‘PERSISTENCE OF VISION’ (VOY)
Please feel free to comment on my review.
This is a compelling and tense ‘Voyager’ episode that explores the regular characters in terms of their insecurities, which is quite revealing. I enjoyed the execution of the characters’ development. 🙂
In the episode, Voyager is about to have a potentially dangerous encounter with an alien race called the Botha. Janeway meanwhile is exhausted, as she goes to visit B’Elanna and Harry in engineering. 😐
They’re attempting to transfer the holographic Doctor to other places aboard Voyager as well as sick bay to gain access to sick and injured. Unfortunately, their test fails, and the Doctor is shrunk to size.
I found that scene funny to watch whilst watching the episode. When the Doctor notices Janeway is exhausted and stressed out, he orders her to relax in the holodeck. She takes the order graciously. 🙂
Janeway ends up playing out her ‘Jane Eyre’-like holonovel, which was introduced in the Season 1 episodes ‘Cathexis’ and ‘Learning Curve’. It was good to revisit that holodeck fantasy in this episode.
There’s the return of holodeck characters like Michael Cumpsty as Lord Burleigh, Thomas Dekker as Henry Burleigh, Lindsey Haun as Beatrice Burleigh and Carolyn Seymour as Mrs. Templeton in this. 🙂
Sadly, Janeway’s fantasy relaxation is short-lived when she’s called to the bridge to make first contact with the Botha. The Botha representative gives a rather chilly reception to the Voyager crew.
It also doesn’t help that he’s mostly in shadow when the crew see him on the viewscreen. The Bortha representative sets up a rendezvous to decide on allowing them to pass through their space.
After that, Janeway starts seeing objects and characters from her ‘Jane Eyre’-like holonovel. Janeway asks questions to B’Elanna and Harry in engineering and to Neelix in the mess hall about this matter.
This includes seeing cucumber sandwiches and China cups in the mess hall as well as seeing little Beatrice running around the Voyager corridors. Eventually, Janeway goes to sick bay to get checked.
According to the Doctor, he can’t find anything wrong with her brain. Janeway soon experiences another hallucination of Beatrice in sick bay, to which Kes sees it too, which was interesting to see. 🙂
The hallucination bounces off of Kes and reflects back into Janeway. Concerned, the Doctor orders Janeway to her quarters for rest until he can determine the source of these events. Janeway complies.
In her quarters, whilst having some coffee ice cream, Janeway hears a voice, which happens to be Stan Ivar as Mark, her fiancé (who was introduced in ‘Caretaker’). There’s also her dog that barks. 😐
Janeway then receives a visit from Carolyn Seymour as Mrs. Templeton, who tries to attack her with a knife. But this turns out to be an hallucination, as Tuvok snaps her out of it when she’s in sick bay.
Kes also confirms seeing the hallucination when she’s in sick bay with Janeway. It’s interesting how that scene in Janeway’s quarters didn’t really happen and that she’d been in sick bay all of this time.
Janeway puts Chakotay in charge of meeting up with the Botha whilst she undergoes medical testing. During the meeting, the Botha representative’s ship engages in a battle with the Voyager ship.
Eventually, Janeway races to the bridge where she meets the Bothan on the viewscreen. She’s shocked however to find her fiancé Mark there and the crew also see their loved ones on the screen.
Tom Paris sees his father, Warren Munson as Admiral Paris, and Tuvok sees his wife, Marva Hicks as T’Pel. Harry Kim also sees his girlfriend Libby, but sadly, Jennifer Gatti doesn’t make an appearance.
Soon, one by one, the Voyager enter a catatonic state when they experience hallucinations of their loved ones, including Janeway. Only Kes and the Doctor remain unaffected. They try to save the day.
Kes, with the Doctor’s help, attempt to block the psychic field in engineering, which was what B’Elanna was trying to do. Unfortunately, she hallucinates and experiences agony with burns on her.
Thankfully, Kes reflects the burns back onto the intruder disguised as Neelix, who then reveals himself to be Patrick Kerr as the telepathic Botha. Kes manages to restore the Voyager crew back to normal.
When Janeway confronts the telepathic Botha, asking why he did this, he replies that he simply can. It’s disturbing an alien like that in the universe can do such a thing without compassion for others. 😦
Before they can confront him further, the telepathic Botha vanishes. The Voyager crew continues on their way, but they feel so uneasy about what’s lurking in the subconscious corridors of their minds.
I like how Janeway and B’Elanna share that final scene with each other at the episode’s end. Overall, ‘Persistence of Vision’ is a good and compelling ‘Voyager’ episode to watch in exploring the characters. 🙂
‘Persistence of Vision’ (VOY) rating – 8/10
| The previous story
For ‘Voyager’ was |
The next story
For ‘Voyager’ is |
| Return to Star Trek | |
| Return to Sci-Fi |
Bradley's Basement 