While watching the plot unfold and how Captain Janeway dealt with it, the title of this review was my main thought. She's big on Starfleet protocol. I get that. But nothing over the last 3.5 seasons suggests she'd *ever* leave a member of her crew to risk being lobotomized over a "crime" that was neither predictable nor parallel to anything in Starfleet's own law. Especially not when they're stuck 60,000 light years from home and caring for her ship and crew is paramount amongst her priorities. The Captain Janeway of literally every other episode would have been ordering every one of her officers to devise a way to break B'Elanna out with all necessary (but no more than necessary) force if they couldn't clear her name. At the very least, she would have ordered a transporter lock.
Other than spending the episode wondering if there was some subplot where the Captain suddenly developed dementia or something in this episode, it was a solid watch. Not a particularly subtle one, but that's the danger of trying to create a morality tale about thought crimes in a milieu where telepathy can and does exist in multiple species. It was a bit predictable -- since we already know the Voyager crew will win the day, it's pretty obvious that one of the locals was responsible -- but we at least got a really annoying and willfully stupid local gendarme to root against. It was a bit off-putting that Tuvok didn't call her out for lying about actually intending to let the Captain have a chance to investigate and prove B'Elenna's innocence. You'd think a logical creature like a Vulcan would point that out once it became apparent that the local cop never intended to hear new evidence.
Other than spending the episode wondering if there was some subplot where the Captain suddenly developed dementia or something in this episode, it was a solid watch. Not a particularly subtle one, but that's the danger of trying to create a morality tale about thought crimes in a milieu where telepathy can and does exist in multiple species. It was a bit predictable -- since we already know the Voyager crew will win the day, it's pretty obvious that one of the locals was responsible -- but we at least got a really annoying and willfully stupid local gendarme to root against. It was a bit off-putting that Tuvok didn't call her out for lying about actually intending to let the Captain have a chance to investigate and prove B'Elenna's innocence. You'd think a logical creature like a Vulcan would point that out once it became apparent that the local cop never intended to hear new evidence.