1.19 the 37s

In what seems like a bad comedy skit, Voyager encounters a rusting old truck floating through space. Following the trail, they find (and land on - great sfx) a planet with 8 humans in stasis – all from 1937 – and one is Amelia Earhart. After a tense standoff when none of the ancients believe that they have just missed the last 400 years, they agree to check out the ship – but then some aliens start attacking. Janeway creeps around and thwarts the attack, and discovers that the aliens are descendants of the original 37s (of which there were 300), all abducted by an alien race. The locals invite Janeway and their crew to check out the 3 very beautiful cities they have built "…just 50 miles from here." Interestingly, although the entire crew visits, we never get to see these cities, I assume due to budget restraints. The crew is invited to stay, and, reluctantly, Janeway agrees to allow each crewperson to decide on their own whether they will or not. With trepidation, Janeway and Chakotay approach the closed doors of the cargo bay where she has asked all those wanting to go to assemble. Chakotay puts a hand on her shoulder and assures her that "We will make it [home]", and they enter: and the room is empty. The next shot of the bridge and the little nods and reaction shots that Janeway gets are very emotional.

By the way, during this episode I noticed that all of the wide shots of Voyager, after landing, had its lower area hidden behind a big rock formation. It seemed strange to keep portraying the ship that way. Later, after reading about this episode in ‘Star Trek Voyager: A Vision of the Future’ by Stephen Edward Poe, I learned that in post-production, it was deemed that the landing struts looked flimsy, so it was decided to hide them as much as possible.

1.18 twisted

Another one of those bizarre clouds envelopes the ship and begins to distort physical matter. Only the French café on the holodeck is immune, and it is closing in fast. People wander around the ship, ending up at the wrong place, and no one can get to the bridge. Eventually, the majority of the crew ends up in the holodeck, and, as they have exhausted all logical alternatives, Tuvok suggests that they just ‘let it happen’. The wave moves towards them, and there is a (literally) touching moment, as Be’Lanna grasps Chakotay’s hand, Paris does a manly clamp of Kim’s shoulder, and Tuvok moves his hand close to, but not touching, the unconscious and reposed body of Captain Janeway (obviously, Tuvok was torn between showing physical affection and the possibility of a sexual harassment suit). The wave passes through, and everyone and everything is okay. Darned if it wasn’t just one of them there alien races again, trying to communicate. The wave downloaded Voyager’s entire database and uploaded a few gigaquads of info too. That’s just how they say ‘Hello’ in that culture.

1.17 elogium

Voyager investigates a swarm of space-dwelling organisms and is drawn into their midst. The energy they emit causes Kes to go into early elogium (puberty). It’s a one-off opportunity, so she and Neelix have to quickly decide if they want to have a child. This ‘theme’ episode is all about sex and procreation: Chakotay catches two officers kissing in the turbolift, he and Janeway discuss the implications of relationships and ‘pairing off’ as they begin their 75 year journey back (and she gives him a few good long looks during this discussion, although she mentions her boyfriend Mark – you can just hear the erotic fiction writer’s keyboards clicking), and Voyager has to resort to anti-mating tactics to escape the swarm. Best line is from Tuvok: "We appear to have lost our sex appeal." Most unbelievable: that Neelix would have to think twice before accepting the chance to mate with Kes for six days straight.

1.16 projections

The doctor finds he has been activated and is alone on the ship after a Kaizon attack. But he is not alone – Torres and Janeway are still on board. But tricorders are not recording their life signs. What is going on? Who is the hologram and who is real? And why is Lt Barclay trying to convince the doc to destroy the ship? Incredibly entangled and clever episode – you won’t guess this one. Interesting, too, the way the holodeck is used to reveal the character’s usually hidden feelings and desires. One can only wonder just how many naked-green-skinned-alien-women fantasies James Kirk would have enjoyed had the old Enterprise been fitted with a holodeck.

1.15 learning curve

The ship’s partially living gel energy packs are infested with a virus caused by Neelix’s cheese. Meanwhile, Tuvok is attempting to train 4 recalcitrant former Maquis people. He gets a little help from Chakotay, who coolly punches one of them in the mouth in a great scene. Eventually, Tuvok wins them over by being completely non-logical, with a little helpful advice from Neelix, who redeems himself in this episode. Great scene of everyone’s sweaty faces when the life support systems are turned off.

1.14 jetrel

Voyager is visited by the scientist who invented the weapon of mass destruction that leveled Neelix’ home world – and killed his sister. Neelix hates him, but Jetrel is here to examine Neelix for a disease survivors of the blast contracted. Sure enough, Neelix has the disease, but Jetrel has his own agenda, which involves a plan to free himself of the curse of his invention by retrieving the people lost in the blast – their biomolecular info may still be floating around in a cloud that still exists around the planet. Farfetched maybe, and that image of the lost soul almost being reformed is spooky, but there’s something way too neat about this episode – it tries to do way too much in 42 minutes. Only recommended if you like half-men / half hyenas.

1.13 faces

An away team of Torres, Paris, and Durst is captured by Vidiians. Paris and Durst (who, in the great tradition of ST, is going to die because he is not a regular) are put to work in the mines, digging tunnels. Torres has her Klingon DNA extracted and used to create a copy of herself that is full Klingon, leaving two of Torres: one aggressive toothy Klingon, and one relatively wimpy and initially scared human. They overcome their differences to work together to escape, with the help of Chakotay, who has been surgically altered to look like a Vidiian.

Nitpick: Supposedly, the Vedeans need prisoners to dig tunnels because they are weak. This race has highly developed technology, some of it much more highly developed than the Federation. Can’t they simply blast tunnels using phasers or more advanced tools? Do they still need people to carry rocks?