The article contains a brief reference to suicide.

Summary

• Star Trek: Voyager had many truly heartbreaking moments, despite the show's generally lighthearted tone.
• Given Voyager's premise, the possibility for sad scenes and episodes was higher than in other Star Trek series.
• Episodes like "Course: Oblivion," "Mortal Coil," and "Year of Hell" delivered some extremely depressing scenes.

Star Trek: Voyager had some truly heartbreaking moments in its seven-year run. The second spin-off of Star Trek: Next Generation (itself a spin-off from Star Trek: The Original Series), Voyager began with a dismal premise. Captain Janeway (Kate Mulgrew) and the crew of the USS Voyager were hurtled into the Delta Quadrant, considered the frontier of the Star Trek timeline, a relatively unexplored place beyond Federation boundaries. To reach home, it would take 75 years, in which case most of the crew would be dead before they ever saw the Alpha Quadrant.

Introducing a new ship and crew under these circumstances was a set-up for some truly tragic storylines, which seemed natural given the inherent despondency of the crew's situation. Although there were plenty of light-hearted moments, the dangers of the Delta Quadrant and the sometimes bleak outlook for Voyager's cast of characters combined to make things occasionally very dark. Voyager ended up having some of the saddest episodes in Star Trek, compounded by the fact that the crew seemed unable to escape an inevitable fate.

15 Harry Kim's Death and "Resurrection"

Star Trek: Voyager season 2, episode 21, "Deadlock

In one of the most brutal and suspenseful episodes of Voyager’s second season, Harry Kim (Garrett Wang) and a newborn Naomi Wildman were two of the casualties after the ship encountered a spatial rift in a nebula and suffered massive damage from unknown proton bursts. However, Kim was brought back to life thanks to a quantum double of the ship that sent him and Naomi back to the damaged Voyager. The undamaged double then self-destructed to save both ships from the Vidiians.

Although Harry's death was undeniably heartbreaking, the uncertainty about whether he was the "real" Harry Kim served as an unsettling coda to the episode. Given that there was no way to tell which Voyager had come first, it's possible that the Harry that died during "Deadlock" was the "real" Harry Kim, with the quantum double taking over his life. Although the thought of an imposter Harry is strange, his death itself isn't as devastating as it could have been given that he was resurrected.

14 Icheb's Backstory Is Revealed

Star Trek: Voyager season 6, episode 19, "Child's Play"

The addition of a group of Borg children to Voyager's crew in season 6 introduced Icheb (Manu Intiraymi) as a semi-regular guest character for the show's last two seasons. Icheb's backstory was bound to be tragic given that he was assimilated so young, but Voyager took the tragedy a step further in "Child's Play." The episode revealed that the reason for Icheb's existence was to deliver a virus to the Borg by being assimilated.

The fact that Icheb's parents had deliberately genetically engineered him with the virus and willingly sent him to the Borg as a baby added yet another horrifying layer to the young man's past. Luckily, Voyager was able to rescue Icheb after his parents drugged him and sent him back to the Borg a second time, but the revelation about their motives left Icheb emotionally scarred at the end of the episode. Seeing his trust in his parents begin to solidify, only to have it ripped away completely was utterly heartbreaking.

13 Tuvok Tries To Shave After Going Blind

Star Trek: Voyager season 4, episode 8, "Year of Hell, Part 1"

“Year of Hell” is often cited as one of Voyager's best episodes, and for good reason. While the crew faced off against repeated attacks by the Krenim Imperium in a year-long conflict, their suffering behind the scenes was difficult to watch. In one of the episode's most brutal twists, Tuvok (Tim Russ) was blinded by a torpedo explosion after he saved Seven of Nine (Jeri Ryan) from taking the worst of the blast.

