The first episode of this series to revolve around the character of B'Elanna, it shows us the tensions arising among crew members as the members of both Starfleet and the Maquis struggle to get along. B'Elanna herself clearly knows her way around an engineering room, but is going to have to learn restraint, for as the episode opens, she's decked her superior officer, Joe Carey (Josh Clark). Chakotay is aware that she needs more discipline, but knows full well her abilities, and recommends a promotion for her.
But everybody's abilities are about to be tested when the Voyager tries to save a spacecraft caught inside a "singularity".
Sometimes the script does get bogged down in technical talk, which could potentially fly over the heads of some viewers, but the upshot of the scenario is very sound: these are level-headed characters who know they're facing a very serious situation, and are trying to think their way out of it. Commendably, we do have Neelix on hand to explain *some* things for the audience, such as what a singularity is in the first place (a star that's collapsed in on itself).
Roxann Dawson is excellent as she takes us through this tale and allows us to get to know her character better (which is one of Janeway's intentions). We find out that she'd attempted Starfleet training, but had given up early; only later does she learn, from Janeway, that more people were in her corner than she realized. She IS extremely knowledgeable; she just has to learn how to deal with people.
Not that it's *entirely* serious: there's some very funny comic bits of business as The Doctors' image control malfunctions, resulting in a priceless final shot.
Good entertainment.
Eight out of 10.