Juggernaut

 DVD, Voyager S5 (Juggernaut)

Further evidence that Season 5 was finely tuned, achieving a balance with the characters that had been lost when Seven joined the ship, and which would affect the ensemble negatively in the last two seasons: this time the favourites are most definitely in supporting roles, with Janeway, the Doctor and Seven all reduced in screen time, while B'Elanna, Neelix and Chakotay are elevated to leading roles, and it's a pleasure to see. If it were merely the balance of the cast it would be no guarantee of a great episode, but we also have a strong story that displays a masterclass in dramatic structure and makes me wish we could have seen Bryan Fuller's 'Discovery' because it would undoubtedly have been superior to what we actually got in that series when you see the kind of quality he was involved in here. There's a ticking clock, a risky mission, a dark, eerie ship to progress through, and a personal stake with Torres' temper cropping up again as a detriment to her service on Voyager. There is the impression of the series turning back time, grasping at the past of the first two or three seasons to give us the drama we had then, back when B'Elanna was a loose cannon, barely controlled by her respect for her former commanding officer in the Maquis, Chakotay, and he was much sterner and stricter, dishing out Maquis justice to enforce cooperation with Janeway, while Neelix was the go-to expert always a high priority to bring along on a mission.

It is a little strange that these characterisations should return since things had become a lot friendlier, a lot more relaxed, but it can easily be justified by events that had happened in the past year or so: dealing with the Borg, Seven of Nine proving a thorn in B'Elanna's side and somewhat taking her place under the Captain's wing - not that she needed it, she'd learned to soar thanks to Janeway's trust and tutelage, and the Captain once again shows what a strong understanding she has of her Chief Engineer when she refuses Tuvok's advice to send him to take over the Away Team, stamping the brand of faith on her crew-woman, a faith justified. But the biggest change was the very personal and violent reaction Torres had experienced regarding news of the Maquis' annihilation by the Jem'Hadar, as seen in 'Extreme Risk' where she was throwing caution to the wind as a reaction to her emotional problems. This would appear to be an outgrowth of that experience, showing the series could do ongoing arcs if it chose to, another aspect more common in the early part of the series. It's true that Torres has appeared to regress, but she's been through some trauma and this story was a way to further address that. I must admit, the ending did leave me wondering if her difficulty controlling her temper was to be an ongoing plot as we see her reliving the violence she was forced to inflict upon the unfortunate core labourer intent on sabotaging the giant time bomb that was the Malon freighter, as she relaxed in the sonic shower (showing it in operation for the first time ever, unless you count 'The Motion Picture'!), yet haunted by her actions.

It was strange, because I was getting a warm and pleasant reaction to the moment she's about to bludgeon the enemy to death, but then does the Trek thing and instead resorts to talking it out. That's what Picard would do! It showed her maturity, already seen on so many occasions in the development of the character, only this time she's unable to appeal to the opposition's reason and is ultimately forced to beat him down to prevent the catastrophe he's trying to ensure. It reminded me of Suder, the Betazoid murderer from Season 2 who was similarly counselled by Tuvok, just as B'Elanna is here, and then, just like her, was forced into using his violent side again to protect the ship when the Kazon took over. This story doesn't have the same power as those of 'Basics,' which were among the best in the series, but there was certainly a sense of parallel there I picked up on. The downside is that, while it's more realistic that she had to use her last resort, it's not quite as true to the Trek ideal that the enemy can pretty much always be reasoned with, that they will respond rationally and sensibly. Clearly much more realistic in this approach of only understanding force as the solution, though not as inspirational. But it was true to Trek that she at least made an impassioned effort. It just means we don't get to see a satisfying coda in which she talks about what happened and we feel she learned something and everything's secure and safe. Instead we don't know if she's traumatised, whether this will come back in future... You could say it was more dramatic and perhaps a decision not to do what was expected, the usual happy ever after moral takeaway to underline a theme.

Something that was very much in the Trek mould was 'humanising' an enemy race, getting to know them, showing them within their own context, and who would have thought the Malon would have had that opportunity! If they represent a trait of humanity, it would be the rubbish men, coming to take our refuse away, with a side order of environmental issues. We'd seen Borg rehabilitated, Jem'Hadar on 'DS9,' even the scourge of our galaxy, Species 8472 had been given the humanisation treatment, it's just one of those things that made Trek what it was. I say made, and that's because modern Trek has little to do with the kind of hardware-based, philosophical exploring, sci-fi ideas and character exploration that worked so well for so long - I was even thinking in the scene where Torres tries to talk the labourer to stop what he's doing, that modern Trek wouldn't bother with that, they'd just have her come in swinging, and be a lot more violent about it, too! But though there was that element of desperate discussion, she did have to fight in the end so old Trek didn't have the absolute moral high ground (and when they said about the Vihaar myth I immediately thought of Vahar'ai, the process Kelpiens experience - new Trek has contaminated me!).

