star trek voyager night cast

Night (episode)

• 1.2 Act One
• 1.3 Act Two
• 1.4 Act Three
• 1.5 Act Four
• 1.6 Act Five
• 2 Memorable quotes
• 3.1 Story and script
• 3.2 Cast and characters
• 3.3 Production
• 3.4 Visual effects
• 3.5 Continuity and trivia
• 3.6 Reception
• 3.7 Apocrypha
• 3.8 Video and DVD releases
• 4.1 Starring
• 4.2 Also starring
• 4.3 Guest stars
• 4.4 Uncredited co-stars
• 4.5 Stand-ins
• 4.6 References
• 4.7 External links

Summary [ ]

Lt. Paris as Capt. Proton

Lieutenant Paris is running his " Captain Proton " holodeck simulation with Ensign Kim . The Doctor interrupts – annoyed, as they have gone into his allotted holodeck time. He tries to end the simulation at the control panel, while Paris tries to stop him.

Seven of Nine reports to Chakotay

This overloads the hologrid , sending an alarm to the command console on the bridge . Commander Chakotay is in his seat, but, very strangely, the bridge is nearly empty; no one is there except him and an officer at the conn station. He calls down to Paris and Kim about the alarm, and they assure him they are fixing the problem.

Seven of Nine enters from the turbolift . She reports the results of her astrometric scan of the region they are in: no star systems for 2,500 light years . Theta radiation is blocking their sensors , so they cannot see anything beyond the region. There are no other ships; the USS Voyager is quite alone.

Chakotay looks concernedly at the viewscreen , which is completely blank. He wonders aloud how they will make it for two years in this place. Seven asks him if she should inform Captain Janeway of the results. He decides to do it himself.

Act One [ ]

As Chakotay notes in his log, Voyager has been traveling for the last two months through a region dubbed the Void by the crew. It is completely devoid of planets, stars, or any astronomical phenomena. Voyager itself is illuminated only by its interior and exterior lighting. Forced to cross the region with no chance to refuel or restock supplies if they want to continue their journey to the Alpha Quadrant , the crew has been working on creating energy reserves and stockpiling deuterium.

Chakotay conducts a meeting with senior staff in the briefing room . The room's windows are as blank as the bridge's viewscreen. The captain is absent. The meeting seems pointless, as according to Chief Engineer Torres , there is nothing new to report. The warp core is at peak efficiency, as it has been for weeks and Torres' staff is going stir crazy. Ensign Kim reports all systems are operating normally. Lt. Commander Tuvok reports an increase in theta radiation in the area. Chakotay considers it may be worth looking into, if only to have something to do.

The attention then turns to crew morale, which is suffering, due to the monotony and the oppressive pitch-black nothingness outside every window. Neelix , the jovial Talaxian chef and morale officer , makes several suggestions intended to boost morale. He suggests they create a temporary holodeck in cargo bay 2. He also suggests rotating crew assignments. Working outside of their fields, to learn something new, could help break the monotony.

Chakotay agrees, but becomes irritated when Neelix asks him about the conspicuous absence of Captain Janeway. No one has seen her. Lt. Paris chimes in, saying that, according to rumor, she never leaves her quarters. Chakotay harshly rebuffs them, but then relents, excusing himself due to the strain of the situation. He ends the meeting.

In the middle of the night, Neelix wakes up in a panic. Fearful of the utter blackness outside his window, he goes to the mess hall , where Paris and Torres are playing durotta . Torres takes offense at a joke Paris makes and the game ends in an argument. Neelix tries to mediate, but fails. He angrily begins to rebuke them but then begins to hyperventilate. Paris calls sickbay .

Neelix is taken to sickbay and is treated by The Doctor. He is diagnosed with nihiliphobia : the fear of nothingness. The Doctor assures him he will get used to it and discharges him.

Tuvok seems to be looking out a window at stars, but he is revealed to be in the astrometrics lab , looking at a recorded star field on the lab's huge viewscreen. Seven of Nine enters and asks him if the lab has been designated for recreational use. He explains that he is using it to meditate, as he normally does in his own quarters, looking out his windows at the stars. Just then an alarm sounds on the main astrometrics console; massive amounts of theta radiation have been detected on long-range sensors, source unknown.

Captain Janeway's bitter regret

Meanwhile, Chakotay briefs Captain Janeway on the theta radiation discovery in her quarters . The lights are low. Janeway stands at the far end in silhouette, looking out a window at the nothingness. Sensing she needs cheering up, he tries to interest her in a game of Velocity . She refuses. He then plainly tells her that she should not be isolating herself; the crew needs her.

" Oh what I would give for a few Borg cubes about now… "

She comes out of the shadows and wishes aloud for the times before when they were frequently attacked; it helped her avoid thinking about how they got to be there, stranded in the Delta Quadrant . She orders him to tell her how that happened. He responds that they had the means to return home, but to use it would have put an innocent species at risk so chose to destroy it to stop it from falling into the wrong hands.

She corrects him, saying that the decision was hers alone. The depressing emptiness of the void has made her dwell on that decision, and she has become filled with guilt over it. She bitterly blames herself for making a short-sighted , selfish error in judgment, for which all of them are now paying. Chakotay tries to say otherwise, but she has none of it. The reason for her self-imposed isolation is now clear; she cannot lift the crew's morale; hers is the lowest of all. She retreats back into silhouette at the far end of the room, telling Chakotay to give the crew her regards if they ask for her. Chakotay leaves silently.

The bridge is empty except for Ensign Kim. With absolutely nothing to do, Kim lounges in the captain's seat , his feet up on the closed command console, playing a melancholy tune on his clarinet . Tuvok enters. Kim quickly sits up and acknowledges him. Tuvok tells him to relax, and Kim offers to play the tune, a concerto he has written, for him. He calls it " Echoes of the Void ". With nothing else to do, Tuvok listens appreciatively.

On the holodeck, Lt. Paris has inveigled Seven of Nine to join him in his "Captain Proton" adventures, playing the role of Constance Goodheart , his "secretary". Uninterested, Seven plays her part without any enthusiasm. Paris exhorts her to get into it; she responds with a sardonic gaze.

On the bridge, Kim is still playing his concerto for Tuvok. But then the ship is suddenly shaken. Lights and control panels flicker. An alarm beeps as the two officers dash to their stations. Kim reports that they have fallen out of warp and are losing power. A switch to auxiliary has no effect. Lights and systems begin shutting down all over the ship; even the warp core suddenly goes dark and dead. In her quarters, Captain Janeway, sitting depressed in a chair, looks around startled as the already dim lights go out completely. Every single light outside the now-stationary ship, from the blue glow of the warp nacelles' warp field grilles and navigational deflector , to the light illuminating the ship's registry , goes out, leaving the ship in total darkness, invisible in the blackness of the void.

