“Initiations”
Written by Kenneth Biller
Directed by Winrich Kolbe
Season 2, Episode 2
Production episode 121
Original air date: September 4, 1995
Stardate: 49005.3
Captain’s log. Chakotay is in a shuttle, isolated from Voyager, performing a ritual to honor his dead father, Kolopak. It’s interrupted by phaser fire: a small one-person Kazon-Ogla ship. The one person on board is a teenager, Kar, who has been given the assignment to kill Chakotay by First Maje Razik in order to earn his name and become a full Ogla.
Chakotay tries not to fire back, but eventually Kar gives him no choice, and he does some nifty flying before taking out the Kazon ship’s engines. When Kar stops responding to hails after that, Chakotay beams him to the shuttle, where it turns out he’s unconscious. The Kazon ship blows up a minute later.
Unfortunately, the shuttle is also damaged, with long-range sensors and communications out.
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Voyager is checking out a planet for reasons the script never bothers to explain. When Chakotay fails to make his rendezvous or answer hails, Janeway summons all away teams back and sets course for Chakotay’s last known position.
Chakotay tries to give Kar back to the Kazon, and they take the shuttle into a tractor beam for good measure. They’re imprisoned in a room full of trophies of past kills by the Ogla, and Kar is beside himself, as he’s failed.
Razik arrives, and says he forgives Kar—which makes him feel even worse—and explains to Chakotay that he invaded their space. Chakotay had no idea he had invaded, as they have no maps that demarcate Kazon territory. Razik explains that their territory is ever-changing and isn’t recorded on maps. He also explains the Kazon distrust of uniforms, which explains their unfortunate choices in wardrobe…
Voyager finds the debris of Kar’s ship and an ion trail, which they follow.
Razik shows Chakotay to some Ogla kids, who all gleefully say they’d love to kill Chakotay. For his part, Chakotay says he holds them no ill will, which just confuses them. Razik then gives Chakotay a weapon and says if he kills Kar, he can go free. Chakotay drops the weapon and then is able to take Razik hostage, thus proving that Razik never read the Evil Overlord Rules. To everyone’s surprise, Kar goes with him, showing him how to escape.
The shuttle immediately comes under fire after Chakotay and Kar escape, and Kar leads them to Tarok, a moon on which the Ogla do training exercises. Chakotay manages to beam them to the surface just before the shuttle explodes.
Kar helps them avoid the various traps and things and they hide out in a cave. While Chakotay (seemingly) sleeps, Kar considers taking his tricorder, set up as both a beacon for Voyager and a sentry system, and killing him, but decides against it. The next morning, Chakotay reveals he was awake the whole time, as Kar keeps talking about killing him despite Chakotay constantly saving his life.
Voyager arrives at Tarok. Janeway, Tuvok, and a security detail beam down. The Ogla are not thrilled with Voyager‘s presence, with Razik insisting he killed Chakotay, but the crew not buying it. Razik then decides to beam down and pretend to cooperate with the away team, eventually leading them into a trap.
Razik finds the cave and then Kar holds a weapon on Chakotay, saying this was all a way for him to finally kill Chakotay. But Kar also remembers what Razik taught him: that there are no second chances in battle.
So instead, he kills Razik, and then offers his life to the new first maje, Haliz. Haliz calls him Jal Karden of the Ogla, so he now has an Ogla name. Karden lets Chakotay go—at this point the away team has gotten out of the trap, so to do otherwise would mean a firefight between the Kazon and Starfleet, which would probably end badly for the Kazon—and assures him that, if they meet again, Karden won’t hesitate to kill him.
Back on Voyager, Chakotay finishes the ritual for his father that was interrupted and also asks his father’s spirit to watch over Karden.
There’s coffee in that nebula! Razik plays on Janeway’s desire for cooperation by pretending to cooperate, which Janeway goes along with and gets herself trapped in a force field for her troubles.
Half and half. When a sample of the debris of Chakotay’s shuttle is beamed aboard, Torres instantly recognizes the remnants of Chakotay’s medicine bundle, therefore confirming that the debris is, in fact, the shuttle in question.
Please state the nature of the medical emergency. The debris from Chakotay’s shuttle is sent to sickbay so the EMH can examine it for biological residue. There is none, which relieves everyone, and the EMH then crankily asks if all the junk can be removed from his lab.
