Voyager Seasons 6-7
Enterprise Seasons 1-3
Nemesis
Note: These are from brief, unedited comments posted on Facebook. Some of the grammar may be a little clunky – I hadn’t intended on archiving these anywhere, but I’ve popped them here as some people enjoyed them!
Episode 600: Muse
An interesting idea and it’s fun to see some pre-industrial people try and interpret and re-enact the adventures of the Voyager crew, but execution is just a bit meh. Some cool costumes and masks.
Episode 601: Fury
Nice to see Kes back and doing something very new and different with her. Voyager is getting a reputation for time travel stuff though, and this is the second time this season we’ve revisited timeframes from within the span of the show itself.
Episode 602: Life Line
A Pathfinder followup with Lewis Zimmerman returning from his guest spot on DS9 and Picardo playing the dual role excellently, with some moving stuff amongst the comedy. Reg is a bit sidelined but glad to see him back anyway.
Episode 603: The Haunting of Deck Twelve
Not one I can bring myself to be fussed about, although I like the concept of the narrative being a ghost story told by Neelix.
Episode 604: Unimatrix Zero
Episode 605: Unimatrix Zero, Part II
I usually praise Voyager for trying to do different things with the Borg (albeit they’ve way outdated their welcome). This, however, seems to be all built around a cliffhanger designed to evoke memories of BOBW. However, the Borg Queen vs Janeway stuff is cool and sets up the series finale, and Unimatrix Zero itself is interesting. As the kickoff to the final season though? Eh, could be better.
Episode 606: Imperfection
A rather drawn out bit of chatter about death, and life, and the Borg. So far this season isn’t making me think the show shouldn’t have already ended.
Episode 607: Drive
Silly episode about a galactic race, but at least it’s fun after the slow start to the season, and there’s some ok Paris/B’Elanna stuff, albeit the writers get him mixed up with Nick Locarno.
Episode 608: Repression
I do love Keith Szarabajka in anything. This episode is a bit messy in places but has some good action.
Episode 609: Critical Care
Excellent, if sometimes a bit heavy handed, critique of private healthcare. Good to see the Doctor doing both medical stuff AND being a hero – so often it’s one or the other.
Episode 610: Inside Man
Dwight Schultz gets to play a cheesy alternate hologram version of Barclay. All very entertaining and another good instalment in the Pathfinder arc.
Episode 611: Body and Soul
Oh wow. Jeri Ryan comedic tour de force here as she performs a flawless impression of Robert Picardo. A bunch of the jokes are familiar to fans of Red Dwarf: Bodyswap, but they’re really good here too. Some good (unintentional?) stuff about gender/sexuality fluidity too as the Doctor seems quite happy being a woman who has men attracted to her.
Episode 612: Nightingale
Harry Kim gets his own command. No, I drifted off here too…
Episode 613: Flesh and Blood
Another mid-season movie, as the Doctor risks Voyager in an adventurous story about holographic rights. It rattles along, although no reason this couldn’t have been a 2-parter.
Episode 614: Shattered
A walk through Voyagers greatest hits, as we revisit a bunch of old timeframes for the third time in recent memory. It’s a reasonable thing to do in the final season though and fun.
Episode 615: Lineage
Surprising it’s taken this long to REALLY get to grips with B’elanna’s self-hatred after touching on tentatively a little over the years, all triggered by seeing that her offspring will have head ridges. As a parent, I find this one pretty moving and powerful.
Episode 616: Repentence
Something about transported prisoners in a dodgy legal system. Yeah, honestly I failed to focus here.
Episode 617: Prophecy
Cool way of bringing Klingons into the show when they could just as easily be “transported by the Caretaker years ago”. Fun stuff evening if “unwilling messiah” is an overdone cliche.
Episode 618: The Void
Voyager ends up in some space where they have some fights. It’s pretty damn generic tbh.
Episode 619: Workforce
Episode 620: Workforce, Part II
I do love a two-parter that isn’t tied into recurring villains or loose story arcs, and this is a great one, giving most of the characters something different to do.
