Hostile aliens with advanced medical technology steal Neelix's lungs during an Away Team mission. As the ship pursues them, the Doctor struggles in Sickbay to keep Neelix alive with holographic replacements, and Neelix faces the possibility of being immobilized for the rest of his life.
Star Trek: The Next Generation gave us the Borg, and Deep Space Nine gave us the Dominion: iconic villains that resonated deeply with audiences. I feel that on Voyager, the Vidiians could have been that, but the writers didn't quite lean into any one perspective that would have made them a truly great addition to the Star Trek baddie roster. (At least, not here in their first appearance.)
There's an inherently tragic quality to their background: ravaged by disease for over 2000 years, these aliens no longer have any moral boundaries when it comes to survival. Janeway is on the verge of tears when she learns their story, a potent blend of rage and sympathy that's Kate Mulgrew's best performance on the show so far... but this moment comes in a long exposition dump of a scene, made that much drier by the lack of any musical score. We're basically told how rough it is to be a Vidiian, rather than shown, and the impact is lessened accordingly.
Alternatively, the Vidiians could have been horror movie monsters, their ghoulish and unapologetic behavior worse even than their ghastly appearance. But the episode doesn't really give much space for anyone to pause and really take in just how horrific and dangerous it is to be facing a foe that can beam your internal organs out of you in the blink of an eye. Neelix does go through a hyper-abbreviated version of the "five stages of loss," but the episode makes his situation feel like just a run of the mill "problem of the week" that will be solved easily by the end.
Yet another alternative path is suggested in the unusual name the Vidiians give their star empire: the Vidiian Sodality. That word "sodality" smacks of something found at random in a thesaurus after a writers' room bitch fest about how all the other good words have already been used. But it's so rare a word that its main religious (Roman Catholic) connotation seems unavoidable. What if the Vidiians had been a group of dangerous zealots, believing themselves either cursed by some divine power, or forgiven by a higher power for all the evil they do? Seeing as how religion was one of the elements of Deep Space Nine that the Studio Powers That Be didn't like, probably nothing like this was ever even in the discussion. Bottom line? Much of the episode is surprisingly talkie for a story with so many visceral and emotional elements in the mix.
It's perhaps strange that scenes focus on the Doctor more than Neelix, but at least in doing so, we get a number of great Doctor moments. The show has already figured out how to use him for razor-sharp comic relief, from his McCoy-style complaints ("I'm a doctor, not..." has clearly been written into his programming) to his awkward bedside manner ("Don't worry, I'm not going to kiss you."). Dramatically, we're already seeing that he and Kes have an excellent rapport, the Doctor only really showing his emotional side to her, and Kes in turn holding that up as evidence that he's more than he gives himself credit for. The end of this episode sets things up for the Doctor and Kes to work together more, and it feels like a pairing to look forward to.
There are a few other nice character moments at the margins. We're reminded that Tuvok and Janeway are long-time friends, when he cautions her on taking impulsive action (much as Spock might to do Kirk). Because it's a small ship with a fixed crew, we're already starting to see minor characters repeat, as Seska does here (in advance of her becoming a much more significant character later in the season).
The reaction to Neelix here is very much in the eye of the beholder. His "try hard" attitude makes sense when you remember that he doesn't know these people, and must really feel like he needs to earn his keep or risk being "evicted" at any moment. The camera is sympathetic to him throughout; director Winrich Kolbe crops out his mouth during a major scene in Sickbay to convey the sense of claustrophobia he must be feeling. But on the other hand, Neelix opens this episode with a machine-gun series of actions that won't endear him to anyone: he acts without permission in a quasi-military structure, invades someone's personal space, invites himself to a (landing) party, and ignores a warning that directly leads to his accident. No, he doesn't deserve lung removal for any of that, but I feel like the audience is being made to work a little too hard to sympathize with Neelix in this episode.
Other observations:
- There's a lot of hand-waving here about the future technology of artificial lungs. I don't know that I ever really buy that a holographic replacement will work when a mechanical one won't, but whatever... I guess that's the story. Still, if an artificial replacement won't work for Neelix, would it have worked for Kes after she donates one of her lungs? Surely it would have worked for one of the humans, had they been Neelix's donor.
- While Voyager is trying to mold itself like The Next Generation in many ways, one of those ways is not "send the first officer down to the planet because it's too dangerous for the captain." Moments after someone has their lungs stolen on a mission, Janeway is leading the team that investigates.
- Neelix asks the Doctor if he's programmed to sing. Singing would become a notable bit of character for the Doctor a few seasons down the road.
- First, episodes two and three of Voyager shared time travel elements. Now, this fourth episode repeats an element of episode two, with the ship encountering a reflection of itself. (Many reflections.) I understand that at a certain point, Star Trek has done some version of every idea you could possibly do. (This episode could be accused of being a knock-off of the notoriously bad original series episode "Spock's Brain.") Still, how are two ideas being repeated in the first four episodes?
I would say this episode is actually the best installment of Voyager yet. But I'd also say it still fumbles things in enough places that it winds up at pretty much the same mark: a B-. I know there are more Vidiian episodes to come, and I don't clearly remember what happens in all of them. Maybe some of the holes get patched up later? But I wish they'd gotten off to a stronger start.
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