Persistence of Vision (episode)
Voyager crew members experience disturbing and violent hallucinations.

Summary

Teaser
Captain Kathryn Janeway of the  is on her way to engineering when  Tom Paris calls her via combadge to inform her that he has finished plotting a course through Botha space. As Janeway continues toward engineering, Neelix approaches her and warns her that they will have to be careful as they travel through Bothan space. Janeway is short-tempered with Neelix and delays their discussion for later.

When Janeway arrives in engineering, B'Elanna Torres and Harry Kim are ready to test a new system of holo-projection that would allow The Doctor to appear in key areas of the ship other than sickbay and the holodeck. The test fails, however, because when The Doctor appears, his image is miniaturized. Janeway is visibly stressed, rubbing her temples as though she has a headache and raising her voice to the crew. Tuvok then contacts Janeway wanting to discuss security protocols before they encounter the Botha, and Janeway promises that she will find the necessary thirty minutes for him somehow. The Doctor sees that Janeway is exhausted and overworked, and asks her when she last took the time to relax. She admits that it's been a while, around two months prior since she has had shore leave and a few weeks since she last used the holodeck. The Doctor, recognizing the fact this is almost certainly the first time a hologram has given an order to a captain, uses his authority as chief medical officer and orders her to take some time in the holodeck to relax. Janeway, unable to help but be amused, agrees. The Doctor then angrily tells Kim and Torres to get to work on fixing their "ridiculous blunder."

In the holodeck, Janeway runs Janeway Lambda One, a Gothic holo-novel program. The holo-novel diverges from its original plot as Lord Burleigh, her employer in the holo-novel, declares his love for her character and kisses her.

Act One
Their embrace is interrupted by the entrance of the housekeeper, Mrs. Templeton, and Lord Burleigh's children, Henry and Beatrice, for afternoon tea. The plot of the holo-novel returns to its Gothic storyline as Janeway's character alludes to mysterious piano music coming from the music room and confronts Lord Burleigh about the mysterious goings-on in the house, including a fourth floor corridor she is forbidden to explore. The confrontation is interrupted when Janeway is called to the bridge by Chakotay to communicate with a representative of the Bothan government whose ship has approached Voyager. 

When Janeway arrives on the bridge, Neelix warns Janeway that he has heard reports of numerous ships disappearing without explanation in Bothan space. He also warns her that the Bothans fiercely protect their territory from outsiders. The Bothan representative appears on the viewscreen obscured by strong lighting and orders Janeway to wait for a Bothan ship to rendezvous with Voyager before the Bothans decide if Voyager will be allowed to proceed through Bothan space.
 
Janeway proceeds to the mess hall with Neelix to continue their discussion and to eat lunch. On the buffet, she sees a plate of cucumber sandwiches eerily similar to the ones on the tea table in Lord Burleigh's mansion in her holo-novel. As soon as she has recovered from the shock of the coincidence, Neelix serves her tea in a porcelain cup that appears to resemble exactly the porcelain cup that Beatrice, Lord Burleigh's daughter, broke in the holo-novel program. 

Janeway has convinced herself that these occurrences are coincidences, but as she walks down the corridor, passing by Lieutenant Ayala, she hears Lord Burleigh's voice reiterating his love for her. When she turns around, though, it's obvious Ayala wasn't speaking. Then she sees the image of Beatrice Burleigh in the corridor, and Beatrice speaks to Janeway and then vanishes.

Act Two
Convinced that there is a logical explanation for the appearance of the holo-novel objects and characters outside of the holodeck, she returns to engineering to ask B'Elanna Torres and Harry Kim if their experiments with The Doctor caused Beatrice to appear in the corridor. They don't understand how, since they didn't interface with the holodeck and the holo-emitters used were fresh out of storage. Nevertheless, they decide to run a diagnostic on the holodeck systems just in case.

