Star Trek Voyager (VOY) Season 5 Guest Reviews

Stardate 52143.6: Synopsis in main VOY listing

Commentary

"Timeless" is a crowning achievement of an episode and fittingly the 100th episode of Star Trek: Voyager. Again, we witness another 'what if' future scenario, with Voyager destroyed and a bitter, cynical, older Harry Kim determined to save the past and correct the mistake he made which lead to Voyager's destruction.

A couple of remarkable scenes of note below, a great performance by Garrett Wang, it's a simple story, but very effective in how it's told, visually and emotionally, the opening sequence of Voyager trapped under ice, the scene where we see its destruction. Witnessing Chakotay and Kim's pain at the loss of their crew mates and accepting the price they, and Chakotay's girlfriend Tessa, are willing to pay to carry out their objective. Great episode.

Annotations

Remarkable dual roles: LeVar Burton both directs and stars in this episode, reprising his role as now Captain Geordi La Forge.
Remarkable scene: The climax of the story, as we see the Flyer leading Voyager into the slipstream one moment, then it being chased, 15 years in the future, by the Challenger
Remarkable ship: The USS Challenger, possibly named so for the NASA space shuttle, which was destroyed with her crew in 1986.
Remarkable dialogue: "But I've had a long time to rethink my mistake, and now I know how to fix it. So...we're going to send Voyager a new set of phase corrections." - "...Isn't it a little late for that?" -Harry Kim and The Doctor

Rating: 8 (Cameron)

Timeless

Synopsis

Stardate not given: Synopsis in main VOY listing

Commentary

The teaser of this is rather ironic - Voyager buried deep and unrecoverable.

We discover that Voyager tried to use that quantum slipstream technology they got from Arturis back in "Hope and Fear" to get home. Considering that they just installed the thing WITHOUT testing and such, and it was strong enough to Voyager into Borg space and get Jinny and Seven out of it, they decide to make it normal WITH testing - or course something goes wrong and Voyager crashed.

The only survivors are Harry and Chuckles (as always) who were spearheading the flight in the Delta flyer. They make it home but have to live with the grief that all their friends are dead.

So in typical Star Trekiness, the pair discovers a time travelling way to 'reset' the past and save all concerned. By using a Borg temporal transmitter, they discover the carcass of Seven aboard the crashed Voyager - preserved because said ship crashed on an ice planet - install the device into the literal chopped out skull of the dead Borg and send a message back into the past to "save the day" through her in the past. Think of it as a "Time Walkie Talkie".

Of course by doing that - and succeeding, fifteen years of future time is gone.

Despite a few bits of excellent SFX and some good acting from Garrett Wang, this is a horrid episode. Why? Because it does three things I feel that fed the death knell for the franchise.

First - the Borg temporal device - another reset switch, another 'what if' story comes to pass. What is the point of this? I feel that this is trying to be like the classic TNG episode "Yesterday's Enterprise" but that was altered by unexpected events AND we see that the change in time is unnoticed. Plus the choice made there was "damn if we do, damn if we don't". This is a deliberate attempt to do a dramatic story without risk.

On that it comes the second part of my criticism of this episode; the crew of Voyager have the right - no belief - to rewrite time to save all concerned - so damn all whose lives have evolved for fifteen years, sod those whose futures are either rewritten or worse erased. Voyager and its crew WILL get home, F*** the universe, time, and fate. This will be repeated with great furore in the finale "Endgame".

The third and final point is this - you now know that they will make it home - no matter who they encounter, no matter what threat they face, they will always find a way to succeed and with the main cast all alive. The chances of them being say killed trying, or marooned, or not succeeding are not gone but not even considered. They will get home because there are ways to guarantee it.

To me this does not just kill any plausible drama, it also mocks storytelling - begging the question why bother. Why drag out the series to the obvious ending.

The reason they do this is to keep the Trek Core happy - when favourite characters, ships, or scenarios come to pass where they will die or something untrek, the furore they cause is immense - look at the stink the Death of Tasha Yar caused, Spock's funeral, the destruction of the Original Enterprise, Data's death/B4 reserve, and Patrick's Stewart's attempt to leave Trek many a time. They are so afraid to rock the boat, but by doing it, it creates bland stories where the crew would be killed ONLY to find out it was a temporal anomaly, clone, or alternate line of a kind and everything is peachy!

Is that brave creative writing? No, its cowardice.

This is the problem with protective writing pandering to fans; you have a far greater risk in alienating potential new ones. In addition, it kills creativity - look to the future episodes to see my point. Prior to this and having Seven of Nine in the cast, we had the excellent "Distant Origin" and "Deadlock".

Playing safe, and repeating the same old same old creates recycyled rubbish. This is the ultimate stuck in the rut. 2/10

Annotations

Remarkable acting: Garret Wang as the bitter harder future Harry - if he was allowed to be this seasoned in the series I think we would have had a remarkable character, instead of button pusher yes ma'am/no ma'am Kim. One point.
Remarkable SFX: Voyager's crash on the ice world - excellent CGI and worthy of another point. Pity its so brief and we never see the crew die in the process.
Remarkable stupidity: The quantum slipstream drive - deemed to dangerous to use, and like with transwarp drive and the soliton wave, its abandoned. Why not use it in bursts?

Rating: 2 (Chris S)

Timeless

Synopsis

Stardate 52143.6: Synopsis in main VOY listing

Commentary

I do not often watch Voyager, having basically given up after about half way through the third season. However, sometimes some episodes peak my interest, so here we have "Timeless".

First off the CGI is great and well used. Voyager under the ice is a fantastic shot as is the crash sequence in general. Lovely. Then comes the story. Oh... once again I am reminded why I lost interest in the series. Another time travel techno babble story which alters the future by changing the past. Again violating the laws of the Federation. Chuckles and Kimmy get spotlighted. Chuckles love interest seems to have no problem giving up her life. Kim has no problem changing the timeline. The Doctor has no scruples either... yeah, lets change history or I'll be very bored! Ginny just can't wait to try new tech no matter how reckless or dangerous it seems.... and all the answers seem to just fall in to place as usual resulting in the status quo remaining.

The characters in Voyager are also incredibly dull and bland. There is really no improvement even by season 5. They all seem to be sleep walking though it. The bland run of the mill scripts with plot holes everywhere or plot devices that are just so contrived make you think that the writers just don't give a monkeys about the audience let alone the poor actors having to parrot this nonsense.

Its a mildly entertaining piece that you come away with having no real feeling about. It's just mediocre and a way to switch your brain off for an hour. Pretty much like the whole 7 year saga I'm afraid...

Rating: 4 (Simon)

Timeless

Synopsis

Stardate 52164.3: Synopsis in main VOY listing

Commentary

It is curious that the producers decided to make the 100th anniversary episode of Voyager a Harry Kim show. Garret Wang has already given proof of his ability to carry an entire episode. And he certainly carried a heavy burden here. Failing in his attempt to bring Voyager home he feels responsible for their deaths and his only remaining goal is to nullify his mistake. He is bitter, he is cynical, he has a bad temper - I think the writers hit the mark with this prospect of his character. Voyager buried under kilotons of ice was a spectacular idea for the teaser and the production design did well with designing the L class environment and the frosted interiors of the ship. Looking at the frozen bodies of the crew my blood literally ran cold. Normally I don't like it, if the climaxes of two different plots are alternately shown during the conclusion of an episode, however the similarities between the Delta Flyer in front of Voyager in the slipstream and the Flyer running from a Galaxy class ship are a nice idea. The love interest of Chakotay, Tessa, was probably unnecessary and a little distracting. It was inevitable to show the quantum slipstream drive once more since it had been introduced in "Hope and Fear", where Voyager was already equipped with it for a while. Although the crew was able to construct such a sophisticated propulsion system it is much more realistic that it almost tears the ship apart during his maiden flight. I do not understand Janeway's hurry and why she is sticking to their scheduled flight when they discover the problem with the phase variance. It seems they didn't make simulations whether Harry's plan could work, although the latter and Tom did that 23 times while working on the phase variance problem. Showing the doctor working the whole time on Seven's skull was inappropriate, maybe even a little crude.

Annotations

Remarkable dialog: "Quantum matrix, benamite crystals, Borg technology...Can you imagine, what Starfleet is going to say?" - "I don't think we will hear any complaints. The Federation's first slipstream drive, they probably nominate us for the Cochrane Medal of Honor!" - "I'll start working on my acceptance speech." - "I'd like to thank the Borg Collective." Janeway and Chakotay, joking about the new propulsion system

Rating: 8 (Apex)

Infinite Regress

Synopsis

"Infinite Regress"

Stardate 52356.2: Synopsis in main VOY listing

Commentary

Oh dear, Seven's implants are causing her troubles again, this time her 'sins from the past' catch up with her through what I actually thought was a legitimate piece of technology in the Borg Vinculum, which harmonised all the personalities of drones, considering Seven's still somewhat of a drone though, the vinculum reawakens all these personalities which manifest in her head leading her to act like different people who were assimilated.

It's largely routine an episode, but it's a remarkable performance by the oh so beautiful Jeri Ryan, and a turning point in Seven's development from drone to human, so even if it's very predictable, it still is an important episode for Seven of Nine.

Annotations

Nitpicking: Once more Wolf 359 is used as an excuse just to have humans from other Starfleet vessels show up in some capacity, even though the cube from "The Best of Both Worlds" was destroyed with all Borg, unless it jettisoned some kind of escape pod.
Nitpicking #2: The Ferengi are designated by the Borg as Species 180, doubtful unless some Ferengi found themselves in the Delta Quadrant at a very early point in history when the Borg were still classifying species in triple digits...
Remarkable filming technique: I like how the reflections of images are used to highlight the personality Seven is conveying, both in the opening sequence and when she is playing kadis-kot, images of other people are reflected where Seven should be.
Remarkable quote: "Naomi Wildman, subunit of Ensign Samantha Wildman. State your intentions." -Seven of Nine

Rating: 5 (Cameron)

Infinite Regress

Synopsis

"Infinite Regress"

Stardate not given: Synopsis in main VOY listing

Commentary

Another episode about Seven of Nine - another plot where her Borg implants are giving her grief or her being "stubborn", again Jinny to the rescue, and more Borg revelations.

