“The Void”
Written by Raf Green & Kenneth Biller & James Kahn
Directed by Mike Vejar
Season 7, Episode 15
Production episode 261
Original air date: February 14, 2001
Stardate: 54553.4
Captain’s log. Seven is cooking a meal for Janeway, Chakotay, Paris, and Torres, but it’s interrupted by Voyager being sucked into an anomaly. Unable to break out of it, Voyager finds itself in a starless void—and is immediately fired on by a ship of unfamiliar design, albeit with Vaadwaur weapons.
The ship disables Voyager’s shields, and then steals most of their food stores, as well as their deuterium reserves.
It soon becomes clear that there are no planets, no stars, no nothin’—just a bunch of ships that are firing on each other and stealing resources. Janeway has an enlightening conversation with an Annari general named Valen, who has been stuck in the void for five years. He makes it clear that it’s every ship for itself and that there’s no escape. He’s also willing to trade supplies for some of Voyager’s photon torpedoes. Janeway refuses to trade weapons; Valen assures her that she’ll change her mind once her crew starts starving.
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They try to escape, but while the plan is good in theory, it fails in practice, and Voyager is now losing power—the void is draining power from the warp core. Before they can try again, they need more power, which means they need their deuterium back.
However, when they track down the ship that attacked them, they find it dead in space, with no life signs on board—and no trace of their stuff. Or of anything else useful—mostly. Seven detects that the casing of their warp core is made of tricesium, which they can convert to a power source. They beam the casing over, while Tuvok traces the ion trail of the ship that attacked.
Seven and Torres find a mute humanoid life form in the casing, that was somehow missed. They send him to sickbay, where the EMH determines that he can survive without oxygen for long periods of time, and later learns that his species can hide their lifesigns.
Meantime, they discover that Valen is the one who raided the ship. Janeway asks for her stuff back, but he refuses. So they fight, and Voyager takes out Valen’s shields. Janeway beams their stuff back—it’s only about half of what was taken—and refuses to take anything else from Valen.
Janeway decides that she’s going to get out of this by forming an alliance. Nobody’s escaped because nobody’s worked together. As Starfleet officers, they represent the Federation, and they need to start a federation here.
The EMH has christened the stowaway “Fantome,” as he seems to respond well to music. Eventually, the EMH is able to communicate with Fantome through music, creating a language out of musical notes.
Janeway approaches several ships, offering them food and non-defensive technology as gifts even for those who refuse. A Nygean captain named Garon is intrigued, and says he’ll think about it. Janeway gifts him Seven’s favorite phase compensator. (Seven is less than thrilled with this.)
A Hierarchy ship is sucked into the void, and Valen fires on it, along with another ship. Voyager defends the Hierarchy vessel—which has no weapons—and are aided by Garon. Valen and his ally are driven off, and now Janeway’s alliance has three ships.
This leads to more ships joining up, including a Kraylor vessel. We see Janeway trying to recruit Bosaal, a member of an unfamiliar alien species. He is intrigued, and he also speaks ill of Fantome when he encounters the alien, describing his species as vermin who infest their ships. While the EMH is (justifiably) outraged, Janeway takes advantage of Bosaal’s disgust to offer to take the beings off his hands. He agrees, and Janeway takes in refugees who give Fantome others of his kind to hang out with.
Torres is trying to build a polaron modulator, which will allow them to escape the void. Garon helps her try to build one, but they’re struggling. Janeway tries to find one on one of the other ships, but then Bosaal gives them one. However, when Janeway discovers that he destroyed a ship and salvaged it off there, Janeway refuses to accept it and kicks Bosaal out of the alliance. This has the unfortunate side effect of the Jelinians and the Kraylor also leaving the alliance.
