LizstarTrek - Voyager Season 5 episodes 11-15

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!

Latent Image - VOY 7.5/10

The Doctor is taking holo images of everyone, which he can use for medical research. He gives an example to Kim about this, showing that he can look at Kim’s spine without having to like, slice him apart, using the holo imager. As they examine his spine, the Doctor notices a weird incision that’s the sign of a neural surgery, and with a technique he developed himself. Neither he, nor Kim, remember this surgery. Uh oh.

The doctor talks to Janeway about it, who’s been avoiding the doctor, seemingly just cause she doesn’t like any medical stuff. She’s like “weird, I’ll schedule a scan for you but we’re a bit busy now.”. Then he goes to Seven of Nine, asking for her help. She agrees to do a diagnostic. When she comes back the following day, however, the doctor is like “what diagnostic?” Someone erased his memory. He doesn’t even remember that he found the incision on Kim. Something’s rotten in the medbay.

They try to go through the doctor’s photography album. It’s been deleted, though they find scraps that they can piece together to show a happy ensign on her birthday. Seven digs through the Doctor’s memory and finds that he doesn’t actually have it deleted, just locked. So he remembers snippits now. Them going on a mission, getting attacked by an unknown species.

He goes to the captain, and believes they’re all in danger, because he believes this alien attacker could still be nearby. Janeway tells him no, go shut down, she’ll take care of it. Instead, he sets up a chain of events where his memory will be restored if deleted, and then images taken of whoever entered. The camera has a blinking lights so whoever comes in must be an idiot for ignoring it- oh it’s Janeway.

The Doctor gets his memories back, and starts freaking out on the bridge about a conspiracy. Janeway explains that 18 months ago, SOMETHING happened that caused the doctor’s program to fall apart. So to avoid that memory coming back and causing problems, they’ll just erase his program. Without his consent. He’s like “That goes against my rights” and they explain he has no rights.

Seven is disturbed by this, and talks to Janeway about it. She’s like “I’ve already decided it. And I’m in the right to, because in the end, the Doctor may SEEM Human, but he’s not. He’s just a program. He has no rights”. JANEWAY. WHAT THE FUCK. WE SOLVED THIS IN SEASON 2 OF TNG.

Seven admits that she’s almost more like a computer than a Human, sometimes, and is disturbed by what Janeway is doing. And they basically made HER a human, and did the same to the Doctor. Now he STILL doesn’t have rights?

This immediately wakes Janeway up, thankfully, who goes to the Doctor and explains that she was biased when she made her decision. At the very least, the Doctor has the right to know WHY they’re doing what they’re doing. Thank GOD. It sucks that they wrote her that way from the start, but at least it knows she’s wrong.

They reawaken his memories. Basically, this girl, Kim, and the Doctor went on the shuttle, and were attacked by an unknown alien. That alien hit them all with a weapon. It did nothing to the Doctor, but hit the other two, nearly killing them. Back on Voyager, the Doctor has to do surgery on them to save them. He can only choose one, however, and chooses to save Kim. Obviously. The ensign dies. Back in the future, the doctor is confounded why this would make him fall apart. He’s programmed to be able to handle shit like that.

They show him more. He’s having a meltdown over it. Not cause someone died, but because of his choice. Not that he had to make a choice, but how he made it. He chose the person he was closer to, Harry Kim. He feels like he failed, because that was never in his programming, it wasn’t logical. They did, indeed, make him more human, and he’s struggling with it. He gets caught in a loop. He is NOW in the future, too. He WANTS them to reprogram him again. But maybe there’s a better way this time?

They try a therapy situation, basically. Trying to let his program work through it, maybe get out of the loop. Janeway stays up late in the holodeck trying to talk him through it, which doesn’t seem to be helpful. It’s a slow process, though, and he’s slowly working through it. Slowly.

