In the eighteenth episode of the sixth season of Voyager, a mysterious person returns to the ship, claiming to be an ensign who died three years earlier. Intrigued? Then it’s time for Mark to watch Star Trek.Â
Trigger Warning: For discussion of medical experimentation and nonconsensual medical procedures.
Oh, this is such an odd one, but it’s made so compelling by Kim Rhodes’s stunning portrayal of a woman who LITERALLY DIED, but is resurrected by another culture. The Kobali fascinate me because the idea of how they procreate is so disturbing and intriguing. It’s like… people recycling??? They only reanimate dead members of other species, then use their technology to turn them into Kobali. The whole idea relies on a really uncomfortable question: is a reanimated person still the original person or a new one? In the end, “Ashes to Ashes” falls pretty firmly on one side, at least if we take Lyndsay’s/Jhet’laya’s words at face value. But is it that simple?
I keep coming back to the (rare) flaw in the Kobali’s system: the procedure is supposed to damage the memory of anyone put through it, which conveniently erases the need for consent from their point of view. How can a person reject their treatment if they simply never remember that they were once another species? But Jhet’laya, which is her given name in Kobali, retains memories of her time on Voyager, after her procedure is done. She steals a shuttle just so she can get back home!
Any of us who’ve watched or read a lot of science fiction can probably recognize the story that unfolds from this point. This idea of mixed heritage or mixed-species angst is a long-standing trope in the genre. I know I recently wrote about it in regards to B’Elanna for “Barge of the Dead,” and there’s a slight similarity here, though of course, Jhet’laya’s mixed nature is not a surprise. Hell, it’s not even until the Doctor begins his cosmetic therapy on Jhet’laya and she seems to have rejected her time with the Kobali that we get the full brunt of this internal conflict. Again, Kim Rhodes is so good here that I was willing to sit through a story that felt quite familiar. I knew that Lyndsey wouldn’t stay Lyndsey very long; the experience was too weird for her. She didn’t fit within Voyager anymore, no matter how hard she tried. People would always stare; she’d always speak in a language none of them knew. (Though… wouldn’t the translation technology eventually adapt? Maybe? Maybe not?) Her life would exist in two stages: before her death and after. That last aspect is what this script did best, honestly. Harry mourned Lyndsay’s death already. Even his language reinforced the idea that there was a Lyndsey who was, and now there’s a new person before him.
Oh, poor Harry. I did feel bad for him, since he seems to be this show’s punching bag. (Kinda like O’Brien over on DS9.) But that was only to a specific point: the exact moment he tried to claim that Lyndsey didn’t know what she was doing when she agreed to return to the Kobali. Noooooooo, don’t do that, show. NOOOOOOO, THAT’S SO BAD. Isn’t that pretty much the whole invocation that women don’t know what they’re doing because they’re hysterical? He totally tried to say that, didn’t he??? BAD, DO NOT PASS GO, DO NOT COLLECT $200, GO STRAIGHT TO JAIL. Otherwise, I did appreciate that Harry tried his best to accept Lyndsay for who she was, even if she had decided to forgo treatment and call herself Jhet’laya. That was a demonstration of true friendship, though it’s complicated since we know that Harry’s unconditional support actually has a condition: her leaving. AWKWARD.
Anyway, I liked this one, and I wish we could get more of Kim Rhodes. Isn’t she great??? However, I feel like I must also acknowledge the pure joy that is Mom Seven, which was completely unexpected here. Not only that, but the show manages to weave in the liberated Borg children to the story without it feeling clumsy or necessary. Instead, Seven experiences growth??? The children begin to exhibit distinct personalities??? MEZOTI IS MY FAVORITE? Bravo, Voyager; that was not an easy feat to pull off.
The video for “Ashes to Ashes” can be downloaded here for $0.99.
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