Star Trek: Voyager (TV Series) Equinox, Part II (1999) User Reviews

Star Trek Voyager: Razor or Battlestar Galatica: Equinox

[RayVolutionNow · 8/10 · 22 December 2018]

I cannot help but notice the stark similarities between this two part actioner from season 5 finale and season six opener of Star Trek Voyager and the mini series of Battlestar Galactica: Razor.

Two Captain's and their crews stranded in unknown space, trying to find their way home. One commander continues to uphold their protocol the other willing to break every rule in the name of survival.

Adama/Janeway are the straight-laced captains while Cain/Ransom as the battle hardened prime directive breakers.

Famed writer, show runner Ronald D. Moore was attached to both shows and I can't help wonder if this episode influenced Razor.

Star Trek as a whole was an influence in the reimagining of Moore Galactica. No food or supplies at the ready with the aid of replicators. No beaming down to new planets with the gene scrambling transporters. Battlestar is hyper DiY and as grounded in physics.

With all that said, anyone else see the similarities?

A gripping start for the new season

[Tweekums · 9/10 · 24 March 2010]

Season Six of Voyager starts where series five ended; Voyager is under attack from the nucleogenic lifeforms and the Equinox warping away with Voyager's shield generator. Captain Janeway is determined to catch the Equinox and bring her crew to justice... no matter what the cost. Looking at Captain Ransom's record she realises that he will seek somewhere to hide. She finds Equinox in orbit above a nearby planet and captures two crewmen who were seeking fuel on the surface. When she lowers the shields in the room one of the prisoners is in and threatens to let the creatures kill him if he doesn't give them information Chokotay steps in and finds himself relieved of duty. She once again crosses the line when she meets a group of aliens who enable her to talk to the nucleogenic lifeforms; she makes a deal whereby they can kill anybody on Equinox if they leave Voyager alone. As Voyager moves against the Equinox things are made difficult by the Equinox's EMH who has unbeknownst to Voyager's crew replaced the Doctor.

This was a great season opener which included plenty of thrills and a sense that the Captain was going the same way as Ransom although not surprisingly by the end it looks as if she is back to her usual self. It was nice to see that Ransom got a chance to find redemption and those members of his crew who survived were integrated into Voyager's crew even if they were stripped of their rank. As with the first part John Savage put in a good performance as Capt. Ransom, believably portraying him as a man who realises the errors of his ways and seeks to find redemption.

Janeway Goes Nuts

[Hitchcoc · 7/10 · 9 September 2018]

I've thought for a long time that Kathryn Janeway's character was portrayed as unbalanced. But most of the time she comes to her senses and banks on her training and acumen. In the entire episode, she is shown to be an obsessed nut. I'd never noticed before how the more erratic she is, the more her sharp chin sticks out. It was out a lot her. The problem (and lets not forget that this is just fiction) is that her response to the Captain of the Equinox is way over the top. She throws away all those years of respect and concern for her own people to launch a vendetta against a man she had never met before. If one watches the series, we know that there are selfish scallawags all over the place. Yes, she trusted him, but she trusted Harry's judgment in the last episode. It's her judgment that shouldn't be trusted. Anyway, the final scene with Chakotay shows she has learned nothing. The crew has no choice but to follow her, but I would guess that trust not going to be easy.

Mixed feelings

[lisafenix · 18 May 2007]

OK, when I first saw this episode I hated it. I hated the fact the Janeway was apparently more of a bad guy than the bad guy she was so heck bent on tracking down. The only thing that made it watchable was Ransom's transformation from the person we saw who stopped at nothing to continue, to the person who stopped at nothing to end things. In a previous episode(Scorpion) Janeway had stopped and listened in time to prevent a disaster; here she had to stop and watch the disaster unfold before she finally listened.

Anyway on watching it a second time as it were, I realized there was a reason and a story to what was going on. It was a look into the lack of black and white ethics: the "bad guy" has a conscience and the protagonist seems to have left hers behind. There really is no black and white absolute when it comes to morals and ethics. Where do we stand on the issue? Personally I stand by the captain, when she has her head screwed on right that is. Nod to Chakotay for being respectful even as the single crew member to stand up to this.

