Brikar

1x01/1x02 "Caretaker" - The starship Voyager, in pursuit of a band of Maquis resistance fighters, is pulled 75,000 light years across the galaxy by a mysterious alien 'caretaker.' Captain Kathryn Janeway is forced to make a moral decision to help the Caretaker to save the kindly Ocampa race, making enemies of the vicious Kazon and stranding Voyager and the Maquis ship decades from home. For all the flak 'Voyager' takes, "Caretaker" isn't a bad episode. Sure, the cast isn't all that great, but it's pretty well-written and features some very fine special effects and production design. At least this early in the game, the antagonistic feelings between the Maquis and Starfleet crew are fun. Even Neelix is far less annoying than I remember him being later on in the series.

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"A million monkeys typing until the end of time will produce the complete works of William Shakespeare. Ten thousand monkeys typing for ten thousand years will write a Hemingway. Ten monkeys typing over Columbus Day weekend will give you a Dan Brown."

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http://benforrealz.blogspot.com

Sam Cogley

You're skipping DS9?

Brikar

For the moment. I watched the first couple seasons earlier this year, and I've watched the entire series at various points in the last few years, so it's much fresher in my mind. But 'Voyager' I haven't watched at all since its initial television run.

1x03 "Parallax" - The Voyager crew tries to help a ship escape a quantum singularity, only to discover they are the ones trapped within it. This is a pretty decent episode; the Starfleet vs Maquis atmosphere is still going strong, with some good arguments between the Starfleet and Maquis crewmembers, particularly Torres and Carrey and Janeway and Chakotay that are fairly fun. The Doctor quickly proves himself to be the best actor in the whole cast, though his subplot is mostly just played for laughs. The sci-fi hook for the episode is fun, too. The only problem is that the second half of the episode devolves into some extremely expository dialogue, and it starts to grate after a while, with the crew simply shouting out things that are beyond obvious at this point.

__________________
"A million monkeys typing until the end of time will produce the complete works of William Shakespeare. Ten thousand monkeys typing for ten thousand years will write a Hemingway. Ten monkeys typing over Columbus Day weekend will give you a Dan Brown."

http://olympusmans.blogspot.com
http://benforrealz.blogspot.com

Brikar

1x04 "Time and Again" - Paris and Janeway are accidentally flung back in time several hours before a massive explosion that will destroy an entire civilization. Again, not a bad episode. The twist at the end regarding the true cause of the explosion is pretty cool. The ending features the dreaded 'reset button' that everyone seems to hate but me... but since I don't hate it, I'm fine with it.

1x05 "The Phage" - Strange aliens attack Neelix and steal his lungs, forcing the Doctor to try and create holographic lungs to keep him alive. The Vidiians are an interesting race, but ultimately the failing of this episode is that Neelix is pretty annoying. Instead of feeling bad for him, I'm kind of aggravated. Once again, though, Robert Picardo proves that not only is he the best actor in the whole cast, but he's lucky enough to have the best written character, too.

__________________
"A million monkeys typing until the end of time will produce the complete works of William Shakespeare. Ten thousand monkeys typing for ten thousand years will write a Hemingway. Ten monkeys typing over Columbus Day weekend will give you a Dan Brown."

http://olympusmans.blogspot.com
http://benforrealz.blogspot.com

Brikar

1x06 "The Cloud" - Voyager investigates a nebula, only to discover that it is a living creature and their movement through it has injured it. Not bad. This one reminds me a lot of an original series episode, in terms of its sci-fi premise. The stuff with the nebula is all well and good. It's the stuff on the holodeck I don't care for; the whole point of the episode is that the ship is running low on power, but the crew ends up dicking around some fake french bar for half the episode. No one seems to care about the fact that the holodeck consumes vast amounts of power. It would have been better if Janeway had struggled with the idea and then decided that it was worth it to boost crew morale.

1x07 "Eye of the Needle" - The crew discovers a wormhole and manages to make contact with a Romulan captain in the Alpha Quadrant... 20 years in the past. This is a pretty good episode. The cast all does a pretty good job with their characters. Kate Mulgrew is kind of back and forth as Janeway, though; sometimes she manages to sell it, sometime she comes off as too stiff. She does a great job in the last scene in the transporter room when Tuvok reveals that the Romulan died years earlier. And, at the risk of sounding like a broken record, Robert Picardo owns his scenes. The bit at the end when he asks Kes for a name is a great moment for the character.

__________________
"A million monkeys typing until the end of time will produce the complete works of William Shakespeare. Ten thousand monkeys typing for ten thousand years will write a Hemingway. Ten monkeys typing over Columbus Day weekend will give you a Dan Brown."

http://olympusmans.blogspot.com
http://benforrealz.blogspot.com

Brikar

1x08 "Ex Post Facto" - Tom Paris is accused of murder on a world where the guilty are forced to re-live the murder through the victim's eyes. Not bad, but not great. The hook for the episode is pretty good, but Paris comes off as acting kind of douchey at parts. The real problem is the friggin' Scooby Doo-esque ending where a dog is a key witness. Oy.

1x09 "Emanations" - Harry Kim is accidentally transported to an alien world where they believe he has come from the afterlife. This episode has some good ideas behind it, but dramatically it falls a little flat. There's a lot of good philosophical debate going on about the afterlife and the nature of death, but debate doesn't always make for good drama. It never really feels like Harry is in any danger, even though we're told that his mere presence is disrupting an entire civilization - and we never get to see any of that, either.

