Distant Origin

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).

An alien race finds the remains of a Voyager crew member on the planet featured in the episode 'Basics'.

This is a strong episode that addresses some thought-provoking themes.

If you take the sci-fi premise of the plot with the right amount of suspension of disbelief it has a very strong "what if" concept, as much as 'Planet of the Apes' has in the movie world. The only aspect I slightly struggled with (and it's common to Star Trek stories) is the contradictory attitude of the Voth race to their apparent scientific progression. How did they get so advanced when society is so inflexible and punitive when it comes to adherence to certain beliefs?

I love the opening narrative, told from the perspective of the Voth scientists and their observations of Voyager. In fact I would enjoy a whole episode told in this style.

The guest characters have centre stage in this episode, with Gagen and Ocala nicely written with a Galileo and Catholic Church dynamic. Henry Worocnicz and Concetta Tomei are the stars of the show for me. Robert Beltran provides good support and Katie Mulgrew is great as always.

This is a really well thought out and "realistic" offering. A couple of Saurian paleontologists from Voth have theorized, with great evidence, that their race originated on Earth during the time of the dinosaurs. But because they have a leadership that doesn't allow for challenges to its dogma, they are seen as threats. They escape in a ship and locate Voyager, the inhabitants of which will provide evidence of their theories. All that said, millions of years of entrenched dogma are hard to overturn through evidence and power loves to keep power. One of the very finest of the Voyager series.

Again, good writing. Sometimes the show can remind me of the outer limits. Clever little stories from a different point of view. I really liked the characters this time. Even the unlikable character has some charm. Cool stuff happens.

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.