Star Trek: Voyager Season 5 Review

So with the departure of Jeri Taylor and the beginning of the reign of Brannon Braga as showrunner, I braced myself for the worst -- but found myself pleasantly surprised with three entertaining, unique, probing character dramas.

"Night"
Probably the best thing this episode does is the scene in Janeway's quarters between her and Chakotay, when she finally really looks back and assesses her command decisions. I like the Janeway who emerges from this episode, she feels like someone who's actually been through an ordeal and changed because of it. The whole first half of the episode really shines in its character examinations. Things get a bit more standard once the Malon show up and we get the whole "littering is bad" metaphor which reeks of the late 90s, but all in all this is a top-notch hour so far as VOYAGER episodes go.
# of Crew: 133 Total -- 117 Starfleet, 13 Maquis, 3 Civilians
# of Shuttles: 1
# of Warp Cores: 2
# of Photon Torpedoes: -7
# of Gel Packs: 30
Distance to Alpha Quadrant: 58,814.5 lightyears
Opportunities to Get Home Missed: 10
However! I must point out that we use 13 torpedoes in this episode alone, which not only uses up our complement, but sends us plumetting into the red. So far the show has actually been really careful and conserved those torpedoes for big threats, but here Janeway sends em flying like they were beans.

"Drone"
At first I thought this was going to be a rehash of "I, Borg", and in some ways it was, but for the most part this episode did some really unique things and ultimately served as a fine growing experience for Seven of Nine. The actor portraying One really did a fine job. Meanwhile, I'm going to take One's "enhancements" to Voyager's shields and weapons as the reason why the ship is able to stand up to dozens of Borg ships later in the series.
# of Crew: 133 Total -- 117 Starfleet, 13 Maquis, 3 Civilians
# of Shuttles: 1
# of Warp Cores: 2
# of Photon Torpedoes: -7
# of Gel Packs: 30
Distance to Alpha Quadrant: 58,708.1 lightyears
Opportunities to Get Home Missed: 10

"Extreme Risk"
A fantastic, if a bit delayed, follow-up to B'Elanna hearing of the massacre of the Maquis last season. It's also a very accurate portrayal of a person undergoing depression -- it's not really moping about and being angsty and sad, it's being devoid of feeling entirely. Also, the Delta Flyer pops up serving to both solve and confound Voyager's shuttle problem.
# of Crew: 133 Total -- 117 Starfleet, 13 Maquis, 3 Civilians
# of Shuttles: 1
# of Warp Cores: 2
# of Photon Torpedoes: -7
# of Gel Packs: 30
Distance to Alpha Quadrant: 58,586.5 lightyears
Opportunities to Get Home Missed: 10

I'm not sure if four seasons of watching VOYAGER has just lowered my expectations or something, but these three episodes were all very well done shows, examining character choices and consequences. Not DS9 level, maybe, but way above the average on VOY and even pretty darned good compared to TNG. 

 "In the Flesh"
This is an okay episode, certainly a good attempt by the VOY writers to hit classic Trek beats, but it had me wondering why do a Cold War allegory in 1998? Like man, this would've worked great on TOS, but it's kinda hollow here. Also, while the infiltration idea allows the show to do an 8472 episode without extensive (and expensive) effects, it turns the show into a feeling of "been there, done that" with DS9. Granted, the episode sometimes comes across as the VOY writers criticizing the DS9 ones: Both premises involve a shape-shifting alien threat, wishing to purge the galaxy of humans, infiltrating Starfleet with plans to invade. But the VOY episode sticks to Roddenberrian doctrine of finding a peaceful solution -- it feels like a subtle jab at the DS9 war arc, which was and still is unpopular with a certain segment of fans.
Anyways, an all right attempt by VOY to do TOS, although we lose 8472 as villains, they were never really that well developed or interesting anyway.
One thing that really bugs me though, is that its never answered how the hell 8472 got the information to recreate Starfleet Headquarters. The uniforms in their simulationa are four years out of date, suggesting they got the data from a scan of Voyager's computer. But 8472 is ignorant of the circumstances of Voyager's presence in the Delta Quadrant. But, if they got the data straight from the Federation, why isn't it more up to date? This question is completely ignored in the episode itself.
# of Crew: 133 Total -- 117 Starfleet, 13 Maquis, 3 Civilians
# of Shuttles: 1
# of Warp Cores: 2
# of Photon Torpedoes: -7
# of Gel Packs: 30
Distance to Alpha Quadrant: 58,586.3 lightyears
Opportunities to Get Home Missed: 10

"Once Upon a Time"
Oh wow, what the frak was this. I hate these "children" episodes that second generation Trek kept insisting on doing. At least the child actor for Naomi is actually tolerable. That being said, it just felt weak that an entire episode based around priming Naomi for the realization that her mother has died instead tries to have its cake and eat it too by having her survive. Granted, killing Samantha would've really pigeonholed Naomi as a character, but it would've been a much better ending to this episode (and the character neve even APPEARS again after this show). But yeah, all the children's holodeck fantasy stuff was a slog to sit through. It was like Dudley the Dragon had invaded my Star Trek. Who was this meant for?
# of Crew: 133 Total -- 117 Starfleet, 13 Maquis, 3 Civilians
# of Shuttles: 1
# of Warp Cores: 2
# of Photon Torpedoes: -7
# of Gel Packs: 30
Distance to Alpha Quadrant: 58,585.5 lightyears
Opportunities to Get Home Missed: 10

