Star Trek: Voyager-Season 3 (1995)

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General		Extras
Category	Star Trek	Main Menu Introduction Menu Audio Featurette-Braving The Unknown: Season 3 Featurette-Voyager Time Capsule: Neelix Featurette-Voyager Time Capsule: Kes Featurette-Flashback To "Flashback" Featurette-Red Alert: Amazing Visual Effects Featurette-Real Science With Andre Bormanis Trailer-Star Trek - Deep Space Nine Featurette-Creating The Voyager Crew Featurette-30th Anniversary Moments Gallery-Photo Trailer-Star Trek -The Experience:Borg Invasion 4D Trailer-Star Trek - The Next Generation Easter Egg-5
Rating
Year Of Production	1995
Running Time	1144:56 (Case: 1186)
RSDL / Flipper	Dual Layered Multi Disc Set (7)	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Language Select Then Menu
Region Coding	2,4	Directed By	Gabrielle Beaumont Kenneth Biller Cliff Bole John Bruno
Studio Distributor	Paramount Home Entertainment	Starring	Kate Mulgrew Robert Beltran Roxann Dawson Jennifer Lien Robert Duncan McNeill Ethan Phillips Robert Picardo Tim Russ Jeri Ryan Garrett Wang
Case	?
RPI	$150.80	Music	Paul Baillargeon David Bell Jay Chattaway

    Star Trek: Voyager – Season 3 opens with a bang and just keeps on going. This series sees a number of changes, with Captain Janeway (Kate Mulgrew) becoming closer with her first officer Commander Chakotay (Robert Beltran) before their differences drive them apart in the concluding episode. The relationship between Ensign Tom Paris (Robert Duncan McNeill) and B’Elanna Torres (Roxann Dawson) grows, while Neelix (Ethan Phillips) and Kes (Jennifer Lien) abruptly fall apart, marking a change of direction for both characters. Lt. Tuvok (Tim Russ) discovers a friendship with Ensign Harry Kim (Garrett Wang), and The Doctor (Robert Picardo) learns what it means to be human with a life outside the sickbay.

    As a series, Season 2 pieces together as follows:

Disc 1

1. Basics: Part II (44:02)

With the ship in Kazon hands and the crew stranded on a primitive planet, Janeway must keep her people alive long enough for the Doctor to take back the ship with the help of the Marquis psychopath Suder.

2. Flashback (43:59)

When Tuvok starts vividly reliving memories from his past, Janeway undergoes a mind meld and is taken into Tuvok’s past to a time when he was aboard the USS Excelsior under Captain Sulu’s command.

3. The Chute (44:03)

Harry and Tom find themselves convicted of a crime they didn’t commit and imprisoned at the bottom of a chute in a penal colony with no guards and no rules where they must fight to survive.

4. The Swarm (44:01)

After B’Elanna and Tom are attacked by vicious aliens who control a vast space, Janeway decides she’s going to take the ship through rather than waste months travelling around.

Disc 2

5. False Profits (44:01)

Upon discovering a wormhole leading back to the alpha quadrant, the crew also find two Ferengi who have enslaved a primitive planet with their technology.

6. Remember (44:01)

B’Elanna is having strange dreams that are so lifelike that she soon begins suspecting that they are not dreams at all but memories that are not her own.

7. Sacred Ground (44:02)

When Kes is put into a coma after an encounter in an alien temple, Janeway must undergo a series of religious ceremonies in order to save Kes’ life.

8. Future’s End: Part I (44:01)

When a time ship from the 29th Century arrives in the Delta Quadrant to destroy Voyager, the crew are sent back to Earth. The only problem is, the year is 1996, and a megalomaniac computer whiz has his hands on technology from centuries in the future.

Disc 3

9. Future’s End: Part II (44:02)

Can the crew save Earth and the future from a disaster, and avoid polluting the time stream at the same time?

10. Warlord (44:01)

When Voyager rescues the occupants of a damaged vessel Kes has her consciousness taken over by a vicious dictator who has been dead for years.

11. The Q And The Grey (44:00)

Q is back, with a proposition for Janeway – a mating between the species to give new life to the Continuum.

