Star Trek: Voyager Rewatch: “Relativity”
“Relativity”
Prepared by Nick Sagan & Bryan Fuller & Michael Taylor
Directed by Allan Eastman
Season 5, Episode 24
Output episode 218
Original air day: Could 12, 1999
Stardate: 52861.3
Captain’s log. Utopia Planitia, 2371, and Janeway is beaming onto Voyager for the very first time, taken on a tour by Admiral Patterson (who was also a person of Janeway’s Academy instructors). Just one of the several crewmembers milling about whom she encounters is an ensign in the sciences division who appears to be like just like 7, but absolutely human…
It turns out to be 7, her Borg implants obtaining been suppressed. She’s been sent again in time by Captain Braxton and the starship Relativity to attempt to uncover out how Voyager was wrecked. She employs a 20-ninth-century tricorder to track the system to engineering—where she has a temporary dialogue with deputy main engineer Joe Carey—and then finds it, but it’s out of section. The machine will be in this spot.
Carey detects a chroniton spike, and Janeway—who wants to get her arms dirty—traces it to the Jefferies Tube, which they isolate with force fields. Lieutenant Ducane on the Relativity beams Seven again to the potential (ahem), but due to the fact of the force fields, he did not get a comprehensive lock, and Seven perishes in transport.
Due to the fact time journey is a point, they try once more, scheduling to the moment yet again pull 7 from her individual time just ahead of Voyager explodes.
In 2375, Seven is suffering from sensory aphasia, which turns out to be one of various people today suffering from some manner of house sickness. They also explore some temporal anomalies, like Neelix calling for the EMH, but the EMH arriving right before the emergency Neelix called him for.
Screenshot: CBS
Paris recruits Seven for a doubles ping-pong activity in opposition to Torres and Kim. On what should really be Paris’ profitable shot, the ball freezes over the table—yet a different temporal anomaly. Torres and Seven trace the resource of the anomalies to the exact same Jefferies Tube Seven went to in 2371. With her ocular implant, she can see the gadget, which is very good, because neither Torres’ eyes nor her tricorder can detect it.
Kim picks up a chroniton distortion that Janeway recognizes from when Voyager was in drydock. The captain orders all fingers to abandon ship. Seven is kidnapped by two of Braxton’s people ideal just before Voyager is ruined.
Braxton and Ducane welcome Seven to the Relatvity for the third time. They’re making an attempt to find out why Voyager was destroyed, their curiosity specially prompted by the temporal anomalies the ship experienced ahead of its destruction. Braxton particularly warns 7 to stay away from Janeway, as she’s a temporal menace. Braxton mentions that he’s experienced to cleanse up Janeway’s mess 3 instances, a single of which concerned him staying caught on twentieth–century Earth for 3 decades.
Right after Ducane covers up her implants, they deliver her back again to the place they now feel is when the system was sites on Voyager: through a Kazon assault all through the ship’s 2nd 12 months of its Delta Quadrant sojourn. Seven is skeptical that the Kazon had been liable, but Braxton and Ducane theorize that somebody took gain of Voyager’s shields staying down for the duration of the attack.
They send out 7 back to 2372. On the bridge, Kim detects a chroniton distortion, which Janeway (again) acknowledges from when Voyager was in drydock. She orders power fields in the similar vicinity as where by the distortion was very last time, which traps Seven in a corridor, not able to connect with or be transported by Relativity, although the timeship can nevertheless hear Seven. Janeway and Tuvok confront Seven, who tries to obey the Temporal Prime Directive and not say just about anything past that she’s from the long term, but when Tuvok detects her concealed Borg implants, Janeway goes into disaster mode. 7 throws warning to the wind and tells them the fact, to Braxton’s great annoyance.
Seven convinces Janeway to just take her to the Jefferies Tube. They uncover an older Braxton putting the device in the tube, significantly to the surprise of the more youthful Braxton. Old Braxton has experienced a psychotic split, blaming Janeway for getting rid of his rank and his sanity.
Screenshot: CBS
Previous Braxton utilizes his tricorder to beam to 2371. Seven follows, but she is now commencing to feel the effects of temporal psychosis, as also lots of time jumps are unsafe. In the meantime, Ducane puts Young Braxton beneath arrest for crimes he will dedicate.
