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Scientific Method (Star Trek: Voyager)
Encyclopedia
"Scientific Method" is an episode of Star Trek: Voyager
, the seventh episode of the fourth season. It has an average fan rating of 4.2/5 on the official Star Trek website as of September, 2009.
The episode premise is that of a group of cloaked or hidden aliens performing scientific experiments on the "Voyager" crew, and the effect the experiments have on the various crew members. The show explores this from a third party perspective, and views the events in a manner similar to the medical experiments humans perform on lab rats or other animals.
talks his way out of a duty shift and goes to find B'Elanna Torres
, who is working in a Jefferies tube
. He presents her with some flowers and the two spend a little time kissing. B'Elanna is jumpy - she feels as though someone is watching them - but that seems to make it more exciting and she turns her attention back to Tom.
Meanwhile, Captain Janeway
is receiving a therapeutic massage from The Doctor. She has been tense and agitated lately, and has been suffering excruciating headache
s. Chakotay
tries to give her a report on a powerful stellar phenomenon nearby, but she is too tired and grumpy to care so she tells him to just carry on as he sees fit.
Later, Tuvok
seeks out B'Elanna to deliver a report to her. He finds her in Engineering making out
with Tom Paris again. The two officers sheepishly attend a briefing with the captain, who angrily reprimands them for their inappropriate behavior. She didn't hear it from Tuvok, either. It seems the whole crew has noticed that the two lieutenants are having trouble keeping their hands off each other. Janeway demands they shape up.
Chakotay begins feeling strange as well. He begins shaking, loses all his hair, and starts going blind. Within a couple of hours his body ages many decades. Neelix
sickens next. He breaks out in spots and begins to emit a strange odor. The Doctor determines that both men have had bits of their DNA
stimulated by some external force. Janeway wonders if the energetic binary star phenomenon is affecting them somehow.
This theory is put to rest when the Doctor and B'Elanna scan the crew's DNA more closely. On visual inspection it appears that some of the nucleotide
s have been branded with alien writing, much like a barcode
. While Neelix's affliction is described as something akin to "in-breeding", Chakotay's is said to suffer from Progeria
, a form of premature aging. When B'Elanna tries to run further tests she is suddenly stricken with some sort of seizure and goes into respiratory arrest. Before the Doctor can reach her, his program is shut down.
As the remaining crew gathers to try to figure out what is going on, Seven of Nine
receives a transmission from the Doctor, who has tapped into her auditory implants. He calls her to the holodeck, where he can make himself visible. He suspects that someone is implanting tags in the crew's DNA to cause mutations, and knocking them out when they begin to realize what is going on. He adjusts Seven's artificial eye so that she can scan for intruders on board. Indeed, there are several, roaming the ship invisibly, scanning and poking and prodding the crew without them even knowing it. Some of the crew have even been fitted with invisible appliances and implants to alter their physiologies.
Seven sees that Janeway has an array of huge needles jutting from her skull. The aliens place and remove them, and then note her response. Her headaches and psychological disturbances are getting worse. Seven attempts to sneak into the engineering computer to deliver a shipwide shock to disable the DNA tags, but she is caught. She has no choice but to fire on one of the aliens, making her visible. Tuvok takes her into custody and the crew continues to try to disable the tags.
A furious and unbalanced Janeway interrogates the alien in the brig, demanding to know why her crew is being tormented. The alien calmly explains that the Voyager crew are serving as valuable test subjects in medical and psychiatric research and are providing data that will help cure disease. She also notes that she has been very impressed with Janeway's self-control and high tolerance for psychiatric disturbance. She warns Janeway that if she doesn't allow her kind to be studied, the project and its subjects would be terminated.
Janeway stifles the urge to inflict violence on the alien and returns to the bridge. However, when a member of the bridge crew is killed by the experimenters, Janeway will tolerate no more. She leaps to the helm and steers the ship directly toward the massive binary stars. As Voyager hurtles directly toward them, two alien ships attached to her hull become visible. Realizing the frantic Janeway is willing to let the ship be destroyed rather than allow her crew to serve as laboratory subjects any longer, the aliens depart the ship quickly. At least one of the alien vessels is destroyed by the intense radiation of the pulsars. Voyager shoots between the two stars and barely escapes through.
The crew begins to recover from their injuries and afflictions. Tom and B'Elanna get together for a date, and, free of any extra hormonal urges brought on by alien scientists, decide to do a little experimenting of their own.
, as well as the skeletal effect that the aging experiment had on Chakotay. This is the first time that the full extent of Chakotay's tattoo can be seen. Kate Mulgrew played her part as an irritable captain. At one point prompting Tuvok to inquire "Should I flog them as well"? when she orders him to provide more discipline to the crew. While the script states that the aliens were increasing the levels of dopamine, in reality Mulgrew quit smoking during this episode, perhaps adding to her ability to remain in character. Seven of Nine wears her new style of bodysuit in this episode, the third to date. It remained brown, but had a high neckline similar to the earlier silver version.
website.
