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

Hail, fellow Voyager fans and well-met! This hardy review of "Initiations" is meant only for us really tough guys and gals who like to bond as we knock each other about and thump our chests. If you're not into that sort of thing, you pansy, maybe you'd better go play with your dolls or curl up with a box of chocolates and a drippy romance.

Hmmm, if that last option sounds particularly good, try a Computer-Generated Romance.

Still here? Okay then, me hardies, lend me your ears...

INITIAL VIEWER RESPONSE
Who's brain trust was it to let Chakotay out in a shuttle by himself?...Hey! where have I seen that kid before?...Too bad they don't have some brewskis they can crack open while they watch the playoffs.

PLOT
Well, Chakotay is alone in a shuttle, performing the Pakra ceremony [his tribe still isn't named!] in which he tries to contact the spirit of his father.

This MCI commercial is interrupted, however, by the Kazon, who send out a lone warrior, Kar, who needs to earn his Ogla name. Kar fires on Chakotay's shuttle. Chakotay tries to talk peace, but Nog...I mean Kar won't stop firing at the shuttle and eventually the commander has to fire back and then beam the unconscious boy over to save him from the damaged ship.

Chakotay tries to raise Voyager, but the battle has knocked out the shuttle's communications and sensors.

On Voyager, Neelix tells Janeway he wants more duties. On the bridge, she learns that Chakotay hasn't returned and takes the ship on a search for him.

Chakotay has enough sense to tie Kar up, but not enough to gag him, so we get to listen to him complain a lot about not being killed in battle. He's not pleased either that Chakotay plans to return him to the Kazon. In fact, when the Kazon heavy cruiser appears and tractors the shuttle in, Kar asks Chakotay to kill him. Happy to oblige, Chakotay pulls out his phaser and blows a hole through the kid you could fly a shuttle through.

Well, no, actually, he doesn't, and aboard the ship, Chakotay doesn't understand why the Kazon are treating Kar so badly. Kar sneers and postures a lot, but his superior, Haliz, is not impressed. Kar explains to Chakotay that Kazon gets their names in battle, even if they die, and Chakotay has ruined his chance to be named.

Voyager finds debris and beams some aboard, then follows an ion trail which leads away from the site of the debris.

The leader of the Kazon ship, Maj Razik, whose idea it was to send Kar out in the first place, tsk-tsks Kar for his failed mission and explains that though he forgives Kar in his heart, there are no second chances. He says Kar will eat at his right side at dinner, and this obviously is meant as some sort of last rite. Chakotay tries to talk to Rasik, but it becomes quickly obvious the Kazon aren't into smoking any peace pipe. In fact, as Rasik leads Kar off, he talks of the execution slated for later in the evening.

Torres examines the debris and tells Janeway it's Kazon.

Young boys gather around Chakotay to stare at him. Chakotay sings one of Barney's songs and they hate him even more. Rasik ends up giving Chakotay a phaser, however. It seems it's his job to kill Kar, and then he will be free to go. Chakotay fumbles the phaser on purpose and then takes Rasik hostage to get his shuttle back. He even scoops up Kar along the way, though the boy looks mad as ever. Working together, they manage to escape the Kazon as far as a nearby moon on which the Kazon Ogla train their warriors. The Kazon do fire on them, however, making the whole thing a beam-out-before-we-crash landing.

And may I point out that that's another shuttle down? Well, Voyager finds the debris, and knows this time it's definitely Chakotay's shuttle.

Chakotay and Kar, knocked unconscious by the rough beam out, I guess, come to in that rocky land Kirk and the Lizard Man fought in. Chakotay wants to bond with Kar right away, but Kar's a champion pouter. However, the kid does show he has real knowledge of the moon's training grounds, including its many booby traps. He helps Chakotay find shelter from the heat.

The Doctor reports from Sickbay that there's no evidence of human remains in the debris, so Janeway confers with her regular bunch about their options. The best bet is going to the nearby moon, even though the atmosphere has stuff in it which means they can't scan it properly or communicate through it. There's evidence of energy sources and arsenals.

Janeway hands out the duties: she and Tuvok and Kes will go to the moon; Torres will work on getting a comsignal through the atmosphere, and Neelix will help Paris scan for Kazon ships.

Chakotay and Kar continue to bond in the cave, or it might just seem like bonding because Chakotay talks so much. He says his uniform, which he had to earn, means to him what names mean to the Kazon, and that his people believe the only thing a man truly owns is the courage in his heart. Chakotay then sets up his tricorder to emit a homing beacon and goes to sleep. Kar really wants to kill Chakotay for all that talking, but doesn't.

Neelix totally digs sitting in Chakotay's chair, looking over to the right with a hopeful expression on his face. Seems our little man is quite ambitious! Meanwhile, the Kazon ship comes along and Paris tries to thump his chest, but Neelix figures out that the Kazon actually don't want a confrontation because they're worried about drawing attention to their training moon. The Kazon say they'll go down to the moon to look for the boy Chakotay has "kidnapped," and Paris says Voyager will leave when they get all their crew back. Rasik signs off in a snit.

Paris wants to warn Janeway, but Torres is still working on the communications, and the ground won't support a Voyager landing.

In the cave, Chakotay reveals that he knows how close Kar came to killing him last night, and a definite truce is called. Kar explains that he has no place to go. He can't go to another Kazon sect; they would chop off his fingers and throw him out; and he doesn't want to go with Voyager.

Janeway, Tuvok, Kes, and some guy are scanning for Chakotay when they meet up with Rasik and Haliz and some Kazon guys. The Kazon say they'll help the away team through the moon's booby traps.

In the cave, Kar gives us some background on the Kazon. It seems they were held under the thumb of some race called the Trabe, until a Kazon revolt twenty-six years ago. Chakotay, knowing they'll be found soon, tells Kar that he must kill him.

Making their way around the rocks, Rasik talks about a possible alliance with Janeway, who seems suspicious. Paris signals Janeway and then Chakotay, telling him they can beam him up. But Chakotay doesn't want to be beamed up, and tells Paris to get the Doctor ready for a "code white" resuscitation.

The Kazon trap the away team behind a shield, then go into the cave, where they find Kar holding his phaser on Chakotay. But Kay knows there are no second chances in battle and kills Rasik instead, thus putting Haliz in power. He offers his service to Haliz, who accepts, and thus he earns his Ogla name, Kar Dane. Kar then turns to Chakotay in full Kazon snit and tells him to piss off.

Aboard Voyager, Chakotay finishes the Pakra and asks his father's spirit to watch over him and also a young boy with a hard row to hoe, Kar Dane.