“Natural Law”
Written by Kenneth Biller & James Kahn
Directed by Terry Windell
Season 7, Episode 22
Production episode 268
Original air date: May 2, 2001
Stardate: 54827.7
Captain’s log. Voyager has arrived at Ledos, a world primarily occupied by a spacefaring people. Chakotay is taking Seven to a four-day conference on warp theory via shuttlecraft, and he’s taking the scenic route, as Ledos has some beautiful countryside. However, they collide with a force field and crash.
Paris is stopped by Ledosian authorities while out with the Delta Flyer. It turns out he was piloting recklessly, and by Ledosian law, he must take piloting lessons. Paris tries to get out of it, but Janeway won’t let him.
Seven and Chakotay were able to beam off the shuttle before it crashed, but Chakotay has a hairline fracture and a big cut on his leg. They try to find the debris from the shuttle so they can try to salvage it, and then come across a bunch of hunter/gatherer-type folks who don’t appear to have any technology. Chakotay’s wound is getting infected, so he hides while Seven seeks out shuttle debris. Unfortunately, the locals—who are called the Ventu, and who are genetically similar to the Ledosians, but not quite the same—find him and bring him to their camp. They smash his combadge when Seven tries to contact him—but also dress his wound and apply a salve to it.
Seven tracks Chakotay down to the Ventu camp, and they decide to make the best of it, since they seem friendly and provide shelter in the caves. The Ventu appear to be mute, but converse via a form of sign language. Seven has found the deflector and thinks she can use it to make a beacon that will penetrate the force field. She goes off to do that, leaving Chakotay in the Ventu’s hands. They provide him with a walking stick and he continues to learn their language.
After being teased mercilessly by Torres, Kim, and Neelix, Paris meets Kleg, his piloting instructor. Kleg is a stickler, a hardass, and kind of a snot, and all Paris’ attempts to suck up and to deflect blame fail completely. In particular, Paris tries to blame his violation on poor design, not realizing that Kleg did his research and knows that Paris himself designed the Flyer. Oops.
Seven does not do well in the great outdoors—she trips and loses her tricorder down a hole. As night falls, a thunderstorm approaches, and she gets cold. However, a Ventu child followed her, and she makes a fire for Seven.
After a good night’s sleep by the fire, and a shared breakfast, the girl leads Seven to a waterfall, then they eventually find the deflector. Chakotay, meanwhile, is concerned about contamination with technology, as the Ventu have found bits of the shuttlecraft that they’re using as jewelry.
Tuvok informs Janeway that Seven and Chakotay never showed for the conference. An investigation reveals that the shuttle went down on a southern sub-continent. It wasn’t part of Chakotay’s flight plan, so he wasn’t warned about the force field. According to the Ledosian ambassador, that force field was put in place by aliens who wished to protect the Ventu from the Ledosians centuries ago. The Ledosians were much less enlightened then, and all attempts to bring down the force field have failed.
However, the Ledosians are perfectly okay with Voyager taking a shot at it. Tuvok, Torres, and Kim work on that while on the surface, Seven tries to modify the deflector in such a way that it will penetrate the force field. She is able to do it, but needs the deflector to be moved, which the Ventu help with.
Once the deflector is activated, Voyager is able to communicate with Seven. However, the Ventu girl was injured when she touched the deflector while it was activated, and Seven requests a delay of her beam-out until she can treat the girl. Chakotay beams back and is treated by the EMH, who is impressed with the Ventu’s medical practices, as his leg is in decent shape, all things considered.
The Ledosians immediately start transporting into the Ventu territory, eagerly looking forward to exploiting it, and also helping out the Ventu. Seven and Chakotay are not thrilled about this, and Janeway decides that, once their shuttle debris is all recovered, they are going to restore the barrier. The ambassador isn’t happy about this, and he sends a ship to fire on Voyager, disabling their transporter.
Janeway has an ace up her sleeve, though: Paris is still out with the Delta Flyer being tested on his piloting skills. He leaves the obstacle course he’s on, beams the Ledosians out of the force field area, and then destroys the last piece of technology left on the surface before the force field closes. Kleg points out that he’ll never be able to fly in Ledosian space again, but Paris allows as how he’s okay with that.
Voyager goes on its merry way, having pissed off the Ledosians something fierce, but also allowing the Ventu to continue to live in peace.
Can’t we just reverse the polarity? Lots of technobabble flying fast and furious in this one, as Seven does all kinds of things involving tetryons and phase shifting and other cool stuff, first to keep them from dying in the shuttle crash, then to get them out of the force field.
