Star Trek Voyager Retrospective/Review - Star Trek Retrospective, Part 12

star trek the next generation was a hit so much so that paramount commissioned a third star trek spin-off show which would overlap tng by two years to differentiate this series from its predecessor the team of rick berman and michael piller decided to set the show aboard a space station becoming deep space nine deep space nine further proved the lucrative nature of star trek as a franchise running successfully parallel to a slate of new star trek movies riding high on this success paramount soon ordered yet another star trek series be put in development the creative minds behind this show felt it was right to return to a spaceship setting this time with a twist [Music] [Applause] as the next generation was coming to an end in its seventh season paramount was keen to continue having at least two concurrent star trek shows on television screens at the time the trio of rick berman michael piller and jerry taylor were those tasked with developing this new show the three of them decided early on that this new series would be set aboard a spaceship again but they also knew they couldn't simply repeat the next generation it was michael piller who hit upon what seemed to be the right idea saying we remembered the episode's many episodes where q would show up and throw one of our ships or one of our people off to a strange part of the universe and we'd have to figure out why we were there how we were going to get back and ultimately by the end of the episode we'd get back home but we started to talk about what would happen if we didn't get home that appealed to us a great deal you have to understand that rick jerry and i had no interest in simply putting a bunch of people on another ship and sending them out to explore the universe the fans would have been the first people to criticize as if we had not brought something new to it jerry taylor recalled we felt a need to create an avenue for new and fresh storytelling we are forced into creating a new universe we decided in a very calculated way to cut our ties with everything that was familiar this is a dangerous thing to do there is no more starfleet there are no more admirals to tell us what we can and cannot do there are no more romulans there are no more klingons no ferengi no cardassians all those wonderful array of villains that the audience has come to love and hate at the same time will no longer be there this is a tricky thing to do jerry taylor was chiefly responsible for a number of other elements for this new show which would differentiate it from the next generation one of her ideas was for the main ship to be a smaller sleeker craft than the massive galaxy class enterprise with the trio having quickly settled on the name voyager for the ship and the title of the show rick sternbach was the artist assigned to design the ship itself to embody this idea of a sleeker smaller craft sternback immediately began designing ships with a narrow dart-like saucer section he also took inspiration from the danube class runabouts when designing the nacelle pylons in engineering hull the producers also asked sternback to include a way for the ship to land on a planet's surface so sternback worked to include a set of landing gear while the producers liked the direction he was going in with his designs they asked if he could smooth out some of the curves and make the overall silhouette of the ship more distinct less complicated eventually he settled on the sleek fast looking ship which appeared in the final show with the addition of the nacelles turning upwards 45 degrees when going to warp and landing gear which would extend out from the underside of the engineering hull sternback also collaborated closely with production designer richard james and of course michael okuda on the interiors of the ship for the all-important bridge design james wanted to embrace some more radical design ideas and thoroughly explore a gamut of other avenues before settling on the final design after toying around with various ideas such as placing the first officer and captain forward on the bridge rather than in the middle and having several stations facing away from the view screen ultimately the design team rediscovered the strengths of the original matt jeffries layout while the galaxy class bridge had two levels with a smooth transition between them the voyager bridge would have three levels separated by large steps the voyager bridge set was built on the same spot as the next generation bridge set which had since been torn down after the production of star trek generations had wrapped while a large studio model was built for use in the show significant advances in cgi technology meant this model was mostly used for b-roll more complex action shots in the show and the entire opening credits sequence used the cg voyager model having enjoyed developing and steering the interpersonal conflict between characters in deep space nine the trio wanted to integrate maki crew members into the main cast of characters they soon devised a premise where the uss voyager would be whisked away to the delta quadrant of the galaxy by a mysterious alien force there the voyager crew would be forced to work with a marquee ship which had also been sent there after becoming stranded in the delta quadrant at the end of the pilot episode both starfleet and marquis would agree to work together to find a way home as the first episode would see the maiden voyage of the title ship writers michael piller and jerry taylor wanted a character who could be an audience pov enduring discussions returned to the character of nicolas lucarno from the next generation episode the first duty they liked the idea of a less than perfect starfleet officer someone who could be given a redemption arc throughout the show some early production notes even went so far as to have lecarno himself return for the show however on re-examining the first duty ultimately they decided locarno was irredeemable and instead decided to create a new character merely inspired by lecarno during auditions for the role which would become tom paris the producers couldn't find an actor who brought the screen presence they were looking for a presence similar to what actor robert duncan mcneil had brought to lucarno they even went so far as to put in the casting call that they were looking for a robert duncan mcneil type this confused the actor who thought surely no one is more of a robert duncan mcneil type than me in the end the producers decided to simply ask mcneil to audition for the par himself after his audition he was given the part the very same day of the similarities between the two characters mcneil said lecarno seemed like a nice guy but deep down he was a bad guy tom paris is the opposite premise in a way deep down he's a good guy he's just made some mistakes before star trek mcneal had a steady stage and screen career having attended the prestigious juilliard school in new york he began acting professionally quite young winning the role of charlie brent in the soap opera all my children while continuing to make sporadic appearances on stage he won many tv guest roles on the twilight zone quantum leap and murder she wrote among others he also appeared in the feature film adaptation of masters of the universe opposite courtney cox and dolph lundgren it's a pretty terrible movie in contrast to the troubled history and cynical outlook of tom paris the character of j osaka would be the opposite a fresh-faced eager young ensign whose dreams came true when he joined starfleet as development continued the character's name was changed to harry kim actor garrett wong was cast in the role wong was a huge science fiction fan and a fan of deep space nine in particular and so he was thrilled to be cast in a star trek show as the producers were coming up with the characters for voyager jerry taylor suggested a chief engineer who could be a wise older man this idea eventually evolving into a vulcan character some 170 years old the idea was to have a wise old engineer who would be a mentor to a younger hot-tempered assistant engineer however this character was later switched to the tactical officer of the ship originally named vicon but later changed to tuvok actor tim ross had made a handful of appearances already in star trek in the episode starship mine he played a mercenary who crosses paths with captain picard funnily enough picard dispatches him using a vulcan nerve pinch later ross appeared in star trek generations as an unnamed enterprise b bridge officer before these appearances however tim russ was a finalist for the role of jordy leforge with the race coming down to russ and levar burton therefore he was high on the list of actors for the producers when they were casting for tuvak after a strong audition he won the role outside of star trek ross had extensive experience in theater acting and made a number of guest appearances in tv shows such as the twilight zone hill street blues and jake and the fat man in feature films russ made a brief but very memorable appearance in the mel brooks comedy spaceballs what about you guys we ain't found although the producers worked to differentiate voyager from previous track shows michael piller was a big proponent of always having an outsider character who could look at humanity from a unique perspective this would continue the tradition of spock data and odo it was jerry taylor who brought up the idea of a holographic character referencing moriarty from the next generation episodes elementary deer data and ship in a bottle during voyager's transit to the delta quadrant the ship's assigned chief medical officer would be killed and replaced with an emergency holographic doctor who would be fully aware of his status as a hologram in early discussions the producers suggested a holographic doctor who had been created by reginald barkley in his own image with dwight schultz playing the role later this was changed to a character called dr zimmerman the namesake of his starfleet scientist creator and named after production designer hermann zimmermann while it was always intended for the character to adopt the name zimmerman throughout the show he was mostly referred to simply as the doctor actor robert piccardo auditioned for the part during his audition while reading some dialogue where the doctor complained about being left on picardo ad-libbed the line i'm a doctor not a light bulb which got a laugh from the producers and won him the role like many star trek actors picardo was an accomplished stage performer on broadway he acted in almost 2 000 performances of gemini in feature films he was among a number of actors known as the dante troupe for his regular appearances in films directed by joe dante including inner space gremlins 2 and many many more for the maki character who'd become voyager's first officer it was decided early on to have a native american inspired by the positive impact characters like uhura and cisco had with african-american representation jerry taylor said it seemed to us that native americans needed that same kind of role model and that same kind of boost the future looks good you have purpose you have worth you have value you will be powerful you will be leaders mexican-american actor robert beltran was cast in the role beltran had a long career before voyager appearing in a number of big screen and made for tv feature films the dark comedy eating role won him some widespread recognition and he went on to appear opposite chuck norris in the action film lone wolf mcquaid and the sci-fi cult classic knight of the comet before winning his role on voyager beltran had mostly been acting in tv movies throughout the 90s such as el diablo and state of emergency as well as guest roles in shows such as lois and clark the new adventures of superman early on the producers were keen on having a rebellious hot-tempered misfit character aboard ship what position this character would occupy changed several times at first being the ship's con officer the writers also knew they wanted the character to be half alien with half bajoran and half cardassian being suggested eventually jerry taylor settled on a half human half klingon chief engineer named bolana torres roxanne dawson born roxanne caballero won the