S7 E14: Prophecy

An old Klingon ship arrives, carrying pilgrims on a decades-long journey across the galaxy. Their captain is distrustful of Voyager at first, due to the whole "leaving the alpha quadrant back when the Klingons were at war with the Federation" thing. But when he discovers that Torres' child may be the answer to their ancient prophecies, he sabotages his own ship so that Voyager is forced to evacuate the Klingons or allow them to die. He is pragmatic about the prophecies; he knows that her child may not be the answer, but enough facts match, and boy would it be nice to stop traveling, so he sets about convincing his crew. His first officer is more skeptical, and even challenges Paris to a duel. When the Doctor cures a disease that has infected all the members of the Klingon crew using the baby's stem cells, that relieves their worries, and they happily settle on a nearby planet. Also, Neelix and a Klingon woman sexile Tuvok. True story.

While I'm sure there are plenty of stories left to tell about interesting new delta quadrant factions that we've never heard of before, I'm not one to turn down a fun Klingon story. Sure, the Klingons have never been big on prophecies, that's more of a Bajoran thing, but they are still one of the more religious species in Trek. They must've had some prophecies. I like the idea of meeting other travelers along Voyager's route, other people who aren't natives, and that's as reasonable a time as any to bring back an old favorite.

The Klingon captain, Kohlar, is quite an interesting character. The mix of pragmatism and faith gives him some interesting motivations and decisions, and gives his interactions with Torres a healthy twist. Plenty of other sci-fi shows have explored the vagueness of prophecy, and how easy it is to make otherwise benign events fit with them, but Kohlar's approach gives the agnostic Federation an actual incentive to match events to the prophecies. They make it clear they'd be uncomfortable lying to the Klingon crew, but if they can see a way that the prophecies match, what's the harm?

Also exciting is that Torres, though she makes no apology about not following Klingon practices, does not go out of her way to show how disgusted she is with them. Like maybe, just maybe, she's learned something in seven years. Or at least in the last few episodes.

Of course, the lion's share of the entertainment in this episode goes to Neelix, Kim, and Tuvok. Kim breaks up a fight in the mess hall, and immediately attracts the attention of Ch'Rega. She announces her intention to mate with him, and chaste Kim falls back on his usual response to sex: complete and overwhelming terror. The Doctor even writes him a permission slip to go do the deed. But he's still running from her when Neelix makes his move. He knows a good deal when he sees one. He makes a big show about of terrifying Kim (easy for Kim to play along with that) in front of Ch'Rega - thereby shifting her attention onto him. Of course, Tuvok has been forced to double up with Neelix, since Neelix had given up his quarters to a Klingon family, so that night Tuvok returns to find he's been locked out of his quarters.

Just think, in seasons one and two, I would have given anything to not hear about Neelix's sex life. As much trouble as I've given the Voyager writers about stagnant characters and no character growth, they've done right by Neelix.

Watchability: 4/5

Bottom Line: Not a terribly substantial episode, but it was fun nonetheless.

S7 E12: Lineage

Torres is pregnant, and she and Paris start adjusting to the idea of being parents. They aren't helped by every crew member harassing them non-stop, but the really aren't helped when the Doctor makes a holographic representation of what their child will look like based on her DNA. Torres is troubled to learn that the forehead ridges will be passed on and works out a way to remove those genes, but Paris and the Doctor are troubled by her efforts. The Doctor abruptly changes his tune, but Paris discovers that Torres has altered his program just in time to stop her from undergoing the procedure. She breaks down and tells him about the events in her childhood that caused her to believe that her klingonness is what made her parents divorce, and he reassures her that if he hasn't left yet he isn't going to.

Here's the bad news: once again, since it is a Torres and Paris story, they both fight all the time in the exact same "they don't tell each other their problems so they stew until they explode" way, even though they made up last time. And once again, because it is a Torres story, she is uncomfortable with her Klingon side, even though she learns to embrace it all those other times. I genuinely think that this is an interesting story, but boy I wish some of that prior character growth would stick. Even just a little bit. Torres' insecurity is dialed up to eleven here, when I think maybe they could have done with a seven. The number, not the character. Up until the final sickbay scene, because her actions seem like a huge step backwards for her, they feel like a gross overreaction to her child's appearance.

However, that last scene does a lot to fix those problems. Her scene camping with her father, the overheard conversation, and her outburst, asking why he doesn't just leave them (only to have him leave them less than two weeks later), add a realistic emotional motive for her behavior. It casts her choices in a light that shows her to be carrying baggage from her childhood; baggage from a time when she didn't have the emotional maturity that she has developed throughout the series. Her insecurities sound more like things I've heard from actual parents and parents to be in my career as a nurse.

I do like that the question of genetic alteration is approached honestly here, rather than the "it is bad because it is illegal" way that it is in other Trek episodes. The congenital spine curvature is the perfect lead-in, since the way to cure that is genetic resequencing; I think it would be hard for anyone to argue that that treatment is something that should be outlawed. It helps blur the line, which I really appreciate. The other characters are uncomfortable with Torres' plan, but no one goes so far as to say it is criminal. The Doctor certainly makes it clear that he thinks she's being short sighted, but even Janeway doesn't outright rule against the procedure.

Watchability: 4/5

Bottom Line: The last ten minutes are fantastic, but I can't really ignore that the first thirty-five were annoying. Still, this is the kind of story I want from Trek, the kind of story that can only happen in a sci-fi setting, but still incorporates elements common to humanity as a whole.

S7 E03: Drive

Paris and Kim are out testing the Delta Flyer II when they are challenged to a race by another ship. They win, but need to take the other ship to Voyager to help repair it. Its pilot, Irina, informs them of a nearby interstellar race, in which Paris immediately seeks Janeway's permission to compete. She consents, but Torres is frustrated that he had forgotten about their romantic holodeck getaway, so on Neelix's counsel, she takes Kim's place aboard the Flyer for the race. The race's organizers embrace Voyager as a neutral party for hosting the event, since it is the first since the cessation of hostilities in the area. Irina's ship shows signs of sabotage, and when her co-pilot is injured, Kim takes his place. When he is almost incapacitated too, he realizes that Irina is herself the saboteur, and plans to not be anywhere near the finish line when the Flyer, which she also sabotaged, crosses the finish line - an act that would set off a bomb and kill all the spectators. The communications system is down, but Kim manages to send an encoded message to the Flyer, which has already stopped short of winning because Paris and Torres were arguing. They get the message and transport the bomb to a nebula, and then Paris and Torres get married for some reason.

