Star Trek VGR Episode 5 - Phage

"An organ-harvesting species known as the Vidiians steal Neelix's lungs, leaving him to die."

I enjoyed this episode. In fact, so far I sort of liked all of the episodes. It does have that old Star Trek basic feel to it, they fly around and go to a planet. The characters are not great, but some are interesting at least. Mainly Neelix and the Doctor. Janeway is just ok, Kim seems like a nice guy in the vain of LaForge and Kes is friggin adorable ... in fact I think this actress is great. I'm still not big on Torres, Chakotay and Paris ... but that is fine, I never warmed to Kira or Dax on DS9 either.

As mentioned above, Neelix goes to explore a planet with Paris and ends up getting his lungs stolen. The Doctor gives him holographic lungs to keep him alive, but he can never again move. Janeway and crew go to the planet and find a sophisticated structure and medical equipment that trumps what Starfleet has. Voyager suddenly sees a ship fly away and they pursue it. The track the ship to an asteroid belt where it hides. Voyager uses a cool trick to find the ship. They shine lights into the asteroid belt and it reflects off the metal of the ship. Janeway immediately has the aliens taken aboard Voyager.

They are called the Vidiians and they are an intelligent, artistic and sophisticated race ... however a pathogen has been destroying them (called the Phage). It eats away at their flesh and organs. They can only survive by harvesting others organs. Janeway is horrified and she is tempted to kill them in order to retrieve Neelix's lungs from them. However, she refuses to stoop that low. The Vidiians are grateful and offer to use their sophisticated medical equipment to save Neelix. They do a lung transplant from Kes to Neelix. Saving Neelix! ....but how the hell is Kes still alive? I seriously have no idea.

The Doctor is funny in this one. The Vidiians scan him and they remark that it is strange that he is "not really here", to which the Doctor replies "I wish I wasn't". It's the best character, a witty, annoyed and miserable hologram???

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