Star Trek: Voyager (TV Series) Emanations (1995) User Reviews

Where aliens go when the die

[Tweekums · 7/10 · 19 June 2010]

When a new element is discovered within a nearby asteroid field an away team is dispatched to investigate. When they get there they find caverns containing alien bodies; it appears that they have stumbled upon an alien burial ground. When a sub-space vacuole opens in the cavern they attempt to beam back to Voyager but something goes wrong and only two of the away team re-materialise... along with a recently deceased alien. With Voyager's technology they are able to revive the alien woman and she is most disturbed to discover that not only has she not entered the afterlife; the fact that the asteroids are full of corpses suggests that there may be no afterlife. While the alien appeared on Voyager Ensign Kim finds himself on the planet she was sent from much to the surprise of the locals. They believe he is the first person to return from the afterlife but are confused when he tell them about the bodies on the asteroid. One of them who is preparing to die a starts to have doubts when he hears Harry's story, he wasn't dying but opted to move on to the afterlife since he was a burden to his family after an injury. Now he things there might not be an afterlife he isn't to sure about dying. This gives Harry an opportunity... he can take the place of the alien and hope Voyager is still near the asteroid field. It turns out that he got back just in time; while Voyager was near the asteroids the vacuoles were attracted to the warp core and corpse started to materialise in engineering.

This was an interesting episode; while it lacked action it explores the ideas of what may or may not happen after death in an interesting and fairly non-preachy way although the energy given off as the aliens die does give a slightly unnecessary hint that their beliefs might not be totally false. The story also touches on the subject of euthanasia although it doesn't go very deeply into it.

Early Torture Harry episode

[whatch-17931 · 7/10 · 9 January 2021]

Harry Kim tends to be Voyager's Miles O'Brien, the "Everyman" subjected to all sorts of difficult situations.

Not the best, but not bad at all.

The burial shroud was convenient to hide Harry and the alien's switcharoo, though you'd think the family might notice something considering Garrett Wang is considerably stockier than the other actor.

Also, it seemed kind of strange that this ritual is absolutely what you do, yet this dude knew some friends who he was certain wouldn't mind him moving in with them.

I liked it but a bit clunky

[bgaiv · 7/10 · 4 January 2022]

Some difficult to ignore issues, like how does nobody notice that Harry replaces the man that was supposed to die? Harry is MUCH more heavily built.

Also, for all the certainty the aliens profess about their death ritual, the old guy that was supposed to die not only changes his mind quickly, he also had friends he's certain will take him in. What?! That aspect demanded more detail because it strongly implies not everybody believes in this.

It's true we saw the story primarily from the point of view of the most religious, but still, a few lines of "some of our people are skeptics" would have helped.

Harry blunders big time on the Prime Directive, which is interesting in its own right. Perhaps he's a lower tier officer and was posted on Voyager which was launched without the slightest expectation of first contact.

It was kind of funny how they revived the alien lady then a transporter accident caused her to die again and Janeway seemed relieved!

Anyway, I did like it overall. A bit clunky, but a new story.

Once Again There Are No Anwers--Only Ones We Create Ourselves

[Hitchcoc · 6/10 · 10 August 2018]

This is the obligatory theological episode. A planet is encountered where people die, believing they are going to a higher plain. This is not much different than any religion the posits an afterlife. The fact is that nobody knows. However, the priests and "experts" have totally fallen into belief, convincing the others that they know something. Just like here on earth, they don't know anything. They are the product of eons of transfer of these ideas. Science tells us we are the stuff of stars and our consciousnesses are merely a random set of molecules that become what we are. Whether or not there are other possibilities is usurped by people that often know less. So as the characters her pontificate on this planet they are worse than indifferent. They actually send people with infirmities off to their deaths, instead of suggesting that their lives have more meaning than a few problems.

Harry, you stupid idiot!

[planktonrules · 7/10 · 4 February 2015]

"Emanations" is a very good but very inconsistent episode of "Star Trek: Voyager". I liked it on balance but felt like the writer didn't quite hit the mark.

