Some of the Best: Voyager's Fifth Season

Ending season four without a cliffhanger meant the following year could start afresh.

Nothing to tie up, all ready to go - into nothing because the year opened with the crew bored rigid in an empty, starless region of the Delta Quadrant.

Night is memorable for that, Jonathan Del Arco guesting as one of the void aliens and for the arrival of the universe's grubbiest bin men, the Malon. Kings of pollution certainly and here we got an allegory to present day Earth and environmental damage. Go Voyager for being on the button but also because this episode is a rare moment where Janeway doubts herself and the real possibility of actually getting home. The characterisation and brutality of being thousands of light years from home is a good and welcome touch that could have been played on a lot more often and was worked to the max in this season opener.

The Malon were heavily hyped as I recall and we did see them again in Extreme Risk and then much later Juggernaut - a better episode which built on the larger background story around the radiation-sickened crew and the very foundations of Malon society.

Five episodes from the end of the year it might be, but Juggernaut is a cracking episode. Lots of eerie shadows, tales of mutants and some genuine moments of brilliance it's one of Voyager's darkest hours and I bloody love it. Simple idea, well told.

In fact the Malon were managed only slightly worse than Species 8472 who turned up for their fourth (if you count Scorpion as two episodes) appearance but you can forget about them after the early part of this season. So with utter darkness out of the way, we head into more familiar space with the Borg and indeed, Future Borg (Drone) as Seven's nanoprobes and the Doctor's holoemitter get all funky in Sickbay. It's a clear parallel to Frankenstein but with less horror and Seven in a maternal role as this new creation adjusts to existence before heroically destroying itself when the Borg of the 24th Century attempt to assimilate it. Fairly predictable stuff with the whole "humanising" element in there plus the sacrifice - didn't The Next Generation do something a bit similar with I, Borg?

Extreme Risk will forever be remember as the episode that reminded us all of just how many shuttles Voyager got through in 97 episodes with the introduction of the (first) Delta Flyer. Y'know what? It's a damn cool little ship with those moveable teeny warp nacelles, glowing Borg tech, the retro controls a la Captain Proton plus the fact it's almost indestructible. Using it to recover a probe in a race against the Malon was a good, well-paced story and again gave the show a new twist for the new season. The Delta Flyer was a big staple of the year so much so that shuttles hardly needed to be ever used again - although where did they get all the materials to build it from?!

Then there's the humanising of Species 8472. If there's one thing that becomes more evident when you rewatch Star Trek is that the baddies always have that key episode where the writers try and make them understandable. While the episode might be good and give some great twists I always feel let down because the whole point of them being opponents is to be opponents. The Next Generation attempted to humanise the Borg with Hugh, Deep Space Nine with The Abandoned and Hippocratic Oath and Voyager cuddles up with 8472 in their recreation of Starfleet. It's a cool idea that they are training and learning about their enemies but by the end it's all a bit too nice and the sting is neutered. Oh - and nice to see Boothby back and Kate Vernon guest-starring with some very early, cutting edge CG for the day - and a step up from the quality of the lifeforms in season three's Macrocosm.

Now to Once Upon a Time. Repeatedly I have expressed the view that this is my least liked episode of any series ever made without question. It's appalling in every respect. What could have been a decent A story about Naomi's mum being lost is annihilated under the schmaltz and saccharine s**tness of Flotter. Adding a dash of Neelix in there just made it worse and this was at a time when I thought that the Talaxian was getting much better material to work with. I was sadly wrong. A big mess up and one to avoid - which is exactly the polar opposite of the next ep, Timeless.

Garrett Wang's favourite story (surprise!) it delivers in everything. Time travel, crashing ships, future Geordi, dilemmas, great character building and strong roles for two of the show's most maligned crew with both Kim and Chakotay taking a very prominent centre stage. Quite a bold move to make two of the "lesser" crew key players in what is the show's 100th episode but it works. Who could possibly forget them ploughing Voyager into that icefield? One of the show's best ironically after easily its worst.

Followed up by Infinite Regress, we have a fine example of mental health issues tackled by Star Trek as Seven experiences the personalities of others assimilated by the Borg during her time within the Collective. Certainly an opportunity for Jeri Ryan to stretch her acting muscles beyond the placid Seven - who would have thought we'd get to see her imitating a Ferengi? It's a good story but it's at this point that the season really kicks in. Thirty Days does the previously unthinkable and demotes Tom Paris to Ensign in a very bold move which is carried through for a good chunk of the year (although why he gets promoted ahead of Kim...) and deals out a wonderful "this is what happened" tale as we get to find out why he's in the holding cell for a month. Nicely played, unexpected and at least an episode where the issues aren't wrapped up in 42 minutes
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Next is the brilliant - and I do mean brilliant - Counterpoint. Laced with the ironically calming classical soundtrack, it's a gripping take on the persecution and suspicion of one race (telepaths) by another. Definitely hallmarks of the Holocaust and many other examples of displaced and threatened populations across every century of our history. The relationship between Janeway and her nemesis, played by Mark Harelik are the stuff of TV dreams. The verbal repartee is sparkling with the duplicity that unravels between them just mesmerising. Another of the best that Voyager ever offered not just in this season but ever.

The Doctor is the focus of Latent Image wherein he uncovers a "forgotten" crewmember (Ensign Jetal), leading to a key revelation about his development that we didn't see in the previous season (because it hadn't been written!). As with all the Doctor stories you wonder about the relevance given that he is a computer programme but the character and Picardo's portrayal easily make you forget that and remember how much a part of the crew he has become. 

