Star Trek: Voyager (TV Series) Flashback (1996) User Reviews

Guest starring Sulu!

[Tweekums · 8/10 · 4 August 2010]

As Voyager approaches a nebula that contains high levels of Cerrillium, a potential fuel source Lt. Tuvok starts to feel unwell than has what is either a flashback or an hallucination featuring him failing to save a young girl. When it happens again The Doctor believes it must be a repressed memory, something which can cause brain damage to Vulcans. The only treatment is to mind meld with somebody very close. He chooses to meld with Captain Janeway but when he does they find themselves seeing a different memory; he is back on the USS Excelsior under Captain Sulu as they are preparing to attempt to rescue Kirk and McCoy from the Klingons. As they head to Qo'noS they pass through a nebula that looks very similar to that seen at the start of the episode and it too contains Cerrillium. Something goes wrong with the meld and some how Sulu sees Captain Janeway, something rather odd given that he is only a memory.

It was interesting how the events in this episode took place at the same time as 'Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country', this leads to some amusing comparisons between Star Fleet in those times with those of Voyager's time. It was good to see George Takei making a guest appearance as Sulu. When we learn the cause of Tuvok's memory it was a little disappointing and seemed as if it was just a device to allow the more interesting story from Tuvok's past to feature, another weakness was the image of the falling girl which looked obviously fake. Despite these flaws it was still an entertaining episode though.

Fairly good tribute for fans of the original series and The Undiscovered Country

[snoozejonc · 7/10 · 19 November 2022]

Tuvok suffers from traumatic memories and melds with Janeway to find the root cause.

This is an enjoyable episode that works as a nice tribute to the original series.

The main narrative about Tuvok's condition brings us to scenes involving Captain Sulu, Janice Rand, Kang, and the Excelsior, but there feels little effort from the writers other than to contrive an excuse to get these characters on screen.

It is enjoyable to spend time with them and to see certain events from Star Trek 6 portrayed from a different perspective. Unfortunately the allotted time is much too brief. I did enjoy Janeway's meditation on the bygone era of the original series.

There are some good ideas in the explanation behind Tuvok's condition, but it all comes down to technobabble and a bit of an anti-climax.

All performances are good, especially Katie Mulgrew, Tim Russ, George Takei, Grace Lee Whitney, and Michael Ansara.

That's one weird virus!

[thevacinstaller · 8/10 · 11 July 2021]

I enjoyed seeing Sulu again ---- He's a solid actor and he has that same approach to acting that Mulgrew and Shatner have ------ trying to win an oscar with every line reading. With that said, I generally do not it when star trek leans into nostalgia too hard ---- Roddenberry called it correctly when he said that each series should carve out it's own path. I felt that the use of Sulu and 'nostalgia' was done in a tasteful manner in this episode and I am okay with it. Dr McCoy's cameo as a 236 year old diplomat in Fairpoint would be an example of contrived nostalgia.

I felt they could have done something more with the climax to this episode. The flashbacks end up being a virus?! It would be way cooler if this was some aliens method of communication or asking the host for help. Or perhaps the characters in his flashbacks attempt to attack him and janeway to stop them from uncovering the truth?

Notwithstanding my complaints, I did enjoy this episode and I admire the creativity of the story design in this episode.

Beautifully Made Homage to Star Trek VI

[XweAponX · 10/10 · 6 June 2013]

Of COURSE this was a Brannon Braga script. Sometimes he got it, sometimes he missed. Mostly here in this episode, he got it, and I applaud this. But I say Mostly - Because he did blow it with wrong details.

So this episode was produced at the same time the great Homage to Trouble with Tribbles was being made for Deep Space Nine. As a Voyager episode, it is above average, as a 30th Anniversary(?) Trek Celebration, it is acceptable. A few story elements were slightly out of alignment, but overall, the whole episode was very well done.

So Tuvok is being buffeted by a recurring past memory - A Memory he never had. But what does this memory have to do with his memories of being on The Excelsior 80 years earlier, during the time of the Khitomer Conference and Kirk's incarceration by the Klingons? Well for that you would have to watch it.

What I will state here regards the recreation of the Excelsior Bridge. This is not the same huge Bridge Module that James B Sikking sat at the command chair of in "Star Trek III: The search for a better actress to play Saavik" - This is a Bridge with Captain Sulu in the chair. The Production Crew magnificently recreated the Hexagonal Pedestal which held Sulu's Coffee Cup - But now, we get to see that it was actually Vulcan Tea poured by Tuvok.

