Season One Kes Episodes
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Season 1 of Star Trek: Voyager is, in my opinion anyway, pretty good. "Caretaker" is a very good start to the series, the best Star Trek pilot episode. All the characters are treated quite well in the Season as a whole; none of them are really under-used. Some of the top episodes in Season 1 would have to be "Caretaker", "Time and Again", "Eye of the Needle", "State of Flux", "Learning Curve" and "The 37's". If I had to say which of the episodes were my least favourite I'd say "Ex Post Facto" and "Emanations". See bottom of this page for Full Episode List. The first Season is the shortest; there are 20 episodes, compared to the normal 26.

Kes has significant roles in quite a lot of the episodes, the first signs of her mental abilities, becoming a Medical Assistant, being with Neelix, going through the Elogium and having her Birthday. But only one episode is an actual Kes episode, that's "Elogium". Jennifer Lien's wig early in the Season doesn't look as good as it does in the other Seasons.

Most Images are from The Official Star Trek Website

Click on an episode name here or just scroll down:
[Caretaker] [Parallax] [Time and Again] [Phage] [Eye Of The Needle] [Cathexis] [Jetrel] [Elogium] [Twisted]

Caretaker

Synopsis:
In the late 24th century, a renegade group known as the Maquis operate outside the law to right what they see as Federation injustices. After infiltrating a Maquis cell to apprise Starfleet of the group's activities, Lieutenant Tuvok, along with the crew of a ship commanded by the Maquis captain Chakotay, disappear in an area of space known as the Badlands. Tuvok's commanding officer, Captain Janeway, leads a mission to find the Vulcan lieutenant, enlisting the aid of Starfleet prisoner Tom Paris, a former Maquis member, to guide her ship, Voyager, through the Badlands.
Considered a traitor by most of Voyager's crew, Paris strikes up a friendship with Ensign Harry Kim, a naive young Starfleet Academy grad. Kim learns that Paris was drummed out of Starfleet after his piloting error caused the deaths of three officers. The outcast joined the ranks of the Maquis, but was soon arrested by Federation authorities.
After reaching the Badlands, Voyager encounters an inexplicable phenomenon that sends the ship hurtling to the Delta Quadrant, located 70,000 light years from home. The catapult effect kills a number of crewmembers, including the Chief Medical Officer, who is replaced by an emergency medical hologram (EMH) that attends to the wounded. But the EMH has barely begun his work when the entire crew of Voyager is transported to what appears to be a pastoral farm, populated by friendly humans. But it's only an illusion; the farm is actually the interior of the Array, a huge space station, and the residents are holograms. The crew is imprisoned within a strange laboratory facility, alongside the missing Maquis.
After being subjected to a painful examination, the crews of Voyager and the Maquis vessel are returned to their respective ships, docked outside the Array. But two crewpersons are missing: Harry Kim and B'Elanna Torres, the half-Klingon, half-human engineer from the Maquis vessel. Returning to the "farm," Janeway confronts the only remaining inhabitant, an old man playing a banjo. But the man cares nothing about their dilemma and offers them no information about the missing officers.
Noting that the Array is sending energy pulses toward the fifth planet of a neighboring system, Janeway sets course in that direction. Far beneath the surface of that planet, an ailing Kim and Torres regain consciousness in a medical facility. But what they're doing there - and why - they have yet to discover.
En route to the fifth planet of a neighboring system, Voyager's crew encounters Neelix, a Talaxian scavenger. He explains that the Array has been bringing ships into the region for many months. Neelix guesses that "the Caretaker," who controls the Array, may have sent the missing crewmembers to the Ocampa, a race that lives two miles below the surface of the fifth planet. Neelix volunteers to be their guide and they accept.
Meanwhile, Kim and Torres are being cared for in the Ocampa medical facility. Although they now live in a subterranean society, the Ocampa inhabited the planet's surface until it was struck by an environmental disaster 500 years ago. Since that time, they have lived underground, with all their needs provided by the man they refer to as the Caretaker.
Beaming down to the planet's surface, Neelix introduces Janeway to the Kazon, a savage alien species that has taken possession of the arid Ocampan world. Janeway asks Jabin, the Kazon leader, if he can help them, but he refuses.
Neelix is hoping Jabin will trade Kes, an Ocampan woman he is holding captive, for some of Voyager's precious water. But the Kazon are more interested in obtaining all of Voyager's technology - forcibly. When Jabin tries to take the crew hostage, Neelix helps them escape and beam back to the ship, along with Kes.
Kim and Torres persuade an Ocampan nurse to show them a route that could lead to the surface. On Voyager, Kes agrees to lead Janeway and the others through the tunnels to her underground city to search for the pair.
As the Array increases the rate of the energy pulses that power the city, Kim and Torres begin their journey, narrowly missing the search party from Voyager. Tuvok theorizes that the increased activity of the Array may indicate that the Caretaker is dying; he is clearly attempting to give them a surplus of power that will sustain the Ocampa after he is gone.
The search is complicated by a new turn of events. The Array is now firing a weapon at the planet to seal up all of the energy conduits, the tunnels that provide the only access to the city. This will protect the Ocampans, but prevent the others from escaping. Splitting up, Paris, Neelix and Kes find Kim and Torres, and send them up to Voyager. Then Paris and Neelix go back for Janeway, Tuvok and Chakotay. Chakotay's skepticism towards Paris' loyalty is erased when Paris saves his life.
Returning to the Array, Janeway again encounters the old man, whom she realizes is the Caretaker. He explains that he was bringing beings from across the galaxy to the Array in the hopes of finding a compatible species with which he could procreate, thus providing the Ocampa with someone to care for them after he dies. But no species has been a match so far.
Janeway tries to convince the Caretaker to send Voyager and the Maquis ship back home, but he refuses. Apparently, the Caretaker wants to destroy the Array so that it won't fall into the invading Kazon's hands. But he dies before he can carry out his plan, and Janeway is left to decide whether to use the Array to get home - which would leave it intact for the Kazon - or to destroy it and save the Ocampa. She chooses what seems to be the only moral option and makes a mortal enemy of the Kazon.
With Chakotay's ship destroyed in the battle with the Kazon, Janeway asks the Maquis to become part of Voyager's crew. She also allows Neelix and Kes to stay aboard. With Chakotay her First Officer, Tom Paris reinstated as a Starfleet lieutenant, and Torres and Kim cured by the Emergency Medical Hologram, Janeway and her new crew set course for the long trip home, 70,000 light-years away.

