Deep Space Nine 1x13 "Battle Lines"

**

This is another episode where if fate had pushed the series in a few different directions, it would be more significant today.  If you must now, this is the final appearance of the one Bajoran everyone could love.

Introduced in the pilot, Kai Opaka was Sisko's window into the mystic world of his new assignment.  She was an instantly soothing personality, and would no doubt have been a welcome presence for the rest of the series.  Instead, SPOILER ALERT, she dies in this episode and is reborn, but stuck on a peculiar planet for the rest of her life.  

In a way, "Battle Lines" is a startlingly mature effort that betrays the innocence that pervades much of the rest of the season, and a clear indication that life truly will be difficult for Sisko and the rest of the residents of the station and surrounding region.  It is also, in a less generous estimation, an incredibly immature move by a young series, in an episode that barely does the character justice.  In that sense, and in many ways, this is a fairly generic Star Trek episode, the judgment of war, but it's a curious crossroads where I want to give "Battle Lines" due credit, but also temper your expectations.  It could have been better, could have been more profound, as the character of Kai Opaka demanded.  Another way to express my disappointment is that one of the show's best recurring characters is killed off thirteen episodes into the series, and to put that into a specific context, this is a series that was almost as much defined by its recurring as by its main characters, specifically how well we got to know them.  We didn't really get to know Opaka.

Oh, and her successor is Kai Winn, an unintentional (at least to her own thinking) villain, basically her mirror opposite.  Some fans grew tired of Bajoran episodes, too much meditation of politics and religion.  I think that Opaka could have struck a better balance than, say, Vedek Bareil, Kira's doomed love for the first three seasons.  She was Deep Space Nine's Guinan (the bartender from Next Generation), an absolutely moral figure in an ambiguous universe.

Well, perhaps all that makes her fate in "Battle Lines" all the more paradoxically appropriate.  Go ahead and decide for yourself.

franchise * series * essential * character

Notable guest-stars:
Camille Saviola

Memory Alpha summary.

Deep Space Nine 1x12 "Vortex"

**

"Vortex" is an episode that would have far greater importance if the series had not last so many seasons.  It's one of the few entries where Odo, theoretically on a quest during the first two seasons to discover his origins, thinks he makes some progress.  Of course, at the start of the third season, he finds out who his people are, and his journey is forever altered toward a more direct conflict with them, one of the few instances in Star Trek history where a central character rejects and is rejected by their own kind (even Worf had a love-hate relationship with his fellow Klingons, and Seven continued to be fascinated by the Borg even after acknowledging that they nearly wrecked her life).

Much of the plotting in "Vortex" is hopelessly convoluted, but a stranger who possibly has the answers Odo seeks leads him to interesting conclusions, and in a very roundabout way might even be said to be vindicated once the truth about his origins is revealed.

It's a fine episode to watch in its own right, and continues the trend of the odd shapeshifting constable Odo making for compelling television.

franchise * series * essential * character

Memory Alpha summary.

Deep Space Nine 1x11 "The Nagus"

***

Deep Space Nine is a cult TV show within a cult TV show phenomenon.  I'm told not all Star Trek fans love it, but the difference between the ones who do and the others who liked Voyager or Enterprise is that fans who love Deep Space Nine love it passionately.  We're an entire subculture of the fanbase.

"The Nagus" is the real initiation of the show's breakout status as a mini-cult.  You don't have to love Star Trek to love it.  As the title implies, it's the introduction of Grand Nagus Zek, the Ferengi ruler who would make subsequent appearances in nearly every season, and thus a key component of the rich mythology that fans grew to appreciate.  Although not as significant as Garak or Dukat (or ubiquitous as Morn), he's someone you love to see every times he stops by.

"The Nagus" is the second episode in a row to put the spotlight on Quark, predictably in a story about manipulation, a famous drama involving Zek's son, who never appears again.  It's also a little disorienting to see Rom, Quark's brother, in this and other early appearances, since he hasn't yet maturated into his finished form (much like the rest of the series).

The other good news of the episode is that it's an early test of the friendship between Jake, Sisko's boy, and Nog, Rom's son, one of the defining relationships of the series.  Maybe no one will ever mistake Deep Space Nine as the Jake & Nog show (or perhaps, consortium), but you'll be hard-pressed to find better examples of what the show was all about.

