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Star Trek: Voyager

“Vis A Vis”

Air date: 4/8/1998 Written by Robert J. Doherty Directed by Jesus Salvador Trevino

Review by Jamahl Epsicokhan

"Are you intoxicated?" "No, not at all. I was just exploring the replicator." — Seven and "Paris"; the latter perhaps using a 24th-century drunk's denial

Review Text

Nutshell: Fairly dull. The plot chews its way through an hour, but barely.

"Vis A Vis" is the epitome of Voyager mediocrity. It puts a 100 percent typical Voyager spin on an established storytelling device, moving through the plot with no real tension. There are some amusing lines and a couple interesting moments, but the show pretty much left me feeling that I'd seen another Voyager episode come and go—and nothing more. It was competently executed, I suppose, but that's probably the biggest tribute I can give it. When the credits rolled, I just sat on my couch and shrugged.

Okay, raise your hand if you didn't see this as Face/Off adapted to Voyager . That's funny—my hand is in the air. Why? Because Face/Off benefited from some emotional weight under its high-concept premise. The characters who switched identities in that film were forced to wrestle with the extreme and often terrifying consequences of accepting that identity. They found themselves inside the lives of other people and had to cope with troubling personal situations.

Voyager 's take on this idea, on the other hand, is incredibly obvious—and incredibly glib. The premise isn't anything more than a means to drive an hour-long plot. And the plot is laid out ever-so-routinely on the ground such that it's like a trail of bread crumbs leading to its pedestrian finale. Follow it from point A to point B to point C, and you realize you're essentially being led down an obvious path to a payoff that has nothing to say. It's just another silly adventure, like much of this season of Voyager has been ... except that this time its characterizations are far too thin to allow the adventure to be much more than an exercise.

The plot brings this week's alien, named Steth (Dan Butler), into a tolerable but rather brainless story. Steth is something of a lone daredevil, always looking for something new in his life. He pilots an experimental ship that utilizes a technology called "coaxial warp," a means of travel that is incredibly fast—something Starfleet had apparently considered in theory but abandoned when it couldn't be made to work in practice.

The story's setup documents Steth's encounter with Voyager , who rescues him when his ship fails during an experimental test flight. With the help of expert pilot (and apparently newly skilled engine mechanic) Tom Paris, Steth works on repairing the coaxial drive. Paris takes a liking to Steth, in whom he sees part of himself—an adventurer and a risk-taker, always on the lookout for something new.

One of the big problems with "Vis A Vis," however, is the way Paris' character is utilized. Sure, we know him as the adventurous type, but there are character scenes in this episode that seem to have been scripted out of nowhere, covering ground that has been well traveled in the past. Suddenly, Paris has grown tired of his "boring, settled life" (though by the end of the episode, of course, he comes to grips with it), and he yearns for a change of pace.

I appreciated that Robert Duncan McNeill downplayed the obvious intentions of his character arc (indeed, his restraint manages to save the entire sentiment), but the story's notion is so blatant yet so ponderously conjured that it feels forced, as if the writers decided, "Hey, we need a Paris show, so let's make him bored of life on Voyager ." It pains me that every Paris-heavy character analysis seems to deal with the same theme of "comparing where Paris' life was before he was part of the Voyager crew and where it is now" (including, yes, that horrendous installment known as " Threshold ," as well as more recently in " Hunters "). And the resolution always comes out to be the same. You'd think by now the writers would have moved on, but instead we get yet another rehash. It's not bad writing, per se, but it's several steps shy of good, and given the "been there, done that" nature of it all, it's a perfect example of, well, Voyager mediocrity.

Then there's the early scene in the mess hall with Tom and B'Elanna, which simply had me scratching my head in confusion. B'Elanna was extremely cool-headed and reasonable about Tom being late for their dinner. Yet everything she says here is answered with Tom's wrong-headed histrionics. Why? To create a forced conflict between them that could be happily swept into oblivion by the final scene? If the reasons for his bad attitude had been supplied before the end of the show I might've been more receptive to it, but the reasoning was merely weak and arbitrary, if not nonexistent; the extremity of Tom's impatience just didn't make any sense.

But never mind. Plot is given the priority here more often than not, and as I was saying before: Face/Off . The gimmick of the week is that Steth is really a unique form-changing alien who can "overwrite" a person's DNA, taking a victim's body in exchange for his own. Boy, am I tired of "DNA can do anything" premises. It's a tribute to Robert J. Doherty, who wrote the episode, that he manages to keep the technobabble explanations to a minimum. Personally, I'd be content with no explanation, because sci-fi can sometimes be most convincing when the unknown is left to the viewer's imagination. But you know Voyager ; they're never content to do anything without some sort of explanation, plausible or otherwise.

Anyway, I'm not all that concerned with "DNA overwrites" or "coaxial warp drives"; what makes "Vis A Vis" so bland is that the swapped-identity story is put to surprisingly little imaginative use. It's mostly reduced to stock clichés. Once Steth steals Paris' body and assumes his role on Voyager —leaving the real Paris behind, stranded on the coaxial vessel with no one aboard Voyager the wiser—the story becomes conventional and predictable. We have scenes of "Steth" wandering the ship—although it seemed he knew where to go and what to say far more often than he should've. We have the obligatory scene where "Steth" seduces B'Elanna—which is neither believable nor interesting, and doesn't come back to mean anything whatsoever later in the story. And, of course, there's "Steth's" improvisation when he's close to being found out; in a reasonably and deceptively executed scene, he switches Paris' body with the captain's.

But there's just no substance here. The story brings no attitude to the material; it just drops it in the audience's lap. There are no characters pondering their fates. No real consequences of Steth or Paris being genuinely confused or out of their element—except maybe for extremely brief moments where the real Paris realizes what has happened, and mentions to another alien who is in a similar dilemma (Elizabeth McGlynn), how much he wants to be back in his own body.

The story misses its biggest opportunity by keeping Janeway, who has been transferred into Paris' body, unconscious (and therefore out of the story) until after the alien body-switcher has been captured and everyone has been magically returned to their own bodies. Can you imagine the acting possibilities of McNeill playing Kathryn Janeway? That alone would probably have been more interesting than anything else in this episode.

The one saving grace in "Vis A Vis" is the use of subtle, effective comedy. There's one reasonably amusing scene of "Steth" looking for sickbay, as well as some good lines when he interacts with the Doctor and when he has a brief conflict with Seven of Nine (while slightly intoxicated). But most of it is depressingly by the numbers. After a mundane ending sequence that is terribly anticlimactic, the whole episode seems to write itself off as trite little lesson for Tom Paris: He should've spent more time with B'Elanna rather than working on his holographic 1969 Chevrolet Camaro. Only on Star Trek: Voyager will you get a lesson like that.

Next week: UPN has gotten in an awfully bad habit of showing promos for shows that aren't Voyager (Love Boat: The Next Wave, starring Spencer For Hire? Please. When will it end?), so I'm not exactly sure. I think it has something to do with the Voyager computer going on the fritz.

Previous episode: The Killing Game Next episode: The Omega Directive

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Comment Section

84 comments on this post.

That alien guy was a good actor, he really made me think he was Paris

I liked the way the alien was thrown for a loop when the Doctor suddenly summoned him for duty in the sick-bay. Obviously, this is one minor aspect of life aboard Voyager which Paris never let him in on.

Ken Egervari

I agree with this review. The part that annoyed me the most was that tom suddenly needs a change of pace. It just comes out of nowhere. And yes, all the conflicts from that are forced... and we don't get a satisfying resolution to it all at the end. It's horrible. The show would have been good if we had reasons for these behaviours. It would have been better if Tom had been acting this way for a few episodes prior at least. Although the thought of that sounds like a ripoff of when he already did that in season 2 to go undercover. Which I guess leads me to your next point - this all covered ground. It sure is at that. It's episodes like this that make Voyager the sucky series it is/was. I don't care about the face off plot device. For me, any well-written character story can work well if they do it properly. This show demonstrates them doing everything horribly wrong. The only thing I'd change in your review is to give it 1 star. It's not even worth 2.

*sigh* Well, I knew what caliber this episode was going to be the minute the opening scene had Paris tinkering with an ancient automobile in a 1950s U.S. setting. I mean, there is a HUGE number of present-day astronauts with an interest in the 17th century who would know how to shoot a bow and arrow or how to shoe a horse, so it stands to reason that there would be one in the 24th century with an interest in 20th-century American cars. Lame and unimagiative beyond belief. Voyager really sucks ass...

Paris: An explosion will obliterate everything within a billion kilometers. Acushla moya: Can we beam the pilot out? Harry "Who?" Kim: Too much interference. (

Paris: An explosion will obliterate everything within a billion kilometers. Acushla moya: Can we beam the pilot out? Harry "Who?" Kim: Too much interference. (== There's a shocker! Did this guy ever manage to beam ANYTHING ANYWHERE?!?) Paris: The coaxical core is breaching. Tuvok: We should vacate this area of space at once. Paris: We can't just leave him like this! So, according to Paris, saving one - potentially hostile - individual's life justifies endangering the lives of 150 (or however many crew members Voyager was down to by this point). Who writes this stuff!?!

Gotta love this series' complete disregard for continuity. Paris: The worst thing we've treated lately has been an ingrown toenail. Me: WHAT? Don't you remember that just LAST WEEK the entire crew was brutalized by the Hirogen? And an honorable mention to the stupid line of the week: Paris: Looks like a coaxial warp drive. Chakotay: Coaxial what? I can understand stumbling over "Coaxial", but come on, Chakotay, "warp drive"?

SO is that forehead business like a second nose?

Nic - "last week" to you might be weeks or months on the show - not that hard to figure out, really.

For a admittedly mediocre episode, it's still fun to watch. A couple of random thoughts: That was a truly bitchen Camaro. The Benthan ships were equally bitchen. These were still the early days of CGI being regularly used on Trek shows and it's fun watching the technology progress as I rewatch the series. I wonder what happened to Tom's credit rating after he had his identity stolen. Roxann Dawson was so obviously preggers that they all but stopped trying to hide it. I don't get why shows always try to hide pregnancies. Why didn't they just write it in that B'Elanna gets knocked up by Tom? They're such a great couple and it would have been fun if they'd had a shotgun wedding.

Regarding Tom's function as Doctor's assistant... I never found it particularly convincing. Out of so many science personnel (blue uniforms), the ship's pilot has to be the Doctor's assistant? Hmm... Well, of course, Robert Duncan McNeill was among the main cast and that's certainly one of the reasons for this, but it wasn't quite convincing, especially considering the fact that there are other crew members aboard who are possibly more suited for the job. If they had approached it more logically, and less practically, there would have been at least one or two assistants from the science division, i.e. those in blue uniforms, which we know there are plenty of on Voyager (among the initial 150 crew members), who would either permanently or temporarily provide assistance to the Doctor. Nevertheless, it was sometimes quite entertaining to see Tom in a situation where he is forced to be Doc's nurse and be bossed around by him. :)

This episode didn't make any sense. At first the Bad Guy was a shape shifter. Then he was a body snatcher? I simply couldn't tell what was supposed to be happening. Early in the episode the body that Tom ended up in kept morphing into the body of the female alien that showed up later. But why? That female body was obviously elsewhere in the cosmos with another person in it. So confusing. And, yeah. Could the results be any less interesting? Usually body switching stories have funny consequences. NOTHING interesting happened in this episode at all. I was really struck with how poorly the alien handled being in Paris' body. You'd think that if he had been doing this trick for some time, he could have been less of a doofus at it. How far did he think he was going to get trying to be the pilot of a huge starship like that?

Woah, take it easy on the Voyager hate fest! Sure, this wasn't pure gold, but neither was TNG or DS9 in every single episode. Tom's "sudden" existential crisis does have some background history in the character. Just because it's not "subtly" hinted at over 10 previous episodes doesn't mean it's not there. And as for his interest in 20th Century cars, what, he has to be interested in something more high brow? Russian literature? Renaissance art perhaps? Leonardo Da Vinci like Janeway? Come on, we all have our interests... for example commenting on Star Trek pages from over a decade ago. As for the story and the alien, well, not ground-breaking, but it did explore some interactions between characters, and as I said, not every episode can (or should) be pure gold.

@T'Paul: Paris's interest in 20th-century trivia is, from the 24th-century perspective, risible. It has nothing to do with being high-brow; it's to do with sheer probability. Imagine a N.A.S.A. astronaut of today being a votary of 16th-century embroidery, to the point that he/she would be able to knock off a delicate lace tablecloth using the pattern unique to a mountain village in the Catalan region of Spain. Likely? Yeah. Right. It's nothing but utter laziness on the scriptwriters' part. Because, naturally, if Paris's interests lay in something out of the, say, 22nd century, they'd need to use a lot more imagination to figure out what it is and how it might work. This way all they have to do is haul into the studio some old banger from the parking lot and smear some grease on Paris's hands and clothes. How novel... I'll also make another, tangential, observation. You seem to have a chip the size of a hubcap on your shoulder. Let me clue you in on a couple of things. Firstly, this is not the website of Amnesty International. Secondly, just because people don't see things your way does not make them cryptofascists who latently condone racism, rape, bullying, etc. You need to chill and take a break from you "struggle" a la Che Guevara... - that is SO last century. :)

Maybe if the astronaut was descended from people from that mountain village... Plus we know Paris is a pilot, and cars aren't too far removed as an interest from shuttlecraft... I think a better analogy would be would an astronaut being interested in ancient theories about space or space travel, or even early aircraft? And I think the answer would be yes. As for the chip on my shoulder... well, we all have a range of opinions, which we debate... no one needs to swallow mine if they don't want to, and neither are they fascists if they don't agree with me, I don't recall suggesting that. I try not to directly criticize people for their opinions unless I feel they need a civil rebuttal. But I do feel honoured to have caught Michael's attention ;)

Wow. This was not very good. I think two stars was being generous. Not only have we seen the body-stealing plot a thousand times before, this wasn't even an interesting version of it. Paris was unbearable in this episode (as himself and the imposter) and Torres should have known that wasn't him in the first five minutes. Which brings me to how dumb the alien is--he steals the body of a guy he barely knows and proceeds to act in the most suspicious manner possible, getting caught within a day. Oh, and let's not forget: Fun With DNA (TM). And then there's Michael's point about Paris risking the ship and the lives of the entire crew to help one alien life form, which was badly written to boot. On the bright side, Dan Butler did a great job and the alien woman was played by Mary Elizabeth McGlynn, a great actress and singer. She's on a lot of the Silent Hill soundtracks. :D

The plot is poor. In fact Paris' need for a change of pace was too sudden, flat and lazy writing. As lazy was the how idea of changing bodies as a way to see some fake character conflict. Not to mention that once again, the security measures of Voyager are worth nothing. The alien can so easily access the central computer and a lot of bio info on Paris. Pathetic. Oh, in a last note, the first scene of the alien-Paris and The Doc shows again that he is not very good in psychology...

My main pleasure from this episode was recognising the alien as Bulldog in Frasier.

As mentioned above several times, the main thing with this one was Paris' sudden need for a change of pace. I did keep waiting for him to actually blurt out 'Damn it, I'm a Pilot, not a doctor' as the reason for keeping Voyager's top pilot on double duties seems farfetched when they should need him with a clear head at the helm when he actually has to work.

I'm never really fond of shapeshifting stories. One of my least favorite Trek tropes. This one was extremely transparent about it too. No mystery, no suspense, no surprises. We know exactly where the alien is, where his victims are and what's going on. If they're going to do shapeshifting/bodyswitching, I'd like to at least be kept in the dark about who is who for most of the episode. But it seems this episode wanted to focus more on Tom's position and newfound life on Voyager and his relationship with B'elanna then the actual shapeshifting thing. Which would be fine, were it not for one thing. There's nothing to tell! Tom's life on Voyager is fine. He's doing great. He's being responsible, has a steady relationship and gets on well with everyone aboard. What's there to focus on? The fact that he suddenly gets bored of his life? Give me a break. Nothing even changes. Tom doesn't gain a newfound respect for his life of routine and stability on Voyager because he never lost it to begin with. Tom is a little bit restless so an alien takes over his body and runs amok with it for a little while until the he and the crew sort everything out and things go back to normal. Big whoop. Who knew Tom could be just as boring as Harry?

John C. Worsley

No one has pointed out the glaring oversight that Tom managed to stabilize the "coaxial warp drive" technology, which could obviously get the ship home considerably faster, was never discussed again. Also, our body-shifting alien uses his not inconsiderable powers to... woo B'Elanna and get drunk. Think Big, Buddy.

No arguments from me. Like basically everyone else, I thought this episode was weak to say the least, and there's not much point in commenting on it in itself. Instead, I want to focus on Paris. While this has easily been Voyager's best season so far, it's probably the weakest season for Tom. I don't know, maybe Dawson's pregnancy threw the writers for a loop and they couldn't focus on the Paris/Torres romance, so maybe they didn't know what to do with him as a substitute plan. Maybe Seven's presence (and perhaps efforts to focus on Harry Kim) sucked all the oxygen out of the room. Regardless, Tom has had zero character growth this year (other than starting his relationship), and in fact has devolved far too much. He used to be quite competent and showing himself to be a changed man; all he does these days is make random quips on the bridge. And then, when we finally got a chance to give him a day in the limelight, the characterization is all wrong. Tell me, when first started dating someone, would that be the time to start feeling restless and distant? Would that be the time to retreat into your own little world and hobbies? Wouldn't this be the honeymoon phase of the relationship? If you saw someone who's been in a relationship for a few months act like this, you would assume that the relationship was headed for disaster. Yet we know this relationship lasted. And there was no indication that their relationship was rocky before this episode. In other words, this episode was an aberration. Even more so was his anxiety to get away from Voyager. Time and again, this show has reinforced the idea that Voyager is the best thing to ever happen to Tom. It allowed him to break free of his past and regain his stature as an actual upstanding member of society. That Tom likes his place on Voyager was even a big part of the "getting in contact with the Federation" storyline. So now he doesn't want to be on Voyager? I don't think so. Now, in fairness, maybe this was just an idle fantasy on Paris' part, and that's reasonable. Certainly people have these fantasies, even people who like their jobs. And in fairness, Paris lived a lot of his life as a rogue, so certainly there is some part of himself that misses it. But, well, those are usually idle fantasies. Is it really worth it to have an entire freaking episode, the only one that focuses on Paris this entire year, to show that sometimes he daydreams of getting away? How is that worth an episode? Frankly, none of Paris' actions this episode made much sense given his larger character arc. OK, so I said I didn't want to comment on the episode itself, but, um, let's say you were a shapeshifting freewheeler who likes fast cars and living life on your own. If that's the case, would you really want to go steal the identity of a soldier and go into the military? Isn't that the opposite of being a freewheeler? Geez, what a maroon.

Diamond Dave

Like London buses, it seems that you wait for ages and then two clunkers come at once. I agree that this fails largely because Tom's existential angst at the beginning doesn't seem organic and just sits as a plot device so that he is not acting noticeably differently when his body is taken over. The performance is not entirely compelling either - indeed Bulldog (sorry, but that threw me completely out of the episode every time he was on screen!) as Tom was a much more accurate performance it seemed. Otherwise there was no real sense of peril, the misdirection to Janeway was about as clumsy as they get, and even the laughs weren't too special. 1.5 stars.

I caught this one the other night just to post this little tidbit. Not all thaaaaaaat bad... Nothing great either. Jammer said it all. Darn, I could have spared myself and just wrote this without watching it :-) I'll go a little higher than Jammer with a 2.5 stars.

Tom Paris love of cars is not scripted from nowhere, as Jammer mentions. Tom was thrilled when he got to inspect the old Ford truck drifting in space in season two episode the 37's. Also the Doctor's romantic scene with Denara in season two's Lifesigns in a '57 Chevy was Tom's idea.

Tom is also an old salt. He's the Swiss Army Knife of Vger.

This was so oddly written. Advanced Subspace Geometry is the ONE course Tom paid attention to? Why that one? Was there a hot teacher? Then they meet an alien whose ship is damaged. Knowing nothing about the guy, they immediately beam him aboard Voyager, despite the fact that it was HIS ship that needs repair, so why does he need to be on Voyager? The repairs are going to take place on his ship. Tom gets sent over despite not being an engineer. Just because he asked. That's after a bizarre exchange between him and Chakotay where Tom asks to go to the alien ship, then Chakotay dresses him down for neglecting his sickbay duties, so Tom requests to go to sickbay, so Chakotay denies the request and sends him to the alien ship. ????? Then we get a dose of Tom's Relationship Problems. Then the guy alien starts turning back into a girl. Sex change gone wrong? Eventually it turns into a body swap episode. How does some random alien plan to pass himself off as a Starfleet officer? He doesn't, and it's all downhill from there. When I hear "coaxial warp drive," I think of a coaxial cable. It somehow seems so analog.

Repulsive! B'Lenna was raped! No big deal.....? Repulsive!!!!! (-*****************)

I thought voyager would have a lot of male bashing but apart from the 2nd episode There hasn't been any of that. But this episode contains something even worse. It's misogyny at it's worst. "Hey I just got raped by a guy who looked just like you. Let's make out in the back of a Camaro." WHAT??????????????????!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

@mephyve: Dude or dudette: CHILL. If you want to post S.J.W. rants, take it to Tumblr.

@ Michael He / She / It has been posting a ton of nonsense on this site over the past week+, I wouldn't hold my breath if I were you!

At the beginning of the episode, did anyone else notice that the Doctor commented on the "medieval safety constraints" (seat belts) of Tom's car, yet Voyager itself (and it's shuttles) lack any sort of safety/restraining devices? You'd think with their technology they'd have developed some sort of high tech collision safety system to stop bridge personnel from being catapulted out of their seats every battle.

@Michael & @Del_Duio - actually I think Mephyve makes a valid point. I would have expected B'elanna to express something over the fact that she got with the alien. Also, what's with the line from the captains log: "The doctor has found a way to return Tom, Steth and me to our own bodies". I would have preferred to hear that they had convinced the alien to switch back, but instead it's just sick bay magic. Strange. Otherwise a passable episode.

Um....seriously, this episode was terrible. Like nothing really happened and so many glaring oversights! Let's introduce some crazy theoretical technology that Tom knew about beforehand that could theoretically get them home faster and never think once before to say maybe we could try this in the 4 years of the series? Then let's introduce this technology get it working on a shuttle and never used or mention this technology ever again in the series? Hello? Are we not trying to get home???? Also, did the alien not have an opportunity to assume Seven's body? He did grab her arm. Why not assume the body of the enhanced woman? Or for that matter B'Elanna? Speaking of B'Elanna IS no one else concerned that B'Elanna had sex with the alien? No consequences?

I though they only had synthehol in the future? How is Tom getting drunk? B'Elanna's violation by the alien was very conveniently ignored. No biggie for the writers, apparently. Agree with @Broadlake re seatbelts on shuttles and the bridge. Not to mention, maybe a fusebox so the panels don't explode.

So a few episodes ago, most of the crew was getting letters from home. Paris hadn’t gotten such a letter and if he would get one, he wasn’t sure it’d be something he’d want to read. So maybe he had that in his head and it affected him. But even given that, this episode wasn’t at all compelling. There wasn’t even good techno-babble. And the alien may have also been a pilot, but didn’t Paris have to log into the computer with his own password at some point? How would the alien know that? And it doesn’t even matter. Time’s up, episode’s over. Doc’s fixes all off-camera and the reset button is hit. Hopefully we’re due for a better episode soon. But I’ve got to agree with whoever about the comment about Paris’ duties in sickbay. It was one thing when he helped out because he had some basic first-aid knowledge. But the stuff Doc wants to teach now, I have to believe there’d be a better candidate than the ace pilot of the ship.

Every time they said Coaxial Warp Drive was overloading or charging or whatever, I kept saying in my head, "Well, just unplug it!"

This is how I believe the pitch went for this episode. "Guys, I have a great new idea for an episode: Picture this: it's Tom and Bulldog from Frasier, right, two bros working on mechanics together, bro-ing out for the first three quarters of the episode. Tom is getting really angsty with B'Elanna (uh oh, trouble in paradise, am I right!!), but he's not really telling her why, nor he is talking about it with his new bro, either. He won't confide in anyone, so the audience to say, "I should stay tuned to find out what's happening with Tom!" Of course, we won't get too 'in depth' with this, because it's boring and sad feelings would make the audience sad, so we will make sure to interrupt any moments of personal reflection with some unrelated shenanigans. The ironic thing is, ok, get this, Tom doesn't want to be tied down to a settled life, even though he is on the other side of the galaxy running into new and life-threatening adventures every week! Get it?! So Bulldog is a body snatcher, right. He hops from body to body, but he is also doing the hopping really often, like every few days. He's not even in the new body long enough to do anything interesting with it, before he ditches it for the next body! Because get this, he has DELTA ADHD! But even though he ditched some chick's body at the last stop he made, he keeps transforming into this chick by accident and trying to hide it from Tom. We obviously won't have the time to explain why this is happening, but it will make the viewers go, 'hey, what's going on around here?' and that means they won't change the channel. Genius, right?! Then Bulldog steals Tom's body and keeps angsting out, in the same way Tom was before, only slightly more exaggerated. Chilling! In the end, when the crew finds out what's going on and catches Bulldog, he will have nothing to say for himself. He won't say, "I did it because of blank," or "I care about blank" or "I've always wanted to blank someone else's girlfriend while I was in their body." No, he just shuts up and is quietly led away by authorities. And you know why? Because the episode was really about Tom and how much he has learned to appreciate B'Elanna. Awww!! Good, right?!"

Can't really find anything positive to say about this episode. It was boring, predictable, and if was meant to be some kind of character expose for Paris, it didn't work since we're back at Square 1. Yes, Paris used to be rough around the edges but he's come around and the issue at the start of the episode with not doing the medical training never is resolved. What is the issue? Also, I don't know how Voyager can just meet an alien (Steth) and allow him to wander around the ship, just get all kinds of help from Paris without doing any kind of background checking on him -- maybe they found nothing, but it seemed rather sloppy of the Voyager crew to not have any kind of suspicion. It's pretty obvious the whole time Steth is planning some kind of nonsense. The episode was loaded with stupid technobabble and the whole DNA switching thing was silly. Steth is annoying -- not sure what he really wants to do. Part of him envies Paris' life but then gets frustrated with it. The interactions between Paris and B'Elanna were forgettable, forced, poorly acted and in the end meaningless. The ending with the shuttle craft scene and how it gets disabled didn't make a lot of sense to me. If it was a Voyager shuttle, how could it do the coaxial warp thing before getting disabled? It was just disappointing every step of the way for me. I'd rate "Vis a Vis" 1 star. Really a forgettable episode, an hour I won't get back.

