Exasperated Calculator: Star Trek & Economics

Voyager finds a way home. Maybe. This is a good story, although I would have preferred to have a bit more of the Doctor’s B-plot than some of the slow development in the main story. But I felt that the emotional content was a bit lacking. The crew goes from having a 70 year journey…

Grand Nagus Zek tries to change all Ferengi culture. So, whose bright idea was it that the first reappearance of the wormhole aliens since the pilot should be in a ‘comedy’ Ferengi episode? That takes my normal annoyance at Ferengi episodes to a whole new level. It’s better than some of the other Ferengi episodes,…

Voyager investigates a nebula that may provide energy for the ship. For the most part this is the first episode to really try and address the situation that the crew is in. It does a good job with a lot of the elements – the reduced circumstances for the crew, the slow realisation of their…

An ancient prophecy predicts doom as Cardassian scientists visit. A slow and talky episode, but not in a bad way. We’re calling back to something that hasn’t been mentioned at all lately, namely Sisko’s night job as a Bajoran messiah. And there’s some nice development of the new peace between Cardassia and Bajor. On the…

Neelix’s lungs are stolen. Well, it’s better than [*Spock’s Brain](http://www.exasperatedcalculator.com/archives/2010/02/trekathon-056-spocks-brain-tos/), the last major organ theft episode from Star Trek (almost 300 episodes ago…) It’s not that bad at all, really. Once past the silliness of the concept there are some interesting points. The Doctor is developing well as a character, although it’s all a bit…

Major Kira gets her foot stuck. Another focus on Odo, this time looking at the Kira/Odo relationship in more detail. I was honestly finding this all a bit rote and boring (threatening the life of a main character never works well for me, I know its not going to happen), but the resolution redeemed things…

Janeway and Paris blow up a planet, and then try to prevent it. Too complicated, and a terrible child actor. This doesn’t ruin the episode completely, but is enough to make it all come off as very flat. For the most part it simply doesn’t jell together very well. As for the logic: I enjoy…

A peace treaty is derailed by a severe injury to Vedek Bareil A worthy attempt to tackle difficult issues. It’s a good example of the more serial nature of the show too, as this episode would be almost inaccessible to people who hadn’t been following the show at least somewhat wouldn’t understand a lot of…

Voyager tries to rescue a ship from a singularity. Again, this is pretty good. There’s a horrible moment early on with Neelix explaining what’s happening to Kes in such a terrible way that I was surprised that his version was ‘true’ in the Star Trek world, rather than being an insight into his character. The…

In a lot of ways this is the best Star Trek premiere yet. Now that is damning by faint praise: *The Cage* and *Where No Man Has Gone Before* were shaky early TOS episodes, *Encounter at Farpoint* was largely bad, and *Emissary* was mixed at best. So, simply by clearing the bar to ‘good’, this…