voyager equinox part 2

Equinox (episode)

Voyager finds another Federation starship, the USS Equinox , stranded in the Delta Quadrant. But they also find that the Equinox crew is harboring a dark secret. ( Season finale )

• 1.2 Act One
• 1.3 Act Two
• 1.4 Act Three
• 1.5 Act Four
• 1.6 Act Five
• 2 Memorable quotes
• 3.1 Story and script
• 3.2 Cast and characters
• 3.3 Production
• 3.4 Visual effects
• 3.5 Reception
• 3.6 Continuity and trivia
• 3.7 Video and DVD releases
• 4.1 Starring
• 4.2 Also starring
• 4.3 Special guest star
• 4.4 Guest stars
• 4.5 Co-stars
• 4.6 Uncredited co-stars
• 4.7 Stand-ins
• 4.8 References
• 4.9 External links

Summary [ ]

The Equinox under attack

A Federation starship is in serious trouble; nearly everything is wrecked. The only lights are the flashing red lights of a red alert and the flash of sparks from the wreckage. Seated in the command chair , the captain hears an ominous report from an officer : the ship's deflector shields are at 29%; their attackers are breaking through. The captain orders the shields dropped completely and allow the shield emitters the 45 seconds they need to fully recharge.

He and his officers immediately field phaser rifles and aim at the air above their heads, and he gives the order. Instantly, upon the lowering of the shields, a dry, high-pitched screeching whine is heard. Portals appear above them. The officers fire into them and they close. But others appear rapidly, and they begin to be overwhelmed. A flying creature emerges from one, and immediately closes in on an officer. Three streaks of light slash across him. He collapses as his body immediately desiccates into a dried husk. The officers desperately fire at every portal and creature which emerges from it.

Act One [ ]

Ransom's call for help

Aboard the USS Voyager , Captain Janeway , Seven of Nine , and Commander Chakotay view an emergency transmission on the huge viewscreen of the ship's astrometrics lab. They see a static-filled image of the same captain from the attacked ship, and listen to his distress call:

" This is Captain Ransom of the Federation Starship Equinox ! We're under attack! We need assistance! "

Janeway recognizes him as Rudolph Ransom , captain of the USS Equinox . Seven announces the signal was transmitted fourteen hours ago. Chakotay asks what the Equinox is doing in the Delta Quadrant . Seven surmises it was on a mission to find Voyager . But Janeway points that Nova -class starships are short-range planetary research vessels, not designed for long-range tactical missions. Janeway immediately orders a course laid in toward the Equinox , 3.2 light years distant, at maximum warp , with shields up and at red alert.

As Voyager arrives at the Equinox 's location, Janeway orders Ensign Paris at the helm to drop out of warp. At the operations station , Ensign Kim puts the stricken vessel up on the viewscreen. Torres reports its shields are being disrupted by energy surges. Paris asks if this is weapons fire but Tuvok reports there are no other ships nearby. They enter hailing range , and Janeway orders a channel opened. She identifies herself and Voyager . Ransom urgently instructs her to extend Voyager 's shields around the Equinox , which Janeway orders done immediately. Paris moves Voyager above the Equinox and Tuvok works to extend the shields.

Voyager shields the Equinox

As this is being done, the same dry, high whine from before is heard again, as Seven of Nine reports the opening of portals – interspatial fissures – on several decks , including the bridge deck, Deck 1. Tuvok finishes adjusting the shields, and a single, large shield surrounds both Voyager and the Equinox , then becomes invisible, indicating the attack has ceased. This is confirmed by Seven's announcing the fissures have vanished, and the ending of the noise. Janeway hails the Equinox , but gets no answer. She orders Chakotay to assemble rescue teams to beam over.

Ensign Gilmore

The teams beam over. Chakotay, Paris and Torres form one team, and beam to the engine room . Chakotay orders Torres to begin seeing about restoring power, as Paris finds the shriveled corpse of a crewmember. Scanning it with his tricorder , he finds every cell in the body is desiccated. Torres bewilderedly reports the injector assembly appears to have been totally redesigned from original Starfleet specifications. Chakotay finds a survivor under some debris – a terrified ensign Marla Gilmore .

Janeway finds Ransom

Other teams find survivors in other areas of the ship. On the bridge, Captain Janeway, along with Tuvok, find still more survivors, including Captain Ransom. Janeway speaks with him briefly. Though injured, he refuses to leave his bridge, but Janeway insists that he go with her to Voyager . Ransom agrees. He asks if Voyager has been sent to find them. Janeway informs him no, that they were pulled into the Delta Quadrant against their will by the Caretaker , whose name Ransom instantly recognizes as the force that did the same to the Equinox . Janeway suggests they compare notes later, after Ransom has been treated.

Act Two [ ]

Later, the crews of both ships gather in Voyager 's mess hall where Ransom solemnly commemorates his dead crewmembers: Lieutenants William Yates and John Bowler , Ensigns Dorothy Chang and Edward Regis , and Crewman David Amantes . Ransom then thanks Captain Janeway on behalf of himself and the survivors. Janeway welcomes aboard the " newest members of our family ." She then assigns Ensign Kim and Lt. Torres to lead the efforts to repair the Equinox . Seven and Tuvok will work with Ransom's first officer, Maxwell Burke in analyzing the attacks on the Equinox .

As the crew dismisses, Gilmore approaches Chakotay to ask if she can instead be assigned to Voyager . Chakotay thinks she's needed on the Equinox given its state, but agrees someone with her engineering skills on could be useful Voyager . Gilmore remarks upon how clean Voyager is and admits to being traumatized by her experiences on the Equinox . While travelling in a turbolift with Chakotay she panics and calls for an emergency stop, preferring Jefferies tubes . Chakotay understands and goes with her.

The attacks have not ceased, it is discovered

The attacks intensify

In the lab, Seven discovers there are numerous stress points appearing in the shields surrounding both vessels and shares this with Janeway and Ransom. She explains they are interspatial fissures caused by the Equinox 's attackers, trying to come through. Tuvok explains every opening of a fissure within one meter of the shields weakens them by 0.3%. Janeway concludes that at this rate, the shields will fail within two days. Seven points out that bio-scans indicate the aliens cannot survive for more than several seconds in this realm, and may stop their attacks out of self-preservation if shown that the Starfleet vessels possess the ability to hold them. Burke says they had built a multiphasic force field chamber in the Equinox 's research lab to trap one for several minutes. Janeway decides to have a latticework of such force fields installed throughout both ships. But when she asks Ransom permission to examine the chamber, he and Burke respond the research lab is flooded with lethal levels of thermionic radiation . Burke adds, the schematics are in their auxiliary data core. Ransom and Janeway leave for the Equinox 's bridge to download them to Voyager 's computer .

Tales of the Two Captains

As work continues on Equinox 's bridge, Janeway and Ransom discuss their crews' experiences in the Delta Quadrant. Janeway speaks of Voyager 's many run-ins with dangerous aliens, including the Borg . Ransom tells her he and his crew never encountered the Borg at all, to which Janeway opines he and his crew have been lucky. Ransom replies their first encounter was with the Krowtonan Guard . Like Janeway, he had ordered a course set toward Earth but the Krowtonan Guard warned them they had violated their territory and to leave immediately. Ransom ordered the course maintained and over the following week 39 crewmembers were killed, half his crew. This changed everything. He had initially told them they had a duty as Starfleet officers to uphold Starfleet directives of exploration and expansion of knowledge, as well as Starfleet principles, but after the Krowtonan Guard experience, they saw their only goal as one thing: survival .

The discussion turns to the Prime Directive and whether they have violated it to preserve their crews. Janeway admits having bent it on occasion, while Ransom admits to the same thing. They find among the wreckage the Equinox 's dedication plaque , and put it back up on the bulkhead. After finishing the download, the captains return to Voyager .

" Mind your words. They'll never understand. "

Ransom finds Burke in the mess hall enjoying his first proper meal after two years on emergency rations. He tells Burke not to get too comfortable: "If Janeway is any indication, these people will never understand. " He warns Burke to watch what he says to Voyager crewmembers. Burke cautions that they will "find out eventually". Ransom responds they will be able to keep it from them as long as they can keep them out of the Equinox 's research lab.

Act Three [ ]

Crewman Noah Lessing , the Equinox crewman rescued by Seven and Ensign Kim, goes to see Seven in the astrometrics lab. But as they are talking, the high screech is heard again. Lessing and Seven look above their heads in alarm. On the bridge the sound is also heard. Kim reports to Chakotay that interspatial fissures are opening on decks one, eight and eleven. Tuvok reports that the lateral shields are offline. Chakotay orders power routed to them which brings them back up and the noise ceases. Chakotay orders an explanation. Tuvok reports that the aliens began to focus their attacks on a single shield vector which collapsed before auxiliary emitters could respond. Chakotay realizes that the aliens have changed tactics, and the Starfleet crews have less time than they originally thought.

Janeway, Chakotay, Ransom, Burke and Ensign Gilmore meet with Seven and Tuvok in Janeway's ready room , where Seven and Tuvok report that the multiphasic force field chamber's schematics can be indeed adapted for general ship-wide use. But it will take fourteen hours to do so, and Gilmore points out, the aliens may collapse a part of the deflector shields again before then. Chakotay suggests that they make a stand on one ship, thus halving the time. The logical choice is Voyager ; she is more powerful and in good working order. Ransom, Burke and Gilmore, however, are not keen on the idea of abandoning their ship.

Janeway comes to the same conclusion as Chakotay. Ransom states that because they are 35,000 light-years from Earth, they should work to preserve both ships. She quotes a Starfleet regulation which states that a combat situation involving more than one ship, command falls to the vessel with tactical superiority. In this case, that is Janeway. Ransom is forced to agree, and orders Burke to treat Janeway as his new commanding officer.

Max steals the generator information

After the meeting, however, Burke goes to engineering where he illicitly downloads the proposed ship-wide multiphasic force field schematics into a tricorder. Torres enters and finds him, but he deflects questions about his presence with banter. Then Ransom calls all the survivors to meet him on the Equinox bridge. They meet and conspire to take the force field generator once it is built and leave. Ransom has no intention of giving up his ship and is ready to do whatever is necessary to return to Earth, including abandoning their rescuers to the aliens and abscond with the protection from them.

While the Equinox crew conspire, Janeway meets with Tuvok and Seven who have found that the Equinox 's science lab is still flooded with thermionic radiation which should have dissipated. They have also found that three EPS conduits have been rerouted to the lab, emitting the radiation. The conclusion is that the lab has been intentionally contaminated; Ransom does not want them to enter it. Janeway decides that they need to discover what Ransom is hiding. Since the radiation level is too high for an organic to survive, Janeway decides that they will covertly send in The Doctor , who will be immune to the radiation.

The Doctor beams into the lab. Maintaining a comlink with Seven and Tuvok in the astrometrics lab, he slowly moves through the lab, examining it.

Act Four [ ]

The Doctor finds the remains of one of the aliens

The lab contains the force field equipment which was used to intentionally trap the aliens, so that they would die. The Doctor determines this was not for defense but to use their bodies to boost the warp engines' power, due to their high nucleogenic energy content. The Doctor finds other equipment to convert the remains into a crystalline compound that the engines could use, once modified. The Equinox crew has been intentionally killing the aliens to use them as fuel in order to get home more quickly. Janeway is immediately informed.

The Doctor finds evidence of the Equinox crew's experiments

On Voyager , Ransom and Burke discuss final preparations for their plan. But they run into two of Voyager 's security officers, who have been instructed to detain them. The pair try to head for a transporter room, but instead meet an armed Tuvok, accompanied by more of his security officers. He informs Ransom Janeway wishes to speak with him. Ransom goes without resistance.

Janeway presents the remains of the Equniox 's experiments to Ransom

In the briefing room , Janeway confronts Ransom with what The Doctor has found: 10 isograms of the crystallized remains. She asks him how many more of the aliens he would have needed to kill to return to the Alpha Quadrant . Janeway has realised that the aliens are not the aggressors, but are only defending themselves from the Equinox crew. Ransom tells her it will take 63 more of the aliens to get the Equinox home. He claims that with each alien's death part of him dies as well, but Janeway counters that the ruthless meticulousness of the experiments indicates a total lack of remorse. Ransom defends his actions by quoting a Starfleet regulation that authorizes a captain to "preserve the lives of his crew by any justifiable means" in the event of imminent destruction. Janeway coldly states this protocol does not cover mass murder.

Ransom recalls their first encounter

Ransom explains that with the Equinox in pieces and its crew starving, they managed to find an class M planet where they hoped they would find food. They encountered a peaceful and generous race called the Ankari who thought the nucleogenic lifeforms were spirits of good fortune. After giving Ransom and his crew food and some supplies, the Ankari invoked an alien to bless their journey, using a device to open interspatial fissures through which they emerged. Scans showed high antimatter content in their bodies. The Equinox crew bartered with the Ankari for one of the devices in exchange for an energy converter. A multiphasic force field chamber was constructed in the ship's lab to hold one of the aliens which was summoned in an attempt to study it, but it died; it could not live for more than several seconds in this realm. But analysis of its remains revealed they could be converted to enhance the engines. In just two weeks, they traveled 10,000 light-years. And so they began summoning the aliens intentionally to use their bodies in this manner. Ransom asks how they could have rejected this means of salvation; Janeway responds they should have adhered to their oath as Starfleet officers to seek out aliens. Ransom counters it is easy to cling to principles from Janeway's position, with a vessel that is intact and a crew that isn't starving. She forcefully tells him that while it’s never easy, turning their back on their principles stops them from being Human. With that she relieves him of command and orders that he and his crew be confined to quarters . Ransom begs her to show his crew leniency as they were only following his orders; Janeway implacably tells him this was “Their mistake.” As he departs the briefing room under escort, Ransom tells Janeway that it is a long way home.

Voyager is forced to consult the Equinox crew due their encryptions

Janeway then goes to the bridge and orders The Doctor to return to the lab and retrieve all the data he can find on the aliens. She also orders Seven to go to the Equinox 's engine room and take the modifications off-line. She intends to make contact with them and explain that Ransom and his crew will be punished for what they were doing to them, and thus convince them to stop their attacks. Chakotay has Gilmore decrypt the Equinox 's engine modification schematics in the astrometrics lab, and Seven beams over to begin dismantling them.

The Equinox EMH takes The Doctor's mobile emitter

However, in the Equinox 's research lab, The Doctor is having trouble accessing the data he is after, even though he has decrypted it. The ship's computer informs him that authorization from the ship's EMH is needed for access. The Doctor activates the EMH. It is a Mark 1, exactly like The Doctor. The Doctor informs him of his crew's arrest. The Equinox EMH asks The Doctor how he is able to leave his sickbay, and The Doctor shows him his mobile emitter . He informs the Equinox EMH of the criminal experiments that have been happening and is shocked to learn that the Equinox EMH designed them; his crew deleted his ethical subroutines. He suddenly strikes The Doctor's arm, deactivating the mobile emitter. The Doctor goes off-line, while his counterpart studies the emitter.

Act Five [ ]

As the Equinox EMH returns to Voyager , pretending to be The Doctor, on the bridge, Captain Janeway and her bridge officers note with consternation that the shields are weakening even more rapidly; the aliens have stepped up their attacks. While Seven works in the Equinox 's engine room, Tuvok and Lt. Torres are in the astrometrics lab, almost ready to bring the ship-wide multiphasic shielding on line.

In the sickbay, the Equinox EMH queries the computer for Ransom's location. Once he gets it, he packs a bag of hyposprays and goes to find Ransom. He tells the guards outside Ransom's quarters that the Equinox crew has been infected with a mutagenic virus and he has been authorized to inoculate them. They let him in. Once inside, he surreptitiously informs Ransom of his real identity. He is going to help them escape.

Ransom and his crew escape

In the astrometrics lab, Tuvok and Torres attempt to activate the shield grid, but nothing happens. They try to find out what is wrong. They discover that Burke, while in engineering, in additional to stealing the multiphasic field generator's schematics had also reconfigured intended power couplings to the device, then reconfigured the sensors so that this would not be detected. Tuvok and Torres work to undo this, as Ransom and his crew overpower their guards, take their weapons and enter the corridor. They head for a transporter room.

On the bridge Ensign Kim reports detection of phaser fire on deck 9 where the Equinox crew were confined. Janeway immediately orders security to seal off the deck. The aliens step up their efforts, rapidly wearing the deflector shields down. As the shields degrade, Kim reports an unauthorized transport. Janeway orders him to block it but he is unable to do so in time and reports that the Equinox crew has beamed onto their bridge. Attempts to call Seven of Nine fail; Seven is lying unconscious in the Equinox 's engine room, Ensign Gilmore standing over her.

On the Equinox bridge, Burke reports that Torres has erected a force field over the multiphasic force field generator, and he cannot beam it off Voyager . He tries to override the command codes. This works, and he beams it onto the Equinox .

Janeway hails the Equinox and warns Ransom that if he does not desist in his action, both ships will be destroyed. Ransom responds that that would be better than thirty years in her brig . She threatens to open fire on him, but Ransom is not fazed stating he and his crew have been through worse.

Ransom ends the communication. Torres calls Janeway and reports that the Equinox crew has taken the generator leaving Voyager defenseless against the aliens. On the Equinox , Ransom orders their escape at warp, but in engineering, Gilmore reports Seven's attempt to dismantle the warp engines, and that she, Gilmore, is undoing it. Burke integrates the multiphasic field generator into the ship's computer.

Voyager and the Equinox are left vulnerable

Voyager 's shields fail. The dry whine is immediately heard. Kim reports fissures opening on all decks. Janeway and the bridge officers ready their weapons.

The Equinox warps away

On the Equinox , a fissure opens, but Burke succeeds in getting the generator up. Instantly, as an alien comes through, it finds itself trapped by a force field. It rushes frantically about, bouncing from field to field, then collapses and dies. Ransom orders it taken to the lab. Lessing reports engines are online. Ransom orders a course set for the Alpha Quadrant. The Equinox pulls away from Voyager , taking Seven and The Doctor, who are still aboard, with them.

On Voyager 's bridge, fissures are opening all over. Janeway and her officers fire into them as they open, but more open immediately elsewhere.

An alien closes on Janeway

Chakotay shouts a warning to Janeway. She whirls around, and one of the aliens heads directly at her, knocking her down.

TO BE CONTINUED…

Memorable quotes [ ]

" Drop… shields ! "

" I thought we were the only Humans in the Delta Quadrant. " " That's what we used to think. "

" BLT? " " Bacon, lettuce, and tomato. It was a nickname. " " A nickname? " " My initials " " Oh, how romantic. " " We broke up ten years ago, Tom. There's no need to go to red alert. " " How about yellow alert? " " You're cute when you're jealous. " " Who's jealous?! "

" Well, "Turkey Platter", what do you say we go to work? "

" I'm going to miss this ship. " " Once we get back to Earth, there'll be plenty of women. "

" May I ask you something, captain to captain? The Prime Directive: how often have you broken it for the sake of protecting your crew? " " Broken it? Never. Bent it, on occasion. And even then, it was a difficult choice. "

" We call them the life of the Delta Quadrant. They see every first contact as an excuse to throw a party. "

" Starfleet Regulation 3 , Paragraph 12: In the event of imminent destruction, a captain is authorized to preserve the lives of his crew by any justifiable means. " " I doubt that protocol covers mass murder. " " In my judgment, it did. " " Unacceptable. "

"We traveled over ten thousand light years in less than two weeks. We'd found our salvation. How could we ignore it?" "By adhering to the oath you took as Starfleet officers – to seek out life… not destroy it." " It's easy to cling to your principles when you're standing on a vessel with its bulkheads intact, manned by a crew that's not starving. " " It's never easy, but if we turn our backs on our principles, we stop being Human. "

"I'm putting an end to your experiments. And you are hereby relieved of your command. You and your crew will be confined to quarters." "Please, show them leniency. They were only following my orders." "Their mistake."

"You said you wanted to learn more about Humanity. I guess we're not exactly prized examples. I'm sorry." "On the contrary. You've taught me a great deal."

" In case you are unaware, your crew has been running criminal experiments here!" " I know. I designed them." " You? That's a violation of your programming!" " They deleted my ethical subroutines."

" A shower and a hot meal… I guess that's all it takes for some of us to forget what's at stake here. We're going home; we can't let Voyager stop us now, not when we're this close. "

" Captain! "

Background information [ ]

Story and script [ ].

• At the end of Star Trek: Voyager 's fifth season , Brannon Braga and Joe Menosky required a season finale. The previous episodes of the season had tired them, however, and one of the few elements they knew they wanted to include in the forthcoming finale was a cliffhanger. Remembered Menosky, " We were all really exhausted. We didn't know what in the world we were going to do for the last episode. Brannon and Rick Berman worked out some of this episode. We probably had a week to go before prep, before Brannon came up with an idea that was workable. " Braga himself recalled, " I had this image, a ship of people who were stuck in the Delta Quadrant almost as long as we have been, maybe a bit longer, but they have not responded the same way. They've done some very, very bad things, including mass murder. " ( Cinefantastique , Vol. 31, No. 11, p. 46)
• The idea was not initially appealing to Joe Menosky. " I just had no hope for it at all, " he confessed. " It had the feeling of elements stitched together without a driving point of view [with a] haphazard and clunky structure and story. " Menosky was attracted, however, to the prospect of introducing multiple new characters in the episode. " One thing this did have going for us is that we had four major speaking roles […] As a result we could have interesting character dynamics. You could follow threaded, character arcs in a way that felt bigger than a single episode. " ( Cinefantastique , Vol. 31, No. 11, p. 46)
• Subsequently, the writers began to pen the script for the installment. " We clarified the structure of it halfway through the writing of it, " Joe Menosky stated. " Instead of sitting down and outlining it, and then writing it, we just wrote it. We didn't even know really where we were headed. We would just write a scene and think what would be cool to come next. " ( Cinefantastique , Vol. 31, No. 11, p. 46)

Cast and characters [ ]

• The role of Captain Ransom was offered to John Savage . " They needed a captain. They didn't have a story yet, and I was excited, " the actor reminisced. " It evolved, and every day, a new set of pages. I found quite an interesting moral struggle in the story. It wasn't simple, and it was very supported. " ( Cinefantastique , Vol. 31, No. 11, p. 54)
• The experience of collaborating with Janeway actress Kate Mulgrew on this outing left John Savage with the impression that she would make a good director. " She was admirable with her focus, " Savage noted. He also enjoyed working with Mulgrew. " I saw some wonderful possibilities and moments, like in the relationship with Captain Janeway, as man and woman, and also as captains, and as people, " the actor related. " I just felt like I might have unfortunately overcomplicated myself, and had to be pulled straight by Kate. I didn't have to be. She was generous […] It was a good experience […] but we both had a lot of stuff going on. " ( Cinefantastique , Vol. 31, No. 11, p. 54)
• John Savage's presence in this episode was especially thrilling for Rick Berman, who commented, " It was a real kick to have him on the show. He did a great job. " ( Cinefantastique , Vol. 31, No. 11, p. 54)
• Star Trek: Voyager 's casting department asked Titus Welliver if he wanted to portray Max Burke. Learning that John Savage was playing Captain Ransom persuaded Welliver, a long-time fan of Savage, to accept the offer. Welliver noted, " When I found out he was going to do Voyager I said, 'I'm there.' " ( TV Zone , issue 126, p. 29)
• Titus Welliver was delighted to appear in this episode. He fondly remembered, " My first day of work on 'Equinox' I thought, 'I've waited close to 30 years to be on a Star Trek set, and here I am.' I was like a little kid in a candy shop […] I wish I had as much fun on all my jobs as I did on this one. " ( TV Zone , issue 126, pp. 29 & 31)
• Titus Welliver's appreciation for John Savage's work did not diminish after they met. Welliver recalled, " He was always asking the other guest stars and me, 'Is there anything you need? Just tell me.' My experiences on Voyager certainly fulfilled any expectations I had of him. It was an honor to work with the man. " ( TV Zone , issue 126, p. 29)
• As most producers and directors usually wanted Titus Welliver to play crazy characters, he found a notable contrast with the role of First Officer Burke, stating, " He's probably one of the most subtle characters that I've ever portrayed […] I felt that in order to give Burke any sort of military presence I had to play him with an incredible stillness, and I found this made him appear that much stronger. It was a challenge to be present in scenes and have to remain calm and focused as opposed to being very animated and expressive. " ( TV Zone , issue 126, p. 29)
• Torres actress Roxann Dawson approved of this episode's look at Torres' past relationship with Burke. " It's interesting to see how that relationship is dealt with, especially in light of B'Elanna being with Paris now, " Dawson commented. " That's an interesting conflict. " ( Cinefantastique , Vol. 31, No. 11, p. 37)

Production [ ]

• The main bridge of the Equinox is a re-use of the set used for the USS Prometheus , as are the corridors, crew quarters and science lab. They are all slightly altered to simulate the effect of damage. ( citation needed • edit ) According to the unauthorized reference book Delta Quadrant (p. 317), the Equinox 's bridge was a redress of the Defiant 's bridge and the research lab was a redress of Voyager 's sickbay.
• Titus Welliver implied that both the sets for the damaged Equinox 's interior and the set for the flashback scene showing Ransom and Burke meet the Ankari were on the same soundstage as each other. " Those scenes […] were shot inside a soundstage on the Paramount Studios lot that a group of cats call home, " the actor laughed. " Several times I'd go to sit down in Burke's bridge chair and there would be cat hair all over the seat. It was like, 'Oh, no, the cats have invaded!' " Welliver enjoyed viewing the detail invested in the starship interior sets, however. " It was fun to see the detailed writing on the instrument panels, " he said. ( TV Zone , issue 126, p. 29)
• The production of this episode was a challenging process. At a point when the shooting company still had to return to the Paramount lot and film another day's work as the episode was too short, director David Livingston reflected, " It was a long shooting schedule, and very difficult, because a lot of it was with no lights. There are four sequences where we go to visit their ship, finding people dead or dying. Those were all shot with SIMs [palm] beacons , and a lot of sparks and smoke and nitrogen. It was tough on the crew, especially for the last episode, because everybody was so tired and burnt out after the long season. " ( Cinefantastique , Vol. 31, No. 11, p. 46) According to the book Delta Quadrant (p. 319), reshoots were also involved in the episode's production.
• Titus Welliver noted that the timing of the installment's production facilitated certain festivities. " We filmed the first part of 'Equinox' around Saint Patrick's Day , " he said, " and Kate [Mulgrew] threw a party and we all had a blast. " ( TV Zone , issue #126, p. 31)
• The closed captions for the version of the episode on Paramount+ and Pluto TV instead names the item the Equinox crew traded for the interspatial fissure device as a "Starfleet trinket".

