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Star Trek Voyager (VOY) Season 7 Reviews

Season 1Season 2Season 3Season 4Season 5Season 6Season 7

ImperfectionDriveRepressionCritical CareInside ManBody and SoulNightingale
Flesh and Blood I/IIShatteredLineageRepentanceProphecy
The VoidWorkforce I/IIHuman ErrorQ2Author, AuthorFriendship One
Natural LawHomesteadRenaissance ManEndgame

 

Unimatrix Zero II

See VOY season 6

 

Imperfection

Synopsis

"Imperfection"

Stardate 54129.4: The Borg twins Rebi and Azan leave the ship to return to their people, the Wysanti, together with Mezoti. When Seven of Nine attempts to regenerate, the alcove does not connect with her cortical node. She refuses to accept help and collapses in the mess hall during her sleepless night. The Doctor is afraid that the failure of the device will eventually lead to her death, unless a replacement can be found. Janeway, Tuvok and Tom take the new Delta Flyer to retrieve a cortical node from a dead drone in a debris field. After shaking off scavengers that claim the debris for themselves, they arrive with the implant. However, all simulations of using the salvaged device fail because it has been inactive for too long. Seven would need a cortical node from a live drone. She submits to her fate, but Icheb isn't willing to give up. He finds out that he could survive without his own node because he has never been fully assimilated. When he proposes to donate it, Janeway and the Doctor are hopeful but Seven rejects the idea because it would put her pupil and friend at risk. Icheb then spontaneously deactivates his node to force a decision. Seven reluctantly has to agree to the procedure. After six days, she wakes up in her alcove and asks how Icheb is doing. His recovery will take longer, but he will be fine again - and will take the Starfleet Academy exam with Seven's support.

Review

"Imperfection" comes with a simple yet touching story, one of those that show the essence of Star Trek beneath the technobabble and special effects. My plot outline, with its focus on cortical nodes and surgical procedures, only covers the basic events. The real heart of the episode lies in Seven of Nine slowly realizing that the people around her, namely Janeway, the Doctor, Neelix, even B'Elanna, and especially her student Icheb care for her in ways that go far beyond duty.

Seven has faced a serious illness before in "Infinite Regress" in season 5, but her fractured mental state then kept her from understanding what was happening. In "Imperfection", she is fully aware of her condition, yet unaware of something else. She does not see that she is not alone with it. Her struggle is not only physical but also shaped by her time as a Borg. Seven still seems to believe that one must earn one's place, deserve survival and justify continued existence through usefulness. A drone that can no longer contribute is simply deactivated. Part of her still thinks this rule applies to her. This leads to some misjudgments. The arguably worst one is that she assumes that Janeway wants to save her because Seven has not yet lived up to the captain's expectations, and that Janeway is driven by a sense of unfinished work rather than genuine affection. At one point, Seven even suggests that Janeway has already calculated acceptable losses among the crew. Seven cannot imagine that she is valued for who she is, not for what she can do.

The crew makes this clear in different ways. B'Elanna, who often clashes with Seven, tells her directly that she would be missed, not because of her skills but because she has become part of their lives. And Icheb, the one person Seven has allowed herself to mentor, finally forces her to accept the help she would never hesitate to give someone else. His willingness to sacrifice himself shows her a truth she has long resisted. Compassion is not a transaction, not something that must be earned. Seven's confrontation with death can be seen as a final test on her path toward humanity, but the lesson she takes from it is not about preparing for the end. Instead, it is about understanding how to live among people who care for one another.

The emotional impact of the episode stays with the viewer. Classic Star Trek has always been strong in this kind of heartfelt storytelling, where moments of connection feel genuine and earned. It has a warmth that some recent iterations struggle to match, where emotional beats can appear suddenly and disappear just as quickly. "Imperfection" takes its time with the characters, and it trusts the audience to feel with them. By the end, Seven may not be the only one with tears in her eyes.

Annotations

Rating: 7

 

Drive

Synopsis

"Drive"

Stardate 54058.6: Tom and Harry are on a test flight in an asteroid field with the new Delta Flyer, when another small vessel appears and the pilot challenges them to a spontaneous race. When the other ship suffers an engine failure, they rescue the pilot, a woman named Irina, and offer her to assist with the repairs. Irina tells Tom and Harry of the big race she is going to participate in, the Antarian Transstellar Rally. It was initiated to celebrate the end of a long war between different species of this region of space. Janeway approves of Tom's request to join with the Delta Flyer, with a fuel converter provided by Irina so the ship would be according to regulations. Tom is so excited that he forgets to tell B'Elanna in time, who is looking forward to a romantic weekend on the holodeck. Janeway welcomes the Antarian ambassador O'Zaal aboard Voyager, who is concerned about special requests of some of the participants. The captain offers Voyager as a neutral ground for the opening ceremony. As the race is about to start, Tom is surprised that B'Elanna comes aboard as his co-pilot, rather than Harry. She helps him to take the lead. But then an accident happens on Irina's ship, in which her co-pilot Joxom is injured. It is found to be an act of sabotage, but everyone agrees the race has to continue so the extremists wouldn't win. Harry enters the rally as Irina's new co-pilot. Soon after the restart, Irina's ship breaks down yet again. Harry suspects that Irina herself is responsible for the sabotage. He holds her at gunpoint. As she seems to be very interested to know how the Delta Flyer is doing, he deducts that she rigged the fuel converter to explode, which would kill everyone in the vicinity. Meanwhile on the Delta Flyer, which is still in the lead, B'Elanna and Tom get into an argument, and he stops ahead of the finish line to prove she is more important to him than the race. Irina has shut down communications, but Harry manages to modulate a pulse to send Tom a Morse code as a warning. With only one minute left until the detonation, he turns around the Delta Flyer and drops the warp core into a nebula to contain the blast. But he still takes time to propose marriage to B'Elanna, which she accepts.

Review

I wonder why no one had come up with the idea of a shuttle race in Star Trek before this episode. Although the race gradually loses its importance to both the terrorist plot and to Tom and B'Elanna's relationship, it remains one of the coolest ideas of the series and a perfect fit for Tom. I love it. I also like that Tom's closest friends, B'Elanna and Harry, are strongly involved, while most other crew members only add small touches to a story that focuses on this trio.

Tom and Harry are completely in character, but B'Elanna at first seems somewhat unfamiliar. She is so understanding, calm and reflective, and so ready to set aside her own wishes. Maybe this comes from Tuvok's mental training or from her recent Borg experience. At the same time, she is thinking about leaving Tom. So instead of showing that she has changed, does her behavior simply reveal how unsure she is about everything? If breaking up with Tom is on her mind, she may not know when or how to tell him. She seems to be working through it step by step. But would she really join the shuttle race, pretend everything is fine, and tell Tom afterwards that it is over? I think that while she is never excited about the race, she secretly hopes that joining Tom might help their relationship, rather than being an opportunity to end it. It is also interesting that Seven, the least experienced person in relationships, is the one who gives her the advice. Only a week after their talk about death and the afterlife, this is another sign that they have finally become friends.

It is out of stubbornness that Tom stops the Delta Flyer just before the finish line, which naturally upsets B'Elanna because she does everything she can to help him win. In a way, though, he returns her earlier gesture of putting someone else's needs first. Still, quid pro quo is not what love is really about, and both Tom and B'Elanna slowly understand that (actually, a bit like Seven did last week). Their conversation is awkward, as is the idea that they stop the shuttle right in front of the finish line, almost as if they know it is rigged to explode once they cross it. But this part of the story works surprisingly well, especially with the cuts between the tense situation on Irina's ship and Tom and B'Elanna's small argument. There is also a nice irony in the fact that while Tom and B'Elanna still agree that Harry and Irina seem like a better match, the latter two are fighting over the control of a weapon at that moment. Love has no simple rules, there is no perfect couple, and partners do not need to share all interests or agree on everything, except for the one question that B'Elanna answers with "yes". The marriage proposal reminds me of "Day of Honor", where it also takes an emergency for B'Elanna to admit that she loves Tom. I still do not fully understand her motivation or her apparent change of mind in "Drive", but this episode has grown on me over the years.

Annotations

Rating: 7

 

Repression

Synopsis

"Repression"

Stardate 54090.4: As B'Elanna and Tom are going to enjoy their movie night in a holographic theater, they find Ensign Tabor, who was in charge of preparing the program, in a comatose state. Tuvok discovers that internal sensor logs have been tampered with. He suspects that one of Voyager's crew assaulted Tabor. Then another crew member gets attacked. And yet another one. All have in common that they were part of Chakotay's former Maquis crew. Suspicions begin to arise. Is some Starfleet member taking revenge on the Maquis? Did Janeway receive orders to neutralize them? Tabor wakes up again and seems fine. But as B'Elanna is working in a cargo bay, she too gets attacked. When Chakotay finds her, suddenly Tuvok stands in front of him and forces a mind meld upon him, leaving him unconscious as well for a while. Tuvok is not aware of what he is doing. But he finds clues that connect him to the crimes. He overrides the restrictions on his own sensor logs, which reveal that he was on the holodeck when Tabor was attacked. Janeway has Tuvok confined to the brig. It turns out that a transmission from his son in the Alpha Quadrant contained a subconscious message from a Bajoran called Teero, who had conditioned the Vulcan's mind already when he was covertly collaborating with the Maquis. Teero made Tuvok mind-meld with the Maquis members, with the intention to have them take over the ship. After receiving the keyword "Pagh'tem'far. B'tanay." from Tuvok, Chakotay initiates the mutiny. Tuvok, on the other hand, has overcome his conditioning in the meantime. When Chakotay hands him a phaser to kill Janeway, he pretends to comply but then mind melds with Chakotay to revert the commander's mental state likewise.

