Before and After
Stardate: 50973
Original Airdate: April 9, 1997
By Christina Luckings
The Story
‘Activate the bio-temporal chamber’, says the EMH.
We open with the point of view of someone who is apparently
the EMH’s finest friend, and the mother of a woman in a
Starfleet uniform. There is also a young boy present by the bio-bed,
and Harry Kim out of camera shot. They are all shooed out by
the EMH, who wants to activate the bio-temporal chamber in 5
minutes.
Then we see the young boy bringing a present to the occupant
of a biobed – his grandmother, Kes! The elderly woman does
not recognise the young boy, Andrew, and he calls Doctor van
Gogh, who turns out to be the EMH with a full head of hair. Kes
can only remember things that apparently haven’t happened
yet, so the EMH sends Andrew off to get her family. Captain Chakotay
comes in to get an update on Kes’s condition, and his progress
on the construction of the bio-temporal chamber. The morilogium
has come on very quickly, one week she was performing surgery,
now she has only 1% of her memories. Kes complains of being cold
and
She wakes up in a bedroom, with a picture of herself holding
a baby in her arms. In the next rooms are the young woman and
Andrew talking. Kes remembers Andrew, and sickbay. The young
woman is worried, and sends Andrew off to tell his father and
grandfather to meet them in sickbay, then tells Kes that she
is Linnis, her daughter. As they go along the corridor, Kes explains
what she can remember, including Andrew giving her the present,
but Linnis tells her that Andrew hasn’t finished making
her present yet.
In sickbay, the EMH notes that Kes has only 2% of her memories,
and that this must be the onset of the morilogium. Tom Paris
and Harry Kim come in, and the group goes into the EMH’s
office to discuss his proposal to try a bio-temporal chamber.
Linnis is against this artificial extension of the natural Ocampan
lifespan, but both men are in favour of keeping her with them
as long as possible. Kes comes in, wanting them to listen to
her, but suddenly she is cold and
In the messhall, Neelix (in starfleet uniform) is holding a
Jibelian fudge cake with nine candles on it while the company
sing ‘For she’s a jolly good fellow’. He is
now a commissioned Security officer, and has been for a while.
Andrew apologises for not having even started making her birthday
present. When the EMH comes over to wish her happy birthday,
she tries to explain about her memories, how nothing coincides
with anyone else’s memory. She mentions the bio-temporal
chamber, and the EMH is astonished. He has only just come up
with the idea. In sickbay, he tells her that she has only 5%
of her memories. Paris and Chakotay are there, and try to rationalise
her experiences. They come up with the possibility of precognition,
before going to scan for temporal anomalies. Kes decides to review
the ships records to fill in the missing portions of her life.
Tom joins Kes in her quarters. Scans have found nothing. (Evidence
suggests that he is her husband.) Kes finds a record of chroniton
radiation poisoning, which Tom says happened at the start of
the Year of Hell, when Captain Janeway and B’Elanna Torres
were killed. The Krenim were regularly attacking Voyager at that
time with weapons that were in a state of temporal flux. He has
an idea, and they head towards sickbay, but on the way she is
suddenly cold and
Sitting in her quarters holding a baby while Harry takes a picture – the
picture beside her bed earlier. The baby is Andrew, Harry and
Linnis’s son. It is stardate 56948, over six months earlier
as far as Kes is concerned, so she takes Tom and goes to talk
to the EMH. She believes she has jumped backwards 5 times so
far, and the EMH discovers high levels of chroniton radiation
which seems to have been reactivated by the bio-temporal chamber
in the future.
Kes tries to explain the reverse travel to Chakotay and Tuvok,
and they realise that they will need the exact temporal variance
of the guilty torpedo in order to purge her cells of the radiation
completely and stop her jumping back to a time before she knew
them, or before she existed at all. Unfortunately the sensors
were not working at the time of the attack, and the data is not
available.
‘Captain's log stardate 55836.2. Kes has remained in temporal
synch with us for two days now, but since we don't know when
she may jump again, we can't afford to rest until we've found
some way to help her.’
In the medical lab, Linnis decides to try and find a correlation
between Kes’s temperature drops and her time jumps. When
Kes suggests that she might prefer to spend time with Andrew,
Linnis admits that she feels awkward around the baby, and is
happy to leave all that to Harry, who really enjoys being a father.
Then the EMH comes in to announce that he has created a containment
field to prevent her next jump, and takes Kes back to sickbay.
Tom comes to keep her company, and reveals that the Doctor in
this period had selected the name Mozart, then settles down to
tell her about Tom and Kes, the early years. Linnis comes in
to say she might have found something, but they are interrupted
by an alarm. Kes’s body temperature is dropping and the
field is not stopping the jump. Tom stares in alarm as she fades
away and
She is holding onto a parallel bar in a shuttlecraft, breathing
deeply as Tom catches baby Linnis emerging from the birth sac
on Kes’s back. He had told her not to come on the supply
mission but she wouldn’t listen. As they return to Voyager,
the ship is under attack. Neelix sees Kes and Linnis safe to
the mess hall while Tom is ordered to the weapons array to modulate
the targeting scanners to a parametric frequency and knock out
the chroniton torpedo launchers. Captain Chakotay hears her story
via Neelix, and visits her after the attack is over. The main
computer has been offline for a long time, and they only have
life support on 3 decks. Although he is pleased to hear that
they will eventually get the EMH back on line, he cannot help
her now. Then Kes feels cold and
There is a party on the holodeck, and B’Elanna greets
Tom with a kiss. Then Captain Janeway calls a red alert. Kes
goes to the bridge and tells them that the torpedoes are in a
state of temporal flux. A console explodes and both Janeway and
B’Elanna are killed instantly. Fighting down his grief,
Tom returns to the conn as Chakotay has to take command. Realising
that Kes has information about the weapons, he gets her to tell
all she knows, and orders Tuvok to remodulate the targeting scanners,
just as they were doing in her previous time. The Krenim ship
explodes very nicely.
