Star Trek Voy - Season 2 - Episode 21
Star Trek Voy - 2x21 - Deadlock
Originally Aired: 1996-3-18
Synopsis:
A space anomaly generates a duplicate Voyager. [DVD]
Problems
None
Factoids
- Naomi Wildman is born in this episode.
Remarkable Scenes
- The fetal transport.
- Harry being vented into space.
- Janeway discovering the double Voyager.
- The Vidiians boarding Voyager.
- The other Janeway's friendly greeting to her conqueror just before the ship explodes.
My Review
This episode is pretty good from a sci fi perspective. Much of it has some pretty decent technical explanations behind it. Unfortunately, it falls short in the ending. Several plot holes crop up. It seems unlikely that the two ships could in fact merge after being separated, and even more unlikely that one Voyager self destructing would solve the whole problem. Not really avoidable though; a reset button was necessary.
The following are comments submitted by my readers.
This episode suffers from the usual Voyager problems: Excessive technobabble and a deus ex machina ending.
Voyager uses more technobabble than DS9, TNG, ENT, and TOS combined
This episode blows.
I agree there are definitely some questionable things about the premise and its resolution.
Also, Janeway & Janeway's interactions could've been better - there were some missed opportunities there. They were both a bit too casual about it, their reactions and behavior weren't proportional to the true "weirdness" (to quote Kim) of the situation. After all, she (x2) was meeting not just some double or doppelganger, not just some long lost twin, but a twin instance of herself.
They did stand incredibly close, far into each others "personal space," and they did look sort of lovingly at each other, but other than that they acted exactly as if it was all perfectly normal.
On the other hand, one thing I appreciated in the episode was how the viewer's attachment bounced around between the two crews. We start the day in one Voyager universe, then all goes to hell, Kim dies, and its revealed that there's another ship where everything's pretty much OK. So the viewer is guided to reattach to this "other" ship/crew, and the original one is marked for self-destruction - a kind of necessary expandability. It's a really nice twist to have the Vidians completely overrun this "new" Voyager, and for the viewer to do an about face and reattach to the "original" ship, just with the small "organ donation" of a restored Kim and a healthy baby.
So, problematic but not a total loss - some definitely redeeming elements in this episode.
Near the end the Doctor says to Kim, "Did my counterpart have a name," and Kim responds, "I didnt have time to ask."
These comments make absolutely no sense. First, Voyager has only been "doubled" for a couple hours so I dont think the Doctor acquired a name in that time period. Second, what the hell does Kim mean he didnt have time? The Doctor is asking a question about the Doctor from Kim's ship (so he has always known that Doctor). They really didnt think this exchange out.