To get back on topic, the Malon are presented for the first time as three-dimensional beings with families back home, a beautiful planet, and rational explanations for their behaviour instead of merely being demonised as these disgusting, hateful people that care nothing for anyone. It doesn't mean they aren't those things, too, but they carefully picked a guest cast of Trek veterans, actors who knew how to act through the bulky prosthetics, wigs and costume, to go as far as making the Malon at least partially sympathetic in this situation, and that was an impressive aspect of the story. When guest characters are shown to be more than merely enemies it adds nuance and makes them far more interesting than mere targets to be taken down. I found it most telling that these workers, scarred by freighter blight as they are, contaminated by radiation, were still able to have children and are doing what they do so their families will have a better life - and the worst job is practically a death sentence yet some are willing to take on the task knowing even if they likely won't survive, their family will be taken care of. Nobility in the Malon? Surely not! Of course if they'd wanted to do more episodes they could have gone into even further detail on the race, perhaps shown that some unscrupulous types actually round up the unwanted from society and force them into the role of core labourers, and explore the areas where Malon society could be further at fault, but there were no other Malon stories, they'd served their purpose. This episode was their justification, making right what had been a simplistic villain at the start of the season.

There's nothing like a steamy, slimy mass of machinery to crawl through for evoking the danger and claustrophobia of a ticking time bomb, and B'Elanna gets to strip down to her vest, much like Janeway in Macrocosm, or Picard in 'First Contact' and 'Insurrection,' and get sweaty - the grey Starfleet vest was a great invention from Robert Blackman when he created what I consider the best uniforms Trek ever had: the grey-ribbed shoulder uniform of 'First Contact.' Technically, the grey vest came about earlier because it was often seen as an undershirt on 'DS9' and then 'Voyager' in the years before 'First Contact,' but the film made it acceptable for Starfleet officers to shed their outer garment and clamber around in the peak of physical condition you'd expect (O'Brien's years of standing around in the Transporter Room notwithstanding!), and it was used to great effect in episodes like this to the extent that Chakotay actually looks overdressed in comparison to Torres stripping down to streamlined proportions. Even Neelix gets to wear a sleek outfit because obviously he never wears a uniform not having been through the Academy where he'd need to earn the right to wear the uniform, and the same for Seven. I wonder why he wasn't wearing the grey or bluish Away Team outfit that had been used in previous episodes like 'Blood Fever,' they seemed to have dispensed with those, perhaps because they now had the option of the vest. Regardless, the look really suits Torres' role and her mood, as well as the very non-Starfleet locale because you know whenever someone removes their jacket they mean business.

I'm not sure why Neelix was selected for the mission rather than, say, the Doctor, whose medical assistance could (and was), required in such a place and he was obviously someone who wouldn't be affected by a dangerous environment other than the risk to his mobile emitter. Or Tuvok could have been a sensible choice, but then drama sometimes requires the 'weaker' or less experienced characters to go through a situation (as happened with Seven over Tuvok in the previous episode), and while neither Torres nor Neelix are weak, they also have more pressure points than Tuvok, for instance. And just on a viewing level, it was lovely to see scenes of two characters that rarely have meaningful interactions together. If they were stripped of some pertinent characters they were also put into a less typical position of having to do without their basic equipment, another theme that is always worth exploring with relish because without their technology they're forced to rely on the training and expertise that we know they have. So in this case they couldn't use their Tricorders as it would attract electrical damage, and then when B'Elanna would use her Phaser to deal with the intruder, she can't because it would ignite the gas, so it really brings out their best when they have to improvise.