Act Two [ ]

Officers and crew scramble to get a handle on the situation. Wrist-borne lights come out. In the holodeck, Lt. Paris, amusingly, has difficulty figuring out how to switch on a simulated 20th century flashlight . He gets it working, and he and Seven make their way to the control panel. They find that power is off all over the ship; main and auxiliary. Independent subsystems controlling environment, life support and holodecks, however, are still working. This explains why they are still in the "Captain Proton" simulation, though now in the dark. Paris, on Seven's suggestion, reroutes power from the holodeck to the emergency relays; no effect; the hologrid remains frozen.

Chakotay, walking carefully with a wrist-borne light through a corridor, hears panicked breathing. He follows the sound to find Neelix cowering in a corner, incapacitated, given the current conditions. Chakotay gently lifts him to his feet, assuring him it is only a power loss, nothing to worry about, and they go off together.

On the bridge, Kim manages to get partial sensors back from a bit of fiddling with a circuit panel. This allows him to find the cause of the power drain; a dampening field, whose origin is outside the ship, off the port bow. Tuvok orders him to display it on the viewscreen. He does, but all they can see is the void's nothingness. Tuvok gets the idea to use a photon torpedo as a flare, to illuminate the source.

Paris discovers a Night Alien on the holodeck

Lt. Paris and Seven, still trapped in the dark, frozen "Captain Proton" simulation, seek an alternative means of exit. Paris looks around for something to open a hatch with. Then, suddenly, his flashlight beam falls on a creature that was there with them, in the dark, not part of the simulation. It shrinks back, as if hurt by the light. Then it growls, charges and swats him with a glowing hand. He goes down, screaming with pain. Seven grabs his simulated " ray gun ", orders the still-powered holodeck computer to disengage the safety protocols, making a blast from the gun as damaging as if it were real, and shoots the creature, stunning it.

In the corridors, Chakotay and Neelix move carefully along. Suddenly Neelix sees something. Chakotay thinks he is imagining things, but Neelix insists. As they move forward he hears breathing. Chakotay points his light in that direction and it falls on a creature like the one that attacked Lt. Paris. It shrinks from the light and then charges them. But its charge is broken off by phaser fire from off in the darkness. Light shone in that direction shows who is responsible; Captain Janeway, animated by the danger facing her ship, has emerged from her quarters, putting her depression aside. Carrying a phaser rifle, she fires at the creature as it scurries away down the corridor. She orders the two men to follow her.

On the bridge, Tuvok fires the " warp flare " he created. It illuminates three ships off the bow. In engineering , Janeway orders a power cell be used to get emergency power back on-line. The engineering staff hooks the cell up to the EPS manifold. On the bridge, Tuvok and Kim watch the ships on the viewscreen, illuminated by the lingering light of the photon torpedo flare. The hook-up is completed in engineering and emergency power comes on. Tuvok immediately raises the deflector shields. In engineering, the warp core starts to hum and glow with matter / antimatter reaction as it begins to function again. Janeway and Chakotay set up a temporary command console. Janeway hails the bridge and Tuvok fills her in: three ships surround them, seventeen aliens are on board. Janeway tries to hail the ships but gets no answer. Weapons come back on-line. She orders Tuvok to fire a few warning shots at the ships. He does. They return fire.

Seven arrives in sickbay with a badly burned Lt. Paris. She and The Doctor help him to a bed, as she informs The Doctor of the attack by the intruder. He sends her to bring the incapacitated creature back to sickbay.

The alien ships continue to hammer Voyager until the shields fail. They restart their dampening field and, once again, the ship begins losing power. But then the field abruptly disappears and full power returns. In engineering, Chakotay reads on the temporary command console that the aliens on board are beaming off. On the bridge, Ensign Kim detects another vessel approaching. It closes in, firing a large volley of spatial charges , which send the three attacking ships fleeing. The new arrival hails them. Tuvok orders Kim to put it on screen. The image of the new ship is replaced by that of a pasty-looking, balding, humanoid, alien man in a dark, smoky room, presumably the ship's bridge. He is clad in a bulky protective suit. Tuvok tries to introduce himself, but the alien interrupts, expecting compensation for the spatial charges he used to drive off the attackers. Tuvok, bemused, agrees. Satisfied, the alien amicably asks them why they are there, in the middle of nowhere. Tuvok and Kim regard him, silently.

Act Three [ ]

Controller Emck

Janeway and Chakotay are in one of the ship's transporter rooms. Tuvok is also present, behind the controls. The form of the alien he spoke to materializes on the platform. But, before he becomes solid, the pattern buffer holds him as bio-filters warn that he is emitting large amounts of theta radiation. Janeway orders a force field erected around the platform to contain the radiation. Once solid, the alien cordially introduces himself as Controller Emck , Malon export vessel, eleventh gradient . Janeway warmly thanks him for his help. He replies that they should turn around and go back; there are thousands more of the ships that attacked them, further in. Janeway responds that going back is out of the question; they need to cross the region in order to get home.

Emck then invites her to follow him to a spatial vortex that he uses for quick entry and exit to and from the void; it leads directly to the void's other end. Janeway again thanks him. But when she expresses curiosity as to why Emck is there, he begins to get hostile. He vaguely responds that he is on a "transport mission", and demands the alien they have in sickbay as the price for leading them to the vortex. Janeway becomes suspicious at this and asks him more probing questions, pertaining to what it is he is transporting and why he wants the alien. He tersely tells her to cooperate or stay behind. Janeway has Tuvok beam him back to his ship. Suspicious, she and Chakotay go to sickbay to find out the story with these aliens.

Sickbay is dark. The Doctor explains to the two officers that the alien is very photosensitive. Its species seems to be indigenous to the void, adapted to total darkness. It is suffering from acute theta radiation poisoning, however; it is close to death. Janeway goes to the bed and gently speaks to it. It accuses them of being in collusion with the Malon , which she denies. She asks if they are at war with the Malon. It responds that the Malon are poisoning them. The Malon do not take anything from them; they simply poison their space; why, the aliens do not know. His condition worsens, and The Doctor suggests they return him to his people; there is nothing more he can do for him. The alien provides them with coordinates where more of his people's ships are gathered. Janeway sends Chakotay to the bridge while she remains there to talk further with the alien.

" I need your advice. " " A first. "

The bridge has returned to normal; all stations are manned. A worried Chakotay calls Tuvok into the briefing room . He is very concerned about the captain's self-imposed isolation; they face a possible crisis, but instead of coming to her place on the bridge, she sent him , continuing her isolation. He asks Tuvok for insight as to any previous instances of this behavior on any previous ship she served on before taking command of Voyager . Tuvok tells him about the USS Billings .