Star Trek: Voyager
Star Trek: Voyager is a science fiction television series set in the Star Trek universe. Set in the 24th century from the year 2371 through 2378, the series follows the adventures of the Starfleet vessel USS Voyager, which becomes stranded in the Delta Quadrant 70,000 light-years from Earth while...
, the seventh episode of the fourth season. It has an average fan rating of 4.2/5 on the official Star Trek website as of September, 2009.
The episode premise is that of a group of cloaked or hidden aliens performing scientific experiments on the "Voyager" crew, and the effect the experiments have on the various crew members. The show explores this from a third party perspective, and views the events in a manner similar to the medical experiments humans perform on lab rats or other animals.
Plot
Tom ParisTom Paris
Thomas Eugene "Tom" Paris, played by Robert Duncan McNeill, is a character in the television series Star Trek: Voyager. Paris serves as the chief helmsman and an auxiliary medic aboard the USS Voyager...
talks his way out of a duty shift and goes to find B'Elanna Torres
B'Elanna Torres
B'Elanna Torres is a main character in Star Trek: Voyager played by Roxann Dawson. She is portrayed as a half-human half-Klingon born in 2349 on the Federation colony Kessik IV. Torres joined the Maquis in 2370 and was serving on the Val Jean when brought to the Delta Quadrant...
, who is working in a Jefferies tube
Jefferies tube
Jefferies tubes, in the Star Trek fictional universe, are narrow tunnels or corridors that provide access to critical starship systems. They can be vertically or horizontally oriented, and form a network that allows travel throughout large volumes of a starship even when the turbolifts are not...
. He presents her with some flowers and the two spend a little time kissing. B'Elanna is jumpy - she feels as though someone is watching them - but that seems to make it more exciting and she turns her attention back to Tom.
Meanwhile, Captain Janeway
Kathryn Janeway
Kathryn Janeway, played by Kate Mulgrew, is a fictional character in the Star Trek franchise. As the captain of the Starfleet starship USS Voyager, she was the lead character on the television series Star Trek: Voyager, and later, a Starfleet admiral, as seen in the 2002 feature film Star Trek...
is receiving a therapeutic massage from The Doctor. She has been tense and agitated lately, and has been suffering excruciating headache
Headache
A headache or cephalalgia is pain anywhere in the region of the head or neck. It can be a symptom of a number of different conditions of the head and neck. The brain tissue itself is not sensitive to pain because it lacks pain receptors. Rather, the pain is caused by disturbance of the...
s. Chakotay
Chakotay
Chakotay , played by Robert Beltran, is a character in Star Trek: Voyager. He is the First Officer of the USS Voyager.-Character biography:...
tries to give her a report on a powerful stellar phenomenon nearby, but she is too tired and grumpy to care so she tells him to just carry on as he sees fit.
Later, Tuvok
Tuvok
Tuvok is one of the main characters on the television series Star Trek: Voyager. Tuvok is a Vulcan who serves as the ship's chief of security and its chief tactical officer. Tim Russ portrayed Tuvok throughout the show's run, from 1995 to 2001....
seeks out B'Elanna to deliver a report to her. He finds her in Engineering making out
Making out
In human sexuality, making out is a sexual euphemism of American origin dating back to at least 1949, and is used synonymously with the terms necking, heavy petting, and hooking up to refer to non-penetrative sex, though "hooking up" is also used in some cultures to imply casual sex.-History:The...
with Tom Paris again. The two officers sheepishly attend a briefing with the captain, who angrily reprimands them for their inappropriate behavior. She didn't hear it from Tuvok, either. It seems the whole crew has noticed that the two lieutenants are having trouble keeping their hands off each other. Janeway demands they shape up.
Chakotay begins feeling strange as well. He begins shaking, loses all his hair, and starts going blind. Within a couple of hours his body ages many decades. Neelix
Neelix
Mr. Neelix is a fictional character in the television series Star Trek: Voyager. He is played by actor Ethan Phillips.-Fictional Biography:Mr. Neelix is a Talaxian originally from Rinax, a moon of the planet Talax, in the Delta quadrant, although his great-grandfather was Mylean. His entire family...
sickens next. He breaks out in spots and begins to emit a strange odor. The Doctor determines that both men have had bits of their DNA
DNA
Deoxyribonucleic acid is a nucleic acid that contains the genetic instructions used in the development and functioning of all known living organisms . The DNA segments that carry this genetic information are called genes, but other DNA sequences have structural purposes, or are involved in...
stimulated by some external force. Janeway wonders if the energetic binary star phenomenon is affecting them somehow.
