Star Trek: Voyager (TV Series) The Disease (1999) User Reviews

Harry Kim comes of age

[calibanplayer · 8/10 · 11 April 2007]

A well-told episode involving Harry Kim falling in love. Voyager is helping a group of Xenophobic aliens make repairs to their ship's systems when Harry Kim has an affair with a female on the other ship which is a major no-no. The intimate encounter has an unexpected effect on Harry's body and the whistle is blown, much to the disappointment of Captain Janeway.

What is nice about this episode and different from the previous "Harry Kim develops feelings for (insert random female here) this time the girl likes him back and he handles himself pretty well with her, with no awkward stumbling.

We soon learn that life on the Aliens ship is not enjoyed by all who are there and a secret separatist group is planning mischief.

This episode features some nice moments between Janeway and Harry, and it's a nice break-out show for Garrett Wang. It's just doesn't seem fare that Captain Kirk nailed half the female life forms in the Alpha Quadrant and never got any diseases, but Harry Kim gets lucky 1 TIME and ends up with the Delta Quadrant's version of the clap.

The camera work in this episode is really good. Many long tracking shots, one of which starts in the briefing room, goes to the bridge and ends in Janeway's Ready Room all in 1 shot. Very Cinematic.

Mom's favorite.

[thevacinstaller · 6/10 · 28 January 2023]

I have to admit, I just love the idea that starfleet has created a bureaucracy in regards to inner species relationships. Talk about being a helicopter mom!

This episode is essentially about reframing the character of Harry Kim as being capable of not following the rules. Is that enough of a hook to make a good episode? I like the idea ---- but I like the idea of holding the flame a little closer to the skin with a real dilemma ... perhaps a violation of a serious starfleet directive ---- the prime directive perhaps? A choice of morality that conflicts with Janeway? The potential fallout from this decision is that the Varro might not share technology now. Not catastrophic in terms of collateral damage.

Was this true love? Or, did they just really enjoy having sex? You'll have to think this one over Harry ---- Tal should have had some music instrument and then they perform a duet together and then I am SOLD on it being love.

A hearty pat on the back to Tom Paris for following the bro-code.

Way to go, Harry!

[planktonrules · 6/10 · 27 February 2015]

Let's cut to the chase. Harry Kim wasn't an especially good character on "Star Trek: Voyager". He was just way too one dimensional and his actor, Garrett Wang, seemed hampered by this. He was either the really shy and relatively dull guy or he was saving the ship or he was doing something to almost destroy the ship! In many ways, he was this series' version of Wesley Crusher. A few episodes back he actually DID destroy the ship (only to magically un-destroy it thanks to temporal thingamabobs) and here he sure comes close to destroying a fragile alliance!

When the episode begins, Harry is having sex with some alien lady(?). This sort of stuff is against Starfleet regulations, as interspecies nookie has a proper series of channels that must be addressed first*. But the lovesick ensign acts more like a love- struck 14 year-old than a member of a professional crew. Naturally, when this dalliance comes to light, the Captain is furious, Harry apologizes and it all begins again. In the meantime, an underground movement among these aliens is discovered...and Mr. Kim is in the midst of it!

This is a moderately enjoyable episode but it didn't give Mr. Kim a great chance to expand as a character. It just reinforces him as an immature and somewhat unlikable sort of guy. Not terrible but it sure could have been better.

*These regulations they spout MUST have just been created (perhaps with Will Riker in mind). Riker routinely had sex with just about anything that moved--so saying that the captain and doctor need to approve on any Starfleet vessel before nookie can begin seemed odd to say the least!

At least we will always have a class 3 Nebula?!

[mzuhayb · 6/10 · 27 August 2016]

Good episode to a point. Been going through watching 'Voyager' recently as I never saw the last few series in my initial viewing some years back. We, my sister and I, always thought 'v'ger' As we called it, was the weaker of the 'Treks' - But I'm quite enjoying them and think I was a bit harsh in my, many years earlier views... Anywhoo..

This episode was rather an odd ball one. Usually unflappable Ensign Kim - who after many heroics is still an Ensign... fall head over heals for a very pretty Alien engineer - They are found hanging out at what looks like her college dorm room at the beginning of the episode... Now Star Fleet has some proper regs about new aliens and whether one should get too familiar without medical advice etc but ya know 'feelings' etc - so all are sort of right as they go along - the Captain the Medical issues etc.. And Harry makes a big song and dance about his Alien lady... However the episode falls apart at the end, utterly and totally. After all the histrionics and Alien Engineer Tal gets her wish to leave her family ship - well she rather stay with here group of travellers then consider asking to go with Kim. And then we have Straight lased Ensign Kim who breaks regs for the women he loves so deeply etc - but he doesn't ask to go with her - nor does he ask her to go with him.... Bizarre... What? Does Kim think himself a Capi-tan Kirk, all of a sudden?? Anomalous episode! - surprisingly 'Seven' was able to unravel the malarkey to get a useful life lesson - lesser mortals like myself are still perplexed.

