Star Trek Voyager: Season 3
Season 3 was another improvement of Voyager - episodes that serve in seeing the characters improve. There was a lot of focus on Kes I've noticed, but given this would end up being her final season on the show, it was nice to see her mature. Neelix, while still irritating at times, is somewhat getting more bearable. The other characters have their moments and are still the show's strength. Anyways, here are some notable episodes below with final comments on the bottom.
"Flashback": As Voyager monitors a nebula with large quantities of the power source sirillium, Tuvok finds his hands shaking, and requests permission to go to Sickbay. En route, he experiences a flashback that involves him trying to pull a young girl off a cliff to safety. The girl ends up falling, horrifying young Tuvok. Eventually, he arrives in Sickbay, and collapses, convulsing on the floor. In Sickbay, Tuvok describes the memory, but insists the events he "remembered" never occurred. With no clear cause of his symptoms, he is dismissed with a device to monitor his readings in case such an event occurs again. That night, he attempts to build a "structure of harmony" in an effort to aid his meditation, but cannot stop the structure from collapsing. After a visit from Kes, he attempts again. The next morning, he notes he had spent fourteen hours meditating, and still had no idea what the cause of the problem was. Kim could not find anything unusual with the nebula they were near, but Tuvok suggests they scan it for Klingon activity. Torres reminds him that the Klingon Empire is on the other side of the galaxy. Moments later, Tuvok sees the mental image again, and collapses once more. In Sickbay, the Doctor suggests the problem is a repressed memory, which in Vulcans can cause brain damage due to the conflict between the conscious and unconscious minds. The only possible course of action is to initiate a mind meld - normally undertaken with a family member. Tuvok explains he would go to one of the Vulcans on board but he feels Janeway is the best choice to assist him in locating and reintegrating the memory. During the meld she would be an outside observer of the memories, unnoticed by anyone but Tuvok. When Tuvok initiates the mind meld, he attempts to take them to the cliff in his memory, but instead they appear on the USS Excelsior, under attack by the Klingons. This is during the events of Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country. Explaining the attack, the memory moves once more, to three days before, when Praxis exploded. After learning about how Captain Kirk and Dr. McCoy were placed on trial for the assassination of the Klingon Chancellor, Captain Sulu attempted a rescue mission, which Tuvok was the only Excelsior crew member to protest. In an effort to avoid confrontation with the Klingons, Sulu ordered an approach path through a nebula which bore a remarkable physical similarity to the one Voyager was observing in the Delta Quadrant - the appearance causing Tuvok to recall the repressed memory once more, breaking the mind meld. After a period of recovery for Tuvok, during which Janeway and Kim comment on the differences between Starfleet of the 23rd century and the 24th, they try the mind meld again - appearing once more on the Excelsior. After a discussion about Tuvok's motivations for joining Starfleet, a small Klingon attack began. After Sulu claimed their navigational equipment had malfunctioned, Kang insisted upon escorting the Excelsior back to Federation space, to help them from getting lost again. Sulu agreed, but on the way out of the nebula they were in, came up with a plan to disable the Klingon ship by igniting the sirillium that was also present in that nebula. After this succeeded, they set course once more for Qo'noS, before being attacked again by three Klingon battlecruisers - an attack that killed Lieutenant Dimitri Valtane. As Tuvok watched Valtane die, the memory appeared once more, and in Sickbay, the neural engrams destabilize, preventing the meld from being broken. On the Excelsior, Sulu could suddenly see Janeway, who was supposed to merely be an observer. In an effort to blend into the memories, Tuvok takes Janeway to a time where she can steal Commander Janice Rand's uniform. In Sickbay, the Doctor and Kes notice an irregularity in the memories, and deduced they were not in fact memories, but instead a virus. Using thoron radiation, they begin to kill the virus. On the Excelsior, the attack occurs once more, and Valtane dies when a plasma conduit behind his console explodes. The image of the girl on the cliff appears, but this time, it is Janeway who is letting the girl fall. As the Doctor continues the efforts to kill the virus, it tracks back, changing to Valtane, and then an endless stream of other children. Eventually, it dies, and Tuvok breaks the meld. In Sickbay, the Doctor and Kes explain what must have happened: the virus thrived on neural peptides, and hid itself by creating the false memory that the person bearing it would repress, so the virus could live in secret, and migrate from person to person as its hosts died. Walking down a corridor, Janeway suggests that Tuvok missed those days, a suggestion Tuvok rejects. However, he admits that he is pleased to have been a part of them, and having experienced the memories, Janeway says she feels she was a part of them as well. As a result, Tuvok suggests that she could feel nostalgic for the both of them. This episode aired before DS9's "Trials and Tribble-ations" in 1996, which they were celebrating the 30th Anniversary of The Original Series. I liked that we got some of Tuvok's background and most importantly, it was another love letter to TOS that both TNG did ("Relics") and DS9 would do a couple months later.
"False Profits": Voyager discovers evidence of replicator technology on a pre-warp planet, which is reported as very unusual. Chakotay and Paris beam down to the planet to investigate. They discover two Ferengi from the Alpha Quadrant, pretending to be prophets to the native people. When the Ferengi are beamed aboard Voyager they refuse to go back to the Alpha Quadrant, and Janeway is forced to return them to the planet. Meanwhile, a wormhole is detected and it is traced to the Alpha Quadrant, with the wormhole being the Barzan anomaly that the Ferengi had come through, years ago, and never returned through. This would be a shortcut home for Voyager; the only problem is that the Delta Quadrant side moves around erratically. Harry Kim and B'Elanna Torres work on a way to stabilize the wormhole while Neelix, disguised as a Ferengi, travels back to the planet. He pretends to be a representative (the "Grand Proxy") of the Ferengi ruler, the Grand Nagus, and demands the two return to the Alpha Quadrant. Neelix's ruse is uncovered and the Ferengi attempt to kill him. Neelix barely survives the assault and the natives uncover the situation. They become confused and declare all the "Ferengi", including Neelix, are to reach home by being burned alive. Neelix and the others are beamed away at the last moment and the natives are convinced their prophecy has come true. Back on Voyager, the Ferengi manage to steal back their shuttlecraft, which Voyager had confiscated. They end up being sucked into the wormhole, which destabilizes to the point that it is worthless to Voyager (sigh... plot convenience).
"Sacred Ground": The crew take shore leave on a friendly planet inhabited by people called Nechani. A group become interested in the Nechani's religious sites and take a tour. Kes is put into a coma when, out of curiosity, she touches a natural biogenic field. The Doctor cannot help, in part because the monks will not allow readings to be taken around the field. Neelix investigates and returns with a story of a King and his son. The son was seemingly injured as Kes was and the King went through an initiation in order to awaken him. Janeway petitions the monks to allow her to perform the same ritual. The Doctor places a probe in her bloodstream, determined to find out the science behind the rituals. Janeway expects the course to consist of tests of physical endurance, mental discipline, and perhaps psychoactive drugs which would change her body chemistry, allowing her to pass through the field. Janeway goes through the first series of tests; her guide warns that they are meaningless, the point is for Janeway to get in touch with the spirits. She ends up bitten by a creature which is supposed to allow her to contact the spirit world. Her guide seems to say that the spirits find Janeway's inquiries about Kes' plight inconsequential because she already knows how to fix Kes. The Doctor thinks the venom from the creature might be the cure needed for Kes. It is not. Janeway convinces her command crew to let her go to the ritual site again, convinced that if she takes Kes through the field, it will work. Her guide allows it, indicating that Janeway's desire to go through is all that is needed. Kes is healed of her affliction. The Doctor comes up with a scientific explanation for how Kes was healed. Janeway seemingly expresses doubt that it was science.
