Star Trek VGR Episode 25 - Tattoo

"Chakotay encounters non-humans that have the same tattoo on their foreheads that he has."


Unfortunately this episode was not about the Voyager crew going to Fantasy Island. Nonetheless, it was good. They finally linked Native Americans and an Alien encounter! I seriously always wanted this to happen. I feel it was well done, others disagree.

Chakotay keeps having flashbacks to when his father took him to the Central American Rain Forest looking for his ancestors. Years later Chakotay is on a planet and he finds people that look like him and speak his Native language. They explain that thousands of years ago they went to America and met people wandering through a snow covered landscape. They did not have language or knowledge of farming etc.. These aliens gave them these skills and told them to travel to a warmer climate. From then on Native Americans referred to them as the Sky Spirits. This is sort of what I hoped they would do, but maybe talk about taking some of the Natives into space with them. Like, link up the Anasazi with it or something. Or not, who really gives a shit.


There is a scene where a crewmember says that he served under Captain Sulu, which I thought was a cool reference.

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Star Trek VGR Episode 24 - Persistence of Vision

"The crew experience hallucinations brought on by an alien that put them into a trance-like state."

Good, throwback, TOS type episode. The episode had the basic setup of; they happen upon a single unknown alien and he causes havoc. This alien even looks rather crappy, just like TOS. Anyway, he has the ability to telepathically take a persons buried memory and bring to life before their eyes. Every crewmember ends up "mesmerized". The only ones left are Kes (a telepath) and the Doctor (a hologram). They work together to stop the alien and capture him. While Janeway is reading the alien the riot act (whatever the hell that means), he comments that "there is only one problem ... I was never even here". Then he disappears. Hope to see this thing again, it was a cool villain.

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Star Trek VGR Episode 23 - Parturition

So Neelix's jealousy boils over and he attacks Paris. Although Neelix is not at all tough. Which I don't like. In the pilot they made him seem tough...then he ends up as a pacifist chef? Anyway, eventually Neelix and Paris end up trapped on a planet together...because why not? They must work together to survive and also take care of a baby dinosaur??? So dumb. Meanwhile The Doctor tells Kes that Paris is indeed attracted to her, Paris also admits this to Neelix. Kes reaffirms that she loves Neelix. Then everyone ends up friends. Which would never happen in real life. Either way...Kes is so adorable.

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Star Trek VGR Episode 22 - Twisted

"A region of space distorts the interior of Voyager."

After having a birthday party for Kes, the ship suddenly turns into a maze. No matter which way you walk you end up looping around to the same spot. Everyone is just basically walking around the ship the entire time trying to figure out where to go, but it was actually an interesting episode. This episode has that "crewman" that is always going to the gym in it... he shows up numerous times in the series and he is always "on his way to the gym". Anyway, the subplot is about Neelix being jealous about Kes and her friendship with Paris. In the end, the incident ended up being due to a sentient energy being ... as always.

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Star Trek VGR Episode 21 - Non Sequitur

"Harry Kim wakes up in 24th century San Francisco with no record of him on Voyager."

After an incident on a shuttlecraft, Kim wakes up next to his ex-girlfriend in San Francisco. His time on Voyager had never happened. He tries to figure out what is going on by accessing sensitive Starfleet info. He sees that Tom Paris is on Earth and tracks him down. Paris also never ended up on Voyager but is rather an ex-Marqui spy. Paris is skeptical but eventually helps Harry.

Harry gets in trouble from Starfleet because of his actions. Then he discovers that there has been an alien following him, this alien is sort of like a time-line guardian...I guess. Then it gets really confusing. Eventually he gets pulled from the time-shift and put back into the proper timeline. The episode started off good, then got sort of dumb. Still, I liked seeing more of Harry Kim's character. Garrett Wang was good in this one, the woman that played his girlfriend however ... was god awful.

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Star Trek VGR Episode 20 - Elogium

"Space-dwelling life-forms cause Kes to enter the Ocampan fertile phase called Elogium, putting pressure on her relationship with Neelix when she wants to have his child."

