Spirit Folk

	Tom corners Harry in the mess hall. When Harry tries to leave, Tom physically drags him back.
	Kiss me, you fool!
	Uh-oh! Busted by B'Elanna!
	Prankster Tom changes Harry's holo-date into a cow.
	Tom and Harry try to repair the malfunctiong Fair Haven program. Harry can't resist a little dig: Everything was fine until someone starting turning people into cows.
	Do straight guys stand this close, and look at each other like this?
	No doubt about it, Tom's besotted. I think we know the reason he went out of his way to spoil Harry's date!
	These two just can't keep their hands off each other, can they?
	At the Paris-Kim wedding, they both wanted to be the bride....
	Shall we dance?
	The villagers tie the boys together.
	"Tell me, Tom, why do I always end up in bondage in your holoprograms?"
	This final scene is so intimate, perhaps because it's out in the open. Aboard Voyager, the corridors are relatively narrow and that might explain why Tom and Harry perpetually walk so close together. But there's no such restriction in Fair Haven, and they're still walking as if they're joined at the hip. Very incriminating, I say!

A review by Arlie (re-posted with permission)

I wanted to like this episode. Really, I did. But in the end, there were just too many problems. Such as:

1) Too much boring exposition, featuring the thoroughly uninteresting and unlikable town folk yammering on (in slow motion, it seemed) about their suspicions. Okay, we get it - they're starting to catch on.

2) I'm with Harry - doesn't Tom have anything better to do? (Okay, maybe this isn't all bad. Tom leaves his girlfriend to stalk Harry on his date. Hmm....)

3) A holographic bullet nukes the holodeck controls??? How idiotic is that?

4) Not as idiotic as having the Doctor get hypnotized.

5) Janeway is even nuttier than usual. She's willing to risk Tom and Harry's lives for a holoprogram that can be rebuilt - that they have rebuilt, before? (That does it. The woman is certifiably psychotic.)

6) Harry's now wasting his replicator rations on flowers for his holographic date. He knew better, three years ago in "Alter Ego." Capt. Janeway's setting a bad example for the boy. (And hey, Maggie's a flower girl. Couldn't give her something besides flowers?)

7) Robert Picardo. I know, this was a comedy. The acting was supposed to be over the top. But he was way over the top and completely unbelievable. And not even funny. Which is unusual for Picardo.

8) Why did Harry have to beg Tom to turn the cow back into Maggie? Why couldn't he do it himself? Harry has been established as an expert at holotechnology, after all. The Doc restored her in only a few seconds, and we're supposed to believe Harry couldn't? Harry, who built the Crell Moset holoprogram for the Doc in "Nothing Human"?

9) Fair Haven must be set in the late 19th century or early 20th...long after they stopped burning people at the stake. Yet, that's what they try to do to Tom and Harry. Arrghh.

There were some good points: Tom's duster was much more flattering than the shirt sleeves he wore in "Fair Haven." No Seven overdose. No Borgy Bunch. And okay, the cow scene was kind of funny.

The best thing about this episode was the wealth of amusing P/K interaction. Even while they are teasing each other and arguing, there's a great deal of warmth and affection between them. I liked the scene in mess hall. Harry is exasperated with Tom, but can't help smiling. And Tom just can't let Harry alone. When he tries to leave, Tom physically drags him back. He hardly seems to notice B'Elanna.

Harry's teasing Tom about his traffic accident was also a nice touch. Revenge for that embarrassing story Tom told about Harry's driving in "Someone To Watch Over Me," maybe?

Tom tries to tag along on Harry's date; when he's rebuffed, he stalks Harry on the holodeck, and ruins his evening with a cruel and juvenile prank. Harry is usually safe from Tom's pranks, and Tom is usually not quite this sophmoric. I can only assume he's jealous. Why is he so bent on keeping Harry and Maggie apart, anyway? He tried to break them up in "Fair Haven," too.

And are Paris and Torres still together? Maybe they broke up permanently in "Memorial," and we just haven't found out yet. P/T has been even worse than usual lately, if that's possible. First Tom ignores B'Elanna for a 400-year-old hockey game. Then Tom goes to watch tsunkatse with the boys; she hangs out with Chuckles whenever she has time off. And as for "Collective"...she hardly seemed to care that he was captured or rescued.

They sure didn't act like lovers in this one. They barely seemed acquainted. B'Elanna's line to Janeway, rumored to be, "With all due respect, your boyfriend can be reprogrammed. Mine can't," turned out to be "Michael can be reprogrammed. Tom and Harry can't." Her concern plainly for her crewmates in general, not for Tom in particular. Tom seemed a lot more interested in Harry than in her...but then, all she did was bitch at him about hardware problems, so maybe it's understandable.

Tom, the best pilot in quadrant, aficionado of cars of all types and the one who taught Harry to drive, appears to be the worst driver in the known universe. And he tries to claim it's a mechanical problem, when it's plainly "operator error." Shades of Caldic Prime....

It's ironic that, except for possibly Tom's cow stunt, the Doc is the one who treats the characters of Fair Haven with the least respect. Terrorizing them from the pulpit - when he doesn't even believe in what he's saying. It's kind of unsavory, really. Like that old joke: Q. How do you keep the holograms out of the country club? A. Let one in, and he'll keep the rest out. :-P

Well, this episode proved that I am not quite the P/K slut I thought I was. I thought I could forgive anything as long as there were a lot of nice Tom and Harry scenes. Alas, there were just too many problems to forgive in "Spirit Folk."