"Future's End Part 1": The crew is surprised by a small ship with a Federation signature that emerges from a temporal rift in front of the starship Voyager. Its pilot identifies himself as Captain Braxton from the 29th century. He shocks the crew when he explains that he believes Voyager to be the cause of a temporal explosion that would wipe out most of the Earth's solar system in his time; therefore he must destroy it. As proof, Braxton briefly states that debris from Voyager's secondary hull will be found in the remains of the explosion. Voyager fights off Braxton's attack, resulting in the future captain being sent back through the rift to Earth in the year 1967. Voyager and its crew are also pulled into the rift and find themselves also at Earth but in 1996. The starship is categorized on Earth as a UFO and videotaped, placing the U.S. military on alert. In 1967, a young hippie hiker, Henry Starling, finds the timeship and copies its technology, allowing him to create a company, Chronowerx Industries, and start the micro-computer revolution. In 1996, a young astronomer named Rain Robinson (played by a young Sarah Silverman) who works at the Griffith Observatory in Los Angeles discovers Voyager in high orbit through the ship's warp emissions and assumes it to be extraterrestrial life. Her work is funded by Starling but against his instructions, she attempts to contact Voyager by transmitting a greeting to it, which forces the crew to do some damage control. The Voyager crew tracks her location to the Observatory and Janeway, Chakotay, Tuvok, and Paris, decide to beam down to Los Angeles. Tuvok and Paris try to find Robinson, while Janeway and Chakotay attempt to investigate more on Henry Starling and his multimillion-dollar business. Tuvok and Paris remove Robinson from the observatory before she can be harmed after Starling, who fears that Robinson is a security risk, dispatches a hitman to kill her. In Los Angeles, Janeway and Chakotay identify a homeless man as Captain Braxton, who explains that he emerged from the time rift in 1967 and crash-landed in the desert, where a Henry Starling found the timeship and used its technology to begin his high-tech empire. Ultimately, Janeway and Chakotay discover from Captain Braxton that Starling's planned attempt to travel into the 29th century using Braxton's timeship will be the true cause for the temporal explosion in the 29th century, because Starling lacks the knowledge needed to properly operate the timeship. If Starling makes his trip to the future, the improperly configured temporal matrix will cause a temporal explosion that will destroy Earth's entire solar system. Braxton thinks that Voyager's debris will be found in the remains of the explosion because of a failed attempt to stop Starling. Janeway and Chakotay secretly enter Starling's Chronowerx office where they find the timeship, just as Starling walks in on them. Starling ignores Janeway's warning not to use the timeship since its use will cause disaster and he tries to kill Janeway and Chakotay, however the two are beamed aboard Voyager. When Voyager tries to beam up the timeship, Starling uses his own transporter beam to access Voyager's computer and study its systems before stealing the Doctor's program from Sickbay. Worse still, Voyager's presence is detected and placed on the news media since the ship's crew had to dive the ship low into Earth's atmosphere to beam Janeway and Chakotay aboard.
"Future's End Part 2": Janeway abducts Starling and beams him aboard Voyager where he admits that he intends to travel into the future to steal more advanced technology. While Janeway believes that she has ended Starling's plans, one of Starling's henchmen uses his scavenged 29th century technology to transport Starling back to his office from where Starling launches the timeship to perform his time travel. After a failed attempt to convince Starling to stop his time travel before it's too late, Janeway destroys the timeship by manually firing a photon torpedo into it, destroying it just as it enters a temporal rift, saving the future. An alternative Captain Braxton arrives, having detected their presence in the past and returns them to their own time at the place they left it. He is unwilling to bring them to their Earth as that would violate the Temporal Prime Directive. The Doctor gains more freedom as he keeps a piece of 29th-Century technology, a "Mobile Holo-Emitter", which allows him to move around without having to rely on fixed emitters.
"Warlord": This is definitely one of the better Kes episodes. Voyager beams aboard three people just before their damaged ship explodes: an Ilari female named Nori, her injured spouse Tieran and an Ilari male named Adin. Although the Doctor and Kes try to save him, Tieran dies. Not long after, Neelix is shocked when Kes announces she'd like to spend some time apart from him. When Voyager arrives at Ilari, the local leader, known as "the Autarch," sends a representative to the ship instead of coming himself. Inexplicably, Kes pulls out a phaser, kills the representative and a crewmember, and escapes in a stolen shuttlecraft with Adin and Nori. The commander, Resh, is beamed aboard the shuttlecraft. Kes takes the shuttle to a military encampment, meets with the commander, Resh, and takes command of the waiting troops. It's revealed that there is something in control of Kes' body. When Resh asks the entity in Kes why it took her for a host, since he considers a girl's body unfit for the job, it responds by making Resh's nose bleed. It then explains that Kes has telekinesis, which makes up for the physical weakness of the girl's body, as well as makes it useful for its plans. In the meantime, Janeway meets with Demmas, the Autarch's oldest son, who explains that Kes' body is now inhabited by Tieran, a former Ilarian ruler who was overthrown by Demmas' ancestor 200 years ago. Since then, Tieran has lived on by transferring his mind to a series of host bodies. Janeway agrees to help Demmas stop Kes/Tieran, but before she can, the tyrant has killed the Autarch in front of Demmas' younger brother, Ameron, and appointed himself the new Autarch. Kes/Tieran tries to poison Ameron's thoughts against Demmas and urges him to cooperate with the new regime. In the meantime, the Doctor designs a synaptic stimulator that will remove Tieran's neural pattern from Kes-if they can get close enough to use it. Tuvok beams into the Autarch's palace, but is caught and imprisoned before he can succeed in the attempt. When Kes/Tieran interrogates Tuvok, the Vulcan is able to initiate a mind-meld and speak directly to Kes, who tells Tuvok she is fighting Tieran for control. Kes/Tieran orders Voyager to leave orbit, but the stress of the mental battle between Kes and Tieran results in a paranoid Kes/Tieran killing Adin. To Nori's chagrin, Kes/Tieran announces she's marrying Ameron. Moments later, a coalition of Voyager's crew and Demmas' forces bursts into the palace. Rush tries to save Kes/Tieran, but is shot in the back with a phaser by Neelix. Paris releases Tuvok, while Neelix places the synaptic stimulator on Kes/Tieran, forcing him from the body of the Ocampan girl. Tieran jumps to a new host body-Ameron-but Kes places the device on him and Tieran is finally destroyed. Demmas, the rightful heir, becomes Autarch.
"The Q and the Grey": Janeway is surprised when Q appears in her quarters - and in her bed - one night. Q is intent on Janeway becoming the mother of his child, and plies the Captain with gifts in an attempt to win her affections, such as an Irish Setter puppy. Janeway is not amused, and demands that Q leave immediately. Q is persistent, claiming that he could have chosen any female in the galaxy and that his desire for Janeway should be regarded as an honour. Janeway continues to insist that Q leave, and eventually he does. However, Q's absence does not last long, as he abducts the captain and takes her to the Q Continuum, now appearing as an American Civil War period piece, with Q dressed in the uniform of a Union officer and Janeway herself as clothed in the attire of the era. Confederate soldiers fire on them, and Q is wounded - surprising Janeway. Q's sense of urgency becomes apparent: There is a real civil war brewing among the Q race, and Q hopes that he and Janeway can bring a child into the Continuum (which has not had a natural birth in billions of years and Q claims they have always existed) to avert the war. Q explains that the civil war started because of him - he leads a faction of the Q which advocates individual freedom, rather than the status quo enforced by the Q at large. Q shows Janeway the carnage that the war has inflicted on his group (represented by a refugee camp in which hundreds of wounded Q, all appearing as Union soldiers, are suffering). The fighting breaks out again, and the Q authorities (represented as Confederate soldiers) arrive and capture Q and Janeway. The Q leader, appearing as a Confederate colonel, intends to execute them both, to serve as an example to the rest of Q's freedom faction. On Voyager, the remaining crew have been observing dozens of supernovae taking place throughout the area - many more than should be occurring. A Q female arrives and says that the civil war among the Q is the cause. The female Q is abrasive and insulting to the crew, and she explains that she is Q's ex-wife. As the civil war continues to rage, the female Q realizes she has lost her powers, and is forced to enlist the aid of the Voyager crew. She helps them reach the Q Continuum by flying into a supernova, and provides the Voyager crew with Q weapons which they use to free Q and Janeway. Q and his wife resume their relationship and decide to become parents themselves, thus providing the Q Continuum with "new blood" which they hope will revitalize the species. Captain Janeway is witness to the two Q mating, which means they simply touch fingers, causing a flash similar to the effect used when a Q conjures something up. A moment later Q tells his wife he knows he was good. "That's it?!" a baffled Janeway asks. "You had your chance," Q jokingly responds (LOL!). Q returns later to Janeway's quarters with his son and asks her to be his godmother, which she accepts. Throughout this episode I always wondered why the hell doesn't Janeway tell Q that she's a married woman, even if she's still too many light years away from home?
"Macrocosm": This episode would like if Star Trek and Resident Evil had a baby together - without zombies though.
