Star Trek: Voyager — 2x13 — Prototype

Aired 1996-01-15

SpaceOpera.com rating:8

Average reader rating:5.88

Synopsis

Torres reactivates a humanoid robot.

Remarkable scenes

The teaser was rather cool. Somewhat spooky.
Neelix attempting to coax Torres to take a break from her work obsession.
Torres' conversation with the doctor.
The doctor: "I shouldn't have to remind you, I'm a doctor-" (The Doctor is interrupted.) Torres: "Not an engineer, right." Count 13 for "I'm a doctor, not a (blah)" style lines, which McCoy was famous for.
Janeway: "Who are we to swoop in, play god, and then continue on our way without the slightest consideration of the long term effects of our actions?"
Torres talking about Data to 3947.
3947's reaction when Torres told him to cross his fingers.
The two robot ships fighting each other.

Review

I was kind of afraid this episode would bring us a Voyager equivalent to Data; thankfully it did not. What we have here is a robotic species which expresses a desire to procreate. They easily elicit the viewer's sympathy; they seem innocent enough. But as the episode progresses, the harmless, disadvantaged robots turn into genocidal megalomaniacs. Seems Janeway's gut instinct to uphold the prime directive was the correct choice. The robots who first pleaded for help are now willing to take it by force. The idea that the robots killed their creators reminds me quite a bit of Battlestar Galactica where the robots take the obvious place of the Cylons. They even look alike. Though from what I know of Battlestar, the Cylons didn't fight each other, and they never annihilated their builders (entirely anyway.) Overall a very high quality episode.

4 reader comments

Just saw this episode for the first time last night and I liked it very much. I read in one of your BSG articles that you think Dr. Who is "silly". (I think it's enjoyable whimsical space fantasy--I don't like all my sci-fi to have the same tone. I still respect and enjoy your more "hard SF" reviews here, however. :) ) But I just want to note that it's so clear this episode was inspired by the widely noted "classic" 1976 episode "Robots of Death". The look, voice, and manner of the robots, the way they seem "innocent" and gradually are revealed to be homicidal, their relationship to their "builder", etc. are too similar to be coincidental, IMO. You mention similarity to the Cylons, but see this acclaimed Dr. Who episode and you'll quickly see what I mean.
by David from California | 08/03/2007 at 5:26 pm

This was an absolutely charming episode. After the cool, slightly creepy teaser, the rest of the episode runs a little like a fairy tale or fable, but it works remarkably well. The robotic species here is almost like a placeholder, a symbol for artificial, sentient life more generally. This is evident even in their lack of definite features, and their generic "tin man" appearance.
When I first saw/heard them, I braced myself for a painful, unbelievable episode, but my fears were quickly dissipated. It immediately became clear that this episode takes a different tone, a decidedly "non-hard-sci-fi" tone, in order to do something very important: to directly address the ethical issues around artificial life.
I completely agree with the other commentator and with the show's producers - there's nothing wrong with that at all, especially if it's done as elegantly as in this episode.
As the reviewer describes, the nature of the robots is revealed slowly, piecemeal, leading the viewer to develop a sympathetic understanding of their condition. This sympathy is then challenged with the revelation that they killed their creators, and are now engaged in endless conflict with each other.
I would argue that this does not mean that they're "genocidal megalomaniacs." What it does mean, is that creating sentient artificial life is a deadly serious business, with huge ethical implications.
Early in the episode Janeway asks Torres, "Who are we to swoop in, play god, and then continue on our way without the slightest consideration of the long term effects of our actions?" At the end of the episode we are led to pose the same question to the now deceased builders.
Are the robots really to blame for what happened? They were created, programmed to fight and defend themselves, given sentience, and then once their purpose was up, threatened with decommission, extinction, death. Was it not sensible for the sentient "service units" to defend themselves?
It would seem it was the builders who first "played God" without fully appreciating the consequences of their actions. Consequences which led to their own destruction, and decades later to a renewed ethical dilemma for Torres, and a serious threat for Voyager.
A well conceived episode, and very well executed.
Interesting tidbit: The robot asks Torres about artificial lifeforms on her society. Torres responds that "there is only one sentient artificial lifeform," referring to Data. Somehow the Doctor isn't considered in this category! Is that because he is finally being accepted as a full-fledged "honorary human" member of the crew? Or because his condition is as bad as ever, and he is simply not considered… at all? It's probably the former, or perhaps a total slip by the writers of this episode.
by plus | 08/25/2011 at 10:09 pm

I don't see how the prime directive applies here at all and found the discussion about it totally misplaced. This is a warp capable species making a request.The federation helps those all the time to get new members!
by onlinebroker | 03/12/2012 at 7:13 pm

This if the (in)famous 'Pulp' episode of ST Voyager.
It have all the pulp mag elements. Including the fact that the robot do look pretty much like any film about robot invasion or flying saucers of the 1950-1960 period.
The stage for what is to come is found already in the teaser which is in black and white, with signal noise pretty much like an old TV set in the period.
So what make this pulp? Robot who kidnap a female, and carry her in it's arms. Robots who have killed their creators. And in one of the final scenes. Torres exclaiming 'My god what have I done' in an oft repeated Frankensteinian manner and then she stabs the prototype to death.
It is amusing as a concept, but it does not work entirely well IMO.
by TheAnt | 09/20/2013 at 6:53 pm