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"Star Trek: Voyager" (1995) More at IMDbPro »

Star Trek - Voyager, Episode 32: Threshold (vhs):

Amazon.com video review: When Tom Paris figures out a way to fly one of Voyager's shuttlecraft at warp 10--also known as "transwarp speed" and "ultimate velocity"--he becomes something of a hero, because it promises an early return home for Voyager. Then Tom begins to undergo a strange transformation. Apparently, he's crossed more thresholds than just the warp-speed barrier--he's also broken through the evolutionary wall, because he begins to evolve in a fashion that recalls David Cronenberg's The Fly (including a scene in which he pulls out his own tongue). That's the price you pay for being a pioneer, I guess. The price for being a fan of this show, on the other hand, is sitting through episodes like this one, which has the kind of familiar plot line that goes all the way back to Star Trek classic and has been recycled several times along the way. Still, it's hard to remember an episode of any TV show with an ending as jaw-droppingly silly--and matter-of-factly handled--as this one. --Marshall Fine

Star Trek - Voyager, Episode 33: Meld (vhs):

Amazon.com video review: Ah, the Vulcan mind-meld, a longtime favorite that goes all the way back to Mr. Spock in the classic Star Trek. It's at the center of this episode, in which Tuvok (Tim Russ) arrests an engineer named Suder (the ever-creepy Brad Dourif) who has killed a fellow crew member "because I didn't like the way he was looking at me." This doesn't sit right with the ever-logical Vulcan Tuvok, who can't get anything else out of Suder and cannot comprehend the notion of random violence. So he performs the notorious mind-meld on Suder--and discovers that, in fact, humans are capable of unprovoked violence, a wholly foreign concept to the Vulcan mind. But even as the process imparts some of Tuvok's Vulcan aloofness and logic to Suder, it unleashes a distinctly human reaction in Tuvok, triggering long-suppressed emotions that allow him to experience the kind of violent rage that Suder undergoes. Terrific performance by Tim Russ, allowing him to escape Leonard Nimoy mode and actually act human; he's matched by Dourif, who has been playing psychos since One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest. --Marshall Fine

Star Trek - Voyager, Episode 34: Dreadnought (vhs):

Amazon.com video review: An episode that focuses on Klingon engineer B'Elanna Torres (Roxann Biggs-Dawson) and harks back to the show's origins. Voyager encounters Dreadnought, once a Cardassian missile system targeted at the Maquis, which the Maquis captured when it failed to detonate. At that time, Torres had reprogrammed the missile system to go after the Cardassians. Now Dreadnought has inexplicably appeared in Delta Quadrant and has mistakenly identified a peaceful planet as a target. Torres beams aboard the missile, whose computer welcomes her and allows her to shut it down--or so it leads her to believe. In fact, the missile's computer has come to the conclusion that she is operating under duress by the Cardassians, so it ignores her orders and continues to whiz toward the peaceful planet. Even as Captain Janeway tries to warn the imperiled world, Torres must match wits with Dreadnought in an effort to neutralize its deadly threat. A suspenseful episode right down to the final moments. --Marshall Fine

Star Trek - Voyager, Episode 35: Investigations (vhs):

Amazon.com video review: An episode that seems to focus on "morale chief" Neelix (Ethan Phillips) but which, in fact, brings to a conclusion a pair of subplots that have been festering for several shows. Ostensibly, this story is about Neelix's intraship TV show about news of the day. But when Tom Paris (Robert Duncan McNeill) transfers off Voyager, Neelix is upset--and he's more upset when, after discovering that a spy has been sending communications to the Kazon, he comes to the conclusion that the spy was Paris. Viewers will know better and may enjoy the cat-and-mouse nature of the scenes involving Neelix and the real spy. On the other hand, the final battle sequence--involving Voyager and the Kazon ship, as well as hand-to-hand grappling between Neelix and the villain--is decidedly lackluster, particularly the fisticuffs with Neelix, who doesn't appear able to punch his way out of a paper bag. --Marshall Fine

Star Trek - Voyager, Episode 36: Lifesigns (vhs):

Amazon.com video review: Voyager's most intriguing character, the holographic Doctor (Robert Picardo), gets a plot of his own. When Voyager rescues a dying Vidiian woman named Denara Pel (Susan Diol) who suffers from the phage (an AIDS-like epidemic), the Doctor springs into action, digitizing her brain and creating a holographic version of her, as he tries to save her actual body with a brain graft. But even as he works on her humanoid form, he finds himself beguiled by the holographic version he has created--and despite the fact that he is also a computer-generated hologram, he realizes he is falling in love with her. Picardo, one of the great unsung character actors in movies of the 1980s (he's a regular in the films of director Joe Dante), has a good time with the persnickety hologram's attempts to come to grips with human emotions, including a lesson in love from the redoubtable Tom Paris (Robert Duncan McNeill). --Marshall Fine