Shattered (2)

 DVD, Voyager S7 (Shattered) (2)

You could say this was a way of placing 'Voyager' in its own history, preparing for the end of the series by revisiting the past with a greatest hits of previous adventures all rolled into one, you could even call it a bottle episode since it remains on the standing sets (other than recreating Dr. Chaotica's laboratory), but however it's viewed, it's with pleasure and great positivity from me. Whether it be Chakotay's optimistic attitude that he'll be able to put the ship back together again like a starship Humpty-Dumpty, despite not particularly knowing all that much about this temporal anomaly that has split the ship, fractured it, one might almost say 'shattered' it, into various time periods, you know he has confidence in his crew that they'll find a way. And there's the deep friendship with his Captain that runs through the story and once again cements their roles that they'd settled into as supporters that can be very close without going further than that. All quite apart from the joy of returning to points along the journey Voyager's taken to create a well-rounded tale that enjoys the benefits of a science fiction premise without the need to spend time explaining the technical details. All this plus a classic 'TOS' ending - it may be a little more sophisticated than Kirk and his Bridge crew gathered around the Captain's Chair guffawing at some amusement, but the spirit of Chakotay and Janeway sharing a wry joke together was the same and makes me wish there was more character interaction in these later episodes, more time for conversation and expression that built the characters in the early seasons.

Chakotay himself had suffered by being too much ignored as a regular character in these latter times, so it was a delight to see him take the reins and lead his one-man mission to repair the damage. His getting struck by lightning made me think of how Sisko was trapped in time aboard the Defiant in 'The Visitor,' and while this story doesn't have quite the same intensity as that one, there is some poignancy in revisiting characters and events from the past. The strongest element is lifting pre-Season 1 Janeway, a Captain fresh on her first command, but who is suddenly thrust into the bizarre circumstance in which she must trust the very man who is her target, with a tall tale about temporal shenanigans - it's a likely story, but Chakotay is quick-witted enough to take the initiative and force her into seeing the proof, opening her eyes to a wondrous world she's set to encounter, but also the calamitous circumstances that mean she's responsible for stranding her crew so far from home that it gives her reason to think she should change course and prevent the timeline from taking place. It becomes a reiteration of the founding attitude of the series that it was worth the sacrifice of all they knew in order to help a helpless species, and the rewards for that decision were great. It is a fascinating idea to show a character the future of their series that we've been privy to, and observe how they react, but it's also a defence of Janeway's original decision, showing what has come to pass, what successes and importance stemmed from it.

Chakotay always was supportive of Janeway so it's good to see him be so once again when she's in turmoil, and she in turn soon discovers the rapport she'll have with this stranger. If only this had been more central to the series on a regular basis it would have allowed him to continue to be essential rather than someone you too often see have one line on the Bridge while focus switches to Seven and the Doctor as what sometimes seemed were Janeway's sole concerns. It's not exclusive, as this episode proves, but too often he'd been relegated, stripped as a man of his strength in order to elevate a woman, and it's a shame they couldn't make the Captain strong without it having a detrimental effect on her First Officer. But all that's in the past, even with a good half season to go, and they probably felt their job was done with this episode, which in that sense can be looked on as a criticism of how the series might have been had they used Chakotay and Janeway together more effectively. I don't remember too much about the last episodes of the series, whether Chakotay had more to do, but probably not, so this may be his last great story. It's fitting that it goes back to when he was so integral with the Seska storyline and Martha Hackett making one last 'one last' appearance after her holographic return at the end of Season 3 - is she the only Trek character to come back from the dead twice, I wonder?

Slightly disappointing we didn't get Anthony De Longis back as her Maje Cullah for the full Kazon experience, but there was much to pack in: B'Elanna and Mr. Ayala in their old Maquis outfits (impressive Roxann Dawson could still fit in it after all those years and having given birth in the meantime!), Seven in her full Borg drone guise, the macrovirus, Dr. Chaotica and his henchman (and robot)... I was just starting to wonder why there was no future time period since that would make sense if we're seeing all these different times, when Icheb and Naomi are seen in Astrometrics working happily together. It strikes a different note seeing Icheb older now that we know he dies horribly in 'Picard,' and seventeen years after 'Voyager' would still be before 'Picard' Season 1 which took place at the turn of the century, though I don't remember how far Seven flashed back to in her memory of trying to save Icheb in that awful episode, so it could be this Icheb is from before or after those events (in either case it didn't happen in his timeline since Voyager wasn't back home as far as we know - they aren't wearing a future uniform, so that suggests they haven't got back yet). It's nice to see Icheb obviously flourishing as a full member of Starfleet (correspondence course?), Naomi, too, and they did a fine job giving us this hopeful look into the young ones' futures. At the same time you could say it's sad to see Voyager hadn't made it home, but then that timeline was a result of Janeway and Chakotay vanishing (I think), so it would be changed when they reset the ship, but it made for an interesting idea of how things might be, possibly before they'd decided on how the series would end.

