6-11. Fair Haven.

Capt. Janeway falls in love with a holodeck character.

Original Air Date: Jan. 12, 2000. Written by: Robin Burger. Directed by: Allan Kroeker.


THE PLOT:

Tom Paris's latest holodeck creation is Fair Haven, a 19th century Irish village. This carefree community with its simple, slow-paced existence has already become a popular spot for Voyager's crew to unwind, with even Capt. Janeway appreciating its authenticity (given that what we see is as idealized as a small town in a Hallmark movie, I think she's just being exceptionally kind).

Fair Haven is about to become even more popular. A neutronic wavefront is approaching, and interference with the warp engines means that Voyager can't simply get away. Instead, the plan is to anchor in place and wait for the storm to pass. To keep up morale, Janeway authorizes running the Fair Haven program 24/7 and allowing an open-door policy for off-duty crew members.

This includes her. Michael Sullivan (Fintan McKeown), the rough but charming local bartender, has caught her eye. She knows he's a hologram, but she's happy to flirt with him, particularly after she makes a few minor modifications to his program. Janeway's new-and-improved Michael is taller, sufficiently educated that he'd be very unlikely to be a bartender in this particular time and place, and - most importantly - single.

But as she begins her holographic love affair, she finds herself wrestling with feeling genuine emotions for someone who isn't actually real.


CHARACTERS:

Capt. Janeway: Kate Mulgrew all but single-handedly keeps this featherweight material watchable. Her early flirtation with Michael is amusing, Mulgrew showing Janeway with her guard down for a change as she smiles warmly one second - then reacts slightly but visibly when his wife appears. I love the way she plays the scene in which she adjusts his program. She goes into the holodeck with eagerness and behaves surreptitiously, as if she doesn't want to get caught doing something naughty. After the affair begins, the realization that he is nothing but a computer program hits hard when he annoys her by snoring: "Did I nudge him with my elbow hoping he'd roll over and stop... No, why bother when I could simply access the computer and alter his vocal algorithms?"

Chakotay: He tells Janeway not to be embarrassed by her attraction to Michael, adding that it's nice to see her having fun. So far, so supportive. Then it gets creepy when he responds to her protests about Michael being a hologram by saying, "I never let that stand in my way." That is *far* too much information, Chakotay. I can just picture the lowest-ranking members of the crew groaning when they see him leaving the holodeck, sighing that it's time for another deep clean...

The Doctor: He plays the town preacher within the simulation, though he's dismissive when a parishoner (Richard Riehle) attempts to confess outside of "office hours." When he notes Janeway's dilemma, he states that he doesn't see the problem. "You're the captain. You can't have a relationship with a member of your crew... A hologram may be the only logical alternative." This is fairly decent advice, as is his plea for her to stop trying to control the simulated relationship and just let it play out, and this scene is easily the episode's best.

Hot Holographic Space Hunk of the Week: Michael is already an idealized character when Janeway meets him. He is kind, patient, and humorous even before she adjusts his education level, and she has fun losing a game of rings to him followed by a laughable attempt at arm wrestling. To be honest, I would have found it a clever turn if Janeway found the modified Michael less attractive than the original version - but that would be a different episode with an entirely different point to it. I can't say that I found Michael to be a particularly interesting character, but he fulfills his script function of provoking Janeway's internal conflict.


THOUGHTS:

I want to start my review by reflecting on the many great quotes from the various Star Trek captains:

"Risk is our business. That's what this starship is all about, that's why we're aboard her!" -James T. Kirk, Return to Tomorrow.

"The first speech censored, the first thought forbidden, the first freedom denied, chains us all irrevocably." -Jean-Luc Picard, The Drumhead.

"I lied, I cheated, I bribed men to cover the crimes of other men... but the most damning thing of all, I think I can live with it." -Benjamin Sisko, In the Pale Moonlight.

"Delete the wife." -Kathryn Janeway, Fair Haven.

OK, I'm being unfair. I can find plenty of fine Janeway quotes, and more than a few bad ones for the other captains. But Kate Mulgrew's delivery of, "delete the wife," is so perfect in its slightly sadistic eagerness that it becomes memorable.

I'd go so far as to say that line is the only memorable thing in this episode. That's the other reason for me padding the review out with this: I don't actually have much to say about Fair Haven. I don't think there's much to say about it.

