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Average Episodes and Extras Among Sixth Season of STAR TREK: VOYAGER on DVD

Features

By BWilliams / 10:48, 6 December 2004 / Reviews - Products

Speaking of holodeck adventures, VOYAGER once again dipped into the holodeck pool for two new entries, "Fair Haven" and "Spirit Folk", designed by Tom Paris and Harry Kim to allow the crew to participate in a myriad of lighthearted comical adventures set in an old Irish town. Seeing the crew interact with various Irishmen and women in the fictional town of Fair Haven, and even allowing Janeway a romantic liaison in pub owner Michael Sullivan, makes for a nice diversion, a la the Original Series episode "Shore Leave", but overall, there's nothing to sustain some of the progress the series had obtained in stronger episodes such as "One Small Step" and "Pathfinder".

During the series' sixth season, the top-rated program on UPN was not VOYAGER, its flagship program, but rather WWE SMACKDOWN, and the WWE was riding high on the popularity of the many varied wrestlers in its stable, some of whom had begun to cross over into television and films. To provide a viewer cross-promotion between STAR TREK and SMACKDOWN, Berman and company produced the segment "Tsunkatse", a wrestling-themed segment in which Seven of Nine is captured and forced to participate in a series of Delta Quadrant-style wrestling matches. Written by Robert Dougherty and directed by Michael Vejar, the episode is more in the vein of the Original Series "The Gamesters of Triskelion" and "Bread and Circuses". Despite some great guest performances from recurring TREK guest stars Jeffrey Combs and J.G. Hertzler, the episode is largely remembered for its three-minute showdown between Jeri Ryan and a thinly disguised Dwayne 'The Rock' Johnson. With its crossover appeal, I almost expected Rock's theme music and play-by-play audio commentary from Jim Ross and Jerry 'The King' Lawler to appear during the segment.

"Blink of an Eye" offers a most interesting approach to a science fiction theme, one with roots based on the speed of light and in the NEXT GENERATION episodes "The Inner Light" and "First Contact": What if you woke up in the morning and your home was a primitive culture, then by noon it was a medieval society, then by night a futuristic city? For the inhabitants of an alien world, that's what happens over several centuries, while on Voyager only a few minutes have elapsed. It's an interesting premise, to say the least.

Other episodes allowed for further growth and depth to the various characters, not to mention a bit of cheese factor and so-so stories at times. With "Barge of the Dead", we witnessed B'Elanna Torres (Roxann Dawson) descend into the pits of Klingon hell to rescue the soul of her mother in an attempt to regain her honor. This allowed for the most growth and maturity to Torres' character to occur since the series premiere in 1995. The cheesy episode "Alice" is basically a STAR TREK version of FATAL ATTRACTION, with Tom Paris (Robert Duncan McNeill) being seduced by an alien starship manifesting its computer interface in the form of an old Starfleet Academy love who wants nothing more than to obsess herself, or itself, with Paris to the point of rebellion and mutiny. With "The Voyager Conspiracy", Seven mistakenly pieces together various events and believes Janeway and Voyager are in the Delta Quadrant to establish a Starfleet military presence in the system. The connect-the-dots premise gives it a feeling similar to THE MANCHURIAN CANDIDATE, though TREK has done better jobs of conveying this story in the past. Along with "Tsunkatse", two other episodes, "Virtuoso" and "Muse", spotlighted the Doctor and B'Elanna Torres, respectively, in tales based on the theme of entertaining for the masses.
And "Fury" marked the return of Jennifer Lien's character of Kes in an attempt to rewrite history and take revenge on Janeway for what Kes believes was her abandonment.

The season finale, "Unimatrix Zero", saw even more growth to Seven's character, revealing that the assimilated Borg have found a dream state entitled Unimatrix Zero, where they are whole once again. But Unimatrix Zero is not only a dream state but also a secret hiding place for Borg who are trying to escape the Collective. And who happens to be waiting in the wings but none other than the Borg Queen (Susanna Thompson) once again, who like the Terminator has come back to seek vengeance upon Janeway and to bring Seven back to the Collective. The episode's final moments definitely leave things hanging and waiting for the seventh and final season to resolve. Think "The Best of Both Worlds" taken up another notch.

Is it fair to say that VOYAGER had begun to run out of gasoline about this time? Unfortunately, I have to say yes. Going back to the well one too many times for rehashed storylines doesn't automatically guarantee a successful season. However, I believe even Isaac Asimov said that there are only really six main stories to tell, and the key is to put enough twists and turns in them to make them worth retelling. There was only one more season to go, and for cast and crew it was time to bring everything home.


Continued...
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