6-05. Alice.

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

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

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


THE PLOT:

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

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


CHARACTERS:

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

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

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

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

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


THOUGHTS:

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

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

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

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

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


OVERALL:

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

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


Overall Rating: 3/10.

Previous Episode: Tinker Tenor Doctor Spy
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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.

Previous Episode: Survival Instinct
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Thoughts on Season Five.

Janeway wrestles with her past choices in Night.

THOUGHTS ON SEASON FIVE:

This is a tricky overview for me to write, given that I burned out on writing reviews and took an extended break about three quarters of the way through Season Five. I rewatched a handful of episodes before moving forward (not all, because life is far, far too short for me to ever rewatch The Disease or The Fight). Even so, some of this is going to be based on memory and on re-reading my years-old reviews from the first part of the season.

That disclaimer out of the way, what follows are my general impressions of Season Five of Star Trek: Voyager.


SEASON FOUR, CONTINUED:

As the season opens, Voyager feels the most confident it has ever been. And why not? Season Four was generally well-received. The addition of Seven of Nine to the cast worked well; and though the odd clunker is baked in with a 26-episode season, overall episode quality was higher than had previously been the case.

For its first two thirds, I'd say that the best description of Season Five is "Season Four, Continued." Seven of Nine remains prominent, with major episodes centered around her backstory. Other episodes follow up on the Borg and Species 8472. Most importantly, up through Dark Frontier, the overall quality remains high. Extreme Risk is pretty bad, and Gravity is rather middling, but most installments are well-made and entertaining. There are even a few standouts, notably Timeless and Latent Image.

Unfortunately, the season doesn't manage to sustain that level to the end...

The Borg Queen tempts Seven in Dark Frontier. It feels like
a season finale - and it probably should have been...

AN UNEVEN FINAL THIRD:

Dark Frontier is to Season Five of Voyager what Q Who? was to Season Two of TNG. It's a strong episode (involving the Borg, no less), and everything about the production indicates that it was the season's big spectacle. But once it's done, there are still several episodes to go - and, as was true of Season Two of TNG, the writers don't seem to know what to do with those episodes.

There are bright spots throughout this final stretch. I enjoyed Course: Oblivion and Think Tank, even if the latter suffers from a weak ending. 11:59 shows off Kate Mulgrew's acting range, and Relativity is a lot of fun.

But this marks the point at which there's a bad (or at least mediocre) episode for every good one. In rapid succession, we get a few dire offerings: In The Disease, Harry Kim has sex... without permission! (From Janeway, I mean. He had permission from his partner). The Fight combines boxing with one of Chakotay's Vision Quests. Juggernaut focuses on a very grumpy B'Elanna Torres...grumpy, I'm assuming, because she read the script first. All we need is a planet of Irish stereotypes and a clip show, and it would basically be late Season Two of TNG!

It's a pity. As of Dark Frontier, I was ready to label this as Voyager's best season thus far. But that last batch of episodes moves it well below Season Four in my rankings (though still above Season Two and Three).

Torres grapples with trauma in Extreme Risk. Believe it
or not, this is the better of her two Season Five episodes.

TWO TIERS OF CHARACTERS:

It's been evident for a while that Voyager has separated its regular cast into two tiers. Janeway, the Doctor, Seven, and Tuvok regularly get the best material. This makes sense, given that Kate Mulgrew, Robert Picardo, Jeri Ryan, and Tim Russ are the show's most consistently strong actors. But the remaining characters... mostly get to fight over scraps.

Tom Paris and B'Elanna Torres are the oddest characters to have been shunted to the lower tier, given that they actually got a lot of focus early in the series. Despite the characters being interesting on the page, and despite solid performances from Robert Duncan McNeill and Roxann Dawson, Seasons Four and Five have seen both increasingly relegated to "scraps."

At least Tom gets one good spotlight episode, along with some decent material in other episodes. Bride of Chaotica is a particularly entertaining show, one that I included in my partial season rewatch for no reason other than wanting to see it again. But the writers don't seem to have any clue what to do with B'Elanna - which is strange, since she was one of the better characters in the early seasons.

There were two Torres-centric Season Five episodes, and both were... well, bad. Extreme Risk had an interesting idea, as B'Elanna suffered survivor's guilt after learning about the deaths of her friends in the Maquis. Unfortunately, it dealt with the subject in a painfully superficial manner, with her cured of all problems by having a chat with Chakotay. I'd make a crack about '80s After School Specials, but most of those were frankly better written.