Visual effects [ ]

• Because this episode features a lot of members of a completely new alien species (specifically, the nucleogenic lifeforms), Visual Effects Supervisor Ronald B. Moore remarked, " This is probably the most ambitious show I have ever seen. " The physical appearance of the aliens was designed by Pacific Ocean Post and was rendered CGI by Santa Barbara Studios . Similarly, the Equinox 's exterior was designed by Senior Illustrator Rick Sternbach and visualized by Digital Muse . ( Cinefantastique , Vol. 31, No. 11, p. 46)

Reception [ ]

• This episode ultimately ranked high in both Brannon Braga and Joe Menosky's opinions. Braga enthused, " It's packed with inventive action, really creepy, vicious, new CGI-created aliens, and a wonderful character dynamic. " Menosky observed, " There is a feeling of character possibility and largeness to this single episode that I think substitutes for the grand sweep of the other two-parters that we have done. " He also commented that the way in which the episode was written was "very satisfying creatively, in terms of how the episode and the story actually spun itself out." Menosky added, " By the end of the episode, I was really happy with it. It completely surprised me. " ( Cinefantastique , Vol. 31, No. 11, p. 46)
• David Livingston was less sure, at least initially, of whether the episode had been a complete success, remarking, " I don't know if it quite has the edginess of ' Scorpion [!] ', but maybe it will. " ( Cinefantastique , Vol. 31, No. 11, p. 46)

Continuity and trivia [ ]

• This is the ninth time the crew of Voyager discover a direct connection between the Alpha Quadrant and Delta Quadrant, having previously discovered a wormhole connecting the two quadrants (" Eye of the Needle "), descendants of Human abductees (" The 37's "), descendants of aliens who have visited Earth (" Tattoo "), a Cardassian weapon (" Dreadnought "), Ferengi (" False Profits "), former Borg that were assimilated in the Alpha Quadrant (" Unity "), descendants of Earth dinosaurs (" Distant Origin ") and a communications network that extends to the Alpha Quadrant (" Message in a Bottle "). In this episode, they encounter another Federation starship that has been brought to the Delta Quadrant by the Caretaker.
• It's not made precisely clear in this episode when the Equinox was abducted by the Caretaker or how long it has spent in the Delta Quadrant. Dialog suggests it is at least two years, when Ransom says "after a couple of years, we started to forget that we were explorers", and when Burke says of Voyager 's mess hall, "how could I resist after two years on emergency rations?". Given that the Caretaker's array was destroyed shortly after Voyager 's arrival, and that the crew of Voyager seem not to have any record of the Equinox being missing in action, it was presumably abducted not long before Voyager .
• Ransom does not mention how many, if any, of his crew were killed during the abduction of the Equinox by the Caretaker. Voyager suffered heavy casualties amongst the senior staff at least.
• Comments from Ransom in this episode establish that Voyager is now about 35,000 light years away from the Alpha Quadrant .
• The possibility of another Federation starship being in the Delta Quadrant is discussed in the first season episode " State of Flux ", when Tuvok proposes it as an explanation for Federation technology being present on a Kazon ship.
• In the earlier fifth season outing " Relativity ", Vice Admiral Patterson introduces Janeway to The Doctor for the first time, remarking that Starfleet was considering outfitting his program onto all Federation starships. The Equinox apparently was another test candidate for the EMH program, as it must have been in the Delta Quadrant at that time or shortly thereafter.
• In the sixth-season episode " The Voyager Conspiracy ", the USS Equinox is briefly visible on the screen when Seven of Nine shows Kathryn Janeway the Cardassian ship in astrometrics among the 52 ships that Neelix ' ship's sensors recorded at the Caretaker's array .
• Of the obstacles that Voyager has faced in the Delta Quadrant, Janeway mentions "a few rounds with the Borg", in a reference to the events of " Scorpion ", " Drone ", and " Dark Frontier ".
• This is the last episode of Star Trek: Voyager to air before the Star Trek: Deep Space Nine series finale " What You Leave Behind " on 2 June 1999 .
• This was the last Star Trek season finale until DIS : " Will You Take My Hand? " not to be directed by Allan Kroeker .
• The fuel potential of the aliens' nucleogenic bodies represents the twelfth occasion besides the series premiere (after " Eye of the Needle ", " Prime Factors ", " The 37's ", " Cold Fire ", " Threshold ", " Death Wish ", " False Profits ", " Future's End, Part II ", " The Q and the Grey ", " Timeless ", and " Dark Frontier ") that the Voyager crew is presented with the possibility of returning home much faster than by conventional warp travel. In this case, the technology works, but is considered ethically unacceptable.

Video and DVD releases [ ]

• UK VHS release (two-episode tapes, Paramount Home Entertainment ): Volume 5.13, 27 December 1999
• In feature-length form, as part of the UK VHS collection Star Trek: Voyager - Movies : Volume 3 (with "The Killing Game"), 5 February 2001
• As part of the VOY Season 5 DVD collection

Links and references [ ]

Starring [ ].

• Kate Mulgrew as Captain Kathryn Janeway

Also starring [ ]

• Robert Beltran as Chakotay
• Roxann Dawson as B'Elanna Torres
• Robert Duncan McNeill as Tom Paris
• Ethan Phillips as Neelix
• Robert Picardo as The Doctor
• Tim Russ as Tuvok
• Jeri Ryan as Seven of Nine
• Garrett Wang as Harry Kim

Special guest star [ ]

• John Savage as " Captain Ransom "

Guest stars [ ]

• Titus Welliver as Max Burke
• Olivia Birkelund as Marla Gilmore
• Rick Worthy as Noah Lessing

Co-stars [ ]

• Scarlett Pomers as Naomi Wildman
• Steve Dennis as Crewmember
• Majel Barrett as Computer Voice

Uncredited co-stars [ ]

• John Austin as operations officer
• Steve Blalock as operations officer
• Dave DeLeon as operations officer
• Carter Edwards as command officer
• Andrew English as operations officer
• Tarik Ergin as Ayala
• Peter Harmyk as Thompson
• Kerry Hoyt as Fitzpatrick
• Joyce Lasley as Lydia Anderson
• Robert Picardo as Equinox EMH
• Keith Rayve as Ankari
• Mark Rogerson as Brian Sofin
• Drew Renkewitz as Equinox command officer
• Richard Sarstedt as Ankari
• Brian Simpson as Angelo Tassoni
• Equinox command officer 2
• Equinox operations officer 4 , 5 , and 6 ]]
• Equinox operations officer 1 , 2 , 3 , and 7

Stand-ins [ ]

• Brita Nowak – stand-in for Jeri Ryan
• Stuart Wong – stand-in for Garrett Wang and Titus Welliver

References [ ]

ability ; Alpha Quadrant ; Amantes, David ; amputation ; Ankari ; Ankari homeworld ; antimatter injector ; astrometrics ; attack ; azimuth ; auto-initiating security grid ; bacon ; " BLT "; Borg Collective ; Bowler, John ; brig ; Caretaker ; Chang, Dorothy ; checkers ; claustrophobia ; command code ; confined to quarters ; course ; damage ; data ; day ; deck plate ; decryption code ; dedication plaque ; degree (angle) ; Delta Quadrant ; desiccation ; dilithium ; dilithium matrix ; dozen ; duet ; Earth ; Emergency Medical Hologram ; emergency rations ; engineering ; engineering ability ; EPS conduit ; Equinox , USS ; ethical subroutine ; exobiology ; family ; Federation ; field generator ; first name ; Gilmore's nephew ; girlfriend ; hailing range ; holodeck ; hull breach ; initials ; inoculation ; internal sensor ; interspatial fissure ; intruder alert ; ion storm ; isogram ; Jefferies tube ; kemocite ; kilometer ; kiloton ; kindred spirit ; Krowtonan Guard ; laser scalpel ; lettuce ; M class ; Maquis ; mass murder ; matter conversion technology ; maximum warp ; mercurium ; meter ; multiphasic chamber ; multiphasic force field ; mutagenic virus ; nephew ; neural pattern ; nucleogenic energy ; neural interface ; Nova -class ; offline ; petaQ ; plasma injector ; plasma torch ; poetic justice ; polaron grid ; Ponea ; post-traumatic stress syndrome ; power coupling ; primary system ; Prime Directive ; recharge cycle ; red alert ; Regis, Edward ; rescue team ; sandal ; second ; security grid ; sedative ; shield emitter ; sonic shower ; Starfleet Academy ; Starfleet oath ; Starfleet Regulations ; stasis chamber ; submolecular resequencer ; subroutine ; sweater ; synaptic stimulator ; thermionic radiation ; thermographic analysis ; thermolytic reaction ; transport enhancer ; triquadric algorithm ; tomato ; trench ; tricorder ; tuning fork ; turbolift ; " Turkey Platter "; universal translator ; vector ; Vulcan ; warp core ; warp drive ; warp plasma manifold ; waverider ; Yates, William ; year ; yellow alert ; Yridians

External links [ ]

• " Equinox " at Memory Beta , the wiki for licensed Star Trek works
• " Equinox " at Wikipedia
• " Equinox " at the Internet Movie Database
• 1 USS Enterprise (NCC-1701-G)
• 3 Daniels (Crewman)

Search this site

Star Trek: Voyager

“Equinox, Part II”

Air date: 9/22/1999 Teleplay by Brannon Braga & Joe Menosky Story by Rick Berman & Brannon Braga & Joe Menosky Directed by David Livingston

Review by Jamahl Epsicokhan

"He'll break." — Janeway, defending roundabout torture

Review Text

Nutshell: A lot of good character work within a good action show, although there are enough questionable moments to hold it back.

If you're a fan of Janeway in badass mode, you will probably revel in "Equinox, Part II," an episode that shows Janeway's teeth at perhaps their most sharpened—a captain who on this day is not taking any prisoners, conveyed by a Kate Mulgrew performance whose take-charge-of-a-scene attitude is capable of sending chills.

On a story level, "Equinox, Part II" manages to work fairly well, too. Given the preset stipulations—i.e., it must be resolved in an hour, regular characters cannot be radically changed or killed, the Equinox must be destroyed, peace with the aliens must be attained, and Captain Ransom must die (I just can't picture an ending where the writers would've let him live)—"Equinox II" manages to get a good amount of mileage out of the story.

Whereas " Equinox, Part I " seemed more focused on showing us who these Equinox crew members were, what they were hiding and planning, and the hell they'd been through that made them less likely to listen to their consciences, "Equinox, Part II" is essentially finished with that stage of the story; the motives have been set in motion and the show launches into action mode. But is that all?

Well, thankfully, no, that's not all.

"Equinox II" is ready to launch into its new action-oriented direction, but it's also ready to think about how it's getting there. When we last left Janeway and her crew, Voyager was coming under attack by a swarm of aliens from another realm—aliens who were attacking in retaliation for being used as "fuel" for Ransom's jerry-rigged warp drive. (I'm not sure exactly what to call these nameless aliens other than the CGI aliens; the show never calls them anything except "the aliens" or "the lifeforms.") Ransom had escaped in the Equinox along with hostages Seven and Doc, while the Equinox 's EMH, sans ethical subroutines, had smuggled himself aboard Voyager , where he began pretending to be the Voyager EMH.

Oh yes ... and of course, Janeway Was Going to Die—we love our pretentious cliffhangers.

So, anyway, "Equinox II" begins again. The Voyager crew has temporarily shielded itself from the aliens, while Ransom finds he can't use his modified engine device because Seven had locked out the stolen techno-ma-whozit device with security codes.

So the primary outline for "Equinox II": Ransom wants those codes, and Janeway wants Ransom.

There's something nice about the episode's underlying simplicity. The plot goals are clear, but how the episode gets where it's going is where things turn interesting—sometimes extremely interesting.

First, foremost, and most attention-grabbing is what effect Ransom's escape has on Captain Janeway. She launches into a single-minded obsession to stop Ransom at damn near any cost. This obsession is the Janeway equivalent of Picard's obsession to stop the Borg in First Contact or, more similar, Sisko's obsession to catch Eddington in " For the Uniform ." Watching Janeway take this situation so personally works every bit as well and for many of the same reasons as when Sisko took Eddington's betrayal personally. Ransom has betrayed his uniform, and Janeway, being the only Starfleet captain within many thousands of light-years, is going to stop him.

What I found particularly compelling was the extent to which the writers took this idea. If there's one thing they didn't do, it was play it safe. Janeway, often a character whose decisions have come across as controversial and even reckless, goes probably farther here than ever before, telling her first officer in no uncertain terms that she's "damned angry," and that if he wants to consider her unwillingness to back down as motivated by a personal vendetta, then so be it.

The Janeway/Chakotay interaction here made me sit up and take notice. It's been some time since we've seen some really memorable interaction between the two of them, and in terms of seeing them strictly as the captain and first officer tackling a problem (complicated here by the fact they're in extreme disagreement) this is one of the strongest-played uses of Janeway/Chakotay in years.

Most of that can be attributed to the fact Janeway's actions venture dangerously near the realm of wrong-headed insanity. Janeway seems to be putting her vendetta first, and Voyager 's safety and her own principles second. Although the show itself isn't so bold as to resort to such a comic-book statement, it's clear she WANTS RANSOM, in all capital letters.

All I can say is: Don't get on Janeway's bad side. At one point the crew cleverly captures two of Ransom's away team on the surface of a planet. Janeway brings one of them, Crewman Lessing, into the cargo bay for questioning. She wants Lessing to tell her about Ransom's tactical status. When he refuses to talk, she threatens to lower the shields in the room and turn the CGI aliens loose on him in order to speed the interrogation along.

Chakotay at first thinks this is a game of "good cop, bad cop," but Janeway isn't playing. Nor is she bluffing.

Quite simply, the sight of Janeway standing ice cold in her place—having locked Lessing alone in the cargo bay with some none-too-happy aliens, and now firmly reassuring Chakotay (none too sympathetically) that "he'll break"—is downright frightening. "What's happened to you, Kathryn?" Chakotay asks at one point. I wanted to ask the same question. I haven't seen this Janeway before. She doesn't answer to anyone. With no Starfleet watching over her shoulder, how could she be stopped if she continued down such a dangerous path?

Mulgrew is quite mesmerizing. While a dangerous, self-destructive Janeway like this might be lost upon the Voyager audience if used too often, in small doses it's compelling stuff. And although Janeway pushes the envelope of her authority oh-so-far (as do the writers, really), there's an awareness buried somewhere beneath Janeway's madness—she simply wants what's just. Unfortunately, the price is too high and she almost completely loses Chakotay's confidence in the process.

In another scene (which would've been more powerful if not for the hokey CGI aliens goofily swirling about and shrieking), she negotiates an arrangement with the aliens, promising to deliver the Equinox to them if they call off their attacks. When Tuvok objects, saying it will mean certain death for the Equinox crew, Janeway's answer is, "I've already confined my first officer to quarters. Would you like to join him?"

Ransom has his own problems, and they're mostly coming from within. You see, he's disabled Doc's ethical subroutines so he'll perform an operation on Seven that will forcibly extract the codes, which she is refusing to give. This will leave Seven with severe brain damage. Ransom doesn't want to do it, but he has "no choice," a term that he tends to overuse as rationalization, which Seven aptly points out. It gets Ransom to thinking, and eventually struggling. He has already devalued the lives of the CGI aliens. Can he bring himself to devalue the life of another human being? Although nicely documented, Ransom's role in this half of "Equinox" is less interesting than Janeway's, probably because it's more expected: He is a Starfleet captain after all, and his decision to ultimately do the Right Thing and surrender is an ending to his tale that I can barely envision playing out any other way.

In the meantime, the action elements are mostly well placed here. The FX are above average, and David Livingston keeps the story moving along at a nice pace. And there's always something unsettling about seeing two Federation starships firing on each other.

Of course, in the process of the plot we somehow also get our fill of the Ryan and Picardo Duet™. I don't know why, but it's hard to view a Jeri Ryan Singing Scene objectively anymore. Yeah, she can sing, but in an episode like this it's hard for it to come across as non-gratuitous.

It's when we get into the final act that I have some bigger reservations about the plot. Ransom decides to surrender, which may be sudden backpedaling considering his previous actions, but still backpedaling that makes sense given how much we saw Ransom go through in the course of the hour. I thought his nagging visions of Seven speaking as his conscience in the scenery program came off as fairly appropriate given the circumstances.

On the other hand, one of the show's bigger failures is its superficial use of Max Burke. In part one, Max had some fairly intriguing scenes with B'Elanna that hinted that this guy was a potential three-dimensional character. But in this half, alas, the writers utilize Max as a Convenient Plot Pawn™. Once Ransom has come to his realization and intends to surrender, Max pulls a phaser and becomes a non-surrendering mutiny, the avenue through which the story can still end with him, Ransom, and the Equinox being destroyed, thereby satisfying, we presume, the CGI aliens' blood lust. While other members of the Equinox crew are brought aboard Voyager (including Lessing and Gilmore, who had better become recurring characters after all this), this ending makes for a lot of convenient conditions that let both Ransom and Janeway off the hook for their actions. One wonders what the consequences might've been had things played out differently.

Also, there are some gaping plot holes that simply had me confused. For starters, how did Doc get from the Equinox computer system back aboard Voyager ? And how did he get his ethical subroutines back? As far as I can tell, no explanation is supplied; it's almost as if a scene ended up on the cutting room floor. In one scene Doc's operating on Seven, then the plot develops away from him for about 10 minutes and the next thing we know he's suddenly back aboard Voyager confronting the "bad" EMH.

And about this confrontation—it sure ranks as a lame one: Doc walks in and says, "Computer, delete the Equinox EMH," and, sure enough, the Equinox EMH vanishes, game over. Talk about your convenient ways to off a bad guy. Come on, people.

Problems aside, "Equinox, Part II" is possibly Voyager 's best season kickoff. While this half of "Equinox" doesn't begin to revisit many of the issues of Starfleet officers pushed to their limits in the Delta Quadrant (a la part one), overall, it's done better than the first part, and it finds an angle almost as interesting, showing the obsessions of Janeway's sense of moral righteousness—which nearly degenerates into an eye-for-an-eye mentality that she alone intends to see through. She ultimately doesn't have to, but seeing her intent is certainly worth the time.

The final scene on the Voyager bridge seems to indicate that Janeway realizes and regrets how far she crossed the line, and how she all but abandoned her first officer and crew. She admits quietly to Chakotay that he might've had good reason for his own mutiny. And I liked the symbolism of the fallen Voyager dedication plaque. "All these years, all these battles; this thing's never fallen down before," Janeway notes. The implications are interesting. As a unit of Starfleet ideals, Janeway's vendetta may have taken Voyager as far off course as it has been. And I particularly like the fact she realizes that.

Next week: The Borg Are Back™, and Seven May Return to the Collective™.

Jammer trailer commentary: I've seen some press information about this upcoming show, and from what I understand, there's much more to this episode than what the trailer would have us believe. Obviously, UPN marketing isn't trying to appeal to Voyager viewers, since any loyal Voyager viewer's reaction to this promo is likely to be, "What? Again?!" I guess, as always, they're trying to appeal to would-be Voyager converts who haven't seen the other Voyager Borg episodes. But, really, are the Borg still that marketable that a "Borg Are Back" preview is considered the most effective approach?

Previous episode: Equinox, Part I Next episode: Survival Instinct

Like this site? Support it by buying Jammer a coffee .

◄ Season Index

Comment Section

140 comments on this post, david forrest.

I defintely think this episode deserves a 3.5 star rating. I think it truly was excellent and its one of my Voyager favorites. It really pushed the envelope and had many great dynamics. Granted, the Doc returning is a plot hole, but other than that it's a wonderful episode.

I didn't like this one at all... I never thought that Janeway was going to die as the alien was barreling in towards her at the end of part 1, but for them to simply use a 2 second technobabble get-out-of-jail-"free" card was a slap in the face of the viewers. I didn't like the Janeway badass scenes, they seemed far too forced and out of character. Whatever happened to "the safety of the crew is our priority" Janeway? The aliens looked crap, there was no interest in Seven/Doc's equinox scenes, it was just all over very poorly written. I liked the Janeway/Chakotay scenes, but that was about it. Lucky to get 2 stars in my book.

Having seen this episode earlier this day, I saw that Captain Janeway had the Equinox survivors (except Captain Ransom who prevented his own transport) transported to Voyager. This would include the Voyager EMH. Taking him from the Equinox's very damaged main computer wouldn't have been a problem. It's also implicit that the Doctor's "ethical subroutines" would be added back to his program. In general, this episode had no purely good guys or bad guys. The aliens were trying to kill both crews, but that was understandable since many of the aliens had been murdered by the Equinox crew. The Equinox crew was doing what it believed it had to do in order to survive, and their belief didn't come off as unreasonable. The Voyager crew believed that the Equinox crew was murdering innocent life forms so as to benefit themselves and their belief also seemed reasonable. As for the Captains, Janeway came off as obsessed and unconcerned with the plight of the Equinox crew. I liked Ransom's comment about the ease of being morally pure when your on an undamaged ship. Ransom came off as willing to throw off any moral limits in order to get his crew home ON HIS SHIP. He could have transferred the crew to Voyager, but then that would left Janeway in charge of HIS crew and he couldn't have that. In the end, this two-parter is about ego. The ego of both Captains, and the death and destruction caused by those egos.

Forgive me if I'm wrong, but I think I noticed a HUGE plot hole in this episode. Ransom said that after learning of the new power source and putting it to use, the Equinox was able to travel 10,000 light years. However, Chakotay's written request to the captain asks for permission to go back to the people who gave the Equinox crew the means to capture these creatures in the first place. Janeway states they are 50 Light Years in the wrong direction. Should they not be significantly further away?? Either that, or the Equinox should have overshot Voyager by about 9550 light years. My math is fuzzy, but it seems odd to me.

I really love this two-parter. Again, it demonstrated how well the Voyager mini-movie concept worked. You could have never seen an episode before or since, and still enjoyed the plot and the action of this episode. Mulgrew is quite good here, pushing Janeway right to the edge. And to see a battered and bruised and jaded Stsrfleet crew was... ...and here's where this episode becomes meta-brilliant. In a way, "Equinox" is a comment on the entire series of Voyager itself. UPN and Paramount chose NOT to have Voyager become this "Lord of the Flies" in space. They chose NOT to make Voyager believe their own premise. Equinox is kind of like the Voyager that could have been (as is, of course, Battlestar Galactica.) What is even more astonishing is that I don't think TPTB realized this. It was just another Voyager bottle show to them.

