Paris hears of a galactic space race, which he gets Janeway’s permission to enter. Joining him on board the Delta Flyer in an attempt to get his attention for 10 minutes is B’Elanna, but the race could be a chance for newly-peaceable alien races to reignite their war.
I seem to have been forced to watch more than my fair share of crap TV lately, and a lot of that is down to Voyager. Star Trek used to feature grown-ups in grown-up situations. The original series had a high moral slant, TNG likewise while delivering some thought-provoking human drama. Deep Space Nine continued this same trend. The only thought this episode provokes is ‘When is it going to stop?’
The fact that it doesn’t even get started until about 20 minutes in is the first clue something’s not right, and the story doesn’t seem to know if it wants to deal with warring alien races or Tom and B’Elanna’s non-event of a relationship. It eventually settles on the latter, pointing out repeatedly that the pair are in love while neither Roxann Dawson or Robert Duncan McNeill manage to convince of the truth of the statement. The whole episode moves from the dissatisfaction in their relationship to the universe’s least likely marriage, which, as if to prove how interesting it is, happens offscreen, leaving us with the horribly twee image of the Delta Flyer with Just Married painted on it and trailed by beer cans (or whatever the 24th Century equivalent is). Not only does this all seem sudden, it also seems massively unrealistic, much like the relationship itself really.
Meanwhile, Harry is trying to get into the pants of an alien racer, who just happens to be the Evil Person trying to start the war again. The signs are all there: of the two possible saboteurs, she’s the pretty and innocent one; Tom points out that she seems to be the first normal woman Kim’s been attracted to; but her plan is so easily stopped that it never seemed to be a concern in the first place. The original Star Trek gave us simmering tension between alien races in Journey to Babel. There’s none of that here. Hell, the visiting ambassador has no personality whatsoever and can barely act.
The race is hardly seen and is almost over 30 seconds after it starts, Neelix gets to become Murray Walker for a bit with risible results and the entire crew decide racing is cool and they love it. Why can’t they play an intelligent game? God help them if they discover a baseball match going on. Janeway’s reactions are ridiculous, Tuvok, the voice of reason, is swayed to what is clearly hoped to be comic effect and it’s all deeply embarrassing. I bet Kate Mulgrew’s wishing she’d gone through on her threat to leave now…
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