It took me forever, but I'm finally through s3 of Star Trek Voyager. (Dream big, ladies and gentlemen!) Some quick thoughts up front before the countdown:
- My baby boy was born a few months back. Hey now! He's awesome and I love him, but man, talk about your blog-stealers. My whole Voyager timetable got whacked worse than Tommy DeVito. As a result, a couple of episodes below were phoned-in - or, actually, I fell asleep during them but decided to just keep trying for the end of the series rather than stop and go back to watch them.
- They saved most of the great episodes for the last half of the series, which makes this a tougher slog than I'd hoped for given all the above. But once you get there (I'll use "Blood Fever" as a demarcation line, though it's not a very good one; maybe "Future's End," but there are some stinkers between them) we see the best run of the series so far.
I'm going to try something a little different this time. While still ranking the eps least-to-most-favorite, I'm going to group them into categories. I more or less like each episode in each grouping about the same; the countdown-numbers are just for convenience. Let's start at the bottom.
DIDN'T MUCH CARE FOR
26.
Janeway appears to be trapped in a time-loop with different events, but all ending in her death.
The time loop mystery is set up well, but they started losing me around the 15 minute mark. Is it that this Trek well (see own funeral, alien take family member shape, all the saying goodbye/ medical death drama etc.) has run dry for me? Or is it the actor who played her Dad and the awkward chemistry and line readings that develop with Kathryn Mulgrew?
Either way. The script isn't great. Could've and should've taken more chances. (Does anyone in these things ever say anything but "(the departed) wouldn't want us sitting around moping"? Why bother? Just once I want someone to say "If so-and-so were here, she'd want us to blow our effing brains out." Just mix it up for once.) A lame ending with over the top stuff from all around ("Fight, Kath!") and it all adds up to a No-thank-you-sir.
I actually included this in my original best-of eps for VOY when I was doing the Captain's Blogs. What the hell was I thinking? I wasn't. Ditto for:
25.
Tuvok experiences brain-damaging flashbacks to his service on the Excelsior. He and the captain attempt to find the reason for the flashbacks, believed to be a suppressed memory, through a joint mind-meld.
I feel bad for disliking this one, but dislike it I do - it's a mess. I actually wish it was just a Tuvok story and had no callbacks to Rand or Sulu at all. Takei and Whitney just don't seem up to speed, here. Acting is just like exercise; few can skip the gym/ screen for a long time and then seamlessly re-enter the fray. The fan service of seeing them in the Voyager-verse doesn't justify itself in the episode (or performances) we get.
Am I being unfair? I'd love to change my mind, so please by all means. It pains me, sincerely, to find fault in one of Grace Lee Whitney's few post-TOS Trek appearances. Or Sulu's for that matter. But it just never feels like Sulu and Rand to me.
24.
Q visits Voyager with a proposal for Janeway as civil war breaks out in the Q Continuum.
They lost the plot with Q on Voyager. I get that this is only how their war looks on our plane, but it's weak. The Q / Trek shouldn't be used as a wardrobe surplus depot - I recognize that this could be said of any dozen(s) of similar Trek episodes, but what can I say: they just lost sight of Q as a concept here and in most if not all of their Voyager appearances. Q works when John de Lancie is Picard's guardian angel (so to speak); otherwise, he - and whatever other Q they drum up around him - is just Mr. Mxyzptlk. And if I want to see a Mxyzptlk Civil War (and why wouldn't I?) it should look like that JLA arc by Grant Morrison, not this.
  |
| Kate Mulgrew has some fun in her scenes with de Lancie, but it's not enough to carry the day. |
  |
| "No Jean, No Money!" |
SLIGHTLY BETTER
23.
The crew must learn to survive on the inhospitable planet as the Doctor, Crewman Suder, and Paris attempt to regain control of the ship.
I suppose I should celebrate this episode for taking us out of Kazon space. Everyone does good work, cast and crew alike, but I was just kind of waiting this one out.
 |
| Brad Dourif, ladies and gentlemen! Always a pleasure. |
"I offer you a Vulcan prayer, Mister Suder. May your death bring you the peace you never found in life."
 |
| Pssst - no one tell Tuvok: everybody has that prayer. |
22.
Voyager approaches the edge of Neelix's knowledge and a trading station.
Hey it's that Vulcan kid from TNG! Is this the first time he's appeared? Have I been asleep again? We'll save discussion of him until we get to "Blood Fever."
Is this a bad episode? Probably not. But it's a Neelix self-growth episode, and I'm kind of stubbornly sticking to my policy on this.
  |
| "Great - two Neelixes." |
HAD THEIR MOMENTS
21.
Tom Paris and Harry Kim are trapped in a prison. Tom gets stabbed trying to protect Kim, leaving him to try to find an escape plan alone. Simultaneously, Voyager is trying to find a way to prove their innocence.
I kind of fell asleep during this one. I think this was where it'd land, though. I look forward to Bryant's review to find out if I liked it more than I think I do! As should you.
20.
Kes is left comatose after contacting an energy field around a rock.
Similarly to the above, "Kinda similar to 'Macrocosm'" is the sum total of what I wrote in my notes for this episode, and I don't remember it too well. Some of the screencaps over at Trekcore look pretty cool -
and Jennifer Lien is usually pretty awesome. But I'll have to watch it again. I'm keeping a list - there'll be some kind of fill-in-the-blanks post somewhere down the line.
19.
Torres relives a lifetime of memories from a woman which perpetrated and then covered up the extermination of an entire population, one of whom was her youthful lover.
This one reminded me a bit of "Ex Post Facto" from Season One, in that it seemed to take a TNG episode and then graft another story on top of it, and run it again. In this case, it's "Remember Me," which is actually one of my favorites from Season 4 of TNG. Is this ("Remember") an homage? I don't think so - I mean, the similarities are there but they're not that explicit. Like I say, it's more like someone what-if'd the script of "Remember Me" on a coffee break and then made appropriate changes in the writer's room.
Whatever the case, Winrich Kolbe (director) and Brannon Braga (writer) have earned enough benefit-of-the-doubt cred with me for me not to care too much. But it's not a fave.
 |
| "Come for the Festival, heya?" |
18.
Captain Janeway relieves Neelix of all other duties and makes him Shipmaster of Partying Down!
(Actual Plot: Kes is controlled by an alien warlord named Tieran.)
"Nice performance from Lien" is the sum total of notes I took for this one. Can I use the baby excuse again? My brain and body have been in two different places lately. Another one I barely remember, alas. These reviews are getting better by the minute!
  |
| General shout-out to Lien on Voyager, though, whose departure is drawing near. Official Dog Star Last Word: she was great. |
PRETTY GOOD, ACTUALLY
17.
The crew encounters the Delta Quadrant terminus of the Barzan wormhole...and the two Ferengi from "The Price" now posing as gods on a nearby planet.
I should mention I'm using Trekcore's episode summaries, for the most part. I sometimes edit or alter them. I should probably be clearer on that type of stuff.
Nice and unexpected callback to TNG here with the Barzan wormhole. (And much more sensible than something like "Dreadnought.") I guess given that the Delta Quadrant's two mentions in TNG were this wormhole and introducing the Borg that maybe it's not that unexpected to see either concept returning. Okay, so I was surprised by this, reasonably or not. Who didn't vicariously panic just a little bit / curse the arrogance of Man/Ferengi when the wormhole closed around Arridor and Kol in "The Price?"
  |
| Turns out they did okay for themselves. At least until Voyager shows up. |
I'm more of a Neelix fan than I am a Ferengi fan, so that's saying something. But this is a fun one. As with most Ferengi encounters, their incompetence leaves their fate in little doubt, but it's fun watching the Voyager crew "Devil's Due" the situation.
16.
Crew members are replaced one-by-one with aliens from an unknown race.
Not a bad little mystery, but once it's revealed what's going on, it's kind of wonky. I think this is a "Taste for Armaggedon" sort of thing, but that makes slightly more sense than this one, I think.
Speaking of TOS, once it became obvious what was going on, shouldn't Chakotay have flooded the ship with knockout gas or something? I mean, Khan did, and he only was in the 23rd century for a few days before figuring out how to use the ship itself as a weapon. But okay - no big deal.
  |
| What the hell happened to "wide field" for phasers, though? Did some Starfleet gun control lobby get this functionality removed? Instead, everyone fires single phaser streams against multiple attackers, becoming overwhelmed easily. |
 |
| Speaking of weapons - later in the episode, after discussing how their phaser only has a charge or two left, they take out two Nyrians, who drop their weapons, and Tom and B'Elanna don't even pick them up. |
So while the episode isn't necessarily bad, these two things bugged me. Stuff like that should never leave the writer's room.
  |
| Fun to see Janeway channel a little Kirk-"world-destroyer" in her final showdown with the Nyrians, though. It's a good look for her. |
15.