Checking the manifolds

[snoozejonc · 6/10 · 7 October 2023]

Harry Kim has a romantic encounter that causes problems.

This is an okay episode with a typically unconvincing Star Trek love story. Garrett Wang and Musetta Vander do their best with the dialogue, but it feels a bit forced to me as always during episodic television.

The reaction of Janeway is one of the key dramatic aspects of the plot, but feels such a bizarrely OTT attitude it is funny. How someone stuck at the far side of the Galaxy can be risking their career is beyond my logic. I appreciate there is a command structure, as I work within a strict hierarchy, but I'm not sure if the writers realise the arrogance associated with lines about lowly ensigns not earning the right to question a captain's orders. Especially when so many command structures contain questionable ability at top.

That being said the romance and reaction of Janeway is by far the most engaging aspect of the story. The conflict between factions of the alien-the-week characters feels quite cliché ridden and make me zone out.

What lifts it above mediocre for me is some of the amusing banter between characters, particularly in the early scenes.

The quality of the visuals is also very good, with the opening establishing shot being one of the best examples in Star Trek. The filmmakers also make the most of Vander's striking screen presence to create some quite erotically charged moments that feel stronger than usual for the franchise.

Easily the best aspect of the writing is Seven of Nine's perspective on love. This is done a few short scenes of dialogue, but they work well for the story and her character development.

Ensign Kim boldly goes...

[DSvoyager9 · 6/10 · 6 November 2023]

The baby-faced Ensign finally goes to the bone zone (probably more than once) with a lovely alien, Derran Tal, deftly portrayed by the lovely Musetta Vander.

Captain Janeway completely overreacts and throws the Starfleet regulation book at him even as she acknowledges that Tal is very attractive. Kim does a good job of standing up for himself as a man with needs to the Captain. Janeway shows that she has a bit of a mom complex when it comes to Kim, which is very weird.

I enjoyed the concept of a generational ship, factions, sabotage. The end seemed rushed. Would like to have seen some additional exploration of the generational ship.

Love for Harry

[Tweekums · 8/10 · 10 March 2010]

When Voyager stops to help the Varro, a xenophobic race who have lived aboard a ship for several generations, avoided contact when ever possible. Over the course of the two weeks spent together is seems the Varro are only slightly less suspicious... apart from Tahl, a beautiful scientist who is engaged in an illicit relationship with Harry Kim, a relationship which could get them both in trouble. While Harry is working Seven notices his skin start to glow as he discussed Tahl so insists that he sees The Doctor who informs the captain when he learns of the relationship. It later becomes clear that this is a reaction the Varro get when they are in love. Things aren't made any easier when it is discovered that fractures found in the Varro ship have spread to Voyager and were caused by sabotage. When a Varro man is caught trying to stowaway aboard Voyager it becomes clear that not all of them want to continue the isolationist lifestyle, some of whom are trying to break up the Varro ship so they can go their own way. Despite being ordered not to see Tahl Harry beams her over to a shuttle so they can have some more time together. While he is showing her a nearby nebula they are caught by Tuvok who has something surprising to reveal to Harry.

This was a good episode which gave Harry a chance for some much needed character development, it also gave a good insight into the relationship between Harry and the captain, showing that after five years on Voyager he is no longer the raw recruit, fresh out of the academy that he was when the series started. Musetta Vander did well in her guest role as Tahl, one can see why Harry fell for her charms.

What interspecies rule?

[sloopnp · 4/10 · 11 August 2020]

Starfleet has rules on interspecies sex? Um...what? Did anyone tell like....ANYONE else that? Captain Kirk? Riker? Chakotay? No. I guess it just applies to Kim for purposes of this story. And c'mon. I get Kim is in love, but he's a grown man. Why did he react like an over emotional teenage boy? Was it that glowing STD? Love this season, hate this episode.

Great, great episode

[jrarichards · 10/10 · 15 April 2017]

Continuing a run of "moral/ethical dilemma" episodes characteristic for the exquisitely-good 5th series of "Voyager", this one (inexplicably given a low average mark by fellow reviewers) deals with the nature of love and loyalty, the value of rules, the conflicting desires for isolation and integration, as well as what all of these mean in the context of space missions that go far beyond normal tours of duty in the direction of whole lifetimes on board ship.

