Before writing this post, I took a look at some lists of "best Star Trek Voyager episodes" or "best episodes in season 4", and I have to say, my list will look nothing like those. Those usually include include iconic double episodes like "Year of Hell" (which I actually have a lot of issues with), or high-production-value episodes like The Killing came (which, however cool, didn't crack my top 10). When I am choosing my favourites, I take other things into account. First of all, I am a big fan of the episodic nature of Star Trek, and I tend to enjoy single episodes with a self-contained story, in which only the characters and their relationships with each other demonstrate the continuity of the show. I love episodes that explore cool science fiction ideas, such as an unusually intriguing concept for an alien species (cool make up definitely adds bonus points) or a particularly fascinating premise. In the case of Voyager, I also favour episodes with a high "Voyager Factor", that is, episodes that could only be told in Voyager, and therefore contribute to fully exploring the show's unique premise. Finally, I appreciate good characterization and dialogue, and the only reason this is third on my list is that I realize it is possible to have brilliant character moments in otherwise lack-luster episodes.
The fourth season of Voyager was particularly good. I liked Kes, but Seven of Nine is my favourite character in the show and her addition to the crew fixed something I didn't even know was broken before. I think I liked almost every episode in the season (though one or two had moments and elements I particularly disliked), and compiling a list of the top 10 was definitely challenging. These aren't reviews. Just my impressions of the top 10 episodes, and, be aware, there may be spoillers ahead. Without further ado, here are my top 10 episodes in Voyager's season 4 :
Voyager is out of fuel. This would never have happened back in the alpha quadrant, where there is an abundant number of star bases and other vessels are never too far away to render aid. In the delta quadrant, however, it’s not surprising that Voyager eventually gets in trouble to find supplies, and this time, they are cutting dangerously close. They haven’t had opportunity to replenish their stocks of dilithium in a long time, and now the ship is running on reserve power. Most decks are without life support, and in spite of these measures, they can’t go on for much longer. Even at a quarter impulse, their deuterium supply will be extinguished in a week. The situation is desperate.
Using the advanced sensors in the astrometrics lab, Seven of Nine encounters a planetoid rich in deuterium, 4 light years away, which conventional sensors could not have detected. Unfortunately however, the planet is a class Y, that is, characterized by a toxic atmosphere, sulfuric deserts, surface temperatures exceeding five hundred Kelvin, and thermionic radiation discharges. Starfleet officer usually call it the “Demon class”. It’s the most inhospitable environment for humanoid life.
Harry Kim (exhibiting some new-found self confidence) suggests they use a shuttle and modified space suits to go down to the planet and collect some deuterium. It’s a dangerous mission, but they are running out of options, and under the circumstances, the risk seems acceptable. The captain agrees to the plan. Harry and Kim, fly down to the surface to collect their samples. Something happens though, they loose contact, and when a second team travels to the surface to retrieve Harry and Tom, they discover the two of them out of their environmental suits, breathing the planet’s atmosphere as if it were nothing but a warm summer day on Earth.
This episode has some cool sci-fi ideas, and it’s one of the few I remembered well even before starting to watch this season again. There are some things that don’t make sense (such as the ship landing in this inhospitable world), but the final shot of Voyager taking fligh while the copies of the crew watch was definitely worth the inconsistencies.
The Mari are a telepathic species of the delta quadrant. Beautiful, fascinating and very open minded, the Mari are pacifists, and achieved their state of enlightened and undisturbed prosperity by outlawing violent thoughts. When Voyager is down at their market though, bargaining for ship’s equipment and supplies, a violent murder takes place. The chief investigator traces the cause of the murder back to B’elanna, who, on being bumped by a passerby experienced a fleeting violent thought. Local laws demand that B’elanna be submitted to an engramatic purge, which, however, could permanently damage her brain.
Dealing with the aftermath of accidentally breaking the law in an alien world is a classic Star trek story. It happened to Wesley, in the first season TNG episode Justice for instance, and there have been other episodes where Starfleet people were wrongly convicted and sometimes punished in the most unusual ways (Commander Riker, Chief O’Brien and Tom Paris come to mind). With such a rich history, it’s cool that this episode managed to give a different spin to this sort of story.
One of the highlights of the episode was no doubt Tuvok launching his own investigation to try and spare B’elanna from the engramatic purge. Following leads took him to the underbelly of Mari society, where he learned about the existence of a black market that traded in the forbidden violent thoughts, like XXI century blackmarkets deal in drugs and guns. Tuvok’s path to this discovery lead him to subdue the violent-thought-dealer Guill with a mind-meld, overwhelming the man with the full violence hidden underneath the veil of Vulcan logic.
