The Voyager is attacked by a group of aliens for a large bounty. Unable to beat these new enemies, Janeway is visited by a member of a 'think tank', a group of aliens who insist they can help Voyager escape unharmed… for a price.
It's an inventive concept, but it never quite takes off in this story. The central character played by Jason Alexander works well, never losing his temper, even when events go against him. The assorted other think tank members are sufficiently intriguing, and surprisingly more alien than when are used to on Star Trek, some of whom aren't even bipeds.
The problem mainly lies in the pacing, which is extremely slow and doesn't go anywhere unexpected. It just switches from the think tank having every possible eventuality covered to Seven of Nine playing their smugness back at them. However, quite why it takes the Voyager crew three hours to come up with no way to beat the think tank is inexplicable. Surely in five minutes they can work out that their opponents are ready for anything they try, and that the best approach is to try to trick them by sending Seven across. It certainly was my first thought.
The idea that is quite intriguing here though is that Seven is wasting her potential on Voyager, as she has powers and abilities far beyond mortal men (or something). Maybe she'll get to do something really impressive by the end of the season.
All in all then, it's just too easy, and the ending is extremely odd, with Voyager leaving what is effectively its own problem being fought over by two groups of people who probably stopped mid-fight thinking, 'Hang on. Why are we blowing each other up?'. Not very friendly, Captain.
***
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