So, you know how I'm annoyed because every time Paris and Torres get screen time together it is so that they can fight with each other? This episode is the same thing. The time when they were happiest together remains Thirty Days, two seasons ago, when they couldn't see each other because Paris was in solitary confinement. Every time they're around, they're miserable. Worse, out of a need for drama, they are constantly dismissive of the other's desires to the point that it is really hard to imagine that they care for each other.

When Torres is dejected over Paris' latest slight, she visits the mess hall. Neelix is once again the thoughtful, caring, mature ship's counselor, and offers useful advice, but my wife and I were adding dialogue to the scene because we were so annoyed by Torres/Paris. Some examples:

NEELIX: What about your weekend with Tom?
TORRES: He just cancelled it.
MY WIFE AND ME (US): And you're going to break up with him!!
NEELIX: Does he have any idea how much planning it took?
TORRES: No, and you’re not going to tell him either. He just entered this big race and he’s really excited and, I don’t want to spoil it for him.
US: Plus, it gives you more time to break up with him!
NEELIX: I'm sure if you tell him how important this weekend was to you, he’ll reconsider.
TORRES: Probably, but he should be able to do what makes him happy.
US: Like not be with you?
NEELIX: What about what makes you happy?
TORRES; It’s time I faced facts, Neelix. Tom and I just don’t belong together.
US: FINALLY!
NEELIX: Then you’re not in love with him anymore?
TORRES: I didn’t say that.
US: It's just that you never were in love in the first place!
NEELIX: B’Elanna, if you still love each other.
TORRES: Maybe that isn’t enough.
NEELIX: Call me a hopeless romantic, but I still think it is.
TORRES: There’s a Klingon phrase my grandmother used to use. Mok'tah. It means bad match. That’s what Tom and I are. I just hate that it's taken me three years to realize it.
US: We hate it too!

But, of course, Paris had to pull out all the stops and lose the race just to get her back, so she had to marry him. I guess that's how that works. The thing is, they always patch things up when they fight (which, as I've mentioned, is all the time), so I have zero faith that things will improve between them.

On the other hand, this episode also has the space rally race, which is a bit silly but also awesome. I'm surprised that there hasn't been anything else like it in Trek, but if there's only one show to have a race, it should be the show with Tom Paris in it. The idea of the race as a kind of public relations stunt designed to bring formerly warring factions together is also great, and gives Voyager a good excuse to participate. If only it weren't marred by being another tedious Torres/Paris episode, this premise could have made for a fantastic fun episode.

Watchability: 3/5

Bottom Line: Okay, so the Paris/Torres stuff is actually a bit more palatable than it usually is, and the writers do a decent job of not really siding with one or the other here, which helps.

S6 E22: Muse

Torres has crash-landed in ancient Greece (well, close enough to it), and awakes days later to find that a poet has been using the logs on the Delta Flyer to inspire his plays. Now that she's up and about she needs his assistance in order to get what she needs to send out a distress call, so she helps him to find inspiration for the rest of the story. His patron is about to go to war with a neighboring area, and the poet wants to use the play to convince him to seek peace. On the night of the final performance, Kim, who had been jettisoned in an escape pod, miraculously shows up with a missing part, but Torres feels obligated to help make the poet's show special. She arrives just in time to be the star of the play about her, and beams out at the end to reveal that their gods are "real."

So, writing about writers and how important writing is. It is tough to do the topic justice. You may recall my annoyance at this particular trope's appearance in Worst Case Scenario; it is even more central to the plot here. That's not to say that it can't be done well - I'm not about to say that Hamlet sucks because of those themes, and it is also a critical component to one of my favorite books of all time. At its worst, it is very easy to allow those themes to appear self-serving and self-congratulatory, while at its best it can make the story more intensely personal. This episode does not walk that line particularly gracefully.

It is very heavy-handed about the overall importance of writing; there is a lot of exposition about how great writing can change minds and even shape the direction of cultures, but there is nothing particularly compelling in the actual writing of the play. Not to harp on last episode's rant again (though they do it again here) but you can say that Janeway is great all you want, but that won't miraculously change my mind. If anything, the play is a commentary on Voyager in that the thing that "saves" the play without an ending is essentially a big old special effect - not any spectacular writing ability.

It is also rife with little bits of metahumor; the actors complain that playing an emotionless character will make them look like a bad actor, or that the ideas are too far-fetched for the audience so no one will appreciate it. Good work writers, way to cushion your own egos there. The time-table demands on the part of the Patron also echo writer sentiment about "rushing inspiration," and Torres' complaint about the poet's romances (particularly between Janeway and Chakotay) as being pointless is particularly suspicious in a world where many Voyager fans were crushed when the two never got together.

So, I hated it, right? Well, not really. It wasn't painful to watch most of the time, and even if the writers couldn't come up with anything good for the writer to write, the point that stirring rhetoric can change minds still holds water. Torres was definitely the right choice for the lead character here for a couple of reasons. First, it allowed her to not care that she was crushing the prime directive into little pieces, burning them, and vaporizing the ashes. Second, Torres is not really the touchy-feely type to start out with, not one to advocate for literature and flowery prose, so it gave her character somewhere to go in the story.

Watchability: 3/5

Bottom Line: Very preachy, and definitely self-congratulatory, but not bad. A solidly average episode.

S6 E03: Barge of the Dead

Torres is returning from a solo shuttle mission, and crash-lands in the hangar bay. When events start unfolding strangely upon her return, she's convinced that it is more than just the effects of the concussion she received when landing. These suspicions are confirmed when Klingon warriors enter the mess hall and slaughter the crew, and she awakes on the Barge of the Dead, the mythical ship upon which dishonored dead Klingons are ferried to Gre'thor (Klingon hell). She also isn't convinced that these events are real either, until her mother appears - and Torres revives in sickbay shortly thereafter. Paris and the Doctor inform her that she has been in a coma since an accident during her shuttle mission, and that what she experienced were likely to just be hallucinations. Torres remains shaken, and discovers, after reading up on her Klingon mythology, that if her mother were to die, she would be doomed to Gre'thor due to Torres' own disrespect of Klingon traditions. She finds a way that she could rescue her mother, and convinces Janeway to let her recreate the situation in which she first entered her near-death experience. Once inside, the captain of the barge is immediately aware of her intended deception, and her mother refuses her assistance, but Torres stands willing to give up her life for real in order to save her mother. After willingly walking the plank, and facing down her true feelings about living on Voyager, she is returned to life with a new perspective.