Omega destroys subspace. It is a threat to the entire way of life of the Federation, and for that reason, the Omega directive authorizes them to use any and all means to destroy the molecules, which includes ignoring all other regulations, even the Prime Directive. The Omega Molecule is rare enough that this directive is hardly ever an issue, but naturally, it’s triggered in the delta quadrant, where Captain Janeway has no means to contact the fleet and no choice but to deal with the threat on her own.
One other person aboard Voyager knows about Omega: Seven of Nine. The borg call it particle 010. The experiments they conducted on Omega destroyed a total of twenty-nine Borg vessels and six hundred thousand drones. To Seven of Nine, Omega symbolizes perfection, and she speaks of it with a reverence akin to that used to speak of a god. She does not agree with the Captain’s decision to destroy it if they have a chance to harness this knowledge. The Captain, however, is adamant.
Season four of Voyager did a brilliant job exploring the character of Seven of Nine and integrating her to the crew. This episode is one of the pieces in this puzzle. In addition to the characterization though, I like it for what it adds to Star Trek lore. We had never seen a principle or rule higher than the prime directive, and although it’s strange seeing Star Trek officers bent on destroying technology with no qualms about interfering with another species, I like the story possibilities created from this. It would be cool, for instance, to write a book about what happened to the pre-warp civilization after Voyager’s interference and how that coloured their relationship with the federation. Actually, omega would make it possible for a species to remain without warp and yet be remarkably advanced, powered by this incredible source.
I would also highlight the way in which Janeway involved the crew in her plans. I get her reluctance at first - Captains aren’t supposed to divulge information about Omega after all. But Voyager’s situation is unique enough that merited an exception - as Chakotay intelligently points out in just the way to make Janeway listen. I do think Harry had no business being in that briefing though (he’s an ensign, not a senior officer, and he has no specialized task to perform that required him to be privy to the details!).
“Chakotay, please, I need your help!”
The pilot is Kellin, a Ramuran female, and she claims to have been on board Voyager before. In fact, she claims to have spent several weeks on board. Her species emits a powerful pheromone that makes it impossible for members of any other species to retain their memory of having met them. They repel technological scans, and their society is so secluded they developed further cloaking technology to preserve their secrets, including a computer virus that erases records of their presence from alien environments. That’s how no one in Voyager remembers Kellin.
After formally requesting asylum, Kelling explains that in her world, it is forbidden to leave. In fact, when she was on Voyager before, she was tracking a stowaway. She worked in close proximity with commander Chakotay during that time, and eventually, she says, they fell in love. That is why she chose to come back. Because she loves him.
This episode deserves the highest praise for such a cool sci-fi idea. Most of the episode focuses on Kellin as she tells Chakotay details about what happened when they first met, how they became close and eventually fell in love. Voyager’s first officer is skeptical at first, then reluctant, and finally entirely taken by the Ramoran woman (with some help from Neelix, and one of his inspiring late night talks). And it’s all true. For once, this isn’t an elaborate ruse from some hostile species trying to take over the ship. Kellin is the real deal. The stakes of the story are those of a lonely alien risking it all for love. And the story becomes that much more meaningful because of it.
I do have some criticism. Eventually, Kellin’s people find her on Voyager, and use the neurolytic emitter on her, to wipe her memories and take her home. When the tracers find her though, instead of protecting her, Chakotay - who by then is admittedly in love with Kellin - steps back leaving her entirely open to get shot! I really don’t think Chakotay would do that. Furthermore, once her memories are gone, Chakotay is entirely unsuccessful in doing to her what she did to him. She spent the entire episode carefully retelling what had happened between them to him, carrying the weight of being the only one to remember a relationship so meaningful she was willing to turn her back on her entire world for it. And she asked him, she begged Chakotay to do the same to her. Instead of focusing on the details, trying and insisting, he condensed the whole story in a couple of lines! Like he couldn’t be bothered! I really wish he had put more of an effort…
All things considered though, I really like this episode. I like the idea behind it, and think I could tell a dozen more stories about this race remembered by none. I loved the character of Kellin (everything, from the make up to the performance), and I really wish she had joined the crew. Since that obviously didn’t happen though, I am glad I got to meet her, at least for this one episode…
Let me say, for the record, that one of my least favourite things on Voyager is how the Captain made Tom Paris the ship’s medic, because he had, and I quote: “one semester of biochemistry at the academy”. I mean, come on! In what Universe does this make sense? Tom is the principal pilot on the ship! What is more, Voyager has scientists! Samantha Wildeman for instance, not to mention the other blue uniforms we see walking around in the corridors. Any one of them would probably be a better choice than Tom, to receive medical training, and indeed, considering its circumstances, Voyager should have started a training camp program on board, to make sure they had replacements in case of unexpected deaths. Instead, we learn that, now that Kes is gone, since she was the only - yes, the only - person receiving medical training, Tom has to go back to sickbacy, as he did in the first season. I just don’t buy that.
