I've often accused Voyager of being formulaic and dull. I think that point stands (it's taken me close to a year to struggle through these final two seasons), but every so often an episode like this pops up. For once, the characters are given the spotlight and we get a fascinating and even emotional story with them. It happened earlier this season with the episode 'Lineage', and here it happens again.
In many ways, this is almost a complete copy of the classic TNG episode 'The Measure of a Man', in which Data's right to be recognised as a living being is put to trial, but here there's enough of a Voyager twist to make things feel different enough. In particular, the Doctor is one of the most original and thought-provoking characters in the Trek franchise. I do attribute that mostly to Robert Picardo's great performance, but his performance can't exist without the writing to back it up.
The episode actually flows through several things before arriving at the final hearing. My favourite parts were the holonovel that the Doctor had created which shine a fun and sometimes hilarious alternate light on what the crew of Voyager could be like. From there we get some good discussions on whether his work is offensive and damaging to the crew with the Doctor's position being sympathetic enough to make us be in his corner. But the crew do all have a point, and it's almost painful to see the way they forcefully inform the Doc how inconsiderate he's being.
It's also another frustrating example of Voyager's inconsistency, as we've had numerous episodes in which the crew - especially Janeway - don't seem willing to recognise the Doctor as a real person with feelings. This happened as recently as a couple of episodes ago with Harry Kim in 'Workforce'.
There's also a quite lovely B-story involving the crew finally getting to have direct communications with their families back home. I actually feel like this didn't get quite enough story time and held back a bit too much. The only conversation which really resonated here was B'Elanna and her father, although Seven speaking with her aunt did work well (anyone else think it was kind of creepy that Seven was always standing in the room while everyone was having their deeply personal conversations?). I would have liked to have seen Tom interact with his father - who was RIGHT THERE - and that feels like a missed opportunity.
Review by LeftHandedGuitaristBlockedParent2019-07-31T15:54:10Z
I've often accused Voyager of being formulaic and dull. I think that point stands (it's taken me close to a year to struggle through these final two seasons), but every so often an episode like this pops up. For once, the characters are given the spotlight and we get a fascinating and even emotional story with them. It happened earlier this season with the episode 'Lineage', and here it happens again.
In many ways, this is almost a complete copy of the classic TNG episode 'The Measure of a Man', in which Data's right to be recognised as a living being is put to trial, but here there's enough of a Voyager twist to make things feel different enough. In particular, the Doctor is one of the most original and thought-provoking characters in the Trek franchise. I do attribute that mostly to Robert Picardo's great performance, but his performance can't exist without the writing to back it up.
The episode actually flows through several things before arriving at the final hearing. My favourite parts were the holonovel that the Doctor had created which shine a fun and sometimes hilarious alternate light on what the crew of Voyager could be like. From there we get some good discussions on whether his work is offensive and damaging to the crew with the Doctor's position being sympathetic enough to make us be in his corner. But the crew do all have a point, and it's almost painful to see the way they forcefully inform the Doc how inconsiderate he's being.
It's also another frustrating example of Voyager's inconsistency, as we've had numerous episodes in which the crew - especially Janeway - don't seem willing to recognise the Doctor as a real person with feelings. This happened as recently as a couple of episodes ago with Harry Kim in 'Workforce'.
There's also a quite lovely B-story involving the crew finally getting to have direct communications with their families back home. I actually feel like this didn't get quite enough story time and held back a bit too much. The only conversation which really resonated here was B'Elanna and her father, although Seven speaking with her aunt did work well (anyone else think it was kind of creepy that Seven was always standing in the room while everyone was having their deeply personal conversations?). I would have liked to have seen Tom interact with his father - who was RIGHT THERE - and that feels like a missed opportunity.