Follow TV Tropes

Following

Recap / Star Trek: Voyager S2 E8: "Persistence of Vision"

Go To

Captain Janeway is preparing for the ship to enter Bothan territory, while the crew is trying to install more holographic emitters around the ship for the Doctor. He comes out tiny, but even in his diminutive state he can tell that the captain is getting frazzled, so he orders her to take some time off. She goes back to her holonovel, in which she's a governess over a brooding gentleman's two children. The gentleman greets her with a declaration of love and an intense kiss; Janeway barely gets to process the sensations when she's called right back to work.

The ship has entered Bothan space, and a Bothan captain demands to meet them in person at a set location. En route to the rendezvous, Janeway starts seeing elements from her novel, such as a floral tea cup and plate of cucumber sandwiches. Soon she's seeing the little girl from the novel wandering the hallways. Janeway is convinced that the new holographic emitters are malfunctioning, but that's not it. She gets checked out by sickbay, but nothing seems wrong physically. Kes reveals that she can see Janeway's hallucinations as well, showing that something real and psychic is going on. Janeway gets sent to her quarters, where a character from her novel attacks her, but it turns out that she never left sick bay and is hallucinating.

The ship is confronted by the Bothan ship, but two more ships decloak and attack via remote control. Voyager is damaged to the point of helplessness, and the Bothan ship demands surrender. Janeway returns to the bridge, but when the Bothan steps forward on the viewscreen, she sees her fiance, Mark. Various other crewmen see their own loved ones and become entranced in the hallucination. It's up to the few remaining lucid crewmen to effect their escape. Janeway tries to navigate the ship away - Paris initially resists the visions, due to it being his despised father, but freezes up with the rest of crew - while Torres tries to set up a resonance burst from the warp core to block the psychic attacks, but they both get stuck in sexual fantasies: Janeway with Mark and Torres with Chakotay.

Only the Doctor and Kes are left. Kes goes to replicate Torres' plan, while the Doctor stays online to help. On her way to the engine room, Kes encounters an injured Paris, but she realizes that he's a hallucination sent to stop her. She arrives at the engine room and starts putting the plan into action, but she's then confronted by Neelix, who also tries to lure her away. When she refuses, she becomes covered in painful wounds, causing her to scream in agony, but she focuses her mind to reflect the psychic attack back on the fake Neelix, transferring the wounds to him. He collapses, and Kes successfully initiates the resonance burst, freeing the crew.

The fake Neelix turns into the Bothan's true shape, and he compliments Kes's strength. Janeway questions the Bothan, resolving to take away his ability to harm any more people with his psychic attacks, but the Bothan reveals he's never been aboard the ship in the first place. He vanishes, along with his ship. With everything back to normal, Janeway relaxes in the mess hall. Torres suggests that the Bothan has forced everyone to confront their buried emotions, and Janeway admits that her own hallucination was embarrassing. Torres leaves to get some sleep, and Janeway wishes her pleasant dreams.


This episode has the following tropes:

