I am really starting to like the hints at what is going on the Janeway's holonovel that they have started teasing in the cold open. The idea of a ghost in such a story isn't exactly surprising, but it should be interesting when the holodeck breaks down in some interesting way. They even tease this with the holodeck losing power and dropping characters midway through a scene, but that episode isn't today's episode. Learning Curve finally deals with the issues the Maquis have integrating into a Starfleet vessel and following the rules. It kinda feels like maybe they should have done this earlier, but I guess they sorta did with Torres becoming chief engineer. It is also fun to see Tuvok becoming more of an actual character and less of a cardboard cutout like he seemed to be most of the rest of this season. I know as a pure blooded Vulcan he doesn't have the emotional inner self that Spock had so it is cool to see him becoming interesting his own way.
We open in Janeway's holonovel where she is preparing to meet the children she will be caring for. There is a boy and a girl and the boy is very interested in being treated with the respect he is due as a member of the nobility. His sister though is still convinced that there mother is still around and not dead, at least she is until she disappears. Janeway calls the bridge and finds that there has been a power loss due to a biogel pack failing. Tuvok goes to investigate and finds a former Maquis engineer is busy replacing the pack. Not that he told anybody on the bridge or anything and he gets very angry when Tuvok points this out. In a meeting Janeway expresses her concern about the failing gel packs as they aren't something that can be replaced. Tuvok also brings up the incident with Dalby and Janeway assigns him the job of running a mini-academy for the former Maquis crew having the most problems integrating.
The first training doesn't go well as Tuvok assigns one of them to start running laps and the others walk out on him. Chakotay confronts them in the mess hall and knocks Dalby to the floor with a punch telling him that is the Maquis way and that he will get more of that if he doesn't fall in line with the training. Torres doesn't have any luck with the gel packs until she takes them to the Doctor who diagnoses it as being infected. He tells them they need to isolate the remaining packs and find the source of the infection. Day two of the academy goes better. That evening Tuvok leads them on a brutal exercise regimen which kinda makes it seem like it is a punishment since they do it in front of the rest of the crew. On the holodeck Tuvok presents them with an unwinnable situation on the bridge of Voyager and they fail because they refuse to retreat. The Maquis storm out again when he points out why they failed.
Eventually Tuvok figures out that the source of the infection is a terrible cheese Neelix is making in the mess hall. They isolate the cheese and the doctor determines that it is an incredibly strong pathogen the like of which he has never seen before. Tuvok has a talk with Neelix where Neelix tries to convince him to be more flexible with the Maquis which isn't really Tuvok's thing, but he considers it. Tuvok tries playing pool with Dalby and while Dalby storms out Tuvok learns a lot about his history and why he is so upset all the time, he feels super protective of the younger Bajoran also being trained. Next they are doing an exercise in a cargo bay when the Doctor tells Janeway that they can cure the infection with heat. She overheats the warp engine but this traps Tuvok and his trainees in the cargo bay. It starts flooding with poison gas and Tuvok insists the trainees go to safety while he rescues the trapped Bajoran. His self sacrifice impressed Dalby and he agrees to give Tuvok's way of doing things a try.
Review: Not the greatest episode so far, but it does manage to add some character depth and tells a decent story. Tuvok doesn't seem like he would be the first choice to train a bunch of rebels, but in the end he does ok.
6 out of 10
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