The least disliked episode of Voyager - Season Three

[BlueStuff]

This is a game that we play every few years or so, and it's generally a lot of fun, providing a chance to mentally revisit those episodes you may not have thought about in a while. With that in mind, why not play again?

So, here's the game. The basic idea is your standard elimination game. I'll provide a list of the episodes for each season and you need to eliminate your least favorite or the one you deem the 'worst.' Please provide an EXPLANATION for why you are eliminating your choice and be sure to copy and paste the list with your choice removed. Finally, leave at least 2 eliminations by other posters, and wait at least 6 hours after your last vote, before voting again.

No tactical voting! You cannot remove an episode because you feel they would threaten your preferred episode's chance to win. Pretty simple. Enjoy!

Hall of Champions
2011 - Meld
2013 - Living Witness
2017 -

Season Three

Basics (II)
Flashback
The Chute
The Swarm
False Profits
Remember
Sacred Ground
Future's End (I)
Future's End (II)
Warlord
The Q and the Grey
Macrocosm
Fair Trade
Alter Ego
Coda
Blood Fever
Unity
Darkling
Rise
Favorite Son
Before and After
Real Life
Distant Origin
Displaced
Worst Case Scenario
Scorpion (I)

 

[BigDaveX]

I'm going to eliminate the unholy mess that is Sacred Ground. Much like Twisted from last season, it's a potentially interesting idea that ends up turning into 40 minutes of random weirdness, after which the problem sorts itself out without much in the way of explanation.

Basics (II)
Flashback
The Chute
The Swarm
False Profits
Remember
Future's End (I)
Future's End (II)
Warlord
The Q and the Grey
Macrocosm
Fair Trade
Alter Ego
Coda
Blood Fever
Unity
Darkling
Rise
Favorite Son
Before and After
Distant Origin
Displaced
Worst Case Scenario
Scorpion (I)

 

[Takeru]

The Q and the Grey is out, one bad choice after another. The continuum looks like the american civil war so that puny human minds can perceive it as something making sense and because it's a Q civil war, must be one of the patented "smart" Star Trek allegories, almost as subtle as the black/white reverse face racism from TOS.
Female Q loses her powers so she just has Voyager fly into a supernova to get into the continuum ... I don't care how smart she is, it shouldn't be possible to literally fly into the continuum using starfleet technology.


Bringing Q into the show also forces the writers to find reasons why he's not sending them home, it makes sense if he's antagonistic but in this case Janeway and Voyager save his life, help restore peace in the continuum, make him get back together with female Q which leads to him becoming a father and Janeway the baby's godmother.
There's no reason for Q not to semd them home at this point except that it would take away the show's premise so it can't happen.

Edit: I just realized that "Real Life" is missing from the initial episode list, it aired between before and After and Distant Origin, so I'll add it to the list.


Basics (II)
Flashback
The Chute
The Swarm
False Profits
Remember
Future's End (I)
Future's End (II)
Warlord
Macrocosm
Fair Trade
Alter Ego
Coda
Blood Fever
Unity
Darkling
Rise
Favorite Son
Before and After
Real Life
Distant Origin
Displaced
Worst Case Scenario
Scorpion (I)

 

[BlueStuff]

Edit: I just realized that "Real Life" is missing from the initial episode list, it aired between before and After and Distant Origin, so I'll add it to the list.

Well spotted on that one. That error must have existed on this particular list for years; when we last played this game here, I hadn't seen most of Voyager and so didn't notice the omission. It's surprising that no one else did, either. I'll edit it into the original list for use in future games.

 

[BlueStuff]

I'll assassinate Warlord. It's a story that really put Jennifer Lien into a bad position - it needed a stronger actor to make it work. The plot was just dreadful.

Basics (II)
Flashback
The Chute
The Swarm
False Profits
Remember
Future's End (I)
Future's End (II)
Macrocosm
Fair Trade
Alter Ego
Coda
Blood Fever
Unity
Darkling
Rise
Favorite Son
Before and After
Real Life
Distant Origin
Displaced
Worst Case Scenario
Scorpion (I)

 

[Seven of Five]

Where do I start?

I'll eliminate another rubbish Harry Kim episode, which is a sport in the show's run. Favorite Son is too much silliness.

Basics (II)
Flashback
The Chute
The Swarm
False Profits
Remember
Future's End (I)
Future's End (II)
Macrocosm
Fair Trade
Alter Ego
Coda
Blood Fever
Unity
Darkling
Rise
Before and After
Real Life
Distant Origin
Displaced
Worst Case Scenario
Scorpion (I)

 

[cosmic mouse]

Favorite Son was the one I was logging on to eliminate...

