Voyager falls into a starless void, where captains of ships trapped for weeks, months and years have different codes of conduct in order to survive.

A test of Janeway's command skills and desire to uphold the principles of the Federation, The Void manages to make it even more obvious that our esteemed captain has been doing pretty well at ignoring the Prime Directive up to now. Here she decides that morality is the be-all and end-all of everything and makes a stand against the thieving villains of The Void.

I'm not sure what kills the episode's potential, but there's definitely something not right here. Maybe it's that even the thieves and killers seem like quite nice people and Janeway takes into her trust people who wouldn't be let within a million light years of her ship normally. Maybe it's the way Voyager is so easily taken out of commission when they normally seem to have power and auxiliary power to spare. Maybe it's Janeway's sudden conversion to Federation principles after trying to nick things from other races as the time has gone on.

Her irritating smugness is a big problem. She's been pretty superior all the way through the voyage to date, but she still seems to think she's got the universe's best ship beneath her and can't be beaten. To see her forced into a retreat is particularly satisfying. The enemies give in too easily to her suggestion of co-operation when by rights they should be pillaging the ship, and the befriending of an alien race which communicates in sound is annoying and sickeningly sweet at times. Janeway's applauding of one of their 'symphonies' would have worked quite well had she been being sarcastic, but the fact that she's serious makes it painful. No one's given any good material to work with, Janeway's decisions are extremely unlikely at pretty much every turn, and there are gaping plot holes left, right and centre.

As a curiosity and a change of pace, it's not the worst thing Voyager has ever done, but it's so slight and insignificant with very little hint of a threat and some extremely unimpressive space battles that it doesn't grip at all.

**

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