Nightingale (episode)

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"Nightingale"
VOY, Episode 7x08 Production number: 256 First aired: 22 November 2000
←	153rd of 168 produced in VOY	→
←	152nd of 168 released in VOY	→
	{{{nNthReleasedInSeries_Remastered}}}th of 168 released in VOY Remastered
←	612th of 727 released in all	→
Teleplay By André Bormanis Story By Robert Lederman & Dave Long Directed By LeVar Burton
54274.7 (2377)
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For other meanings of "Nightingale", please see Nightingale (disambiguation).

When Harry Kim rescues a crippled alien starship, the grateful crew offers him command.

Contents 1 Summary 2 Log entries 3 Background Information 3.1 Video and DVD releases 4 Links and references 4.1 Guest stars 4.2 Co-stars 4.3 Uncredited co-stars 4.4 References

[edit] Summary

USS Voyager sets down on an uninhabited planet to begin maintenance to the warp drive that B'Elanna Torres tells Captain Janeway they desperately need. The crew begins the repairs and Icheb impresses Torres and Janeway with his technical knowledge. Janeway tells him that he can help Torres with repairs instead of delivering PADDs.

Meanwhile, the Delta Flyer II responds to a distress signal from the commander of a Kraylor starship. Piloting the Delta Flyer, Ensign Harry Kim discovers the Kraylor are at war with the Annari and are under attack by Annari vessels. Kim tries to negotiate with the Annari, but is forced to disable their vessels when the Flyer comes under attack.

After beaming onto the Medical Transport 136, Kim and Neelix find the vessel in complete disarray – about half the crew are dead, including all but one of the bridge officers. Kim offers to help with repairs of the vessel, along with Neelix and Seven of Nine.

After the vessel is repaired, Loken, head of the research team, begs Kim to captain it back to their homeworld, telling him that the vaccine they have been working to develop must reach there. Harry hesitates, not wanting to violate the Prime Directive. When he finds out that the planet where the USS Voyager has landed is en route to the Kraylor's planet, he agrees to take them that far at least.

Janeway is eventually convinced to take the Annari's side in the matter, and permits Kim to take command of the "medical transport", which he promptly renames the Nightingale. However, Janeway asks Seven to go along on the journey. Kim is excited at the chance of having his "first real command."

The cloaking device begins to fail a short time into the journey due to a fluctuation in the propulsion power systems. Repairs are made, yet Kim dismisses Seven's recommendations to run a full diagnostic, reminding her that Janeway wanted them back before Voyager finished repairs. A short time later, as predicted, the primary generator fails, as did the cloak. Half a dozen Annari vessels move into attack range, and a Kraylor researcher named Dayla volunteers to try to bring the cloak back online, receiving instructions from Kim, yet she and Lokan together figure out how to bring the cloak back online by taking the warp core off-line. Unfortunately for Dayla, life support fails in the engineering area and she dies.

Confronting Lokan, Kim discovers the Nightingale's cloak is actually a prototype that Lokan's team, including Dayla, had really been working on at a secret base. The Annari knew about the prototype and didn't want it to arrive at the Kraylor homeworld. Harry realizes that he is in the middle of a breach of the Prime Directive and orders the Nightingale to reverse course, but is relieved of command. Seven points out to Harry that if he truly cares about the crew, he needs to help the Kraylor home, otherwise they may not survive.

At the Kraylor homeworld, a new series of scanning pulses illuminates cloaked vessels. Having been detected, surrounded and outgunned by Annari vessels, Harry takes command, promising to help them, to which Lokan agrees. Realizing the situation, Kim appears to offer a conditional surrender with the Annari; however, if they do not allow the scientists to safely evacuate to the planet, Kim threatens to destroy the Nightingale. Lokan is furious about Kim's apparent betrayal, but is assured the young captain has a plan to save the vessel – but if he fails, "...at least the scientist who designed [the cloak] will be alive to create another one." Once under the grip of the Annari tractor beam, Kim reverses the Nightingale's shield polarity and uses the momentum to outrun their pursuers to the defense perimeter.

Harry Kim's final entry in the Nightingale's log notes that his actions have lead to cloaking mechanisms being added to the Kraylor fleet.

Back on Voyager Kim realizes that he's not quite ready for command... yet.

[edit] Log entries

• "Captain's log, stardate 54274.7. Lieutenant Torres has finally convinced me that I can't put off a major maintenance overhaul any longer. We've set down on an uninhabited planet and I've sent shuttles to search for supplies."

• (log entry made by Harry Kim)

• "Acting captain's personal log, stardate 54277.3. My first day in command has been challenging, but I've loved every minute of it. I can't help feeling that this was something I was born to do."

• (log entry made by Harry Kim)

• "Acting captain's personal log, stardate 54282.5. Final entry. New cloaking systems are being installed in other Kraylor ships, so I guess the mission was a success. Still, I wish I felt better about it."

[edit] Background Information

• This episode's working title was "The Command".
• The Nightingale is a reuse of a Federation attack fighter.
• Among the items from this episode which were sold off on the It's A Wrap! sale and auction on eBay, was the jacket of Bob Rudd, which was previously used in the episode "Alliances" and later worn by stuntman Eric Norris in the Star Trek: Enterprise episode "Damage". [1]

[edit] Video and DVD releases

• UK VHS release (two-episode tapes, Paramount Home Entertainment): Volume 7.4, 2 July 2001
• As part of the VOY Season 7 DVD collection

[edit] Links and references

[edit] Guest stars

• Ron Glass as Loken
• Manu Intiraymi as Icheb
• Beverly Leech as Dayla
• Paul F. O'Brien as Geral
• Scott Miles as Terek

[edit] Co-stars

• Alan Brooks as the Annari Commander
• Bob Rudd as Brell

[edit] Uncredited co-stars

• Andrei Sterling as an Annari Crewmember
• Stephen Pisani as a Starfleet Engineer
• Unknown actor as Mendez

[edit] References

The Adventures of Captain Proton; Annari; Annari Empire; Annari warship; antimatter injector; asteroid field; blockade; cloaking device; cortical stimulant; deflector pulse; Delta Flyer II; deuterium injector; dilithium; driver coil; endorphin; eggplant parmesan; geology; guidance vector; guide star; Kraylor; lasagna; Medical Transport 136; micro-fracture; navigational sensor; nebula; Nightingale; nutritional supplement; phase compensator; phaser bank; plomeek soup; polaron matrix; race car; rock climbing; saxophone; scanning pulse; shield polarity; social lesson; thermal regulator; tula cheese soufflé; vaccine; zeolitic ore

Previous episode: "Body and Soul"

Star Trek: Voyager Season 7

Next episode: "Flesh and Blood"