Solving a murder mystery is easy when the killer nonchalantly confirms the allegation. But when your lead investigator is a Vulcan who’s live is based on logic, and your killer just casually murdered someone without a care in the world, you can’t just walk away without understanding the lack of motive…
I’ve always loved it when a show pulls back and just creates a bottle inside it’s own sets. No space adventure, no travelling to other planets. Just the characters trapped inside the bulkheads with a problem to solve. There’s a time for spectacle, and then there’s a time for an episode like Meld when after a few dodgy episodes you just need to keep things simple and effective. Brad Dourif was also wondeful as Suder. But a calm, collected and quiet sociopath and Brad Dourif goes hand in hand. It’s just a real shame we only get two more episodes of the character after this one.
Voyager rarely delved into the mixed crew aspect of having Maquis integrate into the Starfleet way of life outside their two leads and Chakotay’s relationship breakdown once realising Seska was a Cardassian spy. But there was always potential for who else was in that mix of rogue’s. Chakotay had the honour of fighting for a cause he believed in, Torress was just angry at everything trying to fit in, Seska was a spy. Then we have Lon Suder. A brand new character that appears in Meld as a quiet, introverted anti social oddball who’s just been caught murdering another crewmember.
Suder’s motivation is just a mild dislike. Just a vague annoyance of someone that any normal person would brush off. Chakotay confirms he has violent tenancies despite keeping to himself. The Doctor confirms that there’s nothing psychologically wrong. And yet there sits Suder, confessing a crime with no real motivation, absolutely no remorse and right across the table, a Vulcan who can’t rest without knowing all the answers; unaware that there are largely no answers tom give.
When it comes to Vulcans, Star Trek writers have always got a kick out of playing on their emotional undercurrents. Particularly with Spock who, being half human, was always on the edge of cracking and lived by self restraint. Tuvok’s a full Vulcan, fully capable of emotional suppression and who’s lived long enough to feel comfortable with his balance and minimalist truth over emotional gesture. But faced with someone who’s so far on the sociopathic side that it defies Vulcan logic, Tuvok’s logic just can’t comprehend that sometimes, people can’t be fixed.
The episode is a nice exploration of Tuvok’s Vulcan side, which to this point has never been tested with a ‘full’ Vulcan. Trained from birth to control himself, he opts to mild meld with Suder and transfer some of that Vulcan superiority complex. But of course, he doest realise he’s in a TV show and it backfires; giving Suder a sense of calm whilst also unlocking the natural violent tenancies of Tuvoks Vulcan heritage.
Much like the praise Patrick Stewart received for his performance of Picard holding the weight of Sarek’s raw emotion, Tim Russ deserves a not for his complete sinister switch for Tuvok. Following the meld, Tuvok’s suppression fails immediately and just slowly steps up they tempo from hands twitching to ripping into Janeway to get under her skin while arguing for the death penalty. It’s a wonderful scene that not only does well for a Tuvok story, but plays more on the idea on who Vulcans really are under their logical suppression, adding to the tapestry that we’ve seen more of in recent years.
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