Drive

Tom and Harry enter the Delta Flyer in a race set up as a friendly competition between previously conflicting species.

The episode starts off with the promise of an exciting race set against a tense political backdrop, but it ends up trying to do too much.

The main problem for me is the shifting focus from the race, to politics, to comedy, to romance and back again. I'm just guessing the writers were trying to say there are more important things a stake than a race, but for this to work they have to keep things interesting.

A significant amount of time is dedicated to Tom and B'Elanna's mixed race relationship, contrasting with other characters lack of tolerance and acceptance of integrated societies. As good an idea as this is, I do not think it really works. Tom and B'Elanna are decent characters played by good actors but unfortunately they do not have strong material to portray their romance. It feels forced with unnatural sounding dialogue as they tend to awkwardly, over-explain their feelings. (Harry Kim and Irina's lines are equally as unimaginative)

That being said there are some enjoyable moments: The crew being more interested in the race than duty; Seven of Nine advising B'Elanna how to handle Tom; and Neelix turning commentator.

I rate it as a 5.5/10, but round upwards.

I'm sorry but I just can't stand B'Elanna. She should've never been the chief engineer and her relationship with Tom Paris has no chemistry whatsoever.

B'Elanna is like a rebellious and annoying teenager in season 1 and she is like a rebellious and annoying teenager in season 7. There is no development of her character despite plenty screen time throughout the entire show. She occasionally has an idea for fixing something but other than that she is just rude and over emotional. It's like a prototype character for Star Trek Discovery. She has no place being on a federation starship, let alone being in a leading position.

At no point did I have even the slightest interest in this epiode. I am so bored when Tom does his 1950's motor head stuff. Why not just play Fonzie in Happy Days. The other thing that is also incredibly boring is his relationship with B'Lanna. Their constant snuggling and shows of affection just become tiresome. I find them both tedious when they are together. Really weak episode.

If you're going to make an episode about a space race, then you should show a space race and not get lost in relationship chitchat. Especially not when it's about Paris and Torres.

Tom and Harry have more chemistry when they're in a scene together than Tom and B'Elanna. There's just no spark between them. There's no infatuation and no love to be felt. In addition, neither character is what you would call complex or deep. Rather the opposite. Paris is always thinking about old cars or shuttles and is basically a man-child. And Torres is simply unsympathetic and constantly on edge. Janeway and Chakotay exude more hormones when they're together in intimate togetherness - purely professionally, of course - than Tom or B'Elanna. I sometimes ask myself who actually casts the actors in series like this and then comes up with the idea of making characters who don't fit together have a relationship.

And it's long become a running gag that Harry always falls for the wrong women. A hologram, a former Borg drone, the wrong one of two twins, a rioter on a generation ship, a dead woman brought back to life and now a terrorist. Finally give the boy a breather.

The race itself is pretty lame. The most entertaining part is Neelix's reporting. Tom and B'Elanna even have time to discuss their relationship problems while they're still in the race and should be concentrating on the track. In the end, they lose the race because this episode is actually about terrorism and not about the race itself. Sometimes a little less story would be better to give the plot some room to unfold. The writers should perhaps decide whether they want to make an episode about a space race, about Tom and B'Elanna's relationship problems or about extremists who want to sabotage the celebration of a peace alliance.

Riker and Troi ..these two are not. I've never cared for either one as characters but put them together and it's even worse. B'llana and Neelix are my least favorites, but B'llana takes top prize as her character is irritating, annoying, brash and angry. You put that with Tom who is not exactly a stellar character either and you have a forced pairing that we must endure. They simply have no chemistry together, it's just not there.

The race story was good that's why I'll give it a 5 .. but way too much of B'Tom. I don't care for their romance so when they are given this much screen time the episode drags.

I love the show though, but they can't all be winners of course. But ultimately I'm disappointed they forced these two characters together when they simply don't mesh well and had no business being put together romantically.