In the memory alpha annotations for Mortal Coil, it is mentioned that there is a perceived contradiction between these two episodes. Under the assumption that Mortal Coil indicated that there is no afterlife and that this episode purports the existence of one, I could see the possible contradiction; however, I dispute both of those assumptions. Mortal Coil is more about Neelix's fear that there is no afterlife - just because he didn't experience one doesn't mean it isn't there. Likewise, just because Torres experienced something like the Klingon afterlife doesn't mean it is real. In my opinion, these two episodes complement each other beautifully, approaching different characters' beliefs and assumptions and testing the strength of their convictions without taking a hard line stand. They are great companion pieces, and Voyager is richer for having both.

Torres needed this episode urgently. Her character had been in a slump, and this episode was a perfect way to move her story forward without closing the doors behind it. She acts maturely throughout, not displaying the regression of the previous season, while still showing her characteristic impatience. And without taking her a step back, this episode confronts her with a reasonable explanation as to why she's been acting extra, in a word, Klingon. Definitely the strongest scene of the episode is the one in which she is surrounded by visions of the Voyager crew on the Barge, while they deconstruct her behavior until she symbolically throws away her bat'leth.

Other characters get a chance to pop in too. Her lessons with Tuvok (from Juggernaut), juxtaposing his lessons in Klingon-side repression with judgment from an illusion of him for not being Klingon enough. That's actually the first scene that clues the viewer in to the possibility of her whole post-shuttle-landing reality being not so real, and it is a good choice for that role because (due to the way it builds) Tuvok's barbs have more of a sting that way. Also, this is one of the first Chakotay-Torres scenes in the last few seasons, and their mentor relationship is one that I miss. Once again, Chakotay is being used in a Kira-esque role, but it is bent into being distinctly Chakotay's style.

I thought the barge scenes were great, not only in terms of visual presentation, but also as a creative way to expand the Klingon mythos. The detail that went into the set and effects surrounding it reveal a richness of imagination that you don't see very often. Even just the short bit about the voices of friends calling out over a deadly ocean, a part that maybe filled twenty seconds, adds to the overall scope of the world that is created here.

Watchability: 5/5

Bottom Line: Finally some good progress is made with Torres, without an easy solution, and leaving room for more advancement. This is the last of the Ronald D. Moore episodes, and while you can see in Battlestar some of what Voyager would be if he were at the helm, it has been a treat to see it in Voyager itself.

S5 E21: Juggernaut

A Malon ship has experienced a disaster, flooding it with deadly theta radiation and forcing its crew to evacuate. Voyager recovers the only two survivors, who warn them to get away before the ship explodes and destroys everything in a two light year radius. However, the theta radiation is destabilizing subspace, so Voyager cannot go to warp, and Voyager's crew must disable the freighter or be destroyed. Chakotay, Neelix, Torres, and the Malons (great band name!) board the ship, but Chakotay is injured, leaving the volatile Torres in charge - who was reprimanded at the beginning of the episode for destroying the Doctor's holo-imager when he was bothering her with it by taking pictures of the warp core. The team runs into trouble in the form of a disfigured, irradiated monster formed from one of the abandoned Malon crew; he is a "core worker," someone who is hired for the purpose of working in the most dangerous areas of the ship at a rate that is equal to what most Malons make in a lifetime - but they only have a 30% chance of surviving a two-month journey. Torres, after trying to negotiate with him, is forced to fight him in order to save her team before Voyager tows the ship into a sun.

Torres starts out extra-grating in this episode, continuing the not-so-proud Voyager tradition of taking steps backwards with a character in order to give them some development in the course of the episode. She does get a rare scene with Tuvok, possibly the first one of any substance since season two's Twisted, and despite Tuvok's meaningless aphorisms, I'm still happy to see the two bounce off each other some more. And though it is annoying for Torres to need to make some negative progress in this episode, her subplot manages to tie into the story well enough without being a too-perfect fit. I'm glad that she doesn't manage to negotiate with the monster, it was enough for her to try (though it is clear that it bothered her that she failed from her final scene).

So, Malons. I know what I expected to think: why would they bring these failures back again? Surprisingly I was quite impressed by their use here. Great efforts were made to make them less two dimensional - the writers took a closer look at their social structure, their motivations, and their lives than they do for most other species. The lead Malon, Fesek, is a family man, who has taken this dangerous job to support his family. His comrade, Pelk, has made a model of a Malon ship for Fesek's son to play with, assuming they get home in time for his son's birthday. Together they give a more noble side to a villain you'd expect to see in a Captain Planet episode, while still managing to maintain their shortsightedness. I love the idea of the "core workers," desperate enough to take a hopeless job just to provide for their loved ones. They are a perfect way to humanize a bad guy without taking away the elements that make them someone for the protagonists to work against.

The big problem is: Voyager solved the Malon's garbage-dumping problem in the very first episode in which we meet them (Night). Because they just needed to cause conflict there, they ignored it in order to make the episode longer. But these Malons here, they're fairly reasonable people. Especially after the revelation that the monster is a core worker, that they are turning their people into their own enemy (similar monsters on other Malon ships were considered to be something of an urban legend), I really wanted Janeway to re-offer the solution to Fesek. According to memory-alpha, we never see the Malons again, and that would have been the perfect opportunity to say why.

Still, I am impressed with the writers. Thus far, it has been more their style to just give up on concepts that they cannot make work (See: Kes), but here they show a rare form of bravery in their attempt to rework them into something worthwhile. I saw Nick Sagan's name in the writing credits, son of the more famous Carl Sagan; I knew he was coming to the Voyager writing staff at some point after trying to search for patterns in episode quality based on who the writers were for each episode (I'll probably post my findings once I'm done with the series). However, I didn't know when he was coming, and when I saw his name here I was all excited to proclaim him to be the factor that saved the Malons. And then I saw that I simply had not been observant, and his name was on several other episodes from this season: In the Flesh 2/5, Gravity 2/5, and Course: Oblivion 1/5. Well, instead I guess I'll just congratulate him on contributing to a good episode finally, and look forward to his last installment, Relativity, with some trepidation.

Watchability: 4/5

Bottom Line: The treatment of the Malons here is nothing short of a triumph, but it is held down by a middling Torres plot and by Malon elements in previous episodes.

S5 E03: Extreme Risk

The Malons (aren't you glad they're back? I sure am) chase a Voyager probe into the atmosphere of a gas giant, and they blow themselves in the process. Voyager comes to collect its probe, but the Malons have sent another ship to do the same thing. Traditional methods of retrieval won't work, so both crews are forced to develop new shuttlecraft capable of entering the atmosphere - a task which Paris jumps on as an opportunity to create a new ship (the Delta Flyer) that he's been toying around with. Torres is injured in a holographic test flight with the safeties off, and the Doctor discovers that she has been taking this sort of risk a lot lately - and has nearly died many times. Janeway confronts her, and relieves her of duty. Chakotay goes through the programs that she's been running and finds one that is a recreation of the slaughter of the Maquis - which he brings her into and confronts her there. She asks for one more chance, and he lets her go on the probe retrieval attempt. She is sufficiently engaged by the mission and through ingenuity she saves the crew.

