Star Trek: Voyager
"Displaced"
Air date: 5/7/1997
Written by Lisa Klink
Directed by Allan Kroeker
Review by Jamahl Epsicokhan
"I can begin my new career as a tricorder." — Doc, on having his optical sensors reconfigured for strategic use
Nutshell: Not awful, but horribly uncompelling.
"Displaced," unfortunately, exemplifies the heart of what much of Voyager as a series has become: A plot-based show that tells nothing about the lone starship's true difficulties or identity, but rather a relatively brain-dead series of events that has no lasting effect or consequences.
Last week's "Distant Origin" may have been a little outlandish and silly at times, but at least it had some ideas and dialog that ultimately added up to mean something. "Displaced" doesn't add up to mean much of anything. It's simply mediocre to the extreme. The plotting isn't terribly bad, but it really doesn't hold anything of interest, either. There isn't a single relevant argument or insight to be found in the episode. Instead, the entire show is merely an "action-packed" example of Our Heroes versus the Bad Guys.
That isn't by any means bad by definition. I can enjoy superficial adventure as much of the next person. Unfortunately, the big problem is that even the action in "Displaced" lacks a sense of cleverness. It's just kind of there.
In "Displaced," the Voyager crew slowly begins disappearing, one by one, being mysteriously teleported away and replaced by a race of confused people called the Nyrians. Before long, it becomes clear that the Nyrians are not the innocent-seeming party in the affair that they claim to be. As the numbers in the Voyager crew begin to dwindle, the Nyrians suddenly attempt to hijack the ship, leading to the routine phaser battles and crawling through the Jeffries tubes. Chakotay, one of the last to be taken, attempts to make a last stand by sabotaging the ship's systems, but he's completely outnumbered, and surrenders the cause after downloading the Doctor into the holographic emitter, unbeknownst to the Nyrians. (Why Chakotay doesn't arm the ship's auto-destruct sequence is beyond me, but I guess if the ship was blown up there wouldn't be a series, now would there? Then again, based on past episodes, the concept of the auto-destruct system on Voyager is so flawed that it defies usefulness: Not only can it be armed by one person, but it can be disabled by an external attack, a la "Basics, Part I.")
The entire crew, once transported off Voyager, finds itself in an Earth-like environment, where the Nyrians explain to them that they kidnap crews and steal ships rather than waging war. It's much "less costly" and "more humane"—the opposing sides are simply imprisoned in specially designed biospheres within the Nyrians' ship.
I don't want to go too far into the details of the crew's escape, because I'll just get too bored with synopsis. It involves (1) the crew's alliance with an alien from another biosphere who has learned how to access the "portals" that allow movement from one biosphere to another and also into the access areas of the Nyrians' vessel; (2) the rigging of Doc's "eyes" to find these invisible portals, which leads to a rather amusing line where he sarcastically remarks on his new career as a "tricorder"; (3) Janeway's and Tuvok's gaining access of the Nyrians' computer to acquire important technical information; (4) an extended chase scene in which Torres and Paris lure Nyrian pursuers through a frigid biosphere, which buys Janeway and Tuvok time to accomplish the feat of (5) gaining access to the Nyrians' teleportation device.
The execution of this plot consists of much conveniently acquired knowledge and average chase scenes.
Plot aside, there are some decent character bits in the episode. I particularly liked Doc's personality throughout—just his normal irascible self. Then there's the sparring between Tom and B'Elanna, which also works for the most part, especially at the very end of the show, which manages to say everything without resorting to excessive, all-telling dialog, but instead just a smile and some silence. There's also an amusing exchange early in the episode between B'Elanna and Harry regarding B'Elanna's "hostile" disposition.
Janeway is placed in the role of a no-nonsense heroine who constantly cops a confrontational attitude with the Nyrians—which could've and would've worked if it had been written with a little more charisma and a little less posturing. The ending, where Janeway gains control of the Nyrian teleporter and beams them into the frigid biosphere to force them to release the prisoners (Nyrians are vulnerable to the cold), could've been a delicious scene—but, like much of the episode, it's simply too nondescript.