Kes goes through puberty episode. Weird. The ship is attacked by these space life-forms...they have actually mistook the ship for a male of their species and are attempting to mate with Voyager. This somehow causes Kes to prematurely go through puberty (which I find to her behavior to be far too stereotypical; moody, can't stop eating blah blah blah). Kes and Neelix talk about having children, and it is revealed that a crewmember is pregnant.

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Star Trek VGR Episode 19 - Projections

"The Doctor becomes delusional after an accident, causing him to believe that he is a flesh-and-blood person and his time on USS Voyager is a holodeck program."

It was an interesting episode. I really enjoy The Doctor, but seemingly every featured episode seems to be about him "saving the ship/getting stuck in the holodeck". So he "wakes up" one day to find that he is a real person and that he needs to save the ship. The only way to save it, is by destroying it.

He is about to do it, when he is told by Chakotay that he is trapped in a holodeck program and needs to just wait it out. If he destroys the ship, he will be erased. The Doctor needs to figure out which story is real... is he a real person or a hologram? He guesses at the later and he eventually is freed. His "guide" the entire time was Lt. Barclay from TNG. It was nice having him on the episode, even though I hated him from Next Gen.

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Star Trek VGR Episode 18 - Initiations

"Chakotay encounters a Kazon youth who is on an initiation rite; to earn his name by killing an enemy or to be killed in the attempt."

I liked this one too. The Kazon youth goes up against Chakotay in an aerial battle and loses. Instead of dying, he is saved by Chakotay which brings him great shame. They are then captured by the Kazon and Chakotay is forced to kill the kid. Instead, him and the boy escape. Neelix steps into a bigger role and negotiates with the Kazon for Chakotay's release...basically he blackmails them. An away team goes to retrieve Chakotay but they are double crossed by the Kazon... Meanwhile Chakotay offers to let the youth "kill him" in order to gain his name. Everyone eventually beams the hell out of there.

The young Kazon was played by Aaron Eisenberg, who was great as always. People thought that he looked to much like Nog, but that didn't bother me. He was excellent.

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Star Trek VGR Episode 17 - The 37's

"A group of humans from the 1930s are found in stasis on a seemingly abandoned planet, including the lost Amelia Earhart."

I really enjoyed this episode. One of the things that I always wanted Star Trek to do is tie-in the UFO craze of 20-21st century Earth. They have done this several times, but I am never satisfied by it. Well, I'm still not satisfied but I like when they bring it up nonetheless. In this case, an Alien race named the Briori came to Earth in the 1930s and abducted 300 people and enslaved them (I would have liked if they showed a Briorian and had them look like a typical "gray"). Among them are Earhart and Fred Noonan (played by Tackleberry from Police Academy...still can't take this actor seriously). At some point the Humans rose-up and overthrew their captors, now they inhabit the planet...over 100,000 of them. They have three magnificent cities and good civilization. Some of the original abductees lie in stasis (Amelia, Noonan etc), they keep them as a shrine.

For some reason Voyager can't beam down, so they decide to land Voyager on the planet. It's an odd gamble by Janeway considering nobody knows how to physically land the ship. If anything ever happened to the ship, it would mean that they would never find a way home. Anyhow, the effects looked pretty good, considering it's old CGI. The episode pretty much consists of the crew trying to convince Amelia and Fred that they are currently in the future. In the end, the colonists offer to let the Voyager crew stay and live there. Some take up the offer, but the core group denies it. There are many flaws to this episode and people seem to find it hacky, but I liked it.

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Star Trek VGR Episode 16 - Learning Curve

"Tuvok trains several Maquis members who have not fully integrated into the Voyager crew."

The Marquis crew is incredibly defiant and refuse to listen to Tuvok. It's basically like training a bunch of Pirates to be Marines. Neelix suggests that Tuvok change his teaching tactics, which goes completely against the Vulcan's nature. He goes by the book, while the Marquis wing-it.

