Voyager Season 6 Episodes, Ranked

The last few seasons of Star Trek: Voyager gave both the show’s creative team and audience a chance to really sink their teeth into the cast and dynamics of the show. By season 6, characters on board the USS Voyager were largely settled, meaning that every new story had a strong dynamic between all of Voyager‘s protagonists to fall back upon. As a result, Voyager season 6 is a season of Star Trek with very few misses, and a lot of truly excellent episodes.

More than earlier seasons, what really makes season 6 of Voyager shine is the dynamic between Captain Kathryn Janeway (Kate Mulgrew), Seven of Nine (Jeri Ryan), and the Doctor (Robert Picardo). As a trio, all three characters explore different aspects of what it means to grow as a person and foster the growth of others over time. How Star Trek: Voyager consistently explores these themes means that there are plenty of episodes in season 6 worth revisiting more than twenty years later.

10

“Ashes To Ashes”

Star Trek: Voyager Season 6, Episode 18

Death is a tragic reality for any Starfleet mission, but on the USS Voyager, deaths are all the more jarring because, for most of the show, there was no way to send word back to the Alpha Quadrant. In earlier seasons, junior officers might die in Kazon attacks or from alien experimentation, and the emotional repercussions of those deaths could not be unpacked simply because of Voyager’s precarious situations in the Delta Quadrant. But in “Ashes to Ashes,” Voyager‘s cast of characters, particularly Ensign Harry Kim (Garret Wang), reckon clearly and directly with loss on a starship.

Kim Rhodes guest stars as Lyndsay Ballard, an Ensign who died off-screen during Voyager season 4. Her remains were reanimated as part of the Kobali reproductive cycle, but in her new life as Jhet’leya, she wanted to return to Voyager. What makes “Ashes to Ashes” stand out is that Ensign Ballard chooses to return to her life as Jhet’leya willingly, rather than attempt to remain on Voyager. The biggest drawback to the episode is Ensign Ballard was not a character shown in any earlier seasons of Voyager – the episode may have hit harder if it brought back someone recognizable.

9

“Tinker, Tenor, Doctor, Spy”

Star Trek: Voyager Season 6, Episode 4

In the later seasons of Voyager, it is somewhat rare to see a truly lighthearted episode of the show. It is even more rare to encounter a sincerely lighthearted episode of any Star Trek show that also furthers the plot and characterization of the series. But “Tinker, Tenor, Doctor, Spy” is just that: a genuinely fun and lighthearted episode of Star Trek: Voyager that is fully tied into the character arcs of both the Doctor and Captain Janeway. “Tinker, Tenor, Doctor, Spy,” proves the power of Star Trek to tell compelling stories without a high stakes drama.

Because Captain Janeway takes the Doctor seriously, the audience does too.

The core conflict of the episode comes when antagonistic aliens get their information about Voyager from the Doctor’s daydreams, where he imagines himself as the ECH – Emergency Command Hologram. It’s touching to see how human the Doctor’s daydreams are; everyone likes to imagine themselves as a hero. And it’s fun and hilarious to watch the Doctor bluff his way through confrontations. But what elevates “Tinker, Tenor, Doctor, Spy,” is the ending, where Captain Janeway commends the Doctor for his efforts, and promises to look into ECH protocols. Because Captain Janeway takes the Doctor seriously, the audience does too.

8

“Collective”

Star Trek: Voyager Season 6, Episode 16

When Seven of Nine first joins the show during Voyager season 4, she is in some ways a child despite her adult status. Captain Janeway and the Doctor in particular took on an almost parental role with Seven, helping her develop both her humanity and her individuality. But by season 5, Seven of Nine was a fully realized character and individual, so “Collective” inverts Seven’s position, having her serve as a more parental figure to a group of Borg children.

One child in particular, Icheb (Casey King), essentially became a son to Seven of Nine, traveling back to the Alpha Quadrant with her and Voyager.

Above and beyond “Collective,” the Borg children are a very interesting addition to Star Trek: Voyager. They were first kidnapped, then abandoned by the Collective, and were rescued by Voyager against their will. Unlike Seven of Nine, they did not go through a full Borg maturation cycle, leaving them young, alone, but fully Borg when Voyager first finds them. The fact that the introduction of the children allows Seven of Nine to grow into a leadership role is the perfect execution of a deeply engaging premise.