12. Macrocosm (44:01)

When Janeway and Neelix return from a trade negotiation they find Voyager drifting in space, infested with a hostile alien lifeform.

Disc 4

13. Fair Trade (44:00)

On a space station on the edge of a vast expanse of uncharted space, Neelix finds a former friend named Wixiban (James Nardini) who is down on his luck. But when Neelix makes a deal with Wix that goes horribly wrong, he must choose between loyalty to his friends on Voyager and loyalty to his past.

14. Alter Ego (44:03)

When Harry falls in love with a holodeck character, he seeks Tuvok’s help to control his emotions. But Tuvok finds himself drawn to this character as well.

15. Coda (44:02)

After Janeway keeps experiencing her death in a shuttlecraft accident, she is met by an image of her father who claims to be her guide through purgatory to the afterlife.

16. Blood Fever (44:03)

When B’Elanna is attacked by a Vulcan crew member undergoing the Pon-Farr, she too begins experiencing uncontrollable mating urges, with her attention focussed upon Tom.

Disc 5

17. Unity (44:02)

After crash landing on a planet, Chakottay finds himself in the care of various races from the Alpha Quadrant who found themselves in the Delta Quadrant without knowing how they got there.

18. The Darkling (44:04)

The Doctor begins experimenting with his emotional profile, while at the same time Kes begins to think of a life away from Voyager.

19. Rise (44:03)

Trapped in a dust storm on a planet struck by asteroids, Neelix and Tuvok must use an old engineering transport to get to safety with a scientist who has information that these asteroids might not be a natural occurrence.

20. Favourite Son (44:03)

Is Kim really a long lost descendant of a race of aliens that is almost 90% female? And how will he choose between duty and so many lovely ladies?

Disc 6

21. Before And After (44:01)

Kes finds herself travelling back in time from the end of her life after the Doctor tries experimental surgery to extend her life span.

22. Real Life (44:05)

As Voyager tracks a subspace tornado as a possible energy source, the Doctor experiments with a holographic family in order to learn the emotional bonds that make his patients stronger.

23. Distant Origin (44:03)

When Voyager becomes the focus of a question of doctrine in an alien culture, a scientist’s quest for the trust behind his people’s origin also becomes a question of Voyager’s survival.

24. Displaced (44:06)

After an alien appears on Voyager dazed and bewildered, the crew begin to realise that they are being replaced one by one.

Disc 7

25. Worst Case Scenario (44:01)

A new holodeck program that depicts a mutiny by the Marquis against the Starfleet officers becomes the hit new thing amongst the crew. But who was its author? And how will it end?

26. Scorpion: Part I (44:06)

Upon approaching Borg space, Janeway and the crew are shocked to discover an alien lifeform more powerful and aggressive than the most feared force in the galaxy.

    Season 3 marked a turning point, for better or worse, for the series – one that pleased some fans and greatly disappointed others. By way of announcing my own bias, I must confess that I was one of the pleased ones.

    Do not get me wrong – I am not an uncritical devotee. Some of these episodes are really quite poor, particularly the abrupt and uneven Darkling, which is by far the weakest episode of this season. But this fault must be contrasted with the quality of episodes such as the nostalgia-inducing Future’s End: Parts I & II, the emotionally charged Real Life, the Bertolt Brecht-inspired Distant Origin, and the unforgettable Scorpion: Part I which would reshape the face of Voyager for the rest of the series.

    These are not the bleak and complex storylines of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, but rather a simpler view of the Star Trek universe that runs in rather playful counterpart to its brooding cousin, which was running its fifth season simultaneously to this one. Indeed the Star Trek franchise was in full swing at this point, with the eighth silver screen venture Star Trek: First Contact opening at cinemas at about the same time that the Voyager episode Warlord and the Deep Space Nine episode The Ascent were going to air in the US. In fact, this was the hey day of the various new series of Star Trek, and marked a high point for all of them – Star Trek: First Contact was a rousing success, and paved the way for a new and improved Borg for Voyager and a sleeker and darker new look for Deep Space Nine.

