"Allow me to describe everything that's wrong with this depiction of Ireland..."
While riding out a neutronic wavefront, the Voyager crew partakes in a holoprogram of an Irish village.
This episode provides examples of:
- Ahem: The Doctor, so Harry Kim isn't stuck with the awkwardness of discussing the Captain's private life.
- Artistic License – Religion: One of the villagers tells the Doctor, who's playing the village minister, that he's "broken the Fifth Commandment again." The Doctor then effectively brushes him off with "ten Our Fathers," likely thinking it's the Protestant Fifth Commandment, "Honor Thy Father and Thy Mother". However, the usage of "Our Father," and the Irish setting means he's likely playing a Catholic, and the Catholic Fifth Commandment is "Thou Shalt Not Kill."
- Bar Brawl: Michael Sullivan starts one while upset over losing "Katie O'Claire." Of course, Janeway isn't surprised that Tom and Harry got caught in the middle of it.Janeway: Arm wrestling get out of hand, boys?
- The Bartender: Michael Sullivan.
- Brief Accent Imitation: A few of our intrepid voyagers can't resist going Irish in Fair Haven.Harry: Tommy boy, you forgot the leprechauns.
- Celibate Heroine: It took over five years, but Janeway finally gets some lovin'.Sullivan: There's no point in waiting any longer, is there?Janeway: Oh, I think I've waited long enough. (Cue Big Damn Kiss)
- Changed My Jumper: Mostly averted as nobody in Fair Haven notices when someone's in a Starfleet uniform, but Michael Sullivan does comment on Chakotay's tattoo and figures him to be a sailor. Chakotay goes with it (space is an ocean, after all), but avoids elaborating.
- The Confidant: The Doctor for Janeway's love life.Doctor: If you want to talk, I've been hearing a lot of confessions lately.
- Control Freak: Janeway adjusts Michael Sullivan's parameters to make him the perfect boyfriend.
- Costumer: Despite the characters being programmed not to notice anachronisms, the Starfleet crew dress appropriately for the period to get into the spirit of things.
- Dance of Romance: It's a feisty jig with Michael that gets Janeway's blood pumping, leading to their Big Damn Kiss.
- Delete The Hypotenuse: Captain Janeway realizes that Michael Sullivan is married, so she erases the wife so that she never existed in his life.
- Foreshadowing:
- Seamus catches on when Janeway and the others mention the neutronic wavefront, hinting to the events of "Spirit Folk."
- Also Tom Paris says he'll have the program up and running in six to seven weeks.
- Funny Back Ground Event: When Janeway tells Tom and Harry to come to the bridge, Harry flips his boater over in his hands before popping it on his head, a move you just know he practiced for hours.
- Has a Type: And what if you could change someone to be that type?
- Hypocritical Humor: The Doctor bets five shillings against Harry in an arm-wrestling match with the local favorite. After Harry wins, he says "I knew you could do it, Ensign!"
- Idiot Ball: A bar brawl breaks out in Fair Haven's pub and that results in a couple of crewmen getting legitimately injured (though nothing major) while Tom Paris is trying to physically reach the holodeck controls even though the entire holoprogram can be stopped/deleted with a simple voice command.
- Idyllic English Village: Fair Haven is an Idyllic Irish Village (close enough) designed so the crew can just relax.
- The Internet Is for Porn: Janeway's first sexual relationship in the series is with a holodeck character. Chakotay drops a hint that he's indulged in that too.
- I Want My Beloved to Be Happy: Janeway is embarrassed when Chakotay catches her hanging on Michael's arm. Although he can't resist teasing her about it afterwards, Chakotay also makes it clear that she should go ahead and have some fun.
- Kavorka Man: Seamus charms Seven of Nine into having a game of rings with him.
- Kiss Me, I'm Virtual: Janeway with her holographic bartender lover Michael Sullivan.
- Married to the Job: Averted; Janeway is working late as usual, when she decides to slip into Fair Haven and talk to that hunky Irish bartender. The Doctor eventually points out how absurdly limited her romantic prospects are anyway, so this could be the healthiest thing for her.
- Nausea Fuel: In-Universe — Tuvok's already suffering from space sickness because of the neutronic wavefront (in an inversion from how their reactions to weird phenomena are typically less serious than most Federation species, he specifically notes that Vulcans are more sensitive to this one), so Neelix talking about blood pudding and lamb's intestines, much less Tom's mentioning the rise and fall of a sailing ship, isn't helping.
- Negative Space Wedgie: A Class Nine neutronic wavefront. It's a storm IN SPACE!, caused by (at least the Borg think) the collision of two neutron stars.
- No Challenge Equals No Satisfaction: In the end, Janeway locks the Michael Sullivan program so she can't make any more changes.
- Oireland: Irish stereotypes abound! In fairness, it's not one-tenth as bad as TNG's "Up the Long Ladder." And Tom specifically says he's not including leprechauns. The transcript website Chakoteya describes the town as "the sort of idyllic cod-Irish town that exists only in the folk memory of several-generations-removed descendants of US Irish immigrants."
- One-Sided Arm-Wrestling: Janeway does this with Michael, who notes that she's cheating by having her foot jammed against the bar (and even then, she can barely maintain a stalemate).Janeway: How else do you expect me to win?
- O.O.C. Is Serious Business: Tom programmed Michael Sullivan to be The Teetotaler, so he's surprised to see Sullivan Drowning His Sorrows.
- Perma-Stubble: Janeway likes her men scruffy, changing Michael's beard to a two-day growth as part of her redesign.
- Pygmalion Snap Back: Captain Janeway starts tweaking Michael Sullivan's program to make him more to her taste. Eventually she gets called on it by the Doctor and shuts off her access to Michael's program so she won't be tempted to make more "improvements".
- Retcon: Despite it being an important plot point in several episodes from Seasons 1 and 2 that holodeck generators cannot be used to power other parts of the ship, in this episode it's suddenly possible to do so. Granted, it's possible they figured out how to do this at some point, but it's still a pretty big leap from "completely impossible" to "doable from the bridge at a moment's notice".
- Ship Sinking: The episode that broke the hearts of J/(insert favourite character)'ers everywhere.
- Skewed Priorities: Ensign Kim warns that diverting power from the holodeck will cause them to lose most of Fair Haven, as though that's the most important thing when the ship is facing certain destruction.
- Smug Smiler: Seven directs a smirk Tuvok's way when, after he refuses her reccomendation to go to Sickbay, Neelix begins to describe food.
- Space Is an Ocean: Janeway decides to 'drop anchor', 'batten down the hatches' and ride out the wavefront. The 'anchor' even gets dislodged at one point.
- Unequal Pairing: The Doctor points out that the Captain has few other romantic options, given that she's everyones' superior officer. It's either this or a dalliance with some alien that she'd have to break up as soon as it was time for Voyager to move on.
- Voodoo Shark: Besides the already-established VS with the holodeck power, apparently there's an entire sequence to shutting it down that causes data loss if the program isn't saved. Even though it's only taken "Computer, end program" to turn it off.
- Walk and Talk: The Doctor and Janeway walk through the corridors while discussing certain sensitive issues.
- What Measure Is a Non-Human?
- You Need to Get Laid: What the Doctor's advice basically boils down to: she can't (or won't) entertain a romantic relationship with any of the crew since she's their commanding officer, and doing so with an alien would almost certainly lead to heartbreak if they didn't want to join Voyager on its travels.
- You Talk Too Much!: When the Doctor suggests an expanded role for his priest character, Tom suggests a monastery where he takes a permanent vow of silence. Janeway finds this Actually Pretty Funny, but Doc is not amused.
