Flashback (episode)
From Memory Alpha, the free Star Trek reference.
| This article is written from the Real World point of view |
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| "Flashback" | ||
|---|---|---|
| VOY, Episode 3x02 Production number: 145 First aired: 11 September 1996 | ||
| ← | 44th of 168 produced in VOY | → |
| ← | 43rd of 168 released in VOY | → |
| ← | 424th of 726 released in all | → |
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| Written By Brannon Braga Directed By David Livingston | ||
| 50126.4 (2373/2293) | ||
- You may be looking for the literary technique of flashbacks instead.
When Tuvok begins to suffer from a mental breakdown, triggered by a suppressed memory, a mind-meld with Janeway takes him back to his tour of duty with Captain Sulu aboard the USS Excelsior.
Contents |
[edit] Summary
[edit] Teaser
Aboard USS Voyager, Neelix is trying to get Tuvok to sample a new juice blend of his that is made from citrus peel, orange juice and papaya seed extract. Tuvok notes that Neelix's "culinary experiments" have had a very low success rate, but is assured that Ensign Golwat enjoyed it, and even asked for a second glass. He gingerly samples the drink and only notes that it is "impressive".
While cooking Tuvok's breakfast, Neelix's Porakan eggs are ruined by a plasma surge from Engineering that manifests itself in his stove. The surge is due to modifications to the plasma conduits being made in order to accommodate a new energy source. Neelix and Tuvok are summoned to the bridge.
- "Captain's log, stardate 50126.4. We have detected a gaseous anomaly that contains sirillium, a highly combustible and versatile energy source. We've altered course to investigate."
As Voyager approaches the nebula containing the sirillium, Captain Janeway asks Tuvok to modify the deflector shields to compensate for plasmatic turbulence within the nebula. Tuvok is suddenly stricken with dizziness and disorientation, and relieves himself to go to sick bay. En route, he has a flashback of himself as a child holding the hand of a girl hanging from a cliff. He is not able to hold on, and the girl plummets to her death.
Tuvok stumbles into sick bay, where Kes is on duty. He collapses on the floor.
[edit] Act One
Tuvok, now conscious, relates his vision of the girl hanging from the cliff. Though the episode seemed real, he does not recall it having happened. The Doctor's diagnosis suggests a hallucination or repressed memory of some sort. The Doctor gives Tuvok a neurocortical monitor to record his brain patterns and to alert sick bay in case the symptoms recur.
In engineering, Harry Kim explains that his sensor sweeps haven't turned up anything that would affect Tuvok or Voyager. Tuvok suggests to B'Elanna Torres that, due to being close to Klingon space, Voyager conduct a tachyon sweep of the nebula to reveal any cloaked ships that could be responsible for the symptoms. But, of course, Voyager is in the Delta Quadrant. As he stares at the sensor display of the nebula, Tuvok experiences another flashback, and once again lets go of the girl hanging from the cliff.
In sick bay, The Doctor suggests that a mind meld between the patient and a family member to bring Tuvok's repressed memory to the conscious mind may fix the problem. Being the closest thing Tuvok has to family on Voyager, Captain Janeway agrees to a mind meld with Tuvok. However, instead of accessing the memory of the girl and the cliff, Janeway and Tuvok find themselves on the USS Excelsior in 2293. Excelsior is engaged in battle with a Klingon vessel. Captain Hikaru Sulu suddenly steps out of the dense smoke and is visible for the first time.
[edit] Act Two
When Janeway questions Tuvok as to why he brought them here, he explains that the present incident began three days earlier. Tuvok then takes himself and Janeway back three days before the battle with the Klingons. Through Tuvok's memories we learn that Captain Sulu had initiated a rescue mission (in violation of Starfleet Command's orders) for James Kirk and Leonard McCoy, who have been accused of murdering the Klingon chancellor and are standing trial on Qo'noS. En route, the Excelsior approaches a nebula similar to the one observed on Voyager; as Tuvok turns to look, he flashes back yet again to the girl hanging from the cliff, and the mind meld is interrupted.
