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Dreadnought (episode)edit

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"Dreadnought"
VOY, Episode 2x17
Production number: 134
First aired: 12 February 1996
← 33rd of 168 produced in VOY →
← 32nd of 168 released in VOY →
  {{{nNthReleasedInSeries_Remastered}}}th of 168 released in VOY Remastered  
← 401st of 727 released in all →
Written By
Gary Holland

Directed By
LeVar Burton
49447.0 (2372)
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See dreadnought for related usages of the term.

Voyager encounters Dreadnought, a Cardassian missile that B'Elanna Torres reprogrammed during her time in the Maquis. Even though lost in the Delta Quadrant, the missile still believes it is on a Maquis mission in the Alpha Quadrant, setting an intercept course with an inhabited world.

Contents

[edit] Summary

[edit] Teaser

The Doctor and Kes are doing a prenatal exam on Samantha Wildman, and are discussing possible names for Samantha's baby, a subject which The Doctor has been very interested in of late. He has reviewed databases from over 500 worlds but has yet to find anything suitable. Samantha has been considering naming the child after her husband, Greskrendtregk, because it is a tradition in his family, but she would prefer something simpler. She suggests Cameron, Frederick and Sural, but the doctor discounts each possibility. Cameron is from the ancient Celtic for "one whose nose is bent," Frederick bears a resemblance to an impolite term on the Bolian homeworld, and Sural was the name of a brutal dictator on Sakura Prime. Kes suggests Benaren, her father's name, and both the doctor and Ensign Wildman like the name. However, The Doctor is hurt that Kes never suggested the name for him.

Meanwhile, on the bridge, the crew is investigating a debris field, and are concerned because it would take a very powerful weapon to cause so much damage to the duritanium-hulled unmanned probe. Upon investigation, Chakotay and B'Elanna Torres find that a powerful Cardassian weapon caused the destruction. Captain Janeway asks if Seska could be involved, but B'Elanna reveals that she herself was responsible.

[edit] Act One

The bridge crew gathers in the briefing room, although Tom Paris arrives late and disheveled, to hear B'Elanna's explanation. She reveals that the probe was destroyed by an experimental Cardassian missile from the Alpha Quadrant which the Maquis had gotten their hands on. They surmise that the Caretaker must have brought the missile to the Delta Quadrant in the same way the USS Voyager was, as the last time they saw the probe it was headed into the same area of the Badlands where Voyager was taken. Chakotay explains that the weapon is a self-guided tactical missile armed with 1,000 kilos each of matter and antimatter, its own defensive weaponry, and one of the most sophisticated computer systems that B'Elanna had ever seen. The Maquis nicknamed the missile Dreadnought, due to its unstoppable nature. Neelix asks how the Maquis stopped the missile, to which Chakotay replies that they didn't. The Dreadnought made it through all of their defenses, but despite its tactical sophistication, the Cardassians had armed it with an old kinetic detonator which failed to go off when it reached its target. B'Elanna got inside the missile and reprogrammed it, giving it a new identity and making it work for the Maquis. They then sent it off on a mission to destroy the Cardassian fuel depot on Aschelan V, but it never made it out of the Badlands and they assumed it was destroyed in the plasma storms. B'Elanna says she can modify Voyager's sensors to find the Dreadnought, and then she can get back inside and shut it down. The crew is dismissed, but Chakotay confronts Paris about his tardiness and the untidiness of his uniform.

While Tom and B'Elanna work on reconfiguring the sensors, she reveals that Chakotay had not told the whole truth during the briefing. She says that they didn't send the probe to attack the Cardassians; she had done it alone without Chakotay's permission. After Chakotay found out he confronted her and said that she had hurt him because he thought he had earned her trust and loyalty. B'Elanna regretted her actions, and was relieved when the probe disappeared. Now she feels that if anyone gets hurt by the Dreadnought, it will be her fault. Paris tries to console her, and the conversation switches to his own problems fitting in. B'Elanna says that people are starting to talk about his behavior, and she asks if it's true that Paris got in a fight with Lieutenant Rollins. Paris said the Lieutenant had hassled him about the punctuation on his conn reports not being up to Starfleet protocol. Paris admits that Rollins was right about the reports, and that he himself was beginning to feel that he did not fit in on Voyager.

Voyager eventually finds the Dreadnought's warp trail, which is erratic due to an evasive pattern that had been programmed in, indicating that the missile sensed them following it and took evasive action. Once they find the missile, B'Elanna realizes that its targeting scanners have been activated, which is not supposed to happen until it has locked onto its final target. Scanning its trajectory, they find that the Dreadnought has locked on to a planet approximately 10 light years away, and will take about three weeks to reach its destination. Much to the crew's dismay, the planet is Class M with several heavily populated areas.

