Star Trek Voyager - The Complete Fourth Season

Rating:
Summary: Even the Borg cannot save this show
Review: During Voyager's hiatus, rumors circulated that Jennifer Lien was being let go, two years before her contract was up. The official story was the writers were having difficulty nailing Kes' character down, plus they seemed inhibited by her nine-year life cycle. Unofficially, her departure was due to adding on a new character. Like Michael Dorn, who was brought in to bring up DS9's ratings, they hired Jeri Ryan, late of NBC's very little seen Dark Skies, to play a female Borg to be rescued by Janeway. Getting rid of Kes was the less of many evils. Since the series had begun, she was one of the most consistently underused characters, and was becoming Voyager's version of Troi from TNG -either missing from episodes altogether or there, but with only a few lines. Jeri Ryan is a very beautiful, full figured woman. And put into a clingy cat suit, she would be the eye candy for the 18-35 year old males, one of the most sought after groups by advertisers. Rating were bound to go up, was the theory. Plus, Seven would now take over for B'Elanna's role as the daughter to the Janeway as mother analogy. And for a bit, the ratings were in an upswing. But the more things change, as the saying goes, the more it remains the same. The stories continued to be problematic. Some stories had good ideas like Day of Honor, Nemesis and Revulsion, but were executed in the silliest way. In particular, Revulsion, while a good concept and exceptional performances from Dawson and Picardo and guest star Leland Orser, but you had to be a complete idiot not to guess that Orser's character was loopy. It's this stuff; this meaningless that angered many fans. Year of Hell, perhaps, was the highlight of the season, a complex two-parter that had the crew up against a real threat, though as the show unfolds, you really discover that the character of Annorax is not evil. Like the Vidiians, his only crime is what he does in the undertaking of his goal. With both the Vidiians and the Kazon now 10 years behind them (see The Gift) and Species 8472 temporarily not around, a new enemy was introduced. The Hirogen were quietly introduced in Message in a Bottle, after Seven discovers a network of relay stations that lead to the Alpha Quadrant (and who built them is never really explained, as it certainly was not the Hirogen). The Doctor spends sometime on the Prometheus, an experimental Starfleet ship taken over by the Romulans. It was a witty script and it gave the Doctor a chance to tell Starfleet of their situation, thusly ensuing they would begin thinking of ways to save the stranded starship (its called foreshadowing, kids). Meanwhile, the Hirogen were barley seen in the next episode called Hunters, though with a title like that you kind of expected too, but they became the B story, as the main focus of the episode appeared to be reactions to the letters the crew was getting. Prey was next, and we learn more about them. They are a species that hunts other intelligent species for their skulls. They have no homeworld, with their entire culture based on the hunt. They would pop up again a few episodes later, in the uneven two-parter, The Killing Game. Somehow, though it never is clearly explained, they have taken over Voyager and are using the crew on the holodecks. The Hirogen's have chosen World War II scenario as they try to figure out the humans (though you would think the Borg attack at Wolfe 359 would be a better choice). In the end, it is discovered that the Alpha Hirogen fears that they have spread themselves to thin, and if they don't learn to adapt to new aliens, they will be defeated. And while the story is pure escapism, it also features one of Janeway's and the series, greatest blunders. After all is resolved, she actually gives the Hirogen's holodeck technology. This was just another blatant misuse of the Prime Directive to fit the plot. Further evidence that under Braga's leadership, Trek was becoming his show, filled with his ideas and be damned continuity and logic. And despite the claim by Paramount that ratings had improved since Jeri Ryan's arrival, he said that was far from true. Which it was. Ratings had started off good for the fourth season, but quickly leveled off Meanwhile, the rest of season four continued, like pervious seasons, on an up and down escalator ride. From the real bad: Omega Directive, Unforgettable, Living Witness and Demon, to the mildly interesting Vis a Vis, One, and the season-ender Hope and Fear.

Rating:
Summary: Kes Evolves Into Something Powerful, Seven of Nine Stays
Review: Less than one year following the concluding season of "Star Trek: The Next Generation" in 1994, executive producer/writer Rick Berman, along with Michael Piller and Jeri Taylor, created a fourth television series based upon the "Star Trek" universe originally created by Gene Roddenberry (1921-1991) in the 1960's. This fourth television series, entitled "Voyager" (which is the name of the Federation of Planets starship used in the series), first aired in January 1995, and ran for seven seasons until it concluded in May, 2001. Because "Voyager" aired initially in the month of January (instead of the traditional September), only 16 episodes were filmed for the first season. The succeeding six other seasons had 26 episodes each, for a grand total of 172 episodes for the entire series.

