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| Tuvok encounters Maquis resistance. |
THE PLOT
When Tuvok encounters insubordination from a Maquis engineer (Armand Schultz), he brings the problem to Janeway. She decides to punish the messenger by putting Tuvok in charge of training the "Worst of the Worst," in a plot ripped straight from the pages of Police Academy 9: Mission to the Moon. Tuvok gives his charges the full drill instructor routine, but finds that his class isn't responding well to usual Starfleet tactics.
Meanwhile, the biological Technobabble gel packs are malfunctioning, threatening the ship's power (again). The Doctor and Kes are able to trace the problem to a virus caused by (I'm not making this up) Neelix's cheese. But can they cure the virus before all the biological gel packs on the ship are infected?
CHARACTERS
Capt. Janeway: Recognizes that it's not reasonable to expect people who were never part of Starfleet to simply accept Starfleet procedures. She assigns Tuvok to train the most troublesome Maquis, recognizing his expertise as a former instructor at Starfleet Academy.
Tuvok: Takes Janeway's order to show the Maquis "why (Starfleet) does things the way (they) do," and decides the best way to implement that order is by acting as a drill instructor, having them run laps, and forcing the blue guy to do the equivalent of cleaning a bathroom with a toothbrush. And he's surprised when this doesn't work? At least he recognizes that his tactics are backfiring. The episode sidesteps Tuvok coming up with a way to truly connect with his charges, instead having them bond through the miracle of forced Third Act Tension.
Neelix: Using some of his plants, he shows Tuvok through metaphor what the Vulcan can't grasp on his own: That his trainees are not Starfleet cadets, and that he's not likely to be successful by treating them like cadets. Tuvok may not like Neelix, but he has the courtesy to listen without interrupting, and he recognizes good advice when it's given. Neelix makes up for his moment of usefulness by endangering the ship - though in absolute fairness, I doubt anyone would have anticipated the ship being vulnerable to the pernicious power of cheese!
The Doctor: Told to be more considerate of his patients, he decides to put that into practice here... by treating the gel pack as a patient and being elaborately polite to the inanimate packet of bio-matter. Little bits like that are why he's the best thing on the show. I do wonder, though. When the gel packs begin failing all over the ship, sending all of the ship's power haywire, why is the holographic doctor unaffected? It would be a perfectly natural plot turn for him to switch off at a critical moment here, and it would have the benefit of raising the stakes for the Final Act by leaving Kes alone to finish the diagnostic work. But I suppose creating anything resembling actual tension would be unthinkable for this episode...
THOUGHTS
No, no. This wasn't the season finale, not really. This was the bit of filler right before the season finale, like Bounty coming ahead of The Expanse, or Transfigurations ahead of Best of Both Worlds. There's still one big episode left to close out the season, with this installment pinching a few pennies in order to pay for it. Right? Right?
Oh, crap. (sigh) This actually is the first season finale for Star Trek: Voyager.
Which isn't to say that Learning Curve is a terrible episode. It's certainly better than The Cloud or Emanations, just offhand. It could also be said in the producers' defense that this show wasn't intended as a finale. It simply ended up that way after a bunch of shows were held over for Season Two.
But surely there was time, once that decision was made, to flip a couple of episodes in sequence? Either Jetrel or Faces would have been a much stronger note for the season to end on. As it stands, the first season goes out on a whimper, as Tuvok plays drill instructor to a handful of insolent Maquis officers, none of whom have even been glimpsed in previous episodes. Meanwhile, the producers pad out the running time with yet more of Janeway's holo-novel, which is even duller than the last time. Is it really Janeway's idea of fun to first be grilled by a Judith Anderson-like housekeeper, then mocked by the Children of the Damned?
A few things do bring this episode slightly to life. I enjoyed the scene between Tuvok and Dalby (Armand Schultz), in which Dalby reveals his past. It's not a particularly original past, but it fits with the backstory of the conflict with the Cardassians that led to the rise of the Maquis, and it's both darker and more detailed than one would generally expect of Trek. The episode's other Maquis are just two-dimensional constructs, though it is at least good to see a bit of culture clash for the Maquis suddenly forced to live under Starfleet rules.
But... Why is this happening now? We're a full season into the show. This script would have made a lot more sense if it had been slotted about eight episodes earlier (maybe with Seska in the Dalby role?), and might even have felt like it mattered in that slot. As it stands, Janeway and Tuvok seem to have taken a long time to come up with any plans to deal with those Maquis who don't deal well with Starfleet regulations.
Not so much a bad episode as just a minor one, this cliched installment is one of the weaker season finales. It's not horrible like Shades of Grey. But it's inconsequential, with not a single memorable feature. And so the season ends... with a whimper.
Overall Rating: 4/10.
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Its small comfort, but the next episode was intended to be the season finale and I believe you will enjoy it, apart from one or two disappointments and missed opportunities (like almost all Voyager episodes). I definitely agree though, Jetrel would would have been a much better ending, but I think they wanted everything to end with hope, pink unicorns, and butterflies to show that everything will work out. This cliche ridden episode does that much better than some of the earlier, better, epsiodes.
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