This is the first Ferengi episode, too.  Even die hard fans of the series were hard-pressed to like these perennial efforts, but the true connoisseur knows them to be an essential ingredient.

franchise * series * essential * character

Notable guest-stars:
Wallace Shawn
Tiny Ron

Memory Alpha summary.

Deep Space Nine 1x10 "Move Along Home"

**

For some fans, this was one of those infamous, typical season one efforts.  At first blush, it's basically an embarrassment to the rest of the series.  I'd say give it another try.

Although the visitors from the other side of the wormhole are once again totally unrelated to the Dominion and toss most of the characters basically into a Holodeck Malfunction Episode, Quark is thrust into the spotlight, and does a fare job of discovering his own ambiguities.  Initially introduced as a toad (what anyone would've called the Ferengi before him), Quark starts to blossom quickly, without needing to lean on the love-hate relationship with Odo, with the help of "Move Along Home," where he alone is in a position to determine the fate of his more legitimate colleagues.  Sure, it's a silly situation, but it ends up making emotional sense thanks to Quark.

You don't absolutely need to watch this particular episode to see how Quark develops, but it's a good one to watch simply to enjoy the character.

And although it's distressing every time someone comes from the Gamma Quadrant during the first season and has no connection to the Dominion, the episode at least uses one of the basic elements of the series premise.

franchise * series * essential * character

Notable guest-stars:
James Lashley

Memory Alpha summary.

Deep Space Nine 1x9 "The Passenger"

*

For me, this is the low point of Deep Space Nine's first season, the one episode out of several outstanding efforts that seemed to try its hardest not to be relevant in any way.

(I should mention that relevance and quality are not synonymous; technically "The Passenger" is competent, but there's just no reason to care about it.)

It's one of those Star Trek episodes that see a main character possessed by some evil mind, and on that score I would traditionally rate at least "franchise" as a reason to watch, but my standards for Deep Space Nine are a little different, especially being from the first season, especially being a series that went out of its way to say it was going to be different.  Sure, you can watch this one if you're simply a fan of the franchise, but there's one glaring element that helps get in your way.

It features Dr. Bashir, the young Starfleet graduate hungry for some field experience.  Except the episode could have been about any of the characters, and Bashir is simply too wide-eyed at this point for something like this to have any meaning to him.  He was supposed to be the guy that reality slaps in the face.  This may be Star Trek, and a Star Trek staple, but it's about as far from reality as you can get.  Deep Space Nine, put simply, was supposed to avoid exactly this kind of episode.

So you should probably avoid it, too.

I'm doing a slight edit to this one.  It's worth noting that Odo has an intriguing B-story involving a possible Starfleet replacement and/or rival who counts as one of the show's first recurring characters.  It's not as memorable as other Odo developments from the series, but it's certainly noteworthy.  I've upgraded the episode's rating accordingly.

franchise * series * essential * character

Memory Alpha summary.

Deep Space Nine 1x8 "Dax"

*

"Dax" is pretty much the opposite of "A Man Alone."  It's the first time since the pilot that the fact of Jadzia being a Trill is significant, and the first time since Next Generation that there're some real issues about the whole host-symbiont dynamic.  It has the makings of a truly significant episode, and in many ways it is, but there are a number of things that hold it back.

One of the first is that at this point, the creators didn't really know what to do with Jadzia.  This is made painfully more obvious once the second season rolls around.  That season has the character written all over it.  This one doesn't.  "Dax" is meant to be the episode that justifies the character, and in many ways, there are almost too many parallels to "A Man Alone," in that once again, a main character finds themselves in trouble with the law, due to misunderstandings that are eventually sorted out.

It's not a bad episode to watch, but the series, and the season, end up doing this same premise better, and that's not much for praise.  Still, it's a worthwhile episode to watch if you want to see some meat from a season that otherwise seems to try its best to waltz around doing anything meaningful for a few too many episodes, especially as everyone is still trying to figure out the best way to execute on their highest levels.

"Dax" is ultimately an entry that says, "not there yet."

franchise * series * essential * character

Memory Alpha summary.

