Star Trek: Voyager (TV Series) Once Upon a Time (1998) User Reviews

the 24th century's Sesame Street

[calibanplayer · 7/10 · 31 March 2007]

This episode showcases Voyager's youngest crewmen, Naomi Wildman, played by Scarlett Pomers. Her mother is on a mission on the Delta Flyer which has gone missing. The Voyager crew are searching, hoping to find the Delta Flyer before the air supply runs out on the trapped away team.

At issue is should they tell Naomi the truth about her mother being in danger yet, since they don't have solid facts. Neelix hopes to keep her occupied, sparing her the worry and pain of thinking she may never see her mother again.

A neat element of this episode is the holideck program for children. In the 24th century instead of watching Elmo and Big Bird kids actually get to play with Flotter & Trevis. The adventures involve an educational element to encourage learning. But Sesame Street has better songs.

Guest Cast: Under Flotter's makeup is Wallace Langham of CSI and The Larry Sanders Show. It's the only appearance of the holideck program, but the stuffed Flotter that Neelix and Harry make for Naomi is shown in future episodes.

Warning!!: Episode Has Child

[jacobim-53011 · 6/10 · 21 November 2021]

I am blown away that some of you nerds think this is the worst episode of any Star Trek. I made an account just to write this but what the hell are you talking about, did you see the Voyager episode where Janeway and Paris turn into salamander aliens and mate?

Y'all really hate kids, huh? I remember reading the reviews of DS9 episodes that featured Molly O'Brien and they were just like, calling for the kid to die in order to make the show better.

I thought this episode was fine, the silly characters kept themselves in check and rarely overstayed their welcome, and we got to deal with the most unique crew member on this voyage.

To all the weird haters: Sorry this episode wasn't about a space battle or like a dilithium matrix being jettisoned.

Enjoyed it

[s_lyda · 7/10 · 13 March 2021]

I'm a huge fan of Scarlett Pomer so I really enjoyed this one.

To the reviewer who didn't know about the Delta Flyer, it was built in S5E3 when they had to get a probe the Mahlon were trying to steal.

Eyes of a child.

[thevacinstaller · 6/10 · 25 December 2021]

I enjoyed the struggle of Neelix not wanting Naomi to go through the same scale of loss that he had endured with the loss of his family.

I did have a good chuckle at the Captain Janeway's school of child rearing ------ NO! We must confront and fight grief immediately! This is classic Janeway.

I enjoy the idea of going through a journey of understanding complex human emotions through the lens of a innocent girl and Naomi does a good job of being adorable.

Neelix does the heavy lifting this episode with a solid performance. He's probably the most consistent actor in the series.

It's okay. With my 20/20 hindsight I think a better idea for this episode would be to view this world through the actual eyes of Naomi through some fancy cinematography and discover clues about what is happening to your mother through interactions with the crew. It would add a dash of mystery and intrigue.

Okay episode with some questionable creative choices

[snoozejonc · 6/10 · 25 August 2023]

The Delta Flyer crashes and there are fears for the lives of its crew.

There is a decent story at the heart of this about Naomi Wildman's experience and her connection with Neelix.

For me the general narrative does not unfold in a particularly compelling way. Putting two main characters in the away crew kills any suspense associated with Sam Wildman's predicament. Plus the writers again portray Neelix as a frustrating character, and the predictable underlying issues create no empathy with him.

Ethan Phillips gives a strong performance, but the material he has, especially in his confrontation scene with Janeway is not written with any subtlety. I find the dialogue in some episodes of Voyager tends to over explain characters feelings.

The use of the holodeck characters is debatable, as there is some merit with the themes about childhood fantasy worlds and the idea of sheltering children from harsh realities. When you read that this was part of an idea for a different story (that sounds far better), it feels like a missed opportunity. I find them annoying when on screen.

All actors are solid and make the best of the material. Scarlett Pomers does really well as at 10 year old interacting with her adult co-stars. Her short scene with Jeri Ryan is easily the best part of the episode.

It's a 5.5/10 for me but I round upwards.

Sesame Street in space

[tomsly-40015 · 3/10 · 3 January 2024]

This is an unnecessary filler episode, focusing on Naomi, ensign Wildman's daughter. The daughter miraculously is around 5-6 years old although she was born end of season 2 - after her mother was pregnant for over two years obviously...

