S5 E17: The Disease

Kim has sex with a woman (Tal) from "generational starship," but he feels guilty because it is apparently now against Starfleet protocol to sleep with the natives. Voyager has been working with the crew of this ship, but earning their trust has been difficult since their culture is largely xenophobic. When Kim's indiscretion is revealed through his skin luminescing (maybe he's pregnant?) Janeway is enraged. Kim is contrite at first, but can't stay away because sex with a Varro sets off a biochemical bonding reaction. When the leader of the Varro catches wind of this tryst, he is outraged because Tal is a member of the dissident movement who wants to break away from the ship, and he assumes that Kim is also involved in an attempt to break it into its component ships. While Kim and Janeway are arguing about love, the sabotage is enacted, and then there are no more problems with the Varro.

Well, if you didn't learn that sex is bad from Buffy causing Angel to turn evil with vile premarital intercourse, I suppose you could have learned that here. Anyways, if Starfleet has any sort of protocol about having sex with the aliens you meet, it was put in place right before Voyager shipped out, and was rescinded within seconds of Voyager's trip to the delta quadrant. I couldn't decide if all the lines about such a protocol with tongue in cheek or if the writers had simply never seen Shatner do his thing. I mean, it's okay to show the crew not sleeping with their first contacts, but to pretend that it is unprecedented is weird.

In any event, this episode feels like an after school special. As a result, the fairly interesting generational ship is, at best, glossed over. I would have liked to spend some more time on the ship, or at least meet more than three people from it. It isn't even clear what Voyager is getting out of this alliance with the Varro: "We don't trust you!" "We'll help you! Do you trust us now?" "Well, not yet. Maybe you could help us out some more?" "Absoultely! do you trust us now?" This is a love story first, and as a result, as usual, its rating will suffer.

There is one thing though that pulled this episode out of a complete nose-dive: Janeway kind of obliquely admits that she was maybe being a too much of a jerk about Kim having sex. She doesn't regret being overbearing, just regrets being too overbearing. But this is huge progress. The only other time I can think of anything like this happening is earlier this season, in Latent Image. I hope that this is a sign of a change in the direction of her character.

Watchability: 2/5

Bottom Line: Well, okay, this episode didn't quite pull itself out of the nose-dive, but it at least managed to avoid any populated areas when it crashed and burned.