Thoughts on Season Five.

Janeway wrestles with her past choices in Night.

THOUGHTS ON SEASON FIVE:

This is a tricky overview for me to write, given that I burned out on writing reviews and took an extended break about three quarters of the way through Season Five. I rewatched a handful of episodes before moving forward (not all, because life is far, far too short for me to ever rewatch The Disease or The Fight). Even so, some of this is going to be based on memory and on re-reading my years-old reviews from the first part of the season.

That disclaimer out of the way, what follows are my general impressions of Season Five of Star Trek: Voyager.


SEASON FOUR, CONTINUED:

As the season opens, Voyager feels the most confident it has ever been. And why not? Season Four was generally well-received. The addition of Seven of Nine to the cast worked well; and though the odd clunker is baked in with a 26-episode season, overall episode quality was higher than had previously been the case.

For its first two thirds, I'd say that the best description of Season Five is "Season Four, Continued." Seven of Nine remains prominent, with major episodes centered around her backstory. Other episodes follow up on the Borg and Species 8472. Most importantly, up through Dark Frontier, the overall quality remains high. Extreme Risk is pretty bad, and Gravity is rather middling, but most installments are well-made and entertaining. There are even a few standouts, notably Timeless and Latent Image.

Unfortunately, the season doesn't manage to sustain that level to the end...

The Borg Queen tempts Seven in Dark Frontier. It feels like
a season finale - and it probably should have been...

AN UNEVEN FINAL THIRD:

Dark Frontier is to Season Five of Voyager what Q Who? was to Season Two of TNG. It's a strong episode (involving the Borg, no less), and everything about the production indicates that it was the season's big spectacle. But once it's done, there are still several episodes to go - and, as was true of Season Two of TNG, the writers don't seem to know what to do with those episodes.

There are bright spots throughout this final stretch. I enjoyed Course: Oblivion and Think Tank, even if the latter suffers from a weak ending. 11:59 shows off Kate Mulgrew's acting range, and Relativity is a lot of fun.

But this marks the point at which there's a bad (or at least mediocre) episode for every good one. In rapid succession, we get a few dire offerings: In The Disease, Harry Kim has sex... without permission! (From Janeway, I mean. He had permission from his partner). The Fight combines boxing with one of Chakotay's Vision Quests. Juggernaut focuses on a very grumpy B'Elanna Torres...grumpy, I'm assuming, because she read the script first. All we need is a planet of Irish stereotypes and a clip show, and it would basically be late Season Two of TNG!

It's a pity. As of Dark Frontier, I was ready to label this as Voyager's best season thus far. But that last batch of episodes moves it well below Season Four in my rankings (though still above Season Two and Three).

Torres grapples with trauma in Extreme Risk. Believe it
or not, this is the better of her two Season Five episodes.

TWO TIERS OF CHARACTERS:

It's been evident for a while that Voyager has separated its regular cast into two tiers. Janeway, the Doctor, Seven, and Tuvok regularly get the best material. This makes sense, given that Kate Mulgrew, Robert Picardo, Jeri Ryan, and Tim Russ are the show's most consistently strong actors. But the remaining characters... mostly get to fight over scraps.

Tom Paris and B'Elanna Torres are the oddest characters to have been shunted to the lower tier, given that they actually got a lot of focus early in the series. Despite the characters being interesting on the page, and despite solid performances from Robert Duncan McNeill and Roxann Dawson, Seasons Four and Five have seen both increasingly relegated to "scraps."

At least Tom gets one good spotlight episode, along with some decent material in other episodes. Bride of Chaotica is a particularly entertaining show, one that I included in my partial season rewatch for no reason other than wanting to see it again. But the writers don't seem to have any clue what to do with B'Elanna - which is strange, since she was one of the better characters in the early seasons.

There were two Torres-centric Season Five episodes, and both were... well, bad. Extreme Risk had an interesting idea, as B'Elanna suffered survivor's guilt after learning about the deaths of her friends in the Maquis. Unfortunately, it dealt with the subject in a painfully superficial manner, with her cured of all problems by having a chat with Chakotay. I'd make a crack about '80s After School Specials, but most of those were frankly better written.

Juggernaut saves time by not even bothering with an interesting idea. Instead, the bad TV writer's trick is employed of regressing B'Elanna into the walking personification of anger. Why is she angry? Don't ask questions that might lead to anything interesting. She's just angry and foul tempered because that way, it feels like progress when she starts behaving like herself again at the end. The episode itself is bad; its treatment of B'Elanna as a character is awful.

Though at least, unlike Harry, she doesn't have an episode that sees her getting into trouble for having sex with another consenting adult...

Neelix argues with Janeway in Once Upon a Time.

THE MOST IMPROVED CHARACTER - NEELIX:

The last few seasons, the writers seem to have made a habit of taking one failed character and putting some real focus on them to prove that the character can work. Chakotay got good material in late Season Three and early Season Four. Harry Kim was made actively compelling in Timeless, my pick as Season Five's best episode (and yes, my favorite episode this season was a Harry Kim episode. Hell has frozen over).

For the bulk of this season, though, the designated "improved" character has been Neelix. Yes, the usually insufferable Talaxian is transformed into someone sympathetic and even likable. I began to consciously notice this while watching the late Season Five episodes. When putting this overview together, I reviewed my Season Five posts in which I used the tag, "Neelix," just to make sure. And yes, in every case, I have remarked that Season Five Neelix has been well-portrayed as a character.

