Star Trek: Voyager

Summary

In the pilot episode, "Caretaker", USS Voyager departs the Deep Space Nine space station on a mission into the treacherous Badlands. They are searching for a missing ship piloted by a team of Maquis rebels, which Voyager's security officer, the Vulcan Lieutenant Tuvok, has secretly infiltrated. While in the Badlands, Voyager is enveloped by a powerful energy wave that kills several of its crew, damages the ship, and strands it in the galaxy's Delta Quadrant, more than 70,000 light-years from Earth. The wave was not a natural phenomenon. In fact, it was used by an alien entity known as the Caretaker to pull Voyager into the Delta Quadrant. The Caretaker is responsible for the continued care of the Ocampa, a race of aliens native to the Delta Quadrant, and has been abducting other species from around the galaxy in an effort to find a successor.

The Maquis ship was also pulled into the Delta Quadrant, and eventually the two crews reluctantly agree to join forces after the Caretaker space station is destroyed in a pitched space battle with another local alien species, the Kazon. Chakotay, leader of the Maquis group, becomes Voyager's first officer. B'Elanna Torres, a half-human/half-Klingon Maquis, becomes chief engineer. Tom Paris, whom Janeway released from a Federation prison to help find the Maquis ship, is made Voyager's helm officer. Due to the deaths of the ship's entire medical staff, the Doctor, an emergency medical hologram designed only for short-term use, is employed as the ship's full-time chief medical officer. Delta Quadrant natives Neelix, a Talaxian scavenger, and Kes, a young Ocampa, are welcomed aboard as the ship's chef/morale officer and the doctor's medical assistant, respectively.

Due to its great distance from Federation space, the Delta Quadrant is unexplored by Starfleet, and Voyager is truly going where no human has gone before. As they set out on their projected 75-year journey home, the crew passes through regions belonging to various species: the barbaric and belligerent Kazon; the organ-harvesting, disease-ravaged Vidiians; the nomadic hunter race the Hirogen; the fearsome Species 8472 from fluidic space; and most notably the Borg, whose home is the Delta Quadrant, so that Voyager has to move through large areas of Borg-controlled space in later seasons. They also encounter perilous natural phenomena, a nebulous area called the Nekrit Expanse ("Fair Trade", third season), a large area of empty space called the Void ("Night", fifth season), wormholes, dangerous nebulae and other anomalies.

However, Voyager does not always deal with the unknown. It is the third Star Trek series to feature Q, an omnipotent alien—and the second on a recurring basis, as Q made only one appearance on Star Trek: Deep Space Nine. Starfleet Command learns of Voyager's survival when the crew discovers an ancient interstellar communications network, claimed by the Hirogen, into which they can tap. This relay network is later disabled, but due to the efforts of Earth-based Lieutenant Reginald Barclay, Starfleet eventually establishes regular contact in the season-six episode "Pathfinder", using a communications array and micro-wormhole technology.

In the first two episodes of the show's fourth season, Kes leaves the ship in the wake of an extreme transformation of her mental abilities, while Seven of Nine (known colloquially as Seven), a Borg drone who was assimilated as a six-year-old human girl, is liberated from the collective and joins the Voyager crew. As the series progresses, Seven begins to regain her humanity with the ongoing help of Captain Janeway, who shows her that emotions, friendship, love, and caring are more important than the sterile "perfection" the Borg espouse. The Doctor also becomes more human-like, due in part to a mobile holo-emitter the crew obtains in the third season which allows the Doctor to leave the confines of sickbay. He discovers his love of music and art, which he demonstrates in the episode "Virtuoso". In the sixth season, the crew discovers a group of adolescent aliens assimilated by the Borg, but prematurely released from their maturation chambers due to a malfunction on their Borg cube. As he did with Seven of Nine, the Doctor rehumanizes the children; Azan, Rebi and Mezoti, three of them eventually find a new adoptive home while the fourth, Icheb, chooses to stay aboard Voyager.

Life for the Voyager crew evolves during their long journey. Traitors Seska and Michael Jonas are uncovered in the early months ("State of Flux", "Investigations"); loyal crew members are lost late in the journey; and other wayward Starfleet officers are integrated into the crew. In the second season, the first child is born aboard the ship to Ensign Samantha Wildman; as she grows up, Naomi Wildman becomes great friends with her godfather, Neelix, and develops an unexpected and close relationship with Seven of Nine. Early in the seventh season, Tom Paris and B'Elanna Torres marry after a long courtship, and Torres gives birth to their child, Miral Paris, in the series finale. Late in the seventh season, the crew finds a colony of Talaxians on a makeshift settlement in an asteroid field, and Neelix chooses to bid Voyager farewell and live once again among his people.

