As an idea Benjamin Button as an episode of Trek is pretty silly. And that part of it is certainly pretty dumb. If the "kids" in this episode are supposed to be that old why are they so immature? Are we supposed to believe this is a form of senility? If they actually want to leave the moon why are they so disruptive of Tuvok's efforts? I get why actual kids would act that way, but how does it work when you are actually in your 90's and don't want to die. Also it begs the question how are adult babies delivered? It is a cool thought exercise to think about a reverse aging population, but as scifi it is pretty weak.
We open with Tuvok crashed on the surface of a strange world assisting an injured crew member. Tuvok manages to keep the man calm but he dies anyway, but Tuvok still isn't alone. A girl approaches him from the woods and he grabs her before she can run away. He calms her down and she indicates to her friends in the woods, another girl and a boy that it is safe to come out. Back on the ship Chakotay and Janeway are preparing to welcome guests from the local planet, it will be a first contact situation so they are both excited. The tour goes well, but the Drayan's are very isolationist and aren't interested in opening relations further. Their leader rushes off after a call from the surface. On the moon Tuvok tries to keep the children calm, but they are afraid of a monster called the Morrok which they fear will take them away at night.
Later that day they hear the sounds of another ship flying over and the children insist they hide, they are worried their own people are coming to kill them. Back on Voyager they have figured out Tuvok's shuttle is missing and they trace it to the moon he landed up, but when they arrive they find a Drayan ship already in orbit. The Drayans are willing to let them rescue Tuvok but refuse to allow a landing. Tuvok sings to the children that night to get them to sleep, but in the morning two of them are missing. Determined to find out what happened he enters the Morrok cave but finds only empty clothing. He may not believe in the monster, but he is also much more determined to get off the moon before nightfall.
Efforts to beam him out are going poorly so Janeway decides to ignore the Drayan's and fly a shuttle down to save the day. Tuvok manages to get his shuttle to fly as well but is forced to land when the Drayan's open fire. Tuvok, the Drayan leader and Janeway all meet on the surface. Tuvok explains that the girl is terrified of being killed by the Drayan leader explains that they age in reverse and the "girl" is actually 97 years old and is about to turn into pure energy. She actually approves of Tuvok's handling of the "child" though and we end with both sides willing to talk.
Review: A good episode with a weak premise. I liked the scenes with Tuvok trying to work with the children. You can see that he does truly like children, but he also has little experience with non-Vulcan children and finds it taxing. The reverse aging bit drags this one down a bit though.
6 out of 10
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