st voyager the thaw

The Thaw (episode)

• View history
• 1.2 Act One
• 1.3 Act Two
• 1.4 Act Three
• 1.5 Act Four
• 1.6 Act Five
• 2 Memorable quotes
• 3.1 Story and script
• 3.2 Cast and characters
• 3.3 Props, makeup, and sets
• 3.4 Production
• 3.5 Continuity
• 3.6 Reception
• 3.7 Video and DVD releases
• 4.1 Starring
• 4.2 Also starring
• 4.3 Guest Stars
• 4.4 Special Guest Star
• 4.5 Uncredited Co-Stars
• 4.6 References
• 4.7 External links

Summary [ ]

The Kohl settlement

In Ensign Harry Kim 's quarters , Harry plays his clarinet while Lieutenant jg Tom Paris sits on a nearby couch reading a book. They are both content until someone pounds on the wall opposite Kim's. As Kim yells an apology, Paris observes that Ensign Pablo Baytart must not appreciate music. Kim seems annoyed as he explains that the fluid conduits running through the walls conduct the sound of his clarinet; however, Paris counters by pointing out that the USS Voyager was built for combat performance, not musical performance. Looking for an alternative, Paris suggests practicing in a cargo bay but as they have bad acoustics, he jokingly suggests they have Baytart switched to the night shift. Kim laughs and says they could not do that but after a pause, he wonders if they could. Paris gives him a dry look and suggests that at least Kim will have an excuse to give his mother for why he did not practice. However, Kim is trying to prepare for an important performance with Lt. Susan Nicoletti . On hearing this, Tom is amazed; he has been "chasing" Nicoletti for months but Kim seems to have found that the way to a woman's heart is her oboe . They are interrupted as Commander Chakotay orders all senior officers to the bridge . As they exit Kim's quarters, Paris sarcastically mentions he has always wanted to learn to play the drums .

As Voyager approaches a deserted planet , Lt. Tuvok notes that there are nonfunctional communication satellites in orbit. Neelix informs Captain Kathryn Janeway that the planet used to be a major trading colony , although he is unsure how long ago. Before he can make an estimate, Kim announces that evidence indicates a major solar flare occurred nineteen years previously . Chakotay observes a glacial freeze on the planet's surface, no doubt a result of the solar flare. Kim adds that there were magnetic storms and extreme levels of radiation as well. Evidence suggests an advanced culture with warp drive and similar technologies but there are no life signs and it appears that the atmospheric disturbances would have prevented any escape attempts. Janeway grimly realizes that the entire colony of 400,000 people was likely wiped out. However, Kim announces that they are being hailed from the planet's surface.

Act One [ ]

Chakotay reminds Kim that he said there were no lifeforms on the surface, which Kim confirms, suggesting that the hail is automated. In any case, Janeway tells Paris to play the message. A man named Viorsa appears on the viewscreen and introduces himself as the planner of the Kohl settlement. He explains that Voyager 's sensors have activated the message and that he and a group of members of his species have gone into a state of artificial hibernation in order to survive the effects of the ecological disaster on their world. The computer will awaken them in fifteen years, at which time he expects the planet's ecological recovery will begin, and he asks that no one interrupt their timetable.

Chakotay points out that the colonists' timetable ended four years ago . Turning to Kim, Janeway asks if scans would have picked up suppressed metabolic signs. Although they should have done so, he checks below the planet's surface and picks the three extremely faint biosignatures 2.3 kilometers down. He is unable to determine why the hibernation period did not end on time, but he confirms that there are two dead aliens and three more in stasis. Janeway now turns to Tuvok and asks if there are any automated security systems. Tuvok reports that there are no such systems and that it is safe to beam the hibernation pods aboard Voyager if that is the captain's intent. It is, so Janeway tells Tuvok to beam the pods to Cargo Bay 1 and orders Kim and Kes to meet her there.

The stasis system

Five stasis units arrive in the cargo bay, arranged in a half-circle formation with wires connecting each chamber to a computer in the center. As Kes, Kim and Janeway approach the chambers, Kes uses a tricorder to scan the stasis units. Her scan confirms that there are two dead humanoids and three more in deep stasis with stable life signs. A layer of dust covers the units and as Janeway wipes the dust off one of them, she reveals the unconscious Viorsa. A badly decomposed corpse can be seen in another chamber. Janeway asks Kim what went wrong but he is unable to say. According to the tricorder, there were no pathway failures and the computer's circuitry appears intact. However, he notes with a hint of confusion that the alien's brains are interconnected via a complex sensor system. Further investigation reveals that the computer is generating an artificial, dream-like environment intended to keep the alien's minds active. Upon hearing this, Kes is confused, so Janeway explains that in the past Starfleet has used similar systems to keep officers' minds active during deep-space travel, at a time before warp travel was perfected. The question is what went wrong and why they are still in stasis.

Janeway calls a meeting of the senior officers , where Kim explains the situation to the rest of the crew . Using a sample diagnostic display from the computer controlling the colonists' hibernation program, he explains that while the system was designed to wake them four years ago, the decision to wake up was left to the colonists themselves. A subroutine was set up to display weather conditions on the planet periodically in order to allow them to choose when the safest time would be to emerge. For the past four years, this "escape hatch" has remained available to Viorsa and his companions, yet they still haven't activated it despite the fact that the system works perfectly. Tom Paris lightly suggests that the colonists are enjoying their artificial environment but The Doctor doubts this is the case, as the dead colonists showed evidence of prior neural trauma, which suggests mental stress caused by fear. Both colonists died from massive heart attacks likely caused by the stress to which their bodies were subjected. Unfortunately, given the length of time that the colonists' bodies have been reliant upon the computer, Kim admits he does not know how to deactivate the system from the outside without causing the colonists brain damage. Tuvok suggests asking the colonists how to do so, to which Paris sarcastically asks if Tuvok plans to implant a com-link into the system. Tuvok reminds him they already have a means of communication via the two vacant pods, so the crew decide to install a back-up life support system and enter the computer themselves.

Back in the cargo bay, Kes helps secure Kim in one of the stasis units while Lt. B'Elanna Torres lies in the other. Kes reassures them that she will be monitoring their vital signs and in the event of an emergency they will be transferred onto the backup life support system. Janeway adds that the system's recall subroutine will activate in five minutes to bring them back, calling the initial entry into the system a "test run" before she finishes securing Torres' pod. Once Kes activates the computer, Kim and Torres lose consciousness within seconds and she announces that the autonomic nervous system link is secure. They are now on the system.

In the computer, Kim and Torres find themselves together in a room with abstract designs on the walls but they feel no different than they normally do. Laughing and music come from a nearby room and as Kim and Torres head toward the sounds, they find a circus -like atmosphere filled with various performers who go about their business seemingly unaware of the newcomers. While there are numerous computer characters, Viorsa and his two companions are nowhere to be found as a nearby clown presides over the scene. A few of the performers take notice of Kim and Torres with amused intrigue but when Kim attempts to talk to them, they laugh or ignore him altogether. When he mentions that he and Torres are looking for some friends, the clown makes himself known as he responds, " Well, that shouldn't be too difficult. We're all friends here! " Kim and Torres take his response as part of the program and ignore it, continuing to explore the artificial environment. However, the clown seems to know more than he lets on, wearing a sinister grin as they pass him.

Kim and Torres find more of the same as they explore but one of the characters, a Little Woman wearing a multicolored tutu, finally seems to notice them when Kim accidentally bumps into her. When he apologizes, she forgives him and observes that he is new, asking where he is from. Torres tells the woman they are from "another town" but the woman indignantly reminds her there are no other towns. The woman goes about her business and Kim remarks that they are not getting very far. He takes a few more steps before a large character, perhaps nine feet tall and resembling a spectre , stops him. " Perhaps I can help you, " the spectre asks in a slow, deep voice. " You are looking for friends? " Harry acknowledges this adding that are three of them. The spectre asks what they plan to do once they find these "friends" and Torres tells him she and Kim want to talk. The clown suddenly appears behind them, grabbing Kim and Torres each by an arm and exclaims, " Why talk when we can dance? "

The Clown proves to be a real pain in the neck for Harry Kim

With that, the clown brings Kim and Torres toward a group of performers as the music grows louder and becomes eerily cheerful. The two Voyager officers are pushed into the middle of a conga line, which they try to go along with until they arrive at a pink guillotine with a log in the head slot and a black-clad executioner next to it. Now surrounded by the clownish performers on all sides, Kim and Torres watch the executioner hit a button, causing the guillotine to cut the log in half. As he does so, the performers cheer and the music ends as the scene takes on a distinctly unfriendly tone, although the performers seem as merry as ever. Kim and Torres attempt to leave but are overwhelmed by the performers, who begin to clap in unison as Kim is handcuffed and brought toward the guillotine. Torres yells out Kim's name several times as she struggles to break free, much to the delight of the performers, who imitate her and bob their heads from side to side as they clap. The clown grins as the Little Woman from before brushes Kim's head with a feather duster in a mock-ceremonial manner. The executioner looks at Kim anxiously, eager to push the button on the guillotine…

Act Two [ ]

The Clown 's performers continue to clap in anticipation of Kim's beheading, but Viorsa emerges from elsewhere in the environment and orders them to stop. A physician and a programmer, the other two occupants of the pods, accompany him. Viorsa approaches and speaks directly to the Clown, adamantly warning him that the newly arrived aliens are surely not alone and should the Clown kill them, their shipmates will shut down the program. On hearing this, the Clown seems somewhat worried and orders the executioner to release Kim. Viorsa seems to be more pleading than talking as he tells the Clown that he and the other aliens knew a starship would find them some day, that it was only a matter of time. There is no way to know what will happen if the Clown hurts them, Viorsa claims; grinning, the Clown taps his head and reassures Viorsa that he knows.

The Clown approaches Torres and claims she is like himself, "a little of this, a little of that." She does not take kindly to his games, and he observes that her temper comes from her mother's side of the family. When she looks at him incredulously, he claims to know everything. Further, the environment is his "party" and she and Kim are there without an invitation. Torres turns to Viorsa to ask what the Clown is. However, this greatly irritates the Clown, who insists that she talk directly to him. He explains that he speaks for Viorsa and his companions, as well as Torres and Kim, a fact he claims they will come to accept with time. Kim wonders aloud whether the Clown is a life form or a computer virus , which amuses the Clown. Circling Kim, he mockingly observes Kim's operational mind and attention to detail. Viorsa begs the Clown to stop, but looks down submissively after a threatening look. Now in a more serious mood, the Clown informs his "guests" that taking the members of Viorsa's species out of the environment would cause him and the other performers to disappear. The performers have amassed behind him as he talks, and they use a crying gesture to emphasize his point. Kim suddenly seems to grasp the concept, realizing that the program generates the Clown, so without someone on the system, the Clown will cease to exist. This encourages the Clown, who further explains that he is merely the product of input from the brains of the aliens, as well as Kim and Torres. An oversized Starfleet communicator appears on him as he speaks, and he pretends to spit-shine it with pride. However, he is interrupted by a series of beeps as a computer panel appears on a nearby wall, identical to those on the computer in the real world.

