Summary for Star Trek: Voyager episode
Relativity

Season 5, Episode 23
Stardate: 52861.274

Guest Stars:
Bruce McGill as "Captain Braxton"
Dakin Matthews as "Admiral Patterson"
Jay Karnes as "Lieutenant Ducane"

Co-star: Josh Clark as "Lieutenant Carey"

Story by: Nick Sagan

Teleplay by: Bryan Fuller, Nick Sagan and Michael Taylor

Written By: Nick Sagan

Events:
The show starts with an external view of a Federation starship construction yard, circling over Mars (this is the Utopia Planitia shipyards). There are several space docks, all busy constructing new ships. In the centre of the yard is the familiar mushroom shape of a starbase.

As the camera pans across we find ourselves looking at Voyager within a space dock. For those curious, the docks we see are of the kind we found being used in the first Star Trek movie, the hollow cubic space dock that encircled the Enterprise. These are not the spider-like, McKinley-style space docks seen in TNG's "Family".

In Voyager's transporter room Janeway beams aboard, greeted with a series of random questions by Admiral Patterson. The Admiral is simply testing Janeway, reminding her that he was one of her teachers. They greet each other with a hug and the Admiral takes her on a tour of the ship. It becomes quickly obvious this is occurring in the past, prior to "Caretaker" (the series premiere episode).

As they reach the Captain's ready room they discuss the upcoming mission (to rescue Tuvok from the Maquis commanded by Chakotay). Janeway also suggests they get Tom Paris to pilot the ship. Patterson considers this and tells her he'll look into it.

As they leave the ready room Janeway informs Patterson she has some modifications to make to he sensor array that will enhance the range. They approach the pilot's position, and a female blonde ensign moves out of the way, head down. As the ensign turns her face to the camera we can see it is Seven in Star Fleet uniform and without the Borg implants on her face.

The show cuts to opening credits and commercials.

When we return, Seven enters the conference room. She reports into a device that she's scanned the bridge and found no bomb. A male voice responds from the device, telling her to continue scanning the ship. She manages to get the device tucked away just in time for Patterson and Janeway to make a tour of the room. Janeway asks Seven for her opinion of the room, and Seven faces Janeway and tells her the room is "efficient". Janeway tells her to "carry on" and leaves the room.

The scene cuts to Sick Bay, where Patterson introduces Janeway to Doc. Doc informs them he was programmed to know 5 million medical procedures and the medical knowledge of 3 thousand cultures. When Doc asks if he was summoned for "chit-chat" and reporting this kind of interaction is not a part of his programming Patterson de-activates him while Janeway comments on the need to improve Doc's personality interface.

The scene cuts to Engineering, where Seven continues to scan for a bomb. Her work is interrupted by Lt. Carey (B'Elanna's competition in "Parallax" for the chief engineer position). He offers her assistance and tries to engage Seven in some small talk. Seven allays suspicion by claiming to work for the Utopia Planitia shipyard and isn't a member of the crew.

Being brushed off, Carey returns to his duties and Seven continues to scan the ship. Having cleared Engineering she enters a jeffries tube. Meanwhile, Janeway enters engineering as part of her tour.

In the tube, Seven discovers the bomb. She tries to deactivate it but reports she is out of phase with the device, that she was beamed into the wrong time period.

In Engineering, Carey notices that there is a malfunction (caused by Seven trying to dactivate the bomb). Janeway and Patterson proceed to investigate and find the jeffries tube locked from the inside. They notify Security.

Seven, realizing she's been detcted, notifies whomever is on the other end of her communications device. She's given instructions to help them extract her from her predicament. As Janeway and Patterson close in, we are shown the bridge of a time ship crewed by a mix of humans and aliens. The captain of this ship orders Seven extracted, and the crewman responsible informs the captain that this will cause damage to Seven's implants. More concerned about Janeway discovering Seven and contaminating the timeline, the captain orders the extraction anyway. They beam Seven out. Janeway and Patterson only find a few chroniton particles and are left with a mystery.

On board the time ship, Seven appears and immediately collapses. The crewman checks and reports Seven is dead.

The show cuts to commercials.

When we return, the captain is making adjustments to his console. The crewman reports they were unable to save Seven. The captain orders his ship to intercept Voyager and enlist Seven again, a microsecond before "the explosion". The crewman disagrees with this policy, pointing out this could harm Seven. The captain points out this is her only chance to save herself and her crew. The crewman sets the appropriate coordinates to follow the captain's order.

The scene cuts to Voyager, where Doc is examining Seven. She's done some checking on her own and figured out she has a very rare and deadly neurological disease (and if anyone else recalled Lt. Barclay from TNG you weren't the only one ;-). Doc tells her she suffers from sensory aphasia (blurred vision and dizziness). With a shot, Doc manages to clear it up.

