A barely secret conspirator has been selling Federation technology to the Kazon Nistrim in a weird alternative timeline where there are more than seven people on board the ship, where Chakotay has agency and interesting things to do, and where we really feel like we’re stranded tens of thousands of light years from home. Plus, Seska is here!
As a result of a horrific medical experiment, this week’s episode of Untitled Star Trek Project finds itself split into two irreconcilable parts — one convinced that this Voyager episode is extremely dull, and the other one certain that there’s nothing very interesting going on here. Apart from that, there’s a bit of a scary moment at one point, and Roxann gets to do some acting, which is nice.
When a Voyager crewmember is killed in a Kazon attack, and his colleagues are forced to sit through the most butt-clenchingly clichéd eulogy in television history, a few of them declare that it’s time to forge an alliance with the Kazon, which seems unwise. What seems even more unwise is Janeway’s decision to ignore everything that history has taught us about white people, as she forges an alliance with the Trabe, who talk nicely and know which knife and fork to use. It all turns out pretty much how you would expect.
– Guess who I get to meet today. The Creator of Fair Haven, Captain Proton himself: Lieutenant Tom Paris!
– No way! That’s awesome! Is he still a salamander?
– No, that’s not… It was a celerity-induced accelerated somatic mutation rate, and he’s fine now. He was the first human to break the transwarp barrier, and today, he’s on the Cerritos!
Boimler and Mariner, We’ll Always Have Tom Paris
When I first read that script, I couldn’t believe they were going to shoot it.
Opinions are split on this week’s Untitled Star Trek Project, with Nathan leading the prosecution and Joe the defence. Will Nathan sentence Death Wish to be imprisoned a comet, subsisting only on a rare form of Nogatch hemlock? Or will Joe prevail with the argument that at least it’s Voyager trying to have something to say and giving John DeLancie a new thing to do?
Nathan, Joe, Kathryn and the Medium Robert are all enjoying themselves this week in a genuinely entertaining Star Trek romance spoiled only by the untimely and unwelcome intrusion of Star Trek: Voyager itself at the very end of the episode. Hey ho.
When the Doctor’s hard drive starts to fill up with opera, romantic relationships and all the complex glories of being human, he finds himself increasingly unable to fulfil his function as Voyager’s Chief Medical Officer — instead becoming a heartbreaking analogue of your dad suffering from dementia. Also, a bunch of space things happen that we couldn’t possibly care about.
Flushed with the success of its previous attempt at Gothic Horror, Star Trek gamely tackles the genre again, as the Doctor’s experiments with the parameters of his program inevitably lead to a high-concept holographic version of The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde, with all of the creepiness towards women that that implies. Aggressively mediocre.
This week, Joe and Nathan find themselves travelling backwards in time to 1997, when they first watched and enjoyed the Star Trek: Voyager episode Before and After, only to find themselves infected with a deadly [tech], which will be going to have activated some time later (or earlier) when they undergo [tech] therapy in the Doctor’s new [tech] treatment [tech]. Meanwhile, Harry has apparently married a toddler or something, which seems upsetting and highly inappropriate.
First broadcast on Wednesday 21 May 1997
and Wednesday 3 September 1997
As Voyager approaches the end of its third year, it’s time for its very own version of The Best of Both Worlds. And here it is, complete with a massive encounter with the Borg, clouds of débris, a terrifying new enemy, dissension among the commanding officers, and the unveiling of an entirely new kind of human—Borg hybrid. But because it’s Voyager, there’s also people doing things for no reason and a central conflict disposed of in an unsatisfying way. But (again) because it’s Voyager, there’s some great weird visuals, a cool new holodeck program, and yet another arresting performance from the Queen of Star Trek, Her Royal Highness, Captain Kathryn Janeway.