Written By: Robin Burger
Directed By: LeVar Burton
Rating: **** (out of 5)
What�s better is that �Live Fast and Prosper� continues the tend of good writing we�ve seen since �Child�s Play.� And to make things even better; it is different and original. It�s still what I consider filler though. �Live Fast and Prosper� sometimes almost looses its originality and is even a little boring in places but these scenes are easily forgotten with the fun stuff that surrounds those unfortunate scenes. It�s intelligent, it�s cheesy and it�s � fun!
�Live Fast and Prosper� mainly deals with �The Valiant Crew of the Good Voyager� trying to retain their good reputation. Surprisingly the crew, despite all the spark filled battles over the years, have a good reputation! But no matter, it seems so amusingly logical that Janeway would go to any lengths to rectify the Federations good name, I�m surprised this didn�t come up sooner!
The imposters posing as Janeway, Tuvok and for a small while Chakotay, are pretending to help people in need and bargaining and always running into trouble when the time comes for their end of the bargain after having secured whatever it is they wanted. Seeing these imposters as their respective characters is so cheesily fun! The uniforms (and those oversized commbadges), Janeway hair, Tuvok�s overly exaggerated logic and the crap about orphan children which sounded just too fake to believe is so much fun to watch!
Kaitlin Hopkins (coincidence there? �Kate� Mulgrew�) who plays the imposter Dala is a truly impressive guest star who acts her part, or parts, so well that its amazing how natural a lot of this cheesyness is to her. And that�s a compliment by the way!
Naturally Janeway gets hold of this scamming by being confronted by an alien blaming Janeway for something she never did and decides to track down these con artists and restore Voyager�s good name! Well, in a kind of �Counterpoint� way, things happen in the episode which the crew all know about but we, the viewers, don�t know. Also in a �Counterpoint� way you can guess what is going to happen but one detail is surprisingly different. In �Counterpoint� I knew that Kashyk would turn against Janeway, but not that Janeway would turn against Kashyk; here it was obvious here that Neelix was going to let Dala escape and that the Doc was probably smuggled onto the �Delta Flyer� but not that the Doc was actually posing as Dala.
One plot hole with this setup is with Dala�s escape. She didn�t need to escape for the plan to work. In fact it would�ve been easier if the Doc had been Dala for the entire time!
Speaking of plot-holes I noticed that this entire story hinges on the ability for these imposters to speak English or at least have the ability to understand the language/languages that is used in the Federation. This is a very minor plot point and really is something important in all 500 episodes and movies of Star Trek but it�s especially worth mentioning in this case.
And speaking of plots; I found Neelix�s little story to Dala in the Brig interesting. If it�s true than why didn�t we ever see this side of Neelix? It would be great to see this side of him and give Ethan Phillips a good reason to wear all that latex for only a few seconds an episode.
A minor story throughout �Live Fast and Prosper� which is absolutely hilarious was Neelix and Tom�s annoyance at being fooled by Dala and her con artisits and trying to show that they still have it in them to fool others, using the rather daft but often clever Doc as a tool. (Let�s not get started on the Doc sentience issue again though! The Doc is a tool that has evolved � I know, I know!)
The two scenes involving this issue are not only hilariously funny and well done acting and directing wise, but show again how well these characters interact on a more friendly social level. Always when I mention this the scenes from �Tsunkatse� come back to me because �Tsunkatse� wasn�t that good but the character interaction was a true standout. Here is another example of this fantastic achievement which I must say is something Deep Space 9 never really accomplished. We had a hell of a lot of depth in the characters and their relationships on DS9 but there weren�t as many little touches of character�s socializing that were done significantly well. On Voyager this issue is something which will play an immense part in Voyager�s finale in little over a year from now when the series becomes poignant and soppy with good-byes. I�m getting sad already!
�Live Fast and Prosper� is over all a great break from all the seriousness lately and is such fun to watch. Neelix and Tom�s little quest was the highlight followed closely by Kaitlin Hopkins fun and lively performance. Certainly the best fluff outing this season.