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The crew of the starship Voyager continue their long
trek home from the Delta Quadrant. Captain Janeway struggles
to maintain Starfleet standards while traversing this alien
region of space, where she encounters Kazon, Vidiians, telekinetic
Ocampa, numerous members of the Q Continuum, and a transporter-fused
Neelix and Tuvok...
As
I said in my review of Season 1, Voyager did not get
off to a good start, but it did improve with each season.
As a result, there is a far greater proportion of strong episodes
in this DVD box set.
My absolute favourite of this season is Lifesigns,
which showcases not only the Doctor (Robert Picardo), the
series' best character, but also the gruesome yet sympathetic
Vidiians, one of the franchise's greatest ever alien races.
What more could a fan ask for?
Not
far behind that is the chilling The Thaw, a stylish
and surreal storyline in which Michael McKean dominates as
a creepy clown, the personification of fear in an alien virtual
reality.
Projections
is another good Doctor episode, which guest stars Dwight Schultz
as the former Next Generation character Reg Barclay,
in what proved to be the first of several appearances in Voyager.
Though not the first Star Trek adventure to do a Jacob's
Ladder by causing a main character to doubt his or her
own sanity (that honour goes to the Next Gen episode
Frame of Mind), it's an undeniably enjoyable experience
with some classic lines, including, "Computer - delete Janeway!"
Other
highlights include Non Sequitur (I'm a sucker for alternate
timeline stories); Cold Fire, which sees the return
of the Ocampa race from the pilot show, Caretaker,
as well as another member of the Caretaker's own species;
the touching Resistance; Meld, an excellent
Tuvok (Tim Russ) episode, with Brad Dourif doing what he does
best as a psychopathic Betazoid; Dreadnought; Deathwish,
which features the return of not only John de Lancie as Q
but also Jonathan Frakes as Commander Riker; and Deadlock
(I'm a sucker for doppelganger stories too).
Several
episodes - Maneuvers, Alliances, Investigations
and the season finale, Basics: Part 1 - are made all
the more enjoyable by the development of a story arc revolving
around the alien Kazon, the defector Seska (Martha Hackett),
and another treacherous crewmember. If anything, Investigations
is too frenetic and packed with plot, and might have worked
better as a two-parter.
More
serious flaws affect Tuvix, which is essentially a
decent episode boasting many good qualities, not least of
which is a stunningly convincing performance by Tom Wright
as Tuvix, a transporter combination of Neelix (Ethan Phillips)
and Tuvok. There are some very moving scenes as Tuvix bonds
with the crew, only to face obliteration when a method of
separating his two halves is discovered. The ending, however,
is a total cop-out. Do the newly separated Neelix and Tuvok
retain memories from their joined experience? If not, why
not? We are never told.
Other
middling instalments are The 37's, which is marred
by a saccharine-sweet ending; Initiations; Persistence
of Vision; Tattoo, a Chakotay episode, which therefore
predictably involves some Native American spirituality; Prototype,
a good script let down by some naff-looking robots; and Resolutions.
The
truly bad episodes of this season include Elogium (if
Ocampa women are only fertile once during their entire lifetime,
how has the race managed to survive - do they give birth to
litters of offspring?) and Twisted (yet another spatial
anomaly). Whether you count these two offenders as part of
Season 2 is open to discussion, because, like The 37's
and Projections, they were originally planned and produced
to form part of Season 1. However, the second season production
block must take full responsibility for Parturition,
in which Neelix and Paris (Robert Duncan McNeill) do some
bonding when they become the unwilling parents of an alien
baby; Threshold, in which Paris passes Warp 10 and
then mutates into a lizard for some reason; and Innocence,
whose daft idea about an alien life cycle is more suited to
Mork & Mindy than Star Trek.
Special
features in this box set include optional trivia text on The
37's, which reveals copious snippets of on-screen information
about the production and background of this episode.
Disc
7 contains over an hour of documentary features, including
more Real Science, as described by the show's Science
Consultant, Andre Bormanis. The Voyager Time Capsule this
time deals with Tim Russ, alias Tuvok, while Saboteur Extraordinaire
concerns the character of Seska, and A Day in the Life
of Ethan Phillips reveals the lengthy makeup process the
actor had to undergo on a daily basis. In Red Alert: Visual
Effects Season 2, Dan Curry explains how some of the series'
stunning effects were achieved, including the various biological
layers of the Vidiian hologram in Lifesigns and the
interaction of two Janeways (Kate Mulgrew) in Deadlock.
Designing the USS Voyager, an extra that is unique
to this Region 2 release, details the various concepts that
led to the realisation of the now familiar starship. There
is also a photo gallery and some trailers.
The
most revealing feature of all is Braving the Unknown: Season
2, in which Co-Executive Producer Michael Piller explains
that the original concept behind the Kazon would have had
them all being played by actors in their teens and 20s. The
idea was that their sect wars, which were based upon the violent
conflicts that take place between present-day street gangs,
meant that none of them ever survived to reach the age of
30. This certainly sounds more interesting and original than
the sub-Klingons we ended up with.
However,
you have to laugh when, during the same documentary, Co-Executive
Producer Rick Berman keeps going on about how the benefit
of a second season is that you already have 26 episodes of
back story to build upon. The true episode count of Voyager's
first season is debatable, but it certainly isn't as many
as 26!
Season
2 is a good one - not great, but good. Voyager would
not achieve true greatness for another year or two.
Richard McGinlay
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