Elogium
StarDate: 48921.3
Original Airdate: September 18, 1995
By Christina Luckings
The Story
Commander Chakotay walks along a corridor to the turbolift.
When the doors open, he sees couple sharing a romantic moment.
Realising they have been caught, the pair apologise and leave,
giggling. Chakotay steps into the lift, followed by Tom Paris
who asks what that was about. The First Officer calls it 'indiscreet
fraternisation' and Paris regrets having missed it.
Later in the Kitchen, Kes thanks Tom for helping her carry the
vegetables up from airponics and he replies with 'see you later'.
Inspecting the produce, Neelix discovers a beetle among the cabbage
leaves. Kes explains that it is a spawn beetle which she uses
to do the cross-pollination of various crops for her and comments
on it's lovely markings. Neelix is not in a mood to appreciate
nature, and tersly comments that he doesn't think the Captain
would be very pleased to find it crawling on her salad. Then
he asks her if Tom Paris is helping out in the airponics bay
these days, and if she has made arrangements to meet him later.
Annoyed at his jealousy, Kes assures him that there is nothing
between her and Tom. Neelix is seeing other things in it however,
if not on her side then certainly on Tom's. Captain Janeway calls
the senior officers to the bridge, and on his way out, Tom says
'take care' to Kes. Neelix abruptly thanks her for helping with
the cabbage and Kes glares at him before she storms out.
Up on the bridge, Voyager has detected a strange magnetic disturbance
nearby, and they are going to take a closer look. Captain Janeway
quizzes Chakotay about why he appears preoccupied, and he tells
her about the couple in the turbolift. Perhaps they should establish
a policy on fraternisation, he wonders. The Captain says that
Starfleet has always been reluctant to regulate personal lives,
but Chakotay points out that they are in a unique situation.
Problems could arise which wouldn't happen on other ships where
transfers are available. Janeway admits that, but also recognises
that the crew are going to begin to pair off eventually. All
they have out here is each other, and they are lonely. Not that
she will be pairing off, however. She doesn't have that luxury
as Captain, and anyway she fully intends to get everyone home
before Mark has given her up for dead.
Back in hydroponics, Kes is tending her plants, with a tray
of the spawn beetles near by. Absentmindedly she puts her hand
into the tray and gathers up some of the insects, but instead
of putting on them on the plants, she starts to eat them. When
she realises what she is doing, she is horrified.
The ship comes into visual range of the disturbance, and a magnified
image reveals a swarm of nearly two thousand space-dwelling life
forms. They move closer to do a bio-scan and the creatures accelerate
away, moving at over three thousand kilometres per second. Captain
Janeway orders Ensign Wildman, who is at the auxiliary science
station, to scan for any signs of communication while Chakotay
comments on the results of the bio-scans. With no digestive system
that they can see, he postulates that they absorb their nutrients
through their skin while moving. The particle density here isn't
very high, which may be why they have to keep moving so fast.
Feeling quilty about being so jealous in the mess hall, Neelix
calls on Kes in her quarters with a bunch of flowers. When the
doorbell chimes, Kes grabs several food containers and hides
them in a cupboard before letting him in. He goes to the cupboard
to look for a vase for the flowers, but she blocks his way. Then
he takes the bowl out of her hands and looks around to see other
plates of halfeaten food all around her quarters. Her current
dish is mashed potatoes with butter. He samples it but it is
not to his taste. However, Kes thinks it's delicious, especially
with a container of nitrogenated soil added to it. So much so
that she has had six bowls so far. Then she begins to eat two
apples at once, while telling him about the spawn beetles. Neelix
becomes concerned and contacts sickbay to warn the EMH that he
is bringing a patient in. Kes does not want to go and struggles
against him as he picks her up in a fireman's lift and carries
her out, still eating voraciously.
The swarm is changing course, but Janeway tells Paris to drop
back a little in case their presence is disturbing the creatures.
However, Kim reports that they are accelerating instead and Tuvok
identifies a magnetic wake that is pulling Voyager along. The
helm does not respond and the shields are not working. A fluctuation
in the EPS grids is interfering with the impulse engines, and
using the warp engines could cause serious harm to the creatures,
so Janeway call engineering to ask Torres for suggestions. B'Elanna
comes up with a targ scoop, a high frequency tone that disperses
targ herds from the path of ground vehicles. Janeway likes the
idea, and allows her to modify the main deflector to create the
required inverted magnetic pulse.
Neelix has succeeded in getting Kes to sickbay, where the EMH
is conducting an examination whilst she lies on a biobed. There
are dark rings forming uner her eyes and she seems rather hot.
