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Kathryn Janeway - Kate Mulgrew Chakotay - Robert Beltran Tom Paris - Robert Duncan McNiell Neelix - Ethan Phillips Kes - Jennifer Lien Tuvok - Tim Russ B'Elanna Torres - Roxann Biggs Dawson Harry Kim - Garrett Wang The Doctor - Robert Picardo 
OTHER SEASONS Season 1 Season 2 Season 4 Season 5 Season 6 Season 7 OTHER STAR TREK SHOWS Star Trek The Next Generation Deep Space Nine Enterprise OTHER TREKS THROUGH SPACE Babylon 5 The new Battlestar Galactica 
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Basics - Part 2As Janeway and the crew try to make friends with the prehistoric tribe they are now sharing a new planet with, rescuing the Voyager from the Kazons falls to the trio of Tom Paris, the Doctor and Mr Suder, reluctant psycho is residence. The outcome is never in any doubt. Picking up directly from the events of last season's cliffhanger, this episode tries hard, but only partly succeeds. As it's the first episode of the new series, there can be no doubt that the ship will be recovered and the whole story of the crew on the planet's surface is simply padding whilst the real plot is played out in space. That said, the Doctor's part in the rescue is well played and Brad Dourif makes the most of the reformed killer now being asked to kill again. It is a shame that he comes to a sticky end as his character had some real mileage in it. The same applies to Seska who has been the most interesting character to date, but bows out here in fairly unspectacular style. It's business as usual and nothing appears to have changed. Let's hope that's just first impressions. TopFlashbackThe sight of a nebula causes Tuvok to go a bit funny. He starts seeing young girls falling into an abyss, pleading with him to help. The Doctor explains that it is a repressed memory trying to re-emerge, but when he mind melds with Janeway and chases the memory, they find themselves on the bridge of Mr Sulu's ship Excelsior at the time of events from the film STAR TREK VI-THE UNDISCOVERED COUNTRY The idea of repressed memory first appeared in THE NEXT GENERATION episode The Cost of Living. That was a poor episode and so is this one. The whole plot is built around the premise of getting George Takei on the screen as Captain Sulu again. The resolution (it's a virus folks!) is glib and frankly lazy. We could really use something good to keep interest in VOYAGER going, because this kind of stuff does little more than try our patience. TopThe ChuteHarry and Tom find themselves locked into a harsh prison with no hope of parole and every chance of getting killed. Tom gets himself cut badly and Harry sets about escaping, only to find that there is no escape. The crew of the Voyager set about proving their innocence only to find that isn't enough either. Well, it's nice to see VOYAGER getting tough for a change. Paris helps beat up Harry in order to save him, gets cut in knife fight and then is almost killed in turn by Harry. The truth behind the prison's location is surprising, which is a pleasure in itself. There are problems with the plot, though. Characters that are set up in detail are abandoned at the end and moral issues about the justice system are simply forgotten as the ship sails away. TopThe SwarmThe ship enters into a region of space controlled by a powerful force. Its attempts to go unnoticed are soon undone and the enemy comes in a swarm of tiny ships that set about leeching all power from Voyager. In the meantime, the Doctor is forgetting everything about everything as his system fails due to its prolonged usage. There are two stories going on here that have little relationship with each other and neither of which is satisfactory. It's nice to see two doctors acting against each other, but there is little else in the way of interest. A couple of good character moments might point the way forward, or may just be a passing phase. Captain Janeway ignores Starfleet protocol in order to save time in the trip. This is clearly the wrong decision as it puts the ship in danger for very little. Tuvok takes this very badly, in his understated Vulcan way. Is the captain's control faltering? Is this going somewhere? We can hope. TopFalse ProfitsAn alpha quadrant energy signal draws the Voyager to a planet to discover that two Ferengi, trapped there by a wormhole with one end fixed in the Alpha Quadrant, have set themselves up as Gods. Whilst Torres and Kim attempting to bring the wormhole back for a quick trip home, Neelix sets out to out-Ferengi the Ferengi. There is so much alpha quadrant rubbish littering the Delta Quadrant that it is at least nice to find a genuine reason why the Ferengi should be there, based on an episode from THE NEXT GENERATION. The Ferengi have emerged from dodgy roots to become one of the more fun comedy races of the franchise and again give full value here as they ruthlessly exploit the locals. It is interesting that Janeway finds it so hard to deal with them because of Starfleet protocol. Considering the ease with which she ignored those in the last episode, this shouldn't have been such a problem. It