"Emanations" is the ninth episode of Star Trek: Voyager, a science fiction television show about a spacecraft, set in the 24th century of the Star Trek universe. This episode centers on the experiences of Harry Kim, and is also noted for an exploration of afterlife concepts.

"Emanations" is an episode of a science fiction television show that aired in March 1995.^[1] USS Voyager encounters an alien species and investigates.^[1][2]

Plot

Voyager detects the signature of an as-yet undiscovered heavy element within the ring system of a planet and organises an away team to investigate the cavern systems of one of the rocks. In doing so, they discover numerous humanoid bodies, covered in a cobweb-like substance, and conclude that the cavern system is a burial ground. They discover that the burial ground is still in use when a "subspace vacuole" opens and deposits a body shrouded in webbing. Another vacuole begins to form and the away team is beamed out for safety reasons, but Ensign Kim disappears into the vacuole and is replaced by a female alien body, also wrapped in the webs.

Kim has been transported to a mortuary on the aliens' homeworld and finds himself in a pod-shaped device, which the aliens open to release him. They identify themselves as the Vhnori and believe that Kim has come from the "Next Emanation", their name for the afterlife. The pods, when activated, open a vacuole and transport the dying Vhnori inside to the emanation. Confined to the mortuary building, Kim meets Hatil, who has been scheduled by his family to go to the Next Emanation. Hatil does not wish to, however, and the confusion surrounding Kim's arrival to the planet reinforces his doubts about the nature of the afterlife.

Meanwhile on Voyager, the Doctor revives the body of the woman who replaced Kim. She becomes hysterical when she realises that the afterlife is not as she had believed. Eventually she agrees to be transported into a forming vacuole in an attempt to be returned to her homeworld, but the attempt fails. Her dead body rematerializes, swathed in the web-like substance.

On the homeworld, Kim and Hatil agree to switch places so that Kim can be transported back through a vacuole using the burial pod, and Hatil can escape and live out his life in a rural village. Hatil wraps Kim in a burial shroud. Kim is rescued by Voyager and revived after being transported through the pod. Later, he worries about his experience, but Captain Kathryn Janeway reassures him that their scans picked up emanations of neural energy coming from the bodies of the deceased Vhnori, and a giant energy field made of thousands of these energy patterns is around the asteroid field, indicating a possible afterlife for the Vhnori.

Cast commentary

Tim Russ (cast as Tuvok) thought that "Emanations" (along with "Elogium") were stories that challenged concepts, ideas, attitudes, and traditions — all things that Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry originally wrote science fiction about: "That, I think, is the most important part of Star Trek."^[3]

Reception

This had a Nielsen rating of 7.1 points when it was aired in 1995.^[4] The book The Religions Of Star Trek described the Voyager television episode "Emanations" as having a "detailed and fascinating exploration of the afterlife and resurrection" ^[5]

In 2021, Screen Rant said this was a " fascinating examination of life and death" and a great episode for Harry Kim.^[6]

In 2022 reviewer Andrew Bloom wrote a negative review of the episode and said "Really, the only saving grace of the episode are the closing moments between Janeway and Harry. There’s genuine wisdom in the captain’s caution to her recovered ensign that it’s important to take time to absorb these big experiences, and keep one’s mind open to other possibilities.".^[7]