Star Trek: Voyager (TV Series) Dragon's Teeth (1999) User Reviews

Your enemy's enemy isn't always your friend

[Tweekums · 8/10 · 1 April 2010]

When Voyager enters a subspace corridor the crew does not realise that it is claimed by an alien race called the Turei. After apologising they leave the corridor but that isn't enough for the Turei who demand access to Voyager's computer so they can delete any data about them. Fleeing the Turei Voyager lands on a nearby planet that was devastated by war nine hundred years previously. Once down they are surprised to find that there are some people still alive in stasis. Upon being awakened these people, known as the Vaadwaur, claim that they are the true owners of the corridors which they used for trade and that the Turei amongst others attacked them so they could gain control. Neelix remembers that the Vaadwaur were mentioned in ancient Talaxian legends and when he looks at those legends he learns they were a race that were feared, these legends also match information Seven finds in the Borg database. It soon becomes clear that Captain Janeway will have to decide which of the two aliens represent the greater threat if she is to get away from the planet.

While this isn't the first Star Trek episode where the apparently friendly aliens turn out to be a greater threat than those that seem hostile it was done well; I wasn't sure whether the Vaadwaur were good or bad before they were exposed. It was nice to see an episode where Neelix wasn't overly jolly and used for comic relief.

Voyager's answer to Space Seed but with more action

[snoozejonc · 7/10 · 15 July 2020]

Seven of Nine re-awakens a race of people from a long stasis sleep who might be a bit nastier than they make out. Of course this is done with the best intentions but I won't get into ethics.

Things start off pretty straight forward with a nice new alliance being formed, but in true Star Trek fashion, the non-interference directive once again shows us that things aren't always what they seem when you explore strange new worlds.

This is a good episode for the Janeway character where she gets to display lots of strong character traits and leadership qualities. There is also a pretty good antagonist to keep things interesting.

As the episode moves towards a conclusion it ramps up the action, effects and excitement which adds to the enjoyment.

Even though the plot and themes are not very original, it is a very well made episode.

Prime directive 'My Bad' episode.

[thevacinstaller · 7/10 · 10 February 2023]

Well, here we have the consequences of being a good natured civilization ----- those who are manipulative and nefarious can get an angle on you and exploit your act of kindness to suit there own purposes. It's better to be good natured but it's not easy.

I enjoyed this one. I always pontificate on how I want to see catastrophic consequences to not following the prime directive --- y'know, give the directive some heft. Well, we just released a band of armed space pirates into the delta quadrant and who knows what consequences for the future that would have.

The old Borg lore is getting messed up a bit. Guinan said they had been evolving for thousands of centuries yet apparently they had only assimilated a handful of sectors 800 years ago? I am not a frothing at the mouth trek nerd but this stands out to me.

It was pretty could that Neelix got his Columbo on and pieces together the puzzle based on myths and then had the idea to collaborate that with SO9's data base. Good work space cheetah and babygirl wildman.

The lesson to be learned here is that you should not help that cute girl you had a crush on back in high school later on in life. She could end up being evil and perhaps a junkie who steals to support her habit.

Another case of unintended consequences

[planktonrules · 8/10 · 1 March 2015]

When the show begins, Voyager is thrown into the atmosphere of a dead planet. How did this happen? A xenophobic species caught them in their space and refused to discuss the matter--tossing the ship onto the barren planet. However, Seven makes an interesting discovery-- many, many people in suspended animation! In fact, these folks have been stored her for almost a thousand years. Naturally her inclination is to be helpful and wake them up, but it's a case of unintended consequences, as these sleeping folks are FAR worse than the people who tossed Voyager there in the first place! And to defeat these sleepers, the xenophobes and Voyager might just have to work together.

This is a neat episode. Once again, it illustrates that if Voyager JUST focused on getting home, everyone's life would be a lot better! Dang galactic do-gooders!!

Not Many Nice Ones Out in Space

[Hitchcoc · 8/10 · 10 September 2018]

Once more, an alien race decides to attack Voyager. It turns out that there is some kind of labyrinth that is accessible and our people get stuck in one of its conduits. They are routinely seen as hostile. How many times have we heard, "Shields are at twenty percent." They are shaken and bounced and attacked by all kinds of characters. This time they go from the frying pan into the fire, trying to help a seemingly pleasant man who had been in stasis for 900 years. Oh, well, that's gratitude for you. He turns nasty on them. It's an exciting episode, but another roadblock on the way home.

Don't wake the beast

[tomsly-40015 · 7/10 · 17 January 2024]

After Voyager flees an attack by angry aliens and hides on a bombed-out planet, the crew discovers underground stasis chambers containing hundreds of individuals from another species. After they are awakened from their 900-year sleep, Janeway agrees to find them a new home. However, Neelix discovers that this species is anything but peaceful and had a reputation for conquering other worlds before their victims forged an alliance and retaliated.

Since apparently 900 years isn't long enough for change, the aliens start right back where they left off and want to get right back into the fight. Since their ships are now hopelessly outdated, they have their eye on Voyager and are playing a double game from now on - but Janeway wouldn't be Captain Obvious if she hadn't seen through the mummery.

