the "Janeway/Seven" show, with everyone else pretty much present so that they will have other characters to react to.


THOUGHTS

Hope and Fear is a rarity: a single-part season finale.

As a season finale, it does its job. It follows up on continuity points from earlier in the season. Seven's clashes with Janeway, the fragmented message from Starfleet, and even the events of Scorpion are all critical to this narrative. Since the story both begins and ends in 45 minutes, it's a lean script, every scene advancing either the plot or the internal and external character conflicts of Janeway and Seven. It's a good episode overall - noticeably better, in my opinion, than the two-part Basics that bridged Seasons Two and Three gap. But there is the sense, probably inevitable, that compared with successful two-parters such as Scorpion or Year of Hell, it feels a bit... small.

As noted above, the focus in this episode is very strictly on Janeway and Seven. This isn't a problem for the episode itself. Putting two of the show's strongest regulars together is a recipe for success, and the Janeway/Seven interaction, with strong emotion and tension on both sides, is terrific to watch. But in a season finale, when none of the other regulars get anything of consequence to do, it underscores the sense that's crept through much of this year: That ever since Seven's introduction, she and Janeway (along with the Doctor) have become the only characters the writers are particularly interested in.

Which doesn't stop this from working as an episode. The script, by Brannon Braga and Joe Menosky, is well-paced, well-acted, and fairly clever. Guest star Ray Wise is quite good, alternating between friendly and sinister often without tangibly doing much of anything to signal the shift. The sense of the "epic" that marks the best Trek season finales is absent... But also absent is the sloppiness and stumbling too often seen in the second parts of weaker two-parters.

In short: Good episode, reasonable enough season ender. But I would have liked a bit more punch to it, and I would definitely have liked some stronger moments for the rest of the cast, who have started to feel more like props than characters.


Overall Rating: 7/10.

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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.

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