I didn't dislike watching it. There's a pleasantly relaxed atmosphere, particularly early on, and it's nice to see the regulars having a good time. Kate Mulgrew is excellent, and she makes Janeway's dilemma over her romance feel relatable more through her performance than through any of the actual lines or character beats that have been written for her.

But there isn't anything here that even approaches being interesting.

Writer Robin Burger avoids the obvious cliché. The holodeck doesn't malfunction. The stakes are purely emotional: Janeway's romance and the internal conflict it provokes in her. This could be the basis for a good episode. Unfortunately, by the time Janeway starts seriously wrestling with having real feelings for someone who isn't himself real, the episode is almost over.

This has become a recurring issue in Voyager's sixth season. This is the fourth episode this year in which major story beats have been underserved because the scripts take too long to get to them. The Technobabble subplot is there to provoke the crisis that forces the episode's ending. Fine - but the story doesn't need to remind us of the Technobabble every single Act. The story also doesn't need scenes with Harry Kim arm-wrestling, and it certainly doesn't need a would-be comic bar brawl. What it needs is a lot more of Janeway with Michael and Janeway thinking about the implications of being with Michael. As it stands, their relationship doesn't even properly start until after the halfway point!

As I noted earlier, the scene between Janeway and the Doctor works because it actually addresses the idea: that feelings matter even when they are attached to fiction. It's a single scene, which isn't nearly enough, but at least it gets a bit of weight thanks to the performances of Kate Mulgrew and Robert Picardo (imagine if this had been a Harry Kim episode, or a Chakotay one). Still, one scene, even a good scene, isn't enough for the viewer to share the emotion. I can intellectually recognize the point being made, but I'm left at a remove from actually feeling it.

I actually think Season Six is on track to be one of Voyager's better seasons. That said, the 43-minute running time of each episode makes it all the more important to get quickly to the main idea of the story and stay there to develop that idea... and this is proving to be an area in which too many scripts are floundering.


OVERALL:

Fair Haven may be the ultimate "meh" episode. There are worse Voyager installments. Bilge like Emanations, Favorite Son, The Fight, and The Disease were endurance tests. By contrast, this is nicely produced, generally well-acted, and all-around pleasant. It's just kind of... well, boring.

And in the end, that's about all I can find to say about Fair Haven.


Overall Rating: 3/10.

Previous Episode: Pathfinder
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6-08. One Small Step.

Seven beams over to the wreckage of
a centuries-lost 21st century space module.

Original Air Date: Nov. 17, 1999. Teleplay by: Mike Wollaeger, Jessica Scott, Bryan Fuller, Michael Taylor. Story by: Mike Wollaeger, Jessica Scott. Directed by: Robert Picardo.


THE PLOT:

When Voyager encounters a graviton ellipse, a rare spatial anomaly that only occasionally enters normal space, Janeway can't resist investigating. Scans reveal wreckage of Ares IV, a command module from a 21st century mission to Mars that disappeared along with its pilot, Lt. John Kelly (Phil Morris).

Janeway authorizes modifying the Delta Flyer to search for the remains of the module inside the ellipse. Chakotay, for whom Kelly was a personal hero, volunteers to lead the mission, with Tom Paris piloting. Janeway also strongly recommends that Seven join them.

They find Ares IV almost entirely intact - but the ellipse begins experiencing dangerous surges and Janeway orders them to abort. Chakotay pauses, activating a tractor beam in an effort to tow the module out. Those precious seconds are enough to trap the Flyer inside the ellipse, with the damage sustained leaving them practically dead in space!


CHARACTERS:

Capt. Janeway: She talks to Seven about the thrill of exploration, which becomes the central theme of this episode. "If scientific knowledge was all we were after, then the Federation would have built a fleet of probes, not starships. Exploration is about seeing things with your own eyes." She urges Seven to volunteer for the mission specifically so that she can experience that for herself.

Chakotay: His hero worship of Kelly feels a bit externally imposed, something to justify his decision to ignore Janeway's orders when he would normally know better. It doesn't help that Robert Beltran is at his most wooden when he's talking about John Kelly. Far more convincing is his talk with Seven about the samples they find inside the ellipse. By contrast with his earlier stiffness, Beltran is rather good when ruminating about a rock that dates back to billions of years before Earth's existence, and I think this single, quiet little scene is my favorite of the episode.

