KEITH W. CUNNINGHAM

I really didn’t like Star Trek: Voyager, so this list is difficult for me.  I’ll try to keep this brief.

NUMBER TEN

The Killing Game
Written by Brannon Braga and Joe Menosky

Wikipedia Says: The Hirogen implant devices into the crew making them believe they are characters within the holodecks being used for hunts.

Keith Says: Alien Nazis. ‘Nuff said.

NUMBER NINE

Flashback
Written by Brannon Braga

Wikipedia Says: Tuvok experiences brain-damaging flashbacks to his service on the Excelsior.

Keith Says: This episode deserves mentioning because of it’s connections to Star Trek 6 and the guest appearances by Sulu, Rand, and Kang.

NUMBER EIGHT

The Thaw
Written by Richard Gadas and Joe Menosky

Wikipedia Says: The crew find aliens mentally connected to a computer that has created a being that feeds on their fear.

Keith Says: Michael McKean steals the show in this episode as The Clown, the living (or virtual) embodiment of fear. “Drat,” indeed.

NUMBER SEVEN

Mortal Coil
Written by Bryan Fuller

Wikipedia Says: Neelix dies in an attempt to sample proto-matter from a nebula. Seven of Nine believes she can revive him using Borg nanoprobes, but Neelix finds it hard to adjust, particularly given that he has no memory of an afterlife of any kind.

Keith Says: Star Trek rarely, if ever, dips its toe into matters of faith – which in a show about alien cultures seems surprising. That they did here, and with a crisis of faith no less, was a nice change of pace.

NUMBER SIX

Warhead
Written by Michael Taylor, Kenneth Biller and Brannon Braga

Wikipedia Says: The crew rescue a device with artificial intelligence embedded in rock, but it then proceeds to take control of The Doctor and reveals itself to be a weapon of mass destruction.

Keith Says: Are we only what we are made to be? Or are we what we choose? It’s a question for men as much as it is AI.

NUMBER FIVE

Caretaker
Written by Michael Piller & Jeri Taylor

Wikipedia Says: On a mission to the Badlands, the USS Voyager, along with a Maquis ship, is stranded in the Delta Quadrant, over 70,000 light-years from home by an incredibly powerful being known as “Caretaker.”

Keith Says: This pilot showed a lot more promise for the series than it delivered. The idea that you could be in an area of space where resources were tight and even water was a precious commodity was interesting. They quickly abandoned this though. The other good thing about the episode was that it presented a genuine moral quandry.

NUMBER FOUR

Revulsion
Written by Lisa Klink

Wikipedia Says: A hologram contacts Voyager and the Doctor is excited to meet another hologram.

Keith Says: Another episode that is stolen by its guest star. This time it’s Leland Orser as a hologram responsible for the murder of his crew – the organic lifeforms he has grown to hate.

NUMBER THREE

Meld
Written by Michael Sussman and Michael Piller

Wikipedia Says: In order to quell the temper of a Voyager crew member, Tuvok performs a mind-meld.

Keith Says: Oh how little Wikipedia says! This episode introduced Suder (Brad Dourif), the murdering sociopath member of the crew. He was the most interesting character on the show despite only being in two episodes.

NUMBER TWO

Year of Hell
Written by Brannon Braga and Joe Menosky

Wikipedia Says: Voyager creates a new Astrometrics Lab, which maps a new course that brings them into contact with a Krenim temporal ship that can erase things from history.

Keith Says: Why, oh why, did they hit the big temporal reset button at the end of this! This episode had the appropriate consequences and desperation that you would imagine would really happen in the situation that Voyager was in. Really, this should have been what the entire show was like.

NUMBER ONE

Death Wish
Written by Michael Piller

Wikipedia Says: The crew encounter a member of the Q Continuum seeking to end his immortal life.

Keith Says: Now this is what makes a Star Trek episode, a solid thought-provoking tale of moral judgment. The question raised here is that of a person’s right to determine the time and manner of their own death, or in this case, an immortal beings right to determine whether or not they can die at all.

Next Up: Enterprise