How about The Ultimate Movie Guide: IMDB?
No? Well then...
INITIAL VIEWER EXPERIENCE
Wait, I've seen this before...no, I mean on another show. This is another temporal anomaly (do-doooo-da-do-do!) show...No, it's a joke by Q...No, it's another of those soul-out-of-body things...No, she's hallucinating...No, she's not...How many old plots do we have to sift through to find the answer?...Man, her father's scary-looking!...Hey (at the end), I hadn't thought of that one after all. :-)
PLOT
Janeway and Chakotay are on another shuttle with a name that's hard to pronounce, talking about how Neelix's talent show had its highlight in Janeway's interpretation of some swan dance...eek! Suddenly, they are struck by lightning and crash. Janeway suffers serious cranial damage, as the Doctor would say. Chakotay works feverishly to revive her and does.
It turns out they were shot down by Vidiians, and a groggy Janeway runs with Chakotay into a cave, where Chakotay is shot and Janeway is strangled to death...and then she's back on the shuttle with Chakotay. They realize they're suffering from what Worf would call...hmmm, can't remember the Klingon phrase, but Picard would call it deja vu. Their attackers appear and blow up the shuttle...and then Chakotay and Janeway are talking about talent night again.
This next time through the rinse cycle, Janeway and Chakotay make it back to the ship, but she's the only one who remembers they had any sort of temporal problems. An examination by the Doctor reveals that she's suffering from the Phage. She gets some sleep, wakes up looking really bad, and is informed by the Doctor that the only help he can give her is euthanasia. He floods her area with nerve gas, and she dies again.
Now Janeway sees herself lying on the ground with Chakotay feverishly working to revive her. She tries to talk to him, but no dice. He starts crying and shouting, then must tell an orbiting Voyager that the captain's dead. A shuttle is on the way with medical help, and Janeway tells an unhearing Chakotay she's not dead.
On board the ship, the Doctor and Kes try to revive Janeway, and even use the cortical stimulator, which I have never once seen save anyone's life. Frankly, it's the kiss of death, as far as I can tell...but I digress. Janeway dies again.
The spirit Janeway, watching the whole thing unseen, refuses to believe she's dead and tries to contact Kes telepathically. This appears to be somewhat successful, and Janeway is pleased when everyone stops moping about and tries to reach their captain...wherever she's gone.
And then Janeway's dead father appears, looking very interestingly like Paris' father, fat and very official in his Starfleet uniform. He tries to explain to her that she's really dead, and that he's here instead of her animal spirit guide to help ease her transition into the next realm [Cue music!]. Janeway resists the whole notion, asks him questions about her childhood. (We learn more about her sister and that her father died when she was a child.) Meanwhile, everyone works hard to find Janeway for three days, then gives up. Janeway can't accept it.
The crew holds a memorial service as Janeway watches. Torres talks about how much it's meant to her to be trusted by Janeway, and Kim tries to tell a story about some purple fruit. A photon torpedo tube launches Janeway's body into space and everyone breaks up for the mingling part of the program.
Janeway's dad says it's now time to go, but she explains that she can't leave without knowing what will happen to her crew. She'll hang around, a sort of Katherine the Friendly Ghost, and hopefully be comforting. Getting a little pissed off now, her father insists. She asks why he's pushing so hard, and doesn't think much of his explanations.
Suddenly, Janeway is looking up from the ground at Chakotay, Tuvok, and the Doctor. There's some talk of trying to revive her. Then Janeway is back talking to her father, and she asks what that was all about. A matrix has appeared behind her father, and he tells her she's to walk in there. Janeway realizes she's not really dead yet, that this memorial service scene is a crock, and that Mr. Beer Belly is NOT her father.
In another flash featuring Tuvok, Chakotay and the Doctor, we learn that an alien lifeform is wrapped around Janeway's brain and won't let go.
In full fiery form, Janeway tells the Father-thing that she will never go into his matrix. He responds, "You have a dangerous job, Captain. Someday you'll come into my matrix. And you will nourish me for a long time." Then he walks into his matrix, which has taken on an noticeable red color. Janeway spits at him, "Go back to Hell, coward," and then awakens to her crewmen.
Back on ship, Janeway feels shaken (not stirred -- sorry) by the encounter. Chakotay cheers her up with a flower and the two of them go off to have some fun in the holodeck.
