Voyager Flashback: The Void

The signature element differentiating Star Trek: Voyager from previous series in the franchise was that the ship was distant and isolated, cut off from the Federation. In the episode "The Void," Captain Janeway sets out to create a little Federation of her own.

Voyager becomes trapped inside a spatial anomaly along with dozens of other ships... but with absolutely no resources, and no apparent escape. While stronger aliens in this "void" prey upon each other for survival, Janeway tries to convince them all to work together toward the common goal of escape.

It's hard to ignore that the featured element of this episode -- being trapped inside a black void -- was already the signature element of the fifth season premiere, "Night." (They even called it "the void" in that episode.) The episode also has a little in common with "The Haunting of Deck Twelve" with its moody lighting, and sees a return appearance of the Overlookers (though an opportunity is missed to really dig into what it's like for them to be cut off from their decision-making "Hierarchy").

Still, this episode ends up feeling like more than a reheat of old ideas. If you can get over the hurdle of accepting Janeway's blind faith in giving resources away (I mean... I guess she turns out to be right), there's an enjoyable story here that goes right to the heart of Star Trek ideals. We meet an unusual alien race who only communicates (with us) through the music we teach them -- and we see their distinctiveness dismissed by those with closed minds. We see a sci-fi fable of cooperation as a virtue.

We also see a few things that are very NOT Star Trek. There's a long montage near the end of this episode, showing us the escape preparations with no dialogue at all -- almost unheard of on Star Trek. For the nitpickers out there, they actually acknowledge at one point that the shuttlecraft aboard Voyager have their own resources that can help supplement the main ship. (This realization could have gotten Our Heroes out of a few problems over the years.) And we get a rare instance of a credited actor who speaks no dialogue at all, as Jonathan Del Arco -- the Borg Hugh himself -- plays the alien named Fantome by the Doctor. (We get the expected joke about the Doctor still being unable to name himself.)

Other observations:

• Tom and B'Elanna and Janeway and Chakotay begin this episode at dinner, on something that must look very much like a double date to any Janeway/Chakotay shippers out there.

• There's a brief mention of the Vaadwaur. Remember when it seemed like they would be a thing?

• At this point in the series, most of the visual effects are achieved with CG -- and very little model work. And it generally looks quite good for the time the show was made. But there's something about just showing the ship in an empty void, with no stars or anything, that inescapably calls attention to the shortcomings of the CG of the time.

I give "The Void" a B. Its hopeless optimism feels a bit too extreme to be believed... yet is kinda-sorta pure, uncut Star Trek at the same time.