Episode 621: Human Error
One of the better “Seven exploring her human side” episodes, as she does it off her own back rather than cajoled by the Doctor. Solid, even if the lusting for Chakotay seems to come out of nowhere.
Episode 622: Q2
This episode hangs on Keegan de Lancie doing the character of Q Jr (who could just as easily come of as awful) some service. And fortunately he does. Thematically this feels like a retread of True Q but with a far more interesting character.
Episode 623: Author, Author
Lots of humour to be had here with twisted versions of the Voyager crew in a fourth-rate holonovel, in particularly Lt Marseilles and the slimy combover EMH. Disappointing elements: Janeway’s initial dick reaction to the Doctor suggesting he feels oppressed, and the fact the second half is kinda Measure of a Man.
Episode 624: Friendship One
Fairly average episode, lifted slightly by the surprising death of Carey (and damnit, after 7 years trying to get home he misses out by a few weeks!). The stuff about the misunderstanding of humanity is all fine but doesn’t hold up to too much scrutiny.
Episode 625: Natural Law
Another fairly average one – and it feels like it should be doing more with Seven/Chakotay here.
Episode 626: Homestead
The Talaxians themselves aren’t that interesting here, but as an exit story for Neelix it holds up. I cried a little when Janeway saw he was struggling to say goodbye and in entire the Ambassador role for him.
Episode 627: Renaissance Man
Very cool – some great twists as we try and figure out what’s going on, some solid “offbeat” performances from the crew that the Doctor impersonates, and that jump through the window in the Doctor’s office is just gorgeous.
A few nights off now and then a double-bill of 90 minute specials, marking a number of milestones: Endgame and Broken Bow…
The final SD material
The final 4:3 material
The final 24th century stuff for a LONG time
The final 90 min episode so far
The final BermanTrek pilot
And of course, the final Voyager…
Episode 628: Endgame
An unusual ending, this one. It lifts All Good Things’ concept of showing us where all the characters could end up being in the future, and adds in a huge spattering of Voyager’s own Timeless, plus the Borg Queen for good measure. In isolation it’s pretty damn good and has lots of great scenes for Mulgrew and a cool twist at the end, you just have to really get past the lack of originality first.
Enterprise: I saw a couple of episodes of the first season on VHS posted over by snail mail at the time, but that was about it. My experiences of Enterprise have all been through binging later on DVD, then on HDTV rips, and then Blu-ray. Overall I recall this being a mixed bag – it’s a huge opportunity to do something different, but they fall down a little on the ‘we’re the first ones out here, without Starfleet backing’ that Voyager ran with for 7 years, until the fourth season when they start to mix it up a bit. I’m looking forward to it but I’m also hoping it goes up in my estimations, as DS9 did…
Episode 629: Broken Bow
Probably my favourite Trek pilot. It’s fresh, exciting, bold, and it introduces all the main characters really well. I was always a bit iffy on the time travel element as they seemed to be setting it up to be the main theme for the whole show, and Star Trek is NOT a time travel series (IMO), just a scifi show that sometimes dabbles in time travel. But with this being a prequel to something with hundreds of hours set in the future, it does make a lot of sense to use that to its advantage. The opening sequence with a Klingon in a cornfield sets the tone strongly and it continues well from there. I forget how good this is!
Episode 630: Fight or Flight
Not an especially strong one, but it’s good they gave Sato some good material so early in the run, as I’d assumed she’d be sidelined a bit after the pilot.
Episode 631: Strange New World
Suffers “Naked Now” syndrome having some of the regulars act out of character before we’ve even got a proper handle on their “actual” characters… but the way the show handles the adventure of landing on a new world in a way that even TOS took for granted is just fabulous, and it’s all round tense and exciting.
Episode 632: Unexpected
Man gets pregnant lolz. Look, it’s ok but a bit silly. As with SNW though, it also does a great job of highlighting the prequel nature of the show by making a really big deal of Trip struggling to adjust to an alien atmosphere.