    As a self-confessed fan, my opinion may not carry much weight with you non-converts out there. However, if you ever liked this series or Star Trek as a whole, but gave up along the way, then I suggest you give Voyager another look now that it is on DVD. Season 3 is an inspiring place to pick up the show again, and I can assure you that you will not be disappointed.

Video

    If anything, this is an improvement on the image quality of Star Trek: Voyager – Season 2. Indeed, it appears as if the quality of the transfer improves as the season progresses. The early episodes still suffer from some mild posterisation, especially in low light, but the cross-colouration resulting from the NTSC to PAL conversion is noticeably improved.

    This transfer preserves the original 1.33:1 Full Frame aspect ratio of the series, and while it would have been nice sometimes to see this in 1.78:1 widescreen, the show was only ever meant for the small screen.

    Colours are again intensely saturated, perhaps even more so than previous seasons. The hues are well balanced, which is a plus, and shadow detail is for the most part exceptionally good, with nice glossy blacks and graded shading for the rest. There were times when the darkness seemed a little tinged with blue, but some of this may have only been the background colour scheme reflecting what little light there actually was, or the use of blue gels to create a murky light atmosphere being registered by the camera. It is important to note that DVD detail and sharpness is much better than the analogue broadcast these episodes were intended to be viewed in, and so you are bound to pick up more faults than were readily apparent on TV or even VHS.

    There are no glaring MPEG artefacts, and only the mild cross-colouration that I mentioned above in the way of film-to-video/video-to-DVD transfer artefacts. Again, these are much improved on previous seasons.

    Film artefacts are all but non-existent.

    As with all Star Trek DVD releases in R4, we have a multitude of subtitle options on offer: English for the Hearing Impaired, regular English, Danish, German, Spanish, French, Italian, Dutch, Norwegian and Swedish. They appear as white with a grey/black border and usually follow the dialogue word-for-word.

    The dual-layer pause is concealed between the episodes, with two episodes per layer.

Video Ratings Summary

Sharpness
Shadow Detail
Colour
Grain/Pixelization
Film-To-Video Artefacts
Film Artefacts
Overall

Audio

    Ready to hear this season in 5.1 Dolby Digital? All I can say is turn it up loud and stick it in your ear, because with all the rumbling bass, directional cues, explosions, phasers, and photon torpedoes, you won’t be sorry, that’s for sure.

    While we still haven’t got the sound quality of the big screen epics like Star Trek: Nemesis, there is quite a dynamic sound field here.

    Dialogue is very clear and crisp, and the only audio sync faults I spotted were during the episode Rise in the underground chamber for the mining lift. These are faults with the source material, however, not transfer faults.

    We have some good dramatic scoring here, particularly music for episodes like Remember and Real Life, but especially the militaristic tones of the theme for Scorpion that are almost reminiscent of a Wagner opus. Very well mixed.

    Again there is some great use of the surrounds, with directional cues and overall ambience coming from the rears. While not yet a fully immersing sound field on a DTS or Dolby Digital EX scale, there is nevertheless some really nice remixing work here.

    There is some decent subwoofer use, and I noticed the rifle cracks and cannon shots from The Q And The Grey got some really good beefing up by low frequency bass.

    The English 5.1 Dolby Digital track is accompanied by a German 5.1 Dolby Digital track, and three tracks in 2.0 Dolby Surround dubbed in Spanish, French and Italian respectively. These tracks are not as good as the English track, but they will save those with foreign language needs from having to read all the subtitles.

Audio Ratings Summary

Dialogue
Audio Sync
Clicks/Pops/Dropouts
Surround Channel Use
Subwoofer
Overall

    We have a fair list of extras on the 7th disc here, but come up fairly light by comparison to the previous season.

    All extras are presented in 1.33:1, Full Frame, with 2.0 Dolby Surround audio, unless otherwise specified. Interviews are in 1.85:1, letterboxed within the 1.33:1 frame.

Menus

    All menus are presented in 1.33:1 Full Frame. The main menus are a CGI recreation of a shuttlecraft flying through space which then sits at four different angles representing the four episodes on the disc. The episode menus have an ambient 2.0 Dolby Stereo track and are static until you hit Launch and then the ship takes off with a nice directional audio cue. All other sub-menus are static and silent.

Booklet

    Again, Voyager – Season 3 will be packaged with a booklet summarising episodes and providing other information.

Disc 7

Featurette – “Braving The Unknown: Season 3” (12:55)

    Another good instalment in the series of season overviews, complete with interviews with the creators and various cast members. Not as extensive as previous seasons.

Featurette – “Voyager Time Capsule: Neelix” (11:49)

    A look at the character of Neelix and the change his character goes through in Voyager, with several different interviews with Ethan Phillips.

Featurette – “Voyager Time Capsule: Kes” (11:48)

    A look Jennifer Lien’s character Kes, who leaves the series in the next season.

Featurette – “Flashback To Flashback” (13:22)

    Looks at the episode Flashback and all the guest stars from the Original Series who starred in it – particularly George Takei.

Featurette – “Red Alert: Amazing Visual Effects” (16:41)

    A walk through the visual effects done for Season 3, especially the new CGI creations. Includes interviews with visual effects producer Dan Curry.

Trailer – Star Trek: Deep Space Nine on DVD (4:48)

    An in-depth promo regarding the release of Deep Space Nine on DVD.

Featurette – “Real Science With Andre Bormanis” (10:25)

    An interview with science consultant Andre Bormanis about the real science used in Season 3.

Featurette – “Creating The Voyager Crew” (16:19)

    A look at the writing of the various characters, complete with character summaries from the ‘Series Bible’ created before the show was put to air, and interviews with series creator Michael Piller.

Featurette – “30th Anniversary Moments” (10:27)

    Snippets of interviews with people who attended the 30th Anniversary of Star Trek celebrations on 6 October 1996 on what Star Trek means to them.

Photo Gallery (7:36)

    A series of 40 inset stills from the production of this season of the show.

Trailer – Star Trek: The Next Generation on DVD (1:10)

    A short promo for the DVD release of Star Trek: The Next Generation.

Featurette – “Borg Invasion 4D” (0:57)

    A look at this element of the Star Trek Experience in Las Vegas.

Lost Transmissions from The Delta Quardrant (Hidden Files)

    There are 5 Lost Transmissions, which are easy enough to find by just playing around with your remote until you highlight one of the inset panels on the shuttlecraft:

• Transmission 01 (1:33) is a look at the episode Worst Case Scenario and Kate Mulgrew’s recollections.
• Transmission 02 (2.59) is a short interview with Kate Mulgrew on her favourite episodes from Season 3.
• Transmission 03 (1:06) looks at the allure of The Doctor to women of the Delta Quadrant, with interviews with Robert Picardo.
• Transmission 04 (3:23) examines the episode Blood Fever and how Vulcans deal with the Pon-Farr. Includes a recent interview with Tim Russ.
• Transmission 05 (2:25) looks at the making of the episode Distant Origin with director David Livingston.

    From what I can tell, the R1 release does not have:

• a booklet providing episode summaries;
• hard plastic case packaging;
• Trailer – Star Trek: The Next Generation on DVD;
• Trailer – Star Trek: Deep Space Nine on DVD;
• multiple foreign language options.

    Otherwise, these would appear to be identical.

    Given that the R1 and R4 release have been transferred from the same source and the video is, from what I have seen, pretty much identical, I suggest you vote with your wallet. The only really distinguishing factor is in the multiple language options in R4. For that reason, I’m giving it to the local release.

    Star Trek: Voyager – Season 3 took the show in a new and fun direction. There are still many dark undertones here, and this series is overall bleaker than The Next Generation. But it is also playful and amusing and should appeal to any Trek fan.

    Video is excellent – a definite improvement on the previous seasons. I very much look forward to seeing Season 4.

    The 5.1 Dolby Digital remix is well above average, but not quite to the peak of a DTS or Dolby Digital EX track. Maybe I am expecting too much, especially considering the limitations of the source. But as fans we are entitled to demand the best.

    There is a decent mix of extras, but sadly no text commentary, which is a real shame as I think at the very least Scorpion deserved one.

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall