When an alien creature attaches itself to B'Elanna, the Doctor looks into the ship's database for a holographic expert in exobiology to help save her life. But the expert is Cardassian, igniting tensions in some former Maquis aboard the ship... and leading B'Elanna to outright refuse medical assistance.
Unfortunately, "Nothing Human" feels like a remix of other, earlier episodes of Star Trek. It is perhaps a bit better than some; there are shades of "Jetrel" here, in how the crew must interact with a genocidal monster. But it pales in comparison to Deep Space Nine's "Duet," in which a main character must confront their prejudice and learn that individuals cannot be defined solely by their race.
There are some good aspects to the episode. It forces an interesting moral dilemma onto The Doctor. It features strong performances by Robert Picardo and guest star David Clennon (who plays the Cardassian "Josef Mengele" character). There's another decent guest star in Jad Mager, who plays the Bajoran Tabor; this episode gives an awful lot of important emotion to him, and it's risky casting -- it's not even like the show was elevating a character who had been around before (like a Vorik).
Paris is allowed to show genuine concern for B'Elanna. (Their relationship isn't actually "on again, off again," but the writers' interest in it sure seems to be.) We get a truly alien alien: the species isn't an actor in minor prosthetic makeup, and its only communication with Voyager is an odd shockwave that presents as a weapon without causing any damage.
So yeah, it seems like there's a lot in the plus column here. But a lot of what's good here is undermined by equal and opposite bad. The novel and different alien is the hokiest of rubber-looking props, and poor Roxann Dawson has to lie under it on a table for the whole episode. The Doctor wastes a lot of time palling around with his new holographic friend even though a patient's life is on the line.
The biggest problem, though, is in how the episode presents the moral dilemma here. "Is it right to profit from knowledge that comes from horrible people?" It's a fair question to ask, and there are even moments where the discussion is interesting, as when comparisons are drawn to animal testing, when Tuvok brings Vulcan logic to bear on the situation, and when Seven of Nine shares a distinctly Borg perspective. Yet the episode always has its thumb on the scales in a way that seems to simplify the more interesting and complex ideas here.
Crell Moset is cartoonishly evil, never choosing benign methods when something more akin to torture is an option. B'Elanna makes her wishes perfectly clear: "Do not resuscitate" -- but Janeway chooses for her anyway. (And declares "there’s been enough moral controversy on this ship for one day," being oddly flippant and dismissive of the idea of having morality at all.) Worst of all, the objections to Mocet start well before his reprehensible behavior is discovered; he's hated immediately just because he's Cardassian... and then it just so happens that he turns out to be hateable for other reasons. What's the lesson here, that sometimes racist prejudgement is called for?
In short, the writing of this episode is super muddy -- just like Tom Paris in the "vacation slides" that The Doctor forces on everyone in the teaser. Some compelling arguments aren't even raised. (Couldn't you argue that if you don't benefit from the evil and murderous research, then those deaths were for nothing?) Characters who get their way have no argument at all. (Janeway has no reason for stepping in to save B'Elanna against her wishes, beyond "but I need you.") The whole thing just winds up leaving a bad taste.
Other observations:
- When Voyager is hit by the alien shockwave, we're in the mess hall, and we see lots of practical shaking of items on the set -- something the show rarely did.
- I love how Seven of Nine says point blank to Tabor that she knows he doesn't like him, and she doesn't care. I feel like maybe there's a life lesson in that somewhere.
Maybe it's not so much that this episode is bad, as that for me it lives in the very long shadow cast by Deep Space Nine's "Duet." (That episode is possibly in the top 10 or 20 of ALL Star Trek, ever, and maybe not a fair comparison.) But however I get there, I can only see "Nothing Human" as a C.
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