CHARACTERS
Well, obviously Janeway is the centerpiece here, but I've seen some comments on this episode that seem to ignore that. It's true that the memorial service isn't real, but that doesn't mean it isn't important. More than any other criticism of the show, I've heard about Janeway's supposed poor performance as a captain. People who complain that she doesn't punish people hard enough seem, to me, to underestimate the importance of how ALONE they all are. Janeway has none of the administrative, judicial, punitive, or legislative support of Starfleet upon which all the captains rely. She's got to keep the whole crew functioning as a unit no matter what...which is why having a woman captain in this plot scenario is actually helpful. She's basically got to be Mom as much as she's Captain.
Captains can give you orders, but the worst they can do to punish you is to put you on report (which Janeway does), demote you (which Janeway has threatened), have you court-marshaled (which relies on Starfleet), transferred (which relies on Starfleet), or imprisoned (which, unless you are to live forever in the brig, relies on Starfleet). Of course, Kirk could just beat the crap out of you, but we're supposed to be beyond that now.
But a mother, now THAT'S punishment. Mothers give you guilt, mothers make you want to prove yourself, mothers are hell compared to a captain.
And the memorial service, since it's designed for and perhaps even drawn from Janeway's own personal desires, shows this captaining technique at work. Janeway wants to be remembered as the mother who challenged and encouraged Torres and had a Kodak Moment with Kim. Even when she thinks she might be dead, she wants to continue on as the spirit mother, comforting them. She even wants, though this scene may actually have occurred, Chakotay to cry at her death and feel really bad about it, not just be worried that now he has to be the captain. These concerns were addressed nicely in the early episodes. It's great to see them continuing here.
The other character development for Janeway is more standard. She had a loving but strict father, a sister, and so on. But I did very much like, as I mentioned, that her father looks and acts so very much like Paris' father. Now, we've known since "Caretaker" that Janeway served under Paris father as science officer, so she must realize how much alike their fathers were. Doesn't this help explain why Janeway has been so understanding of Paris' mistakes and tried so hard to help him? Perhaps she herself knows all too well what a demanding dad can be like to live with. Perhaps she provides for Paris either the mothering she didn't get, or maybe the sort of mothering her sister gave her which was so helpful.
I also thought the role of the Father-thing was done well. He was guiding and comforting at first, then shifted smoothly into menacing, and finally quite demonic. And he was given motivation that made sense and didn't take a lot of technobabble to explain. We've already encountered aliens who live off neural energy. I've seen some complaining that we don't know exactly what kind of alien he is, but I don't mind not knowing yet. It's a wonderfully creepy thought that he might actually pursue Janeway, hanging around until the next time she gets close to death and then swooping in.
THOUGHT
Nothing too deep or spiritual here. The Father-thing is basically a bogeyman. Who cares? It was fun.
SPECTACLE
The matrix wasn't much, and frankly I thought the red color at the end was a bit silly. I could argue that since the whole thing was an hallucination from Janeway's mind, her perception of the matrix as hellish added the color...but I think it was mostly just a case of heavy-handedness.
Has anyone else noticed that this show is great with split-screen effects?
DICTION
My favorite line is definitely "Go back to Hell, coward." Also good:
"If I miss, I get to be captain." -- Chakotay to Janeway.
"I was getting tired of talking about talent night." -- ditto.
And the whole "nourish me" thing gives me the major creeps.
SONG
Fine score. I wish the music for the matrix had been a bit more memorable.
And now the section which recognizes Star Trek baggage...
STAR TREK ELEMENTS WE (OR I, ANYWAY) LOVE
Roddenbery's idea of infinite variety plays well here. The main appeal of the Delta Quad is the new opportunities for exotic lifeforms, though, unlike others, I like the idea that they should remind us of things we've seen in the Alpha Quad. Here neural-energy eaters don't have to dress up in old earth costumes and walk around San Francisco, forcing us to meet a horrible Mark Twain impersonator. He just waits until someone's making the cross-over and helps them hallucinate the rest. Quite a cost-cutter!
Of course, I also like the continuance of humanoids in the Delta Quad and the subsequent ignoring of "The Chase" -- not a favorite of mine!
STAR TREK ELEMENTS WE (OR I, ANYWAY) HATE
Could they really afford to lose that photon torpedo case?
It's too bad Voyager didn't manage to get any of those quantum torpedoes before they left earth. They seem to work much better.
Get somebody who can actually blow that whistle next time.
Okay, that wraps it up.
Star Trek Voyager Reviews
Or go ahead to ST Voyager Reviews -- Blood Fever
Or go back to ST Voyager Reviews -- Alter Ego