No one seems to know what prompted the introduction of the sonic shower. In a show about traversing the stars, someone had to go off the beaten path of creative thought to bring hygiene into the conversation. Maybe it served a higher plot purpose, or maybe it was the logistics of avoiding smelly officers. Either way, sonic showers have been around ever since, and have given fans a more intimate perspective of everyone from flirty couples to traumatized doctors.
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Sonic Showers: A Star Trek History
One doesn’t start watching Star Trek under the impression that shower scenes will become a regular occurrence. Yet, they’ve been infiltrating the narrative since Jonathan Archer (Scott Bakula) sat in the captain’s chair in Star Trek: Enterprise. He, along with his crew, bathed with regular old water. Then Federation ships switched to sonic showers in the 2250s and never looked back. Hence, all that footage of a post-shower Captain Kirk (William Shatner) drying off in The Original Series.
These devices aboard Starfleet vessels use sonic pulse vibrations to clean muck, filth, and contaminants from humanoid bodies. A high-pitched version of these showers can act as a cold shower for overheated officers. This isn’t the most compelling world-building detail Star Trek has to offer. Still, the sonic shower has played an undeniably important part in a variety of storylines.
Star Trek Gets Steamy
Sometimes, Star Trek shows characters in the midst of a shower with a hint of nudity as they clean themselves. Enterprise took advantage of any opportunity it could to show Commander T’Pol (Jolene Blalock) in a state of undress. Season 1, episodes 1 and 2, “Broken Bow” went so far as to show her and Trip Tucker (Connor Trinneer) angrily bathing each other for a mission. This way, the show got to show off their bodies while pretending to do it for the plot. Meanwhile, sonic showers hint at being suggestive without the risk of angering the censors.
The Original Series had to play especially nice for the era. They couldn’t show Kirk cleaning himself in season 1, episode 5, “The Enemy Within.” But they could use a moistened forehead and well-placed towel around his shoulders to hint at his bathroom activities. It’s the closest Star Trek has gotten to serving fans a sweaty, nude version of their faves. Not all shower scenes bring the steam, though. Sometimes they just bring the sad.
Dramatic Sonic Shower Scenes in Star Trek
Distraught Starfleet officers having emotional moments in a sonic shower is not uncommon these days. Once stripped of the uniform and all its rules of propriety, the emotional toll of adventuring through space tends to take hold. Star Trek: Strange New Worlds shows a more vulnerable side of Joseph M’Benga (Babs Olusanmokun) in season 2, episode 8, “Under the Cloak of War.” Thank goodness for dedicated Starfleet engineers who take care of the sonic showers when officers use them to simultaneously wash and process traumatic memories.
In the episode, the doctor’s past has come back to haunt him in the form of an old Klingon enemy. The circumstances of this unwelcome reunion require M’Benga to adhere to diplomacy. But that kind of levelheadedness is hard to maintain at all times. So, he uses his sonic shower to feel these difficult emotions before putting back on his professional mask.
Iconic Star Trek Sonic Shower Scenes
Star Trek has delivered enough shower scenes that some of them stand out more than others. For example, Voyager’s B’Elanna Torres (Roxann Dawson) finds emotional release at the end of season 5, episode 21, “Juggernaut.” She’s been struggling with her anger while trying to take down a mythical creature, putting her fellow crewmembers in danger. The final confrontation between the two challenges her internal dilemma. Luckily, her Klingon instincts kick in and ensure a swift victory. However, their fight also leaves her with harsh bruising on her body and heavy thoughts on her mind. She naturally takes both to the nearest sonic shower.
Another memorable sonic shower scene comes from Star Trek I: The Motion Picture. In it, Lt. Ilia (Persis Khambatta) has just been taken over by the living machine known as V’ger. Why a man-made probe would want to shower is no more clear than the reasoning behind Starfleet’s bad tech choices. But at least V’ger starts its hostile take-over feeling refreshed.
Drama aside, things can still get Star Trek-levels of weird in a sonic shower. Geordi La Forge (LeVar Burton) once found someone frozen to death in one in The Next Generation. The engineers were constantly trying to fix them in Deep Space Nine. There was even one time on Voyager when a sonic shower malfunction actually shattered a mirror. All Captain Kathryn Janeway (Kate Mulgrew) was trying to do was activate the thing!
In another franchise, sonic shower scenes would be a primary source of intimacy between attractive characters. In Star Trek, however, they move the story along while getting a little risqué along the way. They show a little bit of nudity, and a lot of vulnerability. Even Lower Decks recognized the value of adding in a sonic shower scene – even if they did it for comedic purposes.
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