When the show begins, an away team beams to an asteroid within the rings of a planet below. Once there, however, they find dead bodies everywhere--bodies which were sent there by some unknown people. Chakotay insists that the team members do not touch or disturb the corpses in any way--as it would be disrespectful and violate the Prime Directive. He's right...too bad Harry Kim is an idiot. This is because when he tries to transport back to the ship, some weird space vacuole appears and transports him back to the planet which has sent their dead to the asteroid! He's the first person to return from the dead as far as these people are concerned--and this can cause havoc for these people and their religious beliefs. This part annoyed me because EVERYONE at Starfleet is drilled with the notion NOT to contaminate other planets--yet dumb 'ol Harry begins talking rather freely to these people--too freely. In fact, this is a serious plot problem because he behaved like he'd never heard of the Prime Directive.

Harry, though, is not the only confound. When another body is transported to the asteroid and bodies start appearing on the ship because it is in close proximity, the Doctor decides to revive one of these recently dead bodies. After all, he can cure her illness easily. But this ends up scaring the daylights out of the lady as she expected to be on her planet's version of Heaven and the planet below isn't even where she was born. It's naturally very confusing and now we have the Captain thinking about sending this lady back to her planet once they locate it--but wouldn't that also violate the much-beloved Prime Directive?!

So, to really enjoy this one you need to accept that Voyager forgot the Prime Directive---which is even harder since this show is so ethically bound and drips in the Prime Directive in other episodes. Inconsistent, that's for sure. It's really a shame, though, as shows about the afterlife and religion are interesting and I did enjoy this aspect of the program. Overall, good but way too inconsistent.

Kim is just a kid that is not able to discuss philosophical questions

[tomsly-40015 · 6/10 · 9 December 2023]

This episode starts with Chakotay, Torres and Kim beaming on an asteroid to investigate traces of a new element. Although they are on an asteroid it of course has breathable air and a cozy warm climate. Luckily M class planets and planetoids are very widespread in the Star Trek universe - this saves money because no EV suit props are needed. And it wouldn't be Star Trek if not 90% of all away missions and planetary explorations would be in a cave. Even Lower Decks made fun of this fact in one episode. The number of caves a Starfleet officer must have seen in his career must be enormous. "Did you visit the capital city of this newly discovered planet? What it this society like?". "We had no time visiting cities or talk to locals. We were busy scanning a cave with our tricorders".

This episode touches an interesting topic but could have been better executed. We encounter a new species that believes that they continue to live in their bodies after they died and reunite with their families and friends in a state of higher consciousness. Death to them is not feared. On the contrary, it is seen as the transition to their next life and some people actively seek to die if they are no longer happy with their lives or a burden to their loved ones.

Unfortunately ensign Kim was the wrong choice to lead this episode. Someone with more cultural and religious background like Chakotay would have been a better choice. An elaborate discussion about beliefs, the afterlife, existence in here and now, rebirth... would have made this episode more interesting. No word from Kim that our human culture has strong religious beliefs in something like a heaven and paradise. Or that some believe in rebirth, even as an animal. Kim and the whole episode stay flat in this regards. Janeway tries to save the mess with some more deeper thoughts. But still: Missed opportunities.

Emanations

[Prismark10 · 6/10 · 23 May 2023]

I did snigger at the ending of this episode. Captain Janeway gives a pep talk to Ensign Kim and his future career as he rises up the ranks. The far flung future for Harry Kim!

Here Kim is flung to the afterlife. A body swap with a corpse. He lands in an alien planet and a culture who believes that Kim has returned from the dead.

Meanwhile back on Voyager, the Holodoc has brought a corpse back to life. The away team managed to accidentally beam it abroad while Harry got lost.

The story wants to talk about how we treat the dead, the dying and how corpses are respected.

It starts with Chakotay not wanting to desecrate the dead, not even getting a tricorder to examine them. That might be part of his native beliefs.

Meanwhile Kim forgets about the prime directive as he has to convince people he has not returned from something like heaven.

There are some big themes here but the writing cannot really do it justice.

Paradigm Break

[xandemogi · 10/10 · 4 July 2018]

In this episode the subject of death and its consequences was treated quietly and smoothly, presenting possibilities beyond those we are taught to to believe. It allows us to open new ways of thinking about what happens after the death of the physical body.

