6-05. Alice.

B'Elanna tries to snap Tom out of his obsession with his new shuttle.

Original Air Date: Oct. 20, 1999. Teleplay by: Bryan Fuller, Michael Taylor. Story by: Juliann deLayne. Directed by: David Livingston.

Tom Paris picks up an old clunker that turns out to be "Bad to the Bone."


THE PLOT:

Voyager arrives at Abaddon's Repository of Lost Treasures - though it would be more accurate to call it a space junkyard. Abaddon (John Fleck) is happy to show off his wares, which include star charts, power regulators, and cultural artifacts. Plus one other item that caught Tom Paris's eye: a rusted old shuttle that he's certain he can restore.

Tom names the shuttle Alice and goes straight to work fixing it up. But after he tries out the shuttle's neurogenic interface, Alice moves from a project to an obsession. When B'Elanna catches him stealing backup parts from Voyager to advance his repairs, she goes to the shuttle bay to confront him - and Alice attempts to murder her!


CHARACTERS:

Capt. Janeway: Is initially inclined to avoid interfering with what she sees as a personal issue between Tom and B'Elanna. She becomes more receptive to B'Elanna's concerns when told that Seven and Harry have also noticed strange behavior - but whatever she might have done is rendered moot, as the Third Act crisis kicks in at exactly that moment.

Chakotay: Sees right through Tom's attempts to paint the shuttle as a potential asset for Voyager, but he indulges the younger man's desire for a project. He intercedes when Tom begins neglecting his duties, firmly telling him that he's expected to be in uniform and on time for his shift, but he remains understanding and tells Tom that he will get the chance to get Alice flying. It's an approach that probably would have worked... if only Tom wasn't under an outside influence.

Tom Paris: I don't have much good to say about this episode, but Robert Duncan McNeill gives it his all. He sells Tom's enthusiasm at tinkering with Alice, and he has an excellent scene in which Tom recalls his first time piloting a shuttle under his father's supervision at age 8. Another, particularly strong moment comes when Tom and B'Elanna argue. McNeill injects a note of desperation that separates this version of Tom from his normal characterization.

Torres: Like Chakotay, she initially tries to indulge Tom's new hobby. She's genuinely impressed with the initial work he's done. She teases him slightly about the shuttle's "sexy" computer voice (Claire Rankin), but she doesn't become annoyed until Tom starts ignoring her in favor of tinkering with Alice. She wonders aloud why she goes "right out the airlock" any time he finds a new hobby. But it's only after she's targeted by Alice that she realizes that something is genuinely wrong. Once that occurs, she does exactly what she should do and goes straight to Janeway.

Neelix: Worked as a trader in the past, so he's selected to negotiate with Abaddon. When Abaddon investigates Voyager's vital systems with a little too much interest, Neelix redirects him toward spare sheeting that can be modified into something similar without compromising the ship. He also manages to strike a deal for everything on the Voyager crew's wishlist. When they go back to Abaddon to search for information, Neelix is ready to present something in exchange, recognizing that the trader won't give away information any more freely than physical commodities.


THOUGHTS:

The makers of Voyager apparently saw John Carpenter's film of Stephen King's Christine and decided to make their own version. Too bad that this episode mainly made me want to switch it off and watch John Carpenter's movie again instead.

I don't have a lot to say about Alice. Despite a script credited to two of Voyager's more reliable writers, and despite being directed by David Livingston, the show's best director, it... really just sort of occupies space.

There are a few good elements. Livingston provides some effective visuals, including a shot of Alice coming to life on her own inside the shuttle bay - a near-direct visual lift from Christine. Guest actress Claire Rankin, as Alice's "mind," balances seductive and creepy to good effect. Robert Duncan McNeill gives a lot more to the mediocre script than it deserves, and as a result there are scenes that work better than they probably should.

But the good individual moments are just that - moments, with the story itself never emerging into anything interesting. The potential is there, around the edges. Alice has a goal, to fly to a spatial phenomenon that she labels "home." Why does Alice consider this phenomenon "home?" Why is she so desperate to return there? Why does she need Tom at all when she seems perfectly capable of operating her systems herself, as when she atmospherically switches on her lights in the shuttle bay or evacuates oxygen and locks the door to try to kill B'Elanna?

The answers to those questions are: There's no time to get into that, we don't know, and please shut up. Instead, we get entirely too much of Tom becoming obsessed with the shuttle and neglecting his lover, friends, and duties. This becomes repetitive, even tedious, and takes up so much of the episode that no time is left over to explore anything about the sentient shuttle. There's not even an attempt to have the crew react to all the unanswered questions. Janeway's a former science officer who should be fascinated by what's happened. Neither she nor anyone else seems to be even mildly curious.


OVERALL:

Voyager's sixth season got off to an excellent start. I liked three of the first four episodes. Even the one I didn't like had interesting ideas that I just didn't think quite landed. Alice breaks this streak, becoming the first episode to merely "exist." It fills airtime - and, aside from a couple of good moments around the edges, it doesn't do much more than that.

The show's offered up worse. But there's nothing here that engaged me - not intellectually, not emotionally, not even viscerally. Alice isn't actively unpleasant to watch. But in the end, the only thing I can really say about it is... "It's there."


Overall Rating: 3/10.

Previous Episode: Tinker Tenor Doctor Spy
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5-26, 6-01. Equinox.

Capt. Ransom (John Savage), another Starfleet captain trapped
in the Delta Quadrant, hides a secret from the Voyager crew.

526 - 601. Equinox

Original Air Date: May 26, 1999, Sept. 22, 1999. Teleplay by: Brannon Braga, Joe Menosky. Story by: Rick Berman, Brannon Braga, Joe Menosky. Directed by: David Livingston.


THE PLOT:

Voyager intercepts a distress signal from an impossible source: another Federation starship, the USS Equinox, under the command of Capt. Ransom (John Savage)! There's no time to question the situation. The Equinox is under attack by mysterious lifeforms, and it's at risk of being destroyed.

Janeway is able to stop the attack by extending Voyager's shields around the other ship. But by the time she arrives, the Equinox is in bad shape. Janeway's crew manages to rescue the survivors, and the united crews begin work on repairing the vessel while celebrating finding another Starfleet crew in the Delta Quadrant.

The celebration is short lived. Ransom and his crew have a secret that they're hiding from Janeway. By the time she discovers the truth, the Equinox crew have prepared a double-cross - a way to get themselves home while leaving Voyager at the creatures' mercy!


