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In order to free her imprisoned crewmembers, Captain Janeway accepts the help of a delusional resistance fighter.

Summary[]

Teaser[]

A USS Voyager away team is sent to a marketplace on a planet to purchase tellerium. After Captain Kathryn Janeway examines a sample, Neelix is told to purchase it and not to negotiate over the price as they need it badly. After Neelix has left, Tuvok notices some Mokra Order soldiers entering the marketplace and they seem to be looking for the away team. Although Tuvok is able to hit one of them with his phaser, he and B'Elanna Torres are captured. When Janeway has fought off a soldier and is about to contact Voyager, she is grazed by phaser fire in her neck and falls down. When the soldier removes her combadge, he is violently pushed against a wall by a man.

Act One[]

Harry Kim in engineering

"Life support is at minimal. You asked for options. That's our last one."

In engineering, Harry Kim and First Officer Chakotay are discussing the situation they are in. They are badly in need of the tellerium as the antimatter reaction rate in the warp core is approaching 9%. When this happens, the vessel's plasma injectors will lockup, leaving them unable to reinitialize the nacelles and thus leave Voyager without warp propulsion. To save power, and keep the reaction rate above 9%, the only option left is to power down their shields. At this point they are contacted by Neelix, who informs them the away team has been captured by the Mokra Order, but that he has the tellerium. Kim diverts emergency power to transporter room 2 and Neelix is beamed directly to engineering where Kim uses the tellerium to stabilize the antimatter reaction rate. Chakotay tries to contact the Captain but gets no answer. He discusses the capture of the away team with Neelix, wondering how the Mokra Order knew that Voyager personnel were on the planet. Neelix suspects a Mokra informant, although the ship's only contact was with the Alsaurian resistance movement. Their conversation is interrupted by Harry Kim, who has brought the warp engine online, restoring the ship's warp capability.

Augris on viewscreen

Augris hailing the Voyager

On the bridge, helmsman Tom Paris is ordered to bring Voyager out from the moon behind which they were hiding and to set a course to the planet. Meanwhile Neelix informs Chakotay that the Mokra are paranoid and hostile, and have little use for diplomacy. While approaching the planet Voyager is detected by the orbital sensor net and is hailed by Augris, third magistrate of the Mokra Order. When Augris hears that some members of Voyager are on his planet, he is not happy with it and sends a copy of the Mokra regulations to them, for future reference. When he learns that Chakotay believes they might be detained by the Mokra Order, Augris tells them that he will look in to it. Neelix does not believe that Augris will help them as he is nothing like the Mokra he has met before.

Caylem and Janeway

Caylem confessing to Janeway

Although Commander Chakotay wants to try a diplomatic solution first, he does order a continuous surface scan of the planet, just in case.

Meanwhile, in a prison on the planet, B'Elanna notices a control circuit, which might be controlling the force field at the prison's entrance. Tuvok warns her not to tamper with it and just wait but Torres gets a shock from the force field. As Tuvok has no idea whether any member of the away team made it back to Voyager there is nothing left to do but wait.

Captain Janeway awakens in the home of her rescuer, Caylem, an older man who has tended to her wound on her neck. He immediately tries to keep her from moving and insists she is OK. Then, he reveals he believes she is his long-lost daughter.

Act Two[]

Later, Janeway sits up and examines her surroundings. The man calls her Ralkana. At first she denies it, telling him her real name and that she is a starship captain, but he doesn't appear convinced. He gives Janeway a necklace that originally belonged to his wife, but Janeway is more interested in finding her crewmembers and escaping. Janeway asks Caylem for a communication device to contact Voyager, but the citizens are prohibited by the Mokra Order from having them.

Augris comes on board to discuss the situation with Chakotay. Voyager's false reputation has reached them, apparently, and Augris says he doesn't believe it, but it's clear he's just being diplomatic. Chakotay asks to speak to his people. Augris says it will take time, but agrees and leaves. Chakotay asks Neelix afterward for another avenue with contacts on the ground.

B'Elanna using a ladder

Torres trying to escape from the prison

On the planet, Augris interrogates Tuvok. Tuvok denies helping the resistance, and Torres insists they know nothing about it, but Augris is convinced they are helping them, and has Tuvok removed from the prison cell. Torres puts up a fight, but Tuvok orders her to stand down and the Vulcan is taken away.

