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• From Marissa on 2012-08-02 at 1:45am:
  I absolutely love the final scene of this episode, where we only see Odo's reflection in the mirror. It kind of makes the whole thing feel surreal. Odo's offer of friendship there is a beautiful moment for both of my two favorite characters of DS9, and the choice of camera angle was just perfect. Too bad I can't seem to find the proper words to describe exactly why I love this scene.
• From Dubhan on 2014-07-16 at 5:41am:
  This episode is pretty jam-packed. It's got action, subterfuge, sabotage, willful disobeyance of orders, a substantial space battle (!), and - the best part - great dramatic scenes between Garak and Odo to hit you in the feels. This is some of the best Trek has to offer.
• From Mike D. on 2017-01-25 at 6:50am:
  I've heard season 4 is when this series really takes off, and I hope this awesome two-parter is a taste of what's to come. Garak's wide-eyed stare is so effective, he really is a great character. I loved the special effects in this episode, both the peeling Odo and the big ship battle.

The following are comments submitted by my readers.

• From Praelat on 2009-05-13 at 5:07pm:
  "Why was Worf wearing an old-style TNG uniform?"
  Easy: When he arrived at the station, he was on a temporary assignment and therefore not part of the regular DS9 crew. When he joins the crew for good in the end, he switches to a regular DS9 uniform. That's it :)
  I loved the episode. I'm from Germany, and I watched this episode for the first time on video in England, when it was still a year away in Germany. I was so surprised with the "restart" of the series, bit I positively loved it and still do.
• From Wes on 2011-01-18 at 4:27pm:
  Every time there is someone on the station wearing a TNG-style uniform, you think it's some sin and put it in your "Problems" section. IT'S NOT A PROBLEM. It's consistency. Since "Emissary" it has been that way on DS9. If anyone comes to the station from a starship or starfleet command, they wear the TNG uniforms until next season. I wasn't ever a very big fan of it, but it is consistent throughout the series.
  This episode reminds me somewhat of TOS federation-klingon hostilities.
• From Bronn on 2011-11-07 at 3:34am:
  You're just caught up on the inconsistency in the fact that "Generations" had crew members occasionally in DS9 style uniforms, but that was solely because they were afraid the actual TNG uniforms weren't going to translate to the big screen, with visible zippers. But it wasn't an official style change. If you watch the film again, you'll see that the cast changes back and forth throughout the entire film between DS9 style uniforms and TNG style. Patrick Stewart is probably the only one who didn't change his uniform style at all, and that's just because he had a specially designed captain's uniform starting around the 4th season of TNG.
  
  Here's how it worked: Crew members on space stations had space-station style uniforms like DS9. Starfleet personnel serving on spaceships had TNG style uniforms. You see that any time someone visits the station from a ship up until the change-over to the "First Contact" style uniforms. It was a consistent rule, not something to be confused about.
• From DK on 2013-09-23 at 2:55am:
  More Star Trek stories should have been built around this model. Long story arcs, plenty of combat drama and lots of fight scenes make for very enjoyable episodes. I didn't even mind it so much when they had Kira beating up Kingons but really, I don't care how hard my sister hits me, I' m not going to fall to the deck. So that was either the biggest pussy in the history of the Kingon empire or.... Well, I guess that's it, the Kingpns she beat up were the biggest pussies of all time. The powers that be should really leave the hand to hand combat to the men.
• From Kenneth on 2014-04-13 at 3:43am:
  First impressions of episode and overall change in tone for the season is set right away from the new graphic and speeding up of the theme song. Some one in the graphics department decided to add some life to the images of the station. Sisko bald is bad ass. Jadzia and Kira showing some skin. Ds9 season four off to a good start
• From jbense on 2017-12-28 at 8:04pm:
  The new theme music for season four sure is different, but I disagree with your opinion that it is better.
  
  The original theme had an elegant austerity to it--horns building upon each other in counterpoint with a soft orchestral backing. It was beautiful, the best of all of Trek's theme songs IMO.
  
  The season four version is faster. The strings are shrill and detract from the intricate horn counterpoint, particularly by overpowering and obscuring some of the pleasing harmonies at the end of the tune. The new graphics, which I admitedly do not care for, unfortunately also come with irritating sound effects which further tarnish the music. Altogether, these changes subtract substantially from the bare appeal of the original theme.
  
  Of course this is all up for debate based on personal preference, but as a musician I was disappointed when the original theme was replaced.

The following are comments submitted by my readers.

• From Orion Pimpdaddy on 2009-07-06 at 8:23pm:
  The scenes that have Worf talking about leaving Starfleet just don't work. The audience is not fooled for a minute, especially since his name is in the opening credits. I still like the episode though.
• From MJ on 2011-01-11 at 10:22pm:
  Watching DS9 up to this point, I was thoroughly unimpressed by the Federation's response to the Dominion. Don't get me wrong, I love the show. It was really coming into it's own, introducing new story arcs, adding further depth to its circle of characters, and really proving itself as a series to be on par with TOS and TNG, with the potential to outshine them. But within the story itself, the Federation has seemed impotent, while every other power in the region is realistic about the Dominion and doing what they can to stop them.
  
  Consider the Romulans. They have attempted to collapse the wormhole, and then launch a pre-emptive strike on the Dominion. The first plan was stopped by the Federation, and the second plan went forward with no Federation support. Now the Klingons plunge themselves into the fight, and again the Federation hesitates.
  
  The only justification I could come up with for the Federation's behavior is that its fight with the Borg has altered its strategy. Wolf 359 taught the Federation to be wary of massive confrontations, and the fact is, the Federation faced the Borg threat with very little help from the Klingons and none from the Romulans or Cardassians. Maybe in the eyes of the Federation, it's time the others stepped up to face the Dominion threat. That is understandable.
  
  Another thing I don't understand, is where are all the other Alpha and Beta Quadrant powers right now? The Sheliak, the Gorn, the Tholians...surely there is some involvement? This seems to have been the time for Star Trek to summon its prior alien encounters, since the Dominion is clearly something everybody should be concerned about!
  
  That being said, I love the angles DS9 is exploring; it is something unique that neither TOS or TNG have dealt with yet.
• From AW on 2015-12-15 at 7:26pm:
  The subspace realm Jake gets sucked into on his second to last try looked a lot like the place where Sisko met the creators of the wormhole in the Pilot.
• From tigertooth on 2016-10-18 at 4:03am:
  This certainly isn't unique to this episode, but as an example: right before the final attack on DS9, Gowron says something in Klingon. Worf then translates to "today is a good day to die".
  
  But why didn't the universal translator already translate it? I mean, Gowron wasn't speaking English that whole time, right? He was speaking Klingon.
  
  Anyway, great two-parter.

The following are comments submitted by my readers.

• From Bronn on 2013-07-10 at 10:23pm:
  I can understand that Worf's black and white morality makes it difficult for him to know what to do with Quark. But any time there's a plot based upon a misunderstanding because of a lack of communication, it's a hackneyed plot. Odo says that he's not in the habit of talking about his long term undercover work-that's fine, but since Worf is ALREADY snooping around in the investigation, it's probably better to limit the damage. He mentioned that Worf's surveillance was useful in keeping up appearances...but if that was the case, he could have just told Worf the plan and asked him to cooperate, and it would have worked out fine.
  
  There's also a whole contingent of Starfleet security on the station at this point that nobody seems to have remembered. That doesn't really bother me, it's the culmination of events surrounding Worf. It's stupid that Odo's investigation fails not because Worf won't leave it alone, but because Odo refused to tell Worf what he was doing despite having plenty of golden opportunities to do so. And somehow Worf comes out looking like the idiot here.
  
  The A-plot for this episode, however, is awesome. There's conflict between Bashir and O'Brien, the tension of a young idealistic officer and a veteran non-commissioned officer. It's a complicated issue, and O'Brien raises a few valid concerns: What if freeing the Jem'Hadar dependency turns them into renegades? What if the Founders decide this interference is an act of war by the Federation? It's really a huge decision for a Lieutenant to take full responsibility for, even if his motives are completely pure. If only they'd sacrificed the stupid B-plot, they could have focused even more on this part of the episode.
• From peterwolf on 2013-11-23 at 10:26pm:
  Regarding the problems with "Goran'Agar doesn't eat, doesn't drink, ...": Goran'Agar explains to Bashir that he came back to the planet in order to cure his men like himself from the Ketracel White addiction. He thought the environment contained some healing factor. Roughly around minute 15 in the episode he clearly states "we breath the same air, eat the same food". Thus, the Jem Hadar do eat, although it is not mentioned whether Goran'Agar might have started eating after he stopped taking the drug. But then his body seems to produce always small amounts of the drug, as Bashir finds out. Also, it would be very unlikely to get all the energy the Jem'Hadar need from small doses of a drug.
• From Martin on 2016-03-10 at 10:30am:
  I understand Odo could've told Wolf about his long term plan, that could've saved them all the trouble. Still, there is a chain of command and Odo's the chief of security in that station. Worf was out of line to interfere with the investigation without explicitly telling Odo. Lesson lerned, we hope.
  About the other part of this episode, being this episode about black and white moral standars, i honestly think O'brian's a stupid man. After all those years looking up to Picard and another few years learing to change his beliefs about cardassians and other ethics related issues, he shoud NOT have decided to see the matter in a black and white manner. Bashir could see beyond his own experiences with the Jem'Hadar and that the matter was a big plain grey. They were dealing with a group of people trying to break free from slavery, trying to be free. Isn't that a top priority for the federation? To help people in such meaningful manners? What about TNG "I, Hugh"? They understood that Hugh was becoming an individual with his own rights to be, and chose to help him instead of taking the oportunity to cripple the Borg right there, taking his life. O'brian was right there, wasn't he? Shouldn't he have learnt the lesson? Damn him! Damn him i say!
• From Mike on 2016-10-31 at 9:49pm:
  Yes, this was definitely an episode that deserved a sequel of some sort where we find out something more about Goran'Agar's fate. The premise of the episode was too interesting to simply leave alone. Other episodes dealt with the Ketracel White addiction, but not in an interesting way like this one.
  
  Re: Martin, O'Brien makes it clear that the reason he opposes what Bashir is doing is because there's no way to predict what the Jem'Hadar will do once free of the White. Bashir is doing what we'd expect a Federation doctor to do, but O'Brien makes a good counter-point; they could indeed turn into a destructive, uncontrollable force that kills at will. Using the Hugh example, the next time we saw Hugh in TNG: Descent, he explained the confusion and chaos that resulted when those Borg were free of the collective.
  
  That's what makes all these episodes great, IMO. The Federation values of freeing sentient beings from things like the Borg collective or the Dominion are portrayed as the right path, but not an easy one and with plenty of opposing views and unforeseen consequences.

The following are comments submitted by my readers.

• From RichD on 2006-06-08 at 1:32am:
  Armin Shimerman is one of the most underappreciated actors in all of Star Trek. He was the first actor on DS9 to develop his character. By the middle of the 1st season, quark was fully realized. He is one of my favorite characters. He makes poignant observations when you least expect it that really do strike a chord. I loved his comment and reaction when he was told that humans would smoke tobacco for recreaton...."you mean they poison their bodies on purpose?" Then, he has to ruin it by being Quark, "if they buy poison, they'll buy anything." This episode was hilarious from beginning to end. I also like the univeral translator malfunction. Little subtle things like that make this episode a charmer. One last thing. By making Nog appreciate humans more than ever, it gives him an added incentive to become a starfleet officer. Nice touch.
• From JRPoole on 2009-03-23 at 4:16pm:
  Does this episode estabish that the univeral translator is a device worn in the ear? I can't remember it ever being referred to this way, but it makes sense. It's still problematic, though: How would it broadcast in different languages?
  
  I know, I know...I need to just accept the UT as a plot device and let it be. But I do like episodes that at least acknowledge its existence, even if they do confuse the issue even more.
  
  This is a real winner all the way through. DS9 does humor episodes better than any other Trek series, probably because the Ferengi--usually the center of humor episodes--are all acted so well on DS9.
• From MJ on 2011-01-14 at 5:26pm:
  I agree with the webmaster's review, and with RichD. This episode is pure genius: writing, acting, everything.
  
  The setting was remarkably well done, with the classic dual human response to visiting aliens: the suspicious general who sees them as a military threat, and the "egghead" professor who sees them as peaceful and wants to communicate. The detail of the people's uniforms, the lighting...all of it set the perfect mood for 1940's Earth.
  
  The interactions were, of course, hilarious and fitting. Armin Shimmerman's performance in this episode was superb. He's always great as Quark, but this was award worthy. But Rom, Nog, and the guest cast of Americans all did outstanding, too. They all made this work brilliantly and played their characters perfectly.
  
  I was a little curious as to what would be the fate of the professor and the nurse since they helped the aliens escape quite possibly ruining their happy future, but it's possible this was overlooked in the overall secrecy of the Roswell incident. Speaking of that, I couldn't help but think Star Trek seems to be paying homage here: the Roswell incident is one of the things that contributed to the popularity of science fiction and human imagination about aliens.
  
  The beginning, too, was great. Nog's selling of his childhood possessions, especially the Ferengi tooth sharpener to Worf, added to the overall comedy of the episode. In fact, we get quite a nice dose of Ferengi culture here including the Ferengi language which was interesting to hear. I really cracked up when Quark was asking Nurse Garland for oomox.
  
  Outstanding stuff!
• From Jons on 2014-02-02 at 9:17pm:
  I really enjoyed that episode, but excuse-me, how is it NOT 100% filler??
  
  Nothing that happens here has any incidence on anything in the series. Nog gets to Earth, but you don't need to see that episode to know that...
• From Rob UK on 2023-12-01 at 9:59pm:
  I love this episode but we definitely have a problem, Odo can't shape shift into making good human hair (it is mentioned several times throughout the show run), but here he can make himself into a very convincing hairy German Shepheard style dog

The following are comments submitted by my readers.

• From Sir Brando on 2006-05-15 at 6:03am:
  I agree that this episode is excellent. I really like the fact that they start to change their reputation here. They've made another friend, one of many to come.
• From hobospice on 2007-01-28 at 5:07am:
  This is a good episode, no doubt. But it seems that every episode on this site that gets a 9 or 10 is always a high stakes tactical/action episode. I want star trek, not Tom Clancy books. Having said that, I think this one is pretty cookie cutter and predictable. I mean obviously they are going to stop the bomb and obviously voyager won't be destoyed. The ending was complete uninspired. Frankly I would have been more impressed if Torres just fried the computer using just logic ;)
• From rpeh on 2010-08-19 at 9:33am:
  It's an exciting episode and Belana's battle with the computer is at different points, funny and fascinating.
  
  Two problems. How can Janeway set the self destruct on her own? Every other time it's been done it has needed at least two officers. And why does Belana start running out of breath after about 20 minutes? There's enough oxygen on something that size for one person to breathe for ages even with no regeneration.
  
  I'll give it a 7.
• From GDorn on 2011-09-29 at 8:29pm:
  Why would a missile have a bridge and life support? Why would it leave the life support on, consuming energy, when it didn't expect to have any lifeforms on board?
  
  Also, with the vastness of space, it's quite the coincidence that Voyager happened to come across wreckage of a ship the missile destroyed, decide to follow the trail and come across the missile merely hours before it was to reach its destination.
• From Rick on 2012-12-29 at 10:41pm:
  Fairly average episode that we have seen multiple times before. No offense to our reviewer but I think if this exact same episode was on TOS it would get a 3. You never seem to like irrational computers and this one is certainly that.
• From Kethinov on 2012-12-30 at 11:43am:
  I'm really not sure what you're on about, Rick. I compared this episode favorably to TOS: The Ultimate Computer, which got a similar score.
  
  But there are many "Kirk talks a computer to death" episodes and not all of them are as good as TOS: The Ultimate Computer. The stereotypical TOS episode with a computer as an antagonist that I slap around with a low rating would be something like TOS: The Changeling.
  
  Because seriously, do you think Nomad is anywhere near as cool as Dreadnought? I certainly don't. Aesthetics count for a lot in my ratings. Most of the TOS "Kirk talks a computer to death" episodes are painful to watch because the computer feels like a 1960s stereotype rather than a futuristic antagonist.
  
  Dreadnought holds up well. And so does TOS: The Ultimate Computer.
• From thaibites on 2013-11-06 at 12:05am:
  The biggest problem with episode is Torres. She's a smack-off. She's always running around bitching and complaining and angry about something. Any episode that focuses on her can never be good.
• From Mike on 2017-05-26 at 1:37pm:
  Not quite sure why the one reviewer felt this was more Clancy than Star Trek. This is a missile with a computer that has the power to calculate all kinds of probabilities, analyze them, interact with its users at advanced levels, make attempts at deception to preserve itself and its mission, and even "scout" its adversaries to test their motives. In other words, it's practically a sentient missile. Seems to fall well within the realm of cool Star Trek sci-fi to me.
  
  The suspense was well developed in this one. Just when you think Torres has found a way to disable the missile, it surprises her, outsmarts or anticipates her actions, and denies her victory. Even her attempts to reason with it ultimately backfire until finally, she finds its weakness through sheer determination. We knew that she would probably disable it in the end, but we didn't really know how or whether the missile would remain a future threat.
  
  I do agree with the original review that the Jonas scene is pointless and annoying. It seems to serve no other purpose than to tell us, "hey just in case you forgot, this guy is still secretly talking to the Kazon!" And maybe to establish that Seska's no longer the provided contact, although, again, there was really no logical reason given for them to contact Seska other than her being Cardassian and this is a Cardassian weapon....but, one that's been reappropriated by the Maquis.
  
  As far as needing two officers to set up self-destruct, there's one key difference between Voyager and the Enterprises/other ships: Janeway's first officer is a former Maquis. She no doubt trusts him with many things to give him that position, but maybe the self-destruct sequence was one area she wanted to keep firmly under Starfleet control. Tuvok would be a good second choice, but maybe there are rank/command requirements in order to set that up.

No fan commentary yet.

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• From Sean on 2010-07-07 at 7:11am:
  "If the Dominion come through the wormhole, the first battle will be fought here. And I intend to be ready for them."
  
  That's what Sisko said at the end of season two, and just when I thought we'd finally get the big battle we were promised... they turn and head towards Cardassia. Sigh. Still a terrific episode, though, amoung DS9's best.
• From peterwolf on 2013-12-13 at 11:21pm:
  An episode with many unexpected turns. After Cardassia joined the Dominion one of the best (quite surprising) moments was the Romulans joining a new alliance with Klingons and the Federation against the Dominion. They should have done this earlier. The Bashir-changeling with female voice is rather eerie. His determination to wipe out the solar system of Bajor is nearly too much. At least they would wipe out Odo too, although the founders may not consider him as part of the changelings any more.
  Another strong part was Worf not giving up against the 20th or so Jem Hadar warrior in hand-to-hand combat and made them "yield", because they could not gain victory against him. In parallel, Garak had to overcome his claustrophobia and inner fears to save the prisoners of the federation. The short scene in the runabout when Worf and Garak show some mutual respect is very well done.
• From dronkit on 2014-04-21 at 4:44am:
  The continuity with "Rapture" is notewrthy too. The "flock of locusts" skips Bajor and flies right away to Cardassia because Bajor is not Federation, thanks to Sisko's visions.
• From Dubhan on 2014-10-01 at 4:44am:
  This is also a fantastic Garak episode. We get another little glimpse at his background and he saves the day for those imprisoned by the Jem'Hadar.
  
  Is there any question that Andy Robinson is the best actor in DS9? Not in my mind.
• From tigertooth on 2016-12-03 at 5:08am:
  When Dukat announced to Kira that the Cardassians joined the Dominion, Kira's response was to say to Dax "Lock phasers and fire". This was when the huge Dominion fleet was starting to move away. When a huge hostile force is leaving, you don't shoot at them!
  
  I want to believe that Dax was lying when she said Dukat was out of range; she was just stopping Kira from going through with something that could have needlessly cost hundreds of lives.

The following are comments submitted by my readers.

• From Pete Miller on 2006-09-22 at 9:37pm:
  Why was Janeaway so eager to hear about the Krenim from future Kes? Uhhhhh...Prime Directive anyone?
• From Dejan on 2007-12-17 at 12:53pm:
  At Pete.
  This has nothing to do with prime directive. Maybe Temporal prime directive.
• From zooky on 2012-12-21 at 4:00am:
  Kes as a new-born baby has human ears. Not terribly plausible that the Ocampa develop their distinctive physiology later in life.
• From thaibites on 2014-04-13 at 7:18am:
  The only good thing about this episode is that Torres dies. It was awesome! I laughed, I cried, I ate salami. Then, after I thought I had found paradise, it was ripped away from me. Torres died in an alternate time-line. Now I know how Harry feels...
• From Jon C on 2017-08-04 at 3:55am:
  This all seems to be about Kes's hair in the end. A contrived way to get her to have long hair. If not then why didn't the episode reset at a time when she had short hair? And we're also left with the feeling we've missed out on a chunk of Voyager life with the jump from short to long hair. The long hair makes her look like a librarian instead of an alien. No wonder she fell out of favour.

