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Star Trek Voyager - The Complete Third Season

Star Trek Voyager - The Complete Third Season

List Price: $129.99
Your Price: $97.49
Product Info Reviews

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Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Response
Review: In response to an earlier review. A Borg drone could have been assimulated at Wolf 359, the Borg don't just assimulate people but also ships. After assimulating a ship at Wolf 359, the single cube moves on, the assimulated ship continues on a different path and continues changes to the ship - possibly returning to the Delta Quadrant.
Star Trek VI - The person killed in the Voyager episode didn't die in the movie, because those events hadn't taken place yet. Think of the Voyager episode as a slight change in the timeline caused by Janeway's presence.
Example: Star Trek First Contact, the first time 'round Cochrane made his Warp flight without a hitch, Lily with him. The Borg returning to those events as well as the Enterprise only slightly altered those events. If Enterprise hadn't been successful the timeline would have been completely altered.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: VOYAGER FINDS ITS WINGS
Review: In the STAR TREK Universe of series, the third season historically sets the pace for the most enduring stories of the run of the show. STAR TREK: VOYAGER Season Three doesn't disappoint. Featuring such landmark episodes that eventually lead up to their epic first confrontation with the TREK Universe's most sinister enemies: The Borg.

Season Three finally proves that Janeway's crew has the mettle to stand up to any of the other crews in Roddenbery's legacy, even more so since they face the perilous unknown of the Delta Quadrant. This is exactly what was always intended for STAR TREK...a ship out in space, searching the unknown and expanding on the human condition. It never hurt that along the way in Season Three the VOYAGER has some of the most exciting moments in sci-fi adventure ever on television!

Season Three sets the tone for the future of the TREK francise and for the eventual climatic introduction of one of the most intriguing characters ever to appear in any STAR TREK series...prepare for Season Four!

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Voyager Faces New Challenges, Including the Borg
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 third 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), 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) and Ensign Harry Kim (Garrett Wang). The final third season episode, "Scorpion, Part 1", introduces who would become the next regular cast member for the duration of the remaining 4 seasons, Jeri Ryan as Seven of Nine. Voyager's third season begins with the second part to the second season's cliffhanger about the Kazon capturing Voyager with help from the traitorous Seska (Martha Hackett).

Through the third season, the holographic doctor's personality grows considerably by experimenting with a holographic family in episode "Real Life", a new alien species kidnaps Cmdr. Chakotay in episode "Distant Origin" with surprising revelations, Kes travels backwards through time in episode "Before and After", Q (John de Lancie) returns to ask Capt. Janeway to have his child during a Q-continuum revolt in episode "The Q and the Grey", the crew comes across a group of Alpha-Quadrant Ferengi up to their old tricks in episode "False Profits" and the crew visits 20th-Century Los Angeles in the two-part episode "Future's End". The best third-season episodes, in order of airdate, include "Flashback", "The Swarm", "Remember", "Sacred Ground", "Future's End" (Parts 1 and 2), "The Q and the Grey", "Macrocosm", "Code", "Before and After", "Real Life", "Distant Origin", "Displaced" and "Scorpion, Part 1". The season's least memorable episodes include "Warlord", "Fair Trade" and "Blood Fever".

Overall, I rate the third season of "Voyager" with 5 out of 5 stars. Thankfully, the third season had minimal involvement from the Kazon, Seska and Vidians. This allowed for many new and interesting story lines involving many new alien species and interesting crew character development. The final season episode that introduces Seven of Nine is a climatic finale involving the Borg and a new and very powerful species. Overall, Voyager's third season was much better than either the first or second seasons with tastes of things to come in later seasons.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Voyager's Third Year Puts The Ship at its prime!
Review: Season 3 was the year Voyager took its journey with a new attitude. The traitors were gone, the crew was united, the Kazon were old news and with Neelix's help dwindling, the ship was entering a true unknown. Some highlights were Basics Part II, Future's End, Before And After, Distant Origin, the return of the Borg in Unity, the emotional Real Life, and ending off with undoubtly the best episode of the series (and in my opinion, of Star Trek), Scorpion. Kes' last year was good for her as she travelled through time and fought alien take overs. Q makes a return in a Q civil war and a "proposal" for Janeway. Future's End is a great time travel episode putting humor around every corner. Each character has an episode to shine in, including the captain who faces the greatest enemy of all, death, in the episode Coda.