This time Seven goes bonkers because her implants intercept info coming from a vinculum, a sort of giant hard-drive to capture and oppress individuality. However it’s faulty and Seven being the nearest Borg, picks up the leaking "individualities" and starts to go nuts - a literal case of multiple personalities on the warpath.

At best it shows the talent of Jeri Ryan as an actress - her playing a little girl to Naomi is a real joy of acting, her manner is spot on, funny, and well done. Her other acts are cookie cutter, but seeing a lass in a cat suit doing Ferengi trade attempts is mildly bemusing. On that is the negative - her in her cat suit thrashing about on the bed, all her "physique" wobbling generously - and VERY gratuitous. It's utter sexism here. I know she is supposed to be having an episode, but there are too many shots of her "jiggling" if you get me. If I was a woman I would find these scenes damn offensive.

The cause of all this is a deadly "cyber pathogen" planted in the device by another race who has a number designation - 6339. They want to kill Borg, typically Jinny wants their expertise to help Seven, they don't give it and a fight ensues. Considering how well armed 6339 are, they do not give Voyager a clobbering. In the end a convenient mind meld by Tuvok solves the problem - as it always does - think TOS "Spectre of the Gun", Katra rituals, you get the idea. To be honest is there nothing Vulcan mind melds cannot do? It ends typically; the aliens get their device, Voyager carries on and Seven recovers, but does set up another strand in the Voyager storyline - the Seven of Nine/Naomi Wildman partnership.

I would give it more points but the gratuitous way Seven shakes about downgrades it. Might score high on many a fan boy's list - but that is sexism to me. Shame.

2/10 for the Naomi/Seven partnership and Jeri's acting.

Annotations

Ridiculous aliens: Species 6339 - the antenna/feelers - ohh dear. Also they look too Hirogenish.
Nitpicking: Since when did Ferengi ever get assimilated? More to the point, why are most of the aliens Seven take on are Alpha quadrant types?
Remarkable reference: Seven mentions the Melbourne and the Battle of Wolf 359.

Rating: 2 (Chris S)

Infinite Regress

Synopsis

"Infinite Regress"

Stardate 52356.2: Synopsis in main VOY listing

Commentary

Even though I enjoy every episode centered on Seven of Nine, the producers should do a little more diversity. Since we already know from Picard's experiences after his assimilation, being severed from the collective is an enormous impact on a freed drone, so Seven's continous problems are not hokey, yet. When Jeri Ryan began her tenure on Voyager she wasn't familiar with the Star Trek universe and had to watch tapes from DS9 to learn about Ferengi and Klingon behavior. Seeing her interpretation of other species was quite amusing. The episode also commences the (very unusual) friendship between Seven and Naomi Wildman ("Ensign Wildman's subunit"). There are a couple of inconsistencies which have already been mentioned in other reviews, so I won't go into that.

Annotations

Remarkable 47: According to Naomi Wildman, the Prime Directive has 47 sub-orders.
Remarkable costumes: Species 6339 wears transparent rain coats with fluorescent tubes as uniforms. Does anybody else thinks of the 'Tron' movies?

Rating: 5 (Apex)

Nothing Human

Synopsis

"Nothing Human"

Stardate not given: An alien organism rescued by Voyager attaches itself to B'Elanna, intertwining its tendrils around her vital organs. To assist in removing the creature, the Doctor and Kim construct a holographic assistant specialising in exo-biology; Cardassian scientist, Crell Moset who performed experiments on Bajorans during the occupation of Bajor. Despite the ethical issues at hand, Janeway greenlights the operation, which is a success. The Doctor decides that Moset's and his knowledge has no place in a medical database to later draw upon and deletes his program.

Commentary

This is a frustrating episode that tried to shield itself behind the wall of human (or in this case, Bajoran) experimentation and the ramifications it has when it comes to using the gathered information on B'Elanna to remove the 'alien pest' of the week to cover up the blandness of the episode, but in the end makes the crew look really bad and I wanted to slap them all except Paris. The crew take the high road too in order to make themselves feel better by condemning the holographic Moset, perhaps I relate to Tom most of all in his frustrations over the senior staff busy having a debate over morals while B'Elanna's life was slipping away. They all seem to act as if THE Crell Moset on their ship was the real one and it were up to them to judge him. B'Elanna herself of course objecting to Moset operating on her, and all but forbids it happen.

The random Maquis officer we haven't seen before nor since (Tabor) is embarrassing in his 'attack' on the holographic representation of Moset, did he seriously think that the Cardassian scientist had 'Wizard of Oz-ed' his way onto Voyager from Cardassia Prime and that throwing a swing at him would achieve anything? Could this goldshirt not discern from a real person and an autonomous representation? And his threats to resign his commission are hollow, as we never knew of this character before and he only appears once more in the series in 'Repression'.

It's really pathetic to see the crew acting thick to treat a few beams of light and photons with a voice box dressed up like a Cardassian as a war criminal and the ending is unsatisfactory, with the Doctor conveniently washing his hands of the situation by deleting Moset's program. It doesn't help of course when yet another sentient hologram is brought into the series, of course, this was only done to try and make the viewer detest Moset even more, a more realistic hologram (compared to the ones in say, the Hawaiian resort program) wouldn't have made for an easier target for the crew's vitriol ;)

Anyway, the episode is nothing special, the commentary takes the spotlight and the B-Plot is largely routine, the Alien is removed, mainly due to the Doctor's compassionate tactics just to show up Crell's torturous methods, and is returned to its ship. Seven of Nine takes over engineering while B'Elanna's KO'd, not like it matters though. B'Elanna snaps at Janeway for allowing the surgery to go ahead, Janeway, in her hypocritical fashion brushes off Torres's protests and berates her for it with her usual 'I'm the Captain, therefore God' rationalisation, even if it's a true rationalisation.

Annotations

Remarkable quote: "Fine. Let's just deactivate the evil hologram and let B'Elanna die. At least, we'd have our morals intact." -Tom Paris
Remarkable scene: Janeway, Chakotay, Tuvok, Paris and the Doctor in the conference room debating over Torres's fate, it's a shame more scenes like this weren't in the series which showcased the abilities of all these actors, great scene in a dull episode.
Remarkable set: Crell Moset's laboratory, I'm guessing they had some leftover decor' from DS9 that needn't have gone to waste ;)
Remarkable fact: Roxann Dawson had claimed this was her least favorite episode to work on, due to the death of her dog during the episodes filming, and all her work on set was limited to lying on a biobed :(

Rating: 3 (Cameron)

Nothing Human

Synopsis

"Nothing Human"

Stardate not given: Synopsis in main VOY listing

Commentary

The teaser promised us something special after the mild humour of the holographic lecture by the Doctor. A chat in the mess hall that is rudely shaken by a shockwave of sorts. This could have had the promise of something epic.

However, it transcends into another stupid unconvincing morality play.

In a nutshell, an alien ship sent out their equivalent of a distress call in the form of said shockwave and Voyager comes to its aid. I will admit the alien 'pilot' was that for once - not another human with dodgy make up. However as they are trying to treat it, it breaks through a force field and attaches itself to Torres. Strangely/conveniently it cannot be transported off her, and she is nothing but a host to it.

Since it's such an exotic piece of life, the Doctor (considering his 'vast database') does not know how to separate her but by chance knows a man on file who can - one Crell Moset - a Cardassian.

Rather than just pull his file, they turn him into a hologram. By chance a never seen before Bajoran, one Ensign Tabor, sees this holographic representative and goes bananas - because this Dr Moset is an infamous war criminal who tortured his family.

On this the crew learn of the real Moset's atrocities, and have a debate should they use his knowledge to save Torres or let morality win the day; cue a well made but feeble scene where the senior officers have a major rant about it all. In the end Katy takes charge and orders the go ahead.

I am in total agreement with Cameron and Bernd on this. Its a bland and frustrating episode but there is more to this that is way wrong.

First, the idea of creating another holo-character. In the past it has been claimed that the computers cannot handle two holo-beings, a point well emphasised in "Message in a Bottle" when they tried to make a replacement EMH. Yet here they whip up Mr Moset with no sweat or detriment to the ship's systems. Hell they even re-create his abode! One can say that its temporary or that they have improved such systems. Okay, so why not whip up an EMH nurse? I mean they have all the ’variables’ of said specialist, a nurse would be no problem. In addition, considering how long they had Mr Moset waltzing about with no visible detriment to the ship, the excuses for not doing the above are BS. Of course the real reason is that would have to pay an extra actor.

On the subject of extra people, the sudden and unexpected appearance of Ensign Tabor who attacks the fake Crell and exposes all to his atrocities. In one brave scene, he tells Chuckles bluntly of what he thinks. However like with most 'guests of the week', we never hear from him again except to pop up in "Repression"; nor is the issue resolved over the use of Dr Moset‘s knowledge.

On the subject of Crell Moset, why make a holographic character? surely they could have just removed a few routines from the Doctor and added these in? No of course not, that would be easy. They had to engineer him this way, bollock-kicking the previous rules on two holographics. In addition, he is the ONLY experienced xenobiologist - err, the mighty exploring Federation has no one of such skill? What about the things the captains of previous Enterprises have encountered - and saved?

Then there is the way they 'operate' on the alien; obvious torturous delight from Moset because he is of a villainous race, and when the Doctor takes over (he who has NO EXPERIENCE in this field remember) he does it with calm and succeeds thus begging the question again, why have a holo-Moset? More to the point, why operate? If its hanging onto her for life, the arrival of the rescue ship would have caused it to leave, right?

This Moset is a character they whipped up; for him to act allegedly like the real bloke is rubbish. Look to the TNG episode "Galaxy's Child" to see the difference between holographic perception compared to real person.

The final act where the Doctor erases him and all relevant material is what, suppose to make us cheer? Tell us that the good guys have won by washing the stain away from their morality? Please, that is so cheap. This is a pseudo-morality tail presented in the most ill-conceived and poorly planned narrative afloat. It shows Moset a ‘nasty’ piece of work but designed to do nothing more but create moral brisling to the "moral superior" crew. He is nothing more than a bogeyman.

Its also smug, cowardly and patronising; we never hear a peep out of Tabor again, probably threatened to stay quiet about Moset, a fact further emphasised when Torres complained about it to Katy only for her imperial highness to basically makes Torres put up and shut up. Nor does another similar incident ever occur.

