STAR TREK VOYAGER
SEASON SEVEN

"I'm a doctor not a night light"

The Doctor

Still travelling home, the crew of the Starship Voyager might finally be closer to Earth than they ever imagined.

Unimatrix Zero (Part 2)
The away team must infiltrate the Borg Collective and execute their plan to undermine them, even though it may destroy Unimatrix Zero forever.

Imperfection
Rebi and Azan are reunited with their home worlds, and leave the crew of Voyager. Mezoti is offered the chance to stay with Rebi and Azan, and accepts their invitations to live with them. Seven of Nine is placed in a life-threatening situation when her Borg implants begin to malfunction. The only way she can survive is if they can find replacement parts from a living drone.

Drive
Paris and Kim volunteer to enter a race that symbolises a peace treaty between four warring races. However, the race's peaceful intentions are undermined with plans of sabotage and murder.

Repression
Former members of the Maquis fall victim to a spate of mysterious attacks on board Voyager. Tuvok is placed in charge of the investigations, and soon makes some remarkable discoveries.

Critical Care
The Doctor is abducted from Voyager and forced to work in a hospital where patients are treated based on their social status.

Inside Man
A hologram of Reginald Barclay is sent to Voyager bringing news that the ship can be returned home in a matter of hours through a 'geodesic fold.' However, the crew becomes suspicious of the holographic Barclay's intentions after seeing him exhibit strange behaviour.

Body and Soul
While in the Delta Flyer, the Doctor, Harry Kim and Seven of Nine come under attack for transporting a hologram through Lokirrim space - an act that is strictly forbidden. To hide the doctor, Seven of Nine downloads him into her cybernetic implants shortly before they are taken to a Lokirrim holding cell.

Nightingale
While Voyager stops for maintenance, Harry Kim, Seven and Neelix use the Delta Flyer to search for dilithium, when they come across a war between two alien races. After receiving a distress call from a damaged ship claiming to be on a humanitarian mission, Harry is offered his first chance at commanding a vessel of his own.

Flesh and Blood (Part 1 & 2)
The crew of Voyager find a Hirogen training facility, and discover that the hologram technology they gave the Hirogen several months ago was modified to the point where the Holograms are smarter and more cunning than their hunters. The Doctor is abducted by a band of holograms that escaped from the Hirogen facility and is asked to join them in forging a new life as independent 'Photonic beings'.

Shattered
After Voyager passes near a spatial rift, Chakotay is injured in Engineering, leaving his body in a state of temporal flux. After receiving treatment in sickbay, he inadvertently gains the ability to pass through rifts in time that are scattered throughout the ship, enabling him to walk into different stages of Voyager's history over the past seven years.

Lineage
After receiving the news that she is pregnant with Tom Paris' child, and after learning that the child will have dominant Klingon features, B'Elanna has flashbacks to when she was a child, remembering how difficult her life was because of her Klingon heritage.

Repentance
Voyager is placed in an ethical dilemma when they encounter a damaged transport ship carrying prisoners. It is revealed that some of the prisoners are being jailed because of their species, and the social misconceptions surrounding them.

Prophecy
Voyager encounters a generational Klingon ship. When the crew of the ship beam over to Voyager after a warp core explosion, they believe that either B'Elanna, or her child is their saviour, as foreseen by their religious scrolls and prophecies.

The Void
Voyager is pulled into an empty layer of subspace where ships are forced to attack each other and steal supplies for survival. Voyager's only hope for survival lies in forming alliances with other ships who wish to escape 'the Void'.

Workforce (Part 1 & 2)
The crew of Voyager carry out their normal lives as workers on an industrial planet called Quarra, totally unaware of their time on Voyager or their situation in the Delta Quadrant. Chakotay, Kim and Neelix, return from their trading mission on the Delta Flyer to find the ship abandoned and adrift in a nebula, with only the Doctor on board. The Doctor informs them that the ship fell into a trap, which forced them to abandon ship in the escape pods, allowing them to be captured. The Doctor has heard nothing from them since. After going undercover on the planet, Chakotay, Kim, Neelix and the Doctor must now find a way to return the crew and restore their memories, while evading local authorities that have uncovered their plan

Human Error
When Seven tries to perfect her social skills on the holodeck, her hobby quickly becomes an obsession, which leads her to neglect her duties, placing Voyager in great danger.

Q2
Q places his son in the care of Captain Janeway for a week, hoping that she will be able to teach him a sense of discipline. However, his powers and his recklessness endanger the crew and test Janeway's patience.

Author, Author
A means of direct communication is established with Voyager allowing each crewmember to speak with family and friends. The Doctor sends a holo-novel for publication based on a lost starship with a doctor who is treated like a slave, which causes controversy among the members of the ship.

Friendship One
With regular communications to the Alpha Quadrant established, Starfleet send a mission to Voyager: retrieve a 21st Century probe sent from Earth called 'Friendship One.' However, the probe has been modified by a Delta Quadrant species, and the changes may not have been for the better.

Natural Law
Chakotay and Seven Of Nine are left stranded on an alien planet when they crash into a planet inhabited by primitive tribes. Voyager is prevented from finding them by a mysterious energy barrier surrounding them.

Homestead
When Voyager discovers a settlement of Talaxians on an asteroid caught in an industrial conflict, the crew manage find a new home for the population. When an armed conflict between the mining operations and the re-settled Talaxians erupts, Neelix is offered a chance of a new life away from Voyager within the colony.

Renaissance Man
The Doctor must impersonate various crewmembers when Captain Janeway is abducted and held hostage for Voyager's warp core.

Endgame (Part 1 & 2)
After a decades-long journey to reach the Alpha Quadrant, Admiral Kathryn Janeway makes a bold decision to change the past in an attempt to undo the toll taken on the crew during their arduous journey home.

After seven years the third spin-off series in the Star Trek franchise comes to an end but will the crew of the starship Voyager finally get home?

While some may argue that Voyager wasn't the most original series in the franchise with cries from fans and critics alike that the creative team behind the show were running out of ideas and rehashing what had boldly gone before but the show did come into its own in the later seasons. Gone were the spacial anomaly/transporter accident bottle shows that had plagued the first few seasons to be replaced by character driven, action packed episodes that pushed the show in a whole different direction.

With the introduction of the Borg in season four, Voyagers action quota increase tenfold and pushed the show into a new direction. While there were still the needed character driven shows and the odd spacial anomaly/transporter accident thrown in for old times sake, the emphasis was now with epic confrontations, hard choices and live or death situations. This gave the series a new lease of life and drew Star Trek fans and casual viewers to the show.

Season seven kept this momentum of quality episodes going through the last season of the show but we also get to see some episode that showcase the talents of the actors involved with the series. Chief amongst these is the exceptional Robert Picardo. The Doctor is arguably one of the best characters ever created in the Star Trek universe and will be remembered along with Kirk, Spock, McCoy, Data, Picard, Worf, Odo and Quark. He is the standout character of Voyager and this final season offers the actor the chance to show you why. In episodes like 'Critical Care', 'Author, Author', 'Renaissance Man' and the two parter 'Flesh & Blood', Picardo showcases his many talents and those of the Doctor, making it easy to see why he is such a fan favourite.

Another character that has been at the forefront of many a Voyager episode since joining the cast in season four is Seven of Nine. Played by the stunningly beautiful Jeri Ryan, Seven had always been an intriguing character since Janeway rescued here from the Borg. Throughout her four seasons onboard, she has struggled to come to terms with her humanity and her place on the ship. Over the years we have seen her grow, cultivate relationships and friendships and fight the temptation to return back to the Collective. This season is no exception with more standout episodes for the character such as 'Human Error', 'Imperfection' and 'Body and Soul'.

The final season offers most of the characters their chance in the spotlight and even Harry Kim gets an episode to shine (which some might find impossible to believe). Chakotay gets 'Shattered', Neelix has to make a momentous decision in 'Homestead', B'Elanna and Paris have to make some difficult decisions in 'Lineage' and 'Prophecy', Harry Kim gets command of his own ship in 'Nightingale' and Capt. Janeway finds love in 'Workforce'. Each of these episodes gives the actors the chance to really showcase their characters and is an excellent way to round off a series.

Star Trek Voyager ends with one of the best finales of all the series. While the 'Next Generation' and 'Deep Space Nine' ended quite uneventfully, 'Voyager' throws everything at you in 'End Game'. With the return of the franchises best villain, the Borg and Alice Krige reprising her role as the Borg Queen for the first time since 'First Contact', the finale already felt special. Even though they use that old Star Trek stalwart time travel again, the show is gripping from the off until the brilliant conclusion that will have fans rejoicing. This is truly a fitting finale for a great piece of science fiction television.

The final season of Star Trek Voyager is a joy to watch. With far more good episodes than bad, the seventh year is one of the best and another reason to herald the show as a huge success. In the words of Tuvok 'may it live long and prosper' in the echelons of television history.