Voyager 2x8 "Persistence of Vision"

***

Another overlooked, crucial episode of the early seasons, "Persistence of Vision" is one of those moments where the context of the series is relevant to the episode in ways many fans always wanted, the crew actually pining for home.

Of course, there's a buffer in a random alien weirdo encounter that makes it all possible, with a bunch of delusions that are meant to distract them into ruin, but the reward turns out to be the fact that the aside is the point, and that the story is just an excuse for many of the loved ones that have either been ignored for a while or seen for the first time to be brought into focus.  Tuvok, Janeway, Paris, these are a couple of the beneficiaries, if you want to call them that, and the ways they are connected, the relationships being brought to light, are a couple of the reasons the series worked better than anyone ever gave it credit for; if it wasn't awkward for them originally, then the stranding in the Delta Quadrant made it so, in ways some of them had to deny in order to function.  This is a glimpse of what that actually means.

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Memory Alpha summary.