Season Six Episode Reviews

6X26    Unimatrix Zero (part 1 of 2)  
Plot: The crew aids a secret Borg virtual reality rebellion while the Borg Queen attempts to crush it.

Good but disappointing.  I was expecting an epic saga a la "Scorpion" and "Dark Frontier"; until the last act this episode is surprizingly pedestrian, a bit like "Equinox I".  The UM0 concept was interesting, particularly because they have no memory of it in the real world (I wish they played up the tragedy of this more though).  Unfortunately as a Borg Resistance it's not very useful; as it was briefly mentioned there are a handful of UM0ers on each ship so they can't really do anything in the real world.  Plus, the Seven-Axum romance did nothing for me, though it was interesting to see Seven act more human-like in UM0.  I did appreciate the Shakepeare-like Borg Queen in her brief appearances, in this episode she appeared as a competant super-villain especially since she captured and assimilated Janeway, Torres, and Tuvok.  The battles inside UM0 were extremely lame, mostly because of the complete lack of energy weapons.  The final act, where Voyager assaults a new kind of Super-Cube, was extremely impressive.  Unfortunately the huge plot twists of the Delta Flyer being destroyed and Janeway assimilated were ruined in the promo for the episode (which pisses me off to no end, despite the fact that I read the spoilers months ago!).  It is a great twist though, but this is tempered by the fact that Chakotay seemed to consider it part of the plan; obviously by letting themselves be assimilated they are introducing the UM0 virus to the Collective and will soon be rescued.  Ah well.  Still a good ending to a strangely pedestrian episode.

6X25    The Haunting of Deck Twelve 
Plot:  Neelix tells the Borgies a tale when an electromagnetic entity haunted Voyager.

A successfully creepy story with some nice action sequences.  I can even stand the Neelix-Borgies frame, it worked pretty well, though the ending left me confused as whether the story was true or not (but this is a GOOD thing).  I particularly enjoyed seeing the characters run around in darkness and strobe lights, and Janeway argue with the computer.  And in a startling bit of character continuity, Celes from "Good Shepherd" returns in a nice comedic bit role; let's see more of her!  This could have sucked but they pulled it off pretty well.  Some say the flashback fable was complete bull and should have been played for farce more; I think it was real but somewhat altered since Deck Twelve WAS sectioned off and they DID come to a nebula on a secret mission.  But Janeway's ending scenes arguing with the computer were horribly hammed up with over-acting so hopefully that was supposed to be stupid...

6X24    Life Line 
Plot: Doc travels to the Alpha Quadrant in the hopes of curing his ailing creator with the help of Barclay and Troi.

Lovely episode with some truely touching material between Doc and Zimmerman.  Again, it is wonderful to return to the Alpha Quadrant and get to see Barclay, Troi (who is a damn brilliant counselor in this episode, smarter than I've ever seen her!), Zimmerman, and Starfleet space stations again.  Also wonderful to have a return to Voyager's practically non-existant storyarc of returning home; we'll now have monthly communiques from Starfleet!  This is a wonderful idea which I dearly hope they will follow through with.  We also get a great scene between Janeway and Chakotay that ressurects the Maquis tensions and ponders how it will be handled when they return home.  Great!  Zimmerman was a wonderful character, and in the brief time we saw him we got a very deep look at him.  The whole issue of Mark I EMHs being taken out of medicine to scrub hulls at first seemed like a non-issue, but we learn this was a big blow to Zimmerman's self-esteem.  Great stuff!  I also love that he lives surrounded by holograms; a woman who might be his lover, a talking iguana (I love this!), and Barclay who himself had hologram- addiction problems.  Also touching is Zimmerman dictating his will, ceeding everything to Barclay and asking that Hayley be left on.  Of course the FX of Picardo interacting with himself were spectacular, and he has great chemistry with himself though sometimes Doc seemed to be hamming it up a bit too much.  While the episode's progression is a tad cliched it is handled great; and I love the twist the Troi and Barclay were behind Doc's malfunctions to force their reconiciliation!  This is brilliant!

6X23    Fury 
Plot: Kes returns to enact revenge on Janeway by travelling back to Season One and unleashing the Vidiians.

