A Unified Theory of Star Trek: Voyager, Part 3

24 Mar, 2026

See the first part for answers to questions like "Why am I doing this?". But once again, here's the rubric I'm applying with my emoji rating system of VOY episodes.

• The Must-Watch Mango (🥭) is applied to episodes of Voyager that must be watched. Maybe they're very good; maybe they're just central to the show's overall paratextual mythos (Like the season 6 outing Tsunkatse, which is an infamous tie-in with WWE); maybe they are one of the few episodes of Voyager that come up later somehow and/or come up in the Delta Rising expansion to Star Trek Online.
• The Ogre of Madness (👹) is applied to episodes of Voyager that are insane. Those are often the very best episodes of Voyager.
• The Leaf on the Wind of Running Away (🍃) is applied to episodes of Voyager that conform to the "running away from itself" theme; they take place in alternate timelines, dreams, holodeck simulations, or don't feature the crew of the Voyager at all.
  • A special sub-category is the Wasteful Hourglass (⏳), applied to episodes that take place in aborted timelines. These are the most skippable episodes of Voyager in the sense that they literally didn't happen at all.
• The Melting Man (🫠) is applied to episodes featuring plot elements that seem like they could be reused or reapplied, but never recur.
• The Stupid Hat (🎩) is applied to episodes featuring Stupid Hat Societies – alien cultures whose entire Deal is fundamentally stupid. This is a major recurring theme in VOY.

This part covers seasons 5 and 6 of VOY.

Season 5

• 1 "Night": 🎩👹 Most Star Trek season premieres are continuity heavy but this one absolutely is not. It's a very medium episode which feels deranged purely for the look of the "night aliens" and how everyone acts in it.
• 2 "Drone": Both forgettable and kind of dumb in its premise.
• 3 "Extreme Risk": 🥭 This episode is important to the continuity because it marks the construction of the Delta Flyer, Voyager's custom-built shuttle that'll almost entirely replace other shuttles in future episodes. It is otherwise not a good episode of Voyager.
• 4 "In the Flesh": 🥭🫠 The last and best time we see Species 8472. Also it establishes various things about them that are critically important to the plot of Star Trek Online, so this is essential viewing.
• 5 "Once Upon a Time": 🥭🍃 This episode is mostly spent in a holodeck program for children, which makes it kind of annoying. But while Naomi Wildman (ensign Wildman's daughter who was born in season 2) has shown up previously, she's recast in this episode and will actually become a very substantial part of the show. Also, the children's holodeck program is a surprisingly serious attempt at envisioning what children's entertainment would look like in this setting, which feels almost informed by real insight about educational media. It's still annoying, however.
• 6 "Timeless": ⏳ This is a well-liked episode that is probably worth watching, but of all of Voyager's episodes that didn't happen this one happened the least.
• 7 "Infinite Regress": 🥭🫠🍃 This episode is mostly about Jeri Ryan giving an incredible performance. But its plot is also crucial to understanding exactly one mission in Star Trek Online: Delta Rising that takes place mostly inside Tuvok's head.
• 8 "Nothing Human": This episode is a classic example of how Voyager shoots for TNG-like moral quandaries but its baseline morality is so weird, and the scenarios it presents so nonsensical, that it lands on bafflement instead. Worth watching for one of the goofiest alien designs in a while. Plus, a Cardassian in VOY!
• 9 "Thirty Days": 🥭 Classic Tom Paris character development episode. One of the rare episodes of VOY that actually grapples with the Prime Directive. Probably an inspiration for all the "I love the brig, it's my favorite place on the ship" stuff in Lower Decks.
• 10 "Counterpoint": 🥭🎩🫠 The rare episode of Voyager that is good on its merits as an episodic episode of Star Trek. This is still Voyager, of course, so it's still about a stupid hat society that we won't see again, and it still has a sideplot about trying to find Janeway a man.
• 11 "Latent Image": 👹 If you're collecting "Janeway is actually evil" or "Voyager is an existential nightmare" episodes look no further.
• 12 "Bride of Chaotica!" 🥭🎩🫠🍃 I actually think the Captain Proton stuff, and Paris' obsession with boomer pop culture in general, is pretty bad. This episode is primarily annoying and nonsensical, but it does feature one all-timer Janeway moment and some fun gags.
• 13 "Gravity" 🥭🍃 This is a very good episode lifted by a very good guest performer (Lori Petty).
• 14: "Bliss"
• 15 and 16: "Dark Frontier" 🥭 Part of the Borg arc, and certainly part of the sub-arc of how Janeway basically stops being afraid of the Borg. This is season 5's big flashy two-parter.
• 17 "The Disease" 🥭🎩🫠 Part of the critically important Harry Kim's Virginity arc.
• 18 "Course: Oblivion" 🥭🍃👹 There is no point whatsoever to watching Voyager if you're not going to watch "Course: Oblivion". This is Voyager's thesis statement, a sort of capsule of what the show is both in its ambitions and in its limitations. It is of course also completely pointless to watch in isolation. In most ways that matter, the tv show Voyager is a sort of delivery mechanism for the 45 minutes of "Course: Oblivion" at its center.
• 19 "The Fight" 🍃 Singularly bad Chakotay episode.
• 20 "Think Tank" I'm not going to say this is an absolute must-watch, but if you ever wanted to see Jason Alexander in a Star Trek rubber forehead, this is the one to watch.
• 21 "Juggernaut" 🎩 It's fine if you want more Malon material I guess.
• 22 "Someone to Watch Over Me": You know the joke in Star Trek fandom circles about how every episode of TNG is about a saxophone recital or something? This episode is actually like that. A B-plot about Scott Thompson (one of the Kids in the Hall) playing an alien monk gone astray is a bright spot, but this is otherwise one of the most inessential episodes of VOY.
• 23 "11:59" 🍃 Sorry, this is the most inessential episode of VOY. Written to acknowledge the end of the 20th century (it aired in May of 1999), this episode is not meaningfully an episode of Voyager.
• 24 "Relativity" ⏳ Captain Braxton returns! But he's been recast and his character makes no sense, so it's like he hasn't come back at all. Which is fine because this is another time travel episode, so it also didn't happen anyway. This last chunk of season 5 is only about 50% made up of actual events that happened to the crew of the USS Voyager in the continuity of the show Voyager.
• 25 "Warhead": Inessential. What if "Measure of a Man" was also "War Games".
• 26 "Equinox" 🥭🫠 This is a genuinely quite good and dark two-parter that comes after one of the roughest stretches of the show.

