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» » Star Trek: Voyager Equinox: Part II (1995–2001)

Short summary

Temporarily shielded from the alien attack, Janeway orders that their first priority is to find the Equinox, stop Ransom and recover Seven of Nine. Chakotay disagrees but obeys. Voyager finds Equinox and captures a few of its crew members before they escape again. Chakotay stops Janeway within seconds of sacrificing the Equinox crewman and Janeway relieves him of duty. Meanwhile, the Equinox EMH, posing as Voyager's doctor, keeps in contact with Ransom. The Doctor, on-board the Equinox with his ethical subroutines disabled, performs surgery on Seven that will extract information but destroy her brain. Ransom has a change of heart and decides to surrender to Janeway. In disagreement, his crew stages a mutiny. Janeway finds the Ankari, a race that can mediate with the attacking aliens, makes contact with them and agrees to turn over the Equinox in exchange for Voyager's safety.

Noah Lessing says that the planet looks just like McKinley Park, which is a popular filming location for all the "Star Trek" series, including this one.

First "Voyager" episode to be broadcast after Star Trek: Deep Space Nine (1993) had wrapped up its series at the end of the proceeding season. For two years (its 6th and 7th seasons), "Voyager" was the sole carrier of the Star Trek franchise.

This episode was nominated for an Emmy Award for Outstanding Sound Editing for a Series.

This was the first Voyager episode on which writer Ronald D. Moore worked, having transferred to the Voyager writers' team after the conclusion of Deep Space Nine.

Ronald D. Moore would later rework this concept into the episode "Pegasus" in the reimagined Battlestar Galactica series. The Pegasus experiences a crisis similar to the one encountered by the Equinox: alone in Cylon controlled space and with only half its crew, the commanding officer of Pegasus forces refugees into service and takes critical supplies and parts, and then leaves the refugees' shipmates to die.

The Prime Directive was broken many times by the crew of the Equinox, although Ransom tells Janeway that he only ever "walked the line", a clear deception to cover his atrocities.

47 Reference - When the Doctor is called in sick bay, the panel he views shows Subspace Comm Protocols 047.

This takes place in 2376.

The USS Equinox is briefly visible on the screen when Seven of Nine shows Kathryn Janeway the Cardassian ship in astrometrics among the 52 ships that Neelix' ship's sensors recorded at the Caretaker's array (VOY: "The Voyager Conspiracy").

The USS Equinox is a Nova-class starship. According to the Star Trek: The Next Generation Technical Manual", the Nova-class starship was originally considered as a successor to the Galaxy-class starship, and as a possible design for the Enterprise-E which first appeared in Star Trek: First Contact.

In Star Trek: Voyager: Relativity (1999), we see Admiral Patterson introducing Janeway to The Doctor for the first time, remarking that Starfleet was considering outfitting his program onto all Federation star-ships. The Equinox apparently was another test candidate for the Lewis Zimmerman EMH program, as it must have been in the Delta Quadrant at that time or shortly after.

The possibility of another Federation starship being in the Delta Quadrant is discussed in the first season episode "State of Flux".

The main bridge of the Equinox is a re-use of the set used for the USS Prometheus, as are the corridors, crew quarters and science lab. They are all slightly altered to simulate the effect of damage.

User reviews


  • comment
    • Author: Gtonydne
    OK, when I first saw this episode I hated it. I hated the fact the Janeway was apparently more of a bad guy than the bad guy she was so heck bent on tracking down. The only thing that made it watchable was Ransom's transformation from the person we saw who stopped at nothing to continue, to the person who stopped at nothing to end things. In a previous episode(Scorpion) Janeway had stopped and listened in time to prevent a disaster; here she had to stop and watch the disaster unfold before she finally listened.

    Anyway on watching it a second time as it were, I realized there was a reason and a story to what was going on. It was a look into the lack of black and white ethics: the "bad guy" has a conscience and the protagonist seems to have left hers behind. There really is no black and white absolute when it comes to morals and ethics. Where do we stand on the issue? Personally I stand by the captain, when she has her head screwed on right that is. Nod to Chakotay for being respectful even as the single crew member to stand up to this.

    Question: level 10 authorization is captains eyes only, shouldn't the first officer have level 9? is this some sort of odd mention of former lack of trust? Or did we not know of level 10 yet?
  • comment
    • Author: Hasirri
    Season Six of Voyager starts where series five ended; Voyager is under attack from the nucleogenic lifeforms and the Equinox warping away with Voyager's shield generator. Captain Janeway is determined to catch the Equinox and bring her crew to justice... no matter what the cost. Looking at Captain Ransom's record she realises that he will seek somewhere to hide. She finds Equinox in orbit above a nearby planet and captures two crewmen who were seeking fuel on the surface. When she lowers the shields in the room one of the prisoners is in and threatens to let the creatures kill him if he doesn't give them information Chokotay steps in and finds himself relieved of duty. She once again crosses the line when she meets a group of aliens who enable her to talk to the nucleogenic lifeforms; she makes a deal whereby they can kill anybody on Equinox if they leave Voyager alone. As Voyager moves against the Equinox things are made difficult by the Equinox's EMH who has unbeknownst to Voyager's crew replaced the Doctor.

