Template:Realworld With the Kazon-Nistrim in control of Voyager, the crew must return to basics in order to survive on a harsh world inhabited by alien natives and vicious predators. Meanwhile, Suder and The Doctor attempt to assist Paris' attempts to retake Voyager. (Season Premiere)
Summary
Captain Kathryn Janeway and her crew are struggling to survive on the desolate planet on which the Kazon have abandoned them. It becomes immediately clear that their number one priority is to seek shelter from the elements. They move into one of the caves that appears to provide adequate protection given their circumstances. While Captain Janeway's team makes camp in that cave, one of the other teams, lead by Neelix, is searching the surrounding area for food and supplies. Near the entrance of a cave, he and Hogan find humanoid bones. Neelix orders Hogan to gather the bones up so they can use them for tools and weapons. As Neelix goes to help another crewmember, Hogan gets attacked and dragged into the tunnel by an unknown predator. They rush to save him but are too late and only find a few scraps of his uniform.
Act One
Lt. jg Tom Paris tries to repair the shuttlecraft he escaped in and fends off a Kazon patrol ship that has been sent to find him, destroying it.
Back in the cave, Neelix is upset, blaming himself, thinking that if he hadn't ordered Hogan to collect those bones, he wouldn't be dead now. Janeway, who herself is deeply saddened by the news of Hogan's death, tells him that there is no time to worry about blame; Hogan was a fine officer, and she wants to make sure that his death was the last one for a long time. She orders her crew to be more careful and to hold on, as she will not allow them to be destroyed by this planet. She declares the tunnels off-limits and wants clear safety protocols established. Lieutenant Tuvok informs her that he has already begun to design some rudimentary weapons. When Neelix informs her that their search for food and water is less than successful, she tells the crew to start turning over rocks and eat insects if need be.
Back on the USS Voyager, Seska goes to sickbay to have The Doctor examine her child. She also informs him that the Kazon have taken over the ship and wonders if he has a problem with that change of command. The Doctor lies and tells her that he couldn't care less about who is running the ship for he is there to provide medical treatment to whoever needs it. He also tells her that lying and blunt deception are not part of his programming. After he finishes examining the baby he informs Seska that this baby is not Commander Chakotay's son as she thought he was. He tells her that in fact the baby is half Kazon. Visibly upset about the news The Doctor has given her, Seska rushes out of sickbay and deactivates the EMH. The Doctor, however, manages to reactivate himself again as Seska leaves and begins conducting some research of his own.
- "Medical log, stardate 50032.7. I have determined that Commander Chakotay is not the father of Seska's child. I only wish there was some way to inform him. What am I supposed to do? Lead a revolt with a gang from Sandrine's? Conjure up holograms of Nathan Hale and Che Guevara? I'm a doctor, not a counterinsurgent. Get hold of yourself. You're not just a hologram. You're a Starfleet hologram. Maybe...maybe I could access a tactical database, teach myself guerrilla warfare. But that would take time."
As he asks the computer for the crew complement, he finds out that in addition to the 89 Kazon, there is also one Betazoid, Lon Suder, on board. He contacts Suder and informs him about the situation. He tells him to make it to sickbay and asks the computer to delete the signature of Suder's combadge from the system, he doesn't want any record of him ever having been on board.
Back on the planet, the crew is still struggling with meeting their basic needs. Night has fallen and temperatures have plummeted and they are forced to huddle together for warmth. Ensign Harry Kim and Lt. jg B'Elanna Torres return with eggs and some cucumbers they found only 2 kilometers from where they found shelter. Samantha Wildman's newborn baby, Naomi Wildman, is having difficulty coping with the planet's environment as she is not doing well. Chakotay is upset at himself for not being able to start a fire but later manages to do so when using Janeway's and other crew members' hair as kindling.
Later in the evening, while sitting around a fire to warm up, Neelix suggests putting some rocks around it to reflect the heat better. He sets off looking for more rocks but disappears in the dark. When Kes follows him, she is captured by one of the natives.