Prince of Space

Oh man, I love Jammer's site. Commenting on reviews written a decade ago but with the enthusiasm of fresh off the stove. I periodically do a binge-watch of Star Trek on Netflix, and am now slogging through my 2nd run through of Voyager. I've enjoyed almost all the episodes, even the dumb ones (and there have been plenty. haha) I think the difference is between those who watch with a critical eye, and those that watch to be entertained. I like to think I'm smarter than the average bear, but I have no problem firing up Netflix and hitting play on the next Voyager episode and turning off most of my critical thinking and just enjoying a group of people I am fond of going through some adventures. Now don't get me wrong, I still chuckle or holler out at the really silly stuff. I was screaming that Voyager musta left Spacedock with more shuttles than crew members when most of you all were still crying over Tasha Yar's sad, sad demise. But anyways... I have a routine, now, when I watch these ST shows binge-style: watch the episode, read Jammer's review and all the comments, then read Memory Alpha's behind the scenes stuff, then watch the next episode and repeat. Of course, once I hit season 4 of Voyager I also have to start reading the Cynic's Corner reviews of Voyager, as well. (And seasons 6 and 7 of DS9). You think Jammer can be harsh... hahaha... Jammer is Neelix on laughing gas compared to the Cynic's Corner reviews. Last, but not least, I love the comment section here at Jammer's cause you'll see people replying to stuff from years earlier. Sometimes, those people respond back and it's like, "Wha?? You checking the comments every week for years to see if you got a reply??" Who knows... maybe they do. Overly critical Trekkies can be weird. Oh yeah, to CinYin up there... howdy. Nice post, kinda amusing. Well written, and good use of sarcasm. I have to give it at least 3 stars. I look forward to you maybe one day responding, say by 2019. And by then I'll be back around to my binge watching routine and will see this and it'll be like using the Hirogen communication relay to myself. Awsome.

Alisha Hird

I completely understand the general consensus about this episode in regards to its anticlimactic and re-used Paris plots, and I can also see that this episode had a lot of potential, which is unfortunate that it did not explore more. Especially B'elanna and Toms relationship, there could have been a far better conclusion to the episode with far more emotion and meaning than "I should have spent more time with you than in the garage" between them both. What I always took from this episode was that Tom was suffering from depression, I don't believe it is a stretch in explaining Tom's out-of-character behaviour and attitude; missing meetings/duties, arguing/short temper, over emotional, feeling persecuted by B'elanna and Chakotay and the Doctor, focus on the negatives more than the positive (such as working in sickbay), dissatisfaction with life generally etc, which were quite obvious to me throughout the episode. For whatever reason, whether it is neurochemical, emotional, or more specifically the routine of life on Voyager (which kinda contradicts Message in a Bottle where Tom says how much he enjoys life as opposed to his previous one, but anything can happen). That is why it would have been far more meaningful for the episode to end with Tom addressing this directly, and even tell B'elanna how he's been feeling. It seems unresolved and unfinished, and something more serious has been brushed off lightly.

Alien interferes with Voyager through Tom Paris' hobbies (again). Zero stars.

This episode is pretty bad, wasting the body-swap concept and having the one real Tom vehicle this year adding up to very little. Tom's disaffection with his life at the episode's beginning was overplayed, to the point where I was getting flashbacks of his ruse in season 2. It's not that it's inconceivable that Tom might get exhausted from having a life suddenly full of commitments and responsibilities, but the intensity with which he seems to be blowing off every aspect of his life at the episode's beginning, without any real set-up (except, I guess, for his attempt to stave off being the chief medical officer in Message in a Bottle) just makes him look like a jerk. The idea that "Steth" presents that Tom can go back to being a free-wheeling explorer was meant to be a temptation, but after the body-swap nothing is even done with it on Tom's end -- I'm not sure what could have been done, but on some level I feel like showing Tom either enjoying (or NOT) being a free agent while he tries to get back to Voyager would have at least given some minor payoff. The "Steth"-as-Paris stuff started off promisingly, with the scene where he flatters the Doctor, and for a while I was hoping that "Steth" would actually succeed in turning Tom's life around -- which would have been, to me, very funny, and suggestive of how a conman could successfully make the most of another person's life and use it up in no time -- but then "Steth" makes a series of idiotic mistakes, which are not very interesting to watch. The Janeway swap is pure plotting with no character basis, and relies on the idea that somehow "Steth" swapped bodies with Janeway, and then got Janeway-in-Paris'-body to...strangle "Steth"-in-Janeway's-body for security's sake? Credit I guess for trying to do something with Tom and there's something nice about the moment where he lets B'Elanna in at the end, but this doesn't work. 1.5 stars.

I should add, I think I get what may have been the character-based idea for the episode. Tom's obsession with 20th century iconography I think is partly a signal that he is in some ways a man out of time. His key traits -- daring-do, bravery, adventure while wanting to skip the boring parts -- are ones that are more heavily favoured by the mid-20th century than the 24th century, where explorers are still on some level expected to be more like Picard, adventuresome and brave, but tempered with intellectualism and scientific curiosity. He has both a kind of nostalgia for a past (at least an imagined past) in which his traits would be more completely valued and a desire to run/escape. This is part of why I think it maybe mattered for Rain to see him as brilliant and ethical, because by 20th century standards Tom kind of *is* a paragon, and it's only relative to Starfleet expectations that he tends to fall short, and get angry at himself and sometimes resentful. I like, within the episode, the idea that Tom should be grateful for the opportunity to be learning medicine, getting lessons from a master and knowing that he is developing a skill that will lead to him helping a lot of people, and yet he just wants to fly the damn ship; something similar is happening with B'Elanna, where of course he should be ecstatic to be in a relationship with someone as brilliant and strong and passionate (and one whom he actively pursued, rather than falling into something with against his will), but he starts to feel claustrophobic. The scene where fake-Tom says that he has been sabotaging his medical lessons due to an inferiority complex works especially well for me because I think it's actually a semi-accurate description of Tom's motivations, but I think the real Tom is totally unaware that this is the case. So the episode was supposed to be that Tom gets restless in his life, but when he gets the chance to live a free-wheeling life (as "Steth") and when his life on Voyager is threatened by a usurper, he realizes how much he values it. The problem lies in the execution; Tom's restlessness is totally overplayed and inconsistent with most of what we've seen this season, and there is no real sense of how he's affected by the transformation. Hence why the episode is a failure, but why I also don't go lower in my rating, because it at least had some potential and I can see where they were going.

Startrekwatcher

2 stars. Boring and season four managed to totally turn me off the character of Paris

The only thing wrong with this episode was some really weak writing. "I can make things VERY unpleasant for you" is just a terrible line, an almost laughable threat, particularly in this jaded age. Rick Berman's requirements that acting be restrained and dialogue be the rubbish, flat 24th Century style has always made Voyager and Enterprise seem irrelevant next to the Stargates and Battlestar Galactica, no matter how I love the Voyager crew. Few shows have as wildly erratic quality as Star Trek Voyager. It's either completely badass, or hampered by the writing.

So many things wrong with this episode. I'll end up mentioning things other people already talked about, but that goes with me reviewing it years later I guess. :D Paris' strange behaviour others already talked about. But I agree. It came out of nowhere. The alien ship is about to explode, and only Paris knows that to create a warp whatever in the whatever will save it. Right. It's a theory from starfleet that doesn't work, and the aliens get it to work, sort of, but they don't know how to stop the ship from blowing up, but Tom does? Silly. Why did the alien start morphing between one body and the last? If he switched consciousness, that has nothing to do with DNA, and that wouldn't happen. If he was switching DNA, that has nothing to do with consciousness. The episode seemed to want it both ways. That makes no sense. It should have been a mind swap and nothing to do with DNA. Not that any of it makes any sense at all anyway. A minor point, but one that bugged me, was that one of the reasons Torres was mad at Paris is because he didn't show up to 'recalibrate the plasma manifolds'. But why would he? That's her job, or another of her staff, not Paris' job. Did she think that was a date? lol. And this alien takes over Paris' body. Fine. But how would it know how to pilot Voyager? How would it know any of the stuff that it did? It even flattered the Doc to get out of sickbay duty. How would it know that would work? They made it seem as though the alien knew everything Tom knew. But yet it couldn't find it's way to sickbay to begin with. Either it knows everything or it doesn't. Stupid. Near the end, Tom was choking Janeway. But they had already switched bodies. Which means that the alien was in Janeway's body, and that Janeway was in Paris' body. So why would he still be choking her? Janeway, in his body, would stop the instant they switched. Makes no sense. There are other stupid things as well, most of which others brought up, but I'll move on to the two most important thngs. First of all, they now know how to make a fully functional coaxial warp drive, that lets them fold space and travel anywhere in an instant, a la Dune (or now Discovery), and it is never implemented on Voyager, or even mentioned again. Screw you Voyager. You suck. And secondly and most egregious of all, is the fact that Torres was raped. RAPED!!! Seriously. She was raped. No one seemed to care about this. An alien raped B'Ellana. Raped her. Paris didn't care. Torres didn't care. Raped! Nothing said about it. That alone gives this episode -3 stars. And for all the people whining about rape in the episode about Seven and her false memories of someone stealing her nanoprobes, that wasn't rape. This was a rape! A real actual rape. And no one cares!! No one in the show, and no one, other than one or two in the comments. Insane. 1/2 star from me. Did I mention that Torres was raped!? wtf?

I Hate Janeway

I think this is one of the better Voyager episodes of Season 4, a season which had too much Seven of Nine and too much Janeway being stupid and not enough of the other crewmembers. The science part of every single Voyager episode doesn't make any sense ever, so don't even bother to nitpick how the bodyswitcher guy is able to do his thing, or how they were able to reverse it. I'm still trying to figure out how "holograms" work. That out of the way, I enjoyed seeing an episode about Tom Paris, one which Seven of Nine had no part to play. Yay!

Life Model Decoy

My favorite part of the episode was the fight in the mess hall between Torres and Tom. Has the writer ever been in a relationship before or even seen people interact? B'Elanna: it's ok you missed our date is everything ok? Paris: YOU DON'T CONTROL MEEEEEEE!!!! This has to be one of the worst interactions in the entire series.

Eh, it was ok. It took me forever to recognize Bulldog, which was part of what held my interest. His voice and mannerisms, his eyes, so familiar!! But, who, who, who is it?? Tom was acting like he'd already been taken over by an alien entity before he actually was. That was never really explained and was odd. A mediocre offering, but at least no Hirogen.

Coaxial Drive, I snicker and make jokes every time I hear it. "Coaxial is failing!" " Shunt power to the Blu-Ray conduits, and re-route the signal tto the HDMI relay!" "I can't get an RCA cable lock!" "Computer, access Special Features Audio Commentary, authorization Kim-Four-Seven-Delta-Berman, enable."

I just discovered this site, as I’ve been binge watching the Star Trek episodes on Netflix. The reviews and comments are insightful, on point an humorous when need be. Which is why I have to disagree with the score on this. It has the funniest and most truthful statement in that whole series. And yes, I know everybody loves “The Doctor”. But I find him to be the most obnoxiously overbearing pedantic boor on the entire show. And yes, Robert Picardo is a fine actor who plays that character well. But this exchange is classi CHAKOTAY: I've been reading a report from the Doctor. You didn't show up today. PARIS: I was a little busy this morning. Saving someone's life, as I recall. CHAKOTAY: Is there something wrong, Tom? Anything bothering you? PARIS: Nothing is wrong. Since when is not wanting to spend time with the Doctor a capital offence? You'd have to throw the whole crew in the brig for that one.

Pointing out that B'Elanna was raped is "SJW nonsense"? What the Hell?

I agree that this episode was poor, albeit kind of fun for the brainless adventure that it was. The majority of the plot points did not make sense: - Why would the Captain's *personal* logs be accessible to *anyone* other than the Captain? And even if they were accessible to bridge officers for some bizarre reason, we know from a zillion previous episodes that voiceprint identification is not sufficient. An access code is required, and this alien did not have any of Paris's access codes. Furthermore, it's never explained how he is able to gain access to encrypted Voyager computer files merely by waving his alien PADD in front of the console. - We're expected to believe that the alien bodysnatcher learned the nuances of Golf in a few hours, including the purpose of a sandwedge? Sure, if he/she were Data, or Seven of Nine, this might be plausible. But it's a major plot point that the alien thief doesn't possess that degree of intelligence, and isn't that quick of a study. He/she demonstrated some decent improvisational ability ("Oh, I was just checking to see if there was a more efficient route between Sickbay and my quarters") but not enough to avoid raising red flags with half the crew. The impression that we got was that the alien didn't *have* to learn how to impersonate people super convincingly, because his/her tenure in their bodies was usually short enough to get by on boldness and charisma alone. The period of the alien "being Steth" was perhaps an exception, but test pilots don't have to interact with people much. In fact, a major point of the episode was that their lifestyle doesn't involve developing deep or long-term ties with people. - So, are we just not going to talk about* fact that it's strongly implied that the alien bodysnatcher, posing as Paris, boned B'Elanna? It seems like they just casually inserted that implied rape into the script, mainly for comedic effect. I don't think the audience bought his seduction for a minute, in light of his increasingly erratic behaviour, so this plot point only served to make B'Elanna look gullible and imperceptive. *I guess people did talk about it farther down in the comments than I had read when I posted this. - The fact that "alien bodysnatcher posing as Steth" kept reverting to the appearance of his previous victim (the alien woman) suggests that the "DNA graft" is not permanent. That suggests that perhaps this situation could have resolved itself of its own accord, with the victims' DNA starting to revert back to their own (even if it took up to a year for this to happen). Even this theory really only makes sense if the alien was reverting back to his/her natural form, not merely the previous victim's form. Perhaps the alien woman we saw was the natural form...it's unclear. Regardless, the science in the episode could have been a lot less eye-rolling and implausible if they had just left DNA out of it, and made it so that the alien tranformed your superficial outward appearance to match someone else's, much like the Founders/Changelings are able to. It would make a lot more sense why faux-Paris went to such lengths to avoid being scanned by the Doctor in that instance. As written, the episode suggested that his DNA should appear exactly like Paris's, so why was he so worried about getting a checkup?

A few other thoughts to supplement my post above - Without Paris's access code, the alien probably also can't do things like access B'Elanna's quarters when she is not there, or override what is probably a built-in replicator system default to produce synthehol rather than alcohol. - While I agree with previous posters that an obsession with 20th-century internal combustion engines is probably too specific and obscure of a hobby to expect a 24th-century person to have, we've been having to accept it since "The 37s". Yeah. Remember Season 2? I try not to. :p

[QUOTE] Skiffy Sat, Dec 9, 2017, 2:05am (UTC -5) A minor point, but one that bugged me, was that one of the reasons Torres was mad at Paris is because he didn't show up to 'recalibrate the plasma manifolds'. But why would he? That's her job, or another of her staff, not Paris' job. Did she think that was a date? lol. [/QUOTE] I *definitely* took her suggestion to 'recalibrate the plasma manifolds' to be an invitation to Paris to go make out in a Jefferies tube. I think Biggs-Dawson did a good job conveying the subtext there. It might seem like a strange suggestion given that they are now an item, and can just go to each other's quarters and do more than just make out. But it is consistent with their relationship being in a honeymoon phase, and them therefore wanting to get their hands on each other whenever they can. Plus in the lame "Chakotay goes into the dream-alien world" episode, it's shown that they sometimes are on opposite duty shifts and can't meet up except for breakfast.

Good point. I never thought of that. That may be what was intended, but they could have at least said something better, like 'injecting plasma into the warp core' or 'aligning the thrusters'. lol

The discussion here about B’lanna being raped is interesting. There was an episode of Law and Order SVU where, basically, a bunch of rich moms were sleeping with some guy that misrepresented himself as some person of influence of a fancy pants school everyone wanted to get into, and they were deciding if that was rape, because the women didn’t say no. I forgot how they ended the episode (sorry). So if you lie about who you are and someone sleeps with you based on this identity, is that rape? People lie all the time. There was also an episode in DS9 where Sisko represented himself as Dark Universe Sisko, and was with Dark Universe Dax, which I also thought was messed up.

I agree that it is amusing to watch the cgi progress in Voyager. Even a step up from DS9

Although I agree this episode started out slow and nothing and special, I think the second half more than enough made up for it and warrants this episode getting three stars. There were some twists I didn’t see coming and it was well written and entertaining. One of my favorites of the season

@Patrick No way would that be rape. All that is required for sex to be consensual is the ability to express consent and to indeed consent. There is (as yet!) no requirement that the partners furnish their resumes to one another and provide satisfactory references. As for the episode, yes, dozens of risible plot holes but more than watchable and has some funny moments.

So Tom was able to figure out how to make the Coaxial Warp Drive work safely and reliably, and in addition they were even able to modify one of Voyager's own shuttles to use it. So there you go, they have their golden ticket home and... it's never mentioned ever again.

Also how did the alien take the wrench off of the holodeck? Surely they were holographic just like the car, garage and everything else. Did Tom actually replicate a set of real wrenches to carry to the holodeck with him? Why would he do that? Does he keep a toolbox full of antique tools in his quarters?

EventualZen

>Does he keep a toolbox full of antique tools in his quarters? I also noticed (I think it was this episode) that Paris had oil stains on his overalls when he left the holodeck. Did he replicate oily clothing for authenticity? That's some serious dedication to his craft.

Ok...the episode had problems, nearly from the outset. For instance, when Fake Steth beams on board Voyager, he walks a step ahead of Janeway down the corridor....of a ship he's never been on. Where does the director think Fake Steth is going? Why didn't the director cry "cut!" for Pete's sake? I can take "coaxial" blah blah seriously, but how do I accept a character as real, when he's walking as cameras are rolling, like he's sauntering to the studio canteen from Soundstage #6 at Paramount? Now on to serious matters...Nobody fares particularly well as events move forward. (1) On instant replay, the body switch imposed on Tom by Fake Steth is a violation of Tom's personhood and qualifies as the introductory rape scene in this episode. I know that violation is a mainstay theme in a lot of (all?) Sci Fi, but I had hoped that just once, things would play out more straightforwardly....where Tom would think he was in a simple bromance with a fellow gearhead and then awaken to the fact that he needed to fight off the advances of an alien female with funny ears before B'Elanna's feelings were hurt. That's naive me, ever hoping for another dose of fanciful relationship high jincks, instead of what we got. (2) As for the 1st scene between B'Elanna and Fake Tom, viewers might reasonably assume that the kiss which ends the scene culminated in extended canoodling, and possibly miscellaneous naked stuff off screen. Since it isn't really Tom, this qualifies as rape, or ellicit seduction/sex by deception or similar fraud. However, it is remotely possible that in the unwritten part, B'Elanna terminated the kiss and handed Fake Tom the sand wedge and likely told him where it should be used. At least naive me hoped that's what transpired. The more upsetting scene between B'Elanna and Fake Tom is their 2nd encounter (the one with the picnic lunch in the largest hard plastic picnic basket ever manufactured). In it, B'Elanna is physically abused by Fake Tom , who uses a brutal throat grip against her before being summarily discarded by him. This is a distubing scene. The fact that that event goes unmentioned in a report to the captain is a real lapse (in the script). Seven reported Fake Tom's violent verbal threat and intoxication and we know this because it is called out in the screenplay, but the mistreatment of B'Elanna is dropped entirely. (3) Finally Janeway herself is attacked and then becomes, you guessed it, Fake Janeway. Her maniacal laugh in the shuttle brought a smile, but the whole thing really wore me down. Although mispronunciation of Camer-O was cute at the end, all I really wanted was, you guessed it, another dose of fanciful relationship high jincks, instead of what we got. Best scene: Seven putting Fake Steth on the spot after catching him in her cargo bay accessing the computer. Some other good scenes, but not bolted together very well.

Body swap shenanigans were done better by Futurama. The Paris / B'Elanna stuff went from cringe 12 year old stuff to 'wait, did she just shag an alien pretending to be Tom?'

I find it funny that lots of people found the plot of this episode very bad. But 5 months after this episode aired, Power Rangers did the exact same plot in the episode "Invasion of the Body Switcher" and some PR fans say it was best PRiS episode. I guess this type of storyline was more for a Preadolescents audience.

CrispyNoodle

@mikeyz Agree. Don’t see why people use the word rape. People misrepresent themselves all the time to have sex. While it’s absolutely terrible it’s not rape. Words have meaning and the misrepresentation of this word in this way dilutes it and insults those that were subjected to an extremely violent experience. It is not at all the same.

The episode is the not the best, but for some reason, Tuvok coming in on "Tom" choking "Janeway" is absolutely hilarious.

Something that annoyed me about this episode besides the Fun With DNA(tm) was the inconsistency of the body swapping. When Steth first swaps with Paris, it's a swapping of the faces but the clothing remains the same, thus you see Steth in a Starfleet uniform and Paris in Steth's attire. Later when Paris and Janeway swap, the alien is now in Janeway's body, and also wearing Janeway's uniform (note the pips on the collar for example), so it's no longer simply a body swap but a transfer of consciousness from one host body to another?

So wait... Tom actually installed coaxial warp drive on a shuttle, and we never heard about it again? That is so annoying. A ship like that could probably make it all the way back to the Alpha Quadrant.

While Steth was in B'Elanna's (the real spelling - if you're going to be outraged on her behalf, at least spell her name right) quarters, there's nothing indicating they actually had sex. Sure, they kissed, but he was still making up with her. Also, she had just gotten off of work, etc. Think about real relationships - couples don't actually have sex that often, so it's more likely they spent the evening together. He didn't even live in the same quarters at this point. The fact she didn't say anything, and that Kate Mulgrew is an ACTUAL rape survivor (so likely wouldn't have let it slide), I think indicates that some people are reading more in to this than the writers did. However, with this episode my biggest concern was Tom being made to apologize for being constantly wrong because he doesn't spend every waking minute with B'Elanna. The point is pushed even harder in episode s07e03 ("Drive") where Neelix encourages her to essentially force Tom to quit the race to go on a picnic with her (something that would, in reality, have probably destroyed their relationship with his resentment), and pushes the theory that partners should like every single thing together, and possibly even the narrative that her wants and needs override his. I almost feel like the writers are pushing their own feelings about how two people should behave in a relationship, disregarding their individual differences. I don't think Tom has ever neglected B'Elanna so it's bizarre (especially as she accepts his proposal in s07e03).

This was a fun episode. I kind of figured the captain was really the alien as there is no way she could call for security in a regular voice whilst being strangled by Tom! Still, the whole episode was fun. And I'll bet the Paris actor had fun playing the bad guy for a change!

I took the whole episode as an attempt to say something about human relationships, using Tom and B’Elanna. Namely, a woman finds that the man who promised love and affection has now changed into an abuser. This is a common enough real-life scenario. This episode accelerates Tom’s abusiveness to sci-fi speed. First her boyfriend takes her for granted and blows off their dinner date. Then he takes his bad mood out on her - shouting at her, blame-shifting and gaslighting her like she’s the problem (“You always try to control me!”). Finally he evolves to Full Monster: treating her as an object to be yelled at, sweet-talked into sex, or beaten up at will. (This same theme was done well by Buffy BTS). I thought the allegory was done well, in a true-to-life way - up until the silly resolution in which Tom promises to spend more time with B’Elanna, and voila, their conflict is solved, I guess his personality changes permanently, and he becomes, I suppose, forever an attentive guy who will always Put Their Relationship First? (After the show’s heavy themes, the resolution also smacked oddly of every family sitcom from the nineties: The guy is a goofy man-child; the woman pesters him to Care More About Us, he hangs his head and learns his lesson; yadda yadda. It’s Tim “the Tool Man” Taylor!) Despite liking the portrayal of an abusive relationship, I do have a big problem with Tom and B’Elanna being the couple who are used to portray it.. It’s a glib and stereotypical misuse of their characters. We already learned - way back they first got together - that it was B’Elanna who was afraid to confess her feelings, and condemned herself for this (“I’ve been a coward…. I’m going to die without a shred of honor.”). We also learned that she was afraid to display her “big scary Klingon (ie unfeminine) side - and that Tom won her trust by telling her he wouldn’t mind seeing more of it, to which she answered , “Be careful what you wish for” - a Chekhov’s gun if there ever was one! Both these B’Elanna character notes could have made for an actually interesting relationship between them, one in which she struggles to show courage (be vulnerable, be intimate) and Tom struggles with dating a woman who is stronger than he is and apt to lose control in dangerous ways. However, instead of staying true to their character (and species) traits, ST:V immediately shoehorns them into trite and stereotypically gendered Homo sapien behavior . Maybe that’s why they make such a dull couple: as a couple, they aren’t allowed to keep being themselves. In fact, based on what we know of them, if anyone were going to get abused in this relationship, it should be Tom. And if anyone were going to be aloof and afraid of intimacy, it should be B’Elanna.

Dirty Dancer

Tara, someone must've really hurt you. Your take on this episode is frightening.

Weighing in on the Rape Or Not debate: It’s rape. In general, misrepresenting oneself to get sex is not rape (“I’m a Hollywood producer and I can make you a star!”), since the law of Caveat Emptor applies. However, this isnt that. This is the equivalent of: - You consent to blindfolded sex with your partner, but after you’re blindfolded, it’s somebody else who jumps on top of you. - You consent to be penetrated by your urologist for a prostate exam, and he shoves his penis into you instead. - You’re a blind or confused or mentally slow person, and someone puts on your spouse’s scent and clothing in order to trick you into sex acts. Interestingly, this subject was also done well in Buffy TVS. In a season-four episode, bad-girl Faith takes over Buffy’s body and makes a beeline for her boyfriend, Riley. In that episode, though, it is Buffy and not Riley who seems like the victim. Partly this is because Faith makes clear that her purpose is to debase Buffy (she urges Riley, “C’mon - what nasty things have you been itching to do to this body?”) and to make Buffy the cuckold. But partly, I think, Riley doesnt seem like the victim due to our human sexual politics and the reality we live in - in which one gender is physically weaker and less sexually aggressive, therefore suffers most of the rapes and rape-murders and sexual exploitation, and is also burdened with nearly all of the slut-shaming (created by male-led culture and religion, and useful for keeping one’s females in line) in every society. I think that reality can’t help coloring our interpretation of events, even fictional ones.

