The Time Warriors and Beyond

By Owen Quinn author

Photos copyright paramount Pictures

One of the greatest actors of our time, Brad Dourif is best known for One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest and the voice of killer doll, Chucky.

But there are two other performances of his that may have gotten missed in his stellar career. In this two part article, we will look back at both.

Star Trek is filled with memorable characters, some long running and others that may have only appeared in one or a handful of episodes.

In Star Trek Voyager, everyone thinks of Seven of Nine but in season 2 and 3, there was a character so different and memorable, that in just three episodes, Lon Suder completes a story arc that is so compact and beautiful that fans remember to this day.

When Captain Janeway pursues an aquis ship in the badlands, they are thrown across the universe to the Delta Quadrant where they face a new enemy. Forced to destroy their only way home, the Starfleet and maquis crew are forced to work together in order to survive the seventy year trip home.

One of those crew members was one Lon Suder. He was a maquis fighter that was part of Chakotay’s crew. In the season two episode, Meld, a crewman is discovered murdered in engineering and the only other person on duty was Suder. Chakotay admits Suder always made him feel uncomfortable and it didn’t help that he was a Betazoid. We have met dysfunctional Betazoids before in Star Trek The Next Generation’s brilliant episode Tin Man.

But Suder is the scariest of them all. He is the Trek equivalent of a serial killer and he will impact Vulcan, Tuvok, most of all. Chakotay and Be’lanna recall when they were fighting in the Maquis that Suder did what he had to do a little too well when killing Cardassians. Outside of battle, he was a quiet and kept himself to himself. But in combat there was something in his eyes that made Chakotay feel scared that every time he pulled Suder back, he looked as if he was going to kill Chakotay too.

Suder initially denies killing the crewman and is angry at Tuvok for being a spy for the Federation, ready to turn them all in as criminals. But when Suder’s DNA is pulled from the body, there is no denying it.

The direction here is perfect as in half shadow, Suder calmly and emotionlessly tells Tuvok how he killed crewman Darwin. When Tuvok asks why he killed him, he cannot accept Suder’s answer. He first says there was no reason then on reflection that he didn’t like the way Darwin looked at him.

Dourif’s delivery of these lines is in a normal tone as if having a conversation about how your day went. he has no remorse or regret and freely admits what he did. This is a bold move on Trek’s part because we have always been brought to beleive that man has evolved in the 24th century and even though Suder is a Betazoid, we have Deanna Troi and her mother to measure Suder against. His words and mindset would not be out of place in serial killers of our century. Indeed, you could put these words into the mouth of any killer. John Wayne Gacy was so detached and normal in his voice and mannerisms that if you didn’t know his crimes, you’d be inclined to relax around him and believe his story.

Tuvok in some ways is like Odo. Order and reasoning is part of their makeup and for the Vulcan mind, the reason behind the killing is so trivial that it literally blows Tuvok’s mind to the point he has to perfom the mind meld of the title in order to understand Suder. It may be that the fact such a killer has served on the ship for two years almost without incident confuses him even more. He cannot comprehend why Suder would kill now. Is it because Janeway’s decision left him unable to hide his instincts and now has no choice but to act on them?

The Doctor concludes that Suder is neither bipolar or psychotic and his genetic markers display no abnormal tendencies. Yet Tuvk refuses to believe that there was no logical motive behind the crime., This to a Vulcan, is maddening. Even when the Doctor points out that all humanoids have suppressed violent tendencies, Suder may be acting on them because he cannot do anything else. Soemtimes there is no motive and the act of looking at someone the wrong way has been the cause of murder in the path. A simple look, the wrong or misheard word and someone’s life is ended. However, Tuvok is caught in his own logic trap. To him , the crime will not be closed until he finds that explanation.

In his exchanges with Suder, Tuvok asks how did Darwin look at him to deserve being killed. Suder says he looked at him like a lot of Starfleet look at him. Tuvok reasons that the murder must then be an attack on Starfleet which Suder dismisses. It is further complicated when Suder says he has killed non Starfleet for the same reason. He has even thought of killing Tuvok but as Tuvok points out Suder had reason to kill Tuvok but this does not apply to Darwin.

Suder is so laid back about it all, he finds comfort in the fact he will not be executed. Without consulting the captain, Tuvok proposes to mindmeld with Suder. Suder does not recommend it but when he hears the meld may give him some of Tuvok’s self control, he agrees.

The meld leaves Tuvok disconcerted and Janeway is alerted to something amiss when Tuvok suggests Suder is ready to die for his crime. When Janeway objects, stating rehabilitation, Tuvok replies darkly that crewman Darwin’s three sisters would not agree. But Tuvok is hiding the fact he has no problem killing Neelix when he runs a holodeck simulation to test his state of mind after the meld.