Fortunately for a season that is heavily dramatic and character developing we have Bride of Chaotica! another great concept episode that turns the action monochromatic and puts us into a holodeck adventure which (sort of) makes sense for once. Incorporating photonic lifeforms and Paris' Captain Proton programme it's played more tongue in cheek than 100% serious with everyone getting a chance to open up a little especially Janeway as Arachnia, Queen of the Spider People. While it's good and certainly unique, I actually found myself loving Gravity.

Mainly played out between Tuvok and Lori Petty's guest character Noss, we find a shuttle party trapped on the wrong side of a subspace sinkhole with seemingly zero chance of every returning home and being forced to scavenge the desolate landscape they are marooned in for the remainder of their lives. Partially a chase episode as others on the planet seek to steal the new technology Tuvok, Paris and the deactivated Doctor have brought with them, Gravity just has it. There's an emotional punch and the combination of Russ and Petty is unusual but beautifully worked - just as well as the sparring we experienced in Counterpoint. I genuinely love this episode with the crew's efforts to rescue the shuttle on one side and on the other the dawning realisation that the nothingness of the wasteland is all that the shuttle crew will have for eternity. Well played and even though you know they will be rescued there's still a looming vulnerability right to the end.

Bliss seeks out the solo strength of Jeri Ryan as she deals with a silent starship with the crew all KO'd by a sinister space anomaly leaving them all convinced their journey home is over and done. Great gravitas brought to this one through the arrival of W Morgan Shepherd as an alien captain obsessed with the phenomenon.

Dark Frontier is a rarity in Star Trek, acting as a feature length story slap-bang in the middle of a season. I've recently covered over this return of the Borg and the expansion of Seven's backstory in Breaking Borg but it's still well worth a good note. Susanna Thompson's Borg Queen is ok but doesn't have the smooth gravitas that Alice Krige brought to the role in First Contact. The pair would share the role across her Voyager appearances and even with all the danger and darkness here, you know Seven will never leave her new family. Dark Frontier is a major event for the series and the pacing, for once, over 90 minutes is pretty even. Helps when you're planning both parts of a two-parter at the same time.

Course: Oblivion is one of those stories that changes with a second viewing. The twist, which (SPOILER) links back to season four's Demon is held back for a while and divides the episode clean in two. With a few differences thrown in on the "demon" Voyager, it's an entertaining watch with a tragic conclusion which both pulls at the ol' heart strings but does that Voyager reset that the series was so fond of pulling.

For Chakotay fans - and Robert Beltran - the sidelined first officer claws his way back to the surface for his most impactful performance since Timeless. Problem here is that the episode is fairly run of the mill. The boxing scenario framed within Chakotay's mind is fairly forgettable and one of the show's alltime weakest. Even now I'm pushed to remember what the hell happened and you have to feel sorry for him almost getting a "token" episode.

Think Tank is memorable for the inclusion of Jason Alexander as a member of the cerebral super-group as well as a revelation that they have cured the Vidiians of the Phage. It's ok, leading to a standard kidnap plot and probably another weak point in the season which started favourably. At least there's Juggernaut and then the superb Someone to Watch Over Me to follow. The second one there is truly one of Voyager's key stories and utilises, surprise, surprise, the Doctor and Seven. By this point you start to realise that the writers did love to scribe for these two and Janeway creating a new triumvirate on the intrepid starship. 

Both actors are, admittedly, on top form here and every single scene is electric. One that's well worth a re-watch again and again - another for a best of... collection.

11:59 capitalises on the upcoming (at the time) millennium celebrations spending 99% of the episode in the late 90's retelling the story of Janeway's ancestor, Shannon O'Donnell. The captain's knowledge of Shannon differs to the actual account with the story uncovering O'Donnell's battle to help a bookshop owner stop the development of the Millennium Gate project. The episode places a pin into the era in which Voyager was filmed but fails to capture the magic we have seen in other "non-Trek time period" stories where the main cast have been used for other roles. 

Following on we have Relativity which kind of sequels the third season Future's End with the return of (a recast) Captain Braxton and chucks Seven through a helluva mill to try and work out a mystery on Voyager that takes her back to a time before the ship launched and into a Starfleet uniform for the one and only time. It's a fun episode and makes up for the shortcomings of the previous week's time-adjusted story with lots of dips into Voyager history although, ultimately, the end reveal is a lot more disappointing than it should be and almost robs the episode of its soul. Harsh, but I think that sums it up pretty fairly!

Then Warhead might have just been called Dreadnought II since it's the return of a sentient weapon with a mission to complete. While the "original" from season two pitted Torries against her own ingenuity, Warhead gives Robert Picardo one more chance to stretch his acting talents from the usual sarcastic Doctor to the cold personality of an alien weapon. A neat bottle show for the series, Warhead utilises the cast perfectly around the possessed EMH to deliver a satisfying but rushed last ten minutes. It's an episode that feels like there's a lot of quality build up only to be skipped over to reach the titles in the allotted time frame - this 42 minute format (plus ads makes an hour) really killed Star Trek's creativity and writing muscles in the '90's.

The season finale does make up for a lot of the mediocrity that fills out year five. At least these days with a limited run per series we get higher quality each week without too much filler to bulk the schedule. 

Equinox is fantastic. A new type of starship onscreen with the Nova Class (an initial design for the Defiant) and the distinct parallel to Voyager's journey home. This is a sublime "What If" storyline treading the water of events if Janeway had chosen to do anything to get home and not follow Starfleet principles.  Captain Ransom is a captain well out of depth to being with, commanding an ill-suited, small research ship on a lengthy trip home and also without the depth of character we see in Janeway. All the cards are against him from the beginning with the bleakest touch being the fate of Equinox's EMH and the removal of his moral subroutines.

