LizstarTrek - Voyager Season 4 episodes 1-5

Every Sunday my Twitch subs and I watch Star Trek in my Discord. Here are my reviews and thoughts on each of the episodes as I see it. If you’re curious about a nerd’s views on Star Trek episodes, please read on, I go quite in depth with some of these episodes! I’ve watched some Star Trek before but not all of it!

Scorpion Part II - VOY 7/10

In the last part, Janeway was trying to reach an agreement with the Borg about letting them through their space, in exchange for a weapon to stop Species 4829. At the start of this episode, Janeway makes that agreement. She will stay on the cube and work on the weapon while the others follow by, being escorted through their space. Meanwhile, Kim is still suffering horrors beyond our comprehension, but the doctor finishes his work and finds a cure.

It’s a temporary alliance, and a shaky one. They basically IMMEDIATELY decide to assimilate Janeway and Tuvok because communicating in this old fashioned talking way sucks. Janeway refuses and demands instead they make a voice for them, like they did with Locutus. So they do.

This is Seven of Nine. I’m sure she will not be important past this episode.

Everything is going well until it isn’t. Species E621 is reading Kes’ mind and knows where they are, so they attack. The Borg cube explodes, but not before sending some Borg and Janeway and Tuvok over to Cargo Bay 2, which they assimilate. The alliance grows more strenuous. Janeway is injured and Chakotay is in charge, and he is much, much worse at working with So9. So he decides to honor the agreement, kind of, but will drop the Borg off soon. The Borg are NOT happy about this, and want him to instead go to another Borg cube and continue the agreement, while also giving them the weapon earlier. But as Chakotay declares this, the Borg decide to just try and take the ship by force. So9 just… leaves and starts fucking with the computers. Do they not have scanners on to see if any of them leave?! Chakotay LITERALLY says “I will depressurize the hull if you leave”. And then he does, killing all of them except So9.

Anyways So9 drags them into Species 6969’s dimension. Everything is fluid. So they call it “Fluidic Space”. Makes sense. Chakotay is like “Did you invade this place to assimilate the Species?! That’s evil!” Uh, yeah, Chakotay. The Borg are fucking evil. Did you not realize this?

Janeway wakes back up, PISSED that Chakotay just IMMEDIATELY broke off the alliance. Yeah, understandable. But then there’s some bullshit about “we’re losing a war out there… and in here. We shouldn’t turn our back on each other”. Okay, whatever. They plan something, then tell So9 they’re going to fight a war against Species 9999, who speaks through Kes. They “will purge their galaxy”, which is pretty not cool. They use the new weapon, killing all the Species, and escape Fluidic Space. But then MORE come after them, not really seeming to care, but after they kill THEM I guess they care. All the Species 8675309 leave the Delta Quadrant, and the Borg IMMEDIATELY betray them, as everyone expected. And now they use their trump card.

Using Chakotay’s experience with being Borg for a little bit, they overwhelm So9 and break her off from the collective. Chakotay is injured but okay. Darn. Imagine if they had killed him off and released him with Seven of Nine. That’d make this episode amazing. Anyways, they’re going to unassimilate Seven of Nine, which might be problematic in the future, but she’s their responsibility now.

The Gift - VOY 3.5/10

Seven of Nine wakes up, EXTREMELY upset that they’ve removed her from the collective. They’re like “Sorry, had to be done :)”. They’re basically forcibly assimilating her OUT of the Borg. They’re never gonna get into the morality of that, are they? They claim they have to cause her human cells are already fighting the Borg implants and it’ll keep her alive. But she clearly would rather die. I dunno. The Doctor actually DOES bring this up, but Janeway ignored it.

Anyways Kes is a Jedi now. Her telepathic abilities are goin’ WILD and she can drag things through the air to her. They grow even stronger as she can use her meaty brain powers to see exactly what’s wrong with Seven of Nine, and fix her, destroying the implants that are hurting her. She’s undergoing advanced and sudden Bermanosis.

Parts of this feel uncomfortable. You’d think morally, they’d save her life, and then drop her on a planet once she’s not immediately dying with a thing calling for the Borg so they can re-assimilate her, which they’d immediately do. But then we wouldn’t get Seven of Nine as a cast member, would we? In the end, I know this will be a net positive. But it feels a little weird and out of character. Also, why is Seven of Nine helping them? She gets to work dismantling all this Borg shit. Why? Why isn’t she immediately doing what she can to blow them up cause fuck these people? So the movie can hpapen? I dunno.

While Kes is doing some meditation with Tuvok, she goes beyond and starts delving into some extra-planar shit. It makes a candle wibble wobble. It’s weird.

