“Voyager’s Return”

A malfunctioning Earth probe that destroyed all life on two planets makes Alpha the target of alien revenge.

Writer: Johnny Byrne

Director: Bob Kellett

Guest Cast

Jeremy Kemp as Ernst Linden/Queller

Barry Stokes as Jim Haines

Alex Scott as Archon

It’s an interesting premise: what if the probes we send into deep space aren’t as well-received as we hope? In this case, Voyager 1 is powered by something called the Queller Drive, a nuclear-powered engine that is supposed to shut down when it nears an inhabited planet, but it doesn’t and kills everybody on two planets. (Oops!) Isn’t that just so human of us? Ernst Linden, actually Ernst Queller, the evil genius who invented this killer propulsion system, has to figure out a way to stop Voyager without letting his young assistant know his secret, because Jim’s parents were both killed by a malfunctioning Queller Drive. But the old man gets a chance to redeem himself when he saves the day at the end, ridding the galaxy of Voyager and some nasty Sidons who are pretty pissed off at humanity and on their way to destroy Earth. It’s a good episode, and I wonder how close it comes to nailing down the psyche of persons like Nobel and Oppenheimer, inventors of dynamite and the atomic bomb.