"Blood Fever": Torres dismisses the Vulcan Ensign Vorik at the end of his shift in Engineering. Before Vorik leaves, he turns to her and declares kunat so'lik - the ritual Vulcan marriage proposal. Specifically, Vorik intends that B'Elanna will become his mate. He explains that he has an intended bride back at home, but since Voyager is not likely to reach home anytime soon, he has decided to pick a mate aboard the ship, and has found B'Elanna suitable. Flabbergasted, she declines. He grabs her, cradling her face, and she punches him. As he mends Vorik's dislocated jaw in Sickbay, The Doctor discovers that the ensign is beginning his first pon farr. He is in a sexual frenzy and requires a mate. Since there is no mate available, Vorik decides to meditate. The Doctor summons Tuvok to advise the younger Vulcan, though Tuvok is extremely reluctant to do so at first. Meanwhile, B'Elanna joins Tom Paris and Neelix for an away team mission to a planet to lay in a supply of gallicite from an abandoned mine. She becomes increasingly aggressive and agitated, snapping at Neelix and refusing to cooperate with her teammates. She attacks Paris, biting him savagely on the cheek and then stalking off on her own. When Paris reports back to Voyager, his description of her behavior leads Tuvok to conclude that she has contracted pon farr from Vorik, since the ensign had initiated the telepathic mating bond when he seized her face in Engineering. Tuvok and Chakotay travel to the planet's surface and descend into the mine to help Paris hunt down the addled B'Elanna Torres. They tell her that her discomfort is from the pon farr, and she needs to return with them to the ship. The transporter will not reach so far underground, so she must return to the surface. Before they can persuade her, the away team is surrounded by aliens called the Sakari; the mine is not abandoned after all. The aliens disappear and take Tuvok and Chakotay with them. Now alone with Paris in the mine, B'Elanna tries to seduce him. She is in heat and, having already chosen Paris as her mate with the bite on the cheek, is determined to have sex with him. He admits that he would like to oblige her, but refuses to take advantage of her while she is in such a state. Tuvok and Chakotay discover that the aliens are peaceful, just a little jumpy after having run from previous invaders on their planet. Back on the surface, Tuvok advises Paris to have sex with B'Elanna to help purge the pon farr. He awkwardly agrees, but before the two can engage in the act, Vorik storms in to claim B'Elanna, challenging Paris to the kunat kalifee, a ritual fight. B'Elanna angrily rejects the idea, declaring that she'll fight Vorik herself. Both fight aggressively, though B'Elanna defeats him, and both are purged of their pon farr. Afterwards, she and Paris admit to each other that they might have a future together. As the away team prepares to leave the planet, they make a horrifying discovery. The invaders the Sakari were running from were Borg (oh shit...).
"Unity": Chakotay and Ensign Kaplan hear a distress call while scouting ahead for Voyager in a shuttlecraft. They land the vessel but come under fire from hostile aliens, killing Kaplan and injuring Chakotay. He wakes in a room with a woman called Riley Frazier. She informs him that she is part of a group of survivors on the planet from a variety of races. There are other groups nearby, including those that attacked him. She calls her group a "Co-operative". Meanwhile, Voyager discovers a derelict Borg cube (their first encounter) and Janeway decides that an investigation is required in order to learn more about the Borg's technology. An away team boards the cube, discovering that either an accident or another species disabled the vessel. They take a Borg drone back onto Voyager, where the Doctor accidentally revives it. After being told by Frazier to remain where he is, Chakotay breaks out of his room where he sees that all the people around him on the alien planet possess Borg implant technology in their bodies. Frazier explains that an electro-kinetic storm broke their link with the Borg hive mind. Instead, the separated drones settled on a nearby planet. Chakotay's health gets worse, and the ex-Borg offer to connect him to a joint mind to heal his injuries, and he reluctantly accepts. Once part of the hive mind, he sees a montage of their memories. After Voyager arrives, Frazier and her group want Janeway to re-activate the neuroelectric generator on the damaged cube to extend a new joint mind across the entire planet. Chakotay pleads their case, but Janeway decides not to help them. As Chakotay returns to Voyager on board a shuttle, the Co-operative use their telepathic link to force him to travel to the Borg cube with Voyager in pursuit. Both Chakotay and an away team board the cube, and despite a firefight, he manages to reactivate the generator. This creates the new joint mind as expected, but also activates the cube, which begins powering up to attack Voyager. Chakotay and the away team are beamed back to Voyager as the Co-operative trigger the cube's self-destruct before it can endanger the Federation ship. The planet's inhabitants thank Voyager, but as a result of their actions, Chakotay later questions the morality of the Co-operative's motives with Janeway, as it connected many of the former Borg together in a new hive mind without consulting them.
"Favorite Son": When Voyager encounters a seemingly friendly alien ship its crew has never seen before, the Nasari, Ensign Kim clairvoyantly fires Voyager's weapons upon it without orders. Harry claims that a tetryon surge being emitted by the ship was the aliens preparing to attack them. Voyager sustains heavy damage while battling the enemy but manages to make them withdraw. Kim is relieved of duty, pending investigation of his overtly hostile actions. Janeway later confirms that Harry's "instincts" were correct, that the ship was indeed preparing to attack. Harry recounts other episodes of déjà vu since entering that region of space. Later that night he has a strange dream, and when he awakens, he discovers a strange reddish rash on his head. The Doctor cannot find an initial cause. When the Nasari return with more ships, Harry's instincts tell him to flee to a nearby planet where they are defended and then hailed by the Taresians. Once on the planet, the Taresians attempt to explain Harry's strange behavior. According to them, Harry is Taresian and was sent to Earth as an embryo where he was implanted into his "human mother." He took on the genetic traits of his human parents, but was programmed with both genetic knowledge and an urge to one day return to Taresia. When he entered the Taresian region of space, his dormant Taresian genes began to reactivate, explaining his current behavior. Harry befriends another male Taresian and learns that the planet's population is 90% female, and that males are very rare and thus very valuable and prized. While Harry remains on the planet in an attempt to better understand his recent changes, Voyager leaves to attempt to make contact with the Nasari and negotiate safe passage from the system. Harry learns that because males are so rare on Taresia, he is valuable breeding stock. He attends the marriage ceremony of his new male friend who is bonded with three Taresian females. On Voyager, the doctor discovers something strange about Harry's DNA: it was implanted, possibly by a virus, and it is not natural to his body. Janeway also realizes that a defensive grid has been raised around Taresia preventing them from communicating with Harry or transporting to the surface. After spending the night on the planet, Harry suffers more strange dreams which cause doubts to begin creeping into his mind. Two very "interested" females attempt to calm him, but he resists their attempts. Now outright suspicious, Harry goes to see his male friend. When he enters his quarters he discovers the desiccated remains of his friend. He is confronted by several females where they reveal the truth to him. He was not born on Taresia. Because natural born males are so rare, the Taresians devised an "artificial" way to procreate their species. They implant Taresian genes into male members of other species which rewrites their DNA and makes it compatible with Taresian females. Even more horrifying is that the "reproductive process" means draining the males of their DNA where it is then implanted into females, causing the death of the males. As a result, new males are constantly "created" and harvested. Harry attempts to flee and is pursued by many females and their leader. Just when they are about to capture him, Voyager penetrates the grid and beams Harry on board. They flee the system with a Taresian ship in pursuit. The Nasari appear but after initially focusing their fire on Voyager, they then attack the Taresians, allowing Voyager to escape. The Doctor is later able to extract the foreign DNA and successfully returns Harry to his human form.
"Before and After": Kes finds herself living short periods of time in reverse order due to exposure to chronitons. She first gains consciousness in sickbay as an elderly woman, surrounded by her Ocampa family born on Voyager. The Doctor is able to put her into a biotemporal chamber to try to extend Kes's normally short life-span. Her next period of consciousness occurs some days before, where the Doctor has affirmed that Kes is suffering from mental deterioration due to her old age and his plans to use the biotemporal chamber. Kes finds it difficult to be around the members of her family whom she doesn't know. During these periods, she comes to learn that Voyager had suffered a "Year of Hell" some years before when facing a race called the Krenim that repeatedly assaulted the ship as it crossed their space, costing the lives of Janeway and Torres along with significant damage to the ship. As her periods of consciousness approach that point, she is able to work with the crew to postulate the nature of the Krenim temporal-based weapons and how to reverse the effects Kes is experiencing with a biotemporal chamber. The Doctor surmises that if Kes can obtain the temporal phase shift that affected her, he would be able to stop her backwards progression in time. Soon, Kes finds herself experiencing the period of the Year of Hell. The ship is significantly damaged, and an undetonated Krenim torpedo is lodged in the ship. Kes witnesses the deaths of Janeway and Torres. She examines the dangerous weapon. She discovers the phase shift (which is 1.47 microseconds) before passing out and coming to at an earlier period. Realizing she is getting near the time she first joined the Voyager crew, she is able to convince the Doctor of her symptoms and the means to stop it using the Kremin phase shift. However, even in the biotemporal chamber, she continues to flash back, soon finding herself back with the Ocampa and still growing younger. She regresses further to an infant, then to a fetus, before she suddenly starts moving forward in time. She eventually comes to in the present, three years since she joined Voyager and shortly before the Year of Hell. The Doctor acknowledges the biotemporal chamber a success and Kes is cured. Despite a celebration in the holodeck for Kes's birthday, she wants to document her memories of the future, particularly the Year of Hell, to help Janeway and her crew, before she forgets them.
"Distant Origin": On the planet where Voyager's crew had previously been marooned (The two-parter "Basics"), Professor Gegen and his assistant Veer, two paleontologists of a space-faring saurian species known as the Voth, discover the skeletal remains of a human, most likely Lt. Hogan. They are fascinated by the similarity of its genome to their own species, and Gegen suggests that this supports the highly controversial Distant Origin theory, that the Voth had originated on a far-distant planet instead of the current area of space from which they rule their empire. Proof of the theory has been sought by other Voth scientists, but the heretical theory has often led to their exile. To confirm their proof, Gegen and Veer track down the origin of the skeleton, learning of Voyager's presence in the Delta Quadrant. They locate the ship and transport aboard while cloaked, observing the mostly human crew in the setting. Voyager's sensors detect their presence, and the crew reveals the two Voth. Veer responds instinctively by releasing sedative-tipped needles that strike Chakotay; Gegen grabs the human and transports him aboard his ship, fleeing from Voyager. The Doctor examines Veer and identifies the similar genetic structure; he and Janeway use simulations to determine that the Voths descended from a species of dinosaur known as the hadrosaurs, probably of genus Parasaurolophus. Gegen wakes Chakotay, and explains the situation, requesting Chakotay accompany him when he presents his evidence to the Voth elders; meanwhile, Voyager is captured by the Voth. Gegen is put on trial for heresy, and it soon becomes clear that he has been pre-judged guilty and the "trial" is only an opportunity for him to recant and reduce his punishment. Veer, recovered from Voyager, is coerced to act as a witness against Gegen by Minister Odala. Chakotay attempts to argue for Gegen, noting that the Voth theory of origins has changed so much to fit what the Voth wish to believe and not reality. Odala rejects this, sentencing Gegen to a prison colony unless he recants. When he still refuses, she then orders Voyager destroyed and its entire crew, the evidence for his theory, also sent to the prison colony. Gegen, unwilling to see them destroyed, realizes he has no choice but to recant. Odala assigns Gegen a new job, and orders Voyager to leave Voth space forever. Before departing, Chakotay gives Gegen a globe of the Earth, which Gegen acknowledges that someday, the Voth will accept as their home world.
"Worst Case Scenario": Various members of Voyager's crew discover a holodeck simulation called "Insurrection Alpha", in which the Maquis members of the ship's crew mutiny against the Starfleet officers. The program appears unfinished, and its author is unknown. As the program becomes popular, Tuvok admits he wrote the program himself, to train his security officers in the event of a possible Maquis rebellion; however, as the Maquis proved to integrate well with their crewmates, Tuvok abandoned the program, believing that it would only exacerbate tensions on board the ship. However, given how popular that Insurrection Alpha has already become amongst the crew, Paris offers to help complete the remainder of the program with Tuvok's help, turning the program into a full-fledged holonovel. When Paris and Tuvok start to work on the program in the holodeck, they suddenly find themselves trapped in the virtual brig. They are addressed by the simulation's version of former crew member Seska, who admits that before she had escaped the ship, she had discovered Tuvok's program, and created this trap should he attempt to alter it (nice way to shoehorn her back in for an episode, eh?). Seska's alterations not only affect the holodeck but other parts of Voyager, threatening the well-being of the whole crew. While Tuvok and Paris attempt to survive the simulation, Janeway and Torres attempt to effect changes in the simulation to help them. Ultimately, finding themselves cornered by the virtual Seska and her Maquis crew, Tuvok causes one of the simulation's phaser rifles to overload; the impact ends the simulation, and allows Tuvok and Paris to safely exit the holodeck.
"Scorpion Part 1": The intro of the Borg getting destroyed before the opening credits was probably the shortest ever in Star Trek history! Voyager's crew discover from long-range probes that they are approaching a sector of space occupied by the Borg. The Borg occupation covers thousands of star systems, but they find a narrow path through the sector that the Borg avoid due to the numerous gravimetric distortions within it. The senior staff agree that it is better to ride out through this path, dubbed the "Northwest Passage", rather than to face the Borg directly. Janeway orders preparations for a Borg encounter. While helping the Doctor craft antibodies to disable Borg assimilation, Kes has a brief vision of a pile of Borg corpses. She starts to experience several more, all based around the destruction of Borg and Voyager. As they near the Northwest Passage, they find 15 Borg cubes rapidly approaching. The crew prepares to engage but the ships travel past them at high speeds. Shortly after they pass, the Borg ships no longer register on their scanners, and Janeway orders an investigation. They find the ships have been destroyed, while a bioship is attached to a portion of a Borg hull. An away team transports over to discover a pile of Borg corpses, just as Kes had seen, and alien roars elsewhere on the ship. As they try to scan for the source, Kes has another vision, this of Kim being attacked. Janeway orders an emergency beam-out just as an insect-like creature strikes at Kim. Aboard Voyager Kim is raced to Sickbay. The bioship detaches from the hull and fires at Voyager as they depart the area, the near-miss negatively affecting the ship. Kes reports hearing a voice say, "The weak will perish". Janeway orders the crew to continue course for the Northwest Passage. Tuvok and Torres analyze the Borg's logs to find that the alien species is cataloged as Species 8472 and has defeated the Borg many times before. The Doctor is able to eliminate the infection in Kim's body using a potent modification of Borg nanoprobe. Eventually Voyager reaches the Northwest Passage, only to find a fleet of bioships waiting with more appearing through the gravitational distortions. After moving to a safe distance, the senior staff discuss their options. Janeway comes up with the radical idea of an alliance with the Borg to face a common threat, offering the Doctor's cure for the Species 8472's infection as a bargaining chip. The staff is dubious but agree it is their only option. Voyager travels to a nearby Borg-occupied world, and is met by a Borg cube. Janeway announces their intentions, and the Borg beam her to their ship, where she begins negotiations. Suddenly, a fleet of bioships appears nearby and lays waste to the Borg planet. The Borg Cube, with Voyager in tow, narrowly escapes its destruction.
"Scorpion Part 2": The attack by Species 8472 leads the Borg to accept Janeway's offer in exchange for safe passage through their space towards the Alpha Quadrant, and she and Tuvok begin discussions. However, the Borg, believing verbal communication to be inefficient, attempt to attach a neural probe to Janeway through assimilation. Janeway stops them, and instead suggests they choose a representative Borg for her to speak through. Soon, a drone calling herself Seven of Nine (Yay!) emerges as the chosen representative. Janeway and Seven resume discussions on how to deal with Species 8472. As they discuss the development of specialized weapons, a bioship appears and starts firing at the ships, and Janeway is injured. The Borg transport Janeway, Tuvok, Seven, and several drones to one of Voyager's cargo bays before ramming the bioship, destroying both of them. The Doctor finds Janeway's injuries very severe and needs to fully sedate her to protect her higher brain functions. Janeway makes Chakotay promise to maintain the alliance with the Borg before she is sedated. Seven and the drones are working on assembling the weapon when she learns from the Borg Collective that Species 8472 have killed over 4 million Borg in the middle of their sector, and demands Chakotay direct Voyager to help. Chakotay refuses, since this would significantly deviate from their course home, and states his intentions to strand the Borg on an M-class planet to be picked up later. Seven is able to access the ship's deflector dish from the cargo bay and uses it to create a subspace rift. Chakotay orders the cargo bay depressurized, causing all of the drones but Seven to be lost to space, while she is forced to abandon her access to remain aboard. Though the crew regain control of the dish, the rift has grown large enough to draw Voyager into it. Voyager finds itself in "fluidic space", where Species 8472 originate from according to Seven. Seven asserts to Chakotay since he refused to help, Voyager must face Species 8472 on their own, revealing that the Borg started the war with them. Their argument is stopped when Janeway announces she has recovered and taken command of Voyager again. After having Chakotay placed in the brig, Janeway starts working again with Seven to prepare a weapon to defeat the bioships and perform other upgrades on the ship, as several bioships are detected heading towards them. The modifications are done in time, and they are able to destroy the attacking ships. Seven reverses the process that drew Voyager into fluidic space, but the ship returns to normal space in the middle of a bioship fleet. They quickly reapply their modifications to a large-scale weapon that destroys most of the enemy fleet and the surviving ships flee. After learning that the Borg have prevailed in their fight, Seven then turns on the Voyager crew and tries to assimilate the consoles. Janeway, having prepared for this, tells Chakotay to start "Operation Scorpion". Chakotay uses a neural relay to distract Seven long enough for Torres to electrify the console, knocking Seven out. Voyager resumes its course for the Alpha Quadrant, but Janeway is still unsure about their alliance with the Borg and Seven's true allegiance. This was an awesome two-parter! While I do remember seeing it years ago, I forgot a lot of the details. I have to give props to whoever did the costume and make-up on Jeri Ryan's original Borg-look! This was definitely one of the most tense episodes of Voyager and one the best.
So the Borg have finally been revealed in the series and Seven of Nine will soon replace Kes in Season 4 (in fact, the Voyager opening of "Scorpion Part 2" no loner has Kes in the credits, but Seven of Nine). Kes seemed to be maturing in this season but what was weird was her break-up with Neelix - in "Warlord" she was overtaken by Tieran when she "broke up" with Neelix. Why did this count as a legitmate break-up for the rest of their friendship? That makes no sense! One thing I noticed was there were no more Kazon this season. I guess from a story standpoint, Voyager has travelled well beyond their reach in the Delta Quadrant and now, they deal with the Borg. While Voyager hasn't made too much progress this season on getting home, I believe we'll see them travel greater distances from this point on. We're almost halfway through!
