Episode Synopsis : Season 5
EQUINOX
Episodes 120 and 121

 

If you wish to do one or more of my [Equinox] quizzes and wish to read up the episode first, I recommend the Episode Guide (over 470+ screenshots and detailed commentary). Access quizzes and Episode Guide.   Somewhere in the Delta Quadrant, a Federation starship is under attack - it is USS Equinox. Hostile aliens, flying nucleogenic lifeforms from another realm, enter the ship via interspatial fissures and attack the crew, killing them if they can. The Equinox has suffered badly - the ship's structure and its shields are weak. In USS Voyager's Astrometrics Lab, Janeway, Chakotay and Seven receive Ransom's distress call. Janeway recalls Ransom's ship is a Nova-class ship, designed for planetary research, not long-range tactical missions. Seven looks forward to meeting the Equinox crew as she wishes to expand her knowledge of humanity. When Voyager comes upon Equinox, they detect that the Equinox's shields are being disrupted by some kind of energy surges. Voyager answers Ransom's urgent plea to extend Voyager's shields around Equinox, just as interspatial fissures start opening on three of Voyager's decks. Voyager rescue teams secure Equinox. Survivors include Crewman Noah Lessing, Chief Engineer Ensign Marla Gilmore, First Officer Maxwell Burke, and Crewman Thompson, and Captain Rudolph Ransom (Rudy to his crew). Ransom informs Janeway that they were pulled into the Delta Quadrant by the Caretaker, as Voyager was. Both crews had, until now, believed themselves to be the only humans in the Delta Quadrant. He also says that they have no idea why the aliens are attacking them. After the memorial service for the Equinox dead, Burke has a reunion with Torres - they dated for a while when they were at Starfleet Academy. Teams from both Equinox and Voyager work on repairing Equinox, and on formulating a permanent and sustainable defence against the attacking aliens. Because the aliens can survive only a few seconds while away from their realm, the Equinox crew built a multiphasic chamber to trap an alien by preventing it from returning home. Ransom says they cannot examine the multiphasic chamber aboard Equinox as the research lab where it is located is flooded with lethal thermionic radiation, so they will have to work from schematics taken from Equinox's auxiliary data core. While Ransom and Janeway download the schematics, he informs her how he lost half his crew to attacks by the Krowtonan Guard, and how during their various deprivations they tried to maintain Starfleet principles but at times often did not feel like human beings. But he denies that he ever broke the Prime Directive. He notices that the ship's dedication plaque has fallen down. The Voyager and Equinox crews agree to adapt the multiphasic and create an auto-initiating security grid so that the moment an alien invades either ship, a forcefield will surround it. They have to modify the field generator to emit multiphasic frequencies so that it will power the security grids on both ships. The work would take 14 hours, too long, so Janeway insists that Equinox be sacrificed for Voyager. She cites Starfleet Regulation 191, Article 14, which gives her authority over Ransom: 'In a combat situation involving more than one ship, command falls to the vessel with tactical superiority.' In Voyager's Main Engineering, Burke secretly downloads the data and schematics of the multiphasic field generator. To prevent Torres finding out he talks charmingly to her, as if seeking another date. Ransom reproves his crew for allowing themselves to be seduced from their goal by the comforts on Voyager. They resolve to escape Voyager and continue the journey home on their own. They lay plans to steal the field generator. Seven learns the thermionic radiation in Equinox's Sickbay was deliberately routed through three EPS conduits i.e. Ransom wishes to prevent anyone from entering the Equinox research lab. Rather than wait several hours for the research lab to be cleared of the radiation, Janeway orders that the Doctor be sent as he would be immune to the radiation's effects. In the research lab the Doctor begins to uncover the horrific secret of the Equinox crew as he discovers the remains of an alien body which has apparently been converted to produce fuel. As Ransom and Burke discuss their scheme as they walk down a Voyager corridor, Tuvok apprehends them. During Janeway's interview with Ransom in the Briefing Room, she has the alien compound in front of her which has been retrieved from the Equinox research lab. She informs him that she knows the nature of his crew's "experiments" - the alien compound is enough to increase their warp factor by perhaps .03% per month: the Equinox crew have been killing lifeforms to use their remains for fuel. The aliens are attacking Equinox to try and protect themselves. Ransom protests that his ship was heavily damaged, fuel gone and his crew were starving. He explains that they had just enough power to enter orbit of an