Meeting up with Tom in the halls, Seven is invited to participate in a ping pong tournament in the Mess Hall. She agrees to play as Tom's partner.

Janeway reports to Sick Bay with a case of space sickness. Doc claims it is the third case he's had today.

Later in the day, during the tournament, Tom strikes the ball and it stops moving. It just hangs there. Seven, using a tricorder, detects temporal distortions. They all stare at the ball, and then it begins moving normally again.

In Astrometrics, B'Elanna and Tuvok tell Janeway that they've detected these distortions in various places around the ship. The source seems to be coming from the location where the earlier Seven had found the bomb (though no one on Voyager knows of that event). B'Elanna has erected forcefields around the distortions but they're not having much effect. Tuvok reports they have no more than two hours before the ship is destroyed. Janeway orders B'Elanna to investigate the source. Janeway and Tuvok try to improve the forcefields.

The scene cuts to Sick Bay. Doc is applying yet another shot to another crewman for space sickness. Janeway calls down to tell him of the temporal anomaly. She is quickly followed by Neelix who reports a crewman in the Mess Hall is "violently ill". When Doc arrives, Neelix is unaware of making any call. When Doc explains the nature of the call Neelix nods towards a crewman who seems to be well. But as we watch the crewman collapses and Doc treats him with a shot.

Trying to figure out the anomaly, Doc realizes the time distortions have created some interesting anomalies. Checking the clocks for Sick Bay and the Mess Hall he finds that Sick Bay is seven minutes ahead of the Mess Hall, thus Neelix doesn't recall the call he put in because he hasn't made it yet.

In Janeway's ready room Chakotay reports all kinds of time paradoxes on board. Janeway has worked out a forcefield enhancement and Chakotay says he'll get a crew working on implementation. He then begins a report about some of the ship's systems and as he walks towards Janeway he strolls through a fracture in time and his image and voice are repeated several times. Janeway detects a time distortion in the room and they leave quickly.

In the jeffries tube, B'Elanna and Seven have found the bomb. B'Elanna can't see it but Seven's Borg implants allow her to see the device.

Meanwhile, on the bridge, Harry reports the ship is falling apart.

A pair of crewmen from the time ship beam aboard, prepared to find Seven and "enlist" her assistance. Their energy signature is detected by Harry and when Janeway analyzes the data she recognizes this from her experience at the Utopia Planitia shipyard.

Chakotay and Tuvok report the imminent destruction of the ship. Janeway gives the order to abandon ship, but it's too late. The two crew members from the time ship encounter Seven heading to an escape pod. They place a device on her shoulder and the three of them beam out.

An external shot of Voyager shows it experiencing a time distortion, causing the ship to be in several places at once. This is shortly followed by an explosion that rips the ship apart. No escape pods are shown.

The show cuts to commercials.

When we return we see the time ship from an external view. On board, Seven is introduced to Captain Braxton of the Federation timeship "Relativity". We learn that the ship originates in the 29th century.

Braxton and his crewman tells Seven of the bomb, that they believe the bomb was planted two years before she arrived on Voyager, during a period of time when the Kazon were attacking Voyager and the ship's shields were down. They also explain that Seven has already been enlisted twice before, but was unsuccessful in disarming the device. They explain that because of her Borg technology she is able to see the device better than their own sensors.

They also tell her that if she fails they'll recruit her again, but that this will cause her some problems, such a sensory aphasia and temporal psychosis.

Seven accepts the mission.

While being briefed, Seven refers to the "First Contact" incident, claiming that when the Borg tried to stop Zeffram Cochrane from conducting the first warp flight they inadvertently led the Enterprise to that time period, causing the Enterprise to help Cochrane and thus leading to the first warp flight.

When being briefed by Braxton, she is told of Janeway's habit of involving herself in time paradoxes. He explains that he's had to clean up the timeline three times because of Janeway's interference. He tells Seven he was refused help by Janeway, and that as a result he was stranded in the 20th century for 30 years before he was rescued.

This is a very garbled version of events that occurred in the two-part "Future's End" episodes (from the middle of the third season). For more information on this I refer you to the "Relativity" Nits spoiler.

Braxton gives instructions to Seven to stop the saboteur, regardless of what force is needed.

He also orders Seven to avoid Janeway.

On the bridge of the timeship, they prepare to insert Seven back into the timeline. They use Stardate 49123.5621 (somewhere between "Parturition" and "Maneuvers") as their time destination.

The ship is under attack by a couple of Kazon ships. Inside, Chakotay is calling out a Red Alert and crew members are running to their battle stations. Seven is beamed in to a hallway which is momentarily deserted. She proceeds to her destination while crew members (including Tuvok) run past her.

The show cuts to commercials.

When we return Seven reaches the jeffries tube junction where the bomb is supposed to be, and learns she has arrived before the bomb was planted. She's unable to detect any saboteur and asks for instructions.

