Tuvok’s (Tim Russ) most hilarious scene in Star Trek: Voyager season 4 actually made no sense when looked at objectively. As one of the few Vulcan members of Voyager’s cast of characters, Tuvok didn’t get many funny moments during the show’s run, unless you count his sarcasm and dry wit which often made appearances. However, Tuvok did have occasional humorous scenes sprinkled in during his tenure on the show, and no scene was better than one the opened season 4, episode 13, “Waking Moments.”
During the episode, Voyager’s crew was attacked by aliens who seemed to exist only in the dream world. Although these aliens were eventually revealed to have corporeal bodies, they preyed on the crew while they were asleep, using their abilities to eventually take over the ship and force the crew into a state where they were unable to distinguish between the dreaming and waking worlds. The premise of “Waking Moments” was fairly unique for the Star Trek timeline, and featured some great moments, including a scene at the beginning of the episode where Tuvok had a bizarre stress dream.
Tuvok’s Stress Dream In Star Trek: Voyager Season 4’s “Waking Moments” Made No Sense
As a vulcan, Tuvok wouldn’t actually be embarrassed by his dream
The beginning of “Waking Moments” showed many of the crew’s dreams, which ranged from hilarious to downright terrifying. One of the stranger ones was Tuvok’s, during which he showed up for his duty shift on the bridge completely naked. This type of dream is likely familiar to many people, and a common stress dream for humans, but since Tuvok was a Vulcan, making him experience it made no sense. As a completely different species, and a notoriously unemotional one, Tuvok would almost certainly not have experienced embarrassment or even felt the same way about nakedness as humans.
The scene still comes off in the episode like Tuvok is embarrassed to be naked, which ultimately undercuts its credibility.
Tim Russ agreed with these ideas, stating in an interview with The Official Star Trek: Voyager Magazine, issue 17, that he had attempted to find a rationalization for the scene by playing Tuvok’s discomfort with his nakedness around the fact that he had broken protocol by not wearing a uniform. While Russ’s intentions in this regard were good, the scene still comes off in the episode like Tuvok is embarrassed to be naked, which ultimately undercuts its credibility. However, Voyager’s creative team choosing to feature Tuvok as the subject of the stress dream was in some ways a smart choice.
Why Star Trek: Voyager Chose Tuvok For “Waking Moments” Most Hilarious Dream Anyway
Voyager’s writers knew that Tuvok would still be a great choice for the scene
Although Tuvok’s embarrassment was not in keeping with his Vulcan nature, the scene in “Waking Moments” needed him to heighten its comedy. Using Tuvok as the straight man only helped the dream be even funnier, especially the part where the entire bridge crew laughed at Tuvok after he stepped out of the turbolift. Likewise, the scene facilitated another great moment between Tuvok and Captain Janeway (Kate Mulgrew) where Tuvok awkwardly attempted to explain his dream to Janeway without going into detail about the fact that he had been naked.
Voyager’s writers undoubtedly knew that using Tuvok for that particular stress dream was the funniest choice they could make when assigning scenes to the show’s core characters. It’s not surprising then that they chose Tuvok to have the dream he did, and the fact that Tim Russ was aware of the inaccuracies and attempted to find a justification for them shows how much he cared about Tuvok as a character. Still, while the Star Trek: Voyager scene may be funny, it doesn’t hold up logically under scrutiny.