Marill's Top "30"
I have a fair amount of favourite episodes, they were pretty hard to rank this way, some may technically be tied. Also I got to 31 and couldn't really spare one, so er.. yeah I cheated. Anyway here we go..

 

#31  Broken Wreck (B4FV 2.06)
I remember coming up with the basic storyline for this while on holiday to Cyprus, the inspiration was the abandoned city. It all just came together nicely. The episode it replaced was just to introduce Zare but had no real storyline, so it made sense really to replace it with this. In my opinion this is one of B4FV2's better episodes. What makes this one of my favourites? Harry's sleeptalking, Tom waking up Janeway and her following scenes with Ligod, Tom's misfortune on the mission, and well a lot of the colony scenes.

#30  YWF (FV 2.16)
An episode that was loads of fun to write and is still a lot of fun to read six years later deserves a place here. In 2001 I used to watch WWE with my sister, and the episode Tsunkatse was still new to me.. it was only natural that the episode got the FV treatment, and WWE got mixed in. Why not? The result was a fun, action episode that has plenty of character stuff going on to keep everyone happy. Hints to the Lena/James revelation in Season 3, James/Jessie mushy stuff lol, Lena Vs Kiara, Janeway at her best, Seven getting brutally hurt, Tom making you laugh, the lines 'changing to kick ass mode' and 'Our ratings are dropping, we need a blonde bimbo and fast'.. it has it all.

#29  Ex Post Facto (B4FV 1.09)
It's such a shame that this episode has been ignored. Five years old and I still have a good snigger at it, there's no real dud scene. The two above have theirs, that's why they're rated lower (31's forced JJ last scene | 30's music video stuff). This is one of quite a lot of episodes that never get votes, feedback or anything, and I don't understand why to this day. Janeway's at her coffee mad best, Neelix starts his infamous streaking (which is only really funny in this episode), James' fear of cats, the parody of the original isn't bad at all, Craig getting 2 promotions while Harry gets none.. the Borg's cameo. I don't get it, never will. I'll enjoy it alone, heh ^_^

#28  Worse Case Scenario 1 (B4FV 3.21)
I always said that this wasn't finale material, so Alternate Scorpion was chosen to do it. When it finally was written I thought that it could of worked as one, it's closing scene is much better than Scorpions which didn't work for me. This and Loved Up were the episodes I dreaded most of all in this season, this was just because of the James/Jessie breakup. I always feared it wouldn't be believable, it had been talked about lots of times in the main seasons before this, I never worried about them though. It turned out pretty well, I think it works well. You have to realise I've had 0 experience in the romance field, there are shippers for my characters so I have to be doing something right despite that. Right? Anyway this episode is here because it still shows that I can mix two different styles to make one great episode: tragic romance and insane humour. I haven't lost it, so I never will.. ha! Highlights for me include Seska's version of the program, Tuvok's perception of the extra cast (James being moody Slayer all the time, Danny being more dirty, Jessie being tarty, Janeway.. ok she was the same lol), and the last scene.. it hurts a little that no one has feedback'd on that, I love it, it's brilliant for me. God damn it all.

#27  Death Wish (B4FV 2.09)
Here comes another episode that is just here because it just rocks all the way through. It may not be excellent, but it's consistently great. Three storylines, two linked together, the other prepares for the upcoming saga. First one is the original episode parodied, which is usually done quite badly but this is one of the exceptions. I could never write Q well, this was the first time I feel like I wrote him right (hmm wonder why). Second storyline was Nutty Q hitting on Jessie which was always fun. Third storyline pairs up Tom and James which is always guaranteed to make an episode funny, excluding the awful Symbiogenesis but that was the literal form of them sharing scenes. This episode introduces Frenit to the series, he doesn't appear often but is important to Season Four, Closing of the Eyes / Happy Ever After wouldn't be the same without him really. All in all, a rare treat.. there isn't many episodes I'm 100% happy with like this. Sure there's eps like the ones mentioned, but there's always a scene or two I want to change/edit. Not this one.

