voyager episodes ranked imdb

30 Best Episodes Of Star Trek: Voyager According To IMDb

The third spin-off for the franchise, "Star Trek: Voyager" launched not long after "The Next Generation" left the airwaves. Set aboard the U.S.S. Voyager, its first mission saw Captain Kathryn Janeway in pursuit of a group of renegade Maquis. But when both ships were hurled into the far off Delta Quadrant by a mysterious alien entity, the two crews were forced to join together as they embarked on their long journey back to Earth.

Airing for seven seasons on UPN, "Star Trek: Voyager" may not have been the ratings hit that "Star Trek: The Next Generation" was, but thanks to years of reruns and streaming, its popularity has grown in the years since its conclusion, with many episodes ranking among the franchise's most watched, according to StarTrek.com . During its time on Netflix, in fact, episodes centered on the Borg, and fan-favorite character Seven of Nine proved especially popular — so much so that Paramount+ made sure to include both in the revival series "Star Trek: Picard."

But which "Voyager" episodes rank the best among its entire 172-episode run? According to IMDb, the 30 we've collected here are the ones that top the charts.

30. Scientific Method (Season 4, Episode 7)

Janeway is pushed to the brink and Seven is left to save the day in the Season 4 episode  "Scientific Method." As the episode begins, the newest addition to the Voyager crew — ex-Borg Seven of Nine — is still learning to adjust to life aboard a Federation starship, unused to the hierarchy of command and the little social niceties of life in a human social structure. 

But while Voyager explores an unusual binary pulsar, a race of cloaked aliens have infiltrated the ship without anyone even realizing it. These aliens aren't looking to conquer however, and instead have been secretly experimenting on members of the crew — including the captain — as a gruesome form of medical testing without their knowledge. With only The Doctor and Seven of Nine able to detect them, it's up to a hologram and an uncertain former Borg to expose the alien threat and save the ship. 

29. Worst Case Scenario (Season 3, Episode 25)

In  "Worst Case Scenario"  B'Ellana discovers an apparent holo-novel that reanacts a disturbing takeover of the ship by its Maquis crewmembers, led by first officer Chakotay. More intrigued than disturbed, she shares it with Paris, then Kim, and before long the narrative becomes the center of ship-wide gossip as officers rush to play the interactive program for themselves. But it's soon revealed that the story was crafted by Tuvok as a training exercise and was abandoned when the Maquis became valued members of the crew.

Sent back in to finish the story for their own amusement, Paris and Tuvok discover that the program was co-opted by former Maquis crew member Seska and turned into a deadly form of payback. Suddenly the pair find themselves in a cat-and-mouse game with Seska's elaborate scenario that's been designed to torture them, while Janeway attempts to help them outside the confines of the holodeck. Racing against time, they'll have to play by Seska's rules if they want to stay alive.

28. Hope And Fear (Season 4, Episode 26)

In the fourth season finale  "Hope And Fear,"  Seven of Nine is forced to confront her humanity when it looks like Voyager has found a way home. It starts with the arrival of a man named Arturis who helps them finally repair and descramble the damaged message they received from Starfleet in "Hunters." In the message, Admiral Hayes claims they've sent an experimental new starship out to meet them just light years away, with a new slipstream engine capable of getting them home in a matter of months.

As Seven of Nine weighs staying behind — unsure if she'll fit in back on Earth — the crew discovers that the ship, the U.S.S. Dauntless , may not be what it appears. Now, the captain must balance her desire to get her crew back to Earth with her feeling that their ticket home may be a little too convenient.

27. Life Line (Season 6, Episode 24)

We're seeing double in  "Life Line"  when The Doctor comes face-to-face with his creator, Dr. Lewis Zimmerman. After his appearance in the "Deep Space Nine" episode "Doctor Bashir, I Presume," the famed scientist is diagnosed with a terminal illness, and Voyager selflessly sends their holographic Doctor back to Earth via the Hirogen communication array to make a house call. But meeting his proverbial father isn't the jubilant family reunion that he'd expected as Zimmerman wants nothing to do with his own creation.

As The Doctor works to push past his creator's stubborn streak, Reg Barclay calls on the services of Counselor Deanna Troi to help the two work through their issues. But a problem in The Doctor's matrix forces Zimmerman to step in to save him, and The Doctor finally learns the basis for his father's ill feelings. A memorable episode that featured two long time cast members from "The Next Generation," it was ultimately a tale of an estranged father and son struggling to find common ground.

26. One (Season 4, Episode 25)

In "One," Seven of Nine is attempting to learn social skills with the help of The Doctor — and struggling with it — when the ship encounters an unusual nebula too vast to go around. But the nebula is found to contain a kind of subnucleonic radiation that proves deadly to the crew, save Seven of Nine and The Doctor. The only solution appears to be to put the entire crew, including the captain, into stasis pods for the duration of the journey, while Seven and The Doctor guide the ship.

Left alone, Seven at first enjoys the solitude, but the isolation soon begins to wear on her. Just as she needs companionship the most, The Doctor's program goes offline, and Seven is left to fend for herself as her mind begins to slowly erode. As hallucinations start to confuse her, she'll have to make a fateful choice if she wants to keep the crew alive.

25. Someone To Watch Over Me (Season 5, Episode 21)

"Someone To Watch Over Me"  sees The Doctor once again trying to help Seven of Nine improve her social skills, this time teaching her the art of dating. When Paris finds out, he makes a wager with The Doctor on whether Seven will be able to successfully find a date for an upcoming diplomatic reception. But as The Doctor spends more time with Seven of Nine, he finds himself developing romantic feelings for her himself.

Ultimately The Doctor asks Seven to the event, and when it comes out that he had made a bet with Paris over her love life, things go predictably wrong. Meanwhile, Neelix is tasked with entertaining Tomin, a Kadi diplomat, and struggles to stop the conservative, monk-like visitor from dangerously overindulging in the ship's leisure facilities. A more light-hearted affair, the episode is another key step in the development of both Seven of Nine and The Doctor and their common goal to learn to become more human.

24. Deadlock (Season 2, Episode 21)

It's double trouble in Season 2's  "Deadlock"  after Voyager encounters subspace turbulence that seems to be the cause of problems throughout the ship, as the warp core is rapidly being drained. But when B'Ellanna uses a series of proton bursts to restart the anti-matter reaction, it makes things worse, and Ensign Wildman's impending childbirth in sickbay is endangered. After a catastrophic hull break kills Ensign Kim, B'Ellana discovers that the subspace field they passed through has actually created a quantum duplicate of the ship and its crew, and there are now two U.S.S. Voyagers, slightly out of phase but sharing the same anti-matter reserves. 

Unfortunately, just as they think they have figured a way out of the situation they come under attack from the organ-stealing Vidiians. Thanks to the discovery of a small rift that allows passage between the two Voyagers, the duplicate crews find a new way to work together to fend off the alien attack while severing the link between their two ships. But for one of them to survive, the other may have to make the ultimate sacrifice. 

23. Equinox, Part II (Season 6, Episode 1)

It's an all-out war with Captain Ransom in the sixth season premiere,  "Equinox, Part II."  After the renegade Starfleet commander reprograms The Doctor and takes Seven of Nine hostage, he sets off to parts unknown to continue his torture of the alien creatures he needs to power his ship. Back on Voyager, Janeway is determined to get back her crewmen — and to do it she threatens to cross the line between justice and revenge. 

With members of the Equinox left aboard the ship, the captain will do whatever it takes to get them to tell her Ransom's plans. While Ransom's EMH secretly attempts to sabotage Voyager, an unexpected ally surfaces and could be key to stopping the Equinox. But as Janeway's methods continue to become more vicious, first officer Chakotay becomes increasingly uneasy, leading to a confrontation that could change the nature of their relationship forever. 

22. Eye Of The Needle (Season 1, Episode 7)

Early in "Star Trek: Voyager" the crew was still hopeful of finding a shortcut back to Earth, and they almost find one in the first season installment,  "Eye of the Needle."  Encountering a micro wormhole, they realize they can't get the ship through, but may be able to transmit a message, and potentially use their transporters to send the crew back to the Alpha Quadrant. Unfortunately, the ship they find on the other side of the galactic gateway isn't a friendly Federation starship but a secretive Romulan cargo ship.

Attempting to convince the Romulan captain that they aren't some kind of Starfleet deception is the first hurdle they encounter, as the adversaries have little reason to trust one another. But once they finally earn the captain's confidence they discover that the wormhole isn't all that it seems to be. With hopes diminishing, they realize that getting home may be more complicated than activating their transporters.

21. Future's End (Season 3, Episode 8)

Season 3's  "Future's End"  is another classic "Star Trek" time travel adventure that sees the crew of the starship Voyager hurled back in time to the then-present day of 1996. It all happens when the Timeship Aeon emerges from the 29th century and its captain, a man called Braxton, claims that Voyager is responsible for a disaster in his time that will annihilate Earth's solar system. His attempts to destroy Voyager fail, and the two ships are instead sent through a spatial rift, nearly 400 years into the past. 

Arriving in 1990s Los Angeles, Janeway is disturbed to discover that Braxton has been trapped there for 30 years already, and the technology aboard his ship has fallen into the hands of a Steve Jobs-like industrialist named Henry Starling (Ed Begley, Jr.) who is using it to amass his fortune. Realizing that it was future technology that was responsible for the '90s tech-boom, Janeway must find a way to retrieve Braxton's ship and get back to the 24th century, all while Starling hopes to collect Voyager's technology for himself.

20. Future's End: Part II (Season 3, Episode 9)

Still trapped in 1996,  "Future's End: Part 2" sees tech mogul Henry Starling finally getting Braxton's ship operational. Janeway realizes that it's Starling's use of the Aeon that will destroy the solar system, and must find a way to stop him. But Starling manages to steal The Doctor's program, and using 29th century tech taken from Braxton outfits him with an autonomous holo-emitter, allowing him the freedom to walk about unfettered for the first time.  

To get The Doctor back, Paris and Tuvok find a friend in a young astronomer named Rain Robinson (guest star Sarah Silverman), while Janeway makes contact with Captain Braxton himself, now a vagrant living in the city's underbelly. Chakotay and B'Elanna try to locate Braxton's ship, but become prisoner's of right-wing militants. To save Earth and return to the 24th century, Voyager's crew may have to risk exposing themselves to the people of the past.

19. Shattered (Season 7, Episode 10)

Another sci-fi time-bender, the Season 7 episode  "Shattered"  sees the ship pass through a temporal distortion field that fractures the ship into different time periods. Awakening in sickbay more than four years in the past, Chakotay is given a newly developed chroniton serum by The Doctor that allows him to pass through the various time shifts aboard the ship. To bring Voyager back into temporal sync he'll need to spread the serum throughout the ship's own circuitry, but he can't do it alone.

Traveling to the bridge, he finds a version of Captain Janeway from before they met, and he must somehow gain her trust to recruit her to execute his plan. But it's easier said than done with they discover the villainous Seska and her Kazon allies are in control of engineering, during the events of the Season 2 episode "Basics." A nostalgic look back at Voyager's seven-season run, "Shattered" sees the return of several former heroes and villains from past episodes.

18. Death Wish (Season 2, Episode 18)

The immortal all-powerful trickster Q finds a new ship to annoy in the Season 3 episode  "Death Wish."  Coming upon a rogue comet, Voyager discovers that it's actually home to a member of the Q Continuum, a being who has grown bored with his endless life and wishes to commit suicide. Dubbed "Quinn," he seeks asylum aboard Voyager when Q arrives to put him back in his cosmic prison cell. Though Janeway doesn't want to get involved in their god-like squabbles, she feels ethically obligated to consider Quinn's request, and grants them a hearing aboard the ship.

While Q summons the likes of Commander Riker, Isaac Newton, and a hippie from Woodstock to give statements, Tuvok defends Q's right to not exist, should he so choose. Disturbed by the fact that granting asylum would mean Quinn's suicide, Janeway attempts to convince Quinn that life is worth living. Undergoing his own crisis of faith, Q is forced to acknowledge the problems his people face, and makes a decision that will change the Q Continuum forever.

If you or anyone you know is having suicidal thoughts, please call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline​ at​ 1-800-273-TALK (8255)​.

17. Latent Image (Season 5, Episode 11)

  "Latent Image"  begins with The Doctor finding evidence of a surgical procedure on Ensign Kim that seems to have no explanation. What starts out as an investigation into a minor mystery leads to the disturbing realization that it was he who performed the surgery, but he has no recollection of it. Soon he learns that someone has been tampering with his program, erasing his memory — and perhaps the memories of the entire crew. But with the help of Seven of Nine, he discovers that the problem is even bigger than he feared, and everyone on the ship may be lying to him.

An episode that explores the problems that come with the holographic Doctor's existence as a growing sentient being, the story shows the crew slowly discovering that he has become more than just a program. It's also an intriguing allegory for how society often treats mental illness, and gives actor Robert Picardo some of his best work in his role as the ship's resident artificial surgeon.

16. Equinox (Season 5, Episode 25)

Janeway and Voyager are shocked to encounter another Federation vessel in the Delta Quadrant in  "Equinox,"  the dramatic fifth season finale. Commanded by the revered Captain Ransom (guest star John Savage), the U.S.S. Equinox is a science vessel that was catapulted to the region by the same entity that sent Voyager there. Ill-equipped for deep space assignments, Ransom and his crew have barely been able to survive on their slow journey home, and both crews seem buoyed and hopeful by the chance meeting. 

But the happy reunion is cut short when Seven of Nine uncovers evidence of corruption aboard Equinox, and the discovery that Ransom has been capturing and killing alien creatures and using their corpses to fuel their warp drive. Furious at the violation of Federation ideals, Janeway attempts to take control of his ship. But unwilling to go quietly, Ransom kidnaps Seven of Nine, and along with The Doctor's program, escapes aboard the Equinox. 

15. Pathfinder (Season 6, Episode 10)

In a surprising episode set almost entirely off of Voyager,  "Pathfinder"  follows "TNG" standout Reginald Barclay as he seeks help from his old friend, Counselor Troi. Now working at Starfleet HQ, he's part of the Pathfinder Project, which hopes to find a way to communicate with Voyager in the Delta Quadrant. Certain that he can use an itinerant pulsar to open a fissure that would allow two-way communication, he uses holodeck simulations to test his theories. But Barclay hit a wall when his superiors didn't believe in the potential of his ideas. 

After his boss, Commander Harkins, discovered that Barclay was living inside a simulation of Voyager and grows concerned for his mental stability, he was kicked off the project. Barclay approached Admiral Paris — who was running the project — about a second chance, but didn't get the response he was looking for. After speaking to Troi, Barclay breaks into the lab to put his plan into action before the pulsar moves out of range.

14. Dark Frontier (Season 5, Episode 15)

Janeway comes up with a bold scheme to attack a Borg ship in the double length episode  "Dark Frontier,"  that saw the Borg Queen's debut on the series. The plan is to steal a Borg ship's transwarp technology, capable of getting them back to Earth much faster than their conventional engines, and Janeway will stop at nothing to succeed. But the presence of Seven of Nine on the mission causes her some concern. 

Because Seven of Nine is still adjusting to being fully human Janeway fears the experience of returning to the Borg could be traumatic for her. Unbeknownst to Voyager, though, the Borg Queen has already learned of their daring plan, and finds a way of secretly communicating with Seven of Nine. The Queen offers her former drone a tempting deal: She will allow Voyager to succeed, effectively handing them an easy way home, in exchange for Seven of Nine rejoining the Borg. 

13. Endgame (Season 7, Episode 24)

The epic feature length series finale  "Endgame"  opens in the future on Earth, with an older Admiral Janeway unhappy with how history has turned out. She did get Voyager home, but it took more than 20 years and cost them the lives of several crewmen, including Seven of Nine. But when she finds a way to travel back in time to visit her past self, she devises a plan to change history and get Voyager home much sooner.

Visited by the older, more cynical Admiral Janeway, Voyager's Captain Janeway finds her future self's story hard to believe, but the plan she proposes makes sense: sneak into the heart of a Borg Uni-complex and use one of their transwarp hubs to travel back to Earth in an instant. The plan hits a snag, however, when the younger Janeway instead wants to use the opportunity to deal the Borg a crippling blow. Now the two Janeways find themselves at odds over the choice between defeating a mortal enemy or getting Voyager home.

12. Distant Origin (Season 3, Episode 23)

A story that explores the battle between religious dogma and scientific discovery,  "Distant Origin"  is told from the surprising perspective of an alien culture. We first meet a pair of Voth scientists named Gegen and Veer, who discover the remnants of one of Voyager's earlier ill-fated away missions. Studying the remains of a human crew member, they match its genetic structure to their own, providing evidence for a theory that their people originally evolved on Earth millions of years ago.

The two scientists show their evidence to their leaders, but are ostracized for challenging long-held doctrine that the Voth are a supreme form of life. Now facing persecution for their scientific discovery, they finally track Voyager itself, and capture Chakotay. With his help they hope to convince their people that they are actually descended from intelligent dinosaurs that roamed the Earth before the first ice age.

11. Drone (Season 5, Episode 2)

A transporter accident fuses Borg nano-probes from Seven of Nine with the 29th century technology of The Doctor's mobile emitter in the fifth season episode  "Drone."   Using the emitter, the nanoprobes steal genetic material from a passing crew member to create an advanced, 29th century Borg drone unlike anything that had been seen before. Unconnected from the Borg hive mind, the newly born Borg — who takes the name One — is a blank slate, and Janeway wants Seven of Nine to be his teacher and guide to humanity.

But when the Borg Collective discovers his existence they come to assimilate him, putting the ship, crew, and entire galaxy in jeopardy as they fear the Borg getting access to even more advanced technology. As the drone begins to question her about the Borg, Janeway fears he may want to join them, forcing Seven of Nine to finally answer the question of where she belongs.

10. Relativity (Season 5, Episode 23)

A mind-bending time travel adventure,  "Relativity"  opens aboard Voyager before its first mission when Captain Janeway is touring the ship in spacedock. But somehow Seven of Nine is present, and is secretly searching for a dangerous weapon at the direction of Captain Braxton. But before she can locate it she's discovered, and Braxton pulls her out of time, killing her. Flashing back to the present, a series of space-time fractures are causing temporal paradoxes all over Voyager when they discover a highly volatile temporal disrupter hidden in a bulkhead.

Just before it destroys the ship, Braxton's men abduct Seven again and send her back to find the disrupter in the past, figure out who planted it, and why. But if she's going to save the ship, Seven may have to do the one thing she's been ordered not to: tell Captain Janeway in the past about their future and recruit her to help complete Braxton's mission. 

9. Tinker, Tenor, Doctor, Spy (Season 6, Episode 4)

When The Doctor starts experimenting with a daydreaming program in  "Tinker Tenor Doctor Spy"  things go wrong, and he finds himself unable to distinguish between reality and fantasy. But when a low-ranking alien agent unwittingly taps into his daydreams, he believes The Doctor is actually the captain of the ship, and devises a plan to invade and conquer Voyager. 

After the bumbling alien spy realizes that he's gotten things wrong, he tries to call off the attack but it's too late to convince his superiors. As The Doctor's fantasy's are spinning out of control, the alien makes contact in the hopes of averting an embarrassing incident. To avoid confrontation, The Doctor must convince Janeway to let him take command. A more playful episode, it successfully mixes the kind of light-hearted comedy that works well with The Doctor, with the best adventure elements the show has to offer. 

8. Year Of Hell, Part II (Season 4, Episode 9)

"Year Of Hell, Part II"  picks up two months after the events of Part I. Voyager is in ruins and manned by a skeleton crew, while Janeway herself is in rough shape, barely able to survive repeated assaults from the Krenim. Tuvok has lost his sight, and requires Seven as his guide, while much of the ship itself is falling apart. Aboard Annorax's temporal warship, Chakotay and Paris are at odds, with Paris wanting to attempt escape while Chakotay wants to help find a way to use the ship's history-altering power to save Voyager.

Janeway meanwhile is attempting to assemble a loose alliance of friendly ships in the hopes of mounting an attack on Annorax. Seven of Nine successfully develops a new kind of temporal shield that they believe will be able to protect them against the Krenim's weapons. But if their plan doesn't work, it could mean Voyager never existed.