This is top ten Voyager stuff with a genuinely terrifying conclusion leaving Voyager in dire straits and it looking as though the Equinox is going to succeed and escape retribution once again. Class from start to finish and with a conclusion that would open the sixth season and actually be well worth waiting for.

Season Five never really hits its potential with an inspired, gritty opener that is quickly dispensed with as soon as the stars reappear at the end of Night. Voyager could have explored the bleak reality that the journey was now in its fifth year a lot more than it did although you can understand the need not to make the show too dark for too long. 

While Seven would receive a lot of screentime, there are some real key moments for the others who do feel horribly underused on occasion with Robert Duncan McNeill fairing the best outside the "big three" with genuine character changing events unseen outside of this series (until Burnham was stripped of rank in Discovery). What it does do well is the sense of continuation in some of the stories with callbacks to other Voyager episodes thanks to Braxton in Relativity, the continuing Seven and Borg Queen head to head in Dark Frontier and the Demon crew for Course: Oblivion - it feels like there are some real consequences to actions taken which Equinox would hint at and be addressed further by stories such as Flesh and Blood.

It's a year heading towards a more satisfying sixth season. Voyager finally seemed to be fitting into its own Star Trek niche, doing conceptual, off the track stories - and would continue so in the following year...

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The End: The Finality of Deep Space Nine Season Seven

After the excitement, action, adventure, character building and general all out war, season seven of Deep Space Nine had a lot to live up to.

Shame is that it followed the greatest season of Star Trek ever produced which meant it was on the back foot to start with and, honestly, it never recovered. Season seven is still brilliant and a fitting way for Deep Space Nine to end with a true closure of the multiple arcs that had run through the show since Emissary but it would be a heavy trip to the finale.

Opening with the two-part continuation to Tears of the Prophets from season six, Image in the Sand and Shadows and Symbols take us to the heart of Sisko's dilemmas as visions, a stabbing and the return of Dax all happen within the space of 45 minutes - and then we get a yomp across the desert planet of Tyree and a spin off into the world of Benny Russell just to top it all off. As season openers go it's low on the bangs and effects but ticks the box for edge and sparkling story whether it's the Sisko line or effectively the alternate A-story with Kira holding the fort on the station with the Romulan Empire trying to assert its position.

The revelation that Sisko's mum was a prophet might get him on Jerry Springer in the 20th Century but for some reason it's not that hard to believe thanks to the arcs and threads woven through the previous six seasons of the show. It's a good one with a very different feel most likely due to those scenes on the desert planet. 

The thing is that introducing a new character in Ezri this late in the game was always going to be difficult but Afterimage does go some way to fill in the new Trill beyond a bout of space sickness and a badly fumbled, hasty joining. Garak is clearly the stronger character in the odd pairing but it's great to see the inexperience and exuberance of the new arrival attempt to take on the super-enigma of the Cardassian tailor/spy. Ezri is a great character but the series doesn't insist on spending a ridiculous amount of time introducing her and focusing on her as Voyager lavished on Seven of Nine. 

Instead we just get on with things. Take Me Out to the Holosuite is a cunningly little diversion from the upcoming finale, divulging us into the possibilities of the holodeck and also exploring those competitive tendancies that exist within Sisko. Facing him off against Captain Solok is a high point of the year and he might be the most unemotional Vulcan we've ever met - and that's saying something. 

Season seven does avoid the family thread that The Next Generation chose to weave in its final year but it does manage to tie up all those bits we've wondered "what happened to..." and Chrysalis is a perfect example. Following on from the introduction of the Jack Pack from Statistical Probabilities it's much more about the relationship between Bashir and Sabrina once she reconnects with the world. In the literary Star Trek universe this pairing is still going strong today (at least it was in the last Section 31 novel, Disavowed).

Likewise the later Prodigal Daughter rounds out the "Bilby" storyline from season six's Honor Among Thieves with O'Brien's involvement with the Orion Syndicate taking another turn as he tries to track down his former, deceased associate's wife. Simple enough but then this is Star Trek which also means it somehow manages to link up with Ezri's unsurprisingly dysfunctional family. Oddly this is an O'Brien episode where he's not in some sort of severe mortal peril and manages to survive dying at least once which makes it a good year for the chief but not so brilliant for the story quality.

Ezri does get one final solus episode in season seven with Field of Fire. It's something very different but draws on Dax's darkest rebirth using Joran to help catch a killer. Not being directed to the guilty party from the beginning is a hard call in the story but finding him isn't what this is about. The gun is pretty cool and the way in which the killings are taking place is cleverly executed. Joran's effect on Ezri's personality is fairly marked and Nicole De Boer puts in a fine performance here. 

While season seven rounds out stories it just manages to hit the mark on brilliance. Treachery, Faith and the Great River and Once More Unto the Breach which follow it really encapsulate a lot of the best and worst of the year. Both are effective follow-ups and round outs to stories, the former giving us a more insightful look at the background and origins of the Vorta while the latter closes off the "Kor Trilogy" which has taken us through Blood Oath and The Sword of Kahless to this point. Both have original, unique stories but somehow the greatness that was instilled into the sixth season just isn't quite there. 

Jeffrey Combs is superb as the faulty Weyoun defector and it does manage to also explore Odo's feelings about his connection to the Great Link and where he really stands with his people and those who regard them as deities. In a sense Chimera also touches on that aspect with JG Hertzler heavily disguised as Laas a Changeling with a far more advanced use of its shape-changing abilities. Laas is a much softer character for the Martok actor to play and I don't think he's 100% successful at it. Nor is the story a winner with Odo having to battle with his conscience and the ideals of his people all over again. It's a path that's been trodden numerous times especially since season three's The Search.

