Friendship One (2)

 DVD, Voyager S7 (Friendship One) (2)

The ideal mix of a moral quandary, a tense situation, and character and general history provide a standout for Voyager's first official assignment in seven years. And it doesn't get any easier knowing they're doing this on behalf of Starfleet rather than their own survival. Of course the Carey in the room is bringing back an established recurring character only to kill him off so unceremoniously! It underlined the danger of the situation with this unstable alien leader who may or may not have been mentally affected by radiation, but who was most certainly emotionally affected by his and his people's situation to the point of complete distrust and expectation of betrayal. I was surprised to see Carey was only in a handful of Season 1 episodes (most famously having B'Elanna break his nose in almost an actual physical vying for the post of Chief Engineer - at least that didn't happen in his final appearance, though I'm sure he'd have wished he could have gotten off so lightly), then showed up once in each season from 5 to now 7. He was a casualty of the series' attempt to be different to 'DS9' when, in fact, dealing with regular faces on an ongoing basis would have made the most sense and provided a much stronger ship-wide community and continuity (I wonder if anyone's actually gone through the whole series and counted off every Starfleet extra and named crewman to see whether they were accurate in their supposed 200-odd crew roster!). They did that a fair amount in the first couple of seasons, but gradually got away from it, perhaps too much of a headache to juggle so many characters when they really wanted to make more sci-fi-focused stories than character-based.

Yet they weren't above bringing back an old face once in a while, which only makes it odder that they weren't willing to build up the crew community. But I'll take it, if that's the only way we get someone like Carey back. I'm not sure if we knew he was married, nor is it clear from this episode if his wife was aboard, except that there'd have to be a scene where Janeway goes to tell her what's happened to her husband, so unless that's yet another example of not showing the community, it would be confirmation that as far as she'd been concerned for several years she'd lost Joe when Voyager was sucked into the Delta Quadrant. Painful that it's just now, near the end (even though the characters don't know it's the end, but they've reached some kind of end with regular contact with Starfleet), now is when Carey is lost. It wasn't even a great last role for him, he's just there, along for the ride. It could have been any of the engineering staff, but it's a little gift for longterm viewers to be rewarded, if a bit of a double-edged reward! Even the final scene, presumably in Carey's Quarters where he'd been working on a model Voyager in a bottle (would you really need to work on it inside the bottle in the age of Transporters - authenticity, I suppose, although didn't they usually have masts that folded down and would spring back up when the ship was pushed down the neck!), isn't so much about Carey as it is the Captain and Chakotay musing on the trouble caused, whether to a civilisation or an individual.

Still, I appreciated the sense of continuity and harking back to the series' past, and Carey was far from being the only example of that: the whole premise is about a probe that was launched in 2067, only four years after Zefram Cochrane's first warp flight which itself was an example of technology bringing about a new era of improvement to living conditions and first contact with the Vulcans, so you can completely understand the desire to reach out to other species as the Vulcans did to them, a spirit of eager cooperation and hopefulness that sadly backfired in the case of this particular race. It might be a little hard to believe that this probe would have survived in space for so long, and apparently they were still tracking it up till one hundred and thirty years ago, which would be the early part of the 23rd Century. And somehow they were tracking it in the Delta Quadrant when they wouldn't have been able to 'see' that far out, nor would they have coordinates since there'd be no frame of reference beyond known space, and if it had got that far, how would it be in the same area over a century later... As you can see there are a lot of problems with the entire premise, and yet that doesn't bother me when it's written so beautifully and is such a sharp reminder of Prime Directive issues, while also showing the goodness and rightness of our heroes. They continue to do right by these people despite the cold reception, hostility, even coldblooded murder - when they attempt to set the atmosphere right, even at this critical moment they're threatened with the unused missiles of this world, the leader happy to blast them out of the sky rather than trust what they're doing is for his people's good.

At the same time I can see his point of view: if you've lived with a terrible, devastating affliction that you believe was caused by outsiders, it would take a lot to get past that hate and distrust - even curing the baby and sending it back could be viewed as a trick to lure them into complacency so they can be completely destroyed. The key was that although Verin had kept them alive for so long, survival was no longer enough - he was like a wartime leader in a time when peace had come, in much the same way Winston Churchill so ably led the country in the crisis of World War II, yet after the war was ousted. Everything and everyone has their time and it's about recognising that, a fascinating side issue of the episode. Janeway, too, is really put through it, characteristically more than willing to help, despite the overt enmity of those she's dealing with, until their response of killing Carey hardens her towards them. It takes an impassioned plea from Tom and Neelix, as former eyes on the ground, to give these people one last chance - and they were there and saw Carey executed in front of their eyes. But they also saw the pain in the eyes of their captors, the squalid, hopeless existence they were forced to endure. As the Doctor and Seven (once again donating nanoprobes from her own bloodstream), gradually heal Otrin, the stowaway from the Flyer and we see his face lose the horrible mottled bumps of the radiation poisoning (reminding me of the Vidiians in its visual repulsiveness), so the rift between the two peoples is also healed, Tom and Neelix both trying to connect to their captors in different ways.

