Coda

DVD, Voyager S3 (Coda)

Not even death can stop Janeway from sticking with her ship, proving her to be the most loyal Captain of all Trek. Even though she wasn't actually dead, it was all a ploy by an alien race to feed on her consciousness, to her mind she was dead, so it demonstrates her love of her ship and crew that even though there was nothing she could do to help them, she still wanted to be there to see their voyage to the end - the ultimate fan! It's no wonder she was so obdurate about it after seeing such a wonderful and heartfelt memorial service in which both 'Maquis' (Torres), and 'Starfleet' (Harry), remind their shipmates of what she meant to them. It's a stirring scene, and even though, like Janeway being dead, it was a fiction cooked up by her mind, it's true to what the characters would have said, I'm sure, and provides a moving tribute to their fallen leader. But that's the thing I found myself thinking with this episode: it's all meaningless. None of it happened, except for the initial shuttle dash to the planet (which I wasn't keen on - the visuals didn't look that great with a chunky shuttle moving cumbersomely through space, though the planet set was great with an expertly created stormy mood). Often this doesn't matter in the many variations of this theme found throughout Trek, from 'The Tholian Web' of 'TOS to 'Vanishing Point' on 'Enterprise,' but I'd always felt this to be a strong episode before.

I remember the first time I saw it, on its original UK terrestrial transmission, alone in the house on a dark Sunday evening, so creep factor nine! I think because I haven't seen the 'Voyager' episodes so much, they haven't become as ingrained in recent years so I have less connection to some of them. Not to say this wasn't a good episode, it really was with such brilliant scenes as the memorial or Janeway's defiance as she realises this alien posing as her dead Father is a fake (I liked the actor's name, Len Cariou - it made me wish they'd given the species a name and called it after him: beware the 'Lencariou,' lest they carry you away!), but though there was a bit of tension in the early part of the episode with a 'Cause and Effect' type time loop, it was all a blind, just as the return of the Vidiians was - it never happened, it's all there to confuse Janeway I suppose, though I don't know why she needed to be killed off multiple times (crashing, exploding, euthanised by the EMH!), except to pad out the episode a bit before we got to the more meaningful moment of dealing with death (in quite a different way to how they did it with Geordi and Ro in 'The Next Phase').

I wondered if they were using this evil entity who takes people to his matrix to devour just before death as a jab at the afterlife and making a point against Christianity with such language as everlasting joy and eternity (made me wish Janeway had at least poked her head into the matrix just to see what it looked like! Actually that would have been more compelling -  if she had at first been taken in or lured in by a trick, and found herself in a Hell-like place that she had to escape from before the 'spider' reached her in its 'web'), but I came to the conclusion that the episode wasn't deep enough to actually be trying to make a point besides Janeway's deep loyalty to her crew and desire to see them get home, because it's suggested that this is a race unique to the Delta Quadrant, and that it attacked just before death rather than being the destination after death. They also bring up ghosts and such experiences and try to explain it, where usually they keep away from such unscientific phenomena, but again, it's not 'real' because it all happens inside Janeway's head, so they could have their cake and eat it.

If there was one episode it reminded me of, it would be 'Distant Voices,' the 'DS9' episode where Bashir finds himself on the abandoned station discovering it's all in his head - he hears distant voices talking about his condition from the real world, and in this Janeway has flashes of reality, lying on the planet's surface as the Doctor, Tuvok and Chakotay fight to save her. Maybe they should have entitled this one 'Close Voices'… This didn't have the same attraction as the 'DS9' story, perhaps if they'd gone down the weirder route it would have remained a classic in my eyes, but sadly it now appears more messy than distressing. Any 'mistakes' with the episode can be explained away as being in Janeway's brain (an interesting side note could be that all the characters are acting from her subconscious so are they as she'd like them to be, or how she sees them?) - I think of the fact that she can touch the biobed in sickbay as a spirit, yet walk right through the door which closes in front of her (a common problem in such stories, like in 'The Next Phase' where they don't fall through the deck, but can be pushed out of the bulkhead into space! You just have to go with it, and in this case it can be explained away by the unreality). Also, I'm sure there's an episode somewhere in which it's stated that as soon as a combadge casing is damaged a homing beacon activates, but in this, Janeway has to activate it herself, or deactivate it to avoid the Vidiians finding them (though great to see what the inside of a combadge looks like!).

There are character moments that stand out, and not just the memorial service. It's Janeway's story through and through, and a chance for Mulgrew to display her acting prowess through a multitude of emotions, perhaps best as her 'Father' is convincing her there's nothing to be done and she's stood turned away from him, so many thoughts and reactions running across her face. But it's a good one for Chakotay as well, devastated at Janeway's death (even dribbling over her in his desperate attempts to keep her alive!), with some nice moments reminding us of their friendship, especially in the final scene. Tuvok too, is allowed to remind us how highly he regards her - in just the previous episode he stated that Harry Kim wasn't a friend, though a valued colleague, so if he's so careful about whom he considers a friend, it elevates Janeway when he notes in his log that he's lost a friend. But it must have all been a dream because we see Neelix and Kes sitting together at the memorial!

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