Perhaps it's expectation lets them down and even now I still feel a bit deflated watching this season - because I have some very clear recollections of these stories, because I'm just bidding time until the ten-parter and thirdly because I just know it's not totally delivering. Looking at it another way there is a lot that needs to be tied up and there may well have only certain manners in which this could be done and still leave enough to provide a decent final dash to the line with the closing arc but more on that in a bit.

Covenant too is a sequel of sorts although if it was necessary I'm never totally sure. It does follow on from Empok Nor and reminds us of the many talents of Dukat but it doesn't seem to give anything at the end and reflecting on the later episodes and how the former Cardassian gul is portrayed I'm not sure that this exposure was required. It does mean that Kira gets one last chance to go head to head with him and who can scoff at any opportunity to see Visitor and Alaimo sparring once more.

Continuing the sequel and closure aspect of season seven is the atrocious Emperor's New Cloak. Now Resurrection last year was poor and Bareil tended to leave me cold on a good day but this one is my low point of the whole season and one of the lowest of the show as a whole. The Mirror Universe was a brilliant addition to the Deep Space Nine mythology and made it feel a lot closer to The Original Series than The Next Generation thanks as well to those classic Klingons and a magnificent 30th anniversary episode. Yet once we'd closed the show on Shattered Mirror and taken a season break from the adventures of Smiley and the Terran rebellion it all seemed to take a slide didn't it?

Making this a Ferengi Mirror Universe episode frankly took the p**s. Sorry, yes I swore but there's no excuse for this one and having Vic Fontaine turn up was butt-clenchingly awful and shocker, Ezri appeared too. All a bit convenient and self-indulgent. I bet Avery Brooks was glad he'd been killed off over there after Crossover.

But then there are some stunners that kick where it matters. The mid-year eps are a bit average yet The Siege of AR-558 is brilliant. Dark, uncomfortable and horribly close to the bone in its portrayal of ground war it contrasts starkly with the space-bourne warfare we're usually accustomed to. Nor the Battle to the Strong in season five had shown the aftermath of a ground battle but here we see the beginning, middle and end in all its gory detail with It's Only a Paper Moon two stories later dealing with the fallout as only Deep Space Nine can. While these two can make uncomfortable viewing they highlight the show at its finest and I can never imagine The Next Generation and certainly not Voyager ever attempting to deal with such events and then have the balls to tackle it again all within the space of a few episodes of the final year. Kudos where due, a great move.

Another hat-tip has to be made to Inter Arma Enim Silent Leges or, "In Times of War the Law Falls Silent". With the benefit of hindsight you can see where the Section 31/Bashir arcs have evolved from because this is Julian playing the spy game for real. He's indulged in holodeck adventures as a secret agent but the reality is nearly as bleak as The Siege of AR-558. Adding in the Romulans just teases the excellence of the episode and having it all turn a bit sour for the doctor is a nice move - again as with It's Only a Paper Moon, only Deep Space Nine could have nailed it this well.

Which brings us, triumphantly to the final spread of episodes encompassing all from Penumbra through to What You Leave Behind. And what an arc that is. It seems that everyone gets their fair share of action here so let's head on through.

Starting out with Worf missing and Ezri determined to find him leads us into the revelation that the Breen are now allied with the Dominion which then narks off Legate Damar who finally sees that the writing is on the wall, makes it clear he's going rogue and leads to the formation of the Cardassian terrorist group and a visit from Kira, Odo and Garak. Of course there are two memories we all carry from this line of the story - Damar's "For Cardassia!!!" and Colonel Kira getting herself a Starfleet field commission.

Back on the station Sisko gets married and discovers he's going to be a dad and then leads the fleet to the Cardassian homeworld where the war is put to rest and Martok gets to sup some blood wine. Sadly that's not the end of the road because as we know, Dukat has been wooing Kai Winn and turned her, successfully, over to the Pah Wraiths. Cue ultimate showdown between Sisko and Dukat and the captain's apparent demise as he enters the Celestial Temple.

Jeez. That was the briefest summation of all time. Now I adore the final ten episodes of Deep Space Nine like no other multi-episode arc. It is still unrivalled in Star Trek history in terms of scope, continuation, finality, characterisation and overall damn greatness. The 10 part arc does everything you could expect and more - even to a point where I felt disappointed by What You Leave Behind... because it was so final. I love what the novels have done since 1999 however the show is a perfect bottle, a beginning, an end and one heck of a middle. Look at what is achieved here and you realise how much had gone into the seven seasons and how the producers ensured that the viewers were paid off as best as possible and as fully as possible. 

Rom becomes Nagus, Bashir and O'Brien nigh on cose down Section 31 and Garak gets to go home. Even a couple of straggly bits from The Next Generation were closed (Gowron!) but the pace never slowed and there was still character evolution to the bitter end especially around the brilliant roles of Kai Winn, Odo and Dumar who all take big steps within the overall story here.

I have no doubt I will cover off the arc in more detail in a separate pot in the future because a season overview is the last place I'll do it any justice but here are some of Deep Space Nine's strongest stories, its most inspired moments and heartbreaking goodbyes. All even better a second, third or fourth time round. This was the first time I've watched it all the way through from Emissary and certainly you do appreciate the box-ticking closure that Deep Space Nine attempts in season seven a lot more than either The Next Generation or Voyager managed effectively.

For everything it got right or wrong though, season seven of Deep Space Nine is the strongest and most concrete ending to any Star Trek series ever. There is nowhere left to go, the character arcs are resolved and we have a firm conclusion to 176 episodes both with the 10 episode arc and the double-length finale.

