Nightingale

Such a darling couple!

	Really, Tom. Right in the hallway, in public?
	Tom wants to go along on Harry's mission.
	Harry doesn't want Tom along, this time.
	Pointedly, Harry tells Tom he has family responsibilities now. "Leave the away missions to us young, unattached guys."
	Tom pleads that he's got to get away. (Guess the honeymoon is over. Meanwhile, B'Elanna flirts with Icheb, says she sees more than enough of Tom, and disses his interests.)
	Harry isn't swayed.
	Tom accuses Harry: "There's a girl you don't want me to know about." (Yup, just as I've suspected since "Spirit Folk": Tom is a stalker!)
	Harry reassures the jealous Tom that there's no one else.
	The problem, Harry explains, is that he's tired of always being the sidekick.
	Harry pats Tom on the chest to soften the blow, but Tom doesn't seem comforted. Indeed, he looks more upset than he did when B'Elanna died in "Fury."

A review by Arlie (re-posted with permission)

Harry Kim fan that I am, I really wish I liked this one better. But this episode didn't cast a very favorable light on him. It made him look passive, inept, and unfit for command. Seven was more in command than he was. Yes, he saves the day - twice - but the technobabble way he did it suggests that he'd make a better engineer than a captain.

It casts an even less favorable light on Janeway. If Harry has lousy command skills, it's his superior's fault. After almost seven years as an officer, command shouldn't be so new to him. Okay, maybe she can't promote him. But she can see that he learns the things officers need to learn. That's her job. And it's in the best interests of the ship to make sure the junior officers learn to be senior officers, even if no promotions are in the offing. Especially in the Delta Quadrant, where you can't just transfer in a new captain or first offficer when you need one.

The way Voyager threw in with the cloaked aliens seemed awfully precipitous. They aren't supposed to interfere, and to jump in with so little knowledge of the local politics seemed more than rash. Harry can be forgiven, I think, under the circumstances, but didn't anyone on Voyager think to scan the alien ship for evidence of the vaccine? Didn't the Doc want to talk to the supposed alien doctor about the disease the vaccine was supposed to prevent? After all the times they've been burned by people who aren't who they seem to be, you'd think they'd be a little more cautious.

As for the B-plot...groan. It was nice to see B'Elanna's life apart from Tom, to hear about her life apart from both Tom and the warp core. But it was just too "cute" for my taste. Not to mention giving me Vorik flashbacks.

Icheb must die. He really is turning into a Wesley clone. In a couple of seconds, he fixes something it would have taken the adults all day to fix. Okay, he has something of an excuse, I suppose: he's Borg. But so is Seven. Which raises the question....why, with engineering skills at such a premium andthe deadline so tight, were two of Voyager's best engineers, Harry and Seven, sent to fetch ore?

I did like the scene where Tom begs Harry to take him with him on shuttle mission. Tom looked awfully hurt and shocked when Harry said he didn't want to be Buster Kinkaide this time. But it was something Tom needed to hear.

NOTES:

Well, we find out what B'Elanna likes to do with her holodeck time: rock climbing. Tom, she says, doesn't like anything but racecars and fast shuttles. Odd, because "Blood Fever" established that he does know how to rock climb, and he's shown interest in other sports as well (hoverball, skiing, hockey).

B'Elanna was awfully flirtatious with young Icheb. Trying to keep him away from Tom while Harry was away?

Continuity alert: Harry told Lindsay Ballard that he'd taken up the saxophone. We finally see it here, one of the possessions he brought to the alien ship. Does this mean he has completely forsaken the clarinet?

Is Seven a Mary-Sue or what? In "Drive," she gives B'Elanna relationship advice. Here, she explains leadership to Harry. I suppose she'll be teaching Tom how to pilot next.

The Ambiguously Gay Duo: Tom is jealous, I swear he is. When Harry doesn't want him along on the mission, he immediately assumes it's because there's some girl in the alien crew Harry wants to romance. Why would Harry not want Tom along for that reason? It's not like Harry would be alone with this hypothetical girl anyway; there were two dozen people in the alien crew, plus Seven. And Tom's married now, so it's not like he'd be competition. Nope, Tom is just overly possessive. Of Harry.