5x01 Night

Well, at least Janeway is finally acknowledging her selfish and impulsive behaviour - a nice continuation of her character from the finale of season 4. I also quite liked that the crew actually do feel like a bunch of friends at long last, despite the lack of evidence the show has given along the way.

The Captain Proton/Flash Gordon rip off worked quite well, and that surprised me! But still, we have the ship desperately trying to conserve power in the Void and people using the holodeck constantly. I'd imagine it's pretty essential for morale, but at least attempt to make this situation realistic.

Quite a nice chat between Chakotay and Tuvok. The Malon are yet another weak and uninteresting alien, though.

It's an interesting choice for a season premiere. That's not a bombastic season premiere. Most of the time - by design due to the void - it's a quieter story. But I like that they take some time to show how the crew spends time when off-duty and how they bond on a personal level. I mean, boredom should be a constant threat on such a long journey anyway and too little of these boring duty shifts have been shown in the last seasons. In the second half the story picks up speed, but I don't really like this part. It's classical Star Trek though: the Federation is the white knight who helps a threatened species.

A word about that b/w holo novel. It's certainly the silliest but most memorable of all holo programs in the show. Even after years you remember Voyager for this b/w comic book novel just like you remember Vic Fontaine in DS9. As a diversion, it works considerably well.