Captain’s log: stardate 51929.3

Jeri Taylor pens this Seven of Nine (Jeri Ryan) episode that debuted on 13 May, 1998 and served as the penultimate episode of the fourth season.

When a nebula that needs to be traversed as opposed to circumvented seems to stop the Voyager’s trip home, due to the level of radiation emanating from it, the Doctor (Robert Picardo) comes up with a plan.

To protect the crew, they are all placed in suspended animation to keep them safe, leaving the Doctor and Seven as the only people to operate the ship for the month that it will take to pass through the nebula.

This is the first time that Seven is truly alone, no longer part of a collective in any form. She has to deal with loneliness, her fear of individuality, and perhaps, there is someone else aboard the ship…

Taylor has a firm understanding of the Voyager characters and the story is well-crafted, smart, and Seven and the Doctor make a wonderful pairing, even as Seven learns to be part of the crew, while looking after them in suspended animation, and has trouble getting along with the Doctor as they begin to chafe against one another.

Failures happen throughout the ship, and there is plenty to keep them busy, but there seems to be something more going on, and Seven will have to be the one to deal with it. But what is real, and what is imagined?

Seven finds herself increasingly alone, as the Doctor’s program, and the rest of the ship begins to fail. And is the alien real, or is it something she has begun to imagine?

This is a great episode, loneliness, paranoia, and some great character moments.

Captain’s log: stardate 51978.2

Brannon Braga and Joe Menosky pen the season four finale from a story the pair concocted with Rick Berman. It debuted on 20 May, 1998.

The message from Starfleet that they received earlier in the season through the Hirogen network, is finally deciphered. The information contained includes a set of coordinates that leads the crew to a new starship, the Dauntless.

It sits, unmanned, waiting for them. It could take them home.

But the mystery begins to deepen, when alien technology is found aboard the Dauntless.

Ray Wise guest stars as Arturis is behind it all. The Dauntless is a trap, designed as an act of revenge, as Arturis sees the Voyager as the reason his people fell to the Borg. He comes aboard as a linguist, posing as help to Neelix (Ethan Phillips) and Paris (Robert Duncan McNeill), and they learn to trust him, and fall right into his ploy.

It’s a great episode because it shows the effect that some of Janeway’s decisions have had on the space they have been travelling through. It’s troubling to realize some of the fallout in the realms they have traveled through, but the crew is still determined to find their way home.

The Human Adventure continues in just over a week’s time when I begin season five of Star Trek: Voyager – The Complete Series on DVD from Paramount Canada.

Boldly go…