Bosaal then forms an alliance with Valen. The Hierarchy are able to eavesdrop on the conversation between the two and share it with Janeway, who is so glad that she taught them the value of cooperation. However, Torres and Garon are able to construct a working modulator. The remaining alliance members move to escape the void. Valen and Bosaal fire on them, but the EMH beams Fantome and his new friends—who are native to the void and don’t wish to leave—to the engine rooms of Valen and Bosaal’s ships. They shut down the engines (Paris comments, “Who says gremlins in the engine are a myth?”) by way of thanking Voyager for saving their lives.
The alliance ships make it safely into normal space, and everyone goes their separate ways.
Can’t we just reverse the polarity? Paris is confused as to why their deuterium is stolen, as it’s incredibly common and can be found anywhere. He says this is a “duh” tone of voice, as if it should be obvious to anyone. This is the show’s way of apologizing for the abject stupidity of “Demon” with Voyager struggling to find deuterium, which is an isotope of hydrogen, the most common element in the universe.
There’s coffee in that nebula! Janeway is determined to form a mini-Federation inside the void, as she is convinced that cooperation is the key to escape.
Mr. Vulcan. Tuvok, along with Chakotay, tries to talk Janeway into being ruthless and practical (or should that be piratical?) while in the void, which is an understandable position for both the guerrilla fighter and the ruthlessly logical dude to take. Janeway tells them to go jump in a lake.
Half and half. Torres manages to build a polaron modulator, with Garon’s help. Because she’s just that awesome.
Please state the nature of the medical emergency. The EMH, with Seven’s help, manages to create an entire language out of musical notes for Fantome to use. He learns it very quickly, and even more quickly teaches it to his fellows.
Everybody comes to Neelix’s. In order to help sell Garon on the alliance, Neelix very cleverly positions himself as Janeway’s first recruit, even though it was six years and 40,000 light-years ago.
Resistance is futile. Seven has learned how to cook. She is apparently better at it than Neelix, though that is a low bar to clear. She also takes criticism really really poorly.
Do it.
“Is there any salt?”
“Additional seasoning is not required.”
“I’m sorry, I just—”
“If the quail hasn’t been prepared to your satisfaction, I could replicate something more to your liking—a peanut-butter-and-jelly sandwich, perhaps…”
“Actually, it’s delicious just the way it is.”
–Paris wanting more salt and Seven getting her back up.
Welcome aboard. Paul Willson plays Loquar, Scott Lawrence plays Garon, and Michael Shamus Wiles plays Bosaal. Jonathan del Arco, who had the recurring role of Hugh the Borg on two episodes of TNG and three episodes of Picard, plays Fantome.
And then we have this week’s Robert Knepper moment, as the late, great Robin Sachs—best known in genre circles as Ethan Rayne on Buffy the Vampire Slayer and as Sarris in Galaxy Quest—plays Valen.
Trivial matters: The Nygeans were last seen in “Repentance.” The Hierarchy were last seen (and their skill with surveillance displayed) in “Tinker Tenor Doctor Spy.” The Annari and the Kraylor were last seen in “Nightingale.” The Vaadwaur were last seen in “Dragon’s Teeth.”
Musical cues from the original Star Trek theme can be heard both when Fantome and his friends are communicating musically and when Janeway talks about forming a mini-Federation.
This episode was nominated for an Emmy for Outstanding Makeup for a Series. It lost to The Sopranos.
Set a course for home. “It was almost like being part of the Federation again.” I watch this episode and I get a feeling I’ve gotten a few times in this rewatch—notably after viewing “Counterpoint” and “Year of Hell” and even “Demon,” for all that it’s dreadful—to wit, that this is the sort of thing they should’ve been doing all the friggin time. Dealing with supply issues and horse trading and forming alliances and defending those who can’t defend themselves and all that good stuff.
The episode is very much reminiscent of two other Trek stories, one from twenty-seven years prior to its release, the other from seven years after it: “The Time Trap” episode of the animated series and the alternate-history novel Places of Exile in Myriad Universe: Infinity’s Prism, written by regular commenter Christopher L. Bennett.
