star trek voyager the equinox

Equinox, Part II (episode)

• 1.2 Act One
• 1.3 Act Two
• 1.4 Act Three
• 1.5 Act Four
• 1.6 Act Five
• 2 Log entries
• 3 Memorable quotes
• 4.1 Cast and characters
• 4.2 Continuity and trivia
• 4.3 Reception
• 4.4 Video and DVD releases
• 5.1 Starring
• 5.2 Also starring
• 5.3 Special guest star
• 5.4 Guest stars
• 5.5 Co-stars
• 5.6 Uncredited co-stars
• 5.7 Stand-ins
• 5.8.1 Ransom's personnel database references
• 5.9 External links

Summary [ ]

An attacking nucleogenic lifeform knocks Captain Janeway to the deck , but she manages to dodge the thermionic radiation . Yelling for tactical control , she uses a deflector pulse to reinforce the shields – at least, temporarily. The aliens' attacks are halted, but Chakotay lies unconscious; Paris contacts sickbay with no response from The Doctor . Ensign Kim reports there have been two fatalities with thirteen wounded. Kim reports the USS Equinox has gone to warp , but the absence of nucleogenic particles indicates that they have not engaged their enhanced warp drive . Janeway tells him to keep looking, but then there is the ominous sound of interspatial fissures opening.

Meanwhile, aboard the Equinox , Maxwell Burke tells Ransom that with the multiphasic shielding in place, the aliens are staying clear. Noah Lessing reports that Voyager is under attack; Ransom orders him to maintain course, away from the beleaguered Voyager .

Act One [ ]

Voyager bearing the scars of the nucleogenic beings' attacks

Janeway, wandering the corridors of the USS Voyager , comes across the remains of an alien killed in the attack, before being handed The Doctor's mobile emitter by Neelix , who found the device on Deck 9. She takes it and reactivates the EMH back in sickbay, not realizing that it is the EMH program from the Equinox , whose ethical subroutines have been deleted. "The Doctor" explains that when he was taken hostage by the Equinox he deactivated himself to escape. He begins by treating Chakotay, whom Paris has managed to stabilize. While Janeway insists that they focus their efforts on finding the Equinox , Chakotay argues that they need to stop the attacks by the aliens first. While they are debating, they are interrupted by the sound of the interspacial fissures, which indicate the presence of the aliens.

On the Equinox , Ransom tries to persuade Seven of Nine to stop resisting him and to become part of the crew, instead of spending her time in the brig for the remainder of the journey. Seven refuses to comply, however, telling him bluntly that he would be an inferior role model to her, and that Voyager made a mistake to trust him. While trying to treat Seven, Max Burke realizes that their EMH has left them a replacement, and activates The Doctor from Voyager . Seven and The Doctor realize they're stuck on the Equinox together.

Meanwhile, the Equinox prepares to activate their enhanced warp drive, using the aliens as fuel to get back to Earth within several months. However, just as the ship is accelerating, it stalls. The power relays to the modified injectors have been encoded – Ransom quickly realizes it must have been Seven of Nine. He tries to get her to give him the codes, but Seven refuses again. Burke suggests extracting the codes themselves if she won't give them. When The Doctor protests, Ransom simply deletes his ethical subroutines, and gets him to extract the information by any means necessary.

Harry and a nucleogenic lifeform

On Voyager , Chakotay and Harry Kim have come up with a way that may allow them to communicate with the lifeforms. Despite misgivings, they drop the shields around the bridge and send the message. An alien appears, flies over to Kim's station and shrieks unintelligibly at the ensign for a moment, then disappears into its realm. However, the shields are attacked again. Another deflector pulse is activated, but it loses power quickly. Janeway, who is growing more impatient, gives an order to repair the warp drive so they can pursue the Equinox . When Chakotay asks to take another shot at the message to the aliens, she rudely dismisses him. Over in the ready room , Chakotay tells Janeway that he understands her anger towards Ransom who has betrayed everything the Federation and the uniform they are wearing stands for, but that she cannot compromise the safety of this ship to satisfy some personal vendetta. She tells him that she appreciates his candor, but that even so, she is not going to stand for Ransom continuing to murder and torture another lifeform so he can get home faster. She vows to hunt him down no matter how long it takes, no matter what the cost and if he wants to call that a vendetta, then he can go right ahead.

Act Two [ ]

Ransom, who is hiding the Equinox in the atmosphere of a planet so they can make the repairs, checks in with The Doctor, who reveals that in order to access the information in Seven, he will have to remove her cortical array which contains an index of her memory engrams . By doing so, however, all of Seven's higher brain functions will be severely damaged. Ransom pleads with Seven to give him the codes, but she refuses. He says that doing this to her is not easy for him but that she leaves him no choice. Seven states that he uses that phrase quite frequently: destroying lifeforms to obtain his goals and then claim that they left him no choice. She stubbornly tells him that he will have to destroy her to obtain the codes. The Doctor proceeds.

Chakotay is summoned to Janeway's ready room – she notes it's unlike him to submit recommendations in writing, holding up a PADD . Commenting on their last conversation he tells her that this was the only way he thought he could interact with her. However, Janeway refuses this suggestion, namely getting in touch with the Ankari , the race who introduced Ransom to the nucleogenic lifeforms, as well. She argues that this would take them 50 light-years off course and waste their time. She notes that from studying Ransom's service record, she found that he has the tendency to hide when he is being pursued. She asks Chakotay to use astrometrics to find likely hiding places, such as a nebula .

Voyager begins its attack on the Equinox

Equinox , meanwhile, still in hiding in the planet's atmosphere which shields them from Voyager 's sensors, continues repairs. Ransom sends Lessing and Angelo Tassoni down to mine some dilithium while he takes a break to use his synaptic stimulator , a device which allows him to experience various alien vistas. The pair beams down, but is captured by a Voyager away team , Paris and Chakotay. On the bridge, the Equinox EMH tries to warn Ransom that Voyager has found them, and that they have polarized their hull to mask their approach. His communication gets cut off and Ransom orders for battle stations.

Act Three [ ]

Voyager launches a torpedo at the Equinox

Voyager and the Equinox engage in a brief battle, with Voyager taking the Equinox weapon systems off-line. Not willing to accept defeat, Ransom takes his vessel deeper into the planet's atmosphere at a 60 degree vector. Voyager follows, but has to retreat when the deflector , which they are relying on to protect the vessel against the lifeforms, begins losing power in its attempts to protect the vessel against the atmosphere. Equinox escapes to warp, while Voyager is forced to repair its primary systems first before being able to pursue.

Voyager chases the Equinox the thermosphere

Janeway interrogates Lessing, whom she has tied up on a chair in the cargo bay . She threatens to drop the shields in the room and let the aliens in if he doesn't tell her Ransom's tactical status. Getting nowhere with him, she goes outside with Chakotay, and drops the shields. Chakotay quickly realizes Janeway isn't bluffing, and asks her to stop what she is doing, that she is going too far; she insists that Lessing will break while Chakotay states that he won't. When she refuses to do so, he first tries to raise the shield but finds only Janeway can. He then goes in himself and rescues Lessing, saving him in the nick of time. Telling Lessing that he has proved his loyalty to his captain to himself, compromises and has him tell everything he knows on the Ankari. Janeway clearly disapproves, but doesn't interfere.

Janeway agrees to try and find the Ankari vessel less than 2 light-years away. When everyone else is dismissed from the briefing, however, she confronts Chakotay, telling him that even though in the past they had their disagreements, he still never openly opposed her. Chakotay argues that she almost killed Lessing today and that this wasn't about rules and regulations, but about right and wrong; upon warning her that he won't let her cross that line again, she relieves him of duty until further notice.

Act Four [ ]

Ankari summoning the nucleogenic lifeforms

Voyager pursues an Ankari ship, but it does not respond to Voyager 's hails. Janeway orders Tuvok to use a tractor beam on the ship. Tuvok points out the Ankari have done nothing, but is ordered to "just do it". The Ankari recognize Voyager as a Starfleet vessel and are aware of the Equinox crew's actions. Janeway says her crew did nothing wrong. The Ankari captain agrees to act as a translator for the "Spirits of Good Fortune," but states that Voyager 's crew will have to be the ones to convince the lifeforms.

Voyager returns to its search for the Equinox

Speaking with them in the cargo bay, the lifeforms demand the destruction of the Equinox as retribution. It turns out they can perfectly understand the crew; it is the crew that cannot understand them. Tuvok tries to persuade them that they will punish the Equinox crew in their own way, via imprisonment, but the lifeforms don't believe they would harm their own kind. Janeway tells them the Federation has rules that the Equinox disregarded and unusually promises the lifeforms to deliver the Equinox to them if they stop their attacks on the Voyager . Tuvok tells Janeway her behavior is irrational, reminding her the lifeforms will kill the Equinox 's crew but Janeway overrules him to the point of threatening to confine him to quarters just like she did Chakotay. The lifeforms accept Janeway's offer.

The mysterious woman is revealed to be Seven of Nine

On the Equinox , Burke informs Ransom they only have enough "fuel" to jump another 500 light years and will need more "fuel," which Ransom forces him to admit is a euphemism for the dead aliens. Burke coldly acknowledges they will they need to murder several more. Ransom then goes to the lab to see The Doctor, who is about an hour away from finishing with Seven and is singing with her, having triggered her responses. Ransom has another moment of reflection on having "no choice" when The Doctor points out Seven stood in his way of getting his crew home, giving him no choice. He leaves to escape the conflict he's in via the synaptic stimulator.

Reacting violently to Ransom's self-denial, Seven transforms into one of the beings

Although the stimulator is only designed to view landscapes, being nowhere near as advanced as a holodeck , he sees someone in it: he is amazed to discover it is Seven of Nine, who asks, then demands that Ransom find another way home. Seven turns into a nucleogenic lifeform, at which point Ransom ends the program. Burke summons him to the bridge at the same time, as Voyager has found them again.

Act Five [ ]

With Voyager only 58,000 kilometers away and closing fast, Burke suggests hiding in a class 2 nebula less than one light year away. Ransom declines and instead orders the starship to open communications, preparing to surrender to Janeway and make peace with the aliens. Burke doesn't want to accept surrender, sends Ransom to the brig, and takes control of the ship . Marla Gilmore points her phaser at Ransom and takes him away. Burke contacts the Equinox EMH aboard Voyager and asks him to find the vessel's current shield frequency .

Voyager forces the Equinox out of warp

Voyager opens fire on the Equinox , and the two ships engage in combat while at warp. Gilmore leads Ransom to engineering and lowers her phaser , confessing that she is on his side and wants this to end as much as he does. The two begin trying to access the transporter controls.

Voyager chasing the Equinox

The Equinox fires at Voyager

Voyager destroys the Equinox port warp nacelle , and the ship falls out of warp and to one-quarter impulse, leaking plasma . Voyager continues to pursue, still firing its weapons. The EMH transmits the shield frequency to Burke. Voyager moves in, preparing to engage a tractor beam , while Burke manages to fire torpedos through the shields despite Tuvok rotating the shield frequency every ten seconds, Voyager suffers extensive damage, including a hull breach on deck 4 and the loss of the weapons array and impulse drive . Then Ransom hails the ship and tells Janeway he's ready to surrender, but cannot due to Burke's mutiny ; however, he has isolated the transporter controls and can transport the Equinox crew to Voyager . He advises her to have guards ready, as not everyone may be happy to see her. Janeway agrees, telling her crew that Ransom is a Starfleet captain after all, even if he forgot that for a while.

The Equinox EMH contacts his crew…

…and gives them Voyager 's shield frequencies

Burke isn't ready to surrender just yet, however, and places a force field around the bridge. On Ransom's order, Gilmore transports herself and two other crewmembers to Voyager along with Seven of Nine, while Ransom takes control of his ship's shield grid. They also transfer The Doctor's program back to his sickbay, with ethical subroutines restored. The Equinox EMH threatens to blow out every holoemitter in the room with planted photonic charges set to a command sequence, but the Voyager Doctor simply deletes him, thus stopping his transmissions to the Equinox .

Ransom, still in engineering, contacts his bridge. He tells the stunned Burke that he has dropped the shields around the ship, except for the bridge and his current location. The vital systems are exposed. Burke refuses to transport to Voyager despite his captain's pleas – instead, he tries to lead the three remaining bridge crew to the nearby shuttlebay two decks down, to escape on their last remaining shuttle , but en route the aliens attack and kill them all.

The destruction of the Equinox

As the lifeforms attack the Equinox warp core, Ransom hails Janeway. He tells her that his ship is about to explode, and he has to get it to a safe distance from the immobilized Voyager . Janeway tries to get Ransom off, asking him to set auto-navigation . He refuses, saying he has no time. He tells her that she has a fine crew and has her promise him to get them home. Having set a course away from Voyager , he wears his synaptic stimulator one last time, looking at a beautiful beach. A moment or two later, Equinox explodes.

The surviving Equinox crew members stripped of rank by Janeway

In sickbay, The Doctor is distressed at how he became a "Jekyll and Hyde" with a push of the button; Seven of Nine promises to help him put in safeguards so he will not experience that again.

In the briefing room , after dressing down and harshly rebuking the five former and surviving Equinox crew members ( Noah Lessing , Marla Gilmore , James Morrow , Brian Sofin and Angelo Tassoni ), Janeway ordered them Stripped of rank , telling them that from now on they will serve as crewmen on Voyager , their privileges will be limited, and they will work under close supervision for as long as she deems fit. They will need to earn her trust this time. They are escorted away by Tuvok.

Heading out the other way onto the bridge with Chakotay, the subdued Janeway wonders how the crew is doing. Chakotay says that Neelix has organized a potluck to boost morale. In a silent moment, she tells him that he may have had good reason to stage a little mutiny of his own. Chakotay admits that the thought had occurred to him, but that it would have been "crossing the line." This strikes a chord with the captain, who reflects upon how close her recent actions had come to being no better than that of the Equinox and Captain Ransom.

She then notices the dedication plaque of Voyager that has fallen down for the first time in all these years. Wiping it off, Chakotay suggests putting it back where it belongs – mirroring the earlier fall of the Equinox plaque and a similar conversation she had with Ransom…

Log entries [ ]

• " Captain's log, supplemental. Our warp drive's back online, but repeated sensor sweeps have failed to locate the Equinox . "
• " Captain's log, supplemental. With the Equinox destroyed, the aliens have withdrawn to their realm. I've reinstated Chakotay and we've set a course for home. "

Memorable quotes [ ]

" You destroy lifeforms to attain your goals then claim that they left you no choice. Does that logic comfort you? "

" Please state the nature of the… [looks around] don't bother. "

" You know, Janeway's not the only one who can help you explore your Humanity. " " You would be an inferior role model. "

" This man betrayed Starfleet. He broke the Prime Directive, dishonored everything you believed in, and threw Voyager to the wolves. " " Kazon, Vidiians, Borg, Hirogen, Malon. We've run into our share of bad guys. Ransom's no different. " " Yes, he is. You said it yourself. He's Human. "

" We've almost got him. One more torpedo ought to do it! " " Captain– " " Fire! "

" What the hell is he doing? Follow him! "

" We all make our own Hell, Mr. Lessing. I hope you enjoy yours. "

" Do these programs have people in them? " " No, just landscapes. "

" I'm warning you: l won't let you cross that line again. " " Well then you leave me no choice. You are hereby relieved of duty until further notice. " " What's happened to you, Kathryn? " " I was about to ask you the same question. "

" Tractor beam. " " Captain, the Ankari ship has done nothing to… " " Just do it. "

" I will summon them, but you must talk to them. You must convince them. "

" They say, they want the Humans to die. " " A difficult place to start a negotiation. "

" This isn't the brig. " " I know. I'm with you, sir. Let's find a way to end this. "

" He's still a Starfleet captain. He may have forgotten that for a while but I believe him. "

" Well, I see you've made yourself at home. " " What are you doing here?! " " Taking back my sick bay! "

" I'm afraid your physician's no longer on call. "

" You've got a fine crew, Captain. Promise me you'll get 'em home. " "I promise."

" The last time we welcomed you aboard, you took advantage of our trust. You betrayed this crew. I won't make that mistake again. Noah Lessing, Marla Gilmore, James Morrow, Brian Sofin, Angelo Tassoni; you are hereby stripped of rank. You'll be expected to serve as crewmen on this vessel. Your privileges will be limited, and you'll serve under close supervision for as long as I deem fit. This time, you'll have to earn our trust. Dismissed. "

" It's quite disconcerting to know that all someone has to do is flick a switch to turn me into Mr. Hyde. "

Background information [ ]

• From this episode until its finale " Endgame ", Voyager was the sole carrier of the Star Trek franchise, following the Star Trek: Deep Space Nine series finale " What You Leave Behind ". It is also the first Star Trek episode to premiere on its own since " Time's Arrow, Part II " on Star Trek: The Next Generation .
• This was the first Voyager episode on which writer Ronald D. Moore worked, having transferred to the Voyager writers' room after the conclusion of Deep Space Nine . Moore later told an interviewer, " We sat down and approached 'Equinox II' and tried to find what the show was about. What was the point of meeting this ship and this crew and this captain, and what did it mean? We finally landed on this idea that the two captains were going to go in opposite directions. Janeway was going to really feel the same kind of pressures and stresses that Ransom felt, and watch how it could turn a good, by-the-book Starfleet captain into what he had become. At the same time, his interaction with The Doctor and Seven of Nine would rekindle his Humanity. It was this nice, double track approach, but it just got lost in the translation. It has no coherence. You're not sure what's really going on. You've got some potentially good scenes. The scenes between Janeway and Chakotay had some real fire to them, and you kind of felt like she is going off the deep end, a bit. Then she relieves him of duty, and there is this crisis of command between the two of them. But at the end of the episode, it's just a shrug and a smile and off to the next. I just hit the ceiling. I remember writing in the margins, 'This is a total betrayal of the audience. This is wrong. You can't end the show like this. If you are going to do all this other stuff, you can't end the show like this, because it's not fair, because it's not true, and it just wouldn't happen.' "
• Moore continued his criticisms of the episode: " The things that Janeway does in 'Equinox' don't work, because it's not about anything. She's not really grappling with her inner demons. She's not truly under the gun and suffering to the point where you can understand the decisions that she's made. She just gets kind of cranky and bitchy. She's having a bad day; these things keep popping around on the bridge, and we just keep cutting to shots of people grabbing phaser rifles and shooting, and hitting the red alert sign, over and over again. It doesn't signify anything. It's kind of emblematic of the show. There is a lot of potential, and there is a lot of surface sizzle going on in a lot of episodes, but to what end? What are we trying to do? What are we trying to touch in the audience? What are we trying to say? What are the things we are trying to explore? Why are we doing this episode? That was my fundamental question. When I would say, 'What was the point of doing the first part?' there was never a good answer for that. As a consequence, it was hard to come up with the ending to the show that has no beginning. You just start throwing things around. 'Two captains on different courses' at least sounds like an episode. At least there is something in it. Janeway will take something away from that experience, but not in the current version. What does she learn from that experience? I don't know how it's affected her. Chakotay, for all his trouble, he just goes back to work. There is no lingering problem with Janeway; there is no deeper issue coming to the fore. " [1]
• Ronald D. Moore later reworked this concept into the episode "Pegasus" in the reimagined Battlestar Galactica series. The Pegasus experiences a crisis similar to the one encountered by the Equinox : alone in Cylon controlled space and with only half its crew, the commanding officer of Pegasus forces refugees into service and takes critical supplies and parts, and then leaves the refugees' shipmates to die.
• It's unclear how and when The Doctor's ethical subroutines were re-instated, as it seems they had been by the time he returned to Voyager . It is possible that Ransom restored them once he had decided to co-operate with Janeway.