Janeway continues to try to get away from Caylem but he is still thinking about rescuing his wife. He wants to join Janeway in her attempt to free her crew from prison, believing he can save his wife at the same time. Janeway is very resistant to the idea, however, while Caylem is showing Janeway the letters he wrote for his imprisoned wife, Mokra Order soldiers appear and demand entry. Caylem and Janeway escape the shelter together before the soldiers break in.

Act Three[]

Together, Caylem and Janeway are in public with Janeway leading them to Darod, the crew's contact in the Alsaurian resistance movement, hoping to contact her ship. He's not in his building, but is traveling from the opposite end of the plaza. Augris has a team in the area searching for Janeway. He almost takes Darod into custody when Caylem rushes out and dons a character of a mentally ill person. He immediately amuses everyone there with his antics and distracts the guards from the resistance member who manages to sneak away. Augris and his team leave, having humiliated him. He doesn't care, since he's achieved his objective. Janeway is impressed and quickly gets him back into the shadow.

Meanwhile, Torres tries to inspect the cell further, but hears Tuvok scream under the torture. On Voyager, Neelix reports what he's learned. The prison's location and the fact that it's surrounded by metaphasic shields. Unfortunately, the detention center is underground and sensors can't penetrate it. Chakotay deems transporting in too dangerous and tasks Kim with finding another way in.

Janeway makes contact with Darod, but he says his communications equipment has been confiscated. He does confirm Neelix made it back to the ship with the tellerium. Janeway is intent on rescuing her team and asks for weapons. He balks at the idea, but says he has connections to an arms dealer. The resistance member suggests trading the necklace Caylem gave Janeway in exchange. She is reluctant, but Caylem encourages her to make the trade.

Act Four[]

Janeway gets worried when the arms dealer is over three hours late for their meeting. When he finally appears Janeway is about to approach him but at the last second notices he is wearing shiny military boots. Suspecting a trap, Janeway walks away. Caylem is impressed with her cleverness, but Janeway needs to find a different way to get in. Seeing two women walk by, she gets an idea.

Voyager crew trying to break the orbital sensor net

The Voyager crew trying to break the orbital sensor net

In the prison, Tuvok is returned to the prison cell with Torres, having been obviously tortured. While Vulcans can block out pain to a certain extent, he explains, this ability is limited. Torres wants to fight back and try to escape, but Tuvok cautions that physical resistance is ineffective in their current situation and they can best resist by refusing to give information. A sound gets Torres' attention, and she sees that Darod has been taken prisoner.

Janeway comes up with another idea to infiltrate the prison. Affecting the demeanor of a prostitute, she entices one of the soldiers, who drops his guard and is promptly struck over the head by Caylem. Janeway takes the guard's phaser and Caylem his knife. Janeway decides to separate from Caylem, and quickly drops a force field but activates it again so he cannot follow.

Aboard Voyager, Ensign Kim comes up with a means of tricking the sensor net by sending out dozens of radion beams from the ship's main deflector; one of these beams would carry the transporter signal of the rescue team, but it would be difficult to determine (and thus to stop) the "real" beam. Upon firing the first volley of radions however, the ship comes under fire from the ion cannons on the surface, which knock the main deflector offline. Augris hails them and gives the crew two minutes to leave before opening fire with the 85 ground-based phased ion cannons on the planet.

Act Five[]

Janeway is moving about successfully toward the cells. She destroys a power conduit, releasing the force fields. Torres, Tuvok and Darod take the chance and escape their cells, with one of the guard's weapons. On Voyager, Kim detects a disruption in the shields around the prison. Taking this turn of fortune as a good sign, Lieutenant Paris offers to lead the away team down to make a surgical strike to recover the Captain and the other crewmembers. Commander Chakotay agrees but informs Paris that they might not be able to wait for long after the transport. After beaming Paris' rescue team to the surface, Voyager comes under heavy fire again, and are about to withdraw when Ensign Kim discovers a magnetic storm over the northern magnetic pole which scatters the sensors of the orbital sensor net, and enables Voyager to hide a little longer.