Question: level 10 authorization is captains eyes only, shouldn't the first officer have level 9? is this some sort of odd mention of former lack of trust? Or did we not know of level 10 yet?

The second part of this Savage confrontation is even better.

[planktonrules · 10/10 · 28 February 2015]

This is the second of a two-part episode. In part one, Voyager makes contact with another Federation ship in the Delta Quadrant. They apparently got there the same way Voyager did. However, it soon becomes apparent to survive this long, the Equinox crew have chosen to ignore the Prime Directive and they have been killing a species of life to convert it into fuel! Janeway is horrified and has this crew confined to quarters. However the Equinox's evil holo doctor rescues them and they escape--leaving Voyager to deal with the wrath of the creatures Equinox has been killing!

In part two, you see a wonderful change come over Captain Janeway. She becomes a bit like Captain Ahab and is determined to do just about anything to punish the Equinox crew--including abandoning them to the wrath of the creatures they've been killing. This is MEGA- cool as the Captain it too often too nice--here she is absolutely nasty--and deservedly so. Well worth seeing just for this!

Overall, this is a very exciting episode--even better than part one. Well worth seeing.

I have mixed feelings

[leadfootjen · 8/10 · 29 April 2024]

This 2 parter started out intriguing and exciting, that they encountered another ship from the alpha quadrant that was sent to the Delta quadrant the same way as Voyager, yet there was an underlying feeling of "this is too good to be true". I kept waiting for the full story as to how they got there but it never came. And I feel like there was a plot hole: so the science ship was sent there BEFORE Voyager?? And if so, did it happen practically just before them, or by the Caretaker's mate? I ask bc all this time, it has seemed that Voyager is the only ship lost in the delta quadrant: Starfleet has made NO mention in their transmissions about another ship being lost, and if it was addressed in this episode, I missed it. And they couldn't have been sent after Voyager bc Janeway destroyed the array.

Janeway's erratic behavior was rather surprising and very much out of character for her; however, I believe it stemmed from the fact that she has held the prime directive as her guiding light, struggling with it at times, but never breaking it during the crew's journey. I think it flew in her face that this captain barely hesitated to break it, even in the direst moments. He valued his crew more than any new life they encountered and decided it was worth sacrificing this new life to save his people. Had the new life volunteered this (!?!) it would have been one thing, but after the accidental death of the first one, he actively sought out the creatures to kill them for energy. This went completely against her own ethics, as well as Starfleet's, so much so that she saw red and wanted vengeance. Honestly, in some ways, I can't say I blame her. She snapped. I do feel she regretted it and was ashamed of her actions, so an apology to Chakotay and Tuvok would have gone a long way towards making amends, which we sadly did not see. Having a hesitant "aww shucks" kind of conversation about a pot luck just didn't suffice for me.

Bottom line: the episode could have been better. I liked some parts and not others, and was left feeling conflicted at the end. If that's what the writers were going for, they were successful.

Entertaining finish, but arguably mixed success with characters

[snoozejonc · 7/10 · 4 November 2023]

Voyager contends with the Equinox and an understandably hostile group of aliens.

Part two deals with Janeway's obsession with rectifying the situation set up during part 1, along with Captain Ransom's arc. Both unfold with some solid tension, drama and parallels. However, Janeway's mini-meltdown feels to have come out of the blue, as if the writers have included it for the sake of drama as opposed to any underlying reason of interest. What makes it work well are actors like Katie Mulgrew, Robert Beltran and John Savage, who lift the material with their performances.

Robert Picardo and Jeri Ryan are great together as always. Their scenes are all solid, notwithstanding the sudden and unexplained reset button pushed on The Doctor's missing "ethical subroutine" towards the end.

Like the previous episode the visuals are strong in parts, especially during the action scenes.

For me it's a 6.5/10 but I round upwards.

