Star Trek: Voyager (TV Series) Displaced (1997) User Reviews

Tense episode but lessened with subsequent viewings.

[thevacinstaller · 6/10 · 1 August 2021]

This has a fascinating premise for an episode and I found it a clever way to steal from unsuspecting victims. However, I was pondering what the motivations are for the Nyrians? As it stands now they are thieves and for some reason they imprison groups of people even after they have stolen from them? What is the purpose of spending resources to imprison a group of people for years?

This is one of those episodes that lands well during the initial viewing because of the suspense and tension of what is to come. On subsequent viewings the mind starts to ponder the actual purpose of this prison ship and yearns for a greater personal stake or message to engage with.

I feel that it is fair to be critical of a star trek episode that is lessened with each additional viewing. Masterclass episodes are enriched the more you watch it.

Basics Part III

[alexwoolcott · 8/10 · 28 August 2010]

Another above average episode of Voyager that suffers from the fact it's essentially a rehash of "Basics", the Season 2 / 3 two parter that saw the Kazon taking over the ship. The writers seem to know this as the logical things done in "Basics" are completely ignored here, as if the writers were afraid of being accused of copying themselves.

The crew of Voyager is having a bad week - this episode presumably takes place within days of "Distant Origin" (the previous episode) where their ship was commented by a more intelligent species (we know this because Tom and B'lanna make reference to a bet they made in that episode). Now their ship has been commented for the third time in Season 3. By now, you would think the crew would have things down to a science. In Basics, the crew does the logical thing - they put someone in a shuttlecraft and send them to get help; this time, for some reason, they aren't nearly so clever. Since the Doctor has proved himself capable in Basics of sabotaging the ship, Chakotay should not have bothered taking him with him: it would have been much better to download him into the mobile emitter and send him into the ship to sabotage it. It's almost as if nobody remembers the last two times someone took over their ship.

As previous reviewers have stated, this episode needed to be a two parter - everything happens just a little too quickly. Also, there's the usual Star Trek nonsense in which Janeway and Tuvok are able to not only decode an alien computer, but figure out how to master it within seconds. There's lots of other illogical things, but really this is Star Trek and often you just have to ignore it and enjoy the ride.

If you take this episode out of context and judge it on it's own merits (rather than how it fits into the show's mythology)it's a pretty tense and exciting episode that also serves to drive the Tom / B'lanna romance a little further forward. Ultimately, it's a good ride, but you can't help but think that it belonged in Season 1 or 2, when the crew wasn't nearly so experienced in dealing with people trying to take over their ship.

A pretty good episode but ...

[fmbr-1 · 7/10 · 10 July 2021]

Four things bother me about this episode. The first is that the aliens somehow have a jail ship close enough to swap crew-members out of Voyager without anyone being able to detect it. It's a pretty big ship by the look of it too with dozens of different biomes big enough to house thousands of aliens comfortably. Why would these aliens bother with this, why not just maroon the crew on some distant moon or isolated island that they aren't using. Even easier would be to just kill them, but apparently these aliens aren't nearly that dark.

This brings me to the second thing. When Paris and Torres are in the cold biome and take down two, nearly frozen aliens, who are just about dead from the cold. They just leave them there. I'm sorry, but those two guys are dead, it's pointed out that the aliens need about 45 degrees C to thrive and that they don't handle the cold well.

Third, these amazingly well hidden aliens managed to learn everything about Voyager from hacking into the computer. Something Tuvok didn't discover or even notice and the aliens are able to translate an alien language and understand all of the software without being noticed? Granted, Janeway and Tuvok are just about as quickly (and absurdly) take over the alien computers once they have access so at least there is balance.

Finally, why oh why hasn't Tuvok set up a minor computer program to alert him when someone's life-signs no longer appear on the ship? Why isn't this a standard feature on all Star Fleet vessels? The computer clearly knew exactly when Kes (and others) disappeared, but we had to have people constantly ask what happened to them. This seems to be an incredible oversight.