We were supposed to be cheering the Voyager's success, I suppose. Personally, I felt kind of insulted at the smug, standard-issue premise of "Our Heroes save all the effete, imprisoned alien cultures by single-handedly beating the Bad Guys." Most of the crew's success, unfortunately, can be credited to the Nyrians' stupidity rather than the crew's cleverness—never a good sign in an action setting. For example, why in the world would the Nyrians leave the crucial areas of their ship unguarded? And why don't the Nyrians simply seal off the frigid biosphere that Tom and B'Elanna venture into, instead of following the two inside and freezing themselves? And after overpowering a Nyrian who has a fully-charged phaser, why don't Tom and B'Elanna pick up the phaser instead of simply walking away from it? And so on.
"Displaced" is an episode that demands passive viewing. Just turn off your brain; it will definitely be better that way. Still, even with brain shut off, I cannot recommend this episode. There's just not enough cleverness to the story, even as an action show. It prompts boredom and disinterest in too many stretches.
Previous episode: Distant Origin
Next episode: Worst Case Scenario
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58 comments on this post
Sun, Nov 25, 2007, 11:52am (UTC -5)
As long as we're pointing out these odd bits of incompetent script, what happened to Chakotay in the final act? He completely disappeared from the episode after they discovered the portal out of the biosphere. Wouldn't it have been helpful to have him watching Janeway and Tuvok's backs while they were hacking into the Nyrian's computers?
Mon, Dec 24, 2007, 7:23pm (UTC -5)
Mon, Mar 3, 2008, 10:49am (UTC -5)
Sun, Sep 28, 2008, 4:27pm (UTC -5)
Which is why, much as I like the characters and many of the episodes, in the end... it wasn't a well written show.
Thu, Jan 7, 2010, 4:06am (UTC -5)
Tom was rather nonchalant at -20, presumably degrees C but I suppose it could be some other measurement scheme. (Although I believe Trek uniforms are supposed to have some kind of heating/cooling mechanism built in, I recall a TOS episode where the landing party were ordered to adjust their suit temperatures and they were simply wearing the standard stuff.)
I expect that Robert Beltran having a big chunk of running about on Voyager precluded fitting him into the other scenes.
I rather liked the conceit of Nyrian philosphy of prosecuting war without hurting the adversary, it's an amusing angle on the militarist, high handed moralising of the "peaceful" Federation. (Why don't Voyager do some of the beaming an adversary into a brig rather than shooting at them?)
Given the limitations of 50 minutes of TV, it worked well enough for me.
Fri, Jul 9, 2010, 7:04pm (UTC -5)
Thu, Dec 16, 2010, 9:45am (UTC -5)
I gotta say though, the first Act was interesting - it's really too bad that in the second Act the original premise is sabotaged and turned into another Stupid Bad Guys Take Over the Ship scenario.
Mon, Oct 31, 2011, 10:20pm (UTC -5)
Resistance
Hippocratic Oath
Innocence
Remember
Blood Fever
The Omega Directive
but "Favourite Son" and this make her look like a total bore of a writer. I suppose her two-faced-ness is not nearly as egregious as Braga's, but it's a bit frustrating watching this bore of an episode. It's not bad enough to ruin the momentum which carries us to the next season (and includes enough character details, most especially with Paris and Torres, to justify its existence), but it's hardly worth repeated viewings.
2.5 stars is as high as I would go.
Fri, Feb 17, 2012, 4:00pm (UTC -5)
So nice of the Nyrians to translate their displays into English just in case the prisoners escaped and wanted to read them.
Wed, Apr 4, 2012, 1:47am (UTC -5)
@Elliott, those are all indeed classics (except "Blood Fever"), but Lisa Klink wrote the teleplay on most of them. She's only given story writer credit on 2 episodes. Not that there's anything wrong with that. She's obviously a good writer when collaborating with others, but she's relatively weak as a writer of original stories.
@Jay, the panels in English thing was what bugged me the most about this episode, too.
Wed, Apr 4, 2012, 10:46am (UTC -5)
Wed, Jun 27, 2012, 11:27am (UTC -5)
it would give them a chance to reuse costumes, not to mention brush up Voyager's image in the Delta quadrant. And avoid the dismissive wrap-up in the captain's log, something I always hated about TNG.
Wed, Oct 3, 2012, 5:44am (UTC -5)
You probably missed the part where Tuvok says to Janeway: "If the Nyrians downloaded Voyager's cultural database, you may be able to tap into the translation algorithm."
So, this explains the english language on the panels - they simply translated it by putting it through the translation matrix of their own database that had been previously downloaded into the Nyrian computer system.
Tue, Jan 15, 2013, 12:55pm (UTC -5)
I'll listen for that line if its in there, but that assumes I'll watch this episode again...
Wed, Apr 17, 2013, 6:41am (UTC -5)
But hadn't Janeway's combage been teleported as well along with her?
Wed, Sep 11, 2013, 8:03pm (UTC -5)
Because of this, I see this episode as the last so-so one for a while, thanks to Scorpion 1 & 2, etc.
Thu, Oct 10, 2013, 4:04pm (UTC -5)
When Tuvok & Janeway finally find the trans-locator device on the habitat station they discover that it has a maximum range of 10 000 light years. He says that explains why the crew was transported one by one - because the trans-locator was at its maximum range.
I don't believe the com badge range is that far so even though Janeway still had the com badge it would have been useless.
I think the aliens removed the crew's com badges when they got to the habitat to prevent the serarated crew groups from communicating with each other.
Sat, Nov 30, 2013, 12:45pm (UTC -5)
But overall I found it enjoyable, with a nice "mystery" in the beginning, then interesting ideas. Maybe I'm less severe than you because I've watched it for the first time in 2013, and therefore many things about this show are so 90s that it's impossible for me to take it seriously enough to have expectations that high.
Sat, Apr 12, 2014, 9:39am (UTC -5)
But in Voyager it gets even worse. It is impressive how often the security measures of Voyager show to be simply absent. How easy is for anyone to steal a shutlecraft, to beam up or down without authorization, and so on. Blah.
I was also bothered by Torres turning The Doctor's voice out. This is really na unethical behaviour if they now consider The Doc a being, right?
And what about Trek shows once again showing the crew easily operating computers used by a totally diferent species that they have just met?
Sure, finding out that they were within a ship was nice. But a good surprised for 2 seconds. In the end, a weak episode, meaningless, silly, with all sort of those distracting problems. I will forget this in 15 minutes. And I will not regret that.
Wed, Aug 27, 2014, 1:06am (UTC -5)
Watchable, but ultimately forgettable.
2 stars.
Tue, Sep 8, 2015, 1:54pm (UTC -5)
...or there would be a ship to return all the rescued crew members back to...
This is a slightly above average episode for me. Pretty interesting the first time around but doesn't do well with age.
The whole "warm" thing was kind of a blah thing to me and too obvious and poorly acted in the end.
I thought Voyager should have stolen the technology and used it as a holo-deck substitute :-)
More Tom/B'elanna chemistry shown here.
2.5 stars from me.
Tue, Sep 8, 2015, 2:09pm (UTC -5)
That's the writer's problem, not Chakotay's. The aliens could have found a way to deactivate it. But he should have tried.
Thu, Nov 26, 2015, 3:49am (UTC -5)
Fri, Jan 29, 2016, 10:41am (UTC -5)
There are some decent Tom/B'Elanna moments but it's time to move that relationship forward now too. 2 stars.
Fri, Aug 5, 2016, 12:58pm (UTC -5)
We just had the one where Kim the ONLY ONE smart enough to figure out that the planet of 90% women was a trap. Shocking! It's pretty snotty to assume only humans are cunning and sharp minded enough to solve problems. And conversely that all other races would fall for an obvious trap.
With "Displaced" every other species accepted their new prison. No one likes to be imprisoned even in idyllic conditions. If this epsiode had been done properly it would have never happened at all because there would have already been a prisoner rebellion years ago.
