3.3 the chute

As the episode opens, a chute sends a disheveled-looking Harry Kim into the middle of a group of deranged, dirty, violent men who begin pushing him back and forth and pummeling him, until he finds himself face to face with a disheveled Tom Paris – who promptly knocks the wind out of him with a blow to the stomach. Turns out Tom and Harry were tried and convicted (with no evidence) of a civilian bombing. Tom punches Harry only to show his strength; this enables him to take Harry instead of letting the other prisoners get to him. The only way out of the prison, which the inmates believe is hundreds of feet below the earth, is through the chute that fed them down – and it is protected by a fatal force field. While Kim works on a way out, Tom gets into a fight with the prisoner who wanted Harry in the first place, and gets stabbed and badly wounded. Tom will die if he doesn’t get out and get medical help soon. But when Harry disables the force field and climbs to the top of the chute, what he finds is that they are not underground at all – they are on a space station (great sfx). Things are looking bleak, and it doesn’t help that Paris often no longer recognizes Kim, and Kim, under the influence of a brain-twisting torture implant called ‘The Clamp’, comes very close to killing Paris. Meanwhile, Janeway’s negotiations with the Aquitarians is getting nowhere, so instead she goes in search of – and finds - the real culprits, a brother and sister terrorist group. After she threatens to turn them over to the Aquitarians, they agree to help her get Tom and Harry out. Neelix’s ship (with Neelix as captain) is called upon to get past the Aquitarian patrols and reach the prison, where the Chute drops a new ‘prisoner’: Janeway blasting away with a phaser rifle, followed by Tuvok and security. Neelix cleverly evades the Aquitarian patrols and escapes with everyone safe.

This is a great episode, building up the very special relationship between Paris and Kim. At the end, back on the ship, Kim feels terrible about almost killing Paris. He tells him, "Don’t you remember? I almost killed you." And Paris says, "Do you know what I remember, Harry? I remember you saying, ‘No one touches him. He’s my best friend.’ That’s what I’ll remember, for a long long time."

However, I do have to mention that it stretches believability to have Janeway leading an invasion force (the captain is not usually sent on such missions – it should be a security team).