Recap / Star Trek: Voyager S6 E21: "Live Fast and Prosper"

...wait a second! Those com badges are way too big!

Three con artists cause trouble for Voyager by posing as Captain Janeway, Commander Chakotay, and Lt. Cmdr. Tuvok.

---

This episode provides examples of

• Arson, Murder, and Jaywalking: Tuvok's description of the barbaric conditions of Telsian prisons. Lampshaded in that Tuvok admits that improvisation isn't one of his strong talents.
  Tuvok: Barely habitable. Inmates often die of malnutrition before they are brought to trial. Torture is commonplace, as is disease, including several incurable forms of psoriasis.
• Becoming the Mask: Mobar just can't stop playing Tuvok, even when there's nobody around to scam. He is, basically, a method actor who refuses to break character. Considering how his teammates treat his antics, it would seem that he has done this in the past with other impersonations. As Jim "Reviewboy" Wright puts it, "he's so into the role that he might be considering a legal change of name."
• Blinded by the Light: Tuvok distracts his impersonator this way long enough to stun him.
• Character Check: Tom and Neelix both had sketchy backgrounds, and a hefty dose of cynicism, before they joined Voyager. This gets referenced here - their Character Development has made them a lot less abrasive over the years, but after getting scammed, they're justifiably embarrassed, and start believing that they've lost their "edge."
• Combat Pragmatist: As noted above, Tuvok shines a flashlight into Mobar's eyes to blind him when they face off.
• Con Man: Dala, Mobar and Zar. They clearly had this down to a science by the time they started on their Voyager con.
• Death Glare: When Janeway first sees the transmission of Dala impersonating her, she looks like she's about to burn a hole through the briefing room view screen.
• Evil Cannot Comprehend Good: Dala can't understand things like telling the truth and not exploiting others. She tells Neelix that she got it from her father (operative word being "tells," since it's not like we can trust anything she says anyway).
• Expecting Someone Taller: Dala, the Janeway impersonator, says this of the real Janeway.
  Dala: The great Captain Janeway. Somehow I expected you to be...taller. I make a better you than you.
• Fake Static: The imposters use this to avoid fulfilling their half of the trade with the miners. They blame it on a Negative Space Wedgie.
• Fat and Skinny: "Tuvok" (Mobar) and "Janeway" (Dala), as well as the two aliens they con early in the episode.
• Foil:
  • Janeway notes that she and Dala are "very much alike — intelligent, resourceful, ambitious...but with one tiny difference.... I'm not a liar and a thief."
  • Tuvok and Mobar as well. Both are more serious and formal than some of their other teammates. They also both have to deal with teasing from their more un-serious colleagues. Kim and Paris keep messing with Tuvok's holodeck programs which is reminiscent to how Mobar is treated by Dala and Zar for him being more into his impersonation. This is possibly why Mobar takes such a liking to impersonating Tuvok.
• Glass-Shattering Sound: The pitch of the sonic shower in Janeway's quarters is so high that it cracks the mirror in her bathroom.
• The Guards Must Be Crazy: Subverted; Neelix enters the cell and sits down next to the prisoner, his phaser in easy reach. But adept viewers would realize this is a set-up, as post-Character Development Neelix is a pacifist, who's never armed unless he can badger someone into letting him on an away mission. Another clue is that the guard in the brig leaves the force field down after Neelix enters the cell, which is not standard procedure, and he's very slow on the draw when Dala attacks Neelix and takes his phaser.
• Hellhole Prison: Janeway has Tuvok improvise some BS about barbaric Telsian prisons in order to scare Dala into cooperating.
• Hoist by Their Own Petard: The trio of con artists who make a living impersonating other people are undone when someone else decides to impersonate one of them. And because it's the Doctor he can do it much better than they can.
• Identity Impersonator: The three con artists. The Doctor impersonates Dala near the end of the episode.
• Idiot Ball:
  • Tom Paris and Neelix managed to grab hold of a big one here, and they know it. Orek says he finds it difficult to believe that they'd be stupid enough to be deceived by a classic Scam Religion.
    Orek: This is all very difficult for me to believe. Two of your crewmen deceived by clerics? (scoffs) Could they really have been so naïve?
    Tuvok: A legitimate question.
  • Tom even lampshades it, saying he would have expected Harry to fall for the scam.
    Tom: Neelix, what has happened to us?
    Neelix: I know exactly what you mean. I've been over it a thousand times.
    Tom: Why didn't we see this coming?
    Neelix: Orphans! It's the oldest gambit in the book!
    Tom: I mean, if it'd been Harry, I could understand it. He trusts everybody. But you and me?
    Neelix: We've dealt with our share of shady characters.
    Tom: I think maybe...maybe we've lost our edge.
  • The security guard for the brig also seems have caught it at first by not re-raising the forcefield to Dala's cell after Neelix enters, allowing her to easily escape after overpowering the latter and taking his phaser. But it turns out to have been all part of the plan to let Dala escape.