role she was previously married to deep space nine actor casey biggs and is initially credited on voyager as roxanne biggs dawson before voyager she had a recurring role on the soap opera another world she had also acted opposite william shatner in the tv movie broken angel seeing as how voyager would be stranded in the delta quadrant it made sense to the writers to include delta quadrant natives among the crew the first of these characters to be devised was kes originally named da initially the character was to be more androgynous before the writers decided on a young female character the concept of her species having a short lifespan would see the character begin as a teenager and then grow into old age as the series went on although cass would begin the show very young the writers insisted on a powerful intelligence within the character something which was later expressed as powerful telepathic abilities jennifer lien was cast in the role before voyager she had spent her late teens acting on stage in new york and eventually landed a role in the soap opera another world a few years after roxanne dawson one of the last characters to be developed would be a local guide for the voyager crew as they venture deeper into the delta quadrant initially the character was called felix then felox and finally nelix his initial concept was largely inspired by deep space nine's quark an unkempt trader and schemer always playing his cards close to his chest whose deceptive personality often played into his function as comedy relief ethan phillips was cast in the part before voyager he had a regular role in the show benson in the 80s where he acted opposite renee obergenois after benson he found steady work as a guest star in numerous shows including yet again the twilight zone but by the late 80s early 90s phillips had also made many feature film appearances in films such as lean on me bloodhounds on broadway glory the man without a face and the shadow when berman and pillar were first batting around ideas for voyager they decided early on to have a female captain which was in large part why they brought jerry taylor on board to develop and executive produce the show initially paramount were hesitant over having a female lead for the show unsure how a female captain would play to the predominantly male audience berman piller and taylor were at first told to consider actors of both sexes for the part something which frustrated them eventually the trio of executive producers convinced paramount to cast a woman for the series bible and most of the drafts for the first episode the character was given the name elizabeth janeway it proved to be an incredibly difficult role to cast among those considered were star trek alumni like suzanne gibney blade runners joanna cassidy the bionic woman lindsey wagner buck rogers in the 25th century's aaron gray terminators linda hamilton patsy kenzit of lethal weapon 2 babylon 5s tracy scoggins and many many more eventually the producers believed they had found the right person in french canadian actress genevieve bujold bhujold was not a television actress but rather a feature film veteran having acted in movies such as swashbuckler coma and dead ringers after being cast boudreau requested the character's name be changed from elizabeth janeway to nicole janeway and the writers obliged filming began on the 6th of september 1994. the first day of filming mostly focused on robert duncan mcneal and garrett wong scenes such as those which took place on the existing deep space nine sets wong being one of the youngest and least experienced actors on set felt extremely nervous going into production however his fellow cast members quickly made him feel at ease the episode was directed by rick colby one of star trek's regular directors by that point it was colby who started to raise concerns regarding genevieve bujol's casting as janeway allegedly the actress wasn't used to the extremely fast pace of television production and her acting style was much more suited to feature films where a subtle more nuanced performance is more easily read on a wide screen as opposed to the square television screen colby made several calls to rick berman expressing his concerns over bejold but he was told to continue filming berman perhaps hoping bujold would settle into the role however as filming continued colby continued to be frustrated with bujold's performance the following scene was a personal discussion between janeway and tuvok and by this point the cast and crew were all silently aware it wasn't working they missed you as i do them i'll get you back to them allegedly after one take mujold grimaced and marched off into the corner of the room to think later as the crew were setting up another shot boujold stood in the center of the room and announced loudly it's just not working out too well i don't think i'm right for the part immediately after bujol retreated to her trailer very upset over the entire thing after a talk with rick colby rick berman michael piller and jerry taylor all visited boujole in her trailer seeing the state boujole was in the trio did their best to calm her down and assure her she could depart the show amicably boujole then took a taxi home and berman informed paramount of what had happened that same day production of voyager shut down completely jerry taylor remembered of course when that didn't work out it was distressing for everybody i am deeply grateful to her that she did this after a day and a half instead of six weeks or two months because that would have destroyed us as the search for a new captain janeway began filming resumed the following monday the schedule was adjusted so scenes without janeway were filmed this included scenes between nelix and tuvok harry kim and bolonna torres as well as the introduction of the doctor however it wasn't long until filming had to stop again as the only other scenes without janeway were expensive location shoots rick colby by this point was also very exhausted from stress and needed time to recuperate meanwhile as filming came to a halt the producers had finally narrowed in on their new captain kate mulgrew had actually been considered for janeway during the initial casting phase but allegedly her first audition tape wasn't well received and even mulgrew herself later apologized for it after bujol's departure mulgrew was asked back for another audition beforehand muldery wasn't at all familiar with star trek and didn't consider the role particularly important however since her first unsuccessful audition mulgrew had researched star trek and saw the potential in the character after her second audition she was cast in the part although janeway's name was changed yet again this time to catherine janeway muldrew's career before star trek was it seems at this point the standard template for a star trek actor's career she cut her teeth doing stage work before moving into television with a regular role in the soap opera ryan's hope playing the lead in the failed columbo spin-off mrs colombo and then a variety of guest performances in other shows such as murder she wrote he said here are the sides take a look at them we're looking for a female captain i said captain of what he said of the starship we've never had a female captain before i said why not i thank my lucky stars and i have never watched star trek i am in no way familiar with it and therefore i am not stamped by it so i think that's if anything was the winning ticket for them they saw an absolutely fresh approach to it when captain janeway was finally cast filming for voyager's pilot resumed again and rick colby immediately recognized the improved casting mulgrew being the oldest sister of a family of eight brought that formidable commanding presence colby had wanted from the start though this wasn't entirely the end of the production's hectic schedule as some concerns were raised regarding janeway's hairstyle initially mulgrew shot her scenes with her hair worn down however her hair under the studio lights appeared bizarrely thin on camera therefore the signature janeway bun was conceived because of this several scenes had to be re-shot with this new hairstyle while the morale of the cast and crew improved and mulgru successfully embodied the self-assured character of a starship captain the actress was quite nervous due to the close eye of many paramount executives who had come to observe filming she recalled all of the suits were down here everybody was here and my heart was in my throat it was with no little trepidation i can assure you that i walked out on the set of that bridge the first day because they were all watching they were a bit unsure having suffered what they did with miss bujold that a woman could constitutionally handle the part i thought what the hell here we go it began probably the most extraordinary chapter of my life maldru was further encouraged when later during the filming of season 1 she received a visit from patrick stewart who offered her encouragement saying you will be very proud of your accomplishments after seven years if you do the work to the best of your abilities rick colby said that was all very nice and i suddenly felt like we were taking off we were just taxiing up the runway until that point kate came in and it was like thunder hit the crew all the afterburners suddenly fired production of voyager's first episode was now four weeks behind schedule and so an extremely fast-paced shoot ensued but rather than the gruelling shoot of deep space nine's emissary the cast and crew were in high spirits treating the production almost like a race to the finish line much of this was spearheaded by mulgrew herself who had a lot of catching up to do scriptwise she said that was the feeling we're going to have fun i'm here we're going to help each other i had them joking right away mcneil was the first one in fact we were laughing so hard that tears were coming down my face after a tumultuous beginning principal photography of voyager's pilot episode caretaker wrapped on the 17th of october 1994. for the music of the premiere episode originally dennis mccarthy was asked for the job but he instead deferred to his friend jay chattaway who had contributed to deep space nine however the legendary jerry goldsmith was chosen to compose the main theme for the show rather than the grand march of the next generation and the signature theme he used for the movies instead goldsmith created a sweeping majestic piece which he hoped would truly embody this spirit of exploration unlike the next generation in deep space nine voyager was not released in a first run syndication format instead paramount returned to an old idea which was suggested all the way back in the 1970s with the unmade star trek phase 2. the idea was to use a star trek show as a flagship series for a network which paramount would own and operate itself therefore voyager became this flagship product for the united paramount network or upn with this added pressure and having successfully rescued production from disaster the first episode of star trek voyager premiered on the 16th of january 1995. it began as a routine mission there appears to be a massive displacement wave moving toward us and it would change their destiny captain is something out there brace for impact one crew and one ship's epic journey 70 000 light years away we're on the other side of the galaxy now it's a quest to get back home why are you holding us here see it from the beginning we have no way back unless you send us on the premiere of star trek voyager the debut episode of star trek voyager is a bit of a mixed bag while it isn't as messy as encounter of farpoint it also doesn't reach the emotional heights of emissary things start off generally very strong with the opening chase through the badlands and subsequent introduction of the voyager crew paris and kim's camaraderie is instantly apparent and robert duncan mcneil has enough charisma to make for a compelling audience pov character but easily the most well-established character is captain janeway herself kate mulgrew is simply phenomenal in the role it's frankly insane to know she was a last-minute replacement as it's almost impossible to imagine anyone else playing the part catherine janeway is tough and commanding while also being witty and