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Star Trek Voy - Season 3 - Episode 15

Star Trek Voy - 3x15 - Coda

Originally Aired: 1997-1-29

Synopsis:
Janeway is trapped in a time loop. [DVD]

My Rating - 6

Fan Rating Average - 4.55

Rate episode?

Rating: 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
# Votes: 26 3 4 8 7 11 13 14 20 4 2

Problems
None

Factoids
None

Remarkable Scenes
- The repeating time loop.
- Everyone forgetting the time loop except Janeway.
- Janeway contracting the Vidiian Phage.
- The doctor attempting to euthanize Janeway.
- Janeway being disembodied.
- Janeway's dead father appearing.
- The memorial service.
- Janeway discovering what's really going on.
- Alien: "You're in a dangerous profession, captain, you face death every day. There'll be another time and I'll be waiting. Eventually you'll come into my matrix. And you will nourish me for a long long time." Janeway: "Go back to hell, coward."

My Review
First a repeating time loop TNG: Cause and Effect style. Then nobody remembers the time loop but Janeway. Then Janeway gets the Phage. Then the doctor tries to kill her. Then Janeway is disembodied TNG: The Next Phase style. Then Janeway's dead father appears and tells her she's dead. Then Janeway realizes she dreamt it all. I'm not sure this episode could get more random if it tried! There are mixed opinions about this of course. Some of the beginning is largely a waste of time, but it's done in such a nicely exciting way that I forgive it. Honestly, the episode gets better and better as it goes along. The teaser was a lousy shuttle crash. We've seen enough of those and they're not particularly remarkable stories. In the end we have an alien who seems to feed on consciousness playing a game of illusions with Janeway. In this respect, the episode is much like TOS: The Cage, which also made good use of illusions. Much like TNG: Where Silence Has Lease, I must say bravo to this episode for it's skillful waste of time. Filler with style.

The following are comments submitted by my readers.

  • From Jenny on 2006-07-25 at 3:28pm:
    I largly agree with our all powerful master reviewer man here. However, I do NOT think this is a time-waster, however skill full yet random it is. I think the time loop, humour and touching memorial sequence work very well together and are very interesting. I found this surprisingly emotional, actually.The part When Janeway is strangled is really carried of well- and I did feel quite distressed. Also- the memorial scene and the stuff leading up to it was very moving- eventhough you knew the captain was really alive. ( unlike the irritating sequence in 'Resolutions' where the crew acted as if Janeway would never come back- but you knew she would anyway cos there was still another 5 seasons to do).
    All in all an enjiyable, touching episode.
  • From Hugo on 2013-11-07 at 9:13pm:
    Is it just me, bit I don't get what the time loops and the phage had to do with the odd alien...

    Also, the alien, what was he, a spirit just floating around? They could detect him on the tricorders, but only when he was active...? And this alien had no material substance at all?
  • From thaibites on 2014-03-28 at 8:27am:
    I ended up liking this episode a lot. There was a point in the middle where it got a bit too sentimental for me, but the ending really justified all the sentimentality and launched this episode into the upper echelon of Voyager episodes. Well done!
  • From The Spirits of Obummer on 2022-02-14 at 3:29am:
    I was wondering, why was Janeway so skeptical all the time?
    Only a couple of episodes earlier she learned that she should just believe everything "spirits" tell her, and then they cure death ^^

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