Emanations

Voyager Revisited: Emanations
Jules -- 14 Oct 2001, 20:56 GMT

"We were always told we would see beautiful sights in the next emanation. Colours, lights. And that we would see them with new eyes, and a new understanding. But now... what happened to the others, my brother, my father, and everyone before them? People die every day on my world. Do they all end up as lifeless corpses?" -- Ptera

Jules

Reply to: Voyager Revisited: Emanations
D -- 15 Oct 2001, 03:13 GMT

Appropriate to be watching this now, just before Halloween, what with webs, bodies appearing frmo no where and shrouds that look like mummy wrappings.

The first time Harry dies. What ever happened to our recap of crew "deaths"? I don't think we ever got past season 4.

This is not one I've watched often. In fact I wasn't sure which episode it was when the teaser started (I just ran the next episode on the tape after "Ex Post Facto" without looking at the label), not until they shot of the planet's rings. I'd forgotten how philosophical it was. In retrospect an interesting bookend to "Mortal Coil" when Neelix confronts many of the same questions as the aliens here.

General observations:

Harry really was green, and I don't think Wang was completely comfortable yet - he seemed to be overacting in some scenes.

First time that we get a bit of Chakotay's anthropology background.

Also some Human/Klingon differences from Torres - she mentions Klingon customs about the dead but her reactions to actually seeing the bodies seem more Human [reminded me of the first time I had to go to a relative's (open casket) wake].

Emanations
Nina -- 15 Oct 2001, 13:40 GMT

What I liked best about this one was that the script got across its "message" without being heavy-handed, or even judgmental. This society has taken euthanasia to a new level, and we're chilled along with Harry by what they think of as a normal way for life to end...deliberately. Yet we see the people of this world portrayed so that we can understand them and sympathize with them; they are not the script's villians.

What I liked second best (very close second, too) is the ambiguity at the end. That Janeway the consummate scientist is the one who tells Harry that in her opinion, perhaps there IS a foundation of truth to what these people believe. A lovely touch.

Yup, Garrett overacts a bit. But it's GOOD scenery-chewing, IMO, and he's so sweet and innocent. This Harry is a baby in uniform.

Deb's "Mama Janeway" at her nurturing best, as she gives Harry time off to deal with what's happened to him. I remember a retired military officer on the Trek Books Board saying, back while the series was still young, that one of the things he was enjoying most about it was watching the captain mentor her "baby ensign" (and that was the term he used for Harry, too!).

Also enjoyed Chakotay's spiritual side being front and center. I missed that terribly in later seasons...almost as much as his salt-and-pepper hair.

Not a stellar early season episode, but a solid one.

Re: Now its Harry's turn to die.
Deb47 -- 18 Oct 2001, 12:21 GMT

Tom and Kathryn did it in "Time and Again", they just don't remember it.

Now Harry bites the big one... and who will be next?

This is an "okay" episode, made interesting by seeing a completely different viewpoint on death... euthenasia by family consensus, not just by legislative fiat as in the TNG episode.

The way the whole planet's culture was based upon interpreting these subspace vacuoles as part of their life cycle was inspired, and the difficulty that the ALien woman P'Terra?) had when she was revived was believable. I also liked the fact that Janeway's understanding of the alien neural energy leaving their body and joining with the energy around the planet was a theory that took her time to understand. She was able to come up with it to comfort Harry, but not soon enough to comfort P'Terra.

"Okay, I'm done."

"What have you learned?"

"There's a lot of naked dead people here."

Loved the fact that when the alien asked Harry what he knew of the corpses, Harry couldn't answer because of Chak's rules of noninterference. I expected the Alien to hollar... "What? You didn't scan them to see who they were or where they came from? What kind of unfeeling monsters are you?!"

Now, my "Evenings with Kathryn" crew rewatched not just this ep, but "Demons and Monsters" this past Tuesday... and all I can say if "Can't wait for NEXT week!"

