Counterpoint (episode)

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"Counterpoint"
VOY, Episode 5x10 Production number: 204 First aired: 16 December 1998
←	103rd of 168 produced in VOY	→
←	103rd of 168 released in VOY	→
	{{{nNthReleasedInSeries_Remastered}}}th of 168 released in VOY Remastered
←	547th of 726 released in all	→
Written By Michael Taylor Directed By Les Landau
Unknown (2375)
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Voyager smuggles telepathic refugees past Devore patrols.

Contents 1 Summary 2 Memorable Quotes 3 Background Information 3.1 Video and DVD releases 4 Links and References 4.1 Guest Stars 4.2 Uncredited Co-Stars 4.3 References

[edit] Summary

The USS Voyager is passing through Devore space, where telepathy is illegal and telepaths are sent to relocation centers. Devore warships are far larger and more powerful than Voyager, so the ship is subject to frequent inspections to check for telepaths. As the episode opens, one of these inspections, complete with rough treatment of the crew and their equipment, is under way.

The lead Devore inspector, Kashyk, takes up residence in Janeway's ready room. He plays Mahler's First Symphony throughout the ship to "relax" the crew. However, Kashyk expresses an interest in Human culture, allows Voyager to get away with a course deviation that his assistant, Prax, says would normally result in it being impounded, and suggests that Janeway could use a friend like him.

The Devore ships then leave Voyager, after which Captain Janeway orders that twelve Brenari refugees, along with Tuvok, Jarot and Vorik, all of whom are telepathic, be brought out of transporter suspension in cargo bay one, which contains contaminated antimatter to block Devore sensors.

Soon after, Kashyk returns to the ship, this time alone. He tells Janeway that he knows all about the telepathic refugees and that the nebula containing a wormhole that she plans to transport them to for their escape is a Devore trap. He says that he is defecting and requests asylum on the ship in return for his assistance in avoiding Devore ships. She agrees to grant him safe passage out of Devore space if the Brenari are amenable.

The Brenari leader, Kir, agrees to cooperate. Kir points Janeway to a scientist, Torat, who can help them predict the next appearance of the wormhole. At this point, Janeway begins to cooperate with Kashyk. Torat is reluctant to help Voyager, so she introduces Kashyk as a fellow professor who doubts his work. To prove himself, and in exchange for mercurium isochromate, Torat provides the two with some data on the wormhole. Later, the two work to pinpoint the next appearance of the wormhole. After standard algorithms fail, Janeway, considering the music that is playing in the background, suggests that the pattern may be found in a subspace counterpoint. This time, the computer analysis works, allowing the next occurrence of the wormhole to be predicted.

Unfortunately, Voyager is soon detected by a Devore scanning array. Janeway plans to fight the ships with the new information about them she has obtained from Kashyk. But he tells her she will never survive against two of them and offers to take command of the impending inspection to ensure the refugees escape. She agrees, and the two kiss before Kashyk leaves in his ship.

The Devore inspectors soon board the ship. Janeway meets Kashyk in her ready room, who plays Tchaikovsky's Fourth Symphony and demands that she cease altering her course and leave Devore space. After sending Prax away, he asks about the wormhole. She tells him it is off the port bow and a photon torpedo will open it. He then congratulates her, ordering Prax to Cargo Bay one to capture the refugees and ordering two photon torpedoes to be fired to destroy the wormhole.

However, he soon realizes that it is he who has been double crossed. The neutrino emissions indicating a wormhole off the port bow are actually antimatter residue signatures, and it is not refugees, but cargo containers filled with vegetables, that are suspended in the transporters in Cargo Bay one. Janeway changes the music to Mahler's first symphony, while the refugees escape through the wormhole via shuttlecraft. Prax suggests that Voyager be impounded and the crew sent to relocation centers, but Kashyk, noting the effect the loss of the telepaths would have on both of their careers, leaves the ship and allows Janeway on her way.