The scene where a now blinded Tuvok attempted to shave to prepare for his morning rounds of a rubble-strewn Voyager packed perhaps the most intense emotional gut punch in an episode of nothing but heartwrenching moments. Tuvok's stoic dedication to his duty even with his new disability was admirable, but seeing someone as independent as him needing to lead around the ship was difficult to watch. Additionally, the compassion exhibited by people like Captain Janeway and Seven in taking care of Tuvok was incredibly poignant.

12 Seven Of Nine Relives Assimilated Memories

Star Trek: Voyager season 5, episode 7, "Infinite Regress"

Seven of Nine's past as a Borg drone came back to haunt her multiple times on Voyager. Perhaps the most difficult instance, however, was in "Infinite Regress" when she began taking on the personalities of those she had assimilated. Seven's confusion about what was happening to her was heartbreaking enough, but watching her inhabit the consciousnesses of her victims, including a girl not much older than Seven herself when she was assimilated, drove home the episode's message with brutal honesty.

The suspense of not knowing whether Seven could be saved from her new personalities also made for a highly intense story climax. The episode's ending was touch and go as Tuvok attempted to bring Seven's mind back from the brink after it was utterly overwhelmed with the thoughts of her victims. "Infinite Regress" beautifully highlighted Tuvok and Seven's unique friendship in this moment while also packing a devastating emotional punch.

11 The Doctor's Holographic Daughter Dies

Star Trek: Voyager season 3, episode 22, "Real Life"

"Real Life" was one of the most harrowing episodes that dealt with the Doctor's (Robert Picardo) exploration of humanity. After creating a holodeck program that gave him a wife and two children, the Doctor was forced to confront one of the worst things imaginable when a random element added to the program to simulate real life caused his daughter to have an accident, ultimately resulting in her death. Watching the Doctor grapple with something so tragic was awful, especially because it was the first time he had ever experienced loss.

However, one silver lining of "Real Life" was the Doctor's decision to face the tragedy head-on rather than end the program. This decision was a huge leap forward in character development but also provided one of the most heartbreaking scenes as the Doctor sat with his wife and son and watched his daughter die. It was a brutal end to an episode that pulled absolutely no punches.

10 Tuvix Begs For His Life

Star Trek: Voyager season 2, episode 24, "Tuvix"

"Tuvix" has become one of the most popular and controversial Voyager episodes since its release. The episode's plot revolved around an unfortunate transporter accident that merged Tuvok and Neelix (Ethan Phillips) into a single entity, creating the hybrid Tuvix (Tom Wright). With aspects of each man in his personality and appearance, the crew had a difficult time adjusting to Tuvix's presence while Captain Janeway decided how to reverse the accident.

The episode's controversy stemmed from Janeway's ultimate decision to go over Tuvix's head and order him to undergo a procedure to separate him, even after Tuvix called it an “execution.” Even though Tuvix declared his right as an individual, his attempts to get even a single crew member on the bridge to defend his right to life fell on deaf ears. Despite Tuvix's continued existence being unfeasible, the fact that no one on Voyager's crew stood up for him was incredibly sad.

9 Captain Janeway Finds Out Her Fiancé Moved On

Star Trek: Voyager season 4, episode 15, "Hunters"

"Hunters" was the first time Voyager's crew had any kind of contact with the Alpha Quadrant after being completely alone for over four years. However, that contact ended up being bittersweet for Captain Janeway in particular after she received a letter from Mark, her fiancé on Earth, who explains that while he held out as long as he could, he’s recently married someone else. Janeway compartmentalized the devastating news, but the episode made it very clear how much she was hurting.

Being the Captain, Janeway often felt she had to put on a brave face for her crew and keep going. As Voyager's main character, however, the series often showed the toll this took on her, whether it was through the guilt about stranding everyone in the first place or because of restrictions she put on herself about cultivating relationships with other people on the ship. To lose such a close personal connection, even when she already knew it was likely gone anyway was a heartbreaking blow to Janeway's psyche, and one portrayed flawlessly by Kate Mulgrew.

