'The Void' Critics Remain Hopelessly Divided

Though according to our poll results most fans liked 'The Void' a lot, the regular net reviewers do not seem to be in agreement at all about the episode.

Over at the Cynics Corner, David E. Sluss gave the episode his second-highest Voyager rating of the season, an 8.5. Even his first criticisms of the episode in a way actually compliment it:

MYSTERY OF THE WEEK: Scrounging for resources, forging temporary alliances with alien races, using music over "planning scenes" that otherwise would be laden with technobabble -- where have these things been for the last six-and-a-half seasons? The kinds of circumstances found in this episode (anomaly aside) should have been Voyager's bread and butter from the very beginning; it's a shame that only now, with ten episodes left, the show got around to exploiting its premise...

SCIENCE OF THE WEEK: No, not WEIRD science, but wonder of wonders, the writers finally cracked a junior high school science book and learned that space-farers shouldn't have to search nebulae or mine ore to find deuterium. You can find it anywhere! Sure it conflicts with a dozen shows over the past couple of years, but I'll take it.

Meanwhile, Michelle Erica Green at Fandomshop didn't like the episode at all, comparing it to episodes such as the indeed nearly unwatchable 'Night':

Most of [the episode summary] is pretty unnecessary, because we've seen "The Void" before, during Voyager's second and fifth seasons. "Alliances" and "Night" were on my "Bottom Five Episodes" list already. It was a phenomenally bad idea to combine them, but that's just the beginning of what makes "The Void" such a spectacularly awful episode. It starts on a horrible note as we discover that Seven, who has already proven herself to be a better captain, first officer, engineer, pilot, security officer, tactician, and navigator than anyone else on the ship, demonstrates that she's a better cook as well. And then we find out she's also more competent than the Doctor at discovering the mysterious syntax patterns of alien species! The Doctor puts on operas for his own pleasure, Seven realizes this means the not-yet-named Fantome can hear. Heck, throw the crew out an airlock and let her get the ship home. But I'm getting ahead of myself.

In related news, the SF Site has just been updated with a new edition of Rick Norwood's 'Babylon 5.1' TV column, containing a short review of 'Prophecy'. Awarding it 4 stars, he thought it was the best Voyager in a long time.

Discuss this news item at Trek BBS!
 Add TrekToday RSS feed to your news reader or My Yahoo!
Also a CSI: Crime Scene Investigation fan? Then visit CSIFiles.com!