Repression (2)

 DVD, Voyager S7 (Repression) (2)

The last great Vulcan episode? Certainly the last Maquis story. And since I love both of those this makes it the first great Season 7 story! I do enjoy a creepy episode where you don't quite know what's going on, and even though you do once you've seen it the first time, I didn't recall the details, such as bringing back some of the Maquis characters (Chell the Bolian, not seen since 'Learning Curve'! Mr. Ayala, one of those background actors who almost never had a line, but was memorable as Chakotay's 'heavy' in the pilot and seen many times since, though not so much in these last seasons), busting out the Maquis togs (maybe Chakotay and the gang have a sentimental attachment to that stage of their life and so never put the old clothes in the Replicator?), tying in to the Maquis story... (Is that the first time we ever saw Chakotay's ship named on screen, the 'Val Jean'?). It's all so much pudding for canon-continuity lovers, but it's also a reminder of what the series could have been like if it had followed the 'DS9' style of building up the background characters into recurring roles, having a greater sense of community and reality aboard ship, and yet after the first two, maybe three seasons, they went away from that - of course they always had some characters and connection to the past, Naomi Wildman even gets a mention (as being able to rule her out of suspicion as too short to be the attacker - amusing from Kim), but more than anything I loved the feel of being smack bang back in somewhere like the middle of Season 2 when so much was unknown, the ship was so divorced from the 'main' Trek world of 'DS9' and the 'TNG' films, and it was a pure adventure, self contained and just 'itself.'

Not that I didn't appreciate the unfolding into what could be called the Seven Era ('Retrospect' came to mind as being a similar style to this one, but starring Seven), but from Season 4 things did become somewhat different as it focused heavily on that character and her ongoing battles with Janeway, and I think one of the greatest factors that makes this episode feel like something out of the series' past is Seven largely being absent. She's so often the solution to the series' problems, whether singlehandedly going through the ship and taking out Maquis as she might have done, or being the one with a mental issue as Tuvok has here, it reminds me that she took on so many of the other characters' qualities, stifling them to some degree. It makes it so much more refreshing to see Tuvok in that old guise as lone investigator, responsible for the safety of the ship and recalls such greats as 'Meld' or (not so greats like) 'Ex Post Facto,' or even any of the investigative Odo stories on 'DS9' (he also unknowingly investigated himself in 'The Alternate'!), and feels reassuringly and dedicatedly old-style Trek, and when you've been dosed up on the current era as much as I have (almost watched as much as exists now), and having gone through dislike, to a period of some appreciation, to now realising I'm heading back to dislike again, it's so good to go back to Trek's greatness. As I said, this may be the last great Vulcan episode since I don't recall 'Enterprise' being specifically strong in that regard, episodes about T'Pol not especially among the best, and certainly since then with the new stuff they've absolutely stomped all over not just the species, but former greats like Sarek and Spock, ruining any sense of dignity and quality they once had.

Vulcans have always been my favourite race, and a good example for the over-emotionality of our current time, prizing logic and reason above irrationality and quick emotive reactions, and Tuvok is my favourite example, probably my favourite character of this series, so to see him star again was gratifying. Tying in to the past of the series, not merely returning to that style of some of the creepy early episodes ('Cathexis,' 'Persistence of Vision,' etc), made it even more special. At the time of first viewing it was another example of connecting to the post-'DS9' Alpha Quadrant, although in this case, ironically, the threat comes thanks to their ability to communicate with Earth which puts a new and sinister spin on the advantage they achieved in the latter part of the series (relevant again later this season with the Ferengi episode, just as it wouldn't be the last time we connected to early season versions of characters, as in 'Shattered'!). Merely having a Bajoran character of the week was terrific, and the fact it was some creepy Vedek who was into mind control as a recruiting tactic for the Maquis made it doubly interesting, as was the fact he was played by Keith Szarabajka (a memorable guest star who would go on to have a less memorable role in 'Rogue Planet' on 'Enterprise' and be in films such as 'The Dark Knight'). Teero was shown to be one of those malicious lost souls that tended to gravitate towards the Maquis, like Suder and his penchant for playing out his violent tendencies in battle.

