6-13. Virtuoso.

The Doctor's head gets a bit swollen...

Original Air Date: Jan. 26, 2000. Written by: Raf Green, Kenneth Biller. Directed by: Les Landau.


THE PLOT:

After accidentally damaging an alien ship with routine sensor scans, Voyager takes the other crew aboard to treat their injuries. Or, at least, to attempt to treat them. The Qomar are a technologically advanced race, and they sneer at Voyager's primitive technology and rebel at the prospect of being treated by the holographic Doctor.

Then he begins singing, probably to relieve his own stress at the torrent of abuse... and the Qomar are enchanted. They have no music on their world, and they are spellbound by the way it makes artistic, expressive use of mathematical concepts. The Doctor reports this to Janeway, who arranged a concert for their passengers. Various members of the crew perform (including, for some reason, Harry Kim) - but the only one the Qomar want to hear is the Doctor.

When they arrive at the Qomar's planet, they arrange for the Doctor to perform at their largest lecture hall, even making modifications to it for the sake of his performance. He's an instant hit, and he finds himself treated as a celebrity, with Qomar cutting their hair to imitate his baldspot and with a pair of pretty young groupies feigning illness to ask him if he's ever "balanced simultaneous equations?"

Then Tincoo (Kamala Lopez-Dawson), a Qomar the Doctor has grown close to, asks him to stay with them. Leaving him to seriously consider resigning his Starfleet commission...


CHARACTERS:

Capt. Janeway: Her first impulse is to decline the Doctor's request, noting that the ship can't replace its Emergency Medical Hologram. She tries to reason with him, pointing out that "fame is often temporary" and that the Qomar's tastes will inevitably change. But when he digs in and points out that she would certainly grant the same request, in the same circumstances, to any of the organic crew members, she accedes to his wishes and authorizes him to leave.

The Doctor: Just one episode ago, the Doctor spent years integrating himself into the culture of the slow-time planet and, when yanked away from a life and family he formed there, he accepted the situation and returned to his duties. In this episode, he's ready to chuck those same duties for the sake of the adulation of people he's just met. Robert Picardo's performance just about makes it work anyway. The Doctor's initial impatience with Qomar is amusing, his brief case of pre-show jitters is relatable, and Picardo absolutely sells the Doctor's emotional final performance for the Qomar. The problem is, the character is reduced entirely to his ego, when his sense of duty and dedication to medicine has always been at least as strong.

Torres: B'Elanna takes an episode off from despising Seven for little reason in order to be mean to the Doctor instead. While he's arranging for the Qomar to modify their lecture hall for his performance, she takes every opportunity to make digs. Never mind that, at this point in the story, Voyager is benefitting from this arrangement, and that her behavior actually makes the organic crew - whom the Qomar openly view as "inferior" - look worse to the aliens than they did already.

Seven of Nine: At least Seven is in character. When the ship gets a deluge of transmissions from the planet, the high volume of "irrelevant data" makes her suspect an attack. Janeway has to explain that it's just fan mail, a concept that leaves Seven utterly bewildered. She is genuinely hurt about the Doctor's desire to leave the ship, but it's clear that her anger comes from a fear of losing her friend, and she's quick to show her own appreciation of him when he ends up returning to his duties.


THOUGHTS:

OK, what is up with the Voyager crew in this episode? Yes, the Doctor's head swells threefold once the aliens start treating him like a star. But the crew members don't react the way you would to a friend who's suddenly become full of himself; they respond as if they outright hate him.

I've already mentioned B'Elanna. But for all of Janeway's protests about being a "friend," she doesn't give the Doctor a few days to enjoy this once-in-a-lifetime treatment. Instead, she upbraids him for neglecting his duties... which would be appropriate if there were any actual patients in sickbay, but the only people there are a pair of groupies whose attentions (amusingly) prompt him to "deactivate Emergency Medical Hologram." The only crew members who treat the Doctor like friends are Tom, who takes the whole situation in stride, and Seven, who is hurt by his desire to stay with his new fans.

To be clear, Virtuoso isn't a bad episode. Most of the comedy is at least amusing, and Les Landau directs with his usual steady hand. I quite enjoyed the visual of the Doctor "signing" miniature holograms of himself for the Qomar, his big head singing alongside the mini hologram (naturally, Janeway accuses him of unauthorized replicator use to create these without even bothering to check where they came from. Because she's a pod person this week).

Robert Picardo is the episode's biggest asset. After the first Act, the Doctor's arrogance becomes genuinely annoying, something he showcases, but he skillfully avoids making the Doctor unlikable. It helps that the script follows his most overbearing moment (in which he calls Janeway, "Katherine") with two relatable scenes showing the character being insecure and anxious.

Picardo is particularly good in the musical scenes, acting and singing simultaneously in ways that display the Doctor's own feeling. His final performance for the Qomar is also the episode's single best scene, and that's mainly due to Picardo's emotional singing and acting of it.


