Having transferred to Starfleet on Earth to work on the Pathfinder Project, Lt Reg Barclay finds himself becoming obsessed with getting Voyager home and turns to old friend Deanna Troi for help.
This was the episode everyone was waiting for. It brings back the ever-popular Barclay, Troi pops up for a chat and we get to see what's happening back home as far as efforts to bring Voyager home are concerned. In this case, however, familiarity breeds contempt as the audience is forced to endure Barclay's problems for 45 minutes for a foregone conclusion of an ending.
In his defence, the main crux of Barclay's troubles tend to be that his superiors aren't willing to try an idea of his that may enable communication with Voyager. The flaw in this plan is why? If Pathfinder was set up to contact Voyager and bring it home safely, why is Commander Hawkins so loathe to make the effort? If it doesn't work, so what? At least they tried, and presumably that's why they've been given funding. In experimental studies, you don't get money to only try things you know will work.
Dwight Schultz is as good as ever playing Barclay, seemingly better qualified and slightly more confident than he was on the Enterprise, ignoring orders in an attempt to contact Voyager. Marina Sirtis slips perfectly back into the role of Troi, bringing her more mischievous movie persona to the role as well as her professional attributes. Oddly, this is one of the few times we've actually seen her do any counselling and she's really very good.
Barclay's Voyager holoprogram is good for a few laughs, with the crew looking like their season one versions as presumably Starfleet only have this information to go on. However, you'd think that during their communication a couple of years prior, Janeway would have supplied information that the Maquis had been made part of the crew. After all, she does seem to have mentioned Tuvok's promotion...
Sadly, this is just one of several holes in logic that can't be explained away. Barclay's chase in the holodeck is ludicrous, for one. How can security be on a different deck of Voyager and unable to corner Barclay? The holodeck would have to be massive. Secondly, sending the Starfleet message to three different points of the Delta Quadrant is unlikely to locate Voyager, especially considering their catapult jump in last week's story which should put them a lot further along their route home. Maybe all the messing about in nebulas has offset this short cut.
Yes, it's great to see Troi and Barclay again, but this episode rests on too many instances of suspension of disbelief to really work, which is a shame. Hopefully, we'll see Reg and Pathfinder again soon, though.
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