voyager borg episodes list

Complete List Of Appearances Of The Borg In Star Trek

This article is more than seven years old and was last updated in July 2019.

The Borg are Star Trek's most feared and most loved adversaries they appear in a total twenty-one episodes in the Star Trek franchise in 'Enterprise,' 'The Next Generation' and 'Voyager,' every television incarnation other than the original series and 'Deep Space Nine.' They also appeared in the Star Trek movie 'First Contact.' Below is a complete list of the Borg's appearances in chronological order.

1. Enterprise - 'Regeneration' [S02E23]

2. The Next Generation - 'Q Who' [S02E16]

3. The Next Generation - 'The Best of Both Worlds' [S03E26 - S04E01]

4. The Next Generation - 'I, Borg' [S05E23]

5. The Next Generation - 'Descent' [S06E26 - S07E01]

6. Voyager - 'Unity' [S03E17]

7. Star Trek: First Contact

8. Voyager - 'Scorpion' [S03E26 - S04E01]

9. Voyager - 'The Raven' [S04E06]

10. Voyager - 'Drone' [S05E02]

11. Voyager - 'Dark Frontier' [S05E15 - S05E16]

12. Voyager - 'Survival Instinct' [S06E02]

13. Voyager - 'Collective' [S06E16]

14. Voyager - 'Child's Play' [S06E19]

15. Voyager - 'Unimatrix Zero' [S06E26 - S07E01]

16. Voyager - 'Imperfection' [S07E02]

17. Voyager - 'Endgame' [S07E25]

There's More To Come...

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This Guide is for the television show "Star Trek Voyager". Return to the Guide main page. In a frame? Break Out!

Written By: Steve Mount Source: Episode Viewing. Episode order shown is Production Order.

Key terms and characters Borg A particularly dangerous Starfleet nemesis; Voyager has been dropped into their home turf Chakotay A Maquis of Earth Indian origin; First Officer of Voyager. Dilithium Fuel for a starship's warp engines The Doctor A holographic doctor, intended for emergency use, but pressed into permanent service Federation A group of planets in a peaceful alliance Janeway, Catherine Captain of the Voyager Kazon Warlike race intent on capturing Voyager for access to her technology Kes An Ocampa, whose lifespan is only seven human years; medical tech Kim, Harry Starfleet officer on his first assignment Maquis A group of people disaffected by the Federation/Cardassian treaty, fighting for independence from both groups Neelix A Talaxian, picked up by Voyager; cook, morale officer Paris, Tom Former Starfleet officer, Maquis sympathizer; navigator Phaser A light-beam weapon Q Omnipotent being, who's taken a liking to Janeway Seska Maquis, Bajoran - later revealed to be a Cardassian spy; allied with Kazon Seven of Nine A former Borg, disconnected from the Collective by Voyager, now a crew member. Seven is human, her name is Annika Hansen Starfleet Military branch of the Federation Torres, B'Elanna Maquis, half Human, half Klingon; engineering Transporter A method of travel that converts matter to energy and back again Tuvok Vulcan, security chief; was undercover on Maquis ship Viidians A race with afflicted with a deadly disease; they have very advanced medical technology, used to steal body parts Warp The ability to travel faster than light Wilder, Samantha Member of the Starfleet crew, gave birth to the first baby on Voyager Wilder, Naomi Ensign Wilder's daughter

The Caretaker While searching for a missing Maquis ship, the USS Voyager finds itself transported 70,000 light years from home. Joining with the Maquis crew they strive to find a way home.

Parallax When attempts to rescue a ship stuck in a quantum singularity fail, the crew must work out if everything it as it appears.

Time and Again During an investigation of a recently devastated world, Janeway and Paris accidentally travel back in time to one day before the event that kills all life on the planet.

Phage When one of the Voyager crew is attacked the Viidians, aliens that harvest bodily organs, Janeway must confront the ethical problems of dealing with them.

The Cloud Searching for a boost to their energy supply in a nebula, the crew accidentally damage an unknown life form.

Eye of the Needle Voyager detects a wormhole that seems to lead to the Alpha Quadrant, and they discover someone on the other side - but that someone is a Romulan, living decades in Voyager's past.

Ex Post Facto While on an away mission, Paris is accused of murder and sentenced to relive the incident over and over again for the rest of his life.

Emanations Searching for a new element in an asteroid belt, Kim is transported to another reality and the only way back may be to die.

Prime Factors Voyager meets a very friendly race that may have a way to get them half way on their journey home, but does this strange people have an ulterior motive for welcoming them.

State of Flux When a damaged Kazon ship is found, the explosion shows evidence of Federation technology. Captain Janeway must face the fact that there is a traitor on board the Voyager.

Heroes and Demons A number of crew go missing on the holodeck and the Doctor, on his very first away mission, is set to find out where they went.

Cathexis Returning to Voyager Chakotay is in a coma and Tuvok appears to be lying. When crew start acting strange, they suspect they are not alone on the ship.

Faces In a Viidian attempt to cure the Phage, B'Elanna is split into her Human and Klingon halves which must work together to escape.

Jetrel A scientist responsible for killing thousands of Talaxians, including Neelix's family, comes aboard with serious news. But can he be trusted?

Learning Curve While Tuvok is tutoring some of the former Maquis crew, an accident occurs and Tuvok and company find themselves trapped and have to rely on each other.

Projections Convinced the Voyager is under attack from the Kazon, the Doctor leaves Sickbay to tend the wounded and descends into chaos where nothing can be trusted to be real. Reginald Barclay appears as a hologram representing the Doctor's control system.

Elogium When space borne creatures attach themselves to the ship Kes prematurely enters the Elogium, the one time in her life she can have a child.

Twisted The Voyager encounters a space disruption that traps the crew on the ship as it becomes a maze in which space folds in upon itself, each decision they make narrows their choices and further traps them.

The 37ers The Voyager is forced to land on an planet and the crew are astonished to find a '37 Chevy and Amelia Earhart, the first woman to fly across the Pacific Ocean.

Initiations Chakotay is attacked by a lone Kazon youth who has to prove himself by killing a Federation enemy.

Non Sequitur Ensign Kim awakes to find himself in 24th Century San Francisco. Looking at his service record he finds that he was never assigned to the Voyager. He later discovers that he entered a time rift, and he must decide to repair the time line and return to Voyager, or leave it as is, and continue his life on Earth.

Parturition On a mission to a Class M planet, Neelix and Paris become trapped in a cave with a hatching alien life form. They must team up to protect each other and the baby alien.

Persistence of Vision Just before an important first contact meeting, the crew are troubled by disturbing images from their life. Paris sees his father and Janeway is shocked when her holodeck novel takes on a new twist.

Tattoo Chakotay is left behind on a planet inhabited by descendants of a Native American Indian tribe. He must face his past and remember his culture to convince the tribe of his goodwill.

Cold Fire On a space station, an Ocampan colonist offers to lead the crew to the second Caretaker, a female alien they call Suspiria.

Maneuvers Seska returns with her Kazon allies with a massive shock for Commander Chakotay - she and he have a child together (maybe).

Resistance Caught up in a local conflict Tuvok is taken captive, Janeway is helped by an old man who believe she is his long lost daughter.

Prototype When the crew finds a humanoid robot floating in space, Torres attempts to repair it. Brought back to life, the sentient artificial life form explains that its kind is near extinction and demands that Torres builds a prototype for a new generation.

Alliances Janeway seeks to strengthen Voyager's position by forming an alliance with some of the Kazon sects. When the talks do not go well she looks to the Trabe who appear to have similar peaceful goals. She soon discovers that the Trabe, who used to enslave the Kazon before they revolted, have revenge on their minds.

Threshold In a effort to find a quick way home, Paris flies a new transwarp shuttle to the never before achieved speed of Warp 10 but on his return he starts to exhibit very strange after-effects.

Meld After a murder is committed on the ship, Tuvok melds with the guilty man to try and determine why he did such a evil deed and find himself spiraling into madness.

Dreadnought The Voyager crew find a Cardassian guided missile that was launched by the Maquis and pulled into the same rift as Voyager was. The missile is attempting to fulfill its programming and is headed towards a populated planet; Torres must face up to the actions of her past and stop the errant projectile.

Death Wish Quinn, a desperate refugee from the Q-Continuum seeks refuge on Voyager, but it is not long before Q arrives to take him home. Janeway must hold a unique trial, where Q must defend the Continuum.

Lifesigns In order to save a dying Viidian female, the Doctor places her phage-ridden body in stasis and transfers her mind into another hologram who he quite unexpectedly starts to fall in love with.

Investigations As Neelix starts to hear rumors of a traitor on Voyager, Paris decides to leave the ship and join a Talaxians convoy. Soon after the convoy is attacked by the Kazon and the ever scheming Seska attempts to coerce information out of Paris.

Deadlock On the run from the Viidians, Voyager seeks refuge in a plasma cloud, when a sudden accident caused severe damage to the ship and as the crew discovers creates a duplicate Voyager.

Innocence After Tuvok's shuttle crash-lands in a sacred haven of the Drayan, an alien race which has refused outside contact for decades, he finds three frightened Drayan children that have been abandoned by their people to die on the planet.

The Thaw Voyager finds a group of aliens preserved in cryogenic suspension, but when the crew try to wake them they find the computer does not want to let them go.

Tuvix Due to a freak transporter accident, Tuvok and Neelix become combined into a single alien entity which combines traits from both of them. When it becomes necessary to split Tuvix back into Tuvok and Neelix, Janeway has to face an uncomfortable choice - bring back her two friends, or allow Tuvix, who does not wish to "die", to continue on.

Resolutions Chakotay and Janeway become much better acquainted after they are quarantined on an uninhabited planet.

Basics, Part I The Kazon put a daring plan into motion and seize the Voyager, leaving all but the Doctor and an imprisoned crew member stranded on a desert planet.

Basics, Part II With Voyager in the hands of the Kazon, Janeway must find some way to retrieve her ship.

Flashback After coming down with a mysterious ailment, Tuvok has visions back to his days when he served on a starship under the famous Captain Sulu.

The Chute Kim and Paris are falsely accused of committing acts of terrorism and are both incarcerated in a horrific alien prison.

The Swarm As Voyager prepares to cross through the territory of an unknown but feared race, the Doctor finds himself with a major problem.

Sacred Ground Kes walks unprotected into a sacred shrine while on an away mission, and the biogenic energy in the shrine nearly kills her. To find a cause and cure, Janeway subjects herself to a rigorous religious ceremony that tests her faith in science, but which ultimately fails to help Kes. In the end, Janeway must have faith in the unknown to help Kes, which she does; when the Doctor discovers a scientific explanation for the cure, Janeway seems disappointed.

False Profits The Voyager crew encounter the two Ferengi that were lost in the Delta Quadrant when the Barzan Wormhole turned out to be unstable. The Ferengi have made quite a life for themselves, pretending to be gods, dazzling the locals with their technology, and taking advantage of a local prophecy. Neelix, altered to look Ferengi, Paris, and Chakotay lead on away mission to rid the people of the Ferengi, and, perhaps, use the wormhole to return home - but the Ferengi collapse the wormhole when they attempt to escape, leaving Voyager behind as they are sucked into it.

Remember B'Elanna starts to have a very vivid dream about a young woman, as Voyager transports a group of telepathic aliens back to their home world. At first, the dreams are pleasurable, but they soon turn dark as they reveal a secret about the aliens. Told the dreams may be a side effect of their simple presence, the Doctor blocks them - but B'Elanna's curiosity gets the best of her, and she removes the block; the dream reveals that an anti-technology movement on the alien world was put down by what amounted to genocide. One of the alien women chose B'Elanna to reveal the secret to; she later dies en route. Forbidden by the Prime Directive and the Captain from investigating on the planet, B'Elanna allows one of the young alien women to watch the dreams, hopefully planting the seed of knowledge.

Future's End (Two parts) After being attacked by a ship from the future, the Voyager crew find themselves on 20th Century Earth, where they must prevent a leading 20th Century industrialist from destroying the future. The crew does pick up one useful piece of technology - a portable holographic generator, which allows the Doctor to walk about outside of sickbay or the holodecks.

The Q and Grey Q appears to Janeway, intent on seducing her so that they might have a child together. Janeway rejects him and is wary of his motives. They soon become clear when Q and another Q visit Janeway again - the suicide of Quinn has spawned a freedom movement, spearheaded by Q himself, and Q feels that the infusion of human DNA, new blood, will give the Continuum a rallying point. Q brings Janeway to the Continuum, this time altering her perception so that it appears as Civil War America. The "other Q", Q's mate for eternity, is stranded on Voyager, her power diminished by the war. She devises a way to bring Voyager to the Continuum so that she may get Q back and Voyager can get Janeway back. Meanwhile, Q and Janeway are captured by "Southern" forces and sentenced to die. They are rescued by Q and the Voyager crew. Q and Q mate, and create a new Q, and the Continuum civil war ends.

Warlord When an alien warrior dies on Voyager, he manages to take over Kes in an attempt to see his plans of conquest through.

Macrocosm The ship is overwhelmed by a strange gelatinous life form and Janeway is forced into the conduit to elude the alien form while the Doctor on his first away mission attempts to find a solution.

Fair Trade At the edge of space he is familiar with, Neelix begins to feel unneeded and is afraid he'll be left behind. In an attempt to gather further information for the rest of their journey, an old friend of Neelix tricks him into shipping some illegal narcotics which gets the Voyager crew into some difficulty.

Alter Ego Aliens invade Neelix's new holo program and cause problems for the Voyager crew.

Coda The crew are left in a state of shock when Janeway is apparently killed by the Viidians after she is forced to crash land.

Blood Fever One of the Vulcan crew members enters Pon Farr, the ferocious Vulcan mating phase, during the exploration of a decimated colony. The object of his "affection", B'Elanna, is less than thrilled. Also, the crew finds evidence that the colony was destroyed by the Borg.

Unity The Voyager crew come up against the Federations greatest threat, when they discover an apparently disabled Borg cube. They later discover a colony of sorts, made up ex-Borg, disconnected from the collective and trying to reassert their individuality.

Darkling Experimenting with new personalities, the Doctor puts the crew in terrible danger as he starts to show a dark and sinister side.

Rise While attempting to help a local race, Tuvok and Neelix crash land and in the process reveal the possibility of a traitor in their midst.

Favorite Son Kim starts to behave abnormally and leads the Voyager crew to an alien planet where an amazing secret about him is revealed.

Before and After During an experiment to try and prolong her life, Kes finds herself moving backwards and forwards in time, beginning with the moment of her death, through a fatal attack, and all the way back to her pre-birth.

Real Life The Doctor creates a holographic family to try and better understand his patients. When B'Elanna attempts to make the Doctor's idyllic family a little more reflective of reality, the Doctor experiences teenage growing pains, marital strife, and the death of one of his children.

Distant Origin A scientist finds the body of a dead Voyager crew member, and detects similar DNA patterns in the body. Going in search of Voyager to prove a theory of distant origin, the scientist embroils Voyager in a political tug-of-war. Janeway and the Doctor discover that this advanced race is descendant from a species of Earth dinosaur that discovered space travel long before humans even existed, proving the distant origin theory.

Displaced Crew members mysteriously start to disappear to be replaced by an unknown alien race. At first, the aliens seem as confused as the crew, but it is soon discovered that this race is using this technique on purpose, to capture Voyager for use in further conquest.

Worse Case Scenario The crew find a partial holo program dealing with the possibility of a mutiny on board the ship and try to figure out who wrote it. They later find out Tuvok wrote it as a training aide, but that Seska modified it to strike back at Tuvok, whom she feels betrayed her and the other Maquis when he was aboard their ship as a spy.

Scorpion Voyager enters Borg space, but the Borg are preoccupied with a new species it cannot assimilate, and which is destroying Borg ships by the handful. When Harry is infected with the alien virus, the Doctor thinks he has a cure in Borg nannites. Janeway attempts to strike a deal with the Borg - they will share their technology in exchange for safe passage. Before she gets an answer, Voyager and the Borg are attacked.

Scorpion (Part 2) The Borg pull Voyager away from the attack by Species 8472, as Janeway strikes a deal. She and Tuvok work with Seven of Nine, a Borg of human origin, to come up with a replication system and a delivery system for the developing nanoprobe weapon. The Doctor perfects his nanoprobe treatment and cures Kim. Species 8472 is in contact with Kes, and they figure out what Voyager's up to; they attack, and the Borg ship destroys it in a suicide mission; Tuvok, Janeway, and a contingent of Borg and equipment were transported to Voyager first, though. Janeway is hurt in the attack and tells Chakotay to continue working with the Borg; but when they tell him to alter course back into Borg space, he breaks the alliance and blows the Borg into space - except for Seven of Nine, who creates a doorway to 8472's dimension. They must now face the enemy. Repaired, Janeway takes command and stands her ground, destroying a small fleet of 8472 ships. Upon return to normal space, Seven of Nine attempts to assimilate Voyager, but Chakotay links with her and appeals to her humanity; distracted, a power surge sent by Torres disconnects Seven from the Collective.

The Gift The Doctor continues Seven of Nine's rehabilitation. A potentially fatal malfunction of a Borg implant starts, but Kes is able to visualize the implant and destroy it on an atomic level. She and Tuvok do some Vulcan exercises, and she is definitely able to see beyond the telepathic, beyond the subatomic level of matter. But the effect is cascading, and she is unable to stop it. Janeway tells Seven of Nine her former name - Annika Hansen, taken by the Borg at a young age. Seven of Nine demands to be sent back to the Collective, but Janeway refuses. When Seven of Nine tries to contact the Borg, Kes detects her and stops her. Kes tells Neelix and Janeway, that she must leave the ship - and as her decision is made, she begins to phase, disrupting the ship's hull. She takes a shuttle craft and she exists our reality, but as she does, she takes Voyager with her, throwing them far out of Borg space, ten years closer to home. Seven of Nine begiuns to reacquire a more human appearance.

Nemesis Chakotay's shuttle is shot down when he came too close to a pair of warring races, the Vori and the Kidari. Rescued by a Vori squad, he sets out to find the remains of his shuttle, but his escort is killed in a Kidari raid. The Vori tell Chakotay that the Kidari are beasts who rape and pillage, and have no respect for the dead. Chakotay is told that a nearby unit has commo equipment that he can use to reach Voyager, but in a fire fight, both squads are nearly wiped out, and Chakotay is shot. He stumbles upon a village, where the locals fix him up and feed him, then send him on to a resupply station, where there will be a radio. As he walks off, the village is hit in an air strike - he goes back to help, but is captured and interrogated. He meets up with a lone survivor from the squad that rescued him and the two of them go on a raid - where Chakotay meets Tuvok, dressed as a Kidari. Tuvok tells Chakotay that he has been captured and brainwashed. Unbelieving, Tuvok brings him to the village that had been wiped out in the air strike - it is there, in pristine condition. Back on Voyager, Chakotay has to come to grips with the hatred he felt toward the Kidari, who are not the monsters he believed they were.

Revulsion Torres and the Doctor answer a distress call from a holographic maintenance worker on a disabled ship. He explains that the crew was infected with a virus on a survey mission, and they all died. He lashes out at Torres, though, making it clear that he is repulsed by "organics". The Doctor explains the outburst away as a reaction to his prior experience with people. But when B'Elanna goes exploring, she finds the crew, murdered. The hologram detects her tinkering and attacks her; she is able to stop his program just in time - the Doctor finds her collapsed on the floor, with a hole in her heart. The hologram damages the Doctor's mobile emitter, but Torres is able to permanently disable him with a power surge. Kim and Seven of Nine work together to design an astrometrics lab, and he starts to get to know her better. Harry is a bit put off when he invites her to a holographic sunset, and she proposes that they copulate.

The Raven While Voyager negotiates passage through the space of the difficult Bomar, Seven of Nine has a relapse of Borg technology - a Borg homing beacon has reenergized Seven's remaining Borg implants. She hijacks a shuttle and departs for the beacon, where she is sure a Borg ship awaits. Tuvok and Paris take off after her, while Janeway tries to placate the Bomar, who not only are upset about the incursion, but also because it is by a Borg. Tuvok beams aboard Seven's shuttle, be she disarms and stuns him. Paris's shuttle is disabled by Seven's phaser fire. He limps along after them. Tuvok and Seven reach an M-class moon, and beam down. There they find a 20-year-old Federation starship. Seven recognizes it as her parents ship, The Raven - the beacon was left behind when she was assimilated. The Bomar bomb the dilapidated ship, and Tuvok and Seven escape just as it begins to crumble. Paris beams them aboard and Voyager races after the whole bunch. They warp out of Bomar space and begin the longer roundabout journey.

Scientific Method The crew is afflicted by various ailments, ranging from the captain's headaches to Chakotay suddenly turning into an old man. B'Elanna and the Doctor find that the affected crew have tags on their DNA - just as they find this, they, too, are disabled. The Doctor contacts Seven via her Borg implants. He adjusts her eyepiece to be slightly out of phase. She confirms that there are aliens throughout the ship, conducting experiments. When they are revealed, the leader tells Janeway that they are simply conducting experiments, and they will soon leave with a minimum of casualties. Janeway, fed up, tired, and on enhanced levels of dopamine, aims Voyager toward a binary pulsar. The aliens evacuate, and Voyager's momentum carries her through the gravity well, with heavy damage to several decks. Paris and B'Elanna finally get some private time .

The Year of Hell (part 1) Voyager encounters a Krenim vessel, with low firepower but big words. They avoid the vessel and contact the dominant species in the area, the Zaal. But as they speak to the Zaal, a temporal shock wave hits them, the Zaal disappear, and the Krenim ship is now a large threatening vessel. Over the next few months, Voyager is pummeled in Krenim attacks. Seven finds a Krenim torpedo embedded in the ship, and is able to get key readings from it before it explodes. With her readings, Voyager is able to construct shields to counteract the Krenim weapons. Meanwhile, a Krenim vessel, which exists outside normal space and time, is using a time weapon to erase a species from time. The shock wave encounters Voyager's shields and disrupts the process; the Krenim are instantly reduced to a tiny empire. The Krenim ship goes to Voyager and attempts to erase it, though its mass prevents it from catching Voyager as it warps away. The trip weighs heavily on the ship, though, and Janeway orders all non-command staff to abandon ship.

The Year of Hell (part 2) The small crew left aboard Voyager struggles to keep the ship together. Meanwhile, aboard the Krenim time ship, Paris and Chakotay are taken out of the brig and made to feel like part of the crew. The captain offers to restore both the Krenim civilization and Voyager, with some help from the two. Chakotay begins to learn of the time calculations, while Tom befriends some of the crew. Tom feels that they would be willing to mutiny, though Chakotay is unwilling to go that far, until the captain wipes out yet another civilization. Tom transmits the ship's coordinates to Voyager, which is joined by a few ships from other races. A battle ensues, and the ship's time phase shift is dropped. When the fall into normal space/time, Janeway plots a collision course into the time ship. The collision and an overload in the temporal core sets off a time wave inside the ship, and all the damage it has ever done is restored. Voyager encounters a Krenim vessel, and a course is plotted around their space, the crew unaware of what had transpired in the alternate time line.