A most excellent episode

[giannhs_karfo · 9/10 · 25 November 2006]

This is one of the most imaginative episodes that i have encountered. It takes the crew of Voyager facing a "peacfull" enemy which tries to take over the ship without any real force used.

I was a little disappointed by the fact, that, they had a great script for this episode but they had to rush it in just one episode in expense of reasoning in some points. This should had been a 2 parts story in order to really develop the whole story, add a little to the plot and show the true potential of some dramatic scenes a little more.

Still the story came out nicely by both actors who have shown their character's best abilities and by the script which involved action, originality in the plot and sensation.

Not A Goof

[nickknightforever · 4 March 2020]

In the Goofs under Continuity someone wrote "In other episodes, phaser fire bounces off a holodeck wall; however, when Paris and Torres enter the cold climate environment, he uses the phaser to crush some ice for blocking the Nyrians' path. That should not be possible." This is not a goof, Paris and Torres are not on Voyager but on the Nyrians' ship/station which has many biospheres for different species not a holodeck on Voyager.

An excellent and highly creative show....

[planktonrules · 10/10 · 20 February 2015]

"Displaced" is a great episode--one that shows great ingenuity and cannot really be compared to any other Trek show. When it begins, members of Voyager's crew disappear and each time one vanishes, a Nyrian appears and seems confused as to why they are there. This doesn't make sense until some on the ship realize that the 'confused' Nyrians are faking--it's a way to steal the ship. But it's too late-- and the Nyrians soon end up in control. As for the crew, they have found themselves in a lovely holoworld--but make no mistake, it IS a prison and the Nyrians are in charge. What's next? Will the show now be called "Star Trek: Nyrians"?!

You just have to see this one. It is terrific from start to finish.

Subtle attack

[Tweekums · 7/10 · 7 January 2010]

This was a decent episode which found the crew of the Voyager confronting a strange enemy, unlike most enemies who attack in an obvious way these replace the crew with their own people one at a time. Initially it is assumed this is due to some strange spacial anomaly as the new arrivals seem as bemused about what is going on as the crew. By the time they realise what is going on it is too late and despite attempts to thwart the theft of the ship everybody ends up on what appears to be an Earth like planet although the geography means they can't get far away from the settlement they found themselves in.

They haven't been there long when an alien appears in a way that leads them to believe their new home is not what it appears to be. As a previous reviewer stated it is a pity this was only a one part episode as once they had learnt the nature of the place they were transported to the quickly figure out how to get the Voyager back from those who stole it.

Tried and True

[Hitchcoc · 9/10 · 27 August 2018]

I think my favorite episodes are those where an alien force takes over the ship, be it Enterprise or Voyager. In this one, a race of beings, intergalactic kidnappers begin to replace the Voyager crew. Soon Janeway and the gang are in an earth-like habitat and the bad guys have the ship. It is up to our heroes to figure out how to use evil against these guys and take back what is theirs. Well crafted and fun.

Social Security

[Bolesroor · 7/10 · 2 February 2011]

You'd think it would be difficult to commandeer a Starfleet ship, but no... You just beam your crew on board one at a time while beaming off one member of their crew. While playing dumb. Phasers and photon torpedoes are no match for playing dumb...

This week it's the Nyrians who are to blame for killing the party, and just for the hell of it let's crunch some numbers: What percentage of alien species in the Original Series do you think turned out to be malevolent or harmful to our protagonists? 30? 40? How about Next Generation? 5? 10?

Now let me ask the same question of Voyager: What percentage of aliens are "bad guys"? 85? 90? 95 percent? I can't imagine that's what Gene Roddenbury had in mind, but that's where we find ourselves now. Everyone is an enemy, every outsider a threat and a danger: Vidiians, Kazon, Baneans, Borg, Cardassians, Akritirian, Enaran, Egg Begley, Jr, Ilari, the unnamed aliens from "The Swarm," Nyrians, Nasari... is that enough or should I go on? I'm guessing Captain Kate doesn't get many Christmas cards.

