Written By: Robin Burger
Directed By: Allan Kroeker
Rating: ***3/4 (out of 5)
It�s not on par with the other romantic, lightweight episodes, �Someone to Watch Over Me� as a prime example, but it is fun to watch and offers an insightful look into Holo-relationships, something that hasn�t been tackled in this fashion before.
The Internet Reviews I very briefly went over criticized �Fair Haven� for making Janeway look desperate, giving me the wrong impression that the moral implications of an intimate relationship with a hologram wouldn�t even be mentioned. But I was glad to see that Janeway doubted the situation a great deal.
�Fair Haven� doesn�t make Janeway look desperate to me, it looks more like she is simply lonely. Desperate is too strong a word. She is �something,� but desperate isn�t right.
A Holographic relationship is debated well here, naturally by Doc who is standing up for his fellow holograms. In a way the Docs points stem back to �Latent Image� when his sentience was in question.
Doc argues that while Janeway is flesh and blood, and he�s photons, the feelings in Janeway are still real, and so is the almost echo, of a real person in Michael Sullivan. Makes sense? I hope so because my opinions on this matter are hard to explain.
If Janeway is in love with Michael, so what? He�s not a sentient being, but he does have sentient qualities. And being active 24 (or 26 on DS9 terms) hours a day would make him more sentient as time passes because his sub-routines would adapt to different situations as the Doc has. Well, that�s if the program would�ve survived.
Are the holograms in Fair Haven as adaptable as the Doc and have they been as adapted as the Doc? This is a pivotal question, and it stems back to the whole holographic realism debate. Does the hologram feel real? Is it even close to the real thing? Can you tell a hologram from a real person?
So I have no problems with Janeway�s relationship. But what would�ve made the episode more convincing, or more realistic to Janeway, would�ve been to see what exactly Janeway wants from her relationship with Michael. Does she simply want companionship? A Physical Relationship? She obviously wants more than friendship.
The only thing that bites me about Janeway�s holographic relationship is that she changes Michael. Now I realize that is important to the episodes theme but it still bugs me.
Other than that, Fair Haven itself is a nice place, the sets are great and so is the atmosphere. David Bell does great Irish music too, reminiscent of music from the movie �Willow.�
In ending it�s a whole lot better than I expected (although I�m not looking forward to �Spirit Folk�) and is not bad for Janeway who lost her love Mark first in �Caretaker� and again in �Hunters� and Chakotay in �Resolutions.� A lot of this is great fun to watch with good moments all over, making �Fair Haven� delightful to watch. It�s not really a thinking episode, but it does end up making you think anyway.