OVEG: Time And Again

Description: The episode opens with boredom, but how's that new for Voyager? Paris is trying to talk Harry into joining him on a double date with the Delaney sisters (twins!), but for some reason Harry's more concerned with running diagnostics. Dumbass. The great thing is, if you didn't catch every scintilating moment, well, don't worry, you'll get another chance.

There's a massive shockwave, providing a typical goofball continuity error for Voyager. Paris gave a quick briefing to the pilot relieving him, including the fact that they were traveling at warp 7 and would be coming across the star where this comes from in forty minutes. In other words, the shockwave from the explosion was traveling at faster than light speeds. Yeah yeah, blah blah subspace, blah blah unknown energies, the point is, this pre-warp civilization apparently has technology capable of creating warp level explosions. Have I mentioned this show sucks?

Anyway, the stupid explosion has attracted Voyager's attention, and allows Janeway a moment to speculate on the cause. She asks Neelix if he was familiar with this system, thus setting up the Stupid Neelix Moment for this episode, as he blathers on about the degree of his unfamiliarity with this system, using a lot of words to say very, very little. Fortunatetly, it seems the viewers aren't the only ones who feel that way. Kneebler Commentary: I just like the way that Tuvok looks at Neelix (see the final picture). You can just see the look of barely restrained tolerance.

So, Voyager shows up over the planet to find out it's been pretty much wiped out. Janeway, Paris, Tuvok, and Torres beam down to the remains of the planet. It's dark and hazy because, of course, it's dead. You can't have sunny skies on a dead world; that's a law of fictional universes. Of course, I'd buy that it was because the atmosphere was choked with vaporized debris if not for the fact that Tuvok just said the atmosphere was breathable with acceptable levels of radiation. Janeway says there was a chain reaction in subspace, which naturally explains why everything in normal space would be affected. Stupid multi-dimensional explosions! Anyway, the explosion killed everyone on the entire planet because they were using polaric energy (Tech: this week's bullshit science, don't even try to figure it out).

Cut back to Voyager, and Kes is crying. At first you might think it's because she finally realizes who her boyfriend is, but no, it's because she saw the explosion in her mind before or as it happened. You can't really tell with those whacky Ocampa. Anyway, if you didn't think Neelix was an asshole before, this scene should help. Neelix talks to Kes with precisely the same questioning tone I use when I ask my wife why she spent the gas money on cigarettes. The thing is, Kes is pouring her heart out here in obvious grief, Neelix is acting like she's kind of loon wasting his time. When she says it's like telepathy, but Neelix goes on to lecture her on what telepathy is. Why Neelix would be qualified to lecture on telepathy is anyone's guess, but frankly, if your species barely qualifies as being sentient, you don't lecture others when it comes to matters of advanced mental powers. Of course, the purpose of this is to set up the idea of Kes developing psychic powers, which will occur throughout the series, long past her final episode.

Meanwhile they're on the planet, and Paris has found a broken timepiece, which looks incredibly convenient for someone with pockets the size of sleeping bags. Suddenly the lights come up and people and talking and children are playing because, of course, when people are alive it's always daylight. Then he flips back and forth a few times with the remains and the living city before the away team realizes that subspace has been shattered. Janeway remarks that "there may be subspace fractures floating like icebergs," which shows an apparent love affair Voyager has with ice as a metaphor, given the entire solution to the Parallax problem. Janeway tries to beam them out of there, but instead she and Paris get pulled through one and show up in the market square. Apparently polaric energy isn't the only mistake these people made, as they have a fashion sense more in keeping with a Brazillian soccer team than anything I've ever seen. Ick.

Instantly a boy screams at the sight of the two Voyager crew members, perhaps because he knows their arrival can only mean bad news for his people. Since there is no Catholic Church on this planet, it appears the pedophiles have all joined the police force, since a boy hungry brownshirt shows up and starts talking to him to get him to stop screaming. This guy has the look of someone who would show up at your door to announce he's a sex offender who has moved into the area. The boy quickly accuses the two of being demons, which is mostly untrue (Paris looks like he draws the line somewhere, although he'd probably have to report his nefarious past if he moved into your neighborhood too). The boy runs off, although which is the greater danger is debateable, but Janeway uses it as an opportunity to try and get a little information for a cover while they figure out what's going on. They quickly piece together that the planet's going to blow in a day.

