Voyager Flashback: Worst Case Scenario

Given the premise of Star Trek: Voyager -- a crew is trapped across the galaxy and is trying to get home -- you might expect that many of their episodes would arise from within the ship, from the crew forced to live with one another without a break. But 90s television wasn't really built that way, and "planet of the week" episodes were the norm for the series. Still, the writers would occasionally look to the internal dynamics of their characters, and one of their more effective examples of this was "Worst Case Scenario."

B'Elanna discovers a holonovel in which you can live out a Maquis mutiny aboard Voyager. While potentially inflammatory, it's also great fun. Soon the secret of the holonovel is out, and the hunt is on for who wrote it. But a secret lurking inside the story will soon surprise them all.

I truly enjoy the low stakes that run for the bulk of this particular episode. Voyager is not saving a planet, or even themselves. Instead, the characters have stumbled on a fluffy bit of escapism. And it's all told in a very fun way -- dropping us right into the scenario and gradually revealing that something is a little off, even before Chakotay seems to turn traitor and take over the ship. The conflict remains low stakes in the middle section, where Paris and Tuvok are clashing with one another over writing together (with everyone offering their own unsolicited opinions). But the low stakes don't come off slow paced or boring, in a nice balancing act.

Compared to The Next Generation or Deep Space Nine, I've never felt that the characters of Voyager grow or change much over the run of the series. But an episode like this shows that they are changing, because there are plenty of differences between the "first season" and "third season" versions of everyone. Also, the writers aren't afraid to poke a little fun at themselves: having Chakotay criticize the way Voyager investigates "every insignificant anomaly we come across," dramatizing some of their own internal writing conflicts, and having the characters themselves complain about some story lines being "boring."

There is eventually some actual jeopardy in the last section of the episode. And while it's tempting to dismiss it as another take on "trapped on a holodeck that can somehow kill you," the fact that it's Seska who's responsible makes this section of the episode fun too. Again, it's conflict generated internally by the show's characters. Plus, Seska is pretty much the only effective recurring character Voyager has ever had (and certainly the only decent villain), so her return is more than welcome.

The entire episode is sprinkled with good moments for characters. B'Elanna acknowledges the difficulty of betraying Harry Kim (even in a "game"). Seska writes herself a version of Chakotay who loves her the way she wished for. A brief appearance of a sadistic and evil Doctor is more effective than the whole episode recently built on that premise. Kim comes to the rescue a few seconds too late, and gives a great, wordless "why did I go to all that trouble?" reaction.

There's also a dash of catnap for Star Trek fans: we seem to love it when characters wear the wrong color uniforms (as Tom Paris does when he plays the scenario), face off against copies of themselves (as Tom Paris briefly does -- in a rather weak VFX shot), or repeat moments of "time" (as when we get to see differences in B'Elanna and Tom's plays through the scenario).

Other observations:

• Years later, on his podcast, actor Robert Duncan McNeill interpreted much of the dialogue here not as the writers poking fun at themselves, but jabbing at the actors (whose writing suggestions would rarely be heeded).

• Holographic Seska gets a far better death here than the real version did.
  

I suppose if you think about it, this episode is a bit similar in concept to "Civil Defense" from Deep Space Nine. But I think there's more than enough juice to squeeze from it for both series to get a fun episode. I give "Worst Case Scenario" a B+.