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Star Trek Voy - Season 5 - Episode 01

Star Trek Voy - 5x01 - Night

Originally Aired: 1998-10-14

Synopsis:
Voyager traverses a night-like void in space. [DVD]

My Rating - 5

Fan Rating Average - 5.78

Rate episode?

Rating: 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
# Votes: 28 4 5 2 4 8 15 17 36 20 12

Problems
None

Factoids
- Thanks to the vortex in this episode, and the quantum slipstream in the last, Voyager has shaved about 2800 light years from their journey, almost 3 years. This means Voyager has traveled the equivalent of about 22 years since it began its journey. (10 years [Voy: The Gift] + 5 years [Voy: Year of Hell] + 2 years [Voy: Night, rounded down] + 1 year [Voy: Hope and Fear, rounded up] + 4 seasons of conventional warp = 22 years.)

Remarkable Scenes
- Kim's "echos of the void." Very nice music.
- Robot: "Citizen of Earth, surrender! Do not resist!" Seven: "I am Borg." She swiftly disables the robot. Seven: "The robot has been neutralized. May I leave now?"
- Janeway: "Time to take out the garbage."
- Voyager riding the shockwave through the vortex.

My Review
So Janeway finally realized that she made a mistake at the beginning of the series. But her redemption quest was equally short sighted. Seems Janeway is always looking for the quick fix. Fortunately, the crew manage to make her come to her senses, though I don't see why Janeway couldn't have just taught the aliens of this episode how to collapse the vortex themselves, perhaps give them some photon torpedos, then proceed peacefully through the vortex. Except that it would have made the episode less exciting and we can't have that now can we? ;) The Malon captain was a nice character, well portrayed in his luddite desire to preserve the status quo. History has shown us time and time again that conservative viewpoints are often self serving more than they are interested in serving the greater good. Mr. Emck was certainly no exception; he would rather pollute space because it makes him money than embrace new technology and allow it to better his society. Why improve society when you can exploit it? The message the episode sends is true to the spirit of Star Trek but the plot is unnecessarily bloated. The episode is average at best.

The following are comments submitted by my readers.

  • From Timmorn on 2011-04-26 at 4:47pm:
    No Problems?
    What about the inhabitants of the void?

    Where do they come from if there is nothing in this region?
    From what ressources do they build their ships?
    Where do they get their energy from and what do they themselves consume?
  • From Rick on 2013-01-07 at 1:08am:
    "History has shown us time and time again that conservative viewpoints are often self serving more than they are interested in serving the greater good."

    Wow, thats a bold one. Maybe the word "sometimes" would work better than often there. Often sure does imply that if you are a conservative than you more likely than not are a duplicitous, self-serving asshole who doesnt care about the greater good (like the character in this episode). History has also shown that progressive viewpoints "often" have many unintended negative consequences that far outweigh the potential good.
  • From Adam on 2013-03-02 at 6:58pm:
    Problem: Why would the lights in the holodeck simulation go out as well? Makes no sense.
  • From Bronn on 2013-11-16 at 5:33pm:
    Adam nailed a big problem with this. Either the power supply for the holodecks is completely independent and incompatible with the rest of the ship, in which case the lights shouldn't stop working, or else it's not, in which case the lights should go off, and all projections in the room should shut down. I mean, the holodeck does NOTHING but create light projections, so why would the lights stop working while the holographic environment remains? It's so idiotic that Tom can use a holographic flashlight while there's no power for regular lightning. HOLOGRAMS ARE LIGHT, WRITERS!

    Oh, but apparently the holodeck energy isn't incompatible with the rest of the ship, since Tom can reroute power to emergency subsystems from the holodeck. It's all...so...idiotic...it made me literally facepalm.
  • From L on 2014-04-17 at 4:44am:
    Star fleet practice capital punishment by hanging?
    Or was she joking when she said they could all be hung for mutiny?
  • From attractionmagnetical on 2015-04-23 at 10:23pm:
    If the aliens who lived in the void evolved to "exist in complete darkness" without any natural radiation sources and whatnot... why do they have eyes?
  • From Mike on 2017-05-30 at 9:03pm:
    This one's got it all: eerily dark space, fascinating aliens, benevolent mutiny, and a funny holodeck spoof of the kind of 1950s sci-fi that eventually gave us Star Trek.

    The resolution of Janeway's crisis isn't the kind of thing I could see happening on any other series, but I do think it was interesting having her spiral into remorse over her decision. As if all the time in this void has left her alone with her thoughts on it for the first time.

    As for the void aliens: you make a good point, attractionmagnetical. They wouldn't need eyes if they evolved in total darkness. Then again, maybe they moved into the void long ago and had evolved eyes before that. And, maybe they live entirely aboard those vessels, which provide everything they need. Regardless of the problem areas, I think they're a fascinating species.

    And this dilemma, to me, was Trek doing an environmental theme the right way as opposed to TNG: Force of Nature. Emck was a good character, although very short-sighted. After the briefing on Voyager, he was the only member of his species who understood how the to purify and recycle antimatter waste. The technology may have rendered his current business useless, but he could've made a killing as the foremost expert on the new technology among his people. Bad move, dude.

    Great ending, too. Nicely shot with fitting music and a good moment on the bridge with everyone thankful to have come through the void and back on track.

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