'Persistence of Vision'

Stardate: 49037.2
Written By: Jeri Taylor
Directed By: James L Conway
Rating: *** (out of 5)

�Persistence of Vision� was a great episode until we discovered the true nature of what was happening.  Well, that�s half the problem there, in an X-Files kind of way, the episode ends without barley trying to make any sense of what�s happened.

This was quite surreal in many places, Janeway seeing objects from her holo-novel around the ship, trying to understand what�s happening, trying to fend off hallucinations that seem so real, and wondering why Kes can see the hallucinations and why she deflects them.  And throughout you are saying, �Is this real?�

What�s unfortunate is that we never discover why any of this is happening.  We never find out why this all happened.  Why was Janeway only affected throughout the episode?  Why was she one of the last ones to fall victim to the end result?  Why was Kes not affected?  And why was Tuvok and other telepathic crewmembers affected if Kes wasn�t?

A little understanding would�ve gone a long way to making this more enjoyable and it�s the end result of the episode that holds it back from making any impact on the characters or on the viewers.

I mean the aliens motive is �Because I can� and he than says, �I was never really here?�  Talk about writer�s block.  And the climax is fun, but it isn�t really explained.  What where those pussy things?  How did he create it?  How�d Kes no what to do, in the mind I mean?

But there is one thing that makes this episode interesting, and that�s how it goes into the minds of the crew.  Whatever was happening seemed to be feeding off pivotal people in the victim�s life, Tom Paris�s father, Tuvok�s wife, Janeway�s fianc� Mark and Harry�s girlfriend Libby.

Why that doesn�t help to make the episode worthwhile is that none of it ends up meaning anything.  What are the writers trying to do?  Tackle the entire crew�s feelings and thoughts on family with one stone?  That�s quite a goal that doesn�t belong here, and it certainly doesn�t work here.

If the writers wanted to tackle the crews� families, they shouldn�t have wasted so much time on Janeway and her holo-novel.  Although not all the visions involved families.  B�Elanna has an interesting experience as she is in love with Chakotay, or so her dream depicts.

The last scene shows Janeway and B�Elanna musing over what�s happened by saying, �Maybe it's better to look these things in the eye than to keep them buried,� as though the episode was doing us all a big favor by revealing B�Elanna�s feelings.  I hope this wasn�t the point the writer had in mind.

At the end of the day �Persistence of Vision� is a very average episode.  It starts of exciting but gets worse as the story progresses.  If TPTB want to improve the show than Tip #1: Try to put some thought and meaning into the plot.