*NOW VOYAGER* The Official Newsletter of the Kate Mulgrew Appreciation Society * Volume III Number 3 *ALL ABOUT NOW VOYAGER* Greetings from the Kate Mulgrew Appreciation Society. KMAS Inc., a Maryland non-profit corporation, is Kate Mulgrew's official fan club. You can reach us at P.O. Box 34745, Bethesda, MD 20827-4745, or online at tigger@cais.cais.com. Current yearly dues are $25 U.S., $32/Canada-Mexico, $40/Overseas (U.S. bank funds only). Send Self-Addressed Stamped Envelope for information, or $5 for a sample issue of Now Voyager, or e-mail for the electronic edition of this bimonthly newsletter. If you would like a copy of our submission guidelines or our bylaws, send a S.A.S.E. Now Voyager is on the World Wide Web at http://www.engr.umbc.edu/~mpanti1/mulgrew/. For print back issue requests, send a S.A.S.E. to Anne Davenport, 6211 E. Azalea Ave. B, Panama City Beach, FL 32408. This is a not-for-profit, amateur publication and is not intended to infringe upon the copyrights of any media corporation. All material is copyrighted by the authors except for the trademarks and patents of Viacom, Inc. No part of this newsletter may be reproduced or forwarded without permission, in print or electronically. The opinions expressed herein are not necessarily those of the editors, KMAS Inc., Kate Mulgrew, or Paramount Pictures. *PHOTOS AND ART CREDITS* 1--Illustration © Chris King, 1997. 2, 5, 14, 32--Illustrations © Deborah Rush, 1996 & 1997. 7--Illustration © Emily Friedman, 1997. 9,13--Illustrations © Jennifer Pelland, 1997. 10--Illustration © Holly Triplett, 1996. 12--Illustration © Nancy Molik, 1996. 16-17--Photos © Mike Topf, 1997. 18-19--Photos © Mary Taylor, 1997. 20-21--Photos courtesy Joan Mulgrew. 24-27--Photos courtesy Winrich Kolbe. *KMAS, INC. BOARD OF DIRECTORS AND STAFF* Michelle Erica Green, president. Joan Testin, vice president. Lauren Baum, treasurer. Anne Davenport, membership secretary. Mary Taylor, business secretary. Paul Anderson, assistant secretary. Barbe Smith, charity coordinator. Peter Castillo, legal advisor. Jeanne Donnelly, corporate advisor. Jennifer Pelland, electronic listserv owner. Michael Pantiuk & Cheryl Zenor, web page designers. Anna Shuford, membership director. Beth Schuman & Nancy Molik, convention coordinators. *REVIEWZZZZZZZZ* CODA If only this episode had aired about a year ago--or even six months ago. At that point, I would have seen it as a real gift, as some indication that one of the most important character relationships on Voyager wasn't being neglected or trashed. Now it's like finding a lost, unopened love letter after the divorce. It's hard to concentrate on any but the emotional aspects of "Coda." The story was serviceable, even inventive, though it recycled many familiar Star Trek themes. There's still some lingering question about which scenes were hallucinations and which were not. Obviously each of Janeway's "deaths" were not real, but at least one resuscitation scene may have been authentic. When Chakotay, after trying desperately to revive her, took her all-but-expired body in his arms and sobbed, "Kathryn!" (thus melting the hearts of even some jaded fans), he may have been doing so in reality. One could work out a timeline of actual events that includes that scene, and I'd be inclined to think that was what was intended. Broadway stalwart Len Cariou did a fine, chilling job as the alien in disguise, and reminded me very little of the stifling, distant, patronizing father in Mosaic, which was all to the good. The least comfortable part of "Coda" and of some recent episodes have been their references to that novel. They appear mostly as distracting, incongruous details such as tennis rackets, and offer nothing much besides a reminder of a version of Janeway that I can't reconcile in the least with Kate Mulgrew's much more attractive performance. But the important part... It's hard to deny, after seeing it on screen so clearly, that Chakotay is in love with his captain. He reacts to her death much more profoundly, and physically, than as a bereaved friend. It's equally clear that although she doesn't completely reciprocate his feelings, she sympathizes with them and feels a deep attachment for him. Why she doesn't reciprocate is the great unsolved mystery of Voyager. I hear a lot of justifications and preaching about how a woman can't bestow her affections as freely as a man and I simply don't accept that--still, in the 24th century? The dramatic and romantic tension between these characters doesn't betray much forethought. It's gone up, down and sideways too many times. As a fan, I simultaneously groaned and sighed at such clichéd romanticisms as "Breathe, Kathryn, breathe!" while Chakotay pressed his lips to Janeway's. It's on a par with the idyllic desert island of "Resolutions." Obvious, hokey--and a hell of a lot of fun. And the actors really made something of it. That same edgy romantic tension that keeps me tearing my hair lent a lot of resonance to Chakotay's actions. He never could embrace Janeway and let out his feelings before, so he does so in grief instead of joy. Robert Beltran usually keeps Chakotay on a tight leash, so to see him weep and rage has that much more impact. I was reminded during this episode, by nearly every performance, of just how talented Voyager's acting ensemble is. When they get good material, they do it full justice, and they can lift mediocrity up into fine entertainment. Just for a moment there, "Coda" touched a real vein of emotion, and revived a lot of good memories. I hope it's more than a temporary new lease on life. --L.R. Bowen The first thing I noticed when I watched "Coda" was that Chakotay called Janeway Kathryn 16 times, 3 of them in front of Tuvok and the doctor, and that he referred to her as Kathryn Janeway another 3 times...Okay, I'll be honest, that wasn't the first thing I noticed. It actually took several viewings to get an accurate count, because even when I was replaying those scenes, I'd get so caught up in what was happening that I'd lose track. The last time, I sat with a pencil and a pad in my hands, and that was how I made the final tally. So what was the first thing I noticed? Simply that it worked. It was an old familiar story, by Trek standards. The purists can and probably will enumerate the many times in which those dreaded temporal anomalies show up and people get caught in them, or the ones where nasty aliens pretend to be someone familiar while invading the minds and hearts of our heroes and drawing them toward certain doom. Yes, it has been done before--but it worked. When I considered my inability to count Kathryns, I realized that I could not prevent my emotions from pulling me into the story. Right from the start, seeing Janeway and Chakotay at ease together and bantering comfortably about the Voyager talent show, I was disarmed. Then came the sudden descent into peril, and two close friends were shifting gears seamlessly to become a competent command team again. (If that's not the perfect illustration of how I envision Janeway and Chakotay's relationship, I don't know what is-well, maybe I do know.) Next, the looping, with each loop more emotionally fraught than the last. By the time Chakotay was clutching Janeway's lifeless body in his arms and imploring her not to die on him, tears splashing unnoticed off his chin, I neither knew nor cared that this scenario had been done before, because what set it apart from any previous episode for me was the emotions of the crew: Chakotay, completely distraught in one scenario, standing in stony silence in the next; the doctor, his voice betraying the same tenderness with which he once addressed Denara Pel; Harry, overwhelmed; Tom, intent on holding himself together; Neelix, stunned into rare silence; B'Elanna, ennobled by her grief; Kes, disbelieving, searching desperately for answers; Tuvok, stoic, but with an expression of shattered loss in his eyes... And beside them at every moment, Janeway, as vulnerable and afraid as we've ever seen her, yet never for a moment willing to give in, to stop fighting. These are the charactersI love, and that's why "Coda" worked so well. There's something about an "It's a wonderful life" story; it's fascinating to see how your own death might affect your colleagues, your loved ones. It's equally fascinating to imagine that death is nothing more than a change in consciousness, that the dead can and do coexist with the living, that they retain an awareness of the world they've left behind. I found it striking that at first Janeway's intent was to communicate with her crew and to suggest scientific possibilities to them; that's her usual role, to lead and to inspire. Later, when she had accepted her own death, she wanted not to retain her captaincy, but simply to comfort them. Her maternal concern for the crew has been evident from the beginning, and it's one of the reasons I love her so much, because she herself is so unafraid to love them. These visions may have existed nowhere but in her own mind, while in reality the doctor worked over her nearly lifeless body, but it was nevertheless a journey of discovery for Kathryn Janeway, and a reminder of how much these characters mean to me. Oh, and that perfect illustration of Janeway and Chakotay's relationship? The final scene, of course... --Diane Nichols I was ecstatically happy for the hour I watched this episode, but in a way, I feel as manipulated by "Coda" as Janeway did by the evil alien impersonating her father. I saw characters I once knew and loved, miraculously returned to life, telling me to believe in them. Like "Resistance" and "Resolutions" did last season, "Coda" served as a reminder not only of how gripping Voyager can be, but how dreadfully dull it is 9 weeks out of 10. An episode like this only shows up how hollow the show is week after week. I have to hand it to Jeri Taylor--even when the script went over the top, she knew she could count on Kate Mulgrew and Robert Beltran to make it work. The chemistry between them is so potent that they could be reading the phone book and the words would seem rife not just with innuendo, but with affection, humor, warmth. I've been asking all season what happened to the Janeway and Chakotay of "Resolutions," and there they were--better, because they were working together. I don't give a crap about temporal anomalies or evil aliens unless there's a human story making them matter; this episode was about love and committment, which are usually dirty words on Trek. The dynamic between Janeway and Chakotay provides enough emotional involvement to drive this series, but it's squandered to the point that, when we finally get an episode like this which picks up on "The Cloud" and "Dreadnought" and "Future's End I," conscious effort is needed to remember it. I don't mean it as criticism when I say that the best plotting in "Coda" was recycled from TNG--the time loop like the one that kept making the Enterprise explode for Picard, the scene of attending one's own funeral like the one for Geordi and Ro. The plot itself is irrelevant when the characterization works. Mulgrew was marvelous, surprisingly strong and understated in an episode which could easily have made Janeway look like a damsel in distress. This seemed like Taylor's apology for "Persistence of Vision," with Janeway refusing to listen to an evil alien impersonating a loved one. It also made me feel better about the much-criticized Mosaic, since she didn't bow down to Daddy's wishes. Beltran was a tad hyperbolic sobbing over Kathryn, but that hardly mattered; Chakotay is so riddled with inconsistent feelings that he's hard to recognize from week to week. The sad truth is that all these characters are creatures of commercialism, whose mannerisms change wildly depending on the demands of individual episodes (this week we get a warm, sensitive B'Elanna admitting that Janeway changed her life; next week we get the third straight time she'll have intimate relations while out of her mind). I love Kathryn Janeway, but she has no soul. She should have told the alien impersonating her father that; maybe he would have gone away sooner. Soon Janeway will undoubtedly pick up a phaser rifle again and tell Chakotay to go the hell skiing without her. I'm expecting this episode to produce an explosion of fan fiction like "Resolutions" did, so maybe I'll spend the next few Wednesday nights reading about Janeway and Chakotay on that moonlight boat ride, instead of watching pon farr and Borg rear their ugly heads. --Sara Unger "Coda" is definitely the best J/C episode we have seen all season, and I found it absolutely enthralling from start to finish. The acting was first rate, if slightly melodramatic...but then again, this is the kind of story that just cries out (pun intended) for a little overkill. The initial scene in the shuttle shows the characters I fell in love with long ago, but who seem to have gotten lost of late. The easy banter between the two typifies the comfortable relationship one would think they have fallen into. I mean, come on, these people have been together for 3 years now. The jokes, easy laughter, comfortable postures--all beautiful touches. The only problem I had with this episode was the fact that Janeway didn't fight enough when Kes was trying to contact her. If it had been me in that briefing room, I would have dove across the table passing through every person in there until they all stood up and looked at each other in amazement. When Kes and Tuvok were doing their mind meld, I wanted Janeway to scream, pass through them, run around the room, ANYTHING other than sitting there idly watching! For J/Cers, this episode is bound to cause many a viewer (including myself) to swoon. We have seen so little of their off-duty relationship since "Resolutions" that it seems to have been all but forgotten. I am happy that their friendship has grown, but it sure would have been nice to see it develop over time, instead of having it thrown at us all at once. It makes perfect sense that they become good friends, if not more. Janeway got to see first-hand the depth of Chakotay's feelings for her. The death scene on the planet was played out beautifully. I had a lump in my throat when he was talking to the ship telling them the captain was dead. The pain, the tears, that half-numb gaze, all while Janeway looked on--wow! The euthanasia scene was also a clever twist, expertly played by both actors. I can't quite figure out what to make of the final scene in Janeway's ready room. The rose is an intimate gesture to be sure, and Janeway now knows without a doubt that his feelings for her are very strong--and very close to the surface. This is the first acknowledgment we have seen from her regarding Chakotay. For once, she didn't get right back to business. Whether or not the invitation for the boat ride was meant to be a date or just a get together between good friends is inconsequential, really. It was handled in such a casual manner that it's hard to tell, but a moonlight boat ride is not the place to remind someone about "parameters." Either way, it's a good start to a mutual relationship between the two. It's about bloody time we see Janeway "hanging out" with people and forming some close relationships. This issue of her emotional needs must be addressed. The Janeway that I see is a moral, intelligent, and unashamedly compassionate individual. A person like this couldn't possibly carry the burden of command without some deeply meaningful relationships to lean on. I, for one, am heartened by the one we saw in "Coda." --Beth Schuman I had to watch this episode three times before I could bring myself to write a review, and I wanted to like it, I really did. Whenever I need to be reminded of who Captain Janeway really is, I return to Season One for a refresher course. This is where her identity became cemented in my mind, and it clashes horribly with the canon filtered in from Mosaic during Season Three. While I can accept toughness, because we've all seen what Janeway can do with a gun in her hand, I have a hard time swallowing this "Daddy" business. We are supposed to believe that Janeway was close to her father as a child, and to accept that she spent months of grief in bed. So, if all that is true, then how can we explain her extreme lack of emotional involvement with his ghost? Janeway is anything but distant from her crew, and we saw what it meant to her when no one stayed behind in "The 37s." We know the woman has a heart along with a deep well of emotions. But dear old Dad had absolutely no impact on his 'little bird.' "Coda" could have been an extremely good episode if it wasn't marred by melodramatic performances and recycled storylines. For TNG aficionados, this must have been painful to watch. Since I entered the Trek universe during the last few seasons of TNG, I cannot quote you chapter and verse from the episode bible, but when the words 'time loop' came up, I started groaning. This entire premise could have been so much more effective if the episode had gone along without the it. We really would have thought Janeway was dead until much later when the alien came crawling through the wall. I think they tipped their hand way too soon on this one. Time loops and ghosts don't mesh, so it was almost like two episodes were grafted together to make "Coda." In addition, I was reminded of the alien from "Persistence of Vision," and that was a nightmare unto itself. So what about Janeway? Were we really treated to any major character development here? Did anyone believe that the J/C relationship had advanced a notch or two in temperature, or was it all just a dream? As Chakotay told Seska in "State of Flux," I have a hard time knowing what is real and what isn't. Most of the scenes were sucked out of Janeway's head, so we saw her perception of things. While that is interesting, it still doesn't tell us how Chakotay really feels or whether Torres and Kim mean what they said. Was Chakotay actually crying over her dead body? Did he really use CPR on her? Did they joke about dying swans? And why on earth would Janeway be thinking about time loops when we know she hates them ("Future's End")? I also wonder about the Vidiians being in her thoughts. After all, this must have been at the surface of her mind when they crashed, or how else would the alien have picked up on this? Perhaps she was hoping that the phage would overtake Tuvok so she didn't have to listen to Vulcan poetry on Talent Night! Much of what I enjoyed here was visual: the expressions on everyone's faces at the memorial service, the tears falling off of Chakotay's face as he pronounced the captain dead, and J/C with their arms wrapped around one another when they resuscitated the captain. Although some of these scenes were hallucinations, they still felt real to me, and that's what matters. None of Chakotay's overemoting and gasping for air had any emotional impact, and I cringed during the various death scenes. They were brutal and unnecessary. We all know that the doctor has developed compassion and would never treat Janeway in this fashion. Once again, this would have been far more chilling and effective if the characterizations rang true. For example, the shuttle scene was among the best in the episode, because the captain and first officer were behaving normally. I can excuse the fact that they shouldn't be together on an away mission because they make such a great team. In fact, seeing them try to work out the time loop problem was the best part of the entire episode. I love seeing Janeway at her scientific best, and she was in fine form during this segment. She was even smart enough to doubt the alien, which probably accounts for the emotional distance I sensed in her. When she uttered "Daddy," some might say that it showed her vulnerable side, and I don't disagree with that statement. I just wish we could have seen a little more of the close father-daughter relationship we've heard so much about. Maybe Eddie the admiral was miscast, or maybe it was the lame dialogue they had foisted on them, but this matchup didn't work. In my opinion, "Coda" did not help Janeway's character. While we saw a bit more range than they've given us in a long time, there was no real moral dilemma or character testing situation to develop her further. --Elizabeth Klisiewicz "Coda"! How do I love thee? Let me count the ways...1 talent show, 2 shuttle crashes, 3 temporal loops, 1 rose, 1 bottle of champagne, 19 "Kathryns" (yes, I counted!), lip contact...so it was CPR. The touchy-feely meter went off the boards with this episode! There were so many things I loved about "Coda" that it's hard to know where to begin. I think my favorite scene in this entire episode had to be the very first scene in the shuttlecraft. It was fabulous to see the name 'Sacajawea' on the side. For those non history buffs among you, Sacajawea was the Native American guide--another female leader, by the way--that led Lewis and Clark in their historic expedition. J: "C'mon, Chakotay, there must be some talent you have that people would enjoy. Maybe I could stand with an apple on my head and you could phaser it off." C: "Sounds great." [insert that wonderful grin here] "If I miss, I get to be captain." THIS is the J/C I want to see. THIS is the J/C that we've hardly seen since TPTB seemingly forgot that "Resolutions" ever happened. Wait--I know--the whole thing was a temporal shift, right? Wrong. It DID happen, and regardless of how intimate things were or weren't between the Captain and First Officer, an obvious camaraderie was forged on New Earth. There's now a very relaxed friendship here, and that terrifies me. Why? Because I know that in next week's episode, it will be all but forgotten again. I have no desire to see the off-duty details of Kathryn & Chakotay's love life. All I ask is for a little bit of continuity. I don't care that we've seen countless temporal anomalies, to me a plot is a plot is a plot. It's the characters I tune in to see week after week. They fascinate me and I love watching them grow and adjust to whatever the Delta Quadrant hurls their way. But please, don't cheapen what has happened by stringing us along and then ripping our hearts out. Sorry, I do tend to get a bit possessive, don't I? The fact that Chakotay called her "Kathryn" in front of other crew members tells me that there is a secure relationship here and that they are adult enough to separate work from their private lives. And that's as it should be. All the naysayers that have insisted a shipboard romance would diminish Janeway's ability to command are out in left field on this one. I've said it all along...the captain needs a place to unwind in her off hours and it seems to me she's found it, as well as someone to do her unwinding with! Computer, load program "Janeway, Lake George." Oh -- and don't forget the champagne! --Becky Olsen Correct me if I'm wrong, but wasn't this supposed to be a moving, romantic episode? Hmmm...guess something was lost in the editing process. This episode struck me as nothing more than (at least) two recycled ST:TNG plotlines, smashed together by someone who has a thing for Janeway and Chakotay but can't write anything too blatant or she'll get in trouble with the highers up. Oh yeah, Jeri Taylor wrote it. That explains a lot. The two TNG episodes I'm referring to, of course, are the shows where the Enterprise is caught in a repeating time loop ("Cause and Effect") and where Ro and LaForge "die" ("The Next Phase") but in reality are phase-shifted and invisible to the rest of the crew. The fact that those episodes were better written and better acted only made "Coda" seem all the more trite. Did the director tell Mulgrew and Beltran to overdo it? This was a non-stop melodrama-coaster, from Chakotay yelling "breathe!" as he administered bad CPR to Janeway (never bend your elbows when performing CPR!) to Janeway imitating orgasm in every death scene (and there were plenty). I know some people found this moving, but the only moving I did was to groan in agony or laugh hysterically. The actor playing Janeway's father wasn't much better. He looked like he was doing a read-through, not a final performance. He only got passably good at the end when he started to act menacing. One major problem I had was when they had Janeway, a Midwesterner, call her father "Daddy." I'm sorry, but that's infantilizing. Midwesterners don't do that. I didn't think anybody but southern belles did it, but an email discussion with friends proved that it's more wide-spread than that. Luckily, my Midwestern friends confirmed that in that part of the country, "daddy" is a term reserved for the very young. Once again, Janeway has to be "softened" so she won't offend the anti-woman segment of the audience. One scene that was quite noticeably missing was any reaction from Tom. B'Elanna and Harry got speeches at the memorial service, Kes and Tuvok got a scene in Tuvok's quarters, and Chakotay got that moment of supreme overacting over her corpse, but where was Tom's grief? Of all the people on this ship, he has the most to thank her for, and therefore the most to lose with her gone. Neelix didn't have a reaction scene either, and that also struck me as odd. The Doctor...well, him getting to kill her seemed to be a rather extreme over-dramatization of the current doctor-assisted-suicide issue, which irked me, but at least he got some screen time to deal with Janeway's death. Paris and Neelix should have been granted the same courtesy. All right, I will concede that I thought that the idea of the alien sucking the dead into his matrix so he could eat them was rather creepy. Interesting concept...but then why didn't Janeway demand to know if all her other dead crewmates were trapped in his matrix? Janeway's always been very protective of the well-being of her crew, so why not take a couple of moments to demand to know if he's taken all her other dead crew off to be his food? That really bothered me. It seemed painfully out of character for her, but then again, this entire season has seemed out of character for Janeway. Next week, pon farr meets blood fever...looks yummy, sounds awful. Think I'll be blind drunk for that one. --Jennifer Pelland (Siubhan) I enjoyed this episode a great deal upon first viewing. The first half kept me guessing, and I was wrong each time. This is not a usual happening with Trek, so I was pleased. I am usually fascinated by time warp/loop plots. I was very happy to see Captain Janeway and Commander Chakotay being relaxed and comfortable with one another. This is an element that has been sorely missed since "Resolutions" last