25 Essential episodes to celebrate the 25th anniversary of Star Trek: Voyager

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LAS VEGAS – AUGUST 20: Actor Tim Russ (L), who played the Vulcan character Tuvok on the television show “Star Trek: Voyager,” and his series co-star Garrett Wang, who played the character ensign Harry Kim (R), talk to fans at the fifth annual official Star Trek convention at the Las Vegas Hilton August 20, 2006 in Las Vegas, Nevada. (Photo by Ethan Miller/Getty Images) /

S3E3: The Chute

I almost didn’t include “The Chute” in this list, but finally realized that no ‘best of Voyager’ list would be complete without it.

This episode is not for the faint of heart—Harry Kim (Garrett Wang) and Tom Paris (Robert Duncan McNeill) are falsely imprisoned for terrorist activities. The prison is a hellhole—prisoners kill each other for food, shoes, a space to sleep, anything.

Tom at least has prison experience, but young Harry? He’s terrified and completely out of his depth. But Harry is also the only person who can possibly free them from the prison. If they can stay alive long enough.

“The Chute” is dark, depressing, and downright terrifying. But it’s also a fantastic display of the friendship between Tom and Harry—they will do anything for each other, and their bond drives many a powerful narrative in Voyager.

Their friendship is particularly noteworthy because Harry is one of Starfleet’s finest and could have had his pick of friends on Voyager. But he chose Tom, a pilot who caused the accidental deaths of his comrades, and ended up being caught on his first mission with the Maquis.

Tom and Harry practically come from two different worlds, but that’s the power of Voyager—the series shows us that underneath it all, we’re all human.

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S3E16: Blood Fever

I’m not always a fan of Star Trek romances, but B’Elanna and Tom are something else. Along with Harry Kim, these two start off as great friends but there’s always an undertone of something more.

It all comes to a head in “Blood Fever”, when B’Elanna becomes biochemically unstable after a psychic connection with her Vulcan colleague goes wrong. One way to cure B’Elanna is for her to take a partner—and she’s got her sights on Tom.

This episode is sexy, not because it’s about sex, but because it’s about consent. One would think a playboy character like Tom Paris would jump at the opportunity to be with B’Elanna—especially considering how desperate she is to be with him.

But B’Elanna isn’t in a position to consent, which gives Tom plenty of reason to pause. It’s not for nothing that they say consent is sexy!

Knowing that B’Elanna and Tom eventually do become a couple and stay that way for the rest of Voyager’s run makes this episode that much more extraordinary.

And the subversiveness of this episode isn’t lost on fans—in any other show of the time, the character roles would have been swapped, but Voyager does things differently.

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