7. Living Witness (Season 4, Episode 23)

In the closest thing "Voyager" got to a Mirror Universe episode, the fifth season episode  "Living Witness"  saw The Doctor's program activated by an alien civilization some 700 years in the future. There, two neighboring species have been arguing over who started their centuries-old war, and believe that Voyager may have played a part in sparking it. Now with The Doctor active, one historian believes that he could hold the key to discovering just what happened.

Through the use of a holodeck of sorts we view the historical account of how they believed the crew of Voyager started the war. In the recreation, a tyrannical Captain Janeway brutally attacks the Kyrian people with biogenic weapons developed by The Doctor, wiping out entire populations. Now it's up to The Doctor to set the record straight, and if he can't convince them of what really happened, he may be put on trial for the crimes that Voyager is thought to have committed against their people. 

6. Message In A Bottle (Season 4, Episode 14)

Controversial comedian Andy Dick makes an unexpected appearance in the Season 4 episode  "Message In A Bottle"  that also marks Voyager's first communication with Starfleet. Upon discovering a Federation starship on the edges of hailing range of a deep space alien communication array, they fail to make contact, so instead send The Doctor's holographic program. Aboard the experimental U.S.S. Prometheus, The Doctor also finds that the ship has been taken over by Romulans, and its entire crew killed.

But with the help of that ship's own EMH, a dismissive and snarky Mark II, it's up to The Doctor to fight back and retake the ship. Once successful, he manages to get in touch with Starfleet and finally let them know that Voyager is alive and well in the Delta Quadrant. An offbeat episode that once again mixes humor and adventure, the highlight is the impeccable comedic chemistry between the two EMH's played by Robert Picardo and guest star Andy Dick.

5. Timeless (Season 5, Episode 6)

Opening on the stunning visual of the starship Voyager buried beneath the surface of a mysterious ice planet in  "Timeless,"  we meet a small group of explorers trying to excavate it. Breaking into the ship we learn that the space-bound archeologists are none other than Chakotay and Harry Kim, 15 years into the future. Finding The Doctor's mobile emitter, they've come back to the site of a disaster that destroyed the ship, with the hopes of changing history.

Flashing back to the "present" we see that Ensign Kim has spearheaded a project to retrofit Voyager with the same slipstream technology they were introduced to in "Hope And Fear." To use it, Chakotay and Kim man a shuttle ahead of the ship, to guide Voyager through the slipstream. But a miscalculation sends Voyager off-course and while the shuttle made it safely to Earth, Voyager was doomed. With the help of Borg technology from Seven of Nine's corpse, an older and remorseful Kim must evade Captain Geordi La Forge and the U.S.S. Challenger if he hopes to succeed in his quest for redemption.

4. Scorpion, Part II (Season 4, Episode 1)

After successfully negotiating an alliance with the Borg in the Season 3 finale, "Scorpion, Part II" kicks off the fourth season with the Borg agreeing to give Voyager safe passage through their vast territory in exchange for their help in defeating an emerging new threat: Species 8472. Chakotay firmly opposes the collaboration, especially when the collective sends a Borg aboard to act as a liaison, a female drone named Seven of Nine. Despite their agreement, Janeway's first officer doesn't believe they can trust their new allies.

But thanks to the neural link that Chakotay has retained from the events of "Unity," he proves to be the key to a plan to stop the Borg should they betray them. And once Species 8472 is dealt with that's exactly what they do, with Seven of Nine attempting to assimilate the ship. Remembered for the introduction of Seven of Nine , the character helped reinvigorate the series, and would go on to become one of the franchise's most beloved characters, returning in 2020 in the spin-off "Star Trek: Picard."

3. Year Of Hell (Season 4, Episode 8)

In "Year Of Hell" Voyager encounters the Krenim Imperium, a powerful empire that rules a region of space they are attempting to pass through. But little do they know that the key to the Krenim's power is a man named Annorax (guest star Kurtwood Smith), a scientist who has developed a devastating weapon capable of altering history. Annorax has been using the weapon to alter the past in the hopes of restoring his people's empire to their former glory and resurrect his long-dead wife.

While Janeway and the crew are helpless against the Krenim's weapons, they go on the run, mercilessly attacked by the Imperium wherever they try to hide. But when Annorax continues annihilating entire planets in his quest, his calculations are thrown off by Voyager's anomalous presence and they suddenly find themselves his newest target. With the ship falling apart, and time running out, Janeway may have to abandon Voyager if they are to survive. 

2. Scorpion (Season 3, Episode 26)

In the third season finale  "Scorpion"  comes face-to-face with the Borg Collective for the first time after they discover that their territory is too big to go around on their journey home. But when they discover a corridor devoid of Borg ships they at first think it's good news. Until they discover an even bigger threat: a new race of inter-dimensional beings known as Species 8472, who are destroying the Borg, and threaten Voyager as well. 

But when The Doctor develops a biological weapon capable of defeating 8472, Janeway hatches a plan to exploit the conflict between the two warring species. Though the crew is conflicted, Janeway hopes to form an alliance with the Borg, and give them the weapon that could defeat 8472. But will Janeway really help the Federation's greatest enemy defeat the only ones who have ever been able to stop them?

1. Blink Of An Eye (Season 6, Episode 12)

In Season 6's "Blink Of An Eye"  Voyager encounters a strange planet where time passes at an increased rate where one second for Voyager is nearly a day on the planet. Approaching to take a closer look, Voyager is pulled into its orbit and trapped there, disrupting the planet's natural energy field, and causing frequent seismic disruptions on the surface. Below, the people who live on the planet are in awe at the shining new star in their night's sky, not realizing that it's Voyager. 

Over the next thousand years, the planet's civilization evolves, while just days pass aboard the ship, and Voyager — which they called "the sky ship" slowly becomes part of their society's mythology. But when a brave astronaut from the planet comes to visit (guest star Daniel Dae Kim), he's suddenly confronted with the reality that his childhood heroes aren't at all what he imagined.

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The 15 greatest Star Trek: Voyager episodes, ranked

Credit: CBS

Star Trek: Voyager was a series with a great premise and stories that somewhat frequently — but not always — lived up to it.

25 years ago today, Voyager premiered with the two-hour pilot "Caretaker" and forever changed the franchise with its introduction to the first female Captain, Kathyrn Janeway (a perfect Kate Mulgrew). Resilient, Janeway was unyielding in her efforts to get her untested crew home after they were zapped to the uncharted Delta Quadrant, 75 years away from Earth. Starfleet personnel mixing with former officers/current members of a resistance group known as the Maquis promised great, "only-on- Star-Trek " conflict — coupled with a ship stranded from the usual resources and aid afforded Kirk and Picard’s Enterprises.

Sadly, Voyager never fully embraced the full potential of that core conceit, leading Voyager to spend a big chunk of its seven-season run feeling like " Star Trek: The Next Generation lite." The ship was usually always fixed the next week if the previous one had it under attack or badly damaged. And the crew seemingly didn't mind too much about taking detours to explore and map this unknown area of space instead of doing what normal humans would — less sightseeing, more getting this 75-year journey underway as soon as possible and without distraction.

Despite Voyager 's uneven feel, when the show hit its stride, it produced some of the most entertaining hours the genre has ever seen. To celebrate Voyager 's 25th anniversary, here are the 15 best episodes.

15 . “Caretaker” (Season 1)

Voyager 's feature-length series premiere is one of the strongest pilots ever for a Trek show. Starting off at Deep Space Nine before stranding Captain Janeway and her motley crew of Maquis deserters in the Delta Quadrant, "Caretaker" has a riveting first half, peppered with exceptional character interplay. Then the pacing and tension slow in the second hour where we spend way too much time with an alien race that seems to have modeled itself after the citizens of Mayberry and The Waltons.

14 . "Eye of the Needle" (Season 1)

"Eye of the Needle" has a bittersweet twist that ranks up there with some of the best Twilight Zone endings. With the help of an anomaly via a wormhole, Voyager is able to communicate with a ship in the Alpha Quadrant. The catch? It's a Romulan vessel and not one in the same time as our lost heroes.

13 . "Dreadnaught" (Season 2)

If Speed and Runaway Train had a kid, it would be "Dreadnaught."

This compelling and tense hour of Voyager centers on engineer — the Klingon-Human Torres — struggling to reprogram a deadly missile designed by her enemy, the Cardassians, before it destroys a planet. Most of the hour is just Torres in a room, talking to a computer, and it is some of the most harrowing scenes in all of Trek history.

12 . "Mortal Coil" (Season 4)

Neelix, as a character, struggled to find solid footing among the ensemble jockeying for meaty storylines. But "Mortal Coil" remedies that with a dark, brooding storyline that takes on the afterlife and Neelix's near-death experience with it. After realizing the afterlife his culture believes in isn't really there, our favorite Talaxian suffers a heartbreaking existential crisis.

11 . "Tinker, Tailor, Doctor, Spy" (Season 6)

Veteran Star Trek: The Next Generation writer Joe Menosky — with a story from cartoonist Bill Vallely — crafted one of The Doctor's funniest outings, as the sentient hologram struggles with the hilarious consequences of giving himself the ability to daydream. The good doctor's fantasies catch the attention of an alien race's surveillance, but they think they are real — which brings about some trouble for the crew. How the Doctor saves the day is one of the best scenes Voyager has ever done.

10 . "Blink of an Eye" (Season 6) / "Relativity" (Season 5)

"Blink of an Eye" has a perfect Trek premise — Voyager orbits a planet where time passes differently for its inhabitants that for the ship's crew, so Janeway is able to watch this society evolve in, well, a blink of an eye.

This first contact scenario allows the show to invest the "explore strange new worlds" mandate with more emotion and nuance than Voyager usually affords its stories, giving fans a surprisingly poignant episode that still holds up to this day.

And despite time travel being a popular narrative trope in Star Trek , the show never failed to find new ways to explore and subvert it. "Relativity" is a fun, ticking-clock caper that sends former Borg drone Seven of Nine (Jeri Ryan) back in time to prevent the destruction of Voyager. Co-written by Discovery co-creator Bryan Fuller, this exciting episode keeps you at the edge of your couch cushion with an impressive act four twist.

09 . "The Equinox, Parts I & II" (Seasons 5 & 6)

In a plot worthy of a Star Trek movie, Janeway and her crew encounter another starship stuck in the Delta Quadrant, The Equinox. Commanded by a battle-hardened, Ahab-like figure, Captain Ransom (John Savage), The Equinox plots to hijack Voyager and strand her crew aboard their dying ship — in order to escape a race of subspace aliens that have been plaguing them.

Part of the fun of this excellent two-parter is never really knowing for most of its run time where the plot is going to go — for a moment, we actually think Janeway will lose this one.

08 . "Deadlock" (Season 2)

"Deadlock" is one of the few bright spots from Voyager 's bumpy early days. While the episode could take place on any of Trek 's ship-based shows, the stakes feel higher and for Janeway and her crew as they must work with those belonging to an alternate version of Voyager to get out of trouble.

When our Voyager — Voyager Prime — becomes fatally disabled, Janeway volunteers to sacrifice her ship so the other Voyager can go on. How Janeway handles the idea of this sacrifice results in the Ensign Harry Kim (Garret Wang) the show started with being replaced by his doppelganger.

07 . "Scorpion, Parts I & II" (Seasons 3 & 4)

"Scorpion" is action-packed Season 3 finale/Season 4 premiere that kicks off with a hell of a hook for a teaser: A small fleet of Borg cubes easily destroyed by an offscreen threat.

That threat is revealed to be Species 8472, a long-standing rival of the Borg in this quadrant of space — the only thing the Borg are afraid of. Enter Seven of Nine (Jeri Ryan), a Borg attache who becomes a remember of Janeway's crew as Voyager teams up with the enemy of their enemy to both defeat the Borg and shave some time off their trip home.

"Scorpion" represents a turning point for the series and for the franchise, with the introduction of the instantly-iconic Seven — another member of Trek’s deep bench of alien characters struggling to learn what it takes to be human. Or, in Seven's case, rediscover her humanity.

06 . "Counterpoint" (Season 5)

"Counterpoint" (Kate Mulgrew's favorite episode) is arguably Voyager 's most underrated episode, with a storyline whose elevator pitch could be "The Diary of Anne Frank" in space.

Voyager is secretly providing safe harbor to a group of telepaths being hunted by an alien race that hates them. (So, basically, Space Nazis). When the latter's charming leader defects to Voyager, and sparks a relationship with Janeway, it's instantly fraught with suspicion that boils over into bittersweet betrayal. The hour is an acting showcase for Mulgrew, as she pushes Janeway to uneasy places with the hard choices only this captain can make — and learn to live with.

05 . "Latent Image" (Season 5)

The most successful medical storylines on Star Trek are those that tap into moral/ethical dilemmas with a tech twist. In "Latent Image," the Doctor finds himself caught in the middle of both as he and Seven work to uncover who appears to have tampered with his memory — and why.

What starts as a whodunit becomes a powerful drama dealing with consent and the rights afforded all lifeforms — including artificial ones like the Doctor — when he discovers that Janeway altered his program against his will. Why? Because the doctor was confronted with a hard choice that broke him: With two patients' lives on the line, and only enough time to save one of them, the Doctor chose to save his friend.

04 . "Hope and Fear" (Season 4)

A rare non-two parter season finale, "Hope and Fear" is a landmark episode in the Janeway-Seven of Nine (Jeri Ryan) dynamic that puts the two at odds — only to come together in the end — in ways that echo Kirk and Spock.

When a sketchy alien (Ray Wise) shows up with the promise of getting Voyager home with the help of an all-too-convenient new starship, everyone fantasizes about the pros and cons of their long journey coming to an end. But the alien's plan is revealed to be a long con — he is a Borg attack survivor seeking revenge on Voyager, specifically Seven.

After he suffers a fitting but tragic end, "Hope and Fear" wraps up with a crew overcoming the letdown of still being stuck lightyears from home by focusing on a renewed purpose to keep going.

03 . "Message In a Bottle" (Season 4)

This fast-paced mix of action and comedy is a solid two-hander between Voyager’s EMH and a more advanced version (Andy Dick) aboard a sophisticated new starship that’s been hijacked (naturally) by Romulans. The two unlikely heroes are Voyager's only hope as they must use the ship's unique ability to separate into three different sections to defeat the bad guys.

Star Trek is hit and miss when it comes to comedy, but "Message In a Bottle" finds a near-perfect balance between laughs and sci-fi action while providing further proof that actor Robert Picardo is the series' MVP.

02 . "Timeless" (Season 5)

Voyager 's 100th episode is one of the greatest ever produced on any Star Trek series. "Timeless" opens in a future where Voyager crashed on an ice planet while on its way home, and centers on Ensign Harry Kim's efforts to save his crew in a very "timey wimey" fashion. (Captain Geordi La Forge, played by LeVar Burton — who directed the episode — stands in the good Ensign’s way).

With "Timeless," showrunner and writer Brannon Braga set out to do for Voyager what "The City on the Edge of Forever" did for the classic Original Series . A high bar this entertaining, high-concept hour effortlessly reaches.

01 . "Year of Hell," Parts I & II (Season 4)

Voyager achieved feature film-level quality with this epic two-parter.

Janeway and crew struggle to defeat time-manipulating genocidal villain (a perfect Kurtwood Smith) as he risks breaking the laws of physics — and chipping away our heroes' starship with battle damage — all so he can get back to his lost wife. To right that wrong, and alter the timeline by doing so, he and his time ship destroy an entire civilization. With some of the best space battles in the franchise's history, coupled with the moral and ethical dramas only Star Trek can do, "Year of Hell" is an all-timer.

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25 Must-Watch Episodes of ‘Star Trek: Voyager’

“We're Starfleet officers. Weird is part of the job.”

Paramount+ recently renewed their roster of Star Trek shows, meaning fans have access to Star Trek all year-round. One of the best things about New Trek has been a renewed appreciation for Star Trek: Voyager . Be it the return of Kate Mulgrew as Hologram Janeway on Star Trek: Prodigy , Jeri Ryan reprising her role as Seven of Nine on Star Trek: Picard or Voyager’s enduring legacy nearly 1000 years in the future as seen on Star Trek: Discovery , the show has been inescapable. Former Voyager actors Garrett Wang and Robert Duncan McNeill have also revived interest in the show through their recaps on The Delta Flyers podcast.The fifth Star Trek show to debut on screens, Voyager was the first to have a female captain leading its crew and one of the more diverse casts in the roster when it debuted in 1995. Voyager faced plenty of criticism when it aired, but viewers’ newfound love for it is hardly misplaced. There is a lot to love and enjoy during the show’s seven-season run.If you’re wondering where to start with this underrated show or want to take a trip through the Delta Quadrant, let’s look at some of the best episodes to watch. RELATED: ' Star Trek: Voyager': The 7 Best Time Travel Episodes

Season 1, Episode 1: "Caretaker"

The pilot episode of Voyager sets the tone for an unpredictable journey through the Delta Quadrant. Voyager is tasked with retrieving a rebel Maquis ship when both ships are pulled more than 70,000 light years away by an entity known as the Caretaker. Neither crew emerges unscathed, and Captain Janeway must weigh impossible options to either return her crew home or save an entire civilization.

The episode gives viewers a glimpse of all the main characters and their unique personalities. We also meet the Kazon, the bane of Voyager’s life in early seasons. What “Caretaker” does well embodies the varied aspects of a Star Trek episode in one—there’s action, there are uncomfortable alliances and there’s solidarity in the face of adversity.

Season 1, Episode 14: "Faces"

“Faces” is a bold episode to include in the first season of a show. Voyager’s away team is captured by the Vidiians, a species that have advanced medical technology but are unable to cure themselves of the devastating disease, the Phage. The chief surgeon of the facility splits Voyager’s Chief Engineer B’Elanna Torres ( Roxann Dawson ) into two people—a Klingon and a human.

The episode examines B’Elanna’s conflict with her mixed heritage, the bullying she suffered because of it and her journey to accepting who she is. Through B’Elanna, we see an analogy for real-world discussions of identity, especially among minority communities. “Faces” will resonate with anyone who is struggling with their identity and how it’s viewed by others.

Season 1, Episode 15: "Jetrel"

Neelix ( Ethan Phillips ) was introduced as comic relief but “Jetrel” shows us a very different side to him. Dr. Ma'Bor Jetrel ( James Sloyan ) arrives at Voyager with dire news for Neelix but Neelix refuses to engage with him. Jetrel was the man behind the metreon cascade that decimated Neelix’s home world, killed his family and hundreds and thousands of other Talaxians.

The beauty of science-fiction is its ability to reflect real-world incidents through a genre-specific lens. “Jetrel” is obviously an analogy of the atomic bombings on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The story channels the consequent suffering of the Japanese people through Neelix. The creators don’t attempt to redeem Jetrel but instead balance the varied emotions that both Jetrel and Neelix navigate when faced with each other.

Season 2, Episode 12: "Resistance"

Captain Janeway is separated from her away team and rescued by an alien named Caylem ( Joel Grey ). Caylem is convinced Janeway is his daughter, so Janeway tries to use his help to get back to her crew. Meanwhile, B’Elanna and Tuvok ( Tim Russ ) are captured and try to find a way out.

This seems like a straightforward episode—stranded on a planet, split up, captured by aliens, standard Star Trek stuff. But the episode allows B’Elanna and Tuvok to bond and get to know each other despite their differing personalities. However, it’s that heartbreaking dénouement that makes it a must-watch. Captain Janeway’s humanity and generosity come to the fore with a few lines of dialogue and will have you reaching for the tissues during the finale credits.

Season 2, Episode 21: "Deadlock"

Voyager spots Vidiian ships and hides in a nebula, only for the ship to start failing in mysterious ways. Lives are lost, and the ship is in shambles. Captain Janeway and her crew locate the source of their troubles. It’s another Voyager?

Duplicates, high stakes, technobabble, “Deadlock” feels like classic Star Trek. The creators capture the claustrophobia of a ship-based story and the sets perfectly capture the differing scenarios aboard the two Voyagers. The episode writers don’t pull any punches; sometimes space exploration can be deadly and Voyager has to face that fact. The conclusion is such a surprise—just when you think you know how the episode will end, the creators chuck in another twist.

Season 2, Episode 25: "Resolutions"

Unrequited love is a standard trope across pop culture, but “Resolutions” takes it to a whole new level. Captain Janeway and First Officer Commander Chakotay ( Robert Beltran ) transport to an isolated planet after they’re infected with a contagious disease. While Chakotay immediately takes it upon himself to make the planet their new home, Janeway still holds out hope that they’ll return to Voyager.