Over the course of the series, the Voyager crew finds various ways to reduce their 75-year journey by five decades: shortcuts, in the episodes "Night" and "Q2"; technology boosts, in episodes "The Voyager Conspiracy", "Dark Frontier", "Timeless" and "Hope and Fear"; subspace corridors in "Dragon's Teeth"; and a mind-powered push from a powerful former shipmate in "The Gift". Also, the crew is not able to use other trip-shortening opportunities, as seen in the episodes "Prime Factors", "Future's End", "Eye of the Needle" and "Inside Man". A final effort, involving the use of a Borg transwarp conduit, reduces the 70,000-light-year journey to just seven years in the series finale "Endgame".

Plot element – Timelines

Because of the nature of the science fiction universe depicted by Star Trek, there is not always a strict linear plot in the traditional sense due to time travel causing changes. In addition to depicting the future, Earth's present is also altered in the Star Trek universe. Some episodes of Star Trek fill in parts of real or fictional accounts of Earth history. Voyager was not an exception to this and in the episode "11:59" a fictional Millennium tower is built in Indiana starting in the year 2000. One of Janeway's ancestors is depicted in the episode while Captain Janeway studies historical records of the same person in attempt to understand the person that inspired her.

Some other altered timelines include the reduction of the journey to seven years in the season finale, as well as various alternate timelines exposed in various episodes over the course of the television series' run. (e.g., "Relativity")

Plot element – Getting home

Voyager's journey home was essentially a trek across a large fraction of the Milky Way. The estimated ~75-year-long duration of the voyage was reduced by several large jumps in distance that occurred in several episodes. A number of alternative timelines were explored due to the introduction of races possessing the ability to time travel such as in Timeless (S5E6). One such timeline involves the death of the entire crew with only Chakotay, Harry and The Doctor surviving. Only by altering the past does Voyager continue. Its tele-theater and the flexibility of the science fiction universe created by generations of Star Trek writers and production staff accommodate this and more, with the theatrical devices forming a palette of plot tools. The use of Borg technology in the final episode allowed Voyager to return home after a journey of only seven years.

Events that shortened Voyager's travel time home:

• 10 years closer – "The Gift"
• 2 years closer – "Night"
• 10 years closer – "Timeless"
• 15 years closer – "Dark Frontier"
• 3 years closer – "The Voyager Conspiracy"

These jumps decreased the time needed to return by ~40 years. Counting elapsed time, by the end of the seventh and final season (assuming one year elapsed per season), Voyager was 28 years' travel from Federation space.

• Remaining distance after seven years of travel – "Endgame"

Plot element – Body count

Although meant as a way of saving the Ocampa, the Caretaker's abduction caused the death of many of the Voyager Starfleet crew including some very critical roles including first officer, chief engineer, and medical staff.^[10] This creates a labor shortage that has to be filled in various ways, in particular the Maquis crew, who lost their ship, are able to fill some of the highest-ranking positions including first officer and chief engineer. Voyager successfully recovers Tuvok, who was working as a spy, and he is also able to join the crew. However, over the course of the next seven years according to the theatrically exposed timeline over 40 crew are killed.^[10] Sources of new crew-members included taking on the Maquis crew, aliens, and other sources.^[10] The number of on-screen actors does not exceed the amount of possible crew over the course of the seven seasons.^[10]

Plot element – Relationships

Stuck together on their ship a long way from home, people's (and aliens') sexual appetites slowly melted away Starfleet ranks, social norms, etc. and over the series characters were depicted having sexual experiences ranging from encounters with aliens, other crew members, or holograms. An example of this is when Tuvok has a sexual encounter with a hologram of his wife when hit with the Vulcan species' Pon farr experience. Voyager had a distinct narrative of relationships, with episodes touching marriage proposals, pregnancies, and the struggle of children dealing with various parental issues including failed marriages.^[11]

For example, some dialogue from "Drive"

TORRES: How come you never talked to me about this before?
PARIS: Well, you've got that tough Klingon exterior. And er, I didn't think you liked the mushy stuff.
TORRES: Do I look that tough right now?
PARIS: Does that mean you're in the mood for some mushy stuff?
TORRES: Maybe.
PARIS: Exactly what kind of mush are we talking about?
TORRES: You tell me.
PARIS: Well, there's, um, kissy stuff.

