25 Best Episodes Of Star Trek EVER
17. Year Of Hell - Star Trek Voyager
Year of Hell was the story that Voyager could have been for its entire run, if the network had felt strongly enough at the time. A single ship alone under constant attack and nowhere near any refuelling hubs, lost in a far off section of the Galaxy. Like it or love it, Voyager made it home after seven years with barely a scratch on the hull. In this fourth season two-parter, the show gave a taste of what true desperation could have been.
They are attacked again and again by the Krenim Imperium, a vastly powerful empire intent on punishing them for intruding in their space. It is thanks to Seven and Janeway that they survive as long as they do. The Krenim play with time and so Voyager develops temporal defences, bringing them to greater attention and raising the threat levels.
It is perhaps now a little obvious that the show was going to hit the reset button by the end but the execution of the story makes up for this. There is real desperation and Mulgrew's performance really does capture the idea of the Captain both unravelling and remaining resolute in the face of insurmountable odds.
It could have been a testing board for what the re imagined Battlestar Galactica turned out to be and as Star Trek went, it was pretty dark.