'Non Sequitur'

Stardate: 49009.9
Written By: Brannon Braga
Directed By: David Livingston
Rating: **1/2 (out of 5)

This is an episode that may have been a classic episode.  But in Voyager fashion no thought is put into the story and the conclusion to the story.

Seeing life on Earth in Trek�s 24th Century, whether it�s a Starfleet officer or a civilian, is always fascinating to me.  How the technological advances have altered life in the future and how people go about their everyday life with so many different cultures on the planet.

I do find it annoying however that we always see San Francisco and France.  Oh, well, once we saw New Zealand, but briefly.  I�d be interested to see Australia or Asia or Africa.  But that�s got nothing to do with the episode and the story it tells.

Harry Kim awakens to find his girlfriend, Libby, is know his fianc�e, and the he is now a Starfleet Engineer designing a new Runabout and he lives on Earth.  His Voyager posting was rejected for reasons we never discover.

Well, that�s all fine.  I loved seeing life on Earth and I loved seeing Harry�s alternate life and how the rest of the crew have fared.  We know everyone but Paris and Kim didn�t go on the journey into the Badlands and that as a result of getting into a Bar fight on DS9, he doesn�t go on the mission and becomes a drunk in France playing pool.  By the way, I loved the DS9 references, �I got arrested by a grumpy Shapeshifter!�

Harry�s good friend in this reality, the restaurant owner he sees every morning, is in fact an alien in disguise who was sent to watch Harry, again for a reason we don�t really discover.  Fine, I can cope with that.  Even how Harry got into this reality, by running into the temporal string these aliens exist in, is okay.

My problems are these: Why didn�t the alien reveal himself earlier?  As if Harry was just going to take this as it is.  He might like to be with his girl friend, but he knows this isn�t real, in a sense.  The aliens have the intelligence to watch over Harry, but they don�t have the intelligence to tell him.  Also, how the process is reversed, we had no idea about the beam out and all that.

And the whole process was exciting, but I didn�t like how easy it was to steal the shuttle, and there are way too many obviously re-used shots in here.  The �Space Doors� shot (From TNG�s �Relics�) was most painful to watch because it didn�t even look Starfleet.

What I would�ve done is had in the Teaser a kind of flashback, dreamlike version of what happens in the true reality before time is changed and then he awakens as if from a nightmare in the new reality.  That way the audience would�ve had a better idea of what is going on later and it would make the ending better.

I liked that Tom decides to help Harry at the cost of his life, but I would�ve like a better meaning for the episode because this really does nothing for their friendship, only one of them realizes what�s happened.  So what was this meant to be for?  We find out what Harry�s life could�ve been like . . . so what?  The episode makes no mention that Harry now wishes he wasn�t aboard Voyager, this isn�t going to change his attitude or anything.

I can�t say the performance where spectacular either.  Garret Wang tries his best, and so does Louis Gimbalvo.  It�s a pity that with just a few more tweaks, and better acting, this could�ve been such a great episode.  Well, another unfortunately wasted opportunity.