What are Voyager's best episodes?

Okay, there's a lot of Voyager bashing going on out there. And I think a lot of it is legitimate.

Nonetheless, most of us on this board probably watched most, if not all, of Voyager's episodes.

Why, I ask myself? Because I remember that good episodes would come along just enough to get me to keep watching the dull ones. Just about the time I would start getting frustrated with the writing, another good episode would come along, boosting my hopes that the series had finally come around.

So ... here's the question: Let's say you're keeping one VHS tape containing the best episodes of Voyager. Y'know, the episodes that you actually want to keep for posterity because the story, the acting and the directing were all pretty high. So what would you put on that tape? What are the six (or eight) best Voyager episodes ever broadcast? What are the episodes that you could show to people as an explanation of why you tuned in to UPN almost every Wednesday night for seven years?

(And please, no Voyager bashing. There's plenty of opportunities for that in other threads. This forum is for the chance to actually celebrate the creative victories Voyager did have over the years.)

Year of Hell 1&2

My favorite Trek ever.

"Flashback".

I liked seeing "Capt.Sulu" again.

"Timeless" -- just for Captain Geordi, Future Kim and the Icy Crash Sequence.

"Course: Oblivion" -- as I've said, it's a perfect tragedy.

"Infinite Regress" -- Jeri Ryan proves she's not just T&A.

"Message in a Bottle" -- the Prometheus, 2 Defiants, and an Akira, and some good Doctor humor.

Choosing only six is too difficult. But some of the top episodes:


"Deadlock" - Two Voyagers, but the same, but only one can survive and escape.

"Eye of the Needle" - Romulans, time travel and the first serious attempt to cut the trip home short, with heartbreaking results.

"Tuvix" - No easy choices; no more needs to be said.

"Caretaker" - The potential and danger, showing that this Star Trek will be different.

"Before and After" - Voyager' past, present and future, with a focus on Kes.

"Prototype" - A mention of Data and an interesting hostage dilemma.

"Meld" - A unique dilemma in terms of the ship's 75-year journey home.

"Death Wish" - Not only a Trek crossover, but a unique look at history and a sensitive issue.

"Worst Case Scenario" - What if the Maquis overthrew Starfleet rule on Voyager?

"The Gift" - Two lives changed and Voyager is faced with the possibility they may actually make it home sooner and live having faced the Borg collective.

"The Killing Game, Part I" and "The Killing Game, Part II" - A historical look that plays into Voyager's own history and out of their element situation for the crew.

"Someone to Watch Over Me" - Unrequited love.

"Timeless" - The destruction of Voyager and a good look at how things could go wrong for Harry.

"In the Flesh" - The worst enemies can be good friends; don't judge a book by its cover.

"Barge of the Dead" - B'elanna and her heritage.

"Survival Instinct" - Seven makes mistakes.

"Blink of an Eye" - Prime Directive dilemma, character development and a story spanning the ages (literally).

"Living Witness" - Another story that spans the ages.

"Homestead" - Finding one's place in society and home is where the heart is.

"Shattered" - Hilarious and dramatic look at Voyager's own history.

"Critical Care" - Ethical dilemma.

Critical Care
Scorpion 1 & 2
Doctor Tailor... etc
Virtuoso (I think that's it - the ep where the Doc sings)


Any ep where 7 of 9 sings (especially the "You are my sunshine" ep). Sue me. I think she's got a good singing voice (assuming that it's actually her singing & not some clever overdubbing like they did with Audrey Hepburn in "My Fair Lady" -- I was HEARTBROKEN when I found out most if not all the singing parts for Miss Hepburn were in fact someone else!)

1. "Year of Hell" - the only time paradox episode where I didn't feel like the ending with everything being "reset" was cheap.

2. "Workforce" - A relatively good one, even though I felt like some sort of social commentary that I couldn't quite put my finger on was somewhere in there.

3. "Scorpion" - Except for the fact that it brought in Seven, a character who I HATE with a passion, this is the ONLY good Borg episode in all of Voyager.

4. "The Chute" - Tom and Harry's friendship brought to the spotlight for a much needed breath of fresh air. One of my all-time favorites.

5. "Caretaker" - Back when this episode aired, I actually thought Voyager was going to be the best Trek show ever. Silly me :D

Yes, I know that's only five, but that's about as far as I can stretch my tolerance of Voyager... this would have been much easier if you had asked for the best Enterprise episodes. :)

I was really fond of the episode about the doctor and his holo-family. Don't know the name of it.

It's a toss up between that and 'Warp 10 - You're a Lizard!' Ok, maybe not. ;)

My fav's?

Well definitely:

1) Caretaker; One of my favorite Trek episodes even though its VOY.

2) Year of Hell; By far the best VOY episode I've ever seen.

3) The episode where Seska and Maj Kala take Voyager and strand the crew on a planet. The Doc, Sutter and Paris re-take the ship and save the day. Excluding the lava and Chakotay scenes I truly enjoyed this episode.

Okay that's 3 episodes only, but I can't think of any others I really liked and were worth taping.

My favorite Voyager episode?

Prime Factors, from Season One, hands down.

For the first time ever in Trek, we saw UFP people on the other side of the Prime Directive, and hating it as much as all those other "less developed" races must have done. But the clincher, the absolute delight about the whole thing was Janeway's decision to take the high road--and the crew _mutinied_! They _mutinied_! Even Tuvok. God; it was just like watching a bunch of player characters, it was wonderful!

This was one of the reasons I didn't like Voyager--it so seldom lived up to stuff like this.

Paxton

I just thought I'd interject to debunk a bit of the Voyager-bashing myth:

Not everybody hates Voyager.

Although I'm a DS9er my self, many of my friends became Trek addicts because of Voyager. They couldn't understand why I thought Voyager was so bad, and it turned them into Trek junkies. They all now are fans of the other four shows, and they continue to be some of the strongest supporters of Enterprise.

After all, no matter which Trek shows we prefer, we Trekkies are all in the same boat when you really get down to it, and it doesn't matter whether or not you like Voyager.

Oh, and to fill in the #6 slot I couldn't think of when I posted my favorites:

Someone to Watch Over Me: The only good Seven of Nine episode, in my opinion. Seven's experiences on the dating scene are hilarious.

The Year of Hell (although I'm not sure I could watch it again without thinking of Red Forman when I see Kurtwood Smith).

Almost any episode that featured the Doctor. IMO, Picardo was the best actor on the series.

Quote:

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Originally posted by Anomaly
I was really fond of the episode about the doctor and his holo-family. Don't know the name of it.

---

Does anyone remember the name of it?

I thought "One" was superb - that's the one where the crew went into stasis, and Seven is left to look after the ship on her own. Cue masses of hallucinations and a wonderful psycho-chiller.

I was impressed with "Relativity" which I saw for the first time yesterday. It basically came down to "stuff causality and paradoxes - let's have some fun with time travel" - I appreciated the attitude!

I also rate "Deadlock" , "The Year of Hell" (although I didn't like the ending - and I know the guy that came up with it!) , "Destination: Oblivion" and "The Eye of the Needle"

Message in a bottle - except for the scenes on the Voyager
Before and After - just fun.
Pathfinder - except for the scenes on the Voyager
Blink of an Eye - except for the slightly disappointing ending a good ep
Star Trek - The Motion Picture

Don't think I missed any. ;)