Star Trek: Voyager — 4x07 — Scientific Method
Synopsis
An alien race conducts dangerous experiments.
Remarkable scenes
- Tom's site to site transport.
- Janeway enduring the doctor's "therapy."
- Janeway picking on Torres and Paris for their lack of discretion.
- Chakotay losing his hair, and his rapid aging.
- Chakotay and Neelix competing with each other over their disabilities.
- The doctor hiding on the holodeck in the Leonardo Da Vinci simulation and Seven of Nine the tricorder.
- Janeway: "Don't 13 department heads report to you every day?" Tuvok: "Yes." Janeway: "Well, straighten them out." Tuvok: "Shall I flog them as well?"
- Tuvok getting in the way of Seven of Nine, then Seven exposing the aliens to prove her point.
- The aliens killing a Voyager crewmember. He blood pressure was 360 over 125!
- Janeway flying Voyager into a binary pulsar.
- Torres and Tom speculating that the aliens started the relationship between them.
Review
An intelligently constructed episode that uses the full range of characters the show has to offer and features a satisfying climax. Janeway flying Voyager into the binary pulsar has to be one of my all time favorite Voyager moments. That's just the kind of "reckless" behavior I like about her. And despite what she might want others to think, she is pretty reckless! Hell, it's her recklessness that got them all stranded in the delta quadrant after all. I wouldn't want to serve under her command, but her behavior makes for some interesting episodes. That said, this episode's basic theme has been done before. We got to see aliens experimenting on the crew in TNG: Schisms already. But this episode is not just some blatant rip off of TNG: Schisms. There are elements from at least 3 other episodes incorporated into the plot as well, making this episode one of the best "rehashes" I've seen in a while. It felt mostly original, it was exciting, it didn't center on a single character too much, and the story flowed well. Overall, above average.