3.5 false profits

Voyager discovers traces of a wormhole which may lead to the alpha quadrant, as sensors reveal the existence of a replicator on a nearby M-class planet. Paris and Chakotay don the local garb (after Janeway sends a ‘high-resolution probe’ to scope out the local garb – I always wondered how they knew what to wear) and shuttle down, to discover that two Ferengi (who used the wormhole to get here) have co-opted the local legend of sages who came from the sky. The Ferengi have used the replicator to claim to be gods, and the Rules of Acquisition as their bible and have drained the wealth of the locals with heavy taxation, turning the previously flourishing society into a bunch of annoying Ferengi beggars. Meanwhile Kim and Torres have discovered that while the alpha quadrant side of the wormhole is stable, the delta quadrant side of wagging around like a tail on a dog, always appearing and quickly disappearing at different locations. Kim and Torres work on a way to ‘attract’ and stabilize the wormhole locally. To stop the Ferengi from continuing to exploit the local people, Janeway decides to take them back to the alpha quadrant, despite Tuvok’s warnings that she would be interfering in the local culture. Tuvok can’t convince her, but the Ferengi, once beamed aboard, can, after they describe how devastated the locals would be. Janeway beams them back down and instead opts for a method that will leave the locals with an explanation; she sends Neelix down, disguised as the Grand Proxy, to escort the two (sans wealth) back to the Grand Nagus. But the plan is foiled when the Ferengi try to kill Neelix. Chakotay discovers another way after listening to the final verse of the local song re the sages; Neelix claims to be a mythical figure meant to take them home in a fire. But the locals interpret this literally and prepare to burn the three in a pyre. Just in time, Paris and Chakotay destroy the Ferengi’s dampening field and are beamed aboard Voyager. The wormhole is just appearing, and Voyager prepares to enter, but the Ferengi attack a guard and steal their shuttle, planning to go back to the surface and get their wealth. But as they defend themselves from beam-out, they venture too close to the wormhole, enter it, and destabilize it, and Voyager cannot follow. Sadly, Janeway gives the order to set a course for the alpha quadrant – at warp six – which suddenly sounds very, very slow.

In the last scene, as the former assistant to the Ferengi is handing back all the wealth to the people, they see a bright light shoot across the night sky, explode at a point in space, and then disappear. "Look!" one of them says, "The Holy Ones are going home!" Think about this line; Janeway could have left these people to be corrupted and exploited by the Ferengi; instead she made it her first priority to rid this planet of them, thereby saving them and restoring their flourishing society. At the same time, she lost the chance to enter the wormhole. It is not a mistake when the local refers to them as ‘The Holy Ones.’

Janeway once again violates regulations for the second episode in a row. I guess she has decided that the principles of Janeway, not the principles of the Federation, are the best allies they could have.

This also is another episode where the ‘planet’ that they visit, once again, is a primitive people who live in a small town with a square, and, like all the other little towns, they don’t have any mode of transportation other than feet – no wheeled vehicles, no animals used to transport heavy loads, etc.