Random Thoughts Visiting the Mari, a placid, telepathic race, Janeway and Torres negotiate with Guill, a vendor, for some spare parts. During the transaction, an assault by a man named Frane is perpetrated on a market vendor. Such a crime is almost unheard of. The local police chief, Namira, looks into the crime, and asks all Voyager crew involved to submit to mind scans. B'Elanna was found to have been bumped into by Frane, at which time she thought of hitting him back. She is accused of Aggravated Violent Thought, a crime on Mari, and is sentenced to have her violent thoughts erased. Janeway and Tuvok look into the crime, and find that Frane had been convicted of violent thought four prior times, but Namira is certain he has been purged of all but B'Elanna's thoughts. Tuvok investigates Guill, and finds that he trafficks in violent thought. He is able to overcome Guill and his associates, and takes Guill aboard Voyager. Namira is presented with the evidence, and Torres is released. Seven comments to Janeway that their dual missions of exploration and return to the Alpha Quadrant are at cross-purposes. She suggests abandoning exploration and proceeding directly home.

Concerning Flight While running her daVinci program, Janeway is called to the bridge - Voyager is under attack. Throughout the ship, pieces of technology are beamed away, including the main computer core. Kim and Seven are able to trace the raiders, but it takes Voyager 10 days to get there. Janeway and Tuvok go to the surface near where Federation energy signals are detected, and they are greeted by Leonardo. He is wearing the Doctor's emitter, and says he has found a rich patron. The patron turns out to be a dealer in stolen goods, and he attempts to sell the computer core to Janeway. But he overhears he plans to get the core back, and takes her prisoner. She convinces Leonardo to help her escape, and using his maps, they find the site the computer core is being stored in. The core is beamed back to Voyager, but Janeway and daVinci are left behind. Janeway uses a site-to-site transporter to beam out of the building, and a pursuit ensues. They escape on one of daVinci's flying contraptions - Voyager battles its way down low in orbit to beam the two aboard, after which they leave post haste.

Mortal Coil Neelix goes on an away mission into a nebula to collect proto-matter, and is killed in an accident. Unable to revive him, the Doctor tells Janeway to prepare him for burial - but Seven tells Janeway that he can be saved by Borg technology. Using nanoprobes, Seven and the Doctor revive Neelix. He has a crisis of faith, however, when he does not see the Great Forest. He had told Naomi Wilder about the Great Forest earlier; a place where Talaxians go when they die, where all you ever loved them are waiting. Neelix asks Chakotay to help him with a vision quest - in his quest, he sees his sister Alexia, who tells him the Great Forest is a lie, and he knows what he has to do. He tries to kill himself by beaming into the nebula, but Chakotay is able to delay him. When Ensign Wilder tells Neelix that Naomi needs him, he realizes that he has a new family on Voyager.

Waking Moments The morning shift all awaken after having nightmares, all of whom feature a fierce-looking alien. Suspecting the appearance of the same face in many dreams is more than a coincidence, Janeway and Tuvok go to check on Harry, who is late for duty - he is sleeping, and nothing the Doctor does can revive him or several other crew members. Chakotay uses his vision quest hardware to put himself in a dream he can awaken himself from, and finds the alien and confronts him - they live in the dream world as we live the in "waking" world, and they want Voyager out of their space. Chakotay awakens, and sets course to leave, but an alien fleet overtake and occupy Voyager - until Chakotay realizes he is still dreaming. When he awakes this time, he only finds the Doctor - all the others are now sleeping. Chakotay plots a course for a planet with unusual energy readings. He beams down and finds a huge cavern filled with the aliens, all asleep. He falls asleep, though; but tells the aliens that the Doctor will destroy the cavern and all of its occupants if they are not released. They are released and leave alien space quickly.

Message in a Bottle Seven detects a Starfleet vessel - but in the Alpha quadrant. She has tapped into a vast network of alien relay stations, stretching 60000 light years. Attempts to contact the ship by subspace are unsuccessful, so they try a higher-powered holographic stream, sending the Doctor to the ship before she goes out of range. He arrives in a seemingly empty ship, but he finds the bodies of some of the crew; he revives one for a moment, and learns that the Romulans have taken the ship. The Prometheus is a prototype weapon with an experimental Multi-Vector Assault mode. It also has a prototype EMH program, that the Doctor recruits to help disable the Romulans. The two doctors gas all the Romulans, but they are just moments away from a rendezvous with the Tal Shi'ar, to deliver the new ship. A Starfleet squad attacks the Romulan ships, and the Prometheus. The doctors fumble around the bridge and activate the MVA, and destroy the Romulans. On Voyager, a Hirogen, the race that built the network, breaks Voyager's connection. When Janeway tries to convince them to let them maintain the link, they balk, but Seven is able to maintain the link. The Doctor is sent back to Voyager. Listed as missing, Voyager now has hope that there may be a way home. Starfleet's message - "You're no longer alone".

Hunters A Hirogen ship intercepts Starfleet transmissions bound for Voyager, and does its best to scramble them as they continue on. Voyager receives the transmissions, sent as a result of the Doctor's previous away mission to the Prometheus; Seven and Janeway quickly realize that they are letters from home, though Seven finds an encrypted transmission broadcast simultaneously with the clear text. The transmitter is a huge relic, powered by a contained quantum singularity. It is part of the huge network of relay stations spanning two quadrants. Tuvok and Seven go in a shuttle to the relay station to boost its containment field so that the transmission can be better heard. But they are taken prisoner by a Hirogen ship, and the Hirogen captain is intent on acquiring "relics" from their bodies. More Hirogen ships approach; Janeway disrupts the containment field, creating a huge gravity well. The Hirogens fire, and the containment field collapses, unleashing the black hole - Kim is able to pull Tuvok and Seven away from the hostile ship just in time. The letters create quite a stir on Voyager, as the former Maquis learn of the fate of their movement and their comrades; and Janeway learns her fiance has married someone else.

Prey Voyager encounters a badly damaged Hirogen ship, and they board her. A lone Hirogen is found and taken aboard for treatment. Meanwhile, Voyager is able to learn much about the Hirogen - they are hunters, and their entire society is based on killing prey. They do not even appear to have a home world. As he recovers, the Hirogen demands to be let go to continue his hunt. A hull breech and organic matter near it lead to the discovery that the Hirogen is chasing a member of Species 8472, left behind after the invasion of Borg space. It is cornered and detained, though the Doctor can do little to help it. Janeway orders Seven of Nine to create a quantum singularity so it can return to its own space, but Seven refuses. During an attack by other Hirogen ships, the power flickers, allowing the Hirogen hunter to escape. It finds 8472 and as they struggle, Seven beams them both to one of the Hirogen ships; the attack is broken off. Janeway is angry at Seven for disobeying, and banishes her to her cargo bay and astrometrics.

Retrospect Voyager is bartering for new weapons technology with Kovin, an Entharian. Janeway agrees to trade with Kovin for a new weapon that appears to be impervious to shielding. Janeway allows Seven access to engineering to help integrate the system into Voyager. While working with Kovin, Seven strikes him during a minor altercation, and Seven is again restricted to her quarters. During a medical exam, Seven is unusually unnerved by the Doctor's instruments. He thinks she is suppressing memories and puts her through a regression therapy to recover them. In her recall, Kovin got her alone while during firearms testing and disabled her; nanoprobes were extracted from her body. Janeway confronts Kovin, who denies the allegation. During an investigation in his lab, nanoprobes are found; Kovin beams away to his ship, and Voyager gives chase. Further examination of the evidence, though, shows that Kovin is not guilty, and the memories are probably the result of Seven's Borg experiences. Kovin is convinced that Voyager's requests to listen are traps, and he fires at Voyager until his ship blows up under an overload. The Doctor requests that some of his programming be erased to prevent him from making such a mistake again, but Janeway refuses to allow it.

The Killing Game (part 1) Voyager has been overtaken by a group of Hirogen ships. For three weeks, the Hirogen leader has been using the holodecks to conduct hunts of Voyager personnel in various scenarios, from the Crusades to Klingon hand-to-hand combat. The Hirogen have Harry working to expand the holodecks to several levels, and the Doctor patching up the crew as they are dispatched in each scenario. The problem is compounded because the Hirogen have implanted neural transmitters that are making the crew think that they are actual characters in the game. The Hirogen leader picks World War II as the next scenario, putting the crew in the role of the French resistance and the Americans; the Hirogen are the Nazis. Harry comes up with a plan to neutralize the neural transmitters, but needs an ally in the holodeck itself. When Seven is wounded in the game, the Doctor is able to disable her transmitter - she is sent back into the game aware of herself, but awkwardly unfamiliar with the other characters. Janeway and Seven go on a sabotage mission to Nazi HQ, where seven finds a holodeck console and begins to program it; only Janeway's transmitter is deactivated before the Hirogen catch on. Seven and Janeway escape the HQ just before the Americans begin to shell it.

The Killing Game (part 2) The American shelling of the Nazi HQ has breached the holodeck, since the safety protocols have been turned off, exposing Voyager to the game. Janeway and Seven return to the resistance HQ. Janeway makes her way to sick bay, from where the neural transmitters are controlled. Since nearly the entire ship has been equipped with holomitters, she can place a holographic explosive beneath the sickbay. When it explodes, the entire crew is aware, but now under heavy attack from the holographic Nazis and the real Hirogen. Janeway is captured and taken to the Hirogen leader. He tells her his plan is to use holo technology to return the Hirogen to a stable civilization. By hunting on holodecks, they can remain stationary and stop wandering the quadrant. She agrees to give him holo technology in exchange for their freedom, but the leader's second is not so willing and kills him; he dies himself when Janeway chases him down with a rifle. The battle wages on, but soon the two sides come to a stalemate. Janeway meets with the new Hirogen leader and gives them some holo technology as agreed, and the Hirogen leave.

Vis a Vis Voyager encounters an alien with a very sophisticated, very unstable warp drive. They are able to stabilize the drive and have the alien, Steth, come aboard to make repairs. Paris help him out. Steth is a shape-shifter, and he is about to lose his shape's stability. As they repair the ship, Steth replaces his body with Tom's, taking on his shape. Though Steth has some trouble adjusting to Paris's life, he quickly adapts. He is not fully satisfied with Tom's life and begins to go off the deep end, threatening Seven and attacking the captain. He is phasered and placed in sickbay. On Steth's ship, Paris jumps out of warp in Benthen space, where he finds the "real" Steth. They find Voyager. When Janeway hijacks a shuttle, it is clear the alien has again shifted. They are able to catch the Janeway alien and everyone is returned to their original shape.

The Omega Directive An energy wave hits Voyager and an odd read-out appears on the bridge displays. No one can clear the displays except Janeway, who does so and then quickly disappears into her ready room. The captain calls for Seven - she knows about the Omega Directive because the Borg knew from assimilated Starfleet captains. The Omega Molecule is one of infinite complexity, yet is harmonic - the Borgs' Holy Grail. Janeway's mission is to discover the source and destroy it, before it destroys a large portion of space. Janeway tells Chakotay that she and Seven will either return successfully, or they will never return at all. He convinces her to tell the senior staff the details. Omega was synthesized 100 years ago in the Lantaru sector. The explosion resulting from the molecule's destabilization destroyed the station it was developed in and disrupted subspace for light years. In that space, warp travel is impossible. The source of the shock wave is found at a research station on a small moon. They find hundreds of the molecules - they are being researched as an energy source. Voyager takes the molecules just as the researchers' military arrives - while they take fire, Janeway has to deal with Seven, who wants to save and harness Omega. In the end, they destroy the molecules and Seven ponders whether the Borgs' pursuit of Omega amounts to a religion.

Unforgettable A ship in distress calls for help, asking for Chakotay by name. Injured in sick bay, the woman, Kellin, asks for asylum. She tells Chakotay that her race has a biology that prevents others from remembering them, that prevents scanners from seeing them. She says she was on Voyager for two weeks and she left knowing she would be forgotten - but she found that she'd fallen in love with Chakotay. Her people do not tolerate defectors - she herself is a tracer, a bounty hunter, but she is disenchanted with her peoples' closed society. The crew try to find some way to verify her story, and she recounts her time aboard to Chakotay. She was hunting a dissident when her cloak failed and she triggered an intruder alert. Janeway was not happy to hear a stowaway was aboard and had Chakotay work with Kellin. They found the dissident and celebrated his capture alone in Chakotay's quarters. A pair of tracers come for her, but Kellin modifies Voyager's sensors to detect the ships. Kellin tells Chakotay that she will leave if he feels nothing for her. Though he still does not remember her, he asks her to stay. A tracer is already on board and scans Kellin to make her forget her time on Voyager. The Doctor is unable to stop the memory drain. The tracer refuses to help as well. Soon, her memory is gone and Chakotay tries to explain to her, but she insists on going home. Chakotay makes his log with paper and pencil so he will remember.

Living Witness 700 years in the future, a Kyrian museum recalls a destructive encounter with the Warship Voyager. They strike a deal with the Vaskan to find and capture the Kyrian leader Tedran in exchange for information on the whereabouts of a stable wormhole. Voyager capture Tedran and kill him and 8 million people. Some Vaskans distrust the evidence of the Voyager Encounter, but recent archeological digs have uncovered further proof. The exhibit curator, a Kyrian, views the artifact, a copy of the Doctor. He is informed that as the designer of some of the weapons used in the Encounter, he may be tried as a war criminal. When the Doctor sees the Kyrian version of history, he balks. It was the Kyrians who attacked the Vaskans and Voyager, led by Tedran. Though initially reluctant to listen, the curator allows the Doctor to revise the simulation. The Kyrians invade Voyager and take technology and hostages. The Vaskan ambassador killed Tedran, not Janeway. The discovery of the Doctor sparks a race riot between the Kyrians and the Vaskans, but when the truth became wide spread, a new unity between the peoples emerged. The Doctor stayed with them for many years before leaving to retrace Voyager's journey home.

Demon Voyager faces a power crisis and the crew quarters are left without power. Seven finds a Y-class planet (demon class in Starfleet slang) with needed raw materials. Attempts to beam the deuterium aboard just leads to an accident. Harry suggests a highly modified shuttle and environmental suit. Kim and Paris head down to mine the deuterium. Kim falls into a pool of a liquified metal and his suit starts to fail... soon Tom's suit fails, too. When they don't return, Janeway uses remaining power to land Voyager. Seven and Chakotay go out to find them. Chakotay almost falls down a cliff when Paris, unsuited, helps Seven pull him back up. Paris and Kim are brought back to be examined by the Doctor. As soon as they are aboard, they begin to suffocate. Doc finds a fluid in their blood which adapted their bodies. The atmosphere is unsafe to replicate - a cure must be found or they will have to be left behind. The fluid is found to have organic properties and when it touches B'Elanna's thumb, it mimics her. An away team finds the bodies of Paris and Kim still alive, barely. A pool of the fluid forms under Voyager and she begins to sink. Janeway fires into the pool - the Kim duplicate asks Janeway to stop. The "silver blood" has experienced sentience for the first time. In exchange for releasing Voyager, volunteers donate DNA for duplication to populate the planet.

One Voyager enters a nebula with disastrous results to the crew. The radiation is toxic - too far to go around, the entire crew must be put in stasis during the month it would take to go through it. Seven, unaffected by the radiation, will remain awake with the Doctor; Janeway has reservations that Seven can handle such prolonged solitude, but agrees to the plan. 10 days into the trip, ship's systems begin to fail. A major problem with the warp engines turns out to be a false alarm - several gel packs are failing and sending false signals. The Doctor's emitter fails as well, confining him to sick bay. By day 29, Seven admits to herself that she is feeling the effects of the isolation. Voyager encounters a ship and Seven works a trade with the lone pilot. When she rebuffs his propositions, he gets loose on board. After she disables him, she begins to hallucinate. The Doctor finally fails, leaving Seven alone for the remaining days of the voyage, her Borg implants beginning to degrade, too. In the last day, her hallucinations intensify. She has to reroute all power to the engines, including her life support to get the ship through, and barely survives, but she and the crew emerge alive and well.

Hope and Fear After five months, Janeway continues to try to decode the Starfleet message. Neelix and Paris bring Arturis aboard, one of a species with a talent for languages, in exchange for help in a trade negotiation. Janeway asks if he can help with the message. He does, and the message gives coordinates that lead to a ship, and a message that the ship can bring them home in three months. The Dauntless uses experimental slipstream technology to move great distances quickly. They investigate the ship, and try to learn its technology and adapt it to Voyager, too. Janeway works on part of the message Arturis said was badly damaged - it is a message that Starfleet cannot help them find a way home. Arturis lied to them - Dauntless is his ship, modified to look like Starfleet. He blames Janeway for the assimilation of his entire race by the Borg, once they defeated Species 8472, they went after his race, which had eluded them for centuries. He plans to bring her and Seven to the collective. Using the slipstream technology, Voyager gives chase, fires, and is able to beam Janeway and Seven back. Arturis ends up in Borg space. The slipstream damages Voyager, but Seven vows to try to find a way to use it to bring Voyager home sooner.

Night Voyager is crossing a great expanse, two years wide. In it, there are no stars, no life, no frame of reference. The darkness outside the ship has people on edge after only two months, and has given Janeway a chance to seclude herself in her quarters. Sullenly, she contemplates the fate her decisions have lead Voyager and the crew to. Suddenly, Voyager drops out of warp and loses all power. As some systems come back on line, a creature attacks Seven and Tom in a holodeck. Seven shoots the creature and they take it to sickbay. Tuvok fires a flare of sorts and illuminates several ships, which then move off slightly, restoring all ships power. A fourth ship arrives and fires on the first three, driving them off. The captain, Emck of the Malon, offer to help guide Voyager out of The Void through a wormhole in exchange for the alien creature. Janeway talks to the creature once he regains consciousness. The Doctor tells her he is dying of theta radiation poisoning, the same radiation the Malon ship is glowing with. Voyager takes the creature back to its people. Janeway asks Emck what the theta radiation is from - it is an industrial byproduct, and he is dumping it in the Void. The radiation has upset the delicate balance of the void. They offer to help the Malon convert their industry and ships to recycle theta radiation, as Voyager does, but Emck refuses, fearful of his hauling business if there is nothing to haul. Janeway decides to take the wormhole by force and close it once inside. Voyager fights its way past the freighter, but she is badly damaged by the Malon ships' weapons, but the night creatures attack, distracting the Malon as Voyager slips into the vortex, fires photo torpedoes at the opening; Voyager emerges to a bright, start-filling viewscreen.

Drone Seven, Paris, B'Elanna, and the Doctor fly near a proto-nebula to study it when it suddenly surges, placing their shuttle in jeopardy. They are taken in an emergency transport - in the process, the Doctor's emitter is damaged. Seven and crewman Mulcahey take it for study. While they are away, the emitter grows Borg appendages. When Mulcahey checks on the emitter, assimilation tubes extract tissue from him, leaving him unconscious. Seven deduces that in the transporter, some of her nanoprobes were merged with the emitter - it has built an artificial womb and is growing a fetal Borg, which is not how drones are normally built. It matures quickly - Janeway refuses to destroy it, and tells Seven to teach it. It is very powerful, with the emitter's 29th century technology evident in the design. Neelix tells the drone he should choose a name. He chooses One. While regenerating, his proximity sensor trips, alerting a Borg probe, which intercepts Voyager. Janeway and Seven give One a quick history of Borg conquest, and he agrees to help, first disrupting a Borg tractor beam, then enhancing Voyager's phasers - but Voyager's technology is not very advanced, and he beams over to the Borg probe, sending it into the nebula. It implodes, but One barely survives. He refuses to let the Doctor operate, and denies Seven's pleas. He dies, saying his life puts the Voyager crew in danger.

Extreme Risk A Malon tractor beam attempts to steal Voyager's multi-spacial probe. Janeway sends the probe into a atmosphere of a gas giant, and when the Malon ship gives chase, it is crushed. The probe gets stuck, and Paris suggests building a new shuttle he's been working on to go get it. Janeway approves and the team gets to work. Another Malon ship demands the probe as payment for the first's destruction. Janeway refuses, and Seven detects that they are building a shuttle to get the probe, too. The race is on. B'Elanna is not much help, though, as she seems to descend into depression. When she tests the shuttle on the holodeck, with all safeties turned off, she is nearly killed. She is placed in the Doctor's care, and Chakotay inventories her other holodeck programs. He brings her to one she wrote of the Maquis massacre they'd learned of. She says she feels nothing looking at the bodies of her friends; she has no family left. Chakotay tells her that Voyager is her family now. The Malon send their shuttle into the planet, and Paris follows with his Delta Flyer, with B'Elanna, Seven, and Kim along. They are able to shoo away the Malon ship and beam in the small probe. B'Elanna saves them all with a well-timed force field to engulf a hull breach.

In the Flesh Chakotay takes pictures of Starfleet Headquarters in San Francisco, including one of legendary Boothby. In a lounge, he meets Valerie Archer who notes that she finds it odd being in human form. Tuvok gathers Chakotay, and they beam aboard the Delta Flyer, with a security guard who tried to stop them - they are orbiting a space station with a huge recreation of a piece of Earth inside. They take the guard back to Voyager - the Doctor attempts to examine him; when he does, the man kills himself. Janeway reviews Chakotay's photos and marvels at the accuracy of the recreation. The Doctor discovers that the guard has been genetically modified at a cellular level - he forces a reversion, and a dead member of Species 8472 morphs on his examining table. Janeway deduces that 8472 must be preparing to invade the Federation. Seven produces modified nanoprobes to use as a defense. Chakotay goes back to the simulation, where he takes Archer on a date. She takes a clandestine skin sample and discovers he's human - he is detained by Boothby, the commander at the simulation. They ask him when the Federation fleet is arriving to attack. Janeway contacts Boothby and arranges a meeting. She stands down her nanoprobe weapons as a sign of good faith, and they learn 8472 is scared of humans - they allied with the Borg and killed many of their kind. Janeway insists they are not a threat, and, in fact, Voyager is alone in the Delta Quadrant. They tell her their plans are not to invade the Federation, but to send agents to infiltrate it, to find out their plans to destroy 8472. The two realize their positions have been arrived out of mutual fear. Boothby pledges to return to the leadership of 8472 and to try to convince them the Federation would prefer to meet and understand 8472 rather than destroy them. Janeway provides Voyager's comm signal so they can contact her.

Once Upon a Time Paris, Tuvok, and Wilder are surveying space in the Delta Flyer when an ion storm damages the ship. They are forced to make a crash-landing on planet. Wilder has a severe internal injury and needs surgery. Aboard Voyager, Neelix takes care of Naomi, keeping her occupied with homework and the well-loved holostory about Flotter the water man and Trevis the tree man. The situation reminds him of his family, killed in the war with the Haakonen - and of his sister Alexia in particular. He tells Janeway that he cannot tell Naomi, to save her from the pain he felt. Voyager locates the Flyer and sends teams down to the planet to dig it out of the planet's crust. Unaware of the efforts, the Flyer's crew records farewell messages for their loved ones as life support starts to fail. They start to race against time as another ion storm races toward them - they are able to uncover the shuttle enough to transport the entire thing out before the storm hits. Reunited, Naomi and Wilder explore Flotter's world together.

Timeless Kim and Chakotay beam down to an ice planet and locate Voyager, buried under a glacier. They beam inside and find the crew all long dead. They activate the EMH and take Seven's body aboard their ship - the Delta Flyer. They activate the Doctor and say that they are there to change history. Aboard Voyager, the slipstream drive is finally ready for an attempt to get home. Paris, however, has run some last-minute tests and finds that there is a fatal flaw - in the slipstream, Voyager will be destroyed. Harry works out a way to have the Delta Flyer ride the slip stream ahead of Voyager and send minor corrections back to her. Janeway approves the plan and they start up the drive. When the corrections are needed, Harry sends them but they do not work - Voyager is knocked off the slipstream and crash lands on the planet. Harry explains to the Doctor that they are there to send the right corrections to Voyager, using Borg technology from Seven's body and stolen from the Federation - they are fugitives. The Borg tech will allow a message to travel back to Seven through time. The Challenger, under Captain Geordi LaForge, tries to stop them from violating the Temporal Prime Directive, but they send their message. It fails - the corrections did not work. Harry sends them again, this time to knock Voyager out of the slipstream safely, but not in the Alpha Quadrant. It works - Seven enters the corrections and Voyager stops, though 10 years closer to home.

