Warp Factor Trek

A story featuring a hint of paranoia. What could possibly go wrong?

Log Entry

A Gothic holo-novel which Janeway runs is interrupted by Harry Kim reporting from the bridge that Tuvok and Chakotay’s shuttlecraft has been damaged. The pair, who are beamed to sickbay, have sustained injuries. The Doctor reveals Chakotay’s neural energy has been extracted, rendering him brain dead.

In sickbay later, Tuvok says the shuttlecraft was attacked inside a nebula. Janeway orders Voyager to investigate.

After Tuvok resumes his bridge duties, Janeway notices the ship has changed course. Paris denies doing so and sets to work on resolving the issue, which seems to have been a technical malfunction.

Back in sickbay, Torres is performing a Native American ritual with a medicine wheel. She’s surprised by The Doctor’s knowledge of it.

Kes appears to detect a presence in her quarters. She proceeds to tell Neelix about her experience in his galley.

Then, the ship changes course again. On the bridge, helm control from Kim’s operations station becomes impossible.

Tuvok traces the fault to the navigational control and fixes the problem. When Janeway asks Torres who has been in the navigational control, she says Paris was there just a few minutes ago. Again, Paris denies involvement. Speculating he might be experiencing memory trouble, Janeway orders him to sickbay.

Later on the bridge, Tuvok notifies Janeway that he’s discovered the attack ship’s ion trail. Suddenly, the warp core starts to shut down.

In engineering, Torres denies deactivating it and says she has no memory of doing so. Janeway becomes suspicious.

The Doctor, in sickbay, reports a different memory pattern has shown up in the brain activity of Torres and Paris at the times of the incidents. He suggests it could be evidence of a noncorporeal alien intruder. Tuvok suggests the alien may have come aboard on his and Chakotay’s shuttlecraft.

In the corridor outside sickbay, Kes tells Janeway of sensing a presence. Tuvok proposes a mind meld with Kes, which Janeway approves. Kim and Lieutenant Durst thereafter find Tuvok and Kes unconscious in a turbolift.

In the conference room, Tuvok says a weapons discharge hit both him and Kes. Paris recommends using a magneton scan to find the source of the discharge. Torres proposes conducting the scan shipwide, all at once. Kim momentarily freezes, suggesting possible alien possession, but turns out to have just been daydreaming.

In sickbay, Neelix is expressing concerns to The Doctor about the crew’s behavior, which instigates a debate about paranoia. When Neelix leaves, Tuvok enters to work on a sensor relay. The Doctor reveals that Kes’ injuries are from a physical altercation.

While Tuvok is reporting to Janeway about The Doctor’s information, Janeway suggests Tuvok might be Kes’ attacker. She tries to call The Doctor from her ready room, but his program has been disabled.

On the bridge, the entity jumps from officer to officer, causing a fight. Eventually, Tuvok stuns the entire bridge crew.

After everyone has recovered, Torres explains to Janeway, in engineering, that the shuttle’s logs were erased. Reconstructing them shows no attacking ship.

Back on the bridge, Paris reports that The Doctor found Kes’ injuries were from a Vulcan nerve pinch. Tuvok, possessed by the alien, relieves Janeway of command and ensures Voyager returns to the nebula.

Kim detects lifeforms approaching. “Tuvok” says they are his people: the Komar.

In engineering, the entity takes over Torres and ejects the warp core. When she comes to, Torres calls Janeway and explains what happened. When the ship’s computer says the command to eject the warp core came from Chakotay, Janeway realizes his neural energy has been displaced. She uses the magneton burst, knocking out Tuvok. The alien leaves the ship, but Paris has difficulty navigating Voyager out of the nebula.

In sickbay, Neelix is taken over by Chakotay and rearranges the medicine wheel. It provides a map, which helps guide Paris as he flies Voyager out of the nebula.

After The Doctor restores Chakotay’s neural energy, Chakotay recalls his out-of-body experience. Janeway welcomes him back, but Chakotay says he feels like he never left.

Status Report

“Cathexis” is boring and devoid of entertainment. While the episode attempts to play it safe, it fails even at that, creating a story that’s all over the place. The plot gives all the characters something to do, but nothing to do at the same time, resulting in a lack of focus. It’s great to have all the players participating in the action, but this episode is far from great. It feels like the actors were mailing in their performances, making it clear this was an episode they came to work just for a paycheck.

At one point, the whole affair seems to at last find some sort of message in the form of paranoia. However, it abandons this almost as soon as it’s brought up. If explored more, imagine the conflict such a situation could have on the Starfleet-Maquis crew. This story misses the opportunity of the aliens playing real mind games with the crew and having them at each other’s throats.

The opening teaser has no reason to be in the story other than to set up future episodes. Janeway’s Gothic holo-novel doesn’t add anything here. Hopefully when it’s revisited, it aids the story instead of being mere fluff.

The aliens are uninspired and fall into the category of stereotypical two-dimensional antagonists. Since the story is spread thin on all the characters, there seems to be insufficient time to give a backstory to the baddies. The episode fails to make the viewer care at all about who they are.

“Cathexis” is an episode that tries to be everything but ends up being about nothing. Much preferable would have been having more about paranoia among a ship’s crew, more about the medicine wheel and Chakotay’s ancestry, as well as more focus on characters and the antagonists. In the end, this episode does have a message, and that’s about the missed opportunities a story can have.