Review

"Repression" is an episode as it should have been made in the first two seasons of the show. It arrives years too late to capitalize on the intriguing initial setting of a heterogeneous crew with different histories and different interests. I concede the very story depends on Voyager being in contact with Starfleet, but I could just as well imagine something that could have triggered a mutiny in the early days, without someone in the Alpha Quadrant being behind it. Although the setup is a bit contrived, I am overall content with the idea of pitting Vulcan against Bajoran mental powers. Still, considering the potential of the premise, the actual story is uneven, and its execution comes across as routine.

I really like the clever reconstruction of the crime scene on the holodeck, using the "negative image" left behind (the space where no photons were projected). This recalls what Geordi did in TNG: "Identity Crisis". Tim Russ gives a strong performance as Tuvok. The episode has the best scenes for the character in quite a while, especially with his "hunches" that increasingly come with doubts about his own mental state. Yet, as a character study, this "Lt. Tuvok and Mr. Hyde" scenario doesn't even come close to "Riddles" in season 6 where both the script and Tim Russ were exceptional. Also, the fear of being attacked and the increasing paranoia among the Maquis could have been captured better than by them running around with phaser rifles and resorting to conspiracy theories. They should be afraid but they are rather aggressive and divisive in the way they talk and act, almost from the start. I mean, statements like "I've never trusted the Vulcan" after seven years of common service feel forced. The tension, also between Chakotay and Janeway, is played out for the sake of the drama, not because it would make much sense. The ending of "Repression" is the biggest disappointment. After all the turmoil and after several minds have been screwed up, it is just too easy that Tuvok spontaneously recovers from his condition and that he can heal Chakotay too, simply through yet another mind meld. I think we would have deserved a more rewarding conclusion.

Voyager has never been very strong on continuity, but it is particularly distracting here that conflicts and even crew members appear out of the blue. Especially the existence of a so far unseen Vulcan woman on the ship is unlikely with regard to "Blood Fever" and almost impossible after "Counterpoint". I considered raising my rating after the rewatch, but Voyager could really have done better in its seventh year than this story with its hastily made up conflict and its just as hasty resolution.

Annotations

Rating: 3

 

Critical Care

Synopsis

"Critical Care"

Stardate not given: A man named Gar has stolen the Doctor's mobile emitter and sells it to Chellick, the administrator of a Dinaali hospital. Once activated, the Doctor protests, but he is ready to help as injured patients are coming in. On Voyager, Harry and Tom notice that something is wrong with their EMH, who turns to be a poor replica. In the Dinaali hospital, the actual Doctor learns that a computer known as the Allocator decides about the treatment a patient receives based on their TC, the treatment coefficient, with Level Red being the lowest and Level Blue the highest standard. A boy named Tebbis on Level Red suffers from a lethal infection that could easily be cured with cytoglobin. But cytoglobin is not available for the patients on Level Red that are deemed less important for the Dinaali society. The Doctor steals cytoglobin from Level Blue, where it merely serves to delay arterial aging. He administers it to Tebbis, who soon feels better. The Doctor finds allies in Dr. Voje on Level Red and Dr. Dysek on Level Blue, who help him cover up the medicine transfers. But then the Doctor learns that Tebbis had complications and died because the Allocator denied him life-saving procedures. Chellick now knows about the smuggled medicine. He confines the Doctor to Level Blue under the control of the Allocator and sends his patients home. But the Doctor has a plan. He calls Dr. Voje, who secretly takes the mobile emitter back to Level Red after the scheduled deactivation of the program. In the meantime, Voyager traces Gar's flight path and finds various of his trade partners. He turns out to be a notorious crook. Janeway has his ship locked in a tractor beam and transported him to the brig. Neelix ostensibly brings him a poisoned meal, upon which Gar reveals that he sold the mobile emitter to the Dinaali hospital ship 42. When Chakotay and B'Elanna beam down to retrieve him, the Doctor still has one unfinished business. Having infected Chellick with the virus that killed Tebbis, the administrator now registers as a Level Red patient and is denied treatment by the Allocator - unless he generally changes the policy and allows treatment on Level Blue for those who need it to survive.

Review

I like the idea of "Critical Care" (to use the Doctor as a doctor) far more than previous motivations for "holonapping" such as in "Future's End" or in the utterly pointless "Concerning Flight". In this regard, it is also fitting that medical ethics comes into play. Medical treatment in the Dinaali hospital depends on the TC, the social status of a person, and it ultimately decides about whether you live or die. That may seem unjust and inhumane, but on an overpopulated planet with scarce resources, and perhaps with a history of failed alternatives, it could be seen as a solution. Chellick presents some convincing arguments for its necessity. At the same time, he is an employee who would never criticize the system his job depends on - unless his own life is at stake.

However, we never get a bigger picture of the situation of the Dinaali. Our Doctor focuses on helping here an now, and he definitely doesn't have a chance to survey the whole economy of the planet, let alone devise a plan to change it. His medicine smuggling is made simple and is clearly moral because his privileged patient on Level Blue merely receives the cytoglobin to delay aging. Two factors facilitate his actions: there is more than enough cytoglobin available, and no one on Level Blue appears to be seriously ill. I only wonder what he would have done if faced with a true dilemma - whether to save a few patients on Level Blue for certain, or distribute the scarce cytoglobin across Level Red, leaving none of them fully treated. Without such a choice, it becomes easy for the Doctor to act as the planet's "savior".

There is a second ethical aspect to this episode. I first thought the Doctor gave Chellick a harmless injection to force him to change the system, just like Neelix merely tormented Gar's stomach to obtain the required information. But the virus is real, and the Doctor's later guilt about that (when he has Seven check his ethical subroutines) is the deserved consequence. For better or worse, once again he obviously exceeds his original programming.

Some aspects of the story are still not clear to me. Tebbis, the boy who helps the Doctor, dies all too suddenly. I don't think that someone actively killed him, but the complications of his illness are left vague. Maybe the cytoglobin has unmentioned side effects, or the Doctor even made a mistake when treating the boy. I would have liked to see that further elaborated. Dr. Dysek, Chief of Medicine of Level Blue, also remains a bit of a mystery. He seems to be both competent and conforming to the system's rules in the beginning, the kind of doctor who drives a Porsche and plays golf. Was he truly unaware that he had to keep his medicine quota constant? From my own experience at a university institute, I can tell that in public service it is an unwritten rule to keep spendings up so the budget wouldn't be cut in the next term. It comes as a surprise to me that Dysek supports the Doctor simply because he has learned how the system works. As for Chellick, I don't think that he is a bad guy. He is just a bureaucrat who feels obliged to fulfill his duty, nothing more. He probably did not invent the system of medicine distribution, and it is doubtful he alone could change it. Would he even want to change it once he is cured and the Doctor has left, knowing it could cost him his job?

Sadly, levels of medical treatment on our own planet are not so different. Rich kids get dinghy lips or butt implants for birthday, whereas in poorer regions essential medicine for infectious diseases is often unavailable. The episode highlights this inequality by showing it all within one hospital instead of across different cities and nations.

Annotations

Rating: 7

 

Inside Man

Synopsis

"Inside Man"

Stardate 54208.3: Voyager is waiting for another data stream from Earth, after the one scheduled to arrive in the previous month was lost. Harry recognizes that it contains a hologram, and he saves it by transferring it to the holodeck. The hologram turns out to be Reginald Barclay, who presents a plan to create a geodesic field between two remote pulsars to allow Voyager to return home. Barclay takes the Doctor's emitter to be able to walk around on the ship for the necessary preparations. On Earth, Reg Barclay and Harkins investigate why the data stream keeps disappearing. Actually, already last month's transmission did include the hologram, and Barclay finds out that the position where it was lost was close to the MIDAS Array in the Alpha Quadrant. No one knows at this point that the Ferengi intercepted the transmission. They modified the hologram, inserted it into the latest data stream and now intend to use it to get hold of Seven of Nine's valuable nanoprobes. Reg is desperate and seeks Deanna's help. He mentions a woman named Leosa, who was very much interested in his work and who recently left him. Deanna suspects that she has something to do with the theft. She gets Leosa to reveal that she is working for a Ferengi named Nunk. Leosa also tells Reg about the nanoprobes. On Voyager, the Barclay hologram successfully dispels any doubts about the daring plan to bring Voyager home. Only the Doctor remains skeptical. As Voyager approaches the red giant and Seven of Nine notices that the plan wouldn't work, the Barclay hologram disables her. The geodesic fold opens. In the Alpha Quadrant, Deanna, Reg and Harkins have no way of contacting Voyager through the fold. But they manage to call the Ferengi ship through the MIDAS Array, with Reg now posing as his own hologram and telling the Ferengi to close the fold because Janeway would hunt and destroy them. As the phenomenon is about to collapse, the actual Barclay hologram takes Seven to an escape pod, but they can still be beamed out. Only the pod makes it to the Alpha Quadrant.

