st voyager deadlock

Deadlock (episode)

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While trying to avoid Vidiian territory, Voyager is nearly destroyed by proton bursts coming from an unknown source.

• 1.2 Act One
• 1.3 Act Two
• 1.4 Act Three
• 1.5 Act Four
• 1.6 Act Five
• 2 Memorable quotes
• 3.1 Story and script
• 3.2 Cast and characters
• 3.3 Production
• 3.4 Effects
• 3.5.1 Story arcs
• 3.5.2 Self-destruct sequence
• 3.6 Reception
• 3.7 Apocrypha
• 3.8 Video and DVD releases
• 4.1 Starring
• 4.2 Also starring
• 4.3 Guest Stars
• 4.4 Co-Stars
• 4.5 Uncredited Co-Stars
• 4.6 Stunt Double
• 4.7 References
• 4.8 External links

Summary [ ]

Neelix asks Ensign Samantha Wildman to help him in the mess hall . A heating element in his kitchen is malfunctioning, and it won't be long before there won't be any way to cook for the USS Voyager crew. Since Neelix has her there, he also asks her to help fix one of the food replicators . While investigating the problem, Wildman goes into labor. Neelix is excited for her and escorts her to sickbay . Seven hours later, The Doctor announces Wildman will soon deliver her baby . The bridge crew waits in anticipation. Lieutenant Tom Paris can't believe how long it takes; he figures she would have had the baby by now. Captain Kathryn Janeway reassures the lieutenant that childbirth takes as long as it takes. Lt. Tuvok adds that the birth of his third child took 96 hours.

The light conversation is interrupted when Tuvok detects Vidiian subspace communications ahead and a G-type star system containing two inhabited planets, all Vidiians. Janeway doesn't want her or her crew to be unwilling organ donors, so she orders Paris to find a way to avoid detection. Paris suggests traveling through a large plasma drift , which spans almost halfway across the sector, and the crew head in knowing the interference caused by the plasma drift is their best chance to escape the Vidiians.

Back in sickbay, Wildman is beginning to push but suddenly screams in pain as the baby turns awkwardly and lodges its exo-cranial ridge into Wildman's uterine wall. The baby can't be moved for risk of causing nerve damage, but if it isn't delivered soon then the ridges could cause internal bleeding. The Doctor decides to perform a fetal transport and beam the baby out.

Voyager successfully leaves the Vidiian system without being detected, and Janeway orders Paris to leave the plasma drift and resume their previous heading.

In sickbay, The Doctor performs the fetal transport and delivers the baby, a girl. The Doctor notes that the transport caused a small complication that can be fixed with osmotic pressure therapy . Otherwise, she's perfectly healthy.

Just then, the ship hits severe subspace turbulence. The warp engines stall and power failures occur all over the ship. Janeway calls for red alert , and asks Lt. Torres what's happening. It turns out the ship's antimatter is being drained, but Torres can't find any reason why it would be as all the containment fields are in place. Janeway orders Torres to start a series of proton bursts that will keep the antimatter reaction going. Torres prepares to start the procedure, but suddenly a proton burst hits the ship without warning seemingly out of nowhere. Voyager is heavily damaged and people are hurt all over the ship. What's worse, the incubator for Wildman's baby is losing power due to the energy drain. The Doctor asks Kes to switch to an emergency incubator while several injured crew members pile into sickbay.

Act One [ ]

In sickbay, The Doctor attempts to deal with the wounded crewmembers while Kes tries to use osmotic pressure to stabilize the baby's cells, but it is having no effect. Suddenly, another proton burst damages sickbay, and The Doctor tells Kes to increase the pressure. The Doctor is informed that there are more injured crewmembers on the way.

From the massively-damaged main engineering , Torres tells Janeway that the ship is being hit by proton bursts, but she didn't start the proton burst procedure. Ensign Kim confirms that no bursts were fired, and the sensor array which would have emitted them is off-line. Another burst hits, causing a hull breach on deck 15, section 29 alpha and the emergency force fields are off-line. Ensign Kim tells Captain Janeway that he has been working on a portable force field generator which could seal the breach, and Janeway sends him to try it.

Back in sickbay, The Doctor treats an injured Neelix while Kes is struggling with the baby, whose condition starts to deteriorate due to the cell imbalance. The Doctor prepares to help, but suddenly another burst hits, causing damage to The Doctor's program, almost knocking him off-line.

Torres and Kim reach the breach on Deck 15 Section 29. Assisting them is Lt. Hogan , and Torres and Kim go off to the breach while Hogan tries to re-route the power to them.

Tuvok has fully analyzed the proton bursts and still has no idea where they're coming from, but by now Janeway is more concerned with stopping them. She tells Commander Chakotay to magnetize the hull to minimize the effects of the bursts. She works with him to transfer enough power to protect the ship.

The Doctor stabilizes his program, but by now the baby is unconscious. The Doctor prepares to try and resuscitate her and promises Wildman he'll do everything he can to save the baby, but by now things are looking very bleak.

Harry Kim, blown into space through the hull breach

Hogan is about to re-route the power, when suddenly another proton burst hits and blows out the panel he's working at injuring him. Torres and Kim don't have time to go back, and continue on to the breach.

In sickbay, all attempts to resuscitate the baby have failed and The Doctor is forced to declare her dead. Wildman is devastated and begins to sob while Neelix comforts her. Hogan calls sickbay for help, and Kes grabs a medkit and heads to his position.

Meanwhile, the breach is widening and Torres decides they need to leave. However, Kim hesitates and suddenly the ship is hit with a huge jolt causing Kim to fall. He grabs a railing, but is hanging directly above the breach. Torres tries to grab him, but the force of the vacuum is too strong and he is pushed into space, killing him. Torres comes out of the Jefferies tube into the corridor to help Hogan. Kes runs down the corridor to help, but she vanishes into thin air.

Act Two [ ]

Torres tells Janeway what has happened to Kim and Kes and informs her of the spatial rift that has opened on deck 15. She throws a piece of broken conduit into the rift and scans the fissure. She notes that there is an oxygen - nitrogen atmosphere on the other side; Kes might still be alive. With the hull breach widening, Janeway orders that the entire deck be evacuated. Torres helps Hogan to his feet and the two of them make their way out of the area.

Chakotay is able to draw enough power to magnetize the hull and minimize the effects of several proton bursts. Janeway orders a full damage report from Tuvok. The news isn't good: the deck 15 breach had widened to encompass a part of deck 14, and 632 microfractures are all over the hull. All primary systems are offline, the antimatter levels are at 18 percent and continuing to fall, the warp coils in both nacelles are fused and inoperative, 15 crew members have plasma burns and 27 others are injured. The Doctor has opened triage facilities in both sickbay and holodeck 2 . Tuvok also reports that Wildman's baby has died. Janeway first shows a sign of sadness, then anger. She orders the microfractures sealed and tells Paris to go to help the wounded.

Just then, the proton bursts start to cause damage again. The power feeding the magnetized hull shuts down and the hull begins depolarizing. Fires erupt everywhere, but aren't put out because the automatic fire suppression system is also offline. The computer then reports that a hull breach has appeared on the bridge and, with the emergency force fields offline and no way to seal the breach, Chakotay begins an evacuation. Janeway stays at her command chair, trying to re-route emergency power to the field emitters to seal the breach. Chakotay yells at her to leave the bridge before it is too late. As more of the bridge begins to crumble, Janeway finally leaves to join the other evacuees. As she evacuates, she takes one last look at the bridge and freezes in disbelief – she sees a ghost-like image of her bridge crew. In fact, she's staring at herself sitting in her chair. Chakotay yells once more and Janeway leaves the bridge.

On an undamaged bridge, the Janeway in the chair (Janeway #2) sees herself (Janeway #1) cross the bridge and enter a turbolift . Janeway #1 has a tinge of orange from the fires that erupted on the first bridge. This Janeway sits on an unaffected ship; gone are the breaches, injuries, and damage. The proton burst procedure is occurring normally. Janeway #2 in shock tells a very much alive Harry Kim to scan the bridge because she says she saw herself... and she looked like hell. Kim reports that he found a spatial fluctuation, but it was gone in a millisecond. He can't get a more precise reading because the sensors are being used for the proton bursts. Janeway asks Torres to speed up the procedure from its normal three hours so she can use the sensor array to find out what happened.

In sickbay, Wildman holds a healthy baby girl. Janeway goes to congratulate her and asks The Doctor about a mysterious crewmember they found unconscious on deck 15: the Kes from the first Voyager (Kes #1). The Kes from the second Voyager says Kes #1 is nearly identical to her in every way, except for a phase shift in her DNA .

Act Three [ ]

Kes #1 recounts the events of the severe damage on her Voyager . She says she ran through a corridor, then she felt dizzy and she woke up there in Sickbay. Janeway #2 says her crew found a piece of conduit from bulkhead 052 on deck 15, section 29 Alpha, even though there were no signs of damage. Kes #1 disagrees, saying there was massive damage to deck 15. Janeway #2 walks Kes #1 through the events after they left the plasma drift. Since Kes #1's Voyager had not started the proton burst procedure, Janeway #2 realizes that the proton bursts from their Voyager is damaging the other one. Janeway #2 tells her Torres to stop the proton burst procedure. The bursts stop, but the drain on antimatter starts once again. Janeway #2 knows the only way to figure out how to get out of the situation is to find the first Voyager , so she heads to the bridge for more information. Chakotay #2 runs a quantum level analysis on the ship's sensors after they left the plasma drift and hit the spatial turbulence. Torres #2 explains that it was more than just turbulence, it was a subspace divergence field . After the ship left the drift, all sensor readings doubled... every particle of matter was duplicated. The field created another Voyager , occupying the same point in space-time.

Janeway #2 recounts a Kent State University experiment in which quantum theorists duplicated a single particle of matter using divergence of subspace fields called a spatial scission. The theorists failed when they tried to duplicate antimatter. The experiment explains why Voyager 's power was draining so fast; both ships are running their engines from the same antimatter source, like Siamese twins linked together at the heart. Janeway #2 asks Torres #2 to figure out a way to communicate with the other ship. She also wants to find a way to get Kes #1 back to her ship without being harmed. Kim works on a phase discriminator to protect Kes #1 from the effects of the spatial rift.

Back in sickbay, Wildman #2 asks The Doctor #2 when she can start breastfeeding her baby. The Doctor says she can start immediately, although they'll have to think of alternatives once her baby's Ktarian incisors form in three to four weeks. The sound of the baby crying brings back Kes #1's memory of the first Wildman's baby dying in her sickbay. The Doctor tries to comfort her and says it's not her fault. Kes #1 wants to go back to her ship to help her crew. The Doctor tells her not to worry; he should have a counterpart that is well-programmed to handle the situation.

Janeway #2 and Torres #2 try to figure out a way to communicate with the first Voyager . Janeway orders Torres to emit a comm signal through all subspace bands to get their attention. The comm signal pronounces itself as a shrill noise that permeates into engineering (which, due to the bridge being uninhabitable, is the crew's temporary command center) of Voyager #1. Voyager #1 locks onto the phase variance of the communique and sends back the signal. Torres #2 sends a message to the first Voyager using the ship's emergency encryption code to begin communicating at a frequency of 12 GHz . The viewscreen behind the engineering console springs to life, and the face of Janeway #2 appears. The two Janeways meet for the first time.

Janeway #1 and her crew discuss whether the second Voyager is a deception but Janeway #1 tends to believe Janeway #2. Janeway #1's counterpart knew intimate information about her and her crew, including when she walked seven kilometers in a severe thunderstorm after she had lost a tennis match. Janeway #1 decides to cooperate with her and coordinate an attempt to try to merge the two ships. Janeway #1 takes command of the effort and orders both Torres' to synchronize a depolarization pulse with the deflector dish. The pulse doesn't work and results in the ships going further out of phase . The phase separation threatens to destroy both ships, so the plan is aborted. The stress of the procedure breaks the comm link and turns the antimatter leak into a hemorrhage, meaning the ship will be out of power in thirty minutes. Running out of time, Janeway #2 asks Kim #2 if he's ready to send Kes #1 back to her ship. He replies that he is ready. Janeway #2 tells him to rig another phase discriminator; she plans to go to the other Voyager and coordinate operations with Janeway #1.

Act Four [ ]

Janeway #1 is attempting to figure out how to stop the leak of antimatter when Janeway #2 shows up in engineering to talk to her. The two Janeways go to the top level of engineering to try to determine how to fix the problem. Janeway #1 thinks of separating the two ships, but Janeway #2 says that's impossible because her Torres says interaction between the two ships' antimatter would cause the ships to destroy themselves. Janeway #2 wonders if Janeway #1 could move her crew to her undamaged ship. Janeway #1 says that is impossible, because her Torres says that moving more than five or ten people at a time would harmfully adjust the atomic balance of the two Voyager s, once again destroying both ships. Janeway #1 tells Janeway #2 to go back to her ship to run a metallurgical analysis on the hull. Janeway #2 already knows what her counterpart is going to do – destroy her ship and allow Janeway #2's intact ship to continue on its journey – and convinces her to wait for fifteen minutes to think of another way.

Back on her own bridge, Janeway #2 hails her counterpart and begins to describe an idea she's had when both Tuvoks detect a Vidiian ship heading toward them. The effects of the power loss and proton bursts have caused the weapons and shields on both ships to go offline. Tuvok #2 calculates it would take three hours to restore the weapons system to the undamaged ship. The Vidiians are aware of this and fire a Hyper-thermic charge . The charge results in a direct hit but only the second ship feels the effect, its weapons array is destroyed. The Vidiians land their ship on the hull of the second Voyager and cut an access port onto deck 5.

Act Five [ ]

Vidiians board the second Voyager and begin killing the crew and harvesting their organs. A Vidiian kills Tuvok and a security guard. In sickbay (on deck 5), The Doctor tells Wildman that he will keep her baby safe, planning to hide her in an access port. The Doctor erects an emergency force field around Sickbay to protect them, but it doesn't hold for long and two Vidiians storm into the room while The Doctor is forced to hide in his office with the baby.

Back on the bridge, Chakotay reports the Vidiians have taken Sickbay and everything below deck 5. There are 347 Vidiians on the ship and more are boarding. Janeway #1 hails the second Voyager and offers to help by sending a security team to fight the Vidiians, but Janeway #2 refuses. She decides to use the auto-destruct sequence to prevent both ships from falling into Vidiian hands. Janeway #2 tells Janeway #1 that it only seems fair for her to send Harry Kim through the spatial rift with Wildman's baby. Kim protests, but Janeway #2 orders him to get the baby and go, saying he's got five minutes to get through the rift. As Kim leaves the bridge, Janeway #2 sets the auto-destruct for five minutes and tells the computer to disable voice warnings. She and Chakotay #2 sit down in their command chairs and grimly look at each other before she enables the countdown.

Kim makes his way to sickbay where the Vidiians, having killed everyone inside apart from the hidden baby, are scanning Kes #2 and Wildman #2 for organs. They notice that Wildman has just given birth. They begin scanning for the baby, who is huddled in The Doctor's arms in his office. Kim bursts in and kills the Vidiians. The Doctor hands over the baby and tells Kim to tell The Doctor on the other ship that he has corrected the baby's hemocythemia.

Back on the bridge, two Vidiians walk off the turbolift. Janeway stands and gives them a calm welcome: " Hello. I'm Captain Kathryn Janeway. Welcome to the bridge. " The Vidiians are puzzled at the welcome, when suddenly one of the Vidiians alerts the other to the auto-destruct countdown as it enters the final few seconds, far too late to do anything about it. The countdown reaches zero and the second Voyager explodes, which also destroys the Vidiian ship, while leaving the first Voyager intact.