OVERALL:

Virtuoso had the potential to be one of the better episodes of an above-average season. Unfortunately, I couldn't get past the out-of-character behavior of several regulars, including the Doctor himself. The problem isn't that I didn't believe he'd stay with the Qomar - He's a regular and this is a mid-season episode, of course he wasn't staying. The problem is that I never for an instant believed that he really wanted to stay.

The good scenes, both comedic and dramatic, just about keep it afloat. But I can't escape feeling that, if only the regulars were scripted to behave like themselves through the whole episode, then this would have been much, much better.


Overall Rating: 5/10.

Previous Episode: Blink of an Eye
Next Episode: Memorial (not yet reviewed)

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6-10. Pathfinder.

Barclay (Dwight Schultz) attempts to get a message to Voyager.

Original Air Date: Dec. 1, 1999. Teleplay by: David Zabel, Kenneth Biller. Story by: David Zabel. Directed by: Mike Vejar.


THE PLOT:

Lt. Reginald Barclay (Dwight Schultz) has reached out to Deanna Troi (Marina Sirtis) for help. He's been working on Pathfinder, a Starfleet project focused on finding a way to communicate with Voyager.

The team is attempting to use the MIDAS Array to send a one-way communication, so that the lost ship will know that Starfleet is still working on establishing contact. Barclay has a better idea, believing that he can use the array to do some Technobabble that will allow two-way communication. But an earlier plan of Barclay's already cost the team six months on what proved to be a dead end, and his superior, Pete Harkins (Richard McGonagle), isn't inclined to listen to him this time. When Barclay refuses to accept this, Harkins suspends him from the team.

Barclay asks Deanna to intervene on his behalf, to vouch for him so that he can get back to work. She refuses, citing concern for his mental state. So he decides to take matters into his own hands, embarking on a course that will either result in direct contact with Voyager - or spell the end of Barclay's Starfleet career!


CHARACTERS:

Capt. Janeway: Janeway, like the rest of the Voyager crew, is mostly only seen as a hologram in Barclay's program, where - like the rest of the crew - she shows him respect bordering on deference. The real Janeway is glimpsed at the end, where she draws on her science background to tell Harry the correct Technobabble to clear up Barclay's message.

Barclay: Since leaving the Enterprise, he has felt isolated and alone, and he has superimposed his own loneliness onto the Voyager crew. A scene that particularly impressed me was the one in which Barclay first attempts to describe his plan to Admiral Paris (Richard Herd). Under scrutiny, he all but falls apart, stammering and unable to remember basic words. It's extremely relatable to anyone with any degree of social anxiety, and Dwight Schultz plays it just right, showing Barclay's nervousness and internal frustration as he fails to coherently describe the concrete idea inside his mind. Notably, when Voyager actually responds to the message, Barclay jumps in to clean it up and make it comprehensible, all of his anxiety dropping away once he has a problem to work. The anxiety is a social barrier, not something that stops him from being competent within his field.

Troi: The story is framed with scenes of Troi visiting Barclay, with him relating events to her. This serves an important narrative purpose: Much of Barclay's struggle is internal, and him describing not only what happened but how he reacted to it helps viewers to connect and relate. For the most part, Troi's role is to receive that exposition while providing emotional support to Barclay. However, she shows both firmness and professional integrity when she refuses to simply sign off on his mental state when she can see that he's emotionally struggling. She'll support him, but she won't enable him. When he insists that Voyager's crew is more important than his stability, she denies that claim. "Voyager is important, but so are you!"

Admiral Paris: We've heard much about Tom's father, the strict and respected Starfleet Admiral, but this is the first time we actually see him. Television stalwart Richard Herd brings the man fully to life. In his interactions with Barclay, we see the stern discipline that Tom described, but we also can sense the worried father. He believes in chain of command, and he refuses to override Barclay's superior simply to benefit himself. However, he also agrees to review Barclay's proposal to see if it has merit.

Pete: Barclay's immediate superior serves as the antagonist, but he isn't a villain. When he rejects Barclay's proposal, it is made clear that Barclay already used up his capital on an idea that came to nothing and that Admiral Paris's upcoming visit leaves no time for extra work. Pete genuinely wants to be supportive. He even invites Barclay to his home to meet his sister-in-law, an invitation that Barclay refuses in order to spend time in his holodeck recreation of Voyager. This episode carries several echoes of Barclay's first TNG appearance in Hollow Pursuits; and as was true of Riker in that episode, every action Pete takes is reasonable when considered from his viewpoint.


THOUGHTS:

When TNG introduced Reginald Barclay, he was a breath of fresh air. In a franchise filled to overflowing with confident, articulate extroverts, Barclay is the opposite: introverted, socially awkward and anxious, fearful, and anything but confident. He stammers and freezes when put on the spot, he feels the judgment of his peers, and he takes refuge in fantasy via the holodeck. He's a flawed character, but those flaws are believable and ones that I think most people feel in themselves to greater or lesser degrees, and that makes him extremely relatable.

