VOY: Initiations

         Standard warning at the beginning that I led a 2.5 hour star talk tonight and it is well past midnight so this one is going to be a little short. A fairly average Trek episode that significantly expands who the Kazon are as a culture. Unfortunately they came across to me as kinda weak ripoffs of the Klingons. It was cool to see Chakotay actually living up to the promise of a peaceful Federation even if at the same time the Federation was becoming more militant due to the events in DS9. But that is clearly not what he is in it for and that is cool to see.
         The episode opens with Chakotay alone in a shuttle to perform a ritual in memory of his grandfather. He is detected by the Kazon who send one of their own to kill him on a mission to prove himself. Chakotay is surprised to be under attack and even more so when he realizes his attacker is a barely teenaged boy. He tries to talk him out of the attack but is forced to destroy the Kazon ship but he manages to beam to solo occupant onto his shuttle first. The boy is named Kar and is super upset at having been saved. He was supposed to prove himself and will be rejected by his people as a failure now. Voyager notices it has been too long since his last contact and starts heading his way.
         But before help can arrive a larger Kazon ship arrives and tractor beams the shuttle on board. Kar is humiliated to be returned alive and tries to explain to Chakotay why, but he isn't having it. Chakotay eventually learns he is to kill Kar to give him back some honor but refuses and takes the ships captain hostage. Kar realizes he has no choice but to join Chakotay and the two flee in the shuttle, but they aren't fast enough. The shuttle is destroyed but they beam to an m-class moon first. The moon is littered with hidden weapons and booby traps though as it is a Kazon training ground. Chakotay and Kar hide in a cave. Voyager arrives and sends down a search party but before they can stop them the Kazon ship shows up and lands on the surface. They seem to want to help the crew of Voyager though and together they find Chakotay and Kar. Chakotay has offered to let Kar kill him in a way he can be revived on Voyager but Kar instead kills his captain and offers his loyalty to the new captain who hesitantly accepts.

         Review: This felt a lot like a TOS episode to me on both the good and the bad ways. The morality of it is a little to clear cut for me, but overall it works.

6 out of 10