• Captain's log, supplemental. After weeks of playing hide and seek with the Devore inspectors, our goal is near. A transport vessel that will take our passengers to a wormhole leading out of hostile territory.

[edit] Memorable Quotes

"You created false readings!"
"That is the theme for this evening, isn't it?"

- Kashyk and Captain Janeway

[edit] Background Information

• The original pitch for the episode - written by Gregory L. Norris and Laura Van Vleet, based on a screenplay of Van Vleet's, and entitled "The Hiding" - was focused on Seven of Nine. The refugees were hiding in Voyager's landing pads, and, when Voyager was forced to land, Seven risked her life to take the refugees into neutral space in a shuttlecraft, against Janeway's orders. The two pitchers were delighted with the changes made to their pitch by Michael Taylor, in particular the focus on and love story for Janeway. (Star Trek Monthly issue 80)
• The working titles for this episode were The Refugee and Refuge.
• In an interview shortly after filming, Kate Mulgrew called this her "favorite episode to date." In another, she claimed to have kissed the script when she first read it. Subsequently, she chose it as her favourite episode, and it was included as such in Star Trek: Fan Collective - Captain's Log
• Mark Harelik was cast at Mulgrew's recommendation.
• J. Patrick McCormack previously played Admiral Bennet in the Star Trek: Deep Space Nine episode "Doctor Bashir, I Presume". Randy Oglesby had also appeared in DS9, playing Silaran Prin in "The Darkness and the Light".
• Janeway's list of telepaths on Voyager includes only Tuvok, Vorik, Jarot, and Lon Suder. She neglects to mention Stadi, the "Vulcanoid" nurse seen in "Caretaker" or the other Vulcans aboard, mentioned in VOY: "Endgame".
• The whereabouts of the three telepathic crewmembers (Tuvok included) are not discussed at the end of the episode, although Tuvok is at his station on the Bridge when the inspection teams arrive.
• Actor Tim Russ previously played a character named Devor in the Star Trek: The Next Generation episode "Starship Mine".
• This is Alexander Enberg's only appearance as Vorik in which he has no lines.
• This episode was selected by public vote in the UK as the best of the "Captain's Picks" (episodes selected by the four series leads as their favourites) during the BBC's Star Trek Night on 16 September 2001.

[edit] Video and DVD releases

• UK VHS release (two-episode tapes, CIC Video): Volume 5.5, 7 June 1999.
• As part of the VOY Season 5 DVD collection.
• As Kate Mulgrew's episode choice in the Star Trek: Fan Collective - Captain's Log collection.

[edit] Links and References

[edit] Guest Stars

• Mark Harelik as Kashyk
• Randy Oglesby as Kir
• J. Patrick McCormack as Prax
• Alexander Enberg as Ensign Vorik
• Randy Lowell as Torat
• Jake Sakson as Adar

[edit] Uncredited Co-Stars

• Patrick Barnitt as a Brenari
• Christine Delgado as Susan Nicoletti
• Unknown performers as three male and six female Brenari

[edit] References

algorithm; angstrom; antimatter; antimatter residue; aurora borealis; Board of inquiry; Brenari; cellular degradation; coffee; confinement beam; dark matter inversion; Devore; Devore Imperium; Devore sensor array; Devore shuttlecraft; Devore warship; fractal coefficient; gaharey; grey mode; imaging scanner; impulse signature; interlink node; intermittent cyclical vortex; interspatial flexure; ion storm; Jarot; Kazon; kolyan kolyar; Mahler; mercurium isochromate; Mutara class; neutrino; Ogre of Fire; pattern enhancer; photon torpedo; plasma injector; primary energizing coil; Prime Directive; refractive shield; scanning pulse; shield modulation; subspace harmonics; subspace matrix; subspatial transkinetic analysis; Suder, Lon; Tchaikovsky; Tehara system; telepathy; transporter; transporter suspension; type-9 shuttlecraft; vegetable; warp field; wormhole

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Star Trek: Voyager Season 5

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