Seven of Nine: She gets legitimately (and understandably) angry at Chakotay for his decision to try to tow the command module out of the anomaly. When she discovers Lt. Kelly's logs, however, she is moved by his demeanor. I'm afraid that I was decidedly unmoved, as Seven has run through the "discovering her own humanity" arc too often at this point, but Jeri Ryan does well with what she's given.

Tom Paris: He also states that Lt. Kelly is a hero of his. Even so, he warns Chakotay that the attempt to tow the command module during the escape is slowing them down, his tone making it clear that he thinks this is a bad idea. Unlike Seven, he does not reproach Chakotay for his actions, instead focusing on the work of making the shuttle functional again.


THOUGHTS:

One Small Step is... fine. The story is better put together than most episodes with four credited writers tend to be. There are decent character moments for Chakotay and Seven, and the scenes in which Lt. Kelly's logs play are reasonably effective. I also liked the visual effects for the ellipse, particularly when the Delta Flyer is trapped inside it.

The episode strongly oversells its message about exploration, though. The Chakotay/Seven scene with the samples works. Most of the other scenes in which Janeway, or Chakoty, or Seven, or Lt. Kelly expound upon the virtues of exploring, though, just don't land for me. The script keeps telling me that what's being discovered is exciting, but it never does anything to make me feel that excitement. If I could have shared in that, I might have found Seven's closing speech to be emotional. Instead, since I felt nothing, the speech just came across as overkill.

That ends up being the big problem with One Small Step. Everything is competent here, but it utterly fails to involve me. I think the scenes with Lt. Kelly work as far as they go, and Phil Morris is quite good in his brief screen time... but even there, he's too much the perfect astronaut. There's little sense of him ever feeling the hopelessness of his situation. As a result, even this part of the episode leaves me at a distance from the action and the characters.


OVERALL:

I don't really have anything else to say about this episode. It's a perfectly unobjectionable 45 minutes of Star Trek. It's well-made and generally well-acted, and there are a couple rather good scenes.

But it just lacks the extra spark that it needs. I never share any of the excitement of exploration that the characters keep going on about, and I never feel properly connected to Lt. Kelly's lonely fate. As a result, One Small Step never quite escapes from being "just fine."


Overall Rating: 5/10.

Previous Episode: Dragon's Teeth
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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.

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6-03. Barge of the Dead.

B'Elanna finds herself on the "Barge of the Dead,"
the mythical Klingon transport to the Underworld.

Original Air Date: Oct. 6, 1999. Written by: Bryan Fuller. Story by: Ronald D. Moore and Bryan Fuller. Directed by: Mike Vejar.


THE PLOT:

When B'Elanna's shuttle is damaged in an ion storm, she barely makes it back to Voyager. She receives a concussion while crash landing in the shuttle bay but is otherwise unharmed... or so it seems.

Her Klingon heritage suddenly hangs over everything. A Klingon object is found wedges in the shuttle, indicating that Klingons somehow found their way to the Delta Quadrant. The crew insists on celebrating with a Klingon-themed party. Even B'Elanna's meditations with Tuvok turn Klingon, with the Vulcan suddenly brandishing a bat'leth and uncharacteristically sneering at her rejection of her mother's culture.

Then Voyager itself fades away, leaving B'Elanna on the Barge of the Dead, the mythical Klingon vessel escorting the dishonored to the afterlife. She learns that she actually died in that shuttle accident and that everything since has been an illusion. As she processes this, a new arrival appears on the barge: Her mother, Miral (Karen Austin). The source of Miral's dishonor? B'Elanna's own rejection of Klingon tradition!


CHARACTERS:

Capt. Janeway: The illusory Janeway is a figure of support, unlike most of the other Voyager crew members. Janeway upbraids her for persisting with the probe recovery that resulted in the shuttle accident, telling her: "We only have one B'Elanna Torres. I don't want to lose her." She then refers to her as "Lanna," a variation on her name used by her mother, one of multiple moments drawing parallels between Janeway and Miral, presenting her as a maternal figure.

Torres: While I have issues with this episode, I am at least happy to see a B'Elanna-centric episode that tries to truly develop her character. What was the last such one? Day of Honor? B'Elanna blames her mother for her parents' divorce, feeling that her mother's obsession with all things Klingon drove her father away. Her mother's insistence on trying to mold her into a warrior also drove her away, not only from her mother but from all things Klingon. Even so, when she sees her mother on the Barge, bound for what is essentially "Klingon hell," she commits fully to saving her from that fate.

