Voyager, season 2

FOUR-STAR EPISODES: 2
AVERAGE EPISODE RATING: 2.7
-The 37's **
This episode embodies the greatest flaw of early VOYAGER...the absence of a sense of solitude and isolation that should have permeated the show. Of course any Federation crew would have a "can-do" attitude, but...seventy-five years? Imagine a tornado dropping you down on the other side of the world, in a time before the wheel. How many years would it take to get home? That's a fraction of what Voyager faces. This episode was a perfect opportunity. They find a planet with an actual human civilization, the descendants of earthlings captured four hundred years earlier, including a cryo-frozen amelia earhart. They have cities, and a beautiful culture. Every crew member is given the option of staying, and...not one person remains. Not one! There isn't a single scene in these beautiful cities(?). Game turns by sharon lawrence (NYPD BLUE, MONK) and david graf (POLICE ACADEMY 1-7, THE BRADY BUNCH MOVIE) are wasted. This should have been a two-parter, and one of the more searing episodes in TREK history.
-Initiations **
Chakotay is captured by a kazon youth fulfilling a manhood ritual. A fine turn by DS9's aron eisenberg (AMITYVILLE: THE EVIL ESCAPES, PTERODACTYL WOMAN FROM BEVERLY HILLS).
-Projections ****
-written by brannon braga
-directed by jonathan frakes
The doctor faces a terrifying existential dilemma, as lt. barclay (the wonderful dwight schulz - FIRST CONTACT, FAT MAN AND LITTLE BOY) "appears" in sickbay, to tell the doctor he's NOT a hologram...he's a real person stuck in a Starfleet holoprogram that's malfunctioning due to a radiation leak. Barclay says that Voyager was never real, the doctor is dying, and the only way out is to destroy the ship. Voyager crewmembers appear, saying that barclay is a false manifestation, and the the doctor's program will be lost if he destroys the ship. The doctor bleeds, and barclay brings in kes as his real-world wife. The false endings are disturbing. Superb.
-Elogium ***
Kes's reproductive cycle is mysteriously triggered, an occurrence that only happens once in every ocampan female's lifetime. She and neelix have to decide whether they want a child. It gets tedious, as prospective parental paralysis is a bit too 20th-century, but there are nice moments (including the debut of actually-pregnant naomi wildman). It's the first time i've been glad to have neelix around, as he misses his emergency communicator tap by inches - an hilarious touch.
-Non Sequitur ***
Kim wakes up in San Francisco, with a planetside job and loving fiance (jennifer gatti - DOUBLE EXPOSURE, MILLENNIUM MAN), having never been assigned to Voyager. As his life unravels, an alien tells him he was involved in a time accident. He enlists the help of the only Voyager crewmate on Earth - tom, who never left and is a pool hall drunk. A fun ride, aside from a gaping-hole character choice by paris (having harry's fiance make that life-imperiling leap of faith instead, would have been more credible).
-Twisted **
A non-corporeal life form unintentionally wreaks havoc in an attempt to study the ship. Fine moments in Sandrine's, the french pool hall holocafe.
-Parturition *
Neelix's ugly green monster emerges over tom's attraction to kes, then they get stranded together, trying to save an alien baby. On its own merits, this one's okay (and the alien baby is three-star easy)...but an extra star is lost for a huge helping of 20th-century jealousy and sexual repression.
-Persistence of Vision ***
A malevolent, telepathic alien plagues the crew with hallucinations, trying to take over the ship. You might drive yourself crazy trying to figure out what's real and what isn't. The sexual burst between b'ellanna and chakotay is so tantalizing.
-Tattoo **
Finding a familiar symbol on a moon, chakotay tries to contact his spirit people. As bad as it sounds? Pretty much (even with some fine first officer butt crack), but saved from one star by the B plot, in which the doctor gives himself a flu, in response to charges of bad bedside manner.
-Cold Fire **
The ship encounters the vengeful mate of the caretaker, and a station full of ocampa with heightened psionic powers. Their leader (gary graham - ALIEN NATION, ENTERPRISE) wants to train and keep kes. Fine potential, but the ending is rushed and incomplete. It's "The 37's" all over again, with one or two people representing an entire unseen culture...but actually seeing the culture is what would give the decision to turn away real resonance.
-Maneuvers **
Chakotay pursues kazon who stole transporter technology, and is captured. Seska is the mastermind, and plots to get herself impregnated. Not bad, but lacking in imagination. Had chakotay come by stealth to the kazon ship, then transported in a space suit onto its hull and proceeded to wage guerilla warfare, we would have had something we'd never quite seen before in the TREK universe.
-Resistance ***
Running from the authorities on an alien planet, janeway is rescued by a man who thinks she is his daughter. An act of cowardice resulted in his wife being killed years before, and the daughter met a similar fate. A poignant guest turn by joel grey (CABARET, 'TWAS THE NIGHT BEFORE CHRISTMAS).
-Prototype ***
B'elanna reactivates a drifting automated life form. She gets kidnapped, and is forced to help her captors learn to replicate themselves. She becomes a pawn in an android war. A powerful prime directive debate between she and the captain.
-Alliances ***
In the face of kazon attacks which must ultimately overwhelm them, maquis crewmembers push for an alliance with one faction. Janeway finally relents. Negotiations sour, but an alliance is formed with the trabe, a scattered race who claim to regret their past as slavers. What makes this one stand out are the divisions within the crew, which heretofore lacked much edge.