"Nothing Human"
If "In the Flesh" was VOY does TOS, this episode is VOY does DS9. A tale of Cardassian atrocities, ethical dilemmas, and shades of grey, it succeeds despite a few story issues (it would've been stronger if Torres actually HAD the disease that the Cardie doc had cured with his unethical experiments, instead she's got a facehugger and he's just helping the EMH). But all in all, this show succeeds in discussing its chosen moral issue: is it right to use research that was gotten through unethical means?
# of Crew: 133 Total -- 117 Starfleet, 13 Maquis, 3 Civilians
# of Shuttles: 1
# of Warp Cores: 2
# of Photon Torpedoes: -7
# of Gel Packs: 30
Distance to Alpha Quadrant: 58,585.3 lightyears
Opportunities to Get Home Missed: 10

"Timeless"
I think its a rule that any time Harry becomes a decent character, it has to be in an alternate timeline. Anyways, this is probably one of the better hours in the "it never actually happened" subgenre of VOY time paradox shows -- its exciting and dark and generally just a lot of fun. I also liked that the creation of the slipstream drive by the crew is done using components and technology found and used within the last several shows.
# of Crew: 133 Total -- 117 Starfleet, 13 Maquis, 3 Civilians
# of Shuttles: 1
# of Warp Cores: 2
# of Photon Torpedoes: -7
# of Gel Packs: 30
Distance to Alpha Quadrant: 48,342.5 lightyears
Opportunities to Get Home Missed: 11

Note: I've noticed that this season Janeway has been portrayed very stern and no-nonsense. Kind've bitchy. And that's great. For two reasons. One is that its been consistent all season. My biggest problem with Janeway was never her character, and mainly the fact that her character shifted dramatically episode to episode. The other reason is that this change in Janeway is motivated, based on the crisis she went through in the season opener, finally coming to terms with her culpability in Voyager's situation. Janeway feels like a desperate leader, a woman on a mission. Someone on the path to becoming the crazy Admiral in the series finale. This is good.

In fact, these first seven episodes of season five have all been quite good in some way or another. I was dreading heading into the B&B years, but so far we've hit the ground running and had a better stretch of opening shows than maybe any other season. I also feel a real consistency in the characters, I mean, none of them are being written amazingly, but at least its consistent. Maybe now that Piller and Taylor are off the show, we no longer have the tug-of-war over what the show should be. We just have Braga and his high concept time paradoxes.
We'll see how long this lasts, but right now I'm kinda enjoying VOY for the first time in a long time.

 
"Thirty Days"
Okay, so points for trying to be a good Tom Paris episode, but way too much stuff here rings false. For one thing, Tom suddenly saying his first love was always the sea and sailing and so on is bullshit. Nothing in his character ever suggests he was anything ever but a flyboy. Second, Janeway demoting Tom and throwing him in the brig for something like this is extreme for her -- characters have done more and gotten away with less on this show: Chakotay, Torres and Seven come to mind in particular. And third, the crux of this episode's moral dilemma tries to rest itself on a Prime Directive issue that doesn't make much sense. On the one hand, I totally agree with Janeway that it's none of Voyager's business what the aliens do with the info Voyager has given him, and it's not Starfleet's role to make huge social choices for a society -- that is, in effect, what the Prime Directive is all about. But Janeway's interpretation of the Prime Directive varies from episode to episode so wildly that it's hard for it to have much weight. Some days, following it is important, on others, who cares? Hell, in this very episode she gives the aliens free technology, when back in Season 2 it was imperative that we not give the starving Kazon so much as a replicator.
Anyways, good try, but it falls short.
# of Crew: 133 Total -- 117 Starfleet, 13 Maquis, 3 Civilians
# of Shuttles: 1
# of Warp Cores: 2
# of Photon Torpedoes: -8
# of Gel Packs: 30
Distance to Alpha Quadrant: 48,222 lightyears
Opportunities to Get Home Missed: 11

"11:59"
This episode has some interesting things to say about learning truths about family myths and about the way history can be distorted. It also has a pretty good dramatization of the old progress vs. tradition conflict and I'm really glad that it came down on the side of progress because for a while it seemed to be favouring tradition and that's not really an appropriate side for this franchise to take. But on the whole, I fucking hate episodes like "11:59", that aren't really about our characters and are just random bullshit filler. I mean, on VOY everything is random bullshit filler, but still -- I find it hard to get invested in flashbacks to different characters set almost four hundred years earlier. Yaaaaaawn.
# of Crew: 133 Total -- 117 Starfleet, 13 Maquis, 3 Civilians
# of Shuttles: 1
# of Warp Cores: 2
# of Photon Torpedoes: -8
# of Gel Packs: 30
Distance to Alpha Quadrant: 48,171.5 lightyears
Opportunities to Get Home Missed: 11

