Voyager, season 6

FOUR-STAR EPISODES: 2
AVERAGE EPISODE RATING: 2.9
-Equinox, pt. 2 ***
A galloping resolution. Janeway chases captain ransom (john savage - DO THE RIGHT THING, MESSAGE IN A BOTTLE), determined to bring him to justice for exploitation and murder. Her brutal single-mindedness causes chakotay to disobey. The doctor finds himself trapped aboard Equinox, with his ethical subroutines deleted. The writers flirt with inauthentic human motivation with janeway, the Equinox's exec, and ransom's redemptive about-face...but it's still a corker.
-Survival Instinct **
A bustling trading post provides much-needed diversion. Seven is approached by a free man (vaughn armstrong - CINDERELLA 2000, FINDING AMANDA) whom she doesn't recognize as a former member of her matrix. Two others are also free, but the three of them are unable to unlink. In trying to help them, horrible moral choices arise. Interesting potential, flat effort.
-Barge of the Dead *
WOW...was that bad. Dipsy-wipsy spirituality plus violence-glorification. If i were to try to create an intentionally awful TREK, something along the lines of "Springtime for Hitler" or "Sub Rosa"...i honestly don't think i could do worse than this. B'elanna is comatose, and has visions of her mother suffering on the klingon barge of the dead. After being revived, she convinces janeway and the doctor to place her back in the coma, despite considerable danger. I'm sorry, but cultural tolerance is NOT a universal good. Honoring your heritage is NOT a universal good. B'elanna has spent a lifetime rejecting the warrior ethos...and she was right. There would have been one way to take this nauseating turd and turn it into something profoundly good...have her die on the table. Really dead, end of character, done. This would leave her survivors (and the viewers) to live always with the utter senselessness of her death.
-Tinker Tenor Doctor Spy ****
-written by joe menosky
-directed by john bruno
The doctor installs a daydream program. An alien raider taps into his matrix, and mistakes fantasy for reality. One might perhaps be disappointed that the doctor's fantasies center on power and sex...but chalk it up to his programs being a reflection of the flawed beings who created him (Except...these 24th-century humans aren't supposed to be so flawed!). This episode supposedly has seven's sexiest moment, as she poses nude for the dreaming doc, but her sly wink several scenes earlier actually has much more simmer (which is not to say i agree with those anti-feminists who think lingerie is sexier than nudity...the nude scene IS a bit prudishly done). Aside from the humorous richness of the fantasies (emergency command holoprogram!), the alien makeup is some of the most brilliantly-rendered ever...and one of them named phlox (jay leggett - IN LIVING COLOR, HERO) begins to feel such empathy for the doctor (and self-serving horror at his own mistakes), he helps Voyager escape. I laughed, i cheered, it became part of me.
-Alice **
Tom restores a junkyard racecraft, but the craft's AI integrates (and commandeers) his consciousness. On top of the standard paris flaccidity, they never explain the ship's motivation. A game turn by john fleck (ENTERPRISE, WEEDS) wasted.
-Riddles ***
How large is tim russ's talent? It can make a neelix-heavy episode a delicate delight. Tuvok has his brain scrambled by an alien weapon. As he slowly regains speech, his blank slate is emotional and caring and needy...a veritable child. He is drawn to jazz, dessert, and Risa, and develops talents his old self would have found frivolous. He must decide whether to undergo a procedure that will restore his former unemotional self. Russ's performance is a revelation, as rich as any TREK turn ever.
-Dragon's Teeth ***
Pulled into a space corridor, Voyager travels at transwarp speeds. They are ejected by a race who claim corridor ownership. They ally with some downtrodden aliens, but discover that their new partners once enslaved much of the quadrant. A tense, tight meditation on making a deal with the devil when you don't know the nature of the beast...which is the most realistic way to present such a dilemma.