Suder on the other hand is more controlled and feels centred. He can feel the difference with the Vulcan tendencies. He can see his dark side while observing it from within. While Tuvok tells him that this will not last without a series of daily meditation. He brings up the holodeck but Suder tells him holographic murder does not give the same pleasure as killing a person. He can now see that Tuvok is struggling with the disturbing, attractiveness of violence. There is no logic in violence and it is destroying Tuvok’s hold on himself. When Suder points out that a mindmeld is a form of violence too with the penetration of a mind and forcing one mind on another, that it would be lethal if one lost control during the meld. Tuvok has studied violence but now Suder’s taste for it is destroying all Tuvok believes he knew about himself, emotions and the motives of others.

Suder and Tuvok are now opposite sides of madness, their posiitons reversed. Locking himself in his quarters and putting himself off duty, Tuvok agrees to be treated by the Doctor for a way to bring his mind back together.

We all know that Vulcans were a savage, violent race at one point which is always suppressed beneath their logic. But we get to see this in action when the Doctor removes all his suppressants. Tuvok is a very differnet man revelling in his own power and primal emotions. He threatens to delete the Doctor and lunches into violence as he taunts the captain about what will happen if this treatment doesn’t work.

He attacks her for being weak and not being strong enough to execute Suder. He offers to kill Suder for her amid taunting Janeway about sitting in his quarters for the rest of the trip being fed and entertained. He tries to manipulate Kes but she is not taken in by him. This is the anger unleashed when someone looks at Suder the wrong way. He manages to escape from sickbay and he goes after Suder who is still calm and centred.

The dialogie between Tuvok and Suder is electric as their roles are reersed. Tuvok has come to execute him. Suder is accepting but points out that calling it that makes it more comnfortable for Tuvok. He denies he will take pleasure from killing Suder but Suder again points out that hiding it in logic is no good. Using violence to kill the violent is logical but threadbare to say the least. Is this justice or venegeance? Suder warns that this will not quel the violence within. Tuvok will be consumed and will never be normal again. Suder is ready to die and forces a mindmeld to do what Suider said before. If you lose control during a meld, you will kill him. But the conflict is too much and Tuvok collapses.

Suder is now under house arrest, meditating and using what he has gained from Tuvok to be a better man.

In Basics part one, we see Suder has made much progress. He has created a new species of orchid and named it after Tuvok. He tells Tuvok, the meld has given him his life back. Tuvok is his mentor now and asks the captain and Tuvok for a bit more freedom as he is now at a point he can contribute more. He has developed new genetic methods which can be applied to make their gradens more fruitful. He is frustrated by the captain’s indecision to allow this and pleads with her that all he wants is to do something for the ship. These words would come back on part two to leave a powerful legacy. When the Kazon attack the ship, Suder hides in the ducts while the rest of the crew are stranded on an alien world. Seska and the Kazon now control Voyager.

Suder and the Doctor team up to take back control of the ship. At first, the Doctor berates him thinking Suder is using this to obtain his freedom but Suder comes back at him revealing that he has no choice but to kill. He is afraid of losing all that he has achieved so far. He can see the day he will be finally be at peace with himself. The logical use of violence applies to others but not Suder. They use an old Maquis trick to throw Seska and Kazon off by flooding the ship with thoron particles.

Suder is tested as he has to fight Kazon. When he is forced to kill a Kazon warrior, he struggles to keep his self control. Falling into the foetal posiiton, he refuses drugs and draws on Tuvok’s teachings to centre himself again. When Seska deactivates the Doctor, Suder is on his own. All he wanted was to do soemthing for the ship and this is it. Spurred on by a message from the Doctor praising Suder for his heroism and complete faith in him, Suder follows through. He kills a handful of Kazon to gain access to the controls in engineering. Phasers overload causing a pulse to rip through Voyager disabling the Kazon and killing Seska.

Suder sabotages the ship in order to allow Tom Paris and a Talaxian force to regain control of the ship. Suder is shot in the back by a Kazon but with his dying breath, completes his mission.

With voyager now back in Janeway’s hands, Tuvok offers Suder a Vulcan prayer.

“May your death bring you the peace you never found in life. “

Some regulars don’t have such a beautiful story arc but Dourif embues Suder with such a sympathy and compassion for someone who is struggling literally with mental health, and turns him into a fan favourite. To be honest, Janeway comes off as a hard nosed cow here as she is almsot dismissive of Suder’s progress and what he has achieved since mind melding. Janeway is portrayed as a mother figure to her crew a lot of the time but it seems it is only with those she likes. She was the one who said rehabiliatation was the answer for Suder yet the success of her own suggestion is thrown aside by blanket comments. It is no wonder Auder gets agitated with her.

Suder was a great addition to the mythology and a gorgeously written character. It would have been interesting to see him a bit more but there was always the danger of diluting his character. This way Dourif’s performance is a masterclass but in our next look at one of his roles, we get to see a struggle of a very different kind.