Best/Worst of Season Three

[AdmiralScreed]

How would you rank season 3 of Voyager? Here is what my list would look like:

Excellent:
Basics Part 2
Worst Case Scenario

Very Good:
Rise
Unity
Coda
Fair Trade
Displaced
Scorpion Part 1

Average:
Flashback
Future's End Part 1 and 2
Distant Origin
The Chute
Warlord
Before and After
The Swarm
Remember
Alter Ego
Blood Fever

Mediocre:
Macrocosm
Favorable Son
Darkling
False Profits
The Q and the Grey
Sacred Ground

Poor:
Real Life

Overall, I think season 3 was very average. It had plenty of good and not-so-good episode.

What are everyone's thoughts on season 3?

 

[The Dominion]

Very Bland. I either can't remember, or would place most of the episodes you put under average or mediocre in the poor category. Before And After and Distant Origin were great though, and Future's End was fun.

I didn't care about Worst Case Scenario, and Fair Trade I liked even more after revisiting it after completing the series (because I liked Neelix a whole lot more post season 4.)

 

[You_Will_Fail]

Season 3 was a VERY mediocre season for me and a stepdown from season 2, not necessarily full of awful episodes but the endless march of mediocrity got really grating especially once I got to the Rise/Darkling/Favorite Son trio. And how come "Distant Origin" is in your average category?? You gave it a 9/10 didn't you?

I would rate the Season 3 episodes thusly.

Excellent
Unity
Before and After
Distant Origin
Scorpion Pt 1

Good
The Chute
Remember
Warlord
Fair Trade
Real Life
Displaced
Worst Case Scenario

Mediocre
Basics Part 2
Flashback
The Swarm
Sacred Ground
Future's End
Macrocosm
Alter Ego
Blood Fever
Darkling

Poor
False Profits
The Q and the Grey
Coda
Rise
Favorite Son

Season 3 features two of my favorite Voyager episodes, "Scorpion Pt 1" and "Before and After" but also two of my very least favorite "The Q and the Grey" and "Favorite Son".
I felt like the decision to drop any kinds of story arc at all this season was a big mistake, as we just got random sh*t after random sh*t. If there had been some sort of cohesive story arc, we could have got episodes that actually meant something instead of rubbish like "Harry gets spots!" and "Janeway goes through random trek cliches for no reason!". Its ironic that Jeri Taylor hyped season 3 to be new and exciting and she fell back on so many boring trek staples and nothing new was brought to the table at all.

However, there is a definite spike upwards in the quality at the end of season 3 like there are definitely changes afoot. Almost like the writers realized they were churning out boring, inconsequential crap too much. Luckily season 4 was much better.

 

[Admiral Shran]

I agree that it was an extremely mediocre season. There are some really good ones in there, along with some really bad ones, but by and large it's just middle-of-the-road mediocrity.

I didn't care for the Kazon story arc of the first two seasons, mostly because I thought the Kazon were a joke of a villain. However, what was needed wasn't a complete abandonment of story arcs, just a better one. Thankfully, they seemed to get that by the end of the season, when the Borg storyline started up.

Excellent
Distinct Origin
Scorpion, Part I

Good
The Chute
Blood Fever
Unity
Before and After

Average
Basics, Part II
The Swarm
Remember
Sacred Ground
Future's End
Future's End, Part II
Warlord
Macrocosm
Fair Trade
Alter Ego
Darkling
Rise
Favorite Son
Real Life
Displaced
Worst Case Scenario

Poor
Flashback
False Profits
The Q and the Grey
Coda

 

[DeepSpaceWine]

