When Tuvok is attacked by a non-corporeal alien, he loses both his memory and his emotional control. Neelix dedicates himself to helping this new Tuvok discover his own identity. And it's one Tuvok may not want to give up.
While there are good elements to this episode, I find it ultimately also find it a bit disappointing. There's a world in which that wouldn't be the case: a world that didn't already have the episode "Tuvix." That past episode, which saw Tuvok and Neelix fused-by-transporter into a single being, hangs over every moment of this one.
The writers don't ever want to mention "Tuvix," of course, lest they make too many people more aware of the similarities: Tuvok becomes a new person and doesn't want to go back, Neelix and Tuvok grow close and bridge the gap between their personalities in a science-fictiony way. What's more, this episode cops out in a way that "Tuvix" didn't; where Janeway was forced to a decision in that episode that remains controversial among Trekkers to this day, here Tuvok just sort of changes his mind at the end for no apparent reason, letting everyone off the hook.
On the other hand, how would the characters themselves not think of the Tuvix incident in a situation like this? Early on, when Neelix is trying to jog Tuvok's lost memory, how could he not share the memories he surely retains from their past merging? When Tuvok declares that he doesn't want to return to the person he was before, how could Janeway not confide her thinking in Chakotay, in how this situation recalls the previous one? It might even be that her previous decision has altered the way she thinks about this one.
But ignoring history isn't the only weird character behavior in the episode. The alien scientist, Naroq, is willing to sacrifice his life's work (without explanation) to help Tuvok. The Doctor, who has typically derided all mysticism, invites Neelix into Sickbay to play Vulcan chants in the hopes of reviving Tuvok.
There's also the extent to which this episode dances blithely along the line of being offensive -- though this is hardly the only bit of 1990s entertainment to tell a story of an "idiot savant" without considering what they're unintentionally saying about the perceived of people with autism or similar conditions. (Hell, they gave Oscars for this kind of thing.) The episode is fumbling around in the dark for the concept of "emotional intelligence" that it can't quite grasp.
So, wow, total dog of an episode, right? Well, surprisingly, not entirely. Because the ensemble work put in here is really quite superb. It starts with a truly deft performance from Tim Russ as Tuvok. He has to play a wide-eyed "child" learning to recover speech itself. He has to give the sort of "simpleton" performance that movie actors of the era would often spend months preparing, when he was just shooting another episode the day before. He has to channel feelings that his regular work always calls for him to mute. And he's actually quite good at all that.
At the same time, Ethan Phillips is doing some of his best work as Neelix, being genuinely empathetic and helpful, two qualities I think the writers think ascribe to the character despite all the evidence to the contrary. (Hell, he's annoying Tuvok again in the very first scene of this episode!) Jeri Ryan also does a lot with her one big scene of the episode, in which Seven compares Tuvok's plight to her early days severed from the Borg Collective.
It's not surprising that overseeing all these good performances from the Voyager cast is one of their own: this is the first episode directed by Roxann Dawson, who (like Robert Duncan McNeill) would go on to have a longer and more successful career as a director than as an actor. Sure, it must have helped to know these actors for years, but that doesn't diminish the great work she's able to get from them. And she's not bad at the technical aspects either, even in her first effort. There are plenty of interesting camera angles and moments of neat staging. The effects get space to shine -- both the digital (the strange alien) and the practical (actual smoke coming off Tuvok's skin after he gets zapped). Dawson's work as director here is better than many steadily-working television directors can do after years at the job.
Other observations:
- This episode starts with Neelix giving an "ambassador's log." My eyes rolled so hard.
- The title "Riddles" is a bit of a stretch. Sure, the bookend riddle, about living in isolation for a year with only a calendar for sustenance, does show Tuvok's arc. But a scene in the middle that tries to connect the invisible aliens to the riddle metaphor is too big a contortion.
The competing factors make this a hard one for me to grade, but I think I'd call "Riddles" a B-.
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