George Takei and Grace Lee Whitney reprise their roles as Sulu and Rand, who is now doing what Uhura used to do. We also have some of the rest of the same actors who were on that Bridge in Star Trek VI - Including Jeremy Roberts as "Lt. Valtane" and the Helm Officer, Helmsman Lojur (Boris Lee Krutonog) - We even have a visit from our old friend Micheal Ansara as KANG- Sitting comfortably on the Bridge of a Klingon D-7 Battle Cruiser recreated in all of it's glory. Except now, as in Deep Space Nine, he has his Brow Ridges like Worf- Who ever DID explain why some had ridges and some didn't in "Trials and Tribbleations".

So that Excelsior Bridge, merged with a few outtakes of the explosion of Praxis, gave us a believable recollection. Except that Valtane was standing on the Bridge with the rest of Sulu's Crew at the end of Star Trek VI, and not dead as he was in this episode. So I'll just assume Braga was writing Voyager as another Alternate Universe story like he liked to write about, one in which Valtane got Killed by an exploding conduit.

Other than that, well - We have to find a "Delta Quadrant" conundrum in which to explain why Tuvok must needs Mind Meld with Janeway - And as we had never seen a memory recollected by a Vulcan IN Mind-Meld-Mode, perhaps this is what it looked like. The Delta Quadrant Conundrum was pretty weak, but the Excelsior Backstory was not. But I won't remove any stars for Braga's Botching up of Canon Events. Overall, this was a better offering than some of other Voyager plots, which mostly involved some kind of "Plasmatic Energy" - Of which I wonder, is this Energy caused by Listening to "Butcher Baby" by The Plasmatics? I must have laughed myself silly the first time I heard this term used in Voyager.

Not Much Fun

[Hitchcoc · 7/10 · 21 August 2018]

When we see George Takei and Grace Lee Whitney, we may think this will be great fun. The problem is that they are given little to do. Takei is now the ship's captain and Whitney is a nondescript officer. The plot involves another Vulcan meld. Because Tuvok is, himself, rather boring, his actions and responses are not all that sparkling. He begins to suffer from something stuck in his brain and a recurring waking nightmare of his inability to save a girl from falling off a precipice. It is all taken care of in medical gobbledygook and signs off in a bland way. Michael Ansara plays a Klingon.

Back To The Future

[Bolesroor · 7/10 · 2 February 2011]

Tuvok was a Vulcan, but now he a CRAZY brother!!! It happens to the best of us, eventually.

Tuvok gets recurring flashbacks of a little girl falling to her death, and eventually asks Janeway to join him in a mindmeld which features George Takei as Captain Sulu. Here comes the crazy science, though: Janeway is "spotted" by the figments of Tuvok's flashback imagination, and she has to disguise herself to "fool" these mere memories. Huh?

We're playing fast and loose with the concept of the mindmeld here. In fact we're making it up as we go along. It's never really clear how Janeway's life is threatened by Tuvok's meld but we're treated to an anticlimactic medi-babble festival as the Doctor narrates the brain waves of each of them, somehow magically able to interpret alpha waves as thought and experience. What spectacular bullspit!

And it turns out the flashback was caused by an alien parasite, which the Doc gets to yak about for another ten minutes, killing ALL the drama in the episode. The stupidity of the science and muddled meld outweigh the fun of going back into "Star Trek VI." A shame.

GRADE: C-

Only okay...but it was nice to see some old "Star Trek" characters.

[planktonrules · 6/10 · 16 February 2015]

This is a special episode of the series, as it's a celebration of the 30th anniversary of the franchise. At the same time, "Star Trek: Deep Space 9" created its homage, the fan-freakin-tastic "Trials and Tribble-ations"--one of the very best Trek shows of all time. The "Star Trek: Voyager" homage is good but not even close to how amazing the DS9 version was.

When the show begins, Tuvak begins having weird flashbacks of an incident he says never occurred. On top of that, he begins to behave goofy and becomes ill. The Doctor thinks some repressed memory* is responsible and Captain Janeway climbs inside Tuvok's head to see his memories and help him recover this hidden memory.

The journey soon takes the pair to the old Excelsior--a ship commanded by Captain Sulu (yes, Sulu!) and it shows much of what led up to Sulu's surprise entrance into the film "Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country". On hand along with George Takei is Grace Lee Whitney** as Commander Rand (formerly Yeoman Rand in "Star Trek") as well as Michael Ansara as 'Kang' (a Klingon from "Star Trek").

