Star Trek: Voyager — 5x25 — Warhead
Synopsis
A weapon takes control of Voyager.
Remarkable scenes
- The AI commandeering the doctor's program.
- Harry trying to reason with the AI.
- The scene with the guy offering to save Voyager in exchange for the weapon. Janeway sticks to her principles. Hard choice.
- Harry and Torres discovering that the war the warheads were fighting is over.
- Seven of Nine's futile attempt to disarm the weapon.
- Harry convincing the bomb not to complete its mission.
- The bomb: "I am simply completing my mission. Only the target has changed."
- Harry: "I held you up as an example of how an artificial intelligence could exceed its programming. I didn't realize how true that was until today."
Review
A combination of TNG: Lower Decks, showing us Harry doing a superb job commanding the night crew, TNG: The Quality of Life showing us the doctor's struggle for sentient AI's rights to be observed, and Voy: Dreadnought showing us another devious smart bomb. But not just any smart bomb. This bomb has achieved a true sentience. It takes a while for Harry and Torres to realize and convince the bomb that its war is over and it needs to stand down, but once they do convince it, the bomb sacrifices itself to stop the unenlightened others from committing atrocity. It's ironic that in TNG: The Quality of Life an Exocomp sacrificed itself to save the others whereas in this episode the bomb sacrificed itself to destroy the others. Both sacrifices in the interest of saving as many lives as possible. The parallel is very effective; I wonder if it was intentional? Overall, a very successful episode.