Star Trek Voyager Reviews Written by Someone Who Actually LIKES the Show! -- Before and After

Hello there, and welcome to my review of the Star Trek Voyager episode, "Before and After." I offer it to you in the spirit of genuine Trekker good will for fellow Voyager fans, but if reading a lot of spoilers and my opinions about some characters who run around in space tugging at their jumpsuits is too serious for you, why not find something else more to your taste?

How about Fark?

No? It's really pretty good. Well then, on with the review...

INITIAL VIEWER EXPERIENCE
Hmm, another time-travel-this-is-not-my-life-this-is-not-my-beautiful-wife story...with a twist!...Is it just me or do Paris and Kes make the dullest couple on TV?...Harry's his what?...Ow! Don't kill the captain!...Finally, someone actually makes good use of their knowledge of the future!

PLOT
Kes' POV looks up from a bed in Sickbay, showing a young blond woman, a younger Asian boy, and the Doctor with too much hair on his head. Paris' voice also sounds in the background, as everyone leaves the Doctor to treat Kes in the biotemporal chamber. Before the treatment begins, he tells her that she's his "finest friend."

A white flash returns us to a more normal POV, where the young boy, Andrew, approaches a very old-looking Kes on a biobed, holding a present and apologizing for not finishing it earlier. "I don't know you," says the old Kes.

Andrew calls for "Dr. Van Gogh," who comes over with still too much hair on his head. While Kes says she knows nothing about the boy, she does remember the Doctor telling her he's her finest friend. The Doctor says he doesn't remember saying that exactly, but it's true. She recounts the plot so far, describing being in the biotemporal chamber, and he says all they've done so far is talk about it.

Chakotay enters, sporting neither more hair nor wrinkles than usual, but wearing one extra pip on his collar. Indeed, Dr. Van Gogh tells "Captain Chakotay" that nine-year-old Kes has less than one percent of her memory left, doubtlessly the result of her moralogium. He shows Chakotay the biotemporal chamber and they talk about how they should use it, as it may buy her another year of life.

Kes gets cold and there's another flash of light. Now she wakes in her bed in her quarters, hearing voices in the next room talk about her birthday. On her nightstand is a younger picture of herself holding a little baby. She gets out of bed and sees her old face in the mirror. Then she walks into the next room and sees that blonde woman again and Andrew, working now on the present he will later (or did earlier) give her.

Kes explains to both of them that she doesn't know where she is or what's going on. The blonde woman turns out to be her daughter, Lenis, who sends Andrew to fetch his father and grandfather. Lenis and Kes decide to head to Sickbay, and along the way Kes gives Lenis a plot summary of the episode so far.

In Sickbay, the Doctor (still wearing the rug) scans Kes and says she's lost over 98% of her memory ingrams. Once again he blames it on the moralogium.

Paris, Andrew, and Kim enter Sickbay. Paris rushes to Kim's side and says, "It's Tom...your husband." Kes doesn't recognize him (though his wrinkles and hair are the same and I couldn't tell if he has more pips on his collar). Paris radiates concern as the Doctor talks about the biotemporal chamber. It seems Lenis isn't pleased about experimenting on her mother to extend her life, but Kim explains that if it were Lenis about to die, he'd feel the same way Paris does. It seems that Kim and Lenis are married. Andrew is their son.

Kim breaks into the family argument and demands that they take her seriously. With another plot summary, she says that more must be going on than the simple loss of her memories. In the middle of all this, however, Kes gets cold again and there's another white flash.

Now a slightly younger but still old Kes stands in the mess hall, Paris' arm around her shoulder, as Neelix (in a Starfleet uniform) presents her with another one of those blue fudge cakes. It's her ninth birthday. She blows out the candles with her one lung and everyone celebrates.

Neelix' uniform is explained as he and Commander Tuvok banter over Neelix' role as a security officer.

Kes tries to talk to Andrew about what he remembers doing right before the party, but the Doctor swoops in to chat. She interrupts his reminiscing with another plot summary. He listens skeptically until she mentions the biochamber, for which he had the idea only that morning.

In Sickbay, Paris (radiating concern) and Chakotay (looking captainly) watch as the Doctor (still with too much hair) scans Kes (old) as she gives another plot summary. They all wonder what could be causing the trouble, and Paris and Chakotay go to scan for temporal anomalies while Kes calls up records of her life to see if there are any clues.

