"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 รก 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
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