‘EMANATIONS’ (VOY)
Please feel free to comment on my review.
I found this to be a thought-provoking episode in the ‘Star Trek: Voyager’ series. No doubt its subject matter is depressing, but it raises some interesting questions about life after death that I quite liked.
In the episode, Voyager detects the signature of an as-yet undiscovered heavy element within the ring system of a planet. An away team is sent to investigate the cavern systems of one of the rocks. 🙂
This away team includes Chakotay, B’Elanna Torres and Harry Kim. They discover numerous humanoid bodies covered in a cobweb-like substance, concluding the cavern system is a burial area.
The burial area happens to be still in use when a subspace ‘vacuole’ opens and deposits a body shrouded in webbing. Pretty soon, another vacuole opens and the away team attempts to beam out.
In the process, Harry Kim disappears into the vacuole and is replaced by a female alien body, also wrapped in webs. The female gets taken to Voyager whilst Harry gets taken to an alien home world.
Some of you may already be aware that I’m a Christian. The fact that this ‘Voyager’ episode addresses life after death is interesting. I have my beliefs in the afterlife in God’s heavenly kingdom.
It’s interesting when Harry finds himself on the aliens’ homeworld and they, the Vhnori, believe he came from the afterlife…or as they would call it ‘the Next Emanation’, which is a really unusual term.
The Vhnori transport their dead in pods through the vacuole. Once the Vhnori end up in the cavern system as webbed bodies, it’s believed that they go to a higher place of conscience in new bodies. 😐
I’m not sure what the experience would be like with going into the afterlife, but I’d like to think once we leave our old bodies, we’d gain new ones. The case in point seems to be similar for the Vhnori. 🙂
When Harry is questioned about his arrival on the Vhnori’s home world, he’s soon confined to the mortuary building. Harry meets Jeffrey Alan Chandler as Hatil, who is scheduled to go to the afterlife.
And by scheduled, I mean his family scheduled it. Hatil is reluctant to have his death and becomes confused and fascinated by Harry’s arrival on the Vhnori home world. It reinforces his doubts over it.
I can imagine that a pre-mediated death can be terrifying, so I can sympathise with Hatil’s view in not wanting to go through with it. It’d be better if he died naturally and not have it forced upon him.
Meanwhile on Voyager, the Doctor revives the alien woman who replaced Kim. This is Cecile Callan as Ptera. When she wakes up, she becomes hysterical, since the afterlife is not what she’d expected.
I like the scenes Ptera has with Janeway as well as Kes when her faith and beliefs about the afterlife are challenged. Very soon, she agrees to be transported back to her homeworld via another vacuole.
Sadly, the transport attempt fails and her dead body re-materialises, swathed in a web-like substance. Janeway soon orders for Ptera’s body to be transported to the cavern system on the rock.
Back with Harry, he and Hatil agree to switch places so that Harry can be transported back through a vacuole using the burial pod. Hatil can escape and live out his life in a rural village with some friends.
Thankfully, Harry isn’t suspected for not being Hatil when he’s in the burial shroud and is transported to the cavern system in the rock by the Vhnori. Very soon, Harry gets saved by Voyager.
Harry is dead when he’s brought back to Voyager, but thankfully the Doctor revives him when he’s in sick bay. I liked that scene at the end of the episode where Harry talks of his experience to Janeway.
The questions given about life after death are resurfaced between Harry and Janeway, especially concerning how Vhnori see the afterlife. It reassured me of the possibility of a life in God’s kingdom.
Incidentally, Martha Hackett as Seska makes an appearance in this ‘Voyager’ episode. She’s the transporter chief in the episode. It’s intriguing how limited her role is here before the next episode.
‘Emanations’ has been an interesting and thought-provoking episode in the ‘Voyager’ series. I like how it raises questions about life after death and it seems a good episode for Harry Kim’s character.
‘Emanations’ (VOY) rating – 7/10
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