season. I hope that this trend continues, as it makes for much more interesting viewing than the Cold Fish and Wooden Man routine we've seen between them of late. That, of course, is no comment on Kate or Robert, but on the writing of the relationship between Janeway and Chakotay. This is the way they should have been behaving with one another all along! So we have the Captain and the First Officer stranded on a planet again, only this time it's a hostile planet and the Captain is mortally wounded. This didn't bother me, either, though I must admit to not being terribly worried about Janeway's eventual well-being! It wasn't until the "consciousness" appeared that I started thinking that this was all to familiar. I don't know why for sure, but it reminded me of "Cathexis," in which it was Chakotay's consciousness floating around the ship (though his was invisible). I was actually surprised that Janeway didn't remember this incident and try and inhabit the body of one of the crew members as Chakotay had done. When Janeway's "father" arrived, all I could think was "Persistence of Vision." I just could not shake the feeling that the man portraying her father carried the same feel as the man portraying Paris' father. The other thing that really bothered me was yet another alien take-over episode. The initial setup would have worked wonderfully well with Janeway just having some kind of near death experience, maybe some soul searching that resulted in character growth. I'm sure there are those who would have found that angle overdone as well, but at least it would have been an opportunity to explore Janeway's character more deeply. I had a very hard time getting past the PoV feel. As it was, we got another alien using whatevertactics it could to try and coerce her into submitting to him. I loved that she didn't! And his message to her about standing by in loneliness while the people around her and the people she loved moved on with their lives was definitely one Janeway needed to hear. I thought the finest part of this episode was the final scene with Janeway and Chakotay celebrating life together. I choose to take this to mean that she got the message that she is only wasting precious time by not moving on in her life, but I suppose the fact of the matter is that it remains to be seen if that is true or not. This was another great Kate episode. Her performance was terrific. I also thought that this was the best Robert Beltran has looked since "Caretaker," too. This is the Chakotay that I had hoped we would see throughout this series. I just hope that the writers hear that enough so that it sinks in and they keep it up! Overall I enjoyed this episode, though, I feel somewhat disappointed in it. Something about the manipulation by the alien left me feeling manipulated as well. I do not for a minute think that what was being presented to us were Janeway's inner fears/thoughts used by the alien. None of the little scenarios used by the alien rang true, even to Janeway's fears. No wonder the alien was not successful in convincing her. She's a strong woman, a Star Fleet Captain, and she's not going to go along because someone says she should. The scenarios used to try and convince her were almost insulting. --Siobhan Wolf All I can say about this episode is that I LOVED IT!!!!! It had both an intriguing storyline and tons of wonderful J/C moments. The story about the alien and the time loops was quite good, used to explore the relationships Janeway has built over the past two years. We saw Torres and how she had matured due to the responsibilities Janeway entrusted to her. We see how everyone is affected and how Janeway is as well. There was sadness all around both Starfleet and Maquis. I was happy to see that there was no acrimony between the two groups about who was going to be captain now that Janeway is dead. Of course, since she was hallucinating, this could all be wishful thinking on her part and may actually be the furthest thing from the truth. But I don't think so. The usage of the temporal loop was tricky and well-used to keep the viewer guessing as to what really happened and what Janeway hallucinated. I almost believed that she had died. And I really liked how both she and Chakotay immediately realized that they were in some sort of time loop and didn't keep repeating their mistakes like Picard and his crew did in "Cause and Effect." That was another reason why I liked the time loop, since they took a familiar plot device and put a new twist on it. I was surprised when those two immediately realized what had happened since I was expecting them to repeat the loop several times before they caught on. Now to the good stuff. Being a J/C fan since day one, I am always on the lookout for scenes where we get indications of the status of their personal relationship. Last season, we got "Resolutions" and Chakotay's Angry Warrior Speech which was, in my opinion, a thinly veiled way of telling her that he loves her. After all, it wasn't exactly your standard Captain/First Officer talk. And now this season, we had some stuff in "Future's End" and finally "Coda." First, we had the relaxed conversation in the shuttle about Talent Night. Then, we had the tortured cry "KATHRYN!" This was followed by his extreme concern as she lay there unconscious as he was frantically working to revive her. Of course, when in one iteration of the time loop, she dies, he holds her lifeless body to his chest and cries out his grief. Then in the end, she issues an invitation to share a bottle of champagne and a moonlight sail on Lake George. Call me crazy but this sounds like a date! Mulgrew's performance in this scene was wonderful and portrayed Janeway's euphoria at having cheated death beautifully. And let us not forget the rose! It was lovely but thecolor was all wrong. It should have been red or some other color fraught with romantic meaning. In the final analysis, this was an excellent episode. The story held together, the plot device used was not a repeat from a previous episode, and the relationship between Janeway and Chakotay was moved forward from where it was in"Resolutions." --Shalini Gupta BLOOD FEVER "Bodice-ripping, crotch-dripping..." Oh, whoops, that was "sweat-dripping." The Lurid UPN Preview strikes again. But unlike the previous worst examples, the preview for "Blood Fever" was reasonably accurate. When I think of what could have been done with the basic theme of raging pon farr and hot Klingon babes--no, sorry, I can't think of anything tasteful and interesting in that vein. This episode is notable mostly for being a set-up for some of the least attractive character moments in the entire run of Voyager. I don't care to see both Tuvok and the doctor acting as pimps for crewmembers, and I don't care to see yet another female crewmember out of her mind and crazy for sex. Poor Tom Paris. His reaction to B'Elanna's biting and mauling was at least plausible, though he was given some terrible dialog. "This isn't about the gun, this is about sex. But that's not going to happen right now." Not even Robbie McNeill could save that line. There were a few good hoots in "Blood Fever," but most of them were unintentional. And it's ruined Vulcan mating practices for all time as a serious subject for Star Trek. Oddly, the character damage to Tom and B'Elanna is redeemable, as both were acting under compulsion or delusion (nearly mandatory for Voyager) but the peripheral characters suffered the most, either from not doing much while all this was raging around them, or by pandering to the general uneasy prurience. Janeway was reduced to a bemused bystander who can't keep one nutso ensign from disabling the whole ship, and Chakotay didn't do much better despite handling a tense situation with the underground aliens. As I mentioned, the pimping was inappropriate for this kind of show, and even more so for the characters involved. Probably the worst since "Threshold", though not hitting quite so low a note. --L.R. Bowen Forget what you know about pon farr. Battles to the death? Return trips to the homeworld? Not here, sorry. This new generation of Trek writers seems convinced that TOS canon should be ignored, so they expect viewers to do the same. Oh, and along with forgetting canon, pretend that you have the IQ of a chimp. OK? All set? Now you can enjoy the episode. "Blood Fever" was a sweaty excursion into the seamy underside of unrestrained, instinctual behavior. Instead of presenting us with something we could swallow, like Tuvok accidentally going into pon farr, we get to watch engineer Vorick do the Vulcan mating dance. TPTB have apparently phasered all the interesting peripheral characters so they can cast Jeri Taylor's son. Do the words 'dull as dishwater' mean anything to you? People like Martha Hackett and Brad Dourif breathed fire into their roles, because they had interesting characters to work with. Vorick's deep, affected sighs were almost as bad as Chakotay's 'breathe, dammit's in "Coda." But let's not spend too much time picking on Alexander Enberg, because he did the best he could with mediocre material. I am extremely surprised that Lisa Klink's name appeared on the teleplay; she has always impressed me with her sensitive, character driven writing. There was some extremely witty dialogue on the part of the doctor, and a few good lines between Paris and Torres. This was also Andrew Robinson's directing debut on Voyager, but there is nothing notable to report. He didn't detract from the story, but then, there wasn't much story to speak of. To be fair, I should also compliment Robert Duncan McNeill and Roxann Dawson. Roxann was superb in showing off B'Elanna's alter ego, and it makes a nice bookend to the first season episode "Faces." I also appreciated the sensitivity that Paris showed towards Torres, and Robbie deserves the credit for this. I am not entirely happy with the way they have turned Paris into a white knight, but he is still one of the better written characters on Voyager. Best scenes: Neelix falling down the cliff, Torres breaking Vorick's jaw, Torres besting Vorick in the fight (too bad she didn't off him), Torres biting Paris in the face, Torres and Paris on the turbolift, and those tight, tight gray uniforms. More, I say! Worst scenes: The Doctor and Vorick on the holodeck discussing an energy construct for a mate, Tuvok ordering Paris to do B'Elanna, and any scene with Vorick in it. By the way, how can one person disable all those systems without someone knowing about it? Phaser him, please! Once I checked my brain at the door, I managed to enjoy this. Don't look too closely at that swiss cheese they call a plot, and you'll be happy you watched too. --Elizabeth Klisiewicz In "Blood Fever," Tom Paris gets trapped in a cave with an extremely eager B'Elanna Torres, something the rest of us can only fantasize about. Although obviously tempted (which can't be all that comfortable in tight spandex), he resists her advances. There are a number of reasons for doing so. They need to concentrate on getting out of there and finding the rest of the away team. They can't be sure the Lichen People aren't watching. It would also be conceivable for Paris to be concerned that Torres is Klingon enough to interpret a single act of sex as requiring a lifetime commitment. Instead, he phrases his objections in terms of what she'll think of herself, and him, in the morning. I don't see why she should hate herself for pursuing the most obvious solution to her problem. Torres and Paris are mature adults who know and trust each other. Torres is certainly under the influence of Vorik's "mating bond," something both parties are aware of, but it's not a case of mind control--she's still herself, and still capable of rejecting poor Vorik. Her physical need is perfectly real, regardless of its origins. Paris's response is altogether too reminiscent of the old-fashioned ideology under which a man can't sleep with a woman he respects and a woman isn't supposed to show any interest. I think the doctor was criticizing the wrong person about harboring Victorian attitudes. Paris's assumption that he knows better than Torres what she really wants is somewhat understandable while she's under alien influence, but it's jarring in the final turbolift scene. There's a power dynamic in the Torres/Paris relationship that I'm not very comfortable with. He's seen her in very revealing situations, particularly in "Faces," but he hasn't revealed that much of himself. I hope that if the relationship gets closer he'll be more open with her than he has been to date. Aside from the sexual politics, my main problems with the episode are that Tuvok once again appears grossly incompetent and Chakotay is rather too willing to disclose information to the Lichen People, about whom he knows nothing. The pacing is off, too--the ending seems very rushed and the final fight trivial, especially in contrast to "Amok Time." Nonetheless, the episode is entertaining to watch and provides a good introduction for the Borg. --Jenny Loehlin I can't believe this show got a TV-PG rating; naked wrestling would have been less degrading than this. If the gender roles were reversed--if Tom were female and B'Elanna were male--I don't think anyone would have had trouble noticing the gleeful justification of sexual harrassment. Did Tuvok really order Paris to prong Torres? Were Tuvok really so interested in preserving Vulcan privacy, seems to me he'd have volunteered to do the job himself...though it would have been simpler if he just took care of Vorick in the first place. And Tuvok agreed with Vorick that it would be logical for Torres to marry him once Vorick forced the meld which set off her pon farr...do Vulcans also believe that if a man rapes a woman, it is logical for her to marry him? I've never been a fan of violent Vulcan and Klingon mating rituals on Trek, but this is a new low. This was a big episode for Roxann Dawson, written to show off her Klingon character--but all it really did was to reduce her to buff babe status. If they wanted to give her a challenge, they should have kept her in engineering, dealt with her Klingon side on the job like in "Parallax." Now I suspect she will always be Tommy the Stud's love interest, the way I was once afraid they were going to make her Chakotay the Stud's love interest. There is not going to be a need to take her character seriously. Janeway will get the role of the chaste, serious, maternal female leader, and Torres will be the emotional, unpredictable, fiesty sexual woman. I thought Roxann was overacting, and her heavy breathing got on my nerves, but I blame the director--every chance he had to film her heaving chest, he did. This was even a rotten Janeway episode. Once again, she looked humorless and uptight when confronted with a situation that demanded compassion and warmth to ease the tension. Not that I ever believed in the tension, since I was certain it would have a "This never happened" ending like "Persistence of Vision," "Fascination," etc.--and sure enough, B'Elanna had Yar's exact line to Data from "The Naked Now." I saw more chemistry between Tom and Neelix than between Tom and B'Elanna in this episode. I'd expect Tom to put out to save the life of anyone on the ship, because he's basically a good guy and doesn't take sex overly seriously, but I believed his reluctance all too well. I got the feeling that Tom was just in the lucky place, and it could easily have been Harry or Chak in Torres' clutches. But I was most upset about the trashing of Vulcan and Klingon culture and ritual during this episode. They didn't have time for bells and incense like they did during "Amok Time," and Torres doesn't know the stuff Worf always recites before having sex, but fifteen seconds of violent combat as a substitute for a life bond was a major copout. I always thought the point of pon farr was that it WASN'T just a mindless mating rut. The whole reason for the bond is that it's mental and spiritual as well as physical. So the Doc playing Holopimp was ludicrous--at least it didn't work!--but the idea that either Torres or Vorick could snap out of their lustful ways by slapping someone around was grotesque. Sex equals violence, and when you take the mating drive away from its Vulcan spiritual significance, it translates just as mindless need to get laid. I guess Torres is every boy's dream girl, who needs it so bad that she'll do it anywhere with anyone. She's already done so many men in fantasy on the show that I have a hard time believing she can be faithful to Tom even if he can be faithful to her. If these characters need diseases and mind control in order to make love, they also need therapy. I'm surprised the Doc hasn't noticed. --Sara Unger The preview for "Blood Fever" certainly didn't lie--this was as close to an episode of "Melrose Place" as I hope we'll ever get. I'm not saying that I don't like the idea of a Paris/Torres relationship, but this concept totally takes me aback. The very idea of 'we must have sex or I'll die' is so far from the views and motives of TOS that it makes me cringe. Yes, I know that the Vulcan mating cycle was introduced back in the first series, but there are huge differences between "Amok Time" and "Blood Fever." First off, "Amok Time"'s story concept was much better. With his life on the line, Spock must return home to mate. After the plot for this episode was revealed, it was carried out logically ('scuse the pun) and in a way that kept the audience interested. Fans care about Spock; they don't know for sure what's going to happen to him, and therefore they wonder as they watch. One of the remarkable qualities about Gene Roddenberry was that he had the ability to bring out the magic in writing that compelled fans to question 'the heavy topics' through the interaction of characters they loved. Now for "Blood Fever." Since Vorick is 70,000 light years from home, he obviously can't return...unless he flies at warp ten, turns into a salamander, kidnaps B'Elanna, and mates with her. [Slap! Sorry, I had to suggest the idea!] B'Elanna's his obvious choice for a mate; he's been giving her signs almost since we first met him. However, B'Elanna suddenly having pon farr simply because of contact with Vorick--well, that's where the episode failed IMO. It's a lousy excuse for the P/T action. As for those ugly gargoyle-like people and the B-plot in general, the writers could've done without it. They really didn't have a purpose; take them out and you still have the basic concept of the story! This episode did have some strong points. The first one is the fighting scene. It is the best way for Vorick and B'Elanna to end this 'chemical imbalance.' And besides, the fight was pretty darn good! We haven't seen good ol' dirty combat like that for quite some time. What a great fix! Next, kudos to the actors and actresses, especially Roxann Dawson and Robbie McNeil. They did a superb job of delivering their lines, and deserve great praise for their work in this one. --Charlynn Kate Smith It happens to almost everyone, the urge to mate. Whether it's for expressing love, giving and receiving pleasure, procreation, or just indulging in a little lust is up to the individuals involved. In the world of Star Trek, it's a physiological occurrence for alien species as well. Pon farr is especially interesting because of its highly emotional effect on people who take great pride in their unemotional approach to life. This would have been a good opportunity to explore the more domestic side of Voyager's predicament--life is going to go on whether they're halfway across the galaxy or not, and that's going to have consequences for everyone which could lead to tragedy if they don't take care of their needs. Unfortunately, TPTB chose to give us a more base view of things. It's hard to say, based on this episode, whether pon farr is just something embarrassing or whether it's an important part of Vulcan ritual and tradition. I sort of got the impression it was both. The previews indicated a more tawdry story than what I think we got. They were in a unique situation with B'Elanna having been affected, but I was surprised at how casually Vorick and Tuvok were able to discuss the pon farr with others. It was Tuvok's reluctance to discuss the situation with the doctor that made me realize just how private it's supposed to be. That discomfort disappeared suddenly enough once he reached B'Elanna on the planet, where he proceeded to talk about it in front of her--and Chakotay and Paris. But he could barely deal with the doctor earlier? I can only imagine how B'Elanna felt being told, in front of her boss and co-worker, that she'd been infected with an insatiable urge to have sex and that she'd die if she didn't "get help." I know I was embarrassed, especially when Tuvok practically ordered Tom to go...you know. I'm not quite sure what to make of the Doctor's holodeck solution to Vorick's situation, other than to be disgusted at the suggestion that it's healthy to relieve one's physical needs with a computer construct. The way I understood it, Vulcans need to make a mental connection with their mates during pon farr--how was he supposed to mind meld with a hologram? Obviously there's ritual involved, or Vorick wouldn't have declared his intent to mate with B'Elanna and battle his opponent...so where was it? The ritual, I mean. Oh--maybe it was that mating brawl, the one that ended so conveniently when Torres KO'd Vorick, thus ending the blood fever. If relieving pon farr was as simple as meditation or giving into anger or passion or the need to do something physically strenuous, why not have Vorick wrestle a holocharacter and let Torres dig herself and Paris out of the rockfall? Rather than focusing on the mental impact of the crew's involuntary exile or the intricacies of Vulcan physiology and ritual, this episode turned into exactly what the previews promised: a sweaty, cloth-ripping, heavy-breathing, neck-biting, sexual cliche that exploited Klingon and Vulcan sexual response and made both look like something from a side show. Story aside, I thought there was some terrific acting in there. Roxann Dawson for one. She did a fabulous job giving us a glimpse into the battle going on within Torres and her monumental efforts to control it. I hope that some day Torres can experience love without it being forced upon her by an outside influence. Robert Duncan McNeill for another. I believed in his struggle as well Tom Paris he can be incredibly sweet and compassionate when he wants to be and I've grown to really like him. The doctor's catalog of mating practices was amusing in a sick sort of way and I loved the look Janeway gave him. That scene was just begging for another crack about mating behavior (as in Elogium) but all we got was Cold Janeway who didn't seem to care that two of her crew were suffering. Nice to see some friendly aliens for a change. There is a bright side to all this--we learned a couple lessons this week. Doctors, remember that it's NEVER safe to release a patient with even a trace of hormonal imbalance. And everyone, if an emotional Vulcan ever tries to hit on you, run away. Very fast. --Meredith Antonelli UNITY I suppose it was inevitable that sooner or later TPTB would give Chakotay a Babe of the Week in the hope of convincing us that he actually has balls--I still don't believe it, but I guess he must have a penis or he wouldn't have been thinking with it instead of with his brain. I'm surprised the writers settled for Barbie of Borg, who's so similar to what we've seen before--a cross between Kathryn and Seska--but it makes a certain amount of sense, given the one-dimensionality of Chakotay's interests; falling all over any long-haired alpha female around is one of his trademarks. Despite her femme-fatale use of sexuality, I really liked Riley. She's smart, she's survived adversity, she's a natural leader, a science officer, devoted to her people, aggressive, resourceful, sympathetic, and she knows how to have a good time. Reminded me of Janeway on a good day. In fact, like Chakotay, for a moment I liked Riley better. And that's what I hated about "Unity." Not just that Chakotay forsakes his only consistent character point--his professional and personal devotion to Janeway--for a younger version of The True Meaning of Peace, but because it made sense that he would. "Unity" makes Voyager look rotten. The ship's been in space for years now, but, Chakotay's claim notwithstanding, we don't have any real sense that it's a community. I can see where a collective would be attractive to someone who's been stuck on Janeway's crew, where the captain holes up painting and practicing tennis in her ready room instead of making friends, where the junior officers are only now getting around to socializing--largely because of alien holodeck manipulation and sex diseases. Voyager's got the most depressing crew I've ever seen, and Janeway's the worst--plus, as captain, she's the cause. We should have seen episodes by now showing Janeway so happy and so skilled at her job that we wouldn't stop to wonder whether that was enough to fulfill her. Instead, we've gotten several episodes where she mooned over Mark, a few shows where she had dilemmas about her role as captain, a couple where she challenged her scientific principles. I have no idea what this woman stands for, not even what makes her happy. I look at her marching around with her big phaser rifle, giving inconsistent orders, denying herself friends and lovers, sighing to Q that she'd like to have a child, and I think, this is supposed to be a role model for women? If the goal of this season was to turn Janeway into a gun-toting automaton and stop J/C speculation by convincing viewers that she's undeserving of Chakotay's devotion because she can't reciprocate it--well, it worked. And if the goal of "Unity" was to convince viewers that Chakotay's a rebel without a clue who'll roll over and turn blue for any woman who can say "That's an order, Commander"--well, it worked! I believe that this Janeway and Chakotay have no romantic future together. Unfortunately, I'm also convinced that they're a shallow, unhappy, incompetent command team. --Sara Unger Voyager's new and improved third season makes it very difficult to review the show without breaking into mad laughter or throwing something at the screen. Besides violating classic Trek canon, they also seem bent on trashing all the characters and making them into stiff, stupid and unlikable remnants of their former selves. Luckily, Janeway and Torres seemed to escape from Ken Biller's misogynistic meanderings during this outing. Instead, 