Cast and characters [ ]

• Despite transferring to the Voyager crew permanently at the end of this episode, Marla Gilmore , Noah Lessing and Angelo Tassoni do not appear again in the series.
• Brian Sofin ( Mark Rogerson ) is one of only two characters from the Equinox to later re-appear, in the episode " Repentance ". James Morrow ( Matthew Cannon Hanson ) appeared in " Drive " and " Author, Author ".

Continuity and trivia [ ]

• Janeway says in this episode "Borg, Hirogen, Malon. We've run into our share of bad guys," referring to species that Voyager first encountered in " Scorpion ", " Message in a Bottle ", and " Night ", respectively.
• The Doctor may have been referencing the events of " Darkling " when he says "It's quite disconcerting to know that all someone has to do is flick a switch to turn me into Mister Hyde." Indeed, "Darkling" is considered by Robert Picardo to be "pretty much a classic 'Jekyll and Hyde' story".
• Harry Kim confirms two deaths of Voyager crew in this episode, with a further death being registered by Tom Paris in Sickbay. These three deaths mark the 20th, 21st and 22nd confirmed deaths of Voyager crew since the pilot episode " Caretaker ", the previous death having occurred in the fourth season episode " One ". This would put the crew complement as of the end of this episode at 148, given the crew complement of 146 that was most recently established in " Someone to Watch Over Me ", and the addition of Noah Lessing , Marla Gilmore , James Morrow , Brian Sofin and Angelo Tassoni to the crew.
• Voyager fires at least seven photon torpedoes in this episode, four having previously been used in " Think Tank ". This brings the total number of torpedoes confirmed to have been used by Voyager over the course of the series to 60, a total which exceeds the irreplaceable complement of 38 that had been established by Chakotay in the first-season episode " The Cloud ".

Reception [ ]

• This episode was nominated for an Emmy Award for Outstanding Sound Editing for a Series.

Video and DVD releases [ ]

• UK VHS release (two-episode tapes, Paramount Home Entertainment ): Volume 6.1, 28 February 2000
• In feature-length form, as part of the UK VHS collection Star Trek: Voyager - Movies : Volume 3 (with "The Killing Game"), 5 February 2001
• As part of the VOY Season 6 DVD collection

Links and references [ ]

Starring [ ].

• Kate Mulgrew as Captain Kathryn Janeway

Also starring [ ]

• Robert Beltran as Chakotay
• Roxann Dawson as B'Elanna Torres
• Robert Duncan McNeill as Tom Paris
• Ethan Phillips as Neelix
• Robert Picardo as The Doctor
• Tim Russ as Tuvok
• Jeri Ryan as Seven of Nine
• Garrett Wang as Harry Kim

Special guest star [ ]

• John Savage as " Captain Ransom "

Guest stars [ ]

• Titus Welliver as Max Burke
• Olivia Birkelund as Marla Gilmore
• Rick Worthy as Noah Lessing

Co-stars [ ]

• Eric Steinberg as Ankari
• Steve Dennis as Thompson
• Majel Barrett as Computer Voice

Uncredited co-stars [ ]

• David Keith Anderson as Ashmore
• Majel Barrett as Narrator
• Tarik Ergin as Ayala
• Sylvester Foster as Timothy Lang
• Matthew Cannon Hanson as James Morrow
• Joyce Lasley as Lydia Anderson
• Robert Picardo as the Equinox EMH
• Drew Renkewitz as Equinox command officer 1
• Mark Rogerson as Brian Sofin
• Brian Simpson as Angelo Tassoni
• Equinox command officer 2
• Equinox operations officer 1
• Equinox operations officer 7
• Voyager command casualty

Stand-ins [ ]

• Brita Nowak – stand-in for Jeri Ryan

References [ ]

adverb ; amputation ; Ankari ; Ankari vessel ; Astrometrics ; atmosphere ; auditory processor ; banter ; beach ; " BLT "; brig ; casualty report ; chestnut ; class 2 nebula ; cognitive skill ; confined to quarters ; cortical array ; cortical node ; crouton ; damage ; decihertz ; dedication plaque ; deflector ; deflector pulse ; " Dem Bones "; deuterium ; Earth ; Epsilon IV ; ethical subroutine ; fairy ; freedom ; gas giant ; ground squirrel ; heart ; hell ; high warp ; higher brain function ; holodeck ; Hyde ; inertial damper ; interspatial fissure ; kilometer ; language ; logic ; McKinley Park ; memory engram ; meter ; morality ; " My Darling Clementine "; nebula ; neural interface ; Nova -class ; nucleogenic lifeform ; nucleogenic particle ; occipital node ; ocular node ; offline ; olive branch ; parthogenic atmosphere ; personal vendetta (aka "vendetta"); phaser burn ; photon torpedo ; photonic charge ; place ; plasma ; poison ivy ; polarized hull plating ; port ; potluck ; power core ; power relay ; reticular node ; Regellian blood worm ; role model ; salad ; sensory node ; service record ; Shakespeare, William ; shield frequency ; stripped of rank ; surrender ; synaptic stimulator ; tactical control ; Tenkaran coast ; Terrelian seapod ; torture ; tractor beam ; Type 6 shuttlecraft ( Equinox shuttlecraft ); vein ; vessel ; warbird, Romulan ( unnamed ); warp engine

Ransom's personnel database references [ ]

Klingons ; Klingon Bird-of-Prey ( unnamed ); Romulan Neutral Zone ; T-Tauri type ; Zaphod sector

External links [ ]

• " Equinox " at Memory Beta , the wiki for licensed Star Trek works
• " Equinox " at Wikipedia
• " Equinox, Part II " at the Internet Movie Database
• 1 Daniels (Crewman)
• 2 Jamaharon

• Show Spoilers
• Night Vision
• Sticky Header
• Highlight Links

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http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Recap/StarTrekVoyagerS5E25S6E1Equinox

Recap / Star Trek: Voyager S5 E25, S6 E1: "Equinox"

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This episode provides examples of

• Action Prologue : Equinox under attack.
• Burke calls B'Elanna " BLT " (her initials) and she calls him " petaQ ". When Tom shows symptoms of jealousy over this, Harry calls him "Turkey Platter" (TP being his initials).
• Ape Shall Never Kill Ape : The nucleogenic lifeforms don't believe that humans would really attack other humans, although a quick perusal of any era of human history could clear up that misconception.
• Armor-Piercing Question : After Ransom okays operating on Seven and tries to cover with I Did What I Had to Do . Seven: You destroy lifeforms to attain your goals, then claim that they left you no choice. Does that logic comfort you?
• Arson, Murder, and Jaywalking : Seven forgives the Doctor for turning evil and doing unauthorised brain surgery, but gets a little of her own back by claiming that his rendition of My Darling Clementine was off key. The Doctor challenges her to a duet.
• Asshole Victim : The Equinox crew that mutinied against Captain Ransom following his Heel–Face Turn , including B'Elanna's old flame.
• Asskicking Leads to Leadership : Turns out that there's a Starfleet regulation (specifically Regulation 191, Article 14) stating that in combat situations, the captain of the more heavily-armed ship has overall command. In real-world militaries, it's usually the senior captain who would make the final call, based on date of promotion. (Although the episode's novelization reveals that Janeway only quotes half the regulation, and it doesn't actually allow her to order Ransom and his crew to Abandon Ship .) As Reviewboy summarizes, "When you're flying Brute Force One , you call the shots."
• "Blackmail" Is Such an Ugly Word : When asked, Janeway tells Ransom that she's never broken the Prime Directive , just... "bent" it on occasion.
• Bond One-Liner : After the Doctor deletes the Equinox ' EMH and shuts off the transmission to Burke. Doctor: I'm afraid your physician is no longer on call.
• Broken Pedestal : Ransom is famous in Starfleet for rediscovering a species thought to be extinct and making first contact with them; as a fellow scientist, Janeway always wanted to meet him. Be Careful What You Wish For ... And it turns out that he's been killing sentient lifeforms to use as fuel, violating his oath as a Starfleet officer. Janeway's ensuing Death Glare is almost as deadly as the nucleogenic lifeforms.
• The Chains of Commanding : Ransom cites these for his actions, maintaining that getting the paltry survivors of his crew home necessitated using sentient creatures as fuel. Janeway doesn't buy it for a minute.
• Change the Uncomfortable Subject : When Janeway asks Ransom about his Prime Directive violations, he says something ambiguous about "walking that line once or twice" before drawing attention to the fallen dedication plaque on The Bridge .
• Cliffhanger : An alien swoops down on Captain Janeway... To Be Continued .
• Recognizing that Equinox is otherwise no match for Voyager , Burke has his EMH transmit information about Voyager's Deflector Shields , allowing Equinox's torpedoes to penetrate those shields and damage Voyager directly. By the time the Doctor beats his Evil Counterpart , they've done enough damage to leave Voyager adrift.
• After earlier being outsmarted by the Equinox 's EMH, The Doctor wins round two by simply telling the computer to delete its program.
• According to Star Trek: Insurrection , thermolytic reactions are very bad for organic beings. This episode shows why — anyone who gets hit by one of the subspace aliens suffers a thermolytic reaction that leaves their body desiccated like a mummy.
• To Star Trek: Generations , wherein an enemy vessel knowing a Federation starship's deflector shield frequencies can shoot right through them and inflict damage directly, which is what led to the end of the Enterprise -D. Here, the Equinox EMH takes a less subtle approach of directly reporting Voyager 's shield frequencies straight to his vessel's bridge. At least until the Doctor returns to his sickbay and deletes his Evil Counterpart to put a stop to it.
• Much as in Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan , the protagonists' ship fatally disables their target (also Starfleet) vessel by destroying its port warp nacelle, from behind, using a torpedo.
• A random line near the end of Part 1, stated from Captain Ransom, asking is his alternative to being destroyed, "Thirty years in the brig," seems to be a major easter egg to a line Janeway says in a dream sequence in the episode, "Thirty Days", earlier in that season. Coincidence, I think not!
• The regulation that Janeway quotes which gives her overall command is apparently the same one that allowed Captain Picard to take command of the Starfleet armada in Star Trek: First Contact , as the new Enterprise -E was the most powerful Starfleet ship on the battlefield.
• Critical Staffing Shortage : Equinox is running on a skeleton crew, especially since they went through over half of their Red Shirts only a month after getting pulled into the Delta Quadrant. On the other hand, the survivors help alleviate Voyager 's problems in this area, once they've been knocked down a few pips.
• Cuteness Proximity : Everyone's general reaction to "Captain's Assistant" Naomi Wildman introducing herself to Ensign Gilmore.
• Cutting the Knot : Rather than fight the Equinox EMH for control of his sickbay, The Doctor simply tells the computer to delete him.
• Distinction Without a Difference : When Chakotay says that she's getting a little vendetta-y, Janeway says that she's simply going to hunt Ransom down "whatever it takes, no matter the cost" as though that's not the very definition of the word "vendetta".
• Don't Make Me Destroy You : Ransom would prefer Seven to voluntarily give up the codes she used to lock the Equinox crew out of their alien-powered propulsion system rather than watch the Doctor dissect her brain for them.
• Dressing as the Enemy : The Equinox EMH poses as his Voyager self to free his crewmates in Voyager's brig.
• Seven forgives the Doctor for his actions, and they make a date for some Duet Bonding on the holodeck. This one at least has the excuse of Seven knowing the fact the doctor was more or less brainwashed.
• Despite spending most of the second half baying for his blood, one conciliatory hail from the deposed Ransom is all it takes for Janeway to decide he's acting in good faith again.
• Janeway and Chakotay also resolve their falling-out after a short discussion about their actions and the symbolic way the ship's nameplate fell off the wall. This in particular is said to be one of the things that soured Ronald D. Moore on writing for the show, as he just found it completely ridiculous, even going so far as to write on the episode's script "This is a total betrayal of the audience. This is wrong. You can't end the show like this. If you are going to do all this other stuff, you can't end the show like this, because it's not fair, because it's not true, and it just wouldn't happen."
• Averted with the survivors of the Equinox . They all become stripped of rank and with limited privileges aboard Voyager . Janeway makes it clear that she regrets trusting them off the bat and that it'll probably take a long time and significant effort on their part for her to deem them trustworthy.
• End of an Age : "Equinox: Part I" was the last Voyager episode to air concurrently with Star Trek: Deep Space Nine . "Equinox: Part II" was the first time since the 1992 Star Trek: The Next Generation two-part episode "Chain Of Command" where only one Star Trek series was on the air at a given time.
• Energy Beings : The nucleogenic lifeforms; in fact it was because of this trope they were used as a sort of Living Battery by the Equinox crew.
• Even Evil Has Standards : As ruthless as he is, even Ransom is so disturbed by the EMH singing in harmony with a half-lobotomized Seven that he has to leave the room.
• Evil Counterpart : The Equinox has its own Mark One EMH without ethical subroutines , and who seems as loyal to his crew as Voyager ' s Doctor is to theirs. Of course, given how Ransom treated his EMH, it's doubtful that the Equinox Doctor developed genuine loyalty as Voyager 's did, and more likely that it was programmed into him, making the dark inversion even greater.
• Expository Hairstyle Change : Roxann Dawson gets a new wig which is more wavy than her previous straightened 'do.
• Fallen Hero : Captain Ransom of the Equinox went from a respected Starfleet captain to a man authorizing the systematic murder of sentient beings for the benefit of his crew.
• Finish Dialogue in Unison : Janeway: We've been stranded in the Delta Quadrant for five years. We were pulled here against our will by an alien called— Ransom/Janeway: ...the Caretaker.
• First-Name Basis : Janeway notices that Ransom allows the Equinox crew to address him by his first name. (She is also on first-name basis with her senior staff, but they haven't entered first-name basis with her except for Chakotay.) Ransom: When you've been in the trenches for as long as we have, rank and protocol are luxuries.
• Frictionless Reentry : Averted. When Voyager catches up to the Equinox in orbit of a planet, Ransom has the ship fly into the atmosphere so Voyager will have to pursue. With Voyager still being harassed by the aliens, they can't afford to stress their shields trying to keep up, allowing Ransom to make a getaway.
• Going Down with the Ship : Ransom dies piloting his ship a safe distance away from Voyager as the aliens breach the warp core.
• Good Cop/Bad Cop : Janeway and Chakotay interrogate Lessing. Janeway wants Lessing to give her the tactical status of the Equinox 's captain, Ransom. She threatens to lower the shields in the room, which would allow the aliens an opening to get through and attack him, while she and Chakotay leave the room. Lessing demonstrates his familiarity with this trope, looking at Chakotay and asking "I suppose the plan is that you're going to come to my rescue now, right?" Chakotay, however, admits that "There's no plan as far as I know. The Captain's on her own." When Lessing continues not to talk, Janeway and Chakotay leave the room and Janeway proceeds to do just what she said she was going to do, shocking Chakotay, who thought she was only bluffing. Chakotay ends up going in there to rescue Lessing. (He does crack, but not before being badly spooked.)
• Hallucinations : Ransom tries to escape his conscience in his Happy Place , a personal holoimager, but keeps running into a hallucination of Seven of Nine there that acts as his conscience. It eventually turns into one of the nucleogenic aliens for a Jump Scare .
• Ransom after seeing hallucinations of Seven and a nucleogenic alien.
• Janeway admits at the end that Chakotay had good reason to oppose her as she was slowly becoming Ransom (The end justified the means).
• Hell Is That Noise : The extra-dimensional aliens have to open portals into our universe to attack. When a portal forms, the first thing people hear is a high-pitched, whining hiss. It's pretty creepy for the characters, who are asking, "WHERE IS IT? WHERE IS IT?". If they aren't fast enough, it's the last sound they'll hear.
• He Who Fights Monsters : Janeway slides down the rungs as she relentlessly pursues Ransom.
• Hope Spot : In the penultimate act of part I, the crimes of Ransom and his crew are exposed and they've been locked up, Janeway and her officers are looking for a way to communicate with the creatures, and a peaceful resolution seems imminent. Then the Doctor is disabled by his Evil Twin who releases Ransom and the others from confinement, and then they escape on the Equinox with Seven as their prisoner, leaving Voyager under attack. To Be Continued ...
• Hourglass Plot : Ransom and Janeway swap roles in the second episode, with Janeway feeling the pressure and compromising her ideals, while Ransom rediscovers his humanity.
• Humans Are Bastards : The Equinox crew systematically capture, kill and process the nucleogenic aliens to speed the ship and crew's flight home. As a result, it's understandable why the aliens end up with a massive grudge towards them and their ship.
• Hyde Plays Jekyll : The EMH from the Equinox forcibly trades places with the Doctor on Voyager . In Part I, he helps free his shipmates under the guise of the Doctor, and in Part II, he periodically advises them about Voyager 's plans. After he's brought back to normal on Voyager , the Doctor lampshades this, saying "It's quite disconcerting to know that all someone has to do is flick a switch to turn me into Mr. Hyde.".
• Hyperspeed Ambush : Voyager catches up to Equinox during the climax and destroys one of her nacelles with a couple of torpedoes.
• I Can't Feel My Legs! : Noah Lessing when Harry and Seven find him. Fortunately, his legs are still there, and he's later seen moving under his own power.
• Ice Queen : Seven becomes one of these as she remains Defiant to the End towards Ransom, Burke and their crew. Burke: You might try letting your shields down, or it's going to be a lonely trip.
• I Did What I Had to Do : Janeway doesn't buy it when Ransom tries to justify his actions via the Starfleet rulebook. Ransom: Starfleet Regulation 3, Paragraph 12: "In the event of imminent destruction, a captain is authorized to preserve the lives of his crew by any justifiable means." Janeway: I doubt that protocol covers mass murder. Ransom: In my judgement, it did. Janeway: UNacCEPTable !
• I Have You Now, My Pretty : Captain Ransom is clearly taken by his beautiful captive, and offers to replace Janeway as a role model, but Seven coldly refuses him and continues to appear as a hallucination to needle Ransom's conscience.
• Insignia Rip-Off Ritual : The Equinox survivors are stripped of rank and turned into ordinary crewmen. Janeway: The last time we welcomed you aboard, you took advantage of our trust. You betrayed this crew. I won't make that mistake again. Noah Lessing, Marla Gilmore, James Morrow, Brian Sofin, Angelo Tassoni, you are hereby stripped of rank. You'll be expected to serve as crewmen on this vessel. Your privileges will be limited, and you'll serve under close supervision for as long as I deem fit. This time, you'll have to earn our trust. Dismissed.
• I Owe You My Life : Averted. While Lessing expresses his gratitude to Seven of Nine, his "Angel of Mercy." he doesn't make a quip about her predicament even though it more than likely the fact she about to be dissected is common knowledge on the Equinox crew.
• It Can Think : The first sign that the aliens are intelligent is when they deliberately focus their attacks on a single area of Voyager's shields, collapsing it in seconds and nearly breaking through if not for some quick thinking by Harry.
• Ransom and the Equinox crew have been doing this for a while, starting from using the remains of a nucleogenic alien that died due to bad luck, and moving to systematically capturing and murdering the beings to supercharge their warp drive for a quick(er) flight home.
• Janeway then does this in response, with her Roaring Rampage of Revenge on the Equinox and her crew leading to progressively darker places.
• Just Following Orders : Ransom pleads for leniency for his crew, saying they were only obeying their captain. Janeway's response: "Their mistake." She does show some leniency towards the survivors — that is, stripping them of rank and putting them to work under close supervision for the foreseeable future rather than throwing them in the brig.
• Karmic Death : Certain crew members of the Equinox , prominently Lt. Burke, got seriously owned by the very aliens they were using.
• Knockout Ambush : Tom and Chakotay pull this on Lessing and an Equinox Red Shirt in order to capture them for interrogation.
• Know When to Fold 'Em : Since Equinox isn't built for combat, Ransom's trademark is a willingness to hide and wait out his opponents rather than risk a direct confrontation. This is entirely sensible, considering the only chance he has against Voyager is when they have a mole on board sending the shield frequencies so their attacks can get through.
• Last Words : Ransom: You've got a fine crew, Captain! Promise me you'll get 'em home! Janeway: I promise.
• Loophole Abuse : Ransom, when called out by Janeway on his killing the aliens, invokes a Starfleet regulation permitting a captain to take any justifiable action to stave off the imminent destruction of their ship. Janeway quickly points out that no sane person would consider mass-murder a "justifiable action".

