An early episode of Star Trek: Voyager substantially improved on the storyline and concepts explored in one of TOS's most-hated episodes.
Captain Janeway and Spock from Star Trek: Voyager and TOS respectively.
SUMMARY
- Voyager improved on a previously disliked Star Trek episode by making the organ-stealing alien concept more complex and compelling.
- The Vidiians, with their tragic history and reprehensible methods, became one of Voyager's best villains, providing great episodes.
- Due to the show's premise, Voyager unfortunately had to leave the Vidiians behind in their journey to the Alpha Quadrant.
Star Trek: Voyager improved on the storyline from one of Star Trek: The Original Series's worst episodes. Voyager had to carve itself a unique place in the Star Trek franchise when it first began airing in 1995, and one of the ways it did this was by having the show be set in the Delta Quadrant, an uncharted portion of the galaxy that no other series had ever explored. This meant that the crew of the USS Voyager encountered strange new alien species in virtually every episode, and one of the strangest species early on in season 1 was the Vidiians.
The Vidiians were introduced in Voyager season 1, episode 4, "Phage", and quickly became one of the more horrifying species in the Star Trek franchise. Once a race of explorers, Vidiian society was ravaged 2,000 years ago by a deadly disease called the Phage, which attacked their bodies and destroyed tissue at an alarming rate. In order to survive, the Vidiians were forced to harvest the organs of other species, often from living organisms, to graft into their own bodies. While their motives may have been for survival, their methods were highly disturbing. Interestingly enough, the Vidiians were not the first organ-stealing aliens the Star Trek franchise ever introduced.
Star Trek: Voyager Is A Big Improvement Over TOS' Worst Episode
While "Phage" and the Vidiians have been compared to the Star Trek: TOS season 3 episode, "Spock's Brain," Voyager actually improved on the hated TOS installment, taking concepts from it and making them much more interesting. During "Spock's Brain," an alien race called the Eymorgs stole Spock's (Leonardy Nimony) brain to use as the "Controller" for the computer that ran their society, prompting Captain Kirk (William Shatner) and crew to go on a mission to retrieve it. Although the episode's concept was interesting in theory, the execution of it left a lot to be desired, and "Spock's Brain" is one of the more universally hated TOS episodes even today.
"Phage," however, took the idea of organ-stealing aliens and made it much more complex. While the Eymorgs are less than sympathetic, the Vidiian's struggle in "Phage" gives the episode a true ethical dilemma that is genuinely compelling to watch the characters struggle with, especially Captain Janeway (Kate Mulgrew). Additionally, Voyager portrayed the Vidiian's organ harvesting practices as truly horrifying, while TOS's more light-hearted tone in "Spock's Brain" left something to be desired. "Phage" still managed to keep a good balance between the difficult subject and some comic relief by focusing the episode on Neelix (Ethan Phillips), who was the one to have his lungs removed by the Vidiians.
Why The Vidiians Are One Of Voyager’s Best Villains
Although Voyager struggled to create good Star Trek villains during its seven-year run, the Vidiians ended up being one of the best. Their history with the Phage was tragic, making them oddly sympathetic even if their methods for fighting the disease were reprehensible. This complexity made the species all-around compelling villains that provided Voyager with some truly great episodes over the course of the show's first three seasons. Unfortunately, the nature of Star Trek: Voyager's premise was such that the series had to leave the Vidiians behind at some point while they continued their journey to the Alpha Quadrant.
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