‘PRIME FACTORS’ (VOY)
Please feel free to comment on my review.
This is a ‘Voyager’ episode that challenges Janeway’s principles, especially when abiding by the Prime Directive in Starfleet. It also features a chance for the Voyager crew to get back home sooner.
Sadly that attempt is squandered by the circumstances of events in this episode. In the episode, Voyager encounters an alien race that appears to be hospitable towards them called the Sikarians. 🙂
They’re led by Ronald Guttman as Gath. Essentially, they’re human-like in appearance but have strange wire-like headgear. 😀 The Voyager crew are invited to visit the Sikarian homeworld for rest.
This seems nice. Shore leave is organised and during the visit, Harry Kim meets a female Sikarian – Yvonne Suhor as Eudana, who takes him to a planet called Alastria. It’s far from the Sikarians’ planet.
They were able to get there via the teleporter device called the trajector. From this discovery, Harry deduces that he and Eudana have transported 40,000 light years from the Sikarian planet to Alastira.
This is exciting for Harry as well as the Voyager crew. The chance of getting back home sooner rather than later by being transported 40,000 light years closer to Earth’s solar system is really rare to miss.
Once Janeway is informed of this discovery by Harry, she asks Gath if the technology could be used to transport Voyager further towards the Alpha Quadrant. But Gath states they cannot permit this. 🙁
Apparently, the Sikarian laws forbid them to share any of their technology with anyone else. This is something that Janeway can understand, considering Starfleet has their non-interference principles.
Whilst Janeway tries to maintain abiding by her Starfleet principles, she and the crew consider how to bargain for the technology. Harry recalls from Eudana that the Sikarians greatly value their stories.
Janeway takes this into account and offers Voyager’s library of literature to Gath if the Sikarians agree to transport Voyager closer to Earth. Gath says he’ll meet with the Siikarian leaders about this.
Mind you, Gath doesn’t seem to be that sincere in helping Voyager out with their predicament as he claims, especially when he’s openly flirting with Janeway. I’m surprised Janeway didn’t suspect this.
Meanwhile in engineering, B’Elanna Torres is helped by Martha Hackett as Seska and Josh Clark as Lt. Carey when they examine the spatial rift caused by the trajector to understand how it all works. 🙂
Seska seems to have come into her own in this episode; after having had a few appearances in the series and not having much of a big role aboard Voyager. Carey seems okay working for B’Elanna now.
This is especially after the rivalry they had in ‘Parallax’. Seska and Carey express various reasons for wanting to return to the Alpha Quadrant – Seska to help the Maquis and Carey to be with his family.
B’Elanna takes their arguments into account, as they attempt to take the trajactor illegally. This is after Harry Kim got approached by a civilian offering the technology in exchange for the literature. 😐
Janeway was reluctant to authorise the illegal trade and she tried to persuade Gath once more to adhere to their demands. But Gath never intended to accept her offer and ordered Voyager to leave.
It’s clear that Janeway is upset about the way she and her crew have been treated by Gath, since he had no intention of helping them to get back home sooner. She orders all personnel to return to the ship.
When the Voyager crew are summoned back, B’Elanna, Carey and Seska attempt to transport the downloaded library to the Sikarians. Tuvok also helps them out and he makes the exchange himself.
Once Tuvok has the trajector, the engineering team try to make use of it before they leave the planet’s orbit. But something goes wrong. The trajector is incompatible with Voyager’s technology. 🙁
I liked it when B’Elanna admitted her part in the conspiracy and she’s given a warning by Janeway. Tuvok also admits his actions. Janeway asks him to consult her before making future decisions like that again.
‘Prime Factors’ is a gripping ‘Voyager’ episode, especially when the crew attempt to return home sooner and it’s met with consequences. It also enhances Janeway, B’Elanna and Tuvok as characters.
‘Prime Factors’ (VOY) rating – 8/10
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