Moving into the tail end of Star Trek month, we’re taking a look at the last juggernaut Trek series to have aired, Star Trek Voyager. I mention that it wasn’t your daddy’s Star Trek mostly because I really had no idea how to sum it up accurately in one witty blurb. But the subtitle seemed appropriate because as a spin-off, Voyager was, well, kinda weird. It took the optimism of Next Generation, shoved it in an area of the galaxy that Trek had never explored before, peppered in some of the grittiness that made Deep Space Nine so good, and then populated it with the moist blatantly trying-way-too-hard-to-be-PC crew in Star Trek history, which I suppose is a nice nod back to the Original Series, but it just tried too hard. For these reasons, and many more, Voyager tends to elicit mixed results from fans of the franchise. Some applaud its innovative approach and its diversity, while others, myself included, see it as a diluted, and campy step backwards from the cutting social examination that we got out of DS9. At any rate, we’re not really here to examine the show on the whole as much as we’re taking a sampling of episodes that demonstrate that Star Trek DNA in action so let’s get to it.
I will admit that I’m not as familiar with Voyager as I would like to be. I’ve seen every episode at least one time. It’s just that so many of them are just not very memorable so when I was looking at which episodes to use for this piece, I may have gotten some guidance from the Oracle of Google in order to get pointed in the right direction, and my heartfelt thanks goes out to all of the fans who offered up superb suggestions. Ultimately, I settled on “Latent Image” as the most Trek-y episode of Voyager. You may not agree, and that’s totally okay, but the premise sounded intriguing, and it came highly recommended from many sources. It was a pretty fascinating exercise because “Image” deals with some of the same themes as DS9’s “Hard Time”. There’s the aspect of soul crushing guilt and depression following a particularly traumatic experience, and there’s commentary on the effectiveness of the myriad ways that we as human beings work through these things. The fascinating thing about it was how the two previously mentioned episodes covered similar ground from vastly different approaches. In “Hard Time” we already know why O’Brien is suffering, for the most part. There is the surprise at the end, but let’s not kid ourselves, it’s not that big of a surprise. In “Image” we’re presented with a good old fashioned mystery to work through. This is fitting since the episode that started it all, “The Man Trap”, was essentially the same thing.
The episode starts with the Doctor using holography to map the innards of the entire crew. In the process, he stumbles upon an anatomical abnormality within Harry Kim’s brain stem. This leads to a twisting, and entertaining investigation full of false starts and do overs, and aided by Seven of Nine. Eventually, we learn that the Doctor suffered a breakdown of his program due to a moral conflict within his ethical subroutine because he let one crewman die in order to save Kim even though each patient had an equal chance of survival. This caused a feedback loop that nearly led to his entire program imploding. As a result, Captain Janeway decided that the best course of action was to purge his memory of the incident and sweep the entire thing way under the rug so that the Doctor wouldn’t be put in a position where the same thing could reoccur. The ride is surprisingly fun in this episode because we as viewers kind of know that there’s something going on, but for the most part,the perspective is centered on the Doctor so things are only confirmed as the Doctor is able to verify new information. This lends a great bit of in universe grounding to situations like the Doctor accusing the entire senior staff of conspiracy on the bridge, a situation that would seem way over the top out of context, but works due in part because of the presentation style of the episode. Also, there was a lot of subtlety used in tipping off the viewer. Things like slight facial expressions, or changes in the music offer cues that we’re being let into the inner circle before the Doctor has figured something out, even if we don’t really comprehend what we’re seeing at the time. It’s very effective at building tension, and a lot of fun to watch.
I had a hard time nailing down specific themes that I could articulate verbally, at first, and even now, some of what I took away from the experience may seem a little disjointed. I write my notes as I watch so the thoughts get written down as I have them. It’s very messy, but I noticed a lot of questioning ethics, specifically where hiding the truth from those we love is involved. I found myself asking if that was okay in order to spare someone tremendous pain, or is it better to allow them access to that knowledge so that they can work through the associated pain in their own way, and as a result, grow as a person. I also found myself asking if forgetting the past and the traumas associated with that past was really the best way to deal with that trauma. Baring all, as a sufferer of depression and anxiety, albeit on a mild scale, I really connected with the Doctor’s struggle throughout this episode, and the story had me thinking about some really complex personal issues. There have been times when I’ve needed to be medicated in order to get ahead of the effects that depression and anxiety bring into my life, but I see those types of medications as being a lot like the memory wipe that Janeway performs on the Doctor after the catalyst event. Sure I’m able to function a lot more easily, but there are parts of myself that I cherish that get switched off in the process. Instead of finding myself not feeling depressed, I find myself not feeling anything at all. I feel no satisfying happiness, no love, but no depression. Thus, I ask myself, is the reprieve worth the loss? I personally feel a sense of accomplishment when I manage my own struggle with depression on my own terms. It’s not often an easy struggle, and much like the Doctor’s witch hunt, I sometimes find myself going down some pretty weird rabbit holes, but at least I’m living life on my own terms. And that’s the theme that really gets pushed by the end of the episode. After some philosophical debate with Seven, Janeway decides that in order for the Doctor to grow as an individual, he had to be left to make the decision as to how they were going to deal with his problems. It’s decided that he’ll keep his memories and the conflicts that they entail, and that he’ll have to learn how to deal with that conflict. It’s a milestone evolutionary jumping off point that he gets to decided to jump into, or stay away from. It shows some good character development.
