Unforgettable

I would like to use the neurogenic emitter in me to forget that I watched this episode

No pun intended. This was a very forgettable episode. First of all, there is the absurdity of the premise. An attractive woman asks for asylum aboard Voyager. Once she is there, she speaks of a love relationship with Chakotay. It turns out she is from a planet where the beings are forgotten by anyone with whom they've had contact after a short time As it happens, the two fall in love again, but there is a problem on board. It's so far fetched, even for this series, that I was happy when it ended.

Virginia Madsen stars as Kellin in this very unusual episode of "Star Trek: Voyager". After she has a brief fight with another ship very close to Voyager, Kellin contacts Voyager and asks for help from Chakotay specifically. Oddly, however, Chakotay doesn't recognize her. Soon you learn why--she's from a species that doesn't want outside contact and they go to very extreme lengths to keep it that way. If anyone leaves the planet, they are tracked down and anyone having contact forgets and their computers are wiped! Kellin insists that she'd spend a lot of time on Voyager and then proves this DID occur. So why, then, does she return? Well, it seems that Mr. Super-Sexy, Chakotay, has stolen her heart and she's here to seek asylum.

The notion of a world that goes to such extremes to keep its existence private is pretty unique. My only complaint is that having a cop whose job it is to bring in runaways then falling in love and wanting to defect is a bit hard to believe. Additionally, she KILLED her own kind in escaping and no one seemed to remember this or care. Odd...but still a good episode.

Chakotay falls in love with a lady from a race who produce a pheromone that affects the memory.

Themes of falling in love and the consequence associated with memory erasure of the relationship was done very well in 'Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind', but although the sci-fi premise here is similar, the love story does not work for me.

I do not think it is badly written or acted (as some have suggested), as there is only so well you can portray two strangers falling in love in one episode. It suffers from the usual issues that blight love stories for regular characters. I personally could not invest in the relationship and they never convince me of the love. I spent a large part of the episode suspicious of Kellin and her motives because they are hard to take at face value given the twisting nature of so many Trek plots.

Robert Beltran and Virginia Madison do a great job with the material. In one scene in particular, their chemistry is great, but the script calls for Chakotay to suddenly decide that he is in love which is difficult for any actor to pull off.

Or stun mode on phasers?

This reminds me of that Riker episode in TNG where he falls in love with someone and also mysteriously forgets about stun mode.