So what happens if they encounter another situation like this? Or worse? Deleting the details does what? Clean their souls? There could have been some great follow ups on this - like something similar happens to another person and may have to resurrect Crell, and who knows where that could have gone.

Of course it will never happen in the cartoon world of Star Trek. The good guys win, have clean hands, and waltz away into space, saints. And they wondered why Trek was going down the pan...

2/10 for alien originality, and a good idea - but loses points for the BS pseudo morality issue.

Rating: 2 (Chris S)

Nothing Human

Synopsis

"Nothing Human"

Stardate not given: Synopsis in main VOY listing

Commentary

This episode deals with the moral dilemma of possibly harming one alien life-form to save one of the crew and with medical ethics in general: the consequences of using data, which had been aquired by experimenting on humanoids, to treat a patient. If you are able to suppress all of the other issues of this installment, which are distracting or just stupid (please read the other reviews), the medical ethics debate is quite interesting, the Cardassian Dr Mengele and our Doctor have many nice scenes together. I am annoyed by the frequently used plot of a person refusing medical treatment, here out of moral concerns. It seems as if the people in the 24th century have a much lower regard for their own life. Since the senior stuff already had a heated debate about allowing Crell Moset to proceed it was not necessary to let B'Elanna have a voice about it too, especially since she was unconscious most of the time. I point out how much her mind could have been impaired, while having a giant centipede fused to her body (Tom Paris thought so too). It all came down to Janeway making the decision. This is captain's prerogative. Her job his to safeguard the welfare of the ship's crew and she has to weigh the interest of many against the interest of few. She is the captain, she can not always be their friend.

I still think the moral debate was way out of line here. I couldn't help but to think about nuclear power. The 'dilemma' seemed to be similar to someone who would refuse to supply his house with electricity which is produced by a nuclear power plant, because he thinks it would impair the memories of the people who died during the Chernobyl disaster.

I also want to indicate the fact that all the information about Crell Moset and his findings, which were used to create the hologram and to save B'Elanna's life were extracted from the Federation's medical database in the ship's computer. You can conclude that Starfleet didn't put in this data only for political education on the Occupation of Bajor.

Annotations

Nitpicking: After seven years of DS9 and countless references to Cardassian atrocities, why didn't we ever hear about Crell Moset and his hospital of death?

Rating: 4 (Apex)

Thirty Days

Synopsis

"Thirty Days"

Stardate 52179.4: Synopsis in main VOY listing

Commentary

Another near failure at character development on Voyager. For a while now one wonders what had happened to the supposed 'bad boy' Tom Paris's reputation labelled him as before joining the Voyager crew, he ran a betting ring for an episode? He made quips? "Thirty Days" just attempts to capitalise on that supposed reputation and for me, doesn't convince.

Telling the story in flashback for a start, yet another example of how any sense of continuity and ongoing arcs for characters was completely overlooked by the writers of the series, much the same as Chakotay's 'vision quests', B'Elanna's problems with her Klingon heritage, or the Doctors forays into non-medical areas were plot lines only very sporadically through out the journey. Never could the story be told over long periods to make us a little more interested in what was happening with these people's lives on the way home.

In the end though, Tom isn't any less off for it, he spends thirty days growing a 5-o'clock shadow and loses a pip off his collar, but why did he need one anyway for CONN? Wesley manned CONN and was an ACTING ENSIGN, Ro Laren was an ensign, Miles was Lt. Junior Grade if I recall. So the consequences of his demotion are little and of no major concern for the viewers.

His ongoing commentary in the letter to his father only loosely maintains the references towards the pair's differences, something other than a surreal dream experience would've better conveyed their problems though, say a flashback to Tom in his Cadet days on Earth being berated by his father for say, his penchant for not following the rules at the Academy. Dream sequences are just used far too often to try and carry a point across, probably to save money on new sets or location shooting, but I think in this instance a different approach would've only helped, something so simple as putting the two characters in the same frame together, communicating, really carries more weight than what was presented this episode, a child-Tom, playing with a sailboat, hearing the lecturing voices of his father and of Janeway.

Now onto homicidal maniac Janeway. Her efforts to uphold the Prime Directive again changes for a start, her stance on the Directive changes like usual, giving the Moneans schematics of the Delta Flyer and oxygen replication systems doesn't seem to be a problem. And she openly admits that she'd have had Tom killed just to stop him in his mission, I don't know about you, but I would be very, VERY nervous serving under this individual. Tom broke the rules, and in the Captain's shoes every step should've been taken to stop him from carrying out his objective, but I was disturbed by the climax of the episode in which Janeway talks about Tom losing protection as a member of the crew once he left the ship, and how his lack of regard for the rules was unbecoming. But we had seen Janeway do the same before in the show and will do again, all but patting herself on the back in the process. Simply, I was troubled by Janeway's lack of reluctance in not wanting to kill a member of her crew, attempts should've been made by Voyager to have stopped Tom, but not to a point where those attempts would lead to his death. Her position on how strictly members of her crew follow the Prime Directive seems to change whether their rank is either 'Captain' or 'not-Captain' ;)

So as I said, try as this show might at getting us interested in the characters, there's little success. We already knew Tom's father had little understanding of his son, the actions in "Thirty Days" don't help to convince he was some sort of criminal either, he admits it was a cause he believed in, and a cause the audience CAN sympathise with because as we follow his story we also understand the Monean bureaucrats were unlikely to act on the problem. So as far as the viewer is concerned, Tom is still not a bad guy, he's not someone whose actions we can thoroughly question because his heart was in the right place and his intent, however radical, was for the greater good.

If there's any positives out of this episode, it's just the concept behind the ocean planet, but that's the extent of it, maybe they had not explored this idea before in more recent Star Trek due to the show 'SeaQuest DSV' screening in the mid-90's. I am not in a merciful mood right now, so this gets a lowly three.

Annotations

Remarkable appearance: The gorgeous Delaney sisters finally appear on screen.

Rating: 3 (Cameron)

Thirty Days

Synopsis

"Thirty Days"

Stardate 52179.4: Synopsis in main VOY listing

Commentary

"Thirty Days" tells us about the more strict approach to the Prime Directive, which had been shown in TNG. Star Trek: Voyager and Captain Janeway in particular are more ambiguous about this issue, something which was undoubtedly introduced to appeal to a broader, more 'nineties' audience, instead of non-interventionists only.

The ocean planet has very impressive special effects, which were deservedly nominated for an Emmy. The fact that the ocean planet consists only of water instead of being a regular planet with water covering all of its surface should have been pointed out earlier in the episode. Tom's alleged fascination with seafaring is a surprise here. Of course we knew he has a fondness for 20th century stuff and his Captain Proton program or his grease monkeying fits right into it. But sailing and riding submarines? His other fondness for flying spaceships and shuttlecraft seems to contradict that. Even the dream of flying vintage propeller-driven airplanes would have been more realistic.

Can you imagine some Greenpeace activists fighting Japanese whalers with the Delta Flyer instead of a rusty old fishing cutter?

After so much teasing and referencing we finally get to see the Delaney sisters!

Annotations

Remarkable 47: The Monean Maritime Sovereignty is composed of 47 regional sovereigns.
(Un)Remarkable beard: After thirty days of imprisonment Tom barely has grown enough hair on his face to make it a designer stubble.
Remarkable dialog: "Torture me all you want Demonica. I'll never crack." - "Oh, but you will. - "By the time I'm through with you, you'll be begging to tell us everything you know." - "You'll be our puppet." - "Our slave." - "Great." -the Delaney sisters as Malicia and Demonica and Harry as Buster Kincaid during the Captain Proton program, the latter enjoying himself very much

Rating: 5 (Apex)

Counterpoint

Synopsis

"Counterpoint"

Stardate not given: Synopsis in main VOY listing

Commentary

"Counterpoint" certainly is unusual and is combining very different plot elements and storytelling techniques, just like a counterpoint would do in music. Speaking of music, as a fan of classical pieces I thoroughly enjoyed this episode's selection and the abstractness of Mahler and Tchaikovsky playing throughout Voyager while armed guards in black attire are searching every corner of the ship for telepaths - most likely a reference to similar scenes from "Schindler's List", where SS soldiers are clearing a Jewish ghetto. Kashyk and Janeway have a very interesting chemistry, but I thought Janeway's blooming feelings for him after only a few days are over the top, especially since she didn't trust him anyway. Their concerted efforts in manipulating the alien scientist for information about the wormhole was amusing.

I paid attention to some of the technobabble and there are few inconsistencies: when the computer analysis finds the probable location of the wormhole, Janeway states that it's less than 8 lightyears from Voyager's current position, but Kashyk warns her that there is a Devore sensor array on the way with a range of 10 lightyears, so the ship should have been detected by then already. Seven states that the exact position of the wormhole can't be determined to less than 200,000 kilometers (half the distance between Earth and the Moon) and that it will remain open for two minutes at most - I assume the audience is supposed to think it would be a close call, but Voyager would need less than three seconds to fly the distance in question while at full impulse.

While the telepath refugees escaped in shuttlecraft it is not clear what happened to Voyager's crew members who were hidden during the first inspection (the two Vulcans Tuvok and Vorik, as well as the Betazoid Ensign Jarot), we can even see Tuvok at his station when Prax hails Voyager.

Annotations

Remarkable fact: This is Kate Mulgrew's favorite Voyager episode.
Remarkable music: Symphony No. 1, second movement by Gustav Mahler plays during the inspections at the beginning and at the end. During the scene with Kashyk and Janeway in the mess hall and at the beginning of the second inspection Symphony No. 4 in F minor, Op. 36, second movement (Andantino in modo di canzona), B flat minor by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky is played.

Rating: 7 (Apex)

Latent Image

Synopsis

"Latent Image"

Stardate not given: Synopsis in main VOY listing

Commentary

Yet another hamfisted attempt at mistimed character development. I'm getting quite tired of Voyager beating me over the head with these episodes about characters so late in the series trying to give us excuses to care about these people when it's too late. They're nearly nothing more than caricatures at this stage, but this isn't quite the case yet for the Doc, he's not quite the charlatan he'll become, and his role hear is fairly sombre, but the situation isn't convincing.