Brian O'Connell

Honestly how anyone can actually enjoy Janeway's behaviour in this episode I will never understand. It is 10,000 light years away from the character we know and is simply ludicrous. The idea that getting her to be "bad ass" makes it cool and enjoyable is just taken too far here for me. Also if you remove the Doctor's "ethical sub routines" surely he still retains friendships, loyalties and so on. Look at Equinox's Doctor he stays loyal to his crew to the end. All too simple.

Alexey Bogatiryov

If only there had been permanent consequences to this episode's events in the series - it would have deserved 3.5 stars but alas, there is no lasting destrust between Janeway and Chakotay and most of the Equinox crew incorporates into Voyager perfectly.

I caught Janeway and Chakotay's bust-up in the briefing room on TV the other day. It's a great scene, and yet it signifies everything that was wrong with Voyager. The conversation is quickly cut off by Janeway's childish decision to throw Chakotay in the brig, when he had simply warned her about taking action against her behaviour rather than actually doing so. At the end of the episode, it's all forgotten. Janeway offers no apology, and Chakotay doesn't show even a small amount of resentment. Something that could have divided them for a few episodes, maybe even the entire season, was quickly glossed over. It's interesting that either Berman or Braga once said that Voyager isn't "a relationship show". He was referring to Torress and Paris, but in fact he was bang on. The relationships between the characters were waifer-thin at times. The only people who actually progressed as characters were Torres, Paris and the Doctor. That's not to say that they evolved throughout the series - they simply changed after season 1 or 2 and stayed that way for the rest of the show. Seven never really progressed, other than offering the occasional smile. She seemed as clueless as ever about human behaviour, despite learning umpteen lessons each season. I guess I have a real love-hate relationship with this show. It turned out some classic episodes and it has a likeable crew. But it could have been so much more, and some of the cliches like the shuttlecraft crash just became ridiculous by the end.

"Of course, in the process of the plot we somehow also get our fill of the Ryan and Picardo Duet [TM]. I don't know why, but it's hard to view a Jeri Ryan Singing Scene objectively anymore. Yeah, she can sing, but in an episode like this it's hard for it to come across as non-gratuitous." Why doesn't a Robert Picardo song come across as "non-gratuitous?" Is it because he has a better voice? Does his singing work better as a storytelling device? I can't really criticize this comment because I don't know what you mean by it...... What exactly is gratuitous? By the end of season 5, 7 hadn't exactly been signing up a storm, I don't think. Also, the "Duet," "Oh My Darling Clementine," was not only very well-performed by Picardo and Ryan, it seemed to me to be the opposite of gratuitous in that, when I think about the scene (and I often do, a credit to the way the scene was acted, written and directed), I realize (what do I know - especially since the all-Voyager-bashing-all-the-time people seem to rule the roost here) that it served a plot purpose, a character purpose, and provided a poignant moment of pathos. The Doctor was essentially terrorizing her by forcing her under duress to perform an activity (one which she had performed in the past with him) she once associated with enthusiasm. The banality of the break-up of the scene into two (Ransom's coming in barking, "Have you gotten the codes yet?") allowed the viewer to reflect on this fact allowed the circumstance to linger in the mind a little longer as well, had he not interrupted them. I'll give this to Voyager in any event - "You Are My Sunshine," "Someone to Watch Over Me," and this song... The source material is chosen well (yes, I am uncool by saying this because these songs are corny. Guess what, though? They at least have the virtue of having lyrics that can be deciphered by the human ear). Whenever the Rick Berman-era Star Trek dared to let music complement the story instead of insisting that the story bury the music, it generally tended to be a good thing. (Thank God for composers Ron Jones, in this regard. Come on - you mean to tell me Q Who and both parts of "The Best of Both Worlds" would have been MORE exciting without the score he composed for them? How did this score ever get past Rick Berman's ears, by the way? Also, I know y'all hate the new Star Trek movie, but I haven't heard many complaints - I guess this is called setting oneself up for something - about the music - the liveliest score for a Star Trek movie since the James Horner days).

Ken Egervari

I can't say I particularly like this episode either, although I guess it's a tad better than the first part. The one problem with this premise is that all the "villains" are no different than the fore-heads of the week, despite they are people who took oaths to defend the federation and what it stands for... and follow a lifetime of goals and principles of starfleet. The sudden change of heart just doesn't make sense. You can't turn around this quickly. And it doesn't make sense that a crew of 36 (or however many people are still left aboard to equinox) are all morally compromised. That is the real problem with Voyager - everything is so black and white... everything is a cardboard cutout. Then in this episode, they have Janeway develop her own set of complications, even though she fully realizes just how far Randsom has fallen... she falls herself, in a different light. The problem with it is that Chakotay is entirely reasonable, and yet, Janeway has completely lost it. Ugh. Voyager is always about the extremes. And of course, the last few minutes basically say, "Yep, it'll all be forgotten." We won't see the new crew members anymore. Janeway and Chakotoy will be best friends. Seven and the doctor will be "friends" again, and do things without Doc's emotional feelings for her (and yes, probably never acknowledge 'those' again either). Wow... this was "so" awesome... everything is back to normal. Ugh. What a fucking terrible show.

I also wanted to make a note... why is the borg designations for species out of order? It would make sense that since the Borg live in the delta quandrant, the species' numbers would be smaller if they originated in the delta quandrant than if they lived in other quandrants... no? Yet... some alpha quandrant species have numbers like 364 while other species like the kazon have 4 digits. Makes no sense, and this thought occurs to me every time they mention a borg designation. It's just happened so many times in the last 2 seasons. I mean, there are designations past 8472... and aren't they one of the newer species? Kind of ridiculous, unless they use random number generator to come up with the numbers (unlikely).

How does Seven get herself into that neck holodeck device to try to sway the Captain to change his mind? Are the song choices in Voyager made because they are out of copyright?

I found it interesting how easily the Voyager EMH was able to delete the Equinox EMH. An EMH is obviously an important medical tool, especially on VOY where there are no other doctors on board. You would think there would be some kind of safeguard or authorization code necessary to delete an EMH program. The scene was nicely played, but it got me thinking that B'Elanna, for example, in a bad mood could just say "Oh, delete the EMH!" without thinking and then that's it for any true and proper medical care on Voyager, unless you want to put your health in the hands of pilot Tom Paris. :)

I liked this episode a lot and, despite some people's misgivings, Janeway's metamorphosis into a badass was the best part! She acted realistically and normally, like any human being in her position would, instead of the imperious sanctimonious busybody we usually get in her. The resolution to the problem with Equinox and the aliens was cathartic and fair, and yet, it did not involve the customary corny, soppy and predictable deus-ex-machina-type of catalyst. As for the few holes and lack of continuity... - well, it's what we've gotten used to by now so that's not even a criterion of quality anymore. It was an engaging and imaginative plot apposite to a sci-fi show: THAT's what counts. 3.5 stars.

There were a lot of things about the Equinox's story that didn't quite tie together. In part I Captain Ransom says they travelled 10,000 light-years in two weeks, yet in part II the aliens that showed them the, er, "magic fuel creatures" were only 50 light-years behind them (and with a ship only two light years away). So either Voyager missed an empire spanning 9998 light years or the writers forgot exactly how long they'd been doing it. Then there's the food thing. They'd been starving for weeks but they still had rations left to eat? It's a shame less time was spent on the story of the Equinox and more time on pointless action. Captain Ransom had too easy a change of heart. He went from "I had no choice!" to "killing an uncertain number of these magic beings is probably wrong" in the space of one e-walk down an e-beach. In the first part he seemed like a steely-determined monster who felt nothing at murdering dozens, and the next part a man who couldn't bear to see another creature die. Again, the fact that it was never made clear just exactly how many had died made a discontinuity between the two halves. In part I it implies he's killed dozens and has little guilt. In part II it implies fewer murders (but the necessity of more to come) but a lot more guilt. I found the change jarring. Then there's Janeway having a meltdown and going almost insane with vengeance. It seemed like a huge leap out of character, especially considering she was putting her crew in danger for what seemed to amount to a vague personal vendetta that had been brewing for all of five minutes. Perhaps it would have made sense more had it been leading to a continuing story arc, rather than a predictable one episode conclusion. And no one mentions it ever again. Maybe she should lay off the coffee for a while. Oh, and the Doctor's magical reappearance with ethics reinstated. What was that all about? A disappointing conclusion to a promising first part.

I liked the episode but not Janeway. (Rodenberry was probably spinning in his grave at some of this stuff - weren't humans supposed to be above savegery at this point? It certainly seems to prove Q right) She can be entertaining in "good badass" mode but it just feels wrong when she goes into cold blooded mode. She's also a hypocrite, attempting murder on fellow Starfleet officers because of their morality problems; what about her own?! Also isn't it possible for the first officer to relieve a captain of duty if her judgement is impaired (which it clearly was with her vendetta against Ransom), would've been a good idea of so. Luckily for her it all worked out. I'm glad she acknowledged it at the end, at least, and the symbolism with the plaque was very well done. Now somebody please grow Chakotay a pair, I believe he lost them around season 4.

"Janeway's actions venture dangerously near the realm of wrong-headed insanity" I'd say she went way past wrong-headed insanity. Problem is, it's completely arbitrary. Writers thought it would be ironic if she started rationalizing her morality in order to enforce it on someone else, so they flipped a switch. Later, when it's time for "resolution," they flip the switch again, and all is right again. As an aside, note to Starfleet Security: given that knowledge of the shield frequency is enough to render shields COMPLETELY USELESS, it might be wise to limit access to that information. I'm not sure the ship's doctor needs to know about shield frequencies in order to do his job...

I've been watching the show in order (or close to it, I skipped the Warp 10 episode) for the first time probably since it originally aired... I just finished this episode. What I can't believe no one's mentioned in all this time is in that scene where she (temporarily) fires Chakotay she tells him "you leave me no choice." I was already mentally saying to myself 'she's starting to act like Ransom' and then she utters his catch phrase! Knowing the writers on the show I wasn't sure if that was intentional at the time, at least until we see that the dedication plaque fell off the wall near the end. In spite of her supposed intentions, she wasn't acting like a proper Starfleet officer herself, and at least this time the writers apparently intended that. (As opposed to other episodes where you have no idea if the writers noticed what they actually wrote.) I don't know what that says about the episode one way or the other but I thought it was noteworthy that Ransom-itis seemed to be contagious. Also, I agree that the Doc just showing up like that did scream "cut scene(s)."

No one is pointing out that in the first part was see a bridge officer of the Equinox get mummified in seconds on contact with one of these "life forms!" And then in the opening scene we see Chakotay take a *direct hit* and within a commercial break he's up and arguing with the Captain. It wasn't just our intrepid main cast either, even the nameless crew-members of Voyager were highly resistant as the full sick bay could attest to (One casualty noted). Oh and that at the very end when Max gets it they once again have instant mummification powers. That "little" inconsistency bothers the hell out of me.

I always believed that one of the reasons that Janeway went so crazily over the line to stop them was that it was clear that their ship would reach home first. I think she couldn't stomach that the morally degenerate would be home and Voyager would limp across the finish line 40 years later - graying and infirm but morally correct.

This was one of my favorite two parters...There were some weird plot holes but overall great. Janeway losing it was a nice touch and I agreed with her choices..and I understood Chakotay's as well. The scene with evil Doc singing with 7 ? I think it was inspired...It made Capt. Ransom realize just what he had become, made 7 look very vulnerable, and gave us an ugly view of what the Doc minus morality might look like...Well done. I have a feeling we wont be seeing any more of the Equinox crew in upcoming episodes, but they would make some interesting story material to be sure...

One scene I have never understood is that scene where Ransom's ship heads into the atmosphere of the planet and Voyager follows it too. Then, for some reason, Voyager can't sustain the atmosphere anymore and must ascend while the Equinox was fine. But Equinox was a smaller ship and had suffered more damage. Voyager is the one that loses warp drive after that while the Equinox warps away. Makes no sense. The other thing that makes no sense in this scene is the whole scene itself. Why was the Equinox going into the atmosphere in the first place? And why would Voyager follow them down? Why wouldn't Voyager just stay above them in orbit where it's safe and wait for them to come back up? They would be able to see them the entire time! After like 14 years I still don't get it.

Thorin Hayward

It's nice to have a symbolic scene with Janeway stating that the Voyager plaque never fell off the wall before, but how about some actual consequences and fallout for her high handed actions towards the people around her? Maybe even deign to apologise just once or in this case have Chakotay call her out for her treatment of him and show a little resentment, when all he did was try to stop her from killing someone for information. But of course this is Voyager and moral grandstanding trumps everything even hypocrisy, and the reset button is set to automatic.

Overall, I like these two-parters but did we really have to have Janeway becoming Sisko ? Janeway has made bad decisions, has been wrong-headed and a little obsessive in the past. Sometimes, her behavior could be explained by the fact that she's all alone, no backup, to make tough and stressfull decisions. But here, it doesn't make any sense. I'd have accepted some borderline obsession, but a cold-hearted murderer... and twice ! Once with the interrogation and then with the pact with the aliens. I also agree that Chakotay and Tuvok should have taken actions against their captain and I'd have liked to see more consequences.

"other members of the Equinox crew are brought aboard Voyager (including Lessing and Gilmore, who had better become recurring characters after all this)" Hindsight really hurts this show more than the individual episodes do (well, most of them anyway). I like to assume they're the ones who are building shuttles round the clock for Chakotay to crash.

@Nic: Thing is, would it have really been that hard to just have one of the two actors show up for like one episode -- or not have them come over at all? This is just a perfect example of why Voyager was SO frustrating.

I disagree with some of the others, the scene with Jeri Ryan and Picardo singing was masterfully done. Just how incredibly rich and beautiful her voice is aside, it really hit home how bravely she was facing a fate worse than death, yet nevertheless was certainly still scared and vulnerable. As much as Voyager benefited from the infusion of life and character with the presence of Ryan, I sometimes dream about an alternate universe where she performed minor miracles behind a microphone.

I'm watching this show all the way through for the first time now that it's on Netflix, and I have to say...I can see why so many people called it frustrating, derivative and weak. So much potential squandered. I lament when I think about what it could have been. This two-parter started off with promise but there was too much wrong with the second part for me to consider it successful. We've spent how many years following the doctor's personal development and sentience? *poke poke* Ethical subroutines deleted...instant Dr. Evil. As someone else already stated, even the Equinox's EMH retained loyalty to his crew. This struck all sorts of sour chords with me. Character development? F**k that sh!t, this is Voyager, bitches, where characters always take a back seat to forced drama. Speaking of which, I freaking hate hate hate hate HATED Janeway in this episode! I've never been a huge fan of her hypocritical, wishy-washy, inconsistent personality that changes to conveniently suit the plot, but this went way too far. This wasn't bad-ass, it was bat-shit crazy! She has the gall to moralize to Cpt. Ransom about losing his humanity and then follows down the exact same path, except for FAR shallower reasons. Janeway's morally questionable actions in the past have almost always been for the benefit of ship and crew, not that such a thing makes it justifiable but at least more easily empathized with. Here, she as much as says ship and crew be damned, I'ma get that sonofabitch! At least Ransom did what he did for his crew and was showing signs of remorse for everything he'd done, especially when he realized that his corruption was starting to extend to other human beings. And in the end, he died trying to right his wrongs. Janeway? A few throw-away lines at the very end of the episode that made everything all happy-happy-joy-joy better again. Yes, the episode acknowledged that Janeway was truly in the wrong (miraculously) with the symbolism of the fallen plaque, but this sentiment lacked the resonance that was needed, seeing as how there were NO consequences for any of the crap she pulled. Before anyone thinks I'm biased, I couldn't stand it when Sisko did it either. Are humans capable of illogical actions due to high emotion? Of course! But these are Star Fleet command officers. They go through extensive training and psychological evaluation to make sure they're fit for the rigors of shouldering the burden of that kind of responsibility. I'll climb down off my soapbox now. Ironically enough, I usually tend to give this show a large amount of lenience despite all of its inconsistencies and frustrations, and try to focus on the positive elements. This one just overwhelmed my typical good-natured generosity to the point that I had to vent my indignation over it.

Jo Jo Meastro

When I noticed Bannon Braga and Joe Menosky together in the writing credits, I was quite pleased since these two seem to draw on each others' creative strengths (Year Of Hell is a nice example of this). Coupled by having the distinctive David Livingston helming the episode, it was all looking good. And it was good IMO. Jammer put it best when he said the story does a good job despite the fact its' filled with foregone conclusions. There were numerous flaws and it certainly is not a contender for being classic, but its' a memorable engaging actioner with a welcome darker tone. I hope at least Ensign Lessing shows up again. The potential drama of having a disgraced alienated Ensign working under a Captain who nearly let him die in a fit of rage sounds like a delicious under-dog tragic story! I doubt I'll see that, but no harm in dreaming!

I liked this episode even thought it resembles swiss cheese with all of the plot holes and errors. Janeway going bat shit crazy was something I liked because of the "oh, no!" factor but it should have had a longer impact and like all of you I can lament what could have been with this show.

Doc: Holodeck 2, tomorrow. just you me and a tuning fork. lol I dont think the singing was gratuitous. i think it added to Ransom's moral dilemna. The doctor was clearly taking joy in his disecting of a human being. the evilness of the doc only hastens Ransom's moral battle. I liked that janeway went too far. not every captain on star trek can be perfect all the time. it gave her that "humanity" that others have shown. although, i think she should have given herself a reprimand. i bet harry kim thinks so. i like that Ransom and Janeway were crossing paths in their morality. @cappo. good point about "no choice." finally, did everyone enjoy that there was no neelix in the 2nd part? if he was, i sure dont remember him. lol any episode that fully entertains me is at least 3 stars. i give this 3.5 stars. fully entertaining.

This is BS. Both Tuvok and Chakotey should have relived her of duty. So unrealistic.

So the doc from Equinox has his ethical subroutines deleted and he still cares about his ship and crew and stays loyal to the end, but the doc from Voyagers loses his ethical subroutine and turns into Holosatan? There was no real character growth, no real advancement in sentience, it was all just his ethical subroutines? I can't take him seriously now, the whole 'personal exploration' thing isn't real after all, if he can lose it with a push of a button and not just his ethics but anything and everything meaningful at all, then it's all just a program, he's not sentient at all. My favorite character really isn't a character. It's like finding out my favorite part of the whole show is the warp core. Wow.

Latex Zebra

Awful, Janeway at her worst. A shame as there is some stuff to enjoy in this episode but also a lot to dislike. Can't be arsed to go into them all but both Tom and Susan (above) touched on things that sprung to mind when rewatching.

Awful. Everything that happens is pre-determined in an outline and then the writers just contrive a way to make them happen. Equinox crew is locked up? We'll come up with some silly way of them escaping. Equinox crew is on Voyager? We'll make up some stuff about how they locked VOYAGER'S OWN BRIDGE OUT OF THEIR OWN SYSTEMS so they could escape. Voyager is hot on Equinox's heels and about to take them out? Equinox dives into the atmosphere and, for reasons unknown, Janeway follows them in instead of pacing them from up in space where they could easily contain them. I could do 100 more examples from this two parter but the bottom line is that this is not good television or storytelling in my opinion. Much of what happens does NOT happen organically: it is instead contrived to move the plot to the next set piece. Awful. 1.5 stars. Interesting ideas and good effects were a plus, as was Janeway finally showing a less naive side.

Bill Galligan

Awful Because Voyager sucks.

The extra crew had me thinking I would have liked seeing Ransom's crew on episode Good Shepard. :-)

There is a lot to like in this episode but I think part 1 is superior, primarily because the character changes for Janeway in this episode don't feel right at all. When I first saw it, I was so assuming there was some other force acting on the ship (Like killing the first entity accidentally set off a sort of virus that eroded the human ethics) It would have explained Janeways change of character and why Ransom seemed to come out of a fugue when he was the primary instigator and Max seemed to get worse, and it would have explained the Equinox's descent into monstrous actions. It really seemed set up for this. They called the entities something like "Good fortune spirits" so I kept thinking they were going to reveal they potentially effected Humans oppositely. I was so surprised when it was just a strait forward "Janeway is out of character" moment. Especially when it was just the season finally before that the characterization was directly opposed to.

This was a good two-parter. But the fact that we never see the Equinox crew members who came to Voyager again was just ridiculous.

Stop complaining that JAneway acted like the villain. That's the point. She lost her way temporarily, and found it back. She, like the EQuinox captain, found herself in a messed up situation in which immorality seemed like the only course of action. Sisko regularly did this kind of stuff, and you guys love it. In Voyager, when this stuff is done, the series at least acknowleges that IT IS BAD.

@Spalding - I was actually going to quote you dialogue about how utterly wrong you were (especially since you seem to imply DS9 does NOT acknowledge when things are bad... in Sisko's darkest hour he spends the whole hour convincing himself he can live with it). But then I came across this. JANEWAY: How's the crew? CHAKOTAY: A lot of frayed nerves. Neelix is organizing a potluck to help boost morale. JANEWAY: Will I see you there? CHAKOTAY: I'm replicating the salad. JANEWAY: I'll bring the croutons. Chakotay. You know, you may have had good reason to stage a little mutiny of your own. CHAKOTAY: The thought had occurred to me, but that would have been crossing the line. JANEWAY: Will you look at that. All these years, all these battles, this thing's never fallen down before. CHAKOTAY: Let's put it back up where it belongs. Is Janeway apologizing (by saying that she was so out of line that he had reason to mutiny) or just hoping they can work past their differences? I actually could read it either way and it puts a VERY different spin on an episode I've previously really hated if she actually thinks she was wrong. I'd say it really depends on how it was acted. Anyone see this recently have an opinion?

Don't get me wrong, I was pleased the episode acknowledged that Janeway was wrong, but if Janeway herself doesn't know that (and in my viewing I didn't feel that she was sorry) then they are still following a psychopath. And considering Janeway has a lot of questionable command decisions (more so than any other captain in my opinion) she needed to acknowledge she was wrong. But I haven't seen the episode in 10 years, so it's entirely possible that she acted it like that.

