Star Trek: Voyager (TV Series) Course: Oblivion (1999) User Reviews

Tragedy in Space

[alexwoolcott · 9/10 · 22 December 2010]

I have a big soft spot for it, mostly out of appreciation for the fact that the writers made an active choice to make it as tragic as possible. Voyager (and television in general) often tend towards stories that give last minute victories, sometimes at the expense of realism. In this case, the writers went with their better instincts.

Voyager has been duplicated (see Season 4, Episode "Demon") and now they're starting to deteriorate. There's a lot of tension in this episode, both from the fact that anyone can die (including series regulars) and the conflict between the crew. This was still the era when they were having fun exploring the Chakotay / Janeway relationship and there's some real pathos after their divide becomes irrevocable.

Certainly, there's a bit of illogic to the premise - there's no indication in "Demon" that the biomimetic compound can duplicate technology, especially not as complex as a starship or the Doctor's mobile emitter; and it's amazing how their clothes don't deteriorate, even though in "Demon" we see that the clothes are made of the same biomimetic compound as the people themselves. But the premise does allow the writers to force the characters to confront their own mortality in a very real way. Further, Janeway is confronted with a crisis that the real Janeway never has to truly confront: only be giving up any hope of ever returning to Earth can she hope to save her crew

So sad

[mgruebel · 7/10 · 9 November 2015]

Some of the best Voyager episodes are ones where the crew suffers and their measure is taken. Of course we know that time travel will restore it ("Year of Hell"), or that the crew is not the real crew ("Course: Oblivion"). But it's still the same people.

Forget about the fact that in the episode "Demon," the final scene showed no hint of a copied Voyager, only its people. Perhaps the biomimetic fluid from the demon planet somehow absorbed the identity of the ship also. Perhaps the biomimetic crew had all the memories of the real crew and thus came to see themselves as the real crew - after all, who was the copy, and who was real? And somehow, the biomimetic crew, although first behind and then well ahead of the real Voyager, never elicited a "deja vu" reaction to either them or the real Voyager from alien species they encountered. And the real Voyager failed to scan the debris at the end of the episode for non-biomimetic materials brought on board the copied Voyager.

It's all a very big stretch because the idea for this script was not integrated with previous episodes, but no matter.

What is important is that you see good people, who try so hard, make some right decisions and some wrong decisions, and fail. This crew trades for a better warp engine that puts them far ahead of the real ship. This Tom Paris has the guts to marry B'Elana Torres. Janeway is a starship captain, whether mimetic or made of flesh and blood, and her mission is to go back to Earth. But then the Demon crew begins to disintegrate in their unnatural environment. Janeway and all the others realize that they are biomimetic lifeforms from a class Y Demon planet. Each copes in their own way with the realization that they are a copy doomed to a brief life. It is too late when Janeway finally realizes that home is behind them, not ahead of them. Janeway dies confused, barely able to speak coherently, after turning the ship with its super fast warp drive around. The last remnants of the crew do not give up, seek solutions in the face of utter oblivion, until there truly is no more solution and the last trick is out of the bag. One would like to think the real crew would have done the same if they faced impossible odds.

In a bitter twist, the biomimetic Voyager, retracing its steps so much faster than the real one, almost encounters the "mother" ship.

All the flesh-and-blood Janeway sees when she follows a distress call from an unknown ship, is some biomimetic matter, dissipating into interstellar space. She will never know that a piece of her died there, people with the same aspirations, who worked just as hard for the same goal, even if their goal was a phantasm.

An Episode That Deserves To Be Remembered

[happycowsmmmcheese · 8/10 · 11 October 2016]

This review definitely contains spoilers!

