20 – Elogium

Grade: D

Summary

Chakotay is concerned about the “indiscreet fraternization” among the crew and he talks to Janeway about it. Meanwhile, it seems Kes is suffering from some weird disease that makes her eat everything, including bugs and dirt. The ship itself, on the other hand, seems to have attracted the attention of some creatures that live in space.

Commentary

Ugh, this was awful. I suppose eventually they’d have to discuss the subject of pairing off and having children on board this starship, since the only original crew members who could possibly still be alive in 75 years are the holographic Doctor and Tuvok. So that is OK, but this episode is just plain awful. The writing is terrible, and besides Jennifer Lien, the acting is awful. Neelix is becoming more and more annoying with every episode, and the fact that he doesn’t really want to have a child with Kes is really strange.

The idea is that the Ocampa can only have children once in their life, and Kes keeps talking about having “a child”, not “children”. And since the Ocampa live to be about 9 years old at most, it seems to me that their species will die out in just a few decades. So that’s obviously a very stupid idea by the writers.

They also wrote some really bizarre rituals into Kes’ “elogium” period. I suppose it’s supposed to be funny, but it’s just really strange. About the only thing that this episode does well is the conversation between Janeway and Ensign Wildman at the end of the episode. Overall, this episode is not one of my favorites, and it’s utterly forgettable.

Of Note

The concept for this story came to the writer one day when he was on a boat at night and he had to clean it out. He turned on some lights on the boat, and noticed a school of fish swimming around the boat. He thought this would make a good story for Voyager. Brannon Braga bought the story when he suggested the last line that Tuvok says while on the bridge at the end of the episode. You’ll know exactly what line it is when you hear it – it comes right after the small creatures leave Voyager for the other larger creature.

Here’s something else that I also found on en.memory-alpha.org. The producers said they really liked how the scriptwriter handled the technology aspects of this story, and they asked if he had a strong background in science. As it turns out, the writer went to Brown specifically so he wouldn’t have to take any science classes at all. Hmm. That should tell you all you need to know about the intelligence of the producers.