Your top 10 favorite Voyager episodes?

[You_Will_Fail]

I haven't seen a thread like this around in a while and I always like them! So I thought we should all take a break from arguing over what was wrong with Voyager and look at its high points.

So mine are as follows

1. Barge of the Dead
I think Voyager did "death" stories fantastically well - "Mortal Coil", "Emanations", "Once Upon a Time" and this absolute gem. The whole concept was amazing and elevated only further by great acting by Roxann Dawson, beautiful production design and a nice return of the Janeway-B'Ellana relationship.

2. Before and After
Its not necessarily the 2nd best written or genius episode of the show but it really provides me with what I want from an episode. A fun concept, a lot to see, an arresting central character and performance and a nice ending to wrap it all up.

3. Dark Frontier
The 2nd half falls off a bit from the 1st half but overall I think this 2 parter is a thing of beauty. The Hansen flashbacks filled with pathos and imminent tragedy make this one episode that never fails to tug at my heartstrings. Its all downhill from here Borg episode wise.

4. Blink of an Eye
Concept, concept, concept. While DS9 definitely filled the brief when it came to arcs, characterisation and cohesion, Voyager definitely gave me what I wanted when it came to providing stories with fantastic sci-fi concepts and this was one of its best.

5. Muse
Another concept that I adored. Its an unusually reserved Voyager episode with gorgeous set design and another great performance by Dawson. This takes the "crew member mistaken for God" concept a whole step further in a way most wouldn't expect.

6. Prey
Ah, Seven of Nine, how much I loved watching you in Season 4. Basically every second she was on screen in season 4, I couldn't help from saying "I just love this character". Finally we get a voice of dissenting logic aboard Voyager and one of my favorite captain-crewmember interactions of all time in Seven and Janeway's debate ending in Seven saying "You will Fail". Loved it.

7. Author, Author
I don't feel Voyager did comedy very well a lot of the time, episodes like "Bride of Chaotica" and "Spirit Folk" failed in comparison to the DS9 holo-fun stories, but with "Author, Author" we got a ton of laughs and some great development for the Doctor.

8. Tinker, Tenor, Doctor, Spy
Another great comedy episode involving the Doctor taking advantage of the hologram angle.

9. Latent Image
The Doctor sure did get a lot of great episodes didn't he? The idea for this was wonderfully original and shocking at the same time. I appreciated that the mystery unfolded to us at the same time as it did to the doctor.

10. Scorpion
I'd say Part I is really quite a lot stronger than Part II due in part to Jeri Ryan's very unsure performance in Part II. Part I was beautiful though, we finally got Chakotay vs Janeway disagreements, a great new species and a lot of mystery and beautiful visuals.

Honorable mentions
Deadlock - Explosive action, and it always freaks me out to see the Vidiian ordering the other to extract Kes's pelvic ridge, eek.
Once Upon A Time - Understated episode elevated by Phillips's amazing performance.
Lineage - Another understated episode that is emotionally touching and relevant. Dawson wows again.

 

[exodus]

Awesome!
Once Upon a Time gets honorable mention.
It's about time someone else noticed what a great ep. it is due to Ethan Philips.

 

[Fedor]

First, Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays, etc..

Second, this was actually a pretty tough list to make. It is pretty hard to condense my favorites down to only 10 episodes.

Caretaker
Endgame
Year of Hell II
Unimatrix Zero II
Scorpion II
Prey
The Gift
Collective
Fury
Drone

 

[tomalak301]

They change a lot but I'll do Top 10 and then 10 underrated episodes I just want to mention

Top 10

Before and After
Living Witness
Blink of an Eye
Timeless
Memorial
Warlord
Eye of the Needle
State of Flux
Scorpion

Top 10 Underrated (Season Order)

Faces
Dreadnaught
Lifesigns
Blood Fever
Unity
Nemesis
Day of Honor
11:59
Survival Instinct
Lineage

 

[You_Will_Fail]

Caretaker
Endgame
Year of Hell II
Unimatrix Zero II
Scorpion II
Prey
The Gift
Collective
Fury
Drone

Interesting list, you really loved "Fury"??? One of the most hated Voyager/Trek episodes ever? That's quite surprising.
I also didn't like "Endgame" or "Unimatrix Zero" although i must say the second half was still better. Also did you really like "Scorpion Pt II" better than Part I? Most people prefer the first half. Good taste @ "Drone", "Prey", "The Gift" and "Year of Hell" though.
I also feel "Unity", "11:59" and "Lifesigns" are underrated...Blood Fever not so much though!

