2.14 — “Alliances”
Plot: Repeated Kazon attacks lead some crew members to theorize that making an alliance with a Kazon faction will increase Voyager’s chances for survival. Problem: this tactic is against Federation rules. Will Janeway cave under pressure to pursue it?
Thoughts: I don’t have much nice to say about this one. The Kazon are boring. The teleplay is talk, talk, talk; tell not show. The plan to ensure peace by backing a Kazon faction is ridiculous; Janeway’s temporary conversion to this line of thinking is unpersuasive. Despite their purported threat, the Kazon are not depicted as dealing from a plausible position of strength.
In short, the Emperor has no clothes.
Why bring in Seska but waste her by giving her almost nothing to do? To do so draws the sting of this character.
The twist about the Trabe being untrustworthy has potential, but where is the acknowledgment that just by allying with them Janeway is threatening and insulting the Kazon? This is hardly a starting point for negotiations. It would be like trying to soothe Israel by first allying with Hamas.
sunny jim was rolling her eyes at the speech at the end about Federation values. It’s all very hamfisted.
A nitpick: I think Spock would be famous enough so that Tuvok would not need to explain him to Janeway using the phrase “when I was young, a great visionary named Spock.” The guy is still around, for goodness sake.
For all these complaints, the clearest sign that Voyager as a series has, at this point, lost its way may be the stripper-cam treatment of the exotic dancer featured in the background of the scene at the Kazon bar. I hope it finds itself again.
1.5 out of 5 helicopter attacks.
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