approachable she enters the same leagues of kirk picard and cisco almost instantly voyager's arrival in the delta quadrant an encounter with the caretaker in his array is also very well done the chaos and grittiness is peppered with some good humor with the introduction of the doctor and this soon gives way to intrigue as the crew attempt to decipher why they have been taken to the other side of the galaxy it all has a generally brisk pace with most of the cast well established and some typical but enjoyable star trek plotting where things start to drag though is with the introduction of nelix the ocompa and the kaizon ethan phillips's nelix is actually quite amusing in this first episode it's clear his buffoonish personality is merely a smokescreen to hide his more cunning and resourceful abilities though i will have more to say about nelix later on kess however isn't so well established the character isn't really given a whole lot to do and while we understand her general motivations we don't get a solid sense of her personality theo compa in general come across as quite bland just like with nelix i'll have more to say later on in the video as cass and the ocompa do develop in some interesting ways but in this debut episode they just aren't particularly interesting also the entire plot thread of kim and torres being infected with some kind of disease essentially vanishes from the episode it's a little odd the kaizon also don't exactly come across as much of a threat when they're completely outfoxed during their first encounter the prospect of voyager having made an enemy of them doesn't really seem like a big deal but perhaps the biggest flaw of the episode is with its climax after uncovering the history of the caretaker his protection of the ocompa and the search for a replacement the setup for janeway to make the crucial decision to remain in the delta quadrant is there but the payoff is quite weak on paper it's a classic star trek moral conundrum voyager could get home but it would mean abandoning the ocompa to the kaizon however in the actual plotting it's not really a sure thing that voyager can actually use the array to get home and it's also unclear how exactly the kaizon would use the array to hurt the ocompa coupling this with the yokompa themselves not being all that interesting as characters and the impact of this decision by janeway doesn't hit home the way it should that's not to say none of it works toovox introduction is a nice twist and the brief scene he shares with janeway showcases their friendship nicely chicote and bolana get some decent material with chicote and paris in particular having a solid reconciliation during the penultima act structurally it's all there but i feel like the script needed another draft to really set up the premise of the show properly as a viewer the episode is entertaining for the most part the dialogue and acting is strong across the board there are some good bursts of action here and there and in terms of presentation this is easily the best looking of the 24th century set shows while it all makes sense on paper it fails to have any real emotional impact on the viewer which makes it feel a little unresolved i think overall it's a solid enough first episode but not exactly extraordinary the premiere of voyager was watched by over 21 million viewers while not matching the 30 million of the next generation's debut it did exceed deep space nine's emissary and successfully established voyager as the flagship series of upn the critical and audience reception to the episode was mixed to positive criticisms were levied at the plotting and the resolution of the episode specifically how the maki crew are so easily integrated into voyager without comment though more on this later as well internally voyager's premiere was a hit with the paramount executives and the production staff were very proud of their work the cast generally had a fun time making the episode and a pleasant atmosphere of friendly collaboration was established early on from there the cast and crew looked forward to embarking on their first year of adventures [Music] in my opinion season one of voyager essentially matches the overall quality of caretaker a lot of it is good in fact much of it is quintessential star trek the cast are mostly very strong and their chemistry is undeniable however what i think is missing is a little bit extra to push it over the top and make the show really stand out from the shadow of the next generation many of the episodes fall back on the usual space anomaly encounters or planet of the week stories featuring all two familiar looking aliens the biggest mistake however is with the maquis for the first year there is a story arc of sorts concerning the integration of the maki crew with the starfleet crew it should be a far bigger part of the first season but instead it's mostly in the background originally michael piller and jerry taylor wanted to have the maki characters remain out of starfleet uniforms for at least the first year and the whole reason for having maki aboard the ship was to replicate the kind of interpersonal conflict seen in deep space nine however much of this was nixed by rick berman who insisted the maki characters had to be in starfleet uniforms by the end of the pilot ronald d moore who would briefly write for voyager later in the show said of this when the maki put on those starfleet uniforms at the end of the pilot the show was dead it should have been these two sides that were forced to work together that still don't like each other and are still gunning for each other wondering who's going to come out on top who's going to betray who it should have been gold but they got scared so they drew all the wrong lessons and said let's play it safe where the marquis storyline comes into play the most is the episode learning curve but rather than grappling with the struggles of any major characters like chokote bolana or the recurring character cesca instead the episode focuses on a group of one-off characters we've never heard of before it all seems quite perfunctory while most of season 1 is standard fare or missed opportunities the standout episode is easily phage while surveying an asteroid for dilithium ore nelix is attacked by a mysterious alien figure which somehow beams his lungs right out of his chest as the doctor does his best to keep nelix alive voyager pursues these aliens to retrieve nelix's lungs and find out who the aliens are there are some star trek fans who would celebrate the prospect of nelix losing his ability to speak as the character is hated by many sometimes being referred to as the jar jar binks of star trek personally i've never found nelix to be that irritating but at the same time i understand where his detractors are coming from to be absolutely clear ethan phillips is a wonderful actor and he never phones in a single performance throughout the entirety of voyager's run what less the character down though is his inconsistency as i said in caretaker nelix is established as being a resourceful and cunning scoundrel traitor type who keeps up a buffoonish act to throw his enemies off balance but throughout voyager it seems like the writers forgot that this buffoonery was supposed to be an act the problem with nelix is that he flip-flops between being this crafty quick thinking traveler to someone so blissfully unaware of ship procedure and social cues he comes across as totally moronic that being said while he isn't the main focal point of the episode phage phillips does get a chance to showcase a great performance as the character the true body horror of nelix having his lungs snatched out of him writhing around unable to scream is a terrifying prospect and having him confined to a bio bed potentially for the rest of his life further exacerbates his condition the scenes between nalex and the doctor are brilliantly written and performed with the nelix's jovial attitude to the situation breaking down into a panic attack and the doctor showing signs of his emerging sentience as he struggles to deal with a patient in such distress it's subtle but highly effective where the episode truly shines though is with the introduction of the vedians as i said many of the aliens encountered in voyager's first year are all a bit too familiar however the vidins are far more original simultaneously sympathetic as they battled the disease which is literally eating them alive and also horrifically threatening as they prey upon other ships to harvest them for body parts i think it's a true shame the vidians didn't appear in more episodes of voyager because next to the kaizon they're far more interesting as mainstay antagonists the departure of the vedines where janeway has to wrestle with the morality of her situation is another fantastic display of kate mulgrew's strengths as the character her innate empathy for the plight of the vedines can't bring her to end the life of the person now using nelix's stolen lungs but at the same time her fierce protection of her crew means she has to draw a hard line against any potential future encounters with the vedians any aggressive actions against this ship or its crew will be met by the deadliest voice is that clear the resolution of cass donating one of her lungs to nelix with the help of the vidin's far more advanced medical technology is also quite clever in the end phage is a flash of brilliance in an otherwise mediocre first year for the show originally season one of voyager was four episodes longer with projections elogium twisted and the 37s all being shot for season 1 but held over to air as part of season 2 but despite voyager's first year being cut short it was still a hit show while not equaling the success of the next generation it comfortably matched and in some cases even succeeded the viewing figures of deep space nine the series also proved less controversial than deep space nine among the fan base at the time the stationary setting of ds9 still turned off many trekkies who believed a star trek show aboard a starship was an integral component to the franchise therefore voyager initially enjoyed much more goodwill from the fanbase despite some criticisms regarding characters like nelix and the lack of character conflict between the maki and starfleet cruz season 2 of voyager is an improvement on its first with some more imaginative character focused episodes and more ambitious long-running story arcs though by season 2 another issue with the series in general became apparent part of the appeal of voyager's premise is that the ship and crew are cut off from federation and starfleet support and can't so easily expend their resources or repair damage at least that's the logic behind such a premise in practice however voyager demonstrated a bad habit of hitting the reset button all too often while the strain on ship resources is brought up early in season one necessitating nelix becoming the ship's cook not much is really done to signal voyager as being less well-supplied than any other starfleet vessel while not fully committing to the idea doesn't necessarily detract from the show failing to capitalize on the premise in this way most certainly meant missing out on some rich storytelling opportunities while many of season two's episodic entries are very strong such as the doctor-focused projections or bollana-centric prototype this season also included the rather silly threshold and the controversial origin of many memes to vixx the first episode i wanted to highlight though is meld meld initially starts off as a classic murder mystery with the body of an engineer being discovered it's then up to tuvok to track down the killer and in turn determine the best course of justice of the main cast tuvok is easily one of the strongest characters we've seen plenty of vulcans before but having a vulcan tactical security officer puts a new spin on this kind of character rather than the gung-ho badass klingon warrior of wharf tuvok is tempered and methodical his vulcan mental discipline makes him incredibly efficient at maintaining ship security and extremely quick thinking when it comes to tactical solutions yet an element which i think should have been played up more throughout the series is the great relationship between janeway and tuvok of the main bridge crew tuvok is janeway's oldest and closest friend the scenes between the two are consistently strong easily reaching the heights of the great kirk spock friendship they respect and admire one another as starfleet officers but there's definitely a bond between the two which goes far beyond professional and the actors always do an excellent job of conveying that subtext during their interactions many toovox centric episodes are some of the best episodes of the show but rather than the writers attempting to replicate the spock dynamic with others struggling to understand him emotionally or him feeling conflicted over his emotions tuvok is supremely confident in his identity rather the emotional core of his stories are often about tuvok discovering ways to connect with others and properly communicate his deeper feelings in his own uniquely vulcan way oftentimes tim ross's performance miraculously succeeds in deeply moving the audience while remaining typically stoic as tuvok's investigation in meld continues he soon comes to suspect suder a former maki crew member with a troubling past of violence the casting of brad duraff makes suitor out to be such an obvious villain that he's either clearly the culprit or an obvious red herring which is why it's something of a relief when the episode sidesteps the expected murder mystery plot when sudar is quickly confirmed as the killer instead the episode wades into some more interesting territory as toovox struggles to understand suitor's motivation for killing partly out of a perceived necessity and partly out of intense curiosity tuvok attempts to help suitor quell his violent instincts with a mind meld inadvertently transferring many of those violent impulses into himself this is a story which ruminates on violence and if it's ever truly justified while pseuder killed without a second thought he does indeed make some pointed observations about tuvok's own use of violence how the mind meld itself is an act of violence and tuvok's own suggestion that as voyager is stranded far away from any federation justice system it may be pragmatic to execute suitor for his crimes while his open suggestion of this to janeway is a result of his deteriorating mental discipline from the meld the episode makes clear this is a genuine thought which has crossed tuvok's mind tim ross gives a powerhouse performance in the episode especially during the scene in which his mental barriers are fully destroyed watching him trying to insult manipulate rage and even physically push himself free if his confinement comes across as truly unsettling he has killed and you know he deserves to die i have a radical suggestion captain release the force field [Music] and i'll kill him for you what starts as a solid enough murder mystery spirals into a fascinating philosophical debate anchored by its central characters and this makes meld quite an underrated episode in my book something more cosmic in scale this season is the episode death wish when voyager encounters a comet a strange life form soon appears aboard ship identifying himself as q while this is a different cue to the one famously encountered by captain picard that same cue does eventually show up identifying the cue from the comet as a dangerous criminal after some back and forth between the two beings the crew eventually discovered the reason for q's imprisonment he wants to die while almost all of the q episodes from the next generation were strong his follow-up appearance on deep space nine was less than successful therefore there was a lot of debate among the production staff about if bringing q to voyager was really a good idea especially if he was just going to engage in the usual shenanigans from tng thankfully death wish is anything but typical and for me at least is actually the strongest cue-centric episode of star trek adding in a second q dubbed quinn later in the episode for simplicity's sake was a terrific idea and the rivalry between q and quinn is endlessly enjoyable the sequence where quinn jumps himself and voyager all through time and space brims with imagination taking the main characters from the birth of the universe to dangling from the branch of a gigantic christmas tree the high concept fun continues into quints hearing aboard voyager which includes an enjoyable guest appearance from jonathan frakes what makes the episode truly great though is that this is a story truly about cue rather than the effect he has on the regular cast quite wisely the nature of the cube and their continuum has been largely left a mystery and while we do explore the queue in more detail here that sense of them as omnipotent beings beyond anything we understand is preserved rather the episode does what a lot of great star trek does best using the outlandish nature of science fiction to discuss some very human concepts guest star garrett graham's performance as quinn is wonderful conveying similar eccentricities as john de lancie but with an earnestness and wisdom which marks him out as highly distinct from q the idea of an ethereal immortal being desiring nothing else but to die is truly fascinating and calls into question our own ideas surrounding immortality and finding fulfillment in life q himself undergoes a change over the course of the episode the most significant arc the character has had since tng's deja q while most of the regular voyager cast plays second fiddle to the drama between the queues the chemistry between delancey and mulgrew is electric and establishes an interesting dynamic between queue and janeway whereas q delighted in toying with picard and over time developing a begrudging respect for him the overt attraction to janeway gives their dialogue a distinctly different and in some ways more rich flavor q would return in several episodes later in voyager but in my opinion at least none of them come as close to the creativity depth and fun of death wish an episode which falls more on the darker side though is the thaw the voyager crew discover a handful of people in stasis pods their brains kept engaged in a virtual reality simulation however when an away team enters the simulation they discover the program designed to keep its occupants happy has gone horribly wrong the concept of being trapped in a simulation for centuries on end where the atmosphere and characters are in a constant state of circus like amusement is almost timber and ask in style the colorful costumes and makeup become freakish and warped the circus-like music degenerates into a tormenting noise and the constant movement of the characters and camera becomes delirious and exhausting all of it is propelled by guest star michael mckean as the clown he's genuinely scary as the episode's main antagonist it's his frantic emotions which keeps the viewer on the edge not knowing what little thing could flip him from a simple irritating menace into a sadistic maniac delighting in the torture of his prisoners mckean's exaggerated facial expressions are further enhanced by the makeup design for the character and his cartoon-like body movements are strengthened by his ability to appear and disappear as well as summon objects or affect the reality of the program at will what i especially like about the episode is how it doesn't take the easy route out while the clown does enjoy coaxing fear out of his captives the episode makes clear this is not what sustains him this is effectively demonstrated when harry kim fails to retaliate against the program by trying to dampen his fear showing us our characters can't just will their way out of this instead it's a battle of intellect rather than emotions with janeway and the voyager crew playing a dangerous game of chess against the program in the end the villain isn't defeated through the power of friendship but a clever subterfuge which tricks the clown into letting the hostages go the final shots as the virtual world falls into darkness are as cathartic as they are eerie i'm afraid i know [Music] the season two finale is a two-part episode which also serves as the end of the long-running kaizon story arc as i've mentioned previously the kaizon were never all that successful as villains in the series their design wasn't particularly striking and their culture and attitude was a little too close to the warrior race trope we've seen many times in sci-fi before next to the klingons and the gemphidar the kaizon just paled in comparison there are some notable differences though which showed some potential for one thing the real-life allegory for the kzon were street gangs and nomads a far more low-tech less organized society rather than the grand empires of the klingons or dominion then there's the revelation of the kaizon being a liberated slave race once oppressed by the trade in the mid-season episode alliances some welcome political intrigue and deeper history adds some much needed dimension and moral complexity to the conflict this is further bolstered by chakote's former crew member and lover cesca being revealed as a cardassian spy who soon defects to the kaizon leader color while color himself is quite generic as a villain cesca was the real highlight of the arc in terms of antagonists the whole kidnapping jokote and taking his dna to birth a child is very soap opera-esque but martha hackett was always extremely charismatic and fiendish in the role cesca isn't just a capable soldier but also an expert manipulator clawing her way up to a seat of power in the region ostensibly to conquer her way back to the alpha quadrant rather than explore despite these highlights though the kaizon arc never really came alive in the show and it's not surprising michael piller and the other producers chose to bring it to an end in basics parts one and two cesco lures voyager into a trap where they are relentlessly attacked by multiple kaizon fleets which eventually overwhelm their defenses and take control of the ship as janeway and most of the crew fight for survival on a harsh planet surface a marooned paris trapped suitor and out of his depth doctor have to take back voyager while the rest of the crew battling against the elements monsters and contending with the native tribe is compelling enough it truly is a suitor's thread aboard voyager which is the highlight of the episode no one does tortured angst ridden weirdos as good as brad duraff and while he brings his signature screen presence he also reminds the audience just how great an actor he is his reaction after taking the life of a kaizon soldier is devastatingly effective and the fight in engineering which ultimately ends his life just as he saves the ship packs in a major emotional punch so does the end of cesca as she collapses in front of her child succumbing to her wounds it's this kind of moral and emotional complexity which had been missing from most of the case on arc and by the end of basics one almost wonders just how good this storyline could have been if it was given more thought while ultimately the ending is a victory it comes at quite a cost for season 3 michael piller left his position as show runner and decided to step away from star trek in general he had been working on the franchise for seven continuous years which was quite exhausting for him and he wanted to develop other projects he eventually went on to found his own production company with his son sean piller who had contributed some scripts to star trek in the past pillar was given the title creative consultant and continued to contribute notes to various scripts but for season three jerry taylor took over as showrunner season 3 is mostly on par with season 2 though far more episodic by this point in the show perhaps due to rick berman's influence who is famously against serialized storytelling long-running arcs almost disappeared entirely from the show while some character developments had consequences for following episodes in terms of a format voyager stuck closer to the next generation with mostly stand-alone stories and the occasional two-parter in one such two-parter future's end an enjoyable romp back to the late 20th century for some time travel shenanigans the doctor acquires a mobile holographic emitter which allows him to walk freely outside of sickbay in more episodic entries such as the queue in the grey the voyager becomes embroiled in a cue civil war following the death of the previously encountered quinn and in rise nelix and tuvox's tense relationship is put to the test when they uncover a conspiracy to bombard a planet with asteroids as a pre-lead to invasion it's all generally good stuff well written and performed however the most significant character-driven episode this season in my mind is before and after kess awakens as an elderly woman sometime in voyager's future having no memory of how she got there she soon finds herself living bursts of her life in reverse order due to her exposure to chronoton particles sometime before thinking quickly she has to use what little time she has in each burst to enlist the crew's help and return herself to normal unfortunately like many elements of voyager cass was a character with a lot of potential rarely capitalized on for the most part she functioned as the wide-eyed waif of the crew more of a motivator for drama rather than the subject of it the insufferable love triangle involving nelix and paris being one such example however there are glimpses of this potential actually being seized such as in season two's cold fire in which kess begins to unlock the full potential of her telepathic and telekinetic powers there's also season three's own warlord which sees cass's body taken over by a would-be alien despot while the character cast is sidelined it did provide jennifer lien a chance to show her acting range and this is also true of before and after by this episode kess had truly grown from a naive young woman into a more mature and wise person jennifer leanne is given so much more material to work with as cass has to quickly and efficiently explain her predicament to each new version of the crew she encounters and help them engineer a solution it's also one of those fun what if future stories with kess at some point marrying tom paris with both janeway and torres dying in the so-called year of hell and this thorough exploration of kess's character and the life she may lead in some ways makes up for a lot of this character work being largely absent from the show it's a good thing the character was given such a great episode this season as towards the end of the year voyager's watershed moment was fast approaching in scorpion parts one and two for quite some time the creative team behind voyager had been interested in using the borg as had been established in the next generation the borg were native to the delta quadrant of the galaxy and so stranding voyager there would make an encounter with the federation's deadliest enemy very likely however due to the production of star trek first contact it was deemed more appropriate for voyager to hold off on using the borg until they had their reintroduction on the big screen in many ways this actually helped to voyager as a show as it made the looming threat of the ship wading into borg territory something which could be built up in the background season three does a good job of drip feeding the audience this inevitable meeting with episodes like blood fever which showed the remains of a borg drone as a sign of voyager inching closer to borg space then there's the later episode unity in which chicote is rescued by a colony of former borg drones scorpion however is where things are dialed up to 11. the opening shot of the episode is brilliantly conceived we see two borg cubes the image which trek fans have come to associate with overwhelming power suddenly shaken when an unseen force obliterates these vessels in a matter of seconds voyager soon discovers this new enemy known only as species 8472 invading the galaxy from another dimension and slaughtering their way through the borg collective determined to pass through borg space and stop this new threat janeway proposes something truly audacious making a deal with the borg voyager's overall impact on the borg and their lore is something we'll examine in more detail later in this video but scorpion is an awesome borg story introducing a new foe which is as threatening to the borg as the borgar to everyone else is a monumentally ambitious idea but i think the episode manages to pull it off part of what made the borg so memorable in their introductory episode was just how different they were to the various aliens star trek had previously encountered their thought processes and culture were so alien to the enterprise crew there was no hope of reasoning with them this feeling is effectively replicated during the first encounter with species 8472 the first time one of these creatures bursts onto screen the viewer is thrown into the back of their seats whereas the borg were relentless in their slow but unstoppable advance species 8472 are so aggressive and vicious deploying horrific bioweapons committing shocking atrocities and bringing such powerful firepower to bear it feels justified when the borg seemingly break character and actually negotiate with janeway however the true strength of the episode is in the character work specifically janeway in terms of command style janeway is a great balance between the idealism of picard and the ruthlessness of cisco there's an undeniable strength of will and determination to her character the immovable object for the seemingly unstoppable forces to crash into you know i'm really easy to get along with most of the time but i don't like bullies and i don't like threats and i don't like you color but this is also what gives janeway her moral depth she's so fiercely determined to get her crew home at times she walks up to the thin line of when exactly the ends justify the means this is something future episodes would really take advantage of but it has its origins in scorpion the high stakes spectacular action and race against time actually makes scorpion comparable to the much lauded best of both worlds and in my opinion it actually surpasses it as great as the best of both worlds is i've always felt its second part is quite a lot weaker than the first as i mentioned in my tng retrospective but if anything scorpion's second part is even stronger than the first by quite a significant margin with chicote having to contend with a contingent of drones aboard ship who forcibly send voyager into species 8472's native dimension for the final battle it's truly epic in scope but the drama remains personal most significantly however scorpions saw the introduction of one of star trek's most significant characters seven of nine although initially a hit the ratings for star trek voyager had been dropping since its debut as they had also done for deep space nine there are a wide variety of reasons for this many of them too complex to explain in detail but by season 3 voyager's regular audience had shrunk by almost 2 million viewers while it still maintained a healthy sized audience the higher-ups at paramount and upn were concerned about this drop in view as becoming a downward trend therefore the creative team behind the show decided they needed to do something to shake up the series and recapture some of the wider audience interest they had lost since season 1. coming up with some borg centric stories following the hit first contact was a good start but it was the episode unity which really started the wheels turning after viewing dailies of the episode brannon braga was struck by the image of a borg drone in sickbay and suggested to jerry taylor and rick berman the idea of having a borg crew member according to braga it was burman's suggestion to make the character female albeit with the slightly crass sentiment make it a borg babe the concept of the character appealed greatly to the other writers and producers and braga along with joe manoski quickly went about creating the backstory the name seven of nine came from the android character rhoda from the show my living doll whose android designation was ef709 which bragga turned into seven of nine among those who auditioned for the part were hudson lake of zena warrior princess fame and claudia christian of babylon 5. eventually the choice came down to three actresses with jerry ryan eventually winning the role at the time ryan was extremely unfamiliar with star trek not even knowing what a borg was when she auditioned when offered the part she was hesitant to accept as the only episode she had ever seen of star trek was the next generation's code of honor which unsurprisingly she didn't particularly enjoy she was relieved when the voyager producers agreed it was a poor episode and instead recommended a list of stronger episodes for her to watch after doing so she accepted the part thus in scorpion part 2 the character is introduced as an envoy between the collective and the voyager crew maintaining an uneasy alliance when her cube is destroyed and her drones partially assimilate voyager's cargo bay for much of the episode she actually functions as an antagonist wrestling controlled the ship away from the bridge in order to meet species 8472 on their home turf then as soon as the threat of species 8472 is dealt with she immediately reneges on the deal and attempts a takeover of the ship forcing janeway to sever her link to the collective behind the scenes the voyager production team were apprehensive at the prospect of dealing with an additional character to the show seeing as how voyager already had a large cast compared to tng therefore the decision was made for one of the characters to be written out of the show according to garrett wong he was the cast member firmly placed in the crosshairs due to rick berman who according to wong absolutely hated him for some reason wong had on more than one occasion asked if the writers of the show could write in a promotion for kim as surely his experience being marooned in the delta quadrants gave him the necessary experience to ascend the ranks however his request was always refused with one of the producers telling him look somebody's got to be the ensign berman also refused wong's request to direct an episode as robert duncan mcneil and roxanne dawson had done this was the only time in the star trek franchise history an actor had their request to direct refused for these reasons wong was preparing himself for an unpleasant phone call but according to the actor after he appeared in people magazine's most beautiful people on television bourbon decided not to fire him from the show instead the producers looked to the character of cass they believed the character simply wasn't working out as well as hoped and at the time jennifer leanne had also begun starring in the sitcom phenom which strained her schedule with voyager and so it was decided cass was to leave at the beginning of season four in the episode the gift as seven of nine wrestles with the notion of joining the voyager crew cass's mental powers grow exponentially threatening the ship on the cusp of ascending to some higher state of being kes uses her abilities to catapult voyager 10 years closer to home seven of nine freed of many of her borg implants accepts her place on the ship fashion of course is hardly my forte nevertheless i've managed to balance functionality and aesthetics in a pleasing enough manner body paint would be one way to describe it um it's rather snug [Music] it's sort of an exaggerated female form not exaggerated but certainly emphasized basically kissed food goodbye for the rest of my life i won't be eating very frequently anymore seven of nine's infamous outfit was not without controversy and difficulty behind the scenes the costume came with a built-in corset which caused severe breathing problems for ryan on more than one occasion ryan even passed out due to lack of air the costume was later adjusted to remedy his problem but ryan has since said she was never fully comfortable wearing it going so far as to say that after the show wrapped she wanted to burn it following seven of nine's debut some of the show's fans derogatorily referred to the character as barbie of borg and 36d of nine and other names which i'm sure someone thought were very clever this was due to the belief the character was introduced in order to add sex appeal to the show and cater to a male audience of this jerry ryan said i knew exactly what i was in for when i had my first costume fitting clearly my character was added to the show for sex appeal which remains one way to get attention very quickly i don't think it's the only way to get viewers to watch strong women but it worked the overt sex appeal of seven of nine's character and the resulting press coverage is something which heavily affected kate muldrew's relationship with ryan on set mulgrew has since admitted to treating ryan quite poorly during her first few years on the show the atmosphere between the two being so bad at one point ryan in at least one instance suffered a panic attack simply over the prospect of shooting with mulgrew the next day an interview since mulgrew has explained the reason for her hostility toward the character was due to how much she had overcome during the show's debut when paramount executives were still wary of even casting a female lead in mulgrew's mind having worked hard to prove these detractors wrong without ever allowing jaime to be objectified as a character and cow tao to the perceived tastes of teenage boys seeing a character as overly sexualized as seven of nine come into the show almost seemed insulting mulgrew had also developed a strong friendship with jennifer leanne and was extremely saddened to see her be written out of the series this was further exacerbated when seven quickly became the focus of so many subsequent episodes with mulgrew worrying seven would quickly steal focus from the rest of the cast however since then mulgrew has admitted to taking her frustrations out on the wrong person and apologized to ryan in the years after voyager for all the shallowness on the part of the paramount executives mulgrew has exhaustively complemented ryan's performance and the writing for the character and this is the essential reason for why seven of nine has become such a fan favorite her good looks are of course undeniable but thankfully the character was not subject to the same objectification as her wardrobe let it be stated unequivocally jerry ryan is an extremely talented actress and her performance is seven of nine is simply phenomenal although some argue voyager post season four transforms into the seven of nine show the number of seven centric episodes is quite justified in my opinion the concept of the character by its very nature offers a wealth of rich material and a clear path for future development in episodes like the raven scientific method pray one and many more in subsequent seasons the full range of the character's potential and ryan's acting ability is on full display and i for one am very glad ryan chose to reprise the role for the recent star trek picard because even after so many years there are a lot of places to go with seven of nine did you have any kind of uniform i have to ask because you know i i had a cat suit really that sounds provocative right there a cat suit season four of voyager is where the show really hits its stride though not just because of the introduction of seven of nine the series continued to have strong one-off outings and even brought back some overarching plot threads as well but the first episode i want to highlight is the ambitious two-parter year of hell as voyager approaches a disputed region once dominated by a faction known as the krenim imperium elsewhere a krenim ship with the ability to erase key peoples and objects from history dramatically alters the timeline in its attempt to restore the imperium to its former glory from then onwards voyager finds itself under relentless attack from the imperium with janeway and the ship itself barely hanging on by a thread as the situation grows more and more desperate the seeds of year of hell were planted back in the episode before and after cass during her many time jumps learns of the encounter with the krenim and the year of hell which followed while this was only intended as a throwaway bit of dark future world building the idea stuck with writers joe manoski and brannon braga at first they toyed with the idea of literally making the story a year-long season-spanning arc but this was vetoed by rick berman instead they reworked their ideas into the finished two-part episode as fantastic an idea to make the story a season-long arc was the two-parter is still one of voyager's strongest outings by far the utter desperation of the event raises the stakes through the roof here voyager's status as being cut off from the federation actually counts for something as the ship slowly crumbles under the weight of krenim attack captain janeway's tenacity and sheer force of will to keep going is on full display in this episode getting her hands dirty to help with repair efforts and risking life and limb to keep her crew alive as a viewer we wonder just how voyager and its crew manage to stay alive as long as they do wondering if it's even worth it to continue to refuse surrendering but while the events of voyager keep us on the edge of our seats the threat following captain anorax and his temporal warship is the true highlight of the two-parter far from the megalomaniacal villain we'd expect anoraks is a largely sympathetic character battling with time itself to restore his people to their glory but later on when we discover his real motivation is to revive his wife and family which he erased from existence by mistake the masterful writing of the episode reveals itself anoraks is a man unable to move on from his mistakes haunted by the grief of his own making the time-centric story concept of the episode is strikingly original especially after so many time travel plots had already been used in star trek by this point the idea of erasing another civilization from existence and all of the unintended consequences thereafter is utterly fascinating although it isn't strictly time travel the concept echoes similar ideas to ray bradbury's the sound of thunder anoraks's goal is literally unattainable due to the very nature of his method in reaching for it as he himself states the interweaving personal timelines of all of the objects peoples and civilizations in existence are simply too complex to ever make any adjustments without unintended side effects his brilliance is undeniable but his trauma is inescapable in a way both jainway and anorax are locked into events they cannot escape even after genway evacuates her crew from voyager to save their lives she remains with a handful of others in the vain hope of restoring her ship but after discovering what's been happening to the timeline around her these two captains meet for one final showdown the drama is at its height in this ultimate confrontation with janeway literally throwing voyager at her enemy and anorak staring in terror as all his hopes of seeing his loved ones again fade away before his eyes what does hurt the episode is the ending however while it makes sense in terms of the temporal mechanics of the plot using a literal reset button to undo the year of hell itself restoring the ship and crew back to the status quo is a frustrating cop-out of course some will argue it's about the journey rather than the destination but it would have been brilliant to actually see the series continue having to deal with the consequences of this two-parter the final moments of the episode redeem this slightly as we see anorak's back with his wife and family once again working on the plans for the device which we know will ultimately destroy his life it's a tantalizing bit of intrigue which despite the reset button being hit does leave the episode on a high a strong threat in season 4 concerns the heroine while voyager missed out on using an interesting antagonist like the vedians as their primary villains the heroine were a new and very welcome recurring foe while they skew close to the standard warrior race aliens we've seen before the heroine's terrific design and culture of ritual hunting made them very memorable their towering height badass ships weapons and armor made them as cool as they were threatening thanks to their hunting culture though the heroine weren't necessarily strict villains either on more than one occasion the voyager crew would find themselves fighting alongside a number of heroin rather than against them where they were used best in my opinion was the two-part episode of the killing game having taken over voyager the heroine used the ship's holodeck to pit themselves against the personality altered crew in order to satiate their desire to hunt in new creative ways although star trek voyager absolutely overused the holodeck for episodes in its run although i am partial to captain proton the killing game is an extremely inventive use of the technology for a story having the voyager crew literally embody the various characters they're given to play in each simulation lets the actors stretch their muscles to great effect seeing janeway as a bloodthirsty klingon for example is a great way to open any episode and later in the world war ii simulation where the majority of the episode takes place having aliens inside such a familiar settings is a creative bit of sci-fi juxtaposition the fake narrative of a french resistance cell in occupied europe is quite compelling on its own with janeway perfectly filling the humphrey bogart type role once again though it's the antagonists who steal the show while heroin culture is naturally brutal the heroin alpha car recognizing his people's obsession with the hunt is leading them to extinction earns him a lot of sympathy he's trying hard to preserve the heroin race while also trying to appease their need to hunt it's a conflict which simmers beneath the surface throughout the episode until it explodes in the climax heroine vying for power brainwashed voyager crew contending with freed crew a klingon brawl in the streets against nazi soldiers the artificiality of the holodeck being exposed to the simulated characters it's a finale which risks getting out of hand but it's a testament to the strong script that it all works together instead these elements build on one another and add to the excitement while i believe the heroine reached their peak in the killing game they would continue to appear in subsequent seasons and it was always great to see them something a bit more high concept though comes in the form of the episode living witness a backup copy of the doctor awakens 700 years in the future inside an alien museum which chronicles an encounter with voyager however in their misinterpretation of history the museum shows voyager as a warship which interfered with the conflict between the vascons and the kirians going so far as to commit genocide against kirians horrified by this false account the doctor endeavors to set the record straight the doctor is easily one of the most successful characters in voyager what i've always appreciated about his arc is how it's in many ways the complete opposite of commander data from the next generation while data struggled with understanding human emotions and social interactions he still enjoyed a recognized status as a sentient lifeform who the crew saw as a friend the doctor on the other hand displays a very human-like personality from the very beginning his irritable bedside manner softens over time as he begins to embrace life's pleasantries he quickly develops a passion for music art and literature with robert picardo's theater background being fully utilized for a number of musical scenes throughout the show yet despite all of this it takes quite a while for the voyager crew to fully recognize the doctor as being part of the crew for the first few years he is treated simply as a piece of technology with some crew members speaking about him as if he isn't there forgetting to deactivate him after leaving the room and even scoffing when he demands to be treated with more respect the addition of his mobile emitter freed him up even more to explore his burdening sentience and partly facilitated his acceptance as part of the voyager crew living witness cleverly utilizes his holographic status to transpose him into the future and showcases his full emotional range as he becomes outraged to see his friends and colleagues portrayed in such a distorted way that being said it's always fun to see the regular cast break type and their cartoonish evil counterparts inject a bit of fun into the episode however that sense of fun doesn't get in the way of the rich themes of the story this is about a society and culture grappling with a difficult history something very relevant to our own world in any time period as the doctor illustrates to the museum curator if a civilization is to evolve it must come to terms with the truth of its past the final twist is in itself a clever spin on this idea when it's revealed the events of the episode are themselves a reconstruction it raises quite a few questions for the audience was this account also distorted by a biased cultural lens whatever happened to this copy of the doctor's program living witness is a classic sci-fi tale and one which leaves the audience with a lot to think about [Music] for season 5 voyager had another change in showrunner much like michael piller jerry taylor had become quite exhausted after years of gruelling hard work and so decided to step down as showrunner and executive producer and retire from star trek remaining only as a creative consultant bran and braga having worked his way up the ranks since the next generation took over as showrunner of the series before production for the season began however a small fire broke out on the bridge set during a press event while robert picardo joked he started the fire with a discarded cigarette the cause of the fire was believed to be a faulty light bulb which blew out at the time rick berman was quite close to the fire as it started leading robert duncan mcneil to humorously remark that god's lightning had missed the executive producer season five saw the introduction of the delta flyer type shuttle making its debut in the episode extreme risk although the circumstances of its introduction are quite baffling as it was created to retrieve a stuck probe apparently it's more resource efficient to create an entirely new type of shuttle from scratch to retrieve the probe rather than simply build a new probe even so the delta flyer designed by production designer richard james and illustrator rick sternbach is a slick little ship which i've always liked i especially appreciate tom paris insisting on some joysticks and switches for controls as opposed to the usual touchscreen panels season 5 continues the stride started in season 4. the season is filled to the brim with classic star trek adventures the season also saw the introduction of another recurring antagonist faction in the melon not strictly violent or militant but rather the galactic garbage men of the universe dumping harmful waste wherever they can and not caring who gets hurt by it their design is quite memorable and once again it's their cultural perspective which often leads to clashes with voyager as opposed to them being inherently evil season 5 saw the series come up on its 100th episode which the writers wanted to make special in timeless 15 years in the future chicote and harry kim are the only survivors of the voyager crew having retrieved the doctor from the wreck of voyager they explained that 15 years prior voyager attempted to reach earth using an experimental slipstream drive the experiment failed and voyager ended up crashing on a desolate ice planet where the entire crew were killed save harry kim and shkote who were safe on the delta flyer determined to save their shipmates kim jokote and the doctor hatch a plan to use one of seven of nine's implants to send a signal back through time to change the outcome of the experiment and avert disaster something which the episode utilizes well is the character of harry kim unfortunately kim was mostly stuck in place throughout the show he begins as a naive young ensign fresh out of the academy and he essentially stays the same until the show's end while there are some solid kim-centric episodes this lack of development really damages the character overall garrett wong and the show's fans often championed kim getting a promotion but this request was always denied which gets quite ridiculous considering tom paris gets demoted to ensign and then promoted back to lieutenant within only two seasons while kim remains an ensign this is partly what makes timeless such an exciting episode as harry kim gets some honest-to-god development or rather we see a version of kim at the endpoint of a lot of rich development wong finally gets a chance to stretch his acting muscles with a more mature and weary harry kim but at the same time he's still the same frightened out of his depth ensign in many ways it's a performance which shows the potential of kim's character which was never capitalized on the plot is generally typical time travel fair by this point in star trek but even so the climax packs in a good bit of action and ticking clock tension it's a little frustrating to again see another temporal reset button but timeless at least succeeds in providing a tantalizing glimpse at what might have been with harry kim as a character some important developments in season 5 concern more encounters with the borg in episodes like dark frontier but rather than talk about dark frontier specifically i instead want to focus on the controversial use of the borg in voyager as a whole although scorpion is a brilliant borg episode on par with the best of both worlds in my opinion many have taken issue with the borg's subsequent appearances in the show as they effectively became voyager's primary villains this is certainly a difficult thing to pull off but not impossible after all the borg are excellent villains and have featured in many of star trek's best episodes however voyage's repeated use of them seemed to defang and demystify them quite a bit the borg had taken on entire fleets of starships in the alpha quadrant so what hope does a lone vessel have in surviving episodes like scorpion showed a clever way around this with the introduction of species 8472 as a greater threat but in dark frontier the borg truly start to make some baffling tactical blunders susanna thompson's performance as the boar queen is very good echoing some of alice krieg's work in first contact but giving the character her own unique flavor and while the queen in first contact showed a fondness for data and emotional reaction to picard this was always in service of the borg's larger goal yet in dark frontier the queen choosing not to reassimilate seven of nine rests on some truly head-scratching logic and janeway's later rescue really stretches believability the borg have been known to ignore those they don't consider an immediate threat yes but voyager as a series showed the borg queen fostering a personal vendetta against jadeway and the voyager crew so when such easy defeats like this are pulled off it comes off as quite contrived later borg episodes would also see the introduction of a group of borg children including ichev and the beginnings of a borg resistance in unimatrix zero a lot of this makes the borg feel a lot less of a major threat than they were in previous appearances while i wouldn't call voyager's outings with the board particularly bad or anything they are quite entertaining for the most part they do have the effect of diminishing the impact of the borg showing up again in future stories personally i think a better creative direction would have been more episodes like season three's unity and season six's survival instinct these are episodes which deal with the legacy of the borg the effect their reign of terror has had on the galaxy and the people who have been deeply hurt by their experiences with them these smaller more intimate stories utilize the audience's awareness of the borg but they deliver more emotionally impactful episodes i wouldn't go so far as saying voyager ruined the borg or anything but i do think the writers fell back on them as stock villains far too often and to the show's detriment a great non-borg story though comes in the form of the season 5 finale equinox voyager encounters another starfleet vessel marooned in the delta quadrant by the caretaker the nova class science ship uss equinox whose crew is under attack by vicious extra-dimensional creatures but as the voyager crew aid the equinox crew a dark secret is revealed as mentioned previously star trek voyager as a show missed a trick in not emphasizing well its own premise all too often voyager status as a starfleet vessel cut off from federation support doesn't have any significant effect on the actual episodes the ship often starts and end each episode fully operational with hardly any hint of supply problems and the crew for the most part behave as ordinary starfleet officers would equinox almost functions as a meta commentary on this creative blunder the equinox ship and crew serve as a dark reflection of voyager their ship is battered and beaten with low supplies and struggling desperately due to being cut off from the federation the crew maintain the general command structure of a starfleet crew but they also call each other by their first names and have a more tight-knit almost familial bond but obviously the biggest difference between the crews is highlighted when the secret of the equinox is revealed the crew using these alien creatures as a fuel source to reach home effectively murdering them on mass the reason this twist works so well is because it feels like the voyager crew could have gone down the same path as well had events transpired differently the equinox characters are generally well written especially captain ransom played by john savage although what the equinox crew have done is monstrous savage is so fantastic in his role he comes close to convincing the audience it had to be done as a companion show deep space nine was fond of pointing out it's easy to be a saint in paradise and although voyager was thrown into a desperate situation on paper the crew were lucky to be aboard a long-range tactical vessel which was well equipped to deal with their missions the equinox on the other hand is small slow and only lightly armed it's frankly a miracle they got beyond even the case on by this point in the show we've also seen the length janeway is willing to go to to get her crew home going so far as to make a deal with the borg for example it makes us as viewers wonder if janeway was in ransom's boots would she be capable of going down the same slippery slope of moral compromise the episode also makes clear that as soon as the equinox crew crossed that line no act was seemingly deemed off limits to assist in their journey home this is shown in several disturbing scenes where the doctor with his moral subroutine disabled goes about torturing seven of nine stimulating bizarre responses from her brain as if toying with a puppet these additional acts of cruelty is what makes the parallels between the equinox and voyager crews all the more disturbing the conflict between the two ships is ugly and brutal the difficult moral questions it raises for the audience and characters elevates the episode to match the lofty heights of deep space nine's great storytelling equinox is truly dark and dramatic and quite possibly the best episode of the entire series season six of star trek voyager coincided with the end of deep space nine making it the first stand-alone star trek show to air since the next generation's fifth season season six boasts a number of strong episodes such as the delightfully fun tinker tenor soldier spy and the action-packed dragon's teeth but easily the standout episode of the season is a blink of an eye inspired by robert l forward's book the dragon's egg blink of an eye sees voyager encounter a planet where time passes at an incredibly rapid rate with entire centuries occurring in a single day when voyager becomes trapped in the planet's orbit the ship becomes part of the evolving civilization's history star trek has done the prime directive story a number of times the dangers of exposing more primitive cultures to advanced technology but in blink of an eye the usual tension in that kind of plot is magnified many times voyager's presence isn't merely affecting a small group of characters but an entire civilization the premise which allows this to happen is wonderfully creative and the evolution of this alien world is very compelling to watch unfold the beliefs of cave-dwelling tribes are replaced by pre-industrial religions science soon takes its place with a space race of sorts to reach the fabled skyship the premise also engineers a truly intriguing threat surrounding the doctor in which he accidentally spends three years of his life on the planet and is implied to have taken a wife and even fathered a son i think it's a shame this isn't brought up again in the show after all by this point the doctor has only been around for about six years therefore this time he spent on the planet is a huge chunk of his life but in general the episode isn't concerned much with the main cast who take more of an observation role in the plot this is the story of this unique planet and its people ultimately the episode is about that quintessential star trek theme of coming together and enriching a society through exploration that pioneering spirit is perfectly embodied by daniel day kim as gatana rhetts the astronaut who ends up boarding voyager for the voyager crew this planet is a noteworthy scientific discovery but for rex and his people the events of the episode chronicle almost the entire history of his world it's an episode which serves almost as a thought experiment for the audience to ponder just how a world like this would function and how something as simple as a light in the sky can have such a profound effect on people the inventions the ships and indeed the wars inspired by a race simply looking up at the stars the poignancy of the episode is nicely summed up in its final scene where an elderly rat looks up one last time to see voyager's light fade from the sky forever sitting next to the same rock where tribes once offered fruit to a god rhett gazes out over the sprawling space age city which came about because of that beginning for such a scientifically minded plot the episode is surprisingly heartfelt with the viewer being instilled with a kind of affinity for the people of this strange world as season seven began the creative team behind the show felt it was right to end the show after seven years matching the length of the next generation on deep space nine however for its final year yet another change in showrunner occurred brannon braga left the position in order to work with rick berman on the creation of what would become star trek enterprise writer producer kenneth biller took over as show runner for the final season season seven is a solid enough with plenty of good episodes but like the final year of the next generation it feels a bit too much like business as usual this is with the exception of the departure of nelix in the penultimate episode although the character was often inconsistently written and disliked by many fans his goodbye in homestead is very touching another thread which feels appropriate for the final season is the romance between tom paris and bolana torres coming to fruition in a marriage the romance between these characters was clear from early on in the show and provided solid material for the actors to grapple with tom paris has a pretty well-crafted redemption arc over the course of the series going from a starfleet academy dropout to flunking out of the marquee is a pretty terrible place for anyone to find themselves in but as voyager went on paris found his worth again as the ship's ace helmsman although the cowboy-esque swagger came across as a little cringe-worthy at times robert duncan mcneil gave a solid overall performance as the character bollana torres is unfortunately not quite as successful on paper there's a lot for the character to work with and there are a healthy amount of good bologna centric episodes such as prototype and dreadnought but quite irritatingly most of the ballanocentric episodes are about the exact same thing which is torres struggling with her klingon heritage now there's nothing wrong with this on paper but voyager's reliance on episodic storytelling made these types of stories feel very redundant because of the show's tendency to wrap things up by the end of each standalone story whenever this element of torrez's character once again became the focus of an episode it just felt as if the character was running in place at times this hurt the developing romance between torres and paris while there is an undeniable chemistry between the actors and their characters sometimes the drama did feel a little soap opera-esque that being said in general the romance was successful as work on season seven began rick berman kenneth biller and brannon braga already started developing ideas for the all-important final episode of the series and resolving the question of if voyager would succeed in returning home the writers had always intended on having voyager succeed in its mission but when and how were the lingering questions they knew they wanted the borg to feature in the finale as they had become voyager's nemesis and rick berman suggested using time travel in some way while writing for this episode began a number of cast members also had input out of the fates of their characters kate mulgrew with some significant fan support championed the idea of janeway going down with her ship at the end of the show various ideas were batted about during the writing for the seventh season eventually after over a month of work the team had settled on a script for the last episode of star trek voyager titled endgame several decades after voyager made its triumphant return to earth and now admiral janeway is haunted by the loss of seven of nine some years prior and tuvok now suffering from a degenerative disease too far along to cure determined to get things right she endeavors to travel back in time to her younger self and return voyager home early to ensure her crew's survival one thing i do like about this final episode is the way it plays with audience expectations the writers know the audience is expecting a triumphant return to earth but rather than just delivering that straight we're given a more complicated plot anchored on janeway as a character back in the present timeline though a truly baffling creative decision is a sudden romance between seven of nine and jakote while this was briefly touched on in the episode human error the writers actually following through with this relationship is truly bizarre of all the characters seven could have had a romantic relationship with jakote is the one which makes the least sense throughout the show sevens most involved relationships had been with janeway tuvok and the doctor any one of these options would have made for a far better romantic partner than djokote who rarely interacted with seven as anything more than a colleague the character of chicate in general is easily one of the weakest of the main cast robert beltran was famously critical of the show's writing in fact belgium went so far as to try and get himself fired from the show on several occasions by demanding what he believed to be outrageously high salary demands for new seasons to his surprise though the studio kept meeting his demands and so he remained on the show this contempt for the material though is definitely evident in beltran's performance he's certainly a capable actor and has delivered good performances in his career but unfortunately voyager isn't really one of them it's not that chicote as a character is badly written in fact in many episodes he's used very well but beltran's performance was just generally very bland and disinterested this is part of what makes the seven chicote romance fall so flat i have no doubt jerry ryan and robert beltran go along well behind the scenes but there's simply no on-screen chemistry between the actors my issues with the bollana and tom paris relationship aside at least there was a clear connection between the two the same cannot be said for seven and chicote and introducing this relationship in the final episode where it has no room to develop compounds the confusion where end game does succeed though is in creating another moral dilemma for janeway to tackle echoing the original dilemma and caretaker janeway has the option of using a borg transwarp hub to finally reach home or remain in the delta quadrant but destroy the hub dealing a crippling blow to the borg it's a dilemma which actually works a lot better than the ocampo kaizon conflict from caretaker this time we fully understand the threat posed by the borg and the civilizations which would be saved by voyager remaining in the delta quadrant in a touching briefing room scene the episode does a fantastic job of actually making the audience think voyager won't reach home in a moving monologue from harry kim who has been one of the most eager characters to get back to earth he outlines the classic sentiment of it's about the journey not the destination in a sincere way ultimately however i feel like the actual resolution is just too easy thanks to admiral janeway upgrading voyager's weapons and defenses the ship manages to make it to the transwarp hub to execute its plan comfortably fending off the attacking borg ships while it does make sense logically i feel like the episode would be more of an event if voyager and its crew were put at more risk and the situation was more desperate that being said the climax is elevated thanks to the final confrontation between janeway and the borg queen here once again played by alice krieger due to susanna thompson having scheduling conflicts true to kate mulgre's desire for a self-sacrifice admiral janeway using herself to deliver a devastating neural virus into the board collective is a real punch the air moment of victory and although the final action set piece could have been more thrilling actually seeing voyager return to earth after all those years does manage to satisfy welcome back it's good to be here how did you it'll all be in my report sir i look forward to it thanks for your help in the end while end game is a decent episode overall i feel it falls short of the spectacular finales of the next generation and deep space nine which in a way is a sentiment which summarizes my thoughts on the series as a whole star trek voyager is a good show and solid star trek entertainment but it undeniably missed out on some rich storytelling opportunities too often the show played things safe by avoiding more serialized elements and not fully committing to the potential of its premise that being said voyager also showcases star trek at its best on many occasions despite the mixed bag of a cast captain janeway tuvok the doctor and seven of nine are easily some of the best characters ever created for the franchise despite the reliance on episodic storytelling many of those standalone stories were incredibly imaginative thought-provoking and moving star trek voyager was actually the very first star trek show that i watched with my family in order from beginning to end and because of that i've always had a soft spot for it there's a comfortable feeling inherent within voyager the familial bond between the characters the sweeping iconic main theme and the total embodiment of the star trek spirit in general could it have been better yes but that doesn't make the show anything near a total loss across its seven years voyager is another set of very enjoyable outer space adventures while it could have been more than this for what it was able to accomplish star trek voyager is a show i can never hate although the journey is certainly rocky it's also one that's very much worth taking [Music] although star trek voyager was another solid entry in the franchise despite its flaws on the big screen things were about to take a turn so [Music] thank you for watching if you like these videos subscribe and hit the bell icon to stay up to date on my new uploads if you want to help the channel grow join my patrons or my youtube members where you can see videos early as well as some other exclusive content speaking of which i'd like to quickly thank all of my patrons and members who are now appearing on screen have a good one and as always live long and prosper you

Channel: Rowan J Coleman

Views: 326,517

Keywords: star trek, star trek voyager, star trek voyager retrospective review, star trek voyager review, star trek voyager series review, star trek deep space nine, star trek the next generation, star trek the original series, star trek enterprise, star trek discovery, spacedock, generation films, trek culture, star trek retrospective, star trek retrospective part 12, rowan j coleman

Id: h8lNTPXE6s4

Length: 92min 42sec (5562 seconds)

Published: Thu Sep 30 2021

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[u/spiceelilith]

I personally think Jerry Goldsmiths theme for Voyager as his ultimate best work.