The end of Voyager seems to be a mix of wrapping things up episodes and normal random eps. Today was definitely in the random category other than I guess they decided to kill of a "named" crewman. Unfortunately they picked a guy who other than some alternate timeline stuff hadn't been seen since the first season. Honestly I already assumed he was dead so having him die and the captain get all emotional felt kinda odd. I think this episode was supposed to be about environmentalism among other things, but it didn't really work for me. The idea that these people blame humans for destroying their planet just doesn't make much sense, so when they start making unreasonable demands I am not sure what Janeway was supposed to do. At least the jackass leader got shown he was wrong, but even for a jackass he seemed particularly stubborn.
We open with the titular probe arriving an an alien world and entering the atmosphere. On Voyager Janeway is talking with Admiral Hendricks in the Alpha Quadrant and he gives her a mission to track down Friendship 1. Kim gets to work and after making some corrections they find on a planet badly contaminated with anti-matter radiation (whatever that is supposed to be). Tom, Chakotay, Neelix, Kim and Carey take the Flyer to the surface but soon come under attack. Tom, Neelix and Carey are taken hostage as Chakotay heads back to Voyager under heavy fire. The aliens on the planet are badly hurt by the radiation and demand insist that humanity is at fault and Janeway should be willing to evacuate their entire planet. Janeway starts looking for options but isn't happy to be negotiating with hostage takers. Paris manages to befriend a pregnant alien and manages to save her baby, but without a trip to Voyager it still won't make it.
To prove he is serious the alien leader kills Carey when Janeway doesn't move fast enough for him. In a transporter test one of the aliens ends up on Voyager and has his radiation treated. He is a scientist and starts working on plan to remove the radiation from the atmosphere. Janeway is done with the hostage takers though and sends Tuvok with a rescue team and gets them out of there. But Paris talks them into sending the baby with them and returns it treated. Voyager begins bombarding the planet to get rid of the radiation and the scientist has to talk the leader into not nuking them with their missiles. It works and the leader finally sees he was wrong.
Review: This is a pretty ham-handed episode that takes what is at least in theory a good Trek message of being careful with weapons or something and turning it so many times that I am not sure what it is trying to say. Maybe in 5 years when Mission Log gets here I will figure it out, but it didn't work for me.
3 out of 10
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