The episode is incredibly romantic despite lacking a concrete romance. Chakotay veritably declares his undying love for Janeway without saying the actual words, but just when Janeway begins to imagine her life without Voyager, Captain and Commander are miraculously saved. A happy ending has never been sadder. The thread of their almost-romance informs Janeway and Chakotay’s relationship throughout the show, but never overshadows it.

Season 3, Episode 3: "The Chute"

Tom Paris (McNeill) and Harry Kim (Wang) became fast friends in the first episode of Voyager and their friendship is one of the best in the franchise. So, what happens when the close buddies are wrongfully convicted and imprisoned in an alien prison?

“The Chute” is a tense episode that shines a spotlight on Tom and Harry during one of the worst ordeals they have together. It’s stressful watching Tom deteriorate and Harry reach the end of his tether. We’re on tenterhooks throughout worrying about how this friendship will survive this episode if it can at all! It all comes to a head in the final scenes and a simple line of dialogue that rights the world. This is heart-wrenching stuff that showcases the power and importance of friendship.

Season 3, Episode 8 & Episode 9: "Future’s End Parts I & II"

Time travel is an integral part of Star Trek, and one of Voyager ’s most memorable temporal stories is the two-parter “Future’s End”. In the episode, Voyager becomes trapped in the 20th century and can’t get back until they stop Henry Starling ( Ed Begley, Jr. ), a con man who has stolen future technology for his own gains.

This is an entertaining episode but also thought-provoking. Starling is a truly reprehensible villain compared to the other aliens that Voyager has met in the Delta Quadrant. The crew are also faced with an interesting conundrum—they’re back on Earth but in the wrong century, do they really want to return to their time when they’re 70-odd years away from home?

Season 3, Episode 16: "Blood Fever"

B’Elanna Torres is accidentally infected with the Vulcan Pon Farr which sets her hormones in overdrive. When she and Tom Paris are alone on an away mission, sparks fly but how real are these feelings?

“Blood Fever” is a sexy episode, with a lot of hot and heavy emotions bubbling to the surface. B’Elanna is aggressive with her desires, but the writers do a great job in making consent a priority. Tom was introduced as a cad on Voyager , and had his eye on B’Elanna, but he refuses to give in despite B’Elanna’s requests because she isn’t in a position to consent. The gender-flipped power play adds to the appeal of this episode. In the end, “Blood Fever” sets the stage for a romance but doesn’t ignite it, which is an important difference. Also, a new terrifying villain is introduced in the final moments. What’s not to love?

Season 3, Episode 23: "Distant Origin"

There are a few Star Trek episodes that have attempted to investigate the origins of humans, but in “Distant Origin” two scientists from an alien species called the Voth believe they originate from human beings. They capture Chakotay who reluctantly helps them.

The debate between traditional dogma and science is familiar to everybody and “Distant Origin” reflects the destructive impact of such rigidity through the Voth and the Doctrine. It’s maddening to watch the scientists lose their hard work and their future because of bureaucracy, which is what makes this episode so brilliant (and sadly, relatable). Another fantastic element is Chakotay’s characterization—his kindness and understanding are a balm during an otherwise tense episode. This is also a rare moment where aliens help Voyager altruistically.

Season 3, Episode 25: "Worst Case Scenario"

“Worst Case Scenario” begins with B’Elanna seemingly being encouraged by Chakotay to begin a mutiny, but just when things get interesting, the holo program stops. Suddenly everyone wants to play this program and learn the identity of the author.

While the author reveal is surprising, what comes after is gripping stuff. Tuvok, who had conceived the story as a training program, is convinced to complete the narrative, alongside a very eager Tom Paris. And that’s when things go very wrong. Tuvok and Tom make for an unlikely comedic duo—Tuvok, dour and logical as ever, Tom, a bit too flippant considering the danger they find themselves in.

There are twists and turns that one would never expect, and laughs aplenty, as the entire ship finds itself facing a talented adversary.

Season 4, Episode 8 & Episode 9: "Year of Hell Parts I & II"

Another time-focused two-parter, “Year of Hell” puts the Voyager crew through the grind, and they shine despite it all. The ship is caught in a series of temporal incursions created by Krenim scientist Annorax ( Kurtwood Smith ) and each one devastates the ship more and more. Unable to get out, the crew do everything they can to survive.

“Year of Hell” is a harrowing episode, but the best part of it are the character interactions and dynamics. Tuvok and Seven’s relationship, Chakotay falling for Annorax’s big ideas, Neelix’s promotion, the politics aboard the Krenim ship, Captain Janeway’s valiant sacrifice—they all come together to create a moving and immersive experience. The Voyager crew have never been closer than in this two-parter. The dénouement feels like a well-earned relief.

Season 4, Episode 14: "Message in a Bottle"

If you need a laugh, “Message in a Bottle” is the perfect bottle episode. The Doctor ( Robert Picardo ) is transmitted as a holographic message to the Alpha Quadrant. The only problem? The ship he arrives at has been overtaken by Romulans. The Doctor then has to partner with the captured ship’s emergency medical hologram, the Mark 2 ( Andy Dick ), to survive and save the ship.

If you thought the Doctor had a bad attitude, the Mark 2 somehow trumps even him. The banter between the two EMHs powers this entire episode and the comedic timing of Picardo and Dick is stellar. What should be a stressful situation becomes a comedy of errors because we’re following the exploits of two doctors—EMHs—not trained Starfleet officers.

Season 5, Episode 6: "Timeless"

One of the most heartbreaking episodes on Voyager is another time travel story. This time, Harry and Chakotay are on a mission to save their friends who died in the Delta Quadrant fifteen years ago.

From the opening teaser reveal to the final scene, “Timeless” tugs at the bond that the Voyager crew has formed with one another, and with the viewer. Director LeVar Burton perfectly juxtaposes the joyous celebrations of the past with the eventual doom in the ‘present’. Seeing Harry transform from hopeful and optimistic to jaded and fatalistic adds another layer of shock to the proceedings. “Timeless” will make you want to bawl your eyes out. It doesn’t matter how many times you watch this episode; you will be overcome with emotion by the end.

Season 5, Episode 10: "Counterpoint"

Star Trek has rarely shied away from reflecting the atrocities committed by humanity and “Counterpoint” is another great entry in the franchise. Voyager is secretly housing telepathic species who are seeking refuge through an expanse of occupied space. The ship is constantly inspected by the smarmy Devore Imperium officer, Kashyk ( Mark Harelik ). And then one day it’s Kashyk who’s asking for refuge.

There are so many layers and subtleties that make this episode a memorable and heartbreaking one. The obvious references to Nazi Germany make it a powerful watch, but the interplay between Captain Janeway and Kashyk is riveting. This is a spotlight episode for the captain, and she is written as compassionate and intelligent. The writers cleverly subvert our expectations of the conclusion, and you will be left feeling as crushed as Janeway by the end of it.

Season 5, Episode 12: "Bride of Chaotica"

Another Captain Janeway episode, but this one is so different. Tom and Harry’s The Adventures of Captain Proton holodeck program is one of the more memorable holodeck programs in the franchise. In “Bride of Chaotica”, photonic lifeforms mistakenly believe the program is real and begin fighting the evil Doctor Chaotica ( Martin Rayner ). The battle affects the ship and soon Janeway is on the holodeck assuming the new role of Queen Arachnia.

This episode fully embraces the cheesy, hammy style of classic science-fiction. Tuning in to “Bridge of Chaotica” is like switching off your brain and enjoying 45 minutes of bombastic performances, bulky props and a lot of fun. This is exactly the kind of silliness that a holodeck-based episode should embrace.

Season 5, Episode 21: "Someone to Watch Over Me"

It can be very icky when an older gentleman falls for a much younger woman, but “Someone to Watch Over Me” still makes the interaction between the Doctor and Seven of Nine a touching one. The Doctor takes it upon himself to help Seven learn some social skills, especially the art of dating. The two of them bond over songs and banter, and it’s not long before the Doctor begins falling for his student.

The episode doesn’t go any further with their relationship, and that’s the beauty of it. Once Seven decides to put dating on hold, the Doctor realizes the door to explore other aspects of their relationship is closed. Voyager is made for lovers of unrequited love, and you will be all choked up as Picardo sings a heartbreaking version of “Someone to Watch Over Me” as the episode closes.

Season 6, Episode 4: "Tinker Tenor Doctor Spy"

The Doctor is a man of many talents, or so it seems in “Tinker Tenor Doctor Spy”. The story sees the Doctor alter his program so that he can daydream, only for an unsuspecting alien scientist named Phlox ( Jay M. Leggett ) to tap into the feed. Soon, Phlox’s mistake and the Doctor’s tampering put Voyager at risk. And only the Emergency Command Hologram can save them.

There’s a lot to be said about the innovative ways the Voyager writers allowed Picardo to flex every muscle he could. This laugh-out-loud episode is crisply paced and comedic gold. The Doctor’s love for daydreaming is one of his most human aspects. But it’s the writers’ ability to imbue the unknown character Phlox with so much personality and high stakes that elevates this episode.

Season 6, Episode 6: "Riddles"

Frenemies Tuvok and Neelix are returning on the Delta Flyer when Tuvok is attacked and loses his memory. The crew is desperate to get their chief tactical officer back and Neelix takes it upon himself to help Tuvok heal. But along the way, both characters learn that there’s more to each other’s personalities and themselves.

Star Trek is all about friendships and “Riddles” captures the importance of that. Tuvok always acts like he barely tolerates Neelix, but Neelix never seems to take the hint—this episode explores why. It’s so sweet and the relationship between Tuvok and Neelix is affectionate and touching. “Riddles” was actor Roxann Dawson’s first directorial effort on the show, and she does a great job evoking myriad emotions from the central cast.

Season 6, Episode 10: "Pathfinder"

“Pathfinder” is a rare episode that doesn’t center Voyager. Set on Earth, Lieutenant Reginald Barclay ( Dwight Schultz ) is part of the Pathfinder project to help the ship find her way home. Except, Barclay is a little too obsessed with the project and his holodeck program… of the Voyager crew. When the problem reaches a peak, Barclay’s friend, Enterprise Counselor Deanna Troi ( Marina Sirtis ) tries to help him work through it.

Brilliantly paced with obvious roots in Star Trek: The Next Generation , “Pathfinder” feels very meta. Barclay is every Star Trek fan come to life—desperate to be part of a story he dearly loves. Schultz and Sirtis step into the shoes of their TNG characters with ease, and the workplace setting also adds to the novelty of the episode.

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The 10 best Star Trek: Voyager episodes, ranked

As much as fans love to praise Star Trek as groundbreaking science fiction, it’s important to remember that, for most of the franchise’s history, Trek was weekly procedural television. Until the streaming era, each series was churning out roughly 26 episodes a year, and by the later seasons of Star Trek: Voyager , some of the creative crew had been in the business of making Star Trek for over a decade. The franchise was a crossover commercial success, the kind of success that the money men like to leave exactly as it is for as long as it’s doing steady numbers.

10. Counterpoint (season 5, episode 10)

9. the thaw (season 2, episode 23), 8. mortal coil (season 4, episode 12), 7. latent image (season 5, episode 11), 6. bride of chaotica (season 5, episode 12), 5. living witness (season 4, episode 23), 4. prime factors (season 1, episode 10), 3. year of hell, parts i & ii (season 4, episodes 8 & 9), 2. blink of an eye (season 6, episode 12), 1. timeless (season 5, episode 6).

The operation was essentially on rails, and there was a lot of pressure from the studio and the network to keep it that way, which accounts for the general blandness of Voyager and the early years of its successor, Enterprise . The waning years of Trek’s golden era were plagued by creative exhaustion and, consequently, laziness. Concepts from previous series were revisited, often with diminishing returns, and potentially groundbreaking ideas were nixed from on high in order to avoid upsetting the apple cart.

That’s not to say that Star Trek: Voyager isn’t still a solid television show, and even many Trekkies’ favorite. The saga of Captain Kathryn Janeway (Kate Mulgrew) and her gallant crew finding their way home from the farthest reaches of the galaxy may not be as ambitious as it could have been, but it is steadily entertaining, which is why new and nostalgic fans alike enjoy it as cozy “comfort viewing.” For our part, however, we tend to enjoy the episodes that have a certain emotional intensity or creative spark, that feel like conceptual or stylistic risks. As such, you might find that our list of the 10 best Voyager episodes differs greatly from some of the others out there. We like when Voyager dared to get heavy, or silly, or sappy, or mean. So, without further ado, let’s raise a glass to the journey …

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Counterpoint drops the audience into the middle of an ongoing story,in which Voyager is boarded and inspected by agents of a fascist government, the Devore. The Devore treat all travelers through their space with suspicion, but are particularly concerned with capturing and detaining all telepaths, who they view as dangerous. Despite the risks, Captain Janeway is attempting to smuggle a group of telepathic refugees to safety, all while putting on a show of cooperation for smiling Devore Inspector Kashyk (Mark Harelik). Much of the plot takes place in the background, obscured from the audience in order to build suspense. The real focus is on the evolving dynamic between Janeway and Kashyk, a rivalry that simmers into one of the Voyager captain’s rare romances. Kashyk works in the service of what are, transparently, space Nazis, but when he offers to defect to Voyager, can his intentions be trusted?

Beyond its intriguing premise, Counterpoint is a particularly strong production with a lot of subtle hints of creative flair. Director Les Landau and director of photography Marvin Rush, who had been both working on Star Trek since the 1980s, shoot the hell out of this story, breaking from Voyager ’s even lighting and predictable camera moves to make some very deliberate choices that build a great deal of tension around what is essentially a bottle episode. The makeup team, supervised by equally seasoned Trek veteran Michael Westmore, supplies a memorable and imaginative makeup design for an alien astrophysicist who appears in all of two scenes in this episode and is never utilized again. Most of all, Kate Mulgrew provides what may be her most subtle, human performance in the entire series, embodying Janeway’s famous conviction and strength of will while also granting a rare glimpse at her more vulnerable side without ever straying into melodrama.

If you look back at Star Trek: The Original Series , in-between the deep dramas and camp classics, you’ll find a lot of episodes that are just plain weird. The same is true for the best Star Trek spinoffs, and there’s no Voyager story as boldly off-putting as The Thaw , which guest stars This is Spinal Tap and Better Call Saul ’ s Michael McKean as a maniacal AI who literally scares people to death. In this episode, Voyager comes across a group of aliens who have been trapped in suspended animation ever since an environmental disaster struck their planet two decades earlier. To pass the time while in hibernation, the survivors have hooked their brains up to a virtual reality, where they are supposed to be entertained by a wacky character known only as “the Clown.”

Unfortunately, what the Clown finds most entertaining is probing their minds for their innermost fears and turning it into weird performance art, and he refuses to let his audience leave. When the Voyager crew attempts to rescue them, the Clown takes Ensign Harry Kim (Garrett Wang) hostage and proceeds to menace him for most of the episode. And, folks, it’s a trip.

The Thaw is a colorful, not entirely comprehensible, totally unclassifiable episode. It’s sort of horror, it’s sort of comedy, it’s sort of character study, but mostly it’s just entertaining. And for however much of it is up to interpretation, it’s a rare glimpse at the psyche of Harry Kim, one of Voyager’s least explored characters. Above all, however, it’s a delight to watch McKean perform what’s essentially his take on the Joker, a homicidal clown with a genius intellect and a poetic flair. Mulgrew, consequently, gets to play Batman, facing down his gleeful menace with stillness and determination. It’s one of the few real treats from the early seasons of the series, one whose reputation among fans has only grown since its premiere in 1996.

Aside from maybe The Next Generation ’s Wesley Crusher, no Star Trek character was as immediately reviled as Voyager’s chef, ambassador, and morale officer Neelix (Ethan Phillips). On most episodes of Voyager , Neelix is the goofy comic relief, performing folksy, unfunny antics around the mess hall or annoying the stoic Vulcan Lt. Tuvok (Tim Russ) with his naivety and effervescence. His unsettling long-term romantic relationship with Kes, who is technically a two-year-old when the series begins, is also part of Trek’s most irritating love triangle.

And yet, when Neelix is the center of an episode, it often reveals him to be one of the show’s most textured and interesting characters. Neelix is a survivor of a devastating war that destroyed his home and claimed the lives of his entire family. Beneath the persona of a “happy wanderer” resides a deep sea of melancholy and a predisposition towards depression. It’s a performance for his own benefit, as well as for the weary Voyager crew, and if it seems like he’s trying too hard, that’s because he is.

In the episode Mortal Coil , Neelix is killed on an away mission, only to be resuscitated 18 hours later by Seven of Nine (Jeri Ryan) and her advanced Borg medicine. The crew is happy to have him back, but the experience rocks Neelix to his core. Neelix has always believed that he would be reunited with his family in the afterlife, but upon his death, he experienced no such thing. Neelix’s crisis of faith provides Phillips an opportunity to really dig his teeth into his character, and to take a heavy, nuanced look at belief, mortality, depression, and suicidal ideation.

Writer Bryan Fuller, who would go on to create NBC’s Hannibal , puts his psychological horror chops to great use here, and director Allan Kroeker sustains a feeling of dread that places the audience on edge and off-balance. The story resolves itself a little too quickly and is never mentioned again, but that’s par for the course on Voyager. But when evaluated on its own, Mortal Coil  holds up against some of Trek’s best character studies.

Following up on the popularity of Data on The Next Generation , Voyager debuted with its own artificial crewmember, the Emergency Medical Hologram (Robert Picardo), usually just called “the Doctor.” Rather than a supposedly emotionless android , the Doctor is a hologram based on the grouchy engineer who designed him and endowed with the medical knowledge of the entire Federation. At the start of the series, everyone — including the Doctor himself — considers him to be a tool intended for short-term use, rather than a person, but since he’s left online for years rather than hours, he gradually develops his own personality and preferences, becoming a sentient individual.

Unlike in Data’s case, however, it takes the crew a long time to get used to the idea of the Doctor being his own man, and they continue to infringe on his rights, his privacy, and his very programming for much of the series. Sometimes the Doctor’s indignity is played for laughs, sometimes for sympathy, and in our next episode, for horror.

In Latent Image , the Doctor discovers evidence that he performed a delicate neurosurgery on Ensign Kim 18 months earlier, but he has no memory of the event, and neither does the rest of the crew. With the help of Seven of Nine, who joined the cast in the intervening year, the Doctor attempts to unravel the mystery of what really happened, leading to a terrible discovery that calls his relationship with Capt. Janeway and the rest of the crew into question. We won’t give away the answer here, but the story digs deep into the complexity of the Doctor’s character and his nature as an ascended artificial intelligence, and offers Picardo his meatiest acting challenge. You won’t find it on a lot of Best of Voyager lists, but it remains one of the show’s greatest hidden treasures.

Lest we leave you with the impression that the best of Voyager is all gloom and doom, our next entry is one of the lightest and funniest episodes of the series. Despite being set aboard a Starfleet vessel blasted to the far side of the galaxy with limited resources and no support, Voyager assures the audience early on that the ship’s holodecks are still fully functional, allowing the crew to go on their LARPing (live-action role-playing) adventures just like on The Next Generation . Most of the crew’s fantasies proved to be pretty forgettable, until the introduction of Tom Paris’ (Robert Duncan McNeill) new favorite holonovel, The Adventures of Captain Proton . Modeled after the classic Flash Gordon film serials — right down to the cheap effects and black-and-white photography — Captain Proton became a recurring treat during Voyager ’s fifth season, and is at the center of the No. 6 pick on our list, Bride of Chaotica!

In this episode, Tom and Harry’s latest excursion into the monochrome world of Captain Proton attracts the attention of photonic beings from another dimension, to whom the fictional villain Doctor Chaotica (Martin Rayner) is terrifyingly real. War breaks out between the photonic sentients and the 1930s-style bad guys, and the only way to save the day is for the crew to play along with the campy program. And because no Star Trek series is complete without the captain getting into a silly outfit and hamming it up, Janeway must pose as Chaotica’s evil bride, the devilish Arachnia! Mulgrew and the rest of the cast are plainly having a ball with this episode, and the fun is contagious. Keeping the holodeck around for the run of Voyager  may have been one of the signs that the series was going to play things relatively safe, but it did give us one of the franchise’s best holodeck episodes.