Dirty Dancer: What exactly frightens you? You may disagree with my interpretation, but hopefully that isn’t a scary experience for you.

Tara, Tom didn't abuse B'Elanna; the alien did.

And no, nothing you could say would scare me. It's your misandrist viewpoint that is the threat.

You seem to be misinterpreting me - or woefully uninformed. It is de rigeur in sci-fi to use sci-fi setups to examine or shine a light on real-world issues. Are you saying you’ve never heard of relationships going bad or becoming violent? And is there something misandrist about citing obvious general facts of human physiology and behavior? I may be wrong in my interpretation (maybe overly influenced by Buffy, which did allegories for human behavior all the time) - but your response is emotional and silly. Why so upset?

Tara: "Namely, a woman finds that the man who promised love and affection has now changed into an abuser. This is a common enough real-life scenario. This episode accelerates Tom’s abusiveness to sci-fi speed." Your interpretation is ridiculous and misandrist. That you don't see this is frightening.

Yes Tara, how dare you point out biases derived from a script written and directed by men in a show made twenty-five years ago. And the audacity you have to draw real world parallels to things you can relate to when the show is meant to be a documentary on actual aliens. I’m so frightened I have half a nerve to close my window blinds and shoo off the neighbor kids.

Biases are fine. Man hating is not.

It's like straw man after straw man with you morons

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Star Trek: Voyager – Vis á Vis (Review)

Well, it was nice while it lasted.

The fourth season of Star Trek: Voyager had a nice little strand of continuity running through the fourth season, from the discovery of the relay stations and first contact with the Hirogen in Message in a Bottle through to the reaching of an accord with the Hirogen in The Killing Game, Part II . That six-episode run had demonstrated a remarkable attention to detail on the part of the production team. Even the relatively stand-alone episode Retrospect alluded to the ending of Prey and the threat of the Hirogen lingering from Hunters .

Ch-ch-changes…

However, Vis á Vis represents a return to business as usual for the series. It is a light stand-alone episode that completely eschews any sense of continuity or character development. Credited to production assistant Robert J. Doherty, Vis á Vis feels like a weird throwback to the middle of the second season, a retrograde character-driven episode rooted in a version of Tom Paris that has not existed since Investigations at the absolute latest. The result is a weird body-swapping episode where the regular cast member seems out of character to begin with.

Vis á Vis is an outdated Voyager episode, even beyond the lame body-swap premise.

Grease is not the word.

To be fair, Vis á Vis is in keeping with the fourth season of Voyager in some respects. As Dan Butler accepted in contemporary news coverage, incorporated into Braving the Unknown , the episode could be seen to owe a debt to a certain blockbuster from the previous year:

The character’s name is Steth. He’s sort of romping around the universe. It’s sort of an homage to Face/Off, the movie with Nicholas Cage and John Travolta.

Face/Off had been a massive hit, Paramount’s second biggest box office success story of the year in question . ( Titanic was Paramount’s biggest success story.) Following Hard Target and Broken Arrow , the film had helped cement Hong Kong action legend John Woo in American cinema.

A gut-wrenching experience.

The fourth season of Voyager has a decidedly blockbuster sensibility. Although the series itself still lacks a clear or unique identity, the individual episodes have an incredible sense of scale. This reflects Brannon Braga’s ambitions for the series, to craft breathtaking high-concept science-fiction on a television budget. Voyager reflected a lot of contemporary nineties pop culture, with even the Second World War action of The Killing Game, Part I and The Killing Game, Part II feeling of a piece with films like Saving Private Ryan and The Thin Red Line .

More specifically, the influence of blockbuster cinema could be keenly felt on the fourth season of Voyager . The work of Roland Emmerich seemed to be a touchstone for the spectacle of Year of Hell, Part I and Year of Hell, Part II , while Prey allowed Brannon Braga to pitch his own Star Trek adaptation of the long-gestating Alien vs. Predator . With that in mind, it makes sense that the writing staff on Voyager would be interested in producing a twenty-fourth century version of Face/Off .

Drinking it all in.

There are several problems with Vis á Vis . The most obvious issue is that it is just boring. Body-swapping and possession stories are a dime-a-dozen in the larger Star Trek canon. Voyager alone has already done Cathexis and Warlord , and will later do Body and Soul . There are even variations in the doppelganger plots of episodes like Live Fast and Prosper or Inside Man , and perhaps even in the EMH’s subplot in Equinox, Part II . This is to say nothing of episodes from other iterations of the franchise; The Enemy Within , Mirror, Mirror , Whom Gods Destroy… , and so on.

The issue is not that the basic premise of Vis á Vis is a tired old cliché, the problem is that Vis á Vis cannot really justify returning to the idea. What is so specially about this story that it justifies returning to such a stock plot thread? Vis á Vis never really makes a convincing argument. The episode’s plot is painfully generic and its pacing is almost glacial. The body swap only takes place about halfway through the episode, which means that the actual “fun” part of the plot is crammed and rushed into the final few acts without room for innovation or experimentation.

Tom’s Wrath of Khan cosplay was controversial.

There is never enough time to get a sense of who or what Steth is. The first half of Vis á Vis spends a lot of time with Steth, but it quickly becomes clear that this is only a mask that the creature is wearing. Everything is a performance. Steth is not really a fun-loving alien pirate, he’s actually a body-stealing alien parasite that has to change bodies every once in a while or else risk reverting back to his previous self. As a result, the first half of Vis á Vis feels downright disingenuous, investing a lot of time in developing a character who doesn’t actually exist.

There is an interesting concept between Steth, in a sort of “gee, space sure is weird!” sort of way. The parasite certainly seems like a novel alien in a universe populated by bipedal humanoids who speak English and have opposable thumbs. Steth is something different, something uncanny. He (or it) is a predator and parasite that hopes from body to body, stealing lives and experiences. He (or it) is an emotional parasite, one that seems to feed off the opportunities and relationships of its current host body.

Facing up to himself.

There is something positively horrific (and almost Lovecraftian) about Steth. When Voyager finds the parasite’s last victim, he promises to try to recover the consciousness of the prior host. The EMH ponders, “Who knows if that’s the end of it? We have no idea how long she or he has been switching identities.” It seems possible that Steth has left a daisy-chain of broken and stolen lives across the Delta Quadrant, an entity that can steal a person’s identity while trapping them inside a foreign body. That is the stuff of nightmares.

There is a lot that could be done with the existential horror of this premise. Just look at the use of Sid on Legion , a character with a similar ability. Instead, Vis á Vis offers the most generic takes on the concept. There is never any sense of the horror that Paris must feel on waking up inside somebody else’s body, nor any sense of the magnitude of the violation inflicted upon both Paris and Torres. Indeed, Steth’s assault of Torres is used as cheap emotional leverage at the climax. “Oh, Tom? Be sure to send my best regards to B’Elanna, hmm?”

A Stethical dilemma.

(The mechanics of Steth’s transformation are curiously generic. Repeatedly in the episode, Steth seems to be on the verge of transforming back into an earlier iteration of himself. Steth needs to find a new host before his “genome reverts to it’s previous form.” However, does that only happen to Steth? What about the other party to the transition? Do they also revert if Steth remains in one form long enough? To be fair, the lack of thought given to this concept would be less frustrating if it were a stronger episode.)

Instead, Steth is treated as a fairly stock con man. Towards the climax of the episode, Paris even frames Steth in decidedly mundane terms. “We’re dealing with an alien who’s some sort of identity thief,” Paris urges Chakotay, from Steth’s body. This is another example of Voyager firmly rooting itself in the nineties. After all, identity fraud was recognised as the fastest growing crime in the United States during the nineties . This made sense, given the cultural changes taking place at the same time.

Well, there goes Tom’s credit rating.

Between 1980 and 1990, the number of credit cards more than doubled and the amount of credit card spending multiplied by five . With the growth of the internet and the development of the information economy , it became a lot easier for criminals to usurp the identity (and spending power) of ordinary citizens. Paranoia over identity theft even led to a spike in the sale of personal shredders over the nineties :

The popularity of personal shredders has increased tremendously in the past few years, said Jean Papagni, a Staples spokeswoman. After the NBC News report in November, she said, there was an uptick in sales, then steady sales throughout the holidays and into tax season. Fear of so-called identity fraud — said to be the nation’s fastest-growing type of consumer fraud — is reason enough for some people to buy shredders, said Todd W. Henreckson, director of the General Binding Corporation’s Shredmaster division, in Northbrook, Ill. ”The public’s becoming paranoid — and not in an unreasonable nature — about their personal identity,” he said.

Even more than the plot reference to (and disappointing lack of follow through on) Face/Off , Vis á Vis is dated by the decision to treat Steth as little more than the con man who digs around in the garbage. There is a sense that the writing staff might have written an identity theft story without completely understanding the concept of identity theft, circling back around for Live Fast and Prosper .

It didn’t come up on the show, but the majority of Voyager’s shuttles were lost to Janeway’s scenery-chewing.

To be fair, this is the closest thing that Vis á Vis has to a hook on Steth. The alien parasite changes personality significantly over the course of the episode, although that might largely be down to the performance of the actor playing him. In particular, Steth is very different as channelled through Dan Butler, Robert Duncan McNeill or Kate Mulgrew. Butler does the best that he can with the material, playing Steth as a little creepy and just boring enough to slip under the radar. Mulgrew promptly starts helping herself to the scenery, rehearsing for Living Witness .

This is perhaps the second most obvious problem with Vis á Vis . The joy of a body swap episode is in watching a regular character push beyond the audience’s expectations. Repeatedly over the course of Star Trek: The Next Generation , the production team got considerable mileage out of getting Brent Spiner and Marina Sirtis to play against type. In Power Play , they even added the incongruity of Chief Miles O’Brien as a “heavy.” William Shatner’s manic and heightened energy largely powered episodes like Turnabout Intruder .

Working it out.

Even on Voyager , body swap episodes worked best when they afforded the cast an opportunity to play against type. Jennifer Lien might not have been the strongest member of the ensemble, but Warlord coasts quite far on the idea of the timid Kes reimagined as a power-mad hypersexualised body-hijacking tyrant. Body and Soul is a showcase for Jeri Ryan, one of the stronger members of the ensemble.  Darkling allowed Robert Picardo to indulge his hunger for scenery.

Vis á Vis is a body-swap story involving Tom Paris. Robert Duncan McNeill can be a charming actor, in the right role and with the right material. McNeill projects a broad all-American quality that makes him a perfect fit for a subversive narrative like The First Duty or for a nostalgic adventure like Bride of Chaotica! However, McNeill is far from the most versatile actor in the ensemble. Indeed, the first two seasons of Voyager frequently ran into trouble trying to present Paris as a rogue in episodes like Ex Post Facto or Lifesigns . It is not a good fit for McNeill.

Not everybody’s cup of tea.

As such, a body-swap episode doesn’t really play to McNeill’s strengths as a performer, much like the second season arc didn’t play to McNeill’s strengths as a performer. Indeed, the biggest issue with McNeill playing Steth-as-Paris is that the character never feels significantly different than the regular version of Paris. Sure, he drinks on duty and assaults Seven of Nine, but there is nothing in McNeill’s performance that suggests this is a fundamentally different character. Compare it Lien in Warlord , Picardo in Darkling , Ryan in Body and Soul .

Even within Vis á Vis , McNeill is outclassed. Dan Butler does a much more convincing job as Paris-as-Steth, borrowing a few of McNeill’s mannerisms to lend the performance a strange authenticity. (There is a wonderful McNeill-esque sigh as Paris-as-Steth explains the situation to Chakotay, to pick one small example.) When playing Steth-as-Janeway, Kate Mulgrew doesn’t channel either McNeill or Butler, but she still neatly delineates this version of the character by hijacking a shuttle and steering it gleefully into camp. Unfortunately, it is too little too late.

“Let’s face it, Chakotay, this would kinda be an upgrade.”

To be fair, McNeill himself touched on the issue in an interview with Starlog , acknowledging that Steth did not feel distinct enough from Paris:

I wish Vis á Vis had gone further than it did. I thought the idea of somebody switching bodies was such a great premise and as an actor, selfishly, I just wanted to do some scenery chewing. But I felt that the show just didn’t reach that level. In an effort to preserve the plot twist that Steth wasn’t the real Paris, they made him so much like the real Paris that it wasn’t as dramatic as I wished it could have been. I had suggested that we expose him a little earlier so that he could really enjoy the chase. ‘Yeah, I’m not the real Tom Paris, and what are you going to do about it?’ I would have loved for him to have taken Janeway hostage. It would have been a great opportunity for the fans to see the body of Tom Paris, the person they’re used to seeing as Tom, doing things that were completely out of character. I wish it had gone further, but it was still an interesting show.

McNeill gets at a more fundamental flaw with the episode, one beneath the problems with Steth and the issues with his performance. What is the point of this?

Mapping it all out.

Vis á Vis is clearly meant to be a character-driven episode, one fundamentally rooted in Tom Paris as a member of the Voyager crew. In fact, Vis á Vis is an episode that is specifically tailored to Tom Paris as a character rather than to Robert Duncan McNeill as a performer. The only problem is that the episode feels like it is tailored to a version of Tom Paris that has not existed since the late second season, if he ever really existed at all. The entire plot of Vis á Vis hinges on something approaching a midlife crisis for Tom Paris.

“You’re lucky,” Steth assures Paris at one point in the episode. “You’re part of a family, part of a structure. You have rules to guide you. You don’t have to worry about making a lot of choices. I usually go to bed at night not knowing what the next day has in store, what trouble I might get into. You don’t have to worry about those things. You’re very settled.” However, Paris seems frustrated with his comfort. “I remember those days. I used to be a lot like you. Going anywhere, doing whatever I wanted, making my own rules.”

“Mind if I join you? It feels like a while since we’ve even been passive aggressive to one another.”

On a certain theoretical level, this makes sense. Caretaker introduced Tom Paris as something akin to a troublemaker, a failed renegade now spending his days in a New Zealand prison colony. Paris was supposed to be restless and reckless. He was the son of Admiral Owen Paris, but he never integrated into Starfleet. He joined the Maquis, but he chafed under Chakotay’s leadership. Paris was supposed to be unreliable, a renegade given an unlikely second chance when thrown halfway across the galaxy and forced to fit into the crew.

However, this characterisation never really stuck. In particular, producer Jeri Taylor and actor Robert Duncan McNeill actively resisted this read on the character. Michael Piller tried to pitch Paris as a rebel, having him create the dingy French tavern in The Cloud and suggesting that he had an affair with a married woman in Ex Post Facto . However, Piller never got to realise his scruffy and rebellious Paris, largely due to resistance from the rest of the writing staff. As such, Paris has been a fairly conventional character for most of Voyager ‘s run.

We’ll always have Paris.

Tellingly, the characterisation of Paris in Vis á Vis harks back to the much maligned “Kazon” arc that ran through the second season. In that arc, Paris went undercover as a renegade, getting himself thrown off the ship following a series of rash confrontations with Chakotay in episodes like Meld and Lifesigns . Ultimately, it was all revealed as a smokescreen to help expose a Kazon spy, which made it perfectly clear that Paris wasn’t really a rebel. That arc was universally reviled, and would seem to exist as a model of what not to do with Paris.

Nevertheless, Vis á Vis leans into the comparison, right down to throwing Paris into conflict with senior officers. “Is there something wrong, Tom?” Chakotay asks. “Anything bothering you?” Paris tries to shrug it off, ineffectually. “Nothing is wrong,” he insists. “Since when is not wanting to spend time with the Doctor a capital offence? You’d have to throw the whole crew in the brig for that one.” There is an argument with a senior officer on the holodeck, like in Meld . There is a confrontation with Chakotay, like (but significantly milder than) Lifesigns .

Engineering a conflict.

It is not a particularly convincing narrative arc for Paris. The episode asks the audience to take his midlife crisis seriously, when it was all played as a ruse two seasons earlier. Even on its own terms, Vis á Vis never makes a compelling argument for Paris’ ennui. Paris claims to be antsy about the creature comforts of life on Voyager, but Vis á Vis repeatedly stresses that he retreats into those comforts. He hides on the holodeck, the ultimate twenty-fourth century luxury. There is no indication that Paris would ever want a return to his wandering youth.

Indeed, Vis á Vis makes a very valid argument for Paris as a man who is settled and grounded. Indeed, his obsessions seem more like a middle-aged father having a midlife crisis than those of a young man worried about giving up his dreams. Paris retreats to a holographic garage to work on imaginary car, stopping just short of calling it a “man cave.” He hides from Torres by playing golf with Kim, obsessing over the pastime to the extent that he is designing his own clubs. Vis á Vis suggests that Paris is not a rebel, he is positively middle-class.

A hole other problem.

Unfortunately, Vis á Vis never seems to realise any of this. It suggests that Paris is yearning for adventure and excitement, ignoring the fact that working on a car and playing golf are the very opposite of the life that Steth would seem to offer. Paris might not want to spend time with the EMH or with Torres, but that doesn’t mean that he wants to go riding through the cosmos as a galactic test pilot. It undercuts the emotional arc of the episode, which would not be such a big deal if the episode did not devote so much time to that emotional arc.

There is also a clumsiness to Vis á Vis that harks back to the earlier seasons of Voyager . It is the first script from Robert J. Doherty, but it feels very stilted and arch. There is no life in the teleplay, which often feels like a reheated selection of Voyager clichés. This is most notable in the dialogue, with its emphasis on meaningless technobabble and stock science-fiction beats. In particular, Vis á Vis feels disproportionately interested in the mechanics of Steth’s imaginary propulsion technology.

This alien will be the Steth of him…

“It’s a hypothetical propulsion system,” Paris explains. “Starfleet engineers have been dreaming about it for years. In theory, it can literally fold the fabric of space allowing a ship to travel instantaneously across huge distances.” That might make sense in the context of a story about Voyager trying to use that technology to shorten their journey home, like in Threshold or Day of Honour . However, this thread never goes anywhere. There are a few mentions of the technology, and a lot of technobabble, but no pay-off.

It seems almost as though Vis á Vis intends for the audience to be invested in the fictional technology for its own sake. In some ways, this is an extension of the technological determinism suggested by The Killing Game, Part II . If holographic technology could save Hirogen society, then maybe “coaxial warp drive” was something worth pursuing on its own merits. It does not matter that these were fictional concepts with little basis in physics. Voyager occasionally fixates on fictional technology as an end of itself, rather than a means to an end.

Free wheeling.

Doherty’s script also has a decidedly tin ear for dialogue. Voyager had a tendency to pitch itself as the most generic of Star Trek shows, and that extends to the dialogue, which is very fond of the old style “put technobabble in terms the audience might understand, but also draw attention to how weird that must sound to people who actually live in the world, preferably in as stilted a manner as possible.” This leads to various awkward conversations that sound unlike anything that anybody has ever said to anybody else.

Reflecting on the tech problem of the week, Paris observes, “What you need is a carburettor.” When Steth wonders what he could possible mean, not being from Earth and all, Paris explains, “It’s a device that’s hundreds of years old. I can’t believe I didn’t think of it yesterday.” Steth is shocked by the idea. “Wait,” he instructs Paris. “Hundreds of years old? Surely that couldn’t be of any use to us now.” Dan Butler is game, but it plays like a weirdly tech-focused “show me this thing you call love…” moment. It is a wonder Steth doesn’t utter, “Gee whiz, Tom…”

Getting his engine going.

Vis á Vis feels very much like a step in the wrong direction, and not just for its central character. As much as Vis á Vis teases the idea of Tom Paris regressing, the truth is that Voyager has allowed itself to slip backwards.

You might be interested in our other reviews from the fourth season of Star Trek: Voyager :

• Scorpion, Part II
• Day of Honor
• Scientific Method
• Year of Hell, Part I
• Year of Hell, Part II
• Random Thoughts
• Concerning Flight
• Mortal Coil
• Waking Moments
• Message in a Bottle
• The Killing Game, Part I
• The Killing Game, Part II
• The Omega Directive
• Unforgettable
• Living Witness
• Hope and Fear

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Filed under: Voyager | Tagged: Body swap , identity theft , star trek , star trek: voyager , steth , tom paris , vis á vis , voyager |

3 Responses

Like the way Day of Honour was about resuming normal service after the sweeping changes of Scorpion and The Gift, Vis a Vis does the same now that the Hirogen are out of the picture. The episode does indeed feel like a throwback to the second season (the scene in Chakotay’s office is a virtual rewrite of the one in the Mess Hall from Lifesigns, only without the same histrionics), where it seems Tom yearns for life away from Voyager, and he gets his wish when Steth, a malevolent alien steals his life, as well as his body.

The problem with Vis a Vis is Tom is not the one to fill out this episode, or more to the point, Robert Duncan McNeill. Bodyswap stories sink or swim depending on the actors they get to play them, and while Steth in the body of Tom struggles to fit in with a group of people he knows nothing about, McNeill fails to play the role with enough in the way of shades of grey.

Vis a Vis is a singularly dull run-through of all of the stock cliches of the genre. Say what you will about last year’s Warlord, one thing it was not was dull. Jennifer Lien was allowed to have fun with the role, where she relished the opportunity to trash Kes’s innocence for an episode. Other than Tom drinking on duty and making threats at B’Elanna and Seven of Nine, there’s nothing too out of the ordinary about McNeill’s performance.

What frustrates me more about Vis a Vis is I can how see how it could have emerged in the hands of a far better actor. Some of the scenes with Steth in Janeway’s body fulfils some of that expectation. Kate Mulgrew underplays it without going too over the top, and then when she is exposed, she plays the role sufficiently differently from Janeway. I also liked the way Dan Butler (as Tom) and his female companion Daelen are the ones who defuse the situation and get back control of everyone’s bodies, rather than the regular cast sweeping in to save the day. But that’s still not enough to save an episode designed to put across to the audience that’s Tom’s place is with the crew after all.

And that picture of B’Elanna in the Mess Hall should have had the caption “Torres should wake up and smell the coffee”.

Nice spot there. You’re right about body swap episodes. And I think the issue is much Paris as MacNeill. In that the body-swapped Paris isn’t really an alien character, so much as that awful characterisation they tried to foist on him in the second season or during Ex Post Facto. It’s not so much a body swap as a body reversion. And it’s sadly just as convincing here as it was in those earlier ill-judged episodes.

The episode works for what it is, but it loses an attempt to play on the form, as you pointed out with the parasite idea. TNG’s episode “Allegiance” did more with the idea, making Picard’s personality oddities very subtle, but just enough to pique the crew’s notice. It would have been better (and funnier) if Tom had become a better person suddenly, but instead he just becomes a jerk and abusive, making him easy to spot and far different than the alien at the beginning.

Also, they blew a chance to finally have a real drinking scene on Voyager. Drunk Tom was extremely boring. Couldn’t he have gone to Harry’s quarters and drunk soju until they singing in Korean or something?

Just so many opportunities lost.

I also have an issue with the beginning scenes with Paris being ripped on for having a life outside work. No one on Voyager seems to do anything outside their jobs really. It’s not surprising a crewman would burnout on a ship with no pay and no real incentive to be professional beyond some distant obligation to a society they’re cut off from. I guess it’s part of the utopian vision of Trek, where everyone is sort of a cardboard person devoted to their job…even if they’re an ex-con or ex-terrorist.

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This Guide is for the television show "Star Trek Voyager". Return to the Guide main page. In a frame? Break Out!

Written By: Steve Mount Source: Episode Viewing. Episode order shown is Production Order.

Key terms and characters Borg A particularly dangerous Starfleet nemesis; Voyager has been dropped into their home turf Chakotay A Maquis of Earth Indian origin; First Officer of Voyager. Dilithium Fuel for a starship's warp engines The Doctor A holographic doctor, intended for emergency use, but pressed into permanent service Federation A group of planets in a peaceful alliance Janeway, Catherine Captain of the Voyager Kazon Warlike race intent on capturing Voyager for access to her technology Kes An Ocampa, whose lifespan is only seven human years; medical tech Kim, Harry Starfleet officer on his first assignment Maquis A group of people disaffected by the Federation/Cardassian treaty, fighting for independence from both groups Neelix A Talaxian, picked up by Voyager; cook, morale officer Paris, Tom Former Starfleet officer, Maquis sympathizer; navigator Phaser A light-beam weapon Q Omnipotent being, who's taken a liking to Janeway Seska Maquis, Bajoran - later revealed to be a Cardassian spy; allied with Kazon Seven of Nine A former Borg, disconnected from the Collective by Voyager, now a crew member. Seven is human, her name is Annika Hansen Starfleet Military branch of the Federation Torres, B'Elanna Maquis, half Human, half Klingon; engineering Transporter A method of travel that converts matter to energy and back again Tuvok Vulcan, security chief; was undercover on Maquis ship Viidians A race with afflicted with a deadly disease; they have very advanced medical technology, used to steal body parts Warp The ability to travel faster than light Wilder, Samantha Member of the Starfleet crew, gave birth to the first baby on Voyager Wilder, Naomi Ensign Wilder's daughter

The Caretaker While searching for a missing Maquis ship, the USS Voyager finds itself transported 70,000 light years from home. Joining with the Maquis crew they strive to find a way home.

Parallax When attempts to rescue a ship stuck in a quantum singularity fail, the crew must work out if everything it as it appears.

Time and Again During an investigation of a recently devastated world, Janeway and Paris accidentally travel back in time to one day before the event that kills all life on the planet.

Phage When one of the Voyager crew is attacked the Viidians, aliens that harvest bodily organs, Janeway must confront the ethical problems of dealing with them.