Tom Paris: Tries to be supportive of B'Elanna as she suddenly commits to the Klingon afterlife myths. He tries to dissuade her from risking herself but offers his help in cultural pursuits, telling her that he's willing to learn Klingon and "read the scrolls" to help her. Robert Duncan McNeill does a fine job making Tom's worry tangible in these scenes.

Tuvok: We never actually see the "real" Tuvok in this episode, but Tim Russ makes a meal out of the illusory version. The meditation scene starts out fairly normal, with Tuvok speaking in his usual even tones. Even when he first pulls out the bat'leth, it seems like an exercise - until he begins swinging it with the practiced grace of a warrior while berating his student for her disdain for Klingon culture.


THOUGHTS:

This is an episode that I really wish I liked better, because it's exactly what I'd like to see more of from Voyager. My biggest complaint about this series is how content it is to play safe, and this episode tries to break away from that. The script wants to examine Klingon mythology and, in larger form, the ways in which culture and religion can impact even children who don't buy into all aspects of their heritage. The first expands the fictional universe, and the second is a theme worthy of examination.

It starts out quite well. The opening Act, on the illusory Voyager, is effective. The characters are close enough to normal to initially fool the viewers along with B'Elanna. Janeway provides concern; Chakotay, advice; Tom, support. Her interactions with them enable the script to weave in exposition regarding her relationship with her mother and her antipathy toward her Klingon side (much needed, since I think you have to go back to Day of Honor to find the last episode that deals with that).

That something is "off" becomes clear in the scene with Tuvok, in which he behaves in a manner both aggressive and demeaning. Immediately after that, the illusion drops away, revealing the Barge. And just as this mythological voyage is clearly established, B'Elanna's mother is added to the mix as a disgraced soul headed for Klingon hell. At this point, all the pieces are in place for a strong, emotional episode.

Too bad, then, that this marks the moment the episode goes astray for me. B'Elanna is suddenly revived, returning to the "real" Voyager. I understand why this choice was made, as it allows her to actively and willingly go back to the Barge, showing a new seriousness toward a belief system she'd previously scorned. But the cost to the episode is simply too high. It robs ten minutes from the story purely to end up returning her to where she'd already been - and leaving only a few rushed minutes to show any relationship between her and her mother.

I think the story would have worked better had it stayed in this Klingon underworld for the full runtime, only returning to the ship at the very end. Then there would have been an opportunity for the mother/daughter relationship to be better developed through interactions, rather than just a string of declaratives about past events. If the relationship felt real, then so would the stakes. As it stands, I might intellectually understand the importance of this to B'Elanna, but I don't end up feeling anything.

Another issue is that the episode ends rather abruptly. B'Elanna finishes her spiritual journey, and... that's it, really. We need some kind of epilogue to hint that this has had an impact on her, but we don't get that. Unless it's actually followed up in future episodes (not a traditional strength for Voyager), the lack of any tag leaves this experience more a case of "something that happened" rather than "something important that happened."


OVERALL:

I hate finding this episode to be mediocre. After two seasons of neglect, B'Elanna finally gets a story that sincerely tries to make use of her character, and Roxann Dawson delivers an excellent performance. The script has ideas with real dramatic potential, the scenes on the Barge have a decent amount of atmosphere, and the opening Act is extremely promising.

A mid-episode return to Voyager breaks the atmosphere, and it marks the moment the episode slips off the rails. Too much time is devoted to getting the character back to where she already was, which makes for a badly rushed final Act. Had this return been removed and the remainder of the episode more fully developed, I think this would be a lot stronger.

I respect that Barge of the Dead is actually trying. I have a lot more time for an episode that tries to do something and falls short than I do for one that's only attempting to fill airtime. Even so, I'm not going to pretend that it didn't end up leaving me feeling disappointed.


Overall Rating: 4/10.

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5-22. Someone to Watch Over Me.

The Doctor becomes infatuated with Seven.

Original Air Date: Apr. 28, 1999. Teleplay by: Michael Taylor. Story by: Brannon Braga. Directed by: Robert Duncan McNeill.


THE PLOT:

Seven of Nine gets into a heated argument with Torres when she admits that she's been studying her and Tom's relationship as research on "human mating behavior." Since Torres ends the encounter with threats of physical harm, this would have been perfect to help set up her hyper-aggression in Juggernaut; this being Voyager, the confrontation naturally occurs one episode after that, when the issue has theoretically been resolved.

