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Reviews
Star Trek: Voyager: Muse (2000)
Classic
Had to watch this after it was referenced in the wrap-up of a lecture series on Greek tragedy. The lecturer noted the many accurate reflections of classic tragedy in the episode: the stage centered by the altar, the poet's discussion of tragedy's ritual origins, the chorus and mask of course, and the poet's adherence to mandatory elements of Aristotle's Poetics--the sudden revelation (anagnorisis), turning the character from good to bad in a blink of an eye (peripetiteia), etc.
From this classic structure, the episode's dialogue stands out and the characters have a special luster, such as B'Elanna as Muse, because, as Aristotle put it, all those parts fall into place within a good plot.
On top of the excellent irony, tragedy's transformative power is a touching point at the end.
Really an interesting, well done episode. The kind of bottle episode that is a credit to bottle episodes.