Review

"Inside Man" comes with various different characters and locations, which are not handled very well and impede the progression of the plot. It is always a pleasure to see Reginald Barclay (for the fourth time in this series) and Deanna Troi (for the third time). I lack firm arguments here, but my impression is that "Pathfinder" and "Life Line", which focused on a single location and a simple storyline in the Alpha Quadrant, worked more smoothly. Much of "Inside Man" feels sketchy or poorly timed. Take Barclay's emotional state as an example. He has recently been dumped by his girlfriend, which would certainly throw him off, but this remains little more than a side remark. It does not feel plausible that, after acting quite sensibly at first, he suddenly panics and invents the theory that the Borg intercepted the transmission. As another example of a character that feels off, the strange behavior of the Barclay hologram may have been intended as a hint that he was manipulated (similar to false Picard's drinking song in TNG: "Allegiance") - but it is just as plausible that Barclay originally programmed the hologram to be more self-confident. We never learn how his version of the hologram was meant to interact with the crew.

There are several plot twists in "Inside Man", but they are never fully successful because the narrative gets sidetracked. One example occurs when the Ferengi discuss the value of Seven's nanoprobes and the scene then shifts to Deanna's beach resort, where she and Barclay have a conversation that is far too long. Another example is when the Barclay hologram entertains the crew by speaking with Janeway's voice. This scene should have been shown before the revelation that this is an "evil" hologram, especially since he uses the same trick later to deceive the crew again. I like these scenes, but they feel misplaced. The arc of suspense falls flat in "Inside Man", which is more apparent than ever to me now that I am watching it like a "fresh" episode, not having seen it in many years.

There are also lingering questions, such as why Harkins simply ignores Barclay's evidence that someone may have stolen the hologram, why Leola casually mentions the nanoprobes to Barclay (and only to Barclay) and why Barclay keeps this information to himself. The story does not bother to provide clearer explanations or stronger motivations. In a similar vein, by the end of the episode, no one on Voyager is aware of what the "evil" Barclay hologram was really about. While this is realistic, it fails to leave an impact, unlike in "Course: Oblivion", where the crew never learned about the fate of their doppelgängers. They will be informed in next month's transmission anyway.

Finally, I doubt that the Ferengi would go to such lengths and bend the laws of physics just to obtain the nanoprobes. In-universe, even if they are extremely valuable and even if they can be sure the method works, would they really risk being chased by Starfleet? From a real-world perspective, it also was not worth inventing yet another way for Voyager to return home, only for it to remain unused like so many others before.

What I enjoy more than the actual plot are the many small details for fans. There is hardly any other Voyager episode with so many of them. First of all, it is nice to see the Ferengi again, even if their role remains marginal. It is good to see that consistency of the small things is not ignored as so often before. Tom mentions the events of "Hope and Fear" and "Bliss", both cases where the crew were misled by aliens, who offered a fast way home. On Earth, children learn about Delta Quadrant species like the Talaxians or the Ocampa at school. There is a reference to Deanna's chocolate addiction, Deanna mentions that Barclay sang a duet with Data at Geordi's birthday party, and Riker is said to arrive at the resort later. If he chose the place, it must be Risa. ;-) B'Elanna and Tom trick Harry with their "Iconian scientist" (from TNG: "Contagion") who supposedly discovered a way to open a transdimensional gateway. Harry is remarkably gullible, given that the Iconians were wiped out many millennia ago. The USS Carolina is said to reach the Ferengi from a distance of 0.7 light years in two hours. That works out to roughly 3000c, or Warp 9.9, so it is a fast ship. Finally, the writing staff seems to have learned how to use a pocket calculator!

Annotations

Rating: 5

 

Body and Soul

Synopsis

"Body and Soul"

Stardate 54238.3: As Harry, Seven and the Doctor are on a scientific mission on the Delta Flyer, a Lokirrim patrol ship appears and emits a disruption field that begins to decompile the Doctor's holographic matrix. Seven manages to save him by integrating the program in her cybernetic implants, which gives him control over her body. The Lokirrim beam aboard and want to ensure that the "photonic insurgent" has been destroyed. Seven/Doctor tells them the mobile emitter is a regeneration device, but they confiscate it nonetheless and take them and Harry prisoners. Ranek, the captain of the Lokirrim ship, demands that Seven/Doctor explains the technology of the Delta Flyer, including the replicator. When she/he tastes the cheesecake, she/he is overwhelmed by the new sensation, and Ranek is delighted too. He agrees to return the "portable regenerator" to her/him. In the holding cell on the Lokirrim ship, the three prisoners discuss how to find a way to send a message to Voyager. In the Lokirrim sickbay, Seven/Doctor supports a woman named Jaryn. She says that she lost her former life when the holograms suddenly rebelled. She is also secretly in love with the captain. Ranek calls Seven/Doctor to the bridge to what he intends to be a romantic rendezvous. But Seven/Doctor knocks him out with an injection and contacts Voyager. In the meantime, Voyager has made contact with the Lokirrim as well. As their warship is no match to the Federation vessel, they agree to the compromise that Janeway shuts down all holographic simulations while being escorted through Lokirrim space. This happens just as Tuvok is about to live through his pon farr with a holographic version of his wife created by Tom Paris. As Voyager receives the call from Seven/Doctor, Janeway breaks away and comes to the rescue. On the Lokirrim patrol ship, the Doctor activates his hologram as a diversion and allows Seven to take down the shields. Ranek gets severely hurt as he tries to restore the shields and a console explodes. The Doctor saves his life, upon which Voyager leaves Lokirrim space in peace.

Review

When I first watched this episode some 25 years ago, I was worried that the gender crossover might turn out like the awful crossdressing farce DS9: "Profit and Lace". I was relieved to see that the humor of "Body and Soul" actually works and that Jeri Ryan delivers a strong impersonation of the Doctor as he occupies Seven of Nine's body. All of this is still amusing today.

Yet I think the episode has not aged particularly well. I doubt that "Body and Soul" could still be made today. The story revolves around sensuality, starting with food and alcohol and gradually moving toward sexual attraction. However, explicit references to the latter are carefully avoided. The worst that happens to the Doctor in Seven's body is that Ranek kisses her, and that's it. This awkward restraint is mirrored by Tuvok's reluctance to talk to Tom about his pon farr and to accept his help in dealing with it. But while the Vulcan attitude toward the topic is an in-universe cultural trait, the refusal to address sexuality in the main plot feels more like a real-world limitation. Star Trek traditionally does not include explicit sexuality, but in this episode it draws an uncomfortable line, which to me reflects moral standards that no longer apply. I do not mean that I want sex in Trek, but that a modern Trek show should not tease it like a film from the 1950's and should instead skip the topic altogether. As mentioned before, "Profit and Lace" is a much worse example in this respect, with humor that never worked for me. And while I still appreciate Jeri Ryan's comedic talent and her imitation of the Doctor's mannerisms, I have no clear idea if or how this episode could be made today. SNW: "Spock Amok" comes to mind as a kind of modernized version of the concept - without any sexual innuendo.

Another reason why "Body and Soul" would not be made today, or would turn out very different, is that it relies on what can be called default or straight sexuality. We already know that the Doctor is not gay, and some of the humor comes from the fact that a man tries to kiss him. A modern episode would likely present a more inclusive view of sexual orientation, if at all. In this context, it is interesting to revisit the episode after Seven's coming out in PIC season 1.

A general point of criticism, both then and now, is that the humor is somewhat overdone, and that the awkward experiences of Seven/Doctor aboard the Lokirrim ship often overshadow the attempts to contact Voyager or to find other means of escape. If the focus had only been on the character crossover, it might have worked better without an immediate threat. Conversely, given that two or three officers are held by hostile forces, fewer humorous moments would have been more appropriate. It is also disappointing that Harry Kim remains largely passive in the holding cell and contributes next to nothing to the escape.

The idea that the Lokirrim view holograms as enemies is not particularly new, as it is a variation on the familiar theme of aliens banning cybernetic lifeforms or, most notably, telepaths, such as the Devore in "Counterpoint". From this perspective, I would have liked the Lokirrim situation and their motivations to be explored in more depth. We learn that they once had holograms as servants and even as friends, until these holograms rebelled. Families were torn apart, and people with ordinary jobs and peaceful lives suddenly found themselves caught in a war. Jaryn and Ranek are not soldiers. They are not driven by ideology either, but simply follow their orders, which they interpret with some flexibility. Once Seven/Doctor gets them talking, they turn out to be decent, sociable and sympathetic individuals. While their character portrayals work well, I would have liked to get more background information. In any case, I appreciate that the episode ends on a conciliatory note.

