Fury (2)

 DVD, Voyager S6 (Fury) (2)

Kes could run workshops on how to make an entrance! What a way to open an episode: an amazing scene that plays on the history of our characters' dynamics, flipping from seriousness to levity, then capping the teaser with Kes returning like an avenging angel, striding through the ship in her flowing robes, strutting like a Sith Lord, wreaking havoc on all and sundry, rupturing bulkheads as she goes. I remember being pleased when I heard they were bringing Kes back for an episode, and even more when I saw it, rating it as one of my favourites back then. I never much cared for Kes on original viewing, but I always loved when Trek connected with its past by bringing back characters or plots to continue them. My perceptions today are more complex: I came to appreciate Kes so much more as I rewatched the series on DVD in the 2000s and I give Jennifer Lien a lot more credit than I did then, and wish she could have remained on Voyager even while Seven was added to the crew. Now, coming to this episode fifteen years after I last saw it (and even at that time), it's not quite as revolutionary and captivating as I originally saw it. Kes looks terrific, if a little portlier than she used to look, her elfin looks at the limit (and contrastingly haggard as her older version), yet she still looks right, the hair, makeup, wardrobe and acting is all lovely. But Kes still isn't quite as emphatic as she once was when Lien was playing the role on a weekly basis, and that mutes the impact of the story a little, mainly in the ending.

I'd love to know the story of how this came about, what was happening in Lien's life at that time, we know the struggles she's had in the years since, but this was relatively soon after leaving the series - was she getting other work? Did she jump at the chance to return to 'Voyager' or did she take it grudgingly if she needed a paycheque? Did she need to be convinced, did the people behind the series do it for her as a commiseration for the way they summarily chucked her character, had they always hoped to bring her back at least once, or was it simply an idea that came up and enough people in power liked it? As far as I know the story has never been told, that's why the 'Voyager Companion' takes so much grief, because we wanted a book like the 'DS9' one that delved deep into every episode and provided so much background that added to the episodes. It seems like a short time now, almost twenty-five years after the fact compared with the less than three years since Lien had left in the second episode of Season 4, but in TV terms that would have been a sizeable chunk of time back then. To have to get back into that character and for the other cast members to be able to return to those specific dynamics must have been a challenge.

Because it's not just on Kes, who appears as both an old, embittered version of the lovely young woman we knew, but also that Season 1 original, too. I'd forgotten that almost the entire episode takes place within that timeframe so it really is a trip back to the past. It wasn't the first time the series had enjoyed going back to the early days, nor would it be the last ('Shattered,' perhaps the most apposite example, would be along the following season), with episodes such as 'Worst Case Scenario' in which the Seska-era was revisited thanks to the Holodeck, or 'Relativity' in which Seven receives a personal Voyager history lesson, and I love that they were able to do this. They took up so many elements of the beginnings of the series, whether it was the spot-on observances of how the Doctor was viewed, such as being turned off summarily when he started to babble, considering a name (a quest that weirdly ended and never gets talked about despite his growth as a person), or pushed out of the staff meeting when they need to use the screen through which he was attending (no Mobile Holo-emitter in those days). Nancy Hower's back as Samantha Wildman, not too much of a stretch as she was one of the very few recurring characters to have made a relatively recent appearance thanks to being the Mother of Naomi, though it's criminal how little she was used in these latter appearances considering how much her daughter became a part of the series, her role often split between Neelix and Seven to the extent you could forget Naomi even had a living Mother aboard!

