Overall I think this was a really good way to kick off season five. We start with Captain Proton, then Janeway has a crisis of confidence. The kind of crisis you can only solve by saving one race of aliens by blowing the hell out of some other aliens. Oh, and maybe collapse a wormhole that nobody will call a wormhole for no apparent reason. This is also a case where it seems like maybe the prime directive says they shouldn't do what they decide to do, but it turns out that it is really just one lone jerk who is doing the polluting so who really cares. Also it seems like the shadow aliens are so badly poisoned by this point that they are probably all doomed, but who knows. Also not sure what the difference between having no engines and being carried by inertia is and being dead in the water, but it is apparently one weapon hit worth of damage.
We open as I mentioned with Paris and Kim fighting with the Doctor over whether they get to finish their Captain Proton simulation which overloads the holodeck somehow. Luckily this doesn't turn out to the be actual story. The actual plot is that Voyager is crossing a huge starless expanse. Also theta radiation somehow keeps you from even seeing any stars outside the region which doesn't make much sense, and now that I think of it makes even less sense later on. Tension is high as the crew grow weary flying through the same endless void day after day. The captain seems to have it worst of all and hasn't come out of her ready room in days. Chakotay visits her but she seems uninterested in the events of the ship. Chakotay talks with Tuvok about it and they realize she is blaming her self for their being stuck and the last time she did this she risked her life unnecessarily trying to make things right.
Suddenly they lose power and aliens are on board seemingly attacking. They flee the light and Seven manages to disable one on the holodeck. Tuvok shoots a torpedo rigged as a flare and they realize they are surrounded by three alien ships. Suddenly fourth ship shows up firing spatial charges and drives the dark loving aliens off. It is commanded by Controller Emck. Emck is there hauling cargo allegedly but when he beams over he is saturated with theta radiation. He offers the guide them out of the space if she turns over the hurt alien and gets awfully hostile when asked about his mission. Janeway declines his offer and he leaves warning that he won't save them next time.
Janeway has the alien awoken and it explains Emck's people showed up out of nowhere and started dumping radioactive garbage and it is killing them. Janeway offers to help and it guides them to its people. After turning him over Janeway contacts Emck and offers him the tech to turn the waste he is dumping into valuable energy but he is too happy with the deal he has. So she comes up with a plan to seal his wormhole and trap him behind. It doesn't go great but the dark aliens show up at the last minute and Janeway destroy's Emck's ship with a good shot to the cargo bays full of radioactive waste. They escape through the wormhole and then from the dark region.
Review: In writing my summary I realized that while I liked the ideas in the episode I didn't like much of th execution. I totally skipped over Janeway trying to leave herself behind on a shuttle because it was silly and didn't really effect much of the rest of the episode. Still not a bad environmental episode with some decent action.
6 out of 10
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