Star Trek VOY Season 4 - Top 5 Favorite Episodes

So Season 4 of Voyager, or as I like to think of it now - The Seven of Nine show.  LOL, I'm just kidding (slightly) but she really got a lot of screen time for a new character.  They wanted to get more viewers to the show I guess.  I do like that it feels like Voyager has two female leads now which is awesome.  Captain Janeway is such a bad-ass now - I continue to love her as a character.  I'm pretty sure now she is my favorite character from this series.  I do feel sorry for B'ellana though - it feels like so much of her storylines revolve around her love interest Tom Paris and what he's going through.

While I'm slowing down a bit with Voyager, I do still really enjoy the crew and the storylines; which are fun, inventive spins on science fiction ideas and it feels like the episodes revolve more around concepts than around interpersonal drama and alien conflicts.  Which I'm loving as it makes for some very interesting stories.

5. Hope and Fear

With the help of a linguistically talented alien, Voyager decodes a message Starfleet sent them months ago.  The message tells them of a ship with new technology that can send them home quickly, and they just need to go to certain coordinates to pick it up.  It seems too good to be true.  The real situation behind the message was a surprise to me - while I didn't expect for Voyager to be able to get home, I was surprised that this episode turned into an evaluation of Janeway's actions from a previous episode.  While I feel like Janeway's lax adherence to the Prime Directive is creating issues in more and more of these episodes, it's interesting how I feel like she made the right decision every time.  Obviously I'm not a big proponent of the Prime Directive here, haha.  Of course the consequences of her decision was very unfortunate in this episode.

4. One

Voyager must enter into a region of space that is filled with radiation that is toxic to everyone but Seven of Nine and the Doctor.  They decide to put the entire crew in stasis to cross the nebula, and Seven, the Doctor, and the computer must keep the ship running for a month.  Poor Seven.  She has so many things she has to adjust to, and being completely alone is one of them since the computer starts to malfunction and the Doctor has to go offline.  I thought this was an interesting exploration of Seven as a character - especially when Chakotay was concerned Seven would not have their best interests at heart, and in the end Seven chooses to sacrifice herself in an attempt to save the sleeping crew.  It's really heartwarming to see her become more human.

3. Waking Moments

The crew start experiencing nightmares separately, and the same mysterious alien is in every one.  This is Inception level storytelling, as it becomes unclear whether what is happening is real or a dream.  I thought this was a fantastic story with a very ingenious solution.  With such a difficult conundrum, I was so happy that the writers pulled out an equally inventive resolution that was believable.  And while I do like Chakotay as a character, I do wish he was a bit more... well that he would show more mettle sometimes (he's just so nice!) since he's the First Officer and has to take charge, but in this episode he delivers!

2. Year of Hell (Parts 1 & 2)

A scientist and a member of the Krenium Imperium develops temporal technology and changes history in an attempt to bring his people back to glory and also to save the family he lost.  Voyager is in the eye of the storm with these temporal changes, and fights to stay alive.  Because time travel technology is introduced very early on, it's easy to relax while watching this, knowing that Voyager will be safe in the end because of some time reversal.  But it is heart-wrenching to see just how low the crew of Voyager is brought before the end.  Janeway becomes more hardened, the crew suffers casualties, Tuvok becomes blind, and Chakotay and Paris are taken.  It's a really exciting ride of a story, especially when anything can happen.  I also appreciate the continuity since this period that Voyager goes through is foreshadowed by Kes's time hopping adventure last season.

1. Scientific Method

The Voyager crew appear to be mysteriously afflicted by a variety of illnesses, and it is revealed they are being experimented on by aliens who are out of phase and therefore almost undetectable.  Wow, the creepiness of aliens poking and injecting the crew as they are going about their business!  I loved the idea of this episode - so clever, and a thoughtful look at scientific experimentation.  It was so tense too when Seven was trying to find a way to reveal the aliens to the crew, without the aliens realizing she knew that they were there. I also love the moment when Janeway decides that the experimenting ends now, and does something drastic.  She is my spirit animal. :D