Season 3 is a great transition from the Kazon/Struggling arc to the Seven Of Nine/Borg/Knowing How To Survive Arcs of the later seasons. If anything, it is just too much fun to watch Torres and Ayala divert the caveman in Basics, Part II because they are great runners. This is a must buy for Voyager and Star Trek fans! I would buy this even if there were no special features.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Voyager: Season III -end of the line
Review: Season three saw the loss of co-creator Michael Piller (with Jeri Taylor leaving before the start of season five), and the tone of the series shifted. While I have had serious issues with this show from day one, this was the last season I can actually call viewable. Seasons 4,5,6 and 7 threw everything out the airlock that had been built upon in the first three seasons.

Anyway, the Kazon and the Vidiians would finally be left behind (it had been stated many times that both their space was not that large, yet the crew kept bumping into them, even after spending days and weeks in warp), and Brannon Braga began his rise as the new executive producer. He immediately drew the ire of many fans, with his 30th anniversary Trek episode Flashback. While the concept of the story was silly (it just an excuse to get Janeway and Tuvok on the bridge of the Excelsior during the events of Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country with special guest star turn of TOS actor George Takei as Captain Sulu), his lack continuity showed through, killing off a character that never died in the movie (and add his speech about how the exploits of Kirk and Company would have gotten them "booted" out of Starfleet these days. This was, essentially, what was incongruously wrong with the series. The fun of Kirk's era was gone, replaced by a chain of command from corporate America. Though, I might add, this type of attitude had slithered into TNG, especially in the two-part Unification, where Picard accused Spock of "cowboy diplomacy". And while Enterprise has attempted to return to that with Archer and his way of doing things, the show still lacks a desire to go deeper).

Still, like season two, there were one or two shows that stood out from the rest of the crap. Despite some of its shortcomings, Flashback was well directed and acted (though you can tell Grace Lee Whitney's acting has not improved with age). False Profits was a hilarious sequel to TNG's The Price, and while the two-part Future's End also had some problems, it was well done (and introduced the Doctor's mobile emitter and a 29th Century Federation Captain named Braxton who will cause many problems later on in the series). And while Warlord was nothing to write home about story wise, the acting of Jennifer Lien was top-notch. If only more stories like this came her way, maybe she would have not been shoved out after this season. John de Lancie's returned in The Q and the Grey, a sequel to the previous seasons Death Wish, and Kate Mulgrew's turn as Sigourney Weaver's Ripley in Macrocosm were also better than average.

But then there was Remember, a clunky show with a theme done many times in Trek history -the story of a group of minorities who get blamed for everything, who are then shuttled off to a "better place" and then killed. Once again, a great performance from Dawson, but we are pounded over the head with much repetition, on the allegory they are trying to put forth. Don't get me wrong, parables are Trek's bread and butter. However, over the years, they've become pedantic in nature, and usually ends with the crew jaunting away, leaving many unanswered questions, when their metaphor gets too complex.

Season three also was featured the return of the Borg. Somewhat. With shows ratings dipping, Paramount felt that show need a ratings fix (like the appearance of Q), and since it was mentioned in Star Trek: First Contact, and vaguely referenced during TNG's run, that the cybernetic creatures come from the Delta Quadrant, wasn't it about time they bumped into them? At the end of the lame Blood Fever we see a dead Borg, which came off as a late minute add on, I might hazard a guess. Then Unity happened, and once again, Braga showed why he angers the fans, because while this show is stupid, it never really was about the Borg, but about a group cut off from the Collective. Plus it had a glaring error in continuity. One character says she was assimilated at the famous battle from TNG's fantastic two-part Best of Both Worlds. There is no way in which she could've been at Wolf 359. Mainly, because there was only one Borg cube heading for Earth. It is illogical to accept that after the battle, the Borg ship went into transwarp, dropped a few crews off and returned to the Alpha Quadrant. It was more logical to assume that she was assimilated -along with the Roluman Borg during the events of The Neutral Zone, the season one finale of TNG, where Federation colonies and a few Romulan War Birds encountered early incursions of the Collective. It was just another attempt by Braga to alter Trek for his own agenda.

