Sacred Ground (episode)
From Memory Alpha, the free Star Trek reference.
| This article is written from the Real World point of view |
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| This article is written from the Real World point of view |
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| "Sacred Ground" | ||
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| VOY, Episode 3x07 Production number: 143 First aired: 30 October 1996 | ||
| ← | 42nd of 168 produced in VOY | → |
| ← | 48th of 168 released in VOY | → |
| ← | 434th of 726 released in all | → |
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| Teleplay By Lisa Klink Story By Geo Cameron Directed By Robert Duncan McNeill | ||
| 50063.2 (2373) | ||
Kes is injured when she accidentally commits sacrilege on an alien planet; in order to save her life, Janeway goes through a mysterious ritual.
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[edit] Summary
- "Captain's log, stardate 50063.2. We've accepted an invitation from the Nechani to take a few days shore leave on their world. We're enjoying the opportunity to learn about their culture."
The crew of Voyager accepts an invitation from a humanoid race called the Nechani to take shore leave on their planet. In attempting to learn about their culture, several of the crew members take a tour of the some of the religious sites of the Nechani. Curious about a particular shrine, Kes attempts to enter it and is knocked unconscious by a biogenic field at the entrance. The crew is anxious to remain on the planet to analyze the field and gather information that may be able to revive Kes from her "curious comatose state." However, the Nechani feel that Kes is being punished by the "ancestral spirits" for inappropriate behavior and should be allowed to die. They state that there is simply nothing that can be done about it.
Captain Janeway, who is unable to accept such a response, works with The Doctor and other crew members to find a solution. Her pleads to the Magistrate to let them back to the surface so that they can take some scans of the shrine in order to find answers to Kes’ condition are rejected. While working on the ship with the Doctor and others on a way to try to restore Kes, she sends Neelix back to the planet in order to to gather scientific data about the shrine. He returns with a story about a king whose son had made the same error as Kes: so to to save his son, this king decided to undergo the ritual that the monks endure in order to enter the shrine without harm. He was successful with his plea and able to see his son awaken from his "death sleep." Janeway decides to try this approach in order to covertly gather scientific data with a subdermal probe. She expects that she will be facing endurance tests that create within her body biochemical changes, which will in turn protect her from the energy field that struck down Kes.
A guide meets Janeway at the entrance to the cave at sunset and guides her to a room full of elderly people who squabble and bicker amongst themselves, saying that they are waiting and have been for as long as they can remember. Janeway grows impatient, however, not planning on sitting around there and waiting half an eternity. She leaves the room – eager to begin the challenges that might lead to answers to a cure for Kes. Her guide informs her that everything she will do during this ritual will be meaningless, and that the only thing that matters is finding her connection to the spirits. Yet Janeway is eager to go through each of the physical challenges imposed on her. The guide asks her to hold a rock and tell her what she sees. Next, Janeway is asked to finger-paint freely and then rock-climb. She then sees the stone glowing in her hands. Finally, she is asked to place her hand inside a container that houses a hissing creature called a nesset; it bites her. Janeway then finds herself on a seashore, where her guide ostensibly acts as the voice of the spirits, who tell her that her request to have them reawaken Kes is inconsequential and that Janeway possess all the information she needs to help Kes.
Janeway returns to Voyager confident that she finally got all she needs to help Kes. The Doctor seems equally confident, for the immense amount of data gathered can be utilized to find a cure. He states that the toxin from the creature's bite appears to have been the key for it built a biochemical immunity to the energy burst that hit Kes. He eagerly begins developing a treatment regimen for Kes.
When much to his surprise his "cure" doesn't work, Janeway returns to the planet to question her guide for after all, she did everything that the guide told her. But the guide tells her that she didn’t lead Janeway anywhere, for this was Kathryn’s ritual: she herself set these challenges, the guide simply fulfilled Janeway’s expectations for Janeway would have simply settled for nothing else. But Janeway tells her that she is not ready to give up. The guide tells her that now she is finally ready to begin,
Janeway returns to the room, where the elderly people derisively banter about her reliance on reason. They know that she is the kind of person who believes that she will eventually find the answers to Kes’ situation with enough time, study and the right sort of tools for, after all, that is what she believes as a scientist, even when her science fails right in front of her eyes. At the same time, however, Janeway acknowledges that she is willing to try another path if science doesn’t work, so they tell her to take Kes through the energy field again. They cant tell her what it will do because the biogenic field, according to Voyager's scans, is lethal after all. They ask her, however, to let go of all her beliefs about the facts and simply trust the spirits to return her soul. If she believes she is ready, she is. But if she goes in with any doubt, with any hesitation, they will be both dead.
Janeway persuades Chakotay and Neelix to allow her to take Kes back through the field, in the belief that it will awaken her, even if no one can explain how that might work scientifically. So she carries Kes through the field, where a burst of energy hits them. However, they remain unharmed and Kes finally awakens.
Later in sickbay, The Doctor gives a plausible scientific explanation for why taking Kes through the biogenic field worked and how the ritual Janeway went through initially and the toxin released into her body all worked together in order to save Kes' life. Janeway is simply sitting there, listening to The Doctor's explanation, stating that it is indeed very plausible and scientific. Yet she walks out of sickbay unsure really whether it was the science or her faith that was at work here.
[edit] Background Information
- This is the first Star Trek episode directed by Robert Duncan McNeill. He later directed three further episodes of Voyager and four of Enterprise, as well as other projects.
- Guest stars Parley Baer and Keene Curtis were reunited In this episode. Both worked together on Beverly Hills 90210 in season 2's holiday-themed "A Walsh Family Christmas", which also featured Trek vet Ann Gillespie.
[edit] Video and DVD releases
- UK VHS release (two-episode tapes, CIC Video): Volume 3.4, 10 March 1997.
- As part of the VOY Season 3 DVD collection.
[edit] Links and references
[edit] Guest stars
- Becky Ann Baker as a Guide
- Estelle Harris as an Old Woman
- Keene Curtis as Old Man #2
- Parley Baer as Old Man #1
- Harry Groener as The Magistrate
[edit] References
adenosine triphosphate; Ancestral Spirits; artist; biogenic field; bio-scanner; chromodynamic light; cortical stimulator; Delios VII; dielectric effect; electrolyte; iridium ion; Karis Tribe; king; lactic acid; lectrazine; magistrate; Nechani; Nechisti Council; Nechisti shrine; Nechisti Order; neodyne light; nesset; neuroleptic shock; neuropeptide; neurotransmitter; Nevad; psychoactive drug; plasma discharge; subdermal bioprobe; synaptic pathway; tarchee cat; thoron radiation
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