Ensign Kim makes it safely through the rift with Wildman's baby. Chakotay informs Janeway of the destruction of the other Voyager and the Vidiian ship. Janeway is saddened at the deaths, but knows it was what they had to do.

" It was his counterpart who saved her from the Vidiians. " " I'm not surprised. I am programmed to be heroic when the need arises. "

Voyager continues on its way and the crew starts to makes repairs. There are no signs of the Vidiians, while it will be three days before the crew can return to the bridge. Tuvok and Janeway have a discussion about their experience, and Janeway admits that after going over what happened, if the Vidiians hadn't attacked, she would have destroyed her ship but she could also see the other Janeway's point of view. Tuvok comments that Janeway was "both the doubter and the doubted" and notes the paradoxial logic at work in the situation. Ensign Wildman thanks Kim for reuniting her with her baby, but he tells her it was the other Doctor who saved her from the Vidiians. Kim and Janeway walk out into the corridor where he comments that it's weird that he's on a different ship with a different captain and a different crew, except she is his captain and there is really no difference. Janeway says that being Starfleet officers, weird is part of their job.

Memorable quotes [ ]

" Uhh... " " What's wrong? " " I think I'm having a contraction... Oh yeah, it's a contraction alright. " " Oh that's wonderful. Labor can't be far behind. We're having a baby. "

" The Delta Quadrant isn't anybody's idea of a playground. "

" Push, ensign. " " You push! Dammit! I'm sick of pushing! "

(Closed Captions throughout this episode refer to The Doctor as “Dr. Zimmerman”)

" I'm just not sure if I should be welcoming it aboard or apologizing. "

" My father had a saying, captain. 'Home is wherever you happen to be'. "

" This is ridiculous. It's been seven hours. How long does take to deliver a baby? " " As long as it takes Mr. Paris. " " Indeed. During the birth of our third child my wife was in labor for 96 hours. " " Four days? " " I have learned that pregnancy and patience go hand-in-hand. "

" Ensign Kim, scan the Bridge. I just saw myself cross the Bridge and enter that turbolift. It was very faint, almost like a ghost image. And I looked like hell. "

" This isn't really my ship and you're not really my captain and yet you are and there's no difference. But I know there's a difference. Or is there? It's all a little weird. " " Mr. Kim, we're Starfleet officers. Weird is part of the job. "

" Please don't make me call security and have you escorted off my ship, because... you know, I'll do it. "

" Make me a promise, Kathryn: get your crew home. " " I will. I will."

" Harry, you've got five minutes, get the baby. " " But captain... " " Move it ensign, that's an order! "

" Warning, self-destruct sequence has been initiated. Warp core overload in four minutes, fifty-five seconds. There will be no further audio warnings. "

" Hello. I'm Captain Kathryn Janeway. Welcome to the bridge. "

" Mr. Kim, we're Starfleet officers. Weird is part of the job. "

Background information [ ]

Story and script [ ].

• Brannon Braga 's initial idea for this episode involved toying with narrative structure. The writer and supervising producer explained, " I just thought it would be really bizarre if you told a story for an act or two and suddenly you found yourself in the middle of a different story on a different Voyager , but they're occupying the same point of time and space. " Executive producer Jeri Taylor said of the outing, " It was one of those intricate little puzzles that Brannon loves to do. " ( Captains' Logs Supplemental - The Unauthorized Guide to the New Trek Voyages )
• Another motive for writing the story was to bring elements to the series that it was lacking at that point. Brannon Braga noted, " We needed a show that was pure action and pure high-concept sci-fi. " ( Captains' Logs Supplemental - The Unauthorized Guide to the New Trek Voyages )
• Previous episodes featuring duplicates – particularly, unsuccessful development of one such story for Star Trek: The Next Generation – influenced the writing team's approach to this installment. Jeri Taylor clarified that, as a result of the difficulties pertaining to the aforementioned TNG plot, Voyager 's writing staff approached the idea for this episode "with some trepidation." ( Captains' Logs Supplemental - The Unauthorized Guide to the New Trek Voyages )
• According to Jeri Taylor, the solution was to focus the story on fewer characters, such as by killing off one of the two Harry Kims and having Kes be unconscious throughout most of the episode. This concentrated the story on the two Janeways and their collaboration. ( Captains' Logs Supplemental - The Unauthorized Guide to the New Trek Voyages )
• The references to Kent State University in this episode constitute an in-joke, as Brannon Braga studied Theater Arts and Filmmaking there.
• The episode's final script draft was submitted on 3 January 1996 . [1]

Cast and characters [ ]

• Actress Kate Mulgrew quite enjoyed playing two different versions of her usual character, Captain Janeway. " Janeway against Janeway! Talk about green screen . Split screen. Every conceivable kind of screen, " Mulgrew remarked, before indicating a small gap with the thumb and forefinger of her left hand. " I was acting within an eighth of an inch! I loved doing that episode [...] To play... against yourself, creating yourself. It was... the most arduous and possibly the most satisfying work I've ever done, technically. " ( VOY Season 2 DVD )
• Hogan actor Simon Billig liked this episode. " I enjoyed doing 'Deadlock', " he noted, " because it was so action-oriented [...] I got to see a lot of great effects and how they're done and that was great fun. " ( TV Zone , Issue 93, p. 32)
• This episode attained high praise from Paris actor Robert Duncan McNeill , especially its use of the Vidiians. " 'Deadlock' was good [...] They were great in that one, " McNeill opined. ( Starlog , issue #231, p. 49)
• Kim actor Garrett Wang 's favorite stunt of the series was for this episode. He explained, " Kim is secretly running through the corridor, and he can detect that there are Vidiians in [sickbay]. He knocks out one or two of the guys when he busts in through the door, but then the third guy shoots at him, and Kim gets to do a little flip, which was my favorite stunt. It was a running forward roll [...] and that was my favorite little Jackie Chan-esque stunt. " ( Star Trek Monthly  issue 106 , p. 41)

Production [ ]

David Livingston instructing Nancy Hower on the set

• The scene from this installment in which Hogan is blasted backwards by an exploding panel was filmed with a stunt performer. " It was the first time I ever really had a stunt double, " Simon Billig noted. ( TV Zone , Issue 93, p. 32)
• The running forward roll that Kim does was improvised by Garrett Wang on the set. The actor recalled, " I learned [it] in stage combat class back in college. The director, David Livingston , said, 'Okay, come in, shoot this guy, shoot this guy, duck and then pop back up and shoot the third guy.' I said, 'Why don't I shoot the first guy, shoot the second guy, and then run forward and do a dive to duck below the phaser fire of the third guy, and then as I pop up from the forward roll, shoot the last guy?' So I did the first practice, and all the crew went, 'Oooh!' Then I did it for real. " ( Star Trek Magazine issue 106, p. 41)
• One major concern during production was that the episode would not be long enough. Jeri Taylor recalled, " It was directed with such incredible pace by David that it was one of those shows we had to add scene after scene after scene to because it was short. We ended up shooting something like another day and a half just to bring it to time. So it moves like a house on fire! " ( Star Trek Monthly  issue 15 ) Taylor also said, " The show came out enormously short [...] It was like eight or nine minutes short, and we kept writing scenes, and they just kept getting gobbled up on those stages. It's much better to be long than to be short. There's never any accounting for it. Why is one seventy-page script eight minutes long and with this one, with the same director, we had seventy-five pages and had to shoot two extra days to get enough material to make it long enough? It was not an inexpensive show as a result, but what I was pleased about was I would defy anybody to know what the added material is. It is seamless. Some of the added scenes are some of the better scenes. They do not stand out as fill at all. " ( Captains' Logs Supplemental - The Unauthorized Guide to the New Trek Voyages )
• According to Kate Mulgrew, she not only enjoyed working on this episode but also "had the right guy, too." She added, " [David] Livingston was terrific. " ( VOY Season 2 ) Jeri Taylor was similarly complimentary about the director's work on this episode, remarking, " David Livingston did an outstanding job with the direction. " ( Captains' Logs Supplemental - The Unauthorized Guide to the New Trek Voyages )
• The episode was somewhat difficult to film. Brannon Braga remarked, " It was extremely tough to shoot. " ( Captains' Logs Supplemental - The Unauthorized Guide to the New Trek Voyages )

Effects [ ]

• The shot of Harry Kim floating into space, much to Torres' distress, involved several effects methods. " We shot Garrett [Wang] against a blue screen for that, " visual effects producer Dan Curry recalled. " The wind was, of course, done by special effects wind generators, and so that was it. And then space outside was something we created in post, and then we had to trace or rotoscope the hole in the ship and then the space that Garrett would fall out in blue screen. And then, of course, because the light would change from one section to another as he was passing into space, we had to make sure that there was something that would change the light as he hit the new environment outside the ship. A simple shot like that, that could take a few seconds of screen time, might represent two hundred man hours. " ( Red Alert: Visual Effects Season 2 , VOY Season 2 DVD special features)

Continuity [ ]

• This episode features the first of fives times that the destruction of Voyager is depicted on the series. On this occasion, a phase-shifted duplicate of the ship is self-destructed.
• This episode depicts Voyager 's fourth encounter with the Vidiians, after the episodes " Phage ", " Faces " and " Lifesigns ".
• This is the first of two times, over the course of the series, where Janeway meets herself face-to-face; the second such occasion is in the series finale, " Endgame ". Janeway also watches herself walking down a corridor in the Season 5 episode " Relativity ".
• This episode marks the second of three times that Harry Kim "dies" during Voyager 's seven-year trip, the other times being in " Emanations " and " Timeless ".
• This episode features the second of nine times that Kathryn Janeway 's death is depicted over the course of the series. The previous episode that depicted this was " Time and Again ". On this occasion, the version of Janeway that succumbs to death is a phase-shifted duplicate, and the cause of death is the self-destruction of Voyager .
• One of the Vidiian intruders scans Tuvok and identifies him as a Vulcan. It is not explained how the Vidiians would be familiar with Vulcans, as Tuvok had not previously had any encounter with the Vidiians where they would have had an opportunity to learn the name of his species or scan him.
• At the end of this episode, the Doctor states that he is programmed to be heroic when he needs to be. This may be a reference to the first-season episode " Heroes and Demons ", where he plays the hero in a holodeck version of Beowulf.
• The version of Janeway on the ultimately destroyed Voyager asks her counterpart on the surviving Voyager to promise to get her crew home. She agrees to make this promise and ultimately delivers on it, getting Voyager and its crew home in the series finale, " Endgame ".
• This episode shares some common themes with the Star Trek: Deep Space Nine episode " Visionary ". Both show the destruction of the space station / starship and both Miles O'Brien and Harry Kim die and are replaced by alternate versions of themselves, with the characters then voicing reservations about their place in this timeline.
• Reference to 47 : At one point in the episode, Torres cycles through 47 different communication frequencies. Later, the Harry Kim of the second Voyager tells that the ship has been boarded by 347 Vidiians and more others are coming.
• This episode has the longest teaser in Voyager 's second season.
• The Doctor has the sleeves of his uniform rolled up (similar to Miles O'Brien 's in the first five seasons of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine ) in this episode.

Story arcs [ ]

• The Doctor's quest to find a name, introduced in " Eye of the Needle " and revisited in four further episodes, is briefly revisited in this episode, when the Doctor on the surviving Voyager asks Kim if his counterpart on the destroyed Voyager had given himself a name.
• The ongoing story of Samantha Wildman ’s pregnancy, introduced in " Elogium " and revisited in " Tattoo ", is concluded in this episode with the birth itself. Conception had happened before Voyager 's arrival in the Delta Quadrant, and this extremely long gestation period was later explained in the sixth season episode " Fury " as having been a consequence of the baby's half- Ktarian genes.

Self-destruct sequence [ ]

• This episode marks the second of three times that Voyager 's self-destruct is initiated (after " Dreadnought "), and is the only time in a television episode where it is not cancelled.
• Unlike in other Star Trek incarnations, in this episode (as with the previous activation in VOY : " Dreadnought "), when Janeway initiates the self-destruct sequence for Voyager , the computer does not ask for concurrent authorization from any other member of the bridge crew.
• This episode reveals that the computer's vocal warnings during a self-destruct sequence can be silenced. This option would be used again in Star Trek: First Contact .
• When the Vidiians enter Voyager 's bridge, they are greeted by the computer displaying the countdown for the self-destruct sequence as it enters the last few seconds, similar to when a Klingon invasion party boards the USS Enterprise in Star Trek III: The Search for Spock .

Reception [ ]

• Brannon Braga thinks very highly of this episode. He noted, " I thought it turned out well. " ( Captains' Logs Supplemental - The Unauthorized Guide to the New Trek Voyages ) In a 2011 interview, he elaborated, " I thought 'Deadlock' was classic Star Trek and whatever crew would have been in that episode, it would have been a good episode of Star Trek . " [2] Ultimately, the moment from this installment that Braga liked the best was the first transition from the perspective of one Voyager , in a situation of disarray, to the other Voyager , depicted as being much calmer. ( Captains' Logs Supplemental - The Unauthorized Guide to the New Trek Voyages )
• Jeri Taylor thought this episode "came out very well," largely due to limiting the number of duplicates in the story. " It gave it a focus and a limitation that I think helped the storytelling, " she enthused. ( Captains' Logs Supplemental - The Unauthorized Guide to the New Trek Voyages ) Taylor also approved of the episode's pacing. ( Star Trek Monthly  issue 15 ; Captains' Logs Supplemental - The Unauthorized Guide to the New Trek Voyages ) She noted, " It starts out with action and it does not stop. " ( Star Trek Monthly  issue 15 )
• This episode achieved a Nielsen rating of 5.8 million homes, and a 9% share. [3] (X) Although the episode was only the joint (with " Tattoo ") seventh most watched episode of Voyager 's second season, the installment was voted the most popular episode of the entire season in a contemporaneous fan poll to which Jeri Taylor paid particular attention. ( Star Trek: Communicator  issue 108 , p. 18)
• Cinefantastique rated this episode 3 out of 4 stars. ( Cinefantastique , Vol. 28, No. 4/5, p. 102)
• Star Trek Magazine scored this episode 4 out of 5 stars, defined as " Trill -powered viewing". Additionally, Nikki Harper, a reviewer for the magazine, wrote a positive review of the episode, remarking, " 'Deadlock' is another classic from the pen of Brannon Braga [….] It's gripping stuff throughout with plenty of shocks along the way, and the Vidiians are at their nastiest. " ( Star Trek Monthly  issue 19 , pp. 93 & 94)
• The unauthorized reference book Delta Quadrant (p. 112) gives this installment a rating of 7 out of 10.

Apocrypha [ ]

• The events of this episode play a role in the Star Trek: Voyager - String Theory trilogy, where a Nacene infiltrates Voyager by altering the crew's memories and posing as Janeway's sister. Due to Harry Kim and Naomi Wildman being slightly out-of-sync with the rest of the crew (as is established in this episode), they are immune to the intruder's tampering, and can thus perceive the Nacene for what she really is.
• They also play a role in the Echoes book, where the crew stumbles upon a rift in the fabric of space-time that intermittently connects Voyager 's universe with the parallel universes of a near-infinite number of other Voyager s. In the book, the destruction of one of the Voyager s in the "Deadlock" episode is explained as actually being a Voyager from a parallel universe, and therefore every other parallel universe visible through the rift is missing a Voyager .
• The Harry Kim who dies (as well as the one who survives) reappears in Star Trek Online . In the mission "Dust to Dust," which takes place in 2410, it is revealed that the Kobali , guided by Jhet'leya (the reanimated Lindsay Ballard ) found the deceased Kim and are reanimating him into a Kobali named Keten. He wakes up with most of his original memories and, confused, attempts to contact Voyager— which has returned to the Delta Quadrant on a secret mission. To stop Kim/Keten from blowing Voyager 's cover and putting the ship at risk, Jhet'leya, the Harry Kim who survived (now Captain of the USS Rhode Island ), and the player character talk him down and explain the situation to him. The mission ends with Captain Kim telling Ensign Kim about how he got home and what happened to their shared family. The episode begins with a recreation of Ensign Kim's death from the Voyager episode; Garret Wang provides his likeness and voice. But a generic, forehead-ridgeless female NPC and sound alike are substituted for Roxann Biggs-Dawson.

