30th Anniversary VOY Discussion Marathon

[Nate the Great]

February 13th, 1995, "The Cloud"

Fiver by Jade

Yet another example of good character work but a horrible premise. And this episode should've happened earlier.

The Episode

JANEWAY [OC]: Personal log, Stardate 48546.2. Our journey home is several weeks old now...

Try almost three months, Captain. We should've had a full-blown Maquis mutiny by now.

JANEWAY [OC]: At the Academy, we are taught that a captain is expected to maintain a certain distance. Until now, I've always been comfortable with that distance.

Ugh. I'll skip the screed, but I could pontificate for a LONG TIME about this one.

KIM: There's an ancient Chinese curse, Captain. May you live in interesting times. Mealtime is always interesting now that Neelix is in the kitchen.

This isn't actually a Chinese curse, the thing comes from the writings of a 19th century politician. Terry Pratchett proposed two more curses to form a trinity with this one, "may you come to the attention of those in authority" and "may the gods give you everything you ask for."

JANEWAY: We shouldn't judge him too harshly. He is helping us conserve replicator energy.

Given the size of the airponics bay I have doubts that the crew could really survive on crops grown on board.

PARIS: And I'm sure the gastrointestinal problems will go away as soon as our systems get used to his, er, gourmet touch.

Ugh. Surely Doc could come up with futuristic equivalents of Beano to make the Delta Quadrant crops more compatible with Alpha Quadrant biology.

KIM: We should've asked her to join us.
PARIS: Ensigns don't invite captains to sit down.
KIM: Why not?
PARIS: Because they don't.
KIM: Well, what's wrong with showing a little courtesy?
PARIS: Captains don't want courtesy, they want respect. That's why they don't get chummy with the lower ranks.
KIM: Well, who else is she supposed to get chummy with out here? There aren't many other captains and admirals for her to talk to.
PARIS: If she wants to sit with us, she'll ask us to join her. That's the way it's done.

An interesting topic, especially combined with the knowledge that the senior officers had their own mess hall before Neelix took it over. Everyone used the same mess hall on TOS, but the 1701 is a lot smaller than Voyager.

Even so, I have to agree with Tom that the senior officer should approach the junior officer.

JANEWAY: Neelix. Do we have any coffee left?
NEELIX: No, but we have something even better.
JANEWAY: I don't want something even better. I want coffee.
NEELIX: It's made from a proteinaceous seed I discovered on an expedition
JANEWAY: Never mind.

Given that other Alpha Quadrant races have their own coffee equivalents (although I'll pass on the fish juice, thank you), wouldn't Neelix have some Talaxian equivalent already? Even with the Kazon around there should be some basic trade routes that Voyager will have enountered by now.

JANEWAY: I'll use one of my replicator rations for coffee.
NEELIX: That would not be appropriate, Captain.
JANEWAY: I beg your pardon?
NEELIX: You need to set an example for the crew.
JANEWAY: Well, thank you for reminding me.
NEELIX: You're welcome. After all, if you want the crew to begin to accept natural food alternatives instead of further depleting our energy reserves, you need to encourage them by your own choices, don't you?

A good point. Even the captain shouldn't be exempt from emergency conditions.

Then again, I'm reminded of a story from the very good book "Now Hear This" about life in the Navy in the Fifties. Even when the ship is in an area suffering from a drought and there's an onboard water shortage, the pipe going to the flag officer's mess isn't turned off like the others who only get access to water twice a day. So the local goldbrickers tap into the pipe and start selling water to the sailors.

JANEWAY: There's coffee in that nebula.

This line is iconic and enjoyably put to music in the John Worsley classic "Tuvok, the Vessel's Vulcan."

JANEWAY: I'm worried about them. I wish we had a counsellor on board, but the nature of our mission didn't require one.

Ha ha ha. I didn't remember this one. It occurs to me that any mission involving Maquis would require a counsellor to help avoid possible conflicts of interests or stress when confronting the Cardassians.

CHAKOTAY: We're taught that an animal guide accompanies us through life. Basically, it's what Carl Jung thought he invented when he came up with his active imagination technique in 1932, but we've been doing pretty much the same thing for centuries.

I didn't remember this one either. There's another screed to be had here, but I won't write it.

JANEWAY: Is there a different animal guide for everyone?
CHAKOTAY: Actually, yes.
JANEWAY: Let me guess. Yours is a bear.
CHAKOTAY: Why do you say that?
JANEWAY: You strike me as the bear type.
CHAKOTAY: Thank you. The bear is a very powerful animal. It has great pokattah. But he's not my animal guide. The creature that guides us doesn't define who we are. It merely chooses to be with us.
JANEWAY: Okay. If not a bear, then what?
CHAKOTAY: I can't tell you that. It would offend my animal guide if I spoke its name.

This is an interesting conversation, but my problem is this notion that animal's only sense of identity is it's species. Or maybe I'm being influenced by reading Bambi recently (FYI, don't bother, there's even less plot than the movie, very much one of those "stuff happens, the end" stories). Chakotay should be able to say "Mickey" or "a mouse" without giving the other name and he wouldn't be revealing the full identity.

KIM: I've never seen anything like it.
(Tuvok uses his comm. badge.)
TUVOK: Tuvok to Kim. Mister Kim, that is a comment we'd prefer not to hear from a senior officer on the Bridge. It makes the junior officers nervous.
KIM: Yes, sir.

Why? Is the Enterprise the only ship that's meant to boldly go where no one has gone before?

JANEWAY: What do you make of it, Mister Tuvok?
TUVOK: I am unable to offer identification, Captain.
(Kim uses his comm. badge.)
KIM: Kim to Tuvok. In other words, you've never seen anything like it. Oh, I promise not to tell the junior officers.

This is a rather weak joke. Furthermore, Tuvok is a security officer, why is he expected to know everything about spatial phenomena? That's Harry's job!

NEELIX: Kes! Now look what she's gotten us into!
KES: Do all nebulas look like that?
NEELIX: I wouldn't know. I'm smart enough to go around nebulas when I encounter them.

This seems overly cautious on Neelix's part. He's not supposed to be this much of a coward. And they're overdoing Kes' excitement for exploration here.

CHAKOTAY: Whatever they are, they're passing right through our shields.
JANEWAY: Try reversing the shield polarity.

They really do rely on "reverse the polarity" too much, don't they? At least say "remodulate the shields!"

CHAKOTAY: We have a complement of thirty eight photon torpedoes at our disposal, Captain.
JANEWAY: And no way to replace them after they're gone.

This is completely ludicrous. Torpedo casings would be energy intensive to replicate, but it should be possible to do at a slow rate. Then you just bleed off matter and antimatter from the ship's stores.

Ex Astris Scientia counts 93 torpedoes used during the series.