"Course: Oblivion," like so many other episodes of Star Trek, tackles several easily accessible philosophical concepts. The concept most heavily addressed in the episode isn't a new one for the series, in fact many episodes of Voyager and other Trek series deal with self-identity and mortality, but it's the way the story plays out in the end that makes "Course: Oblivion" unique among the rest. After a tearful and heartfelt wedding between everyone's favorite lovebirds, the crew becomes deathly ill. It is soon discovered that they are decaying because they are not real. They are, in fact, the copies of Voyager and it's crew created on the "Demon planet," but they now have the memories, feelings, and lives of the crew they were copied from. Janeway still wanted to get her crew home. Was that Earth? Was it a Demon planet in the Delta quadrant? As the ship falls to pieces, along with it's crew, Janeway struggles to accept that they will never make it home to Earth, but it's too late to make it home to the Demon planet either. How often do we see Starfleet Captains die on Star Trek? Starfleet Captains are the strongest, bravest, most brilliant people there are. But soon, Kim and Seven were the only ones left. They detected a ship, too far for their damaged system to communicate with. Their lives, and the memories of everything they ever were, everything their crew ever was, everything they'd accomplished, it all hung in the balance. Could they reach that other vessel in time to get help, to share their technological advancements with someone who might get them to the real Voyager, or at least to BE REMEMBERED by someone? Most of the time with Star Trek, the answer is yes. Just in the nick of time, the crew is rescued despite a few casualties. But not this time. This time they were all lost. Just as Ensign Kim reaches the other vessel, the copied Voyager vaporizes, leaving no survivors, and material so eroded and decayed that it would be impossible to find any sign of who the crew had been or where they'd come from. The real Captain Janeway on the real Voyager logged the damaged and destroyed remains of a vessel whose distress beacon they had been responding to, and the episode closed.

It's interesting that the writers would give their audience, so used to tidy, happy endings, such a bleak one this time. We saw an entire race wiped out of existence in this episode, with absolutely nothing of themselves and their accomplishments left behind. Janeway was right when she told her crew that they deserved to be remembered, even if they were copies. This episode wants us to be uncomfortable with the ending. It is supposed to be painful and unpleasant, just as it can be incredibly painful and unpleasant to look within ourselves when discovering who we are as individuals and members of the human species. Often we find ourselves confronting the realization that we have no "purpose," that life is accidental, and that what we thought we knew was always wrong. As the copy Janeway confronted the idea that she might not be a real person, that she might never be able to take her crew home, so did so many individuals realize that they don't fit into the particular box they have found themselves to be in, whether it be cultural, religious, social, or academic. The deaths of the copied Janeway and her crew may represent the loss of self that we all experience at some point in our lives. When we are older than we once were and we remember how different we used to be, it is almost is if a part of us is no longer living, or even like it never existed at all. With enough time, that part of us can even be completely forgotten, but that is the true tragedy. Not remembering what once was you, even if it hurts.

Bummer of an episode but it was great too!

[winstonsmith_84 · 8/10 · 3 April 2021]

So yeah, this was kind of a horrible episode in a way... in the sense that this would really suck if it was you on that ship. But the idea was really original and the acting excellent. These kinds of "what if" episodes are so interesting and what really made that glorious 90s era of Star Trek so darn great. Ah, I mean, what a depressing episode. But great at the same time.

A tragic episode of Voyager that for once didn't pull its punch at the end

[brooklynbenik · 10/10 · 9 April 2021]

We find out we're watching the silver blooded crew at just before the halfway point of the episode. This required me to suspend my disbelief because how does that even make any sense? How did they all forget at the same instant that they were clones? Why didn't they feel the same pull to the Demon Planet that Harry did in Demon? It was established in Demon that the clones are all exactly the same as their Human counterparts except for a pull to the Demon Planet.

However, now that I have my minor gripes out of the way, I absolutely love this episode!! It's super dark and tragic. Unlike "Year of Hell" it was actually required thematically for the main characters on the main Voyager not know what happened so I don't feel cheated out of 45 mins of my life. It makes Demon (a fairly mediocre episode of season 4) worth it.

Star Trek is normally pretty upbeat so I expected them to die in that manner but get the time capsule to Voyager just in time, but nope. They died in the middle of space, no one aware they even existed.

Also the writers intended for you to wonder whether season 5 has been the silver blood crew or main crew, but since Paris was never demoted in silver blood crew, you at least know Thirty Days and every episode after was main crew.

one of the best

[desertswan · 10/10 · 5 August 2019]

This is a great episode. It raises important questions about the very meaning of existence and does so in s captivating way.

One of the Voyager's best

[brianpnorton · 9/10 · 22 January 2022]

This episode is one of those great Trek moments where they dig into the guts of a philosophical question and uncompromisingly follow it to its logical conclusion, even if that conclusion is tragic. This is not quite at the level of TNG's "Inner Light," but it is in that tradition, with even a more sobering look at survival and legacy.