A pathogen has been released on the ship. They narrow it down to a batch of cheese that Neelix had made ..... cough... Anyway, they increase the heat on the ship in order to kill it.... hmm... And um, the ship gets messed up and Tuvok must work together with his Marquis crew to save the ship. The rest is predictable, they learn from each other and save the ship. This is the Season One finale, and it was a decent episode but a terrible finale. I guess due to a scheduling issue this was the finale by default. It was not intended to be and producers were not happy with this. But, overall I thought season one was good. I was surprised by it. I've said this before that Star Trek has too many episodes and 16 episodes was perfect. Unfortunately from now on Voyager rises up to an annoying 26 episodes per season, ugh.

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Star Trek VGR Episode 15 - Jetrel

I was wondering when they would use Neelix more. It's weird, the pilot had him in a major role but then he just ends up being the fucking cook! Instead, Kes ends up in a major role. This was a good glimpse into the character of Neelix, well acted too.

So years ago Neelix fought in a war against the Haakonians. They eventually used a superweapon to devastate Neelix's homeworld and kill 300,000 people (including his family). Now, the scientist that invented that weapon is on Voyager looking for Neelix. His name is Jetrel. He tells Neelix that the survivors of the weapon have been dealing with a terrible disease and he has come to cure Neelix. Of course Neelix is suspicious and angry with him. Finally he agrees after Janeway persuades him to cooperate.

Neelix admits to Kes that he lied about his war record. Something about a Swift Boat, oh no wait...that was another alien. Anyway, Neelix never served, he was a coward and hid. But, not because he was afraid, but because he was anti-war. Regardless, Neelix is pretty torn up about everything. They eventually find out that Jetrel was lying about Neelix having this disease. The disease is real though, Jetrel himself has it. So why is he on Voyager? Well, his intension was to use their transporter in order to test his experiment to restore the lives all of those that he killed with his weapon. Their molecules are still in the atmosphere and he thinks he can reconfigure them and restore it in the transporter. ....he tries it, and it fails. Then he dies. The end.

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Star Trek VGR Episode 14 - Faces

"B'Elanna Torres is split into her human and Klingon halves by the Vidiians."

As soon as this episode started I had my doubts about it. There is just so much technically wrong with it. Although it was interesting to hear B'Elanna's origin story and how she struggles with her human and Klingon sides. I did enjoy that they brought back the Vidiians.

So in an effort to cure the Phage, the Viddians have kidnapped Torres, Paris and a redshirt. The Vidiian doctor uses his advanced medical technology to separate Torres into two people; her Klingon self and her Human self. The human side is the total opposite of the Klingon side. He experiments on Klingon Torres in an effort to figure out the Klingons amazing ability to resist sickness. Then in a weird scene...he kills the redshirt and wears his face in an effort to impress Torres?? Haha, what the hell?!?!

So the two Torres's escape with Paris and try to get back to Voyager. Meanwhile, Chakotay has been altered to look like a Vidiian, he shows up guns blazing and gets them out... although Klingon Torres is killed?? Back on the ship, The Doctor adds B'Elanna's Klingon DNA back into her human body. She is restored. First of all, if the Vidiians have such advanced medical tech ... to the point where they can separate a person into two ... why can't they cure this fucking disease!?!? The Vidiians seemingly could at least create new faces for themselves. Then back on Voyager, The Doctor so easily turns human Torres back into a Klingon. It's all too convenient.

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Star Trek VGR Episode 13 - Cathexis

"A shuttlecraft with Chakotay and Tuvok aboard is attacked; Chakotay is left brain-dead, while Tuvok begins acting strangely. An unknown force begins controlling crewmembers."

Again, I just can't look at Chakotay the same way after finding out that the consultant was a phony. This episode is full of "Native American mysticism".
An alien being begins possessing crewmembers and has them steer the ship towards the center of a Nebula. This race needs to feed off of their energy to survive. Realizing that no one is safe, Janeway divides the ships Command Codes between various people. Meanwhile, Torres uses a Native American mystic wheel to help guide Chokotay's spirit while he is brain dead ... just go with it.