'Elvis' Chakotay went off on one of his boneheaded jaunts with his gelled hair, testosterone, and stupid cells jacked up to their very highest level. "Unity" fell into the classic hurt/comfort ravine that is revered by fanfic writers and reviled by those who call themselves professionals. My overall feeling was that I liked this episode, except for one very important thing: the Riley/Chakotay connection. What's a viewer to think? If there had been some kind of resolution between Janeway and Chakotay, then I would have no qualms about giving "Unity" a complete thumb's up. I also want to point out that it would have worked just fine if we hadn't just viewed Chakotay clutching a very dead Janeway to his breast only two weeks ago in "Coda." His overly dramatic heaving and crying in that episode led the viewer to think that something was still simmering between them, at least from Janeway's point of view. It also didn't help when they went off on their "moonlight sail" on the holodeck. So, Chakotay appears to be a totally fickle cad, incapable of thinking for himself and drawn like a magnet to the nearest Janeway clone. After getting burned by Seska, you think he would be slow to trust another woman. But he goes to this planet, and voila, he wakes up and seems instantly drawn to Riley. Later, in one of the episode's truly awful scenes, we get to see Chakotay kiss his own hand. This is just another example of a dysfunctional Trek relationship. If Chakotay was drawn to Riley, why didn't he just kiss her for real? On the other hand, while I was viewing this scene, I couldn't help but think of those ads about safe sex where they say that you not only sleep with your current partner, but everyone else they've been with too. Not only was he with Riley, but he was humping the minds of the rest of the collective as well--talk about a gang bang. Based on the fact that we know the Borg messed with his mind, there is the distinct possibility that they did something to him while he was sleeping to make him act like such a jerk. If Biller and company had incorporated this idea, it would have been far more insidious and logical then the end result we got. Also, why didn't the Doctor insist on examining Chakotay as soon as he arrived back on Voyager with Riley? Are we supposed to believe that he accepted the word of some former Borg, the Federation's deadliest enemy, that Chakotay is completely healed? I know, I know, this is one of those dinky little plot holes that I'm supposed to forget about because it would completely blow the rest of the story out of the water. OK, never mind then. The two guest stars were excellent, and I could not help but be drawn to Riley Frazier and her Romulan friend. The framework of the planet also provided an interesting backdrop. Although we learned some new information about the Borg, it's still hard to determine whether any link remains between these Borg and their counterparts floating about in First Contact. Beltran and Mulgrew were well utilized throughout the episode, even if Chakotay looked like he was about to say "Doh" by the end. I especially liked the visuals we got in the briefing room scene between J/C and Riley. Chakotay never took his eyes off of Riley for a moment, and his obsession with his new inamorata was duly noted by Janeway. The camera work was delicate, and I liked the way Janeway's eyes flicked between the two of them during their dialogue, as well as her subtle comment about Chakotay's newfound connection to the collective. Chakotay had his back to her during most of the scene, including the part where he looked out at the star field. This bit was very Janeway, and was actually a nice role reversal for them. The camera work was quite good. McNeill likes to use extreme closeups, especially during times of emotional tension. The very last scene in Sickbay also had a very interesting camera shot that reminded me of the one in "Sacred Ground" with Janeway. We are a distance away and the camera slowly moves towards the characters. Technobabble is swirling about Chakotay's head with abandon as they discuss his link, and he looks confused and lost. The expression on his face is priceless--he looks like a little boy who screwed up and never seems to learn his lesson. This is the second time he was fooled by a woman, and he really should know better. Besides covering their duplicity, it is also entirely possible that the Borg plumbed the rather shallow depths of Chak's psyche and quickly figured out what made him tick. By using Riley as bait, they were able to manipulate Chakotay into betraying his crew. This is a very interesting idea, and one which would have pushed this episode into the realm of greatness. It also makes me wonder if there is still something buried inside Chakotay that can be activated by some future encounter with the Borg. Too bad he wasn't able to turn things around and find out a few things about their technology while they were joined. Just goes to show what happens when you're ruled by your hormones. I'm willing to bet that Janeway would have figured out a thing or two. I also liked how they paired Torres and Chakotay on the shuttle towards the end. Torres is someone Chakotay is extremely close to, and he even managed to betray her, one of his oldest friends. To me, this says that he was being manipulated, and it makes his connection to Riley seem a little less odious. "Unity" was provocative, decently written and well directed. It certainly is not in the upper echelon of Borg episodes like "Best of Both Worlds," but it's far better than the tripe we've been treated to lately on Voyager. Besides, the musical score was wonderful. --Elizabeth Klisiewicz Frankly, if I were a redshirt and somebody ordered me to land a shuttlecraft on an alien planet in response to a distress signal, I would seriously consider mutiny. They don't seem to cover the real hazards in Starfleet survival training. The episode improves considerably after the clichéd beginning. The Borg are the Borg, not some interchangeable menace of the week. We learn about some of the positive aspects of being assimilated, and see a type of situation in which constructing a collective mind might seem like a good idea. Perhaps we're seeing history repeat itself. Will the initial cooperative continue to dominate the new collective, creating a kinder, gentler Borg? The ending is appropriately ambiguous--Voyager is not going to stick around to find out. Chakotay's involvement with Riley Frasier is problematic. There's an effort to establish common ground between them, but the chemistry just doesn't work. Chakotay ordinarily seems fairly reserved, private; it doesn't seem plausible that he'd agree to what is in effect group sex on such short acquaintance. It's been established that he's not as suspicious as one would expect someone of his background to be, but there are quite a few red flags here. Her initial story is rather farfetched and lacking details. If she was in stasis, how does she know how long ago it was? Soon it becomes clear that she is attracted to him and thus has a motive for trying to keep him on the planet. Why doesn't he ask more questions? As a former member of the Maquis, one wouldn't really expect him to trust her just because she's Starfleet, especially since she doesn't have identification and doesn't indicate her rank or, initially, the name of her ship. Janeway and Chakotay interact well, on the whole. There's a lot of mutual respect and understanding. She's supportive of him; he feels free to express his views but accepts her authority. If she feels jealousy, she's not going to reveal it too plainly--appropriate, though not necessarily in character, because she's generally pretty open about her feelings. The one scene where she's slinking around his shoulders is awkward, though--it emphasizes the difference in their heights too much, and the physical closeness doesn't fit with the conversation they're having. --Jennifer Loehlin Sweeps month can get pretty peculiar. I'd just washed my brain out with soap after "Blood Fever" and was prepared to dislike "Unity." And then I sat down to one of the best Voyager episodes ever. A happy surprise, and almost more so for being a surprise. A colony of ex-Borg, trying to build a new life-and partly succeeding. But still the call of the collective mind, the warmth and comfort of subsumation in the huge mass of life and consciousness. The true salient characteristic of the Borg isn't their cybernetic implants-it's their unity. This tied in beautifully with First Contact which had a strong minor theme of Picard's lifelong, unbreakable tie to the Borg. "I hear them calling me..." he said at one point, and it's not at all clear that Chakotay won't find that siren voice in his dreams again. The machine parts can be surgically removed, but that hardly matters in the end. The ex-Borg found the memory of the mental tie too strong. The woman Chakotay grew so close to may become another Borg Queen, founding and maintaining her own collective race. Was Chakotay foolish or loose to become intimate with Riley? I don't think so. This wasn't casual sex. He was powerfully moved by an incredible emotional experience, and had become one with her in spirit already, as well as with the other members of the group. It wasn't love on her part--more like strong attraction and need, coupled with the mind link, and it wasn't love on his, though he felt very close to her, though the immediate circumstances were artificial. Frankly, if any one of the group had expressed an attraction to him at that point, when he could feel it directly, he might have been tempted. He's much more open and vulnerable than his captain, and more willing to trust people. He's run into trouble before through his lack of suspicion, as he pointed out himself. But Janeway knows that's one of his virtues as well as a liability. In some ways, he's innocent. That others take advantage of that quality doesn't mean his conduct is reprehensible. He was in character, and sympathetically so, although his judgment didn't prove infallible. And the ex-Borg never registered as evil. They truly didn't realize how profoundly they longed for the collective mind. When they used Chakotay as a focus for their connection, they got in deeper than they intended. He couldn't pick up on malicious intent when there was none. They were pawns almost as much as he was, still bound to a way of life they thought they despised. This story was real tragedy, with a sad inevitability to the outcome. Only one fatal flaw in their character, the addiction to the mental link, and with all their other advantages, they couldn't overcome it. Riley was an admirable woman, but she was willing, even eager, to throw away her individuality in order to gain harmony with others. Janeway came across better than she has for months. Her decisions and reactions every step of the way made utter sense, and her ethical consideration for those of the ex-Borg not participating in the decision to reactivate the mental link was just right. She made her opposition clear but not stiff, and in her presence, Chakotay seemed to realize the terrible danger of the proposed course. Although still under the spell to some extent, which Janeway sensed, he could pull far enough away from Riley to come to the same conclusion as the captain. He wasn't helpless, even with the voice calling to him. Only when the group grew desperate in forcing him to do their will was he overcome, and then he gave in to something he wanted and feared at the same time. The last scene in Sickbay, with everyone discussing his brain chemistry and prognosis while he sat silently on a bed with his feet dangling was a lovely visual description of his feelings. Janeway, with her exquisite sensitivity, dismissed them all to speak to him alone. This is the connection that really matters to him in the end, one he could never cast off. Their relationship can survive a lot, and has. The bond came across reasonably well this time, even with Chakotay's "unfaithfulness" to a tie that's mostly on his side anyway, but if it ever truly breaks down, that's the last time I'll watch Voyager. --L.R. Bowen DARKLING February sweeps are here, and the networks are attempting to bombard us with their best programming in hopes that we'll boost their ratings. All I have to say is, if this is the best that Paramount has to offer us, then Voyager is in real trouble. "Darkling" is a coming of age story for both Kes and the Doctor. In Kes's case, she has shed her mate along with her childish garments and has graduated to skintight jumpsuits and handsome aliens of the week. The changes are superficial, because Kes is acting even more childish than she did as a one year old. It might be true that her affairs are no one else's business, but when she insists on acting like a willful teenager, it's no wonder that all her shipboard parents become overprotective. In the Doctor's case, he is spreading his wings a bit and is trying new personalities on for size. While this is an interesting concept, it's not enough to sustain an episode for an entire hour. I did like the continuity from Fair Trade, as the Voyager crew continues to explore the Nechrid Expanse and seeks navigational aid from any willing alien race along the way. And, I also liked the mention of an asteroid belt, because that is what we're supposed to see next week in "Rise." Finally, I adored Kathryn Janeway here, even if she has been relegated to the role of Kes's mother. If not for the acting talents of Picardo and Lien, "Darkling"'s writers would flunk their exam in Screenwriting 101. They've also chosen to revisit the Skintight Wardrobe Room which I'd hoped was locked for all eternity. Gratuitous violence, sex and skimpy costumes might be palatable if there was even the semblance of a good story here, but "Darkling" proves that Menosky, Braga and the rest of the writing staff are running out of creative steam. --Elizabeth Klisiewicz I liked this episode from the alien's tall tale at the beginning to the doctor's renewed Hippocratic Oath at the end. The two stories were well balanced and interesting--Kes growing up and wanting to explore her world and the Doctor's personality "enhancements." I'd heard it was coming but I was surprised at how abruptly the breakup between Kes and Neelix was handled. There should have been an entire scene about it instead of that throw-away line. It was important to the story because it set up everything Kes did--wanting to experience more of life, asking how much more there was, staying up late and leaving work until the last minute, indulging in a little crush with an alien--it sounded just like what humans go through except we don't tend to fall for aliens unless they're on television or in the movies. Her new outfits are...interesting, but I don't care for what amounts to bodystockings. I loved the scene between Janeway and Kes in the ready room. I love the little tidbits we discover about the characters in scenes like this--Janeway used to procrastinate, she sees herself at a crossroads (I hope we learn more about this), she's willing to help Kes ask the right questions but isn't going to hold her back. I love this Janeway. And I really like this Kes too. Janeway gave her the respect she deserved while the doctor made her sound like a wayward teenage girl sneaking around, kissing boys when her parents' backs were turned. I saw it as a lingering part of his experiments with personality subroutines and evidence that something was going wrong. Everyone's got a dark side. It's an important part of each of us, as long as we don't let it take over our lives. But what if it could? Would it consume us like it used to with Suder or like it did with the doctor? Would we even be aware that it's taking us over or would we be oblivious until it's too late? Suder knew, but he was trying to overcome it. The doctor was going for self-improvement but he never had a chance to realize how badly it had backfired. He attempted murder and then mutilated the holocharacters--that empty torso and Byron's bulging forehead were awful, but they showed how twisted the doctor had become. Bob Picardo gave another excellent performance, taking us slowly through the changes going on in the doctor's programming as the subroutines interacted in ways he'd never expected. Just enough here and there to clue us in that something was wrong until he shut down and his counterpart took over. His facial expressions were eerie. Torres didn't come across nearly as stand-offish as she sometimes does. In fact, I think everyone did a good job. Even Chakotay, who makes a good personal leaning post. It was very nice to see Sue Henley too! The aliens were interesting people and I wouldn't mind seeing more of them. People who travel for the joy of exploration--sounds a little like another group of people we know. --Meredith Antonelli This seems to be the month when all the actors are finally sinking to the rotten level of the material they're given to work with. We had Kate Mulgrew and Robert Beltran having histrionics in "Coda," Roxann Dawson and Robbie McNeill making fools of themselves in "Blood Fever," and here even the usually reliable Bob Picardo demonstrates that he's just as capable of giving an over-the-top, not-even-funny performance. I might have liked his glee as a bad guy better if this had not been one of the most tasteless scripts ever--I can't say THE most tasteless, not after "Blood Fever"s justifications for misogyny, but that scene with Torres paralyzed in sickbay certainly came close. To be fair, this was a superlative Janeway episode--in fact she was the only character I liked at all. The tenor of her negotiations with the aliens was superb, as we realized she was just humoring the guy who was exaggerating to her, and I enjoyed her informed curiosity about Kes' new boyfriend. The ready room scene with her and Kes was just lovely, as are almost all Janeway-Kes scenes; this one was less mother-daughterish than those in "Elogium" and "Tuvix," and made me really feel for Janeway at the prospect that she might lose one of her very few friends. Janeway is apparently the only person on the ship who doesn't feel so proprietary about Kes that she has to act like a patriarch. Thank god she's in command. As for the men in this episode, one came off worse than the next. Neelix was absent, which was not his fault since we never got to witness his breakup with Kes--are the producers really so chicken about emotional intimacy that they can't even show it ending? Tuvok was damned offensive lecturing her like Daddy Dearest, and the Doc...well, even his good side was only interested in her as someone in need of his guidance and possessiveness. His nasty side was absolutely awful; if I were Torres I wouldn't go to Sickbay again if my life depended on it. They're doing an interesting job turning her from a very strong woman into the kind of woman who'll scream about a Borg and get stuck in the role of potential rape victim. She jerks back and forth between anger and absurd vulnerability, not the real kind of growth I hoped her relationship with Paris would make possible. I forgot. This is Trek. Love is violence, and emotion is darkness. --Sara Unger RISE I know people are going to disagree with me on this one, but "Rise" was one of the better entries during February sweeps. How could it not be, when all we have to compare it to are episodes like "Blood Fever" or "Darkling"? I didn't even let the sight of Brannon Braga's name make me flinch, or the fact that it focused on two of my least favorite characters--Neelix and Tuvok. Because, quite frankly, it contained some nice character work, and it's about time. Tim Russ was excellent, and there were times when I wanted to smack him one for his condescending attitude, but let's face it--he's Vulcan, and this is the way that Vulcans act. I don't know if anyone noticed that Neelix appeared in a rather tight jumpsuit this week, but it was a far cry from his usual outlandish garb. I can't say that the sight of Ethan Phillips as Neelix does anything for me, but I'm glad to see that they're balancing the scales a little bit. Neelix was actually pretty likable, and I appreciated the fact that he came through for Tuvok and befriended the young woman. The plot was as thin as the ionosphere they were shooting for, but it didn't matter, because the actors carried this one through to the end. I also wanted to mention that ending Kes and Neelix's relationship was a good move, because there was never anything there to begin with. I should also point out that just about everyone has managed to find a romantic interest this season--except for our dear Captain Janeway. There have been many essays on this subject, but I still think that isolating herself from everyone is a BIG mistake. Jeri Taylor had a golden opportunity to do something different, and she blew it. She should never have thrown "Resolutions" at us if she didn't intend to follow through with it. Surely they could have resolved something on screen, or done something on the loneliness of command. Anyway, this viewer is disappointed in the writers, but I guess I never expected anything anyway. In summary, while Neelix doesn't play well as the hero type, it was still nice to see him cast in something other than an idiotic light. His interactions with Tim Russ were well done and believable, and I think they managed to take a few steps forward in their character development. Decent work. --Elizabeth Klisiewicz So, this is the conclusion of February sweeps. Thank the animal guides, it's over! "Rise" certainly wasn't the worst episode, but it just doesn't seem worthy of a sweeps month. It was quite predictable, had a minimum amount of action that barely kept my interest, and--most importantly--lacked a moral. First the ranting. Why exactly was this episode written? The writers must be running out of gas. Paramount executives, give TPTB some vacationing time so they can clear their minds of cliché and mediocre storylines. The closest thing I can find to a moral is from the interaction between Neelix and Tuvok. Is the point about staying true to who you are and always giving your best? Haven't we heard that before. Now, here's why I did like "Rise" to some degree: character interaction. Neelix and Tuvok are like The Odd Couple of Voyager. I don't think they have any more than a couple things in common ("Tuvix" notwithstanding). It's about time someone else tells Tuvok the truth about himself more explicitly than Chakotay did in "Twisted." I'm not much of a Tuvok fan, so I smiled the entire time Neelix told him off. The closing scene was also humorous, proving Tuvok wrong. And I'm all smiles for the fact that Neelix wasn't portrayed as a fool in this episode. The poor guy has managed to do some clumsy act nine episodes out of ten. I'm glad that he's finally had his chance to prove himself and succeed. --Charlynn Kate Smith This episode is a good example of why I think Trek should be about relationships first and action second. Voyager blasting asteroids into bits to save a planet's population is okay but on Trek, we already know the outcome of most crises. It's how the characters work together to solve problems that makes it so unique and appealing. And it's always interesting when opposites like Tuvok and Neelix are involved. I knew it was too good to be true when Neelix said he knew about tethers but I got excited that maybe he being honest this time. He hasn't shown a real aptitude for anything other than bending the rules and blowing the truth out of proportion since he came aboard Voyager so it wasn't surprising that he had no actual experience with the technology; I was just surprised that he was able to do as much with it as he did. How'dhe learn all that from working with models? And if he could figure it out, why couldn't Tuvok? Everyone else on Voyager seems to have interchangeable jobs. Neelix had a good point when he reminded Tuvok that it was imporant to help keep spirits up and he did well handling the aliens' anxiety over their situation. But Tuvok was right. Morale was secondary to getting them out of there safely and if Neelix hadn't spent so much time talking, they might have had the third oxygen tank working and the other repairs completed. He misrepresented his abilities and endangered everyone on that away mission. As a Starfleet trainee, Neelix should be subject to the standards of behavior expected of any Starfleet cadet. Tuvok didn't give the Maquis in Learning Curve as much leeway as he gave Neelix in this episode, and they hadn't volunteered for anything. I liked seeing them clash. In a way, both of them were correct--Neelix was being his usual overly ebullient self and Tuvok was being very Vulcan. And never the twain shall meet, it seems. Neelix has always shown a remarkable lack of respect for Vulcan ways. He might do well to give Tuvok a little slack, but it would be wrong to assume that the emotional approach to life that humans and Talaxians and Ocampans and other aliens share is superior to the stoicism and logic that Vulcans use. Perhaps it gives us insight that Vulcans don't share, but as an emotional species, we'll never know otherwise. Maybe Tuvok needs to bend a little too, especially if he's going to work effectively with emotional beings but a dangerous away mission isn't the place to start. Unless you're dealing with a stubborn Talaxian who's giving you no other choice. I have a feeling those two could end up being a very good team. I loved Janeway in this--she looked like she was enjoying her job for once and I was cheering her on when she called "battle stations." I just wish there had been more of her and less of the aliens. They left a lot to be desired. With the exception of the woman, they looked like people who were uncomfortable in front of a camera and were more of a distraction than anything, especially on the bridge. Overall though, I enjoyed the episode. Neelix's enthusiasm is refreshing among a group of people who sometimes seem to forget that it's okay to laugh, and he was right about looking on the roof, and he saved Tuvok's life, but I think he deserved something a lot more strict than a commendation. --Meredith Antonelli *THE FUNNY PAGES* [Diane Nichols delivered the following to us...] DEAR NOW VOYAGER, It has come to my attention that certain episodes of my life and that of Commander Chakotay have been bandied about rather freely in the recent past, and that members of your organization have been among the biggest bandiers. I would like to take a moment to refute the allegations made by some of your more vocal members. Let