Great episode minus deleting the Doc's ethical subroutines

[tgctigerlily · 7/10 · 18 October 2023]

Even 20 years later I still find issue with simply deleting the Doc's subroutines could cause the Doc to immediately be able to torture and betray Seven and the entire Voyager crew. Just one subroutine category and boom! That's it?! No. They've gone to great lengths to show the complexity of the Doctor's program and personality. Just the ethical subroutines shouldn't have caused him to be able to do such a 180°. What about loyalty? What about love? What about friendship? Any of those subroutines should STILL have prevented the Doc from commiting such atrocities! Makes no sense!

Other than that this episode is top notch and I love the depth of character development we see in Captain Janeway. Her Enneagram type 8 Core personality is so clear and obvious. Captain Ransom betrayed Voyager and left it vulnerable. That's more than any average 8 can handle.

Who wrote this nonsense!

[tannerie · 3/10 · 18 February 2024]

I've been watching Voyager through on Netflix for the first time since it was on TV "back in the day" and I was just watching Equinox parts 1 and 2...

And Wow! - Worst episode, ever!

(Said in the Simpsons comic book guy's voice, but I'm serious! 😯)

Part 1 was good, but I was disappointed that NONE of the Equinox crew went against them (unless and probably more unlikely, that story about losing 40 crew in an attack was a lie and the captain killed everyone on board who objected to his actions!)...

It's a pity that the blonde woman's reluctance hadn't been genuine and nor was the crewman's who Voyager's crew rescued from under the bulkhead shown to be a genuinely good person (pity they didn't leave him under the bulkhead!)...

It didn't give us any hope for their crew, but overall, I was enjoying the episode...

Going on to the second episode and wow! - who wrote this junk?! 😯 .

Someone who's never seen an episode of the show or surely any Star Trek for that matter!

So many plot conveniences, but in particular out of character moments, mostly for Janeway!

Firstly, I'm shocked that it only took two button presses to turn The Doctor into Mengilea, that he didn't offer ONE bit of resistance, while Seven made no appeal to his humanity (what little of it is locked away somewhere!)... and he showed no small traces on his own!

How Voyager's crew noticed anything wrong with the evil doctor on their ship (while I guess the writer did care to even focus on him being there, rather than having him send the Equinox one message...)

In the battle with the Equinox, firstly with their level of damage, they should have been defeated in seconds, not to mention when the previous episode had made clear how weak their ship was, it really was no match for voyager!

(it should have never made it that far in the first place!)...

But even with that, beyond Voyager's general superior capabilities in every department, there are many more that they overlooked - where was the Delta flyer?!...

Some episodes play up how powerful it is with its' Borg enhanced weapons in particular, but where was it during the battle and even to go after the Equinox (it should be able to beat the smaller Starship on its' own!)...

In the battle, the Equinox is down to thrusters only, then can suddenly go to warp, when Voyager which is designed to land on planets takes more damage than them and can't?! (And still doesn't send the Flyer after them!)...

B'Elanna's ex always being better than her is annoying and surely if he was that good, his crew wouldn't have become mass murders in the first place!

But the WORST thing about it are Janeway's actions!

She's annoyed, so bingo - she has no "ethical subroutines!"

IF she had "only" lowered the shields in the cargo bay and realised how crazy she was being when Chakotay challenged her, but no - she relieves him of duty and threatened to do the same to Tuvok!

Then threatening the alien vessel and agreeing to give the Equinox crew, bad as they are, to the dimensional aliens...

All in, she'd never act like that, no matter how wounded her pride was!

I still have 16 minutes left in the episode, but WOW, what will they have her do next?! - Nuke a planet because she spilled her coffee?!

This episode feels like a mirror episode and not in a good way (or like when the aliens who thought that Voyager's crew were evil told their story...)

I wish it was an alternate reality, as I don't see how Janeway or the writers can redeem her after this! - terrible 😯😐 .

Excellent two parter.

[amesmonde · 15 August 2016]

Voyager finds another Federation starship, the USS Equinox, stranded in the Delta Quadrant.

Equinox is a gritty dark episode directed By David Livingston with some excellent sets, good visual effects and weighty acting notably from John Savage as Captain Ransom and Kate Mulgrew.