A brief Sisko/Janeway questionable-decision arc comparison : SISKO : -His young family is suddenly broken by the loss of his wife. A seed of resentment is planted against Starfleet, personified by Picard. -A few months later, Sisko plays apologist to the Bajorans for Federation idealism. -Later, Sisko lies to Starfleet and obfuscates issues of betrayal, war-mongering, sedition and selfishness under the pretext of loyalty to his traitorous friend, Cal Hudson. -A year later, Sisko finds himself in the MU, where he promptly drops all notions of moral Starfleet behaviour in confronting the alternate version of Jennifer. -A year after that, Sisko uncovers a plot to militarise Starfleet and impose martial law on Earth. -A few months after that, Sisko discovers Eddington to be a Maquis spy and finds himself personally betrayed by one of his officers. Obviously, Starfleet chooses to promote him to captain. -Nearly a year later, "visions" from the WA convince Sisko to disobey his orders and undermine his primary mission by recommending Bajor abandon its newly-offered Federation membership. -Inexplicably still in command of DS9, he ends up poisoning an entire planet in his quest to capture Eddington. -For reasons left unexplained, Sisko (the liar, the obfuscator, religious icon, and cause of the Dominion War) is placed in command of a large fleet of ships about a year after he was promoted to captain. His military stroke of genius? Ask the prophets to delete the Domion fleet inside the wormhole. -Later that year, Sisko learns that the subversion from "Homefront" has continued in that Red Squad has continued to perform rogue ops in the war, while Section 31 is revealed as the amoral strongarm of Starfleet. In the midst of this and a losing war effort, Sisko decides to enlist Garak to trick the Romulans into entering the fight, indirectly causing the death of two people. -Sisko's best friend is killed and Sisko inexplicably blames himself not only for that but for the release of the Pagh Wraiths, so he runs home to Earth to play the piano. -After three months of THAT, Starfleet decides to let Sisko resume being the commander of DS9 and an even larger fleet of ships since he opened the magic box. -In the end, Sisko, who worked hard to explain the importance of learning and linear existence to the WA finds himself "resurrected" and a WA himself, totally unconcerned with those human ideals he so defended (not to mention the son he claimed to love). JANEWAY : -In order to protect a species she barely knows, she decides to destroy her and her crew's only immediate means of returning home to their lives. -Broodings of rebellion aside, Janeway is adamant that Starfleet principals be upheld to the letter in their dealings in the DQ. -This attitude results in an extended conflict with the Kazon, the betrayal of Seska and eventually almost finding her entire crew marooned on a primitive planet for the rest of their lives. -After this point, Janeway's behaviour begins to change. In a like vein from her dealings with Tuvix, Janeway begins placing the priorities of her crew over her ideals and regulations--deciding to bypass sovereign borders and violate some local laws, the PD be damned. -Eventually, she finds herself against a seemingly intractable problem, the Borg. By chance, she happens to find them in a state of relative weakness, which she decides to exploit (in a complete reversal of her attitude in "Caretaker") to provide for her crew. -A few months later, this is reëchoed in her compromise with the Hirogen; her attitude from "State of Flux" is again reversed and she *gives away* Federation technology to save her crew. -Months later, Janeway meets the first unintended victims of her alliance with the Borg in the person of Arturis. which leads her to distance herself from the crew and begin a process of self-torture. -Over the next year, her decisions for getting her crew home become more and more desperate (Timeless, Counterpoint, Dark Frontier). -Then she meets Ransom and the Equinox crew, and her slow descent into recklessness is uncomfortably shone back in her face. And it makes her angry enough to all but lose her humanity. -Over the next year, Janeway recoils further into a relationship with a holographic man, but also makes the effort to bond with the more distant members of her crew (Good Shepherd) -Finally, Janeway is confronted with the opportunity to repent for earlier crime with the Borg and incite a rebellion against them. Her desperation is extreme enough to warrant getting herself nearly assimilated in the process. -Months later, she gets the chance to undo the damage from another one of her decisions and *stop* Iden's own rebellion against Organics. -Eventually, Janeway finds herself unexpectedly freed from the crushing burdens of her difficult command and living a life of blissfully ignorant simplicity, only to have it violently ripped away from her. -In "Endgame," it is revealed how this path eventually leads Janeway to become so utterly concerned with making up for her perceived mistakes to her crew, that she becomes totally blind to all the good that developed as a result of her leadership concurrently. It takes a trip through time and confronting her past to realise this. Janeway, although never accountable to Starfleet, paid dearly over the course of her journey for her *necessary* descent into morally dubious if not outright "evil" behaviour, while Sisko was constantly rewarded by Starfleet, rewarded by the Prophets and eventually granted a Godhead for all of his questionable/evil decisions.

Elliott, you've been banging a drum on here about DS9 vs Voyager for about as long as there have been comments on the site, there are diatribes of yours on this theme on what feels like every article. I love DS9 and I enjoyed Voyager - I'll defend Voyager and certainly enjoyed it more than a lot of fans - but your readings of the two shows are so selective, highly skewed and partisan as to come over as completely bizarre. Who are you trying to convince? This isn't the way to do it. I'm not opposed to people debating the relative merits of DS9 and Voyager at all, I welcome it - after all, both shows ran at the same time but are very different beasts. But you can never just comment on one of Jammer's articles in a normal, open, constructive way or with an interesting insight, opinion or critique, it always has to be this aggrandising shoebox-preaching trying to prove in every possible context (bearing in mind one can never prove a subjective opinion) how Voyager is superior to DS9 - paired with attacks on Jammer's "bias". Newsflash, his tastes and reviews are subjective. I wouldn't rate much of the final season of BSG as highly as Jammer did, for instance, but that's because he and I are different people and I'm hardly going to start attacking him for overrating or underrating shows just because his opinion is different to mine, like yourself and a fair few others here do. It comes over like a bizarre obsession. What is your point? Why are you so insistent on grinding this particular axe? I'm all for discussing DS9 and VOY's relative merits and drawbacks, but can you take off the blinkers and the bizarre slant you unfailingly to the table for one second?

@Niall : I did not start this discussion : Spalding wrote -- "Stop complaining that JAneway acted like the villain. That's the point. She lost her way temporarily, and found it back. She, like the EQuinox captain, found herself in a messed up situation in which immorality seemed like the only course of action. Sisko regularly did this kind of stuff, and you guys love it. In Voyager, when this stuff is done, the series at least acknowleges that IT IS BAD." and a thread ensued. I simply weighed in with my own contribution. Too often, I'm confronted with comments on this site and in the reviews which are possessed of a nauseating double standard when it comes to these two shows. Only in the last year or so have I begun to witness (on this site anyway) a slow reversal in the DS9 love-fest. If a major portion of the reviews and comments on this site were not self-congratulatory masturbating on why VOY is "terrible" precisely because it wasn't DS9, I would probably never bring it up myself. As I've said, I am (finally) not the only one doing this anymore. Look, if you'd like, at my comments over the site. They are not ALL about DS9/VOY and I almost always try to make a positive contribution to an ongoing discussion about whichever show/subject is being discussed.

It's not by accident that cop/doctor/legal procedurals are so often scoffed at, occasional good/great show aside. It's not that they are always bad--though many certainly are--it's the fact that they usually don't take creative chances and are treading narrative water (been there, done that) that annoys people who want something more from their TV series. Shows that leave their mark for years to come are either those that break new ground and boldly change TV landscape--certain modern cable dramas are good examples--or those that bring new twists and innovative takes on well-established formats. Deep Space Nine, whatever one may think of it, had the conviction and courage to truly shake up the status quo of Star Trek franchise. It pushed the envelope of what Star Trek can be pretty far, so far in fact that many Trekkies refuse to call it True Trek(TM). At the very least, it had vision. For good or ill, it tried to say something. Maybe you don't agree with the message, maybe you think it was badly delivered, but it was a show that was opinionated, irreverent of established rules (up to a certain point; DS9 wasn't *that* rebellious), and unafraid of taking creative risks. Sometimes it payed off, other times not so much. But for all its flaws, DS9 strived to be more than another repetition of an established formula. If nothing else, that's the legacy it leaves behind and that's why, after 15 years, it's alongside TNG and TOS the best regarded of Trek shows. Voyager is slickly produced and often fun, I'll give you that. But really, what does it bring to the franchise? What new frontier does it explore that wasn't explored to death in previous shows? What does it *dare* to do? I think Bob Seger's "Beautiful Loser" perfectly conveys Voyager, the perpetual underachiever. He wants to dream like a young man With the wisdom of an old man. He wants his home and security, He wants to live like a sailor at sea. Beautiful loser, where you gonna fall? You realize you just can't have it all.

What the hell did TNG dare to do? Cash in on the renewed financial success of the franchise while preaching Marxist philosophy? The fact that DS9 was the "upstart" Trek is not commendable. As I've said before, being Trek at all already meant occupying a rarified place on television. Morally and formally, Trek was a unique phenomenon and that specialness is hardly watered down by (at the time of VOY's close) 14 years of being on the air. DS9's "new frontier" is a fallacy. DS9 retreaded the old frontier to make reversals (and apologies) for TOS and especially TNG. Formally, yes DS9 was novel and there is a lot to like about the show, but praising something for being "new" is just faddism. Voyager was a respectable reformulation of the Trek model that offered a few new insights, some memorable characters and a satisfying drama (in addition to the glitz and gloss). Showing the best and dividing it from the worst, age vexes age, Knowing the perfect fitness and equanimity of things, while they discuss I am silent, and go bathe and admire myslef. Welcome is every organ and attribute of me, and of any man hearty and clean, Not an inch nor a particle of an inch is vile, and none shall be less familiar than the rest. I am satisfied--I see, dance, laugh, sing.

In the late 80's, the sci-fi TV landscape was barely existing. It was a barren wasteland back then. TNG was indeed a breath of fresh air and something very unique at the time. That's not faddism, that's called being original. TNG and DS9, whatever you may think of them, were ORIGINAL! They tried new things and new directions, offered to the audiences something they couldn't get elsewhere. They were patently their own! Voyager and Enterprise? Fun shows. I guess.

So if a show like Dr Who were, instead of one continuous, decades-long programme, a series of five programmes airing one after the other, would every show except the first be "unoriginal" even if the episodic content were the same? Star Trek is Star Trek, whether it's on the Enterprise or on the Voyager and even (though to a somewhat lesser degree) on Deep Space 9.

I haven't watched Dr Who, so I can't comment on that. However I'd hazard a guess that the fact that certain "generations" of that series were much better received than others had at least something to do with "tinkering" with the formula or reinventing the show or something. As I said, I'm not qualified to discuss this; maybe someone who is could chime in. I don't know about you, but I want freshness and new ideas in all the TV series I watch. I have no patience with derivative stuff when there's so many great things to see on TV. Trek has produced over 700 episodes. I am really not in the mood to watch one unending soap opera that eternally recycles themes and adventures. I want new ideas and new formulas that still stay true to the general ethos of Star Trek.

TNG "preaching Marxist philosophy"? Lol. That is such an American (a specific kind of American) thing to say.

Wine shirts = aristocracy, born to rule Teal shirts = bourgeoisie, the capital-hoarding elite Mustard shirts = proletariat, oppressed until the revolution comes Indeed, the inversion of red/yellow between TOS and TNG could illustrate the results of revolution, when the exploited backbone of Starfleet -- the machinery operators and cannon fodder -- finally overturned the social order.

I don't care to guess what "specific" breed of American you assume me to be, but I happen to applaud the TNG economic ethos myself. That does not dismiss the hypocrisy of a cash-cow franchise upholding a non-materialistic worldview. When TOS was on the air, Trek was not a particularly profitable franchise, thus the ethos (combined with the racial and sexual equality to which it at least aspired) was quite unique in television. I grant that to TOS. But TNG? TNG just wanted to be good Trek with a new crew. What, generally (not specifically) did TNG add to the franchise? Cannot the same be said of VOY?

TOS was nowhere near the morality of TNG, all the talk about Gene's "vision" notwithstanding. It was a western in spacw where the only truly moral and upstanding people were Kirk and the crew of the Enterprise. These were their tales. Almost every other human and/or representative of Federation and Starfleet we met was an incompetent bureaucrat, crazy governor, mad scientist, space prostitute, or a weak-willed toady too easily tempted by promise of great power. TNG was the first Trek series that really depicted the whole "paradise thing" Trek is now famous for. If TOS was the western frontier, TNG was paradise itself. I posit that the modern morality of Trek, its themes and ideals, as well as the look and feel of the franchise, all began in earnest with The Next Generation. It is *very* different from TOS in both tone and underlying assumptions. TOS: Building the paradise TNG: Living the paradise DS9: Deconstructing the paradise VOY: Fun show, ain't it?

@Paul : That's bullshit and you know it. When did Kirk's Enterprise do any "paradise building"? Did not TNG deconstruct the concept as much as it "lived in" it? Not to mention, the whole notion of the Federation (or Earth) being paradise only ever came up on DS9 because the writers were cynical, spiteful and arrogant. However, using that problematic term, ENT, terrible though most of it was, would be the "Building the Paradise" Trek. TOS & VOY : Paradise on the frontier, a century of values apart. TNG & DS9 : Paradise's Infrastructure - one generally pro, one con.

I didn't say that Kirk was the one building the paradise, just that TOS, like any Western, portrays a life on the frontier with protagonists trying to build a better future for themselves or their families. And since that future becomes "paradise" by the 24th century, it isn't inaccurate to say that TOS is set in an era that paradise is being born, piece by piece, brick by brick. TOS's morality play structure suits this format quite well as we see Kirk and his crew demonstrating the kind of behaviour and principles that will one day result in a better future of Picard's days. I don't know why you're being so reductivist with my proposed "subtitles" for various Trek series. It's only natural that not every episode fits the theme nicely, but it isn't without merit. As I said, TOS is, broadly speaking, about bringing civilisation to the frontier. TNG, first season aside, is mostly set within the "main body" of the Federation and is most firmly associated with Trek's utopian future. Sure, there are multiple episodes that show us the other side of the coin, but those were never the focus of the show. DS9, on the other hand, is once more set on the frontier, but weaves in the way "centre" reacts with said frontier. It "deconstructs" the paradise and tries to see what makes it tick and whether its values survive extreme pressures on multiple fronts. For all my efforts, I can't quite see what Voyager contributes to the larger Trek universe. What points of view does it represent that haven't already been explored? Moving away from ethos, what plot elements does it introduce. explore, and move forward that make it a worthwhile addition to the franchise? That's the root of the problem many have with Voyager. Say what you will about the first 3 Trek shows, at least they were trailblazers in a way, each revealing a new facet of the universe they inhabit. Or put it this way: look at the essential and the most thematic representatives of the first three shows and you'll see those episodes would never work in the other two. You can't pick a TOS episode and interchange it with a TNG one (well, you can, but then you get TNG Season 1). Likewise, DS9 is recognisably its own. Voyager? Take a random TNG episode, slap some new paint and voila, there's a Voyager episode. Exaggerating a bit, of course. There are some eps that really *are* Voyager (this very one, for example), but they are with barely any internal cohesion to the show's larger themes and without any connection with what came before or what comes after that I hesitate to call it "essential Voyager". The show is simply derivative, that's all.

Reductivist? Forgive me, I don't mean to come across as pedantic here, but do you mean reductionist, or are you saying that Trek, as an artform, can be appraised in minimalist terms? I'm going to assume you meant reductionist, in which case, your choice to subtitle the shows as you did is a sign of *your* reductionism, not mine. As I said, the whole concept of "paradise" was not brought up *except* on DS9. Looking back at all the other Trek series from that perspective, introduced on that one show, you have a point, but that's a very DS9-centric way of appraising the franchise's values. Even in those terms, however, Voyager's contribution to the Universe is valid : If TOS represents a 23rd-century evolved humanity, stretching out and civilising their immediate Universe, and TNG represents the fallout from that civilising, a fully realised and integrated 24-century evolved humanity living within the boundaries of its expansion, and DS9 represents the reactionary element of that civilisation, as well as the influence of external pressures on that evolved humanity, then VOY represents the isolation of the evolved 24th-century humanity and its effects. Regarding your "essential Trek" analysis, I think we all know there are multiple episodes of every series (TOS included) which could be easily transposed into one of the other incarnations. I'd go so far as to say that many of the episodes the Treks are versions of one another. Examples : TOS "Space Seed" ENT "Regeneration"--TOS does it better DS9 "Accention" VOY "Mortal Coil"--VOY does it better VOY "The Killing Game" DS9 "Far Beyond the Stars" -- DS9 does it better TNG "Measure of a Man" DS9 "Dax"--TNG does it better VOY "Prototype" ENT "Dear, Doctor"--ENT does it better Is Voyager derivative of TOS? Yes, of course, as are ALL the incarnations of Trek in one way or another.

I know I like to dig at Voyager and am a big DS9 fan. I was thinking about this the other day, as you do, that DS9 and Voyager have a lot more memorable episodes across 7 seasons than TNG. In my opinion of course. TNG's just happen to be the best but they're fewer in my opinion. I have every season of DS9, 5 seasons of Voyager and exactly zero TNG on DVD. I'm loathe to pay out for a boxset for 1 maybe 2 really stand out episodes whereas DS9 and Voyager (regardless of their flaws) have much more watchable decent episodes. TNG is clearly the most Trekkian of them all. Voyager moralistly (is that a word) tries, sometimes suceeds and sometimes fails. DS9 treads that middle ground with complicated characters and decisions that made, on first airing, shocking viewing. Anyway, I think the point I am trying to make is this discussion has gone on years and years. Voyager vs DS9 has outlasted Nintendo vs Sega and will probably outlive PlayStation vs XBox. All have moments of greatness and even the biggest DS9/Voyager hater can't be impressed by the quality and entertainment of many of the stories that both series have provided.

@Elliott: "then VOY represents the isolation of the evolved 24th-century humanity and its effects." Only it doesn't. Voyager pays lip service to the idea of being stranded far away from home, it pretends that the ship's situation has meaning and repercussions. But it doesn't. In what appreciable way does the crew (apart from Doc and Seven, and even they sporadically) evolve and/or change to showcase this? And please don't answer with an answer of your own: "And in what way does the crew of TNG change?" because, as you yourself said, "TNG represents the fallout from that civilising, a fully realised and integrated 24-century evolved humanity". Again, put it this way. If we were to completely erase any of the first three Trek shows form our collective memories, Trek ethos as well as its general themes and ideas would be pretty different. Trek without TNG would in all probability drastically change all "second generation" Trek because it laid the foundation for all the series that came after in tone, spirit, worldbuilding, you name it. Trek without DS9? Well, you are the best evidence on this site as to the influence of the show. It undeniably impacted Trekkian values and its outlook on human nature, the role of institutions, etc. If we are to move away from discussing Trek values for a moment, DS9 was very distinct in its approach to serialisation, support cast, and plot arcs. If nothing else, it's hard to dispute that it was a departure in those terms at least. If we disregard Voyager? I honestly can't see the franchise being one iota different.

What Paul wrote isn't "bullshit", Elliott, it's a good concise summary. Moreover, it is also, of course, Paul's subjective opinion (which I happen to agree with), so your claim of it being "bullshit" cannot even apply as there is no objective truth here. I disagree with much of what you write, Elliott, but I'd never call it "bullshit" because I have a basic openness to other people's opinions and a respect and empathy for the other commenters - things you seem to lack, which is why I'm taking you on right now. When you make comments like that, you bring down the whole site and the whole level of discussion. Consider this scenario: someone comes to the site, maybe for the first time, with an interesting and thoughtful comment. You call it "bullshit", and then maybe they decide this site isn't worth commenting on due to the presence and people such as yourself, and they don't come back. So that's one fewer thoughtful commenter. A loss to the site and the community. That's what this is ultimately about. I also can't imagine calling the writers of even my least-liked books, films, TV shows etc "cynical, spiteful and arrogant", as you call the DS9 writers. When you're making personal comments like that about the personalities and values of people you don't know on the basis of their fiction-writing, we've left the world of rational debate and descended into a puerile, gutter-level slanging match. Apropos all of this: it's really starting to feel like you're the biggest troll on this site. I'm sure I'm not the only person whose enjoyment of the comments here is increasingly attenuated by your rude and nasty comments such as the above and your fallacious closed arguments (closed in the sense that you are never open to other perspectives, and show no curiosity toward, consideration of, or even basic respect for other people's opinions, surely prerequisites for meaningful, inclusive and rigorous debate), very prolifically on so many of the comment threads here. And I'm saying this as someone who likes Voyager. You are the show's worst advocate. You don't have remotely the empathy, open intellectual approach or narrative interpretation/drama analysis skills to make the show's case.

Re: Elliott: "Not to mention, the whole notion of the Federation (or Earth) being paradise only ever came up on DS9 because the writers were cynical, spiteful and arrogant. " Setting aside this hyperbolic attack on the DS9 writers (most of whom were also TNG writers), the notion of Federation paradise came up repeatedly on TNG from the first season onward. In "The Neutral Zone", Picard and the rest of the crew treat the 20th century humans like backward savages, disparaging concern with money or power, and commenting on their evolved sensibility and life with all material needs met. By the beginning of the sixth season, Troi feels comfortable in dismissing Samuel Clemens' cynicism, commenting that poverty was "eradicated" on Earth, along with "hopelessness", among other "bad things". She makes some pretty remarkable claims, even though in past episodes we've certainly seen *human* colonies and settlements that fall well short of such "paradise" (see Tasha's planet, the DMZ). Maybe the word "paradise" was never used on TNG, but it was most certainly implied, and I don't think Sisko's line from "The Maquis" was without prior TNG basis. But what *did* Voyager really add? I currently have "Favourite Son" on in the background - an episode that exemplifies Voyager's character development failings. The show was premised on how a ship with a mixed crew of Starfleet and Maquis was to survive and get home from being marooned in the Delta Quadrant, where they'd have no access to Starfleet resources or allies. The character mix was meant to allow for conflict and different agendas, but this was lost after the first or second season. Early on we had Seska and Suder as interesting non-Starfleet perspectives, but the show got bogged down in familiar villain-of-the-season (or week) plotting, with the Kazon serving as by far the most uninteresting and one-dimensional antagonists yet. At least the early Ferengi were bizarre and weird-looking! What's interesting is that DS9's Maquis development never went anywhere on Voyager - you'd expect at least some of Voyager's Maquis shared Eddington's opinions, yet we see no evidence that they even exist after the first season apart from the main cast. I think Voyager's major problem is that nothing ever had lasting consequences. That's not an opine for serialization, but it would be nice if there'd been an emphasis toward long-term plotting from the very beginning. Unfortunately, Voyager never managed to tell a long-term story from within the ship (except maybe the spy plot of Season two), because they never bothered to develop any significant recurring characters among the crew. Instead they focused on external threats - the Kazon, the Vidiians (probably the most memorable and interesting Voyager contribution), and then later on an overload of Borg. Ron Moore was right - Voyager remained static and unchanged, with no real pressures or stresses to the crew - or to the Starfleet command structure - despite extreme isolation. Where did they get all those extra shuttles? How did they repair the ship after "The Killing Game"? How did they make repairs? Occasional references to "rations" don't cut it. Even if you accept Janeway's leadership, the fact that there was never even an attempted mutiny on the show is stunning. It's not even about plausibility - that kind of story line could be mined for interesting plots, and instead by season three we got "Rise", "Darkling", "Favourite Son", and other monotony. In "Equinox" we got to see a Starfleet ship that under similar circumstances ended up going in a very different direction. I don't think the show was ever about picking a "moral" vs. "amoral" course, as this episode seems to require, but that there were story possibilities - one might say imperatives - that were never explored. And I don't know why you'd compare "Measure of the Man" to "Dax". I'd think "A Matter of Perspective" might be a closer amalgam, though "Dax" regrettably lacks the great dialogue exemplified by "You're a dead man, Apgar! A dead man!"

In fairness, I will grant that said DS9 writers parodied Picard's lines from First Contact not once but twice: 1) Jake quotes Picard's description of Federation ideology ("We work to better ourselves and all humanity.") in "In the Cards", and admits it boils down to not using money. 2) Quark directly quotes Picard in "The Dogs of War", arguing that change in Ferengi society had gone too far: "The line must be drawn here; this far, no further!"

Phew, a lot to answer for I see. Let's begin. @Paul M: "Only it doesn't. Voyager pays lip service to the idea of being stranded far away from home, it pretends that the ship's situation has meaning and repercussions. But it doesn't." This is only true operating under the assumption that being isolated from the Federation would *undermine* Federation values. What's so affirming about the show is that this does NOT happen. They come close (in episodes such as this one), but always pull back from the brink. Admittedly, not all the characters developed sufficiently on the show (Harry, Chakotay, and Neelix to a degree), but the rest showed visible and continuous signs of growth and change *with respect* to their predicament. What VOY did not do is suggest (in most cases), that, like O'Brien in "Hard Time," when under duress, Federation values fall away like flimsy bits of a straw house. In terms of the Universe dynamics, Voyager added 3 major and important contributions: development of the Borg, a corrective to franchise's misogyny, and a continuation of TNG's AI right's theme. There were also some minor additions to the mythology of Vulcans and Klingons. I do grant DS9 its full dues in terms of format, continuity care, structure and especially the development of a 2nd-tier cast. If you observe my comments on this site, there is ample evidence of that. @Niall : As I pointed out in my post following my contention of "bullshit," Paul M's claim that while the first 3 Treks had grandiose themes related to a philosophy of Paradise, while Voyager in its 7 seven seasons amounts to nothing more than "fun" to be an incredibly biased remark. It operates under the assumption that what DS9 attempted to do (philosophically) was good for the franchise, an assumption with no basis in fact. On to your more expansive point--my willingness, if not eagerness, to discuss nearly every opinion (be it thought-out and cogent) is evidence of my "openness" to other opinions. My reaction to Paul M.'s post was warranted by the flippancy of his remark. He granted all but this show the benefit of an assumed philosophical agenda because of his own bias. More to the point, you don't get to qualify my posts as "trolling" due to the presence of profanity. That's an elitist position which assumes timbre to equal substance. Regarding my assessment of the DS9 authors : I make my claims based on the content of the writing, not an assumption of their character. It would take you little time searching through comments on this site for examples of casual dismissal of Voyager writers as "lazy," or "cowardly." Now, I am happy to observe the evidence for these claims, but I do not engage in the kind of hypocrisy you've demonstrated by claiming that such statements are "a puerile, gutter-level slanging match." Your assessment of me as fallacious in my arguments and closed-minded in my engagement with the opinions of others is easily disproved. Look on the pages for "Hard Time, Far Beyond the Stars, Dear Doctor, Yesterday's Enterprise, or Mortal Coil" for relevant examples. Finally, I don't need to "make the show's case," as you say. It has its own following and fanbase just like every other Trek. What I object to is the arrogant assumption that Voyager is intellectual stunted in comparison to its predecessors, because it chose to emulate rather than repudiate its progenitors. @Josh : "Setting aside this hyperbolic attack on the DS9 writers (most of whom were also TNG writers), the notion of Federation paradise came up repeatedly on TNG from the first season onward. " I don't think so. Yes, your examples and others show how humanity had evolved since the 1980s in your first example or the 1890s in your second. Sisko's line in the episode you mentioned makes the assumption as you. In DS9's case you are willing to forgive this notion because you (presumably) agree with the sentiment. The Maquis (and we've debated about the validity of their claims) had a particular reason supposedly for abandoning the Federation, and that was over territory. That issue is completely moot in the DQ. One does not get to take a subset of humans with a very specific agenda, remove that agenda, then expect them to act as if they still did. Regarding the minor psychological effect their breaking away might cause, this is present in the show, inasmuch as we see former Maquis (Torres, Paris & Chakotay). VOY's take on what the Maquis would do on Voyager is MORE realistic than the assumed course the show would take of pointless bickering and anti-Starfleet smugness. More realistic if the claims of Picard and Troi in your examples are to be believed. DS9's case is only compelling if you hear those claims and say (if I dare to be profane again) "BULLSHIT!" "I think Voyager's major problem is that nothing ever had lasting consequences. That's not an opine for serialization, but it would be nice if there'd been an emphasis toward long-term plotting from the very beginning. " I completely agree. That was Voyager's major flaw, although I don't remember anyone lodging that DS9 had an "overload of Dominion."

