VOY – Deadlock

Plot – The teaser leads the viewer right down the garden path into thinking that this going to be a twee Voyager episode about one of the crew giving birth. Elogium wasn’t that long ago to remind people of how badly fudged maternal themes can be on this show. Cut to the birth of the baby. Cut to the Vidiians attacking Voyager. Cut to the death of the baby. Wow. I never saw that coming for a moment. Voyager is going to bear down on the tricky subject of infant death at birth? This is one of those rare times when the happy go lucky existence on Voyager is intruded upon by the horror of the Delta Quadrant and it really hits home (especially since the entire crew are on tenterhooks waiting for the arrival of the first baby born on Voyager). For a show like Voyager I could imagine them not wanting to deal with the consequences of having a baby on board the show so it is perfectly feasible, in dramatic terms, that they would go down this route. That’s what makes what ultimately happens so clever and satisfying.

I love the idea that you can beam a baby out of the womb and into the tiny infant bio bed if the pregnancy is traumatic enough. What a wonderfully simple and yet creative use of Star Trek technology. I’m sure there are plenty of women watching who are envious of the simplicity of such a procedure.

The duplicate Voyager’s that are inextricably linked so that one directly effects the other is such a brilliant piece of techno-madness that I’m surprised it has taken this long for somebody to come up with it. As one Voyager sets off proton bursts to help their situation it is literally sucking the life out of the other one.

At one-point Tom Paris is literally on the run for his life from the Vidiians and Tuvok is having his organs harvested. Deadlock takes the show as far as it can go down the ‘end of the line’ route because it has two Voyagers to play with and so one set of regulars can be disposed of.

Character – I love the moment where Janeway sets the self-destruct and everybody on the Bridge starts looking at each other. That’s right folks, you’re really not going to get out of this one.

Performance – Janeway, her face cut and bloody, having the result of the damage spilled out to her (including the death of the child) is one of those rare Voyager moments where the Quadrant pushes down hard on her. Mulgrew captures the futility perfectly. She has the difficult job of bringing two separate Janeway’s to life who are basically the same character but one who has just undergone severe trauma and another who hasn’t. it is often the case that the more bizarre concepts on this show fall on Mulgrew’s shoulders to convince us that they are really happening. If Captain Janeway is buying into what is happening, then I believe it is really happening. Mulgrew has a way of making the most extreme technobabble sound entirely plausible. She really was quite a find. ‘Mr Kim, we’re Starfleet Officers…weird is part of the job’ might just sum up every other episode of Voyager and Mulgrew nails the line.

Production – One of the better Voyager action episodes because it feels like the entire situation has shot to hell and that things have gotten out of control in a way that cannot be salvaged. David Livingston brings a real pace and seriousness to the opening half which is effectively one long action set piece. The proton bursts are a brilliant Brannon Braga concept and how they are delivered, silence and then a slow build up of noise before complete destruction, is full of uncertainty because we know that further devastation is imminent. Sets are blown up and left in debris, coolant leaks spit gas in the corridors, proton bursts explode in peoples faces and best of all Harry Kim gets sucked into the vacuum of space when the hull bursts open. There is literally no bad here. When it comes to the point where the Bridge is in flames, explosions are still raining and they are having to evacuate I even wondered if they were going get out of this one. That’s a rare but enjoyable feeling on this show. It’s even more satisfying that the Voyager that we end up staying with it’s the damaged one (as opposed to the one littered with corpses).

Best moment – Just when you think things can’t get any worse than two crewmembers dead and one of the two Voyager’s damaged beyond repair along comes the Vidiians to harvest the organs of the crew of the undamaged Voyager. Some days you just don’t get a break. Gasp at the nasty medical vampires working their way through the ship, scanning people and preparing them for organ harvesting.

Worst moment – ‘Ensign Kim is dead. Kes just disappeared’ ‘Disappeared?’ Yes, nobody takes even a moment to mourn the death of Harry Kim. Admittedly there is a lot happening at the time. Nowadays it would be greeted with a round of tears and slow-motion flashbacks.

The one moment that I was unconvinced by the production was the awkward green screen when the two Janeway’s interact. There was nothing wrong with the performances but the angle of their heads and the way they are talking to each just doesn’t quite ring true.

I wish they hadn’t done that – The lack of consequences bothers me, as it always does on this show. It’s very neat as a package to take away several elements of the show in a shocking piece of action carnage (Harry Kim and Naomi Wildman) and then to find a science fiction twist that allows them to both be returned by the end. Talk about having your cake and eating it. Thinking about it carefully I’m not sure which of the two I would want to lose because they are both equally as frustrating later down the line. I’d probably sacrifice Harry, just because I wouldn’t be able to tell the difference in the show. With Naomi gone, some of Seven’s development later would feel more forced.

A reason to watch this episode again – It’s like the producers looked at the first two seasons of Voyager and decided that there simply was not enough action and tasked Brannon Braga with the job of redressing the balance. That is definitely in Deadlock’s favour; it is a terrific hour of action Trek with lots of impressive technical skill on display but a clever science fiction story in play too and there is even some room for human interest. Had every episode of Voyager had as many beats of suspense, terror and tragedy as this in its early years people would have been hailing it as the renaissance of shipboard Trek. It’s one of the few episodes of Trek where the lashings of technobabble are bearable for me because the end result is such a smart, dynamic episode. David Livingston deserves every bit of praise that he gets – he was truly trying to push Star Trek in a far more energetic direction. Janeway’s ‘Welcome to the Bridge’ before the ship detonates and takes the Vidiians with them might just be the best moment in Voyager’s seven-year run.

****1/2 out of *****

Cue for tomorrow's episode: