S5 E10: Counterpoint

Voyager is in an area of space where they must regularly submit to armed inspectors (Devore) looking for rogue telepaths. Voyager has been hiding its Vulcans, Betazoid, and some other telepathic refugees in the transporter buffer during these inspections, but repeated uses of the technology for prolonged concealment have begun to take their toll on the contraband people. Voyager is about to make a break for a rendezvous point when the leader of the inspection teams (Kashyk) shows up in civilian clothes, offering to defect - and revealing that the current rendezvous is a trap. The information he gives them checks out, so Janeway allows him to help them find the wormhole the refugees seek, and to make out with her. Upon nearly reaching the wormhole, an inspection team finds them, and Kashyk offers to buy them time by returning to his people and throwing them off the trail. This sets up his obvious betrayal, but Janeway is one step ahead of him: the telepaths have left on shuttles that use the same cloak-shielding that he Devore use. To save face, Kashyk lets her go.

Finally! A shorter review! This is a fluffier episode than the last few, with betrayals, counter-betrayals, and counter-counter-betrayals all set to some light-hearted classical music. Actually, that music (by Tchaikovsky and Mahler) is a highlight of the episode; I just wish more Voyager episodes had such interesting background music. Kashyk's deceit is pretty obvious for most of the episode, especially after the countless (okay, you could count them but I'm too lazy and there are a lot of them) times that the Voyage crew has been tricked or taken advantage of. That being the case, it is especially satisfying for them to effectively play Kashyk right back. Now, if Garak were part of this crew, Kashyk would show up back on Voyager only to be told that while he was staying with them and eating their food he ingested a micro-bomb for which Garak has a remote, and would he please instruct the inspectors to leave if he wishes to keep his intestines from decorating the walls. That doesn't happen, and his release of the Voyager crew is less believable as a result, but you can't have everything.

Janeway's casual discarding of the Prime Directive here is especially odd in light of the events from Thirty Days. Now, I have no problem with her helping the oppressed telepaths (I mean as long as she's hiding her Vulcans too she might as well), but if she'll defend that law to the point where she'll let a whole world be destroyed in a temporal inferno (Time and Again), this is quite the departure. This episode even contrasts starkly with her stance in Prototype, that before interfering, we should at least know what we're getting in to. I can still see her helping the telepaths, but I'd expect her to be a bit more cautious; who knows perhaps the telepaths are being persecuted because, before they were exiled, they themselves brutally persecuted the Devore, using their powers malevolently. The Prime Directive is an imperfect document, and was designed to be that way to bring drama to a captain's life; it is a captain's prerogative to make a tough decision to break it. In this episode, though, that decision is pushed into off-screen events, leaving us with Janeway's flippant line about leaving it up to instinct.

After Janeway was cut loose from her long-time relationship with Mark in Prey, she was opened up for new romances; this is the first episode to take advantage of that. Her relationship with Kashyk was used here mostly to make it seem as if she had been completely hoodwinked by him, but the two do actually have some chemistry. He is one of the few people in the entire Trek universe that she treats as if he were her intellectual equal. The romance doesn't work out for obvious reasons, but I'm hoping that the writers can see why it worked and maybe tone down the condescension a bit.

Watchability: 4/5

Bottom Line: Taken as a more light-hearted episode, it is very entertaining. This episode, though its score in the GEOS system is not exceptional, was listed as Janeway's favorite in a 2001 BBC2 special. What's more, it won in the related telephone polling of the fans. Its competition? Shatner and Brooks picked "The City on the Edge of Forever" and "Far Beyond the Stars" two Trek heavyweights, but I guess I can understand that they came from series that are less popular among people who were still watching Trek after Voyager. That, and Stewart's pick was the execrable "In Theory", which he can be excused for thinking of fondly because it was his directorial debut, but isn't something I can imagine anyone wanting to watch intentionally.