I have to admit, I went into this expecting a very typical Voyager story. It would have a neatly tied up ending, Seven would be proved right and definitive evidence would show Kovin as the bad guy. When his ship exploded I even expected a reveal that he faked his own death to escape.
Instead I was given quite a nuanced story that leaves things very open ended, and the end result is something quite daring. What is essentially a metaphor for rape happens here, and there's some very dangerous ground in exploring whether or not the victim should be believed. This story goes as far as to ask who the victim even is.
It's in many ways a very sad story, not only for Seven and the man she - perhaps falsely - accused, but very much for the Doctor too. Again, the question of whether Voyager's computer system has created a sentient being in the form of the Doctor comes up for me, and the fact that the implications of that still haven't been explored. At any rate, his request to reset himself to "factory default" at the end felt very heavy.
I'm also continually impressed by Jeri Ryan's performance as Seven. She shows a much more vulnerable side here.
The episode deals with very difficult material, and while in many ways it handles things well it also fails to definitely come down on either side. I can understand why not, to a point, there's the potential for this to be inflammatory stuff and even harmful. Victims of violation often have no solid proof of what happened and shouldn't be dismissed, but at the same time someone's life can be completely ruined by a false accusation. There is no easy answer.
Review by LeftHandedGuitaristBlockedParent2018-04-25T09:32:27Z
I have to admit, I went into this expecting a very typical Voyager story. It would have a neatly tied up ending, Seven would be proved right and definitive evidence would show Kovin as the bad guy. When his ship exploded I even expected a reveal that he faked his own death to escape.
Instead I was given quite a nuanced story that leaves things very open ended, and the end result is something quite daring. What is essentially a metaphor for rape happens here, and there's some very dangerous ground in exploring whether or not the victim should be believed. This story goes as far as to ask who the victim even is.
It's in many ways a very sad story, not only for Seven and the man she - perhaps falsely - accused, but very much for the Doctor too. Again, the question of whether Voyager's computer system has created a sentient being in the form of the Doctor comes up for me, and the fact that the implications of that still haven't been explored. At any rate, his request to reset himself to "factory default" at the end felt very heavy.
I'm also continually impressed by Jeri Ryan's performance as Seven. She shows a much more vulnerable side here.
The episode deals with very difficult material, and while in many ways it handles things well it also fails to definitely come down on either side. I can understand why not, to a point, there's the potential for this to be inflammatory stuff and even harmful. Victims of violation often have no solid proof of what happened and shouldn't be dismissed, but at the same time someone's life can be completely ruined by a false accusation. There is no easy answer.