Janeway breaks into prison

Janeway firing on a soldier

Back on the surface Janeway, Caylem, and Darod find Tuvok and Torres in one of the prison passageways but wind up being captured. Augris tells Janeway and the resistance members that Caylem had made other efforts to infiltrate the prison to rescue his wife… who had been dead for twelve years. They had been letting him go as a show of the futility of challenging the Mokra Order. Augris also tells Caylem that his daughter was killed, and tells him his foolishness has condemned another innocent woman. He orders the others taken back for questioning with the exception of Janeway whom he wants to interrogate himself.

In a rage, Caylem leaps at Augris and they get into a struggle. The others take this opportunity to attack the guards. With a intense firefight that ensues Caylem stabs Augris to death with his own knife but was hit by a disruptor shot from one of the soldiers. As he lays dying in Janeway's arms, she accepts the role of his daughter and tells him she and her mother forgive him, and that his wife enjoyed reading his letters. Caylem's last words to his "daughter" are "My sweet girl" before he passes away content. Darod says that his actions will not be forgotten before the away team was brought back by Paris' rescue team.

Back on Voyager, Ensign Kim gives the somber looking captain a status report on the warp drive and main deflector in her ready room. After asking about her welfare, she thanks him and he leaves, she picks up the necklace that Caylem gave to her and holds it tightly, with tears welling up in her eyes, recognizing how much Caylem loved his family.

Memorable quotes[]

"Shh, shh. Don't worry. Everything's all right now. My little girl is home."

- Caylem, to Janeway


"Vulcans are capable of suppressing certain levels of physical pain. Beyond that, we must simply endure the experience."

- Tuvok, to Torres after being tortured


"Caylem!"
"Ralkana. He said you'd been shot."
"He was lying to you, father. I'm all right."
"And your mother?"
"Fine. She was so happy to get your letters. She wants me to tell you something. She forgives you. We both do."

- Janeway, assuming the role of his daughter to soothe the dying Caylem

Background information[]

Production history[]

Story and script[]

