B'Elanna is involved in a shuttle accident that puts her near death. While in this state, she visits the Klingon Barge of the Dead, which carries unworthy souls to Grethor, the Klingon Hell. When her mother also appears on board and B'Elanna is revived, she insists on returning so that her mother is not made to suffer for her daughter's dishonour.

That plot synopsis makes Barge of the Dead seem more complicated than it actually is. What it is is this season's third episode, so traditionally it's a crap story about B'Elanna. Frankly, this episode is a total mess. The plot makes no sense at all, B'Elanna's sudden turnaround is unlikely at best, and it's certainly way out of character, plus at the end of it all we've learnt nothing. And neither has B'Elanna.

Previous Voyager religious stories (Sacred Ground for one) have been quite good, but this is full of pseudo-religious rubbish. Was B'Elanna really on the Barge of the Dead? Was her mother really there? If so, did her mother conveniently die just when B'Elanna came close? If B'Elanna isn't on the Barge, where is she? And what's she meant to be doing? And why is her subconscious creating the Barge of the Dead for her?

These are just some of the questions that remain unanswered at the end of the episode, and much as I applaud the writers trying to bring some more Klingon mythos into the show now DSN is gone and can't do those stories, this is definitely not the way forward. The more you think about the story, the more incoherent it gets and Roxann Dawson deserves better. The only plus point is B'Elanna's arrival in Hell, only to find that her guide is Neelix. How apt. Other than that, there's really nothing to get excited about here.

**

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