Summary
One ofStar Trek: Voyagerseason 4’s creepiest episodes drew inspiration fromStar Trek: The Next Generation.Voyagerseason 4 was arguably where the show began to pick up momentum, releasing more consistently good episodesthan those with mixed or bad reviews. This was likely thanks to the addition of Seven of Nine (Jeri Ryan) andVoyager’s cast of charactersand the creative team hitting their stride and beginning to feel like a cohesive unit. Whatever the reason, season 4 contained some great episodes that are ranked among some ofVoyager’s best.
One ofVoyagerseason 4’s better episodes was “Scientific Method,” which had a decidedly unsettling premise. During the episode,the USS Voyager’s crew began acting strangely and eventually discovered that they were being experimented on by unnamed alienswho could pass invisibly on the ship. After unsuccessfully attempting to get the aliens to back off, Captain Janeway (Kate Mulgrew) was forced to fly the ship on a dangerous mission between two binary pulsars to intimidate the uninvited guest into leaving. The premise of “Scientific Method” was terrifying, but it also wasn’t a new concept totheStar Trektimeline.
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Star Trek: Voyager’s “Scientific Method” Combines 2 Of TNG’s Scary Episodes
“Scientific Method” drew from “Schisms” and “Where Silence Has Lease”
“Scientific Method” was essentially a mash-up of two ofStar Trek: TNG’s scariest episodes, “Schisms” and “Where Silence Has Lease.” The main plot of theVoyagerepisode was most closely related to “Schisms,” sinceboth episodes featured their respective crews being experimented upon by unseen aliens who had managed to infiltrate the ship without anyone knowing. The methods of infiltration differed, but the result was the same, and the moments of reveal when each crew realized what was being done to them were equally horrifying.
Voyagerborrowing fromTNGwasn’t an uncommon occurrence, and similarities between episodes fromStar Trek’s 1990s era signaled the interconnectedness of the franchise.
In terms of “Where Silence Has Lease,” “Scientific Method” has the same ending.Both Captain Janeway and Captain Picard (Patrick Stewart) were forced to put their ship and crew in mortal dangerto get the alien that was toying with them to back off. Janeway accomplished this by flying Voyager into the pulsars, while Picard activated the USS Enterprise-D’s self-destruct.Voyagerborrowing fromTNGwasn’t an uncommon occurrence, and similarities betweenepisodes fromStar Trek’s 1990s erasignaled the interconnectedness of the franchise. However, in “Scientific Method,“Voyagerdid one significant thing differently thanTNG.
1 Big Difference Between Star Trek: Voyager’s “Scientific Method” and TNG
There was still a big difference between “Scientific Method” and its TNG counterparts
“Scientific Method’s” alien villains ended up being a lot less scary thanTNG’s for one important reason: they were humanoid. In both “Schisms” and “Where Silence Has Lease,“the aliens the Enterprise-D crew encountered were decidedly non-human, making them a lot more unsettling.The “Schisms” aliens in particular were terrifyingly non-humanoid figures with unclear motives, and the being in “Where Silence Has Lease,” although able to communicate intelligently, had the advantage of appearing as no more than a large face in space, making it much less relatable.
Although the aliens in “Scientific Method” were never named on-screen, the episode’s shooting script revealed that they were called the Srivani.
In contrast, once they had been exposed, the aliens experimenting onVoyager’s crew in “Scientific Method” weren’t nearly as scary.Their motives may have been unpleasant, and a commentary on unethical experimental practices, but they ended up packing much less of a punchthan something like the beings in “Schisms.” This didn’t make theStar Trek: Voyagerepisode any less interesting, but it did stop “Scientific Method” from devolving into true nightmare fuel.
