This episode opens with Captain Janeway and Chakotay going to a nearby planet but as they enter the atmosphere they hit an electrical storm and the shuttle crash lands. It looks like the Captain has died but Chakotay manages to revive her. It soon becomes apparent that it wasn't a storm but phaser fire that caused them to crash; surprisingly from Vidiian weapons. Some thing odd is happening, soon they are back in the shuttle being fired upon again unable to escape the shuttle is destroyed. Once again they return to the shuttle, this time however it looks like they have avoided the anomaly that is causing the strange time loops and they return to Voyager. This is only the beginning of further strange occurrences, the Doctor diagnoses the captain with the Vidiian Phage and when he can't find a cure he euthanises her against her will. In the next loop she sees herself die and witnesses the time look from the outside; seeing herself die as though she were a ghost, she even meets her late father who tells her she is dead. Unable to believe that she is dead she tries unsuccessfully to communicate with Kes and even attends her own memorial service. When it is finally revealed that everything she has seen since the crash was caused by an alien presence in her mind it came as a bit of a surprise.
This was an interesting episode; while I didn't believe that the captain would end up dead I couldn't figure out just what was happening to her. It was clear that something was not right when the Doctor killed her; no matter how ill a patient was he would never do such a thing, especially not against their will. The way the alien presence took the form of somebody she trusted made him more sinister than many of the 'monsters' they have encountered.
This was an interesting episode; while I didn't believe that the captain would end up dead I couldn't figure out just what was happening to her. It was clear that something was not right when the Doctor killed her; no matter how ill a patient was he would never do such a thing, especially not against their will. The way the alien presence took the form of somebody she trusted made him more sinister than many of the 'monsters' they have encountered.