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A micro-wormhole diverts Voyager’s attention, and they send a probe once they arrive on scene. After the probe gets scanned from the other side, they decide to send a signal through the wormhole and use the probe as some sort of booster. The reply is from the alpha quadrant! They say they’re a Romulan cargo ship, but when they break Tuvok speculates they’re of a science vessel on a secret mission. Turns out he’s right, as Janeway finds out in the next transmission she takes in her quarters. Janeway tells Chakotay to tell the crew to prepare messages for home, but Torres speculates she can transport the crew instead, and all resources are diverted to that. The Romulan volunteers to transport himself after the succesful transport of a test probe. When he arrives, they confront the fact that he is from twenty years in the past. They decide the only thing they can do is to give him their messages and he will deliver them in twenty years. Once they transport him back, however, Tuvok reveals that the Romulan, named R’Mor, died four years ago.

The B-plot in this episode results in the Doctor earning the ability to control his activation from Janeway, ending in a respectful interaction from a crew member.

A shining episode from Voyager’s first season, “Eye of the Needle” packs so much into its episode timeframe. There’s little moments, like when Tuvok brings up wormhole entities as the probe scanners, that just give it that nice touch. Additionally, Armstrong’s performance as R’Mor is astounding. The character is so visibly charismatic and interesting, despite half the script devoted to his secrecy, and it all comes to a pay off. R’Mor is such a science dork, and they play that dynamic well with Janeway, another dork. This is easily one of my favourite episodes.

This was originally posted on Jan 5, 2021. Transported to neocities on Oct 20, 2025.