The argument leads a confused Seven to consult with the Doctor, who takes it upon herself to teach her how to date. The Doctor makes a wager with Tom: If Seven brings a date to a reception for an alien ambassador, and actually manages to leave with the same date, then Tom will work double-shifts for a month - but if Seven creates a predictable spectacle, then he will get that same month off.

The reception is for Tomin (Scott Thompson), who represents the Kadi - an ultra-conservative religious race that frowns upon anything that might "inflame the senses." Tomin is here as part of a cultural exchange, visiting Voyager while Janeway and Tuvok beam down to their home planet. He's been left in the care of Neelix, who has developed a strict itinerary for his visit.

But Tomin has little interest in tours of Engineering or in observing his daily prayers. Instead, he wants to sample every sensation Voyager has to offer, from spicy foods to alcohol to amorous holodeck pastimes - until he loudly declares that he wants to stay on Voyager forever!


CHARACTERS:

Capt. Janeway: Only briefly in the episode. She does advise Seven to that she should try dating. Apparently, doing so is only against the rules if you happen to be Harry Kim.

The Doctor: It's always good news when an episode spotlights Robert Picardo's Doctor. Picardo is equally adept at comedy and drama, and he is able to wring the most even from a weak script. Look at the scene in which he shares a singalong with Seven of You Are My Sunshine. He goes through a range of responses as Seven sings: surprise at her vocal quality, then simple enjoyment of the music, and finally - as he watches her - the first stirrings of infatuation. It's a splendid performance, one that helps to keep this fairly mild episode afloat.

Seven of Nine: Jeri Ryan, arguably the show's other most consistent regular, is also very good. When Seven goes on a disastrous date mid-episode, Ryan plays her reactions as someone doing her best to make sense of a foreign concept. Few Star Trek lines have ever been as relatable as her frustration that "dating is a poor means of interaction." She remains blissfully unaware of the Doctor's growing attraction toward her, simply seeing him as a friend who is trying to help her.

Neelix: The "B" plot is a Neelix comedy relief plot, which is usually my cue to start screaming in pain. Except this one mostly works. The comedy isn't particularly funny, but Neelix is surprisingly likable. The key is that he's the straight man. He has seriously and studiously prepared for Tomin's visit, learning all the correct customs and prayer times for his race... only to look on in horror as his charge behaves like an overgrown frat boy. It's a pity Tuvok spends the episode off the ship; one suspects that, after having spent the first three seasons being the designated victim of Neelix's worst tendencies, he might have enjoyed watching the Talaxian's dilemma.


THOUGHTS:

Someone to Watch Over Me is, at least, a much better episode than Juggernaut. It's not a great episode, and I don't really have much to say about it. But at least it was pleasant enough to watch.

"Pleasant" is probably the best descriptor here. The "A" plot borrows a little from My Fair Lady, with the Doctor making a wager to teach Seven social behavior; and a little from Cyrano de Bergerac, with him deliberately trying to guide her into romance even as he falls for her.

It doesn't go very far with either element, however. There might have been some emotional stakes had Seven and the hapless Lt. Chapman (Brian McNamara) actually started a relationship while the Doctor looked on... but their romance is restricted to a single date, with Chapman barely mentioned after that scene. The Doctor's unspoken feelings never really rise beyond infatuation, so there isn't much drama to be wrung from that either.

The "B" plot is also pretty mild. Ethan Phillips and guest star Scott Thompson keep it enjoyable enough - but nothing happens at any point that's unpredictable or even particularly chaotic. Other than a single inappropriate remark to Seven, Tomin essentially spends a couple days of vacation eating too much, drinking too much, and enjoying the company of holographic playmates - which is to say, doing no real harm to anyone. Neelix's frustration is amusing, but it feels like more could have done here.


OVERALL:

In the end, "mild" and "pleasant" are the adjectives that come to mind for Someone to Watch Over Me. It's not a bad episode, and I did not dislike watching it. But there's nothing here that's going to linger in my mind.


Overall Rating: 5/10. Episodes don't come much more average than this.

Previous Episode: Juggernaut
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5-18. Course: Oblivion

The wedding of Tom Paris and B'Elanna Torres.