Quotes:
Kes : I never should have gone to the surface, I'm too curious, I'm told it's my worst failing.
Neelix : No, No, it's a wonderful quality. You're most endearing.
Janeway : Would you be willing to take us underground to look for our missing crew?
Kes : I'm afraid Jaben was right, there's no way to get down, the tunnel I came out has been sealed.
Janeway : We don't need a tunnel, we have the ability to transport there directly.
Tuvok : Captain, our sensors did not pick up any indication of an underground civilisation. The subterrainian barrier Jaben descibed may be responsible. It might also block our transporter.
Kes : There are breaches in the security barrier, where it's begun to decay. That's how I got out.
Janeway : Have the transporter room begin a sweep for any breaches we may be able to beam through.
Neelix : Kes can tell you where to go, but now she's free we're leaving this system together.
Kes : Neelix, these people rescued me.
Neelix : I rescued you.
Kes : With their help. It would be wrong not to help them now.

Kes's Role:
Kes does have a significant role in this first episode, "Caretaker", as does every character really, we see her for the first time. We see the Ocampa homeworld for the first and only time and the relationship between Kes and Neelix supposedly begins. Kes helps the Voyager away team find Harry and B'Ellana in the Ocampa city. Neelix and Kes go to see Captain Janeway and ask to remain on board as members of the crew.

Review:
A wonderful first episode for Star Trek : Voyager and actually one of the best. It is certainly the best pilot for any of the Star Trek series', interesting all the way through and nothing about humanity on trial which, it seems, happens in all of the other pilots!

