4-10. Random Thoughts.

Torres is arrested for "thought crime."

THE PLOT

Voyager has encountered an actual friendly race, the telepathic Mari, and is taking advantage of the opportunity for some badly-needed rest and recreation. While Neelix pursues pretty shopgirl Talli (Rebecca McFarland), Janeway and Torres haggle for equipment from merchant Guill (Wayne Pere). They reach an agreement - just as another man bumps into Torres, who suppresses her temper and accepts his apology.

Not long after, the man who bumped into Torres is discovered viciously beating someone on the street. When the Mari Chief Examiner, Nimira (Gwynyth Walsh), learns that Torres had a brief, violent thought when bumped into, she places her under arrest. The Mari have outlawed violent thoughts; on a planet of telepaths, thoughts lead all too easily to actions. Torres is scheduled to be "rehabilitated" via an "engramatic purge" to remove the thought from her memory. But with the half-Klingon having a completely unfamiliar biology, Nimira admits that there is risk of brain damage.

Starfleet regulations do not permit Janeway to stop the procedure, as crew members are subject to the laws of planets they visit. But when violent incidents continue, apparently sparked by the same random thought, Tuvok begins to suspect that more than Torres' temper is at fault...

CHARACTERS

Capt. Janeway: Though she is concerned for B'Elanna's well-being and is nonplussed at the idea of outlawing certain types of thought, she adheres to Starfleet regulations. Her attempts to rescue B'Elanna from the procedure focus on Tuvok's investigation, her hopes for a positive resolution relying on B'Elanna actually being innocent.

Tuvok: Carries the episode, which is a good thing - As has been true since Season Two, Tim Russ' Tuvok has a way of keeping watchable even the most lackluster of stories (i. e., Innocence, Rise). Tuvok's genuine rapport with Namira allows us to see a friendlier side to him in the opening scenes than is usual; and while we've seen his "dogged investigator" persona before, Russ keeps the character interesting throughout. Near the end, when he uncovers an underground figure trading in violent thoughts, we get a glimpse of the anger beneath the placid Vulcan surface, a character beat largely ignored since Season Two's excellent Meld, but one that would be well worth further exploration.

Torres: Though a Tuvok episode is always welcome, it's a shame more wasn't done with Torres. B'Elanna has spent her life wrestling down her aggressive Klingon side. Particularly since joining Voyager, she has tried to make sure that violent thoughts don't turn into violent actions - and for the most part, she has done extremely well at this. Now she is told that simply pushing aside those thoughts isn't good enough, and that by merely thinking such things she could be responsible for violence. Sadly, we get to see very little of her reaction to this, the episode reducing her to someone Tuvok must save, when a more ambitious script might have taken some time to explore how this might affect her.

Neelix: Has had a really terrible last year or so with regard to romance. First, his girlfriend gets possessed by an alien warlord and brutally dumps him... and the break-up stands, even after her mind is again her own. Then she turns into a superbeing and vanishes, leaving him completely alone. Now he finally meets a nice girl who, against all reason, actually seems interested in him.  So naturally, she ends up on the receiving end of a violent attack - one that was apparently sparked by the violent thoughts of one of his own crewmates! I don't much like Neelix, but I'll give him credit: It's impressive that he maintains his optimism in the face of all this.

THOUGHTS

Random Thoughts is strongly reminiscent of the early Season One episode, Ex Post Facto. Both episodes see a crew member accused and confined for a crime they might be guilty of. Both episodes follow Tuvok, investigating the case even as the alien government pursues punishment. Both episodes attempt to evoke a noir atmosphere.

Sadly, both episodes are also rather weak.

There's a germ of something interesting in Kenneth Biller's script. The idea of a "thought police" is anathema to most of the Voyager crew and to us - but Biller does allow Nimera to make some strong points about its necessity among a race of telepaths. The notion of these telepaths starting a black market for illegal thoughts is also one with potential, and I genuinely enjoyed glimpsing Tuvok's dark side in the scene in which he mind melds with the primary "thought dealer."

Unfortunately, these couple of interesting ideas are trapped within a thoroughly conventional plot. The entire black market concept isn't even a component in the episode until the last third of the episode, allowing no time to explore anything related to the idea because Tuvok has to defeat the (very weak) villain of the piece in order to close the case - like a 1940's gumshoe, though this thin investigation doesn't pass muster compared to the fun pulp novels or film noir of the period.

Characters other than Tuvok are largely thrown away. Biller seems to recognize that, with Torres in danger, Tom needs to react. But he writes a rather poor scene with Tom throwing a mini-tantrum until Chakotay appeases him by allowing him to come up with an escape plan... Which actually could have made for a decent "B" plot, with Tom and Chakotay prepping the plan and Janeway preparing to give the go-ahead at the last minute, before Tuvok comes through. But nothing comes of the scene, which is never even mentioned again.

Since Seven of Nine actually mentions as much in the episode, I should also note the continuing stupidity of Starfleet crews in apparently never bothering to research the laws of the planets they visit. This offense isn't by any means unique to Voyager. TNG saw Wesley sentenced to death for trampling some flowers because no one bothered to find out about the "death penalty for every crime" detail in Justice, an episode that makes this one look like a masterpiece. Even DS9 had O'Brien serving a lengthy mental jail term in Hard Time - which, yes, was a very strong episode - but mainly because the writers in that case were wise enough to skim over the punishment and focus on its effects on the character afterward.

In all of these cases, a vast amount of trouble could have been avoided by someone simply asking about the local laws... something that, contrary to Janeway or Neelix's rebuttals, wouldn't in any way defeat the spirit of exploration. It would simply make them all a lot more safe.

Of course, that might make them immune from Idiot Plotting. But I think I'd be willing to live with that.

Overall Rating: 3/10.

Previous Episode: Year of Hell
Next Episode: Concerning Flight


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