2x25 Resolutions

[6.9/10] “Resolutions” is a good episode that should be a great one. On paper, everything works. Janeway and Chakotay are stranded on an idyllic alien planet, forced to reckon with whether they’ll ever be able to leave and, eventually, their sublimated feelings for one another. At the same time, Tuvok is in charge on Voyager, facing the difficult command situation of whether to put the crew at risk to save the captain and first officer, and assuage the consciences of the crew.

Both of those stories should work like gangbusters. The Janeway/Chakotay story comes with a built-in conflict. The pair are left behind because they’ve come down with a local virus that only the planet’s atmosphere can stave off. (Just go with it, alright?) Kathryn wants to keep researching a cure, while Chakotay wants to spend his efforts making their lives more comfortable in preparation for a long stay.

But the differing viewpoints never amount to much. It’s sweet to see Chakotay constructing creature comforts for Janeway, like a bath and a headboard. It’s compelling to watch Janeway’s determination manifest itself yet again as she takes insect samples and pores over data. And yet, despite their different attitudes about whether to keep trying or accept that this is their life now, it’s never really dramatized in an interesting way.

They never seem to feel particularly strongly in either direction. As with Voyager’s original stranding, neither of them seem to feel any major distress at the prospect of never seeing anything beyond his planet again, which makes it hard for the audience to feel the gravity of this decision. (Though Janeway’s farewell to the crew is poignant.) Even when Janeway’s research is conveniently destroyed by a plasma storm, forcing her to give up the notion of finding a cure, nothing really changes about her attitude or demeanor. She and Chakotay basically have one polite conversation about their difference in views, and it doesn’t really result in any changes or sparks otherwise.

The Tuvok story has greater success, but also left me wanting more. His subplot here is reminiscent of “Redemption” from The Next Generation, where Picard granted Data command of a ship, only to find its senior officers doubting that he had the empathy to lead a crew. Tuvok’s in a similar position. He is rule bound and logical to a fault. The crew wants him to reach out to the Vidians to see if they might have a cure for Janeway and Chakotay’s affliction, but from Tuvok’s perspective (a.) seeking them out would put the ship and the crew in danger and (b.) the captain specifically ordered him not to do so. For him, it’s an open and shut case.

For the crew, though, it’s not so simple. Orders be damned. Risks be damned, If there’s even a chance to save their captain and first officer, they want to take it. The writers do a solid job of showing the groundswell of support for the idea, across both the Starfleet and Maquis contingents on the ship (though they haven't been in much conflict in a while). The only mistake is channeling the resistance through Harry. God bless him, Garrett Wang just isn’t up to the steel or level of intensity that the script asks for, so his challenges to Tuvok’s reasoning and outright insubordination occasionally feel like a kid play acting rather than the anger of determined and devoted officer.

Still, I like where this ends up. What ends up changing Tuvok’s mind is not Harry’s rebuke or challenges from others on the crew. It’s Kes appealing to the need to take care of the mental well-being of the crew, not just the physical well-being. Tuvok may have control of his emotions, but he’s not without attachments, to Janeway and to Kes, who are able to cut through his bent toward pure reason. More than that, Kes puts this in terms he can understand, as a responsibility of command, to manage others’ emotions even if he doesn’t want to be ruled by that.

His ultimate answer seems very on-brand. He acquiesces to the collection of crew members making a stand on the bridge, but frames it as his own independent decision, absolving them of any blame or responsibility. Tuvok bends, as a good captain should now and then in the face of a crew with a burning need, but he does so in a way that feels true to his attitude about command, a very Vulcan way.

What follows is mostly a foregone conclusion. There’s some action and excitement involving the Vidians agreeing to help only to attack Voyager, much as Janeway and Tuvok feared. But for the most part, it’s the usual fireworks without much in the way of good wrinkles. It is nice that The Doctor and Danara Pell get a brief reunion that moves the plot along. But the action portion of this one is perfunctory once Tuvok’s decision has been made.

All that said, the romantic material between Kathryn and Chakotay on the planet is a mixed bag. The weird thing about their romantic tension is that it only works when it’s sublimated. The two of them flirting freely when reenacting Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman together feels forced. They’re going for an easy rapport between the pair when freed from the burdens of command, and it just doesn’t ring true. Chemistry is a tricky business, and something about the patter, or the two together doing their usual thing seems fake and unconvincing.

What’s odd, though, is that when they revert to “We can't do this” mode, all the electricity between them returns. Chakotay massaging the knot in Kathryn’s back, her leaning into the intimacy of the moment, only to catch herself when things start to slip in a more romantic dimension is the most human moment in the episode. Janeway wanting to have a conversation where they lay down some “parameters”, only for Chakotay to retreat to a “fable” about an angry warrior ready to follow a woman leader wherever she goes has power from him talking around the thing rather than about the thing. Something about the forbidden romance angle between the two of them is what gives their connection strength, in a way that them being open and free with each other just doesn’t. Conveying love on the screen is hard, and it’s no sin to fall short sometimes.

But that's the gentle tragedy of this whole thing. You get the sense that part of why Chakotay is more invested in the life of being stranded on this planet is that it’s a chance for them to be together. Tuvok coming to rescue them is a blessing and a curse. On the one hand, it means that they can return to their friends, continue the journey home, and enjoy the comforts that this measure of “roughing it” doesn’t offer.

On the other hand, it means that their provenance as partners comes in the form of command decisions and ship’s diagnostics, not in couple’s boat trips or back massages. The walls they have to put up for the good of the ship and their duty return. There’s something so bittersweet about that, something that ought to be so powerful about swallowing your feelings for another person because the situation demands it.

Instead, everything in “Resolutions” feels a bit less forceful and full-formed than it ought to be. The aims here are noble. The stories are sound. The bones of the episode are good. But something in the execution leaves the results falling short of their potential, a sad but recurring factor in Voyager’s journey as a ship and a show.