My Episode Rating: 9/10


Parallax

Synopsis:
Chakotay reprimands Torres after she ends a dispute in engineering by breaking the nose of a Starfleet officer named Carey. But despite her volatile nature, Chakotay has faith in the Klingon woman's skills, and he recommends Torres to Janeway for the position of Chief Engineer. Janeway is surprised, but before she can consider the recommendation, Voyager is jolted as it enters a region of spatial distortions. A short time later, it comes upon a ship that is trapped in the event horizon of a quantum singularity: the powerful energy field surrounding a collapsed star.
While the engineering staff tries to figure out a way to help the other ship, Janeway questions the capability of Chakotay's Maquis officers. Still, she agrees to consider Torres for the engineering slot.
Realizing that Voyager doesn't have enough power to rescue the ship on its own, the crew heads away from the singularity to get help, but before long they find themselves heading back toward the same collapsed star. Again Voyager moves away, and again the ship finds itself back where it started.
As tensions rise between Maquis and Starfleet crewmembers, Torres works with Carey to figure out what's happening. Noting the peculiar effects of the singularity on Voyager's holographic doctor, Torres comes up with an idea that may allow them to contact the crew of the trapped ship, which, in turn, may provide clues to their own predicament. Torres' plan works, but when they finally hear from the other ship, they discover that it's Voyager itself! They've been looking at a distorted reflection of themselves and it's Voyager itself that's trapped in the singularity. But how do they get out?
Before long, Torres discovers that another ship, which appears to be caught in the reflective distortion, is actually a mirror image of Voyager. She realizes that the ship must return to the "tear" in the singularity where they entered, and exit before the star collapses, forever trapping them inside. Using a dekyon beam fired from a shuttlecraft piloted by Janeway and Torres, they force the opening wide enough for Voyager to escape. Because of her tempered initiative and creative approach to saving the ship, Torres is given the Chief Engineer's post, and Lt. Carey is among the first to congratulate her.


Quotes:
Janeway: To be honest, we could use some excellent suggestions right now.
Kes: I've been thinking that you might be able to convert one of your lower decks into a hydroponics bay, to grow your own food. I understand that the replicators are down and that the emergency rations won't hold out much longer.
Kim: What about Cargo Bay 2? It was designed for organic storage and it already has adjustable environmental controls.
Janeway: When can you start?
Kes: Me?
Janeway: It's your idea, it's your project.
Kes: Right away.

Kes's Role:
Neelix and Kes attend the senior officers meeting, even though they were not invited. But, as Neelix points out, he is the senior Talaxian, Kes is the senior Ocampa and he knows more about this area of space than anyone. At the meeting Kes suggests converting one of the cargo bays into a hydroponics bay to grow their own food. Janeway thinks that is a very good idea and Kes begins the project "Right away". Kes also has her first proper meeting with the Doctor, and they have a nice little conversation.

Review:
"Parallax" is a good episode to follow "Caretaker", it shows the problems that are going on between the Starfleet crew and the Maquis. And it gives the crew a problem to solve. B'Ellana gets given the role of Chief Engineer and Seska is seen for the first time.

My Episode Rating: 7/10


Time and Again

Synopsis:
During the night shift, as Paris presses Kim to join him on a double date, the ship is shaken by a huge shockwave. Investigating its origins, the crew finds a nearby planet where a cataclysmic explosion recently wiped out all life. Beaming down, the Away Team discovers that the detonation has actually fractured subspace. But before they can react to this dangerous revelation, Paris and Janeway find themselves transported back in time to the day before the explosion.
While the crew tries to figure out how to retrieve the missing officers, Janeway orders Paris not to warn the residents of the planet about the approaching disaster, since that would violate the Federation's Prime Directive. Seeking their own way back to Voyager, the pair head for a polaric ion power station, the site of the future explosion. There, they inadvertently become caught up in a clash between the authorities and a group of protesters who later accuse them of being government infiltrators. Disbelieving Janeway's claim that they are about to trigger a major accident, they continue to move forward with their plan to sabotage the power station.
In the meantime, a troubled Kes reveals that her latent Ocampan psychic abilities seem to have been sensitized by the accident. She accompanies the Away Team as they attempt to track Janeway and Chakotay's movements being made in the past.
The protesters force Janeway and Paris to accompany them to the plant, where they shoot their way in. Paris is wounded during the scuffle, but Janeway leaves him to follow the protesters, hoping to stop the devastating explosion.
On Kes' recommendation, Chakotay's crew goes to the flashpoint of the blast and uses a polaric beam to "cut through" subspace and find the missing crewmembers. When Janeway sees their polaric beam, she realizes that it wasn't the protesters who caused the accident -- it was the Away Team's attempt to rescue her! Janeway uses her phaser to blunt the impact of the beam. At the instant she succeeds in sealing the opening, time is "reset," and the crew finds itself back on Voyager, a few seconds before the shockwave first hit the ship. None the wiser for their experience, Paris urges Kim to join him on a double date, and Kes finds herself strangely relieved that a nearby planet is teeming with life.


