I just finished Season 2 of Voyager. Here are some of my thoughts on each episode

I began watching Voyager and I decided to write down some short opinions on each episode. Since my write-up of Season 1 met with positive reaction, I am back with Season 2. It took me a while to finish it, but it was worth it. I'll be moving on to Season 3 immediately, but for now, please keep the comments spoiler-free for seasons 3-7.

201 - The 37's

Summary: Voyager encounters a 1936 Ford pickup truck floating in space, which leads them to a planet where they find eight humans in suspended animation. One of them is Amelia Earhart.

Opinion: At first I thought this was going to be one of those episodes like TOS's Metamorphosis, where they found Zefram Cohrane to be still alive in remote space, or Requiem for Methuselah, where the guy appears to be multiple historical figures at once. But nope. This episode surprised me with an emotionally resonating idea of the crew giving up on home and settling a planet already inhabited by humans. It strongly reminded me of the time on Battlestar Galactica when they found New Caprica and the fleet divided into people who wanted to stay there and those who didn't. (You'll notice that I tend to invoke BSG from time to time in these write-ups, because the more I watch Trek the more I discover its influence on BSG.) It was fun watching Janeway meet Earhart, and it was a strong moment when Janeway told her she is the captain of a starship. It actually gave me a few goosebumps to think about the gravity of the first female pilot to cross the Atlantic meeting a woman from a future where not only is interstellar travel possible, but women are also equal to men. The episode went from average to great and overall I liked it quite a bit. Three things though: 1, So Voyager can just land on a planet? No big deal? Building a starship on Earth, as seen in the JJverse, suddenly seems less dumb. 2, Why did Earhart's navigator wear a suit and tie? Were they crossing the Atlantic so he could go to a job interview? 3. I can't believe they didn't show us those cities the humans built.

202 - Initiations

Summary: Chakotay's spirit ritual is interrupted when a young Kazon warrior attacks his shuttlecraft in an attempt to pass his initiation rite. But Chakotay destroys his ship and saves his life, causing the boy to loose face in their warrior culture.

Opinion: The Kazon are not my favorite villain. I don't understand why they are portrayed as a nomadic warrior tribe opposed to modern technology when they have huge spaceships and some advanced weaponry. You're either a Mongolian tribe or you're a space-faring civilization. Pick one. I also don't find them to be very internally consistent. One minute the leader talks about dying in battle and bravery vs cowardice, the next minute when Chakotay takes him hostage he suddenly orders everyone to stand down so he comes to no harm and Chakotay can escape. Uhm, what happened to dying in battle? With their warrior attitudes and bumpy brown foreheads, the Kazon seem like a poor knock-off version of the Klingons. Can you tell I didn't enjoy this episode very much? Also, couldn't they get another actor to play the young Kazon instead of Nog from DS9?

203 - Projections

Summary: The Doctor must question reality when he is summoned after a devastating attack on the ship but appears to be human while the rest of the crew are mere holograms

Opinion: I love these sort of mindfuck episodes where things are not what they seem. It reminded me of TNG's Remember Me, Frame of Mind or even Future Imperfect. And speaking of TNG, Broccoli is back! Not that I missed him, but he wasn't half as annoying in this episode as he used to be on the Enterprise. Anyway, it was a fun standalone episode that gave the doc stuff to do - for the first time this season. I only hope they will actually set up hologram projectors in different parts of the ship so he can leave sickbay irl and not just in this episode's fake reality.

204 - Elogium

Summary: Voyager discovers a huge swarm of space insects and Kes has severe munchies that turn into early-onset puberty, which prompts her to consider conceiving a child with Neelix.

Opinion: "We need to start having babies," BSG's president Roslin exclaims. "But first let's ponder the implications," replies Janeway. Once again I was reminded of Galactica by this episode's overall theme of having children. Was this really the first time it occurred to anyone on the ship that the 70 year journey back home just might require them to procreate? Apparently so. In true Trek fashion, instead of sexing it up, they talk it up. The result is an odd episode that attempts to be funny and deep at the same time, mixing double entandre and comedic puberty with serious discussions of parenting and commitment. Not my favorite episode, but at least we got the second funniest line of the show, courtesy of Tuvok. "It appears we have lot our sex appeal, captain."