"Infinite Regress"
This is kind've a neat idea. Seven with mulitple personality disorder. And you can tell the camera crew had a lot of fun with all the funky effects. Also the aliens of the week are pretty cool -- badasses in Tron costumes who had the balls to go through with Picard's Borg genocide plan. That being said, this episode ends up feeling pretty weak simply because there are about a million ways of fixing Seven's problems that they never even attempt, Seven's problem has no real effect on her character, and we never learn more about Seven in the process. We don't really hear how it feels for Seven to have the voices of people she helped assimilate in her head. Does she feel guilt? How can she face that all the time? The episode is more interested in its high concept shenanigans than exploring this. It also felt cheap and unrealistic to me that most of Seven's personalities were from the Alpha Quadrant: Human, Klingon, Romulan, even Ferengi and it strikes me unlikely the Borg have encountered Ferengi. The majority should have been pre-established or bizarre Delta Quadrant races. Oh well. At least Jeri Ryan got to have some fun. It always surprises me each time I rediscover she's actually a pretty good actress.
# of Crew: 133 Total -- 117 Starfleet, 13 Maquis, 3 Civilians
# of Shuttles: 1
# of Warp Cores: 2
# of Photon Torpedoes: -8
# of Gel Packs: 30
Distance to Alpha Quadrant: 48,118.2 lightyears
Opportunities to Get Home Missed: 11

"Counterpoint"
THIS is Kate Mulgrew's favourite episode? Why?? Cause she got to kiss a dude once? Ugh. The main problem with this episode is that the guy cast as the Inspector is too convincing in his Evil Villain persona to be believable in act 2 when we're supposed to think he's on our side. He always comes off as an arrogant douche. Anyways, this one's pretty predictable through and through -- alien we shouldn't trust double crosses us, but we outthink him, we win, he loses, the end.
# of Crew: 133 Total -- 117 Starfleet, 13 Maquis, 3 Civilians
# of Shuttles: -1
# of Warp Cores: 2
# of Photon Torpedoes: -10
# of Gel Packs: 30
Distance to Alpha Quadrant: 48,049 lightyears
Opportunities to Get Home Missed: 11

"Gravity"
Shuttle Crashes. Inhospitable Planet. Subspace Anomaly. Asshole Aliens. Woman falls in love with Tuvok, to no avail. We have seen everything in this episode before. And it's not like any of it is done particularly better or more creatively here. It isn't done worse, mind you, but why do I still care?
# of Crew: 133 Total -- 117 Starfleet, 13 Maquis, 3 Civilians
# of Shuttles: -2
# of Warp Cores: 2
# of Photon Torpedoes: -10
# of Gel Packs: 30
Distance to Alpha Quadrant: 47,805.8 lightyears
Opportunities to Get Home Missed: 11

"Latent Image"
Now THIS, on the other hand, is good Star Trek. It's well acted, directed, lit, staged, scored, and written. A classic Trekkian tale of humanity, individuality, moral dilemmas, mystery, sci-fi, etc. It's a great Doc/Seven/Janeway episode. OH WAIT. EVERY EPISODE IS A DOC/SEVEN/JANEWAY EPISODE. Well, every GOOD one, anyway. Seriously, when was the last time Chakotay did... anything? Anyways, aside from that -- this is a good show, one that reminds me a little bit of "Paper Moon" (DS9) in that it features a character who has gone through a traumatic experience wrestling with the morality of that experience and having a breakdown because of it, working through that breakdown, but earning no easy answers, because there aren't any.
Bravo, Voyager.
# of Crew: 132 Total -- 116 Starfleet, 13 Maquis, 3 Civilians
# of Shuttles: -2
# of Warp Cores: 2
# of Photon Torpedoes: -10
# of Gel Packs: 30
Distance to Alpha Quadrant: 47,733.9 lightyears
Opportunities to Get Home Missed: 11

PS. Re: Janeway's attitude in this episode -- I feel like Season 5's Janeway has been far more consistant than any previous season. In Season 1, Janeway was like a compassionate, wide-eyed, open-minded explorer with a heart of gold. Seasons 2 through 4 she would shift between that attitude and a kind of pragmatic, take no prisoners, nigh-crazy cynicism, almost at random and at times within the same episode. It was very much like borderline personality disorder. In Season 5 she has become consistant again -- consistantly the psycho cynic but hey, at least it's consistant. As an armchair psychologist, it's almost as if her ordeal in the Delta Quadrant split her personality into warring sides, battling for three years before resolving itself, and the one that made the call to kill Tuvix is the one that won out.

"Bride of Chaotica!"
Now this is just some old-fashioned fun, and I appreciate all the jokes and sly winks at the camera, and I really had fun along with it. It's a good hour. But it's dampened a little by the fact that the Aliens of the Week are just an excuse for the fun. No one asks who they are, where they came from, why they look like guys in fedoras and suits. No one bats an eyelash at the fact that hundreds of them die in the course of the episode. No one even bats an eye at the concept of photonic life forms from subspace. I mean, I know they are just a plot device to get our characters into the Captain Proton program and up the stakes, but it brings down the fun when there are such serious consequences and it feels like it's against the principles of Trek that no one on Voyager really gives a frak about these life forms other than getting rid of them in order to solve their own problem. It's a small hole in an otherwise admirable episode.
# of Crew: 132 Total -- 116 Starfleet, 13 Maquis, 3 Civilians
# of Shuttles: -2
# of Warp Cores: 2
# of Photon Torpedoes: -10
# of Gel Packs: 30
Distance to Alpha Quadrant: 47,733.9 lightyears
Opportunities to Get Home Missed: 11

