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Real world article
(written from a Production point of view)

For the town of the same name, please see Fair Haven.

The crew relaxes in Paris's latest holodeck creation: an idealized 19th century Irish village, where Captain Janeway falls in love with a holographic character.

Summary[]

Teaser[]

Tom Paris has created a very detailed program in 19th century Ireland, a town called Fair Haven. He wants it to be a place where the crew can unwind, like his other programs. It goes into great detail, with many streets and characters. Paris walks by Harry Kim, who is flirting with Maggie O'Halloran, and takes him aside to warn him about her. The Doctor rides a bicycle soonafter, donning the priest character and makes sure they attend mass later. Everything seems very cheery.

Act One[]

In the bar, a large crowd is gathered around a patron and Kim, betting on their arm wrestling match. The Doctor initially bets against Kim, then changes his mind when Paris prods him. During, Captain Janeway enters and looks around, meeting the bartender, Michael Sullivan. After the match, she compliments Paris, but notes the sign's logo is backward. Janeway then turns to business, as a neutronic wavefront is approaching.

In the astrometrics lab, Seven of Nine tracks its course and predicts they will encounter it in fifteen hours. Since B'Elanna Torres concludes they can't go to warp, and impulse engines are not enough, the captain decides to ride out the storm with an inverse warp field. Also, the crew will need inoculations for the radiation.

Later that night, Janeway reminisces with Neelix about bad weather, and Neelix brings up a potential morale problem. The requirement to batten down the hatches and sit still is a very difficult situation. Neelix suggests they keep Fair Haven running all the time. Janeway agrees and eventually drops work to visit again herself. She stops in soon, and talks to the bartender again. She doesn't intend to stay, but she is intrigued enough by him to engage him a bit and have tea. She goes to leave, but he entices her with a game of rings.

Act Two[]

Janeway ends up spending time all night with him, including also arm wrestling, and a lot of talking. She only returns to the "real world" after Michael's wife enters the pub, looking for him. Later in the afternoon, she gets her inoculation in sickbay. There, Paris takes the opportunity to get permission to expand the simulation to Holodeck 2. She happily agrees.

They both arrive on the bridge just in time to feel the wave hit. They sustain minor damage from the front of the wave.

"Captain's personal log. It's been ten hours since the storm hit. We estimate another three days before we're clear of it. The crew's in good spirits, and many of them have taken the opportunity to visit Fair Haven. I met an interesting man there, and for a while I almost forgot he was a hologram. We weren't exactly compatible, but then again, Mr. Paris didn't program him to my specifications."

With this in mind, she begins to modify him. She complicates his personality, and increases his level of education, modifies his facial hair, makes him a bit taller, and finally, deletes his wife.

Act Three[]

In the mess hall, Tuvok is relating his sickness, brought about by the environment, to Seven when Paris and Kim enter. They're talking about more changes to the Fair Haven, but Paris refuses to change anything. They ask Tuvok about visiting Fair Haven and, in the process of describing the ocean, and Neelix talking about the food to prepare, Tuvok realizes he needs to visit sickbay.

When Janeway returns to the simulation again, she meets the improved Mr. Sullivan, this time finding him at the train station reading. She now hits it off well with him, as he talks about poetry, and shows much more curiosity. When the subject of travel comes up, Janeway says she hasn't been to Castle O'Dell, yet. He immediately gets up to go there with her. As they continue to talk, he asks her what she's looking for in a man. That is when Chakotay approaches. He is surprised to see her, but stays out of the way, and heads off to meet Neelix at The Ox and Lamb.

On the ship's bridge, as they chart the wave front and find another rough patch two days away, Chakotay asks her about the book of poetry she's reading, and makes it clear he is asking about him. She says that it is merely an interest in Irish culture, nothing more. She admits her modifications (Chakotay had noticed Sullivan was taller than before), but reminds Chakotay that Sullivan is just a hologram. Chakotay is amused but does not criticize; he thinks it's nice to see the Captain having a little fun.

Next time in the program, Janeway fully enjoys an Irish Jig with a large crowd, and then, breathless with the moment, suddenly tells the computer to remove all other characters except Michael. She finally kisses him, and perhaps to her own surprise, enjoys it greatly to say the least.

Act Four[]

Back in her quarters, Janeway recycles all of the Irish literature. When Neelix invites her to an event, she wants to stay in reality for a while.

In the program, Neelix is the bartender; Michael was out of commission and drinking alone – not what Paris had originally programmed. Sullivan eventually explains he believes "Katie O'Clare" (Janeway's "Fair Haven" name) doesn't love him, and he does her. All he knows is that she's gone, as she didn't give any explanation. The Doctor and Paris don't know the name, but Sullivan is suspicious Paris does know her, so he starts a fist fight with him, which ends up in a brawl, and, back on the ship, The Doctor, who as his priest character had unsuccessfully tried to ward off the hostilities, has to treat them all (except the holograms, of course).

When the captain walks in, they all skip over the reason the fight got started, but they mention Sullivan. The Doctor has figured out O'Clare is Janeway, so asks her to take a walk with him. He explains Sullivan has a broken heart, and there is no malfunction. Concerned for Janeway, The Doctor offers his ear to her. She initially refuses, but does finally admit she is having a problem with falling in love with a hologram. She created something that was just her type, and her ability to tweak things to perfection, even his snoring. That's the problem. The Doctor explains it metaphysically. What difference does it make if he is a hologram? If he makes a joke, she laughs. If she doesn't alter Sullivan's parameters to create every tiny perfection, and instead explores the imperfections, then it could be a reasonable relationship for a captain stuck in the Delta Quadrant.

