Season 4 and 5 were the best of this series. There are very few episodes in season 4 that I would call bad. It makes choosing my first save very, very difficult.
Easily. For me, season 2 shows a few episodes that are great, but mixed with too much much meh. Season 3 inches upward, but during that time they found their idea - and were far enough away from the Kazon cabbage patch (thankfully)... Season 4 is a marvelous reinvention and even revitalizing the Borg, after they were
(controversial belief) reduced to cheap comedy fodder in that 1996 movie...
I think I'll go with one that is probably on most people's 'best of' list for this show... "LIVING WITNESS".
It was an excellent showcase for The Doctor. Even though it is the 'backup one', which was never mentioned before or since, I can forgive this ordinarily ridiculous oversight because of the strength of the story and the performances.
And it's portable! I mean, ZIP Drives were popular back then, and having offsite backups is a good thing, but one would think the ship would also have a backup in its own mainframe too... (VOY treknobabble sometimes goes so far out of left field when using Unix OS and IBM mainframes as allegory or allusion, but in Living Witness they don't go so far over the top with it... they'd still have to go a long way, given how much more of the story makes up for this necessary contrivance. )
It also showed us a 'mirror universe' crew without actually going there. That was clearly fun for the cast. And I daresay we all had fun watching, as an audience.
A massive breath of fresh air. TNG didn't do it at all. DS9 went to the mirror universe and, depending on whom you ask, finds it to be hit or miss. VOY did a really solid innovation and I wish this were a two-parter and let the story really simmer with this evil side being dramaticized because (a) it's compelling dramatically, and (b) the actors were clearly loving to do it.
I love the message about revisionist history, which is done even more so now than ever. While the internet has done a lot of good, it has also created a massively toxic environment where opinions are treated as facts. This is a cautionary tale, because we can very easily be this episode down the road.
Variation on a theme, but this episode is indeed poignant. If anything, it almost glosses over too much, but despite that I too place it at the top of my favorites list.
It's a shame this was Tim Russ' only directing for the show, because he did a magnificent job.
^^this
I love how the TV shows let the actors try their hand at directing, and out of 80s/90s Trek a lot of talented directors showed their stuff.
"Concerning Flight", just for Jonathan Rhys-Davies as Leonardo.
He picks his roles well. "Concerning Flight" was his final appearance, sadly, and "Scorpion" did him better. How much more they could do with the character is up for grabs... but he's done a lot more work than I'd ever noticed when checking out IMDB, and he'll always be Professor Arturo first and foremost to me, but when I see him in Indiana Jones or VOY, I certainly don't see Arturo there.