Unlike the previous three "Star Trek" television series, which (for the most part) took place within the bounds of the Federation of Planets (or in nearby sovereign areas of space, such as the Klingon Empire or the Romulan Empire) in the Alpha Quadrant, the starship Voyager is hurled tens of thousands of light-years from home into the previously unknown and unexplored Delta Quadrant, which is located at the far side of the Milky Way Galaxy. Even while traveling at warp 8 (the fastest safe speed that a typical starship can travel), it would take Voyager several decades to return to Earth. Hence, the series focuses on the survival of Voyager's Starfleet crew, who are completely isolated and unable to even maintain normal communications with Earth, as well as the crew's ultimate desire to find a way home faster than their ship is capable of doing. Also, along the way, Voyager adopts a few Delta Quadrant natives.

The primary cast members of the fourth season of "Voyager" include Captain Catherine Janeway (Kate Mulgrew), Commander Chakotay (Robert Beltran), the half-Klingon Lt. B'Elanna Torres (Roxann Dawson), Delta Quadrant native (Ocampan) Kes (Jennifer Lien, first two episodes only), Lt. Thomas Eugene Paris (Robert Duncan McNeill), Delta Quadrant native (Talaxian) Neelix (Ethan Phillips), the holographic Emergency Medical Holographic Program (a.k.a., "The Doctor", played by Robert Picardo), the Vulcan Lt. Cmdr. Tuvok (Tim Russ), Ensign Harry Kim (Garrett Wang) and the former Borg drone Seven of Nine (Jeri Ryan). Voyager's fourth season begins with the second part (episode "Scorpion, Part 2") to the third season's cliffhanger about Voyager making an agreement with the Borg to aid in their war against the seemingly unstoppable species 8472.

With the departure of Kes in the second episode ("The Gift"), the fourth season of "Voyager" focuses much attention upon its newest crewmember, Seven of Nine, whom Captain Janeway chose to cut off from the Borg Collective at the end of episode "Scorpion, Part 2". She begins to relearn what it means to be human primarily from Captain Janeway, but also from the holographic doctor. Other stories during the fourth season include B'Elanna and her ongoing struggles with her Klingon half, a change in the relationship between Paris and B'Elanna, Cmdr. Chakotay becomes involved in an interspecies war in episode "Nemesis", the doctor encounters a psychopathic hologram (Leland Orser) in episode "Revulsion", the crew discovers the source of many physical problems afflicting the crew in episode "Scientific Method", Captain Janeway continues to enjoy time in the holodeck with Leonardo Da Vinci, Voyager's encounters the hunting Hirogen and Voyager encounters the most dangerous substance known to the Federation in episode "The Omega Directive". The best fourth-season episodes, in order of airdate, include "Scorpion, Part 2", "The Gift", "Day of Honor", "Nemesis", "Revulsion", "The Raven", "Scientific Method", "Year of Hell, Part 1 & 2", "Concerning Flight", "Waking Moments", "Message in a Bottle", "Prey", "The Omega Directive", "One" and "Hope and Fear".

Overall, I rate the fourth season of "Voyager" with 4.5 out of 5 stars, rounded to 5 stars. Thankfully, the Kazon are no longer around, but the Hirogen become slightly annoying and predictable over time. Though many "Voyager" fans regretted the loss of character Kes, the development of Seven of Nine's character was very good and only continued to get better in the succeeding seasons, as well as the further story development of the Borg collective itself.

Rating:
Summary: Excellent season!
Review: The fourth season of Voyager is one of the best. Season four marks the introduction of Jeri Ryan as Seven of Nine in "Scorpion, part II" and Jennifer Lien's character Kes leaving in "The Gift." The two parter "Year of Hell" is by far the best Voyager episode(s) ever produced. Other excellent offerings are "Scientific Method," "Message in a Bottle," "The Killing Game," "Living Witness," and "Hope and Fear."

Voyager is my favorite Star Trek series, and the fourth season is a must have for any Voyager fan.