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STAR TREK: VOYAGER
Season Six
Review by Mark Wiechman
Stars: Kate
Mulgrew, Robert Beltran, Roxann Dawson, Jennifer Lien, Robert Duncan McNeill,
Robert Picardo, Ethan Phillips, Tim Russ, Garrett Wang, Jeri Ryan
Directors: Various
Video: 1:33:1
Audio: Dolby Digital Stereo and 5.1
Studio: Paramount Home Video
Length: Seven discs, 20 hours, 16 minutes
Release date: December 7, 2004
"A
word to the wise. Stay away from
Maggie O'Hollerand. She is promised
to a pig farmer with a large rink."
"Does
she have a sister?"
"Wooden
teeth."
"Nothing
a little adjustment to the hollow-matrix wouldn't fix."
Show
***1/2
How
many dramas continue to be interesting after five seasons?
Six? Seven?
While the end of the series was near, Voyager
continued to boldly go where no sci-fi drama had gone before in its sixth
season. B'Elanna Torres discovers
more about herself, dis-assimilated Borg children cause some chaos, Seven of
Nine takes on The Rock (yes, the wrestler), and in Equinox
several crewmembers actually become assimilated by the Borg and live to tell
about it.
More
importantly, the ship does make contact with Earth in one of the series' most
interesting episodes, Pathfinder.
Featuring the neurotic Lt. Reginald Barclay (played wonderfully by Dwight
Schultz) and the evanescent Counselor Deanna Troi (played with undiminished
sexiness by Marina Sirtis) of Next Generation, the episode begins with the goofy premise that
Barclay has become obsessed with the holodeck, spending most of his time with a
simulation of the Voyager crew.
He decides to use his manic knowledge of physics to devise a way to
contact the ship all the way from Earth and endangers himself to do so.
Counselor Troi also appears in "Life Line," in which the ship
again contacts earth because the creator of the Emergency Medical Hologram is
dying. This provides Robert Picardo
the chance to play two roles, one as the cantankerous holographic doctor, and
the other as his bitter creator.
Another
interesting episode is “Fair Haven”
(quoted above), which features a simulation of a sweet and placid Irish
town. Many crew members find
romance, including Captain Janeway, only to find that even simulated romance can
cause real broken hearts. The charm
of the townspeople is irresistible and a welcome break from the all-too-serious
and stilted Delta Quadrant. Janeway
deletes the romantic make hologram's wife, and the doctor even plays a priest!
Episode
list: Equinox part II, Survival Instinct, Barge of the Dead,
Tinker, Tenor, Doctor, Spy; Alice,
Riddles, Dragon's Teeth, One Small
Step, The Voyager Conspiracy, Pathfinder,
Fair Haven, Blink of an Eye, Virtuoso,
Memorial, Tsunkatse, Collective, Spirit Folk, Ashes to Ashes, Child's
Play, Good Shepard, Live Fast and Prosper, Muse, Fury, Life Line, The Haunting
of Deck Twelve, Unimatrix Zero part I.
Video
****
As
with prior seasons, the picture is crisp and clear, despite the fact that so
many special effects were done before the digital revolution and so many dark
scenes. I could not detect any
visual flaws.
Audio
****
Science
fiction still rocks in 5.1!!! While
the rear speakers are not used as much as in some adventure movies such as X-Men,
they are still used mainly for background effects and explosions, and the
dialogue is still heard easily in the mix.
Voyager always featured excellent sound production and mixing, as
good as any on TV, and that translated well into the DVD mix.
Features
***
While the usual "Braving the Unknown" segment
is interesting, and features an interview with Marina Sirtis, and the "One
Small Step: A Mars Encounter" shows work which might inspire future space
exploration, the feature on Robert Beltran's portrayal of Chakotay is strangely
bland. According to every member of
the cast, he is a hilarious person, but in his actual interview, he has little
to say. Perhaps he is trying not to
complain about how little his character actually had to do over seven years.
He does point out how he likes the spiritual side of the character as a
native American, and also how he admired explorers when he was young, and this
combination of a spiritual explorer attracted him to the role, even though he
was not much of a science fiction fan.
There
is also the obligatory special effects special and a guest star profile of
Vaughn Armstrong, who has been a frequent guest star on several Star Trek
series. There are also the usual
easy-to-find Easter Eggs that have short but interesting interviews.
Summary: