I Think Star Trek: Voyager Mashed Up 2 Episodes In A Boring Way

I don't like to speak ill of Star Trek: Voyager, but one season 4 episode mashed up the premises of two previous episodes in a completely uncreative way. Voyager is hands down my favorite series in the entire Star Trek timeline. The cast has great chemistry and is filled with some heavy hitters, the storylines, especially in later seasons, are engaging and do some great character and relationship work, and I feel like the overall premise brought new life into the franchise in several interesting ways. However, like any show, Voyager had its fair share of dud episodes.

One of these duds was, in my opinion, season 4, episode 10, "Random Thoughts," which saw Star Trek: Voyager's cast of characters caught up in an incident when they stopped at a planet of telepaths. While on the planet, B'Elanna Torres (Roxann Dawson) was accused of being the cause of two attacks because of a violent thought she was unable to control, and almost underwent a procedure that would have left her with neurological damage before the real culprits were found. The episode is interesting on paper but was actually just a rehash of two other episodes from previous seasons.

“Random Thoughts” Was An Uncreative Mashup Of Two Star Trek: Voyager Episodes

"Random Thoughts" drew heavily on the premises of "Ex Post Facto" and "Meld"

If you look closely, the storyline for "Random Thoughts" is simply a mash-up of the Voyager season 1 episode "Ex Post Facto" and the season 2 episode "Meld." In fact, "Random Thoughts" is almost a beat-for-beat replay of "Ex Post Facto." Both episodes involve a Voyager crew member accused of a crime on an alien planet, and Lt. Commander Tuvok (Tim Russ) taking it upon himself to investigate the crime. "Meld" also involved Tuvok nearly being taken over by violent thoughts and urges, the same way he is in "Random Thoughts."

The problem is that, while "Meld" is a good episode, "Ex Post Facto" is not, and "Random Thoughts" gained nothing by being based on it. I've always found "Random Thoughts" utterly forgettable, and using the episode to redo a storyline that wasn't very interesting in the first place wasn't a great use of Voyager's time. "Ex Post Facto" has the advantage of using some Film Noir tactics that I always found at least somewhat more interesting, but "Random Thoughts" has none of this appeal. The sad thing is that it could have been a great episode if handled properly.

How Star Trek: Voyager's "Random Thoughts" Could Have Actually Been Great

"Random Thoughts" has potential that was squandered

Given its subject matter and character focus, I think that "Random Thoughts" had the potential to be an interesting episode with a more unique storyline. The idea of "thought crime" that was explored in the episode is actually one of its stronger parts and a concept that could have fallen into Star Trek's discussion of real-world issues through the lens of science fiction. Obviously, real life has no telepaths, but the idea of a society that policies people's thoughts while being unaware of a black market for violent memories is a good metaphor for certain aspects of modern life.

Along with this, the half-Klingon B'Elanna Torres was a great character to base "Random Thoughts" on, as her struggle with the more violent side of her personality was an ongoing storyline for her. B'Elanna also didn't get many opportunities to shine in episodes, at least not as many as she, in my opinion, should have. This is why wasting her potential in an episode like "Random Thoughts" makes the episode's failures all the more tragic. Ultimately, "Random Thoughts" had the makings of a great Star Trek: Voyager installment but relied too heavily on a previous plot to tell its story.