Star Trek: Voyager (also referred to as ST:VOY or ST:VGR) is a science fiction television series set in the Star Trek universe. Set in the 24th century from the year 2371 through 2378, the series follows the adventures of the Starfleet vessel USS Voyager, which becomes stranded in the Delta Quadrant 70,000 light-years from Earth while pursuing a renegade Maquis ship.[1] Both ships' crews merge aboard Voyager to make the estimated 75-year journey home.[2]
The show was created by Rick Berman, Michael Piller, and Jeri Taylor and is the fourth incarnation of Star Trek, which began with the 1960s series Star Trek, created by Gene Roddenberry. It was produced for seven seasons, from 1995 to 2001, and is the only Star Trek series with a female captain, Kathryn Janeway, as a lead character. It ran on UPN and lasted seven seasons on the network, making it UPN's second longest series after WWF/E Smackdown!.
Voyager was produced to launch UPN, a television network planned by Paramount. (Paramount originally considered launching a network on its own in 1977, which would have been anchored by the TV series Star Trek: Phase II.) Planning started in 1993, and seeds for the show's backstory, including the development of the Maquis, were placed in several Star Trek: The Next Generation and Star Trek: Deep Space Nine episodes. Voyager was shot on the stages The Next Generation had used. The pilot, "Caretaker", was shot in October 1994. Around that time, Paramount was sold to Viacom—Voyager was the first Star Trek TV series to premiere after the sale concluded.
Voyager was also the first Star Trek TV show to use Computer Generated Imagery (CGI) and eliminate the use of models for exterior space shots. Other television shows such as seaQuest DSV and Babylon 5
had exclusively used CGI to avoid the huge expense of models, but the
Star Trek television department continued using models, because they
felt models provided better realism. Amblin Imaging won an Emmy for the
opening title visuals, but the weekly episode exteriors were captured
using hand-built miniatures of the Voyager, shuttlecraft, and other ships.
That changed when Star Trek: Voyager became Paramount's first television property to go fully CGI for certain types of shots in mid-season 3 (late 1996).[3] Paramount obtained an exclusive contract with Foundation Imaging, the studio responsible for special effects during Babylon 5's first three seasons. Season 3's "The Swarm" was the first episode to use Foundation's effects exclusively. Deep Space Nine started using Foundation Imaging in conjunction with Digital Muse one year later (season 6), after Voyager had proven that CGI could look as realistic as models. In its later seasons, Voyager featured visual effects from Foundation and Digital Muse.
In the pilot episode, "Caretaker", Voyager is on a mission to locate a missing ship piloted by Maquis fighters. Tuvok is undercover on that ship posing as one of the Maquis. Janeway brings Tom Paris, a former Starfleet officer-turned-Maquis, out of prison to help find the ship. Voyager enters the dangerous Badlands to find the Maquis ship, but an ancient alien known as the Caretaker transports both ships to the Delta Quadrant, 70,000 light years on the other side of the galaxy. In the process, several members of Voyager's
crew are killed, including the first officer, helmsman, chief engineer,
and chief medical officer along with all the medical personnel. Due to
Voyager being on a short first mission no counsellor was asigned to the
ship, something that Janeway remarks could have been useful throughout
the journey home.
Voyager and the Maquis ship are attacked by Kazon
raiders intent on capturing the Caretaker's Array, which was used to
transport the ships. The Maquis ship collides with a Kazon ship,
destroying both, after the Maquis crew transports to Voyager. Believing the Kazon will use the Array to harm the Ocampa, Janeway decides to destroy it rather than use it to return home.
The Starfleet and Maquis crews integrate and work together as they begin the 70,000-light-year journey home, predicted to take 75 years. Chakotay, leader of the Maquis group, becomes first officer. B'Elanna Torres, a half-human/half-Klingon Maquis, becomes chief engineer. Tuvok
is revealed to be a Starfleet spy on the Maquis ship and resumes his
duties as chief security officer. The ship's operations officer is Harry Kim. Paris becomes the helmsman, and the Emergency Medical Hologram,
designed for only short-term use, becomes the chief medical officer. At
first the EMH is confined to sickbay and holodecks, but during the
course of the series gains his freedom by way of a mobile holo-emitter,
as well as expanding his program and personality on his own initiative.
While in the Delta Quadrant, the crew gains the TalaxianNeelix as a local guide and chef, along with his Ocampan girlfriend, Kes.
Both Paris and Kes become qualified assistants to the Doctor, expanding
the ship's medical capability. In the show's fourth season, Kes leaves
the series, while the crew grows to include Seven of Nine, a Borg drone liberated from the collective who, like the Doctor, expands (or rather, regains) her humanity throughout the series.
