# of episodes
episode average
16
3.23
series Top 20
series Flop 20
0 episodes
0 episodes
EPISODE SUMMARY
1.1-1.2 Caretaker, I-II
1.3 Parallax
1.4 Time and Again
1.5 Phage
1.6 The Cloud
1.7 Eye of the Needle
1.8 Ex Post Facto
1.9 Emanations
1.10 Prime Factors
1.11 State of Flux
1.12 Heroes and Demons
1.13 Cathexis
1.14 Faces
1.15 Jetrel
1.16 Learning Curve
MUST-SEE
1.1-1.2 CARETAKER, I-II
USS Voyager is stranded 70,000 light-years from home and must face the prospect of a 75-year journey.
All Star Trek pilot episodes are good. From the oppressed creature at Farpoint to the transcendent wormhole aliens, all ST shows have sprung out of the gate by delivering mature and intelligent sci-fi. “Caretaker” is no exception. An old creature whose dying wish is to continue caring for aliens he inadvertently hurt generations ago — that’s good stuff. The script does it justice by taking each faction and character seriously, from the Caretaker himself to the Kazon to the Ocampa. There is an impressive amount of world-building here, something that few ST pilots have had to deal with, but that DS9 showed is definitely possible while remaining within accepted ST canon.
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As for continuity, many of the eventual dynamics are already clear here in the pilot, such as Tuvok and Janeway's ironclad friendship, Paris and Chakotay’s rivalry, and Kes’s remarkable empathy. This makes for a stronger pilot, one that doesn’t merely introduce but also lays the groundwork for a couple of seasons’ worth of plots. On the other hand, the premise for Voyager remaining stranded in the Delta Quadrant is notoriously weak. Surely there were ways to destroy the array and still use it to get home, like an old-fashioned bomb on a timer. A discussion of this fact (and of Torres’s crucial line “who is she to be making these decisions for all of us?”) would not be forthcoming until S5.
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Some may call this a plot hole; others poetic license. Personally, I don’t care much about plot holes, but I would have wanted the the choice to be a lot more labored and damning. Janeway’s decision is not only the “right” thing to do, but also the Starfleet thing to do. It’s an unabashed affirmation of how far she’s willing to go to stay true to her ideals, a vow deeply in conflict with her mission to care for her crew. While there are bits and pieces of this in the script, it’s left primarily to the viewer’s imagination, and I would have wanted it to be more explicit. Moreover, her decision basically validates the Caretaker’s dying wish to procreate, as his goal was to find someone who will protect the Ocampa in his absence. That someone is Janeway, who picks up the torch where he left it.
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Overall, an excellent start to the show, with some of the usual contrivances of pilot episodes and that one plot hole (plus the annoying generic background music that ruined the last four seasons of DS9 and makes its mark here, too, before the showrunners decided that each episode deserved an actual score).
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Ensign Kim Disappears #1
They Could Get Home #1
WORTH WATCHING
1.3 PARALLAX
Voyager is trapped in an anomaly with a duplicate of itself, while the Starfleet and Maquis crews struggle to adapt to each other.
A fun riddle built around Torres’ initiation. While some later technobabble-filled episodes are more developed (but also more convoluted), this one presents a cool and simple puzzle that ST time-travel newcomers won’t find excessively damning. The downside is that there is too little emphasis on the actual physics, but that’s okay, as the main goal is to explore the relationships in a crew that is starting to have to trust one another from scratch. Just like Torres needs to learn teamwork, Janeway needs to learn to trust beyond her Starfleet training. Hence, Chakotay emerges as a natural mediator, a role that fits him well and that reinterprets the figure of the first office beyond Riker’s firm-but-fun demure (and that will end up being Chakotay’s defining characteristic throughout most of the show).
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In a way, Torres’ plight symbolizes all Maquis crewmembers’ difficulty in adapting to Starfleet life, so her conversion is symbolic of a lot of personal and emotional labor that must happen behind the scenes, some of which we’ll see in “Learning Curve.” I also love that the hierarchical stability that was taken for granted in TOS and TNG has to be fought for on Voyager. DS9’s success with these stories paved the way for VOY to put them to the best use in an environment that cries out for this sort of drama.