This includes episodes that show his faults. Once Upon a Time carries forward Neelix's friendship with young Naomi Wildman (Scarlett Pomers), first seen in Season Four's Mortal Coil. The plot revolves around Neelix trying to distract Naomi while her mother is in mortal danger. It reaches a point where it's obvious to all that the girl needs to be told that her mother might not come home; but Neelix digs in, desperate to shield Naomi for as long as possible, even shouting at Janeway at one point. He's in the wrong, completely in the wrong... but given the situation and given his backstory, we can fully empathize with him even as we see that he's wrong. And, good writing for Neelix aside, that one's not even that great an episode!

Other episodes use him sparingly, but to good effect. In Drone, he's the one crew member who is open in his interactions with the Borg drone. In Counterpoint, his good cheer helps to keep the telepathic children calm and quiet during the Devore inspections. In 11:59, he provides a sympathetic ear to Janeway's story about her ancestor and spends his free time digging up additional information. These are all good uses of the character, as opposed to the annoying comic relief that's so often been his default mode in the past.

But, if past "improved characters" are any indication, Season Six will likely return Neelix to his previous state of bad comedy relief, just like Chakotay returned to being cardboard and Harry returned to being... well, Harry. It's as if the writers have some sort of cap on how many well-written characters can exist at any one time.

The Doctor uncovers a past decision that he can't live with
in Latent Image, one of the season's best episodes.

SEASON SIX WISHLIST:

A couple of the items from my earlier "Season Five Wishlist" actually came to pass. Seven of Nine has remained one of the show's most prominent characters, but she has been pared back. As good as she was in Season Four, it felt as if other characters suffered for her success. In Season Five, she fits within the ensemble.

That leads me to my primary wish list item for Season Six... and really, for the remainder of the series. I would really like to see the show balance its cast better. I already mentioned that Voyager's regulars are divided into two tiers. And yes, Janeway and Seven and Tuvok and the Doctor are fine characters well-portrayed by fine actors. But the "B" tier characters can also work, as has been proved in past episodes. B'Elanna used to be one of the most interesting members of the cast, and I'm confident that she could be again if anyone bothered to actually write for her.

Past that... Well, I've long since given up on Voyager ever being a show that's consistently interesting to me. That said, Season Four, and at least the first two thirds of Season Five, show that it's capable of being a pretty good version of itself. I'd like to see more of that: more compelling episodes like Latent Image and Timeless, more bonkers fun like Bride of Chaotica! and Relativity, more decent character pieces like Counterpoint... and far, far fewer piles of sludge like Juggernaut that seem to exist solely to burn off an episode slot.

Right now, Voyager is my least favorite Star Trek series. But it has a pretty good cast; and for all the wasted potential, it has a capable team of writers. There's still 51 episodes left, which is longer than full runs of several series. That's more than enough time for Voyager to make me change my opinion of it. I'd love to see that happen... though at the same time, I'm not holding my breath.

Janeway plays an Evil Overlord. It seems to come naturally to her.

IN CONCLUSION:

Voyager is not, and has never been, a bad show on an episode-by-episode basis. The best episodes of Voyager are as good as those of any Trek series, and the worst episodes are no worse than the dregs of TNG and Deep Space 9, both of which I like much better as series.

Its big problem is that, unlike those shows, there doesn't seem to be any real focus. It's set in a new section of space, but it doesn't expand the Trek universe the way TNG did. The crew is confined to one ship and has no support, but there's precious little in the way of developing plot and character arcs like DS9 had.

In the end, it's mostly a collection of episodes: some good, some bad, and a lot that fall in between. More than anything else, I think that's what keeps me at arm's length. There are individual episodes that I love... but even when I watch a great one, I can't summon up any excitement for the next one.


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5-26, 6-01. Equinox.

Capt. Ransom (John Savage), another Starfleet captain trapped
in the Delta Quadrant, hides a secret from the Voyager crew.

526 - 601. Equinox

Original Air Date: May 26, 1999, Sept. 22, 1999. Teleplay by: Brannon Braga, Joe Menosky. Story by: Rick Berman, Brannon Braga, Joe Menosky. Directed by: David Livingston.


THE PLOT:

Voyager intercepts a distress signal from an impossible source: another Federation starship, the USS Equinox, under the command of Capt. Ransom (John Savage)! There's no time to question the situation. The Equinox is under attack by mysterious lifeforms, and it's at risk of being destroyed.

Janeway is able to stop the attack by extending Voyager's shields around the other ship. But by the time she arrives, the Equinox is in bad shape. Janeway's crew manages to rescue the survivors, and the united crews begin work on repairing the vessel while celebrating finding another Starfleet crew in the Delta Quadrant.

The celebration is short lived. Ransom and his crew have a secret that they're hiding from Janeway. By the time she discovers the truth, the Equinox crew have prepared a double-cross - a way to get themselves home while leaving Voyager at the creatures' mercy!


CHARACTERS:

Capt. Janeway: She's always wanted to meet Ransom. As a scientist, she admires him for having made contact with a species that had been previously believed extinct. I guess she missed the old adage about never meeting your heroes. When she uncovers the secret Ransom's been keeping, she is appalled. But that's nothing to the cold fury she displays after his betrayal. It turns out that making Janeway truly, deeply angry is not a good idea.

Chakotay: His best material comes in the second half. Janeway becomes fixated on capturing the Equinox, but Chakotay believes they should prioritize communicating with the creatures to stop the attacks. At first, he confines his disagreements to private conversations. But when he believes Janeway is crossing a fundamental line, he acts to stop her. These scenes see Robert Beltran waking up from his nap and doing some actual acting for the first time in about half a season.

