Episode 158: Repentance

It’s a good old traditional Star Trek morality tale. In that, it’s about as subtle as Seven’s outfit and the story’s about as thin.

Voyager responds to a distress call since apparently they’re the only ship in the Delta Quadrant that can receive them. They find a damaged ship and beam the survivors on board who are both prisoners and the guards. One of the prisoners has taken Seven hostage in sickbay but then makes a rookie error, swaps for the Doctor and is captured again. The prisoners are being taken to their homeworld to be executed. Janeway and company would interfere but step in Prime Directive and they can’t interfere. Let’s see how long that lasts. The first thing is they don’t have a prison but that’s no problem, just like the A-Team, Voyager makes use of tools around them and make up a functioning prison in the cargo bay. Iko, the prisoner who kidnapped Seven, is beaten up by the evil nasty guards until he’s repaired by Seven’s nanoprobes. Afterwards he begins to feel guilt and develop a conscience. Next week the nanoprobes go on to reenact Dickens’ Christmas Carol. Meanwhile the nice prisoner who Neelix befriends and plays games with, of course says he’s innocent. Seven and Janeway go to the prison’s warden about putting in an appeal for Iko since he’s fine now, see that didn’t take long. They refuse since their culture favours the victims and don’t want to cause them distress. Voyager is then attacked by relatives of the prisoners which sole purpose seems to be to affect the transporters and power in the prison. Neelix’s nice friend goes on a rampage but Iko stays in his cell. After they’re recaptured Neelix for some reason isn’t his friend anymore. The warden though convinces Iko’s victim’s family to hear his appeal. So much for not showing them distress. Seven suggests Iko becomes part of the crew but he says he’s not very useful. That’s okay, he’d fit right in then but the family eventually decide no and he is to be executed anyway.  It never rains but it pours.