My Favs for Season 3. If I already posted about them before, I won’t give comments again.
Basics Pt2
Sacred Ground
Coda
Macrocosm – This episode is memorable for showing that Janeway could be a bada$$ with the best of them. At least against overgrown viruses... Both TOS and NexGen had an ep where the captain ended up seemingly alone on their ship. (Don't recall if DS9 did...) This version compares very favorably against NexGen’s “Starship Mine”for the captain having to single-handedly save her ship and crew. Homages to Terminator 2’s Sarah Connor and Aliens’ Ripley.
Unity – An introduction to the idea of former Borg drones living disconnected from the Borg Hive. A good Chakotay episode. I love how he slinks backwards into the wall when he first realizes they were Borg and he is a bit freaked out. I had forgotten how angry he was that they had used him to re-initiate their planetary collective connection. After both Seska and Riley manipulated him, and Janeway... well, whatever number she did on him, I can see why he would be a bit wary of women for awhile.
Displaced – I liked this mystery of their crew members being replaced one at a time. I liked that Chakotay and what crew were left were trying to sabotage Voyager, although it didn’t seem to deny them the ship for very long. As usual, aliens were able to work the systems fairly soon after boarding.
Worst Case Scenario – This is a fun episode to get to see a proposed Maquis mutiny, and then see the holodeck scenario play out with different crew members making different choices. I love the senior staff meeting when we see how fast word of the program spread throughout the ship. I’m not so crazy about it once “Seska’s ghost” takes it over. But still the episode is highly re-watchable for me.
Scorpion Pt1&2 – The Scorpion two parter is probably my favorite of the whole series. A cable channel has been airing Voyager re-runs for awhile and I was able to resist watching until I saw Scorpion was on, and it drew me back in. This episode is considered the high point in the series by most TV or Star Trek critics. The creation of Species 7482 as an enemy that can defeat the Borg was brilliant. I love Chakotay and Harry exploring the damaged Borg cube and the strange ship attached to it. Very suspenseful. The captain and commander interactions are excellent. (the look on Chakotay’s face when he walks in to Sickbay and sees the captain has recovered and he knows she’s not happy is priceless!) And who doesn’t love seeing the Borg sucked out into space? Of course, it gave fuel to those who see Janeway as a bit insane; and it also gave us Seven of Nine which changed the series forever.
A few afterthoughts. Not honorable mentions, but just comments:
Q and the Gray – Not a favorite, but it is worth sitting through just to hear Susie Plakston’s dry intonation of,
“What are you doing with that dog? And I don’t mean the puppy.”
Fair Trade – This episode is indicative of Voyager’s problem of always taking itself way too seriously. Episodes may have some light hearted scenes, but the problem of the week is always super serious and dire. This story of Neelix having to make various trades in order to obtain a map of the area of space ahead could have been a light hearted romp as an homage to the Tony Curtis supply officer character in “Operation Petticoat,”instead of the terribly dark, dire thing it is.
Before and After – I was never a great Kes fan. Sorry. She was OK though. But I found it disconcerting when she suddenly had long hair! And I didn’t like it that she dumped Neelix after he saved her and she wanted to have a baby with him. And then in this alternate timeline, she’s married to Tom! Too weird and confusing, especially since very little of what she sees actually happens in the series timeline. But I did like them playing with the idea of the generational crew, and the interconnections between Tom and Harry’s families.
Distant Origin – The idea that a dinosaur species from Earth evolved to achieve space travel eons ago was a fun one. However, to think that they had to travel all the way to the Delta Quadrant before finding a suitable planet hurts the concept if you think about it too much. Would have been better if humans had found them a few dozen light years away in the Alpha or Beta Quadrants. Also, this is the beginning, I think, of Chakotay’s Paleontologist career. He goes back and forth between Paleontology and Anthropology, which while they are both the study of aspects of the distant past, do not have the same focus.
My Thoughts on Seasons 1-3:
I liked the introduction to the characters in the 1st and 2nd Seasons. Eventhough the quality was not always polished, I liked the Maquis-Seska story arc. Season 3 seemed to be a transitioning. What there was of the Janeway/Chakotay romance/flirtation/feelings sort of petered out and went away except in an occasional friendship scene. The idea of the Maquis – Starfleet integration as an ongoing source of challenges just went away. All are one big happy family. There is no doubt that there are some excellent individual episodes, but much of the elements which were meant to give Voyager a unique Star Trek identity were sort of suppressed and it succumbed to the NexGen vanilla problem.
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