Star Trek: Voyager (TV Series) Spirit Folk (2000) User Reviews

A return to Fair Haven

[Tweekums · 5/10 · 15 April 2010]

Since I wasn't too keen on the episode "Fair Haven" earlier in the series I wasn't surprised when I found this episode equally disappointing. Having apparently repaired the Fair Haven holodeck program the crew start to visit the Oirish town once more. The locals are starting to get suspicious of the actions of Voyager's crew and when they witness Tom turning Harry's holographic date into a cow they are sure that evil supernatural forces are at work. When trying to fix the program Harry and Tom are captured by the townsfolk and the program's safety protocols are deactivated. To save them a decision must be made; tell the truth to people about what they are and what Voyager is or delete the program and all its characters.

I was never a fan of holodeck malfunction episodes and found the two set in Fair Haven to be particularly weak compared to most episodes of a series I generally enjoy. The characters, apart from Michael Sullivan, seemed like comedy stereotypes of an Ireland that I'm sure never existed.

Precursor to Westworld?

[trainsnbusez · 5/10 · 17 October 2020]

My first IMDB review and all I came here to say is that there are definite overtones of Westworld here ie Artificial life forms created by humans for their amusement become self aware/sentient and turn on their masters to some degree. My impression of this episode? As was said in another series not too long ago "Not great, not terrible".

The holodeck is just messing with them now

[fmbr-1 · 5/10 · 23 September 2021]

Everything in the holodeck has to be controlled by the computer. So, the computer here decided to let the characters it creates and constantly monitors notice the odd seeming behaviour of the Voyager crew and then comes up with a plan to torture that crew for information - despite the computer having all of that information all along. This is the flaw, we are supposed to see the characters here as sentient creatures, like The Doctor (who I still have some problems with), where they are all just puppets who only can think and act how the computer tells them to.

The worst part is where the computer tells one character to shoot at the computer panel and it apparently causes a 'computer malfunction'. So, either the computer deliberately decided to hurt itself, or did that so that it could continue to mess with the crew and give itself an excuse.

I also don't get why Captain Janeway would put the safety of her holo-boyfriend above the safety of her crew - well, Harry and Tom anyway. I get that she's lonely but really is an Irish publican the best she can do? She has a very real Chakotay in the real world and if she's going for the holodeck, why not have a herd of good-looking hunks who love nothing more than to cook, clean and cuddle.

For myself, were I in the 24th Century I wouldn't set one foot in the holodeck unless I was explicitly ordered. People die in there with alarming regularity. It makes hard vacuum seem a relatively benign environment by comparison.

Star Trek pretends to not be Star Trek.

[duncancmccann · 17 March 2020]

Over all the series, the holodeck episodes interest me the least. A cheap excuse to provide some different scenery, they never add to the actual purpose of the crew's mission, or provide any link to the rest of the series. If there are not enough real Star Trek scripts for the season, then just make less shows. These are nonsense and whilst supposed to be a holiday for the cast and crew, are just an insult to the audience that wants to see the future, not a skewed and/or idealised version of the past.

If anyone looks like a leprechaun...

[snoozejonc · 6/10 · 10 November 2023]

The characters of Fair Haven get suspicious of the Voyager crew members.

This is not as bad as some reviewers make out but it is a forgettable entry that feels like it exists to fill time during the days of 26 episode seasons.

For me it starts off reasonably well with some decent humour and interaction with regular characters in the holo-deck. However the plot inevitably turns into a predictable farce when things go wrong and the locals turn paranoid. Personally, I think the writers should have made the first Fair Haven episode using the same plot of this episode, but done it solely from the perspective of the holographic characters and not shown us what was happening behind the scenes on other decks of Voyager. I would preferably scrap the OTT Irishness too, but that is not my biggest complaint as this is technically Tom's creation after all.

I do not have a problem with Trek writers treating computer programmes and AI's as sentient beings in good philosophical episodes that debate the merits of sentience using interesting characters like Data, Moriarty and The Doctor. However, when the writers take the sentience debate for granted in an overly silly, clichéd, holodeck malfunction episode with a lynch mob of moronic, stereotypes it feels a bit of a stretch.

All that being said, it's not horribly offensive to watch or even badly made from a technical perspective.

It's a 5.5/10 for me but I round upwards.

