Sunday, June 22, 2003

RETROACTIVELY MAKING STAR TREK: VOYAGER GOOD, Part XIV
Episode Guide
Season Six
"The Armada, Part II" - The Ulysses leads the combined Tehlyri/Voth/Vidiian/Krenim/Hirogen/et al. armada against the Borg fleet "under" Auranus, while Captain McKenna and Princess Rafi (formerly Princess Rissa) lead an away team to the Tehlyri capital in search of Emperor Vorei. The armada manages to hold off the Borg long enough to evacuate most of the Tehlyri, but not even the experienced Vidiian surgeons can reverse the assimilation of the emperor. Enough of Vorei's will survives, however, to sacrifice himself for the destruction of Auranus's cube. As soon as the last armada ships enter the Borg transwarp conduits, an experimental Krenim device collapses the entrance, making pursuit impossible. While the other surviving Ascendants and their warmechas return to the Ascendant domain, Axis and the core intelligence of his ship, the Fulcrum, are invited to stay aboard the Ulysses. In a bitter coronation aboard the Tehlyri flagship, Rafi succeeds her slain father and is crowned Empress.

"History Project" - Liz visits with Agrippa, who has gained limited privilidges as reward for his help on the Tehlyri homeworld. She interviews him about his role in the Eugenics Wars and gains an uncomfortable understanding of the abyss that is his soul.

"Oblivion" - The Ulysses is falling apart and the crew cannot figure out why. Soon, the crew themselves begin to fall victim to an inexplicable sickness. Before a solution can be found, both the ship and crew disintegrate, perishing. In reality, though, these were the quicksilver aliens from "Mimic." In time, they had forgotten that they were duplicates and, thinking themselves the real crew of the Ulysses, set a course for the Alpha Quadrant. ("Course: Oblivion")

"Perfection, Part I" - As the ship passes a formerly inhabited planet, Lt. Annika Hansen, the deassmiliated Borg Starfleet officer, recalls having participated in the population's assimilation while she was a Borg. At that, Captain McKenna snaps. Between the torment Annika and Icheb feel over the evil they had committed as Borg and now Empress Rafi's reports of the slow, steady collapse of the Tehlyri resistance, she has had enough; the Ulysses is going to stop the Borg threat once and for all. She orders the wormhole device from "Reign of Khan" reassembled and visits the mad Krenim timelord Annorax in his prison outside space-time. Utilizing his expertise, she locates the point in the timestream from which the Borg originated. The Ulysses sets a course for the homeworld of the Ilani, the people who will one day be the Borg.

"Perfection, Part II" - On the Ilani homeworld, the crew go undercover and try to stop Dr. Aevo Lumin from launching her borg (Ilani for "collective") process, arguing that though it is benign in intent, in time the ruthless machine logic will overpower any organic compassion and twist the borg into something malevolent. Many Ilani agree with them, but many others hail the economic gains inherent in the increased productivity of collective workers. However, nothing can dissuade Dr. Lumin from her obsessive pursuit of, in her words, perfection. Agrippa, horrified that Captain McKenna had not simply annihiliated the Ilani with an orbital bombardment, attempts to detonate the capital city's central fusion reactor, wiping out Dr. Lumin, her research, and millions of innocents. Though the crew are able to stop him, killing him in the process, the attack raises support for the borg as a way to stop future terrorism. With public opinion still split, Captain McKenna will not annihilate the Ilani for crimes they have not yet committed, a decision supported by everyone but Sovok, who argues that the crew's consciences, even souls, are a small price to pay for forever stopping the Borg threat. As the Ulysses returns to the 24th century, Dr. Lumin holds a press conference, where she reveals her first "assimilated" borg, herself as the central nexus, or "queen."

"Blink of an Eye" - While studying a spacial anomaly, the crew learn that the ship has unwittingly served as the deity to a micro-sized civilization within. What is a god to do when the inhabitants prove they have the right stuff, carrying out a space program to make contact? ("Blink of an Eye")

"O Shining Muse" - When K'rena's shuttle crashes on a pre-warp planet, she tells a local playwright about the relationships aboard the Ulysses in exhange for supplies to make repairs. Greek tragedies about Nick and Kes, her relationship with Dan, and Naomi, Noah, and the other children on board. ("Muse")

"The Celestial Mandate" - The Borg destroyed the Voth civilzation back in "Kingdom of Shadows," and the Voth are quite unhappy about it. Twisting longstanding doctrine, they have chosen to blame the robotic Ascendant, Axis's people, for the fall of their organic civilzation. Coming to the Ascendant's aid, Captain McKenna finds herself caught up in some serious Voth soul-searching, a divide over who or what is to blame for their mighty Celestial Hierarchy having fallen. (from "Distant Origin")

"Murder By Starlight" - The Voth are coming to terms with their fall by joining the Tehlyri resistance, which has found a new home thanks to the Ascendant. But there are still hardline elements within the Voth who oppose an alliance with non-organics. Can the crew prove they responsible for the murder of a high ranking Voth official, even though the evidence points to an Ascendant, the best friend of Protocol Axis?

