10. Scorpio
I’m torn about this one. It’s clearly an iconic episode in Voyager, and a turning point for the ship: entering Borg space, getting farther and farther away from the usual players up to this point (kazon, vidiians, talaxians,...). Not only that, it’s their first encounter with Species 8472, the fearful race of beings more powerful even than the borg. A lot happens. I do struggle with the Captain’s decisions though… And not just in this episode. I think one of the biggest shortcomings of Voyager (and the reason why it took me so long to rewatch it properly) is that it never fulfilled it’s potential. Voyager should have been a generational ship. There should have been more children aboard, more aliens, more people they picked up along the way, adding their technological expertise to the ship. The ship should have changed, physically, with add-ons and modifications to help it in the long journey. But none of that happens. These ideas are touched on, here and there, but most of the time, the characters act as if they are one day away from finding the miracle that will take them back to the alpha quadrant.
It’s what happens in “The Swarm” for instance, early in this season. Janeway receives a warning not to enter a dangerous part of space, but because crossing it would take an extra 15 months, she decides to charge forward anyway. Why? What difference do 15 months make in a 70 years journey? Especially considering this is a ship alone with no possibility of backup, and this hostile species has already overpowered two of their people. It just doesn’t make sense to me.
The same thing happens in Scorpio. Janeway has options besides charging into Borg space or giving up altogether. She can try and find a way around it. She can navigate on the edges of borg space and have the ship’s scientists and engineers developing cloaking technology, maybe even incorporating components of the Saurian tech they came in contact with a couple of episodes ago. She acts as if these ideas haven’t even occurred to her. But, and here’s where Scorpio is different from previous episodes, Chakotay does bring this up in dialogue, confronting the captain’s reasoning. This dialogue, along with cool elements like the graveyard of Borg ships, the idea of a “Northwest passage” through their space, the holoprogram of Leonardo’s workshop (a program I would like to run myself), all of this things make this a pretty cool episode, deserving of a place on this list.
9. Future’s End part II
You know, I didn’t use to like Future’s End at all. I am not really crazy about the nineties’ aesthetic, their clothes are a total train wreck, and the fact that Earth is supposed to be deep in the Eugenic wars in the nineties according to the established chronology always made me dislike this episode. It didn’t help that this episode echoes strongly of “Star Trek: The Voyage Home”, which happens to be my favourite Trek movie, and that made me go: “in a world that already includes The Voyage Home, why would we need Future’s end?”
That said, on rewatching it, it wasn’t so bad. There were scenes I am not used to seeing in Trek, like the truck chase scene, which was kind of cool, and after watching La La Land (and Rebel without a Cause), I find it much cooler to recognize the Griffith Observatory in a scene. Rain was a cool character, she had great lines of dialogues, and her relationship with Tom was a real turning point for his character, because after this point is when he begins feeling more like a tridimensional character and less like a stereotypical womanizer with humorous lines.
The idea of a man from the past stealing technology from the future for his own benefit had appeared before on TNG (“A matter of time”), but seeing a guy from the 1990s manipulating 29th century technology so well was asking too much of my suspension of disbelief. However, this episode gave the doctor his mobile emitter, and we really needed this for his development in the series in my opinion. Also, making the emitter a piece of technology from the future was a good way to give the doctor mobility without running into a crisis about what to do with every other hologram in every other Federation ship/planet.
Cool episode, worth the rewatch.
8. Darkling
Voyager is in orbit around an outpost of the Mikhal Travelers, a loosely governed race of explorers with extensive knowledge of the territory ahead, knowledge which they are willing to share. Although the travelers come in different shapes and sizes - some more honest, others more prone to embellishing tales of their adventures - this was definitely a cool concept for a species, something that felt different from most, and I really appreciated this originallity.
While Voyager is gathering information for the journey ahead, Kes is making friendships of her own. She’s three years old now, no longer involved with Neelix, and growing restless with what life on Voyager has to offer her. In the outpost, she meets Zahir, one of the travelers, and they quickly become infatuated with one another. He invites her to travel with him and she seems all but ready to take him up on his offer.
In parallel with all this, the Doctor’s experimenting with his own matrix, trying to improve himself by adding personality traits from great figures of the past to his program. Behavioral subroutines, however, have a tendency to interact with each other in unpredictable ways and the end result was a bizarre holographic multiple personality disorder leading to a criminal investigation.
