Voyager orbits a planet where life moves a lot quicker.
Almost pure science fiction, of the Asimov and Clarke type, in a way that works well within the structure of Voyager. While I didn’t check everything with a stopwatch, the time passing on the planet always seemed to make sense, never slowing conveniently for the plot. There’s actually a lot going on here – it’s a story about the development of religion versus science, it’s a story about first contact and fighting against aliens you don’t know, and they even slip in a quick story about one of the crew living a life separate to the ship. (It would’ve been nice if the Doctor had actually had 80 years on the planet, but then the parallels to *Inner Light* would have been blatant, not subtle).
The one tweak I’d suggest, as a reader of too many James A. Michener novels, would have been to try and create some connection between the different time periods. Michener’s trick is usually to have the same families appearing time and again, and that could have worked here. But given the time constraints (see what I did there) that might have made things a bit too complex to work on screen in one hour.
(I particularly enjoyed the ‘research theologian’ in the first sequence for the natives, who establishes who the new ‘god’ is, and the appropriate sacrifice, in only minutes. You just don’t see that kind of efficiency often in theology).
597 down, 140 to go.