The Doctor: Robert Picardo gets another chance to play evil as the Equinox EMH, who was transformed into a sadist after his ethical subroutines were deleted. This much is fine, and it even allows Picardo to show his range as he differentiates between the two Doctors with slight changes in vocal pitch and body language. Then Part Two sees Ransom disabling our Doctor's ethical subroutines, leading to a subplot that... just doesn't add up. I fully expected the Doctor to be just playing along with Ransom, particularly since his "evil" actions never yield anything more than some bad singing. But - nope, everything really is exactly as it seems, though a quick tag assures us that there will be no pesky consequences.

Seven of Nine: Tries to awkwardly comfort survivor Noah Lessing (Rick Worthy) while Harry Kim cuts him free from the rubble. When Seven tells him not to be frightened, Noah tells her that it's already two days too late for that. She is looking forward to getting to know the Equinox crew so that she can expand her knowledge of humanity. Though one crew member later apologizes for being such a bad example, Seven frostily replies that she actually learned quite a lot from them.

Torres: Her former lover is Max (Titus Welliver), the Equinox's first officer. This should give her a strong role in the episode... but somehow, it doesn't. Torres ends up being unable to counter Max's expertise, even though we're specifically told that he was always a bit lazy and that most of what he knows, she taught him. Beyond that and a brief bit with Tom expressing jealousy, she doesn't do much outside of reciting Technobabble.

Max Burke: In the first episode, he seems slightly conflicted after reuniting with Torres. That doesn't last long, though. Once he learns that B'Elanna has moved on with her life, he is downright eager to betray her. Titus Welliver is reliable as ever, but by Part Two the character has been flattened out to just being evil. Mind you, if you're going to cast someone to be "the really evil guy" among the villains, then Welliver is a solid go-to for that role.

Marla Gilmore: Seems the most torn about double-crossing Voyager. She actually tries to talk to Chakotay about permanently transferring to Janeway's ship, an idea that he shoots down given that Ransom already is working with a skeleton crew. She goes along with Max and Ransom, but she clearly feels guilty. Olivia Birkelund does reasonably well with what she's given, though it keeps feeling as if the character needs something more to do, and that "something more" never quite materializes.

Capt. Ransom: I actually like how his backstory is revealed in Part One. His vessel is less advanced than Voyager, and therefore has been less able to defend itself against hostile species. Given a chance to save what was left of his crew, Ransom took it. This doesn't make him less of a villain, and Seven rightly mocks his insistence that he had "no choice" in his actions. But at least his actions are understandable. Unfortunately, actor John Savage is in full "twitchy" mode. He's so busy playing "furtive" and "evil" in Part One that it flattens out the character, which further undercuts his role in the second half.


THOUGHTS:

Equinox opens well. The teaser is short and attention-grabbing, as Ransom's ship comes under what is the latest of obviously many attacks by an unknown force. The first Act then follows Voyager finding the ship, which by then is little more than a derelict.

David Livingston, almost certainly Voyager's best director, makes effective use of the lighting. The Equinox is dark, with the main light sources being the rescue crew's lights and the sparks from damaged systems. There's a fair bit of suspense throughout this sequence, even though the closest it comes to actual action is a rattled crew member holding a weapon on his rescuers. Best still is that it's dark enough to create atmosphere, but never so dark that I had to strain to see. That's a balance I wish more recent shows and films were able to strike. Yes, you can create atmosphere without simulating a sensory deprivation chamber, thank you.

This sequence raises mysteries, particularly the question of what these creatures are and why they are attacking. To the episode's credit, the answers come during Part One, with more plot complications spinning off from that reveal.

The cliffhanger is effective, though the resolution to it is rather limp (Janeway presses a button. No, really). After that, however, the second episode remains mostly pretty good. There's some decent tension in Voyager's pursuit of the Equinox, and even more in the escalating conflict between Janeway and Chakotay.

I liked the way the epilogue addresses their personal disagreement. They are back on the same side, but they aren't entirely comfortable with each other even as the episode ends. I'm sure everything will be back to normal in the next episode, because Voyager doesn't believe in consequences, but I'm also glad that it isn't completely airbrushed away within the confines of the actual episode.

The ending is weaker than the rest of the two parter, with the resolution seeming rushed and downright easy for the Voyager crew. It doesn't go so far as falling apart - what happens makes sense in context - but it feels like it needs about five more minutes to breathe, and maybe one more complication for the characters to overcome.


A GOOD EPISODE THAT COULD HAVE BEEN MORE:

Though it's a good two-parter overall, the most frustrating thing about Equinox is the glimpse it offers of the Voyager that might have been. The Equinox's desperate journey, in an increasingly run-down vessel with more than half the crew dead? That sounds like a much more interesting show.

It's also a Voyager episode, so it goes without saying that potentially thorny ethical questions are mostly handwaved away. For instance: Yes, what Ransom did was unquestionably wrong. Very wrong. And if he hadn't done it, the rest of his crew would almost certainly have ended up dead. Can the end justify the means? Would Janeway be at least tempted to do the same in the same situation? These are questions that the script has no real interest in asking. Which is a shame, because exploring that might have made a good action episode into something legitimately memorable.

Still, Equinox isn't really trying to be much more than a good action/suspense story. Judged on that basis, it's a good episode. Save for a rushed final Act, it's well-paced; it's very well acted, particularly by Kate Mulgrew and - surprisingly - Robert Beltran; and it is extremely well-directed.

It certainly could have been more. But Equinox does its job, which is more than can be said of a lot of other episodes. Most of all, it closes out the fifth season and opens the sixth on solid footing. I don't know that I'll even particularly remember it a month from now - but I had a good time watching it, and in the end that's good enough.


Overall Rating: 7/10.

Previous Episode: Warhead
Next Episode: Survival Instinct (not yet reviewed)

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5-25. Warhead.

The Doctor discovers a fellow AI -
but it's a weapon of mass destruction!