• Men Are the Expendable Gender : Subverted in that out of the entire Equinox crew, only five of them survive, and out of those five, only one of them (Marla Gilmore) is a woman.
• The Mole : The Equinox EMH poses as our Doctor on board Voyager , sending information on Voyager ' s Deflector Shields to Burke during their final battle.
• Mood Dissonance : Ransom is disturbed by Seven Strapped to an Operating Table , mindlessly singing a duet with the Mad Doctor who's operating on her brain.
• Morality Chip : Both the Equinox and Voyager EMH's have their ethical subroutines deleted by the Equinox crew.
• Moral Myopia : Ransom calls out Janeway's moral preaching over his escalating to mass murder against a sentient species to convert their corpses into warp drive fuel, completely overlooking the consequence of his forsaking any sense of morality being that said sentient species members are now out for all his crew's blood, and have been terrifyingly effective at exacting their vengeance.
• Morally Ambiguous Doctorate : The EMH aboard the USS Equinox had his "ethical subroutines" removed so he would gladly experiment on the extradimensional aliens to turn them into a fuel source. The Doctor likewise becomes fully willing to dissect Seven's brain to get access to the codes stored there when Ransom does the same to him, despite their being friends (and his unrequited love for her).

• Names to Run Away from Really Fast : Captain Ransom? Sound like a character our heroes can trust !
• New Old Flame : For BLT. Too bad he turns out to be a treacherous jerk who'd rather let her become a victim of the aliens that were attacking them.
• Noodle Incident : Early in their voyage, the Equinox encountered a species called the Krowtonan Guard. Nothing is mentioned about them except that they are very territorial, and Ransom's decision to cross their space cost the lives of over half his crew.
• The Oner : One of Trek's greatest, clocking in at 2 minutes and 40 seconds; for the entire final scene, the camera follows Janeway from the conference room, where she scolds the Equinox survivors and strips them of their rank, into the bridge, where she reconciles with Chakotay before they notice that Voyager's commemoration plaque has fallen off its place on the wall.
• Perp Sweating : Captain Janeway threatens to let the aliens have their way with an Equinox crew member she captured to make him start talking. Chakotay thinks this is going too far and ends up getting the information out of the crew member without letting the aliens get at him.
• Poor Communication Kills : Retroactive version with the Caretaker, who failed to tell Janeway there was another Starfleet vessel that he'd pulled into the Delta Quadrant before them. If he had, Janeway would almost certainly have gone after Equinox and things would've gone differently for both crews (though it's also worth pointing out that by the time-frame of the Pilot, Equinox had already encountered the Krowtonan Guard and lost half her crew). The Caretaker's lapse can be justified, as he was dying and all his attention was on protecting the Ocampa.
• Powered by a Forsaken Child : Or in this case, dead aliens.
• Redemption Equals Death : Captain Ransom beams Seven and all but his bridge crew to Voyager before allowing the aliens to destroy his ship. Since Equinox has disabled Voyager , his last act is to pilot the ship far enough away so Voyager isn't caught in the blast.
• Red Shirt : In addition to all the casualties on the Equinox , several nameless crewmembers on Voyager bite the dust, one of whom flatlines in Sickbay before the EMH can be brought back online.
• Remember the New Guy? : The Krowtonan Guard, a Delta Quadrant power adjacent to the region of space where the Caretaker's Array was located. Yet Voyager never encountered them before leaving Kazon space, nor did Neelix ever mention them
• Revealing Cover Up : The Equinox crew deliberately flooded the science lab where they conducted experiments on the nucleogenic aliens with harmful radiation to keep the Voyager crew from learning about their crimes. However, B'Elanna and Tuvok see through the ruse, and send the Doctor over to poke around and find out what they're so desperate to hide.
• Revenge Before Reason : Janeway fully admits that she's going to get Ransom no matter what it takes. She eschews Chakotay's suggestion that they prioritize communication with the aliens in favor of hunting down the Equinox , which is what they have to resort to in the end anyhow.
• Roaring Rampage of Revenge : The aliens mercilessly attack the Equinox for killing several of their own. When Voyager flies in to help, her crew become targets as well.
• Sci-Fi Writers Have No Sense of Scale : The Equinox met the Ankari more than 10,000 light-years from where they meet Voyager , but Janeway is later able to meet with them within 50 light-years. It is stated that the Equinox met them on their home world. They are a spacefaring race, and Voyager meets one of their ships. But the group Janeway meets seem to know all about what has been going on (though given that they can communicate with the nucleogenic aliens, that's not surprising)
• Shell-Shocked Veteran : Marla Gilmore panics in turbolifts because they have no escape route in case fissures open up.
• Soundtrack Dissonance : In-Universe — while lobotomizing Seven, the Doctor sings "Clementine" and an improvised variant of "Dem Bones." Ransom is clearly disturbed by it.
• Status Quo Is God : Ronald D. Moore was furious over how the Janeway/Chakotay conflict was just dropped at the end of the episode and never brought up again. Neither do we hear about the former Equinox crew who are on probation, even in "Good Shepherd" which deals with several problematic crewmembers.
• Subverted Catchphrase : The Equinox EMH posing as the Doctor, seeing Voyager 's sickbay littered with casualties. "Please state the nature of the... [looks around] don't bother."
• Tastes Like Friendship : At the end of the episode, Janeway and Chakotay reconcile by agreeing to bring salad and croutons to Neelix's potluck.
• Temporarily a Villain : The Doctor is reprogrammed to perform unethical-at-best medicine by Ransom.
• Too Dumb to Live : When the Doctor makes his way back to Voyager (with his return restoring his ethics), the Equinox -EMH threatens to destroy him by saying he's planted explosives throughout the holomatrix and all it will take is a signal — "Computer, delete the Equinox Emergency Medical Hologram." Whoops.
• Touch of Death : The aliens desiccate any living being they manage to touch, though Plot Armor saves Janeway and Chakotay from glancing blows at the start of the second half.
• Tranquil Fury : Janeway as she informs the Equinox survivors that they're being stripped of rank for their crimes.
• The Unfettered : Evil!Doc enjoys no longer having morality subroutines, as it makes him more efficient.
• Villain Has a Point : Ransom, when he calls Janeway out on judging him for his breaking of Federation principles. While it's ambiguous whether Ransom is telling the truth about his ship's supposed hardships before they began provoking the aliens (he makes the above statement right after Janeway has called him out on multiple Blatant Lies , and the episode gives us naught but Ransom's word on this particular matter), his point still stands, if only in a hypothetical context. "It's easy to cling to your principles when you're standing on a vessel with its bulkheads intact, manned by a crew that's not starving."
• Wham Line : The line that reveals just how far gone the Equinox crew is, before Equinox's EMH disables Voyager's and the Equinox crew retakes their ship: Equinox's EMH : They deleted my ethical subroutines.
• What Measure Is a Non-Human? : The first alien was killed solely by accident, but the Equinox crew began doing it on purpose to get home. When continuing their practices means operating on Seven, Ransom realizes how much he's devalued sentient beings.
• What Happened to the Mouse? : The five surviving members of the Equinox crew are absorbed into Voyager's crew...and we never hear from any of them again.
• What the Hell, Hero? : Chakotay confronts Janeway multiple times over the course of the two-parter, calling her on her vendetta-level pursuit of the Equinox crew. She just removes him from duty to put a stop to it. She threatens to do the same to Tuvok, who wisely shuts up.
• Why Don't You Just Shoot Him? : Rather than argue with or fight the Equinox EMH, the Doctor simply has the computer delete his Evil Counterpart and moves on to stop the transmission of Voyager 's shield frequencies.
• With Due Respect : When Ransom announces his intention to cooperate with Janeway. Burke: Rudy, with all due respect, have you lost your mind? Ransom: Just the opposite.
• Writers Cannot Do Math : In the space of the same conversation between Janeway and Ransom, it's first implied that harvesting the aliens would hardly be of any benefit to the Equinox at all (increasing their warp efficiency by 0.03%), then that just one alien gave the Equinox the same kind of 10,000 light-year jump that Voyager got from the slipstream drive earlier in Season 5, and then that they'd have to harvest 63 more aliens (meaning that each alien would provide around 500 light-years' worth of fuel), which would shorten the journey home to about a year.
• You're Cute When You're Angry : B'Elanna says Tom is cute when he's jealous.
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"Equinox" was a two part episode of Star Trek: Voyager , comprised of the 118th and 119th episodes overall in the series, aired as a cliffhanger 26th episode of the show's fifth season , first aired on 26 May 1999 , and continued in the sixth season premiere on 22 September 1999 . The episode was written by Rick Berman MA , Brannon Braga MA & Joe Menosky MA and directed by Alexander Singer MA . A novelization written by Diane Carey was published in October 1999 .

• 1 Description
• 2.1.1 Part I characters
• 2.1.2 Part II characters
• 2.1.3 Novelization characters
• 2.2 Locations
• 2.3 Starships and vehicles
• 2.4 Races and cultures
• 2.5 States and organizations
• 2.6 Science and technology
• 2.7 Ranks and titles
• 2.8 Other references
• 3 Chronology
• 4.1 Related media
• 4.2.1 Novelization images
• 4.2.2 Episode images
• 4.3 Connections
• 4.4 External links

Description [ ]

Captain Janeway believed she commanded the only Starfleet vessel in the Delta Quadrant —until the USS Voyager came to the rescue of the USS Equinox , a battered starship besieged by a revenging horde of extra- dimensional predators.

Helmed by Captain Rudolph Ransom , the Equinox has been trapped in the Delta Quadrant even longer than the Voyager and the ship and crew show the scars of a constant struggle to survive. But Ransom and his people are hiding something as well: a shocking secret that will ultimately pit captain against captain, starship against starship, in an explosive conflict that may cost Voyager the life of her captain!

A powerful novel based on the thrilling two-part television adventure!

References [ ]

Characters [ ], part i characters [ ], part ii characters [ ], novelization characters [ ], locations [ ], starships and vehicles [ ], races and cultures [ ], states and organizations [ ], science and technology [ ], ranks and titles [ ], other references [ ], chronology [ ], appendices [ ], related media [ ].

• The design of the Equinox was based on an image from the Star Trek: Deep Space Nine Technical Manual .

Novelization images [ ]

Episode images [ ]

Connections [ ]

External links [ ].

• Equinox (novel) article at Memory Alpha , the wiki for canon Star Trek .
• " Equinox " article at Memory Alpha , the wiki for canon Star Trek .
• Equinox, Part II article at Memory Alpha , the wiki for canon Star Trek .
• 1 Ferengi Rules of Acquisition
• 2 Odyssey class
• 3 Constitution class

Equinox Stardate: Unknown Original Airdates: 26 May 1999 and 22 September 1999

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Star Trek Voyager's Best Episode: Equinox

Once again, we're tackling another show in TV Blend's weekly series "___'s Best Episode." Each week a different writer will pick out a different episode of a TV show and argue why it is definitively, absolutely the best thing the show ever did. This week we’re teaming up with our sci-fi sister site Giant Freakin Robot to delve deep into the world of Star Trek

Five years ago the Federation starship Voyager was suddenly and unexpectedly stranded in a remote part of the galaxy by an entity called the Caretaker. The journey home will take them seventy years, but they set a course for Earth anyway, determined to stick to the Starfleet principles which made them who they are. Unbeknownst to the crew of Voyager, they weren’t the only Starfleet vessel stranded by the Caretaker. Another Federation ship, the Equinox, was also stranded and headed for home. But they chose a very different way to get there.

“Equinox” begins when after years of struggling their way through unknown and hostile space, Voyager encounters another Federation ship, the first they’ve seen in their five years of journeying towards home. The Equinox hasn’t fared as well. Constantly under attack by mysterious alien forces, the ship is a shambles. Voyager’s crew searches the ailing ship for survivors, and finds a man who’s been buried under rubble for two days. “Tell me if my legs are still there,” he gasps from somewhere in the smoky darkness. Another crewman leaps out of the wreckage, into the flickering light and begins firing wildly in all directions, screaming about invaders which aren’t there, before collapsing in a heap. Most of the Equinox’s crew is dead and the rest are found inside unconscious, incapacitated, and so damaged by their experience that they’re nearly catatonic.

The Equinox’s Captain, a once highly regarded Starfleet officer named Ransom, tells Voyager’s Captain Janeway that they don’t know why they’re being targeted. The truth is something different, and altogether more terrible.

Equinox is the story of what might have been, the tale of what Voyager could have become, had things gone differently. While Voyager has stuck to all the rules and regulations of being a Starfleet ship, Ransom’s crew has abandoned not only the rules, but any semblance of morality as well. Discovering that strange creatures from another dimension can be sucked into our world, murdered, and converted into a super-fuel they’ve been hard at work slaughtering this alien species and using them for propulsion.

Ransom pleads for leniency, claiming their situation was desperate. They were starving, dying, doomed. He doesn’t think they had a choice, but no one on Voyager’s buying it. Janeway attempts to place them all under arrest, but things only get worse. The surviving Equinox crew escapes, damages Voyager, and leaves them at the mercy of the now hellbent for vengeance alien creatures they’ve been systematically slaughtering.

And then Janeway gets pissed. Over the course of a two-part episode she tries to kill an Equinox crewman to extract information, risks the life of her own people in her quest to catch and stop Ransom, and eventually relieves her own first officer of duty when he disobeys orders to stop her from committing murder. For one two-part episode, Janeway becomes the take no prisoners commander Star Trek fans have always wanted. For a few brief moments she’s Captain Kirk with a chip on his shoulder, a phaser-toting vengeance dealer who will stop at nothing to see Ransom’s reign of terror ended. It’s Janeway at her very best, but that’s far from the episode’s only source of greatness.

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Within the primary “Equinox” story are smaller ones which impact the larger tale, each of them utterly brilliant. The best involves Seven and The Doctor, pupil and teacher, held prisoner aboard Captain Ransom’s ship. Desperate to extract information, Ransom rewrites the Doctor’s program to turn him into a sadistic mad scientist, instead of healer. With Seven on his table, The Doctor beings to dig into her brain, through a series of sick procedures which will kill his friend. His morality removed, The Doctor is more amused than concerned, and as he works he manipulates Seven’s brain to make her sing for his amusement. There, deep within the dark and crumbling bowels of the Equinox, as The Doctor slowly murders his student and best friend, they sing “My Darlin’ Clementine” as a duet. Disturbing doesn’t begin to cover it.

“Equinox” parts 1 and 2 are brilliantly directed by David Livingston who treats it as though he’s in the middle of an epic feature film, instead of a franchise television show of often questionable merits. He weaves the crews of both ships into his story almost seamlessly, everyone playing a pivotal role in the complex narrative that’s about to unfold. By the time the episode’s over, nothing’s left undamaged. Bulkheads have exploded, relationships have imploded, and not everything that happens here will be forgiven. John Savage, guest starring as Rudy Ransom, chews scenery as a conflicted mass murderer on the edge. Kate Mulgrew is more engaged here than she is at almost any other time in the show, and the rest of the cast is working from a brilliant script which gives them all a place to shine.

When people talk about Voyager , Season 4’s “Year of Hell” is usually credited as the series’ best episode. The truth is actually this: “Year of Hell” is the place where Voyager actually started to take risks. Though the show remained utterly inconsistent, “Year of Hell” was a new beginning, a symbol of a rediscovered willingness to push things beyond Voyager’s often stuffy, static parameters. That risk-taking mindset didn’t last all seven seasons, but it peaked at the end of Season 5, resulting in a cliff-hanger two-parter called “Equinox”. It isn’t just Voyager’s best episode, it’s one of the show’s most haunting adventures, a brief glimpse into what Voyager might have been, if they’d always been this willing to take it to the edge.

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Star Trek: Voyager – Equinox, Part I (Review)

Equinox, Part I works better than it should.

Equinox, Part I is sustained by three important factors. The most obvious is the premise itself. Equinox, Part I and Equinox, Part II tell a story that is baked into the DNA of Star Trek: Voyager , and it is surprising that it took the production team five years to tell it. Secondly, Equinox, Part I and Equinox, Part II have the luxury of a fantastic supporting cast with John Savage and Titus Welliver playing the two most senior officers on the eponymous ship. The third factor is a sense of momentum, with Equinox, Part I and Equinox, Part II moving at a tremendous pace.

A Captain’s Ransom.

These three factors compensate for a lot of potential flaws. Equinox, Part I is an episode of television that spends forty-five minutes consciously building towards its cliffhanger. There is nothing wrong with this approach. Many of the best Star Trek cliffhangers, especially season finales, are structured as relentless build-up. The Best of Both Worlds, Part I builds to Picard’s assimilation and Riker’s command. Call to Arms builds to the Dominion retaking the station and war being declared. Equinox, Part I builds to the reveal of what Rudolph Ransom did.

Equinox, Part I is an episode that works as sheer and unrelenting build-up.

Too many captains.

Equinox, Part I and Equinox, Part II flow from the premise of Voyager in a number of interesting ways. Most superficially, Equinox, Part I features the first mention of the Caretaker since Night , which provides an interesting book-end to the fifth season. It is surprising that the Caretaker has been such a fringe figure in the mythology of Voyager , given his introduction in the first episode of the series and his importance to the overall mythology. The Caretaker is only mentioned on a handful of occasions across the seven-year run of Voyager .

The Prophets occupy an equivalent position in the mythology of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine , and they served as major players from Emissary through to What You Leave Behind . The Prophets play a key role in the core arc of Deep Space Nine , in episodes like Rapture , Sacrifice of Angels ,  The Reckoning , Image in the Sand , Shadows and Symbols and Penumbra . However, the Prophets also play important roles in episodes that are not explicitly about furthering that arc. They play a part in episodes like Prophet Motive . They are always present.

A Rudy good Captain.

In contrast, the Caretaker seems like an underutilised aspect of Voyager ‘s core mythology. The character’s mate was discovered in Cold Fire , but his actions are only fleetingly mentioned as background material in episodes like Projections , The Voyager Conspiracy , Muse and Endgame . There is a reason for this. In A Vision of the Future , writer Stephen Poe acknowledges that the Caretaker was originally intended as a “get out of jail free” card for the series:

In the corporate world this is known as CYA – Cover Your Ass. The “entity” is a nice little “out” to have lying in the weeds out there somewhere, just in case they need it. If viewer feedback, surveys, and focus groups indicate the series needs to make a fundamental shift, well, they can make contact with this other entity and get home faster than viewers can switch channels.

This explains the production team’s reluctance to explore the implications of the Caretaker, although it seems at odds with the use of Q as a recurring character in episodes like Death Wish , The Q and the Grey and Q2 ; it is well-established that Q is just as capable of getting the ship home with a click of his fingers, but it seems like Janeway never bothers to ask him.

A conversation with himself.