#26  Outside of Time (B4FV 1.22 / 2.01)
This episode would of been rated higher if it wasn't for two problems: the terrible way I described James' dream at the beginning, so basic and rookie like. The other is how quickly done the second part seems in comparison to Part 1, it just lowers it. Don't get me wrong, in full I like the episode, but I just feel that more should of been put into Part 2. Anyway enough putting it down, praise time. As soon as I started writing it I could feel that some Trekkers might think of this as one of those TNG eps where Enterprise gets infected, investigating a dead ship, I remember so many episodes like that. I just couldn't resist really. I also couldn't resist giving Seven the old cliffhanger treatment, be damned if she wasn't in it, Jeri Ryan was. Anyway I loved the Leda, it's backstory and everything. My favourite scenes is the one where they discover the bodies from James' dream, despite me hating the dream itself (meh I hated the scene from the movie that it was ripped from, so there you go, I didn't write it well for a reason ^_^).. I generally like it as a whole really. The best thing about it is I tried to include everybody in the cast, and it wasn't hard to do.

#25  Cherry Coke (B4FV 3.04)
A lot of the episodes that are B4FV Season Three's in this list are the ones I planned long before the prequels were written. This obviously is one of them. I thought most of B4FV3's first season draft weren't good enough, I just think it's pretty ironic that every episode that was left behind is in this list, did I make a mistake? Blood Oath isn't here (which was going to be in Season Six I think, before I decided to do prequels) but missed out, only just. Anyway this episode gets into the chart for one reason only: it's damned funny. I'm not being vain, others have said the same thing. It was also more fun than I thought to "get rid of" the extra cast by getting them drunk, and having the original Voyager crew in it the most and solve it. Harry and Kes were the best drunks as well, closely followed by James' scene with Tuvok. Ah well, silly plot and silly solution.. FV goes back to it's insane roots for one episode instead of just being in a few scenes only. I still lol at the "invisible alien" that James pretends to erm.. see. I hope I'm not the only one. I hope I'm not like Janeway if I'm ever on coffee withdrawl 0_0

#24  The Chain Reaction (FV 3.06)
If I hadn't of totally ripped off the resurrection scene from Buffy (or at least the censored version without the snake, yuck), this would of been higher up. Everything else about the episode is original and if you don't mind me saying so, brilliant. A lot of thought went into the Jessie dying, affecting Duncan/Sasha as Slayers storyline. Yes little(ish) thought went into the Yasmin/Damien cloning part, but it still works. Oh yeah I'm suddenly reminded of another Buffy rip scene, and sadly that's the James/Jessie reunion. Not as bad as the other scene, it's only basically stolen.. I rarely watch the Buffy scene, I usually forward it so the lines were (hopefully) different. Anyway enough said, good episode.. shame about the stolen bits.

#23  The Dark Page of the Book (FV 4.15)
I should have this higher, but I just felt that it's the episode I've read the least of out of the episodes I've chosen for this list (that's left obviously). I enjoy it when I do, but it's a one that can't really be read too many times. I think I did during writing, and of course right after. I've always enjoyed writing the volatile relationship between James and Janeway, this one was at the time my favourite one to write. I love the flashbacks, just too cute for words.. you know which ones I mean. Obviously the court case ones aren't, geeze ^_^ I love Tom's flashbacks, the one he did in Akoonah Matata.. it had to be done. Anyway the whole episode is a good read, but for some reason I don't get the urge to read it as much as the next lot. So here it is.

#22  The Moving Shadow (FV 3.27)
Oh the cliffhanger for the episode before this one, was awful (recently edited thankfully).. ruined a perfectly good episode. This obviously isn't about The Deception, but it's first scene just continues from there and well, it could be better. After the first scene the Moving Shadow turns from mediocre to well great. I knew from the moment I added it to the Season Three list that it would be my biggest challenge yet. It certainly was, it's theme was one I was very uncomfortable with. It was done exactly the way I wanted it to be, so like the rest of the episodes on this list it was a personal success, rather than just a 'oh its a brilliant episode' success. Unfortunately though this episode is really where Jessie begins her change into the emotional wreck in early Season Five. Yes it seems like she's a-ok or for the more observant people faking being ok at the end of this, but it doesn't really start kicking in until they return to Earth mid Season Four.