Video and DVD releases [ ]

• UK VHS release (two-episode tapes, CIC Video ): Volume 2.9, 9 September 1996
• As part of the VOY Season 2 DVD collection

Links and references [ ]

Starring [ ].

• Kate Mulgrew as Captain Kathryn Janeway

Also starring [ ]

• Robert Beltran as Commander Chakotay
• Roxann Biggs-Dawson as Lieutenant B'Elanna Torres
• Jennifer Lien as Kes
• Robert Duncan McNeill as Lieutenant Tom Paris
• Ethan Phillips as Neelix
• Robert Picardo as The Doctor
• Tim Russ as Lieutenant Tuvok
• Garrett Wang as Ensign Harry Kim

Guest Stars [ ]

• Nancy Hower as Samantha Wildman
• Simon Billig as Hogan

Co-Stars [ ]

• Bob Clendenin as Vidiian Surgeon
• Ray Proscia as Vidiian Commander
• Keythe Farley as Vidiian #2
• Chris Johnston as Vidiian #1
• Majel Barrett as Computer Voice

Uncredited Co-Stars [ ]

• Steve Carnahan as operations officer
• Tarik Ergin as Ayala
• Heather Ferguson as command officer
• Holiday Freeman as operations officer
• Emily Leibovitch as Naomi Wildman
• Louis Ortiz as Vidiian crewman
• Lou Slaughter as command officer
• John Tampoya as Kashimuro Nozawa

Stunt Double [ ]

• Chester E. Tripp III as stunt double for Simon Billig

References [ ]

abdomen ; access port ; airponic bay ; alignment module ; alpha-numeric sequencer ; analysis ; anodyne relay ; antimatter ; atmosphere ; atom ; audio communication ; authorization code ; auxiliary power ; auxiliary respirator ; baby ; back-up power ; back-up processors ; band pulse ; bearing ; bio-probe ; bio-signature ; blanket ; boarding party ; bone marrow ; boy ; breast feeding ; bulkhead ; cabbage ; capacitance ; carrier wave ; celery ; cell membrane ; cellulose ; centimeter ; cervical dilation ; chest ; chicken ; clavicle ; com emission ; com frequency carrier ; com-link ; command functions ; computer core ; containment field ; contraction ; cooking ; coolant leak ; damage ; damage control team ; damage report ; deck ; deflector dish ; Delta Quadrant ; depolarization pulse ; dermaline gel ; dimension ; dinner ; disruptor ; dizziness ; DNA ; doubter ; egg ; emergency encryption code ( emergency code ); Emergency Medical Hologram ; emergency power ; emergency resuscitation ; energy output ; energy weapon ; engineering team ; environmental control system ; EPS conduit ; exo-cranial ridge ; extraction procedure ; face ; fatigue ; Federation ; fetal transport ; field emitter ; figure of speech ; fire suppression system ; firstborn ; force field ; fracture ; frequency carrier ; fused vertebrate ; G-type star ( unnamed ); G-type star system ; ghost image ; gigahertz ; girl ; God ; grappling range ; green bean ; heart ; hemocythemia ; hemocythemic imbalance ; hemo-uterine levels ; holodeck ; hour ; hull ; hull breach ; hull stress ; hyper-thermic charge ; imaging array ; impulse engines ; incisor ; incubator ; infant ; initial ; injury ; internal bleeding ; interspecies abnormality ; Intrepid -class decks ; Jefferies tube ; Kent State University ; kidney ; kilometer ; Kolopak ; knowledge ; Ktarian ; labor ; leftovers ; logic ; magnetic field ; magnetize ; main power ; Mama ; maneuvering thrusters ; mass ; matter ; medical system ; medical tricorder ; medkit ; metallurgical analysis ; micro-fracture ; microcellular scan ; millisecond ; molecular signature ; multispectral analysis ; nacelle ; name ; neck ; nerve damage ; nursery ; nitrogen ; offline ; organ ; organic (food) ; osmotic pressure ; osmotic pressure therapy ; oxygen ; pancreatic tissue ; paradox ; parallel universe ; particle ; pelvis ; pelvic ridge ; percent ; perimeter alert ; Phage ; phase discriminator ; phase displacement ; phase modulation ; phase shift ; phase variance ( phase variant ); pi ; plasma ; plasma burn ; plasma cloud ; plasma drift ; plasma drift sector ; playground ; portable force field generator ; pot roast ; power conduit ; power grid ; pregnancy ; primary system ; prostaglandin ; proton burst ; psyllium ; quantum-level analysis ; quantum cohesion ; quantum theorist ; red alert ; replicator ; resonance pulse ; saying ; scales ; scan analysis ; scratch ; second ; second degree plasma burns ; sector with large plasma drift ; security detachment ; self-destruct sequence ; sensor ; sensor array ; sensor log ; sensor range ; Siamese twins ; skin ; spatial anomaly ; spatial fluctuation ; spatial flux ; spatial rift ; spectral frequency ; spatial scission ; spatial transition ; spinal column ; stalled ; structural integrity ; structural integrity grid ; subspace band ; subspace communication ; subspace divergence field ( divergence field ); subspace field ; subspace turbulence ; subterfuge ; surgery ; T'Pel ; tennis match; theory ; thermal array ; thoracic contusion ; thunderstorm ; time ; triage ; tricorder ; turbolift ; Tuvok's sons ; umbilical separation ; uterus ; uterine wall ; vegetable (aka veggies); Vidiian ; Vidiian ship (Vidiian ship/vessel); vision ; visual communication ; Vulcan ; warp coil ; warp core ; warp engines ; weapons array ; whistle ; yellow ; yield

External links [ ]

• "Deadlock" at StarTrek.com
• " Deadlock " at Memory Beta , the wiki for licensed Star Trek works
• " Deadlock " at Wikipedia
• " "Deadlock" " at MissionLogPodcast.com , a Roddenberry Star Trek podcast
• 3 Ancient humanoid

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Star Trek: Voyager – Deadlock (Review)

This February and March, we’re taking a look at the 1995 to 1996 season of Star Trek , including Star Trek: Deep Space Nine and  Star Trek: Voyager . Check back daily for the latest review.

In some ways, Deadlock is Star Trek: Voyager ‘s original sin.

Of course, Deadlock is good. It is really good. It is a well-constructed piece of television that moves with an incredible momentum; it gathers speed and builds towards a suitably epic finalé. In many ways, Deadlock is one of the strongest episodes from the first two seasons of Voyager . There is a credible argument to be made that Deadlock belongs on any list of “best Voyager episodes ever” , thanks to the potent combination of Brannon Braga’s high-concept script and David Livingston’s dynamic direction.

Janeway²…

At the same time, it is hard not to look at Deadlock in retrospect and see the shape of things to come. It is, perhaps, the ultimate “reset” button episode; it provides a clear template for later “blow up Voyager and kill Janeway” episodes like Year of Hell or Timeless . The trick works very well once; it loses any real impact when it is repeated several times over the course of the show’s run. More than that, the episode feels somewhat generic. Due to the nature of the high-concept premise, there is little room for detail specific to Voyager .

It seems that the end of the second season set the course for the next five years of Voyager . The production team had tried to tell an experimental story specific to Voyager with Investigations , only to fail spectacularly; it would be the last time that the show attempted anything so bold. In contrast, the production team managed to construct a fantastic episode around a generic premise in Deadlock , perhaps indicating that the future of the show lay in that direction. It is easy to see why that production team opted for safe and generic ahead of ambitious and experimental.

Ghost stories…

Deadlock seems to lend itself to this reading. Imagine, for a moment, two versions of Voyager coexisting perfectly; they look the same, they occupy the same space. They are functionally identical, right down to the smallest molecule. Now imagine that one of these shows had to be destroyed so that the other might live, that the ship could never be quite whole again; that the version of the ship riding off into the sunset would turn out to be nothing more than an echo, a copy, a duplicate.

The two versions of Janeway discuss their predicament. “Both engines have been trying to draw power from a single source of antimatter,” one states. The other continues the old-school Star Trek analogy, “Like Siamese twins linked at the chest, with only one heart.” It encapsulates a lot of what Voyager feels like at this point in the second season; there is one version of the show pushing towards trying new things, and another that is desperately clinging to the familiar. Neither can truly coexist with one another.

Baby on board…

This is, perhaps, why Voyager is so fond of duplicates and copies. The idea of a duplicate ship or a duplicate self is something of a recurring motif in Voyager , making it remarkable that the show never produced a mirror universe episode. Since Janeway and Torres found themselves confronted by two versions of Voyager in Brannon Braga’s Parallax , the ship has been haunted by ghost versions of itself. Many of those versions seem fated to be destroyed, flawed copies that could not survive for more than the briefest of moments.

There is the duplicate Doctor in Living Witness , the duplication of the entire crew in Demon , the con artists from Live Fast and Prosper . That is to say nothing of all the alternate timelines and possible futures that span the series. (Even alternate narratives of Voyager in episodes like Worst Case Scenario or Author, Author .) Voyager seems obsessed with alternate versions of itself; what might have been in some other life. It is no wonder that Endgame closes the series with an act of erasure.

A pipe dream…

Indeed,  Deadlock makes much of the idea of Voyager searching for itself, of both versions of the ship intersecting and trying to communicate with one another. “There’s another Voyager out there, and I intend to find it,” Janeway informs her crew; Voyager has had a great deal of trouble finding itself over the past two seasons. Deadlock seems to allow these internal conflicts to come to a head. Not only do the two Voyagers come into contact with one another, one sacrifices itself so that the other might live.

There is something quite telling that the Voyager that survives at the end of Deadlock is the broken and damaged version of the ship. Sure, everything is neatly repaired by the start of Innocence , but this ship has been through the wars. Although Deadlock has a handy reset button that minimises the impact of anything that happened over the course of the episode, this is a ship that lost two of its youngest crew members; Harry Kim has always represented the show’s innocence and idealism, and Naomi Wildman is obviously a child of Voyager.

Through the void…

“I mean, this isn’t really my ship, and you’re not really my captain, and yet you are, and there’s no difference,” Harry states in the closing scene. “But I know there’s a difference. Or is there?” There is a difference, and there is no difference. Both can be true. The fact that the two deaths on the surviving Voyager were its two youngest crew members is highly symbolic. Following on from Investigations , it seems that  Deadlock might be the end of the line for anything new and exciting in Voyager .

The Voyager that is ultimately destroyed is the version of the ship that is assaulted by the Vidiians. That version of Voyager is the version most firmly anchored in the Delta Quadrant. The Vidiians are aliens unique to Voyager , it makes sense that they cannot see the broken and damaged version of the ship that survives Deadlock . The version of the ship that survives is the one that will chart a course into the third and fourth seasons, abandoning all the new ideas that were tried (and mostly failed) in the first two seasons. It literally leaves the Vidiians behind.

Face to… whatever the heck that is.

There is something very generic and universal about Deadlock . It is not an episode tailored specifically to Voyager , save for the fact that it features the birth of Naomi Wildman. Writer Brannon Braga acknowledged as much in his assessment of his script, “I thought Deadlock was classic Star Trek and whatever crew would have been in that episode, it would have been a good episode of Star Trek.” That is a very fair point. The Vidiians could be swapped out for any hostile alien race; Janeway could be any commanding officer.

As such, Deadlock is part of the conscious “generification” of Voyager as a television show. It is not a Star Trek show with a unique flavour, it is a Star Trek show that can be used to tell stories that could be integrated with just about any crew. Deadlock is certainly not the first episode of Voyager to feel this way; Death Wish had a similar vibe earlier in the season, bringing in Q to do a riff on The Measure of a Man . Given how spectacularly Alliances and Investigations failed to give Voyager a unique flavour, who could blame the team for wanting something generic?

Burning down the house…

(It is worth pausing to compare Deadlock to Visionary , an episode of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine that hit on many of the same beats; it destroyed a version of the station and replaced one of the leads with a functionally identical doppelganger. At the same time, it was an episode that was still unique to Deep Space Nine . It built off the events of The Search, Part I and The Search, Part II . It also set up the events of Improbable Cause and The Die is Cast , foreshadowing the Romulan response to the Dominion threat.)

Deadlock also codifies a lot of the tropes that would come to define Voyager , for better or worse. Many of the same criticisms that would be leveled at Voyager over the next five seasons can be validly made in relation to the plot of Deadlock . The episode strains to create drama with incredible stakes, only to ensure that there are absolutely no consequences for anything that happens. Main characters die, but the ensemble is in place at the end of the episode; the ship is destroyed, but it is back in business next week; the sets are trashed, but everything is in place for the next instalment.

Surgical precision…

It is, of course, not the first time that Voyager has done any of this. The ship was almost torn apart in Caretaker , but everything was back in place by the end of the episode. The show waited until the third episode of the first season, Time and Again , to deploy its first true “reset button” ending. There have been plenty of examples of that internal logic at work since them; the early scenes of Manoeuvres and Alliances found Voyager taking a pounding from Kazon ships, only for everything to be fully functional and in pristine condition almost immediately.

Deadlock is perhaps notable for escalating these trends to their logical conclusion. Voyager is not just crippled; one of the ships is crippled, the other is destroyed. It isn’t just extras who are killed to raise the stakes; Harry Kim bites the dust. It is harder to imagine a a way of escalating the wholesale damage and destruction wrought over the course of Deadlock , save actually blowing up the ship and cancelling the show without any warning three episodes into the third season. There is, quite simply, nowhere to go from here.

Engineering burndown…

And, to be frank, the damage and destruction of Voyager becomes a something of a recurring joke from this point onwards. Janeway also mounts a suicide assault on a superior enemy at the climax of Year of Hell, Part II . Voyager is crippled by an off-screen attack before The Killing Game, Part I even starts. Voyager crashes into an ice planet in Timeless . A duplicate Voyager blows up at the end of a shaggy dog story in Course: Oblivion . Captain Braxton goes for broke and manages to blow up Voyager no less than three times in Relativity .

As such, Deadlock could be seen as the show crossing an event horizon; this is a point of no return. The benchmark has been set, audiences have been show what the stakes can be on Voyager . The show is no longer content to threaten recurring cast members or guest stars; red shirts are only marginally more at risk than regular cast members, but without the reassurance of a resurrection at the end of the hour. Voyager is a show where everything is continuously at stake, where everything can be lost.

Spaced out…

Of course, the flipside is that when everything is always at stake, then nothing is at stake. The deaths of Lon Suder and Hogan in Basics, Part II are more meaningful than the deaths of Harry Kim and Naomi Wildman in Deadlock , because those deaths are not reversed at the end of the episode. After all, UPN was unlikely to let the production team actually destroy the ship or kill a regular cast member in the middle of the season, so everything was guaranteed to go back in place by the end of the episode.

This leaves Voyager feeling rather hollow; it is like a ship populated with paper characters. Those characters can be torn up and shredded on a weekly basis, but there is always another copy that can be printed before the start of the next episode. No matter what actually happens over the course of an episode, everything will be fine the following week. The self-destruct is conveniently wired into Janeway’s reset button, one simple command handily labelled “do over.” Nothing really matters; no matter how hard the writers might try, nothing can ever be lost.

Really? NEELIX is your priority…?