Infinite Regress A Borg vessel has been destroyed and a sub-space signal emanating from it is affecting Seven's mind as it attempts to establish contact with her - different personalities that had been assimilated into the collective begin to overwhelm Seven's consciousness: a Klingon warrior, a Vulcan officer. A young girl plays a game with Naomi Wilder for quite a time. When she attacks B'Elanna while speaking Klingon, however, she is restrained in sick bay. Once the doctor determines what is going on, Seven tells them of a Borg transmitter called a vinculum. Voyager finds the vinculum and beams it aboard to attempt to shut it down. But it adapts to their attacks. While B'Elanna works to dampen and shut down the vinculum, the doctor worries that Seven's own personality may be lost. Tuvok goes into her mind to try to bring her out. Meanwhile, B'Elanna finds the vinculum infected with a virus, which is causing its transmissions. The DNA pattern match that of Species 6339. Voyager sets out to find a 6339 ship - when they do, they learn the virus is a doomsday weapon against he Borg, and they are anxious to get the vinculum back. Janeway refuses, citing Seven's health. B'Elanna fights to dampen the device, as Voyager battles 6339 and Tuvok battles within Seven's mind. Once B'Elanna shuts down the vinculum, Tuvok pulls Seven back and Voyager beams the vinculum into space where 6339 can pick it up themselves.

Nothing Human An energy wave hits Voyager and they set out to find its source - it is an alien ship. They beam aboard its life form, which is not humanoid. While the Doctor tries to examine it, B'Elanna comes to report on the ship - the creature jumps to life and attaches itself to B'Elanna. The doctor cannot remove it and knows little about exobiology. He and Kim create a hologram of one of the Alpha Quadrants greatest exobiologists, Crell Moset. One problem for the Maquis on board - Crell is a Cardassian, and an infamous one at that. Tabor, a Bajoran, tells of experiments he conducted on live subjects. Though he cured a deadly disease, but killed dozens to create the vaccine. Tabor lobbies to have Moset erased, and B'Elanna refuses to have him work on her. The doctor and Paris lobby to have him continue, and Janeway agrees - do this now to save B'Elanna and deal with the morals later. They do send out an energy wave to try to contact more of the species, in case they can help. Moset and the Doctor set out to operate - Moset's procedure would save B'Elanna but kill the creature; the doctor jumps in with a less aggressive procedure that will save both. An alien ship pops out of warp and it locks onto them with a tractor beam. They release the creature and beam it to its ship, which retreats. The Doctor contemplates saving the Moset program, but after speaking with it and grappling with the moral dilemma, he deletes it. B'Elanna is angry at Janeway for authorizing the procedure - Janeway tells her to deal with it.

Thirty Days Paris is demoted to Ensign and placed in solitary confinement by Janeway. In a letter to his father, he recounts the events leading up to the punishment: Voyager encounters a world whose atmosphere is entirely water, being held together by some kind of field. While orbiting, ships confront Voyager, but Janeway quickly convinces the Moneans of their good intentions. The Moneans tell Janeway that the planet, on which they arrived 300 years before, is losing volume. Tom suggests taking the Delta Flyer into the depths of the planet, deeper than the Monean ships can go, to investigate. At 600 km deep, Paris and a Monean scientist Riga discover a mechanism. It emits a gravity field, and holds the water to it. But something is forcing it to divert power from gravity to its own structural integrity. Tom and Riga discover the Monean's own oxygen mining processes are disrupting the mechanism. To stop the process, the mining should be stopped and revised. The Monean ambassador thanks them, but refuses to do anything. Tom, a lover of old ocean tales, feels an affection for the planet and teams with Riga to destroy some of the refineries. They hijack the Flyer, and take aim on the plant, but Voyager fires on the Flyer and forces it to the surface. Tom is taken into custody, tried, and thrown into the brig.

Counterpoint Devoran warships stop Voyager and board her. They scan everyone and everybody, including some waste canisters in the cargo bay. On the bridge, the head inspector, Kashyk, asks Janeway about two Vulcans and two Betazed on her crew - she tells him that they are all dead. He reminds her of the penalties for being a telepath, and takes his ships and leaves. Tuvok and the rest of the crew, and a dozen or so Brenari are then pulled out of the transporter pattern buffers in the waste containers. The Brenari are on the run from the Devore. They are searching for a wormhole to take them out of Devore space (passage through which requires submission to inspection on demand). Kashyk appears alone in a shuttle and asks for asylum. He knows they have been hiding telepaths, and is fed up with how the Devore treat them. He asks for safe passage. He and Janeway work together to try to determine the next place the wormhole will appear. They determine the Tehara system, where a Devore sensor station will likely detect them - they try to drift past but are detected. In a race to the wormhole site, Devore ships chase Voyager. Kashyk volunteers to go back aboard the Devore ships and divert them. But upon his arrival, he reassumes his position and demands Voyager turn over the Brenari - but Janeway sent them ahead in two of Voyager's shuttles to the wormhole entrance, and they make their escape. Kashyk lets Voyager go, rather than let his record show that the Brenari escaped.

Latent Image While experimenting with his holoimager, the Doctor finds a surgical scar on Kim that neither has any recollection of; the surgery was definitely done by the Doctor, 18 months earlier. He enlists the help of Seven, who was not on board at the time. They review his image album from 18 months ago and find many images deleted. She is able to reconstruct a handful, and they tell an odd story - a crew member he has never seen, a shuttle mission he does not recall, and an attack by an alien. They bring their findings to Janeway, with the premise that some alien race has erased all the crew's memories of some event, and may still be doing it. Janeway asks the Doctor to shutdown while they investigate. He later has more short-term memories erased, and his holoimager recorded Janeway doing it. He confronts her - she admits to the erasures. 18 months ago, his program confronted a situation it could not deal with and it was rewritten and the memories erased. She intends to do it again. Seven challenges her decision, saying the Doctor is more than just a machine to be fixed. She agrees to let him see the memories - he was on a mission with Kim and Ani Jetal, when they were attacked. The alien weapon attacked their nervous system, and when he discovered a treatment, he only had time to help one of them - Jetal died. His ethical and cognitive programs later came in conflict as he contemplated his choice. After his memory is restored, the conflict returns, and Janeway shuts him down. But this time, she decides to help his program adapt, to let the battle wage within him, rather than remove the memories.

Bride of Chaotica! Tom and Harry are still playing Tom's Captain Proton holonovel when Voyager comes to a dead stop, with systems failing all over the place. On the holodeck, several distortions appear, but seem benign. Unable to stop the simulation, they transports out of the holo deck. Voyager has entered a layer of subspace that is disrupting their warp field - the more they push against the field, the more it pushes back. Meanwhile, on the holodeck, the distortions spawn human-looking figures, who are captured by Chaotica's troops. One is killed and the other escapes. As the crew tries to free Voyager, sensors suddenly pick up weapons fire on the holodeck. When Harry and Tuvok beam back into the holodeck, they find destruction everywhere. They learn that Chaotica is firing his death ray at the distortions and the distortions are firing at Chaotica's castle. One of the distortion people encounter the pair, and he explains that he is a photonic life form - he is unaware that there can be carbon-based life and suspects Tuvok and Tom are illusions. Tom devises a plan to resolve the conflict; the Doctor will pose as the President of Earth and get the photonic beings to hold their fire while Janeway acts as Arachnia, Queen of the Spider People. Janeway seduces Chaotica and disables his lightning shield, and Tom uses Proton's ship to destroy the death ray. Once the Chaotica threat is eliminated, the photonic beings leave, and Voyager slowly emerges from the subspace field.

Gravity Tuvok, Paris, and the Doctor crash land a shuttle when it is pulled into a gravity well. Noss, a woman also crashed on the planet, steals supplies from Paris, but Tuvok retrieves them when he rescues her from some attackers. With the universal translators down, communication is difficult until Paris gets the doctor working again. They abandon the shuttle and go to Noss's ship, which is defended against outside attack. Noss tells them she's been there 14 years, and has seen many ships crash land there. Noss begins to learn English and starts to fall for Tuvok. Since they've been there so long and rescue seems unlikely, Paris encourages Tuvok to pursue a relationship. Tuvok refuses, recalling his lessons in logic as a rebellious teen. Tuvok is hurt in an ambush and Noss nurses him back to health, but when he recovers, he is not as receptive to her affections as she'd like. Meanwhile, Voyager searches for the shuttle and encounters the gravity well, and determines the shuttle went inside. They launch a probe that confirms a system exists on the other side of the disturbance... telemetry from the probe indicates a temporal shift - 30 minutes on Voyager translates to two days on the other side. A nearby race is getting ready to close the disturbance as a navigational hazard. Voyager only has a limited amount of time, and sends the stranded team a message. On the ground, the group is withstanding an alien attack as they count the hours to their rescue. Noss is hurt and Tuvok retrieves her just before they all beam out. Before Voyager drops Noss off on her home planet, Tuvok mind-melds with her to help her understand why he rebuked her.

Bliss Voyager detects a wormhole that appears to lead to the Alpha Quadrant - landing, in fact, right next to Earth. The entire crew is excited as messages start to come to Voyager from Starfleet, indicating generally good news for everyone. Seven, Paris, and Naomi Wilder return from a scouting trip to find the crew in a euphoria. Seven is instantly suspicious of the wormhole. She watches Janeway's log entries that indicate she was initially suspicious, but quickly became convinced the wormhole is real. When Seven scans the wormhole, she finds a ship and contacts it. Its pilot, Qatai, warns them away, saying it is a trap. When Seven tries to convince the crew the wormhole is not real, she is disbelieved, and, in fact, and scheduled to be placed in stasis to protect her from Borg monitoring subspace. She refuses and locks herself in her cargo bay; she finds Naomi there, too, apparently unaffected by the crew's blinding bliss. Seven transports to Engineering and tries to divert Voyager away from the wormhole, but she is disabled. As Voyager passes through the wormhole, everyone but Naomi passes out. She revives Seven, who contact Qatai - they are inside a giant bio organism that feeds on starships. He has been tracking it for years, after it destroyed his colony ship. It tricks crews by convincing them that its mouth is just what they have been looking for. Seven brings the Doctor online and with Qatai's ship they fire at the beast until it expels them.

Dark Frontier (part 1) Voyager destroys a Borg scout ship and retrieves the left over pieces in an attempt to make some use of the technology. Seven and B'Elanna try to repair the ship's transwarp coil; they wish to hook it to Voyager to move a bit closer to home; the coil is burnt out, though. They also find a data coil, detailing Borg movements in the area. Janeway decides on a bold plan: the data show a disabled probe ship limping home at warp speed. They will board the ship, steal its transwarp coil, and use it in Voyager. On the way to a rendezvous, Janeway has Seven review the mission logs they retrieved from the Raven, details of her parents' encounters and research on the Borg, three year's worth of data. Voyager catches up to the probe sphere - Seven estimates that its transwarp drive will be repaired in just a few days. The crew drills for the mission in the meantime. The Borg contact Seven - they are aware of Voyager's presence. They will let Voyager leave safely if Seven agrees to return to the collective. When Janeway tries to remove Seven from the mission, Seven is adamant - she must go. The mission disables the sphere's shields and the transwarp coil is beamed back to Voyager. As they prepare to leave, Seven is detained by the Borg, and the rest of the away team returns to Voyager. The sphere jumps to transwarp and returns to a huge Borg colony, where Seven is met by the Borg queen.

Dark Frontier (part 2) The Borg queen tells Seven that she was planted on Voyager to help the Borg learn more about humans so that they can be assimilated. It is not their intention to turn her back into a drone - she'll be much more valuable as an individual, though she is reconnected to the collective. The queen takes Seven on a trip to assimilate a small world; during the action, Seven helps a handful of people escape, but the queen tracks down their ship. Seven pleads for their freedom, and to her surprise, the queen allows them to escape. Gaining a bit of trust, the queen tells Seven her plan - to burst a biogenic weapon in Earth's atmosphere and assimilate the population slowly with nanoprobes. Seven refuses to help develop the nanoprobes. She threatens to reassimilate Seven, and shows that as a drone, her father still lives. Naomi Wilder asks Janeway to rescue Seven; she tells Naomi that she had no intention of leaving Seven behind. Janeway reviews the sensor logs and realizes that Seven had been contacted by the collective - and realizes that she sacrificed herself for Voyager. The Doctor devises a means to contact Seven, and they use the Hansen diaries to devise means to protect themselves and the Delta Flyer from Borg sensors. They install the transwarp coil in the Flyer and follow the sphere's trail to the Borg colony. They detect Seven in the queen's chamber; they contact her, but the queen hears the call, too. Janeway and Tuvok beam aboard the queen's ship; Tuvok disables shields as Janeway confronts the queen. Seven gets conflicting orders from Janeway and the queen, but heeds Janeway, allowing them to beam back to the Flyer. They turn tail back to Voyager and are pursued. When they emerge back at Voyager, with the Borg in pursuit, Chakotay orders torpedoes to close the transwarp conduit; the Borg ship emerges from the conduit in pieces. They install the transwarp coil in Voyager and estimate they cut 15 years off their journey before it burned out.

The Disease Voyager is helping the crew of a massive generational ship repair their warp engines. Despite a directive from Janeway that personal contact with the Varro be kept at a minimum, Harry has fallen in love with Tal, an engineer. When the two make love, he notices his skin luminesce; later on, while working with Seven, she notices the glow and takes him to sick bay. He confesses his relations with Tal to the Doctor; because of the potential for cross-species disease, he is required to tell the Captain, who forbids Harry from seeing Tal. Despite this, they do speak and she says the reaction is normal among her people - it even has a name, olan vora. Meanwhile, Tuvok finds a stowaway in a Jeffries tube; he requests asylum - he wants off the generational ship. Seven and B'Elanna detect problems in the ship's skin - they find an artificial parasite feeding on the hull. Tal admits to being part of a movement to stop the ship and actually find a planet to live on. The ship breaks into segments; some decide to leave and go their own way; other rejoin to continue the original voyage. Tal and Harry bid each other farewell, and Harry suffers through the withdrawal of the olan vora.

Course: Oblivion Big news on Voyager: Tom and B'Elanna's wedding, Ensign Harper's new baby, and an enhanced warp drive meaning a two-year journey to Earth through the center of the galaxy. The new warp field appears to be having an adverse effect on the ship, however, and the Doctor is deluged with patients afflicted by some sort of epidemic. The new drive is shut down, but the failure of the ship and crew continues. Oddly, objects brought aboard the ship in the past nine months are unaffected. Chakotay and Tuvok trace Voyager's steps, all the way back to the Demon Planet. They have suspicions that are confirmed when the Doctor performs an autopsy on the newly deceased B'Elanna - they are not really flesh and blood; they are all copies of the Voyager crew. Their only option is to use the new drive to quickly return to the Demon planet, or find another Class Y planet to land on. They find a Class Y planet, but locals chase them off and they rush to the Demon planet, sending distress calls all the way. After the deaths of Chakotay and Janeway, Seven builds a beacon out of unaffected parts, but it is destroyed when the launcher fails. They detect another ship and turn to it. On board the real Voyager, a signal is detected, but when they arrive at the source, there is nothing but debris. Voyager continues its journey home.

The Fight Chakotay is boxing in a holodeck simulation when he sees an odd image behind his opponent; distracted he is promptly knocked out. He heads to sick bay; while there, Voyager gets stuck in an odd region of space. Seven notes that the Borg have encountered space like this, and only one cube had ever survived it. Chakotay begins to hear voices and see images from his boxing match. The Doctor discovers he has a genetic abnormality that causes hallucinations - it had been suppressed at birth, and has been stimulated. Voyager finds a derelict ship; they down load the logs and find that several of its crew had also experienced hallucinations before they all died trying to find a way out of the zone. Chakotay goes on a vision quest to try to resolve his issues; there, he sees his grandfather, who had also suffered from the visions. He is thrust into a boxing ring; he hears voices that appear to be offering alien technology to him, but he does not understand. Janeway and the Doctor surmise there may be beings in this space that are trying to help them escape, through Chakotay - he fears the voices will drive him mad, but agrees to keep trying. He lets his fears go and begins to understand their instructions. He rushes to the bridge, recalibrates the sensors and sets a new course -- and Voyager soon emerges from the zone, safe and sound.

Think Tank Voyager detects a planetoid with considerable dilithium deposits. When they conduct further scans, the planetoid explodes, and a ship emerges from the fire; the Hazari ship, part of a race of bounty hunters, tries to capture them, but they escape. Long range scans show the sector is full of Hazari, all intent on capturing Voyager for some unknown client. As Janeway tries to figure a way out, a figure appears to her. Kurros, a member of a powerful think tank, sends his image to her to offer his group's help, for an as-yet undetermined price. Janeway and Seven go the Kurros's ship. He notes that they have stopped wars, resisted the Borg; even cured the Viidian Phage. Their price, is Seven herself - they wish her to join their group. Seven declines. Voyager captures a Hazari ship and tries to figure out who placed the bounty on them - initially, it appears to be the Malon, but further investigation reveals the Hazari's contact was Kurros himself. Janeway and the Hazari captain try to figure a way to outsmart the think tank. Seven goes to their ship and allows herself to be hooked into their translation matrix. While connected, Voyager sends a pulse through her to disrupt the matrix, after which the group is unable to communicate with each other. In the confusion, Seven beams away and Voyager warps away.

Juggernaut A Malon toxic waste dumper has a critical emergency, and Voyager responds to her distress call, rescuing only two of its crew. One, the captain, warns Voyager to move at least 3 light years away from his ship, the blast and radiation radius should it explode. But the theta radiation interferes with Voyager's engines, and she cannot jump to warp. Instead, Janeway hatches a plan to repair the dumper. One Malon warns of a mythical race of creatures that live on the dumpers. B'Elanna, Neelix, and Chakotay go to the dumper with the Malon. One Malon is killed. B'Elanna, already under Tuvok's tutelage for anger control, and disgusted by the Malon's society, tries to maintain her cool when Chakotay is nearly spaced and has to go back aboard Voyager. She and the others soon realize that the ship's distress is no accident, and that they are being stalked. On the bridge, she confronts a Malon who had been given up for dead in the ship's core, a demon. He intends to exact revenge on the ship itself, regardless of the consequences. She beats him down and helps Voyager guide the dumper to a star, where its contents explode harmlessly.

Someone to Watch Over Me After B'Elanna confronts Seven as she studies her and Paris and their "mating rituals", the Doctor volunteers to teach her some new social skills, perhaps even dating. Paris bets the Doctor that he can't. They meet several times to go over the basics, and Seven decides on a crewman to ask out on her first date. She asks Lt. Chapman to dinner in Tom's French bistro holoprogram, and all goes well until they dance and she tears one of his shoulder ligaments. After a few more lessons, the Doctor asks her to a reception; while there, she learns of his bet with Paris and walks out on him. He apologizes and tries to think of a way to tell her that he has developed feelings for her ... but she comes to him first and tells him his lessons are no longer needed since there are no suitable mates for her on Voyager. Neelix hosts the Kaati ambassador Tobin while Janeway goes to the Kaati planet to negotiate a trade deal. While on board, Tobin, who is from a monastic culture, samples Voyager's food, women, and wine, to Neelix's consternation. At a reception in his honor, he passes out drunk; Neelix and the Doctor quickly sober him up for the return of his superior; just in time, he regains his composure and the agreement proceeds.

11:59 During a lull in the voyage, Janeway tells Neelix of her ancestor Shannon O'Donnell, an astronaut who helped build the Millennium Gate in 2000, and who later went on to conduct many Mars missions. As the crew discuss the tales they'd been told of their family histories, Tom Paris, an amateur Mars historian, tells Janeway that he knew of no O'Donnell involved with Mars. Janeway looks into her ancestor's history: Shannon rode into Portage Creek, Indiana, en route to Florida. She had tried out to be an astronaut and did not make the cut. Her car breaks down and she takes refuge in the book store of Henry Janeway. Henry is the lone holdout in downtown Portage Creek - a developer wants to raze the entire downtown to build Millennium Gate, a giant shopping mall and bio-habitat tourist attraction. Moss, the developer, knows of O'Donnell and offers her a job on the project if she can convince Janeway to sell. She tries, but Henry is adamant. Moss prepares to move the project to another state. O'Donnell packs her things to leave, but returns for one last attempt - this time, Henry gives in, with a promise of a nice secluded storefront in the new "monstrosity" for his bookstore. Captain Janeway comes away disappointed that her family hero was not who she'd thought.

Relativity As Janeway tours her brand new ship, Voyager, she speaks to a tall, blonde crewman - Seven of Nine. Later, Seven goes to work in a Jeffries Tube, and finds a planted weapon. On the bridge, a chronoton surge is detected, and as security approaches Seven's position, she is beamed out with a temporal transporter - but she is pulled out too soon, and she dies. The crew on the Federation Time Ship Relativity must go back and recruit Seven for the mission again, just before Voyager is destroyed by the weapon. On board Voyager, several people are coming down with space sickness -- it is later tracked to a temporal distortions that begin to pull at the ship. Time travelers arrive and take Seven back with them. Captain Braxton, Janeway's old "friend", is on a mission to stop Voyager from being destroyed, and only Seven, with her Borg implants, can help them. This is the third time she's been recruited, each time trying to pinpoint when the weapon was placed to stop it. She must succeed this time, because being moved through time any more could kill her. She is sent back to a time when the ship was under attack by the Kazon. She is detected, and a force field is erected around her - Seven and Tuvok catch her and she explains what she is doing. They let her go, and she finds the saboteur - it is an insane Braxton, intent on revenge after all the grief Janeway caused him. She chases him through the ship, and through time, until the Relativity can beam them both back. Braxton is arrested, and Voyager continues on her way.

Warhead Voyager encounters a distress call, and an away team finds it being sent by a small device on a planet's surface. The Doctor can understand its machine language; they beam it aboard to study and repair it. It thinks it is a person, flesh and blood. They realize quickly, though, that the machine is a weapon; they attempt to copy the warhead's program to a holomatrix while disabling the explosives, but the machine catches on and takes over the Doctor's program. It intends to use Voyager to complete its mission. On the way, the crew try to figure out a way to disable it. Neelix recognizes some of the technology, and finds a trader, Anguani, who is familiar with it. He offers to help, but his price is too high, so he tries to steal the warhead - Voyager destroys his ship. Harry helps the warhead recover old memories - it is part of a doomsday fleet of large-scale weapons. When the war ended, it had been ordered to divert to a barren planet and explode there. But the recall was past the point-of-no-return for many of the other warheads, who have detected Voyager and surround it. The warhead tries to convince the others that the mission is over, but they do not believe it, so it beams itself out to the group, which all proceed on to the target. On the way, the warhead explodes, destroying itself and all in its group.

