Nothing every goes well for Harry Kim seems to be the rule for Voyager and it certainly is for this episode. I mean sure, they do eventually get rescued but not before Harry almost kills Paris with a piece of pipe so that is some mental strain for him to handle going forward. It seemed kinda un-Trek to totally ignore the horribly oppressive society that convicted Paris and Kim, and also to not in any way help the freedom fighters. I am not saying they had to aid them substantially, but they could have at least broken a few out of jail. Any government that acknowledges that you have found the real killers but says that all convictions are final anyway isn't a government you need to spend a lot of time respective the rights of.
We open with Harry falling out of a chute into a filthy prison where inmates fight over him and then start beating him on. He runs into Paris who knocks him down as we cut to commercial. Afterwards we see Paris fight another convict for Harry though but Harry isn't stoked at getting hit by him so hard. Paris gives him some food though but they are both super edgy which Paris explains is a side effect of the neural implants they have in their brains. They come up with a plan to try and escape though and try to stay sane with thoughts of food. On the ship Janeway confronts the people who convicted Paris and Kim but they insist on seizing Voyager and arresting her crew so they get out of there. They find the real killers in about 10 minutes, an older brother and his young radical sister pretty much confess as soon as they get caught.
Things go poorly in jail and Paris gets stabbed. Kim negotiates for some food and cloth to keep him alive for helping another prisoner escape. He manages to make a tool that lets him get into the chute but that just leads him a window to outer space. For some reason he decides this is good news though and tries to convince everyone to help him escape but they are too nuts/he is too nuts to get them to cooperate. On Voyager the offer to return the actual terrorists falls on deaf ears so Janeway takes up the terrorists offer to show her the prison but she refuses to help them in any way. The alarm goes off that a new prisoner is coming down the chute but it is Janeway packing heat instead of a new victim. She mass phasers an entire crowd before they all get away in Neelix's shuttle which is now apparently fast a nimble. Back on the ship Paris is all buddy buddy but Kim is uncomfortable with how much he wanted to kill Paris so recently.
Review: Not a bad episode but felt a little light in the kind of thing that made TNG so good. You know, introspection and characters actually considering the moral dilemmas the find themselves in. Somehow I have a feeling things would have been a lot different if Picard had been in charge, but then again it is pretty much how Kirk would have played it.
5 out of 10
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