Juggernaut saves time by not even bothering with an interesting idea. Instead, the bad TV writer's trick is employed of regressing B'Elanna into the walking personification of anger. Why is she angry? Don't ask questions that might lead to anything interesting. She's just angry and foul tempered because that way, it feels like progress when she starts behaving like herself again at the end. The episode itself is bad; its treatment of B'Elanna as a character is awful.

Though at least, unlike Harry, she doesn't have an episode that sees her getting into trouble for having sex with another consenting adult...

Neelix argues with Janeway in Once Upon a Time.

THE MOST IMPROVED CHARACTER - NEELIX:

The last few seasons, the writers seem to have made a habit of taking one failed character and putting some real focus on them to prove that the character can work. Chakotay got good material in late Season Three and early Season Four. Harry Kim was made actively compelling in Timeless, my pick as Season Five's best episode (and yes, my favorite episode this season was a Harry Kim episode. Hell has frozen over).

For the bulk of this season, though, the designated "improved" character has been Neelix. Yes, the usually insufferable Talaxian is transformed into someone sympathetic and even likable. I began to consciously notice this while watching the late Season Five episodes. When putting this overview together, I reviewed my Season Five posts in which I used the tag, "Neelix," just to make sure. And yes, in every case, I have remarked that Season Five Neelix has been well-portrayed as a character.

This includes episodes that show his faults. Once Upon a Time carries forward Neelix's friendship with young Naomi Wildman (Scarlett Pomers), first seen in Season Four's Mortal Coil. The plot revolves around Neelix trying to distract Naomi while her mother is in mortal danger. It reaches a point where it's obvious to all that the girl needs to be told that her mother might not come home; but Neelix digs in, desperate to shield Naomi for as long as possible, even shouting at Janeway at one point. He's in the wrong, completely in the wrong... but given the situation and given his backstory, we can fully empathize with him even as we see that he's wrong. And, good writing for Neelix aside, that one's not even that great an episode!

Other episodes use him sparingly, but to good effect. In Drone, he's the one crew member who is open in his interactions with the Borg drone. In Counterpoint, his good cheer helps to keep the telepathic children calm and quiet during the Devore inspections. In 11:59, he provides a sympathetic ear to Janeway's story about her ancestor and spends his free time digging up additional information. These are all good uses of the character, as opposed to the annoying comic relief that's so often been his default mode in the past.

But, if past "improved characters" are any indication, Season Six will likely return Neelix to his previous state of bad comedy relief, just like Chakotay returned to being cardboard and Harry returned to being... well, Harry. It's as if the writers have some sort of cap on how many well-written characters can exist at any one time.

The Doctor uncovers a past decision that he can't live with
in Latent Image, one of the season's best episodes.

SEASON SIX WISHLIST:

A couple of the items from my earlier "Season Five Wishlist" actually came to pass. Seven of Nine has remained one of the show's most prominent characters, but she has been pared back. As good as she was in Season Four, it felt as if other characters suffered for her success. In Season Five, she fits within the ensemble.

That leads me to my primary wish list item for Season Six... and really, for the remainder of the series. I would really like to see the show balance its cast better. I already mentioned that Voyager's regulars are divided into two tiers. And yes, Janeway and Seven and Tuvok and the Doctor are fine characters well-portrayed by fine actors. But the "B" tier characters can also work, as has been proved in past episodes. B'Elanna used to be one of the most interesting members of the cast, and I'm confident that she could be again if anyone bothered to actually write for her.

Past that... Well, I've long since given up on Voyager ever being a show that's consistently interesting to me. That said, Season Four, and at least the first two thirds of Season Five, show that it's capable of being a pretty good version of itself. I'd like to see more of that: more compelling episodes like Latent Image and Timeless, more bonkers fun like Bride of Chaotica! and Relativity, more decent character pieces like Counterpoint... and far, far fewer piles of sludge like Juggernaut that seem to exist solely to burn off an episode slot.

Right now, Voyager is my least favorite Star Trek series. But it has a pretty good cast; and for all the wasted potential, it has a capable team of writers. There's still 51 episodes left, which is longer than full runs of several series. That's more than enough time for Voyager to make me change my opinion of it. I'd love to see that happen... though at the same time, I'm not holding my breath.

Janeway plays an Evil Overlord. It seems to come naturally to her.

IN CONCLUSION:

Voyager is not, and has never been, a bad show on an episode-by-episode basis. The best episodes of Voyager are as good as those of any Trek series, and the worst episodes are no worse than the dregs of TNG and Deep Space 9, both of which I like much better as series.