Voyager helps a planet with asteroid problems. Tuvok and Neelix crash-land on the planet and attempt to fix a maglev space elevator.
All right, gd it, Neelix, you're not so bad in this one. (And man does he commit to the shaky-camera countdown stuff. At one point I laughed out loud - not at the performance but
A little goes a long way, though - by the end I was back to not caring. He and Tuvok play well off one another, though, even if this is kinda' sorta just another "Galileo 7" episode for Tuvok. (By my counting, the 3rd one - maybe 1 was enough?)
14.
Voyager encounters a swarm of ships while trying to take a shortcut through a space belonging to a hostile species, while the Doctor begins to experience memory loss.
These aliens are kind of a cool idea. I probably should have this one higher, actually. It's a great Picardo episode - which is redundant, since it's a Doctor-centric episode so of course it's a great Picardo episode - and the ideas are engaging. I love the differences between The Doctor and the diagnostic program and the holographic self-sacrifice. Nice ending with the callback to "O Soave, Fanciulla", the Puccini duet The Doctor and his holo-soprano were working on in the beginning.
  |
| Featuring the head of Wolfram and Hart's Rome office as Giuseppina Pentangeli, the greatest soprano of the 22nd century. (And named after Verdi's wife.) |
"Next time I'll take my chances with Maria Callas."
13.
Harry Kim is drawn to a planet that is nearly all women.
There's a lot in play here. I want to say the whole thing (from the way it starts on the bridge with Janeway, whose line delivery of "Have the doctor look at that cut" is rather perfect) is some metaphor for motherly disapproval. While stewing in it, Harry is told he's the prodigal son for a planet of all women, who adore him.
 |
| Is it a stretch? I think it's in there. |
 |
| Meta. |
This Teresian scheme seems more than a little fishy. Tuvok should've objected more. But it allows Harry to go full Rekall. (Harry from vwerk!)
12.
Voyager answers help from a mining colony about a viral outbreak that manages to sneak onto Voyager through the transporter, leaving only Janeway and the Doctor to stop it.
Not the greatest CGI monster attacks in this one, but the premise is engaging and I enjoy the Doctor/ Janeway team-up. Pretty solid ep. Plus, we get to see Janeway in action mode, which is also a good look for the character.
I like that the other alien species is named the Tak Tak. Just like the sound of that.
11.
The Doctor's attempt to graft other personalities into his program causes him to develop an evil alternate personality.
Not a bad episode and some fun stuff from Picardo, but it has the slight feel of filler. Like "Oh we can always just do a bad-robot-Doctor episode." Still, the concept of the holographic doctor provides so many places to go, and when you've got an actor of Picardo's caliber in the cast, it seems criminal not to give him episodes like this.
But, yeah, a tad on the Trek Casserole side.
10.
As Voyager travels through a nebula, the crew enjoys a luau on the holodeck. Tuvok discovers an unusual hologram and makes Harry jealous in the process.
A thoughtful ep in many ways, in the best Trek tradition. (Especially when conditions outside the ship begin to reflect the emotional turmoil of the leads.) I guessed the Marayna twist as it went along, but she and Tuvok play well off one another.
 |
| Poor Harry. |
 |
| Vulcan jenga... (I have this joke in my notes, crossed out with 'don't use' above it. Why? Apparently I thought it was beneath us at the time. I have no such restraints in retrospect.) |
9.
Vorik (that Vulcan kid from TNG) passes on the Pon farr to B'Elanna.
Aww yeah, Vulcan sexual harassment! This is an interesting concept that might get away from them a little. Or maybe it's that Alexander Enberg is given a little more than he can handle. I like the idea of the character, but everytime you play a Vulcan, you're getting in the ring with Leonard Nimoy (and Mark Lenard.) Tim Russ plays a good Vulcan, and I have general praise for Enberg's Vorik.
  |
| Here, though, he went broad in some key spots that diluted the edge somewhat. |
But the B'Elanna / Tom stuff is fun. This one goes some places! Audacity award winner, up there with "Threshold" from s2. Could it have gone even further? Undoubtedly. Was Trek ready? Uncertain. Any sexual relationship between humans and Klingons doesn't have to go outside the bounds of traditional interspecies-Trek romance, but that's not to say it couldn't - and maybe it'd have been interesting to see Paris in Sick Bay a lot more, getting bones mended and such. Or if B'Elanna actually ripped his throat open in this episode. (Just a random example of interspecies mating problems, you understand, not a wish-list.) That could lead to some great repartee with the Doctor. I'm projecting into the future of their relationship, of course. Anyway, they handle it okay enough here, and I like the general "go in there and get this over with, FFS" from Tuvok and Chakotay.
 |
| "She's out of communications range." |
IMPRESSIVE
8.
 |
| and |
7.
