This Week's Episode: "Barge of the Dead"
Summary: After a near deadly shuttle landing in the Shuttlebay, Torres discovers that a Klingon relict became lodged in the Shuttle, thus causing the accident. Suddenly, B'Elanna is transported to the Klingon Barge of the Dishonoured Dead. While on board, she learns that her mother, Miral, has been transported there as well, as a result of B'Elanna's dishonour for turning her back on Klingon heritage. In order to save her mother, B'Elanna requests that Janeway allow her to enter a coma state and return to the Barge, and save her mothers life.
Rating: 8.5
Best Scene: B'Elanna crashing into the Shuttlebay, and the bleeding artifact was pretty impressive too. Tuvok demonstrating the Bath'Leth was good too.
Worst Scene: The exterior of Klingon hell reeked of CGI...yikes!
Best acting award goes to: Roxann Dawson as B'Elanna Torres
Best Line: "Remind me to plant a flag for the Empire" -- B'Elanna Torres shows her feelings towards her Klingon heritage upon finding the artifact.
Impressions: Well, well...Ron Moore's last Voyager he will ever pen (most likely anyway), and you know what, it was pretty good. Over the past six years we've seen many "B'Elanna explores her Klingon heritage" episodes, yet I think this one is the most original and successful of them all. I'd like to say we've seen B'Elanna grow in her six years on Voyager...in some ways she has. But mostly, her character has been in a rut about her heritage...so hopefully, this episode will allow her to move to the next step. Yes, there are only one and a half seasons left of Voyager, but there is still plenty of time to get some more good B'Elanna stories in...but, it is hard to say if we will ever see a follow up to this episode.
So where exactly does B'Elanna's anger and hatred for everything Klingon originate? Obviously, as it has been stated many times, it stems from the fact that she feels her "Klingon-ess" drove her father away. From that moment on, B'Elanna wanted to rid herself on her Klingon half, and be more human. She bought scarves and hats that would hide her forehead (remember "Faces"?). She distanced herself from everyone, including her mother. She eventually ran away from her mother, to Starfleet. Then, only to run away from that too. Over the years, she had raised such a defensive shield that she kept everyone away and was always at yellow alert. In "Day of Honour", it appeared that B'Elanna was standing down from yellow alert, but episodes like "Extreme Risk" and "Juggernaut" showed otherwise.
When B'Elanna first goes back to the Barge to rescue her mother, she still doesn't respect Klingon heritage...yes, she believes it, yet she still takes the easy way out. She doesn't get it. However, once it is revealed to her that they (the Captain of the Barge) know her plan and that if she does perform the ritual to allow her mother to be released to Stovokor, she will never be saved by Voyager. It is at this moment that B'Elanna begins her acceptance of the culture she so despised: she agrees, and sacrifices herself for her mother. We can only assume that B'Elanna realized at this moment that there was no turning back, so her decision is that much more powerful: she was willing to turn away from her human side this time, as well as the Voyager crew, to save her mother and restore some of the honour that she had lost over her lifetime. She was finally understanding what it was to be Klingon and respecting that.
Upon reaching Grethor, B'Elanna discovers that her hell is to spend eternity on Voyager: this tells B'Elanna that she was never truly happy on Voyager, since she never really tried to be happy. Metaphors and symbolism abound in the following scenes as we see her mother, Mithral, in a Starfleet uniform...then, we see the entire Voyager senior staff on the Barge with B'Elanna, as they coax her to "defend herself". So what does it all mean?? I'm assuming that all the while B'Elanna was not only hurting herself with her anger and hatred, but those around her. As well, she sees Janeway as her mother figure on Voyager, and that the opinion of these two women are very important to her...and finally, that B'Elanna needs to stop fighting, drop the shields, and move on. And she does just that. By throwing the Bath'Leth into the river, she finally drops her defenses, and as her mother says, she begins the first step of her "journey". So, Klingon hell won't be her permanent residence afterall. She wasn't meant to be there, and it wasn't her time. Although, it did teach her a few important things about herself she never knew.
This episode (which I've watched three times now to really get the feel for it), isn't light fare. There's lots of metaphors here, as we really explore B'Elanna's psyche. She's a complicated woman, but now that she's beginning to accept her Klingon side and drop her shields, she might just be able to be happy for once. I had originally thought that episodes like "Faces" had started B'Elanna on the journey to accept her Klingon side...she had said then (when she was separated from her Klingon half), that she understood her Klingon half and needed her there to be complete. But I guess B'Elanna needed more to prove to herself just that, and I think this episode delivers it. Star Trek has always attempted to tackle religion, and I'd like to think that they've been pretty successful over the years. And I think that this episode resonates this success. The story, although confused and jumbled at times, has some good messages about beliefs...they are as real to you as you make them.
I truly hope that we some more episodes about B'Elanna's journey, and maybe even some episodes where we see her exploring her Klingon side some more...now, that would be progress. So, it only took six years for her to move on, but it is never late than never!
Overall, the effects were pretty good, except for Grethor external. Yikes, it was overly CGI, but I guess it would be rather difficult to recreate an environment with computers. The set of the Barge (which is apparently the most expensive in Star Trek history), was quite good as well. Really complemented the mood of the entire episode. Direction was good, and there were some really good character scenes: Torres and Chakotay, Torres and Tuvok, Torres and Paris, and Torres and Janeway. It's nice to see how these relationships have progressed in the past six years. It really demonstrates the family alliances that the crew has forged amongst themselves. Before I forget, Tuvok does a MEAN Bath'Leth!!!
Overall, a good episode to complement a great season six! "Barge of the Dead" rates an 8.5 out of 10.
