Voyager Flashback: Meld

Not many Tuvok-centric episodes of Star Trek: Voyager speak to his character as security chief and as a Vulcan. "Meld" does both, starting out as a Whodunit and then quickly becoming a WHYdunit that cuts to Tuvok's logical core.

When Tuvok investigates a murder aboard the ship, he quickly finds the culprit in Suder, an icy Betazoid out of touch with even his own emotions. What Tuvok doesn't find is a motive; Suder claims simply to have snapped and murdered without reason. Unsatisfied, Tuvok suggests a Vulcan mindmeld to provide himself with answers and Suder with emotional stability. Instead, Tuvok's own darkest impulses are unlocked. Meanwhile, Paris starts a lottery from which he skims a cut of the profits.

Though most television scripts are group efforts, the background on this one is more well-documented than most. Executive producer Michael Piller had been receiving pitches about Tuvok confronting random, senseless violence -- anathema to Vulcan logic. Intern Michael Sussman finally cracked that story when he suggested a mindmeld with a killer as the gimmick. Actor Tim Russ was told about this story in advance, and suggested that the killer be a Betazoid, reasoning that too many successful mindmelds with humans had happened in Star Trek history, and that using another species with mental abilities might explain the complications here. And executive producers Rick Berman and Jeri Taylor steered Piller in a rewrite of the episode's final act, featuring Tuvok's long, chilling rant.

The result is one of Voyager's most solid scripts so far. But it's the acting that really makes the episode shine. Tim Russ is excellent when freed from the constraints of emoting only with his eyebrows. He's better with each new scene, from dialogues with Suder to initially hiding his condition to Janeway finding him broken down in his quarters. And that final act scene, three real time minutes of ranting and raving, are a real tour de force, perhaps the most effective work from any series regular on Voyager to date.

But of course, Russ is also given a hell of a scene partner to work with in Brad Dourif. Dourif had already built a reputation in this kind of role, after winning a Golden Globe and BAFTA for One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest and scaring the crap out of audiences in The Exorcist III. He's riveting here: eyes darting about as though literally reading Tuvok like a book, somehow berating without ever raising his voice, and warning about the allure of violence. It's not a one-note performance either; Suder has moments of wry humor, and Dourif's portrayal is noticeably different after the mindmeld.

There's a "big idea" being explored here too, surrounding the morality of the death penalty. There's effective discussion about whether it's ever appropriate, or called for in certain circumstances, or the most just things for families of the victims, and more. There's also meaningful dialogue around violence itself, including Star Trek's most unvarnished examination of the inherent violence of mindmelding (outside of the memorably unsettling mindmeld/rape in Star Trek VI).

This would easily be the first A-grade Voyager episode in my book, were it not for a real anchor attached to it: the subplot of Paris' gambling racket. To be fair, the series is actually trying something pretty advanced here: setting up a plot to run across multiple episodes without even telegraphing that it's an ongoing story. That's more what we see a modern TV series doing. But I find it ineffective here because the story clangs so hard against the more compelling A plot. Are we meant to perceive a throughline between the crime of murder and the "vice" of gambling? What are we to make (at this point) of Paris suddenly regressing to a pilot episode badboy after a season-and-a-half of growth?

Other observations:

• I noted of the notorious "Threshold" that it felt like a horror movie script that wasn't filmed, lit, directed, or scored like a horror movie. "Meld" is more effective on all those counts, conjuring a much darker and unsettling atmosphere that suits the material.

• The writing continues to encourage the audience to hate the character of Neelix. We're with you, Tuvok, we want to strangle him too.
  

• The Doctor makes some good points about violent tendencies (perhaps even in himself, as he was programmed by people with violent tendencies). But he also talks a lot about mental health in now-outdated ways.
  

Excise the Paris subplot here, and I think you'd have a near-perfect episode. As it is, I'm going to give "Meld" a B+. Still good, but still not as good as it could have been.