Vanishing Point

*** (3 stars out of 5)

Trip and Hoshi are forced to use the transporter everyone fears rather than be killed by a diamagnetic storm. I was surprised to discover while typing the word and not being corrected that it is a real thing. It's probably the only real thing in this episode.

Feeling deeply unsettled by her transport, Hoshi feels increasingly ignored and invisible. The boys around her tell the ghost story of Cyrus Ramsey of Madison, Wisconsin. In May 2146, he was the test subject for the first long range transport of 100 meters and never rematerialized. He became a subject of spooky stories like Seth and Martin Brundle. But the only true thing there MIGHT be the year 2146.

I love how the closed captioning fails to handle Tucker's accent. He invites Travis along by saying he's gonna needa "pallet" for the other shuttlepod. Travis' performance may occasionally be a little wooden, but he's a pilot, not a pallet!

The villains are, (I shit you not) Albino Tosks in Belly Shirts. The WORST! The costuming department  went insane, clearly, while cropping Hoshi's tops and decided to go all the way. Klingons will now wear off-the-shoulder jogging sweats. Andorians will need head bands and leg warmers!

"Vanishing Point" in the words of DC Comics, is "Not A Dream! Not A Hoax! Not An Imaginary Story!" You only have to remove the word "not". NOT that I mind a good imaginary story, and Hoshi's dream does tell us a little about Hoshi. There's continuity to be had, since Sato previously mentioned her loathing for colourless lizards. And, on an unrelated note, a shower scene with Sato is fine by my personal colourless lizard.