The Cloud Searching for a boost to their energy supply in a nebula, the crew accidentally damage an unknown life form.

Eye of the Needle Voyager detects a wormhole that seems to lead to the Alpha Quadrant, and they discover someone on the other side - but that someone is a Romulan, living decades in Voyager's past.

Ex Post Facto While on an away mission, Paris is accused of murder and sentenced to relive the incident over and over again for the rest of his life.

Emanations Searching for a new element in an asteroid belt, Kim is transported to another reality and the only way back may be to die.

Prime Factors Voyager meets a very friendly race that may have a way to get them half way on their journey home, but does this strange people have an ulterior motive for welcoming them.

State of Flux When a damaged Kazon ship is found, the explosion shows evidence of Federation technology. Captain Janeway must face the fact that there is a traitor on board the Voyager.

Heroes and Demons A number of crew go missing on the holodeck and the Doctor, on his very first away mission, is set to find out where they went.

Cathexis Returning to Voyager Chakotay is in a coma and Tuvok appears to be lying. When crew start acting strange, they suspect they are not alone on the ship.

Faces In a Viidian attempt to cure the Phage, B'Elanna is split into her Human and Klingon halves which must work together to escape.

Jetrel A scientist responsible for killing thousands of Talaxians, including Neelix's family, comes aboard with serious news. But can he be trusted?

Learning Curve While Tuvok is tutoring some of the former Maquis crew, an accident occurs and Tuvok and company find themselves trapped and have to rely on each other.

Projections Convinced the Voyager is under attack from the Kazon, the Doctor leaves Sickbay to tend the wounded and descends into chaos where nothing can be trusted to be real. Reginald Barclay appears as a hologram representing the Doctor's control system.

Elogium When space borne creatures attach themselves to the ship Kes prematurely enters the Elogium, the one time in her life she can have a child.

Twisted The Voyager encounters a space disruption that traps the crew on the ship as it becomes a maze in which space folds in upon itself, each decision they make narrows their choices and further traps them.

The 37ers The Voyager is forced to land on an planet and the crew are astonished to find a '37 Chevy and Amelia Earhart, the first woman to fly across the Pacific Ocean.

Initiations Chakotay is attacked by a lone Kazon youth who has to prove himself by killing a Federation enemy.

Non Sequitur Ensign Kim awakes to find himself in 24th Century San Francisco. Looking at his service record he finds that he was never assigned to the Voyager. He later discovers that he entered a time rift, and he must decide to repair the time line and return to Voyager, or leave it as is, and continue his life on Earth.

Parturition On a mission to a Class M planet, Neelix and Paris become trapped in a cave with a hatching alien life form. They must team up to protect each other and the baby alien.

Persistence of Vision Just before an important first contact meeting, the crew are troubled by disturbing images from their life. Paris sees his father and Janeway is shocked when her holodeck novel takes on a new twist.

Tattoo Chakotay is left behind on a planet inhabited by descendants of a Native American Indian tribe. He must face his past and remember his culture to convince the tribe of his goodwill.

Cold Fire On a space station, an Ocampan colonist offers to lead the crew to the second Caretaker, a female alien they call Suspiria.

Maneuvers Seska returns with her Kazon allies with a massive shock for Commander Chakotay - she and he have a child together (maybe).

Resistance Caught up in a local conflict Tuvok is taken captive, Janeway is helped by an old man who believe she is his long lost daughter.

Prototype When the crew finds a humanoid robot floating in space, Torres attempts to repair it. Brought back to life, the sentient artificial life form explains that its kind is near extinction and demands that Torres builds a prototype for a new generation.

Alliances Janeway seeks to strengthen Voyager's position by forming an alliance with some of the Kazon sects. When the talks do not go well she looks to the Trabe who appear to have similar peaceful goals. She soon discovers that the Trabe, who used to enslave the Kazon before they revolted, have revenge on their minds.

Threshold In a effort to find a quick way home, Paris flies a new transwarp shuttle to the never before achieved speed of Warp 10 but on his return he starts to exhibit very strange after-effects.

Meld After a murder is committed on the ship, Tuvok melds with the guilty man to try and determine why he did such a evil deed and find himself spiraling into madness.

Dreadnought The Voyager crew find a Cardassian guided missile that was launched by the Maquis and pulled into the same rift as Voyager was. The missile is attempting to fulfill its programming and is headed towards a populated planet; Torres must face up to the actions of her past and stop the errant projectile.

Death Wish Quinn, a desperate refugee from the Q-Continuum seeks refuge on Voyager, but it is not long before Q arrives to take him home. Janeway must hold a unique trial, where Q must defend the Continuum.

Lifesigns In order to save a dying Viidian female, the Doctor places her phage-ridden body in stasis and transfers her mind into another hologram who he quite unexpectedly starts to fall in love with.

Investigations As Neelix starts to hear rumors of a traitor on Voyager, Paris decides to leave the ship and join a Talaxians convoy. Soon after the convoy is attacked by the Kazon and the ever scheming Seska attempts to coerce information out of Paris.

Deadlock On the run from the Viidians, Voyager seeks refuge in a plasma cloud, when a sudden accident caused severe damage to the ship and as the crew discovers creates a duplicate Voyager.

Innocence After Tuvok's shuttle crash-lands in a sacred haven of the Drayan, an alien race which has refused outside contact for decades, he finds three frightened Drayan children that have been abandoned by their people to die on the planet.

The Thaw Voyager finds a group of aliens preserved in cryogenic suspension, but when the crew try to wake them they find the computer does not want to let them go.

Tuvix Due to a freak transporter accident, Tuvok and Neelix become combined into a single alien entity which combines traits from both of them. When it becomes necessary to split Tuvix back into Tuvok and Neelix, Janeway has to face an uncomfortable choice - bring back her two friends, or allow Tuvix, who does not wish to "die", to continue on.

Resolutions Chakotay and Janeway become much better acquainted after they are quarantined on an uninhabited planet.

Basics, Part I The Kazon put a daring plan into motion and seize the Voyager, leaving all but the Doctor and an imprisoned crew member stranded on a desert planet.

Basics, Part II With Voyager in the hands of the Kazon, Janeway must find some way to retrieve her ship.

Flashback After coming down with a mysterious ailment, Tuvok has visions back to his days when he served on a starship under the famous Captain Sulu.

The Chute Kim and Paris are falsely accused of committing acts of terrorism and are both incarcerated in a horrific alien prison.

The Swarm As Voyager prepares to cross through the territory of an unknown but feared race, the Doctor finds himself with a major problem.

Sacred Ground Kes walks unprotected into a sacred shrine while on an away mission, and the biogenic energy in the shrine nearly kills her. To find a cause and cure, Janeway subjects herself to a rigorous religious ceremony that tests her faith in science, but which ultimately fails to help Kes. In the end, Janeway must have faith in the unknown to help Kes, which she does; when the Doctor discovers a scientific explanation for the cure, Janeway seems disappointed.

False Profits The Voyager crew encounter the two Ferengi that were lost in the Delta Quadrant when the Barzan Wormhole turned out to be unstable. The Ferengi have made quite a life for themselves, pretending to be gods, dazzling the locals with their technology, and taking advantage of a local prophecy. Neelix, altered to look Ferengi, Paris, and Chakotay lead on away mission to rid the people of the Ferengi, and, perhaps, use the wormhole to return home - but the Ferengi collapse the wormhole when they attempt to escape, leaving Voyager behind as they are sucked into it.

Remember B'Elanna starts to have a very vivid dream about a young woman, as Voyager transports a group of telepathic aliens back to their home world. At first, the dreams are pleasurable, but they soon turn dark as they reveal a secret about the aliens. Told the dreams may be a side effect of their simple presence, the Doctor blocks them - but B'Elanna's curiosity gets the best of her, and she removes the block; the dream reveals that an anti-technology movement on the alien world was put down by what amounted to genocide. One of the alien women chose B'Elanna to reveal the secret to; she later dies en route. Forbidden by the Prime Directive and the Captain from investigating on the planet, B'Elanna allows one of the young alien women to watch the dreams, hopefully planting the seed of knowledge.

Future's End (Two parts) After being attacked by a ship from the future, the Voyager crew find themselves on 20th Century Earth, where they must prevent a leading 20th Century industrialist from destroying the future. The crew does pick up one useful piece of technology - a portable holographic generator, which allows the Doctor to walk about outside of sickbay or the holodecks.

The Q and Grey Q appears to Janeway, intent on seducing her so that they might have a child together. Janeway rejects him and is wary of his motives. They soon become clear when Q and another Q visit Janeway again - the suicide of Quinn has spawned a freedom movement, spearheaded by Q himself, and Q feels that the infusion of human DNA, new blood, will give the Continuum a rallying point. Q brings Janeway to the Continuum, this time altering her perception so that it appears as Civil War America. The "other Q", Q's mate for eternity, is stranded on Voyager, her power diminished by the war. She devises a way to bring Voyager to the Continuum so that she may get Q back and Voyager can get Janeway back. Meanwhile, Q and Janeway are captured by "Southern" forces and sentenced to die. They are rescued by Q and the Voyager crew. Q and Q mate, and create a new Q, and the Continuum civil war ends.

Warlord When an alien warrior dies on Voyager, he manages to take over Kes in an attempt to see his plans of conquest through.

Macrocosm The ship is overwhelmed by a strange gelatinous life form and Janeway is forced into the conduit to elude the alien form while the Doctor on his first away mission attempts to find a solution.

Fair Trade At the edge of space he is familiar with, Neelix begins to feel unneeded and is afraid he'll be left behind. In an attempt to gather further information for the rest of their journey, an old friend of Neelix tricks him into shipping some illegal narcotics which gets the Voyager crew into some difficulty.

Alter Ego Aliens invade Neelix's new holo program and cause problems for the Voyager crew.

Coda The crew are left in a state of shock when Janeway is apparently killed by the Viidians after she is forced to crash land.

Blood Fever One of the Vulcan crew members enters Pon Farr, the ferocious Vulcan mating phase, during the exploration of a decimated colony. The object of his "affection", B'Elanna, is less than thrilled. Also, the crew finds evidence that the colony was destroyed by the Borg.

Unity The Voyager crew come up against the Federations greatest threat, when they discover an apparently disabled Borg cube. They later discover a colony of sorts, made up ex-Borg, disconnected from the collective and trying to reassert their individuality.

Darkling Experimenting with new personalities, the Doctor puts the crew in terrible danger as he starts to show a dark and sinister side.

Rise While attempting to help a local race, Tuvok and Neelix crash land and in the process reveal the possibility of a traitor in their midst.

Favorite Son Kim starts to behave abnormally and leads the Voyager crew to an alien planet where an amazing secret about him is revealed.

Before and After During an experiment to try and prolong her life, Kes finds herself moving backwards and forwards in time, beginning with the moment of her death, through a fatal attack, and all the way back to her pre-birth.

Real Life The Doctor creates a holographic family to try and better understand his patients. When B'Elanna attempts to make the Doctor's idyllic family a little more reflective of reality, the Doctor experiences teenage growing pains, marital strife, and the death of one of his children.

Distant Origin A scientist finds the body of a dead Voyager crew member, and detects similar DNA patterns in the body. Going in search of Voyager to prove a theory of distant origin, the scientist embroils Voyager in a political tug-of-war. Janeway and the Doctor discover that this advanced race is descendant from a species of Earth dinosaur that discovered space travel long before humans even existed, proving the distant origin theory.

Displaced Crew members mysteriously start to disappear to be replaced by an unknown alien race. At first, the aliens seem as confused as the crew, but it is soon discovered that this race is using this technique on purpose, to capture Voyager for use in further conquest.

Worse Case Scenario The crew find a partial holo program dealing with the possibility of a mutiny on board the ship and try to figure out who wrote it. They later find out Tuvok wrote it as a training aide, but that Seska modified it to strike back at Tuvok, whom she feels betrayed her and the other Maquis when he was aboard their ship as a spy.

Scorpion Voyager enters Borg space, but the Borg are preoccupied with a new species it cannot assimilate, and which is destroying Borg ships by the handful. When Harry is infected with the alien virus, the Doctor thinks he has a cure in Borg nannites. Janeway attempts to strike a deal with the Borg - they will share their technology in exchange for safe passage. Before she gets an answer, Voyager and the Borg are attacked.

Scorpion (Part 2) The Borg pull Voyager away from the attack by Species 8472, as Janeway strikes a deal. She and Tuvok work with Seven of Nine, a Borg of human origin, to come up with a replication system and a delivery system for the developing nanoprobe weapon. The Doctor perfects his nanoprobe treatment and cures Kim. Species 8472 is in contact with Kes, and they figure out what Voyager's up to; they attack, and the Borg ship destroys it in a suicide mission; Tuvok, Janeway, and a contingent of Borg and equipment were transported to Voyager first, though. Janeway is hurt in the attack and tells Chakotay to continue working with the Borg; but when they tell him to alter course back into Borg space, he breaks the alliance and blows the Borg into space - except for Seven of Nine, who creates a doorway to 8472's dimension. They must now face the enemy. Repaired, Janeway takes command and stands her ground, destroying a small fleet of 8472 ships. Upon return to normal space, Seven of Nine attempts to assimilate Voyager, but Chakotay links with her and appeals to her humanity; distracted, a power surge sent by Torres disconnects Seven from the Collective.

The Gift The Doctor continues Seven of Nine's rehabilitation. A potentially fatal malfunction of a Borg implant starts, but Kes is able to visualize the implant and destroy it on an atomic level. She and Tuvok do some Vulcan exercises, and she is definitely able to see beyond the telepathic, beyond the subatomic level of matter. But the effect is cascading, and she is unable to stop it. Janeway tells Seven of Nine her former name - Annika Hansen, taken by the Borg at a young age. Seven of Nine demands to be sent back to the Collective, but Janeway refuses. When Seven of Nine tries to contact the Borg, Kes detects her and stops her. Kes tells Neelix and Janeway, that she must leave the ship - and as her decision is made, she begins to phase, disrupting the ship's hull. She takes a shuttle craft and she exists our reality, but as she does, she takes Voyager with her, throwing them far out of Borg space, ten years closer to home. Seven of Nine begiuns to reacquire a more human appearance.

Nemesis Chakotay's shuttle is shot down when he came too close to a pair of warring races, the Vori and the Kidari. Rescued by a Vori squad, he sets out to find the remains of his shuttle, but his escort is killed in a Kidari raid. The Vori tell Chakotay that the Kidari are beasts who rape and pillage, and have no respect for the dead. Chakotay is told that a nearby unit has commo equipment that he can use to reach Voyager, but in a fire fight, both squads are nearly wiped out, and Chakotay is shot. He stumbles upon a village, where the locals fix him up and feed him, then send him on to a resupply station, where there will be a radio. As he walks off, the village is hit in an air strike - he goes back to help, but is captured and interrogated. He meets up with a lone survivor from the squad that rescued him and the two of them go on a raid - where Chakotay meets Tuvok, dressed as a Kidari. Tuvok tells Chakotay that he has been captured and brainwashed. Unbelieving, Tuvok brings him to the village that had been wiped out in the air strike - it is there, in pristine condition. Back on Voyager, Chakotay has to come to grips with the hatred he felt toward the Kidari, who are not the monsters he believed they were.

Revulsion Torres and the Doctor answer a distress call from a holographic maintenance worker on a disabled ship. He explains that the crew was infected with a virus on a survey mission, and they all died. He lashes out at Torres, though, making it clear that he is repulsed by "organics". The Doctor explains the outburst away as a reaction to his prior experience with people. But when B'Elanna goes exploring, she finds the crew, murdered. The hologram detects her tinkering and attacks her; she is able to stop his program just in time - the Doctor finds her collapsed on the floor, with a hole in her heart. The hologram damages the Doctor's mobile emitter, but Torres is able to permanently disable him with a power surge. Kim and Seven of Nine work together to design an astrometrics lab, and he starts to get to know her better. Harry is a bit put off when he invites her to a holographic sunset, and she proposes that they copulate.

The Raven While Voyager negotiates passage through the space of the difficult Bomar, Seven of Nine has a relapse of Borg technology - a Borg homing beacon has reenergized Seven's remaining Borg implants. She hijacks a shuttle and departs for the beacon, where she is sure a Borg ship awaits. Tuvok and Paris take off after her, while Janeway tries to placate the Bomar, who not only are upset about the incursion, but also because it is by a Borg. Tuvok beams aboard Seven's shuttle, be she disarms and stuns him. Paris's shuttle is disabled by Seven's phaser fire. He limps along after them. Tuvok and Seven reach an M-class moon, and beam down. There they find a 20-year-old Federation starship. Seven recognizes it as her parents ship, The Raven - the beacon was left behind when she was assimilated. The Bomar bomb the dilapidated ship, and Tuvok and Seven escape just as it begins to crumble. Paris beams them aboard and Voyager races after the whole bunch. They warp out of Bomar space and begin the longer roundabout journey.

Scientific Method The crew is afflicted by various ailments, ranging from the captain's headaches to Chakotay suddenly turning into an old man. B'Elanna and the Doctor find that the affected crew have tags on their DNA - just as they find this, they, too, are disabled. The Doctor contacts Seven via her Borg implants. He adjusts her eyepiece to be slightly out of phase. She confirms that there are aliens throughout the ship, conducting experiments. When they are revealed, the leader tells Janeway that they are simply conducting experiments, and they will soon leave with a minimum of casualties. Janeway, fed up, tired, and on enhanced levels of dopamine, aims Voyager toward a binary pulsar. The aliens evacuate, and Voyager's momentum carries her through the gravity well, with heavy damage to several decks. Paris and B'Elanna finally get some private time .

The Year of Hell (part 1) Voyager encounters a Krenim vessel, with low firepower but big words. They avoid the vessel and contact the dominant species in the area, the Zaal. But as they speak to the Zaal, a temporal shock wave hits them, the Zaal disappear, and the Krenim ship is now a large threatening vessel. Over the next few months, Voyager is pummeled in Krenim attacks. Seven finds a Krenim torpedo embedded in the ship, and is able to get key readings from it before it explodes. With her readings, Voyager is able to construct shields to counteract the Krenim weapons. Meanwhile, a Krenim vessel, which exists outside normal space and time, is using a time weapon to erase a species from time. The shock wave encounters Voyager's shields and disrupts the process; the Krenim are instantly reduced to a tiny empire. The Krenim ship goes to Voyager and attempts to erase it, though its mass prevents it from catching Voyager as it warps away. The trip weighs heavily on the ship, though, and Janeway orders all non-command staff to abandon ship.

The Year of Hell (part 2) The small crew left aboard Voyager struggles to keep the ship together. Meanwhile, aboard the Krenim time ship, Paris and Chakotay are taken out of the brig and made to feel like part of the crew. The captain offers to restore both the Krenim civilization and Voyager, with some help from the two. Chakotay begins to learn of the time calculations, while Tom befriends some of the crew. Tom feels that they would be willing to mutiny, though Chakotay is unwilling to go that far, until the captain wipes out yet another civilization. Tom transmits the ship's coordinates to Voyager, which is joined by a few ships from other races. A battle ensues, and the ship's time phase shift is dropped. When the fall into normal space/time, Janeway plots a collision course into the time ship. The collision and an overload in the temporal core sets off a time wave inside the ship, and all the damage it has ever done is restored. Voyager encounters a Krenim vessel, and a course is plotted around their space, the crew unaware of what had transpired in the alternate time line.

Random Thoughts Visiting the Mari, a placid, telepathic race, Janeway and Torres negotiate with Guill, a vendor, for some spare parts. During the transaction, an assault by a man named Frane is perpetrated on a market vendor. Such a crime is almost unheard of. The local police chief, Namira, looks into the crime, and asks all Voyager crew involved to submit to mind scans. B'Elanna was found to have been bumped into by Frane, at which time she thought of hitting him back. She is accused of Aggravated Violent Thought, a crime on Mari, and is sentenced to have her violent thoughts erased. Janeway and Tuvok look into the crime, and find that Frane had been convicted of violent thought four prior times, but Namira is certain he has been purged of all but B'Elanna's thoughts. Tuvok investigates Guill, and finds that he trafficks in violent thought. He is able to overcome Guill and his associates, and takes Guill aboard Voyager. Namira is presented with the evidence, and Torres is released. Seven comments to Janeway that their dual missions of exploration and return to the Alpha Quadrant are at cross-purposes. She suggests abandoning exploration and proceeding directly home.

Concerning Flight While running her daVinci program, Janeway is called to the bridge - Voyager is under attack. Throughout the ship, pieces of technology are beamed away, including the main computer core. Kim and Seven are able to trace the raiders, but it takes Voyager 10 days to get there. Janeway and Tuvok go to the surface near where Federation energy signals are detected, and they are greeted by Leonardo. He is wearing the Doctor's emitter, and says he has found a rich patron. The patron turns out to be a dealer in stolen goods, and he attempts to sell the computer core to Janeway. But he overhears he plans to get the core back, and takes her prisoner. She convinces Leonardo to help her escape, and using his maps, they find the site the computer core is being stored in. The core is beamed back to Voyager, but Janeway and daVinci are left behind. Janeway uses a site-to-site transporter to beam out of the building, and a pursuit ensues. They escape on one of daVinci's flying contraptions - Voyager battles its way down low in orbit to beam the two aboard, after which they leave post haste.

Mortal Coil Neelix goes on an away mission into a nebula to collect proto-matter, and is killed in an accident. Unable to revive him, the Doctor tells Janeway to prepare him for burial - but Seven tells Janeway that he can be saved by Borg technology. Using nanoprobes, Seven and the Doctor revive Neelix. He has a crisis of faith, however, when he does not see the Great Forest. He had told Naomi Wilder about the Great Forest earlier; a place where Talaxians go when they die, where all you ever loved them are waiting. Neelix asks Chakotay to help him with a vision quest - in his quest, he sees his sister Alexia, who tells him the Great Forest is a lie, and he knows what he has to do. He tries to kill himself by beaming into the nebula, but Chakotay is able to delay him. When Ensign Wilder tells Neelix that Naomi needs him, he realizes that he has a new family on Voyager.

Waking Moments The morning shift all awaken after having nightmares, all of whom feature a fierce-looking alien. Suspecting the appearance of the same face in many dreams is more than a coincidence, Janeway and Tuvok go to check on Harry, who is late for duty - he is sleeping, and nothing the Doctor does can revive him or several other crew members. Chakotay uses his vision quest hardware to put himself in a dream he can awaken himself from, and finds the alien and confronts him - they live in the dream world as we live the in "waking" world, and they want Voyager out of their space. Chakotay awakens, and sets course to leave, but an alien fleet overtake and occupy Voyager - until Chakotay realizes he is still dreaming. When he awakes this time, he only finds the Doctor - all the others are now sleeping. Chakotay plots a course for a planet with unusual energy readings. He beams down and finds a huge cavern filled with the aliens, all asleep. He falls asleep, though; but tells the aliens that the Doctor will destroy the cavern and all of its occupants if they are not released. They are released and leave alien space quickly.

Message in a Bottle Seven detects a Starfleet vessel - but in the Alpha quadrant. She has tapped into a vast network of alien relay stations, stretching 60000 light years. Attempts to contact the ship by subspace are unsuccessful, so they try a higher-powered holographic stream, sending the Doctor to the ship before she goes out of range. He arrives in a seemingly empty ship, but he finds the bodies of some of the crew; he revives one for a moment, and learns that the Romulans have taken the ship. The Prometheus is a prototype weapon with an experimental Multi-Vector Assault mode. It also has a prototype EMH program, that the Doctor recruits to help disable the Romulans. The two doctors gas all the Romulans, but they are just moments away from a rendezvous with the Tal Shi'ar, to deliver the new ship. A Starfleet squad attacks the Romulan ships, and the Prometheus. The doctors fumble around the bridge and activate the MVA, and destroy the Romulans. On Voyager, a Hirogen, the race that built the network, breaks Voyager's connection. When Janeway tries to convince them to let them maintain the link, they balk, but Seven is able to maintain the link. The Doctor is sent back to Voyager. Listed as missing, Voyager now has hope that there may be a way home. Starfleet's message - "You're no longer alone".

Hunters A Hirogen ship intercepts Starfleet transmissions bound for Voyager, and does its best to scramble them as they continue on. Voyager receives the transmissions, sent as a result of the Doctor's previous away mission to the Prometheus; Seven and Janeway quickly realize that they are letters from home, though Seven finds an encrypted transmission broadcast simultaneously with the clear text. The transmitter is a huge relic, powered by a contained quantum singularity. It is part of the huge network of relay stations spanning two quadrants. Tuvok and Seven go in a shuttle to the relay station to boost its containment field so that the transmission can be better heard. But they are taken prisoner by a Hirogen ship, and the Hirogen captain is intent on acquiring "relics" from their bodies. More Hirogen ships approach; Janeway disrupts the containment field, creating a huge gravity well. The Hirogens fire, and the containment field collapses, unleashing the black hole - Kim is able to pull Tuvok and Seven away from the hostile ship just in time. The letters create quite a stir on Voyager, as the former Maquis learn of the fate of their movement and their comrades; and Janeway learns her fiance has married someone else.

Prey Voyager encounters a badly damaged Hirogen ship, and they board her. A lone Hirogen is found and taken aboard for treatment. Meanwhile, Voyager is able to learn much about the Hirogen - they are hunters, and their entire society is based on killing prey. They do not even appear to have a home world. As he recovers, the Hirogen demands to be let go to continue his hunt. A hull breech and organic matter near it lead to the discovery that the Hirogen is chasing a member of Species 8472, left behind after the invasion of Borg space. It is cornered and detained, though the Doctor can do little to help it. Janeway orders Seven of Nine to create a quantum singularity so it can return to its own space, but Seven refuses. During an attack by other Hirogen ships, the power flickers, allowing the Hirogen hunter to escape. It finds 8472 and as they struggle, Seven beams them both to one of the Hirogen ships; the attack is broken off. Janeway is angry at Seven for disobeying, and banishes her to her cargo bay and astrometrics.

Retrospect Voyager is bartering for new weapons technology with Kovin, an Entharian. Janeway agrees to trade with Kovin for a new weapon that appears to be impervious to shielding. Janeway allows Seven access to engineering to help integrate the system into Voyager. While working with Kovin, Seven strikes him during a minor altercation, and Seven is again restricted to her quarters. During a medical exam, Seven is unusually unnerved by the Doctor's instruments. He thinks she is suppressing memories and puts her through a regression therapy to recover them. In her recall, Kovin got her alone while during firearms testing and disabled her; nanoprobes were extracted from her body. Janeway confronts Kovin, who denies the allegation. During an investigation in his lab, nanoprobes are found; Kovin beams away to his ship, and Voyager gives chase. Further examination of the evidence, though, shows that Kovin is not guilty, and the memories are probably the result of Seven's Borg experiences. Kovin is convinced that Voyager's requests to listen are traps, and he fires at Voyager until his ship blows up under an overload. The Doctor requests that some of his programming be erased to prevent him from making such a mistake again, but Janeway refuses to allow it.

The Killing Game (part 1) Voyager has been overtaken by a group of Hirogen ships. For three weeks, the Hirogen leader has been using the holodecks to conduct hunts of Voyager personnel in various scenarios, from the Crusades to Klingon hand-to-hand combat. The Hirogen have Harry working to expand the holodecks to several levels, and the Doctor patching up the crew as they are dispatched in each scenario. The problem is compounded because the Hirogen have implanted neural transmitters that are making the crew think that they are actual characters in the game. The Hirogen leader picks World War II as the next scenario, putting the crew in the role of the French resistance and the Americans; the Hirogen are the Nazis. Harry comes up with a plan to neutralize the neural transmitters, but needs an ally in the holodeck itself. When Seven is wounded in the game, the Doctor is able to disable her transmitter - she is sent back into the game aware of herself, but awkwardly unfamiliar with the other characters. Janeway and Seven go on a sabotage mission to Nazi HQ, where seven finds a holodeck console and begins to program it; only Janeway's transmitter is deactivated before the Hirogen catch on. Seven and Janeway escape the HQ just before the Americans begin to shell it.

The Killing Game (part 2) The American shelling of the Nazi HQ has breached the holodeck, since the safety protocols have been turned off, exposing Voyager to the game. Janeway and Seven return to the resistance HQ. Janeway makes her way to sick bay, from where the neural transmitters are controlled. Since nearly the entire ship has been equipped with holomitters, she can place a holographic explosive beneath the sickbay. When it explodes, the entire crew is aware, but now under heavy attack from the holographic Nazis and the real Hirogen. Janeway is captured and taken to the Hirogen leader. He tells her his plan is to use holo technology to return the Hirogen to a stable civilization. By hunting on holodecks, they can remain stationary and stop wandering the quadrant. She agrees to give him holo technology in exchange for their freedom, but the leader's second is not so willing and kills him; he dies himself when Janeway chases him down with a rifle. The battle wages on, but soon the two sides come to a stalemate. Janeway meets with the new Hirogen leader and gives them some holo technology as agreed, and the Hirogen leave.

Vis a Vis Voyager encounters an alien with a very sophisticated, very unstable warp drive. They are able to stabilize the drive and have the alien, Steth, come aboard to make repairs. Paris help him out. Steth is a shape-shifter, and he is about to lose his shape's stability. As they repair the ship, Steth replaces his body with Tom's, taking on his shape. Though Steth has some trouble adjusting to Paris's life, he quickly adapts. He is not fully satisfied with Tom's life and begins to go off the deep end, threatening Seven and attacking the captain. He is phasered and placed in sickbay. On Steth's ship, Paris jumps out of warp in Benthen space, where he finds the "real" Steth. They find Voyager. When Janeway hijacks a shuttle, it is clear the alien has again shifted. They are able to catch the Janeway alien and everyone is returned to their original shape.

The Omega Directive An energy wave hits Voyager and an odd read-out appears on the bridge displays. No one can clear the displays except Janeway, who does so and then quickly disappears into her ready room. The captain calls for Seven - she knows about the Omega Directive because the Borg knew from assimilated Starfleet captains. The Omega Molecule is one of infinite complexity, yet is harmonic - the Borgs' Holy Grail. Janeway's mission is to discover the source and destroy it, before it destroys a large portion of space. Janeway tells Chakotay that she and Seven will either return successfully, or they will never return at all. He convinces her to tell the senior staff the details. Omega was synthesized 100 years ago in the Lantaru sector. The explosion resulting from the molecule's destabilization destroyed the station it was developed in and disrupted subspace for light years. In that space, warp travel is impossible. The source of the shock wave is found at a research station on a small moon. They find hundreds of the molecules - they are being researched as an energy source. Voyager takes the molecules just as the researchers' military arrives - while they take fire, Janeway has to deal with Seven, who wants to save and harness Omega. In the end, they destroy the molecules and Seven ponders whether the Borgs' pursuit of Omega amounts to a religion.

Unforgettable A ship in distress calls for help, asking for Chakotay by name. Injured in sick bay, the woman, Kellin, asks for asylum. She tells Chakotay that her race has a biology that prevents others from remembering them, that prevents scanners from seeing them. She says she was on Voyager for two weeks and she left knowing she would be forgotten - but she found that she'd fallen in love with Chakotay. Her people do not tolerate defectors - she herself is a tracer, a bounty hunter, but she is disenchanted with her peoples' closed society. The crew try to find some way to verify her story, and she recounts her time aboard to Chakotay. She was hunting a dissident when her cloak failed and she triggered an intruder alert. Janeway was not happy to hear a stowaway was aboard and had Chakotay work with Kellin. They found the dissident and celebrated his capture alone in Chakotay's quarters. A pair of tracers come for her, but Kellin modifies Voyager's sensors to detect the ships. Kellin tells Chakotay that she will leave if he feels nothing for her. Though he still does not remember her, he asks her to stay. A tracer is already on board and scans Kellin to make her forget her time on Voyager. The Doctor is unable to stop the memory drain. The tracer refuses to help as well. Soon, her memory is gone and Chakotay tries to explain to her, but she insists on going home. Chakotay makes his log with paper and pencil so he will remember.

Living Witness 700 years in the future, a Kyrian museum recalls a destructive encounter with the Warship Voyager. They strike a deal with the Vaskan to find and capture the Kyrian leader Tedran in exchange for information on the whereabouts of a stable wormhole. Voyager capture Tedran and kill him and 8 million people. Some Vaskans distrust the evidence of the Voyager Encounter, but recent archeological digs have uncovered further proof. The exhibit curator, a Kyrian, views the artifact, a copy of the Doctor. He is informed that as the designer of some of the weapons used in the Encounter, he may be tried as a war criminal. When the Doctor sees the Kyrian version of history, he balks. It was the Kyrians who attacked the Vaskans and Voyager, led by Tedran. Though initially reluctant to listen, the curator allows the Doctor to revise the simulation. The Kyrians invade Voyager and take technology and hostages. The Vaskan ambassador killed Tedran, not Janeway. The discovery of the Doctor sparks a race riot between the Kyrians and the Vaskans, but when the truth became wide spread, a new unity between the peoples emerged. The Doctor stayed with them for many years before leaving to retrace Voyager's journey home.

Demon Voyager faces a power crisis and the crew quarters are left without power. Seven finds a Y-class planet (demon class in Starfleet slang) with needed raw materials. Attempts to beam the deuterium aboard just leads to an accident. Harry suggests a highly modified shuttle and environmental suit. Kim and Paris head down to mine the deuterium. Kim falls into a pool of a liquified metal and his suit starts to fail... soon Tom's suit fails, too. When they don't return, Janeway uses remaining power to land Voyager. Seven and Chakotay go out to find them. Chakotay almost falls down a cliff when Paris, unsuited, helps Seven pull him back up. Paris and Kim are brought back to be examined by the Doctor. As soon as they are aboard, they begin to suffocate. Doc finds a fluid in their blood which adapted their bodies. The atmosphere is unsafe to replicate - a cure must be found or they will have to be left behind. The fluid is found to have organic properties and when it touches B'Elanna's thumb, it mimics her. An away team finds the bodies of Paris and Kim still alive, barely. A pool of the fluid forms under Voyager and she begins to sink. Janeway fires into the pool - the Kim duplicate asks Janeway to stop. The "silver blood" has experienced sentience for the first time. In exchange for releasing Voyager, volunteers donate DNA for duplication to populate the planet.

One Voyager enters a nebula with disastrous results to the crew. The radiation is toxic - too far to go around, the entire crew must be put in stasis during the month it would take to go through it. Seven, unaffected by the radiation, will remain awake with the Doctor; Janeway has reservations that Seven can handle such prolonged solitude, but agrees to the plan. 10 days into the trip, ship's systems begin to fail. A major problem with the warp engines turns out to be a false alarm - several gel packs are failing and sending false signals. The Doctor's emitter fails as well, confining him to sick bay. By day 29, Seven admits to herself that she is feeling the effects of the isolation. Voyager encounters a ship and Seven works a trade with the lone pilot. When she rebuffs his propositions, he gets loose on board. After she disables him, she begins to hallucinate. The Doctor finally fails, leaving Seven alone for the remaining days of the voyage, her Borg implants beginning to degrade, too. In the last day, her hallucinations intensify. She has to reroute all power to the engines, including her life support to get the ship through, and barely survives, but she and the crew emerge alive and well.

Hope and Fear After five months, Janeway continues to try to decode the Starfleet message. Neelix and Paris bring Arturis aboard, one of a species with a talent for languages, in exchange for help in a trade negotiation. Janeway asks if he can help with the message. He does, and the message gives coordinates that lead to a ship, and a message that the ship can bring them home in three months. The Dauntless uses experimental slipstream technology to move great distances quickly. They investigate the ship, and try to learn its technology and adapt it to Voyager, too. Janeway works on part of the message Arturis said was badly damaged - it is a message that Starfleet cannot help them find a way home. Arturis lied to them - Dauntless is his ship, modified to look like Starfleet. He blames Janeway for the assimilation of his entire race by the Borg, once they defeated Species 8472, they went after his race, which had eluded them for centuries. He plans to bring her and Seven to the collective. Using the slipstream technology, Voyager gives chase, fires, and is able to beam Janeway and Seven back. Arturis ends up in Borg space. The slipstream damages Voyager, but Seven vows to try to find a way to use it to bring Voyager home sooner.

Night Voyager is crossing a great expanse, two years wide. In it, there are no stars, no life, no frame of reference. The darkness outside the ship has people on edge after only two months, and has given Janeway a chance to seclude herself in her quarters. Sullenly, she contemplates the fate her decisions have lead Voyager and the crew to. Suddenly, Voyager drops out of warp and loses all power. As some systems come back on line, a creature attacks Seven and Tom in a holodeck. Seven shoots the creature and they take it to sickbay. Tuvok fires a flare of sorts and illuminates several ships, which then move off slightly, restoring all ships power. A fourth ship arrives and fires on the first three, driving them off. The captain, Emck of the Malon, offer to help guide Voyager out of The Void through a wormhole in exchange for the alien creature. Janeway talks to the creature once he regains consciousness. The Doctor tells her he is dying of theta radiation poisoning, the same radiation the Malon ship is glowing with. Voyager takes the creature back to its people. Janeway asks Emck what the theta radiation is from - it is an industrial byproduct, and he is dumping it in the Void. The radiation has upset the delicate balance of the void. They offer to help the Malon convert their industry and ships to recycle theta radiation, as Voyager does, but Emck refuses, fearful of his hauling business if there is nothing to haul. Janeway decides to take the wormhole by force and close it once inside. Voyager fights its way past the freighter, but she is badly damaged by the Malon ships' weapons, but the night creatures attack, distracting the Malon as Voyager slips into the vortex, fires photo torpedoes at the opening; Voyager emerges to a bright, start-filling viewscreen.

Drone Seven, Paris, B'Elanna, and the Doctor fly near a proto-nebula to study it when it suddenly surges, placing their shuttle in jeopardy. They are taken in an emergency transport - in the process, the Doctor's emitter is damaged. Seven and crewman Mulcahey take it for study. While they are away, the emitter grows Borg appendages. When Mulcahey checks on the emitter, assimilation tubes extract tissue from him, leaving him unconscious. Seven deduces that in the transporter, some of her nanoprobes were merged with the emitter - it has built an artificial womb and is growing a fetal Borg, which is not how drones are normally built. It matures quickly - Janeway refuses to destroy it, and tells Seven to teach it. It is very powerful, with the emitter's 29th century technology evident in the design. Neelix tells the drone he should choose a name. He chooses One. While regenerating, his proximity sensor trips, alerting a Borg probe, which intercepts Voyager. Janeway and Seven give One a quick history of Borg conquest, and he agrees to help, first disrupting a Borg tractor beam, then enhancing Voyager's phasers - but Voyager's technology is not very advanced, and he beams over to the Borg probe, sending it into the nebula. It implodes, but One barely survives. He refuses to let the Doctor operate, and denies Seven's pleas. He dies, saying his life puts the Voyager crew in danger.

Extreme Risk A Malon tractor beam attempts to steal Voyager's multi-spacial probe. Janeway sends the probe into a atmosphere of a gas giant, and when the Malon ship gives chase, it is crushed. The probe gets stuck, and Paris suggests building a new shuttle he's been working on to go get it. Janeway approves and the team gets to work. Another Malon ship demands the probe as payment for the first's destruction. Janeway refuses, and Seven detects that they are building a shuttle to get the probe, too. The race is on. B'Elanna is not much help, though, as she seems to descend into depression. When she tests the shuttle on the holodeck, with all safeties turned off, she is nearly killed. She is placed in the Doctor's care, and Chakotay inventories her other holodeck programs. He brings her to one she wrote of the Maquis massacre they'd learned of. She says she feels nothing looking at the bodies of her friends; she has no family left. Chakotay tells her that Voyager is her family now. The Malon send their shuttle into the planet, and Paris follows with his Delta Flyer, with B'Elanna, Seven, and Kim along. They are able to shoo away the Malon ship and beam in the small probe. B'Elanna saves them all with a well-timed force field to engulf a hull breach.

In the Flesh Chakotay takes pictures of Starfleet Headquarters in San Francisco, including one of legendary Boothby. In a lounge, he meets Valerie Archer who notes that she finds it odd being in human form. Tuvok gathers Chakotay, and they beam aboard the Delta Flyer, with a security guard who tried to stop them - they are orbiting a space station with a huge recreation of a piece of Earth inside. They take the guard back to Voyager - the Doctor attempts to examine him; when he does, the man kills himself. Janeway reviews Chakotay's photos and marvels at the accuracy of the recreation. The Doctor discovers that the guard has been genetically modified at a cellular level - he forces a reversion, and a dead member of Species 8472 morphs on his examining table. Janeway deduces that 8472 must be preparing to invade the Federation. Seven produces modified nanoprobes to use as a defense. Chakotay goes back to the simulation, where he takes Archer on a date. She takes a clandestine skin sample and discovers he's human - he is detained by Boothby, the commander at the simulation. They ask him when the Federation fleet is arriving to attack. Janeway contacts Boothby and arranges a meeting. She stands down her nanoprobe weapons as a sign of good faith, and they learn 8472 is scared of humans - they allied with the Borg and killed many of their kind. Janeway insists they are not a threat, and, in fact, Voyager is alone in the Delta Quadrant. They tell her their plans are not to invade the Federation, but to send agents to infiltrate it, to find out their plans to destroy 8472. The two realize their positions have been arrived out of mutual fear. Boothby pledges to return to the leadership of 8472 and to try to convince them the Federation would prefer to meet and understand 8472 rather than destroy them. Janeway provides Voyager's comm signal so they can contact her.

Once Upon a Time Paris, Tuvok, and Wilder are surveying space in the Delta Flyer when an ion storm damages the ship. They are forced to make a crash-landing on planet. Wilder has a severe internal injury and needs surgery. Aboard Voyager, Neelix takes care of Naomi, keeping her occupied with homework and the well-loved holostory about Flotter the water man and Trevis the tree man. The situation reminds him of his family, killed in the war with the Haakonen - and of his sister Alexia in particular. He tells Janeway that he cannot tell Naomi, to save her from the pain he felt. Voyager locates the Flyer and sends teams down to the planet to dig it out of the planet's crust. Unaware of the efforts, the Flyer's crew records farewell messages for their loved ones as life support starts to fail. They start to race against time as another ion storm races toward them - they are able to uncover the shuttle enough to transport the entire thing out before the storm hits. Reunited, Naomi and Wilder explore Flotter's world together.

Timeless Kim and Chakotay beam down to an ice planet and locate Voyager, buried under a glacier. They beam inside and find the crew all long dead. They activate the EMH and take Seven's body aboard their ship - the Delta Flyer. They activate the Doctor and say that they are there to change history. Aboard Voyager, the slipstream drive is finally ready for an attempt to get home. Paris, however, has run some last-minute tests and finds that there is a fatal flaw - in the slipstream, Voyager will be destroyed. Harry works out a way to have the Delta Flyer ride the slip stream ahead of Voyager and send minor corrections back to her. Janeway approves the plan and they start up the drive. When the corrections are needed, Harry sends them but they do not work - Voyager is knocked off the slipstream and crash lands on the planet. Harry explains to the Doctor that they are there to send the right corrections to Voyager, using Borg technology from Seven's body and stolen from the Federation - they are fugitives. The Borg tech will allow a message to travel back to Seven through time. The Challenger, under Captain Geordi LaForge, tries to stop them from violating the Temporal Prime Directive, but they send their message. It fails - the corrections did not work. Harry sends them again, this time to knock Voyager out of the slipstream safely, but not in the Alpha Quadrant. It works - Seven enters the corrections and Voyager stops, though 10 years closer to home.

Infinite Regress A Borg vessel has been destroyed and a sub-space signal emanating from it is affecting Seven's mind as it attempts to establish contact with her - different personalities that had been assimilated into the collective begin to overwhelm Seven's consciousness: a Klingon warrior, a Vulcan officer. A young girl plays a game with Naomi Wilder for quite a time. When she attacks B'Elanna while speaking Klingon, however, she is restrained in sick bay. Once the doctor determines what is going on, Seven tells them of a Borg transmitter called a vinculum. Voyager finds the vinculum and beams it aboard to attempt to shut it down. But it adapts to their attacks. While B'Elanna works to dampen and shut down the vinculum, the doctor worries that Seven's own personality may be lost. Tuvok goes into her mind to try to bring her out. Meanwhile, B'Elanna finds the vinculum infected with a virus, which is causing its transmissions. The DNA pattern match that of Species 6339. Voyager sets out to find a 6339 ship - when they do, they learn the virus is a doomsday weapon against he Borg, and they are anxious to get the vinculum back. Janeway refuses, citing Seven's health. B'Elanna fights to dampen the device, as Voyager battles 6339 and Tuvok battles within Seven's mind. Once B'Elanna shuts down the vinculum, Tuvok pulls Seven back and Voyager beams the vinculum into space where 6339 can pick it up themselves.

Nothing Human An energy wave hits Voyager and they set out to find its source - it is an alien ship. They beam aboard its life form, which is not humanoid. While the Doctor tries to examine it, B'Elanna comes to report on the ship - the creature jumps to life and attaches itself to B'Elanna. The doctor cannot remove it and knows little about exobiology. He and Kim create a hologram of one of the Alpha Quadrants greatest exobiologists, Crell Moset. One problem for the Maquis on board - Crell is a Cardassian, and an infamous one at that. Tabor, a Bajoran, tells of experiments he conducted on live subjects. Though he cured a deadly disease, but killed dozens to create the vaccine. Tabor lobbies to have Moset erased, and B'Elanna refuses to have him work on her. The doctor and Paris lobby to have him continue, and Janeway agrees - do this now to save B'Elanna and deal with the morals later. They do send out an energy wave to try to contact more of the species, in case they can help. Moset and the Doctor set out to operate - Moset's procedure would save B'Elanna but kill the creature; the doctor jumps in with a less aggressive procedure that will save both. An alien ship pops out of warp and it locks onto them with a tractor beam. They release the creature and beam it to its ship, which retreats. The Doctor contemplates saving the Moset program, but after speaking with it and grappling with the moral dilemma, he deletes it. B'Elanna is angry at Janeway for authorizing the procedure - Janeway tells her to deal with it.

Thirty Days Paris is demoted to Ensign and placed in solitary confinement by Janeway. In a letter to his father, he recounts the events leading up to the punishment: Voyager encounters a world whose atmosphere is entirely water, being held together by some kind of field. While orbiting, ships confront Voyager, but Janeway quickly convinces the Moneans of their good intentions. The Moneans tell Janeway that the planet, on which they arrived 300 years before, is losing volume. Tom suggests taking the Delta Flyer into the depths of the planet, deeper than the Monean ships can go, to investigate. At 600 km deep, Paris and a Monean scientist Riga discover a mechanism. It emits a gravity field, and holds the water to it. But something is forcing it to divert power from gravity to its own structural integrity. Tom and Riga discover the Monean's own oxygen mining processes are disrupting the mechanism. To stop the process, the mining should be stopped and revised. The Monean ambassador thanks them, but refuses to do anything. Tom, a lover of old ocean tales, feels an affection for the planet and teams with Riga to destroy some of the refineries. They hijack the Flyer, and take aim on the plant, but Voyager fires on the Flyer and forces it to the surface. Tom is taken into custody, tried, and thrown into the brig.

Counterpoint Devoran warships stop Voyager and board her. They scan everyone and everybody, including some waste canisters in the cargo bay. On the bridge, the head inspector, Kashyk, asks Janeway about two Vulcans and two Betazed on her crew - she tells him that they are all dead. He reminds her of the penalties for being a telepath, and takes his ships and leaves. Tuvok and the rest of the crew, and a dozen or so Brenari are then pulled out of the transporter pattern buffers in the waste containers. The Brenari are on the run from the Devore. They are searching for a wormhole to take them out of Devore space (passage through which requires submission to inspection on demand). Kashyk appears alone in a shuttle and asks for asylum. He knows they have been hiding telepaths, and is fed up with how the Devore treat them. He asks for safe passage. He and Janeway work together to try to determine the next place the wormhole will appear. They determine the Tehara system, where a Devore sensor station will likely detect them - they try to drift past but are detected. In a race to the wormhole site, Devore ships chase Voyager. Kashyk volunteers to go back aboard the Devore ships and divert them. But upon his arrival, he reassumes his position and demands Voyager turn over the Brenari - but Janeway sent them ahead in two of Voyager's shuttles to the wormhole entrance, and they make their escape. Kashyk lets Voyager go, rather than let his record show that the Brenari escaped.

Latent Image While experimenting with his holoimager, the Doctor finds a surgical scar on Kim that neither has any recollection of; the surgery was definitely done by the Doctor, 18 months earlier. He enlists the help of Seven, who was not on board at the time. They review his image album from 18 months ago and find many images deleted. She is able to reconstruct a handful, and they tell an odd story - a crew member he has never seen, a shuttle mission he does not recall, and an attack by an alien. They bring their findings to Janeway, with the premise that some alien race has erased all the crew's memories of some event, and may still be doing it. Janeway asks the Doctor to shutdown while they investigate. He later has more short-term memories erased, and his holoimager recorded Janeway doing it. He confronts her - she admits to the erasures. 18 months ago, his program confronted a situation it could not deal with and it was rewritten and the memories erased. She intends to do it again. Seven challenges her decision, saying the Doctor is more than just a machine to be fixed. She agrees to let him see the memories - he was on a mission with Kim and Ani Jetal, when they were attacked. The alien weapon attacked their nervous system, and when he discovered a treatment, he only had time to help one of them - Jetal died. His ethical and cognitive programs later came in conflict as he contemplated his choice. After his memory is restored, the conflict returns, and Janeway shuts him down. But this time, she decides to help his program adapt, to let the battle wage within him, rather than remove the memories.

Bride of Chaotica! Tom and Harry are still playing Tom's Captain Proton holonovel when Voyager comes to a dead stop, with systems failing all over the place. On the holodeck, several distortions appear, but seem benign. Unable to stop the simulation, they transports out of the holo deck. Voyager has entered a layer of subspace that is disrupting their warp field - the more they push against the field, the more it pushes back. Meanwhile, on the holodeck, the distortions spawn human-looking figures, who are captured by Chaotica's troops. One is killed and the other escapes. As the crew tries to free Voyager, sensors suddenly pick up weapons fire on the holodeck. When Harry and Tuvok beam back into the holodeck, they find destruction everywhere. They learn that Chaotica is firing his death ray at the distortions and the distortions are firing at Chaotica's castle. One of the distortion people encounter the pair, and he explains that he is a photonic life form - he is unaware that there can be carbon-based life and suspects Tuvok and Tom are illusions. Tom devises a plan to resolve the conflict; the Doctor will pose as the President of Earth and get the photonic beings to hold their fire while Janeway acts as Arachnia, Queen of the Spider People. Janeway seduces Chaotica and disables his lightning shield, and Tom uses Proton's ship to destroy the death ray. Once the Chaotica threat is eliminated, the photonic beings leave, and Voyager slowly emerges from the subspace field.

Gravity Tuvok, Paris, and the Doctor crash land a shuttle when it is pulled into a gravity well. Noss, a woman also crashed on the planet, steals supplies from Paris, but Tuvok retrieves them when he rescues her from some attackers. With the universal translators down, communication is difficult until Paris gets the doctor working again. They abandon the shuttle and go to Noss's ship, which is defended against outside attack. Noss tells them she's been there 14 years, and has seen many ships crash land there. Noss begins to learn English and starts to fall for Tuvok. Since they've been there so long and rescue seems unlikely, Paris encourages Tuvok to pursue a relationship. Tuvok refuses, recalling his lessons in logic as a rebellious teen. Tuvok is hurt in an ambush and Noss nurses him back to health, but when he recovers, he is not as receptive to her affections as she'd like. Meanwhile, Voyager searches for the shuttle and encounters the gravity well, and determines the shuttle went inside. They launch a probe that confirms a system exists on the other side of the disturbance... telemetry from the probe indicates a temporal shift - 30 minutes on Voyager translates to two days on the other side. A nearby race is getting ready to close the disturbance as a navigational hazard. Voyager only has a limited amount of time, and sends the stranded team a message. On the ground, the group is withstanding an alien attack as they count the hours to their rescue. Noss is hurt and Tuvok retrieves her just before they all beam out. Before Voyager drops Noss off on her home planet, Tuvok mind-melds with her to help her understand why he rebuked her.

Bliss Voyager detects a wormhole that appears to lead to the Alpha Quadrant - landing, in fact, right next to Earth. The entire crew is excited as messages start to come to Voyager from Starfleet, indicating generally good news for everyone. Seven, Paris, and Naomi Wilder return from a scouting trip to find the crew in a euphoria. Seven is instantly suspicious of the wormhole. She watches Janeway's log entries that indicate she was initially suspicious, but quickly became convinced the wormhole is real. When Seven scans the wormhole, she finds a ship and contacts it. Its pilot, Qatai, warns them away, saying it is a trap. When Seven tries to convince the crew the wormhole is not real, she is disbelieved, and, in fact, and scheduled to be placed in stasis to protect her from Borg monitoring subspace. She refuses and locks herself in her cargo bay; she finds Naomi there, too, apparently unaffected by the crew's blinding bliss. Seven transports to Engineering and tries to divert Voyager away from the wormhole, but she is disabled. As Voyager passes through the wormhole, everyone but Naomi passes out. She revives Seven, who contact Qatai - they are inside a giant bio organism that feeds on starships. He has been tracking it for years, after it destroyed his colony ship. It tricks crews by convincing them that its mouth is just what they have been looking for. Seven brings the Doctor online and with Qatai's ship they fire at the beast until it expels them.

Dark Frontier (part 1) Voyager destroys a Borg scout ship and retrieves the left over pieces in an attempt to make some use of the technology. Seven and B'Elanna try to repair the ship's transwarp coil; they wish to hook it to Voyager to move a bit closer to home; the coil is burnt out, though. They also find a data coil, detailing Borg movements in the area. Janeway decides on a bold plan: the data show a disabled probe ship limping home at warp speed. They will board the ship, steal its transwarp coil, and use it in Voyager. On the way to a rendezvous, Janeway has Seven review the mission logs they retrieved from the Raven, details of her parents' encounters and research on the Borg, three year's worth of data. Voyager catches up to the probe sphere - Seven estimates that its transwarp drive will be repaired in just a few days. The crew drills for the mission in the meantime. The Borg contact Seven - they are aware of Voyager's presence. They will let Voyager leave safely if Seven agrees to return to the collective. When Janeway tries to remove Seven from the mission, Seven is adamant - she must go. The mission disables the sphere's shields and the transwarp coil is beamed back to Voyager. As they prepare to leave, Seven is detained by the Borg, and the rest of the away team returns to Voyager. The sphere jumps to transwarp and returns to a huge Borg colony, where Seven is met by the Borg queen.

Dark Frontier (part 2) The Borg queen tells Seven that she was planted on Voyager to help the Borg learn more about humans so that they can be assimilated. It is not their intention to turn her back into a drone - she'll be much more valuable as an individual, though she is reconnected to the collective. The queen takes Seven on a trip to assimilate a small world; during the action, Seven helps a handful of people escape, but the queen tracks down their ship. Seven pleads for their freedom, and to her surprise, the queen allows them to escape. Gaining a bit of trust, the queen tells Seven her plan - to burst a biogenic weapon in Earth's atmosphere and assimilate the population slowly with nanoprobes. Seven refuses to help develop the nanoprobes. She threatens to reassimilate Seven, and shows that as a drone, her father still lives. Naomi Wilder asks Janeway to rescue Seven; she tells Naomi that she had no intention of leaving Seven behind. Janeway reviews the sensor logs and realizes that Seven had been contacted by the collective - and realizes that she sacrificed herself for Voyager. The Doctor devises a means to contact Seven, and they use the Hansen diaries to devise means to protect themselves and the Delta Flyer from Borg sensors. They install the transwarp coil in the Flyer and follow the sphere's trail to the Borg colony. They detect Seven in the queen's chamber; they contact her, but the queen hears the call, too. Janeway and Tuvok beam aboard the queen's ship; Tuvok disables shields as Janeway confronts the queen. Seven gets conflicting orders from Janeway and the queen, but heeds Janeway, allowing them to beam back to the Flyer. They turn tail back to Voyager and are pursued. When they emerge back at Voyager, with the Borg in pursuit, Chakotay orders torpedoes to close the transwarp conduit; the Borg ship emerges from the conduit in pieces. They install the transwarp coil in Voyager and estimate they cut 15 years off their journey before it burned out.

The Disease Voyager is helping the crew of a massive generational ship repair their warp engines. Despite a directive from Janeway that personal contact with the Varro be kept at a minimum, Harry has fallen in love with Tal, an engineer. When the two make love, he notices his skin luminesce; later on, while working with Seven, she notices the glow and takes him to sick bay. He confesses his relations with Tal to the Doctor; because of the potential for cross-species disease, he is required to tell the Captain, who forbids Harry from seeing Tal. Despite this, they do speak and she says the reaction is normal among her people - it even has a name, olan vora. Meanwhile, Tuvok finds a stowaway in a Jeffries tube; he requests asylum - he wants off the generational ship. Seven and B'Elanna detect problems in the ship's skin - they find an artificial parasite feeding on the hull. Tal admits to being part of a movement to stop the ship and actually find a planet to live on. The ship breaks into segments; some decide to leave and go their own way; other rejoin to continue the original voyage. Tal and Harry bid each other farewell, and Harry suffers through the withdrawal of the olan vora.

Course: Oblivion Big news on Voyager: Tom and B'Elanna's wedding, Ensign Harper's new baby, and an enhanced warp drive meaning a two-year journey to Earth through the center of the galaxy. The new warp field appears to be having an adverse effect on the ship, however, and the Doctor is deluged with patients afflicted by some sort of epidemic. The new drive is shut down, but the failure of the ship and crew continues. Oddly, objects brought aboard the ship in the past nine months are unaffected. Chakotay and Tuvok trace Voyager's steps, all the way back to the Demon Planet. They have suspicions that are confirmed when the Doctor performs an autopsy on the newly deceased B'Elanna - they are not really flesh and blood; they are all copies of the Voyager crew. Their only option is to use the new drive to quickly return to the Demon planet, or find another Class Y planet to land on. They find a Class Y planet, but locals chase them off and they rush to the Demon planet, sending distress calls all the way. After the deaths of Chakotay and Janeway, Seven builds a beacon out of unaffected parts, but it is destroyed when the launcher fails. They detect another ship and turn to it. On board the real Voyager, a signal is detected, but when they arrive at the source, there is nothing but debris. Voyager continues its journey home.

The Fight Chakotay is boxing in a holodeck simulation when he sees an odd image behind his opponent; distracted he is promptly knocked out. He heads to sick bay; while there, Voyager gets stuck in an odd region of space. Seven notes that the Borg have encountered space like this, and only one cube had ever survived it. Chakotay begins to hear voices and see images from his boxing match. The Doctor discovers he has a genetic abnormality that causes hallucinations - it had been suppressed at birth, and has been stimulated. Voyager finds a derelict ship; they down load the logs and find that several of its crew had also experienced hallucinations before they all died trying to find a way out of the zone. Chakotay goes on a vision quest to try to resolve his issues; there, he sees his grandfather, who had also suffered from the visions. He is thrust into a boxing ring; he hears voices that appear to be offering alien technology to him, but he does not understand. Janeway and the Doctor surmise there may be beings in this space that are trying to help them escape, through Chakotay - he fears the voices will drive him mad, but agrees to keep trying. He lets his fears go and begins to understand their instructions. He rushes to the bridge, recalibrates the sensors and sets a new course -- and Voyager soon emerges from the zone, safe and sound.

Think Tank Voyager detects a planetoid with considerable dilithium deposits. When they conduct further scans, the planetoid explodes, and a ship emerges from the fire; the Hazari ship, part of a race of bounty hunters, tries to capture them, but they escape. Long range scans show the sector is full of Hazari, all intent on capturing Voyager for some unknown client. As Janeway tries to figure a way out, a figure appears to her. Kurros, a member of a powerful think tank, sends his image to her to offer his group's help, for an as-yet undetermined price. Janeway and Seven go the Kurros's ship. He notes that they have stopped wars, resisted the Borg; even cured the Viidian Phage. Their price, is Seven herself - they wish her to join their group. Seven declines. Voyager captures a Hazari ship and tries to figure out who placed the bounty on them - initially, it appears to be the Malon, but further investigation reveals the Hazari's contact was Kurros himself. Janeway and the Hazari captain try to figure a way to outsmart the think tank. Seven goes to their ship and allows herself to be hooked into their translation matrix. While connected, Voyager sends a pulse through her to disrupt the matrix, after which the group is unable to communicate with each other. In the confusion, Seven beams away and Voyager warps away.

Juggernaut A Malon toxic waste dumper has a critical emergency, and Voyager responds to her distress call, rescuing only two of its crew. One, the captain, warns Voyager to move at least 3 light years away from his ship, the blast and radiation radius should it explode. But the theta radiation interferes with Voyager's engines, and she cannot jump to warp. Instead, Janeway hatches a plan to repair the dumper. One Malon warns of a mythical race of creatures that live on the dumpers. B'Elanna, Neelix, and Chakotay go to the dumper with the Malon. One Malon is killed. B'Elanna, already under Tuvok's tutelage for anger control, and disgusted by the Malon's society, tries to maintain her cool when Chakotay is nearly spaced and has to go back aboard Voyager. She and the others soon realize that the ship's distress is no accident, and that they are being stalked. On the bridge, she confronts a Malon who had been given up for dead in the ship's core, a demon. He intends to exact revenge on the ship itself, regardless of the consequences. She beats him down and helps Voyager guide the dumper to a star, where its contents explode harmlessly.

Someone to Watch Over Me After B'Elanna confronts Seven as she studies her and Paris and their "mating rituals", the Doctor volunteers to teach her some new social skills, perhaps even dating. Paris bets the Doctor that he can't. They meet several times to go over the basics, and Seven decides on a crewman to ask out on her first date. She asks Lt. Chapman to dinner in Tom's French bistro holoprogram, and all goes well until they dance and she tears one of his shoulder ligaments. After a few more lessons, the Doctor asks her to a reception; while there, she learns of his bet with Paris and walks out on him. He apologizes and tries to think of a way to tell her that he has developed feelings for her ... but she comes to him first and tells him his lessons are no longer needed since there are no suitable mates for her on Voyager. Neelix hosts the Kaati ambassador Tobin while Janeway goes to the Kaati planet to negotiate a trade deal. While on board, Tobin, who is from a monastic culture, samples Voyager's food, women, and wine, to Neelix's consternation. At a reception in his honor, he passes out drunk; Neelix and the Doctor quickly sober him up for the return of his superior; just in time, he regains his composure and the agreement proceeds.

11:59 During a lull in the voyage, Janeway tells Neelix of her ancestor Shannon O'Donnell, an astronaut who helped build the Millennium Gate in 2000, and who later went on to conduct many Mars missions. As the crew discuss the tales they'd been told of their family histories, Tom Paris, an amateur Mars historian, tells Janeway that he knew of no O'Donnell involved with Mars. Janeway looks into her ancestor's history: Shannon rode into Portage Creek, Indiana, en route to Florida. She had tried out to be an astronaut and did not make the cut. Her car breaks down and she takes refuge in the book store of Henry Janeway. Henry is the lone holdout in downtown Portage Creek - a developer wants to raze the entire downtown to build Millennium Gate, a giant shopping mall and bio-habitat tourist attraction. Moss, the developer, knows of O'Donnell and offers her a job on the project if she can convince Janeway to sell. She tries, but Henry is adamant. Moss prepares to move the project to another state. O'Donnell packs her things to leave, but returns for one last attempt - this time, Henry gives in, with a promise of a nice secluded storefront in the new "monstrosity" for his bookstore. Captain Janeway comes away disappointed that her family hero was not who she'd thought.

Relativity As Janeway tours her brand new ship, Voyager, she speaks to a tall, blonde crewman - Seven of Nine. Later, Seven goes to work in a Jeffries Tube, and finds a planted weapon. On the bridge, a chronoton surge is detected, and as security approaches Seven's position, she is beamed out with a temporal transporter - but she is pulled out too soon, and she dies. The crew on the Federation Time Ship Relativity must go back and recruit Seven for the mission again, just before Voyager is destroyed by the weapon. On board Voyager, several people are coming down with space sickness -- it is later tracked to a temporal distortions that begin to pull at the ship. Time travelers arrive and take Seven back with them. Captain Braxton, Janeway's old "friend", is on a mission to stop Voyager from being destroyed, and only Seven, with her Borg implants, can help them. This is the third time she's been recruited, each time trying to pinpoint when the weapon was placed to stop it. She must succeed this time, because being moved through time any more could kill her. She is sent back to a time when the ship was under attack by the Kazon. She is detected, and a force field is erected around her - Seven and Tuvok catch her and she explains what she is doing. They let her go, and she finds the saboteur - it is an insane Braxton, intent on revenge after all the grief Janeway caused him. She chases him through the ship, and through time, until the Relativity can beam them both back. Braxton is arrested, and Voyager continues on her way.

Warhead Voyager encounters a distress call, and an away team finds it being sent by a small device on a planet's surface. The Doctor can understand its machine language; they beam it aboard to study and repair it. It thinks it is a person, flesh and blood. They realize quickly, though, that the machine is a weapon; they attempt to copy the warhead's program to a holomatrix while disabling the explosives, but the machine catches on and takes over the Doctor's program. It intends to use Voyager to complete its mission. On the way, the crew try to figure out a way to disable it. Neelix recognizes some of the technology, and finds a trader, Anguani, who is familiar with it. He offers to help, but his price is too high, so he tries to steal the warhead - Voyager destroys his ship. Harry helps the warhead recover old memories - it is part of a doomsday fleet of large-scale weapons. When the war ended, it had been ordered to divert to a barren planet and explode there. But the recall was past the point-of-no-return for many of the other warheads, who have detected Voyager and surround it. The warhead tries to convince the others that the mission is over, but they do not believe it, so it beams itself out to the group, which all proceed on to the target. On the way, the warhead explodes, destroying itself and all in its group.

Equinox Captain Rudy Ransom, of the Federation science ship Equinox, is under attack and sends out a distress call. Voyager gets the call and rushes to help. It helps fend off the attack, and the Equinox crew beams over the Voyager. The handful of crew members tell that they, too, were pulled into the Delta Quadrant by the Caretaker, and have been on their way home ever since. They've had a very rough time of it, though. The first officer, Max Burke, used to date B'Elanna, making Paris jealous. The aliens keep up their attack on the pair of ships, slowly draining power from Voyager's shields. Alone, Ransom and Burke agree to watch what they say around the Voyager crew - "they would never understand." To mount a defense, Janeway orders the Equinox abandoned over Ransom's objections. Based on Equinox's research, they build a shield generator that will repel the aliens. Curious about a contaminated area on Equinox, Janeway sends the Doctor over - he finds the corpses of alien bodies and research results - the Equinox has been using the aliens to power their ship for the trip home, and the attacks are in self-defense. Janeway has Ransom arrested. The Doctor tries to enlist the help of the Equinox EMH, but his ethical program was modified to allow him to conduct the tests. The EMH helps release Ransom. The Equinox crew beams back to their ship and beams the new shield generator to the Equinox, leaving Voyager defenseless as the aliens begin their attack on Voyager and the Equinox pulls away.

Equinox (Part 2) The aliens kill and injure several crew, but they are able to repel them for a time. Janeway orders Voyager to give chase. The EMH on Voyager is the Equinox's, and he plans to provide tactical data to his ship. On Equinox, Seven is taken prisoner after sabotaging the engines. The Doctor is stored in the Equinox and Ransom disables his ethical program so that he will extract memories from Seven, despite the consequences to Seven. Chakotay tries, and fails, to communicate with the aliens. Voyager finds the Equinox orbiting a planet, hiding. Two of her crew are taken prisoner before a fire fight breaks out; but the Equinox again escapes. Chakotay vocally worries about Janeway's state and she confines him to quarters. Voyager tracks down an Oncari ship - the Oncari can summon the aliens - Janeway makes a deal - call off the attack, and she will deliver the Equinox. On the Equinox, Ransom begins to have second thoughts. When Voyager catches up to them, Ransom tries to cooperate, but Burke takes command. Ransom works to help Voyager beam his crew over, but decides to go down with his ship as the core overloads and the aliens attack. Five of the Equinox crew on Voyager are stripped of rank; Chakotay admits to Janeway that he came close to mutiny himself.

Survival Instinct Voyager visits a Marconian outpost and hosts a wide array of alien guests. One approaches Seven and Naomi Wilder as they eat, offering to sell Seven several Borg relays. Seven purchases them, then the seller contacts two compatriots to say their plan is in motion. As she analyzes the relays, the trio infiltrate Voyager's systems. While Tuvok tries to trace the breech, they find Seven's alcove, where she is regenerating. She awakens just as security barges in on them - the three are former Borg, old members of Seven's unimatrix. They have separated from the collective, but have not separated from each other. They want to know why their memories stop during an incident when their ship crash- landed years ago. The link helped them escape, but now it is overwhelming them. Seven has no memory of parts of the crash either. Seven decides to link with them to regain the memories, a possibly risky procedure. On the planet, several Borg died; those that lived slowly regained their pre-assimilation memories. They did not wish to rejoin the collective. But Seven did - she tracked them down and disabled them until the Borg came for them. She panicked because when she was assimilated, she was a little girl, and she was scared to be alone. The three have not long to live, and they can either live a long life as drones, or a short one as individuals. They all choose to be individuals and all go their separate ways.

Barge of the Dead B'Elanna is caught in an ion storm while trying to retrieve the multi-spatial probe. She barely makes it back to Voyager. A piece of metal is found lodged in her shuttle craft, from when she lost deflectors - it bears the symbol of the Klingon Empire. The crew celebrates the archeological find, though B'Elanna is nonplussed. During a ceremony, though, she sees a Klingon warrior kill the crew, and she is suddenly on a rickety boat - the barge of the dead, for dishonored souls, on its way to Grethor, Klingon hell. She meets the first Klingon, Kortar, the stuff of childhood nightmares, and sees her mother Miral arrive ... and then she is suddenly in sick bay, revived from a coma. Though she has never put much stock in her Klingon heritage, she feels strongly that she has, through her dishonor, committed her mother to hell. She demands to go back, by simulating the coma. Though Janeway is reluctant, she agrees. She arrives on the barge and finds her mother and demands of Kortar that she be allowed to replace her mother. But Kortar knows her plan - to be revived. She swears not to allow it, and Miral is transported to Sto'vo'kor. She walks into Grethor; it is Voyager - an eternity on Voyager is her hell. Miral appears to her - it is not her time, she must choose to live. She has already taken the first step to restoring her honor. The Doc revives B'Elanna, who will live to complete her journey.

Tinker Tenor Doctor Spy The Doctor installs a new daydreaming routine to his program, to allow him to stretch his imagination. He soon finds, however, that his fantasies are beginning to over shadow, and then take over, reality. Mean while, an alien craft monitors Voyager; a micro-probe is sent out and burrows itself into the Doctor's program, and watches the ship from his eyes ... or rather, his fantasy eyes. They see him as a lady's man, a strong leader, backup captain, and inventor of the photonic cannon, a powerful weapon. When the fantasies take over completely, Janeway, Seven, Harry, and B'Elanna work hard to fix him, catching glimpses of several of his fantasies, including the erotic ones, along the way. Once fixed, the Doctor is embarrassed by the revelation of his fantasies. But worse, he is contacted by one of the aliens who fears for his job - his race has planned an attack because of what they saw in the fantasies, but that world does not exist. He gives the Doctor a plan to defeat the attack. Though initially skeptical, Janeway is able to confirm the coming attack; the only way to win the fight is to give the Doctor command and play out the story. The Doctor stands his ground with the aliens, driving them off with the threat of his dreaded photonic cannon. Janeway decorates the Doctor for his efforts, and promises to look into having him as a backup captain in the future.

Alice Upcoming

Riddles Upcoming

Dragon's Teeth Voyager is pulled into a subspace corridor and a ship there helps push them out. Then they demand all records of their encounter be confiscated. Janeway refuses and the aliens fire on Voyager. They find a desolate planet to land on to make repairs and avoid confrontation, and while they do, they detect faint life signs. An away team finds hundreds to stasis tubes, sealed for 900 years. They open one, and its occupant, Gedrin, tells them they were there to avoid a bombardment from space, but were only supposed to be under for five years. His people, the Vardwar, fought and lost to the Turay and their allies. They used the corridors to explore space, and met up with at least the Borg and the Talaxians. The others are reanimated, and the Vardwar prepare to leave the planet. Neelix, curious about the Vardwar, investigates, and with Seven's help, finds many references to the Vardwar from several texts collected in the Delta Quadrant. The stories tell of soldiers who come in the night to rob and conquer. Janeway worries that Voyager is in more danger from the Vardwar than from the Turay above. When she demands the Vardwar ships stand down, they attack Voyager. As she tries to escape, she contacts the Turay and suggests an alliance of convenience. The Turay attack the Vardwar and Voyager escapes; in the mean time, over 50 Vardwar ships escape into the subspace corridors.

One Small Step Voyager encounters a graviton ellipse, a rare spatial phenomenon. Voyager sends a probe into its core and detects many different compounds, including some unique to 21st century Earth's Mars program. Chakotay is excited that they probably found the phenomenon that destroyed the Aries 4 command module, and its pilot, which was in orbit around Mars. For historical interest, Janeway decides to send the Flyer into the ellipse with Chakotay, Tom, and Seven aboard. They make it through the outer layers and find a calm core. They search for the Aries as they collect and study other compounds from within the core. They find Aries, almost totally intact. They try to tow it out, but as they do, Voyager detects a dark-matter asteroid headed for the ellipse. Though Janeway orders the module be left behind, Chakotay refuses, and when the asteroid hits, the Flyer is damaged. B'Elanna thinks a few of the parts on the Aries can be used to repair the Flyer; Chakotay was hurt in the collision, so Seven goes over. She plays Lt. John Kelly's logs from the Aries as she goes to work. Kelly had not died on impact, but lived for weeks in the ellipse trying to find a way out. He finally died when life support gave out. Moved by his story, Seven downloads all of his logs as she finishes her work; and she beams Kelly's remains back to the Flyer. The module is installed and the Flyer emerges from the ellipse just as it heads back into subspace. Kelly is given a military burial at sea.

The Voyager Conspiracy Upcoming

Pathfinder Lt. Reg Barclay is visited by an old friend, Deanna Troi; he asks her to help him. He is obsessed with finding a way to contact Voyager from the Alpha Quadrant. He wants to finalize his theories before Admiral Paris visits the Pathfinder project, Starfleet's effort to communicate with Voyager. He is using Voyager simulations to inspire, to bounce ideas around - as a source of friendship. Troi worries about Reg's past holodeck addiction, but he insists the simulation is his best hope. He suggests using a MIDAS array to create a quantum singularity, a wormhole, to Voyager's estimated position, and to send subspace signals through it. Admiral Paris is intrigued, but Reg's supervisor, Commander Pete Hawkins, is unconvinced. When Hawkins finds Reg in a Voyager sim, he halts Reg's research and restricts him to quarters, removing him from Pathfinder. Reg appeals directly to Paris, who says he will have a team review his findings. He tells Troi that the Voyager crew has become like the family he felt he had on the Enterprise. He is anxious, and begins an experiment against orders. He opens a micro-wormhole and sends a message to Voyager. His work is interrupted by Hawkins and a security team, but as they begin to lead him away, Voyager responds. Paris speaks to Voyager, sending a message to Tom, as the wormhole closes, and promises of establishing a permanent link are made.

Fair Haven Tom has created a holoprogram, a detailed Irish town called Fair Haven. None too soon, as Voyager detects a Class 9 neutronic wave front headed their way - it has disrupted warp fields, so Voyager must wait for it to hit, pass, and dissipate, a long process. Neelix suggests the program be kept running 24 hours so that the crew can visit at their leisure. Even Janeway manages a visit, and she meets the barkeep, Michael Sullivan. After a night-long bull session with him, she returns after modifying his program, making him more outspoken, well read, and not married. Once the wave front hits, there are several down days to wait within the storm, and Janeway and Sullivan spend a lot of time together. But one day, Sullivan goes on a drunken rampage - the love of his like, Katie, has left him. The Doctor asks her what happened, and she says that she was falling for Sullivan, but all the while was aware that she could tweak his character. It left a bad taste in her mouth. The Doc suggests that a relationship with a holo character may be the only such relationship she is allowed, considering her position. But it may be too late - the trailing edge of the storm is much stronger than the leading edge, and when it hits, Fair Haven is badly damaged. Tom sets about to repair the program, and Janeway is relieved to find Sullivan intact. She tells him she will return, someday, and locks his program so she cannot make any further changes.

Virtuoso Upcoming

Memorial Upon the return of Chakotay, Neelix, Tom and Harry from an extended away mission, Tom finds the B'Elanna has built him a circa-1950 TV set. As he watches into the wee hours, he sees himself in a show, in a phaser battle. In a Jeffries tube, Harry suddenly imagines a battle, too, and quickly crawls to "safety". Harry goes to see the Doctor, who simply thinks he is suffering from exhaustion. But when Neelix holds Naomi Wildman at gunpoint, refusing to let her go lest she be slaughtered, something is clearly wrong. Chakotay talks Neelix down by remembering the slaughter, and a man named Saavdra. Janeway calls them all together, and it would appear that the away team was drafted into an evacuation of colonists, an evacuation that turned into a massacre, the Nakan Massacre, with all 82 civilians perishing after some refused to leave their colony. Janeway orders Voyager to follow the Delta Flyer's path, to find out what happened. As the approach Tarakis, Janeway too remembers being in the battle - as does most of the crew. An away team beams down to look for evidence of a battle and finds none, though Harry does lead them to a cave where he hid and killed a couple of civilians. Chakotay and Janeway find a transmitter that explains everything - a 300-year-old memorial to the Nakan who died that day, which transmits a neural signal such that anyone passing by has the memories deposited in their mind. Old, weak, and malfunctioning, it appears ready for decommissioning. But Janeway instead instructs the crew to fix it to keep it running another 300 years, in continued memorial to the people of Nakan.

Tsunkatse On the Norcadian home world, the crew takes in some shore leave while Janeway goes to Pendari to do some exploring. Several of the crew take a liking to tsunkatse, a martial arts fighting match. Seven and Tuvok head out to look into some spatial anomalies, and are taken captive by a large ship. Seven awakens to find Tuvok injured, and she expected to be a player in tsunkatse. She refuses, though relents when Penk, the master, promises to help Tuvok's injuries. At a match, the crew is surprised to see Seven enter the ring - they try to get a transporter lock on her, but realize the match is a hologram, beamed to several planets at once. Voyager recalls Janeway and starts a search for the transmitter. Though Seven is beaten, she proves popular and Penk schedules her for a death match. A 19-year veteran of the matches, a Hirogen, trains her. As the match is set to begin, Voyager finds the tsunkatse ship, though it is heavily armed and armored. Seven's opponent is her Hirogen trainer. Voyager attacks and is able to beam out Tuvok; when the Delta Flyer returns, the extra firepower is enough to pull out Seven and the Hirogen. They find a Hirogen hunting party to return him to, and Seven has to deal with her feelings that she would have killed to save her own life - Tuvok reassures her that her feelings of guilt and shame are a positive reaction to the ordeal.

Collective A small away team on the Flyer is taken by a Borg cube. Chakotay, Tom, and Neelix cool their heels in a holding cell, while Harry is no where to be found. Voyager tracks down the Flyer and runs into the cube - in the ensuing battle, Voyager disables the cube. Seven scans the cube and finds only five drones on board, explaining the poor performance. The Borg agree to give up the Flyer crew in exchange for technology. Seven beams over and finds the crew - several young Borg children, too soon out of the maturation chamber. Seven brings a dead drone to Voyager and the Doctor finds it killed by a pathogen of some sort. Harry awakens on board the Flyer, in the cube, and starts to move about, setting charges around the ship's field generator. Janeway offers to sever the Borg connection, though the Number One refuses, and demands the technology they agreed upon. They think the Borg will come for them, but Seven finds a transmission that the cube had been abandoned. Harry is captured and injected with nanoprobes to force Janeway's hand. Over his objections, Janeway has the Doctor synthesize more of the Borg virus. They try to take the tech by force, but Voyager sends a feedback loop down the tractor beam, setting off explosions; the First dies, and the others surrender. Voyager takes them aboard, where, once underway again, the Doctor removes the childrens' implants.

Spirit Folk The residents of Fair Haven start to become aware of some odd things about the visitors to their town - when Seamus and Milo see Tom turn Harry's date, Maggie, into a cow, they are convinced the Voyager crew are spirit people. The Doctor, as Fr. Mulligan, assures the people that they are mistaken. But the quickly disappearing grey skies, the miraculous rescues of injured people, not to mention the leprechaun-like Neelix, keep the suspicions high. Sullivan, the voice of reason, tells the villagers he will talk to Katie about all this, and when he demands she tell the truth, she end the program to run diagnostics. Since the Fair Haven program has been running continuously for so long, small glitches have become major bugs - such as the characters becoming aware of the crew. Tom and Harry examine the Sullivan character and find an error in his perceptual filter and try to fix it - he feigns dumbness and when he returns to Fair Haven, he calls a meeting. Tom and Harry, on their way to fix the holodeck, are taken hostage. B'Elanna proposes deleting the program, but Janeway is reluctant. She sends in the Doctor, but they take him, too - and when Sullivan slips on his mobile emitter, he goes to find Janeway. She reaches a compromise with him - they can no longer allow Fair Haven to run continuously, but she does agree to keep it alive, and to repair it.

Ashes to Ashes Mizoti, the young rescued Borg girl, gets a transmission from an alien claiming to be Lyndsay Ballard, a long-dead member of the Voyager crew. Harry and Janeway meet the alien in the sickbay where she recounts her ordeal - she and Harry were on an away mission when the Hirogen attacked. She was killed and buried at space. Her body was retrieved by the Kobali, who cannot reproduce and who, then, revive dead aliens. The Doctor confirms that her DNA has been actually altered, but that this is indeed Ballard. After she gained the trust of the Kobali, and was placed with a family, she escaped at her first chance and tracked down Voyager. The Doctor cannot revert her back to be human, but he does give her plastics that alter her appearance. Ballard and Harry reminisce about their friendship, and Harry starts to feel old, unrequited feelings well up. Though she has a few problems at first, such as unconsciously speaking Kobali, Ballard does well... but the Kobali, her adoptive father specifically, come looking for her. Janeway refuses to turn her over, and a Kobali warship attacks. Ballard stops the fight when she realizes that her dream of returning to Voyager was just a dream, and that she has a new life now, with the Kobali. Harry gives Mizoti Ballard's hair brush. Seven confides in Janeway that she is finding keeping tabs on the Borg children much more difficult than she imagined.

Child's Play Voyager finds Icheb's home planet, from whence he was taken by the Borg. The Brunali society is much battered by Borg attack, and they sustain themselves with genetically altered crops. Icheb was developing a penchant for astrometrics, and Seven is concerned that his parents Yifay and Leucon cannot properly teach him what he would like to learn. Icheb is also reluctant - Janeway invites his parents aboard to help him acclimate. After a meal with them, he seems to do better, though Seven is definitely suffering from separation anxiety. With his new training, Icheb could be a real asset to the Brunali; his father points out that despite Voyager's ability to explore, their main goal is to return home. He decides to stay. After Voyager leaves, Seven notes inconsistencies in some of Leucon's stories, and she convinces Janeway to turn back. Meanwhile, Yifay convinces Leucon that Icheb was created for a higher purpose, and they inject him with something. When Voyager arrives, a Brunali shuttle, carrying Icheb's drugged body, is on its way to a Borg conduit. A Borg vessel locks on to Icheb's ship and to Voyager, and pulls them in - but they escape by sacrificing the shuttle and blowing it up in side the ship. Seven learns the Icheb had been genetically engineered to infect the Borg with the pathogen they found on Icheb's Borg ship. They leave with him.

Good Shepard Upcoming

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Star Trek: Voyager - How Did The Ship Get Home?

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Star Trek: 5 Worst Things Done By The Borg

Star trek: what happened to data, fans think they know the final boss of the mcu's spider-man franchise.

• Captain Janeway's alliances with the Borg paved the way for Voyager's journey home, challenging Starfleet principles along the way.
• Admiral Janeway's daring temporal intervention provided Voyager with advanced technology to traverse the Borg transwarp hub.
• Utilizing transwarp technology, Admiral Janeway sacrificed herself to cripple the Borg Collective and bring Voyager safely home.

Star Trek: Voyager remains one of Star Trek's most gripping narratives. It follows a lonely Federation star ship, cast 70,000 light years away from Earth by an enigmatic alien force, trying to find its way home. For seven seasons, Captain Kathryn Janeway and her crew grapple with uncharted territories, unknown species, and moral quandaries that test their resolve and their Starfleet principles.

When the alien known as the Caretaker brought Voyager to the Delta Quadrant, he started a chain reaction that would change the face of the galaxy. From Janeway's first fateful decision to save an innocent planet from enslavement and destruction, it was clear that the choices Voyager faced would be unlike anything that Star Trek had previously known . But, as the crew inched their way toward home, the repercussions of their choices would spread further. Eventually, they reached the point of crippling the most terrifying of galactic foes: the Borg.

The Borg are an unrelenting alien hive mind that seek to assimilate the galaxy, and they have done horrible things in that endeavor.

The Turning Point: Janeway's Dilemma with the Borg

Throughout Voyager's journey home, their repeated encounters with the Borg marked some of the crew's most critical and challenging moments. Captain Janeway's decision to ally with the Borg against Species 8472 was particularly fraught with moral and ethical complications. The Borg epitomized everything Starfleet opposed: assimilation, loss of individuality, and authoritarian control. Despite this, faced with the threat posed by Species 8472, Janeway made the controversial choice to collaborate with the Borg. She provided them with a weapon to combat the hostile aliens in exchange for Voyager's safe passage through Borg space.

This alliance highlighted Janeway's difficult position. Throughout Voyager's journey, she struggled to balance Starfleet's ideals with the stark realities of her crew's situation. Sometimes, it meant pushing those ideals to their limits. In the case of the Borg, Janeway's choices laid the groundwork for future interactions with the Borg and ultimately created the conditions that enabled Voyager's return to Earth.

The Temporal Prime Directive and Sacrifices

In an alternate future, a scarred and weary Admiral Janeway made a decision that would change reality. Having returned her crew home at great cost and loss of life, Janeway, now an expert on the Borg, hatches a plan to fix the mistakes of her past. The cost of her decisions had proved too much for her, and she could no longer bear to live in the reality those choices had wrought. So she hatched a daring plan, and in the episode "Endgame" (season 7, episode 5), she traveled back in time to aid her younger self in finding a quicker route home.

In Star Trek , Starfleet's Temporal Prime Directive prohibits interference with the natural progression of time, a rule designed to prevent catastrophic alterations to the timeline . However, Admiral Janeway's emotional scars from losing friends and crew over the years drove her to take drastic measures. She provided advanced technology and critical information to her past self, enabling Voyager to traverse a Borg-infested transwarp hub and return home much sooner than they would have otherwise.

The Role of Transwarp Technology in Voyager's Return

In "Endgame," Admiral Janeway's plan to bring Voyager home hinges on the use of transwarp technology . The Borg transwarp hub, a vast structure in the black depths of space, functions as a gateway, allowing Borg ships to travel immense distances instantaneously. Admiral Janeway sacrificed herself by allowing the Borg Queen to assimilate her. Unknown to the Queen, though, Janeway had infected herself with a futuristic pathogen designed to subdue the Borg long enough to let Voyager escape.

A series of chain reactions leads to the entire transwarp structure being destroyed. This led to the death of millions of drones and irreparable damage to the Borg Collective ...as well as Admiral Janeway's death. However, her actions proved successful in bringing Voyager home. The episode ends with Voyager emerging close to Earth, bypassing the dark future that had driven Admiral Janeway to her extreme act.

Star Trek: Voyager is as much about the physical journey home as it is an emotional and ethical odyssey into the complex decisions of command. In a sense, Admiral Janeway undid the choice she first made when she came to the Delta Quadrant. Her first decision had been to put other lives, and the principles of Starfleet, ahead of her crew. But years down the line, she simply couldn't live with that. In the end, she and her younger self colluded to ensure her crew's survival against impossible odds, though their success came at a massive cost of life .

How Voyager Got Home: Key Events

• Alliances with the Borg: Captain Janeway allied with the Borg a number of times, paving the way for the conditions that would take Voyager home.
• Admiral Janeway's Temporal Intervention: In an alternate future, Admiral Janeway traveled back in time to provide her past self with advanced technology and critical information, enabling a quicker route home through a Borg transwarp hub.
• Utilizing Transwarp Technology: Admiral Janeway's plan involved using the Borg transwarp hub to travel vast distances instantly, destabilizing and destroying the hub in the process, which crippled the Borg Collective.
• Admiral Janeway's Sacrifice: Admiral Janeway allowed herself to be assimilated by the Borg Queen, spreading a pathogen that incapacitated the Borg, ensuring Voyager's safe passage home at the cost of her own life.

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10 Best Star Trek: Voyager Episodes, Ranked

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Everything about Star Trek: Voyager was a risk when the series debuted following the end of Star Trek: The Next Generation , an incredibly popular series. The flagship show of the nascent United Paramount Network, Captain Kathryn Janeway and her crew faced familiar struggles from fans. Their story, however, took the Star Trek universe to a new part of the galaxy. The Delta Quadrant hosted never-before-seen alien species and was the backyard of the Borg.

Through syndication and wide streaming access, Star Trek: Voyager is now regarded as a classic of this universe's second wave. Voyager finished its journey strong, and the addition of Seven of Nine -- a human drone rescued from the Borg collective -- changed the series for the better. Now in the third wave of the franchise, Seven of Nine is the captain of the USS Enterprise-G, and Janeway is now a Vice Admiral leading the young cadets of Star Trek: Prodigy . Below are the episodes that best showcase why Voyager is among Star Trek's most beloved series

10 'Distant Origin' Is the Kind of Social Allegory Star Trek Does Best

Voyager is caught up in a tale about scientific truth, immigration and acceptance, how did star trek: voyager become a tv series.

Star Trek: Voyager debuted after The Next Generation ended its historic run, but Captain Janeway's series was in development long before then.

The only episode on this list before Seven of Nine joined the crew, "Distant Origin" is representative of what Star Trek does best . It's a high-concept story about scientific exploration and the ways entrenched powers oppress the truth and those who seem "lesser" than them . The Voth are a superior race of intelligent beings that evolved tens of millions of years in Earth's past and took the stars.

The titular theory threatens the social order of the Voth, and the idea that they have a right to oppress others because they are "the first race" in their sector of space. Ironically, the episode spends much of its time away from the USS Voyager. It's not really their story, but rather the story of the Voth scientist facing punishment for violating "doctrine."

9 'Dark Frontier' Reveals Seven of Nine's Human Past and Importance to the Borg

This episode ties voyager to first contact and the next generation.

A feature-length two-part episode, "Dark Frontier" brings the Borg Queen to television for the first time since the character was created for Star Trek: First Contact . It also reveals how Annika Hansen and her parents came to be assimilated by the Borg. Part-heist story and part "mythology episode," which gives viewers a courtside view to how the Borg assimilate a species.

The USS Voyager plans to steal some Borg technology to help them get to Earth more quickly, but it's trap to recapture Seven of Nine. The Borg Queen reveals that Seven of Nine was "allowed" to leave the collective, and her recapture is meant to make her the human face of the Borg invasion of Earth, just as Locutus (Jean-Luc Picard) and Vox (Jack Crusher) were meant to be. In rescuing Seven of Nine, Captain Kathryn Janeway proves herself to be the Borg's biggest threat .

8 'Drone' Is a Perfect Blend of Star Trek Weirdness and Character Study

A high-concept voyager episode with a deeply emotional ending.

In "Drone," the holographic Doctor and Seven of Nine have a baby, of sorts. Originally bound to sickbay and the holodecks, the Doctor was given a 29th Century mobile emitter by Henry Starling. A transporter accident blends Borg "nanoprobes" with this technology creating a 29th Century Borg drone, just without a collective. He names himself "One," becoming something like a son to Seven of Nine.

One accidentally signals the Borg collective, which shows up to assimilate him and the USS Voyager. One is curious about his people, yet he's fully an individual . First, he helps the crew fight the Borg cube, but even his 29th Century know-how can't match the cube's raw firepower. He sacrifices himself in truly epic fashion, saving the ship but breaking Seven of Nine's heart .

7 'Endgame' Is the Epic Series Finale for Voyager and the Borg

Janeway brings the crew home and defeats star trek's worst enemy, star trek: voyager actor weighs in on controversial tuvix debate.

Star Trek: Voyager's Tuvix actor Tom Wright shares his opinion on whether Janeway made the right decision about his character's fate.

While everyone from fans to some of the cast lament the series finale of Star Trek: Voyager didn't show the ship actually arriving on Earth, it's still a fantastic finale. It begins many years after the previous episode, when the USS Voyager does arrive on Earth. Now a Vice Admiral, Janeway travels back in time with a plan to bring the ship and immobilize the Borg. All it will cost her is her life.

The beginning of the finale shows a version of the crew's future, though not everyone made it to Earth. The Elder Janeway's plan is ambitious and takes the ship right into the heart of the Borg society. While her younger counterpart gets her ship home, the elder Janeway has a final showdown with the Borg Queen. "Endgame" is full of spectacle appropriate for a series finale, while not sacrificing attention on the characters fans loved .

6 'Year of Hell' Is an Epic Two-Part Struggle for Survival

A year-long episode of star trek: voyager was almost a whole season.

The "Year of Hell" is a two-part episode that, according to Star Trek Voyager: A Celebration , could've lasted for an entire season. The episode centers on a new species called the Kremin, who developed a "timeship" that could erase entire civilizations from history. The captain and lead scientist, Annorax , continues these temporal incursions and sets his sights on the USS Voyager.

The two-part episode takes place over an entire year, with the USS Voyager and the Krenim engaging in a running war. The ship is damaged, the crew is battered and demoralized. The resolution resets the series' status quo. Had the fallout from this taken a full season, the show might have gotten too dark. This two-part epic is just enough "hell" to make this episode a classic instead of "the one where the season started to go downhill." The Krenim and the idea of the "Year of Hell" was mentioned in Season 3's "Before and After," when Kes visited a possible future.

5 'Timeless' Is About the Death and Resurrection of the USS Voyager

The survivors of the uss voyager break the prime directive to rewrite history.

Time travel is a Star Trek staple , and Voyager featured a lot of it. In "Timeless," select members of the crew survive after the USS Voyager is destroyed. The episode was directed by LeVar Burton who also appeared as Captain Geordi La Forge from the alternate future. As the surviving crew tries to change the past, La Forge has to stop them from violating the "Temporal Prime Directive."

Along with being a dark look at the future, the episode is emotionally heavy, especially for Chakotay and Harry Kim. The latter blames himself for the accident that destroyed the ship. He is determined to fix that mistake. Even though he's successful, the episode ends on a down note as the elder Kim sends a message to his younger self.

4 'Message In a Bottle' Brings Voyager One Step Closer to Home

The emergency medical holograms prove their mettle as starfleet officers, star trek: prodigy is the last hope for janeway and chakotay shippers.

Star Trek: Prodigy brought Voyager characters Kathryn Janeway and Chakotay back into their story and there is a chance for the romance fans never got.

The Romulans appear in "Message In a Bottle," one of the rare times a classic Star Trek alien species appears in Voyager other than the crew. The ship discovers a massive sensor array, and Seven of Nine sends the Doctor to another Starfleet vessel on the edge of Federation space. The array is the bottle, and he is the message. However, the ship is experimental and has been overtaken by Romulans.

The Doctor meets the Mark II version of the Emergency Medical Hologram used by Starfleet, and the irascible pair have to take on the Romulans. Along with being a thrilling episode in its own right, "Message In a Bottle" was important to the overall story. It's the first time the USS Voyager is able to make contact with Starfleet, letting them know the ship was not destroyed .

3 'Living Witness' Is Unlike Any Other Star Trek Episode

The closest the uss voyager ever got to the 'mirror universe'.

Another Doctor-heavy episode, "Living Witness" is a truly unique premise, not just for Voyager but Star Trek itself. Much of the episode is set far in the future from the 24th Century, in a society where the USS Voyager, Starfleet and Captain Janeway have become myth. A copy of the Doctor's program is discovered, and a researcher at the museum reactivates him.

The holographic recreations of the USS Voyager are like Mirror Universe versions of the characters fans know. As the Doctor tries to set the record straight, it causes social upheaval in the society. Ultimately, he urges the researcher to deactivate him and maintain peace on his planet, at the cost of the truth . Though, an even further future ending scene shows the truth eventually came out.

2 'Scorpion' Represents an Ending and a Beginning for Voyager

These episodes introdce the borg and seven of nine, star trek: prodigy's connection to voyager, explained.

Star Trek: Prodigy is a new series with new characters in the universe, but the series is directly connected to Voyager through characters and ships.

The end of Star Trek: Voyager Season 3 and start of Season 4 began the ship's frequent conflicts with the Borg. The second part of the two-part episode also introduces Seven of Nine, as Captain Janeway makes an alliance with the Borg . They encounter a new alien, species 8472 from a dimension of "fluidic space" with no other lifeforms. They are immune to assimilation.

The first episode cold open is short but powerful. A pair of Borg cubes descend on the unseen species 8472 and are destroyed. "Scorpion" is as consequential to Voyager as the classic Season 3 to 4 " Best of Both Worlds " was to The Next Generation . Unlike the USS Enterprise, which only had to deal with a single Borg cube, the USS Voyager was in the heart of Borg space.

1 'Blink of an Eye' Is a Classic Star Trek Episode with a Unique Concept

The top-rated star trek: voyager episode encompasses everything the franchise does best.

The USS Voyager finds itself stuck in the orbit of a planet that has a strange time variance, due to a heavy concentration of "chronaton particles." While the ship spends less than a week in this predicament, the time differential means the ship is viewed in the sky by the planet's indigenous population for a millennia. The "skyship" is the subject of myth, religion, pop culture and serves as an impetus for scientific advancement.

Because of the Prime Directive , the crew avoids making contact with the population, even though the presence of the ship causes frequent planetwide earthquakes. However, as the society advances, explorers from the planet come to the ship. It's a classic Star Trek episode despite being so unique. Just like "Distant Origin," it deals with the idea of scientific exploration, respect for other cultures or societies, and the propensity for any species to turn to violence when faced with the unknown .

Star Trek: Voyager is available to own on Blu-ray, DVD, digital and streams on Paramount+ and Pluto TV.

Star Trek Voyager

Pulled to the far side of the galaxy, where the Federation is seventy-five years away at maximum warp speed, a Starfleet ship must cooperate with Maquis rebels to find a way home.

Why Star Trek: Voyager's First Season Never Got A Proper Finale

The final episode of the third season of "Star Trek: The Next Generation" was called "The Best of Both Worlds" (June 18, 1990), and it is often celebrated as one of the best episodes of the series. Notably, the episode ended on a humdinger of a cliffhanger, revealing that Captain Picard (Patrick Stewart) had been assimilated by the Borg. Trekkies had to wait until September 24 to see the conclusion.

This two-parter kicked off a long-standing "Star Trek" tradition of ending every season of every show with a notable cliffhanger. The remaining "Next Generation" seasons always left viewers with something to anticipate through the summer. There was an exception at the end of the first season of "Star Trek: Deep Space Nine," which ended on a usual note, but the show's second season opened with an unprecedented three-part episode, so it feels like it counts.

The finale of the first season of "Star Trek: Voyager" was nothing to write home about. The episode was called "Learning Curve" (May 22, 1995), and it was about several Maquis officers who had been conscripted into the Voyager crew after their ship was destroyed. Tuvok (Tim Russ), who used to live with them undercover, has to train them to be better Starfleet officers. Also, the ship's environmental controls go haywire after Neelix (Ethan Phillips) tries to make cheese (!) and accidentally infects the ship's organic computer components with a virus. It's nothing special or notable.

It turns out that the finale ... wasn't a finale. It was merely the final episode of the season by a fluke of programming. The schedule of the first season of "Voyager" was detailed in the oral history book "Captains' Logs Supplemental: The Unauthorized Guide to the New Trek Voyages," edited by Mark A. Altman and Edward Gross.

Voyager season 1's final episodes were held back by UPN

"Star Trek: Voyager," it should be noted, began with a truncated season of only 15 episodes. Most pre-streaming "Star Trek" shows ran a whopping 26 episodes a season. It was considered very usual at the time (at least among Trekkies) to have so few Treks at once. "Voyager" was the flagship series for the UPN, a network that launched at the same time as the then-new "Star Trek" show, and it seemed that the network had a lot more control over how the series was exhibited. "Voyager" co-creator and writer Jeri Taylor recalled working on four additional episodes for the first season, only to learn that the UPN had decided to hold them back for season 2:

"It's very important to note that we didn't hold back any of the episodes, UPN did. [...] It's important that people start understanding that there is a significant difference at this point between the network and the studio. The studio produces the television series, and the network buys it and runs it as they would from any other studio. The network has control over when and how they schedule the episodes. We and Paramount and the studio were not in accord with that decision to hold back episodes, but it was UPN's right to do so."

UPN did have a reason for scheduling "Voyager" the way they did, but it didn't make sense to Taylor. In fact, Taylor hated the decision to end season 1 with "Learning Curve." Not because of the content of the episode, but because that would be four additional weeks the network would need to lean on reruns.

UPN wanted Voyager season 2 to premiere early

Taylor noted:

"... [B]y summer we were having the third run of some shows, giving the impression that people are seeing the same shows over and over again and that there is no fresh programming. I would much rather they had used those extra four episodes to provide more fresh programming so the audience wouldn't feel the show had gotten stale in its first season. Also, we had planned those for shows as a build that would take us out of the first season on a triumphant, uplifting note. As it was, the season just ends."

Lucy Salhany, the head of UPN, was also quoted in "Captains' Logs Supplemental." She explained that premiering "Voyager" season 2 early was more important that concluding season 1 in a meaningful way. The first episode of the second season, "The 37s," aired on August 28, 1995, whereas all the other major networks waited until mid-to-late September to start their respective seasons. In her own words:

"I didn't want to wait until the middle of September, when all the other networks –- the 'big' networks –- are premiering. [...] In order to do that, we needed to hold some episodes back. The shows that we held back would have run two in June and two in July. They would not have run earlier because they wouldn't have been done to go on in May. So, we've had some reruns. We knew that was going to happen."

Which makes sense. "Voyager" co-creator Michael Piller was okay with Salhany's release schedule and noted that Salhany had great success with it when she worked for Fox. Also, "Voyager" only had a total of 20 episodes when it began airing, so holding a few back made everyone's lives easier.

The reruns were a little annoying, though.

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Star Trek: Discovery tore itself apart for the good of Star Trek’s future

And it helped set the tone for where Star Trek is now

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If you were to jump directly from the first episode of Star Trek: Discovery to its finale — which just debuted on Paramount Plus — the whiplash would throw you clear out of your seat like your ship had suffered an inertial damper malfunction. Since its first two chapters premiered on CBS All Access in 2017, the series has moved to a different ship and a different century, and has acquired an almost entirely different set of characters. Moreover, Discovery has received a radical tonal refit, evolving in fits and starts from a dark and violent war story to a much sunnier action-adventure serial.

Though it never won the mainstream attention or critical acclaim of its spinoff, Strange New Worlds , nor the gushing fan adulation of Picard ’s Next Gen reunion , Discovery spearheaded Star Trek’s return to television , the franchise’s maiden voyage into the frontier of premium streaming content. Like any bold pathfinder, Discovery encountered obstacles, suffered losses, and made some major course corrections. But, if you ask the cast and crew, the adventure has been more than worth the tumultuous journey.

