Trek Thursdays: Trekking Towards Sixty #21 — ‘Counterpoint’ And ‘Equinox’

On September 8th, 1966, an intrepid crew of explorers boldly went where no one had ever gone before on television. At that moment, Star Trek was born. The series launched a franchise that has kept a firm grip on audiences for decades.

As the sixtieth anniversary approaches, we here at Comicon are ready to celebrate one of the greatest science fiction franchises. While Star Trek has graced the silver screen, most of its life has been on our television screens. So, that’s where our focus shall remain.

Every week through September 8th, we’ll be spotlighting two Star Trek episodes, from any and every iteration, that we feel are some of the greatest. At this point there are over 950 episodes of Trek, so it goes without saying some favorites won’t make the cut for this list of 60.

Star Trek: Voyager is one of the series within this franchise that sits in a variety of spaces for different people.

It was the one that had a lot of potential in regards to a crew lost far from home, struggling to retain themselves while fighting for survival. While it softened very quickly, becoming the adventure of the week and not the serialized series higher ups wanted, it still has so many great things going for it.

Being a big time Voyager fan, I did grow up watching it and Deep Space Nine as they aired, there are plenty of episodes that I would throw on this list were it even longer than sixty episodes. This week we look at two of those episodes — ones that really hammer home how despite the softening adventures, Voyager sill had teeth and knew how and when to really bite.

-RED ALERT: SPOILERS FOLLOW-

“Counterpoint”
Star Trek: Voyager – Season 5, Episode 10 (12/16/1998)

Synopsis: Traveling through Devore space, Captain Janeway (Kate Mulgrew) plays a game of cat and mouse with a Devore inspector as the crew smuggles telepathic refugees to freedom.

Right away, that synopsis points to the part that is the best aspect of this episode. It’s one of those pieces where Mulgrew gets to show off her acting chops to the max, as Captain Janeway masterfully puppeteers their encounters with the Devore, skipping playing three-dimensional chess with them and going right to some fourth dimensional chess board.

From the opening, we the viewers are on edge, as we witness Voyager surrounded by Devore warships. They are bigger and more imposing, and we see one of their officers ordering the crew to prepare for inspection. Things feel off even more as Commander Chakotay (Robert Beltran) is at tactical instead of Lt. Tuvok (Tim Russ). The crew has clearly been through this routine numerous times before we jumped back into watching them.

We learn that telepaths are outlawed and hunted down in this region of space, and anyone found to be harboring them is also punished. Janeway tells the Devore inspector Kashyk (Mark Harelik) that their telepathic crew members, including Tuvok, all died. Which is mostly a lie, but not fully since Lon Suder (Brad Dourif) did die at the end of Season Two, helping save the ship after being rehabilitated by Tuvok.

There are clear allusions, not really veiled, to World War II and Germans seeking out Jewish people and anyone that would give them shelter. All of the other trappings make the episode compelling but it’s when they release Mulgrew and Harelik to bounce off one another that this episode moves to a higher level.

They are believable as foes, and they are believable as allies. We want to believe that Kashyk is actually feeling remorse for his part in the hunting of telepaths. That he does actually feel something for Janeway and wants to be a better person. Janeway’s desire for this is also palatable, because people turning around and doing the right thing is something she strives and hopes for always. While Janeway can be chilling and cold when she needs to be, at her core she’s hopeful and wants the best for those under her command, care, and watch as well as others who desire similar.

Yet, even with her feelings seeming one way, again, we see how Janeway outclasses Kashyk so easily. He integrates himself into the crew to get them to do the work of finding the wormholes the telepaths use to escape, so that he can snatch victory from the jaws of defeat, only to find out that he and his people have been played like a fine instrument.

There’s no big character development or defining moments in this episode. Nothing that will echo for years or similar. Instead, it’s just a damn fine episode of Trek that grabs the audience from moment zero and doesn’t let go till the credits roll. It’ll leave you thinking and wondering, which is what the best of Trek so often does.