Act Two
Tom Paris contacts the Talaxians who inform him that Voyager has been taken over by the Kazon-Nsitrim, who have been flooding every subspace frequency with the news. Despite initial misgivings and hesitation to help Paris and Voyager, Commander Paxim is persuaded to help Tom with his mission to make repairs to the shuttle-craft and rescue Voyager's crew.
Back on Voyager, The Doctor and Suder attempt to plan a way of retaking the ship - a plan which, much to the dismay of Suder, may involve the use of violence and even necessitate killing. Suder feels uneasy about such prospects, especially after he has worked so hard over the past few months to control his violent impulses. But The Doctor tells him that even Tuvok would agree that there are times where violence is required to defend one's ship and one's crew. He asks Suder to trust him and promises to help him in any way he can: one hologram and one sociopath may not be much of a match for the Kazon, says The Doctor, but it will have to do.
Down on the planet, Chakotay informs Janeway of signs of a struggle near the edge of the camp and of Neelix's and Kes' disappearance. Janeway decides that they cannot wait until the morning to look for them and sends out search parties right away. Chakotay's party finds them and he tries to communicate with the leader of the group. The elderly leader tries to appease Chakotay by letting him have Neelix but he and the group are reluctant to hand Kes back because they obviously think of her as a suitable and desirable mate, going so far as to fight over her amongst each other. Chakotay and Neelix refuse to leave without her and the leader offers one of the group's young females in exchange for Kes. Neelix is angered by the offer but Chakotay tells him to stay calm. He tries to reason with the leader by telling him that the girl belongs with them and that Kes must go with him and Neelix. He tells Kes to calmly get up and walk away with him and Neelix. But this enrages the natives even more and they start to chase them. Even as Tuvok and others try to fight them, they are forced to enter one of the caves in the hopes that the natives know of the dangerous creatures inside them and will not follow them in.
Act Three
Back on Voyager, Culluh's men have trouble completing repairs to the ship. Seska suspects sabotage and orders a ship-wide search for an intruder. The Doctor and Suder, listening to Seska's orders on the monitor, decide to use a thoron generator to fool the Kazon's sensors.
Meanwhile, the natives force Chakotay's team deeper into the cave where they are forced to struggle with one of the ferocious creatures and even lose one of their crew members to it. Outside, Janeway and her group attempt to distract the natives away from the tunnels so that Chakotay and his crew can come back out. Torres and two other crew members manage to distract the natives away from the cave entrance, while Janeway and the remainder of her team move near the cave entrance for a rescue attempt. She is able to reach Chakotay and his search party, who have barely escaped the creature within the cave. Chakotay, Tuvok and Kim are the last ones who manage to make it out of the cave just in time, but not before they collapse the tunnel entrance with falling rocks and debris to keep the creature away.
The Hanon IV land eel
Act Four
Back on Voyager, The Doctor receives a masked subspace message from Tom Paris, who informs him that he is bringing help but that he needs The Doctor to block the discharge from the back-up phaser power couplings when the attack begins, he needs those back-ups to overload when the Kazon switch to them. Just then, Suder returns with a dead Kazon, whom he was forced to kill before he could alert Seska to his location. After doing this, he returns to sickbay, visibly distraught over what he was forced to do. The Doctor tries to calm him down by telling him that he did what needed to be done.
Seska storms into sickbay, asking The Doctor about the thoron generator. He tells her that it was damaged on a recent away mission but Seska doesn't believe him. She says she knows that a Maquis is involved in the sabotage but The Doctor claims full responsibility for it all, stating that he has been the one sabotaging the ship all along, together with the computer, and that he in fact was forced to kill one of the Kazon who walked in on him and caught him in the act. Seska still doesn't believe him, no matter what he says. Angrily she rushes out of sickbay telling the computer not to accept any more voice commands by Starfleet personnel. Before leaving sickbay, she also destroys The Doctor's program within sickbay.
Successful at escaping both the savage natives and the creature in the cave, the senior officers begin debating as to whether they should prepare to engage the natives again. However, priorities shift quickly when seismic activity increases rapidly and a nearby volcano begins to erupt.