A great nostalgic episode featuring two of my favorite elements from the early years, Kes and the Vidiians.  The opening sequence where Kes calmly walks to the Warp Core while bulkheads explode behind her was awsome; a great action opening leading to a cool time travel episode.  I miss the Season One feel, and seeing Ensign Wildeman and Carey again was great.  Also love Tuvok being the one to realize something is amiss, and the big fight with the Vidiians, which sports some great action and FX.  Of course the big weak link is the villification of Kes, but that's to be expected of Big Bad Braga.  The ending is also a bit of a cop-out; super-powered Kes is defeated by Janeway with a phaser?!  Please.  The second ending in the present manages to be a little better, I appeciate that Kes stopped herself that time.  Another big question; did Kes go back in time using the Warp Core for any particular reason, or just plain ole vanilla revenge?

6X22    Muse
Plot:  Torres crashes on an Renaissance-era alien world where she is the inspiration to a play.

I was expecting another lameo episode but instead was very pleasantly surprized; in fact with the possible exception of "Pathfinder" this might be the best episode since "Equinox II"!  For once there is an original idea; making a Shakespearian play out of Voyager.  And I really liked the character of Kelis, and Torres' interactions with him.  Kelis was a great three dimensional character I think; what I like most about him is how truthful and frank he is about things, and how open his admiration of Torres is.   I thought this was a wonderful episode for Torres, she gets to show anger and compassion, and I thought they built up her friendship with Kelis really well.  And I love the Voyager Eternal plays, they were wonderful especially in their adaption to a Renaissance-era play.  And using a play to stop a war by giving a message of peace in the face of war, that was absolutely wonderful.  I particularly adore Kelis' interpretations of Voyager life, and the little masks the actors wear (which are taken off when they speak their thoughts to the audience- cool!), how he throws in lots of romance as a way to avoid war, how his people have a very set way of writing play, and so on.  I also liked the plot of a vengence war between Janeway and Seven/Borg Queen, but at the end Janeway spares her life and says their war will destroy everything of theirs but their hatred for one another.  This was a great message!  About the only bad thing in this episode was the old shuttle crash (of the Flyer no less!).  I thought the brief scene of Tuvok snoring on the bridge after days of no sleep very funny.

6X21    Live Fast and Prosper 
Plot: Alien conmen masquerade as Voyager which runs the real crew into trouble.

This could have been a great action-comedy, but leave it to the writers to make this a typical mundane episode.  I really like the idea of conmen impersonating Voyager, but they really flubbed it.  Dala/Janeway was a pretty cool character.  Unfortunately the episode is half-way done before it gets moving and Voyager runs into the conmen.  Did we really need all this setup?!  I did enjoy the ending where Voyager pulled a con on Dala, letting her escape to lead them to the conmen then using Doc to impersonate her and capture the conmen.  Very clever, though of course Doc being able to change his appearance opens up a HUGE can of worms that would have been extremely helpfull in earlier episodes.

6X20    Good Shepherd 
Plot: Janeway takes three misfit crewmen on a shuttle mission which is besieged by mysterious creatures.

After four sub-par episodes we finally get something good, but it's still no classic.  While the "Lower Decks" idea is fresh and interesting (for Voyager at least!) the episode moved a tad slowly, a subplot would have filled in nicely here (just as long as it's not those damn Borgies!).  I really the like characters, particularly the smartass brilliant antisocial engineer who blames Janeway for trapping him in the DeltaQ... this is something we should see a lot more of (non-perfect Starfleet crewers and those who blame Janeway).  The alien plot was pretty neat, for once we get alien aliens with a murky definition and purpose, I like it.  Janeway got a good episode here, her mothering role plays up again.  The ending was pretty with them igniting that asteroid belt.  And I love Doc berating the hypochondriac saying "You shouldn't even HAVE a medical tricorder!", that just struck me as funny for some reason...

6X19    Child's Play 
Plot: Voyager returns one of the Borg children to his parents who harbor a dark secret.

Another uninteresting episode which puzzingly stars one of the Borg children.  I mean, does this one-bit character really deserve an entire episode to himself?!  There was about ten minutes of plot stretched out to fill this episode, snail's pace doesn't begin to cover it.  The only interesting things were Seven's maternal feelings for the kids, Naomi and the Borgies, and the brief Borg battle.  Who cares!

6X18    Ashes to Ashes 
Plot:  A dead crewman returns ressurected and alien to Voyager; Seven mothers the Borg children.