THE PLOT

Things are looking up for Voyager. A recently enchanced warp drive is estimated to have the ship home in just two years, and a celebratory Tom and B'Elanna have held a wedding ceremony in the Mess Hall. Life is good... Which, of course, means disaster is about to strike.

Despite many simulations showing the enhanced drive is perfectly safe, once in use it causes severe and irreversible degradation to the ship. Then B'Elanna falls ill, and the crew realizes that the same decay is spreading to all of them as well. The Doctor confirms that every one of them is affected, and that they will all die if it cannot somehow be reversed.

Then Tuvok, Seven, and Neelix notice that items recently brought onto the ship are not degrading - Leading to a shocking revelation about the nature of this disease...


CHARACTERS

Capt. Janeway: I have to give the writers credit for a consistent character trait in Janeway this season. All season long, we have seen her making decisions that are rash, self-indulgent, even irrational, all out of guilt at not getting the crew home. Here, she insists on carrying on toward Earth even when it's revealed that doing so could doom them all. Even when it's pointed out that her obsession with getting home is now meaningless, she has to be verbally shaken out of it by Chakotay before backing down.

Chakotay: Fulfills his usual role as Voice of Reason, but this time he's doing more than just playing Devil's Advocate. In a refreshing turn from the show's normal formula, Chakotay is genuinely right to argue against Janeway, and he has the confidence of knowing he is right when pushing her to change her mind before the crew's fate becomes irrevocable. Beltran's performance has a ferocity that's been largely unseen since Scorpion, and this aggressive side manifests without compromising Chakotay's obvious respect and affection for his captain.

Tom Paris: This is also a good episode for Tom, whose early joy at marrying B'Elanna turns to ash when she is among the first crew members stricken. Robert Duncan McNeill does some good acting as Tom sits by his new wife's bedside, describing the perfect honeymoon he had prepared with a cheer that grows ever more false. The episode's second half sees him growing bitter, specifically lashing out at Janeway for what he sees as disastrous decision-making.

Harry Kim: And just to confirm that the crew is in serious trouble, by the episode's end Voyager is under the command of Harry Kim! Even Harry is well-scripted in this episode. Around the midpoint, when Tom's faith in Janeway ebbs, Harry insists that he still believes in her - showing that same faith in her that was such a strong component of episodes like The Thaw. When circumstances leave him in charge, he shows strength and competence, doing all he can to keep the ship together long enough to make sure that all of this crew's missions would mean something.


THOUGHTS

As is probably evident, I quite liked Course: Oblivion - which honestly surprised me. I had already been tipped that this episode drew heavily on last season's Demon, which I found to be a largely pathetic bit of late-season filler. So the last thing I expected was a genuinely engaging, well-paced script that makes good use of every member of the ensemble. I wouldn't go so far as to say this episode retroactively redeems Demon... But it does at least use some of that episode's ideas to deliver a good hour of television.

It's difficult to say much more and not flat-out spoil the big reveal... But I will credit writers Bryan Fuller and Nick Sagan for not trying to hold that twist for the very end. Instead, it is delivered about midway through, leaving the characters to absorb and react to it and even work it into their attempts to solve their problem.

The script excels is in its handling of the characters. Every regular gets at least one strong moment, and every character is scripted well. It's not that Harry, Chakotay, or Neelix are particularly different here than in other episodes - These are recognizably the same characters with the same traits. They are just written a little more sharply, and feel like fuller versions of themselves as a result.

The ending might seem to render the entire episode pointless... But I don't really think so. Even if Voyager and its crew are safely "reset" at the end, we get to see all of them forced to grapple with an increasingly hopeless and desperate situation. As with Year of Hell, another episode whose ending more or less "wiped out" the events of the story, there is merit just in seeing who the characters can be when their backs are against the wall.


Overall Rating: 8/10.

Previous Episode: The Disease
Next Episode: The Fight


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5-13. Gravity.

An alien woman (Lori Petty) is drawn to Tuvok.

THE PLOT

A shuttle carrying Tuvok, Tom, and the Doctor has fallen into a "subspace sinkhole," the intense gravity of this anomaly pulling them down to a desert planet. They encounter Noss (Lori Petty), an alien woman whose ship crashed 14 years earlier, leaving her to survive by hunting spiders and scavenging the many ships that fall afoul of the anomaly. She tells them that in the years she has been here, she has seen many ships come down - but none have gone back up again.