Thu, Aug 11, 2016, 12:09am (UTC -5)
Just lazy.
Tue, Aug 23, 2016, 7:59pm (UTC -5)
Paris and the half Klingon shoot the last shot out of their makeshift phaser. They have no way of knowing if they will run into any other guards yet they leave a working rifle with the guard they just killed. That's just stupid. (**)
Mon, Jan 30, 2017, 3:21pm (UTC -5)
Mon, Jan 30, 2017, 3:45pm (UTC -5)
Mon, Jan 30, 2017, 11:09pm (UTC -5)
Mon, Jun 12, 2017, 1:40am (UTC -5)
I also agree with mephyve: My jaw dropped when Tom and B'Elanna used up their makeshift phaser, then left working weapons on the guards.
These are the kinds of holes that seems so unnecessary, and yet seem so prevalent in this series. Half a year or so ago, my wife and I started rewatching every episode of TNG, DS9, and now Voyager, for the first time since they aired.
TNG had the advantage of newness as it struggled to rediscover and reinvent the Star Trek idea, so we were on board as it went through its growing pains. We understood its difficulties as it clawed its way up to become (what I consider) the best all-round sci-fi TV series ever.
DS9 was a huge surprise. I had seen far fewer episodes than I realized, and this time found it a more worthy continuation of the franchise. It hit the ground running with stellar production values and writing, complete with engaging characters and more true sci-fi themes than I expected... all with relatively few holes in the story lines. It took the greatest strengths of TNG and built on them with sophistication and maturity.
Now, we're up to this episode of Voyager, and I'm bothered by glaring holes and questions of judgement in the stories. (I seem to remember episodes in which some poor alien characters or species were just abandoned to their awful fates. Was it to those organ harvesters?)
Sometime during Voyager season two, I commented to my wife that everything seemed more lightweight than in previous series. The term "rinky-dink" came to mind. We're going to keep watching with hope that this one grows. It's just a shame how many good ideas have been squandered up to this point. During the initial television airings, I seem to remember ST fatigue setting in. Will 7of9 help?
In true Star Trek fashion, despite my logical critiques, I feel emotionally compelled to see this through. C'mon now Voyager, grow!
Mon, Jun 12, 2017, 8:48pm (UTC -5)
Wed, Jul 5, 2017, 1:44am (UTC -5)
Yes, yes, yes. I must do it. Even though it has been mentioned before...
Two of the bad guys are disabled in the cold environment, and as Paris and Torres leave, I'm nearly yelling "Pick up the weapons!" at the teevee. After going on about how their makeshift weapon had about one shot left in it, that they used, the actors or the director should have realized they needed to go get the guns. But they just headed off-stage. That was actually painful to watch.
-------
JANEWAY: How many are there?
TUVOK: Captain, there's data here for ninety four different environments.
I'm thinking not all of those environments were being used for the thousands of prisoners, so let's say half or so since some might have been empty (for new arrivals). Even that conservative estimate nets us 47 or more different spacefaring races that are probably going to be happy to get their people back, and they have Voyager to thank for it! Well, they might want to help them with provisions, weapons, navigation, gosh the list might just go on and on. Voyager's reputation in the Delta Quadrant repaired! Reams of data on new species! Instead we see Voyager buggering out and scampering off, with no mention of it. They didn't even show one other race making calls to their home world. At least we could have seen the fellow who pointed and said "They went that way".
-Captain's log, stardate 50929.6. The Nyrians have surrendered Voyager, and my crew is safely back on board. The former prisoners on the habitat vessel have contacted their native worlds, and are waiting to be taken home.
This was said as we see Voyager heading away. Now, I cannot believe these are the only Nyrians in the area. What if some of them head to the prison station, in their stolen ships, while the prisoners are waiting to be repatriated? Voyager was their only defense if that happened. And for a ship that stops by every random anomaly or planet with space races on them, sometimes for days or weeks, they just missed out on first contact with 47+ different species. That made my head hurt.