Everyone comes to Neelix’s. Neelix complains to Janeway that he’s not doing enough, but as usual, it’s just a front for him to whine about something, in this case that he wasn’t included in a holodeck training exercise. He also is on the bridge when Voyager confronts the Kazon and gives good advice and makes smart deductions based on their behavior, including that the Ogla don’t want anyone else to know about their sooper-seekrit training moon.
Do it.
“What’s so different about us? Aside from the fact that I keep saving your life and you keep threatening to kill me…”
–Chakotay summing up the episode’s theme.
Welcome aboard. The late great Aron Eisenberg wanders over from DS9 to take a break from playing Nog by playing Kar, while Trek regulars Tim deZarn and Patrick Kilpatrick play, respectively, Haliz and Razik. Kilpatrick will return in “Drive” as Assan and also on DS9’s “The Siege of AR-558” as Reese, while deZarn, having previously played Satler on TNG’s “Starship Mine,” will return in “Repentance” as Yediq and DS9’s “Wrongs Darker than Death or Night” as Halb.
Trivial matters: This was the first episode produced for the second season, and also aired second. It was designed to address how little Chakotay was used in the first season. Aron Eisenberg was cast as Kar because every teenage boy they auditioned couldn’t bring enough gravitas to the proceedings, so Rick Berman suggested the then-twenty-six-year-old Eisenberg, whose growth was stunted by a kidney transplant when he was as teenager, and so could pass as a boy while still giving the role the weight required.
We learn that Chakotay’s now-deceased father was named Kolopak. We will see Kolopak, played by Henry Darrow, twice this season, once in flashback (“Tattoo”) and once in a vision quest (“Basics, Part 1”).
The ritual Chakotay performs is not based on any known Indigenous custom or ritual, and was likely the latest bit of bullshit from fake Native consultant “Jamake Highwater,” a.k.a. Jackie Marks.
For all that it would become a cliché and running joke about the series, this is actually the first time a Voyager shuttlecraft is destroyed.
This is the first time we’ve seen the Kazon-Ogla since “Caretaker,” and apparently Jabin isn’t the first maje anymore. We’ve also seen the Kazon-Nistrim in “State of Flux,” and this episode establishes a third sect, the Kazon-Relora, which will be seen in “Maneuvers” later this season, as well as in the Star Trek Online game.
It’s established that the Kazon were enslaved by the Trabe in the past. We’ll meet the Trabe later this season in “Alliances.”
After the cancellation of Legend by UPN (a wonderful show starring Richard Dean Anderson, in a role between his better-known roles as Angus MacGyver and Jack O’Neil, and John deLancie as thinly disguised versions of Mark Twain and Nikola Tesla working in the old West), Michael Piller became more involved in the day-to-day of Voyager in its second season, and one of his first notes on this episode was to tell writer Kenneth Biller to study up on street gangs, by way of differentiating the Kazon from other antagonistic Trek cultures. Biller wound up writing an entire document about Kazon culture based on his research, which was used by the writing staff for the various Kazon tales written in season two.
Set a course for home. “I am not your ‘son,’ Federation, I am your executioner!” This episode is a big ol’ pile of clichés, with every beat utterly and thoroughly predictable.
And I love it anyhow.
The main reason why is also the reason why this episode was particularly difficult to watch: Aron Eisenberg, who died last fall, and who was also a friend of your humble rewatcher.
And Eisenberg hits it out of the park here. He beautifully conveys the character’s adolescent turbulence, trying to balance the needs of his people with the fact that he very obviously doesn’t actually want to die, nor does he really want to kill Chakotay. But he’s trapped by the cultural mores of the Kazon. If he doesn’t kill Chakotay, his own sect will kill him. No other Kazon sect will take him in, and no one else in the Delta Quadrant will take in a Kazon.
We get a bit of Kazon history here to go with the cultural mores—which really are akin to that of street gangs, with initiation rituals and early indoctrination of youth—and their past enslavement by the Trabe has left them with a cultural distrust of uniforms and military order and such. So the option of coming on board Voyager is also rejected by Kar, because he finds the very idea of being on a Starfleet vessel repugnant.
The episode does lose a few points for some issues, starting with having apparently forgotten that Chakotay used to be Maquis. He talks about how much he values his Starfleet uniform, but he already rejected the uniform once, and only put it back on out of necessity to get home from unimaginably far away. He also says that an important lesson of his life was that people can’t own land—but the entire conflict of the Maquis was over the ownership of land! So what the hell?