CHARACTERS:

Capt. Janeway: She's always wanted to meet Ransom. As a scientist, she admires him for having made contact with a species that had been previously believed extinct. I guess she missed the old adage about never meeting your heroes. When she uncovers the secret Ransom's been keeping, she is appalled. But that's nothing to the cold fury she displays after his betrayal. It turns out that making Janeway truly, deeply angry is not a good idea.

Chakotay: His best material comes in the second half. Janeway becomes fixated on capturing the Equinox, but Chakotay believes they should prioritize communicating with the creatures to stop the attacks. At first, he confines his disagreements to private conversations. But when he believes Janeway is crossing a fundamental line, he acts to stop her. These scenes see Robert Beltran waking up from his nap and doing some actual acting for the first time in about half a season.

The Doctor: Robert Picardo gets another chance to play evil as the Equinox EMH, who was transformed into a sadist after his ethical subroutines were deleted. This much is fine, and it even allows Picardo to show his range as he differentiates between the two Doctors with slight changes in vocal pitch and body language. Then Part Two sees Ransom disabling our Doctor's ethical subroutines, leading to a subplot that... just doesn't add up. I fully expected the Doctor to be just playing along with Ransom, particularly since his "evil" actions never yield anything more than some bad singing. But - nope, everything really is exactly as it seems, though a quick tag assures us that there will be no pesky consequences.

Seven of Nine: Tries to awkwardly comfort survivor Noah Lessing (Rick Worthy) while Harry Kim cuts him free from the rubble. When Seven tells him not to be frightened, Noah tells her that it's already two days too late for that. She is looking forward to getting to know the Equinox crew so that she can expand her knowledge of humanity. Though one crew member later apologizes for being such a bad example, Seven frostily replies that she actually learned quite a lot from them.

Torres: Her former lover is Max (Titus Welliver), the Equinox's first officer. This should give her a strong role in the episode... but somehow, it doesn't. Torres ends up being unable to counter Max's expertise, even though we're specifically told that he was always a bit lazy and that most of what he knows, she taught him. Beyond that and a brief bit with Tom expressing jealousy, she doesn't do much outside of reciting Technobabble.

Max Burke: In the first episode, he seems slightly conflicted after reuniting with Torres. That doesn't last long, though. Once he learns that B'Elanna has moved on with her life, he is downright eager to betray her. Titus Welliver is reliable as ever, but by Part Two the character has been flattened out to just being evil. Mind you, if you're going to cast someone to be "the really evil guy" among the villains, then Welliver is a solid go-to for that role.

Marla Gilmore: Seems the most torn about double-crossing Voyager. She actually tries to talk to Chakotay about permanently transferring to Janeway's ship, an idea that he shoots down given that Ransom already is working with a skeleton crew. She goes along with Max and Ransom, but she clearly feels guilty. Olivia Birkelund does reasonably well with what she's given, though it keeps feeling as if the character needs something more to do, and that "something more" never quite materializes.

Capt. Ransom: I actually like how his backstory is revealed in Part One. His vessel is less advanced than Voyager, and therefore has been less able to defend itself against hostile species. Given a chance to save what was left of his crew, Ransom took it. This doesn't make him less of a villain, and Seven rightly mocks his insistence that he had "no choice" in his actions. But at least his actions are understandable. Unfortunately, actor John Savage is in full "twitchy" mode. He's so busy playing "furtive" and "evil" in Part One that it flattens out the character, which further undercuts his role in the second half.


THOUGHTS:

Equinox opens well. The teaser is short and attention-grabbing, as Ransom's ship comes under what is the latest of obviously many attacks by an unknown force. The first Act then follows Voyager finding the ship, which by then is little more than a derelict.

David Livingston, almost certainly Voyager's best director, makes effective use of the lighting. The Equinox is dark, with the main light sources being the rescue crew's lights and the sparks from damaged systems. There's a fair bit of suspense throughout this sequence, even though the closest it comes to actual action is a rattled crew member holding a weapon on his rescuers. Best still is that it's dark enough to create atmosphere, but never so dark that I had to strain to see. That's a balance I wish more recent shows and films were able to strike. Yes, you can create atmosphere without simulating a sensory deprivation chamber, thank you.

This sequence raises mysteries, particularly the question of what these creatures are and why they are attacking. To the episode's credit, the answers come during Part One, with more plot complications spinning off from that reveal.

The cliffhanger is effective, though the resolution to it is rather limp (Janeway presses a button. No, really). After that, however, the second episode remains mostly pretty good. There's some decent tension in Voyager's pursuit of the Equinox, and even more in the escalating conflict between Janeway and Chakotay.

I liked the way the epilogue addresses their personal disagreement. They are back on the same side, but they aren't entirely comfortable with each other even as the episode ends. I'm sure everything will be back to normal in the next episode, because Voyager doesn't believe in consequences, but I'm also glad that it isn't completely airbrushed away within the confines of the actual episode.

The ending is weaker than the rest of the two parter, with the resolution seeming rushed and downright easy for the Voyager crew. It doesn't go so far as falling apart - what happens makes sense in context - but it feels like it needs about five more minutes to breathe, and maybe one more complication for the characters to overcome.


A GOOD EPISODE THAT COULD HAVE BEEN MORE:

Though it's a good two-parter overall, the most frustrating thing about Equinox is the glimpse it offers of the Voyager that might have been. The Equinox's desperate journey, in an increasingly run-down vessel with more than half the crew dead? That sounds like a much more interesting show.

It's also a Voyager episode, so it goes without saying that potentially thorny ethical questions are mostly handwaved away. For instance: Yes, what Ransom did was unquestionably wrong. Very wrong. And if he hadn't done it, the rest of his crew would almost certainly have ended up dead. Can the end justify the means? Would Janeway be at least tempted to do the same in the same situation? These are questions that the script has no real interest in asking. Which is a shame, because exploring that might have made a good action episode into something legitimately memorable.

Still, Equinox isn't really trying to be much more than a good action/suspense story. Judged on that basis, it's a good episode. Save for a rushed final Act, it's well-paced; it's very well acted, particularly by Kate Mulgrew and - surprisingly - Robert Beltran; and it is extremely well-directed.

It certainly could have been more. But Equinox does its job, which is more than can be said of a lot of other episodes. Most of all, it closes out the fifth season and opens the sixth on solid footing. I don't know that I'll even particularly remember it a month from now - but I had a good time watching it, and in the end that's good enough.


Overall Rating: 7/10.

Previous Episode: Warhead
Next Episode: Survival Instinct

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5-23. 11:59.

Shannon O'Donnel (Kate Mulgrew) meets
bookseller Henry Janeway (Kevin Tighe).

