Vis à Vis (episode)
From Memory Alpha, the free Star Trek reference.
| This article is written from the Real World point of view |
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| "Vis à Vis" | ||
|---|---|---|
| VOY, Episode 4x20 Production number: 188 First aired: 8 April 1998 | ||
| ← | 87th of 168 produced in VOY | → |
| ← | 87th of 168 released in VOY | → |
| ← | 512th of 726 released in all | → |
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| Written By Robert J. Dougherty Directed By Jesús Salvador Treviño | ||
| 51762.4 (2374) | ||
A body snatcher switches physical forms with Tom Paris.
Contents |
[edit] Summary
The Doctor finds Lt. Tom Paris inside a holoprogram called Grease Monkey, which was a 1960s-style car garage complete with "surf rock" music blasting from a nearby portable radio of that era. The Doctor calls Paris' attention to the fact that his new Medical Assistant has been rather lax in his duties to improve upon his skills as the assistant, instead choosing to spend the time he should have been spending in sickbay working on a mechanical "patient" of sorts, a vintage 1969 Chevy Camaro. Suddenly, Tom Paris gets a call from the bridge to take the helm, where he shows up wearing his garage gear.
An alien ship emerges out of a spatial distortion just ahead, its outer hull sparking with what appears to be an energy overload. Tom Paris believes that the ship is being powered by a coaxial warp drive, an experimental propulsion system that could be the cause of the spatial distortion. Lt. Cmdr. Tuvok's readings from the Tactical console reveal that the alien ship's warp engines are overloading. Realizing how dangerous a coaxial warp drive explosion could be to space, and with the crew unable to hail its pilot or beam him out of the ship, Paris decides to create a symmetric warp field that could possibly contain any instabilities in the alien ship's warp core, though it could also possibly cause Voyager to collide with the ship. Captain Janeway gives Paris' idea the go-ahead, and Paris carefully steers Voyager close to the alien ship so that its warp field also surrounds that of the other ship. With the alien ship's warp core now powering down, Voyager receives a hail from the other ship. It is a humanoid male alien being who is requesting for repairs to his ship, which Janeway offers help for and which the humanoid male accepts before beaming aboard Voyager.
The humanoid male identifies himself as Steth, a test pilot from the fourth planet of the Benthan system who is currently test-piloting the very ship that the crew of Voyager had put themselves at risk to rescue. As Janeway talks with Steth about helping him repair his ship, Commander Chakotay has a talk with Paris about the lieutenant's seemingly lackadaisical attitude toward his duties as both the Navigator and the Medical Assistant before he decides to assign him to helping Steth with the repairs. On board Steth's ship, Paris gets to know its pilot a little better with some friendly conversation concerning Steth's previous flying missions and Paris' taking his father's shuttle out for a joyride, though at one time when Paris' back was turned, Steth for a moment briefly transforms into an alien humanoid female of another species. Steth invites Paris to come with him on his test-piloting adventures, promising that he would have a great time, but Paris turns down Steth's offer, realizing that he has responsibilities on Voyager and that B'Elanna Torres would be furious if he just took off.
Paris then later meets Torres in the mess hall on a lunch date that he is late for, explaining that he was helping Steth with his ship's repairs. Torres is wondering what's going on with Paris, why he's been cancelling dates and spending lots of time in the holodeck. Paris tries to tell Torres that nothing's going on and that he doesn't need to report every moment that he's not spending with her to her, causing Torres to storm out of the mess hall. Meanwhile, on Steth's ship, he checks with its computer to see how long it will be before his body reverts to its previous form, and it reports that it will be 3 hours and 13 minutes, and that complete genome recovery is imminent.
The following day, Paris takes Steth into his garage holodeck program to tell him about an idea he had for fixing the alien ship's propulsion system that he came up with, similar to a 20th century car's carburetor. Sometime during the discussion, when again Paris' back is turned to Steth, he transforms yet again into the alien female humanoid, though his voice is still that of his male form. He reverts back to his male form again before Paris notices anything. Shortly after, Steth goes into Cargo Bay 2 of Voyager and uses Paris' handprint to access all information regarding the lieutenant when Seven of Nine comes into the room and notices what he was doing. Steth says that he was looking for files for polaric modulators and ends up leaving the room under the pretense of looking for the files elsewhere. Seven warns Steth that he should familiarize himself with the protocols on being on board a Federation ship.
Soon the repairs on Steth's ship are complete, and Paris is on board to make a final check on the propulsion system's flow field parameters when he notices that one of his tools from his holoprogram's toolbox is sitting on that ship's computer console. Steth reveals to Paris that he needed that tool to sample his DNA from the cellular residue left on it, and finding that Paris' DNA is compatible, he pins Paris to a wall and grabs him while he and Paris change forms with each other. Now in the form of Paris, Steth stuns Paris who is now in the form of Steth and sends him and the coaxial warp drive ship on their way while Steth assumes Paris' life on board Voyager.