Not bad for 40 minutes.

Garrett Wang handles Harry's overwhelming relationship (with all its various consequences) with aplomb, and the Janeway-Kim interactions push towards the boundaries of what we expect from the characters in the hierarchy, but then "Voyager" is not in a fully predictable situation, is it? Obviously, there are many, many beautiful and ponderable messages here applying as well to planet Earth as they do to the galaxy's Delta Quadrant.

Quite unusually for a "Voyager" episode, there is subtle and worthwhile - and at times moving - input into the main story from Chakotay, Seven, Paris, the Doctor and Tuvok. All do their thing just perfectly, without taking anything away from the episode's 3 main characters.

If I wanted to imbue a young person with a thoughtful ethical approach, I would encourage binge-watching of series 5 of "Voyager", which is of so much higher quality than I recall, or than one might imagine.

So much meaning wrapped up in there, it's a real and surprisingly vivid joy to revisit these episodes now, almost twenty years on from their first appearance...

We know that "Voyager" took time getting into its stride, and would all too soon be facing some kind of decline into the final series, but in Series 5 it was doing brilliant things. So, much to be recommended for those who've not as yet indulged.

Harry finally gets laid and Janeway burns him at the stake

[Hughmanity · 5/10 · 27 January 2021]

Harry Kim, young single man, on board Voyager for five years without ever getting laid. He finally does and everyone treats him like a Christian convent that caught a ten year old masturbating.

Janeway is particularly incensed by the nerve of violating Starfleet protocols which apparently involve full medical evaluations and signing off in triplicate before having sex. You know, very romantic stuff that is easily inserted into a moment of passion.

This episode just angered me more than anything and I also lost respect for Janeway who had almost no empathy or even recognition that a guy in his 20s that's horny as F, halfway across the galaxy and stuck with the same 100 people for five years might need to get some action!

BTW didn't Janeway just kiss some DeVore alien passionately like three episodes ago? Where were the protocols on that one? Didn't Kirk and Riker basically sleep with every sexy female alien they ever encountered?

Lack of consistency/continuity and betrayal of characters and culture established to date got this episode a low rating from me.

Good ep... bad starfleet

[Danzence · 8/10 · 18 March 2023]

Trying to control someone on their personal time. Tut.

Starfleet is about exploring and is for all intents and purposes voluntary. Even if it wasn't... certain things in life and implicitly out of bounds of companies and whatnot. They have no say (if you remember to stand up for yourself) in your personal life especially when it has absolutely no effect on what the company is doing. Or in this case Starfleet. Harry engaging in his hormones on his own time did sweet FA bad to Voyager at all.

Have a spine in life and stand up for things that are none of other people's business and it will all work out.

Teenage Girl, Harry Kim, Back For Another Round!

[spasek · 5/10 · 30 May 2021]

Harry Kim, as another reviewer put it, is the most tiresome and pathetic character of the Voyager crew. Even more than Neelix. What's more, he's one of the most pathetic characters of ANY Star Trek crew.

Harry Kim--once more--has fallen in love. And much like a teenage kid, he can scarcely see anything else once his feelings have taken over. Ironically, he also prides himself as being one of Janeway's prize pupils, which makes this episode all the more laughable.

Harry engages in sexual relations with an alien woman aboard a ship that Voyager has come across and is trying to help with their engines. I was also laughing at the sudden Starfleet regulation against relations with other species! Does this count within the crew itself? Riker and Troi, for example? Or Kirk, Riker, and all of the women they've been with? The incompetent writers clearly felt they had to come up with this sad gimmick in order to make the plot work. Amateur writing 101 when you do that.

Janeway gets so upset about it, that she treats him more like an errant son than a crew member. Harry, of course, cries out like a teen girl, "This wasn't just a fling! I'm in love!" I actually did laugh at the horrificly written line as well as Wang's sorry attempt to pass it off.

I'm more convinced than ever that Kim should have been left for dead back in Season 1.

There is really nothing in this episode that is relevant to anything. It's another dry and empty filler.

I nearly skipped this episode when I saw that it was another Harry Kim one. But then, I wanted to see if it was reallly as bad as it was proclaimed to be.

It was.

I'm Just Tired About Harry!

