Click here to check the episode index.

Synopsis

Tuvok helps Kes with her psychic abilities in his quarters. Tuvok urges her to focus on the voices of the crew, and she hears Neelix getting a haircut and giggles. Tuvok stops the lesson due to her emotional outburst, and offers to teach her a Vulcan technique to help stifle her “giggles.”

She shows up to Sick Bay late to her shift, annoying the Doctor who lectures her about her priorities. He’s cut off, though, by a high-pitched sound coming from some storage locker. Within it, a rock in a spherical vessel shakes, and thanks to the recap before this teaser, we know it’s the Caretaker.

The Doctor tells Janeway, Tuvok, and Torres what happened, throwing in that the rock had life-signs which suddenly ceased. Torres confirms that on all bio-spectral frequencies the rock is inert, and Janeway is suspicious that it means anything at all. Tuvok, on the other hand, brings up that the Caretaker was an alien entity they never really understood, and advises placing it in a level 3 biohazard containment field. The rock screeches again, and the life-signs reappear. Torres realizes that an external energy source is resonating with it, causing the readings. Janeway hails Kim on the bridge to scan for a sporocystian life-form, which he imprecisely finds 10 light years away. Torres thinks they can use the rock to find the Caretaker’s mate. Tuvok reminds them that she might have the power to send them home.

Torres places the rock-remains in a hexi-prismatic field, which Janeway calls a compass. Chakotay checks out Janeway’s butt, and when she catches him, he puts on a goofy smile. Tuvok recmends that they create a toxin to debilitate the life-form, just in case, and Janeway agrees. Paris picks up sporocystian energy on sensors, and Chakotay calls on Torres to use their compass. After Kim increases spatial resolution and boosts the signal gain, they find its location and proceed at maximum warp. A space station awaits them, just like the Caretaker’s array, but one-tenth the size. There’s no sporocystian life-forms, though, but over 2000 Ocampa. The station fires warning shots and Voyager’s shields hold. An Ocampa sends them a hail about the warning, and that they’re unwanted.

Janeway tells Kes that the station is over 300 years old, and wants her help to arrange a meeting. That same Ocampa who warned them before warms up to seeing Kes and agrees to meet them on Voyager.

In the conference room, Janeway tells them their intentions, but they are suspicious due to Voyager’s negative reputation. Tanis, the man who warned them earlier, telepathically asks Kes if they can speak alone, and she complies. Tanis wants Kes to show him the place that’s special to her, and she takes him to the Airoponics Bay. He says mean things about Voyager, that it’s sterile and lacks life, but Kes defends them. He reveals he’s 14 years old, and that the name of their “Caretaker” is Suspiria. Suspiria honed their abilities beyond what Kes could imagine; he “enhances” the plant life, making them overgrown and huge. Kes is excited, and Tanis makes his exit.

In her ready room, Janeway congratulates Kes on accomplishing a dialogue with Tanis. Kes is excited and frightened by what her people can accomplish, and Tuvok suggests not being emotional, but Janeway asserts that her feelings are appropriate. Janeway warns caution, but Kes has a good feeling about Tanis.

Aboard the station, Tanis calls upon Suspiria and reports that Kes has potential. Suspiria’s voice replies that she’s not interested in her, just the ship.

Tanis, Neelix, Kes, Tuvok, Chakotay, and Janeway have a private dinner. Tanis reveals his father lived to be 20, and that he doesn’t know Suspiria’s location. Whenever they need to talk to her, they go to the “meeting place.” Tanis invites Kes to stay with them aboard the station, which causes her to be at a loss for words. Kes wants to learn more about their mental abilities and Tanis promises he’ll teach her later this evening.

Tuvok shows off the anti-sporocystian weapon to Janeway in Engineering.

Neelix watches Tanis train Kes in the Mess Hall. With her mind, she moves a cup of tea, and then he guides her into warming it up. Just focus on the goal, not the task. Don’t create the fire, just use it. Kes calls it simple, and when Tanis leaves Neelix congratulates her and expresses his pride. She asks if he would join her if she stayed on the station, and he says he would.

Voyager arrives at the “meeting place.” Tanis sends out a carrier wave with their communications array.

Kes shows her new-found abilities to Tuvok, specifically, heating up the water. She loses control, boils Tuvok’s blood, and screams!

Fully recovered, Tuvok awakes in Sick Bay to find his body underwent hyperthermal induction – his body temperature increased 37 degrees in a matter of seconds. The Doctor restricts him to three days of light duty, to which Tuvok refuses. Kes apologizes to him, but he breaks down her emotions of remorse and guilt and wants her to learn from it. He arranges a lesson for tomorrow.