Barclay survives the jump to Voyager with all of these traits fully intact. Pathfinder is a very good Star Trek episode. One reason is that it never forgets that Barclay may be both sympathetic and capable within his field, but he also contributes to his own problems. Both Pete and Admiral Paris are reasonable men, but Barclay can't make himself see them that way. Instead of finding an opportunity to discuss his rejected proposal with Pete one-on-one (say, at the dinner Pete invited him to), Barclay instead tries to bypass him by going directly to the admiral. When Admiral Paris agrees to review his findings, Barclay insists on believing that the admiral just said that to get rid of him - even though, if Paris really wanted that, all he had to do was call security.

Dwight Schultz is excellent in the role, playing enough to Barclay's neuroses that we can sense his emotional turmoil without overplaying it. The script crafts two dilemmas for Barclay, one internal and one external. The internal conflict is the more interesting. He confesses to Troi that he has felt lost since leaving the Enterprise. Though it's never directly stated, it's clear enough that he has dealt with that by over-identifying with Voyager's crew. The external conflict allows him to address that problem in an active way, by getting a message to the ship, even if he has to break every rule in order to do so.

I like the way the final Act plays out. Barclay uses the holo-Voyager cleverly, drawing on his familiarity with the ship to buy time to systematically send and re-send his message to different points within the Delta Quadrant. Pete, who tries to thwart him, is also shown to be capable, which ramps up tension even though there's no real doubt as to how this will end.


OVERALL:

I find the tag to be a little too pat, with Barclay seeming to be "cured" of issues that are unlikely to ever go away... not to mention suffering no consequences for his multiple protocol breaches. This, and a vague sense that the early holodeck scenes are a little too reminiscent of Hollow Pursuits, keep me from ranking this among Voyager's best.

But it's still a good episode, smartly scripted overall and well performed by its cast. After a couple of installments that didn't fully connect with me, Pathfinder sees the series back on track.


Overall Rating: 7/10.

Previous Episode: The Voyager Conspiracy
Next Episode: Fair Haven

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5-25. Warhead.

The Doctor discovers a fellow AI -
but it's a weapon of mass destruction!

Original Air Date: May 19, 1999. Teleplay by: Michael Taylor, Kenneth Biller. Story by: Brannon Braga. Directed by: John Kretchmer.


THE PLOT:

Harry Kim has bridge duty when Voyager receives an automated distress signal. Harry takes the ship to the planet and, with, Chakotay's approval, beams down with the Doctor to check it out.

They quickly find the source of the signal: a probe-like object that the Doctor ascertains is an artificial intelligence. Harry's first instinct is caution - when you're Harry Kim, you quickly learn that anything new is likely to kill you or at least humiliate you. The Doctor guilts him by pointing out that while this may be a device, it is still a lifeform that is in distress. Harry relents, recommending it be beamed to Voyager with security measures.

It turns out that his first instincts were right. The object is not a probe, but a weapon of mass destruction. When Doctor tries to separate the intelligence from the device, to save the life while nullifying the danger, the intelligence takes over the Doctor. It demands that Janeway transport it to its target to complete its mission - or else it will destroy Voyager!


CHARACTERS:

Capt. Janeway: She badly wants the weapon off her ship. Even so, when an unscrupulous trader(Steve Dennis) offers to take it off her hands, she refuses to allow him to take it fully intact. Despite his assurances, she recognizes that he'll just sell it to someone else, very possibly some kind of space terrorist. The warhead is a problem, but Janeway refuses to make it someone else's problem.

The Doctor/The Warhead: Robert Picardo pulls double duty as both the Doctor and the warhead. This is where I'd usually praise Picardo... except this time, I think he overacts. He's terrific as the Doctor, effectively conveying the kinship he feels at meeting a fellow AI. His sentient warhead, however, is more a case of Picardo "Acting Menacing" rather than being menacing, and the weapon's threat is further undercut by its apparent inability to track anything Janeway and the rest of the crew are doing, right down to somehow not noticing the alien trader beaming onto the ship.

Harry Kim: He's actually right about how to deal with the warhead: keep it on the planet until they're sure there's no threat. But the Doctor gives Harry a guilt trip about how he'd treat an organic life form. The correct response is: in the event of, say, a potential contagion, with the exact same level of caution. Harry being Harry, he naturally caves immediately. He tries to appeal to the warhead's better nature in the second half, but those scenes are among the worst of a subpar episode. Overall, I'm more than a little weary of Harry being written as the overeager, fresh-faced rookie after five years.

Torres: Taken hostage by the warhead along with Harry. Since she's the chief engineer, and they are dealing with a piece of runaway tech, you would naturally expect that she'd play a key part in the episode. But this is Season Five, and the writers have had little use for Torres since Seven joined the crew, so she's mostly just a glorified extra.


THOUGHTS:

Warhead is a mediocre episode, but it starts out promisingly. The teaser and opening Act move along nicely. The ship receives the distress call. The AI is discovered and taken aboard. The crew discover its nature as a weapon of mass destruction. After some debate, they decide to try to save the AI while eliminating the risk to the ship. All of this is well structured, there are potentially interesting concepts, and the episode moves nicely to the crisis point.

Then the warhead takes control of the Doctor, and the writers promptly run out of ideas.

