Craggus’ Trek Trek:
Now, Voyager! Vol 16
Craggus’ Trek Trek Now Voyager Vol 16 sees Voyager’s sixth season set out on a real rollercoaster run of episodes, yo-yoing between great and terrible.
Star Trek Voyager S6E03: Barge Of The Dead
B’Elanna finds herself in the Klingon Bad Place in this Klingon lore-filled episode written by – surprise surprise – Ronald D Moore in his last Star Trek script before he moved on to pastures new (well, pastures that had happened before and would happen again). Usually, Klingon lore episodes can be heavy going but B’Elanna’s got a very different – and refreshingly irreverent – take on the race’s honour system that’s a world away from Worf’s aggressive piety. Here there are shades of Janeway’s brush with faux fatality in #Coda but where that episode made the implicit explicit by revealing a predatory alien, Barge Of The Dead decides to leave things ambiguous as to whether B’Elanna’s experiences were truly metaphysical or simply coma dream self-therapy. If the episode was aiming to draw some parallels between Torres’ tempestuous relationship with Janeway and her bellicose bond with her mother, it scuffs its shot somewhat. It certainly doesn’t really get close to the point where Janeway’s decision to allow her Chief Engineer to risk brain damage and death on a tenuous (and newfound) religious conviction feels like it would stand up to even the most cursory of Starfleet Boards Of Inquiry. Nevertheless, it manages to juggle its payload of Klingon mumbo jumbo and personal drama to pass the time in a satisfactory if unspectacular manner.
Star Trek Voyager S6E04: Tinker Tenor Doctor Spy
An absolutely delightful romp that nevertheless proceeds from the unfeasible point where – given everything that’s happened to date – the Doctor is still apparently free to tinker with his own algorithms. This time he’s given himself the ability to daydream. His Walter Mitty-esque flights of fancy end up attracting the attention of an [adorable] alien monitor called Phlox of The Hierarchy. It’s a broad comedy episode, bordering on farce at times, but it’s tremendous fun and Picardo’s having a whale of a time portraying the most square-jawed, heroically infallible version of his character. It was originally written as a Neelix story but then the writers probably remembered that they can’t focus on Neelix without giving him some horrendous emotional trauma, so it was switched to the Doctor which it suits perfectly thanks to Robert Picardo’s unfailing ability to infuse his character with both arrogance and insecurity.
Star Trek Voyager S6E05: Alice
At this point, you’d think that Tom Paris’ tendency towards objectophelia would warrant some kind of attention from his commanding officer if not the ship’s Chief Medical Officer. I’ve noted many times how Voyager, more than any other Star Trek series, likes to go for a narrative paddle in the horror genre but this sci-fi pastiche of Stephen King’s “Christine” is just a little bit leaden and uninspired. Tom Paris’ tendency to oscillate between upstanding member of the crew and moody teenage ‘bad boy’ rebel like some kind of disciplinary metronome has long since become tedious and this episode just feels like it’s rehashing old leftover plot lines to fill a space in the running order.
Star Trek Voyager S6E06: Riddles
Voyager does “Regarding Tuvok” as our redoubtable Vulcan security chief is attacked by an unidentified alien after trying to get away from being stuck on a long shuttle trip with Neelix. Once back on Voyager, Tuvok regains consciousness but has suffered brain damage and amnesia. While Janeway reaches out to the Kesat who send Naroq, an investigator, to help track down the invisible aliens who attacked Tuvok. Naroq is the Kesat’s resident Fox Mulder, convinced that the truth is out there but unable to prove the existence of his aliens. It’s another episode that underlines that Neelix’s value to the ship is unerring and inexhaustible kindness and positivity and his treatment of the disabled Tuvok is in sharp contrast to the patronising indulgence exhibited by some of the other characters, particularly Janeway – supposedly Tuvok’s closest friend. It also doubles down on the idea that Tuvok would be much happier were he not a Vulcan, but thankfully it forgets the previously established canon that behind all his Vulcan self-control lies a violent psychopath.
Star Trek Voyager S6E07: Dragon’s Teeth
There’s a lot – a lot – of world-building in this action-packed episode which makes it all the more puzzling that this ends up being the one and only appearance for the fearsome Vaadwaur (at least on TV that is – they would go on to play a significant role in the Star Trek Online MMORPG). It’s a pity, too, because the consequences of the crew’s actions here must have had enormous repercussions for the Delta Quadrant and as far as Janeway’s increasingly tenuous boast that she’s never violated the Prime Directive is concerned, this episode smashes it to smithereens. It almost feels like a two-parter that never gets resolved and Voyager merrily continues on its way.
Star Trek Voyager S6E08: One Small Step
Voyager’s ongoing obsession with the early days of space exploration (could the production team have possible been focus-grouping their plans for an early prequel series I wonder) returns as they encounter a rare cosmic phenomenon that was last observed during a Mars mission that went terribly wrong. What starts as a Chakotay story switches abruptly to a Seven Of Nine story and the handover is a perfect example of the complete and utter lack of chemistry between the two characters, making what comes later in the series seem forced and absurdly unlikely. It’s a workmanlike Star Trek story that despite an intriguing space anomaly never really gets out of second gear.
Star Trek Voyager S6E09: The Voyager Conspiracy
Another astonishingly prescient episode of Star Trek, this one sees Seven of Nine absorbing so much information she ends up becoming a Q. Not the omnipotent meddling aliens, mind you, but the conspiracy-spouting fearmonger of 21st century America. It’s largely played for laughs, but it does illustrate how quickly and easily disparate facts and coincidence can be spun into a beguiling and credible sequence of events before then being extrapolated and editorialised into predictions and prognostications that drive people to action. The ease with which Seven manages to drive a wedge between Janeway and Chakotay may seem to strain the series’ credibility, but the episode salvages the potential mischaracterisation by having the mistrust evaporate just as quickly.
Star Trek Voyager S6E10: Pathfinder
Craggus’ Trek Trek Now Voyager Vol 16 concludes with a blast from the past points the way to Voyager’s future as TNG’s Reg Barclay (and Deanna Troi) drop in for what really feels like a crossover episode. Set mostly on Earth, it sees Barclay falling back into his old holo-habits but this time with a less seedy purpose: he’s convinced he’s figured out a way for Starfleet to make contact with Voyager. Dwight Schultz is as terrific as always and it’s a testament to the ongoing development of the character that the stand Barclay takes here is something you can never imagine him doing when we first met him back in Hollow Pursuits. One of the series’ best recurring characters, it’s just a shame he never got to appear on Deep Space Nine and complete the set.
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