For Neelix it was a harsh reminder of his own traumatic past, recalling the destruction of his home planet by the Metreon Cascade, but of course Verin, while expressing a cold regret that he had to lose his family, still doesn't sympathise or empathise and warns him not to compare their lives. It's so good to be reminded of Neelix' past, not to mention him taking on his self-appointed role of Ambassador again. His roles have so often been whatever was needed at the time, he's always striven to fit in to whatever mould Voyager needed, but he's also learned a lot and his compassion always shines through so it was a pleasure to see that side of him again. Tom as Nurse is also something that tended to fall by the wayside for much of the series, so again, its good to get that aspect of his character again as he does what he can to save the alien baby - really good model of one, too! In fact, everything worked: the sets, whether the familiar caves or the snowstorm-whipped outdoors (somehow reminding me of the Skedar planet from 'Perfect Dark' - must have been all that black metal and snow!), the CGI enhancements, even the use of those great EVA suits, all gave the episode a quality and a reality that shows how far Trek's production values had come (and would only continue with the next series).

The best thing about it, though, was the decision to repay evil with good, a very Biblical response to what are essentially enemies - the crew had no real responsibility to these people, even as representatives of Starfleet: as they mentioned, the probe was launched pre-Starfleet (which I take retroactively as a nice reference to 'Enterprise' - I know that wasn't the intention, I doubt the episode's writers, Michael Taylor and Bryan Fuller, even knew what the next series would be, even though it would have been in development at that time!), and humans can't be held responsible for the actions of their ancestors, no matter what terrible things they may have done. I grant that it's expected these aliens would suspect and distrust the descendants of those they blame for devastating their planet, but it wasn't their fault and they had no obligations to them other than their own sense of fairness and justice. That Janeway does the good deed at risk to her own ship only shows the strong moral core of her character and the Starfleet she represents (far from the one depicted, for the most part, in modern Trek). Even before Carey's senseless murder she's clear that she wants to keep all options open as a good Captain would (there's even a tidy comparison by the Admiral at the beginning to James Kirk when he says she's made more first contacts than anyone since him, another nice little Trekference to add to the canvas of this episode's use of canon), negotiating, warning, and eventually making use of her great Tactical Officer, Mr. Tuvok, in a clever ruse to gain access to the caves - I thought it was out of character for the Vulcan to so easily be captured, but he was only 'caught' by the Doctor, as someone who could withstand the radiation. Clever! Except that there was no guarantee the Doctor would be the one sent to take him back, nor that he wasn't asked for some kind of code to gain entrance past the guards...

Once again intelligence is valued over force and only makes our characters more inspiring. Mind you, it was much-needed tactics or they'd have had three years of ferrying these aliens to the closest M-class planet, which would take us to Season 10 (aha, a way to extend the series!), though I don't imagine it would have necessarily made the best TV to have three seasons of that... I felt there were some other good messages in the episode, too, with B'Elanna adamant she wasn't going to be treated like an invalid during her pregnancy, while Tom brought her up short, reminding her of the toxic atmosphere down on the planet and that she's breathing for two. In other words her responsibility to herself and their child inside come first above any feelings of pride and the need to feel useful. And who knows, maybe she'd have been the one to be killed if she'd gone instead of Carey, a stark potential reality to think of. (There's an impression B'Elanna's changed by the fact Chakotay bets with Neelix that she'll get her way, obviously the Torres he knew, a nice touch to show Motherhood does alter perceptions and behaviour). Unfortunately Paris lets things down a bit by later saying something about Fatherhood tends to regress the male psyche by a few thousand years, but he meant well and really only meant they become over-protective.

There was also a little reminder that science, for all its uses (much like logic), shouldn't be the be-all and end-all when Otrin states he's a scientist so he believes what he sees when they're trying to convince him they aren't responsible for what happened to his world, nor was it the intention of their ancestors - and they're right. It may have been unwise to send out this information on antimatter, but it was still up to the aliens how they used it. It also shows that knowledge in itself isn't always empowering, sometimes it can be destructive, and wisdom is required. Saying that, I thought it a bit reckless for the Away Team to pick up the child's musical toy when it could just as easily have been a bomb or grenade (I know they scanned it with their Tricorders, but even so, you never know if something's shielded, as was the case with the life-signs), not to mention they later give it to the little girl, and as Verin said, it could be a weapon! There was also the implication from the aliens who originally encountered Friendship One that they didn't know what music was since they seemed not to understand what it was that was playing. If that was the case then how could they have any technology at all since they'd need to have mastered mathematics which in turn is extremely connected to music! It could simply be they were referring to the musical piece itself, or the general idea of this probe, but it stood out to me.

We have some interesting Trek names in the guest cast, for example a rare connection to one of the modern Trek films (can we still call them modern when it's a decade since the last one?), as Yun was played by Ashley Edner who had a role in 'Star Trek Beyond' (Natalia, whoever she was). I presume Yun was the little girl. We also have a previous guest star back from this series: Admiral Hendricks (whom I didn't think much of while watching, a bit too 'soft,' but I enjoy the connection now I know it), was played by Peter Dennis who'd had a more visible role as Sir Isaac Newton in 'Death Wish.' Then there were a couple of people who'd been in 'DS9,' with John Prosky as scientist Otrin, previously Brathaw in 'For The Cause' (don't recall the character - interestingly his episode was only two episodes away from 'The Quickening,' another episode about a race blighted by illness that our people get involved with fixing), and Bari Hochwald who played Bashir's rival, Dr. Elizabeth Lense in 'Explorers' (Brin must have been the alien woman who gave birth, not that you'd recognise Bari under all that ugly makeup - always remembered the actress' name as quite memorable!), and would go on to appear in 'Enterprise' ('Marauders'), while John Rosenfeld, here credited as 'Technician #1' (must have been the male scientist who discovers the probe at the start), would also go to 'Enterprise' ('Silent Enemy'), so a nice selection of Trek connections that only enhance my enjoyment of what is a pretty strong and affecting story all round that helps to round out the series' history and gives a taste of what the series may have been with the conventional Starfleet hierarchy in place.

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