When Good Intentions Make for Dull Trek
IMDb rating: 6/10
Ep 9 "Thirty Days" has an interesting environmental dilemma at its core, but I found the episode more worthy than entertaining.
The idea of an entire civilisation living in a floating ocean, slowly destroying the very ecosystem that sustains it, should make for compelling science fiction. Instead, the story spends so much time explaining its world and the technical problem that the adventure never really comes alive.
Tom Paris's determination to save the ocean gives the episode a personal angle, but his increasingly reckless behaviour is not quite convincing enough to carry the drama. The conflict between respecting another society's choices and intervening before it destroys itself is a valid Star Trek question, yet the episode doesn't explore it with enough depth or subtlety to make a lasting impression. I could appreciate what the writers were aiming for, but I was never particularly invested in the outcome.
6/10: Watchable, certainly, but hardly an episode I would rush to revisit.
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