Okay, So9 does ACTUALLY try to betray them and transmit out to the Borg. Kes uses psychic powers to stop her. Tuvok is worried about Kes’s powers growing out of hand, but from this vantage point so far, it seems to ME that Kes is a godlike being who can save them from any problem, so can we keep her around as long as we can, please?

Okay they actually DO bring up the moral quandry I brought up earlier, and she’s like “you’re all fucking hypocrites”, which yeah, they kinda are. Janeway claims she can’t make a rational choice because of what happened to her as a kid, and until she CAN make a rational choice. Is she fully in control of her own actions or is this Borg programming speaking? I feel it’s not. Cause that shit’s been mostly removed from her. I dunno.

Kes seems to be ascending to Godhood, and accidentally harms Neelix. Now EVERYONE is worried. Okay if she’s gonna accidentally hurt Neelix, maybe it’s something to be worried about. It’s also damaging the ships defenses.

I don’t have much more to add about this.

Kes decides she wants to leave. Janeway doesn’t want her to go, but she’s like “what, would you stop me? I’m making my own decision”. No way, Janeway would NEVER take away someone’s bodily atonomy. I know people make fun of how inconsistantly Janeway is written but usually that’s not IN THE SAME DAMN EPISODE.

This is a very contrived reason to write someone out of the show. And also, it’s bothering me because it’s very inconsistant with actual lore. Why is this happening to her? It’s not said, its just happening. Why DIDN’T it happen in that timeline we saw where she’s in the future? Who knows. She blasts them 9500 light years forward as a parting gift (why not all the way? I dunno, then there’d be no show). But not past The Year of Hell, which they went through in that timeline too. None of this adds up. Like yes, they wrote that before coming up with this, but they could have thought of something? I dunno maybe I’m being a padantic nerd.

Seven of Nine gets almost fully Humanized, accepts her role in the Human Collective, and all is well. It’s acceptable. Except for this outfit. She can’t fucking breath in that thing.

Berman’s Law of Equivelent Exchange is that if we get One Woman, we must sacrifice Another Woman to keep the balance stable. Buh.

Day of Honor - VOY 5/10

Seven of Nine asks to be assigned to work on something, cause she’s kind of bored otherwise, and asks to be put in Engineering. Torres, who’s already having a bit of a shitty day, is NOT thrilled. She also has plans later with Paris, so she’s a bit testy. Apparently they were going to have dinner and do some “sentimental Klingon ritual”. Interesting. Belanna is being pissy at So9 about her being ex-Borg, like “Don’t you feel GUILTY?” “No.” What did you expect, Belanna?

There’s a race of bums, the Caatati, floating in space like “We’re only about 10k left, the rest have been assimilated, can we get help pls”. Janeway is more than willing to help, because like, yeah, duh.

Torres does the Klingon ritual after some gentle talking to from Neelix. She’s having a shitty day but isn’t exploding at anyone. Good character development! But she gives up on the ritual and steps away, and Paris comes and pushes and pushes about it, like “You’ve been like a spitting cobra all day!” No? She’s been very fair and balanced with everyone, actually, you’re just being a pushy asshole.

The Caatati are given a lot of supplies, but one of their leaders starts guilt tripping Janeway to try and get more. It’s uncomfortable to watch. And then when he sees Seven of Nine he tried to attack her, cause like, yeah. Seven of Nine isn’t bothered at all, but Paris offers to help her adjust to her new way of life. Putting on the charms, Paris? Anyways, they’ve been trying to upgrade the Warp Core, but things go south and they have to eject the warp core.

This has not been Torres’ day. She’s sent out with Paris to get it back, but the Cataati got to it first. They’re trying to salvage it, but they may just blow it up instead. They stop them from blowing it up, but the Cataati blow up their shuttle and they have to escape in space suits.

Now they’re floating in space trying to get a message out, and Paris just cannot help but flirt. Time and place, man. They’re running out of oxygen and things look bad.

The Caatati come back, and now that Voyager is floating through space with no defenses, they’re going to demand all their food and supplies, and Seven of Nine so they can torture her for what the Borg did to them. Lovely. This is how Star Trek views refugees and the homeless, I guess. Just ready and willing to stab you in the back. Seven of Nine offers herself, maybe they’ll leave, but she’s part of the group now, so none of that. She develops a Thorium replicator, a thing she can do I guess, and they let them go. Cool.

Meanwhile, Torres and Paris are dying in space, and Torres finally musters up the courage to tell Paris she loves him. Why I’ll never know, but welp. She immediately passes out, but then they’re rescued by Voyager, and the episode just … ends.

That’s weird.

Nemesis - VOY 5/10

Two thoughts here. 1, that is just straight up a Predator. 2, I wonder if this will be better or worse than the other Startrek Nemesis.