  • Michael Jan Friedman and Kevin J. Ryan, who came up with this episode's premise, are both contributors to Pocket Books' Star Trek series. Friedman is the creator of the Star Trek: Stargazer series and Ryan, as an editor, has contributed many stories and concepts, as well as editing the first edition Star Trek Encyclopedia.
  • Friedman and Ryan had unsuccessfully pitched several ideas to Star Trek: The Next Generation before proposing the story concept that ultimately developed into this episode. Kevin Ryan recalled, "Mike and I both liked what we had seen on Star Trek: Voyager so far, and thought it was time to try again. We came up with a few ideas, and one of them was of one of the characters on the USS Voyager becoming the Dulcinea to an alien Don Quixote character. You had an apparently crazy old man who's on a quest, in which one of the characters (who eventually becomes Janeway) gets involved. It was a fun story, and there seemed to be a lot of opportunity for the kind of character interplay that they do so well on Star Trek." (Star Trek Monthly issue 12, p. 9) Regarding the merits of this idea, Friedman remarked, "It never hurts to go with a high concept. When one says 'Don Quixote,' there's no need to elaborate on the conflict or the plot points. It's just a matter of imagining our Trek characters superimposed on that landscape." (Star Trek Magazine issue 143, p. 36)
  • The nondescript alien of this initial story idea developed into being a Kazon. (Star Trek Magazine issue 143, p. 36) The Voyager crew member became B'Elanna Torres. Kevin J. Ryan commented, "Interestingly, we originally saw it as a B'Elanna story, and that's the way we pitched it." (Star Trek Monthly issue 12, p. 9)
  • In the pitching session wherein the writers suggested this idea, they did so to Co-Executive Producer Jeri Taylor via telephone. Kevin J. Ryan noted, "We set up our pitch session on the phone – our first phone pitch, actually." (Star Trek Monthly issue 12, p. 9) The writers simultaneously pitched an additional five other story ideas; this plot idea was the second of the six concepts. (Star Trek Magazine issue 143, p. 36)
  • Although Jeri Taylor liked some of the other story ideas, she was most interested in the second pitch. (Star Trek Magazine issue 143, p. 36) Kevin J. Ryan noted, "Jeri graciously took our pitch. She responded to the story immediately, and liked the idea of the Don Quixote angle character, and that was it." (Star Trek Monthly issue 12, p. 9) Jeri Taylor promised to contact the writing duo in a day or two but the pair's elation at this news was initially guarded, since they were unsure whether Taylor would keep her word. Much to Friedman's pleasant surprise, Taylor indeed contacted the writers in a couple of days, with news that she wanted to buy the story from them. (Star Trek Magazine issue 143, p. 36)
  • However, Jeri Taylor also advised several changes to the story, including a significant character change. Kevin J. Ryan recalled, "She made some comments on the story […] It was Jeri who actually suggested it become a Janeway story, and of course she was right, that's exactly what it needed to be." (Star Trek Monthly issue 12, p. 9) Of the plot concept following this change, Michael Jan Friedman recalled it was "[still] an homage to that Man of La Mancha guy: 'Janeway plays Dulcinea to a Kazon Don Quixote' […] We figured Janeway would be reluctant to go along with anything a Kazon had in mind, especially if he was a deluded Kazon intent on tilting at windmills." (Star Trek Magazine issue 143, p. 36)
  • Coincidentally, Jeri Taylor received an extremely similar pitch from a female writer, the very next day after having accepted Friedman and Ryan's pitch. Taylor consequently had to turn the woman down. Friedman noted, "Had we pitched two days later, we were told, it would have been that other writer who got the assignment and not us." (Star Trek Magazine issue 143, p. 36)
  • Friedman and Ryan then wrote their idea into a story that they titled "Maranek," imbuing the story with sentimentality. According to Friedman, the story's central character was "a grizzled old revolutionary striving to carry out a mission that had long since become irrelevant to everyone except him." Friedman added, "Like its inspiration, the story fairly dripped with pathos." (Star Trek Magazine issue 143, p. 36)
  • Although Friedman and Ryan's active involvement in the story ended after this, Jeri Taylor kept them apprised of all story developments throughout the rest of the writing process. Friedman was very impressed and pleased by her inclusiveness. (Star Trek Magazine issue 143, p. 36)
  • The story was passed to new staff writer Lisa Klink, for her to write the script. As such, this is the first of thirteen Voyager episodes for which Klink was credited as being involved in writing. "I kind of thought they would get me started a little more slowly," Klink said of the producers, "maybe doing some rewrites, maybe doing some story work, but "Resistance" was the first thing they hit me with." (Captains' Logs Supplemental - The Unauthorized Guide to the New Trek Voyages)