 

[Anika Hanson]

Not in order:

The Caretaker
Scorpion (1/2)
Faces
Basics (1/2)
Deadlock
Futures end (1/2)
Latent image
Raven
Equinox (1/2)
Endgame

 

[You_Will_Fail]

What do you like so much about Endgame?

 

[Lynx]

My Top 10 favorites:

1. Cold Fire

2. Persistence Of Vision

3. Caretaker

4. Warlord

5. Basics (part 1 and 2)

6. The Swarm

7. Projections

8. Darkling

9. Time And again

10. Before And After

 

[The Caprican]

Here is my top ten:

1. Year of Hell- Janeway's entire character, her drive and determination, her obsession with getting home, is summed up in these episodes. When she rams the Krenim ship, I got goosebumps.

2. State of Flux- If the rest of season one had been this tense, VGR would have been an epic series, not just good.

3. Death Wish- Q's best episode on Voyager. And one of his best ever. He was never more "human" for want of a better term than he was here. And this episode touched on suicide, political asylum, and the will of the state over the individual. Great themes to tackle.

4. Scorpion- We get the Borg, Species 8472, and the first REAL confrontation between Janeway and Chakotay. It was great to see the Maquis playing it safe and the Starfleet Captain who was crazed and reckless.

5. Latent Image- One of the few episodes where we don't play it safe and there are actually some consequences and fallout from Janeway's at-times iron handed decision making. And it was wonderfully acted by Picardo.

6. Thirty Days- I love any ep that messes with the paradigm and doesn't hit the VRB (Voyager reset button) at the end. Janeway invested a lot in her crew, so to see one of them disappoint her, and do it for principled reasons, was great. This episode narrowly beat out Prime Factors, The Disease, and Fair Trade for the same reasons.

7. Living Witness- a great tale of revisionist history in a format that diverged significantly from the usual formula.

8. Gravity- I loved seeing Tuvok's backstory, letting us understand a little bit more about his tendency to be so hard-nosed all the time. And anytime I get to see Lori Petty is just fantastic.

9. Nothing Human- It was wonderful to see the Doctor drop his schtick and really dig into a deeply serious and personal morality play.

10. Macrocosm- OK, so it's not high brow Trek. But Janeway is incredibly BAD ASS (pardon my language) in this episode. That alone makes it top ten worthy for me.

 

[Misco]

My top ten are a little dated, in that I'm doing a rewatch (I've just finished season 3) and am taking the opportunity to reassess the episodes all these years later. However, this is how my top ten currently stands. (Favourite episodes that is, not necessarily the episodes I think are the best qualitatively, although some are.)

1. 11:59 - I love this episode so, so, so much. I've watched it countless times and I've never become tired of it. I'm an unashamed Janeway fan and this is obviously Kate Mulgrew's episode, so I can't pretend to be objective or anything! However, I really like the concept of following Shannon's life at this point of time and discovering the true story behind the legend as it were. I also like how Shannon isn't just 'Kathryn Janeway in the twentieth century', she's obviously a quite different person in a lot of ways. Another interesting point the episode makes is how there is so much less opportunity in the time we live in as opposed to the twenty-fourth century. I like that. All the scenes set on Voyager are good too and I especially like the bit where the whole senior staff are sitting around swapping stories in a really relaxed and friendly way. Just delightful and lovely all round.

2. The Killing Game - This is a funny one because I hate it when Nazis or the Second World War in general are brought into science fiction programmes, especially ones set in the future, but for some reason it just works for me in this episode. All the stuff involving the resistance is just magical, especially the tense moments between Janeway, Tuvok and Seven regarding who should trust whom. The set design is really well done and the explosion blowing out the holodeck wall is always shocking. I really feel the desperation of the Doctor and Harry stuck back in reality and the horror at having to patch the crew/ship back up only for them to be battered again. There are problems; Chakotay/Tom are underused and Janeway's diplomatic solution is dodgy at best but these things pale into insignificance for me overall.

3. Blink of an Eye - A wonderful story that's really emotionally affecting; the last shot of Daniel Dae Kim as an old man looking up at the 'skyship' is beautiful. This is just a great concept; the physics of the planet, the 'skyship friends', the advancement of the civilisation, the Doctor's time undercover. All so subtly done.