Having said that, I did like that Chakotay was able to do some fancy-pants maneuvering with the shuttle that was likely from his time flying Maquis raiders around the Demilitarized Zone. Chakotay was set up in “Caretaker” as a bad-ass pilot, and we’ve really only seen him flex those muscles once before since then (in “Ex Post Facto“).
Ultimately, the episode is worth it to watch Eisenberg, who is brilliant as Kar. He’d already proved he could portray the agonies of growing up in a difficult society over many years on DS9, and here he manages it over the space of one episode. A brilliant performance, and it’s to Robert Beltran’s credit that he holds his own with him here.
Warp factor rating: 7
Keith R.A. DeCandido will be contributing to three Crazy 8 Press anthologies later this year: Bad Ass Moms, edited by Mary Fan, a collection of short stories about mothers you don’t mess with; ZLONK! ZOK! ZOWIE! The Subterranean Blue Grotto Guide to Batman ’66—Season One, edited by Jim Beard, with Rich Handley, a collection of essays about the first season of the Adam West TV series; and the third volume of the shared-world anthology series Pangaea, edited by Michael Jan Friedman, a collection of stories about an alternate Earth where there was only ever one continent.
What the heck is wrong with the holodeck for the ritual? That should be secluded enough for anybody. Or for that matter Chakotay’s own cabin.
So Kazon are terminal fashion victims because they were once slaves?
Aside from Eisenberg, the most memorable feature of this episode is that it did location shooting at Vasquez Rocks, the perennial Trek location. Otherwise, it doesn’t stand out for me much.
I don’t think the Maquis’s cause was about owning land, it was about having the right to decide for themselves where they lived rather than having outsiders decide it for them. There’s a difference.
Ahh, Legend. A fantastic show that was killed in the crib because UPN failed to promote it. I mean, how the heck does “Mark Twain and Nikola Tesla fight crime with steampunk” not become an instant hit? What UPN should’ve done was air it back-to-back with Voyager and promote it as being from one of the same creators. By the time they finally did start to do that, they’d already decided to cancel it. It was at this point that I concluded UPN had finally arrived as a proper TV network, because it was making the same boneheaded mistakes as every other network.
I found my interest wandering during this episode. Just not a Chakotay fan.
I understand why they decided to cast Eisenberg, but it’s still too much. That’s Nog. I kept waiting for there to be some weird tie-in of the two series.
As for Chakotay, my favorite moment of his so far of the series is in an earlier episode when he socked one his former Maquis crewmates in the mouth to remind him how they do things the Maquis way. We saw a far too little of that for the character, in my opinion. This episode is lukewarm for me. Nothing particularly grating, but not all that compelling either
So if this episode was the first one produced for the second season was it also the originally intended as the season premiere? Seems kind of lightweight and “The 37’s” ultimately makes a better season premiere, at least hypothetically due to its theme and guest casting.
”Initiations” seems very unmemorable aside from Aron Eisenberg’s performance which was good. Speaking of which, Aron seems like a very amiable guy, just based on what I’ve heard and watching interviews and recent podcasts of his where he was doing his own DS9 rewatch (along with Cirroc Lofton) and also covering the developments on Star Trek: Picard which hadn’t yet premiered and of the upcoming Star Trek: Discovery season. Gone too soon. RIP.
And correct me if I’m mistaken, but I thought the Kazon didn’t have transporter technology and only got around by their ships and shuttlecraft? Or is it just replicator technology they don’t have (and this Seska was trying to assist the Nistrim sect with that technology)?
I’ll always remember this episode as the one where Dennis McCarthy went full James Horner.and openly recycled distinct music beats from his other Trek work. In this case, a lot of the shuttle chase sequence incorporates DS9 battle music he composed for The Die is Cast and The Way of the Warrior (which are also partly informed by his work on ST Generations). And the music cues still work, for the most part.
Initiations works mainly because of Eisenberg. I wasn’t the biggest Nog fan back in DS9 season 1, but he grew on me thanks in no small part to Eisenberg’s commitment. He brings that A game to the character of Kar. Probably the only Kazon I’ve ever cared for during the show’s run.
