Using a new downloading routine, Seven comes to the conclusion that Voyager is the centre of a conspiracy, naming Janeway as the chief conspirator. However, when she does much the same thing with Chakotay, it is clear something’s wrong.
Played for total seriousness, this episode really doesn’t work, mainly because having Seven use the same evidence twice to convince Chakotay then Janeway of a conspiracy is completely laughable. If there’d actually been some degree of truth in the entire thing, it could have worked better, but several aspects remain totally unexplained. How did the technology to make the catapult get to where it did, for one. Some of Seven’s evidence shows unusual phenomena, and it’d be nice to find out just what some of it meant.
The biggest problem is believability. The viewer isn’t convinced for a minute that Janeway is an evil traitor or indeed Chakotay, which severely hinders any thoughts that Seven could possibly be correct. Suspecting an alien race of being something they’re not is fair enough, but suspecting the Voyager crew after five years of watching them is impossible.
The other problem is the concept of the catapult, when I couldn’t get out of my head the idea of Voyager being sent across space via a massive rubber band. It even looks rather like this kind of catapult, which makes it even funnier.
There also appears to be an odd disposition this season for scenes with some kind of homosexual overtone. First there was the Tuvok/Neelix ‘relationship’, and now it seems that Janeway has somewhere along the line fallen for Seven. The scene between the two of them in the shuttlecraft is decidedly odd.
Overall, it’s an interesting idea that totally fails to come off.
**
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