Jerry, I will deactivate the containment field
Is this actually a two-part "Seinfeld" episode that takes us down an alternate timeline where George Costanza continued to be abstinent?
OK. A little intellectual problem. Intellectual super heroes. A ruse. Ethics. A few funny quotes by Seven (who else?). An okay-ish counter-ruse concocted by Janeway. Classic Star Trek. That said, the episode is kind of boring. The story should have deserved a more exciting execution.
It would have been much better had there actually been a race that had put out a bounty on Voyager. As the episode stands I found it boring and easy to see through. Kurros comes across like a mixture of Jesus and a used car salesman and I found him annoying to say the least.
But there is something positve, too, and it once again involves Seven. A couple of months back she would've probably accepted that offer without thinking twice. Now it feels natural and believable that she declines. Voyager has become her home and family. Even Janeway has good moments giving Seven the choice. And her smirk remarks to some of Kurros's salespitches are on the mark.
"I have a bad feeling that whenever a lesbian looks at me they think 'That's why I'm not a heterosexual.'"
Review by LeftHandedGuitaristBlockedParent2018-07-25T23:10:26Z
Much better. This manages to be weird and quirky without being silly, and successfully celebrates the best traditions of classic Star Trek. The episode scored a winner by getting Jason Alexander to play Kurros. He walks the line between friendly and extremely creepy and makes a very memorable villain who, in many ways, you want to like.
It's another strong episode for Seven, who still is getting a lot of episodes devoted to her (the producers clearly wanted to make her the face of the show, if not the entire franchise at this time). She finally feels like a natural part of the crew, willing to help them out and trust them. She's also able to say no when she feels like it, a luxury not afforded to the rest of the crew who have to follow the chain of command. In this case, it makes sense. I can imagine Harry or Chakotay would have willingly given themselves to the Think Tank when first asked if it meant saving Voyager given the sense of duty that's been hammered into them; Seven doesn't want to and has no qualms about saying it.
While I will say the episode was mostly predictable, with a "twist" you see coming fairly early on, it was a very fun watch made better by the performances and interesting character writing.
The Think Tank themselves are a villain finally worthy of the screen time, after an endless stream of meaningless aliens that I've mostly forgotten. We do unfortunately get another bland antagonist species here, too, with the Hazari. Ah well, at least they don't just look human like so many Delta Quadrant races.