@Elliott - I will disagree (rather largely) with quite a bit of your assessment of Sisko's arc. Your view of Janeway however makes the first 6.75 seasons more interesting I think. I still can't forgive her for the finale and Friendship One.

@Robert : glad I could help! For the record, I don't think we're supposed to forgive Janeway for her line in Friendship One (I assume that's what you're referring to). Rather, I see that as a signpost to the Janeway we see develop in Endgame.

Elliott... ok, so I totally get where you're going with this, and I agree it could give VOY a continuity and a serious 7 year Janeway arc that I hadn't really considered before. And the Janeway from Friendship One (yes, that's the line I'm referring too... the one that completely condemns Star Trek's premise of exploring new worlds) ends up being Admiral Janeway and that when they meet they can both have an awakening of sorts. Your hypothesis that "In "Endgame," it is revealed how this path eventually leads Janeway to become so utterly concerned with making up for her perceived mistakes to her crew, that she becomes totally blind to all the good that developed as a result of her leadership concurrently. It takes a trip through time and confronting her past to realize this." seems to be holding pretty firm here. "JANEWAY: Maybe we should go back to Sickbay. ADMIRAL: Why, so you can have me sedated? JANEWAY: So I can have the Doctor reconfirm your identity. I refuse to believe I'll ever become as cynical as you. ADMIRAL: Am I the only one experiencing déjà vu here? JANEWAY: What are you talking about? ADMIRAL: Seven years ago you had the chance to use the Caretaker's array to get Voyager home. Instead you destroyed it. JANEWAY: I did what I knew was right. ADMIRAL: You chose to put the lives of strangers ahead of the lives of your crew. You can't make the same mistake again. " And it's good stuff. Admiral Janeway is "all the way jaded" but Captain Janeway still has a shred of the old Janeway in there. Meeting herself makes her realize that she doesn't ever want to get that way. "ADMIRAL: Coffee, black. JANEWAY: I thought you gave it up. ADMIRAL: I've decided to revive a few of my old habits. JANEWAY: Oh? What else besides the coffee? ADMIRAL: Oh well, I used to be much more idealistic. I took a lot of risks. I'd been so determined to get this crew home for so many years that I think I forgot how much they loved being together, and how loyal they were to you. It's taken me a few days to realise it." By here your hypothesis takes full effect. Admiral Janeway finally finds redemption (in that she was wrong to become so jaded) and Captain Janeway has rediscovered who she should be. So what do they decided to do with their newfound knowledge? Change the past anyway..... I mean... couldn't they have ended with the same choice as Caretaker, book ending the series with them still lost in the Delta Quadrant, but this time with the whole crew realizing that it's right? Turning down the shortcut home "for the journey"? I could even buy the ending from Friendship One being the catalyst that brings us to Admiral Janeway (and therefore necessary for her character arc) if she didn't end the series making the WRONG CHOICE!! What's your thoughts on that?

@Robert : Your ending would indeed have been more dramatically honest, and I consider the choice the writers made at this point to be a bit of a cowardly move, BUT, the arc is not circumvented. In Caretaker, Janeway gambled the safety and potential happiness of her crew to make a moral choice. She lost, or so it seemed. There was no magic cure to get them home. And in Caretaker, no body was on Janeway's side (though they accepted her decision as captain). In Endgame, they ALL chose to make the same choice and gamble (but with the sense of family their journey had instilled). This time, their gamble paid off. But it paid off AFTER they had decided that it didn't really matter--they were going to do the right thing no matter what. So their success in finally getting home was a contrivance by the writers to give us a happy ending. In that way, it's no different from the BSG finale. After the dramatic arc was complete, then payoff becomes a fairytale. There are execution problems in Endgame, most notably the severely rushed ending (which BSG did properly).

Yes, from CAPTAIN Janeway's perspective she did the right thing (destroying the hub and getting her crew's home). But from ADMIRAL Janeway's perspective it was still kind of disgusting. She erased 23 years of Voyager's history in the Delta Quadrant, presumably doing good, for 3 of our mains? I suppose maybe after Friendship One they stopped exploring and bee-lined home, so there was nothing to erase that outweighed the destruction of the Borg hub. Endgame was a hot mess of plot anyway since the Borg never use that hub to attack Earth....

@Robert, Elliott I haven't rewatched Voyager. I was not a fan of Endgame when it aired, and I largely agree with Robert's reasons. However, generously: If we accept (and I do) that the primary aim of "Endgame" is to provide a proper mythological conclusion to the series, then Admiral Janeway is not really a character at all, nor does the future actually exist. Elliott's fascinating argument is that Admiral Janeway is an exaggeration of traits that we are seeing manifest in Captain Janeway, including the infamous "not worth one life" line at the end of "Friendship One." Admiral Janeway, the uber-pragmatist, who cares about her "family" over ethical/spiritual concerns, is a plot device and metaphorical representation of a certain side of Janeway. Plotwise, Admiral Janeway's presence fulfills some of the same role as Captain Janeway's pragmatic instinct and imagination, located *within* Captain Janeway, recognizing the possibility of going through Borg space in "Scorpion." That pragmatic instinct that Admiral Janeway represents is important, but it's not "really" a full person, and so (in this read) shouldn't be held to ethical standards at all. From Captain Janeway's, and the show's, perspective, the alternate future in "Endgame" doesn't even happen -- nothing is destroyed, because it's all imaginary to begin with. In addition to the BSG finale (which admittedly, I *also* had big problems with and can't emotionally get behind, alas), there are two points of comparison that come to my mind right now: "All Good Things..." (obviously) and "Children of Time" (less obviously). In some senses, "Children of Time" inverts "Endgame"; it takes the "future" seriously, and the melding of Odo and Future Odo into one person literalizes the way Janeway incorporates her pragmatic, family-centric self without actually let her be defined by it. But Our Odo doesn't make any choice; Future Odo does. This is not, I think, a flaw in "Children of Time," because, for one thing, it's not the series finale, and Odo's scary attachment to Kira and amorality are going to be examined in the future. "Endgame" more obviously borrows its structure from "All Good Things...," though. And in "AGT," the future is also a pragmatic place, and a smaller one. Unlike Voyager, there is no specific Caretaker-array-destruction event that represents the moral imperative. But the anti-time anomaly is still a metaphor -- for, I think, the importance of exploration, of spiritual matters, of Science-Fiction, of...I don't even know. Of what it is when they say "to boldly go...." It's obviously what Q means when he says that humans are going to go to the next level. What's great about this is that TNG, over the course of its history, became less and less about exploration and more and more about politics, as the galaxy seemed to get smaller and the importance of meeting various others' needs became greater. This is not a failure of the story, IMO, but a recognition that political concerns, managing how to live with one's neighbour, etc., really are important. There's less time for the pure, heady, Idea stuff. But that is something like what a lot of people go through in their lives -- starting with something "pure" (like being a philosophy major) and then eventually having to learn how to live with other people, make it through the day comfortably, etc. The past versions of the crew are wide-eyed with wonder and committed to exploration and the pure unknown; the future versions are set in their ways, either away from the frontier or primarily concerned with not upsetting the delicate political balance of power, and are afraid of change. They are a little like Admiral Janeway, in that sense, though "AGT" is less explicitly concerned with *ethics* so much as something like the realm of ideas versus the realm of reality. The anti-time anomaly is bigger in the past, because the importance placed on exploration is greater. In a similar way to Janeway, Picard is able to both use the pragmatism and reawaken the idealism in his future crew -- who represent one possible future for the cast. In that sense, Elliott's claim that the dramatic ending is the Voyager crew going up against the Borg and the ending is properly a bonus maps very well onto the way the dramatic ending of "All Good Things..." (and, indeed, the television series) is the three crews sacrificing themselves to save humanity -- without having much besides Picard's word and the scientific method to go on. That they ultimately survive the sacrifice is immaterial, and Q even mocks Picard's "small-minded" concern for his crew -- "My ship! My crew! I supposed you're worried about your fish, too." But ultimately, of course, they do survive. I think there is something dramatically meaningful in this, even if it's also a bit of a cheat. Heroes should be willing to die for something bigger than themselves -- but, you know, willingness to die for a cause, and actually dying, are not synonymous. Heroism is maybe the condition of being always ready to sacrifice all for a (genuinely good) cause, without losing one's joy of living in the process.

This is probably my favorite Voyager two-parter, even though it was ultimately reset by the next ep and we never saw the Equinox survivors again (too bad, I would have liked to see Marla Gilmore and/or Noah Lessing redeem herself a la TNG's "Lower Decks"). To me, what happened to the Equinox symbolizes what Voyager's first season could have been. I loved watching Janeway become obsessed and watching conditions on Voyager gradually deteriorate to match those of the Equinox, kind of symbolizing Janeway's descent into darker territories. The technobabble got too much for me after a while - I agree with Jammer, it could have been simplified immensely without affecting the plot. Fun fact: Max Burke was played by Titus Welliver, who played the Man in Black on Lost. I knew he looked and sounded familiar but didn't realize why until I re-watched this episode and saw his name in the credits - he looked completely different without the beard. And Rick Worthy, of course, played the Cylon Simon on BSG.

If IMDB is to be believed, they are making a TV movie spun out of this two parter. Surprised me but I'm game. I think its gonna be along the lines of Renegades.

grumpy_otter

"And about this confrontation—it sure ranks as a lame one: Doc walks in and says, "Computer, delete the Equinox EMH," and, sure enough, the Equinox EMH vanishes, game over. Talk about your convenient ways to off a bad guy. Come on, people." I completely disagree on this point. This was Indiana Jones pulling out his gun and shooting the swordfighter with no fanfare after an elaborate. I recently rewatched this, and couldn't remember how the evil EMH was dispatched. When it happened, I guffawed and thought--perfect!

I wished that the series had continued with Lessing appearing every now and then. It would have been interesting indeed to see how he would have handled loss of rank given by the same Captain that fed him to the dogs (or in this case the alien of the week with no name given. At the very least the writers could have had an episode in which both he and Janeway were exclusively involved some kind of morality struggle. Sometimes it seems the writers never fully capitalize on concepts that pop up during storytelling. This one was practically begging to be told. Voyager mostly stuck with standalone episodes after Season Two. And while this may have been good to avoid continuity issues (think Dr. Who) it made the show feel less consequential than Enterprise. (Didn't like the series but I liked the continuity it kept which was its one saving grace). A follow up with Lessing after she nearly let him die would have been the humane thing to do. And it would have been more in line with Gene Roddenberry's vision of the series.

never liked Janeway. this simply cemented her to completely despicable status. she's always been reckless, inconsistent and selfish, but here, she's a completely murderous bitch. absolutely hateful.

The first episode did a quite good job of depicting an interesting premise but Part II is a good example of the series's tendencies toward both sensationalism and playing it safe (still OK but sure could have been better).

Well, that was quite a disappointment. Star Trek's classic cliffhanger method, of writing the first half without the second half in mind, is not always a recipe for success, and it shows here. What was the point of this conclusion? Yes, I know, we wanted to show Janeway getting darker and Ransom getting remorseful. The problem is, it just comes out of nowhere, particularly for Janeway. Here she is, obsessed with getting Ransom to the point that she's ignoring the fact that her ship was under attack. She was ignoring perfectly reasonable suggestions from Chakotay. She was willing to murder the Equinox crewman. Why? Because he betrayed the Prime Directive? Because he was callous? Because he was a fallen hero of hers? I don't know, it just comes up out of nowhere. I mean, I like the idea of Janeway being a bit darker. But let it flow naturally from the plot and from her character, don't just flip a switch to turn her into evil Janeway. Instead of being engaged, it just threw me out of the episode. Same with the Doctor lobotomizing Seven. After all, he was still the EMH even if his ethical programming is gone. Again, why is there just an evil switch for him? Isn't he kinda sorta in love with Seven? Without his ethics, he becomes a sadist? Not gonna happen. Why does he even listen to Ransom? And for that matter, if Ransom was still a good Starfleet captain and was just willing to kill in order to get home, why is he willing to torture Seven to death? Shouldn't he be more squeamish about such a thing? Wouldn't the rest of the crew be willing to defy Ransom when the stakes went from capturing a few weird aliens who are trying to kill them to torturing a human? Actually, that was another huge problem with this episode. None of the Equinox crew showed any concerns about waging war with Voyager or torturing Seven? In part 1, there appeared to be some dissent among the crew, now it doesn't show until First Officer Satan McEvilface took over. Speaking of which, is he really trying to kill his ex-girlfriend? They seemed to be on friendly terms; why doesn't that gnaw at him? Why doesn't he feel anything about leaving her behind? In short, we had a potential for some real drama behind all of these characters, and we should have focused on that drama instead of this cheap action piece that was shown. Too bad.

The command structure of this ship is weak. If Janeway were talking to Riker that way Riker would use his authority to take command of the ship instead of letting a renegade captain on the loose threatening people who disagreed with her. Instead everyone cowers and then in the end act as if what she did was right,

@Elliott you clearly have issues and take this stuff WAY too seriously.

Diamond Dave

A major disappointment after the first part. I think what is most frustrating is that Ransom had a much more subtle portrayal in the first - here is turned from mustache-twirling villain to psychiatric case to reformed character in a series of heroic turnarounds. Max turns from mustache-twirling villain to full-blown psycho. Good Doctor turns into Evil Doctor at the flick of a switch. And all that's without Janeway's full on Ahab conversion, which really comes out of nowhere and leaves you almost expecting a "From Hell's heart, I stab at thee" moment. This just seems odd to me, and the conflict with Chakotay gets brushed under the carpet at the end with a "you probably had cause to mutiny there" "yes, but I wouldn't". Oh, well that's OK then. Outside of these very strange writing choices, we have an exciting and gorgeous looking actioner. What could have been... 2.5 stars.

It's episodes like this that frustrate me because of what Voyager could have become. I really liked this, however again... no lasting consequences.. I know it was episodic and nothing could carry over to the next episode; but it should sometimes. Janeway and Chakotay should have been cold to one another for at least the first half of this season, and then do a nice character episode where they dump all their pain about it on one another and reconcile. I understand budgets and all that; however, they should have brought those two equinox crew back at least once... show them scrubbing toilets (we know toilets don't exist on Trek starships! but you know what I mean); and struggling with suicidal thoughts or something because of the guilt of what they were part of. Voyager did many serious episodes, however, so afraid to carry anything over afte that episode is done. I was watching DS9 at the same time of course and loving the continual storylines and character development and was always frustrated that Voyager didn't want to do that. I am not asking Voyager to be DS9, but they could have at least taken a bit of inspiration.

Not sure why Jammer's mark is 3 stars when his write-up seem to justify 3.5 or higher. I LOVE this episode because it DOES take Janeway out of sorts. I can see why this fuels Janeway's rage. She (and Voyager) have been falsely accused of all kinds of crap here in the DQ, he has towed the line in the name of what's right and then another Star Fleet Captain shows up and decides to deep fry some sentient beings for a quicker way home. You don't have to say your sorry to understand you were wrong. eeeeh..... Who cares how the EMH gets back to Voyager. Seven and Doc singing was touching. She was using it in an attempt to "reach" him. Two things keep this episode from getting 4 stars from me. #1, Ensign Gilmore goes from all timid/sorry for what we've done/guilt in part I to sure captain, lets keep frying folks in the blink of an eye in part II. #2, I would have liked to see Janeway lay it all out in the Captain's cabin with Chakotay. I wanted to hear her, possibly making it to tears explain what fueled her rage. That could have been epic, especially with Kate acting it out. That aside, 3.5 stars from me.

FlyingSquirrel

Yeah, I thought Janeway could be interpreted as not simply determined to punish Ransom for his crimes, but angry because she typically rejects simple expediency in favor of adhering to principles, even to the short-term detriment of the ship and crew, while Ransom threw morality out the window and might have even ended up returning to the Alpha Quadrant sooner and getting away with it. (Though I did wonder how effectively the Equinox crew could have covered up their actions if they did get home on their own. The Federation doesn't seem like they'd take deliberate murder lightly, so I'd have to think the crew would face a lengthy prison sentence if they were found out.)

FlyingSquirrel, I thought about that the other day... let's say they did make it to the AQ... how do they escape the aliens? Subspace is big :-) I don't think they do and therefor, getting back isn't going to be any better than where they were in the DQ. Hiding and running for their lives.

I hadn't even thought of it from that angle, i.e. that the aliens might continue pursuing them through subspace. I just meant that there are a lot of ways they could have gotten caught if and when they managed to evade the aliens and get back to the AQ. At the very least, they'd have to: 1) Destroy all evidence of their ever having killed the aliens (technology, logs, etc.). 2) Come up with a new and scientifically plausible explanation of how exactly they did get back faster than one would expect by conventional warp. 3) Have an airtight story about how all the relevant logs were destroyed and why there is no trace of whatever pretend-technology they invoked for Step 2 (or, failing that, create fake traces of it). We've had numerous Trek episodes where the characters are able to solve a mystery or disprove somebody's version of events by using their technology to reconstruct situations and generate evidence. A single piece of reconstructed data, a misplaced phaser burn, or any number of other small slip-ups would be all it would take for the Equinox crew's story to fall apart. They'd have to hope that Starfleet would just take their story at face value and not bother trying to investigate or verify it.

Having just watched Beckett's Endgame, I certainly think a lot of you have missed something pretty deep for Voyager. We're getting on.

@Skeptical, one thing I liked in both parts was that, despite occasionally being likable in dark, warped ways, the Equinox crew was pretty unapologetic about their actions, reluctantly admitting the actions were horrible but feeling they were still fully justified.

Finally watched both parts of this the other night and wow were these episodes excellent! If VOY had been more like this I would've never missed most of Seasons 4-7 when they were first run! And another recent episode where Chakotay had balls! Bravo!

Difference between Janeway and Ransom: Ransom died. Janeway is just as capable of evil. (***)

Damn, these two parts were bad. The worst sort of bad - not only poor, lazy writing, but actually destructive to the show. This two parter actually manages to fundamentally damage two characters: that's quite the achievement for 1 1/2 hours of storytelling. 1. The doctor. So, the doctor is simply a function of his ethical subroutines. First, why does he have 'ethical subroutines' that are easily divisible from his character? If one were to delete my 'ethical subroutines' then I'd cease to function. My personality and behaviour would not make sense. It would be like deleting the CNS from a living being: you can't just remove something so fundamental. Aside from that (rather obvious) point: if we forget the impossibility of that for a moment, and assume ethical subroutines can be isolated and removed, then why is the result what it is? Why is the doctor suddenly risking his own neck - his own program - by helping people he's never met? This seems to me a combination of two related but distinct confusions on the part of the writers: a. The plot driver - that the doctor would help the Equinox crew because he's evil. b. That removing ethics = actively evil, as opposed to devoid of ethics. They are, of course, entirely different states of being. Somehow, the doctor has none of his old friendships, his loyalty to the Voyager crewl heck, even his self-preservation is gone, as he helps the obvious underdogs, even though his program would be able to trivially calculate the (slim) chances of their success against Voyager. Even leaving aside the unexplained absence of his other non-ethical character traits (like friendships, or even love for Seven), his actions are unjustifiable on purely self-interested terms. None of this would be so bad if many of the same traits - loyalty, friendships, etc - weren't thrown in our face by being demonstrated in the other EMH. The doctor's character in this episode makes absolutely 0 sense. The result is a confusing mess that can only lead us to believe that the doctor is fundamentally bad - he has no real friendships, loyalty for the crew, or love for Seven, etc. The only thing keeping him obeying Janeway is his ethical subroutines. The only other option is to believe that the doctor's program is trivial to alter: it's so simple that Ransom could isolate all of his ethical subroutines, as well as all of his loyalties and friendships, and just remove them, while rebuilding his program into a coherent personality, with a simple few buttons. The latter is implausible and has been contradicted in the past, but it's obviously the more attractive proposition. Now, onto the second character, who is, if anything, even more grievously assaulted by the writers. 2. Captain Janeway. There are several grounds for complaint. The first is, obviously, consistency. This is the Janeway of Year of Hell, who was apparently a stalwart defender of the Prime Directive, and a tested veteran in the Delta Quandrant. She wasn't new to any of this. Why is it that on the feeblest of pretexts - she doesn't like the cut of Ransom's jib - she throws it all away and suddenly becomes evil? She's far and away worse than Ransom. He was out there for years in an inferior vessel, against the worst of the Delta Quadrant. He had a choice, but the years of pressure got to him, and - of course - he was only the Captain of a short-range science vessel. She was captain of one of the most up-to-date long-range military ships in the fleet, expected to deal with the complex morality of hunting down ex-starfleet officers. Starfleet command would only have chosen the most morally sure and psychologically stalwart officers for the job. But - even with her sonic showers and replicators intact - all it takes is a couple of hours and a flimsy desire for 'revenge' for Janeway to lose the plot? We also have to complain about plausibility. In short, Janeway ought to have been relieved of command in the course of the episode, and the mission should have been continued with Chakotay at the helm. I could understand, at least to some degree, if the episode were cast as a permanent and serious mental breakdown for Janeway. The idea of a captain like Janeway getting away with throwing other imprisoned starfleet officers to the wolves (nigh-literally),capturing an innocent vessel and forcing them to help her, or offering up an entire ship for sacrifice, is beyond farcical. Were it to actually occur, the captain would surely be, as I said, permanently relieved of command, delta quadrant or no. This is especially the case in a crew partly comprised of Maquis - individuals who threw away their ordinary lives, many ex-starfleet, to risk their lives for a *moral* cause. Finally, likeability and confidence. The Janeway of Equinox is not a character I have any interest in supporting, identifying with, or appreciating. Knowing that a trivially-triggered, obsessive, psychopathic personality lies dormant makes the character ultimately repulsive. How do the writers expect the serious among us to go back to following her next week? Sure, you might say 'it's only a TV show'. I agree. But that doesn't let the writers off. We need to sympathise with our main characters, and here we're left with a choice of pretending it didn't happen or dealing with the fact that the captain is now a mentally unstable murderous moral hypocrite. (I chose the former, of course...) The damage done to her character actually reverberates among the crew: where's Chakotay or Tuvok or even Harry Kim during all of this? They ought to have put a line in the sand at some point. But all we get are a few worried looks. Sure, Chakotay is relieved, but there's no way he should have let it get that far, and there's no way he should have stood by after being relieved instead of intervening. This ultimately only harms our opinions of the other crew members. Clearly, unlike Picard's or Kirk's crews, the crew of Voyager will not step back from doing the most heinous and immoral things when commanded to by their captain. This causes similar grounds for complaint to those about Janeway, particularly in consistency. Anyway, enough. I could write for days about the issues with this two-parter. For me, it represents everything that was bad about Voyager. 0 stars from me: episodes like this are worse than episodes like Threshold, for me, because the latter only hurt the technobabble, but the former undermine the characters, who are the foundations of the show. And they do it on the flimsiest of pretexts, and all for the sake of giving us a couple of action-packed hours.