History is written by the victors, and subject to countless revisions over the passing centuries. How much of what we think of as historical fact is actually widely accepted conjecture or outright fabrication? We’ll probably never know, unless some eyewitness from the distant past turns up in our present to set things straight. This, naturally, is exactly what happens in Living Witness , as a backup copy of the Doctor is reactivated on an alien planet 700 years after Voyager participates in a pivotal political conflict.

For the Kyrians, it’s a well-known fact that the Warship Voyager eagerly aided their aggressive neighbors, the Vaskans, in unleashing a weapon of mass destruction against their homeworld. Captain Janeway is a cutthroat who will stop at nothing to get her crew home, Seven of Nine habitually assimilates her enemies and maintains her own small Borg collective onboard, and the Doctor is an android. When the holographic Doctor is awakened, he is aghast at the way his friends have been mischaracterized and sets out to prove what really happened, or else be punished for the genocide they’re accused of committing.

The Voyager cast never got the chance to play in the famous Star Trek Mirror Universe, home to the over-the-top evil versions of our Starfleet heroes, but Living Witness offers Mulgrew, Robert Beltran (Commander Chakotay), and company the opportunity to go full cartoon baddie, all in the name of poignant satire. It’s a bizarre comedy episode with an uncomfortable, but undeniable lesson: Time flattens everything. From a distance, every person, group, or thing becomes either all good or all bad, and that evaluation changes depending on who’s looking, and from where. In order to preserve the nuance of truth, we have to be willing to treat history as a process rather than a product, or else lose all sense of reality.

For fans who hoped that Voyager would lean into its intriguing premise of a motley crew of officers and terrorists having to rough it in the wilderness of space, much of the series turned out to be a real letdown. Almost immediately, the tension between the upstanding Starfleet and scrappy Maquis crewmembers, and the added tension of having to scrape and forage to survive, began to dissolve until Voyager was more or less the same familiar Trek that fans had been getting for the previous seven years. However, early on, there are a few episodes that truly capitalize on the show’s potential. The best example of this is Prime Factors , which introduces a dilemma that divides the crew between those who hold Starfleet’s principles as sacrosanct and those who didn’t sign up for this and just want to go home.

The setup is a terrific reversal of a classic Star Trek problem. A group needs help, but helping them means violating the Prime Directive, which forbids interfering in the internal affairs of other cultures. The twist? This time, our heroes aren’t the technologically advanced institution debating the virtues of foreign intervention, they’re the party in need. The friendly, benevolent Sikarians have the technology to send Voyager home instantly, but their own Prime Directive dictates that they not share it. How do Janeway and company feel when the shoe is on the other foot? How will a divided crew take the news, and will they all be inclined to abide by the Sikarians’ ruling?

It’s a fascinating study of ethics, ethical relativism, and the smugness often projected by even the most well-meaning of privileged do-gooders. How many planets have been a Federation ship’s “problem of the week” to be solved (or not solved) and then forgotten? In Prime Factors , our Starfleet stalwarts experience what it’s like to become someone’s pet cause, and learn that the charity of the privileged and comfortable only lasts as long as it’s convenient and self-gratifying.

If Prime Factors exemplifies the potential of Voyager ’s beginnings, Year of Hell  is a glimpse of what the show could have become if it had stayed the course. In this episode, which was initially envisioned as a season-long arc , Voyager’s long journey home takes them through the Krenim Imperium, whose brutal militaristic regime treats them as invaders and repeatedly kicks the crap out of them for 12 long months. The situation aboard Voyager gets increasingly dire as the crew takes casualties and the ship falls into disrepair. Hard choices have to be made about how to survive, and whether or not their goal of reaching Earth is even attainable. Janeway and company are pushed to their limits and left with permanent physical and psychological scars.

Or, they would be, if this wasn’t also a time travel story. The thrill of Year of Hell is undercut somewhat by being a “What If?” story whose events are erased from the timeline before the credits roll on Part II, but the actual time travel mechanics of the episode are fun and interesting. From the outset, the audience knows that the timeline of the story is in flux, as the power-mad Krenim scientist Annorax (Kurtwood Smith) selectively erases entire civilizations from time in order to restore his planet’s empire to full strength and rewrite his wife’s untimely death.

However, the characters don’t learn this until nearly nearly a third of the way through the story, after we’ve already seen their circumstances suddenly change a few times. Year of Hell  becomes a story about causality, about the reverberations of the smallest actions upon the grand tapestry of history, and the futility of trying to curate one’s own fate. It’s a terrific two-hour epic, and even if we’d rather have seen it play out over the course of an entire year, we wouldn’t dare try to go back and change it.

If Voyager isn’t going to be about a struggle for survival in the wilderness of space, then it damn well ought to be about exploring its wonders. Blink of an Eye is the kind of episode that could easily fit into any Star Trek series (or a non-Trek one, as its premise is suspiciously similar to the 1980 Robert L. Forward novel Dragon’s Egg ). Here, Voyager becomes trapped in the orbit of a planet with a strange property — for every 1.03 second that occurs in normal space, a year passes below. As the civilization on the planet evolves over centuries from a pre-industrial society to a futuristic one, the starship Voyager remains a fixture in their sky, inspiring religion, folklore, and a cultural obsession with reaching the stars.

The story cuts back and forth between the Voyager crew’s attempts to escape the planet’s orbit and generations of scientists and philosophers as their understanding of their celestial visitor evolves. Where some Trek episodes such as A Piece of the Action or Who Watches the Watchers frame accidental interference into an alien culture as a irreversible calamity, Blink of an Eye  takes a more subtle approach, showing the often inspiring ways that a civilization grapples with the great mysteries of life.

The highlight of the episode is guest star Daniel Dae Kim (pre- Lost ) as one of the first astronauts from the planet to set foot aboard Voyager. Through his eyes, we get to experience the joy and overwhelming emotional power of discovery, the very thing that inspires our Starfleet heroes to explore space in the first place. Star Trek is, ultimately, a show about curiosity, about humanity’s irrepressible drive to learn and understand our universe. There are few episodes in the entire Star Trek canon that capture this feeling more perfectly than Blink of an Eye . It’s the kind of story that, though simple and relatively low-stakes, should tug on the heartstrings of anyone who has sought inner peace through knowledge and appreciation of their outside world.

For Voyager ’s 100th episode, producers Rick Berman, Brannon Braga, and Joe Menosky decided to crash the ship into a planet and kill off almost the entire cast. We’re kidding! Well, sort of. Timeless  follows future versions of Chakotay and Harry Kim, the only survivors of Voyager, which was destroyed during a test of a new form of propulsion. This new technology brought Chakotay and Kim’s shuttle all the way home, but the rest of the crew was condemned to an icy grave. Racked with guilt over his role in their deaths, Kim becomes obsessed with going back in time to undo the disaster.

The story is told across two time frames, splitting between the present of the show and a future in which Kim and Chakotay’s quest to fix their mistake has made them outlaws. It’s a thrilling time travel episode that puts the focus on the show’s most neglected regular characters. Chakotay gets to be roguish again, a quality he’d long since shed along with the rest of his personality. For his part, Wang actually gets to show some range, playing a brooding, self-loathing wreck with nothing left to lose.

Even though it’s a foregone conclusion that the time travel mission will succeed and none of this story will have happened, Timeless truly feels like an event. It’s emotional, it’s visually striking, and occasionally very funny. (Seven of Nine’s first experience with alcohol ranks among the most quotable and memetic scenes in the series.) It’s only an hour long, but it plays like a movie. The stakes are high, the scope is vast, the characters are rich, and there’s even a cute cameo from Next Generation star LeVar Burton, who also directed the episode.

Voyager is often feather-light, and occasionally, as the rest of this list demonstrates, super heavy. Timeless perfectly captures the balance of intensity and fun of a great “Star Trek” feature, akin to Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan or Star Trek: First Contact . It probably shouldn’t be anyone’s first Voyager , but when we’re in the mood to check out just one of the show’s episodes, this is the one we reach for.

For more Star Trek content, please check out the best Star Trek: The Original Series episodes , the best Star Trek: The Next Generation episodes , and the best Star Trek: Deep Space Nine episodes .

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‘star trek: voyager’ — the 15 greatest episodes.

We boldly go — and revisit the top episodes from 'Star: Trek Voyager.'

By Aaron Couch , Graeme McMillan September 23, 2016 6:00am

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Star Trek: Voyager went where no Trek had gone before — with the pilot stranding the ship in the Delta quadrant, decades away from home at maximum warp.

Kate Mulgrew ( Janeway ), Robert Beltran ( Chakotay ),  Roxann Dawson (Torres), Jennifer Lien ( Kes ), Robert Duncan McNeill (Paris), Ethan Phillips ( Neelix ), Robert Picardo (The Doctor), Tim Russ ( Tuvok ), Jeri Ryan (Seven of Nine) and Garrett Wang (Kim) helped keep Trek alive for seven seasons from 1995-2001, breaking ground as the first show toplined by a female captain.

To mark the  50th anniversary of Star Trek this month, The Hollywood Reporter counted down the  top 100 episodes of  Star Trek  across all six TV series. Now we're breaking that list down even further — ranking the episodes by individual series. (Check out our rankings from the original series , Next Generation and Deep Space Nine .)

Here, you'll find some of the cast  Voyager sharing what makes these episodes among the best of what Janeway's crew had to offer.

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'star trek': 100 greatest episodes, "flashback".

For fans wanting that much-talked-about Captain Sulu show that never materialized, this was as close as we got. George Takei guest starred as the captain of the Excelsior, where he was Tuvok's commanding officer decades ago.  

"Caretaker"

The series premiere for Voyager promised a Star Trek like none before it, with it boasting a female lead, a mixed crew of Starfleet and  Maquis , and a ship alone in the Delta Quadrant. Premiering seven months after the end of  Next Generation , the pilot did take some inspiration from the adventures of the Enterprise-D, whose crew on more than one occasion was flung to the far reaches of space (only to be returned by the end of the episode). 

"It was a 31-day shoot. T ypically , it would take 14 days to film a two-part episode," recalls Garrett Wang (Harry Kim). "It was exciting to meet my co-stars for the first time. For this episode we filmed at a multitude of locations, which kept it interesting."

"Mortal Coil"

"Mortal Coil" dealt with life, death and belief, with Neelix (Ethan Phillips) brought back from the dead thanks to Seven of Nine's technology, only to dive into a deep depression after returning to life with the knowledge that his people's heaven does not exist. Eventually, he turns to suicide.

" Chakotay finds him just as he’s just about to beam himself out into the void. Chakotay tells him he is needed on the ship for his unique gifts," recalls Phillips, who says the episode is his favorite. "The brilliance of the episode is its lesson: There is no security in life, safety is a myth, and what saves us in the face of this great uncertainty is the kindness we bestow on each other."

It's a meeting of like minds (literally) when two versions of Voyager are stuck in the same space and two Janeways  must work together to get them out of it. Our Voyager is disabled, and Janeway offers to sacrifice her crew so that the other crew might live. The episode added a new layer of grit to Voyager , with an entire crew facing its death with grace, and our Janeway in particular being unphased by the prospect. In an oft-forgotten piece of Voyager trivia, the Ensign Kim we start the series with is not the same Kim we finish it with, as he's replaced by the Kim on the alternate Voyager. 

"Worst Case Scenario"

Tuvok , it turns out, is quite the author. A holodeck program he wrote as a training exercise in case his Maquis shipmates staged a coup ends up becoming all the rage amongst the crew. Unfortunately, he stopped writing the program once he determined there was little risk of a revolt taking place — thus the novel has no ending. In classic Star Trek fashion, there's a twist, and yes, it involves safety protocols being turned off. (Why is this still an option?)

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-tQBxxfLvz0]

Showrunner Brannon Braga's love for the high concept is evident in this episode that starts 15 years in the future, revealing how just how unsuccessful Voyager was in attempting to get home (It might have crashed just weeks after the previous episode the audience had seen) before trying to undo the damage thanks to both the vagaries of time travel and the guest appearance of The Next Generation 's Geordi La Forge ( LeVar Burton, who also directed the episode.) Although the future glimpsed ended up never happening, it nonetheless made an impression on Ensign Harry Kim (Garrett Wang), who got a confidence boost from his future self. 

"Since 'Timeless' was the 100th episode of Voyager , the executive producers wanted it to be the signature episode. Brannon Braga referred to it as Voyager 's 'City on the Edge of Forever,' " says Wang. "Playing future Kim and current Kim gave me a chance to really stretch as an actor. In fact, it was during the filming of this episode that Robert Picardo (The Doctor) came to me and said, 'Garrett, you can act!' ( laughs )." 

"Future's End Parts I & II"

Every Starfleet crew deserves a chance to return to 20th century Earth, and Voyager was no different. After a time ship from the 29th century attempts to destroy Voyager for a future transgression, both ships are flung back to 1990s America. Although  Star Trek IV remains the gold standard when it comes to excursions in contemporary America, this one has plenty of charm too. Bonus points for Tuvok and Paris turning their portion of the story into a buddy comedy. 

"Hope and Fear"

Just one season into her tenure, Seven of Nine makes an important choice in the show's fourth season finale, deciding that she doesn't want to return to Borg space — which is exactly where she's headed thanks to an untrustworthy alien (Ray Wise, clearly enjoying the role) who's attempt to help the Voyager crew is revealed to be a sham, wasting an important chance to get the ship home … and teasing the audience with the possibility of a new Starfleet ship along the way.

"Tinker Tenor Doctor Spy"

Voyager wasn't exactly known for its comedy episodes, which makes this late entry in the series — written by series regular Joe Menosky from a story by cartoonist Bill Vallely — so enjoyable. The Emergency Medical Hologram (Robert Picardo , rarely more fun) gives himself the ability to daydream, not expecting how valuable it will be when the ship comes under surveillance by an alien race who have reason to believe the Doctor's fantasies. 

Not for the first time — "Timeless," anyone? — the series finale features a future that seeks to undo itself by righting previous wrongs, but there's so much more to be found than simply rehash: a long-awaited showdown with the Borg, the answer to whether or not Voyager would ever get home (Technically, two answers, given the time travel hook of the story) and, most importantly of all, the revelation of what the Emergency Medical Hologram has chosen to name himself after years of consideration. That alone earns it a place on this list. (The answer, by the way, is Joe.)

"Blink of an Eye"

While Starfleet crews often seemed like outsiders when visiting alien planets, rarely was that as keenly felt as this episode, in which time passes differently between the starship and the planet below, giving the Voyager the chance to watch a society evolve before its very eyes. Featuring a pre- Lost Daniel Dae Kim in an early appearance as an alien astronaut, this episode harkened back to the hard sci-fi roots of the franchise's origins. 

Wait, there is an alien race out there more powerful than The Borg? On the one hand, the introduction of Species 8472 was a game changer both for Trek and Voyager . It was a mindblowing notion that the Borg might have to team up with anyone, much less Janeway . On the other hand, it was the beginning of making the Borg a lot less scary.The two-part episode introduced Seven of Nine, which changed the entire dynamic of the series, with the character becoming a focal point starting with season 4. 

"Living Witness"

After 700 years of being offline, a backup copy of The Doctor (Robert Picardo ) is reactivated, to discover a historical recreation of Voyager's journey has painted the ship and its crew as genocidal maniacs. 

"It is classic science fiction, taking on an issue — revising history to serve a political agenda — in a way we can only dream of," says Picardo . "Regarding the shooting of this episode, I remember that the guest actor, Henry  Woronicz  and I both had excellent Ed Wynn ( Mary  Poppins ) impressions and rehearsed our very dramatic scenes using our 'Dueling  Wynnes ' to the initial amusement and eventual exasperation of all present."

"Equinox Parts I & 2"

While Voyager purposefully shied away from the grittier implications of its displaced crew series concept — something that later fed into Ronald D. Moore's Battlestar Galactica reboot, after his short-lived experience on the show — this two-parter offered an exciting glimpse into what could've been, with the introduction of another Starfleet crew lost in the Delta Quadrant that had fallen prey to their worst impulses in their attempt to survive. Consider it a welcome view into a darker Voyager we didn’t get — if a somewhat frustrating one, as well.

"Year of Hell"

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Erb5DdMW4jU]

Voyager at times gets grief for not being as gritty as the premise promised, but even the most cynical of fans can't deny that "Year of Hell" delivered the goods, with the crew battling a genocidal villain ( Kurtwood Smith) manipulating time itself. His opening act: erasing an entire civilization from time itself. If that's not dark, we don't know what is. 

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Best Star Trek: Voyager episodes

From battles with the Borg to explorations of humanity, we’ve picked out the best Star Trek: Voyager episodes.

Running from 1995 to 2001, Voyager was a departure for the Star Trek series, journeying into new territory, literal and metaphorical. It was the first in the franchise to feature a woman in the captain's chair, with the strong and stubborn Kathryn Janeway (Kate Mulgrew) taking the helm. In the pilot episode, Caretaker (January 1995), the Intrepid-class starship Voyager is catapulted to the Delta Quadrant, a hitherto unexplored quadrant of the galaxy. Voyager’s mission (and overall story arc) was simple then: Make it back to Federation space, even though it was 75 years away (spoiler: it didn’t take that long). 

During its seven seasons and 172 episodes, Voyager introduced new species, like the Hirogen and the bane of the Borg, Species 8472. It explored emotional and ethical quandaries, such as hologram sentience and reformed drone Seven of Nine’s dating life, and along the way had fun with rogue Klingons and Q. It was a somewhat uneven show and didn’t fully hit its stride until season four, but it still provided plenty of memorable moments.  

Although Voyager never quite reached the heights of cast alchemy and narrative depth of its immediate forebear, the iconic The Next Generation, it broke new ground. Most significantly perhaps, it centered, for the first time, on a woman captain – one who commanded with utmost confidence, inspiring the love and loyalty of her crew, helping to pave the way for the gender-breaking 2017 series Discovery. And, it also included some very fine writing, as this list demonstrates (note: spoilers for individual episodes and the series follow, and two-parters will count as one episode for the purposes of this list).

If you want to relive Voyager's best episodes, then check out our Star Trek streaming guide to find out where you can watch the show online. Or if you’re a just big fan of all things Star Trek then check out our list of Star Trek movies, ranked worst to best , 

Now, let's count down our top ten best Star trek Voyager episodes, starting with...

10. Distant Origin

• Season 3, episode 23 
• Original air date: April 30, 1997

As Voyager was set in a distant part of the galaxy, 70,000 light years away from home, the series was always a touch more whimsical than The Next Generation (TNG) or Deep Space Nine (DS9). In this episode, Voyager, one of the jewels of Starfleet, more than meets its match in a race known as the Voth, when the entire ship is transported inside a massive Voth vessel. 

It turns out the Voth might’ve evolved from Earth’s dinosaurs aeons ago in this tale about the importance of scientific curiosity and open-mindedness. “Eyes open” is the memorable line uttered by the trailblazing Voth paleontologist as he tries to prove humans and Voth once shared the same origin.

9. Good Shepherd

• Season 6, episode 20  
• Original air date: March 15, 2000

Recalling the The Next Generation episode Lower Decks, Good Shepherd gives viewers the chance to see Voyager from a different perspective – not of the captain and her officers, but from much lowlier crewmen. Focusing on a Bajoran who has trouble with her sums, a hypochondriac, and a misanthropic physicist, Captain Janeway decides to take these three on an away mission, to steer these lost sheep back on course. 

It’s a fine episode that shows Voyager as the hierarchical starship it always was, and the importance of its many crewmen that help it to remain running. Fun fact: Rage Against the Machine guitarist Tom Morello appears in this episode as Crewman Mitchell.

8. Nightingale

• Season 7, episode 8  
• Original air date: November 22, 2000

The “lowest ranked officer” Ensign Harry Kim (Garrett Wang) finally gets his chance to shine as he asks Captain Janeway to give him his first command mission. This episode was an efficient education in the finer points of leadership, as the junior officer took command of an alien ship, revealing the Captain and First Officer’s jobs were harder than they looked. 

Watch as Ensign Kim undermines the confidence of his new crew and overemphasizes the importance of routine checks, among other lessons in what not to do as a leader.

