Star Trek Retro Review: 'The Thaw' | Steve's Favorite Episodes

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[knitcrochettiger]

Fear's final words, "I must

Janeway whispers, "I

[benwheeler]

I've always been partial to "Blink on an Eye", the episode when they find a planet spinning so fast that centuries pass in hours. Great guest appearance from Daniel Dae Kim.

[jameskevinfoley]

In my counselling work I asked a client to watch, "The Thaw", due to her phobia issue.

She has never watched Star Trek and found the idea amusing. However when facing her phobia she did visualise the clown as the fear she had to overcome.
It had moderate success.

[r.murray]

My favorite Voyager episode has always been "One Small Step". It's got a very Original Series vibe with the episode being largely focused on investigating a strange anomaly. The connection to Earth's early Mars missions via John Kelly's (Phil Morris) log aboard the Ares IV as it gets trapped in the graviton ellipse connects to my personal love of history and astronomy. Jeri Ryan shines as she goes from "this is a pointless exercise" to needing to get Kelly's body back to Voyager so proper respect for this pioneer of space exploration can be paid. Her final words where she struggles to tell Kelly during his funeral who won the baseball game gets me every time. I also really liked Morris's performance as he discovers humans are not alone in the universe and accepts his fate.

[patrickdodds]

My favorite episode of Voyager (and in some ways of the entire Trek canon) is season 4's "Living Witness". What could have easily become a cheap gimmick to show evil versions of the Voyager crew doing things that would give the denizens of the Mirror Universe nightmares actually segues into a deeply meaningful story about the importance of fidelity to historical truth (a subject as relevant now as ever). Indeed, this episode is beautifully told, well acted (Robert Picardo has rarely been better), and masterfully directed by Tim Russ in his debut as director. (In fact Mr. Russ told me at a convention that he made it a point to direct this episode when he read the script.) This is not the usual time travel/alternate reality cop-out episode that is woefully resplendent in Voyager; this situation *will* play out as we see it 700 years in Trek's future. There's no reset button. This episode has spirit and fire and a critical message told in the best way Trek can do. And the ending: goddamn it, gets this longtime Trekkie in the feels EVERY. FUCKING.TIME. If there was one episode I wish I could have shown Gene Roddenberry if he had lived, it would be this one. I think he would have loved it.

[OpinionsNoOneCaresAbout]

Michael McKean would've made a great Joker (he's one of my favorite actors), but I always thought he brought a "Frank Gorshin as the Riddler" energy to the role of the Clown.

[st.anselmsfire]

Star Trek has some amazing guest actors who personally elevate everything they're in, and Voyager was no exception. Brad Dourif, Jeffrey Combs, and, in this episode, Michael McKean. I don't think Star Trek gets enough credit for that.

[MaesterAelix]

I know it's from the much maligned Season 6, but my favorite Voyager episode is "The Void" - where the Voyager is pulled into a pocket dimension, fights off pirates and has to make an alliance to survive.

It has a good pace and to me is the whole Voyager premise condensed into a single episode. It gives a glimpse at what it could have been. And I like that. A lot.

Plus the mute creature is a neat twist.

[thescifiZipacna]

My favourite episode of Voyager is definitely Living Witness. The themes of how history is written and how it is used are a good seed to build an episode around, it’s a great showcase for Robert Picardo as the Doctor, and the regular cast gets to have some fun playing evil versions of themselves in the museum’s recreation.

The guest actor playing the museum curator, Henry Woronicz, is also very good, which is important because he’s really the protagonist in this story. Quarren is the one who has to put aside things he has believed his whole life, that helped form his people’s identity, to listen to the Doctor and learn his perspective.

[m.h.]

There are a bunch of episode of voyager, that I really like:
"The Thaw" is definitely up there
"Living Witness" and "Message in a Bottle" as doctor-focused episodes are great
The two-parters "Year of Hell" and "Future's End" (and the 'third' part "Relativity") are good, as I like time travel episodes.
"The Omega Directive" as a Seven/Janeway clash episode is good
But the fight for my most favorite is definitely between "Blink of an Eye" and "Muse", low-tech civilization meet high tech and try to make sense of it - it is just such a fun concept.

[AntonPNym]

I think there's another way this episode calls back to TOS; Janeway out-thinks an AI and tricks it into destroying itself, just like Kirk used to. *finger-guns*

[ProxyExpy]

I loved the thaw, but Timeless was always my favorite episode. I think it was Garret Wong and Robert Beltran's best performance of the entire series, and its directed by LaVar Berton. It was also the 100th episode of Voyager and they put a lot of effort into the effects, acting and script for that one.

Also Harry has more character in that episode than he had through out the entire rest of the series.

[jasonslade]

My favorite voyager episode is probably "Timeless" S5E6. Maybe the only episode where Harry Kim became a compelling character.

Plus it was directed by Levar Burton!

[BrowncoatFairy]

My favorite Voyager episode -- other than this one -- is "Course: Oblivion". It just gets sadder and darker for the whole runtime of the episode, and ends on the bleakest note possible. Hopelessness is not usually my jam, and it's not usually Star Trek's jam either, but it's so rare that a Voyager episode makes me feel much of anything at all, that I have to give it credit. Watching most Voyager episodes feels like eating a bowl of air. Course: Oblivion makes me feel depressed, but that's a step up from feeling nothing.

[renatocorvaro]

In a general sense, Voyager was not only bad, but *painfully* bad. But goddamn did it have a few gems, and this episode was one of them.

[gothatfunk]

I love The Thaw. It really could be a stage play.

[frederickhogrefe]

This isn't my favorite voyager episode per se... but it is undoubtedly the most TOS episode ever achieved after TOS, and it is one of my favorites.

[andymc]

I remember seeing this episode as a child. And being genuinely uneasy. The tone and madness of the dream I thought were really well done.

[Calmputer]

"I'm not Captain Janeway."
"Could've fooled me!."
"I'm afraid I did."
Janeway was *Cold* in the ending of this episode!

[thatscousedude]

“Deadlock” for the win. It entertains every time I watch it, im amazed they crammed so much into one episode - plus you get TWO Janeways on screen together - beat that!😂