There are two main highlights from this year for Voyager: Timeless and Bride of Chaotica! Both were up there with the best that Star Trek has ever done, although with quite different tones. Chaotica might be one of the best ‘light’ episodes ever in any series. There were a few other fairly good episodes – Infinite Regress, Gravity and Counterpoint, for instance. And there are only a couple of excursions into the awful: The Disease and Nothing Human.
But while DS9 is trying its hardest to do new things with its finale, DS9 is firmly stuck in mediocre territory. The vast majority of this season can be summarised in a single word: ‘meh’. More and more stories are feeling recycled (particularly Warhead), and we aren’t seeing much interesting being done with character development.
A quick word on Seven of Nine – she appears to have a big character development moment in Dark Frontier. But then watching Think Tank or Someone To Watch Over Me there’s been a reset button, and none of that development shows up. After a few rounds of this it begins to detract from the interest I have in those episodes.
So where are we overall? Frankly, back to the kind of territory from Season 1 of Voyager, a big move back from the previous season. It’s just slightly behind DS9’s first season, mainly on the ‘strength’ of the misses.
That brings the rankings to:
The very best of Trek:
– TNG Season 6
– DS9 Season 2
Strong performers:
– DS9 Season 5
– TNG Season 3
– TNG Season 5
– TOS Season 2
– TNG Season 4
– VOY Season 4
Mixed bag:
– TOS Season 1
– DS9 Season 4
– DS9 Season 1
– VOY Season 5
– VOY Season 1
– TNG Season 7
Not good:
– DS9 Season 3
– DS9 Season 6
– VOY Season 3
– TNG Season 2
– TAS Season 1
– VOY Season 2
– TOS Season 3
– TAS Season 2
– TNG Season 1
Now to finish Deep Space 9.