I want to love this episode. The eradication of the Maquis was a huge development and the Maquis crew members have every right to be completely despondent. The only two major characters who were Maquis are Chakotay and Torres; Chakotay was more personally invested in the Maquis cause, but the writers backed his character off from them at warp speed. Thus, Torres, the only Maquis personnel who made any sort of on-screen adjustment, is the only choice for this story. In fact, I'd credit her Maquis sympathies as being a big element of my early enjoyment of her character. And any time that we can get Torres development that is separate from her "relationship" with Paris, I'm all for it.

And they do nail her maladjustment pretty well. It isn't straight-up survivor guilt, it also has a reasonable amount of straight up major depression mixed in. The anhedonia, her risk-taking, her reaction to having her responsibilities revoked, those are perfect. It is painful to watch her act self-destructively, but it should be. She's got a world of baggage here. I'd definitely say that the Voyager staff must have a good psychology consultant, certainly better than their science consultants.

But the Torres plot here is significantly hurt by the resistance to continuity on the part of the writers. Something this big needs to have been hinted at in previous episode. Season two tried it on the milquetoast Paris/Jonas Kazon collaboration plot, and it's like the writers decided that since it didn't work there, they can never do story growth like that. Yet, where those bits of continuity were used to set up a lame plot, here they could have been used to establish a needed Torres character arc, and deal with what should be the biggest news Voyager could receive short of a way home. The problem lies not just in the build-up though, but also in the resolution. While they tried to make it clear that Torres is just on the road to recovery, not all the way there, I have no hope that we'll ever hear of this again.

What else? The Malons are still pathetic. What made the writers think bringing them back was a good idea? The Delta Flyer is cool, but it is hard not to contrast it with the creation of the "stealth ship" in BSG. The stealth ship was a labor of love, a glimmer of hope in the bleak despair of BSG; its christening is an incredibly cathartic, tear-jerking moment... over the creation of a ship. Like I said, the Delta Flyer is cool, but that's about all.

Watchability: 3/5

Bottom Line: I wanted to love this episode, but had to settle for liking it well enough. At least we got a Torres episode without much Paris involvement.

S4 E05: Revulsion

Following a celebration of Tuvok's promotion to Lieutenant Commander, Torres and the Doctor respond to a distress signal from a fellow hologram. Dejaren is the lone survivor on a small ship that had otherwise been populated with biological personnel. He's an odd fellow and, after he rants at Torres about the disgustingness of non-holograms, she soon discovers that the rest of the crew had been murdered. The Doctor, who had been sympathetic towards Dejaren, helps her shut him down, until his mobile emitter is incapacitated. Torres, wounded from a previous encounter, barely manages to lure him into a trap. In a B-plot, Kim has developed a crush on Seven of Nine, but when he finds that Borg do not share human social mores, he quickly chickens out. Also, Torres and Paris kiss finally.

The main storyline is a sufficiently creepy horror story, supported by the subtext of Dejaren essentially being a slave to the people he murdered. We are never shown exactly how he was mistreated, but giving aspirations and emotions to a construct designed for menial labor is a recipe for disaster. Still, those elements may have been part of his malfunction, making it somewhat tragic that he needed to be shut down.

The Doctor and Torres pair together well, particularly in terms of their individual reactions to their own competence. Both are very skilled at what they do, but the Doctor has a great deal of confidence, leading him to brag often. That makes Torres bristle since her own competence is something personal to her, something that, if people notice, that means to her that they have a clue, and people that don't have a clue don't really need to know how great she is. How does conflict like this differ from the Janeway/Chakotay spat? Because it is played for humor, and neither one lets it get in the way of doing their jobs.

The Kim/Seven plot is intensely awkward, but when Seven breaks the tension by reading Kim like a book, it gets almost kind of cute. I'm not terribly thrilled that Kim acts so terrified the whole time, but, let's face it, it isn't exactly out of character. I am happy that the writers seemed to be interested in going the dry humor route with Seven, since that's really one of Trek's strengths. Attempts at campy humor break the immersion for me (see: A British Tar, or Lifeforms, or really any of the humor in the TNG movies), but the dry humor, that stuff has me in stitches (see: "What must I do to convince you people?"). And Trek, they were doing it before it was cool. I shouldn't be too hasty to induct her into the society* though, because it sounds like, from the memory alpha commentary, the writers thought giving her a sense of humor was a mistake.

Watchability: 4/5

Bottom Line: Mostly centering on Torres and the Doctor was a good choice. As a Doctor episode, it escapes some of the more trite "this is what it means to be human" bits that often miss the mark, in favor of comparing him against another hologram.

***

**Really, Worf should have a spot on there too, but I decided to keep it at one character per series.

S4 E03: Day of Honor

Voyager encounters a nomadic group of refugees (the Caatati) from the Borg, who ask for aid and Janeway is happy to help. These guys get self-righteous when she doesn't give them everything they could ever need, which Neelix calls out as BS, but Janeway succumbs and gives them even more stuff. Next, Seven offers to help Voyager implement transwarp drive, but a failure causes the project to fail, necessitating an ejection of the warp core. Torres takes this pretty hard, since she already had a fight that day with Paris because she didn't want to observe the Klingon Day of Honor. Before she can complain too much, she and Paris are on a shuttle together, hoping to salvage the core - which the Caatati have already showed up to claim. They damage the shuttle, leaving Paris and Torres to drift in space in environmental suits. Now with the upper hand in bargaining, the Caatati return to Voyager with the warp core and demand more supplies. Seven, who has retained the Borg knowledge of the Caatati civilization, offers to help by reteaching them how to replicate the thorium they need to power their ships. The offer is successful, and Voyager recovers its warp core, allowing them to also recover Paris and Torres - who have now made up and proclaimed their love for each other.

Personally, my reaction to the Caatati's rant about Voyager being stingy would have been something along the lines of "Oh, see, I thought you wanted help. You're right, we do have the option of giving you nothing. Thanks for reminding me of that." Now, that sarcasm might not have done well for me in the second encounter, but even with Janeway's greater "generosity" they weren't terribly hospitable. Now, my response may be affected by the large number of people I see who come into the ER without health insurance, demanding pain medication prescriptions to feed their narcotic habits, who often launch into similar diatribes at the ER doctors who deny them. Who can say?