Not to mention the nifty long-range transporter that they'd take apart and integrate, never to be mentioned again.
Have a great day Everyone... RT
Thu, Jul 20, 2017, 10:33pm (UTC -5)
This episode felt like it started with the idea of the crew displacement then had to find a way to explain it. The whole premise, while interesting at first glance, just made no sense. Why not just transport the entire crew at once? Why do they need to be replaced rather than just removing them? Why nine minutes and twenty seconds between displacements?
1.5 stars for a neat idea that couldn't find a way to make any sense.
Mon, Oct 16, 2017, 12:49pm (UTC -5)
Tue, Nov 14, 2017, 5:21am (UTC -5)
Why would the Nyrians have doors between the habitats? Why does that guy with the door detector not find the door out of his habitat, or out of the habitat with Voyager in it? Why do they need to modify the Doc's vision to find the door out? Just use the door finder gadget the guy has. And when they find the door, they just push a button and it opens. Why wouldn't the Nyrians have it locked? Oh yeah, because it was so well hidden. Alrighty then.
And I guess you can alter the docs program by pushing a couple buttons on his holo-emitter. And it has a mute button. Whatever.
Tuvok builds working phasers out of a capacitor and a showerhead or something. Ok then. Good thing he could make one with a stun setting at least. Dumb.
They wait until over 100 people have vanished off the ship to start locking out systems and putting up forcefields. Yep. Makes sense.
Then there are 12(!) crew left on Voyager and Chakotay says 'Chakotay to all hands. Security alert. The Nyrians may be trying to take control of the ship.' Gee do you think?
Since the Nyrians have transporters (I mean translocators, sorry), why not just transport (translocate, sorry) everyone back into the habitat, like they did in the first place, instead of chasing them all over the station? Stupid.
And what, these are all the Nyrians in the quadrant? They wouldn't have called for help? They can transport (translocate, sorry) up to 10 light years, so they could get reinforcements quite easily. And why wouldn't Janeway stay for awhile and study the translocator? That's almost 150 million times as far as they can transport now. But so what? Who needs that? Or stay and ask some of the thousands of people for help getting home, or for a scouting report, or something, anything. So stupid.
I was also facepalming, like everyone else, when no one picked up a weapon from a disabled Nyrian. Ultra stupid.
Terrible episode.
1/2 star.
Mon, Aug 20, 2018, 10:52pm (UTC -5)
I liked this episode quite a bit. The ideas involved are what makes it interesting. A group of people stealing ships and putting the occupants in aquariums, basically. Kind of what we do with zoos. If you think of it like that, it explains Janeway’s disgust.
Just ignore the tidbits here and there that don’t make sense - like say, Tom and B’Elanna not picking up the weapons. So many folks above couldn’t let that idea go. Great episode for their relationship. And I anticipated the outcome of Voyager the whole way through. I don’t dwell on some of the tech stuff that doesn’t make sense. Unique episode and I enjoyed imagining what this alien spaceship might look like.
Better than the dinosaur episode that came before it. Seriously, who could imagine the dino people building their ships with those clunky claws and giant nails? That’s more the idea that I can’t unsee while watching space shows.
Mon, Sep 10, 2018, 10:34pm (UTC -5)
The Tom and B'Ellana stuff was good, though.
Tue, Oct 23, 2018, 9:07pm (UTC -5)
I really liked this episode-the premise seems fresh and unique to me. Sadly, a few things make no sense!
First, I would think that if Tom and B'lanna's jury-rigged phaser is fizzing out, they would have grabbed the guns of the bad guys after they stunned them!
Also, there was no indication that Klingons freeze faster than humans before. *The Klingon guard at Roara Pente (the prison colony in Star Trek VI)* seemed fine.
Also, the bad guys should have been A LOT more incapacitated than they were if they need 45 degree C temperatures! (It was said that once) I think of the Buck Rogers episode with the lizard people in human suit. At freezing (0 C), they went into a coma!