"The Fight"
K, what the frak was that? It was very cinematically well done, but the script is slipshod and all over the place and really, really, didn't need to have the flashback format to confuse things further. Dream sequences within a flashback should not cut back to present time. That's just confusing. Anyways, it was cool, but ultimately meaningless. So the aliens were just trying to help us out the whole time? That's just bizarre. A very "Joe Menosky" script, indeed. But hey! At least it was nice seeing Chakotay do something again. I think this is the most screentime he's gotten since like season 2?
# of Crew: 132 Total -- 116 Starfleet, 13 Maquis, 3 Civilians
# of Shuttles: -2
# of Warp Cores: 2
# of Photon Torpedoes: -10
# of Gel Packs: 30
Distance to Alpha Quadrant: 47,672.2 lightyears
Opportunities to Get Home Missed: 11

"Bliss"
This was a neat episode for subverting the tropes of the usual "will Voyager get home?" plot line. I thought the idea of a giant starship eating space being using telepathy to mask itself as a wormhole home was a really cool sci-fi comic book fun idea of a TOS-like nature that I really miss seeing on Berman-Trek -- there was always such a lack of a sense of "fun" in any of the sci-fi elements of TNG/VOY/ENT. So this was fun and cool. Also the Ahab-analogue alien they pick up who is trying to kill the creature was great. One of Trek's best alien guest stars IMO. Also, for once, this is an episode where having Seven, the Doc, and Naomi Wildman of all people in the starring roles made sense. So I liked this one.
# of Crew: 132 Total -- 116 Starfleet, 13 Maquis, 3 Civilians
# of Shuttles: -2
# of Warp Cores: 2
# of Photon Torpedoes: -10
# of Gel Packs: 30
Distance to Alpha Quadrant: 47,607.7 lightyears
Opportunities to Get Home Missed: 11 

"The Disease"
Fuck this episode. It's not just a predictable One Hour Trek Romance (I pretty much called every story beat before it happens) but it's CENTRAL PREMISE is based on an idea I can refute with pretty much EVERY OTHER EPISODE OF STAR TREK. Harry Kim isn't allowed to fuck an alien without written permission from his CO and CMO. While that kinda makes sense, it's a completely balderdash idea in the face of Trek history. Janeway was fucking an alien like four episodes ago! Ugh. Yeah, what a waste of time.
# of Crew: 132 Total -- 116 Starfleet, 13 Maquis, 3 Civilians
# of Shuttles: -2
# of Warp Cores: 2
# of Photon Torpedoes: -10
# of Gel Packs: 30
Distance to Alpha Quadrant: 47,540.4 lightyears
Opportunities to Get Home Missed: 11

"Course: Oblivion"
Ugh, speaking of wastes of time, here's another patented None of This Matters Voyager episode, this time starring the mimetic duplicates of the crew created in last season's abysmal "Demon". Basically it's an hour of the crew realizing they are all copies and slowly dying. The only redeeming feature of the hour is its absolutely nihilistic ending where the copies die and turn back into floating silver muck in space mere minutes before they could contact the real Voyager and get help -- and Voyager flies by and hardly even notices, having no clue the copies were even there. Ouch.

"Dark Frontier"
Okay, and at 110 episodes in I'm calling it. This special movie-length Borg episode is the point when the creators of Voyager Officially Stopped Caring. The dialogue is all rehashed action movie cliches. The plot is predictable to the point of parody. We violate basic continuity left, right and centre: the circumstances of the Hansens disappearance is altered -- implying that Starfleet knew about the Borg way before "Q Who?", the Borg Queen references only a single past attempt to assimilate Earth, the Borg Queen claims Seven is the first drone to leave the Collective -- not Locutus, Hugh, Lore's group, the Borg Co-Operative from VOY Season 3, etc etc -- also, wasn't the whole point of Kes' gift to throw us passed Borg space? Why are we running into them here? We start seeing Voyager blow up Borg ships with one torpedo, and the Delta Flyer take four hits from the Borg Queen's vessel without even losing shields. And then Chakotay utters those infamous words "Photon torpedoes, full spread", launching seven torpedoes (we had already run out ages ago) at the transwarp corridor. The entire plot makes no sense -- The Borg Queen wants Seven back because Seven has a unique experience of being an individual, despite every Borg assimilated having that experience. For some reason, Seven's unique experience among Voyager's crew will make her the ideal person to figure out how to assimilate humanity for the Borg. Despite the fact that the Borg Queen later explains that they already have a complex plan to do so that does not seem to require Seven's help. And for some reason Seven most rejoin the Collective willingly, as an individual, for any of this to matter -- even though it's not like the info they claim to want will vanish if they just up and re-assimilate her.
It's an episode that makes no sense and works on no level other than Big Dumb Action Episode with Splosions. And that's all that it is. And I'm calling it as a major turning point for the show into the realm of being just a Big Dumb Action Show.
Although at least we got 20,000 lightyears out of our stolen Borg transwarp coil before it gave out, instead of the writers just forgetting we had one.
# of Crew: 132 Total -- 116 Starfleet, 13 Maquis, 3 Civilians (a Borg scan claims 143)
# of Shuttles: -3
# of Warp Cores: 2
# of Photon Torpedoes: -18
# of Gel Packs: 30
Distance to Alpha Quadrant: 27,539.4 lightyears
Opportunities to Get Home Missed: 11
And now we're only 1,540.3ly from the Beta Quadrant! I wonder if we'll make it out of the Delta Quadrant before the show ends at this rate? Hell, I wonder if we'll pass Earth entirely!!