  • Absence Makes the Heart Go Yonder: Janeway finds herself enjoying Lord Burleigh's kiss, and a hallucination of her fiance Mark remonstrates her over it.
  • Aborted Arc: This was the third and final appearance of Janeway's Gothic holonovel (after "Cathexis" and "Learning Curve"). A conclusion was written, but never filmed.
  • Aesop Amnesia: At the end of the episode, B'Elanna and Janeway realize that the Bothan raised subconscious issues that they need to confront. They spend the next few years ignoring this lesson thanks to B'Elanna's fear of intimacy, and Janeway's workaholism and the need to keep professional distance.
  • Anguished Declaration of Love: Lord Burleigh to his governess. Janeway is rather thrown, and she's not even from that century!
  • Attack Pattern Alpha: Evasive Pattern Beta-2.
  • Attack Reflector: Kes realises she is a mirror to the Bothan telepathic attack.
  • Beware the Nice Ones: Kes proves she's got some nasty tricks up her sleeve, and not for the last time.
  • Big Brother Is Watching You: Thanks to the ship's computer, Neelix knows exactly where to go to annoy Captain Janeway.
  • Body Horror: The Bothan makes Kes hallucinate some painful, gruesome-looking sores on her hands and face. Fortunately, being an Attack Reflector she can give as good as she gets.
  • Call-Back:
    • "Projections" first mentioned the experiments with projecting the Doctor into other parts of Voyager. The equipment was already installed, but it turned out to be the Doctor's fantasy; here we see it beginning to be implemented, but there are still teething troubles.
    • "Parallax" with the EMH being shrunk again.
  • Cat Fight: Mrs Templeton tries to stab Janeway with a carving knife, and they end up rolling around on the carpet until Janeway is revived in Sickbay.
  • Continuity Nod: Janeway looks at the photo of her fiance Mark and her dog Mollie ("Caretaker").
  • Creepy Child: Lord Burleigh's children, especially when Janeway starts seeing them outside the holodeck.
  • The Determinator: At first it appears to be Janeway, but she succumbs and it turns out to be Kes who saves the ship.
  • Doctor's Orders: Despite being a teeny-weeny Doc, the EMH successfully orders Janeway to take a break.
  • Double-Meaning Title: While the episode title has a legitimate scientific meaning (see Terminology Title below) that maps well to Janeway seeing holodeck artifacts outside of it, it also calls to mind the famous Salvador DalĂ­ painting The Persistence of Memory. Not only are memories the source of the hallucinations, the disturbing and surreal imagery of the painting is another clue that this is going to be a Mind Screw episode (if not quite as unreal as it could have been).
  • Dramatic Drop: On the holodeck program, Burleigh's daughter drops a coffee cup when Janeway says she heard the piano music played by her (deceased) mother.
  • Emerging from the Shadows: When the Bothan steps into the light, Janeway is shocked to see Mark.
  • Face Framed in Shadow: The Bothan when he's first contacted by Voyager, which Janeway puts down to psychological warfare.
  • Fake Static: Tuvok changes the viewscreen to a Snowy Screen of Death so he can talk to Janeway without the Bothan hearing.
  • Foreshadowing:
    • The experiments on projecting the Doctor outside the holodeck were because the writers were frustrated with him only being confined to Sickbay and the holodeck. Eventually they would solve this problem with the mobile emitter in "Future's End".
    • Janeway does eventually solve her loneliness issues with a holographic lover in "Fair Haven".
  • For the Evulz: Why the Bothan does what he does to the Voyager crew: "Because I can."
  • Get Out!: "Get out of my life!"
  • Ghostly Chill: Kes feels cold for a moment while Janeway is in Sickbay.
  • Green-Eyed Monster: The reason for the image of Mrs. Templeton attacking Janeway with a knife, since she believes she "stole" Lord Burleigh from her. While this was likely just the Bothan extrapolating, enough hints in the actual holonovel suggest the character really could have had such feelings.
  • Hearing Voices + Hallucinations: Captain Janeway, then the rest of the crew.
  • The Heart: As she heads for Engineering, Kes hallucinates a wounded Tom who begs her to take him to Sickbay.
  • Homage: After starting out as a clear Jane Eyre rip-off and then dabbling in The Turn of the Screw territory, the final installment of Janeway's holonovel veers solidly back to Jane Eyre, with her brooding master declaring his love for her while a spooky mystery remains locked in the top floor of the mansion.
  • Incredible Shrinking Man: A 'small' oversight during a test run leads to the EMH being projected to a tiny size.