There’s coffee in that nebula! Janeway is obviously really really enjoying watching Paris squirm as he realizes that he has to take piloting lessons.
Mr. Vulcan. Tuvok gets to have fun with retuning weapons as they try to break through the force field.
Buy the Book
A Psalm for the Wild-Built
Half and half. Torres is taking great pleasure out of teasing her husband regarding his having to take piloting lessons.
Please state the nature of the medical emergency. The EMH is suitably impressed with the Ventu’s ability to heal Chakotay’s leg.
Resistance is futile. Seven thinks very little of the Ventu to start—when Chakotay shows her how they say goodbye, Seven has a classic “why should I care about that?” expression on her face—but she comes to appreciate them.
Do it.
“Inadequate system integration. Visibility impaired by lateral sensor array. Insufficient console accessibility.”
“Y’know, I couldn’t agree more. Those are some of the defects that led to my so-called ‘pilot error.'”
“Polarity thrusters? Oh, they’ve been known to cause accidental acceleration.”
“Exactly my point. Why should I be held responsible for the ship’s design flaws?”
“According to the maintenance records, you were this vessel’s chief designer. I make it a point of professional pride to research every case I’m assigned to. Are you familiar with that term, Lieutenant? Professional pride?”
–Kleg enumerating Paris’ inadequacies and Paris trying and failing to talk his way out of them.
Welcome aboard. Neil Vipond, last seen as the cranky old Klingon Darok in DS9’s “Once More Unto the Breach,” plays the cranky old Ledosian Kleg. The Ventu is plays by Paul Sandman, while Autumn Reeser plays the Ventu girl. Robert Curtis Brown plays the Ledosian ambassador, while Ivar Brogger plays the Ledosian anthropologist and Matt McKenzie plays the Ledosian cop who gives Paris a speeding ticket.
Trivial matters: The Ventu’s movements were choreographed by Albie Selznick. Selznick previously appeared in “Macrocosm,” and developed the movements of the Tak Tak in that episode.
The aliens who erected the force field could conceivably be the Preservers, established in the original series’ “The Paradise Syndrome” as people who save “primitive” peoples from extinction.
This is the eleventh (and last!) shuttlecraft that Voyager loses, and the first one since “Dark Frontier” back in the mid-fifth season. They’d been doing so well, too…
Set a course for home. “So you can execute a turn at less than three hundred KPH—well done, Lieutenant.” It took the better part of forty years, but Trek finally did a story about Indigenous peoples that doesn’t make me cringe. The Ventu—who are incredibly obvious analogues for Indigenous folk here on Earth, whether Chakotay’s ancestors in the Americas or Aboriginals in Australia or the Inuit in the Arctic—are not treated like pathetic primitives, à la the original series’ “The Paradise Syndrome,” nor as pure noble people of the Earth, à la “Tattoo.” The Ventu are simply portrayed as people. Seven is quick to dismiss them as primitive, but she comes around in the end. They’re not idealized, but they’re not made out to be fools or idiots, either.
What I especially like about this episode is that it doesn’t beat you about the head and shoulders. Chakotay doesn’t make a speech about how these people are just like his ancestors, as scripter James Kahn assumes at least a modicum of intelligence on the part of the audience.
Where it falls down is in the ending. There are serious Prime Directive issues here, and the episode half-asses it. The problem is that the violation has already happened: Chakotay and Seven have exposed the Ventu to people outside the barrier that was placed around their home, and the Ledosians finally have access to that continent again. The final solution is one that involves Voyager making a decision that is contrary to the decision that the Ledosians have made. And it’s an attempt to put toothpaste back in the tube, which is exactly as messy as that sounds.
Here’s the problem: nobody talks to the Ventu. Chakotay has already figured out enough of their language to at least have rudimentary conversations. The Ventu are the ones who are supposed to be protected, yet nobody actually asks them what they want. Up until the end, the script did a great job of showing that the Ventu are self-sufficient and worthy of being considered a proper civilization, yet when it counts, nobody bothers to give them any agency in a major decision about their future.
Still and all, this is a good science fiction story and a good, if flawed, Trek story. I especially like that the Ventu communicate via a gestural rather than verbal language, as it’s a nice touch. It feels like thought went into this episode and in creating two different alien cultures that also comment on our culture.
Plus it’s got the best B-plot ever. Seriously, Paris getting a speeding ticket and having to take a refresher course in piloting is just comedy gold, with the added bonus of Neil Vipond absolutely nailing the snotty hardass piloting instructor. Paris is the typical privileged dudebro asshole who tries every trick in the book to get out of the consequences of his actions (it’s almost hard to believe he’s the son of an admiral who has a history of being a chronic fuckup), and Kleg doesn’t take a single micrometer of his shit on the subject. It’s a beautiful thing, especially the way his wife, his best friend, and Neelix all tease him relentlessly on the subject.
Warp factor rating: 6
Keith R.A. DeCandido will be a guest at Indiana Comic-Con this coming weekend at the Indiana Convention Center in Indianapolis. He’ll be at the Bard’s Tower booth for the majority of the weekend, alongside fellow word-slingers Claudia Gray, Michael A. Stackpole, Megan Mackie, Caitlin Sangster, Brian Anderson, and Christopher Ruocchio. Keith might also be doing some programming. Come by and say hi!
Yea, the Ventu suddenly seem to have no agency in the final act, which is weird given how they were portrayed up until that point, and disappointing for a script that had done a decent-ish job with showing Indigenous people being, as KRAD said, people. That said, unlike in other PD stories, where the logic seems convoluted at best and downright cruel at worst, I at least understand the rationale, here, of restoring the status quo back to what it was at the beginning of the episode. It makes more sense than Janeway’s “let them all blow themselves up, it isn’t my problem” attitude in the first couple acts of “Time and Again,” at the very least.
All that said, I confess I had completely forgotten about this episode until I re-read the script yesterday. It’s fine, but the one thing that really irks me is that this was a good opportunity to actually set up the Seven-Chakotay relationship, and it just… doesn’t happen. I mean, the hurt-comfort fic practically writes itself, but we don’t really get that here. It doesn’t help that I don’t think Beltran and Ryan have much in the way of romantic chemistry together, but it would have been nice for the show to at least try to make their relationship a little more convincing.
I’ve never seen this one, not past the teaser anyway. I’ve seen “Endgame” several times, you know, the one with the out-of-nowhere Chakotay/Seven romance, and I assumed the origins were in this episode. That made me reluctant to watch “Natural Law” since the idea of those two characters getting together romantically basically at the end of the series’ run seemed forced and contrived. And then I read that there is actually no romance story between the two here. Still, the premise didn’t exactly sound exciting to me but based on this positive review I think I’ll give it a shot!
(it’s almost hard to believe he’s the son of an admiral who has a history of being a chronic fuckup)
Well, it seemed to work out for Jim Morrison. Until it didn’t.
While there’s no actual romance between Seven and Chakotay here, this episode does have some nice work from Jeri Ryan where her performance is noticeably lighter around Chakotay. Her Borg-ness gradually softens over the course of the final season, and here in her scenes with him, it’s at it’s most turned-down.
Yeah, this really makes it fall down, and makes me wish they spent less plot time on the technobabble and more on the core issue. Voyager did this a lot, as early as Phage, when the script doesn’t get to the most interesting question until the fifth act and then it’s rushed. The field protects the Ventu but it also imprisons them– if they want out then, what, they have to invent a deflector dish? But this perspective doesn’t exist in the script, it’s assumed that the deflector “protecting” the Ventu is an unalloyed good. Maybe a lot would have wanted to stay in the bubble, but probably at least a couple would have wanted out. And this is unfortunately something you’ll sometimes see in real life, people will bemoan the loss of a “traditional way of life” without taking the time to ask whether those living in that traditional way of life actually found it preferable to modernity. Sometimes they do, but a lot of the times it turns out they like electricity too.
Once the deflector is activated, Voyager is able to communicate with Seven. However, the Ventu girl was injured when she touched the deflector while it was activated, and Seven requests a delay of her beam-out until she can treat the girl. Chakotay beams back and is treated by the EMH, who is impressed with the Ventu’s medical practices, as his leg is in decent shape, all things considered.
This, on the other hand, is just preposterous. Obviously the transporters are working, so beam the girl up so the EMH can handle it instead of Seven trying to figure it out with a medkit. Yeah, yeah, cultural contamination but that ship has sailed.
I’m not sure the Ventu were treated all that much better than usual. The aliens hundreds of years ago set up this barrier likely also without their input. They were some ostensibly more enlightened folks who came along and decided they know whats best for the Ventu, like pets that need protecting, sounds like an uncomfortably imperialist move. Portraying them with innocence is kind and all, but its still infantilizing people who are still people, who have a right to know what the full world is like, rather than being shielded and “protected”.
