Retrospect

...and try to examine this episode in terms of complexity.

While I understand the furor over the treatment of the (metaphorical) rape victim and the indications that it was an (unintentionally) false accusation, one of the most fascinating aspects of the evolution of Star Trek over its various incarnation and series is the way the underlying themes and plots grow both heavier and more complex. TOS was...well, it wasn't exactly the most profound and deep of series. It was groundbreaking, but still a product of its times, when there was far less freedom on TV to explore the more troubling aspects of the world. TNG gradually evolved from less-than-inspiring early seasons to become far more complex and insightful than TOS ever was (and that includes most of the early movies, Wrath excepted.) With DS9, they started pushing the envelope almost immediately, bringing in issues of society and religion, war crimes. slavery, genocide, terrorism, and...oh, all the usual things you'd expect from a station located on the precipice of continuous warfare. Voyager has continued the tradition of exploring issue in more depth, if unevenly so in the first 3 seasons. And then we have this episode...

The attempts from certain portions of society to minimize the suffering of rape, especially by blaming the victim or overreacting to anecdotes of false accusations make this episode a fraught one indeed. Despite saying, and believing, that the outcome here is a dangerous one, I actually think that the writers managed to make an intelligent choice. In TOS or at least 2/3rds of the run of TNG, the episode would have ended with the accused proven guilty, the accuser vindicated, and the world returned to its balance. It feels good, it feels right (unless you are one of those angry men who can't handle the fact that rape is a serious problem in this world and among our species) and nobody would have complained (except aforementioned men.)

But....the world, and the galaxy, apparently, is not a simple feel-good place. Humans are complex creatures. Due to her nature, Seven of Nine is more complex than most. She's dealing with a horrific past, a confusing present, and a future that promises to make dealing with her past even more horrific. And that's exactly what this episode is really about. Not the metaphorical rape that appeared to occur in this episode, but by the metaphorical *life-destroying* rape that absolutely did happen when she was a small child. It's not about a false accusation of rape, it's about a true accusation of rape. As she becomes more human, she has become more cognizant of the horror done to her. Just a few episodes ago, she considered being assimilated, and her life afterwards, to be the best thing that ever happened to her. But no human that thinks like a human would take that perspective. She's starting to think like a human, feel like a human, and that includes being appalled and angry at what was done to her, like any rape victim should and would.

This was a troubling episode, no question, with an apparently troubling moral. Beneath that apparent moral, I think, is a far more complex and meaningful one, though.

Janeway should have thrown in a crate of self sealing stem bolts or perhaps Neelix' supply of Yamok sauce. Lol

This is one of my least favourite episodes of Voyager, almost as bad as The Thaw. The fundamental problem with the episode is that at no point does it make it clear to the viewer that Seven's memories are false. In the episode the case against Seven's story grows increasingly stronger but all of a sudden everyone changes their minds with no explanations at all for where Seven's memories came from or why she had them.

As much as I may agree with the fundamental premise, that the testimony of abused people should not always be taken at face value, the episode would have done much more to serve this view if it had offered up an alternative explanation to Seven's memories, something they instead gloss over.

I have read the other reviews and agree that it is unclear, for better or worse, what actually happened to Seven of Nine. The writers tried to trick the viewer at the end, in a way, by introducing doubt about the evidence collected. But it was only doubt and not a conclusion one way or the other.

What I would have liked to know is: did they get that super weapon from the arms dealer? There have been many episodes where the Voyager crew seem to acquire advanced tech from their contacts along the way but rarely do they seem to keep any of it. It's frustrating, like when you see people running under fire who leave behind perfectly useful weapons and ammo dropped by the enemy.

This was one of the details I appreciated about the Enterprise series; they upgraded as they went on their journey and used it.

The exception to this up to now in Voyager is the integration of Borg technology provided by Seven of Nine.

In Seven's memory she remembers a lab assistant.. but there was no attempt to find the witness. A huge misstep in the handling of a sensitive subject. This episode was poorly written, focused to much on he said/she said and less in actual investigation.