Customer Reviews

Star Trek - Voyager, Episode 13: Cathexis [VHS]

5 star:		(0)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

In "Cathexis" (Story by Brannon Braga & Joe Menosky; Teleplay by Braga, Aired May 1, 1995) Chakotay (Robert Beltran) and Tuvok (Tim Russ) are attacked in a shuttlecraft. The Doctor (Robert Picardo) reports that something has drained all of the bio-neural energy from Chakotay's brain, making it seem like he is brain dead. Everyone is worried and B'Elanna (Roxann Biggs-Dawson) puts a medical wheel near Chakotay so it will help him find his way home. Janeway (Kate Mulgrew) orders "Voyager" back to investigate the nebula where the shuttle was attacked, but strange things start happening: Paris changes course and Torres starts a warp core shutdown, but neither remember does it. The Doctor discovers each has a strange brainwave pattern suggesting their minds were controlled by some sort of alien that clearly does not want "Voyager" going back to the nebula. Janeway is worried enough that she transfers the ship's command codes to the Doctor. However, the alien presence proves to be much smarter than that and "Cathexis" becomes a case of trying to figure out who is being possessed by the alien.
The best part of "Cathexis," the 13th episode from Season 1 of "Star Trek: Voyager," is when the crew is confronted with evidence that anyone could be under the influence of the alien presence at any given moment (think the John Carpenter version of "The Thing"). However, the scientific explanations for what is happening becomes a bit much by the end of the episode. This is one of those episodes where the alien should have won pretty quickly, drained the bio-neural energy from all the crew, who would have all died in the Delta Quadrant and the show would have been over. Besides, we are all waiting for Chatkotay's prayer-wheel to become a key part of the solution. However, I think part of the problem is that we have three other "Star Trek" series worth of episodes of alien mind control and "Cathexis" is an attempt to come up with something somehow different, which gets rather complicated by the end of the tale. On the lighter side we do get to see Janeway off playing in a holodeck novel with Lord Burleigh and Mrs. Templeton, which presages some more interesting things to come down the road.

I enjoyed this episode, but I must admit that it didn't do much to develop the Voyager characters...something that should have been a focus of season one of the series. Perhaps we did get a small glimpse into the spirituality of the character of Chakotay...but even that glimpse was small and could have been a lot more revealing.

In short, the episode is worth seeing, but the writers could have done alot more within the storyline to flesh out the characters...especially the characters of B'Elanna and Chakotay.

I'd say that this episode is enjoyable, but it's certainly not a season one "must see".

Its always curiosity that kills the cat. This is one of those episodes that they encounter a nebula of mental powered aliens. Just a twist. But enjoyable. I did enjoy it