LizstarTrek - Voyager Season 5 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!

Equinox, Part II - VOY 1/10

Voyager is still under attack by those nucleogenic aliens, after the Equinox ditched them. Chokie is hit by an alien and given a wild scar, but unfortunately he’s still alive. They kidnapped Seven, and also possibly the Doctor? They still have the Doctor’s emitter, but it’s filled with Evil Doctor instead.

Back on the Equinox, Captain Ransom talks to Seven, hoping that she’ll join them and help them. “You can be in the brig for a month until we get home, or join our crew. I’d prefer the latter.” “I would prefer the brig” “Janeway isn’t the ONLY person who can help you explore your humanity, you know”

God DAMN, Seven. Anyways their stuff is locked by some codes, so they demand Seven do it. She refuses. So they bring the Doctor up and delete his ethical subroutines so he’ll do it. He agrees immediately. God, PLEASE make it so that he’s just faking. Sadly no, he doesn’t seem to be. But the thing about ripping out the memories would basically kill Seven.

Janeway wants to chase the Equinox to get Seven and the important Voyager parts they stole. Chokie wants to let it go and focus on Voyager, leaving Seven behind. Chokie, dude, they stole the part that makes you go vroom. He claims its all about revenge for Janeway, as it always is. What. “You’ve been known to hold a grudge” She has been?? THey focus way more on her want to stop Ransom than her want to save Seven, which disappoints the shit out of me. She has big Captain Ahab energy. Ugh.

They chase after Equinox, but lose the fight. Which SEEMS stupid, but their systems are VERY taxed to hold off the aliens. Janeway feels really off this episode. They capture one of the members of the Equinox, and Janeway tries to get information out of him. When he refuses, she attempts to murder him by letting the aliens eat him. Chakotay comes in and saves him like “What the HELL Are you doing?!” This is REALLY fucked up of Janeway, and a very sudden 180. She’s doing the Ransom fall to darkness kind of thing, putting her morals away for a thing she feels she needs to do.

She ends up demoting Chokie and confining him to quarters, but follows his suggestion to meet the aliens who worship the extra dimensional aliens. She does, they’re like “we’ll stop attacking if you let us kill everyone on the Equinox” and she agrees, which disturbs Tuvok greatly. What the fuck is she doing?

And while Janeway has her 180, you know who else does? Ransom. He’s like “actually this is wrong and I need to do what’s right”. NOW? NOW YOU DECIDE THAT?! It’s too late though, when he tries to call them off and surrender to Voyager, he’s thrown in the brig by his second in command who takes control. The anxious ensign escorts him off. She’s just following orders, you understand. But actually she’s working with him and helps him break out to stop whatever the hell is going on.

Everything about this is stupid to me I’m ngl. What is it with Star Trek and not hitting the landing?

Ransom shuts down their shields, and Max is now the bad guy. He refuses to go in Voyager’s brig, and would rather be stuck on a shuttle forever. So he fucking dies to the aliens, and the entire Equinox blows up, Ransom along with it. Everyone else is rescued. Everyone is sad about this. Janeway is like “He was still a Starfleet officer. He just forgot about it for a while.” YEAH, MY MAN. SO DID YOU??

They let the Equinox crew join them, but demoted and they’ll have to earn their trust. Janeway and Chokie are still tense. She acknowledged he probably should have mutinied against her. He says that would have been crossing a line. Then they hang the Voyager plaque back on the wall, which is poetic, I guess.

I want to quote one of the producer, Ronald Moore, about this episode: “The things that Janeway does in ‘Equinox’ don’t work, because it’s not about anything. She’s not really grappling with her inner demons. She’s not truly under the gun and suffering to the point where you can understand the decisions that she’s made. She just gets kind of cranky and bitchy. She’s having a bad day”. And it really just feel like that. This episode fucking blew. It RUINED what was an absolutely fantastic season finale and a great concept. Complete fuck up.

Survival Instinct - VOY 7/10

We have some scenes of Seven has a Borg with her unimatrix on a planet, then we jump back forward to the present. Voyager has docked at a pleasant location with a lot of alien traders, it’s nice! Seven is unhappy about this. Not cause it’s bad, just cause she’s bad with crowds. Her and Naomi try to eat quietly, but are accosted by a random guy who offers her some Borg implants he said he found for trade. They’re implants from her old unimatrix. She takes them then leaves to study it. The guy is then rude to Naomi, so clearly he’s not trustworthy.