Angrily, the Clown accuses Torres of being responsible for the panel's appearance. She and Kim do not hesitate to push past him and run toward the panel, but while he makes no effort to stop them, he casually announces that one of the aliens will die if they leave. He reassures them he is serious, randomly selecting the physician for execution and daring the newcomers to leave. Viorsa solemnly confirms that the Clown possesses the ability to kill and has done so twice. When the Clown claims he does so via decapitation, a frustrated Torres insists that nothing in the environment is real. As the Clown informs her the environment is as real as a nightmare , Kim seems to suddenly grasp the concept, remembering the two aliens had died from massive heart attacks. Again mockingly imitating Kim's analytical personality, the Clown rhetorically asks what might cause a heart attack and suggests unmanageable stress caused by fear of losing one's head. Kim grimly realizes the Clown literally scared the aliens to death, to which the Clown bows proudly.

Meanwhile, Janeway begins to worry because Kim and Torres have yet to activate the recall subroutine. Kes finds that the norepinephrine levels are well above baseline, an indicator of abnormal stress, so Janeway decides to resuscitate the crewmembers manually with the backup system. Their body temperatures begin to rise and the backup system appears to be working – until someone terminates the recall command from inside the system.

Harry and the escape hatch

Kim stands next to the panel on the wall in the artificial environment and terminates the recall command at the Clown's behest. Satisfied, the Clown tells him to remove the panel, as it is "ruining the party." Kim warns him that to do so would be a mistake, but the Clown believes the mistake would be if Kim refused. When Harry claims that the panel represents an opportunity for the Clown, the Clown senses deception. He arrogantly reminds Kim that he knows everything Kim knows, even things like missing Libby and playing the clarinet . However, while Kim may have intended to trick the Clown in some way, he genuinely believes that the Clown will be able to contact the outside world through the panel to make his demands known. The Clown insists his only demand is to exist, which reinforces Kim's point, as Janeway and the rest of the crew will shut down the system if they do not hear from Kim or Torres soon despite the risk of brain damage. In response, the Clown appears on the opposite side of the room, where he and his cohorts indignantly turn their backs toward Kim, Torres, and the members of Viorsa's species, going into a huddle as if to discuss the matter.

The Starfleet officers take the opportunity to ask the aliens about the Clown and they learn that the computer was designed to be adaptive, adjusting the environment according to the alien's thoughts and wishes. " Who wished him up? " Torres asks sarcastically as she looks toward the Clown. Viorsa explains that the Clown was an unintended side effect, generated over a period of months as a manifestation of the their fears about survival and recovery. As Kim observes that the Clown seems able to read their minds , the programmer explains that because the Clown is produced by the system that monitors their brains , in a manner of speaking he can. On the other side of the room, the Clown dances with the circus performers, seeming not to notice what is going on. He further explain that it takes several minutes for the system to process their thoughts; as they speak, the Clown reappears next to Viorsa to announce that he and his "friends" have made a decision. Torres will leave in order to inform Captain Janeway that if the Clown dies, his guests will die as well – including Kim, whom the Clown declares his new best friend, as Janeway is like a mother to Harry and would never kill him.

Back in the cargo bay, the recall subroutine activates when Torres activates the panel and Kes estimates that Torres will regain consciousness in about twelve minutes. " At least we'll finally get the answers to a few questions, " Janeway tells Lieutenant Tuvok.

Act Three [ ]

Janeway holds another meeting of the senior officers, sans Harry Kim, where she pensively asks if there is a way to let the Clown and the other characters exist safely. Unfortunately, Torres points out that to do so would require leaving someone in stasis permanently; The Doctor confirms this as he notes that the computer creates the characters using bioneural feedback. Further, he is unable to speed up the resuscitation process for the hostages by more than a few minutes without risking serious brain damage to them. In order to at least reduce the number of hostages, Janeway wonders how one negotiates with a manifestation of an emotion . Tuvok points out that fear is the most primitive biological response: the ability to recognize danger and run from it. Neelix lightly suggests they make the Clown laugh with a good joke since that always makes his fear dissolve, but as no one is amused, he quickly drops the subject. Janeway asks Torres to look for a way to run the system without bioneural interaction, but in the meantime, they need a safer method of communication that will not give the Clown another hostage.

Carnival-like music continues to play in the background and things have returned to normal in the virtual reality program, but there is a distinctly less cheerful atmosphere as Kim and the Kohl are left with nothing to do but ponder their situation. Viorsa mopes about the ordeal and laments the fact that Harry and his shipmates have been dragged into it, and the other aliens seem to share his feeling of hopelessness. Kim insists that the crew of Voyager is working on a method of escape and that they must do anything they can to help. Viorsa assures Kim that he will forget hope once he spends a few months with the Clown; shortly thereafter, the Clown senses Kim's thoughts of escape and approaches menacingly. " Naughty, naughty, " the Clown chastises. " I don't like those thoughts. " Although the programmer claims Kim is new and unable to help thinking about such things, the Clown claims that if the members of Viorsa's species can, then so can Kim. Then he seems to realize the difference between Harry being new and the aliens being old and decides with a maniacal laugh that the solution must be to make Harry old.

The Clown turns Harry's fear of growing old into a reality

As the Clown laughs, Kim suddenly finds himself old and frail, his skin wrinkled, his hair gray. Unable to stand, he falls to his knees and reels weakly. The Clown points out Kim's fear of being old, of being cared for by nurses , as the Little Woman appears with a bottle and an oversized spoon . " Time for your medicine! " she declares, spoon-feeding Harry while the other characters egg the Clown on. Kim maintains a look of defiance, though he is obviously too weak to do anything. The Clown uses the fear of helplessness as a segue to the fact that Kim doesn't like being the "baby" of the crew. With another laugh, he transforms him into a sobbing infant and mockingly coddles the baby in his arms. Such things no longer faze the members of Viorsa's species, who look on helplessly as the Clown speaks to baby Harry as a mother would an infant. He loses interest after a few seconds and places Kim on the ground, where he turns back into himself.

Revisiting one of Harry's childhood experiences

Kim continues to defy the Clown despite this display of power, telling himself, " The only thing we have to fear is fear itself. " As the Clown wants Kim to be his "friend," he resorts to more drastic measures. He puts on a large black rubber glove and admits that he knows what truly scares him. A fearful look crosses Kim's face as the Clown brings up a humanitarian mission Harry's parents once took a to a colony suffering the effects of a radiation disaster. Harry was only nine at the time. The Clown describes how Kim wandered off while visiting a hospital while the other characters place a gurney behind Kim and strap him onto to it. Sensing Harry's thoughts, however, the Clown urges him to keep repeating the phrase about fear. The performers mockingly echo Kim's words with the Clown. He also suggests another phrase from Kim's mind: " There's no place like home. " Urging Kim to click his heels together, the Clown suddenly looks down at Kim's legs and notes with mock-dismay that they are restrained, much like a little girl Kim saw on an operating table in the hospital. The Spectre places a facial mask over the Clown's nose and mouth while the Clown re-enacts the scene Kim witnessed, wielding a scalpel and describing the way the little girl's eyes were filled with fear. Kim is terrified as the Clown brings the scalpel closer to his skin. He screams in horror, but just as the tension becomes unbearable, The Doctor politely interrupts the Clown's fun.

The Doctor and the Clown

The Doctor grabs the Clown's hand and lifts it to demonstrate that one must position one's index finger properly on the scalpel to attain optimal dexterity. The Clown seems to consider this for a split second before he does a double take and asks who The Doctor is. Releasing Kim from the gurney, The Doctor explains that he is Captain Janeway's representative, sent into the system to negotiate with the Clown. However, the Clown is confused because The Doctor is not on the system. The Doctor says that he would be glad to tell the Clown all about himself later, but for now, he simply calls his presence a "miracle of technology." Janeway has offered to provide a simulated brain to allow the Clown to exist, but before The Doctor can explain the details of the plan, the Clown interrupts him. Gesturing toward Kim, the Clown calls The Doctor's bluff, as Kim thinks the plan is a trap. While Kim is unsure of himself, the Clown angrily solicits Viorsa's opinion. Viorsa suggests that the plan would work after a recalibration of the optronic relays , but the Clown knows this to be a lie as well. Since a simulated brain would leave the Clown at Janeway's mercy, he stubbornly refuses, despite The Doctor's claim that Janeway is willing to risk the hostages' lives in order to save them. Kim adds that he would rather die than remain with the Clown, who insists he needs all of the hostages and tells The Doctor to go away. The camera zooms in on a hopeful Viorsa as the Clown dances with the Little Woman and The Doctor reassures Kim he will return.

In sickbay , Janeway asks for The Doctor's take on the Clown. He describes the Clown as unstable and unpredictable, just as one might expect fear to be. Tuvok points out that the longer they wait, the greater the chance that the Clown will harm one of the hostages. Janeway wholeheartedly agrees, and since the Clown cannot be negotiated with it's clear they will need to mount a rescue mission.

Act Four [ ]

Torres and Chakotay join Janeway, Tuvok, and The Doctor in sickbay as Janeway asks whether they would be able to repair the brain damage caused by simply disconnecting the hostages. He concedes it is possible, but they would likely never be the same again. Additionally, Torres notes how smart it was for the Clown to reject the simulated brain proposal, as it is impossible for artificial means to replace brain functions. " I'll choose not to take that personally, lieutenant, " The Doctor observes dryly. He mentions Viorsa's suggestion about the optronic relays, but Torres is unable to find any logic in the suggestion, as the optronic relays control the virtual reality environment and have nothing to do with neural functions. Tuvok assists here with his Vulcan logic , pointing out that Viorsa may have had another meaning. After considering the matter for a moment, Torres suggests that they might be able to disassemble the environment piece by piece if they interrupt the optronic pathways . Janeway figures that if they can't get the hostages out of the environment, then they should take the environment from the hostages. Torres asks how the Clown was unaware of Viorsa passing on this information, and after The Doctor suggests that he had distracted him, Janeway tells him to return and divert the Clown's attention again. The race to save the lives of the hostages is on.

Inside the computer, the Clown pouts about his predicament, much to the disappointment of the other characters. The specter insists the Clown is ruining their festivities, which the Clown claims he cannot help. When the Spectre and the Little Woman suggest that the Clown take his mood out on the hostages rather than them, the Clown immediately cheers up and pretends to cry with joy. He suggests they play something called "the insect game ," which appeals to the other characters greatly. Before they can begin their game, The Doctor reappears, once again ruining the Clown's good mood. Janeway has offered the Clown a cloaking device , The Doctor announces; the Clown claims to have one already, and with a spin, he makes a literal cloak appear on his shoulders. When The Doctor begins to describe a real cloaking device, the Clown is immediately intrigued.

