First of all, when a character has gotten so cliched that you joke about the cliche at the beginning of the episode, don't conclude that characters story by having that cliche come true again. In this case I am talking about Harry, I have seen other writers describe him as Voyagers whipping boy, and up until a season or two ago I disagreed. But no, they were right. He only exists at this point so that bad things can happen to him while everything goes great for those around him. Maybe it is time to just give up on romance for him at this point. Tom on the other hand seems to have things under control. Torres is in the middle of one of her self induced crises because she can't decide if she wants to open up or not. Luckily Tom actually does care a lot about her and is willing to give up on the race to save the relationship.
We open with Harry and Tom out testing the "new" Delta Flyer II, which of course we saw in the previous episode. They run into another craft who challenges them to a race so of course Tom agrees and wins. It turns out there is a big race put on to honor the peace they have achieved and Tom can't resist signing up. Of course he ignores that B'Elanna spent days getting a big romantic weekend together for the two of them. It gets worse for Tom when he gets the captain to sign on to the race. Torres does the everything is fine routine and Tom is super wrapped up in the race. Harry meanwhile has fallen in love with the pilot of the ship that challenged them to the race in the opener but of course she has a hunky copilot so no luck for Harry. She does lend him a power converter that will allow the Flyer to qualify for the race. Of course there is a big dinner before the race so the pilots can trade barbs/flirt with each other.
On race day Paris is surprise to see Harry has been replaced by Torres. It seems she wants to do stuff with him now which he is a little hesitant about. The race starts but they get bumped by another ship and take some damage which puts them a little behind. Torres and Tom can't stop bickering either which isn't helping. They come to a part in a wormhole and Torres boosts the thrusters to force them between two other ships which upsets Tom since he is the one flying. The race is stopped though since one of the other ships has taken damage. It seems Harry's lovers ship's shields failed and her copilot was badly hurt. Harry steps up and offers to be her copilot though, and after some hesitation, she agrees. It seems though, that her ship was sabotaged as Tuvok finds a device that likely caused the explosion. The race gets under way again when Harry's lover pulls a gun on him. Of course she is the saboteur and he manages to figure out that she has sabotaged the Flyer to explode at the finish line destroying all the other ships and likely ruining the peace.
Paris meanwhile is having his own problems. He and B'Elanna are fighting to the point that he literaly stops the ship so they can talk it out. She thinks he is ignoring her but he thinks she doesn't like romantic stuff because she loves to show off what a badass Klingon she is. Turns out she does like that stuff and he loves her more than the race. They get some sort of signal from Harry's ship, morse code. It tells them that they are rigged to explode so suddenly they are working together again. They get out of range of the other ships and eject the warp core just as Paris proposes marriage. We close with the Flyer passing by the camera painted with, "Just Married," and trailing cargo containers.
Review: Would have worked better in the right order and the Kim thing really bothered me this time. Other than those two problems though this is a decent episode.
5 out of 10
No comments:
Post a Comment