In the twenty-fifth and penultimate episode of the fifth season of Voyager, THIS WAS INTENSE. Intrigued? Then it’s time for Mark to watch Star Trek.Â
Let me start by saying that Robert Picardo CONSISTENTLY DOES AMAZING WORK. Look, the man had to inhabit in entirely different character after having to act as the sole means by which we could even begin to understand what that artificial intelligence was. BY HIMSELF. It was through his conversation with the AI weapon that we began to get a sense for who this being was and why they mattered, and then Picard BECAME THAT CHARACTER.
I feel like that’s a good place to start for an episode that relies almost wholly on character performances to sell us on a difficult concept. Indeed, this is a complicated premise: how do you deal with an artificial intelligence that’s programmed into a weapon of mass destruction? Well, the answer is HARRY KIM, who is somehow senior staff but still an ensign at this point? What does this show have against promoting him? Anyway, both Garrett Wang and Robert Picardo kill it in this episode, which is an intellectual approach to the premise at hand. There are attempts by Janeway to trick the AI, to sneak into the Sick Bay to disarm the warhead, and all are valid plans! (They’re also rife for dramatic tension, and bless this episode for pulling this off so well.)
Yet it’s that struggle between Harry and the unnamed intelligence that makes this such a compelling story. This is the not the first time Star Trek has asked what should be considered human or a person; indeed, each iteration of this show has featured a character whose personhood has mattered a great deal. There have been countless episodes, too, where first contact is made and the characters must challenge their notions of personhood. However, this still felt unique because of the added nightmare of dealing with a weapon of mass destruction. In that sense, the writers combined something that was massively appealing to a number of people – a sentient form of life, but in a unique form – with Starfleet’s worst nightmare… a weapon that could wipe out an entire population. How do you rectify those two extremes, that representation of life, that representation of death?
The solution wasn’t through clever schemes or tricks; it was always going to be reason. While the Doctor initially granted the AI the respect it deserved, it was Harry who followed through on it. He made the first attempt after the AI took over the Doctor to reason with it, to get it to accept its sentience as a gift, a means to choose for itself. (And note that he follows through on Starfleet protocol, taking every chance he can to engage the person who has taken them hostage. Through this, he makes a connection, first by getting the AI to think of his target not as some ambiguous concept, but as real people. That fails, though I understood why. Despite the AI’s sentience, it was still programmed with a form of propaganda, a directive that mandated that it achieve its mission whatever the cost.
However, THAT WASN’T EVEN ITS MISSION. Not anymore, at least. There’s a fatalism to the AI’s logic, one that you can even see in its ultimate decision. I don’t know that it ever escapes its programming, per se. Harry merely gets the AI to value something aside from its staunch adherence to the initial mission. He gets the AI to realize that its current mission may actually start the war all over again, that it may not be protecting its people at all. So, in the end, the AI chooses to sacrifice itself, taking out all the faulty missiles in the process. It chooses, though. That’s the importance of this.
Also: PROMOTE HARRY KIM. COME ON.
The video for “Warhead” can be downloaded here for $0.99.
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