Cut back to Voyager, where Harry tries to provide this week's BS plot device with some logic. For some reason known only to the director, Harry runs his hand along a graph like he's a model showing off a car on a game show, but it's to explain why Janeway and Paris were thrown in the past. As always, it makes no sense: The effects of the explosion dissipated into the past, which would explain why the fractures moved into the future to start transporting people (otherwise, there should be a bunch of confused people wandering around the wreckage of their dead world). As always happens with Trek, when they say something is going backwards through time, it doesn't really work that way. But it does allow Harry to present some more really wooden exposition.

Cut back to the Kes-Neelix issue, which should be dull and painful except for one important detail: the Doctor! Yes, the Doctor puts in an appearance and, as always, steals the scene. He runs some scans of Kes' brain, then shows his real concern: her brain's not on file. Then he slowly learns of just how messed up things are: all the personnel who have joined without giving their medical histories to the only physician on board. "But I seem to be the last to know just about anything around here," he laments. Again, you've got to hand it to Picardo; he could play this in such an annoying manner, but you completely empathize with his grouchiness. Still, he tries to cope; he tries contacting Janeway to straighten things out, but he's then informed that she's missing. He takes the news about as well as you can expect, finally giving in to resignation with a weary "Seems I've found myself on the voyage of the damned," which earns this the Best Moment for this episode.

Back to the planet, and Janeway and Paris have traded in their uniforms for some local clothes. Man, these things are ugly, not to mention wholey impractical. There's laces like a corset running up the back and sides which makes the tunics form fitting. Also, those of you who can't get enough of Janeway's sexiness (both of you) will be pleased to know that there's some kind of push-up bra built into them or something to put the Janeway twins on display. How that didn't draw in the viewership I'll never know. Anyway, Paris is still feeling a little glum about the upcoming planetary holocaust, but Janeway warns him not to think about getting involved and trying to prevent it. "The Prime Directive is clear," she says. Well, at least we have that comfort.

Since this touches so directly on the issue of the Prime Directive, allow me a brief (future Chuck: Okay, not so brief) digression. If you don't know, the Prime Directive is a Federation regulation prohibiting it or its people from becoming involved in internal affairs of other civilizations, or with their natural course of development. It's considered a form of enlightened thinking to some, and it's not without its merits. The Federation, as a general rule, should stay out of other people's business. The problem is, that general rule is taken to an extreme: it prohibits involvement under any circumstances. The Federation sat on the sidelines and refused to involve themselves in the Klingon Civil War, even though it was universally understood that the Federation and the entire Alpha Quadrant could be put in danger by a unified Klingon-Romulan alliance. It took severe arm-twisting by Picard to get even the minimal involvement they were able to perform. But even if you think that was a mistake, the Federation stands by and does nothing when civilizations are being wiped out by disease or natural catastrophe. The idea seems to be that they shouldn't play God with the fates of other civilizations, but does that justify sitting on your hands while people die needlessly? I'm reminded of a line from Orson Scott Card's Pastwatch when two people in the past learn they are being watched by people in the future who won't deliver them from their horrific fate: "If they can't save us, then why do they look at us, unless they are monsters who enjoy the suffering of others?"

This civilization is going to be completely wiped out in one day, and these two know it. Yet Janeway insists that they can't warn the people, that the Prime Directive is right and that to warn them, even when total annihilation is certain, would be a travesty. As Mike Wong pointed out on his website, this kind of thinking assumes that the Prime Directive was a divine being or something, that it has a plan, and who are mere mortals like Janeway and Paris to question it? It is, in fact, merely a rule created by human beings. Not to say that it isn't an important rule, since there is much justification for it (such as preventing exploitation of undeveloped systems). But that doesn't make it an absolute, that there's never a reason to ignore it. As Terry Pratchett says in Thief of Time: "That's why there are rules - so you think before you break them." The biggest excuse, and the one Janeway trots out here, is that you don't know what the consequences would be. You could make things worse. Granted, going in and stopping a war could be a really sticky problem, but using this as a justification for allowing millions or billions to be incinerated alive? With that kind of logic, you should never get involved in anything. If a person is trapped under a piece of fallen masonry in an alley and calls for help, ignore them. After all, if you save them they could go on to marry and have children, and one of those children could wind up growing up and joining a group of whack-jobs and helps them plant a nuclear warhead in a major city, killing tens of millions of people. Or maybe they'll just live a long and happy life. You don't know, but under the reasoning of the Prime Directive disciples, it's better not to take that chance.