Deep Space Nine 1x7 "Q-Less"

****

Arguably the most effective Deep Space Nine episode created to try and make it attractive to fans of Next Generation, the title already says most of the reason why, because it features Q.

The funny thing is, Q almost doesn't even notice that he's on the space station, because he's too busy obsessing over the other crossover character, Vash (I would argue this as being her best appearance in the franchise, possibly because that romance with Picard never really made sense and clearly was going nowhere fast), and mostly reacting to the actual main characters of the series as distractions.

His best encounter is with Sisko, though, and "Q-Less" as a result has the essential Sisko moment of the season, outside of the pilot, in which Q foolishly engages in fisticuffs with the commander, and gets to utter the line, "You hit me!  Picard never hit me!"  While Patrick Stewart successfully converted Picard into an action star later in Next Generation and in four movies, Sisko was already more physical in his first appearance than his predecessor ever was, willing to get down and dirty (even when reluctant about it, and rarely needing Klingons to provoke him).  It wasn't even in a strictly physical sense, since few Star Trek characters (aside from Kirk, and everyone in 2009's Star Trek) are very mobile, but more in the menace in Sisko's eyes, knowing that his was a kind that was always working, not just out of necessity, but because he was always refraining from hitting someone (making his mirror universe counterpart more appropriate than most fans probably realize).  Yes, he hit Q!

A lot of fans complain that "These Are the Voyages...," the final episode of Enterprise was hijacked by Next Generation.  The same can be said for "Q-Less," except both episodes say far more about the series they're actually in than the guest characters who supposedly steal the show.  This is about as far from a typical Q episode as you can get.  As I said, he spends most of it obsessed with another guest character, which is far from unprecedented, but without going out of his way to cause mischief.  Like "All Good Things...," rather, he's not the cause of the mischief, he's actually trying to prevent it.  It's a grounded Q, even more than the time he became human, and it's very Deep Space Nine.  Most fans dismiss this appearance, probably for the very reasons I've just explained.  I argue that they make "Q-Less" essential.

As an episode of this particular series, it's one that helps put things back in perspective, perhaps for the first time since the pilot, pulling away without losing focus, but rather gaining more than it seems.

It's one that definitely deserves another look.

franchise * series * essential * character

Notable guest-stars:
John de Lancie
Jennifer Hetrick

Memory Alpha summary.

Deep Space Nine 1x6 "Captive Pursuit"

**

The first time we get something to visit us from the other side of the wormhole introduced in the pilot as one of the most important elements of the series, it's a little disappointing in retrospect that the creators hadn't yet come up with the concept of the Dominion (introduced properly in the second season) or that the aliens featured in "Captive Pursuit" are never seen again...

Some of this ends up making the wormhole seem like an excuse to allow the series to circumvent its own premise and still do an alien-of-the-week episode, but it's at least interesting that Miles O'Brien gets his first notable episode, trying to mediate between an abused victim of another species' sport that has stumbled into our territory, and thus allowing everyone to muse on ethics, in a way Captain Janeway would have been proud of.

That's really it, though.  As representative of the series, "Captive Pursuit" comes up a little dicey, though it's the first regular episode dealing with an episodic problem unrelated directly to any of the series regulars to be worth watching.  Ah, that is to say, it's a suggestion that "Babel" is not the best you'll get from this show, and that's promising indeed.

franchise * series * essential * character

Notable guest-stars:
Scott MacDonald

Memory Alpha summary.

Deep Space Nine 1x5 "Babel"

*

"Babel" set a dangerous precedent for the budding series.  It was the first time you didn't need to particular care for the premise to watch.  Basically, if the premise of a series like Deep Space Nine, particularly in the first handful of episodes, doesn't matter in a story, then that story doesn't really matter.  Yet it probably seemed like a good way to soften the moody impact early episodes had already had on fans.

"Babel" is a fairly typical franchise entry, something the creators probably thought was a good thing, but it ends up being so nonspecific that it feels like maybe the series wasn't as cutting edge as it thought it was.  A malady spreads across the station, leaving everyone to speak in gibberish.  That's about it.  It's a little fun to watch actually develop, especially the moment Sisko realizes his son has been affected (probably the first time since the pilot that either of them have really been relevant, especially in relation to each other), but otherwise...mostly forgettable.

franchise * series * essential * character

Memory Alpha summary.