-One Small Step ***
Voyager discovers an ancient subspace anomaly that intermittently emerges in different parts of the galaxy. The Delta Flyer finds the command module of a lost Mars exploration vessel, and listens to the final recordings of the astronaut (phil morris - TERMINATOR: THE SARAH CONNOR CHRONICLES, LOVE BOAT: THE NEXT WAVE). Disaster strikes, and they have to use ancient technology to escape. Enchanting.
-The Voyager Conspiracy **
Assimilating too much data, seven develops conflicting paranoias that infect the crew. An alien claims to have a machine capable of sending them hundreds of light years in an instant. The acting and chemistry are three-star, but the script needed another pass.
-Pathfinder ***
Reg!! NEXT GEN's lt. barclay is back (and back on Earth), on a Starfleet project attempting to contact Voyager by creating a microwormhole. He created a holoprogram of the ship, but the crew (portrayed with nice touches, like having the maquis still in their old uniforms) became more real to him than real people. Deanna troi (marina sirtis) takes temporary leave to counsel him. The psychology of it is almost eerily credible - a social misfit becoming obsessed with a ship hopelessly lost. He disobeys orders and commandeers the lab, convinced he can make contact. Can obsession help a damaged individual make breakthroughs no one else would? It might just tighten your chest. Dwight schulz = lovely TREK.
-Fair Haven ***
During a storm, the crew takes respite in tom's holoprogram about a pre-industrial irish town. Janeway alters the pubkeeper's character (fintan mckeown - IMMORTAL BELOVED, WAKING NED DEVINE) to make him her romantic ideal...then decides that an entanglement with a holoprogram is inappropriate. The doctor steps in with sage advice, and the captain keeps an open mind (while simultaneously preventing herself from tweaking sullivan's program further). Does the captain finally get some "euphemism" after six years? Alas, kirk and gloria steinem are rolling over in their graves.
-Blink of an Eye ****
-written by joe menosky
-directed by gabrielle beaumont
Of all the four-star TREKs, this one is perhaps most conspicuous for its absence of an x factor (some transcendent humor, excitement, or character development). Voyager gets trapped above a planet where seconds in orbit translate to years on the surface. They watch a civilization develop, and respond to the presence of a permanent "skyship". The doctor is the only one able to beam down, and a technical glitch leaves him stranded for three years (during which time he becomes a father...his own "Inner Light" moment). Finally, a planetary rocket achieves orbit, and the surviving astronaut (daniel day kim - 24, LOST) is sent back to help them break free. This episode would tower in any collection of exemplary sci fi.
-Virtuoso ***
The doctor's long-suffered unappreciation finally bursts, when a snippish, superior alien race to whom music is unknown, heaps hero worship upon him. They invite him to become their world's musical genius, and he resigns his commission. The crew respond with consternation and hurt. He soon realizes he's only a passing fad however, and that the woman (kamala lopez - THE BURNING SEASON, I HEART HUCKABEES) he thought loved him, only loved his matrix - so she designed a "better" one. Alternately hysterical and poignant, as is often the case with picardo's work. All the short actors in Hollywood were hired to play the aliens (a nice touch, as the doctor towers over his fans). And the perfect cherry on top of this treat? Composer/singer paul williams (THE MUPPET MOVIE, THE DOORS) as the alien leader!
-Memorial **
An away team returns, and has traumatic hallucinations of being soldiers involved in an accidental massacre of their own civilians. They find a malfunctioning memorial of a civilization long gone, which sends neurogenic waves into space so that passersby will never forget what happened. The logic is shaky - are the writers contending that all the intentional massacres in war are somehow LESS of an atrocity than the unintentional ones? It's a good premise, but a better anti-war example could have been chosen
-Tsunkatse **
Seven and a wounded tuvok are kidnapped, and she is forced to compete as a gladiator. This deck is...stacked. So how does a tank-topped, ass-kicking seven, plus tuvok, plus jeffrey combs (DEEP SPACE NINE, ENTERPRISE) plus j.g. hertzler (DEEP SPACE NINE, ZORRO) plus dwayne johnson (BE COOL, TOOTH FAIRY) equal anything other than four stars? By asking us to believe that 24th-century humans think that people beating each other up is good fun. The wonderful hertzler doesn't quite ring true as hirogen, and dwayne's WWF eyebrow-raise is embarrassing.