Of course, it should be noted that Deadlock is very good on its own terms. It is a thrilling piece of television. Braga knows how to structure an episode of television like this, beautifully ramping up the tension through the first few acts before taking a delicious step sideways that wrong-foots the audience. David Livingston is one of the franchise’s best action directors, and he makes sure that Deadlock moves at a breathless pace. Any logical questions are brushed aside by a sense of urgency.

Deadlock moves incredibly fast. A lot of that comes from the script, with Braga pacing each of the show’s big events in a very meticulous and deliberate fashion. Just when it seems like Janeway has the situation under control on the bridge and is ready to visit Ensign Wildman, everything goes to hell. Just when it looks like the two ships might be able to find a solution, the Vidiians turn up. Deadlock is ruthlessly efficient in its pacing, constantly escalating the stakes and its intensity.

Shaking things up…

Even the decision to open on one version of Voyager before revealing the existence of the alternate version is quite clever. The first two acts skilfully amp up the tension, as things begin to go increasingly wrong. The loss of the baby is shocking; it is a very dark development for a Star Trek episode, but not outside the realm of possibility for Voyager . Then Harry Kim dies; without having seen Voyager do a story like this, the audience wonders how they show is going to get out of this one. Then Kes disappears.

Braga has always had a knack for trusting the audience to follow along with his science-fiction high concepts, never getting too bogged down in rational explanations for what is unfolding. Braga does stuff Deadlock with just a little bit too much technobabble – apparently any problem can be solved by “remodulating” some tech – but the internal logic of the script works on an intuitive level. The death of Harry Kim clues the audience into the idea that the story is broken, the disappearance of Kes seals the deal. A television literate audience reads the cues quite handily.

A surgical strike…

A televisually literate audience will be suspicious when Naomi Wildman dies; killing off an infant is a very ruthless move for a Star Trek show. Those suspicions will only be enhanced when Harry Kim is sucked out into space. With the exception of Tasha Yar, the Star Trek franchise is not in the habit of killing off credited regulars in the middle of a season; more than that, the departure of a series regular is likely to be a big enough deal that it would be the focus of the entire episode, rather than an early act break.

Once Harry Kim dies, the audience is smart enough to realise that this is a game. The question is no longer “how do the crew deal with this crisis?” , instead becoming “how does the show bounce back into a recognisable shape by the end of the episode?” It is a fun question, at least by this point in the show; the more often that Voyager relies on this storytelling trick, the more frustrating it becomes. Braga is very good at structuring these sorts of escalations, as he did with Cause and Effect . The audience gets it, even without technobabble exposition.

Born to be Wildman…

After all, buried beneath all the technobabble is the story of a ghost ship, a crew haunted by visions of their alternate self. Janeway first catches a glimpse of the alternate bridge through flames; they appear as transparent apparitions. The first hint of the existence of another Voyager has nothing to do with sensor readings or biodata; it is a vision whereby Janeway catches a glimpse of herself. “I just saw myself cross the Bridge and enter that turbolift,” the other Janeway explains to her crew. “It was very faint, almost like a ghost image.”

It is no coincidence that Kes is the first character to cross the rift successfully, even if she discovers it by accident. With her elfin ears, Kes has always been the member of the Voyager crew most firmly connected to the ethereal – the “maybes” and the “never weres.” It was Kes who felt the stir of echoes at the end of Time and Again , it is Kes who navigates the possible future of Before and After . Braga tends to emphasise this aspect of Kes, suggesting a deep connection between the Ocampans and the universe itself in Cold Fire .

One big happy family…

To be fair, there is one aspect of Deadlock that does make it unique to Voyager . It is the episode where Ensign Wildman finally has her baby. The pregnancy was first confirmed in Elogium , and has been mentioned a few times over the course of the second season – Ensign Wildman appeared in the teaser to Dreadnought , and Tom Paris joked about the pregnancy in the teaser to Lifesigns . The arrival of the baby is a pretty big deal. It is much an example of internal continuity and serialised storytelling as anything involving Michael Jonas and Tom Paris.

Indeed, there is an argument to be made that this might have been a much more effective model of serialisation going forward than the whole Kazon arc. Certainly, the second season is populated with a larger roster of more frequently recurring characters than any other season of Voyager; Wildman, Jonas, Hogan, Seska, Cullah, and even Denara Pel. However, most of these characters never appeared outside of this season; Wildman appeared as frequently in the second season as in the four seasons following.

“Don’t worry; some brass polish and a bit of paint, it’ll be as good as new.”

The birth of Naomi Wildman should be a huge moment for the Voyager crew. It marks another transitory moment for the series, a point at which Voyager should become anything but a standard Starfleet ship as the crew became less of a bunch of people who work together on a starship and more of a wandering family. However, Voyager had a habit of botching these moments; after all, Caretaker should have been an episode that marked Voyager as something mroe than just a Starfleet ship, with the integration of the Maquis and the arrival of Neelix and Kes.

Deadlock makes a great fuss about how big a moment this is. Neelix and the EMH separately describe the baby as their own; the bridge crew await news with bated breath. “You know, I didn’t expect to be this nervous,” Chakotay remarks. “It’s not even my child.” Janeway responds, “In a way, this child belongs to all of us.” It is a very nice sentiment, one that feels like Voyager might finally be willing to embrace its unique status quo in some small way. This is not a conventional Starfleet mission, and this is not a conventional Starfleet crew.

Laboured metaphor…

Sadly, this is not to be. Even ignoring the cynicism of killing off a child as a sucker-punch to the audience, the decision to kill the baby on arrival feels like more than just a shock moment. In a way, the death of Samantha Wildman’s child is a symbolic expression of the show’s deep-seated fear of change or growth. If Naomi Wildman’s arrival should mark a point of transition for the show away from a conventional and generic Star Trek show, then killing her off almost immediately is a way of offsetting that change and arresting that development.

Of course, Naomi Wildman does not remain dead. Perhaps the producers thought that killing off a child was too provocative a plot point; after all, Rick Berman had refused to let Ronald D. Moore kill Toral at the end of Redemption, Part II . Instead, the dead child is replaced by a perfect duplicate. It seems like Voyager ‘s love affair with the status quo almost cancels itself out. (The show is completely nonchalant about Samantha Wildman’s trauma; imagine knowing your child was a perfect duplicate of your dead baby?)

Are all the show’s troubles borne of this episode?

In some respects, the generic nature of the script works to the advantage of the episode. The high-concept idea at the heart of Deadlock is so big that it tends to crowd out the actual plot. Deadlock makes great use of the Vidiians as stock Star Trek baddies, right down to their eagerness to harvest the organs of a newborn baby. “Where’s the infant?” the Vidiian surgeon demands. “Set your bio-probe to maximum. Find it!” Those newborn baby organs are particular sweet, dammit! (It’s those delicious stem cells.)

To be fair, this isn’t really a problem. Lifesigns did a lot to humanise and develop the Vidiians, and the climax of Deadlock needs a bunch of heavies to prevent the episode from getting too bogged down in magic technobabble solutions to a pretty goofy science-fiction concept. If anything, Deadlock suggests that Voyager really chose to focus on the wrong villains in its first two seasons; the Vidiian hijacking of Voyager is a lot more unsettling and horrifying than a Kazon hijacking might be. (Not least because the Vidiians actually kill the crew when taking the ship.)

Kathryn’s core self…

That said, a lot of the success of Deadlock comes down to David Livingston’s direction. In Captains’ Logs Supplemental , Jeri Taylor explained that Livingston actually managed to bring Deadlock in significantly under time:

It was like eight or nine minutes short, and we kept writing scenes, and they just kept getting gobbled up on those stages. It’s much better to be long than to be short. There’s never any accounting for it. Why is one seventy-page script eight minutes long and with this one, with the same director, we had seventy-five pages and had to shoot two extra days to get enough material to make it long enough? It was not an inexpensive show as a result, but what I was pleased about was I would defy anybody to know what the added material is. It is seamless. Some of the added scenes are some of the better scenes. They do not stand out as fill at all.

Taylor is quite right; the episode works well enough as a whole that the new material doesn’t stand out; the episode never feels like it stops moving for any extended period of time. Even the talky scenes on the bridge add a bit of personality to an episode that is largely action-driven.

“I hope you liked The Search for Spock.”

However, just because something is good does not mean that its legacy is also good. That is one of the more interesting aspects of examining something like the Star Trek franchise in retrospect; it is easier to assess the impact and consequences of certain creative decisions with the benefit of hindsight than it is in the moment. Creative decisions that work for particular stories can have a detrimental effect when applied to an entire franchise. A lot of bold ideas work because they seem new or fresh; that novelty is lost through repetition.

It could be argued that Christopher Nolan’s work on The Dark Knight had a detrimental impact on Warner Brothers’ superhero output (and even comic book movies in general) by establishing “gritty verisimilitude” as a tone that worked really well for the Caped Crusader . Going back further, Goldfinger is one of the most beloved Bond movies ever made ; it is also the root of a whole host of the problems that would manifest themselves in the Roger Moore era . (It should be noted that Guy Hamilton also directed The Man with the Golden Gun .)

Empty victory…

Deadlock marks the point at which the flaws with Voyager all coalesce and become a defining feature of the  show. They aren’t necessarily fatal flaws here, with Deadlock moving fast enough to compensate for any issues that the audience might have. None of the problems with Deadlock are new, but this is the point at which they all come sharply into focus and at which Voyager comes to rely on them so heavily that they are worn through the carpet and into the show’s foundations.

Of course, the reason for this is because Deadlock is a very enjoyable piece of television. Had Investigations been a massive success and Deadlock arrived as a wet blanket, Voyager might have turned out very differently. It is impossible to ever know what might have been, but it is fun to speculate.

You might be interested in our other reviews from the second season of Star Trek: Voyager :

• Initiations
• Projections
• Non Sequitur
• Parturition
• Persistence of Vision
• Dreadnought
• Investigations
• Resolutions
• Basics, Part I

Episodes produced during the second season , but carried over to the third:

• Basics, Part II
• False Profits
• Sacred Ground

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Filed under: Voyager | Tagged: Brannon Braga , david livingston , deadlock , reset button , star trek: voyager , vidiians , voyager |

25 Responses

Some of the most memorable TNG episodes were the ones where the Enterprise-D got blasted to plasma and then time rewound to save them. (“Time Squared”, “Cause and Effect”, “Yesterday’s Enterprise”)

Your point about “Deadlock” being the Star Trek episode du jour is bang on. I’m just saying, I think the trend began long beforehand.

“It could be argued that Christopher Nolan’s work on The Dark Knight had a detrimental impact”

Now we’re opening up a can of worms. I hear it (and say it!) all the time. Every new James Bones movie is essentially GoldenEye, every Star Trek film is WoK, and every comic book eventually loops back around to Watchmen.

This is one of those topics which tends to go around in circles. I’ll try to explain why.

The truth is, things like James Bond, Star Trek, and comic books in general are gasping for relevancy in the 21st century, because they were crafted specifically for a certain audience and time. And we’re talking about really powerful brands, here. If we’re still producing Star Trek films, it’s because of branding, not necessarily because there are any new stories to tell. And yet, on a deeper level one can argue that *all* the stories are old, and brands like Star Trek simply tell the same stories with familiar faces. The Abrams movies are almost post-modern in how they shoved this reality in our faces.

It’s like the Doctor says in “Deep Breath”. If you keep replacing all the parts of a broom, is it the same broom? Well, No.

But by the same token, you can’t judge a Model T by a 2016 Fusion. They are completely different, and yet they are unequivocally of the same brand.

The difference between the TNG episodes and Deadlock is that there is a damaged Voyager that survives in Deadlock. In the TNG epsiodes usually everything returns to normal, it is not as if in Yesterday’s enterprise it is the battle damaged Enterprise D that survives. I would argue that Star Trek is still relevant, as Star Trek Into Darkness showed with its exploration of terrorism and drone culture. I agree that James Bond is not as culturally relevant, as it was in the 60s, but I do think Skyfall’s exploration of cyber terrorism was a good step forward. James Bond is a resiliant beast and has continuously adapted.

But he is, in the end, a romanticized Cold Warrior with a streak of commercialism in him. Nothing has really changed at all, his enemies are still vaguely eastern in origin, trying to chip away at the west–often times from within.

Ditto for Star Trek, which is arguably even more retro than Bond. Just because the movies pay lip-service to important topics doesn’t really make it relevant. It sort of justifies the movie’s existence, which already is wrong-footing the franchise. Because it presumes that Star Trek has something to say about the War on Terror, which a) it doesn’t, and b) the message is badly garbled, as with every other film since V.

Ironically, I think that Abrams’ Star Trek circled back around into relevance with the resurgent fascination with sixties idealism and utopianism that coincided with Obama’s election, but which was perhaps gradually eroded over time. I think you can credit the same culutral moment as leading to other films like Interstellar, which was an ode to both space exploration as a concept and sixties science-fiction cinema. (Perhaps The Man from U.N.C.L.E. might be seen as the last gasp of that particular trend.)

I like that Into Darkness tried to offer political commentary, even if I remain convinced that writing big-screen Star Trek is different than writing television Star Trek in a way that few fans will acknowledge. (Then again, I tend to be critical of several fan consensus opinions like the extent of the franchise’s “liberalism” or the credit that Star Trek deserves for making Uhura an inspiration to women like Whoopi Goldberg and Mae Jemison.)

I think the Bond movies are a nice capsule of where pop culture is at a given moment. The eighties seem to be bottled in the trilogy of A View to a Kill, The Living Daylights and License to Kill. The Brosnan movies speak at best (and worst) to the tastes and anxieties of the nineties. Even the aesthetic of the Daniel Craig movies is a freeze frame of contemporary narrative preferences. I’m not sure “relevence” is the term I’d use. Maybe “reflectiveness”?

I know that’s a cop-out that can be applied to just about any film (which obviously captures its moment), but I think it’s particularly true of the Bond franchise which tends to aggressively and unflinchingly chase pop culture trends to a greater extent than other long-running franchises.

You’re right that Star Trek had done this sort of story before. Even Deep Space Nine did it in Visionary. In fact, as you point out, Braga had done this sort of story before.

But I think Deadlock marks a point at which the production team kinda figures that this is the best (or at least one of the best) ways to tell a Voyager story. It is too much to say that it becomes the rule rather than the exception, but Deadlock very much standardises this approach to plotting for Voyager. (Deadlock, Year of Hell, Timeless, Relativity, Course Oblivion. I’m sure there are a few more. There’s certainly a higher density than TNG or DS9.)

I really like your comment about the Abrams movies as postmodern story recycling; instead of doing the Wrath of Khan with the Borg or Shinzon or the Augments, it just goes back to the beginning and does it with Khan. A reference recreated using a replica of an original element rather than an original creation slotted into a familiar role.

It wasn’t helped that they got the writers for the idiotic Michael Bay Transformers movies to write for the new Star Trek movies. The reasons the new Star Trek movies fail completely at relevancy is because they write the explosions first, then the actions scene, then the references, then they somehow try to stitch it all together into a “plot” to tell a “story”, but the reason it’s incoherent stupid nonsense is because they aren’t trying to tell a story, they just want to get to the lasers and explosions. “Explosions are relevant right? We’ll just get Khan to be a terrorist! He’ll blow things up and kill people for no reason, terrorists don’t have valid reasons. And we’ll be sure to hire a white actor, he’d be perfect for our exiled Indian Warlord! We wouldn’t want our moron audience to start thinking foreigners are bad, would we?”

I’d argue that Star Trek First Contact was a relevant story, because it gave the 30 year old franchise it’s first origin story. It’s just such a shame that we now live in a reboot/remake world now where half of everything now is an origin story. Star Trek was an amazing franchise that it had the patience to wait several decades before telling an origin story.

“Janeway also mounts a suicide assault on a superior enemy at the climax of Year of Hell, Part II. Voyager is crippled by an off-screen attack before The Killing Game, Part I even starts. Voyager crashes into an ice planet in Timeless. A duplicate Voyager blows up at the end of a shaggy dog story in Course: Oblivion.”