me start by saying that I had NO idea Chakotay was the type to kiss and tell. Even when we assimilated him, it was not immediately apparent that this might be the case--all I got from him, to be honest, was that he talks to some wolf and to his dead father, and, frankly, I wasn't worried much about what either of them might have to say about me. HE was a bit worried about Dad, but my feeling is that the man is dead and it's time Chakotay figured that out and got on with his life. Now, as to the idea that I took him away from Captain Janeway. After a thorough exploration of his inner psyche, I can assure you that aside from several naughty dreams--I particularly liked the one where they get naked on the bridge while the disapproving Vulcan and various other interested crew members watch--there has been absolutely nothing going on between Chakotay and Janeway, unless you count one bathtub, one back rub, and one episode of cowering under a table during a plasma storm. It's not that he wouldn't LIKE for something to happen there. He's depressingly devoted to her, and seems to feel a certain smug satisfaction in the idea of remaining at her side helping to make her burdens lighter until such time as she wakes up and notices that she's in a partnership with one helluva hunk. He spends way too much time remembering silly offhand remarks she's made to him about mating behavior, if you ask me. But aside from all that, there really was no question that he was being unfaithful to Janeway, so those of you who like to call me an alien space babe should just get over it. For one thing, I'm not even an alien, I'm from Texas, for cryin' out loud! And, Borg Babe doesn't cut it, either, since of course I Am Not A Borg. In the interests of scientific accuracy, perhaps you all could refer to me as a formerly Borg, now human Babe. I don't mind being called a Babe. In Texas, that's a compliment. As to The Incident itself, I make no apologies for it. I'd been on that planet for what seemed like eons with a bunch of wonderful former Borg who, dearly though I love them all, just do not get me excited in any personal way. When I was presented with a human male in the prime of life who not only has all his own limbs but also happens to be what my granny would have called "one fine lookin' galoot"--well, can you blame me for wanting to play cowboys and Indians with him? I didn't think so. Heck, if he hadn't already had that nasty injury, I'd have been sorely tempted to bonk him over the head with something myself, just so I could suggest linking with him! And that link. Well, I know you're all curious about it. Way TOO curious, to my way of thinking. Lots of you want to know if the whole darn cooperative--ummm--took part in the festivities. The answer to that is "of course not"! We are a highly enlightened group, and having all been Borg before, we recognize that there are certain things which are best done privately. We would NEVER eavesdrop on each other in that way. Besides, I told them all to butt out because I saw him first! I think Orem was disappointed, but he'll get over it. Last, and far from least, I understand that Chakotay has been implying to anyone who will listen that maybe my principles will fall sway to the heady delight of being linked with my little group of Klingons, Romulans and other miscellaneous species, and that we will become less interested in living in peace and harmony and more interested in conquering the Delta Quadrant, if not the entire universe. Now, I'm THRILLED to think that he finds me capable of such a feat, but I feel sure it's just his guilty conscience and his dreary devotion to that captain of his that makes him believe that. I can assure him, and all of you Now Voyagers, that I have no designs whatsoever on the Delta Quadrant--too many Kazon--and I don't want Voyager either. I was a Science Officer, remember, not on a command track at all. Thank you for your time. I am enclosing a check to join Kate Mulgrew's fan club. I adore your newsletter, especially the fanfic. Yours sincerely, (Dr.) Riley Frasier TOP 10 WAYS JERI TAYLOR REJECTED KILLING JANEWAY IN "CODA" by Susan Johnson 10. Strangled by her own ponytail. 9. Tripped over her high heels while carrying oversized phaser rifle; tragic accidental misfire. 8. Talent Night I: Put an apple on her head for Chakotay to shoot off; he aimed straight for her temple. 7. Talent Night II: Got Neelix to dance the pas de deux from Swan Lake with her; he dropped her, and she broke her neck. 6. Victim of her own self-destruct order. 5. Seska killed her in a fit of jealousy over Chakotay. 4. Torres killed her in a fit of jealousy over Chakotay. 3. Paris killed her in a fit of jealousy over Chakotay. 2. Revenge of the Salamander Babies. 1. Too much sex and champagne following CPR. TOP 10 CHAKOTAY TALENT NIGHT PERFORMANCES by Susan Johnson 10. Carving rocks. 9. Carving headboards. 8. Wrecking shuttles. 7. Reciting the Preamble to the U.S. Constitution, Shatner-style. 6. Fondling the tresses of any long-haired women around. 5. Playing the stooge in Tuvok's latest spy plot. 4. Marlon Brando impersonations--SESKAAAAAAAAAAAA! 3. Modeling loincloths. 2. Making up ancient legends to impress women. 1. Showing off the rest of his tattoos. A VOYAGER ALPHABET by Sheena Ainsbury A is for Alpha Quadrant where Voyager is from B is for B'Elanna, the half-Klingon C is for Chakotay, whom I'd like to tame... D is for the Doctor, who can't find a name. E is for Engineering where they have all the fun, but F for frustrated when they can't get it done! G is for Grief when they count up the cost, H as in Harry, whose bound to get lost! I is for Isolation, yet more to come J is for Janeway, Kathryn to some. K is for Kes, some think she's sweet, L for Leola Root which Neelix loves to eat! M for Maquis, a large part of the crew, N is for Neelix, morale officer, too. O for Ocampa, an alien race, P is for Paris, the man not the place... Q is for Q the omnipotent beings R for RED ALERT, they've spotted Vidiians! S is for Sickbay where the Doctor resides, T is for Tuvok, his emotions he hides. U is for Us - the fans on this trip on V as in Voyager, our favourite ship. W is the Wormhole they desperately seek, X is for xenophobes, aliens make them freak! Y is for YES, we want more J/C Z we're in dreamland, where with them we'll be... *KATEWATCH* CREATION 11 JANUARY 1997, PORTLAND, OR Kate Mulgrew appeared at the Portland airport Holiday Inn on Saturday, January 11, 1997. Now Voyagers on the scene included Beth Shuman, Dottie Ronhovde, Judy Stapler and me. The convention itself was a typical Creation con in terms of programming, with music videos, auction, contests, news, previews and the like, but the organization left much to be desired. Despite the operational difficulties, the convention was a success because of Kate. As always, Kate was generous, open, charming and very funny. She came onstage to a standing ovation from the huge crowd. When Kate could speak over the din, she started by talking about how beautiful Portland is, but then admitted that she'd only seen it from the air. Portland from the air, though, is spectacular, with gorgeous mountains and scenery. Kate talked about how although she is doing a lot of traveling, because of her work schedule, she is in and out of places without having a chance to see much of them and said that when Voyager is done, she wants to travel. She's going to be on a plane to Istanbul. After that introduction, Kate talked for quite some time, 15-20 minutes without taking questions. She repeated some comments made at earlier conventions with some changes and embellishments, remarking on her fellow cast members and how much she loves them. Kate talked about what it was like working long hours late at night being the only woman on the bridge with a bunch of men. The impression is that adult men after midnight are not altogether different from the little boys they once were. She spoke of spitballs and constant attempts to make her lose control. I can't remember the exact phrasing she used, but I do recall wetting one's pants being mentioned. She also did a hysterical pantomime of the mooning the boys do; unfortunately, those of us with cameras didn't react fast enough, although I suppose Kate would not be precisely thrilled to have photos of her engaging in that particular maneuver. We nearly fell out of our chairs laughing. Mentioning her co-workers individually, she noted that they are all wonderful people and wonderful to work with. Roxann Dawson she considers to be brilliant, Tim Russ, of course, is a "dead man." Kate spent some time telling about the feud with Tim, including Tim's predilection for appearing naked on the set. She told of a time when she had lines to say to Tuvok when Tim was not required to be on camera. Tim was not dressed, and Kate simply could not speak her dialogue to Tuvok while Tim was standing there informally. So she insisted that he get in uniform, but did not want him to go back to his trailer because they would have been there longer. She wanted the uniform brought to Tim on the set; he could change in the turbolift. So he did, but took forever, and she demanded to know what was taking so long. The delay had something to do with having to put the boots on before the uniform and Tim's failure to put the uniform on over the boots. Jennifer Lien is a bibliophile, always with her nose in a book. She reads a lot of classics. Kate said that she would like the opportunity to get to know Jennifer better. Robert Beltran she described (after using such words as divine and attractive) as a very good man, a very spiritual man. Robbie McNeill is fun and always trying to crack her up, and Garrett Wang is always making faces. She has a lot of respect for all her fellow cast members, but my impression is that the one she perhaps holds in the highest esteem in terms of acting skills and preparedness is Bob Picardo. Talking about Voyager and its situation, Kate noted that even though the crew is not happy to be far from home, they are Starfleet and they are explorers, and they find joy in discovering what is out in the Delta Quadrant. Kate also discussed the hair issue (which I think she really is quite tired of), her Catholic background, her two boys (also noting in connection with the behavior of the boys on the set that she really does understand boys of all ages), her passion for the role, and the relationship of Captain Janeway with Commander Chakotay. Kate does not seem to have become any more enamored of J/C as the series develops; she sees the relationship developing as a passionate friendship, very intimate, very spiritual, but without sex. Kate made the "Red Alert! Commander to the ready room" joke she has made before, and it's always funny. More seriously, Kate talked about the issue of Captain Janeway and sexuality and mentioned the loneliness of command issue, but with a new twist. She drew everyone's attention to the rather large numbers of girls and young women in the audience and pointed out that Captain Janeway is a role model to these girls, and she wants to provide an example of a dedicated officer to these young women. The unspoken assumption is that so many girls get sidetracked from their goals, and Captain Janeway should provide a model of dedication, professionalism and morality to these girls. If Janeway were to start sleeping around the way that Kirk did, it would be hard for her to provide a good example. There is no doubt that Kate Mulgrew and Captain Kathryn do provide a very positive role model for girls and young women. There were many, many teenage and college women in that audience, and several told Kate that they were going into one or another branch of the sciences partly because of Captain Janeway. Kate seemed to have a strong rapport with these young women and takes them and their goals very seriously, and my own view is that girls need role models like Captain Janeway. I don't think that it is impossible for Captain Janeway to have a committed relationship and still be a role model to young women, but alien of the week relationships would play havoc with the credibility of the character. After speaking for a time, Kate asked the audience for questions. Unfortunately, Creation had set up only one microphone, and that was located on the far edge of the stage from our seats on the side. Thus, for most of the rest of her appearance, Kate stayed on that side of the stage, usually facing in the direction of the person asking the question. She made a real effort to walk around the stage a bit, but with the mike located as it was, the situation was less than optimal. Someone asked if she did her own stunts, and Kate replied that she tries to do as many of them as possible. She seemed rather proud that she is in good shape (as she should be), and said that in "Macrocosm," she did all but the roll-over-the-table stunt in the mess hall. She tried, but that was a hard one and was very dangerous. Somehow the discussion turned to reproduction. A fan asked if Captain Janeway would have a baby, and another audience member shouted out that she'd had three of them with Mr. Paris. Kate disputed that those offspring were babies but said that she thought that eventually, the show would have to deal with Captain Janeway and reproduction because that is what the demographic requires. Many in the audience expressed an opinion otherwise, and Kate pointed out that the groans and moans and denials were coming from the women, but that the male audience wanted to see stories of this sort. She explained that the audience is something like 75% male (although I have seen figures that put the audience at about 50-50) and that stories have to be done to appeal to that demographic. She was asked whether we’d see more of Ensign Wildman's baby, and she said yes, but explained that shooting with babies was very difficult and expensive because they are allowed on camera under the lights for only a few seconds. Kate did mention that she'd like to do an episode where Janeway has to take care of Ensign Wildman's baby and becomes attached to her and has difficulty in giving her back to her mother. An audience member wanted to know what it was like working with John De Lancie, and as always, Kate talked about how she and John are very close friends. She loved working on "The Q and the Grey," but she wanted to know how well the Civil War setting worked for us. The audience seemed mostly favorable, but Kate mentioned that the Civil War was a controversial technique. I do not recall exactly how the question came up, but Kate not only said that Janeway didn't have sex with Q, and that it would never happen. Speaking of things that will never happen, in response to a question about when we would see Captain Janeway in a swimsuit on the holodeck, Kate said a very emphatic "NEVER." Someone asked if Voyager would encounter the Borg, and she said that they already had, not realizing that we haven't seen that episode yet. She did not give any real spoilers but did note that these Borg are different and that the story is very interesting. Overall, Kate was extremely careful to avoid spoilers about upcoming episodes. Kate mentioned that she really loves the makeup for the show and thinks very highly of Michael Westmore and his ability to come up with new aliens. She loves being in makeup and watching the aliens being created. An audience member asked Kate which episodes she felt best showed who Captain Janeway is, and she said "Resistance" because it shows Janeway's humanity, and "Death Wish" and "Tuvix" because they show the tough choices Janeway is forced to make. Several fans asked questions that were a bit on the obnoxious side, but Kate very charmingly deflected such questions. She was also very kind in dealing with a fan presentation that became very long and drawn out. It's too bad that Creation's security did not prevent the incident from occurring, but I have a lot of respect for the way Kate handled it. Every so often, Kate would say hello to someone in the audience, looking straight at them. I was blown away when she said hello in my direction, not realizing that she was talking to me, having recognized me from being in the front row at three conventions and from Chicago, until Beth said, "Isn't she looking at you?" I had somehow become distracted, so you can how dumb I felt. Later, as we passed through the autograph line, Kate asked if I'd heard her say hello to me. I am not certain of what I said except yes, I had, and thanks. I immediately had a paranoid fit that she would think I was a little on the less than swift side. When Kate was on stage and looked over at me, I just couldn't believe that she'd been talking to me and thought she was talking to someone behind me, so I didn't want to make a fool of myself and wave or say anything. But Kate was very gracious to us, and as Creation shoved Beth and me out of the room where Kate was autographing, Kate called after us, "Thank you for coming, ladies," and we thanked her for being there. I hope we didn't sound too dumb; we were so in awe that Kate recognized us that finding words that didn't sound too fannish was hard. I won't ever forget how sweet and kind and gracious Kate was. Now that she recognizes me, though, I will always have to be on my best behavior at conventions where Kate appears! My respect for Kate Mulgrew increases at each appearance, but not so my res pect for Creation. The stage and dealers' room were in separate buildings, and on the first day, the people running the convention were not clear as to the location of the dealers' room. There seemed to be long lines through most of the day. The venue is quite large, and most of the seats were filled. Convention security seemed to be non-existent, which was a real problem when Kate was on stage. Crowds of rude and rowdy young people congregated on either side of the stage and kept shouting out questions and comments to Kate while she was on stage. One young woman in particular was a real problem on the side of the stage near our seats, but there were noisy audience members on the other side of the stage. These people mobbed Kate when she left the stage, something I have never seen happen at a convention. Although there was a man who appeared to be acting as bodyguard, even he seemed at a loss concerning how to handle the people who would not let Kate leave the room. Another problem involved the autograph session. Holders of Golden Circle tickets also were given numbered autograph tickets, and I at least was under the impression that we would be called to the autograph session in some sort of rational order. To the contrary, following a long and unexplained wait after Kate finished her talk, we were called to line up en masse, with no organization, a basic mob scene. Fortunately, things went smoothly after that, although Creation suddenly seemed to find their security people, who pushed us through the room where Kate was signing as fast as we (and she) could move. I later discovered the reason for the delay; Creation had Kate sign a stack of photos before we were allowed in. It is simply too bad that they did not tell us what was going on or approximately how long the wait would be. Once we were able to see Kate again for a brief moment, the wait became inconsequential. Yet not even the emcee knew what was going on. --Mary Taylor Kate snuck out into the audience during the pre-show video. Creation showed their wonderful "Sloop John B." Voyager video, which always brings the house down. But once the crowd realized Kate was RIGHT THERE, they all started screaming, so the video was halted and she was brought on stage. Kate started with an interesting monologue in which she recapped each season so far. The first year was nerve-wracking, in her opinion. She says she felt under great scrutiny and was nervous at first. She put in 85 hours a week that season. She cracked everybody up when she said that it was a good thing she didn't come into the world of Trek with any preconceived notions, because if she had been deeply familiar with the whole phenomenon, she would have "taken to liquor." Kate said, "All I remember the first season is, "Will I survive, God?" I have tried to be a good Roman Catholic. I prayed a lot, but I worked my...as you can see, there is very little left." At this point she showed us her behind. In describing the second season, she said it dealt with defining Janeway, and addressing her sexuality. "The dynamics have changed tremendously. What's good for the goose ain't necessarily what's good for the gander. Quite aside from the fact that I am still of childbearing years, I do not believe it is appropriate for this captain to be gratifying her needs in this manner. We have a different viewership now. In a way, I am responsible for your watching what this captain is doing. I can't be jumping around planets making love to strange aliens." Kate is very aware of the impact that Janeway is having on young women, and she takes it very seriously. Their impressions and perceptions seem to be utmost in her mind. She reiterated her negative feelings on the J/C issue and stated that she would like a very profound, intense, and complex relationship which transcends sex. She said this has to be handled delicately, and will most likely be done by mystery rather than fact, but that the audience must be appeased. Season Three so far is trying to figure out where Voyager is. Kate feels that being in the Delta Quadrant is a very difficult thing the writers have to contend with. She also feels the captain can only act within certain parameters, but does want the other characters to start forming relationships. It's time we saw some friendships. Perhaps they should spend more time in the mess hall and make meals a regular thing--besides, Kate thinks it's about time we saw Janeway eat something. Kate reiterated how blessed she feels to portray a leader who "never drops her knickers, who never begs, who never has to say she's sorry." She mentioned her great love for the other actors on the show. She really seems to admire Roxann's deep spiritual life, her intellect, and her talent, and referred to her as a true Renaissance woman. Bob Picardo is the resident genius, and she loves his character of The Doctor because he is "Everyman and yet he is not human, so he is deeply forgiven for any of his flaws." Great stuff. One of the funniest parts of Kate's speech was when she feigned complaining about the bad men on the Bridge. She feels she should be made a saint for putting up with them as they become more and more naughty. "They wait for my nice big close-up at 2:00 in the morning. You have no idea what they're doing behind that camera. You innocent viewers think, 'Aren't they lovely? They're standing there on the Bridge together fighting the good fight." No, they're throwing spitballs at me; they are mooning me!" She had the audience cracking up as she acted out the various antics of her fellow actors. Kate also says that she gets concerned, just like a captain would, that some of her crew don't get the good stories that they need, particularly Roxann and Robert Beltran. She was asked what it was like being on Rosie O'Donnell's show, and said Rosie was quite gracious and outrageous. However, she did say that her son was mortified when the camera swung around to him! She was asked which episodes show the best possible Janeway. She responded that she loves it when Janeway is in a moral dilemma. She likes tough choices and epic topics, hence her choices, "Death Wish," "Resistance," and "Tuvix.". One of the stranger comments made to Kate was by one individual who lived way out in the boonies, who said something like seeing Kate was better than looking at a goat. Kate cracked up and admitted that she took that as a very high compliment. Kate handled fewer questions in Portland than I have seen her take before, but her speech at the beginning was very nice. I really enjoyed hearing her unsolicited opinions on a wide range of subjects. It was wonderful to hear her feelings on the first two seasons in retrospect. Portland was a little--how shall I put it--different. It was a little unorganized, perhaps a little unruly, but it was a heck of a lot of fun. Perhaps it was just that laid-back vibe that fostered the more humorous side of Kate to emerge. She was very funny, wickedly so at times, as she engaged in playful banter with members of the audience. I loved it, and just hope that Kate enjoyed it as much as we all did. --Beth Schuman INFINITE VISIONS 1 MARCH 1997, ORLANDO, FL This was my first real convention. The guests included David Prowse (Darth Vader), Richard Hatch of Battlestar Galactica, and first Terry Farrell and then Nana Visitor of DS9. But both women cancelled, so Robert Duncan McNeill took their place. I met so many members of Now Voyager and Robbie's fan club. I was able to spend time with him while he was signing autographs. I met a boy who told me that he had sent a homemade model of Voyager to Kate, and I met Becky Olsen from Now Voyager and Pam Buickel from RanDoM Flight. The best part, though, was the Q and A. Since there were only a handful of us at the con, he paid close attention to the questions. Someone asked about Tom Paris marrying Janeway. "Kate's fan club is here, and I don't think that they would like it if she was to have a relationship with Tom Paris--although I would, but my wife wouldn't let me," he joked. He did mention his own fan club, but said that, no matter were they go, Kate's fan club is the loudest. I was blushing when he said that. Someone asked him whether he would have a relationship with B'Elanna; he said that next season they would have more involment with each other, but he kept looking at the few of us Now Voyager people when the subject of Janeway's love life came up--he said he won't be directing that show when the time comes! He talked about directing "Unity" and said he had wondered whether Chakotay should have done more with Riley, but the producers said no, Janeway's fans would be too mad. A kid asked him where were the bathrooms on the ship? Robbie said, "Well, we'll have to do a show with me in the bathroom." He did say that they had just finished for the season, and the cliffhanger was the crew asking for the Borg's help. In one show, Martha Hackett will return. I think Robbie was surprised to know that the people in the autograph line knew more than he did. He said that he'll have to contact us for information on the show. He did say that Kate will be involved with the crew more, and that each of them will have a relationship. And there will be more alien races. He asked us