Meanwhile, Torres removes a panel from the computer and tells Janeway she will have to disrupt almost forty pathways to disable the computer. Janeway nods affirmatively.

The Doctor continues to describe the captain's supposed plan in detail, essentially using as many big words as possible, and the Clown is skeptical. While Kim cluelessly claims that the plan is plausible, the Clown has yet to process Harry's thoughts fully and is unsure. He has forgotten about Viorsa, who sits in another area of the environment, listening in on the conversation and seeming to understand The Doctor's real intentions.

As Torres continues to disable the relays, the various elements of the environment begin to disappear. The Clown is oblivious, observing that he would love to meet Janeway and appearing unconcerned as he suggests that she come to one of his "parties" some day. "What's happening?" the Spectre exclaims as he disappears, alerting the Clown of the treachery.

" It's an attack! " the Clown screams. " Red alert ! Red alert !" Suddenly, the performers return to the scene in full force, as the Clown realizes that Viorsa was responsible for telling them how to disrupt the environment and orders the performers to take him as the executioner rolls the guillotine back on stage.

Torres has finished disabling more than half of the relays when Kes announces that Viorsa's norepinephrine levels are rising rapidly.

The characters bring Viorsa toward the guillotine, the merry clapping and head-bobbing from Kim's near-execution gone, the tone far more serious. He desperately pleads with them, insisting he did not do anything.

A force field of some kind appears between Torres and the optronic relays; although she is confident she can disable it, doing so will take time.

One of the characters pushes The Doctor away from Viorsa as he attempts to intervene, but as the character struggles to restrain him, it disappears. The Doctor pushes several characters out of his way and is initially successful in removing Viorsa from harm's way, but he is ultimately carried away – literally. As Viorsa is placed in the guillotine, the norepinephrine levels approach critical. The programmer's desperate cries are drowned out by the screams of anticipation from the characters, and when the executioner hits the button, they cheer with excitement.

Harry and the remaining aliens realize they may be doomed

Viorsa dies of a massive heart failure and the programmer's norepinephrine levels begin to rise sharply as the characters lead him toward the guillotine. Although Torres has less than ten pathways left to disable, Janeway hastily orders her to restore the entire system. " We've lost, " she concedes glumly.

" We've won! " the Clown simultaneously declares as he and his minions celebrate their victory.

Act Five [ ]

The Doctor believes Janeway should take comfort in the fact that she saved the hostages' lives, but she does not. She paces around sick attempting to figure out what fear seeks, why people enjoy dangerous sports, roller coasters , and deactivated holodeck safeties. The Doctor observes that to seek fear is to seek the boundaries of one's sensory experience, but Janeway pensively wonders what fear ultimately seeks in the end.

While Janeway tries to figure out a new plan, the eerily cheerful music from before has commenced once again and the characters again form a conga line in celebration, forcing the remaining "guests" to dance with them. The Clown pulls Kim aside, and as the other characters dance around them, he warns Kim that he will have to punish him for Janeway's "little trick." For now, he merrily tells Kim to enjoy himself. However, The Doctor shows up once more, bringing the festivities to an immediate halt, to the Clown's chagrin. The Doctor informs the Clown that Janeway has offered him an ultimatum, something the Clown finds hilarious. He compares her to Napoléon after Waterloo or Chulak of Romulus after his defeat at Galorndon Core , but The Doctor warns that Janeway will terminate the program in sixty seconds regardless of the risk of brain damage to the hostages. The Clown nervously asks what Janeway's terms are, and as they talk, The Doctor periodically reminds the Clown of the number of seconds remaining. Under Janeway's proposal, only one person will remain on the system while the others are released. The Clown automatically refuses, however the Doctor tells him there is another condition to the offer; the person remaining on the system will be Janeway herself. The Clown is flattered that someone would choose to be with him; between that and the ultimatum, he agrees.

Contacting Janeway on the emergency medical holographic channel , The Doctor informs her that the Clown accepted and offers to return to the environment to supervise the evacuation process. Janeway tells him to assist with preparations for the hostages' return and gets into one of the stasis units .

The Spectre dusts a wall

Meanwhile, the various characters go about "cleaning" the artificial room in preparation for Janeway's arrival. Kim begins to reach for the escape panel, but the Clown insists that no one leave until Janeway's arrival. He looks invigorated as he begins to sense her presence, the system scanning her brain. However, he notes that Harry does not believe Janeway's plan; when Harry reminds him that Janeway would sacrifice herself to save the hostages, the Clown claims Harry does not appreciate his hospitality. As he speaks, the various elements of the environment disappear, leaving it barren as Janeway makes her entrance.

Circling the Clown as she sizes him up, Janeway reminds him of his promise to release the hostages. He notices Janeway's courage in entering into their agreement with no guarantee he would do so, but she claims that fear is a healthy thing most of the time, as it reminds one of their limits, and prevents them from going too far, and as such she has come to trust it. " Finally, someone who appreciates me! " the Clown declares, and with that, he lets Kim and the aliens go, urging them to come back to visit.

The recall subroutine activates and the hostages' body temperatures begin to rise. Torres estimates the process will be complete in approximately ten minutes.

Kim reassures Janeway that the crew of Voyager will find a way to rescue her, although she does not believe such a rescue attempt will be necessary. With that, Kim and the aliens disappear, leaving Janeway and the Clown alone. She asks about the delay between her thoughts and the computer's ability to process them, which the Clown describes as "an eternity of anticipation."

Back in the real world, the hostages' heartbeats return to normal as the resuscitation process enters its final stages. Kes and Torres monitor the events closely and Kes confirms that the hostages no longer need the artificial life support .

Janeway claims the Clown has wanted the ordeal to end since it began, but he dismisses her claim; after the trouble he went through to get her, he does not intend to let her go. A mirror appears and, admiring his and Janeway's reflection, the Clown observes that they make a cute couple. However, Janeway reveals that she has in fact fooled the Clown and is not Kathryn Janeway but a holographic image of the captain, sent into the system via the same method as The Doctor. The Clown does not understand since he can feel Janeway's presence, but the hologram reveals that while Janeway is on the system, she is not in stasis nor on the computer-controlled life support system – a fact she invites the Clown to verify once he becomes aware of Janeway's thoughts. As the hologram explains the method by which this was accomplished, the Clown is dumbfounded and the room itself begins to spin literally around him.

Kes and the medical staff help Kim, the programmer and the physician out of the stasis units, the resuscitation process complete. Tuvok monitors closely as Janeway lies in one of the stasis units, very much awake with the neural transmitter on her forehead.

The Clown and the holographic Janeway now share the only light in the artificial environment, surrounded by pitch black. The lights become progressively dimmer as the hologram again confronts him with the fact that fear exists for one purpose: to be defeated. He claims Janeway tricked him, but Janeway theorizes that he indeed wanted to be defeated; that is why he let Janeway in, for he sensed that she was the only one who could defeat him. She explains that Starfleet captains do not succumb to fear. Like all fear, the Clown will eventually vanish. The lighting all but gone, the Clown starts to disappear as he quietly admits he is afraid, to which Janeway whispers, " I know. " All the Clown can respond with is a simple and whispered " Drat " as he, like the lights, fades away completely.

Memorable quotes [ ]

" We could get Baytart transferred to the night shift! " " We couldn't do that — could we ? "

" So now you have an excuse to give your mother why you didn't practice while you were gone. " " Look, I'm trying to prepare for an important performance. " " Oh, really? Are we scheduled to rendezvous with the Delta Quadrant Symphony Orchestra? "

" This is not reality. It's an illusion! " " When your only reality is an illusion, then illusion is reality. "

" Now, what might cause a heart attack? Hmm, unmanageable stress, perhaps? Unmanagable fear ? "

" The only thing we have to fear is fear itself. "

" Let's get down to the issues, shall we? " " How can I negotiate if I don't know what you're thinking? " " I have a very trustworthy face. "

" The simulated brain… " " … Would leave me at your mercy. No! They stay. " " The captain is prepared to risk the lives of the hostages rather than leave them under your control. " " Who is she to tell me what I have to do? " " She's the one out there. With the 'off' switch in her hand. "

" Doctor, if we do simply disconnect the hostages…? " " There would certainly be brain damage. " " How much damage? Could you possibly repair it? " " Possibly, yes. Would Mr. Kim still be able to hold his clarinet when I was done? Possibly. The brain is such an interesting organ. "

" Don't be a poop! "

" Well you certainly know how to bring a party to a halt. " " I don't get out very much. "

" You know as well as I do that fear only exists for one purpose. To be conquered. "

" What will become of us — of me? " " Like all fear, you eventually… vanish . " " I'm afraid. " (whispered) " I know… " (whispered) " Drat! "

Background information [ ]

Story and script [ ].

• The writer of this episode's teleplay was former Star Trek: The Next Generation scribe Joe Menosky , who was living and working in France when he wrote the script. He previously helped to develop the story of Star Trek: Voyager 's first season episode " Cathexis ", in collaboration with supervising producer Brannon Braga , and would hereafter return to Star Trek as a staff writer, serving as a writer-producer on Voyager from its third to seventh seasons .
• Director Marvin V. Rush was instantly impressed by the episode's teleplay. " The script fit me perfectly, " he enthused. " I felt I was doing something incredibly important, and I couldn't wait to start! " ( The Official Star Trek: Voyager Magazine  issue 15 ) Rush also found that he could relate to the story. " Personally, this was the most compelling Trek script I had ever read, " he stated, " because from my own life I know what it's like to be paralyzed by fear. " ( Star Trek: Communicator  issue 108 , p. 49) He further explained, " I've had an experience or two where I've been very afraid. But I've also been through experiences where I got over that fear. " Phobias that Rush had managed to overcome were of heights and of public speaking. He had also been shot at and, in his childhood, was once hit by a car. His fear in tackling this episode was that he might fail to do the script justice. ( The Official Star Trek: Voyager Magazine  issue 15 )
• Some dialogue was added to the script upon the suggestion of Rush, who felt it was important that Janeway point out that fear is not entirely bad but also has its positives, such as reminding us Humans of our limits and alerting us of danger. Rush noted, " Michael Piller took my scribblings on a napkin and wrote the new dialogue. " ( The Official Star Trek: Voyager Magazine  issue 15 )
• This episode's opening scene, in which Harry Kim and Tom Paris hold an idle conversation before Chakotay calls them to the bridge, was filmed as part of another episode, " Death Wish ", but later edited out and reused here due to its generic nature.
• When Harry Kim claims, " The only thing we have to fear is fear itself " and The Clown mockingly echoes this statement, they are both quoting United States of America president Franklin D. Roosevelt . Similarly, when The Clown subsequently suggests to Kim the phrase, " There's no place like home, " and sarcastically advises Kim to click his heels together three times, The Clown is referencing the 1939 film The Wizard of Oz .
• The episode's final script draft was submitted on 19 January 1996 . [1]

Cast and characters [ ]

• According to Marvin Rush, finding the right actor to play The Clown was imperative. " Casting was everything, " Rush said. " If we got that one choice wrong, forget it! Throw the whole thing in the trash. It wouldn't have worked at all. That character had to be ridiculously over the top, completely self-absorbed, psychotic and fearful as well. He is fear in all its forms. He had to be able to leap from one emotion to the next, on a beat. It was a very demanding role. " ( The Official Star Trek: Voyager Magazine  issue 15 )
• The producers thereafter became interested in casting Michael McKean in the role of The Clown. Marvin Rush noted, " We didn't read Michael. His name was suggested as well as two or three others. " ( The Official Star Trek: Voyager Magazine  issue 15 )
• Michael McKean was eager to accept the invitation to appear as The Clown. He recalled, " It was one of those offers you know you're going to accept before you read the script, because you'll always be able to say, 'I did a Star Trek .' These shows are part of our culture. " ( Star Trek 30 Years , p. 76) McKean was attracted to accepting the role not only due to the cultural significance of Star Trek , however, but also thanks to his own personal history; he had watched Star Trek every weekend during his college days and had also been a big fan of science fiction literature. " So, having been both a Star Trek fan and a science fiction fan, " he noted, " I was very eager to do Voyager." ( The Official Star Trek: Voyager Magazine  issue 9 )
• Marvin Rush was pleased to learn that Michael McKean had expressed interest in appearing as The Clown. " When I heard he was going to do it, I relaxed, " Rush recalled. " I knew it would work […] He was perfect for it. " ( The Official Star Trek: Voyager Magazine  issue 15 )
• Enjoyment that Michael McKean received from doing the episode was evident to Marvin Rush, who admired the perseverance with which the actor tackled his role of The Clown. Rush said of McKean, " He had a blast doing the show […] It was a hard job, though. He had early calls and a lot of makeup, and he carried the show. He was in almost every scene. " ( The Official Star Trek: Voyager Magazine  issue 15 )
• An unusual casting choice was made for the extras of this episode, to lend a certain mood to several scenes. Jeri Taylor related, " We hired a lot of people from the Cirque du Soleil as background. " ( Star Trek Monthly  issue 15 ) She elaborated, " We hired [them as] background performers […] to provide a very strange, sort of carnival-like atmosphere. " ( Captains' Logs Supplemental - The Unauthorized Guide to the New Trek Voyages ) Robert Picardo referred to this group of background performers as a "very odd cast of guest players." ( Cinefantastique , Vol. 28, No. 4/5, p. 96)
• Michael McKean liked how certain aspects of The Clown marked him as being different from the surrounding characters, one such aspect being The Clown's somber appearance. " I loved that look, " McKean enthused. " It was very right for the character, because everyone else looked sort of Cirque Du Soleil-ish. He was sinister and over-the-top. " ( The Official Star Trek: Voyager Magazine  issue 9 )
• Michael McKean also enjoyed working with the series regulars, despite being initially unfamiliar with virtually all of them. " I had never worked with anyone on the show before, except Bob Picardo. We've known each other for years and years, " McKean explained. " So, it was a very new experience for me […] Garrett [Wang] and Roxann [Dawson] were terrific. " Michael McKean was also impressed by Janeway actress Kate Mulgrew (of whom McKean said, " Kate is just this great professional. One of the things that I pride myself on is professionalism, and she certainly does too. "). ( The Official Star Trek: Voyager Magazine  issue 9 )
• Both Roxann Dawson and Robert Picardo enjoyed working with Michael McKean here. Dawson enthused, " Michael McKean was just great. " ( The Official Star Trek: Voyager Magazine  issue 12 ) Likewise, Picardo considered McKean to be "a wonderful guest star" in this episode. ( Cinefantastique , Vol. 28, No. 4/5, p. 96)
• Marvin Rush was pleased by the chemistry that the series regulars, especially Robert Picardo, had with Michael McKean. Rush said of Picardo, " He was brilliant in his confrontations with The Clown. His deadpan, straight-ahead, no- nonsense character contrasted with McKean's out-of-control, manic-depressive quality. " The director added, " I loved working with Michael and the rest of our cast as they interacted with him. It was so creative; I felt light as air. " ( The Official Star Trek: Voyager Magazine  issue 15 )
• Robert Picardo thought that the episode's use of The Doctor as a hostage negotiator was "an interesting way" to see him on "a different set" than just sickbay, remarking that this facet of the story was "great fun". ( Cinefantastique , Vol. 28, No. 4/5, p. 96)
• Despite the part of B'Elanna Torres being relatively small in this episode, Roxann Dawson still thoroughly enjoyed the installment. She said of "The Thaw", " I didn't have a whole lot to do in that, but I thought it was a brilliant episode. It had a lot to say and certain moments were just chilling, especially the death of Fear. " ( The Official Star Trek: Voyager Magazine  issue 12 )
• Straight after working on this installment, Kes actress Jennifer Lien commented on the cast's feelings about the episode: " The general consensus among the cast is that it's a strong, thought-provoking and funny story with a very original concept. It's just an incredible episode and one that I personally like. " ( Dreamwatch special #23, p. 21)

Props, makeup, and sets [ ]

Property master Alan Sims with two full-scale mock-ups used in this episode

• For this episode, Voyager 's props department created full-scale mock-ups for not only an alien corpse but also the young Harry Kim, for the scene in which The Clown reduces him to a baby. ( Star Trek 30 Years , p. 46)
• Marvin Rush had early discussion about The Clown's carnival-like environment of this episode with production designer Richard James . The director explained, " Richard and I talked about that look from the outset. It was fairly clear from the script that the episode needed the carnival atmosphere. And that was one set, believe it or not. It came down in size for budgetary reasons. " ( The Official Star Trek: Voyager Magazine  issue 15 )
• Several members of Richard James' crew of painters worked through the last weekend of January 1996 , missing the Super Bowl on Sunday 28 January 1996 , to paint the circus-inspired, color-soaked floors of this episode. To commemorate the event, the men were photographed lying on the floor of the set, holding hands with their heads forming a circle. An 8 x 10 color copy of this photograph was thereafter mounted on a billboard in Richard James' office on the Paramount lot and remained there until at least a year later. ( Star Trek: Communicator  issue 111 , p. 51)

Production [ ]

Marvin V. Rush and Michael McKean on the set of this episode

• Marvin V. Rush actually served most frequently as a Director of Photography on the Star Trek spin-off live-action series. Having been permitted by Rick Berman to direct TNG : " The Host ", he had subsequently made known his desire to direct an episode of Star Trek: Voyager , a wish that was fulfilled with this episode. ( A Vision of the Future - Star Trek: Voyager , p. 104)
• Rush was influenced by the work of Italian filmmaker Federico Fellini . " I had recently screened 8½ , Fellini's masterpiece. When I read the script for 'The Thaw,' that movie was still fresh in my mind. I thought, 'God, what an inspired take on this! We're going to do 'The Thaw' as if Fellini was doing it.' So, his work was certainly an inspiration to me to create something very different. " ( The Official Star Trek: Voyager Magazine  issue 15 )
• The fact that Rush could relate to the themes explored in this episode helped him film the installment. " This [was] so perfectly suited to me in terms of something I know about and believe passionately in, that directing the show was easy. " Rush continued by relating that, in his lifetime, he had had many fearful moments, concluding, " All those fears and moments of terror were very clear in my mind. " ( The Official Star Trek: Voyager Magazine  issue 15 )
• Nevertheless, Rush invested a great deal of effort in the episode. He recalled, " I put all my passion and joy into it… it was the most intensive seven days of my life! – 14 if you count prep. I went way out on a limb to tell the story, as far as I could imagine, and it worked. " Rush also praised the luck of raising Michael McKean's performance to its hilt, noted the results and "ultra-supportive" help of the production staff, and was appreciative of some mentoring from biking partner and veteran Star Trek director Les Landau . ( Star Trek: Communicator  issue 108 , p. 49)
• Because The Clown's carnival-like environment was made smaller, Marvin Rush tried, during production, to make the set seem larger than it actually was. " We had to be creative with staging–we didn't want it to look like we were in one small place. By moving things around, we were able to do it. " ( The Official Star Trek: Voyager Magazine  issue 15 )
• Lighting and filming techniques were utilized to enhance the same set's bright colors. Marvin Rush explained, " Doug Knapp , normally my camera operator, was the director of photography on the episode, and he did a beautiful job. He helped create that carnival quality and the lush look of those sets. If they had been lit more flatly and less colorfully, they could have harmed the show. Also, I suggested to Doug that we use a color-enhancing filter to grab the red and blue wavelengths and cut down on the middle colors. We used the filter on all the stuff inside the virtual-reality set, giving the show some really saturated, vibrant colors that just scream at you. " ( The Official Star Trek: Voyager Magazine  issue 15 )
• During this episode's tiresome production period, the scenes of the episode were filmed in much the same order as they appear on screen, with the last scene that Michael McKean featured in being the one wherein The Clown realizes that "Janeway" is actually a hologram. McKean said of the production, " It was hard work […] We had long, 16-hour days. I was as tired as I've been in my life. We shot it pretty much in sequence. That last scene was huge. The on-screen personnel were pared down to just me and Janeway. Everyone was so frayed at the edges because of the hours we had put in. All of the emotions came to the surface and it was all fun to play. It came off so powerfully that it was all worth it. " ( The Official Star Trek: Voyager Magazine  issue 9 )
• To show Janeway conquering her fear at the end of this scene, the episode's last shot of The Clown is a close-up that fades to black, representing fear disappearing. " That's one of two key moments in the show, " Marvin Rush, who devised the image, commented. " The first is when the projection of Janeway appears on the set, walks over to The Clown and circles around him, closing in on him. Her speech, where she talks about the nature of fear, and the final fade-to-black–basically we spent the whole episode getting those two moments. " ( The Official Star Trek: Voyager Magazine  issue 15 )
• Marvin Rush was extremely pleased with the results of his efforts here. " It was so much more satisfying than anything I've ever done before or since, " he raved, " and I will treasure the experience for the rest of my life […] I'm very proud of 'The Thaw.' " In addition, however, Rush speculated, " Another director would also have done a great job, because the script was so good. " ( The Official Star Trek: Voyager Magazine  issue 15 )
• Both Michael McKean and executive producer Jeri Taylor were impressed by Marvin Rush's directorial work on this episode. Taylor said of Rush, " He was probably just the right person, with his visual eye, to do this show. " ( Captains' Logs Supplemental - The Unauthorized Guide to the New Trek Voyages ) Likewise, McKean remarked, " Marvin was great […] He has such an eye for detail and, as a person, his heart's very close to the surface. " ( The Official Star Trek: Voyager Magazine  issue 9 )

Continuity [ ]

• Robert Picardo believed this episode's visual style was similar to that of Star Trek: The Original Series . He commented, " Looks-wise it's very much like an original series episode. It has vibrant colors. " ( Cinefantastique , Vol. 28, No. 4/5, p. 96)
• This episode shares several thematic elements with DS9 : " Move Along Home ". In both episodes, crew members are transported to a surreal environment, where causality and logic are deranged, and where they are mocked for their efforts to escape.
• Per Captain Janeway's condemnation of them, apparently roller coasters are still enjoyed by children in the 24th century.
• This is the sixth episode in which The Doctor leaves sickbay, after " Heroes and Demons ", " Projections ", " Twisted ", " Persistence of Vision ", and " Lifesigns ". Whereas in those episodes he appeared on the holodeck (and in Engineering, albeit with a projection malfunction), in this episode he appears in the simulated environment hosted in the cargo bay.