Overall, while I enjoyed seeing a few old cast members, the plot itself was only okay at best. It came off as a bit contrived and lacked all the charm and humor that made "Trials and Tribble-ations" such a wonderful episode.

*In the 1990s, so-called repressed memories were all the rage and folks assumed they happened often. However, in the last 25 years or so, so many of these 'repressed incidents' have been shown to have never actually occurred. It's a LONG and complicated and divisive topic-- and one I had to deal with when I was working as a psychotherapist.

**Ms. Whitney was an interesting choice for this reunion episode, as she had actually reportedly been thrown off the original Trek series due to her substance abuse. However, from what she said in her autobiography, she got her life together and is a happier and better person. I love to hear about people overcoming difficulties, so it was really nice to see her here.

A wasted opportunity

[IanDSmith · 4/10 · 23 June 2013]

While DS9 was spending its 30th Anniversary money "Forrest Gumping" its cast into a meticulous and affectionate tribute to The Original Series, "Voyager" went the Special Guest Star route and recruited George Takei, Grace Lee Whitney, Michael Ansara and as much of the supporting cast of "The Undiscovered Country" as we would remember. In theory, it was a fun idea (certainly TNG had luck with the TOS casting stunt a few times), but the execution was sloppy, dramatically inert and certainly underwhelming even as an average "Voyager" episode, to say nothing for an anniversary celebration.

The basic plot is uninteresting - Tuvok (already a raised flag, his was not one of the strongest characters) has memories of bad green screen effects of a girl falling off a cliff that are driving him nuts. Rooting out the memory in his mind, he and Janeway re-remember his first mission aboard the Excelsior during the events of Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country." Thus, the events between scenes when we saw the Excelsior in the film are brought to light. Sulu and Rand have a couple character moments but there's nothing compelling about the mission Sulu goes on - to say it is unimaginative and full of recent modern Trek clichés like incremental percentage-weakened shields, combustible gas, anomalies, defying logic and regulations is putting it aptly. Hardly befits the clever and rather fresh take on Trek of Nicholas Meyer's film when put to comparison. Tuvok's affliction is given copious amounts of technobabble worrying by the Doctor which raises the dramatic stakes by less than zero, and everything is resolved in a way that (typically, for the talented but not detail oriented Brannon Braga) actually totally contradicts the very movie it is meant to attentively flesh out.

The main problem just comes down to the fact that George Takei was brought back to Star Trek merely to spend half of his time reenacting scenes from "Star Trek VI" or playing the same dry scenes over and over again while Tim Russ and Kate Mulgrew whisper about the day's boring events in the foreground or background. What I would have given to see an original adventure for Captain Sulu that made better use of these actors (even the wooden Grace Lee Whitney deserved a little better than she got, but she at least she was allowed to be on more than one set). Sulu and Janeway don't even have a satisfying meeting - Janeway goes out of her way to ignore him when the opportunity arises. The "emotional" climax of the film is full of bad FX and bad drama.

Season 3 of "Voyager" is actually rather fun, but to this day I still consider "Flashback" one of "Voyager's" most damning missteps. For all the fun it was to bring back those characters, it was squandered with a lazy script that did little to advance any of the characters, laughably undermined continuity it had to pay attention to and celebrated the 30th Anniversary in a way that didn't inspire much confidence in where the franchise was going.

Star Trek: Voyager - Flashback

[Scarecrow-88 · 7/10 · 7 January 2017]

When Tuvok suffers a "panic attack" due to "engrams" functioning as a recurring memory involving him as a little boy unable to hold onto the hand of a girl begging him not to let go, falling to her death. This precipice Tuvok recalls, and the girl he cannot save, is a memory that is fictional, something that never happened to him. With each attack, which causes Tuvok to seize/freeze and collapse, eyes wide open and lost, the chances of brain death increase. To determine what is causing this and how to stop it from killing her officer, Janeway opts to voluntarily connect with him via Vulcan mind meld, seeing/experiencing a particular rescue mission on board the Excelsior, when Captain Sulu ordered his ship to go after Kirk and Bones, who had been imprisoned on a Klingon prison world (imagine Siberia and that is quite a close approximation of where Kirk and Bones found themselves) for murder of the Klingon Chancellor (David Warner) they weren't responsible for.

