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Star trek: Voyager 5.10a - The fight

Stardate around 52690
Threat advisory: Low - Low risk of entertaining activities

Episode propaganda

While the ship is caught in Chaotic Space, a zone where the laws of physics are in a state of flux, Commander Chakotay (Robert Beltran) believes he's a 24th century boxer, The Maquis Mauler. Before long, he's going head to head with the Delta Quadrant's champion, Kid Chaos (Carlos Palomino).

Persons of interest

Kate Mulgrew .... Captain Kathryn Janeway
Robert Beltran .... Commander Chakotay
Roxann Dawson .... Lieutenant B'Elanna Torres
Robert Duncan McNeill .... Lieutenant Tom Paris
Robert Picardo .... the Emergency Medical Hologram
Ethan Phillips .... Neelix
Tim Russ .... Lieutenant Tuvok
Jeri Ryan .... Seven of nine, tertiary adjunct to Unimatrix 01
Garrett Wang .... Ensign Harry Kim
Majel Barrett .... USS Voyager computer voice
Ray Walston .... Boothby
Carlos Palomino .... Kid Chaos
Ned Romero .... Chakotay's great grandfather
Michael Taylor .... Storywriter
Joe Menosky .... Screenwriter
Rick Kolbe .... Director

Cinematic intelligence sources

Studios and distributors:

Star trek official site

Intelligence analyst

Special Agent Matti

Intelligence report

Ho hum.

The fight is Robert Beltran's guaranteed feature episode for the year. Unfortunately for him, they chose to write one with a crap story. Sure, Robert's a good actor: demented, devoted, despairing, etc., but you can't make a silk purse out of a sow's ear.

I pause to wonder whether you can make a silk purse out of a boar's ear, or any other part of its anatomy.

Back to the job at hand.

Chaotic Space, where things are just too weird for technology to cope with, is a great idea. Life forms who intersect Chaotic Space at the 18th gradient and are too strange to communicate with humanoids are a great idea. Chakotay having a defective gene is a good idea, but I wonder why this suddenly appeared now when it was most needed (rather like Janeway's combadge fiddling habit suddenly appearing for Chakotay to notice). Chakotay going on a vision quest to make first contact is an interesting idea, but I wishe that they'd get rid of that damnable new age hippy music!

And what's with the boxing? Chakotay has never mentioned it before, and it's a very brutal kind of sport for a culture as supposedly enlightened as the Federation. Holo-boxing is fine (good cardio workout, improved reflexes, great stress relief) but the real thing is just a quick way to go nuts (just ask Mohammed Ali).

The fight has no bearing on anything but Chakotay's character. If you're a Chakotay fan, then watch it by all means (there's even a massage to get your hormones going), but otherwise, give it a miss. Welcome to X.10, the depths of every season.