Customer Reviews

Star Trek - Voyager, Episode 54: Macrocosm [VHS]

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

When the captain and Neelix return from a trade mission with the Tak Tak, they find Voyager seemingly abandon and adrift, they then encounter flying life forms with three arms or tendrils and armed with a large stinger. One of them sprays Neelix with some kind of slime, the two manage to escape but Neelix becomes increasingly sick. Janeway goes to get an emergency kit, but when she comes back she finds he has disappeared.

Now alone she goes to the bridge to arm herself, but not before another comfrontation with the flying things where one of them stings her. After killing it she goes to explore the ship, she finds all the crew lying in the mess hall incapacitated and unresponsive.

After another attack from the flying things she goes to sick bay where she locates the doctor, he explains that while she and Neelix were away, Voyager was contacted by a mining colony, that had been stricken by a virus.

The virus creates an orifice on the host from which come tiny flying bugs, they grow larger by using the host's growth hormone. Some of the tiny bugs made it back with the doctor when he was beamed back from the colony, and now have infected the entire crew. He has made an antigen, but whenever he ventures out to test it he's attacked by the flying bugs. Luckily since he's a hologram, he can't be infected.

Since the captain is also stricken with the virus she volunteers to test it, it works. And she recommends making the antidote is a gaseous form and puting it in the ship's environmental system, but the system has been damaged. The two then find that Voyager is being fired at by the Tak Tak, who is aware of the virus. The Tak Tak give Janeway one hour to cure the crew and rid of the virus, or Voyager must be destroyed.

Good special effects and interesting story. The captain instructs the doctor to use a humorous way of distracting the flying bugs, by activating Kim & Paris' tropical resort hologram program from episode 52, and setting the bugs loose on the holographic beach goers!

This episode is my all-time favourite Voyager episode. While the is very similar to Star Trek; The Next Generation episode, "Genesis", where the crew de-evolves, this episode is just as enjoyable, if not better. I don't know why I like this episode so much except for that it has a lot of action, and the alien virus sounds cool. The storyline is neat, how the doctor explains everything halfway through the episode when the Captain meets up with him. While the plot is similar to "Genesis" it takes on a very different, and very enjoyable twist. This is an excellent episode! It is my favourite one!

While it beared an eerie if not a little too obvious parelell of the movie ALIENS, STV MACROCOSM is one of the shows better episodes.

Returning from a conference with an alien species the Tak Tak, Captain Janeway and Neelix discovers that the Voyager is drifting in space and everybody on board suffering from a deadly virus which as the ships holographic doctor explains was picked up at a mining planet. The virus starts out in the hosts body but grows into a tiny insect being that quickly multiplys and grows to immense and even deadlier sizes.

With little time to spare to save her crew and to prevent the Tak Tak species from destroying Voyager (to prevent furthur contamination of other ships and planets) Janeway, with a phaser rifle and the Doctor's help must survive long enough against the virus to save her ship.

Voyager does have a few better episodes, (Equinox, Death Wish, Scorpion, Year of Hell) but it certainly has worse. With lots of action, some taut pacing, not to mention monster sized viruses to kill, MACROCOSM is a good Trek action piece.

When Captain Janeway and Neelix return from an away mission they find that the ship and entire crew have been taken over by some new alien life form. The aliens make quick work of Neelix (thank goodness,) so Janeway is the lone crew member remaining to fight to get the ship back. Along with the holographic doctor the captain fights for her ship and crew. If you are a Kate Mulgrew fan, you'll love this episode, since about 90% of it is her alone. It's sort of Kathryn Janeway meets Sarah from Terminator 2.

"Macrocosm" was very interesting to me until I realized one thing about halfway through the episode: It's a blatant ripoff of a Next Generation episode in which the crew of the Enterprise-D begins to de-evolve, and the Captain arrives with phaser in hand to save the day. Here, instead of de-evolving, the crew is subjugated by a macroscopic virus that flies around the ship biting people like it was an insect. The CGI effects are well done, and the story is interesting, if you can get past the fact that once again Braga and Berman have ripped off something better, though this time, it's another Star Trek episode! If you ask me, I'd rather own the Next Generation episode, but if you're intent on buying Voyager, then you could do worse than "Macrocosm"