S2 E17: Dreadnought

Voyager encounters an unmanned, heavily armed weapons platform/missile -- of Cardassian origin. Torres quickly identifies it as the one that she had commandeered and reprogrammed to go kill Cardassians over a year ago. However, now it seems to have malfunctioned after being summonsed to the delta quadrant by the Caretaker (would that he could have been a little more discriminating), and has now locked onto a peaceful, innocent world that shares properties with its original target. Feeling personally responsible, Torres has to disarm it herself as now it will only respond to her.

The theme of Voyager's negative PR is explored a bit more here, with the Rakosans being a little bit (understandably) suspicious of Janeway's overtures of peaceful intent while also telling them about this super-deadly alpha-quadrant weapon that is headed their way. Janeway is quick to blame her ship's negative image on Kazon slander, but I find it kind of hard to believe that the Kazon have a whole lot of credibility, even in their own backyard - it feels more like a Romulan tactic anyways. No, I think their bad reputation is probably more the result of Voyager (A) not really trying hard to make friends (while, admittedly, quite constrained in that regard due to the Prime Directive) and (B) actually bringing calamity and misfortune in their wake. Stable (if totalitarian) regimes are toppled, assassination attempts are made, techology is stolen, etc. Even when Voyager isn't responsible, or when the outcomes are probably for the best, it would be hard to argue that things aren't a little more chaotic for the delta quadrant guys when Voyager is around.

I vaguely recalled this episode from the first viewing, but I still had no idea how they were going to fill so much "Torres arguing with the computer" time and keep the episode watchable. The dreadnought's computer is also voiced by Torres, and since she (re)programmed it herself, she is essentially in conflict with herself - but in a different, more subtle/interesting way than in Faces. Instead of coming into conflict with an aspect of her personality, she has to face herself from the past: a more paranoid and vindictive B'Elanna. At first it seemed like she was going to solve the problem by Kirking it (I love that Memory Alpha has a whole page for that), which was amusing, but I was relieved when the actual solution became more complicated.

This episode has several other vignettes - not quite B-plots, but worthy of mention. The Doctor's naming quest surfaces again, in connection with Wildman's own quest for a name for her offspring (which seems to have a six thousand month gestation period). He is able to shoot down most suggestions which are offered to him, because, having made an extensive anthropological database search, he can find an example of a jerk somewhere throughout the histories of the many worlds cataloged by the Federation who shares that name. I do remember that wrinkle in the naming quest clearly, since the problem that the Doctor presents is probably a very real one for any society with century upon century of recorded history.

Kim and Torres have a little scene together, again using the "starfleet" pet name, and it is pretty cute. I know enough about the general events of Voyager to know that nothing comes of this flirting, but I think they'd actually make a really good couple. Kim has a great grounding effect on Torres, and she seems to help bring out his assertive side. Oh well.

Paris is behaving erratically, showing up late and disheveled to staff meetings. Chakotay in particular is on his case, continuing from the gambling ring plot in the last episode. Paris also remarks to Torres that he is jealous of how well she is fitting in, which, while it makes for a nice scene, is a little odd considering that, other than the last two episodes, he really hasn't had much trouble at all. Perhaps it is best though that we're getting this stuff bit by bit in separate episodes, rather than all at once in whatever later episode the writers plan to resolve it in. And hey, if all this leads to some more interesting character direction for Tom, I'm all for it.

Jonas, the Maquis guy who is surreptitiously giving intelligence to the Kazon, is still up to his tricks. I still don't really understand his motivation - and even worse, the Kazon are giving him the runaround. You'd think that they'd be pleased to get any info he could pass along, but instead they're risking losing their mole by not going to any effort to make him feel like he's getting anywhere. If I were him, I'd just stop the flow until they let me talk to my preferred contact... well, if I were him, I wouldn't be a treacherous traitor guy, so maybe trying to ascribe motives that make sense for me to him is just going to be frustrating. Still, glad to see this show up in pieces rather than all at once, as it does give us some sense of build-up and continuity.

Watchability: 4/5

Bottom Line: Another Torres-centric episode, another good episode. I'm noticing a trend.