| Paris has recreated an Irish village as the latest holodeck vacation spot for the crew - you can tell it is Ireland right away because every single extra on the streets has red hair. Janeway begins falling for the roguish bartender, and then starts modifying his program to suit her needs. Once she has sex with him she starts feeling guilty about it, and abandons him, but since the whole crew uses the program it is constantly running and the guy goes nuts and spills the beans for the crew. Then a magical space phenomena that Voyager had to ride out rather than avoid destabilizes the program, and it must be shut down for six weeks, so Janeway says her goodbyes to him, but says maybe she'd see him in six weeks. |
I do have two nice things to say about this episode. One: it is a holodeck story that is not a holodeck malfunction story. Sure, parts of the program are lost at the end, but the central conflict of the story is not entirely based on a piece of luxury equipment going haywire; it is instead about a crew member going haywire. That at least is the foundation for a better story; we explore what the character's personal reaction is to the holodeck, and that gives us a good opportunity for character growth. It is squandered of course, but the idea started in the right place.
Number two is the Doctor's conversation with Janeway about her experiences. It is not preachy (despite his priest's garb), and covers a number of important holodeck and Janeway-related issues. He raises a good point that Janeway's by-the-book nature does exclude her from forming romantic relationships from the crew, and though he doesn't state this explicitly, if she's going around looking for romance from the alien-a-week people then she's bound to enter into a conflict of interest that way, so a hologram may be her best choice for romantic release. Her concern is about being able to just alter her boyfriend to her liking, to the point that he is better than life - and to Janeway, there's really no good reason to be that happy. I guess Rimmer is to Red Dwarf as Janeway is to Voyager.
This episode feels strange following on the heels of Pathfinder, a re-exploration of Barclay's holo-addiction. Holodecks definitely do have the potential to make real life... obsolete, which Barclay would be the first to tell us. As much as I appreciate the Doctor's sentiment in his plea that Janeway consider having some fun, I do think that the threat of convincing virtual realities as a replacement for life (that is captured perfectly in Red Dwarf) is something to be genuinely concerned about.
But here's the real problem with this episode: it is another run of the mill love story that builds way too slowly - it's even run of the mill for a holodeck love story. At least Harry Kim's holodeck love story (Alter Ego) had another angle to it, and twisted into a tale about Tuvok's loneliness. There's just nothing going on here. I don't even particularly like the setting. The Talaxian resort program, I think that's probably my favorite group holodeck destination so far - everything else has seemed to tailored to (or by) one or two crew members. To Neelix's credit, he tried to pick something everyone would like, and when people wanted to make additions, he was okay with it (even back when he was awful). Fair Haven doesn't seem like the kind of place that would exert the draw on the crew that the writers want us to believe it does.
Watchability: 2/5
Bottom Line: It's not just a love story, it's not just a holodeck love story, it is a Janeway holodeck love story.
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