Review

A fair episode with a meager premise but a decent set of details which make the episode quite pleasant. Beside the fact that the Mari look exactly like humans, the Mari are shown to think of themselves perfect; there's a certain arrogance and aristocracy in their behavior which is quite annoying. Fortunately, Tuvok wastes no time pointing out the imperfections in their legal system. In the end, the Mari are a much more complex race than they first appear, which piqued my interest. The idea of a black market for thoughts is analogous to the black market for drugs, or child pornography. This episode makes a point about how prohibiting certain things can have both positive and negative effects on a society. The idea of restricting what people can and cannot think in a race of telepaths has some merit, but it isn't sufficiently explored in this episode. Voyager just kind of packs up and leaves, leaving the reforms and decisions of what to do to the Mari. This is certainly consistent with the Prime Directive, but leaves the viewer somewhat unsatisfied, as if all Tuvok's work to point out the "dark side" of the Mari culture went partially to waste. Sure, he saved B'Elanna, but we'll never know what effect this incident has on Mari culture. Some details I really liked were Seven of Nine's few brief scenes. She may not have had much screen time, but her dialog was well crafted. The scenes at the end depicting Tuvok and Torres then Janeway and Seven both having their own small argument reminded me a lot of the scenes at the end of TOS episodes, usually between Spock and McCoy. The dialog in both scenes was interesting and funny, a suiting end to the episode.