Neelix gets a pretty great scene in this episode, where he sees that Torres is distraught, and offers to be a (verbal) punching bag. With all the whining about emotional maturity that I did in the Scorpion, Part II review, I've got to say that Neelix jumped up a couple notches in my estimation here. This is the kind of Neelix I want around: optimistic, resilient, and eager. He's always had bits of those qualities from time to time, but they've always been obscured behind bizzare emotional outbursts; here's to hoping that the writers see that this works for him.

As for Paris and Torres, the stranded-on-a-desert-island routine was old the other times I complained about it, but that's not what bothers me here. Trek is not so great with the romances in general, but it gets worse when it tries to analyze them. Paris' armchair psychoanalysis of Torres uses some very worn-out phrases, and they're made even more painful by the addition of Trek terms like "first contact" as a euphemism for sex. I feel like Paris is fairly condescending towards Torres in this episode, so I'm disappointed that not only does it take Torres to say she loves him to break the tension, but he even makes a somewhat snide comment back without repraisal.

However, when it comes to painful dialogue, nothing beats Janeway's "Maybe it was just an unexpected act of kindness," with a smug look plastered across her face, giving Seven a big old I-told-you-so after she helps solve the Caatati problem. Left a very sour taste in my mouth after an otherwise decent episode.

Watchability: 3/5

Bottom Line: Worth it for the Caatati and Neelix, but I sincerely wish we could have missed the romance and Janeway-lectures-Seven parts.

S3 E16: Blood Fever

Vorik, a Vulcan who has had a line or two in the background of several previous episodes, delivers a dispassionate, but clearly throughly considered, marriage proposal to Torres (I particularly like the line about Vulcans being one of the few species on board who were strong enough for Klingon sex). She is flabbergasted, and turns him down; he quickly becomes angry and violent, so Torres is simply required to dislocate his jaw. The Doctor deduces that Vorik is going through pon farr - the Vulcan mating drive that occurs once every seven years - but Vorik is reluctant to discuss it, and opposed to any medical treatment to stop it, requesting that he instead be confined to quarters for meditation. Consulting Tuvok does not get the Doctor much further, as Tuvok is similarly reticent on the subject.

Torres, Neelix, and Paris enter a series of caves in the mines below, and when Neelix's equipment malfunctions, Torres flips out, biting Tom as she runs off into the caves. Turns out that, when Vorik attacked her, he telepathically induced pon farr in her as well. After a run-in with the natives of the caves, Paris and Torres are stranded together, deeper in the caves. Torres is literally throwing herself at him, and Paris barely fending her off. Once they escape from the caves, and meet up with Tuvok and Chakotay, they discover that, for some reason, they are cut off from communicating with Voyager. Torres' situation has become dire: according to Tuvok, not allowing her to either (a) have sex, (b) fight someone, potentially to the death, in a duel, or (c) exercise precise Vulcan meditative techniques would kill her. That being the case, given Torres' disinclination towards meditation and very violent temper, Paris is essentially ordered to do his duty as a starfleet officer, and pursue option (a).

The Doctor had been working on "meditative aids" for Vorik in order to help him through this tough time, and had seemed to have achieved a degree of success with a holographic Vulcan with whom Vorik could... relieve his stress. However, his efforts were ultimately a failure, as it was Vorik who had cut off communication with the away team, in preparation for claiming Torres in person. He catches Paris and Torres in each others arms, and challenges Paris. Torres won't stand to be left out of a fight, so she takes Tom's place, and she and Vorik beat each other senseless until their pon farr drives are satisfied.

Hrm, three paragraphs of plot recapping. Must attempt to be less wordy in the future.

I like the relatively subtle jabs at abstinence only inadequate sex education. Vulcans are as reasonable a species as any to do it with, since their distaste for (or, at the very least, sublimation of) emotions would naturally lead them to be hesitant to discuss pon farr, particularly with outsiders. Presumably, Vulcans in the alpha quadrant have many more Vulcan authority figures to turn to when they are in the throes of it, so the silence probably at least appears to be more adequate there. Here on Voyager though, the shortcomings of the deal-with-it-when-you-get-there policy are highlighted clearly. However, the Doctor's evaluation of the Vulcans' methods as "victorian" also turns my attention to the general topic of Sex in Star Trek.

Unlike certain other sci-fi or fantasy shows, Trek tends to "suggest" that sex occurs with sly scene cuts, typically during commercial breaks. That's okay with me: as much as I appreciate that Battlestar enjoys not pulling any punches, not every show needs to do that, especially with non-cable censorship being what it is. Plus, plenty of people in TNG and DS9 manage to get busy off-camera - sex in general seems to be a pretty casual thing in Trek. Sure, it is rarely outright discussed*, but that's part of what gives it that casual air, that it is such a non-issue that no one has anything to say about it. Personally, I think that's a pretty brilliant way to make a comment on the issue... without making a comment so that there's nothing to be censored.

*I guess there's Worf and his conservative Klingon views on it, but even that part of that relationship's culture-gap isn't beaten into the ground. It's just a small part of the road towards compromise and understanding for that pair.

So far though, Voyager has been extra chaste. Aside from Janeway and Paris' lizard-form baby-makery, instead of the cut-away we've had the cut-off: either someone is called away just in time, or they make some discovery that distracts them. Even here, amidst all the fanservice-y Torres/Paris bits, Tom plays the nobleman until he is ordered to fornicate, then gets cut-off. Voyager, so far, has occupied a strange space in the Trek-Sex continuum, since it still has the sex-appeal female character (Kes, whose lack of character direction in the beginning of the show was the probable result of the writers not having one for her except to stand there and look pretty), and will again with Seven of Nine, but is being extra shy about characters performing the act. Heck, Neelix and Kes don't even share quarters. Maybe the writers are just that afraid of losing their giant Salt Lake City audience.

Well, Vorik does have sex with that hologram, which is the first time someone actually uses the holodeck for such a purpose (more caveats: it is assumed that that activity was commonplace in the holosuites in Quark's bar, but I can't recall any times it was nearly so directly alluded to). The Doctor certainly has nothing against recreational sex in this case. Maybe I'm wrong, and this episode is a return to form, not just a ratings-grab. We'll see.

Watchability: 4/5

Bottom Line: Generally happy with getting more info on pon farr, and the episode itself is pretty fun. Despite all that raving about Voyager being chaste, and the Paris/Torres stuff being fanservice, I think it was a tastefully done walking-of-the-line. I also enjoyed the teaser at the end about the return of the Borg, Lost in Space-style.