In the former, the Enterprise and Klothos both find themselves trapped in a strange region of space from which there is no escape. But while the animated episode had the victims of the “Delta Triangle” forming their own government long before Kirk and Kor arrived, it’s our heroes who have to form a coalition in the Voyager episode.
And in the latter, Voyager is badly damaged and forced to curtail their journey home and build a life in the Delta Quadrant by making friends and forging an alliance known as the Delta Coalition.
What I like best about this episode is that it is, at heart, a perfect Star Trek episode. The underlying theme of the entire franchise has always been a future where people cooperate instead of fight. Sure, fighting happens, but ultimately it’s compassion that wins the day, from Kirk helping Balok even after he nearly killed them all to the Dominion War ending due to Odo offering to help the Great Link to the Burn being solved by Saru helping a hundred-year-old child.
And here, it’s working together instead of constant fighting that enables at least some of the exiled ships to escape. Plus it’s likely that others might follow their example—we already saw it with Valen and Bosaal, even if it was a much less compassionate alliance, and Bosaal was aware of how they planned to escape.
I especially love that Janeway never wavers from her position, which is entirely the right one for a Starfleet captain to have, even one stuck thousands of light-years from home. Not even when Bosaal packs his toys and goes home, taking two alliance members with him. And it’s not just because it’s easier and safer and with more short-term benefits to be just as mendacious as Valen—but because long-term, cooperation is better for everyone.
Warp factor rating: 9
Keith R.A. DeCandido is thrilled to be part of the upcoming anthology Three Time Travelers Walk Into…, which was just successfully crowdfunded on Kickstarter. The anthology is now open to submissions—you can find the guidelines here.
This is a great episode, and a true example of what the show could have (and, in my opinion, should have) been about, with some wonderful sci fi touches to boot. I adore the language of Fantome’s species- it easily could have gotten super annoying, but it had just the right light touch to be both feasible, alien, and not aggravating to us human viewers. The Void itself is a cool premise, and unlike a lot of the anomalies of the week is wisely there mostly to provide real character work and not just something for the crew to technobabble at. And I think the episode is a great answer to what annoyed me all the way back in “Alliances” when Janeway talks about sticking to Federation principles and not forming alliances with the Kazon or the Trabe- mainly, that forming actual, real alliances (not just being friendly with people, but actual trading of ideas, technology, and people) is seemingly exactly how the Federation does work. Janeway always comes down hard on the side of not giving away tech (until, inexplicably, it was mentioned in a throw-away line a few episodes ago that she had apparently started doing just that at some point), and that’s not wrong, but it is hard to form partnerships with people when you are only willing to give them stuff they don’t really need, and your refusal to give them anything they might actually find useful comes off as you not trusting them. Here, where everyone needs everything, she’s able to actually form partnerships because people need even the stuff she is willing to give away.
The one thing that annoys me here (and this is a minor quibble in a great episode) is that this group doesn’t seem to be much of a democracy, and Janeway seems to have all the final say. You’d think kicking a member out of the alliance would be the sort of thing you vote on (or at least have a discussion with your allies about) before you just go ahead and do it. And I disagree with KRAD on one thing- I’d would have liked to have seen Janeway waiver a little. She doesn’t have to abandon all her principles, but I think it would have been interesting to see her bring the issue with Bosaal to a vote- and have the rest of the members vote to keep him and the tech. That would have created some nice tension between her desire to do the “right” thing and not use the stolen technology, and her belief that this is an alliance of equals and that their votes should matter. But again, minor quibbles. This was a great outing, and I’m always amazed at how much they manage to get crammed into this episode without it ever seeming rushed or underdeveloped. Great work all around.
I’ve always loved this episode. It reminds me of the old story…”Stone Soup”..
“The Void” was an excellent episode, and unlike “Repression” and “Nightingale,” it didn‘t feel like it was too late. It would have been an appropriate episode at any point during the series’ run. Like you said, this should have been Voyager’s bread and butter from the beginning: forming alliances with other species and trading resources. In fact, it was established back in “Flesh and Blood” that Voyager had been trading replicator technology, after we spent two years doing everything – including threatening to destroy the ship – to prevent others from acquiring replicators. Trading what they had for what they needed should have been SOP from day one.
