10 Star Trek Episodes That Are Beyond Words
8. The Importance Of Body Language
Voyager got more than she bargained for when she winked a nacelle at some passing space whales in Elogium. When a swarm of dubious looking lifeforms take a fancy to the ship, she's pulled in by their sheer magnetism. Quite literally.
With no way of communicating, the crew find themselves in trouble as the creatures nuzzle up to Voyager and start draining energy, causing ship-wide system failures. And things only get worse when an even bigger version rocks up to see what all the fuss is about.
Doing their best to understand the behaviour on display, they realise they're caught up in some kind of mating ritual that they want absolutely no part of. And more worryingly, the newcomer sees them as a rival.
Janeway is forced to try and escape without causing harm. Easier said than done when an entire swarm takes a shine to your subspace signature. Eventually, she tries to push back against the unwanted rival...until Chakotay steps in with the astute observation that matching its aggression is only escalating its behaviour.
He suggests they try and mimic the submissive mannerisms of the swarm, and sure enough, when the ship rolls over and shows its belly, the smaller creatures lose interest and flock to the superior space whale.
Elogium is a fascinating (if somewhat quirky) foray into the importance of basic non-verbal communication, even in the 24th century. Reading the swarm's body language and primal instincts saved the entire ship... and, more importantly, gave us the now-infamous Tuvok line:
It appears we have lost our sex appeal.