Star Trek: Voyager Season 6 Reviews

"Equinox, Part II"
Better overall than Part I, but still one of my favourite VOYAGER two-parters. You can really see shades of what will be "Pegasus" here too. I like the parallel structure of Captain Ransom regaining his humanity and being removed by his First Officer, while Janeway begins to become filled with rage and having to remove Chakotay from duty for questioning her. Overall the show works well, until the denouement, in which everything wraps up easier than it should. Janeway and Chakotay make up far too easy, for example, same with Seven and the Doc. Meanwhile, I think the Equinox crew get a good ending EXCEPT THEY NEVER SHOW UP AGAIN. It really bums me out because it seems like the only reason to integrate them would be to follow up on it. Ugh -- typical Voyager though, not living up to potential. At all.
# of Crew: 135 Total -- 119 Starfleet, 13 Maquis, 3 Civilians
# of Shuttles: -3
# of Warp Cores: 2
# of Photon Torpedoes: -33
# of Gel Packs: 30
Distance to Alpha Quadrant: 27,126.2 lightyears
Opportunities to Get Home Missed: 11

"Survival Instinct"
I really enjoyed this episode. For once, the Voyager crew act like people. There's a small scene between Janeway, Paris and Kim where she's berating them for getting to a bar brawl, and it's the first time those three have felt like they were having a real interaction in ages. And it has nothing to do with the main story! Or even a B story! It's just a fun little scene between these three. The main story is a Seven story, but even it feels more genuine than Seven has in a while. It's a good sci-fi story with some real meat to it. Probably the only bullshit part is the Bajoran Borg. She was in Starfleet and assimilated at Wolf 359? How the fuck did she get back to the Delta Quadrant then? She should be dead. And then you're telling me that when they come aboard NO ONE freaks out that there's a Bajoran on the ship?? And she doesn't freak out that there's a Starfleet vessel in the DQ?
And then, at the end of the episode, she decides to stay aboard. She only has a month to live, but we still never see or hear of her again. Just like the Equinox crew. But aside from this one complaint, a good hour.
# of Crew: 136 Total -- 119 Starfleet, 13 Maquis, 4 Civilians
# of Shuttles: -3
# of Warp Cores: 2
# of Photon Torpedoes: -33
# of Gel Packs: 30
Distance to Alpha Quadrant: 27,104.6 lightyears
Opportunities to Get Home Missed: 11

"Barge of the Dead"
There's some good stuff here. The final sequence, with B'Elanna swinging the bat'leth at the cast members, demanding they tell her who she should be for them. It was a powerful scene that really brought to fore B'Elanna's issues of identity. There are other strong moments, like B'Elanna embracing Janeway when she awakes. But unfortunately this episode has its share of problems as well. Probably its biggest problem is that it won't fully commit to any of its ideas. It wants to have its cake and eat it too. B'Elanna dies and goes to Gre'thor. Except she's not really dead! And maybe it wasn't really Gre'thor, maybe it was all in her head! She sees her mom there, and embarks on this quest to get her mom out of Gre'thor and into Sto-vo-kor. And she succeeds, but maybe her mom isn't dead either! Maybe she's waiting for her in the Alpha Quadrant! Okay, but if so then none of what we've seen, a good character study or not, matters. It's such a cop-out. And of course it ends up being a door kept open for no reason, because we never see B'Elanna's mom again, since when they get back home we cut to credits immediately.
# of Crew: 136 Total -- 119 Starfleet, 13 Maquis, 4 Civilians
# of Shuttles: -3
# of Warp Cores: 2
# of Photon Torpedoes: -33
# of Gel Packs: 30
Distance to Alpha Quadrant: 27,065.4 lightyears
Opportunities to Get Home Missed: 11

And with that, Ronald D. Moore left the Star Trek franchise. http://lcarscom.net/rdm1000118.htm

"Tinker Tenor Doctor Spy"
Man, I have such fond memories of this episode. I remembering seeing it way back when and thinking it was hilarious and fun. A memorable episode. But I was like, 10, when this episode first aired. So, I guess that says something. This episode is really goofy. And it's all at the expense of the characters rather than with them. The Doc has all these overly egotistical daydreams that get out of control and then they have to act them out for real for these aliens because they've been spying on Voyager and accidentally getting the Doc's dreams. The whole thing feels very... sitcom. It's silly. It also introduces these interesting spy/pirate aliens and gives them no motivation, which is fast becoming a huge pet peeve of mine: villains who are villainous because the script says so, instead of any valid motivation. All they needed was one line like "Oh, our planet was decimated because of blah blah, now we are forced to steal from passing ships", but no, they're just the bad guys because they aren't Voyager. Even the ECH sequences I remember from my youth were just over-the-top and corny. And not in a good way.
# of Crew: 135 Total -- 119 Starfleet, 13 Maquis, 3 Civilians
# of Shuttles: -3
# of Warp Cores: 2
# of Photon Torpedoes: -33
# of Gel Packs: 30
Distance to Alpha Quadrant: 27,026.2 lightyears
Opportunities to Get Home Missed: 11

"Dragon's Teeth"
A pretty decent episode, although I had the entire thing figured out in the first five minutes. Janeway brings back a frozen battalion of a destroyed civilization and they want help rebuilding their society and in exchange they will give us some bullshit that'll take years off our trip. But of course by "rebuild their society" they mean "retake their empire" cuz turns out they're evil. Episode ends with us warping away having let the cat out of the bag, so to speak, with these guys resuming the war against the rebels who overthrew and destroyed them in the first place. Janeway says "I doubt we've seen the last of them."
In typical VOY fashion, we never see them again.
# of Crew: 135 Total -- 119 Starfleet, 13 Maquis, 3 Civilians
# of Shuttles: -3
# of Warp Cores: 2
# of Photon Torpedoes: -34
# of Gel Packs: 30
Distance to Alpha Quadrant: 26,811.2 lightyears
Opportunities to Get Home Missed: 11

"Alice"
This was so frustrating to sit through. Every step of the way it was equally predictable and nonsensical. Paris buys a new ship, a one man vessel, from a scrap heap because he falls in love with it at first sight and wants to destroy it. The crew lets him do this even though we already have the Delta Flyer (Chakotay also claims they have a "full complement of shuttles", which almost made me turn the TV off and quit watching the show altogether). Because we already have the Flyer and aren't going to keep this ship, I immediately know there is something wrong with it. I predicted it would have an evil AI that would go crazy and try to take over Tom. Bingo! You know you've seen too much Star Trek when... Tom begins working on the ship obbsessively, and predictably, it wrecks his relationship with B'Elanna. Tom goes crazy, starts seeing the ship in his mind as a hot chick named Alice. She convinces him to leave Voyager with the ship. Janeway pursues, the ship taking Tom to a "particle fountain" (a made-up, nonsensical space anomaly basically like a white hole or a star) and says this is "Home". Okaaaay. Then they fly into it and Voyager essentially beams Tom out before the ship is destroyed.
So... wait.... the ship... is.... from... a particle fountain? And returning there... destroyed it? Why, how? They never really explain what's going on with the ship, it's just a Maguffin for the rest of the plot. Again, a villain who is villainous because the script says so. There's no explanation, no backstory no nothing. All it would take is a line like "this pilot once really loved me, but he left me in that junkheap alone, and now I need a pilot to love me again, but my lonliness has made me crazy and suicidal, so I'm going to drive us into a star to kill us both so we'll be together forever!" See how easy that was? And that fits the themes of devotion and obsession that the episode was using with Tom. But instead we get nonsensical formulaic crap.
And why? Because no one cares. Because I bet if on that set someone brought that up and asked the writer to do a rewrite, the writer wouldn't bother. They get the same salary whether they do the rewrite or not. The episode is made and aired whether they do it or not. VOY will get renewed and get money whether they do it or not. So why do it? Unless they really cared, really loved their work, like the DS9 guys. But they don't, so no one bothers.
There's a scene in the episode, where Seven walks in demanding a refund from Neelix for one of the items from the scrap heap (despite the trader in charge telling Neelix "all trades are final"). They have a brief conversation where it turns out Neelix is also unsatisfied with an item. At the end of the conversation Seven admonishes him, smiling and saying "all trades are final". WHAT? Then why did this conversation start if she already knew that?
FUCK.
# of Crew: 135 Total -- 119 Starfleet, 13 Maquis, 3 Civilians
# of Shuttles: -3 (Chakotay claims they have a "full complement")
# of Warp Cores: 2
# of Photon Torpedoes: -34
# of Gel Packs: 30
Distance to Alpha Quadrant: 26,757.9 lightyears
Opportunities to Get Home Missed: 11

Oh, and in addition to the full complement of shuttles, the episode begins with Kim and Paris trying to guess Tuvok's age, and coming up with different numbers based on different statements he's said in the past. So references to both of Voyager's irritating inconsistencies in dialogue!