Reception [ ]

• This episode achieved a Nielsen rating of 4.7 million homes, and an 8% share. It was the second least watched episode of Voyager 's second season (on first airing), watched by only slightly more people than the penultimate installment of the season, " Resolutions ". [2] (X)
• Jeri Taylor proclaimed her verdict on this show: " A wild episode. It looked unlike anything we've ever done on Star Trek . It takes place in a virtual reality, and it's a pleasant place gone demonically bad. " ( Captains' Logs Supplemental - The Unauthorized Guide to the New Trek Voyages ) She also remarked, " 'The Thaw' is a wild thing – this is one of the most stylish and different-looking episodes we've ever done […] It's really very bizarre. " She added that – with Michael McKean playing a "demented clown", and the background performers from Cirque du Soleil – the episode had "very much the feel of a carnival gone bad – very spooky and creepy." ( Star Trek Monthly  issue 15 ) Taylor also cited this episode as among the best of Voyager 's first two seasons and said, " 'The Thaw' was a very unusual look for us and I thought that worked very well. " ( The Official Star Trek: Voyager Magazine  issue 10 )
• Marvin Rush also felt that this episode was unique and special. " I don't think there has ever been a Star Trek episode like it, " he said. In addition, he noted, " I think it's a really good episode. " ( The Official Star Trek: Voyager Magazine  issue 15 ) Following his work here, Rush went on to direct a second episode of Star Trek: Voyager , the third season installment " Favorite Son ".
• Also following this episode's production, Rush repeatedly discussed the making of the episode with Michael McKean, whose performance was ultimately very popular with Star Trek 's fans . " He and I have talked many times about it, " Rush noted, during the fourth season . " He has gotten hundreds of fan letters over the part. " ( The Official Star Trek: Voyager Magazine  issue 15 )
• Cinefantastique rated this episode 2 out of 4 stars. ( Cinefantastique , Vol. 28, No. 4/5, p. 105)
• In a review of this episode's VHS release, Star Trek Magazine reviewer Nikki Harper referred to the installment as "the scariest yet episode of Star Trek: Voyager ." The magazine, as part of the same article, scored this episode 3 out of 5 stars, defined as "Warp Speed". ( Star Trek Monthly  issue 20 , p. 58) Despite this relatively lukewarm rating, John Freeman, an editor of the same publication, later cited this episode as his favorite from the entirety of Star Trek: Voyager . ( Star Trek Magazine  issue 119 , p. 77)
• The unauthorized reference book Delta Quadrant (p. 118) gives this installment a rating of 8.5 out of 10.
• The stasis bed props from this installment were reused two episodes later in " Resolutions ", and in the fourth season episode " One ". ( Star Trek: Voyager Companion  (p. 246)) For the latter installment, the separate lid-pieces were replaced with sliding plexiglas. It also appeared in DS9 : " Extreme Measures ".
• Similarly, several costumes from this episode were sold off on the It's A Wrap! sale and auction on eBay, including the costume of Jean-Luc Martin . [3]

Video and DVD releases [ ]

• UK VHS release (two-episode tapes, CIC Video ): Volume 2.10, 7 October 1996
• As part of the VOY Season 2 DVD collection

Links and references [ ]

Starring [ ].

• Kate Mulgrew as Captain Kathryn Janeway

Also starring [ ]

• Robert Beltran as Commander Chakotay
• Roxann Biggs-Dawson as Lieutenant B'Elanna Torres
• Jennifer Lien as Kes
• Robert Duncan McNeill as Lieutenant Tom Paris
• Ethan Phillips as Neelix
• Robert Picardo as The Doctor
• Tim Russ as Lieutenant Tuvok
• Garrett Wang as Ensign Harry Kim

Guest Stars [ ]

• Thomas Kopache as Viorsa
• Carel Struycken as The Spectre
• Patty Maloney as Little Woman
• Tony Carlin as Physician
• Shannon O'Hurley as Programmer

Special Guest Star [ ]

• Michael McKean as The Clown

Uncredited Co-Stars [ ]

• Mark Chadwick as clown guard
• Taylor Chong as infant Harry Kim
• Damaris Cordelia as Foster
• Tarik Ergin as Ayala
• Jean-Luc Martin as big head sack suit guy
• Tom Morga as clown guard
• Louis Ortiz as Culhane
• Henry Reichenbach as executioner
• Unknown performer as Big head sack suit guy

References [ ]

2353 ; 2358 ; 2368 ; ability ; automated signal ; autonomic nervous system ; back-up system ; Baytart, Pablo ; bio-function ; biosignature ; biosphere ; body temperature ; canvas ; cargo bay 1 ; Chulak ; clarinet ; cloaking device ; communication satellite ; computer virus ; data stream ; Delta Quadrant Symphony Orchestra ; dexterity ; drum ; eco-recovery ; encephalographic reading ; epinephrine ; escape hatch ; fear ; festival ; Galorndon Core ; gesture ; guillotine ; hand ; head ; heart ; heart attack ; heart failure ; heel ; hibernation pod ; holodeck ; humanitarian ; index finger ; insect game ; kilometer ; Kim, John ; Kim, John ; Kim, Mary ; Kim's humanitarian mission victim and doctor ; Kim's mission colony ; Kohl settlement ; Jazz Impromptu ; Libby ; magnetic storm ; manifestation ; marble ; medical tricorder ; Miral ; month ; Mozart, Wolfgang Amadeus ; neural interface ; Nicoletti, Susan ; nightmare ; off switch ; optronic pathways ; operating table ; optronic pathway ; orchestra ; panic ; party ; planner ; pleasure ; programmer ; radiation ; recall subroutine ; red alert ; rescue mission ; roller coaster ; Romulus ; Roosevelt, Franklin D. ; scalpel ; senior officer ; solar flare ; Starfleet ; stress ; subroutine ; test run ; tricorder ; ultimatum ; Viorsa's species ; Waterloo ; weather pattern ; Wizard of Oz, The

External links [ ]

• "The Thaw" at StarTrek.com
• " The Thaw " at Memory Beta , the wiki for licensed Star Trek works
• " The Thaw " at Wikipedia
• " "The Thaw" " at MissionLogPodcast.com , a Roddenberry Star Trek podcast
• 2 Reaction control thruster

• The Original Series
• The Next Generation
• Deep Space Nine
• Strange New Worlds

Into the Forest I Go

The Thaw is the twenty-second episode of the fourth season of Star Trek: Voyager and it’s where the crew of the starship Voyager find themselves in an intense situation.

The episode begins with the crew of the ship in the midst of a mission. As they explore an unknown star system, they encounter an energy barrier that surrounds a planet. When they attempt to cross the barrier, all of their ship’s systems shut down.

The crew is beamed down to the planet, only to find themselves face-to-face with an alien species called the Vidiians. The Vidiians have set up a game to test the crew’s courage and intelligence, and the stakes are high. If they fail the game, they will be disintegrated.

The game consists of three stages. In the first stage, the crew must solve a riddle that will open a maze. In the second stage, the crew must traverse the maze while being chased by a powerful energy creature called the Dreadnought. In the final stage, the crew must unlock a cryogenic chamber where the alien species’ leader, or The Thaw, is being held.

The crew is able to complete the game and unlock the chamber. In it, they find a humanoid figure, similar to a human. The figure is the Vidiian leader, who has been in suspended animation for hundreds of years. The Thaw explains that he was put in this state to protect a powerful weapon, the Omega Directive, from the Vidiian’s enemy, the Kazon.

The Thaw had been hoping that the Voyager crew would be able to help him, and in return for their help he offers them the key to the barrier that blocks the ship from leaving the star system. Unfortunately, the only way to activate the key is to activate the Omega Directive.

The crew is faced with a difficult decision. If they activate the Omega Directive, they will be able to leave the star system, but in doing so, they will be responsible for the destruction of the entire planet.

Eventually, the crew decides to activate the Omega Directive, even though it means the destruction of the planet. As the crew watches the planet disintegrate, Janeway makes a touching speech about the importance of making hard decisions and the value of keeping one’s word.

The episode ends with the Voyager crew leaving the star system, and the Thaw being taken away by the Vidiians. The crew is left with a sense of accomplishment and pride in their courageous decision to activate the Omega Directive.

Related Posts

Equinox (part 2), persistence of vision.

Type above and press Enter to search. Press Esc to cancel.

• Show Spoilers
• Night Vision
• Sticky Header
• Highlight Links

Follow TV Tropes

http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Recap/StarTrekVoyagerS2E23TheThaw

Recap / Star Trek Voyager S 2 E 23 "The Thaw"

Edit locked.