Deep Space Nine 1x4 "A Man Alone"

****

The most shocking thing about Deep Space Nine is that as a representative of the regular outsider-looking-at-the-human-condition archetype, Odo shattered every previous and successive model.  It probably didn't hurt that he truly was an outsider.  Need proof?  Watch "A Man Alone"

A truly shocking episode for a new series, "A Man Alone" depicts Odo's predicament in horrifying fashion.  While most fans of the series will know that Odo already had a fine relationship with Kira (which would develop into something even more fine) worked really well under the Cardassians, and maintained a quasi-adversarial relationship with Quark, it's perhaps worth reminding that he was incredibly gruff, especially in the beginning, and this didn't make things any easier for him.  "A Man Alone" is a detective story, but it's also Odo being accused of being the culprit and becoming a pariah on the station, where many of the residents are as unhappy to be there as Sisko was in "Emissary" (and in fact, it's one of the first times Keiko O'Brien lets her husband knows she doesn't like it there, either).

Odo eventually finds a comfortable groove, but even moreso than Voyager's Doctor, still has a bumpy ride toward theoretical happiness, certainly once he discovers where he's really from.  Unlike everyone else (Data learns in the first season of Next Generation exactly who his maker was) in franchise lore, Odo's origins are a mystery that intrigues him throughout the early years of his show.  "A Man Alone" is shocking, especially for Star Trek, in how it portrays him, a deeply troubled individual who finds it difficult to find allies, and still more shocking, coming so soon after the debut of the series.  But this is Deep Space Nine.  Things will eventually be exactly like this all the time.

It's not hard to see why the creators quickly backed off this kind of alienating storytelling, unsure if they really want to go this far after seeing where it could go.  I think in many ways fan reaction to the series even today is defined by the flux of the first season.  If you still can't figure out where you stand with this show, then "A Man Alone" may be entirely revelatory for you today.

franchise * series * essential * character

Memory Alpha summary.

Deep Space Nine 1x3 "Past Prologue"

****

So many episodes from the first season of Deep Space Nine have been lost in a void that it takes almost an act of will to pierce the fog and rediscover what exactly was accomplished in the formative development of the series.

"Past Prologue" is a prime example.  It will never be mistaken for an entry from later seasons, even the first half of the second, for which it could be mistaken, yet it's one of the most important and necessary entries the creators could have contributed.  You'll be astonished, once you hear what's in this one, because I doubt for most fans, even of the series, will be able to identify it by title alone (hopefully the Fan Companion can start to rehabilitate its reputation).  The funny thing is, if this had been an episode of Next Generation, this wouldn't be a problem, but that's what Deep Space Nine essentially was, a whole series of episodes that would've been highlights for any other Star Trek.  It was harder to appreciate this early on.

Okay, so the first thing you need to know is that it's the first appearance of Garak.  This is notable in its own right, even before you're reminded that he isn't seen again until the next season, and grows to mythic status at the end of that one.  But this one's just as notable as "The Wire," not only introducing the "plain, simple tailor," but his ideal relationship with the originally, incredibly naive Dr. Bashir.  Those fans who only became interested in the series later on are missing out on a version of Bashir that's one of the most interesting characters in any version of the franchise, a brilliant but inexperienced, wide-eyed dreamer who is anything but ready for the DS9 experience, and is therefore all the more remarkable for surviving it entirely intact (in the third season, you begin to appreciate his rough push into maturity).

Garak could easily have been a series regular, and nearly was in later seasons, but it's worth noting that as far as anyone knew just from viewing this first season, he was a one-off character who played like no one else since Q as guest characters go.  That's reason enough to give "Past Prologue" another shot, yes?

There's also the Duras Sisters, unofficial MVPs of Klingon guest stars, arguably more significant than Gowron, only eventually upstaged by DS9's own Martok.  They were mainstays in Next Generation, and were blown up in Generations, and were one of several attempts by the show's creators to maintain a link from one series to another, and as always, they're worth the visit, no matter where they are.