He concludes that her unusual cravings might just be the result
of a nutrient deficiency. She also has a raised temperature and
high levels of electrophoretic activity in her nervous system,
corresponding to the raised levels thoughout the ship's atmosphere
and probably caused by the presence of the space creatures. Neelix
becomes increasingly agitated until the EMH has to order him
out of sickbay by threatening to call security. He goes straight
to the bridge and complains to the Captain that he is being kept
from the side of his extremely-ill beloved by a hologram who
doesn't know what is wrong with her. Just then the EMH calls
the bridge to ask the Captain to come down to sickbay. There
is a bit of a problem.
The problem is that the non-cooperative Kes has barracaded herself
into the EMH's office with a forcefield. The EMH suspects the
swarm is causing her fever, rapid pulse and high blood pressure
and recommends that Voyager leaves the area immediately. The
Captain tells him that it is not an option at the moment. Then
the EMH tells her that he has discovered a strange growth on
Kes's back that has only recently appeared. Neelix tries to talk
to the distraught Ocampa, but Janeway intervenes. Kes lets the
forcefield down and sobs her explanation to Janeway. She knows
what the growth is, and what it is for. It is the mitral sac,
where her child will develop, but she is too young to go through
this yet. It shouldn't be happening for another couple of years
and she is not ready. This is the time, the elogium, when an
Ocampa has her children, and it only comes once in a lifetime.
Captain Janeway returns to the bridge and Chakotay tells her
that Torres should have her modifications done in half an hour.
They go through to the Ready Room where Janeway explains to him
about Kes's situation. In the next forty or fifty hours, she
has to decide if she wants to become a mother, and she is going
to talk to Neelix about it. When Voyager left DS9 on a three
week mission, who would have thought they'd be considering becoming
a generational ship. Chakotay points out that within 30 years
they will need a replacement crew anyway, and Janeway muses on
the difficulties of raising children on a starship in potentially
hostile space. However, she cannot order anyone not to have children.
It will have to be up to the people concerned to make their own
decisions.
The first couple to face that decision are talking it over in
Kes's quarters. Neelix is concerned about whether it is safe
for her to have a child so young. He had never considered being
a father until now, and is concerned about the responsibility
of raising a child on a starship, with all it's inbuilt hazards
of power conduits and the like. Kes has always assumed she would
be a mother, just not so soon, and challenges Neelix that he
is just thinking about how much trouble a child would cause him.
Then she holds up her hands and shows him the ipasaphor forming
there, like a sticky gel, and tells him that they have only fifty
hours to begin the process, which will require them to remain
bonded together for six days. He tells her that he'll get back
to her, and leaves to think about it. Kes curls up on her bed,
and tries to rest.
It is lunchtime in the messhall, and Tuvok asks a somewhat disctracted
Neelix what the special is today? The Chef confesses that he
hasn't actually made a special, but there is leftover stew from
the previous night which is available with or without pepper
sauce. Without, replies Tuvok and takes his meal to a table.
Neelix comes over and asks Tuvok about his family, and what it
is like to be a father. The Vulcan tells him that he has four
children, who he thinks about more than ever now they are so
far away. Despite the responsibilities, he has found fatherhood
to be very rewarding, but if Neelix is having any doubts, then
perhaps he should not become a parent himself. It is an overwhelming
experience, Tuvok tells him with characteristic Vulcan understatement.
Neelix is starting to warm to the idea of having a boy to whom
he could teach survival skills, piloting, romantic techniques.
Tuvok points out that the child could be a daughter, which brings
him up sharply. He has nothing to teach a daughter! That would
be the mother's role. Why should that be, challenges Tuvok. His
daughter benefits from her father's guidance as much as his three
sons. It is unfortunate that he is so far from them all now.
Neelix understands, and thanks Tuvok for sharing his views.
Torres is at the engineering station on the bridge, ready to
use the inverted magnetic pulse. The field seems to work, but
then some of the creatures attach themselves to the warp nacelles,
and Voyager suffers a massive energy drain. Something comes towards
them, and Ensign Wildman identifies it as a larger version of
the creatures. The parent, suggests Tuvok, or a different gender,
counters Chakotay. It will require further observation to find
out. They try moving away from the bulk of the swarm but the
larger creature follows them and attacks Voyager with a charged
plasma stream. Although the shields hold and there is no significant
damage, Torres wants to retaliate. Janeway disagrees. Until serious
damage is threatened, she regards the creatures as the local
life form and themselves as intruders. Chakotay notices that
some small creatures are attaching themselves to the large one
just as others have attached themselves to Voyager. That's because
the plasma stream has a similar subspace signature as the warp
nacelles, Kim reports. Chakotay concludes that as the small creatures
are behaving in the same way towards both Voyager and the large
creature, the ship has been mistaken for one of their own kind.
Possibly as a potential mate.