Later, Kes walks around her quarters reading data padds. Paris enters and says they haven't found any sign of anomalies. Kes asks about a few years ago when she was exposed to some chronoton radiation. Paris winces at the stardate and says, "That was the beginning of the Year of Hell."

"Year of Hell?" asks Kes, and Paris goes on to tell her about the year Voyager spent under almost constant attack from the Krenim. They lost a lot of good people, the Doctor was down for six months, gas lines stretched out for blocks, we had double-digit unemployment and inflation, everyone wore horrible bell-bottom pants and wide belts, and Janeway, Carey, and Torres were killed.

Paris' face reflects pain as he talks about Torres, explaining that he wanted to die when she was killed, but that Kes talked him through that time. He reaches out for her, but she flinches away. He apologizes, and she says he did nothing wrong. He gives her the ole, "I've got enough feelings for both of us" (What a friggin' lie that one is, eh?), and she tries to comfort him by suggesting that maybe the feelings she had for him will come back.

The topic goes back to that chronoton radiation, which Kes and everyone else on Voyager got from a fragment of a Krenim chronoton torpedo. The torpedoes got through the shields by being in a state of temporal flux.

Temporal flux? they both think and head to Sickbay, but in the corridor Kes gets cold and there's another flash.

Can another plot summary be far behind?

Now Kes is holding that little baby while Paris and Lenis coo and Kim takes that picture Kes saw on the nightstand. Kes asks the stardate, realizes it's six months' earlier, shoves the kid into Lenis' arms, gathers up Paris, and heads to Sickbay.

In the still-hairy Doctor's domain while Paris radiates concern, Kes does indeed recount the plot again as the Doctor scans her. He finds that the chronoton radiation in her blood has somehow been reactivated. He and Kes blame it on the biotemporal chamber. Because of that experimental procedure, Kes is traveling backwards in time.

Kes tells the remaining command crew that her future is their past. The Doctor explains that his "highly experimental but nonetheless brilliant" treatment of Kes' elogium six months into the future has activated the chronoton radiation in Kes' system. To fix things, they need to know that exact temporal variance of the Krenim torpedo. Unfortunately, the main computer was down when the torpedo hit, and they have no records.

Paris worries that Kes might jump back to a time when they didn't know her, and the Doctor says she might go further, back to when she didn't exist at all.

Two days pass as they try to figure out how to help Kes before she leaps -- whoops! -- jumps again. Lenis is working hard at some theory as Kes watches, and they have a little mother-daughter talk about raising Andrew. The Doctor appears with a plan to keep Kes safe in a containment field, but before he can drag her off, Kes tells Lenis she'll be a good mother. She's seen Andrew at six months and he's a good kid. [Boy, how long do the "terrible twos" last in the Ocampa cycle? five minutes? I bet they only get zits for an afternoon.]

Kes paces inside her containment field as the Doctor works. Paris enters to keep her company, but the Doc won't let him inside the field. Paris settles for radiating concern from a distance and telling her about "Tom and Kes: The Early Years." It seems Kim was his best man at their wedding, and as Paris tells an anecdote about spilled champagne, he starts radiating even more love than concern and tells her how Truly Wonderful their life together has been. Kes starts to get some of those "old" feelings back for Paris right before she gets cold again. The Doctor tries to stop her from jumping out. Paris and Kes can almost touch through the containment field. Paris yells at the Doc to do something, and another white flash fills the screen.

Kes has her arms up as Paris stands excitedly behind her. She's sweating and puffing -- in fact, she's having a baby on a shuttlecraft. Paris fusses at her for coming on the supply mission with him, but then shouts, "I can see the toes." [You remember from "Elogium," don't you, that Ocampa have a birth sack on their backs?] Anyway, soon the little baby Lenis comes out and they have one of those "She's so beautiful...just like her mother" moments, which is interrupted by the alarm. Voyager is under another Krenim attack.

Paris gets the shuttle back and fobs Kes off on Neelix while he goes to the weapons array to do some sort of Kremin-destroying thing. Seems they've had enough Krenim attacks by now to know how to fight back a bit.

