S5 E20: Think Tank

A group of diverse aliens that specialize in problem solving approach Voyager, offering assistance with their newest quandry: a species of bounty hunter aliens who are attempting to corner and capture the ship. However, when it turns out that part of what they want in recompense is Seven, the deal is off. Voyager captures a pair of the bounty hunters and discovers that they had been hired initially by this "think tank" under false pretenses as part of an attempt to acquire Seven one way or the other. Voyager's crew and their pursuers set up a counter trap, since the think tank ship would be worth a much higher bounty than Voyager itself: convince the think tank that Voyager is in such danger that Seven is going to their ship as a last-ditch effort to save them, then disable their cloaking effect (drop their ship out of subspace, I guess it isn't really a cloak though it effectively does the same thing) when she is linked to their telepathic relays. The plan works perfectly, and Voyager runs off while the think tank ship is under attack from the bounty hunters.

I really like the idea of the think tank crew as an entity within the Trek universe. I get kind of a Doctor Whoish feel to them, though that series is admittedly the major televised science fiction cannon of which I have the least knowledge (just the first season and a half of the latest incarnation, which my wife and I have been enjoying greatly). A non-Federation group of civilian problem solvers could support, if not a whole series, perhaps a Trek-related miniseries. It would give a good opportunity to have an ideologically diverse cast without significantly altering the charter of the Federation - cultural interference could be discussed without the dogma of the prime directive stifling intellectual debate the way it has in Voyager. Speaking of civilian, there aren't a whole lot of non-military science fiction shows out there. While Starfleet is hardly as rigid as an actual military organization, it is certainly better funded than Mal's firefly-class Serenity was. That's part of where my affinity for Firefly and what little I've seen of Doctor Who comes from, and the "big picture" effect of Battlestar Galactica's depiction of an entire fictional society from top to bottom, military and civilian, the politically powerful and the oppressed is fantastic.

Getting back to this episode, the invention of the think tank group is creative, and gives us a good story, even if it is quite a predictable story. It is very clear from the beginning that Kurros (the leader of the think tank) is playing both sides to maximize the chance that he'll end up with what he wants (Seven), especially after the teaser (wherein he insists on receiving a payment from a planet that will leave it unable to feed its population) showing how unscrupulous he and his team are. Thankfully, Janeway has been getting better at displaying at least a hint of caution when dealing with people she doesn't know - and, to be fair, has been better at it for multiple seasons now - so it is a bit more believable that she is initially caught unaware of the deception.

Voyager's plan is a good one, and a clever one, but the script's interpretation of it is a bit ridiculous. In order to beat the think tank at their own game, Janeway is convinced that they should try something other than out-thinking them. Well, okay, but what could that possibly mean? What other option is there besides out thinking them, overpowering them? The solution is sold to the audience as a means of cheating the think tank, but in what way could that possibly count as not out-thinking them? I wouldn't belabor this point, but the episode sure did so it has annoyed me into action. Still, it is relatively minor in the grand scope of "things I could be annoyed by in a Voyager episode," and the episode remains interesting and fun, so I'll mostly give it a pass.

Watchability: 4/5

Bottom Line: I like the idea of the think tank crew thus I like the idea of this episode.