Oh Danny Boy, the pipes aren't calling

[tomsly-40015 · 2/10 · 23 January 2024]

Imagine a spaceship full of explorers flying through uncharted space tens of thousands of light-years from home, past extraordinary space anomalies and unknown, alien planets. Ready to explore new civilizations, fascinating cultures and futuristic technology. But instead, the writers of the series prefer to send these brave explorers on a shallow holodeck adventure. Back to sleepy 19th century Irish Fair Haven with all its pitchfork-wielding, superstitious little minds and packed with Irish folklore and stereotypes - from leprechauns to pots of gold under rainbows. And of course, the holodeck once again has an unforeseen malfunction, causing the holo-figures to become self-aware and cause big trouble in little Ireland.

With all the constant malfunctions and threatening situations on Enterprise, Voyager and Cerrito's holodecks, I really wonder how Starfleet Command installs half-baked, error-prone, and potentially dangerous technology on their ships and allows it to be used for recreational purposes. Considering that Janeway gave the Hirogen holodeck technology so that they can conduct their hunts virtually from now on, you can imagine that a lot of things will go wrong there, too. And why even consider the possibility of including a feature that allows disabling security protocols on a holodeck that is primarily intended for fun and relaxation? And how is it that these holo-programs are always on the verge of being lost or degrading? Is it no longer possible to make backups in the 24th century?

This episode is basically a cheap rip-off of the Moriarty episodes of TNG. However, compared to this shallow soap opera episode, these were deep and thoughtful. Here, Janeway can't decide whether she should save her holographic lover or Kim, Paris and the doctor. And instead of taking on a criminal mastermind, Tom turns Kim's love interest into a cow - exactly the kind of story you'd expect from a sci-fi series... not.

Jerusalem, Part II

[XweAponX · 10/10 · 13 October 2013]

And once again, Voyager is about Voyager, not "The Irish", "The British" or even "The Americans".

We've already seen that Tom Paris made this Holo-Town, which is a fictional town, so it does not have to look exactly like Ireland, it has to look like what Tom made it to look like. Which unfortunately is the "European" Backlot of Paramount. It's a given that Tom got details wrong, remember Janeway shows Tom that he got the HARP backward on Sullivan's Pub Sign? Never in either of these Fairhaven Episodes does it state that Fairhaven is an exact dupe of any town in Ireland. Besides, it was made for Voyager crew, not you.

And did Those Feet in Ancient Times, walk upon England's Mountain's Green? Nope. Besides, William Blake was referring to The Industrial Revolution aka "Urban Creep" which he hated. Nevertheless, Calvinists everywhere sing that song as a Hymn.

So this Holo has been running for weeks now, remember- it almost got demolished by the Ion Storm and 70% of it had to be rebuilt. But there are still Ghosts in The Machine.

Tom is driving around in his horseless carriage. The Town panhandler "Seamus" (Richard Riehle) causes him to crash it, and Seamus sees Tom "repair" his wheel. Then Tom changes Maggie O'Halleran (Henriette Ivanans) into a COW, and someone sees The Doctor change her back.

Fairhaven like any town will be subject to Rumour, which will eventually "Walk the Ground with Head Hidden in the Clouds" (Virgil's The Aeneid).

But the 'Deck is malfunctioning, the Holograms are reacting to things they ought not react to. When Tom and Harry try to fix Michael Sullivan (Fintan McKeown), Sullivan plays along with them and pretends to be fixed.

They are becoming Sentient, and acting more or less like people in a small town in Ireland.

So they Kidnap Tom and Harry as they try to fix the program from Sullivan's, tie them up and Seamus tries chanting Faery Spells on them. When the Doctor interrupts, they tie him up too and steal his Emitter.

That's when the fun begins, Sullivan gets beamed to The Bridge and now Janeway has a Headache. Basically this is "First Contact" with a new Life Form, and now the crew has to earn Fairhaven's Trust, now that they know what they are.

When I first saw these episodes I was hoping they would have more of them, but like Janeway's Davinci Program, they were a One-Season Deal. We did not see Da Vinci much after Seasons 4 and 5. Most of the Detractors of Fairhaven forget that this was not for our benefit, it was for Voyager's. If you take that into account, then the interactions that occur in these episodes can be enjoyed a lot more, including The Doctor's Pompous Sermons. Even Starships beset on all sides by Borg and Devore have to have a little diversion and so do we, otherwise a show is monotonous, and I don't mean Monotanium.

Look for Ian Abercrombie as "Milo", who was The Abbot in "Someone to Watch Over Me".

I would rather eat glass than see them make more Fair Haven episodes!

[planktonrules · 2/10 · 2 March 2015]

I know some folks think everything Trek is always good. I've seen a few reviewers that simply give 9s or 10s to every episode. Well, I've got shocking news--some show DID occasionally suck! This is especially true on "Star Trek: Voyager". All too many episodes simply should have been ditched. In fact, instead of seven seasons of shows that varied tremendously in quality, I would have preferred five really good seasons. Had they ditched all the Fair Haven show, it would have been a great start!