Episode 633: Terra Nova
A bit slow but I like the idea, with the crew making contact with a long lost earth colony. This also has some real highlights for Phlox – a truly warm and caring doctor (a rarity in the Trek universe!), and much less irritating than the obvious comparison-character of Neelix.
Episode 634: The Andorian Incident
Mystery and intrigue, scary hostage stuff that feels very close to home, and a marvellous twist as we discover the Vulcans are kinda dicks (moreso than we previously assumed). Plus a good new role for Jeffrey Combs, which is obviously going to recur.
Episode 635: Breaking the Ice
A bit of a slow one here, as the crew investigate a comet and Trip accidentally hacks T’Pols mail and discovers something about her that’s completely uninteresting whatever. Highlight though: “a POOP question, sir?!”
Episode 636: Civilization
Back to the good old pre-Prime Directive days, as Archer goes undercover and snogs an alien woman. Not bad.
Episode 637: Fortunate Son
Archer has to deal with a Freighter Crew who’s taken a Nausicaan prisoner. Has some exciting moments although I find Archer’s speech about how all humans must follow the same moral code a bit cringy to say the least.
Episode 638: Cold Front
The time travel stuff kicks up a notch as we discover there’s a whole war going on. Let’s face it, this is one big tease and in isolation absolutely nothing makes sense or adds up, but it’s tremendously fun and just relies on the assumption that there’s a grand plan which will all become clear later.
Episode 639: Silent Enemy
A-Plot of creepy aliens being creepy is, well, creepy. We never really learn what they’re up to which is quite refreshing and realistic, but also disappointing. The stuff about Reed being a stuffy stereotypical Brit should be annoying but I find it all so adorable and I’m totally shipping Reed/Sato.
Episode 640: Dear Doctor
Nice concept (even if it’s already been done in Data’s Day), really turning me into a Phlox fan, and the stuff between him and Cutler is just brilliant – especially because his species has such different approaches to romance, unlike usual inter species stuff on Trek where the only difference is a head ridge. Solid moral dilemma stuff too.
Episode 641: Sleeping Dogs
After a couple of interesting appearances, back to the Klingons being wheeled out as generic villains. Nothing to write home about.
Episode 642: Shadows of P’Jem
Yay, Shran recurs! A bit of a slow burner this one, but it moves along the Vulcans/Andorian stuff (and the Archer/Shran stuff!) very nicely.
Episode 643: Shuttlepod One
Classic. Clearly an attempt to set up a Bashir/O’Brien thing between Trip and Reed and I can’t honestly remember if they pull it off in later episodes, but this one alone is a great segment mainly focussed on two guys in an enclosed space. “Stinky” indeed.
Episode 644: Fusion
An interesting and intriguing episode about Vulcan stuff, if not exactly engaging and dramatic. OK.
Episode 645: Rogue Planet
Love the crazy night vision gear, and Keith Szarabajka and Eric Pierpoint are perennial favourites. An episode about hunting, it doesn’t massively gel for me but like Fusion it’s ok.
Episode 646: Acquisition
I want to hate this because for goodness sake come up with some new villains instead of crowbarring TNG ones in centuries before they should have been. And really, with minor tweaks they could have been any species and it still been just as fun. But that aside – yeah, very enjoyable and lightweight in a good way, plus Jeffrey Combs (what, again?), Clint Howard and Ethan Philips hurrah.
Episode 647: Oasis
Hah. The actor with the most recognisable voice in any Trek show makes a return appearance in a different role. All he needs is a quick “hmph” and it’s Odo. Anyway, this episode is a total retread of a DS9 segment which is a shame but after 646 episodes whatcha gonna do? In isolation it’s good, just hard not to compare.
Episode 648: Detained
Yay Dean Stockwell! He plays this character so well, and of course it’s fun to see him back with Bakula. Nice depth added to the Suliban too – Trek so rarely gives us alien races that have any kind of internal differences it’s nice to see some variety here.
