Tattoo

DVD, Voyager S2 (Tattoo)

Does exactly what it says in the title. We learn much about the origins of Chakotay's people, why he wears the tattoo and what motivated him to join Starfleet and to abandon it, and what's more we get to see his Father Kolopak thanks to the device of flashbacks, although these are better described as memories ignited by the findings on an alien planet. The writers cleverly mesh ancient Indian beliefs with the science fiction setting of benevolent aliens, and although there's one slightly unpleasant moment during a discussion Janeway and her First Officer have on belief, regarding the unlikeliness of believing in the account of Adam and Eve, Janeway redresses the balance by noting that anything's possible after what they've seen so far in the Delta Quadrant.

This is a rather broad statement as I'm not sure the Voyager crew has seen that much that other Starfleet crews haven't already, in different forms, but she was probably speaking poetically, in general. The Inheritors, the group of Indians that the 'Sky Spirits' genetically bonded with sounds very much like the kind of thing the Original Series would have invented, and brings to mind episodes such as 'The Paradise Syndrome'. The idea of aliens visiting Earth in the distant past is also something that series played with, but the ones in this story were a positive force rather than the false 'gods' Apollo and his crowd proved to be (as discovered in 'Who Mourns For Adonais?').

The B-story of the Doctor being put through his paces with a holographic illness is great fun. Previously it's he who has been the put-upon one, but this time he's on the other end of the compassion stick, behaving badly to others and just as Kes helped him when he was the victim, she now helps him to see his errors with a bit of tinkering with his program (how did she do this? Who knows, but the Doc notes she's more devious than he ever realised!). The production looks good, and the outdoor sets that were mostly filmed indoors are outstanding. It's nice when everything comes together for an episode, and the visuals of the ship are another positive, as it gets sucked into a cyclone - this could be the only time Voyager attempted to land and failed.

Ensign Wildman gets a scene so we don't forget about her pregnancy, and the frostiness between Tuvok and Chakotay, which had thawed in 'Twisted' returns again through the Vulcan's multiple protests about an order Chakotay gives which is against protocol. It's not like Mr. Tuvok to procrastinate so much, but he probably felt his First Officer didn't know the protocols in this case. The young Chakotay does a pretty good approximation of what the character might have been like when he was fifteen, and the set up is informative for the character. It also makes you wonder if the Captain Sulu who sponsored him for the Academy is the same one we know. It's certainly possible as Dr. McCoy was still around at 137 and Sulu was younger than the doc!

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