Talking about Science fiction involves more than just ships stellar conflicts and disputes, it should also be included spiritual concepts like dimensions, beings of different levels of evolution and move beyond purely physical issues.

Is everything we believe really what we think? Or can it be in a different way? We must keep our minds always open to new questions, because they change the way we think.

It's like Captain Janeway said: what we do not know about death is greater than we know. There is still much to learn and stories like this make us reflect.

Great idea hampered by the characters

[snoozejonc · 6/10 · 4 June 2022]

Voyager encounters a race with strong beliefs about life after death.

This is one of those episodes with an interesting concept and a great premise for a story, but it's potential is not fully realised.

Harry Kim is transported to another dimension and someone else arrives on Voyager in his place thinking she is dead and in the afterlife; A terrific set up.

What follows has some good themes written into the dialogue exchanges about belief systems and life after death, but the characters are fairly bland and sometimes a bit annoying. There is also a slightly recycled element from the TNG episode 'Half A Life'.

Katie Mulgrew is great as ever. Garrett Wang handles Kim's moments at centre stage very well.

Slow and inconsistent

[dirvingman-62136 · 3/10 · 15 December 2020]

This might be my least favorite Voyager episode so far. Here are the problems I have with it:

-Harry Kim is no leading character. I still find him wooden and uninteresting.

-I can't tell if it's the director or the set design on the alien world, but a lot of the shots in that location look bad. Too many unnecessarily crooked shots. Perhaps the director wanted that look to signify that Harry Kim was in a strange place, but the execution makes it feel like it was a mistake rather than intentional. It just looks off, in a bad way. I would be more understanding if there was a horror vibe in the episode to justify all the Dutch angles.

-The worst part is the script. It's an early draft that needs re-writes. For one, there are many inconsistencies in this episode. Just take a look at the teaser -Chakotay makes a strangely firm stand against using tricorders on the dead bodies, changes his mind about using tricorders at the last minute, then when they mistakenly transport a dead body aboard - they can tell with their tricorders that it's a new dead body even though they weren't using them before. And that dead body is able to be revived despite the ending where they say the aliens lose their neural energy and do go to the afterlife? I would be scratching my head if I wasn't bored by that point.

Life after death

[Paularoc · 8/10 · 13 July 2012]

An away team is sent to investigate unusual emanations coming from an asteroid and while there discover many shroud wrapped bodies. Chakotay, in Native American fashion, wishes to leave them alone and not interfere with another's burial customs while Kim wishes to further investigate. When transporting back to the Voyager there is a glitch and an alien's body from the asteroid is transported to the Voyager and Kim is transported to the alien's home planet. The alien is revived on the Voyager and she then conveys that her culture believes in an afterlife of such a nature as is belied by the corpses on the asteroid. The scenes between the alien and Kes are very touching. Meanwhile on the alien planet, Kim's appearance has upset the locals since his report of what was found on the asteroid is contrary to their belief system. One of the aliens in particular is questioning what he has believed his entire life. This episode was very interesting and didn't have the feel of a smarmy attack on contemporary religious beliefs. The final scene between Captain Janeway and Ensign Kim is very good – Janeway is the wise mentor and Kim the young student trying to make sense of the world around him and his experiences in it. Nicely done.

Strong thought provoking premise for an episode.

[thevacinstaller · 8/10 · 26 March 2020]

There is a lot to process and consider after a viewing of this episode in terms of reality/spirituality/religious belief and it is executed in a effect manner.

It is a bit of a mind blowing idea that beings from another dimension could achieve a second life in our dimension after death. I love when theories like this get presented in good star trek. We get no real answers in this episode in regards to the question of where and what dimension these aliens exist in. As with the question of spirtuality/religious belief/what is reality the show leaves the question ultimately unanswered and it is up to the viewers interpretation. I like the 'show don't tell' approach in this particular case.

We also get a good Janeway 'Mom' moment of letting Harry Kim take a timeout to process the fact that he died, went to another potential dimension of space and is potentially living in heaven/2nd level of life for beings from that dimension.