The least disliked episode of VOY - Season Two

[BlueStuff]

This is a game that we play every few years, 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, please leave at least 2 eliminations by other posters before you eliminate another episode.

No tactical voting! You cannot remove an episode just 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 - Blink of an Eye
2019 -

Season Two

The 37s
Initiations
Projections
Elogium
Non Sequitur
Twisted
Parturition
Persistence of Vision
Tattoo
Cold Fire
Maneuvers
Resistance
Prototype
Alliances
Threshold
Meld
Dreadnought
Death Wish
Lifesigns
Investigations
Deadlock
Innocence
The Thaw
Tuvix
Resolutions
Basics, Part I

 

[BigDaveX]

Twisted. Seriously, who thought 40 minutes of people wandering around Voyager saying "we're not where we're supposed to be!" followed by an arbitrary wrap-up was a good idea?

The 37s
Initiations
Projections
Elogium
Non Sequitur
Parturition
Persistence of Vision
Tattoo
Cold Fire
Maneuvers
Resistance
Prototype
Alliances
Threshold
Meld
Dreadnought
Death Wish
Lifesigns
Investigations
Deadlock
Innocence
The Thaw
Tuvix
Resolutions
Basics, Part I

 

[Brennyren]

Let's just cross the "Threshold" right now, shall we? Robbie McNeill does as much as anyone could do with a script that mangles evolution, continuity, and common sense. Valiant effort there, Robbie. People who deserved better = you.

The 37s
Initiations
Projections
Elogium
Non Sequitur
Parturition
Persistence of Vision
Tattoo
Cold Fire
Maneuvers
Resistance
Prototype
Alliances
Meld
Dreadnought
Death Wish
Lifesigns
Investigations
Deadlock
Innocence
The Thaw
Tuvix
Resolutions
Basics, Part I

 

[Bad Thoughts]

Great guest star and somewhat interesting moral problem, but since this is an exercise in addressing petty grievances, let's eliminate Tuvix.

The 37s
Initiations
Projections
Elogium
Non Sequitur
Parturition
Persistence of Vision
Tattoo
Cold Fire
Maneuvers
Resistance
Prototype
Alliances
Meld
Dreadnought
Death Wish
Lifesigns
Investigations
Deadlock
Innocence
The Thaw
Resolutions
Basics, Part I

 

[JirinPanthosa]

Removing Tattoo. Besides being hella boring, it's one of those episodes that one of the writers really thinks is doing accurate tribute to Native American culture and is hilariously wrong.

The 37s
Initiations
Projections
Elogium
Non Sequitur
Parturition
Persistence of Vision
Cold Fire
Maneuvers
Resistance
Prototype
Alliances
Meld
Dreadnought
Death Wish
Lifesigns
Investigations
Deadlock
Innocence
The Thaw
Resolutions
Basics, Part I

 

[Seven of Five]

I'll remove Cold Fire. A disappointing follow-up to Caretaker, which ultimately meant that we never saw Suspiria again.

The 37s
Initiations
Projections
Elogium
Non Sequitur
Parturition
Persistence of Vision
Maneuvers
Resistance
Prototype
Alliances
Meld
Dreadnought
Death Wish
Lifesigns
Investigations
Deadlock
Innocence
The Thaw
Resolutions
Basics, Part I

 

[Unicorn]

Bye Parturition. It has it's moments but I never cared for the whole forced love triangle with Kes, and anyway, I like nearly every episode left better.

The 37s
Initiations
Projections
Elogium
Non Sequitur
Persistence of Vision
Maneuvers
Resistance
Prototype
Alliances
Meld
Dreadnought
Death Wish
Lifesigns
Investigations
Deadlock
Innocence
The Thaw
Resolutions
Basics, Part I

 

[Sakonna]

I thought "Investigations" was just agonizing. The lead-up was so clumsy, all those tacked-on scenes of Jonas messaging the Kazon, and this is what it was all for, this bizarre Neelix-as-journalist thing? It all just seemed so weird and unsatisfying, I was baffled as to why they ever thought this would be a fun story to tell.

The 37s
Initiations
Projections
Elogium
Non Sequitur
Persistence of Vision
Maneuvers
Resistance
Prototype
Alliances
Meld
Dreadnought
Death Wish
Lifesigns
Deadlock
Innocence
The Thaw
Resolutions
Basics, Part I

 

[Discofan]

Elogium gets a send-off. I just find the different "transformations" of Kes simply repulsive. The first and only time when I thought that Neelix was the one with the more merit in the odd couple.

The 37s
Initiations
Projections
Non Sequitur
Persistence of Vision
Maneuvers
Resistance
Prototype
Alliances
Meld
Dreadnought
Death Wish
Lifesigns
Deadlock
Innocence
The Thaw
Resolutions
Basics, Part I

 

[Starflight]

Maneuvers. Nothing interesting ever comes of the Kazon. I really hate Seska too (Martha Hackett does a great job, but the character is just totally botched by the scripts. Her overriding desire is to get back to the Alpha Quadrant, so... she leaves the fastest known ship in the Delta quadrant to join the desert-dwelling junk-ship-driving Kazon???)

The 37s
Initiations
Projections
Non Sequitur
Persistence of Vision
Resistance
Prototype
Alliances
Meld
Dreadnought
Death Wish
Lifesigns
Deadlock
Innocence
The Thaw
Resolutions
Basics, Part I

 

[BigDaveX]

Alliances. I'll admit that there are other episodes here that are worse quality-wise, but the way its ending proudly proclaims that the show is never going to take any chances and that the Voyager crew (or at least Janeway) are never going to be portrayed as anything other than wholly virtuous paragons really leaves a sour taste.

The 37s
Initiations
Projections
Non Sequitur
Persistence of Vision
Resistance
Prototype
Meld
Dreadnought
Death Wish
Lifesigns
Deadlock
Innocence
The Thaw
Resolutions
Basics, Part I

 

[Discofan]

"Non-Sequitur": The fact that Harry's alternate life is way better than the one he's currently living on Voyager and yet he's risking everything including death to get back to that life. How does he know that Voyager is not better off without him! At least for Ent "Twilight", for example, the alternate future was so bad that the "regular" one couldn't be any worse and in "The Visitor", Jake had a good reason for wanting to change the past. Here it's just stupid!!!

The 37s
Initiations
Projections
Persistence of Vision
Resistance
Prototype
Meld
Dreadnought
Death Wish
Lifesigns
Deadlock
Innocence
The Thaw
Resolutions
Basics, Part I

 

[Farscape One]

Initiations
Projections
Persistence of Vision
Resistance
Prototype
Meld
Dreadnought
Death Wish
Lifesigns
Deadlock
Innocence
The Thaw
Resolutions
Basics, Part I

Eliminating "THE 37's". This episode should have been what it was intended to be... the season 1 finale. UPN's decision to make it the season premiere by holding it over for season 2 ultimately hurt it. As a season opener, it doesn't work well, particularly the empty cargo bay scene.

 

[Sakonna]

I'm surprised how much fondness I have for what's left on this list. I think I'm finally developing some rosy nostalgia for Voyager. Seasons 1 - 4, anyway. There's even two Chakotay episodes on this list I like!

I'll ax "Innocence", on the grounds that Tuvok was the Voyager character whose basic presence among the main cast I least understood (why another Vulcan? What was I supposed to get from him that I didn't already get from Spock?), and this is the weaker of the two Tuvok episodes here. I basically like "Innocence", though. It's not incredible, but I find it satisfying.

Initiations
Projections
Persistence of Vision
Resistance
Prototype
Meld
Dreadnought
Death Wish
Lifesigns
Deadlock
The Thaw
Resolutions
Basics, Part I

 

[Discofan]

"Prototype" goes back on the drawing board. The robots were a little too clichéed for my taste and the story was too simplistic to be interesting.

Initiations
Projections
Persistence of Vision
Resistance
Meld
Dreadnought
Death Wish
Lifesigns
Deadlock
The Thaw
Resolutions
Basics, Part I

 

[Seven of Five]

I'll get rid of Dreadnought. It's a bit of an average story really, though I did like B'Elanna talking to 'herself.'

Initiations
Projections
Persistence of Vision
Resistance
Meld
Death Wish
Lifesigns
Deadlock
The Thaw
Resolutions
Basics, Part I

 

[JirinPanthosa]

Removing Initiations.

"Hey cool, it's Nog!" After that, a shoddily plotted episode. They just wanted so bad to make the Kazon interesting, but only made them like lame Klingons.

Projections
Persistence of Vision
Resistance
Meld
Death Wish
Lifesigns
Deadlock
The Thaw
Resolutions
Basics, Part I

 

[Brennyren]

Just like what happens post-New Year's, I'm going to break "Resolutions." I'll admit that, as a then-J/Cer, I was fond enough of this episode when it aired. It's only since then that I've started to resent it, mainly because it resolved nothing, changed nothing, and took the minimum amount of dramatic risk. Chakotay had a nice speech, and Beltran looked hot in civvies, but other than that -- bleah.

Projections
Persistence of Vision
Resistance
Meld
Death Wish
Lifesigns
Deadlock
The Thaw
Basics, Part I

 

[Sakonna]

Though it is the only Q Voyager episode I like at all, and I do find something interesting in it's exploration of suicide, I have also always found "Death Wish" a bit overrated. I just have trouble buying into these "we'll all pick a role and have a trial!" setups, the staginess of the device pushes me out of the story. I have similar issues with "Measure Of A Man."

Projections
Persistence of Vision
Resistance
Meld
Lifesigns
Deadlock
The Thaw
Basics, Part I

 

[BlueStuff]

Basics is gone. The Kazon suck, and so does the idea of a finale prominently featuring them.

Projections
Persistence of Vision
Resistance
Meld
Lifesigns
Deadlock
The Thaw