From this point on, there isn't so much a structure as just a collection of scenes. The encounter with the trader takes up about ten minutes in the mid-episode... but this entire set of events doesn't actually do anything. There is no impact on the rest of the story, and if it were removed entirely there would be no sign that anything was missing.

After a lot of wheel-spinning, the final Act then feels badly rushed. All of the actual story gets stuffed into the last fifteen minutes. This leaves no chance for suspense to build, for the crew to deal with complications, or for characters to truly consider their choices. It doesn't help that Robert Picardo's performance is very far from his best - but I can't help but think that the whole episode would work better if the detour with the trader had been eliminated and the final Act expanded to take up the whole second half.


OVERALL:

Warhead is a frustrating episode. It's not just that it isn't good. It's that the opening Act is quite promising, making it all the more disappointing when the script deteriorates into a directionless mess at the twenty-minute mark.

It's watchable enough, and it's far from Voyager's worst. Heck, it's not even the worst of the last five episodes. But it feels suspiciously like something that's there less to tell a story than to fill a timeslot.


Overall Rating: 4/10.

Previous Episode: Relativity
Next Episode: Equinox

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5-21. Juggernaut.

Malon Controller Fesek (Ron Canada) and his crewman,
Pelk (Lee Arenberg), leave a mess for Voyager to clean up...

Original Air Date: Apr. 26, 1999.  Written by: Bryan Fuller, Nick Sagan, Kenneth Biller. Directed by: Allan Kroeker.


THE PLOT

An automated distress call leads Voyager to a ruined Malon freighter. They rescue Controller Fesek (Ron Canada), the Malon captain, and bride officer Pelk (Lee Arenberg) from nearby escape pods, only to learn that the freighter is mere hours from exploding and destroying everything within three light years. Though Fesek urges Janeway to flee to safety, she insists on sending a team onto the Malon ship to stop the explosion.

The two Malon survivors beam over with Chakotay, Torres, and Neelix. They must vent the deadly radiation on each deck in order to reach the control room to stop the explosion. But they may not be alone, as one of the Malon fears that a mythical and malevolent beast known as a Vihaar may lurk within the radiation, waiting to strike at the intruders...


CHARACTERS

Capt. Janeway: Her patience for the Malon seems to be pretty much exhausted by this point. When Fesek insists that he will not risk his life returning to the irradiated, self-destructing ship, Janeway flatly tells him that he can either assist or be returned to his escape pod. Her disdain for the Malon, well-earned in previous encounters, makes her absolute scorn of Fesek palpable, and he wisely does not try to call her bluff. Though she hopes for the Away Team's success, she is realistic enough about their dangerous and difficult mission to prepare a "Plan B."

Chakotay: He does a good job as commander of the Away Team, keeping the party moving but refusing to compromise safety. When one of the Malon claims to have seen a creature in the waste, Chakotay decrees that no member of the team will work alone from that point. When Torres becomes infected with radiation, Chakotay does not allow her to refuse immediate treatment.

Torres: This is a B'Elanna-centric episode - one which insists that her anger issues have her perpetually on the edge of violent outbursts. The script is credited to no less than three writers, none of whom apparently recall that she has been able to control her emotions and deal with crises even when kidnapped by robots or stalked by a psychotic hologram. In short, Juggernaut delivers my least favorite form of "character development": reducing B'Elanna to her single, worst trait so that we can pretend that it's "progress" when she returns to her normal self.

Neelix: Since I'm spending most of this review talking about things that don't work, I'll acknowledge one thing that works very well: The use of Neelix. It's entirely consistent with what we know of his background that he's worked with similar waste disposal systems. This allows him to be a genuine asset rather than the usual buffoonish comic relief. Even his one pure comedy scene, in which he cooks up a foul-tasting brew to protect himself from radiation poisoning, is used to reinforce both his experience in this type of situation and the seriousness of it, as he recalls how this wretched recipe kept himself and his shipmates alive.


MY ORIGINAL POINT OF ABANDONMENT:

This was the last episode of Voyager that I watched in full before stopping the series back in 2017. I emphasize that it did not, on its own, make me stop viewing/reviewing Voyager.  Longtime visitors to this site likely noticed that I posted zero reviews for a 2 - 3 year period, mostly due to a combination of schedule and general burnout. If it hadn't been this episode that stalled my Voyager run, it would have been another one not far down the road.

That said, I have one and only one memory of my first viewing: Sitting down to write this review after the episode. I brought up my template and... proceeded to stare at the screen for several minutes. I genuinely could not think of even one interesting thing to say. Juggernaut is not hilariously dreadful in the manner of Favorite Son, The Fight, or The Disease. It just sort of... occupies space for 45 minutes and then ends.


THOUGHTS

Revisiting this episode now, without the burnout that plagued me at the time, I can see that Juggernaut is at least trying to take the previously one-note Malon and turn them into a society of actual individuals. In earlier episodes, they have simply been polluters and nothing more. This episode attempts to add some depth. It does not make them interesting on its own - but the cues of this script could potentially be used to create something worthwhile later.