Spoilers below:

Lots of user reviews have pointed out alleged continuity errors between this episode and "Demon" in season 4, as a reason to knock the episode. For example, some folks seem to believe that Seven-of-Nine did not appear in "Demon." She did. She went on the second away mission with Chakotay to retrieve Harry and Tom. I don't know where this confusion came from, but it's mentioned in more than one negative reviews. Another alleged hole is that at the end of "Demon," the duplicates Tom and Harry knew they were duplicates, so why doesn't the duplicate crew know this? We don't know the answer to this because we don't know how this new species replicates or how it has evolved since we last encountered them. We do know that the first duplicates did not know they were such, and we know they are new to sentience. So it stands to reason memory retention and transfer aren't perfect. The context of their newfound existence could easily have been lost.

The point is, unsatisfied curiosity is not evidence of plot holes or continuity errors.

This episode's strength lies in its willingness to really look at futility dead in the face. The duplicate crew have had good fortune that the human crew did not have, in particular a new warp drive that would put them in the Alpha Quadrant in under 3 years. Tom and B'Elanna's wedding underscores the optimism they have for the future. Yet despite these advantages, this crew is ultimately doomed despite their brilliance, ingenuity, and love for one another.

Of all of the heartbreaking moments of this episode, the failure to launch the time capsule is the hardest. In "Inner Light," Picard bears witness to an extinct culture. He lives with them, experiences a lifetime through their eyes. The people of Kataan waited 1000 years, but someone finally remember them. The duplicate Voyager will never be so fortunate.

The crew of the duplicate Voyager don't deserve to die, but they will. They don't deserve to be lost to history, but they will be. And in the end, we know this could happen to the real Voyager, and by extension, all of us.

Stories like this is what Star Trek is all about.

Continuity errors abound but punchy and tragic

[mmserrano4 · 7/10 · 26 July 2021]

An alternate crew of Voyager exists on an alternate Voyager, apparently created in a previous episode "Demon". They have lost the memories of their creation, but retain those of the crew. I question the decisions (by the writers) to destroy the probe, why Voyager was between the new ship and the Demon planet, obviously why 7/9 was in it, and many others, but ultimately the ideas hold true and hold well. What does it mean to be alive, what's the distinction between being someone, and being their copy? Why do we pursue the things we do? Etcetera. Voyager often has episodes like this, which were few and far between in TNG where a tragic end is met rather unexpectedly, rather than a cop out. Made me feel something to see the entire crew dying before my eyes, because regardless of what they literally are, they're the crew of Voyager. Seeing them collapse into nothing within minutes of communication is distressing. The only reason I'm leaving a review here is because many of the people leaving negative ones seem to be Voyager haters or people seeking plot holes, and if those screw with your Star Trek viewing, you must hate a lot of it. I like this show, and I like the characters. Janeway commits to her original mission early in the episode, the pursuit of Earth, and declines destroying a ship that threatens them and their survival. Which is very in character, as the rest of the crew are. Eventually she decides to turn back on what's basically a suicide mission, which really isn't. As the crew degrade, they make more and more decisions based on characters in a time and place of struggle, as they always are. My biggest issue with this episode is the idea that the "time capsule" they create of unaltered materials is destroyed by the degradation of the ship, which doesn't really make sense to me. The writers obviously wanted to make something tragic for its own sake, and followed through to the furthest extent without making any concessions to the rest of the series. Voyger's crew deserves to know about this, and the alternate crew did not deserve to be forgotten, as Janeway says.

Ultimately filler, but compelling filler at least.

Silver blood is magic but it isn't the point

[mattwilliamdavies · 9/10 · 19 March 2022]

This episode is about 2 big questions. What makes a person a person - their memories, experience and appearance or something more? And "Does any of it matter when we are forgotten?"

Any questions about the pure logistics of forgetting or duplicating Voyager off screen or whatever is kind of missing the point. It's just set up for the questions above. Plus, the "silver blood" did not have its properties outlined to us, so it can be basically treated as magic and any such questions can just be handwaved away. It was established that it duplicates non-bio matter as the copies in DEMON weren't naked, so why not an entire starship?

I love this episode for the questions it poses and also because this duplicate crew outperformed the real one in terms of getting home. Docked a point for not killing off Neelix on screen.

(And 7 was DEFINITELY in the original episode DEMON despite other reviewers thinking it's a plot hole)

Good episode

[chefmarty-13714 · 6/10 · 22 August 2019]

Since when did 7 of 9 get cloned ? It wqs never explained ... Kinda weird..