  • Lisa Klink was handed the earliest version of the story a month after joining the series' writing staff, tasked with crafting it into her first teleplay. (The Official Star Trek: Voyager Magazine issue 6) She noted, "I'd been here just a few weeks when they got me started on "Resistance"." (Star Trek Monthly issue 21, p. 12) Klink further recalled, "They had bought this story from freelancers, and it had kind of been shelved temporarily." (Captains' Logs Supplemental - The Unauthorized Guide to the New Trek Voyages) She found the premise to be very problematic. "It wasn't an easy story or an easy script to do." (Star Trek Monthly issue 21, p. 12) "First, because it's about the old guy," she explained. "How do you make it about Janeway? The second problem was [that] the story's episodic. They go here; they go there. We needed an overall arc to the story, and Janeway needed to be driving it." (Captains' Logs Supplemental - The Unauthorized Guide to the New Trek Voyages) Klink also recalled, "It was basically a Don Quixote kind of story, which is inherently episodic and about somebody else! So, it becomes how do you make this about us? It's not going to be one of our people crazy; it's Janeway hooking up with this crazy guy, so how do you make it about her? And why wouldn't she just ditch him? You had to make him crazy, but still somewhat helpful, but not so helpful that she's not driving the story!" The challenge of organizing the plot into her first teleplay showed Klink that the series' producers were investing considerable faith in her. "It turned out to be very gratifying," she noted, "because they showed a lot of confidence in me right away." (The Official Star Trek: Voyager Magazine issue 6)
  • An early working title for the script was "Merrek". [2]
  • Some changes that Michael Jan Friedman was aware of, from his perspective of now being officially uninvolved in the episode's writing process, were the change of the Kazon character to being an alien-of-the-week, the alteration in episode title to "Resistance", and the addition of the melon scene, which was Lisa Klink's idea. (Star Trek Magazine issue 143, p. 37) Kevin J. Ryan felt that the story remained much the same as he and Friedman had pitched it, however. "The basic relationship between Janeway and the old man, which was really the core of our story, remained the same throughout," Ryan said. "Everybody who worked on it seemed to agree that it was the important element. There were a few changes in the window dressing elements but the main relationship points stayed the same, which was gratifying." Remarking on the speed at which the script was turned out, Ryan commented, "The next thing we know, […] they have a wonderful script, so it was really a dream experience." (Star Trek Monthly issue 12, p. 9)
  • The producers demonstrated even more confidence in Lisa Klink than they already had done, when the fledgling writer was allowed to polish the script herself. Although the prospect of undertaking the rewrite process was frustrating for Klink, she also wanted to succeed at the task. "It's like, 'OK, you did well – now do better!" Klink remarked. "My style of writing tends to be understated, subtle and underplayed. The comments and the notes I tend to get are, 'Make it more,' or, 'Bring that out more.' And it's like, 'Can't you just tell me to fix a line or something?' So, it was like stretching myself an extra bit. But I was really pleased that they felt that I could do it, and I wanted to prove them right and take on the challenge, and find out for myself if I could do it." (The Official Star Trek: Voyager Magazine issue 6)
  • Lisa Klink was not entirely alone in scripting the episode, however. Concerning the decision to have Janeway masquerade as a prostitute, Klink recalled, "There was a lot of discussion about that. Somebody – I forget who, but it wasn't me – came up with the idea of her distracting the guard by pretending to be a hooker. We went round and round on that for a while. Is that going to diminish the Captain in some way? Is that the typical bimbo thing to do?" Jeri Taylor firmly believed that this plot element was acceptable, considering Janeway's predicament at the time. Taylor remembered, "When we [first] talked about that, every eye in the room turned to me and said, 'Are you alright with that?' If I were down there, trying to save my people, I would do anything and if that seemed like a good idea I would do it in a minute. Would my dignity and my sense of feminism prevent me from helping my people? Absolutely not." (Cinefantastique, Vol. 28, No. 4/5, pp. 91 & 92)
  • This episode's final draft script was submitted on 20 September 1995. [3]
  • Lisa Klink later learned that Jeri Taylor had intentionally tested her with the challenge of scripting the episode. Klink stated, "Jeri told me later, 'I pretty much threw you into the deep end to see if you could swim, and you can!'" (The Official Star Trek: Voyager Magazine issue 6) Klink similarly related, "As Jeri Taylor likes to say, they threw me in the deep end and hoped I could swim!" Laughing, Klink added, "I'm still here. So I guess I could swim well enough." (Star Trek Monthly issue 21, p. 12)
  • Despite having found the script hard to write, Klink was eventually relieved at having done so. "I still think that script would have been difficult," she opined, "even if it had been my 100th, you know. But again, it really was the best way to learn." (The Official Star Trek: Voyager Magazine issue 6) She also explained, "Getting that one under my belt really gave me a lot of confidence […] I guess it was probably for the best that I started with a very tough show, because if it had been easy, I probably would have gotten very spoiled and then, when things got hard for me, I wouldn't have been as prepared for dealing with them. So, I'm actually glad things worked out the way they did." (Star Trek Monthly issue 21, p. 12)
  • Of Klink's work on the story, Michael Jan Friedman commented, "She managed to take what we were saying and make it a whole lot more eloquent." Friedman also regarded the melon scene that Klink added as being "maybe the best [scene] in the whole episode". (Star Trek Magazine issue 143, p. 37)

