Thank god I wasn't watching that Nemesis today. Instead I got a rather deep dive into propaganda, recruitment, and tactics of a small army brainwashing soldiers to its cause. By showing almost the entire story from Chakotay's perspective it makes it easier to understand just how hard it must be for him to deal with learning everything he experienced was a lie. I am sure there are terrorist groups today who use tactics very similar to these but of course without the ability to create technoillusions of some sort. I admit I was expecting to see that the race talking with Janeway would turn out to be the nemesis of the Chakotay's Vori, but overall the scene still really worked.
We begin with Chakotay being captured by a Vori soldier, but his commander quickly recognizes that he isn't their nemesis. He talks Chakotay into staying the night in their camp and all everyone wants to talk about is nullifying their enemies who are so brutal to their families. Chakotay doesn't seem to buy it and talks to a young soldier new to the fight about killing. The next day the leader sends a seasoned soldier with Chakotay to look for his crashed shuttle but they run into a Kradin patrol and his friend is killed. Chakotay kills a Kradin before the rest of the Vori rush in. Chakotay is given the uniform of the fallen soldier and the entire group sets off to rendezvous with another unit. They find their comrades have already been killed though and the Kradin are waiting in ambush. Everyone but Chakotay are killed and he escapes into the forest.
The next day Chakotay finds a Vori village and is welcomed as a hero. A young girl befriends him who had a brother in the massacred unit. The next day she gives him flowers as he prepares to leave but as he goes he hears explosions and finds the village being overrun by Kradin. He is captured and tortured but spends the night with the villagers protecting the girl. The next day her grandfather is being hauled off for execution but the girl tries to help and is hauled off as well. This is too much for Chakotay who attacks the Kradin commander. He is captured and left for dead but rescued by one of the soldiers he met earlier. Voyager meanwhile meets with the locals on the planet who offer to help Chakotay, the locals in this case being the Kradin. Tuvok offers to join them in a rescue mission for Chakotay.
Chakotay is now fulling commited to his side and joins a unit in an attack on a Kradin convoy. He runs into a Kradin who tells him he is Tuvok but Chakotay refuses to believe him. His friends are dragged off and gradually he realizes it is Tuvok. He is taken to the village where he is greeted by the same villagers as before, even the ones he saw being taken away for execution. Back on Voyager the Doctor explains he was given powerful drugs and put in a simulation of some sort. He accepts this but still can't stand to be in the same room as the Kradin ambassador.
Review: Not entirely realistic, but an interesting look at what it takes to be recruited into a militant movement. The way the Vori talk was a bit annoying, but I suppose getting someone to adopt a specific way of talking is a good way to get them to feel a part of a group.
7 out of 10
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