The idea that the Kazon are former slaves is a sound one as well, but it’s never given the proper followthrough over the show’s run (the less said about Alliances, which we’ll be covering later on, the better).
Ultimately they try too hard to turn the Kazon into token villains, when in reality they would have worked much better the way we see Kar here. As broken people, with no home, no hope of becoming more than they are or overcoming their past. But the way they are depicted, as plain territorial bad guys, it doesn’t really feel Trekkian. In fact, the street gangs analogy feels more uncomfortable than not, because – aside from this particular episode – the Kazon never get fleshed out beyond stereotype. It’s not unlike the botching of Chakotay’s own Native American heritage. That’s the Kazon problem. Too much effort went into depicting them as token antagonist, but not nearly enough work went into developing them as a society.
@@.-@: While it’s obviously the same actor (Eisenberg), the makeup and the considerable difference in characterization never had me once confuse Kar with Nog.
I’m actually glad Aron got to stray across the alley to the production stages of Voyager so he could do something different, and it’s obviously been very customary for Star Trek regulars to appear as different characters across the various series à la Marc Alaimo and Vaughn Armstrong to name a couple of prime examples.
@5/GarretH: I expect that by the time they wrote “Initiations,” they already knew that four season 1 episodes were being held back, so that it probably wouldn’t be aired first.
Still, a number of prior Trek season premieres had been fairly routine episodes — TOS’s later seasons had “Amok Time” and “Spock’s Brain” in airdate order (since the network liked to lead with Spock episodes), “Catspaw” and “Spectre of the Gun” in production order; while TNG began its second season with “The Child” and its third with “Evolution.” (After that, it started doing yearly cliffhangers.) In an episodic series, there’s no particular reason for a season premiere to be any different from any other episode, especially in shows like TOS and VGR where the episodes were consciously designed to be able to run in an arbitrary order at the network’s discretion.
8/Christopher: Evolution was produced after The Ensigns of Command, but it works as a premiere because it addresses Beverly’s return to the Enterprise more directly.
@9/Eduardo: Yes, I know, but according to the TNG Companion, the decision to air “Evolution” as the premiere was made before it was filmed, which is why the script was revised to focus on Beverly’s return. I can only speculate as to why they decided to air it first, but I’d guess that maybe they figured it was more of an ensemble piece than “Ensigns” and thus worked better as a premiere, plus as a Wesley-centric episode it was a good opportunity to re-establish Beverly.
@8/CLB – I understand what you’re saying about the dictates of networks and studios that these Trek episodes be able to run in arbitrary order, and that “The Child” and “Evolution” to cite the same particular episodes you have, are “fairly routine”, but using those same examples, I would beg to differ that they were completely “routine”. That opening first minute of “The Child” with the beauty shot of the Enterprise passing across the screen in tandem with an Excelsior class vessel, the glorious fanfare, and then the sweeping crane shot on the bridge all felt like a grandiose reintroduction of the series for a new season. We got lip service to Geordi’s upgrade in position, backstory to Dr. Crusher’s disappearance, introductions to the characters of Dr. Pulaski and Guinan, and a good ‘ol ship in peril storyline. So it did feel important and right as the series premiere instead of a more arbitrary episode.
Likewise, for “Evolution”, it makes more sense as a premiere because the ship is again at risk, introduces a new mysterious life form, and pays lip service to Dr. Crusher’s return.
So my point being that a series premiere doesn’t need to be a big event episode or the resolution to a cliffhanger to get slotted in as the first episode of the season, and so feel less arbitrary as to being able to be aired out of order.
@11/GarretH: Sure, there were details that were in keeping with being series premieres, but the point is that the stories weren’t anything particularly major or unusual.
And again, when they wrote “Initiations,” they probably already knew it wouldn’t be the first episode aired, because of the four held back from season 1.
“Initiations” was not written as the season premiere because “The 37s” already had that slot by the time they started writing the scripts for season two.
—Keith R.A. DeCandido
“The episode does lose a few points for some issues, starting with having apparently forgotten that Chakotay used to be Maquis. “
I respect the point that Chakotay wasn’t used enough in season 1 but, in retrospect, they really should have used Chakotay in Emanations and Kim here. Chakotay is a much better foil for the themes of death/spirituality, where Harry Kim didn’t have much to say, and Kim is much more plausible as being so unreservedly pro-Starfleet and determined to show Federation values to hostile aliens.
