In this, one of the finer "Voyager" episodes, we learn more about the relationship of Vulcans with their emotions.
Tuvok, Paris and the Doctor fall into a subspace pocket containing a single solar system. Their shuttle is marooned on a rock, populated mostly by unpleasant additional victims of the pocket and the woman Noss who has survived 14 seasons in her crashed ship. She falls in love with Tuvok, who rebukes her emotions. Through flashbacks we learn how he fell in unrequited love once as a young man, suffering all the pain, but learned to cope under the logical tutelage of a Vulcan Master.
It is touching to see how she suffers the same as Tuvok did, in a mirror image of sorts. Yet through his past experience, he understands much more how she must feel than Paris gives him credit for.
In the end, Voyager enables them to escape in a side story involving a stand-off with aliens of the same race as many of the marooned, who are about to close the pocket for good to avoid further loss of ships. In a poignant final scene, Tuvok helps Noss understand that he understands, and why he cannot respond to her affection.
Definitely one of the better episodes of the series, with strong character development, akin to the episode 5.11 about the doctor coming to terms with having to make impossible decisions, but better.
Tuvok, Paris and the Doctor fall into a subspace pocket containing a single solar system. Their shuttle is marooned on a rock, populated mostly by unpleasant additional victims of the pocket and the woman Noss who has survived 14 seasons in her crashed ship. She falls in love with Tuvok, who rebukes her emotions. Through flashbacks we learn how he fell in unrequited love once as a young man, suffering all the pain, but learned to cope under the logical tutelage of a Vulcan Master.
It is touching to see how she suffers the same as Tuvok did, in a mirror image of sorts. Yet through his past experience, he understands much more how she must feel than Paris gives him credit for.
In the end, Voyager enables them to escape in a side story involving a stand-off with aliens of the same race as many of the marooned, who are about to close the pocket for good to avoid further loss of ships. In a poignant final scene, Tuvok helps Noss understand that he understands, and why he cannot respond to her affection.
Definitely one of the better episodes of the series, with strong character development, akin to the episode 5.11 about the doctor coming to terms with having to make impossible decisions, but better.