#21  Q and the Grey (B4FV 3.10)
FV has a lot of original episode rewrites, but not many turn out to be that good at all. Q and the Grey was one of my favourite Voyager episodes, well the first half anyway I lost interest after female Q appeared. As I was saying, not many episodes that are rewritten cos I love them turn out better than the original, in my eyes. In fact all I can think of is Alternate Scorpion as another example. This episode is a very important episode to the main series' storyline so it had to keep the readers attention, I couldn't fail with it. It starts the whole Kiara/Lena storyline in Season One, and it also starts the James/Jessie change personality and be wary of having more kids storyline. Anyway I find it funny most of the way through, mentioning the Kiara/Lena thing in the episode itself wasn't going to be done but I took the chance, it works quite well. I also really like the ending. Again it wasn't going to be done like that, it was going to show the Aggressions scene, but in full like the recap in True Q between Jess/Janeway. I figured with the Q/Nutty Q convo about Kiara, it wasn't needed. Nutty Q is his best in this episode, I really enjoyed writing him and Jessie, and for once I wrote the original Q in the extra scenes/lines he had, in character. Now, moving on..

#20  Something New (FV 4.21)
Like many seasons before it, Season Four's episode list went through many changes and in the end, looked barely anything like it did before writing. Several small episodes were removed, combined into one, or deleted completely to leave room for better things. This one however was thought up to fill a gap, and it was only going to be a small wedding episode.. I hadn't even planned out when J/C would get married before I came up with this. From the first word I just couldn't stop writing, in these recent Writers Block times it's rare for me to do that. Something New was my change of pace, it was meant to be a breather from the other storylines and it worked for me as the writer, and I feel for the pace of the season as well. You can't deny that a lot of it's pretty funny, and you've got a lot of the cast in it. I enjoyed writing it a lot, and I still enjoy reading it.

#19  The Curse of Voyager (FV 2.14)
This episode appears here basically because it's the episode that started everything for me. I had written a one off, that was well a re-write of one of Vulpix's fictions, Tragedy. I had tried to combine my Kidz Trek ideas into it: J/C child appearing from nowhere, sound familiar? However The Curse of Voyager was the first one I completed that I came up with myself. Again it was an episode of Kidz Trek, thanks to my The Mummy obsession I came up with several sequels to KT's parody of it, this one was the best one. It was based long after the Tragedy fic, and the one that it was a sequel to really hadn't been written yet (it has partly, but I never finished it, well that's not true I finished it in the form of The Resurrection). This and Tragedy became a series, but it never got any further than two completed, one partly and another barely started. It became one of the main inspirations for FV. So yes it's here for a very good reason. The episode itself is still good, the character stuff is probably the highlight of the entire thing. The ending was bloody, but so was the KT version (in my head, never wrote it), the original Voyager one wasn't.

#18  The Coming of Time (B4FV 3.12)
I came up with the basic idea and felt it would be doomed to fail. I wrote the plot so very, very easily.. and I'm not joking there, it was a very descriptive plot that just came together surprisingly well for a timeloop episode as complicated as this. After I was done I thought there was no way I'd be able to write it, following that plot.. unless I wrote it right away. I didn't, but again I was wrong. This episode does come together, it isn't my imagination or pride about writing an episode so easily and quickly. I just know that it works, and that's what makes it so great. Tom, James and Chakotay make a dysfunctional but at the same time great team. I can't take the credit, voters decided that Chakotay would join the other two. A time episode that doesn't need to be edited, rewrote before it's finished so the rest works, means that it's a time episode that makes sense and works. Timeloops are fun and it more than makes up for that awful first attempt; Cause and Effect. It also steps up the quality rating of the season, to prepare for the following episode (yes episode 13 is here, how could I not include it)

#17  Man Out Of You (FV 2.28)
Season Two made Fifth Voyager in my opinion. Season One was just for fun, Season Two was what made me want to continue. There were so many episodes in this season that are still so good to read through. I also give it an extra bonus considering what I was going through during that season. I love this episode for many reasons, too many to list properly. It's not here because it's OTT funny, completely opposite, it had everything else that I feel is good about FV. Plus you can't go wrong with James/Jessie stuff, Duncan just being cute, flashbacks.. not nice ones but still, and well.. angst. James' dad is probably the only character I've shown no mercy for. I try to make each character have something likeable about them, for him no. Dark Page gave him a scene that tried to make him seem human (nah I can't say that, a lot of humans are a** holes), nice and normal really.. but every other time he's just somebody you wanna punch. A spoiler for Season Five here, but a later episode will make you wish he was real, just so you can beat him to death, pure James being evil style.

