THE KILLING GAME, PART I - 4x18 - 4/5 It's nice to see the Hirogen storyline at least culminating in something although I don't know how to feel about the premise of this episode. I actually ended up enjoying the conflict on Voyager between the lead Hirogen and his off-sider a great deal. The stuff inside the holodeck is a bit...fluffy? I'm sorry it's been a long day and I don't have the words. :P I really enjoyed the development of the Hirogen's history and background and any deviation away from that had me waiting for them to get out of the holodeck again. Not that the holodeck stuff is particularly bad up until this point, and the fact the crew doesn't know what's happening to them yet makes it a bit more interesting than it might have been without this element. Unfortunately, the end of Part I degenerates into another "why don't they unplug the power for the holodeck?" episodes. Pretty much as soon as I realised it was gonna be another one of THOSE type of episodes, my desire to see the resolution to this setup waned significantly. Overall competant and reasonably well done up until the cliffhanger.
THE KILLING GAME, PART II - 4x19 - 3/5 Just.....ugh. Look, things get wrapped up reasonably well, and I felt this episode left me with a satisfactory level of satisfaction. But this episode is a mess in so many ways. Much like in Blood Fever, the writers seemed unhappy with the reasonable resolution they had come up with: Janeway and the head Hirogen have negotiated a cease fire and a diplomatic agreement. Cool. Great even - I might've given this episode an excellent rating if things had ended here. But for whatever reason, we CAN'T HAVE THAT. No, instead we get the moronic Hirogen underling being convinced to betray his leader by A FICTIONAL CHARACTER WHO IS A NAZI! Also, I STILL don't get why the holodeck doesn't have a god damn off switch. But I digress, and as I said, things ended and I am happy to move on. It could've been worse, but it also could've been a lot better if the writers had just stopped writing. Extra points for Klingons vs. Nazis.
Since this was one of those 'Star Trek: Voyager movies' when it first aired, its entire two hours broadcast on one night, I think the writers felt significant pressure to blow things up right good. If that meant an idiotic Hirogen listened to a holographic Nazi, then so be it...
More importantly, Janeway in a white tux, and Janeway in a black turtle neck is TOTALLY kewl! Add one hunky Army Captain and a tight crawl space and I'm soooo "there"! I don't think that sounds quite the way I meant it... but "you get" the idea.
VIS A VIS - 4x20 - 2/5 Episode opens with Tom Paris working on a Camaro. Episode gets points for this. I like the episode's initial focus on Paris, his character and how he's going but unfortunately that seems to be swept to the side in favour of body swapping shenanigans which are boring and predictable.
The worst crime of that whole episode is that we never learned what Janeway thought about inhabiting Tom Paris' body. There are members of the audience who would REALLY like to know what it's like, after all. I'm just saying.
Haha. It just seemed like a pretty shameless "you thought one body swap was crazy? GET A LOAD OF THIS! LOOOOOL".
THE OMEGA DIRECTIVE - 4x21 - 3/5 This episode is fun, but there are a great many problems with it, mainly in logical flaws/oversights: - It took Janeway 16 hours to figure out Seven knows about Omega? - Um, there are non-senior staff present on the bridge whilst they're crapping on about Omega - …who also transported down to the planet to assist with the rescue - and now Neelix knows - and Seven is bossing people around! What? I mean, this would be fine if she had a field commission but SHE DOESN'T! At least not one I am aware of. Anyway, these problems aside, which ARE problems because they dilute the dramatic secrecy of Omega, the episode is pretty fun. The concept of an element so dangerous that Starfleet has decided to ignore their Prime Directive and remove this threat is awesome - I've got a feeling this might be something that Section 31 drafted themselves. I am not comfortable with the Borg's religious perspective of Omega, but I suppose it's an interest concept to explore. This episode barely crosses the line with a 3 out of 5, by being reasonably exciting and dramatic and contains a cool scientific allegory.
UNFORGETTABLE - 4x22 - 2/5 The premise is shaky as hell but at least the pheromone thing is an attempt to explain this episode's dilemma SLIGHTLY. But a shaky premise is okay IF the story goes somewhere amazing right? Unfortunately, the title of this episode is about as far from the truth as you can get. To it's credit, I will concede the following plus points: 1. At least Chakotay isn't being a gullible dumbass this time, (although Neelix seems determined to change that) 2. Not entirely predictable But this doesn't help when the story is SO BORING and even goes so far as to create a plot device DESIGNED to enforce the reset button style of so many of Voyager's stories.
LIVING WITNESS - 4x23 - 5/5 One of Voyager and Trek's finest. This absolutely stellar premise, is engaging from the opening scene. The historical recreation of Voyager is shockingly fun, and if I may say, features Janeway's best hairstyle ever. This is one of the few episodes of Voyager that establishes that the Doctor has a backup, and it makes total sense to do this! I won't hold it against this episode for the rest of the series failing to address this point of sense. Henry Woronicz delivers another great guest performance and Picardo is stellar as ever. Even the ending was a damn fine resolution. There's some problems with reconciling this species with the Federation's continued expansion of the alpha quadrant (you'd assume they'd make contact some day). But who cares. I'll hand wave this happily because this is such a fine piece of Trek.
DEMON - 4x24 - 1/5 This episode is a total mess, but before I get into that, I want to discuss something. If ever there was evidence that Tuvok is a dick for no reason, this is it. When the crew is funneling themselves into the various areas of the ship for power saving measures, Neelix is intercepted by Tuvok (by the way, Neelix falls over, which I enjoyed immensely). Neelix is dragging a whole pile of crap with him, which Tuvok says he can't do. Fair enough, take only the essentials. However, when it comes down to it, Neelix is taking a blanket, a book and some pillows. Tuvok says they can replicate Starfleet issue ones once he's there. WHY. NEELIX ALREADY HAS HIS SLEEPING GEAR. Why does he have to waste time taking them back, and energy replicating SPECIAL STARFLEET BLANKETS. I mean for crying out loud, not only is Tuvok being a dick for no reason, he's advocating wasting energy, THE WHOLE REASON THEY ARE CORRALLING PEOPLE INTO THE CARGO BAYS IN THE FIRST PLACE! The only non-essential Neelix is taking, is a BOOK. A FUCKING BOOK. Now I'm all for not making exceptions to rules, but really, if every crew member took a BOOK, it really wouldn't affect the problem of space being at a premium. I mean, Neelix could probably pocket it in that ridiculous outfit he has. Tuvok: get over yourself you dick. Anyway, this episode absolutely boggles my sensibilities. First of all, they can't send a mining probe down because it will be crushed. Okay, fair enough. But apparently, sending soft fleshy humans in SPACE SUITS IS FINE?! I seriously question a space exploration organisation that can't build a probe to withstand something a SPACE SUIT can withstand. The episode continues to barrel forward with one nonsensical decision after another. I was thinking that if I turned my brain off I might enjoy this episode, but once my brain was off it just became a sequence of unexplained events leaving me bewildered. Oh, by the way, the space suits have A BACKUP SYSTEM THAT MAINTAINS VITALS AND THIS IS THE FIRST AND ONLY TIME IT COMES UP. So really, Tom and B'Elanna's near death confessions of love in "Day of Honor" were really just jumping the gun. I was about to award this episode Facepalm out of 5, but the resolution wasn't terrible, and saved this from being a total write off. But it's not enough to elevate this beyond a Train Wreck.