doesn't matter, though, because this is one of the more fun episodes so far. TopRememberVoyager is transporting a ship of telepaths when B'Elanna starts having strong erotic dreams. They change in nature and it soon becomes clear that the race is not telling everything about its history, even to its own young. Apparently there aren't enough stories to be told about the Voyager and her crew, so this episode resorts to telling the story of the alien race. It uses the trick of having B'Elanna dream it and appear in it, but that's the truth of it. The alien story is far more interesting to the writers than anything that they could dream up for the crew. What does that say about the show? The alien story is intriguing at first, but all too soon it becomes clear what's going to happen and interest ebbs away very quickly after that. TopSacred GroundWhilst exploring a shrine on an alien planet, Kes is hit by an energy field that leaves her close to death. Only the spirits of the world can save her and only Captain Janeway can complete the rite of passage that will allow her to pass throught the barrier to speak to the spirits. The battle between faith and science in microcosm. Oh no, it's another message episode. Janeway's pure scientist whilst her spirit guide is pure faith. Can they coexist? Can Janeway overcome her scepticism to succeed, especially when there is no reason at all why she should? Do we care? No not really. It's an OK episode, but nothing more. Janeway's trials are meaningless. She's told this many times and so it comes to pass. Of course, the meaningless is a pretty poor thing to base entertainment on and so the episode really doesn't go anywhere. TopFuture's End - Part 1A ship appears from the 29th Century, accuses the Voyager of destroying the Earth and sets about blowing them up. Janeway retaliates and both ships are pulled through the time vortex to the present day. Voyager reappears above Earth 30 years after the other ship and finds that an unscrupulous businessman has used the technology of the ship to gain power and wealth. Can they recover the ship and save both themselves and the 29th century without distorting the time line? Time travel to the current day Earth is a popular STAR TREK theme, appearing not least in the fourth film THE VOYAGE HOME. That was a lot of fun and this episode is also not bad, though the entertainment value is less prominent. Only Paris interacts with today with any great relish and his errors are the fun of the piece. The rest of the plot is perfunctory as the crew go about finding out what has happened with the minimum contact with their surroundings, muting the fish out of time possibilities. The cliffhanger ending, with Voyager splashed all over the news headlines is, though, rather good. TopFuture's End - Part 2Janeway fights back against the man who has all the future technology. Kidnapping him, they think they have won, but he escapes and sets out for the future, bringing about the tragedy that Voyager was trying to avoid. The two-parter comes to an end, not with a bang, but with a whimper. There isn't a great deal of adventure, although it rattles along at a clip - mainly to hide the fact that so little of interest is going on. And what is it with B'Elanna and Chakotay? One minute they crash, then they're stuck with a bunch of the wierdest survivalists you ever saw and then they're attacked by Feds and then they are saved by Tuvok and the Doctor. Huh? The only good thing to come out of this is that the Doctor gets a gizmo that will allow him to get out of sickbay more. TopWarlordVoyager saves a trio of aliens from an exploding ship only to have one of them die in sickbay. When Kes goes mental and hijacks a shuttle, it becomes clear that the dead alien has taken over her body and is using it to start a war. Now this is much more like it. Evil Kes is great fun, giving Jennifer Lien a chance to really ham it up as a pantomime villain. It's the most fun the show has had for a long time. It's a shame that the rest of the episode doesn't match up to her character. TopThe Q and The GreyWhen Q turns up on Voyager and asks Captain Janeway to have a child with him, she suspects motives beyond the normal. When all the local stars begin to go supernova, it becomes clear that something bad is happening in the continuum and it isn't the jealous female Q that just showed up. Q's back and half the fans of STAR TREK are groaning whilst the other half are whooping with juvenile delight. Count us in the latter camp. Q may not be the most realistic character, but his episodes are never dull, unlike some of the others that this show has come up with. This one doesn't disappoint either. Following on from events in Deathwish the depiction of the chaos in the continuum as the american civil war is inspired and as full of incident as any Q episode yet. Even Q gets a little character development as part of the package. If only all VOYAGER episodes were this good. TopMacrocosmReturning from trade talks, Janeway and Neelix find the ship adrift. Going aboard, they are attacked by a lifeform and Neelix is lost. It is up to