I appreciated that they wanted to kill off a recurring character, someone we as the audiece had become somewhat attached to. Most of the deaths among the Voyager crew were nameless background extras, no connection there. So, I think this was a great, and gutsy, move on the producers part.
It a shame that they royally f#%ked it up by having the recurring character be someone who hadn't appeared for years. Hell, Carey's only other appearance after the first season was in Relativity. His appearance in that episode was confined to the portions set in the past. So, he was only there to reinforce the idea that this wasn't "the present."
We had virtually no connection to Carey by the end of the seventh season. If he had died at the end of first, or the beginning of the second, season, it would have meant something. But, to be honest, when I first saw the episode, I didn't even remember the guy - that how little connected I was with him as a character. If they really wanted to sock it to us with a character death, they should have picked a recurring character that was in much more recent episodes.
From what I've read and heard, they had the choices narrowed down to three - Carey, Vorik, and Samantha Wildman - before they finally picked Carey. Here's what I would have done....
I would have chosen Samantha Wildman to kill off. Not only did she have much more recent appearances, but we also had a connection to her through Naomi. If Samantha died, we would not only feel for her, we would also feel bad for Naomi. Who would take care of her now that her mother was gone?
The most logical choice to become her foster parent would have been Neelix, since he was something like a god-parent to her anyway. However, with Neelix leaving the ship a few episodes later, who would the responsibility fall to then?
Seven, that's who. She was also something of a god-parent to Naomi, so she would be the next logical choice, especially considering her recent experiences with the Borg children. IMHO, having Seven suddenly become a full time mother to a child who didn't expouse Borg philosophy would have done a HELL of a lot more to develop her character than that ridiculous romance-out-of-nowhere with Chuckles.
So, having Samantha Wildman be the one who was killed not only would have done what the producers wanted - socked it to the audience's emotions - it would also have set up future character development for three other characters.
As it is, Carey is essentially just another redshirt, abeit one with a name.
So, Friendship One was a great idea for an episode, but horribly flawed in it's execution.
Poor guy; he was a really great minor character.