Episodes about children are always tricky. Especially since Star Trek isn't a show for kids. Neither ensign Wildman nor her daughter are main characters or play any important role in the show. For example Alexander, Worf's son, was often shown in TNG episodes, but mainly to drive the story arc of Worf, to show his struggle in being a father of a son that doesn't value Klingon traditions. Or take Molly or Yoshi, the children of Miles O'Brien in DS9. They also were shown a lot to portray the family life of Miles and his relationship to his wife. Molly also had a full episode when she aged by 10 years. And Yoshi had its own story arc by being delivered by Kira which created a lot of awkward situations between Miles, Kira and Keiko.

But ensign Wildman is a side character, she has no story arc. That's why it is irrelevant (to speak in Seven of Nine's words) what happens to Naomi. She also has no story other than Neelix scaring monsters in her bedroom away. It would be another story if she would be a part of the acting crew like Wesley Crusher has been on the Enterprise. Not to mention Jake and Nog. But she is too young for playing a central part of the show.

This episode boils down to Neelix wanting to protect Naomi from the truth that her mother has gone missing in an away mission and might even be dead. He projects his own loss of his family and his pain he felt and still feels onto Naomi and wants to spare her a similar pain. It gets very odd when he even gets into a verbal dispute with Janeway, who wants to tell Naomi the truth but Neelix protests.

Naomi was born on Voyager, she has never met her father and has no other friends at her age to play with. She has witnessed devastating Borg attacks, dangerous space anomalies and unknown alien diseases on board. I think Neelix is just wrong when he keeps telling others how sensitive she is and that she needs to be protected and shielded by any bad news. He should have told her the truth right away - it is a matter of how you tell children worrying news and how to help them handling difficult situations afterwards. After all, Neelix wouldn't have to tell her that her mother died in a horrible accident on a barren planetoid but only that the contact to her broke off and the crew currently is assembling a rescue mission to search for her and the other missing crew members.

As a diversion and somehow main story Naomi plays a holodeck child's program that obviously is quite a popular series - Harry Kim played this as a child as well as Janeway. Those fantasy world scenes are quite dumb though to watch for adults. There is a water character, dressed in a blue tight dress, and a tree character, dressed like a tree of course - but without twigs and leaves. It is all colorful and childish. It's a crossover of Teletubbies, Sesame Street, the Muppets and Curiosity Show - because the kids have to solve puzzles and thus update the story and keep it going. All in all quite stupid with two annoying main characters - and Neelix even replicates a stuffed toy of the blue dude which looks really, really bad.

How do you tell a child her mother is missing?

[Tweekums · 8/10 · 22 February 2010]

Many of the Star Trek series have featured children, many of whom have been fairly annoying characters; thankfully Voyager's Naomi Wildman isn't annoying, mainly because young Scarlett Pomers does very well in the role and the character is written like a real child.

As the episode opens Naomi is on the holodeck playing a children's adventure program which we later learn is a long time favourite which many of the crew remember from their own childhood. As her mother is on an away mission she is being looked after by her godfather, Neelix. When contact is lost with her mother's shuttle Neelix doesn't want to tell her as he thinks it will just worry her, he believes it is best to wait until the fate of the shuttle crew is known before saying anything to her. Unfortunately Naomi discovers that her mother is missing and that Neelix knew so retreats to the holodeck. Neelix must now explain to her why he covered up the truth and was trying to protect her from bad news similar to that which he had to endure when he was younger. While this is going on aboard ship another away team is racing against the clock to find the missing shuttle before the oxygen runs out.

This was a pretty good episode which concentrated on a realistic subject; just how do you give bad news to a child and what is the right time to do it? As well as a good performance from Scarlett Pomers as Naomi, Nancy Hower does well in the smaller role of her mother Ensign San Wildman.

Weak.

[planktonrules · 3/10 · 25 February 2015]

Little Naomi Wildman has grown and spends quite a bit of this episode in some holo deck children's story interacting with some characters that are annoying but which have really good costumes/make-up. Throughout the show, her godfather Neelix spends a lot of time with her--in and out of the holodeck because her mother has been lost on an away team mission with Tuvok and Paris. Naturally, you KNOW that the last two must survive but whether Ensign Wildman will is uncertain-- especially since she's been injured when the shuttle crashed.

You know that the episode cannot be that good when the big conflict is whether or not Neelix has the guts to tell cute little spiky foreheaded Naomi that her mother is lost. That and the annoying children's book characters make this one a bit tough to take at times. Definitely one of the lesser episodes of season 5--and a bit embarrassing to watch.

This should have been a video game

[XweAponX · 10/10 · 19 May 2020]

There we go again, thinking that Voyager is about us, well it is, but in this episode it's about Naomi Wildman, who makes her premier with the actress that played the role throughout the end of the series. The character had appeared before but the first time only as an infant and the second time as a much younger girl.

