It also serves as a great episode for exploring the relationship between Tuvok and Seven of Nine. Using time as a weapon was a fresh concept at the time, and the visually-rich double episode executed it wonderfully. Obsessed with restoring the Krenim Imperium, no matter the cost, a Krenim military temporal scientist creates changes in history that all but destroy Voyager. Year of Hell is Voyager’s most famous two-parter, often cited its best episode. Year of Hell, Parts I and II (Season 4, Episodes 9-10) In it, Captain Janeway is forced to enter an alliance with the Borg in order to defeat a race even more powerful than them, creating an all-new super villain (Species 8472) for the Star Trek universe.
Scorpion, Parts I and II (Season 3, Episode 26 and Season 4, Episode 1)Īs a series finale and starter, Scorpion delivers as a fan favorite-particularly for Part I which closed season three. It showed off the comedic chops of many of Voyager’s cast members and provided some lighthearted material before the big season three two-part finale.
Kate Mulgrew considers this one of her personal favorite episodes.
Worst Case Scenario (Season 3, Episode 25)Ī buried holonovel with high entertainment value depicting a Maquis mutiny is discovered. Producer and series writer Brannon Braga said “Henry Starling was our first great Voyager villain,” played by Begley, Jr. Flashback was Voyager’s imaginative tribute both to The Original Series and to Star Trek’s 30th anniversary, recreating many scenes from the feature film Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country (1991).įuture’s End, Parts I and II (Season 3, Episodes 8-9)Īn effectively plotted and paced two-parter, this double-episode story tells an engaging story wherein Voyager is flung back to 20th century Earth. When Tuvok (Tim Russ) begins to suffer from a mental breakdown triggered by a suppressed memory, a mind-meld with Janeway (Kate Mulgrew) takes him back to his tour of duty with Captain Sulu (George Takei) aboard the USS Excelsior.
On the plus side, that makes it easier to pick and choose random episodes of the series for viewing.Īn exciting technobabble episode, Voyager is nearly destroyed by proton bursts coming from an unknown source. Where DS9 carefully wove a more serialized thread of plots, Voyager reverted to intense procedural television.
Each episode finds a new dilemma that almost always gets resolved in the final minutes, with its varied cast of characters resolving their differences via Full House-esque, “cue the violin music” tradition. Where Voyager fails is in the superficiality of its storytelling and its problem-of-the-week structure. She is strong but compassionate, diplomatic but zealous, and can be assertive while maintaining femininity. Janeway is a complex woman who molds the primary characteristics of Kirk (William Shatner) and Picard (Patrick Stewart) into a complicated, endearing, and stern female character.
Trek’s overall historical reputation in regard to female storylines left something to be desired, so Voyager changed the model and employed a female scientist as captain (Kate Mulgrew as Kathryn Janeway), with woman-centered storylines where male characters played supplemental roles. The series is easily one of the two least popular entries in the Trek franchise but holds merit for its female-forward storylines. Instead of airing on a major television network like its three predecessors, Voyager aired on UPN, Paramount’s underdeveloped television network (now fused into The CW) in an effort to bring viewers to the channel. In the pilot, Janeway must join forces with Federation rebels known as The Maquis, pulling story points from Deep Space Nine to build its premise. The series was Voyager (1995), “the female-driven one,” a program founded on a “lost in space” premise following a vessel wandering the unexplored Delta quadrant in the 24th century, located approximately 75 years away from home. Two years after the launch of Deep Space Nine (1994) and following the end of The Next Generation (1987), yet another Star Trek series was born from the minds of producers Rick Berman and Michael Piller. Starring Kate Mulgrew, Robert Beltran, Roxann Dawson, Jennifer Lien, Robert Duncan McNeill, Robert Picardo, Ethan Phillips, Tim Russ, Jeri Ryan, Garrett Wang Wondering where you should get started? If you’re looking to kick things off by watching Voyager, here are some pointers. But for the unfamiliar, starting on Star Trek for the first time can be overwhelming with 700+ hours of TV, over a dozen movies, and novels and comics to boot. Star Trek is beloved by legions of people from all ages, walks of life, and origins.