Another example from the series is when Seven of Nine propositions Harry Kim, instructing him to take his clothes off.^[12]

Cameos

• Prince Abdullah of Jordan (now king) played an unnamed ensign (science officer) in the episode "Investigations".^[13]
• Musician Tom Morello played Crewman Mitchell, seen when Captain Janeway asks him for directions on Deck 15, in "Good Shepherd".^[14]

Actors

Source material:^[15]

• Jason Alexander played Kurros, the spokesperson for a group of alien scholars, in "Think Tank".
• Ed Begley Jr. portrayed Henry Starling, an unscrupulous 20th-century industrialist, in "Future's End" parts 1 and 2.
• Robert Curtis Brown portrayed Neezar, the Ledosian ambassador, in "Natural Law".
• Geneviève Bujold was cast as Janeway, but quit a day and a half into shooting the pilot "Caretaker" and was replaced by Kate Mulgrew.^[16]
• Andy Dick plays the Emergency Medical Hologram Mark 2 on USS Prometheus in "Message in a Bottle".
• David Graf appeared as Fred Noonan, Amelia Earhart's navigator in the episode "The 37's".
• Gary Graham, who portrayed Ambassador Soval on Star Trek: Enterprise, played Ocampan community leader Tanis in the season-two episode "Cold Fire".
• Joel Grey played Caylem, a delusional widower who believes Janeway is his daughter, in "Resistance".
• Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson portrayed the Pendari Champion when Seven of Nine and Tuvok were captured and forced to play in the game, in the episode "Tsunkatse".
• Michael McKean plays a maniacal clown character in a simulation in which the crew's minds are held hostage in the episode "The Thaw".
• Sharon Lawrence played the famous aviator Amelia Earhart in the episode "The 37's".
• Virginia Madsen played Kellin, a Ramuran tracer, in "Unforgettable".
• John Savage plays Captain Rudolph Ransom of the USS Equinox, another Federation starship that Voyager encountered in the Delta Quadrant, in "Equinox" parts 1 and 2.
• John Rhys-Davies plays Leonardo da Vinci in Janeway’s holodeck program. He appeared in "Scorpion: Part I" and "Concerning Flight".
• Sarah Silverman appeared as Rain Robinson, a young astronomer who finds Voyager in orbit of 20th-century Earth, in "Future's End" parts 1 and 2.
• Kurtwood Smith, who played the Federation president in Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country, played Annorax, a Krenim scientist who was determined to restore his original timeline, in "Year of Hell" parts 1 and 2.
• Ray Walston, who appeared as Starfleet Academy groundskeeper Boothby in the Star Trek: The Next Generation episode "The First Duty", reprised the role in the episodes "In the Flesh" and "The Fight".
• Songwriter Paul Williams played Prelate Koru in "Virtuoso".
• Titus Welliver played Lieutenant Maxwell Burke in "Equinox" parts 1 and 2.
• Ray Wise played Arturis in "Hope and Fear". He also had an appearance in an episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation called "Who Watches the Watchers".
• Comedian Scott Thompson played the alien Tomin in "Someone to Watch Over Me".
• Alice Krige played the Borg Queen in the movie Star Trek: First Contact, trying to assimilate Earth shortly before the first warp flight, before she and her collective were destroyed. She reprised her role as the Borg Queen in the series' finale "Endgame", where she is also destroyed by a virus.
• David Clennon played Dr. Crell Moset in the episode "Nothing Human" (the episode was tailored to Clennon's stance against torture, in that Moset tortured people to find a cure for a disease.)
• Henry Darrow playing Chakotay's father in the episodes "Tattoo" and "Basics: Part I".
• Lori Petty played Noss in the episode "Gravity". Tuvok and Tom become stranded on a planet and befriend Noss, an alien stranded there many years before.

Characters and races

As with other Star Trek series, the original Star Trek's Vulcans, Klingons, and Romulans appear in Star Trek: Voyager.^[17] Voyager had appearances by several other races who initially appear in The Next Generation: the Q, the Borg, Cardassians, Bajorans, Betazoids, and Ferengi, along with Deep Space Nine's Jem'Hadar (via hologram), as well as the Maquis resistance movement, previously established in episodes of The Next Generation and Deep Space Nine.^[17]

One notable connection between Voyager and The Next Generation appears regarding a wormhole and the Ferengi. In The Next Generation season-three episode "The Price", bidding takes place for rights to a wormhole. The Ferengi send a delegation to the bidding. When the Enterprise and Ferengi vessel each send shuttles into the wormhole, they appear in the Delta Quadrant, where the Ferengi shuttle becomes trapped. In the Voyager season-three episode "False Profits", the Ferengi who were trapped have since landed on a nearby planet, and begun exploiting the inhabitants for profit.