Act Five
Suder comes out of hiding and unsuccessfully tries to access the EMH. However, The Doctor, who has programmed a message to play for him in case he is disabled, tells Suder that the fate of Voyager solely depends on him. He tells him that he has full confidence in Suder's abilities and that he is fully confident that Suder will do the right thing.
On the bridge, the Kazon follow the attacking Talaxians into a nebula, in order to teach them a lesson. Commander Paxim informs Tom that the Kazon are following them as planned. As Voyager enters the nebula, Tom follows through with his plan of attacking the phaser power couplings.
Back on the planet, the crew flees in search of higher ground and encounter the group of natives once more. However, Chakotay manages to gain the group's trust by saving one of the young female natives from a lava stream. The leader of the natives leads the crew to safer ground and as Naomi is nearing death, the tribe leader saves her life by treating her.
In main engineering, Suder sets out to follow through with his plan, attacking and killing all the Nistrim in engineering. He manages to execute Tom Paris' plan of overloading the secondary power couplings before he is shot by one of the Kazon and dies.
When on the bridge, the Kazon discover that it is Tom Paris who has been behind the attacks in the nebula all along. As they lock phasers to destroy his shuttle they find out that the primary phaser power is down. Seska suggests switching to back-up systems and as they lock on phasers to fire, the consoles overload as expected - sending a strong electric current to whoever is sitting at them. Seska, who is sitting at the helm, receives a strong current from the overload and passes out.
When she comes to, lights are flickering all over bridge and she hears her baby's cry. Weakened and hardly able to walk, she manages to make her way to her baby and reach out to him, before she collapses and dies. Cullah follows her and upon finding out that she is dead, takes the baby and escapes. Paxim and Tom beam back to Voyager and attempt to get the computer back online again and continue with their rescue mission.
On the planet, the crew has finally made peace with the natives and Voyager is seen in the distance. Everyone beams back onboard and Janeway commends Paris on his accomplishment. He tells her that he has had a lot of help from the Talaxians, The Doctor and even Suder. He tells them that Suder disabled the phasers before they killed him.
In sickbay, Tuvok offers Suder a Vulcan prayer and Chakotay says one last goodbye to Seska.
On the bridge, Captain Janeway asks Tom to take them away from their new home and set a course for Earth at warp 8.
Log entries
"Medical log, stardate 50032.7. I have determined that Commander Chakotay is not the father of Seska's child. I only wish there was some way to inform him. What am I supposed to do? Lead a revolt with a gang from Sandrine's? Conjure up holograms of Nathan Hale and Che Guevara? I'm a doctor, not a counterinsurgent. Get hold of yourself. You're not just a hologram. You're a Starfleet hologram. Maybe... maybe I could access a tactical database, teach myself guerrilla warfare. But that would take time."
Memorable quotes
"I'm a doctor, not a counter-insurgent. Get a hold of yourself. You're not just a hologram, you're a Starfleet hologram!"
- - The Doctor, to himself
"Don't push yourself. That goes for everyone. Perspiring wastes water."
- - Chakotay
"I don't have time for this!"
- - Tom Paris, as he is being attacked by a Kazon ship
"Huddle together in groups, that'll preserve body heat. This is no time to be shy."
- - Janeway, to her shivering crew
"Trapped on a barren planet, and you're stuck with the only Indian in the universe who can't start a fire by rubbing two sticks together."
- - Chakotay, to Janeway
"If you can help me with repairs, we can be on our way in a few hours."
"Lieutenant, our ships are no match for Voyager and your shuttlecraft can hardly–"
"Commander Paxim, my people are counting on you! Look, no one knows Voyager like I do. I know every vulnerability, every blind spot. Don't worry, I have a plan. "
" (sigh) Very well, we'll rendezvous in an hour. Paxim out."
" (to himself) One hour. I should be able to come up with some kind of plan in one hour."