In her first year on that vessel, as a commander , she sent an away team to survey a volcanic moon . Their shuttle was damaged by a magma eruption and three members of the team were severely injured. The next day, she took a shuttle and returned to the moon alone to complete the survey, though she could have been killed. She was consumed with guilt over the injuries suffered by members of the away team she sent, and wanted to show that their sacrifice had not been for nothing. Chakotay becomes afraid that she will take a similar risk to get them out of the void, consumed with guilt over making the decision which stranded them in the Delta Quadrant. He asks Tuvok's support in preventing her from taking any such action, which Tuvok pledges.

" Will you help us? "

Voyager arrives at the alien's coordinates. A bio-scan confirms that every one of them has terminal theta radiation sickness. Before the alien beams to one of the ships, he begs Captain Janeway for help in stopping the Malon. His species has, he tells her, lived in the void for eons undisturbed. Then Emck's ship came and began poisoning them. They tried to reason with him, but he ignored them. They tried to stop him by force, but his ship is too powerful. They would close the vortex if they could, to prevent him from returning once he left, but they do not know how to do so. The alien transporter takes him before he can hear Janeway's answer to his pleas.

Act Four [ ]

Janeway watches as a Malon freighter discharges toxic waste

The Malon ship and Voyager sit in proximity. A noxious-looking, green substance pours out from vents in the Malon ship's side. In astrometrics, Captain Janeway stands, arm folded, thunderclouds on her brow as she stares at the large viewscreen, watching this. Seven of Nine and Chakotay are at the consoles. Seven reports that the ship is releasing massive amounts of contaminated antimatter. Chakotay adds that its holds are full of it. Angrily, Janeway orders a hail to the ship. Emck responds. He assumes she has agreed to his conditions and begins telling her where to send the alien on his ship, but Janeway cuts him off and demands to know why he is dumping his poisonous antimatter waste in the aliens' space. He responds that his people produce huge amounts of these industrial wastes every day; the void is a perfect disposal site.

" Do you intend to destroy it ? "

Chakotay accusingly tells him that a species lives there. Emck sees that as unimportant. Janeway sharply disagrees. She proposes a solution. Humans have long ago learned how to purify antimatter waste so that it poses no threat. She will allow him to see the technology they use to do this, so that he and his people can duplicate it. She tells him to prepare for transport to Voyager 's engine room and ends the communication. She orders Chakotay to go to engineering and show Emck the technology with Lt. Torres. Chakotay leaves and she remains with Seven, analyzing the vortex with the astrometric sensors, in case destroying it becomes their only option to protect the aliens.

In engineering, Chakotay and Torres show Emck the relevant technology. They offer to help him and the Malon government to start building and using it. At first he seems interested, but then it becomes clear that he is only stringing them along. Voyager 's technology, he responds, would destroy the waste export business that he works in. The void provides a perfect opportunity for him to dump the waste he transports at only half the expense that other waste exporters must contend with, increasing his profits, native aliens be damned. Torres is furious. Chakotay tries to reason with him, but he will not listen. Chakotay warns him that they will not allow him to continue. He sternly responds that Voyager would never have a chance against his ship, and storms off back to the transporter room, accompanied by security.

Chakotay and Captain Janeway discuss their next move in her quarters. Chakotay wants to fight past Emck, go through the vortex, then contact the Malon homeworld, report Emck's activities and give them the technology. But Janeway is not sure if the Malon government will do the right thing, if Emck is any indication. She is determined to shut the vortex to protect the native aliens. But it can only be closed at its weakest point, inside the void… and Janeway has no intention of asking the crew to again sacrifice their own way out to protect strangers. She has him assemble senior staff on the bridge.

" You realize you could all be hanged for mutiny . "

For the first time in two months, Captain Janeway steps off the turbolift onto the bridge. All her senior staff is present. She outlines her plan: they will go to the vortex, and, once there, she will stay behind in a shuttle and destroy the vortex from inside the void, after Voyager enters. They will continue on without her. But Chakotay, after his talk with Tuvok, is expecting something like this. He informed Tuvok and the other senior staff, and they all know what their response will be. One by one, they all refuse to let her sacrifice herself. She is outwardly angry at this rank insubordination , but it is evident that she is actually touched by their action.

" We'll not leave you here, captain… "

Thus she abandons her plan and asks for suggestions. They quickly come up with another idea: enter the vortex and then collapse the vortex with delayed-detonation photon torpedoes from aft. The ship will go into high warp once the collapse begins. Reinforced shielding should protect them from the shock wave . As for Emck, antimatter waste radiation has weakened his cargo hold's bulkheads; a direct shot on them should disable him. Janeway happily accepts the plan and takes her position in the Captain's seat once again, with Chakotay in the First Officer's seat next to hers. On his order the ship goes to red alert , and Paris takes the ship toward the vortex.

Act Five [ ]

The garbage is taken out

They arrive and, as is expected, the Malon ship is waiting for them. Emck fires a barrage of spatial charges at them, but they avoid the explosions. Janeway orders a return of fire. Phasers and photon torpedoes strike the Malon ship's shields. The explosion from a charge ruptures a nacelle, but they keep going, with only 47 seconds until they reach the vortex. But as they get closer to the vortex, Emck scores a direct hit on their remaining nacelle, robbing them of their ability to go to warp speed once they pass into the vortex. Thus they will be unable to outrun the shock wave from their planned destruction of the vortex with torpedoes. Janeway decides that they will instead ride the shock wave itself out to the other side.

The photon torpedoes are deployed

But then, on the viewscreen, they see Emck's ship moving to block their way, directly in front of the vortex's entrance. Chakotay orders Tuvok to prepare to fire, at which point the battle is joined. The native aliens arrive and begin firing on Emck's ship. He moves away from the vortex to combat them, but their combined firepower weakens his shields. With a satisfied sneer, Janeway orders Tuvok to target his cargo hold, pointing out mockingly, " Time to take out the garbage. " Tuvok does this and opens fire on Emck. A volley of photon torpedoes ruptures his bulkheads, destroying him as Voyager flies past, into the vortex.

" I saw something, a star ! "

They enter and release delayed-charge torpedoes, which explode, beginning the collapse of the vortex as Voyager goes deeper into it. The shock wave hits and, according to plan, pushes them through the vortex and out the other side. But they are still some distance away from the edge of the void itself. Janeway orders a forward view on-screen. Only a black canvas shows up.