Other callbacks abounded, whether it be Josh Clark making his penultimate showing in the series (if merely a one-line cameo that had no bearing other than being a nice little extra - that's how the series tended to treat many of its so-called recurring characters, sadly), Janeway's hair bun, or Torres going back to straight hair, so they showed they wanted to get the details right. At the same time Chakotay has his later, all-black, no grey hair and the characters don't act all that much like their younger selves. I liked that they had scenes for Kes with those particular people she spent time with: the Doctor in Sickbay, gentle Neelix as her closest confidant, and Tom offering to teach her how to fly. These were the staple scenes in those days, but whether it was deliberate or not, Kes often came across as distracted, not fully entering into the interaction. This worked quite well for the story because she's encountering people she's come to have a grinding grudge against and yet can't show her hand by actively demonstrating any ire towards them. But sadly she didn't have the warmth and light that always seemed to emanate from the old Kes (that is the young Kes as she was, rather than the older Kes as she is now!). You could see the slightest stirrings of memory toward these people, but she was still clouded by confusion and a singleminded belief in how the situation could be rectified, though I can see that as planting the seeds that Janeway was later able to nurture into growth at the end.

When I look at it like that I don't feel quite so badly about the fast turnaround of the ending where Kes is confronted by a hologram of her younger self exhorting her to remember how she used to be and not to do this thing she's planned, then the Captain gently pours on the nutrients of sunlight and water to grow the seeds (a metaphor probably coming to mind since it took place in the Airponics Bay!). It did seem that all of a sudden her angry plan, in which she was oblivious to all death and destruction, was halted, she was able to reason again and saw that there was hope in travelling back to Ocampa. For someone so intent on her goal of saving her younger self it was an anticlimax, especially as Janeway isn't exactly given a blindingly rousing Kirk-like speech to lift us all and show her the error of her ways, to paint an inspirational picture of hope that sheds a dawning light and parts the clouds of mistaken rage. It's not just that, it's also the way that rather than have her stay for a little, to reconnect with her old friends with whom she parted so amicably back in 'The Gift,' giving them a boost towards home, she's soon off to the Transporter Room, beamed back aboard her shuttle and flying off to Ocampa. At least Neelix was there to see her off, and yet it was with a great sadness, only compounding the tragedy of their distance in Season 3 of the series. You could see he wanted to say so much more, his line when she asks if he says anyone he knows, ambiguous ("Only you," which could be taken any number of ways), and so the episode ends on something of a downer, uncharacteristically for the series.

Mixed feelings abound, in the characters, in my view of the episode, but I still rate it highly, it's a definite classic, and while I can see flaws in how close they were to recreating that Season 1 style, I don't judge too harshly because they didn't have to do this story at all. It's another one to buck the trend and not be a Seven, Doctor or primarily Janeway outing, but includes everyone and is typically high-concept as Brannon Braga preferred. If they don't quite sell the message of hope at the end it can at least be seen as a commentary on where the series had progressed from since its early days - just look at the effects of the Vidiian ship's attack on Voyager, they couldn't have done as detailed visuals in the early pre-CGI years, and while some of it can look a little lightweight I thought the main attack with that grappling arm clamping down and Chakotay's 'tear it apart, then' was very good, that line seeming a direct reference to 'fly her apart, then' which I'm pretty sure was something he said before, maybe in 'Caretaker' or 'Year of Hell' - actually I'm getting confused with Captain Sulu and I might be equating it with the kamikaze run at the Kazon ship in the pilot, but he'd have made a great Captain.

Something that helped set the tone of a return to Season 1 was that beautiful scene between Janeway and Tuvok at the start (another one where it came across a little weaker or discordant when they re-played the scene at the end, as if the first version was a masterclass in how to do a scene like that right, and the redo in how to do it wrong!). From the first episode they were put together as people with history and a deep friendship and understanding, which was why in 'Prime Factors' in Season 1, the earliest time Tuvok directly went against his Captain and friend's orders for what he considered the good of the ship, he was the recipient of The Janeway Dressing Down Scene. Many have gone through the agony of that, she doesn't rant and rave, she doesn't scream and bawl, but she's disappointed and you don't want to do that. It became a sub-genre in its own right as each crew-member has had this talk from her when they've crossed a line and made a serious error in judgement, but here, though we're made to think it's just such a time as that, it's actually Janeway being playful and having some fun with Tuvok. It also fits perfectly with the theme of them sharing a private secret between them, since when the events of Kes' reappearance play out again they've kept an ace up their sleeve in readiness. It does make me wish we'd had more of this expert craftsmanship in the friendships on that series, especially Tuvok/Janeway over the years, an area which 'DS9' beat them at hands down, but they showed sometimes they could do it too.