[edit] Act Two

Michael Jonas is making another call to the Kazon-Nistrim, and wants to tell Seska about the weapon, but his Kazon contact, Lorrum won't let him speak to her directly. Before Jonas can give a full report to the Kazon, he must get off the comm line because someone else is about to make a subspace transmission and might discover him. On the bridge, Captain Janeway has made contact with First Minister Kellan of Rakosa V, the planet toward which the probe is headed. The First Minister has been tracking Voyager and the missile, but had not yet determined what it was. When Janeway tells the Minister that the object is a powerful missile, he first believes that she is making a threat against the planet. The Minister says that Voyager has a reputation for threatening many races since its arrival in the Delta Quadrant. Janeway says that the Kazon have been spreading those lies to prevent them from making allies and that the Voyager crew are going to try to stop the missile, but Kellan is still skeptical and says he will put his planet's defense forces on alert.

Meanwhile, Dreadnought has accepted B'Elanna's access codes and she beams over to the missile, where her identity is confirmed by a DNA scan. The missile, which speaks with B'Elanna's own voice, greets her. The probe says that B'Elanna's last systems access was on stardate 47582. The current date is 49447, time 08:40 hours. B'Elanna begins to try to find what is wrong with the missile's programming to make it lock on to the wrong target. The missile's computer argues that the planet it is targeting is in fact Aschelan V, based on parameters such as size, radiothermic signature and atmospheric composition, and it refuses to believe B'Elanna when she says that the missile has the wrong planet in its sights. B'Elanna is unable to access the missile's navigation system because it is at Stage 3 alert status, a safety measure which B'Elanna remembers was her idea. As she starts working on another way to get at the system, B'Elanna asks the Dreadnought what happened to it on the day after her last systems access. The computer confirms that it encountered a coherent tetryon beam, which B'Elanna realizes must have damaged the Dreadnought's sensors. After some modifications, B'Elanna has the missile reinitialize its navigational system, and the missile realizes it is in the Delta Quadrant. Since Aschelan V is not in the Delta Quadrant, the probe stands down from Stage 3, deactivates the target lock, and assumes Stage 4 alert status. Captain Janeway immediately contacts B'Elanna, reporting that the missile's engines have shut down. Believing her mission was accomplished, B'Elanna packs up her gear, puts the missile in Stage 5 status power saving mode, and bids the Dreadnought goodnight as she beams back to Voyager. Later, however, while B'Elanna, Chakotay and Janeway discuss the possibility of salvaging parts from the Dreadnought for use on Voyager, Paris breaks in to report that the Dreadnought suddenly powered up and jumped to warp nine, putting it on course to reach Rakosa V in 51 hours.

[edit] Act Three

Voyager chases after the probe, which no longer responds to B'Elanna's access codes, making it impossible for her to beam over. Janeway orders Tuvok to fire on the missile, in an attempt to disable its drive systems. Chakotay informs her that the missile was programmed to adapt to all known weapon types, including Starfleet's, but Janeway is optimistic that Voyager's type 6 photon torpedos, which weren't in service yet when Dreadnought was launched, might just get through. Voyager fires two photons for direct hits, but there is no damage to the missile. Chakotay surmises that the Dreadnought must have scanned their weapons and adapted. After the attack, Dreadnought hails Voyager to warn the "unidentified Federation ship" not to interfere with its tactical mission against the Cardassians. B'Elanna asks why the missile resumed course, and the computer responds that it believes B'Elanna entered false information into its navigational computers as part of a "Delta Quadrant Deception." Dreadnought believes that B'Elanna is being coerced by either the Cardassians or the Federation, number 7 in a list of 39 possible tactical scenarios for which B'Elanna had programmed the missile to prepare responses. The missile's computer is unable to accept that it is in the Delta Quadrant, and believes it is a greater probability that it is being deceived in order to stop it from completing its mission. With that, the Dreadnought breaks off communication. B'Elanna comes up with one possible vulnerability in the Dreadnought's thoron shock emitter. If the missile could be provoked to fire at full power, it would destabilize the core for 30 seconds, and the missile could be destroyed by a sustained tachyon beam. The crew puts the plan into action, but rather than being destroyed, the missile sends a plasma burst along the tachyon beam, disabling Voyager's engines before the missile could be damaged.

