Star Trek Voyager Season 3 is the third season of the fourth live-action Star Trek television series. It features Captain Kathryn Janeway (played by Kate Mulgrew) as she leads her crew through the Delta Quadrant, 70,000 light years from Earth, where they were pulled by an alien looking for a mate.

The episodes which stood out to me this season include “Remember”, the two-part “Future’s End”, “The Q and the Grey”, “Unity”, and “Scorpion” part 1. In “Remember”, B’Elanna Torres (played by Roxann Dawson) finds herself the recipient of a telepathic projection in which she lives through some of the experiences of an alien race. I thought the episode did an excellent job exploring the implications of trying to cover up the past misdeeds of a society, and how it can poison the minds of those trying to ignore the past.

The two-part episode “Future’s End” explored time travel and the wisdom of assuming too much with too little evidence. I really enjoyed the guest characters portrayed by Sarah Silverman and Ed Begley, Jr. I thought they brought a seriousness and cohesiveness to the episode which had generally been lacking in the series up until now. I think this was one of the major turning points of the series, and made Star Trek Voyager Season 3 much stronger than it would have been otherwise.

We see the return of Q to the series in “The Q and the Grey”. I found this episode to really bring a humanity and gritty realness to the Q Continuum, whereas previously they had been simply the bored god-children of the galaxy. I thought Mulgrew and John de Lancie (as Q) played off each other very well and helped the characters come to a better understanding of each other. This was a very solid episode.

In the Star Trek Voyager Season 3 episode “Unity”, a group of Borg are discovered, though they have been severed from the collective and are living as individuals. The concepts of free will and the needs of the many were explored in an interesting fashion, which left me thinking at the end of the episode. If the only way to protect a group of people is to take away their freedom of choice, should we do it? This is something I think everyone should consider, especially in today’s world. I thought this episode, along with “Remember”, were the most serious and thought-provoking episodes this season.

It was inevitable that we would eventually run into the main Borg collective, since they are from the Delta Quadrant. In “Scorpion” part 1, we do. We also encounter an alien race which terrifies the Borg, and which is intent on destroying everything outside of their space. Species 8472 ends up destroying a Borg planet, and Janeway has to make a hard decision on how to save her crew. While not a deep episode, this one was exciting all the way through and set the stage for the even-better fourth season

The rest of the episodes in Star Trek Voyager Season 3 were either average or not quite as good as the ones I mention above. I was happy to see the (mostly) end of Seska and the Kazon, as I was really getting tired of them. They were not interesting villains, and Seska was just not a good character. The cast really began to hit their stride in this season, which left me wanting to continue my marathon of watching this series completely.

Original Air Dates: September 4, 1996 – May 21, 1997 (USA)
TV Parental Guidelines Rating: TV-PG
Network: UPN (United Paramount Network)
Language: English

MySF Rating: Three point five 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, making out)
Violence: 2 (regular science fiction fighting, space battles, deaths, nothing graphic)

Buy this: