| A Federation ship, the USS Equinox, is under attack, with fissures opening up all over the ship, and horrifying creatures emerging from them and mutilating the crew. Voyager responds to their distress signal and extends its shields around the Equinox, giving them some respite from their plight. The two crews work together on a solution to these attacks, but it soon becomes clear that the Equinox crew is hiding something. The Doctor beams to their science lab, and discovers that they have been using these creatures as fuel, and Janeway has all members of the Equinox crew confined to quarters. However, the Equinox EMH is activated, and since his ethical subroutines have been deleted, he traps our Doctor on his ship and returns to Voyager, freeing his crew. They steal the the new shield generator that the crews had been working on, leaving Voyager behind to fend for themselves against the invaders. |
So this is it, the Pegasus of Star Trek Voyager. Sure, there are other meetings of starship captains, out of reach of other authorities, with a clash over what they believe to be the right course of action throughout the vast history of televised science fiction - but I can't think of a single one with as many distinct parallels as these two. Here, these crews are completely separated from home, either by decades of travel or by the simple fact that their home no longer exists. These captains (and admiral) have gone years without anyone that they have to answer to, but now they are face to face with someone who has the authority to judge them.
And that's what Equinox is about: judgment. I don't think anyone could begin to justify the actions of Cain and her crew, but discipline in Adama's colonial fleet certainly kept him planted firmly in a glass house. The treatment of Valerii forced him to throw a stone, but it wasn't something he was in a rush to do. And while I do not in any way condone the actions of Cain or her crew, their motivation, revenge for the attempted genocide of the human species, makes their fall from grace believable. Captain Ransom and his crew, on the other hand, are murdering creatures just to get home faster. It's a hard pill to swallow after five years of watching Voyager traverse the delta quadrant in relative comfort, even with the writers' efforts to explain how tough conditions were on the Equinox through the various stories from its crew. When Ransom does spill the beans about the "road to hell is paved with good intentions" way in which his crew came to be the murderers that they are, that softens the blow somewhat.
Still, I would have liked this much more if they'd gone with something at least a little more morally ambiguous. That would have given this episode more of an opportunity to have a battle of egos between him and Janeway, considering that her record isn't exactly clean (see Counterpoint for a Janeway dismissal of the prime directive as more of a guideline, really). But with the disparity of crimes being so great, Janeway is ready to go right for the throat from the second she hears of this breach of protocol. Additionally, making the outsider (Cain) the ranking officer opened up so many more dramatic options. As it is, even if Ransom wanted to mount a verbal defense against Janeway's attacks, he didn't have the evidence (and I couldn't pass my 150+ pages of evidence through the TV screen, unfortunately). I would have loved to have seen some dismay on Ransom's face when he discovered that half her crew had been members of the Maquis, but it is only mentioned in passing by his first officer.
But, if I had watched this when it first aired, I wouldn't have seen Pegasus yet. It is still a momentous event for Voyager to meet up with its first other Starfleet vessel in five years. We, the viewers, know things have to go wrong, but it is just nice to see some other people in those uniforms again. Especially considering Voyagers poor track record for making friends (I can count the ones from the 26 episodes of this season on one hand), I was happy to see some automatic friends show up, even knowing that the feeling would be fleeting. It's great to see the first officer, Burke, as an old friend of Torres', a familiar face in a far away land.
Watchability: 4/5
Bottom Line: When it comes down to it, there's a lot in Voyager that comes away dimmer when compared to its parallel in Battlestar Galactica. But despite the unfavorable comparison, this episode is still an important milestone in Voyager.
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