Review

Weak. Lt. Carey appeared in season one, then was remarkably absent from future episodes. They brought him back for episodes that dealt with "Voyager's past" connoting that he was lost some time in season one. Now it's revealed that he's always been around and that he never died... only so they could kill him off here! His death was utterly pointless and Janeway's speech about how exploration at the cost of loss of life being unacceptable is just downright offensive. Every starship we've seen on Star Trek has lost life in the name of exploration. That's what makes it so "bold" when they go "where no one has gone before." It's not unrealistic that Janeway, who has just lost a friend (okay, maybe that's a stretch seeing as how he was already a ghost) might be feeling shaky about her convictions but such feelings could have been expressed better. On the other hand, the idea of having Voyager go on a mission to retrieve Friendship One was a good one. I did indeed like the premise of the episode. It's just a shame that instead of getting a discussion about this being the reason the Prime Directive exists, all we got was a dumb hostage story instead.