Episode 649: Vox Sola
Weird creepy alien gooey thing. Some very solid growth stuff for Sato here, turning into the surprise “hey, so-called ensemble shows usually drown out the smaller characters, what gives?” character of the season.
Episode 650: Fallen Hero
I do love the Trip/T’Pol/Archer mealtimes. They’ve set them up as such a fun trio, even if totally lifted from the TOS three. Fionnula Flanagan is always a joy to see, and we get a T’Pol episode that’s actually fairly interesting (sorry to say that while she’s a fine character herself I don’t think she’s being well served so far).
Episode 651: Desert Crossing
Clancy Brown is brilliant in this one. It’s immediately terrifying when he pressures Archer and Trip into staying, and yet as the episode progresses he’s clearly also a man of some decency and honour. A really multi-layered approach to creating a “terrorist” character, and quite a brave thing to do in early 2002.
Episode 652: Two Days and Two Nights
A nice episode, giving us plenty of cute character moments. The least interesting part of the story is probably the Archer stuff that most closely links to the arc. Phlox and Reed/Tucker’s comedy plotlines and Hoshi’s romance all rightly take focus.
Episode 653: Shockwave
Episode 654: Shockwave, Part II
First time Trek has done a season cliffhanger at the end of a first season, and what a cliffhanger it is! The Temporal Cold War starts to make a bit more sense, there’s some awesome visuals in the damaged future timeline, and the takeover of the shop by the Suliban allows for some classic action stuff. Ent s1 had a couple of misfires but this is a really tight ending to by far the best first season BermanTrek ever did. No “oh it gets good by season three” here.
Episode 655: Carbon Creek
Total diversion from all the main cast here, giving us something very different – even though in some ways it’s got superficial similarities to Voyager’s 11:59. Lovely story with heart and humour.
Episode 656: Minefield
Tense, exciting plot but like all the best Treks much of the quality comes from a couple of people just talking. After Malcolm is visually uncomfortable stuck with Archer over breakfast, he gets stuck through the leg and forced to make small talk for the rest of the episode, allowing for some wonderful scripting. I must say, I try to hate Reed for his stuffy British cliches but he pulls it off!
Episode 657: Dead Stop
Enterprise is repaired by an out of control AI. Not one of my favourites but it’s nice that they show the after effects of Minefield, creating a sense of reality without a heavy arc.
Episode 658: A Night in Sickbay
Phlox fun as Archer has to spend a night with him. This is an absolute tour de force for Billingsley, and there’s some interesting stuff here about Archer/T’Pol. The funeral dream sequence is a gorgeous piece of direction.
Episode 659: Marauders
Some reasonable action stuff here, as the crew help a colony under attack from Klingons. It’s also the sort of thing that makes the most of a pre-Prime Directive series – TNG etc could never easily go here.
Episode 660: The Seventh
Quite an arty episode, with a lot of talking about action rather than actual action. I really like it for that – trying something different – although it’s not my favourite. Trip pretending to be Archer is fun though.
Episode 661: The Communicator
The show starts to investigate the need for a Prime Directive. I feel like we’ve already looked at this a few times in this series, so it doesn’t stand out for me.
Episode 662: Singularity
Entertaining stuff for the crew here – highlights include Reed obsessing over what will become red alert, and Tucker upgrading Archer’s chair.
Episode 663: Vanishing Point
Another marvellous Hoshi episode. Rather reminiscent of The Next Phase, but with plenty of added paranoia and some great Phlox material as Sato begins to question her sanity or the state of her molecules. Great stuff!
Episode 664: Precious Cargo
Not a great one, and feels fairly TOSlike as Trip unfreezes a beautiful woman. Also shades of TNG’s The Perfect Mate but not as good.