 
"Riddles
Anyone else think there must've been a clause in Tim Russ's contract that he get one episode with emotions per year? Well, here's this year's version, a pretty good episode in which Tuvo gets brain damage and becomes a better (if more retarded) person for it and makes friends with Neelix, but then goes back to normal at the end (of course) because the "ship needs its tactical officer". It's a good episode, with some fine acting from Russ, even if the message is a little wonky -- but the worst part about it is probably that it's utterly predictable. I don't care about Tuvok's new personality because I know he'll be back to normal at the end. I don't even care that the episode hints that Tuvok remembers his time being friends with Neelix and will treat him better in the future because I know the writers won't remember and take us right back to square one.
The other stupid thing is that nothing really happens in the A-plot. There are some mysterious aliens who cause the thing with Tuvok to happen. We go after them. We find out... that they are mysterious aliens (we never even see them) and convince them to give us the info needed to fix Tuvok. The end. Who are they? Why are they doing what they're doing? The episode doesn't really care.
# of Crew: 135 Total -- 119 Starfleet, 13 Maquis, 3 Civilians
# of Shuttles: -3
# of Warp Cores: 2
# of Photon Torpedoes: -34
# of Gel Packs: 30
Distance to Alpha Quadrant: 26,713 lightyears
Opportunities to Get Home Missed: 11

"One Small Step"
I, I can see what this episode was going for. It has some good intentions. Celebrating the exploratory spirit and all. But, it's so... stupid and so hollow and rings so false that I just can't deal with it. First up, we have this Mars mission, that of course is propelled by some random spatial anomaly to the Delta Quadrant. Chakotay is suddenly a passionate historian for early Earth space exploration and wants to investigate, Seven doesn't because she sees it as a waste of resources. Over the coruse of the hour she learns the value of history, etc. A large portion of the episode is taken up by log entry flashbacks to this dude on this Mars mission that was accidentally propelled to the DQ by the anomaly, and how he died alone out in the middle of nowhere but it was all worth it because he explored places no one had ever been. It's a nice sentiment. But the overall story is so dumb. It's predicated on the audience believing that Chakotay has interests we've never seen him have (at one point he says a love of paleontology inspired him to go into Starfleet? What?) and that Seven has this huge problem with the concept of exploration for exploration's sake, which is so central to Starfleet's whole deal that you'd think she would have had this crisis of character a little sooner than two years into her time on the ship. Say what you will about the TNG characters, but at least their one-note hobbies, interests and developments were consistant.
Finally, I just about flipped out when it came to some of the technobabble. The anomaly is a gravity ellipse (whatever that means), that is attracted by EM radiation, which is why it's following Voyager around. The crew discovers that something else is attracting the anomaly, tearing it away and causing it to be unstable, but the crew can't find anything on sensors. B'Elanna supposes it might be a dark matter asteroid, it turns out it is, and they blow it up and this solves the problem.
Okay -- so this is the dumbest thing I've ever heard. First up, they're in interstellar space -- you can't have asteroids in interstellar space. Secondly, you can't have a dark matter asteroid, that's not what dark matter is.
And most importantly, this anomaly is attracted to EM radiation, and your theory is it's being attracted to a dark matter object? THE VERY DEFINITION OF DARK MATTER, WHAT MAKES IT DARK, IS THAT IT DOES NOT GIVE OFF, ABSORB, OR EMIT ANY ELECTROMAGNETIC RADIATION OF ANY KIND.
Who the fuck is writing this show??
Apparently this is the episode Robert Beltran checked out on, as he was pissed off that what seemed like it was going to be a big Chakotay episode turned into yet another Seven of Nine episode.
# of Crew: 135 Total -- 119 Starfleet, 13 Maquis, 3 Civilians
# of Shuttles: -3
# of Warp Cores: 2
# of Photon Torpedoes: -34
# of Gel Packs: 30
Distance to Alpha Quadrant: 26,682.2 lightyears
Opportunities to Get Home Missed: 11

"The Voyager Conspiracy"
Oh, HEY, ANOTHER Seven episode. Whaddya know? But seriously, this is a pretty fun, almost clever episode about Seven developing paranoia and making up insane conspiracy theories about why Voyager is in the DQ. First it's a Federation/Cardassian plot to establish a military presence in the DQ (an outlandish theory full of holes that makes no sense even when she explains it). Then it's a Maquis plot to launch surprise strikes against Federation and Cardassian worlds (a little more plausible, but still outlandish). Finally her theory is that the whole series has been a plot to deliver Annika Hansen to the Borg and then retrieve her and gain tactical data (the most plausible of the three, but still pretty darn silly). Eventually Janeway talks her down, and in the B-plot we find a graviton catapult that shoots us 30 sectors closer to home. (Which is only 600ly, which is a little weak given that we're told the catapult can shoot a ship about 5000ly and it simply ends up a little worse for wear).
My only problem? Seven's paranoia is set off by discovering that the catapult is powered by the same kind of reactor as the Caretaker Array, and her investigations show that some kind of cloaked vessel tractored the reactor off of the Array as it exploded for unknown reasons. While she works this into her first two theories, once it's found out that Seven has been malfunctioning and is talked down, this detail is completely forgotten about and never explained. Who tractored the Array reactor and why? Was it the same one as in the catapult? The episode doesn't care.
# of Crew: 135 Total -- 119 Starfleet, 13 Maquis, 3 Civilians
# of Shuttles: -3
# of Warp Cores: 2
# of Photon Torpedoes: -34
# of Gel Packs: 30
Distance to Alpha Quadrant: 26,043 lightyears
Opportunities to Get Home Missed: 11

"Pathfinder"
This is an... okay episode. I have mixed feelings. On the one hand, it's a big, real, monumental event of progress in the series, establishing contact with Earth, and I'd say that mid-season six is a good place to put it. Putting Barclay on the team on Earth is a good call, and setting the episode from his perspective makes for a neat change. I can't even really argue Troi's presence (ratings grab though it may be), because Barclay has a history of these kinds of problems. All in all it's a good episode, well told. But the issues it does have bug me to the point where I have a hard time overlooking them.
For one, while Barclay's crazy plan does in fact work, no one addresses the fact that none of Barclay's crippling emotional problems have been fixed. He's suffered a serious relapse of holoaddiction, he's paranoid and anxious, and he violates orders, resists arrest and steals government property to enact his crazy scheme -- which we find out after he's already done it that Admiral Paris was going to approve anyway. But all is forgiven simply because it works -- which is really BS from a mental health standpoint.
Another major issue that I have is that the writers basically paint themselves into a giant plot hole for no reason. At one point the Commander in charge of the Pathfinder Project points out that they've estimated Voyager's position based on what the Doc reported as their position back in "Message in a Bottle", and assumed a trajectory toward Earth at Warp 6.2, which would but them 61,673.9 lightyears away. There's a little graphic that shows them having moved maybe 800ly or so, and Barclay says in dialogue that they're 60,000ly away. But that's over 30,000ly off. Voyager is way closer than that. I mean, in the PREVIOUS EPISODE TO THIS they jump 3 sectors using a graviton catapult. So no matter what Starfleet's guess is way off. Anyone who's watched any episode of the show before this one knows that. But fuck those people right? Because Barclay manages to make contact with Voyager anyways based on that projection. Seriously, that's exactly how the scene plays out. Now, once contact is established Janeway sends them their updated navigational data, but there's no way they could've made contact in the first place given how off Starfleet's estimate of their position was.
Now, the writers could've come up with some last-minute technospeak to explain how Barclay is able to get in touch with Voyager anyway, some explanation -- OR they could've just NOT included the dialogue explaining how, why and where Starfleet thinks Voyager is. I mean, less work would've yielded better results on the writer's part here.
But oh well, for the most part this is a pretty good ep I suppose.
# of Crew: 135 Total -- 119 Starfleet, 13 Maquis, 3 Civilians
# of Shuttles: -3
# of Warp Cores: 2
# of Photon Torpedoes: -34
# of Gel Packs: 30
Distance to Alpha Quadrant: 25,981.3 lightyears
Opportunities to Get Home Missed: 11

"Fair Haven"
I have no idea what the point of this episode was supposed to be. Tom invents an Irish town on the holodeck, with an "open door policy" so the program runs 24 hours a day and the crew can just drop by any time. Janeway falls in love with the bartender of the pub, and ends up making modifications to his program to make him the perfect man. She realises that the relationship doesn't mean anything if she can just make alterations (also he's a hologram) and stops pursuing it. But eventually she realises that she doesn't really have a lot of options and might as well take what she can get, and instead continues the relationship but makes it impossible for her to make any more changes to him.
WHAT? So in the PREVIOUS episode we remind the audience that holoaddiction is a serious problem and a social disorder that's quite looked down upon, and then we have the Captain decide to pursue a relationship with a hologram as if he was real? As if it could be satisfying and rich like one with a true person? The entire crew of Voyager takes the Fair Haven program and characters as if they were far more than just a computer simulation. It's downright nutty. I mean, explained in analogous terms, here's what this episode is saying:
"Spending all your time masturbating to pornography isn't good for you because it will give you unrealistic expectations of real world relationships -- BUT if you're on a long sea voyage and there's nothing else to do you might as well masturbate to pornography".
# of Crew: 135 Total -- 119 Starfleet, 13 Maquis, 3 Civilians
# of Shuttles: -3
# of Warp Cores: 2
# of Photon Torpedoes: -34
# of Gel Packs: 30
Distance to Alpha Quadrant: 25,975.9 lightyears
Opportunities to Get Home Missed: 11