"Think Tank"
Aka the one with George Costanza. I kid, I kid. I actually really love this episode, if only because I love the Think Tank characters. I would actually much rather watch a show about them than the Voyager crew. I mean, a group of mega-intellects who go around solving the galaxy's impossible problems, but for the price of that culture's most unique item? What a great hook! And the characters -- a old-school robot who hates math and loves art, a jellyfish who's an expert on time travel and the only female member, an ancient whale like being who hates it when you bring up his name... and the two humanoids, one of whom is Jason Alexander! I think his post-Seinfeld career would've been healthier doing that show.
Anyways, the episode is okay, we do another full spread of torpedoes we don't have, and I'm off to write "Think Tank Adventures" fan fiction, lol!
# of Crew: 132 Total -- 116 Starfleet, 13 Maquis, 3 Civilians
# of Shuttles: -3
# of Warp Cores: 2
# of Photon Torpedoes: -25
# of Gel Packs: 30
Distance to Alpha Quadrant: 27,435.7 lightyears
Opportunities to Get Home Missed: 11
(Oh, and apparently a member of the Think Tank posed as a Malon -- except the Malon live like 30,000ly away, so how does that make sense?)

"Juggernaut"
There's some good stuff in this episode, and some retarded stuff. The good stuff? This is the best episode to feature the Malon, and there are some cool visuals on their craft. The bad stuff? One is that we were in Malon space THIRTY THOUSAND LIGHT YEARS AGO. It really undercuts the feeling of progress from episodes like "Dark Frontier" when you suddenly backtrack and are running into aliens from the start of the season.
Speaking of backtracking, the other stupid thing about this episode is the B'Elanna plot, which has her learning to deal with her temper, Tuvok warning Janeway she is too unpredictable to trust with a mission, but Janeway going ahead in order to show B'Elanna her trust. What is this, SEASON TWO?? What the fuck? Have the characters not developed over the last five years? I mean, I feel they have! This would be akin to Sisko/Kira still at each other's throats in a fifth season DS9 episode!! It just rings totally false.
# of Crew: 132 Total -- 116 Starfleet, 13 Maquis, 3 Civilians
# of Shuttles: -3
# of Warp Cores: 2
# of Photon Torpedoes: -25
# of Gel Packs: 30
Distance to Alpha Quadrant: 27,397.4 lightyears
Opportunities to Get Home Missed: 11

"Someone to Watch Over Me"
Light fluffy fun as the Doctor teaches Seven how to date, and ends up falling in love himself, but can't find the courage to tell her. It's a good character episode for both characters, and probably a very relatable episode to Trekkies from both ends -- Seven's social awkwardness, and the Doctor's position as "nice guy crushing on girl way out of his league".
# of Crew: 132 Total -- 116 Starfleet, 13 Maquis, 3 Civilians (Neelix claims there are 146, lololol)
# of Shuttles: -3
# of Warp Cores: 2
# of Photon Torpedoes: -25
# of Gel Packs: 30
Distance to Alpha Quadrant: 27,355.3 lightyears
Opportunities to Get Home Missed: 11

"Relativity"
This is a fun romp around time with Seven, Janeway and Braxton. It's a good time, but I have one caveat: If you're gonna do a time travel show, where you travel to other periods in the SHOW'S OWN HISTORY -- don't have THIS many continuity errors. It's really aggravating. It's not hard to just go back and watch "Caretaker". Or fuck, ask Mike Okuda over in the next office. But still, fun episode.
# of Crew: 132 Total -- 116 Starfleet, 13 Maquis, 3 Civilians
# of Shuttles: -3
# of Warp Cores: 2
# of Photon Torpedoes: -25
# of Gel Packs: 30
Distance to Alpha Quadrant: 27,167.5 lightyears
Opportunities to Get Home Missed: 11

 
"Warhead"
"Dreadnought" meets "The Changeling" meets "Let That Be Your Last Battlefield". Good, but nothing we haven't seen on Star Trek a million times before.
# of Crew: 132 Total -- 116 Starfleet, 13 Maquis, 3 Civilians
# of Shuttles: -3
# of Warp Cores: 2
# of Photon Torpedoes: -25
# of Gel Packs: 30
Distance to Alpha Quadrant: 27,147.5 lightyears
Opportunities to Get Home Missed: 11