Original Air Date: May 5, 1999. Teleplay by: Joe Menosky. Story by: Brannon Braga and Joe Menosky. Directed by: David Livingston.


THE PLOT:

Voyager is enjoying a moment of peace, an uneventful trip through a calm area of space. This leads the crew to reflect on their cultures and ancestors, prompting Janeway to reminisce about the ancestor who most inspired her: Shannon O'Donnel, who helped to create the Millennium Gate.

In December 2000, Shannon (also Kate Mulgrew) was just an unemployed engineer, driving across the country with no real goals in mind. Her car breaks down in the small town of Portage Creek, Indiana. When she takes refuge from the cold in the bookstore of Henry Janeway (Kevin Tighe), he takes pity on her, offering her a job while she waits for the repairs to be finished.

Henry is the town's sole holdout, refusing to sell his shop to allow the construction of the Millennium Gate - something which has not made him popular with the locals. He insists that it would destroy the town's heritage to bulldoze it for what he sees as a "glorified shopping mall." Shannon grows close to both him and his son, Jason - close enough to be noticed by Gerald Moss (John Carroll Lynch), the spokesman for the company that wants to build the gate.

Moss has a deal for Shannon, an escape from her dead-end life. She has the qualifications to work as an engineering consultant. She just has to convince Henry Janeway to sell!


CHARACTERS:

Capt. Janeway: Though most of the episode takes place in the past, with Kate Mulgrew mostly playing Janeway's ancestor, Joe Menosky's script still gives Janeway a decent arc. She idolizes Shannon, even stating that she joined Starfleet in part to live up to her legacy. Within the series, though, it's been centuries since these events, and direct information is scarce. When Neelix is able to find a photograph of Shannon, it pushes Janeway to want to find more - but inevitably, she doesn't like everything that she discovers.

Shannon O'Donnel: Kate Mulgrew gives her normal Janeway performance in the present story, but she also plays Shannon in the bulk of the episode. It's very much to the credit of both Mulgrew and the script that Shannon is a distinct character from Janeway. Life hasn't been kind to Shannon, and there's an undercurrent of desperation in Mulgrew's when she all but begs Henry for a job. In the scene in which Moss makes his offer, we can feel the conflict, eagerness vs. loyalty to Henry. Finally, when she and Henry argue, Shannon's first instinct is to run away and leave the town behind - something very unlike Janeway. Throughout, Mulgrew injects a hint of something tentative in Shannon, helping to create a full sense of a woman who has never quite managed to commit to anything.

Henry Janeway: Kevin Tighe, best known for sleazy politicians and white-collar bad guys, seems to enjoy playing an actual likable person. There's energy and enthusiasm in his voice as he talks about the past, and he's charming when he sets up a "Paris date" with Shannon, propping up books about Paris in his shop as they eat. Henry is a good man, but he's also deeply stubborn. He dismisses the worthy elements of the Millennium Gate project purely because it will also include shop space and is designed to turn a profit. When Jason and Shannon try to point out the useful aspects, he lashes out instantly. His crusade against the company is sincere, but there is a note of self-aggrandizement, with him repeatedly comparing himself to historical and mythological heroes throughout the episode.

Gerald Moss: Decades of movies and television programs have coded us to see him as the bad guy. It becomes clear, however, that he's anything but. The project he represents is beneficial (and since it's seen that way centuries later, I'm going to take that as read). He doesn't attempt to cheat the townspeople, offering to buy well above market value. He never tries to strong-arm Henry into selling. The most morally suspect thing he does, offering Shannon a job if she can persuade Henry, is offset when he eventually offers her a job regardless of the bookseller's decision: "If we didn't think you had something to add to this project, we never would have made the offer in the first place."

Neelix: His interest in Earth's past is sparked by a competition with Tom Paris, as the two attempt to stump each other regarding their respective cultures. Janeway's talk about her ancestor leads him to search for more information, and he shows an understanding of how to investigate the past that outstrips Seven's when he expands her initial search beyond Starfleet databases. Neelix is relaxed and likable throughout, and Ethan Phillips is particularly good opposite Kate Mulgrew. Note to the writers: This Neelix is a joy to watch. Ditch the stupid comedy relief version and write him this way from now on.


THOUGHTS:

"I've gone through dozens of histories written about twenty-first century Earth, all of them biased in one way or another... so I go back to the raw material. Birth certificates, death certificates, marriage certificates, census surveys, voter registration forms, housing records, medical, employment, court records. It's all fragmented and incomplete."
-Janeway discovers the frustrations of historical research.

I love the quote above. It is one of the most accurate descriptions of any historical research that I've encountered in fiction. The past itself may be set. But unless you happen to have Doctor Who's Time Space Visualizer, then your access to the past is limited to historical records and accounts, all of which are filtered through interpretation and bias.

Those records that even survive through time. Across centuries, official documents are lost, while a stray item may survive simply because the right person finds it - such as the Ferengi who retained the photo of Shannon simply because it was marketable "as a nostalgic gift item." I suspect someone who worked on this episode has done some level of historical research to slip in observations like that.

I thoroughly enjoyed 11:59. The Shannon/Henry story that occupies the bulk of the episode is lightweight but charming, and it's enjoyable to see the Voyager crew relaxed and engaging in leisure activities. The relationship between Shannon and Henry is, by necessity, quickly sketched, but it basically works. Shannon is an explorer by nature, but she also needs a place to call home; Henry has a love of the past, at least as it exists in books, but he also tends to hide from the present in it. They are different enough for there to be moments of conflict, but each offers something that the other needs - and Mulgrew and Tighe are good enough both individually and together to sell the mutual attraction.

I also appreciated that the present day story wasn't a throwaway. Shannon's story does impact Janeway, as she learns that her ancestor wasn't a perfect match with the woman in her imagination. The script doesn't go over-the-top with her reaction. Janeway is disappointed and frustrated, but no more than that. Still, the full importance of the past is made clear in a well-written ending scene.

Though Janeway and Neelix are the only regulars to get significant attention, the script does a good job of giving everyone a moment. Seven attempts to investigate Janeway's ancestor, but her thinking is too regimented to make much progress. When Janeway is disappointed by what she uncovers, Chakotay points out to her that Shannon was living her own life, not trying to "live up to (Janeway's) expectations." Tom and Neelix have their culture competition. Other crew members talk about their ancestors, including the Doctor, who describes a prize-winning chess program as his "cousin."

Surprisingly, it's Harry Kim of all people who gets the best of the side bits, as he describes an uncle's deep space mission, involving six months of absolute isolation. The descriptions are enough to create an image in the viewer's head as Harry describes them, and Garrett Wang delivers the speech well.


