Star
Trek has gotten us very used to seeing the Federation from one perspective –
the inside. But The Federation isn’t paradise to everyone. To B’Elanna Torres
it’s a stifling, oppressive system that bogs itself down with unnecessary
protocols and regulations. She believes in settling disputes more organically.
Unfortunately, she’s also half Klingon, so a small disagreement with acting
chief engineer Carey lands the man in sickbay with a broken nose.
It’s
a promising way to start a second episode, as news of the altercation
reverberates throughout the ship, bringing Chakotay into conflict with Tuvok,
B’Elanna, and finally the Captain. And it gets us right to the heart of what
this crew is going to have to deal with. The Enterprise was a flagship staffed with the best and the brightest. Voyager can barely keep itself staffed
at all.
The
A-plot and B-plot are surprisingly well integrated in this episode, which is
good because the A- plot, Voyager’s
attempt to escape a quantum singularity, is pretty dumb. It’s an escalating
series of technobabble that’s eventually solved by more technobabble. But the
B-plot, Janeway and Chakotay’s power struggle and Janeway’s search for a Chief
Engineer, is compelling enough to keep the episode afloat (The C-plot, a bit
of physical humor involving the Doctor shrinking, is merely distracting most of
the time.)
So
on TNG, Riker would often challenge Picard’s decisions. But Picard knew that
Riker always had his safety and the ship’s best interests at heart, and would
always back down and follow orders if it came to that. Janeway has no such
guarantees from Chakotay. For all she knows at this point, he could still be
contemplating a mutiny. This adds a real tension to the scene in Janeway’s
office when she calls out her new XO.
Chakotay
is remembered in the long canon of Star Trek characters for being always either
an obnoxious Native American stereotype or insufferably bland. But early on
he’s not like that at all. He’s a rough and tumble Han Solo-type forced into
having to adjust to military discipline, a microcosm of all the Maquis on the
ship. My guess is the main reason this characterization disappears is that he
was too much like Tom (and to some extent, B’Elanna.) The edgy rule-breakers
are fun, but too many and the ship becomes total chaos.
As
fun as it is to watch him not be boring, Chakotay is somewhat secondary to this
episode. Mostly, it’s about B’Elanna and Janeway, and it really takes off when
they connect while trying to solve the singularity problem. By the end of the
episode, Janeway has decided that the volatile former Maquis has what it takes
to be her chief Engineer. But they don’t explicitly trust each other – B’Elanna
is still resentful of Janeway for stranding her in the Delta Quadrant, and
Janeway is still extremely apprehensive about asking her officers to take
orders from a Starfleet academy dropout. And unlike most of the conflicts Voyager sets up, this one won’t have
evaporated by season two – B’Elanna remains a deeply conflicted character
throughout the series.
I
want to take a moment how cool it is for a network show in 1995 to be doing a
plotline about two women that doesn’t involve romance at all. The feminism of Voyager is riddled with problems, and
believe me, we will get into them, but for now, it’s nice to enjoy an episode
that passes the Bechdel test more than just incidentally.
Random
Observations:
We
will be talking a lot about race, gender, and B’Elanna Torres – another time.
Suffice it to say I once wrote a five-page paper on the subject, citing this
episode, “Faces” and “Lineage”, and then adapted that paper into a panel I led
at Connecticon this year. So it’s something I’ve thought a lot about.
Because
she’s half-Klingon, almost no one remembers that B’Elanna’s human father is
named Torres, and she’s portrayed by Hispanic actress Roxanne Dawson, making
her the first Latina Star Trek regular. Interestingly enough, that honor was
supposed to go to Tasha Yar, originally named Macha Hernandez before blonde,
blue-eyed Denise Crosby got the part. Just something to mull over.
The
C-story does feature a very sweet scene between the EMH and Kes, and they have
fantastic chemistry. They’re both kind of naïve in their own ways – Kes is only
two years old, after all and technically the EMH is only a few days. He has a
lot of preprogrammed knowledge, but not much real experience.
Neelix
has a story or an anecdote for everything.
In
a rare bit of foresight, Harry Kim mentions that it’s impossible to reroute
power from the Holodecks, explaining why they will be able to keep hanging out
in French pool halls when they don’t have power to use the replicators.
Recurring
character watch: Joe Carey, B’Elanna’s long suffering assistant, will be a
familiar face for the next couple seasons. He’s a salt-of-the-Earth type, like
O’Brien but less interesting.
Also, is that Seska in a blue uniform?
No
new fatalities.
No
shuttlecraft lost.
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