How would you give the Ventu a voice in the decision making process without irrevocably contaminating them just from the information exchange needed so they could give an informed answer to the question?
It comes down to a philosophical debate as to what contamination even is. This IS the planet they live on, that comes with other people and cultures. Putting them in an artificial box seems almost like imprisonment.
This is another one where I don’t clearly remember what I thought of it, but my impression is that I had a low opinion of it. Maybe that’s because it ignored the Chakotay/Seven thing that had been set up earlier, or because it perpetuated the frustratingly wrong idea that any outside contact with a culture equals “contamination,” rather than merely interaction. Painting any culture as a “pure” thing that must be left unchanged is a caricature and a fantasy. Cultures are living things that change and grow, often through interaction with other cultures. There is no purity, so there is no contamination. Using that word is a fundamental misrepresentation of what constitutes harmful or disruptive contact. As I’ve pointed out many times, interaction is not inevitably harmful unless the more powerful culture imposes itself on the other, rather than interacting with respect for the other culture’s free choice and autonomy.
Granted, that did seem to be what the Ledosians had in mind — to exploit the Ventu and their territory with little concern for their rights and wishes. In that respect, I’d say Voyager did the only thing it could; since they were responsible for bringing down the shield, they would’ve been responsible for the harm the Ledosians did, so they cleaned up their mess and put things back the way they’d been. Not an ideal solution, to be sure; trapping the Ventu in a bubble is just as much an imposition on their autonomy as the Ledosians’ exploitation would’ve been. But it was the best Voyager could do under the circumstances.
@5/Rick: “And this is unfortunately something you’ll sometimes see in real life, people will bemoan the loss of a “traditional way of life” without taking the time to ask whether those living in that traditional way of life actually found it preferable to modernity.”
There’s also a tendency to assume that any indigenous population is living some kind of ancient traditional life that’s been unchanged since the misty depths of time, which is ethnocentric and condescending because it assumes that those cultures don’t have the same drive to innovate and advance that our culture does. The cultural practices that new visitors observe may be recent innovations or reforms, for all they know, rather than the eternal constants they blindly assume them to be.
Although, of course, this can be exacerbated by the indigenous people themselves when they embrace the idea of their people’s “traditional ways” to push back against colonizers’ attempts to impose change. Usually what’s touted as ancient tradition is a modern distillation to serve modern purposes. (And not just with indigenous peoples; the same goes for, say, conservative Christians’ definitions of “traditional Biblical marriage,” which have very little resemblance to the way marriage was actually depicted in the Bible.)
An appropriate episode for review the day after Indigenous Peoples’ Day.
Thomas: they’re already contaminated. As I said in the article, the toothpaste was already out of the tube.
—Keith R.A. DeCandido
“Their isolation may limit their potential, but if that isolation ends, so will a unique way of life.”
You know, I kind of miss the days when a show on its final stretch would churn out an episode like this. Just as TNG took time out from ticking off last appearances for Reg Barclay, Wesley Crusher, Alexander, DaiMon Bok (!) and Ro Laren to make ‘Emergence’, an episode that could have slotted in just about anywhere in its seven year-run, Voyager stops saying farewell to Q, Joe Carey, Naomi Wildman and Neelix (!), and doing one last episode about Seven trying to understand humanity and the Doctor fighting to be recognised as an individual, to make something that’s inconsequential but rather charming.
I guess this could be considered the missing link between “Human Error” and “Endgame” by pairing up Chakotay and Seven, yet they don’t actually spend much time together, although I guess their final acknowledgement that they’re both glad to be back on Voyager could be seen as a pointer to what’s coming up. There is something appealing about watching the two of them go native together, with Seven tripping over her feet, looking more and more bedraggled, and playing reluctant older sister to an alien girl. Chakotay wants to avoid contact at first, then dives headlong into making friends once secrecy is no longer possible (to the point of being rather insensitive about Seven’s obvious discomfort with the attention), before realising that “Ooh, maybe this wasn’t such a good idea after all” as the aliens start imitating them.
The Ventu’s apparent lack of a spoken language is a nice touch adding to their alienness. The initially subtle Prime Directive parable of Chakotay worrying he and Seven are influencing their culture turns into a serious breach when it turns out their actions might significantly alter the Ventu’s way of life: The Ledosian ambassador initially claims they’re no threat to the Ventu, but it turns out they haven’t yet lost the urge to see new territory and its people as a resource to be exploited.
