Voyager Flashback: Once Upon a Time

With "Once Upon a Time," Star Trek: Voyager was just one episode shy of reaching its milestone 100th episode. But this 99th episode had a milestone of its own: it was the moment that young Naomi Wildman became a heavily recurring character on the show.

When a shuttle goes missing on a dangerous mission, young Naomi Wildman is forced to deal with the uncertainty of what may have happened to her mother. Neelix is determined to shield her from emotional trauma, whipping himself into a frenzy as he tries to keep her distracted.

The first (non-baby) appearance of Naomi Wildman had happened in the prior season, but this time the role was re-cast with Scarlett Pomers, who would end up playing the role in 16 episodes over the show's final three seasons. For comparison, that's twice as many times as the 8 episodes in which the character's mother, Ensign Samantha Wildman, would appear in the entire run of the show. (In fact, Samantha appeared in just one episode after this!)

To some extent, this is the "Cousin Oliver-ing" of Star Trek: Voyager, adding a cute kid to the mix to spice things up. This was nothing new for Star Trek, of course; The Next Generation actually cast one of the original "cute kid to spice up your show" actors when they brought Brian Bonsall (of Family Ties) on to play Worf's son Alexander. Still, the expansion of the Naomi Wildman character does feel more earned than gratuitous to me in at least two ways.

First, depicting a kid growing up on Voyager was a good way to dramatize the "far from home, struggling to survive" premise of the show that would often get lost in conventional "planet of the week" episodes of the series. (That's probably part of why the writers would later add several more children in season 6.)

Second, they found a rather solid actor in Scarlett Pomers. She reportedly thought this would be her only appearance when she was cast, but an obvious and immediate rapport with Ethan Phillips (and briefly here, Jeri Ryan) clearly got the writers' imaginations going and led to future appearances. They let this kid be a kid, not too wise beyond her years (even if her education seems advanced, but I guess she lives in the future).

So no, I don't have a problem with the idea of a Star Trek episode focused around a precocious child. But I can't say I loved having so much of this episode taking place in a holodeck version of a kids' storybook. The "Flotter and Timber" world shown here does have decent production values (and they show the landscape both lush and destroyed). It isn't quite as corny as The Next Generation's "cute kid spends time on the holodeck" episode. But it still involves two actors (one of them veteran "that guy" Wallace Langham!) in dopey costumes, spouting dopey dialogue, and engaging in a dopey story that can't help but be dopey because its all make believe and set against a very real jeopardy happening on the crashed shuttle.

That said, another flaw of the episode is that the jeopardy on the shuttle doesn't feel all that real. The fact that it's the brand-new Delta Flyer in the crash subtly reassures us, even more than the presence of two main characters, that no one is in real danger here. And although Deep Space Nine might have been daring enough to kill off Samantha Wildman for dramatic effect, you can feel pretty certain that Voyager isn't going to make an orphan of Naomi.

I don't care much for the character of Neelix generally, but I do appreciate the way he's used in this episode. The story plays to his past (the loss of his family) as he fights to shield Naomi from hard truths. Along the way, he gets pushback from other characters in a series of effective scenes; Seven's observation that Naomi will "adapt" is flawlessly on brand, and the confrontation with Janeway is a good scene for both Ethan Phillips and Kate Mulgrew.

There are some nice moments aboard the crashed shuttle as well. The "emotionless" Tuvok gives wonderful emotional comfort to Ensign Wildman about parenting. The goodbye messages from Paris and Wildman as they think they're about to die... well, they aren't tearjerkers, but they work well enough in the moment.

Other observations:

• Janeway, Kim, and Ensign Wildman all speak of having played these interactive Flotter stories as children. That would seem to contradict the first episode of The Next Generation, where holodeck technology was a brand new wonder.

• The stuffed Flotter toy Harry Kim creates looks creepy as hell.

• Are there no security measures in place to keep young Naomi from wandering the corridors and going to the bridge?
  

There are good moments in this episode, and the "cute kid" works well enough. But the hollow sense of jeopardy and the excessive time spent on the world of Flotter keep this episode from rating very highly in my view. I give "Once Upon a Time" a B-.