As with “Hard Time”, there isn’t a clear cut resolution to this episode. The Doctor isn’t magically better by the end, in fact, he’s still kind of in turmoil. But, right at the end, he takes a step towards understanding both himself and how the demons he’s fighting factor into his sense of self. That internal struggle is portrayed extremely well, and it was gratifying to see it done so. That beginning of understanding coupled with gigantic, loving efforts on behalf of his family leave the episode on a positive note. The episode isn’t perfect, and the Doctor isn’t exactly the most likeable character on the show, but I think that actually helps the impact of the narrative. Janeway, at one point, compared the Doctor to a replicator; insinuating that he’s just an inanimate appliance. That couldn’t have been done with any other character, and it really makes the Doctor more relatable ironically enough. How often in your own life have you felt like someone else’s disposable appliance? Perhaps this episode resonates so well with me because of the similarities in life circumstances that I pick up on, but it’s really worth the 42 minutes to watch. It’s a layered and thought provoking insight into the human condition, which is truly what Star Trek is all about.
Our anvil episode is, perhaps, going to feel a bit repetitive, but I don’t think that’s necessarily a bad thing. It speaks to the heavy handed nature of the episode itself. We’re going to look at “Thirty Days”. This episode released two weeks before “Image”, and the contrast in quality is pretty stark. To steal a literary term, this episode is an epistolary episode wherein the entire story is presented via a letter that Tom Paris is writing to his father while he’s confined to the brig. I find this form of storytelling to be somewhat lazy, and cliche, and as you’ll see, that’s going to be a running theme throughout this episode. It starts, in the letter, with Voyager stumbling across a world comprised entirely of water. There’s an attack from the indigenous inhabitants, after which Janeway parlays a dialog. They find out that the inhabitants moved to that planet generations ago, and that it’s been a great home for them until recently, when they started noticing that the total volume of planetary water was shrinking. And there you go, this is going to be yet another environmental awareness episode. Look, I get it, we have one world at this point in our existence and once it’s gone, it’s gone. I remember doing the funky, and awkward early 90s environment PSA musical abominations as a kid, and getting caught up in Earth Day, and planting trees, and I’m definitely not saying that it’s an unworthy cause. What I am asking is how many times the Trek writers really felt that we needed to revisit the subject? This was 1998, and by that time, the message had been played out so many times, and in so many different ways that it had all but lost its impact. It had gotten so out of hand that South Park did a parody of this type of TV episode at least once a season. But, rant over. This is the precise reason I picked this episode as out anvil episode, and in all fairness, our anvil episodes aren’t necessarily bad, just heavy handed.
This episode really manages to shine, if only for a couple of reasons. First, we’re being spirited away to a world made up entirely of water. This would probably have been Roddenberry’s wet dream had he still been alive when this episode aired as it’s the pinnacle of achievement per Star Trek’s own mission statement. What’s more strange and alien to humans than a world made of nothing but water? Also, as a result of the setting, there are some really stunning visuals. Lastly, and this one might just be me, but the episode features Willie Garson who starred in an incredibly fun show called White Collar. He’s become one of my favorite bit actors. Look him up when you get a chance. But, back to the episode. So… We find out after a fairly cool expedition down to the dark depths of the ocean that the density of the water has risen due to the inhabitants mining oxygen out of it, which in turn, has put excess structural strain on the gravity generators that hold the whole planet together. As a result, the generators have to shunt power from holding the planet together in order to keep themselves from being crushed by the water pressure. Confused yet? Yeah, it’s a little convoluted. At any rate, Willie and Paris realize that the bureaucracy is just going to attempt to put a band-aid on things so that they won’t have to disrupt the standard way of life. This leads to the two of them attempting an act of eco-terrorism, which ends badly, and that’s why Paris ended up in jail for thirty days. *Sigh…*
Where do I even begin? There’s expositional ‘character development’. Yeah, we hear all about how before he joined Starfleet, little Tommy Paris wanted to sail the world on a ship. Fun. This leads to flashback ‘character development’ moments. Lazy. And as the cherry on the top of this crap sundae, Tom Paris learns absolutely nothing from his experiences, which is the only reasonable way that the character could have found any actual character development. It’s pretty egregious from a writing point of view. However, for the previously mentioned reasons, it’s still pretty fun to watch. Just don’t expect renaissance of the human spirit from the experience. And that’s all I’m going to say about that. Tune in next week as we finish up our 5oth anniversary celebration! We’ll be looking at Enterprise, and won’ that be a fascinating exercise?
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