Neither Chakotay nor the Kazon seem to consider the implications of a Kazon sect capturing a Starfleet shuttle. Had they simply killed him, retreated so Voyager couldn’t easily find them, and went to work on reverse engineering the Starfleet tech, they could have severely altered the balance of power in their favor. We know the transporter has a shuttle, which they don’t have (Quoth Kar: “He pulled me out with that transporter we’ve heard about.”), and probably a replicator too. Talk about a wasted opportunity!
The enslavement of the Kazon by the Trabe is one of the few interesting things about Voyager‘s first recurring foes. It adds a much-needed second dimension to them. And like so many things on this show, it could have been developed more.
To be contrary (not like me, I know…), I consider this one the second season premiere: That was how it was aired and released on home media in the UK, and while I accept what’s been said about the production staff knowing the Season One episodes were being held over, I suspect they may also have been aware that it would have to function as the season premiere in other markets. There are a few nods towards this: The Kazon get wheeled out to give the season a big start, and the early ready room scene where Neelix addresses Janeway as “sir…ma’am…Captain!” serves no purpose other than to remind people who haven’t seen the show for a few months that’s what she prefers to be called. On the other hand…this was the first episode of Voyager I saw, and I had no idea they were meant to be stranded thousands of light years from Federation space until I saw “Caretaker” that afternoon. (There’s a couple of oblique references to being far from home, but not in a way that suggests they aren’t just a few months’ travel away at most.) And it’s a bit odd to open the season with the Doctor only getting a cameo on a vid-screen.
The main thrust of the episode is Chakotay experiencing a culture clash with the Kazon equivalent of Hugh Borg. Robert Beltran and Aron Eisenberg do a good job of portraying the complex relationship between the two characters. Chakotay starts off trying to do things the Federation way: He destroys a Kazon ship in self-defence but isn’t willing to kill the pilot unnecessarily (especially not when it’s a teenage boy). He tries to deal with the Kazon in a friendly manner and falls flat every time. Eventually he manages to get Kar to see him as an ally, and struggles to find a way to give Kar what he wants on the Kazon’s terms…and in the end, it’s Kar who comes up with a way to honour both the ways of his people and his alliance with Chakotay. Their friendship ended, Chakotay can only wish Kar well in his own way.
Paris gets left in command of the ship for the first time, although he doesn’t get to sit in the big chair. (Curiously, despite not saying a word, he’s sat at the head of the table during the briefing room scene while Janeway’s left standing up.) He’s also still calling Torres by her first name even with her Klingon DNA restored. (She doesn’t call him anything.) Neelix gets to face down a Kazon maje, although he doesn’t get much congratulation for it. One of the few times we see Kes carrying a phaser, although she doesn’t fire it on screen. (I think the only time she does so is when possessed in “Warlord”.) First references to the Kazon revolting against the Trabe, who we meet in “Alliances”. This is the last time we get a full appearance of the Kazon without Seska, by the way. As has been mentioned, Chakotay gushing about how proud he is of his Federation uniform when he resigned in protest at their policies is a bit odd.
As has also been mentioned, given that this is the same sect we saw in “Caretaker”, it raises the question of what happened to Jabin from that episode. Is Razik his replacement and something’s happened to him in the interim, or do they both hold their leadership positions simultaneously? (It may or may not be significant that I believe Jabin was referred to as “maje” not “first maje”.)
@5: No, you’re right, they don’t have transporter technology. Although it’s not entirely clear, Razik’s ship seems to have landed on the surface.
@16/cap-mjb: “He’s also still calling Torres by her first name even with her Klingon DNA restored.”
Why wouldn’t he? In “Faces,” both halves of B’Elanna were addressed as B’Elanna in dialogue; it’s just in Keith’s review and Chakoteya’s online transcript that they’re differentiated as Klingon “B’Elanna” and human “Torres.” (Which is the reverse of what you’re suggesting here anyway.)
Indeed, overall, Voyager‘s crew were on more of a first-name basis than either Enterprise crew, at least when addressing those of equal or subordinate rank.
Wow, were you friends with Aron Eisenberg before or after DS9?