So the story has to be told from her level, which appears to be approximately an 8 to 12-year-old child (Naomi of course grows fast being half Katarian). And I think this episode captures how a child would perceive events occurring on voyager at the time.

But the character of "Flotter T Water" played by the great character actor Wallace Langham, isn't just here for Naomi's benefit.

Because this holodeck program was used (and abused) by both Naomi's mother Samantha and Captain Janeway when they were both kids. And of course by Ensign Kim. In fact, the character of Flotter appears to be something that most of the crew of Voyager is familiar with.

Which is a very human thing, how many of us grew up watching certain cartoons or played certain games, only to see that when we grew up and had kids of our own, they loved the same games and cartoons that we did? Beanie and Cecil... Clutch Cargo... Fireball XL-5... Thunderbirds (And Jon Frakes directed the remake)...?

The B story behind this, the Delta flyer in jeopardy and we have our old friend the "ion storm" to blame, Naomi's mother on the flyer, and Neelix being Naomi's godfather is only doing what he thinks best to shield Naomi from some bad news during a time when he felt she didn't really need to know it.

Of course, this was a mistake.

Getting back to the holodeck program of the episode, if I were a kid I would have loved it. But the holodeck program is a parallel to what is occurring with Naomi's mother, who of course is being pursued by a real "ogre of fire".

As an adult, I see a child's program that has colorful characters that are somewhat funny, in a juvenile way of course, but is also designed to teach the child certain rudimentary things about how the world works.

But of course children like Naomi, and Janeway when she was a child, as being more inquisitive had to tweak the program...

I don't consider this a weak or a substandard episode at all, it in fact deals with something that is very sensitive, how do you talk to a child when their parent is in jeopardy?

Of course Naomi lives in an enviable environment, on a starship. But being the only child makes it difficult. Eventually that issue is remedied somewhat, albeit temporarily.

Pass the Syrup

[Hitchcoc · 2/10 · 4 September 2018]

I won't write much because it is barely worth my time. After a stellar beginning to Season Five, we get this junk. Neelix's relationship with that little girl is tiresome enough, but throw in the bad acting and those ridiculous characters on the holodeck, and it seems endless. Why do we have to take these diversions away from science fiction? Other than a shuttle crash, the whole thing is maudlin manipulation.

Typical Voyager

[phenomynouss · 1/10 · 3 August 2010]

Playing with guaranteed schmuck-bait for fan appeal by using little girls and the potential of losing one's parents, Voyager churns out an episode that, if you get past the empathic points, leaves you asking "What was the point of this episode?" Maybe there's something wrong with me, but I felt that this episode accomplished nothing, and ALMOST reached a level of thematic importance, but in typical Voyager fashion, chickened out at the last moment and hit the Magic Reset Button.

The story is that the Delta Flyer (no idea where this thing came from, and I've watched every single episode leading up to this one), containing Samantha Wildman, Tuvok, and Tom Paris, crashlands on some rock in space near an ion storm or whatever. They lose contact with Voyager and there are suspicions they could be dead.

The majority of the story involves Naomi Wildman, now five years old after a nearly 2 year pregnancy (don't ask, that is EXACTLY how it went in the series without any explanation), plays around in a holodeck novel fantasy which I seriously cannot believe is in any way written to be more than "A weird-looking forest, with a treebark man and a water man who bicker and argue at each other" NOTHING happens in this holodeck thing which she seems so attracted to. She just talks to a man in a bad costume of blue supposed to be water, and a man in a bad costume of what is supposed to be tree bark, and some of the worst puns ever.

So the issue comes into play where Neelix, her godfather, must try to open up to her and tell her that her mother may be dead, but he keeps it quiet, even to a point of Captain Janeway urging him and getting yelled at by him in turn.

But after sneaking onto the bridge, she discovers that her mother is likely dead, and flees into her holodeck. Neelix must go after her, and opens up to her about how he was around her age when his parents and siblings died and how he had to learn to accept this and such.

Meanwhile, in the shuttle, nothing happens. Then towards the end, they record farewell messages to their loved ones.

At this point, if Samantha Wildman died, even if Tom and Tuvok survived, the episode could have served some purpose. But this being Voyager, and even her being a minor character, she does not die, and returns to Naomi for a happy reunion, and no one learns a damn thing, "Voyager"-style.

Honestly, I was almost taken in by the whole child must learn to deal with the reality that she may end up losing her parent, but there was none of that in this episode. There was no resonance with that theme, and no one had the acting strength to properly convey this except, ironically, Ethan Phillips as Neelix. He was the strongest character in the whole story, yet he was working completely against the torrent of mediocrity and abject stupidity and pointlessness that this episode was hurling in huge doses.

