In the transporter room, Kim tells Torres that he’s reviewed a month’s worth of transporter logs and found nothing suspicious – Neelix’s foodstuffs notwithstanding. As they talk, Chell is on his hands and knees degaussing the room. When Torres wonders why he’s using a microresonator instead of a magnet on the scanner (with which he could finish the job in five minutes), he explains that Tuvok ordered it done this way.
At the next class, Tuvok has prepared a war game simulation on the holodeck. With Dalby in command, the holographic ship is attacked by Romulans while responding to a distress call. They go down with phasers firing. When Tuvok expresses his displeasure at their performance, Dalby and the others argue that it was a no-win scenario. But this was no Kobayashi Maru. As Tuvok explains, the point of the scenario was that the soundest tactical choice is the one that costs the fewest lives. In other words, they should have retreated. The trainees are demoralized, with Dalby sarcastically conceding that they’re not Starfleet material.
Later, Tuvok is brooding in the mess hall when Neelix approaches him. As Tuvok wonders aloud why his time-honored methods (he taught at Starfleet Academy for sixteen years) seem to be failing, Neelix makes the point that Tuvok may be too rigid in his approach. After all, the Maquis trainees aren’t Starfleet cadets, but that’s how he’s been treating them. As they talk, Tuvok notices a dish of homemade cheese in Neelix’s kitchen and notes that making cheese requires the cultivation of bacteria.
After examining the kitchen, Torres confirms that the cheese is full of bacterial spores which were released into the ship’s ventilation system. While they talk, the lights flicker, causing Torres to worry that the infection is spreading to the environmental systems. Somehow, she manages to order a crewman to “get the cheese to sickbay” with a straight face. In an effort to follow Neelix’s advice, Tuvok joins Dalby on the holodeck for a game of pool. It goes about as well as could be expected. The Doctor examines the cheese, deducing that the problem wasn’t the bacteria but rather a virus that was using the bacteria as a host.
He and Kes begin testing antiviral agents on the gel packs as another wave of malfunctions strikes, interrupting Tuvok’s class and trapping them in the cargo bay. The Doctor contacts the bridge telling Janeway that raising the temperature of the gel packs have been effective at wiping out the infection, and she and Torres work out a way to end the malfunctions by essentially giving the ship a fever.As Torres works to raise the ship’s temperature, a plasma conduit ruptures in the cargo bay. Tuvok orders the trainees to evacuate through a Jeffries tube, but Gerron is trapped on the other side of the room. Dalby refuses to leave him behind, but Tuvok forces Dalby into the access hatch. Closing the bulkhead behind Dalby, Tuvok goes back for Gerron, attempting to drag the young man out but losing consciousness in the process. Luckily the other trainees manage to force the door open and rescue both. With the rescue attempt, Tuvok has finally earned the respect of Dalby and the others.
Overall, ‘Learning Curve’ is a solid little episode. And, for that matter, it’s one that really couldn’t have been done on a prior ‘Trek’ series. It’s also the kind of episode ‘Voyager’ should have done more of, especially in the early days. While I’ve always liked ‘Voyager’, it’s hard not to look at the show in terms of wasted potential. While there’s talk (in this very episode, in fact) of replicator rations and things like that, there’s seldom much sense that the crew is actually roughing it on the other side of the galaxy. And in terms of ‘Learning Curve’ specifically, the tension between the Maquis and Starfleet crews is if not resolved than certainly swept under the rug a bit too easily. While I don’t think it would have been a particularly good idea for the show to reach a ‘Battlestar Galactica’ level of bleakness (it is still ‘Star Trek’, after all) there probably should have been a bit more of that feel to it. The later episode ‘Equinox’ sees the crew encounter another Starfleet vessel that was stranded in the Delta Quadrant around the same time Voyager was, and this crew had a much rougher go of it. Sort of a glimpse of the ‘Voyager’ that might have been.
Speaking of lost potential, none of the Maquis trainees introduced in the episode ever appear again, save for Chell, who makes a single brief return appearance. It’s a shame because they are characters I would have liked to see more of, particularly Dalby (who incidentally gets the most development in this outing). While ultimately they are guest stars and there was really no reason to expect them to return, it still would have been nice and would lend the episode a bit more importance (if only retroactively).
But while ‘Learning Curve’ may have been a decent episode, it falls flat as a season finale. You might have noticed that I’ve not actually had a lot to say about this specific episode, and that’s because there’s not a whole lot to say. It’s not bad, but it is very slight. No doubt that’s a product of the fact that it started out as another episode’s B-story, but in any case, it shows.
I mentioned earlier that the intended finale was ‘The 37s’, and that would have been a much better fit. While that one isn’t exactly the most action packed or impactful episode either, it presents Voyager with the opportunity to join a human settlement in the Delta Quadrant (long story) and the ending sees the crew recommit to the long journey home, which would have provided a nice thematic tie to the season’s beginning. ‘Learning Curve’ has elements of that as it effectively serves to bury the hatchet between the Maquis and Starfleet crews, but it’s not nearly as effective in that regard.
It almost feels unfair to approach the episode as a finale, since it really only became one by default, but we have to play the hand we’re dealt. While it’s at worst a boilerplate episode, it can’t help but be sort of a limp way to close the season.
I do love that Voyager was almost crippled by cheese, though. It’s just the silliest, most absurd thing that could bring a starship to its knees, and that’s why it’s a positively inspired plot point. Thankfully, whether it’s replicated or homemade, it’s implied that the crew found another way to get their hands on cheese. I mean, can you imagine having to go seventy years without cheese? I don’t even like going without for seventy minutes!
But enough about my budget destroying cheese habit, what did you think of ‘Learning Curve’? Let me know in the comments and be sure to check back in two weeks for the next installment of ‘Final Frontier Friday’!
