Way to go, Voyager! No meaningless cold open with vapid conversation preceding anything of note happens; you just jumped right into some solid science fiction procedural. And, going even further, it wasn’t meaningless sci-fi procedural just for the sake of it, either. You gave us a thoughtful and plausible demonstration of how a well-trained Federation crew might operate in the presence of a serious crisis. Five stars!
Synopsis of “Alliances”:
Hoping to strengthen Voyager’s strategic position in the quadrant, Janeway reluctantly seeks an alliance with ethnic Kazon.
Then the rest of the plot happens, which was a precipitous dive from the intrigue set up by the cold open. The episode devolved into dilute political drama, with extended conversations about the vague Kazon lust for power and the relationship between Seska and the main Maj.
A bit of treason spiced up the plot briefly, the meat of which was left for much later down the road in the arc of the show.
The moral quandary of the episode deals in Voyager’s crew demanding a relaxation of Janeway’s obstinate adherence to Federation rules and protocols. Janeway relents and reluctantly forges an alliance (that’s the title of the episode) with the Kazon, only to be vindicated when the plan goes south.
The irony here is that the instigator of Federation regulation abandonment is typically Janeway. She’ll adamantly defend relinquishing her Federation values for the sake of the crew’s safety. This is a common theme with Janeway, substantiating the internet consensus that she’s actually a not-so-great captain. But we’ll leave that for the comment section.
If you’ve recently seen this episode, you’ll remember the infamous council scene, where all the Majes are introduced to canned cheering and applause and terribly synthetic trumpet fanfares, which believe it or not is only! heard in certain territories, it is omitted in the version shown in the UK…
There’s some burgeoning mythology surrounding this odd soundtrack choice by the producers, considering the applause and faux-trumpets have been specifically removed from certain streaming platforms, but left in others. If you have any information that might shed light on this controversy, we beg for your enlightenment.