@17: You’re missing my point. I observed in “Faces” that they were suddenly on first name terms despite having very little interaction up to that point (and as Keith commented in his review, what they had had was mostly caustic). In that episode, he was mostly involved with the human B’Elanna, so you could interpret it as him being closer to that side of her personality. I was merely pointing out that he’s still calling her by her first name now she’s back to normal, not suggesting it was some sort of error at all, even though there’s been very little on screen development of a friendship.
As an aside, I think the sudden informality was at least as pronounced on TNG as it was on Voyager. Three episodes in and Data and Geordi seemed almost ridiculously chummy for people who’d only just met and were two grades apart in rank at that point.
This isn’t showing up on the series index, by the way.
erikm: after. We met at a convention in Indianapolis in 2001, got along like a house on fire and stayed in touch. We actually pitched a collaborative Nog-focused novel to Simon & Schuster, but it never went anywhere.
—Keith R.A. DeCandido
@19/cap-mjb: I didn’t think you were saying it was an error; I just didn’t think there was anything unusual about B’Elanna being addressed by her first name by other characters. Although I searched the transcripts, and apparently it was less common in season 1 than I thought; it was only done by Janeway and the Maquis characters up until “Twisted” (going by production order), which has both Harry and Neelix calling her B’Elanna too. But if she let Neelix use her first name, she probably wouldn’t have objected to Paris using it either.
@22/CLB: Okay, fair enough. I thought that you thought that I was saying that “B’Elanna” only referred to one half of her split personality. I haven’t rewatched “Twisted” yet since I knew Keith was skipping ahead, so I’ll be keeping an eye on that one: I do seem to recall Paris and Torres have a bit of interaction there, unless I’m getting confused!
@20: Should be showing up now!
Oh, this episode was worth it for all the Beltran/Eisenberg interaction. I cannot emphasize enough how much I disliked later Flat Affect Chakotay, I kind of wish they DID fire him if that’s what he was really trying to do there (of course that could just be a rumor, but it’s a pretty well circulated one), but when he’s motivated, he’s awesome.
Also … more Jamake Highwater crap. I described Chakotay once as a Pueblo/Algonquin/Iroquois/Fake-Space-Bulls–t Native American once, and it really does fit here. I love the fact that I am more Native American than the guy they used to explain the mystical aspects of Chakotay, and I’m something like 1/128th on my mom’s side.
I do think that Kazon would have benefitted from more emphasis being placed on the idea that they are – effectively – the local analogue of Cossacks or the Maroons of Jamaica; runaways, slave rebels and anti-authority types who have successfully built up their own society after breaking their chains, but very often make their living by preying on their neighbours in a fashion distinct from their former masters but to a degree that inflicts almost equal suffering on the defenceless.
It’s interesting to speculate on whether it would have been a more interesting plot point to show them becoming the horsemen of oppression (like the Cossacks under the Czar) or once again becoming the victims, despite their own formidable ferocity, as the peoples of the Delta Quadrant become more organised and start cracking down on the disorganised crime represented by the Kazon.
I actually skipped over this episode when I was doing my own rewatch awhile back, not because I had any particular dislike of it specifically, but because by that point I was already kind of done with the Kazon. Maybe I should go back and give it a look.
@27 I was tempted to skip until Aron Eisenberg showed up. It’s worth the time for his acting.
denise_l: Amusing that you were done with the Kazon at this point given that they’d only actually appeared twice prior to this………….
—Keith R.A. DeCandido
@25: I was going to comment on Beltran’s acting on a particular episode that’s coming up very soon, and still will, but in his defense, according to Garrett Wang anyway, Rick Berman instructed all of the actors playing human characters to play their roles as emotionless as possible to make the alien characters seem even more alien. So his performances can possibly be attributed to that as well as generally just being given weak material to play. After all, the writers would rather write for Seven or The Doctor or Janeway.
@24: It is, thanks!
That’s the stupidest behind-the-scenes thing I’ve heard from Star Trek, and it had strong competition.
@32: Yes, and I kid you not! I found the article where I had originally read that nugget that Garrett Wang revealed during a candid interview:
https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.startrek.com/article/straight-talk-with-voyagerundefineds-garrett-wang-part-i%3famp
That’s a great interview, especially the part where Garrett asks Kate Mulgrew for a promotion, as if she’s actually his commanding officer.
@32 – That’s disappointing. So far I’ve seen a few scenes where Mulgrew appeared to master her emotions and avoid breaking down. I thought it was superb acting (it was) but perhaps that was the most they would let her show.
