Review Text
Back aboard Voyager, our adventurers settle back in, and Dal ruminates on the idea of what "home" is (it's where the heart is, or where your friends who are also your family are, or insert your heartfelt cliché of choice). The next phase of the mission is to send the Protostar back to Tars Lamora of the past (how, exactly, I guess we'll eventually find out) so it can sit in a mine for decades before being found in "Lost and Found."
There's a holodeck pilot training sequence where Maj'el and some other cadets engage in dogfights in small fighters that's very Star Wars-esque, right down to its John Williams-like score. Maj'el's fellow cadets aren't especially impressed with Dal as a cadet or an alleged pilot. Chalk all of this up to foreshadowing. Meanwhile, Zero's body continues to deteriorate, and Zero will not be able to continue using it for long, although Doc says they can synthesize a new one. Zero asks Jankom to oversee the new-body project and put a "Jankom touch" on it. On the adult front, the reunited Chakotay and Janeway wax nostalgic on the old Voyager.
But it's not smooth sailing. The plan to send the Protostar back to the past is intercepted by Jellico and Starfleet's usual bureaucratic interference (they really are the worst), who recall the Voyager and Protostar back to Earth to face a probe by Starfleet's temporal investigators. They also recall the cadets to be "re-evaluated." As the kids talk this over among themselves, my first thought was, "Oh, no, they're going to go rogue again." But instead, the episode takes a turn in a completely different direction when Gwyn's father reaches out from Solum and reveals that Asencia has staged a coup on their homeworld and is using some sort of time-altering technology to build a military fleet within time-accelerated domes where months of work can be completed in mere hours.
This communication serves less as a warning than an explanation, because Asencia's plot is already well underway, and her massive vessel attacks Voyager pretty much immediately and begins draining its energy. So the battle is on. With Voyager incapacitated, Chakotay takes command of the Protostar and takes the cadets aboard as its crew.
From here, this becomes a classic, tried-and-true crisis/battle episode, where enemy ships attack, and our crews take their stations and address the crises as they unfold. "Ascension" accomplishes this in an entertaining, competent, and workmanlike way, and does a particularly good job of balancing the action so that there's an ebb and flow to the episode. There's enough time to slowly gear up for the fight, so this feels like an actual story about a battle rather than just frenetic action for its own sake (although there's certainly a share of that, as the kids engage enemy battle drones in their fighters). And, as it turns out in the episode's final reveal, Asencia has somehow managed to capture Wesley Crusher and is using him and his time-bending capabilities as a "strategic mind," no doubt to manipulate the timeline and build her fleet.
Previous episode: Cracked Mirror
Next episode: Ascension, Part II
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4 comments on this post
Karl Zimmerman
The first half of this episode is something of a "new status quo" set. Character arcs are touched upon, like Dal seeking the respect of Red Squad, and Zero needing a new body to replace his failing one. Jellico (the foil for this season, always telling Janeway what she can't do) says the mission is over, and Starfleet will take things over.
Then, halfway through, Asencia reappears as an antagonist, with a huge new ship overpowered ship that endangers both the Voyager and the Protostar. The crew is forced to disperse into different plots, with Dal scrambling onto a fighter, Gwyn back aboard the Protostar with others, etc. And it ends with the twist that Asencia gained her new powers via having Wesley Crusher as a prisoner.
Honestly, it's the perfect setup for a climactic two-parter, done in an incredibly short time. My only real issue here is it was obviously designed as a cliffhanger, and clicking through to the next episode (let's be clear, we all did that, after that ending) meant the suspense was no greater than during a commercial break. Makes me wish we got to see the alternate universe where it was released as the showrunners intended. Ah well.
Chris W
In one of Dal's few demonstrations of maturity and, more interestingly and importantly, finesse, he compliments one of the Red Squadron members after he just insulted Dal. That was solid. 👍
I don't know if it's just me, but does it seem like the folks that animate Janeway spend more time actually animating her than they do Chakotay? She seems so much more expressive.
I absolutely loved that the writers crafted up whatever technobabble they needed to make the solution to the problem a team effort by almost everyone. Quality writing! 👍
Also, I could swear Asencia spoke with a slight british accent 😆
Jeffrey's Tube
Much like the rest of the season, there are so many inspired, good ideas in this episode. Oh, and it's exciting as hell.
Compressed time bubbles being used to build a fleet with weapons from the future is such a neat idea. That this credible, massive threat (the tricky "how" part of any plot) comes from having kidnapped Wesley Crusher makes perfect plot sense.
We see Dal come up with the idea to have the Protostar be the one that "takes the shot on the goal," so to speak, while he just blocks. Further proof that he has internalized Chakotay's speech that it's okay to not always be the captain and being support is just as valuable.
Jellico constantly being the prick from Starfleet brass that only says "NO!" makes me wonder if someone from the Prodigy writing staff is a fan of Peter David's New Frontier novels. Ha!
Black Oat
"Compressed time bubbles being used to build a fleet with weapons from the future is such a neat idea. "
Reminds me of Theodore Sturgeon's "Microcosmic God." That's not a knock on this show's writers; I think the concept works perfectly for this storyline.
I don't get the impression that a lot of modern Trek writers are inspired by old school sci-fi lit* so it would be kinda cool if they did pick it up from Sturgeon.
*Well, except for shamelessly ripping off The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas, of course.
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