Star Trek has always loved the idea of alien species travelling the universe seeding planets with either genetics or knowledge and this is one about the latter. Presumably when they gave Chakotay his tattoo they planned to come back and explain it and this is where that happens. I am not actually sure if they are implying that some of the sky spirit people stayed behind on earth since the people in the jungle he ran into as a youth seemed to have non-human head ridges that made me think they were aliens, but maybe they were supposed to be the unpolluted inheritors? They were supposed to have been changed in some way by the sky people so maybe that is the deal with the ridges.
The episode with Chakotay scouting for mineral deposits when he sees a symbol that sends him into a memory of the same symbol when he and his father visited their relatives who lived primitive lives in the jungle. At the time he resented his father for bringing him to such an uncomfortable place. Back on the ship the doctor is being his usually uncaring self and it is getting to Kes. She tells him because he has never experienced disease or illness he has no empathy. Chakotay discusses what he found with the captain and tells her his people believed in sky spirits who made them who they were. When a warp trail is discovered leaving the moon they follow it. Where it leads them is an M-Class planet that both has no life signs but also has the energy signature of a place with technology. Whenever they try to beam down a lightning storm forms at the location stopping the transport so Chakotay flies down in a shuttle with Torres, Tuvok and Neelix.
On the surface Chakotay finds an orchid he recognizes and the sound of a red tailed hawk brings him into memory again. On the same trip with his father they heard a hawk calling and his father could understand the bird, but he couldn't. The same hawk attacks Neelix and he is beamed back to the ship where a now ill Doctor treats him. The Doctor has made himself ill to prove a point to Kes and is even more irritable than normal as a result. The away team meanwhile discovers a series of structures and Chakotay makes them all lay down their weapons. Tuvok objects but does it anyway. As soon as they do a storm picks up and they rushed back towards the shuttle but Chakotay gets knocked up by a tree and Tuvok beams up with Torres.
When Chakotay wakes up he remembers being with his father again and meeting his relatives who lived in the jungle. His father received the tattoo he wears from them. While he searches the jungle Janeway decides to land the ship to find him but as they attempt it a huge storm shows up and threatens to crash the ship. Chakotay finds shelter in a cave where he runs into the sky spirits. They are aliens with the same tattoo that he wears and luckily they have a working universal translator. Their leader explains to Chakotay that his people traveled to Earth many times and taught his people, but the last time they visited they found none of his people left. Chakotay explains that the people of Earth have finally learned to live with nature and the storm around Voyager disappears at the last minute. Chakotay tells the sky spirit about leaving his father on bad terms but that this has helped him make peace. On the ship the Doctor is freaking out that his inless isn't going away but eventually Kes admits to having modified the program on purpose to make it last longer.
Review: A good background episode with a kinda cliched alien visitation story. Chakotay is one of the stronger characters though so he manages to make this a good episode despite its limitations.
6 out of 10
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