Article: Basics (Voyager episode)

Basics is a two-part episode of the Star Trek: Voyager television series.

Episode Summary

While Tuvok works to rehabilitate Ensign Suder, an unstable killer confined to his quarters, Chakotay receives a desperate subspace message from Seska. She's given birth to the child that was fathered with the DNA stolen from the First Officer, and she claims that her Kazon lover, Maje Culluh, is going to take her son away.

Part I

Chakotay is torn. Seska is untrustworthy and could be trying to lead Voyager into a trap. But if it is truly his child, he owes it his help. They set out to find Seska, and en route, Voyager receives a distress call from a Kazon shuttle manned by Tierna, one of Seska's aides. The injured Kazon reports that Culluh has killed Seska. Tierna managed to survive by bribing a guard and stealing a shuttle.

Voyager heads for the colony world where Culluh has sent Chakotay's son. The starship sustains several minor Kazon attacks, although none cause serious damage. Still, the fact that each of the attacks has focused on a certain section of the ship makes them suspicious. When Janeway tells Paris to alter their course, the ship is suddenly confronted with eight large Kazon vessels, clearly attempting to coerce them into a different direction. Unwilling to be manipulated, Janeway decides to intercept the lead Kazon vessel.

Using some deception of its own, Voyager manages to send most of the vessels at different targets, leaving only the lead vessel to fight. But as the battle intensifies, Tierna deliberately triggers a massive explosion in his own body, sacrificing his life to damage the ship. The tactic also serves to destroy Voyager's decoys, and three of the previously distracted Kazon vessels return to attack. Paris quickly boards a shuttlecraft to seek help from a nearby Talaxian colony, but the little ship is hit by Kazon fire, and Voyager loses contact.

Voyager departing without her crew

As Kazon intruders board the crippled starship, Janeway orders self-destruct, but the secondary command pathways were damaged by the repeated small Kazon attacks; Janeway is forced to surrender. A victorious Culluh and Seska, who is still very much alive, take command while the Doctor secretly deactivates himself for twelve hours. The Kazon then strand the crew on a primitive planet and depart, unaware that there is still one crewmember aboard: Ensign Suder.

Part II

Stranded by the Kazon on a desolate planet ravaged by earthquakes and vicious cave creatures, the crew seeks food and shelter. At the same time, Paris, who managed to flee Voyager in a shuttle before the Kazon seized the ship, solicits help from the Talaxians. On Voyager, the Doctor surprises Seska when he reveals that her newborn baby isn't Chakotay's child after all — he's Culluh's. After she leaves, the Doctor discovers that he's not the only member of the crew left on the ship; Ensign Suder, the violent sociopath whom Tuvok has been attempting to rehabilitate, is still aboard. They join forces against the Kazon, but as they plot strategy, Suder expresses regret over the fact that he will probably need to kill Kazon to wrest control of Voyager.

The natives on Hanan IV

On the planet, Kes and Neelix are kidnapped by the primitive humanoid natives. Chakotay and a rescue party free them, but during their getaway, they're all forced to take cover in one of the dangerous caves. They manage to elude the enormous eel-like creature that lives inside, and seal off the opening as they exit.

As Paris heads back to Voyager with reinforcements, he sends a message to the Doctor, asking him to disable the secondary phaser couplings. Suder has been sabotaging Voyager's systems from within, using an old Maquis trick to avoid detection. But former Maquis Seska figures out that there's a saboteur aboard and confronts the Doctor. He claims that he's the only saboteur and Seska disables his program before he can disable the back-up couplings. That leaves Suder as the crew's last hope, and he heroically disables the phasers before being killed by a Kazon.

On the planet, a volcano erupts, and the Voyager crew flee to higher ground, as do the cave dwellers. One younger native is stranded on a rock surrounded by flowing lava, and Chakotay rescues her, returning her to the natives, who realize the strangers are not evil, and lead them to safety, as well as offering an herbal treatment to Naomi Wildman, an infant who is suffering.

Paris knocks out Voyager's main phasers, and when Culluh tries to use the back-up system, Seska and many of the others on the Bridge are mortally wounded. She dies as Paris and the Talaxians board Voyager, and Culluh takes the baby with him when he abandons the ship. Paris takes control of the starship and goes back for the crew. Later, Tuvok offers a Vulcan prayer of peace over Suder's body as Janeway sets a course for home.