Another one of those "if you switch your brain off its ok" episodes. Unfortunately there were a couple of things I just can't get past: 1. Janeways behaviour. Yeah she's pissed off but they went way over the top with it. I didn't buy it at all. She was like a different character entirely. 2. The doctors actions. The equinox Doc had no ethical subroutines but he's still loyal to his crew. Voyager Doc loses his and he's ready to lobotomise seven. Rubbish. I know both of these points have been mentioned above but they deserved to be restated. 2 stars (I managed to switch my brain off to some extent)

Until now I just didn't realize how many roles Titus Welliver has had that I've enjoyed watching. As for the ending of this two parter - why did Chakotay remain on board after this confrontation. It would have been real interesting if he had decided to take his crew and leave Janeway on her own. But of course, next week everything solved and all is happy happy on board voyager. Oh, well.

The "deleted ethical subroutines" is perhaps the biggest cop pout in all of Star Trek. Even if that were done, the Doctor has still made relationships with people. Even Hitler loved somebody.

Their story was rather uninteresting, and the Equinox crew were a total snore. The crew was already so far gone when Voyager first encountered them that they should have blown the Equinox to smithereens nearly from the gitgo. It would have been totally justified. The clincher was when Marla, presumably the least treacherous of the crew, betrayed Voyager even after her "I'm glad you caught us" speech. The evil doctor is the only reason the Equinox's plans weren't foiled in the first few minutes, and I totally reject the premise of the evil doctor. This episode strains to earn 1 star.

I love your reviews. You must have put serious hours into all this. I almost always agree with you too. I came here to check if I was going mad about how the doctor managed to get back onto voyager without his mobile emitter too and thankfully it looks like I wasn't. Seems the writers for some reason thought it was possible to beam a hologram aboard.

@Dave Your post is beyond dumb. It would have been stupid to blow them up because it would have been tantamount to murder.

The Man, this is the second time this thread that you have used ad hominems. Your response to Elliott was just a pure antagonistic response. You also did it to me on another review. Please quit it. Either debate the points or don't bother replying. It's easy. Dan.

Very tense and fun episode. Major complaint would be Janeway's hypocrisy, but it isn't. Her experiences in the Delta quadrant actually support her condemnation of Ransom's actions and violation of Federation Principles. The true culprit of hypocrisy is Janeway's superpower: plot contrivance. Because Voyager seemed to be uninterested in exploring the idea of a Federation starship in dire circumstances over a long period of time, they used the Reset Button on a near-weekly basis. (Can you imagine how much more engaging and interesting Voyager would've been with even a sprinkling of what Equinox went through?) Plot contrivances allowed for Janeway to take stands and act based on Federation principle because she would rarely have to face the consequences of her actions - either because the episode is written to conclude with her in the right or when she did face consequences, they didn't matter because they would be resolved or ignored by the episodic reset button. It doesn't take away that the episode was gripping at times. It was nice to get a taste of what Voyager could've been in better and bolder hands.

I agree with the sentiment of many commenters that this 2-parter started out strong but it squandered its potential. I loved the Equinox characters and I wish they had stretched this out over a longer arc. Would have loved to see Tom Paris conflict with Max Burke more. But the ending felt pre-ordained; when it became clear in the first part that Ransom and his crew did some heinous sh*t you knew that the show would have to end with a redemptive self-sacrifice, and Ransom's transformation was not convincing in the least. And like other people have mentioned, the fact this show does not bother to track characters' relationships over time is a real problem. The presence of Equinox crewmembers on Voyager would pose huge complications (namely you have this group of Starfleet Nazis who should have to stand trial when you return to Earth) but I guess that was ignored. The fact that the EMH can turn on a dime when you delete his "ethical subroutines" poses real problems for the idea that he's a sentient being with rights (and should also cause him to question his identity as a moral sentient being). The fact that Seven now knows this and was in fact tortured by him should also pose a huge problem for their relationship. But for all of these issues, the ending suggests everything's copacetic shows the limited imaginations of the creators.

Another reason (or 2 or 3) for Janeway not to be the captain of anything.

It's a shame they never had the Equinox crew reappear. They even could have used them for another shot at the Starfleet-Maquis story. Oh well.

I liked this episode, but I didn't really like the Doctor going "evil". The concept of switching off his ethical subroutines to twist him I can buy, but it shouldn't immediately switch him into a merry puppet of the bad guys - maybe it should just make him willing to go along with them in response to threats to his own safety and/or the safety of Seven - who he cares for for more than just ethical reasons. And I don't entirely buy Janeway's characterisation in this, but I can buy that this is a situation that would push her more to extremes than most so I don't find it egregiously bad.

Four stars from my perspective. The evolution of humanity in Star Trek Universe is not genetic. Its cultural. Under the appropriate circumstances the human mind changes its view point. It can even see 5 lights instead of 4, in reference to Picard /TNG episode. Janeway got so angry, because she projected to the other captain her feelings toward herself. Her inner conflict and self anger between coming home and adhering the ST principles was never resolved. Only postponed. When she found someone that chose the different path, she fell into the classic trap of suppressed gays hating open gays. She lashed out. She wanted to punish herself by punishing this captain, her projection. In the end, the last scene made me cry. Being a human in Star Trek is not a given angelic status. Angels sometimes fall. In such case, they should repend and try to climb again, in the heights where they belong. PS. I am an atheist, forgive my angelic metaphor, its for easier cultural reference.

Prince of Space

Dateline July 7th, 2014: Niall types, “...which is why I’m taking you on right now.” hahaha... oh keyboard warriors, never change! [Insert montage video of Niall bench-pressing keyboard while “Eye of the Tiger” plays] Oh yeah... we’re supposed to be talking about the episode. Um... pretty silly, truthbe told. GREAT concept... but pedestrian execution. But... since I do so enjoy Trek... I was still entertained and for that I am grateful.

"Quite simply, the sight of Janeway standing ice cold in her place — having locked Lessing alone in the cargo bay with some none-too-happy aliens, and now firmly reassuring Chakotay (none too sympathetically) that "he'll break" — is downright frightening." Actually, it's simpler than all that: It's Janeway doing to one of the Equinox crew what was essentially the equivalent of what Ransom had done to the nucleogenic lifeforms: using him to get what she wanted. It was only when Chakotay flouted her orders and saved Crewman Lessing that she relented, because she couldn't "otherize" her own first officer as she had her intended victim. But then again, the argument can be made that it was Janeway's self-righteous vendetta that drove Ransom to the extreme actions he took in this conclusion, and made his arbitrary reemergence of conscience more than a little implausible. Extreme circumstances had led to his extreme actions in the first place; now his circumstances are even more extreme, but he has a change of heart and agrees to give up? How did that make any sense? What was the practical difference between the Haakonian Order and Voyager? Both were utterly determined to wipe out the Equinox with comparable levels of bloodlust. If Janeway had taken a more conciliatory approach to Ransom, there'd never have been any shooting at all. And as to the shooting, how is it, even with the Equinox EMH stooging Voyager's shield modulation frequencies, that a gutted little science vessel was able to fight toe-to-toe with an Intrepid-class starship that has battled on an equally absurd even footing with everything up to a Borg tactical cube? If the two Starfleet vessels were going to go to war, Ransom's wouldn't have lasted thirty seconds, and both he and Janeway would have known it. Hence, the whole action premise of the conclusion is a ridiculous, unworkable non-starter. Once Janeway found the Equinox again, that would have been it - unless Ransom dared her to destroy his ship and crew. That would have been an intriguing position to put Janeway in - not with a single Equinox crewmember, but with all of them. Could she have been Ransom's judge, jury, AND executioner? In for a penny, in for a pound? If the writers wanted conflict in this two-parter, this is where it should have ended: with Ransom self-destructing with all hands before Janeway could give the order to fire. To have seen Janeway wrestle with the guilt of what she'd driven her fellow Starfleet captain to do (after coming down from her red-hazed insanity) would have been worth the price of admission. And it would have put a lot darker spin on whatever captured Equinox crewpeople remained on Voyager. How would they have reacted to being required to serve what could only be described as their own captain's murderer? Definitely seeds of subversive conflict for future episodes, much like the Michael Hogan character from season two selling out Voyager to the Kazon. Alas, none of that was to be. Most regrettable.

Terrific conclusion to "Equinox" -- there's plenty here to like and not much to shake a stick at. What gets into Janeway?? Did she forget her line to Ransom in Part I about principles and what makes us human? The confrontation between her and Chakotay harkens back to the outstanding "Scorpion". Also what's neat to see is Ransom's conscience resurfacing (through the holo-image gizmo). Interesting how the "no choice" seems to haunt him. And he goes back to the holo-images as Equinox blows up, but there are no humans appearing anymore. We get 2 mutinees, some decent action scenes -- clever how Janeway analyzed that Ransom likes to run/hide when confronted and asks Chakotay to figure out where he'd hide -- great start to Season 6. It's pretty clear what the plot is for Part II but the twists and turns are compelling. Janeway's vendetta / obsession is up there with that of other Trek captains, and this was great to see even if we tend to believe she's again borderline insane (pushing the envelope as in "Year of Hell"). Chakotay, as a 1st officer, is on point here as he just releases the prisoner from being killed by the aliens and doesn't hold back in his opposition to his captain. Both Mulgrew and Beltran are at the top of their games here. One thing that didn't seem appropriate was Doc. Singing with 7 -- was this part of Doc (Voyager Doc's) stall tactics for not wanting to dissect 7 to get the codes? Also, when Voyager Doc terminates Equinox Doc's program on Voyager -- that seemed too easy. The mutiny on the Equinox was also logical and at least the 1st officer believed he had a plan to get away (with using the Equinox Doc on Voyager to get shield codes) -- seemed to nearly work. This 2nd part had a lot of little things that had to fit together well to make the story work -- and it pulled it off quite well. Of course, Ransom, despite regaining his morals to some extent, wasn't going to give himself up -- pretty clear he had to go down with his ship. But that's a good component of a grand ending. Good enough for 3.5 stars for "Equinox, Part II" -- took a pretty good setup from Part I and really amped it up with some strong character performances from Janeway, Chakotay, Ransom. VOY is at its best when Janeway/Chakotay debate difficult decisions -- perhaps this happens better in this Trek than in any other. There were some good starship battle tactics as well -- nothing too far-fetched after Part I set the rules. Have to think Chakotay and Janeway going through what they did will make them stronger as a leadership pair.

toast crunch

Another one on the sucky list. Warp 10 episode was so bad it's good kind of way but here is like watching an action flick with no importance to the story. EMH magically reprograms himself not to be evil. Easily kills the other doctor. Somehow with no shields they could not beam off max and the other 3 dudes and asian chick. In the end janeway pretty much strips everybody of their rank. Gives them limited access. And forces them to work as crewmen even though they were following orders. AKA they are now slaves, no different from the people that were imported from Africa to work in plantations. I'm surprised she didn't declare the blond girl as the ships service girl. After all it's better than a hologram. Then the janeway/chakotay thing. all water under the bridge even though she was acting full bonkers. At least sisko had a plan. Janeway just bullshitted through the whole thing as usual and the writers gave her a pat on the back. I swear the writers on this show are so retarded sometimes.

Generally agreeing with many, that the second half was disappointing, after a mainly strong first. But a few problems irked me in both. Watching them back-to-back, the "cliffhanger" of Janeway getting hit was even more ridiculous. Immediately as the 2nd half resumes, Janeway is fine, and Chakotay is down. What the hell was the point of that? I assumed they were regretting their cliffhanger, not wanting to sideline Janeway - sidelining Chakotay never bothered the writers. But Chakotay was back on the bridge in two minutes too, so it really wouldn't have mattered. Others have already pointed out the teeth-gnashing handling of the Doctor sans ethics, and casually reporting "shield frequencies" during the battle. That last underscores the particular ineptitude of Security in this one: not noticing clandestine communications to the Equinox, or access to super-critical tactical information during the fight... and during the breakout the hapless security teams all get taken out without hitting a single one of Equinox' people. When Equinox is preparing to bolt, right after the breakout, Voyager "targets their power systems"... and fires once. How about, oh I don't know, twice? Five times? With no shields between the two ships, it should have been child's play. Yes, our crew got busy suddenly, but this was a super-high-priority task... keep the Equinox from making off with the only way to stop the alien attacks. Keep one person pushing the "shoot phasers" button. Ship's phasers can of course reach the planet's surface. Don't follow the Equinox into the atmosphere, stay up and just plink away at it until its shields are down, sigh. And one last point, not raised yet: Chakotay wants to work on translation, Janeways insists on pursuing Ransom. Utterly contrived, this wasn't an either/or situation. Umm... you have 140 people onboard. How about having one of them push the "chase Equinox" button, while another says "computer, keep working on this translation thingy". And the others can do nothing, as usual.

I liked the first part better, as Janeway really went too far off the wall for me, here. I definitely can understand her outrage and determination - and possibly, she's fighting a temptation to give in and use the aliens herself, to get home. Certainly there's some suggestion that she's identifying with the offending Captain. But still . . . the whole interaction with Chakotay was awkward . . . sometimes, Mulgrew and Beltran really nail it, I mean flawless flow, and other times it is so awkward and you can see the actors struggling. I'm curious what (if anything) they'll do with the extra crewmen. I liked the way the Ransom just escaped to the sea.

Sean Hagins

A GREAT episode! I do think they took Janeway's obsession with getting Ransom a bit far. She was seriously going to kill that guy? And she was seriously going to let the aliens revenge themselves on the Equinox? I KNEW that engineer would have a change of heart! She's too cute to be pure evil! Hehe! Ok, I kid, but she IS attractive-much more than anyone else on Voyager or DS9 with the possible exceptions of Ezri Dax and Kes. Which annoys me that they have this setup for her (and the other captured crewmembers) to become recurring characters and have a kind of return to the Marquis untrustworthy crew on lower decks, and yet unless I am forgetting, we never see any of them again!!! Ok, back to the episode-it was very entertaining! I'll say this though, I hope the Federation never meets either the other dimensional aliens or the aliens who knew them again, because they probably have a REALLY bad impression of humans! I do agree that it seems VERY convenient (read, impossible) that ALL of Ransom's crew went along with this twisted scheme! I mean do they put all the pyschos on the science vessels, or what? I also think that the science ship put up too much of a fight against Voyager-even before the evil doctor essentially disabled Voyager's shields, the Equinox got in too many licks on Voyager-a full-fledged starship. But, whatever-it was good, clean, escapist fun!

I never felt Seven was using her singing to reach him or convince him to stop. I looked at her eyes (which were wide open and unblinking) and always felt her singing was due to what he was doing to her. He'd hit some kind of sing Reflex.

Captain Ahab. Well, not as deep-rooted as that. But Janeway continues to puzzle me. Perhaps her nickname should be "The Curious Captain". Curious because her behavior is not consistent. For example Kirk and Picard had different approaches to their MO's but at least they had consistencies in their overall tendencies. Examples of her actions thus far, need not be repeated as all you commenters have covered it. Here, she goes all Ahab and hell-bent like the wrath of Kahn and even demotes Chakotay. In a way, it was a behavior reversal from what the Janeway/Chakotay duo would have acted like (or expected to act like) in the very beginning of the series. But you know, maybe by either accident or design, it may make Janeway more interesting....certainly more unique. This episode had the usual head scratching moments and bad science, but what an exciting episode! I was head over heels (still am) with Grace Park in Battlestar Galactica. And now Seven of Nine graces (pun intended) Voyager. Lots of respect for Chakotay in this one.

One big gaping plothole: in Equinox part I it was established Ransom needed to kill over 60 more aliens to get home. He got away from Voyager with one dead alien, but his ship is still falling apart. How will they succesfully harvest dozens of aliens without getting destroyed?

Sleeper Agent

The first part was pretty good, the second part, however, is magnificent. Mostly thanks to Mulgrew, who is absolutely ravishing as dark Janeway. The interplay between her and Chakotay also added an interesting dynamic to the duo (although I can't for the life me understand why anyone would disobey Janeway). Also, Savage does an excellent job as Equinox's Captain. I thoroughly enjoyed the Doctor without the ethical subroutine as well, reminded me of the great movie "The Dentist". 4 Stars, thanks to the Janeway factor.

There's always two ways of looking at things; from the light of a star, or from the shadows of a deep valley. Both are equally legit, but for your own sake, why not chose a perspective that lends a joyful nature? The comments are many here, which have a negative ring, especially regarding Janeway. This quote from James (Oct, 2016) for example: "But - even with her sonic showers and replicators intact - all it takes is a couple of hours and a flimsy desire for 'revenge' for Janeway to lose the plot?" A similar comment about Captain Sisko in "From the Uniform" is yet to be found, even though the storys are fundamentally identical. Not in million years would the other captains be described as having a "flimsy desire for 'revenge'". We all know why. As there are so many comments of similar character, I can only come to the conclusion that most people seem to expect Janeway and VOY to be something that they aren't. But it is what it is, and when it all comes down to it, the characters are supposed to be human beings. In Equinox Janeway experiences serious exasperation, this is something we all do, especially in tense, demanding situations. And even if one is expected to behave in a certain way, things sometimes fold out in an unpredictable fashion. Now there lies the strength in Mulgrew's portrayal of Captain Janeway. She is a competent Captain, loyal to Starfleet, beloved by her crew. Certainly very powerful but not without a playful side and a sense of humor. And at the same time, underneath that duty mask she is a lonely, vulnerable woman; never afraid to sacrifice herself for the greater good just as she isn't afraid to do what she thinks has to be done, be it of a very controversial nature or not. There is great beauty in the balance of Janeways many nuances; if one would only refrain from readymade expectations, its there for everybody to behold. Just my 2 cents. Love & Light

@ Sleeper Agent, I'm quite happy to read people defending characters they like, but just for the sake of balance I'd like to point out that For the Uniform has probably taken more flack from users here than any other Trek episode. In fact I might even wager that there have been more complaints about it than an entire season of Voyager...or maybe even the entire series combined. I guess I'm not going to go and do a complaint count but it's quite a lot anyhow. It's totally fair if you think Janeway has been treated unfairly in Equinox reviews, but it's a day at the spa compared to the examinations of Sisko in For the Uniform, or even the cross-references to it in other threads.

I wasn’t moved, annoyed, edified, instructed, or enlightened by this 2-parter. I wasn’t quite bored, but neither was I greatly entertained. I haven’t watched through the end of the series yet, so don’t know how Janeway’s arc of characterization (as opposed to character arc) will end - but if the obsessive, judgmental, something-like-vengeance she pursues here is as extreme as she gets, I’ll consider it reasonable for a person with the character traits we’ve come to know, when placed in this situation. It was interesting to see her go this far, but it represents only an incremental development, neither surprisingly new nor a change in direction. I thought every interaction with Chakotay was dead-on. I think the two characters have demonstrated a coherence of temperament, a shared ethical and moral core, and Chakotay is often not only her sounding board, but a valued additional or alternative perspective. When they are in agreement about matters of morality, ethics, command, and heading (as they usually are), she is confident they are right. Both are generally confident in each other’s probity and judgment - enough to cut each other some slack and reserve censure when one feels the other has gone (or is headed) out of bounds. So when Janeway realizes she has departed the bright circle of agreement they usually share, she knows it - and, headstrong in the moment of the emotional duress she is giving into - feels defensive about it. That comes with additional reflexive anger at her own reaction, and that anger provides more fuel for the fire. She KNOWS she’s stretching the cords that bind them, likely senses when they threaten to break - and, as Chakotay remains a fixed and implacable center of moral gravity - she is drawn back into the circle. The scene at the end was enough to satisfy me that she recognized and admitted she’d almost gone beyond the pale, and to reassure me that Chakotay would not have departed the circle had she gone further than she did - that he would have relieved her of command if necessary. Which is an interesting contrast to Equinox’s first officer, who ultimately mutinied because his captain belatedly regained his moral center - kinda suggesting, in a quiet way, that Janeway was fortunate to have such a fundamentally decent man as FO, and Ransom was partially undone by having a very different sort. We might even speculate that, had Ransom had a more morally sound FO, there might not have been sufficient moral latitude on the Equinox to allow alien-burning in the first place. But I recognize I’m only drawing inferences the episodes allow me to make, but do not explicitly illustrate (or perhaps even intend). Because, again: while the story did not offend my sense of what’s reasonable for the characters in this interesting situation, neither did it provide any psychological epiphanies or philosophical insights. It seemed merely workmanlike, and business as usual. ______ I do have a couple of observations about Equinox’s EMH/our Doc (and 7/9). In contrast to several posters above, if we accept a fully sentient, hologrammatic AI in the first place, I find it perfectly believable that “deleting the ethical subroutine” would result in the behavior depicted. (Leaving aside the improbability of such a program’s code being so easily accessed.) It also seems an obvious metaphor for sociopaths or extreme narcissists - people who can seem completely normal but for behavior suggesting they’re MISSING some psychological component that most other humans seem to have. Also, most Trek medical procedures seem to take just seconds, or no more than a few plot minutes - especially those involving Seven and her digital bits. So it seemed odd to me that the memory-extracting, brain-damaging procedure Doc was doing for Ransom could take “an hour more” (as Doc said), when it had clearly already gone on for some time. And given that Doc and Seven were reprising the duet singing both had enjoyed in the past, I had the sense that, missing subroutines or not, Doc was simply stalling for time, and NOT meddling with Seven’s brain. I took the singing as a way for him to reassure her (without saying it in so many words) that he would not hurt her, and was playing Cap’n Ransom.

I love Chakotay's line at the end about how his staging a mutiny would have been crossing the line. Was a nice way to bring the episode full circle

@ Peter G. I'm fully aware of all the scorn Sisko got in "For the Uniform". My point, however, was the way it was expressed. I don't know if it is because the captains are of different sexes, but the comments about Janeway tend to be somewhat more belittling, as seen in the example I gave, which talks about her having a "flimsy desire for 'revenge'" despite "her sonic showers being intact". Comments like that (and it is my feeling there are many of them), have an underlying nuance of sexism. If you look through the comments about "For the uniform", you don't really find criticism of that nature.

Excellent two-parter that rather impressively dares to make you feel uncomfortable with the character's actions. One of the strongest uses of Voyager's unique predicament to date and an excellent performance from Mulgrew to top it off.

Walrus1701D

This episode bugs the hell out of me. Ransom's betrayal reduces Janeway to basically committing premediated murder, and I'm sorry, but that's unforgivable and it should have seriously damaged Chakotay's trust in her from this point on (not to mention the rest of the senior staff who barely go along with her reckless decisions after she relieves her first officer). She admits that Chakotay "might've" had good reason to stage his own mutiny, and then the episode ends a minute later. Janeway's actions completely compromise her character and ability to command. If this is how far the writers were willing to stretch her, then the only plausible conclusion would be to have Janeway remove herself from command until she got her mind right. Someone who has been built up with such a moral compass would see the error of her ways and be responsible enough to own up to it. I can damn well guarantee that the Doctor would not find her fit to command after this. It took her months to come anywhere near to being this reckless in "Year of Hell," and the Doc rightfully chose to relieve her. But of course, in Voyager, there are no lasting consequences for anything, unless you're Tom Paris.

One more note about the Doc and Ethical Subroutines: If he had those removed, he would still love (or deeply like at least) Seven. If his ethics were erased, he would still feel the same toward Seven, and so it would have been far more realistic if that resulted in his going on a rampage to kill Ransom and the others, for harming Seven. As far as him shutting the EMS program off, tho other commenters thought (given how easy that was) then anyone else could have done it, it makes sense to me that Doc (and only Doc) could do this, because the main computer would likely read Voyager Doc's voice print in the same way as its own Doc. Presumably the EMH programs have the ability to shut themselves down. And since voyager doc's eventual "sentience" seems to have come as a surprise, the computer would not have reason to suspect that a free-thinking, distinct individual—rather than its own ship's Doc—was making that request. I also think it's likely that the Equinox Doc was not at all the unique sentient entity that Voyager Doc evolved into (which has had much to do with his unique experiences and interaction with the personalities on Voyager and those they've met from other places. Thus, Eq. Doc was acting merely as a non-sentient EMH program being directed by Ransom and the others—NOT out of "loyalty", as the above commenters assumed.

