

(written from a Production point of view Real World article

Voyager redirects here; for additional meanings of "Voyager", please see Voyager.

Star Trek: Voyager is the fifth Star Trek series. It was created by Rick Berman, Michael Piller, and Jeri Taylor, and ran on UPN, as the network's first ever series, for seven seasons in the USA, from 1995 to 2001. In some areas without local access to UPN, it was offered to independent stations through Paramount Pictures, for its first six seasons. The series is best known for its familial crew, science fiction based plots, engaging action sequences, and light humor. The writers often noted that many episodes had underlying themes and messages or were metaphors for current social issues. This is the first Star Trek series to feature a female captain in the main cast. However, Kathryn Janeway is not the first female captain. Additionally, the show gained in popularity for its storylines which frequently featured the Borg. Voyager follows the events of Star Trek: The Next Generation and ran alongside Star Trek: Deep Space Nine during its first five seasons.

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Series summary

Launched in the year 2371, the Intrepid-class Federation starship USS Voyager was a ship built to return to Starfleet's founding principle of scientific exploration. It was fitting that the ship's captain, Kathryn Janeway, rose up through the science ranks rather than command. On the ship's first mission while departing the space station Deep Space 9, which required it to find and capture a Maquis vessel that disappeared into the treacherous Badlands, the crew of Voyager, as well as that of the Maquis ship it was pursuing, were swept clear across the galaxy and deep into the Delta Quadrant. This was the doing of a powerful alien being known as the Caretaker. The seventy thousand light year transit cost the lives of over a dozen crew members. Captain Janeway was forced to destroy the massive alien array that housed the remains of the Caretaker. In doing so, she saved an alien race, the Ocampa, but stranded Voyager and the crew in the Delta Quadrant.

United in a common purpose, the surviving Maquis rebels joined with Janeway's Starfleet-trained crew on Voyager. Though a journey back to the Alpha Quadrant would have taken more than seventy years through unknown and treacherous territory, the crew of Voyager was well served by Janeway's skilled leadership and their own steadfast determination. Ultimately, Voyager returned to the Alpha Quadrant in seven years.

The crew's journey home was eventful. Voyager made first contact with over four hundred completely new species in the Delta Quadrant, discovered links to Earth's early space exploration history, utilized and even pioneered new technologies, all the while engaging in countless other adventures. ("Distant Origin")

The crew encountered species ranging from the violent and ruthless Kazon, the Phage-afflicted Vidiians, the colorful Talaxians and the ephemeral Ocampa. The crew's other encounters included run-ins with the temporal sophistication of the Krenim, the predatory Hirogen, the toxic Malon and the scheming Hierarchy. The crew picked up passengers along the way, including the wily but extremely resourceful Talaxian Neelix (who served, at times, as Voyager's ambassador, morale officer, and even head chef), along with the Ocampan telepath Kes (who, as a parting gift to the crew, used her powers of telekinesis to thrust Voyager 9,500 light years closer to the Alpha Quadrant).

Most memorable, however, were Voyager's repeated clashes with the dreaded Borg. While each encounter posed grave danger, Voyager was able to prevail every time. At one point, Janeway actually negotiated a temporary peace with the Borg when they perceived a common threat in a mysterious alien species from fluidic space. ("Scorpion") At other times, she was able to liberate drones from the Borg Collective, including Seven of Nine (who became a permanent member of the crew), Mezoti, Azan, Rebi, and Icheb. Other instances pitted Voyager against not only the Borg, but also against the nightmarish Borg Queen herself.

Several years after Voyager's disappearance into the Delta Quadrant, Starfleet Command learned of the starship's fate. Subsequently, the Pathfinder Project was created, a Starfleet Communications project that attempted to communicate with Voyager through the MIDAS array, via a micro-wormhole and the Hirogen communications network. Thanks to the hard work and enthusiasm of Lieutenant Reginald Barclay, the communications technology improved to a level whereby contact could be made on a regular basis. In 2377, the crew was able to receive monthly data streams from Earth that included letters from the crew's families, tactical upgrades, and news about the Alpha Quadrant.

