I guess I should be happy they made it this far into VOY without a blatant Chakotay "noble savage" episode. But they really did it this time by not having it be Chakotay who is worried about spoiling the pure and true savages, but Seven. At the same time I think this was supposed to be about the uncontacted native tribes still living in the amazon today and I have to say I have mixed feelings about whether we should contact them or not. We have access to medical care and many other valuable things that would let them live longer lives, the question is would they actually be better off, and I have to say I think they would. Native peoples are just as smart and innovative as we are and if you believe as I do that society has been making progress over the millennia than doesn't it make sense to bring the good that we have to people like this? But I do have the say the locals who wanted to move in on the primitive people in this case did seem more like strip miners than cultural ambassadors. Also I want to point out that there are only three episodes left and Seven still isn't even dating Chakotay despite being trapped on a jungle paradise world with him.
We open with Seven and Chakotay heading to a conference when they encounter an energy barrier that knocks out their engines. Seven figures a way through it but the shuttle is wrecked and they barely transport out with their lives. Paris meanwhile is stopped by local authorities for piloting the Flyer recklessly and sentenced to three days of pilot school. Seven and Chakotay decide to try and build a beacon from the parts of the wrecked shuttle but Chakotay has a broken leg and can't go far. They encounter some locals and after insisting they not contact them he sends Seven off to look for parts and waits so close that there is no chance they won't find him. And they do, when Seven returns he is having his wound tended by the stone age locals. Of course Chakotay can figure out how to talk to them since he is a native american and they manage to figure out where the front part of the shuttle landed. Seven heads off to find it since she can use it to open the energy barrier. On Voyager they have figured out where the shuttle crashed, but aren't as far along on a plan to figure out how to get it open.
Despite her reservations Seven goes with one of the local women to find the deflector and along the way is taken to a waterfall to appreciate it or something, and she actually does seem to appreciate it. There is some sort of delay and she finds the thing, but Chakotay comes out to find her as well for no clear reason other than he has no combadge and they will need to beam him up soon (not that he knows this). Seven gets the barrier down but stays behind at first to care for an injured local. When she returns to the village she is horrified to find that the more advanced nearby people who have Tom in driving school have showed up and are taking stock of the village. She heads back to Voyager pissed and Janeway agrees after some hesitation. But more of the bureaucrat locals show up and muscle them out so Janeway has to call Tom to bust out of his driving class and come to the rescue. He beams out the survey team and then the deflector putting the barrier back in place. We close with Chakotay bring Seven a blanket he got on the planet because she might get cold in the cargo bay or something since they have to be dating and or married in a few episodes.
Review: The main story was a little weak, but the hilarious DMV hi jinks of Tom Paris were pretty classic. Especially since Dragon Ball Z has an episode with a similar premise...
4 out of 10
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