Much better than I expected!  It started off bad and I was ready to write it off especially with all the disgusting plot holes, but Ensign Lindsay Ballard won me over.  She's a better character than the regular characters, very funny and energetic.  Hell, she even worked nicely with Kim!  And her returning back to her people was a foregone conclusion, but the story progression was pretty nice.  Even the hard headed aliens of the week weren't that hard headed.  Still, those plot holes!  Once magic DNA.  Doc's injection changes her appearance in seconds rather than days.  She's been gone three years yet run into Hirogen, who first appeared TWO years ago.  She was stationary for two and a half years, then travelled for six months, yet managed to catch up with Voyager who has made several huge travel jumps since then.  This is the biggie!  And of course, we suddenly learn there was this Ensign on the show for four years who was very important yet we NEVER saw her.  Oy.  Still, the love story angle worked pretty well.  I even liked the Seven/Borg children story, particularly the wisdom and fault of Seven's mothering.  I like that little girl, unlike the other three she has a personality.  Too bad we didn't see her interact with Naomi more.  One final unsettling thing; first Kim is a necrophiliac, then we get that wierd ending scene where he whisks the Borg girl off to do what he and Lindsay were going to do.  So Kim goes from a necrophiliac to a pedeophilac!  Hey, that's character evolution!

6X17    Spirit Folk 
Plot: The Fair Haven folk suspect the Voyager crew of being evil sprits.

A somewhat successful light-hearted comedy, cliched and tired ideas but nice watchable.  Alas a mistake on my VCR prevented me from seeing Kim kiss a cow, but I'm sure it was funny.  Not much to say about this, Janeway is surprizingly open about her relationship with Michael on the bridge.  The 'hostage' situation was nice I suppose.  I did like Michael finding the truth and walking around Voyager.  Not much else to say, there were of course horrible technical faults concerning holodecks etc, but that's practically par for the course nowadays.

6X16    The Collective 
Plot: Voyager encounters a Borg Sphere with only 5 children drones who want to recontact the Collective.

This episode was a big case who gives a crap.  I just didn't care about these Borg kiddies or yet another Seven/Borg episode that doesn't actually have the Borg in it but Borg freaks instead.  I want the BORG like in "Scorpion" and "Dark Frontier", not this crap!  There were a few cool initial bits before we found how lame this Cube was, but the episode moved so slowly, nothing happened, who cares about Seven and these stupid kids.  Also, why do we get continuity from people staying on this episode but not with "Equinox 2" or "Survival Insinct"?!  And why is the scout group (Chakotay, Paris, Kim, Neelix) the same one from "Memorial"?  And why must they play poker, stop ripping off TNG!

6X15    Tsunkatse 
Plot: Seven is kidnapped and forced to fight in a gladiatorial arena.

The much ridiculed wrestling episode was actually a decent TOS-style fist fight packed episode, nothing stellar mind you.  Great to see the return of the Hirogen/Hunters, Jeffery Combs, and J. G. Hertzler!  I've never seen wrestling before, but that Rock guy was pretty hilarious in his overacting (especially that eyebrow thing).  Even more funny is his 5 minute appearance when the promo says the episode is 7 vs. Rock.  Also some nice spaceship action with Voyager versus a big ole' battleship (with cheapo looking radar dishes, heh heh).

6X14    Memorial 
Plot: The crew recalls memories of an alien war-time massacre that they participated in.

Sure bits of it were unoriginal and it was a tad slow-paced but I liked this episode.  I very much liked the episode's message and its parable about a certain massacre of civilians in the Vietnam War (I'm ashamed but I've forgotten the name of it, I think its the Kelley Raid?).  The 'crew in alien war' thing is from TNG Y5 "Conundrum" and there was the Chakotay-Vietnam War episode in VOY Y4 "Nemesis".  The mysterious flashbacks were nice, and I liked Neelix taking Naomi hostage fearing more children will get massacred.  There was a brief but nice Seven-Neelix scene talking about guilt.  I liked a panicked Kim shooting civilians.  I really liked Janeway protesting the troops destroying the bodies.  The ending was... nice.  Though I wonder who exactly made that Memorial if the evidense was covered up!  I really like the concept of these aliens beaming these memories into passersby so such an atrocity could never happen again, but only 80-odd people?!  Couldn't we put that number up a bit?!  I am disgusted how Star Trek cultures are always numbered in the thousands and millions and not billions!

6X13    Virtuoso 
Plot:  Doctor becomes a famous singer for music-less aliens and considers leaving Voyager.

After years of threats, we finally got a Star Trek Musicial, and it literally a chore to watch.  Doc has sung a couple times before and it was bearable; "Someone to Watch Over Me" it wasn't, "Equinox II" it was scary, "Tinker Tenor Doctor Spy" it was funny with the 'Put Down Tuvok' song.  But here it was really, really annoying, grating, eye-rolling, nausea-inducing, you get the idea.  And that's the whole episode!  And those aliens were so annoying, especially the women with the annoying speech pattern.  Ugh!  The only watchable aspects of this show were the last two acts when Doctor says goodbye to Janeway, Paris, and Seven.  I liked the Janeway-Doctor scene, of course we've seen it all before.  And the tiny Docs were kinda cute.  Easily the worst Voyager episode since Season Four!

6X12    Blink of an Eye 
Plot:  Voyager is trapped above a planet in accelerated time where a culture evolves with Voyager in its sky.

This was a really good episode, but it could have been a real classic if it focused more on the people and their 'first contact' wonder rather than Voyager.  Still, damn good!  It's these kinds of episodes that Trek should do more of, showing the wonder of meeting aliens only we are the aliens.  When I started watching Voyager, I was shocked that this didn't happen in like every other episode!  Anywho, I love how the entire culture grows up worshipping the 'sky ship' then it drives them to technology to learn the truth about it.  The Renaissance sequence was very nice, as was the Observatory one.  Very touching while also giving very subtle but relevant messages about our own past.  See, THIS episode demonstrates the power of the need for space exploration; it is subtle while in "One Small Step" they hit you over the head with it.  Another bit we should have seen more of; Doctor spending THREE YEARS down there and having a wife and son!  Good god, that's a story in the telling!  I was surprized the writers actually went that far!  But once again, if the entire episode was told from the people's perspective this would have been stellar; we would see Doc as a stranger then really experience the wonder when the astronaut (XO Matheson from B5 Crusade! cool!) meets our heroes.  It was still awsome of course... also neat the way we saw Matheson spend his entire life first stopping the attacks on Voyager then wathching them leave as an old man.  Very touching.  And the scene where he and Doc discuss baseball was hilarious!  Nice lil' Naomi-Seven scene thrown in too, but it was filler.  This episode could have been a bitchin' two parter, as it is it feels a little rushed.  Still, it's the best episode since the Season Premiere!  As an aside, this is the EIGHTH episode in a row to feature some wierd science thingee.  Why?!

6X11    Fair Haven 
Plot:  Janeway falls for a holographic Irish bartender as Voyager runs into a radiation storm.

A little mundane, a little boring.  Considering this was the big Janeway romance episode, it didn't really feel so.  While the whole love story was neutral at best but it was chock full of great little humorous dialogue, which reminds me of the Ron Moore comedy subplot to "Survival Instinct".  I particularly loved Doc as a Catholic Minister/Priest, he was just hilarious putting everybody on a sinning guilt trip!  I also liked Seven being taken with the local drunk and Tuvok being seasick (with Kim making sea noises to accompany Paris' description).  Janeway getting laid was tastefully done, however I wasn't really taken with Michael as a romantic interest and so this stuff dragged down the episode for me.  I was very disturbed with how she remade him to be better, but I love the line "Delete the Wife"!  Programming the perfect mate is just a very unsettling idea, but they handled it pretty well with her going off it then decided not to alter him... anymore that is.  I actually kind of liked the radiation storm concept, it wasn't original and there was technobabble, but I just like how Voyager was 'striking anchor' it was a nice idea.

6X10    Pathfinder 
Plot:  On Earth Barclay works to contact Voyager and enlists Counselor Troi's help to stop his holo-addiction.

The sheer novely of seeing Earth, Troi, and Barclay overcomes the snails pace of the episode to make it a semi-classic.  Barlcay's holo-addiction is presented better than it was in his first appearance; here he sleeps in the holodeck, which to me shows a very serious condition rather than the triviality in his first appearance.  Nice to see Paris' Father, though he wasn't nearly enough of a windbag to fulfill the descriptions of him.  Some impressive new sets here.  Nice to see Starfleet working so hard to contact Voyager, and Adm Paris heading it.  The end where Barclay eludes security in the holodeck is cute, and the actual contact was a bit of a missed oppurtunity in my mind but it was pretty touching.  I wonder why Paris was silent though.  I also wish Troi had played more of a role in the episode but oh well.  On a minor note, seeing the Starfleet holoprogram of Voyager having the Maquis members in Maquis outfits was cute.