"Equinox"
Voyager's "Pegasus". It's a great concept for an episode, except that the Equinox crew end up being a kind've over-the-top dastardly sort've evil rather than just morally repugnant, and there are times when the existence of the Equinox and the state it's in sort've puts a lie to the entire VOYAGER premise -- like the writers admitting that "yeah, Voyager would probably be a lot more like this if we were taking this seriously". It feels less like a desperate ship that took the moral high ground running into another desperate ship that didn't, and more like a normal ship running into a desperate ship, as if the Voyager was a rescue ship from the Alpha Quadrant.
But minor quibbles aside, still a pretty good episode, with a retarded cliffhanger (omg! will one of the CGI aliens KILL Janeway?? I doubt it).
# of Crew: 132 Total -- 116 Starfleet, 13 Maquis, 3 Civilians
# of Shuttles: -3
# of Warp Cores: 2
# of Photon Torpedoes: -25
# of Gel Packs: 30
Distance to Alpha Quadrant: 27,128.2 lightyears
Opportunities to Get Home Missed: 11
(Ransom claims they are 35,000ly from home)

Star Trek: Deep Space Nine Season 6 Review

Man, it would've been great if they had done an alternate title sequence for the six episode arc, with like Cardie and Jem'Hadar ships around DS9? Or Starfleet ships around Starbase 375? Anyways...

"A Time to Stand"
Absolutely amazing. The balls on this episode. Massive. Not only have three months passed, not only is the Federation losing, not only do we NOT get the station back in one episode, not only is the plot totally different, but when the episode ends and we're floating on a Jem'Hadar ship with no warp drive -- there's NO "to be continued..." screen. Massive. Balls.
You really feel that DS9 has reached full maturity. To use a common Trek phrase, it has evolved beyond its beginnings, it has surpassed the Star Trek formula and become something more. Each and every character, regular or not, gets a good moment, each scene is well written, everything that happens has proceeded naturally from what comes before. And it's all just a prelude to some of the greatest hours of television Trek ever produced.

"Rocks and Shoals"
This is a brilliant hour of television. It shows that DS9 could produce a serialized arc, keep it moving forward, but still tell effective one-hour stories within the arc. And the writing here couldn't be better. From the planetside plot with our crew and the Dominion, which is probably the greatest exploration of the Jem'Hadar yet (and a huge improvement on last year's "The Ship") to the absolutely gripping stationside storyline, where Kira realizes she has become a collaborator. The scene where the Vedek hangs herself is incredibly powerful to me. This episode also has great cinematic technique, above and beyond standard Trek episodes -- its use of slow motion is stunningly effective. Final shot of the show is fantastic.

"Sons and Daughters"
A quieter hour of the arc, it reintroduces Alexander and Ziyal into the mix. I'll comment on Ziyal first -- the way the writers use her to inject such tension and awkwardness into the Dukat/Kira relationship is like salt in the wound in a way. It's, for lack of a better word, brilliant. As for Alexander? This episode is to be highly, highly commended for its use of him. Alexander, on TNG, was a horribly annoying character and his arc on that show was botched to say the least. Worf was a terrible parent, and the whole single dad thing just did not work. Then he sent Alexander away to Earth and we were apparently supposed to think that was okay, and since then the whole franchise acted like it forgot he existed, except for an occasional mention, even as major events continued to happen to Worf and his family.
The best thing this episode does is acknowledge all of this, that Worf botched it with Alexander and was a terrible father, and have Alexander turn out as an angry, bitter teenager. It makes sense, it feels right. And then to work to improve his character like this show does? And by the end set him on the way to being a legitimate individual, a worthwhile character? Absolutely impressive. To do that kind of turnaround and have it all feel like it naturally flows from what came before? Amazing.

"Behind the Lines"
And what the writers do here? With Sisko? With Odo?
Before I talk about that, I want to mention that throughout the arc, two recurring characters who are fantastic. One is Weyoun. Weyoun 5 is an amazing character, fantastically well written and performed. The way he turns on a dime from eccentric to grovelling to threatening is just... bravo! The other is Damar, a guy who went from being a random Cardie on Dukat's ship into the multi-faceted guy we see here. And he's only gonna get better.
But, as for Sisko -- promoting him to a desk job was a great move, so that we could see the other side of war. See what it's like for the guys at the base who have to send men into battle and then sit through the hell of just WAITING. It's brilliant because too often in war movies and Trek in particular the guys with the desk jobs are demonized. Speaking of which, one person I haven't mentioned is the character of Admiral Ross -- aka Trek's first really legitimately great Admiral character; he just sells it all the way, he has all the qualities an Admiral should have and yet makes him likeable enough that you accept and LIKE him as Sisko's boss. The problem with Admirals like Necheyev before was they were such hard-asses that you didnt like them and didnt like the Captains taking orders from them. It wasn't good long term. Ross works long term. He's great.
What was I saying?
Ah yes, Odo. Pulled to the dark side in such an insidious, slippery way. And yet it works, perfectly, from everything we know and have seen about his character up to this point. It's totally believable where he ends up at the end of the hour -- not really caring that he's betrayed Kira and doomed Rom.

"Favor the Bold"
This is just an hour of brilliant build up, fantastic character touches, and pure adrenaline producing excitement. Too great!!

