Directed by David Livingston Production code 220 & 221 | Featured music Jay Chattaway | |
Episode no. Season 5 & 6
Episode 26 & 1 Story by Rick Berman
Brannon Braga
Joe Menosky Teleplay by Brannon Braga
Joe Menosky | ||
"Equinox" is a two-part episode of the science fiction television series Star Trek: Voyager, the cliffhanger between the fifth and sixth seasons.
Contents
Part 1
USS Voyager's crew is surprised to receive an emergency hail from another Federation starship, the Equinox, in the Delta Quadrant. They arrive to find the damaged ship under attack by nucleogenic lifeforms. Under advice from the Equinox captain, Rudy Ransom, Captain Kathryn Janeway has Voyager extend its shields around both ships, quelling the attack, though the creatures continue to bear down on the shields, weakening them over time.
While salvaging, the Voyager crew finds an area of the ship they cannot access due to intentional overrides by the Equinox crew. Janeway sends the holographic Doctor to the area, where he finds the Equinox crew has been harvesting bio-energy from the nucleogenic creatures, killing them in the process.
The Equinox crew complete the theft of the shield generator and quickly install it on their ship, allowing them to escape, having captured Seven of Nine along the way. Voyager suddenly finds itself under attack from the nucleogenic creatures.
Part 2
After learning the Doctor in their sickbay is from Voyager, and erasing his ethical sub-routines as they did with their EMH, they threaten to use him to probe Seven's mind to obtain the encrypted codes, despite the fact this may permanently incapacitate her. During his examination, he sings Clementine with the partially unconscious Seven, much dismaying Ransom as it seems to make his probing go more slowly.
Ransom starts to realize the error of his ways and orders the crew to return the Equinox to Voyager, but the remaining crew at the helm attempt to mutiny against this. Ransom transports the crew, as well as the Doctor and Seven, back to Voyager, offering to sacrifice himself to the nucleogenic creatures, moving the ship far enough away from Voyager to protect it from the resulting explosion.
As Voyager resumes its journey home, Janeway reinstates Chakotay to Commander and strips the five surviving Equinox crew members of their ranks while integrating them with the rest of her crew. Seven promises to help the Doctor secure his ethical sub-routines from being deleted in the future.