Unity, by the way, was a rating hit, but most fans felt they had been baited, and were disappointed with the episode. Meanwhile, the last half of season three trudged along, producing more bad shows like Rise, Real Life and Displaced. The only highlight of the last few shows was Distant Origins, which I kind of liked and the season finale, Scorpion, which featured the return of the Borg, but in a better story. But overall, the show remained static, inable to break out a formula of appealing to teenage boys. Maybe, had Voyager and now Enterprise remained in syndication, they could've still produced stories that made DS9 the best of the Trek franchise shows. Becoming a network show again, they've had to capitulate to advertisers and investors who's motives are as soggy as most of Voyagers scripts.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Beginning of Change For Voyager
Review: Star Trek: Voyager's third season began to see change, vital to saving the show. Season Three started to tell more complex, exciting, and epic-style stories. Moving away from the slowly evolving plot involving the Kazons was the producer's best decision, and allowed for a very appreciated change of pace. If it weren't for the more exciting and epic-style episodes that began in this season, Voyager would not have survived to its seventh season.

The only thing saving Voyager until this time was its overall plot, which attracted fans of similar "The Next Generation" and the original series, and the fact that it wasn't syndicated like Deep Space Nine.

Voyager's season finale, "Scorpion", is the biggest Star Trek cliffhanger since TNG's "Best of Both Worlds" and was voted Voyager's best episode in a 1999 Startrek.com poll.

Voyager really takes flight with shows like "Unity" and "Real Life", although Season Three had several stand-out episodes prior to them.

Season Three starts out with the conclusion to Season Two's cliffhanger "Basics". It's a satisfying ending for the conflict between the Kazon, although it should have ended far earlier than this.

Voyager's anniversary episode called "Flashback" didn't hold a candle compared to DS9's "Trials and Tribble-ations" however still had some good moments. The fact that the original cast from "Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country" guest starred was wonderful, but for Star Trek's 30th anniversary episode, it could have stood out more.

Season Three has a Ferengi episode ("False Profits"), which is always fun. The Ferengi only return once more in the season, and not until Season Seven. But it makes sense based on Voyager's plot.

Voyager's first mid-season 2-part episode aired in Season Three. The time-traveling episode "Future's End" finally gives The Doctor mobility. This episode is suppose to tie into the Season Five episode "Relativity" however the connection between the episodes isn't very clear. If you watch both episodes closely, you'll know what I mean.

The drastic attempt to keep Kes's character interesting is very apparent, not only in her appearance, but also personality. Starting with "Warlord" Kes suddenly seems to mature overnight from a youn naive girl to a mature woman. Kes also breaks up with Neelix in "Warlord".

Q returns for the second of three visits to Voyager in "Q and the Grey". This is Q's best episode for Voyager.

The Borg make their first Voyager appearance at the end of "Blood Fever" although it is only a dead corpse. This is a foreshadow of what's to come. The Borg also return in "Unity" and of course the explosive season finale "Scorpion".

Martha Hackett returns as Seska in "Worst Case Scenario". But wait, didn't Seska die in "Basics"? Ok, this is actually a holographic Seska that she created to torture Tuvok. This episode is full of action and wonderfully written. The scene where Paris and Tuvok go to the holographic sickbay and get tortured by The Doctor is hilarious.

Season Three had an explosive Season Finale called "Scorpion, Part I" where Voyager finally enters Borg space, but they now they face an enemy even more dangerous and destructive. It has tons of action and awesome visual effects.

