This site sponsored by deficit spending| Episode | Description |
|---|---|
| [***] Night | [Season Premiere] Captain Janeway joins forces with Woodsy the Owl to battle eco-terrorists. |
| [****] Drone | Seven of Nine makes Mama Kate a proud grandma. Troublesome in-laws. |
| [***1/2] Extreme Risk | B'Elanna enrolls in the school of hard knocks. Paris plays Buzz Aldrin. Cool new toy. |
| [****] In The Flesh | Chakotay dates outside his species. |
| [***1/2] Once Upon a Time | The Delta Flyer crashes, testing Neelix's babysitting skills. Sesame Street in Space. |
| [****] Timeless | EPISODE 100: Harry doesn't die. But everyone else does. |
| [***] Infinite Regress | Seven of Nine gets a nasty case of Assimilation Flu. |
| [***1/2] Nothing Human | Doc teams up with a Cardassian Mengele when Torres gets bugged. |
| [***1/2] Thirty Days | Tom Paris goes from Champ to Chump. |
| [***] Counterpoint | Janeway uses sex as a weapon for a good cause. |
| [***] Latent Image | Janeway lobotomizes Doc--for a good reason? Harry almost dies. |
| [****] The Bride of Chaotica! | Episode supplies its own exclamation point. Hilarity ensues. |
| [***1/2] Gravity | Tank Girl hits on Tuvok |
| [**] Bliss | "This wormhole will take us all the way home! And this letter from Starfleet says I may already be a winner! It's like a dream come true!" |
| [****] Dark Frontier | Seven has three mommies. Two battle for custody. Daddy drones on. |
| [***] The Disease | An alien babe lights up Harry Kim's life. And a few other things. |
| [***] Course: Oblivion | Tom and B'Elanna's honeymoon is interrupted when Voyager begins to melt like butter in a blast furnace. |
| [***] Course: Oblivion | Guest Review by Heather Jarman (we knew her before she was famous) |
| [**1/2] The Fight | Chakotay combines Chaos Theory with the Sweet Science, with Boothby in his corner. |
| [**1/2] Think Tank | Seven of Nine is recruited by Delta Quadrant MENSA, and hit on by George Costanza. |
| [***] Juggernaut | B'Elanna has to battle her own inner demons--and an alien monster--and still find time to stop an industrial catastrophe. (Includes bonus analysis by Heather Jarman) |
| [****] Someone to Watch Over Me | Seven of Nine's first date. Neelix chaperones an alien ambassador. Doc gets gooshy. Hilarity ensues. |
| [****] 11:59 | Janeway discovers that one of her ancestors wasn't everything she'd been led to believe. An extended look at Shannon O'Donnell Janeway at the dawn of the third millennium. |
| [**1/2] Relativity | Seven dies, Voyager blows up, everyone lives happily ever after. (Yes, really.) Braxton makes a comeback. |
| [***1/2] Warhead | War takes its toll on people--but does anyone ask how the bombs feel? |
| [***] Equinox, Part I | [Season Finale] Voyager encounters another Starfleet ship--and the enemy it's picked up along the way. |
September 1998 to May 1999
I was slightly distracted through the early parts of this season, what with the Home Run Derby between Mark McGwire and Sammy Sosa, and...there was something else going on in Fall 1998/Winter 1999, but it escapes me now. Something to do with a beret. Ah well, it'll come back to me.
Season Five was the first of Brannon Braga's two seasons at Voyager's helm. Brannon has long been a controversy magnet, but I enjoyed this season overall. His experimentation with high concept plots was joined with character development I found plausible. Previous seasons suffered from a bit of "too many cooks" yanking characters (Janeway in particular) around like a schizophrenic puppet show. Things were calmer this time around, though Brannon stirred the pot plenty.
Some taboos were broken. Well, more than some. Lots of "what the...?" moments. Some liked. Some hated. (Mulgrew in the arms of anyone not named Beltran? "Battlestations!")
But...I enjoyed it. Much fun, and much red meat to gnaw on.