Given that all three of the credited writers have penned good scripts, it is disappointing how much this episode relies on Idiot Plotting. The greatest immediate source of jeopardy for the Away Team is that they are working in a heavily irradiated environment. On the mission, however, they wear absolutely no protective gear, relying solely on an inoculation. We have seen crew members use gear in other Trek shows, so it's not like such things don't exist in this universe. Similarly, the transporter obviously functions, or else the crew wouldn't be able to retrieve Chakotay or contemplate sending Tuvok to replace him. So why aren't they beaming rotating overlapping shifts throughout this mission, thus limiting any one crew member's exposure?

These issues could have at least been papered over with a few lines of dialogue. The crew could have planned on using radiation suits, only for Fesek to tell them that the work was too delicate for bulky protective gear. Janeway could have intended to rotate crew, only for the transporter to be unable to penetrate the radiation (with Chakotay's emergency beam-out working, with difficulty, because of Technobabble). This script doesn't even expend that minimal amount of effort, however. There's one Away Team because there is; there's no protective gear because there isn't; and the transporters either work or don't depending on what is convenient for a given scene.

Complications are introduced in the middle, but most of them never build to anything. Each incident is just that - a bit of activity to fill airtime during the middle of the episode. There's a villain reveal at the end; save for some added gruesomeness, this scene would be perfectly at home in a Scooby-Doo episode. The entire finale is ridiculously poor. It's meant to show "character growth" that B'Elanna attempts to speechify... never mind that the urgency of the situation would actually make her (allegedly) normal aggression a more appropriate response.


OVERALL:

After a reasonably promising start, Juggernaut quickly devolves into being simultaneously tedious and stupid. It's not the worst of Voyager; it's not even the worst of the past five episodes (a group that included both The Disease and The Fight). But just because it's not rock bottom doesn't mean it isn't bad.


Overall Rating: 2/10.

Previous Episode: Think Tank
Next Episode: Someone to Watch Over Me

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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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5-9. Thirty Days.

Tom Paris is demoted.

THE PLOT

"Hey, Dad... Bad news: I'm in jail again!"

Tom Paris has been demoted to ensign, and has been sentenced to thirty days of solitary confinement. While serving his sentence, he writes a letter to his father, recounting the events that led to his latest transgression.

It started when Voyager encountered a water world - not technically a planet, but rather an ocean artificially contained as a planet-like sphere of water. It has been settled by the Moneans, who live by growing vegetables and mining oxygen from the water. Their way of life is threatened, not from outside aggression but from the slowly advancing failure of the containment field holding the water.

Tom is fascinated by the idea of an undersea expedition, and offers to modify the Delta Flyer to investigate the source of the problem. When he discovers the failure is being caused by the very oxygen mining around which Monean society is built, it becomes clear that the government will do nothing to change. Containment failure is inevitable... Leading Tom to a rash action that goes against the Prime Directive Janeway holds so dear!


CHARACTERS

Capt. Janeway: She is happy to indulge Tom's enthusiasm for going 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, regarding his delight with amusement. She is initially sympathetic to his findings, and tries to urge Burkus (Benjamin Livingston), the Monean Deputy Consul, into making changes. Even then, she (quite rightly) upbraids Tom for being overly aggressive in her meeting. When Tom takes his rogue action, she is visibly angry - And it's clear that she's willing to fire on him if he doesn't stand down.

Tom Paris: For his part, does not intend to stand down. He believes he is doing the right thing, and has the fig leaf of a request for help from Monean scientist Riga (Willie Garson) to at least pretend he isn't violating Starfleet law. Of course, he's ignoring the spirit of the law and completely disregarding Janeway's orders. All of this strikes a convincing balance between Tom's growth since Season One vs. his ongoing character flaws. He's now acting for something he believes in rather than just rebelling for the sake of rebellion - But he's still impetuous, and still does not respect authority when it disagrees with his worldview, even when that authority is Janeway herself.

Torres: Responds to his brooding over Burkus' rejection of suggested reforms by asking what he, Tom Paris, can do about the situation - effectively giving Tom permission to rebel. This fits perfectly with her character. As a committed, unrepentant Maquis, she is sympathetic to rejecting authority for the right cause. It would have been nice to have done more with this, to see Torres perhaps standing up for Tom to Janeway or at least reacting to his sentence, but her few scenes in the episode are at least good ones.


THOUGHTS

"Tom Paris takes matters into his own hands when Janeway refuses to act" sounds dull on paper, and the weakness of the last few Tom-centric episodes did not have me looking forward to Thirty Days. Tom was one of the stronger members of the ensemble in the first two seasons, but has been steadily reduced to little more than a bit player since the introduction of Seven (and honestly, was fading into the background for a while before then).

So it's a pleasant surprise to find that the Tom Paris of this episode actually seems like the same character from the first two seasons. He's impulsive, allowing his emotions to overrule his judgment. I'll note that I don't agree in any way with Tom's choice in this episode. The Voyager crew have shared the information with the Moneans; Janeway is quite right that it is that civilization's choice what to do next, and not their place to impose action on them. But I can believe that Tom would take this action. The episode also fairly presents both Tom's and Janeway's viewpoints, allowing both to make their cases - Tom the emotional one, Janeway the rational one.

