Star Trek: Voyager is one of the best science fiction shows of all time but still pulls a lot of negativity from inside the greater Star Trek fandom, unfairly so. The series created so many great aliens, gifted fans with amazing storylines, and introduced so many characters that would become iconic in their own right.
Their aliens weren’t just impressive, like the Hirogen or Species 8471, but they set up the possibility for future series to return and tell new stories. Especially with the aliens who only appeared once in their series.
The good folks at Trek Culture broke down the ten best one-off aliens in the Star Trek franchise and would you believe it, Voyager brought home four spots on the list. Those four alien races were the Voth, the Vaadwaur, the Krenim, and the Swarm.
Debuting in the Voyager episode, Distant Origin (season 3, episodes 23) the Voth were an alien species whose ancestors were abducted from Earth millions of years prior. The discovery sends the species into a tailspin of sorts, having believed a fantasy for how they came to be. It was a Chakotay featured episode and saw an alien race deal with similar issues that people like Nicolaus Copernicus dealt with. Like exploring your true past.
The Vaadwaur debuted in Dragon’s Teeth (season 6, episodes 7) and saw the Voyager awaken the alien race who were in hibernation. The Vaadwaur then became obsessed with capturing Voyager to continue a war that had long be over.
The only species to technically show up in two episodes were the Krenim. The Krenim debuted in the two-parter Year of Hell (season 4, episodes 8 and 9). This is one of Voyager’s strongest set of episodes in the whole series and is a much watch for any fan.
The Swarm debuted in an episode named after them (season 3, episode 4)
All stellar episodes, all steller aliens.