• In Medias Res: Tom and Neelix had already met the scammers, and we see the trio having started their Voyager scam.
• Lethal Chef: Neelix almost poisons the crew by installing a strange heating coil into the kitchen's circuitry, which affects the replicators. Yes, once again, Neelix's kitchen nearly breaks the ship.
• Ludicrous Precision:
  Miner: I'm not familiar with Earth.
  Dala as Janeway: That's because it's 30,000 light years from here.
  Mobar as Tuvok: 30,342.4, to be exact.
• Method Acting: In-universe. Mobar, as mentioned above, is completely lost in being Tuvok, even when there's no scam being pulled. Zar and Dala come off like they just put up with it for the sake of having his help. The method finally cracks when Mobar meets the real Tuvok, and gets a look of wonder on his face. Tuvok, unfortunately, isn't a fan of "the method."
• Mirror Character: Tuvok and Mobar are more serious and formal than some of their other teammates. They also both have to deal with teasing from their more un-serious colleagues. Kim and Paris keep messing with Tuvok's holodeck programs which is reminiscent to how Mobar is treated by Dala and Zar for him being more into his impersonation. This is possibly why Mobar takes such a liking to impersonating Tuvok.
• Never Trust a Trailer: "Has Voyager entered a parallel universe?" No, they're just dealing with a trio of impostors.
• Not Bad: Janeway's reaction upon seeing Dala, the fake Janeway?
  Janeway: Nice hair!
• O.O.C. Is Serious Business: Zar (the Chakotay impersonator) is surprised when Dala decides to join them in loading up their stolen loot, as she's never performed manual labor before. He gets the reasoning wrong, though, and assumes that it's because she doesn't trust them anymore; he doesn't figure that she's been replaced by the Doctor in holo-disguise.
• Practical Joke: Tom Paris and Harry Kim modify the priest character of Tuvok's holodeck program so that he is wearing pajamas. Tuvok is clearly not amused. It's also implied that there's another one coming.
  Harry: (in sotto, to Tom) I wonder how the oracle would look in a sombrero. (they both snicker)
• Real Name as an Alias: Apparently the case with "Sister" Dala, and, presumably, "Brother" Mobar. Neither of them is ever referred to by any other name, besides their "Captain Janeway" and "Lieutenant Tuvok" personas, and, in fact, Zar actually demands "Where's Dala?" when he discovers that the Doctor has been posing as her, so presumably it's her actual name.
• Scam Religion: Dala and Mobar first appeared as members of a religious sect so that they could use a scanner during the "blessing" to copy and download information from Voyager's shuttle. Bonus points for them being concerned for "the orphans."
• Shell Game:
  • Neelix and Tom Paris try pulling this off on the Doctor twice. The first time they fail, due to the Doctor's optical subroutines, but the second time they succeed.
  • Janeway's plot to capture the con artists isn't too far off: Only instead of palming the nut, she has Paris switch Dala with the Doctor and his tweaked mobile emitter.
• Shutting Up Now: When Voyager shows up during the imposters' confrontation with one of their victims, Mobar suggests that they surrender, citing the Federation's "extremely humane policy regarding the treatment of prisoners..." until a double Death Glare from his comrades kills that suggestion.
• Still Got It: Neelix to Tom Paris after they pull off a magic trick near the end of the episode.
• Straw Vulcan: Mobar essentially becomes this...and gets his ass kicked by a real Vulcan during a climactic standoff:
  Mobar: Logic would indicate that neither of us has the advantage.
  Tuvok: Your logic... is flawed. (shines a light in Mobar's eyes and stuns him)
• Swiss-Cheese Security: The entire episode is kicked off after the con artists are allowed onto the Delta Flyer, and somehow manage to download the entire computer library. While Tom and Neelix both have their eyes closed.
• Think of the Children!: A trademark of Dala and Mobar's scams is mentioning support for "the orphans."
• Token Good Teammate: Mobar definitely comes off as this. While the other scammers are only out for the profit and use impersonations as a means to that end, Mobar seems to genuinely be interested in the characters he is impersonating and desires to portray the characters he pretends to be as accurately as possible. The other two tend to be hostile to his method acting approach.
• Tricked into Escaping: Janeway and Neelix pull this one on Dala. He allows her to seemingly get the better of him so she could break out of her holding cell, steal the Delta Flyer and rendezvous with her crew — not realizing that this was exactly what Janeway wanted her to do. Paris and the Doctor are hidden on board, and she's just led them straight to her cohorts and their stashed loot.
• Worthy Opponent: Janeway is genuinely impressed at the con artists' success in posing as her crew. Dala doesn't reciprocate.
  Janeway: Posing as a Starfleet captain, selling memberships to the Federation. Too bad we didn't think of it, Tuvok. Imagine the resources we could have acquired over the past six years.
  Tuvok: Indeed.
  Janeway: I have to admit, I'm impressed.
  Dala: I wish I could say the same.
• Wrong Genre Savvy: When Dala turns on Zar and Mobar, Zar accuses her of selling them out to Voyager. Which plays into their Con Man sensibilities pretty well, but it turns out it's not even Dala; it's the Doctor in disguise!