[Hitchcoc · 5/10 · 6 September 2018]

Harry is one of the most tiresome characters in this series. At one point, he tells someone that he has never done anything wrong during the entire time on Voyager. Well, he may not have been caught or his transgression may not have resulted in serious damage, but he routinely is out of line and careless. I mean, just a couple episodes ago, it is his insistence that they take an untested shuttle into a dangerous situation, and the entire crew gets killed. Of course, saved by time travel. Anyway, I wanted this episode to be over. The companion plot involves a big ship that pretty much keeps its crew totally in check until a rebellion forms.

Janeway makes a mountain out of a molehill

[tomsly-40015 · 5/10 · 7 January 2024]

So, Harry falls deeply in love with an alien woman and Janeway gets all mad about him breaking Starfleet protocols and regulations. This is so stupid and doesn't suit her protective nature towards the crew at all.

They are stranded for five years in the delta quadrant, away from their loved ones. Crew members died in battle or pointlessly on alien planets. They constantly run into dangerous situations and it is just pure luck, that the ship hasn't been assimilated by the Borg already. Every day could be their last. And Harry is a young man. It is just natural that he wants to break free. Guess what happened back in the days when explorers traveled with sailing ships for years around the globe and landed on distant unknown shores with beautiful, half naked girls in the middle of a tropical paradise.

Also, I've never seen Riker being medically examined before and after he slept with alien women in every second episode of TNG. He never asked Picard for permission either and Picard never lectured him about 3 cm thick regulations on inter species relationships. It is a private matter of each crew member - the love life is none of the captain's business, especially not on an exploration vessel. Starfleet is not a military organization, Voyager is no war ship. It would have been one thing if Janeway and the doctor would have been concerned about an alien infection. But Janeway is mad about Harry falling in love! Not about him not using a condom to protect himself from alien diseases and viruses. She is disappointed in him because she feels like he is still the freshman from academy of day one of their journey and obviously has problems in accepting that he and others have changed over the past years. She is like a protective father that gets mad about his teenage daughter that has a boyfriend for the first time, because in his mind he still sees her daughter as this six years old pigtailed girl that needs her father to protect her.

And what is this talk about career and rank anyhow? They are far away from Starfleet headquarters. There is no court martial in sight. They don't know if they ever manage to return home. What career? The only thing that matters on this ship is that everyone stays healthy and happy and doesn't give up. If he has a black or golden pip more than before doesn't make any difference as long as they are still in the delta quadrant!

Janeway acts completely over the top. I bet many crew members didn't just enjoy the scenery on alien planets when they had shore leave for a couple of days in the past years. By the way, after five years away from home and tempted by new worlds, new species, new adventures, a new life... there would have been several crew members already that would have left Voyager and resigned their duty to start a new life on another planet with a new love they found there. This also is quite natural when people travel for a long time. It even happens to ordinary people today, that fall in love during holidays in another country and then burn the bridges and begin a new life there. It is quite weak at the end of this episode that neither Harry nor Tal even considered to leave their lives behind and join the other one on his or her journey just to be together. That deep love they had obviously isn't so deep after all.

The conflict on this generation vessel though is quite interesting. It basically portrays the same struggle that Harry faces. A ship that only travels but never sets anchor to settle somewhere has not much of a purpose. As those people on this ship want to live their lives where and how they choose, the same is true for the crew on Voyager.

Starsky and Hutch ......

[paulwallenberg · 1/10 · 3 November 2021]

Back in the '70's in the police drama Starsky and Hutch, they used to get one or the other to have a romantic relationship with a single episode character.

It would end in only one of two ways...

Either the girl would die or she would turn out to be a wrong 'un.

Here, they chose a third way...what I term "the brief encounter" scenario (although the girl a) does nearly die at the end due to b) her sabotaging her own spaceship as she indeed, a rebel)

But why, why why? Don't either of the protagonists ask the other to join them? For two people so hopelessly in love the ending just don't make much sense.

No pity for asylum seekers?

[joling-49073 · 4/10 · 20 February 2024]

All the attention is focused on Harry Kim's infatuation and Captain Janeway's archaic sexual morality, but I noticed something else and even more disturbing. When Tuvoc discovers a stowaway who has fled the Varro's ship (elsewhere referred to as "xenophobic aliens") and asks for asylum, Chakotay doesn't know how quickly to tell the Varro authorities that he has found an insurgent. Obviously, the Federation of Planets is not a party to the Geneva Convention, but I still expected the 24th century to be a little more enlightened. A blemish on this fine episode, but such an action against an alleged bunch of terrorists was not a problem before, for example in The Chute S3. E3. Whose side are our explorers really on?