VOY S4E24 "Demon" Review By AnswerMan

 Horrible:Meh:Adequate:Good:Fantastic

Voyager is quite scant on resources, and is forced to shut down entire decks of the ship to reserve power. Seven has found the much needed deuterium on a nearby planet, but there's a catch. The planet is Class Y, or Demon. In short, it is the worst possible atmosphere for human life. Hot, corrosive, and just in every way awful. At first her suggestion of mining the planet is dismissed outright, but after a plea from Harry, they decide to try it.

Harry and Paris fly a shuttle down to the planet and go poking about. Immediately everything goes wrong and they fall over and die in their suits. To rescue them, they land the Voyager. An away team consisting of Chakotay and Seven find that Harry and Tom are walking around without their suits. They can't explain it, but they're just fine. And they want Chakotay and Seven to remove their suits too. They really have become evangelicals at the whole take off your helmet and breathe the toxic atmosphere thing. It's like they've joined a cult. It's actually quite creepy, and intentionally so. It's well done.

We know there's something off here, as the surface of planet is 500 Kelvin, or roughly 450 degrees Fahrenheit. So your oven on its highest setting. There's no possible way that the two are surviving these conditions. Eventually, we find out that they are duplicates, created by the ooze on the planet. Luckily the original Tom and Harry are not yet completely dead. The ooze traps Voyager and refuses to let it go. It only gained sentience when it was exposed to human DNA, and now does not want to be alone. Janeway strikes a deal and allows the entire crew to be duplicated for the amusement of the ooze, in exchange for Voyager noping the fuck back out of there. A creepy ending sequence shows the entire crew standing on the planet as Voyager lifts off.

Demone is an Adequate episode of Trek. Duplicate Tom and Harry are properly creepy. They legit found a new life form, and that life form only gained consciousness due to a visit by our crew. It's all good sci-fi stuff. The ending showing the whole duplicated crew is super creepy. All of it is just weird enough to work, but yet cheesy enough to keep the episode grounded. For instance, Neelix arguing with Tuvok over blankets, and later the Doctor over living space bring this episode back to mediocre. Also apparently the crew sleep in their uniforms. which is information that I could have done without.

Published April 10, 2021