Janeway to find out what has happened and reclaim her ship. What's happened to VOYAGER this is the third episode in a row that we've really liked. There's no moral, no subtext, just a cracking story about a virus that grows to giant size and turns into killing machines. Janeway goes all Ripley on us, doing a Sigourney Weaver impression from ALIENS and crawls around through the ship blasting away the alien viruses and generally being all macho woman. Simple,but effective. More like this please. TopFair TradeAbout to go into an unknown region at the edge of Neelix's experience, Voyager stops off for supplies at a trading station. There, Neelix meets an old friend Wicks who brings him in on a scheme to gain the supplies that the ship needs. Very soon afterwards, Neelix finds himself guilty of drug smuggling, accessory to murder and about to steal warp plasm from the ship. None of which is at all interesting. Neelix's downward spiral into lawlessness is far more dull than it has any right to be and the manner in which conversations with the crew lead him back to the path of truth and righteousness brought me to the edge of nausea. The short run of good episodes has come to an end in the most tedious of manners and even Kes can't bring herself to embrace Neelix when he recovers in sickbay. Can't say I blame her. TopAlter EgoHarry's in love and doesn't want to be. He goes to Tuvok and asks to be shown how to purge himself of these emotions as the object of his affections is a holodeck character. When he meets her, Tuvok finds the character as interesting as Harry, though for other reasons. When the character exits the holodeck and starts to take over ship functions, threatening to destroy Voyager if she doesn't get Tuvok for herself, matters turn serious. A love affair based around a Vulcan is never going to go very far. Whilst it is amusing to watch Tuvok's initial meetings with the holodeck girl, disappointment sets in as the plot goes nowhere and nothing is learned about any of the characters, except that none of them are interesting enough for this sort of character-based plotting. TopCodaJaneway and Chakotay are out in a shuttle when they are caught in a storm and crash. She almost dies and then, when the aliens that shot them down arrive, she does die. Back at a point just before the crash, Janeway and Chakotay change plans and get utterly destroyed only to find themselves back at the starting point. Back on Voyager, Janeway finds herself dead and a ghost looking on at her own remembrance service. It's then that her father appears. Just when you think that VOYAGER isn't going to ever come up with anything interesting again along comes this story that is fascinating for half its length before descending into a spiral of mediocrity and nonsense. Time loops have been done in the TREK universe before especially in STAR TREK: THE NEXT GENERATION, but what is happening in why proves to be really interesting. Then Janeway appears back on the ship as a ghost and the whole thing comes apart at the seams. The first part of the story makes no sense in the light of the second half and the memorial service is just plain embarrassing for everyone involved. It's a shame because the episode was really looking up until that point. TopBlood FeverA Vulcan crewmember goes into the violent state of Pon Farr, the mating ritual of his race. As there are no others of his kind to form a mating bond with, he turns to B'Elanna Torres and is rejected. In the exchange, though, he triggers the half-vulcan B'Elanna's own Pon Farr, which is not good as she has just gotten herself trapped in a cave with only Tom Parris for company. Pon Farr has always been the vulcans' guilty secret, but it is quite beyond the realms of possibility that such a critical condition could have survived for so long without the Federation having a complete medical history on it. With Vulcans spread throughout the galaxy it can't be feasible for them not to have found a suppressant for the condition. The idea that the whole adult population must remain within reach of home so they can go home and mate every seven years is patently absurd and, as a result, so is the basis of this episode. The discovery of the body of a dead Borg in the last moment feels very tacked on, from another story, but it is the only real moment of interest in the whole episode. TopUnityChakotay lands on an unknown planet and discovers that it is inhabited by dozens of races at war with each other, all of them kidnapped from their homes. Voyager discovers a damaged Borg ship adrift and it becomes clear that these people are de-assimilated Borg and want to reconnect in order to save Chakotay's life and their own society. The reapprearance of the Borg suddenly gives STAR TREK:VOYAGER a major boost in the story department. Borg stories are always a bit darker, bit deeper and a bit more dangerous. The choice that is put before Janeway is no small thing and the way that thigs work out provides a few surprises, something that is always welcome in this show, and an exciting final few minutes. TopDarklingWhilst the Voyager spends time in orbit