Fear wants to exist and needs one hostage to do so, but keeps killing them even after refusing to let all but one of them go. The hostages know that this isn't real and death is preferable to living in this cringy clown hell for eternity, yet are still scared when faced with the guillotine. In addition, I find it hard to believe that the doctor couldn't revive someone who has just died from a heart attack. Even when rising stress levels were detected, the hostages could have been injected with some kind of relaxant.
The choice of sending crew members into the machine is questionable enough given that they knew someone hooked up to the machine had been scared to death, but the decision about WHO to send was the worst. Why send their lead engineer who would be better placed outside actually physically altering the machine? When fear came up, why didn't they think to send in Tuvok?
In fact, the whole premise is questionable. On a planet with tens of thousands of people, they only put a handful in stasis chambers? They must be highly talented individuals if they expected that small number to completely rebuild their civilisation. Especially since only two survived. They were also a busy trading planet, yet in 19 years absolutely no one else investigated? No one was evacuated? No one happened to be away during the apocalypse who knew about the stasis chamber plan?
And finally, it's amazing that this alien race on the other side of the galaxy also thought up circus people, exactly the same as earthlings.
The choice of sending crew members into the machine is questionable enough given that they knew someone hooked up to the machine had been scared to death, but the decision about WHO to send was the worst. Why send their lead engineer who would be better placed outside actually physically altering the machine? When fear came up, why didn't they think to send in Tuvok?
In fact, the whole premise is questionable. On a planet with tens of thousands of people, they only put a handful in stasis chambers? They must be highly talented individuals if they expected that small number to completely rebuild their civilisation. Especially since only two survived. They were also a busy trading planet, yet in 19 years absolutely no one else investigated? No one was evacuated? No one happened to be away during the apocalypse who knew about the stasis chamber plan?
And finally, it's amazing that this alien race on the other side of the galaxy also thought up circus people, exactly the same as earthlings.