Cast and characters[]

Tracee Cocco, Resistance

Background actress Tracee Lee Cocco as an alien

  • Lisa Klink liked how this episode made Janeway have to deal with an unfamiliar situation. "Getting Janeway into a completely different milieu, where she's not on the bridge, she's not being captain, was all wonderful for the character," Klink said. "One of the best things you can do for a character is get them out of their normal situation." (The Official Star Trek: Voyager Magazine issue 6) In particular, Klink was ultimately pleased that she and the then-members of Voyager's writing staff had gone ahead with accepting the notion of Janeway masquerading as a prostitute. "The fact is, it worked," she remarked. "Given what their situation was and what they had available to them, it was a clever thing to do. I think it really doesn't hurt to show the Captain doing something different, to show she is an attractive woman, and to let her hair down. Although I was not always in love with the idea of doing it, I think, in retrospect, it was not such a bad thing." (Cinefantastique, Vol. 28, No. 4/5, pp. 91-92)
  • When Friedman and Ryan turned their plot concept into a story, the name of the central Kazon character was Maranek, in common with the episode title. (Star Trek Magazine issue 143, p. 37) Lisa Klink, who had a particular dislike of having to invent alien names, later struggled to come up with a moniker for the character. Her original suggestion was the name Merinax. Other suggested names included Merrick, Jarek, and Solman. The producers thought that Merinax "sounded too hokey, too artificial," and that Merrick was "too Earth-like, too human." Concerning the name Jerrick, they commented, "No, no, no that's too much like Sarek and Garak!" The name Solman won no support either. "And then I finally came up with Caylem, which they had to use because it was shooting the next day!" Klink recalled, laughing. "I'm sure it would have gone through another 10 more if I'd had more time!" (The Official Star Trek: Voyager Magazine issue 6)
  • Michael Jan Friedman and Kevin J. Ryan originally envisioned Brian Dennehy in the role of Maranek. (Star Trek Magazine issue 143, p. 36) However, Oscar-winning actor Joel Grey was ultimately cast in the role of Caylem after having repeatedly turned down invitations to appear in Star Trek: Voyager, never having seen an episode of the series before. Finally, he was sent the script for this episode and changed his mind about appearing on the series. "I would put it off for so long," Grey recalled, "but I couldn't anymore after I got that script. As soon as I signed on, I watched the show for the first time. I remember that being a funny experience. I just turned on the TV and there it was. I didn't even have to look for it. There it was for me to peruse. The shows I saw were pretty well done, as dramatic or as fun as they were intended to be. So, I thought "Resistance" would be an adventure." (The Official Star Trek: Voyager Magazine issue 6) Friedman said of the casting choice, "The casting of the all-important guest star had gone completely contrary to what we [himself and Ryan] had in mind." (Star Trek Magazine issue 143, p. 37)
  • Joel Grey thoroughly enjoyed working on the episode. He recalled of the experience, "I had a great time doing it. The people are so serious about their work, and so meticulous, but they also have a sense of fun. Everyone's care for the product was phenomenal – from Rick Berman to the actors to everyone else who puts the show together. I was also treated very well, so it was a very good experience." (The Official Star Trek: Voyager Magazine issue 6)
  • The episode also reunited Joel Grey with Janeway actress Kate Mulgrew, as they had previously worked together on the 1985 film Remo Williams: The Adventure Begins. Grey commented, "I loved working with Kate. We just had a great time. I had worked with her on Remo Williams, but most of my scenes in that movie were with Fred Ward. Kate and I hadn't really kept in touch over the years, but I was delighted when I read that she had gotten the role of Janeway […] Rick Kolbe, Kate's boy friend, is a great guy and I think he did a nice job directing the show. We all got on very, very well." (The Official Star Trek: Voyager Magazine issue 6)
  • While working on this episode, actress Roxann Dawson not only enjoyed performing with Tim Russ, but also began to see relationship potentialities between their respective characters of B'Elanna Torres and Tuvok. The actress related, "I liked working with Tim Russ. That was the first show where I saw any potential for exploring the relationship between Tuvok and B'Elanna. I realized he could help her explore some of the imbalances in the way she views her Klingon and Human sides." (The Official Star Trek: Voyager Magazine issue 12)
  • Robert Picardo (The Doctor) and Jennifer Lien (Kes) do not appear in this episode.
  • This episode included a contest winner, Chuck Butte, who appeared as an engineer in a scene in engineering. According to the call sheet, he filmed his scene on Friday 22 September 1995 on Paramount Stage 9 and is listed as contest winner.

