The Cloud (VOY)

       Most Star Trek episodes (post-TOS) have an A plot and a B plot – usually the A plot is something that the crew has to face, like a space anomaly or a race of aliens, and the B plot is something a particular character to contend with. In other words, the A plots consist of external conflict, while the B plots are all about internal conflict. Every so often, though, the internal, character-based conflict takes center stage, and the space anomaly feels like an afterthought. This is the case with “The Cloud”, and it turns it into a nice slice-of-life look at how everyone is handling being stranded in the Delta Quadrant.

Just a stroll.

      We open with a Captain’s log, and a wonderful sequence wherein we see the isolation Captain Janeway feels from her crew. Paris and Kim respond awkwardly to her attempts to make small talk, and when she comes to Engineering to “check in”, B’Elanna insists on treating the visit like a surprise inspection. Only Neelix seems willing to talk to her on a person-to-person level, and she’s annoyed with him for trying to talk her into giving up her beloved coffee – power is tight, and replicator use has to be strictly rationed.

      I love Janeway’s caffeine addiction, by the way. It fits her into the stereotype of the all-business business woman, but somehow it connects her to our age and our culture and makes her feel more human anyway. In this case, it also makes for one of the more quotable Voyager lines when she orders the ship into a mysterious Nebula which seems to have the particles Voyager needs to solve its power problems and get back the use of the replicators.

      The Nebula behaves strangely and turns out to be a living creature, which makes up the episode’s largely uninspired A plot. But how Voyager deals with the Nebula-creature takes up maybe 15 minutes of the episode total, and the rest is occupied by Janeway’s struggle to find a new way to relate to her crew, with a handful of scenes that seem a bit disconnected but lay the groundwork for future plotlines.

       In one such scene, Neelix and Kes argue about the value of exploration – Neelix thinks it’s crazy to risk your life and the life of your crew just to see what’s out there, and Kes thinks it’s crazy not to. It sort of reminds me of the famous “Root Beer” scene between Garak and Quark – two aliens giving their perspectives on the Federation. Later Neelix tries to abandon ship and Janeway talks him out of it.

Chakotay's medicine bundle.

       By far the most interesting diversion is Chakotay’s attempt to share his religion with the Captain. First off, Chakotay is to my knowledge the first Starfleet officer to observe any sort of spiritual practice or acknowledge a belief in a higher power at all (yes, tell me all about the Bajorans, but the ones we see in Starfleet, like Ro Laren and Sit Jaxa, are not the most devout of the bunch.)

       Chakotay doesn’t identify with any real life tribe (probably for fear of screwing up their research and offending said tribe) and I have no idea what his animal guide belief is based on, but it’s interesting the Janeway and B’Elanna don’t seem to regard it as a religion, even though that’s clearly what it is. They seem to consider it more of a meditation practice, like Yoga, and Chakotay himself is unphazed by this.

In the final vignette, Paris shows Kim the Holodeck program he’s written simulating a pool hall in Marseille where he used to spend a lot of time. This scene feels jarringly disconnected from everything in the episode, but the payoff comes in the final scene when Janeway joins them in the Pool hall and proceeds to hustle Tom. She ends her Captain’s log, saying that the distance between Captain and crew is important, but out here it might be necessary to relax these restrictions.

It’s an interesting choice – it took Picard seven years to join his senior staff for a game of poker. The message we’re getting is that this is a Captain who’s going to get much more attached to her crew. Perhaps it’s fitting for our first female Captain to be a little more nurturing, but I think it will behoove us to remember another stereotype – the female bear is much scarier than the male if you get between her and her cubs. Janeway will get her crew home, and she might have to break some rules Picard would never break in the process.

Solids.

Random Observations: 

 The camera work in the opening scene in Engineering really captures Janeway's sense of isolation. It's a very long shot for a Star Trek episode, and must have been tough to film, but it gives a beautiful effect.

 

The dialogue in the brief Neelix/Kes scene is really nice. My favorite bit is Kes's line:

"If I were Captain, I'd open every crack in the universe and peek inside, just like Captain Janeway does."

As I've said before, she embodies the spirit of Starfleet more than anyone else in the crew.

At one point, Chakotay says the ship only has 38 photon torpedos. You better believe we’re starting a photon torpedo count.

B’Elanna suggest the idea of giving the Doctor access to his own program – some serious foreshadowing, as she later does just that, and many plot hooks are created.

Speaking of the Doctor, the lack of respect with which the crew treats him is disgusting (Janeway muting him in the middle of a staff meeting, etc.) I guess if you’ve grown up with holograms that seem like real people it’s easy to compartmentalize and not treat a Hologram like a person, but by now they must be starting to realize he’s more than a sophisticated tricorder.

This train of thought raises some unfortunate implications with Tom’s treatment of holographic women.

Fatalities: 0

Shuttlecraft lost: 0

Torpedos remaining: 37