Neelix is back at it with his Paris-fueled jealousy/paranoia, and it is still grating. I had hoped that the writers had seen how un-endearing it was and dropped it, but no. Fortunately, we cut pretty early to the bridge, where they've found... another creature in space. Voyager seems to love space-borne lifeforms. This is what, the third already? I like the idea of life finding a way to flourish in space, but they hardly get into the science of it.
Instead it is mostly used as an excuse to have Kes go into heat! Great! She can only get pregnant once, and it got accelerated by the creatures! Now we can have a teen-pregnancy episode! I am so excited about this! Capping off a series of trite-to-the-point-of-painful scenes where Neelix isn't ready, Kes is ready, Neelix asks Tuvok for advice, Neelix is ready, Kes isn't ready, is a scene with Kes and the Doctor talk about what she should do which feels a little heartfelt and genuine. In between there are also some very awkward Chakotay/Janeway sequences. Should they allow sexing in the crew? No other Trek has cared about it, and they have extra reason to allow it here (being far from home) but they seem to think it is an issue. Although Chakotay starts dropping subtle hints that maybe Janeway should be making the sexy time with him, which is awful. You can do better, dude.
More space-borne lifeforms! Please! I'm very sorry about complaining about it, now that it is relegated to the B-plot. The little creatures begin attaching themselves to the Voyager, and then a big one shows up and starts being aggressive with the ship. Now even this part of the plot is about mating. Didn't TNG already do an episode about the ship being mistaken for a creature? At least Galaxy's Child didn't have the teen pregnancy bit, though the Geordi pining after Dr. Brahms parts were also pretty excruciating. Chakotay figures out that they should behave submissively to the creature, which works, and Janeway congratulates him (Not paraphrased)*: "In the future, if I have any questions about mating behavior, I'll know where to go." Bluh.
Solving the creature-problem also made Kes come out of heat. She can still have a baby later, but she learned an important lesson about responsibility, and so did Neelix (*groan*). Also, a crew member (Samantha Wildman's first appearance) is pregnant with her husband's child (the dad is back in the alpha quadrant), so Janeway decides magnanimously to allow it.
Watchability: 1/5
Bottom Line: Sure, Trek has more than its share of after-school-special episodes, but it doesn't mean I have to like it.
*I figure, given the rate at which I paraphrase people, it's better if I just mark when I am actually quoting people.
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