" I see a densely-packed region with thousands of star systems . Looks pretty lively. "

As they progress in their journey, all eyes watch the viewscreen expectantly. Suddenly, Paris says he thinks he sees a star. They continue watching. Then navigational sensors, which had all the time been silent as they had nothing to detect, begin beeping. On the viewscreen, stars slowly become visible. Voyager passes beyond the nothingness of the void into regular space, awash with stars and nebulae . The crew watches with joy and relief. Janeway asks Kim what he sees. He replies with a smile that he sees a densely-packed region with thousands of star systems. Swallowing back emotion, Janeway orders full speed ahead. Voyager continues on, once again in a cosmos filled with light and life.

Memorable quotes [ ]

" Take a look around you. This is how the twentieth century saw the future. We are studying sociology. " (Sarcastically) " Perhaps you can teach a course at Starfleet Academy: "Satan's Robot: An Historical Overview." "

" First thing in the morning, I replicate some curtains. "

" I made an error in judgment , Chakotay. It was short-sighted and it was selfish . And now all of us are paying for my mistake. "

" Oh why sleep when we're having so much fun? " " He's joking Neelix, we're all supposed to laugh… "

" Why don't we make a schedule – a fight rotation? We can optimize our resources: I can start one, then you can start one… " " I am really tired of these games. " " Well, then, don't play them. "

" Needless to say, the view from my quarters has been less than stellar lately. "

" Citizen of Earth, surrender! Do not resist! " " I am Borg. " " Surrenderrr… " " The robot has been neutralized. May I leave now? "

" I'm telling you, I saw something! I may be nihiliphobic but my eyes work just fine ! "

" I suggest you try Borg regeneration. It's much more efficient. A simple cortical implant would be required. " " Another time, perhaps. "

" Chance is irrelevant. We will succeed. " " A vote of Borg confidence. Who can argue with that? "

" Target their cargo hold. Time to take out the garbage. "

" I've been saving up my holodeck rations and I've got three full hours coming. Any chance I might persuade you to join me for a few rounds of Velocity? It'll help clear your mind. " " My mind is perfectly clear. " " What if I told you I'm not leaving until you join me? " " I'd say, have a seat; it'll be a while. "

" Look, I realize we're not exactly best friends. From day one, we've kept each other at arm's length. But I've always respected your judgment and right now, I could use a little Vulcan clarity. "

" It's the captain. As you may have noticed, she's isolated herself from the crew… " " She believes that she made an error in judgment four years ago. That she's responsible for stranding Voyager in the Delta Quadrant. " " She told you? " " No. I've been observing her behavior for the past four years. Guilt has been her constant companion. "

" She sent an away team to survey a volcanic moon. Their shuttle was damaged by a magma eruption and three crew members were severely injured. The next day she returned to the moon alone to complete the survey. She wanted the crew to know that their suffering had not been in vain. "

" Captain Janeway's methods are unorthodox. It is her strength as a leader, but unfortunately, it is also her greatest weakness. " " Stubborn as a Klingon. " " To put it mildly. "

" Anxiety? Anxiety is what I feel when I burn a pot roast. This… this is more like… " " Dizziness, nausea, unspeakable dread? " " Yes. " " Nihiliphobia. The fear of nothingness, or in layman's terms, the fear of… nothingness. "

Background information [ ]

Story and script [ ].

• The Void was a plot element that executive producer Brannon Braga considered to be risky. He remarked, " To kick off the season, why not have Voyager hit a region of space that is utterly devoid of anything? It's a dangerous way to start a story, of course. " ( Cinefantastique , Vol. 31, No. 11, p. 27) However, Braga also hoped that the region would add a particularly realistic element to the episode. " These are the realities of space travel, " he said, " and I hope it adds something of reality to the show. A little more down and dirty, maybe. " ( Star Trek Monthly  issue 44 , p. 13)
• This episode was originally to have included a perilous, unusual planet amid The Void. " With 'Night', we originally had this expanse [of empty space] and then somewhere in the middle of it we were going to find this planet which was essentially going to be the alien equivalent of King Tut 's tomb, " said co-writer Joe Menosky . " We had this huge, ancient temple and these creatures which are half-alive and half-dead and came flying out like locusts and attacked the ship. I wrote at least 10 pages of that stuff, and that's what everybody was expecting to see. The outline and the story had been done, and we just looked at it and thought, 'This isn't working,' and it was all thrown out […] We gutted the script and turned it into something else. " ( Star Trek Monthly  issue 46 , p. 15)
• The scripted description of the Void was memorable for visual effects supervisor Mitch Suskin . " We got a script that said, Voyager is going through a place that has no stars, no planets, nothing,' " Suskin recalled. ( Cinefantastique , Vol. 31, No. 11, p. 48)
• Regarding the creation of Janeway's waning confidence over the events that trapped Voyager in the Delta Quadrant, Brannon Braga noted, " We thought it would be interesting. " ( Star Trek: The Magazine  Volume 1, Issue 1 , p. 66)
• Although the mysterious victimized aliens are unnamed in this episode's final version, the installment's teleplay refers to them as " Night Aliens ". ( Star Trek: Voyager Companion , p. 256)

Cast and characters [ ]

• Joe Menosky once commented that he believed Janeway's character arc in this episode is "good" and "very cool." ( Cinefantastique , Vol. 30, No. 9/10, p. 103) Brannon Braga contemplated Janeway's predicament: " If you think about it, since the show's inception she's always been on the run, she's always been moving, always moving forward, no time to think about the consequences of her decision. And then suddenly, when you hit two years of nothing, there's nothing to do but look back and face the demons of your decision. " ( Star Trek: The Magazine  Volume 1, Issue 1 , p. 66)
• According to the episode's call sheets, actor Steve Dennis played both Night Aliens. The first one is shot by Seven of Nine on the holodeck, and the second one is shot by Janeway but escapes.

Production [ ]

• According to the unofficial reference book Delta Quadrant (p. 251), every element of the Malon design – including their ships and costumes – was intended to look as if it was showing signs of industrial decay.
• This episode entered production in the week beginning 15 June 1998 . ( Star Trek Monthly  issue 43 , p. 4)
• The game that Paris and Torres are playing in the mess hall , referred to herein as " durotta ", has game pieces that are easily recognizable as pieces from the real-life game Quarto . While playing the game, the characters follow the rules of Quarto, as well.