OVERALL:

At first glance, 11:59 seems like a pleasant but inconsequential change of pace. It is a low-stakes story. In the present, Janeway deals with the mild disappointment of an ancestor failing to live up to her imagination. In the past, that same ancestor deals with a nascent romance and a town that desperately wants to sell out to a corporation for a genuinely worthy project. Neither story has any particularly big twists, there is no violence beyond an occasional harsh word, and no lives hang in the balance.

I think it's also going to down as a personal favorite of mine. I enjoyed the story in the past, which was buoyed by fine performances by Mulgrew and Kevin Tighe. I was even more impressed by the present day strand. Many times (see Enterprise's Carbon Creek, which I also enjoyed), these types of episodes throw away the series' present. Here, writer Joe Menosky crafts a full arc for Janeway, while also giving some nice little moments to the supporting cast.

On the whole, I would rate this as a minor triumph - and an episode that left me smiling at the end.


Overall Rating: 9/10.

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5-17. The Disease.

Harry Kim has sex... without permission!

Harry Kim has sex! Needless to say, disaster follows.


THE PLOT

Voyager is assisting the Varro, a xenophobic species on a generational ship that Janeway says could be a glimpse of Voyager's future (never mind that Voyager's journey has a definitive endpoint that has been accelerated on multiple occasions, and that even with no further boosts much of the current crew should be alive to see that homecoming). With the assistance of the Voyager crew, the work is progressing nicely - and Harry Kim has formed an attachment with Derran Tal (Musetta Vander), a Varro engineer.

Harry chose a bad time to have an affair with a Hot Alien Chick (TM), however - For this week, and this week only, unauthorized sex with aliens is against Starfleet regulations. So when Harry's affair comes to light, Janeway orders him to break it off and puts a career-crippling formal reprimand in his permanent file.

As if that isn't bad enough, Varro mate for life, and once they become intimate they experience olan'vora - "the shared heart" - which causes withdrawal symptoms if the two are separated - and now Harry is infected.   This couldn't come at a worse time. There is dissent among the Varro about their isolationist way of life. Many Varro want to escape, and they've found a way: Using technological parasites (another "disease," get it?), they have weakened the generational ship's hull and plan to break it into individual segments, each of which can then determine its own destiny.

And one of the leaders of the group is, inevitably, Harry's new lover...


CHARACTERS

Capt. Janeway: "I know it's a little extreme, but I wanted to leave a lasting impression." When Harry's encounter comes to light, Janeway goes, in a word, nuts. Harry Kim is guilty of having sex without permission (something that hasn't even been a crime in previous episodes), and he receives orders to break off contact with Tal and also a formal reprimand in his permanent record. This is the same captain who limited Tuvok's punishment to a verbal tongue-lashing for attempting to steal alien technology, and who gave Tom a demotion and thirty days in the brig for attempting to launch a terrorist attack! But sex? That's serious business. In this episode. And this episode only.

Tom Paris: Covers up Harry's communications with Tal and warns him that he could easily get caught if he doesn't knock it off - Showing him to be the most identifiably human person in this episode. He also elicits the only good line of the hour, when he pronounces "I give up" after trying to get Tuvok to admit the Varro's environmental systems might be nice to have. When Chakotay inquires how Tuvok got him to give up after only two minutes, Tuvok replies, "I wait until his own illogic overwhelms him." Not exactly a laugh-out-loud moment, but amusing in context and perfectly delivered by Tim Russ.

Harry Kim: Remember the angrily sarcastic Harry who was so much fun to watch in The Killing Game and proved more than up to the task of carrying an episode in Timeless? After the success of that version of Harry's characterization, you'd expect the writers to just steer him in that direction. But here, in our first Harry-centric episode since Timeless... we're back to Harry the earnest puppy dog. Scratch that - I rarely get the urge to kick a puppy, whereas it takes all of about 30 seconds for me to want to kick Harry. In theory, I think Janeway's punishment is punitive and over-the-top - But Harry's so petulant and annoying that I can't dredge up any sympathy even when I think he's being treated unfairly.

Hot Alien Space Babe of the Week: Tal (Musetta Vander) is genuinely surprised that Harry is susceptible to olan'vora - Apparently she doesn't realize that Harry is susceptible to just about everything. Her feelings for Harry appear to be genuine (somehow), and when her sabotage is discovered she emphasizes his innocence.


SO LET ME GET THIS STRAIGHT...

Stupid question for a stupid episode: When did any regulations get put in place that made having sex with aliens something that had to be "authorized"? Was it in response to some incident caused by Kirk's near-weekly conquests? Well... No, because when TNG started, Riker was engaging in the exact same behavior. Indeed, Voyager has had its fair share of officers having or at least considering "unauthorized sex" with aliens, from Tom urging Tuvok to have an affair with an alien woman just a few episodes back to Chakotay actually having an affair late last season. Heck, Janeway herself enjoyed a flirtation with an alien just a little over half a dozen episodes ago!

It would have made a lot more sense if she had a standing order in place to limit personal contact with the Varro due to their xenophobic nature, maybe as a part of the agreement reached to allow the two crews to work together. But no - We're specifically told Harry is violating Starfleet regulations with this affair. So either we're meant to believe this is a rule that no one other than Janeway has ever bothered to enforce - Or Janeway just invented it to torture Harry.

(Come to think of it, that last doesn't seem entirely unlikely.)


THOUGHTS

The opening of The Disease is breathtaking, a genuinely cinematic sustained shot that sees the Varro vessel flying past camera before the camera turns and zooms seamlessly into the ship's corridors. It's the kind of opening that emotionally prepares you for Something Big, maybe even Epic...

Until, seconds later, we see Harry and Tal pawing at each other, and realize that no, this is just a crappy Harry Kim episode.

Director David Livingston, usually the series' best helmer, obviously knows he has a loser on his hands with Kenneth Biller's wretched script. So he engages in Showy Camerawork (TM), with the camera spinning around the table in Janeway's ready room during a meeting, or multiple zooms on Harry and Tuvok during the Technobabble-heavy climax. But this just tips the ridiculous over into the uninentionally funny. Given how good a director Livingston usually is, I wouldn't dismiss the possibility that he was doing this on purpose, given that there was no possible way for him to polish this turd enough for it to pass as... Well, anything.

A subplot involving sabotage does nothing to raise tension in the last Act, and the characters - regulars and guest cast alike - are so unsympathetic that both ships could have blown up without me shedding a tear.

Still, I should focus on the positive: That opening shot really is great. A shame it wasn't bolted onto a better episode.


Overall Rating: 1/10.