Janeway returns to the holodeck to activate the program so that engineering can perform the diagnostic. Lord Burleigh again tries to kiss her, but she deletes his character. The diagnostic comes up clean, so Janeway returns to the mess hall and asks Neelix about the lunch. She discovers that Neelix served fried murt cakes, not cucumber sandwiches, and he served her tea in an ordinary metal mug, not a porcelain cup. The appearances of those items were in Janeway's head. She examines the cup he actually served her in, and it is perfectly normal. 

Now, convinced the problem must be medical, Janeway reports to sickbay to be examined by The Doctor. He finds no brain malfunction to account for her hallucinations. While The Doctor is examining Janeway, Kes, who is assisting him, experiences a strange sensation, which Janeway describes with the Human phrase "someone was walking on your grave", which puts off Kes and The Doctor, who were unfamiliar with the saying. Then Beatrice appears to Janeway again, taunting her. Janeway asks The Doctor who he sees, but he only sees Janeway, seemingly confirming this is in Janeway's mind... until Kes enters, and sees Beatrice too. Kes' telepathic presence somehow reflects the image, causing it to disappear into Janeway again. 

The Doctor orders Janeway to return to her quarters to rest. In her quarters, she hears the voice of her fiancé, Mark Johnson, who is back on Earth. He claims she no longer loves him but is in love with someone else instead. When she tries to leave her quarters, Mrs. Templeton, the housekeeper from the holo-novel, appears with a knife and begins to attack Janeway. Janeway is roused by Tuvok in sickbay, where Kes can also see Mrs. Templeton and reflects the image again. Janeway has never left sickbay; the entire incident in her quarters was a hallucination.

Act Three
Janeway relinquishes control of the ship to first officer Chakotay while she undergoes further medical testing. Kes asserts that something strange is happening on the ship and suggests that Janeway may not be the only crew member suffering from it.

Back on the bridge, an alien ship approaches. A Bothan representative appears on the viewscreen and questions Chakotay about Voyagers weapon capabilities. Tuvok terminates the transmission while making the termination look accidental. He has encountered suspicious energy readings that may indicate cloaked ships.

Two ships decloak in front of Voyager and the Bothans arm their weapons. The two small ships attack Voyager, causing minor shield damage. Voyager returns fire; meanwhile, Harry Kim discovers that the two smaller ships contain no life signs. He says they must be automated and are being controlled by the larger Bothan ship. Despite this, Voyager continues to pointlessly fire at the drone ships instead of targeting the one "real" opponent.
 
The Bothan ships move to surround Voyager and continue to fire. Voyager cannot evade them, so Chakotay orders a full stop. The Bothan representative appears again on the viewscreen and orders the crew to surrender. Janeway, who has returned to the bridge during the attack, refuses to surrender. The Bothan comes forward from the obscuring light on the viewscreen and appears to be Janeway's fiancé, Mark.

Act Four
Other officers on the bridge see their own friends and loved ones on the screen. The Bothan appears to Tom Paris as his father, to Harry Kim as his girlfriend, and to Tuvok as , his wife. Tuvok sees his Vulcan lute on the console in front of him and hallucinates that he is back on . While Tuvok experiences these hallucinations, he becomes catatonic. Janeway tries to wake him but cannot rouse him. 

One by one, members of the crew fall into catatonic states of hallucination. Torres explains that the hallucinations may be caused by a massive bioelectric energy field, or psionic field, coming from the Bothan ships. 

Torres proposes remodulating the shields as a temporary defense mechanism while she creates a resonance burst from the warp core to block the field. It is becoming increasingly difficult to accomplish things on the bridge, as every member of the crew except Janeway, Torres, Chakotay, The Doctor, Paris, and Kes have become catatonic.

While Torres is attempting to create the resonance burst, Chakotay comes to engineering. He says they are the last ones left conscious on the ship and suggests that they take an escape pod and head for a class M planet Voyager passed by the day before. When Torres refuses and insists that they need to continue trying to help the others, Chakotay becomes amorous, declares his desire for Torres, and kisses her. She realizes that it is not the real Chakotay, but she becomes sucked into a sexual fantasy anyhow.