"Metropolis" - The Tehlyri and Voth fleets arrive at Metropolis, the Ascendant homeworld, a moon covered entirely by machines, in orbit of an M-class planet. While Empress Rafi and the Voth First Celestial settle their people on the planet, the Ascendant terrorist Zero-One reemerges in control of Doc's hologram and bent upon nothing less than the destruction of Metropolis.

"Bride of Chaotica!" - The crew routinely relax in a holographic recreation of a 1930s serial, the adventures of Captain Proton against his nemesis, Dr. Chaotica. The program endangers the ship, though, when photonic aliens mistake the holodeck for reality and the only way to defeat them is to play along with the mad Chaotica. ("Bride of Chaotica!")

"Inside Job" - Alien pirates hack into Doc's program in an effort to learn enough about the Ulysses to successfully seize the ship. In an effort to distract them, the crew run him through a multitude of scenarios, including a stink as captain. ("Tinker, Tenor, Doctor, Spy")

"Monsters in the Dark" - After the Ulysses destroys a Phos cruiser in orbit of a defenseless colony, most of the crew are beamed down to repel the surface attack. In a subterranean colony without power, our heroes battle both demons made of living fire as well as their own fears. (from DS9's "Nor the Battle to the Strong" and "The Seige of AR-558")

"We Who Are About to Die" - Sovok is kidnapped and forced to fight as a gladiator in a Xelite casino. Surak, the father of Vulcan philosophy, teaches pacifism, but if Sovok does not fight and kill, he will die. ("Tsukatse")

"The Most Dangerous Game" - Holographically passing herself off as a Hirogen hunter, Captain McKenna discovers some nearby Hirogen are seeking a most unique prey, a creature which can see the future; what more challenging prey than one which can see every trap before it is set? (This is the first appearance of the Presari.) The Ulysses makes contact with the prey first and shockingly learn he is a Presari, cousins of the Ocampa. Unfortunately, they cannot prevent the Hirogen from claiming their trophy.

"Xanadu" - We once again find ourselves aboard the Revenge as Cole and Grak Xor locate the Gorn's long-departed allies, a Tholian ship which had been pulled into the Delta Quadrant by the Caretaker two years before "The Stars My Destination." Joining forces with the Tholians, they locate the wreck of the U.S.S. Xanadu, a Federation starship lost mere months before the Ulysses (and mentioned in the series pilot). They find two very interesting pieces of information: a) something the crew had done to the ship's warp drive had greatly increased the vessel's speed, but killed everyone aboard in the process. b) Contained in the ship's computers is the location of the nigh-mythical second Caretaker.

"Pyromancer" - Dan, Seventh, and Liz's shuttles crashes on a desolate moon, having been shot down by a Phos cruiser. With Seventh's robotic body severly damaged, Dan must stay with her to effect repairs, leaving Liz to hold off the approaching Phos. Liz uses her considerable powers to stop them, including heretofore unknown pyromancy, leading some of the Phos to mutiny and pledge their loyalty to her as the prophecized "divine pyromancer."

"Warbird" - On the thirtieth anniversary of her mother's defection to the Federation, K'rena stages The Triumph of the Warbird, a dramatic interpretation of the Romulan myth about their arrival on Romulus from Vulcan. Also, we see several scenes of K'rena's youth, illustrating her mother's simultaneous hatred of the Romulan Star Empire and fierce pride in being Romulan. (guest starring Tricia O'Neil and Erick Avari as K'rena's parents)

"The High Road, Part I" - Detecting Starfleet warp signatures ahead, Captain McKenna orders the Ulysses to a nearby system, where the ship is intercepted by several small vessels commanded by Starfleet officers! Escorted by the vessels, the crew travels to a space station where they find the U.S.S. Gulliver, a Starfleet Quasar-class science ship lost since three years before the Ulysses. The Gulliver's commanding officer is "Captain" (Lt.) Felix Aeschliman, the Operations Officer back in the Alpha Quadrant; Aeschliman defends his crew's decision to give the locals Starfleet technology, claiming they needed it to defend against predatory neighbors. The Ulysses crew's suspicions are aroused by conflicting reports regarding the nature of Captain Kao's, the rightful CO, death. The season ends with the Gulliver's crew seizing the Ulysses. ("Equinox, Part I")

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