One Small Step
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| Star Trek: VOY episode | |
| "One Small Step" | |
 In Astrometrics |
|
| Episode no. | 128 |
|---|---|
| Prod. code | 228 |
| Airdate | November 17, 1999 |
| Writer(s) | Mike Wollaeger Jessica Scott |
| Director | Robert Picardo |
| Guest star(s) | Phil Morris as Lt. John Kelly |
| Year | 2376 |
| Stardate | 53292.7 |
| Episode chronology | |
| Previous | "Dragon's Teeth" |
| Next | "The Voyager Conspiracy" |
"One Small Step" is an episode of Star Trek: Voyager, the eighth episode of the sixth season.
Contents |
[edit] Plot
Voyager encounters a Graviton Ellipse, a massive body of subspace energy rolling through the galaxy. The crew suspects it may be the same phenomenon that caught and carried away an early Earth spacecraft in 2032, along with its lone human pilot, John Kelly.
They take the Delta Flyer into the energy body to investigate and hopefully find the long-lost spacecraft. Another spatial danger – determined to be dark matter – threatens the Flyer. Chakotay is ordered out but wants to bring the spacecraft with him. His disobeying of orders ends with the ship damaged, with no seeming way out before the Flyer is lost to Voyager.
Seven ends up beaming to the ancient spacecraft itself for spare parts. There she finds the body of John Kelly and footage of what he saw before he died. He had continued living for several days after the accident, until his life support ran out.
In the end, the crew is rescued and so is Kelly's body. A memorial service is held and Kelly's body is respectfully launched back out into space.
[edit] Ares IV
The early spacecraft that is featured in the episode is the Ares IV , not to be confused with the actual Ares IV Rocket proposed by NASA in 2007.
Ares IV is an Earth spaceship used during one of humanity's early manned missions to Mars, which takes place in 2032 under the command of Lieutenant John Kelly. The other members of the crew are Rose Kumagawa and Andrei Novakovich. The mission is run under the auspices of the International Space Agency.
Ares IV is 46 metres long, weighs 92 tonnes, and is powered by a third-generation ion drive. It is also equipped with a trans-spectral imager, a high gain antenna and large photovoltaic panels.
Mysteriously, the command module of the Ares IV, in which Kelly orbits Mars, vanishes whilst Kumagawa and Novakovich are on a surface mission. The surface team is later rescued, but no trace of Kelly or the Ares IV are found. This disaster almost leads to the abandonment of the Mars exploration program. In the following centuries the Ares IV mission is considered as a precursor for humankind's further exploration of space.
In 2376, USS Voyager locates the remains of the command module inside a graviton ellipse which appeared in the Delta Quadrant. The module's database, including logs recorded by Kelly after the module had entered the ellipse, are subsequently recovered. Kelly himself is also given a proper burial in space, after his body is transported to Voyager and subsequently launched in a photon torpedo casing.