Back on Voyager, Janeway searches for the missing crew members and discovers the anomaly. A probe is launched through it, and quickly picks up the distress beacon of the crashed shuttle. Then Supervisor Yost (Paul Eckstein), the captain of an alien ship, arrives to announce that he will seal this rift to prevent more ships from being destroyed, allowing them only a few hours to attempt a rescue. The situation becomes even more complicated when they study the data sent back by the probe and realize that the intense gravity has created a time differential. While only hours have passed on Voyager, the shuttle party has lived for months on this planet... Time enough for Noss to fall hopelessly in love with Tuvok!


CHARACTERS

Capt. Janeway: Attempts to negotiate with Yost for more time to rescue her people. When he refuses to even consider, she pushes her crew to find a solution in the time that's available.

Tuvok: This is basically a Tuvok episode... But as good as the ever-reliable Tim Russ is, the best scenes belong to LeRoy D. Brazile, playing a younger version of the character in flashbacks. Brazile does a splendid job conveying Tim Russ' vocal and physical characteristics. I knew the second the episode began that I was watching Tuvok as a child, before any dialogue was spoken and before the character's name was identified. This young Tuvok is going through a crisis, caused by an attraction to a classmate, leaving him rejecting the Vulcan insistence on denying emotion. His Vulcan Master (Joseph Ruskin) gently but firmly steers him back to control. These scenes help reconcile the supposed emotionlessness of the Vulcans with the obvious flashes of emotion we've frequently seen in the adult Tuvok... And are genuinely engaging in a way that the episode's main plot is not.

Tom Paris: His role is to lend a voice to the adult Tuvok's emotional side. With Tuvok denying any interest in Noss, it falls to Tom to vocalize the obvious temptation of being stranded with an attractive and capable woman. The episode pushes this a little far, having Tom seem bizarrely eager for (married) Tuvok to start a relationship with Noss when even from their perspective it hasn't been so long to just assume [I]Voyager[/I] has given up on rescue. This destroys the potential effectiveness of having the human character give voice to Tuvok's temptation. Well, that and the lack of any sense that Tuvok actually [I]is[/I] tempted, leading to the last problem...

Noss: Lori Petty is not at all bad as Noss. The voice she puts on grows irritating across the full episode, but she does a solid job of showing the woman's evolution from wariness at these new arrivals to attraction to Tuvok. I entirely believed in Noss' attraction to Tuvok. But Tim Russ shares no screen chemistry with her, and I never believed Tuvok was particularly interested in her - Which, combined with the overwriting of the Tom scenes, just destroys any potential effectiveness.


THOUGHTS

It's been a while since Voyager has offered a bad episode. The last truly wretched outing was near the very start of the season. Since then, episodes have ranged from flawed-but-watchable to outstanding, and the last several have been consistently strong.

Gravity isn't initially awful. The opening Act is promising, with the flashback teaser featuring young Tuvok well-written and well-shot. That promise extends to the first Act, which enlivens another tedious "shuttle crash" scenario by showing events from Noss' viewpoint, so that we are introduced to the planet, to her scavenging, and to the crash of the shuttle all through her eyes. We also only meet Tom, Tuvok, and the Doctor as she does. All of this works and works well, and for the first 15 minutes, the episode had me.

But after the commercial, the viewpoint reverts to Tom and Tuvok, and everything becomes much less interesting as an all too-familiar plot plays out in an all too-familiar fashion. With Tom's writing somewhere between "off" and downright bizarre, and a lack of chemistry between Tim Russ and Lori Petty, the Second Act proves a trial to plow through, and when we finally cut to Voyager, it's a relief.

Of course, once we're safely with Janeway and Torres and Harry Kim, we get a steady parade of Voyager's Greatest Hits: Buckets of meaningless Technobabble delivered at very fast speeds; pointlessly antagonistic aliens who make things difficult for no discernible reason; and a climax that depends on an arbitrary time limit so that the writers can pretend they are creating tension.

Keeping this from the depths are the genuinely arresting first Act and the (too few) flashbacks to Tuvok's time with a Vulcan teacher. The conversations between the rebellious young Vulcan and the patient Master carry a sharpness lacking in the main story's dialogue, and the two actors are so good that I would have happily watched a full episode just about them. By the end, I was wading through the main story while waiting for the next flashback - The exact reverse of most episodes that feature flashback subplots. The strength of these scenes is enough to raise my score by a full point.