Visual effects [ ]

• The emptiness of the Void caused some consternation for the visual effects artists. Mitch Suskin remembered, " That certainly had us tearing our hair out […] The audience can assume that, even though you usually don't see the sun, or whatever is lighting Voyager , it's obviously being lit by something. When there is nothing there, we have no way to cheat the lighting. " Nevertheless, the visual effects artists had to devise a lighting scheme that made the starship Voyager seem as if it was being lit merely by its own lights. Suskin offered, " We went through numerous iterations, with Mojo at Foundation Imaging trying to make that work. " ( Cinefantastique , Vol. 31, No. 11, p. 48)
• Contrastingly, the visual effects artists were excited about visualizing such CG designs as the Night Alien ships . Commented Mitch Suskin, " The night ship was fun because it was so unusual compared to the normal ships on Voyager . We're not normally given license to do something quite that unusual and wacky. We had a sketch that visual effects producer Dan Curry refined and worked on. " ( Cinefantastique , Vol. 31, No. 11, p. 48)
• Depicting the transition from the darkness of the Void to star-filled space also required visual effects. To create the colorful final shot of the episode, Foundation Imaging employee Robert Bonchune created a CGI composite using images from the Hubble space telescope. He explained, " I just took different images, built it all together, put in flares, threw in a couple of planets. It was one of the only times I just put it all together and it worked well right away. " ( Cinefantastique , Vol. 31, No. 11, p. 48)

Continuity and trivia [ ]

• In dealing with Janeway's guilt over trapping the crew of Voyager in the Delta Quadrant, this episode makes several references to the series premiere " Caretaker ".
• Neelix's panic attack, and subsequent diagnosis of nihiliphobia, the fear of nothingness, may be a subtle reference to the events of the fourth season episode " Mortal Coil ", in which Neelix dies and experiences nothingness, instead of the afterlife that he expected to find.
• This is the first appearance of The Adventures of Captain Proton holodeck program. According to Brannon Braga, a real-life influence on the genesis of the holoprogram was Flash Gordon . ( Cinefantastique , Vol. 30, No. 9/10, p. 103) The program reappears in " Thirty Days ", " Bride of Chaotica! ", and " Shattered ".
• Neelix orders Bergamot tea from the replicator to calm himself while hyperventilating, saying "Bergamot tea, hot." This is likely a reference to Captain Picard's preferred beverage; Bergamot is the defining ingredient in Earl Grey tea.
• Chakotay invites Janeway to play the holodeck sports game Velocity, which first made its appearance in the previous episode, " Hope and Fear ".
• Janeway suggests in this episode that mutiny is punishable by hanging. This would contradict a number of episodes throughout the Star Trek franchise that establish the death penalty does not exist in the Federation, though the context of Janeway's remarks suggest they were said in jest.
• Voyager uses thirteen photon torpedo in this episode, more than in any other previous episode, having previously used four in " Hope and Fear ". This brings the total number of torpedoes confirmed to have been used by Voyager over the course of the series to 40, exceeding by 2 the irreplaceable complement of 38 that had been established by Chakotay in the first season episode " The Cloud ".
• The musical score for this episode, composed by Jay Chattaway , shares similarities to Virgil Thompson's orchestral suite The Plow that Broke the Plains , a piece about the dust bowl and the great depression, thus also suggesting desolation. ( citation needed • edit )

Reception [ ]

• Prior to the airing of this episode, Brannon Braga and Joe Menosky were both enthusiastic about the installment. Braga referred to it as "a sweeping adventure" and described the issue of Voyager finding itself in the Void as the ship's "greatest predicament yet." Joe Menosky said of the episode, " It gets the season off to a pretty good start […] and it will have a very interesting coming together at the end. " ( Cinefantastique , Vol. 30, No. 9/10, p. 103) Sometime thereafter, however, Braga and Menosky became considerably less confident of the installment. Braga admitted, " I don't feel that the night aliens and the Malon freighter guys were all that captivating. I liked it, but I wouldn't say it was one of our best. " Menosky's disgruntlement with the episode was more about the effectiveness of Janeway's depression. He complained, " I don't think it was really sold. If you are going to have a big crisis like that, you can't do it in the course of a single episode, wrap it up at the end and make it believable. It was the wrong way to go, and it did not come off particularly well, no excuses. It was just a lot of pieces of different story elements. " ( Cinefantastique , Vol. 31, No. 11, p. 27)
• At the 2008 Las Vegas Star Trek convention, Robert Picardo recalled this episode, saying, " I remember we went through a portion of space once that was called the 'Night'. And there was no power and there was a little alien that looked like a large tootsie roll and he was called the 'Captain's log!' " [1]
• Among the items from this episode which were sold off on the It's A Wrap! sale and auction on eBay were the costumes of Kirsten Turner (as Constance Goodheart) [2] and Steve Dennis [3] , the Captain Proton jetpack [4] , and several mug lots. [5] [6] [7] A script of this episode was also sold off [8] while the costume of Martin Rayner (as Doctor Chaotica ) was auctioned on the Profiles in History auction. [9]
• Kate Mulgrew discussed the reception of this episode with Star Trek: The Magazine  Volume 1, Issue 18 , p. 15, " Janeway's heroism is now so well established that I'm always asking them to, you know, rock the boat a little bit… it seems that when we do that, though, it's controversial. 'Night' got really mixed reviews because people get uncomfortable watching a captain's depression, but I thought it was just such a wonderful thing to explore. Six years of this loneliness, of this absolute solitariness: how would she feel at this point, how would she manifest this great sadness? "

Apocrypha [ ]

• In the String Theory trilogy, it is revealed that the Void was caused by Voyager helping to seal a rift in space that opened up to Exosia , the home dimension of the Nacene . As the rift was sealed, the space that it occupied in space/time changed to accommodate thousands of years of another history, and the absence of light is due to the photonic energy in that area having been drained into the rift and unable to regenerate at this time. The String Theory series also gives an explanation for Janeway's out-of-the-norm attitude, revealing that she had gone through a traumatic experience that caused her to suffer a minor neural imbalance that would leave her with periods of emotional struggles for the rest of her life.
• A Malon character mentions the events of this episode in the Star Trek: Deep Space Nine post-finale novel Demons of Air and Darkness .

Video and DVD releases [ ]

• UK VHS release (two-episode tapes, CIC Video ): Volume 5.1, 1 March 1999
• As part of the VOY Season 5 DVD collection

Links and references [ ]

Starring [ ].

