Star Trek Voy - Season 7 - Episode 08
Star Trek Voy - 7x08 - Nightingale
Originally Aired: 2000-11-22
Synopsis:
Harry Kim takes command of a ship. [DVD]
Problems
- So if the "passengers" aboard Nightingale were all cloaking tech scientists and not just passengers after all, how come they knew nothing of ship operations?
- Was the border of Annari space ridiculously close to the planet Voyager landed on? They seemed to cross the border without ever reaching warp speed in short order...
Factoids
- Another ship landing.
Remarkable Scenes
- Janeway complaining about the extended maintenance stay.
- Harry saving the alien ship.
- Harry complaining about still being an Ensign.
- Icheb concerned that Torres is attracted to him.
- Icheb confronting Torres about her "attraction."
My Review
On the surface, this is an above average episode, but an analysis reveals several weak points. The technical problems which I've outlined in the problems section contribute quite negatively to the plot, seeing as how they do much to ruin the premise. I also was annoyed that the Nightingale was just a reuse of the Maquis raider. There isn't much excuse for that in today's high budget Trek. Finally, I was rather annoyed Janeway didn't put a stop to Harry's mission. It had obvious negative consequences for Voyager, and even considering the actual events of the episode, there's no way to be sure Harry was in fact helping the "right" side. It would have been much smarter for Voyager to stay out of the conflict, complete the trade negotiations, and leave peacefully, rather than being escorted out of the combat zone having not completed repairs and not made any trades. There are several nice details about the episode though which keep me from rating it any lower. I loved the plot concerning Icheb's mistaken romance. I especially love the way it ended. Torres just played along and let Icheb believe whatever he wanted to believe so she didn't have to explain to him what her actual motives were. Seeing Kim complain about his rank and get some time to play captain on another ship was nice too. And to be honest, despite the inherent flaws, I much enjoyed the "smuggle the cloaking device behind the lines" story. In short, this episode is a lot of fun if you don't think about it too much. So I tend to be fairly forgiving.
The following are comments submitted by my readers.
I like that Harry Kim finally gets to shine as a leader. He's right when he says he'd be a Lt Cmr if they were back in the Alpha Quadrant. Being passed up for promotion over Tom Paris also seemed a little harsh.
Ron Glass, who plays Loken here, also played Shepherd Book on "Firefly". Not exactly Star Trek trivia, but you do have reviews for Firefly on this site. Glass even has a similar hairdo. I wonder if the same crazy thing happens when Loken undoes his ponytail ;)
TERAK: "Ensign? What's that?"
KIM: "A junior officer. The lowest ranked officer, actually."
What do I get the feeling that Garrett Wang wasn't acting when he delivered that line so indignantly? :)
As much as I enjoyed seeing them finally focus on Kim's character a bit more, I have to agree that this was a needless and reckless sideshow for Janeway to approve. She certainly should've learned by now that there's a difference between offering help to a species in need without delaying the return trip, and involving themselves in the local political disputes of the quadrant. This is clearly the latter. And yeah, neither side has clear moral superiority here so all that is accomplished is that Voyager loses the resources it needs and Harry may or may not have evened out the balance of power.
As for the problem about the cloaking tech scientists wanting Harry and crew to pilot them back home, I think that's explainable. This world has been blockaded by the Annari and probably doesn't have legions of experienced starship crews. They do have brilliant scientists, however, who probably saw the chance to co-opt some help from aliens that have greater ops experience. The Kraylor probably figured, as long as they're here, why not ask them to do this for us?
An enjoyable episode to be sure, and I do think the subplot with Torres and Icheb was amusing if nothing else.