Original Air Date: May 19, 1999. Teleplay by: Michael Taylor, Kenneth Biller. Story by: Brannon Braga. Directed by: John Kretchmer.


THE PLOT:

Harry Kim has bridge duty when Voyager receives an automated distress signal. Harry takes the ship to the planet and, with, Chakotay's approval, beams down with the Doctor to check it out.

They quickly find the source of the signal: a probe-like object that the Doctor ascertains is an artificial intelligence. Harry's first instinct is caution - when you're Harry Kim, you quickly learn that anything new is likely to kill you or at least humiliate you. The Doctor guilts him by pointing out that while this may be a device, it is still a lifeform that is in distress. Harry relents, recommending it be beamed to Voyager with security measures.

It turns out that his first instincts were right. The object is not a probe, but a weapon of mass destruction. When Doctor tries to separate the intelligence from the device, to save the life while nullifying the danger, the intelligence takes over the Doctor. It demands that Janeway transport it to its target to complete its mission - or else it will destroy Voyager!


CHARACTERS:

Capt. Janeway: She badly wants the weapon off her ship. Even so, when an unscrupulous trader(Steve Dennis) offers to take it off her hands, she refuses to allow him to take it fully intact. Despite his assurances, she recognizes that he'll just sell it to someone else, very possibly some kind of space terrorist. The warhead is a problem, but Janeway refuses to make it someone else's problem.

The Doctor/The Warhead: Robert Picardo pulls double duty as both the Doctor and the warhead. This is where I'd usually praise Picardo... except this time, I think he overacts. He's terrific as the Doctor, effectively conveying the kinship he feels at meeting a fellow AI. His sentient warhead, however, is more a case of Picardo "Acting Menacing" rather than being menacing, and the weapon's threat is further undercut by its apparent inability to track anything Janeway and the rest of the crew are doing, right down to somehow not noticing the alien trader beaming onto the ship.

Harry Kim: He's actually right about how to deal with the warhead: keep it on the planet until they're sure there's no threat. But the Doctor gives Harry a guilt trip about how he'd treat an organic life form. The correct response is: in the event of, say, a potential contagion, with the exact same level of caution. Harry being Harry, he naturally caves immediately. He tries to appeal to the warhead's better nature in the second half, but those scenes are among the worst of a subpar episode. Overall, I'm more than a little weary of Harry being written as the overeager, fresh-faced rookie after five years.

Torres: Taken hostage by the warhead along with Harry. Since she's the chief engineer, and they are dealing with a piece of runaway tech, you would naturally expect that she'd play a key part in the episode. But this is Season Five, and the writers have had little use for Torres since Seven joined the crew, so she's mostly just a glorified extra.


THOUGHTS:

Warhead is a mediocre episode, but it starts out promisingly. The teaser and opening Act move along nicely. The ship receives the distress call. The AI is discovered and taken aboard. The crew discover its nature as a weapon of mass destruction. After some debate, they decide to try to save the AI while eliminating the risk to the ship. All of this is well structured, there are potentially interesting concepts, and the episode moves nicely to the crisis point.

Then the warhead takes control of the Doctor, and the writers promptly run out of ideas.

From this point on, there isn't so much a structure as just a collection of scenes. The encounter with the trader takes up about ten minutes in the mid-episode... but this entire set of events doesn't actually do anything. There is no impact on the rest of the story, and if it were removed entirely there would be no sign that anything was missing.

After a lot of wheel-spinning, the final Act then feels badly rushed. All of the actual story gets stuffed into the last fifteen minutes. This leaves no chance for suspense to build, for the crew to deal with complications, or for characters to truly consider their choices. It doesn't help that Robert Picardo's performance is very far from his best - but I can't help but think that the whole episode would work better if the detour with the trader had been eliminated and the final Act expanded to take up the whole second half.


OVERALL:

Warhead is a frustrating episode. It's not just that it isn't good. It's that the opening Act is quite promising, making it all the more disappointing when the script deteriorates into a directionless mess at the twenty-minute mark.

It's watchable enough, and it's far from Voyager's worst. Heck, it's not even the worst of the last five episodes. But it feels suspiciously like something that's there less to tell a story than to fill a timeslot.


Overall Rating: 4/10.

Previous Episode: Relativity
Next Episode: Equinox

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5-24. Relativity.

Seven meets a future version of herself
who is on a mission to save Voyager!

Original Air Date: May 12, 1999. Teleplay by: Bryan Fuller, Nick Sagan, Michael Taylor. Story by: Nick Sagan. Directed by: Allan Eastman.


THE PLOT:

The USS Voyager is undergoing its final round of maintenance at the Starfleet dry dock in Utopia Planitia before its launch. Admiral Patterson (Dakin Matthews) is giving the young Captain Janeway a tour of her new command... while Seven of Nine runs scans, searching for something while attempting to avoid Janeway's attention.

Seven is actually working with the crew of the Relativity, a Federation timeship from the distant future under the command of Captain Braxton (Bruce McGill). A time traveling saboteur has planted a device on Voyager that will result in the ship's explosion five years into its mission. The bomb is invisible to the naked eye, but it can be detected by Borg implants - which is why they have recruited Seven.

The Utopia Planitia jump has allowed them to identify where the bomb was planted. Now they need to find out when it was placed, so that they can catch the saboteur in the act and remove all disruption to the timeline. The most likely time period comes when Voyager was in the midst of a Kazon attack, with the criminal using the chaos to mask the infiltration.

This time, Seven is able to intercept the saboteur - only to be shocked by the villain's true identity!