If there is a flaw with the episode it is that we didn't learn enough about Teero: what personal events in his life made him as fanatical as to want to preserve a little remainder of the Maquis in the Delta Quadrant, against all reason for any good that it would do? And did the Federation catch him after this episode or did he get away with his little foiled plot scot-free? He's exactly the sort of loose end that could have gone on to plague Starfleet in future had the 24th Century been continued (I'm sure they brought him back in the books!), but he was really just one of the many who'd been affected by the Bajoran Occupation of Cardassians, whether it was the Bajorans themselves, or their oppressors (see 'Duet' and 'The Darkness and The Light'), but due to his galactic distance he couldn't really be part of the episode other than in the minds of those he affected through Tuvok. And it was a very effective and devious way to set up a sleeper agent - instead of exposing Tuvok (who knows how he found out his Starfleet mission, but presumably he just chose to experiment and discovered it in Tuvok's mind?), he bides his time, which again shows he was more interested in power over people than actually helping the Maquis cause. The writing cunningly deals with established facts about where people were and what they were doing and yet weaves in the new story and that's exactly the kind of thing I find missing from modern Trek. They go big on bringing in famous ships, races and characters, but they don't have the nuance and cleverness to do something like this, at least for the most part, I can't think of anything off the top of my head. Janeway states the Maquis' rebellion ended three years ago, which was during 'DS9' Season 5 once the Cardassians had allied with the Dominion and the Jem'Hadar were used to crush all Maquis resistance with extreme prejudice - they'd already acknowledged the change in status of the 'home' Maquis in 'Extreme Risk,' so it's nice they were able to say 'the story isn't over.'

That's what this is really all about, Teero's inability to accept the organisation he was part of was defeated, and he'd been kicked out anyway so maybe there was an element of wanting to prove his experiments right. They're actually in a time of peace now, post-Dominion War, and yet he hasn't been able to let go, even vowing in the past to keep the fight going even if he were the last man, which is essentially what he's doing in a small, pitiful way. I love that Tuvok being a double agent becomes Tuvok being a triple agent: he was working for Starfleet to infiltrate the Maquis, then he was implanted with something that could be activated at a given moment which turned him to the Maquis for real! It was no real benefit to Teero, other than to have satisfaction that his mind control techniques worked (and impressive he could do them on a Vulcan, that shows how powerful they must have been - he's a dangerous man!), and to gum up Starfleet's works a little, since they were as much the enemy as the Cardassians in the Maquis' mindset. It did seem a little too 'easy' when Chakotay is completely transformed back to the suspicious Maquis Captain he was, untrusting of Janeway despite their many escapades together, cutting through all the bonding they had, the personal feelings, every little occurrence that happened over almost seven years, but that's the strength of a mind meld, it must have been repressing so much of his memories and personality, but in that case I feel Beltran should have played it a little differently, perhaps not quite so sure and certain, but as if there was a slight element of his mind fighting within, a slight confusion maybe.

I'm not complaining about anyone's performances, it was lovely to see Chakotay and B'Elanna back in that guise and I assume the early meeting in the Mess Hall consisted of all the Maquis members aboard when it first becomes apparent they're being targeted, so we get some familiar faces, but also a female Vulcan (not sure how well that holds up - did we know there were multiple members of that species aboard, other than Tuvok and Vorik?), and I suppose they felt they could reveal something like the whole former crew since we're coming to the end of the series and don't need to be as vague, although even there we can assume some may have been on duty and unavailable for the meeting since someone said they made up a quarter of the crew, so that's around fifty people. Even though I didn't remember exactly how the story played out I loved the dawning realisation that only Tuvok was going to be able to save them: the man who was used as the tool of their destruction became the source of their salvation, and that was a very positive message (as was the one I took from it that laying your mind open to outside forces thanks to meditation is dangerous, even if that wasn't what they intended!). He even looked younger somehow once he was in the undershirt - perhaps it was the show of surprise, confusion and fear, or maybe it was the incongruent informality of an incomplete uniform itself, but he seemed to regress to an earlier Tuvok. There was also an element of going back to the 'TOS' films where Spock was gruff and mysterious, like when dying in 'II,' a heavy weight on their Vulcan shoulders.