There’s a lot I didn’t like about this episode. I don’t understand why Neelix and Kes’ breakup, for instance, happened off-screen. It makes sense that they would break up, because Kes is growing and changing (there’s hints of this in the earlier episode, War Lord, though at the time, Kes is not herself when she brings it up), but still, it felt a little unfair to have this overlooked as if it had never happened. Voyager does that sometimes (as I recall, in later seasons, Tom and B’elanna’s real marriage will also happen off screen), and it’s one of the worst things about it. I also think Doc made sort of an obvious mistake - how do you not think of Byron’s depressive tendencies when merging his personality with your own?
That said, the things I like about the episode definitely outweigh the things I didn’t like. When Kes goes to Janeway for help, we see the captain at her best: she makes it clear that Kes’ decisions must be her own, but rather than evading the questions, she also makes a point to say she will help and how (“I can help you weigh the consequences, the possibilities…”). Their dialogue is very candid, and Janeway acts a little maternal in my opinion, which is perfect for her character. In this season, the captain starts to embrace her role as more than just a Captain, but as the leader of this community, and it is in these small personal interactions that we see her the best. She is calm, confident, relatable and gentle. She calls Kes to sit by her side (not across from a desk) and shares her own experience, her own thoughts over a hot beverage. It’s a captain I would love to serve under and model myself after.
Zahir’s character was also quite something. It’s cool how his relationship with Kes leads him to reexamine his beliefs and see the benefits of fellowship in one’s life, something he never had, as a lone explorer. Something he finds enviable. He is gentle and loving - the perfect love interest - and the scene in which he takes Kes for a walk under the moonlight of three moons was absolutely beautiful (why don’t we see more landscapes like this in Trek?)
Robert Picardo’s acting was great. I think he does alternate versions of the doctor really well (remember Dr. Zimmerman in the Swarm?) and this time he even looks different, just by doing that thing he did with his lower lip. The scene at the cliff was cool, felt different than what happens in most episodes (though this season had a few scenes like this - Rise comes to mind), despite the fact that his being fixed came out of the blue.
Overall, a good episode, to me at least, and definitely among the top ten in the season.
7. Remember
Voyager is carrying a group of Enarans back to their home planet, in exchange for them sharing their energy conservation technology. The Enarans are a highly enlightened telepathic race, and the cultural exchange happening on the ship is remarkable. There’s a reception in which one of the older Enarians plays a futuristic instrument that is somewhere between a temerin and a celesta, and the Voyager crew is in gorgeous civilian clothes, enjoying the show. Very, very nice.B’elanna is having strange dreams. They started when the Enarans came on board, and they play like a movie, with every night advancing the story further. At first the dreams feel amazing. She inhabits the character of a young Enaran girl named Korenna, who’s having a sort of Romeo and Juliet love affair behind her father’s back. It’s exciting and intense. But then the dreams turn dark, and before long B’elanna realizes they aren’t dreams at all, they are memories, memories one of the Enaran is passing along because they want the truth about their past to come out.
From the start, this episode felt like a TNG episode, and it felt particularly similar to “Violations”. I was not at all surprised to discover this was originally written as a Deanna episode, rewritten as a B’elanna piece. It was cool to know that, because I do this sometimes, I write fics, don’t publish them, then rework them months or years later and finally publish and I didn’t realize the pros do it too. Also, I think the rewrite worked wonderfully, first because it would probably have felt a little repetitive as a TNG episode and because B’elanna was great, she actually looked and acted like a young girl, caught in the tormentous emotions of a first love.
The story is a metaphor for the Holocaust (another Trek classic), and it worked beautifully, as only science fiction is capable off. It focused on the shame of those who participate and survive such a thing, but worked because the truth was delivered, as B’elanna puts it “without apologies, and with no request for forgiveness”. It also gives rise to interesting questions such as: what if the society that emerged after such a terrible thing is not a dystopian horror? The view we have of the Enarans definitely changes when we learn about their past, especially because it is a recent past - some of the older Enarans on Voyager participated in the genocyde.
All things considered, if felt like a classic science fiction exploration of a small aspect of human history, and I particularly enjoyed how B’elanna interacted with it, as well as how Janeway interacted with B’elanna in the end. Understanding B’elanna’s feelings, rather than reprimanding her for her outburst and gently pointing her towards the only thing she can still do. A true captain.
6. Alter Ego
I will preface this by saying I did not remember the Thalaxian resort program at all. And that’s surprising because this is such a big part of the third season, and also an excuse for us to see multiple characters in different clothes. It is also where most of “Alter Ego” takes place. Harry, who frequently visits the resort, falls in love with one of the characters, Marayna, a holographic hydro sail instructor. Desperate to get out of this embarrassing predicament - essentially, being in love with a computer program - Harry goes to Tuvok for help, asking the security officer to teach him how to suppress his emotions.
