Star Trek VOY Season 7 - Top 5 Favorite Episodes

The very last season of Voyager.  I felt kinda sad to reach the end of this series.  I just loved Captain Janeway so much.  I loved her sense of honor and her fierceness.  With all the Star Trek series, there is the sense that the crew will always follow their Captain because they trust them, and I really felt the strength of the Captain in holding her crew together in this series.  It is strange though that I didn't put the finale episode in my top 5 though.  It was very good, and featured time travel, but it seemed a bit off at times, and I'm not even sure how much I liked seeing Janeway so altered.  Probably if I was to revisit the episode in the future, I would enjoy it more, but for now, these top 5 are the ones for me!

Now I just have one more series to go! (Until the new one that is!)  I'm so impatient to see Dr. Noonien Soong! :D

5. Author, Author

The Doctor is working on a holonovel that advocates hologram rights.  The novel borrows much from the Voyager's history and personnel.  Some of the other crew members are not happy with their depiction in the novel.  This is a fun episode, that takes a serious, thoughtful turn.  It reminded me a bit of the TNG episode The Measure of a Man since it deals with the Doctor's ability to have rights over his holonovel.  Although this episode does not... measure up to The Measure of a Man in my opinion, it does still do a great job of focusing on humanity's need to adapt when it comes to rights issues, and this story also stands out because of the skewed way the crew is portrayed in the holonovel.  It makes for some hilarious and surprising scenes.

4. Renaissance Man

The Doctor and the Captain are on an away mission and when the Captain returns she informs Chakotay that because of a transgression they unwittingly made she has no choice but to surrender the warp drive and relocate the whole crew to an M class planet to live.  It turns out the Doctor is impersonating Janeway and must also impersonate several crew members.  It is fun to see the Doctor as this reluctant espionage recruit throughout.  It's obvious that he has the skills to complete his 'mission', but he does not like what he has to do, and that inner fight makes the story even more interesting.  The suspense of Janeway and the Doctor's predicament was excellent, as was the Doctor's way of circumventing the alien pirates.

3. Repression

There's a mystery on board Voyager, as several former members of the Maquis are found in a mysterious comatose state.  Tuvok investigates, but becomes increasingly anxious as he finds out more about the attacks.  It's always nice when a mystery has a big twist, and this episode definitely has that.  even if it seems somewhat unbelievable.  The story features Tuvok in a great way though, and I feel like he really hasn't been given as much to do throughout the whole series.  His Vulcan aloofness makes it too easy for him to just not be a part of all the drama in the show I guess.

2. Workforce Part 1 & 2

Janeway and almost all of her crew are happily working on an alien planet, apparently unaware of their old life on Voyager.  Only Neelix, Harry, Chakotay and the Doctor are left to find out what happened.  This was kind of an epic two parter episode.  It was exciting because most of the Voyager crew had their memories altered, and it's quite a task for just four of the crew to find a way to restore everyone to their original lives.  Especially when many of them are happy with their new life.  Everyone on the alien planet plays an interesting alternate version of themselves.  It's interesting to me because they still have their original personalities, but there are little tweaks that make sense because of their circumstances.  Except for Tuvok.  He was happy and joking which was weird.  But it was an interesting examination of these characters to see them in these different circumstances.

1. The Void

Voyager gets pulled into a curious anomaly where they discover many other space ships trapped (some trapped for years) and unable to get out.  This episode is a puzzle - how does Voyager escape the Void when no one has ever done it before?  This episode is also a morality lesson because the space ships have become predatory since there is no food or energy source in the void.  Janeway refuses to let go of her principles even in such dire circumstances and that made this a fantastic episode for me.  And in the end, it's because she held on to those principles that she was able to find a way out.  And there were a couple times in the story where I was wondering if Janeway was making the right decision.  This episode could have easily gone into an exploration of desperate times calls for desperate measures, and how would Janeway deal with that.  But instead the story is more uplifting because Voyager succeeds and Janeway was right to hold on to her morality and Starfleet protocols.  I feel like this episode encapsulated Janeway and the show quite well.

Star Trek Voyager Series Break-down

Favorite season: Season 4 (I like the Seven of Nine dynamic more than Kes's seasons)
Favorite episode: Counterpoint (from Season 5 - fierce Janeway, and a great twist in the end!)
Favorite character: Captain Janeway, of course!
Favorite aspect of the show: The sense that in any situation, doing the right thing is the best course... and Janeway!