Controlling technology is useful, but as the episode demonstrates it is self-control that is just as, or even more, important to succeeding: B'Elanna had a good point that 'you can't order someone to meditate,' and there's a sense of that slightly playful, though ultimately serious First Officer/older brother friendship she always had with Chakotay where he's her commander, but obviously their history goes back further than Voyager, and that he's tried to help with her temper in the past. Fortunately we didn't get all that mumbo-jumbo about vision quests and suspect spirituality that was one of the negatives of the early seasons, and instead we get Vulcan mumbo-jumbo which, for reasons of being invented make it less problematic, even if it appears to be bog-standard meditation Tuvok's teaching (reminded me pleasantly of his tutoring of Kes in the old days), though it was more like a session of counselling to me! I do like it when Tuvok has the chance to help his fellow crew-members with logic and control, and while Torres seemed to have mellowed in the last couple of years, becoming more settled with her role and relying more on Paris as support, it's true that she does have deep-seated anger that had never gone away, mainly from the way she was treated for her Klingon heritage, which shows that children were still being obnoxious even in this idealised future, and once again reminding us of the fallen state of human nature rather than reiterating the mistaken belief that humanity is by nature good. I'm sure people will be pulling out the Paris quote about Ferengi, except that however you look at it, it was generally true!

One quote I enjoyed, and that had nothing really to do with the episode, was an observation by Seven in one of her few scenes that the Captain 'does seem to succeed more often than random chance would allow,' which could be seen as a little bit of breaking the fourth wall as it reminds us that Janeway leads a charmed life as the Captain of a Trek series. And I must say, I was very impressed with the Chakotay we got in this episode, continuing the trend of the season that gave him good, authoritative lines and actions that never took away from Janeway's ultimate superiority, and as I remember it, would be lost in Seasons 6 and 7, sadly. But he's forceful when he needs to be, clamping down on Torres, but also being supportive. You can tell he's worried at certain points, but he makes decisions and stands by them, and he'd have made a great Captain in Starfleet, I'm sure. The only thing he did wrong was to look back: never look back, just keep on going, and because of that he was injured and taken out of the picture. But that was all part of the escalating drama as if this was some kind of action disaster film - and it is a major catastrophe where everything in three lightyears will be destroyed if this freighter goes up. The stakes are high and things keep going wrong, they have to twist and turn to solve each problem, it's people you don't often see working together, and you have the timbrous tones of Ron Canada to sell the Malon as more than mere rubbish men.

There's really nothing to dislike, it has good production value, room for characters to breathe and reminds us of who these people are. You could almost believe this was a lost Season 1 episode with B'Elanna's volatility, Neelix slaving over a hot stove, Tuvok back in his mentoring role, and Chakotay given the reins of commanding an Away Team, back to... I won't say a better time because I think Seasons 4 and 5 are actually the richest, most exciting and best put together all-round, while the early seasons were much more patchy, but also had that unpredictability that meant they could be shocking or surprising but also held a strongly reassuring, family feel. Even the villain could have been mistaken for a Vidiian, so I'd say it took the best qualities of the early episodes and continued that along with the quality of these middle season stories and production value. Maybe it could be argued we'd already had something similar with 'Dreadnought,' another B'Elanna episode in which she has to go aboard a dangerous vessel and stop it before it does some serious damage, but that was positively genteel compared to the rigours of this grimy, stinking hull and I'm sure watched back to back would provide an intense contrast!

It also helps to have Ron Canada (in his last Trek role), having previously played a not particularly memorable role on 'TNG' ('The Masterpiece Society'), and a very memorable role as Worf's Klingon accuser Ch'Pok in 'DS9' ('Rules of Engagement'). Shame he didn't get more as his distinctive voice was a big selling point in the characters he played. He's assisted by another familiar Trek name, Lee Arenberg, who'd already had several roles across 'TNG' and 'DS9' and would go on to be a Tellarite in 'Enterprise' (in the great Andorian trilogy of Season 4). There's even a nice little uncredited role for Alexander Enberg as the Malon sent down to the core much against his will - I knew I recognised the voice: he was Vorik! Almost his final appearance in Trek, except for one more episode as Vorik right at the end of the series. Even the Vihaar creature who was actually just an irradiated crewman, was played by someone who'd return, Scott Klace, though he probably doesn't want the 'Enterprise' episode on his CV as it was one of the worst ('Precious Cargo')! I do like it when they use the extended family of Trek names - not all the time, it's good to have fresh blood, too, but when the roles are so different and heavily covered in makeup it can work really well, adding an extra layer of trivia to enjoy. This episode was anything but trivial, it succeeds on just about every level (maybe some of the CGI wasn't the best, though seeing Voyager peel away from the freighter and then speeding away as it explodes in the star was still dramatically exciting for the speed and sense of power, just that CG explosions don't often come off well), and proves you can do thrilling action stories within the constraints of cerebrally satisfying sci-fi ideas. It was truly a juggernaut of an episode!

****