Many critique this episode for its rather banal plot, but I think it falls down for deeper reasons that plagued Voyager's writing throughout its history.
A) every plot that threatens a meaningful change to the crew ultimately goes nowhere because the writers were shackled to riskless episodic storytelling. Nothing ever changes, and at this point it's madness that they still tried to pretend it would. It feels like watching a Seinfeld episode.
B) it revisits one of many rehashed plotlines from a well drawn dry years before - in this case, once again retreading the exploration of the doctor's autonomy without conviction, so inferior to the almost decade-old Measure of a Man as to be almost insulting.
C) giving characters inconsistent motivations in order to stimulate drama. B'Elanna copped this the worst, but it's Seven's turn now. The Doctor's mentorship of Seven is depicted occasionally - at no point is she shown to be tied to him through friendship and she still keeps most people at arm's length. Until now, in which she guilt-trips him for wanting to explore a dream, expressing more overt interpersonal emotion than in any other episode.
D) Janeway is kind of a psycho. She devalues the Doctor's personhood, claiming he has no say in his fate because he is a member of her crew. 'You belong to me' is not the excuse you think it is Kathryn.
It's a funny enough episode, but meandering and ultimately pointless despite its pretensions. Sadly, it's emblematic of the flaws that held the series back from the beginning.
A) every plot that threatens a meaningful change to the crew ultimately goes nowhere because the writers were shackled to riskless episodic storytelling. Nothing ever changes, and at this point it's madness that they still tried to pretend it would. It feels like watching a Seinfeld episode.
B) it revisits one of many rehashed plotlines from a well drawn dry years before - in this case, once again retreading the exploration of the doctor's autonomy without conviction, so inferior to the almost decade-old Measure of a Man as to be almost insulting.
C) giving characters inconsistent motivations in order to stimulate drama. B'Elanna copped this the worst, but it's Seven's turn now. The Doctor's mentorship of Seven is depicted occasionally - at no point is she shown to be tied to him through friendship and she still keeps most people at arm's length. Until now, in which she guilt-trips him for wanting to explore a dream, expressing more overt interpersonal emotion than in any other episode.
D) Janeway is kind of a psycho. She devalues the Doctor's personhood, claiming he has no say in his fate because he is a member of her crew. 'You belong to me' is not the excuse you think it is Kathryn.
It's a funny enough episode, but meandering and ultimately pointless despite its pretensions. Sadly, it's emblematic of the flaws that held the series back from the beginning.