With all the times that the Doc was treating patients, and the rare occasions they had been lost, I doubt he faced this situation before. Certainly "The Killing Game" may have had a similar scenario, with Hirogen asking him to operate not on injured Starfleet personnel, but on the Hirogen themselves. Not seen on screen of course, but I can't dismiss the possibility of it happening.

And his handling of the situation leads this episode to go into the territory of "The Measure of a Man", where Data's rights as an individual were questioned, and he was touted as being property. Janeway essentially does the exact same thing here, equating the Doctor to nothing more than a replicator. My goodness, what an amazingly bizarre view considering the Doctor had done nearly anything and everything that any sentient being was capable of. Relationships, friendships, intuition, a desire to grow beyond his programming, sound familiar? Of course, a parallel to Data, but while it was only the second season where Data's rights were questioned, the fact that 5 years after Voyager's journey begun, and all the experiences the Doctor had, was he suddenly again treated like a piece of property to be tampered with just because he was causing a perceived inconvenience to the crew. His outburst in the Mess Hall wasn't acceptable, but as Janeway later muses, perhaps it wasn't the right decision to just try and delete their way out of the problem.

But for me, the fact that they saw a deletion to parts of his program as some sort of "solution" was the worst part of it all.

And what a surprise, once more they dig out some random gold-shirt we never knew before to play the part of the patient the Doctor had to let die. And of course, this episode once more tries to turn the focus back to Seven of Nine at every opportunity, with Seven visiting Janeway to express her disagreement at the treatment of the Doctor, only to whine that Janeway may treat her the same way some how in the future.

'I guess I should be grateful they're trying this sort of story telling' you may ask, well I'm not, it's all too little too late. They could've tried NOT doing another story about the Doctor which doesn't make much sense, they could've done a boring character story on Harry, or Chakotay, or Tuvok. The story could've been about Voyager's technical troubles and an effort to try and start the ship by getting some supplies, anything but trying to tell a miscued story about an overworked character, making the Captain nearly looking like a villain in the end.

Yet another unsatisfying episode.

Rating: 4 (Cameron)

Latent Image

Synopsis

"Latent Image"

Stardate not given: Synopsis in main VOY listing

Commentary

This episode is full of strong stuff and it makes a point successfully, though it does give a sour taste in our throats over a few issues.

Here's what I liked.

The issues, which patient gets priority? Is it right to change a sentient piece of technology because it's a machine? Is a hologram a person or a piece of technology? And so on, my main gripe with this however is "can you fit this many questions into 50 minutes?" And yes it does but not quite. They are real deep, the first issue is shown well in this episode but I feel it was done slightly better in VOY "Critical Care". I like how it's done.
- The second question is a lot more general and I extremely liked Seven's involvement, obviously showing how much she has changed although her reference to her being similar to the Doctor made little sense. It may have been better if she complained a lot more or put up a bit of a mutiny (not an actually killing type of mutiny, btw).
- The third question fails to make a point, there have been so many attempts at whether machine are sentient beings or not but every episode fails to make a point, we had TNG: "Measure of a Man" which was perfect and the only one that handled it correctly, DS9: "Dax" which wasn't about machines but had similar issues, this episode and VOY: "Author, Author" which failed to make a point. All of these episode involved courtrooms but "Latent Image" doesn't but this never expands enough to fill up the story. Janeway's quote about him being like a replicator was an awful example and turned Janeway from the "I'm the Captain, do as I say" person into the "what I say goes and if I say a clever hologram is just a piece of junk, then it is" person, it was so awful.
I liked Robert Picardo's acting and I think his scenes of madness was excellent. Kate Mulgrew proved she could act, just not very well. Now, maybe that's a bit harsh but I'm in a harsh mood.
The ending was nice, it didn't answer everything but it left room to imagine and did it in a unique way, although I would have liked mentions of this treatment in the next few episodes. There isn't really much to say about it to be honest.

Now, for the things I hate.

Janeway becomes pure evil, she never seems to be a nice person in this episode, she deletes a lot of the Doctor's program, ignores a lot of crew's complaints and says stuff that make no sense.
The ensign, we never saw her, we never met her and all she did was annoy me drastically. She was a nice female character who could have easily fitted into Voyager but she's dead. The way the episode sounds, it makes it seem like she was a key character, having a huge birthday party and a grand sending off involving a special speech by Janeway, why? It's pointless, all the Voyager writers ever do is create characters, develop one step then kill them or never mention them again. Here is a suggestion, they could have used Lt Carey or Vorik? That would explain their disappearances but hey, this is Star Trek, it doesn't matter if every character appears once and disappears with 150 people aboard, no one will notice a few disappearing, yeah right.
The aliens, like usual they have no background just powerful weapons and liking to attack. That was disappointing, they didn't even need aliens in this story, it could have been a dangerous anomaly or something, but no, they have to have dangerous aliens, how un-original.

Altogether I liked much of this episode but it had too much to explain and never managed to say them. So a good episode, just too many issues to make it exceptional.

Annotations

Nitpicking:
- If the flashback is on Voyager before 7 of 9 joined, how come Kes isn't helping the Doctor in sickbay during major surgery (I know Jennifer Lien wasn't part of Voyager at this time but it seemed a bit strange.)
- The Doctor asked the computer to transfer his matrix from the emitter to the sickbay, he took the mobile emitter off THEN the computer says "Transfer complete", what if the transfer hadn't been complete, wouldn't his program be destroyed?
- The Doctor tells the computer to make a copy of all his files as a backup, he then places a trap using his holo-recorder. His files are deleted and he wakes up again, restoring his backup files if he recorded the backups before setting up the traps, how did he remember how he set the trap up?
- The crew met the hostile aliens 18 months ago, which puts it between "Worst Case Scenario" and "Scorpion 1/2", which means it's close to Borg space but the Borg have never met them but that doesn't make sense, the Borg have captured Kazon, Talaxian and Ferengi but never even seen aliens who live right next to their space - that makes no sense at all.
Remarkable fact: Roberto said this was his favourite episode because it had the most development for his character.
Remarkable scene: The flashbacks, a nice way to show the past.

Rating: 7 (Darren Carver - Balsiger)

Latent Image

Synopsis

"Latent Image"

Stardate not given: Synopsis in main VOY listing

Commentary

"Latent Image" deals with the dilemma of medical decisions which have fatal consequences and command decisions which have a bitter taste. The first part with the Doctor discovering a mystery about an anonymous person tampering with his memories is thrilling, but it turns into a debate about sentience and moral obligations. Janeway's initial decision to delete the Doctor's memories about the fatal incident is one of the most debatable issues in Star Trek's history. Her conversation with Seven and her comparing the Doctor to the replicator was quite revealing: she still doesn't consider him to be a sentient being and regards his breakdown as a mere inconvenience which can be resolved by tipping on a console. It is poetic justice that it is Seven of Nine who gives Janeway a dressing-down about the nature of individuality - the teacher has accomplished her goal, when the student is smater than her! Robert Picardo again acted with distinction.

By the time the death of Ensign Jetal occured, Kes was still the Doctor's assistant, Tom Paris actually began his tenure in sickbay months later.

Annotations

Remarkable dialog: "Perhaps you should accompany me to sickbay, doctor." - "Et tu, Tuvok? -Tuvok and The Doctor, the latter referencing Julius Caesar

Rating: 6 (Apex)

Bride of Chaotica!

Synopsis

"Bride of Chaotica!"

Stardate not given: Synopsis in main VOY listing

Commentary

This is a highly enjoyable episode which if handled incorrectly could've ended up really bad, but this just hits all the right notes in the most appropriate fashion and is such a success as a result. The old-timey music, scripting, the famous 'wipes' to transition between scenes, the nostalgia of the Captain Proton program brought even further to life thanks to a memorable performance by Martin Rayner as Chaotica.

And the cast ham it up well too, Robert Duncan McNeill revels in the role of Paris as Proton, and Kate Mulgrew is absolutely beautiful and delightful as Arachnia. The Doctor also has a few well delivered lines while masquerading as the 'President of Earth'

Just an immensely fun episode full of laughs, a welcome change for the so-far disappointing Season 5.

Annotations

Remarkable quote: "The Destructor beam on my rocket ship can disable the death ray, but only if someone gets inside the Fortress of Doom and can shut down the lightning shield." -Paris
Remarkable quote #2: "I'll see you at the Fortress of Doom. And remember, you're the Queen!" -Paris to Janeway
Remarkable dialogue: "Let me get this straight: trans-dimensional aliens have mistaken your Captain Proton simulation for reality." - "Yes ma'am." - "And now an armed conflict has broken out between these aliens, and Chaotica's holographic army." - "Yes ma'am... His army of evil." -Janeway and Paris
Remarkable PUN: "Ah, I see you've kept my pheromones. I didn't realize you were the scent-imental type." -Janeway as Queen Arachnia

Rating: 8 (Cameron)

Bride of Chaotica!

Synopsis

"Bride of Chaotica!"

Stardate not given: Synopsis in main VOY listing

Commentary

Star Trek series have always produced episodes which are purely made for fun. The inherent style however is very different and doesn't always capture the viewer's taste, which is evident, if you only look at the different ratings these episodes are getting here. "Bride of Chaotica!" is one that I didn't enjoy very much, because it just wasn't my kind of humor. An installment like this is not to be taken very seriously, you have to accept that before you watch it. The main issue I have to criticize is the recycled plot of Starfleet officers having to play a character on the holodeck to finish the story, because the holodeck can't be shut down otherwise. Here it is Janeway who reluctantly plays Queen Arachnia. This alone prooves a certain amount of silliness, because if the Voyager crew really wanted to shut down Chaotica's lightshield they could probably assault his Fortress of Doom with a security team, instead of sending the captain in disguise.

The show probably makes more in-jokes on Star Trek clichés than any other episode during the carefully designed Captain Proton program: Tom and Harry make references to cliffhangers to draw viewers, to inconsistencies among the different Captain Proton chapters, to the reuse of expensive studio sets, their rocketship even crashes on a godforsaken planet. Furthermore Tom is very familiar with the fictitious technology of the program, much to Tuvok's surprise. Think of it this way: If there was something like a holodeck nowadays - which Star Trek fan would hesitate to participate in his own Trek series with oneself as ship's captain? ;)

Annotations

Remarkable fact: After Voyager ran aground on the subspace sandbar the crew needs three days to implement their plan to break free by powering down the warp core. Shouldn't that take a few minutes at most?
Remarkable continuity error: When they meet the photonic aliens on the holodeck Tom Paris refers to Tuvok as Lieutenant instead of Lieutenant Commander.