205 - Non Sequitur

Summary: Kim wakes up in San Francisco, having never gone on Voyager's faithful mission. He's in Starfleet R&D working on a new runabout and he has a fiance. Confused about this alternate reality, he seeks out a drunk Paris, who also never boarded Voyager.

Opinion: I always enjoy these "specials" which are focused on just one character thrown into a weird time travel/alt reality/mirror universe scenario. After twenty episodes this also marks the first time Kim has anything interesting to do and is more than just a forgettable supporting character. Since he was featured so much in the pilot episode, I expected more from him.

206 - Twisted

Summary: A mysterious region of space distorts the insides of Voyager, making several crew members lost in a maze of corridors and the doctors trapped in the holodeck.

Opinion: This was another one of those inconsequential filler episodes that could happen whenever, but it was fairly enjoyable and engaging. It reminded me of DS9's Move Along Home.

207 - Parturition

Summary: Paris schools Kes in shuttle piloting and falls for her, making Neelix extremely jealous. When a conflict escalates between them, Janeway sends them down to a planet with a poisonous atmosphere where they hope to find food and Neelix decides to take care of a freshly hatched pterodactyl-like alien. Meanwhile, Voyager fights off a ship.

Opinion: This was definitely my least favorite episode so far. It had elements of DS9's The Ascent, but where that episode had a great questing beast dynamic between the wonderful Quark and Odo, here we have a forced love triangle between uninteresting characters who have little else to do, not to mention that ridiculous subplot with nursing the alien back to life. The other part of the episode that had Voyager face off against an alien ship felt extremely forced, as if they just had to give the rest of the cast something to do. The only intriguing part of the episode was the fact that they had to look for food supplies in order to survive - something they should have focused on more in-depth instead of doing the love triangle.

208 - Persistence of Vision

Summary: The doctor orders an overworked Janeway to relax on the holodeck, but she begins to hallucinate her holonovel's characters IRL and a sinister alien poses a threat to Voyagers when others begin to see things too.

Opinion: This was a pretty good "nothing is what it seems" type of episode. I like it when the writers use these sort of special circumstances, like hallucinations, to reveal new things about characters (such as that Torres wants to bang Chakotay). And Kes actually had something to do and her as yet poorly defined and underused psychic abilities came into play a bit. I'm curious to see if that ever gets properly developed. As a side not, this is the third time (I think) that Janeway's Victorian ghost story holonovel was interrupted by trouble - is this a running joke of the show?

209 - Tattoo

Summary: The search for fuel takes Voyager to a planet where Chakotay discovers markings from his Native American culture, which leads to an encounter with his ancestors.

Opinion: Flashbacks to Chakotay's youth (they picked a pretty bad actor, btw) show us he wasn't always the spiritual man and traditionalist he is today and while this episode wasn't particularly entertaining, at least it fleshed out the character. Also, apparently his tribe's Sky Spirits were actually ancient aliens who jump-started progress on Earth when they visited cavemen in the ice age. Who would've known.

210 - Cold Fire

Summary: After 10 months of wandering in the Delta Quadrant, Voyager finds a space station occupied by an Ocampa colony in contact with the dead Caretaker's counterpart, Suspiria.

Opinion: This was an unexpected episode. At first I thought that after a couple of heavily standalone episodes they were finally going to deal with that whole stranded in the Delta Quad situation, but it turned out to be an episode focused mainly on Kes. She receives Jedi training Tuvok but is lured to the dark side by the Ocampan leader Tanis, who shows her the full potential of her dormant powers in order to.. what? Seduce her, I guess? He definitely wanted her for himself. There were some intriguing parts and that scene where Kes almost boiled Tuvok alive was badass. I got a couple of Event Horizon vibes from some of the scenes, like when the child caretaker had Torres and Tuvok suspended in the air and dripping blood on Janeway. Or when Suspiria turned into a purple tentacled blob. This wasn't half bad. More like this one, please.

211 - Maneuvers

Summary: Chakotay's traitorous ex from 110 is back, helping the Kazon to steal Starfleet technology and attack Voyager. Chakotay goes rogue to stop them.