I dunno how to feel about this episode. I thought it was good. My watch partner, Neli, LOVED it. One of her favorite episodes in Voyager. She loved how it actually tackled death and trauma, a thing that Trek doesn’t tackle very well. Neli suggested that Janeway was the way she was earlier because she was trying to convince herself, and that she did it cause it was an easy way to help the Doctor get through his trauma. That… maybe? I didn’t see it that way, at all. I think she fucked up and then realized she fucked up. I dunno, I liked it I guess.

Bride of Chaotica! - VOY 10/10

Paris and Kim are playing Captain Proton in the Holodeck. It’s a program Paris made that’s based on old shitty black and white serials. Low budget, very very funny. They go through it for a bit, occasionally making comments (“This is the same world we went to last week?” “Hey, sets were expensive.”), when they see a weird effect in the holodeck.

Basically, Voyager slammed into an “interstellar sandbar” that locked them in place. Whatever’s happening in the holodeck seems to just be harmless space phenomena, whatever, no big deal. Anyways it is a big deal.

Some people teleport into the holodeck, and are like “We come in peace, looking for other photonic life forms”. DOCTOR CHAOTICA announces WAR on these creatures, and now an armed conflict has broken out in the Holodeck. When Voyager finds out, it seems kinda nonsensical. Tuvok is SO checked out from all of this, it’s VERY funny. Vulcans have endless patience, but early 1900s media is close to running through it. Now they need to either convince these aliens they’re boxing shadows (hard since the aliens don’t think they’re real), or help them beat Chaotica so that that the Holodeck will end the program.

Here’s Janeway’s expression to being told more about the holoprogram. It’s so fucking funny. She’s enlisted to play QUEEN ARACHNIA, another villain in the story, who can maybe stop CHAOTICA from within.

This episode is so much fun

Here’s the Doctor playing “The President of Earth”, with his little patch. He asks the aliens for help. They need to lower their weapons so that Captain Proton can attack Chaotica. But only if Janeway on the inside can get him to lowering his lightning shield!

She’s captured, but manages to use her pheremones to escape. She takes control, they defeat Chaotica, and the distortions close. It ends with a little “The end…..?” with Chaotica laughing over it as it fades to black.

Fucking fantastic, 10/10, no notes.

Gravity - VOY 6/10

We get a flashback of young Tuvok talking with a Vulcan master. Tuvok is a young Vulcan who does not want to give up his connection to emotions. “If we were born with emotions, why must we give them up? Where is the logic in that?” He seeks guidance, and the vulcan master is willing to help him learn to control his emotions.

Back in the present, an alien is scouring a desert world, finds a crashed shuttle, and finds Paris in there. She mugs Paris, stealing his stuff. For an ace pilot, Paris crashes a lot. She’s then attacked by some other aliens, who try and rob her. Tuvok comes and saves her, and manages to convince her he’s no threat. The translator is not working, so they cannot communicate with her. They can at least exchange names. Her name is Noss. She’s basically Tank Girl.

The Doctor is broken, but Paris is working on it. They go to her ship, Paris fixed the doctor, who thankfully has a working universal translator. She explains she’s been here for 13 seasons and many ships have come down, but no one’s been able to escape the planet.

We have a time skip. Noss is learning some English, able to communicate barely. I guess this means Tuvok knows English. She befriends them, but especially Tuvok, she’s REAL into Tuvok. Oh no, this is going to be a Tuvok romance episode. For the record, Tuvok agrees, “oh no”. He has no interest. Paris tries to hook him up and he’s like “I am married?”

This is very funny out of context. Anyways Paris is being VERY weird. He claims he thinks Tuvok looks like he wishes he wasn’t Vulcan. Paris, what’s it to you buddy? We get more backstory about Tuvok being taught that Love is a dangerous emotion. Avoid it at all costs.

Back on Voyager, it’s been an hour since they lost sight of the shuttle. They’re scanning the dimensional sinkhole it fell into. Another alien ship is here to explain what it is, and that they will be closing it tomorrow so no one else is lost to it. So they need to try and save their crew as soon as they can.

Noss kisses Tuvok. He does not appreciate it. Oh boy. Paris is very annoying, but it now makes more sense when you realize that Paris has been stuck on a desert planet for like 5 months with a Vulcan. I’d be annoyed too.