Rating: 6 (Apex)

Gravity

Synopsis

"Gravity"

Stardate 52438.9: Synopsis in main VOY listing

Commentary

Tuvok in love again, sorta. Some appropriate flashbacks to his youth when he was wrestling with his emotions compliments his story on the alien planet, dealing with a woman, stranded for many 'seasons', who falls in love with him. Of course, Tuvok can't reciprocate his feelings, and once more he seems slightly worse off for it, though he would never admit that of course.

The B-plot, Voyager trapped on the other side of the anomaly that the shuttle Tuvok, Paris and the Doctor was on fell into, races against time to rescue the away team, however due to the anomaly, time accelerates faster on the planet, which adds a neat little twist which is well played out over the course of the episode, much more so than 'One', where a great deal of time passed but it wasn't conveyed so well.

So a pretty well conceived, well acted episode, nothing special though.

Rating: 5 (Cameron)

Gravity

Synopsis

"Gravity"

Stardate not given: Synopsis in main VOY listing

Commentary

Here we go again - another shuttle crash, another situation that tests Tuvok's logic (VOY: "Alter Ego"), another what appears to be a no-win situation but by luck and very good timing all are saved (VOY: "Once Upon a Time"), another planet full of rival savage beings and they find convenient refuge with good survivors of said world (VOY: "Unity"), another alien race doing what they are told but conflicts with Voyager's attempt to save/rescue a crewmember (err, did we not JUST see this in "Infinite Regress" with the vinculum and Species 6339?), another temporal/spatial anomaly, and it all wraps up with the ubiquitous hint of sadness/thoughtful type ending.

Considering that they have a team of writers - a TEAM - all they ever do is recycle past and even just finished episodes doing the same thing as before with mild tweaks so one hopes you do not notice. This is not even sloppy - this is rot - no wonder people were getting bored.

I have no real qualms about recycling plot points but this is so blatant to the point of lazy. In addition, the "tweaks" to make it appear different are just as poor - one person instead of a colony - and said person is just there; a wrecked ship instead of a habitat, a different anomaly, and some member of the main cast getting emotional for a different reason; here its Tuvok suppose to fall for Noss - but we have seen him confront temptation (VOY: "Alter Ego") and we know his metal - he doesn't. Why not something different?

No effort!

Many would say that soaps and other dramas do the same thing - trust me I do not refute that, but they are neither immune of the criticisms of repetition and tedium - and many have died the death they deserve. For something as prestigious as Star Trek, one expects better. It’s a sad disgrace. A waste of actors, time, and franchise.

Dire.

Rating: 0 (Chris S)

Gravity

Synopsis

"Gravity"

Stardate 52438.9: Synopsis in main VOY listing

Commentary

Concerning the shuttle crash I refer to my earlier statement from the review of Season 3's "Coda" about the writing team pulling balls out of a sack with one of them labeled "Shuttlecraft crash".

This time the culprit is a subspace sinkhole which swallows spaceships. The only intersting thing about it was the time differential between the interior of the sinkhole and the space surrounding it. As a result the away team is stranded on a desert planet for months while only two days are passing on Voyager. It seems as if survival on barely hospitable planets is prioritized during Starfleet training (a wise precaution considering the frequent robinsonades), since the members of the away team obviously have no lasting sufferings like malnutrition (e.g. from eating arachnids the size of a football - yuck!) or psychological traumas from their experience whatsoever. At the beginning of the episode there is a shot of the desert landscape where you can see several crashed spacecraft which are distributed over a few kilometers. It is highly unlikely that all the vessels which were pulled in by the distortion would go down on practically the same spot. The multispatial probe which had been salvaged with great efforts during the events of "Extreme Risk" is used here as a transporter relay and is obviously left behind, but it probably was destroyed anyway by the implosion of the subspace sinkhole.

Tuvok's youth experience with a Vulcan master and how he learned to control his emotions would have made an interesting episode in itself, but it wasn't given enough time here to play a significant role. I am very puzzled by Paris's attempt to persuade Tuvok of pursueing a relationship with Noss. I want to take this opportunity to take up the cudgels on behalf of fidelity during a romantic relationship. Members of the Voyager crew have argued about this issue with the same reason they state for not following Starfleet regulations to the last: the sheer distance to the Alpha Quadrant. Harry Kim had been engaged in numerous romances so far, while his girlfriend Libby is sitting at home and Tom is suggesting Tuvok should forget about his wife and children...

Annotations

Remarkable 47: The temporal differential ratio between the ship and the stranded away team is 0.4744 seconds per minute. Tuvok calculates that the scheduled 30 minutes would last 2 days 11 hours 47 seconds.
Remarkable dialog: "You know something? I always thought that beneath that cold, Vulcan exterior lay a... even colder, Vulcan interior. But now, I'm convinced you're a hopeless romantic." - "There is no need to insult me, Mister Paris." - Tom Paris and Tuvok
Remarkable fact: I want to correct the uncertain statement by Bernd about the race of Tuvok's adolescent love interest: according to information from Memory Alpha she was a Terrelian.

Rating: 4 (Apex)

Bliss

Synopsis

Stardate 52542.3: Synopsis in main VOY listing

Commentary

I actually didn't mind this episode much, yes it's a bit contrived that once again the crew be rendered unconscious and it's up to Seven and the Doc to almost single handedly save the day again much like "One". But the addition of the very cool Qatai and the 'beast' manipulating the thoughts, making the crew believe they've reached home make it a little more interesting. Seven and Naomi also share a nice couple of moments, once again showing how her (Seven's) humanity is still growing.

So even though it's been done before it's a slightly exciting episode with a cool premise and some great visual effects to go with it. Not great, but enjoyable.

Annotations

Remarkable dialogue: "My mom says two heads are better than one. Isn't that the Borg philosophy, too?" - "Simplistic, but accurate." -Naomi Wildman and Seven of Nine

Rating: 6 (Cameron)

Bliss

Synopsis

Stardate 52542.3: Synopsis in main VOY listing

Commentary

Although the basic idea of alien influence has been overdone in Trek, this one adds several new aspects of it and overall I believe is one of the better written stories of Season 5. For starters, the apparent wormhole and seeing the crew's reaction to it, combined with the actions "Starfleet" had Voyager do (shut the EMH off, put Seven into stasis, etc.) leave for an extremely entertaining piece of television. I actually found this part of the episode better than the escape part, or the second half. Add onto all of that, Seven of Nine's obvious error at the end seemed like a perfect character building moment, without being too obvious.

Annotations

Remarkable scene: Voyager in the "pitcher plant." Wow, the detail given to the ship is astounding.
Remarkable error: How could the crew go from being a few hundred kilometers to 3.4 light years away? Must be that pesky pitcher plant giving them false readings ;)
Remarkable scene: The brief conversation between the Doctor and Seven showed the viewers that even she has desires and she isn't immune to everything. Perfect character building moment.

Rating: 7 (Norm)

Bliss

Synopsis

Stardate not given: Synopsis in main VOY listing

Commentary

The actual premise of this episode reminds me of a Judge Dredd plot called the "Hungry Planet" where the beast in question is a world that devours starships.

Sci-fi wise, it’s good, again it shows the dangers of interstellar travel. Like with TOS: "The Immunity Syndrome" a gigantic threatening lifeform is the main antagonist. It also reminds me of the X-File's episode "Field Trip" about a fungus using halogens to induce...bliss, and to render the victims inactive allowing no resistance to take place as it devours.

I do agree that it’s similar to TNG: "The Game" and that once again the usual suspects of immune folk are Seven of Nine, The Doctor, and Naomi, and the OVERUSE of the Astrometrics lab. However, the concentrating on interstellar phenomenon compensates this episode to me. The crusty Qatai I also liked because I felt it was done with a hint of overacting in a Captain Ahab sort of way. The obvious but I can tolerate it because it's a true sci-fi story.

Not bad.

Annotations

Remarkable scenes: Voyager inside the beast. Excellent SFX! Also it escaping with Qatai's ship.
Remarkable revelation: All the major cast reveal their hopes - Tom wants to be a test pilot, Tuvok wants to be with his wife, and Janeway is delighted that Mark is single. The most remarkable desire here is Chakotay - that he is pardoned for past crimes and re-established into Star Fleet - what on Earth did he do that warrants that as a desire?
Remarkable gaff: Janeway pleased that Mark broke off his engagement to his fiancée - but in "Hunters", Mark was already married!
Remarkable similarity: The creature that stars in this episode is similar to a creature Worf described in TNG: "Where Silence Has Lease", that was said to "devour entire starships."

Rating: 6 (Chris S)

Bliss

Synopsis

Stardate 52542.3: Synopsis in main VOY listing

Commentary

In contrast to the many overdone Star Trek clichés - you know them well, so I will spare naming them - I like the concept of giant space-dwelling life-forms. This one is not only big and ugly, but it is also driven by the most basic instinct...hunger! Seven's initial attempts to stop Voyager from entering the biest have been compared to Wesley Crusher's experience during "The Game", although it reminded me more of "Scientific Method", when Seven and the Doctor were the only ones who could detect the alien scienists. Qatai, who was referred to as Ahab already during the episode, is a nice addition and helps to lighten the mood, but his stylized appearance as old, mad monster expert is admittedly a little too fictional. The Doctor and Qatai argued about the sentience and the degree of intelligence of the biest. Personally I could believe that it was capable of reading the wish for a wormhole or a paradisiac planet, but the specific desires of every single person on Voyager? That was very elaborate and maybe unrealistic. I also wonder why the biest didn't bother to create a fitting deception for Naomi Wildman, since it eventually did it for Seven when it fooled her to think the ship had already escaped. I loved the part with the dream sequences and the sudden cut to the unpleasant sight of the biest's stomach on the viewscreen and the bridge crew being unconscious, possibly a reference to the horror classic "Village of the Damned". I would have liked for the dream scenes to include more specific pictures with other crew member's desires, like Harry embracing his folks, Janeway meeting Mark and her dog or Paris flying new spacecraft, but that would have been to expensive of course.