Production values are high under director Winrich Kolbe's sure hand, and the planet-sized ocean is instantly striking. Kenneth Biller's teleplay is also good, with effective nods to Jules Verne's 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, complete with a scene in which Tom's craft is attacked by a sea monster. Finally, I very much enjoyed the character interactions between Tom and Janeway, Tom and Torres, and Tom and Riga. While all are friendly interactions (well, until Janeway punishes Tom), each has a different tone based on his relationship with that character. Janeway is his superior and mentor figure; Torres, his lover and effectively conscience; and Riga, a colleague who looks to him for action.

Ultimately, this is a well-made, well-scripted piece, with sharper character work than many episodes have managed. Very enjoyable, and the best Tom Paris episode in a long time.


Overall Rating: 8/10.

Previous Episode: Nothing Human
Next Episode: Counterpoint

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5-3. Extreme Risk.

B'Elanna tries to ride out an explosion.

THE PLOT

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.

Previous Episode; Drone
Next Episode: In the Flesh

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4-25. One.

Seven of Nine, alone on Voyager...

THE PLOT

When Voyager enters an enormous nebula, radiation results in burns to the skin of every member of the crew. They reverse course and escape within a few minutes... But even that much exposure is enough to kill at least one person.

Only two members of the crew are unaffected: The Doctor, because he's a hologram; and Seven, who is protected by her Borg implants. The Doctor recommends putting the crew into stasis units, which will protect them as they cross the nebula, while he and Seven run the ship. With no viable options, Janeway agrees - but not before making it clear to Seven that the Doctor is in command.

It's a month-long trip, a long time for a former Borg drone to have no contact save with a hologram. After ten days, Seven becomes irritable. Then the nebula begins affecting ship's systems - Including the neural gel packs that power the ship's computer and, finally, the Doctor's mobile emitter. The Doctor has to confine himself to sick bay to protect his program, leaving Seven entirely alone.

As the ship's systems continue to deteriorate, Seven begins to find it harder and harder to function effectively. And that's when Trajis (Wade Williams), a predatory alien determined to be the first to cross the nebula, comes onto Voyager under the pretense of a friendly exchange of needed parts...


CHARACTERS

Capt. Janeway: When Chakotay expresses concerns about Seven being one of only two people in charge of the crew's welfare, Janeway insists that she trusts Seven. She acknowledges that the former Borg has displayed an "insolent attitude" and that she has disobeyed orders in the past, but says that she believes that Seven "wants to do right by us." She does make very clear to Seven that the Doctor is the one in command, however, on the basis of both his rank as Chief Medical Officer and his grounding in Starfleet protocols and procedures.

Seven of Nine: As a former member of a Collective, isolation is something Seven is simply not equipped to deal with. She reveals that when she was with the Borg, she was once cut off from contact and alone. Only for a short period, but it was enough for her to panic - and I suspect the fear of doing so again hangs over her as she comes ever closer to losing control. Jeri Ryan has been good all season, but this episode demands more of her than has been the case - And she delivers in a big way, anchoring the episode and making Seven fully sympathetic even when she's at her most irritable.

The Doctor: After his mobile emitter becomes unreliable, he continues to make himself useful. While isolated in sick bay, he makes repairs so that he can aid Seven when he's needed. He also studies the degradation of the ship's neural gel packs, which gives him insight into why Seven experiences increasing difficulty with her own duties. He continues to try to instruct her on effective interaction with the human crew, and is irritated by her lack of cooperation with that.


THOUGHTS

There have been more than a couple of occasions in which Season Four has felt like "The Seven of Nine Show." One actually is that, an episode centered entirely around Seven. Once the situation has been set up, virtually every moment is seen from her viewpoint. If Seven didn't work as a character, this episode wouldn't work at all.

Fortunately, Seven has been one of the show's consistently strongest elements since her introduction, something that continues to be the case here. Jeri Taylor's script (from a story idea by James Swallow) is tightly-paced, with new complications revealed at just the right pace to raise tension throughout. Kenneth Biller puts down his writer's pen and steps into the director's chair - and does a wonderful job behind the camera.

The episode is all about Seven's increasing feelings of isolation, and the visual element reinforces that constantly. We see Seven drinking a nutrient mix in the Mess Hall. Then the camera cuts to a wide shot of the large room, with Seven far back in frame - emphasizing how small and alone she is in this big, empty space. There are multiple shots like this, starting close on Seven and pulling back to show how alone she is in the ship's rooms, halls, and corridors. By the time she begins to break down, the sense of just how alone she is has become oppressive for us, as well.

I can't come up with any negatives here. The performances of Jeri Ryan and Robert Picardo are superb, the technical elements are brought off wonderfully in service of an extremely well-structured and well-paced script, and the tension increases steadily throughout. I'd rank this among the best episodes of the season.


Overall Rating: 9/10.

Previous Episode: Demon
Next Episode: Hope and Fear

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4-24. Demon.

Harry Kim looks out onto the surface
of a Demon-class planet.

THE PLOT

Voyager is running out of gas.