The aliens are deciding to close the wormhole early. Why? No reason. They go “We’re going to do it now. Sorry”. I guess just to be fucking assholes, even though they know Voyager is trying to save their crewmates. I guess they can’t wait 2 fucking hours. The game is on, you understand.

They manage to get a message through for transport. There’s some struggle as, in just THAT moment, some aliens decide to attack them, but they make it through, all four of them.

They deliver Noss back to her home planet, but not before Tuvok mind melds with her to help her understand what he thinks and how he feels. She appreciates it, and they leave on good terms.

Bliss - VOY 8/10

We start with an alien we’ve never met yelling at nothing as his ship explodes and he flies into a weird distortion in space. “WHAT’S WRONG? CAN’T READ MY THOUGHTS?” as he flies towards it. He’s all leather and wood vibes, old creaky mother fucker. I love him and his ship.

Back on Voyager, they detect the wormhole. It leads DIRECTLY to Earth. Wow, convenient! They all agree, and plan to do scans. Meanwhile, Seven returns to Voyager from an outting, to find them all EXTREMELY excited about getting home. Seven is…. concerned. There’s some weird shit with this wormhole, but they’re like “oh it’s fine, we got messages from Starfleet through the wormhole!” Seven expresses concerns to Janeway, who’s like “ohhh you’re still just nervous about going to Earth. Don’t worry, it’ll be great!”

It’s all Smiley Smile cult energy, and it’s VERY uncomfy. Seven hacks Janeway’s personal logs to find that Janeway went from “This is clearly a trap” to “I set a course for the wormhole, we’ll be home soon” very VERY fast. Seven gets the Doctor in on trying to figure out what’s going on, and she finds scans of a vessel inside the wormhole. It’s the alien from the intro! He sadly goes “turn around. You’re being decieved. He Knows What You Want.”

WELL THAT’S CREEPY.

The message is cut off by Tuvok, who restricts access to Astrometrics. The Doctor is shut down, orders from Starfleet, cause the wormhole might damage him. They ALSO order Seven to be put in stasis, cause borg shenanigans. Yeah, I bet. Things are looking bad…. except for one thing. Naomi Wildman.

YES, SHE’S STILL HERE, AND RELEVANT! She’s confounded everyone is so creepy. She does NOT want to return to Earth either, so she appears to be immune. She and Seven try to stop this, but Seven is electrocuted at her station. They make it in. What appears to them as a wormhole appears to be a giant mouth that eats them.

We then get scenes of them experiencing JUST what they want to experience

Smash cut to them unconscious on the ground. Naomi walks through this all. Yeah this won’t be scarring for her psyche.

She wakes Seven up, and now it’s up to them, as the ship’s hull demolecularizes. That sounds bad.

Seven Moms Naomi around. They need help, though. Seven contacts the alien inside, and transport him on board. He explains that this creature is a monster who telepathizes ships so that it can eat them. He’s been hunting it for 40 years, and THOGUHT he had finally found a way to kill it, but sadly it was yet another trick. They get the Doctor back up, and try to figure out a way to get the hell out of this thing. They determine a way: Using their seperate weapons, they can create a big noxious explosion that’ll give the monster a tummy ache. Cute.

They do, and it works! Oh wait no, it just wants Seven to think it works. She breaks the illusion with the others’ help, and then one more explosion gets them out.

We end with Voyager making its way off, Seven going “have the doctor explain, this was tiring and I’m going to bed”, while the alien who helped them makes his way back in. The hunt continues.

Good episode, I enjoyed it.

Dark Frontier - VOY 7.5/10

We start with a Borg ship detecting Voyager and going to assimilate it. Voyager is like “Bad idea, leave us alone”. They do not, and are blown up. They were only meaning to disable them, but hit harder than expected. Janeway is feeling lucky today, so they decide to try and salvage the ship to get some Borg tech.