WORTH WATCHING
1.4 TIME AND AGAIN
Janeway and Paris accidentally travel back in time to an alien planet about to be destroyed.
Back-to-back time-travel episodes is a daring gamble for a new ST show, but it pays off. Aside from the usual two-dimensional pre-warp society that we’ve seen before (and the annoying stock child character that literally no one wants to see), this is a very well-written time paradox. It gets all the temporal mechanics right through a series of insightful dialogues about causation and effect. The eventual resolution is also consistent with the premise: subspace shockwave travels in the past, so what they do in future affects the past and vice-versa. That’s also a clever way to get around the uncomfortableness of having to follow the Prime Directive by making sure that disaster is averted, because it would have never happened if Voyager hadn’t got involved… and, of course, Voyager wouldn’t have got involved if the disaster hadn’t happened, but hey, that’s why time-travel episodes are fun!
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There’s a catch. Personally, I hate when time-travel plots end with a restoration of a timeline where the crew remember nothing that happened to them. It feels like cheating, and it introduces a discrepancy between what the audience know and what the characters know, which should just not happen. Other than that, this is a very good episode that succeeds in giving every character a good role, while also advancing the general plot arc of S1 of getting the two crews to cooperate.
WORTH WATCHING
1.5 PHAGE
The Vidiians, a species plagued by an ancient illness that forces them to harvest alien organs to survive, steal Neelix's lungs during a raid.
This is the first of several S1 episodes explicitly motivated by the need to fill up on resources, a sensible plot device in a frontier scenario. And while these plots are occasionally clumsy, they never really miss the mark. Much of this script focuses on chasing the Vidiians, which is cool, I suppose, but giving so much attention to the procedural elements eats up valuable time that could be spent on much more serious moral dilemmas. The sickbay scenes with Neelix, Kes, and the Doctor fare better. The idea of holographic lungs is creative, and Kes has great depth in these first few episodes as she balances her allegiance to Neelix with her desire to grow as a young adult. Despite Phillips’ excellent performance, Neelix’s struggle with mortality is not captivating, as it is mostly disconnected from the rest of the plot.
By the time we get to the key dilemma — whether it’s right to kill a Vidiian to save Neelix — it’s brought up and disposed within a three-minute conversation. Not only that, but the resolution feels like a cheap way out as the Vidiians suddenly bring up that they can do a transplant. The writers don’t seem to have grasped the full potential of the Phage, and while some later episodes are more successful, this introduction to the new species could be a hell of a lot better. Still, it is not bad by: as is known, even the misses in VOY are not very bad misses (S2’s “Threshold” notwithstanding, but we do not talk about that...)
MUST-SEE
1.6 THE CLOUD
Voyager accidentally harms a large, space-faring creature while investigating what appeared to be a nebula.
While the alien-of-the-week plot is basic, the subplots make this episode required viewing. From the animal quest to Sandrine’s Bistro, there’s much here to develop the characters’ growing familiarity with each other, with the ship, and with life in the Delta Quadrant. For the first time we witness one of Janeway’s recurring themes: balancing the desire to get closer to the crew with the requirement to keep a “healthy distance.” Many interactions here speak to this struggle, from her dealings with Neelix (both positive and negative) to the animal guide quest with Chakotay. And although it is cultural appropriation, the latter is among S1’s most fascinating interactions, and the show’s earliest exploration of the theme of spiritualty that will become crucial later on.
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This episode also contains a few knee-slappers, from Janeway’s most famous line (“There is coffee in that nebula!”) to Chakotay’s “B’Elanna is the only one I know who tried to kill her animal guide.” This matters, as previous attempts at humor had been sophomoric... but humor is a natural consequence of the fact that the characters are better known to the audience and more comfortable with one another. I love this episode for the lighthearted gregariousness with which it presents the crew in a typically (and rightly) self-serious show, and this more than other more “mature” plots is a sign of progress in the first season.
MUST-SEE
1.7 EYE OF THE NEEDLE
The crew detect a microscopic wormhole that may lead to the Alpha Quadrant.
