Voyager Season 6 is a Bit All Over the Place
By
Kristin Battestella
Despite
building some steady work in Seasons 3, 4, and 5, Star Trek: Voyager’s Sixth Season overly relies on the Borg even
further. Individual, one off quality episodes become overshadowed by Borg connections
and create a confused, uneven vision for the season.
After
facing her Starfleet demons, stranded in the Delta Quadrant Captain Katherine
Janeway (Kate Mulgrew) and her ship Voyager struggle against the Borg as the
separated from the Collective Seven of Nine (Jeri Ryan) battles her own Borg
troubles inside and out with good and bad results thanks to the ship’s
holographic Doctor (Robert Picardo). Fortunately, the Federation hasn’t given
up on Voyager, and technological advances make it possible for the ship’s
growing family to communicate with earth – and just maybe help bring them home.
The
“Equinox” two-parter concluding Year 5 and beginning Season 6 should have
happened a lot sooner for Voyager,
simply put. Janeway is on the edge and
confronted with Starfleet reaffirmations, role reversals, and moral conflicts
with another desperate ship. Voyager
being not so nice and bright creates a lot of good to start the season, but
this kind of in your face question of faith is happening far too late in the
series. There are less than two seasons left and now we get the first good antagonist use of Robert Beltran as
Commander Chakotay in a long while. Why
did they ever toss out the Maqui angst if the crew’s rough patches are the best
part? Longtime viewers also wonder why Tim Russ’ Vulcan Tactical Officer Tuvok
doesn’t speak up in these critical situations.
The special effects and ship designs still look good now a decade on,
and Trek audiences will see touches
of Ronald Moore’s sensibilities, too. However, if we didn’t get this conflict
sooner, than dang it should have lasted longer and left some lingering effects.
Like any potential romance between the Doctor and Seven, all the angst from
“Equinox” is dropped by the next episode. By time we get to more Janeway
spotlights in “Good Shepherd,” the lower decks folks and their contrived
shuttle mission just aren’t that interesting.
“Dragon’s Teeth” does some fine work in showing Voyager’s interference
in the Delta Quadrant, but Janeway and company start a war and then move on
their merry way. These no consequences storylines become increasingly iffy and
obvious, and when there is quality on
Voyager, it’s as if no one saw the
series at this point. Memory Alpha barely has any background info on these
later seasons of Voyager. This is an
overall poor and simply un-received era of Trekdom,
and it’s a shame when classic Trek shows
like “Blink of an Eye” tackle fundamental planetary differences and Voyager’s
influence on an entire society goes unseen.
Interesting
Borg angles make their presence known early in “Survival Instinct,” but this
Seven focus is intriguing compared to Voyager’s
forthcoming Borg overkill. “One Small
Step” is a nice nod to the Alpha Quadrant past with some real growth for Seven,
too, but the ball is dropped regarding Chakotay yet again. Likewise, “The
Voyager Conspiracy” is a fun way to wonder about the possibilities of the show
– it might have been damn interesting if these nefarious accusations on how
Voyager got to the Delta Quadrant were true. Unfortunately, at this point, it’s
too weird to suspect folks just because Seven has another malfunction, and
spoilers, it’s all resolved by Janeway doing a Kirk talk down of her Borg
anyway. At this point in the series, the
production really has nothing to loose, yet episodes often end with the safest
answer possible. And oh yeah, these ten
year-saving jumps the ship makes from time to time on its way home? They are
often afterthoughts in the Captain’s log. It’s a pity if you think about all Voyager’s lost potential, but thankfully,
Robert Picardo is always delightful. From the fun and lighthearted “Tinker
Tenor Doctor Spy” and the human emotion versus science and mathematics of “Virtuoso”
to the touch too much The Next Generation
feelings of “Memorial” and “Life Line” with guest Marina Sirtis, Picardo
delivers on any and all ask of him. Unfortunately, “Tsunkatse” is one of those
needless Seven in the arena with The Rock ‘televised fight to the death’
episodes that every series seems to pull out of its butt at some point. Why, why why?