It, at the time, felt like a very average season. Things that should've been big were disappointments ("Unity" Borg) or ok but duller than they should have been ("Future's End"). Of course, people online frothed with rabid rage at the Trilogy of Terror, yet none of those episodes are considered worse than "Threshold" and they didn't seem like more than the sum of their parts (their crime, if they did it, was they were subpar for people's expectations). Overall, it felt like the ship was on cruise control driving down the interstate through seas of farm fields and the occasional small town. No big cities or interesting features like lakes or mountains. Voyager was past Kazon & Vidiian territory and not yet in Borg territory. There were a few interesting things (The Swarm territory, Voth being one or more tiers above the Federation technologically [yeah, it seemed like they were the reason why the Borg never strayed very far into Season 1-3 space and why Season 3 races have no Borg fear but early Season 4 races were terrified of the Borg) but it was a bunch of small worlds that ranged from mildly interesting to dull, which was the problem. The Nekrit Expanse wasn't clearly defined (not even by that purple nebulous filament) and seemed more like a sparsely populated area with worlds fewer and farther between that there's not much there so you just fill up and speed through (AKA the Nevada of the Delta Quadrant).


Excellent:
Basics, Part II
Before and After
Distant Origin
Scorpion

Very Good:
The Swarm
Remember
Macrocosm
Rise (I know many hate it, but it used a real theoretical technology- space elevator, actually found a story where Neelix could be useful, and made for an episode that is unlike any other in 700 episodes of Star Trek)
Favorite Son (it was campy and felt like it would blend in with TOS. Decent plot elements too even though it seemed absurd Harry would be a Taresian; it was their angle, the reason behind their claim which kept the story from seeming like it had a thin premise. Nice visuals too, and I mean all around, and more than around the girls- their outfits and notably the architecture on Taresia)
Displaced (most seem to think it subpar, but it was an interesting invasion/takeover episode. The aliens seemed innocent/clueless and the occurrence mysterious until it was too late. The simulation space station was cool too. 1 of 4 races to fully commandeer Voyager [others: Kazon, Hirogen, the sleeping aliens, though "Workforce'" race gets points for abducting the entire crew])
Worst Case Scenario (one of the few cases of a Holodeck episode gone right. The mystery element was nice, and it felt strongly like adapting a video game into Star Trek, complete with the increased difficulty. It gave people what they were bitching about- Maquis mutiny, Maquis/Starfleet tensions, yet none of those people ever noticed this episode. Also did it better than Repression, which made no sense. Great seeing some of the crew in other colored uniforms).

Average: (I consider this everywhere from above average but not "very good" to just plain average)
Flashback
The Chute
Future's End, Part I/II
Fair Trade
Coda
Blood Fever
Unity

... Meh:
False Profits
Warlord
Alter Ego
Darkling (The only thing horrible is Picardo's acting in some scenes. Closer to the Gilligan's Island fantasy with Gilligan as Mr. Hyde than any of the good portrayals)

Bleh!:
Sacred Ground
The Q and the Grey
Real Life (decent at first, but grating the 2nd time. The Paris B-plot with entering 'inside the funnel' of the subspace eddy was more interesting. It's a holodeck episode in the same theme as Fair Haven, Spirit Folk, etc ad nausem before it really started to piss people off)

 

[Lynx]

Best episodes in season 3:
Warlord
The Swarm
Darkling
Before And After
Future's End (part 1 and 2)
Fair Trade
remember

Worst episodes:
Blood Fever
Macrocosm
Real Life

 

[TEACAKE'S PLEATHER DOME]

Why all the dislike of Macrocosm?








Sweaty Janeway biceps!!!!!

 

[stj]

Excellent
Distant Origin...Galileo's trial is sadly relevant
Unity...screw the melodramatic monsters, this is the good Borg
Remember...also sadly relevant, and a good Dawson ep
Before and After...great Kes episode, delightful plotting
Fair Trade...good character piece, period
The Chute...can you say "conceptual breakthrough SF?"
The Q and the Grey...Chuckles! Helm boy! A sense of humor can go with a serious theme

Something really original and something wrong

Rise...space elevator and Flight of the Phoenix too
Favorite Son...don't diss it until you're man enough to say what the point was
Sacred Ground...cunningly designed to let the faithful believe the old people were the spirits
Real Life...seen any Fifties sitcoms lately? but were they tearjerkers too?
Warlord...Kes angst over being badass is not much of a point, but they go wild going nowhere

Great stuff for the fans
Scorpion Part 1...dramatically empty but it's ripsnorting Trek
Worst Case Scenario...preemptively mocks Ron Moore
Future's End...beautifully done hokum, plus Sarah Silverman
Alter Ego...Tuvok fans rejoice for every Tuvok episode
Macrocosm...Janeway is my mistress, and ain't it exciting
Flashback...Sulu (and if you think it disses Kirk, you're nuts)

If at some level you're not committed to a character or the show, all of these have their faults.