This episode provides examples of:

• Abstract Apotheosis : The Clown is a science-fiction personification of Fear itself, a product of the adaptive computer system meant to keep the people mentally healthy. Over months it eventually created this guy who usurped the whole system.
• A.I. Is a Crapshoot : Some aliens went into suspended animation deep inside their planet to avoid the radiation and climate change created by a Solar Flare Disaster . When Voyager showed up, two of them were splatted, despite all evidence showing that the pod they were in was in perfect order. It turns out that the occupants were being held hostage by a computer program that manifested from their subconscious fear of being frozen and was now preventing them from leaving, killing any dissenters by scaring them to death.
• The Baby of the Bunch : The Clown turns Harry into a squalling baby , as he hates being treated as the baby of Voyager's crew .
• Batman Gambit : By Janeway, who knows that fear exists to be conquered so the Clown will agree to her terms, knowing it's likely a deception.
• Big Damn Heroes : Harry is Strapped to an Operating Table and about to be cut up with a scalpel. The Doctor suddenly appears and plucks the scalpel from the Clown's hand, saying he's holding it wrong .
• Big Word Shout : The aliens yell "Stop!" just as the Clown is about to decapitate Harry and B'Elanna when they first enter the system. There's also a Big "NO!" from Harry as the Clown is about to cut him open with a scalpel.
• Black Bug Room : What the festival simulation has mutated into thanks to its Domain Holder being a program caught in a feedback loop to create unending fear.
• Broken Record : The Clown has the odd tendency to repeat himself when talking to the Starfleet personnel when they first appear, though this falls by the wayside about halfway through.
• Butt-Monkey : Not only is Kim singled out for torment by the Clown, the Clown also calls up an incident in Kim's childhood when a random horrifying thing happened to him, thus demonstrating that the universe had it out for Harry Kim long before he ever set foot on Voyager.
• Call-Back : Janeway's first idea is to create an artificial environment so the personifications can exist without harming anyone, as in TNG's "Ship in a Bottle" with the Professor Moriarty program.
• Ceiling Banger : Ensign Baytart in the next room bangs on the bulkhead in protest at Harry's clarinet playing. The fluid conduits in the bulkheads conduct sound.
• Cessation of Existence : What does fear itself fear most? When it's conquered and fulfilled its purpose, it vanishes.
• Chekhov's Gun : There's a delay in processing the information from the brainwaves of someone in the cryotube before the Clown knows what they know. Also the Clown can't read the Doctor's thoughts. Janeway combines these two to outwit the Clown; turns out she's a holographic program downloaded into the system, while the real Janeway is placed in a cryotube but not put into suspended animation, so the system will detect her brainwaves and fool the Clown into thinking she's hooked up.
• Creepy Circus Music : For a Monster Clown presiding over a Circus of Fear , would you expect anything less?
• Cryonics Failure : Some aliens went into suspended animation deep inside their planet to avoid the radiation and climate change created by a Solar Flare Disaster . When Voyager showed up, two of them were splatted, despite all evidence showing that the pod they were in was in perfect order. It turns out that the occupants were being held hostage by a computer program that manifested from their subconscious fear of being frozen and was now preventing them from leaving, killing any dissenters by scaring them to death.
• Dangerously Garish Environment : The simulation dimension in the minds of the people in stasis features a circus that looks fun because the characters wear colorful clothes and it has bright lights and objects. However, it is run by a program that has had an Abstract Apotheosis into fear itself!
• Deadpan Snarker : Loads of this from the Doctor. Clown: How am I supposed to negotiate if I don't know what you're thinking? EMH: (deadpan) I have a very trustworthy face.
• Death Glare : Janeway enters the system in the final moments of the show with a mean look on her face. All business.
• Defrosting Ice Queen : Kim: Susan Nicoletti and I have been working on a new orchestral programme for the holodeck. Paris: Lieutenant Nicoletti? The one I've been chasing for six months? Cold hands, cold heart? Kim: (smirk) Not when she plays the oboe.
• Did You Just Punch Out Cthulhu? : Janeway takes on the personification of fear. By the end, he's all but begging for mercy. She offers none.
• Distressed Dude : At least the Clown explains why Harry is such an enticing hostage — with a mind full of technical details, he needs to keep Harry close by because Harry might just think of a way to rescue the other prisoners. Being dragged to the guillotine and having his neck feather-dustered before the chop is the final indignity.
• Digital Avatar : Janeway tricks the Clown into thinking he's got her when in reality he's only got a virtual reality similitude of her while she remains fully awake in the sleep chamber, being monitored.
• Double Take : When the Doctor corrects the Clown on the proper way to hold a scalpel the Clown nods in appreciation, and then the Doctor yanks it out of his hand and frees Kim. Cue Double Take .
• Dream Apocalypse : The Clown only exists because there are living people connected to the pods. If they leave, he will inevitably vanish. This turns out to be his only real fear.
• Evil Is Hammy : The Clown (played with panache by Michael McKean). He already revels in his own sadism, so you can imagine his excitement at having new playthings.
• Evil Laugh : As evil clowns are wont to do.
• Fade to Black : An In-Universe version. Once Janeway tricks the Clown into removing all the people from the system and it no longer has anything to sustain its existence, everything fades into darkness.
• Famous, Famous, Fictional : Clown: [Janeway] would give me an ultimatum? Did Napoleon give an ultimatum after Waterloo? Did Chulak of Romulus give an ultimatum after his defeat at Galorndon Core?
• Fate Worse than Death : Harry says Janeway will risk killing the hostages rather than leave them in the system under the Clown's constant torment.
• Faux Affably Evil : The Clown makes occasional overtures to making his simulation fun and entertaining for the three trapped aliens. In response to talk of escape, he grouses, "You never appreciate my hospitality!" However, it's clear that he gets a sadistic kick out of tormenting all of the living inhabitants of his simulation.
• Five-Second Foreshadowing : When B'Elanna tosses down his offered bouquet of flowers, The Clown quips that she got violent tendencies from her mother. It's not long until it's revealed that he has access to all the information in the minds of people connected to his system.
• Fright Deathtrap : The Clown and his comic chorus place a hostage on a guillotine and cut off his head, so the induced stress makes him die of a heart attack.
• Girls Like Musicians : In the opening scene, Harry Kim is practising with his clarinet in preparation for an "important performance" — which turns out to be a duet with Lt. Susan Nicoletti , whom Tom Paris has apparently been pursuing fruitlessly for six months. This prompts Tom to quip that he's always wanted to learn to play the drums.
• Gone Horribly Wrong : The system was supposed to give the frozen survivors a Lotus-Eater Machine to keep their minds occupied. Needless to say, the whole thing turning into nonstop In-Universe Nightmare Fuel wasn't part of the plan. Bit of a lack of imagination there.
• Good is Not Nice : Janeway's demeanor is rather chilling as the Clown fades away into nothing. Clown: What will become of us? Of me? Janeway: Like all fear, you eventually... vanish. Clown: ( Fade to Black ) I'm afraid. Janeway: I know. Clown: (as everything goes black) Drat. ( Silent Credits )
• Grayscale of Evil : In spite of being "The Clown," the main villain has a grayscale color scheme, which makes him stick out against the garish colors of the rest of the simulation.
• Heroic Sacrifice : Janeway volunteers to take the place of the hostages . Once she does, she subverts this trope to the utter horror of the Clown.
• Homage : With the main villain being a clown who lives to extract fear from his victims and is also an artificial intelligence with the ability to torment a small group of post-apocalyptic survivors for eternity, it's hard to not see heavy shades of It and " I Have No Mouth, and I Must Scream ."
• Horrifying the Horror : Janeway has the Clown at her non-existent mercy at the end of the episode.
• I Cannot Self-Terminate : Janeway theorizes that the Clown brought her into the virtual world because of this trope — deep down, he wanted to be defeated, because the whole reason Fear exists is to be overcome. Since the Clown couldn't overcome himself, he needed someone to find a way to do it for him.
• I Know What You Fear : The Clown scans the brains of everyone who enters the simulation, so it knows everything about them, including what they fear.
• I Lied : Janeway claims that she's linked herself into the computer system, and she did...but since she's not in stasis, leaving will be as simple as breaking that connection. The Clown is not happy and pouts that Janeway lied to him.
• I'm Standing Right Here : The Doctor only mildly takes offense when B'Elanna says that an artificial brain simulated for the Clown wouldn't be as good as a real one. At this stage in the series the Doctor hadn't developed the sizable ego, and sense of his own rights, that would become an important part of his character.
• Inside a Computer System : The prisoners were intended to stay in a computer world until they woke up. Talk about Gone Horribly Wrong .
• Ironic Echo Cut : Janeway: Restore the entire programme. We've lost. Clown: We've won! We've won! We've won!
• Large Ham : Justified with the Clown, given that he's the personification of an emotion.
• Laser-Guided Karma : The Clown has spent years tormenting his hostages by keeping them in a constant state of fear, occasionally killing them with stress-induced heart attacks. But when Janeway successfully outplays him and triggers a Cessation of Existence , he spends his own last seconds terrified: "...I'm afraid ..."
• Living Lie Detector : Because all the hostages' brains are plugged into the system, the Clown knows when they're trying to deceive him. The Doctor is sent into the system to get around this, as he's a computer program.
• Little People Are Surreal : Patty Maloney plays one of the Clown's support cast.
• Lotus-Eater Machine : Which becomes In-Universe Nightmare Fuel when it backfires.
• Malevolent Masked Men : All of the Clown's supporting cast.
• Master of Illusion : The Clown conjures up all manner of horrors to torture his prisoners, with a giddy smile on his face all the while .
• Monster Clown : The main villain is a malevolent "clown," though he has a grayscale color scheme and doesn't look much like a clown.
• Mood Whiplash : The Clown is very fond of this. But then, so is the Doctor . (The Clown and his chorus are in a conga line when the EMH appears and the music stops dead .) Clown: Well, you certainly know how to bring a party to a halt. EMH: I don't get out very much. Clown: I bet!
• Nightmare Fetishist : The Clown. "We're his canvas, his blocks of marble. With us, he practices his ghastly art."

