Star Trek: Voyager Reviews Q

This is one of my posts where I “review” Star Trek episodes. I will be giving each one a star rating. I sometimes will make some comments about non-political parts of them that I like or don’t like. I’ll sometimes use the issues raised in the episode to discuss similar issues in real life. And I will sometimes simply high-light the progressive politics of ST. ST is in-line with the three original themes of this blog, as I explain in the first ST post where I offer some general thoughts about ST.

I’m not very familiar with The Original Series and there might be some small amount of material there that would affect what I say about Star Trek (i.e. how often religion is mentioned)

Lastly. multi-culturalism is such a pervasive theme in ST that I only comment on it when it goes beyond the norm (i.e. inter-species partners).

There are several episodes in VOY that involve the question of whether or not holograms are alive, and/or feature conflict between holograms and organic beings. I’m going to ignore that part of VOY, it’s a bit too philosophical, and comparing the maltreatment of holograms to the maltreatment of, for example, Black people, seems stupid. Although I kind of make an exception for The Doctor (it’s impossible to be a fan of ST and not do that) I lean towards saying that holograms are not life forms, but I don’t feel like going into it.

“Revulsion” See this for a plot summary.

A non-political episode. I give this episode two stars out of five.

“The Raven” See this for a plot summary.

A non-political episode. I give it three stars out of five.

“Scientific Method” See this for a plot summary.

This is basically about doing laboratory tests on animals. I give it three stars out five.

“Year of Hell” parts 1 and 2. See this and this for a plot summary.

A non-political two parter. But, like most-all two-parters, very good. I give it four stars out of five.

“Random Thoughts” See this for a plot summary.

1. The idea of punishing people for certain thoughts is ridiculous, even in a telepathic society. (some might say that’s an argument against hate crime laws but hate crimes go beyond thought to action and hate crimes are more dehumanizing and terroristic to the victims and their communities than ordinary crimes are).

2. I think that messing with someone’s memories is probably not a good idea, although I suppose it’s possible it could be done without any damage. It seems like a bad punishment for crime.

I give this episode two stars out of five.


“Concerning Flight” See this for a plot summary.

A non-political episode. I give it two stars out of five.

“Mortal Coil” See this for a plot summary.

This episode, more so than some others, raises the issue of religion. It has been raised before in relation to some kind of American Indian religion practiced by Chakotay, although as far as I can tell they’ve left it unclear exactly which nation indigenous to the western Hemisphere Chakotay is from. But it does seem like pretty much the first time “Old Earth” religions have been practiced by people who are more or less Federation, and I appreciate it as it erodes the idea in ST that jettisoning religion is part of human progress.

Anyway, I give the episode two stars out of five.