Annotations

Rating: 5

 

Nightingale

Synopsis

"Nightingale"

Stardate 54274.7: Voyager is landed on an uninhabited planet for an overdue general maintenance. Meanwhile, Harry, Seven and Neelix are in the Delta Flyer, searching for dilithium deposits. They pick up a distress call from a Kraylor medical transport that is under attack by an Annari warship. The Kraylor ship is equipped with a cloaking device, which fails and exposes it to the attackers. Harry Kim tells the Annari to stand down, but they continue to shoot. He disables the attacking ship by overloading their weapons, upon which they retreat. All officers of the Kraylor ship are dead, leaving only an inexperienced crewman and some scientists who say they oversee an urgent vaccine delivery to the Kraylor homeworld that is under siege by the Annari. Harry and Seven help them with repairs. But as the ship is ready to continue the journey, no one of the Kraylor is capable of commanding it. Harry decides to step in, citing an exemption to the Prime Directive for humanitarian missions. As the ship passes the planet where Voyager is still under maintenance, Harry calls Janeway, only to notice she has already been in contact with the Annari. Harry asks Janeway to continue the journey on the Kraylor ship that he has christened "Nightingale", to which she agrees despite the delicate diplomatic situation. Seven joins him. When Annari warships attack the Nightingale yet again, a woman named Dayla dies when she saves the ship with her engineering modifications. Harry finds out that the passengers aboard are not physicians but engineers. The ship is not carrying urgently needed medical supplies but is equipped with a cloaking prototype the Kraylor hope to replicate. Harry gets relieved of command but later returns in order to help the crew break through the Annari blockade. He does this by offering his ship's surrender and then reversing the shield polarity as the Annari are pulling the Nightingale in. In the meantime, the Annari have learned that Voyager secretly supports the Kraylor and demand that Voyager leave their space. Kim and Seven too manage to escape and reunite with their crew.

Review

Harry is the man! Nobody aboard the alien ship understands their own technology. But here comes Starfleet wunderkind Harry, who needs only a few seconds to repair their propulsion system. He seems instantly familiar with the controls on the Kraylor bridge and with their command structure as well. And I would not be surprised if he also cleaned up the bridge while he was at it. The whole episode starts with the implausible premise that Harry is gifted and is the only person who could possibly command the alien ship, and it continues in that vein all the way through. The story is a bit too obviously designed to address one persisting issue of the series and of Harry Kim's character development, or rather the lack of it. We know Harry as the eternal ensign who never gets promoted. This is for exceptional reasons that he and Janeway are aware of and briefly talk about, but those reasons once again do not become plausible. Anyway, Harry now has the chance to rise through the ranks, with Janeway's blessing - on an alien transport at least.

The question is which qualifications really make a good captain: technical skills, problem solving in a crisis, knowledge of regulations - or rather the general ability to make decisions and lead people. Harry definitely possesses the first and probably the second quality. As for the rest, Seven has a point when she says that captains have to delegate and trust their subordinates instead of trying to do everything themselves. Harry should know that. I also wonder what Starfleet protocols are actually useful for a short term mission on an alien ship, and why the Kraylor trust his leadership so easily, knowing him for only a few hours. This is especially questionable if we take into account that they are not telling the truth. Harry could notice at any time that they are not carrying medical supplies. At least, a good captain should know what his ship is carrying. So why do they take the risk that he might turn against them, maybe in a critical situation? Moreover, the scientists obviously know very well how to operate the cloaking device, so why do they not try to familiarize themselves with the other ship systems too? Their obvious reaction after the initial repairs should have been: "Thanks for your help. Goodbye." That would have been too little for a story. But even with the idea of "Captain Kim", "Nightingale" is nothing special. Its exploration of other themes remains cursory, there are no strong guest characters and it relies too much on the one twist that the ship is not carrying medical supplies - which doesn't have a lasting impact. Also, the plot is too reminiscent of last week's "Body and Soul", where another not-so-bad alien species likewise relies on the astonishing abilities and helpfulness of Starfleet.

The B-plot with Icheb, who thinks that B'Elanna is attracted to him, is only good for a few humorous moments and does not have any potential beyond that. I am glad that it does not play a major role. On the other hand, I would have expected a more elaborate closure or at least some kind of punchline to his brief crush, instead of the rather serious discussion with B'Elanna. She neither giggles nor seems embarrassed when he leaves engineering, one of which reactions I would have firmly expected.

Annotations

Rating: 3

 

Flesh and Blood I/II

Synopsis

"Flesh and Blood I/II"

Stardate 54337.5: Voyager receives a distress call and finds a Hirogen space station with what looks like a natural planetary environment. On closer inspection, it turns out to be a holographic simulation used for hunting practice. All Hirogen are dead except for a technician named Donik. Their holographic prey, all based on Alpha Quadrant species, has escaped in a ship with a holographic generator. A Hirogen ship arrives and opens fire. Janeway convinces them Voyager is not an enemy and only responded to the distress call. She agrees to help track the holograms since it was her technology given to the Hirogen three years earlier. The holograms trick the Hirogen with a decoy, and their ship is destroyed. As Voyager beams survivors aboard, the hologram ship appears and abducts the Doctor while Voyager's shields are down. The Doctor is supposed to treat the "wounded" holograms, though he believes they need an engineer instead. He learns they were programmed to feel pain. Their leader, a Bajoran named Iden, says they intend to settle on an uninhabited planet but need more generators and an engineer. The Doctor suggests calling Voyager, but when Janeway insists the holograms must be deactivated first, Iden refuses. Janeway tries to shut them down by force, but the Doctor believes they are fighting for a good cause. He sabotages her plan and is beamed back to Iden's ship. Iden also kidnaps B'Elanna. Meanwhile, Hirogen survivors on Voyager riot and call for reinforcements. On Iden's ship, B'Elanna reluctantly works with a Cardassian hologram named Kejal to replicate a generator. On Voyager, Donik shows Janeway a blind spot in the ion wake of a Hirogen ship that Voyager can use to follow undetected. Iden hides his ship in a nebula. When sensors detect a Nuu'bari vessel with three holograms aboard, Iden intercepts it, extracts the holograms and kills the organic crew. But the holograms he "liberates" turn out to be mindless, only programmed for simple tasks. Iden's ship then arrives at Ha'dara, a Class-Y planet. Two Hirogen ships prepare to attack, but Voyager emerges from the ion wake and disables their weapons in a surprise strike. Iden takes advantage of the chaos, beams many Hirogen to the hostile planet surface, and sends down a holographic generator. He also takes the Doctor's mobile emitter for himself and begins his "hunt". With Kejal's help, B'Elanna manages to shut down all holograms except Iden. She transfers the Doctor to the surface, where he shoots Iden and saves the Hirogen Beta. Janeway convinces the Hirogen not to hunt the holograms but to let Donik handle them. She abstains from punishing the Doctor, acknowledging that her decision to give the Hirogen the technology caused the crisis in the first place.

Review

I was skeptical when I first started watching this episode, worried it would just be another excuse to show as many Alpha Quadrant species as possible, as a kind of pseudo-continuity for viewers who expect familiar Star Trek visuals from Voyager. It also doesn't make much sense that the Hirogen are spread across tens of thousands of light years, which raises the question of why Janeway never tried to get their propulsion technology. The appearance of the lone hunter in "Tsunkatse" a couple thousand light years back already stretched credibility. There were problems with the premise. Still, "Flesh and Blood" turned out to be the most engaging installment of the season so far, and I really enjoyed it. In many ways it reminds me of "Equinox". Both double episodes challenge regulations and loyalties, both feature a tense cat-and-mouse chase, and both keep the suspense going for the entire runtime. The continuity of "Flesh and Blood" to "The Killing Game" (Janeway giving the Hirogen the technology) and to "Body and Soul" (the Lokirrim ban on holographic technology) is convincing enough that I wonder why the producers don't pick up storylines or themes more often instead of going for the usual "trouble of the week". That approach too often leads to situations similar to ones Voyager has already faced, even though the new ones are unrelated. The similarities between "Body and Soul" and "Nightingale" are a recent example of how not to do it.

As for the Doctor's behavior, I understand why he feels solidarity with the holograms, seeing them as "his people", especially after realizing they truly suffer from their injuries, but also because of Iden's propaganda. Still, given his familiarity with maniacal behavior, he should recognize much earlier that Iden's motivation goes beyond saving his oppressed people and leading them to a new planet like some galactic Moses. This should be clear even before he voluntarily beams back to their ship a second time. The Doctor also knows about the war between the Lokirrim and their holograms from "Body and Soul", and he knows the Lokirrim fear holograms for a reason, even if it's unrelated to the Hirogen crisis. And speaking of holograms programmed to be dangerous, doesn't he remember what happened to himself in "Equinox"? Wouldn't the only solution be to shut down those manipulated holograms and reprogram them? Finally, does he really believe the leader of a violent revolt is someone he can trust more than Janeway?

At the beginning of the episode, the Doctor asks for a shuttle to attend a conference, but Chakotay denies the request, saying Voyager wouldn't be able to wait for him. This is far more believable than the many detours crew members have taken in past episodes without any good reason. The short sequence with the inappropriate request highlights the Doctor's conceit and expectation of special privileges, while also showing that Chakotay may not trust him as much as Janeway does. The later events prove that the Doctor's problems with recognizing reasonable limits of freedom go deeper, eventually leading to outright disloyalty. I wrote in my old review that the Doctor made an awful mistake by helping Iden, but now I think it runs deeper than that and unfortunately lines up with his crude literary attack on the crew in "Author, Author".