-Threshold **
A new type of dilithium allows paris to break the warp 10 barrier. He mutates through a million years of evolution, kidnaps janeway, impregnates her, and leaves a litter of babies in an alien swamp. In other words, swingers from the year 1,002,300 will find janeway freakin' irresistible. Sorry - if it were a better episode, i might have a better joke. Given the thread in which tom is trying to sublimate his crush on kes, wouldn't she have been the more logical kidnappee? Even with that, this one might still feel like a third-rate "Elephant Man".
-Meld ***
Guest star brad dourif (DUNE, ALIEN: RESURRECTION) is lon suder, a betazed ex-maquis who murders a shipmate. It's about time something ugly arises from the tenuous Starfleet/maquis marriage. Tuvok cannot accept the random nature of the crime. He initiates a mindmeld, but the consequences undermine a lifetime's worth of emotional repression. Dourif and russ are excellent. Plus, neelix is choked to death!
-Dreadnought ***
Voyager discovers a cardassian automated military drone with adaptive intelligence, also brought to the delta quadrant by the caretaker. The drone had been reprogrammed by b'elanna to attack a cardassian target, but sensor damage has left it killing indiscriminately. B'elanna must board it and try to prevent a genocide.
-Death Wish ****
-written by michael piller
-directed by james l. conway
Voyager unwittingly frees a suicidal q trapped in a comet, who claims sanctuary when john de lancie's q appears. Janeway must preside over a trial, with eternal prison or death at stake. Witnesses are summoned, including commander william t. riker(!). The trial is taken inside the q continuum. Brilliant...as is tuvok's defense counsel. Q wants to die because immortal life has become meaningless. The philosophical arguments resonate more with each viewing, as does the emotional pull. De lancie is wonderful, and gerritt graham (PARKER LEWIS CAN'T LOSE, STOCKARD CHANNING IN JUST FRIENDS) gives one of the best TREK guest performances ever. This episode also gets nominated for worst non-alien makeup in TREK history, as q resembles a transvestite prostitute in the location shots.
-Lifesigns ***
The doctor saves a vidiian doctor (susan diol - HOTHOUSE, ALIEN NATION: MILLENIUM) by placing her synaptic patterns into a holographic body, allowing her to live for the first time as a "whole" adult. They fall in love...and then she wants to die. A poignant meditation on how "beauty" affects our self-image.
-Investigations **
Paris leaves Voyager to join a talaxian convoy - don't think too hard about whether you're sad. This one actually builds up a little juice, as tom is soon kidnapped by the kazon, and we learn that his recent apathetic insubordinations were all planned...but the episode keeps annoyingly returning to neelix.
-Deadlock ***
Voyager is accidentally duplicated, with both ships occupying identical space/time. One of them becomes horribly damaged, with several deaths (including harry). One ship must be sacrificed, so the other may survive. Apparently janeway-haters think she's "mannish", or some such? We'll ignore the investigation of their comfort level with their sexuality, and just say that they'll love to hate this one...two janeways for the price of one! Before the undamaged Voyager explodes, they send their harry and newborn naomi wildman over, to replace their dead counterparts. Not to pick a nit, but can i be the only one to have noticed that when the doc asks the new harry whether his counterpart has picked a name, he says he didn't have time to find out? That's a writing brain fart, as this harry would have been serving with that doc since the mission began.
-Innocence ***
Tuvok is stranded on a planet with alien children who believe their own people are trying to kill them. He must try to pacify and protect them. A cornucopia of vulcan life and logic, in a towering performance by tim russ. A four-star effort is marred by desultory writing in the reveal scene, when we learn that these aliens' life cycle includes a return to a childhood state before dying.
-The Thaw ***
Michael mckean! Michael mckean!! Voyager finds aliens in a form of stasis which has gone horribly wrong. Mckean (LAVERNE & SHIRLEY, THIS IS SPINAL TAP) is an adaptive, self-aware incarnation of electronic evil (in clown makeup, of course). Harry and b'elanna become imprisoned as well.
-Tuvix ***
In a transporter accident, tuvok and neelix merge. The new being has the memories of both men. The eye-popping badness of the idea almost obscures a dandy performance by guest star tom wright (BARBERSHOP, SEINFELD). It takes several weeks for them to find a way to reverse the accident, but tuvix refuses to sacrifice his life, requiring janeway to force the procedure. The doctor refuses, but janeway is undeterred. This one might have been even better had tuvix made the argument that as a single being, he is happier than either of his "parents" could ever have been - that neelix was cripplingly insecure, and tuvok humorlessly repressed. Disturbing and thought-provoking...just please promise there will never, EVER be a "Neelway".
-Resolutions ***
Janeway and chakotay contract an incurable virus on an alien planet, that prevents them from leaving the ecosphere. She orders tuvok to take command and resume the voyage. A month later, Voyager has a chance to seek help from vidiians...but tuvok follows orders, and avoids contact that would be dangerous at best. A near-mutiny follows, led by...harry! Tuvok relents. In the midst of a treacherous attack, a cure is beamed onto their ship by the doctor's one vidiian friend. Back on the planet, chakotay and janeway deal with acceptance and attraction. The emotional pulls are palpable...beautiful drama wonderfully acted. Just a B plot twist away from four stars.
-Basics, pt. 1 ***
A transmission from seska tells chakotay that his newborn son is in danger. Janeway steers straight into a plot hole and actually gives her blessing for a rescue. They go deeper and deeper into kazon territory, facing multiple minor attacks, until they realize they've been shepherded into an inescapable trap. The ship is boarded and overtaken. The kazon strand the crew on a barely-hospitable planet, and fly Voyager away. The grimness during the battle (and after) is effectively rendered. Did paris escape in a shuttle? Has seska taken the doctor into account? And where is suder, the homicidal crew member confined to quarters? We'll find out in season three...