Not a big fan of this one. I don’t understand why this particular episode of Voyager carried so much gravitas for The Doctor. I get that, as a hologram, 800 years can feel like yesterday—but there’s never been any hint that it was such a tremendous loss for him. Maybe it’s because of the “reset policy” common in the Berman-era Trek, where episodes tended to return characters to baseline afterward, but having all of his pain and suffering over 800 years attributed solely to the loss of his daughter felt like a stretch. Personally, I would have liked to hear what he’d been up to over those centuries and see how multiple losses might have shaped his behavior.
As for Tilly, she didn’t really do anything for me in this episode either. And that’s not to say I’m one of those Tilly haters—she can be annoying, but she’s a fun addition to the universe. I would have liked it if she were at least a lieutenant commander by now. And while we’re at it, I didn’t really understand why she was portrayed as being so close to Nahla. Hasn’t it only been a handful of years since her time on Discovery and her Academy days? It feels like there’s a lack of backstory to explain the depth of their connection.
All in all, this one gets a 6 from me.
I'm on board with this. I actually felt Tilly was the best part of this, although the Kasq part was solid as well and I wasn't a fan of Tilly AT ALL in Discovery. The episode continued a trend that has been going on since Kurtzman took over, and that is the out-of-the-blue character connection or revelation that had never taken center stage before, but is all of a sudden played as if it were this big payoff. I remember "An Obol for Charon" (I think it was) where Saru is apparently dying, and Burnham is played as if the two of them had been close friends and their interactions are all super emotional, whereas they had actually just been shown as rather strict rivals up to that point. Or Airiam's death episode, where the script gaslit the audience into thinking that this had been a major character (she wasn't) and that everyone had deep connections to her (they hadn't, or at least we hadn't seen that).
Here too, the script wants us to empathize with the cadets and what is claimed is their huge trauma. But last episode, i.e. since the Miyazaki incident, we hadn't witnessed all that much trauma in any of them, so it feels disingenuous here. In fact, there were many scenes where it felt as if I had missed a couple of episodes, because I had no idea what they're even talking about.
Besides, it's not very Star Trek to (again) grind the adventure, such as it is, to a halt to have characters play theater and talk about their emotions. So I too felt this was among the weaker episodes overall.
As for the Doctor, it would've not only been more interesting and satisfying, but better ST as well if they had done a flashback-sort of episode that covered all the centuries of his existence, and all the losses he has experienced in that time. His "Real Life" daughter could've been a part of this, sure, but it would've been more compelling if the inevitable deaths of Janeway, Seven, Kes, the rest of the Voyager crew, some people he found in in interim and lost again, were the reason he has become guarded against attachment.