7. Human Error

• Season 7, episode 17  
• Original air date: March 7, 2001

Human Error finds Seven of Nine (Jeri Ryan) trying to outgrow her Borg limitations in a bid to become more human. It’s romantic, amusing, awkward, emotionally expansive, and yet oddly claustrophobic. As Seven navigates various social activities such as a baby shower, small talk, and, most poignant of all, dating, this episode unpicks obsession, perfectionism, and Seven’s sensitive interior, which belie her inscrutable drone façade. 

With some fine performances by Ryan and Picardo as The Doctor (who is secretly in love with Seven), this episode is slightly flawed, yet more ambitious, and more attuned to human moods than much of Voyager’s oeuvre.

• Season 2, episode 16  
• Original air date: February 5, 1996

“You live on the edge of every moment, and yet, in its own way, violence is attractive, too. Maybe because it doesn’t require logic. Perhaps that’s why it’s so liberating” – Suder’s chilling words to Tuvok.

The early seasons of Voyager were patchy as the crew took time to establish chemistry, while antagonists such as the Kazon were uninspiring. But in season two, we were treated to an episode of high drama that didn’t rely on alien battles. Instead, it came via an onboard murder. The resident Vulcan and Chief Security Officer, Tuvok (Tim Russ), is charged with solving the case. Attempting to establish motive, the logical Tuvok is baffled when the murderer, the crewman Suder, replies that he committed the crime for “no reason”. Tuvok mind melds with Suder in order to better understand him. 

Needless to say, Tuvok experiences adverse effects from the meld in this study of extreme violence, and grapples with the ethics of appropriate punishment. Anchored by a charismatic performance by Brad Dourif, as the sociopath, Suder even gets a chance at redemption, returning in the two-parter Basics (season 2, episode 26), when he helps to retake the ship from the Kazon. 

• Season 5, episode 25 & season 6, episode 1 
• Original air date: May 26, 1999 & September 22, 1999

This season five finale has a grittiness and darkness that later series Enterprise and Discovery would utilise more. Encountering another Starfleet vessel in the Delta Quadrant, Captain Janeway goes to the aid of the U.S.S. Equinox. A much smaller and less powerful vessel, the Equinox is a Nova-class starship not designed for long-range missions. 

So, how have they managed to survive this long? In this tense and dramatic two-parter, Janeway is pitted against fellow Starfleet officers and turns vengeful as she discovers the horrifying truth about the Equinox's betrayal of Star Fleet's principles and the Prime Directive.

4. Blink of an Eye

• Season 6, episode 12 
• Original air date: January 19, 2000

The U.S.S. Voyager investigates a world that rotates 58 times a second, with time passing much more quickly on its surface than in space, but gets trapped as it is caught by the planet’s orbit. Meanwhile, the primitive natives on the surface see a new star in the sky, which happens to be Voyager. 

In this enjoyable episode, the crew of the ship, and we the audience, get to see the evolution of a world and its inhabitants before our very eyes. Featuring a pre-Lost Daniel Dae Kim as an alien, Blink of an Eye has a charm and sweetness that is magically expressed in the episode’s final moments.

• Season 7, episode 24 
• Original air date: May 23, 2001

When Voyager’s finale aired, it was met with mixed audience reactions, with a consensus that it wrapped things up a little too neatly. While that criticism is not invalid, in retrospect Endgame was more of a treat than a sour note. After all, over its 86-minute runtime the two-parter finally gave its characters a little more room to breathe. This generosity extended to include the return of the wonderful Alice Krige as the Borg Queen, who first appeared in the role in the Star Trek: First Contact movie. 

Involving a Borg showdown, among other delights, Endgame treated us to the sights of a Voyager crew in old age, as we learn of the crew’s destinies, the wonders of even more futuristic technology, and a white-haired Janeway coming to terms with how stubborn her younger self could be.

2. Year of Hell

• Season 4, episode 8 & 9 
• Original air date: November 5, 1997 & November 12, 1997

This two-parter is among the darkest and grittiest Star Trek has ever gotten. This was Voyager in distress and Captain Janeway at her most grim. Voyager gets embroiled in an interspecies conflict, but finds itself drawn into a more personal story. Kurtwood Smith delivers an authoritative performance as the villain Annorax – a brooding figure who commands a temporal weapon ship capable of erasing objects and civilizations from the timeline. 

Year of Hell had an epic quality, a sense of awe and real peril as it was difficult to imagine Voyager surviving through the onslaught. Full of memorable imagery – from Janeway as a gung-ho militaristic figure to a devastated ship with holes in its hull – this was Voyager at its most hellish.    

1. Timeless

• Season 5, episode 6 
• Original air date: November 18, 1998

A mini-masterpiece. For Voyager’s 100th episode the show’s producers and writers Brannon Braga, Rick Berman, and Joe Menosky created something special. With Levar Burton (of Geordi La Forge and The Next Generation fame) as director, Timeless had the majesty of a movie. The 45-minute run-time included the extraordinary image of Voyager encased in ice and a plot that was as satisfying as it was compelling (as well a cameo from Burton as a Starfleet captain). 

What was even more surprising was Garrett Wang playing an older, grizzled Harry Kim, in probably his standout performance, for a story that was full of pathos and regret. Can the older Kim send a message back through time to correct a huge mistake and avoid the deaths of his crewmates? Timeless really does have a timeless quality to it, since it’s the finest episode of Voyager ever produced.

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Lu-Hai Liang is a British Chinese writer and reporter. He has a degree in multimedia journalism and has written about culture for The Atlantic, BBC, CNN, Eurogamer, IGN, and Wired among others. He was based previously in Beijing for six years and reported on China’s changing society and development in business and technology. Generally, he likes sci-fi, video games, and space.

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The Best Star Trek: Voyager Episodes

List of the best Star Trek : Voyager episodes, as determined by voters like you. With all the amazing episodes of the show that exist, it's hard to trust just one person's opinion of what the top Star Trek: Voyager episodes of all time are. Fans of Star Trek: Voyager are very passionate about the show, and there are often debates over which episodes are the greatest. That's why this list exists- so you can vote for your favorites and we can find out once and for all what everyone thinks the best episode is.

Year of Hell, Part II

Blink of an Eye

Scorpion (Part 1)

Year of Hell

Message in a Bottle

Year of Hell (Part 1)

Scorpion, Part II

Year of Hell (Part 2)

Scientific Method

Future's End (Part 1)

Scorpion (Part 2)

Living Witness

Eye of the Needle

Latent Image

Future's End (Part 2)

Hope and Fear

Distant Origin

Dark Frontier

Investigations

Bride of Chaotica!

• Star Trek: Voyager (UPN)
• Star Trek Franchise
• Entertainment
• Star Trek Universe
• Weird History
• Watchworthy
• Adventure Entertainment
• TV Episodes

These are the shows that you definitely should be watching, along with a few that you should avoid.

Every Season Of Star Trek: Voyager Ranked Worst To Best

When "Star Trek: Voyager" premiered on Monday, January 16, 1995, it didn't just mark the launch of the fourth live-action "Star Trek" series. Its broadcast also marked the launch of UPN, Paramount's stab at establishing a fifth American television network after CBS, NBC, ABC, and FOX.

Picking "Voyager" for this important corporate duty was, to borrow a phrase, flawlessly logical. At the time, executives at Paramount saw the 1960s science fiction program and its spin-offs as so important to the studio that they reportedly referred to it as "the franchise." Indeed, with "Star Trek: Deep Space Nine" in the midst of its third successful season in first-run syndication and "Star Trek: The Next Generation" having made the jump to the big screen with the box office success of "Star Trek Generations," the "Star Trek" franchise was at an all-time high.

Almost 30 years later, interest in "Voyager" remains high, with characters from the series featured in prominent roles on "Star Trek: Lower Decks," "Star Trek: Prodigy" and "Star Trek: Picard." A crowdfunding campaign for a retrospective "Voyager" documentary successfully raised more than $1.3 million from nearly 12,000 backers. And many fans who didn't love the show at the time have developed a new appreciation for "Voyager."

In light of all that renewed interest in "Voyager," let's take a look at the show's seven seasons, which originally ran from 1995 until 2001, and see how they stack up against one another, from worst to best. We'll highlight specific episodes that characterize each season, but won't discuss every one — after all, there were 172 of them!

7. Season 7

They saved the worst for last. Season opener "Unimatrix Zero, Part II" all too neatly resolves the previous season's cliffhanger, but ends with an intriguing premise: a Borg civil war is brewing. The first of many empty promises. "Repression" seems like it will finally confront the fact that a quarter of the Voyager's crew are former Maquis, terrorists in the eyes of the Federation. Instead of examining this long-dormant dynamic, however, the episode veers off into a silly mind-control plot that is easily resolved and utterly without consequences.

Even the season's best installment, "Author, Author," dealing with The Doctor (Robert Picardo) and his pursuit of holographic rights, feels like a warmed-over version of "The Next Generation" episode "The Measure of a Man" and derivative of earlier episodes like "Living Witness" or "Tinker Tenor Doctor Spy."

And lastly, there's "Endgame." The out-of-left-field romance between Seven of Nine ( Jeri Ryan ) and Commander Chakotay (Robert Beltran) is awkward and unconvincing. Alice Krige reprises her role as the Borg Queen for the first time since "Star Trek: First Contact," but is utterly wasted. There's a disjointed and obligatory action finale. "Hull breaches on decks six through twelve!" shouts Ensign Kim ( Garrett Wang ), going through the motions. That much of the final episode is spent in an alternate future soon to be erased by the reset button of temporal intervention, rather than truly confronting what it will mean for these characters to finally return home, is a perfect distillation of the show's worst impulses.

6. Season 5

Season 5 is the epitome of conservative and unambitious television. There are good, even great episodes here, but they're trapped in an episodic formula with a perpetual status quo.

Consider "Timeless," the best episode of the season and a series standout. It has a cracking teaser (Voyager frozen in the ice, nearly all of the crew dead) and focuses on a character rarely in the spotlight, Harry Kim. Mostly set 15 years after the show's "present," Kim believes he made a mistake that killed all of his friends and is obsessed with traveling back in time to change history. It's a terrific yarn, but it reveals the limitations of the "Voyager" format. In an alternate future, Kim's personality can change, Chakotay can have a lover, series regulars can die, and characters can return home, but in the Season 5's perpetual present, every character is the same week in and week out.

Similarly, in "Extreme Risk," B'Elanna Torres (Roxann Dawson) confronts her trauma after learning that all of the Maquis left behind in the Alpha Quadrant perished. The thing is: B'Elanna learned this 15 episodes ago, but hasn't displayed any such behavior before now. Worse, when Torres resolves the problem du jour, it seems to magically cure her psychological problems. In the end, Torres orders a stack of banana pancakes with maple syrup, smiles, and all is well, her issues never to be mentioned again in any meaningful way. This is emblematic of the season's problems.

5. Season 6

Season 6 has several ongoing storylines that leave its characters a little less frozen in amber than in Season 5. While only one actually works, Season 6 ranks just a bit higher than Season 5 for at least trying to be more ambitious.

Voyager regains contact with the Alpha Quadrant — the season's best storyline — in "Pathfinder" and "Life Line." There's no reset button at the end of either; after "Pathfinder," the Voyager is in regular contact with the Alpha Quadrant for the remainder of the series. A second storyline involves a group of Borg children who are discovered in "Collective," then recur in three other episodes. That all adds up to a season low point, as they further the show's defanging of the Borg as a meaningful adversary. Even more unfortunate is an Irish village on the holodeck. It was abandoned after only two episodes, "Fair Haven" and "Spirit Folk," but not before subjecting audiences to more grating stereotypes than even "The Next Generation" stinker "Up The Long Ladder."

Beyond these three storylines, this is a season once again driven by episodic fare, and although there are some worthwhile installments (including "Survival Instinct" and "Barge of the Dead," both written by Ronald D. Moore), there are quite a few clunkers. Those clunkers, including "Alice," "Virtuoso," "Tsunkatse" (aka "The One with The Rock"), "Ashes to Ashes," and "Live Fast And Prosper," have nothing on "Fury," a series nadir. Marking the return of Kes (Jennifer Lien), it is a total misuse of the character, whose motivations are paper-thin and inconsistent with previous characterization.

4. Season 3

After the cliffhanger resolution in "Basics, Part II," Season 3 ditches Seska (Martha Hackett) and the Kazon. Other early-season elements, including the Vidiians, the Caretaker's race, and the Ocampa (outside of Kes) are also dropped. What's left is a series looking to remake itself as more plot-driven and episodic, and the results were mixed.

"Flashback" has fun revisiting the events of "Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country," but it's a hollow nostalgia trip. "The Swarm" features a great performance by Robert Picardo as both The Doctor and a hologram of his creator, Dr. Lewis Zimmerman, but it ends with a promise immediately broken. The Doctor's memories are erased. How would this rest affect the rest of the crew, who have formed relationships with the EMH that he can't remember? Doesn't matter, it's forgotten and ignored! "False Profits" asks us to swallow the premise that the Ferengi lost in the Delta Quadrant during "The Next Generation's" "The Price" are somehow along the Voyager's narrow path home. Another miss.

The season picks up steam with "Blood Fever," a Vulcan mating story with a cliffhanger three seasons in the making: the Voyager approaches Borg territory. Followed up in "Unity," which has Chakotay encounter a group of humanoids who separated from the Borg Collective, this is more fully paid off in the season finale, "Scorpion, Part I." The Borg would become a well that "Voyager" dipped into too many times, but in Season 3 they were still a dangerous adversary.

3. Season 1

"Voyager" kicks off with "Caretaker," a solid premiere that introduces a cast of nine regulars and establishes the Delta Quadrant's new aliens, including the Kazon, Ocampa, Talaxians, and the Caretaker's species. It's the only season that treats the show's premise seriously. Janeway's abrupt integration of the Starfleet and Maquis leads to interpersonal conflicts, most notably in "Parallax" and "Learning Curve." The Voyager's need to replenish energy supplies is covered in "The Cloud," which also establishes that the ship's stockpile of photon torpedoes is finite. But, as early as the second episode, we're told the holodeck's energy matrix "isn't compatible with other power systems," which allows the writers to pay lip service to supply shortages without curtailing their holo-addiction.

The series also kneecaps itself by opting to use the Kazon as its primary villain. Deliberately modeled after street gangs in Los Angeles , the Kazon (primarily white actors in brownface) come off as a less interesting and more racist iteration of the Klingons. The Vidiians should have been the focus instead. Featured in two of the season's best episodes, "Phage" and "Faces," the Vidiians are driven by an illness that breaks down their internal organs and can only be staved off by frequent transplants, which some acquire by force.

Although front-loaded with two awful episodes ("Parallax" and "Time and Again"), the first season picks up as it goes along and really finds its swing in the back half. That cements its position on this list.

2. Season 2

Season 2 features some of the show's finest episodes and tries to push what a "Star Trek" series can be. There was even an attempt at more serialized storytelling — involving Seska, the Kazon, and a traitor aboard Voyager — which doesn't stick the landing ("Investigations" in particular is anticlimactic), but at least they tried.

"Death Wish" is the best use of Q (John de Lancie) outside of "The Next Generation." Quinn (Gerrit Graham), a fellow Q, wants to commit suicide in defiance of the Q Continuum and seeks asylum with Janeway in order to do so. Janeway pleads with Quinn to "think hard" before he gives up his life, but with Q's help, he goes through with it. Brad Dourif plays his usual character type as Lon Suder in "Meld," but he's so good at bringing sociopaths to life that it's hard to fault the casting director. His interplay with Tuvok (Tim Russ) provides the Vulcan with some of his best scenes in the entire series, and their relationship pays off when Suder returns in "Basics."

But this is also the season of "Threshold," a nonsense warp 10 story that climaxes with Janeway and Paris as salamanders. Worse is "Tattoo," the pinnacle of patronizingly vague Native American spiritualism that defined Chakotay early on. It's unsurprising that "Voyager" had no American Indian writers on staff and that Jamake Highwater, the show's Native American advisor,  was a complete fraud,  an Italian American posing as a Cherokee.

If you or anyone you know is having suicidal thoughts, please call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline​ by dialing 988 or by calling 1-800-273-TALK (8255)​.

1. Season 4

The arrival of Seven of Nine as a new regular in "Scorpion, Part II" is a hypo in the arm for the series. And although Seven's introduction means Kes' departure, the show gives the latter character a fitting send-off in "The Gift."

"Year of Hell" was originally conceived as a season-long arc  but cut down to a two-parter. It truly delivers on "Voyager's" core premise. As the ship is attacked and damaged, it stays damaged. As power becomes rationed, the crew gets dirtier, and everyday survival becomes difficult. Tuvok's blindness is the kind of character turn that should have been made permanent. Alas, even in Season 4, "Voyager" is still an episodic series, and all is undone by a reset button. "Mortal Coil" is a frank tale about death that rejects the magical realism often embraced by televised science fiction. And "Living Witness," a format-defying story that confronts the politically driven revision of history, is even more relevant today than when it first aired. On top of all this is a six-episode arc about the Hirogen, an imposing race of big-game hunters who provide the ship with its first chance in four years to (briefly) communicate with the Alpha Quadrant, finally letting people back home know that they're alive.

If there's one major misstep, it's the finale, "Hope and Fear," which dangles the possibility of returning home before the inevitable bait-and-switch. But at least it has the decency of forgoing a thunderous cliffhanger.

Star Trek: Every Season of Voyager, Ranked

Star Trek: Voyager aimed higher than any Star Trek series, and earned more hits and misses as a result. Here's how its seven seasons break down.

Star Trek: Voyager was one of the most ambitious Star Trek series yet conceived. It proffered a return to the “five-year mission” format of the original series, but with a twist: the ship would be trapped on the other side of the galaxy, with no ready way to return to Federation space. The crew was forced to contend with whatever the writers had planned on their own, with only their ship and their ideals to guide them.

It was a bold move from a franchise already enjoying a Renaissance on the backs of Star Trek: The Next Generation and Star Trek: Deep Space Nine . And what started as a slightly more formalized take on the original series soon gave the showrunners license to shoot for the moon every week. That led to a lot of ups and downs, with brilliant, gutsy moral meditations and succeed-or-die crisis episodes contrasted with dreadful misfires and good ideas that never got off the ground. Through it all, another stalwart cast created another crew full of memorable characters worth tuning into through good episodes and bad. Below is a list of Voyager’s seven seasons, ranked in order from worst to first.

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Star Trek: Voyager, Season 1

First seasons have rarely been kind to Star Trek series, and Voyager was saddled with a potential disaster right off the bat. Star Catherine Deneuve left the series shortly after shooting began and was replaced at the last minute by Kate Mulgrew as Captain Janeway. The new lead proved more than up to the challenge, but the show evinced other problems that wouldn’t be vanquished so easily. It expressed a timidity in its storylines, and often strayed into the ridiculous.

It also showed early shades of Gilligan’s Island syndrome: the ship was unable to resolve its central dilemma lest the series end, and thus any efforts to return home would end in failure by default, robbing the episode of any tension. Perhaps worst of all, its fascinating premise of a mixed Starfleet/Maquis crew was never explored, rendering of its strongest concepts inert from the start. Despite that, the first season scored its share of decent episodes, along with an intriguing early villain in the organ-hunting Vidiians. As with other Trek shows, better things lay ahead.

Star Trek: Voyager, Season 2

The second season applied what it had learned from the mistakes of the first, and the result was an improved series that took better advantage of its opportunities. The strongest entries came late. Episode 23, “The Thaw,” featured Michael McKean as a psychotic clown in a VR world eternally tormenting the hapless aliens connected to it. The very next episode, “Tuvix,” is widely cited as one of the best of the series, as a transporter accident fuses Tuvok and Neelix into a single entity. Both featured what became a series hallmark: Janeway doggedly finding a third path to resolve a seemingly impossible situation.

Sadly, the doldrums from the first season continued to dog Voyager in the second. A new villain, the Kazon, generated little excitement, and other episodes intended to evoke the best of the original series felt aimless and bland. The low point was Episode 15, “Threshold,” which turned Paris and Janeway into salamanders. It’s widely regarded as one of the worst Star Trek episodes of all time, and easily marks Voyager’s nadir.

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Star Trek: Voyager, Season 6

If Season 5 found Voyager hitting its marks, Season 6 started missing what could have been terrific concepts. The ambition was there to take full advantage of the show’s grandest conceits, as the crew increased their efforts to get home and individual episodes explored all manner of novel sci-fi concepts. Not all of them lived up to their potential, and more then a few ended up falling flat or otherwise disappointing.

