I'm going to go out on a limb and cite "Distant Origins" as one of the strongest episodes of the entire series. Although the central premise is a bit of a leap (dinosaurs evolved on a separate heretofore unknown continent, developed space faring technology and fled 65 million years ago), this remains a strong and compelling episode, mostly because of it parallels not only historical events but modern ones too.
The strongest feature of this episode is the fact that the story is almost exclusively told from the alien's point of view; the Voyager crew are almost secondary to the story. The aliens, called Saurians, are determined to prove a connection between their race and the dinosaurs of Earth, an idea which flies in the face of his society's accepted doctrine. This event and the subsequent trial leads to numerous parallels with Martin Luther, Galileo, Darwin, Copernicus and even Einstien (who was called upon to defend relativity on numerous occasions).
Although there's a bit of speechifying in this episode, it's almost always deserved and the only shame is that they didn't stretch this episode into a two-parter. There was enough potential drama here for a much longer story and it's a shame that the writers had to cram everything into a single show. Also, kudos must be given for being rather clever in the creation of the Saurian culture. Despite technological advancements (all designed with the Saurian's specific physical needs in mind) they are ultimately closed minded racists (they hate mammals and members of one tribe can only marry members of another specific tribe). Too often, races in Star Trek are either benevolent or evil: it's a pleasure to see one that has more shades of grey Finally, the episode also provides an interesting insight into Voyager's environmental footprint on the Delta Quadrant - aside from their technology, they're leaving a lot of themselves behind. This opens questions as to the long term implications of their journey and of space exploration in general (something we presently don't always consider as we venture to Mars and beyond)
The strongest feature of this episode is the fact that the story is almost exclusively told from the alien's point of view; the Voyager crew are almost secondary to the story. The aliens, called Saurians, are determined to prove a connection between their race and the dinosaurs of Earth, an idea which flies in the face of his society's accepted doctrine. This event and the subsequent trial leads to numerous parallels with Martin Luther, Galileo, Darwin, Copernicus and even Einstien (who was called upon to defend relativity on numerous occasions).
Although there's a bit of speechifying in this episode, it's almost always deserved and the only shame is that they didn't stretch this episode into a two-parter. There was enough potential drama here for a much longer story and it's a shame that the writers had to cram everything into a single show. Also, kudos must be given for being rather clever in the creation of the Saurian culture. Despite technological advancements (all designed with the Saurian's specific physical needs in mind) they are ultimately closed minded racists (they hate mammals and members of one tribe can only marry members of another specific tribe). Too often, races in Star Trek are either benevolent or evil: it's a pleasure to see one that has more shades of grey Finally, the episode also provides an interesting insight into Voyager's environmental footprint on the Delta Quadrant - aside from their technology, they're leaving a lot of themselves behind. This opens questions as to the long term implications of their journey and of space exploration in general (something we presently don't always consider as we venture to Mars and beyond)
