I'm trying to come up with some eloquent way of expressing myself, but all I keep coming back to is that this was just a pile of turgid shit.
It's a shining example of Voyager's absolute mediocrity, predictability and lack of meaning. Ooh, look, we've found another Starfleet crew stranded out here! Oh, it turns out they're bad, well who saw that coming? Hmm, seems like a couple of the crew members are actually kind of decent people really - oh, look at that, they're the ones who survive.
I could almost have handled that stuff, but the real thing which drags the episode down is yet another example of Janeway's inconsistent character. I think I have to admit I absolutely hate her by this point. She has a reckless disregard for her crew and her attitudes towards things seem to rely on the flip of a coin. Remember at the start of season 5 when she blamed herself entirely for stranding the crew here and decided that there was nothing more important than getting everyone home? Yeah, all that's forgotten here. Apparently Captain Ransom pushed her buttons enough that she's willing to let everyone die just as long as he understands how angry she is. WHY is she so angry? There is no personal stake for her. It's nonsense to add conflict where there is none.
Speaking of whom, Captain Ransom is a terrible bad guy. The actor never seemed to have his heart in the role and delivered his lines with apathy. The rest of the crew fared a bit better, but everyone of them fell into a cliched stereotype. It's nice to see a young Titus Welliver but he never got to actually do anything. After hinting at a past relationship with B'Elanna (I did like the BLT nickname), no further developments are given and at the end he just says "I guess you're gonna die, good luck with that!". There could have been some fun stuff with him and Tom at odds, not to mention some meaty stuff for B'Elanna herself, but no.
The aliens were threatening until they weren't. Even though we saw them attack and kill people instantly at the beginning, when they do the same thing on the bridge of Voyager then everyone is more or less fine. Why? Because they can't kill off the main cast, that's why. One of the worst resolutions to a cliffhanger between episodes that I've ever seen.
Deleting the Doctor's ethical subroutines seems like a very simple task. It seems like it's something that's all set up and ready to go just in case it's needed, with the only defence being the computer flashing up a window with "Are you sure you want to make your EMH evil? OK/Cancel".
Some good things were there. Nice to see Chakotay standing up to Janeway, even if it's kind of halfheartedly; Riker would have relieved her and assumed command pretty sharpish once he saw how she was endangering the ship - but it's ridiculous that there is no ending to their conflict, they just shrug it off. Seriously?
The moment where the evil Doc knocked out our Doctor's mobile emitter was a really nice surprise moment with great timing on the delivery. And I'm happy to see that some of the Equinox's crew join Voyager at the end (including sci-fi TV stalwart Rick Worthy), although I'm intrigued as to whether we'll actually see them again.
Review by LeftHandedGuitaristBlockedParent2018-08-16T16:15:33Z
I'm trying to come up with some eloquent way of expressing myself, but all I keep coming back to is that this was just a pile of turgid shit.
It's a shining example of Voyager's absolute mediocrity, predictability and lack of meaning. Ooh, look, we've found another Starfleet crew stranded out here! Oh, it turns out they're bad, well who saw that coming? Hmm, seems like a couple of the crew members are actually kind of decent people really - oh, look at that, they're the ones who survive.
I could almost have handled that stuff, but the real thing which drags the episode down is yet another example of Janeway's inconsistent character. I think I have to admit I absolutely hate her by this point. She has a reckless disregard for her crew and her attitudes towards things seem to rely on the flip of a coin. Remember at the start of season 5 when she blamed herself entirely for stranding the crew here and decided that there was nothing more important than getting everyone home? Yeah, all that's forgotten here. Apparently Captain Ransom pushed her buttons enough that she's willing to let everyone die just as long as he understands how angry she is. WHY is she so angry? There is no personal stake for her. It's nonsense to add conflict where there is none.
Speaking of whom, Captain Ransom is a terrible bad guy. The actor never seemed to have his heart in the role and delivered his lines with apathy. The rest of the crew fared a bit better, but everyone of them fell into a cliched stereotype. It's nice to see a young Titus Welliver but he never got to actually do anything. After hinting at a past relationship with B'Elanna (I did like the BLT nickname), no further developments are given and at the end he just says "I guess you're gonna die, good luck with that!". There could have been some fun stuff with him and Tom at odds, not to mention some meaty stuff for B'Elanna herself, but no.
The aliens were threatening until they weren't. Even though we saw them attack and kill people instantly at the beginning, when they do the same thing on the bridge of Voyager then everyone is more or less fine. Why? Because they can't kill off the main cast, that's why. One of the worst resolutions to a cliffhanger between episodes that I've ever seen.
Deleting the Doctor's ethical subroutines seems like a very simple task. It seems like it's something that's all set up and ready to go just in case it's needed, with the only defence being the computer flashing up a window with "Are you sure you want to make your EMH evil? OK/Cancel".
Some good things were there. Nice to see Chakotay standing up to Janeway, even if it's kind of halfheartedly; Riker would have relieved her and assumed command pretty sharpish once he saw how she was endangering the ship - but it's ridiculous that there is no ending to their conflict, they just shrug it off. Seriously?
The moment where the evil Doc knocked out our Doctor's mobile emitter was a really nice surprise moment with great timing on the delivery. And I'm happy to see that some of the Equinox's crew join Voyager at the end (including sci-fi TV stalwart Rick Worthy), although I'm intrigued as to whether we'll actually see them again.