"Tsunkatse"
An old stand-by pulp sci-fi plot (hero forced into alien gladitorial arena), mixed with UPN marketing shenanigans (a cross-over with WWF Raw featuring The Rock!), but somehow it manages to turn out all right. Predictable at every turn (including it's use of the Borg Babe as the lead character) but still entertaining and well done. Having Jeffrey Combs and JG Hertzler guest starring doesn't hurt.
# of Crew: 135 Total -- 119 Starfleet, 13 Maquis, 3 Civilians
# of Shuttles: -4
# of Warp Cores: 2
# of Photon Torpedoes: -34
# of Gel Packs: 30
Distance to Alpha Quadrant: 25,950.8 lightyears
Opportunities to Get Home Missed: 11

"Blink of an Eye"
Probably one of the all-time best VOYAGER episodes ever done, a truly worthy addition to Star Trek, in my opinion. Voyager ends up stuck in orbit around a world where time passes incredibly fast. A second on the ship is a day on the planet. An entire civilization rises up on the world below in which Voyager is the primary cultural element. Worshippped as a god, studied as a phenomenon, sung to, marketed, investigated, attacked, probed, inspiring invention and aspiration. Eventually Voyager makes contact with one of the aliens, and returns him to his world, which eventually develops technology to help Voyager leave. It's a rare case where deus ex machina totally works, and all the emotions ring true. It's classic science fiction. The only thing would be to ignore the implication that a civilization that is advancing this quickly, if it didn't destroy itself, would soon become almost Q-like before too long!
# of Crew: 135 Total -- 119 Starfleet, 13 Maquis, 3 Civilians
# of Shuttles: -4
# of Warp Cores: 2
# of Photon Torpedoes: -34
# of Gel Packs: 30
Distance to Alpha Quadrant: 25,902.3 lightyears
Opportunities to Get Home Missed: 11

"Virtuoso"
The Doctor introduces music to an alien culture that has never known it, and he becomes a celebrity on their world. He is invited to stay there and leave Voyager, hems and haws about doing so, but doesn't of course. The End. There are some decent moments, but mainly its a showcase for Picardo, feeling like a contractually obligated episode focussing on him. What's the point of all this? What is an audience supposed to get out of this? Are we supposed to genuinely think The Doctor might leave the show? I doubt it. Most of the issues of "is the Doctor human/have rights?" have been done to death both here and on DS9, and the jokes about the Doc's arrogance are old hat by now as well. It's not like Picardo's singing is particularly entrancing -- it's shot rather boringly, and most of it is dubbed -- all of it is old (and free) public domain stuff. This shit seems like it was all written and produced on autopilot, to fill a spot in the season order. I mean, what the fuck is the point of doing the show if all you're doing is filling time? I suppose the money, but doesn't that get frustrating, as a creative individual, after a time?
# of Crew: 135 Total -- 119 Starfleet, 13 Maquis, 3 Civilians
# of Shuttles: -4
# of Warp Cores: 2
# of Photon Torpedoes: -34
# of Gel Packs: 30
Distance to Alpha Quadrant: 25,878.9 lightyears
Opportunities to Get Home Missed: 11

"Collective"
Aka the one where they pick up the Borg kids. Uuuugh. So first up, MP's reviews reminded me that Chakotay once threw Paris in the brig for running a pool gambling ring based on work duties. In the teaser of this episode, Chakotay agrees to a poker game with Paris and some others betting on work duties. Ugh. Also, Harry Kim, while wandering through a cube says it evokes bad memories, which made me think of him nearly dying on one in "Scorpion", but no, he's referring to a haunted house he was in as a kid. Because the audience is stupid. Because if we ever admitted there was more than one episode in this television SERIES the viewers heads may explode! Because, OMG, that means that I was watching Voyager yesterday at this time as well -- after I got off WORK! The same time as I did TODAY! In an unbroken ROUTINE! OH MY GOD my life is an unending CYCLE of MEANINGLESS ACTIONS! MID-LIFE CRISIS! AAARRRRGGH!!
See what you've done trying to invoke continuity, writers??
Anyways, "Collective". An episode that does nothing but rehash old Trek plots but not as well. My god, it's a dangerous Borg cube, but oh wait, it's damaged! Just like in "Unity". Then we find a bunch of damaged Borg who we want to bring back to Voyager and turn into individuals, just like in "I, Borg" [TNG]. Then we discover we could use a pathogen to destroy all the Borg, but decide not to use it, just like in "I, Borg", again. Then we take the Borg onto our ship and make them members of the crew, just like in "The Gift". And they're all annoying kids, like Wesley and Alexander.
Also we forget about that pathogen and it never comes up again when we next fight the Borg even though the Doc is a computer program and would perfectly remember how to synthesize it again.
FUUUUUUUUUUUCK this show.
# of Crew: 139 Total -- 119 Starfleet, 13 Maquis, 7 Civilians
# of Shuttles: -4
# of Warp Cores: 2
# of Photon Torpedoes: -37
# of Gel Packs: 30
Distance to Alpha Quadrant: 25,835.8 lightyears

"Memorial"
This episode has some good ideas, namely about preserving the past and honouring the dead and their sacrifices and telling the truth about history. The problem is that most of the plot elements are cribbed from earlier, better, Treks. Once it was established that the story wasn't a rip-off of "Nemesis", then it became an obvious crib of "Remember" and "Inner Light" and a few others. Don't get me wrong, "Memorial" isn't really bad, per se, it's just very predictable when you've already watched every other Trek episode up to this point. The themes and plot twists are identifiable about five minutes in.
# of Crew: 139 Total -- 119 Starfleet, 13 Maquis, 7 Civilians
# of Shuttles: -4
# of Warp Cores: 2
# of Photon Torpedoes: -37
# of Gel Packs: 30
Distance to Alpha Quadrant: 25,805 lightyears
Opportunities to Get Home Missed: 11

"Spirit Folk"
I liked this episode better when it was called "Ship in a Bottle" (TNG), the characters weren't idiots, and the plot made sense. Damn this thing is dumb -- every step of the way. With the safeties ON, a holographic character shoots a 24th century computer panel with his 19th century shotgun and it blows the panel and THAT turns the safeties OFF. Janeway claims a holodeck character takes up 300 deciwatts, which is half a light bulb's worth of power. Tom and Harry are in danger but Janeway doesn't want to shut the power off because then all the Fair Haven characters will be deleted and she'll lose her masturbatory aid, whom she openly refers to as her "boyfriend" on the bridge to Chakotay. On and on.
# of Crew: 139 Total -- 119 Starfleet, 13 Maquis, 7 Civilians
# of Shuttles: -4
# of Warp Cores: 2
# of Photon Torpedoes: -37
# of Gel Packs: 30
Distance to Alpha Quadrant: 25,774.2 lightyears
Opportunities to Get Home Missed: 11

"Ashes to Ashes"
A rehash of various previous Treks such as "Latent Image", "Favorite Son" and "Suddenly Human" [TNG]. This episode's biggest problem is to ask us to care about the return of a long-dead crewman WHO WE HAVE NEVER SEEN BEFORE AND NEVER KNEW WHEN SHE WAS ALIVE. "Latent Image" played the same trick, but it worked because our POV was the Doc's POV and his memory of the crewman had been wiped. But here we have an extrovert Starfleet officer who apparently has been Harry Kim's big crush since his academy days. WHAT? Apparently the show's forgotten that Kim was ENGAGED TO BE MARRIED when he signed up to the Voyager, and spent the first two seasons pining over Libby.
Of course the crewman eventually chooses to leave Voyager, but even that wrap-up is ridiculously trite and pointless. Basically this character spends six months struggling and fighting to get back to Voyager and after two days goes "actually, nevermind I don't belong here" and leaves. Just like that.
Oh and there's a subplot about the Borg kids that's awful and boring.
God damn this show.
# of Crew: 138 Total -- 118 Starfleet, 13 Maquis, 7 Civilians
# of Shuttles: -4
# of Warp Cores: 2
# of Photon Torpedoes: -37
# of Gel Packs: 30
Distance to Alpha Quadrant: 25,746.2 lightyears
Opportunities to Get Home Missed: 11

"Child's Play"
This is actually a pretty good episode about Icheb, his parents, and where he came from that ties well into continuity from "Collective" -- turns out Icheb was designed as a biological weapon to infect and destroy the Borg. It's a well written episode that explores its ideas fairly, the only thing that's a little forced is how attached Seven is to Icheb when he's only been on the ship for four episodes and they've shared maybe two scenes together before this. Ah well, I'll take what minimal quality I can get on this show.
# of Crew: 138 Total -- 118 Starfleet, 13 Maquis, 7 Civilians
# of Shuttles: -4
# of Warp Cores: 2
# of Photon Torpedoes: -36
# of Gel Packs: 30
Distance to Alpha Quadrant: 25,704.2 lightyears
Opportunities to Get Home Missed: 11