The crux of the episode isn't even any of this!  It's actually the first hard look at the pathetic state of Bajoran society, and the terrorist mentality that pervades it after decades under Cardassian Occupation.  It's not really an essential Kira episode (there are two others from this season that more easily lay claim to that title) so much as a necessary look at the Bajorans, the whole reason Starfleet took on this assignment.

Like a direct answer to the pilot, "Past Prologue" is a look at the grim everyday realities of a space station, and sets up what most of the rest of the season couldn't really live up to.

franchise * series * essential * character

Notable guest-stars:
Andrew Robinson
Barbara March
Gwynyth Walsh
Vaughn Armstrong
Susan Nimoy

Memory Alpha summary.

Deep Space Nine 1x1/1x2 "Emissary"

****

There are too many things to recommend about the first episode of Deep Space Nine.  It may be the best pilot in franchise history.

Famously envisioned as the series set on something other than a starship, Deep Space Nine is the first Star Trek incarnation to feature the name of its setting in the title, a trend that continued through the next two creations.  DS9 is, of course, a space station, still controversial a setting, as many sci-fi fans believe the idea was stolen from J. Michael Staczynski's Babylon 5, at that time still waiting for an official launch.  Gene Roddenberry had been briefed on the concept before his death in 1991, but this is the first time the Great Bird of the Galaxy had no direct input on a resulting product in the franchise.  It was truly the dawn of the Rick Berman era.

Anyway, "Emissary" has its roots squarely in the Next Generation "Best of Both Worlds" two-part episode that left a seismic impact on fans.  Benjamin Sisko, serving as first officer of the Saratoga, experiences the Battle of Wolf 359 firsthand, the moment Captain Picard, as semi-assimilated human representative Locutus, leads the Borg in its drive toward Earth and obliterates an entire Starfleet armada along the way.  Sisko's ship is among those lost in the disaster, and while he is able to rescue his young son Jake, he loses his wife Jennifer.  Three years later, he's still brooding over the loss, unable to truly move on, when he's assigned to Deep Space Nine, formerly Terok Nor, a Cardassian station in orbit of Bajor, a planet that has been ravaged for decades and now a protectorate of the Federation, a potential future member, assuming the politics work out.  The Bajorans, however, are just as reluctant about this situation as Sisko, who only wants to resign his post, while the Cardassians try and pretend everything's fine.

Just like, well, Captain Picard, who is the officer assigned to help Sisko make the transition.  Sisko is less than pleased about it.  In fact, he can barely hide his fury.  He blames under no uncertain terms Picard, and can't stand to be in the same room as him.  It's the first time anyone we're supposed to care about has reacted negatively toward Picard, for whom the audience has always had sympathy, possibly because no one we knew had been adversely affected by his experience with the Borg.  Other than, you know, all those ships lost at Wolf 359.

However, Sisko finds himself confronted by Bajor's spiritual leader, Kai Opaka, who says she sees something special in him.  It's probably the first time someone has approached him in three years and see potential in him, and not just a body to be moved around, to occupy space here or there.  Opaka moves him along the path toward discovery of the wormhole, a passage through space that also happens to contain the Prophets, the basis for Bajoran religion.  Except the Prophets are also noncorporeal beings who are interested in rehabilitating Sisko, help him move on from his loss, and move forward, because as Opaka suggested, he has great things to accomplish.  They don't understand the concept of time, or human experience, and while Sisko helps them with that, they help him look beyond these things, too.

It's a profoundly spiritual introduction, and if that had been the only contact with the Prophets, "Emissary" would still be a milestone in franchise lore, the first time a main character is truly challenged to become something greater than they once were, to accept the possibility of their own potential.  In fact, that's what Deep Space Nine is all about, Gene Roddenberry's vision of the future in working order, striving toward perfection, even while everything seems to work against this ambition.  Roddenberry himself liked to believe that humanity would have already reached that point, so all the characters to this point had already come to a basic understanding of themselves and their abilities.

