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Petrus4's guide to 'Star Trek: Voyager'

Voyager is my favourite Star Trek series, although for most people it seems to be the most infamous. It's bizarre, it's humorous, it often has fairly epic action, to the point of being low-budget Lethal Weapon or Die Hard, IN SPACE! It isn't as strong in the first three seasons as the last four, but there are still some gems to be had. My job is to help you separate the gems from the viscous brown substance that they are hidden in.

The rules are simple. If I mention it, I enjoyed it for some reason or other, and I think you should watch it. Since reading Optical Data's guide on this wiki, I've realised that Voyager actually has a lot more continuity than I thought. I don't list every single episode here which somehow has continuation somewhere else. Instead, I only list those episodes which I personally felt to contain solid entertainment. Some of the episodes I list here are acknowledged as Voyager's worst, and I will usually also admit that as well, where relevant. If those episodes are here, then it usually means that said episodes either still contained some element of humour which I liked, or had continuity which I considered too important to miss.

My Top Ten Episodes

This is the shortest possible version of this guide. If you are coming into Voyager completely blind, and don't want to watch the whole thing, these ten episodes are the true unmissables out of the entire series in my opinion, (in chronological, not preferential order) and will also help you figure out whether or not you want to spend time watching more of them.

Faces

The Thaw

Sacred Ground

Year of Hell

Prey

Timeless

Gravity

Dark Frontier

Equinox

The Void

Season 1

E01S01. Caretaker: Pilot. Boldly going 70,000 light years in order to visit a holographic alien nursing home, and then adopting a homeless love child of the Night Hob from The Never Ending Story, and Hoggle from Labyrinth. Also, we get the series' first recurring Big Bad, who turn out to be Space Rastafarians. Think Psychlos with anorexia, lower technology, and no John Travolta. As Chief Engineer, we also got Roxann Dawson/B'Elanna Torres, who went on to become the most chronic actor/character crush of my existence, so far.

E04S01. Phage: Space lepers steal Neelix's lungs. Janeway rages at space lepers, orders return of lungs. Space lepers can't give them back, but give Neelix holographic lungs instead. Janeway tells space lepers that if she ever encounters them again, she will end them as they have never been ended before. Space lepers look appropriately terrified.

E09S01. Prime Factors: Tuvok becomes insubordinate, and attempts to steal propulsion technology from space swingers.

E10S01. State of Flux: Space Rastafarians first seen in the pilot, blow up their ship after mishandling Federation technology, which they shouldn't have. Voyager has a traitor on board, who turns out to be Chakotay's ex-girlfriend. Small universe.

E13S01. Faces: Voyager provides masturbation material for Klingon fanboys.

E14S01. Jetrel: Voyager asks us a question. What if Robert Oppenheimer and Joseph Mengele had a love child, who was also born as a Talaxian?

Season 2

E01S02. The 37's: Amelia Earhardt and Bill Clinton meet up and shoot the breeze, in the Delta Quadrant.

E03S02. Projections: Voyager tries to provide the audience with the legal simulation of an LSD trip. This won't be the last time.

E05S02. Non Sequitur: Voyager does Sliders.

E10S02. Maneuvers: The next episode in the "Seksa and the Space Rastafarians" arc.

E12S02. Prototype: It's a B'Elanna Torres show. Enough said. Go and watch it immediately.

E16S02. Threshold: Voyager makes its own contribution to the cause of Mystery Science Theatre 3000. Recommended not due to how good it is, but how bad. Do not watch while sober.

E17S02. Meld: Grima Wormtongue makes a special guest star appearance on Voyager, and he's still a psychopath. Tuvok performs a mind meld with him because, as anyone can see, it was obviously the only logical thing he could have done. Chaos, lulz, and general merriment ensues.

E18S02. Dreadnought: It's another B'Elanna Torres episode. You know what I'm going to say, don't you?

E19S02. Death Wish: Q and son show up on Voyager. Serious Business ensues.

E20S02. Lifesigns: One of the space lepers from last season comes aboard Voyager, and temporarily becomes a holographic girlfriend for the Doctor. Romance and mild Glurge ensues.

E22S02. Deadlock: Harry Kim establishes his reputation as Voyager's answer to Kenny from South Park, or Waspinator from Transformers: Beast Wars.

E24S02. The Thaw: What Barney the Dinosaur should have been. Despite my flippant description, this is seriously one of Voyager's greatest episodes in my opinion, even if only because the level of weirdness here exemplifies Voyager's contribution to Trek as a whole. Recommended.

E26S02. Tuvix: Tuvok and Neelix develop an intimate relationship. Janeway gets in touch with her inner Jack Kavorkian.