The ship's deuterium supply has run low. Even with the strictest rationing of energy, they have less than a week's worth of travel remaining. In desperation, they travel to a planet that is Class Y - also known as a "Demon class" planet, because it is the most inhospitable environment possible. The planet is rich in deuterium, however; the only challenge is actually getting down there to retrieve the precious substance.

Harry volunteers himself and Tom to go down in a modified shuttlecraft, with environmental suits, to locate and mine the fuel source the ship requires. However, they have only barely located a deposit before their suits are breached, leaving both men unconscious and probably dying.

Chakotay and Seven search for them, and are shocked to discover both men not only alive, but walking around without their suits in an environment that should be instantly toxic to them. They take them back to the ship for a medical examination... But as soon as they beam into Voyager's oxygen-rich atmosphere, both men collapse, gasping for breath. Somehow, in a way that no one can explain, the planet has "bio-formed" Tom and Harry so that now the only environment in which they can live is that of the Demon planet itself!


CHARACTERS

Capt. Janeway: When Tom and Harry fail to report back, she insists on landing Voyager in order to send out a search and rescue team. This means that instead of risking another shuttle, she risks the entire ship - and the jeopardy of the landing is seen in how many systems are damaged by the time they reach the surface. Janeway gets a chance to play scientist again when she and Torres study the silver fluid in Tom and Harry's blood. When the fluid touches Torres and reacts, she starts to realize what has actually happened to her crew members.

Chakotay: Characterized as someone who recognizes good ideas from subordinates and champions those ideas to the captain. He acknowledges Seven's logic in not passing up the Demon class planet's resources, and is able to sell Janeway on making the attempt. When the first attempt to simply transport the deuterium onto the ship fails, Janeway is (somewhat uncharacteristically) ready to fly away. When Harry offers an alternative, Chakotay again champions the plan to land a shuttle and make a direct effort. This is a good note for his character, one I would encourage the series to continue with.

Harry Kim: Demon is the annual Harry Kim episode. Harry observes that after four years in the Delta Quadrant he now has quite a lot of experience and no longer feels the need to be quiet and stay out of the way when the more experienced officers are speaking. This is a hint of character development I expect to last... Oh, until the next episode. Assertive Harry also fails utterly to be at all likable. Whether the fault lies in Kenneth Biller's script, Garrett Wang's performance, or a bit of both, when he volunteers Tom to help him, then smirks at Tom's objections, he isn't coming across as a friend engaging in banter - He's coming across as a jerk.

The Doctor: Robert Picardo has proven time and again that he can salvage just about anything... Except, as it turns out, an irritating sitcom subplot in which the Doctor behaves petulantly in response to crew members bunking in sickbay. When the Doctor protests, Chakotay half-jokingly says they can always save power by shutting down his program until he's needed. Which, given the circumstances, would actually seem like one of the first things they should have done, and something the Doctor would probably have volunteered as a suggestion were he not Sitcom Doctor in this episode! Picardo is better in the second half, once the Doctor is doing his job instead of griping about sharing living space, but this is among his worst showings in the entire series.


THOUGHTS

Ever since Unity, my opinion of Kenneth Biller's writing has been creeping upwards. His late Season Three and Season Four outings have been consistently interesting, and often quite good, and I've ceased to dread his name on the credits.

Demon isn't going to change my revised opinion, as every writer will deliver some duff episodes here and there; if I can forgive Ronald D. Moore for co-writing the truly dire Aquiel, I can forgive Kenneth Biller this. Still, it's a reminder of the kind of writing that had me cringing at his name on an episode: Slapdash, unfocused, and lazy.

Let's start with Janeway's reluctance to approach the Demon planet. Once there, it seems to be perfectly navigable. Some extra shielding and environmental suits, and the crew can go out into this environment with minimal problems. Sure, there's danger. But these are the choices for the crew: (1) Risk a chance of injury or death recovering the fuel from a planet easily within reach; or (2) Fly off into the infinite vastness of space and hope to encounter another fuel source within a week - Something that's basically a statistical impossibility. And yet Janeway, who should certainly be well-versed enough in basic science to know that the choice is between a risk of death and a virtual certainty of it, reacts as if even trying to get fuel from the planet is a blatantly bad idea.

Then there's the question of her allowing the ship's pilot and backup medic to go with Harry on this very dangerous mission. Doesn't this ship have a crew of 90+ people? Janeway OK'ing Harry is something I have no problem with, as both B'Elanna and Seven are more skilled in Harry's area of expertise than he is; but he should be accompanied by someone a little more expendable than Tom is, which might also allow the show to remind us that this ship has more than ten or so people on board. This might have the side benefit of allowing another recurring character to emerge, to give a face to the ordinary people on board for the first time since late Season Two.

Credit where it's due: I did not guess what had happened to Tom and Harry, even though clues were there to make it guessable. Credit also to the scene in which Janeway confronts the intelligence behind all this (the "demon," I suppose), which is a well-written scene, very well-performed by Kate Mulgrew. That scene adds a point to the overall score in and of itself.

Which leaves it still a pretty bad hour... But at least it's nowhere near the worst of the series, or even of the season.


Overall Rating: 3/10.