Rating: 6 (Apex)

Dark Frontier, Part I

Synopsis

"Dark Frontier, Part I"

Stardate 52619.2: Synopsis in main VOY listing

Commentary

Yep, Captain crazy strikes again, openly pursuing hostilities with the Borg for a start. Just such a convenience a Borg probe was the ship they encountered. And she's again willing to brush off Chakotay's point that 'sending a message' as she put it could only invite more Borg to come after them. And she's back to her usual self from the earlier seasons where she wants to invite danger upon the crew just for a shortcut. She complains about 2 years added to their journey avoiding the Borg, but they had already cut off at least 15 years from the events of "The Gift" and "Hope and Fear" already. So her reasons weren't justified I thought.

Then there's Seven's story, learning more about her past through her father's logs, of course there's nitpicks about the rumours of the Borg (probably passed on from the El-Aurians from 'Generations', and in hindsight, the events of Enterprise episode "Regeneration"), and the time frame and whatever. My only complaint though is the utter disregard for the original look of the Borg that we first saw in "Q Who". It would've been nice to see that, somewhat scary, white, sterilised environment again, instead of seeing the 'new' look of the Borg in 2353, 12 years before the events of the 'Next Generation' episode cited.

Through this knowledge though we see Seven's human side continue to emerge, as she blames her parents curiosity for letting her become assimilated.

But that's really as far as I can elaborate without seeing the second part. Good build up, but I can never quite agree with Janeway on these issues, constantly putting her crew at risk to keep finding shortcuts when they've covered so much ground. It may have been fine for her to have targeted say, the Hirogen or the Malon if they had something like a transwarp coil, but the Borg are unilateral in their thinking, attack one and you attack them all, and they ALL know the second it happened. Just crazy tactics if you ask me.

So, a 'good' episode, a worthy build up and I like the character development of Seven, the flashbacks coinciding with the events in the 'present' time.

Rating: 7 (Cameron)

Dark Frontier, Part II

Synopsis

"Dark Frontier, Part II"

Stardate 52619.2: Synopsis in main VOY listing

Commentary

Here we go again, another decent build-up ruined by stupid screenplay and character motivations, plot holes and plausibility (or lack of in this case). After 'rejoining' the Collective we find out Seven was planted on Voyager to begin with, crap. You're telling me the Borg Queen, with all the distraction of the war with Species 8472, found the time or inclination to put Seven on Voyager, let alone manipulating events or 'allowing' the cube to be destroyed by the bio-ship in "Scorpion Part II" and beaming Seven aboard, placing faith in the humanity in the Voyager crew not to kill her or toss her off board at the first opportunity (such a humanity still yet to be understood by the Borg at that stage, hence the reason for the ruse? Chicken or the egg?)? Ridiculous.

Janeway, again putting her ship on the line to rescue a single member of the crew, who at first glance left voluntarily, and some resistance put up by Chakotay, simply pointing out that the technology devised by the Hansens would only serve Voyager for so long, never mind the entire plan to get Seven back only puts the ship at further risk of a Borg attack and is risking the lives of the crew and so on and so on. The scenario's happened so many times before now I should be used to it, but I will never find her tactics sound or convincing.

And then there's the Borg Queen, Susana Thompson though is very credible with the role and a worthy successor to Alice Krige's original depiction. In all that though, the depiction is so 'human'. The charm of the Borg, from when we first saw them, was the artificiality. The lack of humanity, the lack of ANYTHING resembling any other species seen on Star Trek till then. They weren't a society driven by any emotions at all. Unlike the devious Romulans, the bloodthirsty Klingons, the treacherous Cardassians, each species with their own citizens who were unique, had their own leaders, the individuals we saw in their society, the Borg were nothing like that at all.

But that all changed. In "First Contact" we were given the Borg Queen, and saw a hierarchy. In "The Omega Directive" they were suddenly religious (as Seven would have put it), and now, again, we see the Queen acting with such personal interest to extract Seven. The Queen is sometimes emotional, not the face most appropriate for what the Borg used to be, because it took away the most compelling part of their identity in the first place: the lack of identity.

And in the end, everyone's home safe and sound, there was little gained from the events of this 2-parter, and everything to lose. The Borg lost more credibility as an interesting villain, the crew of Voyager again lost to the personal interests of their insane captain, who luckily has always got the most impervious of ships and technology at her disposal (explaining how the Flyer could survive the battle, how she and Tuvok could sneak into the Queens doorstep with no drones batting an eye (or ocular implant in their case surely;-D).

To be frank, that sort of stuff ruins an episode for me, there's just way too much suspension of disbelief needed to take this episode seriously. Yes, of course you need suspension of disbelief for Star Trek of all things, but come on, there are still in-universe rules and things that have been established, things that work, but this episode did its best to discredit what worked best for the Borg, especially in relation to Star Trek: Voyager. So for me, if there's any time the Borg became weak, it was here, and it gets worse from here. Gets a generous 5 because of the effects and Susana Thompson's performance. It just wasn't satisfactory, an excuse to blow a big budget on big effects, a silly script which threw common sense out the window to justify Janeway's mad quest to get Seven back from the toothless Borg, with all the big speeches that went along with it.

Rating: 5 (Cameron)

Dark Frontier

Synopsis

"Dark Frontier"

Stardate 52619.2: Bang! A Borg scout ship is destroyed, followed by some strange objects and a suicide mission by Janeway which leads to Seven's betrayal and some more Borg weaknesses and the Queen actually isn't Borgish which is nothing new before a few more explosions and all is forgiven.

Commentary

If Dark Frontier does one thing, it starts the decline of the Borg which continues through VOY: "Collective", VOY: "Unimatrix Zero", VOY: "Endgame" and finally ENT: "Regeneration". It definitely has bright-sides, the Borg Queen being the highlight but it still fails.

The very scene is exceptional with the Borg Scout being destroyed but that's about it, some nice work there, especially viewing it like a Borg at first.

As a 14 year old, you may assume I'm going to love this episode's action side but I don't, a nice idea with an awful plot. The scenes on the sphere are nothing spectacular, although the scene with Seven abandoning Janeway is well done emotionally. My main concern with this part of the episode is how the crew send their Captain, their Chief of Security, in real life would you risk their deaths or assimilation. If they were killed, Chakotay would become Captain and Torres (I think), would become First Officer, imagine how that would be :-) .

This episode has perfect acting, from Susanna Thompson, Jeri Ryan and that's about it. Kate Mulgrew does no spectacular acting, well no more than usual (which isn't amazing).

So, back to the plot, the Borg separated 7 of 9 so they could re-capture her to help them learn about Humanity, what utter shit. What if Seven died? What if she abandoned Voyager before she learned about humanity? What if Voyager killed her? What if ...and on and on again, so I ignore this random rubbish the plot makes sense (just like Picard was just like Kirk :-D).

The final scenes made this episode even worse, they send their Captain, there of chief of security, their only decent medical officer as well as their best helmsman (who is also the only other person with any medical expertise). So that was a bit more crap to add to the list. It was far too easy for Janeway to get in although I liked the whole Seven telling Janeway what to do thing (although it really shouldn't be that simple), the escape was rubbish with the Borg chasing them, I quite liked that.

Bernd's reviews sums up the rest.

Annotations

Remarkable dialogues:
- "We turn chaos into order." - "If you used that instead of 'Resistance is futile' you may enlist a few volunteers." (The Borg Queen and 7 of 9)
- "Don't touch it, Captain." - "What is it?" - "I don't know, but a few minutes ago it was crawling around the floor." (Harry and Janeway)
Remarkable errors:
1. Janeway says Seven is one of thousands of drones, I really think that should be trillions.
2. Why are the Hansens searching for the Borg well before Picard met them, although ENT: "Regeneration" could easily explain this?
3. Why do the Borg the Hansens meet look like the modern ones, are we supposed to believe the TNG ones never existed?
Remarkable quotes: There's tonnes but I didn't make notes (see Bernd's review).
Remarkably spooky scenes:
1. Seven meeting her assimilated father.
2. The assimilation of Species 10026.
3. The scene when Seven is being contacted by the Queen and Naomi comes to talk to her.
Remarkable shipyard: The Borg unicomplex, just awesome.

Rating: 4 (Darren Carver - Balsiger)

Dark Frontier

Synopsis

"Dark Frontier"

Stardate 52619.2: Synopsis in main VOY listing

Commentary

"Dark Frontier" literally leads us to some of the darkest parts we have ever seen on Star Trek: some of the darkest characters, some of the darkest errors concerning plot logic and Trek continuity, some of the darkest scenes they ever dared to show on Star Trek, some of the darkest moments of decision-making the producers ever had...

There are a lot of issues about this feature-length episode which have been discussed already in other reviews. I want to make comments on the ones I particulary noticed.

The Hansen expedition represents a huge continuity problem (please also read Bernd's comment on that). The major issue for me is the amount of correct information the Hansens already possessed or theorized before even spotting a Borg vessel, for example the model of a cube or the Borg's command structure. And how could they develop special shielding that masked them from Borg sensors? When they encounter a Borg cube they have been on their way for 8 months - even at high warp that would be no more than 1000 lightyears, it seems very unlikely that a Borg vessel would be strolling so close to Federation space without neither Starfleet noticing it nor the Borg going for assimilation. From the MSD in the background you can tell that the USS Raven is about 120 meters in length, it seems to be a waste of space for only three people and way too big to maintain it properly. The overconfidence of the Hansens is unbearable. They are studying the Borg like a pack of wolves, tagging them, giving them names and they didn't know when to stop. The fact that they are frequently referred to as audacious pioneers offends me. Since they were assimilated and their ship was destroyed nobody in the Federation could benefit from their studies and they blindly ignored the fears of their young daughter. They are like explorers from the Victorian Era, taking their own child on an expedition to study a remote native tribe in the jungle, only to find out the natives are cannibals. I fully share the opinions stated by Seven and the Doctor - they deserve nothing but contempt.

