| Smanatha Wildman is on a dangerous mission aboard the Delta Flyer with Paris and Tuvok when an ion storm causes them to crash land on an inhospitable world. Naomi is left in the care of Neelix, who tries to shelter her from the truth so that she might not know the pain that he did when he lost his family. She figures out what is going on, and is mad at him at first, but the two come to comfort each other. Samantha is rescued successfully, and everyone lives happily ever after. |
I really like the idea of the Flotter holoprogram. In short, it is an interactive children's book that encourages creative problem solving. What is really fun is that, when other members of the crew describe their childhood Flotter experiences, they reveal that they each took the program in a different direction. While I would have some concern that a child who is raised with that sort of immersive, fantastical world might have trouble wanting to actually participate in the real world (though I'm sure Jane McGonigal would probably disagree), the program doesn't seem to pull any punches. There are genuinely scary (to children) villains, episodes with large-scale destruction, and the potential death of the main character. The program also encourages doing outside research in order to figure out solutions in the game. This element gets my seal of approval.
In my opinion, the "shielding kids from the truth is bad" trope is tired, but using Neelix's loss of his own family as a driving motivation for his actions works well. Neelix's over-protectiveness of Kes was just petty jealousy and insecurity, while his guardianship here (while the script does side against him overall) comes across as noble due to his personal damage. To be perfectly fair, Naomi is an abnormally well-adjusted child (maybe due to her awesome holoprogram?), and not every child would necessarily adapt to the news that her mother may be dead quite as well as she does.
Janeway, of course, delights in the opportunity to condescend to Neelix about his choice to not tell Naomi the whole truth. I mean, I think it would have been best for Neelix to tell her the truth, but I can also see where he's coming from: Samantha's not dead, she may come back just fine, it is hard to see a benefit to telling Naomi that her mother is in danger of dieing. Great you told her, now she won't come out from under the bed until her mom comes back, good work there. All I mean to say is, it isn't an obvious choice, but when Janeway approaches Neelix about it, she is full-on "what you're doing is dumb, and you are dumb for doing it." I think that's my biggest problem with Janeway: it is one thing to be an all-or-nothing black-and-white moralist, but to also be allergic to the idea that anyone could possibly come to a different conclusion from yours, to the point where you go into full-blown anaphylaxis when confronted, that drives me nuts. Sure, they can make some character act that way, but to have that character also be the ship's captain is incredibly frustrating.
I did honestly expect Samantha to die here. She's not a main character, and Naomi being Neelix's charge could easily be handled with minimal continuity if the writers wanted to. Since it would be easy to kill her, I thought the writers would do it; while her rescue is definitely a subversion of expectations, I'm not entirely happy with it. The original BSG was an exceptionally campy show, with Voyager levels of continuity, and even they were willing to give a major male character the guardianship of a child who was born to a woman that he was not married to. As annoying as Boxy and his robo-dog were, I consider that to be the bravest element of that series.
Watchability: 4/5
Bottom Line: This episode is right on the edge between 4 and 5 for me, but the Janeway scenes and the ending were enough to tip it down a slight notch.
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