Meanwhile, Harry has detected her presence, and Janeway recognizes the energy signature from events that occurred while the ship was at Utopia Planitia. She seals off the deck with a level 10 forcefield and orders Tuvok and a security officer to accompany her.

Seven, discovering that she's been detected, is unable to receive a signal from the timeship, though she is able to send them signals.

Seven decides to leave the area, and as she tries to leave bumps into the forcefields. Janeway, Tuvok, and security arrive and Janeway recognizes her from their brief encounter in the Conference room when Voyager was in the Utopia Planitia shipyards.

Their dialogue continues, Janeway suspicious and Seven pleading. Seven tries hard to avoid telling Janeway anything, but gradually she is forced to tell a good deal about the sabotage plot and her need to stop it. She detects the saboteur on board and is able to convince Janeway to trust her. They re-enter the jeffries tube in time to find Captain Braxton installing the bomb.

The show cuts to commercials.

When we return we learn that the saboteur is an older Braxton, one who has suffered from temporal psychosis. He has activated the bomb, and threatens to detonate it unless Janeway and Seven lower their weapons. They do so. He claims his career is ruined because of Voyager. He believes only destroying Voyager will restore his career and sanity.

The younger Braxton orders his crew to remove the older Braxton, but the second officer (Ducane) decides to arrest the younger Braxton for crimes he has yet to commit. Ducane orders Seven to arrest the older Braxton. Tuvok finally appears through another entrance to this junction and the older Braxton flees through time.

Ducane reports the older Braxton returned to Voyager when it was in the Utopia Planitia shipyards. Seven demands to be sent there as well, but Ducane reminds her that this will be her fourth time trip and she may suffer temporal psychosis. Seven insists and Ducane obliges.

In a hallway, Seven appears but suffers a momentary dizziness. Recovering, she pursues the older Braxton. A little further down the hall Patterson is conducting Janeway on her tour. As they see Braxton running with a weapon they all duck, and as Seven rounds the corner and orders them down they all duck again. Seven fires but misses the older Braxton.

As the two run past Janeway and Patterson, Janeway orders a level ten forcefield at all access points for deck four section 12. She also orders Security into the area.

Braxton comes to a stop as he bounces off a force-field. Seven, still dizzy, watches as Braxton beams out again. Ducane informs her that he's beamed five years into the future. As Janeway approaches with weapon drawn Seven calls for Ducane to beam her to Braxton's coordinates. We find ourselves on Voyager, watching the ping pong game. Braxton runs into the Mess Hall, followed by a dizzy Seven. She manages to fire on him, but does little damage. He grabs his transporter controls and Seven shoots those out of his hands. Braxton leaves the Mess Hall and while some chase after him the original Seven (the one who played ping pong) demands an explanation from the time jumping Seven. The time-jumping Seven manages to explain that Braxton needs to be stopped and that their lives depend upon it, before Ducane brings her back to the time ship (the time-jumping Seven had reported she was incapacitated with sensory aphasia).

On board the Relativity, Seven reassures Ducane that her alter-ego will capture Braxton. On Voyager, Braxton discovers himself trapped between Seven, Security, and Janeway. He's relieved of his bomb and his phaser and Ducane beams the older Braxton to the Relativity.

Back on board Voyager, Seven and Janeway begin discussing events, when Janeway is beamed to the Relativity. Ducane explains that to re-sequence the timeline Janeway must stop Braxton when he initially arrives on Voyager. Braxton gives the details of where he'll show up and Janeway is "drafted" to capture him.

The capture itself is done with relative ease. Once accomplished, Janeway and Seven are returned to the 24th century with their memories intact. Ducane explains that Seven will be "re-integrated" with her original self.

End of episode.

Personal reflections:
What a mess.

The brightest point in the show was the return of Josh Clark as Lt. Carey. Nice to see him again, even if it was only for a short cameo appearance.

The rest of the show was, to say the least, confusing. It's a strange form of justice that will hold the younger Braxton responsible for crimes he's not yet committed. As Picard said in "A Matter of Time": "I don't care about your future because as far as I am concerned the future hasn't been written yet!"

There are also some serious conflicts with the two "Future's End" episodes (as detailed in the "Relativity" Nit spoiler).

It seems apparent to me that even the writer of this episode, Nick Sagan, could not keep the time line straight. First the bomb is planted at Utopia Planitia, and then it is supposed to be planted several years later in the Delta Quadrant. Using the excuse that 'time paradoxes are unexplainable' does not give this episode credence. If a writer cannot keep the chain of events and their consequences straight, and present those events in a manner that can be reasonably understood by the audience, then we are left with nothing more than a mass of confusion that fails to entertain the intended audience.

Being a part of that audience, I was not entertained by this episode.

Thank you for your attention.



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