Lameway turns into a bloodthirsty hardass when dealing with a group of humans trying to reach Earth, having let every Johnny B. Alien in the Delta Quadrant walk all over her and almost destroy Voyager on at least two dozen occasions rather than open fire either preemptively or even when under attack. Pfft. Other than that, a swell episode. Love the action sequences and the plot turns. As I'm wont to say: good sci and good fi!

I read recently that Ronald Moore just flat out did not accept the ending of this episode, that Janeway and Chakotay simply could not go back to the way things were before. So I was watching that final scene, and it's clear to me that they were beginning the process of repairing the relationship, and that Janeway was tacitly admitting she had gone too far. There was an apology there, and in the end while Janeway may have preached about sticking to principles, it was Chakotay who had actually done so. It was nicely played by Beltran and Mulgrew, in my opinion. I thought it would have been interesting to play out this scenario for a few more episodes, and have Voyager and Equinox travel together for a short time. Shake up the status quo for two or three episodes before having the reveal of the aliens and the showdown. There was some untapped potential there. I was glad to see Ransom found some redemption in the end. He fought with his conscience, he struggled, and in the end turned around and made the right decision, so he gets to go down with the ship and save lives rather than be fried by the aliens like Burke and the other mutineers.

I think I've watched through the Voyager series a dozen times but somehow I had never seen these two episodes before. I don't think I was missing much though, I really didn't like this story. I find it very hard to believe that an entire Starfleet crew would turn into a bunch of murderous savages no matter how tough a time they were having, and it's even harder for me to believe that Janeway would turn into such a complete lunatic that the Voyager crew were on the verge of mutiny; why would Chakotay and Tuvok not have relieved her of command? I mean she almost murdered that crewman and was endangering Voyager, then she takes an innocent alien vessel by force, really? Also what in the world was the deal with her following the Equinox into that planet's atmosphere, is she a complete moron? They obviously wanted her to follow them, it was clearly going to damage Voyager, and for what? It's not like the Equinox was going anywhere. They couldn't stay in the planet's atmosphere forever. This was just a bad episode, I found the one where she and Paris turned into lizards more believable.

What a terrible episode. Pretty much everything has been said above: - Janeway is horrible, turning into a cold blooded murderer twice (mass murder on the second attempt) - Ransom’s change of heart makes no sense, it’s just a contrivance to close the episode - Chakotay / Tuvok should have relieved her of command, she was a madman. As in not that I personally think they should have (which I do), but in the sense that their characters as we know them for the past 5 seasons would have never allowed things to go that far - The doc’s behavior makes no sense, ethical subroutines deleted or not, it makes no sense they are easily removable anyway without major impact on other aspects of his mind/functionalities - Voyager should have outgunned the Equinox in an instant - Voyager’s tactics to follow the Equinox into the atmosphere is so stupid - Voyager’s security team are really the worst of starfleet, couldnt stop a few scientists who escaped the brig Etc. Etc. Etc. First part set up was so good I knew they would end up butchering everything in part 2. There were so many interesting ways to take this. But I would say above all, not being a feminist (or woman) myself, I liked the idea that in the 90s they were promoting gender equality with a female captain... but when you look at episodes like this one, it actually achieves the opposite, many people will draw the conclusion (consciously or subconsciously) that the last thing they want is a woman in command. Everyone involved would have been much better off with Chakotay or Tuvok at the helm. What a horrible show.

I have read all the 125 comments on this episode, since the first one posted in 2008 until the last one posted a month ago (May 2021). The one that closely describes my original view of the episode is by James, posted on Sun, Oct 9, 2016. But reading all the different viewpoints in comments made me realize not only something about the episode, but more so about myself. I realized my view of Janeway's character might be quite off the mark; I was simply seeing what I wanted to see in an ideal captain and was explaining away some of her past departures from that as occasional mistakes, or minor flaws in scriptwriting. But some of the comments here paint a very different (but a lot more self consistent) character for Janeway. And the ease with which some commenters can see that character, some not even realizing why other commenters are upset, hits me in the head as well, as it shows the large spectrum of the differences in philosophy of Trek viewers. One wonders, how alien are humans to each other, if even the Trekkies, who are a specific subset, can be so different. I won't rate the episode, but 4 stars to Jammer, for running this website, and to all the commenters, who put very thoughtful but opposing views in a civilized manner. (Yes, even the criticism of some commenters warning others about keeping the discussion civil, and the counter-responses are generally very civil.) Perhaps this is the true Trek spirit, one that Roddenberry would approve of.

Equinox, parts I & II Great review Jammer.... Had to supply the plot framework behind good Doc's appearance....goes like this: when Gilmore releases Ransom "I'm with you sir!" Ransom regains transporter control and sends Doc over to Voyager. It's so dark on Equinox (it really is only about 5 lumens tops in most scenes over there) that you can easily miss Ransom's left hand touching the 'remove Mengele subroutine' rocker switch while his right hand adjusts the EMH dimmer up to just shy of the full 'St. Francis of Assisi' level. Good thing too, for if he had gone all the way to Assisi maximum, Doc would have hugged the evil EMH once aboard voyager. The episodes were great. We all agree that: (1) Chakotay was right; (2) that Janeway was obsessed, like Kirk in TOS' 'Obsession' only 5 times more psychotic and self-destructive; (3) that Tuvok thought Janeway was nuts; (4) that Harry Kim couldn't believe what she had become and was close to tears. Some commenting on this site were offended by her actions. I say good. You're supposed to be. She is so far off the deep end that it makes for a slew of superb scenes. My favorite one, one which I could replay 5 times in a row and not tire of it, is the scene after Chakotay saves Lessing, and Janeway sees that Chakoray is intent about contacting the Ankari. She walks right past him. In the next scene, the camera pans from B'Elanna past the evil EMH and Chakotay to Mulgrew, who silently stands in the background while Chakotay is issuing his game-plan 'about the Ankari' to the crew. Sometimes she is actually out of focus. It leads to the famous exchange: CHAKOTAY: "I don't give a damn about your log. This isn't about rules and regulations, it's about right and wrong. And I'm warning you, I won't let you cross that line again. JANEWAY: "Then you leave me no choice. You are hearby relieved of duty until further notice." CHAKOTAY: "What's happened to you Kathryn?" JANEWAY: "I was about to ask you the same question." They are 5 inches from each other. Her look is one of total disdain for him. It is one powerful piece of theatre. The actors are spot-on and the music works perfectly with the cinematography. She is one scary lady. 4 stars for that scene and a lot more at similar pitch.

Ignoring the frankly disturbing portrayal of Janeway as fanatical, monomaniacal and absent her ethical subroutines, ‘Equinox’ is for me a wonderful two-parter that delves into some exciting ideas and deals with them mostly well in my opinion – most notably in its stark portrayal of the plight of the Equinox itself and its crew, whose ‘Years of Hell’ in the Delta Quadrant were intensely unrelenting, unlike Voyager’s. Remember that the Equinox – as a Nova-class starship – is weaker, slower and with fewer crew than its Intrepid-class counterpart. Voyager lost 18 crewmembers of 142 (141 original crew + Paris) when it was dragged to the Delta Quadrant in ‘Caretaker’ – 12.7 per cent. Voyager was then supplemented by up to 36 Maquis from Chakotay’s ship (plus Tuvok, Kes and Neelix) by the end of the first episode. The Equinox, in contrast, lost 39 of its crew of 78 in its first *week* in the Delta Quadrant (on top of any who were killed in the transfer to the Delta Quadrant) – 50.0 per cent. (If the Equinox lost the same proportion of crew as Voyager did when it was dragged to the Delta Quadrant, we can add another ten Equinox dead to that 39, meaning after a week in the Delta Quadrant the Equinox had just 29 crew members left of an original 78 – 37.2 per cent. This compares to Voyager having 124 of 142 original crew (including Paris) still alive + the Doctor + 39 Maquis, Tuvok, Kes and Neelix – 166 total crew in its first week in the Delta Quadrant, or actually 114.8 per cent of its starting crew when it left DS9.) So the Equinox crew survives four whole years alone, severely disadvantaged, in the Delta Quadrant in its own ‘Year of Hell’ scenario, their number dwindling to not much more than 15-20 crewmembers by the time Voyager chances upon them. Of course, by the end of ‘Equinox’ it is even worse, with just *five* Equinox survivors left to join the Voyager crew. Presuming all the Equinox crew who merge into the Voyager crew are original Equinox crew, that means Equinox had a survival rate of barely 6.4 per cent! By contrast, the survival rate of the Voyager crew that left DS9 – plus Paris – by ‘Endgame’ is 104 of 142, or 73.2 per cent, assuming (implausibly) that all unknown deaths shown or mentioned are Starfleet personnel only not Maquis. This of course raises the awkward question of what the responses of loved ones in the Alpha Quadrant were once contact was re-established – on the one hand, they discover that Voyager had survived, but on the other hand that a significant proportion of its crew had perished; the Maquis had also largely survived; and that, incredibly, some of the Equinox crew had *also* survived – but that nine out of ten of them had not. (And imagine having to explain what became of Lyndsay Ballard and poor Lieutenant Carey.) Stark stuff. It was fantastic to see a Nova-class starship – and one that had taken a different route and far less amenable route through the Delta Quadrant. I loved the final scene with Janeway sternly integrating the survivors into Voyager’s crew. Of course, we never saw them again (Lang apparently turns up on a casualty list in ‘Imperfection’). ‘Equinox’ has plenty of flaws, of course, but I really cannot help but love what the writers attempted (successfully in my opinon) to do. (Crew complement source if anyone is interested: https://www.ex-astris-scientia.org/inconsistencies/voyager-crew.htm)

@Bok R'Mor Thanks for presenting an interesting analytical post on the Equinox two-parter. Crew losses and impact on survivors on the vessels and at home (in Alpha) is an important topic. We just watched Equinox again with two friends last night. They loved it (never having really seen Voyager) and I appreciated it even more than I had the other times I have seen it. The Janeway - Chakotay feud and forgiveness story is a favorite aspect of mine.

@Sigh2000 Thank you for your kind words – and I hasten to add that all credit here is due to the hard work of Ex Astris Scientia in compiling the wonderful original data, not me! I completely agree with you about the full circle development on the Janeway-Chakotay dispute in this episode, which is some very satisfying character interplay which nicely resurrects and deals with – admittedly overly swiftly, but nicely nonetheless – some of the Starfleet-Maquis discord on which VOY was supposedly based, but which of course mostly evaporated early on. I always liked Janeway’s and Chakotay’s professional relationship and their friendship (*not* any hint of romance, though), and their determination to rise above the circumstances that brought their two crews together – and I like how ‘Equinox’ shows how far the two ‘sides’ have come, to the point that they are not ‘two sides’ any more, but one integrated crew. So when we see a breakdown in this contentment, a lot is at stake emotionally speaking. I think ‘Equinox’ handles this jarring shift very well. (As an aside, I don’t actually agree that the Maquis aspect was as totally discarded in VOY as many people frequently state it was, but it certainly did not play as major a role as it should have. While I like to see the all too few reminders of Maquis-Starfleet tensions throughout the series, I also think that VOY would have been rather depressing viewing if the Maquis arrivals and Starfleet crew had been at one another’s throats for seasons on end in constant simmering conflict. One may criticise the way in which the Maquis-Starfleet stand-off is solved, via the total assimilation of the Maquis into Starfleet – ‘We’re alone in an uncharted part of the galaxy […] Both crews are going to have to work together if we’re to survive. That’s why Commander Chakotay and I have agreed that this should be one crew. A Starfleet crew. And as the only Starfleet vessel assigned to the Delta Quadrant*, we’ll continue to follow our directive to seek out new worlds and explore space’ – but it *is* a very Trekkian solution insofar as it shifts the focus to a post-conflict scenario. Furthermore, in purely practical terms, the Maquis are outnumbered passengers on a Starfleet vessel, so Chakotay et al are entirely dependent on Janeway and Starfleet if they are to have any chance of making it back to the Alpha Quadrant. Janeway, for her part, feels that she owes the Maquis for having taken the decision to strand both crews in the Alpha Quadrant.) With regards the crew statistics, I should emphasise that they contain significant uncertainty – notably concerning the overall number of deaths of Maquis personnel on Voyager. Four identified Maquis + Seska are definitively killed during the series (five of 36 who come aboard = 13.9 per cent). There are however at least a further 11 Voyager crew members whose deaths are depicted or mentioned but who are not identified as either Starfleet or Maquis. If we (with no evidence whatsoever) presume that the Maquis crewmembers were represented among those unidentified deaths in accordance with their overall proportion in the Voyager crew of 164 at the end of ‘Caretaker’ (i.e. 123 surviving original Voyager crew + Tuvok, Paris and the Doctor = 126 Starfleet crew; 36 surviving Maquis crew; + Neelix and Kes = 2 others = 76.8 per cent Starfleet, 22.0 per cent Maquis; 1.2 per cent others), we can then distribute these unidentified deaths as two Maquis and nine Starfleet. So by including this calculation, we can clarify that 107 of 141 original Voyager crew who left DS9 in ‘Caretaker’ were alive by the end of ‘Endgame’ – a marginal improvement to 75.9 per cent. (In rough terms, the survival rate of the original Voyager crew is always about three-quarters, no matter the fine calculation used.) While we do not know how many Maquis set out and how many died while being dragged to the Delta Quadrant, it is reasonable to assume the same casualty rate as Voyager (12.7 per cent, or five deaths), meaning if 36 Maquis + Tuvok survived to join Voyager, then Chakotay’s ship had 42 people on board when the Caretaker took it. So the overall Maquis + Tuvok survival rate by the end of ‘Endgame’, all things considered, is 71.4 per cent (30), a little lower than the Starfleet crew’s, but still far, far better of the Equinox crew’s 6.4 per cent. Another important aspect to bear in mind when considering the survival rates of the original Voyager crew, the Maquis, and the Equinox crew is that the Equinox lost as many as 24 crewmembers between its 39 deaths in its first week in the Delta Quadrant and when it met Voyager six years later – an average of up to four deaths a year or more than 10 per cent of the crew (and increasing) each year! For comparison, this would be the equivalent of Voyager losing 16-31 crewmembers – maybe even more – each and every year up to the end of season six. Given such a rate of attrition, even if the Equinox had never met Voyager – and presuming the Equinox did not make it home – the Equinox crew would have dwindled to zero anyway within 3-4 years of the date of its meeting with Voyager. The Equinox truly was a ship of the damned. Finally, much is made of the lack of continuity in VOY, but the crew complement of Voyager at any given time as stated in dialogue or seen on-screen is astonishingly correct at most times (with several notable errors). So that was at least one aspect of continuity that was generally respected and upheld remarkably well. *This statement by Janeway is actually untrue, as Voyager was in no way actively ‘assigned’ to the Delta Quadrant. Its role there was a de facto fait accompli one. I cannot recall if Voyager’s presence was retroactively turned into an official Starfleet mission when contact was made much later in ‘Message in a Bottle’, but is certainly incorrect to describe it as such in ‘Caretaker’ – except for reasons of morale.

@Bok R'Mor "I always liked Janeway’s and Chakotay’s professional relationship and their friendship (*not* any hint of romance, though), and their determination to rise above the circumstances that brought their two crews together...." I share this view, as I do your opinion that there was greater continuity to Voyager than many care to recognize. I think that this is marked by recurring references to the Maquis, whether direct ones or subtle exchanges that sound almost like the Maquis themselves after years in the Delta Quadrant, are now just 'old comrades' in a struggle which has dwindled in importance. I am glad that Voyager was not developed into a mutiny-attempt-of-the-week sort of program. Such a theme was explored enough I think.

Somehow this two parter just bored me though I can't figure out why. Perhaps perceived padding, for instance the two Equinox officers strolling on the planet talking about how much it was like SoCal maybe. It did go on for quite a long stretch.

I disagree with Jammer on one point. Doc simply deleting his evil counterpart was totally badass!

A rather contrived episode...if not for the Doctot's "ethical subroutines" schtick it would have lasted all of ten minutes instead of two gull hours. Plus, as Jammer said, the Doctor is magically restored towards the end just in time to neutralize his still evil counterpart...I guess we just assume that Ransom took care of that - somehow - after his change of heart, or had GIlmore do it. And the Doc/Seven duet was tedious. When Ransom put a stop to it with "Enough!" it was the best moment of the episode.

Gilligan’s Starship

I liked part 1, but part 2 was the obligatory “Starfleet Captain becomes Captain Ahab” obsession story we’ve seen before with Kirk, Sisko, and now Janeway. It’s great to see Chakotay stand up for himself now & again but those scenes were all too infrequent in this series. And Janeway is acting way out of character with this seething vendetta, it just felt “tacked on” for the sake of the story.

My only real qualm with this episode is that it missed an opportunity to better utilize the doc in the plot. The equinox crew would have had very little idea of what they were dealing with when tampering with the VOY doc’s programming. He’s basically gone from a game of pong to deep blue super computer over the last five years, while the equinox doc’s programming was deliberately truncated to serve their evil purposes. As a result the equinox crew should have woefully underestimated the VOY doc and all he’s become, which should have played a role in their undoing. Instead he’s just hijacked and…meh. Other than that missed trick, and the frustration of voyager continuing to find alpha quadrant stuff everywhere, I’d say this is a pretty fun two parter.

Seven should have pretended to join the bad guys, and then quietly work at sabotaging them, like she did with the think tank. @Sleeper Agent: "The first part was pretty good, the second part, however, is magnificent." Agreed. The maximum four stars for me, after three stars for part one. @grumpyotter: "I completely disagree on this point. This was Indiana Jones pulling out his gun and shooting the swordfighter with no fanfare after an elaborate. I recently rewatched this, and couldn't remember how the evil EMH was dispatched. When it happened, I guffawed and thought--perfect!" Cosigned. @Proteus: "I took the singing as a way for him to reassure her (without saying it in so many words) that he would not hurt her, and was playing Cap’n Ransom." I didn't take it this way while watching, but I like this!

Well, this episode took a bad turn. I was on Janeway's side for part 1 and couldn't understand people calling her "self-righteous"-what Ransom did was OBVIOUSLY wrong! Well, now Janeway is essentially torturing a crewman (the one who she left in the room for the aliens to kill) and even telling the aliens that they can destroy Equinox (I am sure she meant the crew, not just the ship)? I don't know why television shows let the good guys go that far (I know people think of grey areas, but really things are black and white. If you do something "grey", it is "black" or wrong-there can only be one right path. Granted, you can stray from it, and then repent later, but there is no 3rd ground) I actually thought there was some sci-fi reason for Janeway's action. I mean while she was sliding into wrong thinking, Ransom (the other captain) was developing correct and repentant attitudes, and I thought some kind of "moral transplant" was happening. Well, that was obviously wrong. I don't recall, but I doubt we will see any of the Equinox crew again (even though they are on Voyager) especially the blond girl who also had a change of heart

@ZwiQ That is definitely true. While I like most of the episodes in the first 5 Star Trek series, the values and morals I espouse are VERY different than most of the people here.

I keep seeing people comment that STV squandered its potential by making Voyager too comfy, with unlimited shuttles etc, rather than making it desperate and hungry like the Equinox. I am all for tense drama, but I cannot imagine that working out for more than a few episodes. For one thing, it’s not much fun to watch people being desperate and hungry. For another, it would severely limit the storylines. Can’t have space battles (have to conserve the ship’s few precious weapons), can’t explore any DQ phenomena (a ridiculous risk and a waste of fuel), can’t get very far on the journey home (due to being constantly marooned due to ship damage or worn-out parts or lack of fuel), can’t negotiate as equals with other species (having nothing to trade and being simply beggars), have to spend every episode solving repetitive problems like “How will we get the broken nacelle fixed? Who can we beg a hot meal from?? Let’s hope nobody ever shoots at us, since we’re utterly helpless. Aaaand we’re almost out of dilithium once again”. I think the writers realized this in five minutes, and that’s why they moved away from that original premise.

Submit a comment

• Cast & crew
• User reviews

Equinox, Part II

Star trek: voyager.

• While trying to run down the Equinox and retrieve its captain, Chakotay fears Janeway becoming equally as unethical and corrupt, challenging his loyalty.
• Temporarily shielded from the alien attack, Janeway orders that their first priority is to find the Equinox, arrest Ransom and recover Seven of Nine. Chakotay disagrees but obeys. Voyager finds the Equinox and captures a few of its crewmen before the ship escapes again. Chakotay stops Janeway within seconds of sacrificing an Equinox crewman, so Janeway relieves him of duty. Meanwhile, the Equinox EMH, posing as Voyager's doctor, keeps in contact with Ransom. The Doctor, on-board the Equinox with his ethical subroutines disabled, begins surgery on Seven that will extract information but destroy her brain. Ransom has a change of heart and decides to surrender to Janeway. In disagreement, his crew stages a mutiny. Janeway finds the Ankari, a race that can mediate with the attacking aliens, makes contact with them, and agrees to turn over the Equinox in exchange for Voyager's safety. — Meribor

It looks like we don't have any synopsis for this title yet. Be the first to contribute.

Contribute to this page

• IMDb Answers: Help fill gaps in our data
• Learn more about contributing

More from this title

More to explore, recently viewed.

Star Trek: Voyager

Equinox, Part 2

Cast & crew.

Titus Welliver

Lt. Cmdr. Maxwell Burke

Olivia Birkelund

Ensign Marla Gilmore

Rick Worthy

Crewman Noah Lessing

John Savage

Captain Rudy Ransom

Eric Steinberg

Information

© 2011 CBS Corp.

Accessibility

Copyright © 2024 Apple Inc. All Rights Reserved.

Internet Service Terms Apple TV & Privacy Cookie Policy Support

• Web Channels
• Star Trek: Voyager

Equinox, Part II

Captain Janeway takes her quest for revenge against Captain Ransom to extremes when she orders the use of photon torpedoes against the Equinox , tractors a neutral ship, nearly kills an Equinox crewman during an interrogation, and relieves Chakotay of duty when he questions her actions.

John Savage

Titus Welliver

Rick Worthy

Olivia Birkelund

Majel Barrett Roddenberry

Eric Steinberg

Steven Dennis

Robert Picardo

Cast appearances.

Kate Mulgrew

Robert Beltran

Roxann Dawson

Robert Duncan McNeill

Ethan Phillips

Garrett Wang

Episode discussion.

No comments yet. Be the first!

• Star Trek: Prodigy Has A Brand New Trailer
• Paul Giamatti Cast In Major Starfleet Academy Role
• New Teaser And Photos For Snowpiercer’ s Final Season
• Star Trek: Prodigy Return Date Has Been Revealed
• Five Ship-Based Shows You Should Watch

• Next Generation

Equinox, Part 2 Star Trek: Voyager – Season Six --> Equinox, Part 2

Alien lifeforms assault Voyager, and Janeway grows determined to catch Captain Ransom and make him answer for his crimes. But Seven and the Doctor are captured by the renegade crew.

Den of Geek

Star Trek Voyager: An Episode Roadmap

Our viewing guide for Star Trek Voyager, if you want to get going quickly...

• Share on Facebook (opens in a new tab)
• Share on Twitter (opens in a new tab)
• Share on Linkedin (opens in a new tab)
• Share on email (opens in a new tab)

This article originally ran on Den of Geek UK .

Maps To TV Shows: Is there a popular show you’d really like to watch but you just don’t have time to wade through years of it all at once? Do you just want to know why that one character keeps turning up on Tumblr? Do the fans all tell you ‘season one is a bit iffy but stick with it, it gets great!’, leaving you with absolutely zero desire ever to watch the boring/silly/just plain weird season one? Then Maps To TV Shows is for you!

In these articles, we’ll outline routes through popular TV shows focusing on particular characters, story arcs or episode types. Are you really into the Klingon episodes of Star Trek: The Next Generation ? Do you want to get the overall gist of the aliens arc on The X-Files ? Or perhaps you’d rather avoid aliens and watch the highlights of their Monsters of the Week? Do you just want to know who that guy dressed like Constantine is? In these articles, we’ll provide you with a series of routes through long-running shows designed for new viewers so that you can tailor your journey through the very best TV has to offer. While skipping most of season one. It gets better.

N.B. Since part of the aim of these articles is to encourage new viewers, spoilers will be kept to a minimum. However, be aware that due to the nature of the piece, certain elements of world-building, bad guy-revelation, late character arrivals etc. will be spoiled, and looking at the details of one suggested ‘route’ may spoil another.