There was one major, possibly minor, flaw in logic: when Tuvok took off his outer jacket his combadge should have been attached to that, and indeed it is - if you check back you see him flee his Quarters in a hurry without it, then when he arrives at the Holodeck he's wearing it, so unless he stopped on the way to get a new one that's a bit of an oversight. I wouldn't have ever thought of it except for the fact it was integral to carrying out the plan later on since he had to communicate with the awakened Chakotay. I suppose they could have had the Commander come to the Brig, but then it wouldn't have had the same power as seeing our First Officer suddenly activated like a Borg drone, and then activating others to the mutinous cause! So I can forgive that issue for the sake of the drama. They probably should have removed the combadge before transferring him into the cell, too, since we know such devices can be used for all sorts of things in the right hands, and Tuvok was always the right hands for improvisation! The mind meld was so effective that not only does it counteract years of natural affinity between Chakotay and Janeway, but even B'Elanna's love for her new husband, Tom Paris - she coolly states that he and Harry attempted a breakout but have been contained, apparently quite detached from them. Nice to see Paris as a nurse again, another thing that brings it back to the early seasons. One trivial little detail I noticed which I don't think had ever been done before, is someone asking the computer where someone else is, and the computer announcing they're in that very room as they suddenly enter. Answers the question of whether it would call Chakotay in the corridor outside Sickbay or in Sickbay since by the time the words had been spoken his location would have changed!

Perhaps the door to Tabor's Quarters shouldn't have required overriding when Tuvok went there since his friend Jor was already in there, and that does look a bit suspicious since if she really went in there only to retrieve a book she wouldn't have needed to lock the door. On a side note, great to see physical books again, too, another reminder that characters in Trek appreciate old things and the touch of physical things, they don't live in a sterile environment devoid of the physical, or at least if they do it makes them appreciate and value objects when Tabor could just as easily have had all his books and more on an iPad... sorry, PADD! I was also pleased to see another discussion of what Kim calls 'privacy protocols' - that someone can't simply read someone else's mail, except, as we hear from Tuvok, the Chief of Security has the right to do so if he thinks it important to the safety of the ship, but it was good to be reminded of such things and that Starfleet takes them seriously. Although it may have been inadvertent, I took Tuvok's talk of a 'Time of Awakening,' part of Teero's control, to link nicely with that period of Vulcan history when they were savage and violent. And if you know Tuvok's the perpetrator of the comas it makes more sense when the Doctor mentions 'subdermal contusions' on the shoulder since we see Tuvok do another Nerve Pinch when subduing Chakotay later, so some excellent attention to detail as you can usually expect from the writers of past Trek in stark contrast to the modern ones.

One thing I was disappointed about was that the Bajoran wasn't Gerron from 'Learning Curve,' but at least Tabor had been in the series previously, and not for a couple of years, too (he was in 'Nothing Human' in Season 5), good reaching into the past, and maybe they couldn't get the other guy? I'd have liked to see a bit more of the retaking of the ship, but I accept the point had been made once Chakotay and B'Elanna were dealt with, and if it had been an all-action affair I'd have been complaining it wasn't cerebral enough so the story was handled very well. Fun to see Tom and B'Elanna doing something together, and while I often feel uncomfortable by characters in modern Trek seeming to know and talk about our pop culture, which is clearly ridiculous in most cases, seeing a half-alien (and the rest of the crew at the end), dealing with 3D glasses and all the trappings of an old film theatre was great fun, although she was right about Tom going overboard on the authenticity when she gets gum on her shoe - that's the great thing about a holoprogram, you can have the good stuff and avoid the bad! It does raise the question why the program was running before they entered and what Tabor was doing in there - he claims he was doing repairs, but it would have been better if Tom had asked him to make sure the program was tiptop before they got there as otherwise it's a bit strange he'd be in there when they'd obviously booked some Holodeck time - equally, they might have been wondering if he'd finished and would have been less surprised by the anomaly of a guy slumped at the front. But a very effective introduction to the threatening atmosphere of the story, as was the reveal when Tuvok comes out of the shadows in the Cargo Bay. Like the best of Trek: a standalone that utilises the vast canon of Trek to make its story work.

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