4. Death Wish - An almost literary episode, intelligently written and acted, especially by Gerrit Graham (Quinn). The idea of visiting the Q Continuum and the way they portrayed it was almost perfect. I love the ethical debate, I really like Riker's cameo (and I'm not much of a fan of him on TNG) and the insight into both Q and the Continuum itself was very welcome.

5. Barge of the Dead - An excellent character piece for B'Elanna; there was a lot of emotional depth present thoughout without it ever becoming corny or overblown. I liked the parallels drawn between her mother and Janeway and I felt some much needed relationship development/confirmation between B'Elanna and Janeway was portrayed here as well.

6. Year of Hell - I'm reluctant to put this in the list at all, never mind at six, because I hate the copout reset button ending so much. Then again, the episode also provides me with my favourite Voyager moment ever, namely the Tuvok/Janeway embrace near the end and a bunch of other quality moments involving various members of the crew. Again the Chakotay/Tom thread of the episode is one of the weaker parts and the overall time stuff may or may not make sense. These things can't detract from the greatness though.

7. Prey - Notable really for the Janeway and Seven scenes. I just love it when they are at odds with one another, Kate and Jeri act it so perfectly. Janeway's story about being a lieutenant is a lovely touch. And I just plain like Species 8472.

8. The Q and the Grey - Hee! Most avowedly not a fan favourite from what I can tell. What can I say? I just love those Q Continuum episodes! I think the Civil War setting works really well and both strands of the story are fun and engaging. I always find Q and Janeway a joy to watch; this may be blasphemy but I think they work better together than Q and Picard do. The female Q is acerbically amusing and I also like that we get to see some proper fallout from Quinn's suicide. Lastly, I love how resourceful and brave Janeway is in this episode, despite being completely out of her element.

9. Counterpoint - I haven't seen this in a while but I like the gameplaying Janeway and Kashyk engage in. (The one off guest character who spawned a thousand fanfics!) The music is good. I also like how Janeway's victory isn't revealed until very late on. The ambiguity of Kashyk is also interesting; the viewer is left to make up their own mind about him/his motives to some extent.

10. Dark Frontier - I feel like I'm cheating by putting so many two-parters! I like this one because it works as one of those 'two hour movie events' the Trek promos used to go on about. It's big, action-filled, occasionally emotional, the Borg are used well (mostly) and again the Seven and Janeway relationship is explored rather heavily. Just good all round Trek.

 

[JiNX-01]

1. Death Wish
2. Real Life
3. Scorpion I&II
4. Drone
5. Bride of Chaotica!
6. Someone to Watch Over Me
7. Tinker, Tenor, Doctor, Spy
8. Body and Soul
9. Pathfinder
10. Life Line

 

[Killandra]

I must be the only one who didn't care for Caretaker. I thought the whole country bumpkin scene was ridiculous.

My top ten:

1. Dark Frontier
2. Drone
3. Barge of the Dead
4. Prey
5. Someone to Watch Over Me
6. Equinox
7. Good Shepherd
8. Faces
9. Imperfection
10. Warlord

 

[Killandra]

1. Death Wish
2. Real Life
3. Scorpion I&II
4. Drone
5. Bride of Chaotica!
6. Someone to Watch Over Me
7. Tinker, Tenor, Doctor, Spy
8. Body and Soul
9. Pathfinder
10. Life Line

I love Bride of Chaotica! Somehow I forgot it on my list, but it would've been near the top!

 

[Admiral Shran]

10.) Infinite Regress
A good Seven episode where Jeri Ryan really shows off her acting talents.

9.) Message in a Bottle
A good comedy episode that has a lot of other things going for it - like the introduction of the Hirogen (VOY's best original villain), Romulans and the fact that Starfleet finally learns of Voyager's plight.

8.) Memorial
I really like that the episode focuses on the four LEAST used characters of the show (Chakotay, Kim, Neelix and Paris) and gives them some real meat to sink their teeth into. And the scene where Neelix tries to protect Naomi from his hallucinations gets my heartstrings every time.

7.) Imperfection
Jeri Ryan and Manu Intiraymi hit a home run in this one. For everyone who says that Seven's only contribution to the show were her breasts - yeah, watch this one and "Infinite Regress" and then tell me that.

6.) Mortal Coil
Neelix - he's a mystery to me. When he's just a background or side character, he grates on my nerves like you would not believe. There's a reason he's my least favorite Trek character ever. But, when an episode actually focused on him, he was not only not grating but actually really good.

5.) Faces
A great B'Elanna episode. Dawson often stepped up to the plate when an episode actually focused on her and this is hands down her best.