WORST OF SEASON THREE: "Remember", "Warlord", "Alter Ego", "Darkling", "Favorite Son", and "Before and After".

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Season Three is where Voyager went GOOD to GREAT STAR TREK!
Review: The first two seasons of Voyager had some great episodes but the show didn't seem to be going anywhere and once season three began, the show started to become old and worn out like the 1960's Enterprise. After the Kazon left the show Voyager started to get better I believe. The series started going on weekly adventures and it was fun. Some of my favorite episodes came out of season three like "Flashback", "Q and the Grey", and "Unity." My most favorites have to be "Blood Fever" where things heat up between Paris and Torres and we learn more about the Vulcan's, also a great Borg episode called "Scorpion, part I" which is considered one of Voyager's greatest episodes. There isn't really any awful episodes in season three but there is a share of weak and very forgettable episodes like "False Profits", "Rise" and a few others. Other then just a few weak episodes, this season was a great season which was the start of a long streak of great Trek seasons. If you like good Sci-Fi get these DVD's!!!

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Voyager finally gets good
Review: The first two seasons of Voyager left a bad taste in the mouths of many, including myself. When the ship is escaping through a hole in a gravity well, or being threatened by Neelix's cooking, you know the writers are totally sapped of ideas. But Season 3 changed all that. It was one cool, clever, riveting, well-plotted episode after another. It was when I really started to pay attention to the show. And come "Scorpion," we finally ditched those lame Kazon and Vidiians for some REAL bad guys, the coolest bad guys ever to grace our TV sets... the Borg. For Borg fanatics like myself, who seek efficiency and perfection on a daily basis and strive to remove emotions from our decision-making processes, and wish we had Borg alcoves in our bedrooms, Scorpion was a godsend that ushered in a whole new era of Trek awesomeness. True, we would have to wait until Season 4 (when only every 5th episode wasn't about the Borg) to truly reap the benefits of this godsend, but still, there's something to be said for watching a taped copy of "Scorpion" Part I over and over for 3 months in anticipation of Part II.

So, aside from the Borg, Season 3 had a lot of really friggin' cool episodes. There was the one with Sulu, the one where the crew goes back in time to 1996, the one with the Ferengi, the one where Kes gets the Extreme Makeover... come to think of it, all of the show's most awesome Borgless episodes were from Season 3.

There are those who say this was Voyager's last good season, and those who say this was Voyager's first good season. What both groups agree on is that this is a really good season.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: The Third Season...BIG STRIDES!
Review: The Second Season of Star Trek Voyager was very, and I mean very good. Season Three built another floor on the top of that foundation with some great great stories. First, this season resolves the Basics cliffhanger just as it should have been. In this season we take another "Flashback" to the Original Series. Going deeper into the story of Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country, in this episode we see what was happening on the USS Excelsior while James T. Kirk and Dr. Leonard McCoy were imprisoned on Rura Penthe. George Takei reprises his role as Captain Sulu. Contained in this season is one of the best two part episodes of the entire series. It would have worked as a great cliffhanger, but, luckily we only had to wait a week for the second part to air after the first instead of three months! This season goes deeper into the characters' personal lives. There is an episode in this season that connects directly to a two-part episode in the Fourth Season involving a species called the Krenim. This episode is called "Before and After" This season also has possibly the best Star Trek cliffhanger since "The Best of Both Worlds"! We're almost there, but not Seven of Nine, yet.

Best Episodes:

Basics: Part II, Flashback, The Chute, The Swarm, Future's End: Parts I and II, Fair Trade, Unity, Before and After, Real Life, Worst Case Scenario, Scorpion: Part I

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Another great season !
Review: This is the best season yet for Voyager and they keep getting better!

Basics Part II
After Voyager is hijacked and the crew marooned on a desolate planet, the 2 remaining on board, Lon Suder and the holographic doctor, struggle to regain control of the ship. Meanwhile the stranded crew have to deal with primitive humanoids on the planet. Tom Paris is also in space helping to take back Voyager.

