The writers of this episode seemed to really want to act like they are good science people and that spirits and all that aren't real but also wanted to write an episode about how spirituality is awesome and real. This leads to a somewhat problematic episode to say the least. Also I am going to take whole point off for Neelix being super annoying in this episode starting with the first thing we see him doing is touching an ancient shrine still being actively worshiped with is dirty hands. It is too bad the spirits didn't decide to punish him, maybe we could have gotten him off the show...
We open with the crew on shore leave and on a tour of a local shrine on a friendly planet. Kes and Neelix wander off bored and while Neelix manhandles the art on the walls Kes decides to stroll into what turns out to be a forbidden shrine protected by some sort of energy field. Torres threatens to storm the place if they can't get permission to come back and scan but luckily they beam up to the ship where Prime Directive expert Janeway actually decides to take a diplomatic approach for once. The government leader is sympathetic but refuses to intervene or even to force the monks to meet with Janeway. They do learn though that there is a ritual the monks go through that somehow allows them to pass through. After some research they find an old story of a king whose son did the same thing as Kes who petitioned the monks to let him go through the ritual since he was responsible. The monks are intrigued by Janeways request and agree to let to try. The Doctor puts an implant in Janeway to try and learn what is happening and sends her down.
Janeway encounters who she assumes is a maintenance worker repairing a light and offers to help only to learn the woman is her guide. I am going to skip forward here a bit, basically they go through a series of tests directly stolen from Kung Fu movies. Janeway gets some kind of venom in her and starts hallucinating and the Doctor thinks something from it is the key but it doesn't work. Janeway is disappointed and realizes that the fact they kept telling her the ritual was meaningless was literally true. She goes back and is told she has everything she needs to save Kes and realizes she just has to go back into the shrine full of confidence or something. She does over the objections of pretty much everyone and saves the day.
Review: I am not in any way opposed to a show featuring magic or religion or whatever, but if you do go for it. This seemed like maybe two writers were bickering over where they wanted to go or something and it kinda turned into a mess.
3 out of 10
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