E28S02. Basics, part 1: Die Hard With a Voyager, part 1. Grima Wormtongue plays Bruce Willis, and we get Space Rastafarians instead of Alan Rickman. Seska sets a trap for Voyager. Chakotay takes acid, has a conversation with his dead father, and as a result, decides that voluntarily falling into Seska's trap would be a good idea. Janeway and the rest of the crew get dumped on a barren planet.

Season 3

E01S03. Basics, part 2: Die Hard With a Voyager, part 2. Grima gets shot in the back with a phaser rifle before he can say, "Yippee Kiyay." Paris and some Talaxians also help save the ship. Voyager goes back and rescues Janeway and the crew, and none of the crew consider staging a mutiny against Janeway and Chakotay for getting them into the situation in the first place. Seska dies, and Space Rastafarians leave for the last time.

E03S03. The Chute: Paris and Kim get sent to a Space Prison and meet a 1960s version of Karl Marx, who's still a homeless person.

E06S03. Remember: B'Elanna Torres/Roxann Dawson episode.

E07S03. Sacred Ground: Voyager does Contact, but also adds a dash of Shirley McClaine's Out On a Limb, and a pinch of Labyrinth.

E08-09S03. Future's End: Voyager meets a time travelling version of Lex Luthor, who looks more like John Farnham. The Doctor gets shot at by some rednecks who think he's a demon, and they get back to the future with the help of a crazy homeless person.

E10S03. Warlord: Kes gets possessed, and then gets dangerous. Kes' finest hour, and the episode which Kes/Jennifer Lien's fans will usually talk about, when they explain why they think she was awesome.

E16S03. Blood Fever: On rewatching this episode, it is a lot more awkward than I remember. The opening scene where Vorik essentially tries to rape B'Elanna is particularly cringe inducing. Most of the rest of the episode is good, and we get continued clues about Tom and B'Elanna's developing relationship, (especially in the final scene) but some of the stuff with Vorik is forced, and just comes across as off-key.

E17S03. Unity: Chakotay goes on summer camp with the Borg.

E18S03. Darkling: The Doctor goes postal. Kes and Neelix break up.

E19S03. Rise: This episode is fairly thin, and doesn't really have much that is exciting or interesting. The one reason why it is worth mentioning, however, is that it has some good character development and interaction between Tuvok and Neelix. Tuvok does not like Neelix, and Neelix confronts Tuvok about this. Personally, I'm not sure how justified I feel this was, simply from the point of view that if there is one thing I've learned about Vulcans, it is that it's completely inappropriate for anyone to expect a Vulcan to react or behave in non-Vulcan terms. Most of the character conflict that occurs with Vulcans, anywhere in Trek, happens for this reason; Humans or some other more emotional race will expect a Vulcan to react to them with Human psychology or emotion, and they will typically then initiate conflict with the Vulcan when that does not occur.

E20S03. Favorite Son: "They killed Harry again! You BASTARDS!" Part Three of Voyager's Trifecta of Doom. Mostly included for surreal comedy value. You may, however, need therapy afterwards.

E21S03. Before and After: Kes' Excellent Adventure.

E22S03. Real Life: The Doctor gets a holographic family. Seriously good episode, from which the Doctor gets a lot of character development.

E25S03. Worst Case Scenario: The last episode of "pre-Seven Voyager", and a decent one at that. Seska comes back for one last encore performance.

E26S03. Scorpion: The point at which Voyager grew the beard according to consensus opinion. The first major appearance of the Borg, and Trek's first non-rubber headed alien race. Strong action, very nice CGI for the time, and a decent story. John Rhys-Davies is seen for the first time as a hologram of Leonardo DaVinci.

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Algernon_Asimov's guide to 'Star Trek: Deep Space Nine'

I've compiled an episode guide for 'Star Trek: Deep Space Nine'. This shows major milestones and character development - hopefully without giving away too many spoilers.

If you want to know which episodes are essential to watch (and which to avoid!) in the early seasons of Deep Space Nine, this is the page for you!

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Season 1

Season 2

Season 3

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Serialized Deep Space 9 Episode Guide

- /u/Darth_Rasputin32898

Introduction

The goal of of this guide is to provide an episode order to watch Deep Space 9 (DS9) that will deliver maximum impact of the series' overall story arcs in a minimum of episodes. My personal motivation in this matter was to introduce someone I know to Star Trek, a person interested in Star Trek who overwhelmingly favors non-episodic story-telling (a fan of HBO's Game Of Thrones). As such, I decided DS9 would be most appropriate.

Put another way, the purpose of this guide is enable new viewers to quickly 'rush' through the DS9 series without losing the benefits of essential plotlines or character development. No prior Trek experience is required, though reference to the 'Background' section may be helpful initially. All you need is simply the patience to sit through about the first and/or second seasons, which are quite abbreviated in this guide (since they're more episodic and generally considered lower quality).

The total number of episodes by my count is 125.