which was our favorite show. I said "Macrocosm," but then everyone said the one he directed, which was "Sacred Ground." We made Robbie blush when a girl asked him if was into Star Trek as a kid and he said he was a big fan of Lost in Space. He was speechless when June Lockhart, who was at the convention, came up on stage and gave him a hug. As this was my real first convention, I was pleased to say that I have meet people from all over Florida and the nation in Orlando. --Monique Harrell *ONCE IN LOVE WITH JANEWAY* KATE'S BABY PICTURES Courtesy Her Mother SOME GUSHY KATE QUOTES FROM AOL Reproduced With Permission Why do I like this actress so much? Because ever since I can remember watching TV she has portrayed strong, independent characters. Because you can look at her on screen and see an actress who takes her job seriously. Because when I had the opportunity to see her in person, I found her to be a warm, caring, funny and considerate person-never condescending to the overzealous fans who asked her stupid or terribly personal questions. I love her on Voyager because I am a female officer and I strive to run my unit with the efficiency and passion that the character she portrays runs her ship. For that reason alone, she is my idol, the other reasons are just extra. --Annmarie (Anriebear) I think Kate has had one kind of impact or another on all of us, whether it is her compelling presence that gives us so much enjoyment, or the character she portrays who gives us such a wonderful role model, or the person she is that inspires us to be whatever it is we want to be. I have had the privilege of seeing her on two or three talk shows and on each, she has been charming, witty, and unfailingly gracious. So many times when stars are seen in their off-screen personas, they display traits that disillusion and subsequently detract from a character they play on the screen. I'm glad to say that so far, Kate has only made me admire her more. Ahhh, there's the word I've been looking for: "compelling." That's what Kate is. That's why you can't see anyone else in a scene she's in. That's why your eyes are drawn to her on the bridge, in the Ready Room, in Sickbay, in Engineering, in the corridor--wherever she is. --Sally (ILuvKate) Okay. I might as well get this out. WARNING: This is verrry verrry sappy, so don't read if you don't like stuff like that. Pooh, FEEL FREE to put this in Now Voyager. Kate Mulgrew changed my life...literally. About a year ago, I was in a major deep funk. I had no friends, bad grades, no life. Then in early March, I watched my first Voyager episode. It was love at first sight. I was totally amazed! Here was this woman, strong and competent, yet still so feminine. And although I didn't know it right then, I subconciously vowed to be just be JUST LIKE her. The positiveness I felt in Voyager eventually spilled over to other areas of my life. Now I am an A honor roll student, have lots andlots of friends, and I am generally happy. --Andrea (Sugarcool) *KATHRYN JANEWAY, FEMINIST HEROINE* HELP, I'M IN LOVE WITH A HOLOGRAM by Michelle Erica Green It is with great embarrassment and chagrin that I admit that lately, Voyager has been making me cry. God, I hate when television does that to me--it's not like Star Trek is King Lear or Romeo and Juliet. If anything, it's more like the time I cried when Dusty said goodbye to Sue Ellen on Dallas--hey, I was only thirteen. But you're probably saying, "Gack!", and I agree. Why do I let TV do this to me? In particular, why do I let a show like Voyager get to me? My favorite episodes are either hackneyed space opera or cheap melodrama. When I'm thinking clearly, I can state unequivocally that "Coda" was hyperbolic cliché--recycling plots from three TNG episodes, using preposterous devices to wrench emotions from the audience. I mean, CPR as a excuse to get Janeway and Chakotay liplocked? Showing the captain dying, over and over, so we'd realize how much we love her? Giving Torres and Kim speeches to hit us over the head with it? Give me a break! So why did Robert Beltran sobbing, "Kathryn! You can't die!" get to me? I think I was ironically moved by the tear-jerking itself, a big change from the action-adventure sex-and-violence we've been getting on Voyager lately. "Coda" might have been transparent scenery-chewing, but it was also a serious response by an executive producer to something she knew a segment of the audience had been begging for--a segment which usually gets ignored, since the network and most of the production staff has no use for it. "Coda" was an episode for women and over-30s...people who think powerful emotions and committed relationships have a place in a science fiction show, who think that the relationships and emotions are in fact what make the show interesting. I was moved by Chakotay, but I was also moved by Jeri Taylor. I would like to apologize to her, because lately it's become apparent just what she's up against if she wants Janeway to have any integrity in the face of network narrow-mindedness. I have not always been kind to Taylor on these pages, because I didn't think she was creating the kind of character I'd hoped to see Janeway become. I don't need a Janeway who's perfect, but I wanted a heroine, someone strong and smart and consistent--something which is rare for any TV show. Even if Taylor could envision a woman of the future unfettered by the prejudices of the present, I doubt she could get such a character on prime time. In particular, I am ashamed of the way I attacked Janeway's holonovel. I still hate it--can't stand the suggestion that a starship captain prefers emotional interaction with fake men to real people--but maybe that was all hitting a little close to home. We watch these episodes, we know these characters aren't real. What the heck are we doing getting emotionally involved with them? That's almost as pathetic as falling in love with a hologram! Part of what makes me upset is disgust with myself for believing in these characters, forgetting that they're as insubstantial as the cardboard standup versions of them for sale at conventions--commercial concerns. I cried over "Unity" too--the furious kind of tears you shed when you feel utterly betrayed and you blame yourself for not seeing it coming. It's one thing to be manipulated by one's own feelings for a character, quite another to be jerked around by a network. The only thing that really surprises me about "Unity" is that they didn't do it before. I don't mean running into the Borg--that was inevitable, since Trek always recycles successful marketing devices. I mean I'm surprised they didn't give Chakotay a space babe. Every other man on the crew has gotten one, even Tuvok, and given that they've had Chakotay mooning over Good Girl Janeway, they needed Bad Girl Riley to point out all the reasons that frigidity is more admirable than mature sexuality. They created him as a unique man--introspective, spiritual, in touch with his feelings, not in the least a stereotypical action dude. Of course they couldn't keep him that way; as one of Voyager's writers put it, a man like that is "castrated" in the science fiction universe. Especially if he serves under a woman. So they fixed him. Made him over into a Kirk-Riker without the strength or charisma. Why should I care if they demolished a TV character? I guess William Shatner was right--I should get a life, me and all the people who've been writing to and about the show in anger lately, demanding to know how the writers could put in mindless action and sex in place of the characters we love, placing ratings above any sense of artistry. Nonetheless, I'm going to try to explain: the feelings I'm talking about--my feelings for Janeway and Chakotay, and Kirk and Kira and the rest of them--are real feelings. I'd like to pretend that it's the community of fans and not the characters themselves who matter to me, but that's only partly true. While sharing fandom definitely plays a large role in our enjoyment of it, and makes it more interactive, we love fictional characters. Not because we don't have lives, but because they offer us something. In the case of Janeway, for some of us it was her strength, for some, her career success. For some it was probably the way she negtiates in a nightgown. It's the same reason people have been reading biographies and going to the theater for centuries. We need icons, people to look up to. Who can blame us for wanting to take Voyager seriously? Falling for a fictional construct isn't really all that different from having a crush on a live person, except that it's even more one-sided. It's only slightly less reality-based than pining after a sports star, a writer, or the head of your company, and in many ways it's safer and more rewarding. This is embarrassing and a little scary to admit...but you know what I'm talking about or you wouldn't be reading this newsletter. Even the people who are here for love of Kate Mulgrew, who wouldn't care about Voyager if she weren't on it, are admiring a character rather than interacting with a person. That's difficult to admit too--maybe especially for me. While the person we see briefly at an event is much closer to The Real Kate than any character she plays on television, that's a performance, too. Improvised instead of scripted, but hardly an open book. Sure, Trek actors talk about their own work and their own kids, but we're still seeing personas, some carefully selected anecdotes and publicity plugs. Maybe Kate Mulgrew is closer to Earth than Kathryn Janeway, but a lot of what we're seeing is still what we project onto her. What we want her to be. It must be a terrible responsibility for her to try to live up to that, just as it must be a terrible responsibility for Jeri Taylor to try to write a Janeway who lives up to the conflicting and contradictory demands put on her. I keep Voyager episodes I want to save forever on high-quality tapes, and mediocre ones on cheap tapes ("Threshold," for instance, is on a Price Club generic, while "The Cloud" is on a deluxe Maxell hi-fi). I have "Twisted" on a good tape, and recently it occurred to me to wonder why, since it seems to be universally reviled as a Really Bad Episode. I rewatched it, and realized that I had saved it for one line, spoken by Chakotay--the old Chakotay, the real Chakotay. He said, "I've always believed that what you gain in love is greater than what you risk." That could be a fan's motto, banal as it is. "YOU LIKE THAT SHOW?" by L.R. Bowen Yes, damn it, we do, and sometimes it's hard to explain why, even to ourselves. That snide comment comes from all sides, even committed Trekkies, and it's gained justification in recent months that could make us hang our heads in shame. Many of us have defected, or divorced ourselves, to judge from our complaints and the plunging ratings. We Voyager fans are a mixed lot; some are old Trekkers who watched Kirk and Spock and never really left. Many started with Picard and went on to Sisko. Some discovered Janeway and a whole universe with her. We had such hopes, once. We were still in the flush of new love. It had to wear off sometime. Not that the show itself isn't to blame for the criticisms. Many of them are unfortunately just. We've fallen in love with an entity who has plenty of problems and character deficiencies. It's easy to love someone who never gets into trouble and never gets drunk and breaks up the furniture, and never gets pissy and juvenile and insulting. But it's also easy to take a stable, reliable entity for granted. We can't take Voyager for granted. We never know what it's going to pull next. We've gotten to a state of wariness, of mistrust, of calling ourselves idiots for having fallen so hard in the first place. What did we ever see in it besides the reflection of our own fond fantasies, we wonder? We tried to help mold it as it grew, as much as we could with letters and reviews and even tirades. We thought we saw potential. And it was there, though it's been largely squandered. All the best opportunities for character growth and connection, whether through conflict or through shared happiness, have been frittered away. What happened to the Starfleet/Maquis conflict, which at first seemed to be the core of the show? What happened to the conspicuously tattered nobility of Tom Paris? What happened to the fiery (as opposed to randy) Klingon side of B'Elanna Torres? What happened to the electrically edgy relationship between Chakotay and Paris? What happened to the Kathryn Janeway who could make friendly jokes on the bridge, touch and hug her crewmembers without a trace of self-consciousness, tell off Chakotay with panache and then admit he had been right without losing a gram of her authority? They still exist, in a way, through the medium of fan fiction. We take those parts of the canon that we liked the best, the parts that seemed right from the beginning and then slipped away, and we build on them and amplify them to remind ourselves that they existed at all. But that doesn't last. Sooner or later, we realize that the people we're writing about aren't behaving the way we would like them to behave. No matter how vivid, fan fiction isn't canon. Only the broadcast show is. It's in full-impact color and motion and audio, and it's the only common ground all fans have. So we have to go back to it, eventually. We have to deal with all the wasted opportunities and idiocies and perversions of the vision, and try to make them right. We have to find context for them, since the show's failed to do so. Who can explain why Janeway has never responded to Chakotay's obvious attraction to her? Write a story. Maybe the prospect frightens her because she's loved and lost before. Maybe she's afraid Tuvok and Tom would be jealous. Maybe she likes B'Elanna better. Anything, so long as it makes sense of something that feels like a gaping omission. Did anyone ask us to take this show so much to heart? Judging from their reactions to "rabid fans", most of the producers, writers and actors of Voyager don't really know what our fussing is about. It's only TV, they say. Don't get upset about it; don't worry about the constant Yet Another Trek Inconsistencies, don't worry if a beloved character starts acting like an evil changeling of herself. It's only a show. It exists to sell cars and pizza and launch new networks. So they say, and from their point of view, that's absolutely correct. American television production is not about art or ethics or theology/cosmology or genuine emotion. It's a huge business of copyright and cross-marketing. We're supposed to consume it and find it mildly agreeable and buy the ancillary product lines, but true passion is embarrassing and inconvenient. We are not supposed to care about it more than the creators do; we are not supposed to make it part of our souls. Well, sorry. We do care. We let something undefinable get under our skins, and it might be there for life. Who can say what it is? The occasional flash of brilliance in the writing? The almost uniformly wonderful acting ensemble? The fact that a group of literate, intelligent, caring people are fans right along with us and understand that elusive fascination? Love is blind, and in this case, possibly brain-dead. But let Chakotay toil with hands and medkit and sheer desperate grief to bring it back to life, and we can feel it revive. Maybe just a thready pulse, but enough. *THE KATE MULGREW FILM FESTIVAL COLUMN* DEMOLITION DAY by Kathy Altom Argh. The world through the eyes--make that the fantasies--of thirteen-year-old boys. Where's my virtual age machine? I need to lose some years. One of the boys is being harassed by a principal for blowing up the restroom. All right, set that dial. Thirty years ago my father gave me a chemistry set and proceeded to lock up over half the chemicals so I could safely play with it alone. A challenge! ... Now he's screaming at me about how I could have been hurt. Like I'm so stupid that I didn't go hide behind the metal filing cabinet since I was TRYING to blow up the lab. I think I've got it, back to the movie, but not without a good book to read at the same time. The foolish FBI agents--after all, they are adults--killed all of the terrorists who planted a homemade nuclear bomb in Los Angeles. Three boys find the bomb but fail to notice that its timer is running. They won't give up their shot at power by just notifying the authorities that they found a bomb when instead they can blackmail the city into closing school. Oh, finally, there's Kate. She's the mother of one of the boys. Oops, she's off to the beauty parlor while her son plots to blackmail the U.S. government into doing something worthwhile, if only he can think of anything worthwhile. Now the FBI's at Kate's house. Her son is wanted by the FBI. She's playing an adolescent boy's idea of an hysterical mother. It's a terrible role, but Kate's a master. I wonder what her kids think of this role? (Let's not forget that actors have to work in order to get work, not to mention eat.) Finally, the chase scene, it must be almost over. The FBI can't catch three boys on bicycles. In the end, the boys save the day, in spite of the bungling adults, and all is forgiven because now they're heroes. So, they seize their opportunity to be world- class jerks as well. Who puts up money to make this sort of garbage? FATAL FRIENDSHIP by Nancy Molik Yet again, Lifetime managed to dig up a television movie starring our Kate. I turned it on preparing for the same thing that I've been seeing recently in those movies, i.e. Kate playing the cold, snobby wife or ex-wife of the main character. The first scene she was in reminded me very much of the opening scene of Danielle Steele's Daddy, and I was sure that it was just a matter of time before her character, Sue Bradley, either left her husband Mike, played by Kevin Dobson, or killed him. Soon, though, it became apparent that her supporting role in the movie was exactly that: a wife concerned about the welfare of her husband, her family, and their best friends. The premise: two best friends and their families have a typical white-picket-fence relationship. The two grew up together, were on the ball team together in school, and now they go on vacation together and spend weekends together, families and all. Things are fine until a series of murders leads Mike to suspect that best friend Hank, played wonderfully by Gerald McRaney, is working more than just 9 to 5. And then the fun begins. It's made obvious from early on that Hank IS the one responsible for the deaths; but the reasons, which were only a partial surprise, aren't given until the very end. It was a nice change of roles for Kate from what I've seen; she plays the-woman-next-door very convincingly. Her scenes with Dobson are warm and passionate without being over the top, and her scenes with Hank and his wife, played by TNG regular Patti Yasutake, are effective in their simplicity. In this movie, we get no glitz, very little glamour, but quite a bit of heart, and it's easy to believe that these people might just live across the street. It suits Kate very well, and so while the ending was depressing, I came away satisfied knowing that Kate can play roles other than just the Ice Queen that she's played quite often in the past in TV movies and can play them expertly. *THE PEOPLE PAGE* WINRICH KOLBE By Beth Schuman The director of "Caretaker," "Resistance," "Remember," and several other Voyager episodes, as well as many TNG and DS9 shows, including the highly acclaimed TNG finale "All Good Things...," Rick Kolbe is currently working on Millennium among other projects. Beth talked to him last month on the phone, after meeting him at a couple of conventions which he attended with Kate. NV: How did you get interested in directing and what do you like most about it as a career? RK: What intrigues me about it? Power! No, actually, I like storytelling. The visual storytelling that a director goes through, in addition to the emotional storytelling, is much more rewarding than writing a story. Writing, to me, is an exercise in futility. I don't have the patience. Whereas if I have a good script, I can dive into it, totally immerse myself into it, and then tell the story on the screen. That, to me, is fantastic. That's a rush. There's also disappointments in there, because you might not be able to ever get your head into a story because it's a shitty story. But if you have a good story and you really can immerse yourself, and I basically go under, the world is gone to me, that is a very gratifying experience. I studied architecture before I came to Los Angeles. But when I came to Los Angeles, I just couldn't see myself doing architecture. So I switched over to film and graduated from UCLA in 1971. I got into Universal as a production assistant, and later on as an associate producer. I did the long form for McCloud, Six Million Dollar Man, Quincy, and then in '77, I directed my first episode of Hardy Boys. After I finished Battlestar Galactica in 1978, I left Universal and started directing full time. NV: You have said that you don't consider yourself an action director, per se. You're more interested in the character-driven stories? RK: Yeah, character or maybe suspense. I really don't particularly care for people hitting each other over the head with various devices of their own or others. I don't like car chases, although I love to watch them. But they somehow scare me. A good action movie I am always willing to see. But I prefer a movie like Point Blank, for instance, or The Usual Suspects, for a more recent film. That, to me, is something I am really very much interested in. The human predicament under stress. NV: Speaking of character stories, what about "Resistance"? RK: "Resistance" was wonderful because it touches something that is very close to me, which is bigotry and, in a way, genocide. That was something I could get my mind into just from the subject matter. It also didn't hurt that we had a damn good script, and it didn't hurt at all that we had two wonderful actors. Neither one of whose name I really can remember. One of them was, uh, Katharine Hepburn, no, what was her name? Kate Mulgrew, oh yes, and Joel Grey. The two of them really had a field day in that, and I think it shows on the screen. NV: It's interesting that that type of episode was directed by a German. RK: I think, as a German, we have a unique historical responsibility to make sure that something of that nature never, ever happens again. It becomes the beacon if we do it right. To do that episode was really catharsis for me. NV: What is your work cycle like? How often do you work? Do you have a lot of down time? RK: Well, it takes a while to recuperate from an episode. I try to do 8-9 episodes a season. I have reduced my commitment to Voyager considerably. I did one episode last season; it's possible I might do one episode this coming season. I believe I've done too many. NV: Why do you feel that? RK: Well, first of all, I have a career, and at some point in time Voyager is over. If you get buried too much in this town into one project, people will not remember you anymore. So, I decided two years ago, in January of '95, together with my new agent, that we would now spread myself out. First of all, I'm not feeling too fulfilled in episodic [TV]. There's a lot of stuff that you think you can do quite well, and you're booked for it because you never really know about a particular script until you have it in your hand. By that time, you're prepping. So you don't have a choice to say beforehand, "Give me the script. Let me look at it. Oh my God, it's awful, or it's wonderful." So you start with whatever they throw at you. Sometimes it's good, sometimes it's bad. My goal right now is to spread myself out and to re-introduce myself to other studios who have totally forgotten me because I was basically an employee of Paramount for such a long time. I also want to spread myself out creatively as well. I am very much involved in Millennium at this point in time. That is something that I like to do. Those stories are consistently quite well written. Very demanding, very challenging, but also very fulfilling. My goal is to eventually get out of episodic and do MOW's and maybe even features. Whether I will work or not, I don't know. I might as well try. NV: Does the darkness on Millennium ever bother you? The violence? RK: No, not really because it is in context. It is not gratuitous. There is a philosophy behind it.There is a story behind it. It is dark, yes, and I'm not sure whether I want to do more than four episodes a season. I need to get out of that. I feel sympathy for the crew who have to work on it on a daily basis. We recently finished an episode shortly before Christmas in which a burned body of a young woman was autopsied. The puppet, the doll, the body, was so life-like, or dead-like, if you will, that one of our actresses really had a hard time getting with it. I know that I was walking around trying to take the camera as far away as possible. It was so realistic. But on the other hand, that's what violence results in. There's nothing that tells the audience if I pull a gun, the other guy goes down, and I know he's an actor. He's going to fall down, and we don't see anything. The spectre of violence in me has been curified in television. NV: The impact of it is lost ... RK: Exactly. It becomes an abstract thing. Obviously, it can work. It's not so much, in my opinion, to reduce the depiction of violence but the frequency of violence. That is the problem. I think once you show what violence does, you show what a bullet does, the audience cringes and says, "My God, I didn't know that would happen." I think it's an education; it's a learning process. But probably also a turn-off. We're kind of caught between a rock and a hard place. NV: How is it working for Chris Carter as opposed to the whole slew of writers and producers you get for Star Trek? RK: Well, you get the same slew. I think you have more of a slew with Chris Carter. But you also get Chris Carter, who is a writer, whereas Rick Berman is not a writer; he is an executive producer. So things are different, and you deal with somebody below. I'm not trying to say that the hierarchy is better at Millennium than at Voyager, but it's slightly differently structured. I have more freedom in a way on Star Trek: Voyager because I think I kind of set a certain tone for myself. This is not necessarily always what Rick Berman liked. We still argue about some of my shooting style. It sometimes drives him up the wall. On the other hand, we both recognize that I'm not Rick Berman