At the same time, the Caretaker seems like a bit of a wasted plot device. The entity plucked Voyager out of the Alpha Quadrant and dumped it in the middle of the Delta Quadrant. What else did the Caretaker abduct? Where else did the Caretaker abduct these aliens from? Just how far could the Caretaker reach? Just what else is floating in the Delta Quadrant, lurking the darkness? The Caretaker is thousands of years old, so what else has the character done in those millennia? What consequences accrue from his actions?

Equinox, Part I uses the Caretaker as a convenient plot device, much like Dreadnought did in the second season. Still, it is an interesting acknowledgement of the show’s history, taking the audience (and the characters) back to the events of Caretaker . The fifth season of Voyager is arguably more focused on the series’ history than any other season; Night finds Janeway reflecting on her decisions since Caretaker , Extreme Risk deals with the destruction of the Maquis, Dark Frontier, Part I and Dark Frontier, Part II reveal the real first contact with the Borg, Relativity revisits Voyager’s launch.

A hole load of trouble.

As such, Equinox, Part I feels like a logical conclusion to the fifth season from a thematic perspective. When Voyager finds another Starfleet vessel afloat in the Delta Quadrant, it provides a strong connection back to Caretaker . This connection is affirmed when the two captains ask each other how they came to be stranded in the Delta Quadrant. They both land on the same name at the same time, “Caretaker.” The Equinox did not drop through a wormhole like the Ferengi in False Profits , nor did it wander into the unknown like the Klingons in Prophecy .

The Equinox has the same origin as Voyager, rendering its name (and the episode’s title) distinctly ironic. The word “equinox” suggests two oppositional forces in equilibrium; a perfect balance between day and night, between light and dark. As such, Equinox, Part I suggests that Captain Rudolph Ransom and the crew of the USS Equinox represent shadow counterparts to Captain Kathryn Janeway and the crew of the USS Voyager. Voyager represents the best in people, Equinox represents the worst. Thrown into the same situation, one prospers while the other collapses.

In darkness dwells.

Equinox, Part I stresses these similarities. “The Equinox is a Nova class ship,” Janeway explains to Chakotay and Seven. “It was designed for planetary research, not long range tactical missions.” This recalls the fact that Voyager itself was originally intended for a short-term recovery mission, a fact repeated as recently as  Relativity . Similarly, Janeway categorises Ransom as a scientist. “He was an exobiologist, promoted to Captain after he made first contact with the Yridians.” This recalls Janeway’s own history as a scientist-turned-captain, again emphasised in  Relativity .

This manifestation of the Equinox as Voyager’s shadow-self represents the culmination of another key theme running through the fifth season of Voyager . Closely connected to the nostalgia permeating the season, the fifth season is populated with alternative versions of Voyager and her crew. Dark Frontier, Part I and Dark Frontier, Part II reimagines the Borg Collective as a matriarchy designed to help Seven of Nine actualise, The Disease features a generational ship on a long journey, Course: Oblivion features a literal copy of Voyager and its crew.

It’s probably best not to force (field) the issue.

As such, Equinox represents the ultimate counterpart to Voyager. It is a ship that operated from the same core premise, that of a lone Starfleet science vessel lost in the Delta Quadrant. However, it developed in a completely different direction. As Brannon Braga explained to Cinefantastique , this was the hook from which Equinox, Part I evolved:

“We knew we wanted to do a cliffhanger,” said Braga. “We decided that we were not going to take the ship home, which is not precluded from happening. I had this image, a ship of people who were stuck in the Delta Quadrant almost as long as we have been, maybe a bit longer, but they have not responded the same way. They’ve done some very, very bad things, including mass murder.”

The Equinox crew have done horrific things in order to survive, made awful compromises in order to stay afloat. Equinox, Part I hints at these decisions quite early in the episode, consciously building toward a series of shocking revelations. The discovery of the Equinox is originally cause for celebration on Voyager, but that joy quickly turns sour as Ransom’s sins come to light.

Here there be monsters.

The contrast between Voyager and the Equinox draws attention to a central tension within Voyager itself. One of the big issues with Voyager from the outset has been the show’s narrative conservatism. Voyager is a series about two crews trapped on the opposite side of the galaxy, with Starfleet and the Maquis forced to work together to get home across seventy thousand light-years of potentially hostile space. This mix of officers and terrorists are embarking upon a long journey, with most estimates suggesting that it will take the ship around seventy years to get home.

In theory, this should make Voyager unique. It should serve to distinguish the ship from the other Star Trek settings. After all, Janeway is not a captain on a mission of exploration, she is a leader trying to get her crew home. That crew includes aliens and terrorists, people who never served in Starfleet and who washed out of the Academy. Combined with the fact that Janeway is a relatively inexperienced commanding officer, one with more experience in the science  than the command division, Voyager should be a very unconventional Star Trek series.

Was it really that hard, Rudy? I mean, you weren’t even the captain who got landed with a bunch of terrorists.

However, from the outset, Voyager has been very clear that it aspires to be “business as usual” in terms of Star Trek storytelling. By the time that Parallax began, the Maquis were wearing Starfleet uniforms and the holodecks were working. The first season made it very clear that the Maquis would be expected to fall in line with Starfleet discipline and that Starfleet’s principles would not be compromised. State of Flux revealed the character of Seska to be a subversive element, but immediately cast her off the ship. Learning Curve had the Maquis learning to be Starfleet officers.

Janeway has always followed Starfleet protocols, even in the depths of the Delta Quadrant. The Prime Directive prevented any hints of compromise in Prime Factors , while Janeway diverted Voyager off-course to follow through on a secret protocol in The Omega Directive . At the same time, Voyager very seldom gave its characters any reason to question their principles. Outside of plot-driving fuel shortages in episodes like Phage or Demon , or occasional references to “replicator rations” , the Starfleet crew never seemed to want for anything.

Commanding attention.

The writers pulled their punches, never throwing the ship into a crisis that required compromise or sacrifice. The ship was torn apart in Year of Hell, Part I and Year of Hell, Part II , but the damage was conveniently reset at the end of the two-parter. The mutiny in Worst Case Scenario was purely holographic. The plot always bent in such a way as to justify the show’s strange creative choices; Parallax insisted that the holodeck’s energy grid was incompatible with the rest of the ship’s systems, Prime Factors revealed the alien technology was incompatible with Voyager.

In some ways, Voyager had it easy. Equinox, Part I acknowledges this repeatedly through the survivors from the other vessel. “Such a clean ship,” reflects Gilmore as she tours Voyager. “I mean, I’m used to falling bulkheads and missing deck plates.” Later, Ransom bristles at Janeway’s indigence. “It’s easy to cling to principles when you’re standing on a vessel with its bulkheads intact, manned by a crew that’s not starving,” Ransom states. Janeway dismisses his criticism. “It’s never easy.” However, there is some sense of truth to Ransom’s argument. Janeway doesn’t know what desperate is.

“If I’d ended up on Battlestar Galactica, they’d understand.”

This is a theme that echoes through the fifth season. The fifth season marked Brannon Braga’s first season as showrunner on Voyager , despite exerting a heavy influence on the direction of the show through scripts like Future’s End, Part I , Future’s End, Part II , Scorpion, Part I and Scorpion, Part II . Braga had long envisaged a gritty approach to Voyager , a storytelling style with more moral ambiguity and compromise than the earlier seasons had allowed. Although Braga never quite got to realise that vision, traces of it bled through in a handful of early fifth season episodes.

Indeed, traces of Rudolph Ransom can be seen in some of Kathryn Janeway’s decision-making in Nothing Human or Latent Image . In Nothing Human , Janeway subjects Torres to a medical procedure against her will for the good of the ship; Ransom does something similar to Seven of Nine in Equinox, Part II . In Latent Image , it is revealed that Janeway deleted some of the EMH’s memory files in order to preserve his utility to crew; it is revealed that Ransom did something similar to his own EMH near the climax of Equinox, Part I .

“Well, except for that time I forced a crew member to undergo surgery against her will and reprogrammed my EMH. But nothing that you could empathise with, Rudy.”

However, Equinox, Part I never acknowledges Janeway’s moral ambiguity. Indeed, the episode paints Janeway as a paradigm of virtue that is very much in keeping with her by-the-book characterisation during the Piller and Taylor years. “I’d like to ask you something, captain to captain,” Ransom inquires early in the episode. “The Prime Directive. How often have you broken it for the sake of protecting your crew?” Janeway responds, “Broken it? Never. Bent it on occasion. And even then it was a difficult choice.”

It should be noted that Janeway’s moral certainty is hard to square with the character as overseen by Brannon Braga. Janeway has been party to all manner of morally questionable decisions; from allying with the Borg in Scorpion, Part I and Scorpion, Part II , to providing the Hirogen with holodeck technology in The Killing Game, Part I and The Killing Game, Part II , to surrendering a weapon of mass destruction (and potentially genocide) to an alien species in Infinite Regress . As such, Janeway’s moral certainty in Equinox, Part I seems somewhat hypocritical.

Betraying core principles.

Then again, Janeway’s position is very much in keeping with the conservative streak that runs through Voyager . As Diana M. A. Relke argues in Drones, Clones, and Alpha Babes , it could reasonably be argued that the conflict between Janeway and Ransom in Equinox, Part I is in someways a metaphor for the culture wars waging in American popular consciousness during the nineties:

Similarly stranded in the Delta Quadrant, the Equinox has fared poorly – and not just because the ship is technologically less well endowed than Voyager. The Equinox has suffered terrible losses, not the least of which is the moral compass of its Captain, Rudy Ransom. Ransom remembers what the Prime Directive is – indeed, it still weighs on his conscience, although it no longer informs his leadership. He exploits his crew’s disciplined respect for the chain of command: like Doctor Crusher, they obey hem because he’s the Captain. Thus has he overriden their scruples and involved them in slaughtering aliens, whose corpses are then converted into a powerful fuel for enhancing the performance of their warp engines and speeding up their return to Earth. When Janeway discovers that Ransom has betrayed every Federation principle she has struggled to uphold, she is so furious that their argument degenerates into the polarised one of rigid moral absolutes versus complete moral relativism, the issue at the very heart of the American culture wars. In essence, theirs is a nasty conflict between humanism at its worst and postmodernism take to its amoral extreme – an interesting departure from Picard’s ongoing debate with Q in TNG.

Voyager tends towards rigid moral absolutes. One of the more consistent recurring anxieties running through the seven seasons of Voyager is a fear about the Holocaust slipping from living memory; this is a fear reflected in episodes like Remember and Memorial . Episodes like Distant Origin and Living Witness rail against postmodernist attempts at historical revisionism, insisting that the past is absolute, no matter how malleable it might appear.

“Don’t worry. Voyager has worked so hard to build a recurring cast that I am absolutely certain that we will be seeing these characters for years.”

Equinox, Part I and Equinox, Part II play as a broad condemnation of the very idea of moral relativism, structured as a retroactive defense of every decision that Janeway has made. Ransom is not a ghost of Christmas Past, but a spectre of Christmas Might-Have-Been. Ransom is a cautionary tale of the dangers inherent in moral compromise. Equinox, Part I and Equinox, Part II suggest that any moral compromise just paves the way for further moral compromise, and that the slippery slope is a sheer drop.

Equinox, Part I establishes that Ransom and Janeway deviated quite early in their journey. Comparing notes, Ransom admits that the Equinox crew “haven’t seen so much as a Cube since the day we arrived.” There is no mention of the Kazon, but it seems like Ransom was plagued by a different war-like species on his arrival in the Delta Quadrant. “Have you ever run into the Krowtonan Guard?” he asks. “That’s how we spent our first week in the Delta Quadrant. They claimed we violated their territory. I gave the order to keep going. I lost thirty nine.”

What the Burke is up with this guy?

In Equinox, Part I and Equinox, Part II , broken social norms are the twenty-fourth century equivalent of Pringles. Once Rudolph Ransom pops, he just can’t stop. Equinox, Part I and Equinox, Part II suggest that even the most harmless of deviations from standard operating procedure can lead to horrific consequences. Tellingly, Janeway’s first real sense that something is wrong on the Equinox comes when Lieutenant Maxwell Burke refers to him as “Rudy.” This is the first broken social norm, and Janeway makes a point to draw attention to it.

“I couldn’t help but notice your crew calls you by your first name,” Janeway observes. Ransom responds, “When you’ve been in the trenches as long as we have, rank and protocol are luxuries. Besides, we’re a long way from Starfleet Command.” Janeway is not convinced, perhaps because it runs counter to life on Voyager. “I find that maintaining protocol reminds us of where we came from and hopefully, where we’re going.” It is this conversation that sets Janeway and Ransom at odds with one another.

Note to self: execute Chakotay the moment he starts calling me ‘Kat.’ Need to send a strong message to the crew.

Equinox, Part I and Equinox, Part II suggest a weird equivalence between this relaxation of command protocol and everything that is exposed after that point. Equinox, Part I and Equinox, Part II suggest that a willingness to abandon a rigid chain of command leads to anarchy, suggesting that Ransom started down the path to mass murder the moment that he allowed his first officer to call him “Rudy.” In the world of Voyager , there can be no compromise. Even the slightest deviation from established procedure is a horrific transgression.

All of this plays as an implicit defense of the Voyager ‘s conservatism; as though, were Janeway to allow the Maquis crew to exist outside of the rigid Starfleet hierarchy, Voyager would only be a few weeks away from building an engine powered by dead aliens. By this logic, Voyager adheres so strictly to Starfleet (and Star Trek ) conventions because they are the only things that prevent human beings from acting like animals. This is arguably a much more cynical view of humanity than that suggested by Deep Space Nine .

Modelling alternatives.

Rudolph Ransom’s rapid descent into moral oblivion is very much in keeping with the outlook of Voyager as a television series. More than any other Star Trek series, Voyager is inherently conservative. The brutal condemnation of moral relativism in Equinox, Part I is in keeping with that conservatism. As Jonathan Merritt notes :

Moral relativism has been a conservative boogeyman since at least the Cold War. Conservative stalwarts like William F. Buckley claimed that liberals had accepted a view that morality was culturally or historically defined—“what’s right for you may not be right for me”—instead of universal and timeless. It’s true that the ethical framework was en vogue, particularly in places of higher education. Liberal college professors stocked conservatives’ arsenals with copious quotes to back up the claim that a squishy, flimsy understanding of morality had taken root in America.

Voyager tends towards an absolutist view of morality, a belief that any moral compromise will lead to disaster. This argument was reinforced in episodes like Alliances , where Janeway briefly considers bending the Prime Directive in order to make peace with the Kazon. Inevitably, all of Janeway’s worst instincts about the Kazon are validated and her earlier refusal to compromise is vindicated.

A panel of experts.

It should be noted that Voyager was broadcast during the late nineties, during a particularly heated phase of the culture wars. Equinox, Part I aired in May 1999, only a few months after the Impeachment of President Bill Clinton . This was a highly emotional period in American politics. Clinton himself has suggested that his impeachment was rooted in morality, a condemnation of his extramarital affair . Those conservatives prosecuting Clinton in the court of public opinion claimed to be acting on behalf of a “moral majority.”

When Bill Clinton survived the impeachment proceedings, some conservative activists were disheartened and claimed that this loss represented a slide in moral decay. Paul Weyrich contended that American culture “has decayed into something approaching barbarism.” However, other conservative voices were invigourated. Shortly after the impeachment hearings, Texas Governor George W. Bush was building his presidential campaign around a doctrine of “compassionate conservatism.”  Bush would go on to win the 2000 Presidential Election.

“And this is the best UPN reception you can get, Seven?”

It is interesting to contrast the absolutist morality of Voyager with the more relativist approach of Deep Space Nine . Although Deep Space Nine was never as cynical as most of its detractors would claim, its morality was a lot more nuanced than that of Voyager . Perhaps the most obvious example is In the Pale Moonlight ; the episode’s most chilling implication was that Sisko was only retroactively trying to impose moral certainty upon his actions, to cover for the fact that he had waded far deeper into moral compromise than he originally intended. Sisko did not know his own limits.

Often, Deep Space Nine confronted characters with tough moral choices that had no clear “right” answer. Sisko had to choose between murdering a squadron of Jem’Hadar in cold blood and sacrificing his own men in Rocks and Shoals , Bashir had to weigh the question of sacrificing more lives in the short-term to save more lives in the long-term in Statistical Probabilities , Worf had to choose between letting Dax die and saving a Cardassian defector in Change of Heart . These are harrowing choices, much more daunting than any choice that Janeway faces on Voyager .

“Why, you have a trustworthy face. Let me tell you about this really cool thing that may be of interest to you, member of unscrupulous and murderous crew.”

However, Deep Space Nine rejects the idea that these tough moral choices lead directly to a moral event horizon. The characters on Deep Space Nine might make moral compromises, but they pointedly reject crude utilitarianism. When Bashir discovers that rogue elements of the Federation have attempted genocide against the Founders in When It Rains… , the rest of the cast are horrified. In What You Leave Behind , the Dominion War ends with an act of compassion and reconciliation, with Odo delivering the cure to the Female Changeling.

As such, it is interesting that Voyager should produce Equinox, Part I just as Deep Space Nine reaches the end of its run. The season finale represents a firm rejection of the ethical nuance of Deep Space Nine . According to Equinox, Part I , the moral universe can be cleanly divided between Captain Janeway and Captain Ransom. There is no ambiguity between them, no shades of grey to divide them. The production team attempt to add some moral shading in Equinox, Part II , but the follow-up struggles in part because it runs so firmly counter to the moral certainty of its predecessor.

“I mean, have you even thought about the environmental implications of this fuel? You monster.”

Of course, Equinox, Part I had a troubled production. It arrived at the tale end of a chaotic season. As Joe Menosky explains to Cinefantastique , the episode was written very quickly and against a very tight deadline:

Explained Menosky, “By the time we got to the end of the season, we were all really exhausted. We didn’t know what in the world we were going to do for the last episode. Brannon and Rick Berman worked out some of this episode. We probably had a week to go before prep, before Brannon came up with an idea that was workable. I just had no hope for it at all. It had the feeling of elements stitched together without a driving point of view [with a] haphazard and clunky structure and story.”

Television production is a tough business, particularly coming to the end of a twenty-odd episode season. The production team on Voyager knew these difficulties first-hand; the bulk of Someone to Watch Over Me was filmed before the ending had even been written.

Heart of darkness.

This haziness is quite apparent watching Equinox, Part I . The season finale is very much an exercise in mood and tone more than story. This is no bad thing. The writers on Voyager have a tendency to focus on plot and action ahead of concerns like theme and character, which can lead to some disjointed storytelling. Often, Voyager seems to cram too much plot into forty-five minutes of television, often twisting and turning along the way. Voyager very seldom allows its plot points room to breath, instead moving along to the next reveal or the next development.

Equinox, Part I is very much an exercise in mood and tone, something reinforced through David Livingston’s direction and Jay Chattaway’s score. The early sequences on board the Equinox capture a sense of unease and creeping dread, a feeling that something horrific has happened on this ship even before the details become clear. Equinox, Part I is ominous and claustrophobic, playing like a horror movie even when the aliens are off-screen. The sets are flood with dry ice, lit sparingly in shades of green, and shot from dutch angles.

Shedding some light on the matter.

Equinox, Part I introduces the Equinox as a ship of the damned, establishing a subtly different tone than the deep-space madhouse featured in Equinox, Part II . Despite the fact that it is a Federation ship, the Equinox looks and feels completely alien. It is dark and foreboding. Debris is everywhere. Even the touchscreens are smeared with dirt and grime. It is closer to the aesthetic of something like Alien or Battlestar Galactica than the usually sterile surroundings of Star Trek .

