Star Trek: Voyager - Season 4 [DVD] [1996]

For many fans, Voyager hit its peak in the fourth season, due in no small part to a certain former Borg drone named Seven of Nine, Tertiary Adjunct of Unimatrix 0-1, but you can call her Seven of Nine (Jeri Ryan). Following the season 3 cliffhanger "Scorpion," the crew enters an unlikely alliance with the Borg against Species 8472, led by Seven of Nine, who ends up restoring (mostly) her human roots and trying to assimilate herself among Voyager's crew all the time feeling the pull of the Collective and resisting the mother-hen attempts of Captain Janeway (Kate Mulgrew). While Seven's curvaceous figure and skin-tight uniform certainly won over many fans, she was helped by a commanding presence, good writing ("So you wish to copulate?" was a classic line), and a stage that was cleared for her by the coinciding departure of one of the most prominent characters of the series.

Other significant developments of the season included the actors getting to stretch themselves out "Mirror, Mirror"-like as evil counterparts in "Living Witness" (also Tim Russ's directing debut), the time- and mind-bending two-parter "Year of Hell," a battle with 1940s Nazis in the two-part "The Killing Game," the Doctor's comedic sparring with a new rival in "Message in a Bottle," the Alien-like "Prey," and Tom Paris (Robert Duncan MacNeill) taking a personal step and switching bodies with an alien in "Vis a Vis." The DVD set offers the usual 20-minute season overview, crew profiles of Seven of Nine (natch) and Harry Kim (both of whom show warm appreciation for the Trek crowd), features on Species 8472 and the art of matte painting, and episode spotlights. --David Horiuchi

Following the stunning conclusion of Janeway's deal with the Borg in "Scorpion", look out for these choice Voyager Season 4 episodes:

• In The Raven, crew newcomer Seven of Nine relives the terror of her assimilation as a six-year-old girl
  
• The feature-length The Year of Hell sees Janeway's crew and ship decimated and reduced to one last suicide attempt to prevent time-shifting mass-murderers
  
• The Doctor meets his successor, the prissy EMH-2 in Message in a Bottle
  
• In the feature-length The Killing Game, the crew are forced to play deadly war-games by Hirogen Hunters who have over-run Voyager

Disc Seven Extra Features Extras not on the US generic release 1) RED ALERT: AMAZING VISUAL EFFECTS 2) VOYAGER RELEASE PARTY Other extras include 1) BRAVING THE UNKNOWN: SEASON FOUR 2) TIME CAPSULE: SEVEN OF NINE 3) TIME CAPSULE: HARRY KIM 4) THE BIRTH OF SPECIES 8472 5) THE ART OF ALIEN WORLDS 6) PHOTO GALLERY 7) LOST TRANSMISSIONS 1-6 (Easter Eggs)

Another spin-off of the Star Trek series, Star Trek: Voyager centers on the Federation starship USS Voyager as its crew bands together with a group of Maquis rebels to return home from the far-flung Delta Quadrant. Starring Kate Mulgrew as the Voyager's captain Kathryn Janeway and Robert Duncan McNeill as the spaceship's pilot Tom Paris, the series' cast is rounded out by Robert Beltran as Maquis commander Chakotay, Tim Russ as Vulcan security officer Tuvok, Garrett Wang as navigator Harry Kim, Robert Picardo as the hologram Doctor, and Roxann Dawson and Ethan Phillips as alien crew members B.L.T. and Neelix. This 7-volume collection includes all 26 episodes from the series' fourth season, which bids adieu to cast member Jennifer Lien and introduces Jeri Ryan as sexy Borg Seven of Nine.