Great review, it really encapsulates just what the best parts of Voyager were, duplicates and the crew dying horribly. I hadn’t thought of it until now, but that really has been part of the best of Voyager, when it gets destroyed, or when we deal with duplicates/mirror versions. Even TNG’s best episodes often had the Enterprise exploding. This franchise has a morbid fascination with death.

“The idea of a duplicate ship or a duplicate self is something of a recurring motif in Voyager, making it remarkable that the show never produced a mirror universe episode.”

I’m actually glad Voyager never produced a Mirror Universe episode, Voyager as a series was above that and the Mirror Universe concept was very silly to begin with. It’s interesting that Voyager did get the cast have fun and to act like evil versions of themselves, but they did so in a way that told a meaningful story. Living Witness is a classic of the entire franchise, and you get to have the crew in SS inspired Starfleet uniforms beating prisoners and executing people, but that was all part of a commentary on revisionist history, a relevant topic (and perhaps a timeless one). And let’s not forget Author, Author which follows in the footsteps of The Measure Of A Man, while still having the fun of Janeway pointing a flintlock pistol at Neelix inside the most badass ready room in all of Star Trek (if Femshep ever had an office in Mass Effect, it’d look like that, that Henry Rifle pulls the room together!). Compare that to Mirror TOS! Which really had nothing to say other then “Oh noes! Evilz!”. Mirror ENT also had nothing to offer other then “Whee!~”. I suppose Mirror DS9 was trying to say something relevant, but for the life of me, I can’t remember what…”Lesbians are evil?”

And that just sorta creates of weird paradox, Voyager just loves throw-back stories of the past for the brainless fun of it, so why did it manage to handle the evil! crew so well? With meaningful stories to boot?

I think Mirror, Mirror is more nuanced than most give it credit for. As with Bread and Circuses, there’s a lot of “what if modern day America is Rome?” subtext running through it, that also ties into the mirroring of the Federation and the Romulans in Balance of Terror. During Vietnam, the implications were quite pointed, asking whether the audience wanted to imagine the Federation (which has always been a United States proxy) as a liberal open-minded and benign superpower or as a would-be imperialist bully.

I actually quite like the two Enterprise mirror universe episodes, coming as they do before Demons and Terra Prime. It’s very much a contrast that explains the stakes of that final episode. Paxton very much wants a future that looks like the mirror universe, while Archer represents more conventional Star Trek utopia. Again, at the time of Iraq and Afghanistan, it was quite a nice idea. And I didn’t mind the campness. More than that, I think it resonates a lot better today, in the era of resurgent nationalist sentiment. mirror!Archer and Paxton are very Trumpian/Farage-ian figures.

As for the DS9 mirror episodes… eh. I like Crossover as a critique of the original Star Trek, and I think it’s important in laying out the show’s stall so to speak. “This is DS9 and we’re going to be looking critically at the franchise,” is an important statement for a late second season episode. And I like Resurrection, because the whole “this is your dead lover but not your dead lover” is a great metaphorical sci-fi premise that was admittedly underexplored.

As for the rest? Meh. The other three mirror episodes felt like cast parties.

But, yes, Living Witness was aces.

One things that’s amusingly dark and morbid about this episode is the way the episode is framed, Naomi Wildman, the baby, is the first to die. Given Voyager’s deathly fear of internal continuity and serialized storytelling, AND that Braga killed off that unborn baby in “All Good Things”, there was a very real chance that that baby has died for real, and the episode uses Voyager’s fear of commitment to generate real tension. Which really paints Star Trek as really dark when you think “Oh thank god, they let the baby live…this time.” And just look what happens to that poor poor baby that actually died, it lost its cell cohesion, so in essence, it’s MELTING! Meanwhile, the “lucky” baby has her mother murdered in a hospital bed and harvested for organs and nearly having its own organs stolen. Dear god, not even Game of Thrones was this brutal… Why would anyone want to have children in this horrifying galaxy?? The next to die is Harry Kim, the character the writers tried to kill off in Scorpion. It’s interesting that the episode has the most expendable characters die first, so it is never immediately obvious that everything is going to back to normal at the end, this could very well be a housecleaning episode to get rid of problem characters. Lord knows that if Neelix fell out into space next, I don’t think the audience would blink twice.

Those are all very good points, actually.

Nurse Ogawa miscarried in All Good Things but when Picard collapsed the anomaly that timeline never happened. Another example of Brannon Braga’s fondness of the reset button.

Just once it might have been nice for a heavily damaged Voyager to carry over to the next episode. Like say in Innocence, we could have had a scene where Janeway and Chakotay tell Alcia that they can’t promise her a full tour of the ship because they’re still repairing the damage from Deadlock.

Having the Vidiians show up in the final act is a masterstroke because with all the action and everything with duplicate crews, I think we’d forgotten about how close they were to Vidiian space so it makes sense that one of their ships would swoop in on the helpless Voyager(s).

TNG could also be guilty of having an itchy reset finger. When Tasha Yar died in Skin of Evil, by the time of We’ll Always Have Paris, it’s almost as if she were never there, especially to a TNG novice. Whereas on DS9 when Jadzia died, the series took three whole episodes to deal with her loss.

It’s funny that Chakotay is so nervous about the birth of Naomi Wildman that he’s forgotten about the impending birth of his own son. Richard Donner wanted verisimilitude when he made Superman: The Movie (although he did have to explain the word first to the crew). In Maneouvres, Voyager was attacked by the Kazon after the teaser. And I’m surprised you could resist an Invasion of the Body Snatchers joke Darren under the picture of the Vidiians about to steal some of Tuvok’s organs.

Ha! Truth be told, that’s a better gag than what I came up with.

I like the observation abotu Chakotay’s son. In fact, I’d completely forgotten about it during that scene. It makes the “it’s not even my child” line seem slightly grimmer than the cast plays it, with big goofy grins.

Thanks Darren. I think these captions comes from watching episodes of Frasier and The Adventures of Brisco County Jr which liked to include humourous captions in between scenes. I wish I could think of more but they don’t always come to me right away.

Or how about this one? “A surgical strike team”.

A very interesting review, but you want to use “bated breath”, not “baited breath”. I don’t think I’ve ever used the verb “bate” except in this stock phrase, but “abate” is related and more common.

Thanks Doug. Corrected!

Good script. Good direction.

I have to assume Ktarians (or half Ktarians) grow another horn when they age as the baby had 3 and the child and adult had 4.

I assume it’s like teeth or body hair or something. It’s far from the most improbable piece of Star Trek biology. Hell, while Kes is on the ship, it’s also far from the most inexplicable biology on Voyager!

But, yeah. Deadlock is great.

Fascinating review! Deadlock seems to be the seed or pattern of all things to come in Voyager – and what a seed! The show feels almost cineastic, and killing off the baby was a very efficient move – despite the underlying laziness or anxiety on the writer’s part it might suggest. And I did like a lot the conclusion that the better off Voyager-version had to go. A shame the ship was repaired just minutes after its nearly total destruction.

One blatant logical flaw in my mind is that the crew of the one ship never transfered to the duplicate. Why just Harry and the baby? Sure, it is dramatically sound; the ship might not be able to sustain more crewmembers. But just imagine if there would be a replacement if needed. Only half shifts all the time. I would love to have a double me at least in that case (not that I would want to interact with me).

Didn’t B’elanna say they couldn’t do it. Atomic balance, both ships destroyed, etc.?

“What about evacuating your crew to my ship? It might get a little crowded, but we could manage.” “We’ve been studying that theory. And my B’Elanna tells me that sending any more than five to ten people through the rift would radically alter the atomic balance of the two Voyagers. We’d both be destroyed.”

Thanks for the correction. Reminds me a bit of this Lazarus-episode from TOS.

In my opinion, Voyager’s best episode.

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Deadlock (Star Trek: Voyager)

21st episode of the 2nd season of star trek: voyager / from wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, dear wikiwand ai, let's keep it short by simply answering these key questions:.

Can you list the top facts and stats about Deadlock (Star Trek: Voyager)?

Summarize this article for a 10 year old

" Deadlock " is the 37th episode of Star Trek: Voyager , the 21st episode of the second season . [1] In this television show, part of the Star Trek franchise , a Federation ship is stranded on the opposite side of the Galaxy as Earth in the late 2300s. On its way home the starship encounters many species of aliens and outer space phenomenon. In this episode their ship is split into two versions of itself sharing the same power source, while being attacked by a species of organ harvesting aliens known as the Vidiian .

The episode aired on UPN on March 18, 1996. [2]

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• A schism duplicates everything in Voyager; except the antimatter, which both ships share. As one ship rips apart, the other comes under attack from organ-harvesting Vidiians.
• A "spatial scission" causes Voyager to be duplicated. One of the Voyagers is under heavy attack from the Vidiians while the other remains impervious. Both Captain Janeways work together and agree to sacrifice one ship to save the other. Before self-sacrifice, the doomed Voyager sends its version of Ensign Kim and newborn Naomi Wildman to the other ship to replace the Kim that was killed in the attack and the baby who died from complications shortly after birth. — Meribor

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While trying to avoid the Vidiians, Voyager travels to a region of space that will disguise them from their sensors. Subsequently, an onboard disaster occurs while Ensign Wildman is having her baby, which causes problems for the Doctor.

Nancy Hower

Simon Billig

Ray Proscia

Robert Clendenin

Keythe Farley

Chris Johnston

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Kate Mulgrew

Robert Beltran

Roxann Dawson

Jennifer Lien

Robert Duncan McNeill

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http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Recap/StarTrekVoyagerS2E21Deadlock

Recap / Star Trek Voyager S 2 E 21 "Deadlock"

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It's midday aboard Voyager , and Neelix is serving tea to a very pregnant Ensign Wildman. He ropes her into doing some tech support around the galley, until she suddenly goes into labor and is rushed off to Sickbay.

With nothing else to do, the bridge crew is waiting with bated breath for news about the ship's first baby, until Tuvok reports that they are approaching a heavily trafficked Vidiian system. Voyager redirects into a nearby plasma drift to avoid what would certainly be a fatal confrontation.

A complication with Wildman's delivery, caused by the baby's forehead ridges , forces the Doctor to perform a fetal transport. Apart from an easily treated hemocythemic imbalance, the delivery is a complete success.

A jolt to the ship immediately follows, and Voyager begins to lose antimatter — and thus main power — for no apparent reason. Janeway suggests a sequence of proton bursts might work as a stop gap, but before Torres can prepare, the ship starts being hit repeatedly... by proton bursts?

Coming seemingly from nowhere, the bursts wreak havoc on the ship. Casualties flood into Sickbay as the brutal pounding tears at the hull and internals alike. Torres has no explanation for the source of the proton bursts, since she never had time to start them, though she sees something rather unexpected when Kes, rushing to help a wounded Hogan, suddenly disappears through an unseen barrier.

The Bridge finally manages to stem the damage by magnetizing the hull, but whatever relief this buys them is small comfort next to the enormous litany of damage Tuvok has to report. Severe hull damage, no power, inoperable warp coils, failing environmentals, tens of casualties, and two deaths... Harry Kim, and Ensign Wildman's newborn child.

The reprieve doesn't last . Before Janeway can finish giving out new orders, the hull magnetization fails and the furious assault resumes. The Bridge itself becomes the next victim, forcing the command crew to evacuate to Engineering. As Janeway is leaving, she sees ghostly images of herself and the crew, sitting in their usual places. Then, from another bridge, another Janeway looks back at a similar, but much more haggard silhouette.

The Janeway from the pristine, undamaged Bridge immediately reports what she saw and orders a not-dead Ensign Kim to scan for anomalies. She then goes to Sickbay to check on Wildman's equally not-dead daughter, and the unconscious figure of the Kes who disappeared from the damaged ship.

When the duplicate Kes regains consciousness and recounts her story, things start to make sense. Voyager hit a divergence field in the nebula that caused all matter — but not anti matter — to be duplicated. Meaning there are now two ships and two crews, linked by the spatial rift on Deck 15 that Kes fell through, but with only one source of energy to sustain them.

Janeway's first order of business is to stop the proton bursts that are tearing their twin apart, but now it's a race against time with their power rapidly hemorrhaging. The two ships establish communication to coordinate a solution to their predicament. When their first attempt to merge the ships back together fails, the two captains meet in person to brainstorm alternatives. They can't merge the ships without both blowing up. They can't separate the ships without both blowing up. They can't move the crew of one ship to the other without both blowing up . The captain of the damaged ship tells her counterpart to return so they can try the merge again, but the latter sees through her: she's going to destroy her ship to save the other.

The healthy Janeway convinces her partner to give her 15 more minutes to work the problem back on her ship. Before they can come up with anything, a massive Vidiian warship discovers them , eager to find their prey so helpless.

It seems only the intact Voyager is visible to the attackers, but without power or weapons, it is defenseless against such a huge opponent. The Vidiians board their ship with overwhelming numbers, cutting through the crew with impunity. With no hope of repelling them, Janeway orders Kim to find Wildman's baby and take her to the other Voyager , then initiates the self-destruct sequence.

The Doctor has been hiding the child from the Vidiians in a corner of Sickbay, just long enough to be rescued by a dramatic ambush from Kim. He takes her with him to Deck 15 and crosses over to the other Voyager . Moments later, the Vidiians reach the Bridge of his former ship just in time to see the final seconds of the countdown.

Janeway: Hello, I'm Captain Kathryn Janeway . Welcome to the Bridge . Vidiian: Commander...!

The ship explodes, taking the Vidiians with them and leaving the remaining ship behind — still damaged, but alive, with its crew intact, and enough power to recover and continue on its way.