When the crew of Voyager practices their heist they don't make it in time. Why don't they simply walk faster? There is also the issue with the successful use of stealth technology developed by the Hansens on Voyager's rescue mission. As the Borg Queen rightly says at the end the technologies in question were assimilated by the Borg 20 years earlier. The Borg should have been familiar with them, yet Janeway used them and it even worked! The Borg Queen's statements about her plans to assimilate humanity with Seven's help is also very odd. I never understood the Borg's assimilation policy. The Queen even mentions the inferior capabilities of humans, why do they bother to try assimilating them? Klingons would make more resilient drones, other species from the Alpha Quadrant have better qualities as well, not to mention that the Borg still have to assimilate large parts of the Delta Quadrant with many races which possess superior techology.

The eventual failure of the stolen transwarp coil was predictable of course.

The show heavily invested in special effects (and won an Emmy Award for that), the costumes, the set design and CGI sequences are of the highest quality - and the Borg Unicomplex... holy sh*t! Jeri Ryan as Seven outdid herself and special praise goes to Susanna Thompson, a worthy successor to Alice Krige as Borg Queen - her sparkling eyes had a maleficent appeal. I also liked the use of Naomi Wildman who suggests a rescue plan to the captain (btw I think Voyager should do more scenes with crew members talking to the captain in her ready room, as it was done on TNG). Naomi's Borg transformation during Seven's dream was very scary.

For all of its qualities this episode does one thing: it downgrades the Borg from an abominable menace to a second-rate inconvenience. However I chose to favor the efforts more than the mistakes this time.

Annotations

Remarkable quotes:
- "Now this is how I prefer the Borg: in pieces." -Captain Janeway to Commander Chakotay, looking at the Borg debris in the cargo bay
- "There are three things to remember about being a starship captain: keep your shirt tucked in, go down with the ship, and never abandon a member of your crew." -Captain Janeway, to Naomi Wildman. Note: Well Cameron, it is not a mad quest, it is an imperative concept of military command - you NEVER leave someone behind!
Remarkable ships: This episode marks the only appearance of the Borg probe and the Borg Queen's personal yacht.
Remarkable fact: Part I is the last episode ever directed by Cliff Bole, who directed a total of 42 Star Trek episodes. The Bolians were named after him.
Remarkable ambition: Many of the production crew wanted to make this installment to surpass "Star Trek: First Contact", many of them believed they succeeded.
Remarkable coincidence: Species 10026 unsuccessfully battle the Borg forces with 39 ships, the same number of Starfleet vessels were lost during the Battle at Wolf 359.

Rating: 8 (Apex)

The Disease

Synopsis

"The Disease"

Stardate not given: Synopsis in main VOY listing

Commentary

Ah, forbidden love, tragedy, revolutionary types in the face of another oppressive alien society, it's an ok plot which ties together nicely, and gives Harry another chance to play the lovesick fool, better than nothing I guess. So far he's been the foil for Tom and his pranks, played the lovesick fool so many times (as Tom points out in this episode, keeping with continuity, though I wonder what made 'that' Delany sister the wrong twin...), and got a one off role playing his future self, who ended up a changed man from the one we know.

The only difference here though from his other 'puppy love' roles is his romantic entanglement is supposed to be such a direct violation of protocol that he's made to look so bad for his actions, I'm sure Kirk never had this problem, I doubt Riker had this problem either. There's the ambiguous situation between Chakotay and Kellin in "Unforgettable" which could very well have led to romanticism. Who knows? Maybe even Janeway herself got 'involved' with Kashyk at some stage during "Counterpoint".

But no eyelids were batted to such a degree that it required reprimands, making Chakotay's point about the harshness of Janeway putting one on Kim's record as valid. He had served within the limited capacity of his character as a perennial button pusher/do-gooder. He hadn't set a foot wrong till this stage, so only when he does something admittedly ethically dubious by Starfleet standards, does Janeway find cause to tarnish his record.

What little good that would do one wonders, here she is asking Kim if he wants to put his reputation and career on the line for his feelings, um, had Janeway been in astrometrics lately? Voyager made great progress getting home as it was, but she admits to the Varro leader Jippeq that their ships share common traits and that even Voyager may become a 'generational' ship one day. I don't buy that for a second though, as I've said, Voyager made great progress to get home, and even when they started the trip would've been around 70 years, sounds like 2 generations to me, not like Kim would be too worried about his record when he's either dead or a grandfather...

In spite of that, I don't think it's an awful episode, but Janeway continues to punish those who break the rules: selectively. When the journey started she talked about being the leader of a community, the matriarch of a family, but I fear with her actions of lately, she's just abusing the little power she flaunts aboard her tiny ship, just to try and remind people about Starfleet's regulations, some of which mean little considering Voyager's situation.

The B-plot really wasn't well explored though, it's understandable the situation the 'dissidents' position was, but something more than Tal and the Varro stowaway's stating the obvious, and rhetoric might have worked in the plots favour a little more.

So it comes to rating, I didn't mind it actually, I was thinking a 6, but to be honest though, at least as another character study of Harry it works, but considering the circumstances about alien relationships seen before now, it just doesn't convince. So it gets a 5. Don't be fooled, it's not a terrible episode (at least I don't think so), but some consistency regarding the most pivotal issue behind Harry's behaviour would've helped, but it was disregarded just to make Harry look like a 'bad boy'.

Remarkable VFX/ship/sequences: All involve the Varro generational ship, the opening shot of the fly in from bow of the ship into Tal's quarters to the foot of her door. The ship itself, a mammoth structure easily dwarfing Voyager, to its breaking apart in the climax.

Annotations

Remarkable quote: "I have served on this ship for five years and said, 'yes, ma'am' to every one of your orders. But not this time." -Harry Kim to Captain Janeway
Remarkable dialogue: "I give up." - "After only two minutes? Tuvok, how do you do it?" - "I wait until his own illogic overwhelms him." -Tom Paris, Chakotay, and Tuvok, after Paris loses an argument

Rating: 5 (Cameron)

The Disease

Synopsis

"The Disease"

Stardate not given: Synopsis in main VOY listing

Commentary

It is said that first impressions last - and when I saw the opening scene with Harry in bed with some woman, I knew I was in for a bad time - and boy was I right.

Basically Harry falls in love with some woman aboard a "Multi-Generation" ship - think Babylon Five with engines. Jinny is impressed with this giant multi-warp engine monstrosity and has dreams Voyager can be like this - despite the fact that Voyager's priority is to get home. The ship is not in the best of states and as a typical result, Voyager are helping the crew, the Varro (humans) repair it.

Meantime Harry has the hots for a native lass, Derran Tal, and before you could say "Contraception" he and her are in bed making whoopee. However, this breaks 'protocol', Harry starts to disobey orders because he is listening to his heart (if that is what you want to call it :P) and performs a lot of what I would say stupid things - all in the name of Love.

So this episode is to give Harry Kim more dimension is it? Show that he is a man, not a boy who pushes buttons and does his job, right? Whoever thought of this story is an idiot. Harry's character is too efficient to be this stupid, to straight laced to be so irresponsible, why now get horny? Why act recklessly? Its all of a sudden - some would say that this is love, this happens, and I cannot predict the human heart - nonsense - Harry acts a certain way like do Tom, B'Elanna, and Tuvok.

Okay, how would it be if Tom became a homosexual, or Tuvok gave up logic - just like that - for character building? One would ridicule the notion. Here with Harry they went ahead and did this - there was no build up, any previous tensions, desires, or notions - it’s just sudden. All his acts (secret transmissions, stealing a shuttle, sneaking off for sex) made me sympathise less and less. When he loses it with Janeway on the bridge, I stopped. To be honest Janeway was way too lenient. The impact of this forced character change is like watching the decent guy become a rapist all of a sudden. Yes, that unpleasant and unsympathetic.

Harry is a reliable person, and reliable people stick to the rules, just as reckless folk break them. Harry is not this - and the fact he says "I have served on this ship for five years and said, 'yes, ma'am' to every one of your orders. But not this time." is utter BS - it’s like a front line soldier telling his commander 'I will no longer obey you' in the midst of a firefight. Unless you know what you are doing, or experienced, or have doubt over the commander, err, YOU DON'T! In this case Harry has NO Sensible reason to abandon his principles - oh it’s for love - so does that mean he has the right to jeopardise others for his desire?

In addition, what about Chuckles with his flings? She did not haul him over the coals for that - oh yes, Harry has not earned the right to 'question her judgement' - considering that he has been stuck in the Delta Quadrant for five years with Jinny, and is basically the most experienced ensign afloat who has pulled the crew out of numerous scrapes, I think he has earned a lot more than right. Not to mention Chakotay is a higher rank which means higher responsibility and target. Thus would have to set a far better example!

Again BS.

The side plot of a rebellion on the Varro ship is also stupid = they try to destroy the vessel with bionic parasites that eat into the hull so they can be "free". No, sabotage aboard a ship gets EVERYONE killed - if they mean death, why don't they jump out the airlock? It's like opening the hatch of a submarine underwater because you want to get out.

The episode is just nasty to be honest, with no sympathy to Harry and his sudden "rebellious nature" just conjured up there for drama sake. In addition, all the rebels here are being literal irresponsible idiots jeopardising all concerned for their selfish motives, and we are meant to applaud them for it? No. Only lunatics celebrate lunacy.

Annotations

Nitpicking: "Maybe I'm not the perfect officer anymore." - "Maybe not. - But you're a better man." (Harry and Janeway) Err How?
Remarkable ship and further nitpicking: The Varro generation ship and pods - Each pod has 8 pairs of warp engines, and the actual generational ship has 14 warp cores. However, it has 54 of those modules split into three ways that makes 18 pods per rail - the ship has 14 warp cores. Err, how does that work? If each core is feeding three pods say, there are at least 12 units not getting any power. More to the point, with multiple warp systems, is it any faster or slower than Voyager?
Even more nitpicking: At some point Harry and Derran will part, so why doesn't he go with her? Oh, he finds reason in his star fleet training to stay - afterall he defied Jinny to get 'treated' in sickbay - but somehow works up the courage to defy Derran for duty in the end? Pathetic.

