Learning Curve (VOY)

This is the way the season ends - not with a bang, but a... bottle show? It is true that "Learning Curve" is the final installment of Voyager's first season. And while not terrible, it doesn't exactly leave me clamoring for more. First off, it's a Tuvok episode. On a show with a lot of relatively bland characters, Tuvok takes the blandness to an entirely new level. This would be very well and good if the episode focused on some flaw in Tuvok that he had to work to overcome and, well, it sort of does, but the change feels incredibly forced and artificial. Tuvok doesn't really grow as a character, nor does he ever feel particularly vulnerable or easy to relate to. It doesn't help that the bland guest stars aren't so bland that they don't upstage Tuvok, either.

Let's back up a little. Remember the Maquis? We haven't really mentioned them since "State of Flux", but it turns out Seska isn't the only one who was having some trouble fitting in. Dolby, a bland white guy with a troubled past, Gerron, a surly Bajoran, Henley, a woman (seriously, that's all the characterization she gets) and Chell, a fat Bolian (is there any other kind?) are all having problems adjusting, so Janeway assigns Tuvok to give them a crash course in Starfleet discipline. It's frustrating to me that the white guy is the only one who gets any character development at all, as if the other three don't need personalities because they have the fact that they're aliens or women to make them identifiable.

The offending cheese.

The "cadets" are rude, insubordinate, obstinate, and proud. Tuvok is rigid, compassionless, and kind of a jerk until Neelix advises him to lighten up. Meanwhile, something has infected Voyager's bioneural circuitry, causing systems failures all over the ship. B'Elanna enlists the help of the Doctor, who can't find the source of the problem until Tuvok realizes its... cheese? I guess Neelix wanted to make cheese and the alien bacterial spores infected the gel packs? It seems odd to me that the writers, faced with an A-plot that feels like more of a B-plot, would write an B-plot that literally involved Voyager being endangered by cheese.

In order to solve the cheese-induced gel pack problem, Voyager has to turn the engines up super hot to kill the bacteria. Unfortunately, life-support goes out and this threatens to kill everyone on the ship. Even more unfortunately, everyone forgot to tell Tuvok and his cadets this, so they get trapped in an irradiated cargo bay and almost killed. But they work together to escape, and suddenly some how this makes everyone's problems go away. Or maybe not. It's hard to say because we never see Dolby, Henley, or Gerron again. (Chell apparently appears in one other episode.)

Okay, I lied at the beginning of my post. This actually was a terrible episode. The only redeeming factor of the entire forty-five minutes is that it contained the line "get the cheese to sickbay." That's it.

Random Observations:

Chakotay would probably be less bland if he punched people more often.

Gel Pack count: 45 (doubt we'll use that one again.)

Shouldn't the Starfleet dress code have an exception for the Bajoran earrings? They're a religious thing. But I guess we've never seen a Starfleet officer sporting a head scarf or a yarmulke either.

The Doctor talking to the Gel Pack was pretty funny. So was overheated Kes's death glare.

Chell is also featured in the Elite Force video game.

Kes gives the Doctor her "Are you fucking kidding me?" stare.