"Good Shepherd"
This is an episode that should've been done in season three or something, but I guess it takes this long for the writers to realize there are other people on the ship than the main cast. After all, "Lower Decks" (TNG) was in seventh season and that's basically what this episode is ripping off. I do like the notion that there are people on Voyager who thought they'd be onboard for a year and were never suited to the idea of a long trip and were now falling through the cracks. I also like the implication that part of the problem is there's no room to grow, personally. No one's getting transferred or promoted so the same seven people go on all the away missions and if you were a third grade sensor analyst six years ago, you're still one now. But I find it infinitely frustrating that the contrivance that makes the mission go awry, that seems to chase and wreck the Delta Flyer, that the characters debate the nature of and that the episode provides interesting clues about, is NEVER EXPLAINED AT ALL. The crew is rescued and THAT'S IT. Fuck this show.
And I liked this more when it was called "Lower Decks".
# of Crew: 138 Total -- 118 Starfleet, 13 Maquis, 7 Civilians
# of Shuttles: -4
# of Warp Cores: 2
# of Photon Torpedoes: -36
# of Gel Packs: 30
Distance to Alpha Quadrant: 25,521.8 lightyears
Opportunities to Get Home Missed: 11

"Fury"
This is, without a doubt, the worst episode of Star Trek: Voyager I've ever seen. Worse than "Threshold". There's actually a dumb fun to watching "Threshold" and laughing at it's ridiculous stupidity. This episode is just stupid on all levels and makes so little sense I got a headache. I mean, let's break this down. Kes was a revolutionary in Ocampan society who wanted to leave the Caretaker's influence and explore outside. She gets that opportunity when Voyager rescues her from the Kazon. She journeys wth them for three years, expanding her fledgeling telepathic powers, until she becomes an omnipotent being of light, leaves the ship happily so she doesn't endanger her friends, and sends Voyager 10,000ly as a gift. She then comes back three years later, pissed off, because her new powers "scared her" and she "felt alone" and had nowhere to go because Voyager "abandoned her", and she couldn't go back to Ocampa because she's now an omnipotent superbeing and too far beyond them. She then returns to Voyager in a shuttle (a distance of like 40,000ly) despite having the ability to transport herself without it, clearly. She blows a lot of shit up, kills three peole indiscriminately, and goes back in time 6 years to right after Voyager met the Vidiians. She wants to get her younger self back to Ocampa so she's never "abandoned" by Voyager and plans on stealing a shuttle to do so (despite the fact that Past Kes hated Ocampan society and that her powers will develop there anyway probably). Oh, and while it's completely unnecessary, she also sells out Voyager's crew to be killed and harvested by the Vidiians because apparently she's that angry at them for.... doing everything they could for her?? Anyways, Past Janeway kills her, then tells Past Kes all of this so it won't happen in the future, even having Past Kes make a recording to talk to her future self.
Then it happens again in the future, Present Kes having apparently forgotten all about it in all her rage. The hologram reminds her (oh, right, that did happen!), and Janeway offers for her to stay on Voyager. Kes turns her down because she "needs to be with her own people" and goes back to Ocampa. Despite the fact that her whole reason for doing this was she felt she could never go back. Also, now that Kes doesn't go into the past, how does Janeway know to prevent Kes from going into the past to.... ARRRRGGH!
None of this makes sense, either from a plotting standpoint or a character one. You'd think a big episode featuring the return of a previous cast member would get a script that had just a teensy bit more thought put into it than this. Instead, we get a story where, essentially, Kes returns cuz she's angry about... something, basically she's senile and delusional, so Janeway reminds her she's not really angry, so Kes goes away. And in the middle we get a completely nonsense time travel story.
Is it worth mentioning that there are a ton of continuity errors in the S1 sequences? Most notable I think was that Samantha Wildman apparently found out about her pregnancy during a routine physical with the Doctor two weeks into the voyage and kept it a secret to surprise everyone... for seven and a half months, when it's a big surprise to her too in "Elogium".
Also, there's continuing bullshit about Tuvok's age, birthday, and how long he's known Janeway. Also, his premonitions are never explained. Also, this episode insists that time travel produces tachyon particles, when even a Voyager fan knows its chronitons. Also, this episode claims that you can't turn at Warp. Yep, can't maneuver at Warp. This is the only episode in Trek canon where this is so.
This episode is dumb.
# of Crew: 138 Total -- 118 Starfleet, 13 Maquis, 7 Civilians
# of Shuttles: -4
# of Warp Cores: 2
# of Photon Torpedoes: -33
# of Gel Packs: 30
Distance to Alpha Quadrant: 25,479.8 lightyears
Opportunities to Get Home Missed: 11

"Live Fast and Prosper"
A fun, lightweight episodes about some con men who impersonate the Voyager crew and how we go after them. There's some potential for interesting character analysis and growth but the episode never follows up on any of it. No harm done, I suppose. Also, this episode claims Voyager is 30,342.4ly from Earth, which hasn't been true since around the middle of Season 5.
# of Crew: 138 Total -- 118 Starfleet, 13 Maquis, 7 Civilians
# of Shuttles: -4
# of Warp Cores: 2
# of Photon Torpedoes: -33
# of Gel Packs: 30
Distance to Alpha Quadrant: 25,420.8 lightyears
Opportunities to Get Home Missed: 11

"Life Line"
This is the one where the EMH goes back to Jupiter Station to help Doc Zimmerman. And the craziest thing about this episode? It is hugely continuity heavy. It's a sequel to "Projections" and "The Swarm" and "Doctor Bashir, I Presume?" and "Pathfinder" and "Message in a Bottle" and so on. Even the alien massage girl is the one from INSURRECTION! It's full of continuity. And it's written by the regular series writers. It's like they wrote it on a bet that they could actually write a script that used continuity.
It's also a pretty good episode, even if its pretty similar to the whole Data/Soong thing from TNG, Picardo's idiosyncratic performances make it worthwhile.
Can we give the Voyager crew the replicator patterns for modern uniforms, though?
# of Crew: 138 Total -- 118 Starfleet, 13 Maquis, 7 Civilians
# of Shuttles: -4
# of Warp Cores: 2
# of Photon Torpedoes: -33
# of Gel Packs: 30
Distance to Alpha Quadrant: 25,398.4 lightyears
Opportunities to Get Home Missed: 11

"Muse"
Joe Menosky's final Trek is a fantastic meta-episode about being a writer on Star Trek. It was smart, cerebral and very well written episode, with the irony that the actual Torres/Kim plot is hilariously contrived with Kim's sudden appearance and resulting rescue. But otherwise really great and smart. A good send-off for Menosky. Also we crashed the Delta Flyer and then left it there. All that tech.
# of Crew: 138 Total -- 118 Starfleet, 13 Maquis, 7 Civilians
# of Shuttles: -4
# of Warp Cores: 2
# of Photon Torpedoes: -33
# of Gel Packs: 30
Distance to Alpha Quadrant: 25,376 lightyears
Opportunities to Get Home Missed: 11

"The Haunting of Deck Twelve"
Zzzzzzzzz.... hey, it's one of the crewmen from "Good Shephard"! Zzzzzzzzzzzzz........
# of Crew: 138 Total -- 118 Starfleet, 13 Maquis, 7 Civilians
# of Shuttles: -4
# of Warp Cores: 2
# of Photon Torpedoes: -33
# of Gel Packs: 30
Distance to Alpha Quadrant: 25,300.3 lightyears
Opportunities to Get Home Missed: 11

"Unimatrix Zero, Part I"
This episode is so goddamn retarded. It's the absolute low of Borg writing so far. The scenes of the Borg queen play just like any scene of any evil race. The Borg Queen doesn't talk like a Borg at all, she's just a villain now. And same with the Borg themselves, who have no sense of danger whatsoever. The Queen calls up Janeway to try and convince her not to interfere with the Borg's affairs and try to figure out what Janeway's plan is. Anyone remember when the idea of negotiating with the Borg was unthinkable? And why would the Queen do this? If she even suspected Janeway of interfering with her plans, even if she didn't know what Janeway was planning, why not send like 40 cubes with millions of drones to fire thousands of torpedoes in her face? Resources aren't exactly an issue for the Borg. If a mosquito is crawling up our arm, it doesn't matter if it has bit you or is planning on biting you, you SWAT THE BITCH ANYWAY! Seeing the Borg Queen beg Janeway not to do anything heroic is painful to watch.
And Janeway's no better. Her plan is to GO ALONE into the MOST HEAVILY ARMED BORG CUBE WE'VE EVER SEEN to destroy the CENTRAL CORE, the most HEAVILY GUARDED AREA. When reasonably asked by the Doc why they don't just find some other Borg ship, she brushes off the question. When her entire crew asks why the fuck she should go alone, the best she can come up with is that it was her idea. Finally Tuvok and B'Elanna get to go after Chakotay basically begs her. I understand our characters need to be pivotal to the drama, but I hate how VOYAGER always forgets that the other 130 people on the ship can do more than just stand in the background pressing buttons. THIRTEEN people on this ship are EX-TERRORISTS. Why don't we send some of them, and some security officers, like twenty altogether, onto the Borg Cube? Fuck.
So. Fucking. Stupid.
# of Crew: 138 Total -- 118 Starfleet, 13 Maquis, 7 Civilians
# of Shuttles: -4
# of Warp Cores: 2
# of Photon Torpedoes: -38
# of Gel Packs: 30
Distance to Alpha Quadrant: 25,292.8 lightyears
Opportunities to Get Home Missed: 11

Star Trek: Deep Space Nine Season 7 Review

Wow, here we are. The final season. It's been a long journey, due to my schedule being unable to allow me to burn through these shows like you guys do.