One last thing before I return to the direct issues of the episode. Not two episodes ago, Janeway violates the Prime Directive by destroying the Caretaker's Array (remember, she did it to prevent the Kazon from using the technology against the Ocampa, a purely internal matter, as Tuvok points out). She got involved because the series depended on it, er, I mean, because "they were already involved." Okay, fine. Aren't you already involved here? You've shown up on this planet, you've interfered in small ways already, but rather than risking violating the omniscient Prime Directive, you'll let all these people die. Stopping the Kazon from using technology against the Ocampa is one thing, but we're not in the mass extinction prevention business.

The kid shows up again and starts badgering them, but Paris scares them off. I'm starting to like this guy, but then again, he's standing next to someone who thinks self-inflicted extinction is a good idea, so I suppose Ted Bundy would probably look pretty good too. Paris then wonders aloud if the polaric energy could be used to get them back somehow, and Janeway comes up with some more BS to justify heading down to the polaric energy plant. There we see more of the brownshirts keeping a bunch of protestors out. Things get ugly because apparently the protestors want to get pushy and get too close. A guard starts shooting in the air to get people to leave, then another one hits Janeway in the face with a truncheon! Woohoo! Take that you genocide-loving bitch! Thank goodness I've got this on DVD, so I don't have to worry about wearing the tape down watching this scene over and over and over...

Back on Voyager, it's time for more techno-BS. The upshot is that they can only try for so long, and can't do it at the same place more than once. Also, everyone gets magic armbands! These will keep those nasty subspace fractures from swallowing anyone else up. Now the two-subplots merge and Kes says she wants to join in the rescue effort. And the plot moves on.

Apparently Janeway got clocked pretty good, but fortunately she and Paris have been brought back to the secret headquarters of the protestors, where we learn that they are led by NFL superstar John Elway. If he could bring the Broncos to victory, I'm sure this group will be no problem! He's assisted by Obviously-Untrusting-Underling, the off the rack character who is employed to ask all the cynical questions and allowing the leader to remain reasonable. It will be his job to do any of the heinous things that need to be done in the name of the cause. He also has a serious amount of visible chesthair. Yikes! He catches them in a lie and deduces they are spies.

Now Kes is using the Force... I mean, her telepathic whatamajiggy, to sense the people who were there at the site of the explosion. Harry comes across the signal from their commbadges and starts searching for them. Back in the past, John Elway is interrogating Janeway. He wants to know whether they can keep their schedule, but Janeway doesn't cooperate. The kid shows up and is taken prisoner. The away team tries to rescue them, but winds up giving away the fact that the commbadges are communication equipment, which are quickly confiscated.

Well, it turns out that because of their presence, the protestors are moving up their timetable. This makes Janeway realize that their presence has altered events, causing the disaster in the first place. Torn between her love for the Prime Directive and her love for killing, Janeway finally tries to tell them about the accident. Unfortunately, she manages to do in such a way that no sane person would ever believe her. Instead the protestors think they're spies that can get them into the power plant. Janeway gives them up at the gate in an admittedly cool moment: she's supposed to bluff their way in, but she instead stands at the gate and with a perfectly straight and even tone announces, "I am a hostage. These men are here to break into the plant."

Naturally shooting breaks out. Not-exactly-evil-but-not-nice-number-two-guy tries shooting the boy, but Paris does his In The Line Of Fire impression and takes the bullet for him. John Elway and the protestors rush inside while Janeway checks on Tom. This is rather painfully drawn out, but finally he gets her to go inside and prevent the protestors from causing the disaster. Elway cries out "Their lives are on your conscience, Janeway!" Boy, if I had a nickle for every time that should have been said...

Janeway sneaks inside with a weapon to try and stop them. The protestors appear to be changing a fuse or something, it's hard to tell. Janeway gets the drop on them and holds them captive. Meanwhile the away team has come to the source of the explosion to try and rescue them at the flash point of the explosion. Kes can feel that this is the place where Janeway died, but you can't make an omlet without breaking a few eggs. However, when they try to get through everyone in the past realizes that the rescue attempt is going to cause the explosion. To stop it she shoots it with her phaser... uh huh. Anyway, this resets everything and we get to watch that wonderful conversation between Paris and Harry in all its glory... you know, to show that things have gone back in time and all. Kes shows up and is concerned about the planet (telepaths can always detect temporal anomalies... they're funny that way). It's shown on the screen and looks just fine for right now, and Janeway announces that they won't become involved with them because of the Prime Directive. Neelix calls it a most enlightened philosophy because, of course, he's a shithead. No lessons are learned by anyone and the people of the planet are allowed to continue to live on a powder keg because of the all wise and knowing Prime Directive.

Rating: 6

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