- - Tom Paris asking for help from Talaxian Commander Paxim
"We must do this together, Mr. Suder. If you don't trust yourself yet, then trust me. I will help you any way I can. One hologram and one sociopath may not be much of a match for the Kazon, but... we'll have to do."
- - The Doctor to crewman Lon Suder
"Sticks and stones won't break my bones, so you can imagine how I feel about being called names."
- - The Doctor, to Seska
"You killed him?"
"He left me no choice."
"Why create a thoron leak if you're not hiding someone?"
"I would think it's obvious. To make you believe I was hiding someone. I've had your people crawling through the bowels of this ship for hours, looking for an intruder. (smiling)"
"You're more talented in the art of deception than you led me to believe."
"I was inspired by the presence of a master."
- - The Doctor and Seska
"It's my fault. If I hadn't told Hogan to pick up those bones."
"You shouldn't blame yourself."
"Stop it. There is no time to worry about blame. Hogan was a fine officer and a good man. And our job is to make sure that his death is the last one for a very long time. I will not let this planet destroy my crew."
- - Neelix, Kes and Janeway, after finding the remains of Hogan's uniform
"The other two seem to be trying to figure out what to make of us... In a manner of speaking, not in a culinary sense, I hope."
- - Neelix
"Doc, I hope you're receiving this because if you're not I'm a dead duck. I'm piggybacking this message on a fake Kazon signal I'm sending to the bridge. I'm betting that they won't be monitoring your emergency medical channel. I'm bringing help but you have to do something for us. When the attack begins, I need you to get the computer to block the discharge from the backup phaser power couplings. You got that? The backup power couplings. I'm taking out the primary couplings myself but I need those backups to overload when they switch to them. Don't do anything until the attack begins or they might notice. I see you soon, I hope."
- - Paris, in the video message he sent to The Doctor
"Mr. Suder, if you are hearing this, you have just unsuccessfully tried to activate the Emergency Medical Hologram, I have programmed this message to play, in the event that I am disabled. This means, of course, that the fate of Voyager now rests solely on you. I can imagine how you must feel at this moment. I want you to know you have my full confidence. You have already shown great courage and dedication to your crew. I have left additional messages for Captain Janeway and Lieutenant Tuvok, noting your heroism, in case I am irretrievable. You know what you have to do and when to do it. And I know with our fate in your hands we will prevail. Good luck, Mr. Suder."
- - The Doctor, in the video message for Suder after The Doctor has been disabled
"Welcome back, Captain."
- - Paris
"You would have been proud of him, Mr. Tuvok."
"I offer you a Vulcan prayer, Mr. Suder. May your death bring you the peace you never found in life."
- - The Doctor and Tuvok
Background
Story and Script
- The writing staff of Star Trek: Voyager was initially unsure of how it should resolve, in this episode, the problematic situation in which the Voyager crew finds itself, in the previous episode. Co-executive producer Jeri Taylor recalled, "Did we know, when we wrote the cliffhanger, how we were going to get them out of there? No. I think, by the end of the [second] season, the writing staff was so exhausted and just trying to make it to the end of the season. And you know you've got a great cliffhanger, and you're done, and you want to go off and just sort of sleep for six weeks. And then, you come back and you're faced with the problem of, 'What do we do?! How do we get them off of there?' And that's one of those corners you paint yourself into. So we had our work cut out for us, when we came back, and we got them off." (Braving the Unknown: Season Three, VOY Season 3 DVD special features)
- This was co-executive producer Michael Piller's last Voyager script, though he remained a creative consultant on the show. Piller originally wanted Seska's baby to die. Shortly after writing the episode, he explained, "There was some concern about the violence in the second part, which we have toned down. This story had Seska experiencing the ultimate culmination of all her evil. I had the opinion that she needed to lose something very dear to her to pay for her crimes, so it was my opinion from the beginning that her loss should be what she loves most, her child." (Captains' Logs Supplemental - The Unauthorized Guide to the New Trek Voyages) Another factor that inspired Piller to come up with this notion was that it would serve as a mirror to a birth within the Voyager crew. Piller later recalled, "I wanted the child of Chakotay and Seska to die [...] as a counterpoint to the birth of Ensign [Wildman]'s baby on the planet." (AOL chat, 1997)
