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| B'Elanna tries to ride out an explosion. |
Voyager encounters the Malon again, when a Malon ship attempts to steal a telemetry probe. Tuvok is able to do some remote Technobabble that allows the probe to escape into the atmosphere of a gas giant. Borg shielding designed by Seven allows the device to survive the atmosphere - but proves too much for the pursuing Malon ship, which is destroyed.
The next problem is retrieving the probe. Tom Paris proposes building a specialized ship, which he names the Delta Flyer, using a design of his that incorporates Borg shielding and is directly aimed at maneuvering through high pressure atmosphere. Seven, Tuvok, and Harry all respond enthusiastically, and Janeway authorizes the project.
But B'Elanna seems oddly detached from a project that should be an engineer's dream. She puts in the hours, but ducks off to the holodeck every moment she's not working. When Chakotay finds her badly injured, he and Janeway realize that she has been running high risk holodeck programs with the safeties off - and that this behavior has been going on for months!
CHARACTERS
Capt. Janeway: Values life in general enough to try to warn the first Malon ship against chasing the probe into the gas giant's atmosphere. When a second Malon ship arrives while the Delta Flyer is still under construction, she attempts to settle the dispute through communication, with it being the Malon who refuse to talk. Once she realizes B'Elanna has been running dangerous holodeck programs with safeties off for months, she tries to talk to her about this behavior. When the engineer lies and denies that she has a problem, Janeway insists that she will remain off duty and under the Doctor's supervision until further notice.
Chakotay: As Torres' friend and former commanding officer, he investigates her holodeck use. When he turns up a program that simulates the massacre of their Maquis friends by the Jem'Hadar, he pushes her into viewing it, forcing her to talk about the situation even when she doesn't want to. In real life, such a confrontation would be at most a starting point for a very long recovery. This being Voyager, Chakotay's pushing and a convenient life-or-death mission magically cure her... But the episode should still get points for actually remembering these two characters' history, and for making use of it.
Torres: This episode is basically to B'Elanna what last season's Vis a Vis was to Tom: A "character" episode that manufactures an ongoing crisis we had no previous evidence of, all so that resetting to normal at the end feels like some kind of real character development. It was a cheat then and it's a cheat now - But here, it's even more aggravating because what supposedly sparked B'Elanna's crisis could have worked, had it simply been built up to over a span of episodes prior to this. But since she's behaved normally in all previous episodes, it's unconvincing when we're told that she's been withdrawn for months. Roxann Dawson gives her usual strong performance, which helps to keep this trite drama watchable.
Tom Paris: Knows something is wrong when B'Elanna shows no interest in constructing the Delta Flyer, the exact type of collaboration the two of them have previously talked about wanting to do. When she refuses to talk to him, he focuses his attention on getting the ship finished, but his concern is clear. The part of Tom that yearns for times past shows in his insistence on putting in manual controls, based on his Captain Proton holodeck program, in addition to the Starfleet touch screens. "I am tired of tapping panels. For once, I want controls that let me actually feel the ship I'm piloting!" Still, he's not impractical - The knobs and buttons may be fully functional, but there is also a touch pad for him to use, and it's the touch pad that is his primary control method on the actual mission.
THOUGHTS
More than anything else, my problem with Extreme Risk is that it's a wasted opportunity. The idea of the massacre of the Maquis creating emotional turmoil for ex-Maquis members of the Voyager crew is a good one. It makes perfect storytelling sense, it actually makes use of close to half of the ship's crew being former Maquis, and there is potential for drama and real character development. But for that to happen, one of two things needed to be done: Work the issues of a regular into the background of several episodes leading up to this one; or, if it must be a pure standalone story, have the issues affect a non-regular member of the crew, with B'Elanna and/or Chakotay helping that person to begin a recovery and reflecting on their own feelings at the same time.
As it stands, B'Elanna has shown no evidence of emotional turmoil or withdrawal during the more than half-season since learning of the deaths of the Maquis, so her behavior comes out of nowhere. This, coupled with her getting past those issues by the episode's end, leave it just feeling like a cheat. It's just filler that pretends to be character development, and as such has no real impact.
I will give credit where it's due. Kenneth Biller's script is generic, but it is fast-paced, with both the "A" and "B" plots moving quickly. Roxann Dawson, Robert Beltran, and Robert Duncan McNeill all give good performances, and it's nice to see Dawson and McNeill get a crack at the spotlight again - Something they've rarely been allowed since Seven's arrival. It's all very trite and more than a little bit silly. The emotional plot is made up of a lot of Lifetime Movie level dialogue, while the action plot is resolved by B'Elanna becoming a poor man's MacGyver. But while it's pretty bad, it isn't boring - which puts it way above, say, last season's Unforgettable.
A below-average throwaway, made more irritating because potential was here for something better. It's good to see Tom and B'Elanna get some focus again - Now let's see them get the spotlight in a good episode.
Overall Rating: 3/10.
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