Previous Episode: Dark Frontier
Next Episode: Course: Oblivion


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5-8. Nothing Human.

The Doctor consults with a war criminal:
Cardassian scientist Crell Moset (David Clennon)

THE PLOT

A distress signal draws Voyager to a heavily-damaged vessel with a single, injured occupant. Janeway orders the survivor beamed directly to sickbay - but the alien is so different, the Doctor has no idea how to even begin treating it. When Torres walks in, it launches itself at her and fuses its body with hers - using her bodily functions to sustain its own life.

On Janeway's advice, the Doctor has Harry Kim create a new medical hologram, a representation of the best exobiologist in their database. The result is a recreation of Crell Moset (David Clennon), a Cardassian who worked on Bajor during the Occupation. Moset gained fame for curing a viral epidemic on Bajor, saving thousands of Bajoran lives...

But at a cost. His work depended on experiments performed on living Bajorans, people he deliberately infected in order to gather data. When this comes to life, both B'Elanna and the Bajorans on the crew react vehemently against the hologram, demanding that none of Moset's work be used - Even if that means condemning B'Elanna to death!


CHARACTERS

Capt. Janeway: It falls to Janeway to make the decision whether or not to use the holographic Crell to save B'Elanna. She makes her decision and gives no apologies. Given the tools to save a member of her crew, she does so, explicitly leaving moral and ethical debates for "later, after B'Elanna is back on her feet."

Doctor: He hasn't had anyone to truly discuss medical matters with since Kes left (and even then, their relationship was never one of equals). Little surprise that he enjoys collaborating with Crell, and makes plans to keep him operational after the crisis. When Tabor (Jad Mager) implicates Crell for the experiments he performed on Bajoran citizens, the Doctor initially tries to deny the charges. Only when he approaches Crell with the truth and the hologram defends those actions as pragmatic does the Doctor realize the lack of any moral sense in his new colleague... Though he continues to argue that he has no chance of saving B'Elanna without him.

Torres: Her reaction to the Crell hologram is instantly negative - Not because she knows about Crell's background, but simply because he's a Cardassian. "As far as I'm concerned, they're all cold-blooded killers." When Crell's past comes to light, she refuses to be treated by him, and she reacts with anger to Janeway overriding her wishes. Roxann Dawson is very good, even though she spends most of the episode latched to an unconvincing giant slug, and the final scene with Janeway is particularly strong.

Crell Moset: In his mind, his actions were justified by circumstance. After all, the real Crell killed hundreds in his experiments, but the results saved thousands. From the perspective of a pure pragmatist, which Crell certainly is, this is a win. What makes him frightening is that he is utterly unconcerned with morality, and completely devoid of compassion. There's no malice or sadism driving him to inflict pain or suffering - But inflicting pain and suffering doesn't bother him, either if it's a means to an end.


THOUGHTS

"You can erase my program... But you can never change the fact that you've already used some of my research. Where was your conscience when B'Elanna was dying on that table? Ethics, morality, conscience: Funny how they all go out the airlock when we need something..."
-Crell Moset (David Clennon), defending his methods.

At Nothing Human's core is a fiery debate about morality vs. pragmatism. The scenes in which Crell Moset and the Doctor argue the two sides of that are the episode's strongest, two very good actors enjoying a debate in which both sides are allowed to make a legitimate case. Crell's research is based on horrific war crimes, more than a little reminiscent of the "work" of Dr. Josef Mengele... but (and very unlike Mengele) Crell's work yielded genuinely life-saving results. The question becomes which is worse: legitimizing his methods by using his research, or refusing to use it and allowing a patient to die who could otherwise be saved.

Guest star David Clennon wisely plays Crell not as a villain, but simply as a pragmatist. From his point of view, the conditions of the Occupation forced him to "improvise," to make use of "what resources (he) had." That he stubbornly refuses to identify the living, feeling people he experimented on as anything more than "resources" condemns him as evil, but Clennon makes it clear that he regards himself simply as a scientist.

If only the entire episode was as good as the Doctor/Crell material, this would be up there with the series' best. But writer Jeri Taylor is so eager to get to the debate that she skimps on creating any convincing logic to the surrounding situation. If the information is easily assimilated into a separate hologram, why couldn't hte Doctor simply upload Crell's basic skill set into himself from the start? No explanation is ever given, and the script practically begs us to ignore this so that we can get straight to the creation of Crell. Had a little more care been taken to set this up more convincingly, then the full episode would rank higher than it does.

Still, those Doctor/Crell scenes are the episode's heart, and they are uniformly excellent. On the strength of those scenes and the performances by the entire cast, I do regard this as a good episode. But given the story weaknesses (and, yes, the unconvincing alien prop), it never threatens to break through into being a great one.


Overall Rating: 7/10.


Previous Episode: Infinite Regress
Next Episode: Thirty Days


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5-7. Infinite Regress.

Seven of Nine develops multiple personalities...

THE PLOT

Voyager detects debris that Seven of Nine identifies as the remains of a Borg cube, emitting a neural interlink frequency. Seven begins experiencing memory lapses, which are revealed to be episodes in which the personalities of Borg-assimilated individuals emerge. The Borg signal has effectively given her Borg multiple personality disorder.

The Doctor is able to fit her with an inhibitor to temporarily keep the personalities at bay, but he warns that this is only a temporary solution. The only way to restore Seven permanently is to shut down the signal at its source: The vinculum, the central processor of the destroyed cube, still intact and floating in space.

But this vinculum isn't what it appears to be. Species 6339, a race hunted by the Borg, created a virus designed to bring chaos to the Collective, a plan that hinges on the Borg recovering the device. When Janeway insists that she will only relinquish it after Seven has been cured, the aliens open fire on Voyager!


CHARACTERS

Capt. Janeway: Is entirely willing to give the vinculum back to the aliens to use against the Borg. She just asks that they wait until she can help Seven - Which makes the aliens unreasonable for insisting on attacking Voyager. Though she stands up for Seven, she privately admits that she fears Chakotay may have been right that the former Borg will never fully become part of the crew.

Seven of Nine: Infinite Regress is a terrific showcase for Jeri Ryan. She gets to alternate her usual, reserved Seven with a host of entirely different personalities: a small child, a grieving mother, a violent Klingon, and a greedy Ferengi merchant. Ryan throws herself into all of these roles, and her Ferengi is particularly funny. But her best performance is as Seven herself, Ryan's performance effectively showing her terror at the loss of control of her own mind.