Kes finds Tanis in Airoponics, and she’s afraid that she can’t control her abilities. Tanis disregards that, since, with time, she’ll be so far beyond the people on Voyager that she’ll see them as pets. He gets her to “touch” a flower, first with her hand, then with her mind. She says it’s like feeling something for the very first time, and the whole room’s colours become saturated. He asks her to bring the fire and it all burns, but she’s intoxicated with the power and falls to the ground in ecstasy. He asks how it felt, and she looks around and sees they’re all dead, but says it’s amazing. She transformed life, according to Tanis. Hurting people, helping them, giving them life, killing – it’s all the same. She needs to see the universe for what it truly is. She’s still not sure about joining him on the station, but he’s sure she’ll change her mind once she meets Suspiria. All the Ocampa are connected through her, and Suspiria will take her to Exosia; a “subspace layer” of pure thought.

The Caretaker compass in Engineering reacts to a sporocystian life-form above them. Torres wants to run a bio-spectral analysis, and while the Bridge waits for it they don’t hear from her. Tuvok sends a security team.

Tanis meets Kes in the Mess Hall and tries to get her to come with him to Suspiria. Tuvok reports to the Bridge that he found Suspiria, so Janeway heads down. Tanis gets Kes to hear the Ocampa with her mind, and then Suspiria. Janeway is all alone in Engineering but for a young girl, holding the Caretaker’s remains and weeping. Kes feels Suspiria’s presence: powerful, turbulent, and angry. Suspiria wants to destroy the ship! Neelix catches Tanis and Kes in an almost-embrace. Janeway explains what the Caretaker did to them, sending them across the galaxy, and Suspiria suspects that’s why Voyager killed him. Blood drips on Janeway’s shoulder from above, and Torres and Tuvok are suspended in air. Suspiria suspends Janeway and force-chokes her. On the bridge, Paris reports that the ship’s molecular structure is coming apart and Chakotay orders Kim to increase power to structural reinforcement. Tanis wants Kes to join him, but Neelix tells him to leave her alone. With a look, Tanis sends Neelix flying across the room. Kes uses her mind to hurt Tanis just like she hurt Tuvok. That causes Suspiria to fall to the ground, letting go of her control of Torres, Tuvok, and Janeway. Janeway grabs the sporocystian weapon and shoots Suspiria and erects a forcefield around her. Suspiria thinks they’ll kill her but Janeway insists they won’t. She removes the force field and puts down her weapon. Suspiria, surprised, becomes a tentacle-like being and leaves the ship. Tanis wakes up and cries out he wants to be taken, too, and seems to be taken. Tuvok checks, but there’s no sign of Suspiria anywhere.

Voyager resumes course for the Alpha Quadrant. Tuvok teaches Kes, but she’s reluctant to see that side of her again, that she never realized she had such dark impulses. Tuvok mentions that without the darkness, they wouldn’t be able to recognize the light. Negative thoughts are a part of every living being, and he reveals Vulcan history about it. To pretend it doesn’t exist gives it the possibility to escape. The lesson begins, and the episode ends.

Thoughts

I’ve always been a fan of Kes, and her episodes are some of my favourites. “Cold Fire” is no exception, and in particular the scene where she sets fire to the Airoponics Bay is one of my favourite in the entire series. To be so intoxicated with a new found power, to be told you’re more special than you realize, to realize all your potential; there are some interesting themes in that scene and the episode as a whole.

I’ve been thinking as to why Tuvok insists on Kes controlling her emotions, and the best reason I could think of is at the climax. Suspiria is so sure that Voyager killed the Caretaker that she won’t listen to Janeway’s plea. Kes feels Suspriria’s anger, and such that when Kes attacks Tanis, Suspiria feels it, too, allowing Janeway to shoot her with the toxin. While the crew seems to detest Tuvok’s simplistic resolutions, he is right in this instance. A more neutral reaction would have yielded a better result for all interested parties. A dialogue with Suspiria could have allowed Voyager to access her powers to return home, or closer still. Emotions, especially negative, and how we react to them, are so important to our decision making process. Perhaps the Vulcans are onto something.

“Cold Fire” provides a stand-out performance from Lien as Kes as well guest star Graham as Tanis. The pair has chemistry, the dark side of the student-apprentice relationship. I just wish we had more contrast between Tanis and Tuvok, something to really nail the point home. Nonetheless, this was one of my favourite Kes episodes and still is. I hope the Ocampa come back in Discovery, perhaps something to do with the spore-drive. That would make me, and possibly many other Voyager fans, incredibly happy.

This was originally posted on Sept 28, 2021. Transported to neocities on Dec 1, 2025.