Star Trek Voyager Season 7 is the seventh and final season of the fourth live-action Star Trek television series. It is, by far, my favorite season. Kathryn Janeway (played by Kate Mulgrew) continues to lead her crew toward the Alpha Quadrant and home.
“Unimatrix Zero” picks up right where it left off in season six. The self-aware drones have to destroy their unconscious playground in order to prevent the Queen from destroying all of them. I though this was one of the strongest episodes in Star Trek Voyager Season 7, and really brought a depth of character to the Borg that had been missing in all the previous encounters with them.
While the message is presented rather heavy-handedly, I enjoyed Robert Picardo as the Doctor in “Critical Condition” (he is one of my favorite characters in this series). I loved how he found ways to work within the system but also fight it at the same time. The pacing in this episode was quite effective, too. The Doctor really shone in this episode.
The Hirogen return in the two-part “Flesh and Blood”. The holographic tech given to them by the crew of Voyager has been modified to remove the safeties and make the holographic opponents more deadly, as the Hirogen like a strong challenge. I liked how the episode explored the definition of life, and whether programmed beings could be considered alive if they have exceeded their programming. This was a very strong episode (or two episodes, depending on how you look at it).
With recent discussion of exploration craft such as New Horizons and the Voyager probes, the episode “Friendship One” is especially relevant today. How would an alien race react to one of our probes arriving in their star system? How would the information and technology contained in the probe be used? I found this episode to clearly show how people react to change and potential change.
The last episode in Star Trek Voyager Season 7, “Endgame”, was both good and bad at the same time. The new Borg-proof technology shown in the episode was interesting, finally giving Voyager the upper hand they so desperately needed. However, I was frustrated by how Janeway goes against everything she’s preached during the entire series by using information from the future to help Voyager get home more quickly. I almost threw up my hands in disgust because of it.
While Star Trek Voyager Season 7 was my favorite season, I thought the writers cheated by ending things the way they did. Changing the attitudes of the main characters at the end just to get them home was not only obnoxious, but a cop-out. This season could have easily been better had they stuck to their guns and let Janeway keep her morals. Instead of ending with a bang, the finale was hollow.
Original Air Dates: October 4, 2000 – May 23, 2001 (USA)
TV Parental Guidelines Rating: TV-PG
Network: UPN (United Paramount Network)
Language: English
MySF Rating: Three point five stars
Family Friendliness: 90%
Alcohol/Drugs: 1 (some social drinking)
Language: 1 (occasional minor and deity)
Nudity: 1 (see one character’s bare back, implying full nudity)
Sexuality: 1 (implied sex, some romantic relationships)
Violence: 2 (regular science fiction fighting, space battles, deaths, nothing graphic)
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