S3 E06: Remember

The Enterprise Voyager takes on a group of friendly telepathic aliens (Enarans). While they're on board, Torres begins experiencing vivid dreams of another person's life on the Enaran homeworld. At first, they are highly erotic, but those dreams give way to the story of an ambitious woman, played by Torres, who finds herself to be a pawn in a plan to kill all the members of a social movement, at the behest of her father. Through a combination of fatherly lies, self-deception, and an unwillingness to believe that people she trusts would be so brutal, she plays her part, even sentencing her lover to death. Once awake, she confronts the Enarans, who deny everything, but one of the younger engineers consents to telepathically gaining the memories second hand from Torres, giving hope that the truth that the Enarans have denied about their past will someday come to light.

The first half of this episode is highly reminiscent of Violations (TNG, season 5), to the point where I was wondering why I was still watching. In fact (according to memory alpha), this episode started out as a discarded premise for a TNG episode, with Troi being the one to receive the memories. I actually like Torres a lot better as the recipient, because, as the writer put it, it was more effective to have a less "sensitive" character be affected by the revelations.

As an intentional holocaust allusion, I think this episode works well. In the sixties, psychologists set about to find out if Americans were fundamentally different from Germans; to see if it were possible that they'd allow themselves to commit murder when called upon to do so by authority figures. In particular, the Milgram experiment (familiar to anyone who has taken an intro psychology course ever) showed that it was not only possible, it was probable. This episode gives us a case study to illustrate the point, though even with knowledge of the study, sometimes the "protagonist" of the dreams doesn't seem to have sufficient motivation for following her course of action - I'm thinking in particular of the scene towards the end where she begins chanting along with the crowd after the public execution of her lover. Things seemed to move awfully quickly between covert mass killings to burning people alive in front of a throng of followers.

What really frustrates me about the episode isn't really that central to the plot: I am sick of the tired "luddites are better people" trope. The genocidees (screw you spell check, it's a word because I said so!) in this parable are persecuted because they don't like technology. It's especially bad in Insurrection, where the enlightened Ba'ku are the ones who live fulfilled lives because they got rid of technology, while their creepy, disgusting, murderous offspring, the Son'a, chose to embrace it, and gee shucks, look where it got them! Comparatively, it is just a footnote here, but it still rubs me the wrong way. I am extraordinarily thankful for the DS9 episode Paradise (season 2), wherein the luddites are actually huge jerks - the only counterexample I can think of in all of Trek. I touched on this a bit in my Jetrel review, where I was concerned that the episode would move in a "science is bad" direction, but I watch Trek (in part) because I believe that science and technology can be used as a tool in creating a better future. Technology is not good or evil, it is just an instrument that can be used for beneficial or nefarious ends. There are tons of shows you can watch to get the message that scientific advancement is bad. I want Trek to be the show that deviates from that path.

Watchability: 3/5

Bottom Line: Good episode, frustrating elements. I feel like I keep saying variations on that for every bottom line. I want an episode that I can just call a good episode.

Side Note: This is the first episode I've seen for this project that I haven't seen ever before, or even had spoiled from reading synopses. That was nice.

Side Side Note: The lover is played by Charles Esten, otherwise known best as "Chip" on Whose Line Is It Anyways?, the show that eroded my Voyager watching habits in the pre-DVR days. Well, I guess I still don't have a DVR...

S3 E04: The Swarm

A Plot: The Doctor (after learning to perform some opera) discovers that he is beginning to lose control of his faculties. This malfunction is a result of running the program for too long, which overloads his program with all the non-medical "irrelevancies" he has picked up over time. As his memory degrades, Kes and Torres work with a hologram of his creator, Lewis Zimmerman, to try to find a solution that won't mean a complete reset of the Doctor to his factory specs, without the memory and growth he had accrued in the last two years. The Zimmerman hologram makes a heroic sacrifice by attempting to blend his matrix with the Doctor's.

The Doctor's condition gives two metaphorical avenues for exploration. The first is that of the unsympathetic caregiver being turned into the patient. They've already touched on that in a B-plot before, and he's made progress with his bedside manner in episodes since then, so it is frustrating the way the writers make him regress in the beginning of the episode just to make this element "work." The other, more blunt use of this plot is as an Alzheimer's allegory. I cannot begin to count the number of times I have had the "what am I doing here and why can't I leave?" conversation with an Alzheimer's patient, so that certainly struck a chord. Additionally, Kes' heartbreak upon watching the Doctor lose the memories that made him the man who was her mentor is well-captured in that regard.

Early in the episode, The Doctor is completely resolute in his early decision to simply wipe his memory in order to stabilize his program, essentially citing "the good of the many" philosophy (though not directly). Instead, it is Kes who can't let go - the Doctor wouldn't have to live with his sacrifice, it'd be those that care about him that suffer the most - and that is true of Alzheimer's as well, in a way. The resolution is sneakily cathartic - the Doctor's memory appears to be wiped, until he begins to hum the operas from the beginning of the episode. This is a thread that deserves more screen time, with a gradual recovery, and it is a grave disappointment to me that it does not resurface in future episodes.

B Plot: Voyager encounters the territory of a reclusive, xenophobic group of aliens (again) that swarm intruders in a interlinked cloud of small ships, disabling and killing them. Janeway decides that the best course of action is to sneak through their territory instead of adding fifteen months to their journey by going around, even though, as Tuvok reminds her, those actions would be a violation of Federation protocol. Not surprisingly, they fail to sneak all the way through a territory so vast that it would take fifteen months at maximum warp to get around, and Voyager is beset upon by the swarm. At first, Voyager's weapons are useless, but then Janeway says some magic words and the weapons work great, and destroying one ship sends a chain reaction of destruction through the swarm. Voyager has successfully bullied its way through swarm space.

As you can probably tell from the tone of that recap, I was considerably frustrated by this part of the show. Janeway's stated rationale for sneaking? "We're a long way from Federation space." Really? Not only is that incredibly inconsistent with the most established parts of her character so far, but as justifications go, that one is very insubstantial. It isn't a "we're going to die if we don't do this" - and last time she used that one, we were treated to her saying "I told ya so" at length afterwards. I'm not even saying that sneaking through is necessarily the wrong choice: space is fraught with peril, there's no guarantee that going around would be any less dangerous - but her complete 180 on this issue is entirely out of the blue, and I need a better explanation. She's operating on the "it is better to ask for forgiveness than permission" principle here, and one of my favorite things about the Federation is that they give even their enemies the chance to be the bigger people. It is perhaps a naive faith in others that drives that approach, but I find it to be quintessentially Roddenberrian. If they'd have tried to go through without sneaking, and maybe even trying to solve the language barrier, they'd still probably have had a fight on their hands, but at least I could feel good about them as the representatives of the Federation in a foreign land.