The B-plot of Tom Paris having to take his driving lesson is initially only a source of vague amusement, with Janeway seemingly enjoying denting his professional pride. But in the end, he gets to restore the barrier without trapping himself or anyone else. Because he’s just that awesome.
Chell gets another mention: It’s as if since “Repression” remembered that he exists, they want to shoehorn references to him into every episode. There’s an amusing special effects failure when the Ventu girl leads Seven to a section of the clearly studio-bound jungle and goes “Look, a matte painting!” Voyager does beam aboard all the debris from the shuttlecraft, so at least they’ve got the parts to put back together…
Hi from Australia!
Having worked with indigenous communities here, I liked your analysis of how the Ventu are treated.
In colonialism the common rule is the Golden Rule – I will treat you how I would like to be treated (and we see this in the EP).
The more enlightened rule is the Platinum Rule – I will treat you how YOU want to be treated.
It’s pretty simple really
@13/cap-mjb: “before realising that “Ooh, maybe this wasn’t such a good idea after all” as the aliens start imitating them.”
Cue my obligatory rant about how wrong Trek is to assume this is automatically a bad thing. There are no “pure” cultures; cultures normally grow by adopting outside ideas and syncretizing them with their own ideas to produce innovations. As long as they aren’t forced to submit to outside imposition, they reinterpret the outside ideas in their own way and to suit their own needs, and reject anything that doesn’t suit their needs and beliefs.
I mean, really, if the Ventu have been stuck in the bubble for generations with no outside contacts, that’s unnatural and unhealthy, and the chance to be exposed to new stimuli and exercise some innovation should really be seen as beneficial. It’s only bad if you force it on them, if you tell them “No, you have to do it my way instead of finding your own way to interpret it.” The episode was right to acknowledge the danger of the Ledosians’ attitude toward the Ventu, but it should have contrasted it with the more careful and respectful form of contact that Chakotay and Seven were engaging in, rather than treating them as synonymous.
While I agree that the Ventu should have had some say in the disposition, it sounds like the Ledosians were moving fast. It is a messy solution, but I can see Janeway deciding that the barrier needs to exist now in order to keep the latter from creating a messier situation than if they’d engaged in negotiations.
That said, some sort of variation where they were able to establish the barrier but keep some form of embassy available to discuss the future would have been a good addition.
@@@@@ 15 – Since Voyager was responsible for breaching the bubble and then bringing it down entirely, they should have stuck around and work with the Venti and Ledosians. But, as we’ve seen so many times before, the end of the episode is coming up and Starfleet just buggers off, feeling smug that they’ve done a good thing.
Can you name one situation where a more “advanced” culture has encountered one that was “less advanced” and didn’t try to tell them what they were doing wrong? It’s inevitable when the culture gets involved as opposed to individuals. The individuals can meet the indigenous people and get to know them and about them. Once the powers that be back home decide to get involved, then you’ve got people without first hand knowledge of the situation tossing their two credits in. The result is invariably disaster for the indigenous culture.
I woke up to a news alert this morning regarding William Shatner and I thought he might have died since he is 90 but then it turned out he made the news because he only went to space and back! Haha. He’s apparently the oldest person to ever go into space. So nice to hear some good news for a change and Shatner seems pretty healthy for his advanced age.
https://www.cnn.com/business/live-news/william-shatner-blue-origin-space-flight/h_3480a3c7320866b5714c49d081be54a8
@18/garreth: It struck me as ironic that Shatner played a character who (per The Making of Star Trek) made history as the youngest person to command a starship, and has now actually made history as the oldest person to travel in a spaceship.
I first saw this episode a few months before the pandemic. And the only thing I remember from it is the Paris subplot, which was fun in itself – I didn’t retain memories of the Chakotay/Seven/Ledosian/Ventu prime directive story at all. That’s how little it registered to me.
I said it before that Voyager’s final season often suffered from the same feeling of running on fumes that plagued TNG’s final season. Looking back on Natural Law, it’s not bad. I can sympathize with the Ventu and their situation, and we’ve seen other Chakotay stories of interacting with other species before to some great results. But this one? Not so much.
I feel the issue here is a lack of character. There’s plenty of plot, but we don’t get a sense of how this affects Chakotay and Seven as it should; at least I don’t think it does. Michael Piller’s memo to this would likely be: what’s it about? Even a TNG prime directive episode like Homeward left more of an impression than this, despite its own issues.
