Star Trek: Time and Again

Episode: "Time and Again"

Series: Star Trek: Voyager

Season 1, Episode 4

Original Air Date: January 30, 1995

via Memory Alpha

Our heroes investigate an explosion which has wiped out all life on an M-class planet.  During the away mission, Janeway and Paris are sent back a day giving them time enough to prevent the explosion.  Of course, there's the Prime Directive dilemma.  Would preventing the catastrophe or even warning the inhabitants count as interference?  Even if the alternative is extinction?

Wasn't it just last week that I was saying Voyager goes back to the time travel well too often?  What's more, this time, once the time wrinkle is sorted out, it's as if the entire incident never happened.  So not only is it "all just a dream" but nobody remembers the dream.  Any character or relationship growth is irrelevant.

Sigh...

There is one element of interest for the future.  It would seem Kes has some telepathic ability, even having a lingering sense of something wrong after everyone else "wakes up" from the time travel adventure.  Three episodes in, it's already apparent that Kes is one of the more interesting and enigmatic principals, a genuine shame given future developments.

As long as we're on the subject of the Prime Directive, I've been thinking about it a lot lately.  One does when one watches a lot of Star Trek.  For the more casual Trek fans among you, the Prime Directive prohibits Starfleet personnel from interfering with the normal development of any society.  In my experience, it is rarely mentioned without being violated soon after.  This fact has bothered me for a long time.  I like the Prime Directive both as a principle and as a narrative device.  Many Trek stories are built around PD dilemmas.  But whereas Asimov's comparable Three Laws of Robotics are absolutely inviolate, Starfleet captains seemingly can't stop themselves from breaking their own most important rule given the chance.

Recently, I've wondered if there's a message in this.  Simply put, one should not be guided by absolutes.  There is always grey area and judgment in each isolated situation matters.  Going back to the beginning, Kirk searching for the middle ground between Spock's logic and McCoy's gut instinct was always the heart of the matter.  The Prime Directive restricts the capacity for making the "right" choice, even the right Star Trek choice.  

I still feel the question remains as to whether or not anyone should ever be given the godlike powers inherent in making such decisions.  But there's no doubt the consideration itself makes for good television, 58 years and counting.

Acting Notes

via Headhunter's Holosuite Wiki

Roxann Biggs-Dawson (B'Elanna Torres) was born in Los Angeles, September 11, 1958.  She graduated from UC-Berkeley.  Success came quickly.  Her first professional acting job was on Broadway in A Chorus Line.  She appeared as a background dancer in the film of the same name.  Before Voyager, she made appearances on Nightingales, Matlock and Jake and the Fat Man.

Since Star Trek Biggs-Dawson, has had more work as a director than as an actor.  She has directed for many television series, including Star Trek: Enterprise, Heroes and Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.  She has written two plays: Desire to Fall and Passage Through the Heart.  She has also co-authored a science fiction trilogy with Daniel Graham: Entering Tenebrea, Tenebrea's Hope and Tenebrea Rising.