In the first episode of the sixth season of Voyager, somehow, the writers made this arc even darker and more disturbing than before. Intrigued? Then it’s time for Mark to watch Star Trek.Â
Trigger Warning: For consent, torture.
What the HELL.
This truly is a brilliantly written episode, with parallel stories unfolding, all of them meant to explore humanity in the face of a seemingly unending nightmare. If the first half of “Equinox” established that what Ransom and his crew did was immoral, then what about the response to this injustice?
As I watched this unfold, I had to ask myself: Was it believable? Would Janeway behave this way in response to the horrors she and her crew discovered on the Equinox? That’s a lot to ask of the audience, but given Janeway’s behavior in previous seasons, as well as the severity of what we witness here, I did not find it impossible at all. Massively uncomfortable, yes, but out of the realm of belief? No.
I’ll explain. What Equinox did was monstrous, and thankfully, as obsessive as Janeway got, the show doesn’t provide a false equivalency. While her behavior is criticized through certain themes or by Chakotay, no one ever actually makes it feel like she’s just as bad as Captain Ransom. That would have been the point where this would have lost me. Instead, Janeway’s dedication to her moral certainty and to Starfleet ideals causes her to not see the forest for the trees. She is so angry, so disgusted by how Ransom has debased Starfleet protocol, that she can’t take a moment to examine her own actions as she sets out to find the Equinox. Her first duty as the captain is supposed to be to protect her crew. Does she always abide by that? Does she risk her crew in pursuit of this ship?
Gods, it’s so complicated! To make matters worse, the script does compare both Janeway and Ransom. Both of them, at one point, use a crew member from the other ship to get what they want. Ransom deletes the Doctor’s ethical subroutines and forces him to try to literally steal the codes for their enhanced warp from Seven’s mind. (And who knew that removing the Doctor’s ethical subroutines would turn him into a pastiche of a serial killer with all that creepy singing?) Meanwhile, Janeway tests the limit of Noah by locking him in a room while she lowers the shields, allowing those aliens to appear. If it wasn’t for Chakotay’s intervention, Noah might have died. Did Janeway intend to kill him? I mean… no, but that’s sort of not the point.
These characters absolutely had choices, and one of the reasons I loved the second half of this arc is that it skewers that bullshit excuse. The problem is that these characters wanted something, and the whole “no choice” thing stems from an arrogant assertion that they’ve been forced into their line of behavior. It blames the victim, first of all, and it also removes accountability. They didn’t do anything wrong because they had no choice! It was the only option left for them to do!
Janeway holds herself to a higher standard, and she does so for the crew, too. She’s not worse than Captain Ransom, but she crossed a line multiple times in pursuit of her vendetta against Ransom, and it’s not like her to do so. To take risks? Sure! She does that all the time. That ol’ Janeway instinct often works out in her favor. Here, though, she rejects Chakotay’s more peaceful option, despite that IT ACTUALLY WORKS. Contacting the Ankara was a good idea! Granted, Janeway uses that success to further cross the line by promising that she’ll hand over Equinox to the aliens so they can get their revenge, but still. Chakotay had another plan and she wouldn’t even consider it at first.
The ending to “Equinox” is just as surprising as the reveal of the horror at the end of the last season. This is an emotionally intense episode, but the writers find a way to hit so many marks. The audience gets some catharsis in watching Max get killed. Ransom’s journey to regret is a little mysterious (was he imagining Seven in that thing???), but it still felt powerful. He believed that he got what he deserved, and Janeway was sad that things had escalated to the point where Ransom couldn’t be save. FIVE EQUINOX CREW JOIN VOYAGER, WHICH WAS ABSOLUTELY THE OPPOSITE OF WHAT I PREDICTED. Will we see Noah or Marla again???
But nothing was more striking than that final scene. Like the ship itself, Janeway is raw and exposed after this ordeal. Her conversation with Chakotay exhibits some shame, but it’s that image of the ship’s plaque, fallen and filthy in the debris, that stands in for what happened here, to both Ransom and Janeway. But the difference here, aside from the magnitude of what these people did, is that Janeway is still here to return, to pull herself together and be the kind of captain she wants to be.
My gods, what an opener, y’all!
The video for “Equinox, Part II” can be downloaded here for $0.99.
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