Saturday, May 10, 2008

7.13 repentance

Voyager rescues a group of Nygean guards, and their prisoners, all murderers sentenced to death. Despite Janeway and other crewmembers distaste for capital punishment, they must abide by the Nygean laws. When one of the most hardened criminals is beaten by guards, he is injected with Seven’s nanoprobes to cure him – and the side effect is he is hooked up again with his conscience, which changes him completely. In the meantime, Neelix has befriended a polite man who may have been wrongfully accused.

Cutting to the chase…there is nothing here that hasn’t been seen many times before. The evil captive ends up being the good guy, the good captive ends up being the traitor. But what is good is the acting by Jeff Kober as Iko and the relationship between Seven and Iko. Despite all the plot similarities, it was once again great to see Janeway and Seven be allowed to quietly and emotionally deliver lines. And of course it’s rather parochial examination of our own views toward capital punishment may seem childish – but at least it carries on a long-standing and comforting Trek tradition.

Left unanswered is why the nanoprobes were not administered to the other criminals as well – would it have cured them?

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