M-class planet whose inhabitants, the Ankari, generous gave them food, supplies and some dilithium crystals. The Ankari also performed one of their sacred rituals and invoked what they called 'spirits of good fortune' from another realm to bless the Equinox's journey. The 'spirits of good fortune' were nucleogenic lifeforms which emitting high levels of antimatter. The Equinox crew obtained one of the Ankari summoning devices. The first alien victim died because they were unable to return it to its realm, so they used the compound in its remains to boost their fuel and travelled over ten thousand light=years in less than two weeks. Thereafter they abused the Ankari summoning device to capture and kill more aliens. Janeway remains unmoved. She relieves Ransom of command and confines both him and his crew to guarded quarters on Voyager. Janeway orders the Doctor to return to their research lab and retrieve all the data he can locate on the aliens as she wants to find a way to communicate with them and make first contact the right way. She also orders Seven to the Equinox engine room to take their warp core modifications offline. As Chakotay escorts Gilmore to Astrometrics she admits that she is glad Voyager stopped the Equinox crew. She helps by decrypting the Equinox datafiles. She apologises to Seven that the Equinox crew are not exactly prized examples of humanity, but Seven responds: "On the contrary, you've taught me a great deal." When the Doctor returns to the Equinox research lab he learns that EMH authorisation is required to decrypt the files. He activates the Equinox EMH and informs him that his crew are in custody, explains about his mobile emitter, and that the Equinox crew has been running criminal experiments. The Equinox EMH casually picks up a PADD and replies, "I know. I designed them. They deleted my ethical subroutines." He slams the PADD against the Doctor's mobile emitter. Simultaneously it drops to the floor as the Doctor's program goes offline. The Equinox EMH picks it up. The Equinox Doctor, masquerading as Voyager's Doctor, deceives the Voyager security guards and frees the confined Equinox crew. Voyager is unable to bring the new security grid online. The Voyager crew are unaware that this is due to the sabotage plans laid earlier by the Equinox crew. The Equinox crew, pursued by Voyager security guards, are told by their EMH that he re-routed transporter control to a corridor wall panel. He deactivates the mobile emitter he stole from Voyager's EMH, and the mobile emitter falls to the floor. The Equinox crew beam to their ship, steal the field generator and install it into their own ship's systems. Seven, who is still in their engine room, is taken captive. Burke's skills are pitted against those of Torres as Voyager tries to thwart the Equinox crew. But the Equinox manages to part company with Voyager, leaving the Voyager crew defenceless against the aliens who begin to attack them constantly through interspatial fissures on all decks. Voyager is protected only by boosting shields using a deflector pulse, but that option cannot be sustained indefinitely. In one attack, Chakotay is severely injured. He is treated by the Equinox EMH who masquerades as Voyager's Doctor. He claims that he was taken prisoner by the Equinox crew and deactivated himself to escape them. On recovering from his injuries, Chakotay says he will assist Kim in trying to communicate with the aliens - the sound they hear as the interspatial fissures open seems to be language. But Janeway insists the first priority is to find and apprehend Ransom. On board the Equinox, Burke discovers that the Equinox EMH downloaded Voyager's Doctor into the Equinox database, and materialises him. The crew are unable to bring their 'enhanced' warp drive online because Seven has locked out the power relays with codes that only she knows. When she refuses to reveal the codes from her Ransom deletes the Doctor's ethical subroutines. The Doctor is now more than willing to help Ransom and starts an operation to extract the information from Seven's cortical implants, which will destroy her higher brain functions. Ransom orders his ship to hide by a planet while they make repairs. As the planet shows traces of deteurium, Lessing is instructed to lead a landing party to collect it. Ransom spends his spare time using a synaptic stimulator, a device gifted him by a friendly species called the Ponea. The device is a neural interface worn behind an ear which taps into the visual cortex and shows different alien vistas. It does not include people, only landscapes. But Ransom's vista of the Tenkaran coast now include a female figure who turns out to be Seven who berates him and tells him to "find another way" and "end this". Ransom tries to persuade Seven to reveal the codes so that he can order the surgery stopped. He takes pity on her, but not enough to stop the Doctor from working. In a macabre scene the Doctor and Seven sing part of 'Clementine', a song the Doctor had taught Seven on