Star Trek Voyager Season 6 is the sixth season of the fourth live-action Star Trek television series. Captain Kathryn Janeway (played by Kate Mulgrew) continues to lead her crew through the dangers and wonders of the Delta Quadrant as they get closer to Earth.

The season begins with the second part of a cliffhanger from Season 5, “Equinox”, in which they find out the Federation starship Equinox has been using power generated from an alien lifeform to increase their speed so they can more quickly get back home. Janeway refuses to allow the crew of the Equinox to continue killing aliens just to get home more quickly. This episode is important, because the themes discussed in it come into play in the final episode of the series at the end of season 7.

In “Pathfinder”, we return to the life of Reginald Barclay, a recurring character from Star Trek – The Next Generation, who is working on a project which could allow them contact with Voyager through a wormhole. Barclay is a fun character, and it was good to see him (and Deanna Troi) again. Tom Paris’ father, Admiral Paris, plays an important role in the episode, and communications—albeit spotty communications—are established, allowing the crew of Voyager to contact friends and family all throughout Star Trek Voyager Season 6 and into season 7. I really enjoyed this episode.

Captain Janeway’s motherly side came to the fore in “Good Shepherd”, in which she takes three under-performing crewmembers with her on a brief away mission, only to have it turn into something completely different. I enjoyed the interplay between the characters as they struggled to survive the monster-of-the-week, and I really enjoyed how Janeway tried to help each crewmember discover their strengths and learn to contribute more productively to the crew as a whole.

B’Elanna gets a little more screen time in “Muse” after she and Harry Kim are stranded on a pre-warp planet, but stranded hundreds of kilometers away from each other. One of the locals, a playwright, discovers an injured B’Elanna and bargains for stories in return for supplies. While the overall storyline wasn’t anything special, I thought this episode of Star Trek Voyager Season 6 did a great job exploring inspiration and gave Kellie Waymire a chance to really shine in her role as B’Elanna. The way the episode ends was great fun.

Two episodes featuring Seven of Nine really stood out. In “Survival”, freedom of choice and the value of freedom were discussed. Seven helps three former unimatrix members to discover their individuality and to value it. This theme comes to the fore again in the season finale, “Unimatrix Zero”, where Seven discovers hundreds of drones have discovered a way to communicate and interact with each other outside of the regular Borg Collective, and the Queen is not amused. I thought this was one of the stronger season-ending cliffhanger episodes. It allowed Seven to discover and confront her own humanity, something she was unwilling to do up to this point.

Star Trek Voyager Season 6 was a much stronger season than any of the previous seasons. The stories in each episode were stronger, and the characters were much more settled into their roles (they should be, after 5 years together before this season). If the previous five seasons had been as strong as this one, the series may have lasted even longer. This was not to be, however, as the final season will be reviewed next.

Original Air Dates: January 16 – May 22, 1995 (USA)
TV Parental Guidelines Rating: TV-PG
Network: UPN (United Paramount Network)
Language: English

MySF Rating: Four point zero stars
Family Friendliness: 90%

Content:

Alcohol/Drugs: 1 (some social drinking)
Language: 1 (occasional minor and deity)
Nudity: 0
Sexuality: 1 (implied sex, some romantic relationships)
Violence: 2 (regular science fiction fighting, space battles, deaths, nothing graphic)

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