And so it began. Twenty years ago, on September 1, 1994, media outlets around the United States received a six-page-long press release – via fax; remember those?! -- that announced the casting for Star Trek: Voyager, which would debut on the new “United/Paramount network” in January 1995. The release touted that “Academy Award-Nominated Actress Genevieve Bujold Makes Television Debut as First-Ever Female Captain of ‘Star Trek,’” and it offered a synopsis of the plot, noting that the show “chronicles the adventures of the Starship USS Voyager which finds itself in a distant part of the galaxy along with a former enemy, the Maquis. Together, they must find their way back to Federation space."

The release then provided a breakdown of the cast and their credits, as well as their respective Voyager roles. Bujold, for example, was to play Capt. Elizabeth Janeway, while Tim Russ had a role in the “upcoming Star Trek: Generations.” Roxann Dawson was originally billed as Roxann Biggs-Dawson, while Robert Picardo was listed as playing Doc Zimmerman. Kes was described as “the delicate, beautiful young lover of Neelix.”

The public relations firm of Bender, Goldman & Helper handled the publicity for Voyager, as it had for The Next Generation and Deep Space Nine. Some media outlets received the initial Voyager release by snail mail, while others received it, as noted, via fax.

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