CHARACTERS:

Capt. Janeway: We see three versions of Janeway: pre-Caretaker and fresh to her new command; in late Season Two, on edge over constant conflict with the Kazon; and the current version, the veteran captain. Fresh-faced young Janeway is eager to get out into space, to test what her new ship can do, and (unspoken) to prove herself. Season Two Janeway is adjusting to the reality of losing people during an ongoing situation that has to have her doubting her own choices and whether she'll be able to get the ship through the crisis. It's the current, more experienced Janeway who is the most relaxed. Even when she learns of time distortion affecting her ship, she seems calmer than the Kazon-era version in dealing with the situation.

Seven of Nine: I should be annoyed that this makes three Seven-centric episodes out of the past five... except I'm not, because Jeri Ryan's Seven is one of the best-written and best-acted characters on the show! She holds the focus of this very busy episode, treating the story with suitable seriousness while making the most out of her character moments: brushing off Lt Carey's awkward attempts at flirting, for instance, or pleading with Kazon-era Janeway to trust her even though doing so isn't logical. Her most prominent trait is her refusal to give up. As she tracks the saboteur across three different time streams, she is advised that each shift puts a greater physical strain on her. She curtly replies that she's aware of the risks, and she still insists on continuing even when she can barely manage to stand.

The Doctor: The middle part of the episode settles on the present-day Voyager. This portion shifts focus from Seven to the Doctor, who is the first crew member to discover that things aren't as calm as they seem. It starts small, as several crew members come down with bouts of "space sickness." As crew members continue appearing with complaints, he realizes that something is wrong - and after he's called to a medical emergency only to find that it hasn't happened yet, he realizes that time distortion is involved. This is all well executed, and Robert Picardo seems to enjoy the chance to play detective.

Capt. Braxton: Has dealt with Janeway before, and he ended up stranded on 20th century Earth as a result. After years of "rehabilitation," he's been recast as a bigger name actor and given a new command. Despite his past issues with Janeway, he seems dedicated to stopping Voyager's destruction. When his second-in-command points out how much danger he's putting Seven in, he responds that doing nothing will result in the deaths of Seven and her entire crew, and he's as crisp and efficient as Seven while administering the mission. He does let his resentment toward Janeway show when Seven asks about involving her, however. "That woman has been responsible for three major temporal incursions... She's reckless. She has no regard for the integrity of the time frame... Avoid contact!"


THOUGHTS:

I actually feel a bit sorry for the villain of the piece - or at least, the earliest version of the villain. Like Janeway and Seven, we see multiple versions from the present and the future. The thing is, it's the present version who is first arrested... and this individual has done absolutely nothing wrong and has no intention of doing anything! The arrest is made for "crimes you're going to commit" - meaning that, very likely, this person's entire life is ruined because of a timeline that hasn't happened and that, by the episode's end, has been averted. Nice that Voyager is saved; I guess it just sucks to be the entirely innocent version of the person arrested for the troubles!

Outside of that, I really enjoyed this episode. Relativity juggles multiple versions of multiple characters across multiple time frames, and it does so without getting bogged down in exposition or technobabble. It's fast, fun, and exciting - and actually rather well-structured.

It opens in the past, rapidly establishing multiple mysteries: Why is Seven present before Voyager's launch? What is she investigating, and who are the people she's communicating with? A few answers are quickly given when the Relativity and its far-future crew are introduced. Only then, close to fifteen minutes in, do we move to the present Voyager as Janeway and the Doctor grapple with the time distortion mystery.

This middle act, which is in many ways the true beginning of the story, is well placed. It's the slowest portion of the episode - but by this point, the mysteries of the first Act propel us along. It's also the one part of the episode not focused on Seven. Spotlighting Janeway and the Doctor for a ten-minute stretch keeps this from feeling like "The Seven of Nine Show," which has become an intermittent pitfall. The time distortions themselves create some engaging scenes: a ping-pong ball that hangs in midair, Chakotay phasing into three versions of himself for a second while expositing to Janeway, and the moment with the Doctor being called for an emergency before it actually happens. The action rises until the ship finally seems doomed...

At which point we return to Seven on the Relativity, with us now feeling the urgency of her mission after seeing the consequences if she fails. It's an effective structure, made more so when we return to familiar scenes at the end, and the sturdy overall construction keeps the plot on track even as individual bits happily indulge in time travel nuttiness.


OVERALL:

A part of me can't quite get past the injustice visited upon the episode's villain (well, the innocent version of the villain, at least). Outside of that, though, Relativity is good, fast-paced fun, a rare Voyager episode that didn't bore me for even one second. It's the Star Trek equivalent of a well-made summer blockbuster, and I was happy to go along for the ride.


Overall Rating: 8/10.

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5-23. 11:59.

Shannon O'Donnel (Kate Mulgrew) meets
bookseller Henry Janeway (Kevin Tighe).

Original Air Date: May 5, 1999. Teleplay by: Joe Menosky. Story by: Brannon Braga and Joe Menosky. Directed by: David Livingston.


THE PLOT:

Voyager is enjoying a moment of peace, an uneventful trip through a calm area of space. This leads the crew to reflect on their cultures and ancestors, prompting Janeway to reminisce about the ancestor who most inspired her: Shannon O'Donnel, who helped to create the Millennium Gate.

In December 2000, Shannon (also Kate Mulgrew) was just an unemployed engineer, driving across the country with no real goals in mind. Her car breaks down in the small town of Portage Creek, Indiana. When she takes refuge from the cold in the bookstore of Henry Janeway (Kevin Tighe), he takes pity on her, offering her a job while she waits for the repairs to be finished.

Henry is the town's sole holdout, refusing to sell his shop to allow the construction of the Millennium Gate - something which has not made him popular with the locals. He insists that it would destroy the town's heritage to bulldoze it for what he sees as a "glorified shopping mall." Shannon grows close to both him and his son, Jason - close enough to be noticed by Gerald Moss (John Carroll Lynch), the spokesman for the company that wants to build the gate.