Previous Episode: Living Witness
Next Episode: One

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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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4-5. Revulsion.

The Doctor encounters Dejaren (Leland Orser), another sentient hologram.

THE PLOT

Voyager receives a distress call from Dejaren (Leland Orser), a sentient hologram who is the only survivor of a damaged ship. The Doctor, excited at the prospect of meeting another self-aware hologram, volunteers to give aid. He and Torres beam aboard and begin work on stabilizing Dejaren's program.

The Doctor sees too much of himself in Dejaren to do anything but explain away the other hologram's antisocial manner. But Torres is disturbed almost from the outset. When Dejaren tries to keep them from exploring the ship's lower decks, Torres prevails on the Doctor to distract him while she investigates. It doesn't take long for her to find the bodies of the crew - all murdered by Dejaren, who has picked Torres for his next victim!

CHARACTERS

Capt. Janeway: Nervous about sending the Doctor to answer the distress signal. With the departure of Kes, he is now the ship's only real medic - If anything happens to him, it would be a disaster for the ship.  She does allow him to go, but only with B'Elanna accompanying him.

Doctor: However much he may now feel like a proper part of Voyager's crew, he still feels some isolation at being the apparent only one of his kind. He identifies strongly with Dejaren, but when he urges the other hologram to stand up for his rights and to pursue other interests, he is talking more about his own situation. He only recognizes Dejaren as a threat when he catches the other hologram attacking Torres. These events should have some impact on the Doctor; he finally meets someone like him, and he turns out to be criminally insane. Unfortunately, writer Lisa Klink shows no interest in delving beyond the surface, and the episode's tag is just an extended bad joke about the Doctor's fastidious nature.

Torres: Tom gives her a chance to back away from her profession of love, but she refuses to take it. She meant what she said, and fully owns up to it. Tom makes it clear that he is happy about this, so at least one good thing happens before she spends the rest of the day playing hide-and-seek with a killer hologram. Roxann Dawson gives another terrific performance, showing Torres' instant unease with Dejaren as she picks up on his strangeness, an unease that increases as his behavior becomes more and more disturbing.

Tom Paris: I know continuity isn't Voyager's strong suit, but it's been all of two episodes since Tom stated that he didn't care about Seven of Nine's past and offered to be a friend to her. Now, he's making snide remarks about all the people Seven helped assimilate and snapping at her that she's "a mere mortal" now. Is it too much to ask that characters not completely reverse themselves within the space of three shows?

Seven of Nine/Harry: In "B" plot land, Harry develops a crush on Seven, despite her having knocked him unconscious in their last interaction. Or maybe it's because of that? Maybe Harry's been beat up and knocked around so many times that it's become a turn-on. Makes as much sense as anything in the "B" plot, which otherwise just retreads the ground already covered by Day of Honor in integrating Seven with the crew. This "B" plot does represent a minor milestone, though: It's the first time Seven is featured in an episode in which her subplot is boring (though I'll admit to laughing at Seven's very direct response to Harry's infatuation).

THOUGHTS

Revulsion isn't a bad episode. It just isn't a particularly good one. Lisa Klink, my pick for this series' weakest regular writer, gives superficial treatment to the main plot, and makes sure there isn't time to do more by spending almost as much time on the Harry/Seven story as on the Dejaren story. At least that main plot has three excellent performances to keep it afloat. Robert Picardo and Roxann Dawson are among the show's strongest actors, and they are well-matched by guest star Leland Orser.

Orser seesaws effectively between pathetic and sinister. His twitchy performance as Dejaren is exactly what this script needs. The episode's best scene sees him meekly approaching B'Elanna to offer her some rations. When he steps near an exposed power cable, she snaps at him and he cringes and all but hides his head as he apologizes. Then, as they talk, what begins as simple social ineptitude on his part gradually rises into a full-boar rant. These are a lot of rapid-fire emotional changes within a single scene, and Orser not only hits every major beat, he manages to make the transitions between them feel convincing. This goes a long way toward making Dejaren both more pathetic and more frightening than he might have been otherwise.

Too bad the rest of the episode doesn't live up to that standout scene. The script never delves into what happened and why. Dejaren alludes to the crew treating him badly, but we never get any details. If we learned more about how the crew treated him badly, enough to sympathize with his plight, then the story might have some meaning beyond the visceral thrill of him threatening Torres. Alternatively, if the crew had treated him perfectly well, and a malfunction with his program had caused him to misperceive reality, then that could have been effective. Or if the crew had treated him well as far as they were concerned, given that he was "just a hologram," and he still finally snapped under the stress of being regarded as a mere piece of technology, then that could have been very strong. Any of these possibilities could have had reflections on the Doctor's own journey as a character, as well, making something out of his attempts to bond with and protect Dejaren.

But while Lisa Klink's script may be shallow, it at least moves along. Kenneth Biller, making his directorial debut, does a solid job with the thin material, wringing a decent amount of suspense out of the B'Elanna/Dejaren scenes. It's easily Season Four's weakest episode to date, but it's not a bad show - It's just not a particularly good one.

Overall Rating: 5/10.