6X9    The Voyager Conspiracy 
Plot:  Seven finds a vast conspiracy concerning Voyager's origans and turns Janeway and Chakotay against each other.

Sure the episode totally negated every single point of the episode, but for those brief moments when Seven was right it was damn fascinating stuff.  I love conspiracies!  The Maquis conspiracy was a tad stupid since the Maquis are dead, but the Starfleet conspiracy was really intriguing.  I also love Janeway and Chakotay were turned against each other, which makes perfect sense after "Equinox 2".  And though the ending was stupid for elimating everything found, at least they got closer to home and there was a touching Janeway-Seven scene.

6X8    One Small Step 
Plot:  Voyager finds the 2032 Mars Explorer trapped in an energy anomaly and Chakotay is determined to recover it.

Maybe I was just wasn't in the mood, but this episode didn't do much for me.  I certainly see where they were going with this, but the 'patriotic explorer' speeches sounded so hackneyed and stilted it was disgusting.  Furthermore, Seven's 'I hate history!' stuff was equally stupid.  The only time it was bareable was when she was watching the astronaut's final log while working (cause there was no stilted dialogue!) but then we get this horrible speech from her at the end about the importance of remembering history.  I am a big history and space fan so I agree in principle with this concept, I just hate the delivery.  Furthermore, this plot felt so slow moving and scientific I felt like I was reading a bad Trek novel, all this crap with the energy anomaly and being trapped in it, it just really bad technobabble like you find in some of the Trek novels.  Of course the FX was amazing as usual, and I did like the use of Chakotay (except for his hero speeches).  For all its faults, the ending managed to salvage some of it when the astronaut is trapped in the storm soon to die, but I think they really screwed up a good dramatic oppurtunity there too.  The best bit was Voyager's electronics going crazy when Seven upgrades the computer core, and that's not good!

6X7    Dragon's Teeth 
Plot: Fleeing an alien armada, Voyager hides on an irradiated planet where they discover the Vaadwaur in stasis and revive them.  The Vaadwaur were defeated conquers of the DeltaQ 900 years ago, and plan to return with Voyager now.

I was excited about this episode, and was pretty disappointed.  Although the ending FX battle was eye popping, it was really the only stand out moment of the show.  This episode felt rushed everywhere (it was originally a two parter) from the beginning (Voyager already in subspace corridor under attack) to the rushed and disappointing ending.  On the other hand, I like the introduction of an old DeltaQ conqueror race overthrown 900 years ago now a few came back from storage, it’s a great idea I hope we see more of.  And the friendly Vodwar was a nicely devealoped character, unlike his brethren.  Also, the subspace corridors were a nice idea.  On small character notes, Neelix gets to be useful in investigating the Vodwar’s past and having a great scene (I love the dark lighting) with Naomi, though I wonder how Neelix became a single parent for Naomi where the hell is her mother?  I think this would have made a great two-parter; we could have seen more of the first aliens, more Voyager meeting the Vodwar, and then a suitably big climax, of course with lots more FX and action thrown in.  As it is, there was shockingly no action (aside from the opener) until an incredibly rushed final act.

6X6    Riddles 
Plot:  A cloaked race erases Tuvok's memories causing him to have to relearn his emotions and bond with Neelix while Janeway tracks down the cloaked race for answers.

Very decent but nothing spectacular.  Obviously the best thing about this episode is Tuvok's performance as a 'normal' person, which just sounds so wierd coming from Tim Russ, and the bonding relationship with Neelix, who fortunately gets a nice serious role.  Neelix always seems to get these parent-figure drama roles, recall last year's "Once Upon a Time".  Anywho for once Neelix isn't annoying!  I really liked how they expressed the Tuvok-Neelix relationship where new-Tuvok is sorry that he was before so rude to Neelix and Neelix subtly shows the hurt that he feels at Tuvok's treatment of him.  Nice stuff!  In particular I liked the scene where Tuvok was making pastries, which led to his memories returning.  As for the 'action!' subplot, it started in some interesting directions but petered out.  I wish we saw more from this Alien Mulder guy, more about his quest and stuff, but he was barely in there to move the plot around.  That residual image of the Beneth was pretty damn terrifing (tentacles!) but unfortunately that's all we ever see of them.  And while the brief chase with the cloaked fleet was cool, we didn't get enough mileage out of these guys.  And the ending, sort of like "Alice", had a really by-the-numbers feel with nothing particularly interesting about it.  The other really annoying thing of course is that next episode Tuvok will be back to normal!  I really hate this!  Sure that last scene hinted that Tuvok may be able to 'think' emotions but I am positive that we will never see anything of it!  We haven't seen any continuity on the 'new' Torres from "Barge of the Dead", nor have we seen Voyager's passengers that were picked up in "Equinox Part Two" and "Survival Instinct"!

