Macrocosm

This episode is so stupid, I love it. It's action trash, not much more, but when it comes to filler episodes I'll happily take that that over the random "funny" cringe with Neelix, or those Ferengi episodes I try to block from my memory of DS9 any day, ugh.

It comes across quite self-aware to me too, otherwise I can't imagine they would have been so blatant about styling Janeway as Ellen Ripley - a few reviews have commented on it - my guess is it was supposed to be a big shiny "we're not taking this seriously" but the point evidently got lost on some.

The CGI is so dated and janky it's just funny. The virus' stabby appendage and the crew flapping arms at nothing had me rolling.

As for why they take so many diversions, I assumed it was obvious? They need to make allies, diplomatic relations, trading partners etc to continue the mission. They don't have infinite resources on the ship, this was mentioned several times.