We get more scenes of her and her unimatrix. They’re all acting a little weird. They’re y’know, talking, for one. But also they’re acting more like they’re already freed drones. Their vessel crashed, and they were the only survivors. The were seperated from the rest of the collective, and are now remembering who they were.

Back in the future, they’re trying to do SOMETHING to Seven as she sleeps. But are caught, and captured. But it’s pretty clear they’re not like, violent or evil in any way. They want to seperate the link between the three of them, as they are now seperate from the Borg fully not not each other. You’ve got three of them. The leader, some older guy, a Bajoran, and what looks like a stereotypical thug from a bad cyberpunk movie. Seven agrees to help them, but she’s concerned. She cannot remember what happened on the planet.

They need to link Seven back up to the mini collective here to try and help them. There’s a chance she may get locked in the collective with them, turning it into a quartet, but she’s willing to do it. There’s a lot of stuff about family. They’re the closest thing she still has to family. Well, them, and Voyager. She has a moment with Naomi, telling her that she’s her family. It’s cute.

She hooks up, and we see more of what happened on that planet. They all became unique, their own people, but Seven was scared cause it’s basically all she knows. She ends up being the one who linked them all together, in fear of what would happen. When they find out Seven is the reason, they freak out and get pissed off, then go into neural shock.

The Doctor now announces they have a new problem. They’ll die like this. They can sever the link but they’ll live for a month. Or they could be returned to the Borg and live normal length lives, as drones. They also can’t be spoken to for their opinions.

It’s pretty clear what they’d want. They will happily live out shorter lives, as themselves, and Seven helps them with that. They accept Seven and don’t hold a grudge against her, wishing her well. Two of them leave to live out their days. But the Bajoran… stays on Voyager! She was Starfleet, and is happy to stay on Voyager, but she’s not able to forgive Seven. Things are tense, but she understands WHY Seven did it. She was a scared girl.

Seven spends some time with Naomi, her family. It’s a cute ending. Pretty good episode, good season premiere!

Barge of the Dead - VOY 6/10

Torres is trying a shuttle and crashes into the hangar bay, but she’s alive. Her hair is also all frizzy and curly! It’s cute. She risked her life to get a probe, but everyone is like “you are far more important than a probe. We care about you”. And she doesn’t try to bit their heads off!

Chokie shows her a thing that was lodged in her port nacelle. A shard of something Klingon. Some hunk of metal with the Klingon insignia on it, hundreds of years old. Neat. He gives it to her, and then it starts bleeding and screaming. That’s probably normal. It IS Klingon in origin.

She asks for scans of it, and they do, but find nothing. She orders more scans and Kim seems done with this shit. Usually I hate when people are like “come on you didn’t see the thign you saw, that’s wild” on Trek because Trek is finding new weird shit all the time. But in this instance, honestly I’m surprised Kim isn’t MORE done with everything. My mans gotta be exhausted.

At Tuvok’s weekly therapy, which is a thing Torres is doing now, he talks to her about her self hatred. She’s like “the hell are you talking about”. He then pulls out a batleth, wounds her, and tells her to leave, her and her dishonor. What the fuck

Neelix throws a party, a big Klingon inspired party. It’s partly cause they found that artifact, but also because it’s a piece of the Alpha quadrant so it’s a piece of home. She walks into the mess hall as they’re singing Klingon songs. It’s like a bunch of white people throwing a Diwali festival and the one Indian person walking in like “huh”. Anyways they celebrate, and then some Klingons come and murder everyone. Well then. Torres awakens on a bloody ship.

Turns out she’s on the Barge of the Dead. She’s dead. BEEN dead, in fact, and she’s being taken to Gre’thor, Klingon Hell. They just wanted to do a Klingon episode, and can you blame them?

They explain that she’s been in The Dream, something dying brains make up to think they’re still alive. The murderer was just waking her up. They can’t brand her though, apparently it is “still not her time”. She tries to fight the ferryman, Kortar, the First Klingon, and gets injured instead. And then her mother showsu p as another member of the dishonored dead, and suddenly she’s awoken in med bay. Apparently she almost died in that shuttle and was in a coma.

