Parallax
Starate: 48439.7
Original Airdate: January 23, 1995
By Chakoteya
The Story
In sickbay, the EMH is treating Lt. Carey for a broken nose
while Tuvok and Chakotay are getting the full story from him.
Carey, as senior StarFleet in Engineering, is acting Chief Engineer
Pro Tem, but B'Elanna Torres, Maquis engineer is also there and
wanting to do things her way. They disagreed about a procedure
and she hit him. Chakotay deals with it by confining her to her
quarters. Tuvok would rather have her in the brig until she could
be formally charged with striking a fellow officer. Captain Janeway
could hold the courtmartial on the ship rather than having to
wait 75 years until they get back. Chakotay tries to explain that
the Maquis do it differently, but Tuvok is immovable. They are
all StarFleet now and must behave as such. Finally Chakotay pulls
rank and orders him to drop the matter. Tuvok has no option but
to obey, but will make a full report in his security log.
Chakotay then meets up with some of his old crew, who are already
hearing wild rumours about all Maquis being restricted to quarters
off duty, and they offer him their full support when he wants
to take over the ship. 'If I ever hear you talk that way again,'
their former Captain tells them, 'I'll personally throw you in
the brig for mutiny.'
In her quarters, Torres is throwing things to try and work off
her rage. Chakotay walks in to inform her of the situation. Either
she sits out the rest of the trip on her own, or she apologises
to Carey, personally, and bonds with the man. After all, she'll
need his support if she's to be Chief Engineer of Voyager. Torres
is disbelieving, but Chakotay is determined.
At the senior officers daily briefing, Tom Paris is reporting
that engine efficiency is still dropping. They need more power
to the warp drive or they'll have to get out and push, he tells
them. Ensign Kim has tried using power from the holodeck reactors
but it wasn't compatible. Chakotay suggests moving security off
deck 9 to deck 7 so they could shut down power there. Tuvok accepts
the recommendation. Just then Neelix and Kes burst in, apologising
for being late. When Captain Janeway tries to explain that the
meeting is for senior officers only, the ebulliant Talaxian points
out that he is the senior representative of his race on board,
and Kes is the senior Ocampa. He also reminds them that he is
the most knowledgeable person aboard when it comes to this region
of space. Janeway gives in and asks them to join the discussion,
this time. Kes suggests creating a hydroponics area to grow food
as the replicators are down and the rations are getting low. Captain
Janeway gives her the project and Cargo Bay 2 as the most suitable
location. Neelix promptly volunteers to turn those vegetables
into wonderful meals. The discussion moves on to replacement personnel
for the crew killed in the journey to the Delta Quadrant, and
the fight with the Kazon. They still need someone for Astrogation,
Chief Engineer and medical support. Chakotay hands over a list
of Maquis he believes would make good officers. Janeway is surprised
to see Torres name there with his recommendation that she be Chief
Engineer, but doesn't argue with him in front of the others. Instead
she moves on to the issue of a Doctor. Tuvok points out that the
EMH is limited to sickbay. Chakotay suggests training someone
as a field medic and Janeway asks Paris about his biochemistry
studies at the Academy. To Tom's chagrin, his two semesters more
than qualify him for the role and the meeting is ended.
On the bridge, Seska reports a spatial distortion ahead. It turns
out to be a type-4 quantum singularity and a ship on its event
horizon is broadcasting a message. They try hailing it, while
Neelix explains to Kes that a singularity is a star that has collapsed
on itself and has a very powerful energy field surrounding it.
There is no response to the hail and the interference is too great
to use the tractor beam to pull the ship out. Chakotay contacts
Torres in engineering for suggestions. She recommends remodulating
the tractor beam to match the interference. Do it, says he. Captain
Janeway asks Lt Carey for his opinion. He says it might work and
she puts him in charge of the project. Then Janeway summons her
first officer to the ready room.
Captain Janeway has a problem with Chakotay's attitude towards
his former crew. He's treating them like they are still his crew,
not part of hers. Chakotay defends himself, telling her he's trying
to integrate them but the 'seniority' and 'starfleet training'
issues are making it hard. None of them will ever hold senior
positions on board at this rate, despite their ability to do the
jobs. He will not be her token Maquis officer. If she wants the
Maquis' loyalty, she'll have to give them more authority. That
sounds like a threat to the Captain. The discussion is ended.
Kes activates the EMH and asks for some soil samples to start
off her hydroponics bay. He is not impressed and tells her that
he has the information from 2000 medical reference sources and
the experience of 47 individual medical officers. How much dirt
does she need? He hands her 4 globes of soil and she comments
that he seems to be getting shorter. The EMH runs a diagnostic
and contacts Ensign Kim to demand a repair crew for his holographic
imager.Sadly, Operations are too busy to deal with it straight
away, so Kes kindly turns of the EMH and leaves.
The modifications to the tractor beam are finished, and they
try grabbing the other ship. The power is not enough however and
they start to get pulled in themselves. Then the beam won't disengage
and Carey has to go in and do it manually. The Captain decides
they will need help with this rescue mission and they set course
for the nearby Ilidaria system that Neelix had told them about
earlier.
Captain Janeway summons B'Elanna Torres to her ready room for
a little talk. She asks her if she's ready to be the Chief Engineer
on a starship, with all it's protocols and StarFleet methodologies.
