Star Trek: Voyager (TV Series) Unforgettable (1998) User Reviews

Needed structural changes to the plot progression.

[thevacinstaller · 6/10 · 28 November 2021]

I found it interesting that Kellin attempted to rekindled a love that was forgotten by Chakotay and succeeds and then when Kellin loses her memory Chakotay tries for 5 minutes and gives up.

This is fertile ground for an episode of star trek but I think that this episode required some restructuring. Perhaps we the viewer get to see the romance bloom between Chakotay and Kellin and thereby the impact of memory loss is heightened? I suppose the constraints of a 45 minute episode does limit the possibilities for the writers of the episode.

It is an interesting plot to an episode ----- Attempting to convince someone you had been in love with each other and they have no recollection of it.

The execution of this episode did not work for me. I did not feel tension or suspense in this episode and because I did not see how the relationship between Chakotay and Kellin developed I found myself not emotionally invested in the lost love story arc.

One-off romances rarely work in Star Trek

[snoozejonc · 6/10 · 14 June 2023]

Chakotay falls in love with a lady from a race who produce a pheromone that affects the memory.

Themes of falling in love and the consequence associated with memory erasure of the relationship was done very well in 'Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind', but although the sci-fi premise here is similar, the love story does not work for me.

I do not think it is badly written or acted (as some have suggested), as there is only so well you can portray two strangers falling in love in one episode. It suffers from the usual issues that blight love stories for regular characters. I personally could not invest in the relationship and they never convince me of the love. I spent a large part of the episode suspicious of Kellin and her motives because they are hard to take at face value given the twisting nature of so many Trek plots.

Robert Beltran and Virginia Madison do a great job with the material. In one scene in particular, their chemistry is great, but the script calls for Chakotay to suddenly decide that he is in love which is difficult for any actor to pull off.

Chakotay out of character

[archyros-30909 · 7/10 · 30 April 2017]

This is an odd episode. An alien woman, from a species whose biochemistry causes others to forget about them after a few hours, has fallen for Chakotay. After being away from Voyager for a time, she returns to seek asylum, and to resume her relationship with Chakotay. The strangest thing for me was the scene where a tracer comes to take her back to her people, and confronts the couple in Chakotay's quarters. After his initial reaction of suspicion to Kellin, he falls for her again and does all he can to help her remain aboard Voyager. But when a retrieval agent from her people, a tracer, sneaks aboard to take her back, the tracer levels a weapon at Kellin. Chakotay backs off, and seems to hide behind the woman, allowing her to take the shot without trying to do anything about it. Seeing that scene again, it just seemed so odd to see Chakotay back away, instead of jumping in between them to try to wrestle the gun away, or at least take the shot to protect his woman. He does not even try to protect her. Anyway, that really made the story fall apart for me. I still gave this a 7 out of 10, because of the lovely Virginia Madsen and her fine performance as the alien Kellin.

Virginia Madsen appears as an alien whose biochemistry renders her instantly forgettable by anyone she meets

[boffrey · 26 March 2006]

Not the best Voyager episode ever produced. Cmmdr. Chakotay falls in love with an alien (Virginia Madsen) who possesses a unique physiology - her pheromones wipe all memory of her presence from the mind of anyone she meets within twenty-four hours. "When you live a covert existence, you develop technology to enhance it." This episode is over-sentimental, even by Star Trek standards, however the acting standards and other production values are typically high. There's not much in the way of action, the entire episode revolves around Kellin (Virginia Madsen) trying to get Chakotay to fall in love with her after he has already done so once and then forgotten all about it. One wonders why she bothered.

Forget-me-not

[Tweekums · 7/10 · 10 February 2010]

In this stand alone episode the crew of Voyager are surprised to find themselves in the middle of a battle between two cloaked ships, they are even more surprised when one of the ships requests help from Chakotay by name. Once they have brought Kellin, the woman who called for help, aboard she claims to have been their before but due to her species unusual biology people who meet them can't remember them for more than a few hours. It turns out that she is part of a closed culture where anybody who escapes is hunted down and returned to their home planet. Previously it was her job to hunt those who ran but when her job brought her to Voyager she fell in love with Chakotay so decided to run herself. As she spends more time aboard Voyager Chakotay finds himself falling in love with her again and when her people come to take her back he tries to protect her.