Just bad
Darkling...a bad Kes story ruins a potentially good Doctor story
Coda...afterlife shenanigans
False Profits...these Ferengi are monstrous, not funny
The Swarm...kicking bully ass is not greatly satisfying
Basics Part 2...the inglorious end to Piller/Biller Kazon/Seska BS
Blood Fever...amazingly there are people who don't get why this is terrible, terrible stuff, starting with the white guy is the voice of reason and the mulatto chick is begging for it.

Just sort of in the episode list

Displaced

PS Double checking for typos, I see that if you count the second and third groups as negatives, I only recommend seven episodes. But if you count them as positives, I only dislike six episodes. Is this pro-Voyager season three, or anti?

 

[You_Will_Fail]

Darkling...a bad Kes story ruins a potentially good Doctor story

It was the other way round. "Doctor goes crazy because of malufunctioning blah blah blah" was never good a story idea.

 

[Admiral Shran]

^ I agree. A potentially good Kes story was ruined by a bad Doctor story.

 

[exodus]

Why all the dislike of Macrocosm?








Sweaty Janeway biceps!!!!!

I don't know, I think it's great.
Janeway is total bad ass.
Watching this ep. too me is precursor into the endurance Janeway displays in "YOH".

 

[TEACAKE'S PLEATHER DOME]

The first time I saw Macrocosm I thought it was a great action/horror ep.

Also, these photos make me want to work out.

 

[You_Will_Fail]

Macrocosm was about as shallow an episode as you can get.

 

[exodus]

The first time I saw Macrocosm I thought it was a great action/horror ep.

Also, these photos make me want to work out.

I know Sigourney Weaver recieved an Oscar nod for Ripley in Aliens. I wonder if they were trying for a Emmy nod for Mulgrew with this? It's a decent homage either way.

 

[tomalak301]

I'm not going to do every episode, but best 5 and worst 5:

Best 5

Scorpion
Before and After
Real Life
Future's End (1 and 2)
Fair Trade

Worst 5

False Profits
Favorite Son
Rise
Darkling
Sacred Ground

 

[Seven of Five]

Season three was a very average season:

Excellent
Unity
Real Life
Before and After
Scorpion, Part One

Good
The Chute
Remember
Future's End, Part One
Fair Trade
Distant Origin
Worst Case Scenario
Blood Fever

Average
Basics, Part Two
Flashback
The Swarm
Future's End, Part Two
Warlord
Alter Ego

Below Average
The Q And The Grey
Displaced
Sacred Ground
Macrocosm

Poor
False Profits
Darkling
Rise
Favourite Son

So 11 episodes that were either excellent or good, but then the rest were average to poor. Not a good ratio!

 

[You_Will_Fail]

You forgot "Coda"...and 30 Rock is amazeballs, I love it.

 

[Admiral Shran]

The less anybody thinks about Coda, the better.

 

[TrekAlliance92]

Excellent
Flashback
Future's End
Distant Origin
Displaced
Worst Case Scenario
Scorpion, Part I

Good
Basics, Part 2
Macrocosm
Warlord
Coda
Blood Fever
Unity

Average
The Swarm
Remember
Sacred Ground
The Q and the Grey
Fair Trade
Alter Ego
Darkling
Rise
Favorite Son

Below Average
False Profits

Poor
The Chute
Real Life

 

[Mareika]

Excellent
Scorpion
Unity
Distant Orgin
Worst Case Scenario
Remember

Good
Basics
The Chute
Future's End
Before And After
Real Life

Average
Fair Trade
Flashback
Blood Fever
The Swarm
Warlord
Macrocosm
Displaced


Bad
Sacred Ground
The Darkling
Rise
The Q And The Grey
Alter Ego

Very bad
False Profits
Favorite Son

Coda- this is something special for me, becaus it`s J/C!!!