So that's it for Deep Space Nine. I'll leave the season one Voyager review over to Matt but I'll return shortly with my look at the second year of Janeway and crew in a short while.

Fan of the final season? Was it the best closing year of any Star Trek show?

@45 @30 @15

When I started out on this post there was but one thing on my mind; The Search for Spock; 1984 - 2014.

Thing is that sometimes a post doesn't end up where you expected and I'm kind of glad it didn't on this occasion. You see, this week is something special in Star Trek history - an alignment of the heavens if you will, with three important anniversaries all falling in the space of just THREE days.

First up and probably getting the most coverage is the 30th anniversary of everybody's favourite mid-trilogy Star Trek movie on June 1st. 

Coming off the back of The Wrath of Khan was never going to be easy and the third motion picture still does take some hack for being overly dark in light of the events which closed the previous movie. Indeed, the main plot is pretty obvious - hint - it's in the title.

I really like Star Trek III as there's a lot going for it and a lot does happen here. Christoper Lloyd isn't ground-breaking as Kruge and the Vulcan stuff at the end might drag just a little but overall it's a solid entry into the movie library. Stealing the Enterprise is a brilliant scene especially with their pursuit being captained by the pompous and over-confident Styles on the Excelsior. Returning home in battered glory, breaking McCoy out of prison, saving Spock are all excellent snippets from this sometimes shunned sequel. It's only real fault being that it lies in the middle of two Star Trek movie heavyweights in II and IV.

The Search for Spock is heaped with firsts believe it or not; both the Excelsior and Oberth Classes debuted here and would become a staple of the Star Trek universe most notably in The Next Generation and Deep Space Nine.  For those who want more of USS Grissom, have a look at this audio series which focuses on their mission in the two weeks before the events of Star Trek III.

The Bird of Prey decloaked for the first time over the Merchantman and has also been a staple of the franchise to this day. That freighter too was reused many times in The Next Generation and Deep Space Nine  but made its debut here. Leonard Nimoy became the first Star Trek actor to helm a production; Saavik was the first character to be recast mid-series as Robin Curtis replaced Kirstie Alley; we got to see the officer's suede bomber jacket (ok, little stretched here but indulge me) and the Head of Starfleet too. It's jam-packed with stuff to keep going back to and finding. 

And at 45...

But while we've gone all hysterical over facts from The Search for Spock let's look back at what we said right at the start; three anniversaries over three days. June 2nd marks 15 years since the premiere of the final episode of Deep Space Nine while the 3rd is 45 years since the first airing of the last episode of The Original Series. While each of them merits a nod at least, it's more interesting to look at their positions within the franchise history. Standing at 1969, 1984 and 1999, these are anniversaries that also mark distinct snapshots of the different place Star Trek has had throughout it's near-50 year lifespan.

Turnabout Intruder marked the end of the original, curtailed, five year mission and 45 years later look where we are. Think about it - at that point it was all over, two fan campaigns had brought the show back but this time the network had cut the budget and buried the show in the Friday night Slot of Death to ensure that there would be no season four. For all intents and purposes Star Trek should have died that night - another short-lived show that would end up as a great pub quiz answer. You can imagine it; "Ok...question five; What space-based series starring William Shatner (what happened to him?) aired between 1966 and 1969 and had two pilot episodes?"

Lots of head scratching, murmours and some guy in the corner is the only one to get it right. Everyone else puts either Blakes 7, Lost in Space or The Outer Limits.

At this time all we had were those 79 episodes and the unaired pilot. That was it; your lot. This was Star Trek at its most pure and undiluted, untouched by anyone else but Roddenberry (and latterly Fred Freiberger). Turnabout Intruder also belays that splendid male-centric attitude of the 1960's - only men can command starships, something that would only be seen to have changed onscreen in the opening minutes of The Voyage Home and the USS Saratoga. Notably that would also be a female, black captain - and a black captain would also be helming a space station in later years.

Now, flash forward (again) to 1984 with the help of your Bajoran Orb. Off the back of $139,000,000 from The Motion Picture and $96,800,000 from The Wrath of Khan, the franchise is heading high. (Just a quick side-point too that this week (June 4th) is also the anniversary of the premiere of the second motion picture.) It's been revitalised thanks to Star Wars and also thanks to syndication which meant that many thousands were able to enjoy the 79 original episodes, leading to huge convention numbers, the naming of the space shuttle after the USS Enterprise and the possibility of a new series entitled Phase II.

The last bit didn't happen and we got The Motion Picture instead but with The Search for Spock it's a calm before a storm. While resolving a small matter of resurrecting Spock and tying up a few loose ends from it's illustrious predecessor, this was the time that Star Trek was on the way to some of its greatest successes. We were still two years away from  The Voyage Home and three away from the premiere of The Next Generation and yet there was genuine excitement about the show. This wasn't a cheap sequel, clocking in at $18,000,000 (six more than Star Trek II) and blowing up the Enterprise was a statement that things would be getting shaken up - and even the ending declared The Adventure Continues. There was no doubt there would be more to come.

If you look at this, the Harve Bennett era, you'll see the opulence of the sets, the grandiose entrance of the Enterprise to Spacedock, the "WTF" attitude to blowing up a screen icon and the ability to woo Christopher Lloyd to the film. It showed that Star Trek was accepted in the big time. People wanted to be linked to it and it was an important part of American culture and had been embraced by countries across the world too. By this point, 15 years after Turnabout Intruder, there had only been The Animated Series and two multi-million dollar motion pictures added to the library. This was Star Trek in the midst of its big screen era without a TV series to support it but that situation would be rectified very, very soon after.

