Ex Post Facto

DVD, Voyager S1 (Ex Post Facto)

It is derivative, but that's the point. It evokes Sherlock Holmes with Tuvok as the detective, and Poirot with all the participants gathered in one room for the revelation. All the characters feature, some a lot less than others. For example, Torres is only very briefly in it (and I thought it was Carey talking to her and that we would flip to engineering to see him at the other end of the conversation, but not so), Kes and the Doc also (but at least we get more name-choosing follow-up to last episode. Funny when he posits Spock as a name he is familiar with. Wouldn't quite work...). Chakotay only gets to do a Maquis maneouvre that doesn't come across all that visually resplendent - the minor battles in this episode are okay, but more like skirmishes compared with proper DS9 ship combat!

At least Janeway shows her mettle again, as soon as she puts her hands on her hips those Numiri better watch out! Neelix gets to be funny again, and Kim gets a different role. But it's really Paris, and more, Tuvok's episode. Paris is still a bit loose that you can almost imagine he could commit the murder, when taking into account possible drugs in the tea. The flashbacks in black and white work well (though not as well as 'Smallville' Season Two episode 'Suspect'), and the solution with the dog is nicely worked, especially when Tuvok gets the suspect to bring in the last witness and it turns out to be the dog, that little ratty thing!

I always remembered the bit about Paris' height, but I'd forgotten how the dog featured. The scene-setting and sets give some good atmosphere, particularly the moments of pastiche, like the heavy rain, or femme fatale smoking (and we had smellovision as someone was smoking outside the window as we watched!), but the scenes are not as evocative as DS9's 'Necessary Evil' or as harsh as 'Hard Time'. Not as good as the previous episodes, but still worthy of a 'good one' tag.

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