Paris and Kim are the focus of this morality play, and they get developed separately and as friends. The thing is, since this is a morality play, character and thought are very hard for me to distinguish. So, if you'll allow me, I'm just going to shove the whole thing under THOUGHT.
I will just note here that this is Kim's second time (first time: "Emanations") as the primary character in a really fascinating conundrum.
THOUGHT
Okay, the setting of our play is not really a dungeon in the strictest sense, but for our purposes it is both dungeon and pit, the lowest place humans can live, perhaps, still as humans.
Let's examine the trappings of this dungeon. There are no guards, and no social structure other than what is gained through physical dominance and its attendant force of fear. The weak can become crazy and therefore not really important, but this brings no safety, as we see with the man Zio kills for a bit of food. Pit and especially Zio rule strictly because no one dares to attack them.
Then we have the clamp, providing us with a sci-fi speed-up of reality. The clamp pushes into the prisoners all the anxiety and restlessness and aggression prison imposes on people over the course of time. The clamp is instant "stir crazy." Since its design is to control the prison population, we can see the clamp as the desire of the wardens not to imprison or control the prisoners, but to eradicate them without even allowing the honesty of execution. The clamp turns the men into beasts, so that when the beasts turn on each other, the hypocritical state can claim to be without fault.
Obviously, this resonates with any society that condemns prisoners for turning savage in a purposefully savage environment. As simply the victims of the clamp, Paris and Kim, since they are being manipulated, can now stand in for long-term prisoners being beaten down by the cruelty of the system, while still possessing the hope and naiveté of new-comers. The clamp itself can stand for any cruelty you like: over-crowding, solitary confinement, torture. It is all these things because it produces the same outcome as these things. Paris and Kim call it being "edgy," but they are really losing control over themselves. Only basic thoughts of food can keep them focused on some better life beyond what is held between the prison walls.
And then we have the pipe, which is the only tool Kim and Paris have, the only power they might wield, as a piece of technology or as a club. Paris offers it to Kim when he's in a strong position, then claims it back when he's dying. Kim uses it to barter his way into Zio's domain. Kim almost uses it to escape. But the pipe ultimately is not that powerful. It offers only one kind of power in the end. Kim can use it to put Paris out of his misery.
Okay, now that we've got our set-up, let's turn to our players.
Taking Paris first, we can see that in strictly literal terms, he is either too strong or too weak for this place. Kim sees him as his savior and protector, but this is no brawl at Sandrine's.
Paris is too strong to go crazy from the clamp (and thus "escape" that way). He is also too strong to become one of the followers of Pit or Zio. He's been in prison before, and knows his way around.
On the other hand, the prison he was in before (and the torture he got in "Ex Post Facto") were NOTHING compared to this. He can talk tough, but he's still a good guy and doesn't see the knife coming when the enemy decides not to play fair. He's too weak to combat the likes of Pit.
While still sane, he's also strong enough to tell Kim to escape without him. But when delirium brings out his true wishes, Paris can only plead not to be abandoned. Quite pathetically, we are presented with the Paris who cried in his room when he was a child and cringed every time his father was around.
Kim, then, is the one who seems too weak to survive, but does so precisely by the means Paris rejects. Paris doesn't like Zio and so doesn't want to cower under his "roof." Kim doesn't like Zio either, but is strong/weak/smart enough (depending on your point of view) to take whatever shelter he can find.
With Paris as the albatross around Kim's neck, the question Zio poses for Kim is not how to survive. The answer to that simple question is to take up Zio's cause and use the clamp himself as others use it: for strength, for intimidation, for survival at any cost. The question of survival is easily answered, clamp or not, by the simple willingness to do Whatever Is Necessary.
So Kim's real question is not how to survive but whether he is, in fact, willing to do Whatever is Necessary. And in this world, that is to become a killer.
That by itself is interesting, but when we add Janeway's subplot into the mix, we see that the question being posed here is actually simpler still: How low can you go?
The key symbol is the part of the prison I haven't dealt with yet. The chute is designed for one thing: plummeting down. Kim is pushed down that chute. But will he also go down it willingly?
Janeway is also offered a chute of sorts. At first, she tries to take her usual high road. She wants to find her crewmen, so she talks to the ambassador. This road is cut off with the ambassador's threats. She cannot rescue her people in quite so idealized a fashion as diplomacy.
Well, she seems pretty comfortable taking a small step down from that road. She confronts false accusation with the truth, striving off to find and bring back the Guilty. But even this small step has its price, shown when Piri accuses Janeway of cowardice. This insult hits a nerve. Not quite a diplomat, not a terrorist, Janeway's not in her comfort zone.
And so she swaggers, ordering a "bath and a hot meal" as though she were a prison warden herself. One step off the high road has landed her just above that chute. But this isn't low enough. The ambassador still won't accept the trade, and she must now plot subversion with the terrorists. Vel offers her an even lower road: his cooperation in return for freeing some of his terrorist friends. Janeway refuses only (we suspect) because she can. She has force on her side here. Vel is the one with his back against the wall and his sister (his own albatross) to protect. He even gives Janeway a smile, acknowledging her superior position, and perhaps also that Janeway has had to get a little dirty to achieve it.
So Janeway doesn't have to find out just how low she will go...in this episode, anyway. She is still benefiting from her society on Voyager. She can still set some of her own terms.
For Kim, the prison offers its system and he has no power to alter it. The pipe seems to offer such power, but climbing up the chute with it only makes the chute longer. To be free he must climb not only the actual chute, but the rest of space as well. Standing before the other prisoners as they throw things at him, he is an emblem of powerlessness. Neither the prisoners nor the prison are interested in whether Kim can climb up that chute. He's a Starfleet officer, of course he can. The question is always focused on going down.
And to a point, Kim does travel down. He bargains with a man he believes to be insane for shelter. He learns to snarl and wield the emptied pipe as a club. He comes...almost...to the point of killing his friend and getting rid of a liability.
And that's the point, the "almost." Zio, who with his quasi-religion of the clamp has made a false high road of the low, tells Kim in exalted terms exactly how far down the chute really goes. To survive Kim must kill Paris, along with the part of himself that doesn't want to kill Paris. Kim rejects this religion and chooses death over traveling any further down the chute. When he stands over the semi-conscious Paris and confronts Pit (or the pit, if you like), we know he won't last long. This is the alternative to giving up your humanity: giving up your life while you still think of yourself as human.
But Janeway didn't have to make that choice, and her trip down the chute is both strictly voluntary and temporary. With her society intact, if maybe a little grimed, she can scoop up Paris and Kim and return them to their true home.
The clamp now becomes important in its falseness. Paris and Kim were only in prison for a few days. The imposition of the mind-control is not the same as a truly broken spirit. A little Doctor-fussing, and they're pretty much back to normal.
Pretty much. Kim can't quite get over just how low he was almost willing to go, and it takes Paris to remind him that in his lowest point, confronting Pit and the others, Kim proved himself a friend willing to die for him. Since we're dealing with Star Trek here, Kim gets to have the rewards of such a choice. Their friendship grows deeper, and off to another adventure they will go next week.
SPECTACLE
Some lovely shots in this one. The prison is horribly claustrophobic while seeming quite large.
The best shot is definitely the pull back from the prison barge. I wasn't expecting it, I admit, and I think I actually said "Woah" aloud, or something equally silly.
But almost as much, I love the moment where Kim and Paris are trying to get some sleep. Paris' heterosexual talk about Megan Delaney soothes any possible nerves before Kim and Paris hold hands and lay next to each other. Kim tells Paris to shut his eyes, and Paris has to struggle to do it. Then Kim does it. The camera focuses on Kim's closed eyes as the noises of the prison increase. This is the noise of the clamp, the endless violence of the cage.
Another nice touch: when Paris and Kim are holding hands, the light hits their nails and we can see their perfect (very masculine) manicures. During the French Revolution, disguised aristocrats fleeing Mdm. Guillotine were often recognized by their soft, smooth hands and manicured nails. Bloodied, bruised and dressed in rags, Kim and Paris are starting to blend into the sub-humanity of the pit, but it has really only been a few days. Little signs of their regular life remain.
DICTION
The "this man is my friend" line gets all the attention, but I really did enjoy the silly, over-done quality to Zio's evangelism.
SONG
Very nice music in the prison, menacing without being melodramatic.
And now for the baggage...
STAR TREK ELEMENTS WE (OR I, ANYWAY) LOVE
Unlike most people, I suspect, I actually enjoy it when a character keeps getting into the same sort of trouble...to a point, anyway. Paris can't seem to keep away from planet's penal systems. Once a rebel, I guess...
STAR TREK ELEMENTS WE (OR I, ANYWAY) HATE
Let me renew my complaint about picking this place for shoreleave. Starfleet ships are always getting into trouble in places they have the opportunity to check thoroughly first. Who decided to let these boys out on a school night in a strange neighborhood?
Well, that wraps this one up, for now, anyway.
Star Trek Voyager Reviews
Or go ahead to ST Voyager Reviews -- The Swarm
Or go back to ST Voyager Reviews -- Flashback.