A 29th century timeship causes a time paradox when it accidentally sends itself and Voyager to two different periods in 20th century Earth. Janeway must prevent the destruction of the solar system by a 20th century entrepreneur who has acquired the timeship.
I liked this 2-parter more this time around than any previous time I'd seen it (and I ranked it 15th and 14th, best overall, when I did these the first time. But eff those rankings.) It has all the problems of any Trek time-travel story (especially - and you can't hold this against Voyager - Enterprise) and it doesn't make a whole lot of sense for the spacetime-bending/hey-we're-back-on-Earth business. But hey - I'm forgiving.
 |
| Get Ed Begley, Jr. |
I mentioned this the first time this episode appeared in these pages: "At one point in part two, Chakotay and Torres are captured by anti-government extremists. The drive towards collectivism and the drive towards individuality are held up (specifically) as two mutually exclusive ideals." We're a long way from E'ed plebnista.
Nevertheless, this is a fun two-parter with high production value. I run hot and cold on the story's other notable guest star (Sarah Silverman), Ed Begley Jr does good stuff here. One of the more memorable villains of the series, actually, and it is he who gives The Doctor his mobile emitter.
6.
Shortly before her death in the future, Kes begins to travel backwards in time, with a portion of events occurring in (next season's) Year of Hell.
One of Trek's patented What If...? episodes. I like that the franchise has this sub-genre of episodes, and this one is as good - if not necessarily all that groundbreaking - as any of the others. It's a mix of TNG's "All Good Things..." and ENT's "Twilight" (which sure, that came out well after this one. But I saw "Twilight" first) but with Jennifer Lien's raspy narration. As a fan of said rasp, that's fine by me. (Has she done any voiceover/ narration work? She's got such a great voice.) The script and all other performances help, of course.
 |
| Every time a bald character effects a hairpiece in Trek, I wonder if Shatner was discussed in the writing room. More than usual, I mean. |
 |
| It's a big "hair" episode, actually. |
So, back births, unh? With Ocampans? Is, uhh... all the equipment back there? Or just the birth canal? So many questions.
5.
While Voyager explores a temporal eddy in space that briefly kidnaps Lt. Paris, the Doctor creates a family on the holodeck.
I hate being this guy, but I am so here it is - isn't this just "The Offspring" from TNG? You can tell from where I've placed it that I think fairly highly of this VOY reiteration, but sometimes it strikes me as odd that they so specifically recreate dramatic heights already scaled. But, the more I think about this, the more I argue the other direction: that that's what the whole idea of franchise fiction is and that it's a silly thing for me to get stuck on. The only thing that matters is if the players themselves commit and the magic of drama - however you define that - breathes anew.
And this does go in some directions "The Offspring" does not, so what the hell: it was a launching off point. Who cares. I overrule myself. (Not that this will stop the other half of my brain from arguing the point, probably in many other posts.)
 |
| Wendy Schaal plays The Doctor's (I'm sorry "Kenneth's" - easily the least of the monikers we've heard for the Doctor thus far, no offense to any Kenneths out there) wife. |
The Vysogite station that Voyager was heading towards must have been made of some pretty flimsy stuff to be completely destroyed by the anomaly. Both Voyager and its shuttlecraft survive some intense (and quite beautiful fx) fluctuations.
"The brain is a mysterious organ."
4.
B'Elanna Torres discovers a holodeck program where Chakotay and the Maquis rebel against Janeway.
"I wouldn't do that if I were you," says Seska's avatar in the holodeck program. "This phaser's set on wide beam. I could take you all in one shot." Oh, so there is a wide field. (At least in the security drills that Tuvok authors.)