Since that one is history I'll remove False Profits: not a fan of the Ferengi (same old story, same old song and dance- yaaaawwwwn), or Neelix (at least at this stage of the series) and, even though the holy trinity of Janeway-Chak-Paris has in excess of 50% of the dialogue/line counts for this ep... it's not enough to save its sorry ass.
Goodbye False Profits!

Basics (II)
Flashback
The Chute
The Swarm
Remember
Future's End (I)
Future's End (II)
Macrocosm
Fair Trade
Alter Ego
Coda
Blood Fever
Unity
Darkling
Rise
Before and After
Real Life
Distant Origin
Displaced
Worst Case Scenario
Scorpion (I)

 

[Sakonna]

When it was first airing, I stopped watching Voyager regularly at the end of season 4. Since I had become a Trek fan as a kid and had been rabidly consuming as much Trek content as I could get my hands on for basically my entire life, this was a really big shift.

My dissatisfaction with Voyager had been building, but I distinctly remember "Rise" as a breaking point. I was sitting there watching it for the first time and just haaaaaaaating every minute of it, such a terribly executed pointless story, and it's when I first thought "I should stop watching this show." It took me another year and a half to actually abandon ship, but this was the episode bad enough to start me down the path.

Basics (II)
Flashback
The Chute
The Swarm
Remember
Future's End (I)
Future's End (II)
Macrocosm
Fair Trade
Alter Ego
Coda
Blood Fever
Unity
Darkling
Before and After
Real Life
Distant Origin
Displaced
Worst Case Scenario
Scorpion (I)

 

[Farscape One]

This post is the swan song for "CODA". The GROUNDHOG DAY of Janeway's death just felt like such a weak premise. TNG's "Cause And Effect" did it far better.

Basics (II)
Flashback
The Chute
The Swarm
Remember
Future's End (I)
Future's End (II)
Macrocosm
Fair Trade
Alter Ego
Blood Fever
Unity
Darkling
Before and After
Real Life
Distant Origin
Displaced
Worst Case Scenario
Scorpion (I)

 

[Bad Thoughts]

Flashback is gone. It's TATV's older brother.


Basics (II)
The Chute
The Swarm
Remember
Future's End (I)
Future's End (II)
Macrocosm
Fair Trade
Alter Ego
Blood Fever
Unity
Darkling
Before and After
Real Life
Distant Origin
Displaced
Worst Case Scenario
Scorpion (I

 

[Brennyren]

So long, "Basics II." To be honest, it's not so much that I think it's the worst episode of those remaining, but for me it was the episode where I pretty much lost faith that TPTB would play fair with us. We have to save Chakotay's son -- oh no, wait, it's not Chakotay's son, so the internal struggle he went through, and the risks the crew took on his and the child's behalf, were completely pointless. And when all the promos played as if there was any real suspense at all over whether the crew would get Voyager back -- come off it already. But that final bit where Chak stood over Seska's body (and that was a stupid and useless death, eh wot?), looking sadly and sentimentally down at her, that was just the cherry on the crap sundae. She did her best to kill you and everyone you care about, sweetie. She's not your great lost love.

The Chute
The Swarm
Remember
Future's End (I)
Future's End (II)
Macrocosm
Fair Trade
Alter Ego
Blood Fever
Unity
Darkling
Before and After
Real Life
Distant Origin
Displaced
Worst Case Scenario
Scorpion (I)

 

[JirinPanthosa]

Eliminating Distant Origin, because the premise is so freaking dumb. Also if you're going to have an episode where the crew is totally at the mercy of a technologically superior race you have to make them a little more interesting than 'Evolved dinosaurs'. Then of course the issue that if you introduce that kind of thing into your universe you weaken the believability of the universe if they are never referenced again.

This might be a tough season to choose from. A lot of episodes that are kind of in the mediocre range but have some good thing about them.

The Chute
The Swarm
Remember
Future's End (I)
Future's End (II)
Macrocosm
Fair Trade
Alter Ego
Blood Fever
Unity
Darkling
Before and After
Real Life
Displaced
Worst Case Scenario
Scorpion (I)

 

[Seven of Five]

Macrocosm can go now. I like the way it all started off but ultimately it just turned into a dodgy Alien ripoff.