Unfortunately, the trans warp coil is blown up. Buuuuuut, Seven detects another Borg ship on the horizon. Its weakened. You know what that means? It’s time to attack THEM and try to take a trans warp coil from them. Wow, that’s… ballsy. Seven is kinda cagey about the plan, but willing to help. They’re planning to use her parents’ notes on the attack, since they studied for Borg for years. They were studying the Borg for YEARS before most people even knew they were real. Seven is unhappy even thinking of her family, but Neelix makes her rethink her idea of just… ignoring thoughts on them.

We get a flashback showing what happened to Seven’s family, and Humanity’s first real contact with the Borg. The Borg ignore them, but we know that won’t happen forever.

They do some testing on the Holodeck for their heist. It doesn’t go well. Everyone is anxious about the heist, ESPECIALLY Seven. Naomi comes to visit her, asking some question. A lot of questions. Too many questions. Then it gets worse as Naomi becomes a Borg in front of our eyes, and we find out Seven is being sent a message by the Borg.

They let her know that the Borg knows that they know the plan, and that they WILL fail. But if Seven works with them, and goes back to them, they’ll leave Voyager alone. Why? Because Seven is unique.

Everyone on the crew can tell Seven is agitated, and Janeway takes her off the mission. She straight up BEGS Janeway to let her stay on the mission. Voyager is her collective, and she NEEDS them to survive. Please.

The heist happens. It goes, but Seven keeps being… distracted. She’s hearing voices in her head. Seven announces mid mission she’s staying, and forces them to leave without her. Janeway IMMEDIATELY tries to follow, but they warp away before they can try and rescue Seven.

Hey look it’s the Borg Queen! Different actress, so lots of theories about this, but it’s the Borg Queen. She does her sexy sensual thing, and Seven is confounded, like “why the hell are you talking to me and not just taking me over”. I don’t get it either. I never understood, or liked, the Borg Queen. But I fucking hated First Contact so who knows. The Borg Queen claims she LET Seven go in the first place, to gain more information. That’s why they tried to assimilate Voyager all those times, I’m sure. She ALSO claims that Seven is the only Borg who ever returned to a state of individuality. So much for Hugh. And Locutus. And all those Borg on the planet Chakotay went to??? What the hell?

Most of the crew have given up on Seven. Torres is like “She was never one of us :)”. What the fuck Torres. But there’s one person who knows they need to save her. Naomi. God bless Naomi. Naomi is achieving EVERYTHING that Gene Roddenberry wanted with Wesley Crusher and failed at. She’s so good.

The Borg Queen explains that the reason they’re doing this to Seven, and won’t immediately convert her, is because they’re trying to learn what Humans are like, so they can actually succeed at taking over Earth next time. I kind of find this dumb I’m NGL. It’s better than First Contact, at least. This is a lot less “Yes Data, be horny for me” and more abusive mother, which is at least something.

Janeway finds out about the transmissions from the Queen, and also finds out where Seven is. She upgrades the Delta Flyers with Transwarp, and goes after Seven. She’s one of them now.

Back on the Borg Sphere, the Borg Queen enlists Seven to assimilate some aliens. She does, at first, but then sneaks some out. The entire scene is MASSIVLEY stressful. I keep comparing this to First Contact, but that was TRYING to go for the horror of the situation and it fell flat. This is doing it so much better even though this is a bunch of randos, and that was a bunch of Starfleet officers. Anyways the Borg Queen finds out about it and almost captures them, but then when Seven begs the Queen to let them go, she does. Huh. Maybe she’s having more of an effect on the Borg than they think she is.

Hey look, it’s Seven’s dad! Poor Seven.

Janeway and Tuvok beam onto the Queen’s vessel, both packing serious heat. Rick Berman must be on vacation again, they let Janeway carry a gun. She storms her way in to the Queen’s quarters, and has a stand off with her, before Paris beams them all out.

A Borg ship chases after them, but they make it back, Voyager blowing up Transwarp conduit behind them. Or so they thought. The conduit opens a gain, with LOTS of Borg signatures. Oh it’s just the ship they blew up that’s in a million pieces.

They use the transwarp coil and get 15 years closer to home, and far away. Seven is back home, where she belongs.