Star Trek Voyager reaches it’s penultimate season, Janeway and crew are still flying through the reaches of the Delta quadrant trying to keep the Prime Directive in tow.
As usual, as per the previous seasons, we have a mixed bag of episodes. Coming after Season 5 it was going to be difficult as Voyager hit its all-time peak during that season and we are introduced right back into the thick of things with the second part of 'Equinox' (guest starring the fantastic John Savage as renegade Captain Ransom).
There is formula to these seasons, there are the Klingon episodes, Borg episodes, the what’s happening with Harry Kim episodes, the guest appearance from another Trek series episode….. they are all here to varying effect but who thought up the storyline of Borg kiddies should have a phaser stuck so far it would become a deep space anomaly.
From 'Barge of the Dead'
Grumble aside there are goodies to have here. Again Paramount has served up an impeccable crisp looking transfer with fantastic 5.1 sound…. Never has there been an opportunity to view these so well.
Since you know Voyager has only one more season before it heads home there had to be contact with Starfleet and Earth in some way. To set this up and to rekindle the flames of hope for the crew the episodes 'Pathfinder' and 'Life Line' do well giving both Dwight Shultz and Marina Sirtis (Lt. Barclay and Deanna Troi, both from The Next Generation ) a chance to show there faces.Stand out episodes here are; the one man show of ‘Virtuoso’ which has the doctor in fine singing form who is plagues by an alien race of mathematicians who have never experienced music. Nice touch too to have Paul Williams (who has written for Elvis and Ella amongst others) as one of the alien ambassadors. And, ‘Memorial’ , a hard-hitting anti-war episode with a touching epitaph although similar to The Next Generation's 'The Inner Light' . Then things pick up again at tremendous speed with the Season finale and first part of 'Unimatrix Zero' where the Borg Queen appears again in some of the most spectacular Trek effects ever.
So what else do we have ? Well an old fashioned Irish seaside home town and some fairy melodrama, a love interest for Janeway, a guest appearance from The Rock battling with Seven of Nine for some gladiatorial games, a glimpse of the Klingon afterlife in Sto-Vo-Kor, the irritating character of Naomi Wildman (come back Wesley all is forgiven), Borg dreams and oh did I mention Borg kiddies ?Again as with previous seasons all the extra features are on disc 7 and there’s lots here to please even the jaded Trekkie.
To start with the is 'Braving The Unknown' , a overview of the season with interviews from cast and crew.
'One Small Step; A Mars Encounter' is an expansion of the episode of the same name, looking at the science behind the fiction.
'Voyager Time Capsule: Chakotay' is the turn of No. 1 as each season has a profile of a main character.
'Red Alert: Amazing Special Effects' this is just some of the effects throughout the 7 seasons and a few interviews by those behind them.
My favourite here is 'Guest Star profile: Vaughn Armstrong' , a light hearted chat with Armstrong who has appeared in all of the new Trek series in a manner of guises from Borg to Vulcan to Hirogen to Klingon and more.
A Season 6 photo gallery .'Starmapping The Final Frontier' is a look at the Trek universe in detail.
Trailers for the Star Trek Original series, Deep Space Nine and The Next Generation are also included.
As if that was not enough there are Easter eggs throughout these menus with additional interviews from Kate Mulgrew, LeVar Burton, and many others……
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