"Image in the Sand" & "Shadows and Symbols"
What a great way to start a season. No big action-y ratings ploy, just a story, and the right story that needed to be told, with all the pacing and beats in the right place because it's spread out over two parts -- and spread out properly, with the break in the right place. If anything, these two episodes make "Tears of the Prophets" better by being the follow-up. That episode still has problems, but these episodes really expand on the ideas that the season six finale didn't have time to explore. Of everything, I only have two problems with the episodes -- one is that the Pagh-wraith Cult threat set up in Part 1 never goes anywhere in Part 2, and the other is that Sisko veers a little too far into crazy in Part 2, because of the way the Benny vision is intercut. It has always seemed so far that Sisko's visions are more or less instantaneous for him, but here we have the Benny vision happening simultaneously with Sisko's actions (or in-action), which makes it seem like Sisko is not in control of his own actions, which makes his fulfillment of the Prophecy seem less substantial in the end. But other than that, this is a great pair of shows that opens up a universe of possibilities for Season 7. Not the least of which is Ezri Dax, who is absolutely great.

"Afterimage"
Basically our "getting to know Ezri" episode. Its great. She's great. I had a ball of a time. My only nitpick is that the counseling scenes aren't written that great. I know Ezri's going through a lot, but it's a little too inept. I wish the episode had said that it was partly an act on her part to disarm Garak, as opposed to making her triumph largely accidental. Other than that, no complaints -- it hits the right spot, especially in regards to how the characters react to Ezri. Nicole de Boer does an AMAZING job playing a character who is, but isn't, Jadzia. It REALLY sells the whole Trill symbiont thing in a way that talking about it for 6 years never quite did.

"Take Me Out to the Holosuite"
Quite possibly one of the best episodes the show ever did. I could not stop smiling, or laughing for that matter. Pure gold.

"Chrysalis"
I get what they were going for, and its all very sincere, but it was dull. Nothing we see here is something I haven't seen before on DS9. Felt like "Melora, Take 2" in a lot of ways. Although Serina is a much better character, and the actress is a delight.

"Treachery, Faith and the Great River"
Brilliant. I love how the title applies equally to both plots. So good.

"Once More Unto the Breach"
Also brilliant. A perfect send off to Kor. I believe in the legend.

"The Siege of AR-558"
Absolutely, positively, fucking brilliant. One of the best all-time Trek episodes. I don't care what any fucking second generation VOY lovers say, it's one thing to talk about how war is awful, blah blah blah, it's another to SHOW IT. And in a visual media, well, let's just say this episode is powerful. And good. Very, very good.

"Covenant"
Yet another intriguing entry in the Dukat saga. It feels a little odd, how few appearances Dukat has made since he went crazy-go-nuts back in "Waltz", but I liked this entry for how believably it built on elements from past episodes. It was also interesting to see Kira put on the other side of the religion issue for once, hearing OTHER people try to tell her it's all about the power of blind faith. It's a subtle element to the show, but a neat one. Overall, the show is a pretty accurate portrayal of the craziness of cults, and as always, the craziness of Dukat is fun to examine.

"It's Only a Paper Moon"
Along with it's necessary predecessor, "Siege of AR-558", this is one of DS9's finest hours. That episode showed that war is brutal and inhuman, not glorious -- this one shows the real consequences. We finally see a situation where a counselor makes sense (dealing with PTSD) and Ezri gets some good stuff in this episode, but its Nog and Vic who shine the most. Isn't it amazing how much Nog grew as a character? From the scruffy little thief of season 1 to this? Damn DS9 is great. I also liked the subtle exploration of the dangers of retreating from reality into a fantasy world -- a theme that echoes through Trek all the way back to "The Cage", and a theme Trekkers seem sometimes all too eager to ignore. "It's Only a Paper Moon" is one of my all time DS9 favourites.

"Prodigal Daughter"
I was bracing myself, because what I had heard from fandom was that this wasn't a very good episode. But ultimately, I didn't find myself thinking in terms of good or bad when it was over. All I could think was "that was fucked up". This was one of those DS9 episodes that really takes pleasure in just leaving the audience unsettled, with no easy answers, and no real hope in humanity. Miles goes looking for the widow of the man he betrayed, but it turns out she's been killed by Ezri's kid brother, who has been driven psycho by his ambitious mother, who aside from her overzealous passion, only ever meant well. It's some seriously fucked up shit. And when the episode ends, she has to go back to the station with the knowledge that her gifted and artistic brother has been sentenced to 30 years, and gets no sympathy from Miles. Ouch, DS9. Ouch.
Yeah, so I think it's a good episode.

"The Emperor's New Cloak"
One last fun romp through the Mirror Universe. This episode really feels like the writer's are doing it just for the hell of it, one last Mirror episode just cause it's season 7. You know that no one's taking things too seriously when they take the two birds/one stone approach and make it this year's Ferengi comedy episode as well. I kinda wish the Mirror Universe had gotten a better, more insightful send-off than this, but I guess the real finale for that story arc on this show was "Shattered Mirror" back in Season 4. This and "Resurrection" are basically just afterthoughts and epilogues. Ah, well. It's fun at least.

"Field of Fire"
A great episode. Great use of Ezri and the Dax symbiont. I love all the murder mystery details, from the TR-116 rifle and it's ingenious methods to the idea of a Vulcan driven to become a serial killer by the Dominion War. Great ideas, great execution. Good stuff.

 
"Chimera"
A great exploration of Odo and Kira's relationship, a fantastic set-up for Odo's eventual character arc, an insightful examination of the difference between solids and changelings WITHOUT the baggage of "the Founders are evil", and for once a guest star alien who wants to change the status quo but who DOESN'T have evil ulterior motives. Instead of the plot forcing Odo's hand as to which way he'll choose, the characters are allowed to interact and examine themselves naturally. This is an extremely well written and well performed episode.

"Inter Arma Enim Silent Leges"
This is one of my favourite DS9 episodes. I love Sloan, Section 31, Romulans, Admiral Ross, and Bashir, so naturally an episode throwing them all together is dynamite. I also love plots like this one, involving plans within plans within plans. Sloan is, essentially, Star Trek Batman. He's great. I love the way this episode gets us thinking about what the Alpha Quadrant will be like AFTER the war. I love, well, pretty much everything about this episode.

"Badda-Bing, Badda-Bang"
Sisko's Eleven. Nuff said. If you don't like this episode, I don't think we can be friends. Pretty much perfect, and loads of fun. "Bride of Chaotica!" (VOY) couldv'e learned a lot from this show. Also, Sisko and Fontaine singing "Best is Yet to Come"? Not only awesome, but totally true.

SO excited to be heading into THE FINAL CHAPTER!! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C3fObaejFOE

"Penumbra/Til Death Do Us Part/Strange Bedfellows/The Changing Face of Evil"
I watched these four all in one go so it's a little hard to seperate my thoughts on them. Basically "Penumbra" was a good lead-in, slowly getting the ball rolling, mainly focused on Sisko/Kassidy and Ezri/Worf. Then we head into "Til Death Do Us Part" which brings us Sisko marrying Kassidy, Worf and Ezri fucking, and the insanely creepy Dukat/Winn team-up. Oh, and the Breen ally with the Dominion. Which brings us to "Strange Bedfellows" where everything gets better -- Worf snapping Weyoun's neck (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6YoPXogkXsk) is a moment only bested by http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2kJAIKLbhdk. In fact, Weyoun/Damar may be the best duo in a series based around great duos. Then we get "Changing Face of Evil", where Dukat and Winn have truly joined forces to unleash the Pagh-Wraiths, the Breen fucking WRECK Earth, and the Defiant is destroyed when the Dominion retakes Chin'toka.
In and amidst all this, Bashir and O'Brien's holodeck Alamo obsession moves into the real world with a model, Ezri discovers she loves Julian, and the Founders are all dying of a mysterious illness.
And the Prophets don't want Ben getting married.
Btw -- this show is awesome.
Too good.
I have narry a bad thing to say.
Fuck it's gonna suck when it's over and all I have left is VOY.