In the temporary sickbay in the mess hall, Kim reports a total
of eleven fatalities to his new Captain, no warp drive and loss
of power on decks 4 - 12. Chakotay orders deck five and sickbay
to be a priority for repairs. Tom is the temporary Doctor with
Kes assisting, and she assures him that he will be all right,
eventually. Neelix comes in to report cases of radiation poisoning
from a Krenim torpedo fragment. Kes scans herself and realises
that this is the crucial moment, and the only opportunity she
will have to get the precise temporal variance of the fragment,
which she will need to get if she is to be cured on her next
jump. Neelix tells her that it is in a Jefferies tube on deck
eleven and she heads off with a tricorder, unconcerned about
the dangers of getting so close to the source of the radiation.
At the torpedo, the reading settles on the information she needs,
just before she collapses and
The EMH, minus hair, asks her how she is coming with the analgesic
compounds. In reply, she tells him that the temporal variance
of the chroniton torpedo is one point four seven microseconds.
Captain Janeway is chairing the meeting in the briefing room,
when the EMH gives a quick summary of the story so far. B’Elanna
says that all they need to do is use the information to purge
Kes’s system by using anti-chronitons. They’ll have
to get on with it quickly, the Captain orders, before Kes jumps
again.
In sickbay, the treatment begins and the radiation level in
her body is beginning to drop, when Kes is in the ready room,
listening to Neelix telling Captain Janeway that they want to
stay on Voyager after the destruction of the Caretaker’s
array, but before she can explain she jumps again
In the hydroponics garden on Ocampa, Benaran, her father, calls
her in for dinner. She tries to explain, but her story is dismissed
as fantasy, just like her dreams of visiting the surface. Then
we are in the Ocampa Medical Centre, watching the moment of Kes’s
birth, then back to the time of her conception.
From nothing, everything begins to move forward again. Martis
gives birth to her and says that one day her daughter will see
the sun, then we are back in sickbay as Kes’s chroniton
levels drop to zero. She is three years, two months old, and
completely healthy.
At a party on the holodeck, Neelix is impressed about becoming
a Security Officer, but Tuvok points out that every jump probably
changes subsequent events. Kes is back to normal, and remembers
her loan of replicator rations to Harry last month, as well as
the snapshots of the future. She hasn’t divulged her knowledge
of some people’s personal relationships, and Janeway approves
of the discretion. Tuvok asks for a report on everything Kes
remembers about the Krenim and the upcoming possible ‘Year
of Hell’. Kes immediately leaves the party to get on with
it. This whole experience has taught her that there is no time
like the present.
Review:
This is a superb episode. We get possible teasers of Voyager’s
future, including a major enemy who Kes provides a fair bit of
information about. We also get a reminder that this is only a
possible future, which is most likely not going to happen because
of Kes’s information. It is somewhat unlikely that Kate
Mulgrew will leave anytime soon, opening up the way for Captain
Chakotay, and promotions for Harry and Tom. (Shame, shame) However,
the pairings and parentings do raise interesting dynamics. Assuming
Tom stays with B’Elanna, will Kes look with a favourable
eye on Harry? If he was good enough for her daughter, why not?
She’s going to need someone around when the Elogium starts
up for real. As for her former paramour, Neelix, he gets to be
a formal part of the crew, with a uniform and a role on one on
Tuvok’s security detail, just as he has wanted.
Other plus points here are the changes to Kes’s appearance.
Away goes the short wig and in comes Jennifer’s own cascade
of blonde hair. Out go the cute pixie costumes and in come the
slinky catsuits, and a reuse of Deanna Troi’s turquoise
dress during the ‘Year of Hell’ sequence. I approve
of this change. It gives Kes a far more adult appearance, in
keeping with the fact that she is about 1/3 the way through her
lifecycle – equivalent to a 30-something in human terms.
Minus points are the way the main plot is hammered at us early
on, and the EMH with hair and several name changes. The hair
doesn’t suit, and suggests a major re-write of his physical
parameters programming.
Only the producers and writers know how much of this will reappear
in future stories. I hope some will, even if only as a throwaway
line of one possible course of action.
Cast:
Kate Mulgrew as Kathryn Janeway
Robert Beltran as Chakotay
Roxann Dawson as B'Elanna Torres
Robert Duncan McNeill as Tom Paris
Ethan Phillips as Neelix
Robert Picardo as The Doctor
Tim Russ as Tuvok
Garrett Wang as Harry Kim
Jennifer Lien as Kes
Guest Cast:
Christopher Aguilar as Andrew
Jessica Collins as Linnis
Rachel Harris as Martis
Michael L. Maguire as Benaren
Janna Michaels as Young Kes
Creative Staff:
Director: Allan Kroeker
Written By: Kenneth Biller
