| We begin with Paris and Torres' wedding ceremony, but things quickly go awry when Torres begins to demolecularize, and dies. Chakotay and Tuvok determine that it wasn't actually Torres though, she was a copy of Torres from the episode Demon. In fact, they discover that the whole ship and crew are copies, as everything and everyone begins to break down due to effects from the warp core. At first they opt to continue towards Earth, until it becomes clear that they have to return to the Class-Y (classy!) planet of their origin. They fail, they all die, and all evidence that they existed is destroyed just before they come into contact with the real Voyager. |
The first clue that we get that things aren't right is that Paris' rank is established as still being lieutenant during the wedding. Of course, given Voyager's continuity track record, that's not much of a hint. I would more readily assume that the writers just forgot, or this episode was aired out of order, or the re-promotion was just supposed to be assumed to have happened off-screen. The other clue is that everyone is happy and close to getting home due to an advancement with the warp drive, which we also know can't be the case this season.
Anyways, this episode is a follow-up for a good season four episode, Demon. As one of the characters lampshades annoyingly here, yes, I did harbor some curiosity about what had happened to those copies of the crew. And while the whole "forgetting we were copies" thing is hand-waved away, the copies in that episode didn't know they were copies either. But one thing they did have was an overwhelming desire to stay on the planet at all costs, which isn't addressed at all. There's also the issue with being unable to breathe in M-class environments, which would have broken the illusion earlier any time they tried to beam down to a planet.
However, those are just nitpicks compared to the much larger problem with this episode: it is completely pointless. Nothing happens, all character development is erased, and the crew never even gets to pass on their logs to anyone. All effort for the entire length of the show is meaningless. It would be one thing to have an episode about futility, but to do so with a crew that we'll never meet again is just a complete waste of time.
Watchability: 1/5
Bottom Line: Don't bother.
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