Production[]

  • Lisa Klink and Jeri Taylor struggled to ensure that production of the episode would not go over its budget. Referring to Taylor, Klink recalled, "We broke it together, and it was really difficult. It was a very expensive show since it all took place on a planet. And there was a journey, which implies moving from place to place to place, which means building set after set after set! And so trying to figure out how to do a show based on a planet that has people moving around from place to place, and to build just two sets – I mean, that was really a problem." (The Official Star Trek: Voyager Magazine issue 6) Klink also stated, "Budget was […] a problem, because we generally build two new sets, and this whole thing takes place on an alien planet. They have to start out on this journey from someplace and end up someplace, and that's our two sets. Do they go anyplace in between? We have to build that too, then. It was an arduous [story] break. It went on a couple days. We ended up building three sets – a town square, the prison, and [Caylem's] cabin. We tried really hard to set in the cave set, which is a standing set, but just couldn't do it. It was a horrendously expensive episode." (Captains' Logs Supplemental - The Unauthorized Guide to the New Trek Voyages)
  • Working with Kate Mulgrew and Joel Grey, Rick Kolbe found the episode to be very easy to shoot. He noted, "As I director, I just sat there and said, 'You want to do it again? All right, fine. Let me know when you want to cut and print.'" (The Official Star Trek: Voyager Magazine issue 15)
  • During production, Jeri Taylor invited Michael Jan Friedman and Kevin Ryan to visit the Paramount Pictures lot, but they declined. (Star Trek Magazine issue 143, p. 36)
  • This episode is so far the only known Star Trek production for which sets on Paramount Stage 1 were built. Stage 1 housed the sets for the prison cells and passageways and for Augris' office and the scenes were filmed between Tuesday 26 September 1995 and Thursday 28 September 1995. The other sets were built at the usual sound stages, 8, 9, and 16.
  • On the second day of filming, Friday 22 September 1995, a Nickelodeon promo was shot with Jennifer Lien and Ethan Phillips on the bridge set. According to the call sheet, Lien, who was not part of the episode filmed, had a makeup call at 8am and a set call at 11am. On Monday, 25 September 1995, Kate Mulgrew had a Nickelodeon promo shooting at the ready room set.

Props and costumes[]

Continuity[]

  • This is the first episode in which Tuvok is seen to perform a Vulcan neck pinch, and the second time it happens on Star Trek: Voyager, after "Cathexis" in which an alien being inhabiting Tuvok's body performed it off-screen.
  • When Harry Kim finds the sensor blind spot in which Voyager can hide from the Mokra orbital security net, the course he recommends to Chakotay is 219 mark 47.
  • While no reference was made in the episode about the actual name of the alien species encountered by the Voyager crew in this episode, the official Star Trek site, StarTrek.com, identified them as "Alsaurians". [18] This is supported by information from the episode's shooting call sheets, especially for day 7 – 29 September 1995 and day 8 – 2 October 1995, and the production shooting schedule, where the background performers were listed as "Alsaurians". The German reference book Das Star Trek Universum volume 4, by Ralph Sander, called the planet "Mokra" and the capital city "Alsauria". (p. 401) A trading card by Rittenhouse Archives also listed Caylem as an Alsaurian. [19](X)

Reception[]