Janeway contacts First Minister Kellan again to report on the situation, stating that Voyager's engines will be back online in an hour, and they will try again to stop the missile. Kellan says that his planet is projecting 2 million casualties if the missile attacks, and has deployed a fleet which will intercept the missile in a few hours. Janeway says that the Rakosan fleet is no match for the Dreadnought's weapons, but Kellan refuses to just sit and wait for destruction. Janeway implores the minister to wait, as B'Elanna is still the best hope for stopping the missile, but Kellan says the decision has already been made.

Eventually, B'Elanna does manage to beam back over to the missile, which greets her warmly but denies her access to any programmer interfaces, and even shocks her when she attempts to access the circuit pathways. B'Elanna continues trying to access the computer, and at first is surprised that she manages to get through without much of a fight, but before long the missile announces it is going to Stage 2 alert. B'Elanna asks what is happening, and the computer responds that fifteen priority targets are approaching with weapons armed - the Rakosan fleet.

[edit] Act Four

Aboard Voyager, Janeway tries to convince the Rakosan fleet not to attack, but the pilot of the lead ship, Rakosa One, states that he intends to carry out his orders. However, B'Elanna requests that Janeway not beam her away from Dreadnought, as the Rekosan fleet has provided a distraction which is allowing her to access the missile's computer systems. Janeway agrees not to pull her out yet, but will maintain a transporter lock, and Voyager joins the fight in order to provide cover fire for the Rekosans.

B'Elanna starts to make progress on accessing Dreadnought's weapons systems, until the computer informs her that it has rerouted all command functions through protected backups in order to prevent tampering. B'Elanna again tries to reason with the computer, saying that the Rekosans are not Cardassians and therefore not the enemy, but the computer answers that it is programmed to respond with all necessary force, and begins the attack. Voyager is able to draw the Dreadnought's fire and allow the Rekosans to escape, but B'Elanna has just over an hour left to prevent the attack. Janeway asks if she has any other ideas, but B'Elanna doesn't want to discuss them in front of the Dreadnought computer. Dreadnought promptly cuts off B'Elanna's comm link with Voyager, stating that there had been a tactical advantage to monitoring her communications, but now that advantage was gone. B'Elanna goes back to work, and the missile realizes that B'Elanna is trying to access the detonation control system in order to blow up the missile before it reaches its target. B'Elanna responds that that wouldn't make much sense, since she would be killing herself in the process, and why would she sacrifice herself if being coerced by the Cardassians? Dreadnought cannot come up with an answer for this and begins a new probability analysis, and B'Elanna sees a possible opening. She starts to play a hypothetical game with the computer, something she had done before during the Dreadnought's initial programming. B'Elanna asks the computer to hypothetically accept the assumption that the missile is in the Delta Quadrant and heading for the wrong target, and explain how this might have happened. The computer responds that if key sensor programs were damaged, it could have compromised the databanks. B'Elanna calls up the databanks to see if they were compromised, and finds an unidentified Cardassian backup file in the databank, created before B'Elanna reprogrammed the Dreadnought. Before she can learn more, the Dreadnought completes the new probability assessment, realizing that the only conclusion is that B'Elanna is not being coerced, but has instead changed loyalties. With this, the computer terminates humanoid life support, goes to Stage 1 alert, and begins its final detonation sequence.

[edit] Act Five

First Minister Kellan is beginning to give up hope, but Janeway tells him that she is prepared to use Voyager to stop the missile by colliding with it rather than letting it hit the planet. Kellan is taken aback by her willingness to sacrifice her vessel to save people she hadn't met only a few days ago. He says that Voyager's reputation is undeserved, and for what it's worth, they have made a friend today. Janeway reminds him that they still have forty-one minutes to stop the probe, and she hasn't given up yet.

Back on the missile, Dreadnought cannot understand why B'Elanna has remained after life support has been cut off and key systems have been made unaccessible, but B'Elanna is instead working on accessing the old Cardassian file. Meanwhile, Janeway informs Chakotay and Tuvok that they may have to evacuate Voyager and initiate a warp core breach in order to stop the Dreadnought. Janeway initiates a self-destruct sequence, just as B'Elanna accesses the Cardassian file and brings the original Cardassian control system for the Cardassian ATR-4107 missile online, triggering an "identity crisis" in the computer. The conflicting computer systems attack each other as they battle it out for control of the missile, enabling B'Elanna to access the missile's reactor core so she can detonate the warhead before it reaches the target. With seven mintutes before Voyager self-destructs, Janeway orders the remaining bridge officers to evacuate, leaving only herself and Tuvok aboard. Dreadnought manages to fight off the Cardassian computer system and regain control, but B'Elanna has nearly managed to destroy the containment field with a sustained phaser attack, despite the fact that the air on the missile is getting very thin and she is about to lose consciousness. Dreadnought tries one last time to trick B'Elanna into not destroying the missile, but B'Elanna manages to hold on long enough to breach the core. Tuvok manages to beam B'Elanna off the Dreadnought just as it explodes, and Janeway cancels the self-destruct. The Doctor, who had been forgotten in all the excitement, states that B'Elanna will be fine, and Janeway orders Tuvok to come about and start gathering up the escape pods, another crisis averted.