• Kate Mulgrew as Captain Kathryn Janeway

Also starring [ ]

• Robert Beltran as Chakotay
• Roxann Dawson as B'Elanna Torres
• Robert Duncan McNeill as Tom Paris
• Ethan Phillips as Neelix
• Robert Picardo as The Doctor
• Tim Russ as Tuvok
• Jeri Ryan as Seven of Nine
• Garrett Wang as Harry Kim

Guest stars [ ]

• Ken Magee as Emck
• Night Alien 1
• Night Alien 2
• Martin Rayner as Doctor Chaotica

Uncredited co-stars [ ]

• David Keith Anderson as Ashmore
• Richard Bishop as an operations officer
• Elizabeth Carlisle as a command officer
• Damaris Cordelia as Foster
• Christine Delgado as Susan Nicoletti
• Andrew English as a security officer
• Satan's Robot (suit only)
• Holiday Freeman as an operations division officer
• Grace Harrell as an operations division officer
• Noriko Suzuki as an operations division officer
• Kirsten Turner as Constance Goodheart
• Stuart Wong as a civilian
• Unknown actor as Satan's Robot (voice)

Stand-ins [ ]

• Brita Nowak – stand-in for Jeri Ryan and Kirsten Turner

References [ ]

47 ; 20th century ; 2371 ; 2377 ; Adventures of Captain Proton, The ; AM ; antimatter ; astrometrics ; astronomical phenomena ; auxiliary power ; bergamot tea ; Billings , USS ; Billings personnel, USS ; Billings shuttle, USS ; bingo ; bio-filter ; bioscan ; Borg cube ; candle ; Captain Proton ; Caretaker's array ; cellular level ; Chaotica ; clarinet ; Class 2 shuttle ; concerto ; controller ; cortical implant ; country ; curtains ; Delta Quadrant ; dimensional radius ; department ; dizziness ; Don Carlo ; dread ; duet ; Durotta ; Earth ; " Echoes of the Void "; electron ; emergency power ; energy ; engineer (aka engineering staff ); engineering (applied science); engineering (location); EPS manifold ; eyesight ; Federation ; hanging ; high warp ; holodeck ; hyperventilation ; injector ports ; intergalactic ; isolation suit ; isoton ; jig ; kilometer ; Klingon ; lava ; layman ; leader ; life support ; lock plate ; magma ; Malon ; Malon export vessel, eleventh gradient ; Malon Prime ; mass murder ; meditation ; meter ; Milky Way Galaxy ; morale officer ; mutiny ; nacelle ; Night Aliens ; Night Alien ship ; nihiliphobia ; Novakovich gambit ; Ocampa ; painstick ; phenomenon ; photon torpedo ; photosensitivity ; plasma manifold ; poetic justice ; polyluminous burst ; pot roast ; power cell ; profit margin ; purification (chemistry) ; radiometric converter ; radiation poisoning ; radio relay ; radiometric converter ; reclamation technology ; recycling ; red alert ; retrofit ; replicator ; respiratory distress ; sailor ; Satan's Robot: An Historical Overview ; senior officer ; short-sightedness ; SIMs beacon ; space force ; spaceman first class ; spatial charge ; spatial vortex ; spectral frequency ; star ; star system ; Starfleet Academy ; " steady as she goes "; stir crazy ; subatomic level ; surrender ; tactical training ; theta radiation ; " to be continued "; transkinetic chamber ; Velocity ; Void, the ; volcanic moon ; volcano ; vote of confidence ; Vulcan ; warp flare ; waste export industry

External links [ ]

• " Night " at Memory Beta , the wiki for licensed Star Trek works
• " Night " at Wikipedia
• " Night " at the Internet Movie Database
• " Night " at MissionLogPodcast.com , a Roddenberry Star Trek podcast
• 1 Daniels (Crewman)
• 2 Jamaharon

• Web Channels
• Star Trek: Voyager

Stardate: 52081.2 -  Voyager  enters a desolate expanse of space where no stars are visible and will take two years to cross. The lack of starlight causes morale issues with the crew, and Janeway questions the choices that stranded her crew in the Delta Quadrant so far from home. They encounter two mysterious alien races who may be at war with each other. Janeway comes to the aid of one of them.

Martin Rayner

Steve Rankin

Cast Appearances

Kate Mulgrew

Robert Beltran

Roxann Dawson

Robert Duncan McNeill

Ethan Phillips

Robert Picardo

Garrett Wang

Episode discussion.

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Star Trek: Voyager

“Night”

Air date: 10/14/1998 Written by Brannon Braga & Joe Menosky Directed by David Livingston

Review by Jamahl Epsicokhan

"Nihiliphobia—the fear of nothingness. Or in layman's terms, the fear of ... nothingness." — Doc

Review Text

Nutshell: A reasonable start to the season, but with a few too many drawbacks.

Voyager 's season five premiere, "Night," is like a seesaw, where on one side we have elements of promise and originality, and on the other we have the familiar frustrations. Which side wins out? I'm not exactly sure. I'm inclined to call it a draw.

An episode like "Night" reveals a duality that exists within much of starship-based Trek . One half of this duality allows me to be interested in where these characters are going next, because sci-fi's possibilities are so broad. But with the other half, I realize that, in creative terms, they've probably already been where they're headed. It's a duality that makes me wonder how long a Trek series can last without striving to break the conventions of formula—which in turn makes me wonder how fatal a mistake it was for Voyager to ignore the more consequential implications of its setting way back when the long-lasting standards were being set.

What's funny is that DS9 seems strangely immune to this Trek duality because its format these days is so labyrinthine, unpredictable, and particularly mindful of its own history. I'm not trying to go out of way to say " DS9 good, Voyager bad"—what I'm saying is that Voyager continues to come off as a new breed of TOS , whereas DS9 comes off as a breed of its own. (Sometimes I wonder where we'd be if DS9 had turned to exploring the Gamma Quadrant in TNG style rather than exploring its political and metaphysical powers within a war setting.)

Anyway, back to the point here: For me, a lot of "Night" was an example of utilizing the standard Trek formula, but also an example of how to use Voyager 's elements well. The original point of this series was that the ship and crew were alone. But the ship has never really been alone ; they've always been in contact with some alien species, or as Janeway puts it, "constantly under attack."

In "Night," Voyager is travelling through a void where there's nothing—no stars, no civilizations, no light. Just the starship Voyager , out there alone for two months now, with no expectations for encountering another star system or alien ship for another two years. "Every sailor's worst nightmare," Chakotay says ominously.

The psychological aspects of the episode are its most compelling. An early shot of the ship is eerie, with no stars visible anywhere—the only light emanating from Voyager itself. It's quite a striking visual. Later, a panicking Neelix wakes up in the middle of the night, looks out his window, and sees … absolutely nothing. It's like looking into the depths of literal oblivion.

The effect this all has on the crew is believable and interesting. Everyone is a little on-edge. Neelix's panic attacks provide the most immediately effective example. And even Tuvok looks mysteriously at stars on the astrometrics lab viewscreen, almost as if for comfort, as he comments to Seven that the view from his window "has been less than stellar lately." (If that isn't the Vulcan pun to end all puns, then I don't know what is.)

The Tom/B'Elanna bickering, however, didn't do all that much for me. Is seemed pretty standard and tired, and Tom's jokes resided on the not-so-funny-but-just-plain-insulting side. (His mention of Klingon pain sticks seemed especially inappropriate. For one, B'Elanna has never "enjoyed" such activities; for another, the comment is, well, stereotypical.) Overall, though, the idea of Voyager in darkness is probably the highlight of the episode.

