Star Trek: Voyager — 2x10 — Cold Fire

Aired 1995-11-13

SpaceOpera.com rating:4

Average reader rating:4.78

Synopsis

Kes makes contact with the female Caretaker.

Remarkable scenes

Kes' lessons with Tuvok. She listened to Neelix' thoughts. Funny.
Tanis regarding Voyager: "There are people, but there is so little life."
Kes burning up Tuvok.
Kes burning the hydroponics bay.
Janeway's meeting with Suspiria.
Tuvok: "Without the darkness, how would we recognize the light?"

Review

We've been waiting for this one since Voy: Caretaker. We were told in the pilot episode that there was another Caretaker out there and it was just a matter of finding her. In this episode, when Voyager discovers that the remains of their dead sporocystian Caretaker friend start vibrating, that his companion may be near. Unfortunately, I am rather annoyed that we have yet another Voyager-might-get-home episode so early in Voyager's run. You know going into this that they won't get sent home by this or any other Caretaker, at least not so early in the show's run. One interesting thing is that Voyager is regarded by the natives as "the ship of death." It seems the Kazon are spreading rumors about them. Janeway once again demonstrates her superb diplomatic skills during her brief meeting with Suspiria. To me though, it's a shame Suspiria just up and leaves at the end of this episode, never to return. This makes this episode somewhat of an unsolved mystery on many levels. We're not entirely sure what the exact relationship between these Ocampa and Suspiria was. This episode clearly calls for a sequel, but unfortunately, it's one which we won't get.

2 reader comments

I thought this was a fairly good episode, although it's not without its drawbacks.
The arc about Kes discovering her advanced mental abilities was developed quite well. Kes is in an interesting position on Voyager - she is physically tiny, literally 2 years old, had to be rescued by Neelix like a damsel in distress, and now fulfills fairly minor crew functions. It's quite compelling to watch her discover unknown abilities and strengths, and disarm a serious threat in the end.
Both Tuvak's and Tanis' tutelage was interesting to watch, and quite believable. "Focus on the goal, not the task," - I could how that might be useful advice in these kinds of endeavors. Much better than the trite, cheesy advice Wesley got from "The Traveler" in "TNG: Remember Me." The scenes with the wildlife blooming, and then burning up were quite fitting and powerful.
Finally, Kes almost killing Tuvak was an absolute shock. I had a feeling something was going to go wrong, but I didn't expect that. I kept thinking she was going to wake up from a nightmare, but instead Tuvak woke up in sickbay.
Here's where we come to a wrinkle in the episode: how the heck did everyone just walk away from that near death experience? The only reaction that was believable was the Vulcan's. I don't understand how neither Kes nor Janeway nor anyone else was very concerned.
What I suspect was the problem here was simply a lack of time to really explore these kind of things. I think this episode should've been a two-parter.
That would also solve the main drawback, which is the rushed, less than satisfying ending.
So, in short, a good episode with some interesting, compelling development of Kes' character, and the Ocampa race more generally, all with a bit of an abbreviated conclusion.
by coldfire | 08/21/2011 at 5:23 am

Janeways capability in combat seems rather bad. Reacting with "Hail them" and stay on your course when fire has been opened against Voyager is just stupid or extremely arrogant. Either you make the evasive maneuver or/and fire back immediately. Both actions are significantly belated. I think the script is just ridiculous in this particular moment at the beginning. There could have been a better approach for the little Kazon ship sneaking under the shield, like in a more surprising ambush.
by peterwolf | 06/17/2015 at 10:21 pm