The Delta Quadrant is unexplored by the Federation. On the way home, the crew contends with hostile forces that include organ-harvesting Vidiians, belligerent Kazon, nomadic Hirogen hunters, Species 8472 from fluidic space and most notably the Borg in the later seasons when Voyager
has to move through large areas of Borg space. They also encounter
hazardous natural phenomena such as a Nebulous area called the Nekrit
Expanse, a large area of empty space called the Void, wormholes and other anomalies. Voyager is the third Star Trek series to feature Q. Meanwhile, Starfleet Command learns of Voyager's
survival and situation and eventually develops a means to establish
regular audiovisual and data contact with the ship thanks to the
efforts of Reginald Barclay who was featured more prominently on The Next Generation.
As with all other Star Trek series, the original Star Trek's Vulcans, Klingons and Romulans appear in Star Trek: Voyager.[4]Majel Barrett again voices the ship's computer.[4]
The Borg Queen, the antagonist from Star Trek: First Contact, makes several appearances in Voyager. Susanna Thompson usually played the role in the series; Alice Krige, who played the character before Thompson in First Contact, reprised the role for the series finale.
Quark from Deep Space Nine appears in Voyager's pilot episode.
George Takei
also makes an appearance as Captain Sulu, when Tuvok has a flashback
about his first time serving on a Federation starship, from events that
happened in Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country. Grace Lee Whitney also appears as Cmdr. Janice Rand, and Michael Ansara as Klingon Captain Kang.
Jonathan Frakes came on for a cameo in the episode "Death Wish", reprising his role as Commander Riker. In that episode, the character of "Q" hints that Riker was offered captaincy of USS Voyager, a promotion he obviously passed up.
The following Voyager main cast members have appeared in other Star Trek productions.
Robert Duncan McNeill (Paris) in Star Trek: The Next Generation episode "The First Duty"
as Starfleet cadet Nicolas Locarno. (The character of Tom Paris was
based on Locarno, but he was felt to be 'beyond redemption' for his
actions during "The First Duty"; Paramount would also have been
obligated by contract to pay royalties to the author of "The First
Duty" for the use of the name "Nick Locarno" in every episode).[citation needed]
Tim Russ (Tuvok) appeared in Star Trek: The Next Generation episode "Starship Mine", two Star Trek: Deep Space Nine episodes and the film Star Trek: Generations, as various characters.
Robert Picardo (the Doctor) in Star Trek: Deep Space Nine episode "Doctor Bashir, I Presume" as Dr. Lewis Zimmerman and an EMH Mark I, and Star Trek: First Contact as the Enterprise-E's EMH.
Ethan Phillips (Neelix) in Star Trek: The Next Generation episode "Ménage à Troi" as the Ferengi Farek, Star Trek: Enterprise episode "Acquisition" as the Ferengi pirate Ulis, and in Star Trek: First Contact as an unnamed Maitre d' on the holodeck.
Robert Duncan McNeill and Roxann Dawson (Paris & Torres) have also directed episodes of Star Trek: Enterprise.
The following actors from other Star Trek productions have made guest appearances in various Voyager episodes, often as different characters.
Jonathan Frakes (William Riker of The Next Generation) appears as Riker in the episode "Death Wish".
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.
LeVar Burton (Geordi LaForge of The Next Generation) appears as Captain Geordi LaForge in "Timeless".
Dwight Schultz (Reginald Barclay of The Next Generation) appears in "Projections", "Pathfinder", "Life Line", "Inside Man", "Author Author" and "Endgame".
Armin Shimerman (Quark of Deep Space Nine) appears in "Caretaker".
Marina Sirtis (Deanna Troi of The Next Generation) appears in "Pathfinder", "Life Line", and "Inside Man".
Jonathan Frakes, LeVar Burton (Riker & LaForge of The Next Generation), and Andrew Robinson (Garak of Deep Space Nine) have also directed episodes of Star Trek: Voyager.
Although not an actual actor, the sets used for USS Voyager were re-used for the Deep Space Nine episode "Inter Arma Enim Silent Leges" for its sister ship USS Bellerophon (NCC-74705) which is also an Intrepid-class starship.
A total of 22 numbered books were released during the series'
original run from 1995-2001. They include novelizations of the first
episode, Caretaker, The Escape, Violations, Ragnarok and novelizations of the episodes Flashback, Day of Honor, Equinox and Endgame.
There are also an amount of so called "unnumbered books", which are
still part of the series, though not part of the official release.
These novels include all episode novelizations except for Caretaker, Mosaic (a biography of Captain Kathryn Janeway), Pathways (a novel in which the biography of various crewmembers, including all of the senior staff is given); and The Nanotech War, a novel released in 2002, one year after the series' finale.
Book relaunch
A series of novels focusing on the continuing adventures of Voyager following the TV 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,
Tuvok leaving the ship to serve as First Officer under William Riker,
and Tom Paris' promotion to First Officer. The series also introduces
several new characters.
The series began with Homecoming and The Farther Shore in 2003, a direct sequel to the show's 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 . Other novels – some set during the relaunch period, others during the show's TV run—have been published.