The episode ends when Janeway discovers the Nyrians secret weakness: cold weather. She beams them down to Florida and they live happily ever after wearing white shoes and complaining about the heat.

Next!

GRADE: B

FRUSTRATING! So many basic mistakes. Huge missed opportunity.

[wwcanoer-tech · 8/10 · 1 November 2021]

Members of the crew are slowly exchanges with Nirians. There is early suspicion that this may be a trick but Janeway doesn't take any precautions other than placing the arrivals in cargo bays. They take small security steps but only after Chakotay is informed of an unconscious crew member does he take serious action to secure engineering and the bridge but by then it's too late. Voyeger is unable to even keep them contained in the cargo bays.

I wish that TV shows and movies could find ways to advance their plot without having the heroes make such basic mistakes that the audience sees long in advance. Janeway could have held a meeting to discuss how to secure the ship, reject some extreme suggestions (.ex. Handcuffs) but implement others. Then the Nirians would need to use ingenious measures to circumvent the controls.

An unremovable trackable wristband could be attached to every Nirian. CCTV in the cargo bays would let the bridge monitor their activity. A series of force fields can isolate the cargo bays.

These are circumvented by new arrivals. Ex. Someone new arrives and moves quickly to the shield controls to disable them. Another arrives and loops the CCTV. To circumvent the armbands, someone arrives with a tool, or obtains a tool from voyageur, while being escorted he hides it in their clothes, and then covertly passes it around the cargo bay. Or, someone could arrive, be seen to avoid detection by using the access tubes and find a panel to disable the wristband tracking. Someone monitoring on the bridge can see that they all disappeared from sensors and then look at the CCTV to see them leaving. Anything other than requiring Chakotay to walk from the bridge to a cargo bay to discover it empty because that is so ridiculous. They can detect people on a shuttle tens of thousands of km away but not in their own cargo bay.

Why doesn't Voyager have anyone carry a tracking device? They can try and have it fail or have it show how far away people are taken but not be able to get a direction. Many possibilities.

Remove life support in the corridors between the cargo bays and other areas.

Prepare a sedative that can be introduced into the ventilation system of the cargo bays. The doctor could object to that one.

Turn the cargo bays into massive stasis fields.

Chakotay doesn't sabotage anything until only 2 crew members left.

Voyager didn't even try to move away. They say that it snagged the wormhole and it moved with them but we don't see a serious attempt to get away. Move close to a planet or star in the hopes that gravitation or whatever will disrupt it.

How are the Nirians locating the crew? Why not have everyone take off their com badges? Even when they're chasing Chakotay, he has his com badge on! Just ask the computer where he is.

It was curious that Chakotay took the doctor with him. Usually, the doctor stays on board to save the ship. In this case it was beneficial but how could he have predicted that? If com badges and mobile emitter get through, why not a tricorder?

In the cold biosphere, Belana kills a Nirian with their last phaser shot, then doesn't take his weapon! Even if it's not needed for the plot, anyone would take the weapon and the dress to so that they can be keep warm and be disguised. She can still be cold later on, saying that the clothes are not enough.

MISSED OPPORTUNITIES: As always, another lost opportunity to explore and learn. They just rescued people from 96 worlds! That's a LOT of new friends but we only see them meet one individual. We don't even see anyone in any of the other habitats. They don't even open the door that their new friend is from. (Low budget.) (Also, ignore that they don't have their com badges, so not translator, so in "reality" they wouldn't understand each other.)

If they've taken over so many worlds, why is there no Nirian ship available to defend the biosphere?! Why are the Nirians on Voyager so critical to that simple defense task? Surely there would be dozens of Nirian ships there long before everyone could be liberated.