There are some other good ideas in "Night." Beyond the isolation setting, there's also the new "Captain Proton" holonovel—Paris' fantasy program that pays homage to those cheap 1940s sci-fi serials. It's a scream. (Besides, how can you not like a holodeck program that's offered in black-and-white?) We seem to go through approximately one holodeck theme per year, ranging from the French pool hall, Janeway's Victorian novel, Neelix's resort, to Leonardo da Vinci's workshop. "Captain Proton" easily has the potential of being the most fun if the writers can keep it interesting.

Meanwhile, through the early stages of the episode, I kept asking myself, "Where's the captain?" Chakotay's on the bridge; no Janeway. Staff meeting is run by Chakotay; no Janeway. The crew asks for the captain; Chakotay responds, "The captain sends her regards." Where is she and what's going on?

A good question, but the answer isn't quite what I had in mind. The biggest problem with "Night" is probably this aspect of the story—and unfortunately, it pretty much brings the emotional core of the episode tumbling down with it.

There's always been plenty of potential for Janeway to wrestle with controversial decisions she has made over the years, the most obvious one, as in this case, being her original decision to destroy the Caretaker's array and leave Voyager stranded in the Delta Quadrant. Fine and good, but I have some severe problems with the way Janeway goes about "dealing" with this guilt here.

In short, I find Janeway's actions a little inexplicable. As Chakotay rightly puts it, "You've picked a bad time to isolate yourself from the crew"—and I personally don't think this demonstrates Janeway being a good leader. Sure, I can understand her guilt catching up with her given the current predicament of being out in the middle of a dark, empty void. But for her to simply make herself unavailable, telling Chakotay to "send the crew her regards" is questionable behavior at best—and selfish and out of character at worst. Even when her flaws are at their most evident, Janeway has always been one who maintains confidence in the decisions she makes, and I find the notion of locking herself in a darkened room to be something of a plausibility stretch and a bit silly.

Objections to Janeway's course of action aside, I also feel the "guilt issue" falls severely short of what it could've been dramatically. Why not press it further? Chakotay's attempt, for example, to comfort the captain with, "We're alive, aren't we?" should've opened the door to an entire conversation, but didn't. Just once I'd like to see all those unnamed Voyager crew members who have died over the past four years receive some sort of acknowledgement. Even having Janeway counter with a well-played, "What about those who aren't with us anymore?" could've gone a long way. But such crew members simply vanish into the convenience of "red-shirt oblivion" (despite the fact that Janeway, unlike Captain Kirk, doesn't have the luxury of setting course for the nearest starbase to take on new crew members).

Fortunately, once the episode launches into action, Janeway resumes her rightful place on the bridge. And as far as New Alien Encounters go, this week was fairly fresh. Not groundbreaking, but effective.

Over the summer, Brannon Braga voiced the writing staff's intention to "push the envelope" of alien encounters this year. While this is an attitude that should've arisen the moment Voyager found itself in the Delta Quadrant when the series began, I'm all for the concept of "better late than never," and it's a completely prudent measure to take at this stage of the game, where it's obvious that the goal of the series is to be " TOS in the Delta Quadrant." So on this front, the idea of aliens who live out in the middle of "nowhere" and thrive on darkness is a perfectly workable idea.

That's not to say that the plot is particularly imaginative; it's essentially the TOS attitude with a '90s spin, the theme that seemed to be the goal of much of Voyager 's fourth season. For the most part, it's fine here. We have the bizarre aliens who live in the dark and attack Voyager . And then, in perfect TOS fashion, we learn that peace and conflict come in unlikely packages (the reverse of what we initially assume); the dark-habitat aliens are actually the peaceful group (who made a mistake when attacking Voyager ) at the mercy of the alien visitor who had earlier come to Voyager 's rescue when it was under attack. The formula then follows that Janeway & Co. must get involved to do the right thing, which is made particularly easy when it turns out the visiting alien to this realm is literally dumping toxic waste, which is killing the peaceful aliens who live in the darkness.

This is classic Trekkian morality—not particularly challenging, but nice nonetheless. And conceptually, Michael Westmore's makeup design delivers on the "strange and unusual" level. Ultimately, Janeway's decision to open fire on the toxic waste dumper when he refuses to listen to reason displays a very Kirk-like attitude. Funny how the cycles repeat themselves.

Turning back to problems, however, is the silliest moment of the show—a crucial decision that is much too easily plotted around. I'm referring of course to Janeway's decision to make sure Voyager escapes through a spatial vortex that exits the void on the other side. Her decision requires that she stay behind and collapse the vortex after Voyager has passed through it. But her crew won't let her make this sacrifice. They refuse to follow the given order, and as a result Janeway essentially folds and says, "Fine, then—Plan B." Plan B requires that no one make any sacrifice; instead, the ship must be put in some sort of artificial technobabble jeopardy for 90 or so seconds (accompanied by a battle sequence and nifty special effects).

This is the flaw that keeps the episode from being worth a recommendation. I enjoyed this show okay as an action outing, but when the central character core becomes virtually a non-issue solved with a laughably thin plot device, it becomes hard to get much out of the show in terms of dramatic payoff. Besides, given how much danger the ship is put through week after week, I don't see why Plan B wasn't just Plan A in the first place.

As a season premiere, "Night" manages both to entertain and to frustrate. The teaser and first act are wonderfully engaging, but then the show slowly descends into reasonable action and ultimately resigns itself to shallow solutions, which is a shame. Within this episode I see elements that could turn out to be the beginnings of some very good trends, but I also see some of the same old pratfalls and the series' general refusal to tell a story requiring any length of an attention span.

Next week: Beware—baby Borg becomes big, bad burden.

Previous episode: Hope and Fear Next episode: Drone

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Comment Section

111 comments on this post, dirk hartmann.

I would have preferred the episode staying in claustrophobic night mode and "nothingness" until the end (=no story involving aliens etc). This would have been a perfect scenario for more in-depth character development. Could have been a winner. The other thing that bothered me was Janeway acting out ouf character by isolating herself.

Excellent episode that was unfortunately detracted by Janeway's silly attempt at self-sacrifice. It's a shame they didn't stretch Voyager's tour through the Void across several episodes.

Agree with my two predecessors, but nevertheless: One of my favorite shows of the whole series. Considering what happened at the end of season 4 I found Janeway's conduct absolutly believable and well acted!

They must have loved this empty region of space, because they found another one like it in Season 7.