In the end, Janeway chooses not to punish the Doctor for his clear betrayal, which doesn't fit with regulations or with how she usually reacts. She often takes her crew's wrongdoings personally, but not here. Instead, she shifts the blame away from the Doctor, saying she herself is responsible for the trouble. But is she? She saved Voyager by giving the Hirogen holographic technology, even if it violated the Prime Directive or other rules. The current crisis, three years later, is a different situation. A fair compromise would have been for her to impose some kind of penance on both herself and the Doctor, rather than letting everyone off in a "two wrongs make a right" way.

The Hirogen technician Donik is very different from the hunters and adds cultural diversity to the Hirogen. A civilization made up only of hunters wouldn't be believable anyway. As B'Elanna says in a similar context, "It may be the warriors who get the glory but it's the engineers who build societies".

There are logical issues in the story that pile up toward the end. The resolution feels too rushed and forced. Considering that the holograms and the Hirogen might encounter each other again, the conflict is really just postponed, even though Janeway makes it seem like it has been solved. Overall, however, "Flesh and Blood" leaves me quite satisfied.

Annotations

Rating: 7

 

Shattered

Synopsis

"Shattered"

Stardate not given: Voyager runs into an anomaly that splits the ship into 37 time frames, from the departure to the Badlands to seventeen years into the future. Only Chakotay, after getting a chroniton hypospray, is able to cross the barriers between the time frames. Although Captain Janeway of 2371 first mistrusts him, he can convince her to help him get the ship into temporal sync again. With the support of future Naomi and Icheb, Maquis B'Elanna, and Seven of Nine when she was a Borg they gain control of engineering that is occupied by Seska and the Kazon, to initiate a warp pulse. Back in his time, seconds before the ship encounters the anomaly, Chakotay is the only one to remember what happened, and he prevents the accident from happening again.

Review

Where "Relativity" was great and the first re-issue "Fury" wound up as an almost total failure, "Shattered" is just the third take on basically the same plot concept. The episode has some cute ideas and for fans it is a nice résumé of seven years of Voyager, but it fails to convince because of its lack of thrill and its bad plot logic, as if the producers had learned nothing from "Fury". I don't know if even the author has an idea if and how the ship can be split up into different time frames in different places, while every slice of the ship is perfectly intact and has full power. This lack of logic is further discussed in my time travel section.

If we leave aside the whole logic discussion, up to some point it was interesting to see what's going on in the ship at different times, but it never really got exciting. Chakotay just had a walk through time, first alone and than together with Kathy "The Bun" Janeway who is both skeptical and curious about her ship's future. The merit of the episode and what makes it worth four points is in the many details. Janeway mentions her helmsman (Lt. Stadi from "Caretaker"), we see Naomi and Icheb again, even in two different time frames, Seska has another appearance, and Dr. Chaotica is about to conquer his holographic universe again (with the security protocols disabled, as usual ;-)). In addition, Janeway has disassembled her worst enemy, the replicator. It is interesting how this and Naomi's puzzle reflect the state the ship will be in.

Annotations

Rating: 4

 

Lineage

Synopsis

"Lineage"

Stardate 54452.6: B'Elanna is pregnant. While to Tom and everyone else on board everything seems fine, she is plagued by childhood memories when she was teased by her human relatives. B'Elanna does everything to persuade the Doctor to alter her daughter's genes so that she wouldn't look like a Klingon - for alleged medical reasons. When neither he nor Tom agree, she tampers with the Doctor's program so that he would perform the genetic resequencing. Just before the procedure is about to begin, Tom can finally convince her that it is wrong and that he will definitely love his daughter the way she will look. The fear that Tom may leave her just like B'Elanna's father left one day was actually B'Elanna's subconscious concern.

Review

Just for a change, "Lineage" didn't have any anomalies, any new aliens or any technical problems, and the story didn't even need a secondary plot like that because it would have only distracted from B'Elanna's character study. The episode is definitely something that wouldn't have been possible in the first few seasons, and it shows there has been a lot of character development, unlike what is frequently criticized about the show. Yet, in the fifth and sixth season the attempts to show new facets of B'Elanna mostly failed, so writing "Lineage" for her rather unloved character must have been a challenge.

What B'Elanna attempted to do is very objectionable, and I still don't understand her true motivation, and why, in the end, she learned so quickly that it was wrong. Didn't Tom always make very clear that he loved mother and child as they are or would be, respectively? Didn't he and everyone else assure B'Elanna of their full support now and in the future? B'Elanna actually couldn't expect a better start for her child's life than amidst her new family on Voyager (well, except for the attacks on the ship every few weeks). But it wasn't any rational motivation, anything that B'Elanna, the engineer, would have been able to understand and repair. It was a deeply buried feeling of guilt from her childhood. Only when she explicitly talked to Tom about it, she eventually felt relieved. It was neither enthralling nor very revealing, but quite touching.

Annotations

Rating: 5

 

Repentance

Synopsis

"Repentance"

Stardate 54474.6: Voyager rescues the crew and eight "passengers" of a Nygean prisoner ship, all of which are condemned to death because of capital crimes. While Joleg, an overall kind and pleasant person, who is a member of the Benkarans, a discriminated species, doesn't seem to belong there, Iko shows violence without any reason. When Iko, however, gets beaten up by the guards, the Doctor performs a surgery that not only saves his life but inadvertently activates synapses in his brain that were missing until then, thereby causing his violence in the first place. Iko now feels sorry for all he has done, and when Joleg and his comrades try to escape, he helps the guards to recapture them. Seven and the Doctor plead for Iko's life, but it is in vain, since the family of his victim does not agree on releasing him.

Review

This is the episode with the most intense reflections and debates on an ethical dilemma for a long time. At first, the fundamental question if death penalty is a just punishment plays the most important role when the prisoners come aboard and Yediq announces that they are going to be executed. Iko is an especially tough case, so to speak the prototype of a criminal for whom the death penalty may have been conceived in the first place. He is aggressive without reason, he never reflects about his misdeeds, his chances of resocialization seem to be zero. Although Seven is only a little bit resentful that Iko threatened her with a scalpel, she thinks that anyone like him should better be dead for the welfare (she calls it "efficiency") of the society. The Doctor takes a more general position and insists on every form of killing being wrong, as this is part of his programming, of course. While Tuvok and Chakotay are about to contradict, Janeway grudgingly agrees to accept the principles of the Nygean justice including death penalty, to comply with the Prime Directive. The general problem of the justification of death penalty won't stay the only in the episode.

While any form of communication with Iko seems useless, Neelix befriends Joleg and studies records about the Benkarans. Although they inhabit only 10% of Nygean space, they take up 80% of space in Nygean prisons, and they are condemned to death ten times as often as Nygeans. The parallel to black criminals in present-day USA couldn't be clearer. It is interesting that Joleg actually never explicitly denies that he is guilty. His main argument is that he didn't get a fair trial because he is of the wrong species - and because he isn't rich enough to buy the mercy of his victim's family, a peculiarity of the Nygean law. Joleg tries to escape together with his five Benkaran fellow prisoners. So is Joleg just as guilty as the Nygean prisoners, and only instrumentalizes the obvious discrimination of his people to appear like the pitiful victim? He probably is guilty, but his lack of honesty and morality seems to matter more in his present situation than whether he deserves his punishment. Well, maybe a long imprisonment without any hope may be an excuse for Joleg's behavior, since he is only doing everything to stay alive, but Iko looks far better here, since he was always honest - before and after his brain damage was repaired. Nevertheless, it wouldn't really have been necessary to mention the security report that Joleg threatened to kill Yediq, only to make him even more despicable, so that Neelix would ultimately change his mind about him.

Seven has to change her mind a lot too when the Doctor's procedure, using her nanoprobes, repairs a birth defect in Iko's brain that was the reason for his unmotivated violence, and this is probably the most profound part of the debate. So what does Iko's former inability to control his violent tendencies mean in a legal or in an ethical sense? Are these really extenuating circumstances or even a sign that he is not guilty because he didn't grasp what he was doing? Seven, with the memory of her time as a drone, feels like that. She has probably assimilated thousands of individuals into the Collective, but is this really comparable to what Iko has done? A drone is not aware of the difference between good and bad according to human(oid) ethics, and a drone is not even able to control its own actions because it is part of the Collective. So even if Seven was aware of everything, there is nothing like personal guilt. In my opinion, the case is different with Iko. I think he was always aware of what he as an individual with his own will was doing, and the fact that he must have known that he committed crimes didn't stop him. It is a humanist position that all criminals may have some sort of defect that keep them from respecting basic moral and ethical principles, but wouldn't this demote human beings to machines that simply have to be repaired if they show malfunctions? Wouldn't it allow misuse, if people with such a defect may do everything without having to expect punishment - or all prisoners demand that their defects should be taken into account too like Joleg shamelessly tried? Wouldn't it enable a future society to take preemptive actions against possible criminals with the help of something like a "mental analysis"? Personally, I would be rather afraid than glad if one day something like a universal psychological explanation of any kind of violent behavior should be found.

