Parallax (Star Trek: Voyager)

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Star Trek: Voyager episode
"Parallax"
Temporal reflection of Voyager seen from the bridge
Episode no.	3
Prod. code	103
Airdate	January 23, 1995
Writer(s)	Brannon Braga
Director	Kim Friedman
Guest star(s)	Josh Clark as Lt. Carey Martha Hackett as Seska Justin Williams as Jarvin
Year	2371
Stardate	48439.7
Episode chronology
Previous	"Caretaker"
Next	"Time and Again"

"Parallax" is the third episode of the science fiction television series Star Trek: Voyager.

1 Plot
2 Significant character development
3 Oddities
4 External links

[edit] Plot

As Voyager is traveling at warp, an anomaly forces Voyager to drop to impulse near a Quantum Singularity's event horizon. Sensors detect a ship nearing the event horizon and Captain Janeway tries to hail them. Receiving no response, Janeway orders the tractor beam be used to pull the ship away from the event horizon. The attempt damages Voyager and it is decided help will be sought out on near-by worlds. However, after several attempts to navigate away from the quantum singularity lead the crew back towards the stranded ship, a startling discovery is made.

It transpires that they are the ship in the quantum singularity. They had first entered it when they dropped out of warp and are slowly falling deeper into the singularity. The properties of the quantum singularity are causing a 'temporal reflection' of the ship to appear. It is discovered that the only way out is to go back though the 'hole' in the event horizon that they made when they entered. However, the hole has since decayed, so Janeway and Torres leave on a shuttle to attempt to enlarge it enough for Voyager to fly through.

The attempt is a success and Voyager continues its journey.

[edit] Significant character development

After Voyager's abduction and subsequent battles, Voyager was left with fewer than half of its original crew.^{[citation needed]} The addition of the crew from the Maquis ship has somewhat solved this problem, but several positions remain vacant including Chief Engineer.

Captain Janeway believes that a Starfleet officer would be best for the position and feels that Maquis B'Elanna Torres is not prepared for that assignment. Janeway's first officer disagrees, having been Torres' captain and therefore well-informed of her abilities. After Torres finds several creative solutions and has a short talk with Janeway aboard the shuttle, she is given the job.

[edit] Oddities

Trivia sections are discouraged under Wikipedia guidelines.
The article could be improved by integrating relevant items and removing inappropriate ones.

The use of event horizon is liberally used throughout this episode, but this term, it seems, has taken on a completely different meaning in the 24th century (Neelix, in fact, describes it as a "very powerful energy field"). If going by today's definition, the crew of Voyager would never have thought they could see/detect/receive any communications from the "other ship" if that ship had passed beyond the event horizon of the singularity while they were outside it. Yet Janeway initially makes this speculation.