Act Five[]

Back on the bridge, the ship hits that worse spot she detected earlier. The shields start having difficulty being maintained, and they begin to be pulled along with the wave. Chakotay sees the only way out is to channel all power to the deflector emitters – including the holodecks, without the proper shutdown sequence to preserve the running program. She gives the order to do it. Just in time, the deflector beam begins dissipating the energy, and they approach the perimeter just before their shields failed.

The program is not a total loss, but only 10% of it – all of the fine details – could be reconstructed. Thinking of the captain, Paris asks for her input on which 10%. She activates just the Michael Sullivan character, and tells him that she has to leave Fair Haven. She can't explain why when he asks, but does tell him she might pass by this way again. After a kiss, she ends the program, and makes one more modification before she saves the program: she has the computer deny her access to his behavioral subroutines.

Memorable quotes[]

"Let's batten down the hatches."

- Janeway


"A stranger is a friend you just haven't met yet."

- Janeway quoting her aunt to Sullivan


"Delete the wife."

- Janeway, modifying Sullivan's program


"Vulcan physiology is highly sensitive to neutronic gradients."
"You'd make a good barometer, Tuvok. Every time you get queasy, we go to red alert."

- Tuvok and Tom Paris on the former's space sickness


"He is rather charming, isn't he? Too bad he's made of photons and force fields."
"I never let that stand in my way."

- Janeway and Chakotay discussing Sullivan


"Oh you know the story, girl meets boy – girl modifies boy's subroutines…"

- Janeway, discussing Sullivan


"… And if there's something I don't like, I can simply change it."
"I've noticed that Humans usually try to change the people they fall in love with, what's the difference?"
"In this case, it works!"

- Janeway and The Doctor, discussing Sullivan


"But, you are the captain. You can't have relationship with a member of your crew, they're all your subordinates. So where does that leave you? The occasional dalliance with a passing alien?"

- The Doctor, to Janeway


"Fair Haven didn't fare so well."

- Tom Paris, after the "Fair Haven" holoprogram is damaged when Voyager escapes the neutronic wavefront


"Gentlemen, please! Love thy neighbor!"

- The Doctor, in the role of a priest, attempting to stop a bar fight


"Say ten Our Fathers and call me in the morning."

- The Doctor's response to Seamus's breaking the Fifth Commandment (In Catholicism the Fifth Commandment is "You shall not kill".)


"Saints preserve us."
"I possess superior hand-eye coordination."
"That's not all that's superior. The lily and the rose are staging a competition on your face."
"Clarify!"
"The fullness of your lips and the paleness of your cheeks – it's enough to make a man faint."
"Then, in that case, perhaps we should sit down."

- The holo-character Seamus and Seven, after Seven has hit the center six consecutive times while playing rings


"Temperance is a virtue."

- The Doctor, in the role of a priest, when offered an alcoholic beverage

Background information[]

Title[]

Production[]

  • According to Bryan Fuller, the writers also considered setting this episode in holodeck versions of "a futuristic aircraft carrier, an Agatha Christie-type drawing room, a haunted castle, [or] a movie studio." (Star Trek: The Magazine Volume 2, Issue 5, p. 69)
  • When discussing the rewriting of the program, Paris and Janeway say it will take six or seven weeks to complete. The follow-up episode "Spirit Folk" originally aired six weeks later.
  • The episode was filmed on location at Universal Studios in California on a redress of their "Little Europe" backlot set, where the exteriors of Sainte Claire were also filmed for VOY: "The Killing Game". Some of the buildings can be seen in both episodes. (Star Trek Magazine issue 179, p. 71)
  • This was the first episode of Star Trek to originally air in the 2000s (January 12, 2000).

Continuity[]

  • Some aspects of Fair Haven are of questionable historicity; however, all these errors are allowable given that Fair Haven, is, after all, a holodeck creation.
    • None of the characters smoke tobacco; in reality, pipe and cigarette smoking, and the taking of snuff, was extremely common, among women as well as men.
    • The name of the pub, The Ox and Lamb, is more typical of an English pub's name; Irish pubs are usually named after their proprietors.
    • The signs are in the Irish language. However, the setting of Fair Haven is clearly around 1900, prior to independence, and road signs and train station signs were in English only.
    • The fingerpost signs contain misspellings: "Killalow" for Killaloe, "Taumgraney" for Tuamgraney. Curiously, the Irish spellings are correct, but again in this time period they would not have appeared on signs (and the sign in any case is too modern, signs of this type didn't appear until the mid-20th century).
  • Signs in Fair Haven suggest that it is located in eastern County Clare, near to Lough Derg. However, this contradicts the dialog, which suggests it is near the sea coast.
  • Several crew members are injured on the holodeck when they are involved in a bar brawl. This would seem to suggest that either the holodeck safeties were off (though no mention of this is made), or that the injuries sustained were inflicted by other crew members and not holographic characters or objects.

Video and DVD releases[]

Links and references[]

Starring[]

Also starring[]

Guest Star[]

And

Special Guest Star[]

Co-Stars[]

Uncredited Co-Stars[]

Stand-ins[]

References[]

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External links[]

Previous episode:
"Pathfinder"
Star Trek: Voyager
Season 6
Next episode:
"Blink of an Eye"
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