I don't mind technobabble like most of you, but the way they instantly fixed things here was absurd! *(EG-The power going out of the phaser, and B'lanna holds it for a second, and squeezes another shot out of it! Madness!)
I also have to say that the Ensign who was on the bridge with Chacoktay was CUTE! Very pretty girl! A welcome change as I don't find many people on the Star Trek shows attractive
I did like seeing the romantic tension between Tom and B'lanna. They should just get the captain to marry them already!
Oh, there are 2 more things:
I guess the budget didn't allow for it, but I expected to see aliens that looked like the Wampa Ice Creature (from the Empire Strikes Back) in the habitat with the cold weather. There was NO ONE THERE!
Also, even with the threat of being frozen, the bad guys gave up too easily! They kidnapped 90 or so different species-I know Voyager was going to let them go after they rescued the habitat's inhabitants, but I would think that at least 1 of those 90 species (probably most of them) would be out for blood for what they've done! I think they would have been too afraid of that-they should have at least tried to bargain with Janeway saying she and the Federation people could go, but don't free the other 89 species. *(Unless they hand picked the most docile species to kidnap, like the cowardly alien that visited Voyager's crew. But if that was the case, they should have said that-even a passing reference)
Ok, that's all of my thoughts-now I'll read the above and see if anything else strikes me
Tue, Oct 23, 2018, 9:29pm (UTC -5)
I know what you mean about her slowly crumbling to the floor-that was a little fake, but the cuteness of the character makes up for bad acting! Hehe! (Sorry)
@ John Pate & Nic
I agree! -20C isn't a killing frost! But again, it depends where you are from. We're used to it here, but places like Africa, South America, Florida etc aren't
@ navamske
"KKK uniforms"? I think that's a stretch
@ Jay
I think you missed it when they said they are using the downloaded cultural whoists from Voyager to translate
@ Stargazer
You beat me to it! (Explaining to Jay that he missed the explanation)
@ Markus
They explained that they can't transport more than one person at a time if the place they are being transported to is light years away. I guess 9 minutes and change is the time it takes to reboot the transport system
Thu, Oct 25, 2018, 4:35pm (UTC -5)
Fun hour although aliens capturing voyager is getting a little old. But overall an entertaining jeopardy show. The idea of swapping places as a means of commandeering voyager was great I thought. Action was good.
Tue, Nov 20, 2018, 11:15pm (UTC -5)
The idea of Voyager being taken over is executed with a different twist, but it's not worth thinking about - the whole transporter switching thing. There's the silliness of the Nyrians not liking cold and then that is used by Janeway to get them to acquiesce. Of course Janeway and Tuvok figure out the alien ship's computer system and liberate all the captive aliens -- it's all pretty standard stuff.
One thing I did like are the personalities of the characters coming out in a handful of interactions. Liked Chakotay admiring / being surprised at Tuvok's Vulcan improvisation abilities -- good little convo there. Also liked Doc's amusing commentary on the Paris/Torres bickering after which Torres turns off his voice. Torres questioning Harry about if she's hostile was a nice little scene too. And I liked Doc complaining about being a tricorder!
But again, it's the treacherous random aliens of the week with nothing of substance in the episode other than the few character interactions. Janeway is her usual determined self but that's nothing new. There was a bit wth Chakotay as last man aboard the ship trying to evade the aliens but that wasn't at all enthralling -- just felt like throwing Beltran a bone.
2 stars for "Displaced" -- basic ship takeover / escape captivity stuff here with some chases, a bit of phaser fights. Really the best part of VOY is the characters and their various inter-relationships -- really hard to give a crap about the random aliens they come across, as most of them are never to be seen again.
Wed, Feb 27, 2019, 6:22pm (UTC -5)
Wed, Mar 27, 2019, 11:28pm (UTC -5)
Sat, Mar 7, 2020, 10:32am (UTC -5)
Sun, Mar 29, 2020, 3:03pm (UTC -5)
Mon, Apr 13, 2020, 9:53pm (UTC -5)
Tue, Apr 21, 2020, 8:04am (UTC -5)
For starters, phasers have a wide beam setting...why do we almost never see this? Also phasers can fire in continuous beam...you don't have to "reload" before you can shoot again. As long as there is no chance of friendly fire, most phases would be set to wide and continuous settings...and there wouldn't be all these ridiculous misses. Heck you wouldn't even need to aim...the key would be getting off a shot very quickly.
Also, shouldn't a intruder defense system be able to identify friend from foe automatically (the com badge) and selectively stun the bad guys without the need for an old fashioned point and shoot fire fight? Shouldn't a Federation intruder defence system have a simple drone with a phase set to stun on on it that could help defend the ship like "Arsenal of Freedom"? Why didn't Chakotay flood many of the key decks with gas? None of that made sense.
Fri, May 15, 2020, 6:33pm (UTC -5)
Sometimes this crowd is a bummer! LOL. But the points are well-taken.
That said, I still enjoyed it and found some of premises interesting. I just posted in "Before and After" that it kicked off six good episodes in a row. I still believe it.
But this one was probably the weakest of six. But it was still enjoyable time spent in the never-ending coronavirus era.
The EMH would have figured out Covid-19 in 19 minutes.
Fri, Oct 2, 2020, 9:30pm (UTC -5)
Sat, Apr 17, 2021, 2:56am (UTC -5)
Fri, Jul 30, 2021, 9:15pm (UTC -5)
Here's what I think was interesting:
(1)The often frustrating crew disappearances reminded me of what happens on the ship Demeter in Stoker's novel Dracula, as a mysterious force overtakes the crew one at a time. However, here supernatural suspense is replaced by a rather fast-paced, almost chaotic descent into absurdity as 40 then 14 then 2 crew remain....
(2) Chakotay's last ditch efforts in the face of overwhelming odds had a noble quality which I enjoyed watching.
(3) The Nyrians come in at first looking bewildered and helpless and are treated with kindness by our Good Samaritan Voyager crew. Chakotay later entering the cargo bay where the Nyrians had been cared for and finding it empty was priceless. It was all a ruse. The discarded pillows and blankets were a nice touch.
(4) It was easy to see the wasted attempt at kindness shown toward the Nyrians as a take on the suspicions many people have regarding foreign aid, or succour to refugees coming in...the show actually adopts negative positions on pity, and on unquestioning trust overall, so is actually far from meaningless. There's a lot one can discuss here.
It held my interest and was often rather fun; it had many good situations (e.g., Paris and B'Elanna evolving) and I liked the Atavachron world menu with a thoughtful reference to Tano-Tuva, the 'center of Asia', a country which physicist Richard Feinman became obsessed with) and succeeds, I think, despite a few throw away Trek devices like the reptilian dude who stumbles in from next door, and the embarrassed 'would be geniuses' caught in the snow, so 3 stars overall seems fair.
Sat, Oct 9, 2021, 3:06pm (UTC -5)
Some have complained that the aliens were "old guys in silly hats" and so "not threatening". I agree, but I wonder if their age was intended to be the point? Usually older generations are inexorably replaced by the young, perhaps the writers intended a reversal of this.
Regardless, the "conquest" seen in this episode doesn't make much sense. The energy used maintaining biomes and hijacking ships is surely more than simply building more ships and traveling to another planet. And why not beam everyone off of Voyager first, and then move your alien replacements in afterwards? Isn't this safer?
According to Memory Alpha, the director of this episode regrets not altering the motivations of the aliens; he wished they were simply capturing people to fatten them up and eat them. It's a silly idea, but I think that would have worked better. The "beam out" premise is great, and married to a similarly broad motive (get in our bellies!), the episode may have worked in a Twilight Zone sort of way.
Fri, Oct 22, 2021, 10:24am (UTC -5)
It's enough to make you into a human supremacist.
Wed, Apr 6, 2022, 10:16pm (UTC -5)
Sat, Apr 9, 2022, 3:10pm (UTC -5)
Mon, Aug 15, 2022, 10:21pm (UTC -5)
Sat, Apr 22, 2023, 11:42am (UTC -5)
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