Oh... and that I forgot about one of Janeway's hairdo's.

Picard really did have it easier... didn't he?

D47

EMANATIONS had one problem
david g -- 18 Oct 2001, 17:59 GMT

it was so poky on that planet...snoozy discussions with alien docs and the pre-deceased...Wang is always better in a supporting capacity, too.

also, the alien lady onboard is very, very believable but also hugely annoying and, sorry to say, honkingly unattractive.

But i love everything else about the ep, particularly the Away Team and the SUPERB Janeway-Kim conclusion.

dg

Re: EMANATIONS had one problem
Janey -- 19 Oct 2001, 05:43 GMT

Oddly enough, I don't have much to say.

I enjoy this episode, but it isn't one of those I stop time for.

Best parts are the beginning and the end. That last scene w/Harry and Cap'n KJ is absolutely wonderful. But I also really enjoy the excitement in the teaser about the "discovery" they thought they made. Especially KJ and B'Elanna. They were monumentally pumped. Third place is everyone's expressions when they think they have to leave Harry behind.

That moment is great, isn't it?
Nina -- 19 Oct 2001, 13:33 GMT

Mulgrew gets it just right in showing how Janeway feels about being forced to give the order to leave. She can do so much with a facial expression and a tone of voice.

The moment I remember being impressed with in "Emanations". . .
MEG -- 19 Oct 2001, 16:36 GMT

. . .is the one in which the away team is told that while they were on the asteroid (planet? whatever? it's been a few years) they were essentially walking through the bodies of the dead, and the camera catches Chakotay's expression. Beltran nails a look that really captures Chakotay's horror as he realizes they've disturbed these people's burials. It's a nice follow-up to his earlier speech during the recon mission when he talks about removing a pebble from an archeological site. It's also one of the few times that we see Native American beliefs incorporated into the character subtly, without making a big deal of it. I only wish that both the writers and the actor had continued in that vein over the course of the series.

MEG

Amen, MEG.
Nina -- 19 Oct 2001, 17:43 GMT

Yes, I caught that look, too. I also liked the Chakotay who would make his recommendation and on-the-scene decision, as away team leader and as first officer - but nevertheless be willing to let the Captain hear from Ensign Eager (I mean Kim) a dissenting viewpoint.

I wish that Chakotay had stayed around.

Actually, Ptera was one of the things I liked about this episode
Jules -- 20 Oct 2001, 15:35 GMT

She wasn't pretty, even by her own species' standards. The standard Trek alien makeup didn't make this people a particularly attractive race, but Hatil's wife Araya was still pretty striking looking. Ptera was just plain, with a nice but timid smile.

But in many ways she was supposed to be. She was the ordinary person who found herself completely out of her depth. She was no special beauty, she wasn't a leader of her people, or a scientist with knowledge they couldn't afford to lose. She was just someone who'd lived a quiet, unremarkable life amongst her family, had suffered from a brain tumour that was likely to prove fatal very shortly, and had expected to die and go on to a better life. Instead she found herself still in the same old life, but in frightening and unfamiliar circumstances, and suddenly doubting everything she had ever known about the afterlife. And having to try to be brave, try not to panic, when her life hadn't prepared her for such events. I found her situation very sad and moving.

In the end she probably got what she would have wanted. She died again when Voyager was unable to transport her back through the subspace vacuole, but she did it by undertaking the bravest act of her life. She wanted to get home... but she was quite as prepared for that home to be the next emanation or death with nothing after it as she was for it to be her original planet. In some ways it's a shame that Janeway didn't come up with her theory about the neural energy surrounding the planet being those people in their next emanation before Ptera died... but it would have lessened the impact of what she'd screwed her courage up to do if she had known that it was very likely a win-win situation. Instead she had to take a leap into the unknown.

