VOY: The Thaw

         I think the best thing I can say about this episode is I really enjoyed the Fallout 3 vault that it inspired. I kept expecting the fear clown to turn out to be the puppet of one of the frozen dudes, the one they kept cutting to ominously lurking and the only one the clown never threatened. But no, it was just a construct created from their collective fear. Also, does anybody actually find clowns scary? I feel like that is a trope that has long outlived being at all interesting. Also, do clowns have to be super annoying? And not at all in a clever way? Also, any episode that makes me mutter, "crusty jugglers," isn't likely to get a very good rating.
         The episode opens with Kim practicing his clarinet while being hassled by Paris. Paris is taken aback however when he learns it is to impress a lieutenant he has been unsuccessfully trying to court for some time. They are called to be bridge though by the discovery of a deserted ice planet that Neelix is sure used to be populated. Scans confirm that it used to have a large population before a solar flare it. They get an automated hail from the surface telling them that the population has been frozen but was supposed to have been defrosted years earlier. The beam down to investigate and find three living aliens plugged into some sort of computer with two more empty pods. They can't figure out how to disconnect the people so Kim and Torres get hooked up and sent into the simulation.
         They find a world run by an evil clown who exists only to torment them. He threatens to kill one of the other survivors if they try to escape so they don't use their planned escape. But they do point out that if one of them isn't released Janeway will likely shut it down to try and save them. The clown is afraid of not existing so lets Torres go. The Doctor is sent in to negotiate since he can't be trapped but the clown is unwilling to listen. They try shutting it down but he kills a hostage. Eventually he agrees to trade the other hostages for Janeway and she hooks herself up, but as soon as the others are free she admits that she sent in a hologram of herself instead while connecting her actual brain to be scanned. Defeated the clown fades to nothingness.

         Review: This would have been an just fine TAS episode, but it had way too much padding to be a full length episode. Lots dancing, acrobatics and dead end plans didn't help it at all. 

2 out of 10