Paris in the form of Steth wakes up and finds out that he is now on board Steth's ship, which is being attacked by various alien ships when a female humanoid being identical to the form Steth assumed beams on board, addressing herself as Steth. Paris realizes that both he and this female humanoid (the real Steth) are victims of a shapeshifting identity thief that was posing as Steth and decide to work together to bring this shapeshifter to justice. Meanwhile, the shapeshifter as Paris has trouble with the life he assumed on Voyager: barging into Torres' quarters with a golf club, attempting to take her on an impromptu picnic on the fourth planet of the Kendren system, even getting into an altercation with Seven of Nine when she finds him in the mess hall looking through Janeway's personal logs. In Janeway's ready room, the shapeshifter as Paris is found physically assaulting Janeway and is physically stunned by Tuvok before being sent to sickbay.
Back on board Steth's ship, Paris and the real Steth return to Voyager to warn the crew about the identity thief when Janeway orders a tractor beam to hold the ship until the crew hears from her. However, Janeway goes to the shuttlebay and takes off in a shuttlecraft that has recently been modified with Steth's coaxial warp technology. Paris in the form of Steth convinces Chakotay that the shapeshifter is now in the form of Janeway and that he truly is Paris, convincing him enough to release the tractor team on Steth's ship so they could pursue the shapeshifter. While in pursuit of the shuttlecraft, the shapeshifter as Janeway fires on Steth's ship and prepares to go into coaxial warp before Paris decides to hit the shuttlecraft's polaric modulator with a chromoelectric pulse to disable its "carburetor". With the shapeshifter stopped in his tracks, Paris and Steth bring him back to Voyager where Paris, Steth, and Janeway are put back in the right bodies and the shapeshifter into the female humanoid form of his previous victim. Steth says that he's going to try finding every victim the shapeshifter has violated when he brings him (or her) back to Bentha.
Later on, Paris brings Torres into his Grease Monkey holoprogram to make peace with her for all the hours he felt he should have spent with her, taking her inside the Camaro he was working on to passionately kiss her as the "surf rock" music plays on in the background.
[edit] Log Entries
- Captain's log, stardate 51762.4. The repairs to Steth's coaxial drive have been completed, well ahead of schedule.
- Captain's log, supplemental. The Doctor has treated Mister Paris' phaser wounds, but has been unable to wake him. The motive for his attack remains a mystery.
- Captain's log, stardate 51775.2. While the alien intruder remains trapped in the body of his last victim, the Doctor has found a way to return Tom, Steth and me to our own bodies.
[edit] Memorable Quotes
"Ow! Ow! What do you think you're doing, Doc?"
"An impromptu auditory exam."
"Did I pass?"
"With flying colors, which leads me to believe you did hear me when I requested you meet me this morning."
- - Tom Paris and The Doctor in Paris' "grease monkey" holodeck program when the Doctor uses the horn of the car.
"Somebody call for a driver?"
- - Tom Paris, when entering the bridge wearing an oil stained "grease monkey" suit from his holodeck program.
"How can you be so sure?"
"Advanced subspace geometry. It's the one course at the Academy where I actually paid attention."
- - Chakotaky and Tom Paris
[edit] Background Information
- The design of Steth's ship was re-used in a number of Voyager episodes ("The Voyager Conspiracy", "Drive", "Workforce", and "Workforce, Part II"). Interestingly, it also appeared in an episode of Joss Whedon's TV series Firefly.
- This episode appears to have been partly inspired by the Original Series episode "Turnabout Intruder".
- The term "Vis à Vis" (pronounced veez a vee) is the French term for "face to face".
[edit] Video and DVD releases
- UK VHS release (two-episode tapes, CIC Video): Volume 4.10, catalogue number VHR 4631, 5 October 1998.
- As part of the VOY Season 4 DVD collection.
[edit] Links and References
[edit] Guest Stars
[edit] References
Advanced Subspace Geometry; alcohol; Avek; Benthan Guard; Benthan system; Benthos; biobed; blood; box wrench; California; Camaro; carbon monoxide; carburetor; cardiopulmonary reconstruction; Chevy; chromoelectric pulse; coaxial warp drive; DNA stability analysis; eidetic memory; Entaban; exatanium; genetic virus; golf; Highway One; isokinetic containment field; Kaplan; Kendren IV; Kendren system; Kotaba Expanse; Lake Tahoe; metabolic referent; Mithran class; neurological scan; Ninipia Prime; Paris Program Alpha-1; physio-sensor; plasma manifold; polaric modulator; polyduranide; sand wedge; scan emitter; symmetric warp field; Trakian ale
[edit] External Links
| Previous episode: "The Killing Game, Part II" | Star Trek: Voyager Season 4 | Next episode: "The Omega Directive" |
