Star Trek - Voyager, Episode 3: Parallax (1995)

The first post-premiere episode of Voyager finds Captain Janeway's forced experiment with merging Starfleet personnel and Maquis rebels aboard her starship a rocky affair indeed. Case in point: B'Elanna Torres (Roxann Biggs-Dawson), the fiery half-Klingon and Starfleet dropout-cum-terrorist, is routinely punching out colleagues. Despite that, First Officer Chakotay (Robert Beltran), himself a Maquis leader, presses a dubious Janeway (Kate Mulgrew) into putting Torres in charge of engineering.

Everybody gets behind a common problem, however, when Voyager encounters a black hole and detects the ghostly presence of another vessel trapped within--which turns out to be, rather ominously, a time-warped reflection of Voyager itself. Written by series producer Brannon Braga (from a story by Deep Space Nine contributor Jim Trombetta), "Parallax" makes the most of an inherent tension among the characters in the early days of the show. But there's also comic relief from the holographic doctor (Robert Picardo), whose malfunctioning program is causing him to shrink, and the juicy revelation that Chakotay and his former Maquis comrade Seska (Martha Hackett) were once lovers. Ah, 24th-century gossip. --Tom Keogh Amazon.com

Mirror Images

Synopsis:

Tensions rise between the merged Starfleet and Maquis crews when the ship becomes trapped inside a star that's collapsed upon itself.

Torres is reprimanded by Chakotay after she ends a dispute in engineering by breaking the nose of a Starfleet officer named Carey. But despite her volatile nature, Chakotay has faith in the Klingon woman's skills, and he recommends Torres to Janeway for the position of Chief Engineer. Janeway is surprised, but before she can consider the recommendation, the U.S.S. Voyager is jolted as it enters a region of spatial distortions. A short time later, it comes upon a ship that is trapped in the event horizon of a quantum singularity: the powerful energy field surrounding a collapsed star.

While the engineering staff tries to figure out a way to help the other ship, Janeway questions the capability of Chakotay's Maquis officers. Still, she agrees to consider Torres for the engineering slot.

Realizing that Voyager doesn't have enough power to rescue the ship on its own, the crew heads away from the singularity to get help, but before long they find themselves heading back toward the same collapsed star. Again Voyager moves away, and again the ship finds itself back where it started.

As tensions rise between Maquis and Starfleet crewmembers, Torres works with Carey to figure out what's happening. Noting the peculiar effects of the singularity on Voyager's holographic doctor, Torres comes up with an idea that may allow them to contact the crew of the trapped ship, which, in turn, may provide clues to their own predicament. Torres' plan works, but when they finally hear from the other ship, they discover that it's Voyager itself! They've been looking at a distorted reflection of themselves and it's Voyager itself that's trapped in the singularity. But how do they get out?

Before long, Torres discovers that another ship which appears to be caught in the reflective distortion is actually a mirror image of Voyager. She realizes that the ship must return to the "tear" in the singularity where they entered, and exit before the star collapses, forever trapping them inside. Using a dekyon beam fired from a shuttlecraft piloted by Janeway and Torres, they force the opening wide enough for Voyager to escape. Because of her tempered initiative and creative approach to saving the ship, Torres is given the Chief Engineer's post, and Lt. Carey is among the first to congratulate her. July 13, 2003

Chakotay pushes B'Elanna for the post of Chief Engineer

The two-part pilot for "Star Trek: Voyager" was the strongest start for any of the "Star Trek" series because it set up such a complex web of conflicts to be explored further. "Voyager" is facing an extremely long journey home from the Delta Quadrant while trying to absorb the Maquis rebels into the crew. This becomes the focus of Episode 3, "Parallax" (Written by Brannon Braga, Aired January 23, 1995), as new First Officer Chakotay recommends B'Elanna Torres (Roxann Biggs-Dawson) for the open position of Chief Engineer. Captain Kathryn Janeway (Kate Mulgrew) takes the matter under advisement, especially since the half-Klingon half-human Torres tends to settle disputes with her fists. On the one hand Torres is a Starfleet Academy drop out, but on the other hand she has lots of practical experience. Almost predictably on test case develops when "Voyager" encounters a quantum singularity that has apparently trapped another vessel. That is the big problem in "Parallax." The little problem is the ship's holographic doctor (Robert Picardo), who is doing the old Steve Martin bit and getting small. While the end result is pre-ordained regarding B'Elanna's promotion, the problem is a pretty good one and helps establish Janeway's authority. More importantly, it keeps the focus on the internal problems of "Voyager" instead of immediately throwing an alien encounter at the crew. Yes, it is convenient that two positions that could be filled by the former Maquis rebels just happened to result from the initial battles during the pilot, but that is a minor matter. There is a nice twist in that the Maquis are the ones who are more willing to be accepted while the Starfleet personnel play hard to get. Besides, things are only beginning to get interesting aboard "Voyager" as we learn that one of the former Maquis, Seska (Martha Hackett) was once involved with Chakotay. To be continued... May 31, 2003