This wasn't a bad episode although some questions weren't really addressed; why did Voyager's crew help Kellin catch a runner on her first visit to Voyager then help her run herself? That said I quite liked the way the story was concluded. Virginia Madsen puts in a good guest performance as Kellin.

Finally, a Chakotay love story

[LordManhammer · 7/10 · 2 May 2021]

Yes, this episode has many plot holes and reviewers are rightly frustrated that little detail is offered about Kellin's biological processes that render others' memories unable to capture her. But I don't think it is fair to ask for less focus on the love story.

Chakotay has gotten the short end of the stick with personality-expanding episodes, or maybe it just feels that way because of how stoic he is. Because of his unemotionality, the Vulcan Tuvok actually gets a lot of attention surrounding his emotional reactions to events. Chakotay has certainly been the star of multiple episodes by this point late in season 4, but he has been fading into the background, seeming more impassive even than the Vulcan. He is a stalwart piece of furniture on the bridge.

Chakotay's major traits are his loyalty and strong work ethic, so much so that the only times viewers see him passionate are when he cares deeply about solving an engineering or diplomatic problem his own way. When we discover he had a fling with Seska, it is only relevant because his work ethic and loyalty cause him to want to protect Voyager all by himself.

If anything, "Unforgettable" did not offer enough scenes of this man feeling feelings.

Unforgivable casting mistake

[William_E_Hunter · 7/10 · 28 August 2019]

This is not a bad episode. Tonally it's on point, dealing with the ephemeral nature of love and attraction.

The problem is the terrible casting of Chakotay's love interest. To describe her as wooden is an insult to forests.

This might be forgivable, but for the fact that she also has all the warmness and charm of a block of ice. The chemistry between Beltran and her registers at around absolute zero. A pretty tough hurdle to get over when they are supposed to fall in love multiple times.

In other words, forget it.

Ridiculous Episode....

[keithw1975 · 2/10 · 17 March 2007]

I didn't think this episode was too bad until the end which just got crazy. When an alien tracker comes on board and shoots Virginia Madsen after she has requested asylum the Voyager crew simply lets the tracker go on his way. Normally when someone requests asylum they are protected and if someone tries to take them back it would be an act of war. And why didn't Chakotay try to protect her? He hides behind her and lets her take the shot from the tracker. Then we are told that Janeway allows the tracker to put a virus in Voyagers computers to erase all information about them? Give me a break! This is just asinine.

Keith

Very unusual.

[planktonrules · 8/10 · 23 February 2015]

Virginia Madsen stars as Kellin in this very unusual episode of "Star Trek: Voyager". After she has a brief fight with another ship very close to Voyager, Kellin contacts Voyager and asks for help from Chakotay specifically. Oddly, however, Chakotay doesn't recognize her. Soon you learn why--she's from a species that doesn't want outside contact and they go to very extreme lengths to keep it that way. If anyone leaves the planet, they are tracked down and anyone having contact forgets and their computers are wiped! Kellin insists that she'd spend a lot of time on Voyager and then proves this DID occur. So why, then, does she return? Well, it seems that Mr. Super-Sexy, Chakotay, has stolen her heart and she's here to seek asylum.

The notion of a world that goes to such extremes to keep its existence private is pretty unique. My only complaint is that having a cop whose job it is to bring in runaways then falling in love and wanting to defect is a bit hard to believe. Additionally, she KILLED her own kind in escaping and no one seemed to remember this or care. Odd...but still a good episode.

Interesting!

[entryword · 7/10 · 1 September 2020]

Very interesting setting for the alien species. But I hope this episode developed more about their technology or biology, rather than Chakota's love story

Where Was Nat King Cole

[Hitchcoc · 5/10 · 3 September 2018]

No pun intended. This was a very forgettable episode. First of all, there is the absurdity of the premise. An attractive woman asks for asylum aboard Voyager. Once she is there, she speaks of a love relationship with Chakotay. It turns out she is from a planet where the beings are forgotten by anyone with whom they've had contact after a short time As it happens, the two fall in love again, but there is a problem on board. It's so far fetched, even for this series, that I was happy when it ended.

Unforgettable Ms Madsen!

[mstylianou7 · 10/10 · 23 February 2021]

This episode demonstrates the Star Power of Virginia Madsen. The chemistry between her character and Chakotay will leave you breathless! Her beauty and talent bring something extraordinary to this episode.