Equinox Captain Rudy Ransom, of the Federation science ship Equinox, is under attack and sends out a distress call. Voyager gets the call and rushes to help. It helps fend off the attack, and the Equinox crew beams over the Voyager. The handful of crew members tell that they, too, were pulled into the Delta Quadrant by the Caretaker, and have been on their way home ever since. They've had a very rough time of it, though. The first officer, Max Burke, used to date B'Elanna, making Paris jealous. The aliens keep up their attack on the pair of ships, slowly draining power from Voyager's shields. Alone, Ransom and Burke agree to watch what they say around the Voyager crew - "they would never understand." To mount a defense, Janeway orders the Equinox abandoned over Ransom's objections. Based on Equinox's research, they build a shield generator that will repel the aliens. Curious about a contaminated area on Equinox, Janeway sends the Doctor over - he finds the corpses of alien bodies and research results - the Equinox has been using the aliens to power their ship for the trip home, and the attacks are in self-defense. Janeway has Ransom arrested. The Doctor tries to enlist the help of the Equinox EMH, but his ethical program was modified to allow him to conduct the tests. The EMH helps release Ransom. The Equinox crew beams back to their ship and beams the new shield generator to the Equinox, leaving Voyager defenseless as the aliens begin their attack on Voyager and the Equinox pulls away.

Equinox (Part 2) The aliens kill and injure several crew, but they are able to repel them for a time. Janeway orders Voyager to give chase. The EMH on Voyager is the Equinox's, and he plans to provide tactical data to his ship. On Equinox, Seven is taken prisoner after sabotaging the engines. The Doctor is stored in the Equinox and Ransom disables his ethical program so that he will extract memories from Seven, despite the consequences to Seven. Chakotay tries, and fails, to communicate with the aliens. Voyager finds the Equinox orbiting a planet, hiding. Two of her crew are taken prisoner before a fire fight breaks out; but the Equinox again escapes. Chakotay vocally worries about Janeway's state and she confines him to quarters. Voyager tracks down an Oncari ship - the Oncari can summon the aliens - Janeway makes a deal - call off the attack, and she will deliver the Equinox. On the Equinox, Ransom begins to have second thoughts. When Voyager catches up to them, Ransom tries to cooperate, but Burke takes command. Ransom works to help Voyager beam his crew over, but decides to go down with his ship as the core overloads and the aliens attack. Five of the Equinox crew on Voyager are stripped of rank; Chakotay admits to Janeway that he came close to mutiny himself.

Survival Instinct Voyager visits a Marconian outpost and hosts a wide array of alien guests. One approaches Seven and Naomi Wilder as they eat, offering to sell Seven several Borg relays. Seven purchases them, then the seller contacts two compatriots to say their plan is in motion. As she analyzes the relays, the trio infiltrate Voyager's systems. While Tuvok tries to trace the breech, they find Seven's alcove, where she is regenerating. She awakens just as security barges in on them - the three are former Borg, old members of Seven's unimatrix. They have separated from the collective, but have not separated from each other. They want to know why their memories stop during an incident when their ship crash- landed years ago. The link helped them escape, but now it is overwhelming them. Seven has no memory of parts of the crash either. Seven decides to link with them to regain the memories, a possibly risky procedure. On the planet, several Borg died; those that lived slowly regained their pre-assimilation memories. They did not wish to rejoin the collective. But Seven did - she tracked them down and disabled them until the Borg came for them. She panicked because when she was assimilated, she was a little girl, and she was scared to be alone. The three have not long to live, and they can either live a long life as drones, or a short one as individuals. They all choose to be individuals and all go their separate ways.

Barge of the Dead B'Elanna is caught in an ion storm while trying to retrieve the multi-spatial probe. She barely makes it back to Voyager. A piece of metal is found lodged in her shuttle craft, from when she lost deflectors - it bears the symbol of the Klingon Empire. The crew celebrates the archeological find, though B'Elanna is nonplussed. During a ceremony, though, she sees a Klingon warrior kill the crew, and she is suddenly on a rickety boat - the barge of the dead, for dishonored souls, on its way to Grethor, Klingon hell. She meets the first Klingon, Kortar, the stuff of childhood nightmares, and sees her mother Miral arrive ... and then she is suddenly in sick bay, revived from a coma. Though she has never put much stock in her Klingon heritage, she feels strongly that she has, through her dishonor, committed her mother to hell. She demands to go back, by simulating the coma. Though Janeway is reluctant, she agrees. She arrives on the barge and finds her mother and demands of Kortar that she be allowed to replace her mother. But Kortar knows her plan - to be revived. She swears not to allow it, and Miral is transported to Sto'vo'kor. She walks into Grethor; it is Voyager - an eternity on Voyager is her hell. Miral appears to her - it is not her time, she must choose to live. She has already taken the first step to restoring her honor. The Doc revives B'Elanna, who will live to complete her journey.

Tinker Tenor Doctor Spy The Doctor installs a new daydreaming routine to his program, to allow him to stretch his imagination. He soon finds, however, that his fantasies are beginning to over shadow, and then take over, reality. Mean while, an alien craft monitors Voyager; a micro-probe is sent out and burrows itself into the Doctor's program, and watches the ship from his eyes ... or rather, his fantasy eyes. They see him as a lady's man, a strong leader, backup captain, and inventor of the photonic cannon, a powerful weapon. When the fantasies take over completely, Janeway, Seven, Harry, and B'Elanna work hard to fix him, catching glimpses of several of his fantasies, including the erotic ones, along the way. Once fixed, the Doctor is embarrassed by the revelation of his fantasies. But worse, he is contacted by one of the aliens who fears for his job - his race has planned an attack because of what they saw in the fantasies, but that world does not exist. He gives the Doctor a plan to defeat the attack. Though initially skeptical, Janeway is able to confirm the coming attack; the only way to win the fight is to give the Doctor command and play out the story. The Doctor stands his ground with the aliens, driving them off with the threat of his dreaded photonic cannon. Janeway decorates the Doctor for his efforts, and promises to look into having him as a backup captain in the future.

Alice Upcoming

Riddles Upcoming

Dragon's Teeth Voyager is pulled into a subspace corridor and a ship there helps push them out. Then they demand all records of their encounter be confiscated. Janeway refuses and the aliens fire on Voyager. They find a desolate planet to land on to make repairs and avoid confrontation, and while they do, they detect faint life signs. An away team finds hundreds to stasis tubes, sealed for 900 years. They open one, and its occupant, Gedrin, tells them they were there to avoid a bombardment from space, but were only supposed to be under for five years. His people, the Vardwar, fought and lost to the Turay and their allies. They used the corridors to explore space, and met up with at least the Borg and the Talaxians. The others are reanimated, and the Vardwar prepare to leave the planet. Neelix, curious about the Vardwar, investigates, and with Seven's help, finds many references to the Vardwar from several texts collected in the Delta Quadrant. The stories tell of soldiers who come in the night to rob and conquer. Janeway worries that Voyager is in more danger from the Vardwar than from the Turay above. When she demands the Vardwar ships stand down, they attack Voyager. As she tries to escape, she contacts the Turay and suggests an alliance of convenience. The Turay attack the Vardwar and Voyager escapes; in the mean time, over 50 Vardwar ships escape into the subspace corridors.

One Small Step Voyager encounters a graviton ellipse, a rare spatial phenomenon. Voyager sends a probe into its core and detects many different compounds, including some unique to 21st century Earth's Mars program. Chakotay is excited that they probably found the phenomenon that destroyed the Aries 4 command module, and its pilot, which was in orbit around Mars. For historical interest, Janeway decides to send the Flyer into the ellipse with Chakotay, Tom, and Seven aboard. They make it through the outer layers and find a calm core. They search for the Aries as they collect and study other compounds from within the core. They find Aries, almost totally intact. They try to tow it out, but as they do, Voyager detects a dark-matter asteroid headed for the ellipse. Though Janeway orders the module be left behind, Chakotay refuses, and when the asteroid hits, the Flyer is damaged. B'Elanna thinks a few of the parts on the Aries can be used to repair the Flyer; Chakotay was hurt in the collision, so Seven goes over. She plays Lt. John Kelly's logs from the Aries as she goes to work. Kelly had not died on impact, but lived for weeks in the ellipse trying to find a way out. He finally died when life support gave out. Moved by his story, Seven downloads all of his logs as she finishes her work; and she beams Kelly's remains back to the Flyer. The module is installed and the Flyer emerges from the ellipse just as it heads back into subspace. Kelly is given a military burial at sea.

The Voyager Conspiracy Upcoming

Pathfinder Lt. Reg Barclay is visited by an old friend, Deanna Troi; he asks her to help him. He is obsessed with finding a way to contact Voyager from the Alpha Quadrant. He wants to finalize his theories before Admiral Paris visits the Pathfinder project, Starfleet's effort to communicate with Voyager. He is using Voyager simulations to inspire, to bounce ideas around - as a source of friendship. Troi worries about Reg's past holodeck addiction, but he insists the simulation is his best hope. He suggests using a MIDAS array to create a quantum singularity, a wormhole, to Voyager's estimated position, and to send subspace signals through it. Admiral Paris is intrigued, but Reg's supervisor, Commander Pete Hawkins, is unconvinced. When Hawkins finds Reg in a Voyager sim, he halts Reg's research and restricts him to quarters, removing him from Pathfinder. Reg appeals directly to Paris, who says he will have a team review his findings. He tells Troi that the Voyager crew has become like the family he felt he had on the Enterprise. He is anxious, and begins an experiment against orders. He opens a micro-wormhole and sends a message to Voyager. His work is interrupted by Hawkins and a security team, but as they begin to lead him away, Voyager responds. Paris speaks to Voyager, sending a message to Tom, as the wormhole closes, and promises of establishing a permanent link are made.

Fair Haven Tom has created a holoprogram, a detailed Irish town called Fair Haven. None too soon, as Voyager detects a Class 9 neutronic wave front headed their way - it has disrupted warp fields, so Voyager must wait for it to hit, pass, and dissipate, a long process. Neelix suggests the program be kept running 24 hours so that the crew can visit at their leisure. Even Janeway manages a visit, and she meets the barkeep, Michael Sullivan. After a night-long bull session with him, she returns after modifying his program, making him more outspoken, well read, and not married. Once the wave front hits, there are several down days to wait within the storm, and Janeway and Sullivan spend a lot of time together. But one day, Sullivan goes on a drunken rampage - the love of his like, Katie, has left him. The Doctor asks her what happened, and she says that she was falling for Sullivan, but all the while was aware that she could tweak his character. It left a bad taste in her mouth. The Doc suggests that a relationship with a holo character may be the only such relationship she is allowed, considering her position. But it may be too late - the trailing edge of the storm is much stronger than the leading edge, and when it hits, Fair Haven is badly damaged. Tom sets about to repair the program, and Janeway is relieved to find Sullivan intact. She tells him she will return, someday, and locks his program so she cannot make any further changes.

Virtuoso Upcoming

Memorial Upon the return of Chakotay, Neelix, Tom and Harry from an extended away mission, Tom finds the B'Elanna has built him a circa-1950 TV set. As he watches into the wee hours, he sees himself in a show, in a phaser battle. In a Jeffries tube, Harry suddenly imagines a battle, too, and quickly crawls to "safety". Harry goes to see the Doctor, who simply thinks he is suffering from exhaustion. But when Neelix holds Naomi Wildman at gunpoint, refusing to let her go lest she be slaughtered, something is clearly wrong. Chakotay talks Neelix down by remembering the slaughter, and a man named Saavdra. Janeway calls them all together, and it would appear that the away team was drafted into an evacuation of colonists, an evacuation that turned into a massacre, the Nakan Massacre, with all 82 civilians perishing after some refused to leave their colony. Janeway orders Voyager to follow the Delta Flyer's path, to find out what happened. As the approach Tarakis, Janeway too remembers being in the battle - as does most of the crew. An away team beams down to look for evidence of a battle and finds none, though Harry does lead them to a cave where he hid and killed a couple of civilians. Chakotay and Janeway find a transmitter that explains everything - a 300-year-old memorial to the Nakan who died that day, which transmits a neural signal such that anyone passing by has the memories deposited in their mind. Old, weak, and malfunctioning, it appears ready for decommissioning. But Janeway instead instructs the crew to fix it to keep it running another 300 years, in continued memorial to the people of Nakan.

Tsunkatse On the Norcadian home world, the crew takes in some shore leave while Janeway goes to Pendari to do some exploring. Several of the crew take a liking to tsunkatse, a martial arts fighting match. Seven and Tuvok head out to look into some spatial anomalies, and are taken captive by a large ship. Seven awakens to find Tuvok injured, and she expected to be a player in tsunkatse. She refuses, though relents when Penk, the master, promises to help Tuvok's injuries. At a match, the crew is surprised to see Seven enter the ring - they try to get a transporter lock on her, but realize the match is a hologram, beamed to several planets at once. Voyager recalls Janeway and starts a search for the transmitter. Though Seven is beaten, she proves popular and Penk schedules her for a death match. A 19-year veteran of the matches, a Hirogen, trains her. As the match is set to begin, Voyager finds the tsunkatse ship, though it is heavily armed and armored. Seven's opponent is her Hirogen trainer. Voyager attacks and is able to beam out Tuvok; when the Delta Flyer returns, the extra firepower is enough to pull out Seven and the Hirogen. They find a Hirogen hunting party to return him to, and Seven has to deal with her feelings that she would have killed to save her own life - Tuvok reassures her that her feelings of guilt and shame are a positive reaction to the ordeal.

Collective A small away team on the Flyer is taken by a Borg cube. Chakotay, Tom, and Neelix cool their heels in a holding cell, while Harry is no where to be found. Voyager tracks down the Flyer and runs into the cube - in the ensuing battle, Voyager disables the cube. Seven scans the cube and finds only five drones on board, explaining the poor performance. The Borg agree to give up the Flyer crew in exchange for technology. Seven beams over and finds the crew - several young Borg children, too soon out of the maturation chamber. Seven brings a dead drone to Voyager and the Doctor finds it killed by a pathogen of some sort. Harry awakens on board the Flyer, in the cube, and starts to move about, setting charges around the ship's field generator. Janeway offers to sever the Borg connection, though the Number One refuses, and demands the technology they agreed upon. They think the Borg will come for them, but Seven finds a transmission that the cube had been abandoned. Harry is captured and injected with nanoprobes to force Janeway's hand. Over his objections, Janeway has the Doctor synthesize more of the Borg virus. They try to take the tech by force, but Voyager sends a feedback loop down the tractor beam, setting off explosions; the First dies, and the others surrender. Voyager takes them aboard, where, once underway again, the Doctor removes the childrens' implants.

Spirit Folk The residents of Fair Haven start to become aware of some odd things about the visitors to their town - when Seamus and Milo see Tom turn Harry's date, Maggie, into a cow, they are convinced the Voyager crew are spirit people. The Doctor, as Fr. Mulligan, assures the people that they are mistaken. But the quickly disappearing grey skies, the miraculous rescues of injured people, not to mention the leprechaun-like Neelix, keep the suspicions high. Sullivan, the voice of reason, tells the villagers he will talk to Katie about all this, and when he demands she tell the truth, she end the program to run diagnostics. Since the Fair Haven program has been running continuously for so long, small glitches have become major bugs - such as the characters becoming aware of the crew. Tom and Harry examine the Sullivan character and find an error in his perceptual filter and try to fix it - he feigns dumbness and when he returns to Fair Haven, he calls a meeting. Tom and Harry, on their way to fix the holodeck, are taken hostage. B'Elanna proposes deleting the program, but Janeway is reluctant. She sends in the Doctor, but they take him, too - and when Sullivan slips on his mobile emitter, he goes to find Janeway. She reaches a compromise with him - they can no longer allow Fair Haven to run continuously, but she does agree to keep it alive, and to repair it.

Ashes to Ashes Mizoti, the young rescued Borg girl, gets a transmission from an alien claiming to be Lyndsay Ballard, a long-dead member of the Voyager crew. Harry and Janeway meet the alien in the sickbay where she recounts her ordeal - she and Harry were on an away mission when the Hirogen attacked. She was killed and buried at space. Her body was retrieved by the Kobali, who cannot reproduce and who, then, revive dead aliens. The Doctor confirms that her DNA has been actually altered, but that this is indeed Ballard. After she gained the trust of the Kobali, and was placed with a family, she escaped at her first chance and tracked down Voyager. The Doctor cannot revert her back to be human, but he does give her plastics that alter her appearance. Ballard and Harry reminisce about their friendship, and Harry starts to feel old, unrequited feelings well up. Though she has a few problems at first, such as unconsciously speaking Kobali, Ballard does well... but the Kobali, her adoptive father specifically, come looking for her. Janeway refuses to turn her over, and a Kobali warship attacks. Ballard stops the fight when she realizes that her dream of returning to Voyager was just a dream, and that she has a new life now, with the Kobali. Harry gives Mizoti Ballard's hair brush. Seven confides in Janeway that she is finding keeping tabs on the Borg children much more difficult than she imagined.

Child's Play Voyager finds Icheb's home planet, from whence he was taken by the Borg. The Brunali society is much battered by Borg attack, and they sustain themselves with genetically altered crops. Icheb was developing a penchant for astrometrics, and Seven is concerned that his parents Yifay and Leucon cannot properly teach him what he would like to learn. Icheb is also reluctant - Janeway invites his parents aboard to help him acclimate. After a meal with them, he seems to do better, though Seven is definitely suffering from separation anxiety. With his new training, Icheb could be a real asset to the Brunali; his father points out that despite Voyager's ability to explore, their main goal is to return home. He decides to stay. After Voyager leaves, Seven notes inconsistencies in some of Leucon's stories, and she convinces Janeway to turn back. Meanwhile, Yifay convinces Leucon that Icheb was created for a higher purpose, and they inject him with something. When Voyager arrives, a Brunali shuttle, carrying Icheb's drugged body, is on its way to a Borg conduit. A Borg vessel locks on to Icheb's ship and to Voyager, and pulls them in - but they escape by sacrificing the shuttle and blowing it up in side the ship. Seven learns the Icheb had been genetically engineered to infect the Borg with the pathogen they found on Icheb's Borg ship. They leave with him.

Good Shepard Upcoming

Live Fast and Prosper Upcoming

Muse Upcoming

Fury Upcoming

Life Line Upcoming

The Haunting of Deck 12 Upcoming

Unimatrix Zero (Part 1) Upcoming

Last Modified: 27 Sep 2000 Send comments to Steve Mount . SaltyRain is a trademark of Steve Mount.

My definition of a Borg episode is an episode in which one or more Borg drones appear or a functional Borg ship is encountered. Things get complicated once Seven Of Nine joins Voyager because, essentially, every episode becomes a Borg episode. To solve this problem, I don't count her has a Borg drone appearance.

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Star Trek Voyager: An Episode Roadmap

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

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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.

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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

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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

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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…

Scorpion (episode)

• View history
• 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 Title, story, and script
• 3.2 Cast and characters
• 3.3 Production
• 3.4 Effects
• 3.5.1 Holographic Leonardo da Vinci
• 3.6 Reception
• 3.7 Home video releases
• 4.1 Starring
• 4.2 Also starring
• 4.3 Special guest star
• 4.4 Uncredited co-stars
• 4.5 Stunt double
• 4.6 Stand-ins
• 4.7 References
• 4.8 External links

Summary [ ]

Resistance is not futile

In a region of space , two Borg cubes advance on their next intended targets for assimilation . Their hail is cut off abruptly as energy beams lash out at the cubes, which are instantly destroyed.

Act One [ ]

On one of the USS Voyager 's holodecks , Captain Kathryn Janeway is running a Leonardo da Vinci holo-program , conversing with a Leonardo hologram in a simulation of the historical figure's workshop. As Janeway convinces the hologram to take her on as a student, she receives an urgent hail from Commander Chakotay , who urges her to go to engineering to take a look at something.

There, Lieutenant B'Elanna Torres explains that the long-range probe they sent out months ago has stopped transmitting. However, she was able to catch the last few seconds of telemetry, which show a Borg drone 's face staring into the viewscreen . Janeway quickly realizes the implication: after nearly three years in the Delta Quadrant, Voyager is finally approaching Borg space.

Chakotay demonstrates a diagram of the Northwest Passage

Janeway immediately calls a meeting of the senior staff and explains that it is unknown how many Borg vessels are out there but that their space appears to be vast, including thousands of star systems . Voyager is no doubt entering the heart of Borg territory and, unfortunately, there seems to be no way around it. However, there might be a way through it. Chakotay explains that, before the probe was disabled, it detected a narrow corridor of space devoid of Borg activity – which members of the crew nicknamed "the Northwest Passage ". Navigating through it, however, may prove complicated, as the passage is filled with intense gravimetric distortions , probably caused by a string of quantum singularities . The crew are left with no choice, though, but to go through the passage.

All over the ship, preparations are finalized. In engineering, the warp drive is checked, yet again. Tuvok goes through weapons checks with his security officers . Chakotay and Kim review planned tactical options in case the Borg invade the ship.

One of Kes' premonitions

While The Doctor and Kes examine the Borg drone corpse the crew discovered three months earlier looking for possible ways to protect the crew from being assimilated. The Doctor has found that the Borg assimilate by injecting the victim with nanoprobes which quickly take over the bloodstream and suggests a defense which would involve fighting against the infection before it can spread. Kes suddenly experiences a vivid vision of dismembered Borg drone corpses, piled up on one another. She has no idea what this means but it disturbs her greatly. She experiences these and other frightening visions for the next two hours; visions of dead drones and Voyager 's destruction haunt her mind. Tuvok, who is Kes' mentor in honing her telepathic abilities, is informed of this development. While he discusses Kes' predicament with Janeway and Chakotay on the bridge , the ship begins to tremble. Kim reports that long-range sensors detect transwarp signatures 5.8 light-years away closing from behind. Before they know it, fifteen Borg vessels are rapidly closing on them from 2.1 light-years away. Subspace turbulence forces Voyager out of warp.

Fifteen cubes bear down on Voyager

Much to everyone's surprise, the enormous vessels do not attack, merely racing past Voyager . One cube slows and scans the ship, then speeds up to rejoin the others. The subspace turbulence affecting Voyager dissipates. The crew is at a loss to explain their unusually good fortune.

Act Two [ ]

Kim confirms there's no damage, and systems are coming back online. Janeway orders the ship to resume course while she reviews the Starfleet database for data on previous Borg encounters. Chakotay interrupts her later to inform her the passage is still clear then, seeing she hasn't eaten, offers to eat with her. She declines, then explains she has been seeking useful information on the Borg from the logs of other Starfleet commanders but has gotten nothing. Although she knew when Voyager first started its journey back to the Alpha Quadrant they would eventually hit Borg territory and everyone has tried to prepare themselves for the challenge, she asks about what happens if the danger is too large; do they press on or retreat to friendly territory, permanently abandoning the journey home. Chatokay gently assures her that he and everyone else will support her and that she is not alone. Janeway says that she cannot imagine a day without him – though just three years ago, she didn't even know his name. While they are talking, Tuvok hails her to the bridge.

There, he and Kim report that the Borg cubes have suddenly stopped 5.2 light years away, for an undetermined reason. Janeway orders Paris to take Voyager to the coordinates of the dormant Borg ships at warp 2. The crew then finds that every one of the fifteen cubes has been destroyed – with only a few life signs remaining. Tuvok detects two residual weapons' signatures in the debris: one Borg and the other of unknown origin. Astonished, Paris asks the question that everyone else is wondering: who could bring such devastation to the Borg?

Act Three [ ]

" Who could do this to the Borg? "

The idea of someone more powerful than the Borg seems rather incredible. Kim thinks they might have found an ally but Chakotay warns not to jump to conclusions. While scanning the vicinity for other vessels, the bridge officers detect a biomass attached to one of the Borg ships. They confirm that it is organic but do not receive a response when they send out a standard greeting. They try to beam it away from the ship, but cannot get a lock on it and a tractor beam also doesn't seem to have an effect. They realize that whatever is attached to the Borg cube is impervious to their technology. Janeway orders Chakotay to lead an away team to the cube to take a short-range scan of this biomass.