Moss has a deal for Shannon, an escape from her dead-end life. She has the qualifications to work as an engineering consultant. She just has to convince Henry Janeway to sell!


CHARACTERS:

Capt. Janeway: Though most of the episode takes place in the past, with Kate Mulgrew mostly playing Janeway's ancestor, Joe Menosky's script still gives Janeway a decent arc. She idolizes Shannon, even stating that she joined Starfleet in part to live up to her legacy. Within the series, though, it's been centuries since these events, and direct information is scarce. When Neelix is able to find a photograph of Shannon, it pushes Janeway to want to find more - but inevitably, she doesn't like everything that she discovers.

Shannon O'Donnel: Kate Mulgrew gives her normal Janeway performance in the present story, but she also plays Shannon in the bulk of the episode. It's very much to the credit of both Mulgrew and the script that Shannon is a distinct character from Janeway. Life hasn't been kind to Shannon, and there's an undercurrent of desperation in Mulgrew's when she all but begs Henry for a job. In the scene in which Moss makes his offer, we can feel the conflict, eagerness vs. loyalty to Henry. Finally, when she and Henry argue, Shannon's first instinct is to run away and leave the town behind - something very unlike Janeway. Throughout, Mulgrew injects a hint of something tentative in Shannon, helping to create a full sense of a woman who has never quite managed to commit to anything.

Henry Janeway: Kevin Tighe, best known for sleazy politicians and white-collar bad guys, seems to enjoy playing an actual likable person. There's energy and enthusiasm in his voice as he talks about the past, and he's charming when he sets up a "Paris date" with Shannon, propping up books about Paris in his shop as they eat. Henry is a good man, but he's also deeply stubborn. He dismisses the worthy elements of the Millennium Gate project purely because it will also include shop space and is designed to turn a profit. When Jason and Shannon try to point out the useful aspects, he lashes out instantly. His crusade against the company is sincere, but there is a note of self-aggrandizement, with him repeatedly comparing himself to historical and mythological heroes throughout the episode.

Gerald Moss: Decades of movies and television programs have coded us to see him as the bad guy. It becomes clear, however, that he's anything but. The project he represents is beneficial (and since it's seen that way centuries later, I'm going to take that as read). He doesn't attempt to cheat the townspeople, offering to buy well above market value. He never tries to strong-arm Henry into selling. The most morally suspect thing he does, offering Shannon a job if she can persuade Henry, is offset when he eventually offers her a job regardless of the bookseller's decision: "If we didn't think you had something to add to this project, we never would have made the offer in the first place."

Neelix: His interest in Earth's past is sparked by a competition with Tom Paris, as the two attempt to stump each other regarding their respective cultures. Janeway's talk about her ancestor leads him to search for more information, and he shows an understanding of how to investigate the past that outstrips Seven's when he expands her initial search beyond Starfleet databases. Neelix is relaxed and likable throughout, and Ethan Phillips is particularly good opposite Kate Mulgrew. Note to the writers: This Neelix is a joy to watch. Ditch the stupid comedy relief version and write him this way from now on.


THOUGHTS:

"I've gone through dozens of histories written about twenty-first century Earth, all of them biased in one way or another... so I go back to the raw material. Birth certificates, death certificates, marriage certificates, census surveys, voter registration forms, housing records, medical, employment, court records. It's all fragmented and incomplete."
-Janeway discovers the frustrations of historical research.

I love the quote above. It is one of the most accurate descriptions of any historical research that I've encountered in fiction. The past itself may be set. But unless you happen to have Doctor Who's Time Space Visualizer, then your access to the past is limited to historical records and accounts, all of which are filtered through interpretation and bias.

Those records that even survive through time. Across centuries, official documents are lost, while a stray item may survive simply because the right person finds it - such as the Ferengi who retained the photo of Shannon simply because it was marketable "as a nostalgic gift item." I suspect someone who worked on this episode has done some level of historical research to slip in observations like that.

I thoroughly enjoyed 11:59. The Shannon/Henry story that occupies the bulk of the episode is lightweight but charming, and it's enjoyable to see the Voyager crew relaxed and engaging in leisure activities. The relationship between Shannon and Henry is, by necessity, quickly sketched, but it basically works. Shannon is an explorer by nature, but she also needs a place to call home; Henry has a love of the past, at least as it exists in books, but he also tends to hide from the present in it. They are different enough for there to be moments of conflict, but each offers something that the other needs - and Mulgrew and Tighe are good enough both individually and together to sell the mutual attraction.

I also appreciated that the present day story wasn't a throwaway. Shannon's story does impact Janeway, as she learns that her ancestor wasn't a perfect match with the woman in her imagination. The script doesn't go over-the-top with her reaction. Janeway is disappointed and frustrated, but no more than that. Still, the full importance of the past is made clear in a well-written ending scene.

Though Janeway and Neelix are the only regulars to get significant attention, the script does a good job of giving everyone a moment. Seven attempts to investigate Janeway's ancestor, but her thinking is too regimented to make much progress. When Janeway is disappointed by what she uncovers, Chakotay points out to her that Shannon was living her own life, not trying to "live up to (Janeway's) expectations." Tom and Neelix have their culture competition. Other crew members talk about their ancestors, including the Doctor, who describes a prize-winning chess program as his "cousin."

Surprisingly, it's Harry Kim of all people who gets the best of the side bits, as he describes an uncle's deep space mission, involving six months of absolute isolation. The descriptions are enough to create an image in the viewer's head as Harry describes them, and Garrett Wang delivers the speech well.


