After Seven of Nine (Jeri Ryan) spent much of Voyager's fourth season trying to resist the pull of the Borg, and just when the tide of battle seemed to be turning, she returns to the Collective in a memorable confrontation with the Borg Queen (Susanna Thompson) in the centerpiece story of the fifth season, the two-part "Dark Frontier." The Borg also factor into the nightmare-laden "Infinite Regress" as well as "Drone," in which a strange Borg-human-EMH hybrid teaches Seven the experience of parenthood, of sorts. Species 8472 returns as well, in another of the season's gritty episodes, "In the Flesh." The series' historic 100th episode "Timeless" goes back in history as Kim (Garrett Wang) and Chakotay (Robert Beltran) try to repair a past mistake (directed by and guest-starring TNG's LeVar Burton), and in another dizzying episode, "Relativity," Janeway (Kate Mulgrew) is spending her first day on Voyager when she discovers Seven, who has traveled back in time to prevent an act of sabotage. It was also a good season for buddies Kim and Paris (Robert Duncan MacNeill). In addition to "Timeless," Kim takes center stage in "The Disease" when he embarks on a dangerous romance. Paris is thrown in the brig in "Thirty Days," and his Captain Proton holodeck simulation goes haywire in "Bride of Chaotica!" In "Course Oblivion," a ship wedding is the prelude to a deadly displacement for the entire crew.
It wasn't all slam-bang action. The Doctor's (Robert Picardo) buried memories lead to an ethical conflict in "Latent Image," and he and Seven (the two most consistently interesting crew members) dabble in the most unlikely of romances in one of the series' most touching and memorable episodes "Someone to Watch Over Me." Also, Jason Alexander (then in Seinfeld) guest-stars as a scheming alien in "Think Tank." Voyager didn't always close its season with a cliffhanger, but in "Equinox, Part 1" an attempt to aid another Federation starship in the Delta Quadrant uncovers a threat that might destroy them both.
The bonus features include a season recap, crew profiles of Voyager's resident couple, B'Elanna Torres and Paris, a 19-minute spotlight on the makeup process (Neelix was created as a combination of Timon and Pumbaa in The Lion King), and "The Borg Queen Speaks," in which Susanna Thompson discusses the difficulties of shooting and how she had originally auditioned for the same role in Star Trek: First Contact. --David Horiuchi
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