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

Okay, this is one for all you B'Elanna Torres fans: a review full of spoilers for the Star Trek Voyager episode, "Remember." This is expressly intended for Voyager fans and people who like the occasional slap and tickle with some leaf-headed bozo. Those of you who don't want to know the secrets of repressed cultural memories should probably go elsewhere for you fun today.

How about A Demo of Pixels?

Not interested? Okay, then...

INITIAL VIEWER EXPERIENCE
Hey! That bozo has leaves in his hair!...But I thought Torres had the secret hots for Chakotay?...Pretty fickle for a Klingon....Oh, isn't this kind of like what they did with the memory people on the Enterprise?...Well, not quite.

PLOT
Voyager is actually making a friend for a change, giving a lift to some Enari colonists back to their homeworld. It's a sort of trade: Voyager is getting some help with their energy conservation techniques, and the colonists are getting the express.

Kim makes eyes at Jessen, who, being Enari, has leaves in her hair. (Back on Benar, you might remember, it was feathers.) Torres is working with these people in engineering too, but she doesn't make eyes at them.

She does, however, have a dream that night where she is laying in bed, waiting anxiously for her lover, Dathan. He climbs in the window and they DO IT.

This is all so nice that Chakotay has to come in and wake Torres up twenty minutes past her shift has started. He asks if there's anything wrong, and we are reminded that with Seska gone Chakotay has become Torres' best friend. She tells him about her "intense" dream. She's been having them for several nights in a row now, each one beginning where the last one left off, and, well, she hasn't exactly minded.

Paris and Kim, dressed in what I guess is 24th Century fashion but looks kind of like something you'd see on Herman's Hermits, go to the mess hall. Neelix has fixed the whole place up like Anara, with drapes and food and music...just like one of those really awkward dinner parties some people like to throw. You know the type. You come in blue jeans and your new sweatshirt, and the host greets you at the door with the demand that you tie some paper "grass" skirt around your hips and swill down this revolting poi cocktail while the wife pretends she knows how to gut a pig. You look forward to several nights' of indigestion.

Anyway, Kim snuggles with Jessen while Janeway compliments the musician, Jor Brel, on his skill. He offers to let her try, and surprises her with transferring the memories of his music lessons and practice to her. She's so surprised that the whole thing is pretty much a wash-out. Tuvok gets protective and Janeway apologizes and Jor Brel apologizes...which is also what tends to happen at those theme dinner parties.

Torres has wisely eschewed the whole thing to hit the hay and have another of those dreams. Instead of heavy petting, however, she's treated to an odd scene where she sits in her bedroom and is lectured by her leaf-headed father, Jareth, about how it's not right for her to be seen talking to Dathan. Torres, whom Jareth calls "Corrina," makes some "Whatever you say, Daddy," noises until Jareth leaves. Dathan pops out from behind the curtain and they start to neck, but then suddenly Dathan's face is all burned and Torres wakes up from her nightmare in fear.

Torres tells Chakotay about her nightmares. Chakotay points out that it's got to be more than a coincidence that she's having all these dreams while their are telepaths aboard. Torres goes to talk to Jessen about it, but as she's walking down the corridor she loses consciousness and starts dreaming again.

Now she stands in a square with a bunch of other young people, all in some sort of alien cub scout uniforms. They're getting a good citizenship award from Jareth, a proud moment all around. We also learn about the "regressives," a group condemned by the establishment who don't want to be the obsessive-compulsives the rest of the Enari seem to be. They're basically the Enari Amish, wanting to reject soul-destroying technology and live the simple life. Dathan is one of these regressives, but that doesn't stop Corrina/Torres from meeting with him and talking sexy.

Kes finds Torres and the Doctor revives her, then explains that she was experiencing some sort of telepathically implanted memories. She's experiencing them as dreams, but they're coming from someone else.

The Doctor warns her that these memories are not quite fitting in her psyche and causing a bit of neural damage. Despite her objections that she wants to know what happens to Corrina, the Doctor fits her with an inhibitor so she won't dream anymore.

Janeway gives Torres a couple days to rest, then talks to Jor Brel. The man denies knowledge of any such history to his world, and suggests that Torres is somehow experiencing a sort of group memory fall-out, getting bits and pieces of memories from all the Enari on board. Her own brain is just shuffling it into a narrative.

Neither Torres nor Janeway thinks much of this story. Ordering Torres to bed, the captain and Tuvok go to investigate.

Torres, of course, takes off the inhibitor and goes to sleep. Jareth is lecturing her on the voluntary resettlement of the regressives. They'll go to the new colony, he says, and live the dirty, backward life they want without bothering the rest of the Enari. Corrina/Torres isn't sure this is really all kosher, but she works on processing the regressives, many of whom are hysterical with fear. Dathan's name shows up on the list of regressives to be shipped out, and Torres wakes up with the realization of who, exactly, is sending her these dreams.

She runs down to the cabin of Jora Mirrel, the sweet old woman with a leaf on her head, and finds the her on the floor. Jora is Corinna, and this is the story of her life when she was young. She says the others have figured out that she's spilling the beans to Torres and are killing her. Torres is going to get her some help, but Jora grabs her hand and sends her the rest of the memories. In her bedroom, Corrina/Torres/Jora talks to Dathan, He wants to elope, and he's heard terrible stories about the so-called resettlement of the regressives. No one has reported back from one of these settlements, and supposedly transports stuffed with refuges are being vaporized. Corrina can't believe him. Jareth enters and Dathan hides behind the curtain. Jareth talks about Dathan and his supposed relationships with other women, and pretty much anything he can think of to make Corrina betray Dathan.

She does, and Jareth takes Dathan from the room and binds him to a high-tech stake, where he is burned alive. Corrina cheers along with the others.

Time has passed now, and Corrina is telling these two girls about the regressive movement long ago. The regressives, she explained, tried to have colony, but they were so dirty and backward that they all died. The little girls nod obediently at their history lesson. The regressives were bad.

Torres wakes to find Jora dead. Royally PO'ed, she storms into the farewell party Voyager is throwing the Enari. Murderers! she accuses Jor Brel. He knew what Jora was up to and so he killed her to stop her from revealing the truth, which Torres now lays out for the others. Janeway lets her speak and the crew are convinced, but the Enari are deeply insulted by the accusations, and after that not even a spirited game of Twister can save the party.

In the ready room, Torres apologizes for her temper. Janeway says she believes Torres' story and has canceled trade negotiations with the Enari. However, there's nothing Voyager can do about it because it's all Enari business. The Doctor even did an autopsy on Jora and there was no sign of foul play.

However, Janeway also suggests that Torres might want to go speak to the Enari engineers, namely meaning Jessen, before they leave the ship.

Kim goes Jessen and tries to convince her that what she experienced is the truth. Jessen reveals that she can experience Jora's memories from Torres, and suddenly Jessen is lying in bed and waiting for Dathan to appear.