- The idea of having the baby die was vetoed by Piller's fellow executive producers. "Rick [Berman] and Jeri [Taylor] felt that it was in extremely bad taste and too violent," Piller remembered. "Although the studio liked the ending that I wrote, Rick and Jeri felt that they could not live with it, so we started exploring other endings. Those included having Seska grab the baby and having Culluh die, which was certainly doable - if you believed that Seska really loved Culluh and moaned about losing him, but I don't think anybody would buy that. I didn't think that was satisfying enough, that she didn't get her just reward. The next alternative was to kill Seska, which certainly would be a dramatic reward, but that left us with Chakotay's baby on the ship. Chakotay would not just let anybody take that baby off the ship. Jeri wanted no part of a baby being left on board, so she vetoed that one. Well, the only other solution I could think of, somewhat contrived, I will admit, is that it turns out it's not Chakotay's baby after all. She thinks it is, but it's not." (Captains' Logs Supplemental - The Unauthorized Guide to the New Trek Voyages) Piller later remarked, "[The original idea] was deemed to be thematically too violent and so the baby lived but turned out to be not Chakotay's after all, which undermined the effectiveness of the story I was trying to tell. I was a lame duck and leaving, so I couldn't fight very hard. That's the only thing I ever remember not getting that I wanted in my entire Star Trek career." (AOL chat, 1997)
- Michael Piller also wanted the character of Lon Suder - whom Piller had created, earlier in the second season - to survive the events of this episode, but Jeri Taylor was entirely uninterested in further developing the character, who is consequently one of many who die in the episode's final moments. Piller commented, "It's a real wipeout. Jeri never cared for Suder and had no interest in developing him any further, so there was no point in keeping him alive. And a dramatic arc is fully realized by having his death occur at the end of part two. He heroically sacrifices himself for the ship." (Captains' Logs Supplemental - The Unauthorized Guide to the New Trek Voyages)
Production
During this episode's production, director Winrich Kolbe stands amid Hanon IV natives
- This episode was not filmed back-to-back with the previous installment of the "Basics" two-parter. Remarking on this aspect, Jeri Taylor said, "It doesn't matter, because we have so much time in postproduction, we can film the [first four episodes of the next season] in any order we want." (Captains' Logs Supplemental - The Unauthorized Guide to the New Trek Voyages) Indeed, this episode was one of four that were filmed at the end of the second season yet intended for the third season, the others being "Sacred Ground", "False Profits" and "Flashback". (Star Trek: Voyager Companion) Evidenced by both this episode's production number and the book A Vision of the Future - Star Trek: Voyager, this episode was the last episode of the second season to be shot. Commenting on this episode, Jeri Taylor stated, "We waited because the second half of the cliff-hanger is a heavy location show and with daylight saving time and longer daylight hours, we simply got longer days in which to film outdoors." (Captains' Logs Supplemental - The Unauthorized Guide to the New Trek Voyages)
- The extensive location filming took place in Alabama Hills, Lone Pine, California, requiring the cast and visual effects team to spend a considerable duration away from the Paramount Pictures lot. The opportunity to go on location was enjoyed by cast and crew alike. Visual effects producer Dan Curry remarked, "One of the fun things about [working on 'Basics'] was we shot on location in Alabama Hills, near Lone Pine, California. And Alabama Hills was the scene for such classics as Gunga Din [and] King of the Khyber Rifles. About half the Westerns ever made were out there. And so it was almost like going on to an archaeological expedition, because we found the footings for the elephant bridge from Gunga Din." Remembering how the visual effects team and director Winrich Kolbe scouted the area, Dan Curry stated, "We poked around and said, 'Okay, where's the lava going to be?' And we found a dry stream bed, so Rick Kolbe and I kind of climbed down and said, 'Okay, we're going to have Chakotay jump over here and we can have the stranded Neolithic woman surrounded by deadly lava on that rock.' And so it was kind of a little mental exercise, trying to figure out, 'What would we see if it were really there, but it's not really there now?'" (Red Alert: Amazing Visual Effects, VOY Season 3 DVD special features) Samantha Wildman actress Nancy Hower said of the location shoot, "We shot for a week in the desert in Lone Pine, Calif., and that was great fun - except for the fact that I was getting over pneumonia. Other than that I had a really good time." (Star Trek: Communicator, issue #121, p. 64)
- Scenes set on the surface of Hanon IV were not only filmed on location, however; a massive planet set on Paramount Stage 16, Paramount's largest soundstage, was built to additionally represent the planet surface, consuming more than half the soundstage (which simultaneously housed the Chez Sandríne set). The construction of the Hanon IV set involved tons of dirt to be hauled in and heaped up around rocks and cave walls, the stage's wooden floor to be built up in several areas and covered with more dirt, as well as a few shrubs and scraggly-looking plants to be added, providing touches of greenery in the otherwise predominantly earthy environment.
