Sacred Ground (episode)

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"Sacred Ground"
VOY, Episode 3x07 Production number: 143 First aired: 30 October 1996
←	42nd of 168 produced in VOY	→
←	48th of 168 released in VOY	→
	{{{nNthReleasedInSeries_Remastered}}}th of 168 released in VOY Remastered
←	434th of 726 released in all	→
Teleplay By Lisa Klink Story By Geo Cameron Directed By Robert Duncan McNeill
50063.2 (2373)
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Kes is injured when she accidentally commits sacrilege on an alien planet; Janeway is determined to do anything to save her.

Contents 1 Summary 2 Background Information 2.1 Video and DVD releases 3 Links and References 3.1 Guest Stars 3.2 References

[edit] Summary

• Captain's log, stardate 50063.2. We've accepted an invitation from the Nechani to take a few days shore leave on their world. We're enjoying the opportunity to learn about their culture.

The crew of USS Voyager accepts an invitation from a humanoid race called the Nechani to take shore leave on their planet. In attempting to learn something about their culture, several of the crew members take a tour of the some of the religious sites of the Nechani. Curious about a particular shrine, Kes attempts to enter it and is knocked unconscious by a biogenic field at the entrance. The crew is anxious to remain on the planet to analyze the field and gather information that may be able to revive Kes from her "curious comatose state." However, the Nechani feel that Kes is being punished by the "ancestral spirits" for inappropriate behavior and should be allowed to die. Janeway sends Neelix to gather scientific data about the shrine, and he returns with a story about a king whose son had made the same error as Kes. This king had decided to undergo the ritual that the monks endure in order to enter the shrine, and he successfully appealed to them to awaken his son from his "death sleep." Janeway decides to try this approach in order to gather scientific data with a subdermal probe. She expects that she will be facing endurance tests that create within her body biochemical changes, which will protect her from the energy field.

A guide meets Janeway at the entrance to the cave at sunset and guides her to a room full of elderly people who squabble and bicker amongst themselves, saying that they are waiting and have been for as long as they can remember. She grows impatient and leaves the room. Her guide informs her that everything she will do during this ritual will be meaningless, and that the only thing that matters is finding her connection to the spirits. The guide asks her to hold a rock and tell her what she sees. Next, Janeway is asked to finger-paint freely and then rock-climb. She then sees the stone glowing in her hands. She is asked to place her hand inside a container that houses a hissing creature called a nesset; it bites her. Janeway then finds herself on a seashore, where her guide ostensibly acts as the voice of the spirits, who tell her that her request to have them reawaken Kes is inconsequential. She returns to Voyager deeply unsatisfied with the results of her ordeal. However, the Doctor seems to have gained some helpful knowledge; he says that the toxin from the creature's bite appears to have been the key, and he develops a treatment regimen.

When his "cure" doesn't work, Janeway returns to the planet to question her guide, who tells her that she is now ready to begin. Janeway returns to the room, where the elderly people derisively banter about her reliance on reason and suggest that she take Kes through the energy field again. Leaving the room, her guide informs her that if she believes she is ready, she is. She persuades Chakotay and Neelix to allow her to take Kes back through the field, in the belief that it will awaken her, even if no one can explain how that might work scientifically. Janeway carries Kes to the field, where she awakens. Later, the Doctor gives a plausible explanation, which Janeway at first validates as sound science and then dismisses as "very...scientific."

[edit] Background Information

• This is the first Star Trek episode directed by Robert Duncan McNeill. He would later direct three further episodes of Voyager and four of Enterprise, as well as other projects.
• Guest stars Parley Baer & Keene Curtis were reunited In this episode. Both worked together on Beverly Hills 90210 In season 2's holiday themed "A Walsh Family Christmas" which also featured Trek vet Ann Gillespie.

[edit] Video and DVD releases

• UK VHS release (two-episode tapes, CIC Video): Volume 3.4, 10 March 1997.
• As part of the VOY Season 3 DVD collection.

[edit] Links and References

[edit] Guest Stars

• Becky Ann Baker as Guide
• Estelle Harris as Old Woman
• Keene Curtis as Old Man #2
• Parley Baer as Old Man #1
• Harry Groener as The Magistrate

[edit] References

adenosine triphosphate; Ancestral Spirits; artist; biogenic field; bio-scanner; chromodynamic light; cortical stimulator; Delios VII; dielectric effect; electrolyte; iridium ion; Karis Tribe; king; lactic acid; lectrazine; magistrate; Nechani; Nechisti Council; Nechisti shrine; Nechisti Order; neodyne light; nesset; neuroleptic shock; neuropeptide; neurotransmitter; Nevad; psychoactive drug; plasma discharge; subdermal bioprobe; synaptic pathway; tarchee cat; thoron radiation

Previous episode: "Remember"

Star Trek: Voyager Season 3

Next episode: "Future's End"