"Flashback": As Voyager monitors a nebula with large quantities of the power source sirillium, Tuvok finds his hands shaking, and requests permission to go to Sickbay. En route, he experiences a flashback that involves him trying to pull a young girl off a cliff to safety. The girl ends up falling, horrifying young Tuvok. Eventually, he arrives in Sickbay, and collapses, convulsing on the floor. In Sickbay, Tuvok describes the memory, but insists the events he "remembered" never occurred. With no clear cause of his symptoms, he is dismissed with a device to monitor his readings in case such an event occurs again. That night, he attempts to build a "structure of harmony" in an effort to aid his meditation, but cannot stop the structure from collapsing. After a visit from Kes, he attempts again. The next morning, he notes he had spent fourteen hours meditating, and still had no idea what the cause of the problem was. Kim could not find anything unusual with the nebula they were near, but Tuvok suggests they scan it for Klingon activity. Torres reminds him that the Klingon Empire is on the other side of the galaxy. Moments later, Tuvok sees the mental image again, and collapses once more. In Sickbay, the Doctor suggests the problem is a repressed memory, which in Vulcans can cause brain damage due to the conflict between the conscious and unconscious minds. The only possible course of action is to initiate a mind meld - normally undertaken with a family member. Tuvok explains he would go to one of the Vulcans on board but he feels Janeway is the best choice to assist him in locating and reintegrating the memory. During the meld she would be an outside observer of the memories, unnoticed by anyone but Tuvok. When Tuvok initiates the mind meld, he attempts to take them to the cliff in his memory, but instead they appear on the USS Excelsior, under attack by the Klingons. This is during the events of Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country. Explaining the attack, the memory moves once more, to three days before, when Praxis exploded. After learning about how Captain Kirk and Dr. McCoy were placed on trial for the assassination of the Klingon Chancellor, Captain Sulu attempted a rescue mission, which Tuvok was the only Excelsior crew member to protest. In an effort to avoid confrontation with the Klingons, Sulu ordered an approach path through a nebula which bore a remarkable physical similarity to the one Voyager was observing in the Delta Quadrant - the appearance causing Tuvok to recall the repressed memory once more, breaking the mind meld. After a period of recovery for Tuvok, during which Janeway and Kim comment on the differences between Starfleet of the 23rd century and the 24th, they try the mind meld again - appearing once more on the Excelsior. After a discussion about Tuvok's motivations for joining Starfleet, a small Klingon attack began. After Sulu claimed their navigational equipment had malfunctioned, Kang insisted upon escorting the Excelsior back to Federation space, to help them from getting lost again. Sulu agreed, but on the way out of the nebula they were in, came up with a plan to disable the Klingon ship by igniting the sirillium that was also present in that nebula. After this succeeded, they set course once more for Qo'noS, before being attacked again by three Klingon battlecruisers - an attack that killed Lieutenant Dimitri Valtane. As Tuvok watched Valtane die, the memory appeared once more, and in Sickbay, the neural engrams destabilize, preventing the meld from being broken. On the Excelsior, Sulu could suddenly see Janeway, who was supposed to merely be an observer. In an effort to blend into the memories, Tuvok takes Janeway to a time where she can steal Commander Janice Rand's uniform. In Sickbay, the Doctor and Kes notice an irregularity in the memories, and deduced they were not in fact memories, but instead a virus. Using thoron radiation, they begin to kill the virus. On the Excelsior, the attack occurs once more, and Valtane dies when a plasma conduit behind his console explodes. The image of the girl on the cliff appears, but this time, it is Janeway who is letting the girl fall. As the Doctor continues the efforts to kill the virus, it tracks back, changing to Valtane, and then an endless stream of other children. Eventually, it dies, and Tuvok breaks the meld. In Sickbay, the Doctor and Kes explain what must have happened: the virus thrived on neural peptides, and hid itself by creating the false memory that the person bearing it would repress, so the virus could live in secret, and migrate from person to person as its hosts died. Walking down a corridor, Janeway suggests that Tuvok missed those days, a suggestion Tuvok rejects. However, he admits that he is pleased to have been a part of them, and having experienced the memories, Janeway says she feels she was a part of them as well. As a result, Tuvok suggests that she could feel nostalgic for the both of them. This episode aired before DS9's "Trials and Tribble-ations" in 1996, which they were celebrating the 30th Anniversary of The Original Series. I liked that we got some of Tuvok's background and most importantly, it was another love letter to TOS that both TNG did ("Relics") and DS9 would do a couple months later.
"False Profits": Voyager discovers evidence of replicator technology on a pre-warp planet, which is reported as very unusual. Chakotay and Paris beam down to the planet to investigate. They discover two Ferengi from the Alpha Quadrant, pretending to be prophets to the native people. When the Ferengi are beamed aboard Voyager they refuse to go back to the Alpha Quadrant, and Janeway is forced to return them to the planet. Meanwhile, a wormhole is detected and it is traced to the Alpha Quadrant, with the wormhole being the Barzan anomaly that the Ferengi had come through, years ago, and never returned through. This would be a shortcut home for Voyager; the only problem is that the Delta Quadrant side moves around erratically. Harry Kim and B'Elanna Torres work on a way to stabilize the wormhole while Neelix, disguised as a Ferengi, travels back to the planet. He pretends to be a representative (the "Grand Proxy") of the Ferengi ruler, the Grand Nagus, and demands the two return to the Alpha Quadrant. Neelix's ruse is uncovered and the Ferengi attempt to kill him. Neelix barely survives the assault and the natives uncover the situation. They become confused and declare all the "Ferengi", including Neelix, are to reach home by being burned alive. Neelix and the others are beamed away at the last moment and the natives are convinced their prophecy has come true. Back on Voyager, the Ferengi manage to steal back their shuttlecraft, which Voyager had confiscated. They end up being sucked into the wormhole, which destabilizes to the point that it is worthless to Voyager (sigh... plot convenience).
"Sacred Ground": The crew take shore leave on a friendly planet inhabited by people called Nechani. A group become interested in the Nechani's religious sites and take a tour. Kes is put into a coma when, out of curiosity, she touches a natural biogenic field. The Doctor cannot help, in part because the monks will not allow readings to be taken around the field. Neelix investigates and returns with a story of a King and his son. The son was seemingly injured as Kes was and the King went through an initiation in order to awaken him. Janeway petitions the monks to allow her to perform the same ritual. The Doctor places a probe in her bloodstream, determined to find out the science behind the rituals. Janeway expects the course to consist of tests of physical endurance, mental discipline, and perhaps psychoactive drugs which would change her body chemistry, allowing her to pass through the field. Janeway goes through the first series of tests; her guide warns that they are meaningless, the point is for Janeway to get in touch with the spirits. She ends up bitten by a creature which is supposed to allow her to contact the spirit world. Her guide seems to say that the spirits find Janeway's inquiries about Kes' plight inconsequential because she already knows how to fix Kes. The Doctor thinks the venom from the creature might be the cure needed for Kes. It is not. Janeway convinces her command crew to let her go to the ritual site again, convinced that if she takes Kes through the field, it will work. Her guide allows it, indicating that Janeway's desire to go through is all that is needed. Kes is healed of her affliction. The Doctor comes up with a scientific explanation for how Kes was healed. Janeway seemingly expresses doubt that it was science.
