Star Trek: Voyager made history with its first female Captain in the form of Katherine Janeway, played by Kate Mulgrew. Transported across the galaxy by a mysterious entity, the crew of the Intrepid Class ship, the USS Voyager, must make their journey home across unknown space.
Voyager has arguably one of the best theme tunes of any of the Star Trek series, a swelling orchestral number that fills audiences with hope for the Voyager crew on their long journey. Spanning seven years, this series had a mostly successful run. There were some notable bumps in the road, but some highlights as well. Here are the best episodes of Star Trek: Voyager.
10 "Hope and Fear," S4 Ep26
In this episode, a shady alien appears with the too-good-to-be-true promise of getting Voyager home must faster than they had previously expected. This revelation causes everyone to wonder about what it will mean to finally go home. This episode marks a turning point in Janeway and Seven of Nine's relationship, putting the two in conflict and then bringing them together in the end.
Voyager's crew's hopes are dashed when it is revealed that the alien's promise of help is actually a plan of revenge. The would-be savior is in fact a survivor of a Borg attack, seeking revenge on Seven. This episode ends with an overcoming of despair and a renewed determination to reach home.
9 "Distant Origin," S3 Ep23
This episode explores the theory of evolution in other worlds. The Voyager crew encounter the Voth species, who have descended from the Dinosaurs on Earth, having left earth millennia ago to wander space on their City Ship. The majority refuses to believe this theory, advanced by Professor Gegen, who faces disgrace and dishonor for daring to contradict doctrine.
In spite of the scientific support from Voyager and Chakotay, Gegen is forced to withdraw his findings, and swear to never publish them again. The Voth draw parallels with humanity in the middle-ages, struggling to accept scientific facts put forward by progressive thinkers that contradict the accepted doctrine of the Catholic Church.
8 "Equinox," S5 Ep26 / S6 Ep1
Voyager’s season five finale brought with it the arrival of the USS Equinox, a Federation vessel also dragged to the Delta Quadrant by the Caretaker. While Voyager’s journey was not without perils, the Equinox experience found no allies, and lost half their crew to a warlike species known as the Crotonan Guard.
The Equinox quickly abandons the Prime Directive. After encountering a species of extra-dimensional beings, the Ankari, they find that their bodies can be used as fuel, increasing the power of their Warp Core. These barbaric actions lead to confrontation with the ethics of Voyager’s captain and crew. This episode delivers stellar performances from Janeway and Chakotay, clashing fiercely on the upholding of the Prime Directive and of survival versus morality.
7 "Message In A Bottle," S4 Ep14
The Doctor goes on his longest away mission in this episode: back to the Alpha Quadrant aboard the highly secret and hi-tech vessel The USS Prometheus. Here he meets his upgrade, the EMH Mark-II. Together the holograms battle to retake the ship from the Romulans.
With both Doctors providing many moments of comedic gold throughout the episode, this installment is a key moment for the Voyager crew. The episode ends with the Doctor returning home triumphant with a message from Earth: they are not alone in the Delta Quadrant. Starfleet is working to bring them home.
6 "Dark Frontier," S5 Ep15/16
-3.jpg?q=50&fit=crop&w=1500&dpr=1.5)
This episode explores Seven of Nine’s backstory, and her exobiologist parents who brought their daughter along to study the Borg, which would lead to their assimilation. This episode also introduces viewers to the Borg Queen: cold, mechanical, and ruthlessly determined to get Seven back into the collective.
Although Jeri Ryan’s character is firmly established as a member of the crew by this point, her Borg origins continually threw up social obstacles which held her back from accepting her place on Voyager. This episode serves to integrate Seven fully with the rest of the crew, and helps Voyager shave a few years off its journey home, with the help of a Borg transwarp coil.
5 "Living Witness," S4 Ep23
This is Voyager’s take on a Mirror Universe concept, most recently done in Star Trek: Discovery with the Terran Empire. The normally compassionate and open-minded crew are portrayed as brutal savages. This depiction takes place not in a parallel universe, but in the history books of the Kyrian people. After hundreds of years on standby, a backup file of the Doctor is awakened in a museum and is horrified at Voyager’s place in history.
The cast provides chilling performances as their evil counterparts, while the Doctor strives to educate the Kyrian people about Voyager’s true nature, to no avail. Accepting defeat, he returns to Voyager on their journey home. This episode is a keen reminder of the lesson that history is written by the victors.
4 Timeless S5 Ep6
Harry Kim drives this episode forward in a race against time to save Voyager and her crew. 15 years in the future, Kim and the survivors of Voyager’s crash and destruction travel to find Voyager’s remains on the frozen planet where it crashed.
Kim is filled with agony and regret over the fate of Voyager, as he feels it was his mistake that led to the crash and will do anything he can to rectify that mistake. Sending a message through time using slipstream technology, Harry Kim attempts to change the course of history and prevent the crash from ever happening.
3 "Blink Of An Eye," S6 Ep12
This episode is a favorite of both fans and critics, and offers a scintillating segment of science fiction. Voyager becomes stuck in orbit over a world where time moves much faster, with Voyager’s presence over the planet spanning many different eras in the planet’s history.
While on an away mission to the planet’s surface, the Doctor learns that Voyager has played a central role in the planet’s historical, technological, and cultural development. This time dilation gives the series an opportunity to explore the effect that Starfleet and the Federation can have on the development of pre-warp planets, despite the importance of the Prime Directive.
2 "Year Of Hell," S4 Ep 8/9
This two-part episode showed the true resilience and endurance of Voyager’s crew. In another episode dealing with time alteration, Voyager encounters the Krenim, who possess a temporal weapon that can change history. The Krenim push Voyager’s crew to the limits in relentless attacks.
Kate Mulgrew, who plays Janeway, shines in this episode. She keeps Voyager flying through sheer force of will, forever rallying her crew to fight against insurmountable odds. In a final act of courage, Janeway rams the episode in the hopes of resetting history and bringing those she has lost back to Voyager. "Year of Hell" is Voyager at its most visceral.
1 Scorpion S3 Ep26/ S4 E1
"Scorpion" was a pivotal episode in Voyager’s story, featuring the first real appearance of the Borg and debuting a fan-favorite character: Seven of Nine. This episode details the discovery of a threat worse than the Borg Collective: Species 8472.
This species poses so great a danger to the galaxy that Janeway is forced to make a temporary alliance with the Borg in order to defeat them, a move that does not go down well among Voyager’s crew. Chakotay’s speech against this play, in which he compares the Borg to a scorpion, gives the episode its name. This two-part episode ends with Seven being rescued from the Borg’s mechanical clutches and the beginning of her role on Voyager.