[edit] Act Three
Tuvok lies unconscious in sickbay. The Doctor warns that if the repressed memory keeps resurfacing, he could experience brain death from synaptic pathway degradation. Some research on the nebula that the Excelsior encountered eighty years ago shows that they are quite different, but they are similar when viewed by the naked eye. Kim suggests that the visual stimulus of Voyager's nebula triggered Tuvok's memory of the Excelsior.
The Doctor revives Tuvok, who completes the story of the interrupted mind meld. The Excelsior was ambushed by Klingons and forced to abort the rescue mission, but this still has no connection to the repressed memory. Tuvok attempts another mind meld with Janeway, but once again they find themselves on the Excelsior. In crew quarters, just before the Klingon attack, Tuvok reveals to Janeway that his conflict with human behavior (his issues with Sulu disobeying orders) was why he resigned from Starfleet following this mission. Back on Vulcan, he took T'Pel as a mate and began raising children, whereupon he understood his parents' decision to send him to Starfleet Academy, and that he should not have resigned. Tuvok once again joined Starfleet in order to expand his knowledge of the galaxy, and to learn from humans. The ship trembles from an explosion. The Klingons are attacking. Tuvok and Janeway leave his quarters.
[edit] Act Four
On the bridge of the Excelsior, Sulu lies to Kang, the captain of the Battle Cruiser, about his rescue mission, claiming they got lost inside the nebula due to a navigational system malfunction. Kang insists on escorting the Excelsior back to Federation space, so Sulu plays along while looking for a way to lose him. Ensign Tuvok suggests that the trace amounts of sirillium in the nebula can be ignited with a positron beam to distract the Klingons for several seconds while they make their escape.
As they clear the nebula, the "match is ignited" and the Excelsior quickly resumes its course to the Klingon homeworld. However, three Klingon Battle Cruisers intercept the Excelsior and begin firing torpedos at it. Tuvok's bunkmate Valtane is killed by a plasma conduit rupture in his console, despite Tuvok's advance warning that the console would explode. This causes the repressed memory to resurface again.
In Voyager's sick bay, Tuvok's memory engrams are destabilizing and The Doctor attempts to terminate the mind meld, but is unable to. Tuvok's brain damage is accelerating and he will be brain-dead within twenty minutes if the mind meld continues. Due to this destabilization, Janeway becomes "visible" to Captain Sulu on the Excelsior.
[edit] Act Five
Tuvok offers to break the mind meld, warning Janeway that if his brain is fatally damaged that she will encounter brain damage as well. Janeway decides to press on, since they have been making good progress. They return to the time before the battle and Tuvok subdues Commander Janice Rand, using her uniform to make Janeway seem inconspicuous amongst the crew of the Excelsior. Meanwhile, The Doctor fits a cortical stimulator on Tuvok to bring him out of the meld with bursts of thoron radiation. This exposes a virus masquerading as one of Tuvok's memory engrams, and The Doctor increases the amount of radiation to kill the virus.
The scene on the bridge where Valtane dies is reenacted, now with Janeway in uniform, and the flashback recurs. Janeway asks Tuvok to concentrate, to bring them to the precipice with the girl. Meanwhile, the virus in Tuvok's brain migrates to the captain's, and accordingly, Janeway experiences her version of Tuvok's flashback, seeing herself as a child in Tuvok's place. The Doctor fits a stimulator on Janeway and irradiates her brain, causing the virus to move again, and now Tuvok's flashback recurs. As the virus begins to die, The Doctor once again increases the amount of radiation to 80 kilodynes. The flashback recurs now with a young Valtane hanging on to the girl, and then again and again with other children – presumably the other hosts the virus has claimed in its lifetime.
It turns out that the virus feeds on neural peptides and bypasses the immune system of its host by disguising itself as a memory engram – the false memory of the girl falling from the cliff, so traumatic that the mind would repress it, thus ensuring that it would not be detected living in the brain of the host. Tuvok concludes that Valtane, as he lay dying, infected him with the virus, the same way the virus infected the captain as Tuvok's mind began to degrade.