Tuvok: Insists on using a mind-meld to stabilize Seven's core personality, something the Doctor objects is too dangerous. The climax intercuts Voyager in yet another (largely pointless) space battle against far more effective scenes of Tuvok, inside seven's mind. For all his preparations, Tuvok is overwhelmed, barely able to hang onto himself in the midst of the chaos of the multiple Borg-assimilated personalities.

Doctor: "With all of these new personalities floating around, it's a shame we can't find one for you." His jibe at Tuvok is more than a little mean (and would have been far truer of Season One Tuvok than the current version) - But it is funny, particularly with Robert Picardo injecting just the right amount of snideness. Picardo effectively alternates between combativeness when arguing with Tuvok and genuine concern when dealing with Seven, and it's clear that his worries over Seven's deteriorating condition are making him more short-tempered than usual with Tuvok and the rest of the crew.


THOUGHTS

Can Voyager ever have a strong, high-concept episode whose momentum isn't torpedoed by an artifically-imposed "external threat?" The season premiere set up a compelling psychological drama as the crew dealt with flying through an extended void of nothingness - only to then upend all that by introducing a generic alien baddie for the ship to shoot at. Now this episode does basically the same thing, bringing Species 6339 into an otherwise enjoyable piece simply so that someone can shoot at Voyager during the climax. Because we can't be trusted to care about the ending if the camera isn't being shaken while Harry and Tom shout Technobabble now, can we?

Sigh.

Making this worse is how forced the hostility of Species 6339 seems. They have no particular gripe with Voyager. They just want to return their vinculum to the Borg wreckage. The big battle happens only because the aliens cannot wait for Janeway's crew to save Seven first... So they are willing to risk the vinculum's destruction to save a very small amount of time. That does not sound like a particularly well-judged risk, and seems even sillier given that the Voyager crew manages to save Seven even with a battle going on, all before beaming the vinculum into space so that the aliens can recover it.

It amounts to artificial conflict that doesn't even make sense in context. It's not the first time Voyager has been guilty of this, and I'm sure it won't be the last... But it's blatant, and all the more annoying because the rest of the episode is actually pretty good. The episode is well-paced and benefits from the assured direction of David Livingston. While it's mostly content to keep us hooked by the high concept of "Borg multiple personality disorder," there are some effective dramatic moments. As Seven listens to the log entries left by personalities she helped assimilate, we sense that she is having to confront for the first time how many lives she participated in destroying.

More might have been made of that... But then we wouldn't have time for a dramatically unnecessary shootout with the Alien Race of the Week. Even with that unfortunate shift near the end, this is a fun episode to watch - It just ends up being less than it could have been and should have been.


Overall Rating: 6/10.

Previous Episode: Timeless
Next Episode: Nothing Human


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5-4. In the Flesh.

Janeway attempts diplomacy with Species 8472.

THE PLOT

Starfleet Command, San Francisco. As groundskeeper Boothby (Ray Walston) tends to his work, Admiral Bullock (Tucker Smallwood) greets a group of cadets. Not far away, Chakotay takes pictures of the area, evading questions by both Boothby and the attractive Commander Valerie Archer (Kate Vernon). While talking (and flirting) with Archer, Chakotay sees a nearby ensign clutch at his throat. The man's face begins expanding and contracting, and people nearby hustle him out of the room.

"Have you ever reverted?" Archer asks, adding that while she can hold her human form, she finds the concept of sleeping difficult. She then makes a date with Chakotay, who agrees to meet her that night - much to the surprise of Tuvok, who has just arrived to escort him back to the coordinates they will use to return to Voyager.

This is not the real Starfleet Command, of course. It's a space station, in which replication technology and holographic imagery have been used to recreate Starfleet - with, as a concerned Janeway notes, startling accuracy. When they discover that the aliens impersonating humans are none other than Species 8472, the race that fought the Borg to a standstill and threatened to "purge (the) galaxy of life," the Voyager command crew fear that this space station is preparation for an invasion that would likely end with the destruction of all life on Earth!


CHARACTERS

Capt. Janeway: Once she learns that the aliens are Species 8472, she begins preparing for war. She demands Seven prepare vast numbers of the Borg nanoprobes they used the last time they came into conflict with this species, and she orders genetic testing be performed on all members of the crew to make sure there are no Species 8472 impostors on board. She still insists on trying to find a diplomatic resolution, however, and when the negotiations start to look promising she takes a risky action to show that she can be trusted, all but daring her adversaries to prove her wrong in doing so.

Chakotay: Though Janeway takes over at the climax, this is primarily a Chakotay-centered episode. Thankfully, Chakotay's improvement over the last season and a half remains in evidence. He is instantly attracted to Valerie Archer, but he never behaves stupidly while talking to her. He enjoys talking with her on their "date" - but he also continually steers the conversation in the direction needed to learn information, and he takes advantage of her departure from the room to download information from her computer terminal.

Hot Alien Space Babe of the Week: Valerie appears at first glance to be a potential ally. She has immersed herself in human culture, and expresses enthusiastic appreciation of human literature. But as she and Chakotay talk, it becomes clear that she believes humanity is a violent species that poses a direct threat to her people. Despite this, it remains clear that she and Chakotay very much like each other, and Kate Vernon and Robert Beltran play nicely off each other... All of which makes their not-quite-romance a lot easier to take than might have been the case.


THOUGHTS

I'll get this out of the way up front: Janeway effectively disarming her ship as an olive branch to Species 8472 is, plainly and simply, foolhardy. Had her instincts been wrong, Voyager would have been all but instantly destroyed and the species would have carried on with their plans to invade Earth. I would have a different opinion if a tag had indicated that she had a backup plan ready (on the mantra of "Hope for the best, prepare for the worst") - but in the absence of any backup weaponry, she basically placed humanity's head on a chopping block, armed Species 8472 with an ax, and dared them to swing.

But if the resolution is plagued by naivete, and if a Cold War allegory is far from timely in an episode made more than a decade after end of the Cold War, neither of those things keep this from being a good episode. It's not a great one - but Nick Sagan's script has some clever touches. Particularly effective is the portrayal of mutual fear on the part of the Voyager crew and the members of Species 8472. As the episode progresses, we see that neither side particularly wants open conflict - but at the same time, both Janeway and Boothby separately express the feeling that conflict is inevitable.

The moralizing at the end, and the way in which a complex situation is solved a little too quickly and easily, keep this from being all it might have been. The episode also forever destroys Species 8472 as a proper "monster" - though I think their potential as such was already pretty fully tapped out, so I find myself less than sad about that. This variant of Species 8472 has potential to be interesting, and certainly more three-dimensional than "intelligent killer insects." As such, I'm hopeful we'll see them again, either as adversaries or allies, as I see plenty of interesting ways to use them in either capacity.


