Alter Ego
Stardate: 50460.3
Original Airdate: Jan 15, 1997
By Chakoteya
The Story
‘Captain's log, Stardate 50460.3. We've been investigating
an inversion nebula for several days. This phenomenon has never
been seen in the Alpha Quadrant and is proving something of a
mystery to us here.’
Voyager is investigating a phenomenon which
has previously only been theorised about – an inversion nebula.
While Harry daydreams at his console, the rest of the crew marvel
at it’s beauty and Tuvok asserts unemotional aloofness. Later
that day, Harry visits Tuvok in quarters, interrupting his game
of kal-toh, and asks his help in suppressing his emotions, because
he has fallen in love with a holodeck character.
In order to deal with his problem, Tuvok
escorts Kim to the holodeck whilst interrogating him about his
feelings. He is suffering from love at first sight, and as they
walk onto the holodeck they discover Neelix is finalising the
decorations for that night’s luau. Marayna, the object of Harry’s
affections, comes over with Kes, and tries to engage Tuvok in
some activities, but agrees to talk instead. She tries to get
them to describe the nature of their friendship, but then they
are called to the bridge. On the way, Kim agrees that his reactions
to the woman were entirely predictable at every stage, and accepts
Tuvok’s guidance in deconstructing his emotions.
Up on the bridge, they witness what should
be an uncontrolled plasma reaction throughout the nebula be somehow
limited to just one strand without causing a chain reaction. The
sensors say there was some dampening field in place just at the
right time. This could be an important discovery that might help
avoid warp core breaches and plasma fires.
That evening, Tom meets up with B’Elanna
in the corridor to go to the luau. He was expecting to meet Harry
too, but she tells him that he is not coming and they are meeting
up with Vorik instead. Tom isn’t having this and goes to fetch
his young friend to the fun. In Harry’s quarters, he discovers
him trying a Vulcan medication and tries to reassure him that
every one falls for a holodeck character at some time or other.
The meditation isn’t helping, so Harry gives up and goes to the
luau – in a shirt with a pineapple motif, which is nowhere near
as loud as Tom’s surf classic.
Paxau is Polynesian for the event, and Tuvok
the only one in uniform, whilst the EMH is allowing the girls
to kiss him in turn. Janeway and Chakotay arrive, then Tuvok notices
Marayna at a table, playing Kal-toh. He goes over to offer some
advice on strategy and she tells him that she thought that he
might like an opponent instead of playing alone all the time.
She also points out that his uniform and lack of lei is emphasising
that he really does not want to be there, but has attended out
of a sense of duty. He admires her logic and sits down.
Elsewhere, Tom and B’Elanna are trying to
decide where to eat, when Vorik tells her that he has already
reserved a table at her favourite spot on the programme. Harry
has seen Tuvok with Marayna and decides to go back to his quarters.
Later, Marayna and Tuvok are discussing the illusion of control
in hydro-sailing, and she turns his arguments on him and suggests
that his emotional control is also an illusion. He is fascinated
by her, and she wants him to stay, but it is late and he has to
leave. He exits the holodeck and shuts down the programme.
‘Captain's log, supplemental. We've completed
sensor scans and confirmed our discovery of an unusual dampening
field responsible for keeping this unstable nebula from going
up in flames. The field's origin is still a mystery.’
The sensors have got enough data for Voyager
to duplicate the dampening field with the deflector dish, so they
prepare to leave the area only to find they have a problem with
the engines. Down in Engineering, the only problem they can find
is in the computer pathways, as everything else is working fine;
Harry is still distracted by thoughts of Marayna, so B’Elanna
sends him off for a while. He intends to go to his quarters but
instead diverts to holodeck one, where the resort programme is
already running. Harry walks on Tuvok and Marayna playing kal-toh,
His jealousy surfaces and the two officers argue. Tuvok deletes
Marayna to try and prove that he has no emotional interest in
the character, but Harry is not convinced, and storms out.
Voyager is still stationary in the nebula
with no explanation as to why, when aft thrusters finally come
to life. Slowly they move out. After his duty watch, Tuvok returns
to his quarters to discover Marayna playing kal-toh. She tells
him that she moved her programme to sickbay and then used the
EMH’s mobile emitter so that they could be together. He calls
for security and she demonstrates that she has control over ship’s
systems. When two security guards arrive, she vanishes, back to
the holodeck.
In the briefing room, Chakotay cites Enterprise’s
experience with Professor Moriarty as an explanation for her abilities.
Tuvok surmises that she is controlling the ship in order to keep
him there, because she has feelings for him. They agree that she
has some connection with the nebula as this all started when they
first arrived there.
