Voyager goes further but sticks closest to Star Trek’s original mission.
Why bury the lead? Star Trek: Voyager is the most authentic series since The Original one as far as exploring new worlds and “boldly” going where no man has gone before.
This is impressive when you consider that, at its most basic, Voyager’s plot summary is of a ship and crew stranded 75 years away from home at maximum warp on the other side of the galaxy in the Delta Quadrant.
Towards the end of the final season, this exchange happens onscreen with someone from Star Fleet:
HENDRICKS [on screen]: The Voth, the Kobali, the Vaadwaur. You’ve made first contact with more species than any captain since James Kirk.
JANEWAY: It helps being the only Starfleet ship within thirty thousand light years.
HENDRICKS [on screen]: You are being too humble.
Even the show itself acknowledges just how much exploring Voyager has done in comparison to the rest of the franchise series.
But we aren’t just exploring on the way back home to the Alpha Quadrant. The show takes the character development of The Next Generation and Deep Space Nine and blends it with that Original Series’ sense of exploration and wonder. It all verges on wanderlust at times for both the ship and the characters.
Our main characters – Captain Kathryn Janeway, Chakotay, B’Elanna Torres, Tom Paris, The Doctor, Tuvok, Harry Kim, Neelyx, Kes, and Seven of Nine – all go through some changes. There’s also Kes, who is only around for the first few seasons around the same time Seven enters the picture.
Of those characters, Paris, Torres, The Doctor, Neelix, and Seven all have substantial character arcs over the series. In this regard, it’s not just the quantity of character development but the quality of it that sets it apart from all of the series that have come before.
I think Neelix is the Wesley Crusher of Voyager, insofar as a plot device used for a specific outsider’s look at Federation protocols and someone who wants to do more onboard. Paris and Torres have character arcs where they grow up, literally from angsty emotional 20-somethings to basically responsible adults. The Doctor is a holographic projection that is the only example of a sentient AI that has its own ethics, perhaps really just because his origin as an Emergency Medical Hologram dictated the necessity for the Hippocratic Oath. And Seven, grows from a former Borg drone into a human.
Captain Janeway has her moments, but like Picard before her, she is a steady hand in command of the ship. Plus, Janeway is finally a coffee Captain, after the Earl Grey of Captain Picard and whatever a Raktajino is aboard Deep Space Nine in Quark’s. “Coffee black” is what she wants, and she describes her love of coffee after Chakotay calls her out for drinking too much of it.
CHAKOTAY: You know, you drink too much of that stuff.
JANEWAY: Really?
CHAKOTAY: If I’m not mistaken, that’s your third cup this morning.
JANEWAY: Fourth. And on a day like today, it won’t be my last. Coffee – the finest organic suspension ever devised. It’s got me through the worst of the last three years. I beat the Borg with it.
Anyway, back to the show.
Despite being stranded so very far from the Alpha Quadrant we do get appearances, some holographic and others in flashbacks, from Riker, LaForge, and Sulu. Next Generation’s Q, Reginald Barclay, and Deanna Troi also get more than a few episodes with screen time during the series.
Voyager isn’t just the name of the series. It is also the name of the ship. In the pilot episode, it launches from Deep Space Nine, but given the physical distance there isn’t much crossover despite running concurrently for more than a handful of seasons.
Meanwhile in the Delta Quadrant and in the holodeck, we meet plenty of guest stars: Michael McKean, Ed Begley Jr., Sarah Silverman, Andy Dick, Jason Alexander, Scott Thompson, The Rock, Ron Glass, and my personal favorite John Rhys-Davies who plays Leonardo da Vinci.
Throughout the seven seasons we encounter first contact aplenty, warring factions, traders, thieves, pirates, merchants, Borg, short cuts, set backs, a few holodeck episodes, and 12 made-for-TV movies. This is more than The Next Generation’s 10 and Deep Space Nine’s six.
My favorite starred episodes are pretty fairly evenly distributed across the seasons. Two episodes in Season 1, five episodes in Seasons 2, 4, and 5, four episodes in Seasons 3 and 6, and six episodes in Season 7.
For me, this show takes all that was great about The Original Series of exploring new worlds, mixes it with the diplomacy and character development from The Next Generation, and really creates something unique and wonderful. I also think compared to TNG and DS9, Voyager sticks the landing better than the rest. Perhaps all that practice with the other two-parters prepared them better to land the series home?
To each their own, but I must say Captain Janeway is probably my favorite Captain so far. It’s not just because of the coffee addiction, though that doesn’t hurt. She also gets some of the best lines.
“We’re Starfleet officers. Weird is part of the job.”
“I imagine if we scratch deep enough we’d find a scientific basis for most religious doctrines.”
“Sometimes first contact is last contact.”
“I’m also a woman who occasionally knows when to quit. Take another look at your tricorder. Omega’s too dangerous. I won’t risk half the quadrant to satisfy our curiosity. It’s arrogant, and it’s irresponsible. The final frontier has some boundaries that shouldn’t be crossed, and we’re looking at one.”
But she can’t get all the best lines. Tuvok accurately describes parenting by saying, “Offspring can be disturbingly illogical, yet profoundly fulfilling. You should anticipate paradox.”
And the best computer warning in the entire Star Trek franchise might just be, “Warning. Warp core breach a lot sooner than you think.”
Now, it’s time to figure out where Voyager stacks up against the rest of the Star Trek franchise I have consumed thus far. If it’s not obvious, Voyager is justifiably near the top for me.
- The Original Series
- Voyager
- The Animated Series
- Deep Space Nine
- The Original Series Films
- The Next Generation
- The Next Generation Movies
From Kirk to Janeway, it seems that the form and function of Star Trek the franchise finally figured out the best of everything it had learned along the way. Is this as good as it gets?
Only time will tell, but for now it’s back to Enterprise.