Opinion: Unlike the more abstract and unnecessary episode Tattoo, this story centered on Chakotay was actually engaging and pretty close to that classic Trek rivalry with a recurring character. Not that Seska is as badass as Gul Dukat, as memorable as Khan, or as whimsically menacing as Q, but at least I have something to look forward to when she returns.... with in a fucking baby?? I did not see that coming. Hopefully the writers do something interesting with that.

212 - Resistance

Summary: An undercover away mission to procure fuel goes wrong when Tuvok and Torres are imprisoned and Janeway is injured and looked after by a crazy person who confuses her for his daughter.

Opinion: The cold open gave me some serious Star Wars vibes with the costumes, sets, and overall feel. It was like the crew visited a wretched hive of scum and villainy and got attacked by by helmeted troopers. The episode itself wasn't bad per se, but I had trouble connecting with it. The crazy dude who took care of Janeway thinking she is his daughter did nothing for me. I wasn't interested in the character and his craziness was kind of boring me. I often have trouble connecting with these one-off characters unless they somehow profoundly influence the core cast. I guess the emotional ending of the episode redeemed a bit but I'm not a fan.

213 - Prototype

Summary: Torres gets emotionally invested in (and then abducted by) a broken down silver robot they found floating in space.

Opinion: Despite the robot's 1950s design and equally dated mask/costume, I really liked this episode. Data from TNG was name-dropped, issues with the Prime Directive were argued, themes of AI and its rights were discussed, and the episode focused on one of the main characters in an interesting way. Two thumbs up for a classic Trek story.

214 - Alliances

Summary: Voyager gets its ass kicked by the Kazon, prompting Chakotay and other Maquis crew members to lobby for a change of tactics. Janeway is reluctant to give up the Starfleet way of doing things but enters negotiations with the Kazon and their enemies, the Trabe.

Opinion: This might be my favorite episode of Voyager so far. There was a lot going on and all of it felt relevant. Although nothing really changed by the end of the episode, it didn't feel pointless and standalone. Just like I said about 116 in my season 1 write-up, this episode was exactly what the whole show should have been. There was a lot of tension between the Starfleet and Maquis crew members and the fact that Voyager is very far from home and kind of in a hopeless situation came across very clearly. I always enjoy instances when Starfleet officers struggle with whether or not they should follow their rules and directives and Janeway had a lot of that going on in Alliances. Also, Neelix was useful and relevant and not at all simply comic relief. My one beef with this episode is that Seska and Chakotay were kept completely apart and the fact that she impregnated herself using Chakotay's DNA wasn't mentioned at all despite that stuff happening 4 episodes ago. Instead, Seska makes a passing reference to her as yet invisible pregnancy when she mentions to Cullah that she is carrying his baby. What?

215 - Threshold

Summary: In order to speed up Voyager's return home, Tom Paris acts as test pilot for the first experimental flight to breach the transwarp barrier and achieve warp 10. However, the historic flight has unexpected (and potentially lethal) side effects.

Opinion: I already liked the episode when it had serious The Right Stuff vibes but then it suddenly turned into a combination of The Fly and Altered States and holy shit I did not see that coming! Not only does the crew perform some top notch sciencing and Paris becomes the Chuck Yeager of space when he reaches infinite velocity but then the episode takes a 180 turn into body horror territory and becomes straight up crazy, culminating in Janeway and Paris turned into lizards in a swamp that just had baby lizards together. I am genuinely curious what people think of this episode and how audiences originally reacted to it. This was.. uhm.. different. And awesome. But putting aside all that, I liked that this episode fleshed out Paris a bit and gave him a self-loathing inferiority complex. Also, and I did not expect this sort of continuity, the traitorous dude from the previous episode, who contacted Seska, gave the Kazon instructions how to achieve warp 10. I wonder if that will ever be mentioned again.

216 - Meld

Summary: Violent Betazoid engineering crewman Lon Suder murders someone for no reason and Tuvok performs the Vulcan mind meld on him to find out his motive. But the meld transplants Suder's violent nature onto Tuvok.

Opinion: I guess I'm in a streak of great episodes because this did not disappoint. I love Vulcan struggles with emotions and Tuvok really delivered. Great acting, great insight into the Vulcan mind and a great way to do something interesting with a character. Also, Brad Dourif! I find it kind of hard to accept that Lon Suder was somehow unseen until now, after something like 30 episodes. It makes little sense to do special guest stars like this on a show where new crew can't just show up out of nowhere when the ship is docked at a space station. But whatever. I hope we'll see more of him in future episodes, because from now on I will always keep in mind that no matter what dangerous thing is happening with the ship, somewhere inside there is Lon Suder brooding in his quarters under house arrest.