When 7 catches up to Aged Braxton, he transports all over again, this time to 2375. Seven is barely acutely aware soon after this latest jump, but manages to shoot the tricorder out of Outdated Braxton’s palms, so now he’s trapped in 2375. Seven collapses in the mess hall the place she urges her counterpart (who was taking part in ping-pong) to halt Aged Braxton, as the fate of the ship depends on it. Relativity then beams the sick Seven back again to the twenty-ninth century, when the “current” 7 captures Previous Braxton. Relativity is then equipped to provide back, not just Outdated Braxton, but also Janeway.
Ducane explains to Janeway that Seven’s endeavor to prevent Old Braxton have resulted in quite a few improvements to the timeline that have to have to be fixed. Seven bodily can’t make any a lot more journeys by time, so they require Janeway to do it: prevent Aged Braxton right before he can spot the gadget. Old Braxton reluctantly informs them where by and when he came on board, together with tripping above an hurt crewmember. Janeway goes again to 2372, has a temporary dialogue with Torres that she bluffs her way by way of (the good news is Torres does not discover that her hair is shorter), and then stops Aged Braxton. This fixes matters, with Ducane gratefully saying that there’s only an incursion of .0036 (almost certainly the Torres dialogue). Only Janeway and Seven will don’t forget what took place, and Ducane urges them to continue to keep it silent. Meantime, the two Braxtons will be integrated, as will the two Sevens.
Can not we just reverse the polarity? Ducane quizzes Seven on temporal concept, together with the Pogo Paradox and the Dali Paradox. Seven describes the former as, “A causality loop in which interference to reduce an celebration really triggers the similar party,” which means it’s named for the well known line from the title character in Walt Kelly’s comic strip Pogo, “We have satisfied the enemy and he is us.” The Dali one particular is based mostly on Salvador Dali’s Persistence of Memory, the one with all the melting clocks, and is when a temporal fissue slows time down to a crawl.
There is espresso in that nebula! Janeway’s to start with time on Voyager was in drydock, and she enjoys heading on her to start with tour. Five many years later on, she is recruited for time-journey wackiness, and complains, as she always does, about how it provides her a headache. Meanwhile, her various time-journey activities have been sufficiently traumatic to Braxton to induce him to go wholly binky-bonkers.
Remember to condition the mother nature of the health-related crisis. Janeway and Patterson activate the EMH in drydock, and he’s a large amount more snotty than he is prior to he mellowed around the course of five decades. While he’s nevertheless a minor snotty, as he tells 7 that he has a improved bedside fashion than the health care database.
Resistance is futile. Seven’s ocular implants can see the out-of-period temporal product, which helps make her the suitable human being to recruit for the mission. She also will get to participate in ping-pong for the 1st time, and for the winning crew!
No intercourse, be sure to, we’re Starfleet. Amusingly, Paris and Torres play in opposition to each other in doubles ping-pong instead than on the exact same team…
Do it.
“The Borg at the time travelled back again in time to cease Zefram Cochrane from breaking the warp barrier. They succeeded, but that in switch led the starship Organization to intervene. They assisted Cochrane with the flight the Borg was attempting to reduce. Causal loop total.”
“So, in a way, the Federation owes its existence to the Borg.”
“You’re welcome.”
–Seven summarizing the plot of To start with Get in touch with, Ducane generating a clever remark, and Seven becoming clever correct back at him.
Screenshot: CBS
Welcome aboard. It is Excellent Character Actor Theatre! Initial we have the return of Braxton from the “Future’s End” two-parter, this time played by the at any time-amazing Bruce McGill, who will likely normally be best known as D-Working day in Animal Dwelling. The regal Dakin Mathews performs Patterson. And then there’s our Robert Knepper moment, as I was surprised to see one of my beloved actors, Jay Karnes—probably most effective regarded for his role as Dutch on The Protect—playing Ducane.
In addition, Josh Clark is again for the initial time considering the fact that the very first season’s “State of Flux” as Carey, albeit in flashback. Clark will next be observed, also in a flashback, in “Fury.”
Trivial matters: This episode has our initially real watch of the Utopia Planitia shipyards, beforehand only witnessed as a little image in TNG’s “Parallels” and as a holodeck re-generation in TNG’s “Booby Trap.”
The 2371 portions acquire position prior to “Caretaker,” with Janeway 1st proposing the notion of recruiting Paris and with Tuvok obtaining by now infiltrated the Maquis. The 2372 portions had been most likely meant to be a single of the attacks on Voyager by the Kazon just prior to “Alliances,” though the stardate places it prior to “Maneuvers.”
