#course oblivion

Round 3 - Match 12

Counterpoint (S5E10) vs Course: Oblivion (S5E17)

Voyager’s transporting telepathic aliens across the space of telephobic aliens who have very strict rules about travelling in their space. One of these rules is routine inspections where inspector Kashyk is in charge of ransacking the ship for every possible sign of a telepath onboard. Then, suddenly he defects and joins the Voyager crew! Or, is he just trying to find the telepathic aliens onboard? Is Janeway falling for him, or is she seeking the information that he could provide?

Tom and B’elanna are married! But, when did they get engaged? Well, this Voyager is just like the Voyager we know… except that they’re all the silver goo lifeforms that Voyager met on the demon class planet. But this goo crew is obvious to this, and believe they are the real Voyager crew who are trying to get back to the alpha quadrant. Unfortunately, they’ve started melting because their goo matrix has destabilised which makes them realise that all their beliefs about their lives have been wrong. Why are they trying to get back to a home they’ve never been too?

Lower Decks: Four junior officers endure a series of challenges while they are evaluated for possible promotion; one of them faces a dangerous mission. Course Oblivion: A slight respite seems to be in order but some mysterious force is affecting the very fabric of Voyager itself. To solve the mystery this crew must retrace their steps to see what went wrong.

"Course: Oblivion" (S05E16, Stardate 52586.3) handles itself pretty well. The reveal of the duplicates does not have the same weight on repeat viewings, but the episode serves to capture the character elements that make Voyager what it is at its core in one episode. All with a serious callback to "Demon."

One of the features this season of The Delta Flyers is Robert Duncan McNeill, that never remember what the episodes are about before watching, guessing the plot based on the title.