1x10 "Prime Factors" - The Voyager crew find themselves on the other side of the Prime Directive when they encounter an alien race with the technology to send them 40,000 light years closer to home. Here's a great idea - the Federation crew is the one that wants better technology, and is refused by another culture that has laws against it. The scene at the end when Janeway chastises Torres and Tuvok for their actions is excellent. Aside from the cheesiness of the episode's 'antagonist', I think this might be the show's best episode so far.

__________________
"A million monkeys typing until the end of time will produce the complete works of William Shakespeare. Ten thousand monkeys typing for ten thousand years will write a Hemingway. Ten monkeys typing over Columbus Day weekend will give you a Dan Brown."

http://olympusmans.blogspot.com
http://benforrealz.blogspot.com

Brikar

1x11 "State of Flux" - The crew discovers a damaged Kazon ship and uncovers evidence that one of their own may be a traitor. Here's another good episode; Seska is a worthy character, and the twists and turns of the plot are well-written. The Kazon are pretty vicious, killing their own man right in Voyager's sickbay, even if I think their costumes are kinda lame.

1x12 "Heroes and Demons" - When Kim, Tuvok and Chakotay disappear inside the holodeck, the Doctor must go in and investigate. This one is problematic; Robert Picardo gets a number of good scenes, and there's the occasional good line of dialogue but for the most part this one is just too silly. I like 'Beowulf,' but I couldn't really get behind this one.

1x13 "Cathexis" - An alien comes aboard the ship with the ability to control the crew's minds, and points the ship toward a dangerous nebula. Most of this episode is pretty good, too, but ultimately it just goes way too far. The ultimate revelation of who one of the alien presences actually is is just too silly, and putting it back together at the end is positively magical. Plus, no real explanation is given for why or how Chakotay is able to do the things he does.

1x14 "Faces" - B'Elanna is captured by Vidiians and separated into two beings: one fully Klingon, the other fully human. Another solid episode; Roxanne Dawson gets to stretch her legs a little. The Vidiians prove to be an interesting race once more, and the scene where the scientist kills a member of the away team for his face is dang effective.

1x15 "Jetrel" - An alien comes aboard Voyager, claiming Neelix could be suffering from some kind of fatal blood disease. But it turns out that the man is a scientist responsible for creating a weapon that destroyed a Talaxian colony, and killed Neelix's family. At first, I thought the idea of making Neelix a war veteran didn't work at all, but the episode managed to sell me on it (mostly) by the end. Ethan Phillips puts in his best performance of the season, which helps a lot. The ultimate resolution to the episode isn't particularly satisfying, however.

1x16 "Learning Curve" - Tuvok attempts to train troubled Maquis crewmembers in Starfleet protocols while the ship's bio-neural gel packs get sick. Not bad, but not great, either. As a season finale, it's not particularly satisfying (but it apparently wasn't meant to be) even if it's not that bad of an episode. The best I can manage is... "meh".

__________________
"A million monkeys typing until the end of time will produce the complete works of William Shakespeare. Ten thousand monkeys typing for ten thousand years will write a Hemingway. Ten monkeys typing over Columbus Day weekend will give you a Dan Brown."

http://olympusmans.blogspot.com
http://benforrealz.blogspot.com

Cymro

I seem to remember them talking way too much about Bio-Neural circuitry.

__________________
"Let me tell you something about humans, nephew: They're a wonderful, friendly people - as long as their bellies are full and their holosuites are working.

"But take away their creature comforts, deprive them of food, sleep, sonic showers, put their lives in jeopardy over an extended period of time and those friendly, intelligent, wonderful people...will become as nasty and as violent as the most blood-thirsty klingon."

Brikar

They mention it in the pilot, and then it's very heavily featured in "Learning Curve", but otherwise it doesn't seem to come up often.

__________________
"A million monkeys typing until the end of time will produce the complete works of William Shakespeare. Ten thousand monkeys typing for ten thousand years will write a Hemingway. Ten monkeys typing over Columbus Day weekend will give you a Dan Brown."

http://olympusmans.blogspot.com
http://benforrealz.blogspot.com

Brikar

2x01 "The 37s" - When Voyager locates a human distress call, the crew discovers a colony descended from humans kidnapped from Earth in the 1930s. Meh. The idea of finding Amelia Earhart out in the Delta Quadrant is silly enough to be fun, but the execution is lacking. There's a massive human colony that we never see, and too much time is spent wasted on a hostage situation that never feels dangerous. There's a couple of funny bits, and the scene with Janeway and Chakotay in the cargo bay is a nice moment, but otherwise this episode is a waste.

2x02 "Initiations" - Chakotay saves the life of a young Kazon who attacks him, but discovers that doing so may have damned the young man in the eyes of his society. This is the best look at the Kazon so far in terms of their culture, buuut that culture isn't particularly interesting. The actors portraying the Kazon give simple, uncomplicated and angry performances. Aron Eisenberg, Nog of DS9 fame, is the only one who is sympathetic in any way and he works well with Robert Beltran.

2x03 "Projections" - The Doctor finds himself in a crisis when a Starfleet lieutenant named Barclay appears and tries to convince him that Voyager is just a holographic simulation. This episode is pretty good except for one scene at the climax with the fake-out ending. I wish they hadn't done that, because it's too obvious and pretty lame. Otherwise, Robert Picardo is once again the highlight of the cast and the idea of the Doctor contemplating the nature of his own existence is pretty interesting.

__________________
"A million monkeys typing until the end of time will produce the complete works of William Shakespeare. Ten thousand monkeys typing for ten thousand years will write a Hemingway. Ten monkeys typing over Columbus Day weekend will give you a Dan Brown."

http://olympusmans.blogspot.com
http://benforrealz.blogspot.com