Quotes:
Neelix : What do you mean you saw it?
Kes : I don't know.
Neelix : What did you see?
Kes : I saw them...burning...their bodies...and it was just where they stood.
Neelix : You felt the shockwave in your sleep. Just your imagination, a strange coincidence.
Kes : I don't think so.
Neelix : What else could it be?
Kes : It was almost telepathic.
Neelix : Telepathy is a message, words, a voice. What you're descibing is almost like the visions of Drakian forest dwellers.
Kes : Who?
Neelix : A tribe with paranormal abilities. They can walk into an empty room...
Kes : Neelix, my ancestors were said to have unusual mental abilities.
Neelix : No one believes those stories.
Kes : I always have.

Kes's Role:
"Time and Again" has the first hints of Kes's mental powers which is later explored in episodes such as "Cathexis", "Persistance of Vision", "Cold Fire", "Warlord", "Coda", "Scorpion" Parts 1 and 2 and "The Gift". Kes senses something terrible has happened at this planet and awakes. In a talk with Neelix she tells him of how her ancesters were known to have unusual mental powers but he dismisses it. She asks Chakotay for permission to be on the away team and senses where Janeway and Paris had been.

Review:
A good early Season 1 episode involving time travel, that Janeway and Paris caused the explosion but they had not yet been there?

My Episode Rating: 7/10


Phage

Synopsis:
During an Away Team survey of a planetoid that seems to be rich in raw dilithium, Neelix is attacked and left for dead. The other members of the team find him and beam him up to Sickbay, where the Doctor reports that the Talaxian's lungs have been removed. With no other alternatives, the Doctor fits Neelix with a set of holographic lungs. They'll keep him alive, but require him to remain confined in an isotropic restraint in Sickbay for the rest of his life.
Janeway leads an Away Team back to the planetoid, where they discover a medical lab filled with harvested organs. Unfortunately, Neelix's lungs are not among them. Minutes later, an alien ship speeds away from the planet, with Voyager hot in pursuit.
In Sickbay, a despondent Neelix is having difficulty adjusting to his situation, but he urges Kes to still go on with her life regardless. Voyager's Emergency Medical Hologram, still serving as the starship's only doctor, admits to Kes that he's having difficulty adjusting to the demands of being a full-time physician. Kes' intelligent, soothing advice makes the Doctor think that the Ocampan might make a good medical assistant.
When confronted, the aliens admit that they stole Neelix's lungs, but defend their actions by recounting the battle that their species -- the Vidiians -- have fought for years against the "Phage," a gruesome disease that destroys their genetic codes and cellular structure. Unable to defeat the Phage, they have learned to survive by scavenging organs from healthier species to replace their own diseased tissues. Unfortunately, Neelix's lungs have already been transplanted into one of the Vidiian's bodies. Unwilling to sentence the Vidiian to death to regain Neelix's chance for life, Janeway reluctantly releases the scavengers.
Grateful to the Captain for sparing them, the Vidiians offer to help Neelix with their superior medical technology. With their assistance, Kes is able to donate one of her lungs to Neelix, allowing him to live a normal life. After the successful procedure, the Doctor tells Kes that Janeway has granted permission for the Ocampan to begin training as a medical assistant.


Quotes:
Vidiian : Which of you will donate a lung?
Kes : Me.
Neelix : No, absolutely not. It's too dangerous. Let someone else do it.
Kes : No, I want to do it Neelix, I'm willing to take the risk. Besides you've done so much for me, let me give you something once. Just for once.
Neelix : Alright.