Okay, I have to ask because you’ve described Paris as a “chronic fuck-up” more than once now.
When is he presented as that? We know of one major fuck-up (Caldik Prime) and one unknown-level fuck-up (getting caught by the Federation after joining the Maquis) prior to joining Voyager, where he never really fucks up all that much. Two events do not a chronic condition make.
And the fact that he tries to hide the first fuck-up and ends up confessing because he can’t handle the guilt suggests that he’s not a chronic fuck-up in general, because both the immediate lie and the later confession are what you’d expect of someone who’s never fucked up before and doesn’t know how to handle it, or to admit to himself and everyone else that he did indeed fuck up.
Major fuck-up, yes. Chronic fuck-up, no.
Maybe a minor quibble but one thing that bothered me was when the girl gave Seven her blanket. I was like, “Nooo, textiles take so much effort produce; you’re giving away an extremely valuable resource created from thousands of people hours! Don’t give that away!” I didn’t see any sheep or other hairy livestock so I’m assuming it’s a plant-based fiber. That’s not easy stuff to harvest and process….
@22/EveZ: Surely the fact that the gift is valuable is the thing that makes it a meaningful gesture.
@22 It was a sweet gesture- but it is kind of funny that she was giving it to someone who could 1. replicate their own blanket with no effort and 2. sleeps standing up and doesn’t appear to use blankets
@23 Yeah, I know. But I guess most of it has to do with what wildfyrewarning said. If you don’t have the outside perspective, that Seven doesn’t need or use a blanket, it seems wasteful. From a perspective of just the act, yes, it is clearly a heartfelt gift of a high status item.
@24 & 25: The meaning of the gift is in the generosity, not the item’s material worth. If it were just about material value, it would be a transaction, not a gift.
@26 I think most of my thoughts were also due to the fact that the gift-giver here was a young girl. It had overtones of a little kid gifting something she found in her mother’s jewelry box- not really aware of the value but wanting to give a present. I wonder if the elders would have “approved’ that gift or would have deemed it inappropriate. Gift giving is an incredibly complex social construct.
@25 Oh, don’t get me wrong, as someone who does quilting, I know that what makes something handmade special is the time, effort, and care being put into it. It just kind of makes me laugh, because while this is clearly something useful to the girl (not to mention incredibly time consuming and not easily replaced)- it isn’t really something Seven needs or has ever shown any desire to have in her personal space.
@28/wildfyre: Which means that its only value to Seven is sentimental, as a remembrance of the bond she formed with the girl, and surely that’s the whole point.
I had a Robert Knepper moment in this one! I saw Autumn Reeser’s name in the opening credits as a guest star, and thought “huh! That actress that played a really talkative Taylor Townsend on The OC in the mid-200s! Will be interesting to see her in a younger role…” Based on her subsequent work (she’s been in a ton of Hallmark movies, recently), I would *not* have guessed she’d be a silent character.
According to Wikipedia, this was her first film or television role.
Similar same! I know Autumn Reeser as Amelia Earhart Fearless Flyer in The Thrilling Adventure Hour where she is also a wicked clever talker. I didn’t recognize her at all, but when I saw the name, I did some googling and yes, this was her first TV part. She was 21! I appreciated her familiar yet not exactly human performance.
I wish the blanket had been ornate and beautiful, not just like, burlap with doohickeys on it. How hard could it have been… But yes this was a cool episode, particularly atmospheric, the texture. It might have been a little better if the Ventu had more distinct looks and personalities, kind of chaotically of various different minds and opinions – but they did okay.
I guess that’s Reeser’s specialty, since I knew her from Greg Berlanti’s early, non-comic-based superhero series No Ordinary Family, where she was the cute, perky, fast-talking comedy sidekick character.
Holy crap, I saw Autumn Reeser in some Hallmark Christmas movie I had to watch. I wish she’d been silent in that one. I wish everyone had been silent. It would have been a lot better. But I digress.
Not such a bad episode, particularly as I was dreading the episode would end with the flight instructor being totally thrilled by Paris’s wild ride, in a kind of Hallmark movie turn where stodgy people end up having fun and learning to enjoy the risks and rewards of life!
I agree the ending is a rushed technobabble mess. After having read the comments here, I don’t know what the solution should have been. But it does seem right to me to get the colonizers out of there. I can’t think how to relate this paragraph to a Hallmark movie, so I won’t.