Voyager discovers a peculiar vessel

The vessel "docked" to the remnant of a Borg cube

Tuvok and Kim join Chakotay on the away team and beam aboard the cube. As they look around, they find nothing but dead drones scattered amid the wreckage. As they move on, they find a pile of dismembered Borg corpses reminiscent of the visions Kes had earlier. They continue forward to the object and find that it has created a gaping hole in the cube's hull and fused onto it. Interestingly, there is a Borg unsuccessfully continuing to attempt to assimilate it. Scans reveal it to be an organic-based vessel with high concentration of antimatter particles, possibly a warp core . Chakotay and Tuvok board the ship to investigate while Kim accesses a Borg distribution node to download their tactical database.

The dead, infected drone

In Voyager 's sickbay , Kes is carrying a tray when she is suddenly overwhelmed by visions of Kim screaming in abject agony. She collapses, frantically warning that the away team is in grave danger and that they need to leave the cube immediately.

On the Borg ship, Kim calls the other two officers to his position, as he has detected something that is biological in the vicinity but does not appear to be Borg. Just then, Janeway hails and tells them to prepare for immediate return to Voyager . The unknown life form suddenly tears through a wall of the cube, entering a corridor where the away team is. Immediately, it attacks nearby drones, swiping them before turning to Kim and attacking him. Kim collapses, screaming in excruciating pain, just as he had in Kes' vision. The creature moves to finish him but, just then, the away team is beamed back aboard Voyager .

Voyager spirals up of control

On the bridge, Paris reports that the alien ship is detaching and powering up, apparently readying to fire a weapon. Kes, who is also on the bridge, experiences another vision of the pilot on that bio-ship communicating with her. Janeway orders Paris to take them out of the area at maximum warp. As Voyager moves away, the bio-ship fires, not landing a direct hit but Voyager loses control. Paris is able to jump to warp speed, and the bio-ship does not give chase. An alarm-stricken Kes tells Janeway that it is not the Borg that they should be worried about but this new species. Kes informs the captain that the creature told her, " The weak will perish. "

Act Four [ ]

Kim is being ravaged by the alien's attack

As Janeway enters sickbay, she is horrified to view Harry Kim's condition. The Doctor tells her that the alien cells are consuming his body from the inside out, while he is conscious. He shows her the scan of the alien cells which contain more than a hundred times the DNA of a Human cell. It would take him years to decipher it. The Doctor is unable to sedate Harry as anything that penetrates this species' cell-membrane – biological, chemical or technological – is instantly destroyed. Janeway realizes that this is probably why the Borg cannot assimilate the species. The Doctor, however, believes that Borg technology holds the key to saving Kim, as he hopes to unleash an army of modified Borg nanoprobes into Kim's bloodstream , designed to target and eradicate the infection. He has successfully managed to dissect a nanoprobe, access its recoding mechanism and reprogram the probe to emit the same electrochemical signature as the alien cells. That way, the probe can do its work without being detected. The Doctor is not certain he will be able to modify enough nanoprobes in time to save Harry.

The Doctor presents his solution to the Captain

On the bridge, Tuvok and Torres show Chakotay a part of the tactical data Kim retrieved from the cube. According to it, the aliens – designated by the Borg as Species 8472 – have engaged the Borg twelve times in the last five months and, each time, the Borg have been defeated swiftly. The bridge officers also finally determine that Species 8472 comes from the Northwest Passage – which would explain why it is a region devoid of Borg activity. While discussing this, Tuvok detects 133 bio-ships coming from a quantum singularity. A grim-faced Janeway watches the visual as it shows hundreds of the aliens' ships streaming forth from quantum singularities in the Northwest Passage.

Kes notifies the captain that the aliens have been communicating with her further. Their new messages are even more frightening than the first; she feels malevolence and cold hatred. Kes says that what they are doing is carrying out an invasion and that they intend to destroy everything. Voyager is taken 5 light-years away at maximum warp to wait.

Chakotay and Janeway discuss their next move. The Northwest Passage is no longer an option as a route through Borg space. Now, the choice is between facing the Borg in their space or staying behind and giving up hope of ever returning home. Chakotay reminds Janeway that just because they're turning around doesn't mean they won't find another way home, but Janeway still can't bring herself to tell the crew they're remaining in the Delta Quadrant and is desperate for another choice between permanent isolation or almost certain death. She decides to get some sleep and see how she feels with a clear head, as she hasn't slept for 2 days.

Janeway however can't bring herself to rest and heads to the da Vinci holodeck simulation, the decision she must make weighs heavily on her mind. She tells Leonardo her problem (as a metaphor) and he suggests she journey with him to church and make an appeal to God. This suddenly gives Janeway an idea… she could do a deal with the "devil".

Act Five [ ]

In the briefing room, Janeway outlines her plan: an alliance with the Borg , against their new enemy. Voyager 's crew will offer the Borg a way to defeat their enemy and, in return, the Borg will grant them safe passage through their space. Janeway references The Doctor's findings regarding the nanoprobes, which she believes can be used as a biological weapon against Species 8472. The officers are incredulous at her suggestion of teaming up with such an entity. Janeway is adamant that her stratagem will work, however. She has The Doctor save all of the research regarding the nanoprobes in his holomatrix . She also explains that, if the Borg threaten Voyager in any way, the crew will simply erase The Doctor's program.

After everyone else leaves, Chakotay – who has remained rather quiet throughout the meeting – tells Janeway that he believes that what she proposes is far too dangerous. Illustrating his reasoning by citing a parable of the scorpion that allowed itself to die rather than overcome its deadly nature, he argues that her plan is a huge mistake, as she is underestimating the true evil of the Borg. He explains that no amount of diplomacy, reasoning and incentive-providing will ever change what the Borg are. They have no guarantee that the Borg will actually keep their hands off them after they acquire the information. He also wonders how much Voyager 's safety is ultimately worth, that Janeway is willing to give advantage to a species guilty of murdering billions; they would essentially be giving the Borg the means to assimilate yet another species, just to get themselves home. But Janeway is convinced that they will be able to keep the Borg at bay with the bargaining chip they have. She furthermore believes that helping to assimilate Species 8472 might actually not be such a bad idea, given the malevolence they have expressed towards the entire galaxy. Chakotay, however, remains steadfast in his objection to her plan accusing her of being so blinded by her desire to go home that she is closing herself to all other options. Janeway asks him to trust her, firmly stating that the time for debate is over as she has made her decision. Chakotay reluctantly agrees that, as her first officer, he will comply with her orders but makes it clear she does not have his support. With misty eyes, Janeway says she guesses that she is alone after all. She dismisses him sadly but her resolve is unshaken.

Voyager arrives at an assimilated system. Several Borg cubes are in the area, and one of them seizes the ship in a tractor beam. Janeway notifies the Collective that she has tactical information about Species 8472. She offers to negotiate for it but the Collective refuses. Janeway has Torres transmit (to the cubes) a sample of the research, showing the 8472 cells being destroyed by the Borg nanoprobes. The captain declares that this is a sample of the data and threatens to destroy it, if the Collective does not listen to what she has to say. There is a long pause. She again offers to negotiate but, as she speaks, she is transported to the cube, finding herself on a catwalk spanning the vessel's vast interior.

Janeway negotiates with the Collective

The Collective instructs her to state her demands. She states that there is only one demand: safe passage through Borg space in exchange for the data. Once her ship is past Borg territory, she will give them their research. The Collective does not accept because their space is vast and her passage would take too long. They demand the technology immediately. Janeway refuses because if she gives the data to them right away, they would assimilate Voyager . The Collective explains that Species 8472 has to be stopped and the Collective's survival is Voyager 's survival. Janeway then comes up with a plan: they would collaborate – as Voyager traverses Borg space – in order to craft a bio-weapon using the data. She is in the middle of outlining this plan when the cube is violently shaken.

Voyager and the cube escape the planet, but only just

On Voyager 's bridge, Tuvok informs Chakotay that a quantum singularity has opened 20,000 kilometers away and that more bio-ships are coming through. The cube's shields are weakening but not enough to beam Janeway back to Voyager . Nine bio-ships converge in a star pattern and head toward the assimilated planet . They destroy the planet and all the Borg cubes in the vicinity, except for the one holding Janeway and Voyager . The remaining cube hurtles away at high warp, just ahead of the explosion, with Voyager still held firmly in its tractor beam.

TO BE CONTINUED…

Memorable quotes [ ]

" We are the Borg. Existence as you know it is over. We will add your biological and technological distinctiveness to our own. Resistance is fu… "

" Better to ride the rapids than face the Hive. "

" Think good thoughts. "

" In their collective state, the Borg are utterly without mercy, driven by one will alone: the will to conquer. They are beyond redemption, beyond reason. "

" It is my opinion that the Borg are as close to pure evil as any race we've ever encountered. "

" It's nothing to be ashamed about, echoing the greats. Ensign Hickman in astrophysics does a passable Janeway." " If we manage to survive the next few days, I'm going to have a chat with Ensign Hickman. Imitating the captain – surely that violates some kind of Starfleet protocol."

"Three years ago, I didn't even know your name. Today I can't imagine a day without you. "

" We might have just found our ticket through Borg space: an ally. " " Let's not jump to conclusions. "

" A skeletal lock, huh? We'll have to add that one to the transporter manual. "

" The weak will perish! "

" They have an extraordinary immune response. Anything that penetrates the cell membrane, chemical, biological, technological, it's all instantly destroyed. That's why the Borg can't assimilate them. " " Resistance in this case is far from futile. "

" Fight it, Harry! That's an order! "

" There are times, Caterina, when I find myself transfixed by a shadow on the wall, or the splashing of water against a stone. I stare at it, the hours pass, the world around me drops away… replaced by worlds being created and destroyed by my imagination. "

" There's a path before me… the only way home. And on either side, mortal enemies bent on destroying each other. If I attempt to pass through them… I'll be destroyed as well. But if I turn around… that would end all hope of ever getting home. "

" What if I made an appeal… to the Devil? "

" The Borg aren't exactly known for their diplomacy. Can we really expect them to cooperate with us? " " Normally, the answer would be no, but if what I've learned from the aliens is true, the Borg are losing this conflict. "

" There's a story I heard as a child, a parable, and I never forgot it. A scorpion was walking along the bank of a river, wondering how to get to the other side. Suddenly, he saw a fox. He asked the fox to take him on his back across the river. The fox said 'No. If I do that, you'll sting me and I'll drown.' The scorpion assured him, 'If I did that, we'd both drown.' So, the fox thought about it, and finally agreed. So, the scorpion climbed up on his back, and the fox began to swim, but halfway across the river, the scorpion stung him. As the poison filled his veins, the fox turned to the scorpion and said, 'Why did you do that? Now you'll drown too.' 'I couldn't help it,' said the scorpion, 'it's my nature'. "

" We'd be giving an advantage to a race guilty of murdering billions. We'd be helping the Borg assimilate yet another species just to get ourselves back home. It's wrong! "

Background information [ ]

Title, story, and script [ ].

• "Scorpion" takes its name from the parable Chakotay shares with Janeway after briefing the crew on her plan to form a temporary alliance with the Borg. The parable is most commonly known as The Scorpion and the Frog , but for unknown reasons Chakotay's version substitutes a fox for the frog. The Italian dub keeps the frog in the story.
• Even before it was firmly decided that the Borg would reappear in Star Trek: Voyager (as the series' team of writer-producers were considering if they should, following the defeat of the Borg and their queen in the film Star Trek: First Contact ), Brannon Braga had come up with one of the story points of this episode. He noted, " I think it would be cool if the USS Voyager came upon a Borg graveyard, and basically, they're all dead. Obviously, somehow they'll come back to life. I just think it's a cool setting, and it's an interesting pay off to the movie. " ( Star Trek Monthly  issue 24 , p. 37) Evidently, however, the cause of the destruction thereafter changed from being the Borg's defeat in First Contact to Species 8472.
• This installment was not the first choice for the finale of Star Trek: Voyager 's third season , a fact that even CGI Effects Director Ron Thornton became aware of (despite his purview being quite different from that of Voyager 's writing staff). ( The Official Star Trek: Voyager Magazine  issue 16 , p. 37) Originally, " Year of Hell " was planned to be Voyager 's third season finale but, with the choice made to shake up the cast in Season 4 , this episode was the result. ( Star Trek Monthly  issue 34 , p. 12; Delta Quadrant , p. 207) This episode also replaced an undeveloped story idea that featured biomimetic lifeforms , doppelgängers of the Voyager crew, arriving at Earth to much enthusiastic furore before then causing havoc on the planet; although Joe Menosky and Brannon Braga started to collaborate on scripting that plot, dissatisfaction with the writing of the teleplay resulted in the writing duo instead turning their attentions to the "Scorpion" project. The same aliens who appeared in the unfinished script ultimately featured in Season 4's " Demon " and the fifth season installment " Course: Oblivion ". ( Cinefantastique , Vol. 31, No. 11, p. 49)
• Brannon Braga's initial idea for this episode was originally influenced by two then-recent Borg-related Star Trek productions: the film Star Trek: First Contact (which Braga himself had co-written) and the earlier third season Voyager installment " Unity ". Braga recalled, " Late one night I was sitting in front of the TV and I saw a promotion for Voyager on the air on UPN . I saw an image of a Borg corpse from the show we were doing, 'Unity'. It struck me then and there that First Contact had come and gone. It was time to deliver the Borg in a big way, at which point we threw out the cliffhanger we were working on at that time, and came up with 'Scorpion I' and 'II'. " ( Cinefantastique , Vol. 30, No. 9/10, p. 75) Years later, however, Braga hesitantly recounted that the moment of inspiration had come when he " was sitting at home, late one night, and I was watching a video tape of one of our episodes; it had a Borg mummy in it or something. " ("Braving the Unknown: Season 4", VOY Season 4 DVD ) Regardless of how exactly he saw footage from "Unity" at the time he had the thought for this episode, he clarified, " All we had planned for the Borg was that 'Unity' episode […] I thought, we can't just do 'Unity'. It's not enough. " ( Cinefantastique , Vol. 30, No. 9/10, p. 75)
• Voyager co-creator and Executive Producer Jeri Taylor credited Brannon Braga, who Taylor considered to be a highly inventive writer generally, with the idea for Species 8472. ("Braving the Unknown: Season Three", VOY Season 3 DVD special features)
• Although the concept of a Borg graveyard had unsuccessfully been considered for "Unity", the reason – according to Brannon Braga – that the idea was included in this episode was "not because we were dying to do a Borg graveyard." Braga further explained, " It's kind of an image that we had held over, but it fits into the events of the story perfectly. " ( Star Trek Monthly  issue 28 , p. 17)
• The sequence wherein multiple Borg cubes pass by Voyager was part of an attempt, made by Brannon Braga and Joe Menosky, to feature memorable, large-scale images in the two-parters that were included (at least partly, as in the case of the "Scorpion" two-parter) in Star Trek: Voyager 's fourth season. Menosky explained, " We made a conscious effort to put back [in] amazing images that are memorable, and that the character stuff works in and around, things like from 'Scorpion Part I', little Voyager with 15 Borg cubes blasting by. I loved looking at that […] A big part of this is not just visual effects but images. " ( Cinefantastique , Vol. 30, No. 9/10, p. 75)
• A starship battle in Borg subspace tunnels was temporarily considered for inclusion in this episode. The idea was discussed before being dismissed. ( Star Trek: Action! , p. 7) Similarly, the idea of having the Borg use quantum slipstream drive was also contemplated. " We were going to have the Borg ships raising slipstreams and have big fights in those slipstreams, " Brannon Braga reflected, " But we had too many ideas for that episode and some just didn't make it. " ( Star Trek: Action! , p. 42)
• The holographic Leonardo da Vinci was added to the story at the request of Janeway actress Kate Mulgrew . Although she twice (on separate occasions) referred to the idea as having been her own, Mulgrew also indicated a lesser degree of personal involvement in the character's conception by saying, " I helped come up with the idea. " ( Star Trek Monthly  issue 46 , p. 26; Star Trek Monthly  issue 33 , p. 23; The Official Star Trek: Voyager Magazine  issue 14 , p. 33) Leonardo actor John Rhys-Davies offered, " The whole thing was Kate's baby and she had done a lot of research into it. " ( Star Trek Monthly  issue 58 , p. 40) Mulgrew's inspiration for the character was that it would give Janeway someone creative to confide in. ( Star Trek Monthly  issue 28 , p. 4; The Official Star Trek: Voyager Magazine  issue 14 , pp. 33-34) Concerning exactly how she made her contribution to this character concept, Mulgrew offered, " I think it was Brannon Braga who asked, 'Where did art most notoriously meet science in history?' And I said, 'With Leonardo da Vinci.' He said, 'Exactly.' " ( The Official Star Trek: Voyager Magazine  issue 14 , p. 34)
• During the scripting process, the members of Species 8472 were at one point described as being fourteen feet tall. The script, while being written, was very vague about most of the aliens' other details. Concept artist Steve Burg recounted, " It just said, 'A great beast of some sort blasts through the wall, kills two of the Borg and hits Harry, knocking him out.' " ( Star Trek: The Magazine  Volume 2, Issue 2 , p. 28)
• The final draft of this episode's script was submitted on 26 February 1997 . This document refers to Species 8472 as being at least ten feet tall and wearing an alien breathing apparatus aboard the Borg cube. [1]

Cast and characters [ ]

• Kate Mulgrew liked many aspects of this episode, citing it as one of her eight favorite installments of Star Trek: Voyager 's third season. For example, Mulgrew was highly proud of having come up with the idea of a holographic Leonardo da Vinci. " For me, 'Scorpion' introduced another element of Janeway that I loved, " Mulgrew explained, " and that was Leonardo da Vinci. " The actress went on to state that, because she had assisted with the conceptual development of the Leonardo hologram, she was "very pleased." ( The Official Star Trek: Voyager Magazine  issue 14 , pp. 32 & 33) Mulgrew not only thought that the character concept was "a really good idea" but also believed the holographic program "makes sense." ( Star Trek Monthly  issue 33 , p. 23) Additionally, the actress was delighted by how this episode initiates the bond between her character of Janeway and the Leonardo hologram. " They begin an extraordinary relationship on the holodeck, " Mulgrew enthused. ( Star Trek Monthly  issue 28 , p. 4)
• Without auditioning for the role of the holographic Leonardo da Vinci, John Rhys-Davies was offered the part by Star Trek: Voyager 's producers. Having been a long-term Star Trek fan, he was delighted to accept the offer. ( Star Trek Monthly  issue 58 , p. 38) Kate Mulgrew enjoyed working on this episode with the actor. Shortly following the completion of her work on the episode, Mulgrew stated, " John Rhys-Davies is just perfect for it. We had a very good time working together. " ( The Official Star Trek: Voyager Magazine  issue 14 , p. 34)
• Both Kate Mulgrew and Joe Menosky noticed that, by this point in the third season, the character of Janeway and the persona of the actress playing her were seeming to gravitate more towards one another and that this development appeared to be benefiting the portrayal of the Starfleet captain. Menosky commented, " In 'Scorpion Part I' [Janeway] was becoming a little more risk taking, and edgy, and frankly, a little bit more like Kate Mulgrew. I've always said, even Jeri Taylor used to always say, 'if Captain Janeway were only more like Kate, we would have a much better captain on our hands.' For whatever reason, our writing and Kate's kind of freewheeling personality seemed to come together a bit more, at the end of the [third] season. " ( Cinefantastique , Vol. 30, No. 9/10, p. 86) Mulgrew herself remarked that, particularly "towards the end of the season," she made some "very important breakthroughs" with becoming "much more relaxed and more allied with Janeway". ( Star Trek Monthly  issue 33 , p. 23)
• Jeri Taylor was impressed by the acting, in this episode, of both Kate Mulgrew and Chakotay actor Robert Beltran . " Weren't they good? " Taylor rhetorically asked. " I felt that the actors more than rose to the occasion. They really liked the idea of that conflict [between Janeway and Chakotay] and how it would test their friendship, and they really poured themselves into it. " ( Cinefantastique , Vol. 29, No. 6/7, p. 113)
• Kim actor Garrett Wang liked how this episode introduced a new, villainous alien species. He observed, " All of a sudden, now you have an enemy which is even more… fearful than the Borg, an enemy that can single-handedly take out the Borg. 'Who could that be?!', you know? Up 'til that point, I mean, the Borg was the end-all, be-all of enemies, you know? Nobody could defeat – and then, now, you've got, 'Who are these guys?!', you know? […] So that episode, to me, was… I loved it because it introduced, you know, a 'new villain.' The sci-fi fan in me really enjoyed working on that episode, for that. " ("Braving the Unknown: Season Three", VOY Season 3 DVD special features)
• Garrett Wang was less pleased, however, about having to play the out-of-action Kim. " I mean, I wasn't too happy that, most of the episode, I was on a bio-bed with green goop on my face, " Wang remarked, before loudly echoing of the writers (wearing a big grin on his face), " 'Who else but Kim needs to be tortured in the bio-bed?', you know? No one else, just Kim. " ("Braving the Unknown: Season Three", VOY Season 3 DVD special features)
• This episode marks the final appearance of Jennifer Lien ( Kes ) as a regular cast member.

