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Petrus4's guide to 'Star Trek: Voyager'
Voyager is my favourite Star Trek series, although for most people it seems to be the most infamous. It's bizarre, it's humorous, it often has fairly epic action, to the point of being low-budget Lethal Weapon or Die Hard, IN SPACE! It isn't as strong in the first three seasons as the last four, but there are still some gems to be had. My job is to help you separate the gems from the viscous brown substance that they are hidden in.
The rules are simple. If I mention it, I enjoyed it for some reason or other, and I think you should watch it. Since reading Optical Data's guide on this wiki, I've realised that Voyager actually has a lot more continuity than I thought. I don't list every single episode here which somehow has continuation somewhere else. Instead, I only list those episodes which I personally felt to contain solid entertainment. Some of the episodes I list here are acknowledged as Voyager's worst, and I will usually also admit that as well, where relevant. If those episodes are here, then it usually means that said episodes either still contained some element of humour which I liked, or had continuity which I considered too important to miss.
My Top Ten Episodes
This is the shortest possible version of this guide. If you are coming into Voyager completely blind, and don't want to watch the whole thing, these ten episodes are the true unmissables out of the entire series in my opinion, (in chronological, not preferential order) and will also help you figure out whether or not you want to spend time watching more of them.
Faces
The Thaw
Sacred Ground
Year of Hell
Prey
Timeless
Gravity
Dark Frontier
Equinox
The Void
Season 1
E01S01. Caretaker: Pilot. Boldly going 70,000 light years in order to visit a holographic alien nursing home, and then adopting a homeless love child of the Night Hob from The Never Ending Story, and Hoggle from Labyrinth. Also, we get the series' first recurring Big Bad, who turn out to be Space Rastafarians. Think Psychlos with anorexia, lower technology, and no John Travolta. As Chief Engineer, we also got Roxann Dawson/B'Elanna Torres, who went on to become the most chronic actor/character crush of my existence, so far.
E04S01. Phage: Space lepers steal Neelix's lungs. Janeway rages at space lepers, orders return of lungs. Space lepers can't give them back, but give Neelix holographic lungs instead. Janeway tells space lepers that if she ever encounters them again, she will end them as they have never been ended before. Space lepers look appropriately terrified.
E09S01. Prime Factors: Tuvok becomes insubordinate, and attempts to steal propulsion technology from space swingers.
E10S01. State of Flux: Space Rastafarians first seen in the pilot, blow up their ship after mishandling Federation technology, which they shouldn't have. Voyager has a traitor on board, who turns out to be Chakotay's ex-girlfriend. Small universe.
E13S01. Faces: Voyager provides masturbation material for Klingon fanboys.
E14S01. Jetrel: Voyager asks us a question. What if Robert Oppenheimer and Joseph Mengele had a love child, who was also born as a Talaxian?
Season 2
E01S02. The 37's: Amelia Earhardt and Bill Clinton meet up and shoot the breeze, in the Delta Quadrant.
E03S02. Projections: Voyager tries to provide the audience with the legal simulation of an LSD trip. This won't be the last time.
E05S02. Non Sequitur: Voyager does Sliders.
E10S02. Maneuvers: The next episode in the "Seksa and the Space Rastafarians" arc.
E12S02. Prototype: It's a B'Elanna Torres show. Enough said. Go and watch it immediately.
E16S02. Threshold: Voyager makes its own contribution to the cause of Mystery Science Theatre 3000. Recommended not due to how good it is, but how bad. Do not watch while sober.
E17S02. Meld: Grima Wormtongue makes a special guest star appearance on Voyager, and he's still a psychopath. Tuvok performs a mind meld with him because, as anyone can see, it was obviously the only logical thing he could have done. Chaos, lulz, and general merriment ensues.
E18S02. Dreadnought: It's another B'Elanna Torres episode. You know what I'm going to say, don't you?
E19S02. Death Wish: Q and son show up on Voyager. Serious Business ensues.
E20S02. Lifesigns: One of the space lepers from last season comes aboard Voyager, and temporarily becomes a holographic girlfriend for the Doctor. Romance and mild Glurge ensues.
E22S02. Deadlock: Harry Kim establishes his reputation as Voyager's answer to Kenny from South Park, or Waspinator from Transformers: Beast Wars.
E24S02. The Thaw: What Barney the Dinosaur should have been. Despite my flippant description, this is seriously one of Voyager's greatest episodes in my opinion, even if only because the level of weirdness here exemplifies Voyager's contribution to Trek as a whole. Recommended.
E26S02. Tuvix: Tuvok and Neelix develop an intimate relationship. Janeway gets in touch with her inner Jack Kavorkian.
