Days of Future Past
"Before and After" Plot Summary:
Awakening in sickbay with no memories, Kes finds herself living backwards in time. She learns that she is going through the morelogium, a state of senility at the end of the Ocampa life cycle, and that she has a daugher with her husband Tom Paris, who has married Harry Kim and given her a grandchild. Chakotay is in command of Voyager, as he has been ever since "the year of hell," when Janeway and Torres both died in battle with the vicious Krenim. The Doctor has been trying to extend Kes' lifespan for some time, but has not yet been successful.
As she moves backwards in time, she learns that her body absorbed chronoton radiation during the struggle with the Krenim. This seems to be the key to her reverse aging, but every time she jumps back, she must explain to the crew what is happening to her. Eventually she reaches an era before her marriage and the birth of her child, when Janeway and Torres were still alive, but before she can fully explain the situation, she finds herself on the first day of her life on Voyager, then in her childhood on the Caretaker's world.
As she reverts to fetal stages and finally to a zygote, she awakens and finds herself in Sickbay in Voyager's present. The crew detected chronoton radiation in her body, and purged it. They ask her about the future she experienced, but Janeway advises her not to tell everything, as it's only one possible timeline. Miraculously, though she has returned to the present, Kes's hairdo from the future remains.
Analysis:
It's hard for me to know how to feel about Ken Biller's writing. In some ways he's the most creative of the Voyager staffers; his episodes make new use of old concepts, like the Q continuum in "The Q and the Grey," the Borg in "Unity," and time-reversal here. His pacing is better than most of the Voyager and DS9 writers, and his dialogue tends to be sharp.
The flip side of this is that I often don't recognize his characters, or the universe he's writing in...and I don't much like the version I get in exchange. Take this episode. Biller made fabulous use of Jennifer Lien's characterization talents, and put a new spin on the old time-loop concept. Considering that we saw something not very different less than two months ago in "Coda," it is a tribute to his skills that this show seemed so fresh and unique.
But in order to create the scenario where poor Kes had to muddle through with the help of all the strong, sensitive men on the ship, he had to kill off the two women who of all the characters most exemplify strength and sensitivity...and he had to demonstrate that Voyager got along just fine without them. I'd feel a lot better about "Before and After," like "Unity" and "Maneuvers" before it, if I didn't feel like a deep thread of red-blooded misogyny informs the actions of all the female characters, and the male responses to them.
I liked the idea of seeing an alternate future through Kes' eyes. But I have to admit that, compelling as Lien's performance was, I got bored. I missed Janeway and Torres, who are the main reasons I watch the show - I suppose that missing them was part of the point, but considering that this is the second time the writers have killed off Janeway in a short period during the third season, I found her death quite annoying. TNG "killed" Picard twice in seven years that I recall. Dead Janeway is already getting old. As for Torres...I guess it was necessary to knock her off so that Kes could have a familiar husband, and set up jokes about Tom being Harry's father-in-law, but the idea that Tom forgot fiery, brilliant B'Elanna in the arms of empathetic, caregiving Kes bugged me more than a little.
Kes was resourceful in this episode, but mostly in relation to the men. It got a little wearing to hear her say, "I'm not sure, but I think it has something to do with [tech]" which the guys immediately interpreted for her. Chakotay looked reasonably competent in command, and I liked Tom and Kes' daughter.
But this episode confirmed that I couldn't care less about Voyager without Janeway. For that matter, I couldn't care less about Voyager without Janeway - a smart, strong, present Janeway - and I suspect a lot of other fans, male and female alike, feel the same way. The writers and the network would do well to note that.