In the mess hall, which now functions as a trauma ward (the Doctor is down), Kes holds Lenis and gives Neelix, Chakotay, and Paris another plot summary. Unfortunately, things are too messed-up on the ship to do much to help her, and soon she's feeling cold.

FLASH!

Kes stands in the Club Med holoprogram and puts down her drink as she spies Paris. When she reaches him, however, Torres appears and kisses Paris.

"You must be B’Elanna," Kes says. Paris and Torres agree. Before Kes can explain the need for introductions, Janeway's voice calls them to battlestations. On the bridge, we see everyone tossed about by the sudden attack by an unknown enemy. Kes appears, realizes this is the oft-mentioned Janeway, and tries to explain about the Krenim and the temporal-flux torpedoes.

In the middle of all this, however, a blast from a blown-up console flings Janeway and Torres to the floor. Kes checks their pulse. They're dead.

Chakotay looks in horror at Janeway as Paris touches Torres' burnt face. The Krenim continue to fire and Chakotay tells Paris he needs him at conn. "Aye, sir," Paris murmurs, shattered, as he heads back to his post. Kes recounts what she can of Voyager's later/earlier method of blowing up the Krenim's torpedo launchers, and the Krenim ship is destroyed.

Back in the mess hall/trauma ward, Kes tells Chakotay she knows her condition is not a ship priority, then comforts a grieving Paris before she realizes that the torpedo fragment she needs is now stuck in the ship.

Alone, she crawls to the fragment and reads that the temporal variance is 1.47 doohickies.

FLASH!

Kes is in Sickbay and finds the now-bald Doctor to tell him the happy news. Her hair is still long, though.

In the conference room, Kes and the Doctor explain to the restored command crew that Kes has jumped back now a good six years into her "past." Now that they know the temporal variance, they can use anti-chronoton radiation to purge her system and stop her time-travels.

Janeway hops up to get to it before Kes leaves them again. Kes tells her about the Krenim.

Janeway, Torres, and the Doctor works over Kes in a later/earlier version of the biotemporal chamber, and the radiation levels start to go down. Unfortunately...

FLASH!

Now we get a recreation of the Neelix/Kes scene from "Caretaker" where they ask Janeway to join the crew. Kes breaks away from her position at Neelix' side to stare around her, then interrupts to explain what's going on. Neelix seems dismayed, but Janeway listens (You go, girl!) and tries to understand. Unfortunately...

FLASH!

A little girl Kes stands in a garden back on the Ocampa homeworld. A man comes in, her father, and she tries to explain what's going on. He treats her plot-summary as a fairy-tale, so it's no surprise that...

FLASH!

Now we see Kes' father standing behind some woman with her arms up. "I can see the toes!" says Kes' dad, and we realize this is Kes' birth. [Well, maybe some people realized it faster than I did, but I took me a second, okay?] We briefly see a blue-eyed baby looking extremely dismayed, then...

FLASH!

Inside the womb, as fetus Kes gets smaller and smaller, until there's nothing left.

Until everything goes back into regular order. The cells reproduce, the fetus re-forms, and once again we see Kes being born. Kes' mother, Lenis, holds her bemused-looking baby and says, "I think she'll see the sun."

Now Kes is back in the chamber with the bald Doc and Janeway and Torres. It worked!

We get one of those rare moments where the whole cast is assembled as they throw Kes a party at Club Med. [I think the last time we saw them all together was Kes' second birthday party, so there may be some conspiracy underway. Anyway...]

Neelix and Tuvok have a funny thirty seconds discussing his future role as security officer. Maybe you won't be one after all, says Tuvok. Maybe I'll be security chief, says Neelix. How revolting, says Tuvok's eyebrow.

Kes remembers her whole life now up to this point (including a month's worth of replicator rations that Kim has borrowed), and bits and pieces of the future. At first, people want to ask her what she knows, and Paris takes some ribbing. Chakotay for once joins in the fun and suggests that Paris may only leave the ship to enter a monastery, but Paris finally says he wants to keep the mystery. Torres stands at his side. Janeway and Chakotay stand together as well, just to give that fan club a thrill too.

Tuvok points out that Kes should tell them everything she can about the Krenim, and she leaves immediately to get to. Her words, "There's no time like the present," leave everyone chuckling.