4.07 scientific method

Janeway is suffering from excruciating headaches; she defers to Chakotay to lead the investigation of a nearby anomaly. She’s not her usual motherly tolerant self, either; faced with the news that Torres and Paris have been seen necking in various public areas of the ship, she explodes at them, telling them she is disappointed and they need to be more discreet. Then Chakotay loses his hair and begins to age rapidly, and Neelix’ DNA changes him into another species with even more spots (there is a funny scene in sick bay with Chakotay and Neelix trading maladies in an attempt to outdo each other). As more crewmembers begin to get sick, Torres and the doctor investigate – but Torres is struck down suddenly, and the doctor’s program is almost deleted. Seven receives a message from the doctor through her implants, and works with him to solve the mystery; he alters her optic nerve and enables her to see that there are aliens – slightly out of phase – on Voyager, performing experiments on the crew, many of whom have been probed and prodded, including the captain, who has four huge pins sticking into her head and is unaware of their existence. Working alone, she attempts to send a blast through the ship to disable aliens and humans alike, but Tuvok gets suspicious, forcing her hand. She phases one alien, making it visible and capturing it. Janeway confronts the alien, who (like a human scientist who defends the rights to do experiments on lab animals) simply says that the research will save millions of lives, and if Janeway doesn’t allow the research to reach its conclusion (which will result in very few fatalities and not too many deformities), they will kill the entire crew. Even more hard-assed than usual because of the needles in her head, Janeway flies the ship into the anomaly, content to destroy it first if the aliens don’t leave. They do, and the ship somehow doesn’t collapse and gets through okay. Back in Paris’ quarters, Torres and Paris choose a better location to be intimate.