Despite that, its high points were present and strong. Reg Barclay returned to Trek  in a pair of episodes that helped the character come into his own. The season delivered an intriguing coda to Kes’ story, bringing the aging Ocampan back for one of the series’ most emotionally intense episodes. There was even a cameo from The Rock in Episode 15, “Tsunkatse,” an otherwise uninspired outing that let Dwayne Johnson take an early step away from wrestling.

Star Trek: Voyager, Season 3

Voyager found its rhythm in Season 3, focusing on high-minded stories evocative of Gene Roddenberry and exploration-based episodes involving new phenomena and civilizations. They didn’t always hit, but their ambition was limitless, and entries like Episode 19, “Rise,” deployed reliable sci-fi concepts in new and interesting ways. The end of the season brought the dramatic return of the Borg in “Scorpion, Part 1” along with Species 8472.

The season’s principal shortcoming came from the shadows it still worked to get out of. Its Borg reveal arrived after Star Trek: First Contact had reached theaters, and with Deep Space Nine accelerating into the Dominion War, Voyager felt a like an outcast. Season 3’s greatest achievement may have been elegantly taking up the Borg after  First Contact ; a sign of better things to come.

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Star Trek: Voyager, Season 7

Season 7 finished stronger for Voyager than the previous seventh seasons for either The Next Generation or Deep Space Nine . Unlike TNG, it didn’t yet feel complete, and its single central plotline developed with a great deal more clarity than the Byzantine storylines of  Deep Space Nine . With the end growing near, the writers could throw themselves into the question of getting Voyager home without treating failure as a foregone conclusion.

The results felt well-balanced and dramatic without stretching the bounds of Trek technology, as well as delivering a smash-bang face-off between Janeway and the Borg Queen as the series' climax. The cast had more chances to play with their characters, along with moments like Neelix’s goodbye to the crew and the birth of Paris and Torres’ child. It was a strong ending that ironically left the whole of  Star Trek momentarily searching for a way forward.

Star Trek: Voyager, Season 4

Season 4 is best known for the introduction of Seven of Nine, and the simultaneous departure of Kes. The Borg came into their own with Seven’s arrival, and Voyager used the opportunity to develop what being separated from the Collective might be like. The seeds it planted came to full fruition with Season 1 of Picard , with Jeri Ryan already defying conventions about how an ex-Borg might behave.

Beyond that, the show finally realized some of its long-dormant concepts, such as Episodes 8 and 9, “Year of Hell,” which put the ship through the kind of wear and tear only hinted at in earlier seasons. When the Borg weren’t around, the more mundane Hirogen stepped in, forming a nice counterbalance to the well-traveled Collective. And for the first time, the crew made contact with the Alpha Quadrant, signaling that while they might not get home right away, they were still making progress toward their goal. The pieces all worked, and the odd misfire was easily forgiven for the strong material surrounding it.

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Star Trek: Voyager, Season 5

Season 5 found Voyager handling a variety of plot threads with confidence and aplomb. With Seven firmly ensconced in the crew, Ryan set about proving that the character was far more than a catsuit in fascinating Borg-centric entries like Episode 7, “Infinite Regress,” and Episodes 15/16, “Dark Frontier.” Her partnership with Robert Picardo’s Doctor quickly became one of the big reasons to tune every week. The remainder of the crew got some refreshing doses of humanity as well, as Paris and B’Elanna got married and Neelix bonded with young Naomi Wildman.

The Borg’s appearances felt measured and justified – giving the writers unexpected venues to take the vaunted space zombies – and other episodes took chances on big concepts that often paid off. Episode 3, “In the Flesh,” involved a training ground for an invasion of Earth, and Episode 1, “Night,” sent the ship through a dark region of space. It even had fun with its goofier side, getting Janeway in a 30s space queen costume for Episode 12, “Bride of Chaotica!” and it concluded with the shocking sight of two Federation vessels turning on each other in the season finale, “Equinox.” It was the season that Voyager became everything it wanted to be, and the show reveled in the opportunity.

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Top 10 Star Trek: Voyager episodes

Juliette whittles down Star Trek: Voyager's 172 episodes to the top 10. Find out if your favourites made the cut below...

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This feature contains spoilers.

A lot of people had a lot of problems with Star Trek Voyager , and perhaps in some cases, they had a point. But Voyager could be great as well as terrible, engaging as well as frustrating, and it did everything with a sense of humour and a determination not to take itself too seriously. In Captain Janeway, for all her inability to make up her mind how she felt about the Prime Suggestion, we had the most adventurous captain since Kirk, a captain who goes on away missions and takes sometimes extraordinary risks to achieve her goals. She was surrounded by an interesting and highly likeable ensemble (Neelix notwithstanding) including Star Trek ’s best full-blooded Vulcan and the second most popular Doctor-without-a-name in science fiction. Also, Jeri Ryan in a catsuit. And so we take a moment to set aside whatever niggles and frustrations viewers had with Voyager and celebrate some of the things it did really well. 

10. Lineage (Season Seven) 

B’Elanna Torres is pregnant, and the Doctor performs a minor procedure to genetically alter her unborn daughter to correct a spinal problem. But this gives Torres an idea, and she becomes determined to erase all the Klingon DNA from the foetus and make her completely human, so that the child won’t experience the bullying that she herself did. With a solid science fiction basis in the apparently simple genetic procedure that can both correct serious medical problems and make more cosmetic changes, this episode is a nice exploration of both the ethical dilemma involved and Torres’ personal history and emotional problems. It’s perhaps a shame that the solution boils down to curing her fear of being abandoned by her husband, but still, this is a nice little character study.

Best bit: Most of this episode is firmly Torres’ story, but it takes two to make a baby, and Paris asking Tuvok for advice about fatherhood is both awkward and endearing.

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Quotable:  “It could be a parasite” (Icheb, on the life-form he’s detected inside Torres) 

9. Latent Image (Season Five) 

The Doctor discovers that some time previously, his program had broken down because when presented with two patients with an equal chance of survival but only enough time to save one, he chose his friend (Harry Kim). This episode combines a dilemma that could affect any doctor (and could easily cause a breakdown in a human being) with one of the Doctor’s occasional battles for his rights as an artificial life-form (without Seven around to make her feel guilty, Janeway had simply erased the Doctor’s memories, clearly a violation of his personhood) and even a little bit of exploration of a well-known Star Trek phenomenon into the bargain (the Doctor deliberately saved the regular cast member, not the expendable ensign). Plus, it’s an episode about the Doctor, which is always a good thing.

Best bit: The Doctor and Seven are shocked to discover that the unknown enemy tampering with the Doctor’s program is Captain Janeway.

Quotable:  “In that book, which is my memory, on the first page of the chapter that is the day when I first met you, appear the words ‘Here begins a new life.'” (The Doctor, reading from La Vita Nuova )

Best bit: The crew realise just how serious the situation is as the first expendable alien dies.

Quotable:  “You know as well as I do that fear only exists for one purpose – to be conquered” (Janeway) 

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7. Caretaker (Season One) 

Voyager ’s pilot episode is probably the best Star Trek pilot. It has its flaws, the corny all-American farm illusion produced by the titular Caretaker and the poor-man’s-Klingon Kazon warriors among them. But it shows its ambition in the Star Wars -emulating opening sequence and introduces a colourful cast of characters; plus, for anyone lucky enough to actually see it before any of the rest of the show, there’s some genuine uncertainty concerning who’s going to live or die. Voyager ’s promising set-up gets back to the heart of Star Trek – exploring unknown and unpredictable parts of space and exotic planets full of bumpy-headed aliens. A lively and engaging start to the show.

Best bit: Janeway vows to get her crew back to the Alpha Quadrant, no matter how long it takes.

Quotable:  “Mr Paris, set a course – for home” (Janeway) 

6. Counterpoint (Season Five) 

Voyager is helping a group of telepaths, along with their own Vulcan crewmembers, to escape a group of telepath-hating Space Nazis. When their handsome Captain defects to Voyager , he and Janeway bond over a love of Earth’s classical music, but underneath it they’re engaged in a battle of wits that only one can win. Kate Mulgrew’s favourite episode is a great outing for Captain Janeway, exploring both her personal life (Kashyk is by far her most interesting love interest outside of Chakotay) and showing just why she’s the Captain. Her heart may be breaking, but innocent telepaths are safe from Space Nazis while she’s around.

Best bit: Janeway wins a bittersweet victory.

Quotable:  “For what it’s worth, you made a tempting offer” (Kashyk to Janeway)

5. Bride of Chaotica! (Season Five) 

Voyager becomes trapped in spatial distortions and a group of photonic life-forms mistake Tom Paris’ holodeck homage to 1950s B-movies for reality. Since the aliens refuse to believe that anyone other than the Doctor is real and their weapons are disabling the ship, Captain Janeway is forced to join Paris as a character from the holodeck program and defeat the evil Chaotica or they’ll be stuck forever. You have to ignore the accidental massacre of thousands of the photonic aliens by Chaotica and just go along for the ride in this hilarious homage to cheesy science fiction. No one can defeat the powerful pheromones of Arachnia, Queen of the Spider People!

Best bit: Satan’s Robot is screaming about “Invaders from the fifth dimension!” and Paris whacks him in an attempt to shut him up. The robot mutters sulkily “Invaders!”

Quotable:  “Remember – you’re the Queen!” (Paris to Janeway)

4. Message in a Bottle (Season Four) 

Voyager hijacks an alien relay station to send a message to the Alpha Quadrant in the form of the Doctor. Unfortunately, he materialises on a brand-new ship that has itself been hi-jacked by Romulans, and he has to team up with a Mark II EMH, defeat the Romulans and make contact with Starfleet before Voyager is driven away from the relay station. The Doctor and Andy Dick’s Mark II’s attempt to interact are hilarious bouts of petty one-up-man-ship and the Romulans present a credible but still defeatable threat and a welcome return to one of Star Trek ’s most familiar bad guys. Best of all, it all culminates in Voyager making contact with Starfleet for the first time in four years.

Best bit: The new, fancy ship has conveniently easy-to-use automatic attack patterns. Having managed to activate one, the computer asks the holograms to specify their target, and both exclaim ‘Romulans!’

Quotable:  “Stop breathing down my neck!” (Doctor to Mark II)

“My breathing is merely a simulation” (Mark II to Doctor)

“So is my neck, stop it anyway!” (Doctor to Mark II) 

“Sixty thousand light years… seems a little closer today” (Janeway) 

3. Timeless (Season Five) 

An older and greyer Harry Kim and Chakotay (and Chakotay’s random girlfriend) travel to the site where Voyager crash-landed fifteen years before, killing everyone on board. They wander through the bodies of their friends, looting Seven of Nine’s corpse for Borg technology and reactivating the Doctor, all in an attempt to set right what once went wrong and prevent Voyager from a fatal attempt to get home faster. Voyager ’s 100 th episode is easily Harry Kim’s best and Wang’s bitter, emotionally scarred performance holds together an hour which also features some lovely imagery (champagne flowing among smiling but doomed crewmembers) and excellent special effects work on the dramatic crash. The reset button at the climax feels thoroughly earned, and there’s even a cameo from director LeVar Burton.

Best bit: Geordi LaForge’s cameo, in which he wishes our boys luck even as he tries to kill them, is rather good. But the top moment is probably the light relief that is Seven getting drunk.

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Quotable:  “Are you with me?” (Janeway to Chakotay)

“Always” (Chakotay to Janeway)

“You owe me one” (Harry Kim, to his younger self)

2. Living Witness (Season Four) 

The Doctor is activated in a museum seven hundred years in the future, where Voyager is remembered as a ship of brutal ne’er do-wells who interfered in the planet’s affairs, murdered a prominent political figure, committed genocide and then went on their merry way. The Doctor must set the record straight or be executed, but the truth of what really happened on Voyager is liable to spark race riots on the still-divided planet. This episode delves into what we think we know about the past and how it shapes who we are, while at the same time providing a fantastic spin on the evil counterpart theme. There’s no mirror universe here, just a twisted version of our heroes full of fantastic details like black undershirts and Tuvok having slightly bigger ears. It’s all topped off with an incredibly poignant finale, in which it is revealed that the back-up Doctor (who can only just have been created, since only a few episodes previously his program was impossible to back up) set off for Earth centuries after Voyager , knowing all his friends were dead, but longing for home.

Best bit: Everything set on Evil Voyager is a joy.

Quotable:  “These aren’t the people I knew. No one behaved like this – well, aside from Mr Paris” (Doctor). 

“Somewhere, halfway across the galaxy I hope, Captain Janeway is spinning in her grave” (Doctor). 

1. Year of Hell, Parts 1 and 2 (Season Four) 

The amusingly-named Annorax is erasing ships, species and planets from history with a weapon which accidentally caused the death of his wife, trying to push the timeline back into a version in which she survives. Voyager , however, thanks to some fancy shields, is immune to the weapon’s timey-wimey effect – but not to the aggressive Krenim’s other, more traditional, blow-holes-in-your-ship type weapons. And so for twelve long months, they have even less power than usual (even the holodecks are out), hardly any food and apparently no jumpers or jackets, as Janeway is forced to run around in a dirty vest for the entire year. All the non-regular-cast crew abandon ship and Chakotay and Paris are kidnapped, which really starts to drive Janeway over the edge, forcing her to make a fully justified and logical use of the reset button – she rams Voyager into the time ship, killing all of them and destroying the weapon, so none of it ever happened.

Best bit: Right before her suicidal gamble, Janeway says goodbye to a blinded Tuvok. She hugs him… and he hugs her back.

Quotable:  “Time’s up!” (Janeway, ramming the time ship). 

Bubbling under: Waking Moments, Death Wish, Before and After, Scorpion, The Chute, Gravity, Infinite Regress, The Gift, Body and Soul, The Killing Game  

And the worst: Yes, we all know, Threshold  (the one where Paris and Janeway turn into lizards, have lizard babies, and then abandon them). Poor Voyager , no one can ever talk about its successes without adding ‘but then there was Threshold . On the other hand, at least Threshold  is (unintentionally) funny, unlike the interminable Kazon-based episodes in season 2.

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Juliette Harrisson | @ClassicalJG

Juliette Harrisson is a writer and historian, and a lifelong Trekkie whose childhood heroes were JRR Tolkien and CS Lewis. She runs a YouTube channel called…

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Star Trek: Voyager

Pulled to the far side of the galaxy, where the Federation is seventy-five years away at maximum warp speed, a Starfleet ship must cooperate with Maquis rebels to find a way home. Pulled to the far side of the galaxy, where the Federation is seventy-five years away at maximum warp speed, a Starfleet ship must cooperate with Maquis rebels to find a way home. Pulled to the far side of the galaxy, where the Federation is seventy-five years away at maximum warp speed, a Starfleet ship must cooperate with Maquis rebels to find a way home.

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• Trivia When auditioning for the part of the holographic doctor, Robert Picardo was asked to say the line "Somebody forgot to turn off my program." He did so, then ad-libbed "I'm a doctor, not a light bulb" and got the part.
• Goofs There is speculation that the way the Ocampa are shown to have offspring is an impossible situation, as a species where the female can only have offspring at one event in her life would half in population every generation, even if every single member had offspring. While Ocampa females can only become pregnant once in their lifetime, if was never stated how many children could be born at one time. Kes mentions having an uncle, implying that multiple births from one pregnancy are possible.

Seven of Nine : Fun will now commence.

• Alternate versions Several episodes, such as the show's debut and finale, were originally aired as 2-hour TV-movies. For syndication, these episodes were reedited into two-part episodes to fit one-hour timeslots.
• Connections Edited into Star Trek: Deep Space Nine: Inter Arma Enim Silent Leges (1999)

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Every Episode of Star Trek: Voyager, Ranked (with comments)

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VOY Ranking by Titles Only

On one level, Star Trek: Voyager feels forced. It’s like that D&D campaign where people decided to make characters they hadn’t played before, like the Orcish Ranger, the Tiefling Paladin, and the Dwarven Bard. I really didn’t take to it at first.

However, in going back to watch the entire series, it definitely rose in my estimation. For one thing, they did two-parter episodes really well — so much so that I really wonder why they went with a one-part season finale for season four. I mean, “Hope and Fear” was good, and the fifth season opener “Night” was even better, but man, I wanted another “Scorpion” or “Equinox.”

In short, Voyager did what every other Trek series has managed to do: tell some timeless sci-fi stories well. If the tone and quality was uneven — and if it seemed like they went back to particular Trek wells a bit too often rather than delving for their own– that may explain why they don’t get as high in the overall rankings. Indeed, this is a show that had both a pile of dismembered Borg and a charming storybook holodeck program designed to amuse children. I wish there was some kind of way I could drive this home…

(Want to watch or re-watch Voyager before delving into spoiler territory? Check out this viewing guide! )

Note: Everything below may contain spoilers and definitely contains some snark.

Kathryn Janeway Let me come right out and say it: this woman made Admiral for a reason. Faced with seven years of tough decisions while she had to keep a stiff upper lip that would impress Hornblower, she not only got her crew home, she did it bringing new technology and by decisively defeating the Borg. Janeway is awesome (and being an ardent scientist is an added bonus).

Chakotay Look, any XO (executive officer) is going to be a bit tough on occasion. It’s their job. When it comes to serving under XOs, Spock and T’Pol might be Vulcan sticklers and it’s well established Kira needs medical prescriptions to have fun. But Chakotay? Chakotay is that XO who understands. While Matt McCoy’s Devinoni Ral probably has him beat as “most sensitive man in the Star Trek universe,” Chakotay is definitely in the running. I bet he’ll sign your leave slip.

B’Elanna Torres Half-Human, half-Klingon, all engineer: you know the deal.

Tom Paris The would-be oh-so bad boy really comes across as more of a rapscallion. He’s not a favorite, but he sometimes adds a very necessary amount of snark to the show that could sometimes get too serious.

Tuvok Speaking of serious, let’s talk about Tuvok. If he was ever a straighter straight man, he’d be used by comedy statisticians to calibrate their instruments. He probably thinks that “comedy statisticians” are a thing. Tuvok, babe: don’t ever change.

Harry Kim Combining elements of Wesley Crusher’s enthusiasm, Geordi’s romantic mishaps, and O’Brien’s tendency to suffer, poor Ensign Kim probably had one of the worst seven-year journeys of all of them (the sad fate of Lt. Carey notwithstanding). I certainly hope he got a promotion on his return.

Seven of Nine Jeri Ryan plays a perfectly fine continuation of the character commenting on humanity from afar (even though she is human under all the Borg nurturing and nanotech). Alas, the promise of a more ambitious character arc hinted at the beginning of season 4, in which her Borg implants could be removed and she could more fully reassert her humanity, basically stalled (I’m sure the producers felt it wasn’t broken, so why fix it?).

The Doctor The clear “breakout character” of Voyager , the Doctor’s character arc throughout the series was a joy to see, even if we didn’t always dig the opera. The fact that he became more personable and well-rounded while maintaining an acerbic core is a tribute to Robert Picardo.

Neelix I’m not saying every starship couldn’t use a cheerful bar rodent (Q’s term, not mine). I’m saying he’s the Pumpkin Spice of Star Trek characters: good for certain situations, not for every storyline.

Kes What if we had someone who was just incredibly nice? Oh, and she has untapped psychic powers? And let’s not have her do much of anything, okay?

161) “Threshold” Season 2, Episode 15 Meddle not with the mysteries of the universe by going to warp 10, otherwise you too may turn into a giant space salamander, your captain will turn into a giant space salamander, and you shall mate with one another. No, I’m not kidding.

160) “Tuvix” Season 2, Episode 24 Okay, I’m going to give unequivocal props to Tom Wright for his portrayal of Tuvix. He’s a great actor who you can see doing great work in no end of films. Many consider this a great exploration of morality and identity in the grand Trek tradition. Perhaps I’d be more forgiving if it was one of the crazy-go-nuts episodes of the animated series (which got really crazy). Nevertheless, I’ve watched it multiple times and I still can’t take it seriously.

159) “Parturition” Season 2, Episode 7 Do you really need to spend an entire episode with Tom and Neelix bickering? No.