E28S02. Basics, part 1: Die Hard With a Voyager, part 1. Grima Wormtongue plays Bruce Willis, and we get Space Rastafarians instead of Alan Rickman. Seska sets a trap for Voyager. Chakotay takes acid, has a conversation with his dead father, and as a result, decides that voluntarily falling into Seska's trap would be a good idea. Janeway and the rest of the crew get dumped on a barren planet.
Season 3
E01S03. Basics, part 2: Die Hard With a Voyager, part 2. Grima gets shot in the back with a phaser rifle before he can say, "Yippee Kiyay." Paris and some Talaxians also help save the ship. Voyager goes back and rescues Janeway and the crew, and none of the crew consider staging a mutiny against Janeway and Chakotay for getting them into the situation in the first place. Seska dies, and Space Rastafarians leave for the last time.
E03S03. The Chute: Paris and Kim get sent to a Space Prison and meet a 1960s version of Karl Marx, who's still a homeless person.
E06S03. Remember: B'Elanna Torres/Roxann Dawson episode.
E07S03. Sacred Ground: Voyager does Contact, but also adds a dash of Shirley McClaine's Out On a Limb, and a pinch of Labyrinth.
E08-09S03. Future's End: Voyager meets a time travelling version of Lex Luthor, who looks more like John Farnham. The Doctor gets shot at by some rednecks who think he's a demon, and they get back to the future with the help of a crazy homeless person.
E10S03. Warlord: Kes gets possessed, and then gets dangerous. Kes' finest hour, and the episode which Kes/Jennifer Lien's fans will usually talk about, when they explain why they think she was awesome.
E16S03. Blood Fever: On rewatching this episode, it is a lot more awkward than I remember. The opening scene where Vorik essentially tries to rape B'Elanna is particularly cringe inducing. Most of the rest of the episode is good, and we get continued clues about Tom and B'Elanna's developing relationship, (especially in the final scene) but some of the stuff with Vorik is forced, and just comes across as off-key.
E17S03. Unity: Chakotay goes on summer camp with the Borg.
E18S03. Darkling: The Doctor goes postal. Kes and Neelix break up.
E19S03. Rise: This episode is fairly thin, and doesn't really have much that is exciting or interesting. The one reason why it is worth mentioning, however, is that it has some good character development and interaction between Tuvok and Neelix. Tuvok does not like Neelix, and Neelix confronts Tuvok about this. Personally, I'm not sure how justified I feel this was, simply from the point of view that if there is one thing I've learned about Vulcans, it is that it's completely inappropriate for anyone to expect a Vulcan to react or behave in non-Vulcan terms. Most of the character conflict that occurs with Vulcans, anywhere in Trek, happens for this reason; Humans or some other more emotional race will expect a Vulcan to react to them with Human psychology or emotion, and they will typically then initiate conflict with the Vulcan when that does not occur.
E20S03. Favorite Son: "They killed Harry again! You BASTARDS!" Part Three of Voyager's Trifecta of Doom. Mostly included for surreal comedy value. You may, however, need therapy afterwards.
E21S03. Before and After: Kes' Excellent Adventure.
E22S03. Real Life: The Doctor gets a holographic family. Seriously good episode, from which the Doctor gets a lot of character development.
E25S03. Worst Case Scenario: The last episode of "pre-Seven Voyager", and a decent one at that. Seska comes back for one last encore performance.
E26S03. Scorpion: The point at which Voyager grew the beard according to consensus opinion. The first major appearance of the Borg, and Trek's first non-rubber headed alien race. Strong action, very nice CGI for the time, and a decent story. John Rhys-Davies is seen for the first time as a hologram of Leonardo DaVinci.
Season 4
E01S04. Scorpion, Part 2: Species 8472 gradually get beaten. The Borg try and fail to assimilate Voyager, and we get a new regular character, Seven of Nine. The production staff added Seven in an attempt to provide additional Fanservice, despite the fact that I was already more than happy with what had so far been available. Jeri Ryan still proved to be a fine actress, and her character provided the creative basis of most of the rest of the series, thus partly subverting the reason for her introduction.
E02S04. The Gift: Kes leaves, and Janeway continues work on disconnecting Seven from the Borg Collective.
E03S04. Day of Honor: Tom Paris and B'Elanna Torres officially shack up. I become jealous of Tom.
E06S04. The Raven: Seven experiences post-traumatic stress disorder regarding her initial assimilation, and we thus learn more about her backstory.
E07S04. Scientific Method: A vintage Janeway moment. She demonstrates to a group of aliens why messing with her generally won't end well for anyone who tries it, as well as proving that her initials' similarity with Kirk's is more than mere coincidence. The rest of this episode is largely disposable, (other than the P/T scenes, of course) but Janeway's scene alone here is worth the price of admission.
