In the original series, Kirk and Company got stuck inside what seems to be a huge cell in space, and they blow the snot out of it before the Enterprise can be digested and the universe enveloped by whatever the thing could become. So here we have the Voyager encountering what at first glance seems to be a large cloud filled with the stuff that makes starships go and lets replicators replicate. The show begins with Janeway entering a Captain's Log, touring the ship, trying to exude authority and ingratiate herself with the crew at the same time, a delicate balance for anyone. Compelling points, both. Janeway looks for coffee, but finds none.
Coffee thus becomes the rallying cry for the remainder of the episode.
The cloud, and their rootings around within it, are secondary to the characters. Which in a way is a good thing, because the idea is pretty stupid. They fly into the cloud, encounter resistance, punch their way through to what seems to be the source of the energy they need, and find themselves under some sort of attack. There wasn't a lot of suspense or danger felt during this whole thing, I'm afraid. We subsequently learn that Torres, the half-Klingon chief of engineering, is the only person Chakotay has ever known who tried to kill her animal guide.