4.) Meld
Tim Russ and Brad Dourif really hit it out of the park, acting wise, in this one. And the fact that the episode immediately before it was "Threshold" is simply mind-blowing.

3.) The Omega Directive
I love how this episode, along with "In the Pale Moonlight" and "Inquisition" over on DS9, helped move Trek away from the dewy-eyed optimism of TNG, especially early TNG. The fact that these three episodes originally aired within two weeks of each other is amazing!

2.) Scorpion, Parts I and II
An excellent reintroduction for the Borg, even if "Unity" first showcased them on VOY. Species 8472 were equally impressive. It was an very good action Trek piece. Janeway/Chakotay rivalry - FINALLY! And, of course, the introduction of Seven. Part Two is a little less grand, but it's not as much of a letdown as "Best of Both Worlds, Part II", IMHO.

1.) Good Shepherd
Love, love, love the guest characters - all three of them. Harren offers an actual counterpoint to the Starfleet lifestyle, which is what the Maquis were supposed to do. Telfer's anxiety is probably how I would be in his situation. And Tal Celes is probably my favorite one/two shot character of the whole franchise. Not only is she one the most attractive women I've ever seen, but her social inabilities and inferiority complex really make her seem like a real person to me (I actually see a lot of myself in her).

Honorable Mentions:
Phage
Blood Fever
Prey
Once Upon a Time
Concerning Flight

 

[zzzzzaz]

I saw the original tv shows of all these series and also repeatedly have seen dvds of all of them.
Star Trek ,The next generation, Deep space nine and the Voyager.
I began DS9 again few days ago.
To me Voyager is the best of all of them.
Barring a small fraction of the episodes all others are good.
My random top 10.
Course: Oblivion
Barge of the Dead
Drive
The Thaw
Resolutions
Someone to Watch Over Me
Life Line
The Killing Game
Sacred Ground
Scientific Method

 

[MacLeod]

This thread should prove interesting, I suspect we might see a wider difference than say Top 10 TOS episodes.

But in no particular order

The Void
Real Life
Unforgettable
Living Witness
Timeless
Counterpoint
Latent Image
Ashes to Ashes
Pathfinder
Blink of an Eye

Special Mention

The Thaw

 

[Ghislaine H. B. BRAEME]

- Caretaker = Voyager's premiere
- Endgame = Voyager's finale
- Equinox = Janeway's vs Ransom's principles (no matter that they were right or wrong)
- Unimatrix Zero = Seven's sense of "déjà vu" ("we're not alone")
- Scorpion = introduction of Seven of Nine
- Prey = the only time where we see Borgs being afraid of a specie, which is superior to them
- Counterpoint = Janeway/Krashyk's con game from one to the other
- One = Seven's strong "motherhood" feeling / One's sense of sacrifice
- The Omega Directive = Borg's meaning of perfection / one of the only time where Janeway's action is directly led by Starfleet's orders.
- 11:59 = one of the rare episode about Janeway's family (I'm happy to see that I wasn't alone to like this episode! )

 

[Six of Twelve]

1. Scorpion - Introduction to Seven of Nine, unique way of dealing with the Borg

2. Unity - Introduction to the Borg in the DQ, De-assimilated Borg who end up helping Voyager

3. Collective - Borg kids!

4. Homestead - Touching goodbye to Neelix

5. The Omega Directive - Seven gets to have 3.2 second of perfection

6. Dark Frontier - We learn about Seven's pre-assimilation life. Only thing was I wish they could have rescued her father at the end.

7. Unimatrix 0 - Interesting to see Voyager crew members assimilated

8. Survival Instinct - Learn more about Seven's life as a Borg

9. Shattered - revisiting different seasons of Voyager, time travel

10. Prophecy - Interesting Klingon episode.

Honorable Mention

Jetrel
the 37s
Tuvix
Drone
Someone to Watch Over Me
Ashes to Ashes
Child’s Play
Good Shepherd
Imperfection
Workforce
Endgame
In the Flesh

 

[Sophie74656]

Just 10...that's hard Unsurprisingly they will all be B'Elanna episodes for me.

Prophecy
Lineage
Drive
Muse
Barge of the Dead
Juggernaut
Extreme Risk
Blood Fever
Day of Honor
Bride of Chaotica

 

[Qonundrum]

In no order:

Scorpion
Living Witness
Blink of an Eye
Timeless
Hope and Fear
Thirty Days
Drone
Tuvix / The Void (tie)
Year of Hell
Pathfinder