Be that as it may, at the very least, the story shows how upset Tom is about this unsolicited assignment, and in Vis a Vis, being posted to sickbay is a big part of his general lack of motivation and drive. In this episode, Tom is reevaluating a lot of things, which I suppose is something that happens to most people, navigating through highs and lows, but is not something we often see on Starfleet crews. That alone made this a very interesting episode. The holodeck programme that Tom uses for his contemplations, “Grease Monkey”, makes sense for the character - by this point it’s been established that XXth century vehicles are a hobby of his, and by the way, it’s a cool hobby for a starship pilot. Actually I wish we had seen more of this program in the series.
While Tom is going through this personal turmoil, Voyager comes across a small ship, whose propulsion engines use coaxial warp drive technology, and type of system the Federation has not mastered. The ship is unstable, and it’s Tom who thinks of a way to isolate Voyager from a potential explosion, by creating a symmetric warp field to protect both themselves and the alien vessel. There is a single life form inside that vessel, a humanoid male alien who request Voyager’s help to repair his engines.
His name is Steth and he is a test-pilot. He and Tom become fast friends, on account of their mutual interests, and Tom even gets permission to be the one assisting Steth with repairs on his ship. They talk like two old friends, exchanging tales of piloting adventures, and stories of their past. Tom tells him about the time he took his father’s shuttle for a joy ride and Steth gets a sense of how underwhelmed Tom is with his own life. The only problem, of course, is that Steth is actually a genomic thief, who trades bodies with people he encounters along the way, and taking advantage of Tom’s distraction, he steals his body and gets back to Voyager to assume Tom’s place.
The body-snatching aspect of this is a classic sci-fi premisse, but it complemented Tom’s personal storyline perfectly as it provided him a chance to contemplate all that he has on Voyager and get over his existential funk. What is more, his crisis is entirely justified, not only because of Voyager’s unique predicament, but also his recent relationship with B’elanna, the changes he went through since the mission started and that nonsensical assignment in sickbay.
Additionally, I have been listening to the Delta Flyers podcast while I rewatch these episodes, and Robert Duncan McNeil’s limerick for this episode, was probably my favourite of all the limericks he wrote upto this point:
"On the viewscreen a shuttle, a coaxial drive Paris sees
Steth comes aboard, swaps his body with ease
B’elanna’s perplexed
Janeway’s body swapped next
And the whole thing is called Vis à Vis"
Chakotay’s shuttle was shot down during a survey mission, and he finds himself in a jungle in the dead of the night. A group of young soldiers captures him, taking him to their commanding officer, and once there Chakotay learns these young soldiers are fighting a brutal war against an enemy they call the Nemesis, a cruel Beast that threatens their villages, their mothers and sisters. Because of the Nemesis, it is not safe for Chakotay to look for his shuttle at night. He must wait for the next day.
The soldiers try to help Chakotay find his shuttle, but while he searches he becomes involved in their fight. He gets to know the young men, learns about their families, their motivations and their fears. they save his life, and in time, he fights and kills at their side. He even gets to one of their villages, where the people honor him as a defender, despite his alien status, and he befriends a young girl, whose brother is out, fighting the Nemesis.
The number one thing I loved about this episode is the world-building, specifically the language of the Vory (the people Chakotay encounters). It is a very simple way to build a language - substituting a few words by less common synonyms, but it created a very unique feel to these people, in an unusual way when comparing to other Star Trek species. “Close your eyes” became “close your glimpses”, “tellings” means “words”, “trembles” means fear, “fathom” means understand and “nullified” means dead. It’s an interesting language, in no small part because of its simplicity and it was by far, my favorite thing about this episode.
The story is pretty great too. All of Chakotay’s experiences, he learns later, were not real, and the people he interacted with were nothing but a simulation. It is how the Vori recruit people for their ranks, he learned, and indeed, when Voyager finally rescues him, they had the help of the Kradin, the Nemesis, whom, in Captain Janeway’s experience were a helpful and reasonable species. By the time the episode ends, the judgment on the Vori-Kradin way is still in the air, and no one on the ship truly knows if one side is more vicious than the other. Chakotay’s final message about hate was a little on-the-nose, but it was a nice touch that the Kradin look so alien to humans, while the Vori look no different than us at all, because it added an extra dimension to the story (easier to be indoctrinated to hate someone who looks so foreign, I suppose).
Cool sci-fi idea, and trek essence. One of my favourite episodes.
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After being killed during an away mission in a class 1 Nebula, Neelix is revived by Seven’s borg nanoprobes, long after anyone else has ever been brought back to life in Federation medical history. This experience however, launches him in a deep existential crisis that makes him question the meaning of his life and whether or not there is any point in staying alive anymore.
“His function in this crew is diverse.” That’s how Seven characterizes Neelix’ presence on Voyager, and indeed, in the first few minutes of the episode we see him interacting with the crew in the mess hall, putting Naomi Wildman to bed and joining the survey mission at Chakotay’s orders, to make use of his experience with protomatter to collect a sample. He also mentions to Seven that in a short time, thy will be celebrating Prixin, a Thalaxian holiday aimed at celebrating families. He tells her to join them, and sample the broad variety of exotic cuisine available.
After he is hit by an energy beam in the transporter, there is nothing Tom Paris can do. Eighteen hours go by before the Doctor officially declares him dead, in front of the Captain, first officer and pilot. Just when they are about to leave, though, after Janeway vouched to mourn Neelix in the Thalaxian way, Seven of Nine barges into the infirmary, asking abut the integrity of Neelix’ neural pathways. As it turns out, according to her borg knowledge, it’s not too late to revive him, and the Captain authorizes a procedure involving the use of borg nanoprobes to reverse cellular necrosis while the cerebral cortex is stimulated with a neuroelectric isopulse. The procedure works. Neelix is brought back to life. He seems disoriented at first, which is to be expected, and somewhat reluctant to believe that he was dead, insisting that he was perhaps in a coma or some similar state. In spite of that though, he is alive.
It is only later, in his quarters, we understand the source of Neelix’ distress. Alone in his darkened chamber, Neelix contemplates the statue of a tree and asks “Alexia, why weren’t you there?”
In this episode we learn that Thalaxians believe in the afterlife. Specifically, they believe that when you dies, you goes to a place called the Great Forest, where all of your loved ones and ancestors are waiting to greet you. Neelix has great faith in these beliefs. He thinks of the Great Forest, when he can’t sleep at night, and the statue in his quarters is meant to represent the Guiding Tree, a large tree in the middle of the forest, that is meant to guide one’s path in the afterlife. The problem with all that, is that Neelix didn’t see any of it in the eighteen hours in which he was dead. There was nothing. And it is this that causes him to question whether all of his beliefs are a lie. This crisis causes him to question the meaning of his very life, and, in the apex of his despair, prompt Neelix to attempt suicide.
This episode places high on my list because this sort of story is science fiction at its best: using a sci-fi scenario to explore a deep question we are struggling with in the present. I also think it’s probably Neelix’ best episode up until this point in Voyager, with beautiful acting as far as I’m concerned. I didn’t use to like the Neelix character very much, but rewatching Voyager made me realize he is one of the best characters in this crew.
The holiday of Prixim was cool to watch, particularly because the crew was out of Uniform (I think most of them wore the same clothes they wore for the reception in Remember (Season 3), and more than that, it’s cool to get an insight into another detail of their life on Voyager. It makes sense, that in this ship, so far from home, they would have their own celebrations, and even more sense that they would adopt one of Neelix holidays, considering his role in the crew. It doesn’t bother me at all that we didn’t hear about Praxim in previous seasons, and it actually reminded me of the Gratitude Festival, on Deep Space 9, which is set up more or less in the same manner (off-screen, the whole thing has been happening on a yearly basis, to the point of becoming a tradition for a few of the crew). The one negative aspect about this, is that reminds me that Voyager would be the perfect ship to finally have a Christmas episode - it’s been established in earlier episodes that Neelix looked into old holidays of different Federation species, he certainly found a Vulcan one, and it would have been perfect for him to discover Christmas and organize a celebration of it on board.
Another strong aspect of this episode is the relationship between Neelix and Chakotay. We didn’t see much of these two up until now, but it reaches a critical point quickly when Chakotay is the one in the transporter room trying to convince Neelix not to beam himself out into space.