6X5    Alice 
Plot:  Paris gets a new ship 'Alice' with a neural interface, but soon Alice takes control of him and forces him to leave Voyager.

The first weak episode of the season, but watchable.  There wasn't anything bad about it per se, just nothing that stood out really.  Paris' descent into whatever was handled very well, and the beard stubble n' black uniform worked wonders.  It was nice to see Torres properly included into this story, though unfortuantely we don't get any Klingon-Torres which was promised in "Barge of the Dead" and hinted to last episode.  Alice herself worked pretty well, and Paris' actions make perfect sense given his preestablished enfatuation with ships and flying (and that story about his first flight and never being able to catch up with it was very touching).  Paris talking to an imaginary woman was cute, too bad this wasn't played up on more.  The ending was a tad routine, but it was nice to see that it was Torres who brought Paris back not some technobabble (well it was her and technobabble but...).  And when those cables plugged into Paris' chest it was enough to make me shiver!  As for the junkyard bits, they were handled very well.  Once again the FX are spectacular, and I loved the trader especially his accent  (the guy played a Narn collaborator in Babylon 5 and was very good there) plus he had nice makeup.  Oh, and the teaser where Paris and Kim try to guess Tuvok's age was hilarious!

6X4    Tinker Tenor Doctor Spy 
Plot:  Doctor creates a daydreaming programming where he plays the Emergency Command Hologram and defends the ship and all the ladies lust after him.  Meanwhile, some aliens are using Doctor's daydreams for surveillance to an attack.

This was a hilarious episode!  Doc has always been a great comedy character, and this is probably his best comedic role yet.  The teaser was classic with Doc sining opera explaining how he is going to overcome a Pon Farr crazy Tuvok!  And Doc (who looks really cool in a red command uniform) leads Voyager to defeat the Borg!  Cool!  The women fauning over him was funny, but it got a little tired at times, and do we really need to see Seven shirt-less?  (from a storypoint only of course!)  Meanwhile we get these funny pudgy aliens who relay all command decisions to a computer to their leaders.  Maybe the comedy got a tad tired at the ending when the aliens attack and Doc has to actually play command (rather badly!), but hell it was fun.  On a minor note, Torres spouted some Klingon adverbs this week, hopefully a sign of her character change in the previous episode.

6X3     Barge of the Dead 
Plot:  Torres 'dies' and goes to Klingon Hell on the Barge of the Dead, where she finds her mother dishonored because of Torres' rejection of her Klingon side.  When Voyager rescues her, she goes back in to save her mother.

This was a very enjoyable episode with perhaps the best Torres material I have seen in the two years I've been watching the show.  Ron Moore's brief hands are seen again.  The Barge of the Dead was an cool concept, and a really cool looking set.  Korthar, the First Klingon who slaughtered his gods, was a very good character played wonderfully by the actor.  Ever since hearing about this guy at the Worf-Dax wedding I have thought about him killing his own gods, and the character really lived up to the hype.  Unfortunately we don't see much of him!  Also unfortunate is how little actual time is spent on the Barge, most of it is on Voyager.  It was interesting to see Torres accept her Klingon roots and sacrifice herself to save her mother, also interesting to learn about her past with her mother.  There were also some great FX shots of Klingon Hell.  Nice to see Paris acting responsibly in terms of his relationship with Torres, offering to help her get through it.  Also strange to see Janeway refuses Torres at first on this personal life threatening matter considering her actions in "Equinox II".  The ending in particular was great because it addressed all the problems I've seen in Torres over the past two years, and suggests that now she has confronted them and will be a better person now.  Then again, isn't that what they said at the end of "Day of Honor" and "Extreme Risk", the early-season Torres angst episodes of the last two years?