Kes's Role:
Neelix episodes also usually give Kes quite a big role too, as is the case with "Phage". Kes is with Neelix in sickbay a lot of the time and she donates one of her lungs to Neelix which does shows how much she does care for him. Following this episode Kes starts to train as a medical assistant.

Review:
"Phage" is a pretty good episode. The first one to really focus on Neelix; which is early in Season 1. The Vidiians are a very interesting enemy to Voyager and do return a few times in episodes such as "Faces", "Deadlock", oh and "Fury"!

My Episode Rating: 8/10


Eye of the Needle

Synopsis:
When Ensign Kim finds a wormhole that might lead to the Alpha Quadrant, the crew believes they may have found a rapid route home. Although the opening to the tunnel in space proves too small for Voyager to fly through, Janeway decides to launch a microprobe into it to see what's on the other side.
To Kim's disappointment, the probe gets stuck in a gravitational eddy before it makes it all the way through, but he's surprised by readings indicating the probe is being scanned by someone on the other side. Janeway suggests they transmit a message through the probe, hoping it will be picked up by whoever is scanning it. Before long, they receive a subspace response — from the Alpha Quadrant, 70,000 light years away!
In the meantime, Kes begins working closely with the Doctor in Sickbay. She's surprised by how rudely Voyager's staff treats him because he's "only a hologram." She asks the Captain if the Doctor can be treated with the same respect as crewmembers. Janeway agrees, and tells the Doctor he should begin thinking of himself as a member of the crew. What's more, she's giving him control over his own deactivation sequence, and his first taste of independence.
When Voyager finally succeeds in achieving voice contact with the Alpha Quadrant ship, they are surprised to find it's a Romulan vessel. The Romulan captain, a scientist named Telek, is suspicious of the communication from a Starfleet vessel, thinking at first that they must be Federation spies. But once they've established a visual link and the two captains can communicate eye-to-eye, Telek becomes more sympathetic to their plight, saying he'll consider relaying messages to the crew's families back home.
Anxious to explore every avenue that will facilitate getting home, Torres explains that she might be able to "piggyback" a transporter beam onto the visual link, which theoretically would allow the crew to beam to the Romulan ship in the Alpha Quadrant. To test the theory, the Romulan captain allows himself to be transported onto Voyager.
Regrettably, Tuvok discovers the crew has actually beamed the Romulan from 20 years in the past, due to a time rift in the wormhole. Knowing it's pointless to transport the crew back in time because it would wreak havoc with the timeline of that era, Janeway asks the Romulan to relay the crew's messages to their families in 20 years. He agrees, and returns to his ship. Later, a database check reveals that the Romulan died four years before he was able to deliver the messages. Although disappointed, the crew presses forward.


Quotes:
Janeway: What can I do for you?
Kes: If there were a member of the crew whose needs weren't being met, would you want to know about it?
Janeway: Of course. Kes, do you and Neelix feel your needs are being ignored?
Kes: Of course not, we're very happy here. I'm referring to the Doctor.
Janeway: The Doctor?
Kes: I don't understand why people treat him the way they do?
Janeway: How do people treat him?
Kes: As though he doesn't exist. They talk about him while he's standing right there, they ignore him, they insult him.
Janeway: Well, as a matter of fact, I've been hearing the other side of the coin. Many of the crew have complained that the Doctor is brusk, even rude, that he lacks any bedside manner. We've even been talking about re-programming him.
Kes: You can do that? It doesn't seem right.
Janeway: Kes, he's only a hologram.
Kes: He's your Medical Officer, he's alive.
Janeway: No, he's not.
Kes: He's self-aware, he's communicative, he has the ability to learn.
Janeway: Because he's been programmed to do that.
Kes: So because he's a hologram, he doesn't have to be treated with respect, or with any consideration at all?
Janeway: Very well, I'll look into it.
Kes: Thank you Captain.

Kes's Role:
In this episode there is the main plot, with the wormhole and a small plot involving the Doctor and Kes. Kes is training to be a Medical Assistant and takes in the knowledge very quickly. A crewman ignores the Doctor while he's being treated, only talks to Kes and she talks to the Doctor about it. He says that's what most people are like. Kes goes to see Janeway about it (see above quotes), which does make Janeway go and see the Doctor. At the end of the episode, the Doctor tells the same crewman to address him and says to Kes that he would like a name.

