Craggus’ Trek Trek:
Now, Voyager! Vol 9
Craggus’ Trek Trek Now Voyager Vol 9 sees Star Trek Voyager taking a leaf out of Deep Space Nine’s playbook and reinvigorating the show with the introduction of a new character that changes the whole dynamic.
Star Trek Voyager S3E24: Displaced
A wonderfully devilish subversion of immigration paranoia, Displaced takes the trusted somebody-seizes-control-of-the-ship Star Trek trope and puts an entirely new spin on it, confronting Janeway and crew with an enemy every bit as insidious as The Borg, albeit with a more duplicitous, diplomatic approach. It starts with the arrival of a handful of seemingly confused aliens appearing on the ship, with it only becoming apparent that crewmembers are disappearing being revealed slightly later. It’s a smart move for the episode to stay with the ship for the first half of the episode and not really follow the missing crew until they’ve all been snatched, although it’s something of an irony that in an episode where the situation creates multiple opportunities for rapid advancement through the ranks, Harry Kim is the first one to vanish. If the takeover of Voyager feels a little too easy, it’s at least balanced by a similar straightforwardness in thwarting the aliens’ plot by the end of the episode and there’s that nagging doubt (as with the TNG Episode “Conundrum“) that if the aliens had all this technology at their disposal, why did they need to go around hijacking other races’ ships in the first place.
Star Trek Voyager S3E25: Worst Case Scenario
A bonkers “What If…?” episode that has a fantastic twist in the tale and brings back an old foe for one last hurrah, Worst Case Scenario succeeds both as an ensemble adventure where everyone gets something fun to do and as one of the few shows that only Voyager could really have done. It marks an important evolutionary point in the show, too, where it’s making it clear it’s ready to move on from the Maquis vs Starfleet tensions of its past three seasons and mature into something new as it gets ready for its fourth season (and the changes that were coming). Martha Hackett’s return just underlines how good a villain she was and how underused she ended up being by getting her off the ship too early in the series’ run. It’s also quite fun to hear – very clearly – the writers room’s voices in the episode as, in a fourth-wall straining metatextual twist, this week’s episode of Voyager is about writing an episode of Star Trek: Voyager.
Star Trek Voyager S3E26: Scorpion
The pre-credits sequence is stunning in its simplicity and implications as we see the Borg – the proper, undiluted, actual Borg this time – blown to bits with ease by an unknown assailant. Voyager takes a big swing as it ends its third season – its strongest so far – and sets the scene for bigger and bolder changes to come in its fourth. The story of The Borg confronting an enemy that’s superior to them is a great idea and places our heroes in an interesting position, but it’s clear that the writers are working to a template here, seeking to follow the pathway laid down by Trek’s greatest cliffhanger, The Best Of Both Worlds. That template helps as much as it hinders and there’s an argument to be made that Scorpion may have gone in more unexpected directions if it hadn’t been checking off a tick-list. Tension between the Captain and First Officer? Check. Regular cast member in mortal peril? Check (of course it’s Harry). Ends with the Captain aboard a Borg cube? Check. All in all, it’s quite a ride and typifies Janeway’s tendency to ‘go big’ in trying to ‘go home’. The risk she takes here in heading straight for The Borg and saying “I know something you don’t know” isn’t one that you can see easily see Picard taking. In many ways the deal with the devil she’s willing to make feels straight from the shoot-from-the-hip poker diplomacy playbook of Kirk that she dismissed so readily at the start of the season.
Star Trek Voyager S4E01: Scorpion, Part II
As is usual with Star Trek two-parter part twos, this season opener isn’t quite as kinetic or cohesive as the build-up. It’s hardly a surprise given there’s a lot going on as Janeway’s hail-Mary alliance with the Borg comes under increasing pressure due to Species-8472’s relentless onslaught. It’s an action-packed episode with an ambitiously twisty, turny narrative and a trip to a gooey fluidic parallel universe before the threat of Species-8472 is repelled and Janeway is forced to deal with the remaining threat of the Borg. Thankfully, she and Chakotay have had a backup plan all along and Voyager welcomes its newest and most reluctant new crewmember.
Star Trek Voyager S4E02: The Gift
For an episode that’s got some heavy lifting to do as it bids farewell to an existing character and starts to unpack the nature and themes of a new one, The Gift does a pretty good job, all things considered. Of the two characters, Kes probably gets a little short-changed and her departure is precipitated by a somewhat rushed evolutionary leap which never quite convinces despite its earnest attempts to link back to previous stories. Still, there are some nicely played and welcome emotional beats as she bids farewells to Janeway, The Doctor and Neelix. There’s much more dramatic meat on offer with Seven of Nine’s reluctant rescue from the Borg collective and it’s an impressively objective exploration of the idea of deprogramming someone, with both Janeway and Seven landing valid philosophical and moral hits on the other’s position. In the end, Janeway remains resolute in the face of Seven’s pleas and sets the series on a path to explore humanity in a similar way that previous Trek series had done before.
Star Trek Voyager S4E03: Day Of Honor
Aka B’Elanna and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day. Although its title hints at yet more dull and ponderous exploration of Klingon tradition, it’s actually quite an eventful episode as everything goes wrong for B’Elanna to the point where she’s marooned in space with Tom Paris. Meanwhile, Seven’s not having a great day either as the ship encounters a desperate group of refugees, survivors of a civilisation destroyed by the Borg who initially approach Voyager with pleas for assistance but are driven through desperation to threaten the ship and hold Voyager to ransom. It’s another story where there’s a clear A and B plot, falling back into old Trek storytelling habits, but it’s essentially in service of fleshing out the newly introduced Seven of Nine and trialling the on-screen chemistry with the rest of the cast, this time Harry Kim.
Star Trek Voyager S4E04: Nemesis
Something of a throwback episode, it feels out of place in season four and more like a season one/ two story where Chakotay has yet another ill-starred shuttle flight, this time landing in the middle of a warzone. It’s an underpowered examination of the nature of hate and the toxic effects of propaganda and divisive demonisation as Chakotay finds himself brainwashed into hating his adversaries, coming to view them as little more than beasts. In perhaps the episode’s best moment, Chakotay comes face to face with one of these “beasts” in the finale and laments that hate, although easily learned, is more difficult to let go of. As messages go, it’s one that continues to speak to today’s increasingly polarised world, but you can’t help but feel the episode never quite manages to make the most of its moral. Still, it’s better than the movie Star Trek Nemesis.
Star Trek Voyager S4E05: Revulsion
An episode which deals with psychological projection or, rather, a psychotic projection as B’Elanna and The Doctor answer a distress call from a lone holographic survivor in a plot which feels, in set-up if not execution, ripped straight from the Red Dwarf playbook as guest star Leland Orser delivers a terrifically creepy turn as Dejaran, the homicidal holographic housekeeper who’d had enough of his needy and disgusting organic charges. Unlike Red Dwarf, however, the situation here is strictly non-comedic and it’s an early milestone in the series’ burgeoning fascination with holographic sentience and The Doctor as more than a character but the archetypical new life that Star Trek has always pledged to seek out. Meanwhile, Harry Kim gets to see what promotion is like as the Captain’s BFF Tuvok gets nepotistically promoted to Lieutenant Commander but at least the redoubtable young ensign gets bluntly propositioned by Seven of Nine as a consolation prize, a prize he immediately turns down meaning he receives neither a leg up or a leg over.
So that’s all for Craggus’ Trek Trek Now Voyager Vol 9, a collection which saw Season Three finish strong and Season Four start more or less adequately. Come back next week to see how Seven of Nine’s introduction continues to pay off – or not.