The following are comments submitted by my readers.

• From Jeff Browning on 2011-11-27 at 10:33pm:
  Logic problem: in the opening sequence, the admiral tells Sisko that he is going to be at the star base for a long time - hence the need for an office.
  
  Immediately after the intro, the admiral announces that the Defiant crew is going to be taking the captured Jem Hadar fighter behind enemy lines. Soooo, apparently Sisko is not going to be at star base for a long time after all?
  
  In the context of the rest of the episode, the Admiral's comment makes no sense at all.
• From L on 2013-08-03 at 8:56am:
  This episode does a great job of setting up psychological and motivational tensions between Dukat and Weyoun, and also just the general stress the old DS9 crew are under.
  The scene with Odo reluctantly trading in his star power for favours with Weyoun was brilliant.
  As was that between Dukat and Kira. If she could only spit acid. I cringed at him touching her.
  As we've invested so much in the situation, everything was compelling in this episode.

The following are comments submitted by my readers.

• From Krs321 on 2011-08-24 at 12:38pm:
  This episode offered a ton of potential but squandered it on poor writing. The idea of a bunch of intelligence savants is intriguing but used kind of foolishly. They only had 1 hour to build an arc so I can't complain too much but the conflict/resolution could've been so much better.
  
  Never has an existing inside joke had a better chance at being used in an episode centered around Julian (and his relationship with O'Brien): the Battle of Britain.
  
  Instead of having Julian get punched and released by Deus Ex Sarina (b/c of Love? lame):
  - Julian wakes up and is found by Miles.
  - Miles says he was going to find Julian to go "play" (derisive joke from earlier) the Battle of Britain in the holosuite
  - Julian has an ah-ha moment
  - Cut to Julian intercepting the augments and dropping some logic on Jack about how all their statistical methods predicted certain defeat for England in the face of a German invasion in 1940. That way we can at least give some kind of credence to the fighting spirit of humanity/the Federation rather than Julian just proving the already obvious fact that probability estimates are just estimates. Zzzzz
  
  I wanted to like this episode and I'm glad they stayed away from the "Julian starts to over identify with the augments and everyone gets mad at him" trope, but they left a lot on the table.
• From John on 2011-09-24 at 6:30pm:
  I have to say I really enjoy this episode, though I do think the writing is a bit ridiculous.
  
  I like the way Jack is depicted as a sort of Mad Hatter, while Lauren is a genius nymphomaniac. Patrick is more along the lines of a classic, introverted autistic personality. We don't learn a lot about Sarina in this episode, but I'm glad they included her, because the later episodes will feature her more prominently.
  
  It's also interesting to note how the group of them become a sort of "Bletchley Park" for the Federation in the Dominion War. In case you don't know, in WW2, Bletchley Park was where the Allies had their code-breaking operation: a lot of mathematicians worked there, trying to crack the German Enigma codes -- by all accounts these analysts were brilliant, but quite quirky. Kind of neat to see the Federation with such an operation of their own.
  
  It does lose a point from me though, only because the savants (especially Jack) are written so over-the-top.
• From Zorak on 2016-06-22 at 6:31am:
  I didn't read Asimov's Foundation series until I was in my 20's, well after DS9 ended. When I did read it I could tell I'd seen it's theme referenced (or simply mirrored) by something I'd previously seen or read. It seems to have been this episode. Asimov's idea of predicting the future through probability and statistical data is very interesting, but it's a bad fit for Star Trek. Aside from that annoyance (which was made more annoying by how seriously it was taken, and then completely dismissed), this was a fun episode. I enjoy the group of misfit "mutants".
• From Armsauce on 2017-06-11 at 1:01am:
  When Sisko dismisses Bashir's surrender proposal, he should have brought up the prophet's actions in Sacrifice of Angels. There's no way the mutants could predict something like that, and it showed that there's no real way to know how the war will turn out.
  
  It really seems like something Bashir would have realized himself but it seems like everyone would rather forget about it.
  
  
• From Tooms on 2021-04-08 at 7:13am:
  A decent idea sunk by awful writing and even worse acting. Siddig wasn’t able to carry the episode and the mutant crew is just plain bad. The knockoff Twelve Monkeys Brad Pitt act is painful to watch. One of my least favorite DS9 episodes & I’m honestly puzzled that people liked it.

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• From Scott on 2008-11-10 at 8:56pm:
  In my eyes this episode was a massive let down. Starts of well, get to see the hirogen, puts the doctor on another ship, see some romulans and the new starfleet ship that travels at warp 9.9. Thats where the good ends, and it becomes a joke. For one, why are the romulans acting like kason, there interregation of the doctor was laughable, says everythin bout the Tal Shiar. Comparing the vulcan cousins in this episode to Senator Vreenak in DS9 makes them seem shallow and stupid. Why did they kill everybody and yet leave some bodies in sickbay, one of them who was resuscitated only to die seconds later. good one doc. Lastly i hope to god these are rebel romulans, if not then why on earth do they have the ship instead of been camped in by the dominion or helping the feds in the dominion war. looks like this ship was too important for both factions than the alpha quadrent itself. And why do the fed ships go in all guns blazing against 3 warbirds and the most technologically advanced ship in their own fleet, just doesnt seem starfleet to me. Still none of the attack makes sense anyway. Imagine sisko when he finds out about this ship and that TWO defiant style ships went off to rescue it from romulans. He must be wondering why this information of new ship technology was not forthcoming when he's basically head of the station forefronting the war. Shockin continuity here in this episode, and you almost forget why the doctor was on the ship in the first place when they're gettin attacked. But its ok, this is just brushed aside in the last 3 minutes. You would be forgiven for thinking that the doctor went to an alternate universe alpha quadrant. In 7 seasons id say this was the biggest let down of all voyager episodes. Id even go as far as sayin its a disgrace but im obviously in a minority there. I just cant get over the lack of clever romulans, it just fails the episode in my opinion
• From Michael on 2011-10-23 at 9:44pm:
  I don't get how the computer can program an artificially sentient Leonardo da Vinci, Moriarty, etc. on it's own, but creating a doctor holodeck character requires years of programming by top holodeck engineers.
• From Rick on 2013-01-04 at 9:16pm:
  Problem: New EMH guy says that he is transferring all life support power to something else because they obviously dont need it. Good point, except for the fact that there were 27 unconscious Romulans that he killed by doing so.
• From Jadzia Guinan Smith on 2015-06-11 at 1:53pm:
  I wondered about that life support, too. Would they let the tranquilized Romulans die? Didn't they just recently treat wounded Romulans because, as doctors, they value the life and well-being of all species?
  
  Also, the 2 Federation officers who boarded the ship near the end weren't wearing environment suits... how did they survive/function on a vessel without life support? They didn't seem to be gasping or suffering in any way.
  
  I thought this episode had a lot of technical problems. But it was spirited, funny, hugely entertaining... as Doctor-centered episodes usually are! easily a 7 or 8.
  
• From Phil on 2015-09-01 at 1:48pm:
  Re: life support, I've always seen it as responsible for replenishing oxygen and keeping the ship warm enough for life. With only 27 unconscious humanoids onboard, it would take days to exhaust the oxygen in the ship's atmosphere, and the heat dissipation characteristics of these starships are never really explained in any detail.
  
  I laughed out loud at the replacement holographic doctor scenes because I've seen those same conversations happen between programmers and less savvy managers with unrealistic expectations. For once the technology in Star Trek isn't just "push a button and then it's all just magic", which I greatly appreciated.
• From Xall on 2017-05-10 at 5:56pm:
  My main issue with this whole episode is the whole Alpha/Beta quadrant debacle.
  
  At first, Seven says the ship's in the Alpha Quadrant; cue to visual representation which clearly shows in the Beta Quadrant. Thereafter, she says it's at the outer edges of the Alpha Quadrant.
  
  Even so, when The Doctor beams over to the Prometheus, the computer (!) acknowledges their presence as in the Alpha Quadrant. The show's writers really were a letdown as fas as this was concerned.
• From Mike on 2017-07-09 at 7:22pm:
  The Romulans definitely sent their goof troop to take over the Prometheus. They were a bit too bozo-like in this one, reminding me of the Ferengi in TNG. Maybe not quite that bad...but still.
  
  In response to Scott, I believe this one aired before DS9: In The Pale Moonlight, so the Romulans weren't yet in the Dominion War. If I remember, Andy Dick's character even mentions something about this,. But, since this episode begins with the Romulans taking over a ship and ends with multiple starships in a full-on battle, it does seem like a tricky thing to smooth over even when they become partners against the Dominion later on.
  
  I'm not a fan of Andy Dick and didn't think I'd like this one. But the Mark II worked well with the Doctor to create a good balance of humor and suspense. It was a nice episode for both the Doctor and Seven in their journeys to become more human, as the Doctor gets to see how far he's come in relation to a "normal" hologram, and Seven learns about how her abrasive communication pisses off her crew mates :)
  
  I was also curious about the wider Romulan motives here and also about the relay station. Who put it there? We (spoiler alert) learn later that the Hirogen merely use part of it, but it is clearly much older. Since it covers nearly half the galaxy, it opens up all kinds of possibilities about being the communications network for an ancient civilization that we never learn more about. Oh well. Still a good episode.

The following are comments submitted by my readers.

• From GDorn on 2011-10-16 at 11:53pm:
  This episode has the classic shrinking problem shared with Honey I Shrunk The Kids and Inner Space. If you simply remove some of the empty space between atoms to decrease volume, the mass will remain the same and the density will increase. So even though the runabout is six inches long, it weighs the same as a normal sized runabout. O'Brien and Bashir walking around in the circuitry would have destroyed it, ramming the control panel would have destroyed it, and there would have been no need to fire torpedos at the Jem'Hadar - ramming them alone would have been more than sufficient.
  
  This leads to all kinds of physics abuses, like building a excessively large ship, shrinking it to normal size, and noticing that the ablative armor is almost completely immune to conventional weaponry due to sheer density...
• From Mike on 2016-10-28 at 6:21pm:
  Even with the point about increased density, I think Dax would've found firing a torpedo at the Jem'Hadar far less risky than ramming into him. It seems like having the Rubicon ram its way out of the plasma vent when they first entered the engine room was tricky enough.
  