Soon after, Paris also succumbs to a hallucination of his disapproving father, despite resistance. Janeway then decides to go to engineering (no one in engineering is awake) and finds a catatonic Chakotay inside a turbolift. On her way to engineering, Janeway encounters a delusion of Mark, and tries to resist him but eventually succumbs and the two fall into a passionate embrace. By the time the turbolift reaches its destination, Janeway is also catatonic.

Act Five
After this, Kes and The Doctor are the only ones left, and The Doctor sends Kes to engineering since she is now the only one left to create the resonance burst in engineering. On her way, Kes finds that she is also starting to succumb to the alien's influence when she encounters a hallucination of an injured Tom Paris, horribly burned by a plasma leak. She manages to leave the illusory Paris behind and resumes heading towards engineering. In the engine room, The Doctor walks Kes through the process over a small viewscreen. Then, Neelix enters engineering and approaches Kes. He tries to convince her to leave the ship with him, but Kes realizes it is another hallucination designed to prevent her from completing the resonance burst.

"Neelix" becomes angry; suddenly, Kes appears to be covered in boils or burns of some kind. She is in agonizing pain, but The Doctor encourages her to confront the hallucination and focus her telepathic energy on it. She does so, and the boils reflect onto the false Neelix. 

"Neelix" reverts to his true form, a Bothan, and Kes activates the resonance burst, freeing the crew from their catatonic states. 

Janeway comes to engineering and confronts the weakened alien, questioning him about the motives behind his attack; he claims to have perpetrated the attack simply because he can. Janeway also questions him about the telepathic attack and asks whether it was caused by telepathy alone or technology. 

Janeway says she will destroy the alien's technology, if there is technology involved, or lock up the alien. However, the alien reveals he is not really there and vanishes, as he was just a hallucination too. The Bothan ships vanish as well, and Voyager is left alone.

The ship returns to normal, but Captain Janeway admits that there are a number of unanswered questions about the incident. While sitting in the mess hall, Janeway and Torres discuss the incident and Janeway suggests that the alien may have done them a favor by forcing them to confront their buried emotions. Torres leaves as she has an early watch the next morning and wishes to sleep. Janeway wishes her pleasant dreams.

Log entries
"Captain's log, supplemental. We have no explanation for the mysterious disappearance of the telepathic alien. We can't even be certain that he was actually here. He seems to have left us with any number of unanswered questions."

Memorable quotes
"You're a powerful little thing. I must say, you surprised me."
- Bothan, speaking about Kes

"Friendly fellow."
 - Tom Paris, on the Bothan representative 

"Why was he keeping his face covered?"
 - Harry Kim, after the Bothan ends his communication with Voyager

"I'd like to be able to accommodate you, but you see... I'm not really here."
- Bothan, when confronted by Captain Janeway

"It's not even tempting."
- Tom Paris to Captain Janeway when she urges him not to look at the viewscreen through which an image of his father is yelling at him

"He looks so harmless. It is hard to believe he almost destroyed us."
 - Kes, on the Bothan

"And the two of you can get busy undoing this ridiculous blunder of yours!"
 - The Doctor to Kim & Torres with his malfunctioning holo-projector

"Why did you do this to us?"
- Janeway, asking the Bothan
"Because I can."
- Bothan, as response to Janeways question

Background information

Story and script
 A working title of this episode was "Untitled Janeway". 
 Executive producer Jeri Taylor had been eager to do this episode since the first season of  but faced opposition from Paramount studio executives. She recalled, "It was a show that I had wanted to do since last year. I got a great deal of opposition from the studio, in both story and script form. They thought it was a very soft story and they just didn't get it. They want more fights and more aliens. They weren't high on this at all and didn't want it to appear as early in the year as it did." (Captains' Logs Supplemental - The Unauthorized Guide to the New Trek Voyages) Fellow executive producer Michael Piller remarked, "This was a script that [Jeri Taylor] was struggling mightily with." (Cinefantastique, Vol. 28, No. 4/5, p. 77) Taylor was busy at work on this episode while executive story editor Kenneth Biller, with Michael Piller's assistance, was preparing to write a second draft of . (Cinefantastique, Vol. 28, No. 4/5, p. 76)
 At least one of the reasons Torres and Kim work on fitting holoprojectors around Voyager in this episode is that the production team of Star Trek: Voyager had, by this point in the series' run, become fed up with The Doctor almost always being confined to sickbay. (Beyond the Final Frontier, p. 286)
 The final draft of the episode's script was submitted on .