Production [ ]

• The makeup appliances for the holographic Leonardo da Vinci, as created for this episode, consisted of a beard, mustache and eyebrows as well as a nose that was styled in much the same way as Leonardo's was. ( Star Trek: Aliens & Artifacts , p. 169)
• Director David Livingston appreciated the fact that, for this episode, Species 8472 was scripted to appear for merely a few brief moments, giving only fleeting glimpses of the species. " It was kind of played a little bit like Alien , " Livingston remarked, " where you don't really get a huge look at it, which, to me, is always the best way to portray these things. If you look at them too long and too closely, they start to fall apart a bit. " ("Braving the Unknown: Season Three", VOY Season 3 DVD special features)
• According to the unauthorized reference book Delta Quadrant (p. 188), the Borg costumes in this episode were reused from Star Trek: First Contact , as were "much of the Borg's furnishings."
• After Garrett Wang portrayed a reaction to seeing the approach of the massed Borg cubes that fly by Voyager , his fellow actors jokingly mimicked him. Wang commented, " I notice onscreen on my sensors that all these Borg cubes are coming upon us, but they don't even stop for us […] And my lines are like, 'Captain, I'm reading one – no, three – no, five – no, seven Borg cubes.' And the way I said it, I said, 'Capt-taiiiin…' " Wang laughed. He then continued, " I really extended out the 'Captain.' So from then on, [Robert] Beltran and [Robert Duncan] McNeill would always go, 'Cap-taiiiin…' " ( Star Trek Monthly  issue 106 , p. 40)
• Visual Effects Producer Dan Curry acted as second unit director on this installment. ( Cinefantastique , Vol. 29, No. 6/7, p. 96) As such, he was involved in the directing of the scene wherein an away team from Voyager passes the pile of Borg corpses aboard a Borg cube. The heap of deceased drones was not an on-set element, however. Recalling the filming of the scene, Curry said, " The actors knew where to look, on stage, so they would walk around and say, 'Okay, it's up there.' " ("Red Alert: Amazing Visual Effects", VOY Season 3 DVD special features)
• Visual Effects Supervisor Ronald B. Moore worked on the filming of the scene in which a member of Species 8472 bursts into a corridor, attacks Kim and then hurries away. Ron Thornton enthused of this scene, " Ron Moore and the live-action guys did such a great job of shooting the live action that it had a massive amount of drama–the wall suddenly blows out, so we could make the creature come in. " ( The Official Star Trek: Voyager Magazine  issue 16 , p. 38)
• Performing the scene wherein Janeway speaks with the Borg Collective while aboard one of the Borg cubes represented a scary challenge for Kate Mulgrew, who consequently had to do several takes of the scene. To aid her performance, Mulgrew imagined she was in an extremely contained space, surrounded by hordes of serial killers. ( Star Trek Monthly  issue 28 , p. 4; The Official Star Trek: Voyager Magazine  issue 14 , p. 33) This footage was filmed by Dan Curry's second unit team. ( Cinefantastique , Vol. 29, No. 6/7, p. 96) " They put you on the stage with just a blue screen behind you, and they say, 'This is the Borg hive. You are surrounded by them. You can go four inches this way. You can go two inches this way, and forward no more than an inch and a half, " Mulgrew told an audience at the Pasadena Grand Slam Convention on Friday 21 March 1997 , " and meanwhile you play the three-page scene, and you are jeopardizing not only yourself, but the assimilation of your entire species […] I played the scene with so much quiet that I scared myself! " ( Star Trek Monthly  issue 28 , p. 4)

Effects [ ]

• Although Visual Effects Supervisor Ron Moore usually used a mixture of effects methods, the visual effects of this episode were virtually all CGI. This method of effects was costly but a saving of finances enabled the profuse usage of CGI here; Jeri Taylor noted that, for this episode, the production crew of Star Trek: Voyager had "some extra money saved so we [could] go all out." ( Star Trek Monthly  issue 31 , pp. 27 & 13) Both David Livingston and Senior Supervising Visual Effects Animator Adam "Mojo" Lebowitz appreciated the fact that this episode allowed for more digital effects than usual. " [It] really, really pushed the envelope, " noted Lebowitz. " It had an incredible amount of complicated effects work, stuff that would have probably been prohibitively expensive to have done with miniatures. That might have been one of the first shows where you can really say that without CGI they couldn't have done it. It was really a compliment that they even wrote an episode like that. I think it showed that they were finally having some confidence in the work that was being done, and they decided to really push it. I was really happy that they were finally writing episodes knowing that this stuff can be done more effectively now. " ( Star Trek Monthly  issue 58 , p. 44) In agreement, Livingston noted, " That was fun, because we got to deal with CGI figures. " ("Braving the Unknown: Season Three", VOY Season 3 DVD special features)
• The effects in this episode (in particular, the creation of Species 8472) were influenced by the success of effects in the earlier third season episode " Macrocosm ", particularly the computer-generated design of the macrovirus . ("Red Alert: Amazing Visual Effects", VOY Season 3 DVD special features)
• Despite this episode's script being sparse on details regarding Species 8472, the episode's visual effects artists were able to glean some information about the aliens from their involvement in the story. Dan Curry noted, " We had a script for a very vicious alien creature that had to be so powerful and so fearsome that it was able to chop up and destroy the Borg. " The aliens were then designed – for their debut appearance in this episode – by Curry, Steve Burg and CGI animator John Teska . ("The Birth of Species 8472", VOY Season 4 DVD special features)
• Meanwhile, Adam Lebowitz worked on the CGI Species 8472 bio-ships , the Borg cubes and Voyager . Ron Moore and coordinator Cheryl Gluckstern devised the two different forms of energy beam that the bio-ships' weapons fire: the style that is emitted from the single bio-ship that Voyager initially comes across, and the more concentrated blast that is fired by the formation of bio-ships. Recalling the creation of the latter style of blast, Moore said, " I wanted to do something that was a little bit different than Star Wars ' Death Star. I thought it was more interesting if they could share the strength of each and then create this monster beam. " The beams were visualized by Greg Rainoff at Digital Magic , using Harry animation. ( Cinefantastique , Vol. 29, No. 6/7, p. 95)
• The teaser of this episode involved a lot of work for CGI supplier Foundation Imaging . Ron Thornton explained, " We originally built the Borg Cube for an earlier episode [i.e. 'Unity'], but we really had to trick it out for this one, because in the first few seconds, two Borg Cubes are blown up, so we had to create a lot of pieces for each explosion. " Using a studio model and motion-control photography rather than CGI would have made the sequence somewhat easier and less time-consuming, as Foundation would not have had to deal with the painstaking task of crafting the explosions. ( The Official Star Trek: Voyager Magazine  issue 16 , p. 38)
• During the creation of the sequence wherein Voyager is passed by an armada of Borg cubes, the visual effects team were not entirely certain how big to make the effect. " Initially when we did that shot, " Ron Moore recalled, " we thought it was a little bit over-the-top. The idea is that these Borg cubes are really, really big, and whatever drive they're using is throwing out some kind of electromagnetic field that's kicking the Voyager around. So we did a second softer version, and we looked at it and looked at it, and finally the decision was made to go back to the original. It's a lot more fun. " ( Cinefantastique , Vol. 29, No. 6/7, p. 96) Visualizing this sequence with such traditional effects methods as a model and motion-control photography would have been problematic. " The mount would have given us a problem, " Ron Moore explained. " We could have done a side mount, maybe, but it would have been a lot more subtle. " In other words, what the effects team veered away from, when it came time to create the sequence. ( Cinefantastique , Vol. 29, No. 6/7, pp. 95-96)

Ronald B. Moore and Paul Hill work on this episode in the edit bay at Digital Magic

• The green-tinged polaron beam that is utilized by one of the Borg cubes to scan Voyager 's bridge was actually rendered CGI by Digital Magic. Ron Moore said of this effect, " The thing that was important to me was that it would look like it was dimensional, when the light would hit the face, and then you'd see it in the background. We played with it in the edit bay. A lot of times with CGI this works out better, because there's a lot of freedom in the edit bay. Something like the scanning beam works until you make it too heavy, and you can't see through it. It's very subtle. With Paul Hill in the edit bay, we laid down one of the passes bright, another one with a little green in it, and we plugged in the flat fan-like surface as it went across. " ( Cinefantastique , Vol. 29, No. 6/7, p. 96)

The pile of Borg action figures

• The pile of dismembered Borg seen on the disabled cube was actually a twelve-inch pile of Playmates Toys action figures. Dan Curry recalled, " We didn't have the budget or the time to create full-scale body chunks, because of the cost and time it would take to do that. So, I asked our licensing department for a bunch of Borg toy action figures […] And kudos to the person who sculpted those toys, because the detail – especially the facial detail – was so good that I was able to take the toy action figures, cut them up with a Dremel cutting tool, and then I stacked them up with hot glue and shot them at home against a little blue screen cove. " To complete the scene in which the away team members from Voyager pass the pile of corpses, the live-action footage that Dan Curry had already shot of the actors was composited together with the Borg drone models. Curry remarked, " By compositing the stack of action figures, it looked very real. And the toy faces were sculpted so well that I was able to do close-ups on a [tiny] head, […] filling the TV screen with them, and they looked very good. Of course, it was in kind of a smoky environment, but um… So, the toys served us well and saved the production company lots of money. " ("Red Alert: Amazing Visual Effects", VOY Season 3 DVD special features) Ron Moore commented, " That was something we all knew immediately was perfect for Dan […] He really had a lot of fun painting it, showing it to everybody. He'd come in and tell us, 'It's real disgusting now,' and he had a big smile on. It was great. We used it in a couple of shots, one with our crew, and one without. " ( Cinefantastique , Vol. 29, No. 6/7, p. 96)
• While Chakotay, Tuvok, and Harry Kim are exploring a Borg cube, they encounter a Borg drone repeatedly trying, unsuccessfully, to assimilate the Species 8472 bio-ship attached to the cube. For a single shot in this scene, Industrial Light & Magic assisted with the inclusion of some Borg assimilation tubules that extend from the drone's fingers. Ron Moore stated, " Since ILM had done the tubules for the last feature, First Contact , [Producer] Peter Lauritson set it up so that they would go ahead and give us those tubules again for the show. We added the electricity. " ( Cinefantastique , Vol. 29, No. 6/7, p. 96)
• The look of the Species 8472 infection that can be seen on both the infected Borg corpse and Harry Kim, while he is also stricken with the condition, was created by Greg Rainoff using Harry animation. " The idea was that they wanted to show that even though the Borg was dead, whatever these aliens had done to him was still at work, " Ron Moore revealed. " Later when we see Kim in sickbay, it's the same thing. If you look closely, you'll see that these veins are growing bigger and leaning just a little bit. We wanted to tie those two [effects] together. Greg on the [Harry] actually painted them on. He would paint one vein a little longer, then do an effect to reveal it so it looked like it was growing. " ( Cinefantastique , Vol. 29, No. 6/7, p. 96)

An enhanced photograph (showing the Orion Nebula ) that was used for this episode

• To depict a red nebula near the Borg colony world that is destroyed by a formation of bio-ships in the episode's conclusion, an image of the Orion Nebula – captured by the Hubble Space Telescope – was modified and composited together with the effects footage. ( Star Trek Monthly  issue 31 , p. 29)
• Although Foundation Imaging worked extensively on this episode, the company had no input on the interior Borg cube matte shot in the episode's final scene. [2] (X) The shot used recycled footage from Star Trek: First Contact . Ron Moore remembered, " We picked some pieces out of the Borg collective that was used in the feature [film] […] We took certain frames and had them re-rendered, or re-shot by Illusion Arts so we'd have nice clean frames. All of them in the feature were moving, so they had a little bit of a [motion] blur to them. So we picked frames, had them give them to us clean without the blur, then Dan went in and painted the bridge. " Subsequently, Janeway was super-imposed into the shot, using the second-unit footage that Dan Curry had taken of actress Kate Mulgrew. ( Cinefantastique , Vol. 29, No. 6/7, p. 96)
• The creation of the CGI for this episode took a total of about six weeks. [3] (X)
• Jeri Taylor and Voyager 's other producers were extremely satisfied with the visual effects of this episode. Shortly after working on Voyager 's third season, Jeri Taylor said of this installment, " That was one of our experiments with computer-generated graphics. We're more and more happy with the kinds of things we're able to get with CGI, and fortunately for a price we can afford. " ( Cinefantastique , Vol. 29, No. 6/7, p. 113) The visual effects artists themselves were pleased with their work on this episode. Ron Moore noted, " We were very proud of it. " ( Cinefantastique , Vol. 29, No. 6/7, p. 96)

Continuity and trivia [ ]

• This episode references Star Trek episodes from both Star Trek: The Next Generation and Star Trek: Deep Space Nine . Janeway mentions Q and his act of introducing the Enterprise to the Borg, as depicted in TNG : " Q Who ", and the Battle of Wolf 359, as depicted in DS9 : " Emissary ".
• This episode has one of the shortest teasers in Star Trek , at just under twenty seconds and with only a single (unfinished) line of dialogue spoken by the Borg.
• This is the last of three episodes of Voyager 's third season to feature the Borg; other than "Unity", their third season appearances also include the final scene of " Blood Fever ". As noted in the script of this episode, the Borg body parts here came from "the Borg corpse last seen in 'Unity,' which has been dissected." Another link between those two episodes is that Brannon Braga intended for the revelation, in this episode, that Species 8472 was overpowering the Borg to account for the condition of a disabled Borg cube that Voyager comes across in "Unity". ( Star Trek Monthly  issue 28 , p. 17)
• This episode marks the third time in Star Trek that an end-of-season cliffhanger story revolved around the Borg, the previous occasions being TNG : " The Best of Both Worlds " and TNG : " Descent ". Coincidentally, the former of those two episodes was at the end of TNG's third season , just as this episode is at the end of Voyager 's third season.
• In TNG : " The Best of Both Worlds, Part II ", that series' hero ship, the USS Enterprise -D , comes across a fleet of destroyed and damaged Starfleet ships, having been decimated by the Borg (at the Battle of Wolf 359 , which is referenced in this episode). Likewise, in this episode, the series' hero ship, Voyager , comes across a fleet of destroyed and damaged Borg ships, having been decimated by Species 8472. While the former scene is commonly referred to as the "graveyard scene," the script of this episode refers to the site of the latter scene as a "cemetery of decimated ships" and "a graveyard of debris".
• The assimilation tubules that appear in this episode previously appeared in Star Trek: First Contact . In fact, the script of this episode notes that the tubules were "seen in 'First Contact,' when the N.D. was stabbed in the neck". In an audio commentary for that film, recorded by Brannon Braga and Ronald D. Moore , Braga comments, " A lot of stuff we established in here involving tubules, and maybe even nanoprobes , we would go on to use a lot in Voyager because the Borg became a big part of that show. " This episode was, however, the first episode to establish the concept of Borg nanoprobes, nanotechnology having been briefly referenced in the Borg-related episodes "The Best of Both Worlds, Part II" (in particular, nanites ) and " Descent, Part II " (specifically, nano-cortical fibers ).
• This episode marks the beginning of a development of tension in the relationship between Janeway and Chakotay that culminates in the latter character considering mutiny in the season 6 premiere, " Equinox, Part II ". Kate Mulgrew was thankful for the introduction of this tension, describing it as "a very good thing to have." ( Star Trek Monthly  issue 33 , p. 22) Shortly after completing her work on this episode, the actress commented, " There's some real heat between them, especially after the events of 'Scorpion, Part I'. It will take some time before Janeway and Chakotay can re-establish the kind of intimacy and trust they had. In the meantime, though, the tension will give the relationship a wonderful new dynamic. " ( The Official Star Trek: Voyager Magazine  issue 14 , p. 32)
• After being introduced in this episode, Species 8472 appeared in both Seasons 4 and 5 . Their fourth season appearances are the concluding part of this episode's two-parter and " Prey ", whereas their Season 5 appearances are " In the Flesh " and (in a holophoto ) " Someone to Watch Over Me ".
• When Janeway references Captain Amasov in this episode, it is an in-joke reference to Isaac Asimov , famous 20th century science-fiction writer, cybernetics supporter, and friend of Gene Roddenberry .

Holographic Leonardo da Vinci [ ]

• The holographic Leonardo da Vinci, following his debut appearance here, featured in the fourth season episode " Concerning Flight ". The holographic recreation of his workshop appears not only in that episode but also in the Season 4 installments " The Raven ", " Scientific Method ", and " The Omega Directive ".
• The robot that the holographic Leonardo is working on, in this episode, is based on a real work that Leonardo created. Although the final drawings of the robot are lost (if they ever existed), preliminary sketches have been input into computer simulations that confirm that the sketches were indeed meant to be of a mechanical man. While the sketches were known of, it was not until the 1950s that a professor from the University of California realized what they were meant to be. (For more information, see Leonardo's robot at Wikipedia or Lodestar's Lair .)
• Janeway points out to Leonardo: " Someone once said… all invention is but an extension of the body of man… " This "someone" is Marshall McLuhan , popular for his studies in media theory. One of his theses is that all media are just extensions of our Human bodies; for example, a radio is an extension of the ear and binoculars are an extension of our eyes. This theory directly relates to the character of the Borg.
• A few words of Italian are spoken on the holodeck. The term " Esatto " (meaning "exactly") is used twice: first by Leonardo da Vinci, upon confirming for Janeway that all he received in return for painting the Cardinal's nephew was the Cardinal's gratitude, and secondly by Janeway, when Leonardo responds to her suggestion of gliding like a hawk rather than flapping like a sparrow. In an example of Italian profanity , he finally swears, " Che cazzo! " (literally translated as " What the fuck! "), when his Arm of Hephaestus snaps a cog. The episode's script does not specify the translations of these terms, but does indicate to the reader that Leonardo's expletive is "cursing". Additionally, Leonardo addresses Kathryn Janeway using the Italian version of her first name, "Caterina".

Reception [ ]

• During her appearance at the 1997 Grand Slam Convention, Kate Mulgrew declared this episode would be "shocking, unpredictable, mesmerizing, and terrifying." ( Star Trek Monthly  issue 28 , p. 4) She also said of this installment, " It is going to be a marvelous episode. " ( Star Trek Monthly  issue 28 , p. 16)
• However, Kate Mulgrew was admittedly unsure, initially, how the two-part "Scorpion" story line would be resolved. " Frankly, I don't know what's going to happen, " she confessed, at the 1997 convention. " I don't know how they are going to rectify this cliffhanger. It's pretty scary. " A particular aspect that Mulgrew was uncertain would return was the character of Leonardo da Vinci, though the actress hoped he would have "longevity and tenure on the series." ( Star Trek Monthly  issue 28 , p. 4) Mulgrew also wished that the Leonardo hologram would return in the fourth season and that there would be another occasion where Janeway's adoption of "knowledge and psychological tools" from Leonardo would be shown. ( The Official Star Trek: Voyager Magazine  issue 14 , p. 34)
• Brannon Braga was ultimately very pleased with this episode. " I think it's just classic Star Trek," he enthused, shortly prior to the episode's initial airing. " It's a show with a lot of action, a great new alien race, and lots of Borg, but it's also got a real moral dilemma in it. " Braga continued by wordily explaining that the dilemma he referred to was, specifically, the question of forming an alliance with the Borg, who he referred to as "the Devil," just as Janeway does in this episode. Braga concluded, " It's a very interesting show. " ( Star Trek Monthly  issue 28 , p. 18) He also included this episode among a few examples of third season Voyager installments that he thought were good (the other episodes being " Distant Origin " and "Unity"). ( Star Trek Monthly  issue 29 , p. 13)
• Jeri Taylor was also highly satisfied with this episode, citing it as one of the highlights of Star Trek: Voyager 's third season and referring to it as "simply smashing." ( Star Trek Monthly  issue 31 , p. 11)
• One particular scene that was very popular among the producers was the one in which Janeway realizes Chakotay does not agree with her. " I think it's one of the best scenes we've ever had, " Jeri Taylor raved. ( Cinefantastique , Vol. 29, No. 6/7, p. 113) Brannon Braga similarly enthused that the same scene was "a great scene". ( Star Trek Monthly  issue 28 , p. 18)
• So pleased was Ronald B. Moore with this episode's effects that he gave some thought to nominating it for an Emmy Award . " This will be the one I'm putting up for Emmy [consideration] this year, " Moore declared, as Visual Effects Coordinator Mitch Suskin began to work on the effects of " Scorpion, Part II ". ( Cinefantastique , Vol. 29, No. 6/7, p. 96) Ultimately, though, this episode was not nominated for an Emmy.
• An accurate summary of this episode leaked onto the Internet prior to the episode's broadcast. This did not, however, displease Brannon Braga, who merely expressed extreme gratitude that the episode had generated fan interest (even if obsessive) and implied that he thought such interest was harmless as "it's not like people are selling stuff." ( Cinefantastique , Vol. 29, No. 6/7, pp. 101 & 107)
• This episode achieved a Nielsen rating of 5.6 million homes, and an 8% share. [4] (X) At the time, this episode was estimated to have had 7.86 million viewers. It was number 62 of prime time television episodes in its week of first broadcast. Jeri Taylor said of the episode's high number of viewers, " It was very gratifying. I think that they were very comparable with our ratings for ' Future's End, Part II ' which is the highest I think we had all year. " ( Cinefantastique , Vol. 29, No. 6/7, p. 107) Actually, together with the first part of the "Future's End" two-parter – namely, " Future's End " (which had an identical Nielsen rating to this installment but a slightly higher share percentage) – this episode was only the third most watched installment of Star Trek: Voyager 's third season (on first airing), behind both "Future's End, Part II" and " Basics, Part II ". (Contrary to Jeri Taylor's beliefs, the most watched episode of the season was "Basics, Part II", not "Future's End, Part II".) [5] (X) Taylor also said of this episode's ratings, " Our numbers at the end of the year and for the season finale exceeded our numbers last year, so there looks to be an upward kind of trend. " ( Star Trek Monthly  issue 31 , p. 13) This is technically an accurate statement, as this installment's Nielsen rating was higher than that of the second season finale " Basics, Part I ", although both episodes had the same share percentage. [6] (X)
• One of the viewers who watched this episode when it aired in the United States of America was Bryan Fuller . Viewing the episode shortly after being hired to join Voyager 's writing staff (beginning in the fourth season), Fuller was amazed by this episode's production values and was duly excited by the prospect of writing for the series. ( Star Trek: The Magazine  Volume 2, Issue 2 , p. 67)
• In the United Kingdom , this episode – upon its first broadcast in September 1997 – was the highest-rated program on Sky One during that entire month, with nearly five million viewers. ( Star Trek Monthly  issue 34 , p. 7)
• One fan criticism aimed at this episode was that many aspects of it looked like "rip-offs" of certain elements from Babylon 5 . These likenesses included, from this installment, Species 8472 and their bio-ships as well as the quantum singularities used as interdimensional rifts, as compared to the Shadow creatures, Vorlon ships and the Shadow phase-in effect from Babylon 5 . Adam Lebowitz responded to these criticisms, saying, " At no point when we were working on 'Scorpion' did *any* of us here at Foundation notice similarities between it and B5. " [7]
• Cinefantastique rated this episode 3 and a half out of 4 stars. ( Cinefantastique , Vol. 29, No. 6/7, p. 113)
• Star Trek Monthly scored this episode 4 out of 5 stars, defined as " Trill -powered viewing". ( Star Trek Monthly  issue 32 , p. 93)
• Writer K. Stoddard Hayes clearly holds this episode in high regard. In Star Trek Magazine  issue 179 (p. 18), she describes the moment when a fleet of Borg cubes regardlessly passes by Voyager , en route for another target, as "an astonishing twist" and comments, " Out of the stunned silence on the bridge, Paris murmurs what we are all thinking: 'Who could do this to the Borg?' " Hayes also remarks that Janeway later "embarks on her most remarkable partnership yet," regarding the captain's deal with the Borg.
• The unauthorized reference book Delta Quadrant (p. 190) gives this installment a rating of 10 out of 10.
• The book Star Trek 101 (p. 175), by Terry J. Erdmann and Paula M. Block , lists this episode and the concluding part of its two-parter as being, together, one of the "Ten Essential Episodes" from Star Trek: Voyager .
• Following this episode's first airing, rumors circulated that two particular members of Voyager 's main cast – namely, Garrett Wang and Kes actress Jennifer Lien – would be written out of the series at the start of the fourth season. The fact that this third season finale concludes with a cliffhanger ending in which Kim is apparently near death made Garrett Wang seem more doomed for departure than Lien did. However, it was Lien alone who left the series following this season finale (specifically, in Season 4's second installment, " The Gift "). ( The Official Star Trek: Voyager Magazine  issue 17 , p. 37)

Home video releases [ ]

• UK VHS release (two-episode tapes, CIC Video ): Volume 3.13, 20 October 1997
• Released on 24 September 1999 as part of the Japanese LaserDisc set Star Trek: Voyager - Third Season Vol. 2
• In feature-length form, as part of the UK VHS collection Star Trek: Voyager - Movies : Volume 2 (with "Year of Hell"), catalog number VHR 5072, 18 September 2000
• As part of the VOY Season 3 DVD collection
• As part of the Star Trek: Fan Collective - Borg collection

Links and references [ ]

Starring [ ].

