10 Most Hated Star Trek Voyager Episodes

Rise plunges immediately with Tuvok and Neelix crashing into an alien planet where they have no way of contacting Voyager, and which they need to evacuate before being buried by the fallout of an impending asteroid strike.

Neelix notices a 300-kilometer tether that he can operate to help them escape, but when he enters the control room, he's taken hostage by Lillias, a woman taking shelter. The execution throughout just sinks the episode as there is zero tension in any scene or situation. This is due to the bland camera angles and long cuts that frame the action giving it a static unexciting feel. Exacerbating the issue are the terrible guest performances with the actors comically growling their lines to show anger.

Despite all that, Rise could have just been mediocre, but it keeps piling more and more extra baggage onto the plot. It introduces a murder angle where a character named Vatm is poisoned, moments of badly acted dissension among our heroes, with Neelix whining about not receiving enough respect from Tuvok, and a conspiracy as the crew learns the asteroids are really artificially-created weapons. With so many moving parts, none of these plot threads get the development needed to make an impact.

It's such a mess that the final scene has Neelix basically spell out the entire plot and connections in a long exposition dump, further proof that Rise should have been grounded from the start.