Getting down to the business at hand

Now that the crew of Voyager and the band of Maquis has been melded the natural reactions follow in its wake. As the show opens the newly appointed first officer Chakotay and security chief Tuvok are in Sick Bay observing The Doctor administering First Aid to a star fleet lieutenant who has a broken nose. It seems that the feisty and strong-minded B'lanna Torres and he had a disagreement and she sucker-punched him - much to the lieutenant's chagrin. Chakotay convinces Tuvok to let him arbitrate the conflict without directly informing Captain Janeway; Torres was a former member of Chakotay's crew and he believes he can reason with her and get the matter resolved without further incident. Later on when Chakotay joins the captain for a private conference he suggests to the captain that Torres would make an excellent chief engineer. She scoffs at the idea and points to the altercation, which the captain has now heard about, and that Torres broke the nose of a superior officer. Chakotay states emphatically that he must "watch out for my people because no one else will." This unfortunate choice of words leads to further tension throughout the show between the captain and first officer as they continue to knock heads over the idea of promoting Torres. Janeway and Torres eventually end up in a shuttle on a rescue mission for Voyager where the close quarters acts as a sort of litmus test for the two's tolerance levels.

The first episode to air after the series opener is a well-structured story showing the obvious difference between the disciplined star fleet crew and the renegade, willful members of the Maquis who are having a hard time making the adjustment. Torres has an argument and hits an officer; a few of Chakotay's former crew approach him to swear their loyalty to him and that they're ready to back him if he wants to take the ship; he still refers to the Maquis as "my people" to both Tuvok and Janeway; rumors abound the Voyager concerning the quarantine of the Maquis and the incarceration of B'lanna; this will not be an easy transition for either of the two very different crews. The main plot, which concerns the ship's encounter with a quantum singularity, is not nearly as interesting but has it's own curious subplot. It seems there is another ship within the energy field surrounding the collapsed star and its identity is a bit of a surprise. Also the secondary plot about the reduction in size of the holographic doctor is amusing and provides a good running joke throughout the proceedings.

Already the cast members appear to be very comfortable with their characters, settling into their roles and breathing life into them. Most noticeable is The Doctor, played by Robert Picardo; in fact he seemed to steal nearly all the shows he was featured prominently in. His reticence to the crews' accessing him to cure "every hangnail, minor cut or runny nose" provides many light and funny moments throughout the entire series run. He would eventually become less and less acerbic but his sharp wit never let up for a second. Also worthy of honorable mention are the pivotal roles of Janeway and Chakotay, performed by Kate Mulgrew and Robert Beltran; they remained thoroughly convincing from the series beginning to the end and they played off their characters' differences superbly. Even so late in the 20th century the idea of featuring a female in the critical lead role was considered very daring for the Trek creators, but Mulgrew never even came close to disappointing; in fact the women were often the strength of the show during it's six and a half year run. February 1, 2003

Decent episode

Compared to how the new series (Enterprise) is currently faring out, Voyager fared better in its first season. This episode is one of the several good ones of the season. With good character development, yet with enough action to keep things going, this episode works. (Unlike Enterprise, which seems to be trying to build the characters up through useless, boring plots). January 21, 2002

THE episode for Janeway and Torres fans

This is the quintessential Voyager episode for those who can't decide who they love best, Kathryn or B'Elanna. It's fun to watch these two women working together on scientific and engineering challenges, and to see their relationship just beginning. And this episode is based on a scientific anomoly, rather than political or social theme involving Kazons, etc. Fun for those who like the really early episodes. October 14, 2001

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