Gripe number two comes from the solution. It is a common condemnation of Trek that "They just solve problems with technobabble. But in my favorite show, [diaries of teenage angst: the sequel], problems are solved by people." Now, first of all, that's really rarely true. I mean, just look at the A-plot for this episode: technobabble is used in the solution, but that jargon just allows for the heroic sacrifice of the Zimmerman hologram in order to save another being who was made by the same creator. But honestly? I'm okay with science solving problems. Because science solves problems. The thing is, there's just no science here. Janeway just says something like "remodulate the polarity" and everything is fine. Very unsatisfying, and it gives ammunition to people who don't like Trek.

Watchability: 3/5 (A Plot: 4/5, B Plot: 1/5)

Bottom Line: Voyager is starting to deserve the bad reputation that the Kazon have been giving them. The Doctor plot is compelling, but it is most unfortunate that it is never used again (though not the fault of this episode).

S2 E17: Dreadnought

Voyager encounters an unmanned, heavily armed weapons platform/missile -- of Cardassian origin. Torres quickly identifies it as the one that she had commandeered and reprogrammed to go kill Cardassians over a year ago. However, now it seems to have malfunctioned after being summonsed to the delta quadrant by the Caretaker (would that he could have been a little more discriminating), and has now locked onto a peaceful, innocent world that shares properties with its original target. Feeling personally responsible, Torres has to disarm it herself as now it will only respond to her.

The theme of Voyager's negative PR is explored a bit more here, with the Rakosans being a little bit (understandably) suspicious of Janeway's overtures of peaceful intent while also telling them about this super-deadly alpha-quadrant weapon that is headed their way. Janeway is quick to blame her ship's negative image on Kazon slander, but I find it kind of hard to believe that the Kazon have a whole lot of credibility, even in their own backyard - it feels more like a Romulan tactic anyways. No, I think their bad reputation is probably more the result of Voyager (A) not really trying hard to make friends (while, admittedly, quite constrained in that regard due to the Prime Directive) and (B) actually bringing calamity and misfortune in their wake. Stable (if totalitarian) regimes are toppled, assassination attempts are made, techology is stolen, etc. Even when Voyager isn't responsible, or when the outcomes are probably for the best, it would be hard to argue that things aren't a little more chaotic for the delta quadrant guys when Voyager is around.

I vaguely recalled this episode from the first viewing, but I still had no idea how they were going to fill so much "Torres arguing with the computer" time and keep the episode watchable. The dreadnought's computer is also voiced by Torres, and since she (re)programmed it herself, she is essentially in conflict with herself - but in a different, more subtle/interesting way than in Faces. Instead of coming into conflict with an aspect of her personality, she has to face herself from the past: a more paranoid and vindictive B'Elanna. At first it seemed like she was going to solve the problem by Kirking it (I love that Memory Alpha has a whole page for that), which was amusing, but I was relieved when the actual solution became more complicated.

This episode has several other vignettes - not quite B-plots, but worthy of mention. The Doctor's naming quest surfaces again, in connection with Wildman's own quest for a name for her offspring (which seems to have a six thousand month gestation period). He is able to shoot down most suggestions which are offered to him, because, having made an extensive anthropological database search, he can find an example of a jerk somewhere throughout the histories of the many worlds cataloged by the Federation who shares that name. I do remember that wrinkle in the naming quest clearly, since the problem that the Doctor presents is probably a very real one for any society with century upon century of recorded history.

Kim and Torres have a little scene together, again using the "starfleet" pet name, and it is pretty cute. I know enough about the general events of Voyager to know that nothing comes of this flirting, but I think they'd actually make a really good couple. Kim has a great grounding effect on Torres, and she seems to help bring out his assertive side. Oh well.

Paris is behaving erratically, showing up late and disheveled to staff meetings. Chakotay in particular is on his case, continuing from the gambling ring plot in the last episode. Paris also remarks to Torres that he is jealous of how well she is fitting in, which, while it makes for a nice scene, is a little odd considering that, other than the last two episodes, he really hasn't had much trouble at all. Perhaps it is best though that we're getting this stuff bit by bit in separate episodes, rather than all at once in whatever later episode the writers plan to resolve it in. And hey, if all this leads to some more interesting character direction for Tom, I'm all for it.

Jonas, the Maquis guy who is surreptitiously giving intelligence to the Kazon, is still up to his tricks. I still don't really understand his motivation - and even worse, the Kazon are giving him the runaround. You'd think that they'd be pleased to get any info he could pass along, but instead they're risking losing their mole by not going to any effort to make him feel like he's getting anywhere. If I were him, I'd just stop the flow until they let me talk to my preferred contact... well, if I were him, I wouldn't be a treacherous traitor guy, so maybe trying to ascribe motives that make sense for me to him is just going to be frustrating. Still, glad to see this show up in pieces rather than all at once, as it does give us some sense of build-up and continuity.

Watchability: 4/5

Bottom Line: Another Torres-centric episode, another good episode. I'm noticing a trend.

S2 E13: Prototype

The opening to this episode has an interesting style, black and white and static-y, through the first person of an unknown observer. That observer is revealed to be a malfunctioning robot, and Torres and Kim are trying to restore its power core. It is always nice to see those two interact, and I also like that Torres has kept the epithet "starfleet" as kind of a pet name for Kim. There is also a surprising lack of unpleasantness in the interaction between Torres and Neelix while she's pulling an all-nighter in the mess hall. If they keep using Neelix as the affable and good tempered but still kind of dorky buddy-to-all, then I might actually start liking him. Well, let's not get hasty. I might start to be able to tolerate him. Just keeping the expectations low.

The android's look... the head is basically two plastic cake molds, one shaped like a face, sealed together over an actor's head at a ridge that runs from from ear to ear over the headband zone. It is incredibly cheap-looking, and I love it. It is very evocative of the classic sci-fi robot look. The halting speech pattern (once he's activated) with the jargonization of common speech is also very much stereotypical, and I don't think it would work as well if it didn't have the exterior to match. It speaks reverently of "the builders", and is impressed with Torres' engineering prowess. The robots are incapable of reproducing themselves, and this one asks for her help.

Of course Torres wants to jump right in, but Janeway plays the killjoy, citing the prime directive and saying that it clearly applies here. I don't think she's right; or at least, not right about this being an obvious application of it. The prime directive basically covers two things: (a) don't interfere in the development of primitive (pre-warp) civilizations, and (b) don't get involved in the internal affairs (i.e. civil wars) of other civilizations. Option A certainly isn't the case for a spacefaring android race, so we're left with option B - and we just don't know enough about these androids to make a case one way or the other. I think a much more compelling argument would be: "We don't know these people yet, let us first make contact with them and find out more before coming to any final decisions." I think that would have sat much better with Torres, though she follows the captain's lead anyways.