of a friendly world trading their technical knowledge for information about the area of space they are about to traverse, the Doctor visits the hologram to research famous historical characters, identifying character traits that he admires and incorporating them into his own programming. This worries B'Elanna as complex subroutines don't always mesh too well and soon enough the not so good doctor is paralysing, torturing and kidnapping people all over the place. DR JEKYLL AND MR HYDE done STAR TREK style and with very little imagination or flair. It helps that Robert Picardo's holgraphic doctor is one of the more fun characters aboard the ship (OK, the only fun character on the ship) and there are hints that things are happening to Kes as she reaches the middle third of her life (she's now three), but the main plot is predictable stuff, however polished. TopRiseThe Voyager is attempting to aid a planet suffering from a series of asteroid strikes when a scientist on the surface calls for help, claiming to have critical information. A rescue attempt goes awry, leaving Tuvok and Neelix stranded on the surface with a few of the locals. The only hope of escape lies in a space elevator, if Neelix can get it working. Once underway, however, it becomes clear that one of the passengers does not have the best interests of everyone else at heart. The space elevator was a favourite idea of Arthur C Clarke, appearing in several of his later works. Here, we get to see one in action. Unfortunately, the special effects aren't that special, especially when the traitor in the pack goes for a tumble. Wandering around on the top of a cable car this far up in the atmosphere with jetstreams whirling around all over the place would be impossible, certainly more than the stroll in the breeze that the characters here display. The central plank of the story is meant to be the relationship between Neelix and Tuvok, two characters with opposing ideologies. There isn't very much conflict, however, as they are all working for the same goal and the plot keeps getting in the way of them actually coming to grips with each other. The same ground was covered more effectively in the original STAR TREK episode Galileo Seven. TopFavorite SonAn alien ship approaches Voyager with a message of friendship, but Harry Kim announces it as a danger and opens fire. Damaged in the resulting firefight, Voyager takes refuge in a neighbouring system where Harry learns that he is actually a cuckoo, left with a human family and really a native of this alien planet where 90% of the population is female. Or is he? It's obvious from the outset that Harry Kim isn't a native of the new alien planet, so the aliens clearly have their own agenda in pretending that he is. The slow uncovering of what that agenda is forms the plot and it's not really a new idea or plot to uncover, but it does manage to hold the interest until the answer is finally revealed. There's some serious adolescent male wish fulfilment in the man-worshipping female population that undermines the story and the concentration on Harry's dreams smacks of trying to fill up the running time, but the end result is a solid, if unspectacular, entry into the canon. Watch out amongst the background women for appearances from Kristanna Loken (the female terminator from TERMINATOR 3:RISE OF THE MACHINES) and Patricial Tallman (Lyta Alexander from BABYLON 5). TopBefore and AfterKes wakes up to find herself 9 years old and in the grip of her dying days. The Doctor tests out a revolutionary technique to extend her life, but she flashes to a time just before that. Trying to explain what has happened, everyone thinks it is the ramblings of an old woman, but as she flashes forwards through her life, she comes closer to convincing the crew that what she is experiencing is real. The question is whether they can find a solution before she flashes back beyond them, or beyond the point of her own birth. The concept of being 'unstuck in time' or living life backwards is not a novel one, but this episode takes the concept and runs with it, weaving a narrative that throws up unexpected developments in the future (Neelix is a security officer, Kes and Tom and married, Janeway and Torres are dead) and retains a mystery at its core as to why this is happening. The need to explain afresh each time Kes flashes back to an earlier time could have been totally dreary, but the dialogue gets around that nicely and keeps the pace fast and the tone increasingly tense and dark. What starts off as a mystery in a happy future (marriage, kids etc) descends into the hell of war, death and chronoton torpedoes. There is also darkness as the end of the tunnel as Kes spirals back past her time on Voyager to her life before and to the point where she was a single fertilised cell. The ageing makeup is impressive and Jennifer Lien pulls off a good performance, and gets a new look, as Kes in an episodes centred totally around her. She and her character are rapidly becoming one of the most interesting among the crew. TopReal LifeThe Doctor creates a holographic family in order to better understand his patients. When Kes and B'Elanna are introduced to that family they find them to be anodyne examples of perfection. B'Elanna does some reprogramming in order to make them more realistic and the Doctor learns that family life contains as much pain as it does joy. There's a subplot in this episode about rifts in space/subspace, but forget that - it's just a clumsy excuse to give the Doctor someone to rail against when his headstrong daughter proves less controllable than first intended. This is the Doctor's episode and, as with other episodes in this season, it starts off bright and funny and then goes to some very dark places. Indeed, it will be a very hard hearted viewer that doesn't get a sizeable lump in their throat as a result of the Doctor's final visit to his 'home'. TopDistant OriginA scientist has some radical views, views that hold his race came not from what they believe to be their home planet, but from a planet far across the galaxy from which they fled millions of years ago. The science ministry will have none of these beliefs that fly in the face of thousands of years of doctrine, doctrine so absolute that it rules the whole race. The scientist plans to prove his theory with evidence and the ministry is just as determined to destroy that evidence. Unfortunately, the origin planet was Earth and the evidence is the crew of the Voyager. Evolution or creationism? The debate is still being carried on in certain parts of the world. It is probably being carried on in a more interesting fashion than in this unsubtle and really rather dull talkathon. There are some efforts to make the piece a bit more lively by having the race far more advanced than Voyager technologically and throwing in the threat of death to the crew, but when it comes down to it, this just isn't all that exciting, barely interesting and has only the extensive alien design going for it. The crew of the Voyager are merely onlookers in their own show and that cannot be good. Well, it isn't. TopWorst Case ScenarioA new holonovel is taking the ship by storm. Taking the form of a Maquis rebellion against Captain Janeway, it is compelling, but unfinished. Tuvok, the unexpected author, is prevailed upon to finish the scenario, but on reopening the file finds that it has been booby-trapped by the long-dead Seska as a means of enacting her revenge upon him. The holodeck is a wonderful science fiction conceit, but why on earth would anyone ever set foot in one? They have proved to be nothing but trouble since the first one appeared in THE NEXT GENERATION. Why would anyone invent one that had safety protocols that could be overidden? Why would anyone develop one that could kill? Apart from that one fairly basic flaw in the logic, this is a great fun episode that starts off in an intriguing fashion and then goes off in all kinds of directions that aren't expected to a satisfying conclusion. It is, for a story all about an entertaining story, an entertaining story. TopDisplacedThe crew of the Voyager are disappearing, one by one, to be replaced by an alien who has no knowledge of how they came to be on board the ship. As the crew dwindles, it starts to become clear that all is not as it appears to be with the alien victims of the translocation process. The exchange of one alien for one crewmember is an original infiltration method, but that aside there is nothing here that we haven't seen before. It's all competently done, but the plot doesn't hold water as just four of the crew are able to destroy the scheme of a whole ship load of aliens, but then that's STAR TREK. TopScorpion - Part 1The Voyager enters Borg space and is quickly overtaken by 15 Borg cubes, but they are destroyed with shocking ease by an alien race that is emerging from quantum singularities. Their biological technology seems immune to the Borg and the investigation into the battle leaves Harry Kim infected with an alien disease. Analysis of the Borg logs show that they are fighting a species that is beating the hell out of them, so Janeway offers them a deal - an alliance against this new enemy. Unfortunately, the new kids on the block up show up and start demolishing Borg planets before a deal can be finalised. When you need to pick up a STAR TREK franchise show and improve it then you turn to the Borg. Arguably, the Borg made THE NEXT GENERATION from the moment that they first appeared. Their appearances have been highlights of the franchise ever since. Creating an alien species even stronger and more deadly than the Borg, creating the possibility of an alliance is a masterstroke, bringing in all kinds of moral greys into Janeway's character. Is she selling herself and her crew into mortal danger because of her obssession in finding a way home? Can you make a deal with the devil? It's a series finale, so it's all about setting up a storyline that will make the audience want to come back next time. Hell, they had us at 'Borg', but the rest of the story just makes us all the more determined. We never thought we'd say it, but we can't wait for Season 4. Top |
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