A few episodes back, Mr. Paris made the Irish town of Fair Haven on the holodeck. Within the program everyone is happy and everything is perfect. There is no IRA, there is no British occupation, there is no potato famine and there is no division between Catholics and Protestants. Here everyone gets along wonderfully and welcomes strangers. In other words, it's nothing like the Ireland circa 1910 like it's supposed to be!

Here in the second Fair Haven another cliché appears--that these are all simple, foolish and highly superstitious folk. When one of them sees Mr. Paris doing things like talking to the computer or fixing a flat tire instantly or turning a lady into a cow for a joke, he realizes there's something amiss. Soon the others also catch on and the entire village is ready to weigh the strangers to see if they weigh as much as a duck!

The bottom line is that this has as much to do with sci-fi as a lump of butter. The plot is ridiculous, clichéd and embarrassing. Another episode that never would have been made had the writers not been drinking a few too many pints of Guinness!

Also, for laughs, try watching this with a few Irish friends. They'll probably appreciate it far less than an average American. I could be wrong, but seriously doubt it.

Taking a break from the usual trek

[computersprockets · 9/10 · 17 April 2020]

I don't think some of the reviewers really understand holodeck episodes. Lighten up folks and set your phasers to fun. Fair Haven is a fantasy escape dreamed up by the irrepressible Tom Paris; it was never meant to be a true representation of early 20th century Ireland. It's definitely a backlot set of course but it works nicely and the period costumes are great. Janeway in a Victorian dress sporting a hairbun coiffure is awesome. There's comedy and some deeper stuff too in this episode. It's fun and entertaining as holodeck episodes tend to be. Let's just watch and enjoy this break from fighting the Borg and other nefarious aliens.

It's been done..

[sloopnp · 4/10 · 24 August 2020]

Another holodeck malfunctioning episode you can skip. Lazy, pointless, and boring.

Unoriginal and uninteresting

[pilotgav · 3/10 · 5 August 2021]

Another holodeck malfunction Star Trek episode. Boring and unoriginal.

They could have solved the issue with a delete key. Something I wish I'd had while watching this waste of airtime.

A charming break from alien attacks...

[jasoncullen-22430 · 10/10 · 18 March 2019]

Some people seem to forget that holodeck episodes are just for fun, and this one is just that. You're not going to see any long-term plot development or character revelations. Just a fun episode with the Voyager crew relaxing... until things get out of hand.

"Star Trek" becomes 'Little House on the Prairie"...

[karacter · 2/10 · 6 June 2010]

(SPOILER) Even before I had seen "Voyager", I read about fans describing the shows episodes as "hit and miss"...this installment is certainly a textbook example of that, an astonishingly dull & pointless follow-up to the equally dull & pointless "Fairhaven".

Perhaps part of the reason is that both episodes seem to focus on the "feelings" of holedeck characters- and the Voyager crews' sensitivity to this- which makes about as much sense as being concerned about the self-esteem of Mario, Luigi, or Donkey Kong.

The best episodes in Star Trek..in all the series incarnations...contribute a little something to the franchise as a whole, whether through character development, introduction of a new idea, fact, species or technology, etc. "Spirit Folk" does none of this and, interestingly enough, the Voyager regulars play second fiddle here to the "zany" antics of the holedeck characters. This wouldn't necessarily be a problem if the holedeck characters were interesting or had anything interesting to do, but they aren't and they don't- not exactly a good recipe for exciting or meaningful sci-fi television.

On the plus side, fans of the talented Robert Picardo will enjoy some very funny scenes with the Doctor playing an overly dramatic village priest. And the Voyager cast seems to be having a sincerely good time romping around in this colorful period piece (which features on location shooting at Universal Studio's European Village Backlot set, which the cast undoubtedly enjoyed). Unfortunately, the cast are the ONLY ones having fun, and the audience is left to suffer through it.

The largest plot hole, in my opinion, is the fact that the Voyager crew spends an incredible amount of time, energy, and attention worrying about, and fussing with, this pointless holedeck program and its characters. Surely the crew can find better & more meaningful things to occupy their time and the ship's resources (like exploring the UNIVERSE, maybe?) than fiddling with a 3D video game. I know that if I was in a starship in the Delta Quadrant, I wouldn't be sitting sitting in my quarters the whole time focused on my XBox360.

It's just a holedeck program. When all is said and done, who cares? In the end, certainly not the audience.

Palatable only for Americans

[vsbond · 19 April 2010]

Another dreadful episode set in Fair Haven.