    This was a great season opener which included plenty of thrills and a sense that the Captain was going the same way as Ransom although not surprisingly by the end it looks as if she is back to her usual self. It was nice to see that Ransom got a chance to find redemption and those members of his crew who survived were integrated into Voyager's crew even if they were stripped of their rank. As with the first part John Savage put in a good performance as Capt. Ransom, believably portraying him as a man who realises the errors of his ways and seeks to find redemption.
  • comment
    • Author: Laitchai
    Voyager finds another Federation starship, the USS Equinox, stranded in the Delta Quadrant.

    Equinox is a gritty dark episode directed By David Livingston with some excellent sets, good visual effects and weighty acting notably from John Savage as Captain Ransom and Kate Mulgrew.

    This episode continues edginess, people dead or dying and you get the feeling things may not play out well. There's action, Wrath of Khan-like double cross with creepy and vicious CGI-created aliens. Writers Rick Berman, Brannon Braga and Joe Menosky entertainingly offer a synaptic stimulator (a personal version of the holodeck) where Seven appears to Ransom without her Borg implants, two Doctors one whose ethical subroutines have been deleted and Chakotay and Janeway fallout. There are several character relationship arcs which give Equinox depth.

    With the grim tone, it's interesting to see USS Equinox stuck in the Delta Quadrant like Voyager but Ransom and crew have not responded the same way, unethically breaking the Prime Directive including mass murder.

    It's very satisfying film-like double episode in terms of how it looks and how the story unfolds.
  • comment
    • Author: EROROHALO
    I've thought for a long time that Kathryn Janeway's character was portrayed as unbalanced. But most of the time she comes to her senses and banks on her training and acumen. In the entire episode, she is shown to be an obsessed nut. I'd never noticed before how the more erratic she is, the more her sharp chin sticks out. It was out a lot her. The problem (and lets not forget that this is just fiction) is that her response to the Captain of the Equinox is way over the top. She throws away all those years of respect and concern for her own people to launch a vendetta against a man she had never met before. If one watches the series, we know that there are selfish scallawags all over the place. Yes, she trusted him, but she trusted Harry's judgment in the last episode. It's her judgment that shouldn't be trusted. Anyway, the final scene with Chakotay shows she has learned nothing. The crew has no choice but to follow her, but I would guess that trust not going to be easy.
  • comment
    • Author: Fordrelis
    This is the second of a two-part episode. In part one, Voyager makes contact with another Federation ship in the Delta Quadrant. They apparently got there the same way Voyager did. However, it soon becomes apparent to survive this long, the Equinox crew have chosen to ignore the Prime Directive and they have been killing a species of life to convert it into fuel! Janeway is horrified and has this crew confined to quarters. However the Equinox's evil holo doctor rescues them and they escape--leaving Voyager to deal with the wrath of the creatures Equinox has been killing!

    In part two, you see a wonderful change come over Captain Janeway. She becomes a bit like Captain Ahab and is determined to do just about anything to punish the Equinox crew--including abandoning them to the wrath of the creatures they've been killing. This is MEGA- cool as the Captain it too often too nice--here she is absolutely nasty--and deservedly so. Well worth seeing just for this!

    Overall, this is a very exciting episode--even better than part one. Well worth seeing.
  • comment
    • Author: OCARO
    I cannot help but notice the stark similarities between this two part actioner from season 5 finale and season six opener of Star Trek Voyager and the mini series of Battlestar Galactica: Razor.

    Two Captain's and their crews stranded in unknown space, trying to find their way home. One commander continues to uphold their protocol the other willing to break every rule in the name of survival.

    Adama/Janeway are the straight-laced captains while Cain/Ransom as the battle hardened prime directive breakers.

    Famed writer, show runner Ronald D. Moore was attached to both shows and I can't help wonder if this episode influenced Razor.

    Star Trek as a whole was an influence in the reimagining of Moore Galactica. No food or supplies at the ready with the aid of replicators. No beaming down to new planets with the gene scrambling transporters. Battlestar is hyper DiY and as grounded in physics.

    With all that said, anyone else see the similarities?
  • Episode cast overview, first billed only:
    Kate Mulgrew Kate Mulgrew - Captain Kathryn Janeway
    Robert Beltran Robert Beltran - Chakotay
    Roxann Dawson Roxann Dawson - B'Elanna Torres
    Robert Duncan McNeill Robert Duncan McNeill - Tom Paris
    Ethan Phillips Ethan Phillips - Neelix
    Robert Picardo Robert Picardo - The Doctor / Equinox EMH
    Tim Russ Tim Russ - Tuvok
    Jeri Ryan Jeri Ryan - Seven of Nine
    Garrett Wang Garrett Wang - Harry Kim
    John Savage John Savage - Captain Rudy Ransom
    Titus Welliver Titus Welliver - Lt. Cmdr. Maxwell Burke
    Olivia Birkelund Olivia Birkelund - Ensign Marla Gilmore
    Rick Worthy Rick Worthy - Crewman Noah Lessing
    Eric Steinberg Eric Steinberg - Ankari
    Steven Dennis Steven Dennis - Crewman Thompson (as Steve Dennis)
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