Good Shepherd (Star Trek: Voyager)

"Good Shepherd" is the 140th episode of the science fiction television series Star Trek: Voyager. It is the 20th episode of the show’s sixth season. Set in the Star Trek science fiction universe, a 24th century starship must survive cut-off from the Federation on the other side of the Galaxy with a motley collection of Federation, Maquis, and aliens for crew.

"Good Shepherd"
Star Trek: Voyager episode
Episode no.Season 6
Episode 20
Directed byWinrich Kolbe
Story byDianna Gitto
Teleplay byDianna Gitto
Joe Menosky
Featured musicPaul Baillargeon
Production code243
Original air dateMarch 15, 2000 (2000-03-15)
Guest appearance(s)


Introduction

Captain Janeway goes on an away mission with three troubled crew-members in a shuttle.[1]

Plot

After a routine shipwide efficiency analysis, Seven of Nine determines that three of Voyager's crewmen are not performing at acceptable levels. Whereas such a problem on a starship would normally be remedied by a transfer to less challenging assignments, this option is not available to the crew of the Voyager, which is stranded tens of thousands of light years from Earth.

Captain Janeway decides to take the three crewmen under her wing, and against the advice of Seven of Nine, brings them along on an astronomical study in the Delta Flyer in order to form a rapport with them. The three crewmen are science officer William Telfer, a hypochondriac; Tal Celes, a Bajoran whose substandard work requires constant double-checking by others; and the asocial Mortimer Harren, who is interested only in cosmological theories and has found an assignment where he can sequester himself on Deck 15 and pursue this subject between occasional duties.

During the mission, an unknown, invisible force strikes the Delta Flyer, knocking its propulsion offline and neutralizing 90% of its antimatter fuel. Janeway transmits a distress call to Voyager. Harren suggests that a comet-like assemblage of dark matter is responsible, and proposes ejecting the remaining antimatter, which will attract another impact; but Janeway declines, arguing that more evidence is needed for Harren’s theory before she will act on it. She decides to fire a photon torpedo at the force.

Suddenly, Telfer begins to dematerialize and disappear. When he reappears, he collapses, with something writhing beneath his skin. Janeway fires a phaser at him when it begins to manipulate his motor neurons, which causes a stick-like entity to burrow itself out of a wound on his neck. Janeway hopes it will now communicate with them, but is frustrated when Harren violates her explicit order and kills it with a phaser.

Janeway takes the Delta Flyer to a nearby gas giant planet to reinitialize its warp core, but an unseen, invisible object begins displacing the fragments of the planet’s ring, cutting a swath heading straight for the Flyer. Janeway orders the others into the escape pods, but Celes and Telfer adamantly remain, while Harren heads his escape pod for the object in order to give the Flyer time to escape. Janeway beams him back with the transporter, and then fires the Flyer’s phasers at a fragment of the ring in front of the object, igniting a chain reaction. A bright light explodes throughout the Flyer.

Janeway awakens in sickbay. First Officer Commander Chakotay explains that after receiving her distress call, Voyager found the Flyer drifting above the gas giant with all four crew members unconscious. Janeway observes that in looking for lost members of her flock, the Good Shepherd ended up running into a wolf, but that in the end, she did find them.

Production

Crewman Mitchell, who greets Janeway in Act One, is played by Tom Morello, guitarist of Rage Against the Machine and Audioslave. In 1998, Morello, who is a fan of Star Trek, contacted series producer Rick Berman for a cameo in the film Star Trek: Insurrection. Berman, one of whose sons was a fan of Rage Against the Machine, agreed. Although Morello was one of many aliens in a crowd shot in that film, he was later hired in January 1999 to appear as a human in "The Good Shepherd". While Morello has only a few lines as Crewman Mitchell, Berman commented, "He did a great job. It was a little pick-me-up for everyone."[2][3]

gollark: And/or muck with your release pipeline accordingly (not that I did this, of course).
gollark: In the hypothetical scenario in which I had backdoors, I could theoretically just make it accept itself as valid if it was signed by potatOS keys and not your own.
gollark: It still can't verify itself.
gollark: In any case, I can neither confirm nor deny that there wouldn't be much stopping me from just sending backdoored copies into your signing process.
gollark: Well, the program can't usefully verify *itself*.

References
  1. Erdmann, Terry J. (2008-09-23). Star Trek 101: A Practical Guide to Who, What, Where, and Why. Simon and Schuster. ISBN 9781439117873.
  2. Snierson, Dan (February 7, 2000). "Now 'Voyager'". Entertainment Weekly.
  3. "Star Trek: Voyager: Characters". startrek.com. Retrieved February 9, 2012
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