[edit] Memorable Quotes
"I am not human."
"No kidding."
- -Tuvok and The Doctor discussing his initial episode
"Mr. Tuvok, if you're going to remain on my ship, you're going to have learn how to appreciate a joke. And don't tell me Vulcans don't have a sense of humor; because I know better."
- - Sulu, to Tuvok, making a reference to Spock
"You'll find that more happens on the bridge of a starship than just carrying out orders and observing regulations. There is a sense of loyalty to the men and women you serve with. A sense of family. Those two men on trial... I served with them for a long time. I owe them my life a dozen times over. And right now they're in trouble and I'm going to help them; let the regulations be damned."
"That is a most illogical line of reasoning."
"You better believe it. Helm, engage!"
- - Sulu and Tuvok
"Mr. Neelix, I would prefer not to hear the life history of my breakfast."
- - Tuvok
"Mr. Sulu, I see they have finally given you the captaincy you deserve."
"Thank you, Kang."
"Do not let it end prematurely."
- - Kang and Sulu
"I don't know what happened to you, but there can be any number of explanations – hallucination, telepathic communication from another race, repressed memory, momentary contact with a parallel reality... take your pick. The universe is such a strange place."
- - The Doctor to Tuvok
"All right, Gamma Shift. Time to defend the Federation against gaseous anomalies."
- - Janice Rand
"I've observed that Captain Sulu drinks a cup of tea each morning. I thought he might enjoy a Vulcan blend."
" Oh, I see. Trying to make lieutenant in your first month? I wish l'd have thought of that when I was your age. Took me three years just to make Ensign."
"I assure you I have no ulterior motive."
"Whatever you say, Ensign. See you on the Bridge."
"You've never brought me tea."
- - Tuvok, Rand and Janeway
"It would seem that Captain Sulu decided not to enter that journey into his official log. The day's entry makes some cryptic remark about the ship being damaged in a gaseous anomaly and needing repairs, but... nothing else."
"You mean, he falsified his logs?"
"It was a very different time, Mister Kim. Captain Sulu, Captain Kirk, Doctor McCoy. They all belonged to a different breed of Starfleet officers. Imagine the era they lived in: the Alpha quadrant still largely unexplored... Humanity on verge of war with Klingons, Romulans hiding behind every nebula. Even the technology we take for granted was still in its early stages: no plasma weapons, no multi-phasic shields... Their ships were half as fast."
"No replicators. No holodecks. You know, ever since I took Starfleet history at the Academy, I've always wondered what it would be like to live in those days."
"Space must have seemed a whole lot bigger back then. It's not surprising they had to bend the rules a little. They were a little slower to invoke the Prime Directive, and a little quicker to pull their phasers. Of course, the whole bunch of them would be booted out of Starfleet today. But I have to admit: I would have loved to ride shotgun at least once with a group of officers like that."
- - Kathryn Janeway and Harry Kim
"Whew... Vulcans! You guys need to relax."
- - Valtane
"Who the hell are you?"
- - Sulu to Janeway
"We could have just asked her."
"Asking female officers for their clothing could lead to misunderstanding."
- - Janeway and Tuvok after subduing Commander Rand
"Memory is a tricky thing."
- - The Doctor
"But there are times when I think back to those days of meeting Kirk, Spock and the others, and I am pleased that I was part of it.
"In a funny way, I feel like I was a part of it, too."
"Then perhaps you can be nostalgic for both of us."
- - Tuvok and Janeway
[edit] Background Information
[edit] Production
- "Flashback" was Voyager's tribute to the films starring the cast of The Original Series and Star Trek's 30th anniversary, recreating many scenes from the feature film Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country.
- Whilst most of the scenes aboard the USS Excelsior during its encounter with the shockwave from Praxis had to be filmed anew (due to the presence of Kate Mulgrew and Tim Russ who had not been in Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country) the external footage of the ship, together with the shot of Sulu's teacup shattering, were re-used directly from the film.
