In the eighth episode of the sixth season of Voyager, the crew encounters a rare anomaly that allows them the chance to study the past. Intrigued? Then it’s time for Mark to watch Star Trek.Â
It’s fitting to me that I recently finished watching Deep Space Nine, the one show within Star Trek canon that felt most willing to address the possible ramifications of Starfleet existing within a complicated universe. “One Small Step” does not tell that story; instead, it took me back to the original reason for Star Trek to exist at all.
It’s all about exploration.
Now, the episode itself ends up being bittersweet, yet it celebrates why people risk their lives in the pursuit of knowledge. Lt. John Kelly, played expertly here by Phil Morris, long ago gave his own life in order to one day provide humanity with the invaluable information on a graviton ellipses. This script also brilliantly includes one of the COOLEST character developments for Seven thus far, and I’m still impressed that the Yankees made me cry.
It’s a lot. Let’s talk.
The Irrationality of Discovery
I like the kind of worldbuilding and character depth that makes me go, “Oh shit, I’d never thought of that before!” Right in the midst of “One Small Step,” Janeway points out to Seven that the idea of exploration as a means to gain satisfaction is not natural to her. Why? Because the Borg never appreciated a society or a culture. They “ingested” it. Assimilation never involved a study of any of these people beyond what they could provide to the collective. So why learn about the graviton ellipse? Why go after the debris of Ares IV? What possible value could that provide to anyone, especially when dealing with an anomaly that is so outwardly dangerous? Indeed, the evidence that they should just turn around and hightail it in the opposite direction was everywhere. That anomaly specifically went after anything that emitted electromagnetic energy! WHY ARE THEY FOLLOWING IT AND TRYING TO GET INSIDE OF IT?
Obsession
I mentioned in the video for this that I really dug the structure of the script, and I’m still sticking to that claim. There’s a tense shift in the second act, right where Chakotay orders Tom and Seven to disobey Janeway’s order to vacate the anomaly. In that moment, it was clear that Chakotay had invested a whole lot of personal meaning into the mission. His childhood dream to be a paleontologist was coming true! (Which… I can’t recall existing prior to this? That might just be my memory, not the writing itself. It seems vaguely familiar?) Thus, he was willing to risk the lives of Tom, Seven, and himself in the pursuit of knowledge. It’s an incredibly foolish decision, especially since he could have just waited and made a second attempt to tow the debris of the Ares IV. Thankfully, the show portrays it this way, and it’s because of this writing choice that the touching (and emotionally crushing) third act exists.
Seven
By pure circumstance, Seven is the only person who can beam aboard the Ares IV in order to retrieve a piece of the ship that will help the Delta Flyer return back to Voyager. I literally do not understand the science here, but it’s one of those scenes where the result is so effective and powerful that I don’t actually care if much of this here is bullshit. Instead, my focus was on Seven of Nine, who boarded the broken, defeated vessel and encountered both the corpse of Lt. John Kelly and his heartbreaking personal logs. Seven had to experience this in order to understand. She had to watch his logs as Kelly accepted his fate and devoted his final days to collecting as much information as possible. Not only that, but she got to watch someone make a discovery and see how profound of a moment that was! John Kelly, unbeknownst to everyone else, may have been the first human to conclusively witness and prove the existence of a spacecraft not from Earth. It’s a huge moment, and the man experienced it alone.
That loneliness is all over the Ares IV, so I found it emotionally devastating to watch Seven change her perception and treat Lt. Kelly with respect and admiration. SHE TOOK HIS BODY BACK WITH HER SO THAT THEY COULD PERFORM A PROPER BURIAL CEREMONY FOR HIM. Oh my god, when she told him who won the World Series in 2032, I WAS DONE.
What a fantastic episode, y’all.
The video for “One Small Step” can be downloaded here for $0.99.
Mark Links Stuff
-Â In the very near future, these are going away. Please visit my new site that will act as a portal for all announcements. If you’d rather not have to rely on checking a website regularly, sign up for my newsletter instead! This will cover all news for Mark Reads, Mark Watches, and Mark’s fiction career.Â