The idea of an aggressive civilization that disappeared from the scene for 900 years and now wants to regain its traditional place in the quadrant is not a bad idea. However, everything happens much too quickly. Having barely woken up from stasis, these crooks have nothing better to do than plan the next coup. Perhaps they should have first taken time to assess the current balance of power and how technology has changed during this time. With just a few hundred of their kind, even with Voyager's firepower, they would not be able to reconquer their former planets and colonies anyhow.

Seven open's Pandora's Box

[XweAponX · 10/10 · 13 October 2013]

On a planet somewhere in the Delta Quadrant, a Nicely Dressed Alien Couple are dodging debris and explosions. They stick themselves into two handy Cryo-Tubes and Bye-Bye for "Five Years".

Five Years which turns in to almost a thousand. Voyager has found a bunch of Subspace Tunnels and can't find their way out. A race of ugly aliens uses a beam that spits them out into Normal Space, but then they want to board Voyager and delete every vestige of Computer data about the tunnels.

That would be like an agent from say, the Canadian Government showing up at my house wanting to delete all of my hard drives because I stumbled upon a state secret. OK, maybe not Canadians, maybe someone from Russia. No way would I allow this to happen, and Janeway tells these freaks, No Way! So they start shooting and Voyager ends up on the planet from the teaser.

They find the underground chamber where almost 600 of these well-dressed aliens are in deep sleep, while Janeway's back is turned, Seven of Sixty-Nine opens one of the tubes!

These well-dressers with ugly heads seem pleasant enough, they claim the Subspace Tunnels were theirs, they used them for trade or exploration.

So 200 well dressed but ugly aliens are meandering about Voyager, making a plan to escape this bombarded planet and go somewhere else, "Peacefully".

All it takes is one Naomi Wildman to raise the suspicion factor - It seems these "Bianco Brioni" clothed "allies" were badmouthing Neelix behind his back.

So he reads all of his ancient Talaxian Myths and Stories and finds reference to "An army that appears out of nowhere, kills everyone, then vanishes". So it would seem that the initial ugly-aliens Voyager encounters were not really their enemy. Seven confirms Neelix's supposition by comparing his stories to what Borg History she knows.

So Voyager's "New" best dressed for success allies spout Dragon's Teeth and attack, Janeway was able to get power back by inhaling the radioactive planet's atmosphere using the Bussard Collectors, while giving the original Ugly Aliens access to the Well-Dresser's secret Satellite.

So once again, Voyager is able to escape by the skin of their teeth, all because Seven opened a refrigerator.

Some of these Well Dressed Aliens escape into the tunnels, apparently to come back later to bite Voyager on the Arse, fortunately that never happened. Hopefully The Borg absorbed them and now are scrubbing conduits in some Borg Cube Bilge Tank.

The paradox of the enemy of my enemy

[GreyHunter · 7/10 · 9 January 2020]

One of the more interesting themes in Voyager, particularly since they encounter so many different hostile species, is the old aphoristic "The enemy of my enemy is my friend" philosophy. This, of course, is most prominently seen in the temporary alliance (and inevitable betrayal) involving the Borg against Species 8472, which one assumes -- given the later fall-out over that alliance, seen both in the attempted retaliation of Species 8472 and the alien who tried to turn Voyager over to the Borg as a revenge for the effect the alliance had on his species -- would give everyone on Voyager pause when it came to forming alliances against a common foe. Alas, circumstances in the Delta Quadrant have forced (or at least encouraged) Voyager to take chances, and once again, Voyager pays the price. All-in-all, not a necessary episode (as the issue was handled much more prominently and effectively with the aforementioned alliance with the Borg) but not a terrible one either...though it does bring up a point that's nagged at me the whole series, as well as in other ST series from time to time.

To wit, how is it that Voyager, and Federation as a whole, weapon and shield technology is almost never enough to win a battle on its own? They almost always need trickery, or technobabble, or just plain luck to survive any of their fights. I get that a series of "Voyager blows yet another alien ship apart with relative ease" episodes would quickly become boring, but it just seems ridiculous that technologically inferior opponents seem to be able to push Voyager to the brink of destruction every single time. The Kazon being able to do that was bad. A species whose technology is 900 years out of date being able to bring Voyager almost to a crash landing with weapons on small fighters just seemed ridiculous. Thirty or forty ships with badly outdated weapons technology is still just 30-40 ships with badly outdated weapons technology. Imagine 40 archers from 900 years ago massed together to take down a modern tank. You could put 10,000 archers together and they'd still hardly do any more damage than a single archer. This episode takes the whole "make sure the fights are exciting" directive to its ridiculous conclusion. Voyager can't even destroy these fighters apparently (despite what we saw on screen) because the dialogue makes it clear that the fighters were only disabled.

The story I has holes in it.

[smiledaydream · 6/10 · 17 March 2021]

The story I has holes in it. Obviously we're dealing with fiction but this is Star Trek. So that means two things. Unlike the living dead whose humans now seem more suitable for lunch than survival, if it's Star Trek I have to like it. And I love it. But people acting out of character and doing things that don't fit behaviors they are already aware of doesn't make sense. Seven would not do what she did. Information they find out later would just be obvious things you would look into first thing. Whoever is writing needs to think a little harder to close the gap's in the stories. This is a clever show, remember? It's not a show about a group of humans with tons of resources that cannot figure out how zombies behave when zombies are completely consistent.