- The last day of filming on this episode was Friday, 19 April, 1996, which turned out to be a tiresome and long day for most of the individuals involved. The makeup call on that day was at 7:30 a.m. and, that evening, Rick Kolbe filmed a scene on the Hanon IV set at 10:30 p.m., while the stage contained many more extras and production crew members than was usual; the extras numbered about twenty, with most playing Hanon IV natives but some wearing Starfleet uniforms. The scene that was being filmed was the one in which Chakotay lights a fire by causing friction with the use of primitive implements. Actor Robert Beltran had difficulty with starting the fire, despite the best efforts of the shooting crew to lend some support. After having shot multiple takes of Beltran struggling to spark the fire, Kolbe, at 11 p.m., surrendered to the inevitability of having to fake the scene, remarking, "We'll show him doing that business with the bow, then we'll cut to smiling happy faces as everybody reacts to Chakotay's success, then we'll cut to the fire." Relieved to be done with the scene, Beltran handed the "fire-starting tools" to property master Alan Sims and momentarily walked off the set. Meanwhile, the extras began to be released as they finished their scenes. Beltran and Tim Russ were not finished with working on the episode until 1:40 a.m. early the next morning, by which time all the extras had left. After Beltran and Russ completed their last scene, everyone else present gave them a big round of applause and there was a brief interval from shooting, in order to prepare for the next scene, the last to be shot. The only performers involved in the final scene were Kate Mulgrew, Roxann Dawson and Garrett Wang. Dawson tiredly began to get into position for rehearsing the scene, which was being filmed by 2:10 a.m. but also required numerous takes. Kolbe did not like the first take and sound mixer Alan Bernard had considerable trouble with the sound levels but everything worked perfectly on the fourth take, after which everyone left on stage applauded the actors before they all went home. (A Vision of the Future - Star Trek: Voyager)
Effects
- The Hanonian land eel of this episode was the first alien lifeform on Voyager to be generated entirely by CGI techniques. Voyager's visual effects team would experiment with CGI as a means of creating non-humanoid aliens again in "Macrocosm" before doing so to design the look of Species 8472 for the season finale, "Scorpion". Prior to generating the Hanonian land eel in CGI, however, Dan Curry drew conceptual art of the creature, one example of which is dated February 1996 and refers to the creature simply as "tunnel dweller." A maquette of the beast was also created. Regarding the process of designing the Hanonian land eel, Dan Curry remembered, "The script called for a creature that lived in the tunnels and was always hungry [....] Whenever I design creatures, I try to use [the] Darwinian approach where, 'What's its environment? What would it need, to exist in that environment?' So, since it was a cave-dweller, I thought it would be cool if it had certain eel-like properties - that was very voracious and had a big mouth - but gave it radically symmetrical appendages, like big claws, so it could kind of scramble up tubes. And like a puffer fish, that it would have air bladders, that it could squeeze itself into a tube and fill it, so it could kind of hang out there or contract itself, so it could go forward. And that's how we arrived at the creature that you saw in the show." (Red Alert: Amazing Visual Effects, VOY Season 3 DVD special features)
- Visual effects supervisor Ronald B. Moore cited this episode as one of many featuring a creature (in this case, the Hanonian land eel) whose design was unknown at the time of filming the live elements in the shots involving the creature: "It's a lot of times where, at that stage when we're shooting it, we don't know what it is. We don't know what it's going to look like, we're in the middle of design and stuff like that, which can make it very difficult. But I remember a lot of that happened with the snake. The hard part was it had to snatch somebody off and eat them. And it's like, 'Okay, ah... we don't know what it is, but we know it's gonna eat this guy.'" (Red Alert: Amazing Visual Effects, VOY Season 3 DVD special features)