Actors from other Star Trek incarnations appearing on Voyager

In some cases, the actors play the same character as elsewhere, such as Dwight Schultz who plays Reginald Barclay. In other cases, the same actors play different characters.

• In Star Trek: The Next Generation, James Sloyan portrayed Alidar Jarok (a defecting Romulan admiral) in "The Defector", and Alexander Rozhenko (Worf's son) as an adult in the future, in "Firstborn". In Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, he portrayed the Bajoran scientist Mora Pol and Odo's "father" in the episodes "The Begotten" and "The Alternate". The Star Trek: Voyager episode entitled "Jetrel" featured Sloyan as the title character.
• Original Series cast member Grace Lee Whitney reprised her role as Janice Rand in Voyager episode "Flashback", commemorating the 30th anniversary of Star Trek.
• Majel Barrett voices the ship's computer, having performed the same role in previous Star Trek series.^[17]
• Dwight Schultz played Reginald Barclay on Star Trek: The Next Generation and in the film Star Trek: First Contact. He appeared in the following Voyager episodes: "Projections", "Pathfinder", "Life Line", "Inside Man", "Author, Author" and "Endgame".
• John de Lancie plays the mischievous Q, who also annoyed Captain Jean-Luc Picard on the Enterprise and Commander Benjamin Sisko on Deep Space Nine in the Deep Space Nine episode "Q-Less". He appeared in "Death Wish", "The Q and the Grey" and "Q2".
• Marina Sirtis, as Counselor Deanna Troi from The Next Generation, appears in "Pathfinder", "Life Line", and "Inside Man".
• Jonathan Frakes played Commander William Riker from The Next Generation, appearing in "Death Wish".
• LeVar Burton, who played Geordi La Forge on The Next Generation, appeared as Captain LaForge of USS Challenger in an alternate future in the episode "Timeless".
• Armin Shimerman, who portrayed Quark on Deep Space Nine, appeared in the pilot "Caretaker".
• Mark Allen Shepherd also appears uncredited as Morn, alongside Quark in the pilot.
• Original Series cast member George Takei reprised his role as Hikaru Sulu from the original series, who became Captain of USS Excelsior in Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country. He appeared in Voyager episode "Flashback", commemorating the 30th anniversary of Star Trek.
• Dan Shor, who appeared as the Ferengi Dr. Arridor in The Next Generation episode "The Price", reprised the role in Voyager episode "False Profits", having become stranded in the Delta Quadrant at the end of the Next Generation episode.
• The Borg Queen, the antagonist from Star Trek: First Contact, makes several appearances in Voyager. Susanna Thompson played the role in the episodes "Unimatrix Zero" and "Dark Frontier"; however, Alice Krige, who played the character in First Contact, reprised the role for the series finale.
• Aron Eisenberg (Nog of Deep Space Nine) appeared in "Initiations" as a Kazon adolescent named Kar.
• Gwynyth Walsh (B'Etor of The Next Generation and Generations) appeared in "Random Thoughts" as Chief Examiner Nimira.
• Jeffrey Combs (Weyoun and Brunt of Deep Space Nine and Shran of Enterprise) appeared in "Tsunkatse" as Norcadian Penk.
• J. G. Hertzler (Martok of Deep Space Nine and Klingon advocate Kolos in the Enterprise episode: "Judgement") appeared in "Tsunkatse" as an unnamed Hirogen.
• Suzie Plakson, who portrayed Dr. Selar in The Next Generation episode The Schizoid Man" as well as K'Ehleyr, Worf's mate in ""The Emissary" and "Reunion", appeared as the female Q in the episode "The Q and the Grey".
• Kurtwood Smith, who plays Annorax in "Year of Hell", appeared in Star Trek: Deep Space 9 episode "Things Past" as a Cardassian, Thrax. Before this, he also appeared in Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country as the president of the Federation.
• Leonard Crofoot, who appears in "Virtuoso" as a Qomar spectator,^[18] acted in The Next Generation episode "Angel One" and as the prototype version of Data's daughter Lal in The Next Generation episode "The Offspring".
• Vaughn Armstrong, who portrayed a wide variety of guest characters throughout the show's run, later went on to portray Admiral Forrest in Star Trek: Enterprise.
• Tony Todd, who played Worf's brother Kurn in The Next Generation episodes "Sins of the Father", "Redemption", parts 1 and 2 and the Deep Space Nine episode "Sons of Mogh", also the adult Jake Sisko in the Deep Space Nine episode "The Visitor", played an unnamed Hirogen in the Voyager episode "Prey".
• Michael Ansara is one of seven actors to play the same character (in his case the Klingon commander Kang) on three different Star Trek TV series—the original series ("Day of the Dove"), Deep Space Nine ("Blood Oath"), and Voyager ("Flashback").
• Joseph Ruskin played a Vulcan Master in the episode "Gravity". Ruskin also played Galt in the Star Trek Original Series episode "Gamesters of Triskelion", the Klingon Tumek Deep Space Nine episodes "House of Quark" and "Looking for par'Mach in All the Wrong Places", a Cardassian informant in the Deep Space Nine episode "Improbable Cause", and a Suliban doctor in the Enterprise episode "Broken Bow".