#16  Outbreak (FV 5.03)
Now here's where it gets really difficult. I've tried to rate these by; how much the episodes themselves mean to me, putting the ones with scenes/lines I know make me want to delete or seriously edit "higher" up, amount of times I've read them.. which isn't fair on the newer episodes. Then I remember newer ones are here because they're new, and I feel like I can write better now. So I chose the first two, with a mixture of the third when I get further down. First the reason why this episode is here: for my skill level (or lack of) I felt that I wrote most of it well. I was extremely angry when I temporarily lost the ep, without any hope of retrieval. If it had been another episode I might not have tried so hard. The reason why it's not further down the list, I can't write psychiatrists. The scene with Jessie's first appointment made me cringe so badly, I went back and edited it down. Now it's just, well.. I don't like it. Oh well. I may be the only one who likes Damien and Ylara, but that's not gonna stop me writing these two.. I love writing them. This is the part where any Bring Back Lena Campaigners plan my horrible fiery death.

#15  Inside of Two Evils (FV 4.28)
Definitely one of my better season finales. Brilliant cliffhangers tend to be killed in Part 2 (Outside of Time, Scary But True), or they're ok cliffhangers with great followers (Thrown Key).. then there's Instinct lol. The style that works is the nice non cliffhanger finales like this one, end the season on a bang. Instinct doesn't count here, it's just a "nice" season ending. You've probably already guessed what one of the next 14 will be because of this rant, but never mind. What made this finale special was that in a way, it was a part of a five episode saga, the episode that started it was phenomenal by FV standards, so I just couldn't let the finale itself disappoint. I'm no good at fighting scenes, space or physical.. but my god I did it a-ok here. The Erona crew were as always fun to write. Just when you think that the season really is going to end without anything unresolved, Chakotay ruins it and gave you a several month wait to see what the hell he was up to with a Tolg ship and Damien. Then I started writing incredibly slowly, so it was longer than that. Ah.. I'm just so mean.

#14  Responsibility (FV 5.04)
The last Season Five entry in this chart, I have to be very careful with them as newer stuff can be favoured unintentionally over the classics. I wasn't sure wether to put this at 13 or 14, I'm still torn. This episode did something that I didn't do before (you'll see this in almost every entry now), and that was the quite brutal attacks on James. Whenever I did something as violent as that, I was usually just doing it randomly and fixing it with the reset button. Plus Chakotay's dramatic transformation is to me a lot more shocking than Craig's recent change, or James and Jessie's evil selves. You expected Craig to react badly, James and Jessie have always had a violent side.. you probably didn't expect Chakotay to lose it this badly.

#13  End of the Day (B4FV 3.18)
The fourth longest episode of the series is thirteenth... and it's part of the saga revolving around Deck Thirteen. I did have it at fourteen (twenties before, dunno why) but then I realised that Responsibility hadn't been covered. Anyway despite how proud of it I am it's just no match for the others. FV has turned to the dark side a few times with Closing of the Eyes, Responsibility, obviously this is another. I had planned this one far in advance and since I had lots of specific ideas for it, I knew it was going to be long if I kept it all. I didn't want to lose anything, so like Meets the Eye it shot up to second/third biggest episode in no time. As you could probably see in late B4FV3 I was very interested in stirring things up between the cast, and this was the one to do it in. I knew I was going to basically reset the James stuff with the spell Jessie did later, so why not basically go nuts with it. I love the entire saga in this season, this and Mind Games were in my eyes a great way to end it.. the saga just got better as it went along and I loved Facing Fears. So yes, you can see why this is here.

