Exasperated Calculator: Star Trek & Economics

The Doctor befriends a Cardassian [Mengele](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Josef_Mengele). Baby’s First Ethical Dilemma, also substantially undermined by the fact that the Cardassian doctor is a hologram. And one who was created pretty easily too. It means there’s no stakes involved in whether he lives or dies. And the complexity of the ‘should we use unethical research’ issue is…

Seven of Nine suddenly starts having different personalities. Jeri Ryan is an excellent actress. I have never seen the ‘multiple personalities’ thing done better in Star Trek. And we’ve seen it a *lot*. This episode is a new approach, in that it’s laden with a technobabble Borg thingie, and there just isn’t much interesting that…

Dukat’s cult tries to recruit Kira. This was a pretty good episode apart from one thing – why on earth was Kira there? If it was another ‘Dukat wants to convince Kira’ thing, there wasn’t nearly enough to drive it. It was as if she was there solely because the script needed an observer. Events…

Chakotay and Kim travel back in time to save Voyager. Another big move closer to the Alpha quadrant – have we seen the ’75 years to get home’ clock updated recently? We’re 5 years down of real time, Kes did 10 years back in ‘The Gift’, ‘Night’ was 2 years, and this episode is 10.…

Sisko and a few others visit an entirely different genre. A war movie done badly in a show that isn’t a good fit for it. Way too much whispering in dark scenes. The Jem’Hadar appear to be commanded by [Douglas Haig](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Douglas_Haig,_1st_Earl_Haig). Don’t bring Dad to a battle. And cliche theatre with the red shirts of…

Voyager’s only child is kept in the dark as her mother is missing on an away mission. A Holodeck episode *and* a small child? What can possibly go wrong? Well, to be honest, nothing particularly goes wrong here. It’s just a bad idea, and nothing is added to make it interesting. The children’s story is…

Old Klingon warriors never die, they just fade away. Another strong Klingon story. It’s strange – these used to be pretty dreadful episodes in the main, but now there’s a war to fight there’s a lot more to like about them. It doesn’t hurt that the model is pretty explicitly ‘submarine movie’. The basis of…

Voyager finds an alien replica of Starfleet in San Francisco. OK, but not great. The setup is good – the mysterious start, trying to work out what’s going on, Chakotay’s ‘date’. It all contributes to a sense of not knowing very well what’s going on, and being a bit worried by it. And it was…

Weyoun defects to the Federation. Strangely uninteresting for an episode with a strong premise (and title). We haven’t done very much with the complicated relationship between the Vorta and the Founders, or Odo’s place in all of that. There’s also the serial clones that allow familiar faces to stick around. But with all of that…

Tom builds a shuttle, B’Elanna finds a [black dog](http://www.blackdoginstitute.org.au/index.cfm). The crew of Voyager have a lot to learn about dealing with depression. The Doctor has absolutely no idea about how to treat it, even with his massive medical database. Janeway thinks the answer is to elevate the stakes and take her off duty. And Chakotay…