Although
“Alice” also
reeks of obvious parallels to Christine, it’s
nice to see any outing with Robert Duncan McNeill as Tom Paris since it feels
like we haven’t seen him in awhile. I’m
not sure why each of the characters have a bizarre dream, mixed mental, or
reality bending episode at some point, either, and “Barge of the Dead” is a
little too implausible. It’s tough for a Trek
audience to get in touch with our Klingon spirit after being away from it
for so long, but it’s nice to see Roxann Dawson and B’Elanna Torres again in
“Muse,” too. “Fury,” however, is an awkward way to bring former regular
Jennifer Lien back as Kes. It simply doesn’t go far enough in revisiting her
previous relationships with Tuvok and Ethan Phillips as Neelix, and more should
have been done with this pair in “Riddles.” Despite fine moments with the
players, there is no mention of their Tuvix dilemma, and it feels like obvious
Vulcan questions or holodeck solutions are not presented. “Tsunkatse” could
have been a serious spotlight for Tuvok – a dutiful pacifistic with Vulcan
strength and martial arts training forced to fight to the death for the safety
of others – but all development of his character has unfortunately ceased in favor
of too many seemingly useless off the mission episodes like “Fair Haven” and
“Live Fast and Prosper.” We need
holodeck excuse episodes for Janeway to get it on? These humorous and offshoot
shows feel so incomplete with only neat idea beginnings and voiceover
resolutions before everyone goes on their way for the week. When episodes end with scenes other than
exterior shots of Voyager traveling on her long way home, it feels like neither
the journey nor the destination are the focus of the series. Then what the heck is Voyager supposed to be about?
“Pathfinder”
is a very smart way to get both the ship and show back in touch with the Alpha
Quadrant, yes. It’s great to see Dwight Schultz as Reginald Barclay again –
someone Trek fans know and love. Then
again, this turn might be weird for any viewers who didn’t see The Next
Generation. Isn’t it amazing that after six years, Voyager is still trying to ride TNG’s
laurels? For longtime Star Trek viewers
trying to hang on with Voyager, these
retread TNG elements are unnecessarily
shoehorned in – pleasing as it is to see that Starfleet is trying to get our
titular ship home. Likewise, there are
both positives and negatives to the introduction of the Borg children. Yes, barely alien juveniles rescued from the Collective
ala Seven have nice episodes with “Collective” and “Child’s Play,” but it is
simply too late in the game to introduce recurring players, much less kids and
Borg individual retreads when we have underutilized regulars. The spooky of
“The Haunting of Deck 12” is well placed before the finale, but these Borg
problems should have happened together in Season 5. Seven’s pros and cons in
contrast with the difficulty for the kids could have been interesting and kept
the family aspects of Voyager going. Perhaps then we could have moved Year 6 on
from dang Borg instead of using them as the show’s crux. Now, it just seems like every child cliché is
being tossed into Voyager. I mean,
there is even a Borg baby that just frigging disappears! Sticking these episodes
with more of Garret Wang’s weak Harry Kim alien women issues in “Ashes to Ashes”
and the been there, done that of “Spirit Folk” makes for a serious mix of left
over concepts and random attempts – and it’s all at the expense of any promise Season
6 might have had. No wonder no one was watching Voyager and waiting around for the handful of decent shows. If the production clearly didn’t care, why
should the audience?
Seemingly
pointless single character episodes create a meandering tone to begin this
second to last season of Voyager, and
after the half hearted attempts to finish the season, the “Unimatrix Zero”
finale seems to comes out of nowhere with more Borg contrivances and one hefty
cliffhanger. It’s been tough to conclude
these seasonal reviews when they end each year in such an interconnecting way,
but the plots aren’t leaving much return value anyway. I wish that they had
done one miniseries Borg season and gotten it all over with, but the lack of
cohesion here puts the writing on the wall for Voyager. Fans of Janeway,
Seven, and the Doctor can delight by picking and choosing their preferred
episode, and Trek fans can tune in
for the 24th century familiarities, but Voyager is past the point of attracting general science fiction
fans or new audiences with this all over the place penultimate season.
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