Captain Janeway and a character from a holographic program fall in love.
Exploring loneliness and the need for intimacy and stimulation from the perspective of the Voyager crew was an excellent idea. Viewing it twenty years later you see parallels with today's virtual world where people are connected more through technology than human contact. In many cases there is no contact with other human beings at all, just with various forms of digital information (Gaming/pornography etc). With the above in mind you could say this was a pretty accurate prediction.
The difficulty with an episode lasting 40-45 minuets is how to convince me that the characters have fallen in love in a short space of time. What makes this one particularly hard to swallow is the limited amount of time the two characters are on screen together due to everything else that's going on.
Also problematic was their lack of chemistry. Being told that characters are in love is not enough for it to translate on screen. Writers need to place the protagonists into interesting situations from which love will naturally develop. You need to care about them or at the very least have some interest in what they are going through.
That being said, it does have its moments. Janeway adjusting Sullivan's character traits was good, along with her conversation with The Doctor. I particularly enjoyed the crew attempting to make Tuvok throw up during a bout of space-sickness.
The Irish stereotyping might annoy some, but it didn't bother me as I am Welsh and wasn't offended by 'How Green Was My Valley' or all the other Welsh stereotypes seen in popular culture. This is supposed to be a program created by someone centuries into the future and I don't think it's meant to be taken that seriously.
It could have been great but didn't make me care enough.
It's a 5.5/10 for me but I round upwards.
Exploring loneliness and the need for intimacy and stimulation from the perspective of the Voyager crew was an excellent idea. Viewing it twenty years later you see parallels with today's virtual world where people are connected more through technology than human contact. In many cases there is no contact with other human beings at all, just with various forms of digital information (Gaming/pornography etc). With the above in mind you could say this was a pretty accurate prediction.
The difficulty with an episode lasting 40-45 minuets is how to convince me that the characters have fallen in love in a short space of time. What makes this one particularly hard to swallow is the limited amount of time the two characters are on screen together due to everything else that's going on.
Also problematic was their lack of chemistry. Being told that characters are in love is not enough for it to translate on screen. Writers need to place the protagonists into interesting situations from which love will naturally develop. You need to care about them or at the very least have some interest in what they are going through.
That being said, it does have its moments. Janeway adjusting Sullivan's character traits was good, along with her conversation with The Doctor. I particularly enjoyed the crew attempting to make Tuvok throw up during a bout of space-sickness.
The Irish stereotyping might annoy some, but it didn't bother me as I am Welsh and wasn't offended by 'How Green Was My Valley' or all the other Welsh stereotypes seen in popular culture. This is supposed to be a program created by someone centuries into the future and I don't think it's meant to be taken that seriously.
It could have been great but didn't make me care enough.
It's a 5.5/10 for me but I round upwards.