Prototype (Star Trek: Voyager)

Did You Know?

• This episode had Nielsen ratings of 5.9 points when it was broadcast on television in 1996.
• Cinefantastique rated this episode 2.5 out of four.
• Tor.com rated it 7 out of 10.

Plot

Chief Engineer B'Elanna Torres finds a drifting robot in space and persuades Captain Janeway to reactivate it, overriding Commander Tuvok's objections. The unit calls itself Automated Unit 3947 from the Pralor faction. It explains that its creators died in a war long ago, and without anyone to build new units, the Pralors are slowly breaking down and facing extinction. 3947 asks Torres to construct a prototype that would let the Pralors reproduce. Janeway refuses, invoking the Prime Directive: these units were never meant to replicate, and granting that ability would meddle in their culture. When a Pralor ship arrives to collect 3947, the robot kidnaps Torres. The Pralor vessel threatens to destroy Voyager unless Torres builds the prototype, which she does. To rescue her, the Voyager crew needs a distraction. Suddenly, a second ship of Automated Units appears and attacks the Pralors, identifying itself as the Cravic faction. 3947 then reveals that two planets, Pralor and Cravic, originally created these machines to fight each other decades ago. When the planets made peace and tried to shut down the robots, the machines killed their creators to survive and kept the war going. Torres understands that her prototype would tip the conflict's balance, so she destroys it. Amid the battle, the Voyager crew beams Torres off the Pralor ship and escapes the area.