'Innocence'

Stardate: 49555.5
Written By: Anthony Williams
Directed By: James L Conway
Rating: *** (out of 5)

�Innocence� was an interesting little Tuvok tale, nothing overly dramatic, or overly important to Tuvok�s character, but a nice simple and calm episode.  Well, there is some action scenes, of course!

So Tuvok�s shuttle crashes, and typically disturbance in the atmosphere prevents beaming.  Ensign Bennet dying was a touching scene, even if we have never seen him before, the only purpose being to get Tuvok alone and show that Starfleet procedures are being administered.

Why does Voyager have all these crewmen suddenly popping from the ship, even though it�s the same crew every episode?  Well, that�s a different subject . . .

Anyway, Tuvok finds three children on the surface and they are afraid of a creature from The Cave, which Tuvok just happened to crash 20 meters away from, that comes out only at night.  Tuvok says he will look after them.  Tuvok�s scenes with the kids are nice.  I had a lot of fun with this fatherly Tuvok.  The kids are acted well, as child actors go, and Tuvok telling them off, and discussing Vulcan culture with them is good.

This creature, the Morrok, is never really explained fully.  Alcia says that the creature is a myth, and that the Cave is a place where they believe their life began.  So why is those kids bodies not found if it�s their energy, or soul, that is released?  What exactly is in the cave that makes this happen, and what really does happen, surely Tuvok could�ve detected something, even when he went in the Cave at the end.

And did those two kids walk into the cave?  Or did they just vanish?  What ever happened, Tuvok�s sensors would�ve detected their life-signs moving, it would be logical for Tuvok to know when at night this happened and whether they walked there or just vanished.  If the kids walked into the cave, than why?  If they vanished into the cave, than why?

The episode doesn�t even create a sense of mysticism about the going-ons making these events somewhat shallower than they would be if the above were all explained.  And after all these events, every bit of character or emotional value disappears because we don�t even get to see what happens to Tressa in the cave.

On the good side we have some nice moments between Tuvok and the kids, like I�ve already said, and I really liked how both the Drayans and Janeway made a mistake about the dealings.  It was nice seeing a race that isn�t fully violent, and accepts when they make a mistake, and I�m glad that Voyager wasn�t, in a way, the good guys.

Generally the Drayans are well thought out One Time Never See Again Aliens, the culture being different and, while stretching plausibility, believable.  I can�t imagine the physics of growing up to be a kid!

�Innocence� is only bad when it comes down to the facts about the cave, and also that this does nothing to Tuvok�s character.  Otherwise it�s an enjoyable episode that is worth seeing, but don�t expect too much out of it.