Once again, the clichés come thick and fast...

Once again, the crew seem as thick as two short planks...

Once again, the stereotypes are an insult to the Irish...

This kind of fantasy is absolutely incomprehensible to anyone who doesn't share (1) a typical Americans' ignorance about the realities of life in Ireland, and (2) Americans' apparent need to consider themselves part-Irish (however much other parts may predominate - does one ever hear of 'English-Americans'?)

As with many other episodes, there is a good deal of laziness on the part of the writers (at least we don't have transporters going offline or unable to get a lock, only to function perfectly at the crucial moment). Why do none of the characters ever suggest that it might be a good idea to have a few more safeguards built into the holodeck?

A good hollowdeck episode

[kiddokidd · 8/10 · 4 September 2020]

I haven't been a fan of voyager hollow deck episodes, but this one was entertaining. When it started I groaned but I ended up enjoying it.

Do Another Series and Spare Us!

[Hitchcoc · 4/10 · 13 September 2018]

This is a silly story. We return to Fair Haven (hopefully for the last time0. Tom gets careless and this leads to the Irish Rebellion (sort of). There are way too many hologram shows and this one is so far fetched. These people were created for a purpose and their programming should have prevented anything from happening. It's cute but not Star Trek Voyager. As a matter of fact, the Sixth Season has been generally a disappointment.

Begorrah and bejaysus this is embarrassing and insulting.

[tonycarr · 1/10 · 17 December 2021]

This is Voyager's obligatory "Lets make the holodeck characters aware of themselves" episode so a bad start. What makes it worse is that it is also an obligatory "Lets treat the Irish as though Finian's Rainbow" is a documentary. Hokey Oirish accents, superstitious, beer scrounging and violent. Why do the writers dislike the Irish so much. You would have thought that they would have learned lessons from Up the Long Ladder but apparently not.

I couldn't even get to the end.

Throwaway episode, but not that bad

[sssykxp · 8/10 · 23 March 2022]

Yes, this is a silly episode, and it uses Irish caricatures. But it's not as bad as others make it out to be. It's full of Irish stereotypes, but it's not like other holodeck episodes have been historically accurate. It has its humorous moments. It's a throwaway episode (that could have aired at any point in the show's run), but it's not as awful as I thought it was gonna be. It's not great, but it's not "Threshold" either.

Another Holodeck story...Why???

[zombiemockingbird · 1/10 · 27 May 2023]

If I wanted to watch an Irish soap opera, I wouldn't be watching Star Trek Voyager. I honestly don't understand the purpose of these holodeck stories; they have nothing to do with the actual show, except in some random way that the writers try to shoehorn into them. I have disliked them since the first one in TNG. I also dislike the back-to-the-past time-travel stories, but that's just a personal preference. Voyager depended more on holodeck episodes than the other Star Trek's; I guess the writers just couldn't come up with enough plots for the actual story, so they kept creating filler episodes instead. The actual story would have been more cohesive without all the filler.

Silly and scary Janeway

[Wirefan122 · 1/10 · 8 June 2016]

To sum up: a hologram program gets out of control with the result that Harry and Tom are taken hostage and may get burned at the stake or some such. A ready solution is available by shutting power off to the holodeck as B'Elanna suggests. Janeway and Neelix warn that the town of Fairhaven and all it's characters will be destroyed. B'elanna points out that they can be reprogrammed but if they kill Tom and Harry then no such luck.

Janeway says they should try to rescue them and they will try it that way first! If there was ANY chance of the rescue going badly then it should not be done...delete the program is the only solution! Not that I wouldn't mind seeing Harry go away but...

One reviewer points out that these episodes are nice for the crew who need their own diversions even if it is not that interesting to us. Seriously??????

Arguably the silliest episode yet.

PAGING SHAMEUS FROM THE HOLODEC

[douglasjordane · 3/10 · 25 June 2019]

It is 25th century. A Federation-Class Scientific Exploration Vessel can traverse galaxies at warp 9 in a matter of seconds. Ironically, they are unable to find anything in space more interesting than a HOLODEC Program that thinks it is real. To further seal Star Trek writers doom, the only stories possible to be generated by this ingenious machine are convenient found right here in the human timeline.

Star Trek has a very unpromising unoriginal view the future on a show about the future. Who's idea was it that this would be a thing good for Star Trek. The premise is that a local Irish community begin to suspect Tom Paris and his mysterious friends are demons from outer space. Need I say more???

Westworld inspired ;)

[samwonelsie · 5/10 · 1 June 2021]

A really cool episode if you've watched the Westworld series, nothing new under the Sun, eh?