VOY S3E14 "Alter Ego" Review By AnswerMan

Horrible:Meh:Adequate:Good:Fantastic

Oh ya, the one where the dopey and always love-lorn Harry Kim falls in love with a holodeck character. Paris will be making fun of Harry for years to come about this. And probably for that reason, I had forgot that actually this is not a Harry episode at all. It's actually a Tuvok episode, and it's a damn Good one.



Kim goes to Tuvok for help with suppressing his emotions, because he is in love with a holodeck character named Marayna. When Tuvok is dragged to a party on the holodeck, he finds Marayna playing Kal-toh. He interacts with her, and the first thing she does is call him out on not wearing a lei as an act of protest and an attempt to isolate himself even though he's at a part with tons of people. She has his attention. Tuvok:

The two end up talking all night, and Tuvok is actually the last one to leave the party. She has amazing insight into Tuvok's personality. She says that him suppressing his emotions is like a person bobbing on the water and convincing themselves that they are in control of the wind and currents, while being completely oblivious to the ocean depths directly below the surface. Tuvok is amazed and now understands why Harry is so intrigued with this holodeck character. Meanwhile on the ship, everything is going wonky, and all those crazy space nebula things that they couldn't figure out why they weren't exploding are now exploding. Kim is useless in his pouty state, so he's relieved and heads to the holodeck, where he finds Marayna and Tuvok again chatting it up. Kim is pissed and jealous, and as a way to demonstrate that she means nothing to him, Tuvok deletes Marayna's program.

But as he returns to his quarter, Tuvok finds Marayna there, in the flesh. She has stolen The Doctor's mobile emitter. Also, she's in control of the ship. She wants to live on the holodeck with Tuvok, or else she'll destroy the ship. The crew discusses that she must be a sentient holodeck character like Moriarity in "Ship in a Bottle," who was also able to take over the ship. But that's not how I remember it. Didn't he just create a copy of the ship on the holodeck to trick them? Anyway, they discover that this is actually not the case, Marayna is an alien on a space station. Tuvok beams over to surprise her, and learns that she is alone there with the sole responsibility of making sure the nebula doesn't explode. I mean, it's good work if you can find it. She is lonely, and hidden, and so often she entertains herself by snooping through the ships that pass by the tourist attraction. But when she met Tuvok, she became smitten. He explains to her that while he would sacrifice himself to save the ship, he could never return her affections. Just because you keep saying it over and over doesn't make it true, Tuvok.

So she let's him go. In their parting words he suggests that she should call for relief at the station so that she can begin to rejoin society. She says she might, but then asks about Tuvok. Will he choose to always be alone? BAM.

This episode is great because even though it's Harry that goes to Tuvok for help, Tuvok ends up finding himself in the exact same situation. The ship is melting down around him, and he's in the holodeck playing Kal-toh with this lady. Though he doesn't admit it, he is completely taken with her. He is even willing to damage his relationship with Harry by pursuing her. She gets him on a level that no one else on the ship seems to, and deep inside he is lonely. She throws him way off his game. "Alter Ego" has a very TOS feel to me. We have a love interest, and alien that has taken over the ship, an alien that has presented itself as one thing but is actually another, and a deep dive into a main character's psyche. This is not a Harry Kim episode. In fact, I wish he weren't even in it. If they had pushed Tuvok just a little more into temptation, it would have been perfect. But still it's just a very enjoyable hour of Trek.

Oh by the way, there was on line that stood out like a sore thumb because it was so bad. Upon hearing that the hologram is actually an alien, Chakotay immediately blurts out, "She's been using the Marayna character like a puppet!" I don't know why, but this line just felt so out of place. I don't think it was Beltran's delivery, I think it just didn't need to be said. Or perhaps it's because the outrage seems to be directed at using Marayna? I don't know man, but it made me laugh.

Published March 10, 2019