Star Trek: Voyager — 5x17 — The Disease

Aired 1999-02-24

SpaceOpera.com rating:6

Average reader rating:4.06

Synopsis

Kim chooses love over duty.

Remarkable scenes

The opening scenes showing the generational ship. That's some damn nice special effects work.
Tom: "Oh, here we go again." Harry: "What?" Tom: "You, going after impossible women. Uh, a hologram, an ex-Borg, the wrong twin, and now a girl from a xenophobic species!"
Tom, impressed with the Varro ship, annoyed that Tuvok isn't very interested in adapting their techniques for Voyager.
Tom killing Harry's transmission and covering for him.
Seven of Nine's opinion on love. Hilarious.
Harry to Tal: "You're beautiful when you're scanning."
The generational ship coming apart.
I love the camera work when Kim and Janeway are arguing. The camera rolls from the conference room, to the bridge, to the ready room all in one shot.
Harry: "Maybe I'm not the perfect officer anymore." Janeway: "Maybe not. But you're a better man."

Review

A pretty crappy premise spiced up with some interesting details. The aliens of the week were quite interesting, and their generational ship was both an awesome concept and visually spectacular. Tom once again takes a perverse pleasure in making fun of Harry's female escapades, and Harry gets in a lot of trouble for not taking Tom's advice. I also rather liked the detail when Tom prevented Harry from getting caught early in the episode. Too bad he couldn't protect him full time. ;) The contention between Harry and Janeway is well presented and nicely dramatic and the contention between the conservatives and the dissidents on the generational ship was equally compelling. My only complaint about the episode is the distinct lack of consequences. Once again, introducing a new character such as this warrants recurrence, something I've complained about since TOS. But we don't get it. Anyway, the episode was a nice ride. I liked it.

8 reader comments

Just an observation; Anyone notice how Harry's accent changes when he's arguing with Janeway. It seems to become (I stand to be corrected) more 'Korean'.
by David Chambers | 06/30/2009 at 5:42 pm

I found Harry's decision to remain with Voyager to be reprehensible. He causes Tal, a beautiful alien woman to fall in love with him. Problem is for that species love is a physical bond which requires years to recover from, and carries grave risk if not continued, possibly even death. Despite this, and although Harry is supposedly devoted to Tal, he abandons her to her fate. Obviously, he would have been free to either join her, or have her join him. I would have found either ending much more satisfying. Certainly, Harry's supposed "love" for Tal is shown to be very shallow, given his callous disregard for her welfare.
by Jeff Browning | 09/08/2011 at 1:40 am

I really hate those cheesy "one day romance" plots. Those cheap love stories with zero chemistry have become a sort of plot device in Star Trek.
by Inga | 12/12/2013 at 8:51 pm

I knew this one would suck because every time there's an outstanding episode like Dark Frontier, the next one is awful.
by thaibites | 01/07/2015 at 10:18 am

"I'm violating about half a dozen regulations by just being in this room. And what we did earlier… (chuckle) I don't know if Starfleet even has a regulation for that. Except, you know, that regulation I quote to Janeway later in the episode, from the manual that is 3 centimeters thick. I guess maybe Starfleet has a regulation for this after all. Not that anyone reads it or cares about it, though--probably because it's printed on paper for some reason. James Kirk, Will Riker, Tom Paris, Harry Kim. Has a nice ring to it, don't you think? It's like the Mount Rushmore of Interstellar Booty Calls! Yeah, nevermind Tal: I'm pretty sure I'm not going to get in trouble for this at all. Now back in that bed! Let's get all glowy again!"
Okay, ignoring the fact that inter-species sexy time happens ALL THE TIME in Star Trek, I thought this episode was actually pretty great. It was visually stunning, with that amazing opening shot of the ship that pans right into Tal's quarters and the long, single-take shot during Janeway and Kim's argument. And Harry Kim, a character who is usually just a wet mop in a Starfleet uniform, is actually pretty interesting and relatable here. And since this "disease" will take months to get over I look forward to seeing him broken and lovesick for the rest of the season (HAHAHAHA just kidding with that last part obviously: we all know he'll be completely back to normal next episode).
by Dstyle | 07/07/2015 at 5:13 pm

She is so pretty. She also says Har weeee which makes me laugh.
by Smoking Blonde | 02/03/2016 at 4:53 pm

Nice episode, decent plot, above average filler. Still, there's something i've got to tell about this one: When janeway speaks to chakotay about reprimeading harry, she says, and i quote: You're my first officer, he's an ensing! He hasn't earned the right to question my orders, whatever he's personal views. endquote
That does the trick for me right there. That reminder of our own hierarchical system and values, and, IMO, those values are against the hole federation's ideologies and phylosofies.
Anyway, i give this one a 6, just above average.
by Martin | 04/18/2016 at 5:45 am

Well… One big problem. I can't sympathize with Harry, because he obviously didn't love Tal. I know what I'm saying, trust me. He wasn't forced to break with her, so… That's it. Till now he was just paper figure for me. From now, I despise him.
by McCoy | 09/21/2017 at 3:11 pm