VOY: Muse

         On a stressful election night I was expecting to be so captivated by the news that I wouldn't have time for Trek, but this time I really needed something like this to cheer me up. And luckily I got a really interesting episode with some positive political overtones. The prime directive tends to make it so Trek characters have little opportunity to interact with people from more primitive cultures which makes it especially fun when they do get to do something like this. They honestly could have skipped the cuts back to Voyager is me only real criticism. I guess it helps build the tension of if Harry made it, but that isn't really all that critical. I honestly don't know what was up with the scene of Tuvok falling asleep. I guess they wanted some comic relief?
         We open with a classic Greek style drama about the wreck of the Delta Flyer with B'Elanna Torres and Harry Kim trapped while hunting for dilithium. Harry escapes in a pod and Torres crashes onto rocks. After the patron addresses the playwright (they call him a poet but he is writing plays so I am going to fix this for them) telling him he wants more Voyager, and he wants it in a week. Kelis, the playwright, heads to the actual Delta Flyer afterwards where Torres is tied up. She gets him to release her though and she goes for a gun after he asks her to help him write more plays based on her experience. It seems he thinks she is one of their gods and really needs her help. She agrees to help if he gets her some dilithium which he does, but it isn't enough to get the transmitter going. On Voyager we find out that they know Torres and Kim are missing but don't know where they are.
         The play isn't going well as Kelis doesn't understand what motivates the Voyager crew so Torres gets him to get some metal for repairs in exchange for more help on the play. For some reason he brings her in to work with the actors but she doesn't seem to actually contribute much other than getting one of the actors who is in love with Kelis mad. Harry shows up at the Flyer and has the parts they need to get the transmitter going as Kelis works on his play and learns his patron plans to go to war which ups the stakes for him. The play opens as they get the transmitter and other systems working so Torres beams in to give a last minute assist. The actress who hates her tries to reveal Torres as a god the the patron but the other actors convince him it is a part of the show. Torres takes to the stage to close the show before beaming out as a grand finale.

         Review: An interesting episode with a few plot holes that keep it from being a real classic, but better than a lot of the episodes this season. Also hard for me to be upset about a Greek-centric episode.

6 out of 10