Cast and characters
 Chakotay actor Robert Beltran was intrigued by and enjoyed the scene that involves Torres experiencing a passionate, Botha-induced hallucination featuring a seductive Chakotay. "That was a fun one," the actor enthused, "That was very interesting to me because it revealed in Torres how she might be feeling about Chakotay. This entity reveals all of our fantasies, and we got to see how she feels about him." ()
 Torres actress Roxann Dawson did not, on the other hand, interpret the fantasy scene as signifying that her character was in love with Chakotay. Indirectly referring to the Botha, Dawson related, "I felt that the strength of that alien, the way he could get to us as humans, was that he understands the deep need, whether you're a Vulcan, or a half-Klingon or whatever, that we all have to love and to be loved. The things that would put us into those trances were very deep needs. I think for B'Elanna, it wasn't a reflection of a direct attraction to Chakotay. He represents so much to her, a father figure, a mentor, her teacher, her coworker, and he is an attractive man. I think it was a desire to give in to a side that she does not give into easily, and that was what caused her particular trance. I don't think that necessarily means that he is always on her mind. It probably took her by surprise [...] It was more of a reflection of her need to please, to fulfill, all of these things are very real, very Human [...] I didn't read it [as an implication that Torres just desired Chakotay] when I read the script. It did say something about all of the characters who succumbed to those needs of wanting to love and to be loved, those things that we shove away, and push away, and don't want to deal with." (Cinefantastique, Vol. 28, No. 4/5, p. 103)

Production
This was the first episode that James L. Conway directed after helming the feature-length fourth season opener  for . Michael Piller said of Conway's work on this episode, "I think James Conway did a fabulous job in making something out of a fairly average story into an excellent piece of television." (Cinefantastique, Vol. 28, No. 4/5, p. 86)
Roxann Dawson and Robert Beltran found that filming the fantasy scene involving B'Elanna Torres and an imaginary Chakotay was a hilarious experience. Dawson later said of "Persistence of Vision", "All I remember from that one was not being able to stop laughing when we were doing the love scene between Chakotay and me. Robert Beltran and I just kept cracking each other up." ()
One aspect of this episode's production that Mrs. Templeton actress Carolyn Seymour enjoyed was the filming of the scene in which her character attacks Janeway. Shortly after working on the episode, the actress remarked, "Recently, we actually shot a scene where we had a cat fight. One of the directors wanted to take it out but we are hoping we can keep it in, and I think we will get to. It was really good and we enjoyed shooting it." ()

Effects
 The Botha alien uses a Kazon raider as one of his illusory vessels. The other illusory ship is not identified. However, the oft-reused studio model for the Talarian observation craft was used for the unidentified craft here and, this time, it was redressed with a purple glow from its nacelles.
 The shot of Tuvok miraculously finding himself on Vulcan incorporates a section from a matte painting that was used in  for its background. (See :File:HMS Bounty leaves Vulcan.jpg)

