S4 E14: Message in a Bottle

Seven finds an apparently abandoned alien array of communication satellites that daisy chains all the way to the alpha quadrant. She has detected a Federation ship, but the crew is unable to send a message to it without the message degrading. With time running out before the ship leaves range of the network, they decide to send the Doctor over the network, because his signal won't degrade (wtf??). He arrives on the U.S.S. Prometheus, a prototype warship that the Romulans have commandeered, even though they aren't at war. As the lone Federation personnel left on the ship, the Doctor activates the ship's EMH - which is the cocky EMH Mark II. The two spar and bicker, but manage to overcome the Romulans and retake this ship. The Doctor communicates to the Federation that Voyager is still out there before warping back over the relay to the ship.

The flimsy excuse to get the Doctor into an an action comedy episode is... a flimsy excuse. The EMH Mark II is played by Andy Dick, who I'm not familiar with, but is a reasonably well known comedian. The thing is, his goofy delivery is only barely contained within the conceit of being another EMH with a poor bedside manner. His comedy is more of the campy, sit-com humor of which I am not so enamored. However, that makes him a decent target for the Doctor's wry wit, so the chemistry between the two saves most of their scenes.

The Prometheus has an interesting battle mode, in which it separates into three separate ships for a "multi vector assault mode." It looks cool, but I don't see the tactical advantage that grants over just having three smaller starships in the first place. We meet the Hirogen for the first time here, as they are the owners of the network in the episode. I know we get more of them later, but I've never actually seen any Hirogen episodes - and they don't do much here except give Seven a chance to win Torres over by sending a feedback shock over the network.

According to the Global Episode Opinion Poll, this is the number 4 rated episode of all of Voyager. Last time I brought up the discrepancy between my reaction and the rating of the episode in that poll, I worried that it was a symptom of the greater problem that I'm simply not the target audience for Voyager. That may still be the case, but there's another possibility that has occurred to me. Episode polls and their average ratings give a serious advantage to the inoffensive and the plainly entertaining. This episode is really very decent, so just about everyone (even most Voyager detractors) will give it a "passing" score, while also averaging in all the 10/10s that the hardcore fans assign to anything that has a pulse isn't Threshold. I mean, for TNG, Cause and Effect is rated #8, while Darmok is #20, and The Offspring is #22. That gap isn't quite as large as #4 for this one and #128 for Mortal Coil, but it is something to cling to.

One last thing: the closing scene of the episode has some of the worst Janeway facial expressioning since the first season, doing the bit where she can't seem to keep her cheeks still, where I start wondering why she is trying to talk with that hive of killer bees in her mouth. She has been doing a lot better in the last streak of episodes, so it was extra frustrating to see this step backwards.

Watchability: 4/5

Bottom Line: It really is a fun, entertaining episode, but it isn't the #4 episode of the entire series. It isn't even the #4 of the first half of the fourth season.