About Spoilers

This is a non-spoiler guide. Spoilers for any given episode will not be used in the Key Points for that episode. Spoilers for episodes may be included in the Key Points for episodes after that episode. These details will be contained in the spoiler code. Here is an example:

SeasonXEpisodeY

So, if you'd seen episode Y of season X, you'd be able to view that spoiler.

Background

The year is 2369. Humans have, over the past three and a half centuries, have made contact with aliens and helped form an interstellar government, the United Federation of Planets (simply, Federation) that is at the time of DS9 one of the major powers of the known galaxy. It is a post-scarcity, democratic, idyllic society dedicated peaceful to contact with other species and other inter-species governments. Its 'navy,' so to speak, is Starfleet, a 'peacekeeping and humanitarian armada,' jointly operated by its members. It is an exploratory organization, and the main focus of all Star Trek.

Unfortunately, most other known interstellar governments are not as peaceable. The chief rivals of the Federation at present are the Klingon Empire, Romulan Star Empire, and the more recently encountered Cardassian Union. All of these are expansionist military powers, and all of them have been at war with the Federation at some point. (However, the Klingons are now allied with the Federation.)

Anything else important is quite clearly shown in episode 1.

Episode List

Right! On to the episodes at last!

Season 1

Season 2

Season 3

Season 4

Season 5

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#Algernon_Asimov's guide to 'Star Trek: The Next Generation'

I've compiled an episode guides for 'Star Trek: The Next Generation'. This shows major milestones and character development - hopefully without giving away too many spoilers.

Whether you want to track the development of Worf during Next Generation, or skip the Wesley-heavy episodes, this is the page for you!

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Season 1

Season 2

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Algernon_Asimov's guide to The Animated Series

Star Trek: The Animated Series (previously 'The Animated Adventures of Gene Roddenberry's Star Trek') is the unloved and rejected stepchild of Star Trek series. For decades, it wasn't even considered canon. However, after CBS' acquisition of the rights to TAS in 2006, they incorporated all of its episodes and elements into their canon articles on StarTrek.com, thus making it officially canon. (Although, this might simply have been due to the fact that they released the DVD box set of the series that year, and wanted to encourage people to buy it...)

Yes, it's cheesy. Yes, it was made for children's television. But, it was produced by Gene Roddenberry and Dorothy (D.C.) Fontana, two of the main creative talents behind the original series. It was voiced by (most of) the actors from the original series. Many of the writers had also written episodes for the original series. And, some of its episodes are better than some episodes from the original series. For all its faults, it's still Star Trek. It deserves our attention, as much as any of the other series.

Beyond The Farthest Star (1x01)

Production number: 22004

Summary: "Kirk's crew come across an ancient derelict vessel, but something is still living inside it."

Rating: Engage!

Points of interest:

This first episode of the new series was written by Samuel A Peeples, who also the (second) pilot of the original series, 'Where No Man Has Gone Before'.

The crew have personal lifebelts which are humanoid-shaped forcefields (instead of using spacesuits). This series is the only series that uses these lifebelts: they are never referred to in any Star Trek series - but they'd be handy devices. Imagine the fight scene on the deflector dish in 'First Contact' if Picard and Worf weren't wearing spacesuits!

The Enterprise is out "beyond the fringe of the galaxy", "mission: star charting".

The science is not strong in this episode: we have a star with negative mass, which attracts the Enterprise more strongly, whereas negative mass should actually repel other mass; there's a reference to a civilisation which existed three hundred millions years ago, "before life existed on Earth", when life has has existed on Earth for billions of years (maybe Kirk meant before Human life...?).

However, it takes good advantage of the new medium of animation: there's an alien ship unlike any we've seen before (and unlike most we've seen since); there's a three-armed crewman of a new species at the navigation console on the bridge.

Yesteryear (1x02)

Production number: 22003

Summary: "Spock travels back in time to prevent his own demise during his youth on Vulcan."

Rating: Engage!

Points of interest:

This episode was written by Dorothy (D.C.) Fontana, who was story editor during the first two seasons of the original series. She wrote a few classic episodes, including 'Journey to Babel', which 'Yesteryear' builds on.

This episode contains a number of firsts:

• It's the first time we see the planet of Vulcan (what we saw in 'Amok Time' was just one ceremonial arena).
• It's the first time we see that great big round non-moon object in Vulcan's sky. (It seems that both Gene Roddenberry and D.C. Fontana wrote "NO MOON!" on the preliminary sketches they were shown... and were ignored.)
• It's the first time we see a sehlat.
• And... more importantly, it's the first time that anyone acknowledges that Vulcans do actually have emotions. Until this time, it's been assumed or implied, at best.

It's interesting to note that Spock, despite the stereotype that Vulcans can't lie, does actively lie about his identity in the past: he tells his father that's he's a cousin, and his name is Selek.

