Season 1, Episode 3: Parallax
Estelle and Max say: Watch it! 4/5 Janeways
In which Chakotay and Janeway discuss new hires while stuck in a black hole.
Reasons to Watch B'Elanna is great. A many strong character moments. The black hole plot is genuinely surprising.
Reasons to Skip Doesn't advance the main plot.
What We Remember Is this one is about B'Elanna becoming chief engineer?
“Sometimes, You Just Have to Punch Your Way Through.”
Parallax is a shocking episode to watch, especially if you roll straight in after watching Caretaker Parts 1 and 2. Where the pilot episode is plodding and cringe-inducing, Parallax is tight, exciting, and filled with great character moments. Its moody, dramatic lighting and explosive character conflict feel like something from a later season or even a completely different show. It's the auspicious start that Voyager should have gotten, and you'd be safe starting your viewing of the series here, if you wanted.
We begin in sick bay, where engineering crewman Carey is being treated for a broken nose he received at the hand (fist?) of B'Elanna Torres. Clearly, a typical work day.
In short order we have Chakotay shutting down a potential Maquis mutiny, telling B'Elanna he thinks she should be chief engineer, and sparring with Janeway over how to carry out Federation law 70,000 lightyears from the nearest court. That keeps simmering in the background even as Voyager discovers a black hole, and, more pressingly, that they cannot get away from it. Flying away from the singularity simply brings them back where they started.
It's a dire situation, but also a chance for Janeway and Torres to bond through science nerdery. The final challenge of the episode has Janeway and Torres together on an away mission, trying to determine which of two identical Voyager starships is the real one and which is a time-shifted illusion. I don't have a lot of memories of watching the original run of Voyager when it was on TV, but this specific puzzle always stuck with me.
Running through the background of the episode is one of Janeway's worst/best character traits: her insatiable scientific curiosity. Janeway needs to personally understand the answer to a puzzle. When confronted with the singularity, she requests all the data and the sequesters herself in her ready room to personally review it and present her findings to the crew.
She is, after all, a science officer, and she keeps the show squarely rooted in Starfleet's mandate for discovery. While Star Trek always dips back into militarism for action, Voyager is very much a show about boldly going for going's own sake.
Janeway's science chops also give her opportunities to lay on the techno babble of Star Trek. It's quite refreshing to see a captain talking so confidently about tachyon particles or what have you. Even more so because that scientific acumen is what connects her with B'Elanna, not the paternalistic chat they have earlier in the episode. While Torres' eventual ascension to the position of Chief Engineer is a foregone conclusion, it feels entirely earned.
It's easy to dismiss the black hole (sorry, class-4 singularity) as just a McGuffin to get Janeway and Torres talking, but that doesn't give this episode enough credit. This is one of Star Trek episodes where the A-plot/B-plot format where the two stories are actually talking to each other.
The singularity is a metaphor for the state of the Voyager crew. When the officers try to ignore the simmering tensions between the Starfleet and Maquis crews, the problem pops up again. Simply trying to move on—flying in a different direction—brings them back to where they started, with tensions unresolved. Instead, they have to acknowledge and address their conflicts. As Janeway says: they must punch their way through.