Parallax (Star Trek: Voyager)

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

Plot

The episode begins with Voyager's acting chief engineer, Lieutenant Carey, in sickbay suffering from a broken nose from an argument with B'Elanna Torres. Lieutenant Tuvok and Commander Chakotay argue on whether to punish her, with Chakotay ordering Tuvok to drop it. Several former Maquis crewman say that the punishment is unfair and that they will back up Chakotay if he were to take over the ship; to which the Commander threatens imprisonment for talk of mutiny if he ever hears it again. When Torres is informed of the severity of Carey's injuries, Chakotay scolds her on making it a lousy day for him already because of her anger issues. He tells her that if she makes up with the crewman, her punishment will go away; to which she says is incredibly unlikely.

During a senior staff meeting, due to the deaths of major officers in the last episode, positions must be filled. Chakotay tells Capt. Janeway of his suggestion of Lt. B' Elenna Torres for Chief Engineer, to which she is reluctant given the situation from the beginning of the episode. Neelix and Kes are placed in charge of food gathering and growth until the replicators are fully operational. Due to their chief medical officer being dead, Tom Paris is placed as a field medic under study to the EMH (Emergency Medical Hologram), to be the new head medical officer.

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. After disengaging the tractor beam, Janeway talks with Torres on Chakotay's nomination on Torres for Chief Engineer and how the Starfleet officers would react. She and Torres talk about the latter's leaving from the academy, to which Torres states "I couldn't live under a system that wouldn't give us a chance to breathe".

Meanwhile, Kes talks with the Doctor program about getting soil samples for the hydroponics bay to grow some food. The Doctor vents his frustration at the notion of doing menial labor rather than using the fullness of his knowledge of modern medicine. Noting his negative feelings, Kes points out he is shorter than when she came in. Feeling "down", The Doctor tells Kes to turn off the hologram system before leaving. Kes thanks him as a friend and would like to call him something else besides "Doctor". Kes turns off the program before leaving. Afterwords, the Doctor's systems begin to malfunction due to the singularity.

However, after several attempts to navigate away from the quantum singularity lead the crew back towards the stranded ship, a startling discovery is made: 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. Torres is fully promoted to Chief Engineer and apologizes to the crewman she punched earlier. Janeway feels closer to Torres after working with her to save the ship, and seeing her mechanical expertise. After repairs begin, the Doctor (now 20 cm tall) asks if anyone will fix the holographic matrix.

Notes

The Maquis crewmen have different rank badges than those of Starfleet crew. Theirs is more of a bar shape as opposed to the ones worn by regular officers.

External links

• Parallax at the Internet Movie Database
• "Parallax" at TV.com
• Parallax at Memory Alpha (a Star Trek wiki)
• Parallax at StarTrek.com