The show finds its feet for the first time in the season’s most mature episode and one of the best overall. It is mindful, dramatic, somber, and elegiac, but all without excess. The overly enthusiastic reactions of some of the crew (Kim, Torres) are tempered by the underwhelming ones of others (Tuvok, Doc), and the result is a harmonious balance. We know that the wormhole won’t work out, or the show would end, but the episode keeps the audience focused on the real story: what does going home mean to these people?
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In fact, the structure of Dial & Taylor’s script, built on a series of crescendos and demises, is nothing short of outstanding. It’s a wormhole that leads home... but it’s too small. We can contact the Alpha Quadrant... but only a Romulan ship. We can teleport through... but the Romulan ship turns out to be in the past. We can send a message to our families... but the Romulan captain died before delivering it. Nowhere is the eventual hope-and-fear motif any clearer than in this episode. In fact, the show wouldn’t reach this level of narrative maturity until the Borg-related plots in S4. And watching Janeway navigate the stages of cautious optimism and private grief is heartbreaking, also thanks to Mulgrew’s outstanding performance, her first of many in this show. A hidden pearl, but a pearl for sure.
SKIPPABLE
1.8 EX POST FACTO
Paris is convicted of murder on an alien planet and forced to relive the final moments of his alleged victim's life.
A basic but entertaining whodunit that reminds of TNG’s yet-superior “A Matter of Perspective,” although with a lower emphasis on he-said she-said and a cleverer espionage plot. Although some parts are quite predictable, the final revelation is genuinely surprising, and all the moving parts are well orchestrated toward the eventual goal. Tuvok leads a good investigation with the usual poise, although I would have liked to see/hear more of his reasoning along the way. As it is, the exposition-heavy conclusion is reminiscent of Sherlock Holmes mysteries. The film-noir atmosphere is also effective thanks to Burton’s creative directing and a valid musical score.
Unfortunately, the setting is highly generic, with the all-too-common nondescript aliens who only differ from all other nondescript aliens in the hairstyles and face ridges. Even the ship models, matte backgrounds, and house sets are obviously re-used from previous TNG and DS9 episodes. VOY would eventually break this bad habit, which is completely immersion-breaking, but it is understandable that S1 episodes (which have to be budget-conscious) would still use this trick. Still, the meat of the episode remains fairly solid despite the shortcomings. Also, it does a decent job at introducing the unlikely friendship between Tuvok and Paris, which will have several installments throughout the show.
WORTH WATCHING
1.9 EMANATIONS
The crew interfere with an alien species' burial rituals when Kim is accidentally transported to one of their funeral chambers.
The second in a long series of Kim-gets-lost episodes is also among the least cringe-worthy. For once, Kim doesn’t look like a hapless and helpless idiot, but rather takes charge of his predicament and makes some pretty good observations and developments along the way. The script addresses important philosophical issues, starting with the excellent opening scene on the asteroid that reveals Chakotay’s anthropology background. Several more conversations explore the nature of faith vs. mortality, on the Vhnori world as well as aboard Voyager. These parts of the episode serve as a dress rehearsal for S3’s more mature spiritual epic “Sacred Ground,” and succeed in raising good questions without paternalism.
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However, there’s a strong emphasis on the psychology of death and belief, and not a lot on the ethics of the Prime Directive or interfering with another culture. Kim’s scenes on the planet do tackle the issue somewhat, but still mostly in the context of the role that belief plays in his Hatil’s life and in his family’s decision that he should die. That’s too bad, as this would have been the perfect chance to discuss how far Starfleet personnel can go in engaging with the beliefs of an alien culture without violating them.
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Ensign Kim Disappears #2
WATCH FOR CONTINUITY
1.10 PRIME FACTORS
Voyager encounter a highly technologically advanced species who can transport over long distances.
An episode that seems formulaic at first evolves into an intriguing moral dilemma, the first of many related to finding a faster way home. And although the ending is predictable and convenient, the conundrum is well analyzed. I like that the crew’s dealings with the usual alien-of-the-week take place at several levels of officiality. ST often portrays alien cultures as monolithic, where all citizens fundamentally agree with one another, and this solves that problem. VOY as a show, in general, does a better job of subverting this stereotype, as DS9 also had.
