Voyager 5x18 "Course: Oblivion"

rating: ***

the story: In this sequel to "Demon," we learn what happened to the crew's biomimetic duplicates.

what it's all about: It's incredibly rare for Star Trek to follow up on its stories.  That's just a fact.  Above and beyond serialization, to find out what happened after a given episodic adventure is just something that's never a priority, so when it does (say, Wrath of Khan), it's kind of always notable.  "Course: Oblivion" is one of those times.

"Demon" was a pretty self-contained story up until the crew allowed itself to be duplicated; originally it was just Tom and Harry, but then, once everyone figured out what was going on, the whole crew followed suit, and even the ship.  So there ended up being two Voyagers and two Voyager crews out there.  You know, realistically, there's no reason to assume every episode between "Demon" and "Course: Oblivion" actually featured the "real" crew.  That's an interesting little riddle for you.

But it gets more interesting.  Whatever original sentience might originally have existed in them, the duplicates ended up believing they were the originals, and adopted the maniacal goal of getting back "home" to Earth, too.  That makes "Course: Oblivion" a commentary on that goal just like the season premiere, "Night," and whether or not it still makes sense.  By the time this crew realizes what's going on (it's a total inverse of its predecessor, "Demon"), the debate begins whether or not they should go back to their planet of origin, press on with the journey to Earth, or...find the real Voyager.

Visually the episode kind of becomes unappealing after a while, as the crew starts to lose shape and it looks like everyone's taking a very sloppy mud bath.  All the time.  So that doesn't really work.  If you didn't know or care that there's greater resonance to all this, you could dismiss it as episodic and not particularly fun watching.  That would be a mistake.

criteria analysis:

• franchise - Probably incomprehensible to casual fans.
• series - But as a sequel to "Demon," it has a lot to offer.
• character - Including a reflection of the mania about returning home.
• essential - It's secretly about the premise of the series, and so it's pretty genius.