It really sucks to be Harry Kim. He can't even date a holo-character for more than a few days without someone swooping him. It is even worse in this case since the person he went to for help dealing with his love of a holo-character is the one who actually steals his lady. Now to be fair in this case the lady turns out to be a projection of a kinda evil alien lady who is so bored with her job managing a nebula that she snoops on any ships that happen to be in the area. Also despite the alien influence this is clearly just another holodeck gone wrong episode which is a pretty played out Trek trope.
We open with the discovery of a negative nebula whatever that is supposed to mean. They are supposed to be super unstable so the fact that this one appears to be millions of years old is very interesting. They go in for a look but one of the filaments explodes but instead of destroying the nebula it just fizzes out. The whole time Kim is visibly distracted at his station. That evening he visits Tuvok in his quarters. The vulcan is playing kal-toh, a vulcan game that somehow resembles chess. Kim wants to know how to suppress his emotions, specifically the love he is feeling for a holodeck character. The two visit the holodeck and Tuvok isn't impressed with the lady. There is a luau that night and everyone is invited. Even Tuvok who makes it clear it isn't interested in showing up, but Janeway pretty much orders him to so he is out of luck.
Paris convinces Kim to show up but one site of his lady love and he is out of there. She approaches Tuvok and offers to play kal-toh with him and he agrees. She instantly analyzes the situation and points out Tuvok isn't wearing a flower necklace to set himself aside from the rest of the crew. He is intrigued and the two spend the rest of the evening together. The next day they try to leave the nebula but find they have no control over the ship. Kim confronts Tuvok in the holodeck where he is again playing kal-toh with the lady and to show he isn't trying to get with her Tuvok erases her program. But that night she appears in his quarters using the Doctors mobile emitter and seems to be able to control she ship. Filaments of plasma start exploding around them and Tuvok realizes the holosignal is coming from a ship in the nebula. He beams over and finds an alien lady who is super lonely and has fallen in love with him. He manages to talk her down and they go on their way. That evening Tuvok apologizes to Kim and the two start playing kal-toh together.
Review: This episode raises a bunch of questions about the nature of the alien lady. Did she already know how to hydrosail so she could be Kim's instructor? Did she have luau's in her database to know how they work? She even says she had never seen anything like a holodeck which if true really means she is one hell of an improviser.
5 out of 10
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