7

“Virtuoso”

Star Trek: Voyager Season 6, Episode 13

Robert Picardo consistently shines as the Doctor on Voyager, but he’s more than a talented actor. On top of his acting skills, Robert Picardo is also an incredibly accomplished singer. Any time the Doctor sings on Voyager, it is a treat, but “Virtuoso” takes Picardo’s singing talent and puts it center stage. Whereas for most of the show the Doctor’s vocal talents are an interesting background detail, in “Virtuoso” the Doctor is given the opportunity to be a singer full-time. As a premise, this is the perfect blend of classic Star Trek storytelling and making use of Picardo’s unique talent.

In “Virtuoso,” an alien society previously unfamiliar with music and singing becomes enraptured by the Doctor’s voice. For a time, the fame he finds as a singer seems to offer the Doctor the appreciation he sometimes feels he lacks on Voyager. Of course, by the end of the episode, it is clear that not only is the Doctor’s home on Voyager but also that Voyager’s crew appreciates the Doctor far more deeply than he ever imagined. Indeed, “Virtuoso” has a nearly perfect ending, where an abashed Doctor receives his most treasured piece of fan mail, signed “Seven of Nine.”

6

“The Voyager Conspiracy”

Star Trek: Voyager Season 6, Episode 9

There is something inherently fun about watching one of Star Trek‘s classic hyper-rational characters brought low by a flaw in their reasoning. For most of Star Trek: Voyager, Seven of Nine is a bastion of logic on par with Voyager’s Vulcan Chief of Security Tuvok, but in “The Voyager Conspiracy” that very logic becomes Seven’s undoing. A massive space catapult poses an opportunity for Voyager to shave several more years off their journey, prompting Seven of Nine to attempt to assimilate more data than she can handle.

Any episode where Voyager makes meaningful progress towards Earth is exciting…

If Seven of Nine had simply gone crazy, or made massive leaps of logic, “The Voyager Conspiracy” would not be particularly fun to watch. But her theories that the USS Voyager was not stranded in the Delta Quadrant by acident, instead being the result of either a Starfleet or Maquis plot, are just convincing enough to keep the audience engaged. Indeed, both Captain Janeway and Commander Chakotay (Robert Beltran) are briefly convinced. Any episode where Voyager makes meaningful progress towards Earth is exciting, and Seven of Nine’s believable conspiracy theories are what really makes the episode shine.

5

“Equinox Part 2”

Star Trek: Voyager Season 6, Episode 1

Voyager season 5 ended on a cliffhanger where the USS Equinox turned from a potential Starfleet ally in the Delta Quadrant to an existential threat to Voyager itself. Captain Rudy Ransom (John Savage) had ordered the crew of the Equinox to excruciatingly murder alien lifeforms to extract fuel from them that would allow their ship to get home in a matter of months, and those lifeforms were trying to destroy both Voyager and the Equinox. So, the situation at the start of Voyager season 6 is incredibly dire.

Throughout “Equinox Part 2,” the Doctor nearly murders Seven of Nine when Captain Ransom removes his ethical subroutines, Captain Janeway resorts to torture, and Commander Chakotay is removed from duty for questioning her brutal methods. This makes “Equinox Part 2” one of the darkest episodes of the show. The ultimate conclusion of the two-episode story is that the surviving members of the Equinox’s crew are allowed to integrate with Voyager’s, but they are stripped of their ranks and are under watch. It is a bittersweet but satisfying end to the episodes that contain Captain Janeway’s darkest moments.

4

“Child’s Play”

Star Trek: Voyager Season 6, Episode 19

Star Trek always sets itself up for success when an episode is built around callbacks to earlier stories, and “Child’s Play” is an excellent example of just such narrative closure on Voyager. The earlier episode, “Collective,” left many questions about the pasts and futures of the Borg children who joined Voyager, and “Child’s Play” is premised on elegantly picking up those loose ends. While most of the children were returned to their homes and families over the next few episodes, Icheb seemed primed to become a permanent addition to Voyager.