8 Neelix Leaves The USS Voyager

Star Trek: Voyager season 7, episode 23, "Homestead"

Though Neelix’s boundless enthusiasm and goofy humor were occasionally over-the-top, his character was an integral part of Voyager's main cast for all the show's seven seasons. As a native of the Delta Quadrant and outsider of Starfleet at Voyager's start, Neelix found himself a truly wonderful life with the ship's crew. However, the show made the decision to have Neelix leave the ship in "Homestead," only a few episodes before everyone returned to the Alpha Quadrant in the series finale.

Neelix's departure from Voyager was a tear-jerker in all senses of the word. The entire crew forming a gauntlet to see him off, coupled with Captain Janeway's final words of "Goodbye and good luck, Ambassador" beautifully illustrated how much he had come to mean to everyone. Although it was sad to see Neelix go, his departure was both heartbreaking and uplifting, as he left to be with his own people after finding love with another Talaxian woman, Dexa (Julianne Christie).

7 The Crew Of Voyager Slowly Disintegrates

Star Trek: Voyager season 5, episode 18, "Course: Oblivion"

"Course: Oblivion" was arguably Voyager's most heartbreaking episode, given that it depicted the slow, painful deaths of the entire crew. The episode acted as a sequel to the season 4 episode "Demon," picking up with a duplicated version of Voyager's crew that had been created by a biomimetic substance from a Y-Class planet. The duplicate crew had forgotten their origins, but when a newly advanced warp core began destabilizing the ship, they soon realized they weren't the real Voyager.

Although "Course: Oblivion" made it clear that Voyager's real crew were still alive, watching the duplicated crew suffer and die as they attempted to get back to the real Voyager for help was absolutely gut-wrenching. The crew's desperate attempt to save their own lives was doomed from the start, but the episode kept the stakes high until the very last moment. Even worse, Voyager's real crew never found out about their duplicates' struggle, arriving too late to offer any assistance. Seeing the real Voyager casually brush off the debris of the former duplicated copy was the episode's final devastating blow.

6 B'Elanna Torres Tries To Genetically Modify Her Unborn Child

Star Trek: Voyager season 7, episode 12, "Lineage"

One of B'Elanna Toress' (Roxann Dawson) ongoing struggles during her time on Voyager was the dichotomy of her human and Klingon heritage. The show unraveled B'Elanna's complex trauma with her dual heritage beautifully for seven seasons, culminating in "Lineage" when B'Elanna learned she was going to be a mother. However, knowing that her Klingon genes were dominant, B'Elanna did the unthinkable when she tried to genetically modify her unborn baby to remove her forehead ridges.

Given that B'Elanna always blamed her Klingon half for her father leaving when she was a child, her sometimes volatile hatred of anything Klingon made sense. However, watching her succumb to the idea that her daughter must be completely human was a heartbreaking progression of events. Through flashbacks, Voyager hit on the source of B'Elanna's pain with devastating accuracy, and the scene in sickbay where she finally confided in her husband, Tom Paris (Robert Duncan McNeill) about her fears was a beautifully emotional culmination of the episode's plot.

5 Janeway Dies In Chakotay's Arms

Star Trek: Voyager season 3, episode 15, "Coda"

Watching Captain Janeway repeatedly die thanks to an alien hallucination in "Coda" was an inherently sad premise. Her most devastating death by far, however, came about halfway through the episode when she succumbed to her injuries after a shuttle crash left her and Commander Chakotay (Robert Beltran) stranded on an alien planet. Janeway's death itself was fairly undramatic, but watching Chakotay attempt to revive her before giving up and sobbing over her lifeless body was the most brutal part of a very dark episode.

"Coda" featured several versions of Janeway's death, but none of them packed the same emotional punch as the shuttle crash, mostly thanks to some intense acting by Robert Beltran. Chakotay and Janeway's close relationship also made watching him lose her all the more heartbreaking, and this was also compounded by the fact that Janeway also witnessed Chakotay's grief during an out-of-body experience. All in all, "Coda" did just about everything it could to make the shuttle crash particularly devastating.