and he's not Rick Kolbe. We have found over the years that we work quite well together. On a personal level, I think I am closer to him than I am to a lot of other producers I have worked with. He was actually the one who told me, "Don't get bogged down in Voyager. Spread out. You can do it." He encouraged me and has been very helpful in providing me with good references whenever they were needed. I sometimes in a moment of anger and disappointment say Star Trek is fossilized. Especially when there is a bad story coming up. But it is institutionalized almost. The style really hasn't changed that much. I tried to change it for Voyager, but was only partially successful, as far as photography is concerned. I wanted it to be darker, but that was not what Rick and his people had in mind. So, you know, that is the way things develop. NV: I think a lot of people thought Voyager would, from the premise, involve the two crews coming together and have some friction there. That never really came to pass. RK: No, and I had long discussions about it during the pilot. I said, There's got to be more suspicion. There's got to be more, "What are we going to do if we get back [to the Alpha Quadrant]? Are they just going to let it drop?" There should be hesitation. But that is part of the original message--you don't want to have conflict on the bridge. I tried to get conflict and at least disappointment, anger, and frustration on the bridge during TNG. I was not very successful because it wasn't in the writing. The writing obviously came out of the concept, and the concept was one of optimism --that we all work together. It got changed a little bit for Deep Space Nine. Deep Space Nine was darker. I guess everybody figured we have one dark show on there, so we don't want to have another one. So Voyager got again into this kind of...I would at times would say "fluffy optimism." I guess especially with a woman; with a female captain, that was exaggerated to a degree that, to me, I wish they would just try to figure out what they really want up in there as far as the captain is concerned. And write for it, show some balls. To me, it isn't there. I think part of the problem is maybe that the writers are burned out. NV: These are some of the same writers that have been writing since TNG. RK: How many times do you want to tell the same story? It almost seems to me, just throw everybody out and start brand new. But that's a risk. I would say that part of the failure, Voyager is doing quite well in the ratings but I think it could do much better, is because it just retreads old territory. I don't think the writers have yet found a tack on Captain Janeway. NV: Perhaps they have too many male writers. RK: Well, they have a female co-executive producer. But who says that women find tacks on women? There have been a lot of women's roles which never really were realized even though they were written by women. Let's face it; women grow up in the same society that men grow up in. If you don't get an understanding of what you want to be as a woman, then you can't write about it either. It's hard. They've been playing around with all kinds of little adjustments, but ultimately it seems to me nobody really knows what to do with her. NV: One week we see her with big guns-a-blazing, and the next she is all soft and warm. It's not consistent, and that's frustrating for the viewers. RK: Even more so for the actress because she really would like to get out of this system that it is a hardware show and that acting is really only secondary. But she needs to have the playing field in order to do that. If they put her into a tee shirt and give her a big gun, then fine. Good Lord, we've seen that 10,000 times. It doesn't do anything. People want to know characters, see characters, listen to characters, get involved with characters and the stories that the characters are in. And if that isn't there, then the best performance won't help it. NV: Do you get to see the episodes you do? RK: No. First of all, I'm busy. Second of all, I never find out when they air. I mean I could make an effort, but I don't. And thirdly--I bought a laser disc a couple days ago. I was buying some laser discs because that is my exposure to movies. I go through those and buy the ones that I really like. I saw a whole collection of Star Trek: The Next Generation. I also saw my last episode, the finale. I looked at it, and I didn't care for it too much. Except for the last third of it I think I felt better. I don't know what it was. That last third, to me, was more where I am right now. Obviously we all grow, and I am certainly not finished growing. But it seems to me that it was too 'television' at the beginning. That may be part of the reason why I don't like to watch my own shows. Because there is always what I had in mind and what I was able to do for a variety of reasons, whether it's logistics or own limitations. It's disappointing. NV: Kind of "of the moment" and to watch it later causes you to think about what could have been... RK: Yeah, I think, "God, if you would have moved the camera just an inch over there." Or if you had asked that particular person to do it again, and not print that one. So I guess we all go through that. NV: Do you spend a lot of time with the actors ahead of time? RK: No. We rehearse before we shoot. [The actors come in] with their lines hopefully in their head. The bridge scenes usually you let the actors do whatever they want to do. I try to get as much movement as possible in there so they don't get static. It's tech-talk mainly, so the actors know that character quite well. It's when the guest actor comes in. We did extensive rehearsals with Joel Grey and Kate when we did ["Resistance"]. Because Joel is a film actor, he gets a lot more time. They shoot a page or two a day, and we ran through seven or eight a day. But that is fun because it really forces me to deal with the character, which sometimes I have a tendency to overlook and go for the visual. NV: Do you have any input into the choreography for the scenes, or do you let the actors determine the action? RK: Well, I'm known as Mr. Well-let's-see-what-happens. I have an idea of what I want to do. I know ahead of time what the scene is about and what the objectives are, what level of involvement I want from the characters. I also know the previous scene and how it ends, and how I want to start this scene and end it in order to transition to the next scene. I try to let the actors work it out unless they just stand there. I hate it when people stand there. And it happens quite frequently in episodic television, because it's the quickest way to light a scene. I'm not known for shooting the most efficient way. I have driven a lot of D.P.'s and producers up the wall because I like to get a certain flow into it, and let the actors and the story and characters decide the flow. And that takes time, but I think I get a better result with that because the actors feel more comfortable in doing a scene. And that's part of my job--to make the actors feel as comfortable as possible. NV: Remember the scene in "Resistance" with Joel Grey, when he dies at the end? There are a lot of close-ups there, so that was a whole bunch of different shots, a lot of takes? RK: Yeah, now that was a difficult scene because we don't want it to be maudlin. But I also had talked to Kate about it, and I said, "We need to have emotion in there. This cannot be the captain who just stands around stoically. If Patrick Stewart would stand around stoically, that's fine...that's Jean-Luc Picard. But you are not Jean-Luc Picard. You are Janeway, so show me what Janeway would do. And let's push it." And so we did a lot of close-ups in there because I really wanted to explode on the screen with that and make it a very, very personal moment between the two of them. NV: Who decides on the lighting for these scenes? There are some scenes where Janeway can be lit all soft and warm, and then the next scene she'll be lit harshly. I'm sure it depends on what the scene is about... RK: It depends on the script and also on the director of photography. But I'm involved in that one as well. I have very precise visual ideas and quite frequently I will talk to the D.P. and say, "This is what I want to do in this particular show." Being totally aware of the fact that there has to be a continuity in the show, I cannot suddenly go in and shoot everything in the style of NYPD Blue. But I can do a scene that way. Sometimes it's accepted, and sometimes it isn't accepted. I have re-shot scenes where I did something that they didn't like, but then I like to push the envelope, at least to a degree. I mean, I'm not an experimental director, by any means, I'mnot Ken Russell. But I want to get a more filmic look into an episode. Part of the reason I am being hired that frequently is because I don't shoot television. I shoot, I look, at features. I don't think I've looked at television in quite a while. So that look is different, the composition is different. It's a little more daring in film and to me it's more challenging. I can get something different in there without offending everybody. NV: What are the most difficult types of episodes for you to direct? RK: Action. I don't really like to do them. They scare the hell out of me, and I get anxiety attacks the night before. Because you never know what is happening and plus, my mind just isn't there. I don't see any connection between myself and what is happening over there. Usually I hope I get good stunt coordinators and then I can say, "Now this is what I would roughly like to see. Work it out, and call me when you're ready and I'll take the cameras and put 'em in there." NV: Do you ever wish you had more extras? RK: Oh yeah, always. For some odd reason, unit managers have the feeling if they're over budget, get rid of the extras. I had that in "Remember." Because we had that big scene in there where the father talks to all the people in the village, right? My standing joke was, "You'd better start shooting fast because if we push for another day, I'm not going to have anybody in there." It was just...it got less and less extras. The unfortunate thing is, by that time, they had built this wonderful, big set which I couldn't shoot because I didn't have the extras! So that was kind of a waste of money, in my opinion. NV: Of all the Voyager episodes you've directed, which one would you say is the one you're most proud of? RK: Oh, that's interesting. (Goes through each episode.) I don't really know. I obviously liked the pilot, but overall, probably "Resistance." I have an arrow in here--two shows that I did that season. One is "Resistance," one is Space Above and Beyond: "Who Monitors The Birds," That was a show that ran for 42 minutes without a word being said. That was a challenging affair. So, I have two arrows, and one is "Resistance," one is "Who Monitors the Birds." NV: What about general Trek that you've done. Are there any episodes that stand out? RK: Obviously the final episode of TNG stands out. But that is kind of marred by some emotional turmoil that permeated the set, and included myself in it. But it was a rather well done episode. Although as I said, I saw it last night and felt kind of bored which was disappointing. There was an episode I did with Patrick where he was captured by Nagillum, I guess was the guy's name. They wanted to test whether humans are really loyal and can persevere under adversity. That was a rather interesting episode. "Allegiance," that's it. That was a fascinating story. NV: What's the difference between directing Star Trek and other types of shows like Millennium or Lois and Clark? RK: With Millennium, there is more of a mood in there. That is very important and that's something that Chris Carter is known for. And so he develops a stable of directors and writers and works with them because he then can trust these guys. It's not a show that takes any director. You've got to have a certain style, a certain feeling, and it's got to match his. It's very subjective filming where again, Voyager is more objective because the camera basically stays outside and that's in the writing, that's in the whole concept of the show. I like to get into it. I like to explore the emotional psychology of the camera. I want to see how far I can push it so it becomes a participant. Last night we saw Breaking the Waves. Now there you have a very subjective camera. And then you look at another movie like Jerry Maguire or even The English Patient and it becomes more objective. So that intrigues me about a show like Millennium. I can get in there and really put part of myself into the story. That's the challenge there. NV: Who are some of the other directors that you admire? RK: Corey Allen, I have always admired Corey Allen. He did the pilot for The Next Generation. He was an actor, and became a very good director. I like Scorsese. I like Renoir. There are so many. Orson Welles. NV: What is it about these people that attracts you? RK: I think they stage quite well. They know the whole gamut of how to tell a story on the screen. I think there are a lot of movies that come up there which are great stories, a hell of a good movie, but as far as telling the story visually, there's nothing there--or not enough. Because usually, most of the time, they are writers and you can see they are struggling. You look at a Scorsese movie and there's a style in it. I am reading David Lean's biography right now. There's a style in there. Now, you can say that if you have too much style in there the movie becomes cold and almost stylistical, which is true. Lean can be accused of that. If you see a movie like Breaking the Waves, you go into a totally different direction. But there's a style in that one as well. There is a reason the movie was shot that way. Shine is another perfect example. As a matter of fact I think I'm going to vote for Shine for the DGA Awards, because to me that is a movie that is a movie. It's not just recording of images to convey words and ideas to an audience. But to really suck you in, you become part of the play. I like to go for directors who can do that. I want a point of view. NV: Who have been some of your favorite actors to work with? RK: Joel Grey is great. Lance Henriksen. Kate, no doubt about it. I like to work with Carroll O'Connor. He was not easy, but he has the same quirky attitude that I have. He's kind of weird at times. Interesting storyteller, but also rather stubborn and ornery. But then, hey, they're not being hired to be nice to you, they're being hired to give you a point of view, some acting. NV: I know you've attended a couple of conventions with Kate. How do you feel about that whole experience? RK: It's an interesting experience, but I'm torn. For me they are kind of weird because I don't think I've ever been in so many cities without knowing anything about that city. You go in there under the cover of darkness and you leave under the cover of darkness, so to speak. And you sit in weird rooms without windows and you hear squeaking noise amplification devices, and then afterwards, I wait for Kate, and sometimes it entails to be with all the people who are waiting in line. And it's kind of...you look at these people and say, "What is it?" I mean, these people live Star Trek. And I haven't quite figured out the phenomenon yet. [It] intrigues me. NV: I know for myself, it's the chance to see the actors because there are so few shows that you would actually get to do that. RK: It's kind of like, what is the difference between that and Lourdes. You know, the French pilgrimage. What is it? Are we missing the king? And I'm sure there's some of that--we need heroes and that's the only heroes that we get these days, since there's no mythology short of Paul Bunyon, I believe, that is American. So I think there is that preoccupation and the hero-worship. We've got to have somebody to adore, and in our case, it's the actor. So we have our own spectacles, and this is one of them. NV: Do you ever feel uncomfortable being there? RK: I have only appeared once, I believe, because somebody asked a question about transporter beams. And Kate decided that she didn't know a damn thing about it, and she called me up. Other than that, I have basically been waiting for her because she wanted me to be there. It's kind of a lonely affair. You sit in a hotel and wait and wait and wait until they call you up. And so this way at least she had companionship, and that was the only reason why I went up there. I really never participated in the event. I think I've been invited a couple of times, but it never really intrigued me to that degree. And so I always said no. The only reason I went there was because of accompanying Kate. NV: I imagine with the schedule that you two have, it must be hard anyway because all these conventions fall on the weekend. Sometimes that's your only time together anyway. RK: Exactly. Especially for Kate it's hard because there are the children. The weekend is usually the time that she can have a few more hours with them. And so that's the basic reason why she has not appeared more times than she has. It's not out of disrespect. She's a mother; and a very, very convinced mother. It's really amazing to see her. She will bring the children to school if there's half a chance that she can make it to the studio. And she will pick them up, and she will be with them, I mean it's... She will have vacation with the children where I will not participate because it is just between the three of them. So she's a very, very committed mother. *BOOKS AND COLLECTIBLES* VOYAGER #9: INVASION: THE FINAL FURY By Dafydd Ab Hugh The Invasion series is an interesting idea: telling parts of a story at widely separated points in space-time is a challenge, and any attempt at Trek continuity is to be welcomed. I can't say I'm a big fan of the Furies themselves, though. I don't like the von Danikenesque suggestion that Terran myths have real, extraterrestrial origins--and the myths in question do not have the power attributed to them. The Voyager novel is reasonably exciting, nonetheless. The author has put effort into making the science and technology plausible; he's not 100% successful, but good enough so I don't feel like saying "Hey, wait a minute!" and dragging out my college physics book. He also does fairly well in the category of General Trek Knowledge. Voyager knowledge, on the other hand, is often lacking. The holodecks and replicators use the same power grid? The captain's quarters open directly onto the bridge? Tuvok calls Janeway "sir"? Chakotay calls B'Elanna "Mr. Torres"? The captain's name is spelled "Katherine"? Most of the characters, not surprisingly, are out of character. Chakotay is spewing tribal culture right and left. Torres is not only having a major attack of insecurity, she's letting it show. Janeway is kind of like she was in "Persistence of Vision," only with worse lines. Indeed, a lot of the dialog just sounds wrong. The author makes an effort to get inside the characters' heads, but it seems like he's doing it based on two or three episodes and the Writers' Guide. Moving on to the usual Trek-novel annoyance categories: This book is not bad in the typo department. There are a few big continuity glitches, but nothing that affects major plot developments. There is a lot of '90s slang, some of it already fairly dated. I didn't notice any lapses from the metric system. Overall, this is a readable but frequently annoying book. It's the weakest of the Invasion series and, among the Voyager novels, it ranks somewhere in the bottom half. --Jennifer Loehlin VOYAGER #10: BLESS THE BEASTS By Karen Haber In Bless the Beasts, Voyager's crew finds themselves entangled in the affairs of the planet Sardalia, where the natives suffer from a mysterious plague that only the blood of a local animal, the darra, can alleviate. But the darra may be intelligent. Reviewing this book, I feel vaguely like Leonard Pynth-Garnell introducing another episode of "Bad Voyager Fiction." The work certainly qualifies, for it's bad (as Leonard would say, "Very bad indeed") on many fronts. The most critical of these is characterization, much of which reads as if the author was working from a writer's guide rather than from the TV characters. The broad outlines might be right, but the behavior isn't. A Klingon whose plan was rejected by the first officer might go behind his back to appeal to the captain, and a Klingon who'd retrieved a piece of stolen equipment after a fierce fight might hold it over her head and let out a war cry--but would B'Elanna Torres do either? Though Janeway likes dogs, would she really leave a diplomatic event where she's trying to get to the bottom of things to chase somebody's doglike pet? While the Doctor may be brusque, has he ever blown off Kes unless something was wrong with his program? The plot largely proceeds by fits of illogic. Dealing with a culture whose technology level is much lower than Voyager's, Janeway lets a member of the local engineer's guild visit her engine room. For no apparent reason, Paris and Kim's captors abandon ship and conveniently allow them to have the vessel to themselves. The supposedly clever Borizus falls for Tuvok's simplistic bit of misdirection. Chakotay (we all remember what a noted scientist he is!) uses biological data from a bit of Paris' scar tissue to scan for him on the planet's surface, when the fact that Paris and Kim are the only humans on Sardalia doesn't make it possible to locate them. The chronology is muddled. When does this novel take place? In one chapter, B'Elanna thinks about her attraction to Chakotay, which she discovered in season two's "Persistence of Vision," when Voyager had been out eight or nine months. However, character relationships are as awkward as if the book were set much earlier. And in a later chapter, Janeway thinks of her dog (the pregnant one from "Caretaker") and how its puppies should be nearly weaned. I'm no dog person, but I don't think puppies nurse six or seven months! The novel has one interesting facet, decently played for most of the book: the conflict between the needs of the chronically ill Sardalians and the rights of the darra. Disappointingly, this is resolved not by reason nor by any of the affected parties, but by the high-tech intervention of Voyager, in a transparent evasion of the Prime Directive. I don't object to our heroes helping the plague-ridden planet, but I'd like to have seen Haber make a better case for obeying the Prime Directive than, "Duh, it's the rule." One could be made. There you have it, gentle reader: all the pieces of yet another work of "Bad Voyager Fiction." I'm Leonard Pynth-Garnell, your host, hoping you will join us again for another episode of....Actually, I hope the next one isn't quite so perfect a candidate! --Brenda Shaffer-Shiring Karen Haber's entry in the Voyager series is neither the best or worst of the novels--it is merely trite. A visit to an intriguing new alien world quickly degenerates into a politically correct tale about creatures called the Darra who are protected by the alien equivalent of Greenpeace. In fact, Haber seemed to lift this entire premise from Joan Vinge's classic The Snow Queen. In that novel, sea creatures called mers were harvested to artificially prolong the lives of rich, spoiled technocrats. In this novel, the darra are slaughtered to extract an enzyme which fights off a type of plague. I'm not sure how long these novels moulder before Pocket Books finally releases them, but after smelling the stench from this one, I'd say it's been awhile. If you move back in the Voyager timeline to that awful episode "Persistence of Vision," you get an idea of what you're dealing with here. Haber seems to have extracted the worst possible elements of that episode and sprinkled them throughout the pages of this novel. How else can you explain B'Elanna's sudden desire to have Chakotay smile at her for something other than doing 'a good job'? And did you really want to hear about Lord Burleigh again? Finally, did you know that we've been misspelling Seska's name all along? It's 'Seskia'--now say it three times and tap your heels together. Besides the poor copyediting, Haber has a tendency to bring out the worst in every character. The coffee jokes were funny for about five minutes, but Haber prolongs Janeway's quest to the point of physical pain. In addition, both Janeway and Torres remain in shrew mode until the end. They aren't the only victims: Chakotay is his usual 'steady' self--does the man have a pulse?