6X2        Survival Instinct 
Plot:  Seven encounters three ex-Borg drones who are connected to each other, and plan to use her to get free because ten years ago they were seperated from the Collective together and something happened.  Voyager visits a vast space station and gets crowded with alien visitors.

It was a bit talky and had a tech-heavy ending, but it was good!  This episode really makes me wish Ron Moore hadn't quit so soon, he only got to write this episode.  It's a shame, because this was a great Voyager script.  For example, it had (to the best of my knowledge not counting stupid Neelix things or Bride of Chaotica crap) the first actual Voyager comedy bit.  Janeway was comical for the first time in my memory, like when she gets stuck in the living plant.  Also, there's great comedic interaction between Janeway, Chakotay, and Tuvok.  We get a cute take on the classic barfight scene in the Classic Trek Tribble episode, but my biggest complaint is how we don't get to SEE the space station or the bar fight, frankly it sounded more interesting than the Borg plot.  The FX shot of Voyager docked to this colossal space station was breathtaking.  The Seven-Naomi scenes continue to be cute, I like the way everytime they meet we hear: "Seven" "Naomi Wildeman".  The Borg plot was good, and the three characters were great.  Best bit was the flashback, especially when the three Drones slowly remember their past, and how Seven coldly hunted them down and forced them into a mini-Collective, it was very brutal.  The ending was very technobabble though, but I like how they have a short time to live now in freedom.  On minor bits it's a shame this episode didn't deal with "Equinox Part Two", Janeway and Chakotay are waaaay too friendly and we don't see Lessing or Gilmore, and of course we'll never get to see that Drone lady living on Voyager though it would have been great.

6X1    Equinox Part Two (part 2 of 2) 
Plot:  Janeway pursues the Equinox, obsessing with hunting down Ransom over Chaoktay's objections.  Seven is a prisoner on Equinox, and Ransom deletes Doc's ethical program to tourture Seven.

This was the perfect season premiere, it generated lots of excitement, had logical continuations from the cliffhanger, featured some great FX and character devealopment.  It was certainly the most involving episode I've seen in a while (or maybe that's just because there's been a summer of reruns!).  The battles between Voyager and Equinox were awsome, Ransom continued to be a great character, Chakoty asserted himself and Janeway acted like a maniac (sure it's wrong but it's entertainment!).  There was some great location footage.  I liked how Ransom came around himself rather than Janeway's preaching, and how XO Burke turned on him.  As in part one, I thought that Ransom was more 'right' than Janeway was, who cares if those little gabbering monsters get killed!  Unfortunatly those aliens continue to look stupid.  I liked how the aliens the Equinox learned about the monsters from returned.  I liked the way Doc was made to tourture Seven, and Ransom's horror at seeing her like that.  Unfortunately, since Equinox was a science vessal it didn't pose a threat to Voyager (if only it was a real starship!) but with 'Evil' Doc on Voyager feeding Equinox shield frequencies, we got a temporary equal battle.  Janeway essentially agreed to let the monsters murder Ransom, then almost gets Noah Lessing killed as a threat.  I love the way Chakotay doesn't waste time in going against Janeway, but I DON'T like how once he gets decomissioned we don't hear a word from him (he should have lead a revolt damnit!).  Unfortunately, the ending was a little too pat.  Janeway acts like a maniac, but Chakotay conveinently forgives her.  All the 'evil' crewmembers were conveinently killed, Ransom went out in a unnecesary self-sacrifice, we don't see a reaction to Torres loosing her former boyfriend, Seven had no permanant damage done to her, Doc miraculously regains his ethical program, Doc and Seven remain friends, etc.  Man I wish Doc permenantly lost his ethical program, it would make for a good plot element!  As it is, we get the two most 'normal' Equinox members, Marla and Noah on the Voyager, I really really really hope we get to see more of them.  In the end, my biggest disappointment was how Chakotay didn't DO anything after Janeway 'fired' him, it would have been great if he lead a mutiny (to reflect Burke's mutiny) and JANEWAY was the one punished.  Janeway prepares to murder Ransom and there's no consequences for her?!  Come on!  And as for oddities, it is never explained why Seven would appear in Ransom's holodeck program.  I assumed it was sabotage from Seven or something, but apparantly it was just his self-doubt manifesting.