Overall Rating: 7/10.

Previous Episode: Extreme Measures
Next Episode: Once Upon a Time 

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4-7. Scientific Method.

Chakotay becomes the victim of alien experiments.

THE PLOT

As Voyager approaches a pair of binary pulars, the crew begins suffering strange effects. Janeway is unable to relax, suffering constant headaches and sleeplessness. The Doctor puts this down to overwork. Then Chakotay is suddenly struck by rapid aging, while Neelix mutates into an entirely different species!

The Doctor is able to determine that every patient has had something in his or her biology hyper-stimulated. He and Torres examine blood samples from the patients, and find evidence of an artificial contaminant - a tag, just slightly out of phase with their reality. As they prepare to scan the ship for these contaminants, both are struck down: Torres' lungs stop being able to process oxygen, while the Doctor's program is deleted from the holo-emitter.

The Doctor is able to flee to the holodeck, where he taps into Seven of Nine's Borg implants to call for aid. He modifies her ocular implant so that she can "see" that frequency. When she steps back out into Voyager's corridors, she is able to see what the crew cannot: Alien scientists, performing invasive and debilitating experiments on crew members all over the ship!


CHARACTERS

Capt. Janeway: Spends the entire episode suffering from fatigue, headaches, and stress. We discover that the aliens have been steadily raising her dopamine levels to see how far she can be pushed before breaking. That Janeway has managed to (mostly) keep it together for days of this treatment leads Alzen (Rosemary Forsyth), one of the invaders, to comment on how impressed she is by the captain's self-control. Once Janeway discovers the experiments of the aliens, she sets her command staff to work on ways to thwart them - and when a crew member finally dies as a result of the mutations, she takes desperate action to force them off her ship.

Chakotay: The first crew member visibly affected by the experiments, as he is abruptly aged until he looks like a latex mummy. Robert Beltran doesn't alter his performance, refusing to "play old." I actually think this is a good thing. The makeup tells us all we need to know; nothing would be served by having him put on a quavery voice. Chakotay deals with his situation with humor, bickering good-naturedly with Neelix over whose set of physical ailments is more debilitating. Unfortunately, he all but vanishes from the episode after this scene; given how much screen time he receives in the episode's first half, it would have been nice to have had him play a role in the resolution.

The Doctor: His investigation into the crew mutations bears rapid fruit - so rapid that the aliens have to improvise to get both him and B'Elanna out of the way lest their presence be revealed. Even incapacitated, he is able to use the ship's systems to contact Seven, and make her into his eyes and ears on Voyager.

Tuvok: When a stressed Janeway begins to talk about straightening out department heads who have become too comfortable, Tuvok defuses her with humor. His bland inquiry as to whether he should flog them makes Janeway recognize her irrationality and correct herself. He observes the tryst between Tom and Torres, but does not reveal it - though he doesn't do anything to reassure them that he won't. He remarks on the recklessness of Janeway's final gambit, though he does not actually criticize it beyond revealing the low odds of survival.

Tom/Torres: We see the result of the months of building tension. After Torres spent so long trying to deny any attraction, they are now unable to keep their hands off each other. Tom even arranges to leave a duty shift in Sickbay to have an on-duty encounter. Robert Duncan McNeill and Roxann Dawson play the relationship very well, and the characters work together so far. The result is an engaging, if inconsequential, "B" plot that the episode actually remembers to return to in the tag.

Seven of Nine: In keeping with this season's tradition that every episode must give Seven a key role in either the "A" or "B" plot, Seven basically takes over the middle of the episode. Which at least makes sense in context, as her Borg implants explain both how the Doctor is able to contact her and how he is able to alter her perceptions to make her able to see the aliens. Her best character scene is actually at the very beginning, though, when B'Elanna breaks off from chewing her out to marvel that she's giving Seven the exact speech Janeway once gave her. Seven recognizes the significance, and offers a completely unfamiliar gesture: an apology for overstepping her bounds.


ZAP THE REDSHIRT!

Though this section is rarely featured outside of my TOS reviews, it applies so perfectly to the crew member death here that I can't let it pass. A random female crew member who doesn't even get a single line dies nastily, all to prompt Janeway into getting Really Pissed Off with the aliens, all as a catalyst for the episode's climax. It's such blatant redshirt writing that it actually made me laugh a little when the "dramatic" scene played out.


THOUGHTS

As can be seen from the "Characters" section, Scientific Method uses the Voyager ensemble in way very few episodes have managed. There are good bits for every member of the regular cast except Harry Kim (whose most memorable moment is getting a door closed in his face at the end)... and that's understandable, given that's he's Harry Kim. Everyone other character is used, and used well. I've heaped a fair amount of criticism onto writer Lisa Klink in the past and probably will in the future, but she deserves credit for balancing the show's large ensemble so well.

The episode itself is pure nonsense, but surprisingly engaging. The pace is fast, and there's a ghoulish curiosity to watching the maladies spread among the crew. It also keeps shifting its focus: The first ten minutes focuses mainly on Tom and B'Elanna; the next ten or so, on the Doctor's investigations; then on Seven; and finally, on Janeway and the resolution. This means that no phase of the episode ever really gets a chance to become dull.  David Livingston directs with his usual visual eye; a shot in which Tom and Torres' heated kiss is suddenly seen through the eyes of the aliens, watching their skeletons embrace, is particularly effective.

The one element of the episode that is a bit dull is the alien race. Named as the Srivani in the script (but not actually in the episode), they largely come across as inferior versions of the Vidiians. Even their motive, performing experiments on other species in order to save their own people, is similar. I genuinely don't understand why the script wasn't rewritten to make them a group of Vidiians using cloaking technology and experiments to try to cure the Phage. The Srivani themselves are generic; had they been unveiled as Vidiians, the episode would have been given an extra shot in the arm by virtue of the viewer's familiarity with them.

In the end, I would classify Scientific Method as a "guilty pleasure" episode. It's silly and its plot elements are heavily recycled. But it's fast and it's fun, and I enjoyed it considerably more than I expected to.


Overall Rating: 7/10.

3-26, 4-1. Scorpion.

Introducing Seven of Nine (Jeri Ryan).

THE PLOT

One of Voyager's long-range probes has stopped transmitting. Torres is able to retrieve the last few seconds of the probe's transmission, showing a sight Janeway has been dreading: the Borg!

The ship is nearing Borg space, and the recovery of their probe means the enemy knows they are coming. Fortunately, the probe detected a narrow corridor of space the Borg avoid - a passage filled with distortion caused by quantum singularities. It will be a bumpy ride, but there is a decent chance of avoiding the Borg if they can stay within what Chakotay dubs "The Northwest Passage."