"Sacrifice of Angels"
This may just be the space battles talking, but this is possibly the greatest single episode of Star Trek produced up to this point. In fact, it probably is the space battles talking, because "Operation: Return" is the greatest on screen battle up to this point in Trek history, including the Battle of Sector 001 in FIRST CONTACT. Incredible effects work, exciting and dynamic and all around heart poundingly exciting! But what's truely fantastic about this episode is that its not all about the battle. It's balanced perfectly with the culmination of the character threads on the station, leading to Odo's minor redemption, Damar's murder of Ziyal, Dukat's insanity, etc etc.
And then -- the Prophets FINALLY enter the plot. After five years of build-up and some very interesting episodes about Sisko as the Emissary, the Prophets storyline finally coalesces with the "main" storyline. Some may call it a deus ex machina, and literally speaking it is, but it's so well done and well thought out and just plain about time and perfect and the foreshadowing of a penance on Sisko is a great harbinger that says "just because this arc is ending doesn't mean this show is!"
The Dominion retreats (I love Weyoun's line "Time to start packing!") -- we get the station back -- Dukat found, crazy, devastated, and gives Sisko his baseball back. The arc ends.
Wow. Just wow.

Six incredible hours of television. Pulse pounding. I dunno how people could've done it a week at a time. Every character, from Ben Sisko to Jake Sisko, gets something really great to do. In fact, as I recall, Jake never really gets anything else after this, except a very minor role in "It's Only a Paper Moon". Speaking of which, Nog gets a field promotion to Ensign, which again MAKES SENSE in this context. Everything that happens MAKES SENSE, nothing feels conjured. Garak? Looks awesome with that headset on btw. Those were great. And that last moment with him and Ziyal in the Infirmary, her already dead? Perfect.
Every damned scene is great.
Pitch perfect.
Ah! This is a fantastic show!

"You Are Cordially Invited"
I don't care if the plot is basically the same as all other TV wedding shows. This is still one of my favourite DS9 outings. I think it's because it gets the characters so right. It's just a fun, genuine, heartfelt hour. It reminds of the fact that of all the Trek crews, the DS9 bunch are the ones I'd most want to know socially, as friends. Also, while many feel the resolution between Odo and Kira is a cop-out, and in fact it is, I still like it. It's better than histrionics, and it's not all that unbelievable -- having spent many a party up all night talking in closets myself.

"Resurrection"
A decent, if predictable episode. It's undoing is mainly that, after all this time, I don't care about Bareil, mirror or otherwise. And I also don't really care about the mirror universe. "Shattered Mirror" sort've took it as far as it could go and now that DS9 has moved on to bigger and better (Dominion War) things, it just feels too unimportant and removed from the tapestry of the show. This entry and "Emperor's New Cloak" were just sort've unnessecary.

"Statistical Probabilities"
This episode, on the other hand, is great. From the subtle nods at the classic Foundation Trilogy, to really giving Bashir's genetic enhancements some depth, to the able juggling of a standalone plot that still advances the War storyline, it's just a fun, engrossing hour with some interesting characters. I really like it.

"The Magnificent Ferengi"
Gloriously hilarious -- almost everything works, with maybe my favourite gag being Quark and Rom accidentally ending up in Sisko's office. The only element that doesn't quite gel is it's never explained why the Dominion kidnapped Ishka in the first place. One could assume it's due to her connection to the Nagus, but why?

"Waltz"
A powerhouse of an episode, mostly devoted to the performances of Brooks and Alaimo. Probably the best Dukat episode, and maybe the high point of the character from a writing standpoint. While I love every minute of this episode I can see why the writers weren't sure what to do with the character now that he had been pushed, to use Simpsons terminology, from ordinary every day villainy to cartoonish supervillainy.

"Who Mourns for Morn?"
A delightfully clever hour. Both this and "Magnificent Ferengi" are among the good examples of how to do Quark comedy.

"Far Beyond the Stars"
I don't know if I have anything to say about this classic Star Trek episode that hasn't already been said. Anyone who says DS9 didn't understand the meaning of Trek and was inferior to VOY should shut up and watch this. Nothing VOY did ever got close to the power of this episode, or as close to the spirit of Trek as it does, for that matter. My only nit to pick would be that Brooks milks his final speech as Russell maybe a little too long.

"One Little Ship"
Absolutely ridiculous, and absolutely delightful. A very enjoyable episode, practically TOS-like, and even better than TAS' shrinking episode. In between all the shenanigans it even moves the war plot forward with the knowledge of the Dominion breeding Jem'Hadar in the Alpha Quadrant.

"Honor Among Thieves"
A brilliant O'Brien episode, that really plays to Meaney's strengths. It's funny because Meaney is basically playing the Billby character in LAYER CAKE. My only regret is that Ramos, the higher-up in the Syndicate that we meet, is some non-descript alien as opposed to actually being an Orion. It was a nice touch having the Vorta be the same in this episode as in the prior one though.

"Change of Heart"
Fantastic. Probably the best exploration of the Dax/Worf relationship, and a great change to standard Trek cliches that Worf sacrifices the mission for his wife, and is seriously reprimanded. It really shows the depth of his love for her. I found it touching, really.

"Wrongs Darker than Death or Night"
Revealing. It's a bizzarre, sick, nightmare scenario Kira finds herself in. It puts the relationship between her and Dukat in a whole new, insane, light. And I found it interesting that after six years it seemed almost as if Kira didn't really remember how hard things were during the Occupation, that she had gotten used to the luxury of always being able to make the right decision. Good show.