Voyager. Janeway has read Ransom's service record. From it she learns that when he is being pursued he tends to hide. Chakotay's research as to where Ransom would most likely hide proves successful. Chakotay ambushes the Equinox landing party and captures its two members, including Crewman Lessing. Voyager pursues Equinox and the ships exchange weapons fire. A shot from the Equinox damages Voyager's deflector: the deflector generates the shield against the alien attacks. Janeway is forced to break off the pursuit when Voyager's deflector is about to go offline. Lessing, handcuffed to a chair in a cargo bay is faced by a grim Janeway who demands of him what Random's tactical status is. When he refuses to talk, she threatens to de-activate the shields round the room and leave Lessing to the aliens. When Lessing appeals to Chakotay he says "The Captain is on her own." Janeway de-activates the room's shields. On the Bridge Tuvok detects and reports via ship's communications that a fissure opening up inside. She and Chakotay argue over this way of trying to get Lessing to break. Eventually Chakotay grabs a phaser, bursts into the cargo bay, closes the fissure by fireing at it and drags Lessing out - disobeying her orders. "Right," Chakotay tells Lessing, "you've proved your loyalty to your captain. Now let's talk about the Ankari!" Chakotay briefs the senior staff on the new plan: they will find the Ankari, the species who can contact the aliens. Lessing has provided information on how to locate an Ankari ship which is a short distance away. After the meeting Chakotay and Janeway argue about her earlier attempt to coerce Lessing. He tells her: "This isn't about rules and regulations. It's about right and wrong. And I'm warning you: I won't let you cross that line again." Janeway relieves him of duty. Voyager detains the Ankari ship using a tractor beam. The Ankari commander summons the aliens who demand the Equinox - they want to kill those who are killing them. Finally Janeway agrees, provided the aliens stop attacking Voyager. When Tuvok protests, Janeway tells him she has already confined her First Officer to his quarters and would Tuvok like to join him. Aboard Equinox, Ransom feels more and more guilty about the surgery on Seven and also wishes to end the killing of the aliens. When Voyager finds Equinox again, he informs his bridge crew that they will now co-operate with Janeway. But Burke mutinies. He disarms Ransom and orders him taken to the Brig. Gilmore volunteers to escort Ransom to the Bridge. Burke orders Equinox to attack Voyager, and the Equinox EMH (who is still masquerading as Voyager's Doctor) provides Voyager's shield frequencies. While Voyager is being pounded, Gilmore reveals to Ransom that she is really on his side and wants to end the conflict and the killing of aliens. Ransom contacts Janeway. He tells her he will transport the Equinox crew to Voyager and that she should have guards standing by. Janeway remembers that Ransom is a Starfleet captain decides to believe him. Meanwhile Voyager causes heavy damage by scoring a hit on Equinox's port nacelle so that it begins to vent plasma. Burke detects the attempt to transport himself and the Bridge crew and erects forcefields. All the Equinox's crew, plus Seven, but excluding Burke and the Bridge crew and Ransom himself, are beamed to Voyager. Ransom tells Burke he has removed the shields protecting against the aliens from everywhere except the Bridge and Ransom's current location. Voyager's Doctor reclaims his Sickbay. He deletes the Equinox Doctor's program. Transmissions of Voyager's shield frequency cease. Burke and his supporters crew battle through an alien attack to try to reach the Shuttlebay but are killed by the aliens en route. Ransom claims to Janeway that there is no time for him to set auto-navigation and beam to Voyager as Equinox is about to explode and he must get some distance away in order to protect Voyager. Ransom: "You've got a fine crew, Captain. Promise me you'll get them home." Janeway: "I promise." As the Equinox races away from Voyager, Ransom spends his last moments in his Tenkaran coast simulation. Equinox explodes. The aliens withdraw to their realm. Janeway reinstates Chakotay. She demotes the Equinox survivors to service crewmen, and tells them privileges will be limited and they will serve close supervision for as long as she deems fit. Janeway is concerned to mend her relationship with Chakotay. She tells him, "You know, you may have had good reason to stage a little mutiny of your own." He replies, "Thet thought had occurred to me. But that would have been crossing the line." Janeway sees that Voyager's dedication plaque has fallen off the wall, for the first time in all these years. Chakotay goes to put it back up where it belongs which, for the tv viewer, symbolises that all is well again with ship and crew.    RANSOM TO JANEWAY: It's easy to cling to principles when you're standing on a vessel with its bulkheads intact, manned by a crew that's not starving.