"Parallax" is the third episode of the science fiction television series Star Trek: Voyager. The episode was directed by Kim Friedman and broadcast on January 23, 1995. The story was written by Jim Trombetta with the teleplay by Brannon Braga. The starship Voyager detects a distress call and stops to investigate. Casting In this episode, actor Josh Clark guest stars as Starfleet Lt. Joseph Carey, and Martha Hackett as a Maquis, Seska. Martha Hackett had previously guest starred on Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, in "The Search". Writing This episode's teleplay was written by Brannon Braga from a story by Jim Trombetta. Brannon Braga was one of the major writers for Star Trek in the late 1990s and early 2000s. Another input to the writing was the Star Trek science advisor Andre Bormanis. One of the inspirations for this story, was the idea of submarine trapped under ice, which then must get to the surface. One idea for being trapped was something like black hole or collapsed star, but because that did not work well from a real science perspective, Bormanis invented the idea of a "Class 4 Singularity" for the episode. Plot As Voyager starts its way back home from the Delta Quadrant, tensions between the Starfleet and the Maquis crewmembers begin to rise, and some brief hostilities are incurred. However, both Captain Kathryn Janeway and her first officer, Chakotay, originally the captain of the Maquis crew, agree they need to integrate the two crews as one to fill vacancies left by the disastrous events to date. Of note, Chakotay recommends B'Elanna Torres, one of the more outspoken Maquis and a former Starfleet cadet, to be Chief of Engineering, a move that Janeway is hesitant about, considering that Torres recently broke another engineer's nose in a fight. As the ship passes near a quantum singularity, the Voyager crew detect a ship stuck in the singularity's event horizon. Receiving no contact with the ship, they attempt to move in closer to engage the ship via tractor beams, but the result damages more of Voyager's systems. Janeway orders the crew to take Voyager to a nearby planet to seek help for the trapped ship. However, after some time has passed, the crew finds themselves back at the singularity, and quickly realize the ship they are seeing is themselves from before. The ship has become trapped in the singularity, and it is