VOY – Equinox Part One

Plot – In another universe, UPN commissioned a new Trek show after TNG finished airing called Equinox featuring a group of Starfleet’s finest trapped in a region of space away from home with no hope or resources. They are forced to trade in their ideals in order to keep themselves alive and make some very questionable (or certain court martiable) decisions to keep themselves alive, fed and powered. At the end of Equinox’s fifth season it makes contact with another Starfleet vessel, Voyager, which by chance has also been working its way through the Delta Quadrant. This never heard of before ship is helmed by Captain Kathryn Janeway and she has managed to get this far without compromising her vow to Starfleet and everything it stands for. Naturally irritated at them having the rougher ride, Captain Ransome attempts a coup to takeover this good as new ship in order to get his crew home…

…I especially love the flashbacks to previous Equinox episodes. It gives you an idea of how other instalments of this show might have played out.

Character – Having the Voyager and Equinox crews’ side by side is like holding up a mirror and seeing their dark reflection. This is what the Voyager crew might have been had they had to face harsher choices along the way. Naturally the Voyager’s compliment is ecstatic to see new faces and welcomes them on board, with the big assumption that they are as incorrupt and nicey nice as they are. Once the true nature of what the Equinox crew has done is revealed there is a feeling of arrogance amongst the Voyager crew, a suggestion that they have the moral high ground. The DS9 crew faced much tougher situations than the Equinox crew and as a result had to get their hands dirty and make some highly dubious decisions along the way as they fought a war and it really goes to show how superior the human race is in this time when put under real pressure. The long and the short of this is that Voyager really hasn’t been through the grind. It has functioning holodecks that are about to open 24/7. Food in abundance. A functioning ship. Heat. Clothing. Friendship. Camaraderie. They have no right to claim any kind of moral high ground because they haven’t had to suffer. It makes them feel unsympathetic, which is actually rather refreshing. Because they are so often portrayed as vanilla Starfleet. Seeing this uglier side of their personalities generates some interest.

The idea of Torres’ old lover turning up on the Equinox is a really tasty one and one that could have played out throughout the rest of the show. Imagine, it might mean that Tom Paris could stop being such an entitled douchebag when it comes to his relationship and he might have had to fight for Torres’ attention instead of taking her for granted. ‘You want to flirt with your new ship, Alice? Go right ahead, I’ll be in holodeck two with Max.’ Instead of this awesome co-incidence being a dreadful soap opera element thrown in to add some humour it is used much more insidiously than that. Max uses his previous relationship with Torres to access system that will allow the Equinox crew to continue to exploit the aliens and get them home. You can only hope there will be some emotional fallout for this in the next episode.

Showing Gilmore suffering PTSD and struggling being in confined spaces was a really smart move on the writer’s part. It shows a level of suppressed guilt and fear at the experiences that she has been through. How comes the writers can take brave decisions with the guest characters like this?

Janeway is judgemental here, but within reason. I think she might have forgotten the twenty times she has broken with the Prime Directive in order to get out of less dire situations than those of the Equinox crew but it might be a possibility that she has suffered one of the many reset buttons that Voyager has encountered over the years and forgotten about them all. In the second episode she is positively psychotic in her condemnation of Ransom, but here it is bitter disappointment and professional disapproval.

Performance – I’ve heard mixed reviews about John Savage’s Ransom but I think in the first episode that he is edgy and dark and precisely the right mix of faux Starfleet manners and sinister plotting with his crew. It’s a role that might have ben overplayed but Savage keeps it quiet and insidious. At times you could squint and see a perfectly respectable Starfleet officer and that’s the greatest trick he pulls. Once Ransom has committed to the course of sacrificing the aliens in order to get home, he will not deviate from that decision, despite the objections of his crew now that they have the comfort of Voyager to enjoy. That’s his downfall. Not making a bad call when the chips are down. Anybody could do that. But choosing to murder when there is another option on the table, that’s truly betraying your principles in order to serve yourself. The experiments are described as meticulous and brutal so whilst Ransom is trying to proclaim how guilty he felt when performing them it doesn’t quite ring true. That ambiguity is quite exciting in a show like Voyager.

Production – God bless Brannon Braga. There he was trying to create the most frightening alien race that Star Trek has ever seen. Able to pop in and out of subspace, ghostly and ethereal, capable of killing with a touch and absolutely bloody pissed at having been tortured and exploited, this could have been the apotheosis of Trek’s monster races. Then the FX crew get their hands on the idea and create some godawful Slimer knock-offs but somehow even more comical looking and suddenly all the work that David Livingston is doing to make these creatures seem menacing feels like it has been chucked out the window. Nothing dates worse than CGI, I’m certain of that now and the realisation these ‘nasties’ truly are the nadir of this episode.

Best moment – Sending the Doctor into the dangerous section of the Equinox to discover what horrors they have been undertaking is a great way to get him involved without shoehorning him into the plot.

I wish they hadn’t done that – How Chakotay can possibly chastise anybody from the Equinox crew when he was part of a terrorist group that tortured and murdered people over a land dispute baffles me. He comes off the worst here, when perhaps he should have empathised with them a little.

Perhaps the only let down of the production besides the Slimers is the cliffhanger. When you stack it up against some of the whoppers from the franchise – Locutus of Borg, the Dominion coming through the wormhole, Species 8472 – the fissure opening and a dodgy CGI creature threatening to take out Janeway is pretty small fry. All the excitement around the cliffhanger is where the good stuff lies. The fake Doctor handing weapons to his crew, the shootout in Voyager’s corridors, capturing the Slimer. It’s a decent closing act because of everything but the cliffhanger.

A reason to watch this episode again – A glimpse into what Voyager might have been if the writers had been allowed to take more risks. Equinox marks the beginning of the end of the great event episodes of this show after two spectacular years of them (Scorpion, The Year of Hell, Dark Frontier, Timeless) and it does so with real passion and suspense. The crew of the Equinox is well drawn and played and they highlight particularly well against the Voyager crew for being so much more morally grey and in some places quite unlikable. I think this is what it might be like had the DS9 and Voyager crews rubbed shoulders. David Livingston ensures that this episode looks as moody as its subject matter and there is a creeping feeling of unease throughout as the true nature of what the Equinox crew have done in order to try and get home is revealed. This episode deserves real points for having the nuts to say something about how easy a ride Voyager has had until this point and it seems to suggest that from hereon in things might be a little rougher. If only that had been the case. I am pre-programmed to like any episode that deconstructs the Roddenberry vision of the future of humanity because I think it is fundamentally flawed and not a little arrogant and Ransom and his bunch would make a fine and grimy addition to the Voyager crew. I hope they get to stick around. The last ten minutes are particularly good as it is revealed how Janeway has had the wool pull thoroughly over her eyes and the Equinox crew make their move. It’s exciting and eventful and has smart things to say about the show. The monsters aren’t the Slimers, but the Starfleet crew that has been through hell and made the wrong choices. Yes, this is a very tasty season finale.

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