I think having remembered this episode from seeing it before might have ruined the first couple of segments for me, but I doubt I would have fallen for it anyway. Although a Maquis mutiny would have been a great story arc to explore, we know that this series isn't brave enough to go there. But it's still a lot of fun to watch it play out!
First Torres goes through the holodeck scenario, and winds up shooting Kim and joining Chakotay in the revolution. "Looks like you've made your choice," Chakotay says. A few things in the holodeck novel kind of gave away that what we were seeing was not reality. The first being that it would be extremely cold of Chakotay to strand his former crew mates in the Delta Quadrant. Another was how Neelix quickly jumping sides to join the revolution seemed so out of place. Neelix is nothing if not loyal to the captain, a point which he makes himself later in the show. And the third of course was the return of Seska. But nevertheless, it's a compelling story. Then we see Paris go through the exact set of circumstances, at first protecting Tuvok and the ship from the mutineers ("Looks like you've made your choice," Chakotay says again), but then eventually joining in. Given the options of being stranded on the first random (probably monster-filled) planet, or simply having a new boss, I would probably do the same. Afterwards Torres and Paris discover that everyone has been playing this holodeck program and enjoying trying out different roles.
I guess it's supposed to be a big mystery who created the program, but it's quickly revealed to be Tuvok. He created it as a secret training program to deal with what he considered to be the worst case scenario after the Maquis joined the crew. But as time went on, and the only thing that made this series possibly unique and edgy was swept under the rug in the first couple episodes, he dropped the project. Which leads to what has everyone frustrated: there is no ending. Tuvok sees everyone using his training program for fun as ridiculous and possibly divisive, and refuses to write an ending. However, Paris is more than happy to jump in. We are then subjected to way too much screen time devoted to the two of them arguing over creative differences, and then eventually deciding to work together on the project. Tuvok gives his clearance to open the file for editing and.....
This is where the episode goes completely off the rails. Up until this point if not completely engaging, it was at least fun. But now it delves into the painfully tedious. Apparently Seska found the program at some point, and set it so that when Tuvok next came to work on it, the Seska holodeck character that she wrote for herself would take over the ship and kill him. Transporters down, holodeck doors sealed, safety protocols off, the whole deal. It's like the episode that we were watching ended, and a new Seska-centered one just began, not building on any of the previous action. Paris and Tuvok run around the ship trying not to die, while Janeway watches the action on the screen (they can do that?) and tries to help by inserting things into the program. Eventually Tuvok outsmarts Seska by handing her a weapon altered to kill the user, a callback to the way that Seska killed Holo-Janeway a bit earlier.
What starts as at least a fun episode turns into just another holodeck malfunction. The way Seska's revenge plays out is ridiculous. Watching Tuvok and Paris argue over writing the ending was completely unnecessary and added nothing. Put it together and it's just Adequate. And we don't even get to see the ending that everyone was begging for. But we know how it would end in a Janeway vs Chakotay battle of the wits, right? Also, apparently there's a "wide" phaser setting that just kills everyone in front of you at once. Why don't they always use that setting? No aiming!
Published July 18, 2018
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