Flashback
Tuvok reexperiences a memory which he tried to suppress about when he was a cadet on the USS Excelsior, commanded by Capt. Sulu.

The Chute
Tom Paris and Harry Kim are thrown into an alien prison after a trumped up charge a terrorist bombing
Janeway realzes that the evidence against them is inaccurate and tries to get them released.

The Swarm
After alien species warns Voyager not to enter their territory and the crew are unable to comply the holographic doctor's program goes on the fritz

False Profits
The crew of Voyager encounter the 2 Ferengi who were lost in a wormhole 7 years earlier. They have fooled the native population of a nearby planet into believing that they are gods.

Remember
While Voyager is transporting some people back their homeworld, B'Elanna Torres begins to have mysterois dreams and suspicions fall on Voyager's telepathic guests.

Sacred Ground
After Kes enters a shrine and knocked into a coma by a burst of energy, the crew discover the only way to revive her is a ritual that may require one of her friends to sacrafice their life.

Future's End Part I
A Federation ship from 500 years in the future fires on Voyager after claiming that Voyager is in danger of causing Earth's solar system to be destroyed. As Voyager fires back, both ships are swept back in time to Earth in the year 1996 They later discover their presence there may be a predestination paradox and at the same time struggle to get back to their own time.

Future's End Part II
Voyager's crew continue to try getting back to their own time.

Warlord
Kes' body is taken over by the ghost of a long dead dictator.

The Q and the Grey
Q returns to the ship and asks Janeway to be the mother of his child, when a female Q comes aboard the ship, it is later revealed that their is a civil war happening in the Q contimuum and that the birth of a Q child may be the only way to end the war.

Macrocosm
Voyager is infested with giant 3-foot bug like viruses.

Fair Trade
When Voyager reaches the Nekrit expanse Neelix says that he will not be able to help as much because he has not been past that region of space. When Neelix tries to procure a map of the area ahead, he is offered one by a drug dealer in exchange for helping him sell drugs.

Alter Ego
A holodeck charcter suddenly develops a very human personality and is seen outside the holodeck.

Coda
Janeway and Chakotay are attacked by Viidians and crash land on an alien planet. When they both are killed and find themselves back on the shuttlecraft they suspect that they are caught in a time loop.

Blood Fever
After a Vulcan crewmember enters pon farr the Vulcan equiveland of being in heat, he chooses Torres to be his mate.

Unity
Voyager encounters a colony of former Borg drones living on a nearby planet

Darkling
When the doctor starts adding the personalities of historical Earth figures to his program, problems arise and he starts becoming hostile.

Rise
Voyager helps the inhabitants of a planet that is being hit by asteroids.

Favorite Son
When encountering a humanoid alien race, Kim suspects that he may be a one of them. They say that he was conceived on their world and implanted in the womb of an Earth woman. Now they want him 'back'

Before and After
Kes suddenly begins shifting backward and forward through time.

Real Life
The doctor starts a holodeck program where he plays the role of a man with a wife and kids.

Distant Origin
A reptilian humanoid scientist believes that his species ancestors were Earth dinosaurs and kidnaps Chakotay to find out if it may be true.

Worst Case Scenario
A holonovel program about the former Maquis crewmembers staging a revolt on Voyager suddenly surfaces and the crew are trapped with the safties turned off.

Displaced
Voyager's crewmembers are continualy being kidnapped and beamed to alien spacestation while at the same time aliens are being beamed aboard Voyager

Scorpion part I
As the crew of Voyager enter Borg space they begin to notice than many birg ships are being destroyed by a powerful alien race which seem to be invincible. When Voyager discovers a weakness, she intends to give it to the borg in exchange for safe passage through their space.

Season 3 was really good and had an excellent season finale cliffhanger.
Character development was well established by the end of season 3 and overall this is pretty good set to buy if you like Star Trek.


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