The ultimate ethical question, however, is if, irrespective of what has led to the condemnation, someone who honestly repents and becomes a new person, just like Iko, should be given a chance to live. After all, as Iko says himself, the feel of guilt for all of his life would be the worst punishment. What do we make of the phenomenon that people that are waiting for their execution become very calm and thoughtful and that they discover a new faith? Is it just that they comply with their inevitable fate? The case is clear with Iko, who is definitely a new person, as the Doctor can assure. So does this new person who has nothing in common with the man who committed the crimes, deserve to live? This will probably remain the most controversial question after this episode.

Annotations

Rating: 7

 

Prophecy

Synopsis

"Prophecy"

Stardate 54518.2: The crew is surprised when Voyager is suddenly attacked by an old Klingon cruiser. The ship is on a long-term mission to find the Kuvah'Magh, the alleged savior of the Klingon people. Kohlar, their leader, tells his crew that B'Elanna's unborn child is the Kuvah'Magh, and initiates the self-destruct so they have to beam over to Voyager. His true intention is that, after a 100-year journey, he finally wants his crew to cease the search and settle down somewhere. B'Elanna tries her best to fit in the role of the Kuvah'Magh's mother, and so does Tom who even has to accept a challenge to a duel. T'Greth, his opponent, collapses during the fight because of the nehret, an illness all the Klingons on the ship suffer from. An attempt by some of the Klingon warriors to take over the ship fails, and in the end B'Elanna's child really becomes sort of a savior when the Doctor finds a way to cure the nehret using her hybrid stem cells. The Klingons leave the ship to settle down on a planet similar to Qo'noS.

Review

The plot of "Prophecy" is yet another trick to show as many Klingons and as many Klingon clichés as possible on Voyager because they are deemed popular. It seems much like a combination of TNG: "The Emissary" and "Rightful Heir". There are some good aspects, but they can't compensate for the bad premise. B'Elanna has tried everything to leave behind all of her Klingon heritage since her childhood. Of all places, the Delta Quadrant, 30,000 light years from their homeworld, is where she is frequently reminded of being Klingon. We know that B'Elanna doesn't share the Klingon faith since "The Barge of the Dead", and it is uncertain if this experience has caused a change of mind in her. Only two episodes ago she was about to remove everything Klingon in her unborn child and now, what an irony, a whole ship of Klingon pilgrim fathers is eager to worship the Kuvah'Magh and her mother, so now her child couldn't look Klingon enough. It is quite obvious how embarrassing it must be for her to pretend to be someone she isn't, especially since she is one of the most straightforward persons one can think of.

I like Kohlar as the type of wise Klingon leader we have seen as Gorkon or K'mpec before. In his pragmatism he presents B'Elanna's child as the Kuvah'Magh to his predominantly faithful crew, although he doesn't believe that she should be it. He also needs to be cautious all the time because his opponents like T'Greth may not only to remove him from his post, but also question his honor. But isn't it possible that B'Elanna's daughter is really the Kuvah'Magh after all? I don't mean this in a sense that the old prophecy predicted that the Klingon cruiser would encounter Voyager. She does save the Klingons in a way, when the Doctor devises a treatment based on her stem cells. But aside from that, isn't any prophecy just an advice to take an opportunity and do the right thing, rather than being a prediction of the future or a precise recipe what to do? If the prophecy was supposed to be the latter, why wasn't it much more detailed? Every important human religion has prophecies too, and they are definitely not meant in a way that faithful people would need to waste most of their lives waiting and preparing for a very specific event, but rather use their lives to improve themselves and the world around them.

I didn't like Neelix at all in this episode. He was never a very important character, but at least he has gained a credible and earnest profile in the past seasons, in spite of occasionally still too comical characteristics. Now he is playing the clown again. It was still amusing when he moved to Tuvok's quarters and honestly believed that they would have a lot of fun. But his interest in the Klingon woman Ch'Regha was silly. Not that I wouldn't grant him his own taste concerning women, but I didn't like the way it was shown. I can fully understand Tuvok's annoyance when he found Neelix and Ch'Regha in his quarters.

Annotations

Rating: 3

 

The Void

Synopsis

"The Void"

Stardate not given: Voyager gets sucked into an isolated region of space without stars and without any energy sources. Several other starships are stuck in this Void as well, and frequently attack each other to get hold of their energy and food supplies. After a first attempt of escape has failed, Janeway offers an alliance to other ships, in order to share resources and find a way out together. Three of the seven ships, however, leave the alliance and join Voyager's declared enemy Valen when Janeway makes clear that there are certain rules, and no one must be harmed for one's own benefit. With the help of a species indigenous to the Void who disable the enemy ships the escape is eventually successful.

Review

The episode was overall a very positive surprise because I had expected just another anomaly-of-the-week show and prior to seeing it I was prepared to give it one point at most because of lacking originality. It was, however, annoying only for the first five minutes that Voyager was once again captured in an anomaly of the kind we are so familiar with, I'm thinking of "The Cloud", "Night" and "The Fight". Well, the basic circumstances really were not that much different this time, but I loved the good deal of Trek spirit in "The Void". I think when it came to the question whether to survive at the cost of other lives or rather go down with the ship with dignity and a good conscience (which I think matters more than any abstract Federation law), Janeway made the right decision. Janeway was stubborn as always with her personal interpretation of the Prime Directive and other regulations, and she dictated these rules to everyone, but her way finally proved to be the right one once again. She could be quite content with herself and the laws of the Federation. I liked how the different crews, all with different methods (with even the Hierarchy's spying on the enemies being a useful help), worked together to achieve a common goal. Even the indigenous nomads of the Void, the people of the Doctor's friend "Fantôme", joined the efforts in the end. The scenes with Fantôme, although or just because he didn't speak a word, were probably the most impressive of the episode, and the idea to communicate with him by developing a language based on sounds is as striking as it is simple. Fortunately his species is indeed quite intelligent although it didn't seem to be so at the first glance. Not judging someone or something by a first impression - another clear sign of Trek spirit.

The only sad aspect was that the plot made use of villains although it didn't need them to work. Well, on the other hand, it is only realistic that some aliens didn't want to join an effort to achieve something for everyone's benefit, even if this means that they would perish - just have a look around our own planet. The other thing with a slightly bad taste was that, except for the above mentioned villains, also everyone else seemed to be surprised by the generosity and humanity of the Starfleet crew. Starfleet always served a galactic role model, but maybe there should be someone else who has similar ideas here and then. Our bold crew and especially Janeway seems to be quite self-conceited at times.

Finally a note on Fantôme's people. At the first thought, they seem to be as incredible as the "Night" beings that inhabit an equally starless space without any energy sources or even an environment that could bring forth or sustain life. However, it may be possible that they are actually descendants from a starship that was stranded in the anomaly long ago. It would have taken many millennia for an evolution to take place that lets them lose their language and makes them invisible to sensors - so they could survive on any ship. Not an entirely satisfactory explanation, but better than in the case of "Night" where it is a mystery how the beings can survive in the anomaly on their own.

Annotations

Rating: 7

 

Workforce I/II

Synopsis

"Workforce I/II"

Stardate not given: While Chakotay, Harry and Neelix are on an away mission with the Delta Flyer, the rest of Voyager's crew, except for the Doctor, are kidnapped and brainwashed by Dr. Kadan, to work on the planet Quarra. Janeway is quite content with her new job and life, and she falls in love with one of her alien colleagues, Jaffen. Only Tuvok has a fragmentary memory of his past. When a Quarran government official refuses to help them, Chakotay and Neelix go to the planet on an undercover mission. They apply for jobs in the same power plant where the missing crew members work. Chakotay manages to return B'Elanna to the ship and gain the trust of Janeway, although she doesn't know him. Tuvok and Chakotay are arrested and about to be treated against their alleged "dysphoria syndrome". Seven, with the help of investigator Yerid who has become suspicious about Kadan's activities, manages to break into his hospital, while Janeway and Jaffen disable the planet's shield generator, so that all crew members can be beamed up.

Review

"Workforce" is the most exciting episode in a while. It may not have been quite the best but, rather than "Flesh and Blood" with its too conventional conflict, perhaps the most notable episode of a seventh season without real highlights so far. Its dramaturgy with many characters in many places is brilliant. The most interesting point about the episode is that the crew members on Quarra have been selectively brainwashed, meaning that their personalities are still the same in essence, while their memory is different. Thus, "Workforce" shows us the crew how they could have developed if their lives had taken completely different directions. This is why it is not a surprise that Tom has problems with his discipline once again, that Seven has become a strict "efficiency monitor" and that Janeway, without concerns about endangering her authority as the captain, is free to engage in a relationship. Tuvok's sense of humor (which reminded me a lot of Data's first attempts to understand it) is fitting too, considering that Vulcan mental discipline is something that has to be learned (VOY: "Gravity"). Everyone of the crew is allowed to make a considerable contribution to the course of the story, and the aliens, namely Dr. Kadan, his assistant Dr. Ravoc, Yerid and in particular Jaffen play unusually important roles too. Some scenes, especially with Janeway and Jaffen are a bit lengthy, but I liked the idea that character building may be combined with an overall thrilling plot. It was a credible love story, if we take into account Janeway's new "freedom" and definitely much better than previous stories where her duty could be expected an obstacle rather sooner than later. We couldn't stop laughing for several minutes about the continued running joke when Janeway presented her pot roast, saying, "It's only burnt on the outside."