The plot of Equinox, Part I is fairly simple and straightforward, but the episode works in large part because of its tone. There is an immediate sense that something is “off” about the Equinox and her crew. It initially seems like post-traumatic stress disorder, but it keeps building. Even before the details of their atrocities are revealed, the Equinox crew are conspiring and scheming. “If Janeway’s any indication, these people will never understand,” Ransom warns Burke, without specifying exactly what it is the Voyager crew will not understand.

A Lessing well learned.

Indeed, this sense of tone causes more difficulties reconciling Equinox, Part I and Equinox, Part II . Most obviously, Captain Rudolph Ransom feels like a different character in either half of the two-parter, a plot function bent into whatever shape the story demands. In Equinox, Part I , Ransom is wholeheartedly committed to his cause and bitterly self-righteous. Ransom casually steals a chip from Burke’s lunch while being vague and sinister. Ransom rebukes Burke for eyeing up Voyager’s female crewmembers. “Once we get back to Earth, there’ll be plenty of women.”

Equinox, Part I uses Ransom as a way to establish tone and drive the episode’s central mystery. He is not a particularly nuanced character, in spite of John Savage’s performance. Ransom is a man hiding a secret, and a man willing to do whatever it takes to complete his mission. The version of Ransom introduced in Equinox, Part I has no time for self-doubt or introspection, even though his soul-searching would make more sense during the slow-burn investigations of Equinox, Part I than during the high-stakes chase of Equinox, Part II .

(Ran)som man for one man.

Watching Equinox, Part I and Equinox, Part II back-to-back, it is quite clear that the two episodes were never conceived as a single story. Equinox, Part I and Equinox, Part II both feel loose and improvisational. As Menosky explained to Cinefantastique , the episode was largely written on the fly:

“We clarified the structure halfway through the writing of it. Instead of sitting down and outlining it, and then writing it, we just wrote it. We didn’t even know really where we were headed. We would just write a scene and think what would be cool to come next. We wrote it in a way that was very satisfying creatively, in terms of how the episode and the story actually spun itself out. By the end of the episode, I was really happy with it. It completely surprised me.”

This loose approach to plotting is obvious when Equinox, Part I and Equinox, Part II are watched back-to-back, but are also quite evident even within Equinox, Part I . The very late introduction of evil! EMH in Equinox, Part I is quite clearly a desperate write-around to break Ransom out of captivity.

No need to get bent out of shape.

As a result, there are any number of plot threads seeded in Equinox, Part I that do not pay off in  Equinox, Part II . The relationship between Burke and Torres suggests an interesting source of tension in Equinox, Part I , but it disappears into the background for all but one short scene in  Equinox, Part II . The script for  Equinox, Part II needs to come up with a post hoc justification for why Ransom cannot simply warp away into the distance at the end of  Equinox, Part I . The overall plotting of the two-parter is inelegant to say the least.

However, Equinox, Part I is structured in such a way that it hangs together quite well. For the most part, the plot developments feel organic: the ease with which Burke suggests trapping the aliens in this dimension hints that the Equinox crew have a lot of experience in that area; Gilmore insists that certain technology could not be adapted for Voyager; despite Ransom’s casual allusion to a “wormhole” , it seems unlikely that the Equinox could have made it this far this quickly under its own power. As a result, the episode’s twists fit logically within the framework established.

“Computer, set lighting to mood.”

Production on Equinox, Part I was reportedly quite frantic. In an interview with Cinefantastique , guest star John Savage acknowledged that the on-the-fly nature of the scripting was part of the appeal for him:

They needed a captain. They didn’t have a story yet, and I was excited. It evolved, and every day, a new set of pages. I found quite an interesting moral struggle in the story. It wasn’t simple, and it was very supported.

There are cases where this approach to storytelling can be disastrous. Deep Space Nine had felt a similar crunch during the middle of its final season with Prodigal Daughter , Field of Fire and The Emperor’s New Cloak . However, Equinox, Part I seems energised by this seat-of-the-pants approach.

Where there’s alien residue…

It helps that writers Brannon Braga and Joe Menosky ported over a lot of the core elements from Scorpion, Part I and Scorpion, Part II . This makes sense. Scorpion, Part I and Scorpion, Part II provided the best season-bridging cliffhanger of the seven-year run of Voyager , if not the best two-parter of the entire series. If Equinox, Part I was to be produced under pressure and to a deadline, Scorpion, Part I and Scorpion, Part II could provide a fairly solid structural template for the story being told.

Equinox, Part I borrows a great deal from Scorpion, Part I . Both episodes feature a new computer-generated menace attacking from another dimension, creatures that seemingly have the capacity to kill with a single swipe. ( Equinox, Part I suggests that the touch of the aliens is fatal; the creatures become a lot less fatal in Equinox, Part II , once the primary cast start coming into contact them.) Indeed, the sense of dread permeating the away team mission to the Equinox in Equinox, Part I recalls the same tension during the mission to the Borg Cube in Scorpion, Part I .

Warped perspectives.

Although Equinox, Part I never matches the momentum or tension of Scorpion, Part I , it does have one key advantage. As Menosky conceded to Cinefantastique , the episode has the luxury of a great supporting cast:

For Menosky, the show’s saving grace was a bigger cast. Noted Menosky, “One of the things that is very typical to this series is two alien guest stars, two new sets, maybe a couple of opticals, or the exterior of the planet. When you see that over and over again, it gets really tiresome to watch, and tiresome to write. One thing this did have going for us is that we had four major speaking roles. We had John Savage, who is a really good actor, and other good actors.  As a result we could have interesting character dynamics. You could follow threaded, character arcs in a way that felt bigger than a single episode.”

To be fair, Gilmore and Lessing are pretty bland; the two disappear into Voyager’s lower decks at the end of Equinox, Part II . However, the two major guest characters in Equinox, Part I and Equinox, Part II are played by John Savage and Titus Welliver.

It’s a crewl world out there.

Savage and Welliver do an excellent job fleshing out characters that are not particularly well-defined by the script. Savage lends Ransom a more introspective quality than is typically afforded Starfleet captains, a stillness and a quietness that serves to distinguish him from actors like Shatner, Stewart, Brooks, Mulgrew and Bakula. Savage is also noticeably shorter than Shatner, Stewart, Brooks and Bakula; this particularly clear when he is standing next to Welliver. The result is to suggest that Rudy Ransom is quite different from most of the other  Star Trek captains.

Savage is essentially a character actor, as demonstrated by his long and distinguished career in supporting roles. Equinox, Part I and Equinox, Part II struggle to provide a clear sense of Ransom’s character. He spends so much of Equinox, Part I as an ominous and mysterious figure that his change of heart in Equinox, Part II comes out of left field. However, it is to the credit of John Savage that the character works as well as he does. Savage suggests that there is a lot going on inside Ransom, even if the scripts never convincingly externalise that.

A commanding performance.

Given both the quality of Savage’s performance and the intriguing concept driving the character, it makes sense that Rudolph Ransom has become a popular character outside of his two television appearances. Savage announced plans to reprise the role in a fan film, Equinox: Night of Time , in January 2014 . The fans even hoped to present the fan film to CBS as a potential pilot for a spin-off series . Ultimately, the idea went nowhere. In March 2016, it was announced that Savage would be reprising the role on audio rather than on film .

Equinox, Part I is a mess of an episode, but one held together by a quality supporting cast, an intriguing premise, and a sense of sheer momentum to the cliffhanger. It doesn’t work perfectly, but it works enough.

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Filed under: Voyager | Tagged: braga , equinox , janeway , john savage , moral absolutism , moral relativism , rudy ransom , star trek , star trek: voyager |

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Reblogged this on O LADO ESCURO DA LUA .

Like much of Voyager, I’ve not seen these since they originally aired. At the time part one aired, I found myself thinking that it would have been nice if Voyager had acknowledged and faced some of the hardship that the Equinox alludes to. I’m not saying that we have Janeway and company abandon the Starfleet ideals they’re trying to live up to and maintain, but at least have given some lip service to the idea of when and if the Prime Directive can or should be broken.

Yep. The big issue with Equinox is that it makes this contrast binary, when it should be more nuanced and complex. Ransom isn’t a rogue or a renegade. Ransom is a mass murderer, and Equinox equates that with him allowing his crew to call him “Rudy.”

Two very good episodes. I wish that Voyager had showed us the crew and ship getting this battered and tested for a couple of seasons at least. Year Of Hell and these episodes give us a taste of what this series could have been like if done right.

I much prefer the first part to the second, but it is very much a tease of what might have been for Voyager.

This was the kind of obvious idea which fandom really responded to; it was Voyager’s last great gasp, the final time Trek fandom was actually enthusiastic about the program and talking it up (then part 2 aired).

This is good by Voyager standards (damning with faint praise) but would have been absolutely stellar if the writing had been willing to confront the fact that Janeway has (as Darren has noted) committed various immoral and anti-PD acts for the sake of her crew. Instead hiding behind the Prime Directive, I would have liked to see Janeway draw a line in the sand that, for all the compromises she had made, she would never go as far as Ransom. Instead, utter hypocrisy and absolutism. Much like ‘Alliances,’ the script makes the error of treating Janeway and the Prime Directive as infallible.

That’s fair. The concept is simplistic, to the point it’s surprising that it took the show five years to do this story. And you’re right about the moral simplicity here. It’s black and white. It’s either “all Prime Directive, all of the time” or “engine run on dead aliens.” There is no middle ground. It’s clumsy and it’s awkward. And it feels like the Voyager writers trying to justify their conservative approach to narrative. “See, Janeway couldn’t let the Maquis wear their own uniforms, or she’d be building an engine powered by dead aliens.”

Darren, have you seen ST: Discovery? I don’t want to spoil too much, but a major plot element that comes up in the series is eerily reminiscent of the plot of Equinox.

I doubt that the writers were using Equinox as inspiration, and I have a feeling that it’s more likely that it’s just a case of Star Trek having 800+ episodes and eventually every possible plot point has been done to some degree (for example, from the trailer, Ep 5 of Discovery looks like it will be quite similar to a well-known TNG episode).

Overall I liked Equinox, since it’s really a very clever premise. As always, it’s too bad that Voyager never really came back to it later on (for example, when they communicate with Starfleet, you’d think they could mention ‘By the way, most of Equinox’s crew never made it, just in case you were looking for them too. Did anyone else get pulled in by the Caretaker who we should keep our eyes out for?’).

Yep. I mean, I think the smartest thing that Discovery did was to shift focus away from the bridge crew and pick a focus character outside the clique. That means you can tell old stories in a new way. I mean, Magic to Make the Sanest Man go Mad is not an original concept by any measure, but the spin on it feels fresh within the Star Trek franchise, particularly the ease with which the show and the characters accept the trope and use it to tell a character-focused story. It’s not original, but it’s also a far cry from the awkward recycling that was so common on Voyager and Enterprise.

I haven’t seen the 2 most recent episodes, but Magic to Make the Sanest Man go Mad was the first Discovery episode that I would give an ‘A’, even if it’s a rehash of older concepts, since it’s a really creative and engaging episode that is fundamentally about the character relationships (the ‘magic’ in the title is (I think) Burnham coming to terms with developing feelings for someone). It reminds me of the DS9 time travel episodes, where the focus wasn’t on the ‘sci-fi’ element but instead on the character stories that it enabled.

Yep, the “O’Brien must suffer” episodes, in which the hook is not the high concept anomaly of the week, but how these strange science-fiction elements impact on the day-to-day lives of the characters who get caught in the middle of everything.

I have just been re-watching voyager due to lock down. and got really annoyed at the fact that BLT are not B’Elanna Torres initials.

Janeway is a huge hypocrite in this episode, considering she traded the murder of 8472 and the empowerment of the Borg, just so she could take a shortcut through their space. She’s made bargains and exchanges just as bad. She lives in a moral funhouse and the writers can’t even see the dilemma they’ve made in their own writing.

Through out this episode, I had the feeling that a show called “Star Trek: Equinox” would possibly have been far more interesting to watch, lol.

I don’t know if you’re familiar with Dungeons & Dragons, but I would frame the alignment of Voyager as a show to be Lawful Neutral, with order and organization more important than anything else. TNG (and to a lesser extent TOS) was more Lawful Good, believing in people’s inherent virtue while also believing in the virtue of the Federation as an ideal, and DS9 was Neutral Good, deeply suspicious of organizations but believing that people could strive for virtue, regardless.

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Star Trek: Voyager

“Equinox, Part I”

Air date: 5/26/1999 Teleplay by Brannon Braga & Joe Menosky Story by Rick Berman & Brannon Braga & Joe Menosky Directed by David Livingston

Review by Jamahl Epsicokhan

"BLT?" — Paris

Review Text

Nutshell: It's hard to say without knowing how the bigger issues will play out, but what we have shows some promise.

"Equinox" is a good example of Voyager using action and story themes that play best to its identity. Despite the positives in season five, this series still doesn't seem to fly on its own identity, and I'm doubting it ever will. It flies on isolated plots and often the skillful reapplication of ideas from other Trek series. Last week's " Warhead " was a perfect example. There's nothing really wrong with the reapplication of new material (if done with inspiration, which "Warhead" alas wasn't), but there's nothing fresh about it either.

Now we have "Equinox," which brings back a number of familiar themes previously explored exclusively on Voyager —themes that I personally wish were more prevalent on this series. Themes that remind us we're in the Delta Quadrant, removed from Starfleet and its safe haven (although considering the war in the Alpha Quadrant, "safe haven" probably isn't accurate these days)—and possibly removed from its rules given certain circumstances.

The show does something that hasn't been done on this series since the pilot: It gives us another Federation-based crew that could provide a challenge to Janeway and the Federation Moral Compass.

Unfortunately, it's hard to render much of a judgment upon the first part of "Equinox"; whether this story will work depends so much on how the second half plays out. Could this be the beginning of something larger and worthwhile, or are we just doing business as usual, where the themes are presented and neatly resolved in an hour to the status quo thanks to a pushing of the Reset Button™? We can guess (and the nature of that guess might depend upon your level of optimism), but we won't know until this fall.

For now, "Equinox" is a respectable hour with some reasonable meat on them bones. Conflict of the more interesting breed—namely, conflict between people based on ideas rather than shallow "good guys vs. bad guys" games—has been rare on Voyager of late. "Equinox" is like a recharge that in a way seems to turn back the clock and give the writers some second chances.

The premise resembles the material of season one, back when survival in the Delta Quadrant was a serious question rather than a given. The Voyager crew comes upon the distressed USS Equinox , a severely damaged Federation starship that, like Voyager , has been stranded in the Delta Quadrant for about (we presume) four or five years after having been, like Voyager , brought halfway across the galaxy by the Caretaker. (The chances of these two ships encountering each other should probably have been infinitesimal, but we of course will embrace suspension of disbelief.)

Unlike Voyager , the Equinox was not designed for long-term deep-space missions. It's a smaller ship with a smaller crew, and they suffered extreme casualties their first week in the Delta Quadrant and never recovered. It's been hell ever since.

The captain of the Equinox is one Rudy Ransom, played by John Savage with a voice that seems to say "untrustworthy" with every breath. He and Janeway have a captain-to-captain discussion about their respective Delta Quadrant adventures, at which point the issue of the Prime Directive inevitably surfaces. Just how has Ransom and his remaining crew survived under such extreme circumstances?

Well, the trouble is far from over. An alien presence is after the Equinox , and once the two ships are united, the Equinox 's problem becomes Voyager 's problem. The aliens exist in some weird-phased technobabble realm a la the 8472s in " Scorpion ." They are wearing down the shields slowly but surely, and within a couple days, both the Equinox and Voyager will be vulnerable. Meanwhile, some captains' tensions begin to build, as it becomes increasingly clear Ransom doesn't intend to abandon his crippled vessel and join Janeway in the more-strategically-viable unified stand aboard Voyager . Ransom is hiding something, and Janeway wants to know what.

The answer to what Ransom is hiding brings forth the moral issues, although there are some qualms we must overlook in order to go along.

First of all, there's an annoying overuse of that evil storytelling standby known as Trekkian technobabble. I'd be confident in saying that, with some fine tuning, about half the jargon here could've been eliminated outright with no sacrifice to the storyline. At times here the dialog grows needlessly bloated—filled with the kind of meaningless techno-nerd stuff that parody authors love to jam their comedy skits full of in order to make fun of Trekkers.

It turns out that Ransom's crew, with the help of the Equinox 's holographic doctor (sans his ethical subroutine), discovered that the aliens from the other realm could be converted into a power source that could enhance the warp engines and get them home much more quickly. The discovery was made by accident, but Ransom crossed the line by using a technical procedure to trap and kill more of them for their energy-supplying properties.

The moralizing is fairly straightforward, with Janeway condemning Ransom's immoral actions and confining the Equinox crew to quarters. However, I did find the underlying implications to be worthwhile: At what point would a crew facing immediate danger and endless desperation finally cross the line of morality and resort to murder to save themselves? This season, both Voyager and DS9 have shown some of their best material when dealing with moral questions. Granted, that's always been a key part of Trek 's formula, but it's nice to see these moral issues put in more extreme circumstances, as they are here and with DS9 's war setting.

The action takes a few twists, like an idea where the Voyager Doctor is swapped with the Equinox 's Doctor, who helps Ransom and his crew escape confinement on Voyager . Meanwhile, we have Starfleet officers firing phasers on each other as the alien presence comes closer to breaking through Voyager 's shields.

Aside from Ransom, "Equinox" features some other guest characters, and there's a sense that perhaps some of them are being set up for something more than an idle guest appearance. Ensign Marla Gilmore (Olivia Birkelund) has several character-establishing scenes that might bode well for the backdrop of a new recurring character. And first officer Max Burke (Titus Welliver), one of B'Elanna's old flings from the academy days, provides for an amusing scene where Paris learns that one of B'Elanna's nicknames was "BLT." Kudos for McNeill's 100 percent Tom-like delivery of "BLT?" in wondering how Max came up with this nickname, and if this guy is competition he should worry about. (Unfortunately, Ensign Harry "Chump" Kim had to turn around and call Tom "Turkey Platter," which was just bad, bad, bad. Somebody, please put this goof out of his misery.)

Which of these guest characters, if any, will come aboard Voyager and which of them will die is anyone's guess, but there's potential here for something new. (Personally, I'd lay odds on Gilmore coming aboard.)

Concerning the regular cast, one thing that had me somewhat confused was the smiling, cute version of B'Elanna Torres. B'Elanna's all-over-the-map characterization this season has been a bit annoying. Suddenly, after being a hard-ass the past few episodes, she seems like a B'Elanna Lite here. Even her hairdo has a softer attitude to it. Where's the consistency? I'm sure B'Elanna has many sides to her personality, but in recent months the contrast has given me whiplash.

As a season finale, "Equinox" isn't a nail-biter (I enjoyed the issues and dialog much more than the would-be suspense), but I did find it rather strange how many comparisons can be made with previous Voyager season finales. For example, the episode ends with Doc and Seven aboard the escaping Equinox , which reminds me of the "stowaway factor" in " Basics ." The presence of another Federation starship and the theme of returning home is reminiscent of " Hope and Fear ." And the central dilemma has several things similar to "Scorpion": the issue of starting a war with the aliens, a la 8472 (right down to these new aliens being from some other realm), and to a lesser degree the moral questions involving the deaths of these aliens. Take these comparisons for what you feel they're worth; I simply found them ... noteworthy.

As for the ending ... I didn't like the dumb final shot that sent us into cliffhanger mode—not one bit. Quite frankly, I just can't get excited by cliffhangers anymore, especially those with such obvious, supposed "shock value," which in reality are simply shock-free. Sending me out for the season with the hokey pretense of "Janeway's gonna die!" is not compelling, but instead just silly. (Although, if Janeway does spend part of "Equinox, Part II" in sickbay, you can add that to the tally of comparisons by drawing a parallel to " Scorpion, Part II ." But I digress.)