Overall, it's still pretty weak, though. A disappointing anomaly in what has been a good season.


Overall Rating: 4/10.

Previous Episode: Bride of Chaotica!
Next Episode: Bliss


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5-12. Bride of Chaotica!

Janeway forges an evil alliance with the fiendish Dr. Chaotica!

THE PLOT

Tom and Harry are enjoying another chapter of The Adventures of Captain Proton in the holodeck when the ship jolts and stalls in a layer of subspace. As Voyager struggles to escape, Tom and Harry discover distortions inside the program. They are unable to end the program, and have to rely on transporters to escape the holodeck.

The distortions are actually life-forms that are photonic in nature. They recognize the holodeck characters as real, and consider the humans to be illusory. When Dr. Chaotica (Martin Rayner), the Captain Proton villain, declares war on them, the battle threatens to destroy Voyager - Unless Tom and Janeway can play by Captain Proton's own rules to defeat Chaotica!


CHARACTERS

Capt. Janeway: The second half sees her entering the program as Arachnia, Queen of the Spider People, the object of Dr. Chaotica's romantic obsession. Kate Mulgrew is obviously having a great time hamming (and vamping) it up, gliding across the screen like a melodramatic silent movie villain. There are a few bits in which she goes overboard, getting a bit too twitchy, but most of her performance is amusing. Fittingly, the single funniest bit is played fairly low-key, when she sits on Chaotica's throne only to remark (entirely as Janeway) that it's "surprisingly comfortable."

Tom Paris: His enthusiasm for the Captain Proton program isn't all fanboy indulgence. There's actually a purpose: He's studying "how past generations viewed the future," which ties in well with previous episodes that have established his interest in Earth history. His familiarity with the Proton universe allows him to act as a guide for the other crew members (and the audience), explaining how and why the various characters act as they do throughout the program.

The Doctor: After the heavy emotional outing of the previous episode, this situation lets Robert Picardo indulge in some amusing, largely low-key comic mugging. He goes into the program to impersonate "The President of Earth," acting as an emissary to the aliens since as a hologram, he's the only member of the ship's crew they will recognize as a life form. He assists Tom (as Proton) at the episode's climax, and his reactions to instructions like, "Activate the Destructo Beam!" are very entertaining.

Harry Kim: Is lured into the holodeck program by Tom's promise that this chapter has slave girls in it... Which doesn't stop him from acidically noting that the planet is identical to that of another chapter. His role is reduced to its usual background one after the 20-minute mark, which is actually a shame - For a change, he is genuinely fun company (watch the sadistic glee he gets in zapping a bad guy multiple times), and I would have enjoyed him playing Tom's sardonic sidekick for the full episode.

Dr. Chaotica: The character is a parody, basically a send-up of Ming the Merciless, and Martin Rayner's over-the-top performance reflects that. But while he is clearly playing for laughs, he also reigns it in enough that we never get the sense that Chaotica is trying to be funny. The villain may be cheesy, but he is formidable. His forces fight the extra-dimensional aliens to a standstill, and he even gets the drop on Janeway at a critical moment, which puts just enough edge into a joke villain to keep the plot turning.


THOUGHTS

Bride of Chaotica! sits on the opposite pole from Latent Image. That episode was about serious ideas involving survivor's guilt and the nature of memory and identity. This one is... Well, really just about having a good time with a pastische of 1930s Flash Gordon serials.

When it sticks to the parody, it's terrifically entertaining. The black-and-white holodeck scenes are wonderfully cheesy, with the hilariously useless "Satan's Robot" a particular highlight. What keeps this from the level fo inspired lunacy is the shipboard scenes. Every time the action leaves the holodeck, the pace dies, and entirely too much time is spent on Technobabble explanations involving the region of space in which Voyager is trapped. Memo the writers: We don't care about the subspace gobbledygook, and every second devoted to that takes away from the addictive fun of Captain Proton.

Still, the bulk of Bride of Chaotica! stays either within or in close proximity to the holodeck adventure, and those scenes are uniformly enjoyable. The episode may not reach the level of inspired lunacy achieved by Deep Space 9's Our Man Bashir, but it remains a good ride.


Overall Rating: 7/10.

Previous Episode: Latent Image
Next Episode: Gravity


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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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4-24. 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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