  • This episode, in some markets, aired on the same day as DS9: "Our Man Bashir", which was also directed by Winrich Kolbe.
  • For his part, long-time Star Trek director Rick Kolbe found himself amazed by Mulgrew and Grey. "That was the parade piece for Kate and Joel Grey as far as I am concerned," the director raved. "They clicked immediately and had a wonderful relationship on screen and off […] I was in awe. They were two talents having a wonderful time and it showed. It was probably the best acted piece I've been associated with on Star Trek." (The Official Star Trek: Voyager Magazine issue 15)
  • Both Michael Jan Friedman and Kevin J. Ryan were also very satisfied with Grey's performance in the episode. Friedman remarked, "As it turned out, Joel was brilliant. His performance was one of the best I've ever seen, on or off a Star Trek show, and I'm honored to have been in any way associated with it." (Star Trek Magazine issue 143, p. 37) Ryan similarly enthused, "I thought Joel Grey gave a wonderful performance, and to have the clout of an episode with an actor like that as a guest star was very satisfying." (Star Trek Monthly issue 11)
  • The official UPN trailer for this episode was highly sensationalistic, focusing on the plot point about Janeway playing a prostitute. (Cinefantastique, Vol. 28, No. 4/5, p. 91) Executive Producer Michael Piller said of the promotion, "I fundamentally object to what [UPN] did on that episode. We are doing what I would like to think is the prototypical family show […] Well, if I was watching the promotion for that show I would have seen a promotion that [depicted] cruel, unusual punishment, torture, pictures of people screaming, blood, and all sorts of terrible, horrible things, and then this shot of Janeway looking sexy: will Janeway give her body to save her crew? Well, as a parent, I'm not going to have my kids around the TV screen for that particular episode. Which is a shame because it was a warm, loving episode […] There was a great deal of objection brought to [UPN's] attention." (Cinefantastique, Vol. 28, No. 4/5, p. 78)
  • This episode achieved a Nielsen rating of 5.9 million homes, and a 9% share. [20](X)
  • Star Trek Magazine gave this episode 2 out of 5 stars, defined as "Impulse Power only." Additionally, Stuart Clark, a reviewer for the magazine, referred to the episode as "a sad tale." (Star Trek Monthly issue 14, p. 62)
  • Cinefantastique gave the installment 2 out of 4 stars. (Cinefantastique, Vol. 28, No. 4/5, p. 91)
  • The reference book Delta Quadrant (p. 89) scored the episode 9 out of 10.
  • Following production, Kate Mulgrew and Joel Grey had a discussion in which Mulgrew enlightened Grey of the possibility that he might be brought back to the series. "Kate and I had a conversation after we finished "Resistance" that really made me laugh," Grey recalled. "I thought that because I died at the show's end, that that was it for me there. I thought, 'I'm dead, gone, dead. Right?' Wrong! Kate said, 'Nope. This is Star Trek, Joel, and we can bring back anyone we want to bring back.'" Although Grey considered that – if he was invited for a return appearance that had a script as good as the one for this episode – he would be thrilled to return, the character of Caylem ultimately never reappears in the series. (The Official Star Trek: Voyager Magazine issue 6)

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2360; 2372; access tunnel; Alpha Quadrant; Alsaurian resistance movement; antimatter reaction; Augris' homeworld; Augris' homeworld city; Augris' species; away team; bandage; beam; bearing; bed; blanket; blind spot; blood; boot; bowl; bridge; briefing room; bruise; canteen; captain; cell; chair; circuit; combadge; command chair; command division; commander; commuications technology; condition red; conduit; confinement beam; confiscation; coordinates; course; crewmember; damage report; daughter; day; death; deck 14; desktop monitor; detection grid; detention center; diplomacy; door; dozen; dress; emergency power; energy pattern; engineering; engineering station; ensign; eye; father; Federation; female; force field; girl; glove; guard; hail; hand; hat; helmet; home; hour; Human; informant; interrogation; Intrepid class decks; Klingon; knife; ladder; lamp; letter; lie; lieutenant; lieutenant junior grade; life support; lunatic; magnetic pole; magnetic storm; main deflector; male; marketplace; metaphasic shield; military; minute; Mission Ops I; mister; Mokra Order; Mokra space; Mokra supply center; monster; moon; morning; mother; nacelle; name; neck; necklace; neon sign; north; northeast; operations division; operations station; orbit; orbital sensor net; PADD; pain; paranoia; pen; percent; phased ion cannon; phaser; physical barrier; pillow; planet; planetary scan; plasma injector; poster; power; price; prison; prisoner; prostitute; pushcart; radion beam; raid; rain; Ralkana; rank pip; ready room; red alert; regulation; rescue mission; rescue team; resistance movement; ring; river; rock; scan; scan analysis; scarf; schematic; sciences division; sculpture; search pattern; second; security/tactical station; sensor; shield frequency; shields; shock; shoeblack; shop; sink; sir; sky; soldier; soup; spirit; standard orbit; starship; strategy; street; suicide; sweater; system analysis; systems operations; table; Talaxian; talsa root soup; tattoo; tear; tellerium; Third Magistrate; time; transmitter; transporter room 2; transporter signal; transporter technology; trap; turbolift; unnamed Delta Quadrant planet; unnamed food; unnamed moon; unnamed plants; unnamed technology; vehicle status; vest; vial; viewscreen; Voyager, USS; Vulcan; Vulcan nerve pinch; warp core; warp drive; warp engine; warp power; weapon; week; wife; window; witness; year

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