  I also don't know that O'Brien and Bashir simply walking around the circuit would've destroyed it, but the mass/volume/density relationship would've probably allowed them to much more easily lift everything. That's hard to show on TV, however. I agree with the original review that getting the air molecule thing right is pretty impressive.
  
  Anyway, I enjoyed this one. It had some good action and an interesting story. I also prefer the episodes of DS9 where the Jem'Hadar are shown to be more than mindless hordes of soldiers.

The following are comments submitted by my readers.

• From EKH on 2007-12-05 at 7:32am:
  So why did they rematerialize Omega?
• From Thomas on 2009-10-08 at 10:35pm:
  Wasn't that a bit unfair to the species which is doomed after their meeting with Voyager?
• From packman_jon on 2012-07-06 at 4:32am:
  Not the most entertaining, but this episode brings up a few thoughts, like the practical application of the Prime Directive. I don't get why the episode is getting a lot of low ratings - it's a fairly decent one
• From TheAnt on 2013-09-25 at 11:14pm:
  If you who read this have a 101 on science, or do wish that a story should be made believable as the actors at least appear to talk about actual science.
  Then ... stay clear of this episode and pretend it never happened.
  
  To hear the recurring term 'molecule' is annoying, since what it is referred to either have to be one elementary particle - or a super heavy element.
  
  Sp sadly it is one of the episodes where using the wrong term make me bite my nails up to my elbows.
  A 'molecule' is a compound of two or several elements. As such it could provide chemical energy - which falls far short of nuclear energy.
  
  This is completely inconsistent with the claims
  
  of the Borg who are said to have studied one Omega for a trillionth of a nanosecond. The short lifetime suggest Omega is either a super heavy element or one rare elementary particle.
  
  Then the storytelling make an even deeper plunge into pure nonsense when we get to learn that Omega were a primary source of energy for the Big bang. Matter in any form, elementary particles, super heavy element even less molecules cannot exist before the Big bang, so how the heck could Omega have been powering it?
  
  Sadly it's just one example where the scriptwriters failed to come up with a believable story, and just a short reading on some wild speculations in theoretical physics could have provided some really good alternatives to use.
  Such as 'quagma' which is a quark-gluon plasma which could have such dangerous properties as is described here.
  
  
  
• From L on 2013-12-29 at 1:54am:
  If it existed for a fraction of a second and then obliterated the research station where it was discovered, how do they know what was responsible, as surely all the data of the experiment would have been destroyed? There would have been absolutely nothing to indicate what was responsible, it may as well have been spontaneous combustion or act of god.
  I suppose this means experimental data records are streamed live to remote servers, and they are capable of recording things that happen in fractions of fractions of a second.
  
  And one trillionth of a nano-second is not 'stabilised' by any stretch of the imagination.
  Unless they want us to believe its 'natural' existence is even less than that.
  Really just an excuse for a cool line that shows how insane this 'molecule' is, nevermind the logic.
  
  Whatever, I guess it's a fun premise for an episode, if implausible.
  
• From L on 2013-12-29 at 2:56am:
  This made me interested in how we detect short-lived particles, so my lack of knowledge about this subject may have led to misguided incredulity on some details.
  
  http://www.phy.duke.edu/~kolena/modern/roesle.html
  
  "Almost all known particles are unstable, from the neutron with an average lifetime of fifteen minutes to the pi meson which lasts less than a tenth of a microsecond. There is strong experimental evidence, however, that there are many more particles that have lifetimes of less than ten to the minus twenty-third seconds. These particles are called resonance particles because of one of the methods used to detect their presence. Their average lifetimes are so short that normal methods, such as bubble chambers, can not be used to detect them.
  
  Particles are usually detected by using some means of making them leave trails in some medium. Particles in bubble chambers leave bubbles in a superheated liquid, particles in cloud chambers leave trails of fog in supercooled gas, and particles in spark chambers leave a trail of sparks behind them between electrically charged plates. However, a particle lasting less than an attosecond will move less than a third of a nanometer, even when traveling at nearly the speed of light. Most resonance particles have lives much shorter than a whole attosecond. That distance is much too small to cause any trail or spark to form in any particle detector.
  
  A resonance particle can be detected in particle decays when the sum of the energies of some of the resulting particles tend towards certain values. When the total energy (meaning kinetic energy as well as rest mass energy) of a group of resulting particles tends to be a certain value, it is said to be because the result of the decay producing those particles actually produced an ultra-short-lived particle, which then broke down into those more long-lived particles. Their total energy adds up to the energy of the intermediate particle, which is constant."
• From Mike on 2017-05-30 at 12:29am:
  The physics and the reference to Omega being a "molecule" are excusable to me. Then again, I'm a doctor, not a physicist. And by doctor, I mean my character in the Star Wars online game was a Jedi healer :)
  
  Anyway, what bugs me most about this is that it focuses too much on Seven's near-worship of the particle and less on the aliens who were working to synthesize it in the first place. We don't know much about them and we're robbed of the chance for any more interaction beyond Seven's sickbay scene with the lead scientist. Their wounded are returned and they quietly exit the stage.
  
  Wouldn't they just try this whole thing all over again? Probably. Was an agreement reached with them that they'd abandon their research? Doubtful, given how things ended. Did they have any further grievance with the Federation for swooping in and destroying what was apparently going to be their sole energy source? Did they forgive Voyager for that or are they at war? Does Janeway ever try to inform Starfleet that there is a species which has successfully synthesized something considered so dangerous by the Federation that destroying it was to trump any starship's deep space mission?
  
  All of these questions are unanswered and it drove me nuts about this episode. But, I guess it's cool that Seven had some kind of spiritual moment of clarity. So while the premise is intriguing, the loose ends are too much for me to call this one of the best.

The following are comments submitted by my readers.

• From TheAnt on 2013-09-18 at 8:13pm:
  This is the episode where DS9 really loose track and derails completely.
  Our favourite Cardassian villain becomes some sort of ersatz 'Dart Dukat' and Sisko feeling a disturbance in 'The force' etc etc.
  I have no idea what the scriptwriters thought they were doing, or had they taken a vacation and left the stage to some juvenile fan of another fiction universe?
  A lot of 'Boom crash bang & fireworks' and very little substance.
  Many fans have been screaming blue murder over this episode, so do I.
• From MJ on 2019-03-11 at 11:21pm:
  ROSS: "Starfleet has chosen you to plan the invasion of Cardassia."
  
  Um, wouldn't an operation like this involve a bunch of admirals with years of experience coordinating fleets of starships, rather than a captain who'd been running a space harbor and serving as a Bajoran liaison? Don't get me wrong, I like the Sisko character, but having him plan something like this is a stretch. It's like if Eisenhower had told Lt Col Rudder that he was responsible for planning the Normandy invasion.
  
  The storyline involving the Chintaka battle was pretty cool. I liked watching the difficulties in getting all three alliance members on board with the same plan. Seems pretty realistic. The orbital weapon platforms were a cool idea. The Dukat storyline was a bit of a bore, but that may be because I agree with Ant that this Pah-Wraith stuff is where Dukat goes off the deep end.

The following are comments submitted by my readers.

• From Azduel on 2010-03-31 at 2:16am:
  This is one of my favourite episodes ever. A 10/10! This episode gives an in depth look at the unwavering devotion of the Vorta to the Founders. The meta exploration into the relationship of the Vorta and the Founders is brilliantly conducted through Weyoun's interaction with Odo, where Weyoun's obvious jubilation of simply being in his presence Odo is depicted. This episode further exceeds my expectations with its unorthodox delivery of insight to one of my favourite antagonist powers, the Dominion, and one of my favourite antagonist characters, Weyoun. To top off this 'magnus opus' of DS9 season 7, 'stubborn old Odo' in the end gives Weyoun what he so desperately wants, his blessing. In the end, Odo's blessing of Weyoun 6 brings meaning to his existence. Bravo!
  ...and the side story is entertaining to boot, offering much needed comic relief to the intrigue and intensity of the Odo Weyoun study.
• From MJ on 2011-03-03 at 6:33pm:
  I enjoyed everything about this episode.
  
  Jeffrey Combs has the role of a Vorta down so well it makes one wonder if he came up with the concept for the race. The smooth speaking delivery, the cautious, diplomatic language, the ability to feign sincerity in both word and expression, and unflinching devotion to the Founders...he does it all flawlessly.
  
  This episode was an interesting twist for the Weyoun character, exploring whether his (or rather, Weyoun 6) doubt of the Founders is partly due to a cloning flaw, or if, despite their cloning, the Vorta are capable of questioning their gods. It also was a nice continuation of the very complex relationship Odo has with his people.
  
  The subplot was a perfect balance to the main plot. Nog's skillful navigation of the "Great River" was hilarious and very...Ferengi-like. I guess there's a little Ferengi in all of us!
• From hugo on 2013-02-28 at 6:46pm:
  i understand it as all communication through the wormhole is cut off for the dominiom, including reinforcements.
  
  Then - how do they know that the Great Link is contaminated?
  
  Otherwise a great ep!
• From spline on 2013-09-10 at 9:45am:
  Hugo, Wayoun likely got the information from the female changeling that is on Cardassia at this time, who knows of the sickness because she is herself sick, and the extent of it due to information revealed later in the season...
• From Axel on 2015-05-17 at 7:49am:
  I enjoyed the Nog/O'Brien subplot immensely. Throughout much of TNG and DS9, the Ferengi obsession with profit has been portrayed in a negative light, and given Star Trek values, this is understandable. But here we have a situation where Ferengi skills prove highly useful, and it adds another dimension to their race. It was really imaginative on the part of the writers to add the "Material Continuum" element, giving the Ferengi some cultural depth. And, it's all done in a light and funny way that makes for an enjoyable storyline.
  
  Alongside this, we get a better glimpse of the Vorta in this episode as well. We find out about their background, about their cloning process, and about their utter reverence for the Founders. Jeffrey Combs, who seems to have been born to play the role of a Vorta, again just nails it in this episode and shows his versatility by acting as both Weyoun clones.
• From tigertooth on 2017-01-20 at 8:08pm:
  This is another episode where I feel like the average rating is rigged. Most of the user ratings are quite high... except for the fact that there's over 100 zero votes.
  
  You might think about dumping those zeros since it seems likely somebody spammed the rating.
• From Kethinov on 2017-01-21 at 7:27pm:
  There is a big update to the site coming in February and I will be doing exactly that among other things.

The following are comments submitted by my readers.

• From MJ on 2011-02-13 at 12:30pm:
  DS9 was ahead of its time, really. The '90's were a time of peace, so the topics the series grappled with-the horrors and stresses of war, injuries in combat, and losing comrades-were incomprehensible to most Western viewers. Since 9/11 and the Iraq War, these issues have been thrust into public discourse, at least more so than they were in the recent past. This makes it very interesting to go back and watch DS9 episodes like the Siege of AAR-558.
  
  The episode gets a lot of things right, and is surprisingly realistic given the time period in which it was produced. I agree that Nog's loss of a leg is not the same in the future as it would be today, although I do think the injury is at least more relevant to the viewer this way. The real beauty of this episode is the changing Nog. Nog has always been pretty gung-ho about joining Starfleet, but this will shake him to the core. Nog is actually one of my favorite characters for the same reasons Worf was in TNG: the first of his kind to join Starfleet, somewhat scorned by his people for doing so, and the issues he faces along the way.
  
  On another note, I really enjoyed the lighting of this episode. I notice things like this because of my profession, and providing lighting in an environment that is supposed to look dark can be challenging, but I really thought they did a great job with this set.

The following are comments submitted by my readers.

• From Mitch on 2013-07-30 at 8:52am:
  "But as far as I know, synthehol isn't supposed to get you drunk!"
  
  I think the explanation lies in the TNG episode "Relics". Data tells Scotty that the intoxicating effects of synthehol can be easily dismissed, which would indicate you can indeed be intoxicated by it.
• From Rick on 2013-10-24 at 5:41pm:
  In regards to your full impulse problem: isnt full impulse describing how much force the engines are creating? Yes, that results in near light speeds in space but full impulse in an atmosphere would be much slower. With a shallow enough angle of impact its possible voyager would survive.
• From SilverDragonRed on 2014-02-03 at 3:29pm:
  This episode was an excellent character piece for Harry Kim and Chakotay (mostly Harry). It was nice to see the writers do something with the character since 'The Killing Game'.
  
  My only problem with this episode, once again, has to do with the quantum slipstream. It was bad enough that the writers just casually threw that into 'Hope and Fear' without thinking of the ramifications of it; but now, they made it even more ridiculous by making a modified version that is 111x faster than the original alien design. Once again, no thoughts to the repercussions of this insane speed; just treat the revoluntionary device as if it was just another casual machine.
  
  They say in the episode that the ship would only be able to maintain the slipstream for ten seconds. In actuality, Voyager held it for three minutes before the future abort code forced them out. According to Janeway's log after this, the test flight covered 10,000 light years.
  
  So, this MODIFIED slipstream drive has a speed of 1,752,000,000 c that can traverse the entire Milky Way galaxy in only half an hour. If there is a new series set in the old continuity, they need to address the impact this thing will have on the Federation and its neighbors.
• From Dstyle on 2015-06-22 at 3:17pm:
  I find it incredibly hard to believe that they popped the champagne before anyone did any holosimulations of the new quantum slipstream drive. That just seems like it would be a no-brainer standard procedure for something like this.
  
  Also, why couldn't they contact Seven the day before they used the slipstream with a simply decoded message that said, "Hey, don't do this, you're all going to die?" Although I guess doing it this way shaved 10 years off their journey.
• From Andy on 2015-07-26 at 10:31pm:
  "Full impulse is pretty close to the speed of light. There wouldn't have been a ship left to excavate if they hit the ice that fast. Just an impact crater."
  
  At full impulse, there wouldn't be a planet anymore.
• From Rick on 2016-04-18 at 4:55am:
  In response to your third problem about consecutive slipstream jumps......It took me awhile to think of this but I think that Harry had to give them precise phase corrections that would "safely" throw Voyager out of the slipstream. If they tried this again all of the relevant factors (whatever they are) would be different and Harry wouldnt know what phase corrections would safely throw Voyager out of the slipstream. The only reason he knew the first time is that he had a decade to study the situation.

The following are comments submitted by my readers.

• From Paul on 2010-08-31 at 10:09pm:
  I thought it was a little disappointing that the aliens were exactly like humans, but I guess it's possible that they had ridges on their bum or something instead of their nose /forehead :)
  
  However I thought the son'a aliens were very effective, I liked the creepiness of their stretched skin and the bodyshop procedures they had to endure.
  
  
• From Nick on 2010-09-01 at 1:03am:
  The worst trek film by far. The way it systematically converts the Next Generation cast into comic relief is so disrespectful.
  
  Not to mention how much of a hypocrite Picard's character becomes. Remember, in the series he was forced to relocate another alien species whose planet fell under Cardassian territory. He went along with his orders, begrudgingly, because they all would have just been killed by the Cardassians if he hadn't.
  
  In this case the Baku planet fell under Sona'a territory, and even though Picard thwarted the few ships they had in the Briar Patch at the time, they could have easily sent in a whole fleet afterwards, killed the Baku, and used the planet's rings or whatever to develop a cure for aging. The Sona'aa were allied with the Dominion, just like the Cardassians. It's not like the Federation could just flick them away... they were a very hostile spacefaring race.
  
  (It looks even worse when you consider the planet on the show had a bunch of Indians, and in Insurrection the Baku were a bunch of white people... hmm....)
• From George on 2010-12-25 at 3:51am:
  Not to quibble with what Nick said, but the Baku planet was not in Son'a territory. Admiral Dougherty has a line to the effect of "we had the planet, they had the technology" or something along those lines. It was a Federation planet which they teamed up with the Son'a to exploit. For that reason, there's a distinct difference from the TNG episode Nick referenced. I thought Picard's stand was pretty good on principle, but ultimately I was slightly overwhelmed by the movie as a whole, no disrespect to our erstwhile webmaster. Still a good flick.
• From MJ on 2011-02-25 at 9:26pm:
  What bothers me most about this movie is how easily Picard and his crew come to their decision to take off the uniforms and go against the Federation's plans. The real struggle in this movie belongs entirely to Admiral Dougherty, who is trying to weigh the benefits of this new resource to the Federation against what it will cost the Bak'u. For him, it is a moral struggle. Not so for Picard, who takes the apparent moral high ground with ease and has little, if any, hesitation. This from a man who has agonized over decisions to violate or uphold the Prime Directive on many occasions, not to mention other situations that involved ethical dilemmas. This movie robbed TNG of its greatest strength; that being situations in which there are multiple points of view, each of them valid and justifiable, and yet irreconcilable with each other. Usually, an entire TV episode is devoted to flushing out all these points of view. Here, the position of the Bak'u is quite clearly portrayed as the "correct" one, and the Son'a plan is sinister; Dougherty's struggle between the two is shown to be a sign of weakness and ultimately, he makes the "wrong" choice.
  
  Obviously, the movie provided what a TV episode cannot: stunning visual effects, interesting costume design and make-up, unique and high quality camera shots, and humor and jokes that have a wider appeal. All of this helps the movie tremendously, but does not completely make up for the fact that something went fundamentally wrong in the transition from the TV to the movie screen in TNG.
• From Tallifer on 2011-04-22 at 10:30pm:
  The plastic surgery aliens were the only really good thing about this.
  
  Despite a few good moments, this whole movie is a failure because all of its premises are mistaken:
  
  1. There are only 600 people on a huge planet. Why not just establish several unintrusive colonies? Negotiate with the natives, especially when we learn that they are not ignorant savages, but warp-capable geniuses.
  
  2. Why would the Sona bother with niceties? The Federation is involved in a war for its life. Just insert some covert commandos and wipe out the tiny village. By the time the Federation notices, it will be too late, and the negotiations can begin.
  
  3. The crew of the Enterprise received the benefits of the radiation even while in orbit: just allow tourists to fly through the rings.
  
  
• From EvanT on 2011-06-24 at 11:30pm:
  I absolutely loathe this film. It's like a negative of "Journey's End" and a rehash of the same episode, all in one.
  
  In "Journey's End" we had Federation Citizens not wanting to leave a planet they had lived on for generations that the Federation just gave up in a treaty. Wesley tries to help them and gets shot down by Picard ("as long you wear that uniform, you'll follow orders!") and Wesley resigns.
  
  Here we have a group of 600 non-indigenous(!) people (warp-capable too) trespassing on a Federation planet which holds a precious resource and hogging it (their longevity isn't even natural) Now Picard is adamant that they must be protected, orders be damned. Gee, I wonder why? Could it have something to do with that Baku lady?
  
  Is it me or is he ridiculously out of character? (and most of this happens before he gets affected by the radiation)
  
  As RedLetterMedia put it, I doubt Picard would have an insurrection for that old indian guy :P in "Journey's End". They should call the next film "Star Trek; His Erection" (he's got great reviews of all TNG films).
  
  I agree that the concept and the basic morals the script tries to send across are good and solid for Star Trek, but the execution is dreadful, full of holes and riddled with continuity errors (not to mention logical inconsistencies). I can't give this more than 3/10.
• From Sean on 2011-08-10 at 9:22am:
  For a long time, "Insurrection" was always the weakest TNG film for me. I only saw the film once in theatres, but I found it slow and boring. However, I think the problem for me (and a lot of other people) was that they were expecting First Contact II. The film's marketing campaign really did not help, making it look much more action-packed than it really was (even re-using footage from ST:FC in the trailers!).
  
  So, I re-watched "Insurrection" with an open mind, and I liked it. I've heard it compared to TNG: Journey's End, where Picard makes exactly the opposite decision that he does in "Insurrection", and whine that this is out of character. However, I think what this film subtly does at the beginning is remind the audience that the Federation is not what it once was. The Cardassians, the Borg and especially the Dominion are crippling the once mighty Federation. In fact, when the Evora are accepted into the Federation, the cast mention that the Federation needs all the friends they can get. To me, in TNG: Journey's End, Picard rationalised moving the Native Americans because the needs of the many outweighed the needs of the few. Now, several years later, and with the Federation in the middle of a bloody war, Picard has come to the realisation that if the Federation is to survive, they can't be seen as oppressive and dominating - and above all else, they cannot play God (hmm, does that sound like the Prime Directive?). "Who the hell are we to determine the next course of evolution for these people?", indeed. I actually prefer the outcome of this movie to TNG: Journey's End.
  
  Also, it's nice that all the crew get something to do other than just "yes sir!", and it's obvious they were having a lot of fun while shooting this film. It's not as masterful as "First Contact", but it's still a fine film.
• From Jake on 2012-12-01 at 3:55am:
  wasn't there a reference to Data falling into a lake and having to walk for miles to the shore in one of the episodes? Why didn't he inflate?
• From Rick on 2013-05-13 at 4:32am:
  In response to everyone comparing this to the tng native american relocation episode: they are quite different.
  