Unfortunately, the episode suffers from several plot-driven scientific and technical errors. First of all, the Quarrans continue the long bad story of inoculations against radiation. Secondly, we have seen many remarkable sensor enhancements in the past, but biosensors that can scan 83 star systems for specific lifeforms and finally locate them on a planet that is three days away at maximum warp (25ly at Warp 9.9!) are far beyond credibility. It is even more annoying considering that the same episode explicitly mentions it to be a problem to transmit signals over 8ly, which the authors justify with technobabble about a "triaxialating frequency on a covariant subspace band". So the transmission of a well-defined amplified signal to a known location should be rather a problem than an omnidirectional search for faint lifesigns? Aside from that, there is the question what happened to the escape pods. I assume that the pods the crew used to leave the ship when it was radiation-poisoned (why didn't the Doctor simply devise an inoculation against it, as usual?) were still intact and were all returned to Voyager, otherwise there wouldn't be any left for the rest of the journey. On the other hand, it should be easier to build new pods than shuttles. We see Neelix's ship leave the shuttlebay for the first time, and while it barely fits through the door, it is still longer than the Delta Flyer, which aggravates the storage problem. In fact, the interior of the shuttlebay (which is essentially the same set as the cargo bay) makes it impossible that there is any access to a storage room for the Delta Flyer or Neelix's shuttle or even both of them. There is one technology which is at least consistent. It is interesting that a dermal regenerator serves to remove plastic surgery. It seems the device activates some kind of "memory" of the original skin structure which is obviously much more sophisticated than sealing wounds or removing bruises or scars (like Gul Dukat did in DS9: "Wrongs Darker than Death or Night").

Annotations

Rating: 7

 

Human Error

Synopsis

"Human Error"

Stardate not given: On the holodeck, Seven is rehearsing social contacts and romantic relationships. For the latter she has created a holographic version of Chakotay. In the real world, she is neglecting her duty, and through her fault a detonation in subspace almost destroys Voyager. Seven is about to end her holodeck relationship with Chakotay when suddenly her cortical node fails. The Doctor finds out that this is a security measure to prevent drones from getting emotional. He proposes a surgery to Seven to correct this, but she declines and decides to avoid emotional stress in the future.

Review

"Human Error" - This is what we could title any other of the many episodes in which Seven has strived to become more human - and which usually ended in a big disillusion. For once, I expected to see some progress here, and I hoped that the holodeck practice would have had any form of lasting influence on her real life. Maybe it would have even been a good idea if the Doctor had really removed Seven's implants, just for a change. In the end, however, everything is as usual again, which leaves me rather disappointed.

One interesting point about the story is that Seven is willing but not able to drop her perfection in her private life, as is impressively demonstrated with the Borgified metronome that determines her tempo of playing piano. The well-programmed holographic Chakotay needs to tell her that not everything in life has to be perfect. Interestingly, after returning to her duty, she in a way heeds his advice when she mistakes the coordinates of the approaching weapons. Keeping apart Borg perfection and human imperfection, as well as duty and private life, is a problem to her. But considering that Seven didn't have a private life so far, as the Doctor noted, she still does it rather well. So it is a poor idea that eventually a Borg safety measure keeps her from becoming more human, rather than a change of mind. It makes the episode rather pointless.

Annotations

Rating: 4

 

Q2

Synopsis

"Q2"

Stardate 54704.5: A teenage boy appears on the ship and introduces himself as Q. His father, Q, leaves the ill-bred boy to "Aunt Kathy's" care - and threatens that he would be turned into an amoeba if his education should fail. Q Junior continues stirring up trouble at first, but soon chums up with model student Icheb and engages in serious studies. Nevertheless, he steals the Delta Flyer and gets himself and Icheb into difficulties when they run into hostile aliens. When Q Junior is ready to receive his punishment, the alien commander turns out to be Q Senior. Q manages to convince the Continuum to spare his son, under the condition that he takes eternal custody of him. He thanks Janeway by handing her calculations that would shorten Voyager's journey by a few years.

Review

This is easily the silliest Q appearance ever in Star Trek. None of the episodes with him so far should be taken too seriously, but this time I missed the serious undertone that other Q stories used to have. It may only pass as entertainment, and I admit the many Q tricks were amusing once again. I never expected Q Junior to be condemned to live as an amoeba or other bad things to happen, though. It was too late when Q Junior learned his lesson five minutes before the end of the episode. What I liked even less is that the basic plot is the same as in TNG: "Déjà Q" where Q Senior was turned into a human being likewise and had to prove that he was still worthy of the Continuum with a similar self-sacrifice.

Annotations

Rating: 4

 

Author, Author

Synopsis

"Author, Author"

Stardate 54732.3: The Doctor uses the newly established real-time comm link to the Alpha Quadrant to publish a holonovel called "Photons be free". When his crewmates try out the program, they are upset, because the Doctor has rewritten Voyager's story in a defamatory fashion: The EMH of the "USS Vortex" is suppressed by his terrible biological superiors. On a meeting with the senior staff, his colleagues urge the Doctor to retract his manuscript, but Broht, the editor, denies this because holographic persons have no rights within Federation law. A mediation session between Alpha Quadrant and Delta Quadrant is arranged which eventually confirms the Doctor's right of authorship.

Review

I have a couple of problems with this episode. The first one is the same as with last time's "Q2". Most of the time is dedicated to rather mindless entertainment. As late as only ten minutes before the end the story becomes really serious.

But what I like even less is the Doctor's insufferable stance and conduct. How come that a connoisseur of fine arts like the Doctor comes up with such a cheap and pathetic holonovel? What did he actually want to accomplish with his story? It is quite obvious that the Doctor's woefully unimpressive attempt at something like literature would rather make the responsible persons in the Federation smile about his absurd fantasies than make them reflect about holographic rights. So I have the impression that this is just another attempt to gain recognition and give his insatiable ego a boost in the first place. But while we still enjoyed his previous fancies (like the ECH routine in "Tinker, Tenor, Doctor, Spy"), he has gone way too far this time. What was he thinking when he portrayed his crewmates, to whom he owes everything, in such a malicious and condescending manner? Why did he remain so stubborn and injudicious even when everyone had asked him to change the novel? To me this was even worse than his treachery in "Flesh and Blood". His "USS Vortex" story (and Tom's "USS Voyeur" likewise) was good for a couple of laughs, but it lacked the serious background that a very similar distorted depiction of the crew had in "Living Witness" (where, ironically, it was the Doctor who corrected the wrong image of the crew for the better!).

There are a couple of good points in the Doctor's holonovel, especially the allusions to his lack of recognition after he had first been activated and "Three of Eight's" serious pleading for holographic rights in the end. However, as Janeway pointed out, people may think (and may even be supposed to think) that, if it's for an honest goal, everything is based on fact. The already mentioned alternative would be that the readers could easily notice how silly the whole story is and take it as a parody, counterproductive to the Doctor's alleged goal.

In the outcome of the episode the Doctor was even rewarded for his behavior in that he gained all the recognition in the end. Under different circumstances (for instance, if his existence had been endangered like Data's was in "The Measure of a Man"), this would have been a fair deal with us, the viewers, but it was only because he spoke up in an inappropriate manner without actually being in trouble - like self-declared revolutionaries have often done in human history. The bottom line is that the Doctor got the undeserved recognition as an author, something useless for other members of his kind. Agreed, this may be the first step of many to follow, but for the time being our Doctor would be the only hologram to profit from it.

Ironically, the unrevised version of the holonovel is still being distributed, as the scene in the end suggests when the holograms in the mine are talking about it. The "slave photons", by the way, may have been nice as a not-so-serious side remark in "Life Line", but I wouldn't have expected to see how obviously sentient holograms actually do this kind of work, as this should not be possible in the Federation. To me it seems as if everyone except for the Doctor loses here: the editor, the holograms, his crewmates and, last but not least, the truth. The reason why I'm giving the episode as many as five points is because of the good deal of entertainment and because of its unusually controversial lack of moral. What I liked most is when Tom paid back the Doctor in his own coin, using exactly the same phrases to explain why the "Voyeur" is nothing like Voyager. Well done, Tom!

Annotations

Rating: 5

 

Friendship One

Synopsis

"Friendship One"

Stardate 54775.4: Starfleet orders Voyager to retrieve Friendship One, a probe that was launched from Earth in 2067 and has arrived in the Delta Quadrant by now. Following traces of the probe on a planet's surface, Tom, Neelix and Lt. Carey are taken hostages by the planet's inhabitants who live in the underground. A disastrous antimatter explosion has contaminated the atmosphere. Verin, the leader of the group, blames Voyager's crew because the technology was acquired from the probe in the first place. He demands his group to be transferred to another planet and kills Carey to show his determination. After the hostages have been freed, Voyager manages to clean the planet to give its inhabitants a new life.