"Future's End Part 1": The crew is surprised by a small ship with a Federation signature that emerges from a temporal rift in front of the starship Voyager. Its pilot identifies himself as Captain Braxton from the 29th century. He shocks the crew when he explains that he believes Voyager to be the cause of a temporal explosion that would wipe out most of the Earth's solar system in his time; therefore he must destroy it. As proof, Braxton briefly states that debris from Voyager's secondary hull will be found in the remains of the explosion. Voyager fights off Braxton's attack, resulting in the future captain being sent back through the rift to Earth in the year 1967. Voyager and its crew are also pulled into the rift and find themselves also at Earth but in 1996. The starship is categorized on Earth as a UFO and videotaped, placing the U.S. military on alert. In 1967, a young hippie hiker, Henry Starling, finds the timeship and copies its technology, allowing him to create a company, Chronowerx Industries, and start the micro-computer revolution. In 1996, a young astronomer named Rain Robinson (played by a young Sarah Silverman) who works at the Griffith Observatory in Los Angeles discovers Voyager in high orbit through the ship's warp emissions and assumes it to be extraterrestrial life. Her work is funded by Starling but against his instructions, she attempts to contact Voyager by transmitting a greeting to it, which forces the crew to do some damage control. The Voyager crew tracks her location to the Observatory and Janeway, Chakotay, Tuvok, and Paris, decide to beam down to Los Angeles. Tuvok and Paris try to find Robinson, while Janeway and Chakotay attempt to investigate more on Henry Starling and his multimillion-dollar business. Tuvok and Paris remove Robinson from the observatory before she can be harmed after Starling, who fears that Robinson is a security risk, dispatches a hitman to kill her. In Los Angeles, Janeway and Chakotay identify a homeless man as Captain Braxton, who explains that he emerged from the time rift in 1967 and crash-landed in the desert, where a Henry Starling found the timeship and used its technology to begin his high-tech empire. Ultimately, Janeway and Chakotay discover from Captain Braxton that Starling's planned attempt to travel into the 29th century using Braxton's timeship will be the true cause for the temporal explosion in the 29th century, because Starling lacks the knowledge needed to properly operate the timeship. If Starling makes his trip to the future, the improperly configured temporal matrix will cause a temporal explosion that will destroy Earth's entire solar system. Braxton thinks that Voyager's debris will be found in the remains of the explosion because of a failed attempt to stop Starling. Janeway and Chakotay secretly enter Starling's Chronowerx office where they find the timeship, just as Starling walks in on them. Starling ignores Janeway's warning not to use the timeship since its use will cause disaster and he tries to kill Janeway and Chakotay, however the two are beamed aboard Voyager. When Voyager tries to beam up the timeship, Starling uses his own transporter beam to access Voyager's computer and study its systems before stealing the Doctor's program from Sickbay. Worse still, Voyager's presence is detected and placed on the news media since the ship's crew had to dive the ship low into Earth's atmosphere to beam Janeway and Chakotay aboard.
"Future's End Part 2": Janeway abducts Starling and beams him aboard Voyager where he admits that he intends to travel into the future to steal more advanced technology. While Janeway believes that she has ended Starling's plans, one of Starling's henchmen uses his scavenged 29th century technology to transport Starling back to his office from where Starling launches the timeship to perform his time travel. After a failed attempt to convince Starling to stop his time travel before it's too late, Janeway destroys the timeship by manually firing a photon torpedo into it, destroying it just as it enters a temporal rift, saving the future. An alternative Captain Braxton arrives, having detected their presence in the past and returns them to their own time at the place they left it. He is unwilling to bring them to their Earth as that would violate the Temporal Prime Directive. The Doctor gains more freedom as he keeps a piece of 29th-Century technology, a "Mobile Holo-Emitter", which allows him to move around without having to rely on fixed emitters.
"Warlord": This is definitely one of the better Kes episodes. Voyager beams aboard three people just before their damaged ship explodes: an Ilari female named Nori, her injured spouse Tieran and an Ilari male named Adin. Although the Doctor and Kes try to save him, Tieran dies. Not long after, Neelix is shocked when Kes announces she'd like to spend some time apart from him. When Voyager arrives at Ilari, the local leader, known as "the Autarch," sends a representative to the ship instead of coming himself. Inexplicably, Kes pulls out a phaser, kills the representative and a crewmember, and escapes in a stolen shuttlecraft with Adin and Nori. The commander, Resh, is beamed aboard the shuttlecraft. Kes takes the shuttle to a military encampment, meets with the commander, Resh, and takes command of the waiting troops. It's revealed that there is something in control of Kes' body. When Resh asks the entity in Kes why it took her for a host, since he considers a girl's body unfit for the job, it responds by making Resh's nose bleed. It then explains that Kes has telekinesis, which makes up for the physical weakness of the girl's body, as well as makes it useful for its plans. In the meantime, Janeway meets with Demmas, the Autarch's oldest son, who explains that Kes' body is now inhabited by Tieran, a former Ilarian ruler who was overthrown by Demmas' ancestor 200 years ago. Since then, Tieran has lived on by transferring his mind to a series of host bodies. Janeway agrees to help Demmas stop Kes/Tieran, but before she can, the tyrant has killed the Autarch in front of Demmas' younger brother, Ameron, and appointed himself the new Autarch. Kes/Tieran tries to poison Ameron's thoughts against Demmas and urges him to cooperate with the new regime. In the meantime, the Doctor designs a synaptic stimulator that will remove Tieran's neural pattern from Kes-if they can get close enough to use it. Tuvok beams into the Autarch's palace, but is caught and imprisoned before he can succeed in the attempt. When Kes/Tieran interrogates Tuvok, the Vulcan is able to initiate a mind-meld and speak directly to Kes, who tells Tuvok she is fighting Tieran for control. Kes/Tieran orders Voyager to leave orbit, but the stress of the mental battle between Kes and Tieran results in a paranoid Kes/Tieran killing Adin. To Nori's chagrin, Kes/Tieran announces she's marrying Ameron. Moments later, a coalition of Voyager's crew and Demmas' forces bursts into the palace. Rush tries to save Kes/Tieran, but is shot in the back with a phaser by Neelix. Paris releases Tuvok, while Neelix places the synaptic stimulator on Kes/Tieran, forcing him from the body of the Ocampan girl. Tieran jumps to a new host body-Ameron-but Kes places the device on him and Tieran is finally destroyed. Demmas, the rightful heir, becomes Autarch.
"The Q and the Grey": Janeway is surprised when Q appears in her quarters - and in her bed - one night. Q is intent on Janeway becoming the mother of his child, and plies the Captain with gifts in an attempt to win her affections, such as an Irish Setter puppy. Janeway is not amused, and demands that Q leave immediately. Q is persistent, claiming that he could have chosen any female in the galaxy and that his desire for Janeway should be regarded as an honour. Janeway continues to insist that Q leave, and eventually he does. However, Q's absence does not last long, as he abducts the captain and takes her to the Q Continuum, now appearing as an American Civil War period piece, with Q dressed in the uniform of a Union officer and Janeway herself as clothed in the attire of the era. Confederate soldiers fire on them, and Q is wounded - surprising Janeway. Q's sense of urgency becomes apparent: There is a real civil war brewing among the Q race, and Q hopes that he and Janeway can bring a child into the Continuum (which has not had a natural birth in billions of years and Q claims they have always existed) to avert the war. Q explains that the civil war started because of him - he leads a faction of the Q which advocates individual freedom, rather than the status quo enforced by the Q at large. Q shows Janeway the carnage that the war has inflicted on his group (represented by a refugee camp in which hundreds of wounded Q, all appearing as Union soldiers, are suffering). The fighting breaks out again, and the Q authorities (represented as Confederate soldiers) arrive and capture Q and Janeway. The Q leader, appearing as a Confederate colonel, intends to execute them both, to serve as an example to the rest of Q's freedom faction. On Voyager, the remaining crew have been observing dozens of supernovae taking place throughout the area - many more than should be occurring. A Q female arrives and says that the civil war among the Q is the cause. The female Q is abrasive and insulting to the crew, and she explains that she is Q's ex-wife. As the civil war continues to rage, the female Q realizes she has lost her powers, and is forced to enlist the aid of the Voyager crew. She helps them reach the Q Continuum by flying into a supernova, and provides the Voyager crew with Q weapons which they use to free Q and Janeway. Q and his wife resume their relationship and decide to become parents themselves, thus providing the Q Continuum with "new blood" which they hope will revitalize the species. Captain Janeway is witness to the two Q mating, which means they simply touch fingers, causing a flash similar to the effect used when a Q conjures something up. A moment later Q tells his wife he knows he was good. "That's it?!" a baffled Janeway asks. "You had your chance," Q jokingly responds (LOL!). Q returns later to Janeway's quarters with his son and asks her to be his godmother, which she accepts. Throughout this episode I always wondered why the hell doesn't Janeway tell Q that she's a married woman, even if she's still too many light years away from home?
"Macrocosm": This episode would like if Star Trek and Resident Evil had a baby together - without zombies though.