  Insurrection is about a planet within the borders of the federation that is being sold out to highest bidder in order to benefit others. The tng episode is about a disputed planet that is eventually determined to be cardassian as a part of treaty to avoid a war. In fact, during the episode I think that Picard even said they knew the planet was disputed when they settled there.
• From Axel on 2018-08-05 at 2:19am:
  I think a lot of fans forget that in order for movies to achieve the financial success the studio wants, they have to appeal to a wider audience. It's not enough for the production to simply create a movie-screen version of a TNG episode; it has to appeal to a much larger, and indeed international, audience. So while it's annoying for fans to see Worf become little more than the comic relief of this movie, or the movie to only make brief mentions of the Dominion War that hardcore fans have been watching on TV for years, the film has to be a standalone story that everybody can watch.
  
  Looked at that way, I think it's a good movie. Not as good as First Contact, but definitely the second-best TNG movie. And it included enough TNG backstory to appeal to fans of the show: we see Troi and Riker get back together, Geordi have a touching moment with his eyesight, and of course, fan-favorite Data in action.
  
  I agree the visual elements are incredible and that the Bak'u could look at least a little alien. Overall, though, I did enjoy this one. Or, maybe it just looks better in hindsight compared to the absolute trainwreck of a TNG movie that'd watch a couple years later called Nemesis.
• From Graham Bessellieu on 2019-07-25 at 5:08pm:
  I'm in agreement with Kethinov here, "Insurrection" is not only one of the most beautifully shot Trek films, I now consider it one of the most successful "Trek" films at its heart. By that I mean, while "First Contact" is an excellent film, thrilling and bold, it lacks the principled themes which define the heart of Trek, such as the ethics of cultural imperialism explored in this film.
  
  One could argue the regenerative / medicinal theme of the Ba'ku to be underdeveloped, the "face-stretching" of the Son'a awkward, Picard's love interest a bit cliche, or the frequent comedic one-liners to be contrived, but I'm willing to overlook these, for the most part.
  
  It's lovely to see Riker and Troi rekindle their romance, Data's relationship to the Ba'ku boy is endearing, and the overall mystery of uncovering what's going on between the Federation and the Ba'ku keeps the viewer curious.
  
  While "Insurrection" may be akin to a TNG episode, in many respects, perhaps that is its very strength.
• From Azalea Jane on 2021-09-12 at 6:38am:
  I know I saw this movie once before, because I remember the Riker/Troi bath shaving scene. But it must have been when it came out, because I had forgotten virtually all of it!
  
  I was pleasantly surprised to come away from this film feeling pretty good about it. Clearly, it's not universally loved, but I went in with basically no expectations, so it wasn't hard for it to let me down. It wasn't a sweeping epic with huge stakes like the other TNG cast films. No destruction of the Enterprise or Kirk dying, no near-assimilation of Earth, no Romulan political intrigue. It feels a bit more like a long, expensive, cinematically-shot episode. But honestly, that's fine. After First Contact, it makes sense to switch gears a little bit. As Kethinov pointed out, it's a really beautiful film. The fact that Jonathan Frakes directed both this and First Contact speaks to his range as a director. The film has a lot of nice moments, but one that particularly moved me was Geordi getting to see with real eyes for the first time. Oh, Geordi. You deserve it.
  
  All that said, I think the various criticisms and plot holes are valid observations. It's true that many of the implications are not fully thought-out. Why can only 600 non-indigenous people live on a whole planet? How did the Son'a come to produce Ketracel White? Why don't we see the rings of the planet from the surface? Shouldn't the features of the Briar Patch be visible at night? Also, the "boobs getting firmer" exchange was dumb. Sorta funny, but annoying and undermines the film. Data would know that Worf doesn't have boobs. (eyeroll) Unfortunately, the women of the regular cast have comparatively little to actually DO in this film aside from sort of just ... be there. At least they were good shots with the phaser rifles. *sighs in cynical feminist* I know, it was '98. A different time. I reserve the right to be salty!
  
  Even though it's pretty self-contained, I think this film does also add some important plot development regarding the decline of the Federation -- likely much to do with the Dominion War, but continuing well after. We see this tackled head-on in Picard (of which I've only seen five episodes at present). I'm reminded of Picard's line in the premiere, telling why he resigned (which he did only ten years after the events of this film): "Because it was no longer Starfleet!" While not all fans might like to see the Great and Lovable Federation lose its moral compass, I think that's a great way to explore how the Federation and Starfleet could eventually be redeemed, and perhaps become even stronger and more morally upright than it was before. In past TNG episodes, there have often been individual problematic admirals, but rarely is the Federation as a whole implicated.
  
  It was nice seeing Riker and Troi rekindle their romance. I've always loved their relationship. It didn't need to go this direction, but it did. I'll say too, Riker looks much better beardless here than he did in Season 1! I'm not sure if it's his age or that Frakes has gotten more comfortable playing the character.
  
  For a film, it's a beautiful and solid episode!

The following are comments submitted by my readers.

• From Dave on 2009-08-03 at 6:36am:
  Not quite so sure I would dismiss the continuity problems with TNG's Borg history quite so easily. I'm sure they can be rationalised away - perhaps it would have been nice for Janeway or one of the crew to have at least expressed some curiosity about it. After all, in Scorpion, Janeway does say "from the moment Q flung the Enterprise into the path of that first cube" - meaning it was still believed Picard had first contact with the Borg.
  Besides that - having just seen The Raven again, I'm puzzled. Janeway says files from the USS Raven have been "gathering dust" in Voyager's database for a year. Really? When were these obtained? Presumably from the encounter with the Raven, of course, but how exactly? Neither Seven nor Tuvok had time to download them, as the ship was under attack from the Bomar aliens of the week. And once they left the ship, they saw the Raven fall to pieces before being beamed out by Paris. Hardly an episode breaker - but a bit annoying!
• From Spacebard on 2012-10-28 at 10:13pm:
  Not too long after the Doctor had deleted the Crell Moset hologram on ethical grounds in “Nothing Human”, he is seen enthusing over a piece of Borg medical equipment presumably derived from the forced assimilation of billions of sentient beings. Then, under Janeway’s direction, the crew formulate a plan to steal a Borg transwarp coil with seemingly no ethical qualms. A touch of double standards, methinks.

The following are comments submitted by my readers.

• From Kenobie on 2011-04-13 at 5:22pm:
  What kind of person gives this episode a Rating of 0. I would love to hear there reason. Personally I think that if you did not enjoy this 2 parter then you can't really be a fan of Star Trek.
• From Tallifer on 2011-04-24 at 10:25pm:
  My favourite scenes were the scientific examinations of the Hansens. Like real life zoologists risking life and limb to study tigers up close. Except even more dangerous and thrilling.
  
  There were many other good things about this: the Borg harbour; Naomi Wildman; assimilation scenes; the wonderful queen.
• From Jeff Browning on 2011-09-07 at 7:31pm:
  One problem you missed: the Borg Queen states that Seven is the first Borg to become an individual. But we know that's not true. Voyager has encountered Borg individuals before, and so did Enterprise. Remember Hugh?
• From Alan on 2012-01-22 at 11:17am:
  Good point Jeff, but what about Picard in 'Best of both worlds' in TNG season3. He was assimilated by the Borg , but was saved and turned back into a human.
• From thaibites on 2015-01-02 at 10:55am:
  I thought this 2-parter was the best I've seen from Voyager yet (chronologically). The writing was crisp, the story moved at a brisk pace with very little padding, there was action, suspense, and mystery - outstanding! The scenes where the people were being assimilated were really disturbing because of the constant screams of agony in the background - very unsettling. Even the vile holodeck worked well in this episode.
  I'm a happy boy!
• From Jadzia Guinan Smith on 2015-06-22 at 5:34pm:
  I have to second the sentiments above. How can someone possibly give THIS episode a 0? How can there be THIRTEEN such people? What are they smoking?
  
  Borg queen assembly, transwarp in action, Seven's "betrayal", Seven's resistance, the Hansens, Janeway at her courageous best... the queen and Janeway fighting over Seven, Naomi (who has quickly grown into an impressively strong performer and can hold her own alongside anyone), all moving, exciting, terrifying, touching, blood roiling... amazing. But, the most poignant moment for me was when Seven received Janeway's transmission "we're searching for you, try to hang on" and involuntarily responded "Captain"... wow. It was so overwhelming, I had to hit pause!
  
  If it wasn't for a slight, continuity-related discomfort, this two-parter would be a 10. But as is, it's a 9 or 9.5, for sure.
  
  Also, a bit of a treat for me, was seeing an episode of this magnitude where the major players were all women, without gender being an issue. The hero, the villain, the prodigal (and brilliant) protégé, all smart, all bad ass, all morally and emotionally deep (and/or complicated).... it’s not often you see such robust and dynamic women characters in a story with no male leads unless sex/gender is an explicit issue and/or the women are totally androgynous. This storyline could have easily fit male “action” stars, but just happened to be female ones. These are strong and capable women, but not “masculine” ones. And the great this is, it doesn’t matter at all to the storyline whether they’re men or women! I love that! Don’t get me wrong, I love my guys (Data, Spock, Picard, Tuvok, Doctor, Giordi, Worf, Wesley, McCoy, Trip, Odo, Kirk, Sisko,... etc. etc.... all of them), but it’s really, really, great to see the girls get a fair shake too. Here is gender equality as a matter of COURSE, not a matter of “exception”! At long last!!! Thank you, Star Trek!
  
• From Dstyle on 2015-07-07 at 2:04pm:
  Do you want to know why someone would rate this episode so low? It completely defangs the Borg.
  
  So a lone, isolated Federation ship is stranded in the Delta Quadrant, cut off from the support and resources of the Federation (which incidentally lost a whole fleet of ships at Wolf 395 to a single, undamaged Borg cube), and yet somehow this lost Federation ship is able to fly a shuttlecraft undetected into the heart of Borg territory and get within transporter range of the Borg Queen? No thanks. I like my Borg terrifyingly unbeatable. Janeway, like the Hansens, got cocky: they should have been crushed like bugs.
  
  Also, you'd think the Borg would have at some point assimilated a species that could move a little quicker, wouldn't you think? The Borg move like shuffling 1930s movie monsters.
• From Jadzia Guinan Smith on 2015-07-13 at 3:03am:
  
  Two words my sibling: David. Goliath. Most of us just can NOT root for David to keep losing so that Goliath can keep terrifying us to ecstasy.
  
  Yes,the Borg are great when scary, but only cuz it's so much more awesome when our intrepid heroes find a way to best them! They were 'beaten' in Best of Both Worlds, too, and First Contact. Did you have problems with those too? Or is it just that this is a lone ship in the delta quadrant? It is the essence of heroic tales the bad guys are bigger and badder, not so that they can beat the good guys in the end but so that it's that much more satisfying when the good guys beat them!
  