Rate this a 1 it is possible you have family & love issues.

[sydrogerbarrett · 8/10 · 7 October 2023]

Voyagers treatment of children is far superior to that of the original series and TNG.

I suppose if you're diabetic you too will not like this episode. Then wait and watch when you are mature enough.

I strongly disagree this is worst episode of the entire Star Trek franchise. Still the all-time champions are "And the Children Shall Lead" and the closet episode "The Empath".

Look I am one who strongly dislikes children in Movies & series. But necessary to bring out a strong paternal drive in Neelix. The force used when in strong disagreement with the Captain possibly over the top but absolutely understandable empathy and triggered personal emotional experience.

I was pleasantly surprised this 6.2 is actually above 7.5 to 8 enjoyable and engaging episode.

After School Special

[Hughmanity · 3/10 · 16 January 2021]

Seems like we get one of these 'for the kids' episodes per season. Very sappy and almost totally devoid of plot, it's a morality play around how to deal with danger/death. The young girl does a good job of acting, it's just not the kind of Trek story I want to watch.

In My Top 3 of Bad Episodes

[californiarecordshop · 1/10 · 23 July 2017]

My list for bad Voyager episodes would look something like this.

1. Ex Post Facto (first episode I'd ever seen, ruined it for me) they travel 70,000 light years away to find a woman with a 'doggy' (they didn't even bother with the horns), meshed into a bad episode written by a hack writer from LA Law.

2. 11:59 - Just Bad.

3. Once upon a Time - I don't come to shows like Star Trek to watch Sesame Street. I don't watch Star Trek to see a Detective story (although if done right...), or stories about the f****** Millennium Gate, ugh. I agreed with another person, - the Delta Flyer got plenty of backstory in 'Extreme Risk' - that there was no point to this story,I'm guessing Ms. Pomers is the niece of some Producer or whatever - a certain Vulcan was the nephew of one of the Production's people - and as a favor gave over an entire episode to be about Naomi. I prefer episodes that add to the overall story arc. This episode (all 3 actually) could easily lift out without and real content to be missed.

The Worst Episode Of Any Star Trek Series

[mcpuffin-27569 · 1/10 · 3 October 2017]

I truly hope whoever created this episode, directed, wrote, produced was fired and never aloud to work anywhere remotely close to a film studio. This episode is by far the worst thing to ever be shown on television.

It's an embarrassment!

I want my hour back

[magnum-ajt · 1/10 · 1 March 2021]

Complete waste of time watching this crap. Useless episode focusing on useless characters

Just skip this episode!!!!! Do yourself a favor.

[toniava · 1/10 · 8 February 2020]

It's the worst episode of any Star Trek series. Period. It's boring and has no story. If you want to watch a whole episode of Neelix and a pouty little girl and her annoying holodeck friends then this is an episode for you. Otherwise just skip it. It does not add to Voyager's journey in any way so you can take it out of the series and nothing would be lost. I was bored early on and I only continued to watch because I couldn't believe this was all there was to the episode. I was wrong.

The Flotter of Oz?

[brdavid-429-96270 · 3/10 · 4 October 2021]

The parallels to The Wizard of Oz are present but the story, the chemistry, the fun of The Wizard of Oz is absent. The main story line consists of a little girl whose mother is on an away mission and gravely injured and dying, yet her daughter is oblivious to this because Neelix refuses to tell her due to a traumatic experience he had as a child. Neelix is protective and it comes off rather coldly.

The episode is dry, uninspired, and without purpose. How to save it? What if an episode is told through the eyes of a child? That is, a day in the life of what it is like to be a child on a Starship? If you want to have a Wizard of Oz feel to it, have them in a situation where they have to journey through the starship, meeting characters along the way. Perhaps our characters can be perceived as the children might see them. It could have offered a rather jovial and fun light to a rather cold series.

As it seems, Season 5 seems to be marred with excellent story ideas that are never executed properly. Night, a perfect potential episode that would explore our character's darkest thoughts and going through a dark period in their lives, but nope, we get a morality tale of toxic waste. Extreme Risk, one of the best b stories I have seen only to be wasted by a terrible A story. In The Flesh, a non-sensible way of flipping the story to tell it through the eyes of aliens. What could and should have been an excellent episode marred by just how bizarre and impossible it all seemed. Hopefully the season doesn't continue to be marred by the same patterns.

Drone seems to be the only stand out episode this season thus far.