She’s now stuck on the memory of seeing her mother going to Hell, possibly for her sins and dishonor. She doesn’t believe in the afterlife, but a part of her still does, and she’s wondering, what if? This is a good “what’s real and whats not” episode.

She studies the Ancient Texts, and finds two things. One, her dishonor can in fact cause her mom to go to hell, cause of “the sins of the child”. Remember, Klingon Culture is fucked up and bad. And two, when people return from the dead, they have wounds that they got there come back. And she did keep the wounds given to her in the fight.

Torres is basically a born again Klingon. She has a plan. She’s going to simulate a near death experience and go back to the barge to try and bargain for her mother’s honor. Everyone is kind of belligerent about it.

Torres is really hot here.

It works though. She finds herself back on the barge. She goes to find her mother, who’s kind of a bitch? Absolutely awful. She also refuses, she doesn’t WANT her to do this. “Cheat” her way into Sto-vo-kor. But in the moment, Torres ACTUALLY takes her place, and agrees to actually die. What’s her personal hell? Voyager. It’s just Klingonized Voyager. But no, actually she’s still on the Barge. No, she’s dying in the Med Bay. No, she’s on the Barge, arguing with her mother again, who is actually NOT in Sto-vo-kor, and refuses to tell her what she’s “supposed” to do, she has to find out herself. What she’s “supposed” to be.

I’ll be honest, I also don’t know what she’s supposed to be. I don’t get this episode. I don’t follow the themes or what’s going on, exactly, but she throws away the Batleth while crying, and apparently that’s the right decision? Her mom says she’ll get into Sto-vo-kor. Maybe she’s just having an identity crisis and is suffering from a bad nightmare? I honestly have no fucking idea. Anyways she wakes up and is all good, and hugs Janeway first before her fucking boyfriend I guess. I have no idea.

Tinker Tenor Doctor Spy - VOY 10/10

This might be the weirdest cold open in all of Star Trek. The Doctor is singing to a crowd, Tuvok has Ponfar, and the Doctor starts singing about him having Ponfar and needing a hypospray. He calms Tuvok down with it and ends his song to rapturous applause. We return to the REAL world to find out that the Doctor has invented a way for himself to daydream.

Doctor why are you fantasizing about knocking out a horny Tuvok?

The doctor sends an official message to the Captain that he’s not being treated well enough by the crew, and that he wants a promotion, basically. She’s like “what the fuck” but hey, might as well draft a response. Meanwhile an alien ship is watching and scanning voyager.

They are the Onlookers, of the Hierarchy. They just spy on people and learn more about them so they can raid for supplies. Okay, sure. They view Voyager as an unacceptable risk, though. But one of them thinks they can hack into the computer to study them better. And it works! They get a live feed! But it’s a feed of… the doctor’s daydreaming. Oh my god what a FUNNY idea.

Meanwhile, the doctor suggests for his promotion that he be given additional backup programming as a commander to help command when needed. The ECH: The Emergency Command Hologram. Janeway finds it interesting, but pushes it down the line, cause it’d be too much hassle for now. But that doesn’t mean he can’t be the hero commander in his own mind!

This is all very exciting as he blows up a Borg Sphere by himself. The Onlookers are STUNNED, and are planning a raid, but only when he’s NOT in command. After all, the ship has riches upon riches inside!

The Doctor is walking down the hall, and is accosted by Chakotay, who congratulates him on blowing up the Borg. He’s confounded. Chakotay is in his quarters… uh oh. The daydreaming program is going off at all times. He tries to eject the core IRL, and they have to hold him back. They lock him in sick bay, but also hook him up to the holodeck so they can watch them. Everyone is excited, but Janeway is kinda disturbed. I mean, she promised him she’s treat him like any other member of the crew, and this is intruding.

Parts of this remind me of the first Barclay episode, but I like this a lot more. Some of the fantasies he has are a bit uncomfy, like romance fantasies, but like… a lot of us DO have those. We get it. He’d never act on them. Janeway sees one last fantasy where he’s so proud to be given the ECH program, because all he wants to do is reach his potential and help the people he loves. She feels a way about it.

