Star Trek: 10 Captains That Totally LOST IT

Scientific Method is one of those nightmare-inducing episodes that stays with you for a long time.

The crew is acting a little strangely. Tom and B'Elanna are making out like teenagers, Harry is actually enjoying Neelix's cooking, and Captain Janeway has a face like thunder.

Unbeknownst to Janeway, cloaked aliens have been performing horrific medical experiments across the ship, and a combination of dopamine manipulation, lack of sleep and constant pain has pushed the captain to her limits.

As a viewer, something is captivating about seeing Janeway in all her furious glory, leading to some crackling dialogue between her and Tuvok. When she barks at him to straighten out the crew, he replies with this pithy one-liner:

Shall I flog them as well?

Of course, within the story, this unsanctioned experimentation is unacceptable, and Janeway has had enough of just about everything. With the intruders finally revealed, we see her resolve fray even further as Janeway pins their patronising leader, Takar, by the throat.

But they've seen nothing yet.

When a crewmember is killed by the ongoing procedures, Janeway snaps. Seizing control of the helm, she flies directly towards a binary pulsar, the force of which is enough to destroy the ship. Takar thinks it's a bluff, but Janeway has no intention of stopping, locking down the helm. Even Tuvok observes that it's a far more reckless course of action than he's come to expect from her.

While it has the intended effect of forcing the intruders to abandon Voyager, it leaves them at the mercy of the pulsars. Ironically, it's Janeway's rashness that saves the day, favouring thrusters over shields to ride out the gravitational forces and break free on the other side.

Still, the entire drama is almost worth it just to hear Tuvok's comeback to Janeway's accusation that she never realised he thought of her as reckless:

A poor choice of words. It was clearly an understatement.