Eye of The Needle

DVD, Voyager S1 (Eye of The Needle)

This episode shows you don't necessarily need action or violence or innuendo to tell a powerful story. I knew I thought this was a good episode, but I also knew I thought I remembered it was a slow one, and I wasn't sure if it had much impact when you know all the gags about the time travel and his death, etc. But it was a strong episode, maybe stronger than I expected, and perhaps the best, ever so slightly (barring the pilot), than the others so far...

It starts out techy, and you're thinking it'll be all technobabble, and while the wormhole looks pretty, and the idea of contact with the Alpha Quadrant is exciting, it could turn a bit boring. But soon the old heart is being tugged every which way (as they might say in American circles), by hopes raised, hopes faltering, raised again, and finally broken. Then they pick themselves up and carry on. We get to see Janeway as the crew never can (and I don't mean in her nightclothes), as she finds hope, and thinks of home and heart alone in her quarters. Torres too is fleshed out a bit talking to Harry about her parents, and how she has no one back home who will miss her. The first signs of a friendship begin to develop between them, at last following up the way they were forced together to on the Ocampan planet, with B'Elanna reusing her nickname of 'Starfleet' for him.

Tuvok shows some investigative work as he reports on the situation, discovering the major details of the Romulan. And what fun to have a Romulan aboard, and who would ever have thought it, particularly this early in the series. Their episodes tend to be almost always strong, so it's delightful to have a familiar race, especially such a nice, thoughtful person, though being a scientist he was more open to such things. It's more tragic that he died relatively young, for them and him, and since it was such a potent image that in decades time when he was an old man, they could return home and see him again. Time travel doesn't have to be a long time to make an impact, as this shows, even twenty years can be a galaxy of difference.

Chakotay is not used so well again, mostly 'taking the bridge', and Paris doesn't get much either. But apart from Neelix (who doesn't appear at all), there's still an ensemble sense to proceedings. An extra storyline that would have been good for this episode - how would Neelix react to the crew's planned return to the Alpha Quadrant? Kes seemed prepared for it, but maybe Neelix wouldn't have wanted to go and there would have been an interesting reaction there. Perhaps if it had worked out Neelix and Kes would have left Voyager in his shuttle, perhaps taking the Doc with them, or keeping him company on Voyager for a while. A potential C-story that would have worked well I suspect.

The B-story is just as affecting, with Kes once again championing the Doctor's rights, and showing that only she has thought of him as any more than a piece of equipment, even if a very useful piece of equipment. Her caring nature, and persevering, forceful even, attitude makes the Captain take note, and gives the Doc confidence to consider possibilities, even to asking for a name. Perhaps the saddest moment is when Kes tells him the crew may be able to leave the ship and get home, and you realise that he can't go, and would be left adrift and alone. Nice shot of him in his office, from a distance that emphasises this mood. The story is the first glimmer of hope the crew have received, after slowly getting used to their plight, so to have the hope snatched away makes it doubly hard. You can see Janeway finds it very hard. But she continues.

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