Neelix returns to Kes's quarters with the good news that he
is willing to father her children. The strain of the situation
is telling on the young woman. She has not been able to rest
for worry, as the black rings under her eyes testify. Relieved
that he is willing to become a father, kes tells him that the
next step is for one of her parents to massage her feet until
her tongue begins to swell. As Captain Janeway is busy at the
moment, she'll ask the EMH to do it for her, and be back in an
hour for them to begin the bonding.
While the EMH is massaging her feet, Kes muses on whether she
is doing the right thing. On Ocampa her father would be doing
this, and offering her guidance on becoming a parent but here
she is on her own. Whilst the EMH is facinated by the biology,
he cannot offer any perspective on parenthood. Kes continues
to ponder her situation out loud. While Neelix was opposed to
becoming a father, she was sure that she wanted a child. Now
that he is all for it, she is having doubts. Is she mature enough,
responsible enough? There is still so much she wants to study
and learn, so much growing that she herself has to do, how can
she help a child to grow?
Chakotay is persuading Captain Janeway that the large creature
sees Voyager as a rival, and she asks Torres to generate a short
impulse burst to move them away from the swarm. However, the
burst brings the large creature charging towards them and ramming
the ship. Tuvok begins to agree with Torres that they may have
to retaliate in order to get away. Launching a probe fails to
distract it, and once the shields fall to forty-seven percent,
Janeway orders Paris to set course to ram the creature. All that
does is get it to hit them harder. When the Captain orders the
detonation of photon charges to try and scare it off, Chakotay
finally steps in to point out that perhaps they are going about
this the wrong way. Every aggressive move Voyager makes just
gets a more aggressive one in response. Unless they are prepared
to destroy the creature, they need to change tactics. Janeway
does not want to kill it, so she listens to her first officer's
idea. Why not behave submissively, suggests Chakotay, acknowledge
his dominance like the smaller creatures do. They change colour
and roll over, and Voyager should mimic that behaviour. Venting
plasma residue might make us look blue, suggests Kim, and Paris
think they have just enough power to do a roll. So Voyager rolls,
and the small creatures begin to leave the warp nacelles and
go back to the big creature. Having lost their sexual attraction,
Janeway orders Voyager to move away, and comments 'if I have
any questions about mating behaviour, I'll know where to go,'
to Chakotay.
Kes approaches a quiet Neelix in the kitchen area of a darkened
mess hall. She had decided not to conceive after all and Neelix
is disappointed at missing his chance at fatherhood. Kes reassures
thim that the EMH thinks that this was a false elogium brought
on by the space creatures electrophoretic field, and that there
is a possibility she might be able to go through it all again
when she is four or five. Neelix brightens up a this news. He
wants them to have a daughter, a daughter who looks just like
her mother.
"Captain's Log, Stardate 48921.3. I continue to wonder
about the issue of procreation aboard the ship. Certainly, it's
wrong to interfere with the private lives and decisions of the
crew, yet I remain concerned about the environment we could provide
for any child born here."
Captain Janeway is looking at a picture of Mark in her Ready
room when Ensign Wildman rings the doorbell. She has come to
inform the Captain of her physical condition. Her husband is
at Deep Space Nine, and they had been trying for months, and
she was only supposed to be away for a couple of weeks, and she
wasn't even sure until a few days ago, but....
A baby is going to be born on Voyager after all.
Review:
At last, a long hard look at a very important problem in going
on a 75 year trans-quadrant cruise - where do you get new crewmembers
from? This subject needed to be firmly addressed and they have
chosen to use the only truly established couple on board as their
protagonists. Which raises a few questions in this reviewer's
mind. Firstly, Kes and Neelix are from completely unrelated species,
so how could they hope procreate without massive medical intervention?
Humans and chimps share 99% of their DNA and yet are totally
incompatible so how much more so for races from different planets
entirely? In the Trek universe however, cross breeding happens
all the time, so I really shouldn't grip. The second issue is
the statement that the Ocampa only get one chance to have children.
Or a child, as Kes keeps saying. With only one child per set
of parents, there shouldn't be any Ocampa at all! Behind all
this is the issue of how to behave when studying space creatures,
and the discovery that Chakotay can spot a mating ritual at any
distance, in any species.
Frankly, the episode doesn't quite work. There are a lot of
good ideas that never quite gel on screen, and the whole thing
feels like a missed opportunity. Jennifer Lien does a good job
as the distraught teenager with some difficult dialogue and it
is only her performance that keeps the whole thing from being
a dreadful disaster.
Grade: 5/10
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:
Gary O'Brien as Crew member #1
Terry Correll as Crew member #2
Nancy Hower as Ensign Wildman
Creative Staff:
Director: Winrich Kolbe
Story By: Jimmy Diggs & Steve J. Kay
Teleplay By: Kenneth Biller and Jeri Taylor