158) “The 37’s” Season 2, Episode 1 The appearance of an odd object in space (a hand, Abraham Lincoln, a truck)  never bodes well. At least some of the other episodes that start off this way have the decency to explore some intriguing ideas. This episode, however, spends undue attention to the heretofore unknown “Blue Alert” which normal people call “landing your damn spacecraft” and then proceeds to have the most interesting action of the story occur off camera (e.g., the visit to the civilization the humans’ built, the unlikely decision by all of the crew to stay on Voyager). What a sour note to start a season on.

157) “Parallax” Season 1, Episode 3 Say, how about we begin our first season with a little bit of the Maquis getting integrated with the Voyager crew and a whole lot of technobabble?

156) “Elogium” Season 2, Episode 4 Kes is feeling frisky. How about we give her and Neelix the room?

155) “Blood Fever” Season 3, Episode 16 Apparently, the only way to advance the Tom/B’Elanna relationship is by making Pon Farr contagious.

154) “Faces” Season 1, Episode 14 “The Enemy Within” without any energy and zero cute space dogs.

153) “Fair Trade” Season 3, Episode 13 Neelix wants to feel important. This episode isn’t.

152) “Cathexis” Season 1, Episode 13 An unremarkable alien possession story.

151) “The Haunting of Deck Twelve” Season 6, Episode 25 Did you really think an episode with this title would be anything more than padding to get to the season finale? Blah.

150) “Alice” Season 6, Episode 5 The possessed spaceship plot does little but reaffirm that Tom and B’Elanna do, in fact, have a relationship.

149) “Deadlock” Season 2, Episode 21 An anemic entry into the alternate timeline story is nothing special. Wait until “Shattered” and ”Endgame.”

148) “Jetrel” Season 1, Episode 15 Some good ideas about prejudice and forgiveness are explored here, but it’s proportionate to how much you like Neelix.

147) “Phage” Season 1, Episode 5 The Vidiians are introduced and, although they’re potentially a fun “villain race,” this episode is mainly unsatisfying.

146) “Sacred Ground” Season 3, Episode 7 Look, the whole matter of Janeway coming to balance her love of science with a bit of faith is okay, but not great. The main reason I’m ever rewatching this episode is for Estelle Harris, Keene Curtis, Harry Groener, and, especially, Parley Baer. And for you young whipper-snappers who don’t know who they are, get off my sacred ground!

145) “Prime Factors” Season 1, Episode 10 Tuvok betrays Janeway’s trust for what turns out to be no good reason. I mean, it’s logical, but we’re all a bit bummed by the end of this.

144) “The Fight” Season 5, Episode 19 Chakotay likes boxing so much he will even box characters that seem to be from a Jack Kirby fever dream.

143) “Vis à Vis” Season 4, Episode 20 Tom Paris is a jerk in a way that Tom Paris is not usually a jerk because of ALIENS.

142) “Lifesigns” Season 2, Episode 19 The Doctor falls in love and B’Elanna learns a bit more compassion, and, um, that’s about it.

141) “Favorite Son” Season 3, Episode 20 Alien femmes have designs on Harry Kim, which means his romantic life remains bad.

140) “Good Shepherd” Season 6, Episode 20 Janeway works on team-building, which somehow turns into a life-or-death situation.

139) “Spirit Folk” Season 6, Episode 17 Due to a glitch, the residents of Fair Haven become more self-aware and — oh, for the love of all that’s Trek, can we give the malfunctioning holodeck episodes a rest?

138) “Twisted” Season 2, Episode 6 The crew pads for time as they explore Voyager-as-Magic-Labyrinth

137) “Human Error” Season 7, Episode 18 An okay character-based episode where Seven of Nine tries to sort out how human she wants to become or can become. It errs a bit more on the frustrating versus existential side, though I suppose if it was in French with B&W cinematography it would be hailed at Cannes.

136) “Fair Haven” Season 6, Episode 11 How can Captain Janeway experience any romance on the long journey home? Why the holodeck, of course! If you’re on board for Voyager , this episode scratches a good character-based itch.

135) “Someone to Watch Over Me” Season 5, Episode 22 It’s Pygmalion with the Doctor and Seven of Nine. Tell you more? It’s nice work if you can get it I suppose, but at the end, the Doctor, pardon my English, goes girl crazy. Okay, I’ll stop with the Gershwin references.

134) “Q2” Season 7, Episode 19 John de Lancie and John de Lancie’s son play Q and Q’s son in this final Q outing. If you liked Q on Voyager, you’ll like this.

133) “Live Fast and Prosper” Season 6, Episode 21 A somewhat charming, but far from amazing episode where the Voyager crew contend with some flim-flamming imposters. If the term “flim-flam” made you queasy, this probably isn’t for you.

132) “Alter Ego” Season 3, Episode 14 Harry falls for the wrong person… again. Tuvok does not prove to be a good wingman.

131) “One” Season 4, Episode 25 Seven of Nine learns that Voyager might just be her new collective. Awww.

130) “Author, Author” Season 7, Episode 20 What rights do writers who are holograms have? The Doctor finds out.

129) “The Cloud” Season 1, Episode 6 Janeway’s coffee-based motivation is never clearer than in this episode. Not bad, but could use a bit more story cream and sugar.

128) “The Chute” Season 3, Episode 3 Tom and Harry are wrongfully incarcerated and have to go through the typical motions of a prison story.

127) “Investigations” Season 2, Episode 20 Neelix as an investigative journalist is somewhat mitigated by his efforts moving the Seska/Kazon storyline along.

126) “Projections” Season 2, Episode 3 A kind of fun take on the Trek “mind-warp” tale where the Doctor questions his holographic existence. Hey, Philip K. Dick’s android said it was okay.

125) “Mortal Coil” Season 4, Episode 12 Neelix gets very existential exploring his ideas of the afterlife. Thoughtful.

124) “Life Line” Season 6, Episode 24 Robert Picardo gets to do a father-son drama playing both parts! Decent.

123) “Pathfinder” Season 6, Episode 10 A little Barclay goes a long way and this episode gives you a lot of Barclay. Gird your holodeck loins!

122) “Learning Curve” Season 1, Episode 16 The Maquis learn that “discipline” and “procedure” aren’t just things Starfleet created to annoy them and Tuvok learns to improvise. A little.

121) “Remember” Season 3, Episode 6 B’Elanna goes on a magical mystery tour… in her mind. Okay, it’s more mystery than magical, but it’ll do.

120) “Darkling” Season 3, Episode 18 What if the Doctor was EVIL?

119) “Tattoo” Season 2, Episode 9 Thrill to the… okay, Marvel to the… Fine. Observe Chakotay’s backstory adventures in Flashback-Land.

118) “Non Sequitur” Season 2, Episode 5 Harry gets caught in an alternate timestream allowing him to suffer general AND romantic angst.

117) “Real Life” Season 3, Episode 22 B’Elanna is something of a jerk, the Doctor gets the O’Brien treatment, and your room may get a bit dusty at the end of this one.

116) “Waking Moments” Season 4, Episode 13 If you like Chakotay and lucid dreaming, you’re going to love this episode.

115) “Resistance” Season 2, Episode 12 A rather touching tale absolutely aided by Joel Grey.

114) “Child’s Play” Season 6, Episode 19 Icheb’s parents are not nice. I mean, you can understand their motivations in a ends-justifies-the-means kind of Greek mythology not-nice way, but they’re still not nice.

113) “Virtuoso” Season 6, Episode 13 The Doctor learns a great deal about fame and fads.

112) “Drive” Season 7, Episode 3 A reasonably involving story where a multi-species spacecraft race is used to illustrate B’Elanna and Tom’s relationship. They also make time for Harry to be unlucky in love again.

111) “Ex Post Facto” Season 1, Episode 8 It’s TNG’s “A Matter of Perspective” with a little smattering of DS9’s “Hard Time” with Tom as the Riker/O’Brien stand-in.

110) “Heroes and Demons” Season 1, Episode 12 A surprisingly enjoyable holodeck outing where the Doctor contends with a Beowulf-type tale. I’m still bummed he didn’t stick with the name “Schweitzer.”

109) “Initiations” Season 2, Episode 2 You get both Nog and the Vasquez Rocks in this story of a young Kazon training to become a proper dudebro Kazon.

108) “Macrocosm” Season 3, Episode 12 Janeway does her best Linda Hamilton impersonation as she takes on a macro-virus. If you’re on board for a wacky monster-of-the-week episode, it’s pretty fun.

107) “Repression” Season 7, Episode 4 Tuvok is the Manchurian Vulcan in a reasonably effective mystery-thriller.

106) “Collective” Season 6, Episode 16 Borg children are precocious. And by “precocious,” I mean “just as deadly as regular Borg if they can get away with it.”

105) “Resolutions” Season 2, Episode 25 Some attempts at serial storytelling come into play here what with callbacks to previous encounters with the Vidiians (aka, your make-up class final exam) as well as exploring the relationship between Chakotay and Janeway. However, there’s nothing exceptional.

104) “Coda” Season 3, Episode 15 Janeway experiences a bit of Groundhog Day. There’s a lot of temporary death in this episode, which, depending on how you feel about the Voyager characters, is either a plus or a minus.

103) “The Gift” Season 4, Episode 2 Let’s officially make the ensemble change from Kes to Seven of Nine and give Kes a good sendoff, okay?

102) “Extreme Risk” Season 5, Episode 3 A notable story in introducing us to the Delta Flyer as well as showing a character work through clinical depression. Because let’s face it, life in a Star Trek series is pretty taxing for one’s mental health.

101) “Emanations” Season 1, Episode 9 An enjoyably philosophical episode comfortably in the Trek wheelhouse looking at beliefs around the afterlife. Plus, Harry Kim is tormented physically and mentally, so you get to check both those boxes off your Voyager bingo card.

100) “Nothing Human” Season 5, Episode 8 Following in the footsteps of TNG’s “Ethics,” the Doctor gets to question whether he can benefit from the research of a Cardassian Dr. Mengele type. Maybe not gold medal, but still Olympic-level wrestling with morals.

99) “Before and After” Season 3, Episode 21 An entertaining enough story where Kes becomes “unstuck in time,” serving as a prelude to the following season’s excellent “Year of Hell.”

98) “The Disease” Season 5, Episode 17 Yes, Harry has another failed romance which, actually, almost kills him. In the meantime however, he gets his groove on and we get to see some okay drama about a generation ship.

97) “Imperfection” Season 7, Episode 2 Character building between Icheb and Seven of Nine which isn’t bad, but rather dependent on you being more than a casual viewer.

96) “The Swarm” Season 3, Episode 4 Irwin Allen is nowhere to be found in this installment which is titularly about xenophobic aliens and their flocks of ships, but really is more about what to do with the Doctor who has outgrown his holographic specs.

95) “Repentance” Season 7, Episode 13 A solid scenario where Federation ideals such as non-interference and no capital punishment come in conflict with a race that plans to execute some of their criminals. Good character moments for several of the crew.

94) “Rise” Season 3, Episode 19 If you like the idea of space elevators and can abide by Neelix, you’re going to be perfectly happy with this one.

93) “Riddles” Season 6, Episode 6 Neelix finally gets to be besties with Tuvok, but Voyager still needs a good tactical officer, so his possible new career path as a jazz-loving baker is cut short.

92) “Homestead” Season 7, Episode 23 The producers wisely realize that Delta Quadrant native Neelix probably won’t like being the lone Talaxian in the Federation and so they send him off in decent style, where he gets to rally a colony of his people against miners in a clear Homesteaders/ranchers homage. Bonus points for the obvious, but enjoyable bit of closure with Tuvok.

91) “Nightingale” Season 7, Episode 8 Okay, so maybe it’s okay for Harry Kim to remain an ensign for a while.

90) “Workforce” (Parts I & II) Season 7, Episodes 16 & 17 A decent, but not standout two-parter that gives some good character moments, especially, for Janeway and the Doctor — yet the story doesn’t match some of Voyager’s more epic two-parters.

89) “The Voyager Conspiracy” Season 6, Episode 9 Seven of Nine becomes a poster child for the every instructor who has ever wanted to illustrate how data is different from information which is different from knowledge which is different from wisdom.

88) “Once Upon a Time” Season 5, Episode 5 A charming tale about Neelix living up to his role as Voyager ‘s morale officer with a fun little world-building reveal at the end featuring Janeway, making you speculate whether there are holodeck versions of Goodnight Moon and Dr. Seuss books.

87) “Warlord” Season 3, Episode 10 Jennifer Lien has a field day playing a would-be military dictator who can’t quite escape Kes’ irrepressible niceness.

86) “Scientific Method” Season 4, Episode 7 Pitiless aliens experiment on the crew once again making a critical mistake pretty much all the villains make on Voyager : when you go against Janeway, you have to go all-in.

85) “Tsunkatse” Season 6, Episode 15 A decent but not particularly surprising diversion of an episode involving gladiatorial combat. You could say this episode puts Seven of Nine between The Rock and a hard place. I won’t say it, but you might.

84) “Think Tank” Season 5, Episode 20 Nefarious aliens will get what they want, and they want Seven of Nine! But have you noticed people who cross Janeway tend to wind up broken or dead?

83) “The Q and the Grey” Season 3, Episode 11 The repercussions of “Death Wish” come to pass in an entertaining enough outing where John de Lancie’s self-important Q is joined by Suzie Plakson as his significant Q other. Bonus meta points for Miss Q flattering B’Elanna about Klingons.

82) “Caretaker” Season 1, Episodes 1 & 2 A somewhat perfunctory, but decent enough series premiere gives us a taste of what to look forward to –and what we might find annoying– about the latest Star Trek series. That they revisit Janeway’s fateful decision to strand themselves in the Delta quadrant because of Federation ideals later in the series is good. It’s also nice that Voyager represents some technical sophistication after endless episodes of the Enterprise (in multiple series) being completely outclassed (and it also gives a good covetous motivation for the new villains, the Kazon).

81) “Alliances” Season 2, Episode 14 In a great move for the overall Kazon narrative, Janeway and the crew find the limits of selling the Kazon on their Federation principles. Cultures used to betrayals and power games tend not to change overnight.

80) “Day of Honor” Season 4, Episode 3 A good entry in both B’Elanna’s ongoing exploration of her Klingon heritage and her relationship with Tom Paris.

79) “Drone” Season 5, Episode 2 Mix a transporter mishap with the Borg and 29th century technology and you have yourselves a spicy meatball of an episode!

78) “Retrospect” Season 4, Episode 17 A tale of assault, abuse, doubt, and trust that offers enough great moments for Seven, Janeway, and the Doctor to make one feel properly uncomfortable.

77) “Infinite Regress” Season 5, Episode 7 Jeri Ryan gets to act her socks off and Naomi Wildman continues her quest to become the “captain’s assistant.” Fun all around.

76) “Latent Image” Season 5, Episode 11 The Doctor gets to experience conflict as never before in a thought-provoking story about ethics and choice.

75) “Lineage” Season 7, Episode 12 As with many couples suddenly facing a family addition, Tom and B’Elanna are forced to consider their heritage. B’Elanna’s struggles with her familial baggage are very real and a welcome presence in a Star Trek story.

74) “Friendship One” Season 7, Episode 21 Do you remember Lieutenant Carey? He’s been with us since season one. Prepare to be depressed.

73) “Prophecy” Season 7, Episode 14 A good story filled with enough action that will in no way alleviate B’Elanna’s anxiety about having a baby as her unborn child may be the Kuvah’magh… or the Kwisatz Haderach… or both! Also, for better or worse, we discover more about Neelix’s tastes in women.

72) “Natural Law” Season 7, Episode 22 A perfectly enjoyable Trek outing about cultural progress and survival focusing on Chakotay and Seven of Nine.

71) “Time and Again” Season 1, Episode 4 Writer David Kemper would go on to explore more time travel and causality themes in Farscape , but despite some technobabble, this is an entertaining entry. Bonus points for showing how Tom Paris can do some math in his head.

70) “Thirty Days” Season 5, Episode 9 A good framing device often adds to the richness of any story as well as drawing you in. Here, we want to know what happened that led to Tom’s demotion and we get some good wrestling with the Prime Directive as well.

69) “Survival Instinct” Season 6, Episode 2 Seven of Nine being a first-class tool back when she was part of the collective has some repercussions. Also, Vaughan Armstrong needs to play another Star Trek race.

68) “Inside Man” Season 7, Episode 6 While not as intricate a plot as the film “Inside Man,” this Dwight Schultz-packed story of deceit is reasonably satisfying.

67) “The Omega Directive” Season 4, Episode 21 The “omega particles” are about as ridiculous science as “red matter,” but it does make for some entertaining space opera amid the technobabble.

66) “Eye of the Needle” Season 1, Episode 7 A nice installment for season one, where the crew is still focused on getting out of the whole premise of being in the Delta Quadrant in the first place. Space-time twists can be the worst twists, can’t they?

65) “Juggernaut” Season 5, Episode 21 The character storyline of B’Elanna learning to deal with her rage and the plot storyline of monster aboard the freighter don’t quite mesh, but the resulting episode works well enough.

64) “Cold Fire” Season 2, Episode 10 Kes learns more about her mutant -er- psychic powers from Gary Graham, who’s clearly honing his multilayered antagonist character in advance of playing Soval on “Enterprise.” Plus, we get followup on the Caretaker of sorts.

63) “Renaissance Man” Season 7, Episode 24 We get one last relatively light adventure before the grim series finale, and focusing on the breakout character that is the Doctor is a good way to do it. If “The Blue Danube” isn’t stuck in your head by the end of this episode, you may have a natural resistance to earworms.

62) “Random Thoughts” Season 4, Episode 10 The premise of a race of telepaths who have a secret longing for unsavory thoughts makes this a fun mystery with allegorical overtones.

61) “Fury” Season 6, Episode 23 Kes is back for character-based closure –and a few explosions– and it works out pretty well.

60) “False Profits” Season 3, Episode 5 In a fun follow-up to TNG’s “The Price,” we find the Ferengi lost in the Delta Quadrant are behaving like, well, Ferengi.

59) “Dragon’s Teeth” Season 6, Episode 7 Voyager shows off its visual effects budget as we are introduced to the Vaadwaur, an ancient race not unlike the Iconians, except they used subspace tunnels versus portals as their chosen tool of conquest. Despite their antagonistic potential, we sadly never see them again in the series.

58) “Barge of the Dead” Season 6, Episode 3 Both Klingon world-building and B’Elanna Torres character-building are on display as we get a look at Klingon hell (well, mainly the metaphorical road to hell and how it’s paved).

57) “Persistence of Vision” Season 2, Episode 8 Not content to have just one crew member experience a “mind warp” episode, the writers cleverly figure out how to get just about the whole crew involved. The villain, sadly, never appears again.

56) “Ashes to Ashes” Season 6, Episode 18 The idea of an alien species reproducing by re-purposing old humanoid corpses is almost as interesting as the lengths Voyager ‘s writers will go to in order to cause Harry Kim romantic heartache.

55) “Critical Care” Season 7, Episode 5 A very blatant allegorical look at healthcare which is just as topical –if not more so– that it was when it aired about 20 years ago.

54) “Counterpoint” Season 5, Episode 10 A solid, enjoyable episode mixing elements of a heist or “long con” caper with a noble Starfleet goal of protecting people who are too different for an uptight race. Guest star Mark Harelik channels William Campbell’s Original Series performances as ingratiating villains, and Janeway gets to show her own form of three-dimentional thinking.

53) “Maneuvers” Season 2, Episode 11 Machinations with the Kazon –aided directly by Seska being the schemer she is and indirectly by Chakotay being a bit of an idiot– make this a decent entry in the overarching Kazon storyline.

52) “Nemesis” Season 4, Episode 4 Chakotay gets brainwashed to fight in someone else’s war in a story with allegorical overtones of far too many conflicts around the globe.

51) “State of Flux” Season 1, Episode 11 Seska has multiple secrets as the Kazon storyline starts taking off.

50) “The Raven” Season 4, Episode 6 We get some quality backstory on Seven of Nine just as we learn she didn’t exactly have a quality childhood.

49) “Hope and Fear” Season 4, Episode 26 A solid episode aided by a great performance by Ray Wise and a shipload of mystery. The one quibble is that, as a season finale, it lacks the heft of some of the two-parters Voyager proves to do so well.

48) “Flashback” Season 3, Episode 2 Voyager took a different, more serious take for their 30-year anniversary assignment and it’s both entertaining and ingenious.

47) “Gravity” Season 5, Episode 13 Lori Petty learns that Vulcans are hard to love as Trek writers find yet another way to mess with space and time, which works quite well both thematically and plot-wise.