Continuity
 According to Jeri Taylor, this episode "began Janeway on a journey she needs to take, which is resolving the matter of her lover, Mark." Taylor added, "We cannot put her into romantic situations until she decides he has given her up for dead and moved on, and the only wise thing for her to do is the same." (Star Trek - Where No One Has Gone Before)
 "Persistence of Vision" was also the working title for the  second season episode . ()
 This is the third of three episodes that feature Janeway's Gothic holo-novel, holosuite program Janeway Lambda One. The holo-novel had originally been developed for  but was not shown onscreen until . (A Vision of the Future - Star Trek: Voyager) It had subsequently appeared in  before appearing in this episode. Of the holo-novel, Jeri Taylor stated, "In my heart I would like to see [Janeway] sort of finish this novel and start another one next season. Whether that will happen, I cannot say. We may return to a different holo-novel for her, but [...] I thought it was great fun [...] We wrote a conclusion in which everything got knitted up, because I thought it was a shame to just leave it." (Captains' Logs Supplemental - The Unauthorized Guide to the New Trek Voyages) The follow-up conclusion to the Gothic holo-novel was ultimately never produced, however.
This is the only episode of the series to address B'Elanna Torres' attraction to Chakotay. However, the issue is additionally raised in the novel Pathways by Jeri Taylor, the same person who wrote this episode. Robert Beltran considered that Torres' fantasy involving Chakotay might be a sign of things to come. "Maybe he'll feel the same for her," the actor speculated midway through the second season. "That's not quite confirmed, but it's possible and it sets the stage for some further development of their relationship." () However, Roxann Dawson dismissed the possibility that her character might become romantically involved with Chakotay. She commented, "People can interpret B'Elanna's feelings for Chakotay in a lot of different ways. I see Chakotay as a combination of mentor and father figure for B'Elanna. She might have some romantic feelings towards him in a kind of Freudian sense, but I don't see them getting together on any other level than as a mentor and pupil." ()
The color of the warp core changes in this episode from a pinkish-blue to a whitish-blue and stays this way until the end of the series.
This is the third episode in which The Doctor leaves sickbay, after  and . Whereas in those episodes he was only able to visit the holodeck, he is now seen appearing in Engineering.

Reception
 Once this episode was produced, the initial fears of the Paramount studio executives were put to rest. "It got made and everybody loved it," Jeri Taylor remembered, "Then we got all the phone calls that said, 'Wow, that turned out well.' I knew it was going to work." (Captains' Logs Supplemental - The Unauthorized Guide to the New Trek Voyages) Michael Piller was also pleased with the episode's final form. He remarked, "The show turned out particularly well, yet it's not a show that is about anything." (Cinefantastique, Vol. 28, No. 4/5, p. 86)
 The surreal quality of this episode was somewhat apt, considering that it first aired a day before Halloween. (, p. 78)
 This episode achieved a Nielsen rating of 6.1 million homes and a 9% share.  The installment also achieved an NTI (National Television Index) rating of 8.5. () This episode tied the earlier Season 2 installment  as fourth most watched episode of Voyagers second season (on first airing). It had the same Nielsen rating as "Projections" but a slightly lower share percentage than that episode.  Despite its high ratings, this episode has repeatedly failed to appear in the top five of fan polls testing the popularity of episodes in Star Trek: Voyagers second season. (; )
 Fans who viewed this episode included actor Robert Picardo's two young daughters, who took delight in repeatedly watching their father in this installment. Picardo noted, "Their all-time favorite is the one [when] they shrunk me down to the size of a fire hydrant. They got a big kick out of that, couldn't keep their fingers off the rewind button on the VCR." (Cinefantastique, Vol. 29, No. 6/7, p. 92)
 In the lead-up to this episode's VHS release,  rated this episode 4 out of 5 stars, defined as "Trill-powered viewing". ()
 Cinefantastique gave the installment 2 out of 4 stars. (Cinefantastique, Vol. 28, No. 4/5, p. 84)
 The reference book Delta Quadrant (p. 78) scored the episode 7 out of 10.
 An element of this installment that did not garner much audience appreciation was Janeway's holo-novel. In fact, the lack of appreciation for the Gothic simulation was the reason it did not continue after this episode. Jeri Taylor remarked, "That was one of those things that we were not getting the feedback from the fans that seemed to justify its continuing. A lot of people had problems with Janeway being in what would be considered a servile position. A lot of people just aren't fans, as I am, of Gothic novels and just sort of didn't get it." Taylor subsequently remarked that, although she had enjoyed the holo-novel, she was "never afraid to cut our losses if something isn't working." (Captains' Logs Supplemental - The Unauthorized Guide to the New Trek Voyages)
 Another plot element that drew complaints from fans was the romantic fantasy scene between Torres and Chakotay, as some fans feared that the scene weakened Torres' character. (Cinefantastique, Vol. 28, No. 4/5, p. 86) Surprised by this response, Roxann Dawson laughed and exclaimed, "So many people gave me such flak about that, as if I had written it. It was amazing, the letters, and the comments. Mostly the women really spoke out strongly against it, and felt that it was a cop-out. I totally disagreed with that." Moments after subsequently remarking that the surprise she believed B'Elanna felt at the content of her own vision was probably equal to the audience's surprise at the sequence, Dawson further commented, "At [Star Trek] conventions, a lot of people [were] feeling that the writers just felt that the only thing B'Elanna was about, was being in love with Chakotay. That wasn't what the message was at all." (Cinefantastique, Vol. 28, No. 4/5, p. 103) 
 Both Jeri Taylor and Michael Piller believed this episode had a positive impact on the success of subsequent episodes in Voyagers second season. Taylor reckoned, "I may be wrong about this, but it was the first show of the season that got a little buzz coming from the audience." (Captains' Logs Supplemental - The Unauthorized Guide to the New Trek Voyages) At the end of the same season, Michael Piller said, "We needed anything we could get in the beginning of the season. It wasn't until Jeri's script 'Persistence of Vision' marked the beginning of the turn [...] We started building on that momentum and I think if you look from that show on we consistently started doing interesting things." (Cinefantastique, Vol. 28, No. 4/5, p. 77)
 This episode was nominated for an Emmy Award for Outstanding Hairstyling for a Series (along with ).