-Collective ***
A matrix of borg children separated from the collective, the only survivors on a damaged cube, kidnap the crew of the Delta Flyer. Seven tries to reason with them, and Voyager acquires four new passengers. The delightful debut of manu intiraymi (ORANGE COUNTY, J.EDGAR) as icheb.
-Spirit Folk **
A return to Fair Haven has tom making the characters unprecendentedly realistic, but the townsfolk grow suspicious of the crew's witchlike powers.
-Ashes to Ashes ***
Killed three years earlier, lyndsey ballard (kim rhodes - SUPERNATURAL, BEETHOVEN'S CHRISTMAS ADVENTURE) returns, having been reanimated by an asexual race who reuse and genetically-realign corpses. She tries to reintegrate, and sparks a romance with harry. But the effort overwhelms her, and her new family comes looking.
-Child's Play ***
Seven has mixed feelings over icheb's birth family being found, then discovers that he was genetically engineered to be an anti-borg bioweapon, and that his mother and father (mark sheppard - GALACTICA, SUPERNATURAL) intend to sacrifice him again..
-Good Shepherd ***
Janeway takes three misfit crewmembers (a hypochondriac, a screw-up, and a brilliant misanthrope) on their first away mission. Harren (jay underwood - UNCLE BUCK, AND THE BEAT GOES ON: THE SONNY AND CHER STORY) is profoundly non-deferential, which is a refreshing burst of humanity. Disagreements among the regulars have less impact, because you know every problem will be ironed out by the end of the episode.
-Live Fast and Prosper **
A trio of con artists impersonate janeway and tuvok, in order to swindle the gullible. A game effort that looks good on paper, but doesn't quite take off. Too much neelix, perhaps.
-Muse **
A marooned torres is captured by a local from a bronze age culture, who demands she give him Voyager stories for his acting troupe. Kudos to the producers for their willingness to try something offbeat, but john schuck (M*A*S*H, STAR TREK IV,VI), tony amendola (BLOW, STARGATE SG-1), and kellie waymire (ENTERPRISE, SIX FEET UNDER) are largely wasted.
-Fury **
Kes returns, determined to seek vengeance for being abandoned. Hmm...is it morally acceptable to thwart the plans of someone who doesn't like you, by going back in time to enlist that person's help when they DID like you? It doesn't quite rise above the traditional kes flaccidity, but there are fascinating, fun moments. Plus a lil' more vaughn armstrong.
-Life Line ***
Pulsar technology allows Voyager monthly communication with Starfleet. When he discovers that his creator is terminally ill, the doctor becomes convinced he can be projected through the pulsar to save him. Barclay and deanna are waiting on the other side, but a less-than-warm reception awaits from the prickly dr. zimmerman. A bravura dual performance from picardo...as transcendent as he is as a hologram, we're missing something not seeing more of him as flesh and blood. Tamara marie watson (ODYSSEY 5, COLD SQUAD) gives a touching performance as an unexpected hologram who accesses the prickly genius's humanity. And scientist richard dawkins gets a shuttle named after him.
-The Haunting of Deck Twelve **
Voyager goes on emergency-systems-only shutdown. Neelix is assigned the task of calming the borg children. He tells a ghost story...or is it?
-Unamatrix Zero, pt. 1 ***
Seven finds a virtual world where sleeping drones exist free of the collective, and discovers that she was an intimate part of their community for years. The borg queen (the hypnotizing suzanna thompson again) has discovered the unamatrix, and is planning its extermination. Janeway decides to send a strike force with a viral weapon into a borg cube, in an attempt to keep the unamatrix free. She, tuvok, and torres are assimilated...