“Episode” 665: Nemesis
Oh dear, what a car crash. Thank goodness too, as if it had been good we wouldn’t have had fans clamouring for it to be “fixed” with a new series for Patrick Stewart decades later. OK, it’s got it’s fun bits, and I quite like the very different aesthetic (particularly the blown out camera work in the desert scene when they find B4), but everyone seems very uncomfortably miscast/scripted – including Tom Hardy – and Data’s death just feels like an afterthought. Oh well, toodloo TNG for now…
Episode 666: The Catwalk
I love the claustrophobia and tight “people stuck in a room together” drama here. Not much to say about this one except it’s really solid and does what it sets out to do.
Episode 667: Dawn
Enterprise does Darmok, as Trip must battle the elements with his only companion someone he can’t communicate with. It’s a shame there’s any parallels at all with TNGs finest hour, as this is a good strong episode and has some fab Trip stuff, but doesn’t stand up to Darmok. What could?
Episode 668: Stigma
The T’Pol stuff with its HIV parallels is OK, but too little too late for Trek. More importantly the comedic stuff with Trip, Phlox and Mrs Phlox is joyous.
Episode 669: Ceasefire
Yay Shran’s back. And Suzie Plakson too, hurrah! Is Archer really the only person trusted to mediate? He’s becoming The Most Important Person in the Galaxy, a trope lesser sci-fi shows fall into.
Episode 670: Future Tense
Nice to see the Tholians back, and a time machine that’s bigger on the inside, but I gotta be honest that this is a borefest in the Temporal Cold War stuff. Nothing much seems to happen.
Episode 671: Canamar
Inoffensive and forgettable episode with Archer and Tucker taken prisoner. Getting to that regular mid-season lull.
Episode 672: The Crossing
Love this Invasion of the Bodysnatchers plot! Everyone taken over by the sex-obsessed clouds has so much fun, especially Reed, and there’s plenty of excitement and surprise. Yes!!
Episode 673: Judgement
Fab to see a return to two locations from The Undiscovered Country (even if the TV budget renders both much smaller). The “unreliable narrator” plotline isn’t one we see often in Trek either. Lots of fun.
Episode 674: Horizon
Mayweather episodes just don’t appeal. Nothing against the actor, he just gets short shrift with very few storylines and none of them interesting. This is one.
Episode 675: The Breach
Racism and medicine. TNG and Voyager both did this a couple of times each. This feels like well trodden ground but it’s it’s good enough.
Episode 676: Cogenerator
And speaking of well trodden ground, here we have Enterprise remaking TNG’s The Outcast. Again it does just fine at it, but the similarities are unfortunate and leaves us wondering if after nearly 16 solid years on air Trek is running out of steam.
Episode 677: Regeneration
Urgh. TNG villain showing up in Enterprise? It has to be a REALLY good plot to make it worth that. And this is an OK episode but not one that necessitated the Borg. Plus we’ve just got off four years of overused Borg in Voyager. Sure they have logical time travel First Contacty reasons but it’s not enough. Just no.
Episode 678: First Flight
Interesting episode, showing some backstory for Archer. Not a massively strong one overall but it’s nice to see the background.
Episode 679: Bounty
Nice to start seeing some ongoing plotlines in Ent, as this ties in with the ongoing Klingon stuff. Plus T’Pol gets horny for Phox in the ongoing sexification of our Vulcan subcommander. It’s fun, nice to see the Tellarites, but kinda forgettable.
Episode 680: The Expanse
Amazing pre-credits sequence and some pretty intense stuff with everyone’s reaction to what amounts to a terrorist attack, Trip in particular. There’s not much that actually happens in this episode, but it’s solid setup for the next season.
Episode 681: The Xindi
A quiet start to the season-long Xindi arc, introducing the plot and characters well without giving us too much to go on yet. Intrigued but not sold this will stand up for a whole year. Tucker and T’Pol start getting close, which frankly seems like an excuse for more Blalock-skin. Also new upbeat mix of the opening titles which is fine by me – not better or worse than the original, just different.
Episode 682: Anomaly
Fairly non-descript villain species of the week episode, which comes across as a season-2 type story that’s been edited into the “ongoing” plot. We losing our way already?