 
"When It Rains..."/"Tacking into the Wind"'
Another awesome pair of Final Chapter episodes -- the entire Kira, Damar, and the Cardassian Resistance storyline is just gold. I love seeing Kira in a Starfleet uniform, and the irony of it all is delicious. Also -- Damar. Maybe the best character arc on DS9 ever, next to Nog. I mean, I just love seeing this guy pull himself out of his kanar induced self-pity and become the Hero of Cardassia over the past few episodes. The moment when he shoots Rusot, declaring the old Cardassia dead just cements Damar as one of the greatest heroes of Star Trek -- even after all his mistakes, Damar knows that Cardassia can't survive if they just go back to business as usual.
Also, the Worf/Martok/Gowron stuff? Also golden. It really plays well when you've been watching since TNG, with all Worf has been through with the Klingons and Martok and so on. I love the scene where Ezri just lays it all on the table, that all this Klingon honour and integrity is bullshit posturing -- these guys backstab each other more than the Romulans. And I love that it's Ron Moore writing it, the guy who prolly did more to develop all that Klingon honour crap more than anyone.

"Extreme Measures"
I've heard a lot of people call this the "weak link" of the Final Chapter, but frankly they can all go fuck themselves. I think it must be because it's so centrally focused on Miles, Julian and Sloan that we get nothing of the other arcs, but whatever. That means that we can really do a good job examining this plot thread. And this episode is fantastic -- Miles and Julian go on one last big adventure to stop Section 31 and it's INCEPTION! BRAAHHM! Anyway, everyone's just on top of their games, but the finest scene of all is the one where Miles and Julian think they're going to die and Julian tries to get Miles to admit he likes him "just a little bit more" than Keiko. I love these guys, their friendship, and this show. Glorious episode.

"The Dogs of War"
Some movement on the Cardassian Revolution Front (I love Damar, Folk Hero), some movement in the Sorrow of the Siskos Saga, but mainly this is about wrapping up the Ferengi plotlines. I like the way this happens -- it's unexpected that Nog ends up as Nagus, but it's not totally out of the blue in retrospect with the way things had been going. And I love Quark's righteous indignation, that his bar is the "last outpost" (har har) of the true Ferengi Way. I had to stop the episode after he quoted Picard I was laughing so hard. All in all, while a lot of stuff happens this hour, it's basically the deep breath before the plunge.

"WHAT YOU LEAVE BEHIND"
Now THIS is how you end a show. Undoubtably the BEST Trek finale bar none. "Endgame" should've been structured more like this, with Voyager getting home with a half-hour to spare in the episode for some fucking denouement. "What You Leave Behind" is nearly perfect. We get our big space battle, we get our action climax, we bring the Emissary's arc to a close with our Series Protagonist grappling our Series Antagonist into the fires of hell, and we get to wrap-up and see where everyone's lives go. The montages were really great, too, despite lack-of-Jadzia. But yeah, everything wraps up fantastic.
That being said, I have three criticisms:
We should've seen the Battle of Cardassia Prime. Yes, two space battles in one episode is expensive (they already use a lot of stock footage in this episode), but we essentially get to Cardassia, see a ton of ships, we get our orders, then Odo goes down and links with the Founder and its over. It feels too easy.
Same with Dukat vs. Sisko. Sisko should've gotten some powers from the Prophets to match Dukat, and there should've really been a Battle of the Emissaries before the dip into the Fire Caves. As it is, Dukat is kicking Sisko's ass, Winn distracts him, then TACKLE and its over. Again, too easy.
Finally -- what about BAJOR? Sisko was SENT to DS9 in the beginning to get Bajor into the Federation. While it would be ridiculous to ask for Bajor to join up like the Day the war ends, it should've been addressed a bit, like Ross saying "well, Colonel, I wouldn't be surprised if we saw Bajor's entry into the Federation finalized within a year" or something like that.
But these are minor quibbles. Best Finale Ever. Best Trek Ever.

Gonna miss it.

Star Trek: Voyager Season 4 Review

"Scorpion, Part II"
This is a pretty good, big, sweeping, cinematic-feeling episode. It's a pretty worthy follow-up to Part I as well, serving the double duty of wrapping up the Borg/8472 storyline and introducing Seven of Nine. It actually handles this well -- Seven seems like a natural guest star character and if you hadn't been paying attention to all the hype and press about this episode you might actually be surprised when she ends up still on the ship at the end of the episode.
The only thing that really bugs me about this episode is that we don't really see or learn anything more about this cool new species than we did in Part I. They're a one-dimensional means to an end -- we never even see them in the flesh in Part II, apart from their telepathic contact with Kes.
# of Crew: 143 Total -- 126 Starfleet, 13 Maquis, 4 Civilians
# of Shuttles: 4
# of Warp Cores: 2
# of Photon Torpedoes: 11
# of Gel Packs: 46
Distance to Alpha Quadrant: 72,473.3 lightyears
Seven claims Voyager has 32 torps at the start of the episode, which is hilarious.

"The Gift"
It was pretty smart on the writer's parts to not try to sandwich Seven's integration into the crew and Kes' departure into the previous episode. This episode feels like a natural evolution for Seven's character from "Scorpion, Part II" and the scenes between her and Janeway are very effective -- both characters make some good points about the morality of severing her from the Collective. As for Kes, well natural evolution isn't the phrase I'd use. The methodology used to get her off the series is probably the best we could hope for given the circumstances, and evolving into a higher life form is a classic Trek trope, but it would've felt more natural if they had built up Kes' telepathic abilities over time more naturally. Up to this point, they'd only been used or dealt with once or twice a season. Other than that, her exit is great except for the false jeopardy run to the shuttlebay at the end.
All in all, a good character based episode.
# of Crew: 142 Total -- 126 Starfleet, 13 Maquis, 3 Civilians
# of Shuttles: 3
# of Warp Cores: 2
# of Photon Torpedoes: 11
# of Gel Packs: 46
Distance to Alpha Quadrant: 62,942.9 lightyears -- Kes sends the Voyager 9500 ly, past Borg space, as her final gift. Why she doesn't just send them all the way is a question I won't even bother asking.

"Nemesis"
No points for guessing its better than the movie of the same name. But it is a pretty good exploration of the standard Trek themes of war and prejudice, with a nice twist at the end. The style is also pretty innovative for Trek, with the bizarre dialogue of the aliens and the guns shooting bullets and the general feel of a 1980s Vietnam movie. It's also probably one of the last full blown Chakotay episodes (every time Chakotay claims to be a man of peace from a culture that solves its difficulties with negotiation I rolled my eyes though -- four years ago this guy was a terrorist).
# of Crew: 142 Total -- 126 Starfleet, 13 Maquis, 3 Civilians
# of Shuttles: 2
# of Warp Cores: 2
# of Photon Torpedoes: 11
# of Gel Packs: 46
Distance to Alpha Quadrant: 62,867.2 lightyears

"Day of Honor"
Basically B'Elanna has a terrible day, and at the end of it finally establishes her relationship with Tom after a season of will they/wont they. It's a pretty good character study, and of course has a necessary Season 4 subplot about Seven of Nine fitting in. As for the aliens of the week, the moral of the story should have been that the needs of another cannot be a blank check on your resources, but then Seven magically devises a tech solution to the problem that leaves everyone happy.
# of Crew: 142 Total -- 126 Starfleet, 13 Maquis, 3 Civilians
# of Shuttles: 1 <-- We've lost three shuttles in as many episodes
# of Warp Cores: 2
# of Photon Torpedoes: 11
# of Gel Packs: 46
Distance to Alpha Quadrant: 62,783.1 lightyears

"Revulsion"
This one has a great A-plot about a muderous, psychotic hologram (classic robot run amok scenario) with some great Trekkian observations about humanity. It's paired with a subplot about Harry having the hots for Seven and blowing it because, well, it's Harry. These are both great, but they way they mix is a little off, just because one is SO serious and the other SO comedy.
# of Crew: 142 Total -- 126 Starfleet, 13 Maquis, 3 Civilians
# of Shuttles: 1
# of Warp Cores: 2
# of Photon Torpedoes: 11
# of Gel Packs: 46
Distance to Alpha Quadrant: 62,774.7 lightyears

"The Raven"
A very good, and necessary, episode for developing Seven -- who has been a major subplot in pretty much every episode since her introduction alongside Tom and B'Elanna's burgeoning romance. The whole "Seven's back to being a dangerous Borg!" is something they obviously had to do sooner or later, I'm just surprised it was this soon. But, it is a good episode, especially the necessary details about her backstory. I'm a little annoyed that the Hansens' ship, the Raven, is somehow 60,000ly away from Earth despite being a civillian craft and this episode implies it just flew there on its own and within a reasonable amount of time despite the return journey for Voyager being stated as this massively long impossible journey. However, in later episodes they explain the Raven followed a Borg Cube into a transwarp conduit, so I'm cool.
That aside, this is a good episode.
# of Crew: 142 Total -- 126 Starfleet, 13 Maquis, 3 Civilians
# of Shuttles: 1
# of Warp Cores: 2
# of Photon Torpedoes: 11
# of Gel Packs: 46
Distance to Alpha Quadrant: 62,741.1 lightyears
Seven steals a shuttle. Tom goes after her with one. But they only have one!!