Season 6

• 1 "Equinox, Part II" 🥭🫠
• 2 "Survival Instinct": Inessential, but a good Seven of Nine episode.
• 3 "Barge of the Dead": B'Ellana is easily one of the best characters on Voyager, but B'Ellana episodes tend to be quite bad. Criminally misused character.
• 4 "Tinker Tenor Doctor Spy" 🥭🎩: This episode is a fan favorite Doctor episode, but who cares about that. It's the one episode that introduces the Hierarchy, one of the minor factions that crops up occasionally on Star Trek Online, and therefore it's essential viewing.
• 5 "Alice": Very inessential, but has its moments.
• 6 "Riddles": This is Flowers for Algernon but with Tuvok. It is Bad.
• 7 "Dragon's Teeth": 🥭🫠 This episode flirts with the idea of introducing a credible villain faction to Voyager, and it features the first Delta Quadrant aliens ever that aren't a stupid hat society. This is Voyager so they are never seen again, but they're actually the main antagonists of Star Trek Online: Delta Rising so you need to watch this one.
• 8 "One Small Step": Inessential.
• 9 "The Voyager Conspiracy": Inessential and dumb, but has its defenders.
• 10 "Pathfinder" 🥭🍃 Remember Barclay? The annoying character from TNG who exists as a stand-in for the audience? Well he's here now. The crew of the USS Voyager are not. Unfortunately this episode is critically important to the show's continuity.
• 11 "Fair Haven" 🍃 This is technically the first part of a two-episode arc but I'm not giving a mango to an episode about the crew becoming obsessed with a holodeck program full of the worst fake-Irish accents you've ever heard on television. The Fair Haven arc primarily exists as an attempt at "solving" the "problem" of Janeway having no love interest, and it's Bad.
• 12 "Blink of an Eye" 🥭 The rare episode of Voyager that's actually just a classic sci-fi premise explored straight, in this case a Weird Planet Displaced in Time.
• 13 "Virtuoso" 🎩 The hats continue to get stupider, but at least they're also quite funny.
• 14 "Memorial": Inessential, but part of a loose thematic double-feature with "Nemesis", in that they're both basically about Vietnam.
• 15 "Tsunkatse": 🥭🎩 One of the guest starriest episodes of any Star Trek. This one features the immortal Jeffrey Coombs, but also JG Hertzler (best known for playing Martok). Also it was created to cross-promote Star Trek with UPN's other crown jewel – the WWE. So the Rock is here also. This episode is one of those that's essential to the mythos of Voyager as a tv show. Dwayne Johnson's autobiographical tv show even has an episode about this one.
• 16 "Collective": 🥭 Kid-friendly Delta Quadrant adventures continue. The Borg kids from this episode will become recurring characters on the show.
• 17 "Spirit Folk": Part two of the Fair Haven arc. This is one of those holodeck episodes that really convinces you that holodecks are a very bad idea.
• 18 "Ashes to Ashes" 🥭🎩🫠 The premise of the Kobali, first (and only) featured in this episode, is really cool! But this is Voyager so we will never see them again. However they have a whole side mission arc in Star Trek Online: Delta Rising, therefore this is essential viewing. Also part of the Harry Kim's Virginity Arc.
• 19 "Child's Play" 🥭 I like Icheb (introduced back in "Collective") so I'd say all the episodes in his arc are actually quite essential.
• 20 "Good Shepherd" This is Voyager's attempt at doing "Lower Decks" (as in the TNG episode), but like Voyager's various attempts at doing "The Measure of a Man," it comes out of the oven all wobbly and fucked up because they actually won't let Janeway exit the stage. Even though this is Voyager, the Star Trek show with the most episodes not featuring its actual main cast.
• 21 "Live Fast and Prosper": Inessential, but the premise of a bunch of scammers impersonating the Voyager is funny. Unfortunately, they don't do much with it.
• 22 "Muse": Your run of the mill Prime Directive oopsie.
• 23 "Fury" 🥭 This episode is a weirdly mean-spirited character assassination of a character whose actor was fired under unpleasant personal circumstances. It's one of VOY's worst episodes. I have marked with a mango because you chose this. You chose to watch Voyager. You wanted to find out and now you're finding out.
• 24 "Life Line" 🥭 Hey remember all that continuity with Barclay and Starfleet trying to get the USS Voyager back that we forgot about all season?
• 25 "The Haunting of Deck Twelve" Inessential, but part of the arc of episodes about the children aboard the USS Voyager.
• 26 "Unimatrix Zero" 🥭 Janeway continues to push her luck with the Borg and she keeps winning, of course. Almost everything about this episode's plot is stupid, but there are undoubtedly Moments.

#star trek #television #voyager