It's not just a great scene, it also pleases with all the lore that's thrown in: they've known each other for approximately twenty years, they've served on three starships together, Janeway attended the Kolinahr of Tuvok's daughter (doesn't seem like the kind of thing just anyone would be invited to, which shows how close they are). The episode pleases like that in a lot of ways, whether it be Ayala getting one of his rare lines (and a Phaser Rifle, although I can't remember if they had those in Season 1, I feel like they came later?), a mention of Gel Packs, Naomi's Ktarian heritage (and a callout for Deep Space Nine where Janeway says she met Wildman's husband!), the double-beamed Vidiian Phasers, retconning Wildman's pregnancy to explain its extended length was due to the Ktarian side, even the shot as Tuvok follows a Naomi out of time through Voyager's twisting corridors was like 'Persistence of Vision' when Janeway follows the hologram Beatrice, and I always love it when things go weird. That in itself was a consistent touch with Tuvok's Vulcan nature as we know his telepathic abilities were in accord with Kes so it made perfect sense that he would start to see, hear or have knowledge of, the future five years hence. What I found especially interesting was the continuation of Kes' story - she didn't simply show up for a cameo as so often happens in modern Trek, she was integral to the plot and we learned what took place after her original exit as well as leaving her with the hope of a new future, much like Scotty when he was brought into 'TNG.'

It seemed as if Kes' less-then-latent mental powers had not been a boon for her. She had not grown into some non-corporeal God-like entity, instead the change had confused her, she lost her identity and came to believe a lie about herself, something becoming common in identity politics of today, so it's an unexpectedly good message. Because otherwise, if she'd been this all-powerful being why would she even need Voyager's Warp Core to go back in time, and why would she need a ship to travel in (the interior of which, whether intentionally or not, was reminiscent of Captain Braxton's Timeship, complete with the ascending light patterns in the interior as if telegraphing this was going to be a time travel story!), and she wouldn't need to stalk the corridors of Voyager, she could just fly right through to Engineering. But that would have been less identifiable and it looked so great to have her ripping through the ship, walking through forcefields and using early Vorta psychokinesis (excluding the ball of energy!), to send people flying. At first I thought she was deliberately avoiding harming the crew by merely knocking them away, but then she allows a bolt of energy to zap Torres and kill her, then you know either she really does hate them or doesn't care about the collateral. Even so, there remains a core of care from the character - her whole motivation is to save her younger self, it's not coming back to take revenge on Voyager as such, though the best way she decides is to sell them out to the Vidiians in the most treacherous way possible (another potential callback to the time there was a spy aboard secretly contacting the Kazon to entrap Voyager).

They wisely chose the best of the early antagonists in the Vidiians as the ones they to up against, the race having had some of the better episodes, such as 'Threshold' (another key moment in the Wildmans' lives, both Mother and daughter - I almost wish they could have gone into that episode specifically, a bit like 'Trials and Tribble-ations'), and they were a key part of the early seasons, even if they weren't in it all that much. It's always nice for the series to acknowledge its past and bring that past into the present and what better way than to bring back an old face. They literally do that in the sense that Vaughn Armstrong, The Man of Many Faces, added yet another alien to his growing roster as the Vidiian. He was also a link with Season 1 since he'd played the first Romulan of the series in 'Eye of The Needle' and had come right through to their contemporary season as one of Seven's former Borg associates in 'Survival Instinct' and this would be far from his last role in both Trek in general, and 'Voyager' in particular. Josh Clark's Carey would only return one more time (to be ignominiously killed off), but this episode sadly marked Ensign Samantha Wildman's final contribution. She didn't have a whole lot to do, and it's a real shame we didn't see her with Naomi, but I always liked her open, friendly face and she was one of those early recurring characters that added so much to the sense of community aboard Voyager. Saying that, and this is a real surprise: even Naomi only had a couple more episodes to her name after this one!