This theory is put to rest when the Doctor and B'Elanna scan the crew's DNA more closely. On visual inspection it appears that some of the nucleotide
Nucleotide
Nucleotides are molecules that, when joined together, make up the structural units of RNA and DNA. In addition, nucleotides participate in cellular signaling , and are incorporated into important cofactors of enzymatic reactions...
s have been branded with alien writing, much like a barcode
Barcode
A barcode is an optical machine-readable representation of data, which shows data about the object to which it attaches. Originally barcodes represented data by varying the widths and spacings of parallel lines, and may be referred to as linear or 1 dimensional . Later they evolved into rectangles,...
. While Neelix's affliction is described as something akin to "in-breeding", Chakotay's is said to suffer from Progeria
Progeria
Progeria is an extremely rare genetic condition wherein symptoms resembling aspects of aging are manifested at an early age. The word progeria comes from the Greek words "pro" , meaning "before", and "géras" , meaning "old age"...
, a form of premature aging. When B'Elanna tries to run further tests she is suddenly stricken with some sort of seizure and goes into respiratory arrest. Before the Doctor can reach her, his program is shut down.
As the remaining crew gathers to try to figure out what is going on, Seven of Nine
Seven of Nine
Seven of Nine is a fictional character on Star Trek: Voyager, portrayed by actress Jeri Ryan. Born human, she was assimilated by the Borg at the age of six. Eighteen years later, Voyager left Borg space with Seven on board, after attempts to negotiate passage through Borg space proved only...
receives a transmission from the Doctor, who has tapped into her auditory implants. He calls her to the holodeck, where he can make himself visible. He suspects that someone is implanting tags in the crew's DNA to cause mutations, and knocking them out when they begin to realize what is going on. He adjusts Seven's artificial eye so that she can scan for intruders on board. Indeed, there are several, roaming the ship invisibly, scanning and poking and prodding the crew without them even knowing it. Some of the crew have even been fitted with invisible appliances and implants to alter their physiologies.
Seven sees that Janeway has an array of huge needles jutting from her skull. The aliens place and remove them, and then note her response. Her headaches and psychological disturbances are getting worse. Seven attempts to sneak into the engineering computer to deliver a shipwide shock to disable the DNA tags, but she is caught. She has no choice but to fire on one of the aliens, making her visible. Tuvok takes her into custody and the crew continues to try to disable the tags.
A furious and unbalanced Janeway interrogates the alien in the brig, demanding to know why her crew is being tormented. The alien calmly explains that the Voyager crew are serving as valuable test subjects in medical and psychiatric research and are providing data that will help cure disease. She also notes that she has been very impressed with Janeway's self-control and high tolerance for psychiatric disturbance. She warns Janeway that if she doesn't allow her kind to be studied, the project and its subjects would be terminated.
Janeway stifles the urge to inflict violence on the alien and returns to the bridge. However, when a member of the bridge crew is killed by the experimenters, Janeway will tolerate no more. She leaps to the helm and steers the ship directly toward the massive binary stars. As Voyager hurtles directly toward them, two alien ships attached to her hull become visible. Realizing the frantic Janeway is willing to let the ship be destroyed rather than allow her crew to serve as laboratory subjects any longer, the aliens depart the ship quickly. At least one of the alien vessels is destroyed by the intense radiation of the pulsars. Voyager shoots between the two stars and barely escapes through.
The crew begins to recover from their injuries and afflictions. Tom and B'Elanna get together for a date, and, free of any extra hormonal urges brought on by alien scientists, decide to do a little experimenting of their own.
Production Notes
This episode provides a darker genre than many of the Voyager episodes. Use of low lighting, soundtrack, ghost-like depiction of the aliens, x-ray views of crew members, low camera angles, tinted film exposure, and sudden scene transitions portrayed a suspenseful plot. While it might not quite delve into the "horror" genre, it did show the on-screen death of a red shirt characterRedshirt (character)
A "redshirt" is a stock character in fiction who dies soon after being introduced. The term originates with fans of Star Trek , from the red shirts worn by Starfleet security officers who frequently die during episodes.-Star Trek:...
, as well as the skeletal effect that the aging experiment had on Chakotay. This is the first time that the full extent of Chakotay's tattoo can be seen. Kate Mulgrew played her part as an irritable captain. At one point prompting Tuvok to inquire "Should I flog them as well"? when she orders him to provide more discipline to the crew. While the script states that the aliens were increasing the levels of dopamine, in reality Mulgrew quit smoking during this episode, perhaps adding to her ability to remain in character. Seven of Nine wears her new style of bodysuit in this episode, the third to date. It remained brown, but had a high neckline similar to the earlier silver version.
Reception
The episode has an average rating of 4.3 out of 5 on the official Star TrekStar Trek
Star Trek is an American science fiction entertainment franchise created by Gene Roddenberry. The core of Star Trek is its six television series: The Original Series, The Animated Series, The Next Generation, Deep Space Nine, Voyager, and Enterprise...
website.