An attempt to make the Kazon a bit more threatening could have worked, but it's brought down by Chakotay attempting to imprint his Federation values on them. I've never really understood why Trek can so often be disrespectful of other cultures. I get that from a story point of view it's attempting to shine a light on how we can be better ourselves, but on this show it comes across as self righteous. There's the spark of some good dialogue with Chakotay and Kar here, but It ultimately fails.
Kar is actually a pretty good character. Surprisingly, though, it felt like there was very little differentiating him from Aron Eisenberg's other character Nog, despite them coming from totally different places. Maybe it's just his acting style, but I could imagine Nog in his place and it wouldn't seem weird.
This also highlights the lack of character progression in the show. Paris seems very concerned about Chakotay's well being, but remember the pilot episode where they actively despised each other? They've barely interacted on screen since then, and we've seen nothing that resolved their hatred so it just makes no sense here.
I had to make my rating lower because of Chakotay's awful akoo-chee-moya bullshit, too.
Wait? Is that Nog? That's a stupid choice. Despite the wig and his make up, his voice is clearly giving him away. That's super distracting.
It's strange how Neelix changes. Most of the time he's that annoying clown but in this episode he's brilliant on the bridge? That's just not very consistent.
[5.5/10] On paper, this episode has the sort of things I ask for from Star Trek. For the franchise in general, it’s a conflict between values that are cruel and belligerent being indoctrinated in unquestioning children and the values that have been with Star Trek from the beginning: mercy, empathy, and understanding. The conflict isn’t an abstract consideration, but grounded in an escape mission between a character we know and once we come to know through the story. And for Voyager specifically, it’s a chance to fill out the population of the Delta Quadrant, as we learn more about the Kazon through the latest sect our heroes have the ill fortune to run into.
But by god, “Initiations” is shallow and boring. The comparison between the combative values of the Kazon-Ogla and the more enlightened ideals of the Federation is surface-level and caricatured. The dynamic between Chakotay, who’s captured by the Kazon-Ogla, and Kar, the young teenager tasked with killing him to earn his place in Kazon society, is a stock and unconvincing one. And the Kazon-Ogla themselves are not an interesting counterpart to the crew of Voyager, but rather generic substitute Klingons with little to distinguish or recommend them.
That may be the biggest sin of the episode. The other flaws here largely come down to execution, not conception. But surely, the creative minds behind the series could come up with a combative species without making them feel like such a retread of an existing one within the franchise. Yes, in the nigh-infinite recesses of the galaxy, it makes complete sense that you would run into more than one warlike people. But between the pugnacious nature of the Kazon-Ogla sect, their focus on a particular brand of honor in battle, and ridged foreheads and ruddy faces, the chance to expand the roster of species in an uncharted quadrant of space turns into the overly familiar.
Speaking of overly familiar, I have very mixed feelings about the producers deciding to cast Aron Eisenberg as Kar. It’s hard for any Trek fan to watch the young Kazon’s struggles to live up to his people’s expectations, not to mention Eisenberg’s distinctive style, and not think of Rom, the actor's recurring role on Deep Space Nine.
I’m loathe to slate the Voyager team too much for that. Eisenberg is a talented performer and brings a lot to the role. Lord knows actors like Majel Barrett, Clint Howard, James Sloyan, and Jeffrey Combs have played multiple characters in different costumes and make-up over the course of the franchise without issue. But especially for someone watching DS9 in sync with a Voyager rewatch, which would likely include Trekkies watching these episodes as they aired, slipping a recurring performer from one show into a guest spot on another is distracting, making it hard to see Kar as Kar and not just Nog in a different guise.
Even if they’d chosen to go with a different performer, the writing here is so on-the-nose and superficial that I don’t think it would really have made a difference. Kar has a solid arc, from wanting to kill Chakotay at all costs to earn his “name” in Kazon-Ogla culture, to slowly but surely seeing the benefits of Chakotay’s more merciful and high-minded philosophy when the Kazon are ready to chew him and spit him out for his failure. But the steps along the way are rarely particularly engaging, and the dialogue that sells this devolves into the “These are just people reading essays to one another, not having a conversation” school of Star Trek writing.
Then again, maybe some of it is the performers. I’ve said before, and sadly, I’ll probably be saying it again. Chakotay is about as exciting as a block of wood. I know fans complain that at some point he started phoning it in. But even here, where he’s the main character of the episode, he’s so uncharismatic and unconvincing in his declarations of Starfleet philosophy that you’re hard-pressed not to yawn your way through them. The writing here is mild at best, but Robert Beltran does nothing to elevate the material.
The plot is no great shakes either. Chakotay gets kidnapped, and he and Kar have to figure their way out of a handful of dicey situations while Janeway and company look for their missing crewman. There’s a few meaningful choices along the way, like Kar choosing to come with Chakotay during the latter’s escape attempt rather than stay with his people. But for the most part, it’s a stock setup with a search from the Voyager mainstays that hits the usual and expected beats.