Other elements that added to that Trek sense of continuity and lore, or reiterated it, were the Doctor's assertion that medical protocol supersedes a Captain's authority (though I'm not sure why he couldn't confer with Wildman and ask if she minded the Captain knowing - at least he did say she'd meant to tell the Captain), and it also played into the idea the Doctor wasn't considered a full member of the crew in that she put pressure on him to reveal the information which she'd have been less likely to do later in the series, I feel, or at least the dynamic would have been more amicable perhaps. There's also that scene in which Janeway and Paris discuss changing direction at warp ("Faster than light, no left or right"), something that has been criminally ignored in modern Trek iterations in the most blatant and stupid of ways. Paris does qualify it by stating that changing direction is possible, but course corrections could fracture the hull, a long way from the zipping around style of warp where you whizz about in any way without consequence (see 'Into Darkness' for one terrible example!), so I enjoyed that strict parameter, limiting what a starship could do, being brought up. I was also impressed by Janeway deliberately not firing on Kes at the first opportunity. She works to try and talk with her, to learn what it is that made her this way, seeks dialogue, and only when she's been thrown across the room twice and the stun setting has had little effect, does she resort to killing her, and then instantly regrets she had to do it. It's such a far cry from the belligerence, violence-first action of so much modern Trek, or the sticking the boot in to a vanquished foe such as at the end of 'Star Trek XI,' that show how much the sensibilities of those behind Trek has changed (and I'm not just referring to the Kelvin films, but all the modern Treks most of the time).

For me it was a treat to have Lien back, and even though the story has a little bit of a limpness to the ending and doesn't have what you'd wish as a full and joyful reunion after all that had happened, it remains a strong story overall. It does bring up questions over Janeway knowing in advance that Kes was going to leave the ship eventually which should have coloured how they interacted over the years, unless they're saying this is an alternate timeline so we only saw how the original events played out on the series and now, by the end of this episode we're in a slightly different timeline and don't know how that knowledge might have altered Janeway or Tuvok's thinking since that encounter. For example, would Tuvok have been in such a hurry to help Kes explore her abilities if he knew that one day she was going to come back and take out her anger on the ship? On the other hand he may have been just as concerned with monitoring and helping her to control them as he was, but at the same time he and Janeway didn't know how it would play out if she did show up again... It all starts to give you a headache if you think about it too much, but that's one of the fun things about time travel, speculating about the possibilities therein. There's an element of life imitating art - I don't say that Lien was resentful towards the series and went off the rails because of it, but it's known she's not had a great time of it in the succeeding years, which makes this more sad when it makes you think of that.

Seeing this again during a new age of Trek revivals where especially 'Voyager' has had so much attention within new productions I wonder if we could ever have Lien back as Kes - most likely in 'Prodigy' if it were to continue, but when you realise five out of nine characters have so far come back in some form of current Trek (Paris on 'Lower Decks,' Janeway, Chakotay and the Doctor in 'Prodigy,' Seven in 'Picard'), it would be a shame if there were never a complete reunion as there has been with 'TNG.' It's not quite the same situation of course, the former were more popular and the 'Voyager' cast never got their time in the sun for films, but it does seem they are the second most popular (living) cast nowadays so I could see it happen. I can even imagine a way to have Kes back since 'Prodigy' is involved with the Delta Quadrant and she returned to her people and I could see that knowledge changing the society vastly, to the extent that they'd be completely different if Starfleet encountered them again. It does seem unlikely considering cost-cutting (even in this episode you see that: I assume that's why Kes left via the Transporter rather than Shuttle Bay, even though we'd already seen that location with the gorgeous Type-2 Shuttles inside earlier in the story), and the state of the world affecting everything, but a bare few years ago it seemed unlikely any of the old cast would ever appear in their roles again and look what's happened since. For now, I can enjoy this as the last word on Kes, a character that grew on me and became a wonderful part of the series and one I'll always regret losing.

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