B'Elanna defends herself. If the Captain doesn't think she's right
for the job, just say so. The Captain has been studying Torres'
StarFleet record, thanks to Tuvok's spying they have information
on all of Chakotay's crew. A turbulent two years at StarFleet
and then she quit the Academy because she couldn't take the discipline.
The same discipline that will have to prevail on this ship. The
EMH hails the Captain and asks her to activate monitor input 47.
His image is somewhat distorted and he tells her that he is shrinking
by 5 centimetres per hour. However that is not the main subject
of his call. He reports that 9 crewmembers have reported headaches,
dizziness and muscle spasms. Janeway comments that it could be
related to the quantum singularity. The EMH is not best pleased
that he wasn't told about their position and the Captain tells
him she'll see about linking his programme into the ship's data.
On the bridge, sensors are showing another type-4 quantum singularity
ahead. Or rather, not another one, but the same one. Despite travelling
in a straight line away from it, they appear instead to have gone
in a circle. They try again and still return to where they started.
Captain Janeway orders the data to be transferred to her ready
room for her to examine personally, and a senior officers meeting
at 1500h. Lt Carey will represent Engineering. Chakotay recommends
inviting B'Elanna as well and she agrees.
At the briefing, the EMH reports another 27 crewmembers with
symptoms but no cause for them, and could someone repair him before
he is too short to reach his patients. Captain Janeway has studied
the distortions and found no anwswers. Carey has tried sending
out a tachyon signal to scan the singularity but all he got back
was static. Torres can help clean it up but she doesn't think
it's worth the effort. Instead she's thinking about the EMH's
problem and wondering if she can screen out the distortions with
a dampening field. If that works they could use the technique
on the sensors to clean up the data and communicate with the other
ship. The Captain likes the idea and gives it the okay.
A little while later on the bridge, they open a channel and after
a little tweaking hear - their earlier hail coming back to them.
And sensors say that the other ship is Voyager too. They adjourn
to the briefing room for Torres to give her theory. She uses the
analogy of a frozen pond to try and explain their situation. They
need to find a 'crack' in the event horizon in order to escape
being crushed. How? By spraying the area with the warp particles.
The two women agree that they might find the hole they made when
they first passed through it by watching for where the particles
are escaping from the influence of the singularity.
They put the plan into action and discover a crack but it is
too small to get through. It will have to be made bigger somehow
but Voyager's warp engines could make it shrink even more it if
they get too close. Janeway decides to take a shuttlecraft and
Paris volunteers to pilot it, but she turns him down in favour
of Torres and her knowledge of the finer points of temporal mechanics.
En route to the crack Janeway tells Torres that Professor Chapman
at the Academy was sorry to see her go. Many of her teachers had
gone on record to say that they thought she had potential to be
an outstanding officer. Then they charge up the dekyon bean to
widen the crack for Voyager to get through. Once it is 120 metres
wide they head back to Voyager, only to find there are two ships
waiting for them. The real one and a reflection. Which to choose?
Torres favours the one nearest the rupture, Janeway the one with
it's stern towards them on the grounds that they are giving them
easy access to the shuttlebay. They land safely on what feels
like a real ship and head for the bridge.
With the rupture closing again, Voyager squeezes through the
gap into normal space and puts a safe distance between themselves
and the singularity before beginning repairs.
In engineering, Chakotay gives Chief Engineer Lt Torres her first
order - get the warp drive online by 1300h. Turning to her new
staff she starts giving instructions then goes to Lt Carey. She
tells him that she'll be counting on him to help her get up to
date on the lastest protocols, and he assures her that she'll
never get less than his best. On the catwalk Chakotay joins Captain
Janeway who is observing her new officer at work, and asks her
if things had turned out differently, would she have served under
her? 'One of the nice things about being Captain is that you can
keep some things to yourself,' comes the reply.
And in sickbay, a tiny EMH is still asking for his projectors
to be repaired, while his putative patient and medical assistant,
Tom Paris, admits that it is only a scratch after all and he can
take care of it himself.
Analysis
Well, on the character side this is a good first proper episode.
We get to hear and see the differences in approach between the
strictly heirarchical StarFleet and the relaxed meritocratic Maquis.
B'Elanna Torres gets a proper job and title, and now two of the
four classic Trek roles (Captain, Science Officer, Engineer, Doctor)
are filled by women for the first time on screen. Or should that
be three, as Janeway seems to be taking on Science Officer in
addition to Captain. (Sorry, I don't count that one-off woman
Chief Engineer on TNG's first season.) Chakotay is being a very
good first officer, keeping the peace between the two crews and
doing it by sheer force of personality, while Neelix and Kes are
beginning to find their places too. The EMH is still the comedy
turn, and doing it rather well.
However, the science is awful. A crack in the event horizon of
a quantum singularity. Oh please! But then, we don't watch science
fiction shows to learn about physics or astronomy, do we. The
line about the holodeck energy being incompatable with the rest
of the ship was somewhat strange too, but needed to move the plot
forward I suppose and emphasise the energy crisis.
Overall, a good story, nice development. This series is moving
into its stride rather nicely already.
Grade: 7/10 (B)
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:
Josh Clark as Carey
Martha Hackett as Seska
Justin Williams as Jarvin
Creative Staff:
Director: Kim Friedman
Story By: Jim Trombetta
Teleplay By: Brannon Braga