Sisko is surrounded by individuals who have much work to do.  Miles O'Brien, a familiar Next Generation presence but mostly relegated to a transporter operator, suddenly has an entire space station to maintain, and a family to pacify, just like Sisko.  They're mirror images, in many ways.  Major Kira is the angry Bajoran who doesn't believe there's any point to working with Starfleet, but is forced to try.  Jadzia Dax is suddenly a young woman, but the symbiont used to belong to an old man Sisko called friend.  Julian Bashir just earned his medical license, and is looking forward to adventure, naively.  Odo seems most at home, but he's the outsider who doesn't even know who his people are.  Quark is the opportunist who doesn't want this opportunity!

Sisko actually didn't have that much more to do during the first few seasons of the show, so that makes "Emissary" all the more important, setting everything in motion, and it does so in grand fashion.  Seeing that this would be the first time Star Trek stayed in one spot for an extended period of time (seven seasons, in total), it was important to establish that there would be enough interesting things to care about, and if the characters themselves weren't enough, then hopefully the threat of the Cardassians, long established in Next Generation, and the Bajorans, who had suffered under them for many years, and had previously been represented by the popular character Ensign Ro, who was actually supposed to be featured in Deep Space Nine.  Gul Dukat makes his first appearance during "Emissary," and like Sisko would take a long time to develop into the major character he'd become (in fact not even appearing again until the second season).

It is absolutely essential viewing for any Star Trek fan, either as the first episode of Deep Space Nine, or for its profound insights into the human condition.

franchise * series * essential * character

Notable guest-stars:
Marc Alaimo
Aron Eisenberg
Max Grodenchik
Felecia M. Bell
Camille Saviola
J.G. Hertzler
Patrick Stewart

Memory Alpha summary.

Voyager 2x26 "Basics, Part 1"

****

The season and the first two seasons come to their epic conclusion in "Basics, Part 1," and darned if that's not a tall order.

Having cut off most of what had been developing for the Seska-Kazon alliance earlier, our favorite Cardassian traitor instead unwittingly gets it back on track by stumbling into her own crisis, her bastard child finally being born, and she suddenly grows maternal and protective, contacting Chakotay, whom they both believe to be the father, asking for help, and of course he agrees, forcing Janeway (hey! this is the one time Chakotay really forces the action!) to enter a final confrontation with the Kazon, a situation that proves too chaotic for the ship to handle.

Seska uses the ensuing opportunity to once again align with the Kazon, who steal the ship and exile the crew to a desolate world, sort of putting everyone in the reverse of how the series pilot ended.  It's quite a dramatic event, even if you were one of the fans who never cared for the Kazon.  They were seen as the poor man's Klingons from the start, and many fans wanted to have seen the last of them after their first appearance, but they kept coming back, and eventually found a strong ally in Seska, and like it or not became a huge part of the series.

Now, many, many times hostile aliens have taken over the ship/station in Star Trek, sometimes so easily that it ends up seeming like a joke.  I confess to having sometimes thought of "Basics" as one of the more forgettable instances of this trend, but it's incredibly important in how it galvanizes the crew in unexpected ways.  For one thing, it forces the recurring Lon Suder into becoming a key character in the series in ways he's hadn't already been, and also places the Doctor into harm's way and forced to fend for himself for the first time (but that's really for the second part; it does, however, in its implication from this half of the story reveal him to be in a most unique position for Star Trek), and not to mention Tom Paris once again being the odd man out, something he routinely becomes, even after finally joining a lasting family, when he's left on his own to come up with a plan of rescue (more on that next season!).

Anyway, the stakes can seem a little silly when all you're talking about is a single ship and the only thing the good guys really lose is the ability to get home, but they still alive, right?  That may be the whole point of the series, but there were still possibilities, right?  Except you want those bad guys to finally get it, and there's no better opportunity for that to happen than when it seems like they've finally gotten everything they wanted.  How often does that happen in Star Trek?  Really, only during the Dominion War.  That's the power of keeping a story going for a while.  That's what benefits the series from keeping around unpopular villains, because they force one major character into action, and then everyone else into jeopardy, and finally everything into a place where they either move forward or truly get left behind.

Well, hey, that sounds like a winner to me.

franchise * series * essential * character

Notable guest-stars:
Brad Dourif
Martha Hackett
Anthony De Longis

Memory Alpha summary.