This episode continues edginess, people dead or dying and you get the feeling things may not play out well. There's action, Wrath of Khan-like double cross with creepy and vicious CGI-created aliens. Writers Rick Berman, Brannon Braga and Joe Menosky entertainingly offer a synaptic stimulator (a personal version of the holodeck) where Seven appears to Ransom without her Borg implants, two Doctors one whose ethical subroutines have been deleted and Chakotay and Janeway fallout. There are several character relationship arcs which give Equinox depth.

With the grim tone, it's interesting to see USS Equinox stuck in the Delta Quadrant like Voyager but Ransom and crew have not responded the same way, unethically breaking the Prime Directive including mass murder.

It's very satisfying film-like double episode in terms of how it looks and how the story unfolds.

Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned

[tomsly-40015 · 7/10 · 13 January 2024]

Clear the stage for the furious Janeway, who once again shows off her erratic character on her personal quest for revenge. I actually think Janeway is a capable captain - she's tough and smart and has no problems making decisions or giving orders. However, her fickle nature is extremely annoying. Sometimes she is the white knight who follows strict Starfleet protocol and values every life, especially those of her crew members. And other times, mad with rage and revenge, she would follow a rogue Starfleet captain to the ends of the universe just to hunt him down and, if necessary, sacrifice her ship and her entire crew in the attempt.

When Voyager encounters another Starfleet spaceship that is also lost in the delta quadrant, the initial joy quickly gives way to skepticism and then anger. Because, as many of Janeway's viewers have often demanded, this crew doesn't take Starfleet protocol too seriously and crosses moral boundaries in order to get home faster: In this case, they tap into the life energy of an alien life form in order to optimize their warp drive. However, the fact that these individuals bite the dust in this procedure is commented on by the captain of the other ship with "I had no choice", which seems to be the motto of this crew.

In any case, Janeway is angry, frenzied and risks not only losing the loyalty of her crew but also their lives. She acts irrationally and driven by blind rage - not at all worthy of a Starfleet captain. Chakotay is confined to his quarters and Tuvok faces the same fate if he disobeys. All in all, Janeway cuts a pretty bad figure in this character study.

Incidentally, evil people in films seem to prefer the darkness. The other ship is poorly lit, it is dark and gloomy, so that even the last viewer understands that these are the bad guys who are best avoided. And B'Elanna's ex-boyfriend, number one on the other ship: Sorry, but it's completely unbelievable that B'Elanna and that arrogant slob were once together.

And somehow I don't understand the speed of the warp drives in this series. Voyager is capable of flying at almost warp 10, while the other ship is only able to fly at warp 8 maximum. With the energy of the aliens they are able to fly 0 point something faster as Janeway explains. But that would still mean they would be slower than Voyager. Nevertheless, the other captain claims that they flew 10,000 light years in 2 weeks. At this rate they would be home in 15 weeks. Since Voyager is much faster than this ship, Janeway would have simply had to step on the gas pedal and they would have been back on earth during the first season. Instead, we were shown in several episodes that Voyager travels at a speed of around 1,000 light years per year. So something is wrong with these calculations and the logic behind them.

Janeway is unfit to be captain

[brdavid-429-96270 · 2/10 · 9 December 2021]

Never have I seen an episode where the captain is so erratic and evil and I'm not talking about Ransom. Ransom I can understand to a degree, but Janeway's actions are borderline masochistic and evil. She literally has a prisoner bound to a chair hoping they will break before they are killed by an alien. She overlooks the obvious to get help just to launch a vendetta. She makes so many blatant uncharacteristically decisions that if I were under her command I wouldn't trust her ever again.

I realize this episode is rated highly. It had an excellent start but the writing is plain horrendous that I question if I want to continue watching this show knowing what I just saw. Honestly, I wish Mulgrew left the show (she was thinking about it) and the character died on the bridge at the beginning. That would have been a better fate than what came from this episode. From here on out her character is tainted with the knowledge of what she is capable of, which is pure evil.