Star Trek: Voyager was an American sitcom that ran on UPN beginning at the network's launch in the time before all actors on the network gradually became black. In the series, the crew of the U.S.S. Voyager develops special shielding to block this effect after one of their crewman, the Vulcan Tuvok, succumbs to the UPN effect.
The show departed from Star Trek's more traditional sci-fi emphasis, allowing women to appear on-screen wearing a surprisingly large amount of clothes, and it focused around the blending of two "families" — a starfleet crew and a group of Maquis terrorists. Inspiration for the show is said to have come after producer Rick Berman read in an article that a growing share of the marriages in the United States involved children from a previous marriage. Deciding to translate this to Star Trek, he wrote the new series to consist of two crews, one with a stern mother figure, the other with a father figure that used to be cool and hip, but now only has a tattoo to show for the days when he was cool. (Berman's next series was based on an article he read that revealed more and more Nazis are using time-travel.)
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Iconic theme song
Here's the story,
Of a Captain Janeway,
Who was chasing down some terrorist Maquis
And she brought along this guy,
Named Tom Paris.
Because she set him free.
Here's the story,
Of Maquis Chakotay,
Who was hiding in a plasma-storm cyclone
When they were pushed
to another quadrant, where they were all alone.
'Till the one day when the lady met this fellow
and they knew that is was much more than a hunch,
That their crews,
Must somehow form a family.
That's the way they all became Voyager Bunch
The Voyager Bunch-
The Voyager Bunch-
That’s the way they became the Voyager Bunch.
Plot
In the series, both a Maquis ship and a Federation vessel are whisked away to the Delta Quadrant of the galaxy by the Caretaker, a god-like creature that can pull people to him from any part in the galaxy, but for some reason chooses only to look inside one desolate area of space containing only plasma storms. The being possesses huge amounts of power, but of course his people never factor into any other episode or series. At the end of the pilot episode the Caretaker dies and his technology is destroyed, stranding the characters decades from home and forcing them to create a new blended crew. Early episodes focus on this blending, but later seasons smooth over the fact, rarely mentioning that the crew was not always together, with the main reminder of this fact being the iconic opening theme song, which recounted their origins.
Later, as ratings dropped, it was revealed that Voyager had been transported to the same quadrant that was home to Star Trek's most popular enemy, the Borg, an evil cybernetic race — both organic and silicone-based. Later, the ship got its own Silicone-based life form.
The premise of the program has often been compared to a high-tech version of Gilligan’s Island played as a drama, except that instead of building everything with coconuts, the crew of Voyager used holograms and borg nanoprobes to solve every problem.
Major Characters
Captain Janeway
Captain Janeway was touted as the first female Captain to be featured in a Star Trek series. Nevertheless, the producers always kept open the option that if no suitable actress could be found, the part could be rewritten for a male Captain. This nearly happened when Eric Idle, the first person to be cast as Katherine Janeway, quit the series during the first week of filming.
While a female Captain would seem to be nothing special in the twenty-fourth century, the decision to have a show revolve around such a woman was controversial. Unlike the Captains in the previous three series, Janeway would be the first Captain who would not "Baldly go where no one has gone before." In fact, a shaved head is just about the only hairstyle that Janeway did not have in the course of the series.
The Doctor
Voyager 's doctor was a copy of the emergency medical hologram, never designed to be used for a long period of time, but pressed into service by necessity after the ship's entire medical contingent was killed. The first holographic individual to have sustained contact with humans in an essential role, the doctor becomes a leading figure in support of photonic rights, advocating equal respect and treatment for holographic individuals. The question of such rights had already been raised in the previous Next Generation series of Star Trek by the hologram of James Moriarty, but since the doctor employed non-violent methods while Moriarty acted as a terrorist, the doctor was the first to gain major recognition in the Star Trek universe. The doctor is most often referred to as "The Doctor" and sometimes "Doctor X." The latter name was a political statement noting that he would take no name given to him by his non-photonic masters.
Throughout the series the doctor gains increased recognition by Voyager 's crew; first gaining the right to turn himself on and off, then later the ability to go to the non-holograms-only portions of the ship. In one of the most noted episodes of the series, he engages the crew in a philosophical discussion over his rights:
- Doctor: I am a hologram. Hath not a hologram eyes? Hath not a hologram hands, dimensions, senses, affections, passions. If you prick me, do I not bleed?
- Janeway: Computer, override protocols and deactivate the emergency medical hologram blood-flow mod.
- Doctor: Hey, no fair!
Because the doctor's personality was based on the crotchety scientist who programmed him, the doctor and all other Mark 1 EMHs were often quite difficult and ill-mannered. In order to rid the Mark 2 EMH of any and all annoying qualities, it was instead modeled after actor Andy Dick.
B'Elanna Torres
Voyager's chief engineer B'Elanna Torres was the ultimate multi-cultural character. Not only was she half-Human and half-Klingon, but she also had a Latino last name. B'Ellanna allowed the writers to explore both concepts of identity and the phenomenon of intolerance in a series of stories revolving around her upbringing as a half-Klingon in a human culture, and then later as a culturally human individual in the one-dimensionally violent Klingon culture. These themes could be echoed in the real world impact of having a prominent Latino character in a popular prime time drama. Thus, the series was continuing Star Trek 's legacy of advancing racial equality by presenting a prominent and non-stereotypical Latino character as a role-model for children. Torres begins the series as a criminal.
Chakotay
Chakotay was part of a Native American colony that was kicked so far away from their original territory that they ended up on a distant planet that was being handed over to the Cardassians by the Federation. Unhappy with the prospect of once again being squished into a small plot of land to work in a casino, Chakotay's father joined the Maquis, a resistance movement that fought the Cardassians takeover. After his father died fighting, Chakotay quit Starfleet to fight for his homeland.
When Starfleet's attempts to stop Chakotay by sending him blankets filled with Small Pox fail, Captain Janeway sends Tuvok to infiltrate Chakotay's ship so she can track it, a move which ultimately leads to both of them being trapped in the Delta Quadrant. There, Janeway makes him Voyager 's first officer so that will give up terrorism, following the successful model for dealing with terrorists established in the mid twenty-first century when Osama bin Laden was named Vice President of the United States.
Tom Paris
Tom Paris, son of a Starfleet admiral and a former officer himself, was a Maquis convict when Captain Janeway offered him the chance to redeem himself by tracking down Maquis ships. Eager to get out of Australia, Paris accepted. While Paris was the ship's most skilled pilot, he was often removed from the helm so that he could serve as the ship's head murse. This was especially after the ship lost its female nurse. Throughout various timelines and evolutionary statuses, Tom Paris was the only crew member to have sex with each of the show's original cast of female main characters.
Tuvok
Tuvok Shakur was simultaneously the chief security officer on Voyager and an integalatic rap sensation. Such a combination would not manifest itself again until two years later when Homeboys from Outer Space was aired. Because Tuvok was a Vulcan, the man portraying him was not allowed to act or express emotion in any way.
Kes
Kes was a member of the Ocampa species, a peculiar race of aliens with a short seven-year life-span, who lived under the protection of The Caretaker, the powerful being who brought Voyager to the Delta Quadrant. Owing to her short life-span, when Kes joined the crew, she had both the mind of a naive and impressionable two-year-old and the body of a twenty-something sexpot. Through her time in the series, Kes served as a more caring and feminine foil to the stern and commanding Janeway, showing affection for several of the male characters, particularly those with odd or unfortunate configurations of hair.
As the show progressed, various episodes explored Kes's developing psychic powers. In one episode she is able to sense the missing consciousness of Captain Janeway. In another, she is able to perceive that an entire episode has been erased by poor temporal mechanics. Kes's powers begin to fully develop when Tuvoc begins to teach her and she suddenly manifests powerful pyrokinetic abilities.
Though the juxtaposition of Kes's adult appearance and her limited experience allowed the writers to explore the Star Trek universe through the eyes of a child — someone who wouldn't question what all that technobabble means — the character was criticized as being demeaningly submissive. Critics charged that Kes was meant simply to be the ultimate geek fantasy, a beautiful woman with little to no life experience and low standards in men who was also a pyro. Producers for the show refuted these allegations, saying that they would never try to gain male viewers by degrading women, and that besides, the ultimate geek fantasy was a large-breasted dominant woman with no emotion and pieces of metal sticking out of her face.
Notable Episodes
Year of Hell
In this two-part episode, originally aired at feature length, Voyager does battle with the Krenim Imperium, whose weapons are based on temporal technology. The crew is initially confused by the way the size and capabilities of their foe keep shifting. At first they assume it is merely poor continuity in the writing, but soon they realize that the source of this is a Krenim scientist named Annorax, who controls a huge time-ship capable of altering past events.
Annorax once used the time-device to defeat the Krenim's greatest enemy, his neighbor Bob, but in the process he destroyed a crucial genetic trait his people needed to defend against a virulent plague. Now he uses the weapon in an attempt to restore the Krenim Imperium to how it was in That '70s Krenim.
Voyager Gets a Cold
In this episode we learn that the "Bio-Gel Packs" that Voyager uses in its circuitry really serve no function except to become infected by foreign viruses, which the ship's designers did not think an exploratory space vessel would be exposed to. This episode focuses on the less-seen low ranking crewman, who must save their superior officer, Tuvok, when an accident happens. Since all of these lower ranking crewmen are both members of species we never see on the bridge and bright blue or some other color, we can conclude that, even in the 24th century, the "colored" man is still being put down.
The 37s
Voyager meets Amelia Earhart ... So that's where she went ... The Delta Quadrant ... All the way across the galaxy...
This episode establishes that the writers have no problem letting Earth be the focus of events absolutely anywhere in the galaxy. They will pull shit like this again. And again. And again.
Tuvix
Like all poorly conceived episodes, this one starts with a transporter accident, in which two characters — the quiet Tuvoc and the boisterous Neelix — are turned into one being. What does this you may ask? A flower. So for those of you keeping track at home, that's 24th Century Technology: 0 - Flowers: 1.
When a way to reverse the effect comes only after a long time in which Tuvix has established his own independent identity, the episode raises important questions about the ethics of destroying one life to save others, and about who has the greater right, the one existing or the two which once did? Surely these are tough moral questions upon which one cannot act lightly. But then Janeway just does it anyway, because we're coming up on 5 minutes left in the episode.
Future's End
(deep announcer’s voice): "Janeway ... Torres ... Kes ... wish they all could be California girls?"
I don't have a joke here. I just wanted you to remember that promo for a moment and share in my pain.
Unimatrix Zero
What if the world around you is fake; a computer simulation designed to keep you complacent and docile? What if you aren't here at all, and instead you are a borg drone? Eh, see how they threw in the Borg so it isn't copyright infringement?
In this episode, Voyager's resident silicone-based life-form, Seven of Nine, discovers that there is an underground resistance within the Borg collective that is based around an imaginary shared world that some drones go to while they regenerate, becoming their real selves again. This allows Seven to take on the Borg queen, leading to the ultimate showdown of pasty big-breasted women with metal things in their faces. Five hundred nerds died of exhaustion when this episode was aired.
See Also
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