5,3/10
Also Not a Bad one or a really good one.
The Religion theme Is one that comes every few episodes. The ending was disapointing knowing that janeway will have forgotten her exp in The next Episode.
Wooey garbage, reminiscent of all the prophets stuff that I hated in DS9.
Thankfully Voyager doesn't have too many other episodes like this, my least favorite episode of the run.
Religion and mystery always had their place in Star Trek. But that's just not good. She takes a ritual to find a cure for Kes? (Kes actually behaved like a kid touching a hot plate). How does she think that will work (I mean the doctor explains how he's able to create a cure but that's probably the worst piece of medicine babble I have eve heard from the doctor)? She gets a face tattoo and Chakotay talks about a mission quest...gosh. And the captain - just like her #2 in his youth - learns how to disconnect herself from modern technology. Why do they always do this? It's super repetitive. It's also funny that Chakotay above all persons is very reluctant to let Janeway undergo this spiritual quest. And that waiting for Godot scene is super annoying. It's certainly not witty.
Nice back though.
Other than Chakotay being exceptionally dense and unbelieving for someone that believes in spirit guides and spirits of his ancestors, it is a decent episode.
Religion or science? Which can be a religion in itself. Which do you prefer ?
Janeway is confronted with her own believe that science can solve everything when only faith can save Kes. It's an interesting point to start from and it could have been a great character building piece if not for Voyager's reset button. Janeway was the logical choice for this journey but unfortunately the episode doesn't do a great job of delivering its message. Instead of letting the viewer come to its own conclusions together with Janeway, we get secondary characters spilling everything out for us.
And why at the end, of all people, it has to be Chakotay who tries to stop and re-think her actions, is beyond me. The same Chakotay who earlier in the episode raised the point that it could be indeed spirits and not science behind all of this. It just doesn't make sense.
Probably, It was the worst episode in whole Star Trek franchise!
"I don't understand you. I really don't. You have nothing better to do at three o’clock in the afternoon? I go out for a quart of milk, I come home, and find my son treating his body like it was an amusement park!"
Review by LeftHandedGuitaristBlockedParent2017-12-12T16:12:31Z
Okay, this is a mixed one. We open with Kes acting like an idiot and behaving completely out of character which leads to her getting seriously injured. What follows is a quasi-spiritual tale that I think we are meant to accept as something beyond science - that would be all well and good, but the entire foundation of Star Trek is science, so this really throws things for a loop and I'm not sure how well it works as a Trek story.
The spiritual guide is annoying smug throughout. I think Janeway comes across quite well throughout this, mostly showing that she's willing to go to great lengths to help her (senior) crew and, for the most part, not falling victim to silly tricks that the "spirits" were attempting to use on her. Instead it turns out that the entire process was a trick, so that at least makes it feel a bit more unique.
As another reviewer here mentions, the apparent revelation that Janeway - a pure scientist at heart - has that science is not necessarily all it's cracked up to be will have zero impact on her from here on out. That makes this all feel completely pointless.
The Doctor does get a lot of good scenes, though.