'Basics'

Stardate: 49700.0
Written By: Micheal Piller
Directed By: Winrich Kolbe
Rating: ***1/4 (out of 5)

�Basics� is quite an exciting Trek cliffhanger, Voyager�s first cliffhanger, with a lot of action and an almost un-winnable situation.  Well, that�s what they lead you to believe!!

�Part I� leaves us with a lot of clues, maybe too many, about what�s going to happen in �Part II�.  Paris has obviously survived, Suder, who isn�t found because of a porridge brained Kazon fat-head (I don�t want to swear!), and the Doc are going to annoy the hell out of the Kazon on Voyager, and Janeway and the rest of the crew are definitely going to survive, but they are going to have some encounters with the natives and possibly some interesting animals.

But Voyager being taken over and the crew being stranded on a desolate planet without supplies, with a marginal chance of survival is thrilling anyhow.

Anyone could assume Seska was planning something, her plan was flawless, and executed well by the often incompetent Kazon.  Teirna was a good pawn in this �game,� he has to breath poisonous gases for hours and ends up committing suicide, blowing himself up, to help damage Voyager more.  I�d like to know how Teirna is bribed to do what he does, and what exactly that stuff was he was putting into his body.

He seems to be telling the truth, even though he in fact isn�t, and I loved seeing Chakotay handle the situation, the Doctor making sure the violence doesn�t get out of hand.

Suder has made a lot of progress since �Meld�, and I enjoyed seeing him again.  Brad Dourif plays Suder wonderfully, I hope we get to see much more of him in the future.

The holographic ship idea was interesting, but considering the damage Voyage takes and the energy need to run the holograms, I�m surprised the plan works.  (Well, it has to work because the writers say so.)  It was a very goofy scene to have the Doc flying off into space like that, but it was enjoyable nonetheless.  The Kazon really must be stupid to buy the sensor thing, and even stupider to buy the Holodeck ships idea, and even the Doc drew fire!

There are some nice Special Effects in here, and I loved the continuity from other episodes.  It was nice to see that people and events aren�t forgotten.

I didn�t like the obviousness of the setup for Part II, despite the odds against them, the obviousness of the plan, the Kazon�s plan was clever, but the Starfleet tactics are a bit on the �Turn your brain off for a second while I do something you�ll never believe� side, and I can�t buy the decision to get Chakotay�s baby and risking the entire crew in the process.

And if Culluh wanted the Voyager crew killed, why didn�t he just shoot them or something, than even if Voyager did get taken back, Culluh would�ve had some kind of victory.  I�m guessing the only reason why he didn�t just shoot them is because Seska still care for some of the crew, despite her deciet.

Don�t get me wrong, I enjoyed �Basics�, it just seemed to me the writers wanted to get to the events in Part II any way they could.  It�s fun, but don�t think too hard.