2.17 — “Dreadnought”

2.17 — “Dreadnought”

Plot: In the Delta Quadrant, Voyager encounters a Cardassian autonomous missile which B’Elanna recognizes. While still in the Maquis, she commandeered the missile and reprogrammed it to seek out and destroy a Cardassian target. Somehow it teleported to the Delta Quadrant after Voyager, then decided that this plot development is so preposterous it must be a Cardassian trick, which it can undermine by targeting and destroying a random inhabited, peaceful planet. B’Elanna must confront her own handiwork in order to destroy it.

Thoughts: I want to say nice things. This episode is better than at least the last three. It has some good lines (e.g., “Who would have thought two years ago, after all those weeks we spent together perfecting your program, that we’d end up out here trying to kill each other?”) and an action-filled plot which calls on several regular characters to offer to sacrifice themselves for principles larger than themselves. Confronting an automated killing machine is a promising concept which turned out very well the first time Star Trek tried it, in TOS 2.6, “The Doomsday Machine.” Roxanne Dawson performed the computer voice very well, and generally pulled off a difficult episode.

The convoluted premise is so silly though! I mean, come on. Since when do the Cardassians have unchallengeable military technology, such that even a unmanned drone can’t be touched by a Federation starship? Seems they should have won that war.

“Dreadnought” presents a lot of missed opportunities. B’Elanna seems to have little understanding or regret over her moral culpability, having created her own Doomsday Machine. Her only regret is not telling Chakotay first? This series either doesn’t know how to identify moral dilemmas or is afraid to confront them.

I thought that the Dreadnought, being intelligent, might have feelings about being attacked by its creator, or existential fears related to the rightness of its choices or the threat of its impending destruction. Think of how great the scene is in 2001 where Bowman shuts down HAL. Nope, another missed opportunity.

B’Elanna could have reasoned her way out of this, an idea they explored, instead of just solving the problem using applied technobabble (this phaser will burn through the magnetic constrictor casing of the warp core!). Nope, the producers think technobabble is more fun.

The lighting is great on the ship, and I love the controlled chaos when B’Elanna runs the two computer personalities against each other while shivering and gasping for air. There are pleasures here, that could be so much more.

“Signatures” is the new “subspace”–an overused, meaningless technobabble tick that should be jettisoned immediately (e.g., “The high residual energy signature indicates repeated weapons fire”–in the vacuum of space). The transporters start and stop working for no reason. Voyager needs to sweat the details more. This comes from the top, and needs to change for the show to significantly improve.

2.5 out of 5 escape pods.

http://memory-alpha.wikia.com/wiki/Dreadnought_(episode)