170 – Renaissance Man

Grade: B

Summary

The Doctor and Captain Janeway are on their way back to Voyager after having been on an away mission. They suddenly come across some evil aliens who demand for them to eject their warp core. But when Janeway is back on the bridge, it becomes obvious there’s something rather strange about her. Chakotay tries to investigate, but when he does, things really turn strange.

Commentary

When I first saw this episode, I knew there was no way they could get rid of Voyager’s warp core, right? I mean how else could they get home? So right there, I found the episode to be a little too incredible to believe. Then I saw what was happening to the Doctor, and it really became an interesting story. How could he possibly keep up this charade?

Well, it actually was a pretty interesting story – especially when the Doctor ejects the warp core and the aliens take possession of it. But then the story gets a little silly and I wish they had made it a 2-part episode instead. Or maybe even better – I wish they would have left Voyager without a warp core at the end of this episode, but still given them a way to get home without it – using different technology, for example.

Well, we all know Voyager isn’t about taking risks or creating anything unusual, so there’s no way this kind of story would work. Instead, we have a reset button, and that is really annoying. Whatever. Overall, it’s a fun episode anyway.

Of Note

I loved it when the Doctor says “Voyager can survive without a warp core, but not without its captain.” Really? Are you sure about that? Where else are they going to get a warp core to replace the one he just gave away? Can they get one shipped overnight from Amazon? And what if they never get a warp core back? It would take 140,000 years to get home if they could go at full impulse. Do they even have impulse power if they don’t have a warp core to generate it?

Besides, you don’t think Chakotay could lead the ship? If you’d ask me, I’d tell you the Emergency Command Hologram has done fairly well lately – he even out-ranks Harry Kim (ok, sorry, that was low). Anyway, I thought it was funny – because I certainly think they could make it home even without Janeway.