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Episodes
Disc One: “Basics, Part II”, “Flashback”, “The Chute”, “The
Swarm”
Episodes
Disc Two: “False Profits”, “Remember”, “Sacred Ground”,
“Future’s End, Part I”
Episodes
Disc Three: “Future’s End, Part II”, “Warlord”, “The Q And The
Grey”, “Macrocosm”
Episodes
Disc Four: “Fair Trade”, “Alter Ego”, “Coda”, “Blood Fever”
Episodes
Disc Five: “Unity”, “Darkling”, “Rise”, “Favorite Son”
Episodes
Disc Six: “Before And After”, “Real Life”, “Distant Origin”,
“Displaced”
Episodes
Disc Seven: “Worse Case Scenario”, “Scorpion, Part I”
Stars:
Kate Mulgrew, Ethan Philips, Robert Picardo, Jennifer Lien, Robert Duncan
McNeill, Roxann Dawson, Robert Beltran, Tim Russ, and Garrett Wang
Guest
Stars: George Takei, Grace Lee Whitney, Jeremy Roberts, Boris Krutonog, Michael
Ansara, Suzie Plackson, Harve Presnell, Martha Hackett, Brad Dourif, John
DeLancie, Dan Shor, Leslie Jordan, Ed Begley, Jr., Clayton Murray, Sarah
Silverman, James Nardini, and Alexander Enberg
Writers: Lisa Klink, Geo Cameron,
Joe Menosky, George A. Brozak, Brannon Braga, Michael Piller, Kenneth Biller,
Clayvon C. Harris, Mike Sussman, Andrew Shepard Price, Mark Gaberman, Shawn
Piller, Andre Bormanis, Ronald Wilkerson, Jean Louise Matthias, Jeri Taylor,
Jimmy Diggs, and Harry Doc. Kloor,
Based On “Star Trek” Created
By: Gene Roddenberry
Directors: Robert Duncan McNeill,
Cliff Bole, David Livingston, Winrich Kolbe, Les Landau, Alexander Singer,
Robert Picardo, Jesus Salvador Trevino, Andrew Robinson, Nancy Malone, Robert
Scheerer, Marvin V. Rush, Allan Kroeker, and Anson Williams
Executive Producers: Rick Berman,
Brannon Braga, and Jeri Taylor
Feature length: 19 hours and 46
minutes
Extras: “Braving The Unknown: Season Three”, “Voyager
Time Capsule: Neelix”, “Voyager Time Capsule: Kes”, “Flashback To
Flashback”, “Red Alert! Amazing Visual Effects”, “Real Science With
Andre Bormanis”, “Lost Transmissions From The Delta Quadrant”, “Photo
Gallery”
Languages: English Dolby Digital
5.1 Surround Sound and Dolby Surround Sound
Subtitles: English Captions and
Closed Captions
Packaging: Seven-Disc Book Style
Digipack Within A Split Plastic Case
Chapter Stops: 8 Per Episode
Sound: Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround
Sound and Dolby Surround Sound
Year of Television Broadcast:
1996-1997/DVD Release: 2004
Home Video Distributor: Paramount
Home Entertainment
MPAA Rating: Not Rated
Reviewer: Mark A. Rivera
When we last saw the crew of the
Federation Starship Voyager, they had been marooned by the Kazon on a
primitive world with only their survival skills to keep them alive. Meanwhile
Lt. Paris (Robert Duncan McNeill) desperately attempts to assist the crew aboard
his shuttle while being attacked by Kazon fighters. Aboard Voyager, Suder
(Brad Dourif) and the Doctor (Robert Picardo) do their best to retake the ship.
After the storyline in “Basics, Part II” are resolved the series leaves the
Kazon behind and soon after pass beyond the reach of the Vidiians too as the
Starship Voyager encounters Species 8472, an extra-dimensional race
locked in mortal combat against the Borg. While the cliffhanger of the second
season of “Star Trek: Voyager” had the crew being marooned because they
refused to share their Federation technology with the Kazon, the third season
finale entitled “Scorpion, Part 1” has the crew putting their lives in the
hands of one of the deadliest adversaries the Federation has ever known by
offering them technology that could help the Borg defeat Species 8472 in return
for safe passage through Borg space.