The robot doesn't take "no" for an answer and kidnaps B'Elanna, transporting her to a massive android-controlled ship - an event that probably could have been avoided if they'd taken my advice. In order to spare the Voyager from certain destruction, Torres agrees to help. While she works, and the crew concocts rescue plans, another, almost identical ship shows up and opens fire on the first robot ship. Fun! These robots, which are gold instead of silver but the same basic appearance otherwise (another classic touch), have been locked in an unending battle with the silver robots for centuries, carrying on a war that their long-gone creators began. So, yeah, this is prime directive territory, but Janeway didn't know that before. After Torres assembles her first prototype, her "buddy" android reveals that they killed off their own creators, when they tried to shut them down to end the war.

This is Trek! This story isn't exactly new, but it is well-told and an excellent homage to robot stories that have come before it. The robots here adhere to strict programming rules which have brought about their predicament, and now Torres has given one side a way to win - and perhaps go on to wipe out more civilizations that try to shut them down. She is forced to destroy her own creation, and escape while the two android ships are fighting each other. When Voyager departs, they leave behind these two factions, continuing to relentlessly wage war for eternity.

Watchability: 5/5

Bottom Line: Excellent sci-fi entertainment, as long as you can appreciate the appearance of the robots.

S1 E13: Faces

The Vidiians are back, and this time they've split Torres in two: a Klingon B'Elanna and a Human B'Elanna. Looks like they just wanted to develop her a bit more, and the Vidiians were a convenient excuse to do so. Back during Phage I expressed my interest in the Vidiians returning, so I guess I got my wish. They are an interesting concept for a villain, but they're just such jerks that is it hard to sympathize with them the way the writers want us to. This time they have abducted crew members (and other aliens) to work as slave labor in mines, be walking organ banks, and have disfiguring genetic experiments performed upon them. It's tough to believe that the Vidiians were ever even remotely good guys.

Well, okay, I guess humans do bad things too, and there are still human good guys. It is just frustrating that all these Vidiians have all been so evil; though, to be fair, we've only actually known three of them by name. And at the same time, we have Torres acting wildly differently based on whether she is composed of human or Klingon DNA. It annoyed me at first, but the actress gradually softened her performance(s) as the episode went on. It makes sense, I suppose, to have her need to adjust to the presumably very different brain chemistry/neurotransmitter composition of a very alien noggin.

Part-way through we meet our second Talaxian. He's obnoxious, squirrelly, and strangely noble, and I like him. I can't help but think: what if this were Neelix? Neelix could sure use some mystery. Currently he is used as the painfully stupid crewmember who needs everything explained so that other characters can engage in boring exposition. He wears everything on his sleeve and I never want to know anything more about him. I like this new nameless Talaxian better.

The head Vidiian researcher takes a turn for the macabre when he, in order to appear more attractive to Torres, takes the face of the redshirt who was with her and Paris when they got captured (played by the guy with the cellular entertainment center in DS9) and grafts it onto his own. I know I just got done saying that I wish the Vidiians weren't so evil, as long as they are going to be evil, this is the way to do it. It is a pretty haunting scene, this guy being so out of touch that he thought that mutilating an acquaintance of Torres' would endear him to her.

Resolution: Torres discovers that she needs her Klingon half to be whole, rescues the captives (with Chakotay-disguised-as-a-Vidiian's help), and the Doctor restores her to normal. It is trite, but not badly done. I like Torres in general, and this wasn't a terrible way to progress her character.

Watchability: 3/5

Bottom Line: Torres gets some character development and we see more of the Vidiians, which is almost enough.

S1 E02: Parallax

There are two major things going on in this episode.

(1) Bad Science

(2) Good Character Development

Let's start with (1), so that I end on a good note, shall we?

Quantum Singularity is typically trekese for a black hole. To give this part of the episode any credit, we're going to be assuming that it actually means "magical space phenomenon that does magical things for no reason." They do use some terms like 'event horizon' that suggest that this magical space phenomenon is similar to a black hole, but do not be fooled. This event horizon is a physical barrier, not simply the point at which light will never reach an outside viewer. In fact, they visually detect an object that is beyond the EH, which starts off the fun.

While a black hole might bend time (we've never actually explored one, so who knows, right?), we don't know. What we do know is that it has strong enough gravity that is can slow the speed of light. That's powerful enough for me! And we can pull off some pretty cool plot tricks, just with that effect, even some of the "seeing yourself in the future" bits that they do here. It's an especially interesting mind-puzzle when you also include a ship that can move faster than light.

Instead, the writers decided that it would be more compelling to let this object magically bend time and space so that ships magically get caught in loops and outside observers can see two copies of ships that aren't moving faster than light. So this Quantum Singularity can do some cool stuff, it's cool, but I think that it would be a lot more awesome if it could do these things for actual science reasons, not just technobabble reasons.

That is not to say that other Treks are exempt from this sort of writing behavior. They're not. But I'm not reviewing them right now. And, in my opinion, the other part of the episode at least sort of excuses it.

As for (2), we get the power struggle regarding the choice of a chief engineer. It's one thing to join the crews, that makes sense that they should work together while they're stranded together. What is kind of weird is expecting the Maquis to integrate and begin following Starfleet rules. Chakotay thinks that that is unreasonable, to an extent, and he is right. He stands up for his crew - and Janeway 'reminds' him that they're not his crew anymore. He thinks she's being ridiculous, and again he's right.

I do not remember Chakotay fondly. So far, I'm not sure why. He's behaved rationally, and has nicely straddled the line between friend and commander with his crew (which one would expect to be blurrier for Maquis). And he's also dealt with Janeway's brand of crazy pretty well.

As for B'Elanna, she reminds me of a lot of people who are annoyed that people who can play the management's games get promoted, while the hard-working and talented (but not exactly socially gifted) people keep getting grunt-work. She's Dilbert, only half-Klingon and attractive. And she does a good job of convincing Janeway through her actions that engineering should be a meritocracy.

Overall, the character part of the episode gives me a lot to like, growing naturally and resolving satisfactorily. It does not, however, do any favors for Janeway, an already strongly unlikeable character, to essentially cast her as the villain.

Watchability: 3/5

Bottom Line: Good, as long as you can get part the magical space stuff. Which you can. You saw how much it bothered me, and I still ended up enjoying the episode. Really, the writers were just using the Singularity as a background for the power struggle. Could the episode have been better if both parts were good? Sure. But that's what happens when you have a trillion different writers. Sometimes the science is the focus, sometimes it isn't.