Voyager 2x25 "Resolutions"

**

Fans of Voyager wanted Janeway and Chakotay to get together.  Maybe that's part of the thing that helped tank interest in the series, because that's a romance that resolutely never happened, even more certainly thank Picard and Crusher.

"Resolutions" is the closest the series ever came to explaining why.  Contaminated and left to fend for themselves on an alien planet and likely to remain there the rest of their lives, Janeway and Chakotay get a close-up look at everything that stood in their way, and why their relationship quickly evolved to the state it remained in from the very beginning.  Simply put, they work well together, and they each have necessary skills the other needs to survive, but they mean nothing more to each other than that ability to survive.

At first, neither knows what to make of the situation.  Both of them thinks they know what needs to be done, and so they get at it, quite separately.  Then they begin to notice how they can provide additional comforts to one another, and that it's not so bad being close to each other.  They develop a kinship and a bond and mutual contentment, but the name of the episode is "Resolutions," and resolve is the necessary ingredient that makes the whole thing work.  If they weren't stuck in this situation, they'd be exactly the same on the ship.  Chakotay had more passion with Seska, at many points during this very season.

For that reason, because it's exactly the same relationship they always have and they don't really address what all the fans wanted to badly, Janeway and Chakotay don't really reveal anything different in "Resolutions," so in many regards it doesn't really stand out.  I could make the argument that it's essential for all the things and reasons I've already outlined, that it explains everything about them without having to come out and say it, but I guess you don't have to worry about it if you don't want to.  The writers already made that call, several times over.  In fact, they avoid their problems more than they try to solve them, that's what really happens here.  Every time there's a big decision to be made any other time, they butt heads.  Without having to say so, Chakotay is really saying he's fine with this and he'll make good and try and help Janeway make good, too, because the roles are really reversed, and he's too polite to say so.  But the funny thing is, even in the dominant position, he's submissive, because he doesn't like a big fuss anymore, especially when it isn't necessary.  So it looks like the episode says less about him than it does Janeway.  It's like the opposite of "Tattoo."

franchise * series * essential * character

notable guest-stars:
Simon Billig

Memory Alpha summary.

Voyager 2x24 "Tuvix"

****

For some reason Voyager had a knack for getting a lot of its best concepts out of the way early on, and "Tuvix" is another example of that.  Simply put, this is the episode where Neelix and Tuvok are merged into one body thanks to a transporter accident.

Like some of those old original series adventures where Kirk was seemingly subject to just about every conceivable transporter accident (except for creating a permanent clone of himself, which instead happened to his Next Generation surrogate Will Riker), one of Star Trek's signature elements takes center stage, with its own brand of ethical dilemma, something the franchise is known for but rarely actually gets credit for, and all anyone cares about is whether Tuvix should be allowed to continue his own life rather than split back to his component personalities.

The real trouble is that combined, Neelix and Tuvok seem to be better than they ever were apart.  Hell, they've even made peace with themselves!  It's Janeway who makes the decision, ultimately, to undo the accident, and it's another in a series of controversial moves on her part that's liable to make those who already hate her think that she and Voyager as a whole is one vast mistake that only serves to bastardize the franchise.

But as I've said, ethical dilemmas are old hat for Star Trek.  Most of them involved weird alien cultures, originally, and rarely involved personal consequences for main characters, but that's the way it was done in that TV era.  If Voyager hadn't done an episode like this, not only would it be impossible to respect it at the time, but there'd be no defending it now.  But "Tuvix" exists, and it doesn't pull any of its punches, either on a first or fourteenth viewing.  It defines the show's legacy as much as any episode, and it's an early example that the series wasn't afraid either of its own potential or of what anyone would think about it in relation to the decades of interest fans had already invested in other characters.  So many fans still try to claim that Voyager played it safe.  "Tuvix" makes a joke out of that, and the contention that something like BattleStar Galactica, just because it was grim and gritty, war more daring.  It's more daring to challenge characters in multiple ways, rather than the same one, repeatedly, folks.  "Tuvix" does that in a single episode.  That's the strength of the Star Trek formula, which some fans would have you believe as being a dirty word.

franchise * series * essential * character

Notable guest-stars:
Tom Wright
Simon Billig

Memory Alpha summary.