Star Trek Voyager - The Complete Fifth Season

Great Series, but Paramount NEEDS TO STOP CHARGING SUCH CRAZY HIGH PRICES!! The entire series all 7 seasons are priced too high! I don't like paying such prices. Obviously, I have paid a high price in hopes that prices would come down. The price did come down a little but still has a LONG way to go!

Voyager is a terrific show that is well worth the purchase. My only complaint (worth a one star deduction) is not with the show itself but that of the DVD's. The discs I received had episodes burned entirely out of sequence. For example I would have episodes 201, 202, 204, and 205 on one disc. Episode 203 would be on an entirely different disc. Furthermore, the episode Dark Frontier was labeled episode 824 and was joined with episode 205, 209 and an empty episode slot. I love the show but I am wondering if either I got a bad set, or if anyone even bothered to preview the discs before they sent them into production.

Overall, season five of "Star Trek: Voyager" offers a very good batch of episodes. Even the few shows that are a little clunky at least have some interesting ideas being explored. But mostly you get intense, engaging episodes with top-notch special effects. Quick shout-outs go to the creepy "Night", the very amusing "Bride of Chaotica!", and the gritty Borg two-parter, "Dark Frontier".

And there's a great season closer, "Equinox, Part One", where the stranded Voyager crew meets up with another lost Starfleet vessel, one whose captain and crew are willing to cross quite a few lines to find a way to get back home, lines Captain Janeway and her crew would never cross, or at least haven't yet. This look at what Voyager and her crew members could have themselves become- or might yet become?- is quite compelling, and results in a darn fine episode (though you'll have to buy season six to see how it ends). And it's only one of many fine episodes.

The DVD set of the fifth season of "Star Trek: Voyager" includes the usual generous special features, and quality picture and sound. And Paramount finally dropped the price of this and other "Trek" boxed sets down into the "reasonably priced" realm. Get 'em while they're still there!

I recently purchased this DVD from amazon.com and I was very satisfied with the product when I received this in the mail a few weeks ago. I really enjoyed the episodes, plus the special features. And I thought that it was a really good, reasonable price for a Voyager DVD set..they usually run about $[...] or more. But it was well worth the $[...] I spent! :)

STAR TREK: VOYAGER is an unusual show in that its worst seasons were the earliest. Virtually all shows ever made were better in their first half than in the second half, but VOYAGER is one of the few exceptions. There are two reasons for the dramatic improvement in the show over its final four seasons. First, an increasing amount of serial content. No doubt part of this was the result of a growing number of other shows on at the same time with serial formats. Whatever the cause, as more and more elements carried over from one episode to later episodes, the more interesting the series became. The second reason for the improvement in the show was the emergence of Seven of Nine as the show's most compelling character. Very shortly after her introduction at the start of Season Four, Jeri Ryan's Seven of Nine became by far the most crucial character in most of the best episodes. VOYAGER did not, in fact, feel at all like the same show after Seven's appearance on the series. And as with the other three seasons featuring Seven, most of the best episodes on the show were Seven-centric.

Still, Season Five did not have as many truly excellent episodes as Season Four. On the other hand, it did not have nearly as man weak episodes as Seasons One through Three and Season Six. The two-part "Dark Frontier" is one of the exceptions, providing two of the most exciting episodes in the entire run of VOYAGER (again, a pair of episodes focused on Seven of Nine, as she temporarily returns to the Borg, learning that perhaps her having become a member of the crew of Voyager was part of a Borg plan). Still, the main virtue of Season Five is its persistent excellence, rather than its flashes of greatness.

There are some fun guest appearances in Season Five. Jason Alexander made one of his first post-SEINFELD appearances in the late season episode "Think Tank" (yet another Seven of Nine episode). John Savage appears in the end of the season episode "Equinox" (the second half of which would start Season Six). I did have a remarkable experience over a two-day period during which I encountered character actor Mark Harelik in three different shows. I rewatched an episode of the great, great series PUSHING DAISIES entitled "Bitches," in which the owner of a string of puppy stores, played by Harelik, attempts to clone the world's most perfect dog ("man's best, best friend"). Then I saw him on VOYAGER in "Counterpoint," one of the best episodes of Season Five, as Devore Inspector Kashyk. His role is one of the finest guest appearances in all of VOYAGER, as he plays a Devore officer who may or may not be attempting to defect from his people and who may or may not be trying to help Voyager. He and Janeway were really great together. Finally, I watched the second episode of the new series ELI STONE, and Harelik appeared as a defense attorney. For a brief period of time he seemed to be everywhere I looked.

All in all, a good season. But I agree with all those who think Paramount has priced these sets outrageously high. I own a very large number of shows on DVD, but not a single box set of any Star Trek series. Instead, I rely on Netflix. I strongly encourage everyone to refuse to purchase these sets at their current pricing level. Current technology makes the production of these sets extremely cheap, far cheaper than it cost to make old VHS tapes. And with little or no fees to be paid for use of music (something that represents a real expense for shows like NORTHERN EXPOSURE or SMALLVILLE) there is little in the way of overhead. There is a word for what Paramount is doing with the Star Trek DVDs and that word is "gouging." They are gouging fans of the show by forcing people to pay extravagant prices. There is simply no excuse for any box set to cost more than around $42 after discount. I can understand a show like ALLY MCBEAL costing more (if it ever makes it onto DVD) because of the licensing fees for its heavy use of music, but not a show like VOYAGER. The most I can say is that they have lowered the price somewhat. But it is still way, way too expensive. The sad part is that if they dropped the cost of the show, they would almost certainly make more money by greatly increased sales.