Episode 683: Extinction (called Star Trek: Enterprise from here on)
Fun episode, with Bakula, Keating and Park getting to play under the masks at being aliens. It’s quite “Identity Crisis” but feels sufficiently different. It’s a bit silly but a nice diversion while we take stock of whether the Xindi plotline has much merit.
Episode 684: Rajin
A TOS-style beautiful evil woman hurrah, and more of T’Pol’s back getting shown off. Starting to get some interesting stuff on the Xindi council although these still feel like leftover scripts that have been retrofitted.
Episode 685: Impulse
Nice structure here, jumping into the middle of the story and then flashing back (rare for Trek). There’s plenty of good action material with Vulcan zombies, and this is a pretty solid T’Pol story, which Blalock makes the most of.
Episode 686: Exile
Linda Park does well as always when she’s given the goods. There’s not much to say about it really – lonely alien plot has been done and this one doesn’t stand out, but it’s not bad.
Episode 687: The Shipment
Some good stuff here exploring the theme that not everyone from “villain alien races” are actually villains (although Ent already did this). Moving the Xindi plot along pretty well.
Episode 688: Twilight
Oh wow. Mind blowing. Obviously most of the episode we’re waiting for it to be all a dream, or a Xindi plot, or whatever. The final twist is a surprise but it wouldn’t matter if it wasn’t – the fact is Blalock and Bakula both give outstanding performances. And Malcolm’s beard is cool.
Episode 689: North Star
Ah yay, one of Star Trek’s occasional excuses to do a Western. It’s OK, nothing to write home about, but it’s Bakula in a cowboy hat and some beautiful vistas.
Episode 690: Similitude
Some of the same moral beats as Tuvix, but it’s a beautiful episode in many ways. The actors playing Sim are great, and it moves the T’Pol/Tucker story along well.
Episode 691: Carpenter Street
Loads of fun! Who doesn’t love a “contemporary time travel” story in Trek, and there’s something about the night time shoot and the hi-def that gives this an extra cool feel. The plot is meh but it’s all very exciting. Plus this is the show that almost made Jeffrey Dean Morgan stop acting so in a parallel universe this show robbed us of the best thing from The Walking Dead.
Episode 692: Chosen Realm
Religious extremism is a touchy subject and one Trek doesn’t cover too often. This is a classic though, and really leaves you wondering how Archer’s going to defeat a group willing to die for their cause. Connor O’Farrell is great.
Episode 693: Proving Ground
More of the Shran storyline, going from strength to strength every time it crops up.
Episode 694: Stratagem
Star Trek does a classic Mission Impossible plot line (apparently a specific one but it seems fairly generic to me). As an unabashed fan of MI, I’m very happy with this! It works really well and Bakula seems to relish in the role.
Episode 695: Harbinger
Something about a mysterious pilot or something. One of those episodes where the B and C plots (Tucker/T’Pol finally coming to a head, and Reed and the MACOs too) really take the spotlight. The Tucker/T’Pol stuff feels like it should be totally wrong, but it’s been built up so carefully all year I love it. Also Blalock’s bum.
Episode 696: Doctor’s Orders
Well, we saw this one before on Voyager. I didn’t really like it when Voyager did it, but this episode is proper creepy, and both Billingsley and Blalock are fantastic. Plus nude Phlox cool.
Episode 697: Hatchery
Archer starts to get obsessed with the Xindi, and Bakula gets his chops into some strong (and unusual for both him and a Trek lead) material for the end of the season.
Episode 698: Azati Prime
Big battle episode, aping some of the latter half of DS9. Things are getting proper exciting now, and Archer’s interrogation is brutal and very watchable. The ongoing emotional stuff for T’Pol, and also her relationship with Trip, provides some solid balance to the action.
Episode 699: Damage
I find these final episodes a bit odd – it’s never clear to my why this axis of evil suddenly starts to fall apart, but whatever, it’s quite interesting. And more of the T’Pol emotion arc which is great.