By the end of the year, Voyager made a triumphant return to the Alpha Quadrant, under the guidance of Starfleet and the Pathfinder Project, by utilizing and then destroying a Borg transwarp hub, and after a turbulent trip, a celebration was held in honor of Voyager's return back home.

Distinguishing Voyager

Despite the general prosperity of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, Paramount pressured Rick Berman for yet another Star Trek television series. Although it was decided very early on that the new series would be set aboard a starship once again, it was important for the writers to vary the series from Star Trek: The Next Generation in other ways. Berman stated, "When Voyager came around and we knew we were going to place the next series back on a starship we wanted to do it in a way that was not going to be that redundant when it came to The Next Generation. So we had a certain amount of conflict on the ship because of the Maquis. We had a different dynamic because we were not speaking every day to Starfleet and because we had a female captain. Those were the major differences that set this show apart from the others... It had the core belief of what Star Trek was all about, both in terms of the excitement and the action and in terms of the provocative elements of ideas that Star Trek has always been known to present to the audience." (Star Trek: Voyager Companion)

The series' premise of being lost in deep space was itself a variation on a theme explored in The Next Generation. Michael Piller explained, "We remembered the episodes, many episodes, where Q would show up and throw one of our ships or one of our people off to a strange part of the universe. And we'd have to figure out why we were there, how we were going to get back, and ultimately – by the end of an episode – we'd get back home. But [...] we started to talk about what would happen if we didn't get home. That appealed to us a great deal [...] You have to understand that Rick, Jeri and I had no interest in simply putting a bunch of people on another ship and sending them out to explore the universe. We wanted to bring something new to the Gene Roddenberry universe. The fans would have been the first people to criticize us if we had not brought something new to it. But everything new, everything was... a challenge, in the early stages of development of Voyager." ("Braving the Unknown: Season 1", VOY Season 1 DVD special features)

Jeri Taylor concurred that Voyager had to be different from its predecessors. She stated, "We felt a need to create an avenue for new and fresh storytelling. We are forced into creating a new universe. We have to come up with new aliens, we have to come up with new situations." Taylor also recalled, "We knew we were taking some risks. We decided, in a very calculated way, to cut our ties with everything that was familiar. This is a dangerous thing to do. There is no more Starfleet, there are no more admirals to tell us what we can and cannot do, there are no Romulans, there are no Klingons, there are no Ferengi, no Cardassians. All those wonderful array of villains that the audience has come to love and hate at the same time will no longer be there. This is a tricky thing to do." ("Braving the Unknown: Season 1", VOY Season 1 DVD special features)

Differentiating the new series from what had gone before hardened the challenge of inventing the series' main characters. Jeri Taylor recounted, "It took a long, long time, it took us weeks and weeks and weeks, even to come up with a cast of characters, because we found that so many wonderful characters had already been done and we didn't want to exactly repeat ourselves. We'd come up with an idea then say, 'No, that's too much like Data,' or, 'That's too much like Odo,' or, 'That's too much like Worf.' So to try to find the right balance of characters, in terms of gender and alien species and that kind of thing, really took a long time." ("Braving the Unknown: Season 1", VOY Season 1 DVD special features)

↑ John Van Citters listed "VGR" as the series' official abbreviation when announcing the "DSC" abbreviation for Star Trek: Discovery. [1] MA, among other venues, will continue to use the abbreviation VOY for Voyager, for historical reasons.

Main cast

Starring

Also starring

From late 1996 onward, Biggs-Dawson was credited as Roxann Dawson.

Executive producers

Episode list

Season 1

Season 1, 15 episodes:

Season 2

Season 2, 26 episodes:

Season 3

Season 3, 26 episodes:

Season 4

Season 4, 26 episodes:

Season 5

Season 5, 25 episodes:

Season 6

Season 6, 26 episodes:

Season 7

Season 7, 24 episodes:

Related topics