Anyway. I overall enjoyed "Equinox." There are some promising issues presented here, but how it all plays out will be the true test of whether this is actually worth the revisit. After the Federation/Maquis and Delta Quadrant survival issues were squandered in season two, I'd hate to see history repeat itself in "Equinox, Part II." Until then, I like what I see, even if there are a few hang-ups.

Upcoming: Lots of reruns. I'll be writing the annual season recap to be posted sometime in the next few weeks. Until then, I'm outta here.

Previous episode: Warhead Next episode: Equinox, Part II

End-of-season article: Fifth Season Recap

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Comment Section

65 comments on this post, aj koravkrian.

Equinox is one of my favorite Voyager episodes. Some good trek. It at least establishes how obsessed Janeway could become and that she can make wrong decisions. However, at one point, on the bridge of Equinox, Ransom asks Janeway if she has ever broken the prime directive..and Janeway says, "broken it? never, bent it a couple of times." Are you kidding me ? No other captain in the trek history (well Kirk doesn't really count..he was sort of before PD) has broken the prime directive so many times as Capt. Janeway.

Alexey Bogatiryov

Agree with AJ, the first episode that actually dealt with the whole ethics vs survival premise of being stranded in the Delta Quadrant. I wish there had been some moral ambiguity though as I symphasized witht he Equinox crew. Too bad Voyager was never in a similar situation as the Equinox - would have added layers of depth to the series in my opinion.

"Too bad Voyager was never in a similar situation as the Equinox - would have added layers of depth to the series in my opinion." Exactly right. I really liked this one at first - after I finished the series, I called it my favorite Voyager episode. But it sure loses a lot of luster when you consider how Janeway just keeps her distance and tut-tuts Ransom. A more interesting and daring show would have had her sympathetic to his actions, or even possibly becoming an accomplice. It would have added a nice bookend to the season after she expressed her regret in Night. But no - they just put Picard's words in Janeway's mouth. Weak.

Ken Egervari

I don't think I'd give this episode quite 3 stars. More like 2.5. The real problem with an episode like this is that everyone on the equinox looks funny and seems untrustworthy from the start. Even from the outset, we know they are the morally corrupt ones... or "the bad guys". Why is it on Voyager... there is no room for shades of gray? While the premise is that the "good guys" have fallen out of necessity to survive... the direction, writing and acting makes them out to be cardboard, predictable villains. They don't have any sense of "humanity" left. Captain Randsom's actions don't make a lot of sense. If you just found a ship like Voyager, would you really say, "Fuck you" to them like this? Why not just stay aboard voyager and be part of the crew? Why not make the journey home together, even if it does take longer? He's god damn Starfleet captain. Is he really this one-sided? There was some hope with the new blond engineer... who perhaps feels a bit of remorse for what happened... but sure enough, after they get out of confinement... she's back to business as usual. I just don't understand how their ENTIRE crew is morally compromised. God, I hate how Voyager writes it's villains. I really, really do. Never mind about 2.5 stars. More like 1.5 or 2.

Oh, I also want to remind the equinox crew that Voyager SAVED you. Seriously... your entire crew has to be seriously ethically compromised to not understand what this means. It's like they forgot all the principles of what it means to be human, to be in Starfleet... and to be in the Federation. My god... I just hate how the writers make their villains fall to the other end of the spectrum like this. It's bad enough that it's the fore-head of the week behaving like this... but humans as well? In TNG, when we say a corrupt captain - it was a big deal, and the motivations were often a bit dire (and dare we say, nobler). For example, one Starfleet captain wanted to risk war with the Cardassians again because he was convinced they were being out of integrity. That captain was just doing what HE thought was right, even though the politics made him he wrong. Even though Picard relieved him, he also understood the threat. Now that's so much better of a premise. Not these guys... it's just survival of the fittest. I know that's partially what the episode is ABOUT - leaving those alpha quandrant 'principles' behind... but this is way over the top. This is why Voyager is a bad series, and why DS9 is so much better.

Voyager isn't a bad series. It's not fantastic, and DS9 is better in ways, but I think the fact that DS9 came first hurt Voyager. If Voyager came before DS9, it may have been held in the same regard as TNG. Of course ENT would still be the same. God, imagine if DS9 had been the last series to come out.

I'm not so sure Voyager would have held up to TNG. TNG is a lot better, even on second or even third viewings. The writing is sharper. The characters ring truer. For a non-serialized series, it was quite good and is very watchable (most of the time... especially season 3 through 7 when the show finally started to click). I think we forget how good some of the TNG episodes really were, and how consistently good they were. Yes, Voyager has some fantastic episodes... but they are few and far between. TNG had consistently decent episodes to great ones and only a few duds. Season 4 through 7 really shine as fantastic seasons. TNG, while not my favourite series, even holds up to DS9 in some ways... because it offers different types of stories that DS9 can't tell, and vice versa. Voyager is just aimless and doesn't know what it's trying to do at all. Somehow, unlike Voyager, TNG managed to have a direction and a sense of purpose without actually having a serialized plotline.

The thing that bugs me about this episode is that if the Caretaker took the Equinox then it must've happened before Voyager (when it died). Why hasn't anyone heard of their disappearance? This happened long before the Dominion War so it's not like many ships will have been going missing. You'd think when they contacted Starfleet that time, they would've said "hey, any sign of the Equinox out there?" It just seems a bit odd. Hopefully it's answered in part 2. Other than that, good solid entertainment with some thought put into it. Good stuff. Let's see if the second part flops like they usually do!

Didn't Janeway kill aload of borg to get a transwarp coil in Dark Frontier???????? Hmmmmmmm

Tagline I wish could have been transmitted back in time to the DS9 writers : "When abandon our principles we stop being human." Janeway's position may not allow her to be the moral compass that Picard was/is, but damned if she doesn't strike at the heart with lines like these.

Not the most outstanding season finale Trek has ever delivered, but entertaining fare nonetheless. As others have noted, they really kind of blew the potential of the premise by the lack of subtlety. The questions the story raises are long overdue, having been ignored far too long by a series that's never been keen to explore the full implications of its premise. But what could have been a very relevant and probing exploration of upholding morals is spoiled by the fact that Ransom is so obviously bad - there are no shades of grey here, for his actions are clearly repellent and immoral. It's clear all along who the 'goodies' and 'baddies' are, and I for one would have preferred a more complex and subtle approach - one that makes you think and one that maybe even called Janeway's approach into question. But the writers never had the guts to question Janeway's actions and motives - she was always right, because she was the captain. That approach is a bit too cartoonish for my taste. BTW, Elliot, your continual anti-DS9 rants are getting pretty tedious. These are Voyager reviews. I imagine hardcore Voyager fans must be vexed by the fact DS9 had far greater critical acclaim, but some things you just have to let go of.

@Iceblink If you'll notice, DS9 and even TNG reviews are littered with detritus being flung at VOY by comment-leavers and even Jammer himself, so don't single out my "rants" as something tedious just because they show up on VOY pages. My complaints about DS9 are rooted in the mythos of Star Trek, so it is necessary to use the other canon itself to lade my arguments.

even without DS9, Voyager would be pretty mundane. Just look at how Enterpise was, it came after voyager, and it was hard to believe you could go any lower than voyager. for a brilliant exciting 2 hr premier with caretaker, the series strove to go down hill. so many interesting concepts that never were fully realized, how about having a universe where you have to continuously deal with the year of hell, equinox, species whatever... that would have been interesting. instead of the big reset. spilled milk

While watching this, I'm going to pretend they weren't taken by the Caretaker but instead stranded in a different part of the Delta Quadrant by a wormhole or something else. Maybe the Prophets (for Elliott's sake). Because then I'll have much less implausibility to deal with.

I liked this two-parter. However, there's one thing that just never made sense: Ransom and his crew have been on a battered vessel for months, maybe years. Whatever the aliens are, they don't seem to be confined to any area of space. In other words, there was no real escape from them. So what does Ransom do? He takes his battered vessel and skeleton crew and runs. He probably should have obeyed Janeway's wishes and integrated his remaining crew with Voyager's. Destroying the Equinox ("Oh, no! A warp-core breach!") would have covered his crimes, and the two crews could have found a way to defeat the aliens. Or, at least, that seems like it would have been a better play than running in a ship that was in tatters. Again, this is a different thing if Ransom thought that if he got X number of light years farther, he could escape the aliens. I know there's a line about how bad Ransom wants to get his crew home, but trying to escape in Equinox was a weird way to accomplish that. Now, if Ransom decided to run away from Voyager AFTER Equinox's actions were discovered, Ransom's decision might make sense. But that's not the way it happened. Last point: The evil EMH's actions don't make much sense either. Did he plan on just becoming Voyager's EMH going forward? He transferred himself to Voyager as Equinox was leaving, presumably for good.

Janeway is a hypocrite in this case: the Voyager crew eats real (non-replicated) animals on a daily basis, from Neelix's kitchen, yet she argues that it is wrong to kill other sentient life forms. So how can she judge Ransom, who is doing no differently? The creatures he kills for fuel for his ship are no different than the bloodworms or other creatures Neelix collects on various planets for his pot. The Voyager crew compromised their Federation ethics some time ago when they stopped eating replicated meat.

@Paul York. Uhh Paul? By what definition do you consider a hamburger sentient life? Last I checked, food animals didn't have human rights, and I doubt it would in the future either. Saying things like bloodworms have legal rights (cause all sentient life have that) is just the height of silly.

@Paul and Edax : Yeah, I've noticed this misconception in many of your comments: you may want to look up the definition of "sentient," because animals eaten by people in the 24th and 21st centuries don't constitute sentient life. I am willing to extend the line to dolphins and some apes, but bloodworms don't fit the bill. This seems more like some vegan's typically aggravating indictment to guilting us mediæval omnivores.

@Elliott: I've followed your comments throughout this site lately (prompted mainly by the new TNG reviews) and I really have only one thing to say to your praise of Voyager's captain's "principles": Janeway killed Tuvix!

Hi Josh. It's kind of ambiguous that Tuvix was ever a person in his own right. I'm not saying he definitely wasn't, but in that episode, 1) the question of whether he was a person is never fully answered, just explored in fascinating ways, 2) Janeway's ultimate decision is extremely difficult for her, but it was never in response to a definitive moral argument. At any rate, that's kind of Janeway's character; she's the ultimate mother figure--she (feels she) has the right and duty to hold others to strict moral standards while bending them herself when she feels she must. Hers is the same model as Starfleet itself--every captain breaks the prime directive and they should, but the rule has to exist in principle none the less. Nice to have a fan/stalker

Elliot ate my cock

This episode ruined the doctor. All the time the writers put into his sentience and humanity is made pointless when a single button press turns him into an evil villain.

This was another of those "good, could have been MUCH better" episodes. Ransom and especially 'Max' had "villain" written on their foreheads from the start, and the crew seems pretty stupid in places. Why didn't Janeway think to send the Doctor to the lab when Ransom first mentioned the radiation? The BLT scene is a good example of Voyager's dumbed-down writing style. Here's how the scene should have been: Tom: BLT? Torres: It was a nickname. Tom: How romantic. Instead, they felt it was necessary to explain the play on words, like we couldn't figure it out. Nothing is left for the viewer to determine for himself, everything is spoon-fed. Cut this out, and most of the technobabble, and you have time to explain HOW the Equinox got stuck in the Delta Quadrant, and flesh out some of the characters a little more.

Jo Jo Meastro

I was quietly impressed with this big event of an episode, ending a strong season with a bang. The concept was very cool and I loved the way that even the villians got believable characterisations and giving the drama a grittier edgier tone, it's not so easy for our heroes when nothing is clear-cut. The tension and the darker approach ignited the power of the stark violent clashes. Star Trek: Equinox would have been an awesome show! My intrest was gripped firmly and I was invested all the way into the story, which irons over the few minor creases (the last minute twist was unnecessary or at least uneffective, could have added even more fire to some confrontations, some suspensions of disbelief is needed at times etc) and I'm very eager for part 2. A solid 3 stars which came close to earning another half star. Small obvservation; I reckon those little invading aliens might have been homaging the TOS episode 'Operation Annihilate!' a little if you ask me.

@Nic. janeway didnt send the doctor at first because it was going to take a few days for it to clear. upon further review, they noticed the radiation wasnt dissipating. I dont get all the voyager vs DS9 vs TNG bashing. DS9 was unique because of it is stationary location and the long story arcs. however, TNG and Voyager are both the same. most of their episodes are self contained. that is what makes TNG re-run episodes watchable. stop thinking voyager is supposed to be like DS9. the purpose of Voyager was not for the ARCS...but to force the writers to invent different aliens and situations. it gave the carte blanche to be more creative. i enjoyed this episode. It was refreshing to see another Starfleet ship. and it gave the audience, a "what if?" i am sad that we dindt get more stories from them on cool worlds or alien battles. and i do agree, that there is a bit of a lack of common sense now they are on a better starship. however, i watch movies and shows to be entertained. i was fully entertained, so i give this a 3.5 stars.

Finally! A decent episode(s)! I was getting pretty bored of Voyager. These held my interest the whole way through. I remember seeing this one in the original run. I even remembered the basic premise. It's a good episode when I remember it for that long! :) I loved Mr. Savage. I have seen him in stuff before, but he really shined in this. So did his 2nd in command. Janeway seemed to go a bit overboard and that seemed out of character. But, it was nice to see her not being perfect for once.

@Peter York You wrote the below in the "Nothing Human" comments " Rats and mice are also sentient and thus equally deserving of moral consideration" Then you posted this tidbit here: " Janeway is a hypocrite in this case: the Voyager crew eats real (non-replicated) animals on a daily basis, from Neelix's kitchen, yet she argues that it is wrong to kill other sentient life forms." As Elliott said in his reply to you, you certainly need to educate yourself on the meaning of "Sentience" and what crteria needs to be meant for a particular life form to be considered "sentient" So I am going to repost my reply to you from the "Nothing Human" comments, to double the chance you might see it, thus expanding your knowledge base. No thanks are necessary. I see it as a duty to help the misguided. While any living creature should be due certain moral considerations, your statement that rats and mice are sentient is an error that animal rights folks constantly make. Non human animals are obviously alive and conscious ie: they are aware of and react to their surroundings, but because they are still slaves to instinct, they are most definitely not sentient. Sentience by definition, requires several factors. A sentient being must be self aware, must be able to perceive their own mortality and must also possess a sense of altruism, or in other words, that there are things bigger or beyond themselves that are worth sacrificing for. And they definitely must have free will, and are not controlled by ingrained instincts. Despite popular belief, Humans don't even possess a true survival instinct, let alone any others. Our altruistic nature suppressed our survival instinct long ago. Involuntary nervous system functions, ie: breathing, heart beat etc are not instincts. As an example, the fact that any non human animal mother, in the face of starvation, would eat the last bit of food and let her offspring starve or even eat those offspring to stave off starvation, proves they are not sentient. A human mother would never conceive of such a thing, and that is because humans and humans alone on this planet are sentient. She would sacrifice herself for her children every time. Now there are a small number of non human animals on earth that can be considered semi-sentient. Dolphins, chimps and even some octopus have some level of self awareness, ie: some experiments have shown they can recognize themselves in a mirror. Dolphins also have demonstrated some level of altruistic behavior ie: recognizing drowning humans need help and keeping them afloat. But because these animals have not evolved to the point where the are totally free of the controlling effect of instincts on their behavior, they can still not be considered fully sentient.

Good episode. One thing I thought was kind of careless was that the woman doesn't want to take the turbolift...yet she opts for the Jeffries tubes instead--somewhere with even less space to maneuver. Mike P is so arrogant, lol.

This was one of the stronger episodes of Star Trek Voyager I've viewed so far. I've been slowly re-watching the entire series on Netflix, and have been comparing it to my perception of the series when it first aired. One of the biggest problems I had (and still do) with Voyager has been raised many times by Jammer, and also many commenters: the unwillingness of the writers to deeply explore the premise of the show. I agree with Jammer that the inherent tension of the Federation/Maquis crew in a stranded in a remote part of the galaxy was unfortunately squandered by the writers. Given how much serious dramatic tension *should* exist between the different crews, and the fact that Voyager has taken so much heavy damage (which always magically seems to disappear without a trace) -- the show has often seemed much less realistic than other sci-fi shows that were more willing to explore serious themes in long arcs (e.g. Battlestar Galactica, Space Above and Beyond, Stargate Universe, and DS9). So I was relieved that the Equinox two-parter is one of the few episodes that seems to take another stab at what it really means for a Federation starship to be well and truly lost in space, with no magic reset buttons. This episode reminded me also of Battlestar Galactica's similar encounter with the Battlestar Pegasus. Both ship's commanders had taken very different ethical paths in the name of survival, and one had crossed some rather serious ethical lines. In some ways, I feel that Janeway's character was very similar to Commander Adama's -- more high-minded, but sometimes hypocritical (as the Pegasus' Admiral Kaine would later point out). Janeway's harsh judgment of Ransom is even more ironic, because she more or less follows his example in Year of Hell. While I suppose that timeline never happened, we got to see how Capt. Janeway was willing to bend Starfleet rules to the breaking point and beyond, when her back was up against a wall. Granted, Ransom's actions were hard to justify, but could Janeway so easily say she wouldn't do the same if put in the same position? Still, I quite enjoyed this episode, and Part 2. I only wish ST Voyager followed this dramatic concept much, much earlier in its series run. And I have to agree with Jo Jo's comment above that a Star Trek: Equinox series would be rather interesting show to watch. While Voyager is a decent show (truthfully better than I remember it), ST: Equinox might be closer to the Voyager I wish we had seen.

I'm not going to go into the absurdities of meeting another Federation ship 5 years later. Sometimes, you just gotta go with willing suspension of disbelief. What we have here is a great setup though. Once again (much like Year of Hell), we get a glimpse of what life would have been like if we got what so many people here would have wanted - a gritty, dark show with everything falling apart. And, while it's exciting to see in small doses like this, you can see why it would kill any joy in the show. These people are desperate, almost crazy. They are at their wits end on practically everything. They don't even have time to vacuum up the explodey panels that are standard issue on Federation starships. As much as Voyager's reset button was annoying, this would be just as bad. But it does give Janeway, and us, a retrospective on what it means to get home. Janeway's character arc throughout the series was to switch from being the high-minded Federation officer committed to her ideals to becoming obsessed with the idea of getting home. In Scorpion, she seems willing to aid the Borg just to get through their space. Not technically breaking any rules, but questionable nonetheless. In Hope and Fear, she saw the negative repercussion of that choice, leading to some severe retrospection in Night. Now, here, we see that it could be much, much worse. Just kill a few aliens and get home. Just a few, only 60. It's not the end of the world, right? Of course, Janeway rejects that option. But Ransom is supposed to be the dark mirror of Janeway. He's a great captain too. He had an awesome first contact when he was back in Federation space. And it wasn't like he went straight to pure evil. They didn't mean to kill that alien. They just wanted to contact it to see what it was like. See if they could help. And it died. Well, that was unfortunate. But with no communication, they might as well perform an autopsy. And it can help. They can get home! Is it worth it? Oh no, normally it might not. But they were starving. They were dying. Given that, maybe Captain Ransom would have a point. Oh, of course he doesn't have a point. But did Janeway have a point with Endgame? Fortunately, almost all of the dialogue and plot elements are focused into this idea, building up the mystery of what these aliens are and why they are attacking, as well as what Ransom's evil plan is. Oh, there are some plot inconsistencies here and there, and the first officer looked way too evil the entire time, but hey, it worked. Exciting episode, but that's pretty much all we want. Unfortunately, the payoff, with the Equinox practically going at war with Voyager, was a bit trite. It was clear they were aiming for a cliffhanger rather than anything overly substantial.