“Equinox”
Star Trek: Voyager – Season 5, Episode 26 (05/26/1999) & Season 6, Episode 1 (09/22/1999)

Synopsis: After five years alone in the Delta Quadrant, the crew of the U.S.S. Voyager meet another stranded crew. Broken and damaged, the U.S.S. Equinox provides a dark mirror to the Voyager, as its crew harbors a dark and damaging secret.

While playing what if in real life is an exercise that I personally find futile, it sure is fun to play in fiction. Many fans might ask, what would things be life if Voyager had not played by the rules of Starfleet, oh so far away, and did what they needed to do in order to survive. What would our beloved crew be like if they had taken any chance to get home, crossing whatever lines might be necessary.

Well, this two-part season finale and opener sure answers that question, in a way.

It’s not a perfect mirror, because the crew of the Equinox in many cases are rougher around the edges than the crew of the Voyager. Having Janeway at command already negated Voyager crossing those lines, though, as we see through the episodes, as she becomes angrier at Captain Ransom (John Savage) for foregoing Starfleet protocols and beliefs, she crosses her own lines. Nothing like a pure rule follower being pushed to the edge over those who break and bend every rule possible.

We open with a broken Federation ship and it’s in a precarious situation. Ship barely holding on, shields failing, and attackers breaking through. They have to drop the shields for 45 seconds to recharge them, which will leave them vulnerable. High pitched screeches sound as portals appear, officers firing into them, as creatures fly out of the portals, one of them striking an officer and turning him into a dried husk immediately.

Yeah, the tone was set from the first moment. This is not going to be one of the fun adventure of the week style situations. No, this is very much, another attempt to kind of show the harder and darker side of being lost far from home. We saw early on in the series moments where crew members were more likely to critique sticking to Starfleet protocols and flirt with making dark choices.

More often than not they were talked out of it and Janeway would make an impassioned speech about why it was important to stay true to themselves. By the time we reach this point of the series, none of the crew that we know would even float doing things like what the Equinox crew is doing, which, is taking those aforementioned flying creatures and killing them to utilize them as a fuel source to make further warp jumps, basically shortening their trip towards home.

Back in season one, the Voyager crew came across a hedonistic and hospitable race known as the Sikarians. These people wanted nothing but to help others and bring pleasure, but they also had a teleporter device known as a trajector that could send people 40,000 light years away. Long story short, Tuvok and others tried to bargain for the technology, against Janeway’s orders, in order to try and get the crew home faster. It didn’t work, the device needed the specific energy from the Sikarian planet’s core to work and also almost causes a core breach.

I share this because it shows that Voyager, when presented with a way to get home sooner, still kept themselves in the aftermath. Even their attempt to get home sooner didn’t hurt others, as they exchanged knowledge (literature) for the technology. It was against the law of the Sikarian’s, but it didn’t harm or kill anyone.

Ransom and his crew have no morals left, only a drive to get home. They attack Voyager, leave them for the aliens, alter the Doctor (Robert Picardo) to make him torture Seven of Nine (Jeri Ryan), and so much more. Janeway becomes obsessive at hunting them down and making them stand for what they’ve done. It’s not the first time we’ve seen Janeway this laser-focused and cold about something. The scene between her and Chakotay as she attempts to let an Equinox crewmember be attacked by the aliens is powerful.

In the end, the major portion of the Equinox crew left are killed, and Ransom tries to “redeem” himself in the end. It’s not enough to take the captain off the list but it gives Voyager a chance to get away and end this alien threat that Random began. A few crew members are left to serve on Voyager, and we never see any of them again.

Another thrilling entry that really drives home that when Voyager is hitting, it’s really really hitting. Sprinkled within this series are beats that prove a show that was stronger and more focused, not even necessarily serialized, existed within the lines. As much as I love the show as a whole, it’s episodes like this that leave me wondering, what if…?

Come back next week as we dive into two more of Star Trek’s greatest episodes.