Cold Fire

DVD, Voyager S2 (Cold Fire)

This is an ideal episode to resume Season 2 from if you've been away from 'Voyager' for a while as it begins with a brief recap of their situation stranded in the Delta Quadrant thanks to the alien known only as the Caretaker. One of the goals set by Janeway at the end of the pilot was to find the Caretaker's mate who, he told them, had left for new places, and here early in the series we meet her already! If anyone thought it was going to be a quick ticket home then they were mistaken, the ship wasn't going to be swept back so easily as that, even if Suspiria, as she called herself, had the ability to do so. Turns out she's a bit of a nasty type, though she might be reacting to the undeserved rumours that have been spread by persons unknown that Voyager is a ship of death that kills and plunders as it sees fit. No guesses who might be responsible for those!

While we learn a little more about the Caretaker, his race named as the Nacene, and the reputation of the ship, we also explore Kes a bit more. Her telepathic abilities aren't the only powers she has the potential for, as Tanis, leader of the band of Ocampa that live with Suspiria, helps her to see. Not only that, but he gives hope that her character could survive beyond the allotted nine years that is the span of an Ocampan life - he himself is fourteen, while his Father lived to the grand old age of twenty. Played by Gary Graham, a few years before his recurring role on 'Enterprise', Tanis suits his style a little more than Soval the Vulcan, in my view. His strength is in his emotive, but mysterious delivery as if so much more is going on behind his eyes, whereas Soval was a bit one-note, mostly coming across as an irritated high-up sort. Vulcan culture is tapped into in this episode thanks to Tuvok aiding Kes in the exploration of her mental abilities, giving some humour when we see the most experienced, serious member of the crew, trying to keep the youngest and most gleeful on track.

A shock comes from Kes' lack of control of her power, turning her liquid-heating onto Tuvok inadvertently, almost killing him. This is more frightening because it occurs in the domestic, peaceful setting of the Vulcan's quarters, in which the episode, in a pleasing symmetry, begins and ends. Though Kes' power diminishes once Tanis is no longer there to magnify it, he has shown her what she could be capable of, a signpost for the future, and not just the good qualities it could bring, but the dark side that comes with it - a warning and a lesson. Though Tuvok claims at the end that the dark side is important to us all, and without it we couldn't see the light, that's all nonsense. The darkness can't understand the light, and the light evaporates the darkness. I just thought I ought to point that out as it's easy to let comments like that wash over you, and the danger is they can seep into your sub-conscious and influence you into wrong ways of thinking.

Visually the episode is as good as ever, with both prosthetic work in Kes' damage to Tuvok, and visual effects, seen in the airponics bay where seeds bloom into colourful plants or are withered by the 'fire in your mind'! Suspiria who appears as either a little girl or a writhing serpentine creature, morphs very effectively between the two. Characters speaking in a voice that doesn't fit their appearance is always unsettling, but her presence with the Ocampa made me wonder what role she actually plays. Was she actually not such a bad sort, just out to protect and enhance them, or were they her servants that she kept in thrall for all those generations in the three hundred years she'd been there? That side of the equation isn't explored, the only information is gleaned from what Tanis says about her, and the fact that she takes him with her when fleeing the ship. I also wonder if the writers were hoping for a return at some point which may have been their reasoning for Suspiria to show wonder at Janeway's decision not to harm her when she was in her power. This could have led to peace between them in a future meeting, but it never happened. I believe this was also the last we ever saw of Ocampa other than Kes. Tanis reminded me of a Vorta, his graceful, but sly movement similar, as well as his face. He was about as trustworthy as one of them too!

This is a definite Kes episode, with Tuvok and Neelix as secondary - the Talaxian shows more restraint in his jealousy after the experience with Tom Paris in 'Parturition'. Before, he would have exploded at the suggestion Kes should go and live with her Ocampan brethren, but he remains most restrained for Neelix. All the characters were a part of it and it combines the best elements of the series - its initial goal, a possible way home, with new details on some of the races they had encountered and how they are viewed at this current stage of the grand journey.

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