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Star Trek Voy - Season 7 - Episode 16

Star Trek Voy - 7x16 - Workforce, Part I

Originally Aired: 2001-2-21

Synopsis:
The crew works on an unknown world. [DVD]

My Rating - 8

Fan Rating Average - 4.47

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Problems
None

Factoids
- The Quarran ships are a reuse of the Breen ships from DS9.

Remarkable Scenes
- The sight of the impressive Quarren city.
- Janeway to her supervisor: "I can already tell it's going to be much better than my last job."
- Seven the "efficiency monitor."
- Tom having discipline problems
- Tuvok, the funny man, a joke teller.
- The doctor as the Emergency Command Hologram. Nice reference to Voy: Tinker Tenor Doctor Spy.
- The sight of Neelix' ship leaving the shuttle bay.
- Neelix and Chakotay "abducting" Torres.

My Review
Impressive. Voyager has been abusing two part episodes lately, squandering time. But this is a case where the two part episode is used well. Part one is sufficiently complex, giving us many sets and many problems. I was very pleased to see the doctor get to play Emergency Command Hologram for real, fantastic continuity with Voy: Tinker Tenor Doctor Spy. The way he and eventually Chakotay, Harry, and Neelix all deal with the problem was very professional and a lot of fun to watch. Part one has thus far made great use of Voyager's diverse elements and continuity. Besides the ECH, we see the return of Neelix' shuttle, Torres' pregnancy is used in the story again, Tom's delinquency is made an issue, Janeway's desire for a relationship shows up again, and even Seven of Nine's efficiency fetish plays a role. It's remarkable how the characters were selectively brainwashed so the essence of who they were remained, even if their memories were tampered with. The episode's climax is exciting, leaving us with a (most literal) cliffhanger after Chakotay had been discovered and Torres "abducted." Finally, the graphics in this episode were spectacular, some of the best ever shown.

The following are comments submitted by my readers.

  • From Dstyle on 2015-08-05 at 5:42pm:
    Despite possessing the complete technical knowledge of the Borg Collective, the aliens of the week decide to make Seven of Nine their new Efficiency Officer. Geez, if you're going to criminally underutilize her, why not just put her in charge of handing out paper towels in the bathroom?

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