Closer to...

Slingshot yourself around the sun again and take a trip to 1999. How different a moment in Star Trek history is this? 

Here we are at the final episode of the third series. What You Leave Behind isn't as good as All Good Things... (and I'm a HUGE Deep Space Nine fan) but it's probably the most final finale of the lot. Sisko is gone, Odo is gone, the war is over. Voyager still had two years to go and at the end of that series all the crew were still alive if not together (as Neelix was still in the Delta Quadrant).  Like The Next Generation it could have easily continued in some form and rumour has it that there had been considerations to bring her home earlier and have some episodes set in the Alpha Quadrant.

This story rounded out the story excellently although I'm still not sure how long Dukat and Winn are in the Fire Caves considering they're pottering around in them while Sisko goes all the way to Cardassia, fights a war and comes back.  I was sorry to see this show go because I felt that the quality and differences it brought to the franchise were not as strong in Voyager which was much more in the vain of The Next Generation.

I digress...back to Deep Space Nine. By this point in time we'd had 176 episodes of Picard and crew, 174 episodes of Sisko and his team, 79 episodes and an unaired pilot of The Original Series, 22 animated tales 120 episodes of Voyager and nine movies. That's a lot of material and most of it from after The Search for Spock. But What You Leave Behind also comes at a rather crucial point in the story - the start of the slope in popularity and ultimately the axing of Enterprise in 2005. For me this was the "golden age" coming to a close - we'd had a great run from 1987 on both small and big screen but the engine was starting to wind down and two years later with the finale of Voyager and the start of Enterprise it was even more evident.

The three anniversaries stake out three different takes and management eras too; Roddenberry, Bennett and Berman. Three very different styles and temperaments in control. Roddenberry's vision guided the two that followed but Bennett moulded his Star Trek into the classic "space opera", much more militaristic than his predecessor might have liked. Berman on the other hand, with input from Roddenberry in the earlier years of The Next Generation returned to the origins laid down by the Great Bird but once he passed, the doors opened to countless new possibilities and the finale of Deep Space Nine in 1999 for me is the culmination of all that. It was a closure, the most ceetain ending of any Star Trek series intended or not. The final frontier was safe once again and Berman's work was done - at least it maybe should have been.

What You Leave Behind mirrors the times just as the big bangs and OTT of The Search for Spock mark out the cash-rich '80's, Deep Space Nine's closer was dark, ominous and less than happy. Darker times were ahead and the future was uncertain but even then there was time for celebration. Not many were convinced this was going to work but it had and even managed to go out in true style with its head held proud.

It has been a few years since I last watched both Turnabout Intruder and What You Leave Behind but that doesn't mean I don't remember them as good quality segments of both series. I'll get to the latter in due course as I'm re-running Deep Space Nine currently (up to The Way of the Warrior at the moment). As reflections of their times we've seen here just how much a window into each era of the franchise they can be, spread evenly over 30 years from '69 to '99 - and what changes we saw in management, style and execution. 

If you're counting, don't worry, we've not forgotten and we'll be marking 25 years of The Final Frontier in due course!

Do you think that these three anniversaries mark out the differences in Star Trek over the years? Do you have a particular memory of Star Trek III? Turnabout Intruder? What You Leave Behind? Talk about them below!

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One Last Time

One thing I've noticed as we celebrate and remember the life of DeForest Kelley is that we seem to have mislaid any photos from his work in the movies.

So here's our nod to the Southern Doctor in what would be his final movie - and final scene playing McCoy on the bridge of NCC-1701-A.

Happy birthday Bones!

Star Trek VHS: A Trekollections Curveball (Part II)

CIC Video was the bastion of all things new, visual and Star Trek until 1999.

As we saw in Part 1, CIC held court over The Original Series, The Next Generation and Deep Space Nine until volume 7.13 of the space station saga which was actually overseen by Paramount Home Entertainment (which had swallowed up CIC). Star Trek: Voyager likewise shifted across to Paramount Home Entertainment for seasons six and seven. By this time it was getting hit and miss with SKY as to whether you could catch a new episode on VHS or TV first, purely down to which series was airing first on the satellite channels. For the majority it was still a case of hitting the shops for a fix (internet shopping was only just starting out) but on the outside the effort was a distinctive departure from anything before.

Let's travel back ever so slightly to the first season of Voyager. While the video covers of the previous two series had been, on the whole, pretty standard with a firm concept across the range from beginning to end, Voyager couldn't settle on a single theme for even two seasons in sequence. In contrast to The Next Generation and Deep Space Nine there was very little consistency from one cover to the next even from the start. Only the title and the placement of episode info, titles and legal panels would remain the same. Also remaining in place for the whole of the run was the tagline Charting the New Frontier below the series title. Until season four it was also accompanied by the legend that Voyager was from the makers of The Next Generation - whether they pulled this through a radical redesign or embarrassment is open for debate(!). Nor was there any connection between volumes as with Deep Space Nine's galaxy spanning spine picture. 

All you got here was a smaller image of the whole sleeve clean of any promo script and the episode titles. Aside from that there were only fleeting glimpses of what could have been or concepts that failed after a volume or two. In fact it would be fair to say the whole series was a mishmash from a packaging sense with no consistency at all. What was the consistent factor across every volume was the numbering system. When Voyager started, Deep Space Nine also changed to the same season/volume numeration.

