5 Best Star Trek: Voyager Two-Part Episodes
We narrow down the best two-part Star Trek: Voyager episodes.
As franchises go, Star Trek has always been known for its episodes first and its movies second. Every now and then, though, Star Trek shows like Voyager would have their cake and eat it, too, by having two-part episodes that functioned as a kind of mini-movie. Voyager actually had a dozen of these two-parters, but by using all the logic and precision of Tuvok, I’ve narrowed the list down to the five best two-parters that you need to stream on Paramount today.
5. Future’s End
Most of Star Trek: Voyager’s two-part episodes on this list dive into very serious subject matter. Those are the high-stakes, high-drama episodes that put our beloved characters in constant peril. Perhaps because of how common the serious eps are, though, I’ve found that I love “Future’s End” a bit more every time I watch it.
The premise is vintage Star Trek: after a confrontation with a strange traveler from the future, Voyager and her crew are flung far into the past to the year 1996, where they must find and stop a man whose mad science threatens to destroy countless lives in the future. While the stakes are high, the episodes frequently find humor in showing how our favorite characters navigate ‘90s fashion and West Coast culture. Plus, Sarah Silverman absolutely kills it in a cameo role, and if you aren’t shipping her and Tom Paris by the end of the episode, you simply have no soul.
4. Caretaker
Even during its initial run, many fans criticized Voyager for going off the rails compared to the reliable quality of The Next Generation and the increasingly ambitious storytelling of Deep Space Nine. However, this younger Star Trek show really hit the ground running with its two-part pilot, “Caretaker.” And even the show’s biggest haters acknowledge that this is one of the best Star Trek pilots (and episodes) in the entire franchise.
We are introduced to our initial Starfleet crew, which ranges from straight-arrow Vulcan Tuvok, kickass Captain Janeway, and wet-behind-the-ears Ensign Kim. But we also get introduced to the bad boys and girls of the show: ex-con Tom Paris and the terrorist Maquis led by Chakotay. This first two-part episode gets a lot of mileage out of showing how these former enemies must work together to survive when stranded in the Delta Quadrant, and even if that tension is lost in later episodes, it really shines here.
3. Scorpion
When it comes to Star Trek: Voyager’s two-part episodes, there are a lot of reasons we recommend fans watch (or re-watch) “Scorpion.” First, this is the episode that brings the Borg back in a big way, and second, it introduces a scary new alien race powerful enough to give the Borg a “collective” run for their money. Mostly, though, this two-parter is remembered for introducing Jeri Ryan’s Seven of Nine to the show.
In retrospect, it’s amazing how pitch-perfect Ryan’s Seven of Nine was from the very beginning. Her casting was viewed with skepticism by fans who rightfully sussed out that producer Rick Berman cast a voluptuous woman and made her dress in a skintight catsuit in order to forcibly add sex appeal to the show. The joke was ultimately on Berman, though: Ryan’s acting was so good and the Seven character was so fully realized that she became a fan-favorite, both on this show and when she returned to the franchise in Star Trek: Picard.
2. Year of Hell
Honestly, I love “Year of Hell” as an amazing Star Trek: Voyager two-part episode, but it’s tough to watch it and not wish that the writers had stuck to their original idea of expanding this plot to cover the entire season. That’s because the plot is simply awesome: aliens led by Kurtwood Smith keep altering the timeline, and he’s not afraid to destroy anyone who gets in the way of his insane plan. This includes the crew of Voyager, and over the two episodes, we see that crew and especially the ship go through the kind of hell that, frankly, we’d never really see again.
Out of all the Star Trek shows, Voyager was particularly bad about always hitting a “reset button” at the end of the episode so that everything from major ship changes to occasional character development doesn’t really carry over into the next ep. Because “Year of Hell” takes place over months, we get to see characters grapple with the long-term implications of the damage (both physical and emotional) they have sustained. It’s not just a good Star Trek episode…it is, quite frankly, what the show should have been like from the very beginning.
1. Endgame
Ok, before you throw anything at me, I get it: as far as Star Trek: Voyager episodes go, declaring “Endgame” as the best two-part story will be divisive. After all, the plot is driven by the idea of Janeway traveling from the future to our present in order to save her crew, and if the character was willing to violate the Prime Directive like this, the ship would never have ended up in the Delta Quadrant. If you can get past that, though, there is a lot of fun to be had in a story that gives us a double dose of a character as compelling as Janeway.
The story itself is fairly compelling as well, as Future Janeway’s plans involve using future technology to finally strike at the Borg and their Queen from a place of strength. We get to see the crew at their best in this ep, and we get more than a few awesome action scenes. And we even get to see the Borg get a comeuppance they are still dealing with by the end of Star Trek: Picard, cementing once and for all that it was Janeway and not Picard that was the ultimate foe of the Collective.