#12  Alternate Scorpion (B4FV 3.22)
My favourite season finale, obviously. It's well written, for me anyway, it's a rewrite of the episode that got me into Voyager itself, and it's a good one at that. My only problem with it was that I made the Borg too serious in Part 1, so when Part 2's Borg scenes were ready to be written that was easily changed. That did mean more Seven scenes, but totally worth it. Anyway this was the finale to the prequel series itself, so it is special to me.. it showed me that I could finish something. I'm just very disappointed that during B4FV Season Three, or right before it, my slow streak started and I think caused me to lose readers. I love this season but apart from one or two votes for four episodes the rest have been left in the cold. In the Eye and Loved Up got the praise they deserve I guess with multiple votes, so I shouldn't complain too much. It's this, End of the Day and a few others I feel bad about. Back to the point though, this finale to me has everything a rewrite needs: a good laugh, the original plot not being taken over by something else but still be written differently, lots of character stuff, shippiness, violence, Seven bashing *cough*, and there's a cutie baby at the end. What more can you want ^_^

#11  It's Your Duty (B4FV 3.02)
Like I said earlier, a lot of these episodes will be here because they're important to my growth (slow but still) as a writer. It's Your Duty was one of them, albeit a small one. Two others started this growth off anyway. It's mainly a romance fic, and I was never comfortable doing them. I still have problems. It's here for that reason, and another important one. It's Your Duty was one of those extremely rare episodes that I planned out so specifically, wrote it to those specifications and improved upon.

#10  Deck Thirteen (B4FV 3.08)
See above. My god, I thought this one was doomed for failure. It almost was when writers block hit me at the beginning of Part 2. It took a while but I wrote another 'better than I ever could plan it in my head' episode like above. Another thing that makes it special was the flashbacks, hallucinations and the dreams. Trying to write something from one persons view, was really new to me.. and helped prepare for me the episode Mind Games, another one that I thought would never get online. I love it to this day, it's groundbreaking for my low level. I'm not alone, it did tie for Best Episode this year (well last lol).

#09  Disconnected (FV 2.04)
Season Two started great, every episode it grew from strength to strength. Episode 4 my life changed forever (well six years so far :p ), once I wrote Disconnected I knew that I just couldn't stop writing. It easily compares to later episodes, despite it's age, it's just brilliant in my eyes and in a few others so I see. Yes it's a parody/rip off off a movie, but it's the characters that what makes this episode so great. James alone is a highlight as he returns to his B4FV Season Three status, where everyone's remembering that they're scared/suspicious of him, and want him locked up. Lena/Morgan makes the Lena/Craig shippers very happy with a kiss (the possessive aliens do that again later), and so does Jessie with the James/Jess shippers. Plus Chakotay/Janeway make up at the end. Episode gold.

#08  Mind Games (B4FV3 Special)
Originally created for B4FV Season Two. This episode had one too many ideas for it, writers block struck it and it soon became cancelled/deleted from the season. I hated the idea of leaving out this episode completely, it was too good to waste despite me not being able to write it. It was placed in late B4FV3, to give me time to figure it out. That I did.. several million different versions of the story later I started writing it. This episode does something different, the transition between dreams and reality really worked well, when I didn't think it would. Combine that with Janeway/James stuff, James just being an a** towards Chakotay (never got old), Jessie/James stuff, and who can forget Lena's cameo as a child? I'm so glad I didn't give up on this episode, it's the second best special.. Not that it has much to beat.

#07  Up In Smoke (B4FV 2.14)
Ah the Resolutions Saga. The other story in that series I mentioned with The Curse of Voyager, was a Resolutions rewrite. This was back in 2000, I only ever thought of putting it into Kidz Trek (yeah I was very stupid) as a musical, stealing Lion King 2 songs (did I mention the stupid).. Then when I came up with the prequel series it all came together. I really wanted to write a new version, I was no good at one off fictions so this was the only way. So from about 2001 till it's release, I spent AGES thinking about what was going to happen. There was no way I could include everything I thought. I've been wrong many times before, this is one of them. I never thought I'd be able to do the James/Jessie first time thing, never. I even thought about cutting out the Janeway walking in on them scene cos I was so uncomfortable. It wouldn't of worked, so the thought quickly died. I'm so proud of this episode, it moved me forward in a way and it also is a fun episode to read everytime I do.