--Tuvok quotes from the Prime Directive at the drop of a hat while the crew flagrantly violates it anyway, Tom's rebelliousness and sense of humor are considerably more pointed than usual, and Harry is stuck in his greenhorn rut. The story and setting might have been interesting if Haber knew these characters, but her cluelessness is obvious. Unfortunately, this weighs down the novel and there are simply not any bright moments. I often wonder why the books mention the Prime Directive so prominently. There are supposed to be strict rules about interfering with pre-warp societies, yet folks continue to pile up violations. Why would Janeway allow an alien on her ship unsupervised by a security officer? I know she's trying to make a deal with the Sardalians, but it still seems stupid. And why are her crew running around on the planet disobeying orders? The only violation of the sacred P.D. I bought was the medical treatment for the gray plague, but Haber set this up with a neon arrow saying, "This way, Doc." After the "Flashback" novel, this is a real disappointment. Since Voyager's third season seems to be on an upswing, I hope they start paying closer attention to their novels as well. --Elizabeth Klisiewicz VOYAGER #11: THE GARDEN by Melissa Scott Cast your mind back to the time when we first met Captain Janeway and company, because "The Garden" takes place right after the Caretaker swept Voyager into the Delta Quadrant. Not only that, but all the characters are stuck in that time too. Harry acts like a cringing tenderfoot, and Tom Paris is sullen and rather dumb. He even seems to be afraid of Chakotay, and this doesn't strike me as the Tom I know. Everyone is also tired of his reputation as a womanizer, when we know that he can't seem to win with any of the women he's chased. Strange turns of phrase also mar this book, which can probably be chalked up to bad editing. It's too bad, because Melissa Scott has created an evocative and imaginative backdrop for this tale--certainly one of the better additions to the Voyager series. She's done a decent job with the rest of the Voyager characters, particularly Torres, who has suffered much in the novels, and her peripheral characters are at least interesting. While I wondered what Thilo Revek's function was on this planet, and his backstory was a bit too convenient, it's certainly not out of the ordinary for the Star Trek universe. Recommended except for the nitpicks mentioned above. --Elizabeth Klisiewicz DELTA QUADRANT IV Published by Orion Press Delta Quadrant IV is a Voyager fan fiction zine produced by Orion Press. This installment contains 8 mostly great stories--tales which are far more interesting and better conceived than most of the hard copy coming out of Pocket Books. Unfortunately, DQ IV's editor is no more effective than the editors at Pocket Books, and it's a good thing that most of these writers are highly literate, because they save the day. To be fair, I should mention that this editor is a volunteer, and isn't paid for her efforts like so-called professional editors. This editor also brags about her new scanner, but she apparently hasn't learned how to use it yet. There are some highly talented artists on these pages, but some of their efforts were ruined by poor scans. For example, I've seen Laura Bowen's original work on her web page, and what I see here lacks the depth and contrast of her beautiful sketches. So, from an artwork standpoint, this zine is disappointing. I'm happy to say that the stories don't suffer the same fate. Things open up with "Burdens of Command" by Ruth Ann Jones. She's always had a deft hand with Tom Paris's character, and this story is no exception. An accident cripples the senior command staff, and it's up to Tom, Harry and B'Elanna to save the day. Tom is in command, and we are treated to his inner thoughts as he comes up with a solution to a giant space station holding Voyager in thrall. We get to see that the cocky pilot is rather insecure, but he manages to overcome his fears and help out the crew. Next up is Pat Hammer's delicious story "Finding the Balance," which first appeared in Now Voyager. I had forgotten how much I loved this exploration of Kathryn Janeway's spiritual side as well as her friendship with Chakotay. Spirit guides seem to have been left behind in Season One, and I appreciated this chance to revisit this aspect of Janeway's life. Pat's lush, sensual descriptions of the planet made me feel like I was right there as Janeway searched for her fetish. This season's "Sacred Ground" attempted to explore similar territory, but failed to elicit the same response in me that this story did. "Faces of Justice" returns us to the Vidiian Sodality and a trial involving the alien responsible for Lt. Durst's death. Harry Kim is chosen to defend the alien against a hostile panel of his peers, and even with Holodoc's help, he doesn't do a very good job of presenting his case. Despite his ineptitude, the captain ends up letting the aliens go in hopes that they have learned their lesson. William B. F. Vodrey provides us with an intriguing study of this alien culture that was mostly ignored and replaced with tired Kazon sects in the series. Showing the alien's point of view and the difficulty that Janeway has in presiding over the case with her Federation rules makes for a neat story. I hope to see a lot more from this writer. Author BEKi makes a return visit with her study of Maquis/Starfleet conflict called "Breakdown." A Bajoran woman fails to report to duty and her absence is not reported by her superior officer. Due to his negligence, the woman nearly dies. An unexpected friend reaches out and saves her life, and everyone involved, both Starfleet and Maquis, learns a harsh lesson about the values of respecting life in all its forms. Since the show quickly jumped past crew conflicts and mistakenly turned the Voyager crew into one big happy family, I was glad to see this analysis. Good work from an old favorite of mine. Since this is mostly a stellar collection of work, Judith Medina's "More Than Who I Am" is little more than a temporary miasma. Its premise is supposed to plumb the depths of Lon Suder's soul, but it ends up being a jumble of scenes about B'Elanna's past sex life with both Chakotay and Suder, Suder's inexplicable lust for Kes, and Suder's desire to destroy himself. The transition between scenes is jerky and the characters are awkwardly drawn. This is a story that might have been saved by a careful copy editor, but she apparently was nowhere in sight during this exercise. Now Voyager member Brenda Shaffer-Shiring's "The End of the Beginning" explores the aftermath of the "Investigations" episode. TPTB apparently forgot about the crappy way that Janeway treated Chakotay, leaving him out of the loop entirely and making him look weak and foolish to the entire crew. I love the way she flashed back to the "Caretaker" episode and stepped us through Janeway's thought processes as she made up her mind to make Chakotay her first officer. Trust and all that the word entails are the highlights of this yarn, and the finale makes a fine cap for a great story. In "Basic Resolutions," Jordan Trevor writes about a situation where Chakotay is critically injured and it's up to Janeway to assist in rehabilitation. Chakotay's memories are gone, and he's no more intellectually advanced than a child just out of toilet training. Only Janeway's stubbornness and tenacity help Chakotay recover, and it's a true test of the friendship they developed on New Earth. This is the kind of thing I'd kill to see on television, but I know I'll be forever disappointed. Thank god for fan fiction authors who always manage to fill in the gaps for people like me. "Dust" is both a brilliant and atmospherically dense story by Now Voyager member Anne Davenport. Her descriptions of Janeway's incarceration were so vivid that I felt like I was the one crawling and coughing instead of the captain. She is rescued by Harry and Chakotay, and the scenes where Chakotay cares for his captain are deeply moving. I only wish that Jeri Taylor could read this story so she'd know how to fix what went wrong between Janeway and Chakotay. All in all, this is a wonderful collection by some highly talented and imaginative writers and artists. If TPTB took notice of some of the work being done in the fan fiction realm, then they might go a long way towards restoring this viewer's faith in the Trek universe. --Elizabeth Klisiewicz *RELEASE DATES* COMICS: Star Trek Voyager #6 (Marvel) 2/05/97 Star Trek Voyager #7 (Marvel) 3/05/97 Star Trek Voyager #8 (Marvel) 4/09/97 BOOKS: ------ VOY #13 "The Black Shore" by Greg Cox, 4/97 VOY pbk "Day of Honor #3: Her Klingon Soul" Friedman, 7/97 VOY pbk "Mosaic" by Jeri Taylor, 9/97 VOY #14 "Echoes" by Smith/Rusch/Hoffmann, 11/97 VOY hc "Pathways" by Jeri Taylor, 7/98 *COPYRIGHT VIOLATION CORNER* [Paramount owns everything but the weird parts, which they wouldn't want anyway. This is for Deborah, who promised to illustrate the story upon hearing the premise. The mediocre characterization of the animal guide is based on "The Cloud" and bears little resemblance to actual Native American traditions.] AFTERLIFE by Em Wycedee She'd been thinking about going to talk to him for several days before steeling herself to buzz his door one evening after dinner. She'd pretended that she didn't have time, but the real problem was that she consciously had to make the time, when she was certain that he didn't have a game of hoverball scheduled with B'Elanna and he wasn't on the holodeck. It seemed very calculated. Chakotay had been quieter than usual since his experience with the former Borg--a combination of guilt and, she suspected, regret at how easily they'd manipulated him. She told herself she felt uncomfortable adding the burden of her disquiet to his own, but was finally forced to admit that she was avoiding her first officer because she was afraid of upsetting the dangerous balance they'd been negotiating ever since New Earth. Sometimes she was furious with him for having so obviously fallen in love with her, and making it so complicated for them to be friends and colleagues. Other days, her knowledge of his feelings was the only thing that kept her from crying herself to sleep. She wondered uneasily what she owed him for that. She didn't want to mislead Chakotay about her intentions, but she also didn't want him to think that she didn't care about him--deeply. The simple truth was that she needed a friend. At this point, it seemed easier to open the can of worms by telling him so than to continue to hold him at a distance. "Captain," he said with surprise in his voice when he let her in, though she was certain he had asked the computer who was at the door before opening it. "Kathryn," she corrected him. "May I come in, Chakotay?" He nodded and waved her through, his eyes flickering warmly, though his expression was concerned. "I take it you're not here on ship's business, Kathryn?" "No, I'm not," she agreed. "Except inasmuch as my own mental state concerns ship's business." "Are you worried about something?" "Other than the usual, you mean?" He nodded sympathetically; they'd been over and over the supply problems, with no miraculous solutions in sight. It wasn't easy for her to confess personal concerns, but she couldn't afford to let them become debilitating. She knew he was watching her fidget with her hands, and opted for the direct approach. "I've been having trouble sleeping. Ever since the shuttle crash when that alien almost killed me." He sat down on his couch beside her and leaned forward to study the circles she could feel under her eyes. "Have you asked the Doctor about it?" "He did a quick check, but I don't think it's anything biochemical," she sighed. "What the alien made me experience has been making me think about things, and I'm feeling...empty." "You mean lonely?" "That, too. But it doesn't just have to do with other people--it has to do with me. How I see myself. I'm not sure what I believe anymore about this life. Or my place in this universe." "You're hurting in spirit," he guessed, and she smiled gratefully. "I'm a little uncomfortable with the whole idea. And with coming to you about it--I know it's been a long time since you introduced me to your people's customs. You must think my interest was very shallow." He opened his mouth to contradict her, and she held up her hand to ask him to let her finish. "I haven't been very fair to you. I know I've been quick to take the scientific approach to problems, and discount possible effects that are outside my own intellectual beliefs." She paused, itching to pace the room, then forced herself to be still, looking directly at her first officer. "And...I guess I haven't always been a very good friend, either." He blinked and looked quickly away, and her gut wrenched. She said his name, apologetically, waiting for him to meet her eyes. He was silent for a moment, opening and closing his mouth as he thought about what to say; he took her fingers and squeezed them before clearing his throat. "You've been a very good friend, and a very good commanding officer, and I know it isn't easy for you to separate those roles." She kept his hand in hers and managed a smile for him, though the contact reminded her of that night on New Earth when he first told her of his feelings; it gave her the shivers. "I'll help you in whatever way I can." She took a deep breath and blurted out, "I want to talk to my animal guide." His lips twitched, holding back amusement. "You don't need me to contact your animal guide. You don't even need the akunah." "I assumed as much. But I still want you there, like before." He squeezed her hand again, and his eyes crinkled as he smiled, obviously moved by her request. Again she felt guilty for not coming to him sooner, asking for and offering the friendship which he accepted gladly. He had never pressured her for anything more; she made a mental note that she was going to have to think about why she kept making the romantic potential between them an issue when he was content to let it be. Shaking herself, she forced her mind back to the topic at hand. "I don't have much experience with trances, and the last time I entered one, to save Kes' life in that Nikani portal, I discovered that I have all sorts of expectations I don't know how to work around. I'd feel better if you were in the room--for the ship, and for me." "All right." He let go of her and crossed the room to get his medicine bundle while she slid off the couch onto the floor, her back against the cushions. "Want some tea first?" he asked as he passed by the replicator. "No, thanks." "Mind if I get some?" "Of course not." She folded her arms over her knees, willing herself to relax. Chakotay brought the tea and the bundle and sat beside her, his hip touching hers. The black feather, the stone--this one appeared to have new markings. When lifted her hand to place it on the akunah, she was afflicted with deja vu--from that first encounter in her ready room, but also a sense that this wasn't the last time they would sit together like this. "I should have done this a long time ago," she admitted in a whisper. "But I was afraid." "Was your animal guide large and toothy?" He was teasing, but his eyes were sad. "At least you didn't try to kill it." "Did B'Elanna really do that?" "She certainly did. I was surprised--resistant people sometimes can't even find their animal guides on their first attempt. B'Elanna met hers right away, but then got so angry that I thought it must be an overly affectionate poodle or something...I shouldn't laugh. It was a difficult situation for both of us. What scared you last time?" he asked abruptly. "Nothing from the vision. It was like you said--peaceful, and comforting." She tried to remember exactly how she had felt that day: intrigued when he had first told her on the bridge about his people's traditions, startled by his eagerness when he bounded into her ready room with his medicine bundle. It had been a little uncomfortable when he led her to the low table and took her hand to give her the equivalent of a psychoactive drug. And then blissful...floating away with the sound of his voice to that place of peace and joy, aware of him even when she couldn't see him. She'd felt guilty when Torres interrupted, not just for neglecting her duty, but because the intimacy with her first officer had been unsettling; she explained herself rather gruffly to B'Elanna before she stopped to think that Chakotay might be offended at her casually discussing what they'd been doing. She'd sent Kim to him later to talk about animal guides. But after that evening playing pool with the junior officers, which proved relaxing in a different way--it was the first time she could remember flirting directly with Chakotay and being aware of doing so--she'd put the experience out of her mind. He did not offer again, and she had been uneasy about asking. No longer. She gritted her teeth to tell him the truth: "I was afraid of getting close to you like this." He met her gaze, unsmiling. "Kathryn, I would never use my traditions to take advantage of you in any way. Not personally, not professionally, not even to challenge your beliefs." "I know. I never thought you would. It was me I was worried about." His eyes widened, and then he nodded once. "Can we start?" she asked, to move past the moment. "If you're ready." He smiled reassuringly and lowered her hand onto the akunah. "Akoocheemoya, we are far from the sacred places of our ancestors..." She was back on the beach watching the sun set even before he finished speaking the sacred words, feeling the breeze against her face. She'd thought about taking him here, the night she invited him to go sailing with her after he'd saved her life, but it was so personal, so much a part of her--she'd known what it would mean to bring him to this place, even on a holodeck. She'd never even come here with Mark. Lake George had been safer. She looked around for the little lizard, but it wasn't immediately evident, so she sat back and watched the sky for a few minutes. Sunsets on New Earth had looked almost like this. In fact, the scene had changed from the last time she entered this idealized landscape: several elements from New Earth had crept into the fauna. It was painful for her to admit how much she missed that planet. The entire time she had been there, she had tried to repress how pleasurable it was to live under an open sky, exploring geology and botany instead of the cosmos. She'd told herself she didn't want to think too much about Voyager because it would make her homesick, but the truth had been that she didn't want to admit how happy she was--working with the soil, eating fresh fruit, lying in a bathtub under the stars, knowing that Chakotay was inside the shelter, waiting for her. If he'd thanked her for showing him the true meaning of peace, then she owed him for this, her own inner sanctum. A movement in the corner of her eye made her jump. The gecko was perched on a log, watching her. "I'm sorry it took me so long to come back. Many things have happened." She heard herself speaking aloud, and wondered with some hesitation whether Chakotay was listening; he had been able to hear her questions to him the last time while she was in the trance state. No matter if he overheard now; she trusted him with whatever she had come here to learn. But she felt rather tentative about direct communication with a reptile. The little lizard cocked its head at her, looking as if it expected her to feed it. She burst out laughing at the thought, realizing with some embarrassment that she couldn't offer anything to her animal guide: she didn't think it would want to be petted. "Why do you watch over my life, anyway?" she asked. "Did you choose me, or did I choose you, somehow?" It stopped to regard its own tail for a moment, then nudged her hand. "I guess you chose me," she concluded. She watched it creep to the edge of the log and settle, waiting for her to speak again. "I wanted to talk to you because I'm afraid of dying," she burst out. The lizard opened its mouth and bobbed its head, and she realized with chagrin that it was laughing at her. Maybe it didn't believe in the finality of death, and thought her terribly silly to be concerned about such a thing. "Well, of course, it's not that simple. I'm willing to give my life for my ship," she amended."But I've been having nightmares about my father--the alien who pretended he was my father. I think about my crew going on without me, or not able to go on. I'm afraid of dying without having finished living this life." *What will you do about that?* The question startled her; she wasn't sure whether it had actually come from her own mind or from the creature. "I was hoping you could tell me. Can't you...give me guidance?" The lizard rolled its eyes up as if it were bored. She wished she'd asked Chakotay more about the role of the animal guide--how much it was at liberty to say to her. This wasn't much like talking to a ship's counselor. "Can't you at least help me ask the right questions? Or point me to someone who can?" Wandering lazily to the edge of the log, the creature lifted its head as if waiting, looking into the late sun. She followed its line of sight down the beach, but didn't see anything--or anyone--approaching. "Am I supposed to notice something?" Infuriatingly, the creature darted under the log, out of her sight. Despite the tranquility of the warm wind, she felt herself growing frustrated. If only there were some way to bring Chakotay here with her. Or someone else who could answer her questions... She heard a sound behind her on the beach, and turned. Face to face with--herself. Not herself, she realized almost immediately. There was a difference, shocking in its clarity, though she recognized the woman facing her despite the lack of mirror reversal. This was her other self--the one who had come onto her ship from the duplicate Voyager, the one who had died when that Voyager exploded, taking a Vidiian ship with it. She wore her old hairstyle, but it was primarily instinct rather than evidence which told her that this was the woman who had exhorted her from the viewscreen to get her ship home. Herself until their lives diverged. There must be hundreds such selves, she realized. Different timelines, different universes. A Kathryn who had never gotten lost in the Delta Quadrant, and had gone home after her three-week mission, with her Maquis captives or without. A Kathryn who'd ended up a on Chakotay's ship, rather than the reverse. A Kathryn who'd chosen not to save the Ocampa, who'd gone home following the incident with the Caretaker, and found that she couldn't go back to her old life--to Starfleet and Mark. A Kathryn who never returned from Old Earth, who'd gotten stuck in the 20th century along with her crew. In another universe, this duplicate Kathryn would have lived, and she herself would have died. Victim of the Vidiians, or of her own self-destruct order. Two of the ship, two of her, from the other side. She felt the same oddness as during that earlier incident talking to her double in engineering...the sense that, while she could predict this woman's actions and answers, she wasn't certain she knew her. Am I always so serious? she wondered, looking at her companion's unsmiling face, framed by the bun she'd given up wearing. The face of a scientist, the face of a starship captain. Not necessarily the face of a friend. She'd had the same thought the last time they'd met--not a lack of trust, but a recognition of her own stubbornness and blind spots, a combination of fear and an unwillingness to examine too closely. This time she was determined to get closer. "Kathryn?" she asked the other, awkwardly, and was surprised at her own smile on someone else's face. Her breath caught. The expression transformed her, lighting her eyes, taking years away from her features. *I have to remember to smile more often.* "I wasn't sure I'd ever see you again," the other Kathryn was saying. "You're always so--scientific, and this is a spiritual plane we meet on." "*I'm* always so scientific?" she demanded. "Not *we*'re always so scientific?" "I've been different since I died," the other raised an eyebrow mysteriously, and they both grinned. "I'm glad to see you." She felt foolish saying the words to herself. "I had questions..." "I know. And there are things you can confide in me that you don't think you can tell anyone else." "You say that as if it's criticism," she heard defensiveness in her voice. "Not criticism. I see from a different perspective now." The other moved differently too. Despite the uniform she wore, there was no trace of Starfleet demeanor; the other seemed completely relaxed, arms dangling free at her sides. Wherever she had come from, she seemed happy. "Then...there is an afterlife?" "Do you really doubt it? We told Harry Kim that what we don't know about death is far greater than what we do know." Her double was smiling again. "I didn't realize how much I believed that until I died. You believe it too, but you've been hurt, so you're not letting yourself trust." "Then you know about what happened to me? With the alien who pretended to be our father?" The other sighed in momentary frustration. "I don't know what you felt, no. I don't share your experiences from the moment we separated any more than you shared my death. Why don't you tell me about it?" They walked along the beach as she talked, describing the events as they had unfolded: the shuttle crash, Chakotay saving her, the Vidiians, the time loop. The shuttle exploding, the Doctor's treachery, the finality of her death seen from a distance, her father, her funeral. Letting Kes walk through her, not being able to contact Tuvok. Reaching out to a crew which was already letting her go, not wanting to believe that they could go on without her--not willing to let them. Chakotay holding her in his arms, crying. Vanquishing the alien. Going on the boat ride. "You had a busy day," her double said dryly. "But I'm not sure how that last figures into the problem." "'Midnight sail' is what I said to him." Her twin raised an eyebrow. "Well, he did save my life. And, um, he gave me a flower." Up shot the other brow, half her mouth curling to the side. "I see." She was alarmed to note that her face did a lousy job of hiding when she was amused. She wondered for a moment if her other self might envy her the life she'd lost, but her face was peaceful; wherever she existed now, it apparently fulfilled her. Recognizing the need to put her own false postmortem experiences into context, she began to describe her life from the moment when it had diverged from the other Kathryn's. It was easiest to work backwards, to the common point of experience. The abortive trip to Earth's past . . . the loss of the ship temporarily to the Kazon...Seska, the baby...New Earth. The bathtub, the monkey, the river, the storm, the night after the storm. Then the communicator signal, putting on the uniforms, coming back to the ship. The other Kathryn listened silently for the most part, nodding understanding. Finally she asked, "Why didn't you talk to him about what happened to you?" "To Chakotay? How could I? I don't even know how much of what I witnessed during the hallucinations was real. Not his reaction, not even my own response. How am I supposed to ask him whether I really saw him crying over me?" "He'd answer you." Her companion shook her head slowly. "No matter what the details were, do you have any doubt of his feelings?" No, she almost said, before realizing that that wasn't completely true--and that that was part of the problem. "Of course. Aren't there always doubts?" She felt herself becoming flushed, angry at her other self and at Chakotay. "He's never said anything that couldn't be misinterpreted," she said carefully. "I think he does it deliberately, he doesn't say--the big words. Maybe he doesn't feel things as deeply..." "...as you obviously want to believe that he does, or that alien wouldn't have given you the hallucinations you had," the counterpart Kathryn finished easily. "I know. I thought the same things, until I died." That refrain was getting a little tiresome. "Was it different afterwards? Were you in some place where you knew everything, and all secrets were revealed?" "No." The other smiled, embarrassed. "I set the auto-destruct for five minutes. The bridge was mostly empty, everyone was fighting the Vidiians. We had time to kill. He told me." She didn't know why that should shock her, but the words sent a thrill through her body, anticipation and something akin to