We saw both sides of the transference ritual, really. We had Ptera, who was sick enough that without the "magic" of Voyager's advanced medical science she would clearly have died very soon anyway, and who was ready to move on. And then there's Hatil, who was disabled but not to the point of incapacity, who still liked his existing life enough to want to cling to it in spite of the fact that he felt he was a burden to his family, and the duty he felt to them to remove that burden.

His story is equally sad, because he couldn't make his family understand how he felt. Despite the fact that he clearly loved his wife, and she him, that love wasn't enough to allow her to be able to break with convention for his sake. Clearly he understood his family's thinking, and that they genuinely thought it was the best thing for him, but there was also a little bit of resentment there as well that they wouldn't fight a little harder to keep him with them as he was. So he had to solve his dilemma by disappearing, letting his family think him dead so that they wouldn't worry for him and he wouldn't be in their way any more, and by going to friends who would let him be what he could be.

I guess it was convenient for Harry that meeting him and learning that there was more room for doubt about the transference ritual than his planet had been taught to believe made Hatil doubt enough, and cling to life enough, to provide Harry with an escape route to get back home. But while the transference was clearly the wrong choice for Hatil, because he wasn't ready to die and his injuries only restricted his activities rather than being life threatening, it was clearly a comforting funeral rite for most of the near-death people who underwent it. At best it gave them the afterlife they expected; at the very least it gave them a death with dignity and formality, with all their loved ones about them.

Jules

Beautifully put, Jules. (NIM)
Terry -- 20 Oct 2001, 18:42 GMT

That was those "damn-I-wish-I-wrote-like-that" posts.

Jules.
Deb47 -- 20 Oct 2001, 19:20 GMT

She was Whoopie Goldberg's character in "Jumping Jack Flash". An ordinary woman in an extraordinary circumstance.

D47

Thank you, thank you. (NIM)
Jules -- 20 Oct 2001, 21:18 GMT

Actually, it was one of those "damn, I wish I wrote like that more often" posts for me.

I'd kind of got out of the habit of posting my episode impressions - for any series. Having done a couple lately, I'm trying to keep the momentum going.

Whether it'll work is anyone's guess...

Jules

Exactly my reaction, Jules.
Nina -- 22 Oct 2001, 13:34 GMT

Forgive me for being personal, but I must. It reminded me, re-viewing it this month, of something that hadn't yet happened in my life when I first saw it. My Dad chose to receive medication that he knew would, in the process of easing the pain of his last illness, kill him more quickly than he'd otherwise have died. He made the decision himself, quietly, with the hospice folk. He then told his children about it, calmly, and with relief (even, so help me, something very like joy).

He, like P'tera, "knew" where he was going and was ready. Frankly, the first time I saw "Emanations" I found it chilling...but not this time. This time, I understood.

And as you say, for Hatil it was a different situation entirely.

Re: Voyager Revisited: Emanations
Mindy -- 22 Oct 2001, 19:30 GMT

My favorite thing about EMANATIONS is the last scene between Harry and Katherine...otherwise, some of it is a little slow, but it works very nicely overall, especially when seen in conjunction with MORTAL COIL.

Mindy

P.S.: Also loved that Chakotay was so upset about disturbing the burial ground! Like others here, wish we could have seen more of that Chakotay developed over the seven years.

Jules, Im so ashamed!
david g -- 23 Oct 2001, 15:22 GMT

Your post in response to mine about the frustrations of Ptera was so eloquent and eye-opening...my own quick response was so comparatively shallow!

I actually agree w/everything you said in that post, and that includes PTera.

the feeling i was admitting to about her was my own sense of revulsion--but this doesnt mean it wasnt well done, her arc. she was so painfully believeable--her anguish is genuinely raw. and she was sympathetic but also unappealingly whiny--just as im sure id be in such a situation. it's rare to get such a palpably "human" turn in a scifi episode.

so, what i mean about her, i dont enjoy enduring Ptera's plight during the episode, but i admire the way it's done, which is very well. even Janeway, Doc, and Kes become menacing--as exemplified by that scene from Ptera's POV of the three staring down at her.

david g