VOY S1E15 "Learning Curve" Review by AnswerMan

Horrible:Meh:Adequate:Good:Fantastic

This is the Maquis/Star Fleet conflict episode that should have been featured earlier and more often. The entire premise of the Voyager series is two crews with not much in common are forced together on an impossible mission. The Maquis are the rebels that ditched the uptight Star Fleet ways and took to battling the Cardassians in their own rogue war. They shouldn't blend well with a Star Fleet crew. They should protest, refuse to participate, rebel, undermine, think of mutiny, etc. What we get is a bit tamer than that. We have a guy that repairs things without being told to, a blue guy that talks too much, and a couple others that we don't even know what they did. Oh well, it's better than nothing.

But before we get to that we have to suffer through Janeway Lambda One, a holo-novel that Janeway is into. It's the most boring shit ever. Janeway's character is a new nanny for a couple wealthy British kids in Victorian England. The kids are awful in that elite super-rich snobby way. The boy, who could be no more than 7 or 8 years old, instructs Janeway that she shall refer to him as "Milord" and to his even younger sister as "M'Lady." Ya, ok you sniveling little twat. Whatever. Then he chastises her for her lack of Latin fluency. Now why in the world would the writers think that we want to see our strong captain, who is bent on getting her crew home at any costs, and shows no fear against adversaries like the Borg, getting ordered around by some high-society entitled little pricks? Furthermore, why would SHE want that? How is this stimulating?

But now back to our misanthropes. Janeway instructs Tuvok to work with the four former Maquis, since they really haven't had any Star Fleet training and therefore probably just don't know any better. Tuvok interprets this to mean that he should have them go through bootcamp, which doesn't go over very well with them. They tell him that the whole thing is an insult, and walk out. I have to agree with them. For one, they didn't sign up for this. They were specifically serving on a ship that was not Star Fleet because they new that Star Fleet was not their cup of tea. Now, because Chakotay went and destroyed their ship Kamikaze style, they're stuck in indentured-servitude on this ship whether they like it or not. Now they get singled out for ineptitude, and get barked at like cadets by Lieutenant Vulcan every day on top of it.

But the greatest scene in the show is when Chakotay comes and interrupts their bitch session in the mess hall. With all the swagger in the world he takes one of their chairs, pulls it up to the table, and proceeds to punch the most rebellious member, Dalby, right out of his seat. He then tells them that if they prefer to be dealt with in the Maquis way, that's fine. He'll repeat this performance every day as necessary until they report to Tuvok for training. Then he chugs his drink and swaggers out. Wow, where has this Chakotay been? Somehow he usually comes off as the biggest pacifist on the ship, not like the rogue guerrilla warrior that he must have been at one time to become a Maquis captain. In fact, we learn more about his Native American background than we ever do about why he joined the Maquis and what he did with them. But this Chakotay, the one that isn't afraid to knock a dude off his chair to get him in line... I like it!

So they do report, and Tuvok runs them through ridiculous training sessions. They still hate him, but they comply. When he gives them a simulated battle test on the holodeck, they fail miserably. Afterwards they complain that the test was impossible, since they were so outmatched, but that they were proud that went out guns blazin. Tuvok asks if they ever considered retreating, as that was the only way out alive. They had not. It's a heavy moment, that really highlights the differences between the Maquis mindset and the strict regulations of Star Fleet. But it fails to resonate with Dalby, who screams, "Fine! I guess I'll never ever be good enough for Star Fleet!" and then stomps off to his room and slams the door.  Neelix gives the former drill sergeant some advice to maybe lighten up on them a bit, since they are not Star Fleet recruits. Tuvok listens, and then tries to get to know Dalby over a game of pool. It does not go well. They somehow fail to find common ground while Dalby tells him about all the raping and murdering of the only woman he ever loved. Awkward.

Oh I almost forgot to mention the B story. The bio-neural gel packs that run everything on the ship have an infection. They've only got so many of these things, so they have to figure out how to fix them. They piece together that the cheese that Neelix has been culturing is the culprit of the bacteria. This situation is the background for one of the most mocked lines in the series, "Get the cheese to sickbay." The Doctor discovers that it's actually worse than that, because the bacteria is carrying a virus. Or something, I didn't really understand. Anyway, the gel packs can't fight it off because they can't run a fever like a regular organism would. So they have to super-heat all of the gel packs to get rid of the illness. This creates two situations on board the ship. The first is everyone becomes really sweaty and can't breathe. The second is Tuvok's training team is nearly killed by some gas from an exploded conduit. They youngest of the trainees, Garren, is knocked out. Tuvok demands that the rest leave him to die and get themselves to safety. They fight to rescue him, but Tuvok is unflinching, stating that leaving him is the correct tactical move. When the others have left, Tuvok himself goes back for Gerron. He basically fails in the rescue attempt, but by then the crisis is over so they all survive. In doing this he wins over the trainees. Dalby says that if Tuvok can bend the rules to save a man, that perhaps he can learn to follow them, and they all live happily ever after.

Despite its flaws, "Learning Curve" is still a Good Voyager episode. Of course we still have the disaster of the week with a technobabble solution, but actually the living gel packs getting a virus is a novel idea, and everyone understands the concept of a fever. So as far as life-threatening ship situations go, this one was actually fresh. Getting to see actual problems with blending in the Maquis crew was great, and Chakotay being a bad-ass was by far the highlight. The only complaint I have is that Tuvok bending the rules shouldn't be any surprise to the Maquis, given the events of Prime Factors. Now let's just delete Janeway Lambda One, ok?

Published May 29, 2017