This Week's Episode: "The Voyager Conspiracy"
Summary: After creating a new regeneration chamber that allows Seven to assimilate large amounts of data while she regenerates, Seven becomes data overloaded. This causes her to make allegations against both Chakotay and Janeway, accusing them both of conspiracy.
Voyager encounters a catapult that appears to have technology taken from the Caretaker's Array, the device which brought Voyager to the Delta Quadrant in the first place. .
Rating: 5
Best Scene: The fact that producers finally mentioned Kes for one of the first times since she left the show.
Worst Scene: Janeway and Seven transporting off the Delta Flyer...why not pilot the ship back to Voyager??
Best acting award goes to: Sorry, but no one wins it this week.
Best Line: "You go for authenticity and what do you get? Second-degree burns" -- Captain Janeway while attempting to make Chakotay dinner.
Impressions: Future note to Star Trek writers and producers: Never try your hand at the X-Files.
"The Voyager Conspiracy" : what can I say? The writers tried their darndest to raise a few conspiracy theories about Voyager, and they failed...miserably. Why? The episode was just too jumbled. It starts off promising. It makes sense for Seven to make these modifications to her Alcove, and the flashback scenes as she discusses the photonic fleas was certainly captivating and interesting. Things start to go downhill when Seven starts introducing her "conspiracy theories" however.
The first theory to Chakotay about Captain Janeway is somewhat plausible. There is lots of circumstantial evidence that when collected, might make a paranoid person believe what Seven is claiming. Yes, you've got the unexplained tractor beam seen when the Caretaker was destroyed. Yes, you've got a few coincidences when Captain Janeway modifies course to "explore", and "communications with Earth". I'll accept her first conspiracy theory. However, the second one implicating Chakotay was just plain dumb! Personally, I believe the episode would have worked slightly better if the producers had stuck to the one conspiracy theory, concerning Janeway and Tuvok. However, when they introduced the same theory making Chakotay look like the bad one, the show loses it's credibility. I mean, how likely a theory is it that the Maquis (one lonely vessel) is going to go back to Cardassian space and make them pay for what they've done? Not bloody likely. It was at this point I just wanted to stop watching. Did the episode get better? Not really. The fact that both Chakotay and Janeway fall for the theories makes their characters look like twits, and certainly doesn't say much for the trust they've placed in one another.
We then have a "data overloaded" Seven escape in the Delta Flyer (can they ever stop an un-authorized Shuttle launch for goodness sakes?!!), who leaves her shields down so Captain Janeway can beam over. Janeway must then convince Seven that there are no conspiracies, as she goes through a boring recollection of numerous stardates. The episode then ends with the crew using the Catapult to get three years closer to home. All in all, the episode just felt pointless.
On set reports said that the cast was getting their scripts the day of shooting due to numerous re-writes and revisions. This can never be good. It's one thing I've learned is that if you've rushed something, the results will be terrible. And this episode was terrible. I do have to give the writers credit for trying to do something different for Star Trek, but it completely backfired. The episode was terribly anti-climatic, and the fact that there was two weak conspiracy theories made the show that much less interesting. Perhaps it could have been saved by sticking to one theory, and really capitalizing on that one. However, I really don't think there was too much they could have done to save this dribble. So again, Star Trek writers, never do X-Files!
So, for an episode that just felt rushed and jumbled, for an episode that had no suspence and was terribly anti-climatic, for an episode with mediocre acting, and for an episode that makes it's two leads (Captain and First Officer) look like complete morons, I have to award this episode a 5 out of 10. I had originally given it a 6 out of 10 when writing this review, but by the time I got to the end, I decided to lower the mark to a 5. I can see what they were trying to do, and it just didn't work. Perhaps the most annoying point is that the Caretaker mystery, which was the highlight of the show, never gets resolved...I know that that is the point of conspiracy theories: you are never supposed to know. But I believe if they had focussed more on Seven's findings, the show may have worked a little better. I know this review is short, but I really didn't want to waste too much time talking about an episode that I will try my best to forget about.