Diamond Dave

A strong season closer, and another interesting examination of the 'what if?' concept. Given that Voyager has been built on Janeway's desire to uphold Starfleet principles and procedures, it's good to look at what might have happened if the crew had been trapped outgunned and alone, taken heavy casualties early on, and been trapped in a constant 'Year of Hell'. Again, I'm reminded of the crazed Riker in 'Parallels' - perhaps things wouldn't look so clear cut. It's obvious early on that the Equinox carries a dark secret, such are the conventions of these things, but the development of that point is well handled. Ransom is not a comic book villain - he knows he's in the wrong, but having stumbled inadvertently into a morally unjustifiable position he is rationalising to save his crew. At what point do you draw the line? For Ransom, not having any of the advantages of Voyager, that line is different to Janeway. It's good writing, cleverly handled. Evil Doctor is worth a smile or two as well. 3.5 stars.

Shock horror. Excellent story, and decent cliffhanger. Have to watch the next one.

Great episode but I do wonder how is what Ransom did any different than what Janeway did in "The Swarm"? In Janeways case she killed Thousands of Swarm aliens to shave 15 months of her Journey Ransom killed dozens of these extra dimensional lifeforms and harvested their bodies for fuel. To me both have done horrible things to try and get their crew home. The difference is that this is Janeway's show so she has to be right no matter what.

Naive Melody

Did I miss something while watching this episode, or did they fail to establish the sentience of these aliens? The aliens can apparently be summoned repeatedly, which suggests to me that they are falling for a simple "lure". I don't recall any effort to communicate, so how do we (and Voayger's crew) know that this isn't like eating meat? Maybe Trek morality frowns upon eating animals? But I am sure I've seen Klingons eating meat, and Sisko's father ran a restaurant that served non-replicated food (seafood, I think, but still animals).

Why do the EQ crew come off as bad guys? .... um.... because they ARE bad guys? They all knew they were screwing up. Which seemed to be fine until Mom came home from work, noticed the cookie crumbs and started investigating. Outstanding episode here. I'm sure we will debate much while reviewing part 2. :-) Love the "evil doctor", but the BLT stuff was ... well blah. :-) I won't go 4 stars, but 3.5 here. Apt "cliff-hanger".

nice, gripping, suspenseful, exciting. The doctor has verbal diarrhea (***)

It's hard to believe that the old BLT we've spent five seasons hearing about would have dated this guy... After five years stranded, I'm a little surprised that Naomi is still "the only child" on Voyager.

This was a pretty good episode. Not 4 stars, but better than 3. Main problem is that, as another pointed out, the new characters look shady right at the outset. Clearly, though, they'd have to pull some major sleight of hand to hide that from us, even with a major recast. In any case, it was a thoroughly engaging episode. The prospect of Federation vs Federation had more tension in it than fully 75% of Voyager episodes. Only the Borg provide such a credible threat. Don't remember if they were or not, but the Equinox crew should've been set up as a major reoccurring villain for season 6. Ideology vs survival instinct. I think some people are confusing "sentience" with "sapience." According to Wikipedia: Sentience is the capacity to feel, perceive, or experience subjectively. Eighteenth-century philosophers used the concept to distinguish the ability to think (reason) from the ability to feel (sentience). ... In Eastern philosophy, sentience is a metaphysical quality of all things that requires respect and care. People tend to use these terms interchangeably, but they're not. I think all mammals have sentience, but only humans and likely a few other primates, theoretically some species of parrot, maybe elephants, and possibly some sea creatures, like dolphins (not sure about certain octopuses or squid), either possess or at least are suspected of having some degree of sapience.

Can anyone imagine Captain Kirk agreeing to let Ms Janeway take over command 'cos of her better ship?

He wouldn't have a choice. But that said, he wouldn't have got caught :-)

The material focused on the Equinox crew isn't bad, generally; it's a little obvious at times, but generally the material for Ransom and Gilmore especially was pretty effective. It felt believable that these were people pushed to the limits of human endurance, and that Ransom decided to throw out his ethics in order to protect his crew at that point. What I think doesn't quite work in this episode is the Voyager side of things. It is *such* a big deal for Voyager to find another ship out there in the Delta Quadrant, and yet the episode plays the crews meeting each other in a mostly blase manner, and then the shock at the discovery of what the Equinox crew has done is also even a little understated, outside Janeway herself and to a much lesser extent Chakotay. It's an interesting idea for a show, but there is something workmanlike and disinterested in the execution. Even Janeway's horror at what Ransom has done doesn't quite get played properly; the episode seems to keep Janeway at a distance, and we even seem to see her reaction more from Ransom's POV than from Janeway's own. Had the episode gone full-tilt and just outright embraced the Equinox crew POV all the way, it might have improved things somewhat. The whole thing feels curiously thin. I think part 2 improves on many of these problems but also introduces some other ones; but I think I'd say that most of the drama (and what there is interesting to talk about) is in part 2, so I'll leave off here. 2.5 stars.

RANSOM: How often have you broken the prime directive? JANEWAY: Broken...no... bent it though, you? RANSOM: Uhhhh, yeah... same..... If only they could just be honest with each other...

Clark, When did she break it?

This is as good a place as any to make this point: "Technobabble" is a *good* thing. Nothing is more distracting to me as a sci-fi viewer than for things to "magically" happen in a story with no attempt made to plausibly explain them within the context of the program's mythos. Maybe you don't want to know the "why" of an episode's events, but not all of us are so incurious, and Trek does us that courtesy. The more 'technobabble,' the better, I say. Now, on to my other point about "Equinox" itself. Janeway came across as insufferably self-righteous when she confronted Ransom about his crew's experimentation on the nucleogenic life forms. Also hypocritical; if anybody should be able to empathize with Ransom, it's Janeway. Sure, if you still want to write her as objecting to what the Equinox's crew did in order to maintain some level of moral conflict, fine, but the way she came down on Ransom was more belligerent than even her confrontations with the Borg Queen. The Equinox wasn't the black heart of pure evil; they were a path that Voyager had been spared (by Berman and Braga, but still....). Ransom had a point: If Janeway had been Equinox's captain, and her ship had been shattered, her crew starving and dying, what might she have been driven to do? We all know how obsessed she's always been with getting her crew home, after all. Maybe she would have followed Ransom's example, maybe she wouldn't, but she wouldn't even acknowledge the question; almost as if she didn't want to think about the possibility that Ransom was right. The survival of her crew versus high-falutin' Starfleet principles - it really is a pity the writers never forced that choice on her, as they did Ransom. Perhaps Janeway's vehemence was meant to be an implicit indication that yes, she would have done what Ransom had in his place, and that buried acknowledgement to herself so horrified her that she lashed out at its external symbol: the Equinox's C.O. But I would have preferred a more open admission of same, and perhaps, ironically, a more Roddenberryian solution where both crews tried to communicate with the extradimensional aliens and work with them to arrive at a mutually beneficial compromise. That would have been a better plot direction than having Voyager and Equinox wind up senselessly shooting at each other. Indeed, the idea of a two-ship fleet led by Commodore Janeway would have been a nice way to shake up the show, even for a season.

Neighinator

I really liked the exchange between Ransom and Janeway when he explains what he's doing with the aliens and she lectures him on the prime directive, but I wish there was more yelling. It's a weird thing to say, but that scene is just dying to have some Picard yelling. (The line must be drawn here!)

The big advantage of "Equinox" is having another Federation ship/crew and being able to deal with some moral issues that are more common to the other Treks since we're not dealing with the random alien villain of the week. So it is refreshing to see another Federation ship and the difficult decision they make for survival and how Ransom justifies it -- interesting the question Ransom asks Janeway about PD violations... Janeway gives her usual moralizing speech about if we turn our backs on our principles, we cease to be human. Wonder if she ever revisits her past decisions... But Ransom and his crew (especially 1st officer) realized what they were doing and had to try to get away with their secret -- otherwise they'd be confined to the Voyager brig for ever. Might as well get this out into the open when the two start whispering to each other in the cafeteria. I liked the different characters for the 4 Equinox crew members that we got to know -- the female engineer is obviously not comfortable with what's going on and the 1st officer comes across as a jerk. Ransom seems shady. The black guy just seems your typical loyal soldier type. There's the usual VOY technobabble regarding the aliens and propulsion and field generators...but I think the gist of it is pretty clear, although some of the moving parts were over my head. Interesting that the Equinox staff could just get rid of the holographic doctors ethics subroutines...that's a bit of a stretch. So we get an evil doctor as well. The ending did remind me of "Basics" and perhaps it's a bit cliche with Janeway attacked making us fear the worst. The action scenes weren't excessive and so they were tolerable. A strong 2.5 stars for "Equinox, Part I" -- some decent groundwork laid and I didn't get the impression that we're in for a big reset at the end of Part II like some other Voyager 2-parters. Decent guest actors/characters and a good story in the works with an obvious pursuit of the Equinox lined up for Part II. It's not like there's plenty of loose ends to tie up either.

First part is nicely done. We never get a really good explanation for them being in the Delta quadrant (why didn't the Caretaker send them back?), but who cares. I can buy that they are stuck in the Delta Quadrant. Great concept, the killing of innocent, sentient beings to get home! I certainly didn't figure out their secret ahead of time. Liked the BLT stuff, and just the idea of the crew getting to interact with new people.

After reading comments and review: --When it comes to breaking the Prime Directive, in Janeway's answer about how she's never actually broken it, we see how she lives with herself and her own questionable decisions: She does what most people do. She makes fudge with a cup of selective memory, two tablespoons of euphemisms, and sprinkling of denial. --We're again looking at moral relativism, and where the lines are between good and evil. Look at the name of the ship and the episode: Equinox. That time of the year when day and night are of equal length. A big clue to the main theme. --Voyager is a wonderful series.

Jeffrey Jakucyk

So each alien increases the Equinox's warp speed by 0.03% and Captain Ransom said they'll need 63 more aliens to get home. That's less than a 2% increase. How many aliens did they already sacrifice to make that work? Sounds like the math is pretty weak on this one.

“When we abandon our principles we stop being human” What absolute nonsense. The only thing that makes me human is my genes, the fact that I am of the genus Homo and the species sapiens sapiens, morality has no bearing on humanity. I don’t think that having principles are wrong, but ultimately they are the opinions of men, preferences no different than preferring chicken to steak or red to blue, your moral preferences can be 100% right for you and wrong for someone else, they can also change with the hands on a clock, and while you can obviously prefer your own preferences over the preferences of someone else I don’t think that there is a basis for saying that your moral preferences are objectively superior to any others or that they should be an authority that others abide. The only way that the notion of “morally superior” is possible is if your moral’s are not the creation of men, but a pronouncement by an authority higher than man. However Starfleet isn’t claiming that the prime directive and their ethics are divinely inspired, they’re ideas that were created and chosen by men, they’re opinions and are no more right (or wrong) than any other opinion. What the crew of the Equinox did was completely right and moral under their system of morality, and that is all that matters.

Sleeper Agent

@ Marc I don't know how to address most of your rant. But let me just briefly mention that the value of one's morality is based upon consistency.

Other Chris

That BLT nickname just tickles me to no end, and this two-parter is about as good as Voyager can get.

Re: Harry Kim. "Somebody, please put this goof out of his misery." Couldn't agree more. This line made me cackle.

I hate Janeway. Such a hypocrite with her “not breaking prime direct”. Also, she was willing to destroy and kill the EQ crew trying while trying pretend she was the epitome of a star fleet officer.

One of the rare times we see Torres smile. Maybe cause an old flame arrived lol. Tom clearly isn’t doing his job

I'm curious about what must have happened when the Equinox was dragged to the Delta Quadrant by the Caretaker. Did Ransom and his crew make no attempt to negotiate a return to the Alpha Quadrant with the Caretaker, as Janeway and Voyager did? Did something happen (e.g. a Kazon attack?) that prevented Ransom and the Equinox from trying to negotiate? Did the Equinox simply flee as far as it could as soon as it could? Recall that the main reason that Voyager wasn't returned to the Alpha Quadrant was that the Caretaker died and Janeway, in destroying the array, in her own words 'stranded them all in the Delta Quadrant'. It was possible for the Caretaker to return vessels; he simply claimed there wasn't time to do so in Voyager's case. I don't have a problem with the Equinox and Voyager bumping into each other as Ransom specifically states the Equinox encountered a wormhole, and presumably both ships were both taking the most efficient course back to the Alpha Quadrant when they intersected. If the Equinox did flee the array in panic or due to some event that Voyager did not experience, that would also explain how the Equinox took a different course than Voyager (encountering different space and different species, as Ransom recounts) up to encountering and passing through the wormhole, whereupon the Equinox's and Voyager's courses would once again converge.

Casting John Savage as Captain Ransom with that voice was incredibly distracting. Nothing against the actor, but with his slightly severe appearance and particularly that voice, he was so obviously eeevil that they might as well have given him a mustache to twirl. When I first saw this, because of the character's demeanor, I assumed he was some sort of impostor or something. That made me expect a Happy Voyager Ending.

didn’t like Janeway in this episode, she was so self-righteous… In exceptional circumstances, killing another to save oneself may be unpunishable under German law. In the case of the equinox crew, it is debatable whether the killings were really necessary to save oneself. After all, it was only a matter of getting home faster. Then again it could be argued that it was necessary to protect his crew. But protect from what? From coming home later? I think there should have been more discussions about this. But at least one can show empathy for their actions and understanding but least of all, allow for a debate. Janeway was acting horrible here.

Anytime I run across this episode and happen to drop by a forum that's discussing it I'm surprised by how many people mistakenly believe these aliens were just animals. For example, this idiot: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ApV1qp2vJaw Nonsapient animals can't communicate as these creatures did. They can't execute the type of complex pursuit across that kind of distance and then switch targets to another of its species in an effort of blackmail them into giving up the original targets. They can't then make a ceasefire pact to work together to turn over the original targets. You've never seen this with pigs or any other animals that we eat. You've never seen this with any creature that wasn't at least suspected to have some level of sapience, not sentience, SAPIENCE. This aliens were people. I don't care if they didn't look like humans. I don't care if they could swim through space naked. Or needed an interpreter to communicate. They were essentially a hunter-gatherer species that was being murdered so a crew of aholes could get home in time for the Superbowl. The only way you can condone this type of slaughter is if you're okay with some first world nation finding out a hunter-gatherer tribe is sitting on a mineral deposit that turns out to be the catalyst for cold fusion reactions and they wipe them out for "the greater good." It's indefensible.

Michael Miller

My 2 complaints about this episode are: 1. The video game like appearance of the aliens and the "fissures" like something out of Malcom Reeds holodeck security training program. 2. The claim that a .03% or a 2% increase in warp speed would reduce the getting home time from decades to months. If that were the case then wouldn't just increasing Voyagers top speed from like 9.975 to 9.999 do the same thing? Of course the warp speeds are totally random and inconsistent across even episodes from the same series, so whatever.

@Michael I believe the warp speed scale used in Voyager / TNG is exponential and not linear so the difference between say Warp 9.99 and Warp 9.9 or 9.7 is waaaaaay greater than the difference between say Warp 8 and Warp 9. My head canon on this is that the 70 year time estimate wasn't merely a calculation of top speed versus total light years, but also taking into account energy and the fact that a Starship can't just set a course at top speed and just gun it home with zero refuelling or maintenance.

As usual "No Interference" Policy doesn't apply to Kathryn Janeway if she can embody police of the galaxy. She would even kill, for the good of Starfleet.

The Equinox crew were clearly in the wrong. Their escape from Voyager having been detained should not have been able to happen.

Good but not great episode. I agree with Jammer's three star rating. @Quincy: "I think some people are confusing 'sentience' with 'sapience.'" I was thinking the same. I would take issue with bloodworms being sentient, but not cows or mice. For me, it's all a continuum. Personally, I draw the line at pork, as I feel pigs are too high on the sapience scale; but I will eat organic, free range beef and chicken as well as wild-caught fish. @Stephen: "This episode reminded me also of Battlestar Galactica's similar encounter with the Battlestar Pegasus. Both ship's commanders had taken very different ethical paths in the name of survival, and one had crossed some rather serious ethical lines. In some ways, I feel that Janeway's character was very similar to Commander Adama's -- more high-minded, but sometimes hypocritical (as the Pegasus' Admiral Kaine would later point out)." 100%. I'm really surprised that there was only one comment, posted more than a decade ago, noting this. @Skeptical: "Once again (much like Year of Hell), we get a glimpse of what life would have been like if we got what so many people here would have wanted - a gritty, dark show with everything falling apart. And, while it's exciting to see in small doses like this, you can see why it would kill any joy in the show. These people are desperate, almost crazy. They are at their wits end on practically everything. They don't even have time to vacuum up the explodey panels that are standard issue on Federation starships. As much as Voyager's reset button was annoying, this would be just as bad." Point taken. Even BSG couldn't stay in "33" mode indefinitely. @Jeffrey Jakucyk: "So each alien increases the Equinox's warp speed by 0.03% and Captain Ransom said they'll need 63 more aliens to get home. That's less than a 2% increase. How many aliens did they already sacrifice to make that work? Sounds like the math is pretty weak on this one." I was wondering about that too. I initially thought they were presenting it as such a miniscule improvement to be like "you sacrificed innocent lives for THAT?!?" But then it sounded like they were going to get home within their lifetimes because of this, so I don't get it.

This was a good episode in that it lets the horror of what the Equinox crew is doing slowly reveal itself to the viewer. I may vaguely remember this episode, or perhaps I've seen enough sci-fi to make a guess, but I thought the Equinox crew was doing something to upset the aliens. It is a sad thing that these people gave up on morals to try to get home. It shows how desperate some people can get-I find that only having a real value system based on something higher than human thinking can we stay morally focused.

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8 Alpha Quadrant Things Star Trek: Voyager Found In Delta Quadrant

• Star Trek: Voyager finds familiar things from the Alpha Quadrant in the Delta Quadrant, sparking important questions and connections.
• Encounter with Ferengi negotiators leads Voyager crew to stop their interference in a pre-warp civilization for profits.
• Janeway and crew discover humans abducted by aliens in the 1930s living in the Delta Quadrant, including Amelia Earhart.

For a show with the conceit of being so far from home, Star Trek: Voyager found a surprising number of things in the Delta Quadrant that originated in the Alpha Quadrant, including several from Earth itself. The USS Voyager, commanded by Captain Kathryn Janeway (Kate Mulgrew), and Commander Chakotay's (Robert Beltran) Maquis raider Val Jean were both brought to the Delta Quadrant in 2371 by the Caretaker (Basil Langton). After Janeway destroyed the Caretaker's array to save the Ocampa , Voyager and the Val Jean were left without a ticket back to the Alpha Quadrant, and banded together to make the long journey.

Finding something familiar in an otherwise totally alien corner of the galaxy brought a sense of familiarity to the USS Voyager crew and viewers at home alike, but the presence of something from the Alpha Quadrant in the Delta Quadrant inevitably raised important questions , like how familiar people and objects traveled 70,000 light years from home in the first place, and whether the find could lead Captain Kathryn Janeway towards a quicker path home to Earth.

Star Trek: Voyagers 20 Best Episodes Ranked

A pair of ferengi negotiators, arridor and kol, star trek: voyager season 3, episode 5 "false profits".