There's another threat, however: An alien race the Borg term "Species 8472." These aliens are engaging the Borg and destroying them, seemingly without effort. Harry hopes for allies, but when Kes makes telepathic contact, she realizes they are anything but. Species 8472 is completely malevolent, and bent on destroying all inferior life, which to them means all life.

Janeway sees only one way forward: A deal with the devil. An alliance with the Borg!


CHARACTERS

Capt. Janeway: Understands that the day may come when the danger in front of Voyager is too great to responsibly continue. When she realizes the ship is approaching Borg space, she fears that day may have come, and she admits to Chakotay that she dreads facing the crew with that decision. That, as much of any of her justifications, prompts her alliance with the Borg. Still, her arguments to Chakotay are sound. Species 8472 is an even bigger threat than the Borg, and if they aren't stopped at an early stage, they may become genuinely unstoppable. Kate Mulgrew is in superb form throughout both parts, her performance clearly rising to the quality of the material. 

Chakotay: Strongly disagrees with Janeway's decision to make an alliance. He invokes the title by reciting the parable of the scorpion who, upon making an agreement with a fox to take it across a river, stings it because its malevolent nature is too strong to resist. When Janeway is temporarily out of action in Part Two, he goes with his own instincts over hers, leading to another argument between them. The best part? Both Chakotay and Janeway have genuinely good reasons for their decisions, and neither's argument is presented as a "straw man" to make the other look good. I'd love to see this Chakotay/Janeway relationship carried forward... though I suspect his characterization will return to "bland Tattoo Face" within one to two episodes.

Kes: Species 8472 is telepathic, which allows Kes a solid supporting role. Before they even know there is such a species, she has premonitions: Visions of dead Borg, including a horror movie tableaux of Borg bodies stacked one on another. She sees the attack on Harry minutes before it actually happens, but her warning is not enough to prevent it. At the climax, she acts as a conduit between Janeway and Species 8472, allowing direct communication during the confrontation. Considered alongside Before and After, this script seems to hint at the potential for a larger role for Kes in the future - if not for a certain People magazine article, at least...

Harry Kim: Before that article named Garrett Wang one of the "50 Most Beautiful People in the World," Scorpion was envisioned as Harry's swansong. He's Part One's sacrificial lamb, suffering the devastating alien infection that shows just how terrifying a threat Species 8472 really is. This obviously wasn't set in stone, given that Harry is still alive at the end of Part One with the Doctor clearly hoping to be able to cure him... but Part One very deliberately leaves Harry in a state that would have easily allowed him to be written out between episodes. Instead, the Doctor is able to miraculously cure him so completely that he returns to the bridge with no recovery time needed. From this point on, he's just Harry: a glorified extra who occasionally spouts some Technobabble.

Seven of Nine: Part Two introduces Jeri Ryan as Seven of Nine, the "Borg Babe" (in Brannon Braga's words). One of many smart touches in this script is that, while Seven received plenty of screen time and gets substantial interactions with Janeway and chakotay, she isn't presented as a new crew member. She is the voice of the Borg in this episode, speaking for the Collective during Janeway's alliance. She is a potential threat to our characters from her first appearance, and is very much an adversary when the alliance starts to fray. This allows her a strong introduction while avoiding the pitfalls of ramming a new character down the viewers' throat. It helps that Jeri Ryan is actually a good television actress, who easily holds her own opposite the established regulars.

The Borg: Scorpion almost acts as a mirror image to TNG's The Best of Both Worlds. That episode showed the Borg at their strongest, a single cube being unstoppable by all of Starfleet. This one shows the Borg at their most vulnerable, as devastated by Species 8472 as Starfleet was by the Borg. There's even a bit with Voyager flying through the wreckage of several Borg ships destroyed by the enemy - paralleling the devastation the Enterprise encountered when flying through the wreckage at Wolf 359. Writers Brannon Braga and Joe Menosky take care not to allow this to make the Borg less dangerous. They are unreliable allies, attempting to assimilate Janeway and Tuvok almost as soon as the agreement is reached and repeatedly trying to alter the terms of the agreement. As much of Part Two centers around attempts by the Voyager crew to contain the Borg as it does around defeating Species 8472. We are never allowed to forget the threat they pose, a threat that is increased by the alliance rather than decreased. 


THOUGHTS

Scorpion is almost certainly the best installment of Star Trek: Voyager I've reviewed to date. It is tightly paced, with no sense that either part of it has been padded out to fill air time. Its treatment of the Borg is just about perfect, with the Voyager/Borg alliance creating new tension rather than dissipating it. Species 8472 is presented as formidable, and in their brief snatches of screentime they live up to the demands the story places upon them. 

There's no sense of separation between the two episodes, which flow together beautifully. Part One establishes the situation and builds the atmosphere, with director David Livingston using the dim light and shadows of the Borg cube almost like a painter using colors in creating a portrait. Many of the effects shots are of feature film quality, including the Wolf 359 parallel of the graveyard of destroyed Borg cubes or the shots in which the bio-ships of Species 8472 descend, locust-like, on a Borg-controlled planet. The makeup job on Harry, as he is ravaged by the alien infection, is genuinely unsettling. 

Winrich Kolbe takes over the directorial reigns for Part Two. Kolbe has a long Trek track record, and his confidence with action scenes makes him a good match for the action-heavy second part. There are two attacks by Species 8472, along with a clash with the Borg, and Kolbe keeps all of this both coherent and exciting, making this a rare two-parter in which Part Two is every bit as good as Part One. 

Writers Brannon Braga and Joe Menosky make sure that in addition to providing an exciting climax, Part Two also pays off everything set up by Part One. In Part One, Chakotay compares the Borg to the scorpion of the fable. In Part Two, he's proved right when the Borg attempt to alter the agreement almost as soon as it's struck, and ultimately do attempt to betray Voyager. Janeway even uses the word, "Scorpion," to good effect in her counter-plan. Even the holodeck subplot involving Leonardo da Vinci (a thoroughly engaging John Rhys-Davies) is tied into the resolution, with Janeway and Chakotay sharing their final scene inside that simulation.

At the end of a season of Voyager that could only very politely be dubbed "uneven," this two-parter is a reminder of how good this series can be when the writers and producers are willing to push the characters outside their safe zones and take chances. Never mind its greatness as a Voyager episode: I'd rank this right alongside The Best of Both Worlds as among the best Borg episodes of the entire franchise.


Overall Rating: 10/10.

Previous Episode: Worst Case Scenario
Next Episode: The Gift


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