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Synopsis

We’re introduced to Janeway’s holonovel set in “Ancient England,” where she plays Lord Burleigh’s new governess. Kim hails her and states Tuvok and Chakotay’s shuttle is on long range sensors but they’re not responding. Tuvok and Chakotay are beamed to Sick Bay once they’re in range, and the Doctor reports Tuvok has a treatable concussion, but all of Chakotay’s bio-neural energy is drained. He’s brain dead.

Tuvok tells the story of what happened: they found a dark-matter nebula, where a ship emerged and attacked them with an energy discharge which penetrated their shields and filled their cabin. Chakotay went unconscious immediately, but Tuvok was able to set the auto-pilot. To help Chakotay, they need info on the weapons, so Tuvok will go check the logs while they head to the nebula to investigate further.

Something unkown erased the logs but Janeway orders Torres to look it over once she’s done in Sick Bay. They discover that the nebula is producing strong EM radiation and as a result, they’re unable to scan inside it. It’s the perfect hiding place. Suddenly, they lose their sensor data on the nebula, and they do a complete 180, altering course. Paris denies it was him. They transfer helm controls to Kim’s station and Paris runs a diagnostic to see if there’s any problems with his station.

Torres performs a ritual using Chakotay’s tribe’s Medicine Wheel to help his soul come back. The Doctor questions her because he knows the proper way to do it, but he says it wouldn’t work since he’s brain dead.

Kes greets an unknown presence in her quarters and says Hello to it, and Neelix gets jealous when she tells him about it in the Mess Hall.

Once again, the ship’s heading changes unexpectantly and Kim gets locked out of his controls. Paris returns and couldn’t find any issue with his station, perfect timing. Torres says she hasn’t messed with the controls since the morning, but Paris was there just five minutes ago, which he denies. Janeway believes him but orders him to Sick Bay to check out his memory.

Paris’ scans all seem normal. Tuvok interrupts: he found Paris’ DNA, less than 12 hours old, on the console, so it was very likely him. The Doctor runs additional scans.

Tuvok shows Janeway the ion trail of the ship which attacked them, and she conjectures that it’s the only safe passage through the nebula. Just before they lay in a course, the ship’s power and warp core shuts down. Janeway investigates Engineering since Torres doesn’t respond to hails. Torres crashed the main computer, locked out the bridge, and stopped the ship cold, but has no idea what happened when Janeway confronts her.

The Doctor finds irregularities in Torres’ and Paris’ memory engrams at the exact times they infiltrated the ship’s commands – as if another brain wave were superimposed on theirs. Tuvok suggests that the being came onto the ship with the shuttle and can jump from person to person, and therefore, the Doctor is immune. Janeway gives the Doctor the command codes, and Tuvok will work with Kes to help her find the alien presence using her special telepathy.

Walking in the halls, Kim and Durst talk about the situation and discover Tuvok and Kes in the turbolift, unconscious.

Captain’s log states that Kes and Tuvok were hit with the same energy discharge as the shuttle earlier, and that Tuvok is fine but Kes is out. In the conference room, Paris suggests a magneton scan, and Torres elaborates that they can do it by an instantaneous flash scan over the entire ship. Then, their paranoia gets the best of them when Kim gets distracted and they assume he’s been possessed by the alien.

The Doctor and Neelix have a funny, paranoid interaction while the former scans Kes. Tuvok enters when Neelix leaves, reconfigures the scanners, and asks about Kes. Her bio-neural energy is in tact and her injuries were from a physical altercation.

Tuvok reports to Janeway that the magneton scan will occur in 2 hours and cause some discomfort, as well that Kes was physically assaulted, presumably by him. They agree the Doctor should scan him, but the Doctor is now offline, which means the command codes are back with Janeway. She suggests to split the codes into two groupings, one for her and the other half for Tuvok, and as they announce it to the Bridge, the alien overtakes her. She attacks Tuvok, then it takes over Kim, then Durst, all aiming for Tuvok. He uses a wide dispersal phaser beam to stun the entire bridge.

Paris inoculates Janeway with something in Sick Bay and Kim estimates the Doctor can return in 2 or 3 hours. Torres calls Janeway to Engineering, and Janeway sends Kim to the Bridge. Torres discovered someone erased the sensor logs but made it look like an attack. There was no attacking ship, and the discharge came from the nebula itself – Tuvok was lying! The magneton scan will occur in 15-20 minutes.

Tuvok lays in a course to follow the ion trail, and Paris confirms Kes’ injuries are consistent with a Vulcan nerve pinch. When Janeway questions why Tuvok was assaulted in the three separate instances so far, and he accuses her of paranoia. She confirms the ion trail is consistent with a ship with no engines; a fake. She orders Kim to do a course reversal, but Tuvok pulls out a phaser and attempts to relieve her of command. Kim refuses to listen to him, so Tuvok threatens everyone with a wide beam kill-setting phaser and lines them all up, away from their stations.

Kim mentions that the energy pulses from the nebula are consistent with a bio-matrix. Tuvok confirms that they’re his people, the Komar, and that this is their domain. The alien overtakes Torres in Engineering and she ejects the warp core, which makes the crew think there’s two aliens, now. However, based on the command codes used, it turns out it’s Chakotay. Tuvok engages the emergency thrusters and proceeds to the nebula – the Voyager crew’s neural energy will sustain his people. Just as the Komar attack the ship, the magneton scan occurs, and a silvery light escapes Tuvok’s body. The nebula’s EM field blinds their sensors, so they can’t easily reverse course. Chakotay overtakes Neelix in Sick Bay and arranges the stones on the Medicine Wheel. They figure out it was to make a map of the nebula, since the stones match the position of the planetoids. They escape the nebula with a lot of turbulence, but safely. The Komar do not pursue.

The Doctor tries re-integrating Chakotay’s consciousness and it works. Chakotay reveals that the more he concentrated on someone in the room to use their body, it became easier to do more. He apologizes to Tuvok, and mentions it feels like he never left Voyager at all.

Thoughts

This was a great episode which wasn’t on my regular re-watch list, but it definitely is now. I remembered that Chakotay had his presence floating about the ship, but I forgot that the alien they thought they were trying to capture was him the whole time. Tuvok having a different alien presence caught me completely by surprise. It pretended to by Tuvok quite well. The mystery, suspense, and intrigue in this episode was easy to follow and very well done.

The paranoia could have been played up a bit more, though. Besides the scene where they all turn on Kim momentarily, we get the hilarious scene between the Doctor and Neelix. I think that subplot needed a third act, maybe showing a crew member dealing with some consequences as a result of some paranoia. Something to really nail that point home.

The resolution of the episode involving the Medicine Wheel worked, however, it must be noted how generic, stereotypical, and problematic Chakotay’s heritage was displayed on the show. I did like the detail that the Doctor knew all about the practices, too, but it’s too bad they weren’t real, and just something made up.

I’m also noticing how scientific the dialogue in these early episodes are. Lengthy time is given to the technobabble, and that’s just not the case as the later seasons pass. It’s been an interesting endeavour trying to sift through it all and ensure what I’m taking note on is actually relevant. I believe they wanted Voyager to come across as the more scientific of the spin-off shows, and the writers tried their best to make that the case. I very much love it, though, since the actors portray it so sincerely about this nonsense in the script.

I very much enjoyed this episode and especially loved the twist about Tuvok. I wonder if the Komar will ever come back again in Prodigy. These alien entities which feed off different sources than we’re used to have always fascinated me.

This was originally posted on Sept 14, 2021. Transported to neocities on Oct 20, 2025.