  • It's a Long Story: Kes says this after everyone wakes up from their personal Lotus-Eater Machine and asks what happened.
  • I Was Never Here: A variation that doubles as a serious Mind Screw. The crew have captured the Bothan and he asks what they intend to do with him. Janeway says they can hand him over to alien authorities, or lock him in a cell on Voyager, or operate on his brain to remove the telepathic powers. The alien says he'd love to accommodate them...
    Alien:...but you see, I'm not really here. (Vanishes without a trace)
  • Karma Houdini: The Bothan gets away.
  • Kiss Me, I'm Virtual: Janeway struggles with the temptation to accept another kiss from Lord Burleigh, then shuts down his program at the last moment.
  • Master of Illusion: The Bothan.
  • Meaningful Look: Janeway exchanges these with her amused bridge crew when Neelix invites her to partake of the culinary delights of his kitchen.
  • Might Makes Right: "Because I can."
  • Mind Rape: The Villain of the Week is a master of it.
  • Mind Screw: The ending. (See I Was Never Here)
  • Must Have Caffeine: When Janeway goes to her quarters to relax, what does she order from the replicator? Coffee-flavored ice cream!
  • Non-Protagonist Resolver: Almost the entire episode is centered on Janeway — but then she's rendered catatonic by the Bothan about ten minutes before the end, and the situation ends up being resolved by Kes, with some help from the Doctor. Janeway returns as protagonist for the last couple of scenes.
  • Not Himself: The Neelix and Chakotay hallucinations.
  • O.O.C. Is Serious Business: Janeway acting cranky. At least, it's out of character in this season...
  • Please, Don't Leave Me: Invoked by an illusion of an injured Paris in an attempt to stop Kes getting to Engineering.
  • Plot Parallel: The Gothic mystery of the holonovel starts affecting the main story, as first Janeway and then others begin seeing images that aren't there and trying to figure out the cause before they are lost in their memories or subconscious desires. Invoked and enforced, of course, by the Bothan once he saw what was in Janeway's mind during their first meeting.
  • Psychic Powers: Kes.
  • Projected Man: The crew are working on projecting the EMH outside Sickbay. It still needs some work.
  • Punctuated! For! Emphasis!: "Look-at-him!"
  • Screaming Woman: Kes, though she's far from a helpless Damsel in Distress.
  • Ship Tease: B'Elanna's fantasy involves her being seduced by Chakotay. However this was never followed up past this episode.
  • Space Pirates: The Botha don't have any legitimate claim to their region of space, which doesn't stop them waylaying any vessel that passes through it.
  • Stock Footage:
    • A Bothan vessel doing a strafing run on Voyager is actually a Kazon vessel doing the same from "Caretaker."
    • In Tuvok's vision, his wife is standing in front of a recycled matte painting of Vulcan from Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home.
  • Technobabble: For once it doesn't work.
  • Tempting Fate: It's all up to the Doctor and Kes to save the ship. All they have to do is whatever tech solution B'Elanna was about to implement before she was incapacitated. How hard can it be?
  • Terminology Title: Persistence of vision is the phenomenon by which an image is retained on the human retina for approximately 1/24th of a second after we see it (which makes movies possible).
  • There Are No Coincidences: Discussed when Janeway suggests that seeing the cucumber sandwiches and flower teacup outside the holodeck is just a coincidence. It's not.
  • This Cannot Be!: Tuvok's response to seeing his own wife looking back at him from the viewscreen.
  • The Unreveal: Because the planned ending for Janeway's holonovel was never filmed, the viewer never gets to find out what was really going on with the children's mother and the mysterious, forbidden fourth floor. However, due to the numerous Jane Eyre parallels, plus the reactions of Beatrice, Lord Burleigh, and Mrs. Templeton to news of the piano-playing, it is highly likely the supposedly dead wife really is still alive, was the one playing the piano, and is kept held on the fourth floor a la Rochester's "mad" wife, Bertha. Although the references to The Turn of the Screw (the housekeeper, the children) make it equally possible the mother is a dark spirit or Janeway's character is losing (or has already lost) her mind.
  • "Well Done, Son" Guy: Tom Paris, dealing with a projected version of his father Admiral Paris.
  • Workaholic: Janeway.
  • You Need to Get Laid: What appears to be the subtext of this episode re: Janeway, who's told to take a break to relieve her stress and immediately gets snogged by a holodeck character.

Top