That would be an interesting second episode! Nirian ships approaching. Voyager won't be able to fight off all of them. (Or isn't even there.) They need help! So, they must talk to other aliens who contact the their home worlds and they send a plethora of different ships, all racing there and working together to defeat the Nirian fleet. From this, Janeway proposes that these worlds become a federation of their own, teaching them how the Federation works. Wouldn't that be cool?!

Tuvok puts Chakotay straight

[snoozejonc · 7/10 · 26 February 2023]

Voyager's crew members start to disappear one by one.

This is a reasonably good episode with an enjoyable premise.

The story is set up by a mysterious circumstance that has a decent hook, but for me. When all is revealed there is little intrigue left, as you know it will soon be resolved. As events unfold to a resolution, it flows well, several characters make good contributions to the story, but it feels a bit uninspired.

Performances by Katie Mulgrew, Robert Beltran, Tim Russ, Roxanne Dawson, and Robert Duncan McNeill. I particularly enjoyed Russ during Tuvok's reminiscence about a certain Vulcan rite of passage.

The cinematography, editing, and general art design are of a good standard.

It's a 6.5/10 for me but I round upwards.

It's Cold in here

[newarkinvaders · 1/10 · 13 May 2022]

Very quickly it's established that the aliens are effected badly by cold weather and bright light .

The crew adjust the voyager environmental controls to help them If only 1 of the crew where bright enough to change them back once they realised it was an invasion....

Or you know ,set the controls to -40 or something .

Or activate the auto destruct sequence ( It's not like the aliens had deactivated the secondary command conduit , the single point of failure for this function .... )

The aliens motivation for stealing voyage seems to be so that they can steal it. They already have a way cooler ship capable of supporting far more lifeforms than they are. But there main use of this huge ship is to hold all there lower tech prisoners.

Of course the security on the alien ship is awful. Tuvak cracks there security by looking at the control panel in an unknown language and obviously types in the word "password" in alien as within 10 button pushes he is through their security.

It's just one of those episodes where someone has an idea that could be a good story and then takes their brain out.

Poor on board procedures from Slack-Alice Capt Janeway & Tuvok leads to 2 star rating.

[davidhiggins-89756 · 3/10 · 10 April 2021]

What sort of ship is Capt Janeway running?, too busy prissying around with her bouffant hair-do in her ready room is she?. And WHAT sort of Tactical & Security officer is Tuvok when a crew member has VANISHED off the ship and there is no 'automated alarm' in place to alert everyone they have gone.

An easy programming to get old Majel Barrett to let them all know WITHOUT the senior staff having to ASK the computer, "Computer, Locate Kes", Majel says, " Kes is not aboard Voyager".

Looks like even when TIME & TIME again when past experiences have shown this is needed NO ONE gets around to putting it in place. A MASSIVE Plot Hole.

No one can just quite get around to formulating a simple program of an 'instant alert'. "Computer, when anyone leaves the ship without authorisation INSTANTLY alert the bridge", it is all they have to say, or twiddle about a bit and put in a manual coding, easy as that!.

The scriptwriters INSULTING our intelligence that such a procedure would not be in place in the first place, all to further the script, to actually make it work. Otherwise it wouldn't.

Scripts crafted that only actually work when the viewers Intelligence is insulted, and are used too often, are some of the lowest sort of scripts conceived in any series, it is a 'dumbing down' of intelligence.

The better scripts are the ones that carry us along and enlighten us & expand our intelligence. Entertaining & educating. Some of the more 'Cerebral' episodes looking back can be the more entertaining ones.

Yes, at the time it catered for all ages, and they wanted the 'instant' viewing figures to keep it all going, BUT, the producers should have known episodes not quite understood by younger folk can always be viewed & enjoyed in later years.

Then we have yet another big blunder that of not having the cargo bay set up to be an extended BRIG. So that all those within it CANNOT get out. So that it does not need a non speaking part security team on the inside to stand around like plonkers with phaser rifles.