4 Neelix Believes He Is Better Off Dead

Star Trek: Voyager season 4, episode 12, "Mortal Coil"

"Mortal Coil" was undoubtedly one of the darkest episodes in Voyager's run. The episode culminated in a suicide attempt by Neelix after his struggle with a crisis of faith led him to the conclusion that he would be better off dead. Star Trek has only occasionally dealt with a topic as heavy as suicide, and although the franchise always treats the subject respectfully, it is still harrowing to watch every time.

In Voyager's case, Neelix's spiraling mental health in "Mortal Coil" made for an utterly heartbreaking episode all around. As a complex deep dive into Neelix's backstory and past trauma, the episode showed a very different side of Neelix than his usual role as Voyager's comic relief. Neelix's suicide attempt at the episode's climax was the culmination of all this, and despite ending on an uplifting note, "Mortal Coil" pulled no punches.

3 Harry Kim Blames Himself For Voyager's Destruction

Star Trek: Voyager season 5, episode 6, "Timeless"

As Voyager's 100th episode, "Timeless" was always bound to pack an emotional punch. The episode did not disappoint with its action-packed plot that saw a future version of Harry Kim and Chakotay attempt to save Voyager from a horrible crash that left the crew dead and the ship buried on an ice planet. Although everything was eventually put right, "Timeless" was one of the many Voyager episodes to show a bleak alternate future for the crew.

Harry Kim's character arc in "Timeless" was the highlight of the episode as it gave the show a chance to show a side of him rarely seen. However, watching Harry grapple with his guilt for causing the ship's crash was the definition of heartbreaking, especially in terms of seeing such a sunny character reduced to a shell of his former self by years of guilt. Even with Voyager saved and the timeline restored, the future version of Harry in "Timeless" will always be tragic.

2 The Doctor's Unreciprocated Love For Seven Of Nine

Star Trek: Voyager season 5, episode 22, "Someone to Watch Over Me"

Voyager certainly had its fair share of romantic storylines, but one of the saddest was between the Doctor and Seven of Nine. "Someone to Watch Over Me" followed the Doctor teaching Seven about dating and falling in love with her as a result of their lessons. Although the possibility of a romance between the two seemed likely, the episode's end put that idea to bed, with Seven shutting the Doctor's attempt at a confession down.

The Doctor's genuine feelings for Seven and his heartbreak at realizing that she did feel the same provided a brutal conclusion to an otherwise fairly lighthearted episode. Additionally, the Doctor's unrequited love for Seven became a recurring theme in Voyager's later seasons, setting up even more heartbreak down the road when Seven ultimately fell for Chakotay in the series finale. Despite being an odd couple, the Doctor and Seven's similarities could have made them a good match, but Voyager chose a much sadder road for both characters.

1 Tuvok Suffers From Vulcan Dementia

Star Trek: Voyager season 7, episode 25, "Endgame, Part 1"

By far the saddest scene in all of Voyager came during the finale, "Endgame." This took place in an alternate future where the ship returned too late to save the lives and well-being of many important characters, including Tuvok. The scene where an older Admiral Janeway goes to visit a nearly unrecognizable Tuvok suffering from a Vulcan mental illness very similar to dementia drove home just how important the episode's premise of getting Voyager home earlier was.

Seeing such an intelligent and vibrant character as Tuvok reduced to someone unrecognizable by his memory loss was arguably one of the worst moments in series history. The scene left an impression even after Admiral Janeway managed to change the timeline and save Tuvok from his fate, and his illness was one of the major catalysts for the younger Janeway in agreeing to the plan of her older counterpart. Star Trek: Voyager's finale may have had some flaws, but although it was heartbreaking, Tuvok's future storyline wasn't one of them.