Actors from Voyager appearing on other Star Trek incarnations

• Robert Duncan McNeill (Paris) appeared in Star Trek: The Next Generation episode "The First Duty" as Starfleet cadet Nicolas Locarno. (The character of Locarno was used as a template for Tom Paris).^[19]
• Tim Russ (Tuvok) appeared in Star Trek: The Next Generation episode "Starship Mine", the Star Trek: Deep Space Nine episodes "Invasive Procedures" and "Through the Looking Glass" (as Mirror Tuvok), and the film Star Trek: Generations, as various characters.
• Robert Picardo (the Doctor) guest-starred in the Star Trek: Deep Space Nine episode "Doctor Bashir, I Presume" as Dr. Lewis Zimmerman and an EMH Mark I, and made a cameo appearance in the film Star Trek: First Contact as the Enterprise-E's EMH.
• Ethan Phillips (Neelix) was featured in the Star Trek: The Next Generation episode "Ménage à Troi" as the Ferengi Farek, the Star Trek: Enterprise episode "Acquisition" as the Ferengi pirate Ulis, and in Star Trek: First Contact as an unnamed maître d' on the holodeck.
• Kate Mulgrew appears again as Kathryn Janeway, promoted to vice admiral, in the film Star Trek: Nemesis a year after Voyager ended its run.

Behind-the-scenes

In August 2015, the main cast members (except Jennifer Lien, who retired from acting in 2002) appeared together onstage in Las Vegas for the 20th anniversary of Star Trek: Voyager at the 2015 Las Vegas Star Trek convention.^[20]

Robert Duncan McNeill (Paris) and Roxann Dawson (Torres) have also directed episodes of Star Trek: Enterprise, while Jonathan Frakes, LeVar Burton, and Andrew Robinson (Garak of Deep Space Nine) all directed episodes of Star Trek: Voyager.

The sets used for USS Voyager were reused for the Deep Space Nine episode "Inter Arma Enim Silent Leges" for her sister ship USS Bellerophon (NCC-74705), both of which are Intrepid-class starships. The sickbay set of USS Voyager was also used as the Enterprise-E sickbay in the films Star Trek: First Contact and Star Trek: Insurrection. Additionally, the Voyager ready room and the engineering set were also used as rooms aboard the Enterprise-E in Insurrection.

Book relaunch

A series of novels focusing on the continuing adventures of Voyager following the television series finale was implemented in 2003, much as Pocket Books did with the Deep Space Nine relaunch novel series, which features stories placed after the finale of that show. In the relaunch, several characters are reassigned while others are promoted but stay aboard Voyager. These changes include Janeway's promotion to admiral, Chakotay becoming captain of Voyager and breaking up with Seven of Nine, Tuvok leaving the ship to serve as tactical officer under William Riker, and Tom Paris's promotion to first officer on the Voyager. The series also introduces several new characters.

The series began with Homecoming and The Farther Shore in 2003, a direct sequel to the series' finale, "Endgame". These were followed in 2004 by Spirit Walk: Old Wounds and Spirit Walk: Enemy of My Enemy. Under the direction of a new author, 2009 brought forth two more additions to the series: Full Circle and Unworthy. In 2011, another book by the same author called Children of the Storm was released. Other novels—some set during the relaunch period, others during the show's broadcast run—have been published.

Citations

Bibliography

• Ruditis, Paul (2003). Star Trek: Voyager Companion. New York: Pocket Books. ISBN 0-7434-1751-8.

• Okuda, Mike; Okuda, Denise; Mirek, Debbie (1999). The Star Trek Encyclopedia. New York: Pocket Books. ISBN 0-7434-1751-8.