Eye of The Needle

**** (4 stars out of 5)

Harry Kim finds the oldest, smallest wormhole on record. At 30 centimeters wide, it's not big enough to fit through. Unless you're an actual worm, I guess. It might be good for pool, as the famed hustler Captain Janeway once put it: "That's the one with the pockets, right?" They lose a microprobe down the drain while snaking the thing, and it's breaking down. Harry's probably wishing they'd found something better to name after him than this wormhole.

But it's got one quality in its favour: it opens onto the Alpha Quadrant.

But it comes with a curse: it's in the space of everyone's favorite non-communicative xenophobes, the Romulans.

But there's a free topping: scientist Telek R'mor is effusively friendly and reasonable for his kind, and Kim and Torres found a method to beam safely through the little subspace tunnel that could.

But the topping also comes with a curse: R'mor is from 2351. That's only a problem because Voyager is from 2371. They can't in good conscience go home before they've left! They'd risk totally changing time, like some renegade Timecop! On the edge of space! As a miserable consolation prize, they leave their contact letters to transmit to their loved ones someday.

But the curse comes with a curse: Telek died in 2367. There's no way to know if he passed on the messages, or just passed on.

Some outstanding character moments here, my favorites of which include Kes and the Doctor.

In between memorizing human anatomy texts in a single day, Kes speaks out to the Captain about the Doctor's rights. Janeway takes a hard look at her attitude toward the hologram and changes her approach. She calls the Doctor a full-fledged member of the crew, and allows him control of turning himself on and off. (Mostly off. That's what she said!)

The camel can't fit through the "Eye of the Needle", the rich man can't get into heaven, and Voyager's not getting back home today.