Star Trek always sets itself up for success when an episode is built around callbacks to earlier stories…

In “Child’s Play,” Voyager encounters Icheb’s birth family. Immediately, the episode raises thorny questions about child custody and parenthood – Icheb loves the scientific education Seven of Nine gives him on Voyager, and his birth parents are farmers with very limited technology. Ultimately, however, it becomes clear that Icheb’s birth parents view him primarily as a weapon against the Borg because of a virus they implanted in his DNA, and they attempt to send him back to the collective. It all comes together to form a thematically dense episode that fits beautifully into the narrative structure of Star Trek: Voyager.

3

“Memorial”

Star Trek: Voyager Season 6, Episode 14

In the season 4 episode, “Nemesis,” Commander Chakotay was brainwashed into becoming a soldier in an alien war; Voyager uses a similar premise for the season 6 episode, “Memorial,” but applies it to much more of the crew. In “Memorial,” a telepathic memorial to a massacre gives members of Voyager’s crew the memories of soldiers who killed civilians, leaving them to grapple with those horrors. As such, “Memorial” offers one of the more ethically charged questions in Voyager, and what makes the episode so excellent is that the show manages to find an elegant solution.

Since Commander Chakotay was once a member of the Maquis, “Nemesis” and “Memorial” mean that he has memories of being an active participant in at least three wars.

One contingent of Voyager’s crew, spearheaded by Commander Chakotay, wants to shut down the telepathic capabilities of the memorial so that no one else has to suffer. Another group, led by Neelix (Ethan Phillips), argues that if they destroy the memorial, then the murdered civilians will be forgotten forever. This is not only an excellent opportunity for Neelix to shine in a serious Voyager episode, but also a genuinely complicated ethical question.Ultimately, Voyager comes down hard on the fact that victims of atrocities cannot be forgotten.

2

“Riddles”

Star Trek: Voyager Season 6, Episode 6

Neelix and Lt. Commander Tuvok were famously combined into a single being in the Voyager season 2 episode, “Tuvix,” and “Riddles” brings them closer together than they had been since that infamous blending. Lt. Commander Tuvok spends a lot of Star Trek: Voyager with a somewhat antagonistic relationship with Neelix. It is clear that the Talaxian chef’s unfailingly extroverted and optimistic nature is grating on his Vulcan sensibilities. So, even though Neelix clearly wants to befriend Tuvok, or “Mr. Vulcan,” it is not until the extraordinary circumstances of “Riddles” that he gets the chance.

In “Riddles,” Tuvok suffers a brain injury that damages both his higher brain functions and his ability to suppress his emotions. Neelix stays by his side the whole time, helping Tuvok find joy and purpose even if he can’t fulfill the same role on Voyager that he did in the past. “Tuvix” forces the two of them together, but “Riddles” shows that there actually is something between them that could form the basis for a friendship. The fact that “Riddles” was Roxann Dawson’s, who plays Lt. B’Elann Torres, directorial debut makes the episode all the more impressive.

1

“Blink Of An Eye”

Star Trek: Voyager Season 6, Episode 12

The USS Voyager faces a lot of devastating threats across the show’s first six seasons, but in “Blink of an Eye,” Captain Janeway’s crew have to fight against time itself. In “Blink of an Eye,” the USS Voyager gets stuck in the gravity well of a planet on which time progresses at an incredibly accelerated rate, such that a minute on Voyager is almost two months on the planet’s surface. Ultimately, this temporal distortion is both an interesting science fiction premise and a deeply emotionally compelling story device.

In particular, the fact that the Doctor got to spend three years living on the planet’s surface in his version of Star Trek: The Next Generation‘s “The Inner Light,” gives the Doctor lasting gravitas and emotional depth. “Blink of an Eye” is the best episode of Voyager season 6, and it is arguably one of the best episodes of Star Trek as a whole.

Voyager is there from the Stone Age to the space race for this planet, and they inspire everything from scientific discoveries to stories.

In part, this is because of how the episode plays with the Prime Directive. Because Voyager is stuck in orbit, it is visible to everyone on the planet’s surface and becomes a part of the planet’s culture over time. Voyager is there from the Stone Age to the space race for this planet, and they inspire everything from scientific discoveries to stories. This means “Blink of an Eye” is somewhere between an epic science fiction story and a tragedy, and that combination makes it an iconic episode of Star Trek: Voyager.