Review:
"Eye of the Needle" is yet another very good Season 1 episode. The first time there is false hope of a way home, the plot is done very well. The crew's reactions when they find out it isn't going to happen are very real, great acting in this episode, like most!

My Episode Rating: 8/10



Cathexis

Synopsis:
An assault on a shuttlecraft manned by Tuvok and Chakotay leaves both men injured and Chakotay apparently brain-dead. The Doctor explains that something has drained all the bio-neural energy from the First Officer's brain. The prognosis looks grim, but Torres places a Native American medical wheel near Chakotay's bed, in the hopes that it will help her friend "find his way home" from his illness.
After Tuvok recovers, he reveals that an unidentified ship that emerged from a dark matter nebula attacked them. Janeway orders Voyager to head back to the nebula to investigate, but before they reach it, the ship changes course. The navigational computer implicates Paris, but he denies having made the change. A short time later, Torres initiates a warp core shutdown, but like Paris, she can't remember instigating the actions. When the Doctor examines the pair, he discovers that a strange brainwave pattern was superimposed on them during the tampering incidents -- which could mean that an alien entity momentarily seized control of their minds. As a precaution, Janeway transfers the ship's command codes to a non-organic source: the Doctor.
When Kes tells Janeway that she has been "sensing" an alien presence on the ship, Tuvok suggests that he perform a mind-meld with the Ocampan to help her focus her telepathic abilities. But a short time later, the two are found unconscious, the result of an energy discharge similar to the one that hit the shuttle, according to Tuvok. A short time later, someone disables the Doctor's program. With him out of the picture, the command codes revert to Janeway, who decides to divide them between herself and Tuvok. The unseen force tries to take over Janeway, but the crew incapacitates her. It jumps to Kim, and then Lieutenant Durst, before Tuvok finally stuns everyone on the bridge.
A series of clues turns up in quick succession, all of which imply that Tuvok has been lying to the crew. There was no ship in the nebula, and Kes' injury now appears to have been the result of a Vulcan nerve pinch. Under increasing suspicion, Tuvok takes over command of the ship and orders it into the nebula, where he says the Komar -- others of his kind await. But before they can get there, something makes Torres eject the ship's warp core. Since they now know that Tuvok, under the control of the Komar, has been trying to bring them all to the nebula all along, who has been acting against him, trying to keep Voyager out? All signs seem to indicate that it is Chakotay.
Realizing that the Komar want to extract their collective neural energy, the crew manages to overpower the Vulcan at last. The life form leaves his body to join the others of its kind in the nebula. Voyager's crew needs to leave the area, but since the possessed Tuvok plotted the course in, they are uncertain how to get out of the nebula.
Down in Sickbay, Neelix is suddenly compelled to rearrange the markers on Chakotay's medicine wheel. Janeway realizes that it is a message from her First Officer, a map showing them the correct course. They escape from the nebula just in time. Later, the Doctor finds a way to reintegrate Chakotay's displaced neural energy with his body and he revives at last, pleased that he was able to help protect the crew, despite his disembodied condition.


Quotes:
Kes: Captain, I heard what's happened. I think you're right, there is an alien presense here. I've been sensing something unusual all day. I don't know how to describe it, but I know there's something here.
Janeway: Do you know where?
Kes: No, just that it's on the ship.
Tuvok: Captain, Kes's telepathic abilities are undisciplined. If I could initiate a Vulcan mind meld with her, I may be able to help her focus those abilities to detect the alien more accurately.
Kes: I'm willing to do that.
Janeway: Very well, proceed Mr Tuvok.

Kes's Role:
"Cathexis" has the next reference to Kes's mental powers because she believes that she can sense an alien presence. Kes goes with Tuvok to attempt to do a Vulcan mind meld but they are both found unconscious soon after. By the episodes end it is discovered that a Tuvok performed a Vulcan nerve pinch, while inhabited by an alien and Kes recovers.

Review:
Another very good first season episode with a mystery to solve. This is an ensemble episode really; all characters have pretty much an equal role.

My Episode Rating: 7/10