2x26 Basics (1)

[7.4/10] It’s nice to see Voyager’s crew be neither stupid nor unlucky and still lose, even if that loss is all but pre-ordained to be temporary. When Seska sends out a distress signal asking for help, warning that Maje Culluh means harm to her and her baby, Janeway and Chakotay acknowledge that it could be a trap. They plan and come up with contingencies and debate whether or not it’s worth the risk.

Of course, they choose to answer the call. It wouldn’t be a very exciting story if they didn’t. But they debate it, as good 1990s Star Trek characters should, and spend ample time in the boardroom dreaming up new tactics and safety measures they could take to protect themselves on the mission. You can question the wisdom of embarking on this quest in the first place. But it’s in keeping with Janeway’s moral principles that left Voyager stranded in the Delta Quadrant in the first place. And you can't question that the crew seems prepared and serious for the possibility that this is all just another ruse.

The same is true when they come upon an ostensible Kazon refugee. Teirna is one of Seska’s aids, and supposedly just barely survived Maje Culluh’s wrath when Voyager finds him in his derelict ship. Despite his story of trying to help Seska and only narrowly making it out alive, Janeway and company don’t just instantly buy his story or trust him. Instead, they examine the evidence, consider whether he could be a plant, and take precautions accordingly. (Which, hey, is better than Kirk did with Khan!)

They verify that if he’d stayed in his vessel much longer, he’d genuinely have died, so if this is a feint, it’s one he’s willing to die for. Neelix tests his forthrightness with a question about their route that the Talaxian already knows the answer to. They get him to give them the Kazon-Nistrim defense codes as a show of good faith. And when things start to go pear-shaped, they confine him to quarters on a secure deck, just in case.

In truth, I’m somewhat used to Star Trek crews, Voyager’s especially, not taking obvious precautions because it would short-circuit the storytelling. Theoretically, all of this tech and ingenuity should blunt most problems before they start. But that wouldn’t be a very entertaining show, would it? Nevertheless, there’s something downright refreshing about seeing Janeway and her team enter one of those standard, “This is probably a trap, but the ethics of the situation compel us to intervene anyway” situations, but go the extra mile with plans and failsafes to make this as secure a mission as possible.

The other elements of the episode are a mixed bag. Given the presence of Seksa and her baby, this is (sigh) a Chakotay episode. I’ve already said my piece on how he tends to be a drag of a focus character. But suffice it to say, more spiritual visions, more unconvincing attempts at conveying strong emotions, and questionable material about something that could have been compelling with better execution -- his mixed feelings about becoming a father without his consent, makes for dull interludes when the spotlight’s on Voyager’s first officer.

But I’d forgotten that this is the return of Crewman Suder (aka the sociopathic member of the crew from “Meld”). In contrast to Robert Beltran, any moment you can get Brad Dourif on screen is a boon. He has an interesting throughline here, having made great progress with Tuvok’s help and wanting to find some way to “contribute to the crew” even though he fully accepts his punishment and confinement. The way he’s apt to do good, but also seems to revert to old ways once an exploratory meeting with Janeway on his idea to do hydroponics research goes poorly, makes way for the kind of complexity and great performance that the first part of the “Basics” duology could use more of.

Because honestly, as much as I appreciate the show going out of its way to depict the crew prepping for a dangerous mission, there’s never much tension or excitement here. You do have a little bit of fun, with The Doctor proposing they use the holo-emitters to project the appearance of extra Talaxian ships to scare the Kazon, with he himself accidentally getting projected into space mid-battle. But for the most part, this is still fairly standard-issue danger without much in the way of oomph or stakes despite the season finale bump.

Despite that, I continue to like the fact that, for all Janeway’s caution and prudence, things still go wrong here. Teirna has been vetted to the pegs, but still uses a (frankly ludicrous) toenail-sized device to blow himself up and cripple Voyager. The bridge crew notes a peculiar pattern in the attacks they’ve had to fend off and an attempt to funnel them in one particular direction that leads them to retreat, but by then it’s too late. This isn’t a case of our heroes suffering some poor fortune or making a mistake; it’s them doing everything right and still getting outfoxed, which is in many ways more interesting.

Were that it resulted in something other than a couple of boring villains taking over. I’ve said my piece about Culluh and Seska already, but suffice it to say, they’ve devolved into one-dimensional villains surprisingly quickly, whose bog standard misogyny and manipulations of Chakotay respectively aren’t enough to make them bad guys worth caring about. “Basics” wants the duo and their henchmen taking over the ship to mean more since these are characters our heroes and the audience has a history with, but unfortunately, it’s just a reason to be preemptively tired of these goons.

But it does at least promise some drama and challenge. The Kazon-Nistrim take over Voyager. They strand Janeway and company on a random planet, seeing it as poetic justice to leave a people who wouldn’t share their technology in a place where they have to make do without it. There’s primitive Kazon on the horizon and maybe Tom Paris out there to get our heroes a rescue. But the image of Voyager lurching into the sky, while its usual crew can only stare up at their means of salvation leaving them, is still a dispiriting one. Savvy viewers know the state of affairs is unlikely to last, but as much as this whole thing feels like schmuck bait, it’s nice to see some momentous, harrowing stuff happen, to where all Janeway can hold onto is hope, even after she and her team made plenty of right calls.

Voyager itself didn’t always make the right calls in its second season, but certainly made more of them. I wouldn’t go so far as to call it good, and yet the show got undeniably better. While several characters remain anchors around the series, many more started to come into their own, and the show at least began to feel like replacement-level Star Trek, if not necessarily the soaring torchbearer for The Next Generation it was intended to be. Here’s hoping that things look up for Janeway & co., and viewers like you and me, for season 3.