"Blood Fever": Torres dismisses the Vulcan Ensign Vorik at the end of his shift in Engineering. Before Vorik leaves, he turns to her and declares kunat so'lik - the ritual Vulcan marriage proposal. Specifically, Vorik intends that B'Elanna will become his mate. He explains that he has an intended bride back at home, but since Voyager is not likely to reach home anytime soon, he has decided to pick a mate aboard the ship, and has found B'Elanna suitable. Flabbergasted, she declines. He grabs her, cradling her face, and she punches him. As he mends Vorik's dislocated jaw in Sickbay, The Doctor discovers that the ensign is beginning his first pon farr. He is in a sexual frenzy and requires a mate. Since there is no mate available, Vorik decides to meditate. The Doctor summons Tuvok to advise the younger Vulcan, though Tuvok is extremely reluctant to do so at first. Meanwhile, B'Elanna joins Tom Paris and Neelix for an away team mission to a planet to lay in a supply of gallicite from an abandoned mine. She becomes increasingly aggressive and agitated, snapping at Neelix and refusing to cooperate with her teammates. She attacks Paris, biting him savagely on the cheek and then stalking off on her own. When Paris reports back to Voyager, his description of her behavior leads Tuvok to conclude that she has contracted pon farr from Vorik, since the ensign had initiated the telepathic mating bond when he seized her face in Engineering. Tuvok and Chakotay travel to the planet's surface and descend into the mine to help Paris hunt down the addled B'Elanna Torres. They tell her that her discomfort is from the pon farr, and she needs to return with them to the ship. The transporter will not reach so far underground, so she must return to the surface. Before they can persuade her, the away team is surrounded by aliens called the Sakari; the mine is not abandoned after all. The aliens disappear and take Tuvok and Chakotay with them. Now alone with Paris in the mine, B'Elanna tries to seduce him. She is in heat and, having already chosen Paris as her mate with the bite on the cheek, is determined to have sex with him. He admits that he would like to oblige her, but refuses to take advantage of her while she is in such a state. Tuvok and Chakotay discover that the aliens are peaceful, just a little jumpy after having run from previous invaders on their planet. Back on the surface, Tuvok advises Paris to have sex with B'Elanna to help purge the pon farr. He awkwardly agrees, but before the two can engage in the act, Vorik storms in to claim B'Elanna, challenging Paris to the kunat kalifee, a ritual fight. B'Elanna angrily rejects the idea, declaring that she'll fight Vorik herself. Both fight aggressively, though B'Elanna defeats him, and both are purged of their pon farr. Afterwards, she and Paris admit to each other that they might have a future together. As the away team prepares to leave the planet, they make a horrifying discovery. The invaders the Sakari were running from were Borg (oh shit...).
"Unity": Chakotay and Ensign Kaplan hear a distress call while scouting ahead for Voyager in a shuttlecraft. They land the vessel but come under fire from hostile aliens, killing Kaplan and injuring Chakotay. He wakes in a room with a woman called Riley Frazier. She informs him that she is part of a group of survivors on the planet from a variety of races. There are other groups nearby, including those that attacked him. She calls her group a "Co-operative". Meanwhile, Voyager discovers a derelict Borg cube (their first encounter) and Janeway decides that an investigation is required in order to learn more about the Borg's technology. An away team boards the cube, discovering that either an accident or another species disabled the vessel. They take a Borg drone back onto Voyager, where the Doctor accidentally revives it. After being told by Frazier to remain where he is, Chakotay breaks out of his room where he sees that all the people around him on the alien planet possess Borg implant technology in their bodies. Frazier explains that an electro-kinetic storm broke their link with the Borg hive mind. Instead, the separated drones settled on a nearby planet. Chakotay's health gets worse, and the ex-Borg offer to connect him to a joint mind to heal his injuries, and he reluctantly accepts. Once part of the hive mind, he sees a montage of their memories. After Voyager arrives, Frazier and her group want Janeway to re-activate the neuroelectric generator on the damaged cube to extend a new joint mind across the entire planet. Chakotay pleads their case, but Janeway decides not to help them. As Chakotay returns to Voyager on board a shuttle, the Co-operative use their telepathic link to force him to travel to the Borg cube with Voyager in pursuit. Both Chakotay and an away team board the cube, and despite a firefight, he manages to reactivate the generator. This creates the new joint mind as expected, but also activates the cube, which begins powering up to attack Voyager. Chakotay and the away team are beamed back to Voyager as the Co-operative trigger the cube's self-destruct before it can endanger the Federation ship. The planet's inhabitants thank Voyager, but as a result of their actions, Chakotay later questions the morality of the Co-operative's motives with Janeway, as it connected many of the former Borg together in a new hive mind without consulting them.
"Favorite Son": When Voyager encounters a seemingly friendly alien ship its crew has never seen before, the Nasari, Ensign Kim clairvoyantly fires Voyager's weapons upon it without orders. Harry claims that a tetryon surge being emitted by the ship was the aliens preparing to attack them. Voyager sustains heavy damage while battling the enemy but manages to make them withdraw. Kim is relieved of duty, pending investigation of his overtly hostile actions. Janeway later confirms that Harry's "instincts" were correct, that the ship was indeed preparing to attack. Harry recounts other episodes of déjà vu since entering that region of space. Later that night he has a strange dream, and when he awakens, he discovers a strange reddish rash on his head. The Doctor cannot find an initial cause. When the Nasari return with more ships, Harry's instincts tell him to flee to a nearby planet where they are defended and then hailed by the Taresians. Once on the planet, the Taresians attempt to explain Harry's strange behavior. According to them, Harry is Taresian and was sent to Earth as an embryo where he was implanted into his "human mother." He took on the genetic traits of his human parents, but was programmed with both genetic knowledge and an urge to one day return to Taresia. When he entered the Taresian region of space, his dormant Taresian genes began to reactivate, explaining his current behavior. Harry befriends another male Taresian and learns that the planet's population is 90% female, and that males are very rare and thus very valuable and prized. While Harry remains on the planet in an attempt to better understand his recent changes, Voyager leaves to attempt to make contact with the Nasari and negotiate safe passage from the system. Harry learns that because males are so rare on Taresia, he is valuable breeding stock. He attends the marriage ceremony of his new male friend who is bonded with three Taresian females. On Voyager, the doctor discovers something strange about Harry's DNA: it was implanted, possibly by a virus, and it is not natural to his body. Janeway also realizes that a defensive grid has been raised around Taresia preventing them from communicating with Harry or transporting to the surface. After spending the night on the planet, Harry suffers more strange dreams which cause doubts to begin creeping into his mind. Two very "interested" females attempt to calm him, but he resists their attempts. Now outright suspicious, Harry goes to see his male friend. When he enters his quarters he discovers the desiccated remains of his friend. He is confronted by several females where they reveal the truth to him. He was not born on Taresia. Because natural born males are so rare, the Taresians devised an "artificial" way to procreate their species. They implant Taresian genes into male members of other species which rewrites their DNA and makes it compatible with Taresian females. Even more horrifying is that the "reproductive process" means draining the males of their DNA where it is then implanted into females, causing the death of the males. As a result, new males are constantly "created" and harvested. Harry attempts to flee and is pursued by many females and their leader. Just when they are about to capture him, Voyager penetrates the grid and beams Harry on board. They flee the system with a Taresian ship in pursuit. The Nasari appear but after initially focusing their fire on Voyager, they then attack the Taresians, allowing Voyager to escape. The Doctor is later able to extract the foreign DNA and successfully returns Harry to his human form.
"Before and After": Kes finds herself living short periods of time in reverse order due to exposure to chronitons. She first gains consciousness in sickbay as an elderly woman, surrounded by her Ocampa family born on Voyager. The Doctor is able to put her into a biotemporal chamber to try to extend Kes's normally short life-span. Her next period of consciousness occurs some days before, where the Doctor has affirmed that Kes is suffering from mental deterioration due to her old age and his plans to use the biotemporal chamber. Kes finds it difficult to be around the members of her family whom she doesn't know. During these periods, she comes to learn that Voyager had suffered a "Year of Hell" some years before when facing a race called the Krenim that repeatedly assaulted the ship as it crossed their space, costing the lives of Janeway and Torres along with significant damage to the ship. As her periods of consciousness approach that point, she is able to work with the crew to postulate the nature of the Krenim temporal-based weapons and how to reverse the effects Kes is experiencing with a biotemporal chamber. The Doctor surmises that if Kes can obtain the temporal phase shift that affected her, he would be able to stop her backwards progression in time. Soon, Kes finds herself experiencing the period of the Year of Hell. The ship is significantly damaged, and an undetonated Krenim torpedo is lodged in the ship. Kes witnesses the deaths of Janeway and Torres. She examines the dangerous weapon. She discovers the phase shift (which is 1.47 microseconds) before passing out and coming to at an earlier period. Realizing she is getting near the time she first joined the Voyager crew, she is able to convince the Doctor of her symptoms and the means to stop it using the Kremin phase shift. However, even in the biotemporal chamber, she continues to flash back, soon finding herself back with the Ocampa and still growing younger. She regresses further to an infant, then to a fetus, before she suddenly starts moving forward in time. She eventually comes to in the present, three years since she joined Voyager and shortly before the Year of Hell. The Doctor acknowledges the biotemporal chamber a success and Kes is cured. Despite a celebration in the holodeck for Kes's birthday, she wants to document her memories of the future, particularly the Year of Hell, to help Janeway and her crew, before she forgets them.