The daydreams are fixed, but then they show back up. But it’s actually the Onlooker. His name is Phlox. He’s realized that what he’s been watching is NOT reality. And if his superior find out, he’ll be fired, or worse. He also wants to protect Voyager and the Doctor, because he’s formed a parasocial relationship over the past few days. I get it. I like the Doctor too. He offers to help them, but only if he ALSO pretends to actually be in command, so he doesn’t get fired. Oh boy.

What commences is the ultimate bluff. The Doctor, anxious as fuck, talking to the Hierarchy leader, who demands surrender. The Hierarch actually could EASILY destroy Voyager, and take what they want, buuuut the Doctor has a secret weapon. The Photonic Cannon. A super weapon he built that blew up the Borg Sphere. And he WILL turn it on them. So they run the fuck away cause holy shit, they don’t wanna deal with THAT

The Doctor is given a promotion for his valor, and he will be given the ECH program after all. Wonderful, extremely enjoyable episode. I liked the Onlookers, they felt like Pacleds You Don’t Hate, and I love aliens learning about humanity from fiction. It was a combination of the Pacled episode and the Barclay episode, and it was way better than both.

Alice - VOY 7/10

Voyager is flying around when it detects a flotilla in front of them. Friendly or violent? Well, they get a hail, aaand it’s a junkyard. Abaddon’s Repository of Lost Treasures. They beam him on board, and he’s very interested to trade. He doesn’t have TOO much they need, but Paris sees a ship that looks VERY interesting. It has a “Neurogenic Interface”, which means it connects to the pilot through the brain, so you can control it directly. Seems weird, but sure. It needs a bit of fixing up! Good thing Kim is willing to help fix it up! “I am?”

Abaddon is sad to see it go, but is absolutely willing to trade. Paris names the new ship “Alice”, after a girl he had a crush on once at the Acadamy. He connects to it, but blows out some power relays and goes to bed. And theeen he hears voices in his head calling to him, calling him to the bay. Who is that? “It’s me, Alice”

cocks gun ships haunted.

We get a montage of Paris fixing it up. He starts wearing a flight suit he found in her database. He gets REAL into it, missing hang outs with Kim. Stops shaving. Belanna and him have a date on there and she’s kinda weirded out by how he’s being. Aaaand then she starts manifesting as a thing he can see.

This is Alice. She has Overly Attached Girlfriend Eyes, she reminds me of Gifanny from Gravity Falls. She keeps wanting to leave and go elsewhere with him, tried to convince him to leave Voyager over and over. Also it seems like connecting with her is kind of… addicting? Brain washing? Bimbofying? One of those.

Everyone is watching Tom kinda become… less himself, and more distant as he’s working on this ship. It’s uncomfortable and kinda sad. He’s not SO far gone that he doesn’t at least try to save Torres when the ship literally tries to kill her.

Paris at least realizes things are bad and tries to go to sickbay to get free of her influence, but it doesn’t go well. Alice causes him pain in his brain to force him to go back to the ship and fly away. He connects to the ship directly and they become “One”. It’s creepy. This entire episode is creepy. In a pretty entertaining way.

Paris and Alice manage to fly away. Voyager goes back to Abaddon to try and figure out what’s going on. He’s connected to Alice too, who tries to kill him for telling them anything. “I DID WHAT YOU ASKED I GOT YOU A PILOT-“ yeah, she’s nuts. They manage to save her, who tells them what we basically already know. She’s nuts, and wanted a pilot, for some reason. They find out where she’s going on scanners, a “Particle Fountain”, a kind of anomaly they know little about, because it ends up killing anyone who gets near it. Alice calls it “home”.

So either she’s an alien intelligence to some other universe, or she’s malfunctioning. Either way, Paris is probably dead. They can’t fire on the ship either, because he’s one with it, so hurting the ship will hurt him too. They need to shut down the ship by hacking it, while distracting Alice and Paris. So they hack into his neurogenic interface and hook Torres in there.

There’s a Battle in the Mind, and he’s teleported out, just before Alice explodes. I guess she… got what she wanted? To explode in an anomaly???

Paris is extremely upset that he ever let it get that bad. “It was like I was sleepwalking. Thanks for being my alarm clock”. How romantic?? She also promises no more affairs with strange ships. But don’t worry about the Delta Flyer, they’re just friends.