Video and DVD releases
UK VHS release (two-episode tapes, CIC Video): Volume 2.2, 
As part of the VOY Season 2 DVD collection

Links and references

Guest Stars
 Michael Cumpsty as Lord Burleigh
 Carolyn Seymour as Mrs. Templeton
 Stan Ivar as Mark
 Warren Munson as Owen Paris
 Lindsey Haun as Beatrice Burleigh
 Thomas Dekker as Henry Burleigh
 Patrick Kerr as Bothan Inflitrator
 Marva Hicks as

Co-Star
 Majel Barrett as Computer Voice

Uncredited Co-Stars 
 John Copage as  Voyager sciences officer
 Tarik Ergin as Ayala
 Sue Henley as 
 Kerry Hoyt as 
 Susan Lewis as Voyager operations officer
 Louis Ortiz as Culhane
 Richard Sarstedt as William McKenzie

Stunt double 
 Patricia Tallman as stunt double for Carolyn Seymour

References 
afternoon tea; aggressor; amusement; aneurysm; Ashmore; biogenic field; Baxial; Botha; Bothan government; Bothan space; Bothan starships; brain wave pattern; brig; Burleigh's wife; carving knife; catatonia; class M; coffee ice cream; ; Cook; costume; cucumber sandwich; cup; ; delta wave; Earth; electrolyte; ; expression; Federation; fried murt cake; girlfriend; Hargrove; heart; holodeck; holo-novel program (aka novel); holo-projector; Intrepid class decks; invader; Janeway Lambda One; Kazon; Kelvin; lead ship; Libby; magnetic plasma constriction; mess hall; Milky Way Galaxy; Mithren; Mollie; ; multiphasic scan; music room; niccel strips; ; photon torpedo; piano; planet near Bothan space; plasma leak; programmer; psionic field; saying; Seltin pâté; Seltin wood fungus; sonata; soup; Starfleet's interactive database; Starfleet regulations; stroke; subdural hematoma; subspace scan; surrender; telepathy; telepathic ability; temperature; turbolift; vandal; vegetable bouillon; Vulcan (planet); Vulcan lute; wood throk

External links
 
 
 

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VOY episodes