Basics, Part II (episode)

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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 animalistic predators. Meanwhile, Suder and The Doctor attempt to assist Paris' attempts to retake Voyager. (Season Premiere)

Summary

Captain 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.

Neelix is upset, blaming himself, thinking that if he hadn't ordered Hogan to collect those bones, he wouldn't be dead now. But 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, so Janeway, 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. 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 Voyager, Seska goes to sickbay to have The Doctor examine her child. She also informs him that the Kazon-Nistrim have taken over the ship and wonders if he as 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 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 doing 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, 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 Mr. Suder's combadge from the system, for 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. While Harry and B'Elanna return with eggs and some cucumbers they found only 2 km 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 Captain 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.

In the meanwhile, Tom Paris, who had managed to escape the Voyager with a shuttle craft, contacts the Talaxians who inform him that Voyager has been taken 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 the Voyager 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 Mr. 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 Mr. 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, so the Doctor, but will have to do.

Down on the planet, Chakotay informs the Captain of signs of 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. Unfortunately, the natives force them 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. B'Elanna 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 company, 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 the nick of time, but not before they collapse the tunnel entrance with falling rocks and debris to keep the creature away.

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. They flee 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.

While the crew is struggling on the planet for survival, back on Voyager, the Doctor receives a masked subspace message from Tom Paris, who informs him that he is brining help but that he needs the Doctor to block the discharge from the back-up phaser power couplings when the attack begins, for he needs those back-ups to overload when the Kazon switch to them. In the meanwhile, Suder does what he can to draw the Kazon, who are suspecting an intruder, away from sickbay: he uses an old Maquis technique of using a portable thoron generator: thoron particles neutralize tricorder sensors, making it impossible for the Kazon to detect him. However, Suder gets caught by a Kazon and is forced to kill him before he can alert Seska of 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. When Suder comes out of hiding, he is unsuccessful in accessing 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 Mr. Suder will do the right thing.

On the Voyager bridge, the Kazon follow the 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. 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, they finally find out 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 again 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 trying to get the computer back online again and continue with their rescue mission.

On the planet, the crew that has finally made peace with the natives, sights Voyager in the distance. Everyone beams back on board and Captain Janeway commends Tom Paris on his accomplishment. Tom tells her that he has had a lot of help from the Talaxians, the Doc and Mr. Suder even. 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 the old one; 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

"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

"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

File:Hanonianlandeel.jpg

The Hanon IV land eel

The Hanonian land eel was the first alien lifeform on VOY to be generated entirely by CGI techniques. The producers would experiment with CGI as a means of creating non-humanoid aliens again in "Macrocosm" before using it to create Species 8472 for the season finale, "Scorpion".
When The Doctor asks the computer for the ship's complement, it responds "89 Kazon... and 1 Betazoid", but forgets Seska and her baby, though the baby, as a hybrid, could have been counted as a Kazon. However, it may be that Seska, who is a spy and most likely a member of the Cardassian Obsidian Order, can mask her life signs in order to avoid detection.
This episode marks the deaths of Seska (Martha Hackett), Lon Suder (Brad Dourif) and Hogan (Simon Billig) and the final appearance of Maje Culluh (Anthony De Longis) on the series. (His picture is shown to Seven aboard the 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 crewmembers on board Voyager, where they were being used as members of the Warship Voyager's fighting force. The next major enemy race (the Borg) do not make their full appearance until the end of the 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.
As shown in the It's A Wrap! sale and auction, one of the black costumes worn by the natives of Hanon IV was later reused as a shirt for Verin in "Friendship One".
After retaking Voyager from the Kazon, Janeway orders Paris to "Take us away from our new home and set a course for the old one." Seska had called Hanon IV the crew's "new home" in "Basics, Part I".
This was Michael Piller's last Voyager script, though he remained a creative consultant on the show.
Several costumes and props from this episode were sold off on the It's A Wrap! sale and auction on eBay, inclduing the costume of Russ Fega. [1]

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

Previous episode:
"Basics, Part I"

Star Trek: Voyager
Season 3

Next episode:
"Flashback"

Basics, Part II (episode)

Contents

Summary

Log entries

Memorable quotes

Background

Video and DVD releases

Links and References

Special Guest Star

Guest Stars

Co-Stars

Uncredited Co-Stars

References

Fan Feed