[edit] Memorable quotes

"You would... sacrifice yourselves to save a people you didn't know two days ago?"
"To save two million lives? That's not a hard decision."
"... your reputation in this quadrant isn't deserved, captain. For what it's worth... you have made a friend here."

- Kellan and Janeway


"When a bomb starts talking about itself in the third person, I get worried."

- Tom Paris, in reference to a subspace communication from Dreadnought's computer


"Please turn to your Emergency Medical Holographic Channel."
"Doctor, I forgot about you."
"How flattering."

- The Doctor and Janeway


"... I even programmed it to warn Federation ships to stay out of its way.. In my own voice!"
"Your own voice?"
"Listening to that Cardassian Computer voice was driving me crazy!"

- Torres and Tom Paris, referring to the computer voice of Dreadnought


"Never thought I'd be glad to hear that voice."

- Torres, after she reactivates the Cardassian back-up program


"Who'd have thought, two years ago, all those weeks we spent together, perfecting your program, that we'd end up out here, trying to kill each other!"

- Torres, close to passing out while attempting to breach Dreadnought's containment field

[edit] Background Information

  • Kes claims she "once knew a boy named Tarrik", a reference to Voyager stand-in actor Tarik Ergin, who is frequently seen in the background of episodes as Lieutenant Ayala.
  • Guest star Dan Kern had previously appeared as Lieutenant Dean, Picard's fencing partner in TNG: "We'll Always Have Paris".
  • Tom Paris arrives late and untidy for the daily brief, Chakotay gives him an informal reprimand of his recent indiscipline. This indiscipline later comes to a head in "Investigations" with the departure of Paris from Voyager.
  • This episode marks the first instance when Janeway initiates Voyager's self-destruct sequence.
  • Unlike in other Trek incarnations, in this episode (as with the following activation in VOY: "Deadlock"), when Janeway initiates the self-destruct sequence for Voyager, the computer does not ask for concurrent authorization from any other member of the bridge crew.
  • Kellan's outfit is a reuse of the costume worn by Richard Kiley as Gideon Seyetik in DS9: "Second Sight".
  • A male voice was used instead of regular Cardassian computer voice actress Judi Durand so as to be easily distinguishable from Roxann Dawson as the Maquis program voice.
  • Roxann Dawson would go on to provide another computer voice (for the Automated repair station) in ENT: "Dead Stop".
  • When discussing names for both the doctor and Ensign Wildman's unborn baby, it is strongly implied that the sex of the baby is male. Ensign Wildman later gives birth to a girl, Naomi.
  • The story arc of Michael Jonas' conspiracy with the Kazon started in "Alliances" and comes to an end in "Investigations".
  • B'Elanna's attempts to convince the bomb to disarm bear some similarity to scenes from John Carpenter's Dark Star (1974).

[edit] Video and DVD releases

[edit] Links and references

[edit] Starring

[edit] Also starring

[edit] Guest stars

[edit] Co-star

[edit] Uncredited co-stars

[edit] References

Alpha 441; Aschelan V; auto-destruct; Badlands; Benaren; Bolarus IX; Cameron; captain's prerogative; Cardassian; Cardassian ATR-4107; Caretaker; Celtic; containment field; Demilitarized Zone; duritanium; electromagnetic field; Elrem; EPS relay; Frederick; Greskrendtregk; Intrepid-class; ion radiation; kinetic detonator; Ktarian; magnetic constrictor; Maquis; multiphasic sweep; navigational sensor; neutrino; Ocampa; plasma wave; photon torpedo; plasma burst; plasma storm; polyalloy; quantum torpedo; radiothermic signature; Rakosa V; Rakosa One; Rakosan; Rakosan fighter; reactor core; Rollins; Sakura Prime; self-destruct; sensor echo; Sural; tachyon beam; tactical subroutine; Tarrik; tetryon; thoron shock emitter; Vulcan (planet); warp trail


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