Braxton also appears in the comic books Myriad Universes: The Final Era by Andrew Steven Harris & Gordon Purcell and New Frontier: Double Time by Peter David & Mike Collins. Ducane also appears in Double Time as nicely as the Section of Temporal Investigations novel Observing the Clock by typical commenter Christopher L. Bennett, who gave him the 1st identify Juel.
Braxton mentions a few temporal incursions of Janeway’s that he had to resolve. One is explicitly “Future’s End” (nevertheless Braxton reported at the stop of Element 2 that he experienced no memory of the occasions), and the other is a temporal incursion in the Takara Sector, which is most likely a reference to “Timeless.” Not certain what the 3rd one particular is, but there are heaps of opportunities to decide on from, including “Time and Again,” the “Year of Hell” two-parter, and future episodes “Fury,” “Shattered,” and “Endgame.”
In 2371, Janeway mentions recruiting Paris specially for his piloting abilities to enable them get via the Badlands. But he was mentioned in “Caretaker” as currently being recruited due to the fact he worked with Chakotay’s mobile, moreover he was explicitly forbidden from piloting Voyager until finally soon after Stadi was killed.
7 replaces Chapman, who was Seven’s day in “Someone to Check out Over Me,” as Paris’ spouse in the ping-pong doubles match.
When requested for an example of the Pogo Paradox, 7 mentions the functions of the motion picture Initial Get in touch with.
The EMH indicated that “Caretaker” was the initial time he was activated, but he was seemingly activated at the time just before in drydock, however only for a couple of seconds. It’s also attainable that the application was reset for the duration of the shakedown cruise.
A handful of days before getting the script for this episode, Jeri Ryan did an on the net chat, where another person requested when Seven would have on a Starfleet uniform. She reported, “Never, for the reason that 7 is not Starfleet.” And then this episode happened…
Screenshot: CBS
Established a program for dwelling. “Tempus fugit.” There are some concerns with this episode, notably the different discontinuities noted in the Trivial Matters part, but I’m inclined to forgive them for various factors.
A single is that this episode has two of the finer actors of our time, Jay Karnes and Bruce McGill, both of those carrying out incredibly nicely. Practically nothing in opposition to Allen G. Royal, who was fantastic as the insane-pants homeless model of Braxton, but fairly nowhere as the “normal” variation, but McGill is really helpful listed here, both as the no-nonsense Youthful Braxton, and as the batshit Previous Braxton. And though this rarely ranks among the Karnes’ most effective roles (he was excellent not only in his most popular job as Dutch on The Shield, but also in guest turns on each Sons of Anarchy and Burn off Detect), he’s nicely strong.
Two is that it’s yet an additional very good automobile for Jeri Ryan. 7 has gotten a large amount of consideration considering that becoming a member of the forged, but she’s also attained it, as Ryan has ongoing to be superb.
Three is that it is amazing to check out Janeway (with the bun yet again!) touring her new command for the first time. Kate Mulgrew’s child-on-Xmas-early morning enthusiasm is infectious. And it was great viewing Carey again, although the point that we have not found him in the current due to the fact season just one is aggravating (it was a good option to display him in equally timelines, too!). It’s only too lousy they didn’t get Scott Jaeck or Alicia Coppola or 1 of the other crewmembers who died in “Caretaker” to show up, although that would need that the producers remember that there had been crewmembers who died when they fell down the Caretaker’s rabbit gap, which they haven’t remembered because halfway by way of the pilot episode, so why start now? (Yes, I keep harping on this. No, I will not quit.)
And four is that it’s a entertaining minimal time-vacation story. Not overwhelmingly consequential, while I feel it’s horrible that Ducane can imprison Braxton for a crime he has not dedicated nonetheless. I significantly like that it cops to some of the absurdities, that it acknowledges how the English language isn’t genuinely geared for the fluid tenses of time travel (I specifically love Braxton’s line, “I gave up making an attempt to retain my tenses straight several years ago”), and most particularly for offering us the Pogo Paradox and the Dali Paradox, which are just fucking outstanding.
Warp variable score: 8
Keith R.A. DeCandido is also reviewing each and every new episode of The Falcon and the Wintertime Soldier as they’re produced on this web page.