"We are all duplicates. None of us are real..."

[Foreverisacastironmess123 · 9/10 · 20 February 2013]

This is the way the world ends... The crew of Voyager face a nightmare of monumental proportions when they discover that none of them are who they think they are. Wow. What a startling, eerie concept. Most of the crew seem to take this terrible revelation in stride, though. I mean really, when you think about it, what choice do they have, if not to go forward? I could see how, if you're not a Voyager fan or Star Trek in general, there are certain things about this episode which could be seen as laughable. Take for instance, the makeup of the melting(oh, what a world!) crew. On most of them it looks nothing so much as bits of porridge stuck to their faces. It looks very cheap and silly, with the exceptions of Harry Kim, Seven of Nine, and Neelix, who for some reason seemed to look different and more impressive. I just love Neelix in pizza mode! Also I think Kate Mulgrew's performance in this is one that could be seen as comical, as further into the story she sounds really groggy and almost drunk-more so than usual! And then of course there's the big glaring "goofs" of the replicated ship and the way it catches up to the real deal despite them being over twenty-thousand light-years apart! But if you're only watching this episode to gripe on things like that then you'll just ruin it for yourself. Go with the flow! I mainly enjoy it for how moving it is, and it really is quite the gut-wrencher! This to me is probably the most moving episode of the series-matched only by the "Year of Hell" two parter. This is the only time for me during the show that I found myself really mad at Janeway for her decisions. She's a true duplicate, right down to the trademark stubbornness. She was a fool to squander the precious time that could have saved them by carrying on the "course of oblivion" to Earth, and unknowingly sealing their fates. It's such an enormously tragic story, and it was just terrible to see the crew members die-even the ones I don't care about! I'm aware that they're not the real crew, but for me that knowledge doesn't make the proceedings any less devastating. The mind's aware that they're false, but, at the risk of sounding a little sappy, the heart's not listening! It's all so very grim, the way they are so violently turned away from the planet that could've saved them, and the way they lose the precious capsule that proved they ever existed, so they don't even get to have that cold comfort. A scene that brought tears to my eyes was the one where the captain passes away. I just found it really upsetting the way she touches his hand just before everything. And at the bitter end, when all that's left is a cloud of dust slowly dissipating to nothing in the cool blackness of space, the feeling is utter desolation. What the hell was it all for? What did their brief existence mean, if it ever really meant anything at all? Haunting questions that can never be answered. And of course the real tragedy was that no one would ever know... The reason I don't give this a ten is that ending. It's like, you're still sad the crew has just been erased, but then here comes a whole new crew that's alive and well once again! It's a very strange mixed-up sensation. They're dead, but right here. They never died at all, but they did! It's like the rug being pulled from under you, and completely abrupt. In season four's 'Demons' the clones all started with Harry Kim, and in this episode they end with him. This is an excellent, emotional powerful episode and I just love it, I even love how it doesn't compromise, with no no happy ending given, but it's still meaningful how they carried on up till the very end and never gave up. Perhaps that's something positive to take from this tale if you must. Or not.. Anyway it's just an utterly amazing episode to me and I think the depth of emotion that they managed to wring out of such an outlandish premise was fantastic and just so terrifically done. Bravo!!

Not bad at all really liked if but...

[steverello · 23 July 2014]

OK so I've never written a review before but had to for this episode. Been playing Binge Watching on Netflix for almost 2 months now watching all seasons from the beginning. First in the opening wedding scene I couldn't help but to cry at the wedding, as sappy as that sounds. First I thought OK this is probably some holodeck program, they really never got married (I did watch all the episodes when they originally aired) but the fun is I don't remember them after 15 years. So when I found out they were replicas from the daemon planet the biggest issue I had was, when Voyager left I only remember seeing "the crew" and no ship. How did they get a ship? If they made it they would have remembered that and therefore would have known there origin. Next I think something everyone is overlooking is they may not have all been forgotten. They had 8 months of interactions with other species and encounters that the real VOY did not. What are the odds that the real Voyager never crossed paths with any of the species they did (they were 20 light years away OK) but someone one day would have said "we met you before" or heard stories, which the real voyager crew would have said "what not us??" Am I making sense? Anyway I really enjoyed this episode as I do almost all of them. And one more comment, this was not the only duplicate crew, How about the crew that THIS crew replaced in Season 2 Deadlock.

Memorable episode

[snoozejonc · 7/10 · 9 October 2023]

Crew members discover the molecular structure of Voyager and their own bodies to be degrading.

There are multiple plot holes and inconsistencies in the storytelling, but for me it has stood the test of time. I saw it several years ago and still remember it as that cool idea about a duplicate Voyager and crew that nobody ever knew about.

If you allow for the plausibility of various aspects, it has a good "what if" concept with some poignant themes underpinning what happens to the characters. It makes you question the point of existence once life is over and everyone who remembers either dies or forgets you and your deeds.

I find some moments distracting, like the makeup effects and use of technobabble in certain situations. Shaky camera and the bridge crew quoting technical terms as they over-explain to the audience what is happening has never been cinematic and never will be.

One of the dumbest storylines

[poorni-pillai · 3/10 · 27 April 2021]

This episode is flawed on so many levels.

Spoiler alert: The duplicates left behind on the Y class planet were insistent on remaining on the planet. The first duplicate Kim was hell bent on living on the planet. That's a direct contradiction to this episode's plot. Inheriting memories does not mean they inherited the urge to get to earth. And why would they duplicate the ship. Further, they would have followed the path or at least traveled parallel to the path of the original ship. An unnecessary complication in this series' timeline. It was not an enjoyable episode either way.

Best Episode of the show

[twittkamp · 10/10 · 17 January 2021]

There's only a handful of moments in classic Star Trek that bring tears to my eyes and this episode is one of them. Great writing and perfect execution. The writers of the new trek shows at CBS should take this as an example of how you do emotional scenes right. Not a single character cries and still I feel their despair and sadness.

Anybody can die

[Tweekums · 8/10 · 11 March 2010]

When this episode opens it is likely that the viewer will think they must have missed a few episodes as Tom and B'Elanna are getting married and Voyager appears to have been using an advanced warp drive that will mean they will soon be back on Earth... then something goes terribly wrong; Voyager is starting to lose structural integrity, and further investigation shows that it isn't just the ship that is degrading; the crew and everything that has been on the ship more than a few months is also decaying. Obviously they will find a solution before any main cast member dies, or so one would think. When B'Elanna dies it comes as quite a shock. As the crew look back at the planets they have visited over the last few months they come to believe they were some how effected when they visited the Demon Planet (Season 4, Episode 24: Demon). It turns out it wasn't the crew of Voyager that was effected as this ship isn't Voyager, this ship and its crew are replicas of the original crew who had no idea what they were until things started to go wrong. Once it becomes clear that this isn't the real Voyager the viewer knows that nobody is guaranteed survival as they try to get back to the Demon planet before the ship disintegrates.

This was a good episode, the fact that is wasn't about the "real Voyager" meant there was a greater sense of danger as anybody could die. The final scene where the real Voyager responds to their distress call was quite tragic; not only did the replica crew not survive but nobody would ever get to know what they had done in their brief lives.

Improbable Voyager success that is a Trek classic, and maybe a genre classic

[bgaiv · 10/10 · 23 June 2022]

This is a sequel to "Demon", an episode that makes "Spock's Brain" look like Shakespeare.

Despite its flawed premise, it strikes deep, especially if you watch it every few years.

On the surface, the duplicate Janeway is being an obstinate fool for insisting on continuing to the alpha quadrant even though she should obviously return to the demon class planet. But is this really true?

I thought so when I first watched it, but less so over time. As she points out, they weren't even sentient before meeting Voyager and leaving their planet. It's quite a strong point, because the implication is surviving by returning to a much less complex form of life, basically silver goo's version of primordial proteins.

Essentially, this form of survival would be tantamount to suicide. After all, at every level, life is basically defined as maintaining itself.

Even giving up their believed identities is a form of suicide.

It fits well into the Voyager world because every single character behaves exactly like their "real" counterpart, which again strikes at the notion of life itself. If we're all just organized chemicals, then what is really the deep difference between a real and a fake.

What really makes it a classic, though, is how it will stick in your head-- that probably this is the fate of us all, even if we last longer than this duplicate crew.

One of the best, maybe THE best Star Trek you can get...

[StefanKoeln · 10/10 · 20 October 2019]

I am not going into any kind of illogical details some viewers might critisize. I am find this episode at least one of the best that star Trek ever came up with. The question of who we are, where do we come from, what is our purpose is told in a devestating story with even no chance of coming to a happy end. But in the end this episode opens up a very spiritual view onto life, philosophical questions are asked openly with answers to find within the story. Is there at all any necessity to be remembered? Isn't oblivion somehow a natural state within the universe? Heartbreaking but even though spiritually enlightening.

You get to watch the crew of Voyager die...one crew member at a time.

[planktonrules · 8/10 · 27 February 2015]

"Course: Oblivion" is a neat episode but frankly I am pretty sure an awful lot of Trekkies will be depressed watching it. After all, you get to slowly see the crew sicken and die--one by one. Depressing-- you betcha....but also very unique and worth seeing.

When the show begins, Torres and Paris have just gotten married and life is just swell. However, soon after this B'Elanna gets sick, lingers just a bit and dies! In sickbay, however, they discover something REALLY shocking...B'Elanna has silver-colored blood! Soon they realize that she is NOT B'Elanna but a duplicate--and the same is true of everyone as well as the ship! Tuvok and Chakotay grasp for a solution and eventually put it all together---when the ship encountered the 'Demon Planet' in the previous season, it not only made copies of Kim and Paris but of EVERYTHING--and they are NOT the real Voyager!! And they all soon start to look like someone puked all over them (my daughter's words). Can they find a solution or are they all completely screwed?

As I said, this is super-creative. I love originality and you get lots of it here. But you also get possibly the most depressing episode of all--so depressing and ending so awfully that you might like and hate the episode at the same time.

Now this is sci-fi! (Deliberately vague description to not give it away)

[jacohop · 10/10 · 20 November 2023]

This is simply one of my fave episodes in all the treks. It's one of the ones that I bring up as an example for people "who don't like Star Trek" (or sci-fi). It's a great story and kinda knocks you sideways - requires pre-viewing of an earlier episode this season. I don't like spoilers so I'm being vague - hopefully someone who appreciates that sees this before the other reviews. Enjoy!

Review over but stupid minimum character requirement forces me to continue in a long winded-way that: this episode is fantastic. It's surprising, and clever, and unexpected. I particularly like the quality and the skill that was apparent. There. I've met the poorly conceived rule's requirements of six hundred mandatory letters.

This episode is very bad

[rapettif · 2/10 · 25 May 2018]

I'll tell you a resume of the episode:

B'elanna and Tom get married, but immediatly we notice there's some weird distorsion on the ship.

They realize it's the new enhanced warp drive (WHAT???) apparently what is causing it, and it's not only affecting the ship, but also the crew, which makes no sense, because they made simulations and it couldn't affect humanoid life. A pity, because the enhanced drive would get them to earth very quick.

B'elanna gets very sick and dies.

Then they realize that they're actually duplicates from the demon planet, made with the silver biomimetic goo from several episodes before, and the ship too, but they don't knew it. They forgot for some reason (??????).

Eventually, everyone is going to die, unless they find another demon planet, or return to their original planet, but it isn't really clear that they would survive, anyways.

The captain still insists into getting everyone to Earth, because she's as stupid as the real captain, so they lose a lot of valuable time that they don't have.

They find a demon class planet along the way to Earth, but faithful to Voyager's style, a ship launchs from the planet warning them that they go away or be destroyed, so they're forced to leave after taking some damage. At this point i must say that the delta quadrant seems like the perfect place to arrive with a fleet of starships carrying Genesis Torpedoes, so you "reset" the entire quadrant of any biological life, because the current ones are just a bunch of aggressive assholes, and idiots. I mean, every single of Voyager's episodes is about finding some idiot that wants to destroy them. Any resemblance with the original Star Trek style is pure coincidence.

When enough people die, including Chakotay, she realizes she's stupid, and decide to get back to the original demon planet, and to build a probe with their logs, and stuff they did, so someone will remember them. The probe is going to be built with real materials they got along the way, because everything else on the ship is really the silver stuff, and it's going to "die".

Everything on the ship is failing.

At this point i thinked that they would launch the probe, with the enhanced warp engine, and Voyager would find it, but the probe fails to launch because of damage on the launching system, and is destroyed.

They detect the real Voyager on their sensors (because space isn't that big anyways ??????), so you think they're going to transfer the data directly to Voyager, but by the time the real ship gets there, there's nothing left of the duplicate ship, but a lot of goo floating on space. They don't even realize the similarity of the compound.

So, absolutely nothing that happens on the episode is worth anything. It was the most useless history they could have made. The sad part is that they lost the opportunity to make the episode worth something. They just needed to get the specs of the enhanced warp drive to the real Voyager. That's important stuff. But no, it got lost. As a sidenote, take notice that the duplicates were quite better than the originals, as the real Voyager didn't get any improved warp drive and they would have reached Earth a lot sooner than the originals. And remember: the real B'elanna couldn't even keep running the transwarp core they stolen from the Borg. It seems like that stuff "depletes", but can't you even replicate it, or analize it??? But hey! who the heck thinks that having a half-klingon engineer (or even character) is a good idea, anyways???

Great if you don't mind unusually stratospheric suspension of disbelief

[whatch-17931 · 9/10 · 16 October 2020]

It's fascinating to watch these facsimiles having the exact personalities and having the same arguments the real ones would have. Paris really stands out. Once he learns the truth, he reasons- accurately- that he's a fake, Janeway etc are fakes. And he is 100% spot on. Earth is no home for these fakes. And Janeway is her usual obstinate self.

It's also humorous to consider if the ship we saw every week was always the real Voyager.

The downside is how crazy the idea of the silver goop duplicating not just the crew and their personalities, but also the ship. The goop can mimic computers with all electronics and functionality intact, can mimic a reactor core. That's all crazy, but it gets exponentially worse when the ship starts bending and flexing. Rice falls through the floor. How could all this hardware continue to work at all?

Meaning of life explored

[lisawea · 8/10 · 20 April 2008]

The question of what constitutes as "life' is explored here in detail and this episode pulls it off more beautifully than whispers. (that being a Ds9 episode well worth watching.) At the start of the episode the ship is one year from home and people start falling ill: the ship is dissolving. Chakotay and Tuvok search through past events to find a cause and the end up finding that they are not the original crew! If anyone remembers the season four episode "demons", this is what happened to them. Basically they are clones. most people take the news in stride, Tom does not. There is one fairly rare thing that makes this episode memorable: the scenes between chakotay and Janeway where the totally disagree and, well, watch the scenes in the ready room you'll see that they're great.

For creatures who aren't really voyagers crew these people behave like them to the "T". whatever "memory engrams" are they are obviously more than genetic material as far as personalities go. Watch this and Whispers Very carefully. 3.8 of 5 stars.

What's Love got to do with it...?

[hurlock · 8/10 · 1 November 2019]

I loved the opening scene with the marriage of Paris and Torres. I love the show. I first binged this a bit at a time on NF 4-5 years ago. Looooved it!

So...this episode was originally a 10 for me. I assure you. But then the following occurred and I finally noticed it:

1). 7 of 9 was not in the episode "Demon" yet she's here 2). The dupes can ONLY breathe the toxic "air" of the class "Y" demon planet yet they need to recreate it late in the episode to slow the effects of what's happening? What were they breathing before? 3). The writers consistently making Janeway INconsistent. Very frustrating...

I never look for holes. I'm very forgiving. But binging this makes it easy to notice these lacks of continuity.

I still love the show. And? Still cried with the crew's demise and struggles. I just wish they'd kept better tract of their overall story.

Great episode but major plot hole

[simoneharrison-95-133233 · 8/10 · 9 April 2020]

Great episode. There are a couple of serious flaws in it however. The first is, how did this biomemetic property from the episode, "Demon", create a copy of Voyager? The simple answer is that during the earlier episode, Voyager partially sinks into the planets surface. Perhaps this deuterium like substance that it sinks into had properties other than biomemetic properties and was capable of replicating complex machinery. I'm prepared to allow this as a possible get out of jail free card for the producers on that aspect. The more troubling aspect is that both Tom Paris and Harry Kim are copied by the biomemetic property in the Demon episode. The copies are both brought aboard Voyager. The copies both become aware that they are copies of the original people. So how come, during Course: Oblivion, neither of them are aware of this pretty significant fact? Why, when they become aware of this fact, does it take them completely by surprise? Taking that even further.....when the whole of the crew is copied by the biomemetic compound in "Demon", the copies all watch the real Voyager take off from the Demon Planet. So how could none of them be aware that they are copies? Or that the Voyager that they are on is not the real Voyager? Leaving that rather cavernous plot hole aside, the episode is great. Lots of tension and the viewer is not immediately aware of the back story so there is a lot to love.