Distant Origin

"Distant Origin" is a highly creative episode--perhaps the most creative in the series. It begins with a molecular paleontologist, Gegen, finding remains of the human killed in the season 2/season 3 cliffhanger episodes "Basics". He brings these to show his superiors on Voth--but they don't want to hear about his research and his crazy theory. What is this crazy theory? That his race and that of the body parts they found have a common ancestry--so a reptilian species and a mammalian one are, in fact, cousins of sorts.

To prove his theory, Gegen and his research assistant go in search of the ship from which this dead man originated. Soon they find Voyager and use their advanced cloaking technology to sneak aboard the ship. Unfortunately, the crew are able to detect their presence and soon an unexpected first contact occurs.

Up until this discovery, you never seen or hear anything from the viewpoint of the Federation--it's all Voth. I don't think another episode has been done like this. Additionally, what happens AFTER is something that was really creative and makes this a must-see episode. I nearly gave this one a 10, but it did seem a tad preachy late in the show.

You would think "Voyager finds a race of super-smart dinosaurs who left Earth millions of years ago" would end up being dumb or corny like so many of the other more out-there episodes of the show, but everyone involved really went off. The writing is relatively grounded, there's a clear ethical message (trust science!!), and the acting and prosthetics are both killer. Also, is this the best Chakotay episode? The only other one that comes to mind is "Shattered", from season 7, which I also love. And "The Fight", of course (jk kimora).

Concetta Tomei's performance as Minister Odala is convincing and absolutely electrifying. This is the only TV episode of any show I think is worth watching just for one actor's performance. Even though you know everything for Voyager and Chuckles will be ok in the end, Minister Odala really makes you worry for them.

Beltran seems to play Chuckles very timidly in his Speech. I'm not sure if he's really doing that or if Tomei's Odala just makes it seem that way. Her glare alone is extremely intimidating, and that's with extensive facial prosthetics to boot. Her race could have been great ongoing antagonists for the show. Far better than that motorcycle gang they dealt with for two years.

Speaking of which, this episode also makes good use of the planet in that train wreck Basics. And while Voyager got a lot of flack for very limited continuity and consequences, this episode makes great use of prior episodes.

It's also told from a different point of view, which is nifty, a bit like TNG's First Contact episode.

Just don't watch the trailer before watching the episode. As almost always with Voyager, the trailers are terribly misleading.

This episode covers the classic battle between scientists with new learning and religious obstinacy or "doctrine" as it's referred to here.

What's great about this episode is how cleverly it brings this debate into play. For the first ten minutes we don't even see the Voyager crew. only the Voth archeologists and their discovery of human remains. They take a scientific approach to uncovering the mystery of "Voyager" and the ultimate interaction between the Voth scientists and Voyager crew is both fascinating and humorous at times.

Just a great job of writing this episode and the casting and acting of the Voth. The Viyager crew does their usual great job as well and this episode is up there with the best of Star Trek.

Veteran Trek Director David Livingston is given a try at writing, and he transwarps it out of the park.

This is the hardest science that I've ever seen inserted in Star Trek's fiction, an absolutely fascinating episode that clearly references the inquisitional trial of Galileo Galilei, with added dinosaurs. It even holds true to the result and consequences of Galileo's persecution, a bold move for a mass appeal show.

There's even a delightful nod to Larry Niven's "Known Space", letting you know that Livingston is absolutely on top of the canon.

If you have the slightest interest in science fiction, even if you have no interest in Voyager, or in Star Trek, this episode is required reading as a standalone flash of genius.