Take season one for instance - 10 covers (episodes were released in production order for seasons one and two in the UK) featuring the ship from various angles - flying, in space, by a nebula, grounded...all very exciting (sarcasm). Season two was only a slight improvement with artist impression images featuring the ship as well as shuttlecraft, the Dreadnought missle, Kazon warships and Vidiian cruisers  Each image related to one of the stories on the cassettes as had the first season Voyager closeups.

The third year went off at a completely different tangent and considering the quality of the volume images before, it was more of a downturn as artistic images made way for photoshopped images of cast members/scenes from episodes on the tapes. Volume 3.6 featured here was one of the worst offenders - how big is Janeway supposed to be in that Jeffries Tube?! Common sense and giving a toss seemed to have left the building during this season. You thought they might have at least made some effort and in fact it just looked rushed. While I was more of a DS9er at heart I did own a few Voyager volumes although admittedly at the time, none from season three. The last cover for Scorpion was OK but I always felt they missed the boat on impact with this show. 

Now remember the rumour mill and hype that built up around the expected arrival of the Borg in season three? It's all about the buildup to that final shot at the end of Blood Fever if you recall and the note that Voyager is heading into dangerous territory. So a good move would be, what? I know - stick that on the cover of the cassette and ruin the surprise (although you suspect marketing came up with that to shift a few more copies). 

It made for a good cover nevertheless but that shot of the drone corpse was in the dying seconds of the episode as a moment of suspense which this obliterated before you got out of the shop. If we expected improvement for season four it was almost as iffy with 4.1 and 4.2 opting for "cast member of the week" shots (Seven of Nine on 4.1 and Chakotay on 4.2) before diving into a full range of "Janeway + crew/guest" right up to 4.13. In the bottom right hand corner this cast shot pairing was also accompanied by some kind of spaceborne image relevant to the cassette and only on one occasion did it feature characters (the Hirogen) on 4.9 for The Killing Game (Part I).

The quality of the images did improve for seasons five through seven which also introduced the generic cast image at the bottom and moved the episode numbering and titles into a set format near the bottom of the cover. Likewise this happened with the final season of Deep Space Nine as I noted last time although with Voyager we had five crew (Tuvok, The Doctor, Janeway, Seven of Nine and Chakotay) to three (Worf, Sisko, Kira) on the sister series. Already with season four the episodic stardates had been removed - another feature which was implemented on Deep Space Nine in the same year. The penultimate season probably had the most interesting and well-designed artwork with more action shots and interpretations of sequences from the episodes based around the ship rather than the characters. 

But that's just the front of the cases - what about the whole package? While it didn't fade back into the simple designs of The Original Series or The Next Generation, the take on the packaging was different again. It gave the feel of technology and Starfleet by design and was one more thing that made a visit to the shops on release day a little more interesting. 

On the outside rear of each case was, as with previous shows, a brief six line synopsis for each of the episodes with a fairly respectable image for each also printed. These were less grainy than the screenshots on The Next Generation and were one of the better things about the cases. On the inside of each volume could be found some information about the ship, a new alien race, technology and also a character biography. While not as "in depth" as the Deep Space Nine volumes it kept with the theme of the case and the LCARS display style that was echoed across the box. Stupidly I have failed to scan in any images from the interior box art and if anyone has some, please send me a copy!

Now last time I waxed on about how good the covers were and the special edition versions of a few that existed. With Voyager it only made it as far as three alterations to the standard design over the course of seven seasons. These were Dark Frontier, Flesh and Blood and Endgame. The latter two featured reversible covers so that casual collectors could ditch the series/volume numbering system and have a "movie" cover instead. This meant that the interior info was ditched for these two cassettes. With Dark Frontier not only was there a reversible sleeve version but Paramount also released a card-boxed special edition in black and green as a one off. This didn't have the numbering or reversible sleeve and was, I think, an HMV exclusive in the UK. 


Just dropped back to a previous comment, there were some good covers along the way although most were from the later years. The cover for Timeless in season five was always something that stuck in my mind as it's probably one of the show's biggest moments. Equally the picture for Dragon's Teeth in season six was unusual with Voyager taking evasive action within the atmosphere of a planet. Little different but I always felt Voyager never really had room for maneuver on the covers leaving it with a limited range to explore.

Now before I move over to Enterprise, this would also be the last series to offer two part episodes in a TV movie format. The Next Generation did this with all of its double episode stories including Encounter at Farpoint and All Good Things... Over on Deep Space Nine, only the pilot, Emissary and What You Leave Behind got the special treatment. However, they would be placed onto a single video while each The Next Generation movie got its own volume. Voyager's two-parters suffered as well with two movies being slapped onto a single VHS tape. A bit of a marketing gimmick all round but again, great if you weren't collecting the full set and even better if you get disgruntled with CIC/Paramount's constant ability to schedule two part stories over two cassettes as happened on more occasions than not. 

Image quality on the front wasn't amazing but they did their job. I can probably name a handful of instances across The Next Generation, Deep Space Nine and Voyager where that didn't happen at best. For reference (above left) I've included one from each of these series. There were no interior info panels and the rear cover managed to offer plot details and credits. Definitely a budget run!

I think in my video buying era I managed only the Redemption TV movie and the Basics & Future's End and Scorpion & Year of Hell editions due to financial restraints. They were good but I always preferred that cliffhanger moment because that's how they were designed to be seen in the first place. From memory the only other special edition that I laid my hands on as part of the VHS collection I had was the awesome Borg box set from The Next Generation. Three cassettes in a cardboard Borg ship. When you took the lid off the sides folded flat with each volume seated in one of the sides and the fourth carrying a bit of blurb on the Star Trek villains. Placing all three cassette cases in a row spelt out the word "Borg". It was very cool although the case itself was quite flimsy. It was released around the same time as the Q box set which seemed a bit of a rip off as Q Who was in both cases. Apart from that I managed to avoid specials but the good ones managed to creep in if I let them! Also for the sake of this piece I'm avoiding heading into special editions territory.

