Star Trek 596: Spirit Folk

596. Spirit Folk

FORMULA: Fair Haven + The Big Goodbye

WHY WE LIKE IT: The music. The lack of existentialism.

WHY WE DON'T: And then they were never seen again.

REVIEW: The end of Fair Haven promised the holodeck program would be up and running again in 6 or 7 weeks. As originally aired, Spirit Folk is actually 6 weeks later for the audience too! The plot is that old chestnut, "the holograms notice they're in a holodeck", but done with enough charm to still entertain. I think part of it is because there's no existentialist discourse. It's been done before, and very well too. Instead, the citizens of Fair Haven think something's amiss not with themselves, but with Voyager's crew.

This allows for a lot of comedy relating to the townsfolk's superstitions, including not being able to find the Doctor's true name and his being hypnotized by Seamus and giving up everything. And yet, they never find out they're "not real". Janeway trusts her malfunctioning boyfriend (keep on not thinking about that too much) to walk the halls of the ship and lies to him one final time. Her cover story is that they've traveled back in time to Fair Haven. Hey, why not? Everyone knowing they're "moon-men" might take the charm out of the place a wee bit, but it's an elegant solution to the problem.

I guess it's a good thing Janeway had reprogrammed Michael Sullivan to be Fair Haven's smartest man, because he's pretty much the only one without a lynch mob mentality. Now, I wonder if Janeway'll borrow the Doctor's emitter to bring on dates. (DON'T think about it.) Of course, after all this effort to save Fair Haven for the second time, the program is never seen again. I suppose it's too guest-star/location intensive for regular use. Lovely music in those scenes though.

Hey, where are the Borg kids at? At the time, I probably thought the reset button had been pushed in between episodes (à la Survival Instinct or Equinox).

LESSON: If the parish priest vanishes into thin air, he's working for the other side.

REWATCHABILITY - Medium: A pleasant little escapade that doesn't rely on B-plot jeopardy.

Comments

"I suppose it's too guest-star/location intensive for regular use."

I figured that since both episodes featuring it were generally loathed by fandom, they decided to quietly retire Fair Haven before strike three.