I always liked the season 5 premiere, but when I rewatched it again yesterday I realised I REALLY like this episode. Every now and then Voyager would do an episode that made excellent use of its premise, and for a moment it would show some shades of the great show it could have been. I'm talking episodes such as Prime Factors, Year of Hell and The Void.
Night is also such an episode. Forget for a moment that Chakotay talks about spending two years crossing the void as if it's no problem that they're most likely NOT gonna be able to pick up ANY supplies, while they're desperately looking for supplies in episodes such as Fair Trade and Demon. Or that they're firing photon torpedoes as if replacement torpedoes grow in the aeroponics bay. Other than that, this episode is wonderful and serves as a prime example of the kind of Star Trek: Voyager I wanted to see. Characters are having to deal with the misery of the situation. The crew morale officer gets a bad case of nihilophobia, the holodeck becomes the antidote to boredom, and one memorable scene shows Harry Kim on the deserted bridge, casually lounging in the captains chair while playing his clarinet.
Another thing, this episode forever changed my opinion of Janeway as a commanding officer. One the one hand, locking herself up in her quarters and letting Chuckles run the ship is unforgiveable. I know we haven't seen the other Captains in a long-term situation such as Janeway's, but somehow I just can't picture Kirk, Picard or Sisko abandoning the crew like that. Even Archer showed more balls in the Xindi arc, a mission where stakes were a lot higher. Ultimately the morale of a starship's crew is determined from above, the captain. In Night, Janeway royally gave her crew the finger to the point where the senior staff were openly expressing their disapproval about it.
On the other hand, this episode dares to take some risk in showing such a glaring imperfection in the captain. Like many sudden character crisises required for a single episode (think Extreme Risk), Janeway's depression suffers from a lack of buildup, and while it did make me lose some respect for her, it also felt completely realistic and believable.
This episode goes well with the season 4 finale, Hope and Fear. Both episodes are about consequences. In Hope and Fear we have Arturis, whose people probably would not have been assimilated by the Borg had Janeway not eliminated the 8472 threat. Here, Janeway chooses to deal (or rather:allows herself to become depressed) with the consequences of her decision that stranded the crew in the DQ. Yeah, sure, everything was neat and resolved by the end of the episode, but that's Voyager for ya and I still appreciate the effort even if these issues were not explored nearly enough.
Night is also such an episode. Forget for a moment that Chakotay talks about spending two years crossing the void as if it's no problem that they're most likely NOT gonna be able to pick up ANY supplies, while they're desperately looking for supplies in episodes such as Fair Trade and Demon. Or that they're firing photon torpedoes as if replacement torpedoes grow in the aeroponics bay. Other than that, this episode is wonderful and serves as a prime example of the kind of Star Trek: Voyager I wanted to see. Characters are having to deal with the misery of the situation. The crew morale officer gets a bad case of nihilophobia, the holodeck becomes the antidote to boredom, and one memorable scene shows Harry Kim on the deserted bridge, casually lounging in the captains chair while playing his clarinet.
Another thing, this episode forever changed my opinion of Janeway as a commanding officer. One the one hand, locking herself up in her quarters and letting Chuckles run the ship is unforgiveable. I know we haven't seen the other Captains in a long-term situation such as Janeway's, but somehow I just can't picture Kirk, Picard or Sisko abandoning the crew like that. Even Archer showed more balls in the Xindi arc, a mission where stakes were a lot higher. Ultimately the morale of a starship's crew is determined from above, the captain. In Night, Janeway royally gave her crew the finger to the point where the senior staff were openly expressing their disapproval about it.
On the other hand, this episode dares to take some risk in showing such a glaring imperfection in the captain. Like many sudden character crisises required for a single episode (think Extreme Risk), Janeway's depression suffers from a lack of buildup, and while it did make me lose some respect for her, it also felt completely realistic and believable.
This episode goes well with the season 4 finale, Hope and Fear. Both episodes are about consequences. In Hope and Fear we have Arturis, whose people probably would not have been assimilated by the Borg had Janeway not eliminated the 8472 threat. Here, Janeway chooses to deal (or rather:allows herself to become depressed) with the consequences of her decision that stranded the crew in the DQ. Yeah, sure, everything was neat and resolved by the end of the episode, but that's Voyager for ya and I still appreciate the effort even if these issues were not explored nearly enough.
And then I saw something on youtube that really made me 
Robert Picardo(the Doc) talked about this episode in an interview with part of the Voy Cast in Las Vegas one time and was talking about the actor who played the guy in the dark..he said that he described him as a "giant tootsie roll" and they called him the "Captain's Log". 