HOWEVER (yeah, you saw that coming), I did have the Seven of Nine Collection Part One from Voyager. While the The Next Generation went overboard on box sets after it finished, Deep Space Nine missed the boat and all we got from Voyager aside from the two part tapes was a split collection featuring Seven's "Greatest Hits". Each contained three cassettes and eight episodes across them. Part One featured Revulsion, Retrospect, One, Hope and Fear, Night, Drone, Infinite Regress and Bliss while Part Two included Scorpion, Scientific Method, Dark Frontier, Think Tank, Survival Instinct and The Voyager Conspiracy. The three cassettes in each all bore the same artwork and when the two sets were pushed together there was a full image of Seven's face. They also came with a set of stills from the episodes included. I only bought set one as I had most of two from original release. Oddly there was an 11 month gap between the release of these two sets which I suspect was due to the episodes on the second release only just being out on their own with the full Voyager range at the time.

By the time Enterprise came onto VHS in 2002, DVD was on the rise and I recall that even I had started switching across to this newer format. Only one season of Enterprise actually made it onto cassette and I purchased the whole lot for my sins, making it only one of two seasons along with Deep Space Nine's final year that I had complete. I even had the cardboard collectors case to hold them all in. The budget on the packaging had certainly been reduced with no internal info and minimal detail on the box. You could collect tokens for themed Enterprise items and I ended up with a metallic organiser (lost to the mists of time). If you collected all the volumes together the spines made an image of the NX-01 crossing the galaxy and mini-screenshots from the historical title sequence at the bottom of the spine (see 1.4 left). There would be only one more VHS release from Paramount after the first season of Enterprise and post 2003 - Star Trek Nemesis; which in turn was the first Star Trek movie I bought on DVD! 

Now here's one thing that I noticed about the first season releases from the final Star Trek series - all the Starfleet uniformed crew have yellow piping in their uniforms where Malcolm and Trip should have red but yet Hoshi is still in blue? Most odd. For the remainder of the first season of Enterprise, the covers would also get a picture made up of images from one of the two featured stories (right). In fact the style was quite similar to that which adorned the covers of The Next Generation for seven years. The other irony being that while this would be the last Star Trek episodes to be released on video, the franchise name would be the one thing that wasn't on the boxes...

Overall the design was quite striking with background colour changes on each volume. Enterprise was at least consistent in its VHS design concept which made it a step up from the randomness incurred by Voyager but still wasn't (in my opinion) as exciting to see in the shelves as the Deep Space Nine editions. To the rear there were, as with The Next Generation and Voyager, images (usually four in a row) from the two episodes plus the usual episodic synopsis and credits. Interestingly the covers would also be the first to include a web address for you to see more Paramount info on the videos.

When Paramount took over the video releases for Deep Space Nine and Voyager they also started producing regular newsletters which you could subscribe to. The information was variable and sometimes it would arrive after the videos previewed (ironically) had been released. They were not exactly the most reliable form of information but in light of the fact that the internet was clunky as hell in the late 1990's and early 2000's it was better quality. I managed to find this edition from July 2001 when Flesh and Blood was released on VHS as well as the rereleased The Next Generation episodes Devil's Due, Clues and First Contact.

The thing that probably caught your eye will have been the announcement of Enterprise on the second page. Odd to think that this was before the series had aired and we were looking forward to a Star Trek prequel! The www.startrekuk.co.uk website is now a very underused fan page and has nothing to do with Paramount or CIC. A shame but I guess that's just the passage of time!

Also I talked about some of the promotions that were run with your purchases. The later ones were called the Latinum Perspective and there were some great items (they were at the time) which you could collect points from across the VHS cassettes from Deep Space Nine and Voyager. While I've lost a Star Trek VI  magazine these have survived. Explain that one.

Looking back I'm not sure if I would get any of these now and to get any of the better items you needed to get every single VHS volume from any series that was being released. Tough on the wallet for a pair of logo embossed boxer shorts or a lead crystal dome paperweight but at least there was something for customer loyalty after purchasing a lot of Star Trek!

And that's it. Two parts, five series and a lot of pictures. In the end I chose to focus on the series rather than diverting into the multiple different sets and covers that pervaded the movies across the years. I always found the VHS styling a wonderful side piece to the episodes themselves. It's a shame this isn't something carried on today however the advent of DVD and special features killed the need to make the boxes more exciting when you can navigate a menu and be provided with the same information in a much more interactive form. Basically the cover here was that special feature menu. 

Now on the blu-rays and DVDs you can get character profiles, cast memories, effects documentaries, outtakes, previews and much more than you could ever fit onto a sheet of glossy A4 and insert into a VHS plastic case. The tragic loss with this more compact technology is the "sameness" which crosses the box sets. Each disc case is the same, there is minimal variety and the visual, digital content becomes the total focus and how it is presented becomes secondary or even tertiary. It belays, sadly, just how much we are now consumed by digital media and tragically tend to want to spend less time reading related information when we can watch and listen. Not only that but the art of browsing itself is dying and the need to grab people's attention in a shop is diminishing. Artwork is a minimal requirement when you are purchasing online for the content alone. Instead of scanning your eyes over a shelf, the search box becomes your eyes and the exterior box becomes just a way to transport the item and nothing more. It's sad to think how our consumption by the internet has taken away one of the unique selling points of the Star Trek story and consigned it to, ironically, a series of pictures on a search engine.