"Distant Origin": On the planet where Voyager's crew had previously been marooned (The two-parter "Basics"), Professor Gegen and his assistant Veer, two paleontologists of a space-faring saurian species known as the Voth, discover the skeletal remains of a human, most likely Lt. Hogan. They are fascinated by the similarity of its genome to their own species, and Gegen suggests that this supports the highly controversial Distant Origin theory, that the Voth had originated on a far-distant planet instead of the current area of space from which they rule their empire. Proof of the theory has been sought by other Voth scientists, but the heretical theory has often led to their exile. To confirm their proof, Gegen and Veer track down the origin of the skeleton, learning of Voyager's presence in the Delta Quadrant. They locate the ship and transport aboard while cloaked, observing the mostly human crew in the setting. Voyager's sensors detect their presence, and the crew reveals the two Voth. Veer responds instinctively by releasing sedative-tipped needles that strike Chakotay; Gegen grabs the human and transports him aboard his ship, fleeing from Voyager. The Doctor examines Veer and identifies the similar genetic structure; he and Janeway use simulations to determine that the Voths descended from a species of dinosaur known as the hadrosaurs, probably of genus Parasaurolophus. Gegen wakes Chakotay, and explains the situation, requesting Chakotay accompany him when he presents his evidence to the Voth elders; meanwhile, Voyager is captured by the Voth. Gegen is put on trial for heresy, and it soon becomes clear that he has been pre-judged guilty and the "trial" is only an opportunity for him to recant and reduce his punishment. Veer, recovered from Voyager, is coerced to act as a witness against Gegen by Minister Odala. Chakotay attempts to argue for Gegen, noting that the Voth theory of origins has changed so much to fit what the Voth wish to believe and not reality. Odala rejects this, sentencing Gegen to a prison colony unless he recants. When he still refuses, she then orders Voyager destroyed and its entire crew, the evidence for his theory, also sent to the prison colony. Gegen, unwilling to see them destroyed, realizes he has no choice but to recant. Odala assigns Gegen a new job, and orders Voyager to leave Voth space forever. Before departing, Chakotay gives Gegen a globe of the Earth, which Gegen acknowledges that someday, the Voth will accept as their home world.
"Worst Case Scenario": Various members of Voyager's crew discover a holodeck simulation called "Insurrection Alpha", in which the Maquis members of the ship's crew mutiny against the Starfleet officers. The program appears unfinished, and its author is unknown. As the program becomes popular, Tuvok admits he wrote the program himself, to train his security officers in the event of a possible Maquis rebellion; however, as the Maquis proved to integrate well with their crewmates, Tuvok abandoned the program, believing that it would only exacerbate tensions on board the ship. However, given how popular that Insurrection Alpha has already become amongst the crew, Paris offers to help complete the remainder of the program with Tuvok's help, turning the program into a full-fledged holonovel. When Paris and Tuvok start to work on the program in the holodeck, they suddenly find themselves trapped in the virtual brig. They are addressed by the simulation's version of former crew member Seska, who admits that before she had escaped the ship, she had discovered Tuvok's program, and created this trap should he attempt to alter it (nice way to shoehorn her back in for an episode, eh?). Seska's alterations not only affect the holodeck but other parts of Voyager, threatening the well-being of the whole crew. While Tuvok and Paris attempt to survive the simulation, Janeway and Torres attempt to effect changes in the simulation to help them. Ultimately, finding themselves cornered by the virtual Seska and her Maquis crew, Tuvok causes one of the simulation's phaser rifles to overload; the impact ends the simulation, and allows Tuvok and Paris to safely exit the holodeck.
"Scorpion Part 1": The intro of the Borg getting destroyed before the opening credits was probably the shortest ever in Star Trek history! Voyager's crew discover from long-range probes that they are approaching a sector of space occupied by the Borg. The Borg occupation covers thousands of star systems, but they find a narrow path through the sector that the Borg avoid due to the numerous gravimetric distortions within it. The senior staff agree that it is better to ride out through this path, dubbed the "Northwest Passage", rather than to face the Borg directly. Janeway orders preparations for a Borg encounter. While helping the Doctor craft antibodies to disable Borg assimilation, Kes has a brief vision of a pile of Borg corpses. She starts to experience several more, all based around the destruction of Borg and Voyager. As they near the Northwest Passage, they find 15 Borg cubes rapidly approaching. The crew prepares to engage but the ships travel past them at high speeds. Shortly after they pass, the Borg ships no longer register on their scanners, and Janeway orders an investigation. They find the ships have been destroyed, while a bioship is attached to a portion of a Borg hull. An away team transports over to discover a pile of Borg corpses, just as Kes had seen, and alien roars elsewhere on the ship. As they try to scan for the source, Kes has another vision, this of Kim being attacked. Janeway orders an emergency beam-out just as an insect-like creature strikes at Kim. Aboard Voyager Kim is raced to Sickbay. The bioship detaches from the hull and fires at Voyager as they depart the area, the near-miss negatively affecting the ship. Kes reports hearing a voice say, "The weak will perish". Janeway orders the crew to continue course for the Northwest Passage. Tuvok and Torres analyze the Borg's logs to find that the alien species is cataloged as Species 8472 and has defeated the Borg many times before. The Doctor is able to eliminate the infection in Kim's body using a potent modification of Borg nanoprobe. Eventually Voyager reaches the Northwest Passage, only to find a fleet of bioships waiting with more appearing through the gravitational distortions. After moving to a safe distance, the senior staff discuss their options. Janeway comes up with the radical idea of an alliance with the Borg to face a common threat, offering the Doctor's cure for the Species 8472's infection as a bargaining chip. The staff is dubious but agree it is their only option. Voyager travels to a nearby Borg-occupied world, and is met by a Borg cube. Janeway announces their intentions, and the Borg beam her to their ship, where she begins negotiations. Suddenly, a fleet of bioships appears nearby and lays waste to the Borg planet. The Borg Cube, with Voyager in tow, narrowly escapes its destruction.
"Scorpion Part 2": The attack by Species 8472 leads the Borg to accept Janeway's offer in exchange for safe passage through their space towards the Alpha Quadrant, and she and Tuvok begin discussions. However, the Borg, believing verbal communication to be inefficient, attempt to attach a neural probe to Janeway through assimilation. Janeway stops them, and instead suggests they choose a representative Borg for her to speak through. Soon, a drone calling herself Seven of Nine (Yay!) emerges as the chosen representative. Janeway and Seven resume discussions on how to deal with Species 8472. As they discuss the development of specialized weapons, a bioship appears and starts firing at the ships, and Janeway is injured. The Borg transport Janeway, Tuvok, Seven, and several drones to one of Voyager's cargo bays before ramming the bioship, destroying both of them. The Doctor finds Janeway's injuries very severe and needs to fully sedate her to protect her higher brain functions. Janeway makes Chakotay promise to maintain the alliance with the Borg before she is sedated. Seven and the drones are working on assembling the weapon when she learns from the Borg Collective that Species 8472 have killed over 4 million Borg in the middle of their sector, and demands Chakotay direct Voyager to help. Chakotay refuses, since this would significantly deviate from their course home, and states his intentions to strand the Borg on an M-class planet to be picked up later. Seven is able to access the ship's deflector dish from the cargo bay and uses it to create a subspace rift. Chakotay orders the cargo bay depressurized, causing all of the drones but Seven to be lost to space, while she is forced to abandon her access to remain aboard. Though the crew regain control of the dish, the rift has grown large enough to draw Voyager into it. Voyager finds itself in "fluidic space", where Species 8472 originate from according to Seven. Seven asserts to Chakotay since he refused to help, Voyager must face Species 8472 on their own, revealing that the Borg started the war with them. Their argument is stopped when Janeway announces she has recovered and taken command of Voyager again. After having Chakotay placed in the brig, Janeway starts working again with Seven to prepare a weapon to defeat the bioships and perform other upgrades on the ship, as several bioships are detected heading towards them. The modifications are done in time, and they are able to destroy the attacking ships. Seven reverses the process that drew Voyager into fluidic space, but the ship returns to normal space in the middle of a bioship fleet. They quickly reapply their modifications to a large-scale weapon that destroys most of the enemy fleet and the surviving ships flee. After learning that the Borg have prevailed in their fight, Seven then turns on the Voyager crew and tries to assimilate the consoles. Janeway, having prepared for this, tells Chakotay to start "Operation Scorpion". Chakotay uses a neural relay to distract Seven long enough for Torres to electrify the console, knocking Seven out. Voyager resumes its course for the Alpha Quadrant, but Janeway is still unsure about their alliance with the Borg and Seven's true allegiance. This was an awesome two-parter! While I do remember seeing it years ago, I forgot a lot of the details. I have to give props to whoever did the costume and make-up on Jeri Ryan's original Borg-look! This was definitely one of the most tense episodes of Voyager and one the best.
So the Borg have finally been revealed in the series and Seven of Nine will soon replace Kes in Season 4 (in fact, the Voyager opening of "Scorpion Part 2" no loner has Kes in the credits, but Seven of Nine). Kes seemed to be maturing in this season but what was weird was her break-up with Neelix - in "Warlord" she was overtaken by Tieran when she "broke up" with Neelix. Why did this count as a legitmate break-up for the rest of their friendship? That makes no sense! One thing I noticed was there were no more Kazon this season. I guess from a story standpoint, Voyager has travelled well beyond their reach in the Delta Quadrant and now, they deal with the Borg. While Voyager hasn't made too much progress this season on getting home, I believe we'll see them travel greater distances from this point on. We're almost halfway through!