OVERALL:

At first glance, 11:59 seems like a pleasant but inconsequential change of pace. It is a low-stakes story. In the present, Janeway deals with the mild disappointment of an ancestor failing to live up to her imagination. In the past, that same ancestor deals with a nascent romance and a town that desperately wants to sell out to a corporation for a genuinely worthy project. Neither story has any particularly big twists, there is no violence beyond an occasional harsh word, and no lives hang in the balance.

I think it's also going to down as a personal favorite of mine. I enjoyed the story in the past, which was buoyed by fine performances by Mulgrew and Kevin Tighe. I was even more impressed by the present day strand. Many times (see Enterprise's Carbon Creek, which I also enjoyed), these types of episodes throw away the series' present. Here, writer Joe Menosky crafts a full arc for Janeway, while also giving some nice little moments to the supporting cast.

On the whole, I would rate this as a minor triumph - and an episode that left me smiling at the end.


Overall Rating: 9/10.

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5-22. Someone to Watch Over Me.

The Doctor becomes infatuated with Seven.

Original Air Date: Apr. 28, 1999. Teleplay by: Michael Taylor. Story by: Brannon Braga. Directed by: Robert Duncan McNeill.


THE PLOT:

Seven of Nine gets into a heated argument with Torres when she admits that she's been studying her and Tom's relationship as research on "human mating behavior." Since Torres ends the encounter with threats of physical harm, this would have been perfect to help set up her hyper-aggression in Juggernaut; this being Voyager, the confrontation naturally occurs one episode after that, when the issue has theoretically been resolved.

The argument leads a confused Seven to consult with the Doctor, who takes it upon herself to teach her how to date. The Doctor makes a wager with Tom: If Seven brings a date to a reception for an alien ambassador, and actually manages to leave with the same date, then Tom will work double-shifts for a month - but if Seven creates a predictable spectacle, then he will get that same month off.

The reception is for Tomin (Scott Thompson), who represents the Kadi - an ultra-conservative religious race that frowns upon anything that might "inflame the senses." Tomin is here as part of a cultural exchange, visiting Voyager while Janeway and Tuvok beam down to their home planet. He's been left in the care of Neelix, who has developed a strict itinerary for his visit.

But Tomin has little interest in tours of Engineering or in observing his daily prayers. Instead, he wants to sample every sensation Voyager has to offer, from spicy foods to alcohol to amorous holodeck pastimes - until he loudly declares that he wants to stay on Voyager forever!


CHARACTERS:

Capt. Janeway: Only briefly in the episode. She does advise Seven to that she should try dating. Apparently, doing so is only against the rules if you happen to be Harry Kim.

The Doctor: It's always good news when an episode spotlights Robert Picardo's Doctor. Picardo is equally adept at comedy and drama, and he is able to wring the most even from a weak script. Look at the scene in which he shares a singalong with Seven of You Are My Sunshine. He goes through a range of responses as Seven sings: surprise at her vocal quality, then simple enjoyment of the music, and finally - as he watches her - the first stirrings of infatuation. It's a splendid performance, one that helps to keep this fairly mild episode afloat.

Seven of Nine: Jeri Ryan, arguably the show's other most consistent regular, is also very good. When Seven goes on a disastrous date mid-episode, Ryan plays her reactions as someone doing her best to make sense of a foreign concept. Few Star Trek lines have ever been as relatable as her frustration that "dating is a poor means of interaction." She remains blissfully unaware of the Doctor's growing attraction toward her, simply seeing him as a friend who is trying to help her.

Neelix: The "B" plot is a Neelix comedy relief plot, which is usually my cue to start screaming in pain. Except this one mostly works. The comedy isn't particularly funny, but Neelix is surprisingly likable. The key is that he's the straight man. He has seriously and studiously prepared for Tomin's visit, learning all the correct customs and prayer times for his race... only to look on in horror as his charge behaves like an overgrown frat boy. It's a pity Tuvok spends the episode off the ship; one suspects that, after having spent the first three seasons being the designated victim of Neelix's worst tendencies, he might have enjoyed watching the Talaxian's dilemma.


THOUGHTS:

Someone to Watch Over Me is, at least, a much better episode than Juggernaut. It's not a great episode, and I don't really have much to say about it. But at least it was pleasant enough to watch.

"Pleasant" is probably the best descriptor here. The "A" plot borrows a little from My Fair Lady, with the Doctor making a wager to teach Seven social behavior; and a little from Cyrano de Bergerac, with him deliberately trying to guide her into romance even as he falls for her.

It doesn't go very far with either element, however. There might have been some emotional stakes had Seven and the hapless Lt. Chapman (Brian McNamara) actually started a relationship while the Doctor looked on... but their romance is restricted to a single date, with Chapman barely mentioned after that scene. The Doctor's unspoken feelings never really rise beyond infatuation, so there isn't much drama to be wrung from that either.

The "B" plot is also pretty mild. Ethan Phillips and guest star Scott Thompson keep it enjoyable enough - but nothing happens at any point that's unpredictable or even particularly chaotic. Other than a single inappropriate remark to Seven, Tomin essentially spends a couple days of vacation eating too much, drinking too much, and enjoying the company of holographic playmates - which is to say, doing no real harm to anyone. Neelix's frustration is amusing, but it feels like more could have done here.


OVERALL:

In the end, "mild" and "pleasant" are the adjectives that come to mind for Someone to Watch Over Me. It's not a bad episode, and I did not dislike watching it. But there's nothing here that's going to linger in my mind.


Overall Rating: 5/10. Episodes don't come much more average than this.

Previous Episode: Juggernaut
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5-21. Juggernaut.

Malon Controller Fesek (Ron Canada) and his crewman,
Pelk (Lee Arenberg), leave a mess for Voyager to clean up...

Original Air Date: Apr. 26, 1999.  Written by: Bryan Fuller, Nick Sagan, Kenneth Biller. Directed by: Allan Kroeker.


THE PLOT

An automated distress call leads Voyager to a ruined Malon freighter. They rescue Controller Fesek (Ron Canada), the Malon captain, and bride officer Pelk (Lee Arenberg) from nearby escape pods, only to learn that the freighter is mere hours from exploding and destroying everything within three light years. Though Fesek urges Janeway to flee to safety, she insists on sending a team onto the Malon ship to stop the explosion.

The two Malon survivors beam over with Chakotay, Torres, and Neelix. They must vent the deadly radiation on each deck in order to reach the control room to stop the explosion. But they may not be alone, as one of the Malon fears that a mythical and malevolent beast known as a Vihaar may lurk within the radiation, waiting to strike at the intruders...


CHARACTERS

Capt. Janeway: Her patience for the Malon seems to be pretty much exhausted by this point. When Fesek insists that he will not risk his life returning to the irradiated, self-destructing ship, Janeway flatly tells him that he can either assist or be returned to his escape pod. Her disdain for the Malon, well-earned in previous encounters, makes her absolute scorn of Fesek palpable, and he wisely does not try to call her bluff. Though she hopes for the Away Team's success, she is realistic enough about their dangerous and difficult mission to prepare a "Plan B."

Chakotay: He does a good job as commander of the Away Team, keeping the party moving but refusing to compromise safety. When one of the Malon claims to have seen a creature in the waste, Chakotay decrees that no member of the team will work alone from that point. When Torres becomes infected with radiation, Chakotay does not allow her to refuse immediate treatment.

Torres: This is a B'Elanna-centric episode - one which insists that her anger issues have her perpetually on the edge of violent outbursts. The script is credited to no less than three writers, none of whom apparently recall that she has been able to control her emotions and deal with crises even when kidnapped by robots or stalked by a psychotic hologram. In short, Juggernaut delivers my least favorite form of "character development": reducing B'Elanna to her single, worst trait so that we can pretend that it's "progress" when she returns to her normal self.

Neelix: Since I'm spending most of this review talking about things that don't work, I'll acknowledge one thing that works very well: The use of Neelix. It's entirely consistent with what we know of his background that he's worked with similar waste disposal systems. This allows him to be a genuine asset rather than the usual buffoonish comic relief. Even his one pure comedy scene, in which he cooks up a foul-tasting brew to protect himself from radiation poisoning, is used to reinforce both his experience in this type of situation and the seriousness of it, as he recalls how this wretched recipe kept himself and his shipmates alive.


MY ORIGINAL POINT OF ABANDONMENT:

This was the last episode of Voyager that I watched in full before stopping the series back in 2017. I emphasize that it did not, on its own, make me stop viewing/reviewing Voyager.  Longtime visitors to this site likely noticed that I posted zero reviews for a 2 - 3 year period, mostly due to a combination of schedule and general burnout. If it hadn't been this episode that stalled my Voyager run, it would have been another one not far down the road.

That said, I have one and only one memory of my first viewing: Sitting down to write this review after the episode. I brought up my template and... proceeded to stare at the screen for several minutes. I genuinely could not think of even one interesting thing to say. Juggernaut is not hilariously dreadful in the manner of Favorite Son, The Fight, or The Disease. It just sort of... occupies space for 45 minutes and then ends.


THOUGHTS

Revisiting this episode now, without the burnout that plagued me at the time, I can see that Juggernaut is at least trying to take the previously one-note Malon and turn them into a society of actual individuals. In earlier episodes, they have simply been polluters and nothing more. This episode attempts to add some depth. It does not make them interesting on its own - but the cues of this script could potentially be used to create something worthwhile later.

Given that all three of the credited writers have penned good scripts, it is disappointing how much this episode relies on Idiot Plotting. The greatest immediate source of jeopardy for the Away Team is that they are working in a heavily irradiated environment. On the mission, however, they wear absolutely no protective gear, relying solely on an inoculation. We have seen crew members use gear in other Trek shows, so it's not like such things don't exist in this universe. Similarly, the transporter obviously functions, or else the crew wouldn't be able to retrieve Chakotay or contemplate sending Tuvok to replace him. So why aren't they beaming rotating overlapping shifts throughout this mission, thus limiting any one crew member's exposure?

These issues could have at least been papered over with a few lines of dialogue. The crew could have planned on using radiation suits, only for Fesek to tell them that the work was too delicate for bulky protective gear. Janeway could have intended to rotate crew, only for the transporter to be unable to penetrate the radiation (with Chakotay's emergency beam-out working, with difficulty, because of Technobabble). This script doesn't even expend that minimal amount of effort, however. There's one Away Team because there is; there's no protective gear because there isn't; and the transporters either work or don't depending on what is convenient for a given scene.

Complications are introduced in the middle, but most of them never build to anything. Each incident is just that - a bit of activity to fill airtime during the middle of the episode. There's a villain reveal at the end; save for some added gruesomeness, this scene would be perfectly at home in a Scooby-Doo episode. The entire finale is ridiculously poor. It's meant to show "character growth" that B'Elanna attempts to speechify... never mind that the urgency of the situation would actually make her (allegedly) normal aggression a more appropriate response.


OVERALL:

After a reasonably promising start, Juggernaut quickly devolves into being simultaneously tedious and stupid. It's not the worst of Voyager; it's not even the worst of the past five episodes (a group that included both The Disease and The Fight). But just because it's not rock bottom doesn't mean it isn't bad.


Overall Rating: 2/10.

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