jealousy. Aloud she said, "It was disturbing, to learn that, of anything I might have been thinking about when I died, I wanted to see him mourn me--the alien wouldn't have shown me that, otherwise, would he? I didn't even think about Mother, or Mark." Whirling, she stopped walking and put her arm on her double's. "What were you thinking about, when you died?" Her other self turned away from her, shaking her head the way she sometimes did to make herself stop thinking an embarrassing or painful thought. She realized that she could actually feel her arm on the other woman's--not just the pressure of the skin under her fingers, but the grip of someone else's hand on her own arm. She jerked away. "Is that where he got it from? I was picking up your thoughts, from when you died? And you're projecting your physical feelings onto me now?" "I'm not projecting anything, Kathryn. I don't have the same kind of corporeal sensation that you do. But there are resonances between us. That physical feeling's one of them. What I was thinking when I died might be another." Not at all pleased at the thought that her own emotions could be manipulated by some other Kathryn in some other universe, she demanded, "Then tell me what happened." "When I gave the self-destruct order, there were things that had to be done to distract me for the first minute--systems shutdowns to make sure the Vidiians wouldn't be able to override, that kind of work. I was thinking about Tom and B'Elanna--how they must have died--and Harry running through the corridors to get to your ship. I was nervous. Wondering whether we would feel anything before we dematerialized, and if it would hurt--I guess everyone thinks about that. I tried not to think too much about anything other than the fact that the Vidiians weren't going to get us, and they weren't going to get you, either." The other Kathryn took a deep breath. "Those were the first two minutes. Then--I panicked, for a few seconds. I didn't want to die. I wasn't even sure it mattered if the bridge crew heard me cry at that point--we were all going to be dead in a few more seconds, did it matter if I wasn't acting like the captain at the end? He must have sensed something, because he turned right then, when I was about to fall apart. He said my name. He'd never done that before." She nodded. Until she'd told Chakotay to call her Kathryn on that first day of their exile, he had never called her anything but Captain. There had been times when she thought he might--when she ordered him to let the ship blow up with her aboard, when they'd entered the cargo bay together to see which of their crew had elected to stay with the 37s--but he never had. She tried to imagine what it would have been like, at the last moment of her life. Her counterpart was shaking her head, eyes closed, continuing. "Well, it did distract me from worrying about dying. I knew what he was trying to tell me--what he was going to tell me, if I let him. And, I realized that, since I knew what he was going to say, I'd known before how he felt. I couldn't help thinking, what if our lives weren't going to end in less than two minutes--if he'd said something straightforward to me while we still had a chance. Probably I was only letting myself think about it because he and I were both going to die. But at that moment, I stopped and let myself think how I felt about him. And I knew I'd known that before, too." They were both silent, walking, for several beats. The sky was changing colors, the sun beginning to sink below the horizon. She was achingly uncomfortable with this confession out of her own mouth. "But you can't be sure--you might have been feeling what you were feeling because you were going to die, not in spite of it." "Oh, I know that," the other readily agreed. "I wondered, before the Vidiians came onto the bridge, what I would tell you, if I could talk to you once more. Whether I would tell you not to let yourself and him slip past one another--or whether that was one thing I shouldn't tell you, since you still had your life to live." She stopped to pick up a stone, rubbed the markings on its face. Indelible. It reminded her of Chakotay's stone, the one in the medicine bundle. Abruptly she remembered the stone she'd seen earlier, briefly, when he took out the akunah--the new one. A stone from the river. It was all too easy to guess which river it had come from. The one they'd never gotten to explore, on the boat ride they hadn't taken. "I guess you decided what to tell me, if you're telling me this now." "No, Kathryn. You decided." She saw her own smile again on her counterpart's face. "This is your vision, not mine. Given that there are infinite universes, there must be a reason that you picked me of all Kathryn Janeways to converse with." "I didn't pick you. I asked my animal guide..." "...whether anyone could answer your questions. Why do you think you found me?" "Because you know what it's like to die," she realized. "And--you know what it's like to die with Chakotay." She hesitated. "But there have been other complications between us since he saved me from that alien." "Since you saved yourself," she was corrected. "Like what?" "Well, for one thing, there was another woman..." She stopped. That wasn't what she had intended to say. She meant to tell her other self about the Borg collective, her realization of how much Chakotay needed to belong to someone, someplace--how that had scared her, that weakness. Standing in Sickbay, hearing herself talk in the same condescending voice she used to comfort distraught ensigns--"Helping others, Chakotay, that's part of who you are"--not certain she believed the altruism. She'd been dispassionate reading his report on Riley (and he'd spared no detail), seeing a man not himself, injured and under the influence of alien mind control, not unlike herself possessed by the Bothans. She had not condemned him--not for sharing physical pleasure with a woman who could insinuate her own desires directly into his mind. Her anger had stemmed from his muddled loyalties to the ship. Even if he was directly under the control of the Borg neurotransmitter when he stood in the conference room, pleading for Riley, avoiding her own eyes, he had not been able to put Voyager's interests first. That was what she blamed him for, not for a fling with a woman who in the end had not hesitated to use him for her own purposes, no matter how much that might have hurt him... The other Kathryn had stopped and was watching her from the corner of her eye, waiting. Arms crossed defensively over her chest. "It wasn't what that sounded like," she amended. "It's not like he went looking for someone else--though there's no reason why he shouldn't have, I've never given him any indication that I want him to wait. I wanted him to get past it. So we could be friends at least." "Aren't you friends?" "It's so hard, worrying that I'm hurting him--I didn't want him to feel this way, I wish I could treat this like any other crew crush. I need him too much for this as my first officer." "But you're the one who's been keeping your distance from him." "I know that." Stricken, she felt tears spring to her eyes. "I don't know why I'm taking this personally at all." "Yes, you do. What are you going to do about it?" She had no answer. The obvious choice--to admit how the whole incident had shaken her--was fraught with danger, for the ship as well as for both of them. If he'd balked at an order to let her go down with the ship months ago... "He's not going to be objective about your life whether you're his lover or just his commanding officer," her other self went on, reading her mind. "His feelings aren't the real problem, are they?" Of course they weren't. The real problem was how she felt about him. Not just him, either--B'Elanna, Tuvok, Tom, Kes--all of them. She didn't think she could bear to lose another crewmember. The ground rushed up to her--no, she was collapsing in the grass, burying her face in her hands. Too much responsibility to bear. "Then tell me that they all live after they die, and they find peace, same as you. All these lives--the best I can do isn't going to save them--" "We're scientists, remember? You're supposed to seek the truth." So strange and so painful to hear her own voice, the condescending tone she used with recalcitrant crewmembers, directed at herself. To see her flaws undistorted by the mirror, the features reversed, as if they were somehow confronting her. She looked up into her own face, blurred by her tears, and almost envied her dead self the knowledge she could not yet reach, the certainty that what waited was not the terror held out by that alien pretending to be their father, but the place Chakotay believed in, where he had met his own father and changed the course of his own destiny. Her double looked at her with a mixture of exasperation and affection, as though she were a child. "Can't you forgive yourself a little, Kathryn?" She had no answer. "Can't you at least love yourself a little?" She looked at the woman, her self as an alien, staring back at her. Not really any more predictable than anyone else she knew. Foreign. A different skin. Yet with a little of her parents and grandparents mixed in, expressions she'd picked up from teachers, a gesture every now and then that reminded her of a friend. Everyone she had ever cared about in her life was here, in this one person who was not wholly herself. "I can love you," she said. Her duplicate reached out and stroked her face, across her cheek. She was shaken. Without conscious thought, she did the same--traced her fingers across the identical cheekbone, watched eyes like her own close in pleasure at the contact. She could feel echoes of her fingers on the other's face against her own skin. This must be what it was like for Chakotay in the link with Riley, she thought, and felt no rancor. So compelling, to touch oneself through another's hand. She could tell from the look in the eyes which mirrored hers that her twin knew exactly what she was feeling. "I'm sorry--" She jolted back, humiliated. "This isn't like me." But the other eyes held no condemnation, just curiosity. "No?" Amusement, reflected to her in her own voice. "Last time I saw you, you used to touch people all the time. Which one of us do you want to hold responsible now?" Blushing, she turned away, but there was no point in lying to herself--either of herselves. She'd never met anyone who'd understood her so thoroughly, instantly, without censure. It frightened her to face that. "I'm not sure what I'm supposed to learn from this. How do I know if any of it is real? You could be a figment of my imagination just like those alien illusions. What's my body doing right now?" "I imagine you're sitting on the floor with your hand on the akunah in Chakotay's quarters, and he's driving himself crazy trying to figure out the expression on your face." Her double laughed, a wild, free sound which she hadn't heard from her own lips since...probably since New Earth, when Chakotay was teasing her about the bathtub. "You have more answers inside of you than you think you do, Kathryn. But you can't always find them yourself--not with science or all your training, not even asking your animal guide. Let me tell you something. When you're really dead, you realize that all the restrictions you put on yourself stem from timidity, not strength. Things you deny yourself, you don't get a second chance to try again. Stop backing away from asking the questions you really want to ask. Starship captains don't give in easily to fear, remember?" The other Kathryn sounded like her guide from the Nikani. But that was impossible--this Kathryn had never gone through the ritual. Nor had she shared the experience with Fear--yet, somehow, she understood, as if it didn't matter where one of them ended and the other began. The sky darkened, the ground fading like a holodeck program turned off, nothing remaining but the participants. "Believe in this, Kathryn," her self said to her, lifting her arms and throwing her head back. For a moment looked out of focus--as if hundreds, thousands of other Kathryn Janeways were superimposed on this one, so bright that it was difficult to look at her. The image rose, all the trappings of her rank and role falling away--she was naked, and glorious, a self perfected. The multiple Kathryns smiled, then walked straight through Captain Janeway of the starship Voyager, just as Captain Janeway had done to Kes when she thought she was dead in an alien vision. For a split second, she was all those Kathryn Janeways. She could see all the consequences of every choice she'd ever made, going back to her early childhood, she was in direct contact with all the women she could have become. The clarity was dazzling, even after the light became too bright for her eyes, and everything went dark. When she could see again, she was on the beach, it was night, and she was alone. Not quite alone. The little lizard was beside her. "What the hell was that all about?" she demanded, puzzled and slightly embarrassed. Slowly, deliberately, her guide followed its own tail in a circle. She shook her head, shifting uncomfortably. "Well, there must be a reason. She told me I have more answers inside me than I think I do. But then why was I here with myself, if I can't get the answers out of myself? Or even out of you?" The creature cocked its head expectantly, then began to retreat. "Then what am I doing here at all?" She was going to have to complain to Chakotay about this animal business. Not only was it unscientific, it operated in the kinds of circles that gave her a headache. The lizard was definitely laughing again. "I don't know where else I can look for answers..." She stopped. "Because I can't get them while I'm here at all," she realized abruptly. "That whole time, I was trying to tell myself..." She opened her eyes to find herself sitting on Chakotay's floor, where he stared with an expression of wide-eyed wonder on his face. "How long..." she finally managed to ask. "A few minutes--less than five, I think. I got worried about you at the end--you were trembling. Did you find your animal guide?" "Yes." Belatedly she felt herself flushing, her body responding to the adrenaline surging through her. He studied her face as she evaded his eyes. "It wasn't what I was expecting, though." "Did you get answers? About your nightmares?" "I'm not sure." She stretched her legs out in front of her, trying to calm down. "Can I ask you some questions?" "Of course. Just give me a minute." He got up and went over to the replicator, bringing more tea for himself and some for her. She sipped quietly, trying to think where to start. "Do you really believe that the dead can speak to the living? You can contact the spirits of your ancestors and they're really there, not just in your own mind?" "I'm not sure." She watched him lift his head to regard the medicine wheel on the wall. "I was raised to believe that, yes. I've had experiences that I can't explain, in scientific terms, and I believe in their validity. But I don't have a clear mental picture of the afterlife, either." "That alien...the one who almost killed me. He did everything I'd heard people experience in near-death encounters. He looked and talked like my father, he tried to make me accept my death. I watched everyone letting me go. Even you--you resisted it the most. Chakotay, if you believed I was dead, would you try to contact me in the next life?" "I don't know." His face was dark, troubled. "'I'm not sure' and 'I don't know' aren't the most comforting answers I can think of." He refused to meet her half-smile. "I have a feeling that if you died, I wouldn't be able to meditate at all. It would take all my energy just to put on a front for the crew. If I let myself try to contact you, if I had any sense that you were out there, waiting for me..." "Yes?" she prodded quietly. "I'd never be able to let go," he finished. "I wouldn't want to wait to join you. Kathryn, I can't imagine going on without you right now, I can't imagine this ship without you." He turned his face away. "I know, I'm the first officer, and this is not what you want to hear me say. But it's the truth. If you died, I would have to find some way to let you go quickly, or I might never truly be able to be Voyager's captain. I've been trying to find some way to let go as it is--I know that's what you want, so it doesn't ever come to pass..." She was silent for a long time, unable to speak or even to drink the tea, digesting what he'd said. Wondering whether the burden of her own feelings would seem greater or lessened if she took on his as well. Remembering what her double had told her about herself and Chakotay, in the timeline where they died together. "Some days...I want to wake up and find out that our lives these past months were all a dream, and I'm still living on New Earth with you." His exhaled exclamation sounded a little too much like a sob. "I feel so guilty, Chakotay. I don't want to leave Voyager, even when things are going badly and I think we'll never get home--I realized that when Culluh took the ship. But I wish I could find a way to keep more of what we had on that planet right here, for both of us." His hands were held out to her, awkwardly, as though he wanted to embrace her but wasn't sure she'd let him, yet he couldn't completely hold the impulse back. She reached out to him, felt his arms go around her and his chin come down over her head, keeping the side of her face pressed against his neck. "Sometimes I think it would be easier if there were two of you," he was saying. "The captain of Voyager, and the person I shared my life with those weeks. But I can't separate them, and neither can you. When I met you, you were a starship captain--not even being stranded without a ship could change that--but that wasn't all you were." "I don't know how to be any other me. I'm not even sure I want to," she said in frustration, moving back a little. He let her; they both needed distance to have this conversation. "I remember the first time I told you about animal guides--you were concerned that you weren't close enough to the crew, you even wanted to join people on the holodeck. I was so happy to realize that you were that kind of captain, you weren't going to shut yourself up in your ready room. You'd be part of the crew. But you changed." "I thought it was a mistake. When Durst died, and Bandara, and Hogan--I started to realize that it was too dangerous for me to be so involved with any of the crew..." He let out a breath, hard. "I'm glad to hear you say that. Not because I agree--I think you're wrong. But I thought maybe it was something I'd done." "Something you'd done? I don't understand." He looked away from her, then rose and paced to the viewport. looking out at the stars. "I realized...I thought you must have known how I felt about you. And that I never should have let you see, since you seemed to take that as a reason to start isolating yourself, and avoiding friendships with people serving under you. It was even worse after New Earth--I couldn't even get you to talk to me--" "I'm sorry." She couldn't speak for several seconds, realizing how deeply she must have hurt him--not as a rebuffed lover, but as her friend and first officer, who blamed himself for her isolation and the effect it had on herself and the ship. "It wasn't ever you, Chakotay. It was almost losing the ship, twice, because of Dreadnought and then because of Seska. And what almost happened to Harry. And Tuvix. I had to balance the responsibility..." She started to choke up, and felt him come back across the room to sit beside her. "It's me," she admitted finally. "I could have to order anyone on this crew to his or her death at any time. Even you--I've watched you refuse to let me die, twice, and I can't afford to feel the same way." "Is it so much easier to let go now?" he asked gently. She flinched at the honest response in her mind. "Can I tell you something I learned from that Borg collective? It's very seductive, that sort of closeness. You feel like the other people are a part of you, you're not sure how you lived without that sort of communication. When I left, I wanted to bring them with me--even though the neural link would be severed, I still felt like they were a part of me, and I wanted to hold on to that connection. A real community. It felt...a lot like love." She turned her head sharply. "I even thought about asking if I could stay with them when I realized Riley wouldn't come with me. But I couldn't do that, any more than they could go. I couldn't leave this ship. Or, to the point, I couldn't leave you. That would have been cutting out a bigger part of myself than I lost when I lost the connection to them." She understood the feeling all too well. It was how she felt about him, and every single person on the ship. That conflict--she couldn't afford to let herself connect for fear of losing the connection and becoming incomplete. Yet she was incomplete without it as well. "I saw myself in my vision," she whispered to him. "The me from the other Voyager, from the accident that duplicated the ship." "That is interesting. Two of you. Did she make you feel split apart?" "No." She smiled. "She made me feel whole. She was--happy. At ease with herself. And she kept trying to tell me that I'm complete, I have the answers within me. But I can't find them myself." "What did she think you should do about that?" "She thought I should ask you." Chakotay blinked in surprise. "What do you think I should do?" He looked torn--wavering between what he wanted and what he thought was right, not certain whether there was a difference. "I think I might have to consult with *my* animal guide before I answer that one," he said ruefully, and she laughed. "Can I ask you something else?" "Go ahead." "Are all the things we see in trances symbolic of something, or just random archetypes?" "I'm not sure what you mean." He lifted his mug to his mouth as he waited for her to explain. "Does it mean anything if you see yourself naked in a vision?" She heard him try to choke back his drink before spluttering it all over the table, watched his hand quaver as he set the mug down, sloshing tea everywhere. "I, uh...I'm sorry," he was laughing helplessly. "Um, my tradition is based on the balance of the elements and the power of nature. I would say that if you were naked in your vision...that is, in general, nudity in a trance might have something to do with not hiding from oneself. I guess it could be an indication that the seeker needs closer contact with noncorporeal things instead of material ones. Spiritual instead of physical matter." "She looked pretty physical to me." Her tone was nonchalant, though she felt her face turning scarlet. But Chakotay didn't notice; he had buried his head in both hands and was practically howling. "Stop. Now *I'm* going to have visions of this for months. I think next time you enter a trance, you definitely need to take me with you. Please." They were both chuckling, avoiding one another's eyes, but it was comfortable embarrassment. He straightened slightly beside her, glanced at her as if he needed to make sure they could stop grinning before he spoke again. "OK. Seriously? Maybe it means that you need more direct interaction with your own feelings. Or your animal guide." "I asked my animal guide about it. He laughed at me." "Not really?" "He certainly did." Chakotay grinned again, then shook his head slightly. "Kathryn...this isn't something you're going to solve in one night. I still have nightmares about things which happened to me in the Maquis four years ago. But I know what I think you should do." "What's that?" "Stop trying to work all this out yourself. Tonight, well, you're probably tired from that vision, but right now I think you should go to the holodeck. Even if they're running that awful beach resort, just long enough to say hello. It's different than participating in talent night or tennis matches if you just drop by to be friendly. Just to make contact." She nodded. "And you think that will chase my nightmares away?" His grin was unrestrained. "If not, I could try a purification ritual to chase them out of your bed. I might have to stay all night, though..." They were laughing as she swatted at him and he hauled her to her feet so they could head together for the door. The End VOYAGER FAN CLUBS NOW VOYAGER Official Kate Mulgrew Fan Club P.O. Box 34745 Bethesda, MD 20827-4745 tigger@cais.cais.com THE COMMANDER Official Robert Beltran Fan Club 330 Greenwich Street Reading, PA 19601-2821 B3 PRIME Official Roxann Dawson Fan Club 1630 Ft. Campbell Blvd., Suite 143 Clarksville, TN 37042 blilsism@aol.com RANDOM FLIGHT Official Robert Duncan McNeill Fan Club 850 Mellowood Avenue Orlando, FL 32825-8085 ricknpam@iag.net EPIC Official Ethan Phillips Fan Club P.O. Box 4818 Waterbury, CT 06704 randeg@aol.com CARPE Official Robert Picardo Fan Club Box 373, 1277 Linda Mar Shopping Center Pacifica, CA 94044 traceldel1@aol.com VULCAN INSIDERS Official Tim Russ Fan Club P.O. Box 8248 Long Beach, CA 90808 CERES Official Garrett Wang Fan Club P.O. Box 13767 Sacramento, CA 95853-3767 SESKA'S SCANDAL SHEET Official Martha Hackett Fan Club 3699 Barnard Drive #517 Oceanside, CA 92056 southpawdj@aol.com DEEP SPACE NINE FAN CLUBS EMISSARY Official Avery Brooks Fan Club P.O. Box 621719 Oviedo, FL 32762-1719 emisary1@aol.com ORACLE Official Rene Auberjonois Fan Club 2604B El Camino Real #377 Carlsbad, CA 92008 SYMBIOTICS Terry Farrell Fan Club 194F Craig Henry Drive Nepean, ON K2G 4M7 Canada cg573@freenet.carleton.ca OASIS Official Armin Shimerman Fan Club 26 Dogwood Street Jersey City, NJ 07305 kathybayne@aol.com THE DOCTOR'S EXCHANGE Official Alexander Siddig Fan Club P. O. Box 1363 Minnetonka, MN 55345-0363 verba001@maroon.tc.umn.edu THE TEMPORAL MECHANIC Colm Meaney Fan Club P.O. Box 5282 Elm Grove, WI 53112-5282 NANITES Official Nana Visitor Fan Club 8824 Cross Country Place Gaithersburg, MD 20879 nananut@aol.com D'ABO! Official Chase Masterson Fan Club 2029 Verdugo Blvd. Box 150 Montrose, CA 91020 daboleeta@aol.com OTHER FAN CLUBS THE PATRICK STEWART NETWORK Official Patrick Stewart Fan Club P.O. Box 4990 Riverside, CA 92514 GRMC Official Gene Roddenberry Memorial Club P.O. Box 3177 Greensburg, PA 15601 TO CONTACT TREK TALENT PARAMOUNT PICTURES [TNG/DS9/VOY Actor, Producer] Star Trek: TNG/DS9/VOY 5555 Melrose Avenue Los Angeles, CA 90038 LINCOLN ENTERPRISES [Classic Trek Actor, Producer] 14710 Arminto Street Van Nuys, CA 91402 ___________ FIRST CLASS NOW VOYAGER P.O. BOX 34745 BETHESDA, MARYLAND 20827-4745