When the episode Through the Looking Glass was slotted between Improbable Cause and The Die is Cast, the production team made sure it made sense when broadcast after the two-parter. It is worth comparing this to the way that Star Trek: Deep Space Nine approaches such challenges. The two episodes were simply swapped around in broadcast order, and the production team made no effort to ensure a sense of coherence upon broadcast. It seems fair to suggest that the events of Alter Ego take place before the events of Fair Trade. Although there is no stardate given for the events of Fair Trade, the opening log Alter Ego has a stardate that places it considerably before the events of Blood Fever. Alter Ego went into production before Fair Trade. Of course, there are practical reasons for this. Has Voyager already finished its trip through the Nekrit Expanse? Was the journey so uneventful that it came out the other side without anybody passing comment? Given all the fuss about the Nekrit Expanse in Fair Trade, this seems rather jarring. It is a very strange visual, given that the closing shot of Fair Trade found the ship flying into the wild purple yonder. Even in basic production terms, the episode features Voyager flying through an inversion nebula that it encounters in deep space. So there is something jarring about Alter Ego. Voyager was finally ready to put the Kazon and the Vidiians and the Ocampans and the Talaxians behind it, to move into uncharted territory as part of a new chapter of its journey. If Fair Trade were to be believed, the past two-and-a-half seasons were ultimately little more than an extended prologue for what was to come. As Voyager ventured into the Nekrit Expanse, audiences were primed to expect something new and unusual. Fair Trade teased viewers with the promise of something new and exciting.
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