Finally, I really enjoy Seven’s role here. Like many episodes this season, this was an excellent way to highlight Seven’s Borg heritage and use this new character to propel a story forward. It would be interesting to know if this experience had some impact in the future, whether or not they would use the same technology again, if another crew member was in the same position as Neelix and which extra measures would be taken to avoid the same result (i.e. counseling).
Seven had, as usual, some of the best lines of dialogue in the episode. First between her and Tuvok in the corridor, discussing Borg views on immortality, and exposing Seven’s own thinking on the topic. Seven and Tuvok’s dialogues are my favourite. They are both very honest and open, which means not only that it’s easy to understand what they say - one doesn’t have to navigate through an ocean of subterfuge - but also that their conversations easily reach deeper topics than the others. Seven tells Tuvok the Borg have no fear of death. When a drone dies, it is discarded but its memories continue to exist in the collective, making the Borg immortal. Tuvok then questions Seven on how being severed from the collective makes her feel, considering she is now mortal like most humans, and when she replies we realize she does experience a certain aprehension on tackling this topic. But her memories continue to exist in the collective, despite her being now separated from it, which brings her comfort.
The second good piece of dialogue, during the Praxim celebration, when Seven tries to “fit in” by joining a conversation about children - specifically about Naomi Wildman’s quick development to interject: "Children assimilated by the Borg are placed in maturation chambers for seventeen cycles.". After an awkward pause, the Doctor replies:
"In these… maturation chambers, the development of conversational skills is, I suppose, a low priority?"
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Captain Janeway has a headache. It's been affecting her for days, and the doctor hasn't had much success with her treatment. In his opinion she works an excessive number of hours, doesn't exercise enough, eats poorly and on the run and barely sleeps at all. Even his osteopathic massage doesn't seem to be very effective in relieving the Captain's symptoms, and as her headaches worsen she becomes increasingly short fused. B'elanna and Tom have been snogging in Jeffrey's tubes corners all over the ship, and the Captain dresses them down for this adolescent behavior. In her ready room, agitated and irritable she gives Tuvok an earful for not keeping the department heads in their toes and allowing the crew to take advantage of the lack of protocol in their ship. It is Tuvok indeed, taking no offense in her attitude, that calls his friend to reason by asking: "shall I flog them as well?" That gives Janeway pause. She sits down, acknowledging her own stress in a moment of unprecedented vulnerability, talking about trying out an inn just outside Siena in the Da Vinci holodeck program, and Tuvok sits by her side allowing the Captain to take his hand and saying "I will join you for a glass of wine."
The crises the Captain is facing this time becomes evident when commander Chacotay, after suddenly feeling ill discovers his hair is falling and the doctor diagnoses him with a mysterious sudden form of premature aging, due to overstimulation of the commander's DNA. Later on Neelix joins Chacotay in sickbay, also with strange genetic mutations, and before long many of the crew are added to the list of the mysteriously ill. With B'elanna's help, in the science lab, the doctor makes some progress, discovering some sort of genetic tag in the samples of the affected, but before he can quite understand this discovery, both he and B'elanna are incapacitated.
In sickbay, when Tom is explaining to the captain what he was able to understand from B'elannas condition, Seven listens to the doctor's voice in her ears. He has tapped into her auditory implant (making use of one of the features that make Seven unique, great for the first season of her character in the ship), and asked her to join him in the holodeck, without alerting anyone about this request. Once inside the Da Vinci simulation, the doctor explains to her that he believes the mutations are artificially produced, and modifies her sensors to a frequency B'elanna had devised prior to her collapse in the science lab.
Once more outside the holodeck, Seven's improved sensors quickly reveal the origin of the problem. There are aliens on board. Countless aliens, flooding every deck with all sorts of devices, closely observing the behavior of the crew. And Voyager`s crew members are walking around with invisible devices attached to their craniums, no doubt the source of the strange symptoms afflicting the crew. When she enters the captain's ready room to appraise Janeway of the situation, Seven finds not one, but two aliens closely observing the captain, adjusting the pointy devices sticking out of her skull.
The aliens are Srivani medical scientists, and it is their practice to use other sentient life forms as laboratory animals to advance their knowledge. Eventually one of them is captured - Alzen - and she explains, without remorse or subterfuge, that if the Voyager crew cooperates the fatality rate of the experiments will be minimal, although there may be some deformities. When one of Voyager's crew dies, however, Captain Janeway decides to make something drastic - as well she should, and she risks everything to stop the madness of the Srivani.