Oddly enough, the highlight here is the Neelix-focused B-story. As Neelix himself seems to acknowledge here, as the show goes on, the character tends to play the comic relief, rather than the guide and strategist he was introduced as. His feeling underutilized is a relatable impulse, despite Janeway understandably patronizing him for it. And yet, his usual buffoonery only makes it seem that much more surprising and, dare I say it, cool, when he stands-up to the head of the Kazon-Ogla and uses his knowledge and steel to successfully call their bluff from the captain’s chair. Neelix competency moments are few and far between, so let’s cherish them when we’ve got them.
The only other element worth salvaging from this one is the cave colloquy between Chakotay and Kar. It’s the one time “Initiations” digs deep into the different perspectives of the two cultures these men represent, even if the dialogue remains tin-eared, and so has a little extra force. Chakotay makes a compelling point, that his uniform earned through study and hard work is no different conceptually from the vaunted name Kar hopes to earn through killing in battle. And there’s at least one small element here that depends on Chakotay specifically, and not just Starfleet in general. The Kazon-Ogla are obsessed with claiming more territory, whereas Chakotay, with his Indigenous heritage, takes a more open view of land. I cringe anytime Voyager delves into First Peoples material given their source, but this at least serves a purpose.
Otherwise, this is the standard rigamarole. It’s mildly noble for Chakotay to volunteer to be “killed” by Kar to give the kid his name, despite the minimal stakes since he’s banking on The Doctor being able to revive him. And it’s a solid, if predictable twist, that Kar recognizes Chakotay isn’t his enemy, but his surrogate Kazon father is, and kills his abusive mentor to earn his place instead. But it also plays like a cop out to anyone having to suffer the consequences for these big choices, instead giving both sides what they want.
In an ideal world, this would be the flipside to “The Bonding” from The Next Generation, where Worf tries to use Klingon culture to help a human boy reckon with his grief. But “Initiations” lacks the emotion, the deeper thoughts, the chance to understand another people better that that episode provides. The foundation of the episode isn’t bad, but the way it goes about telling this story, and making its points, isn’t worth the sacrifice.
Look... It's a little Noglet hahha
RIP
Chakotay episodes are usually dullsville.
Why were they bringing DS9 actors? First Dr. Mora, now Nog... They are easily recognisable, so it felt weird watching them in Voyager as completely different characters since all shows take place in the same universe.
I thought Klingons were the most battle hungry; now I see this Kazon! !!
Why do you need to take your shuttle so far to find solitude? I can find solitude with a pair of good headphones in a locked room!
It's a bit sad seeing this now as Aron passed away way to early. I met him once at a small convention and exchanged a few words. Such a nice person. I wish he'd gotten a better episode, though. Plus I remember it was really confusing back then as I couldn't get past the fact hearing Nog. Still can't.
Anyway, did I get this right ? Voyager is in orbit around a planet and Chakotay needs to leave on a shuttle to find solitude ? And ultimately he performs the ceremony in his quarters anyway. And I am too lazy to enumerate the other logical errors. Man, those writers didn't take much effort to make these stories work.
And why even invent a new species if they are basically a poor man's Klingon? You don't even hide that fact very well as their culture and beliefs are pretty much mirrored. And Kazon Factions equal Klingon Houses, too. It's all so blatantly obvious.
Neelix had one of his better showings as he actually uses his knowledge to help solve the crisis instead of cooking things and getting on people's nerves.
There is a tiny bit of good exchange between Chakotay and the Kazon on the moon, especially in the cave. But it's too little to save this episode.
Review by dgwVIP 9BlockedParent2017-11-06T06:11:46Z
[5.3/10] Weak Kazon writing, questionable casting decision (Eisenberg), wishy-washy "Indian" schtick that isn't.
Did the Kazon fix the shuttle's aft shields while Chakotay was being held prisoner? The computer's damage report after the first attack indicated that aft shields (as well as long range communications) were offline. But when Chakotay takes off in the shuttle again, aft shields are apparently partially functional?
Still trying to figure out how the transporter worked over a distance exceeding one million kilometers when the rated maximum range of a Federation transporter system is a mere forty thousand kilometers… Sometimes plot convenience trumps consistency. (Actually, often.)
Kar, what "technology", exactly, would you take back to your people if you killed Chakotay? He's wearing a combadge, and he has a tricorder. That's all. Wow, big catch. Very effective threat. /s
Like @LeftHandedGuitarist and @splenda, I found it very difficult not to hear Nog whenever Kar spoke. Given Deep Space Nine's relatively frequent use of Aron Eisenberg in that role, it's very strange that the Voyager casting department chose him for this episode. It's possible that someone in the chain of command wanted an excuse to give Eisenberg more work on the franchise; that's my best guess.
I really wish Chakotay had been given a more believable heritage. So often it seems like the writers kind of just made shit up when they wanted to emphasize his "Native American side" for an episode. For one thing, I can't find any real-life reference to the ritual phrase associated with Chakotay's vision quests (variously transliterated, depending on what source you read, as "a cuchi moya", "ah-koo-chee-moya", "hakuchi moya", among others). Keeping the character in touch with his "Indian roots" is one thing, but they don't seem to have based Chakotay's roots on a real tribe. (Later in the series, several tribal identities come and go based on apparent story needs before his heritage is once again left open to interpretation, as if the producers gave up.) At least Robert Beltran really is part Native American, instead of a straight-up white guy playing a Native role.