Its big problem is that, unlike those shows, there doesn't seem to be any real focus. It's set in a new section of space, but it doesn't expand the Trek universe the way TNG did. The crew is confined to one ship and has no support, but there's precious little in the way of developing plot and character arcs like DS9 had.

In the end, it's mostly a collection of episodes: some good, some bad, and a lot that fall in between. More than anything else, I think that's what keeps me at arm's length. There are individual episodes that I love... but even when I watch a great one, I can't summon up any excitement for the next one.


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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
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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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5-18. 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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5-9. 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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5-8. Nothing Human.

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

THE PLOT

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

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

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


CHARACTERS

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

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

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

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


THOUGHTS

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

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

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

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

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


Overall Rating: 7/10.


Previous Episode: Infinite Regress
Next Episode: Thirty Days


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5-3. 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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4-20. Vis a Vis.

Tom Paris is behaving very strangely...

THE PLOT:

Tom Paris is at loose ends. He seems suddenly (inexplicably suddenly) disconnected from his life and responsibilities, spending most of his free time in the holodeck and dodging his studies with the Doctor and his relationship with B'Elanna. He only becomes engaged when Voyager encounters a ship on the verge of destroying itself due to a faulty coaxial warp drive. Tom improvises a solution that allows Voyager to save this ship.

He befriends the pilot, Steth (Dan Butler), and gets permission to help the alien repair the ship. But once the repairs are complete, Steth springs a surprise: He is actually a lifeform that switches bodies with his victims. He knocks Tom out, switches bodies with him, then sends his ship away with Tom-as-Steth aboard, with no way to access the ship's systems to get back.

Steth now has full run of Voyager, and of Tom Paris' life. And if that proves not to be all he wants, then he has his pick of Voyager crew members with whom he can switch - including Captain Janeway!


CHARACTERS

Capt. Janeway: She recognizes that "Tom's" behavior has changed drastically, and she orders him to submit to a physical to make sure there is no physical cause for it. This provokes the Third Act Crisis when, to the surprise of no one who has ever watched a television show before, she ends up becoming the next to be body-snatched... A potentially entertaining idea that is thrown away completely, with not even a single amusing line. Kate Mulgrew, who is usually able to carry even the weakest episodes, just looks bored - likely because she read the script.

Tom Paris: There is no good reason for Tom's listlessness in the first half, and no real reason for him to be suddenly cured of that at the end. Tom is the one person who has consistently championed the better life he has aboard Voyager than in his old life, so the suggestion that he somehow misses a life he has consistently rejected feels untrue - A manufactured emotional crisis to try to pretend that a gimmick episode is somehow a character piece. I'd say that at least it wasn't a Harry Kim episode, except the crisis of listlessness would actually have made more emotional sense for Harry... And it's a sad day when I'm seriously considering that an episode might have been better had it focused on Harry Kim!

Torres: While in Tom's form, the alien sleeps with B'Elanna. When she realizes this, does she feel violated? Enraged? Guilty for enjoying it, or for not somehow realizing that the man she was with was not actually Tom? No. The script wastes gobs of screen time on Tom's fake crisis. But B'Elanna being genuinely violated? That doesn't even merit a reaction, either because it might be too uncomfortable for an episode this bland or (more likely) because writer Robert J. Dougherty never even thought about it.


THOUGHTS

Vis a Vis is two episodes in one, both of them bad. The first half wants to be a character piece, but instead of examining the character of Tom Paris as he has been consistently portrayed it insists on creating a fake crisis to make him suddenly (completely out of nowhere) dissatisfied with his new life. The second half wants to be a fun body swap piece, but with half the episode already gone by the time this story starts, it's too rushed to have any fun with the notion.

Had the body-switching alien been revealed by the end of the First Act, with its nature revealed to the crew by the midpoint or so, then we at least could have had some fun with the regulars all playing an alien mimic of themselves. The episode could have even have ventured into The Thing territory, with the various regulars unable to be certain at any given moment that their friends are actually still themselves.

With no genuine emotion, no real suspense, and not even any sense of fun, what we're left with is a tedious filler episode, further weighed down by Voyager's propensity for Technobabble. In Season Two or Season Three, I'd have just labeled this "more of the same." In the much better Season Four, an episode this bad stands out all the more.


Overall Rating: 2/10.

Previous Episode: The Killing Game
Next Episode: The Omega Directive


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