Voyager is sent on a mission to retrieve a probe for first contact sent out before there was even a Starfleet. What they find is a group of radiation-riddled survivors who want revenge on the cause of their endless pain.
As a premise, it's not bad. But in execution, this story is hopeless. The survivors show no real signs of any pain or suffering except some pustules that make them look like several races that have been on the show before. No one dies, and you wonder how if their children are stillborn they've managed to survive as long as they have when they don't appear to have any simple medicines.
It's good to see a problem with so much history that diplomacy won't work, but using poor old Lt Carey as cannon fodder is unnecessary. Having a familiar face die is obviously meant to elicit audience sympathy, but the heavy-handed way he mentions his wife and the fact that he's the only non-regular on the away team marks him for death as quickly as wearing a yellow shirt normally does on Trek.
Nothing happens for much of the duration, with accusations flying and arguments going back and forth without anyone getting anywhere. One minute Janeway is pissed off and denying treatment, the next her opponent is claiming to not even want any. It's a stand-off that doesn't get resolved until the very end, by which point everyone's lost interest. With all this and a decidedly dodgy animatronic baby, there's too little to support 45 minutes here and it goes on interminably. And why are the Voyager crew unconcerned by the fact that hundreds of other cultures may have intercepted Friendship One and destroyed their civilization much as this group has? And why does Janeway readily take on a mission that diverges from their path home; presumably Starfleet wants them back eventually? And finally, why are there hundreds of M-class planets around most of the time, but when you need to relocate people the nearest one is three months away? Couldn't they simply find a class of planet that supports life but isn't quite as nice as M-class? It's not like these people are in the nicest environment now, so they'd probably be happy with anything. In all, another big waste of your time.
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