Warp Factor Trek

This episode is essentially a meditation on the afterlife. Does it provide interesting points for discussion?

Summary

Voyager has detected a previously unknown element in the rings of a nearby planet. Kim, Chakotay, and Torres beam down to one of the asteroids within the rings. The group finds eighteen dead bodies wrapped in biopolymer.

At Chakotay’s suggestion, Janeway instructs the away team to only gather information from visual observations and not tricorders, as they might disturb the burial site. After a while, a subspace vacuole appears, and Chakotay orders Voyager to beam the away team back immediately. However, only he and Torres make it back, along with a recently deceased body wrapped in biopolymer. Kim is missing.

During a Vhnori transference ritual for the aforementioned body, Kim wakes up inside a cenotaph and begins to pound the lid, surprising everyone at the ceremony. Meanwhile, another Vhnori, Hatil, is preparing to undergo the procedure. Kim is taken into a holding chamber where Hatil learns that the Vhnori believe Kim has returned to life from the Next Emanation. Hatil privately questions Kim, who attempts to explain where he is from. Kim then speaks with a Vhnori thanatologist, Doctor Neria. He explains that Kim is now on the Vhnori homeworld and that the Next Emanation is a Vhnori term for the afterlife.

Back on Voyager, The Doctor has removed a brain tumor from the female Vhnori and has revived the body. He reveals that the biopolymer is naturally excreted from the skin upon death. When she awakens, confusion overtakes Ptera, the Vhnori patient, as she had expected to be greeted by her brother upon reaching the Next Emanation. Because she is in an agitated state, The Doctor sedates her.

Ensign Kim continues talking with Doctor Neria, who mentions that Kim is considered the first person to ever return to life. As such, Neria eventually says he wants to run a full bioanalysis on Kim, even though the ensign protests.

As Chakotay tells Janeway, Voyager has discovered over 200,000 bodies on the asteroids, where – approximately every two hours – a subspace vacuole deposits a new body. The Doctor informs Janeway that Ptera is awake and calmer than before.

Conversing with Janeway in sickbay, Ptera seems to start accepting that her people do not experience an afterlife. Moments later, a subspace vacuole deposits a Vhnori corpse in Engineering.

On the Vhnori homeworld, Hatil expresses to his wife that he now has misgivings about going through with the ceremony. His wife correctly attributes these doubts to Kim and angrily tells him to leave her husband alone. After she exists, Hatil explains that his family chose for him to be euthanized.

Subspace vacuoles keep forming aboard Voyager until a solution is devised. After speaking with Ptera, Torres develops a plan to get her back home by recreating the transporter accident that brought her to Voyager in the first place. Sadly, Ptera permanently dies in the attempt.

Kim convinces Hatil to let the ensign wrap up in his ceremonial cloth and swap places with him. Hatil will venture into the mountains, leading his family to believe he has died. During the ceremony, Kim is enclosed in the cenotaph and put to death. Voyager – about to abandon hope of recovering Kim – picks up his signature, brings him aboard, and revives him.

Later – in the mess hall – Janeway permits Kim to take two days off, so that he can contemplate his experience. Although he doubts the Vhnori belief in an afterlife, she counters by revealing that the Vhnori bodies emit energy posthumously. Janeway concludes that what they know about death is minuscule compared to what they don’t know about it.

Analysis

With this episode, writer Brannon Braga crafted a solid entry in Voyager’s first season that, in the hands of lesser writers, could have fallen into preachiness. There’s an interesting discussion about death and the afterlife throughout this episode, which grabbed my attention from the beginning. Furthermore, having Kim engage in these topics rather than simply disappear helped elevate the episode.

I enjoyed Kim and Hatil’s discussions about the afterlife, along with a debate about blind faith. When Kim begins to influence Hatil to doubt the Next Emanation, I found myself sympathizing with Hatil, having gone through a similar period of doubt in a faith I was born into, which eventually led me to Buddhism. In other words, these moments hit home for me.

While a transporter accident is an oft-used trope in Star Trek, it works well here. At no point did I question its purpose in the story. I also liked the explanation of the subspace vacuoles as the reason for the dead bodies being deposited onto the asteroids. The use of uncomplicated science fiction kept the storyline flowing smoothly, without any confusion.

Something I felt was on-brand with Chakotay’s character was his insistence that the landing party do not use tricorders, as he believes this would disturb the burial site. Having this stem from an early experience in his Starfleet career and be a teaching moment for Kim added more to Chakotay’s personal and spiritual side. Also, writing Torres as the character who is frustrated with not using the tricorders was a nice touch.

Besides the aforementioned moments between Kim and Hatil, one of the most poignant scenes in “Emanations” comes at the end, involving Janeway and Kim. Kim’s sense of duty to Starfleet and his desire to push through the experience he has just dealt with is relatable to anyone who wants to contribute instead of sitting on the sidelines. The tender musings of Janeway are impactful, and the captain’s final words about humanity’s own lack of knowledge regarding the afterlife speak volumes.

“Emanations” premiered at the right time in the first season of a new Star Trek series. Without preaching, it takes a common debate about faith, death, and what comes after – when humans “shuffle off this mortal coil” – and encourages viewers to reflect on the topic in an interesting way.