"Repression" is the 150th episode of the science fiction television series '' Star Trek: Voyager'', and the fourth episode of the seventh (and final) season of the series. It revisits potential conflict between

Starfleet Starfleet is a fictional organization in the ''Star Trek'' media franchise. Within this fictional universe, Starfleet is a uniformed space force maintained by the United Federation of Planets ("the Federation") as the principal means for conduct ...

and Maquis crew members explored in " Worst Case Scenario" at the end of season three. A series of attacks against former Maquis crew members baffles the ''Voyager'' senior staff. It is unclear how many former-Maquis crewmen were exposed to mind control techniques. Themes include mind control triggered by a subliminal messages, repressed conditioning, the Vulcan mind-meld invoking uncharacteristic behavior, crew loyalties, the friendship between Commander Tuvok and Captain Janeway, and Tuvok's "hunches" which he can neither explain nor ignore.

Plot

Bajoran The Bajorans (variously pronounced , , )Script notes
specify "bah-JOR-an" and "BAY-jor" as the correc ...

is shown recording a message. Onboard USS ''Voyager'', former Maquis member Ensign Tabor (Jad Mager) is found comatose.

The Doctor The Doctor, sometimes known as Doctor Who, is the protagonist of the long-running BBC science fiction television series ''Doctor Who''. An extraterrestrial Time Lord, the Doctor travels the universe in a time travelling spaceship called th ...

finds evidence Tabor was attacked; Captain Janeway assigns

Tuvok Tuvok is a fictional character in the ''Star Trek'' media franchise and a main character in the television series '' Star Trek: Voyager''. Tuvok is a Vulcan who serves as the ship's second officer, Chief of Security, and Chief Tactical Officer ...

to investigate. Soon there are five comatose crewmen in Sickbay, with the same injuries, all former Maquis. Tuvok notes that the assailant must have access to security protocols to avoid detection. Tuvok, Tom Paris and Kim capture a negative image of Tabor's assailant. While investigating, Chakotay is suddenly attacked and rendered unconscious by Tuvok. Tuvok has no memory of this and continues his investigation. All the victims recover but have no memory of being attacked. Tuvok meditates and has flashbacks of attacking the former Maquis members, and has a vision of the Bajoran. Tuvok realizes the negative image matches his own description. Janeway discovers a message to Tuvok from the Bajoran, a former Maquis named Teero Anaydis who experimented with mind control; his message triggered Tuvok to 'attack' other Maquis members. Tuvok sends a message to his 'victims,' who then take control of ''Voyager''. However, Janeway helps Tuvok regain control of his mind, and Tuvok performs mindmelds to restore his victims and retake the ship. The recovered crew attend a movie on the holodeck.

Continuity

This is also the only on-screen mention of the name of Chakotay's Maquis ship, the ''Val Jean'', as seen on Teero Anaydis' computer screen. One of the writers for "Repression" named it after Jean Valjean, the hero of ''

Les Misérables ''Les Misérables'' (, ) is a 19th-century French literature, French Epic (genre), epic historical fiction, historical novel by Victor Hugo, first published on 31 March 1862, that is considered one of the greatest novels of the 19th century. '' ...

'', but a typographical error occurred resulting in "Val Jean".

Reception

Jammer's Reviews only gave "Repression" 1.5 stars out of 4 asking "why?" the story's destination is so "woefully contrived" and "completely pointless." Jamahl Epsicokhan summed up by saying that a "real mutiny" might have been interesting in the earlier seasons, but in the last year it would've been just "inappropriate" and not a "real issue." In 2020, ''

io9 ''io9'' is a sub-blog of the technology blog ''Gizmodo'' that focuses on science fiction and fantasy pop culture, with former focuses on science, technology and futurism. It was created as a standalone blog in 2008 by editor Annalee Newitz under ...

'' listed this episode as one of the "must watch" episodes from season seven of the show.

Home media releases

On December 21, 2003, this episode was released on DVD as part of a Season 7 boxset; ''Star Trek Voyager: Complete Seventh Season''.

References

External links