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We’re as confused as Kim is when he wakes up to his girlfriend Libby instead of alone on Voyager. It’s established that it’s the present and that his friend Daniel Byrd is lost on Voyager instead. Kim heads to “work,” Starfleet Academy in San Francisco, and he runs into Cosimo, a Cafe owner he seems to forget he knows quite well. Lt Lasca interrupts and takes Kim to present the starship design they’ve worked on together to Starfleet. Harry feigns illness in the middle of the presentation and returns home. On the way, Kim runs into Cosimo who seems to know all about him, including his apartment room. Libby receives him well, happy to see him, and likewise for Kim. In the middle of the night, a restless Kim discovers that Paris is also not on Voyager, decides that he needs to return to Voyager, and heads to Marsaille where he was last spotted. At the real Chez Sangrits, Paris refuses to help him, and Kim puts him in his place. Back in San Francisco, Starfleet arrests Kim and subtlety accuses him of being a Maquis spy, and Kim gets an ankle restraint. He runs into Cosimo who pieces it all together for Kim: there was an accident in the Delta Quadrant with the shuttle running into a the galaxy’s “time stream.” Cosimo’s race monitors the “time-stream” and made sure Kim was okay after the accident. They have no idea how to get him back other than to possibly recreate the accident. What follows is an action movie: Kim escapes from his bedroom and Paris saves him. They transport to a spaceport and head for the “time stream” to recreate the accident. They must transport Kim off the ship, which, if unsuccessful, will kill him and Paris alike. Instead, Kim wakes up in the shuttle in the Delta Quadrant, contacted by Janeway, and Paris is okay, too; a success.

This is Kim’s piece-de-résistance: romance, action, mystery – an absolutely crazy episode. It’s a pleasure to see more varied sets used in the show. Each premise established in this episode is fresh and exciting, and I love all of these tropes coming together like that, but I just wished the world building was fleshed out a bit more. I understand the struggle; Trek has such a strong catalogue of lore and it tries very hard to maintain continuity. I feel a lot of what happened was a result of anxious writers anticipating the wrath of angry fans; Starfleet arresting Kim made esoteric sense, however, didn’t add much to the plot other than some contrived stakes. Additionally, the “time-stream” concept can be rather interesting and I hope it gets explored in Discovery. Otherwise, this episode was exciting, and certainly interesting for the world-building aspects, too.

This was originally posted on Jan 19, 2021. Transported to neocities on Dec 1, 2025.