| Review : |
The episode is powerful because it does what Voyager does best-- balances the needs of Starfleet against the nice-to-haves of the Federation. In an age of anti-matter, the Omega particle isn't necessary. What is necessary is warp travel. The Omega dilemma is very different than an allegory for Nuclear power-- we saw that in the 4th ep of season one with polaric energy and it's potentially devastating side effects. We may have seen something similar out of Shinzon with his Thalaron radiation-- a weaponized, planet killing form of radiation. These energy sources take out the living and leave few survivors but Omega is something different. Sure the result at the flashpoint is the same but here the very fabric of subspace is torn-- shredded so that the fundamental requirement for the survivors of a space faring civilization is removed-- FTL travel. Forever. Remember that the Intrepid Class design is, in part a response to Starfleet's acknowledgement that Warp can hurt subspace. The idea of annihilating them medium altogether would be anathema to Starfleet like the way annihilating roads would be to the Roman Army of antiquity. The only anti-science thing I see here is the destruction of research related to the effort. I imagine that has to do with the political fallout associated with incremental research that occurs as the Omega creative is carried out by captains (and not the special squad Janeway mentions) |