I really liked how this episode went deeper on Vulcan culture, giving us not only a number of new words, but also a deeper look into how Vulcans perceive emotion and how this perception helps them control it. That whole dialogue between Tuvok and Harry was just interesting.
Falling-in-love-with-a-character-in-the-hollodeck, is a classic trek story (both Will Riker and Geordi have been there in TNG), and there’s always a special something that makes that particular hologram different from the rest. This time, the explanation was very original. Marayna was an interesting character, and the best dialogue in the episode was the moment in the lual when she deconstructs Tuvok’s actions and exposes his intentions better than even he could put into words, I think. She then removes her lal, to make herself his equal and they play kal toh together, in an entirely unexpected turn of events.
The highlight of the episode, however, was the change it affected in Tuvok’s character. Though that last dialogue has Tuvok alerting Marayna about the depth of her loneliness, he is actually taking a hard look at himself and at how much he loses by not allowing himself to become one with his crew mates. So in the end, he goes to Harry for a partner in kal toh, because however bad harry may be at the game, that is not what it’s about at all.
5. Unity
I have been listening to the Delta Flyers podcast, with Robert Duncan McNeil and Garret Wang, as I rewatch Voyager. It was Robert (aka Tom Paris) who directed “Unity”, and I was surprised to learn he doesn’t really thing he did a good job on this one. It surprised me because I enjoyed Unity much more than his previous directorial effort, “Sacred Ground”. For starters, “Unity” picks up the threat of Blood Fever, and introduces ex-borgs to the Star Trek world, a concept that would be central to Voyager from the fourth season onwards (with the entrance of Seven of Nine) and has repercussions that stretch through Picard’s era (when we begin calling ex-borgs xbs). I particularly enjoyed how some of the scenes were lit, specially during Chakotay and Riley’s private conversation (the scheme of light and shadow on their faces reminded me of close ups in classic movies).
To me, this story was an exploration of loneliness. Like ambassador Kollos says, in the Original Series, we (humanoids, and humans specifically) are “so alone”, living lives in this shell of flesh…terribly lonely. Borg stories, particularly with Borgs who were severed from the collective always touch on the seductive nature of the collective, of having these other voices inside, and never being alone. Something as beautiful as it is horrific, and as desirable as it is terrible. Picard is torn by this, when he becomes Locutus, and so is Chackotay in “Unity”.
The conclusion of the episode was somewhat somber, but it just felt like an old-school cautionary tale sci fi story. Top notch.
4.Flashback
Tuvok starts having hallucinations that feels like memories and the only hope of recovery from this mental breakdown is a mind-meld with the captain, his friend, who stands in for a member of his family in such an intimate bond. Once inside his mind, Janeway finds herself on board the Excelsior, a ship captained by Hikaru Sulu, at around the same time of the events of Star Trek: the Undiscovered Country.
That was Tuvok’s first assignment in Starfleet, eight years previously, and the assignment that prompted him to quit Starfleet. Unlike Spock, whose decision to join Starfleet caused a rupture between himself and his father, Tuvok had no interest in humans, and was pressured to join starfleet by his own parents, whose reasons he didn’t understand until much later, when he became a father himself. I always appreciate when multiple characters of the same rare are explored in different directions, for it gives more dimension and believability to the worldbuilding.
While the premise of this episode was a bit goofy (specially the conclusion), I enjoyed taking a stroll on the Excelsior, seeing Captain Sulu and Commander Rand in action, and taking a peak into their part on the events that promoted the peace talks between Klingons and the Federation. It was 100% worthwhile.
3. Blood Fever
Ensign Vorik, a vulcan in engineering, is going through the pon far, a desperate situation for a young Vulcan stranded in the Delta Quadrant, many miles away from Earth. Desperate for a mate, who can help him purge the blood fever, he sets his eye on B’elanna Torres, but fails to take into account that B’elanna has no intention of getting attaching to him, despite whatever logical reasons he comes up with. Desperate, and out of control, Vorik initiates the mating bond, despite B’elanna’s rejections, and before she can push him off, he inadvertently makes it so that she too experiences the blood fever. Her being half klingon, the results are somewhat extreme.
There was a lot I enjoyed about this episode. One of my biggest issues with Voyager has always been how little development occurs in terms of characters but also more generally, in terms of world building for the Trek Universe. I have always been bugged by how little Voyager advances our knowledge of Vulcans, especially considering this is the first Trek show to have a Vulcan among the series regulars since the Original Series. Season three however, actually gives us a lot in that regard (we learn about Keethera, kal-toh, and get a lot more info about the mating cycle among other things). Moreover, Vorik is precisely the type of recurring secondary character I wish we had seen more on Voyager. DS9 did this very well, with characters like Nog, Rom, Leeta, Bareil… Recurring secondary characters that weren’t around all the time, but appeared often enough that we had a sense the station was actually a living community. Furthermore a lot of these characters were aliens, which gave us a much better understanding of the multidimensionality of certain species (like ferengis or bajorans), which just doesn’t happen when you have a single character from each species all the time. Voyager, being a ship stranded in space was the perfect series to repeat this strategy, but they hardly ever used it. Vorik, is a welcome exception.