This episode reminded me in several ways of “Night.” Both featured the ship stuck in a starless void, with a mysterious species native to that void. In fact, when I rewatched “Night” a while back – before rewatching “The Void” – I was confused because I was sure that the Doctor somehow communicated with those aliens using music, and I had confused elements from the two episodes.
Also noteworthy is that Voyager encounters species in the Void that have appeared in recent episodes like “Repentance” and “Nightingale.” The Vaadwaur had those corridors which would explain their appearance out this far. Only the appearance of the Hierarchy sounds circumspect, except they did clarify that it was a survey vessel, which could conceivably be some distance from home. The appearance of the Hierarchy later in “Renaissance Man” is much more problematic
Keith, I’m amused that you compare this to Places of Exile, because — while it’s been forever — I’m pretty sure that part of what inspired PoE was my fondness for this episode and my reaction, much like yours, that it’s what the whole darn series should’ve been about. I like the execution enough that I’m even able to forgive the fact that they’re just redoing “The Time Trap.”
Although you left out the first iteration of this premise, Gold Key’s Star Trek #15: “Museum at the End of Time” by Len Wein, which came out a year before “The Time Trap” and told an uncannily similar story.
@3/bgsu98: As I’ve mentioned before, Janeway’s resistance with sharing advanced tech with the Kazon wasn’t a universal policy about tech-sharing; the point was that she considered Kazon society to be too far behind the Federation to be “ready” for such advanced technology, and too hostile to be trusted with it. So there’s no reason she wouldn’t have been willing to trade technology with a more advanced and peaceful civilization.
As for the Hierarchy Potato People, there’s nothing problematical about them continuing to appear throughout seasons 6-7. After all, Voyager doesn’t make any really large jumps in the last two seasons, just a couple of small ones (the Vaadwaur subspace corridor and the graviton catapult), so they don’t cover much more ground in the last two seasons than they did in the first two seasons. Thus, encountering the Hierarchy repeatedly is no more implausible than encountering the Kazon or Vidiians repeatedly.
My mind usually goes to this episode when I recall Season 7, as it’s one of Janeway’s finest hours. Janeway sticks to the core principles of the Federation and it works. Episodes like this that highlight those principles (cooperation, tolerance) while giving us a good story is Trek at it’s best.
One of the highlights of season seven and just a quintessential episode of Star Trek in general. This was a joy to watch and thrilling. Being stuck in a void potentially forever with no escape until your supplies run out and constantly under attack by hostile parties sounds like a kind of hell so you feel the sense of urgency for our heroes. Fantome and his ilk are a fascinating species and I love that the communication gap with them is bridged through music.
We have del Arco, the actor who’s played Hugh, the Borg, for the first and only time sharing scenes with Seven (albeit as a completely different character). Even though they were both on season one of Picard, Hugh was killed off before ever meeting up with Seven which was very disappointing. Del Arco’s husband is Jeri Ryan’s talent agent so I wonder if the actors working together here put that working relationship in motion.
This episode had some of my favorite of Jay Chattaway’s music for the series.
I was happy some of these cues ended up on the VOY set La La Land records put out a fear years ago.
This episode hits all the right notes. It doesn’t even come across as eye-rolly when Janeway is sticking to her guns on cooperation and Starfleet principles. It’s true that being pirates and stealing from everyone else is just a way to die slower, its not a way out. You have to do something different to actually beat the problem. Trying to form an alliance with thieves and killers doesn’t seem like a stable plan, but on the other hand all the captains of the other ships can say they are doing it for their crew.
I hope they put warning beacons around the anomaly afterward, as the only folks to escape the void. I suppose that robs the ships left inside of any new resources for getting out though.
karey: first of all, thank you for mentioning warning buoys, as I meant to mention that and forgot. They definitely should have put some kind of metaphorical fence around the funnels into the void.