The USS Voyager encounters a pair of Ferengi negotiators, Arridor (Dan Shor) and Kol (Leslie Jordan), who claim to be the prophesied Great Sages of the Takarians, a society with Bronze Age level technology. The Ferengi have no Prime Directive to deter them from interfering with the Takarians' development , so they're performing "miracles" with a standard replicator to reap the monetary benefits of the Takarians' worship. Voyager's crew know the Ferengi reputation well enough to know they're no Sages, so they must figure out how to put a stop to Arridor and Kol's grift.

"False Profits" serves as a Star Trek sequel episode to Star Trek: The Next Generation season 3, episode 8 "The Price", as Voyager catches up with Arridor and Kol (formerly played by J. R. Quinonez) seven years after their Delta Quadrant arrival. The Ferengi took a test flight through the supposedly stable wormhole near Barzan II, which was supposed to emerge in the Gamma Quadrant, but instead stranded the Ferengi in the Delta Quadrant, where they made the best of their situation as only Ferengi can.

Star Trek: Voyager Season 3, Episode 23 "Distant Origin"

"Distant Origin" opens on Forra Gegen (Henry Woronicz), a scientist who discovers that his people, the Voth, share certain genetic similarities with the humans aboard the USS Voyager. While this confirms Gegen's theory that the Voth are the descendants of a species brought to their homeworld millions of years ago , religious leader Minister Odala (Concetta Tomei) refuses to accept the truth. Even with Commander Chakotay present as a living specimen of humanity, Odala pushes Gegen to recant, because Gegen's theory goes against the Voth Doctrine that keeps Odala in power.

After meeting Gegen's assistant, Tova Veer (Christopher Liam Moore), Janeway and the Doctor use the holodeck as a research guide to extrapolate how hadrosaurs might look in the 24th century if they'd been able to evolve into a humanoid form with comparable intelligence. The result resembles Veer, so Janeway and the Doctor conclude, like Gegen, that the Voth evolved from hadrosaurs into a highly advanced species on Earth , then fled to the Delta Quadrant in spacefaring vessels instead of being wiped out with the other dinosaurs.

The Friendship One Probe

Star trek: voyager season 7, episode 21 "friendship one".

By Star Trek: Voyager season 7 , the USS Voyager is in regular contact with Starfleet Command, and Starfleet gives Voyager a mission to retrieve a 21st-century Earth probe, Friendship One . The probe proves difficult to find, but once discovered on an alien planet suffering devastating climate collapse, the implications of Friendship One's launch become clear. Besides the irreversible damage to the planet's climate, the inhabitants are all suffering from radiation sickness, and bear understandable hostility towards Earth, because the aliens believe humans orchestrated their destruction with the Friendship One probe.

The United Earth Space Probe Agency was one of the early names for the organization the USS Enterprise belongs to in the Star Trek: The Original Series episode, "Charlie X".

Friendship One was launched in 2067 by the United Earth Space Probe Agency with the intention of making friends with whomever found it, as the name implies. Although Friendship One, the 400-year-old Earth probe, traveled for centuries carrying messages of peace, musical recordings, and ways to translate languages, the people who discovered Friendship One in the Delta Quadrant took a greater interest in the antimatter it used to travel across space. Without the proper knowledge of its use, antimatter proved devastating to the planet and its people, resulting in death and disease for generations.

Dreadnought, a Cardassian Missile

Star trek: voyager season 2, episode 17 "dreadnought".

The USS Voyager discovers a dangerously powerful, self-guided Cardassian missile in the Delta Quadrant, which Lt. B'Elanna Torres (Roxann Dawson) recognizes as one nicknamed "Dreadnought" . When B'Elanna was with the Maquis, Torres had actually reprogrammed the missile herself, with the intention of turning the Cardassians' own weapon against them. Without a Cardassian target in sight, the artificially intelligent Cardassian Dreadnought targets a heavily-populated Class-M planet , Rakosa V. B'Elanna determines she must be the one to keep Dreadnought from hurting anyone else, and boards the missile to convince it to stand down.

While no concrete reason is given for exactly how the Dreadnought wound up in the Delta Quadrant, its last known location in the Alpha Quadrant was the Badlands, the same rough patch of space where Voyager and the Val Jean, Chakotay's Maquis raider, fatefully met. Because of this, Torres theorizes that Dreadnought arrived in the Delta Quadrant the same way that Voyager and the Val Jean did , courtesy of the Caretaker.

Star Trek: Voyagers BElanna Is More Klingon Than TNGs Worf Ever Was

A klingon d-7 class cruiser, complete with klingons, star trek: voyager, season 7, episode 14 "prophecy".

The USS Voyager certainly never expected to find a Klingon ship in the Delta Quadrant, but more surprising is the fact that the crew of the Klingon D-7 Class Cruiser believes their savior, the prophesied kuvah'magh, is aboard Voyager . Janeway assures the Klingon captain, Kohlar (Wren T. Brown), that the Federation and Klingon Empire have been allies for the past 80 years, and offers Voyager's own half-Klingon, Lt. B'Elanna Torres, as proof their societies are working together now. The kuvah'magh is Torres' unborn daughter, who does save the Klingons, but not the way they expected.

Centuries ago, Kohlar's great-grandfather set off on a quest to find the kuvah'magh, and the Klingon D-7 Cruiser became a generation ship that is now crewed by the descendants of its original crew . The quest begun by Kohlar's great-grandfather brought Kohlar and his crew to the Delta Quadrant after four generations of searching. Whether B'Elanna's child is actually the kuvah'magh or not, Kohlar desperately wants the baby to be their savior, so that his people may finally rest.

Amelia Earhart

Star trek: voyager season 2, episode 1 "the 37s".

The discovery of a 1936 Ford truck, seemingly disconnected from any parent vehicle, leads the USS Voyager to a nearby Class-L planet, where they find eight humans who have been in cryo-stasis since they were abducted by aliens in the 1930s. Among them are one of Janeway's personal heroes, legendary American aviator Amelia Earhart (Sharon Lawrence) , who disappeared without a trace while attempting to fly around the world, and Earhart's navigator, Fred Noonan (David Graf). Earhart and the other preserved humans are known by the planet's inhabitants as "The 37s", and revered as sacred.

Originally thought to be aliens, the natives of the unnamed planet are the descendants of humans. A species called the Briori abducted the natives' ancestors, along with Earhart and the other 37s, from Earth centuries earlier , and took them to the Delta Quadrant. Once held as slaves, the humans who weren't in stasis revolted to free themselves from the Briori, and developed a thriving, Earth-like civilization in the Delta Quadrant. Voyager's crew consider staying with the humans in their little slice of home, while Janeway also offers a ride back to Earth to anyone who wants it, including Amelia Earhart.

The USS Equinox

Star trek: voyager season 5, episode 26 & season 6, episode 1 "equinox".

The crew of the USS Voyager believe they're the only Starfleet vessel in the Delta Quadrant until they find the USS Equinox, five years into their journey home. Captain Rudolph Ransom (John Savage) and the Equinox crew have had a harder time in the Delta Quadrant than Voyager, with more damage, fewer starting resources, and fewer opportunities to make friends along the way. Ransom's survival tactics include sacrificing innocent nucleogenic life forms for a more efficient form of fuel, which Janeway finds hard to stomach, and decides that Ransom needs to be held accountable for defying Federation ideals, regardless of how badly the Equinox is damaged.

Although Seven of Nine (Jeri Ryan) suggests that the Equinox might be in the Delta Quadrant on a rescue mission to find Voyager, the USS Equinox's specs don't fit the profile of a starship that would be assigned to a long-range mission. The explanation of how the Equinox arrived in the Delta Quadrant in the first place seems fairly simple, because Captain Ransom tells Janeway that the Equinox was also abducted by the Caretaker , just like Voyager, but the Equinox has only been in the Delta Quadrant for 2 years, and Janeway destroyed the Caretaker's array 5 years earlier.

Seven of Nine

Debuts in star trek: voyager season 4, episode 1 "scorpion, part 2".

When Captain Kathryn Janeway allies with the Borg in order to secure safe passage across Borg space, Janeway refuses the cursory assimilation that the Borg want to use to communicate with Janeway and Voyager's crew, and instead requests a speaker for the Borg, citing the existence of Locutus (Patrick Stewart) as precedent. Seven of Nine , Tertiary Adjunct of Unimatrix 01, is selected as the Borg drone to act as liaison between the Collective and Voyager, likely because Seven of Nine had once been a member of Species 5168, like most of Voyager's crew -- in other words, human.

Voyager season 5, episodes 15 & 16, "Dark Frontier" provides even more detail of the Hansens' fateful journey.

After Seven's link with the Collective is severed, more information about Seven's human origin comes to light. In Voyager season 4, episode 6 "The Raven", when Voyager nears the Hansens' ship, the USS Raven, memories of Seven's early life surface, revealing that Seven had been six-year-old human Annika Hansen , the daughter of Magnus Hansen (Kirk Baily) and Erin Hansen (Laura Stepp), Federation scientists who were studying the Borg when they were assimilated. Voyager season 5, episodes 15 & 16, "Dark Frontier" provides even more detail of the Hansens' fateful journey, showing the Raven arriving in the Delta Quadrant by following a Borg Cube through a transwarp conduit.

10 Ways USS Voyager Changed In Star Treks Delta Quadrant

Star Trek: Voyager links back to the greater Star Trek universe with people and starships from the Alpha Quadrant. Connections to the familiar were especially important early on, because Voyager 's place in the Star Trek franchise was established and aided by the legitimacy these finds offered. Later, when the USS Voyager used the Hirogen communications array to communicate with Starfleet Command, links back to the Alpha Quadrant were plentiful again, not only to prove that the USS Voyager was closer to home, but to help Star Trek: Voyager maintain connections to Star Trek and carry the franchise in its final years.

Star Trek: Voyager is available to stream on Paramount+.

Star Trek: Voyager

Cast Jennifer Lien, Garrett Wang, Tim Russ, Robert Duncan McNeill, Roxann Dawson, Robert Beltran, Kate Mulgrew, Jeri Ryan, Ethan Phillips, Robert Picardo

Release Date May 23, 1995

Genres Sci-Fi, Adventure

Network UPN

Streaming Service(s) Paramount+

Franchise(s) Star Trek

Writers Michael Piller, Rick Berman

Showrunner Kenneth Biller, Jeri Taylor, Michael Piller, Brannon Braga

Rating TV-PG

Star Trek: Voyager (TV Series)

Equinox (1999).

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Things are finally looking up for the Voyager 1 interstellar spacecraft

Two of the four science instruments aboard the Voyager 1 spacecraft are now returning usable data after months of transmitting only gibberish, NASA scientists have announced.

I was once sitting with my father while Googling how far away various things in the solar system are from Earth. He was looking for exact numbers, and very obviously grew more invested with each new figure I shouted out. I was thrilled. The moon? On average, 238,855 miles (384,400 kilometers) away. The James Webb Space Telescope ? Bump that up to about a million miles (1,609,344 km) away. The sun? 93 million miles (149,668,992 km) away.  Neptune ? 2.8  billion  miles (4.5 billion km) away. "Well, wait until you hear about Voyager 1," I eventually said, assuming he was aware of what was coming. He was not.

"NASA's  Voyager 1  interstellar spacecraft actually isn't even in the solar system anymore," I announced. "Nope, it's more than 15 billion miles (24 billion km)  away from us  — and it's getting even farther as we speak." I can't quite remember his response, but I do indeed recall an expression of sheer disbelief. There were immediate inquiries about how that's even physically possible. There were bewildered laughs, different ways of saying "wow," and mostly, there was a contagious sense of awe. And just like that, a new Voyager 1 fan was born.

It is easy to see why Voyager 1 is among the most beloved robotic space explorers we have — and it is thus easy to understand why so many people felt a pang to their hearts several months ago, when Voyager 1 stopped talking to us.

Related:  After months of sending gibberish to NASA, Voyager 1 is finally making sense again

For reasons unknown at the time, this spacecraft began sending back gibberish in place of the neatly organized and data-rich 0's and 1's it had been providing since its  launch in 1977 . It was this classic computer language which allowed Voyager 1 to converse with its creators while earning the title of "farthest human made object." It's how the spacecraft relayed vital insight that led to the discovery of new Jovian moons and, thanks to this sort of binary podcast, scientists incredibly identified a new ring of Saturn and created the solar system's first and only "family portrait." This code, in essence, is crucial to Voyager 1's very being.

Plus, to make matters worse, the issue behind the glitch turned out to be associated with the craft's Flight Data System, which is literally the system that transmits information about Voyager 1's health so scientists can correct any issues that arise. Issues like this one. Furthermore, because of the spacecraft's immense distance from its operators on Earth, it takes about 22.5 hours for a transmission to reach the spacecraft, and then 22.5 hours to receive a transmission back. Alas, things weren't looking good for a while — for about five months, to be precise.

But then, on April 20, Voyager 1  finally phoned home  with legible 0's and legible 1's.

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"The team had gathered early on a weekend morning to see whether telemetry would return," Bob Rasmussen, a member of the Voyager flight team, told Space.com. "It was nice to have everyone assembled in one place like this to share in the moment of learning that our efforts had been successful. Our cheer was both for the intrepid spacecraft and for the comradery that enabled its recovery."

And  then,  on May 22 , Voyager scientists released the welcome announcement that the spacecraft has successfully resumed returning science data from two of its four instruments, the plasma wave subsystem and magnetometer instrument. They're now working on getting the other two, the cosmic ray subsystem and low energy charged particle instrument, back online as well. Though there technically are six other instruments onboard Voyager, those had been out of commission for some time.

The comeback

Rasmussen was actually a member of the Voyager team in the 1970s, having worked on the project as a computer engineer before leaving for other missions including  Cassini , which launched the spacecraft that taught us almost everything we currently know about Saturn. In 2022, however, he returned to Voyager because of a separate dilemma with the mission — and has remained on the team ever since.

"There are many of the original people who were there when Voyager launched, or even before, who were part of both the flight team and the science team," Linda Spilker, a planetary scientist at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory , who also worked on the Voyager mission, told Space.com in the This Week from Space podcast on the TWiT network. "It's a real tribute to Voyager — the longevity not only of the spacecraft, but of the people on the team."

To get Voyager 1 back online, in rather cinematic fashion, the team devised a complex workaround that prompted the FDS to send a copy of its memory back to Earth. Within that memory readout, operators managed to discover the crux of the problem — a corrupted code spanning a single chip — which was then remedied through another (honestly,  super interesting ) process to modify the code. On the day Voyager 1 finally spoke again, "you could have heard a pin drop in the room," Spilker said. "It was very silent. Everybody's looking at the screen, waiting and watching." 

Of course, Spilker also brought in some peanuts for the team to munch on — but not just any peanuts. Lucky peanuts. 

It's a longstanding tradition at JPL to have a peanut feast before major mission events like launches, milestones and, well, the possible resurrection of Voyager 1. It  began  in the 1960s, when the agency was trying to launch the Ranger 7 mission that was meant to take pictures of and collect data about the moon's surface. Rangers 1 through 6 had all failed, so Ranger 7 was a big deal. As such, the mission's trajectory engineer, Dick Wallace, brought lots of peanuts for the team to nibble on and relax. Sure enough, Ranger 7 was a success and, as Wallace once said, "the rest is history." 

Voyager 1 needed some of those positive snacky vibes. 

"It'd been five months since we'd had any information," Spilker explained. So, in this room of silence besides peanut-eating-noises, Voyager 1 operators sat at their respective system screens, waiting. 

"All of a sudden it started to populate — the data," Spilker said. That's when the programmers who had been staring at those screens in anticipation leapt out of their seats and began to cheer: "They were the happiest people in the room, I think, and there was just a sense of joy that we had Voyager 1 back."

Eventually, Rasmussen says the team was able to conclude that the failure probably occurred due to a combination of aging and radiation damage by which energetic particles in space bombarded the craft. This is also why he believes it wouldn't be terribly surprising to see a similar failure occur in the future, seeing as Voyager 1 is still roaming beyond the distant boundaries of our stellar neighborhood just like its spacecraft twin,  Voyager 2 .

To be sure, the spacecraft isn't fully fixed yet — but it's lovely to know things are finally looking up, especially with the recent news that some of its science instruments are back on track. And, at the very least, Rasmussen assures that nothing the team has learned so far has been alarming. "We're confident that we understand the problem well," he said, "and we remain optimistic about getting everything back to normal — but we also expect this won't be the last."

In fact, as Rasmussen explains, Voyager 1 operators first became optimistic about the situation just after the root cause of the glitch had been determined with certainty. He also emphasizes that the team's spirits were never down. "We knew from indirect evidence that we had a spacecraft that was mostly healthy," he said. "Saying goodbye was not on our minds."

"Rather," he continued, "we wanted to push toward a solution as quickly as possible so other matters on board that had been neglected for months could be addressed. We're now calmly moving toward that goal."

The future of Voyager's voyage

It can't be ignored that, over the last few months, there has been an air of anxiety and fear across the public sphere that Voyager 1 was slowly moving toward sending us its final 0 and final 1. Headlines all over the internet, one written by  myself included , have carried clear, negative weight. I think it's because even if Voyager 2 could technically carry the interstellar torch post-Voyager 1, the prospect of losing Voyager 1 felt like the prospect of losing a piece of history. 

"We've crossed this boundary called the heliopause," Spilker explained of the Voyagers. "Voyager 1 crossed this boundary in 2012; Voyager 2 crossed it in 2018 — and, since that time, were the first spacecraft ever to make direct measurements of the interstellar medium." That medium basically refers to material that fills the space between stars. In this case, that's the space between other stars and our sun, which, though we don't always think of it as one, is simply another star in the universe. A drop in the cosmic ocean.

"JPL started building the two Voyager spacecraft in 1972," Spilker explained. "For context, that was only three years after we had the first human walk on the moon — and the reason we started that early is that we had this rare alignment of the planets that happens once every  176 years ." It was this alignment that could promise the spacecraft checkpoints across the solar system, including at Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune. Those checkpoints were important for the Voyagers in particular. Alongside planetary visits come gravity assists, and gravity assists can help fling stuff within the solar system — and, now we know, beyond.

As the first humanmade object to leave the solar system, as a relic of America's early space program, and as a testament to how robust even decades-old technology can be, Voyager 1 has carved out the kind of legacy usually reserved for remarkable things lost to time.

"Our scientists are eager to see what they’ve been missing," Rasmussen remarked. "Everyone on the team is self-motivated by their commitment to this unique and important project. That's where the real pressure comes from." 

Still, in terms of energy, the team's approach has been clinical and determined. 

— NASA's Voyager 1 sends readable message to Earth after 4 nail-biting months of gibberish

— NASA engineers discover why Voyager 1 is sending a stream of gibberish from outside our solar system

— NASA's Voyager 1 probe hasn't 'spoken' in 3 months and needs a 'miracle' to save it

"No one was ever especially excited or depressed," he said. "We're confident that we can get back to business as usual soon, but we also know that we're dealing with an aging spacecraft that is bound to have trouble again in the future. That's just a fact of life on this mission, so not worth getting worked up about."

Nonetheless, I imagine it's always a delight for Voyager 1's engineers to remember this robotic explorer occupies curious minds around the globe. (Including my dad's mind now, thanks to me and Google.)

As Rasmussen puts it: "It's wonderful to know how much the world appreciates this mission."

Originally posted on Space.com .

Monisha Ravisetti is Space.com's Astronomy Editor. She covers black holes, star explosions, gravitational waves, exoplanet discoveries and other enigmas hidden across the fabric of space and time. Previously, she was a science writer at CNET, and before that, reported for The Academic Times. Prior to becoming a writer, she was an immunology researcher at Weill Cornell Medical Center in New York. She graduated from New York University in 2018 with a B.A. in philosophy, physics and chemistry. She spends too much time playing online chess. Her favorite planet is Earth.

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