Star Trek Voy - Season 6 - Episode 23
Problems
- While not impossible, Tuvok being less than 100 years old in this episode is hard to rationalize with Voy: Flashback. Maybe like Klingons, Vulcans reach maturity much faster than humans, for Tuvok would have been a very young teenager whilst aboard the Excelsior.
Factoids
- Kes' shuttle's internal set is another reuse of captain Braxton's shuttle.
Remarkable Scenes
- Tuvok's excuse for blowing out the candle: "It was a fire hazard."
- Kes' appearance and subsequent telekinetic attacks on the ship.
- Kes traveling back through time.
- The doctor lamenting about not having a name.
- Tuvok mentioning the Delta Flyer whilst in the briefing in the past.
- The Vidiian attack.
- Chakotay: "Reverse thrusters, full power!" Harry: "That could tear the hull apart!" Chakotay: "Then tear it apart!"
- Janeway deactivating the EMH in the middle of talking to Kes.
My Review
This is an episode which gets lost in its own premise. The idea was to have Kes come back, but for only one episode. Which is fine, it was fun. But examining the episode more deeply shows its flaws. First of all, the episode takes place in Voyager's past, probably season 1. Again, it's fun to revisit this, but having a "modern" Kes return to us, then tossing the episode in the middle of the past was a grand waste of time. By the time we finally got the "real" Kes back and Janeway + Tuvok managed to quell her evil plan, the episode was pretty much over. Kes and Janeway have an extremely short conversation, and off Kes goes in Braxton's, er, I mean her shuttle to the Ocampa homeworld. Several things are not explained. Where did Kes get that shuttle? How fast is it? How did she locate Voyager? How did she catch up with Voyager? Why is she not as powerful as she was in Voy: The Gift? The question of why she was so angry throughout the episode is only barely answered. Suffice it to say, either a longer episode or an episode devoid of time travel would have been a better episode. And frankly, this likely being the final Kes episode leaves me more than a little annoyed. She already had one relatively bad send off, now two? I'm surprised Jennifer Lien actually did this episode after reading the script. This episode could have been the perfect opportunity to show us what Kes' life has been like for all these years or to even reintroduce her character. What a monumental waste. An extra point for the Vidiian plot and doing a good job making a season 1 set though.
The following are comments submitted by my readers.
Ha! This episode basically gave a big middle finger to Kes. I never liked her and was disappointed to hear that she comes back in this episode.
Problem: Correct me if I'm wrong, but when you set a phaser to "kill", it vaporizes the person!!! Kes just kind of fell over when Janeway shot her. Come on guys, this is season 6 and that's Star Trek 101!
Not to pretend to be an expert on phasers or anthing, but I thought that a 'maximum setting' results in vaporization (ST: First Contact). That doesn't necessarily translate to the "kill" setting as a setting below complete vaporization could also cause enough damage to kill a target.
Yes, No?
I'm no expert on phasers eaither, so I don't know wheather the kill setting vaporizes or not, but if Kes can stay concious when hit with the stun setting, her powers could have prevented her from being vaporized as well.
As for the episode itself, I did indeed find it distastefull as I was hoping for Kess to have a happy life after voyager. Presumably she still will after the events of this episode, but with much less of her life left. The fast that she lost some of her powers is anoying as well.
Regarding Tuvok's age, "Flashback" explicitly stated that Tuvok was 29 years old in those flashback scenes (which occurred during Star Trek VI, circa 2293). So regardless of how fast Vulcans age, there is simply no way Tuvok could have been less than 100 years old during "Fury" (set in 2376)... unless one of the two episodes was giving Tuvok's age in Vulcan years or something.
My friend, this episode is NOT a 2, it's a 0. A BIG FAT zero.
The poster who said it was a "middle finger" to Kes is absolutely right. Except, unlike him/her I don't think it's at all laudable or even interesting (and certainly not very "Star Trek") to give a "middle finger" to a perfectly moral and good character, even if they are unpopular. And she wasn't even all that unpopular, she was just let go to make room for a new character because the showrunners were changing direction. (In my opinion the new character is much more interesting, but that's beside the point here).
"The Gift" was an unsatisfying send off for Kes, but at least the idea behind it was that she had gone on to a bigger, more enlightened existence (like Wesley Crusher)... This redux, on the other hand, is totally unconscionable! WTF??? Really! If I was Jennifer Lien, I'd refuse to come back for a guest spot like this!
Kethinov, I know your require a canon-defying continuity error to give something a zero rating, does the Tuvok's age thing count? Make it count :-)
agreed that this episode was a mess--an there interesting premise, but almost seemed like an excuse to do a 'bottle show'--recycle a lot of old clips and slightly alter them.
it also had a flimsy premise for kes petulantly getting mad as she got older and exacting revenge, and the second time when she already knew what was coming, somehow forgetting and falling into the same trap. maybe you could stick in things there about 'fate' and whatnot, but they didn't, so it just seems arbitrary.
also tuvok's age thing--i'm confused because wasn't it just a few episodes ago that they were guessing his age, i think tom was, and they said it was already in the hundreds? forget 29...so yes this seemed inconsistent.
anyway a confusing episode which ruined a not-great character=flop. i don't mind them soiling the memory of a "nice" character if they want to, but they didn't even do it well. kes somehow goes off the deep end and doesn't only want to revenge but actually becomes a heedless jackass who tries to condemn the entire crew to death? nope. don't believe it.
I liked how when they went to the second run-through of the birthday cake scene, the director "crossed the line" and shot it from the reverse angle, almost giving it a mirror-image kind of look from the first time through.
In the season 2 episode “Meld”, Tuvok mentioned that he has studied violence for “over 100 years”, leading further credence to Tuvok being far older.
Either Janeway was incorrect in her calculations and Tuvok was humouring her, or the script writers stuffed up. Likely the latter.