With the success of “Star Trek:
First Contact” in theaters, bringing the Borg to “Star Trek: Voyager” was
a natural choice since it had been established since “Star Trek: The Next
Generation” that they originated from the Delta Quadrant so sooner or later
the crew of Voyager were likely to encounter them. The more obvious
reason though was that the Kazon were simply not as engaging an antagonist as
other “Star Trek” aliens so the timing of the feature film and the
appearance of the Borg on “Star Trek: Voyager” would serve the series well
in the four seasons to come, but that is not the only aspect that is notable
about the third season of “Star Trek: Voyager.”
Just as “Star Trek: Deep Space
Nine” celebrated the 30th anniversary of “Star Trek” with the
fifth season episode “Trials And Tribble-ations,” “Star Trek: Voyager”
paid homage by reconstructing the sets of the Starship Excelsior as
depicted in “Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country” and placing the
character of Tuvok (Tim Russ) aboard as an ensign in the episode
“Flashback.” In addition the crew of Voyager go back in time to Earth
circa 1996 to stop a billionaire businessman (Ed Begley, Jr.) from using a 29th
century Federation Timeship to journey into the future to steal technology that
subsequently causes a chain reaction that destroys the entire solar system.
“Future’s End, Parts 1 & 2” is pretty engaging not only because it is
always fun to see Star Trek characters interact with our own contemporary times,
but because Begley plays a great adversary for the two-part adventure. He may be
at a disadvantage in some ways, but he has enough of an understanding of 29th
century technology to give Janeway (Kate Mulgrew) a run for her money and he is
just devious enough to make think he might be able to pull it off. This is the
episode where the Doctor gets the mobile hologram admitter that allows him to
have free reign aboard Voyager like the rest of the crew as well as join
away missions, which helps his character grow in new directions throughout the
rest of the series. The idea of a Temporal Prime Directive is something that has
fueled much of the events in the ongoing prequel series “Star Trek:
Enterprise.” There is one question to note though, how does the Federation
decide just what kind of time travel is a violation of that Prime Directive?
Perhaps we will learn what the answer is on the upcoming fourth season of
“Star Trek: Enterprise.”
Q (John DeLancie) returns to make
a galactic indecent proposal to Janeway in “The Q And The Grey,” which
explores the ramifications and consequences from the events that occurred in the
second season episode “Death Wish.” “Star Trek” is full of paradoxes and
contradictions that at times really make no sense, but since death is usually
not final in “Star Trek,” how could the omnipotent Q Continuum truly
consider one of their own dead since they appear to exist beyond the laws of
time and space as we understand them? There is a cheesiness to “The Q And The
Grey” that calls to mind some of the early episodes of “Star Trek: The Next
Generation” as well as the original series, but I think that gives it a bit of
charm. The outcome of this episode is explored later in a seventh season episode
of the series too. The Ferengi who were lost in a wormhole in “The Next
Generation” episode “The Prize” return in the “Voyager” episode
“False Profits.” Other noteworthy season three episodes “The Swarm,”
“Fair Trade,” “Blood Fever,” “Unity,” “Distant Origins,” and
“Worst Case Scenario.”
All of the episodes in this third
season DVD box set are presented in their original (1.33:1) broadcast aspect
ratio and like the previous seasons, these shows look great too. The English
Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround Soundtrack mix is actually quite dynamic though still
understandably limited when compared to some feature film mixes. An English
Dolby Surround Soundtrack and English Captions and Closed Captions for the
hearing impaired are also encoded onto all seven discs as options.
Extra features include “Braving
The Unknown: Season 3” (13:10), which gives the expected retrospective behind
the scenes overview of the show’s production at that time and there are
interviews with Ethan Philips and Jennifer Lien in respective featurettes about
their characters of “Neelix” (12:05) and “Kes” (12:03). There is also a
featurette devoted to the making of the episode “Flashback” (13:36) that
features a new interview with George Takei as well as the expected featurettes
covering the special effects (16:56) and science behind the fiction (10:40) with
series science advisor Andre
Bormanis. A season three still photo gallery and at least six Easter eggs that
run between just over a minute to four minutes each are also included along with
a trailer for the “Star Trek Experience: Borg Invasion 4D” attraction (: 57)
in Las Vegas. The interactive menus feature a Federation shuttle and are fully
animated with transitions to standard interactive still frame menus that are all
easy to navigate.
A
great set of episodes as a whole, “Star Trek: Voyager: The Complete Third
Season On DVD” box set is available at retailers on and offline now from
Paramount Home Entertainment.
©
Copyright 2004 By Mark A. Rivera
All Rights Reserved.
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