Equinox, Part II

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.

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.

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.