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Seska’s eventual demise is set up here, though most of the focus is rightly on the Tuvok-Janeway relationship. While I love the final twist, I’m a bit disappointed that Janeway doesn’t seem to learn the most crucial lesson: that it was her principled inflexibility, not Tuvok’s error, that caused this problem to begin with. This issue will return, culminating in S4’s “Scorpion,” to further portray Janeway as a lonely leader and the sole Federation standard-bearer in the Alpha Quadrant... a dubious narrative, for sure, but one that episodes like this advance very well.
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They Could Get Home #2: The only obstacle to the spatial trajector working is that it needs a planet for the neutrinos to collimate, so why don’t Voyager find a planet and spend some months building a large-enough trajector?!
MUST-SEE
1.11 STATE OF FLUX
Suspicions about Seska build after she is found on an alien planet in close proximity to the Kazon.
A mature and intelligent espionage mystery that lays solid groundwork for two full seasons’ worth of villain plots. Seska had been portrayed as a rogue misfit from the start, so it is not surprising that she would turn sour. Yet this is precisely what keeps the plot fresh and the twists unexpected: Seska is so obviously a bad apple that she can’t be the real villain, right? I love how the audience’s gradual process of discovery mirrors Tuvok’s and Chakotay’s investigation, as the inevitability of her betrayal dawns upon them and us both.
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The retconned old-flame backstory adds a welcome personal dimension to this story for Chakotay, who has more skin in the game than another character in the same situation would. While these subplots are usually worthless, this one works perfectly. Seska’s origin story is also well designed, digging deep into Cardassian-Maquis political lore that we’ve come to know and love. And while this means that the episode works on a deeper level only for those who have watched DS9, the same can be said about most of VOY.
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But even more than the writing, I love how this episode was filmed and directed. It’s simple without being formulaic, direct without being in-your-face, beautifully highlighted by Chattaway’s score, and paced just right to have enough time to digest what just happened before a new element is introduced. The eventual resolution is bitter, which is how it’s supposed to be; and while Seska has her detractors, I find her to be a believable and powerful opponent that breaks the mold of usual ST alien villains.
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Aside from all that, I’d give this episode five stars even just for Chakotay’s best line in the entire show: “you [Tuvok] were working for her [Janeway], Seska was working for them [the Cardassians]... was anyone on that ship working for me?”
WATCH FOR CONTINUITY
1.12 HEROES AND DEMONS
The Doctor picks up his first away mission on the holodeck after three crew members disappear.
VOY’s first stab at the stuck-in-the-holodeck trope is not very original, although it does have a few saving graces. The specific program at hand, Beowulf, is the usual period piece with little to say. Only DS9’s James Bond-like adventure was worth watching, and perhaps TNG’s Sherlock Holmes. A bunch of Vikings on a rundown set hardly makes for fun viewing. VOY’s later holo-programs, from Janeway’s novel to Paris’ Fair Haven, will be similarly disappointing (Captain Proton being a noteworthy exception because it’s just too damn funny).
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On the other hand, there is excellent character development for the Doctor. He is the last cast regular to get his own plot line, and although he had received bits and pieces of attention in other episodes, this is where it becomes obvious that he can truly shine. Picardo delivers an understated, balanced, and funny performance that shows his excellent range from the comic to the dramatic, which is precisely what the story needs. Doc’s emergence as a full member of the Voyager crew, with all the duties and privileges of one, is believable mostly thanks to him. Kes also has a good role, as usual during S1. Everything else about this episode is forgettable, but then again, nothing else really matters.
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Ensign Kim Disappears #3
SKIPPABLE
1.13 CATHEXIS
An alien consciousness that's able to jump from host to host seems to possess several members of the crew one by one...
Some episodes tell trite stories but execute them so well that they set a new bar for how those stories should be told; S4’s “Waking Moments” is an example of that. Some other episodes tell trite stories in trite ways and bring little or nothing to the table; this is one of them. TNG had already explored the concept of the disembodied alien energy possessing a crew member and doing weird shit, for example in S1’s “Lonely Among Us” and S5’s “Power Play,” and the latter was particularly good. This episode instead is a hodgepodge of half-baked thrills with a shallow plot that never gets off the ground, and it’s unclear why exactly we should care that there is a creepy alien loose on the ship.