They do love killing Tuvok off, it seems to me, I don't think this is the first time he's 'died,' and he'd go on to be mentally crippled in the finale, so basically dead, but I was surprised he didn't try and pass on his katra, perhaps to Janeway herself, as he had the time on his deathbed to know he was going. A good way into the episode I realised we hadn't seen any of him, or Paris and Neelix, so I was pleased we did get that little scene in the Mess. It was odd that Tom and Harry were conscripted to get the drop (literally), on the Kazon invaders in Engineering, but it all makes sense when suddenly people from all eras are joining in the fight in what was a delightful sequence where past, present and future combined to deal with the series' classic villains in Seska and her Kazon cohorts. Again, it could have been a great way to bring back a major guest star like Brad Dourif as Suder, but time permitted only so many callbacks and returnees. Although, imagine if this had been the big mid-season feature-length extravaganza instead of 'Flesh and Blood,' it might have been even better, and was certainly a huge concept that could have benefited from more screen time, but perhaps it would have been considered too much of an indulgence to spend so much time looking back?

There wasn't too much to nitpick about this one, I found - little things like why Chakotay wouldn't keep his secret store of Antarian cider in his own Quarters if he was afraid of Neelix discovering it, he does have plenty of space, after all, but maybe he felt he'd be too tempted to drink it himself? I also thought he and Janeway shouldn't have left their glasses on the edge of the table when they exit her Quarters to head to the Bridge after the anomaly hits, since the first sign they get is the ship shaking - don't want to waste that cider if it's among the last bottles Chakotay has left! Would it be a good idea to transport Chakotay to Sickbay when he's just encountered who knows what spatial phenomena, it could scatter his atoms all over the place for all B'Elanna knows! There was also the moment Chakotay walks onto the Bridge to find it's back in time before the ship was lost to the Delta Quadrant, and Harry Kim doesn't know who he is and just walks to his station, while Janeway and the Security guy recognise him as the Captain of the Maquis ship they've been sent to capture - was Harry kept in the dark about the mission at that point? One item that does get cleared up was the Doctor not quite being as crusty and aggrieved as I remember him being in the early days, but later we learn he's been running for three years, so that makes more sense.

It's a truly early 'Voyager' solution to have the gel packs be key to solving their predicament, so I appreciated that, as this new technology was set to be so important to the running of the ship, yet was never really explored all that much other than as a plot device to get them in or out of trouble. I suppose there's only so much you can learn about circuitry - it's just more efficient than the old stuff. Speaking of which, it was fun to see Janeway disassembling her Replicator complete with those glowing cables we sometimes see (particularly in 'DS9' whenever Rom's got his engineer's fingers into the pie!), though I'd have liked to have seen it all more clearly - it reminded me of the consistency Trek used to have across series' and episodes whenever they dealt with such things, and it's sad you don't get that sense about Trek in the modern era. There you go, that's not too bad, criticising modern Trek right near the end of my review! But that's because there's so much to enjoy about this episode and its own history I'm not thinking outside of that. One thing the episode made me wonder was when the Temporal Prime Directive came into being because I think it developed during 'DS9' and 'Voyager,' possibly first mentioned in 'Trials and Tribble-ations' with the Temporal Investigations agents, but if so that doesn't explain when Starfleet introduced it. Actually, it was apparently first mentioned in 'Future's End' by Captain Braxton, and was a 29th Century directive, so either the Voyager crew started using it, or it had existed long before then, otherwise they'd have been more understanding to Braxton... It struck me as a great way to get around any questionable activity a Starfleet officer does: sorry sir, can't tell you due to this regulation... And that's where we get the lovely ending where Janeway does exactly that in jest.

The episode was truly a celebration of all things 'Voyager,' and while it didn't have space or time to squeeze in everything from its six-and-a-half year run, it picked some good stuff. Seska was a highlight, even though she doesn't get to do much - maybe they should have had her running around the time periods herself once she'd worked out how it worked (that would have been good to end the first part with as she jumps into another timeframe, had it been a two-parter). Chaotica was another great return, especially as that segment happened to be a sequel to Janeway's previous appearance as Arachnia, Queen of the Spider People. He's another of those characters to return ignobly in modern Trek when he was brought back in animated form for 'Lower Decks' where I was most disappointed they didn't get Martin Rayner to do the voice. Still, it was a fine finale for him and I was only left wondering how Janeway and Chakotay persuaded him to let them go unaccompanied since he's supposed to be cunning and would want at least a minion to accompany them. Similarly, I was a bit unsure about when B'Elanna would have been working on the Transporter as a Maquis, but maybe I'm forgetting a moment in 'Caretaker' when she was assisting with repairs?

It's natural to look back as the end draws near, and I'm surprised this story wasn't held until near the very end of the series, although it might have been out of place as the penultimate episode since the finale also dealt with time travel and characters travelling between periods, but I think coming closer to the end would have only added to its resonance as we recalled the adventures we'd encountered with the series and nostalgically considered the import of Janeway's original decision. It works well enough simply being in the seventh season and remains a strong entry for both the series as a whole and its final year, successfully incorporating sci-fi concepts with character work and 'what if?' scenarios: what if Seven of Nine had been around when Seska took over? Now we know, sort of. Seska didn't have time to respond to assault by Borg drone as Seven advances out of nowhere to get her in a choke hold! What would Icheb and Naomi have turned out like? It's so good we got something nice and wholesome as was Trek's style back then, before it got twisted and ruined by modern writers and their grisly, miserable world-views took over. What would the series have been like lasting seven years? Well, we got that question answered, and still being answered with over half a season to go. My only wish would be that the little joke about Chakotay getting the last word (which reminded me of McCoy - I also thought of him when considering Tuvok passing on his katra to Neelix, his revenge for all those arguments he lost, or in this case, for all the bad food and annoying chatter the Talaxian put him through!), could have played out with him saying the last line of the episode, but in keeping with the sentiment, Janeway gets the last line again!

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