Trekathon Season Review: Voyager, Season 4
October 17th, 2012Sometimes retooling works.
This season sees some big changes in the setup of the show. Kes was replaced by Seven of Nine. And then Seven of Nine got a lot of screen time – she was the main plot driver in 7 episodes, had the B-plot in another handful, and played a significant role in the plot of another seven. That’s well ahead of anyone else on the ship except Janeway.
So that was pretty high risk – it’s a fundamentally new factor being added into the show’s equation. It paid off. Seven is an interesting character, and the performance is good. She’s supported several interesting stories. But I do have a concern – she keeps getting character development, then she drops back to where she was for the start of the next episode.
There were still a handful of bad episodes (Mortal Coil, Hunters, Retrospect, Unforgettable). But these were handily matched by the very good (Nemesis, Message in a Bottle, One) and excellent (Year of Hell (well, part 2 at least), The Killing Game, Living Witness). Overall this is definitely in the ‘Strong Performers’ bracket, just behind TNG Season 4.
So the overall rankings are now:
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 2
DS9 Season 1
VOY Season 1
TNG Season 7
Not good:
DS9 Season 3
VOY Season 3
TNG Season 2
TAS Season 1
VOY Season 2
TOS Season 3
TAS Season 2
TNG Season 1