Widely regarded as Voyager’s best season, Season 4 opens with the exciting conclusion of “Scorpion,” which introduces us to a new character, Seven of Nine, who will be featured prominently throughout the series’ run.
With the addition of a major character also sees the departure of Kes in the season’s second episode, “The Gift.” Kes returns in the Season 6 episode “Fury,” but her absence is otherwise barely noticed.
Facing certain death, B’Elanna Torres finally admits her feelings to Tom Paris in “Day of Honor.”
The midseason two-parter “Year of Hell” revisits events foreshadowed in Season 3’s “Before and After,” albeit slightly altered. The episode features stunning visuals, a great guest star in Kurtwood Smith, and an exciting ending.
Starfleet finally learns about Voyager’s fate when The Doctor travels through an alien network of stations to arrive in the Alpha Quadrant, only to fight off Romulans with the help of the whimsical EMH-2 (played by Andy Dick) in “Message in a Bottle.”
A new species is introduced, the Hirogen, who become a common theme throughout the season… with appearances in five episodes, including the period-piece two-parter “The Killing Game.”
The season comes full circle with its finale, “Hope and Fear,” where Janeway is forced to confront the consequences of her actions in “Scorpion, Part II.” The episode also marks the first time Seven of Nine truly accepts her life as an individual.