The B story for “Blood Fever”, an away mission in which the team climbs down some caves to retrieve the rare substance gallicite was quite enjoyable (however confusing at times), and the aliens seemed like decent people who were just trying to protect their hidden society. It also placed B’elanna and Tom on the alnet, isolated from all the others which generated some of my favourite Tom Paris moments in the season, with Tom resisting B’elanna’s forceful advances for her own sake, despite his feelings. I liked the fighting choreography (as I did most of the time in this season) and the final confrontation between Tom and B’elanna on the turbolift, back on Voyager.
In the end, this episode also introduces the Borg to Voyager. And a great introduction it was.
2. Distant Origin
Sixty-five million years ago, a massive extinction event in the Cretaceous period decimated the fiercest creatures ever known to inhabit the earth: the dinosaurs. Or group of sentient hadrosaurs however used what technology they had to launch themselves into space and survive extinction. They travel far, into the delta quadrant, and for millions of years continued to evolve into the Vorth, a technologically advanced Species of Sentient hadrosaurs that dwells in massive city-ships and is capable of transwarp speeds. The Vorth are deeply religious people, whose lives are dictated by the Doctrine, a set of dogmas according to which the Saurians were the first species to develop in the Delta Quadrant, and therefore, entitled to rule over it.
Professor Gegen, a prominent paleontologist, however, has a different theory. According to his studies (the Distant Origin theory), the Voth actually originated in a planet far far away, and when he comes across the mortal remains of a Voyager crewmember, DNA analysis tells him that mysterious mammalian species and the Voth actually share a common ancestor, meaning their planet (Earth) must also be the planet from which the Voth originated. The only problem is that according to the Doctrine, mammalians are an inferior species, and Gegen’s studies are considered heresy.
There was a lot to enjoy about this story, the most important thing of which is probably the detailed worldbuilding into the Voth species and culture - which doesn’t always happen in most Star Trek episodes. It takes nearly fifteen minutes before anybody from Voyager even makes an appearance (which is cool, every now and again), and there were a number of Voth featured in several scenes (instead of the usual one or two). I also appreciated the Galileo metaphor that guided the story, and the way it brought it to its natural (and repetitive) conclusion. The saurian ships looked awesome (reminded me a little bit evocative of xindi aquarian ships, from Enterprise), the make up was cool, the iron throne was great, and the ways in which the worldbuilding was conveyed were clever.
Chakotay was great in this episode, and I particularly loved the thoughtful gift he brought Gegen towards the end. The saurians were so advanced, it would have been easy to fall into the standard Voyager story “please use your superspeed to help us get back home faster” but the episode went in another direction, and I loved how it ended on Chakotay gifting Gegen something so beautiful, however simple (an something that would have costed him a number of replicator rations, considering Voyager’s energy problems).
Needless to say, me being the dinosaur geek that I am, I loved seeing Janeway and the Doctor circling that Parasaurolophus in the holodeck.
1. Worst Case Scenario
The penultimate episode in season 3 begins as though we were still in the first season of Star Trek Voyager: the ship is divided between maquis and starfleet, and Commander Chacotay is staging a mutiny. In the turbolift, he approaches B'elanna to assess where her loyalties lie. B’elanna seems divided at first, but goes along with the mutiny, though, unlike Seska and the others, she retains her starfleet attire, and nearly 11 minutes go by before Tom’s voice calling her causes B’elanna to look up and say “Computer freeze program”.
B’elanna then explains that she came across this holonovel during a routine purge of the database to get rid of old files. It’s a compelling story, she says, probably because the characters are people on the ship, and it doesn’t take long for Tom to decide he wants to try the program for himself. Soon, the program becomes very popular, and by the time the captain hears about it, it’s been accessed 47 times by 33 different crew members.
Worst case scenario was, without a doubt, my number 1 favourite episode in season 3, in no small part because of how much the characters geek out about writing. In the past couple of years I’ve been increasingly more interested in novel writing, and it was cool listening to starfleet people discussing the Vulcan “Dictates of Poetics”, and hear Tom and Tuvok’s banter over them being a pantser and a plotter respectfully without much understanding that that’s okay. There were some good plot twists, and, like most of my favourite episodes, it was a story that could only be told this ship, making it Voyager at its best.