It's a great episode, and essential viewing for any Star Trek fan.

A weekly episode discussion about this episode in /r/StarTrek.

One of Our Planets is Missing (1x03)

Production number: 22007

Summary: "The Enterprise crew learns that a massive, planet-destroying cloud has entered Federation space."

Rating: Just for fun

Points of interest:

This was actually the first animated episode produced; the standard episode order is based on the order the episodes aired.

This is the first time that Lieutenant Arex speaks - he's the three-armed, three-legged Edosian who sits at Navigation in Chekov's place.

The Enterprise gets swallowed by the planet-eating cloud, and Captain Kirk has to decide whether to kill a possibly intelligent being to save a planet of over eighty million people.

A weekly episode discussion about this episode in /r/StarTrek.

The Lorelei Signal (1x04)

Production number: 22006

Summary: "The Enterprise is drawn to a planet populated solely by women who dominate the male crew members's minds to the point where Uhura must assume command to rescue them."

Rating: Just for fun

Points of interest:

Lieutenant Uhura takes command of the Enterprise for the only time in any series or movie.

Nichelle Nichols voices the Enterprise's computer - probably to prevent Majel Barrett as Nurse Christine Chapel talking to herself as the computer! In fact, because of the high number of female characters, both Nichols and Barrett do a lot of work in this episode (there were no guest stars).

Captain Kirk says "Beam us up, Scotty" in this episode - which is the closest he ever comes to saying the classic phrase "Beam me up, Scotty." (He does say "Beam me up" and "Scotty, beam me up" at other times.)

The writer of this episode, Margaret Armen, also wrote three episodes in the original series, and another animated episode.

More Tribbles, More Troubles (1x05)

Production number: 22001

Summary: "While escorting a shipment of grain to Sherman's Planet, the Enterprise encounters three "old friends:" Koloth, Cyrano Jones - and tribbles!"

Rating: Just for fun

Points of interest:

This was written by the same writer who wrote the original tribbles episode: David Gerrold. Gerrold managed to get himself drawn in as a cameo appearance (he's the unknown Ensign in the transporter room).

Also returning was the actor who played Cyrano Jones (although Koloth was played by James Doohan).

It's a light bit of fun, but it's good fun.

It also has one of my favourite lines of the series, from Scotty to Kirk: "But we've got tribbles on the ship, quintotriticale in the corridors, Klingons in the quadrant... it can ruin your whole day, sir!"

The Survivor (1x06)

Production number: 22005

Summary: "The Enterprise encounters the ship of a noted Federation philanthropist, missing for nearly five years, near the Romulan Neutral Zone."

Rating: meh

Points of interest:

This is the first appearance of Communications Officer Lieutenant M'Ress, a female Caitian (she's a feline humanoid). She is voiced by Majel Barrett.

And, while Uhura doesn't say or do anything in this episode (her function is filled by M'Ress), Nichelle Nichols voices the guest female role of Security Officer Lieutenant Anne Nored. Quite confusing!

I was a little disappointed that they used the Klingon Birds-of-Prey for the Romulans rather than the Romulans' own Warbirds.

The Infinite Vulcan (1x07)

Production number: 22002

Summary: "A species of intelligent plants, led by a clone of a Eugenics Wars-era scientist, clones Spock with the intentions of creating a master race to keep the peace."

Rating: Engage!

Points of interest:

This is the only Star Trek episode ever written by a main cast member: Walter Koenig. Even though Keonig wasn't included as one of the voice actors in this series due to budget constraints, he was still asked to contribute a script (Gene Roddenberry had seen another screenplay that Koenig was working on, and was impressed). Keonig auditioned to voice the guest character role, but was rejected (this character, like many many other guests characters in the series, was voiced by James Doohan). Koenig still managed to write himself into the show in a subtle way: the plant that Sulu discovers is called a "retlaw", which is "Walter" spelled backwards.

Captain Kirk says "Beam us up, Scotty" again in this episode: the second and last time he says this phrase. (See also 'The Loelei Signal'.)

We meet another refugee from the Eugenics Wars - one of the genetic scientists.

This episode includes only the second reference to the Vulcan IDIC.

And... we see Spock do a "Vulcan mind-touch" with himself!

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Kraetos' guide to Star Trek

You know. 1966? 79 episodes, about 30 good ones.

- Phillip J. Fry

Ah, The Original Series. Where it all started. The show was tragically cancelled after three seasons, but on the other hand, it's easy to see why: the show missed more than it hit.

This guide has two sections:

• Complete guide. This is a list of all the episodes, sorted by production order with a quick description and it's rating, on a simple four tier scale: Engage, Just for Fun, meh, and Avoid.
• "30 good ones." If we take Fry's comment as gospel, which thirty episodes comprise the "good ones?"

Complete Guide

Season 1

Season 2