Star Trek: Voyager - Episode Guide - Season 4
This is when Voyager becomes assimilated – not merely by Borg- and Borg technology-centered episodes, but also by the new character Seven of Nine herself.
Stealing the drone through whom the Borg communicated with voyager’s crew during the season-opening battle with Species 8472. In return, the so-called “Seven of Nine” rapidly begins stealing the show, along with the companionship of the Doctor; these two characters essentially become a fragmented Data, i.e. the mouthpiece for outsiders to learn human culture.
The introduction of Seven to the cast also results in the swift ejection of Kes from Star Trek: Voyager, regrettable only in that she didn’t take freakin’ Neelix with her…
1. Scorpion, Part II – A Borg drone is assigned to work with Janeway, Tuvok and the Voyager crew, who come up with an ingenious biological weapon to use against Species 8472. Naturally, the Borg rapidly renege on the deal (shocker!), but Janeway et al are way too clever to completely trust them. ****
2. The Gift – Kes is rapidly “changing” and “becoming something else” (namely expendable with the arrival of Seven of Nine), so her psychokinetic abilities are running amok. The last few minutes with Janeway and Kes running down corridors become unintentionally hilarious if you imagine the explosions are a bombardment from the producers trying to get Kes off the damn show already … **
3. Day of Honor – B’Elanna plays out the events of the Police song “Any Other Day” except on a starship and involving her refusal to complete a Klingon rite of passage. **
4. Nemesis – Not to be confused with the godawful tenth Star Trek movie, “Nemesis” instead tells a strange tale of Chakotay’s informal enlistment into a guerilla war. ***
5. Revulsion – Torres and The Doctor board an alien ship which had sent a distress signal . The sole survivor is a clearly deranged hologram; the whole thing descends into psycho killer mode quickly and, together with “Prototype” serves as a cautionary tale for B’Elanna: Never board an alien ship which is not populated by humanoids. ***
6. The Raven – Slowly becoming biologically more human, Seven has strange visions composed of memories of her time as a drone mixed with symbolic remembrances of her childhood. ***
7. Scientific Method – A dark and über-creepy story about aliens who can walk freely among the specimens of various species upon which they experiment. When Seven finally sees (literally) the reality of the situation on Voyager, it’s almost enough to send her scrabbling back to the collective. ***
8. Year of Hell, Part I – A race with control over time resets history in a region of space through which Voyager is passing. The result is a vast empire “defended” by ships with superior technology to Voyager’s, and months upon months of continuous attacks. Meanwhile, Chakotay and Paris are captured by the “timeship” manipulating history repeatedly. ***
9. Year of Hell, Part II – A seriously shredded Voyager takes refuge in a nebula (good old nebula!) to enact repairs. Aboard the timeship, Chakotay finally sees the egocentric nature of the captain’s ways. They manage to restore the timeline which began this leg of the voyage (or at least close enough) and even provide the captain which a more productive life in the reset universe. ***
10. Random Thoughts – On a world where violent thoughts themselves are forbidden, B’Elanna is busted for just such crimethink. Seeing Tuvok solve a whodunit mystery is always cool, but the suspense in this one is ruined fairly early by a very small cast. ***
11. Concerning Flight – Components of Voyager as well as Janeway’s hologram of Leonardo da Vinci are (rather easily) stolen and about to be fleeced on the black market. So Janeway and Da Vinci save the day, escaping via a magical glider which hypnotizes pursuers into not shooting from 60 or so feet away. **
12. Mortal Coil – A freak accident kills Neelix, and when Seven unfortunately revives him 10 hours later, he whines about the lack of afterlife. *
13. Waking Moments – A trippy (literally) episode featuring a race with yet another unique spin on the invasion plan: These guys put their prey into a shard dream state and have their way in the dream world. Naturally, Chakotay and his very sloppily defined indigenous abilities help save the day. ***
14. Message in a Bottle – Voyager finds an apparently abandoned subspace communications network. They locate a Federation starship in the Alpha Quadrant and send the Doctor through. Upon arrival, he discovers that Romulans have taken the ship, with only he and the ship’s own, more advanced, EMH. Hilarious interplay between the Doctors combines nicely with the general suspense of the episode. ****.
15. Hunters – Introducing the Hirogen, a rather unstable-seeming nomad species which is obsessed with eternally hunting “lesser species.” In “Hunters,” the Federation uses a Hirogen communication network to transmit a detailed message to Voyager. The Hirogen soon demand that Voyager cease using the network and shortly after *that* begin the shooting war… **
16. Prey – Species 8472 is back … or at least one weak and wounded member of ‘em is. Hirogen hunters think they have the fluidic beastie captured, but just one survives to be treated aboard the Enterprise. The 8472er has followed the hunter to Voyager, however, and the battle resumes. Janeway and Seven have a tiff over how the 8472 should be dealt with. ***
17. Retrospect – What starts as an intriguing-looking whodunit turns into an underdone script with the Voyager bridge crew all ultimately blaming the victim; in this case, it’s Seven, who has vivid memories of a trader stealing Borg technology out of her body. 0
18-19. The Killing Game – Now here’s how you do a holodeck story. Hirogen take over Voyager and force the crew to play out various war scenarios. Most of the action takes place in a Casablanca-feeling French village. Nazis and aliens as bad guys? Vive la resistance? Seven first as a lounge singer, then as hero? The Doctor doing Doctor things? Klingons verses Nazi troops? Nice. *****
20. Vis à Vis – An alien requesting assistance with his ship gets on board Voyager and performs the ol’ body-swapping trip with Paris. Pretty standard stuff here. **
21. The Omega Directive –Voyager encounters incredibly explosive omega particles and Janeway is under standing orders to destroy all such particles regardless of circumstances. ***
22. Unforgettable – An alien contacts Voyager – and specifically Chakotay – in an effort to gain political asylum with Voyager and the Federation. Naturally, she’s (all together now) not all that she seems! ****
23. Living Witness – An absolutely fascinating look at the distortions of history and dogma. Some 700 years in the future, the EMH is reinitialized on a Delta Quadrant world and the Doctor pressed by a local historian for details of the EEEEvil Voyager crew. His mere telling of the truth, however, has a profound effect on the planet’s peoples. A great twist and satisfying ending, too. ****
24. Demon – Paris and Kim head down to a “Demon-class” planet for fuel, only to find a bizarre substance which they ultimately identify as “biomimetic fluid.” Standard “life but not as we know it” kinda stuff, but a stunning payoff for this episode does come … about one season later. **
25. One – From season 4 on, one can’t blame the uninitiated for thinking of Star Trek: Voyager as the “Doctor and Seven Show.” This episode serves as prime example of the phenomenon. So as to pass through a nebula cram-packed with lethal radiation, all Voyager crew except Seven and (naturally) The Doctor are put into stasis. Eventually the Doctor shuts down as well, leaving Seven to fend for her own against loneliness – and other dangers. ***
26. Hope and Fear – Quite an interesting and heady episode, if you’re willing to look past some rather obvious plot holes. An alien with an otherworldly (sorry) talent for languages helps Voyager decode certain tricky bits of the message Voyager received in “Hunters” – or does he? Despite the improbability of several plot devices in “Hope and Fear”, some good questions regarding Janeway’s decisions emerge – and, upon consideration, the baddie here isn’t totally unjustified in his actions. ***