Things get serious when Tuvok is possessed and takes over the ship. Janeway gives special Command to The Doctor, as he is the only one that is "unposessable". I'm happy for The Doctor, this is an important moment for him. The spirit of Chakotay helps to overpower this being and they remove it from the ship. Now they are still deep inside the Nebula and do not know how to get out. Chakotay's spirit possesses Neelix and has him make a map of the exit on his mystic wheel. They escape and all crewmembers are restored to normal by The Doctor. It was a watchable episode.

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Star Trek VGR Episode 12 - Heroes and Demons

"The holographic doctor must rescue crew members who were turned to light energy in a Holodeck simulation of Beowulf."

Kim goes missing and they figure out that the last place he was, was in the holodeck using a Beowulf program. Everybody that they send in after him, disappears as well. The Beowulf program has seemingly come to life. Typically I do not like these Holodeck episodes, but this one is well acted (particularly Freya) and it looks great (particularly Freya). I enjoy this 10th-ish century time period stuff generally. So anyway, the only person that can safely go into the Holodeck is The Doctor. Janeway gives him, his first mission. He admits that he is nervous.

The Doctor goes in and plays the role of the hero very very well. I very much enjoyed seeing him in this capacity. Oh yeah and he also picked a new name, Shcweitzer?? Whatever. So, he forms a romance with Freya, but she is killed and dies in his arms. He then swears off the name of Schweitzer because it reminds him of Freya. The Doctor figures out that at some point the ship went through an energy cloud. Within this cloud was alien life forms. Essentially they attacked these aliens without knowing it. Now they are retaliating through controlling the Holodeck. In a gesture of peace, they take one of these energy life-forms and return it to the cloud. The End. I'm annoyed now for some reason.

The actress that played Freya was in Babylon 5.

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Star Trek VGR Episode 11 - State of Flux

Another good episode. Neelix, Chakotay and others are foraging for food on a planet. A Kazon ship shows up (remember them from the pilot episode?) and Janeway orders the away team back to the ship but Seska is missing. Seska is one of Chakotay's Marquis crew and evidently his girlfriend. She is also Bajoran. He finds her but they are attacked, he is hit but they manage to escape.

Back on the ship a distress call comes in from that same Kazon ship, there has been an explosion and they need help. An away team goes to the ship and finds only one Kazon alive, but in a coma. They also find something very surprising, Federation technology.

Tuvok deduces that the most logical explanation was that they have a spy on the ship. Blame points to Seska as she was the only one to "disappear" during that away mission. She denies it and tries to prove her innocence by retrieving proof on the Kazon vessel. She brings it back and Torres examines it, and realizes that it is one of their food replicators. Another Kazon ship shows up and they come aboard to retrieve their comrade, but they kill him instead. Very suspicious.

Kes and the Doctor make another odd discovery, according to Seska's blood sample she is not Bajoran but a Cardassian! This just gets weirder. Still she denies being a spy and seems very genuine. Signs now point to another crewmember, Lt. Carey. He also denies it. So Chakotay and Tuvok lay a trap for the spy....and Seska walks right into it. It was her after all. She did it to make peace with the Kazon. She thinks they will make strong allies. But, no one agrees. Suddenly she beams off the ship and onto the Kazon vessel.

Honestly, I hoped it wasn't her. I actually started to like the character, but I'm guessing we will be seeing her again. Also I felt bad for Chakotay, he seems like a good guy. Oh well. This was a well done, "whodunit" episode.

An interesting factoid. Star Trek called in a Native American consultant to assist with the Chakotay character. Evidently this guy was a fake Indian, he was really an Armenian pretending to be Native American. This unfortunately makes the character of Chakotay incredibly offensive. I mean, The Accused: The Animated Series would be less offensive.

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