| A Plot: Seven is caught spying on Torres and Paris to further her understanding of romance, so the Doctor steps in to teach her what he knows about it. He and Paris bet about the outcome of her dating experiments, and when Seven's first date with a random crew member goes awry, the Doctor steps in to be her date for the wager's culmination, since he realizes that he has developed feelings for her. Paris spills the beans about the bet, Seven is angry, and the Doctor's heart is broken. B Plot: Neelix is tasked with playing ambassador to a member of a culturally conservative race while Janeway and Tuvok are on the surface of their planet. The Kadi ambassador develops quite a taste for the excesses that he can find on Voyager, much to Neelix's mortification. He doesn't have the enzyme needed to brush off his inebriation from synthahol, so the Doctor cures his intoxication using nanoprobes. He is in better shape by the time of the return of his leader from the planet's surface, who surprises everyone by expressing disappointment that he didn't take this opportunity to imbibe. |
I think I've made my feelings on awkward situations (Non Sequitur), hearing a Trek-writer's-eye-view on love (Lifesigns), and insipid Trek love stories in general (Unforgettable) pretty clear. This episode manages to stitch together all of those elements in one wretched abomination. Almost every scene with Seven in it was so excruciatingly awkward that I could barely keep my eyes on the screen, even with the knowledge that, as a solid bottom five episode, I would have to write a review for it that would be forever linked to from the main page.
It started with the eye-rolling. The Doctor's explanations about love were only slightly more tolerable than Kes' from Lifesigns, largely because he's expected to be a non-expert. I usually like the blind-leading-the-blind elements of Doctor-Seven and Tuvok-Seven interactions, because the Doctor is usually so misguided himself and because Tuvok is so disdainful of human frivolities. The problem here is that it was obvious that his flimsy understandings of love were just a set-up for awkward situations, so you know that every little thing he tells her is going to cause trouble later.
The date with that guy we'll never see again was agonizing, but it was nothing compared to the Doctor-Seven date and associated ruining due to the reveal of the wager. It isn't even clever. The bet is something that has been done ad nauseum in a hojillion different romantic comedies or teen dramas or the margins of a high-schooler's notepad. It's one thing for Voyager to include romance or love stories, but it is another for it to do so in such a painfully trite way. Even though these stories aren't for me, I'd be willing to give them some credit if they at least showed enough creativity that I wouldn't have to look at it under a microscope to see it.
Neelix's subplot, while also awkward, is inoffensive, and almost seems like a masterpiece in comparison with the A-plot. Neelix continues to be relatively competent, and no longer has a grain of the pettiness he showed in the first two seasons, so there's that. It was good that some part of this episode defied expectations by having the planet's leader come back and not be worried about his comrade's indulgences. In general, the B-plot reminds me a lot of the guys from Liasons. Nothing much to add to that, it just felt very familiar.
Watchability: 1/5
Bottom Line: Neelix saved this episode from being the second zero out of five.
One of my all time favorite VOYAGER episodes.
ReplyDeleteWell, as always, Your Mileage May Vary. While, for me, this episode was very physically difficult to watch, I don't expect everyone has the same reactions to awkward situations. I still wouldn't give it any marks for creativity, but I suppose that this particular trope has not appeared in Trek before, there's that.
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