The Fight

Once again a pretty lame "A-koo-chee-moya" episode about Commander Chakotay. Number One has delivered a one star episode yet again (in a universe full of stars). Why do all the episodes with him deal with spirit quests, visions, hallucinations and connections to his ancestors? Unfortunately, Chakotay's character hasn't really been developed in the previous episodes of the series, so every episode in which he is the core of the plot is boring and always follows the same formula. Whenever something mystical needs to happen, Chakotay is used because it combines nicely with his native American origins.

Suddenly Chakotay is boxing in his free time - something we've never heard of before. By the way, a major weak point in contrast to Deep Space Nine. The main characters were often seen there in their free time and as private individuals - O'Brien and Bashir playing darts, Sisko in the kitchen, Dax playing Tongo with Ferengis... that's missing in Voyager. Voyager usually shows something in one episode that is important to the plot. After that you never see or hear about it again. E.g. The doctor's holographic family, Janeway's holonovel as Ms. Davenport and the mystery upstairs (which was never solved) or Neelix' vacation resort on the holodeck. Either only mentioned once in one episode or hasn't been part of another episode in ages. I bet you won't hear anything more about Chakotay's enthusiasm for boxing either.

In this episode, Voyager is once again stuck in some space rift or anomaly. It's about time they converted Voyager to 4 nacelles warp drive so that the ship doesn't constantly get stuck somewhere. And of course there are aliens living in this anomaly who can only communicate with the Voyager crew by making contact with selected crew members through visions and dreamscapes that initially make no sense. Only the writers of this episode know though why they chose the metaphor of a boxing ring and a fight.

Star Trek hardcore fans naturally interpret everything into this episode. Basically, this episode is boring, long-winded and confusing. You can safely take Chakotay's other spirit quest episodes and let them gather dust in the Star Trek archives.

I'm at this point re-watching Voyager and, reading all these negative reviews I tried watching this episode paying more attention, giving it a chance.

My opinion is, if you make the effort, it's not so chaotic, even though it IS a bit chaotic, but there are a lot of TNG episodes that felt this way earlier many years ago when I saw them (a re-watch is scheduled after Voyager).

Anyway, I can see how the writers wanted to tell this story and it can be followed, it's not a bad episode, it's like a longer prog metal song, you need to listen to it a few times to be able to understand and appreciate it.

Especially comparing the experience to the previous episode, which I skipped deliberately because I hate it, it's a waste that the duplicates die and nothing remains, the probe with the data they've gathered over their lifetime is lost, as if they had never existed, like, ever. So it's a waste of time for me to watch it.

This one at least has some depth added to Chakotay's shallow-ish character.

Chakotay begins having strange visions as Voyager enters "chaotic space".

The concept is very simple, but the story is told in a very disorienting way from Chakotay's point of view, which will likely impact what you think of it.

I see why this is an unpopular episode as it combines two themes that have been generally unpopular in Star Trek: Chakotay's Native American "abilities" and the use of DNA to explain certain plot contrivances. Personally, I do not think it is as bad as so many reviewers describe, but to put me through this type of disjointed narrative requires a very satisfying (or at least impactful) payoff at the end. This does not happen and the reliance of a certain gene to underpin crucial plot details is a bit of a stretch for me.

I like the visuals and editing which generate a creepy atmosphere and makes for a quite jarring experience. Plus the boxing imagery and related dialogue (particularly when the Doctor talks about the associated dangers, metaphorically) is pretty well done.

As another reviewer mentioned it is good to see Star Trek portraying life-forms that interact differently, as opposed to actors with American accents and a bit of latex on their face trying to pass as aliens.

I think the acting all round is very good. Robert Picardo is always good, but here Robert Beltran has the chance to play Chakotay in a very stressed and agitated state of mind and does it well.

So Chakotay has his turn as the principle character again. Voyager has entered chaotic space where everything is all bent and distorted. They can't proceed because it is unpredictable and dangerous. Chakotay seems to have some boxing chops and he is quite masculine. He goes on one of his vision quests and tries to figure out how they can get out of their predicament. He hears voices and needs to interpret them to figure out what to do. Mostly it is one oddity after another. Perhaps it should be called "Chaotic Plot."

...rated lower than the one where Paris and Janeway have slimy amphibian sex -- and seem remarkably blase about the whole thing when they are technobabbled back into human form -- you know you aren't winning love from the audience.

That's all I had to say. I just needed to point out that somehow this was a less-beloved episode than an episode involving Human-Salamander coital relations. That's...that quite an accomplishment.