One Small Step

I guess one has to constantly look past the careless actions of the leadership of this vessel or we'd be angry all the time. Voyager finds herself perpetually in deep doodoo because chances are taken that are unnecessary. This time it is Chakotay who pushes this venture and then insubordinately threatens the lives of everyone else. I suppose sentimentality is part of our humanity. Still, survival is a lot more important. The writers worked it all out, but how many times does one play with fire before being scorched. It was a bit touching, however.

This episode is a tribute to all the explorers who paid with their lives ushering the dawn of a new era, but also paved the way for other explorers who came after them. Explorers who wrote history and were or still are role models for entire generations.

The Voyager crew discovers an old spacecraft from the 21st century inside a space anomaly, which was swallowed and dragged along by this anomaly during an early mission to Mars. For Chakotay, Janeway, and everyone else except Seven, it is clear that this piece of history must be recovered to honor the memory of the shining hero of this mission, whose life was swept away by this space anomaly. While the crew feels the touch of nostalgia under their fingertips and is thrilled to have made such a once in a lifetime discovery, Seven cannot get excited about recovering a pile of ancient technology and putting her own life in danger to do so. However, Janeway convinces her to "volunteer" for this salvage mission because it might teach her how important history and its heroes are to the human species - something she never learned as a Borg Drone.

While the episode is certainly appealing as an example of how much the stories of a few heroes determine both the future of a civilization and the careers of individual people, it also gets very pompous at times. Chakotay is willing to risk not only his life but also those of Paris and Seven just to get the spacecraft back to Voyager. Despite all the nostalgia, the here and now should still be the focus when in doubt. Especially since memories and legends continue to exist, even without material memorabilia being archived.

In any case, Seven has her character development moment when she realizes how important the knowledge of bygone days can be for today's spirit of discovery and that the human species in particular needs role models to guide them on their own journey of discovery.

The show begins in the early 21 century. A space flight from Earth to Mars is interrupted when a 'gravatron ellipse' appears and sucks the ship out of known existence. Now, centuries later, Voyager comes upon the wreckage of this old ship and Chakotay is determined to salvage the craft--or at least what's left of it. However, when the ellipse appears once again, Chakotay might just get himself and others killed.

This is a bittersweet and enjoyable type of episode with a lot of sad nostalgia associated with it. Phillip Morris stars as the fated captain of the old Nasa ship.

By the way, early in the show the Doctor talks about Arakkis Prime. Arakkis is an inside joke, as it's from Frank Herbert's classic sci- fi novel, "Dune".

Voyager and the crew of the Delta Flyer end up in a dangerous situation following the discovery of a graviton eclipse containing a command module from an old Mars exploration mission.

The theme of exploration is the focus of the story, and it is tackled with a great deal of passion. Seven of Nine's comparison between human exploration and the Borg's search for perfection is one of my favourite parts.

I did struggle with two aspects of the episode. Firstly, Chakotay's actions serve the plot but damage his credibility as a senior officer aboard Voyager. I have no doubt that in the next episode, we are expected to take him seriously again as the second in command.

Secondly, I think it goes a bit over the top with sentiment toward. I did not really invest enough in the John Kelly character for this to work. However, this will not be a problem for everyone; this is merely a result of the show's passion for its subject matter.

This is a misunderstood episode. One reviewer has said it would be expected if Tom acted irrationally but not Chakotay. It was explained that the Mars missions were a passion of his so yes he would be wanting the module and put it ahead of their well being. Meribor another reviewer says "And Seven brings the body back all for them to bury him in space. I think Kelly would've rather stayed with his ship, his dream." Anyone who has been in the service will know that the burial at the end is a high honor. The speech shows that seven is growing as an individual and connected with someone else. This episode is deep on many levels. You have to have some sort of analytic mind rather than "oh it's a show that makes you think. I won't like it." These people are explorers and will put their lives in danger to gain knowledge.