Second of all, “hits all the right notes”? Really? *groan*
—Keith R.A. DeCandido
Ba dum tss. I’ll show myself out.
The episode’s plot bears something of a resemblance to the plot of “Elite Force”, a Voyager-set video game released around the same time. I can’t find anything to back it up now, and I may be imagining it, but once upon a time I recall reading that it was originally going to directly tie in to the game’s story but the plans were dropped.
Based on The Corbomite Maneuver and Spectre of the Gun, Starfleet would just ignore any warning buoys
Interesting that Janeway scans the Starfleet charter to try and find a loophole that would allow for raiding an alien vessel, when Enterprise’s “Damage” shows Archer and Co. doing such a raid.
Picard placed a warning buoy around the massacred planet from “The Survivors” to avoid the god-like alien that took up residence there. I’m sure that warning’s been heeded.
“No killing, no stealing and no giving up.”
Janeway gets another chance to show off her Federation values, and once again Chakotay and Tuvok both seem more keen than her to throw them away. It’s no surprise that Janeway turns out to be right, but you have to admire her for sticking to her principles, and she only really crosses the line into being unnecessarily dogmatic a couple of times. Ultimately, she keeps her promise to her allies and gets them home, and that puts her ahead of the void veterans who were only interested in surviving.
I’m somewhat uncomfortable with Valen’s role in the episode. He’s positioned as an antagonist, yet in almost every encounter, Voyager are the aggressors. Maybe if they hadn’t been so quick to shut down his offers of help, he’d have been willing to join them, instead of almost scuppering their escape.
Wow, someone remembered the Vaudwaar exist! Maybe this is why we never heard from them again: They all got sucked into the void. The Hierarchy makes a reappearance as well, on Voyager’s side this time.
Seven learning to cook is a nice progression of her decision to try and enjoy food more in “Body and Soul”, and her performance as a rather prima donna chef is an amusing opening. Neelix and Seven both say Voyager’s been out there for six years, and there’s another reference to the Doctor’s failure to choose a name.
@13/bgsu98: “Interesting that Janeway scans the Starfleet charter to try and find a loophole that would allow for raiding an alien vessel, when Enterprise’s “Damage” shows Archer and Co. doing such a raid.”
Different Starfleet. Archer served Earth Starfleet, which was the predecessor of the Federation Starfleet. Also, Enterprise was on a wartime mission in “Damage,” and even then, Archer’s actions were considered morally questionable, his “In the Pale Moonlight” moment where he was forced to cross an ethical line. So it certainly didn’t represent standard Starfleet procedure and may very well have been illegal.
A classic Voyager episode with one of the most wholesome Starfleet Values themes in the franchise. Always a delight when it comes on. Had no clue that was Hugh. The shot of the escaping ships in the bubble on the way out of the Void was fantastic and triumphant. I always wondered about Valen’s reaction to them actually escaping the Void. Was it, “If they can do it, I can do it” or more of a breakdown? A crushing realization that he bet on the wrong horse.
Ha! Robin Sachs was Valen. For me he’ll always be Zaeed Masani.
– I thought I had seen this one before but confused it with “Night.”
– I really dug the aliens communicating with music ala Close Encounters. Also some nice non-verbal acting from del Arco in particular.
– Janeway reading the charter reminded me of the person who found W.C. Fields reading a Bible and asked him what he was doing. “Looking for loopholes, my dear, looking for loopholes.” :-)
– An all-around wonderful episode! By the way, thank you for these reviews. It’s alerted me to some gems I missed.
Thanks for reminding me of *Places of Exile* and “Time Trap”
The salt business may be inspired by this from the classic British sitcom “Chef!”
https://www.facebook.com/Gianfranco.Chiarini/videos/dont-ask-for-salt-the-salt-insult-episode/10152997535460382/
AndyLove: I did notice that Seven had a certain Gareth Blackstock quality about her…..