The Chute
The Swarm
Remember
Future's End (I)
Future's End (II)
Fair Trade
Alter Ego
Blood Fever
Unity
Darkling
Before and After
Real Life
Displaced
Worst Case Scenario
Scorpion (I)

 

[Refuge]

The Chute
The Swarm
Remember
Future's End (I)
Future's End (II)
Fair Trade
Alter Ego
Blood Fever
Unity
Darkling
Before and After
Displaced
Worst Case Scenario
Scorpion (I)

Man my favourites are dropping like flies There is one I want to drop but it's a favourite I've seen others pick so I'll spare it. I'll take 'Real Life' out of the mix.

 

[Refuge]

So long, "Basics II." To be honest, it's not so much that I think it's the worst episode of those remaining, but for me it was the episode where I pretty much lost faith that TPTB would play fair with us. We have to save Chakotay's son -- oh no, wait, it's not Chakotay's son, so the internal struggle he went through, and the risks the crew took on his and the child's behalf, were completely pointless. And when all the promos played as if there was any real suspense at all over whether the crew would get Voyager back -- come off it already. But that final bit where Chak stood over Seska's body (and that was a stupid and useless death, eh wot?), looking sadly and sentimentally down at her, that was just the cherry on the crap sundae. She did her best to kill you and everyone you care about, sweetie. She's not your great lost love.

Suder in Basics II made it one of my favourites - ever.

 

[Sakonna]

This might be a tough season to choose from. A lot of episodes that are kind of in the mediocre range but have some good thing about them.

So true! As I look at the remaining list, my thought on almost every episode is "UGH, I hate this episode because of X... on the other hand, I do love Y about it..."

I think I will get rid of Alter Ego, under the theory that at this moment I feel the two most calamitous missteps Voyager made was casting Robert Beltran and Garrett Wang, two awful actors who never met a scene they couldn't kill with their flat, lifeless line readings (you can imagine how baffled I am that "Timeless" is so well-regarded). I actually quite like the final act of Alter Ego, Tuvok and Marayna on the lonely space station is very touching. But ugggghhhhh to the journey there -- the heavy focus on Kim and his jealousy and his falling for a holodeck character, none of it works.

The Chute
The Swarm
Remember
Future's End (I)
Future's End (II)
Fair Trade
Blood Fever
Unity
Darkling
Before and After
Displaced
Worst Case Scenario
Scorpion (I)

 

[Farscape One]

I will purge us of "BLOOD FEVER". For some reason, whenever I rewatch the episode, I am ready to take a nap. There is just something off about it, I can't put my finger on it.

The Chute
The Swarm
Remember
Future's End (I)
Future's End (II)
Fair Trade
Unity
Darkling
Before and After
Displaced
Worst Case Scenario
Scorpion (I)

 

[Takeru]

I'll eliminate "Darkling", the doctor accidentally turns himself into a villain but is allowed to continue fiddling with his programming anyway. I actually don't remember much about this episode except that I really disliked it.


The Chute
The Swarm
Remember
Future's End (I)
Future's End (II)
Fair Trade
Unity
Before and After
Displaced
Worst Case Scenario
Scorpion (I)

 

[JirinPanthosa]

Eliminating Displaced. Was a close call between this and Remember, because ironically, I do not remember a single thing about this episode. Every other episode, if I read the Wikipedia entry, I'm like "Oh yeah, that one". I can't remember a single thing about Remember even after reading the article. The most forgettable episode in Trek is called Remember.

Displaced has some neat stuff about it, but so much of it is a stretch. The basic premise, characters being replaced gradually, is neat. But the execution left so much not making sense. They spend more resources and take more risks stealing ships than it seems it should take them to build a ship. Also, why didn't they suspect they were doing it intentionally immediately? Why did it not occur to them to do something like "Computer, if anybody arrives on the ship who is not a known member of the Voyager crew, immediately beam them into space" to force them to stop the transfers? Why did it only take threatening the lives of two people to get them to give up their entire scheme, given how desperate they said they were?

It feels like if they had worked a little harder on explanations for things, all these problems should have been fixed and it would have been a great episode, but as it is, it just seems lazy.

The Chute
The Swarm
Remember
Future's End (I)
Future's End (II)
Fair Trade
Unity
Before and After
Worst Case Scenario
Scorpion (I)

 

[Refuge]

I remember Remember. It had some naughty sexy bits with B'Ellana that end up with quite a grotesque death in it later on.

Might remove Fair Trade, though it is a good Neelix episode.

The Chute
The Swarm
Remember
Future's End (I)
Future's End (II)
Unity
Before and After
Worst Case Scenario
Scorpion (I)