Linking Voyager to "Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country", Tuvok confronting/objecting to Sulu's disobedience of Starfleet and receiving a grand response for just why he was justified to do so, and Janeway granted the chance to experience time on the Excelsior is like a great, big, loving hug that produces those warm and fuzzies Trek fans appreciate. Or at least this Trek fan certainly appreciates the nods and returns to the past and how the current show/characters respond to what happened then (in this case, Janeway sees how Tuvok performed on the Excelsior, and intimate moments where he was younger and less dedicated to Starfleet, joining at his parents' wishes). In the sixth Star Trek film, very little was ever elaborated and the opportunity to make an episode such as "Flashback" set aboard the Excelsior (well, in the memories of Tuvok, that is…) is welcome by this viewer. When you never want an episode to end, that is a special kind of experience.

What a wonderful moment for Takei—who sits in that Captain's chair well—as he cleverly takes advantage of a nebula to shake off a Klingon cruiser insisting on being an entourage through their territory to Federation space by using sirillium available which ignites. Any chance to throw a bone to those of us who love our Original Star Trek cast of characters I fully endorse, especially if the secondary officers get a little love such as Sulu. A pleasant surprise is seeing Rand on board the Excelsior as well, with the recreation of the opening to The Undiscovered Country a nostalgic treat. The invasion of a type of virus using the memory as a means to lie dormant and buried from discovery is more or less just an excuse to put Janeway and Tuvok on the Excelsior, while Picardi's Doctor and Kes monitor their vitals while in the Vulcan mind meld. Janeway on the Excelsior Bridge, soaking it all in, is a neat visual. She surmises that just getting one opportunity to be on board with the likes of Kirk, Spock, and Sulu would have been extraordinary; Tuvok, who experienced it himself but didn't have the awe and reverence, essentially shares that with her. When there is a "malfunction" during the meld due to another panic attack, and Sulu actually sees Janeway, it really offers a peculiar twist in the mix! Fans of Sulu and Rand should, I think, get a kick out of "Flashback". It serves as a fan episode certain to bring about feelings of exhilaration and surprise. Grace Lee Whitney makes the most of her time in the episode, with all the charm and mouth still there. Nifty factoid included: Vulcans suffer brain damage if repressed memories aren't absolved.

With Jeremy Roberts (as Lt. Dimitri on the Excelsior who bunked with Tuvok and celebrated his post on the Excelsior and their rescue mission to fetch Kirk and Bones) from Star Trek VI and Michael Ansara (as Kang, Klingon commander insisting Sulu adhere to his demands of "helping them" get back to where they belong) from Star Trek's Original Series. We all just celebrated 50 years of Trek...this episode was part of honoring the 30th anniversary.

A waste of an opportunity

[UNOhwen · 21 April 2014]

It wasn't 1996, when all series of the Star Trek franchise honoring Star Trek.

Deep Space Nine did a great one with their Trial & Tribulations.

This one is the 'yang' to Deep Space 9's 'yin.'

A thoroughly disjointed story, in which the appearances of Sulu (George Takei) & (now lieutenant) Rand (Grace Lee Whitney) thrown in to a story in which the very disjointedness is part of the plot.

Whereas Deep Space Nine incorporated an original Star Trek story and enhanced it (using both camera trickery and still new CGI effects) to make a true love letter to Star Trek, Voyager takes the story which well it does have a kernel - the Star Trek film, An Undiscovered Country - from which to build on, it wastes this opportunity.

I remember seeing An Undiscovered Country, and while it was one of the better Star Trek films featuring the original series cast, is still not as imbedded in people's memories, as deeply as the many episodes of the original Star Trek series, and does not have the same resonance.

An (admittedly poor) analogy would be for someone to decide to make a tribute to Apple in 20 years, and after all the wonderful devices, which people have memories of, the inept brains make an 'anniversary' device based upon a Newton MessagePad, rather than a Mac, or iPhone - some people would 'get it,' while most wouldn't.

This poorly conceived episode actually angers me - it would've been less obsequious had the producers simply trotted out Mr. Takei & Ms. Whitney & just said 'here are a couple of original cast members' than this extremely jury-rigged plot they foisted.

It's insulting, and I've a long fuse. To irritate me takes a lot, but, this episode is just such a blatant pandering, it should be(come) 'lost' on purpose - and never found again.

Nothing of consequence happens other than Sulu is painted in a bad light and the writers do not seem to care.

[brdavid-429-96270 · 5/10 · 15 April 2020]

Not much to say other than a terrible episode marred by writers who are ignoring the elephant in the room in order to tell a story that honestly should have been left on the cutting room floor. So many ways this could have been a better episode, but this episode was more about "Sulu! We have Sulu!" over, "how can we utilize the character of Sulu and Tuvok well).