  Also, a 'low score' is one thing, but a zero??
• From Rick on 2017-05-22 at 11:30pm:
  I agree with Dstyle (although its not a 0, Id give it a 5, which is really bad for me). The motivations of the Borg make no sense and the worst part for me is how the Delta Flyer got away. They are numerous cubes chasing them but none of them go to transwarp to catch and destroy them and voyager. Why not? Only one tiny ship sneaks into the Delta Flyer's transwarp conduit, but why dont all the other ships create their own? It makes absolutely no sense. The cubes shouldve followed the Delta Flyer and destroyed them all. You cant just outrun the Borg.
• From Mike on 2017-06-07 at 4:15am:
  I've just never understood why they ever had to come up with a Borg Queen. I didn't like it in First Contact, and I hated it even more in this series.
  
  The obvious answer is that they are expanding on the notion that the Borg are like bees, and giving us a villain with a face. The Hansens even say in this episode that the Borg Queen acts like the queen of an insect colony. Except that in colonies of ants or bee hives, queens don't coordinate and direct the activities of the others. They are there almost entirely for reproduction, to birth the colony's offspring. Bees and ants activities are directed by instinct and a web of communication. In other words, they act collectively, just like the Borg did when they were first conceived. They were interested only in assimilating technology and life forms. They were apolitical and amoral, with no ambitions or quest for power and resources, no cause or culture. You couldn't negotiate, make peace, or reason with them. The only way to defeat them was to somehow use their collective communication and existence against them, which is exactly what happened in TNG: Best of Both Worlds. The existence of a Queen gives the Borg a leader with almost personal, individual motives. It takes away what made them so ominous, and it also makes them much easier to defeat. THey were better when they were faceless drones.
  
  Anyway, that's my anti-Borg Queen rant. I do like this episode for what it does with Seven's character. The dilemma she faces of hearing the collective calling her back and choosing whether to remain with her family on Voyager was a great premise for the story, and it works well overall. The assimilation of Species 10026 definitely brought back that ominous dimension to the Borg. It was so brutally efficient and so unconcerned with the individuality of the people...and left you with the eerie reminder that they've done this to thousands of worlds.

No fan commentary yet.

The following are comments submitted by my readers.

• From Rob on 2008-04-27 at 1:46am:
  I love how Ezri's analysis takes in all of Worf's history and, in effect, all of the history of the Klingon Empire. Not in only DS9, but all the way back to the third season of TNG and Duras' involvement in the High Council. Fantastic long-term continuity...!
  
  
• From Pemmer Harge on 2010-03-22 at 11:56pm:
  The best episode of the Final Chapter by quite some distance. Most of the others are at least good, but this one is just better written and more intelligent.

The following are comments submitted by my readers.

• From Vincent on 2011-10-10 at 2:58am:
  In this episode, Braxton cites his time in the 20h century as a reason to try to eliminate Voyager from the timeline. However, if I recall correctly, after the events of Future's End, Braxton says he never experienced that timeline. This is only a minor problem in a very entertaining episode.
• From Wes on 2012-03-02 at 2:29pm:
  Isn't it a problem that Seven went to Voyager in dry dock in the beginning and the weapon was already placed, yet it was already placed? Then, she went into the FUTURE (to the battle with the Kazon) not into the PAST to find when the device was placed. What!? You go into the future to find the guy placing the device who actually placed the device in the past. That's a real temporal paradox--one that seems like it was more of a major problem that the writers chose to look over to include Utopia Planetia in this episode and something familiar to us (the Kazon battle).
• From JR on 2012-07-11 at 5:49am:
  I like how the "present" 29th century Braxton is arrested for something he might do in the future. That particular "future" Braxton did commit time crimes, but as we know from episodes like Parallels, STXI, etc, there are infinite possible futures.
  
  Therefore, arresting "present" Braxton and merging him with that particular "future" Braxton seems kinda like punishing "present" Braxton for a thought-crime...or maybe a possible future thought-crime.
  
  Anyway, I liked seeing Dutch from The Shield. It's interesting how certain actors get typecast. He was sort of a detective here, and will be again in at least two shows I recall.
• From Mitch89 on 2013-03-24 at 10:30pm:
  I found Carey's chat with Seven in engineering somewhat amusing, considering he's married with children!
• From Jadzia Guinan Smith on 2015-06-29 at 8:50pm:
  I’m with JR; it’s highly disturbing that Braxton would be arrested for a crime he has not yet committed nor even has the present intent to commit! For all the federation’s claims of enlightenment, this is the kind of draconian future they have to look forward to? And no one in-universe is troubled by this?
• From Dstyle on 2015-07-16 at 7:55pm:
  I don't mind a good time travel episode--really, I don't--but I wish I din't always have to turn off the part of my brain that processing things intelligently and logically in order to enjoy it. Seriously, every Star Trek time travel episode always seems to have one character who is grappling sophomorically with the whole thing, trying to spell it out simply for the folks at home, and someone usually tells that character something to the effect of, "It's best if you just don't think too hard on it." This episode was FULL of "just don't think too hard about it" moments. This episode was just a mess. Probably one of the weakest time travel episodes I've seen, honestly.
• From QuasiGiani on 2017-09-02 at 3:21pm:
  If you want to "intelligently and logically" in enjoy anything to do with time-travel you MUST BEST JUST "don't think too hard on it."
  
  This is the point; these are the facts. Even with the slightest bit of intelligent logic, time-travel is always going to be caught in a "mess" of paradox.
  
  This is the joke. This is the fun. This is the funny. This is why this is a really great Voyager episode. Because Janeway, of all characters, of all time(!), is especially aware of and attuned to this and here we have her dropped right slipstream of what a might be the most convoluted such and such... of all time!
  
  Honestly!
  
  Excellent Episode.

The following are comments submitted by my readers.

• From Hugo on 2013-05-03 at 6:12am:
  So the Dominion is retreating into Cardassian space - what about the Breen - couldn't the Federation et al attack Breen space (or is it too far away?)
• From Damien Bradley on 2013-09-28 at 7:55am:
  A minor problem: When Kasidy reveals she's pregnant, they say something about one of them forgetting an injection, presumably the modern method of birth control for men and women. Sisko admits it must have been him. But both partners have to be taking an injection for it to work? That doesn't make sense. If both partners were on it, it would serve as redundant protection in case one person forgets. Even now, we have methods that work for months or years at a time; wouldn't they have permanent reversible birth control for both sexes by the 24th century?
  
  Otherwise, I'm really enjoying the suspense leading up to the finale! I've been making my way through DS9 (with breaks here and there) for a few years now. Enough time to start the series over again! This time leaving out the bad filler (so thanks for your filler quotient ratings!).
• From ChristopherA on 2021-08-26 at 2:36am:
  The story of the Cardassian rebels continues to be exciting and well done.
  
  They are starting to wrap up the series, starting with the Ferengi, but I don't really see why they thought it was necessary to wrap up the Ferengi at all. It was a good idea to complete the “women’s liberation” storyline because the idea of naked Ferengi females is basically of an awkward legacy of the silly cartoonish TNG-style Ferengi. It was really inconvenient that you could not film Ferengi females because they were naked and thus could barely have female Ferengi at all. And the whole idea didn't seem to fit well at all with the DS9 recharacterization of the Ferengi. Their purpose was to be absurdly ruthless businessmen, having them be misogynists didn't add anything interesting to this and was mostly just annoying. So it made a lot of sense to just wrap this up and get rid of it.
  
  But having Ishka completely transform the whole society and political system in, apparently, a year or two just seemed trite and hard to believe and entirely unnecessary, it only seems to weaken the usefulness of the Ferengi as an element in future stories. And making Rom the Grand Nagus is, again, overly trite. Sure, it does cap off the long running storyline that Rom starts as the dumb subservient brother and grows into the smarter, more dynamic brother. But it has been well established this is partly because Rom’s genius lies in engineering rather than business. And while he has been shown to have grown courage at standing up to his brother to promote social causes, he is still an engineer with self-confidence, not a politician. It would be more believable to assume that Moogie is now the real Grand Nagus behind the scenes, with Rom as her nepotism puppet.
  

The following are comments submitted by my readers.

• From Alan on 2012-01-26 at 4:08pm:
  Kethinov , I have to agree with you. This episode is a hoot. I've just watched it for the first time , since the original air date . It has to be in my top five of Star Trek episodes. The opening scene with Robert Picardo is total genius. The potato aliens are funny as hell.
  I give this episode a 10. :)
• From Susan on 2020-12-05 at 8:22am:
  Thanks for that YouTube link. Almost as much fun as the ep.

The following are comments submitted by my readers.

• From JR on 2012-07-11 at 6:48am:
  I really liked this episode. To me, it seems Seasons 5 and 6, particularly this beginning of season 6, has been the best of Voyager so far.
  
  I liked seeing Troi again and it is frankly amazing how she keeps looking better with age. I had to grin a couple times though, as I think I heard an accent (Manchester?) slipping out in a few different scenes.
• From Hugo Ahlenius on 2015-04-21 at 8:42pm:
  A nice episode, great with the TNG cross-over and how it is told from outside Voyager (the ship). I have never been a fan of Barclay though, him being over the top. I guess he is more human and realistic than most other characters though - he has flaws!
• From Luke on 2022-06-21 at 9:27am:
  What really irritates me about Voyager, which generally is a show I grew up watching and always enjoy, is how they always seem to be travelling at impulse when the external view of the ship is shown.
  
  WHY?
  
  Presumably they would be going as fast as possible at all times, why, before anything happens in the episode, would they be at impulse?

The following are comments submitted by my readers.

• From Steve Mohns on 2010-08-27 at 3:20am:
  Can someone explain to me why, in this and perhaps other episodes, they have such an dilemma with sending the doctor's data somewhere? He's data - what's the problem sending a copy? At worst there'd be a delta between the experiences of him having two experiences at the same time, which could surely be merged later. Have they ever described it as being some kind of ethical issue? I'd think not, as he doesn't seem to have the same rights as, say, Data had.
  I'd have been happier if they hadn't made an issue of not wanting to sending him because Voyageur'd be without him, and it was dangerous.
• From Kethinov on 2010-08-27 at 8:09am:
  Upfront disclosure: I don't think the writers had their computer science fundamentals quite locked down when they wrote this stuff. The same problem is happening on the new BSG series Caprica right now. The writers on that show make frequent computer science errors, unfortunately. I suppose tech errors are a fact of life on science fiction shows.
  
