Summary[]
The ship's sensors pick up a new chemical element inside an asteroid belt. An away team, consisting of Tuvok, B'Elanna Torres and Harry Kim, is surprised to find some kind of cemetery inside an asteroid. When they are beamed back, an alien body has taken Harry's place. Harry, on the other hand, finds himself on the planet of its origin, inside a coffin-like device called cenotaph. The planet's inhabitants, the Vhnori, firmly believe they will transcend to the "next emanation" when they allow themselves to be killed inside a cenotaph just before a phenomenon called a spectral rupture appears. They don't know that the phenomenon is a subspace vacuole and that their dead bodies end up in the asteroid field. In the meantime, more dead bodies materialize on Voyager. The Doctor can revive one of them, a woman named Ptera. On the Vhnori homeworld, Harry is said to be the first one to return from the next emanation, and this discovery may shatter the beliefs of the Vhnori. Before a Vhnori thanatologist named Neria can further examine Harry, he takes the place in the cenotaph of a skeptic who wants to live on. Harry can be resuscitated back on Voyager, while Ptera dies during the attempt to transfer her to her homeworld.
Errors and Explanations[]
Internet Movie Database[]
Incorrectly regarded as goofs[]
- When Hatil is explaining, to Harry Kim, why he is wrapping himself in the ceremonial shroud, He states that the shroud has been in his family for generations. How is it possible that this particular shroud is available to him, since he wears it during his emanation into the afterlife. The shroud would not be available unless it is returned from the previous person sent into the next emanation. When the Away Team first visits the cavern, Chakotay says the bodies are naked and without possessions. That would suggest that only the body was transferred at death, and the shroud remains behind.
Nit Central[]
- Klingons just dispose of the dead. While this matches the attitude of the Klingons in Heart of Glory, it's different from the later DS9 episode The Ship where Worf claimed that friends would protect the bodies from scavengers. The latter could be a way of honouring the memory and life of the deceased.
- They're next to a planet and Janeway wants them to go to warp 7? Isn't that dangerous? What about the Warp 5 speed limit established in Force of Nature? Voyager’s warp drive may be designed to minimise the damage to subspace.
- Brian Lombard on Sunday, May 30, 1999 - 3:06 pm: Why doesn't Kim ever try his communicator? He has no idea where he is, but still. Shock?
- Kim's friend dons a ceremonial shroud. Yet when Chakotay found the bodies in the beginning of the episode, he stated that they were all nude. Plantman on Wednesday, August 23, 2000 - 10:47 am:Harry's friend says that the shroud has been in his family for generations. If all of his ancestors wore this shroud when they died, how did they get it back each time? NarkS on Friday, August 25, 2000 - 7:46 pm: My guess is only the body is transported (of course Kim's uniform would contradict that).X on Wednesday, July 18, 2001 - 8:42 pm:Harry didn't have his uniform on. He was on the sickbay sugical table nude, except for a sheet covering him. NarkS on Thursday, July 19, 2001 - 9:31 am: Actually I meant the other way around. When Harry gets sucked in, he goes with his uniform. constanze on Tuesday, February 11, 2003 - 3:53 am: Maybe harry kept his uniform only because he went the wrong way? All the people going the normal way seemed to be naked, so the shroud was left behind.
- Phillip Culley (Pculley) on Sunday, December 22, 2002 - 5:13 pm: When watching this episode, I realised it was never established where the Vhnori homeworld was. In an evil way I theorised it was in an uncharted area of the Alpha Quadrant just to annoy Kim SENIRAM on December 9 2017 - 16:29:If that were the case, surely SOMEBODY in the Alpha Quadrant would have, at the very least, heard rumours about the existence of this race! Mcb359 on Friday July 13, 2018 - 16:48: Doubtful, as the Alpha Quadrant is 25% of the galaxy. The Federation has only explored about 11% so there’s plenty of Alpha Quadrant unexplored that could be home to this species.Seniram 11:02, July 14, 2018 (UTC) Then why has there been no prior mention of long range sensor scans detecting any evidence of this race, or the subspace vacuoles used to transport the bodies?
Ex Astris Scientia[]
- Even if Voyager was waiting for him and ready to pick him up, there is absolutely no reason for Harry to believe that he would survive the transfer inside subspace is the first place. (Well, in a way, he may have learned from the Vhnori to have faith.) Especially as he survived the transfer from the asteroid to the Vhnori homeworld!
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