Star Trek Voy - Season 3 - Episode 01
Star Trek Voy - 3x01 - Basics, Part II
Originally Aired: 1996-9-4
Synopsis:
The crew fights for survival. [DVD]
Problems
None
Factoids
None
Remarkable Scenes
- Tom in a damaged shuttle, destroying a Kazon patrol ship that attacked him.
- Janeway taking charge down on the planet, determined to keep everyone alive.
- The revelation that Seska's child was Culluh's and not Chakotay.
- The doctor: "I'm a doctor, not a counter insurgent." Count 15 for "I'm a doctor, not a (blah)" style lines, which McCoy was famous for.
- Chakotay: "Trapped on a barren planet and you're stuck with the only Indian in the universe who can't make fire by rubbing two sticks together."
- Janeway regarding seeing the erupting volcano spewing at them: "I think our top priority has just been dictated."
- Suder mass slaughtering Kazon.
My Review
A hostile takeover plot is a fairly original one in Star Trek so far; the Enterprise D had been taken over, but covertly and far more briefly. This is the first episode to feature a battle in which the ship of the show is directly conquered and the crew put off the ship. As such, part one made for some very exciting story, though not without its flaws (see part 1 review), still exciting nonetheless. Now we have a story in which the cast is split up. Most of them are stuck on a primitive planet. Tom has a shuttle somewhere, the doctor is still aboard, hiding, as is Suder. Unfortunately, aside from the revelation that Chakotay was in fact not the father of Seska's child, nothing all that remarkable happens. Culluh and Seska are eventually fooled by the doctor, Suder, Paris, and the Talaxians. Suder's character is needlessly wasted, and the crew is reunited with the ship. The first part of this story unleashed so much potential that it seems like the rather adequate second part wasted some of it. Still, I enjoyed the episode. One detail to appreciate: the crew makes peace with the primitive people on the planet rather than waging war with them in the end. Very Trek-like. :)
The following are comments submitted by my readers.
I thought this two-parter was outright excellent, and I don't think there were any real problems, shortcomings, or missed opportunities. A truly epic and excellent two episodes.
One thing I wanted to mention is the abundance of great one-liners. I second the "I'm a doctor, not a counter insurgent" mention. I would also nominate:
- Culluh: "What *is* it with the women in the alpha quadrant?"
- Doctor: "One holographic program and one psychopath may not be a match for the Kazon, but it will have to do."
- Suder: "Yes, there is a logical use for violence... for everyone else. With me, once it starts..."
- Seska: "You were more talented at deception than you led me to believe." Doctor: "I was inspired by the presence of a master."
- Neelix: "The others are trying to figure out what to make of us - in a matter of speaking! Not in a culinary sense - I hope..."
What else can I mention here that wasn't covered in the review?
One mini-problem is that the ship's computer seemed all too cooperative with the Kazon. Shouldn't Voyager be a little harder to hijack than that? I mean, it just accepts the command to no longer respond to Starfleet crew-members?! This is only a mini-problem because Seska is an engineer, and so hypothetically she could've disabled some kind of protections off-screen (and the producers were trying to cram so much into these episodes that they had to abbreviate).
Here's another thing: both Paris, one of the best starfleet pilots around, and Janeway, an experienced captain, were visibly nervous about landing Voyager in a previous episode - and that's under good conditions, and with plenty of experience flying the thing (and one assumes landing simulations, etc, in the academy). Here comes Culluh, gets behind the wheel, and lands the thing on a seismically active planet, as if he's been doing it all his life. Presumably Seska coached him beforehand, but she's not a pilot either. Maybe it's just not such a big deal to land these starships, and everyone makes too big a deal of it.
Here's another curiosity (not really a problem, just a curiosity): how come Tuvak is so warlike and dismissive towards the "savages" and Chakotay is the peacemaker? Despite the circumstances, doesn't this still qualify as one of those ever-delicate "first contact" situations? And aren't Vulcans supposed to have an advanced appreciation for *all* life? Contrast Tuvak's reactions in this episode with Spock's reactions towards the much bigger, much deadlier, much more menacing "savages" in "TOS: The Galileo Seven."
Perhaps the key difference is that Tuvak is the chief of security, and Spock was a science officer.
The dialog is unusually pedestrian. Anti-climatically resolves Basic part 1.
Couldve been a really good episode if they came up with a reasonable premise for Voyager going after the Kazon. Going after some kid that happens to have Chekotays DNA? really? What if Seska held a gun to her own head? or to a Kazon kid's head? should they go after them then
ridiculous
Tiny problem: when asked for the crew complement, the computer lists 89 Kazon and 1 Betazoid, but forgets the Cardassian Seska and the Cardassian-Kazon baby. And we had just seen them! One may try to rationalize this by saying that maybe Seska and baby were not part of the crew. But it doesn't work, because the Kazon and Betazoid were not part of the same crew, either.
One small problem:
Isn't it kind of hot near a river of molten lava? Especially on a stone that is in the river?