• Kate Mulgrew as Captain Kathryn Janeway

Also starring [ ]

• Robert Beltran as Commander Chakotay
• Roxann Dawson as Lieutenant B'Elanna Torres
• Jennifer Lien as Kes
• Robert Duncan McNeill as Lieutenant Tom Paris
• Ethan Phillips as Neelix
• Robert Picardo as The Doctor
• Tim Russ as Lieutenant Tuvok
• Garrett Wang as Ensign Harry Kim

Special guest star [ ]

• John Rhys-Davies as Leonardo da Vinci

Uncredited co-stars [ ]

• Patrick Barnitt as Borg drone
• Michael Beebe as Murphy
• Jeff Cadiente as Borg drone
• Cullen Chambers as operations officer
• John Copage as sciences officer
• Tarik Ergin as Ayala
• Caroline Gibson as operations officer
• Grace Harrell as operations officer
• Sue Henley as Brooks
• Kerry Hoyt as Fitzpatrick
• Charles Imoto as operations officer
• Julie Jiang as operations lieutenant junior grade
• Zach LeBeau as Larson
• Susan Lewis as operations officer
• Rad Milo as operations officer
• Tom Morga as Borg drone
• Trina Mortley as sciences officer
• Borg drone (probe analyzer)
• Borg drone (victim)
• Alexander Xavier Ponce-Bonano as Borg drone
• Keith Rayve as command officer
• Craig Reed as Borg drone
• Joey Sakata as operations officer
• Richard Sarstedt as William McKenzie
• Lydia Shiferaw as command officer
• Jennifer Somers as sciences officer
• Deborah Stiles as command officer
• Infected Borg drone
• Kashimuro Nozawa
• Voice of the Borg
• Species 8472 invader
• Species 8472 pilot

Stunt double [ ]

• Peter Lai as stunt double for Garrett Wang

Stand-ins [ ]

• Sue Henley – stand-in for Kate Mulgrew
• Susan Lewis – stand-in for Roxann Dawson
• Lemuel Perry – stand-in for Tim Russ
• J.R. Quinonez – stand-in for Robert Picardo and utility stand-in
• Keith Rayve – stand-in for Robert Duncan McNeill
• Joey Sakata – stand-in for Garrett Wang
• Richard Sarstedt – stand-in for Robert Beltran and John Rhys-Davies
• Jennifer Somers – stand-in for Jennifer Lien
• John Tampoya – stand-in for Garrett Wang
• Trevor Janes – stand-in for Ethan Phillips and utility stand-in
• Unknown actor – hand double for John Rhys-Davies

References [ ]

2370 ; abbot ; access point ; Achilles ; alloy ; amusement ; Antimatter ; " Arm of Hephaestus, The "; Amasov ; assimilation ; assimilation tubule ; astrophysics lab ; Battle of Wolf 359 ; binary matrix ; biological weapon ; biomass ; bioreading ; bio-ship ; Borg ; Borg Collective ; Borg cube ( unnamed 1 , 2 , 3 , and 4 ); Borg space ; Breen ; bronzetto ; cardinal ; Catarina ; cell ; cell membrane ; cellular structure ; chapel ; classified ; " clean bill of health "; conduit ; da Vinci's Cardinal and his nephew ; decompression cycle ; destroyed Borg planet ; Delta Quadrant ; devil ; disruptor beam ; distribution node ; dissection ; DNA ; dozen ; electrodynamic fluid ; emergency power ; Endeavour , USS ; Enterprise -D, USS ; evasive maneuvers ; fear ; first Borg star ; flattery ; flock ; fluidic space ; flying machine ; goose grease ; gravimetric distortions ; heart ; Hephaestus ; Hercules ; Hickman ; holodeck ; horse ; imitation ; inflection ; interdimensional rift ; intuition ; Italian ; Leonardo da Vinci's workshop ; life sign ; line of fire ; maestro ; meter ; micron ; microscopic level ; monk ; nanoprobe ; near miss ; neuropeptide ; " Northwest Passage "; oak ; omen ; organic ; organic-based vessel ; organic conduit ; parable ; particle ; Picard, Jean-Luc ; polaron beam ; prayer ; premonition ; protective shielding ; Q ; red alert ; safe passage ; Santa Croce ; scudi ; sedative ; short range scan ; skeletal lock ; solar system ; smiling ; space ; space-dwelling organism ; Species 8472 ; Species 8472 bio-ship ; square millimeter ; standard greeting ; Starfleet database ; Starfleet protocol ; starling ; submicron subspace turbulence ; System D43119 ; System D43119 star ; tactical alert ; tactical database ; telepathic species ; telepathy ; transwarp ; transporter lock ; transwarp signature ; traveler's inn ; vision ; weapon of mass destruction ; weapon signature ; Wolf 359

External links [ ]

• "Scorpion, Part I" at StarTrek.com
• " Scorpion " at Memory Beta , the wiki for licensed Star Trek works
• " Scorpion " at Wikipedia
• " Scorpion " at the Internet Movie Database
• " "Scorpion, Part I" " at MissionLogPodcast.com , a Roddenberry Star Trek podcast
• 3 Ancient humanoid

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The Best of Borg worlds: The 7 essential Borg episodes to watch before Star Trek: Picard

Credit: CBS

In 1989, in the episode “Q, Who?” Star Trek: The Next Generation took the word "cyborg" and clipped it down to its cold essentials, gifting the world with a new terror: the Borg. Though Doctor Who purists might tell you the Borg are a knock-off of the Cybermen, the black leather aesthetic combined with laser-pointer eyepieces and that chilling catchphrase — "You will be assimilated. Resistance is futile" — all cemented the Borg as one the most iconic sci-fi concepts of all time.

The Borg is essentially internet addiction writ large, an enemy that makes you part of its server. In Star Trek: Picard , the Borg are back and several of the main characters (Picard, Hugh, Seven of Nine) were all previously assimilated by the Borg Collective. This means that revisiting some of the more pivotal Borg moments is essential for your Picard homework.

The Borg appear in six episodes of The Next Generation , one episode of Deep Space Nine , one episode of Enterprise , the film Star Trek: First Contact , and 23 episodes of Voyager . And, if you count every single episode of Voyager in which former-Borg Seven of Nine (Jeri Ryan) appears, that’s 100 episodes right there. So that’s possibly a total of 32 episodes or 108 Borg episodes and 1 feature film, depending on how you look at it. That’s a lot of Borg to binge! So, in honor of Borg efficiency, here are the 7 essential Borg stories to quickly assimilate and help make watching Star Trek: Picard even more ... engaging.

Note: There are ZERO spoilers for Star Trek: Picard ahead. Episode numbers use the Netflix and CBS All-Access watch order for ease of bingeing.

01 . The Next Generation: Season 3 Episode 26 and Season 4, Episode 1, “The Best of Both Worlds Parts 1 and 2”

Although the first canonical appearance of the Borg happens in the TNG Season 2 episode "Q, Who?" whispers of the Borg are hinted at as early as the Season 1 finale, "The Neutral Zone." That said, you don't really need to start getting your Borg on until the Season 3 finale, "The Best of Both Worlds."

That's the famous episode where Picard is singled-out to be assimilated by the Collective, and the Borg make a bee-line to conquer Earth. The conclusion of this two-parter was the Season 4 premiere of TNG , and the repercussions of that episode changed Jean-Luc Picard forever.

02 . The Next Generation: Season 5, Episode 23, "I, Borg"

In Star Trek: Picard , the former-Borg know as Hugh (Johnathan Del Arco) has a semi-regular role, and in the trailers , we've seen a more human-looking Hugh in a few quick shots. What's happened to Hugh since The Next Generation hasn't been revealed yet, but Hugh's origin story is this classic episode, "I, Borg."

The Enterprise finds an injured Borg, Dr. Crusher (Gates McFadden) and La Forge (Levar Burton) decide to nurse the Borg back to health to learn more about the Collective. Without spoiling anything, this changes the way Picard and everyone else starts to think about the Borg in a big way. Hugh returns in the two-parter "Descent," in Season 6 and season 7, but you can probably skip those ones if you're pressed for time. This is the essential Hugh episode, and, probably defines the possibilities for what can happen to former Borg drones.

03 . Voyager: Season 5, Episode 15, “Dark Frontier”

Arguably, to fully prepare for Seven of Nine's (Jeri Ryan) return in Star Trek: Picard , you might want to rewatch the entirety of Star Trek: Voyager starting with Seven's first appearance in the season 3 finale "Scorpion Part 1." But, that's also little like saying you should rewatch every episode of TNG to make sure you know everything about Jean-Luc Picard. Seven of Nine is one of the greatest Star Trek characters of all time, and creating a list of the very best Seven episodes is its own thing entirely.

But, if you're only trying to download the most essential Borg lore into your brain, rewatching the epic "Dark Frontier" won't disappoint. This episode reveals how Seven was first assimilated into the Borg collective, and why. Plus, it suggests that all former Borg drones have a complicated relationship with the Collective and the Borg Queen in specific.

When it originally aired in 1999, "Dark Frontier" was presented as an extra-long two-hour episode. Netflix preserves it this way, but sometimes, you'll see reference to "Dark Frontier Part 1 and Part 2." Don't be confused; it's all the same thing.

04 . Voyager: Season 6, Episode 16, "Collective"

This episode introduced yet another variation on what it was like for former Borg drones to suddenly live outside of the interconnected hivemind of the collective. The difference this time was that the liberated Borg were all kids. Sure, Hugh was young , but he wasn't a little kid. In this episode, Seven becomes a de facto mother figure/teacher to a group of children, who, just like her, had been assimilated when they were super young. This episode also introduces the character of Icheb, a reoccurring ex-Borg who would later develop an obsession with Starfleet history, with a special interest in Captain Kirk.

05 . Voyager: Season 6, Episode 26 and Season 7, Episode 1 “Unimatrix Zero Parts 1 and 2”

As its title suggests, "Unimatrix Zero," is kind of like the Matrix in The Matrix . But, in this version, the idyllic cyberspace world is a good thing, because it's literally the only place Borg drones can "go" to be themselves. In the virtual sanctuary of Unimatrix Zero, Borg can meet, and converse, and imagine how they may have been or looked before they'd been assimilated. They can also meet and speak with drones whose bodies are plugged into Borg ships millions of light years apart.

So, basically, it's a secret virtual reality chatroom for people who are enslaved by an AI hivemind, which, if you think about it objectively — even outside of the context of Star Trek — is a freaking awesome idea for a story. As a two-part episode of Voyager , "Unimatrix Zero," is one of the best. And as a Borg episode to prep you for Picard , the essential thing about "Unimatrix Zero" is that it basically proves that even when we think we know everything about the Borg, we totally don't.

Credit: Paramount Pictures

06 . Star Trek: First Contact (1996)

It's Picard and Data versus the Borg!

Hailed as perhaps the greatest Star Trek film of all time (or at least in a dead heat with The Wrath of Khan ), First Contact mostly focuses on Picard's deep-rooted hatred for the Borg, and his desire to enact his revenge, no matter what. It also is the first introduction of the Borg Queen (Alice Krige), a character who adds a layer to the Borg that makes them seem both much scarier, and weirdly a little more explicable. The Borg Queen is deranged, to be sure, but it's not clear she's evil , per se.

If you haven't seen the movie, I won't tell you what happens between her and Data (or her and Picard) but let's just say, this: the Borg Queen might be the most interesting villain in all of Star Trek . And, based on everything we learned in Star Trek: Voyager , she also might be indestructible.

07 . Voyager Season 7, Episode 24: "Endgame"

Before there was Avengers: Endgame , there was Voyager: Endgame ! In the series finale of Star Trek: Voyager , Admiral Janeway (Kate Mulgrew) , travels back in time from the year 2404, to help get the USS Voyager home to Earth about 23-years sooner than they did the first time around. Future Janeway's workaround is all about hijacking a transwarp hub used by the Borg to pop-around the galaxy with relative ease, much quicker than the Starfleet warp drives. But, Admiral Janeway's plan involves slightly more than just stealing some propulsion tech.

Without spoiling anything, the ending of this episode will make you wonder what state the Borg Collective could possibly be in during the time of Picard . "Endgame" took place in 2378, and the events of Picard happen in 2399. Whatever happened to the Borg in those 21 years might not be 100 percent answered in Picard . But, in terms of the Star Trek timeline, "Endgame" is where we left the Borg. So, when we see them again, the events of this episode will almost certainly have impacted the Collective. Even if they're too shy to mention it.

Star Trek: Picard debuts Thursday, January 23 on CBS All Access.

• Star Trek: Picard

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Star Trek: Voyager - Episode Guide - Season 3

The slo-o-o-o-ow evolutionary progress of Star Trek: Voyager continues in season 3, as the show finally starts to more closely resemble, you know, Star Trek.

Voyager season 3 is still fairly uneven in quality, but some good old ST staples still get some good use in this season. The crew experiences trippy time paradoxes in “Coda” and “Before and After”, while the entire ship visits the 1990s a la Star Trek IV in “Future’s End.” The holodeck, well more used in Voyager than in any other ST series, is done extremely effectively in the ripping yarn “Worst Case Scenario” and the surprisingly interesting “Real Life.” (To be fair, however, there is “Alter Ego”…)

1. Basics, Part II – Talk about your pat resolutions: The Voyager crew survives in Stone Age conditions for about six hours of so and befriends a shaman while Paris, with the assistance of the Doctor, rounds up some galactic cavalry and Voyager is returned with nary a scratch. O yeah, Seska dies and the baby for which Janeway and Chakotay were willing to sacrifice ship and crew is never heard about again. **

2. Flashback – In Voyager’s version of “Trials and Tribble-ations,” Tuvok and Janeway mentally travel back to Tuvok’s time on the Excelsior, which awesomely intersects with the events of Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country, and gives Captain Sulu an opportunity to kick a little ass. ****

3. The Chute – With no knowledge of how they arrived, Paris and Kim find themselves in a prison straight out of Escape from New York. Kim’s sad attempts to act the aggressive badass are thankfully outweighed by a neat twist or two. ***

4. The Swarm – Janeway et al attempt to maneuver Voyage through a space packed with a swarm of small ships, but it’s Robert Picardo who deservedly gets the quality screen time. The Doctor’s memory is rapidly degrading and so B’Elanna crafts a holodeck program of the EMH’s designer, Dr. Zimmerman, to assist. ***

5. False Profits – Full disclosure: Star Trek Guide digs the Ferengi as fantastic satirical content on consumerism, so that may bias this synopsis. So … remember the dudes looking to bid on rights to a wormhole in the ST:TNG episode “The Price”? This is what happened to them after traveling through the ultimately unstable wormhole: The two conniving Ferengi found ways to exploit the local mythology of a nearby planet to their advantage; clearly The Prime Directive has no business (so to speak) conflicting with the Laws of Acquisition… ****

6. Remember – B’Elanna has recurring dreams which appear to be induced by visiting aliens called Enarans ; these are a side effect of an attempt to repress certain bits of Enaran history or something, but we’re still trying to figure out why Torres was susceptible rather than the Vulcans and Betazoids kicking around…**

7. Sacred Ground – Metaphysics and subatomic physics collide in a story that would likely have had Gene Roddenberry foaming at the mouth. When Kes is left comatose outside of a monastery while on shore leave, Janeway must take a less than scientific approach to restoring her to consciousness. **

8. Future's End, Part I – Kinda like Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home except not quite as humorous and set in the 1990s. An interesting time-travel tale which includes time travelers from the 29th century and Voyager’s escape into the 20th, where an unknown event will destroy the Earth 1,000 years later. Interesting stuff made even more compelling with Ed Begley Jr. playing an EEEvil Steve Jobs. ****

9. Future's End, Part II – Part II keeps the tension and intrigue high, while giving Tuvok and Paris some a few funny bits. Time ticks away as the unanswered questions demand resolution: Can Henry Starling be stopped? How will Voyager return to the 29th century? Does The Doctor get to keep that dope mobile emitter? And will Paris bag that attitudinal 90’s chick? ****

10. Warlord – An alien warlord takes control of Kes’s mind and whoa are the results boring … *

11. The Q and the Grey – Kind of like two Q-centric episodes put together: Q tries to convince Janeway to have a baby with him (guess he should have been around for Kes’s Elogium), and then reveals that Janeway’s decision in “Death Wish” has led to a civil war among the Q that’s having deleterious effects in the standard four-dimensional plane of existence. ***

12. Macrocosm – The classic virus-from-another-planet Star Trek trope goes one step further when a “macrovirus” invade Voyager. Watchable despite the silly presence, basically because The Doctor and Janeway are ultimately the only ones standing (literally). **

13. Fair Trade – Neelix finally admits that he knows nothing about the space they’re traveling through and goes on to whine about his uselessness. And then he gets scammed out of Voyager resources thanks to an “old friend.” **

14. Alter Ego – Kim and Tuvok vie for the affections of a holodeck babe, which then (sigh) comes to life outside the holodeck. *

15. Coda – Head trip for Janeway: The captain appears to be trapped in a time loop involving various death scenarios before the plot line takes a crazy left turn into the afterlife. ***

16. Blood Fever – Another rule of Voyager: Any story line involving B’Elanna Torres flipping out can immediately be labeled a non-classic. In this pretty silly episode. Tuvok goes through Pon Farr – and “passes it” to B’Elanna. I know, right? 0

17. Unity – In an episode set just outside of Borg space, a couple of subplots featuring the deadly force involve the investigation of a dead Borg cube and rogue Borg units who have (mostly) de-assimilated from the collective. ****

18. Darkling – Picardo gets to chew the scenery a bit in this one, based on an attempt by the Doctor to expand his personality. Unfortunately, this experiment goes awry and a Mr. Hyde type emerges at random. ***

19. Rise – Tuvok and Neelix (gods help us) crash land a shuttle (no kidding). Sensors and transporters aren’t working (imagine that) because reasons, so Neelix lies, claiming to know how to repair the nearby space elevator; also, there’s a bomb aboard. And Neelix squeakily complains that Tuvok doesn’t respect him. *

20. Favorite Son – In a plot line straight out of Kirk’s playbook, Kim is revealed to actually be a member of another species and is recalled to a planet where women are the vast majority, so even the ensign can get some. Or so he thinks … **

21. Before and After – Head trip for Kes: She suddenly finds herself years in the future and saddled with a terminal disease. She then begins traveling backward through her life. ***

22. Real Life – The Doctor creates a too-perfect family with whom to interact on the holodeck, so it’s a good thing that Anson Williams of Happy Days fame is aboard to direct. Includes a surprisingly touching ending. ***

23. Distant Origin – A nice script steadily unpacks a compelling tale about a reptilian scientist who believe their species evolved from humans. This one includes a very interesting reaction to the typical stirring speech by Chakotay as well… ****

24. Displaced – Head trip turns into invasion, as Voyager crew members are replaced one at a time by aliens who’ve discovered quite the unique pilfering strategy… ***

25. Worst Case Scenario – This show may take (justifiable) flak for overusing the holodeck, but at least three Voyager episodes make the list of top ST stories using the device. This is the first of the best. When a mysterious, anonymously-programmer holo-program starring the Voyager bridge crew and set in a time of Maquis rebellion, nearly everyone on board is obsessed. When the “author” is revealed to be Tuvok and the “holonovel” actually a training exercise, the crew nevertheless encourage him to finish writing; Paris offers to lend a hand. ****

26. Scorpion, Part I – The wussification of the Borg begun in the post-Best of Both Worlds seasons of ST:TNG continues, as the Voyager crew discovers a totally badass bunch of dudes known only as Species 8472. The Borg then condescend to negotiate (!) with Janeway regarding safe passage though Borg space in order for assistance with the 8472s.

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Top 25 Star Trek: Voyager Episodes

• Movies or TV
• IMDb Rating
• In Theaters
• Release Year

1. Star Trek: Voyager (1995–2001) Episode: Scorpion (1997)

TV-PG | 46 min | Action, Adventure, Drama

About to enter Borg space, Voyager finds a threat so devastating that even the Borg cannot deal with it.

Director: David Livingston | Stars: Kate Mulgrew , Robert Beltran , Roxann Dawson , Jennifer Lien

Votes: 2,556

2. Star Trek: Voyager (1995–2001) Episode: Scorpion, Part II (1997)

TV-PG | 45 min | Action, Adventure, Drama

Voyager finds a solution to combat the invader of Borg space. All Captain Janeway asks is free passage through their territory and Voyager will share their knowledge.

Director: Winrich Kolbe | Stars: Kate Mulgrew , Robert Beltran , Roxann Dawson , Robert Duncan McNeill

Votes: 2,533

3. Star Trek: Voyager (1995–2001) Episode: Dark Frontier (1999)

TV-PG | 92 min | Action, Adventure, Drama

Aboard the Delta Flyer, Janeway leads Tuvok, Paris and the Doctor on a rescue mission to retrieve Seven from the Borg Queen. whose treatment of Seven is markedly atypical.

Directors: Cliff Bole , Terry Windell | Stars: Kate Mulgrew , Robert Beltran , Roxann Dawson , Robert Duncan McNeill

Votes: 2,245

4. Star Trek: Voyager (1995–2001) Episode: The Killing Game (1998)

After Voyager is captured by the Hirogens, the ship is turned into a massive holodeck so that the Hirogens can hunt members of the crew who have been fitted with new identities in various scenarios based upon Federation history.

Director: David Livingston | Stars: Kate Mulgrew , Robert Beltran , Roxann Dawson , Robert Duncan McNeill

Votes: 2,026

5. Star Trek: Voyager (1995–2001) Episode: The Killing Game, Part II (1998)

Janeway seeks to retake her ship and crew from the Hirogens.

Director: Victor Lobl | Stars: Kate Mulgrew , Robert Beltran , Roxann Dawson , Robert Duncan McNeill

Votes: 1,908

6. Star Trek: Voyager (1995–2001) Episode: Timeless (1998)

TV-PG | 47 min | Action, Adventure, Drama

A miscalculation by Ensign Kim causes a fatal crash during Voyager's first test with slipstream travel. Fifteen years in the future, survivors Chakotay, Kim and The Doctor attempt to send a message back in time to prevent the tragedy.

Director: LeVar Burton | Stars: Kate Mulgrew , Robert Beltran , Roxann Dawson , Robert Duncan McNeill

Votes: 2,625

7. Star Trek: Voyager (1995–2001) Episode: Bliss (1999)

The Voyager crew discovers what seems to be a wormhole leading to the Alpha Quadrant and home. Images of Earth and letters from home elates the crew of Voyager. Seven, and others, however, are skeptical of this seeming deliverance.

Director: Cliff Bole | Stars: Kate Mulgrew , Robert Beltran , Roxann Dawson , Robert Duncan McNeill

Votes: 1,954

8. Star Trek: Voyager (1995–2001) Episode: Living Witness (1998)

The Doctor awakens in the museum of an alien culture seven hundred years in the future, where Voyager is thought to have been a passing warship full of cold-blooded killers.

Director: Tim Russ | Stars: Kate Mulgrew , Robert Beltran , Roxann Dawson , Robert Duncan McNeill

Votes: 2,599

9. Star Trek: Voyager (1995–2001) Episode: Future's End: Part II (1996)

As the Voyager crew pit their 24th century technology against Starling's stolen 29th century technology, Chakotay and Torres fall into the hands of paranoid white supremacists.

Director: Cliff Bole | Stars: Kate Mulgrew , Robert Beltran , Roxann Dawson , Jennifer Lien

Votes: 2,228

10. Star Trek: Voyager (1995–2001) Episode: Year of Hell (1997)

Voyager comes across a Krenim timeship that's wiping whole species from existence to change the existing timeline.

Director: Allan Kroeker | Stars: Kate Mulgrew , Robert Beltran , Roxann Dawson , Robert Duncan McNeill

Votes: 2,567

11. Star Trek: Voyager (1995–2001) Episode: Year of Hell, Part II (1997)

A year after Voyager encounters the Krenim time ship, a badly damaged Voyager with a skeleton crew leads an armada of interplanetary ships against them.