Chakotay is running through a jungle alone at night being chased. Wow, it IS Predator. He’s captured and dragged to a boot camp, and then released cause whoops, YOU’RE not the people we’re trying to kill! These people, the Vori, are at war with “The Nemesis”, the Kradin. They’re very HOO RAH MURRICAN MILITARY, and ALL they care about is killing The Nemesis. Chakotay is like “Y’all are being silly, they’re just people, and you’re dehumanizing them”. But they’re all far too indocrinated. And as Chakotay goes with them to get his shuttle and stuff, he slowly starts to get indoctrinated to. This episode is very VERY blunt on its messaging. Propaganda bad, war bad, you are not immune to propaganda. It’s not a bad message, by any means. Though it is weird how they’re all talking in a weird way. Swapping out words for others. Kill = nullify, etc.

I also really love how Chakotay is always like “Killing is bad >:(…” but y’know, let’s ignore the fact that he was Maquis. So y’know, “Killing is bad, unless you’re a fucking Cardy :)”. The writers always seem to forget that Chokie was a literal terrorist.

Back on Voyager, they find where Chakotay went, crashing on this planet. They’re in contact with an Ambassador Treen, who explains that his shuttle was shot down by their enemy, a cruel aggressor. They call them the “Nemesis”. They use horrible violent methods and war crimes. I think we all see what the twist is going to be.

These Kradin commit attrocities and stuff, right in front of Chakotay, attacking a town that Chakotay was visiting, all of whom were very nice. Eventually this becomes too much, and Chakotay fully gives in to the indoctrination, fighting against the Kradin, calling them “motherless beasts”, just like the others do. Ahhh, Chokie.

The Ambassador shows up on Voyager and it’s a Kradin! Oh wow what a surprise!

Tuvok comes and rescues Chakotay, and we find out that he was basically put in a holodeck simulation to train him to become a warrior against the Kradin. Apparently they just… capture aliens and conscript them in this way, through propaganda to kill Kradin. This seems like a very inefficient and stupid way to train soldiers. The episode ends with Chakotay proving that indoctrination is hard to break, by reacting negatively to the ambassador.

I see what it was TRYING to do, though I feel it’s a bit confused. It keeps calling it propaganda, but this is more indoctrination. If Chokie was just TOLD all of the bad shit the Kradin did, that’d change it to be a bit better. This isn’t BAD? I see what they’re trying to do, they just don’t do it super well.

Revulsion - VOY 7.5/10

Our episode starts with a guy dragging a dead dude through a room, dragging blood everywhere. He then sends out a message out, asking for help from ANYONE, and calling himself an “HD25 Isomorphic Projection”, as he flickers in and out of existence.

Hey, Paris and Torres kiss. They’re a thing, though it’s very shakey still. They get the message and go to help this projection, the Doctor going alongside Torres, because the Doctor is very excited to meet another hologram. His name is Dejaren, he’s a bit neurotic. His crew apparently got sick and died, and he’s been alone. He wants to know more about the Doctor, about how he’s able to move around by himself. He’s stunned that the Doctor is treated as an equal.

Meanwhile, back on Voyager, Kim and Seven of Nine are working together on a project. They… have chemistry??? It’s WEIRD? I know that this isn’t a thing that ever happens, but wouldn’t it be great? What good relationship DOESN’T start with the lady caving in the head of the guy? No instead So9 and Chokie will be a thing. That makes ME want to choke.

Dejaren is giving off big “I do not want to be anywhere near this guy” vibes. It’s like a fuckin’ horror movie in here. He’s a clean freak, he seems to hate organics, calls them inferior animals, and likes fish. All horrifying. Torres is VERY bothered by this, but the Doctor wants to give him a chance. He too was socially inept at one point, and now he’s his own person. Maybe Dejaren can be too?

Paris gives Kim advice on getting together with a Borg: Don’t. Hey Kim, don’t take dating advice from Paris. You should listen to him and then do the exact opposite. And then Seven of Nine comes on a bit strong, like “I have seen how your eyes dilate when you look at my body. Are you in love with me?” “No?” “Ah, you wish to copulate.” “NO?” Kim. When Jeri Ryan asks if you want to copulate, You say yes.

Dejaren goes nuts and pushes his hand into Torres and then makes his hand solid, cutting her HEART. Jesus christ. That’s fucking brutal. The Doctor tries to help her, but they need to get out first. Unfortunately, he comes back and deactivates the Doctor by hitting his transmitter. He then declares he’s going to “Deactive” Torres. This is very, VERY intense, and the actor is doing an AMAZING job playing a scary as fuck evil hologram.

Torres deactivates him by hitting him with an electrical thign that was stated earlier in the episode to be a danger to him. It’s a fun effect.

Kim asks to be taken off the project with Seven of Nine cause he’s a shy nervous goober but Chakotay bullies him back into it. The end. Fun episode.