Craggus’ Trek Trek:
Now, Voyager! Vol 4
Craggus’ Trek Trek Now Voyager Vol 4 goes Kazon Krazy as the off-brand Klingons make their presence felt in major ways as we boldly go through season 2 episodes 10 to 17.
Star Trek Voyager S2E10: Cold Fire
It’s Carrie On Kes! as Star Trek Voyager mounts a belated sequel to Caretaker which betrays just how nervous the network executives at UPN were about the “lost in space” premise of the series. Kes’ exploration of her newfound telepathic abilities under Tuvok’s guidance is interrupted when the crew come across a space station populated with Ocampa with enhanced abilities, a gift they claim comes from the Caretaker’s companion, the improbably named Suspiria. Although the episode’s anything but Giallo, it still has some fun with the horror elements of Kes’ burgeoning psychokinetic talents, almost homaging Scanners as well as Stephen King’s famous first novel. Given it’s such a huge potential event (once again we get the potent idea that there’s a quick way home dangled in front of the crew) the episode’s somewhat underpowered and its eventual resolution feels limp and open-ended in a way that lets you know the showrunners have little interest in pursuing the nascent Nacene storyline further
Star Trek Voyager S2E11: Maneuvers
Seska returns! After luring Voyager into an ambush, Seska engineers a daring heist, using her Starfleet knowledge to create an opening in the ship’s shields and stealing some technology, taunting Chakotay all the while. Taking the loss personally, Chakotay defies orders and sets out to atone for what he sees as his mistake – not just the raid but for bringing Seska along in the first place. It’s a fun, action-orientated show once more proving how good Robert Beltran’s Chakotay is when he’s given something to do. The story makes smart use of the Starfleet/ Maquis dynamic and adds more texture to the Janeway/ Chakotay dynamic and, with Seska’s soap-opera pregnancy twist at the end, sets the season’s arc up nicely.
Star Trek Voyager S2E12: Resistance
As generic as Star Trek gets, this is one of a number of episodes of Star Trek Voyager which feel like they could have been made by any of the franchise’s series with little to no alteration. While bartering for much-needed supplies on an isolationist, authoritarian world, the away team are discovered, with Tuvok and Torres arrested and Janeway knocked unconscious and hidden from the authorities by Caylem, a local who mistakes Janeway for his long-lost daughter. The episode benefits from an engaging performance from special guest star Joel Grey but that may be because it feels like it was written for him, rather than any of the series regulars.
Star Trek Voyager S2E13: Prototype
A sensational episode of Star Trek and Voyager with a cracking script, superb direction from Jonathan Frakes that’s badly let down by unfathomably cheap production design in its main antagonists. When Voyager comes across an android floating in space, they beam it aboard and Torres gets to work on repairing it. Realising Torres may hold the key to a long-running war, the android kidnaps her with the intention of forcing her to create new androids, as their creators had prevented them from being able to reproduce. Initially seduced by the technical challenge, Torres comes to realise that she’s been duped into tipping the balance of power in a machine war that’s been going on for decades. It’s classic allegorical Trek storytelling with a compelling moral dilemma and some nicely interwoven themes around motherhood for Roxanne Dawson to sink her teeth into but there’s just no escaping the fact that the series seemed incapable of equalling, never mind exceeding, the production values that Doctor Who had mastered in 1977.
Star Trek Voyager S2E14: Alliances
Let’s talk about sects, baby. The Kazons are back in a big way as Janeway finds herself coerced into breaking Starfleet principles and seeking to forge an alliance with one of the more powerful Kazon tribes to fend off the others. Negotiations don’t go well, however, but another opportunity presents itself when the crew make contact with the Trabe, sworn enemies and former oppressors of the Kazon. It’s a nice morality play as Janeway wrestles with the needs of her crew and the realpolitik of making it through Kazon space safely. It’s a taut episode that builds on Initiations to further flesh out the Kazon race. It’s also the point that sees the showrunners realise – too late – their potential mistake in outing Seska so early and try to retrofit another rat in the nest by introducing the treacherous Michael Jonas who begins feeding the Kazon information in this episode.
Star Trek Voyager S2E15: Threshold
Renowned as not only one of, if not the worst episodes of Star Trek Voyager but arguably one of the worst episodes of Star Trek ever (we’re talking Spock’s Brain, Code Of Honor bad), it actually starts out on a fairly solid footing, with a premise that feels like it could have been ripped from the scratchpad of the original series’ writers’ room: the quest to break the warp speed barrier. It’s in the execution and, frankly, bizarre storytelling choices that follow that the episode loses its way until it ends up with a hyper-evolved Tom Paris literally catfishing Janeway and having a bunch of babies. I mean, why Janeway? It seems so arbitrary when Kes would have made the most sense or even Torres as a bit of foreshadowing. It’s not worth delving deeper into why this episode is terrible so instead, I’ll just belatedly take a moment of Craggus’ Trek Trek Now Voyager Vol 4 to mention how gorgeous Star Trek: Voyager’s opening titles are and how good Jerry Goldsmith’s theme tune which accompanies them is.
Star Trek Voyager S2E16: Meld
Riffing on the classic Robert Louis Stevenson novella “Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde” and, in some respects, the classic Star Trek episode “The Enemy Within”, Voyager goes to the dark side again as it discovered there’s a serial killer on board and Tuvok struggles to comprehend the mind of a murderer. Boosted by a chilling guest performance from Brad Dourif, who infuses sociopathic Betazoid Lon Suder with a great deal of depth in a short space of time, Meld sees the series delve deep into themes of crime and punishment as Janeway wrestles with how to deal with a crew member who’s too dangerous to be allowed freedom on a ship where resources are limited. The mind-meld at the heart of the episode provides a fascinating mirror for both Tuvok and Suder, where both get to explore how the other half lives. It’s something of a worry that freed of Vulcan mental discipline, Tuvok might actually be a psychopath – a development that seems a little extreme – but there’s great development for the stoic Vulcan as he comes to understand that sometimes there’s no logical motive for the darkest of deeds.
Star Trek Voyager S2E17: Dreadnought
We’re back to keeping up with the Cardassians as B’Elanna’s past – and the Caretaker’s careless trawling of the Badlands – come back to haunt the crew of the USS Voyager. The tale of a rogue weapon running amok and B’Elanna being the only one who can fix it would be slightly better if we hadn’t just had a story about Torres unwisely messing around with alien technology a few episodes back and there’s overt parsimony in having Roxanne Dawson also voice the Cardassian computer but it’s a solid enough episode and a welcome attempt by a series whose very nature lends itself to transitory storytelling to deal with consequences catching up with the characters.
And so Craggus’ Trek Trek Now Voyager Vol 4 comes to a close. With Threshold’s series nadir behind us, it’s all gold from hereon out, right? Right?? 🖖