—Keith R.A. DeCandido
My spouse’s quibble with this episode is that the Potato People seem to function quite well without a connection to the Hierarchy. They thought the Potatoes would collapse into a stupor and fail to function with no one to guide them. Therefore, they concluded, this must be a completely different group of the same species. I said that the Hierarchy must have contingency plans since losing communication isn’t an uncommon occurrence for space ships. Spouse refuses and says this is now their personal headcannon and they will die on this hill.
@21/EveZ: I’m with you. The Potato People (yay, you’re using my nickname) aren’t a hive mind, just a bureaucratic culture. Even in “Tinker, Tenor,” we saw that the subordinate Potato Person was more of an independent thinker than his officious boss.
I think it’s rather brilliant that the upcoming Prodigy takes place in the Delta Quadrant because it has that unique playground unlike the other Star Trek series currently in production and can build on what came before it with Voyager and bring back some of the more fun and memorable elements of that prior series. I bring this up because the Hierarchy/Potato People were one of the more standout species invented on Voyager and it would be great to see them again.
Every now and then, there are those who claim that the Trek spinoffs deviate too far from Roddenberry’s vision of an optimistic future. Both Voyager and DS9 used to be lightning rods for that sort of criticism (nowadays, both Discovery and Picard take the brunt of it).
Every time anyone uses that argument, I bring up an episode like The Void. Easily the most Roddenberryan episode Voyager’s done. Multi-species cooperation is one of Trek’s classic elements, and Voyager thankfully does this story justice. I like to put it up against season 2’s Alliances as an example of how to do this type of story well. At least Biller learned a lesson or two from the problematic early Piller/Taylor era.
Indeed, this is a plot that should have come up far more often than it has. Better late than never, I suppose. Janeway is consistently written here (which in itself is more unusual than not). Much like in Repentance, she sticks to her core beliefs, and is willing to settle for compromises for the greater good. And yet, she never waivers, even when it all seems to fall apart.
@krad: Your points about showing compassion. Those are some good examples, but I have another one. I’ve recently rewatched The Cage. For much of the episode, Pike is seething with rage over being held captive by the Talosians. But the minute he discovers that they’re victims of a devastating nuclear holocaust – and that they’re headed for extinction – he switches gears, puts his anger aside, and is more than willing to reach a trading compromise for their sake.
And speaking of Valen, Robin Sachs had not just one, but three memorable roles on Babylon 5. Two Narn, Na’Tok and Na’Kal, and Minbari councilman Coplann.
Whenever the Potato People are on screen I just get distracted by trying to work out whether or not they’re a deliberate parody of the Sontarans and totally miss whatever’s going on in terms of plot.
@25/Muswell: I don’t think the Overlookers (as the Potato People were called in the scripts) were intended as a Sontaran parody or homage. Basically, when you’ve got two franchises as huge as Star Trek and Doctor Who, with so many different alien designs in each, it’s inevitable that they’d occasionally hit upon similar designs without even trying.
Although I don’t really think the resemblance is that strong. The Overlookers’ heads are vertically oriented ovals while Sontarans’ are horizontally oriented domes (inspired by the joke of an alien removing its helmet to reveal a head of the same shape), and Overlookers appear doughy and unthreatening while Sontarans are harsher-featured. And the intentions behind the species are just too different. Robert Holmes created the Sontarans as a satire of militarism and imperialism, while the Overlookers are a satire of ineffectual bureacracy.
Just a marvelous episode. One thing I noted was that the employed the rarely used musical montage, which avoided a lot of stodgy techno babble, compressed the narrative, and made for a nicely lyrical sequence. Also, we got space battles, and I’ll always enjoy those. This episode really felt like a mini-movie to the point that I would almost believe it a two-parter, yet it avoids that disappointing fate.
Seeing the space gremlins get the best of the bigots is a joy all its own.
It’s just nice to see idealism triumph over cynicism and not have it come across as cloying or forced.