• Off with His Head! : Harry Kim just can't catch a break.
• Oh, Crap! : Janeway: I'm not Captain Janeway. Clown: (still smiling) Could've fooled me! Janeway: I'm afraid I did. Clown: (smile drops) ...Pardon?
• Pay Evil unto Evil : Janeway has No Sympathy whatsoever for the Clown who has tormented and murdered others, and rubs it in as he fades away into nothing.
• Punch! Punch! Punch! Uh Oh... : B'Elanna's first response to being swarmed by the dancers is to slug her way out, but it has little effect on them.
• Puppy-Dog Eyes : Janeway and Paris put on these when they first play the message left behind by the planet's surviving inhabitants.
• Rapid Aging : Also done to Harry as part of the Clown's mind games. The 'Old Harry' makeup actually looks pretty good compared to some other examples.
• Red Alert : The Clown shouts this when he realizes Voyager's crew is trying to delete him manually.
• Self-Disposing Villain : Janeway's hologram theorizes that the Clown allowed her inside because a part of him knew that she had the power to subdue him and wanted the simulation to end, since fear only exists to be overcome.
• Shout-Out : The Clown quotes The Wizard of Oz . Since he knows everything about whoever is plugged into him, he knows all of their references.
• Shutting Up Now : Neelix suggests making the Clown laugh — that ends fear, right? Everyone just stares at him until he quiets down in embarrassment.
• Simulated Fantasy, Post-Apocalyptic Reality : A once-thriving colony has been wiped out by an apocalyptic combination of solar flares, magnetic storms, and major glacial freeze. The last survivors of this disaster have put themselves into cryogenic stasis and have spent the last nineteen years waiting for the chaos to subside while their minds are kept stimulated by a shared virtual reality environment. Unfortunately, it's quickly discovered that the survivors have been trapped in VR long after it should have been safe to leave; upon entering the simulation, the Voyager crew discovers that the survivors have been imprisoned and tortured by the Clown - and soon find themselves becoming the Clown's latest playthings.
• Special Guest : Michael McKean as The Clown.
• Straight Man and Wise Guy : The interaction between the Doctor and the Clown; subverted in that it's The Comically Serious Doctor who often gets the funniest lines.
• Survival Mantra : Harry gives the famous Franklin D. Roosevelt quote as this, so the Clown has him Strapped to an Operating Table . Kim: (desperately) The only thing we have to fear is fear itself! Clown: Keep repeating, Harry. The only thing we have to fear is fear itself. All: (mockingly chanting) The only thing we have to fear is fear itself! The only thing we have to fear is fear itself! Clown: And how about There's no place like home . There's no place like home. ( Evil Laugh ) Try clicking your heels together three times. Oh, but your legs are restrained, aren't they?
• Take Me Instead : Captain Janeway offers herself as a hostage; in an inversion of what's usual with this trope (a Heroic Sacrifice which is contemptuously rejected by the villain) the Clown accepts the offer while the heroine is pulling a double-cross.
• Taunting the Transformed : The Clown uses his power over the simulation to make Harry's own fears come true: first, he ages him into an old man, teasing him over how he can't stand the idea of being dependent, while allowing his circus to force-feed Harry medicine; then, noticing that Harry fears helplessness and being seen as the baby of the crew, he regresses him to infancy, teasing him with Baby Talk as the infant Harry screams in distress.
• Team Mom : Lampshaded by the Clown, who keeps Harry as a hostage "because [Janeway] would never kill you, would she, Harry? She's like a dear old mother to you."
• Transformation Discretion Shot : After being left in the simulation as a hostage, Harry is left on the receiving end of the Clown 's limitless power over the virtual world , resulting in him being aged into an old man, then regressed to infancy, then back to normal again - each transformation being hidden by a cut back to the Clown.
• Villainous Breakdown : The Clown goes from gleefully bombastic to sulking and terrified once he realizes how screwed he is.
• Villain Teleportation : The Clown startles B'Elanna when she turns away from him, only to find him standing in front of her.
• Virtual-Reality Warper : Now in complete control of the simulation , the Clown is capable of doing almost anything if it allows him to make his prisoners suffer: he can conjure up items, age or regress users at will, and even read the minds of people connected to the simulators - albeit with a slight delay. Worse still, he even has the power to kill the users by exposing them to enough stress to cause heart attacks.
• We Need a Distraction : The Doctor is sent in to distract the Clown with a false offer while B'Elanna tries to unplug the system. Unfortunately, the Clown realizes what's happening as his supporting characters start vanishing.
• Wham Line : "I'm not Captain Janeway."
• Your Mind Makes It Real B'Elanna: But none of this is real! Clown: Of course it's real, it's as real as a nightmare. Harry: The two we found dead, both suffered from massive heart attacks. Clown: Heart attack? Now what might cause a heart attack? Hmm... unmanageable stress, perhaps? Unmanageable FEAR? Fear of losing a head, perhaps?
• You Said You Would Let Them Go : Averted when the Clown keeps his word, though as Janeway later points out, that's because fear wants to be overcome. Janeway: The arrangement was that the others would be released. Clown: You show remarkable trust, Captain. How could you be so sure I would keep my word? Janeway: I've known fear. It's a very healthy thing most of the time . You warn us of danger, remind us of our limits, protect us from carelessness. I've learned to trust fear.

Video Example(s):

You eventually vanish.

A computerized creation gone out of control called the Clown has been terrorizing a group of aliens and members of Janeway's crew. Janeway manages to trick him by offering herself up, only to instead connect herself to the system in a way that allows the Clown to think she's on the system, but it's actually only a holographic representation. Deprived of victims, the Clown can now only fade away. As he does so, he admits to the holographic Janeway that he is himself afraid.

Example of: Horrifying the Horror

• Star Trek Voyager S 2 E 22 "Innocence"
• Recap/Star Trek: Voyager
• Star Trek Voyager S 2 E 24 "Tuvix"

Important Links

• Action Adventure
• Commercials
• Crime & Punishment
• Professional Wrestling
• Speculative Fiction
• Sports Story
• Animation (Western)
• Music And Sound Effects
• Print Media
• Sequential Art
• Tabletop Games
• Applied Phlebotinum
• Characterization
• Characters As Device
• Narrative Devices
• British Telly
• The Contributors
• Creator Speak
• Derivative Works
• Laws And Formulas
• Show Business
• Split Personality
• Truth And Lies
• Truth In Television
• Fate And Prophecy
• Edit Reasons
• Isolated Pages
• Images List
• Recent Videos
• Crowner Activity
• Un-typed Pages
• Recent Page Type Changes
• Trope Entry
• Character Sheet
• Playing With
• Creating New Redirects
• Cross Wicking
• Tips for Editing
• Text Formatting Rules
• Handling Spoilers
• Administrivia
• Trope Repair Shop
• Image Pickin'

Advertisement:

How well does it match the trope?

Example of:

Media sources:

11,241--> Report

Star Trek: Voyager

Cast & Crew

Michael McKean

Thomas Kopache

Carel Struycken

Patty Maloney

Little Woman

Tony Carlin

Information

© 2009 CBS Corp. All Rights Reserved.

Accessibility

Copyright © 2024 Apple Inc. All rights reserved.

Internet Service Terms Apple TV & Privacy Cookie Policy Support

• Web Channels
• Star Trek: Voyager

The crew of Voyager discovers a world with technology and no people. They then determine that the planets inhabitants are in hibernation in order to protect themselves from a natural disaster.

Michael McKean

Thomas Kopache

Carel Struycken

Tony Carlin

Patty Maloney

Shannon O'Hurley

Cast appearances.

Kate Mulgrew

Robert Beltran

Roxann Dawson

Jennifer Lien

Robert Duncan McNeill

Ethan Phillips

Robert Picardo

Garrett Wang

Episode discussion.

No comments yet. Be the first!

• Cast & crew
• User reviews

Star Trek: Voyager

• Voyager finds a group of people in connected stasis chambers where something has gone terribly wrong.
• Voyager comes across an iced planet recovering from a solar system cataclysm. The once-active Kohl settlement is reduced to five interconnected stasis chambers in which two of five occupants have died. The chambers should have opened on their own years before but haven't. To learn more, Kim and Torres enter the system and discover a virtual world ruled by an evil clown manifestation of fear itself. The Voyager crew endeavor to free Kim, Torres and the three Kohl hostages without the malevolent clown killing them first. — statmanjeff

It looks like we don't have any synopsis for this title yet. Be the first to contribute.

Contribute to this page

• IMDb Answers: Help fill gaps in our data
• Learn more about contributing

More from this title

More to explore.

Recently viewed

Star Trek: Voyager

Watch on these services.

Take Plex everywhere

‘Total Disgrace’: Anger, Frustration as Mass Heating Failures Across Russia Leave Thousands in the Cold

P ODOLSK, Moscow region – Residents throughout Russia affected by unprecedented winter heating outages in recent days have expressed their frustration and urged local authorities to restore heating in their homes.

In Podolsk, a town some 30 kilometers south of the capital Moscow, at least 149,000 residents — nearly half of its population — were left without heating when a heating main burst at a nearby private ammunition plant.

“It’s a total disgrace. There is no heating and no hot water. We have to sleep in sleeping bags,” Yuri, a local resident, told The Moscow Times.

“I have no words to describe how bad the situation is," said Yuri, who declined to provide his surname. "We have had no heating for almost six days."

Heating issues have affected residents in the Moscow region, where temperatures have plunged to as low as minus 20 degrees Celsius in the past week, as well as people in the Far East Primorye region , the cities of Moscow and St. Petersburg , Penza , the southern Voronezh and Volgograd regions and more.

In the Tver region, a group of residents filmed an appeal to President Vladimir Putin, saying that they “are freezing from the cold” in the village of Novozavidovsky.

“We're literally being killed by the cold,” a woman in the video said, adding that they have been sending requests to local authorities since September after their houses were connected to a boiler room whose power was reportedly insufficient.

“This is some kind of torture and extermination of the population 100 kilometers from Moscow,” she added.

Residents of the Moscow region town of Elektrostal lit a fire in the street to draw the authorities’ attention to the heating problem.

“It’s impossible to stay in our houses. We're freezing!” a group of women in the video said.

Suffering from subzero temperatures, residents are placing the blame on local authorities and utility services for failing to take necessary precautions and not taking action to resolve the situation.

“We are sending complaints everywhere but no one listens to us. We have portable heaters working in every room, but the temperature inside is still 10 degrees Celsius,” Yelena from Podolsk said.

“There is a clinic and a hospital, as well as kindergartens, where there is no heating. And we have no answers, no assistance, no explanation,” Yelena added.

Podolsk authorities opened temporary heating centers and declared a state of emergency.

Local authorities linked the heating problems to the fact that the town is heated by a boiler plant owned by the Klimovsk Specialized Ammunition Plant, a private ammunition factory and one of the largest weapon cartridge production enterprises in the country.

“The facility is under tight security conditions, which limits our ability to oversee winter preparations,” the Moscow region’s Vice Governor Yevgeny Khromushin said last week. “We were unaware of the problem for nearly a day.”

An unidentified Moscow region official and two senior executives at the plant were arrested on suspicion of providing unsafe services, Russia’s Investigative Committee, which probes major crimes, said in a statement Tuesday.

Investigators said that Podolsk’s deputy mayor was accused of misusing authority by issuing a readiness certificate for the boiler house at the plant.

In the neighboring Tver region, the authorities opened a criminal case over the laundering of over 84 million rubles ($938,993) in heating bills paid by residents, the Astra Telegram channel reported this week, citing unidentified sources. According to investigators, the heads of the local water intake and boiler house misappropriated the heating payments for personal use.

Reacting to the heating failures, Putin on Tuesday asked Emergency Situations Minister Alexander Kurenkov to provide heat and electricity to the affected residents.

The outages appear to be the latest effect of several decades of crumbling infrastructure in Russia which have been linked to endemic corruption and mismanagement.

The overall decay of Russia's municipal infrastructure surpassed 70% in 2022, the pro-Kremlin newspaper Izvestia reported .

According to Sergei Pakhomov, head of the State Duma’s Construction, Housing and Utilities Committee, water pipes that were 90 years old or even older were still in use as recently as two years ago in some cases.

Housing, utilities and communal services are a common source of problems for Russians during the winter.

In St. Petersburg, residents regularly complain about extensive ice coverage on city streets and sidewalks, with many people ending up in the hospital over the years due to slipping and falling accidents.

In the Siberian republic of Khakassia, two villages were left without electricity last month due to apparent issues with outdated communication systems.

In the winter of 2020, five people in the Perm region were killed after a pipe burst.

When asked about the latest heating outages, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov acknowledged the problems and linked them to poor municipal infrastructure, saying that people “had to endure a lot of inconvenience in the cold and without electricity.”

"Despite all the titanic efforts to update all housing and communal services systems, there's still a certain part that remains considerably deteriorated. These programs will continue, but it is impossible to update all pipes and all housing and communal services systems in 10-15 years,” Peskov said.

As for now, residents affected by heating issues appear to lack optimism that the problems will be solved efficiently.