This episode provides examples of:

• Action Survivor : When Harry praises the Doctor for saving the baby he comments dryly, "I am programmed to be heroic when the need arises."
• Bait-and-Switch : It looks like the damaged duplicate Voyager will be sacrificed, but then Vidiian soldiers swarm the other, intact Voyager .
• Battle Discretion Shot : The Vidiians break into Sickbay. After cutting to what's happening on the bridge, we cut back to an unconscious DamagedVoyager!Kes laid out on a biobed.
• Big "NO!" : IntactVoyager!Harry when he encounters the empty maturation chamber, thinking the Vidiians have taken the baby . Fortunately that lets the Doctor, who's hiding with the baby, know he's there.
• Bizarre Alien Reproduction : Tuvok of course has to one-up the humans when he says his wife was in labor for four days. No wonder Vulcans only have sex every seven years!
• Boarding Party : The Vidiian boarding party outnumbers the crew of the Intact Voyager by at least 2-to-1, making it quite clear that defeat is inevitable.
• Call-Back : IntactVoyager!Harry wondering whether he is "really" Harry at the end parallels Future!O'Brien's musings at the end of DS9 's "Visionary".
• Casting a Shadow : A much larger Vidiian warship casts a menacing shadow over Voyager as it moves into position above them. It's a shadow IN SPACE!
• Character Development : As the attack continues, Samantha asks the Doctor if her baby is going to die. Instead of the unemotional response he would have given earlier in his life, he tells her, "Not if I can help it!"
• Chekhov's Gun : Voyager detects a Vidiian system nearby and changes course to avoid it. Guess who shows up for the climax...
• Cold Equation : Two Voyager 's, one severely damaged. Attempting to fully separate them would destroy both vessels. Trying to evacuate the crew through the rift joining them would destabilize it to the same result. So when DamagedVoyager!Janeway , tells her counterpart to go back to her own vessel, they both realise she intends to blow up her own ship to preserve the other.
• Cut the Juice : Both Voyager 's are sharing the same anti-matter supply. This leaves them helpless when the Vidiian warship turns up, as they've no power for weapons or shields.
• Cuteness Proximity : Everyone reacts as expected to the baby, even the Doctor.
• Dead Alternate Counterpart : Ensign Wildman's daughter and Harry, both of whom had their DamagedVoyager selves killed off while their selves from the intact Voyager take their places on the damaged Voyager . The scene of Harry going to Sickbay to rescue baby Wildman seems to indicate that IntactVoyager!Samantha may have already been killed by the Vidiians.
• Death Is Cheap : DamagedVoyager!Harry dies by being cast out into space , then DamagedVoyager!Samantha's baby dies. Then the entire IntactVoyager crew dies, except for IntactVoyager!Harry and IntactVoyager!Baby Girl Wildman who are carried to the damaged Voyager .
• Early-Installment Weirdness : Deck 15 in this episode is portrayed as just another standard looking deck with standard doors, carpet, and Jefferies Tubes, even though it is at the bottom of the ship. In the later episode "Good Shepherd" , Deck 15 is a utility deck that looks less comfortable and more mechanical in design (though it's possible those are just two separate areas of Deck 15 shown in either episode).
• Escort Mission : Harry is ordered to haul a baby through 10 decks, while avoiding hundreds of Vidiian invaders, in 5 minutes before the ship explodes.
• In-Universe , though both Janeways obviously want to save both crews, it becomes apparent that there is no such solution, so the Janeway of the damaged Voyager pragmatically decides to make the Heroic Sacrifice . The ironic twist is that her ship turns out to be the lucky one when the unstoppable Vidiian warship comes for the other.
• Out-of-universe, the duplication of Voyager did not include the crew's Plot Armor . Several main characters die, though only one of each, and the surviving ship's losses (Harry and Naomi) are replaced by their counterparts from the doomed ship before it is destroyed.
• Explosive Decompression : Poor Harry.
• Explosive Instrumentation : All over the place.
• Face Death with Dignity : Janeway and the rest of the doomed Voyager crew face their imminent explosion with supreme stoicism.
• Generation Ship : Nope — this is the first baby born on Voyager , and the last until the final episode . Janeway: Voyager isn't exactly anyone's idea of a nursery, and the Delta Quadrant isn't much of a playground. Chakotay: My father had a saying , Captain. Home is wherever you happen to be.
• When Kim and Torres are working to repair the hull breach on Deck 15, Torres realizes they don't have enough time to both repair it and get out alive. She orders Kim to get away from the ever-widening breach, but he ignores her, saying he just needs a little bit more time — then the ship is hit with a large jolt, causing him to lose his footing and be killed as he is blown out into space.
• Due to there being two Voyagers drawing from the same power source, one needs to be destroyed for either to make it out in one piece. The doomed Voyager also takes out the Vidiians with it, self-destructing while they're ransacking the place.
• Hollywood Tactics : The crew shows remarkably poor discipline when defending the ship from the Vidiians. Even Tuvok gets taken out, because he and his backup both check the same direction coming out of a turbolift instead of them each looking one way.
• Hologram Projection Imperfection : The Doctor has an Oh, Crap! moment when a power loss causes him to flicker and drop his tricorder just as he's trying to cope with a flood of casualties into Sickbay.
• Infinite Supplies : Averted; the ship's matter has been duplicated, but its anti-matter has not, which means two ships are draining power from a single warp drive.
• Improbable Infant Survival : Subverted with the death of the newborn Naomi on the damaged Voyager , but then Double Subverted (in a sense) when her IntactVoyager counterpart is rescued.
• In the Back : How Tom Paris gets shot, during a running battle in the corridors.
• Internal Homage : To Star Trek III: The Search for Spock . A Vidiian boarding party reaches the duplicate Voyager 's bridge only to be greeted by the last seconds of a self-destruct countdown, although unlike Kirk and company, Janeway and the bridge crew had stayed aboard.
• I Surrender, Suckers : Apart from Harry Kim escaping with Naomi Wildman, the intact Voyager just sits back and lets the Vidiians come on board their ship...just before it self-destructs.
• Longest Pregnancy Ever : The writers appeared to forget that the first mention of Wildman's pregnancy in "Elogium" wasn't actually when the baby was conceived, which was before the show even started. This was Handwaved in later episodes by the child being a Half-Human Hybrid , which basically doubled the gestation period.
• Match Cut : From Torres entering commands into a console, to the alternate Torres doing the same.
• Maternity Crisis : Averted; things start going to hell the moment after the baby is born.
• The Medic : Kes has to fulfil this role because the Doctor can't leave Sickbay. When she vanishes, Tom has to leave the conn to help out the Doctor (it's not like they're going anywhere).
• Mood Whiplash : Captain Janeway is forced to evacuate the destroyed bridge, but is startled to see a ghostly image of herself and the other Bridge crew calmly sitting in their seats. We then cut to that crew, on an intact bridge, with Janeway staring at a ghostly image of herself "looking like hell". This is our first indication of there being two Voyager 's.
• MST3K Mantra : In-Universe by Captain Janeway when Harry suffers an existential crisis about whether he's really Harry Kim or just a copy of him, leading Janeway to tell him that he's real enough, and add the following zinger: Janeway : Mr. Kim, we're Starfleet officers. Weird is part of the job.
• Negative Space Wedgie : The subspace divergence field, aka spatial scission.
• No Time to Explain
• The Doctor looks appropriately horrified when a proton burst hits and his program briefly fritzes out.
• By the time the Vidiians realize Janeway has initiated and muted the self-destruct sequence , they've boarded the bridge with mere seconds left.
• Point of Divergence : The duplication was completely unnoticed by either side, and thus both crews were completely normal until they identified the anti-matter leak. Both determined the same action to try and stop it, but one got to it a second faster. The resulting "repairs" is what caused significant damage to the other Voyager.
• Race Against the Clock : Harry Kim is ordered to haul a baby through 10 decks in 5 minutes before the ship explodes.
• Reset Button : In an episode featuring a pristine Voyager and a damaged Voyager, the one beaten to hell is the one that survives. We see repairs consisting of crewmen replacing bulkhead panels in a well-lit corridor with clean carpets, and by the next episode everything is perfectly fine.
• Running Gag : The DamagedVoyager!Doctor asks if his IntactVoyager counterpart had decided on a name.
• Screaming Birth : Justified when you're giving birth to a Half-Human Hybrid with forehead spikes. Even more justified when the baby manages to position herself incorrectly and those spikes dig into your uterus . Somehow, "ouch" doesn't seem to cover it.
• Self-Destruct Mechanism : When it becomes clear that the Vidiians are going to succeed in their takeover, the Janeway on the intact Voyager initiates the self-destruct and destroys the ship (notably marking the only time in an episode of the TV series that a self-destruct isn't aborted).
• Status Quo Is God : Janeway orders Harry and the baby over to the damaged Voyager to replace the ones they've lost, before blowing up the ship. On a vessel crawling with hundreds of Vidiian soldiers, they make it unharmed.
• Stealth in Space : It all comes about because Voyager has strayed into Vidiian space and tries to hide inside a "plasma drift" (whatever that is).
• Suspiciously Small Army : It's a bit confusing as to why small groups of Voyager crew are getting curbstomped by equally small groups of Vidiians in corridor shoot-outs. Then we cut to the bridge, where Chakotay asserts that hundreds of Vidiians are swarming the ship, twice the number of Starfleet crewmen. We'll just have to take his word for it.
• Take My Hand! : Harry has the Jeffries tube blow out to vacuum beneath him, leaving him hanging by a rung. B'Elanna grabs his other hand but he slips out of her grip and out into space.
• Taking You with Me : The Voyager that explodes takes out the Vidiians as well.
• Technobabble : Doubled, what with two Captain Janeway's and Chief Engineer Torres's on screen.
• Textile Work Is Feminine : Captain Janeway mentions that she's been making a blanket for the baby.
• That's an Order! : When IntactVoyager!Harry balks at crossing over to the damaged Voyager , leaving everyone else to die as Janeway sets off the Self-Destruct Mechanism . Janeway: Harry, you've got five minutes. Get the baby. Harry: But Captain— Janeway: Move it, Ensign! That's an order!
• That's What I Would Do : This trope works better than usual when you're dealing with yourself. Janeway: You're going to self-destruct your ship . Janeway: What makes you say that? Janeway: Because that's what I would do if your Voyager were intact and my Voyager were crippled.
• Trash the Set : But don't worry, it'll all be fixed by next week .
• Unnecessary Combat Roll : Ensign Kim ducks a phaser blast with a combat roll and comes up shooting.

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Weird is part of the job.

Ensign Kim died and has been replaced with another Ensign Kim from a duplicate Voyager that was destroyed. He thinks the situation he is in is weird. Captain Janeway says that as Starfleet Officers, weird is part of the job.

Example of: But for Me, It Was Tuesday

• Star Trek Voyager S 2 E 20 "Investigations"
• Recap/Star Trek: Voyager
• Star Trek Voyager S 2 E 22 "Innocence"

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The star gazer.

Voyager enters a new region of space to explore, but Captain Janeway soon discovers that they are entering a dangerous area. The ship enters a deadly plasma storm that quickly causes the ship to be torn apart. Despite a valiant effort from the crew, they are unable to escape the storm. Even Janeway’s attempts to generate a new warp core fail. With the ship in danger of breaking apart, and the crew unable to do anything, Janeway is forced to make the ultimate decision. She activates the Emergency Medical Hologram’s caretaker protocol and uses the EMH’s mobile emitter to send a duplicate of Voyager into the storm, the duplicate ship being completely identical to the original, thereby creating a “deadlock” situation.

The duplicate ship is a success, and the crew of the original Voyager is able to escape the storm. However, the crew of the duplicate ship is trapped within the storm. To make matters worse, the duplicate Voyager is slowly dropping out of warp, and the EMH is unable to take control of the ship. With limited power and resources, the crew is unable to maintain the ship’s inertial dampening field, which is slowly breaking down. With the crew in danger of being killed by the storm, they must find a way to regain control of the ship and safely escape the storm.

Meanwhile, back on the original Voyager, the crew discovers that the duplicate ship is being piloted by a mysterious alien race. The aliens inform Janeway that they are monitoring the situation and will offer assistance if needed. Despite Janeway’s initial reluctance, she eventually agrees to allow the aliens to help. With their assistance, the crew of the duplicate ship begins the long process of restoring the ship’s systems. They are successful in stabilizing the ship, but still need to find a way to regain control.

The crew discovers that the only way to control the duplicate ship is to connect it to a quantum singularity, which is located inside the plasma storm. With the help of the aliens, the crew is able to link the ship to the singularity, allowing them to control the ship. But the singularity will eventually destabilize, destroying the ship in the process.

With only a limited amount of time, the crew must find a way to stabilize the singularity before it implodes and destroys their ship. With the help of the aliens, they are able to make a daring plan to increase the singularity’s stability. With seconds to spare, the crew is able to successfully stabilize the singularity, allowing them to regain control of the duplicate ship and escape the storm.

The crew of the duplicate ship is able to return to the original Voyager, where Janeway thanks her crew for their heroic efforts. With the help of the mysterious aliens, the crew of Voyager is able to make it out of the deadly plasma storm alive.

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Equinox (part 2), persistence of vision.

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Star Trek: Voyager - Episode Guide - Season 2

A handful of episodes originally slated to conclude Star Trek: Voyager season 1 instead lead off season 2 in rather ho-hum fashion, excepting maybe “The 37s” which too was marred by the awful characterization of Fred Noonan. Star Trek noobs and hardcore fans alike could have some difficultly trawling through the episodes of season 2, as the low-stakes stories and muted character interrelations of this series continue.

In lieu of proper baddies such as Klingons, Romulans and Borg (and how much better does Voyager get when the Borg enter the scene?), season 2 appears to be an attempt to sell viewers on the badassness of the Kazon. How the Borg have failed to conquer these relative wusses’ space is beyond Star Trek Guide’s comprehension.

And along the way to descending into soap operatics to finally crash and burn in a pretty lame cliffhanger, we’re served up two of the most hideously awful episodes ever in “Tuvix” and “Threshold.”

So, yeah, not one of the better ST seasons.

1. The 37s – The Voyager crew discovers not only an Earth-like colony on a planet where it sure shouldn’t be, but also a handful of individuals from 1937, including Amelia Earhart and obnoxiously-portrayed navigator Fred Noonan. ***

2. Initiations – Chakotay takes a shuttlecraft to perform a ritual (don’t ask) and is attacked by a zealous Kazon youth whose own coming-of-age rite calls on him to kill a stranger. Spirit animal, my people, etc. *

3. Projections – Head trip for The Doctor! (Of course; it’s directed by Johnathan Frakes.) The Doctor comes online to find the Enterprise (nearly) empty of personnel and is then told that it is he who is real and the Voyager is in fact- a holodeck hologram! The first of many episodes is which Robert Picardo gets to shine. ****

4. Elogium – As Voyager passes through a cloud of interesting space cicadas (or something like that), Kes goes though the Elogium, kinda like Pon Farr for her race and … well, just imagine watching a lot of Neelix ruminating over whether he wants to be a father. Yeah. **

5. Non-Sequitur – Head trip for Harry Kim, who wakes up in San Francisco, living an everyday life and having never boarded Voyager. ***

6. Twisted – Time and space are distorting Voyager like Escher in 4D; various pairs and trios attempt to maneuver their way through an ever-changing ship. Pretty good stuff, but we’re denied a potential awesome wideshot of a twisted Voyager and/or the bridge crew running about the ship as though in an Escher illustration. ***

7. Parturition – Neelix reaches an apex of annoying usefulness, as he spends most of this episode arguing with Paris over the affections of Kes. In the end, the boys essentially agree that Kes is already more or less Neelix’s possession. Is this even Star Trek? 0

8. Persistence of Vision – Head trip for everyone … literally! Hallucinations and catatonia for everyone except for the show’s stars, then pretty much everyone. ***

9. Tattoo – When Chakotay encounters aliens with identical tattoos, he thinks he’s found an essential part of his ancestry … or something. **

10. Cold Fire – The Voyager crew discovers a second “Caretaker”; this particular caretaker has been taking care of some Ocampas for about 300 years. Kes attempts to act as go-between for Voyager, who reckon this Caretaker might send them home; unfortunately, she’s not as sympathetic as the original … ***

11. Maneuvers – A group of Kazon board the Enterprise, steal transporter technology and kidnap Chakotay, all in an effort to unite the various Kazon factions. And Seska returns to torment Chakotay and bump the soapiness of her sub-plotline up a notch. ***

12. Resistance – On an away mission, Tuvok and B’Elanna are captured while Janeway is injured. She is nursed back to health by an aged member of the resistance who believes the captain to be his daughter. He is not as he seems, etc. **

13. Prototype – Voyager retrieves a robot adrift in space and Torres revives it. The robot rewards her by abducting her (that’s three episodes in a row with at least one kidnapping; quite a common theme on Voyager, eh?) and forcing her to assist in building new robots. Some interesting – and chilling – plot twists in this one. ***

14. Alliances – In the first of many bad-idea alliances, Janeway reckons that allying the Voyager with one or more Kazon groups might help them more easily transverse the damn Delta Quadrant. Fortunately, she realizes the idea went to hell quickly enough… **

15. Threshold – Often cited as the worst episode of Star Trek ever, the “plot” goes something like this: Paris exceeds warp 10 in a shuttlecraft thanks to new experimental technology. He passes through every point in the Universe, evolves into a giant worm-like thing and impregnates the now worm-like Janeway. Must be seen to be believed. 0

16. Meld – How dark does Voyager get? Well, the story arc of Lon Suder doesn’t get much darker. This psychotically straight-up murders a comrade, then begins a therapeutic process with Tuvok. ***

17. Dreadnought – An episode which answers the question, “Is that an AI missile from Cardassia in your tractor beam or are you just happy to see me?” Trust STG here: That joke was undeniably more fun to compose than sitting through this snooze fest. *

18. Death Wish – Two Q, one the familiar trickster played by John DeLancie and the other a rather bubbly would-be suicide. The two try to hash out the issue of upper-dimensional euthanasia in classic style before bringing Janeway and others to the Q’s Beckettesque homeland. ****

19. Lifesigns – To save a Vidiian woman’s life from the Phage, The Doctor downloads her mental processes into a hologram- soon enough, she proclaims she’d rather not go back to her old body. ***

20. Investigations – A neat bit of espionage engineered by Janeway and Tuvok and involving Paris is nearly blown to smithereens when Neelix decides to start producing a daily television news ‘n’ gossip roundup show. (Why would a group of 150 living in a very small space need a news show about the community, anyway…?) Thank the gods that these cutesy nonsense episodes are soon forgotten. **

21. Deadlock – Ah, good old-fashioned temporal paradoxes! A second, alternate-unvierse Voyager is called into existence and one must be sacrificed to Vidiians for the sake of the other. A surprising twist at the end caps a suspenseful episode. ****

22. Innocence – Tuvok and a Red Shirt crash land on an uninhabited moon. Tuvok finds three children who were also aboard a crash-landed ship. Naturally, the children aren’t simple children … ***

23. The Thaw – The Voyager crew finds a handful of aliens kept in stasis (and a mental hell) by a being of their own creation. Why would they willingly create a creepy clown? Well… **

24. Tuvix – A transporter accident (wow, did Voyager have problems with those transporters) results in a highly stupid physical merger of Tvok and Neelix. We mean *really* stupid. Like “Faces”-level stupid. 0

25. Resolutions – Janeway and Chakotay contract a disease which apparently has no effect if they stay on a given planet. They do so and live together for a couple months before Captain Tuvok returns with the ship and everything’s hunky-dory again. **

26. Basics, Part I – And here the soap opera utterly takes over. Seska has a baby that she claims in Chakotay’s – not made the ordinary way, mind you, but by taking some sample of his DNA – and, after a vision in which his father demands that this baby is one of Their People and he must take it away, Janeway agrees to go out of the way to confront the Kazon she’s hanging with. Naturally – and every viewer surely guessed – that Seska was in league with the Kazon. They easily take Voyager and leave the entire crew on a pretty useless planet with a Stone Age population. **

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Star Trek Voyager: An Episode Roadmap

Our viewing guide for Star Trek Voyager, if you want to get going quickly...

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This article originally ran on Den of Geek UK .

Maps To TV Shows: Is there a popular show you’d really like to watch but you just don’t have time to wade through years of it all at once? Do you just want to know why that one character keeps turning up on Tumblr? Do the fans all tell you ‘season one is a bit iffy but stick with it, it gets great!’, leaving you with absolutely zero desire ever to watch the boring/silly/just plain weird season one? Then Maps To TV Shows is for you!

In these articles, we’ll outline routes through popular TV shows focusing on particular characters, story arcs or episode types. Are you really into the Klingon episodes of Star Trek: The Next Generation ? Do you want to get the overall gist of the aliens arc on The X-Files ? Or perhaps you’d rather avoid aliens and watch the highlights of their Monsters of the Week? Do you just want to know who that guy dressed like Constantine is? In these articles, we’ll provide you with a series of routes through long-running shows designed for new viewers so that you can tailor your journey through the very best TV has to offer. While skipping most of season one. It gets better.

N.B. Since part of the aim of these articles is to encourage new viewers, spoilers will be kept to a minimum. However, be aware that due to the nature of the piece, certain elements of world-building, bad guy-revelation, late character arrivals etc. will be spoiled, and looking at the details of one suggested ‘route’ may spoil another.

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Poor Voyager is probably Star Trek ’s least loved child overall. It competes with Enterprise for the dubious honour of the title Least Popular Series of Star Trek , and unlike Enterprise , it is rarely defended on the grounds of trying to do something interesting at some point its run or just starting to get good when it got cancelled. It also produced the only episode seriously considered as a rival to Spock’s Brain for the position of Worst Episode of Star Trek  Ever Made, and the fact it later produced two episodes that might be said to be even worse doesn’t really help its case.

Watch Star Trek: Voyager on Amazon Prime

However, Voyager is my personal favorite series of Star Trek . For all its many flaws, it offered a likeable set of characters who often didn’t seem to be taking any of it too seriously. It is, to date, the only Star Trek series with a female captain in the starring role, and for those of us of the feminine persuasion, that’s a draw (plus Kate Mulgrew’s Janeway is her own breed of awesome, even if she seems to change her mind about the Prime Directive from week to week). It boasted two talented actors in Robert Picardo and Jeri Ryan and made use of them – too much, perhaps, but if you’ve got it, flaunt it. The rest of the crew were also good actors when given good material, and pleasant company to be in on a weekly basis.

When I was growing up, we watched Voyager as a family (two teenagers, two parents) and everyone was able to enjoy it equally, while its episodic nature, so frustrating to those who preferred Deep Space Nine ’s more arc-based structure, was perfect for the four of us to relax with from week to week without worrying if we missed an episode. I also watched it with friends from school, and again, being able to jump around the series picking whichever episode we felt like watching without explaining a complicated arc to someone who hadn’t seen it before was a bonus. It’s purely a matter of personal taste, but some of us actually like episodic television.

I’m pretty sure I’ll never convince Voyager ’s detractors to see it in a fresh light, but for anyone who’d like to give the show a go to see if it was really as bad as all that, these suggested routes through the series may help. Alternatively, if you’re curious to see why the show has such a bad reputation (or if you hate Voyager and want to revel in how right you feel you are), there is a hate-watch route and for all that I love it, it had to be said, Voyager did produce some real stinkers in its day. Entertaining stinkers in some cases, at least!

Route 1: Honestly, this show is really good

There are a few of us for whom Voyager is our favourite series of Star Trek , and hopefully these episodes will show you why. Even season two produced some gems among what was, overall, a rather dull experience (one of Voyager ’s problems was that the first series featured the usual teething troubles, and the second series was really quite bad, which presumably put off a lot of viewers).

Season One:

Eye Of The Needle

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Caretaker is one of Star Trek ’s best pilots; many were disappointed with the show because they felt its promise was not followed up on (those of us who started watching later in its run were less likely to be disappointed, of course). To describe what makes Eye Of The Needle great would be to spoil it so we won’t, while Faces features some fine character work from Roxann Dawson as B’Elanna Torres. Add Ex Post Facto , a fairly bland but quite fun episode, if you like whodunnits.

Season Two:

Tuvok’s dark side was always worth seeing and it comes out the strongest in Meld , while ‘the holographic doctor falls in love’ is a much better episode than it sounds in Lifesigns , which explores illness and self-confidence, among other things. Death Wish is probably the best Q episode in all of Star Trek , while Deadlock toys with being really quite brutal for a moment (before pulling back – this is still Star Trek , after all). If you enjoy more experimental episodes, add The Thaw , which appears on some people’s ‘best of’ lists and others’ ‘worst of’ – it’s certainly an acquired taste but it’s genuinely creepy (on purpose) and please note, its virtual world pre-dates The Matrix . Tuvix is also rather controversial, but raises some interesting issues and features some good performances.

Season Three:

Future’s End Parts 1&2

Before And After

Scorpion Part 1

The Chute features energetic performances from Robert Duncan McNeil and Garrett Wang, and some lovely cinematography in a fairly intense story. Future’s End is good time travel-based fun while Before And After features a teaser for one of the series’ best stories, season four’s Year Of Hell . The first two-parter to feature the Borg, Scorpion Part 1, was really excellent – the Borg were rather over-used later in the series, but in this initial appearance, they are as terrifying and as impressive as ever. Add Basics Part 2 for a great performance (as always) from Brad Dourif. Add Macrocosm if Die Hard on Voyager with giant bugs, starring Janeway in a vest, is your particular cup of tea.

Season Four:

Scorpion Part 2

Year Of Hell Parts 1&2

Message In A Bottle

Living Witness

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Hope And Fear

Season four was Voyager ’s strongest season overall and included of its best overall episodes – Scorpion Part 2 , Year Of Hell (in which the use of the reset button is entirely justified) and Living Witness , an exploration of the nature of history which also finds time for the always enjoyable Alternate Evil Crew trope. Much of the season was dedicated to developing new character Seven of Nine, somewhat to the detriment of the other regulars at times, but Seven is a genuinely fascinating character and most of the episodes exploring her slow transition back to humanity were good hours, One among them. Voyager didn’t have much of an arc plot, but season four also saw major developments in what arcs it did have, particularly in the hilarious Message In A Bottle . Add The Killing Game Parts 1&2 for a story that doesn’t make much sense if you look at it too closely, but it isn’t half fun to watch.

Season Five:

Counterpoint

Latent Image

Bride Of Chaotica!

Someone To Watch Over Me

Equinox Part 1

Unintentional hilarity aside, Voyager often did comedy really quite well, and Bride Of Chaotica! is surely its funniest hour. Timeless , the show’s 100th episode, is excellent, Drone is less about the Borg than you might think, while Counterpoint and Latent Image are strong, bittersweet instalments. The season once again goes out with a strong cliffhanger in Equinox Part 1 .

Season Six:

Equinox Part 2

Blink Of An Eye

Equinox Part 2 continues Voyager ’s tradition of providing mostly satisfying resolutions to cliffhangers, while Riddles and Memorial once again give the cast a chance to shine with dramatic material. Add Muse for some fun meta-fiction.

Season Seven:

Body And Soul

Workforce Parts 1&2

Author, Author

Body And Soul and most of Author, Author continue Voyager ’s strong set of light-hearted episodes, while Lineage is one of its best character pieces as well as a nice little science fiction story, and a perfect bookend to season one’s Faces . Add Endgame for a finale that does the job well enough, though it included some serious misfires that mean it would be left off most people’s Best Of lists.

Route 2: Crossovers and connections

Voyager is, so far, the latest-set Star Trek series – only the Next Generation feature film Nemesis (plus the odd time travel story) is set further in the future. As a series, then, it offers conclusions rather than foundations for later series. There’s still some crossover fun to be had, though.

As is usually the case, the pilot episode features as appearance from a regular character from another series of Star Trek , in this case, Deep Space Nine ’s Quark (logically enough, as the ship sets off from Deep Space Nine). Add Eye Of The Needle for a rare appearance of a Romulan in the Delta Quadrant.

Projections

Star Trek: The Next Generation ’s Reg Barclay made a number of appearances on Voyager , beginning with Projections . Death Wish also features a very brief (one-line) cameo from another Next Generation regular.

False Profits

Flashback is Voyager ’s celebratory episode marking 30 years of Star Trek , and it lives in the shadow of Deep Space Nine ’s spectacular Trials and Tribble-ations , but is decent enough itself, featuring appearances from Original Series characters Hikaru Sulu and Janice Rand. False Profits is a direct sequel to Next Generation episode The Price .

There were no crossovers as such in season four, but Message In A Bottle and Hunters refer to events from Star Trek: Deep Space Nine .

Voyager ’s 100th episode features a cameo from The Next Generation ’s Levar Burton, who also directed.

Pathfinder , featuring Barclay and another Next Generation character, Deanna Troi, was the beginning of a new plot development that would see Barclay and other Alpha Quadrant characters appearing more regularly, including in Life Line .

As in season six, we get a couple more forays into the Alpha Quadrant, mostly featuring Barclay.

Route 3: The shipping news

As ever, romance is not entirely Star Trek ’s forte, but Voyager did manage to produce one of its better-realised romantic couplings, as well as a relationship or two that had audiences rooting for further developments (and, it has to be said, some less successful efforts….).

State Of Flux

Faces lays the groundwork for Voyager ’s most successful romantic pairing, while Caretaker and The Cloud feature both the early stable relationship of Neelix and Kes and the quick establishment of a relationship and a dynamic between Janeway and Chakotay that had large numbers of fans hoping for further romantic developments between them. State Of Flux focuses on one of Chakotay’s more tumultuous romantic entanglements.

Non Sequitur

Parturition

Resolutions

Elogium is pretty terrible, but it’s one of the more significant Neelix/Kes episodes, though Tuvix is much better. Parturition is even worse, largely because it focuses on the early Neelix/Kes/Paris love triangle (though on the plus side, it features an actual food fight). Non Sequitur features one of Harry Kim’s least disastrous romantic interludes, while Resolutions is the only episode that properly addresses the Janeway/Chakotay connection that was so popular among fans. Technically, Threshold , an episode so bad it was later written out of Star Trek canon, features two regular characters having sex with each other (and babies, even). It’s not exactly romantic, though – but earlier scenes do play up the Paris/Kes and (more briefly) Paris/Torres ships in a more serious way, before it all goes totally bonkers. Add Persistence Of Vision for visuals on B’Elanna’s sexual fantasies.

The Q And The Grey

Blood Fever

Harry finds a woman who is a) not real and b) prefers a Vulcan over him in Alter Ego , so his romantic prospects continue to worsen. The Q And The Grey suggests that Janeway’s pulling power is really quite extraordinary and Coda plays up the Janeway/Chakotay relationship a little, though by Unity he’s gone off her and started pursuing Borg. Blood Fever properly kicks off the Paris/Torres relationship, but Displaced features a rather more nuanced look at that pairing. Add The Chute if you’re a fan of slash fiction (all potential subtext, this being 1990s Star Trek ) and Remember for B’Elanna experiencing someone else’s romantic relationship. Favorite Son features another of Harry Kim’s doomed romances, but it’s not worth watching for that reason. Or any reason, really, except to laugh at rather than with it.

Day Of Honor

The Killing Game Parts 1&2

Unforgettable

This is Paris and Torres’ season as far as romance goes, though Chakotay gets it on with Virginia Madsen in Unforgettable . Add The Gift for the resolution of Kes’s relationships, and Waking Moments for a glimpse into Harry Kim’s romantic fantasies.

Nothing Human

Romance for Chakotay in Timeless , Janeway in Counterpoint , Janeway’s ancestor in 11:59 , Tuvok (well, romantic feelings directed at Tuvok) in Gravity and unrequited love for the Doctor in Someone To Watch Over Me . Nothing Human is probably the best episode for Paris/Torres in this season; in Extreme Risk , B’Elanna’s friend and former crush actually does more to help her than her boyfriend. Add Course: Oblivion for more romantic scenes.

Ashes To Ashes

Alice (along with, to an extent, Memorial ) is the main Paris/Torres episode from this season. Theoretically, Fair Haven and Spirit Folk are romantic episodes, but that’s no reason to watch quite possibly the worst episodes of any series of Star Trek ever made. Ashes To Ashes is rather nonsensical, but as Kim’s annual doomed romances go, it’s a sight better than Favorite Son or The Disease .

Human Error

Natural Law

Making up for lost time and tying off some loose ends, romance was everywhere in season seven, for Paris and Torres ( Drive , Lineage , Prophecy , Workforce , Endgame ), Janeway ( Shattered , which revisits Janeway/Chakotay briefly, and Workforce ), the Doctor ( Body And Soul , Endgame ) and Neelix ( Homestead) . The main relationship highlighted in Human Error and Natural Law and also concluded in Endgame was, shall we say, not very popular, but if it has any fans, those are the episodes to watch.

Route 4: OK, this might be why Voyager isn’t everyone’s favourite…

Like all series of Star Trek , Voyager also produced some entertainingly bad stinkers that are truly entertaining when hate-watched with friends. Maybe even a higher than usual number. We’ve still avoided the truly dull episodes for the most part, though – these are terrible in a hilarious and sometimes spectacular way.

It’s a classic Voyager quote – “There’s coffee in that nebula!” – but that doesn’t make The Cloud any good. It does, however, make it entertaining. Parallax and Learning Curve are pretty bad too, but also very dull ( Learning Curve is worth watching only for the equally classic line “Get the cheese to sickbay!”).

It’s tempting, even as a fan, to say ‘all of it’, but some season two episodes are actually quite good (see above) while most of the rest are deathly dull. However, Elogium features space sperm trying to have sex with the ship, Twisted has everyone get lost on Deck 6 (a normal day for some of us who are navigationally challenged) and Parturition features two senior officers having a food fight in the mess hall. For some people, add The Thaw , which is Voyager ’s equivalent of Marmite.

And then there’s Threshold . Threshold , frequently derided as the worst episode of Star Trek ever made, is truly glorious in its awfulness. One of the tragedies of the episode is that Robert Duncan McNeil puts in a really passionate performance and some of the material, if attached to a different story, would be some really nice body horror stuff. But all you have to do is read a summary of the events of the episode (including impossible speeds, a shuttle that turns into the Infinite Improbability Drive from The Hitchhiker’s Guide To The Galaxy , crew members turning into giant lizard-slug-things, and giant lizard sex) to see how stupendously ridiculous, but importantly also truly entertaining in its own special way, it is. If you haven’t heard of it, though, skip the online summaries and just watch it, preferably with a very large drink in hand, and let the B movie daftness wash over you. It’s so, so very awful, I think I kinda love it.

Favourite Son

Nothing can quite compare to the high/low that was Threshold , but The Q And The Grey follows up one of the best Q episodes with one of the daftest, Blood Fever demonstrates that the practicalities of ponn farr were probably best left behind in the 1960s, and Favorite Son is… well it’s nearly as ridiculous as Threshold , actually, but not quite so spectacularly entertaining, as Harry Kim falls for a lure so transparent only someone as stupid as the Cat from Red Dwarf (in series six’ Psirens , when the same trick is tried on him) could be expected to fall for it.

Season Four is Voyager ’s strongest season overall, and its mis-fires tend to be dull or dubious rather than entertainingly hilarious, though if you enjoy ridiculous ‘science’, you might enjoy Demon .

Once Upon A Time

The Disease

Once Upon A Time ’s main plot is just a bit dull, but it features one of those horrifying children’s holodeck programmes also sometimes seen on The Next Generation . The Disease is another Harry Kim romance episode. It is, in its defense, slightly better than Favorite Son .

Spirit Folk

Everyone talks about Threshold , but for me, these are by far the worst episodes of Voyager , and probably of all of Star Trek (yes, including Spock’s Brain ). Offensive on every level, especially if you have Irish ancestry, and don’t even think about the practicalities of the captain retiring to a private room with a holographic character, on a holodeck – that is, a small, square room with no real walls, furniture etc. in it, that could easily malfunction at any moment – still also inhabited by other people, to have sex. Ew.

Prophecy revolves around a Klingon messianic prophecy, while Q2 features Q’s teenage son (played by John de Lancie’s real life son Keegan, who is a perfectly good actor, but the material is cringe-inducing). ‘Nuff said.

Route 5: Time travel

In season three, Captain Janeway expressed her extreme dislike of time travel and time paradoxes. She might as well have been a horror movie character saying “I’ll be right back.”

Time And Again

Time And Again is by the numbers but perfectly serviceable Star Trek , while Eye Of The Needle is Voyager ’s first really classic episode – perhaps that’s why they decided to feature the wonders of time travel quite so often in later years.

Technically there are no real time travel episodes in this season, though a couple of characters appear out of time in Death Wish .

Some of the Voyager crew’s ongoing problems with time travel are kicked off in Future’s End , while Before And After is a rather good backwards episode. Flashback , as the title implies, features flashbacks, though not actual time travel.

Add The Killing Game for a holodeck-based episode in which much of the crew believe they are people living in Earth’s past.

Timeless Relativity

Like Year Of Hell , Timeless is a really great episode, and things aren’t entirely re-set by the end (only mostly). Relativity is also good fun and features a visual homage to classic Powell and Pressburger film A Matter Of Life And Death . 11:59 is composed primarily of extensive flashbacks to the past, but not actual time travel.

Blink Of An Eye is more about time differential than time travel, but it represents this season’s game of playing with the fourth dimension.

Shattered uses a rather dubious time-related incident to revisit some of the show’s highlights and point to its future, while Endgame , like The Next Generation finale All Good Things , shows us a possible future for the crew, but by the end of the episode, everything may have changed.

Juliette Harrisson | @ClassicalJG

Juliette Harrisson is a writer and historian, and a lifelong Trekkie whose childhood heroes were JRR Tolkien and CS Lewis. She runs a YouTube channel called…

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40 facts about elektrostal.

Written by Lanette Mayes

Modified & Updated: 02 Mar 2024

Reviewed by Jessica Corbett

Elektrostal is a vibrant city located in the Moscow Oblast region of Russia. With a rich history, stunning architecture, and a thriving community, Elektrostal is a city that has much to offer. Whether you are a history buff, nature enthusiast, or simply curious about different cultures, Elektrostal is sure to captivate you.

This article will provide you with 40 fascinating facts about Elektrostal, giving you a better understanding of why this city is worth exploring. From its origins as an industrial hub to its modern-day charm, we will delve into the various aspects that make Elektrostal a unique and must-visit destination.

So, join us as we uncover the hidden treasures of Elektrostal and discover what makes this city a true gem in the heart of Russia.

Key Takeaways:

• Elektrostal, known as the “Motor City of Russia,” is a vibrant and growing city with a rich industrial history, offering diverse cultural experiences and a strong commitment to environmental sustainability.
• With its convenient location near Moscow, Elektrostal provides a picturesque landscape, vibrant nightlife, and a range of recreational activities, making it an ideal destination for residents and visitors alike.

Known as the “Motor City of Russia.”

Elektrostal, a city located in the Moscow Oblast region of Russia, earned the nickname “Motor City” due to its significant involvement in the automotive industry.

Home to the Elektrostal Metallurgical Plant.

Elektrostal is renowned for its metallurgical plant, which has been producing high-quality steel and alloys since its establishment in 1916.

Boasts a rich industrial heritage.

Elektrostal has a long history of industrial development, contributing to the growth and progress of the region.

Founded in 1916.

The city of Elektrostal was founded in 1916 as a result of the construction of the Elektrostal Metallurgical Plant.

Located approximately 50 kilometers east of Moscow.

Elektrostal is situated in close proximity to the Russian capital, making it easily accessible for both residents and visitors.

Known for its vibrant cultural scene.

Elektrostal is home to several cultural institutions, including museums, theaters, and art galleries that showcase the city’s rich artistic heritage.

A popular destination for nature lovers.

Surrounded by picturesque landscapes and forests, Elektrostal offers ample opportunities for outdoor activities such as hiking, camping, and birdwatching.

Hosts the annual Elektrostal City Day celebrations.

Every year, Elektrostal organizes festive events and activities to celebrate its founding, bringing together residents and visitors in a spirit of unity and joy.

Has a population of approximately 160,000 people.

Elektrostal is home to a diverse and vibrant community of around 160,000 residents, contributing to its dynamic atmosphere.

Boasts excellent education facilities.

The city is known for its well-established educational institutions, providing quality education to students of all ages.

A center for scientific research and innovation.

Elektrostal serves as an important hub for scientific research, particularly in the fields of metallurgy, materials science, and engineering.

Surrounded by picturesque lakes.

The city is blessed with numerous beautiful lakes, offering scenic views and recreational opportunities for locals and visitors alike.

Well-connected transportation system.

Elektrostal benefits from an efficient transportation network, including highways, railways, and public transportation options, ensuring convenient travel within and beyond the city.

Famous for its traditional Russian cuisine.

Food enthusiasts can indulge in authentic Russian dishes at numerous restaurants and cafes scattered throughout Elektrostal.

Home to notable architectural landmarks.

Elektrostal boasts impressive architecture, including the Church of the Transfiguration of the Lord and the Elektrostal Palace of Culture.

Offers a wide range of recreational facilities.

Residents and visitors can enjoy various recreational activities, such as sports complexes, swimming pools, and fitness centers, enhancing the overall quality of life.

Provides a high standard of healthcare.

Elektrostal is equipped with modern medical facilities, ensuring residents have access to quality healthcare services.

Home to the Elektrostal History Museum.

The Elektrostal History Museum showcases the city’s fascinating past through exhibitions and displays.

A hub for sports enthusiasts.

Elektrostal is passionate about sports, with numerous stadiums, arenas, and sports clubs offering opportunities for athletes and spectators.

Celebrates diverse cultural festivals.

Throughout the year, Elektrostal hosts a variety of cultural festivals, celebrating different ethnicities, traditions, and art forms.

Electric power played a significant role in its early development.

Elektrostal owes its name and initial growth to the establishment of electric power stations and the utilization of electricity in the industrial sector.

Boasts a thriving economy.

The city’s strong industrial base, coupled with its strategic location near Moscow, has contributed to Elektrostal’s prosperous economic status.

Houses the Elektrostal Drama Theater.

The Elektrostal Drama Theater is a cultural centerpiece, attracting theater enthusiasts from far and wide.

Popular destination for winter sports.

Elektrostal’s proximity to ski resorts and winter sport facilities makes it a favorite destination for skiing, snowboarding, and other winter activities.

Promotes environmental sustainability.

Elektrostal prioritizes environmental protection and sustainability, implementing initiatives to reduce pollution and preserve natural resources.

Home to renowned educational institutions.

Elektrostal is known for its prestigious schools and universities, offering a wide range of academic programs to students.

Committed to cultural preservation.

The city values its cultural heritage and takes active steps to preserve and promote traditional customs, crafts, and arts.

Hosts an annual International Film Festival.

The Elektrostal International Film Festival attracts filmmakers and cinema enthusiasts from around the world, showcasing a diverse range of films.

Encourages entrepreneurship and innovation.

Elektrostal supports aspiring entrepreneurs and fosters a culture of innovation, providing opportunities for startups and business development.

Offers a range of housing options.

Elektrostal provides diverse housing options, including apartments, houses, and residential complexes, catering to different lifestyles and budgets.

Home to notable sports teams.

Elektrostal is proud of its sports legacy, with several successful sports teams competing at regional and national levels.

Boasts a vibrant nightlife scene.

Residents and visitors can enjoy a lively nightlife in Elektrostal, with numerous bars, clubs, and entertainment venues.

Promotes cultural exchange and international relations.

Elektrostal actively engages in international partnerships, cultural exchanges, and diplomatic collaborations to foster global connections.

Surrounded by beautiful nature reserves.

Nearby nature reserves, such as the Barybino Forest and Luchinskoye Lake, offer opportunities for nature enthusiasts to explore and appreciate the region’s biodiversity.

Commemorates historical events.

The city pays tribute to significant historical events through memorials, monuments, and exhibitions, ensuring the preservation of collective memory.

Promotes sports and youth development.

Elektrostal invests in sports infrastructure and programs to encourage youth participation, health, and physical fitness.

Hosts annual cultural and artistic festivals.

Throughout the year, Elektrostal celebrates its cultural diversity through festivals dedicated to music, dance, art, and theater.

Provides a picturesque landscape for photography enthusiasts.

The city’s scenic beauty, architectural landmarks, and natural surroundings make it a paradise for photographers.

Connects to Moscow via a direct train line.

The convenient train connection between Elektrostal and Moscow makes commuting between the two cities effortless.

A city with a bright future.

Elektrostal continues to grow and develop, aiming to become a model city in terms of infrastructure, sustainability, and quality of life for its residents.

In conclusion, Elektrostal is a fascinating city with a rich history and a vibrant present. From its origins as a center of steel production to its modern-day status as a hub for education and industry, Elektrostal has plenty to offer both residents and visitors. With its beautiful parks, cultural attractions, and proximity to Moscow, there is no shortage of things to see and do in this dynamic city. Whether you’re interested in exploring its historical landmarks, enjoying outdoor activities, or immersing yourself in the local culture, Elektrostal has something for everyone. So, next time you find yourself in the Moscow region, don’t miss the opportunity to discover the hidden gems of Elektrostal.

Q: What is the population of Elektrostal?

A: As of the latest data, the population of Elektrostal is approximately XXXX.

Q: How far is Elektrostal from Moscow?

A: Elektrostal is located approximately XX kilometers away from Moscow.

Q: Are there any famous landmarks in Elektrostal?

A: Yes, Elektrostal is home to several notable landmarks, including XXXX and XXXX.

Q: What industries are prominent in Elektrostal?

A: Elektrostal is known for its steel production industry and is also a center for engineering and manufacturing.

Q: Are there any universities or educational institutions in Elektrostal?

A: Yes, Elektrostal is home to XXXX University and several other educational institutions.

Q: What are some popular outdoor activities in Elektrostal?

A: Elektrostal offers several outdoor activities, such as hiking, cycling, and picnicking in its beautiful parks.

Q: Is Elektrostal well-connected in terms of transportation?

A: Yes, Elektrostal has good transportation links, including trains and buses, making it easily accessible from nearby cities.

Q: Are there any annual events or festivals in Elektrostal?

A: Yes, Elektrostal hosts various events and festivals throughout the year, including XXXX and XXXX.

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Russia's Nuclear Deterrent Command Center Imperiled by Winter Freeze—Report

A Russian nuclear deterrent command center in Moscow has been imperiled by power outages that have impacted more than one-quarter of the region's cities amid freezing temperatures, a Russian Telegram channel has reported.

The VChK-OGPU outlet, which purports to have inside information from Russian security forces, reported that the 820th Main Center for Missile Attack Warnings—part of the Russian Space Forces, a branch of the country's Aerospace Forces—near Solnechnogorsk in Moscow is without power.

It serves as the space forces early warning network against potential ballistic missile attacks.

The development comes as Russians are reported to be suffering from power outages in their homes in the Moscow region caused by technical issues at plants amid subzero temperatures.

On January 4, a heating main burst at the Klimovsk Specialized Ammunition Plant in the town of Podolsk, which is about 30 miles south of central Moscow. Since then, tens of thousands of Russians are reported to have no heating in their homes.

Affected areas include the cities of Khimki, Balashikha, Lobnya, Lyubertsy, Podolsk, Chekhov and Naro-Fominsk, a map published by a Russian Telegram channel and shared on other social media sites shows.

Other Russian media outlets reported that in Moscow, residents of Balashikha, Elektrostal, Solnechnogorsk, Dmitrov, Domodedovo, Troitsk, Taldom, Orekhovo-Zuyevo, Krasnogorsk, Pushkino, Ramenskoye, Voskresensk, Losino-Petrovsky and Selyatino are also without power.

The Telegram channel said that at the 820th Main Center for Missile Attack Warnings, "the crew...is on duty around the clock."

"It is here that the decision on a retaliatory nuclear strike is executed," the channel said.

Newsweek could not independently verify the report and has reached out to the Russian Defense Ministry by email for comment.

Power outages have also been reported in Russia's second-largest city, St. Petersburg, in the country's western Voronezh region, in the southwest city of Volgograd, and in Rostov, which borders Ukraine, a country that Russia has been at war with since February 24, 2022.

On Sunday, two shopping malls in St. Petersburg were forced to close because of problems with light and heating, reported local news outlet 78.ru. Hundreds of other homes in the city have had no electricity, water or heating for days amid temperatures of -25 C (-13 F).

Russian authorities have also been forced to compensate passengers of a train that ran from Samara to St. Petersburg (a 20-hour journey) without heating during -30 C (-22 F) temperatures. Videos circulating on social media showed carriage windows frozen over. A passenger also said the toilet didn't work during the trip because of frozen pipes.

Do you have a tip on a world news story that Newsweek should be covering? Do you have a question about the Russia-Ukraine war? Let us know via [email protected].

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