217 - Dreadnought

Summary: It turns out that a powerful Cardassian missile with AI that was reprogrammed for Maquis purposes by Torres was transported to the Delta Quadrant along with Voyager and is now headed to destroy an innocent planet unless Voyager can stop it.

Opinion: This episode had some intriguing ideas and it was another good Torres episode somewhat thematically similar to 213 (in that her creation turned into a force of destruction) but in the end it was kind of pointless. Given the nature of the show, it was completely obvious that Voyager would not be destroyed and the missile would be successfully stopped, so there was absolutely no tension during the final act, even though it was probably meant to be tense.

218 - Death Wish

Summary: Voyager accidentally frees a disgruntled and suicidal member of the Q continuum and a tribunal is held to determine whether or not he should be allowed to commit suicide.

Opinion: If I hear the word continuum one more time, I swear to God... ...I was never a big fan of anything related to Q and so I did not enjoy this episode one bit. Well, I guess I did enjoy seeing Riker again, and the actor playing the suicidal Q was pretty good, but other than that, I was glad when it was over. Here we have these two infinitely powerful beings and no one thinks to beg them on their knees to be sent back to the Alpha Quadrant? Q taunts Janeway with the prospect of returning to Earth (and having sex together, apparently) but that's about it. I guess that streak of good episodes is over now.

219 - Lifesigns

Summary: The doctors falls in love with a Vidiian woman dying of the Phage. Paris' recurring attitude problems get him in trouble.

Opinion: There's not much to say about the main storyline. It was charming but a bit boring and while I'm happy for the doc, I'd much rather watch stuff of more consequence. Like the traitorous informant who is till in contact with the Kazon. Or the fact that Seska craves Voyager and plans to attack it. And what about Paris? Starting with 216 there were instances where he was late on the bridge or had serious attitude problems, especially towards Chakotay, and now that culminated in him striking a superior officer and getting locked up in the brig. It's interesting that the show has these two serialized and recurring plotlines but chooses to be completely standalone in every other respect. I wonder what's in store next for Paris and that traitor dude.

220 - Investigations

Summary: Neelix becomes an investigative reporter and a disillusioned and demotivated Paris decides to leave the ship and try his luck elsewhere. Or does he?

Opinion: I really enjoyed this episode. But I do feel like it could have been much better. The twist was that Tom isn't actually leaving the ship. He's on an undercover mission to flush out Voyager's mole and his recurring insubordination of the past couple of episodes was all an act. That's great. Except I think the cover story was much closer to Paris' character than the heroism of the actual plan. As evidenced in 216, Paris is a guy who's been at odds all his life. He has trouble finding himself and finding a place where he would fit. He should feel demotivated and uneasy on Voyager. He should want to leave and take on the whole Delta Quadrant all by himself. He should do for real the things that were just a ruse. I never saw Paris as a self-sacrificing cookie-cutter hero but this episode definitely turned him into one. I think it would have been much more interesting if no one on the ship had any idea there is a mole, but Paris, having actually left to find his luck elsewhere, somehow finds out and decides to return to save Voyager when Seska attacks (which I assume is going to happen in the finale).

221 - Deadlock

Summary: While trying to avoid a fleet of the organ-stealing Vidiians, Voyager flies trough a spatial scission that creates an exact copy of the ship. One Voyager is doing fine while the other is on the brink of destruction.

Opinion: I found this episode to be reminiscent of TNG's Yesterday's Enterprise, a favorite of mine. It had some intriguing stuff going on, including the deaths of a newborn baby and the untimely and matter-of-fact demise of ensign Kim, which were both pretty dark for Trek. I also love the fact that everyone is terrified of the Vidiians. They are such a cool villain and frankly much more intriguing than the straightforward Kazon. Not only are the Vidiians fugly, they're after your organs! What a sick and terrifying prospect to be used as a lab rat in a leper colony. The meeting of two Janeways created intriguing dilemmas and I feel like it wasn't dealt with deeply and thoroughly enough. What a thought-provoking thing it is to sacrifice your dying ship so that your copy can survive. I also thought it was both amazing and very weird that they sent Kim and the baby from the soon to be destroyed version of the ship back to the version where they died. At the end of the episode Kim mentions that it feels weird because although everyone is exactly the same, they also aren't. Everyone he knew died and he returned to a ship where he also knows everyone, but their experiences are only 99.99% the same. He will be an alien, a visitor, a replacement. This was perhaps the first episode of Voyager that really left me thinking about it and contemplating what I just saw.