"It's been a week since we've had heating, and the temperature in my apartment is around 11 degrees Celsius,” Podolsk resident Lidiya told The Moscow Times.

“Unfortunately, no one knows when it will be repaired,” she added.

• Data Collection in the Moscow Metro

• ►  August (1)
• ►  July (2)
• ►  June (1)
• ►  May (1)
• ►  April (1)
• ►  March (2)
• ►  February (2)
• Territory and Transgression: An Interview with Stu...
• Elizabeth Blackmar on Public Space
• Housing Demolition and the Right to Place
• ►  December (2)
• ►  November (3)
• ►  October (1)
• ►  September (1)
• ►  July (4)
• ►  June (5)
• ►  May (3)
• ►  April (5)
• ►  March (7)
• ►  February (13)
• ►  January (24)
• ►  December (31)
• ►  November (28)
• ►  October (30)
• ►  September (29)
• ►  August (31)
• ►  July (31)
• ►  June (30)
• ►  May (30)
• ►  April (29)
• ►  March (31)
• ►  February (29)
• ►  January (31)
• ►  December (28)
• ►  November (29)
• ►  October (31)
• ►  August (30)
• ►  July (32)
• ►  June (28)
• ►  May (29)
• ►  April (19)
• ►  March (26)
• ►  February (21)
• ►  January (27)
• ►  December (25)
• ►  November (21)
• ►  October (26)
• ►  September (25)
• ►  August (33)
• ►  July (23)
• ►  June (23)
• ►  May (33)
• ►  April (28)
• ►  February (25)
• ►  January (25)
• ►  December (35)
• ►  November (25)
• ►  October (34)
• ►  September (27)
• ►  August (2)

Turn Your Curiosity Into Discovery

Latest facts.

The Art of Email Marketing How to Craft Compelling Emails

Elevate Your Audio Experience with the CuttingEdge OneOdio A10 Headphones

40 facts about elektrostal.

Written by Lanette Mayes

Modified & Updated: 02 Mar 2024

Reviewed by Jessica Corbett

Elektrostal is a vibrant city located in the Moscow Oblast region of Russia. With a rich history, stunning architecture, and a thriving community, Elektrostal is a city that has much to offer. Whether you are a history buff, nature enthusiast, or simply curious about different cultures, Elektrostal is sure to captivate you.

This article will provide you with 40 fascinating facts about Elektrostal, giving you a better understanding of why this city is worth exploring. From its origins as an industrial hub to its modern-day charm, we will delve into the various aspects that make Elektrostal a unique and must-visit destination.

So, join us as we uncover the hidden treasures of Elektrostal and discover what makes this city a true gem in the heart of Russia.

Key Takeaways:

• Elektrostal, known as the “Motor City of Russia,” is a vibrant and growing city with a rich industrial history, offering diverse cultural experiences and a strong commitment to environmental sustainability.
• With its convenient location near Moscow, Elektrostal provides a picturesque landscape, vibrant nightlife, and a range of recreational activities, making it an ideal destination for residents and visitors alike.

Known as the “Motor City of Russia.”

Elektrostal, a city located in the Moscow Oblast region of Russia, earned the nickname “Motor City” due to its significant involvement in the automotive industry.

Home to the Elektrostal Metallurgical Plant.

Elektrostal is renowned for its metallurgical plant, which has been producing high-quality steel and alloys since its establishment in 1916.

Boasts a rich industrial heritage.

Elektrostal has a long history of industrial development, contributing to the growth and progress of the region.

Founded in 1916.

The city of Elektrostal was founded in 1916 as a result of the construction of the Elektrostal Metallurgical Plant.

Located approximately 50 kilometers east of Moscow.

Elektrostal is situated in close proximity to the Russian capital, making it easily accessible for both residents and visitors.

Known for its vibrant cultural scene.

Elektrostal is home to several cultural institutions, including museums, theaters, and art galleries that showcase the city’s rich artistic heritage.

A popular destination for nature lovers.

Surrounded by picturesque landscapes and forests, Elektrostal offers ample opportunities for outdoor activities such as hiking, camping, and birdwatching.

Hosts the annual Elektrostal City Day celebrations.

Every year, Elektrostal organizes festive events and activities to celebrate its founding, bringing together residents and visitors in a spirit of unity and joy.

Has a population of approximately 160,000 people.

Elektrostal is home to a diverse and vibrant community of around 160,000 residents, contributing to its dynamic atmosphere.

Boasts excellent education facilities.

The city is known for its well-established educational institutions, providing quality education to students of all ages.

A center for scientific research and innovation.

Elektrostal serves as an important hub for scientific research, particularly in the fields of metallurgy, materials science, and engineering.

Surrounded by picturesque lakes.

The city is blessed with numerous beautiful lakes, offering scenic views and recreational opportunities for locals and visitors alike.

Well-connected transportation system.

Elektrostal benefits from an efficient transportation network, including highways, railways, and public transportation options, ensuring convenient travel within and beyond the city.

Famous for its traditional Russian cuisine.

Food enthusiasts can indulge in authentic Russian dishes at numerous restaurants and cafes scattered throughout Elektrostal.

Home to notable architectural landmarks.

Elektrostal boasts impressive architecture, including the Church of the Transfiguration of the Lord and the Elektrostal Palace of Culture.

Offers a wide range of recreational facilities.

Residents and visitors can enjoy various recreational activities, such as sports complexes, swimming pools, and fitness centers, enhancing the overall quality of life.

Provides a high standard of healthcare.

Elektrostal is equipped with modern medical facilities, ensuring residents have access to quality healthcare services.

Home to the Elektrostal History Museum.

The Elektrostal History Museum showcases the city’s fascinating past through exhibitions and displays.

A hub for sports enthusiasts.

Elektrostal is passionate about sports, with numerous stadiums, arenas, and sports clubs offering opportunities for athletes and spectators.

Celebrates diverse cultural festivals.

Throughout the year, Elektrostal hosts a variety of cultural festivals, celebrating different ethnicities, traditions, and art forms.

Electric power played a significant role in its early development.

Elektrostal owes its name and initial growth to the establishment of electric power stations and the utilization of electricity in the industrial sector.

Boasts a thriving economy.

The city’s strong industrial base, coupled with its strategic location near Moscow, has contributed to Elektrostal’s prosperous economic status.

Houses the Elektrostal Drama Theater.

The Elektrostal Drama Theater is a cultural centerpiece, attracting theater enthusiasts from far and wide.

Popular destination for winter sports.

Elektrostal’s proximity to ski resorts and winter sport facilities makes it a favorite destination for skiing, snowboarding, and other winter activities.

Promotes environmental sustainability.

Elektrostal prioritizes environmental protection and sustainability, implementing initiatives to reduce pollution and preserve natural resources.

Home to renowned educational institutions.

Elektrostal is known for its prestigious schools and universities, offering a wide range of academic programs to students.

Committed to cultural preservation.

The city values its cultural heritage and takes active steps to preserve and promote traditional customs, crafts, and arts.

Hosts an annual International Film Festival.

The Elektrostal International Film Festival attracts filmmakers and cinema enthusiasts from around the world, showcasing a diverse range of films.

Encourages entrepreneurship and innovation.

Elektrostal supports aspiring entrepreneurs and fosters a culture of innovation, providing opportunities for startups and business development.

Offers a range of housing options.

Elektrostal provides diverse housing options, including apartments, houses, and residential complexes, catering to different lifestyles and budgets.

Home to notable sports teams.

Elektrostal is proud of its sports legacy, with several successful sports teams competing at regional and national levels.

Boasts a vibrant nightlife scene.

Residents and visitors can enjoy a lively nightlife in Elektrostal, with numerous bars, clubs, and entertainment venues.

Promotes cultural exchange and international relations.

Elektrostal actively engages in international partnerships, cultural exchanges, and diplomatic collaborations to foster global connections.

Surrounded by beautiful nature reserves.

Nearby nature reserves, such as the Barybino Forest and Luchinskoye Lake, offer opportunities for nature enthusiasts to explore and appreciate the region’s biodiversity.

Commemorates historical events.

The city pays tribute to significant historical events through memorials, monuments, and exhibitions, ensuring the preservation of collective memory.

Promotes sports and youth development.

Elektrostal invests in sports infrastructure and programs to encourage youth participation, health, and physical fitness.

Hosts annual cultural and artistic festivals.

Throughout the year, Elektrostal celebrates its cultural diversity through festivals dedicated to music, dance, art, and theater.

Provides a picturesque landscape for photography enthusiasts.

The city’s scenic beauty, architectural landmarks, and natural surroundings make it a paradise for photographers.

Connects to Moscow via a direct train line.

The convenient train connection between Elektrostal and Moscow makes commuting between the two cities effortless.

A city with a bright future.

Elektrostal continues to grow and develop, aiming to become a model city in terms of infrastructure, sustainability, and quality of life for its residents.

In conclusion, Elektrostal is a fascinating city with a rich history and a vibrant present. From its origins as a center of steel production to its modern-day status as a hub for education and industry, Elektrostal has plenty to offer both residents and visitors. With its beautiful parks, cultural attractions, and proximity to Moscow, there is no shortage of things to see and do in this dynamic city. Whether you’re interested in exploring its historical landmarks, enjoying outdoor activities, or immersing yourself in the local culture, Elektrostal has something for everyone. So, next time you find yourself in the Moscow region, don’t miss the opportunity to discover the hidden gems of Elektrostal.

Q: What is the population of Elektrostal?

A: As of the latest data, the population of Elektrostal is approximately XXXX.

Q: How far is Elektrostal from Moscow?

A: Elektrostal is located approximately XX kilometers away from Moscow.

Q: Are there any famous landmarks in Elektrostal?

A: Yes, Elektrostal is home to several notable landmarks, including XXXX and XXXX.

Q: What industries are prominent in Elektrostal?

A: Elektrostal is known for its steel production industry and is also a center for engineering and manufacturing.

Q: Are there any universities or educational institutions in Elektrostal?

A: Yes, Elektrostal is home to XXXX University and several other educational institutions.

Q: What are some popular outdoor activities in Elektrostal?

A: Elektrostal offers several outdoor activities, such as hiking, cycling, and picnicking in its beautiful parks.

Q: Is Elektrostal well-connected in terms of transportation?

A: Yes, Elektrostal has good transportation links, including trains and buses, making it easily accessible from nearby cities.

Q: Are there any annual events or festivals in Elektrostal?

A: Yes, Elektrostal hosts various events and festivals throughout the year, including XXXX and XXXX.

Was this page helpful?

Our commitment to delivering trustworthy and engaging content is at the heart of what we do. Each fact on our site is contributed by real users like you, bringing a wealth of diverse insights and information. To ensure the highest standards of accuracy and reliability, our dedicated editors meticulously review each submission. This process guarantees that the facts we share are not only fascinating but also credible. Trust in our commitment to quality and authenticity as you explore and learn with us.

Share this Fact: