Star Trek Voyager Reviews Written by Someone Who Actually LIKES the Show! -- Displaced

Hello to everyone who comes here in search of...nope! I've got no idea why people come to this page. I'm just grateful they do. Otherwise, well, I'd still write it, but it wouldn't be nearly as much fun. So, let me assure newcomers (or oldcomers with poor memories) that this is a page devoted to that band o' rollicking humans and aliens who left on a three wee-eek mission when the coherent tetryon beam started getting rough, the intrepid class starship was tossed, and if not for the courage of the fearless and incomparable Captain Janeway the Voyager would have been...well, even more lost than it is.

And then what the heck would I have to write about on this page? Nothing exciting has happened in my life this week, let me tell you! I mean, I need to go to the grocery store and get some milk and bananas...but I have a feeling, whatever has motivated you to call up this page, milk and bananas ain't it.

So, this is my review of the Star Trek Voyager episode, "Displaced," which features some more of that oh-so-cute couple fighting with each other, and some more really fun aliens, and Janeway getting to save the day, and all sorts of things that Voyager fans just can't get enough of. If this isn't your cup of tea, maybe you'd rather hear about grocery shopping, after all.

So why don't you head over to the Copyright Website?

Not interested? Okay, then...

INITIAL VIEWER EXPERIENCE
This is embarrassing: the story is great, the pace is perfect, the suspense is terrible (I hope it will last), and yet all I can think about is wanting Paris and Torres to get stuck in a turbo-lift or something and, well, you know!...But this really is a good episode, and it's great to see Tuvok and Janeway working together...You go! girl!...Still hate Club Med.

PLOT
Remember that bet Paris won last week? Well, Torres storms out of holodeck two with a bat'telh in one hand and a nasty attitude in the other. Paris (wearing one of Kes' more unforgiving bodysuits) follows her down the hall, urging her to return to the program and complete the best workout he's ever had. Torres says that Klingon martial arts are not her style and Paris shouldn't push. Paris says he's only being encouraging and Torres shouldn't be so hostile.

"I am NOT HOSTILE!!!!" she snarls.

Before she can bite him again (dangit), a whimpy-looking guy suddenly appears in the corridor, wearing a silly hat and staring all around him, horribly confused. Paris reports the intruder and, careful not to stab him with her bat'telh, Torres assures this newcomer (whose name, I think, is Dammar) that he'll be all right and that they didn't abduct him. Dammar says it's too cold and bright for him in the corridor, and she and Paris take him to Sickbay.

There, the Doctor basks in Dammar's description of his medical care as "considerate," then Dammar tells Tuvok and Janeway that he was minding his own business on his colony at Nyria 3 when he felt dizzy and then saw blackness and felt little insects on his body before coming back to awareness on Voyager. Before Janeway suggests the Betty Ford Clinic, Dammar goes on to describe the Nyrian system, but the system sounds quite unfamiliar to them. Janeway suggests that he look at a star chart after the Doctor is done examining him. The Doctor passes his tricorder to Tuvok with the news that Kes is late for her duty shift. Janeway asks for Kes' whereabouts and Lwaxana -- I mean the computer says Kes is not on board. In fact, she left the ship just when Dammar came on.

In Engineering, Kim and Torres scan for anomalies one more time! It's going pretty well, so Torres asks Kim if he thinks she's hostile. No, he says, shaking inside. She demands reassurance, more than once, and finally he stands there looking, as she puts it, as though he's afraid for his life. Torres backs off and moves across the room, and with a little "whoosh," Kim disappears. Torres reports it to the bridge, where another Nyrian has arrived, looking frightened.

Time passes, and we see another crewmember disappear and another Nyrian arrive (this time in Club Med, where some holochicks check him out). Then Tuvok disappears while Janeway is talking to him, and another Nyrian arrives on yet another part of the ship.

The Doc welcomes more Nyrians into Sickbay as he runs more scans.

Six hours and twenty-two lost crewmembers later, Janeway, Chakotay, Paris, and Torres confer on the problem. The sexual tension between Paris and Torres is so thick now that they can hardly stand to be next to each other, and their eyes are constantly wandering to, and over, one another. Janeway and Chakotay -- themselves standing very close together -- seem to notice this, but carefully make no comment, verbal or otherwise.

Paris notes that the Nyrians' colony could be anywhere, and Torres says she detected some polaron particles [which are very different from Polaroid particles, which fade once you take them out of the box and shouldn't be touched with your fingers while they're developing] when Kim disappeared. But this means that the process that's transferring people around could be anything from a spacial anomaly to a super-duper transporter.

Chakotay makes one of his placating comments about how friendly and placid the Nyrians are being, but Janeway isn't having it this time. She says this whole set-up smells bad, and she's got a knot in her stomach thinking about it. While Voyager's crew runs around doing scans, the Nyrians are taking over her ship. In fact, in eighteen hours, there won't be any of Voyager's crew left on board.

Twelve hours after Dammar arrived, with half the crew gone and the cargo bays now full of Nyrians, Janeway and Chakotay go to engineering, where Torres says one of the Nyrians, a scientist named Rislan, suggested that this might be due to a baby wormhole that's opening inside Voyager. Janeway is ordering Neelix to roust out this Rislan and bring him to engineering when she disappears. Chakotay orders Neelix instead, and we can see him consciously taking on not only the captain's mantle of authority, but her paranoia as well.

Neelix sweet-talks Rislan into going to engineering, where it will be warm and dark enough for his comfort.

On the bridge, Chakotay sits in Paris' chair and orders the only other bridge officer, a temporarily assigned ensign whom I like very much and hope we see again, to make do the best she can. Relenting a bit, he asks how she likes her first day on the job as the new security chief, and she drawls back, "It's everything I dreamed of, sir." She then says that Neelix has just disappeared and there are only forty crewmembers left. Chakotay orders security forcefields and lockouts all over the ship.

In engineering, Rislan tries to mislead Torres' analysis, knocks out the worthless security guy standing next to him, and then moves Torres to the "front of the line." It seems Janeway's knotted stomach was right, and the crew are disappearing because of a super-duper transporter after all.

Torres winds up in a tree-lined compound with the rest of Voyager's translocated crew, staring at Paris. She looks around, sees Kes and Kim and that Asian guy she once saw in his underwear, and, finally, Janeway. She tries to tell the captain that the Nyrians are behind it all, but Janeway already knows. Some Nyrian guards come for Torres' combadge and then move off. Kes explains that they've been given food and water and medical supplies, but no explanations. There are several other compounds around them and Tuvok is investigating. They know this can't be the Nyrians' colony, though. It's too cold and bright for them.

Back on Voyager, Crewman Genaro reports the felled security guy in engineering to Chakotay, who goes to the cargo bay only to find all the Nyrians missing. He tries to rally forces on the ship, but there are only twelve crewmembers left now. The Nyrians use the Jefferies tubes to swarm through the ship.

Chakotay strides down the hall with a major piece of eyecandy named Larson (whom I also hope we will see again). He reads the computer panel on the wall and realizes the Nyrians know an awful lot about Voyager. They're even deciphering the security codes. When he looks up from the readouts, Larson is gone (dangit!).

Chakotay raises the last other crewmember, Genaro, and orders him to sabotage as much of the ship as he can before the Nyrians get control of everything. Chakotay shorts out the navigation controls and the warp drive before he realizes the Nyrians are trying to delete the Doctor. He scuttles to Sickbay and manages to download the Doc into the mobile emitter just as the Nyrians are making it through the door -- stepping over the first Nyrian, whom the Doc has hypo'ed. The Nyrians aim their phasers at Chakotay and he surrenders (after palming the emitter). "Whoosh" and he's outta there.

In the compound, Torres adjusts the emitter and the Doc worries about being cut off so completely from the ship. What if the emitter's power runs out? Just then, a pink rabbit banging on a drum toddles by and all the Voyager crew react with the speed of Starfleet training, grabbing clubs and stones and howling "Qu'pleth chora'tug!!" which is a Klingon war cry meaning "Duracell can kick your ass!" They pummel the creature into nothing but a sort of lumpy pink cottonball, and, that threat destroyed, listen carefully to Tuvok. He has returned from his reconnoitering, and reports that there are ten compounds in a four square kilometer area, surrounded on all sides by some sort of natural barrier.

More Nyrians appear, lead by a head guard (whose name, I think, is Taleen). She explains that the Voyager crew has all the Cheetos and beer and comic books they need for a nice, life-long stay here at the compound. She says she hopes they will be comfortable and that the in-flight movie will be Taxi Driver with, of course, all the good scenes edited out for the kiddies.

"It's still prison," Chakotay points out.

"Tough," is basically Taleen's response (proving that she did, in fact, work for American Airlines at one point). Voyager is now the property of the Nyrians, and that's all there is to it! Taleen and her goons leave.

While the non-command crew mill around in the back, gossiping and looking for trashcans, Tuvok continues with his description of the area. It's clear this environment is artificial, maybe even holographic.

Just then, a fuzzy spot appears in the foliage, and out comes a harmless-looking toady-man in gray robes, named Jarleth. He's from the next compound, which is a bit more desert-like, and he's been there over nine years now. He likes Voyager's food selections, and wants to barter. He also explains that the previous inhabitants of this compound all died from a plague. Janeway offers to trade food for his knowledge of the "portal" he uses to move between the two compounds.

It's nighttime, and Torres is turning the Doctor's eyesight into a sort of scanner. He thinks it makes everything look pretty, but the point is that he might be able to find another portal. Paris joins them for a progress report for the captain, and Torres says they're about ready to go. Torres takes the opportunity...ah, maybe you don't want to hear this part. It's just about some fighting/flirting. Maybe I should just go on to the next scene...

But, I am trying to be thorough...

While the Doctor stands in the background, staring at everything in wonder through his altered opticals, Torres takes the opportunity to apologize for snarling at him about the Klingon holodeck program, and Paris says he didn't mean to push the whole thing on her, and she says she didn't mean to lash out.

Typical defensive behavior, says the Doc, lashing out at a perceived emotional threat.

Paris agrees too readily with the Doc's assessment of Torres' behavior, and Torres responds that Paris is the King of Defensiveness, always pretending that nothing gets to him and turning everything into a joke. The Doctor agrees with this as well, but Paris says he's just an easy-going person trying to make a friend. The Doctor interrupts again, but Torres turns off his speech and demands, with quite a bit of hostility, why Paris is trying to be her friend if it's so darned hard. Paris snorts that he'll stop wasting his time and stalks off. The Doctor waits until Torres is looking at him, then pushes the emitter at her with his arm curled, eloquent in his silence.

Chakotay is watching Tuvok jerry-rig a phaser from parts Neelix is scavenging all over the compound. Chakotay and Tuvok have a nice conversation for a change, discussing Starfleet survival training and a Vulcan Rite of Taloth which have helped prepare them for the sort of improvisations needed to get out of here.

It's daytime now, and the Doctor is getting tired of scanning for portals. Torres says holograms don't get tired and puts a hand to his head to point his eyes back in the right direction. He signs and continues to look around. Meanwhile, Jarleth is telling Janeway that life here really isn't all that bad, once you get used to it. She doesn't find that a compelling viewpoint.

Aha! The Doctor has found something, and Jarleth opens it up. Another portal, but this one doesn't lead into another compound. Janeway, Torres, Jarleth, Tuvok and Paris (the last two holding those jerry-rigged phasers) enter a dark and overly warm corridor, then split up to investigate. Paris, Torres, and Jarleth find a series of doors leading into individual biospheres. Tuvok and Janeway find a control panel and eventually learn their way around it well enough to know that they are on a ship which holds ninety-four separate habitats which hold thousands of prisoners from ships and colonies and stations that the Nyrians have taken over in their sneaky little way. They break into the computer as much as they can, then set off intruder alarms and run down the corridor. They need to find a control center of some kind.