Director: Michael Vejar | Stars: Kate Mulgrew , Robert Beltran , Roxann Dawson , Robert Duncan McNeill

Votes: 2,422

12. Star Trek: Voyager (1995–2001) Episode: One Small Step (1999)

TV-PG | 44 min | Action, Adventure, Drama

Voyager crosses paths with a rare spatial anomaly that swallowed an Earth ship orbiting Mars in 2032 (a discovery that calls for an away mission).

Director: Robert Picardo | Stars: Kate Mulgrew , Robert Beltran , Roxann Dawson , Robert Duncan McNeill

Votes: 1,974

13. Star Trek: Voyager (1995–2001) Episode: Course: Oblivion (1999)

A slight respite seems to be in order but some mysterious force is affecting the very fabric of Voyager itself. To solve the mystery this crew must retrace their steps to see what went wrong.

Director: Anson Williams | Stars: Kate Mulgrew , Robert Beltran , Roxann Dawson , Robert Duncan McNeill

Votes: 2,141

14. Star Trek: Voyager (1995–2001) Episode: Relativity (1999)

Federation time ship Capt Braxton pulls Seven out of her time to help identify and destroy a bomb planted aboard Voyager.

Director: Allan Eastman | Stars: Kate Mulgrew , Robert Beltran , Roxann Dawson , Robert Duncan McNeill

Votes: 2,254

15. Star Trek: Voyager (1995–2001) Episode: Tinker Tenor Doctor Spy (1999)

An alien race, sizing up Voyager for a raid, taps into The Doctor's cognitive subroutines to make him their spy, unaware they're watching The Doctor's new daydreaming program.

Director: John Bruno | Stars: Kate Mulgrew , Robert Beltran , Roxann Dawson , Robert Duncan McNeill

Votes: 2,402

16. Star Trek: Voyager (1995–2001) Episode: Pathfinder (1999)

TV-G | 44 min | Action, Adventure, Drama

On Earth, Barclay uses holograms to formulate a plan to open communications with Voyager.

Votes: 2,283

17. Star Trek: Voyager (1995–2001) Episode: The Voyager Conspiracy (1999)

Modifying her alcove to process several months of gathered data at a time turns Seven into a rampant conspiracy theorist. Meanwhile, Janeway deals with an alien scientist developing catapult technology.

Director: Terry Windell | Stars: Kate Mulgrew , Robert Beltran , Roxann Dawson , Robert Duncan McNeill

Votes: 1,906

18. Star Trek: Voyager (1995–2001) Episode: Future's End (1996)

A timeship from the future who tries to stop Voyager gets thrown with Voyager into the twentieth century. His timeship is found in the 1960's and Voyager finds a company that has benefited from its technology exists in 1996.

Votes: 2,370

19. Star Trek: Voyager (1995–2001) Episode: Endgame (2001)

TV-PG | 87 min | Action, Adventure, Drama

Having long since made it home, an aged Admiral Janeway breaks Starfleet directives and temporal laws to take a last stab at an old enemy and shorten Voyager's journey home.

Votes: 2,787

20. Star Trek: Voyager (1995–2001) Episode: Flesh and Blood (2000)

TV-PG | 85 min | Action, Adventure, Drama

Free from their pursuers, the leader of the holograms decides to continue the crusade against the organics in order to liberate all holograms, everywhere. The Doctor finally realises what he had done and comes up with a plan to redeem himself.

Directors: David Livingston , Michael Vejar | Stars: Kate Mulgrew , Robert Beltran , Roxann Dawson , Robert Duncan McNeill

Votes: 1,815

21. Star Trek: Voyager (1995–2001) Episode: Basics, Part I (1996)

Seska knows Voyager, and her Kazon cohorts want it, so the Voyager crew wonders what to make of her distress call announcing the birth of Chatotay's son.

Director: Winrich Kolbe | Stars: Kate Mulgrew , Robert Beltran , Roxann Dawson , Jennifer Lien

Votes: 1,920

22. Star Trek: Voyager (1995–2001) Episode: Think Tank (1999)

As a relentless bounty hunter race closes in on Voyager, a sly alien think tank offers to devise a solution in exchange for a particular member of Voyager's crew joining them.

Director: Terrence O'Hara | Stars: Kate Mulgrew , Robert Beltran , Roxann Dawson , Robert Duncan McNeill

Votes: 1,919

23. Star Trek: Voyager (1995–2001) Episode: Prophecy (2001)

TV-PG | 43 min | Action, Adventure, Drama

Voyager finds a multi-generational Klingon ship that left the Alpha Quadrant more than 100 years before. When they hear of B'Elanna's child, they claim it as their savior.

Votes: 1,729

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12 star trek female villains ranked, worst to best.

Star Trek has a long list of female villains that have faced off against Kirk, Picard, Janeway, and Sisko, but who's the best at being the worst?

• The best Star Trek female villains include complex characters like the Intendant and the Female Changeling.
• The Female Romulan Commander and Alixus offer early examples of intriguing female villains in Star Trek.
• While some female villains like the Borg Queen excel, others like Seska from Voyager fall short of their potential.

While the canon of iconic Star Trek antagonists can often feel like an exclusive boy's club, many of the franchise's best villains have been complex female characters. For nearly 60 years, many of the best known villains in Star Trek movies and TV shows have been male, from Khan Noonien Singh (Ricardo Montalban) to Shinzon (Tom Hardy). Looking back, it feels quite regressive, and speaks to a wider issue with how women were written in early Star Trek .

For example, the notorious Star Trek: The Original Series finale "Turnabout Intruder" features Dr. Janice Lester (Sandra Smith), who was presented as a hysterical woman scorned, rather than a multi-layered and complex villain. However, even in those early days, there were one or two memorable female villains that could hold their own against Captain James T. Kirk (William Shatner). While Star Trek 's movie villains have been predominantly male, the TV shows of the 1990s and 2020s introduced some truly iconic recurring female villains to the franchise .

Every Major Star Trek Villain Species, Ranked

12 alixus (gail strickland), star trek: ds9, season 2, episode 15, "paradise".

The impact of Alixus (Gail Strickland) is relatively minor. However, Alixus is an incredibly compelling Star Trek: Deep Space Nine villain who deserves to sit alongside some franchise greats. In DS9 season 2, episode 15, "Paradise", Commander Benjamin Sisko (Avery Brooks) and Chief Miles O'Brien (Colm Meaney) are stranded on a planet that has abandoned technology in favor of a more simple life. Alixus is the leader of this traditionalist community, but Sisko and O'Brien soon unearth the darkness at its core. Alixus was a Federation scientist who had theorized that a return to nature would be better for humanity in the long run.

Gail Strickland had previously appeared with Avery Brooks in Spenser: For Hire .

To prove her point, she sabotaged the colony ship, the SS Santa Maria, forcing it to crash-land on a remote planet. Alixus installed a duonetic field generator that prevented all technology from operating, forcing the colonists to live by her new vision. To prove her thesis, she resorted to cruel punishments and stood by and let her colonists die from easily curable ailments. Gail Strickland plays Alixys with such nuance, transforming "Paradise" from a filler episode into an underrated Star Trek: Deep Space Nine classic . Her electric scenes with Sisko foreshadow the DS9 captain's later conflicts with other zealots.

Star Trek: Deep Space Nine

*Availability in US

Not available

Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, also known as DS9, is the fourth series in the long-running Sci-Fi franchise, Star Trek. DS9 was created by Rick Berman and Michael Piller, and stars Avery Brooks, René Auberjonois, Terry Farrell, and Cirroc Lofton. This particular series follows a group of individuals in a space station near a planet called Bajor.

11 Seska (Martha Hackett)

Star trek: voyager, seasons 1 to 3.

Star Trek: Voyager 's Seska (Martha Hackett) was a fantastic idea for a character, but very poorly executed. Introduced as one of the secondary Maquis crew members of the Valjean, it quickly became clear that Seska was hiding something. Not only did Seska want Commander Chakotay (Robert Beltran) to lead a mutiny against Captain Kathryn Janeway (Kate Mulgrew), she was also a Cardassian spy in disguise. These two elements combined ended up confusing Seska's character in Voyager , as an outnumbered Cardassian would surely have set their sights on an alliance with Janeway, not the Maquis .

Martha Hackett previously played the Romulan Sub-commander T'Rul in Star Trek: Deep Space Nine 's season 3 premiere "The Search, Parts I & II".

Eventually, Seska left the USS Voyager, to make an alliance with the Kazon in an attempt to capture the ship. The motivations for Seska's plan to capture Voyager were seemingly rooted in her disappointment at being scorned by her former lover, Chakotay. Disappointingly, one of Star Trek: Voyager 's most interesting villains was reduced to the level of Captain Kirk's evil ex-girlfriend, Janice Lester . The most successful plot by Seska was only discovered after she'd died, when a holodeck simulation of a Maquis mutiny turned into a deadly trap in Voyager season 3, episode 25, "Worst Case Scenario".

Star Trek: Voyager

The fifth entry in the Star Trek franchise, Star Trek: Voyager, is a sci-fi series that sees the crew of the USS Voyager on a long journey back to their home after finding themselves stranded at the far ends of the Milky Way Galaxy. Led by Captain Kathryn Janeway, the series follows the crew as they embark through truly uncharted areas of space, with new species, friends, foes, and mysteries to solve as they wrestle with the politics of a crew in a situation they've never faced before. 

10 Asencia, The Vindicator (Jameela Jamil)

Star trek: prodigy season 1.

Janeway's ship was once again infiltrated by an enemy alien in Star Trek: Prodigy season 1. Masquerading as a Trill ensign, Asencia helped track the USS Protostar, in the hopes of activating its deadly Living Construct weapon and destroying Starfleet. Asencia's true identity was discovered after Janeway and the USS Dauntless rescued the Diviner (John Noble). Hoping that the two Vau N'AKat could work together, Asencia was shocked when the Diviner chose his daughter Gwyndala (Ella Purnell) over their plan to destroy Starfleet. In the Prodigy season 1 finale, Asencia successfully activated the Living Construct and returned to her own time .

Asencia's story will presumably continue in Star Trek: Prodigy season 2 , as Admiral Janeway heads into the alternate future to rescue Captain Chakotay and his crew from the Vau N'Akat. It's therefore hard to rank Asencia higher until her story plays out in full. However, judging by the ruthlessness and cunning that Asencia displayed in Prodigy season 1, it's clear that Janeway and the crew of the USS Voyager-A will have their work cut out for them.

Star Trek: Prodigy

Star Trek: Prodigy is the first TV series in the Star Trek franchise marketed toward children, and one of the few animated series in the franchise. The story follows a group of young aliens who find a stolen Starfleet ship and use it to escape from the Tars Lamora prison colony where they are all held captive. Working together with the help of a holographic Captain Kathryn Janeway (Kate Mulgrew), the new crew of the USS Protostar must find their way back to the Alpha Quadrant to warn the Federation of the deadly threat that is pursuing them.

9 Female Romulan Commander (Joanne Linville)

Star trek: the original series, season 3, episode 4, "the enterprise incident".

In Star Trek: The Original Series , season 2, episode 4, "The Enterprise Incident", Captain Kirk is tasked with stealing a Romulan cloaking device . Part of the plan requires Lt. Commander Spock (Leonard Nimoy) to seduce an unnamed Female Romulan Commander (Joanna Linville), who is attracted to the Vulcan. However, unlike Seska in Star Trek: Voyager , the Female Romulan Commander's ambitions lie far beyond romantic interests. She believes that capturing the USS Enterprise for the Romulan Star Empire will be a boon for her career progression, and wants Spock to serve alongside her.

Years after the events of "The Enterprise Incident", the Federation was banned from developing cloaking technology thanks to the Treaty of Algeron.

Having seemingly turned on Kirk and even killed him in a fight, Spock keeps the Female Romulan Commander interested while Kirk infiltrates the ship. However, the Commander saw through the ruse and beamed aboard the Enterprise to try and take it by force, or have it destroyed. The plan to steal the USS Enterprise is foiled, and the Female Romulan Commander is left embarrassed by falling for Kirk and Spock's fight and losing the cloaking device to the Federation. Interestingly, Spock doesn't throw the Female Romulan Commander into the brig, and instead takes her to standard quarters, implying his seduction wasn't all pretend.

Star Trek: The Original Series

Star Trek: The Original Series follows the exploits of the crew of the USS Enterprise. On a five-year mission to explore uncharted space, Captain James T. Kirk (William Shatner) must trust his crew - Spock (Leonard Nimoy), Dr. Leonard "Bones" McCoy (Forest DeKelley), Montgomery "Scotty" Scott (James Doohan), Uhura (Nichelle Nichols), Chekov (Walter Koenig) and Sulu (George Takei) - with his life. Facing previously undiscovered life forms and civilizations and representing humanity among the stars on behalf of Starfleet and the United Federation of Planets, the Enterprise regularly comes up against impossible odds and diplomatic dilemmas.

8 Lursa and B'Etor Duras (Barbara March and Gwynyth Walsh)

Star trek: tng, ds9 and star trek generations.

The House of Duras were sworn enemies of Worf, Son of Mogh (Michael Dorn) in Star Trek: The Next Generation and Star Trek: Deep Space Nine . After Worf killed the House's patriarch in TNG season 4, episode 7, "Reunion", Duras' sisters Lursa (Barbara March) and B'Etor (Gwynyth Walsh) were left seeking vengeance. The House of Duras tried to instigate a Klingon Civil War, and even provided a Bajoran terrorist with the explosives needed to destroy the wormhole in DS9 season 1. Following the aborted Klingon Civil War, the Duras sisters effectively became guns for hire, placing them in the orbit of Dr. Tolian Soren (Malcolm McDowell) in Star Trek Generations .

Star Trek Generations was a disappointing end for the Duras Sisters, as they never really got a final confrontation with Worf . Sidelined as Soran's muscle, the sisters and their Klingon crew did manage to destroy the USS Enterprise-D, but their own ship was destroyed soon after. Weirdly, Generations never lingered on what a big deal this would have been for Worf, given how the House of Duras had been behind many of his issues with the Klingon Empire. This dissatisfying ending means that the Duras Sisters can't make it into the top tier of female Star Trek villains.

Star Trek: The Next Generation

Star Trek: The Next Generation is the third installment in the sci-fi franchise and follows the adventures of Captain Jean-Luc Picard and the crew members of the USS Enterprise. Set around one hundred years after the original series, Picard and his crew travel through the galaxy in largely self-contained episodes exploring the crew dynamics and their own political discourse. The series also had several overarching plots that would develop over the course of the isolated episodes, with four films released in tandem with the series to further some of these story elements.

7 Sela (Denise Crosby)

Star trek: the next generation, "redemption" and "unification".

Sela was the Romulan daughter of Tasha Yar (Denise Crosby), who spent years working for the intelligence services. Sela's first notable operations against the Federation were brainwashing Lt. Geordi La Forge (LeVar Burton) to assassinate Klingon governor Vagh (Edward Wiley) in the Star Trek: The Next Generation episode "The Mind's Eye". Sela tried again to destabilize relations between the Klingon Empire and the Federation when she supported the Duras Sisters' attempt to take control of the Klingon Empire. Sela's plans were foiled by Captain Picard and a Starfleet armada that prevented Romulan reinforcements from entering Klingon space .

Denise Crosby conceived the character of Sela as a means to return to Star Trek: The Next Generation after enjoying the experience of making "Yesterday's Enterprise".

Sela became the mastermind behind an attempted Romulan invasion of Vulcan, by manipulating Ambassador Spock's reunification mission. Using a holographic duplicate of Spock, Sela hoped to convince the Federation that an incoming fleet of Vulcan ships contained a Romulan peace envoy, and not an invasion force. Picard, Data, and Spock foiled Sela's plan, and she was incapacitated with a Vulcan nerve pinch, never to be heard from again. It was an ignominious end for Star Trek: The Next Generation 's best Romulan villain.

Spock’s Star Trek TOS Romance Explains His TNG Vulcan & Romulan Dream

6 valeris (kim cattrall), star trek vi: the undiscovered country.

Lt. Valeris (Kim Cattrall) is a great Star Trek villain because there's a genuine emotional impact on the crew of the USS Enterprise-A. It may have been better if Saavik betrayed Spock in Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country , but the weight of Valeris' betrayal is still impactful. Valeris' cold Vulcan logic dictated that peace with the Klingons was illogical , which is why she joined the Khitomer Conspiracy. Spock's protégé helped to frame Captain Kirk and Dr. McCoy (DeForest Kelley) for political assassination, and deliberately hindered the investigation.

While Gene Roddenberry objected to her inclusion, Saavik was actually written out of Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country because Kirstie Alley declined to return to the role.

Valeris' coldness makes her quite a compelling Star Trek villain, as she genuinely believes her many crimes are based on logic. It's a fascinating insight into how interpretations of logic can differ from Vulcan to Vulcan, as proved by Spock and Valeris' clash in Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country . Interrogated by Kirk and forced to endure a controversial mind meld with Spock, Valeris finally revealed the identities of the conspirators, and was taken to the Khitomer Conference to publicly unmask the conspiracy.

5 Vadic (Amanda Plummer)

Star trek: picard season 3.

Vadic was one of the most unpredictable foes ever faced by Admiral Jean-Luc Picard. A Changeling tasked with delivering Jack Crusher (Ed Speleers) to the Borg Queen (Alice Krige), Vadic took some big swings to achieve her goals in Star Trek: Picard season 3. Vadic's awesome ship, the Shrike, almost destroyed the USS Titan-A and its crew during their multiple skirmishes in the course of Picard season 3 . Vadic even found time to kidnap Counselor Deanna Troi (Marina Sirtis) in an attempt to secure the assistance of Captain William T Riker (Jonathan Frakes).

Amanda Plummer is the daughter of Christopher Plummer, who played the villainous General Chang in Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country .

It's a testament to Amanda Plummer's unique portrayal of a Star Trek villain that it wasn't immediately clear that Vadic was a Changeling . The scenes in "Dominion" in which Vadic described the brutal treatment of Changeling prisoners during the Dominion War were beautifully performed by Plummer, adding depth to Star Trek: Picard season 3's villain . It even elicited a degree of sympathy, but Vadic soon lost that when she began executing members of the USS Titan-A's crew. Eventually, she was blown out into space by Jack Crasher, where, ironically, her Changeling body solidified then exploded into pieces.

Star Trek: Picard

After starring in Star Trek: The Next Generation for seven seasons and various other Star Trek projects, Patrick Stewart is back as Jean-Luc Picard. Star Trek: Picard focuses on a retired Picard who is living on his family vineyard as he struggles to cope with the death of Data and the destruction of Romulus. But before too long, Picard is pulled back into the action. The series also brings back fan-favorite characters from the Star Trek franchise, such as Seven of Nine (Jeri Ryan), Geordi La Forge (LeVar Burton), Worf (Michael Dorn), and William Riker (Jonathan Frakes).

4 The Intendant (Nana Visitor)

Star trek: deep space nine (various).

The Intendant, the Mirror Universe variant of Major Kira Nerys (Nana Visitor) is one of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine 's most memorable villains. DS9 brought back the Mirror Universe in a big way, and the Intendant played a key role in each return visit. Kira's dark opposite was effectively the Gul Dukat of the Mirror Universe's Terok Nor, ruling the station with intimidation, manipulation, and violence. She was assisted in her tyrannical role of the station by Elim Garak (Andrew Robinson), who opposed some of the Intendant's more holistic methods .

Star Trek: Deep Space Nine producer Michael Piller had been rejecting Mirror Universe episodes since his days on Star Trek: The Next Generation . However, he and Ira Steven Behr finally figured out that the most interesting story to tell would be the aftermath of the fall of the Terran Empire, as seen in DS9 's Mirror Universe episodes.

The Intendant eventually lost control over the Terran rebels, thanks to various Mirror Universe incursions by Kira and Captain Sisko . This led to her losing her position, and being imprisoned aboard Regent Worf's flagship in Star Trek: Deep Space Nine season 7. Hoping to win favor with Worf, the Intendant orchestrated a plot to have the flagship fitted with a stolen cloaking device. However, the cloak was sabotaged, leaving the flagship open to attack from the Terran rebels, striking another blow against the Klingon-Cardassian Alliance, and giving the former Intendant a chance to escape with her life.

3 Kai Winn (Louise Fletcher)

Kai Winn (Louise Fletcher) was one of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine 's most fascinating characters. First introduced in the DS9 season 1 finale, Vedek Winn was a religious zealot who objected to Sisko's closeness to the Bajoran Prophets. This jealousy of Sisko eventually poisoned the calculating religious leader even further, pushing her to more and more extreme lengths to bring herself closer to her gods. Played by Oscar winning actress Louise Fletcher , Kai Winn's descent into hell across seven seasons of DS9 was compulsive viewing.

Louise Fletcher and Michelle Yeoh are the only two Star Trek stars to win the Academy Award for Best Actress.

While Kai Winn had a redemption of sorts in Star Trek: Deep Space Nine 's finale, it was still rooted in the cowardice and pettiness of her character. When she realized that the Pah wraiths wanted Gul Dukat as their emissary and not her, she decided to put her faith back in Sisko. While that saved Bajor from destruction, it's hard to ignore that Kai Winn's motivations were once again rooted in Bajor's higher beings ignoring her.

2 The Female Changeling (Salome Jens)

The Female Changeling (Salome Jens) was Star Trek: Deep Space Nine 's most interesting female villain . The spokesperson for the Dominion Founders, she was a master manipulator, and a steely villain with little regard for the "solids". The Female Changeling's attempts to manipulate Constable Odo (René Auberjonois) were compelling viewing, and ultimately solidified the Constable's loyalty to his friends aboard DS9. Seen as a god by the Vorta, the Female Changeling also appeared to delight in manipulating Weyoun (Jeffrey Combs) by playing him off against the Breen in the latter stages of DS9 's Dominion War .

Salome Jens also played the First Humanoid, now referred to as a Progenitor, in the Star Trek: The Next Generation episode, "The Chase", which Star Trek: Discovery season 5 is a sequel to.

Salome Jens' performance as the Female Changeling was utterly compelling, delivering her lines with an icy sense of superiority befitting a species that set themselves up as gods. When the Dominion War ended in the Star Trek: Deep Space Nine finale, the Female Changeling was taken into custody for her multiple war crimes. However, despite Odo's attempts to educate his people to move past the Female Changeling's ideology, those like Vadic still wanted to destroy the Solids following the Dominion War.

1 The Borg Queen (Alice Krige)

Star trek: first contact, voyager, picard.

Introduced in Star Trek: First Contact , the Borg Queen (Alice Krige) is the greatest female villain that the franchise has produced . Unlike her drones, Star Trek 's Borg Queen had a personality, and used that to seduce others into joining the Collective. Lt. Commander Data (Brent Spiner) seemingly fell under the Borg Queen's spell in First Contact , but was merely distracting her so he could avert the Collective's plan to sabotage the Phoenix's first warp flight. The Borg Queen's consciousness was stored elsewhere, able to be downloaded into a new body, which is why other actress have played the role originated by Krige.

Each Borg Queen performer has brought something new to the character, the most notable being Annie Wersching and Alison Pill's partnership in Star Trek: Picard season 2 . Their co-dependent relationship revealed new information about the Borg Queen that humanized her somewhat. Through her connection to the Queen, Dr. Agnes Jurati (Alison Pill) discovered that the Borg long for connection, and the Queen is ultimately lonely. Rather than being a retcon, this was a callback to the Queen's previous relationships with Data and Picard, confirming that they were the only matches for Star Trek 's most enduring female villain.

Star Trek: First Contact is available to stream on Max.