It’s also immediately obvious that the alien is Chakotay, so the incapacity to put two and two together when it’s right in the face of the audience is a little annoying. It would have made much more sense if that fact was immediately acknowledged and part of the episode consist in attempting to reintegrate his consciousness... only to find out that there are two alien presences when Tuvok takes over. Alas, none of that happens. Moreover, why can’t a spirit that can possess people and make them do complex tasks like piloting a starship not just make them write “hey it’s me, Chakotay!” on a computer screen?! Some plot holes are forgivable, but this one is just stupid.
SKIPPABLE
1.14 FACES
A Vidiian scientist looking for a cure for the Phage separates Torres into two genetically distinct persons: one fully human and one fully Klingon.
A preposterous premise results in a contrived episode that tries to shed light on Torres’ inner struggle but ends up saying little. This episode has been the subject of much academic attention because of its uncomfortable racial essentialism and the assumption that humans feel and act a certain way, Klingons in another, etc. All ST shows have made this mistake, which comes with the territory of using an alien species as a placeholder for a human characteristic, but seeing it in this way brings home how dumb the idea is and how oblivious and tone-deaf the authors choose to be to non-biological factors like development and upbringing.
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Moreover, identifying Torres’ more mellow personality with Dawson’s whiteness and the savage ones with her brownness is overtly racist and must not happen. The yet absurd premise at least does allow the authors to explore two sides of Torres’ personality that, although they shouldn’t have been identified with her bi-raciality, are nonetheless very much real. But even then, the script does not end up going anywhere with it, which you can tell by the fact that the events in this episode, although supposedly very important, are never mentioned again, not even when Torres’ human-Klingon nature is discussed (e.g., in S6’s excellent “Barge of the Dead” and in S7’s hidden masterpiece “Lineage,” both of which rightfully focus on culture as the most important component of racial identity).
WATCH FOR CONTINUITY
1.15 JETREL
The scientist responsible for the destruction of Neelix's homeworld seeks absolution and offers a bold plan to undo some of the damage.
An original and heartfelt take on the Oppenheimer problem, replete with quotes that are too similar to be a coincidence. It’s clear that part of the intent was to analyze war crime ethics from both the victim’s and the butcher’s side. It works well thanks to Phillips’ and especially Sloyan’s performances (in my opinion, his Admiral Jarok in TNG’s “The Defector” is the best guest performance in all ST). But of course the primary goal of this episode is to talk about Neelix’s past, his dereliction of duty, and the loss of his family, and that works well too.
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However, the final emphasis on Jetrel’s struggle to exorcise his own demons is a double-edged sword. While it creates an interesting foil for Neelix, and foils are the soul of effective storytelling, it has the revolting side effect of equating the plight of victims with that of butchers, a common white-guilt tool to elicit sympathy for the post-facto crocodile tears of aggressors. This places the episode on dubious moral ground. Jetrel’s own project is also ludicrous, not because of the absurd science (it’s Star Trek, after all), but because it’s floated for a minute, abandoned after one half-baked trial, and never spoken of again, which is hardly a paragon of good scientific practice. So while the psychology is beyond reproach, the ethics and the science leave much to be desired.
SKIPPABLE
1.16 LEARNING CURVE
Tuvok retrains four underperforming Maquis crewmembers, but must also reckon with his own inflexible methods.
This episode should have happened earlier in the season. Not only would it make more sense plot-wise, but it’s also an unfit ending for the show’s maiden season, as it does and says little that is related to Voyager’s predicament. Still, it is a fairly valid episode in its own right. On the positive side, it shows some very good character development for Tuvok, especially through his friendship with Neelix. The conversation about firmness and flexibility is one of the best in the season, and one of the (yet-too-rare) times that two fascinating characters like Neelix and Tuvok interact after the pilot. In this regard, the script succeeds.
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The Maquis story is hit-and-miss. It makes sense that there would be misfits and that they be welcomed (forced?) back into the fold. But the way in which it’s actually done is not very interesting. Arguably, what the Maquis need is not phjysical training or learning Starfleet procedures, but a reason to trust and care about their fellow crew members. In that regard, the episode does a good job by forcing them into a situation where they have to care. Alas, that situation is contrived and uninteresting, as the whole “malfunctioning gel packs” story is quite trite and predictable. Overall, some pros and cons, but more of the latter.