Getting knocked off with their armaments that are then used against the entire ship. Or in this case the security team were continually transported away. SOMEHOW leaving behind the phaser!!, what an accurate transportation system that was!!.

Didn't turn up elsewhere with the phaser did they!. THOUGH they still HAD their com badges, that were soon removed/plucked from them. Nice BIG plot hole there. Didn't quite think that one through.

All the scripts needed feeding through a band of close to hand, ie the studio, a bunch of hard core Trekkies, they'd have pointed these things out. All that fan base available, many with great expertise, yet in a practical way with the script writing was it FULLY utilised?. It would have been SO MUCH better.

Back to this episode & Voyager in general. There have been many times Voyager has picked up undesirables along the way & needed a mass storage area with security similar to a brig. But our intrepid hero's on Voyager just never did learn that.

BTW we still see Jen Lien in the show, I thought she cleared off prior to 79 turning up, when I consider the show actually started to pick up.

***Future Spoiler alert***. ***Future Spoiler alert***.

Wasn't it some goings on about Kes's powers expanding and her having to leave. The root of it CANNOT have been that Jen Lien did not get enough airtime, because there are many episodes JUST primarily about her. She had more than enough screen time, who knows, I'm not too bothered.

WE then had 79 on our plate. To oggle at & admire, a welcome FRESH new character, the first new permanent character in over half of the show. 79 added many things, the obvious physical attraction and of cause there was her acting abilities & over all ongoing character development.

The producers should have added a new outside character every other season or even per season, it may have picked the first 3 seasons up a bit, they dragged a bit, no great over all context. Just bumbling along from one individual episode to another, with the main theme of just getting back to Earth. (maybe with the odd reoccurring Kazon & those organ taking Viidan theme, and Sesko).

Not that the episodes were too bad but that I feel it gained pace later from season 4 onwards. Many agree. All the seasons were OK, but with 79 things got better. I call her 79, 7 of 9 is far too poncy.

AND don't get me started on her official designation, I totally CRINGE when I hear that. Fast forward so as to not hear any instances of that. I don't even like Janeways moniker of "Seven" either. That's utterly wet as well. I'd call her 79 with a slight unspoken innuendo whether she like it or not.

I'd spice up my dealings with the female characters were I on board, it'd be fun to be on Voyager. Best of all the Star Trek series. The best series being the ship/space station that YOU would prefer to be on.

Getting back to this "Displaced" episode, I would say special commendation goes to Neelix, he was very helpful, he always was, it was either in this one or the last one where he was extra keen & helpful. Voyager was lucky to have him on board, he perked the place up, an enjoyable character well played, especially when paired against Tuvok.

The Spock & Bones pairing & sparring was its original inspiration. The Star Trek producers & script writers can in some areas learn & adapt but so it seams the Star Trek Captains are not quite well equipped with this ability.

No wonder so many crewmen were ceremoniously piped out from wherever the ceremony was held, into space in a funeral pod. (yea, no doubt called the ceremony room!). Used quite a lot due to Slack-Alice. Not quite as competent as she needed to be for everybody else's sake's. Yes she tried, it must have been mainly due to the scripts that called for these dramatic killings. It making her look not so competent.

***Future Spoiler alert***. ***Future Spoiler alert***.

OK then!, for Neelix's erstwhile continual efforts I'll up the rating to 3 stars. As the heading still says 2 stars, it was for sure getting 2 stars.

WE are yet to see Neelix emerge bedraggled from someones crew or guest quarters after an encounter with a Klingon female, OR was it two?. One of the highlights of the entire show. Quite daring they put it in. Having a bit of saucy adult fun.

Of cause the entire show is 'well' worth more than 3 stars, it is up there near the top end of a 10 star rating, but for all the reasons I have raised for this episode, whether people like it or not it is just a 3 star rating for Slack Alice Janeways lack of professional planning. AND of cause for the script writers insulting of our intelligence. A rating of 3 stars.

PS, Edited just to add another 'e' in Neelix.