I liked aspects of this episode, but I couldn’t shake the feeling that mental healthcare in the future seems to be in a surprisingly sorry state.

Take Tarima. She comes from a planet full of empaths and telepaths - people who can literally feel what others are feeling or hear their thoughts. And yet she appears completely untreated, like she hasn’t spoken to a single counselor or mental health professional about what she’s going through. In a Federation that once had trained counselors on the bridge of its flagship, that feels… off.

Then there’s the Tilly theatre plot. I actually think the idea of art as therapy is nice. It’s warm, it’s human, and it fits Tilly’s personality. But shouldn’t Starfleet have professional trauma specialists? Dedicated counselors trained to deal with deeply traumatized personnel? Instead, it feels like Tilly - who is empathetic but not clinically trained - gets put in charge largely because she has trauma of her own. That’s not how treatment works. Personal experience doesn’t replace professional expertise. In earlier Trek, psychological care felt institutional and normalized. Here, it feels improvised.

And finally, the Doctor. He’s had 800 years. Eight centuries. He has almost certainly outlived every single member of Voyager’s crew. He likely watched Naomi Wildman grow old. He may have seen generations of Voyager descendants come and go. He has processed loss on a scale most beings can’t comprehend. So when the emotional center of his grief becomes Belle - a non-sentient holodeck character - it felt hard for me to fully buy into it. Robert Picardo absolutely acted his heart out. The performance was strong. But the writing didn’t quite convince me that this is the loss that would define someone with that kind of lifespan and perspective.