@35: I agree that Mulgrew is a superb actress but also that she got to display a range of emotions over the seasons: when saying goodbye to Kes in “The Gift” in the 4th season she was naturally, very emotional, like the actresses were saying goodbye to each other as well; and she did tough/cold/obsessed all quite well in the “Equinox” 2-parter, to name a few examples.
Just wanted to say thanks to Keith (and all the commentators!) for keeping these posts going. It’s wonderful to have these to look forward to given everything that’s going on right now. And Keith I hope you and your family are keeping safe in New York.
“It was designed to address how little Chakotay was used in the first season.”
This will be one of the most disappointing lines of the entire rewatch. By season 6 it gets easy to forget that there is even a first officer aboard the ship.
JMoNO: Wrenn and I are fine at present, staying indoors as much as possible. We’ve got plenty of food and supplies.
—Keith R.A. DeCandido
That’s good to hear, Keith! I will echo @37’s sentiments around this rewatch during these crazy times. I am particularly looking forward to tomorrow’s review as I think it’s one of the better Trek episodes out there.
@29 Yeah, I don’t know why I found them so annoying this time around! They never really bothered me before. I know I did some skipping around during that re-watch, so maybe I’d already seen a few later episodes involving the Kazon and got burnt out early? It got to the point that if I saw a Kazon in the teaser still, I’d be like, “Ugh, THESE guys again,” and skip the episode, lol.
This was a nice episode, mostly because of Eisenberg. It would have been nice (but impossible) if Kar joined Voyager. Of course, they should have remembered Chakotay being a Maquis, but one correction, krad: the Maquis conflict was not about owning land, but the right to inhabit said land and decide where they want to live. It’s an important distinction.
@1 – Chris: You nailed it, RE: the maquis.
@26 – ED: Good idea.
@29 – krad: That’s how awful they are.
@37 – JMoNO: Same to you, I hope everybody else around here is safe.
Just getting around to watching the Voyager series. Last year I watched all of DS9 for the first time, which introduced me to Aaron / Nog. You can definitely tell he was able to bring his grounding and character confidence from that series into this episode and really helped carry what was otherwise somewhat of a drag plot. It was good to learn more about the Kazon gangs but so far they seem like a rather bland version of Klingons.
On a side note, thank you, Krag/Keith, for doing these reviews. I started the TNG series back in 2018 and somehow came across your rewatch reviews and have more or less read them after every episode for each of the series. They help fill in a lot of what would otherwise go unnoticed and the insider facts are always welcomed.
GJM: Thanks so much! Glad you’re enjoying the rewatch entries.
—Keith R.A. DeCandido
The late great Aron Eisenberg, what to say about him. He was awesome in this episode and awesome in DS9. I don’t think there was any character in the history of Star Trek that grew as much as Nog; and Eisenberg had him down to a science. His greatest performance was hands down “It’s Only a Paper Moon”. One of the best and tear inducing episodes in all of Trek in my opinion.
I really liked Chakotay in this episode, although I definitely think he was slightly out of character in some scenes. The talk of the importance of his uniform and being a gentle man were at odds with his history as a Maquis. Although I think there can be some ambiguity in that he only joined the Maquis to take his father’s place after his father had been killed as a way to honor his memory. And certainly one’s nature as a gentle person can be compromised in terrible circumstances such as having to go to war. While I still do think his character was off, I don’t think it was so far off to be inexplicable.
Do you ever think it was embarrassing for Robert Beltran that he had no idea a lot of Chakotay’s beliefs and rituals were built on lies? In Tattoo, Chakotay admits he doesn’t know the ancient language of his people and that could be true of Beltran himself – he knew so little about his own heritage.
This is definitely one of the better Kazon episodes mainly because I think it has a better collection of actors than Anthony De Longis or John Gegenhuber. And you can’t really go wrong with Aron Eisenberg and Patrick Kilpatrick (who will be reunited in The Siege of AR-558).
I think B’Elanna ID’d Chakotay’s shuttle from the wreckage itself Krad, and not from Chakotay’s medicine bundle.
Loved to see Aron again and I’m a big fan of Chakotay.
This is the only episode where the concept of Kazon as space gang-bangers really worked for me. The rest of the time, they tended to come across as dim-witted, one-dimensional bullies.