I feel now would be a good time to say how I feel about the Seven of Nine character. I like her. I know I've been cynical about her introduction, it's hard not to be given the obvious raitonale behind it (not just her boobs, but a Borg crewmember was an obvious ratings ploy as well) -- and I'm not saying I support getting rid of Kes -- but Seven IS a good character. She's interesting, has a ton of potential and Jeri Ryan IS a good actress as well. She delivers great performances. And, despite my cynicism, I have to admit she is really hot. So hot that it's actually almost distracting during scenes. What I can't decide is if Seven is legitimately a better character than the rest of the cast, or if she's just better written. What I mean is, that a character like Paris or Chakotay might look better on paper, but other than the Doc not a single cast member has been written to potential. Seven has been, and then some, and maybe that's because the writers felt they had three years of character development to catch up on, but still -- some of the cast still haven't gotten much at all (Harry) while others (Chakotay/Paris) have been completely domesticated from their original premise. Seven's development, on the other hand, has proceeded naturally, and quite interestingly.
One incident I will point out as poor development, of a kind that would never occur on DS9 -- in "Day of Honor" Paris offers his friendship to Seven, stating that he knows what it's like to have a past that others can't see past. In the very next episode he's warning Harry to stay away because she's a Borg and not trustworthy.

"Scientific Method"
YAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAWN. Is it over yet? Two acts of Paris/Torres shenanigans, then some boring DNA mutations that aren't interesting and go nowhere, then some hostile aliens, then a final scene of Paris/Torres. It's not an actively BAD episode, just very mediocre.
# of Crew: 141 Total -- 125 Starfleet, 13 Maquis, 3 Civilians
# of Shuttles: 1
# of Warp Cores: 2
# of Photon Torpedoes: 11
# of Gel Packs: 46
Distance to Alpha Quadrant: 62,715.9 lightyears

Other than the last one, VOYAGER has actually been pretty good lately. But in direct comparison to DS9? Even the best of episodes (like "The Raven") feel very mediocre and very difficult to maintain an interest in.

"Year of Hell" Parts I & II
Full disclosure: This two parter is one of my favourite episodes of VOYAGER, even despite the reset button plot. It is frustrating seeing the show do in two episodes what it should have been gradually doing all along to this point (that is, Voyager accumulating damage) and this is something BSG did really well (it's always weird seeing early episodes of that show where the ship is nearly pristine). But despite all that, its a really good show. An example of what the VOY writers could do if they really set their minds to a concept. What really makes the show work is Kurtwood Smith's performance as Annorax. He's the first really good VOYAGER villain up to this point, in my eyes. And the time travel issues are pretty cleverly done as well. It's a great episode.
Even though it never happens.
# of Crew: 141 Total -- 125 Starfleet, 13 Maquis, 3 Civilians
# of Shuttles: 1
# of Warp Cores: 2
# of Photon Torpedoes: 11
# of Gel Packs: 46
Distance to Alpha Quadrant: 62,707.5 lightyears

"Random Thoughts"
Interesting, semi-intelligent, but full of Trek cliches -- a planet of human looking aliens with one strange custom that they don't mention to outsiders who visit their world but which is a serious crime, usually punishable by death, that one of our crew infringes upon and is held and convicted despite never knowing the law or even being part of the society. This time it's Torres, whose crime is thinking violent thoughts. The episode uses Tuvok and Torres well, but the whole thing is practically overshadowed by two great scenes where Seven questions the entire premise of the series.
"Your philosophy of exploration exposes Voyager to constant risk. If you maintain a direct course to Earth and avoid all extraneous contact with alien species, it will increase your chances of survival."
Seven has just become my favourite character, and it has nothing to do with the T&A.
# of Crew: 141 Total -- 125 Starfleet, 13 Maquis, 3 Civilians
# of Shuttles: 1
# of Warp Cores: 2
# of Photon Torpedoes: 11
# of Gel Packs: 46
Distance to Alpha Quadrant: 62,589.8 lightyears
Opportunities to Get Home Missed: 9 (decided to start keeping track)

"Concerning Flight"
Watch this episode. Then watch "Elementary, My Dear Data" (TNG) or "Ship in a Bottle" (TNG).
It's clear the writers wanted to get Janeway and the daVinci hologram into a wacky adventure. But the adventure is so cookie cutter, so mediocre, so full of holes and cliches, that all you can analyse is what the episode does with the characters. And the answer is not enough. There are a couple of good dialogue exchanges and some nice speeches, but nothing coming close to the analysis of reality and human nature the two aforementioned TNG episodes explored with the Moriarty hologram. At the end of the day I'm wondering "so what?"
(Also, a bunch of pirates steal some of my tech, I send down an assault team with phaser rifles in shuttles, not a hologram and the Captain unarmed).
# of Crew: 141 Total -- 125 Starfleet, 13 Maquis, 3 Civilians
# of Shuttles: 1
# of Warp Cores: 2
# of Photon Torpedoes: 11
# of Gel Packs: 46
Distance to Alpha Quadrant: 62,570.2 lightyears
Opportunities to Get Home Missed: 9

"Mortal Coil"
Ah, this year's "serious Neelix" episode. I must say I really respected the way this episode utilized the VOY mythos, drawing on continuity from several past shows to create a very effective, emotional story. It also approaches the faith vs. reality issue much more effectively than last season's "Sacred Ground". It's very powerful material, and Ethan Phillips really sells the notion of a Neelix who has lost so much faith in life that he's driven to suicide. It's not as good as Colm Meaney's performance in "Hard Time", but then we can't all be Colm Meaney.
# of Crew: 141 Total -- 125 Starfleet, 13 Maquis, 3 Civilians
# of Shuttles: 1
# of Warp Cores: 2
# of Photon Torpedoes: 11
# of Gel Packs: 46
Distance to Alpha Quadrant: 62,528.2 lightyears
Opportunities to Get Home Missed: 9

"Waking Moments"
It's a pretty stock plot, but it's handled somewhat interestingly. A telepathic alien invading the minds of the crew is nothing new, in fact it's similar to a second season VOY episode, and dream within a dream isn't new either, but it's all done in an interesting enough way to stay entertaining. Just call it Voyception -- BRAAAHMM!
# of Crew: 141 Total -- 125 Starfleet, 13 Maquis, 3 Civilians
# of Shuttles: 1
# of Warp Cores: 2
# of Photon Torpedoes: 11
# of Gel Packs: 46
Distance to Alpha Quadrant: 62,517 lightyears
Opportunities to Get Home Missed: 9

"Message in a Bottle"
This is one of my all-time favourite episodes, featuring Voyager's first real contact with home. Also, the USS Prometheus ("the Fightin' Over-compensator!" I call it), Andy Dick as the EMH-2, the debut of the Hirogen (aka the "Not-Predators") and some Alpha Quadrant pre-Alliance Romulan fun. I think it would've been cooler to have the Prometheus taken over by Jem'Hadar, but I suppose having it be the Romulans kept things neutral for non-DS9 fans (altough I liked how the DS9 theme was used as a leitmotif for the Alpha Quadrant). Also, the Hirogen relay network reached into the Beta Quadrant, so Romulans were a logical choice. In any case, the back and forth banter between the Doc and the EMH-2 was loads of fun and the whole episode is just a great delight.
# of Crew: 141 Total -- 125 Starfleet, 13 Maquis, 3 Civilians
# of Shuttles: 1
# of Warp Cores: 2
# of Photon Torpedoes: 11
# of Gel Packs: 46
Distance to Alpha Quadrant: 62,505.8 lightyears
Opportunities to Get Home Missed: 9

"Hunters"
The second in the "Hirogen arc", this episode introduces us to the 7 foot tall aggressive species, and has Seven of Nine in bondage. But the strongest elements of the hour isn't the jeopardy plot, but the human angle in the letters from home the crew receives. Janway learns that Mark has moved on, Harry is eager to know if his parents know he's alive, Tom dreads hearing from his Admiral father, and in a nice continuity touch, Chakotay and B'Elanna are devastated to hear of the destruction of the Maquis ("Blaze of Glory" [DS9]). All of the actors handle this varied emotional material quite well, and the episode sets up not only the Hirogen, but the later Barclay/Pathfinder arc. So despite the rather derivative nature of the Hirogen as a species, it's a winner of an episode.
# of Crew: 141 Total -- 125 Starfleet, 13 Maquis, 3 Civilians
# of Shuttles: 1
# of Warp Cores: 2
# of Photon Torpedoes: 11
# of Gel Packs: 46
Distance to Alpha Quadrant: 62,471.9 lightyears
Opportunities to Get Home Missed: 9

"Prey"
And we continue our Hirogen arc with an episode that must've made the preview guys happy: Hirogen vs. Species 8472, it practically sells itself! But while all of that is exciting, and Tony Todd gives a good performance as the first well-defined Hirogen character, the true meat of this episode is the slow-burning conflict between Seven and Janeway that comes to a head at its end. What the episode does really well is not give us an easy out on this conflict -- both Janeway and Seven are right to a degree, and wrong to a degree, and the episode ends with an uneasy, open ending with Seven essentially put on probation. It's good stuff, but only really comes to the fore in the final act.
# of Crew: 141 Total -- 125 Starfleet, 13 Maquis, 3 Civilians
# of Shuttles: 1
# of Warp Cores: 2
# of Photon Torpedoes: 11
# of Gel Packs: 46
Distance to Alpha Quadrant: 62,317.7 lightyears
Opportunities to Get Home Missed: 9

"Retrospect"
Here's another episode that's really mediocre until about halfway through, then gets good for the final moments. Basically it's a twist on the old "friendly alien is not what he seems", when it turns out he was totally friendly all along, we were wrong in accusing him, and he essentially kills himself because of the accusations, and now we're all horribly guilty. The only real issue is that why Seven's false repressed memories manifested against this alien is never really explained, except in a kind've offhand manner. That being said, this episode continues Seven's probation from the previous installment, but man I'm definitely noticing VOYAGER transforming into the Janeway/Doc/Seven show rather quickly.
# of Crew: 141 Total -- 125 Starfleet, 13 Maquis, 3 Civilians
# of Shuttles: 1
# of Warp Cores: 2
# of Photon Torpedoes: 11
# of Gel Packs: 46
Distance to Alpha Quadrant: 62,312.1 lightyears
Opportunities to Get Home Missed: 9

"The Killing Game, Parts I & II"
While I enjoyed this two-parter while I was watching it, once it was over I couldn't help but wonder "So what?"
I mean, what was, really, the point of this episode? I mean, it seems the whole thing was cooked up for the WWII actiona and Hirogen in Nazi uniforms and I just wonder why two whole episodes were spent on it. There were times when the episode tried to make me care about the pointless holodeck drama and I wondered why. Then there was the ending, where Janeway gives the Hirogen holodeck technology in exchange for a cease fire -- is this the same woman who two years prior absolutely would not give the Kazon a frakkin' replicator in exchange for safe passage through their space?? And though it was a minor detail, it bugged me that for some reason in the Klingon holoprogram the computer ADDED Klingon features to the crew, yet did not REMOVE alien features in the WWII program -- nevermind that its already been established that the holodeck doesn't alter the appearances of real people. I dunno, it was like a big action movie -- it was fun to watch, but one wonders what the point was other than the spectacle. Also about half the ship is laid waste to, including all of sickbay BLOWN UP, and I know that next week everything will be fine.
# of Crew: 139 Total -- 123 Starfleet, 13 Maquis, 3 Civilians
# of Shuttles: 1
# of Warp Cores: 2
# of Photon Torpedoes: 11
# of Gel Packs: 46
Distance to Alpha Quadrant: 62,253.2 lightyears
Opportunities to Get Home Missed: 9

"Vis á Vis"
Is Tom Paris just a magnet for bad episodes? I swear this must be the worst VOYAGER has been since "Threshold". It's at a "Spock's Brain" level of terrible, but without the high level of camp fun that makes "Spock's Brain" enjoyable. It takes half an episode of nothing happening before we get to the point (Paris switches bodies with an alien) and then another half an episode before the ending (they switch back) and there's nothing interesting to any of it. The alien doesn't even have a motivation for switching bodies -- he doesn't want to take over the ship or steal any technology, he's just there to take Tom's life, and he sucks at it and is easily found out. This is a terrible GNDN episode.
# of Crew: 137 Total -- 121 Starfleet, 13 Maquis, 3 Civilians
# of Shuttles: 1
# of Warp Cores: 2
# of Photon Torpedoes: 11
# of Gel Packs: 46
Distance to Alpha Quadrant: 62,205.5 lightyears
Opportunities to Get Home Missed: 10
Oh, I forgot to mention -- the alien villain of the week has a "coaxial warp drive" that folds space, allowing a ship to cross vast distances in the blink of an eye. Before we find out he's a villain Tom begins to work on altering one of the shuttles to incorporate the technology. It totally works, then we find out the guy is a villain and the technology isn't mentioned again - ever. So we abandoned it because he was evil? Either the entire crew are idiots, or the writing staff is.

"The Omega Directive"
And then we get this, a glorious episode of classic Star Trek that, if anything, should have been a two-parter instead of "The Killing Game" so it could give its ideas a chance to breath, especially since I'm sure we'll never hear about any of this ever again. The Janeway/Seven conflict was great, but I think the main thing I liked about this episode (other than it's interesting ideas about science and religion and the dangers of both) is that the crew is on a Mission for the first time in ages and it gives everything and everyone such a great focus that the average episode where we wander into a problem doesn't have.
# of Crew: 137 Total -- 121 Starfleet, 13 Maquis, 3 Civilians
# of Shuttles: 1
# of Warp Cores: 2
# of Photon Torpedoes: 11
# of Gel Packs: 46
Distance to Alpha Quadrant: 62,185.9 lightyears
Opportunities to Get Home Missed: 10

"Unforgettable"
This review practically writes itself. This episode isn't just forgettable, it's laughable, terrible, stupid, pointless, and again GNDN. I can't believe it's the same writers as season 1's "Prime Factors" because it's just awful. What a waste of my time. Essentially a woman who Chakotay cant remember comes onboard saying he fell in love with her and then forgot her, then they fall in love again, then she forgets him, doesn't love him, leaves, and he forgets her, all thanks to some pretty shit tier technobabble. It doesn't help that they don't have the least bit of chemistry.
# of Crew: 137 Total -- 121 Starfleet, 13 Maquis, 3 Civilians
# of Shuttles: 1
# of Warp Cores: 2
# of Photon Torpedoes: 11
# of Gel Packs: 46
Distance to Alpha Quadrant: 62,003.9 lightyears
Opportunities to Get Home Missed: 10

"Living Witness"
A good, classic style, Trek episode. Shades of "Planet of the Apes", and with an element of "alternate Voyager" that Brannon Braga loves to do, but still admirably done. The idea of the Doctor's backup module is a bit of a contrivance, but it enables a good story about revisionist history. It's a story well told, centred around interesting ideas. That alone makes it a successful VOY episode.
# of Crew: 134 Total -- 118 Starfleet, 13 Maquis, 3 Civilians
# of Shuttles: 1
# of Warp Cores: 2
# of Photon Torpedoes: 10
# of Gel Packs: 46
Distance to Alpha Quadrant: 61,995.9 lightyears
Opportunities to Get Home Missed: 10

"Demon"
Unlike this episode, which was pointless. Aggressively pointless. Basically a mystery for 40 minutes, then four minutes of explanation, and then a nothing ending. I mean, WHAT? We just COPIED THE WHOLE CREW? Who does that? The whole hour is just an aggressive barrage of stupid, like a second or third season episode. What a waste. It's only redeeming feature is the new "assertive" Kim, a development which I'm sure will be immediately forgotten.
# of Crew: 134 Total -- 118 Starfleet, 13 Maquis, 3 Civilians
# of Shuttles: 1
# of Warp Cores: 2
# of Photon Torpedoes: 10
# of Gel Packs: 46
Distance to Alpha Quadrant: 61,953.4 lightyears
Opportunities to Get Home Missed: 10

"One"
Not bad. The basic premise is a little laughable, in that it violates three points of logic*, but as a vehicle for exploring Seven of Nine its very effective. Granted, it's not like Seven is really lacking for exploration, she's either been the A or B plot in every episode this season practically, but I'm not about to complain about the few instances of good character development on this show.
* 1) Chakotay established in "The 37's" that Voyager can't run with a crew of less than 100.
2) If the ship CAN run with the whole crew in stasis, why not just do that for the whole trip?
3) So, your plan to stop the crew from being affected by the radiation penetrating the ship is to stick them into metal boxes with their own life support units? Isn't that, in effect, what Voyager is? And don't tell me the stasis units are made of a special metal the radiation can't penetrate, because then why not coat the whole ship with that if you had enough to build 133 stasis tubes of it.
# 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: 61,812.4 lightyears
Opportunities to Get Home Missed: 10

"Hope and Fear"
A pretty decent one-hour season finale addressing the season's central conflict of Janeway v. Seven. While the conceit of the alien who is not what he seems and the ship from Starfleet being a deception are forgone conclusions, the best element is the alien who wants revenge on Voyager for inadvertantly causing the destruction of his race -- it's a nice element of consequences of Janeway's actions coming back to haunt her, a story style used often on DS9 and should've been employed much more regularly on VOY than it was. Overall, a satisfactory hour, drawing the inaugral year of the Janeway & Seven Show to a close.
# of Crew: 133 Total -- 117 Starfleet, 13 Maquis, 3 Civilians
# of Shuttles: 1
# of Warp Cores: 2
# of Photon Torpedoes: 6
# of Gel Packs: 30
Distance to Alpha Quadrant: 61,495.9 lightyears
Opportunities to Get Home Missed: 10