Thoughts on Season Four.

In its fourth season, Star Trek: Voyager undergoes a major cast change, one that shifts the character dynamics considerably. But the show itself remains mostly the same beast as in its first three seasons: A series that exists mostly episode by episode, with few dramatic risks taken.

Still, for the first time in a long time, I come not to bury Voyager but to praise it. Season Four may suffer from all the same faults that have plagued the series from the beginning (a few of them actually worsen!), but the good episodes significantly outweigh the bad ones, the introduction of Seven of Nine works and works well, and the result is the most consistently enjoyable season of the show to date.


ARRIVALS: SEVEN OF NINE

This is the season that introduces Seven of Nine (Jeri Ryan), a Borg drone who unwillingly joins the Voyager crew and has to assimilate to their environment. There is a lot of potential in this concept, making it no surprise that most of the season's episodes feature a significant role for her. She brings in something that has been lacking: conflict with the crew.

Nothing was ever made of the Maquis background of half the crew, so we have spent three seasons with a group that all share the same core values and all basically get along. Seven comes from a very different background, has a very different set of values, and is not even particularly interested in getting along. Her very presence creates conflict. As a Borg, she was a threat to the ship, and the rest of the crew are wary of her. She brings in enormous scientific expertise, but expects her opinions to be accepted as a matter of course, which brings her into conflict with Torres, Janeway, and others.

Particularly interesting is the relationship that evolves between Seven and Janeway, who sometimes seems like a mentor to her, at other times an obstacle or even an adversary. When Seven denounces Janeway for trying to stifle her individuality, she sounds like a rebellious teen daughter - and the pain and disappointment on Janeway's face seems very much like that of a mother. The season finale reinforces that these two strong women have very different values, that Seven is never going to simply conform to Janeway's views. This is also good: They need to accept each other as they are, and find a working relationship despite their differences.


DEPARTURES AND LOITERERS: KES, HARRY KIM, AND THE REST

The other "big thing" that happens in Season Four is the departure of Kes... Something that really shouldn't have happened. Sure, it makes perfect sense that one of the supporting regulars would be let go to make room for Seven. But it makes no sense for it to have been Kes, a character whose role (as the Doctor's assistant and his humanizing influence) has not been replaced by Seven in any way, and a character whose final Season Three spotlight episode doubled as a statement of intent regarding future direction for her.

It's evident that the original plan was to let go of Harry Kim, a character so useless that writers have acknowledged deliberately avoiding giving him large roles in their scripts. Then actor Garrett Wang made a People Magazine list, which for whatever reason was seen as making him untouchable. I don't think it was a particularly good decision - Something made even more visible by how little Harry does over the course of Season Four, with a good showing in The Killing Game being the only time the entire year in which he doesn't seem like a spare part - one whose only real job (spouting Technobabble) has been made redundant by Seven.

Harry isn't the only character turned into a glorified extra by Seven's introduction. By mid-season, she has been set up in her own area of the ship - Astrometrics - and is now given the tasks that in previous seasons would have fallen under B'Elanna's purview. While Roxann Dawson's pregnancy certainly limited her participation in the mid-season, it does feel very much as if her previously prominent role has been pushed far to the back to make more room for Seven. What can be said of a season in which Neelix gets more memorable character material than B'Elanna Torres?


A CHANGE OF ALTITUDE: HINTS OF PROGRESS

But as I said at the top of this overview, I come largely to praise Season Four, which feels more alive and far less stagnant than Seasons Two and Three often did. Despite the overuse of Seven, a large part of the credit does belong to her, and to the way she shakes up the overly-comfortable cast dynamic. But there are other ways in which this season moves the series forward.

For the first three seasons, the relationship of Voyager to Starfleet is constant. Starfleet believes the ship is destroyed, and there is no way for our regulars to contact home and their families to let them know otherwise. Every so often, there would be a chance for the ship to possibly get home or possibly send a message... But this would always end in defeat so that the status-quo would be unchanged.

Message in a Bottle, right around the middle of this season, finally changes that. The discovery of the Hirogen communications relay allows the ship to contact home, and to receive messages. They now know about the Dominion War and the destruction of the Maquis, and their families now know they are alive. The problem is now being worked from two ends, with Starfleet certainly devoting at least some energy to shortening Voyager's journey.

That same episode kicks off an arc of episodes centering around the Hirogen, a predator species that at first seems a little too much like... well, Predator. Early episodes present the Hirogen as so one-dimensional, one could be forgiven for thinking the Kazon had been simply given a new design. Then Prey successfully makes them feel formidable, with Voyager clearly on the losing end of a confrontation with them. The Killing Game lends them even more dimension, as all the arguments viewers might have about how a species like this couldn't sustain itself are actually made part and parcel of the plot.

Though I suspect that two-parter will receive some follow up at some point, it does work as a resolution of the arc, which is an overall highly successful run of episodes. One hopes the series will continue to do occasional arcs of linked episodes in the future.


SEASON FIVE WISHLIST

The changes made to the status quo are a good thing - But instead of simply letting this sit as the "new normal," the show needs to build on these changes. I'd like to see occasional bursts of communication with Starfleet, perhaps seeking intelligence that might help with the Dominion War. Also, as the season finale reminds us, Janeway's actions in Scorpion have actually helped the Borg to expand and grow more powerful. It would be interested to see her forced to deal with the fallout of that - and I don't just mean in the form of some random alien out for revenge.

I also hope the hints at the end of Hope and Fear, of Janeway and Seven accepting that they have different values and working together despite that, are followed through. There's more dramatic potential in Seven working with the crew but holding a different value system than there is in simply transforming her into another Proper Starfleet Officer (ironic that the former member of the Collective has more individuality than most of the rest of the crew).

And while I do think the addition of Seven has been a benefit to the show, and I definitely would like her to remain prominent... It might be OK for there to be just a little less of her, so that she's not succeeding at the expense of the rest of the cast. For all of its problems, Voyager has a genuinely pretty strong ensemble. Pare back on "The Seven of Nine Show," please, and start remembering the rest of the cast for more than one or two episodes at a time.


IN SUMMATION

I have come to accept that Voyager will never be the show I wish it was - the show that can occasionally be glimpsed in jewels like The Thaw, Scorpion, and Living Witness. Save for the occasional story, the series is determined to play it safe inside its action/adventure bubble.

Season Four doesn't change this, but it does manage to push the edges of that bubble, making Voyager much better as the show that it is. I'm still not wildly enthusiastic about it as a series - But for the first time since Season One, I'm looking back on a year of Voyager with a lot more good feelings than bad.

Here's hoping it can further improve on that next season!


Previous: Season Three
Next: Season Five

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