10 Best Star Trek: Voyager Episodes

Star Trek's third live-action spin-off gave the audience Captain Janeway, the first female main character of a Star Trek show. She commanded one of the most diverse crews in the fleet. From the explosive opening episode Caretaker to the exciting, although abrupt, ending, Endgame, Voyager enjoyed a mostly successful seven years in the Delta Quadrant.

While the final seasons suffered from a lack of direction, seasons four and five were among the strongest in Star Trek's history. Kate Mulgrew anchored the show as the fantastic captain, while Jeri Ryan, Roberto Picardo, and Tim Russ all delivered strong supporting performances as well.

The Intrepid-class USS Voyager was quite different from what had come before in the franchise, and while it was considerably smaller than the Enterprise-D it was also much more advanced. Jerry Goldsmith's beautiful opening theme, arguably the strongest opening montage for any Trek series, captured the majesty and expanse of space.

Voyager's strongest episodes deal with stories that expand the characters, which is why the first couple of seasons were rocky. The show attempted to replicate what had made The Next Generation so strong and until they nailed the formula, it did tend to ramble. But here are ten examples of when Voyager knocked it out of the park.

The end of Voyager's fifth season saw the arrival of the USS Equinox, a Nova class starship that was also pulled into the Delta Quadrant by the Caretaker. Unlike Voyager however, this vessel found no allies and, after a fateful encounter with a species called the Crotonan Guard, lost half of their crew.

Captain Ransom and his colleagues quickly abandon the Prime Directive, searching for any means to get home. On meeting the Ankari, they find that they can use the bodies of extra-dimensional beings as fuel. This increases the power of their Warp Core. This first step into darkness leads to a confrontation with Janeway and the crew of Voyager.

Kate Mulgrew skirts the line in this episode. She and Robert Beltran deliver some of their finest performances here, going head to head in a battle of right versus wrong. By the close of the episode, their friendship has been pushed to the very limit.

After betrayal, kidnap and attempted murder, Ransom remembers that he is a Starfleet Captain. He may have forgotten that for a little while, but he saves who he can by piloting the Equinox away ahead of a core breach.