Between getting 2 hours of sleep last night and this episode being 75% hallucinations this is going to be a short write up.I don't hate the idea of aliens using someones hallucinations to communicate, but it seems oddly specific that they would understand human genetics so well to be able to turn on a single gene in someone to allow their voices to get through but be unable to communicate any other way. Even the chaotic space thing didn't really bother me. I did however not really like that so much of the episodes was flashbacks to hallucinations. Maybe I am just tired, but the narrative was a bit hard for me to follow at times. Overall I actually think it worked, but still not my favorite.
We open almost at the end of the episode with Chakotay in sickbay. The Doctor is trying to remind him that he is hallucinating to try and communicate with aliens which kinda ruins the suspense through most of the rest of the episode (this is what I am talking about with the narrative being messed up). The Doctor tries to get him to think back to when it started, he was in the boxing ring on the holodeck and just before he got knocked out he saw something strange. Just then the ship is rocked as they enter a region of chaotic space where everything is warped in a way that makes it almost impossible to escape. Chakotay starts hearing voices and the Doctor figures out that a genetic defect that he had blocked as a child has been reactivated causing him to hallucinate. Chakotay decides he needs to go on a vision quest and there is a bunch of hallucinations with his grandfather and boxing coach. It is all centered around the idea of him being in the boxing ring with the aliens. They talk to him through his memories. Somewhere near the end of the episode we catch up with the opening and Chakotay rushes to the bridge and puts in the modifications to the deflector they need to navigate a way out. It works and to celebrate he heads to the holodeck for some boxing.
Review: Even if I wasn't tired I don't really like having to spend a bunch of time summarizing hallucinations. Despite this the story mostly manged to come through, but I think this one needed at least one more rewrite to go beyond good.
5 out of 10
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