Taleen reports to Dammar on Voyager that some prisoners are making trouble, and gets permission to use force to return them to their habitats. Dammar asks Rislan how long it will be before they have warp power restored, and Rislan says it will take a few more minutes.

In the corridors with Paris and Torres, Jarleth gets cold feet and lags behind. Like an Iraqi soldier and a CBS news crew, Jarleth is promptly captured by a gang of Nyrians and grovels before them. We never see him again, and we don't mind.

Sweating profusely in the hot and dark corridor, Janeway and Tuvok locate the Nyrian translocator device. Tuvok pinches the Nyrian worker there into dreamland and learns that Jarleth has been put back in his compound.

Voyager speeds towards the biosphere vessel at high warp. Dammar responds to a call for reinforcements by telling Rislan to wait until they're close enough and then translocate Dammar over with his full security detail.

Paris and Torres duck down the corridor as phaser fires erupts behind them. Their jerry-rigged phaser is about out of power and they need a place to hide. They open up a biosphere to an icy wilderness and realize the Nyrians would hate to go in there. [The audience looks at the all that ice and snow and instead thinks only "Conserve body heat! Conserve body heat!"] With Nyrians at their heels, they jump through the portal. Taleen orders four guards to follow, but, rather interestingly, does not follow them herself.

Janeway and Tuvok work on figuring out how to use the translocator.

Paris and Torres run from the Nyrians and use the last gasp of the phaser to dump a small avalanche on one of them. They find an icy alcove to hide in as Torres tries to reconfigure the jerry-rigged phaser for one last shot, but her hands are all numb.

[Now, I should point out that if this were fanfic, that'd be all the set up we'd need for some extremely overdue Klingon whoopee. However, that's not gonna happen in this season, folks. Sorry.]

Instead, Paris takes Torres' hands and rubs and blows on them to warm them up. He says he thought her hot Klingon blood would keep her warm, and she says that Klingons are actually much more susceptible to the cold than humans. He says he thought that was Cardassians, and she says that Cardassians just complain about it more.

Her hands warmer, she reconfigures the phaser just as two Nyrians appear. One collapses on his own from the cold, and Torres shoots the other one.

Tuvok is scanning the biospheres and finds Torres and Paris in the Argala habitat. It's -20 degrees C in there. They need to get them out! Janeway notes Voyager's approach. They need to hurry!

Torres and Paris are trying to find the portal back when Torres starts to fade. She tries to sit and go to sleep, but Paris grabs her and orders her on her feet. She says they're the same rank, but he claims seniority and then tries to get her mad at him. This is starting to work when Janeway and Tuvok manage to translocate them back into the human compound. They realize they're standing right in front of everyone with their arms around each other. Paris takes his hands away from her and blows on them. Torres stands there gripping the spent phaser and looking a little horrified. In the background, the Asian guy Torres once saw in his underwear is laughing. [Well, at least Torres has a name, dude!]

Janeway and Tuvok then translocate Dammar and Rislan into that Argala habitat, where they promptly begin shivering like little kids in an unheated pool. They try to look for the portal, but then Janeway "whooshes" in, Nyrian phaser in one hand and translocator device in the other, and tells them to surrender or watch the rest of their sneaky little band wind up in the habitat as well. After a bit of token resistance from Dammar, they listen to her terms: while the Nyrians wait it out in a comfy habitat and eat Cheetos, Voyager is to be released, the prisoners in the habitats are to be returned to their worlds, and the translocator will be destroyed. Then the Nyrians can have a big disco dance party, for all Janeway cares. Freezing, the Nyrians agree to her terms and think about platform shoes with goldfish in them.

The ship's okay and back on course when Torres enters Club Med to sit next to a hesitant-looking Paris on one of those sofas. Meaning more than she's saying, she comments that "Things were getting pretty chilly there for a while," and that "It feels good to be warm again." Paris agrees, then leans his head back and closes his eyes before a non-defensive smile spread on his face. Torres sees the smile, and closes her own eyes, leaning back with a smile of her own.