#06  In The Eye (B4FV 3.13)
B4FV Season Three had one or two "stinker" episodes that were never going to see the light of day in it's listings. They had to go. I was planning Death Corridor, I was recently introduced to the Ring movies.. I wanted to do more than just the Death Corridor parody scenes. Before writing however I got effected by wussiness, very paranoid about TV's and monitors. The Ring took it's time to effect me, ah well. In The Eye turned into half serious, half parody.. that's the episode you know today. As well as romance, horror is a genre I couldn't grasp. This gave me another chance to try and I feel I did well. When it's funny, it's hilarious, when it's scary it's as scary as a FV episode can get, and I don't mean Neelix's streaking.. though that is scary.

Oooh now we're into the Top 5. I bet you're sitting on the edge of your computer seat now.

#05  Burnt out and Falling (FV 4.25)
OMG, only number 5! How many people actually thought something like that, hmm. Yes this episode is brilliant, yes this episode means a lot to me, but despite what you think it didn't do something new.. unlike the next four. I know one person who's read this episode so many times it's bound to be her favourite, but it ain't mine I'm afraid. Don't get me wrong, I love it. I love every episode in this list.. god ^_^ It's all about the character development, which is what I think this series does best, besides from being insane. You've got to feel for Lena, if you don't you're not reading it properly or something else that's more insulting :p Chakotay's torturing of Jessie is just so cruel it's great (you know what I mean), Lena and Craig no happy ending there but they're so good together right :p , the funeral scenes are inappropriately funny in places, and for once I did a possession episode ok. I hate possession episodes with a passion, I feel that it's rarely handled well in any series, this ep is one of the few exceptions. TNG did a great one, Buffy ok one.. everything else cringworthy.. I must be the only one who hates the Seven/Doc episode in Season Seven. Eugh. Anyway the episode's great, it's my number 5 so if you haven't read it yet.. you must remember to do so sometime.

#0 Loved Up (B4FV 3.20)
I'd see Worse Case Scenario 1 for one of the reasons why this is here. I never, ever thought that I'd be able to do the James/Jessie breakup well, I thought people would be just confused and irritated by my lack of skill. I'm not saying I'm full of skill, far from it, but at least the episode worked out. Plus it's subplot is brilliant if I do say so myself. It's like another Love Spell, but funnier. Janeway choosing the guy over the coffee, lol.. Chakotay being jealous, Neelix thinking the girls are attracted to him. Oh yeah, best B4FV episode ever for those two reasons.

#03  Resistance (FV 2.05)
Back in 2001 I was all "yuck" when it came to romance, unless it was J/C fiction that was not graphic in the details *cough* Also back in 2001 I beat that problem and wrote this, convincingly too. I love this episode, I always will.. if I never did it, I'd of probably struggled through a lot more important episodes *cough* numbers 1 and 2. This episode made the James/Jessie relationship, that is all..

#02  Happy Ever After (FV4 Special)
I can't stress enough how much I love this episode, and how much I'm proud of myself for writing this. I remember writing most of it during the night/morning, I didn't want to stop cos I was loving it so much. It's just heartbreaking, it's got it's few moments of humour, it's got Duncan being his cutest (Sasha and Johnathan, god don't forget them). Frenit returns and causes chaos, you can't ask for a better episode.. but heck, you're gonna get one.

#01  Closing of the Eyes (FV 4.24)
Surely you saw this coming ^_^ Closing of the Eyes I could easily just send it off to a publisher, edited slightly in places (to make it more novely).. and get the following results: Denied would have me going for the nearest motorway to walk across, Accepted I'd be over the moon. True it's FV, it can't be published but still if I had to choose, it would be this one. If you thought Happy Ever After was heartbreaking, you should approach this one with caution and some hankies. You can't get a sadder episode, or a better episode for that matter. I really really can't describe how I feel about it. If I'm ever feeling down on myself for being a crap writer or slow, I can just think about this one or read it. I know it would make me feel better in no time. Just brilliant.