Rating: 0 (Chris S)

The Disease

Synopsis

"The Disease"

Stardate not given: Synopsis in main VOY listing

Commentary

Harry finally gets a girl and gets punished for it promptly. This episode introduces a Starfleet protocol which requires a medical clearance before engaging in intimate relations with an alien species. If you consider some of the arguments which are stated by Janeway, it actually makes much sense - without a medical examination you could contract an infectious disease (maybe even alien-AIDS) or you could infect your partner yourself. The problem is this: if you conclude that intimate contact with another species could be harmful, then where you to have draw the line? Kissing? Shaking hands? For all we know just beaming over an alien could kill the whole crew if that alien is releasing a vaporous poison from his skin instead of sweat. We have seen Starfleet officers having similar relationships on countless occasions and there has never been any reprimand. The most recent ones on Voyager: 1st Chakotay kissing an 8472 in a human body - remember what 8472 tissue did to Harry Kim during the events of "Scorpion"? 2nd Janeway passionately kissing Kashyk during "Counterpoint" - what if the Devore's saliva was lethal to humans?

Janeway's sympathy also suffers from her statement about Harry Kim being merely an ensign without the right to question anything. Too bad, since Harry is a member of the senior staff, the Operations Officer and with the same accomplishments in his record on any other ship he could be lieutenant commander by now. Chakotay questions Janeway's decision and knows very well what goes on in her mind - he shows us again why he would be the wiser and the better captain.

I disagree with any statement that Harry's actions here are uncharacteristic. Real people are not two-dimensional beings. They have many aspects defining them, making them what they are, but they do things that contradict their usual behavior now and then. It would be naive to believe that a person is always predictable.

Remember that Harry still has girlfriend waiting for him at home.

Annotations

Remarkable dialog: "I give up." - "After only two minutes? Tuvok, how do you do it?" - "I wait until his own illogic overwhelms him." - Tom Paris, Chakotay, and Tuvok, after Paris loses an argument

Rating: 4 (Apex)

Course: Oblivion

Synopsis

"Course: Oblivion"

Stardate 52586.3: Synopsis in main VOY listing

Commentary

A tragic and unique episode, cleverly involving the events of "Demon" to bring us the crew of Voyager 'copies' and their last mission. It's a nice setup with Tom and B'Elanna's marriage to start with, and continues with the crew getting ill. I like how Tuvok and Chakotay go over recent events involving the ship, and recount encounters with other races we hadn't seen, hinting that this wasn't the same crew otherwise surely we would've witnessed those events too. And everything's made clear when we discover their true origins.

But once again Janeway wants to make a scene and try to continue to live a life that isn't hers. Ordering that Earth be Voyager's ultimate destination was stupid and the argument brought forward in her quarters and later her ready room by Chakotay was correct, 'this' crew of Voyager's home, was never Earth. It is only by some strange development that they forgot who they were, and Janeway clings to that, and only after more deaths due to the ships condition does she accept their fate. A harsh lesson for her to learn.

And the ending, yes, heartbreaking. Great episode all the same. I certainly wouldn't have expected the 'Silver blood' crew to reappear, but this episode handled it really well. The drama and the human cost is perfectly illustrated, and the depiction of the ship coming apart too. Great effects, great acting.

Annotations

Remarkable scenes: Tom and B'Elanna's wedding (Seven catching the bouquet), the climax of the episode with the copy Voyager falling short of contacting the real version.

Rating: 7 (Cameron)

Course: Oblivion

Synopsis

"Course: Oblivion"

Stardate not given: Synopsis in main VOY listing

Commentary

"Course: Oblivion"! As impressive a title as "Assignment Earth"! Or "Operation: Anhiliate!" Giving visions of grandiose adventure and excitement.

That is until you see what this episode has in store. The clues are right there at the beginning; Banana and Slimey Paris's marriage and the rice leaking through the hull. It's another alternate reality - only it's not quite but nevertheless a duplicate. It's only later that it transpires that the ship and crew are those metallic blobs from the planet from the episode of "Demon".

Inspired to explore, they (god knows why) decide to take the form of Voyager and the crew and set off on the same mission with the same motives, and considering that the entire ship is made of this stuff I love to know how they made the warp core, and the drives!

Of course it goes all wrong and in the end the ship basically pops. In every sense of the word! In addition when the real Voyager arrives only to discover the mess, they have no idea what happened too.

I mean what is the point of a duplicate crew in a ship made of quicksilver dying for? What were the writers aiming at? What is the moral here? What purpose does it have in seeking out new life, exploration, and adventure? Or science fiction?

Answer - none. AT best it's a filler, at worse it's a waste of time and budget.

Nil Point

Annotations

Remarkable scene: When the Fake Voyager warp nacelle comes apart in the form of a drop of liquid!

Rating: 0 (Chris S)

Course: Oblivion

Synopsis

"Course: Oblivion"

Stardate 52586.3: Synopsis in main VOY listing

Commentary

The problem with episodes like this is the writers tendency to wreak havoc on the characters, kill a lot of them or destroy the ship. Why do they do that? Because these kind of stories don't have any lasting effect on continuity whatsoever and it doesn't matter if they use time travel, parallel universes or duplicates.

Teleplay writer Nich Sagan said it himself: "One of the great things about 'Course: Oblivion' [was] that you could do whatever you wanted to do, because they're not the real crew."

We have seen enough of this stuff already, the only interesting part is the beginning when you see slight differences and you wonder what is going on when the ship begins to loose cohesion and the crew falls ill. After the truth is discovered it is predictable what is going to happen and you loose the ability to show compassion for them. Fortunately B'Elanna's tragic death happens before that.

It is interesting to see that apart from her memories even Janeway's stubbornness had been copied into the duplicate. This episode is a subtle lesson how dangerous this specific character trait of Janeway can be - not knowing when to quit.

I find it curious that mercury-B'Elanna appoints mercury-Seven to her substitute for the duration of the planned honeymoon. We could expect the same thing for the real Voyager. This incident illustrates the lack of knowledge the writers seem to have about procedures on real ships or anything which is remotely similar. B'Elanna's engineering staff should consist of at least two other assistant chief engineers with the rank of lieutenant who have the knowledge to take her place in an emergency and who take over engineering when the Chief Engineer is off duty. This would also apply to other positions on the ship, for example an offical Second Officer, lieutenant commander, command division.

The show also poses the question which of the episodes we have seen since "Demon" actually happened to the real crew or to the duplicates.

Rating: 4 (Apex)

The Fight

Synopsis

Stardate not given: Voyager is trapped in "Chaotic Space" and the way to getting out is with Chakotay.

Commentary

I hate this episode.

Okay, that's a bit strong, but I hate this episode. It's 45 minutes of nothing. When it first aired I fell asleep. I figured it was because I had gotten up early that morning. When I talked about it to a friend of mine, he told me that he also fell asleep.

When it was shown during the rerun, I again, fell asleep. I don't know why. When it went to weeknight rerun syndication I caught this episode and with enough coffee and Mountain Dew I managed not to fall asleep. I regret that.

This is the only Star Trek episode every to put me to sleep. I was awake through "11:59", I was awake during "Threshold", "Carpenter Street" and that episode of DS9 with the cross dressing Quark.

This episode goes nowhere. This episode does nothing. If it wasn't because it kept putting me and my friends to sleep, it would be an episode that I would have forgotten. If 'Voyager' was still being shown in reruns this would be one of those episodes that I would go out of my way not to watch.

Rating: 0 (Jason Feagans)

The Fight

Synopsis

Stardate not given: Synopsis in main VOY listing

Commentary

What an awful Christmas present! I didn't get to see this episode at the time, but it did screen Christmas '08. Not that I was missing much, I've never actually managed to sit down and watch this episode, I'm content to let it run in the background while I do other things. Every time I've done so I did turn around every now and then to catch snippets of nothing interesting, just Chuckles running round the ship in boxing gear talking about... something being egged on by an image of Boothby, while having visions of aliens possessing the bodies of the crew.

Glad I didn't watch, maybe I'll come back and give a more thorough review, but considering the other two reviews on this site don't speak too highly of this episode, I don't think I'll bother.

Rating: 0 (Cameron)

The Fight

Synopsis

Stardate not given: Synopsis in main VOY listing

Commentary

HAHAHHAHHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHHAHAHHAHAHHAHAHHAHAHAAHHOHOHOOHOHOHOOHOHOHO!!!

Sorry I do not mean to chuckle but man this is BAD!

I read the reviews of Cameron, Bernd, and Mr Feagans, and lord I thought it could not be that horrendous.

I put my hands up and admit I am wrong. I avoided most of Voyager because it went down the predictable paths that turned me off, and in a way did me a favour in missing this ghastly entry. I only watched this to see if it was - and boy, PEE-EWW!!

It's Voyager's answer to TNG "Night Terrors" but where that was done in a smart albeit laboured way, this is a real stupid affair. For reasons I cannot fathom without becoming a trekkie bore, Chuckles has to communicate with aliens whilst being a boxer; yes it's as stupid as it sounds.

Watching this I kept on thinking of Rocky; the delapidated poor lit gym with grime and battered lockers and worn posters (why not a true Star Fleet one?) with clichéd sparring scenes; Boothby acting like Buster Meredith's coach character in the same film - WITH all the mannerisms; The gowns marked "The Marquis Mauler" and "The Chaos Kid" made me wince. The only thing missing was Chuckles running up the steps all sweat drenched with both fists up in the air, and facing his opponent with "The Eye of the Tiger" tune being played. Oh and having slurred speech like Mr Stallone and the OTT black eyes.

In addition, we have some guff about chaotic space that once again traps the crew, and via a stupid way that involves Chuckles and some duff DNA that is the vital link to contact the aliens who (typically) inhabit this latest space phenomena. However Chuckles is worried about this approach because this duff DNA made his granpappy go nuts so when he is not in the boxing ring thinking he is Rocky Balboa, he's acting as a deranged nut afraid to lose his mind like his granddad.

When the means to communicate is made, it's done with punches, flashbacks, the ubiquitous crew/alien metaphor, and scenes cut from this episode put together like a stuck record.

Watching this made me laugh and wince. Here Chuckles is reduced to basically a loser who either gets battered or made to look like a babbling idiot. I have never liked this character and personally the abuse he gets makes my day. However, overall its a pointless episode that serves no purpose except as a bottle filler - one full of urine.

I wonder if it was made this bad on purpose. Robert Beltran has always been a big critic of the writers of the series and have vented his frustrations on the missed acting opportunities on many occasions. Well he got his wish, alas the writers made a real stinker with this - and him at its core.

1/10 for the knock out he gets!

Rating: 1 (Chris S)

The Fight

Synopsis