- According to the Star Trek: Communicator article The Making of "Flashback", written by Larry Nemecek, George Takei first learned of the episode through a phone call from a fan. Takei recalled, "I got a call from a fan who heard in on the Internet, and I said 'No, I don't know anything about it.' And he said 'Well, that's what the Internet says.' So I called my agent and said 'This fan says I'm doing a Star Trek: Voyager' and he says 'No, I don't know anything about it!' And then I was doing a Nickelodeon TV show on location in Montreal and my agent calls and says, 'You know, the Internet was right!"
- According to Brannon Braga, the script originally included a scene written for Nichelle Nichols, who was to have appeared as Uhura aboard the USS Enterprise-A and "deliver some needed plot points," however, Nichols opted not to appear in the episode and the scene was dropped. As a result of this, two new scenes were added, including the opening breakfast scene between Tuvok and Neelix, and the Keethara scene between Tuvok and Kes.
[edit] Casting
- As of this episode, Michael Ansara (Kang) has played the same character on three different live-action Star Trek series. The only other actors to do so are Jonathan Frakes (Commander William T. Riker), Marina Sirtis (Counselor Deanna Troi), Armin Shimerman (Quark), John de Lancie (Q) and Richard Poe (Gul Evek).
- George Takei was the only TOS actor to not appear in Star Trek: Deep Space Nine's 30th anniversary tribute episode "Trials and Tribble-ations". Grace Lee Whitney, who played the recurring character Janice Rand on TOS, also did not appear as she had left the series by the time "The Trouble with Tribbles" (during which the DS9 episode is set) was produced.
- Michael Ansara previously played Kang in the Star Trek: The Original Series episode "Day of the Dove" and the Star Trek: Deep Space Nine episode "Blood Oath". He also played Jeyal in the DS9 episode, "The Muse".
[edit] Video and DVD releases
- UK VHS release (two-episode tapes, CIC Video): Volume 3.1, 13 January 1997.
- As part of the VOY Season 3 DVD collection.
- As part of the Star Trek: Fan Collective - Captain's Log collection.
[edit] Links and References
[edit] Guest Stars
- George Takei as Hikaru Sulu
- Grace Lee Whitney as Janice Rand
- Michael Ansara as Kang
- Jeremy Roberts as Dmitri Valtane
- Boris Lee Krutonog as Lojur
[edit] Uncredited Co-Stars
- Tarik Ergin as Ayala
- Kerry Hoyt as Fitzpatrick
- Demetris Lawson as young Tuvok
- Louis Ortiz as an Excelsior alien crewman
- L. Stachawiak as an Excelsior crewman [1]
- Talon Tears as an Excelsior crewman [2]
[edit] References
47; acid; adrenaline; antibody; argon; Azure Nebula; blood factor; Bolian; Bussard collector; cartilage; class 17 nebula; class 11 nebula; cortical stimulator; cordrazine; crew quarters; crustacean; deflector shield; dill weed; encephalographic profile; Enterprise-A, USS; enthraxic citrus peel; Excelsior, USS; Excelsior-class; fluorine; garnish; Golwat; hallucination; heart rate; helium; hippocampus; hydrogen; ice cream scoop; junior science officer; Keethara; Khitomer; kilodyne; Kirk, James T.; Klingon battle cruiser; Klingon Empire; Kolinahr; K't'inga-class; lobotomy; McCoy, Leonard; memory virus; mind meld; neurocortical monitor; neuroelectricity; orange juice; oxygen; panic attack; papalla seed extract; pantry; parallel reality; parboiling; parietal bone; peptide; plasma conduit; pon farr; Porakan eggs; Porakas IV; positron beam; Praxis; Prime Directive; pyllora; Qo'noS; rengazo; repressed memory; shotgun; sirillium; Spock; Starfleet Headquarters; storage bay 3; subspace shock wave; synaptic pathway; tachyon sweep; Talax; tea; telepathy; thermal array; theta-xenon; thoron radiation; T'lokan schism; T'Pel; Vulcan; Wyoming, USS; Yorktown, USS
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