This episode was awesome. The look of the devices attached to the crew was frightening, an effect enhanced by their lack of awareness about what was going on. Alzen's demeanor felt truly alien, and the concept of the episode was an interesting discussion on the use of other creatures - particularly sentient creatures - for the benefit of one's own species through the advancement of medical research. I loved the music in the episode - the scene where B'elanna and the doctor are studying the genetic tags in particular comes to mind. Voyager really has some beautiful musical moments, more so than any other Trek series, at least that I have noticed. There were also some good character moments, with B'elanna's reaction to the captain's warning in the beginning marking how much their relationship has changed since the first season, and how much she feels having disappointed the captain now. My criticisms of this episode are minimal, I really liked the visuals and Janeway's actions at the end were exactly proportional to the threat they faced. Five star episode.
Traveling alone, in the emptiness of Space the brave crew of Voyager receives a message from their faraway home. The message comes in a broken up transmission, almost like mid-twentieth century space radio communications and the crew soon determines Starfleet is using the Hirogen communications network to transmit them a message. it could be anything, but what everyone is hoping for is clear: a plan to bring them home.
The message is lodged in one of the relay stations in the network, and that’s where they head to retrieve it. Upon arriving the first thing that becomes clear is what the message actually is: personal letters from home, for each member of the crew. Seven and B’elanna work on retrieving the letters from the station - a non-trivial task - and discover that beneath it all, there is also a message from Starfleet. It’s heavily encrypted, and they’ll only be able to make sense of it after more of the letters have been cleared.
There’s no particularly cool sci-fi concept in this episode, and if anything, I thought the idea of a relay station powered by a micro-singularity didn’t make much sense to me. But the letters from home storyline was perfect. In the beginning we get a glimpse of everybody’s expectations. Harry is all smiles, not a doubt in his mind only good can come from getting a letter from his folkes. Other’s like Tom and B’elanna don’t expect anything. Their lives are better on Voyager than they ever had been before. Chacotay thinks of his relatives on Earth, as does the Captain, and all of them look forward to good news.
The fact of the matter, however, is that a long time has passed, and the letters bring unexpected news. Chacotay hears from a former member of the Maquis. Their revolution is dead, crushed when most of them died, victim of the new Cardassian alliance with the Dominium. Tuvok learns he is now a grandfather. Janeway learns her fiance, Mark, is married to someone else. Neelix takes the letters to the crew in batches and Harry, the one who wanted a letter the most, can’t seem to get a turn.
The B plot, of the station collapsing and the Hirogen attacking again, capturing seven and Tuvok in their brig for a while was not particularly interesting to me. They’re a cool species, but I never really believe their potential as a threat in this episode, and the effect of their size was not constant in other episodes… But the letter story line was beautiful. It involved the entire crew, it was Voyager exploring its potential at the maximum and generated beautiful moments between characters. The quiet confidences between Janeway and Chacotay when the captain drops her shields, and doesn’t bother hiding how much the news affected her in front of him. Chacotay’s conversation with B’elanna deepening their friendship yet a little more as he tries and figure it out a way to bring the news to the rest of the Maqui. That moment between Harry and Tom in the mess hall when they trade thorns because Harry is anxiously waiting for a letter, and Tom is actually feeling a little cut out from his friend, for he doesn’t want to loose what they have in Voyager at all. All of this was wonderful to see…
This episode tackled the fact that now, after so much time has passed, getting back to Earth is not the same as it would have been shortly after the Caretaker first brought them for this quadrant. Going back to regain what they lost indubitably mean losing a lot of what they gained as well. It’s one of the inevitable paradoxes of human existence, that the ability to thrive in adversity brings value to this adversity that questions the need to get rid of it at all. I loved this exploration. Definitely a great episode.
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This episode deserves a mention because it is the closest we have gotten to see a Mirror Universe version of Voyager. Everything is the same, but not quite, and things like Janeway’s uniform with black leather gloves, Chakotay’s giant tattoo and the Doctor’s android body were just cool to watch. Since this wasn’t actually a mirror universe, we could see them as the original mirrors in TOS and ENT, not like the weakened versions of humans in DS9’s mirror episodes, which, again, was quite cool. The episode itself was a cool idea, and the Doctor was just fantastic in it, in my opinion. I would highlight also the ending which was beautiful and poetic, with the idea that the doctor got on a small ship for the
alpha quadrant, feeling "a longing for home".
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