"Inquisition"
Ah, Section 31. There's a percentage of fans who hated the notion, and believed that it never should have been introduced. Not me -- Section 31, the premise, is great, this episode is great, Sloan is great, Bashir is great, DEEP SPACE NINE is great. Great episode.

"In the Pale Moonlight"
What can I say? Greatest episode of DEEP SPACE NINE by far, equalled maybe only by a couple of TNG episodes and a couple of TOS episodes. Glorious -- well played DS9 writing staff. Well played.
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Also, Sisko and Garak are the greatest ever.

"His Way"
I have never understood the apparent hatred an apparently large portion of the fanbase has against Vic Fontaine. I doubt I ever will. I have never seen it satisfactorily explained, people on the Internet just dislike him. The closest I ever heard to rational argument was that he took up too much screentime in such a late and crucial phase of the series and wasn't important enough to the main story for the time spent on him.
Frak that. Vic is a great character, for the primary reason that he is FUN. Which is part of the point of this episode. Sometimes I feel like Trek fans are a little too much like Odo in this installment, closed off and agitated, allergic to fun and emotion, unwilling to even try to talk to girls (ba-dum-ch!).
Anyways, this episode is fantastic and fun, and immensely satisfying after the four seasons of frustration between Odo and Kira. That scene on the Promenade leading up to the kiss is fantastic.
And the music! Man, what a time.

"The Reckoning"
This is a good episode that apparently a lot of people don't like. What they don't realize is that it's the necessary middle step between "Rapture" and basically the whole of Season 7. Which makes it good, but is also part of the problem. Because while Sisko's relationship with the Prophets had been developing gradually and well throughout the show, the Pagh-wraiths had gotten one Season 5 episode and 1 dialogue reference in Season 1. So we have this episode to bring us all back to speed and where we need to be, and while it's good and effective (especially the sfx work) and has some interesting stuff to say about faith, the parts on Sisko and Winn and the Prophets all feel like recap, the stuff about the Pagh-wraiths and the Reckoning feel underdeveloped, and you get a very major sense that this episode is MAINLY about setting things up and putting them off for later, basically serving as a reminder about all this shit.
That criticism aside, it IS a good episode, I just wish there had been a bit more to the final Ben/Jake Sisko scene in the Infirmary on the subject of Jake sabotaging Kosst Amojan's efforts from within to save his father, which is basically Jake finally accepting his father's place in the Bajoran mythos.

"Valiant"
Aka "Star Trek XI: The Episode". Seriously, this should be mandatory viewing for anyone who liked the new movie -- the new movie being the complete fantasy that this episode serves as a wake-up call to. You can't put a bunch of cadets in charge of an ultra-powerful new starship. Even if they mean well, even if they are heroes, even if they have all those good qualities, the fact that they literally have no clue what they are doing will get them killed. The actor playing Watters here even reminds me of Chris Pine's Kirk -- hell, he actually has more dimensions than Pine's Kirk. Anyways, I'm getting off track -- this is a great episode that really utilizes Nog and Jake and their differences very well and tells a really good War story as well. People frak up, people die.

"Profit and Lace"
180 into terrible. It's not aggressively bad -- I don't hate it like after watching like a Lars Von Trier film -- but it's also not so bad its fun. It's just bad. Fall on its face, makes you wonder what they were thinking, bad. Far worse than any other bad DS9 episode -- it's definitely I think the one DS9 episode most Niners would pay to forget. The whole thing really just crashes the instant they put Quark in drag. Man it's awful. Man.

"Time's Orphan"
This year's "Let's Torture O'Brien" and also the first straight-up sci-fi story that DS9 has done in a while. I don't have a lot of comments, other than that the ending is a little pat, but I agree that keeping Molly 18 would've been one more thread than the series needed going into the final season. The coolest thing is that I swear to Zod the time portal in this episode is the same tech as the Guardian from "City on the Edge".

"The Sound of Her Voice"
A quiet character piece before we rush headlong into the season finale. I honestly enjoyed the Quark/Odo/Jake B-plot more than the sci-fi A-plot, but it must be said that the best scene in the episode is the Irish Wake at the end. O'Brien's line about how someone in this circle of friends may be gone before we know it, well, it hits you hard when you know what's coming.

Both of these episodes feel like filler, but good filler.

"Tears of the Prophets"
I think this episode would have been better served with a 90-minute run-time like "Way of the Warrior". Way too much happens for any of the legitimate drama to ring true, or for the melodramatic epic tone they are wanting to shine through. It all comes across as mechanical and exposition heavy -- We invade Chin'toka, Dukat is possessed by a Pagh-wraith, Dukat kills Jadzia, the Orbs go dark and the wormhole closes, Sisko leaves for Earth -- all huge events, but none get the sturm and drang they deserve.
I'm still not sure exactly what happened with Dukat's plan -- I thought his plan was to use the Wraiths to kill the Prophets, thus ensuring the wormhole stays open, but instead what happens is the Wraith flies from him into the Orb, the Orbs go dark, and the wormhole closes. And I'm not really sure why.
I can't fault anything in this episode exactly, I just wish it could've been expanded a little more. It feels like the writers knew where all the pieces needed to be on the end of the board, but waited until the last 45 minutes of the season to get them there.