46) “Displaced” Season 3, Episode 24 A surprisingly engaging mystery where the Voyager crew is cautious but helpful… and gets overwhelmed by a bunch of medieval hat fanatics. Luckily those marauding milliners didn’t count on Starfleet stubbornness and ingenuity. Bonus points for the universal translator being useless in the face of alien computer displays.

45) “Prototype” Season 2, Episode 13 Frequent Trek guest star Rick Worthy is unrecognizable under his robot costume, but the tale of artificial intelligence gone awry, plus the ethical questions Torres and the rest of the Voyager crew face are familiar and nicely done.

44) “Message in a Bottle” Season 4, Episode 14 Voyager ‘s sending out an S.O.S. The Doctor as an S.O.S. But there’s Romulans in the bottle. And by bottle, I mean pretty darn cool experimental starship located in the Alpha Quadrant.

43) “Warhead” Season 5, Episode 25 In something of a follow-up to “Dreadnought,” the crew contends with an AI that, in this case, takes over the Doctor. Entertaining variations on the theme.

42) “In the Flesh” Season 5, Episode 4 You could speculate that this was simply a cost-effective way to get another story about Species 8472, but I’m not entirely convinced it wasn’t just a ploy to get Ray Walston back to Star Trek. Nevertheless, the tale has satisfying Trekkish overtones of cold war detente.

41) “Hunters” Season 4, Episode 15 The first episode with the Hirogen is pretty solid as the newly discovered race stands between Voyager and better contact with the Alpha quadrant. Somehow, we also find time for Harry Kim’s angst. Focus on the Hirogen.

40) “Prey” Season 4, Episode 16 An immediate improvement over “Hunters” thanks to the appearance of Species 8472 and Tony Todd as an Alpha Hirogen. Plus, we get some mileage out of Seven of Nine’s adjustments to Voyager.

39) “Flesh and Blood” Season 7, Episodes 9 & 10 An occasionally ungainly two-parter that explores the aftermath of “The Killing Game” and the notion of sentient holograms. Iden’s descent into crazed would-be savior is uneven, but the moral and ethical questions raised throughout are classic Trek.

38) “Future’s End” (Parts I & II) Season 3, Episodes 8 & 9 Look, I know that Ed Begley, Jr. may not be anyone’s ideas of a villainous industrialist nor is Sarah Silverman the first person you picture when I say “plucky astronomer,” but the whole two-parter works a lot better than you’d expect. Plus, the Doctor gets a mobile emitter out of it.

37) “The Thaw” Season 2, Episode 23 Of course Micheal McKean can play a freaky clown well. His villainy creeps up into the episode quite effectively, but Janeway’s got a schedule to keep, so…

36) “Distant Origin” Season 3, Episode 23 A bold and fun story about dogma and scientific discovery with Voyager and her crew being a catalyst for questions. Though I don’t mind a Chakotay-focused episode, demerits for having Janeway and several of the others inelegantly disappear from the narrative near the end.

35) “Basics” (Parts I & II) Season 2, & Season 3, Episodes 26 & 1 The on-again, off-again Kazon storyline (with Seska seasoning) finally pays off with some inventiveness in both halves, though peaceful it’s not. Bonus points for the Harryhausen-esque monster.

34) “Dark Frontier” Season 5, Episodes 15 & 16 Much ballyhooed when it originally aired as a feature-length episode, it remains an entertaining exploration of Seven of Nine’s backstory along with some Voyager vs. Borg action that becomes a mainstay in the latter half of the series.

33) “The Killing Game” Season 4, Episodes 18 & 19 A disturbing amount of alien races in Star Trek seem to be at home in Nazi uniforms, but the Hirogen work the schtick pretty well. Plus, we get some fun moments of holodeck-imitating-life as the crew finds ways to resist in character. Best of all, the ending isn’t an unabashed win for the Voyager crew, leading us later to “Flesh and Blood.”

32) “Concerning Flight” Season 4, Episode 11 John Rhys-Davies’ outsize performance as Leonardo da Vinci makes this more than just an average get-back- Voyager ‘s-tech caper.

31) “11:59” Season 5, Episode 23 A fun exploration of ancestry, using the contemporary coming of the millennium to good effect as Janeway learns the truth and myth around some of her family lore.

30) “Memorial” Season 6, Episode 14 An unsettling episode that you’ll be forgiven for thinking wandered in from the DS9 writers’ room. Regardless, it raises some great Trekkish questions about how history is remembered.

29) “Innocence” Season 2, Episode 22 Tuvok enters and then exits, playing his part in this strange eventful history: one whose twist is second childhood and mere oblivion.

28) “Shattered” Season 7, Episode 11 Voyager does an inventive and entertaining take on the “alternative timeline” tale that makes full use of the seven years’ worth of storylines.

27) “Bride of Chaotica!” Season 5, Episode 12 Look, if you can’t enjoy this goofy homage to old Flash Gordon serials and somewhat meta-commentary on Voyager itself, you’re going to miss out on some wonderful character moments and a chock full of delight.

26) “Unforgettable” Season 4, Episode 22 Some significant suspension of disbelief is needed to accept that anyone could forget Virginia Madsen, but the tale of reclusive, biologically unmemorable aliens is a solid tragic romance tale. Bonus points for pen and paper being the solution to all the technobabble.

25) “Demon” Season 4, Episode 24 Because Voyager is ultimately not a horror movie, we end up with a very Trek end to discovering a strange new world and new life, but what a wonderfully creepy ride through a great sci-fi scenario in the meantime!

24) “Bliss” Season 5, Episode 14 Mix a TNG “mindwarp” story with TOS’s “The Immunity Syndrome” and add in a bravura performance by W. Morgan Sheppard, and you have a humdinger of an episode, you betcha!

23) “Dreadnought” Season 2, Episode 17 B’Elanna’s past sins and Voyager ‘s current problems with the Kazon are all wrapped into an action-packed race to disarm a doomsday weapon.

22) “Muse” Season 6, Episode 22 A wonderful story that explores the power of storytelling within its own plot of an ancient Greek type civilization and an artist struggling to please his patron. Kudos for having B’Elanna Torres as the irascible muse and bonus points to Harry Kim for clearly remembering all his Starfleet survival training.

21) “Death Wish” Season 2, Episode 18 A spirited, philosophical Voyager entry that takes us to the dawn of time back to the 24th century, wrestling with notions of mortality and purpose in an insouciant manner that only the Q can.

20) “Unimatrix Zero” (Parts I & II) Season 6, & Season 7, Episodes 26 & 1 What’s this? More Seven of Nine backstory, you say? She’s part of what could become a Borg Liberation Front, you say? We’re going to have a rousing two-parter with a cliffhanger that makes us wonder how our heroes will recover? Count us in.

19) “Tinker, Tenor, Doctor, Spy” Season 6, Episode 4 The Doctor contains multitudes and within those multitudes can be found comedy gold — as we see in this Walter Mitty-esque sci-fi outing.

18) “Course: Oblivion” Season 5, Episode 18 A surprise follow-up to “Demon” that surpasses its predecessor and ends on an incredibly downbeat ending — while still holding true to Starfleet boldly going and the desires (and constraints) of the silver blood aliens. Well done.

17) “Night” Season 5, Episode 1 A season opener packed with moral quandary as a Janeway is presented with deal with the Devil that promises to banish her own demons.

16) “Unity” Season 3, Episode 17 An intriguing take on the needs of the many versus the needs of the one using the Borg… or a variant thereof as a stand-in. It hints at the events of “Scorpion” and the nuanced Borg stories to come.

15) “Meld” Season 2, Episode 16 The episode proves to be an almost theatrical exploration of ideas –and no easy answers– right in Trek’s wheelhouse absolutely elevated by Brad Dourif’s portrayal of the remorseless Lon Suder and matched by Tim Russ’ now placable Tuvok. Dark humor points are grudgingly awarded for naming the victim “Darwin.”

14) “The Void” Season 7, Episode 15 A quintessential piece of Star Trek as the Voyager crew is faced with ignoring their Federation ideals in order to escape the titular void, but finds a solution through those selfsame ideals. The demerits for the convenience of the alien stowaways are offset by the bonus points for them representing lifeforms that others do not value.

13) “Blink of an Eye” Season 6, Episode 12 Take a seat, armchair anthropologists, and enjoy the epic of a species’ evolution with Voyager as its constant star.

11) “Revulsion” Season 4, Episode 5 A spectacularly creepy episode of AI gone wrong due in no small part to Leland Orser’s effective performance. Plus, you get at little Harry Kim romantic angst to lighten things up.

10) “Relativity” Season 5, Episode 24 A clever and engaging time travel episode where Seven of Nine gets to shine, Janeway gets to show off more of her backstory, and Braxton gets to be more than Captain Ahab vis-à-vis Voyager .

9) “One Small Step” Season 6, Episode 8 A homage to the explorers that have inspired Trek… just as Trek has inspired people to become scientists and explorers. Seven of Nine finds your observation that the room is getting dusty entirely valid.

8) “Worst Case Scenario” Season 3, Episode 25 Yet another holodeck episode… only done right. Starting as a holodeck Choose-Your-Own-Adventure, mayhem quickly ensues thanks to the impossible appearance of Seska. Bonus points for the reprogrammed Doctor and the general meta commentary on writing.

7) “Body and Soul” Season 7, Episode 7 Sci-fi makes for a great excuse for a body-swapping farce and both Ryan and Picardo deliver. Plus, when they’re in their respective bodies, we get wonderful banter erupting between Seven and the Doctor with Harry Kim as the bewildered Ralph Bellamy straight man (come on, the character was born for this!). Megan Gallagher and Fritz Sperberg round out a great cast — and Tom Paris proves to not be a total schmuck (I think that’s a Vulcan term).

6) “Living Witness” Season 4, Episode 23 An absolute standout sci-fi tale playing with perception and how history is written that starts with Voyager and her crew, but goes far beyond it.

5) “Endgame” Season 7, Episodes 25 & 26 Give credit where credit is due: Janeway leads her crew home and wins a decisive victory over the Borg. Oh, and she picks up some fancy futuristic technology along the way. For a conclusion that ends with our crew winning, it’s surprisingly grim — even DS9’s conclusion, with its elements of genocide and a Pyrrhic victory, had a charming curtain call for the benefit of the viewers. Still, it’s a solid entry following in the footsteps of “All Good Things…”

4) “Timeless” Season 5, Episode 6 A well-told time travel story filled with heroism, regret, and a nice cameo by director LeVar Burton.

3) “Equinox” (Parts I & II) Season 5, & Season 6, Episodes 26 & 1 Obsession, duty, and the importance of choices dominate this taut two-parter with some truly freaky monsters, some truly monstrous acts, a great performance by John Savage, and a guarantee you’ll never look at the Doctor the same way again.

2) “Scorpion” (Parts I & II) Season 3, & Season 4, Episodes 26 & 1 Starting with what is arguably one of the best ever Trek cold opens (assuming viewers know of the Borg), we get an action-packed, Borg-infested, issue-wrestling two-parter that takes things to eleven and gives us Seven of Nine.

1) “Year of Hell” (Parts I & II) Season 4, Episodes 8 & 9 Take a villain with an obsessive quest, played wonderfully by Kurtwood Smith, and place it in a story that allows you to do whatever you want (thanks to a magic sci-fi reset button) and you have Voyager ‘s best episode bar none. Every member of the crew gets some great moments here and the ending lands expertly.

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Every star trek: voyager season ranked worst to best.

Star Trek: Voyager ran for a total of seven seasons, but some seasons were better than others. Here's every Voyager season ranked worst to best.

As with most Star Trek shows, Star Trek: Voyager had certain seasons that were better than others in its seven season run. Voyager was the fourth television series in the Star Trek franchise and ran congruently with Star Trek: Deep Space Nine , premiering in January 1995 and ending in May 2001 for a total of 172 episodes. The show was notable for introducing many popular characters including Captain Kathryn Janeway (Kate Mulgrew) and Seven of Nine (Jeri Ryan), and maintains a devoted following among Star Trek fans today.

Star Trek: Voyager 's overarching plot about the crew attempting to return home after being stranded in the Delta Quadrant created numerous opportunities for great storytelling. Voyager introduced new sci-fi challenges and alien races to a well-established franchise, while still taking the opportunity to explore already popular Star Trek aliens , concepts, and characters. Like any TV show, however, Voyager included a mix of episodes in terms of quality, some that were well-crafted and executed, others less so. These episodes, in turn, added up to make certain seasons of the show better than others, creating a definitive hierarchy of Voyager' s seasons that can clearly be seen when the show is looked at as a whole.

Related: Why Star Trek: Voyager Ended (Was It Canceled?)

Season 2 of Star Trek: Voyager got off to a rocky start from the beginning, with four episodes originally intended for the end of season 1 being moved to the beginning of season 2. This created an underwhelming Star Trek premiere episode in "The 37's" which saw the crew discovering a planet inhabited by humans abducted from Earth in 1937, including Amelia Earhart (Sharon Lawrence). While the concept might have been executed better under other circumstances, issues with the writing and production of the episode caused the plot to feel a bit contrived and left lingering, unanswered questions that hurt the episode as a whole.

Season 2 of Star Trek: Voyager also included some of the worst-reviewed episodes of the series, such as "Elogium" and "Threshold". "Threshold", in particular, continues to be one of the most divisive episodes in the whole Star Trek franchise, with a plot revolving around Tom Paris' (Robert Duncan McNeill) transformation into a salamander-like creature after he breaks the Warp 10 speed barrier. The episode ends with him and a likewise-transformed Captain Janeway mating and creating offspring on an unknown planet after Paris abducts her. While some episodes were better, including one introducing John de Lancie's Q to Star Trek: Voyager , season 2 is the worst season of the series when looked at collectively.

While it didn't have as many divisive episodes as season 2, season 3 of Star Trek: Voyager still struggled to make a big impact on the series. The season did include a number of episodes that connected Voyager more concretely to the wider Star Trek universe. The episode "Flashback" revealed that Voyager's Vulcan security officer Tuvok (Tim Russ) had served on the USS Excelsior under Captain Hikaru Sulu, with George Takei reprising his iconic role, and episodes like "False Profits", "The Q and the Grey", and "Unity" included such iconic Star Trek aliens as the Ferengi , Q, and the Borg. However, these wider franchise connections weren't enough to carry the episodes they appeared in. Even "Flashback" was not able to become one of Voyager 's most memorable episodes despite the popularity of Sulu and Takei.

Season 3 did include a few better episodes in contrast with the bad. "Future's End, Parts I and II" had a well-executed time travel storyline, and guest-starred popular actors Ed Begley Jr. and Sarah Silverman. Likewise, the season finale "Scorpion Part I" definitively introduced the Borg as one of Star Trek: Voyager 's main villains and created another truly terrifying villain in Species 8472. The episode's second part, which acted as the season 4 premiere, was when Jeri Ryan's Seven of Nine joined Star Trek: Voyager 's cast as a series regular however, meaning that season 3 falls just short of being able to claim the distinction of having introduced such a popular character to the Star Trek franchise.

Related: Every Star Trek Character Guest Star On Voyager

Season 1 of Star Trek: Voyager still had its fair share of middling episodes. In particular, Voyager 's pilot episode, "Caretaker, Part I and II," is one of the better-reviewed pilots in the Star Trek franchise, eclipsing Star Trek: The Next Generation 's pilot, "Encounter as Farpoint" in terms of writing and acting quality. "Caretaker" introduced both a diverse, interesting cast of characters and a compelling overall theme for Voyager , and allowed the series to branch out into new territory by setting it in a region of space the Star Trek franchise had never explored.

That said, season 1 was also Star Trek: Voyager 's shortest, coming in at just 16 episodes instead of the usual 26. Additionally, while Voyager season 1 did include some truly great episodes with solid Star Trek concepts, such as "Heroes and Demons" and "Faces", it suffered from a curse that almost every Star Trek series encountered, and was not able to capture audience attention or acclaim as well as later seasons did. Season 1 was a good introduction to the series, but when compared to other seasons of Voyager , it consistently falls short in terms of episode quality.

Star Trek: Voyager season 7 ended the show and saw the crew achieve their goal of returning home in its finale "Endgame, Part I and II". While this might seem to indicate a satisfying conclusion, "Endgame" did not end up being a complete success. The episode's use of time travel failed to live up to expectations, and included a baffling (and ultimately failed) romance between Seven of Nine and Robert Beltran's Chakotay, as well as a slightly abrupt ending that left viewers wanting more. "Endgame" ranks right in the middle of other Star Trek series finales overall, and while not the worst-reviewed finale of any series in the franchise, did not hit the mark for many viewers.

The rest of the season also failed to include any particularly iconic episodes outside of the finale. While episodes like "Body and Soul", "Shattered", and "Author, Author" played around with some distinctly Star Trek sci-fi concepts such as body swapping, parallel timelines, and the question of sentience when it comes to inorganic beings, the season as a whole did not add up to more good episodes than bad. Star Trek: Voyager season 7 may have been the show's final outing, but it would not end up being the season that devotees of the show ranked the highest.

Related: Star Trek: Voyager Series Ending Explained - How The Crew Gets Home

With the introduction of Seven of Nine in Star Trek: Voyager 's season 4 premiere, and the establishment of the Borg and the Hirogen as villains for the later half of the series, season 4 saw Voyager truly begin to hit its stride. Seven of Nine , in particular, was given some extremely compelling episodes for her first season with the crew, including "The Gift" and "The Raven" In part because of these episodes, Seven not only became one of the most popular characters on the show but has gone on to become a particular fan-favorite, so much so that she was brought back years after Voyager 's finale as a series regular on Star Trek: Picard .

Season 4 also included some truly iconic Star Trek: Voyager episodes, such as the two-parters "Year of Hell" and "The Killing Game", and riveting, dramatic storylines for often underutilized characters like Neelix (Ethan Phillips) in season 4 episodes like "Mortal Coil". While not every episode hit the mark, season 4 was arguably the season that held more successful episodes than any other season before it. This holds true today as well, with specific episodes still ranked consistently higher than others in Voyager 's previous seasons.

Star Trek: Voyager 's season 6 ended up being a better entry in the series than the show's final season. Season 6 began with the conclusion of "Equinox", a two-part episode that combined high-stakes drama with a classic Star Trek moral dilemma as Voyager's crew battled against the crew of the USS Equinox, another Star Trek Federation ship stranded like Voyager that was using the murdered bodied of an alien race as a fuel to help them return home faster. With this intense start, season 6 went on to be a mix of incredibly funny, entertaining episodes like "Tinker, Tenor, Doctor, Spy" and extremely well-crafted, poignant plots such as "Blink of an Eye", the highest-rated episode of Voyager according to IMDb .

While episodes like "Fair Haven" and its sequel "Spirit Folk" are often ranked low by critics and viewers, season 6 of Voyager maintained a comfortable level of popular episodes during its run. The season also included cameos from two iconic Star Trek: The Next Generation characters, Lt. Reginald Barclay (Dwight Schultz) and Counselor Deanna Troi (Marina Sirtis), once again finding an entertaining way to connect Voyager to the wider Star Trek franchise . While not the absolute best season of Star Trek: Voyager , season 6 is a close second.

Related: Every Troi Star Trek Appearance After TNG

With a cadre of high-quality episodes that flow well together, season 5 of Star Trek: Voyager is generally considered the series' best season overall. Season 5 included such memorable episodes as "Timeless", the 100th episode of Voyager , and a tour de force for Garrett Wang's Ensign Harry Kim as future versions of himself and Chakotay rush to prevent a piloting accident from causing Voyager's entire crew to perish in a deadly crash. Like season 4, season 5 was also an important season for Seven of Nine, with episodes like "Drone", "Dark Frontier Part I and II", and "Relativity" allowing Jeri Ryan's acting talents to shine.

Classic Star Trek holodeck accident episodes such as "Bride of Choatica!", and thought-provoking episodes centered around Robert Picardo's The Doctor like "Latent Image" meant that season 5 included something for everyone in terms of entertainment. Although the season still had episodes that didn't perform as well, these were much fewer and farther between than in previous seasons. Star Trek: Voyager took a bit of time to find what worked and what didn't for the series, but many of the later seasons, and season 5 in particular, ended up being Voyager 's best entries into the Star Trek franchise.

More: Every Voyager Character's Star Trek Return (& How