Paris, Torres and Tuvok go to the holodeck
to try and find out more about what is going on. They discover
that there is a sub-space signal coming in from somewhere then
the holodeck characters attack them to prevent it being cut off.
They escape and report to the Captain that the Marayna character
is an interface for someone on a ship or station in the nebula.
As they try to track the source down, Marayna contacts Voyager
and tells them that she will destroy the ship unless Tuvok returns
to the holodeck. He goes, of course, while the bridge crew trace
the source of the signal. Marayna is determined that Tuvok will
stay with her and share her life, and is furious when Tuvok is
suddenly beamed to her real location on a space station in the
nebula.
As Voyager is attacked by plasma strands,
Tuvok tracks down the real Marayna. He finds a lone woman who
has volunteered to spend her life generating the dampening field,
so that the people on her planet can enjoy the beauty of the nebula.
She claims that she prefers to live alone, and regularly interacts
with the computers of passing ships, but she has never met any
one like Tuvok, and believes that she cannot live without him.
He tells her that he would sacrifice himself if would mean that
his shipmates were allowed to leave safely, but that is not how
she wants it to be. Marayna thinks that they are alike, that his
distance is a cover for loneliness, but he tells her of his family,
and she gives up as she realises she will never win his heart.
Before he leaves her, he points out to her that it might be time
to return to her people, now that she has discovered how lonely
she really is.
‘Security Chief's log, Stardate 50471.3.
The remaining damage to the ship was easily repaired, and we soon
left Marayna's nebula behind. Voyager is back on course, and I
have resumed my normal routine.’
Alone in his quarters as usual, Tuvok suddenly
abandons his solo game of kal-toh and seeks out Harry on the holodeck.
There, he offers to teach the young man the complex game, and
apologises for his earlier failure to appreciate Harry’s emotional
turmoil. Harry accepts, and begins the long, long process of learning
kal-toh.
Review
This episode looks at the nature of loneliness and how different people choose to deal with it. Marayana interacts with passing strangers via her computer terminal. Tuvok plays solo games of patience. Neither will admit they need real company until they come face to face with each other. While Marayana is isolated physically, Tuvok is alone among 150 other people. He has a choice whether or not to be sociable. At the start of this story he sits in semi-darkness in his quarters. By the end, he is in the mess hall sharing his knowledge of kal-toh with Harry in a public space rather than teaching the young man how to isolate himself from his emotions. It’s a good move. Whether or not Tuvok turns into a social animal is irrelevant. What is important is that he stops Harry from becoming unsociable. That would be very bad for the young man’s psyche.
In the middle of this tale of solitude is the compulsory
socialising of the Holodeck Luau – call it a 3D chat room if you
like, where everyone gets to wear bright beachwear and chat up
the object of their affections. Marayana’s avatar is Minuet mark
two,{Next Generation episode 11001001] and has the same effect
first on Harry and then Tuvok that the original Minuet had on
Riker. Just to prove there are others in the story as well, Tom
discovers he has a rival for B’Elanna’s affections – the other
Vulcan on board, Ensign Vorik.
Paradise turns to hell as the lady is spurned
by Tuvok, the unemotional devoted family man who cannot give her
what she wants. Maybe she should have stuck with Harry? She takes
out her rage on the ship – a bad case of if I can’t have you no
one will? – until the pair finally meet in the flesh and reason
prevails. One gets the feeling that it is that meeting that makes
Tuvok realise that he has been behaving just like Marayna, cutting
himself off from the crew and pretending to himself that he prefers
things that way, only to come to discover that even Vulcans need
company off-duty as well as on. A lesson for all us internet junkies,
maybe, in a small way?
This is Robert Picardo’s directorial debut,
and he makes a pretty good fist of it. There’s humour of course,
and good character portrayals from his two main crewmembers. The
show goes from darkness to light at a fair pace with no major
dragging at any point. Nothing spectacular here, just a nice character-driven
story with something to think about if you are that way inclined.
Grade: 6/10
Cast:
Kate Mulgrew as Kathryn Janeway
Robert Beltran as Chakotay
Roxanne Biggs-Dawson as B'Elanna Torres
Jennifer Lien as Kes
Robert Duncan McNeill as Tom Paris
Ethan Phillips as Neelix
Robert Picardo as The Doctor
Tim Russ as Tuvok
Garrett Wang as Harry Kim
Guest Cast:
Sandra Nelson as Marayna
Shay Todd as Holodeck woman
Creative Staff:
Director: Robert Picardo
Written By: Joe Menosky