E08-09S04. Year of Hell: Voyager's second two-part telemovie. This one was about the Krenim, who seem to be Star Trek's answer to the Time Lords. Voyager goes close to being destroyed, and is only saved as a result of Janeway's signature attitude. Tom also displays extraordinary restraint, by managing to avoid passionately kissing B'Elanna when he is leaning over her in Sickbay. He's a stronger man than I would have been.
E12S04. Mortal Coil: Neelix has a near-death experience, and is badly traumatised about the fact that he doesn't see anything, because one of the only things that has kept him going has been the belief that he would eventually be re-united with his family in the Afterlife, after they were killed by the Metreon Cascade. This episode marks the only time on screen when Chakotay effectively plays the role of "Ship's Shaman", or spiritual leader, which is something he did regularly in fanfic.
E15S04. Hunters: The first full episode of the Hirogen arc. The Hirogen are a low-budget, PG rated version of the Yautja or Predator race from the Predator franchise, and their culture is similarly based on hunting.
E16S04. Prey: The second Hirogen episode. This one has a fantastic sense of atmosphere. Two Hirogen are on a hunt for a member of Species 8472. Janeway wants to prevent them from killing the creature, while Seven hands it back to the Hirogen. This sets up some great dramatic tension between Seven and Janeway.
E18-19S04. The Killing Game: This was the Hirogen telemovie. The Hirogen take over Voyager, and subject the crew to being hunted in holographic simulations from various time periods, most notably WW2. Although not terribly well structured or edited, this does have some good moments, (particularly a fight scene with Janeway). This episode also serves as an example of the sorts of extreme situations which Voyager often found itself in, where the sort of diplomacy favoured in TNG only would have got the crew killed, and they instead had to resort to a simple, balls-to-the-wall fight for pure survival.
E21S04. The Omega Directive: Janeway is reminded of a secret Starfleet directive when the ship detects Omega particles, a substance capable of destroying subspace. Tension also results between her and Seven of Nine, when it is discovered that Omega is the focus of the closest thing the Borg had to a religion. Janeway is under orders to destroy the substance, but Seven has other ideas.
E2304. Living Witness: This episode takes place 700 years in the future, in which a backup copy of the Doctor must correct some aliens' historical record of Voyager's interaction with them in the past. In dramatic terms, this is a great episode, and also has a very humorous "evil" depiction of the Voyager crew, which Kate Mulgrew in particular clearly has fun with.
Season 5
E01S05. Night: Voyager travels through a region of space with no stars. This episode is notable for three main reasons. The first is that it provides a decent character study of Janeway's psychological complexity and moral ambiguity. The second is that it is the first episode to feature Tom's "Captain Proton" holodeck game, which will come up again later. The third is that it introduces the Malon, who get a couple of other episodes as antagonists.
E02S05. Drone: A great Seven/Borg episode, here.
E03S05. Extreme Risk: A B'Elanna episode, in which she has to deal with grief surrounding the deaths of the Maquis. This also gives us the second appearance of the Malon, and the first appearance of the Delta Flyer, a new shuttlecraft designed by Tom.
E06S05. Timeless: The one and only episode in which Harry Kim is given genuine, and significant, development and credibility. One of Voyager's greatest episodes in general terms, and a must-watch.
E07S05. Infinite Regress: A great example of Jeri Ryan's ability as an actor. Seven of Nine begins experiencing multiple personality disorder, after Voyager comes within range of a vinculum; the Borg device which is designed to filter out and repress the personalities of individual Borg drones.
E08S05. Nothing Human: An episode in which the Doctor needs to use research gained from the inhumane medical experiments which the Cardassians performed on the Bajorans during the Occupation, in order to save B'Elanna's life. Some good dramatic tension and acting, here.
E10S05. Counterpoint: Another study of Janeway's moral ambiguity and Machiavellian tendencies.
E13S05. Gravity: The series' main study of Tuvok as a character. If you want to understand Tuvok and know what makes him tick, this is the episode to watch. We get more backstory about him here than anywhere else.
E15-16S05. Dark Frontier: The first Voyager Borg telemovie, and the best of the three in my opinion. While this is a little shallow and formulaic, there is still a fair amount of substance here, and some great action and special effects. The Borg have never looked better, and we get more information about Seven's family, as well. For big boombastic entertainment, look no further.
E17S05. The Disease: Another "Harry Kim Butt Monkey" episode. Bad, but included for people who enjoy watching Harry get used as a punching bag, and/or the butt of various jokes.
E21S05. Juggernaut: More B'Elanna/Roxann Dawson fanservice. Yes please. A little too formulaic/gratuitous in terms of how early make-up makes her look "gritty", and her jacket gets taken off, but on the character side, this episode is also important in establishing that B'Elanna can control her temper and employ classic Trek sensibilities (only using violence as a last resort) when she needs to. Good general atmosphere here as well.
E22S05. Someone to Watch Over Me: Voyager attempts a romantic comedy. Ordinarily I would give this sort of material a pass, but Robert Picardo and Jeri Ryan are likeable enough that it works without descending into nausea. A good quality episode.
