Voyager Duffer's Guide

October 4, 2017 3:32 PM

I dropped into the Voyager rewatch thread to ask about a 'best of' guide to Voyager after a few stalled rewatches ran aground on the clumsy first season scripts. The doughty CheesesofBrazil and the dauntless mordax with a drop-in by Halloween Jack reviewed a list I found at the Hollywood Reporter, which had significant overlap with a list found at WIRED. The findings were that the lists were substantially similar. I have pulled all the episodes on both lists and added the individually suggested episodes, ordered them by season and episode number, and provided links to the episodes at Amazon Video. Hopefully, this will be of use to others.

Caretaker (I & II) - S01E01 - HWR RANK: 14; 1995.

Meld - S02E016 - HWR RANK: N/A; 1996.

Deadlock - S02E021 - HWR RANK: 12; 1996.

Flashback - S03E02 - HWR RANK: 15; 1996.

Future's End I & II - S03E08 - HWR RANK: 9; 1996.

Blood Fever - S03E016 - HWR RANK: N/A; 1996.

Distant Origin - S03E023 - HWR RANK: N/A; 1997.

Worst Case Scenario - S03E025 - HWR RANK: 11; 1997.

Scorpion I & II - S03E026 - HWR RANK: 4; 1998.

Year of Hell I & II - S04E08 - HWR RANK: 1; 1997.

Mortal Coil - S04E012 - HWR RANK: 13; 1998.

Hope and Fear - S04E026 - HWR RANK: 8; 1998.

Living Witness - S04E023 - HWR RANK: 3; 1998.

Timeless - S05E06 - HWR RANK: 10; 1998.

Equinox I & II - S05E026 - HWR RANK: 2; 1999.

Tinker Tenor Doctor Spy - S06E04 - HWR RANK: 7; 1999.

Blink of an Eye - S06E012 - HWR RANK: 5; 2000.

Endgame (I & II) - S07E025 - HWR RANK: 6; 2001.

posted by mwhybark (11 comments total)

( A word here - I did not go back through and individually verify the URLs, so there may be a typo or two. Additionally, for two-part season enders I just linked to the first episode.)
posted by mwhybark at 3:37 PM on October 4, 2017

Rewatch threads (which are live as of this post):

Caretaker (I & II) - S01E01
Meld - S02E16
Deadlock - S02E21
Flashback - S03E02
Future's End I & II - S03E08 & S03E09
Blood Fever - S03E16
Distant Origin - S03E23
Worst Case Scenario - S03E25
Scorpion I & II - S03E26 & S04E01
Year of Hell I & II - S04E08 & S04E09
Mortal Coil - S04E012
posted by mwhybark at 12:57 PM on October 5, 2017

Addendum:

Future posters, feel free to kibitz and add suggestions here. I just happened to notice CheesesofBrazil making one today, to VOY S04E14, "Message in a Bottle".
posted by mwhybark at 2:53 PM on October 12, 2017

Thread initiator's log, Stardate 1711.15: No new live threads have intersected with the hyperquantum passage of the USS Duffer's Guide - VOY through the Delta Quadrant since this initial log post. I have found these selected episodes of the show to have been well-curated, and satisfying, leading to a partial re-evaluation of ST:VOY after a two-decade gap of frustration and dissatisfaction.

Some notes for myself in the future on episodes that do not yet have live threads (mostly), that is if I am not caught in a bottle-episode temporal anomaly:

Hope and Fear - S04E026 - HWR RANK: 8; 1998.
Ray Wise! From Twin Peaks! Who I had completely forgotten about! And who was totally unrecognizable under his makeup! Well not *totally*. I liked this a lot. I was a bit frustrated that the Voyager crew didn't fight to keep Arturis' ship. This likely resulted in part from the understandable production decision to give Arturis a handwavy technology that allowed him to create an imagined extrapolation of an experimental Federation ship, and to not revert the exterior and interior designs of the ship to 100% mystery alien as soon as the mask drops. Later episodes in this subset make me wonder why Janeway never attempts to assemble a flotilla or fleet on her way back to Earth. Voyager sure does run into a lot of Alphans over Deltan way. Historical examples do tend to bear out fleet formation as a method of travel in extremity, in my opinion.

Is this the first use of the NX-01 designation in the series?


Living Witness - S04E023 - HWR RANK: 3; 1998.
Fantastic, moving episode. I inadvertently sorted this to be after Hope and Fear, which, given the actual date of the events depicted at in-episode real temporal index of now, is at least partially defensible. However, this is of course the very last episode of Star Trek by in-narrative temporal index, so in a way, it closes not only the season and the series, but the franchise.

Timeless - S05E06 - HWR RANK: 10; 1998.
Excellent. I mean, except that it's a fricking bottle episode. Man, thems be some dark interior shots. Can't really tell if - what, what room is this? Is that the bridge? Harry experiences character development! Oh wait, no he doesn't! Garret Wang's finest hour.


Equinox I & II - S05E026 - HWR RANK: 2; 1999.
At midway. I see that the murky interior shots appear to be a thematic franchise choice. Much to like here; but the Ghostbusters plot beat and FX shots were, mmmm, in need of attention. I'll have to see how Ep II is but as of now that HWR #2 ranking seems a bit overblown, since every time I see Slimer charge a bridge crew I start singing "who you gonna call"?

Amusing to see Titus Welliver (oh, it's uh, *that guy*, from, uh, *that show*) and John Savage (uh, he was in, uh, that movie). Savage's performance - and the insistent use of dark-stripe noirish lighting on his outstandingly planar features - is pretty great.
posted by mwhybark at 7:11 PM on November 15, 2017

Live thread updates, stardate 1211.17:

Hope and Fear - S04E026
Living Witness - S04E023
Timeless - S05E06
posted by mwhybark at 10:06 AM on December 11, 2017

DS9 Duffer's Guide is live.
posted by mwhybark at 4:48 PM on January 9, 2018

Thanks for the list! I've set the season 6 ones to record. I liked the characters on Voyager, but the episode quality was too variable for me to watch it consistently.
posted by tavella at 11:24 PM on January 20, 2018 [1 favorite]

when I get back to finishing this I hope to cajole a round two out of the rewatch crew. I really have found these episodes to be excellent and satisfying Trek, for the most part.
posted by mwhybark at 12:39 PM on January 21, 2018

New rewatch threads live as of Feb 24, 2018:
Equinox Part One & Part Two - S05E026
posted by mwhybark at 2:16 PM on February 25, 2018

and I have just completed this watchthrough.
posted by mwhybark at 12:02 PM on March 9, 2018

Blink of an Eye

One (or two, depending on your count method) more to go
posted by mwhybark at 8:14 PM on March 31, 2018