- Filming the sequence in which an officer falls victim to the land eel's voracious appetite involved stunt coordinator Dennis Madalone playing the doomed officer as well as several visual effects that were later applied in post-production. Ronald B. Moore commented, "Dennis 'Danger', the stunt man, was very good... to simulate this, and we could pull him off the rocks. And then we have twofold, then; we have to remove whatever he needed to assist him, which would be cables or anything else, and then animate the creature to make it look like... he got pulled off. Setting that stuff up can be tricky, but fun." Jokingly, Moore added, "And we didn't really eat him!" (Red Alert: Amazing Visual Effects, VOY Season 3 DVD special features)
- The visual effects team had difficulty with deciding how to make the closeup shots of the lava look realistic. "The biggest challenge on 'Basics,'" Dan Curry explained, "was the lava. So, we found some 16mm footage of real lava - taken from a lot of different angles in Hawaii - and steadied it and tweaked it and skewed it into the perspective that we wanted it, then added a lot of liquid nitrogen - smoke to make it look hot and steamy - and traced where it would be running in the dry stream beds. And it worked very well, because it was real lava, and therefore, it gave a greater sense of reality than a lot of the cinematic lava we've seen in the past." (Red Alert: Amazing Visual Effects, VOY Season 3 DVD special features)
- Dan Curry worked on designing the primitive weapons of the Hanon IV natives in March 1996, creating at least three sheets of concept sketches (misspelling the word "primitive" each time, the groups of sketches were named "primative weapons," "more primative weapons," "even more primative weapons," and "still more primative weapons"). This design process was influenced by memories from his youth. "When I was a boy, my mother gave me a book on the history of weapons by Edwin Tunis," Curry recalled. "And I remembered all those drawings of the early cave weapons and stuff like that. So when this episode came along, it gave me the opportunity to kind of delve into those childhood memories and design some vicious but practical things that would be wielded by these primitive people. So, because [of] a childhood interest in, I guess, growing up watching adventure movies and a childhood interest in various weapons of different historical periods, it gave me the background [to] - from memory and using my own imagination - come up with weapons that seem appropriate for the level of technology of those people." (Red Alert: Amazing Visual Effects, VOY Season 3 DVD special features)
Continuity
- This episode marks the deaths of Seska (Martha Hackett), Suder (Brad Dourif) and Hogan (Simon Billig) and the penultimate appearance of Maje Culluh (Anthony De Longis) on the series. (His picture is shown to Seven of Nine aboard a timeship in "Relativity", albeit as part of a data file depicting the Kazon in general.)
- Voyager never encounters the Kazon again (although a temporal anomaly causes Engineering to regress to this period in time in "Shattered"). They are also briefly seen again in "Living Witness", in a deeply flawed recreation of Voyager in which a few Kazon are enslaved crew members on board Voyager, where they are used as members of the Warship Voyager's fighting force. The decision that this episode would be the last substantial appearance of the Kazon was an intentional one. Jeri Taylor, who felt they were overused as villainous aliens, commented, "After the cliffhanger, which does involve the Kazon, it is my intention to leave them behind and to find new and I hope more interesting aliens." (Star Trek Monthly issue 18) The next major enemy race (the Borg) do not make their full appearance until the end of the third season.