Ad – content continues below

Poor Voyager is probably Star Trek ’s least loved child overall. It competes with Enterprise for the dubious honour of the title Least Popular Series of Star Trek , and unlike Enterprise , it is rarely defended on the grounds of trying to do something interesting at some point its run or just starting to get good when it got cancelled. It also produced the only episode seriously considered as a rival to Spock’s Brain for the position of Worst Episode of Star Trek  Ever Made, and the fact it later produced two episodes that might be said to be even worse doesn’t really help its case.

Watch Star Trek: Voyager on Amazon Prime

However, Voyager is my personal favorite series of Star Trek . For all its many flaws, it offered a likeable set of characters who often didn’t seem to be taking any of it too seriously. It is, to date, the only Star Trek series with a female captain in the starring role, and for those of us of the feminine persuasion, that’s a draw (plus Kate Mulgrew’s Janeway is her own breed of awesome, even if she seems to change her mind about the Prime Directive from week to week). It boasted two talented actors in Robert Picardo and Jeri Ryan and made use of them – too much, perhaps, but if you’ve got it, flaunt it. The rest of the crew were also good actors when given good material, and pleasant company to be in on a weekly basis.

When I was growing up, we watched Voyager as a family (two teenagers, two parents) and everyone was able to enjoy it equally, while its episodic nature, so frustrating to those who preferred Deep Space Nine ’s more arc-based structure, was perfect for the four of us to relax with from week to week without worrying if we missed an episode. I also watched it with friends from school, and again, being able to jump around the series picking whichever episode we felt like watching without explaining a complicated arc to someone who hadn’t seen it before was a bonus. It’s purely a matter of personal taste, but some of us actually like episodic television.

I’m pretty sure I’ll never convince Voyager ’s detractors to see it in a fresh light, but for anyone who’d like to give the show a go to see if it was really as bad as all that, these suggested routes through the series may help. Alternatively, if you’re curious to see why the show has such a bad reputation (or if you hate Voyager and want to revel in how right you feel you are), there is a hate-watch route and for all that I love it, it had to be said, Voyager did produce some real stinkers in its day. Entertaining stinkers in some cases, at least!

Route 1: Honestly, this show is really good

There are a few of us for whom Voyager is our favourite series of Star Trek , and hopefully these episodes will show you why. Even season two produced some gems among what was, overall, a rather dull experience (one of Voyager ’s problems was that the first series featured the usual teething troubles, and the second series was really quite bad, which presumably put off a lot of viewers).

Season One:

Eye Of The Needle

Get the best of Den of Geek delivered right to your inbox!

Caretaker is one of Star Trek ’s best pilots; many were disappointed with the show because they felt its promise was not followed up on (those of us who started watching later in its run were less likely to be disappointed, of course). To describe what makes Eye Of The Needle great would be to spoil it so we won’t, while Faces features some fine character work from Roxann Dawson as B’Elanna Torres. Add Ex Post Facto , a fairly bland but quite fun episode, if you like whodunnits.

Season Two:

Tuvok’s dark side was always worth seeing and it comes out the strongest in Meld , while ‘the holographic doctor falls in love’ is a much better episode than it sounds in Lifesigns , which explores illness and self-confidence, among other things. Death Wish is probably the best Q episode in all of Star Trek , while Deadlock toys with being really quite brutal for a moment (before pulling back – this is still Star Trek , after all). If you enjoy more experimental episodes, add The Thaw , which appears on some people’s ‘best of’ lists and others’ ‘worst of’ – it’s certainly an acquired taste but it’s genuinely creepy (on purpose) and please note, its virtual world pre-dates The Matrix . Tuvix is also rather controversial, but raises some interesting issues and features some good performances.

Season Three:

Future’s End Parts 1&2

Before And After

Scorpion Part 1

The Chute features energetic performances from Robert Duncan McNeil and Garrett Wang, and some lovely cinematography in a fairly intense story. Future’s End is good time travel-based fun while Before And After features a teaser for one of the series’ best stories, season four’s Year Of Hell . The first two-parter to feature the Borg, Scorpion Part 1, was really excellent – the Borg were rather over-used later in the series, but in this initial appearance, they are as terrifying and as impressive as ever. Add Basics Part 2 for a great performance (as always) from Brad Dourif. Add Macrocosm if Die Hard on Voyager with giant bugs, starring Janeway in a vest, is your particular cup of tea.

Season Four:

Scorpion Part 2

Year Of Hell Parts 1&2

Message In A Bottle

Living Witness

Latest TV reviews

The rings of power season 2 episode 5 review: the battle to be the true lord of the rings, slow horses series 4 episode 2 review: a stranger comes to town, the lord of the rings: the rings of power season 2 episode 4 review – meet the stoors.

Hope And Fear

Season four was Voyager ’s strongest season overall and included of its best overall episodes – Scorpion Part 2 , Year Of Hell (in which the use of the reset button is entirely justified) and Living Witness , an exploration of the nature of history which also finds time for the always enjoyable Alternate Evil Crew trope. Much of the season was dedicated to developing new character Seven of Nine, somewhat to the detriment of the other regulars at times, but Seven is a genuinely fascinating character and most of the episodes exploring her slow transition back to humanity were good hours, One among them. Voyager didn’t have much of an arc plot, but season four also saw major developments in what arcs it did have, particularly in the hilarious Message In A Bottle . Add The Killing Game Parts 1&2 for a story that doesn’t make much sense if you look at it too closely, but it isn’t half fun to watch.

Season Five:

Counterpoint

Latent Image

Bride Of Chaotica!

Someone To Watch Over Me

Equinox Part 1

Unintentional hilarity aside, Voyager often did comedy really quite well, and Bride Of Chaotica! is surely its funniest hour. Timeless , the show’s 100th episode, is excellent, Drone is less about the Borg than you might think, while Counterpoint and Latent Image are strong, bittersweet instalments. The season once again goes out with a strong cliffhanger in Equinox Part 1 .

Season Six:

Equinox Part 2

Blink Of An Eye

Equinox Part 2 continues Voyager ’s tradition of providing mostly satisfying resolutions to cliffhangers, while Riddles and Memorial once again give the cast a chance to shine with dramatic material. Add Muse for some fun meta-fiction.

Season Seven:

Body And Soul

Workforce Parts 1&2

Author, Author

Body And Soul and most of Author, Author continue Voyager ’s strong set of light-hearted episodes, while Lineage is one of its best character pieces as well as a nice little science fiction story, and a perfect bookend to season one’s Faces . Add Endgame for a finale that does the job well enough, though it included some serious misfires that mean it would be left off most people’s Best Of lists.

Route 2: Crossovers and connections

Voyager is, so far, the latest-set Star Trek series – only the Next Generation feature film Nemesis (plus the odd time travel story) is set further in the future. As a series, then, it offers conclusions rather than foundations for later series. There’s still some crossover fun to be had, though.

As is usually the case, the pilot episode features as appearance from a regular character from another series of Star Trek , in this case, Deep Space Nine ’s Quark (logically enough, as the ship sets off from Deep Space Nine). Add Eye Of The Needle for a rare appearance of a Romulan in the Delta Quadrant.

Projections

Star Trek: The Next Generation ’s Reg Barclay made a number of appearances on Voyager , beginning with Projections . Death Wish also features a very brief (one-line) cameo from another Next Generation regular.

False Profits

Flashback is Voyager ’s celebratory episode marking 30 years of Star Trek , and it lives in the shadow of Deep Space Nine ’s spectacular Trials and Tribble-ations , but is decent enough itself, featuring appearances from Original Series characters Hikaru Sulu and Janice Rand. False Profits is a direct sequel to Next Generation episode The Price .

There were no crossovers as such in season four, but Message In A Bottle and Hunters refer to events from Star Trek: Deep Space Nine .

Voyager ’s 100th episode features a cameo from The Next Generation ’s Levar Burton, who also directed.

Pathfinder , featuring Barclay and another Next Generation character, Deanna Troi, was the beginning of a new plot development that would see Barclay and other Alpha Quadrant characters appearing more regularly, including in Life Line .

As in season six, we get a couple more forays into the Alpha Quadrant, mostly featuring Barclay.

Route 3: The shipping news

As ever, romance is not entirely Star Trek ’s forte, but Voyager did manage to produce one of its better-realised romantic couplings, as well as a relationship or two that had audiences rooting for further developments (and, it has to be said, some less successful efforts….).

State Of Flux

Faces lays the groundwork for Voyager ’s most successful romantic pairing, while Caretaker and The Cloud feature both the early stable relationship of Neelix and Kes and the quick establishment of a relationship and a dynamic between Janeway and Chakotay that had large numbers of fans hoping for further romantic developments between them. State Of Flux focuses on one of Chakotay’s more tumultuous romantic entanglements.

Non Sequitur

Parturition

Resolutions

Elogium is pretty terrible, but it’s one of the more significant Neelix/Kes episodes, though Tuvix is much better. Parturition is even worse, largely because it focuses on the early Neelix/Kes/Paris love triangle (though on the plus side, it features an actual food fight). Non Sequitur features one of Harry Kim’s least disastrous romantic interludes, while Resolutions is the only episode that properly addresses the Janeway/Chakotay connection that was so popular among fans. Technically, Threshold , an episode so bad it was later written out of Star Trek canon, features two regular characters having sex with each other (and babies, even). It’s not exactly romantic, though – but earlier scenes do play up the Paris/Kes and (more briefly) Paris/Torres ships in a more serious way, before it all goes totally bonkers. Add Persistence Of Vision for visuals on B’Elanna’s sexual fantasies.

The Q And The Grey

Blood Fever

Harry finds a woman who is a) not real and b) prefers a Vulcan over him in Alter Ego , so his romantic prospects continue to worsen. The Q And The Grey suggests that Janeway’s pulling power is really quite extraordinary and Coda plays up the Janeway/Chakotay relationship a little, though by Unity he’s gone off her and started pursuing Borg. Blood Fever properly kicks off the Paris/Torres relationship, but Displaced features a rather more nuanced look at that pairing. Add The Chute if you’re a fan of slash fiction (all potential subtext, this being 1990s Star Trek ) and Remember for B’Elanna experiencing someone else’s romantic relationship. Favorite Son features another of Harry Kim’s doomed romances, but it’s not worth watching for that reason. Or any reason, really, except to laugh at rather than with it.

Day Of Honor

The Killing Game Parts 1&2

Unforgettable

This is Paris and Torres’ season as far as romance goes, though Chakotay gets it on with Virginia Madsen in Unforgettable . Add The Gift for the resolution of Kes’s relationships, and Waking Moments for a glimpse into Harry Kim’s romantic fantasies.

Nothing Human

Romance for Chakotay in Timeless , Janeway in Counterpoint , Janeway’s ancestor in 11:59 , Tuvok (well, romantic feelings directed at Tuvok) in Gravity and unrequited love for the Doctor in Someone To Watch Over Me . Nothing Human is probably the best episode for Paris/Torres in this season; in Extreme Risk , B’Elanna’s friend and former crush actually does more to help her than her boyfriend. Add Course: Oblivion for more romantic scenes.

Ashes To Ashes

Alice (along with, to an extent, Memorial ) is the main Paris/Torres episode from this season. Theoretically, Fair Haven and Spirit Folk are romantic episodes, but that’s no reason to watch quite possibly the worst episodes of any series of Star Trek ever made. Ashes To Ashes is rather nonsensical, but as Kim’s annual doomed romances go, it’s a sight better than Favorite Son or The Disease .

Human Error

Natural Law

Making up for lost time and tying off some loose ends, romance was everywhere in season seven, for Paris and Torres ( Drive , Lineage , Prophecy , Workforce , Endgame ), Janeway ( Shattered , which revisits Janeway/Chakotay briefly, and Workforce ), the Doctor ( Body And Soul , Endgame ) and Neelix ( Homestead) . The main relationship highlighted in Human Error and Natural Law and also concluded in Endgame was, shall we say, not very popular, but if it has any fans, those are the episodes to watch.

Route 4: OK, this might be why Voyager isn’t everyone’s favourite…

Like all series of Star Trek , Voyager also produced some entertainingly bad stinkers that are truly entertaining when hate-watched with friends. Maybe even a higher than usual number. We’ve still avoided the truly dull episodes for the most part, though – these are terrible in a hilarious and sometimes spectacular way.

It’s a classic Voyager quote – “There’s coffee in that nebula!” – but that doesn’t make The Cloud any good. It does, however, make it entertaining. Parallax and Learning Curve are pretty bad too, but also very dull ( Learning Curve is worth watching only for the equally classic line “Get the cheese to sickbay!”).

It’s tempting, even as a fan, to say ‘all of it’, but some season two episodes are actually quite good (see above) while most of the rest are deathly dull. However, Elogium features space sperm trying to have sex with the ship, Twisted has everyone get lost on Deck 6 (a normal day for some of us who are navigationally challenged) and Parturition features two senior officers having a food fight in the mess hall. For some people, add The Thaw , which is Voyager ’s equivalent of Marmite.

And then there’s Threshold . Threshold , frequently derided as the worst episode of Star Trek ever made, is truly glorious in its awfulness. One of the tragedies of the episode is that Robert Duncan McNeil puts in a really passionate performance and some of the material, if attached to a different story, would be some really nice body horror stuff. But all you have to do is read a summary of the events of the episode (including impossible speeds, a shuttle that turns into the Infinite Improbability Drive from The Hitchhiker’s Guide To The Galaxy , crew members turning into giant lizard-slug-things, and giant lizard sex) to see how stupendously ridiculous, but importantly also truly entertaining in its own special way, it is. If you haven’t heard of it, though, skip the online summaries and just watch it, preferably with a very large drink in hand, and let the B movie daftness wash over you. It’s so, so very awful, I think I kinda love it.

Favourite Son

Nothing can quite compare to the high/low that was Threshold , but The Q And The Grey follows up one of the best Q episodes with one of the daftest, Blood Fever demonstrates that the practicalities of ponn farr were probably best left behind in the 1960s, and Favorite Son is… well it’s nearly as ridiculous as Threshold , actually, but not quite so spectacularly entertaining, as Harry Kim falls for a lure so transparent only someone as stupid as the Cat from Red Dwarf (in series six’ Psirens , when the same trick is tried on him) could be expected to fall for it.

Season Four is Voyager ’s strongest season overall, and its mis-fires tend to be dull or dubious rather than entertainingly hilarious, though if you enjoy ridiculous ‘science’, you might enjoy Demon .

Once Upon A Time

The Disease

Once Upon A Time ’s main plot is just a bit dull, but it features one of those horrifying children’s holodeck programmes also sometimes seen on The Next Generation . The Disease is another Harry Kim romance episode. It is, in its defense, slightly better than Favorite Son .

Spirit Folk

Everyone talks about Threshold , but for me, these are by far the worst episodes of Voyager , and probably of all of Star Trek (yes, including Spock’s Brain ). Offensive on every level, especially if you have Irish ancestry, and don’t even think about the practicalities of the captain retiring to a private room with a holographic character, on a holodeck – that is, a small, square room with no real walls, furniture etc. in it, that could easily malfunction at any moment – still also inhabited by other people, to have sex. Ew.

Prophecy revolves around a Klingon messianic prophecy, while Q2 features Q’s teenage son (played by John de Lancie’s real life son Keegan, who is a perfectly good actor, but the material is cringe-inducing). ‘Nuff said.

Route 5: Time travel

In season three, Captain Janeway expressed her extreme dislike of time travel and time paradoxes. She might as well have been a horror movie character saying “I’ll be right back.”

Time And Again

Time And Again is by the numbers but perfectly serviceable Star Trek , while Eye Of The Needle is Voyager ’s first really classic episode – perhaps that’s why they decided to feature the wonders of time travel quite so often in later years.

Technically there are no real time travel episodes in this season, though a couple of characters appear out of time in Death Wish .

Some of the Voyager crew’s ongoing problems with time travel are kicked off in Future’s End , while Before And After is a rather good backwards episode. Flashback , as the title implies, features flashbacks, though not actual time travel.

Add The Killing Game for a holodeck-based episode in which much of the crew believe they are people living in Earth’s past.

Timeless Relativity

Like Year Of Hell , Timeless is a really great episode, and things aren’t entirely re-set by the end (only mostly). Relativity is also good fun and features a visual homage to classic Powell and Pressburger film A Matter Of Life And Death . 11:59 is composed primarily of extensive flashbacks to the past, but not actual time travel.

Blink Of An Eye is more about time differential than time travel, but it represents this season’s game of playing with the fourth dimension.

Shattered uses a rather dubious time-related incident to revisit some of the show’s highlights and point to its future, while Endgame , like The Next Generation finale All Good Things , shows us a possible future for the crew, but by the end of the episode, everything may have changed.

Juliette Harrisson | @ClassicalJG

Juliette Harrisson is a writer and historian, and a lifelong Trekkie whose childhood heroes were JRR Tolkien and CS Lewis. She runs a YouTube channel called…

Screen Rant

Star trek voyager: every two-part episode, ranked according to imdb.

Your changes have been saved

Email is sent

Email has already been sent

Please verify your email address.

You’ve reached your account maximum for followed topics.

This Star Trek: Voyager Episode Subtly Confirmed Captain Kirk Broke A TOS Promise

Star trek: voyager abandoning “year of hell's" original ending was a huge mistake, does admiral janeway still need to time travel for star trek: voyager's finale to happen.

Set in the outer reaches of the galaxy,  Star Trek: Voyager   gave the audience a look at unexplored regions of the  Trek  universe. Often fighting for survival week after week, the adventures onboard Voyager were usually too action-packed to be contained in only one episode.

RELATED: The Best Star Trek Series, Ranked According To IMDb

Whether they were taking on the horrifying Borg, or traveling back in time to modern-day earth, the excitement in  Voyager 's two-part episodes was palpable. Though all of the two-parters pleased  Trek  fans, some gained much higher scores on IMDb .

The Killing Game Part 1 & 2 - 7.6/7.6

Star Trek  history is filled with a plethora of amazing Holodeck episodes , but few were as serious as "The Killing Game". When an alien race known as the Hirogens takes over Voyager, the ship is transformed into a massive Holodeck and the crew is hunted in a simulated version WWII era Europe. Desperate to free her crew, Janeway must find a way to retake her ship and save her personnel from their cruel fate.

Like most Holodeck episodes, the most entertaining part is seeing the Starfleet officers put in unfamiliar situations. Whether it was Picard as a grizzled noir detective, or the  Deep Space Nine   crew playing baseball, it was always fun for fans to see. Captain Janeway shows in the episode, once again, that she is perfectly cast to play the action hero, and the refreshing change of location keeps things lively throughout.

Workforce Part 1 & 2 - 7.6/7.7

While racing home through uncharted space, the Voyager crew often encountered entirely new situations that were unfamiliar to other  Trek  shows. The episode "Workforce" finds almost the entire ship's roster brainwashed and living on an alien world where they work as substitutes for the planet's dwindling labor class. In order to free themselves, the crew must hold on to the last shreds of their original personalities or else be lost forever.

RELATED:  Every Star Trek Series Ranked By Popularity

The most frightening aspect of "Workforce" is if the crew fails in their mission, they will simply fade into the background of an alien culture. Similar to the scary conceit of the Borg, the total loss of personality is not a pleasant concept to entertain. What makes the two-part episode soar is that it uses its extended length to gives side characters like B'Elanna a chance to shine and carry the story.

Basics Part 1 & 2 - 7.7/7.8

Like the two-part episodes of  Deep Space Nine   and  The Next Generation , the episode "Basics" was a chance for the writers to callback one of the show's earlier plot lines. Voyager receives a distress call from the Kazon and soon learn that it is from the double agent Seska who had previously betrayed the crew. Seska reveals that she gave birth to Chakotay's son and that the child is at risk of being made a prisoner of the Kazon. A fight ensues and the Kazon capture Voyager, leaving only a few crew members behind in an attempt to save the ship.

The Kazon were one of the most consistent villains in the early seasons of the show, and in "Basics" they finally pay off in a big way. The Maquis plot line was also one of the show's strongest early elements, and it was rewarding for viewers to see a fitting conclusion to Seska's shocking betrayal. Though the ship seemed to get captured frequently in the series, "Basics" was one of the first times, and it really had weight.

Unimatrix Zero Part 1 & 2 - 7.9/7.9

While the  Star Trek  films often had nothing to do with the events of the shows, "Unimatrix Zero" saw the return of one of the series' most frightening big-screen villains. As Voyager nears an outpost that has been destroyed by the Borg, Seven of Nine begins to have vivid hallucinations about a secret Borg collective known as Unimatrix Zero. Falling into a Borg trap, Janeway devises a way to get even with the sinister hive-mind, and she comes face to face with their queen.

While the Borg are one of the strongest alien races in  Star Trek , their collective mentality does leave them vulnerable to widespread attack. As seen in the  TNG episode "I,Borg", a computer virus could wipe them out completely, but Picard was reticent to go to such lengths. Janeway on the other hand, is less picky with her options, and shows that she was willing to do whatever it took to get her people back home safe.

Future's End Part 1 & 2 - 8.2/8.2

Time travel is an integral part of  Star Trek   history, and it has produced many great stories in all eras of the franchise. "Future's End" finds the Voyager crew locked in combat with a timeship from the future. While fighting, the pair of ships are transported back in time with the Voyager crew ending up in the year 1996. Discovering that the timeship was found in the 1960s, the crew must stop a tech company from exploiting their newfound technology and changing the timeline.

With the bulk of the episodes taking place in modern-day Los Angeles, it is neat to see the Voyager crew interacting with recognizable landmarks. As is usually the case when characters land on earth in the past, the Voyager crew is woefully unprepared to fit in to 1990s society. While the plot is somewhat convoluted, the episode does a great job of laying the story out in a way that is easily understood by the viewer.

Equinox Part 1 & 2 - 8.3/8.2

In the Delta Quadrant, the role of the Prime Directive was often questioned, and on a few occasions, Captain Janeway had to bend the Federation's golden rule to survive. The episode "Equinox" starts with the shocking discovery of another Federation vessel in the Delta Quadrant. Upon meeting with the severely weakened ship, the Voyager crew learns why they have made themselves the enemy of a local alien race. Determined to catch the escaped Equinox, Janeway comes dangerously close to also violating her Starfleet oaths.

RELATED: The 10 Scariest Star Trek Episodes, Ranked

Even amongst a plethora of unfamiliar threats, "Equinox" showed that humans were still capable of unspeakable evil. Janeway often gets a reputation as a captain who disregarded the rules, but the two-part episode explores her complicated relationship with them in a satisfying way. Like  DS9 's Dominion War,  Voyager 's journey through the Delta Quadrant asks whether desperate times call for desperate measures.

Year Of Hell Part 1 & 2 - 8.7/8.6

Few episodes showed the passage of time aboard Voyager quite like the explosive two-parter called "Year of Hell". Desperate to restore the power of the Krenim empire, a new weapon is developed that is capable of wiping out entire civilizations, and thus affecting the future. When Voyager is badly damaged, a year passes before they are able to mount a resurgence against the deadly Krenim empire.

With seven decades of potential travel time to work with, the writers found a clever way to push the show forward by an entire year. As was usually the case with Voyager , technology is at the heart of the story, and the Krenim's dangerous weapon is one of  Trek 's scariest creations. Seeing Voyager pushed to the brink of destruction keeps the viewer on the edge of their seat, and the two-parter has some of the strongest acting of the entire series.

Scorpion Part 1 & 2 - 8.9/8.9

The Borg have often been shown as an unfeeling force that only views the universe as potential fodder for their collective, but "Scorpion" showed them in a different light. When entering Borg space, Voyager encounters a species that is even more deadly than the cybernetic collective. Devising a way to defeat this alien species, Janeway negotiates free passage through Borg space in exchange for the knowledge she possesses.

With a title that harkens back to the fable of the scorpion and the frog, the two-part episode ratchets up the tension to unbelievably suspenseful levels. Negotiating with the Borg seems futile, but Janeway has no other choice but to essentially make a deal with the devil. Along the way, the show gains a new character that forever changed the series in the form of Seven of Nine.

NEXT: The 10 Best Star Trek Movies, According To Reddit

• Star Trek: Voyager

• Star Trek: Voyager/Episodes
• 1999/Episodes

Star Trek: Voyager: Equinox (Part 2)

• Edit source

"Equinox (Part 2)" is the first episode of the sixth season of the science fiction television series Star Trek: Voyager .

• 1 Sophie Kachinsky
• 2 Edwin Jenner
• 3 Denise Cloyd