Star Trek: Voyager — 5x26 — Equinox, Part I
Synopsis
Another Federation starship brings trouble for Voyager.
Remarkable scenes
- Seeing the Equinox.
- Torres' "BLT" nickname.
- Janeway confronting Ransom regarding his cover up.
- Ransom: "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!"
- Equinox EMH attacking Voyager EMH.
- Ransom's escape with his crew, his ship, and Voyager's field generator leaving Voyager stranded to fight the aliens alone.
Review
On one hand, this is a great episode. I loved seeing another Federation ship in the Delta quadrant! But on the other hand, this episode gets a lot of stuff wrong. The science behind the Equinox' new warp drive is a bit fuzzy, Ransom and crew's behavior is downright traitorous, and Janeway's initial "evacuate everyone off the Equinox" approach was flawed. The episode would have been a lot better if Voyager had helped to restore the Equinox instead of demanding it be abandoned. I personally wouldn't have minded seeing the Equinox and her crew make regular guest appearances on the show in season six. But given the events of this episode, it seems to me Ransom has burned his bridges with Voyager. The ship is probably either going to make it to the alpha quadrant or be destroyed. Given that Seven of Nine is aboard, Voyager will probably track it to get Seven back, and then destroy it to stop Ransom. I must say, I'm pretty underwhelmed with this cliffhanger. It's pretty obvious Janeway isn't going to die and that the Equinox will be tracked down in order to retrieve Seven. Main characters just don't die like this.