I think I did the same double take the writers intended with this episode by opening with Barclay and Troi back on earth. Somewhere in the back of my head I knew this episode existed though so I resisted checking to see if Netflix had messed up or something and just watched. I generally have good feelings about this episode and honestly one of my favorite parts is the fact that people are creeped out that Barclay makes recreations of people he knows to interact with. The idea that the crew on TNG was totally comfortable with Barclay making recreations of them for his own amusement whatever that may have been was just dumb. Kira's reaction Quark trying to get a holoimage of her seemed much more in line while how real people would likely react. At the same time I also liked seeing two character from TNG make an appearance on Voyager, it is rare to get guest stars in roles they have played before.
We open on earth in Barclay's apartment and Troi has stopped by to visit. But it isn't really a visit, he is explaining to her how he has messed his life up this time. It seems he is on a project that may be able to communicate with Voyager and he has become obsessed with the idea. But his boss doesn't believe him or something and they have a big meeting with Admiral Paris coming up so Barclay just needs to shut up. But he doesn't and gets in trouble for it. So he does what he has always done, retreat into the holodeck with his cast of friends, but this time he is obsessed with Voyager and has recreated his own versions of the crew. In the present Troi asks him if he is back to being holoaddicted which he denies but he clearly is. His boss finds him in the holodeck after he was told to take some time office and bans him from the lab and holodeck.
The next day he shows up at the Paris' office and talks his way in but gets told that it is up to his superior so he takes matters into his own hands. That night he breaks into the lab and begins testing the communication link to Voyager, but it doesn't seem to be working. His boss shows up with security so he flees into the holodeck. He is finally caught and Paris shows up for no clear reason other than to be there when they get the reply back from Voyager. They manage to talk for a few minutes and more importantly send a bunch of data back and forth to both give Starfleet and idea what they have been up to and also to get some new tech to try and establish communications in the future. Everything is forgiven with Barclay which I thought was dumb at first, but then again he didn't hurt anything or anybody and he was actually right the entire time so maybe that is how things work in the space future.
Review: A fun episode from a totally different perspective than usual. This episode dealt with how Barclay would fit in at a normal workplace much more than TNG did where Picard didn't seem to think any of his antics were Barclay's problem. Also makes me realize the writers were thinking they had a limited amount of time going forward before they would finally get the crew home so time to start having episodes like this.
6 out of 10
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