Tacking into the wind

“We were on wobbly legs for a long time,” admits star Sonequa Martin-Green, whose character, Michael Burnham, has had the rug pulled out from under her a number of times over the course of the series. In the first season and backstory alone, Burnham lost her parents, saw her mentor murdered, was tried for mutiny, discovered that her first love is a Klingon sleeper agent, and was betrayed by not one but two Mirror Universe doppelgängers of trusted Starfleet captains.

Move over, Deep Space Nine — this was instantly the grimmest canonical depiction of the Star Trek universe on screen. Season 1 of Discovery was rated TV-MA and featured more blood and gore than the franchise had ever seen, not to mention an instance of graphic Klingon nudity. (Actor Mary Wiseman recalls seeing her co-star Mary Chieffo walking the set wearing prosthetic alien breasts and thinking, What the hell? ) The corpse of Michelle Yeoh’s character is cannibalized by Klingons off screen, and her successor, portrayed by Jason Isaacs, turns out to be a manipulative psycho from the Mirror Universe who tries to mold Burnham into his plaything.

The bleak, adult-oriented tone was not the only sticking point with Star Trek purists, as Discovery would take place a decade before the original 1960s Star Trek but have a design aesthetic much closer to that of the 2009 movie reboot, leading to some irreconcilable clashes with continuity. The show’s serialized, season-long arcs were a far cry from the familiar “planet of the week” stories of most previous incarnations of the franchise. Then there was Burnham’s backstory as the never-before-mentioned human foster sister to Trek’s iconic Vulcan Spock , a creative decision that has “clueless studio note” written all over it. Even ahead of its debut, Discovery faced vocal opposition from the fan base for straying so far from their notion of what Star Trek was supposed to be. (Not to mention the revolting but quite vocal faction of fans who were incensed that Star Trek had “gone woke,” as if it hadn’t been that way the whole time.) Many of Discovery ’s detractors flocked toward The Orville , a Fox series starring and created by Seth MacFarlane that was essentially ’90s-style Star Trek with the occasional dick joke thrown in. The Orville offered fans alienated by Discovery ’s vastly different approach to Star Trek a more familiar (but far less ambitious) alternative.

The grim Klingon War story was the brainchild of co-creator Bryan Fuller, who had been a member of the Star Trek: Deep Space Nine and Voyager writers rooms before creating cult series like Pushing Daisies and Hannibal . Fuller would end up departing Team Discovery before production even began, asked to resign after a string of creative differences with the studio. New showrunners Aaron Harberts and Gretchen J. Berg carried out a version of Fuller’s plans without him, and then oversaw the show’s first major pivot. Discovery ’s second season was immediately brighter, more colorful, and cozier with established Star Trek lore. (This is the arc that would introduce the versions of Pike , Spock , and Number One who now lead Strange New Worlds .) But things weren’t so sunny behind the scenes — Harberts and Berg were fired midway through the season after writers accused the duo of creating an abusive work environment.

As different as Discovery would eventually stray from the HBO-style drama of its first season, co-creator Alex Kurtzman feels that the mission of the series has never changed.

“One of the things that we set up in season 1 is that we knew that Burnham would start as a mutineer and end up a captain,” says Kurtzman. “What was exciting about that is that we knew it would take time.”

Captain on deck

It was after Harberts and Berg’s departure that Kurtzman, who had remained involved but been primarily occupied with the development of the growing television Star Trek franchise as a whole, took the helm of Discovery himself. Before long, he would promote writer and co-executive producer Michelle Paradise to the role of co-showrunner, which she would retain for the remainder of the series. Just as the late, great Michael Piller did during the third season of The Next Generation , Paradise brought a sense of stability and confidence to Discovery , which reverberated onto set.

“I commend Michelle Paradise and the rest of the writers because this show evolved ,” says Martin-Green. “Our initial showrunners, Aaron Harberts and Gretchen Berg, they made their impact and that’ll never be erased, but landing where we did with Michelle co-showrunning with Alex Kurtzman, jumping farther than any Trek had gone before, I feel that’s when our feet were solid on the ground and when we really established our identity.”

Season 2 fell into a steady rhythm that felt more in tune with Kurtzman’s “movie every week” philosophy, never far in tone from the reboot film trilogy on which Kurtzman served as a writer and producer. The steady presence of Michelle Yeoh’s deliciously amoral Emperor Georgiou was a major boon, essentially becoming Star Trek’s answer to Buffy ’s Spike or Dragon Ball Z ’s Vegeta. However, Discovery was also undeniably borrowing clout from legacy characters Pike and Spock, and the constant friction with established canon wasn’t sitting well with Kurtzman or the audience.

The season ended with a surprising twist that resolved the continuity problems but also changed the entire nature of the show. The titular starship and its crew would be propelled 930 years into the future, past the furthest fixed point in Star Trek’s continuity. No longer forced to tiptoe around the sacred canon, Discovery was free to sprint in a bold new direction. Once again and in a more tangible way, it was a whole new show.

“If the folks who came in had sort of taken us off the rails that would have been a very different experience,” says Anthony Rapp, who portrays the prickly Commander Paul Stamets. “But Michelle Paradise came through as such a shining light and a beautiful presence in our lives. She took the show into this territory of being able to have the heart in its center in a way that felt very grounded and meaningful, and really helped us to make that transition.”

An open sky

Season 3 of Discovery offered Kurtzman, Paradise, producing director Olatunde Osunsanmi, and the rest of the creative team a rare opportunity to completely rewrite Star Trek’s galactic map . Not since the launch of The Next Generation in 1987 had a writers room been able to venture onto such “fresh snow,” as Paradise puts it. In the 32nd century, beyond the furthest point explored in the established Trek canon, the righteous United Federation of Planets has all but collapsed in the aftermath of “the Burn,” a mysterious space calamity. Some longtime friends are now adversaries, and even Earth has become an isolationist state. The USS Discovery, displaced in time, becomes the means by which to reconnect the shattered galaxy. It’s not hard to read this as a mission statement for Star Trek as a whole — a relic from another time, back to offer hope to a bleak present.

Season 3’s 13-episode arc restored a bit of Star Trek’s space Western roots, with warp drive a rare and costly luxury in the ravaged 32nd century and half the galaxy dominated by a vast criminal empire known as the Emerald Chain. Michael Burnham spent much of the season out of uniform, having found a new purpose as a more roguish freelance courier alongside the sweet and savvy Cleveland Booker (David Ajala). This is arguably the most interesting version of the show, as Michael questions whether or not Starfleet — the institution whose trust she has worked so hard to restore — is still her home.

By the end of the season (and right on schedule with Fuller and Kurtzman’s original plans), Michael Burnham finally accepts her destiny and becomes captain of Discovery. More subtly, this altered the premise of the show for a third time, as the central question of “Will Michael ever become captain?” had been answered in the affirmative. But, since she’d already been the central character and a figure of improbable cosmic import, the change was mostly cosmetic. And symbolic — Martin-Green considers her presence “being Black, and a woman, and a captain sitting in that chair” to be her greatest contribution to Star Trek. After three seasons of struggle and uncertainty, Burnham could now be as aspirational a character as Picard , Sisko, or Janeway .

The tone on which the show settled at the end of season 3 would be the one that finally stuck. Where the series had initially been bloody and brooding, it was now squarely an adventure show featuring a cast of characters with a boundless and demonstrative love for each other. The crew would face mortal danger each episode and a galactic-level threat each season, bolstered by very expensive-looking visual effects and a rousing score. At the same time, many conflicts both large and small would eventually be resolved by characters talking through their feelings and finding common ground. This was exhausting as often as it was compelling, but it was consistent. For its final two seasons, viewers could finally know what to expect from Star Trek: Discovery .

Discovering itself

This “feelings over phasers” approach was not for everyone, but it was never intended to be. Even from the outset, before Paramount began pumping out more Star Trek series to target different facets of the fan base, Discovery was never meant to be a definitive Star Trek experience that checked every box.

“You’ll never be able to be everything to everybody,” says Michelle Paradise. “The goal was always to make the best version of Discovery . It’s a different kind of Star Trek. It’s serialized, it’s fewer episodes, it’s a movie every week. That’s a thing that will appeal to many people, and for some people it won’t be their cup of tea.”

Discovery has bounced up and down my personal ranking of Star Trek series a number of times during its run, more than any of its past or present siblings. I have begun each season of the show with great excitement, and that excitement is frequently exhausted by season’s end. Most Trek series have good years and bad years. To me, Discovery suffers from being simultaneously brilliant, innovative, lazy, cringe, inspiring, and eye-rolling at all times, only in different measures. It features the franchise’s strongest lead actor since Patrick Stewart, and a supporting cast that has never been leveraged to my satisfaction. In my career, I have written more words about Star Trek: Discovery than any other television series, and I still haven’t made up my mind about it. For as many cheerleaders and haters as the show must have, I imagine there are many more viewers who feel the way I do — it’s a show that I wanted to love, but never fully fell in love with.

As Discovery disappears in the aft viewport, some will bid it a fond farewell, some will be blowing it raspberries, and some will turn away with total disinterest. But regardless of how well Discovery itself is remembered in the coming years, it has already made a substantial impact on the franchise. It paved the way for every Trek series that followed, including three direct spinoffs. Its second season was the incubator for Strange New Worlds , now the most acclaimed Trek series in a generation. Michelle Yeoh had such fun in her recurring role on Discovery that, even after winning an Academy Award , she was still keen to return for the upcoming Section 31 TV movie . Discovery ’s 32nd-century setting will continue to be explored in the new Starfleet Academy series , leaving the door open for some of its characters to return.

Even the new shows that have no direct relationship to Discovery have benefitted from the precedent it set by being different from what came before. Lower Decks is an animated sitcom, Prodigy is a kid-targeted cartoon , Picard is… a bunch of different things that don’t work together , but they are all different shows. Star Trek was one thing, and beginning with Discovery , it became many things. And for Star Trek, an institution that preaches the value of infinite diversity in infinite combinations, that’s a legacy to be proud of.

Star Trek: Discovery is now streaming in full on Paramount Plus.

Star Trek: Discovery boldly goes where no Trek has gone before by saying religion is... OK, actually

Star trek: discovery is cracking open a box next gen closed on purpose, star trek: discovery is finally free to do whatever it wants, loading comments....

We Finally Know When 'Star Trek: Prodigy' Season 2 Will Hit Netflix

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The Big Picture

• Star Trek: Prodigy's second season premieres on Netflix on July 1, 2024.
• The story continues as the group embarks on a mission to find Voyager's Chakotay in the Delta Quadrant with the guidance of Admiral Janeway.
• The show's creators hint at a potential seven-season run, promising more adventures and excitement for fans of the series.

It's been a long year for fans of Star Trek: Prodigy , but the animated series' long-awaited next season is finally in sight. Netflix will reportedly release the second season of the kid-aimed Star Trek series on July 1. TrekCore.com reports that the release date can be seen on Netflix's app.

The second season of the series, which follows a ragtag group of alien teenagers in the galaxy's Delta Quadrant as they try to use an experimental Starfleet ship, the USS Protostar , to escape an evil dictator, didn't seem like a sure thing at one point. Last year, the series was canceled and deleted from its original streamer, Paramount+, even though its second season was nearly complete. Fan outrage ensued over the well-received show's cancelation, and a letter-writing campaign was launched ; Prodigy was eventually picked up by Netflix , who are currently streaming the show's first season. Fans have been waiting for the next season's release ever since, although it was released in France several months ago.

What Do We Know About 'Star Trek: Prodigy' Season 2?

In "Supernova", the two-part finale of Prodigy 's first season, the USS Protostar was destroyed, as was the cadets' mentor, a holographic avatar of legendary Starfleet commander Kathryn Janeway ( Kate Mulgrew ). However, the group escaped their foes, saved Starfleet, and made it to Federation territory. There, they met the real Janeway, who took them on as warrant-officers-in-training aboard a new Protostar-class ship. Janeway wants them on a mission to return to the Delta Quadrant to find her Voyager first officer Chakotay ( Robert Beltran ), who was lost in the region aboard the Protostar in the first place. The series will presumably also deal with the fate of Gwyn ( Ella Purnell ), who departed the group in the first-season finale to try and bring peace to her people, the Vau N'Akat. A clip of the second-season premiere was also released last year, which reveals that a familiar Star Trek voice will have a part to play in the series. In it, the Prodigy cadets meet the holographic Doctor ( Robert Picardo ), who was Janeway's chief medical officer on the original Voyager .

Will there be more Prodigy after its second season? Only time can tell, but in an interview with Collider , Prodigy writers and executive producers Dan and Kevin Hageman said "We wrote this thing to go seven seasons at least."

Watch on Netflix

Season 2 of Star Trek: Prodigy will debut on Netflix July 1, 2024 . Stay tuned to Collider for future updates.

Star Trek: Prodigy

A group of enslaved teenagers steal a derelict Starfleet vessel to escape and explore the galaxy.

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Star Trek: Voyager

Pulled to the far side of the galaxy, where the Federation is seventy-five years away at maximum warp speed, a Starfleet ship must cooperate with Maquis rebels to find a way home. Pulled to the far side of the galaxy, where the Federation is seventy-five years away at maximum warp speed, a Starfleet ship must cooperate with Maquis rebels to find a way home. Pulled to the far side of the galaxy, where the Federation is seventy-five years away at maximum warp speed, a Starfleet ship must cooperate with Maquis rebels to find a way home.

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• Trivia When auditioning for the part of the holographic doctor, Robert Picardo was asked to say the line "Somebody forgot to turn off my program." He did so, then ad-libbed "I'm a doctor, not a light bulb" and got the part.
• Goofs There is speculation that the way the Ocampa are shown to have offspring is an impossible situation, as a species where the female can only have offspring at one event in her life would half in population every generation, even if every single member had offspring. While Ocampa females can only become pregnant once in their lifetime, if was never stated how many children could be born at one time. Kes mentions having an uncle, implying that multiple births from one pregnancy are possible.

Seven of Nine : Fun will now commence.

• Alternate versions Several episodes, such as the show's debut and finale, were originally aired as 2-hour TV-movies. For syndication, these episodes were reedited into two-part episodes to fit one-hour timeslots.
• Connections Edited into Star Trek: Deep Space Nine: Inter Arma Enim Silent Leges (1999)

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Published May 29, 2024

The Darkest Treks: Star Trek's Closest Calls with Black Holes

From lost probes to ancient treasure, Starfleet's encounters with black holes require science know-how and faith of the heart.

This article contains story details and plot points for Star Trek: Discovery's "Lagrange Point."

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As the journey of Star Trek: Discovery comes close to reaching its endpoint, the eponymous starship and crew have found themselves at the end of a very long road. In the search for the technology left behind by the mysterious Progenitors , we learn that the technology itself has been hidden at a specific spot, right in a tricky place, between two black holes. In scientific terms, this is called a " Lagrange Point ," which is where the episode gets its name and refers to a location in space between two bodies in which gravitational attraction and repulsion are enhanced, creating what NASA calls "parking spots," in space.

In this case, the two bodies that have created a small parking spot are two black holes, rendered in all their glory, resembling what physicist Kip Thorne posits black holes would really look like if observed from a spaceship. But, Star Trek has been thinking about black holes, long before current science was really sure what they might look like, and, as such, Starfleet's history with this phenomenon goes deep. So deep, you might say, that light can't even escape!

Here's a brief history of Star Trek 's best black hole adventures, and how these wonderfully mysterious phenomena continue to pull us in.

Voyager 6 … I Presume?

Star Trek: The Motion Picture

In Star Trek: The Motion Picture , the crew of the Enterprise learn that a giant machine intelligence known as V'Ger is really a mash-up of an ancient alien lifeform and an old Earth space probe called Voyager 6 . Decker tells us that the probe "disappeared into what they used to call a black hole." In 1979, the same year as the Disney sci-fi romp titled The Black Hole , the actual term "black hole" was still relatively new, at least in the popular consciousness. Although the etymology of "black hole," can be traced to the early 1960s, it was not until 1967 — smack-dab in the middle of the first run of The Original Series — that the scientific term became more widely used. Before the 1960s, referring to a collapsed star with an unbeatable gravitational pull wasn't standardized, and as far back as the 1700s, the term "dark star" was often used instead.

"Beyond the Farthest Star"

This is why Decker says people used to call various gravitational phenomena black holes. At the time, the coinage was still fairly new! In The Animated Series debut episode, "Beyond the Farthest Star," the Enterprise gets into the orbit of a "dead star," which is an imprecise astronomical term, because again, at the time, black holes had just recently become fully codified as black holes.The 1967 TOS episode " Tomorrow is Yesterday ," also mentions that the Enterprise uses a "black star" to create a slingshot effect and travel back in time. In theoretical physics, a "black star" is a kind of alternative theory to a black hole, but, it's also possible that in "Tomorrow is Yesterday," Starfleet merely called it a black star, and it was really a black hole.

In real life, NASA has not lost any probes to black holes, at least not that we know. But, on Voyager I and Voyager II , there is a golden record, containing various pieces of information about Earth, including an audio recording of Nick Sagan saying, "Hello from the children of planet Earth." Sagan is the son of Carl Sagan and was a writer for The Next Generation and Voyager .

Singularity Headaches from Voyager to Enterprise

"Parallax"

Speaking of spacecraft called " Voyager ," the wayward crew in Star Trek: Voyager dealt with more than their fair share of black hole conundrums. In the second regular episode of Voyager , ever, " Parallax ," they encounter an event horizon of a "quantum singularity." In physics, the center of a black hole is called a singularity, the place of infinite density. In "Parallax," the proximity to this singularity the Voyager crew believed there was another ship trapped in the same area of space, but, in reality, it was a time-delayed echo of Voyager itself.

In the episode " Hunters ," the Voyager crew was able to transform a microsingularity into a full-blown black hole, and thus, destroy an attacking Hirogen ship. A few years later in Earth time — but roughly 200 years prior in Star Trek time —  the Enterprise episode " Singularity " found the crew of the NX-01 skirting the edge of a black hole, resulting in everyone becoming obsessed with irritating minutiae. You could say, the proximity to the singularity of a black hole made the crew single-minded .

Real Black Holes Come To Star Trek

"If Memory Serves"

As NASA has pointed out over the years, black holes are not fully understood by contemporary science, an evolving truth that is reflected over the years throughout all of Star Trek , too. This is why, it wasn't until the 2019 Discovery episode " If Memory Serves " that we got our first Star Trek glimpse of what current science thinks a black hole might really look like. When siblings Spock and Burnham take an unauthorized road trip to Talos IV, the Talosians create an illusionary black hole around their planet to ward off the visitors. From this point, all versions of Star Trek have begun using this conception of black holes on-screen. While the red-matter-generated black hole Spock created in the 2009 Star Trek film looks incredible, the version first depicted in Discovery Season 2 is more scientifically up-to-date.

This contemporary version of a black hole also appeared in the Strange New Worlds episode " Memento Mori ," in which the Enterprise crew uses the gravity of a brown dwarf star — tethered to a black hole — to escape attacks from the Gorn. A black star of this nature also appears in the opening credits of every single episode of Lower Decks , in which it appears the U.S.S. Cerritos almost gets sucked into a black hole, but, thankfully, narrowly escapes.

"Lagrange Point"

Because Discovery pioneered this newer look for black holes, it's fitting that two black holes appear in the penultimate episode of the entire series. From navigating the multiverse to the mycelial network, Discovery has had more than its fair share of encounters with the stormy weather of outer space. But, with the double black holes of "Lagrange Point," Discovery proves that when it comes to space obstacles, sometimes, the classics work best.

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Ryan Britt is the author of the nonfiction books Phasers on Stun! How the Making and Remaking of Star Trek Changed the World (2022), The Spice Must Flow: The Journey of Dune from Cult Novels to Visionary Sci-Fi Movies (2023), and the essay collection Luke Skywalker Can’t Read (2015). He is a longtime contributor to Star Trek.com and his writing regularly appears with Inverse, Den of Geek!, Esquire and elsewhere. He lives in Portland, Maine with his family.

Star Trek: Discovery Seasons 1-4 are streaming exclusively on Paramount+ in the U.S., the UK, Canada, Switzerland, South Korea, Latin America, Germany, France, Italy, Australia and Austria. Seasons 2 and 3 also are available on the Pluto TV “Star Trek” channel in Switzerland, Germany and Austria. The series streams on Super Drama in Japan, TVNZ in New Zealand, and SkyShowtime in Spain, Portugal, Poland, The Nordics, The Netherlands, and Central and Eastern Europe and also airs on Cosmote TV in Greece. The series is distributed by Paramount Global Content Distribution.

Coaxial warp drive

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A coaxial induction drive

The coaxial warp ship, emerging from coaxial warp

A Starfleet shuttlecraft going to coaxial warp

Coaxial warp drive , also known as coaxial induction drive or simply coaxial drive , was a propulsion system that functioned by drawing in subatomic particles and reconfiguring their internal geometries. This allowed a starship the capability to fold the fabric of space , allowing it to travel instantaneously across extremely large distances. ( VOY : " Vis à Vis ")

History [ ]

By the late 24th century , the concept of coaxial warp drive was familiar to Starfleet engineers , who had been dreaming about it for a number of years.

In 2374 , an experimental coaxial warp prototype was piloted by a shapeshifter with the ability to switch their DNA with another individual—in essence, switch bodies. The shapeshifter and their ship was encountered by the crew of the USS Voyager in the Delta Quadrant . At the time, the shapeshifter was pretending to be a Benthan named Steth and claimed that the ship was also of Benthan origin.

Emerging from coaxial space in an unstable condition, the vessel threatened to explode and collapse space within a radius of a billion kilometers. Such an occurrence was averted, however, when Tom Paris , Voyager 's helmsman , managed to generate a symmetric warp field around the coaxial warp ship, containing the instabilities in the space-folding core. The drive of the craft was imperfect, as particle instabilities tended to overload the engines. To correct for this flaw, Paris conceived of using a polaric modulator to dilute the particle stream as it entered the coaxial core, drawing inspiration from a 20th century device known as a carburetor .

The Voyager crew eventually discovered that the impostor was not who they claimed to be when they switched places with Captain Janeway in an attempt to escape from Voyager using a Starfleet Class 2 shuttle modified to use a coaxial warp drive. Paris was able to prevent the escape by targeting the polaric modulator with a chromoelectric pulse , disrupting the shuttle's engines. ( VOY : " Vis à Vis ")

See also [ ]

• Spatial trajector

External Link [ ]

• Coaxial warp drive at Memory Beta , the wiki for licensed Star Trek works
• 1 Daniels (Crewman)
• 3 Calypso (episode)

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Star trek confirms the harsh reality of seven of nine's life after starfleet.

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Star Trek's Original Ban on Female Starship Captains Is Even Weirder Than It Seems

Star trek fleet command codes (june 2024), star trek confirms doctor phlox's fate centuries after enterprise.

• Seven of Nine faces continued bigotry and obstacles in “Lady Luck,” showcasing ongoing struggles post- Voyager return.
• “Lady Luck” highlights Seven’s resilience against discrimination stemming from her previous Borg status.
• Despite serving with distinction, Seven of Nine still confronts anti-Borg sentiments, even in her new role in Starfleet.

Warning: contains spoilers for "Lady Luck," appearing in Star Trek Celebrations: Pride!

Seven of Nine’s return to the Alpha Quadrant was not as hopeful as one would have hoped, as Star Trek has confirmed the harsh reality of her life afterward. When fans were reintroduced to Seven during Star Trek: Picard’s first season, she had adjusted–somewhat, to her new life. Yet, as seen in the story “Lady Luck” in Star Trek Celebrations: Pride , she must still deal with bigots.

“Lady Luck,” appearing in Star Trek Celebrations: Pride , by Vita Ayala and Liana Kangas, follows Seven of Nine and Raffii as they attend Raifi’s Starfleet class reunion. Raffii is the butt of jokes among her classmates, who tease her for being so quiet during her time at Starfleet. Seven is having it even worse, as she must constantly deal, not only with mansplaining, but rampant bigotry.

Several of Raffi’s classmates bring up Seven’s former Borg status, which greatly irritates her.

One Starfleet officer brings up Seven’s failed application to Starfleet Academy, which nearly starts a fight.

Seven of Nine's Character Arc Was One of Star Trek's Most Rewarding

However, her life after returning to the alpha quadrant was anything but good.

Seven of Nine’s journey to rediscover the humanity that was stolen from her as a child was the basis for one of the most compelling character arcs in the Star Trek franchise. Seven was born human, but was captured by the Borg along with her family. After being severed from the Collective, Seven not only has to rediscover what has been lost, but deal with the guilt of her actions as a Borg. Seven served with distinction, but as seen in Star Trek: Picard’s first season, she did not have an easy time upon returning to the Alpha Quadrant.

Seven of Nine attempted to make a life for herself after Voyager , but thanks to her status as a former Borg drone, many doors were shut in her face. She applied to Starfleet Academy, but was rejected. Seven later fell in with the Fenris Rangers, a group of vigilantes patrolling unprotected sectors of space. By the time Picard’s final season rolled around, Seven had joined Starfleet, serving on the USS Titan under Captain Shaw. At first, Shaw was uncertain of Seven, and even dead named her. He eventually came around, but it was a reminder of what Seven deals with.

Starfleet's ban on women starship captains in Kirk's time was odd, and now fans learn it was a very real, but unofficial, thing.

Decades Later, Seven of Nine Must Still Deal With Anti-Borg Sentiments

Seven of nine must work harder to be taken seriously.

Now, “Lady Luck” further reinforces the bigotry that Seven of Nine still deals with, even 20 years after Voyager’s return.

Now, “Lady Luck” further reinforces the bigotry that Seven of Nine still deals with, even 20 years after Voyager’s return. It is totally understandable the apprehension many would feel around her, as the Borg are the most feared race in the Star Trek franchise. The Borg force other races to join them, stripping them of their individuality. Yet Seven has been free of the Borg for decades at this point. Her actions since returning to the Alpha Quadrant point to a legacy of caring and helping people, but she must still deal with bigotry from those around her.

Star Trek Celebrations: Pride is on sale now from IDW Publishing!