I wondered why Tuvok didn't know of the Vulcan mind-meld technique through-the-wall-to-influence-the-guard that Spock used on two different occasions in TOS. ("Tuvok would've read those logs, no?" my notes ask.) But once it's revealed Tuvok how the scenario came to be, I guess it would make sense that he's not fully himself in the simulation.
 |
| "Additional narrative parameters have not been programmed." |
This whole thing is pretty meta for Trek, isn't it? Seems like they're discussing storytelling to me. This may be why I like it so much - I enjoy the occasional "what are we really doing here?" deconstruction from the Trek writing room. (Part of the reason I like TNG's "Emergence" as much as I do; it feels like s a tribute to the way Trek is written.)
I thought the Seska easter egg was a nice twist. VOY does a lot with the holodeck, and I know that annoys some people. But some of my favorite episodes of the series are holodeck ones, so I'm not one of those people. I've always felt it was the series' signature contribution to the franchise.
EXCELLENT
3.
Chakotay answers a call for help on a planet and finds himself in the middle of a shoot-out between two groups of people. Meanwhile, the Voyager crew discovers an abandoned Borg ship.
I quite liked this one. Although the Borg have been brought into things here and there (and alluded to at the end of "Blood Fever", which preceded this one directly) this was a great way to plant the seeds for the season finale a good stretch of episodes before.
  |
| "The nebula's completely scrambling our navigational readings. I still can't get a fix on our position. " |
 |
| Nothing to worry about. We've been trained for this. And I've got the best shuttlecraft pilot on - |
 |
| ... |
  |
| I'm going to die. |
All kidding aside, this is a great Beltran/ Chakotay episode, as are the next two as well. Which means Beltran wins s3. I've never delved too deeply into the Voyager gang's post-show thoughts, but Robert Beltran has been vocally disgruntled here and there. Is it because his character kicked so much ass in this and the next 2 episodes and never got back to these heights? I'll have to check once I get through the rest of the series.
 |
| Voyager guys reunion (from Garrett Wang's twitter feed) |
2.
Voyager must pass through Borg space, only to discover a new alien race that is even deadlier than the Borg.
I like Janeway's new holodeck buddy. (John Rhys-Davies as Leonardo Da Vinci) Guess she got tired of being the governess in the other scenario. This one (apprentice to the maestro in his lab) seems cooler. These days, this would be a predictable set-up for the usual women-in-STEM word salad. Aren't you happy I don't inflict such on you? Send the check to Dog Star Omnibus, Inc.
I vaguely recall a friend telling me about this episode years before I ever saw it (or watched Voyager). I liked the idea of a species that intimidates the Borg.
 |
| Or hell - more than intimidates. Turns them into some kind of body-horror sculpture. |
Question while we're here: why do the Borg even use tubules? Can't they just beam the nanoprobes into people? Given everything else we know about the Borg, does it make even the slightest sense that their technology relies on being able to physically inject the nanoprobes into those they assimilate? I understand we're close to debating the physics of vampires, here, and I think it's visually effective to see the tubules and what not. But come on.
 |
| This scene is pretty awesome. |
 |
| Poor Harry. |
Another parallel/ homage to TNG, whose s3 famously ended with a Borg cliffhanger. I think "Best of Both Worlds" is the better episode (or at least more important to the franchise) but "Scorpion" might be the most interesting development of the race/concept of all other Borg episodes. It builds well off the Borg we've seen. Janeway's negotiation with the Collective (above) is a great moment. (I like the idea of a Borg/ Fed. alliance. I'm a let's-make-a-deal sort of guy.)
And finally:
1.
A reptilian scientist trying to prove his heretical theories kidnaps Chakotay and draws the entire crew in conflict between his race's doctrine and the startling truth about its origin.
While this is the sort of ep (script/ visual design/ execution) that might really befuddle the non-Trek-aligned, it's the kind that elicits a "Hell yeah now we're talking" response from yours truly. One of the series' finest (and most unexpected) achievements. I don't know if the makers of Discovery and the Kelvinverse Treks have a sincere passion for episodes like this (or "Blink of an Eye" or other comparable examples) - I could be totally wrong. But it seems like the missing element in their Trek worldview.
"That creature napping in Sick Bay is a dinosaur."
Chakotay is the human you want humanity to be, here. Nicely done. His finest moment? Possibly. Walking in Kirk's and Picard's shoes, at least, as well as Charlton Heston's. (There's a definite Planet of the Apes vibe in spots.) Great performances from the guest actors, as well. Just an A+ of an episode from top to bottom.
 |
| That's Robert Picardo's China Beach co-star Concetta Tomei under that make-up as Minister Odala. |
~
Well, another season comes to a close! I hope to have s4 up sometime in the next few months. Until next time - eyes open, friends.