- We learn in this episode that Tuvok taught Archery Science at the Vulcan Institute for Defensive Arts for several years.
- Scott Haven previously played Virak'kara in the Star Trek: Deep Space Nine episode "To the Death".
- The remnants of Hogan's corpse are later excavated by the Voth, and help the alien species come in contact with USS Voyager in "Distant Origin".
- This episode marks the first appearance of Voyager's escape pods.
- The Kazon crew wear the Starfleet combadges on the right side, instead of the familiar left.
- Several costumes and props from this episode were sold off on the It's A Wrap! sale and auction on eBay, including the costume worn by Russ Fega (as Paxim). [1]
- After retaking Voyager from the Kazon in this episode, Janeway orders Paris to "Take us away from our new home and set a course for the old one." In "Basics, Part I", Seska refers to Hanon IV as the "new home" of the joint Starfleet/Maquis crew.
Video and DVD releases
- UK VHS release (two-episode tapes, CIC Video): Volume 3.1, 13 January 1997.
- This volume sees a slight change in the sleeve design - the episode band is segmented, and the episode names are placed along the bottom of their segment.
- As part of the UK VHS collection Star Trek - Greatest Battles: 16 November 1998.
- In feature-length form, as part of the UK VHS release Star Trek: Voyager - Movies: Volume 1 (with "Future's End"), 14 August 2000.
- As part of the VOY Season 3 DVD collection.
Links and references
Starring
Also starring
- Robert Beltran as Commander Chakotay
- Roxann Biggs-Dawson as Lieutenant B'Elanna Torres
- Jennifer Lien as Kes
- Robert Duncan McNeill as Lieutenant Tom Paris
- Ethan Phillips as Neelix
- Robert Picardo as The Doctor
- Tim Russ as Lieutenant Tuvok
- Garrett Wang as Ensign Harry Kim
Special Guest Star
Guest Stars
- Anthony De Longis as Culluh
- Martha Hackett as Seska
- Nancy Hower as Samantha Wildman
- Simon Billig as Hogan
- Scott Haven as a Kazon-Nistrim engineer
- David Cowgill as Hanon IV native #2
- Michael Bailey Smith as Hanon IV native #1
- John Kenton Shull as a Hanon medicine man
Co-Stars
- Russ Fega as Paxim
- Majel Barrett as the narrator/computer voice
Uncredited Co-Stars
- Tarik Ergin as Ayala
- Heather Ferguson as a command division officer
- Sue Henley as Ensign Brooks
- Kerry Hoyt as Crewman Fitzpatrick
- Donald R. Jankiewicz as a Hanon IV native
- Pat Jankiewicz as a Hanon IV native
- Susan Lewis as an operations division officer
- Dennis Madalone as a science division officer
- Linda Madalone as a Hanon IV native
- Mark Major as a Kazon-Nistrim #2
- Lorin McCraley as a Hanon IV native
- Tom Morga as a Kazon-Nistrim
- Louis Ortiz as Ensign Culhane
- Shepard Ross as Ensign Murphy
- Jennifer Somers as a science division officer
- Charles Spector as a Talaxian officer
- John Tampoya as Kashimuro Nozawa
- Unknown performers as
- Naomi Wildman (infant)
- Talaxian officer
- Two Hanon IV natives
References
47 references; Betazoid; cave; class 2 shuttle; decathlon; egg; escape pod; Guevara, Ernesto; Hale, Nathan; Hanon IV; Hanon IV native; Hanonian land eel; improvoline; interspecific reproduction; Template:ShipClass; Kazon; Kazon-Halik; "I'm a doctor, not a..."; Kazon-Nistrim; Kolopak; Maquis; morgue; Native American; Prema II; runner; sickbay; Talaxian; Talaxian fighter; thoron; thoron generator; thoron radiation; track and field; tricorder; visual playback log; volcano; Voyager, USS; Vulcan
| Previous episode: "Basics, Part I" |
Star Trek: Voyager Season 3 |
Next episode: "Flashback" |