VOY – Lineage

Plot – I love the gag that Icheb thinks the lifeform inside Voyager is a parasite rather than a baby because he is part of a show that tosses out bizarre ideas on a weekly basis but never takes genuine character risks. It makes the revelation stick out even more by taking the piss out of the norm like this. This is the kind of thing I wish they had done with Torres and Tom a few seasons earlier rather than their prolonged, sitcom, flirtations because the idea of bringing up a baby on Voyager together is one that has huge dramatic and comic potential. Frustratingly the baby isn’t born until the series finale and so (I know I keep saying it but I wouldn’t have to if it wasn’t true) they fail to exploit the potential of this idea and duck all the possibilities for the exploration of motherhood.

Character – How the Captain’s respond to pregnancy is very telling. When Archer found out Trip was pregnant he couldn’t help but take the piss but then he’s a bit of twat like that. When Sisko discovered Vilix Pran was budding he couldn’t stop smiling because he is every inch the family man. And when Janeway realises Torres is having a baby she hugs her warmly because she is basically the mother of this entire crew.

I really like Tuvok talking about his family because they are mentioned so infrequently that you might forget that he had any. He’s been separated from them for some time now…I wish we had gotten the chance to explore that some more.

Torres and Paris have never felt more like a believable couple than they do here grappling with something enormous that is about to shake up their life for good. Just a simple scene like the two of them I bed together discussing their day feels so much more natural than usual (have we ever seen them in a normal domestic situation like this before?). Paris is being written as a person and not a function in a plot. I think that happened for about 20 episodes of this show but this is the best example. Look at how Robert Duncan McNeill responds to the material; it’s a performance that is raw and honest. Oh, the possibilities.

I heard a lot of criticism about how Dawson plays Torres and her hatred of her Klingon side but it is actually one of the better dealt with character threads that runs through Voyager. From Faces to Extreme Risk to Barge of the Dead to Lineage, you have a case of self-hatred that is borne out of experience and a troubled childhood amongst kids that are different from you. Trust me that stuff stays with you. Add to that the bombshell that is dropped here about her dad leaving because he couldn’t handle her Klingon mother and it makes perfect sense that she would reject the side of her that drove him away. It would be just Torres’ luck that she should fall in love with a human and that she would begin a cycle of fear that things would go the same way that they did for her mother and father. This is extremely vivid characterisation and beautifully played by Dawson. You would think a mother wanting to violate her child and remove her ancestry would be an appalling act but as written it is just Torres attempting to spare her from the pain that she went through. She’s not thinking about the consequences for anyone else – she has such vivid memories of racism and loss – that she wants nothing more than to prevent her daughter going through the same thing.

Performance – The climax features a brilliantly written and acted sequence between Robert Duncan McNeill and Roxan Dawson that solely justifies the creators continuing this relationship. Paris’ anger at his wife is refreshing and Torres spilling her guts feels cathartic. Who knew these characters could yield this kind of drama?

Best moment – Simply letting this continue beyond this episode. I know that seems like a crazy thing to admit but there have been so many potentially juicy ideas flaunted in this series before (Kes having a child, Janeway and Chakotay having a relationship, a species that threatens the Borg, a serial killer as part of the crew) that were dumped as soon as they got interesting that I have to applaud the series for holding onto this one and playing it out to its natural conclusion. Season two Voyager would have made this a phantom pregnancy or find some technobabble reason for Torres to lose the baby. All the way through the episode is helping us to fall in love with the idea of them having a baby that I was determined, on first viewing, that it was going to be snatched away in some cruel twist of fate.

‘Why does everyone feel entitled to give us advice…’ Oh Torres, you’ve unveiled the irritating truth about so many conversations.

Torres manages to shut Janeway and her objections up when she tells her that altering her child is exactly what she did when she made the choice to change Seven of Nine in her best interests. Ouch. That really made me sit up and pay attention.

Worst moment – Making Neelix the Godfather. He had sex with a two-year-old, you know.

I wish they hadn’t done that – The irony of hiding Roxan Dawson behind consoles for an entire season whilst she was really pregnant and then once she has given birth waiting a few years and making her character pregnant.

A reason to watch this episode again – What’s this? An episode in Voyager’s final season that devotes itself entirely to character, develops a relationship that this series has been building for seven years and layers on fascinating growth to one of its core cast at the eleventh hour? Wonders will never cease! Hang on…is that a brand-new writer and director on the call sheet? Proof, if it was needed, that fresh blood can yield some stunning results. I want to celebrate Lineage because this is Voyager bringing it’s A game when it comes to complex characterisation and that is what I usually head to DS9 for but this proves beyond a shadow of a doubt that Voyager could have matched my favourite Trek show in that department if it had dared to examine its characters this sensitively more often. Voyager has a superb cast and some memorable characters; they are ripe for creating dramatic situations. Instead of searching for anomalies and heading back in time or the latest craze on the holosuite, it should have spent its time truly going where no man has gone before. Lineage shows that that show would have been quite awesome and Voyager has the tools to do it. This is honestly written, makes sense of so many issues that Torres has been carrying around with her and features Roxan Dawson’s best performance. Torres is one of my favourite characters on this show and in the final two years she was handed three of the best episodes (Barge, Muse and Lineage). Powerful stuff, this is vintage Voyager. The final scene snuck up on me in a way I wasn’t expecting and reduced me to tears.

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

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