Star Trek: Voyager — 5x21 — Juggernaut

Aired 1999-04-26

SpaceOpera.com rating:7

Average reader rating:5.62

Synopsis

The crew races to prevent a catastrophic explosion.

Remarkable scenes

The Malon playing with his ship model.
Torres: "You as a child. Those pointy little ears. You must have been cute." Tuvok: "Indeed."
Tuvok's meditation session with Torres.
Torres: "I suppose it's always going to be like this." Tom: "Like what?" Torres: "Me against the galaxy." Tom: "Well the galaxy doesn't stand a chance."
The tricorder signals causing electrical surges.
Torres' fighting the disgruntled Malon.
Voyager altering the Malon ship's trajectory.
Fesek: "It's an occupational hazard." I like how he said this three times, each for different reasons. :)
Seeing a sonic shower in action! And boy did Torres need that shower...

Review

As I pointed out in the problems section, it seems unlikely that the Malon would be out this far away from their territory, but maybe this episode's script was originally intended to be aired earlier in the season. Once you get past this fairly severe problem with the premise though, the episode is quite entertaining. I especially like the insight we get into Malon culture. We get to learn a bit about the personal lives of a few of them and see that they're not monsters, just a little philosophically misguided. Besides the cultural insight, the episode maintains a fairly high and convincing level of tension and action. And of course, it's Torres' episode. She puts up a convincing display as a person struggling to control her emotions, as she always has. Maybe the whole episode might have been more appropriate earlier in the season when the Malon were still around and Torres was still struggling to deal with the deaths of the Maquis, but it's not too far out of place here and I enjoyed it.

6 reader comments

Perhaps the Malon simply travel this far out of their territory to find suitably uninhabited areas in which to dump their lethal cargo. Fesek did actually tell Torres she had no idea how much effort the Malon went through to locate suitable locations for their toxic waste. Sort of like an Earth sea vessel travelling into the ocean zone of another nation to illegally dump waste.
by 2 of 14 | 10/22/2009 at 2:49 pm

One of the best aspects of TNG, DS9, and Voyager is getting to watch the characters grow and change throughout the series. The character growth aspect holds true for every character in these series, except one -- Torres. Here we are in Season 5 and she is still the immature, volatile, half Klingon from Season 1. Running holodeck programs with the safety protocols off, breaking the doctors camera, etc. I know the writers wanted to get as much mileage as possible out of her anger, but unfortunately they never let her character grow beyond a spontaneous tantrum thrower who just happens to be a brilliant engineer.
by Gul Darhe'el | 04/04/2012 at 2:25 pm

2 of 14, your explanation would be good, if that same malon hadn't told Torres that he's a sculpturer in his "dayjob", so it makes no sense that they would have travelled 10 years. He also said that his lifespan would be cut in half, so it makes even less sense, that these trips would take even a few years.
by onlinebroker | 04/10/2012 at 3:03 pm

The long range scan detects massive amounts of technobabble ahead!!! I think there are loads of problems in this episode (in addition to Malon and the distance), and the story did not engage me. I do appreciate the look into the Malon's society though.
I don't buy that they have some much problem finding a place to dump the waste, even in ST the galaxy is not that densely populated, and in the end they are throwing the freighter into a star, which seems to be ok - radiation/pollution-wise
Why not send the doctor to the ship? He would have no problems with the radiation or breating.
it is odd that the physiology of Malon, Neelix and humans is so close that they can use the same medication without any problems
I got annoyed when B'Elanna tried to reason with the bad guy in the end, while the clock was ticking…
by Hugo von Ahlenius | 01/18/2015 at 8:55 pm

I have to agree, Gul Darhe'el. I don't know if it was the writers intention for Torres' character or if they just didn't see any potential with Dawson, or if they were just too focused on other characters. But by this season, Torres had long become very irritating to watch. Her dealings with Fesek in this one are especially annoying because it's almost as if they are wanting the audience to tire of her baseless hostility.
But, speaking of Fesek, it was a pleasure once again to see Ron Canada. He was great in TNG: The Masterpiece Society, and was truly excellent in DS9: Rules of Engagement as the Klingon advocate accusing Worf. And I agree that he gives us an interesting look at the Malon beyond what we've seen so far. They have good reasons, in their minds, for doing what they do. Some are purely profit-driven, like Emck in VOY: Night, while Fesek is doing this because he believes it's worthwhile.
onlinebroker, he says he only sculpts half the year, and the rest he spends aboard the waste disposal freighter. All during this episode, I couldn't help but think of people working oil drills in Alaska, or fishing for king crab. High paying jobs that only require a few months labor each year, but extremely hazardous with a high burnout/injury or even death rate.
by Mike L. Jackson | 06/09/2017 at 11:07 pm

Pretty good episode. And lots of good critiques.
Loved the unacknowledged (between them and also here!) jokes in the 7Of9 and Tuvok scene… 7Of9, (after offering-up plan "C") asserts she will furthermore start ~"factoring in Janeway's 'luck' into her calculations"… both of them deadpan… and the deadpan continues as Tuvok then just before leaving asks if ~"there is a plan 'D'"…
by QuasiGiani | 08/28/2017 at 1:39 pm