222 - Innocence

Summary: Tuvok crash-lands on a habitable moon where discovers three children who claim to be in mortal danger. Meanwhile, Voyager makes contact with the race that inhabits the planet orbited by that moon, who are not pleased with Tuvok's involvement in their affairs.

Opinion: I guess I see what they were going for with this episode, but I can't say that I liked any of it. Tuvok's interactions with the kids were neither funny nor revealing of a new aspect of his character (I find the fact that he is a father intriguing and I think this episode did nothing particularly interesting with it). The whole story reminded me of a standard, rather mediocre OS episode, as if they found an unused spec script from the sixties and just adapted it to Voyager.

223 - The Thaw

Summary: The crew find three miners in asleep in stasis and plugged into a virtual reality where an AI is holding them hostage and feeding on their fear of clowns.

Opinion: Three guys in stasis. Ok, sure. They're plugged into the Matrix. Ok, cool. Kim and Torres are plugging into the Matrix to go save them. Ok, yeah, you got my interest, get the plot going already. The Matrix is filled with court jesters, acrobats, and Queen's Innuendo album art come to life. Ugh, really? And I thought the previous episode was reminiscent of the original series. I had great trouble finishing this episode and I consider it a waste of 45 minutes.

224 - Tuvix

Summary: Tuvok and Neelix are merged into a single person during a transporter malfunction caused by an orchid. The new being, Tuvix, starts a new life on Voyager much to Kes' dismay.

Opinion: At first I thought this was going to be another dumb episode. As if Neelix himself wasn't enough, Tuvix looked like something straight out of Red Dwarf and did not fit in visually with the rest of the show (though, granted, the make up job was really good). Also, I thought this was going to be a dumb comedic episode. But by the time the credits rolled, Tuvix actually became really interesting. I loved that he cried bloody murder when they took him off the bridge to be separated back into Tuvok and Neelix. They really were killing a sentient person (essentially a new form of life) and the moral dilemmas were great. I also loved the fact that the doctor refused to do it and Janeway had to be the one. Even Kes was interesting for once.

225 - Resolutions

Summary: Chakotay and Janeway are left to live out their lives in quarantine on a picturesque planet after they were infected with a virus from an insect bite. However, the crew have a hard time accepting Captain Tuvok's orders.

Opinion: What a good episode this was. Chakotay and Janeway had pretty good chemistry together and their inevitable romance was handled nicely. It also said a lot about their characters that Janeway refused to give up research while Chakotay was already having the time of his life in the great outdoors. Tuvok's command predictably didn't go all too well, especially when he vehemently followed Janeway's order not to ask the Vidiians for help. I expected there would be mutiny but in the end it wasn't so dramatic, and I guess that's for the better. Mutiny is really not in Starfleet's nature. But if other the previously displayed lack of continuity is any indication, Chakotay's and Janeway's experiences will not affect them in any way going forward and their brief affair will be forgotten.

226 - Basics, Part I

Summary: Seska uses her newborn baby as bait and lures Voyager into a perfectly planned trap. Meanwhile, Lon Suder wants to be helpful.

Opinion: Unlike the previous season's last episode, this was a proper finale and thank god I have Netflix and don't have to wait all summer for the conclusion. Seska's plan was really good and I loved the moment when the computer was unable to initiate the self-destruct sequence and Janeway realized why the Kazon targeted a specific, seemingly non-essential part of the ship. I also loved the fact that this was communicated to the audience purely by Janeway's expression and not some verbal explanation. I guess Suder and the doctor will save the ship all by themselves now. (One thing about the self-destruct: Janeway initiated it at least once before and since then I've been bothered that she is able to do so on her own. Should this be a command that needs consent of another officer?)