  That said, the "copy the doctor" issue on Voyager isn't as bad as you might think. It's well established that he takes up so much computer memory that they can't have more than one copy of him on Voyager's computer at any one time. In order for two doctors to delta their experiences and merge into a single codebase, they'd have to be diffed, which requires having both copies of the doctor in computer memory at the same time.
  
  Voyager simply lacks the computer memory for this, so after they transmitted him, they must have deleted him from their computer as a safety precaution so they'd have enough room for him when he got back.
  
  You might wonder why they didn't keep a copy of the doctor around just in case of emergencies while the original was gone and then delete the copy on Voyager just before the other doctor got back, but that raises ethical issues. Should the doctor that remained on Voyager be deleted so that the other may live? Doesn't sound very Federationy.
  
  They *can* store him in a backup module, but again, in order for two doctors to diff and merge their experiences, they both have to exist in the memory of a single computer at the same time. So, on the whole, it seems like the writers accidentally managed to get this one right, just barely. Throughout Voyager's run, I was constantly worried that they would break this rationalization. But they never did! :)
• From dillingham on 2012-01-04 at 9:32am:
  This may or may not be an episode problem: Zimmerman tells the doctor, "I didn't program you for sarcasm!" But if that's true, then the doc learned it exceptionally quickly. I'm pretty sure he was sarcastic from day one, (literally). Rather than an actual episode problem, one could interpret this as a good example of Zimmerman's conflicted and somewhat myopic nature - he's conflicted about his own personality and accomplishments just as he's conflicted about the Mach One (and by extension about the doc). Sarcasm is probably one of those character traits he wasn't quite aware of when he designed the Mach One, and that slipped into the programming unintentionally (like his own arrogance and hot-headedness and all the rest).
  
  (Good epside, btw.)
• From packman_jon on 2012-06-09 at 5:23am:
  Loved this episode. Picardo is brilliant in this episode. The more I watch Voyager, the more I love Picardo
• From Jadzia Guinan Smith on 2015-07-11 at 2:00pm:
  
  It always bothered me too that they can’t copy the doctor. I can’t really accept the explanation that Voyager doesn’t have enough memory for more than one copy at a time, when they had enough to run the whole town of ‘Fair Haven’ continuously for days (or was it weeks?)!
  
  This particular episode has bigger problems, though. E.g. why in the world would 675 EMHs be used to scrub plasma conduits? There’s gotta be less resource-intensive ways to do this – like simple robotic arms or holograms designed specifically for scrubbing (that don’t require extra memory to run subroutines for “faces”). It’s not like the Mark One copies were pieces of equipment that they had to repurpose because they didn’t know what else to do with them. These are just computer files, why not just delete?
  
  Also Troi losing her cool and calling her patients “jerks” was totally absurd. She’s a veteran counselor, with a distinguished career on the federation’s flagship, and she can’t handle a couple of squabbling patients without throwing a tantrum herself? Annoyed the hell out of me.
  
• From tigertooth on 2017-01-07 at 3:57pm:
  I was going to skip this episode, but I saw our host gave it a 9, so I figured I'd give it a shot. Glad I did. They did a good job of keeping it light, adding some drama in, but not overdoing it.
  
  And of course you get Picardo vs Picardo, which I should have known would be fun. It's somewhat a shame that the plot necessitates that he couldn't play Zimmerman very differently than the Doctor (as opposed to, say, Data vs Noonian Soong or Lore), but he got some subtleties in there.
  
  I felt like Barcalay and Troi kind of got shoved in the background, which is odd for TNG characters, but I'm not wild about either of them (though I am a Dwight Schultz fan), so no major loss. That said, their role reversal plan between Zimmerman and the Doctor was pretty great.
  
  And really, Zimmerman's whole plight of his personality being deemed faulty (essentially) was a great hook for the plot.
  
  

The following are comments submitted by my readers.

• From Wes on 2012-02-25 at 5:12pm:
  @kethinov, in your analysis of the Voyager series you said it was established in TNG that Borg space is between where Voyager was in the Delta quadrant and Federation space. Do you recall in which episode of TNG that was established? I'd love to watch that episode again. I always thought it was just a nice coincidence the writers came up with for Voyager to run into the Borg.
  
  Additionally, I like these two episodes. I'd probably give them both an 8 or 9 because I agree with you that they could have this episode for the end of season 4 or sometime soon thereafter. There are so many pointless fillers in Voy. But I may also be a bit jaded by my love of DS9's arcs and TNG's lack of needing to get somewhere (e.g. home).
• From Kethinov on 2012-02-25 at 10:57pm:
  Wes,
  
  The first on-screen confirmation that the Borg are delta quadrant residents comes from the TNG film Star Trek: First Contact. However, fan speculation about the subject was commonplace as far back as the early 1990s and many non-canon novels quasi-established this as fact, which the producers of Star Trek were eventually inclined to absorb as canon.
  
  It was so common to assume this as canon that during Star Trek Voyager's pre-production phases in the early 1990s, Michael Okuda is reputed to have told Rick Berman that "since the gamma quadrant is the province of ships from DS9, [then] this new show [should] be set in the delta quadrant. One of the few things we know about the delta quadrant is that the Borg homeworld is located somewhere there. This might present opportunities for the Borg to be recurring bad guys."
• From Wes on 2012-03-16 at 2:37pm:
  After watching a lot of Voyager in the past little while--thank you, Netflix--I've noticed another gripe I have. Out of the three series I have really watched (TNG, DS9 and Voyager) Voyagers class is the weakest. In fact, I am often annoyed with the acting of Voyager's cast. I do not discredit their hard work, by any means. However, Jeri Ryan, Robert Picardo and Tim Russ are the only above-soap-opera-caliber actors on Voyager. I'll admit that some of my frustration may simply be due to the writing, but I counter that with the idea that I believe the writers write the characters to the actor's abilities.
  
  Since I wasn't alive during the run of TOS, it's hard for me to criticize their acting since I don't really know how it compared to the acting of the day. Although, I thought their acting was pretty good in Star Trek IV and VI.
  
  I feel quite secure in saying the actors of TNG were the best actors of all. They were each fabulous in their roles and in the movies. You could rarely say that it seemed like they were acting. Instead, it more often seemed like they actually were the character they portrayed.
  
  The DS9 cast is a close second to TNG's cast, for me.
  
  So, while I like some of Voyager's episodes (mostly the ones Kethinov has rated high), the acting annoys me far too often to be a really great series for me.
• From Nightwish on 2014-12-15 at 2:41am:
  Well... from having tried to watch it twice before and really not liking it to seeing it all in a year and feeling emotional in the end went quite a distance. Sure, some characters were annoying and never did anything right, and other's were inconsistent, but I felt happy for them all in the end. And I'll miss them.
  All and all, not a bad trek series after all. I wonder when we'll get something similar again.
  And I've found that I mostly agree with your likes and dislikes, which is nice.
• From Dstyle on 2015-08-13 at 1:59pm:
  Without any "reunion" scenes at the end of the episode, it definitely left me feeling like we, as invested viewers, were denied closure. After all the years trying to get back to Earth, we at least deserved a chance to see Tom reuniting with Admiral Paris, Tuvok's unemotional reunion with his wife and children, Seven's reunion with her Earth family, Harry's long-awaiting reunion with his fiance UH I MEAN PARENTS HIS PARENTS RIGHT I FORGOT WE ALL AGREED TO FORGET THAT HARRY WAS ENGAGED AT THE BEGINNING OF THE SERIES. Ending the series the way it did just left me feeling empty.
• From Andrew on 2016-12-12 at 4:13pm:
  I just finished watching the entire series on Saturday. After 172 episodes, I definitely enjoyed seeing the future versions of the characters since I feel a strong bond with each.
  
  For that same reason, I share Kethinov's disappointment that we don't see any of what occurs on Earth after they return. Yes, I understand that the show was about "the journey." Yes, I understand that you always want to leave viewers wanting more, but I could not shake the empty feeling that I got when the final shot of the show was Voyager approaching Earth from space.
  
  Voyager could have easily returned in mid to late season 5 (or even season 6) and then used season 6 and/or 7 to explore the crew's lives on Earth. How would Seven of Nine and the Doctor adjust to Earth? How would the new technology and experiences affect Starfleet? What kind of homecoming would the crew receive?
  
  Anyway...I loved the episode and I loved this series. Definitely captures the brilliance of TNG and DS9, but clearly not on the same level. I was just disappointed with the way they left it. Seemed so sudden!
  
  
• From Mike on 2017-06-07 at 3:28am:
  TNG: All Good Things. Still the best finale in all of Star Trek. This one almost became a close second if they'd just given us some idea what happens after the real return of Voyager. Now I'm in the awkward position of liking a finale with Vic Fontaine more than this one.
  
  In addition to all the things left out of the finale you mention, I'm also bothered by the destruction of the transwarp hub. It's one thing to want to get rid of the Borg, but that is too cool of a phenomenon to just get rid of mere minutes after we find out about it. It also raises the question of why we never got to see a Borg-Dominion War. Plus, the destruction of the hub and the success of the pathogen, though unexpected, seemed a bit too easily achieved. It was a pretty quick denoument after so much build-up.
  
  I do like the twist this finale gave us of showing a potential future for all the characters, and then altering it based on the episode's outcome. That was very similar to TNG: All Good Things, where we know the events that "future Picard" experienced will change. So in this finale, as with that one, I say...if JJ Abrams can muck up the Star Trek timeline, why can't Star Trek play games with its own timeline?
  
  In response to Wes: the acting of the TOS cast was one of that show's strengths. They had an on-screen chemistry that I don't think any of the other series reached. Each series had some amazing actors, but as a group, I think TOS was the best.
  
  It made up for the fact that the storylines on several episodes were pretty weak. Some were downright ridiculous. I'd even say that overall, the science fiction on Voyager was better. But then again, TOS was itself a sci-fi innovation and it all had to start somewhere.
• From McCoy on 2017-11-12 at 10:27am:
  I think it was a decent closure. I like it more than DS9 (which is a better series, but all that Star Wars-like duel between jedi Sisko and Darth Dukat was... horrible). Don't think we should see the reunions between crew and their families. Final shot with Voyager approaching Earth was great. I'm satisfied:)
• From President Obummer on 2020-01-19 at 10:06am:
  Maybe not the families, but they could have at least made the final scene near earth longer than 30 seconds.
  Also, what's the big deal about destroying the borg hub? The Borg have 5 more and they build them once, they can build them again...