![]() These moments are externalizing the internal for the audience. The same goes for the way he tosses a cart at the force field in sick bay, or the cunning smile that turns up the corner of his mouth when he speaks to Janeway. The image of Tuvok’s quarters in disarray, coupled with his face covered in perspiration, paint a specific portrait for us. So I imagine that’s why there are such intensely visual sequences. Dourif plays Suder with detachment and clarity, and it’s eerie watching Tuvok slowly adapt the same behaviors. We can’t see what’s happening in their minds. The entire conflict is internal, which means that it all has to be presented through Tim Russ’s and Brad Dourif’s performances. I admit that this episode is ambitious as hell. It’s one of the most memorable moments in this season, but it serves as a demonstration of this struggle. Tuvok finally expresses emotions, and they are IMMENSELY UNNERVING AND UPSETTING. Good gods, y’all, that scene in the sick bay is HORRIFYING. Yet I also can’t deny that Tim Russ’s performance is meant to scare us. I wouldn’t fault someone who found this episode to be enlightening or relatable, you know? And perhaps you could view this episode as a genuine chance for Voyager to explore mental illness through one of its main characters. The Vulcan mind meld might be fantasy, but what Tuvok deals with after gaining Suder’s violent tendencies? That’s unfortunately very, very real. It’s in this depiction that the show strays far from the fantastical science I’m used to and wades into a far more unnerving world. So how does Tuvok deal with the senseless murder that Suder commits? ![]() We humans do confusing, vague, and nonsensical things all the time, and we are not easily categorized, either. (And I don’t really have much sympathy for a murderer, anyway.) Suder killed simply because he could and because he wanted to, and the very idea baffles Tuvok, whose strict adherence to logic does not contain room for the ambiguity of human nature. He’s here as a foil to Tuvok, which isn’t a bad thing by itself. So, I want to acknowledge that upfront because while there’s certainly depth given to Tuvok’s struggle, I didn’t really see that in Suder’s character. It’s pretty much the ONLY way you see sociopaths discussed or represented in fiction, even though the reality of sociopathy is much more complicated and layered than that. His inability to control his violent tendencies is directly linked to his inability to experience empathy towards anyone around him. ![]() Why? Because even though this episode is entertaining, riveting, and scary, it treads on a common trope concerning portrayals of mental illness, specifically people who deal with sociopathy. This is a challenging episode to analyze, too, and I want to be delicate in discussing it. This is not what I expected of Voyager, first of all, and I was also not expecting Tim Russ to give me LIFE. Trigger Warning: For discussion of mental illness, specifically sociopathy. Intrigued? Then it’s time for mark to watch Star Trek. In the sixteenth episode of the second season of Voyager, EVERYTHING IS SO MESSED UP and yet totally better than the last episode.
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