Sadly; it is "unforgettable"

[Bronco46 · 7/10 · 1 March 2017]

There is a some sort of pheromone that allows these people to interact with others, spend time and even become close. And have that completely fade after a short period of time. It's not made clear why or how this chemical tool was developed or whether it just something evolved. But it serves the purpose of allowing these people to keep their world and their tools completely secret. Apparently Robert Beltran found this to be his favorite episode. Sadly since this is only story, and we don't have that pheromone or devices to wipe memories. I won't be able to put this very weak story from my memory, damn.

Totally forgettable

[xandemogi · 1/10 · 21 August 2018]

I would like to use the neurogenic emitter in me to forget that I watched this episode

Maybe a new flirting technique: "We were in love once, don't you remember?"

[tomsly-40015 · 5/10 · 31 December 2023]

Well, the story itself sounds promising: A woman claims that Chakotay and her were in love but no one on Voyager remembers her. Then Chakotay falls in love with her again but loses her a second time.

To make this story work though, the writers had to come up with lots of unbelievable explanations. Like the pheromone this species produces which wipes the memory of each other species they encounter. Or the computer virus that erased all evidence of her in the systems.

First: There are life forms on board of Voyager that this species never encountered before: Humans, Vulcans, Klingons... even a former Borg drone. Yet we should believe that this memory erasing pheromone works on all of those species (what a marvelous evolution). Apparently on the doctor, too.

Second, obviously this species messes with the computer, too, to plant a virus there that erases each and every information about them. What sane captain, chief of security, chief of operations or chief of engineering would allow a stranger to tamper with Voyager's systems? And wouldn't Seven of Nine remember something due to her Borg implants or are they suddenly connected with the ship's computer? By the way: this computer virus thing, that has to work on a completely unknown alien operating system was stupid in Independence Day already. And don't even start with other non-digital traces: Written letters, DNA residue on objects etc.

And how comes, they haul the damaged alien vessel in, which is equipped with cloak technology that allows firing under cloak (something not even Klingons or Romulans were capable of) and also has advanced proton cannons that cut through shields, but don't try to investigate this technology and make use of it? Also no one tries to research this species, their pheromones, their personal cloaking ability, their unique culture. Janeway claims that they are explorers but yet, they hardly explore alien life forms in their entirety. Aren't there some xeno-biologists on board, or anthropologists, linguists, bio-technologists...?

As others already pointed out: I also did not feel any chemistry between Chakotay and Kellin and I doubt that both would have fallen head over heels in love with each other.

It also hurts to see how Chakotay just watches when the tracer shoots an energy beam at Kellin. Why didn't he use his phaser or jumped at him?

And Kellin tries to convince Chakotay for several days that they both were in love after the first time they met. She puts quite a lot of effort into it - romantic settings, the right situations, good storytelling. And then, after her memory was wiped by the tracer, Chakotay tries to convince her that they were in love and he takes about a minute or two to do so, just standing there without any romantic feelings at all. Not even an injured dog would have jumped into his arms to be rescued by him after that sort of emotionless of speech. He completely blows it there. But that's Voyager: You can't keep a love interest for more than one episode because viewers are too dumb obviously to remember all those new characters that might play a role in future episodes.

Did they not have paper in the 90s?

[ragingrei · 4/10 · 28 August 2021]

Or stun mode on phasers?

This reminds me of that Riker episode in TNG where he falls in love with someone and also mysteriously forgets about stun mode.

Sleep Inducing

[zombiemockingbird · 1/10 · 21 May 2023]

Boring, tiresome, and totally forgettable. The plot is ridiculous to begin with. A race that has the power to make people forget them after they leave, that apparently spends all their time pursuing their people who keep trying to escape. That alone tempted me to skip this one, but I decided to see if it got better. It didn't. Apparently Chakotay is so fascinating that this woman just couldn't help "falling in love" over a two-week period, while she was pursuing one of their people who stowed away on Voyager. Most of the show is her trying to make him remember and fall in love again, and him resisting. Then he does fall in love, and the Tracer who is pursuing her erases her memory. Then Chakotay tries to make her remember and fall in love with him again, and she resists. Then she leaves and everybody forgets everything. Wow. What a load of garbage.