E2605-E01S06. Equinox: Another of Voyager's very best episodes. This one has a great TOS vibe atmospherically, and we get another strong example of just how dangerous Janeway can get, when she is sufficiently angry. Solidly recommended.
Season 6
E03S06. Barge of the Dead: Although Voyager gives us probably half a dozen episodes centered on B'Elanna Torres, this one is, for her, what Gravity was for Tuvok. It is her main character study, where we find out more about her backstory, and her internal conflict is really examined and resolved in depth. Well written, well acted, and a winner in general terms.
E04S06. Tinker Tenor Doctor Spy: The first of the major "Doctor comedy" episodes. Very silly, but good fun. Robert Picardo's acting ability, and sincerity in the role won me over.
E10S06. Pathfinder: Excellent acting from Dwight Schultz. Notable also because Voyager now also has live communication with the Alpha Quadrant.
E21S06. Live Fast And Prosper: A trio of con artists impersonate three of Voyager's crew. Comedy, and dumb at times, but also good fun.
E2406. Life Line: The Doctor gets beamed back to the Alpha Quadrant via the tech developed in Pathfinder when he discovers that his creator, Lewis Zimmerman, is terminally ill. Great acting from Robert Picardo as usual, and another cameo from Counsellor Troi, for people who liked her character.
E2606-E0107. Unimatrix Zero: Voyager does The Matrix. Not as bad as that sounds, and worth watching, but the weakest of the three Borg telemovies in my opinion, and yes, that includes Endgame. Cliches, some incoherence, and a major plothole concerning the fact that Janeway, Tuvok, and Torres all willingly allow themselves to be assimilated, and unlike literally anyone else who ever has been, they don't lose eyes or major organs in the process. Some of the tension with the Borg Queen and Tuvok, who starts to get mentally assimilated, is also good.
Season 7
E03S07. Drive: Downtime with Paris, Torres, and Harry Kim. Totally inconsequential, but I like all three of these characters, so I enjoyed it.
E07S07. Body and Soul: Voyager flies through a region of space whose aliens have banned holograms, so the Doctor has to hide in Seven's body. Deeply contrived (they could just turn him off until they leave that area), but the point is to give us another episode featuring Jeri Ryan's acting chops. On that score, it delivers.
E09S07. Flesh and Blood: Holographic rights telemovie. The Hirogen have started producing sentient, self-aware holograms, because they want more challenging prey. The holograms form a resistance movement, led by a psychopathic holographic Bajoran. Robert Picardo is reliable as always, with some decent action, but the Bajoran character was annoying, and I enjoyed seeing him get shot.
E11S07. Lineage: We first learn about B'Elanna's pregnancy with Miral Paris, and B'Elanna gets another character study show when she wants to use gene therapy to remove Miral's Klingon DNA.
E14S07. The Void: This episode is essentially a self-contained summary or mission statement for Voyager as an entire series. If you want to know what Voyager is about, but don't want to watch any other episode, watch this one. This episode's storyline is also a less extreme and violent version of the storyline of the first person shooter computer game, Elite Force. Said game is also well worth playing, if you can get hold of it.
E15-16S07. Workforce. Voyager's crew are kidnapped and their memories altered, after which they are put to work on an alien planet. We're given another strong sense here of the kismet/star-crossed nature of Tom and B'Elanna's relationship.
E19S07. Author, Author: Another "Doctor comedy" episode, this one focusing on the Doctor's holonovel about holographic rights. Some decent comedy here as usual.
E22S07. Homestead: This episode is Neelix's curtain call, although we also see him briefly in Endgame. Not what it could have been, but still decent, and quietly poignant; and I always liked Neelix as a character sufficiently that I enjoyed it. The Baxial is shown leaving Voyager, and Neelix is otherwise given a dignified sendoff.
E24S07. Endgame: Voyager's controversial last episode; although, truthfully, I'm inclined to believe that the only real reason why it is controversial is because it only shows the ship getting home, but doesn't show anything about them being home. Aside from that, however, I liked this episode. I thought Kate Mulgrew's acting was good, and the storyline was unusually clear and easy to understand, for a time travel story. Again, it's probably not what it could have been, but it was decent.
Endgame contains a silent tribute to the generous nature of Neelix' actor Ethan Philips, as well. Philips had to spent five hours to put on the makeup required for him to play Neelix, and in the episode, he appears for less than thirty seconds.
Conclusion
In conclusion, I've realised that season 6 was actually Voyager's weakest, for me. While season 2 had the most episodes which were truly, offensively bad, almost half of season 6 was just bland, mediocre filler that I really didn't care about at all. Seasons 3-5 are by far Voyager's strongest, although seasons 1 and 2 have some episodes which I consider highly watchable, as well.