| An old Klingon ship arrives, carrying pilgrims on a decades-long journey across the galaxy. Their captain is distrustful of Voyager at first, due to the whole "leaving the alpha quadrant back when the Klingons were at war with the Federation" thing. But when he discovers that Torres' child may be the answer to their ancient prophecies, he sabotages his own ship so that Voyager is forced to evacuate the Klingons or allow them to die. He is pragmatic about the prophecies; he knows that her child may not be the answer, but enough facts match, and boy would it be nice to stop traveling, so he sets about convincing his crew. His first officer is more skeptical, and even challenges Paris to a duel. When the Doctor cures a disease that has infected all the members of the Klingon crew using the baby's stem cells, that relieves their worries, and they happily settle on a nearby planet. Also, Neelix and a Klingon woman sexile Tuvok. True story. |
While I'm sure there are plenty of stories left to tell about interesting new delta quadrant factions that we've never heard of before, I'm not one to turn down a fun Klingon story. Sure, the Klingons have never been big on prophecies, that's more of a Bajoran thing, but they are still one of the more religious species in Trek. They must've had some prophecies. I like the idea of meeting other travelers along Voyager's route, other people who aren't natives, and that's as reasonable a time as any to bring back an old favorite.
The Klingon captain, Kohlar, is quite an interesting character. The mix of pragmatism and faith gives him some interesting motivations and decisions, and gives his interactions with Torres a healthy twist. Plenty of other sci-fi shows have explored the vagueness of prophecy, and how easy it is to make otherwise benign events fit with them, but Kohlar's approach gives the agnostic Federation an actual incentive to match events to the prophecies. They make it clear they'd be uncomfortable lying to the Klingon crew, but if they can see a way that the prophecies match, what's the harm?
Also exciting is that Torres, though she makes no apology about not following Klingon practices, does not go out of her way to show how disgusted she is with them. Like maybe, just maybe, she's learned something in seven years. Or at least in the last few episodes.
Of course, the lion's share of the entertainment in this episode goes to Neelix, Kim, and Tuvok. Kim breaks up a fight in the mess hall, and immediately attracts the attention of Ch'Rega. She announces her intention to mate with him, and chaste Kim falls back on his usual response to sex: complete and overwhelming terror. The Doctor even writes him a permission slip to go do the deed. But he's still running from her when Neelix makes his move. He knows a good deal when he sees one. He makes a big show about of terrifying Kim (easy for Kim to play along with that) in front of Ch'Rega - thereby shifting her attention onto him. Of course, Tuvok has been forced to double up with Neelix, since Neelix had given up his quarters to a Klingon family, so that night Tuvok returns to find he's been locked out of his quarters.
Just think, in seasons one and two, I would have given anything to not hear about Neelix's sex life. As much trouble as I've given the Voyager writers about stagnant characters and no character growth, they've done right by Neelix.
Watchability: 4/5
Bottom Line: Not a terribly substantial episode, but it was fun nonetheless.
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