VOY: “Bliss”

Date: December 21 , 2020

Season 5, Episode 14

Musical Accompaniment: Finally on songs that start with ‘T’!

Interstellar News: Today was very productive and the start of a three day week before “vacation”. I’ll still be working during break, but my days won’t be as full.

Also, the title of this episode reminds me of a wonderful book named Goblin Precinct by Keith R.A. DeCandido (who also has written a hell of a lot of Trek fiction). In it is a drug called Bliss that proves to be fatal. You can order it anywhere, along with the other books in the Precinct universe that are pretty awesome. If you order from Keith’s site directly, he’ll even autograph them for you!

TL;DR: Qatai, an older alien, yells at his ship while he flies right into what looks like a storm. Voyager finds a wormhole that leads straight to Earth and, while skeptical at first, the whole crew buys into its authenticity… except for Seven and Naomi Wildman. The hits keeps coming as there are letters from Starfleet, Janeway’s boyfriend is no longer engaged, Chakotay’s going to get a pardon, Paris and Neelix have dream job offers, and more. Everyone is so excited and suspicious Seven enlists the EMH… who is then taken offline and Seven is supposed to go into stasis. Seven tries to disable to ship but they wind up in the “wormhole” and everyone passes out, except Seven and Naomi. They meet Qatai, who is also trapped, and he explains that the “wormhole” is really a beast that shows ships exactly what they want to lure them to it and then it eats their biomatter. After reactivating the EMH they develop a plan which works and is then a trap but it really works the second time and the rest of the crew comes back to and they resume a real course for home.

Favorite Quote:

EMH: Please state the nature of the medical emergency.

Qatai: Your ship is being devoured. I’d say that’s an emergency.

Qatai is just a little dramatic.

“I’m a Doctor, not a dragon slayer. My program requires that I do no harm.”: I loved that Paris, Seven, and Naomi were on a mission together and they had wonderful banter in the shuttle. It makes sense that Seven doesn’t want to go to Earth, but doesn’t Naomi want to meet her father? This was a fun mystery episode because, at first, Janeway is all like “okay let’s not get too excited” but then she’s clearly being decided and doesn’t care at all. All along I knew something was wrong and was hoping that Qatai wasn’t part of the illusion… kind of like when Seven was alone and was hallucinating. I was glad when Qatai wasn’t part of the illusion, even with his tragic backstory, and he added a nice gruffness to the story. I also liked that there was that little twist at the end when Seven thought she was out of the monster but they weren’t really and she had to trust everyone else around her. It’s a crushing blow for the crew who remember everything, I almost wish they would have felt drugged and didn’t remember anything – but maybe that will teach them to listen to Seven in the future. 7 books in the series, as I hear Keith is working on the next book – Phoenix Precinct.

TA Out!