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Star Trek: Voyager Season 5 Episode 25

Warhead

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AIRED: 5/19/99

Stardate: Unknown
An alien missile with artificial intelligence takes over The Doctor's systems, and insists that it be allowed to complete its mission of mass destruction.

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Fan Episode Reviews (4)

This episode is a bomb… …literally a bomb.

3.0

By tv-striker, Dec 12, 2011

This episode is a bomb… …literally a bomb. While Kim is taking "night command" of the bridge, they pick up a distress signal and he diverts the ship to investigate.

Right away, there's a clue that some faulty (inexperienced?) judgment is going to get the blame for this whole mess but by the time the story unfurls, there's more than enough faulty judgment to go around.

It turns out the distress signal is coming from a "smart bomb." Specifically, it's a smart bomb having artificial intelligence. Too bad it's just so smart it doesn't even know it's a bomb.

And, neither does our usually "smart" Voyager crew who beam the darned thing on board. Like, they couldn't tell there was explosive material inside of it (described later as anti-matter). And, even when they do find out it is a bomb, they still decide to keep it. Now, I'm sure there's some Starfleet manual somewhere that says not to beam alien explosive devices on board your ship. Needless to say, they decide to sever the artificial intelligence from the bomb and put it into a halo-matrix. The bomb doesn't like this so it jumps into the Doctor's program and begins threatening Voyager with detonation if its demands aren't met.

And, now that the bomb has a voice through the Doctor, it turns out to be a pretty nasty one. It wants to complete its mission and have Voyager deliver it to its target. Attempts to reason with the bomb fail even though it can shown it was recalled from its mission several years ago. But, wait… there's much more. It seems that there are 30 something more of these devices floating around (apparently waiting for this one to join them) so they can all arrive at their target several years late. I guess the people who built the 30+ bombs, launched them, and then recalled them, never bothered to tell anyone they were all still hovering out there waiting to strike.

Of course, someone (in this case, Kim because that was the original story setup) makes the necessary obligatory comments about artificial intelligence growing beyond its original scope. This finally gets through to the bomb which goes off and kills itself as well as its friends. (How's that for a message).

Now, I'm sure this episode was trying to arrive at some higher moral principle. Maybe something along the lines of conducting wars, launching weapons of mass destruction, or not making smart bombs unless they really are smart. But the message gets garbled when our usually astute Voyager crew decides to collectively lose their native common sense and act like a bunch of categorical idiots.moreless
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Warhead

6.5

By TrueTvWatcher, Oct 15, 2011

Warhead was a fair episode of Star Trek Voyager and it was ok to watch and the story was fairly interesting. I think that this was definitely a filler episode prior to the season finale, but it did touch upon some important implications regarding artificialintelligence and the moral dilemmas that can come from such a creation. There was some humor, action, drama, and even some touching moments. I look forward to watching the next episode of Star Trek: Voyager!!!moreless
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Harry Kim is taking his first try in the command chair. He is leading the bridge crew. If it works out he will be in the Captain's chair more often. While on watch, a distress call comes in. It is from an unknown location on a planet.moreless

8.8

By Pink_Floyd_AL, Aug 07, 2007

Harry Kim is taking his first try in the command chair. He is leading the bridge crew. If it works out he will be in the Captain's chair more often. While on watch, a distress call comes in. It is from an unknown location on a planet. Kim and his away team beam down to the planet. They find some type of technology. This technology is alive. It has suffered memory loss. The Doctor wants to beam it aboard Voyager. The technology turns out to be some kind of weapon. It takes control of Voyager. Will the crew be safe? I rate this episode a 8.8moreless
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This one is the bomb! Well, not quite. Good mix of ethics and action, and has enjoyable moments, but ultimately could have been better.

6.9

By claudione314, May 06, 2007

WHAT'S GOOD

*** A very intriguing issue from both a technical and an ethical point of view. Raises interesting questions about both the nature of war and WMDs and the nature of conscience vs. non-sentience.

*** Another exemplary performance by Robert Picardo. He might very well be the best actor in the ST franchise after Patrick Stewart.

*** Good development for Kim.

*** Good balance of action and psychology...

WHAT'S NOT SO GOOD

*** ... and yet it does feel slow at times.

*** Not very original. Basically a mix of "Dreadnought" and "Darkening," but with added ethical concerns.

*** Rather questionable conclusion, both ethically and dramatically.

Overall it's good, but with little effort it could have been much better.moreless
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Cast & Crew: STARS

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Robert Picardo	The Doctor
Kate Mulgrew	Captain Kathryn Janeway
Robert Beltran	Commander Chakotay
Roxann Dawson	Lt. B'Elanna Torres
Ethan Phillips	Neelix
Tim Russ	Lt. Commander Tuvok

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Cast & Crew: RECURRING AND GUESTS

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McKenzie Westmore	Ensign Jenkins	Guest Star
Steven Dennis	Weapons Broker	Guest Star

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Trivia, Notes, Quotes and Allusions

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TRIVIA (3)
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- Goof: When Seven opens the warhead panel to inject the nanoprobes she leaves it open, in the scene immediately after the panel is closed.
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- Goof: Paris tells Janeway that 32 vessels had dropped out of warp, off Voyager's port bow. However, in the next two shots (both on the viewscreen and an exterior view of the ship), the ships are off Voyager's starboard stern.
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- Goof: When Tom reports that a cloaked ship has been detected, a boom mic can be seen, as it dips down slightly at the top of the screen.
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QUOTES (4)
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- Paris: Do well on this mission, Neelix, and maybe the captain will promote you to Senior Beautician.
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- Janeway: Assemble the staff. We're going to outsmart a smart bomb.
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- Torres: The first time I commanded an away mission, I led my people into a cave that I thought was a Cardassian military installation. Turned out I'd mistaken unstable mineral deposits for weapons signatures. There was a rock slide and we were stuck there for three days.
  Kim: What'd you do?
  Torres: We dug ourselves out with our bare hands. Where are you going?
  Kim: To dig us out...
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- Bomb/The Doctor: I am a weapon of mass destruction. You want me to see past my programming, then you must try to see past your doubts.
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NOTES (1)
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- McKenzie Westmore is the daughter of Michael Westmore, who has been the makeup designer and supervisor for every Star Trek show and film since The Next Generation's "Encounter At Farpoint".
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ALLUSIONS (0)
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