23 – Parturition

Grade: B-

Summary

Kes and Paris are on the Holodeck in a flight simulation. There’s obviously something romantic going on there. Neelix is waiting outside the Holodeck, very jealous. Later, they get into a fight in the mess hall, right before Captain Janeway wants to send them down to the planet to pick up some possible food.

Commentary

Most people don’t seem to like this episode very much, but I have to admit I think it’s quite decent. In fact, it’s the best episode they’ve made in the last dozen or so. I think Johnathan Frakes’ direction here is very good and it is probably the difference in making this otherwise simple story work. The writing and acting are both much better than they have been previously.

I thought the scene between Paris and Kim near the beginning of the episode was excellent. We finally get some natural and organic character-defining scenes that really help strengthen both of these characters. I thought the fact that Kim used a few weeks’ worth of replicator rations to make himself a clarinet was a very nice touch – remember he actually picked up the clarinet when he was at home during “Non Sequitur”. I don’t know if that was originally written in the script, or if someone picked up on it and added it later.

I thought the baby alien was pretty goofy-looking and not terribly realistic at all. That’s probably why they didn’t film it in a lot of light. But by then, at least we had a pretty good story, so it wasn’t to bad. The entire story works well enough, despite a few flaws here and there. In fact, I do think this is one of the very few episodes that I’ve seen so far that I would actually want to see again.

Of Note

The actor who plays Tom Paris said that he was glad they finally wrapped up the Paris/Kes romance. He didn’t like it that Paris was putting the moves on Neelix’s girlfriend.

Oh, and Shuttlecraft #3 is destroyed in this episode.