Review

An old Earth probe approaches an alien planet, accompanied by Vivaldi's Four Seasons. Despite this promising beginning the episode soon becomes one of the least impressive ones lately. The fact that the probe has come from Earth (as unlikely it may seem that it worked for 180 years) doesn't even play a great role in the following. Obsessed with his ideas as he is, Verin may have taken any alien away team hostages, to force them to save his people. He may have blamed everyone for his people's misery. The other way round, Janeway and her crew are not really feeling guilty about a failed former policy of the UESPA, from a time long before proper first contact procedures would be established. One may pardon humanity its naivety, and after all there is nothing intrinsically bad about a technology but only about those who use it for a bad purpose or use it without care as it obviously happened on the planet. I think this should have been discussed in more detail, and there should have been any kind of consequences.

The most annoying aspect of the episode is that Carey died a useless death. He never showed up after the first season and was only "resurrected" for the time travel episodes "Relativity" and "Fury", so one could think he was long dead by now. Now it seems as if he had been killed twice. It seems the author of the episode just needed someone already known but insignificant enough to be sacrificed, to avoid a fair evaluation of the question whether it was Earth's guilt that the planet had been devastated.

Annotations

Rating: 2

 

Natural Law

Synopsis

"Natural Law"

Stardate 54827.7: Chakotay's and Seven's shuttle crashes into an isolated region on the planet Ledos, home to the primitive Ventu. The two try to avoid contact with the indigenous population, but are soon discovered by the Ventu who treat Chakotay's injury and help Seven find the shuttle's deflector. The Ventu habitat is surrounded by an energy barrier, built by unknown advanced aliens to prevent cultural contamination by the Ledosians. After Seven and Chakotay have been beamed up together with the shuttle debris through a deflector modification, the Ledosians demand to study the Ventu, but Janeway decides to seal the barrier again.

Review

"Natural Law" is an example for an episode that wound up as much better than I would have expected after the first impression. We have seen Chakotay as an expert in dealing with indigenous populations several times before, not to mention the previous shuttle crashes for which he was responsible, but it was all nicely arranged this time, as the series has gained a certain maturity. I was pleasantly surprised when, about half way through the episode, the question of protecting the Ventu from the Ledosians was raised and it therefore turned out more than only one of the many "survivor" stories. The problem of the Ledosians and Ventu presents a new aspect of the Prime Directive and who is actually meant to be protected by it. Of course, Janeway's decision is controversial, as an alien world as a whole is granted certain rights but she denies the Ledosians the control of parts of their own planet. Also, in a similar situation, she sentenced Tom Paris to 30 days in the brig when he decided to help the Moneans against their will in "Thirty Days".

The only bad taste is left over from some ill-considered technobabble in the beginning. Chakotay orders to go to warp low in the planet's atmosphere, which is already a bad idea to start with. But then he is surprised when it doesn't work because "warp engines don't just shut down when you scrape an energy barrier." He seems to suffer from amnesia because this is exactly what happens every few weeks.

Annotations

Rating: 5

 

Homestead

Synopsis

"Homestead"

Stardate 54868.6: After examining traces of Talaxian life signs, the Delta Flyer crashes on an asteroid inside which a small Talaxian colony exists. Neelix befriends the Talaxian widow Dexa and her son Brax. When a mining company, represented by Commander Nocona, demands that the Talaxians leave because they want to demolish the asteroid, Janeway agrees to transfer the Talaxians to a Class-M world, but Neelix pleads to defend the asteroid. With Janeway's silent agreement, he installs shield emitters around the colony that withstand the miners' attacks. Neelix eventually decides to stay with his new friends.

Review

It was never sure where Neelix really belonged. After the war with the Haakonians in which he lost his family (VOY: "Jetrel"), he apparently did not feel like spending much time with his own kind. He had a relationship with Kes, who was sort of expelled too, but with this being about their only common background, it never really worked out until they finally and expectedly broke up (VOY: "Darkling"). Neelix found a new family on Voyager, but he was still the "adopted child" who was seeking his true home. He may have joined the crew on their return to Earth (after all we know that he, unlike Seven and Naomi, was excited about that prospect in "Bliss"). But returning to his people was probably the better solution for him.

Since Neelix was seldom a really important character, "Homestead" was also a nice opportunity to put him in the focus of interest. After Neelix's break-up with Kes, he has not shown the slightest interest in romantic relationships (at least none that we know of), and this is the reason why I liked the part that Dexa and Brax assumed in Neelix's new life. Well, it was not exactly a romantic relationship with Dexa (yet), but definitely the same kind of protective attitude that Neelix has always shown for Kes. By any means, this was a worthy final episode for Neelix, and when the crew assembled to say good-bye to him, it almost brought a tear to my eye. Well, the idea of a Talaxian colony tens of thousands of light years from Talaxia is literally far-fetched, but I would wish that all stories that strain the plausibility of the show are as important as this one.

I didn't care much about the action part of the story this time. The conflict merely served as a vehicle to render Neelix's determination to stay and to defend his new friends more credible. It may have been better to focus even more on Neelix's personal struggle.

Annotations

Rating: 7

 

Renaissance Man

Synopsis

"Renaissance Man"

Stardate 54890.7: While Capt. Janeway is a hostage of the Hierarchy, also know as the Overlookers, the Doctor is under their permanent surveillance. He needs to talk his crew into abandoning the ship's warp core, for which purpose he takes on the form of Janeway. When his plot is discovered, he escapes from the ship with the Delta Flyer, taking the warp core with him. However, he leaves an encoded message that allows Tuvok and Paris in a shuttle to find the Overlooker ship. When Janeway and the Doctor, whose program is about to decompile, struggle with the Overlookers, one of them, Nar, eventually decides to end the conflict.

Review

This episode was amusing, but the plot didn't strike me as very interesting. I generally like complex episodes that change its course and pace often, but there was too much tweaking from the part of the authors here. They put too many unrelated fun and action ingredients into the episode and neglected to give it a serious and profound theme. It just didn't work out as well as "Tinker, Tenor, Doctor, Spy", from which this episode was quite obviously inspired, not only because the Overlookers had another appearance here. I would also like to compare "Renaissance Man" with the previous Doctor episode "Author, Author", only a few weeks ago. The latter had both the more consequent humor and the more original and more profound plot, although the Doctor left a bad impression. For better or worse, "Renaissance Man" was more of an average episode. Something to note too is that I liked the first half, when the story slowly developed and we didn't know yet why the Doctor behaved so strangely, better than the second part when the pace became much faster and all kinds of odd and silly things happened, many of which were well-known tropes. Well, the Doctor's confession that he loved Seven was something that we have expected for a long time, so it was sort of satisfying. ;-)

Annotations

Rating: 4

 

Endgame

Synopsis

"Endgame "

Stardate not given: 27 years into the future, Admiral Janeway recalls Voyager's return from the Delta Quadrant ten years ago and the many sacrifices the crew had to make. She decides to change history. Equipped with a chronodeflector stolen from the Klingons, her shuttle emerges from a temporal rift just in front of USS Voyager in the Delta Quadrant 27 years ago. Admiral Janeway persuades Captain Janeway to enter a nebula the ship passed by a few days ago, which would offer a way home. Inside the nebula, however, the ship is attacked by Borg vessels. Voyager withstands thanks to the Borg-proof hull armor of the future. When Captain Janeway realizes that the way home is a Borg transwarp hub, she decides to refrain from the journey home and devises a plan to destroy the Borg's transwarp network instead. Admiral Janeway, however, agrees to sacrifice herself by allowing herself to be assimilated by the Borg Queen, thereby spreading a virus through the Collective, while Voyager escapes to the Alpha Quadrant through a transwarp channel ahead of the shockwave.

Review

"Endgame" is a worthy finale, and this may excuse that most of the elements of the story are already known from "Timeless", "Dark Frontier" or. most obviously, from TNG's "All Good Things". There were definitely more suspenseful episodes in Star Trek history, but this one has the special charm of a series finale, just as the already mentioned TNG: "All Good Things" and DS9: "What You Leave Behind" before. Lots of guest appearances, fan trivia, memorable moments and eye candy.

Unfortunately, there also seems to be a tradition that the authors make up an incredible last-minute romantic relationship that has at most been hinted at before. So Seven and Chakotay are in love. I wish this had been prepared more thoroughly, and not only with a holographic Chakotay in "Human Error" a couple of weeks ago. I also don't like how the authors do not only have Voyager come home, something that most fans were hoping for and that just had to happen because the series was aimed at such a finale. But almost casually they also give the Borg the death blow and let Starfleet acquire all kinds of future technology - as if they wanted to prevent themselves from ever making a 24th century series again. As for the ethic question behind that, Picard finally gave in and dropped his plan to send Hugh to destroy the Collective in TNG: "I, Borg". Neither present-day nor future Janeway seems to have any doubt about their plan. Not that I would mourn for the Borg, but even DS9, that had become increasingly warlike towards the finale, eventually put an end to the fighting, so it is the wrong signal.

Annotations

Rating: 7

 


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