AJ Krovarkrian

Alright. I like this episode because it has some variety, but I agree that the whole Janeway wanting to sacrifice herself was probably the silliest thing, and was done purely for emotional exploitation. I do like the role Chakotay plays though. And of course the magic deflector always comes to the rescue. It can do anything apparently. And I still have a problem with their destroying that vortex. Who gave them the right to do so ? It would have been much more interesting to see them make the first contact with the Melon homeworld, because frankly that judgement that Janeway made based solely on ONE corrupt Melon they had just met, was highly illogical to put it mildly. And I would really like to have seen a real big Delta quadrant civilization.

I really liked this episode, but I couldn't help but wonder: How can the aliens possibly live this far away from any stars? Where do they get their energy?

Oh! Dear God!

The musical peice Harry was playing should have been called: "Echoes of an idiot"!

I'm also willing to overlook this episode's weak points, the worst one for me being that hopelessly obvious escape down the tube... er... vortex... and out of the void. The plot framework felt inventive enough, the eye candy was impressive, and the dialogue was sharp. The crew's unease set up some excellent moments (Tuvok and Chakotay, and Seven in the holodeck). As usual I think Jammer was right on the money with most of the analysis. But I didn't have much of a problem with Janeway's actions. She was never written to be quite as ruthless as her decisions suggest her to be, and by this point in the series it was past time for her to do some soul searching, even if it wasn't going to drastically alter the show on a larger scale. Even a half-hearted attempt to revive some of the issues raised in "Hope and Fear" was better than none at all. As for the amorphous crew, it's the writers' fault for never meaningfully including them, not Janeway's. If they'd ever given us something like "The Ship", or even just some "Ten Forward" style filler, I could see Voyager's losses having a real emotional impact. But Voyager's isolation would have made broaching that topic in a way that wasn't utterly deflating very tricky. It clearly wasn't something they wanted to deal with.

I really like the first part, up until the malon show up. I especially like the way voyager's lights go off all over the ship slowly, even if it doesn't make a lot of sense. Hollywood physics. The one part that really annoys me for some reason is when tuvok and harry are discussing how they'll 'shed some light' on what's going on, or whatever, tuvok technobabbles and harry says "a warp flare". Why is it a warp flare? Why not just a flare? Sure it's a photon torpedo but just call it a bloody flare!

I'm weird. But over time this has become one of my favorite and most re-watched episodes. I really think its Voyager's better stand alone episodes. And its nice to have a strange alien like the Void dwellers, black and slimy. Nice change of pace instead of your usual goofy looking forehead alien.

It's no DS9, but after the mostly mind numbing Season 4 I found this episode quite enjoyable. It introduced a new idea for once instead of recycling and at least provided some variety in the Hard Headed Alien of the Week. However it's also an example of *why* it's no DS9. With such a compelling idea they could have made the void last 4-5 episodes and properly analysed the crew's despair and maybe even some character development (heh). No such luck though - it's the usual reset button at the end. What a waste.

So er... why not give the dark guys the means to destroy the vortex? This isn't like "Caretaker" where the Ocampa are isolated underground; the people being protected are able to help.

Regarding your complaint about the story's resolution : I repeat, this show is about characters; the A/B solutions (while a little pat) provided the character resolution in Janeway; the Family plot thread which grew significantly last season had a lot to do with Janeway's choices to corral the crew together as matriarch and leader; what she failed to realise is that she herself is a member of that family and bound to its duties and benefits as anyone else. I would have enjoyed seeing a story resolution which accomplished this AND seemed like a relavant plot thread, but that is the unending problem with this series; plot is sacrificed or canned for the sake of character. This is a 3 star episode. The beginning of one of Trek's best seasons.

The point about the crew members who died is a great one. Voyager always suffered from what could be called "Late-season M*A*S*Hitis." When it first premiered, M*A*S*H didn't focus solely on the characters in the credits. Guest stars were the norm, and it was clear that the main characters frequently interacted with secondary characters at the 4077. This changed late in the series when the main cast seemed to only communicate with each other. This was largely true of TNG, too, but that made sense for a few reasons. The Enterprise had regular transfers, it had a MUCH larger crew than Voyager and the characters in the opening credits were actually all senior officers (except for Wesley). After Janeway, Chakotay and Tuvok, Voyager's main cast includes two LT JGs (one of whom was demoted to ensign for a while), an ensign, and a non-commissioned Borg, a Talaxian, an Ocampa and a hologram. The fact that Paris, Torres, Kim, Seven, Neelix, Kes and the Doctor are essentially the senior staff makes no sense -- unless you figure everybody else on board is ranked no higher than a LT JG. This COULD have been something that was addressed early in the series, BTW. One line about how the crew is more reliant on junior officers and non-comms -- because of the deaths in 'Caretaker' -- would have covered it. Two examples from the series really jump out on this point: The fact that the main characters (sans Chakotay and Paris) are the only ones to stay on the ship in "Year of Hell," and this episode. And considering this episode wasn't undone by time mechanics, it's worse. When Janeway comes to the bridge to declare her intentions to stay behind, there are a couple extras manning bridge stations. But as Janeway is explaining her plan -- and as the main characters are essentially starting a mutiny -- the extras just turn around and appear not to notice! Do they not care about what's happening behind them? Enterprise actually got this point more right than Voyager, by having some recurring secondary characters and not having as many extras milling around apparently not paying attention at moments like these. It was always weird that the Enterprise's senior staff was made up of two ensigns, but could sort of be explained away by figuring Starfleet was still a newish organization.

@Paul The rank of ensign does not preclude one from being a senior officer; Kim was one in the pilot. Torres and the Doc are the chief of staff for their respective departments, rank aside. Kes only came to meetings when it seemed she had something to contribute (eg Scorpion); Neelix is the ambassador (I grant this one's a bit flimsy) and 7 is a genius, besides being the chief AM officer. I noticed the issue with the extras as well, and shook my head--bad execution on Livingston's part.

This is a 3-star episode, IMO. I didn't have a problem with Janeway's seemingly out of character depression or her drastic solution. Frankly it was refreshing and different to see a heroic captain in a moment of weakness and despair. I also liked that Chakotay knew her so well as to be able to predict what she was going to try and do. My main quibble with the episode had to do with the Void Aliens. They should have been designed to look similar to Earth's deep ocean-dwellers. Living in total darkness they could have evolved to the point where they would be bioluminescent with huge eyes. It would have been far more interesting than black and slimy. @Paul, since she's chief Engineer, I believe Torres is considered a full Lieutenant (but a brevet Lieutenant at that).

Oops, I forgot about my other main quibble. I'm surprised no one else has mentioned this. When Seven discovers one of the Void Aliens on the holodeck, she conveniently commands the computer to "disengage safety protocols," and proceeds to shoot it with Captain Proton's "ray gun." Um...no. First of all, Seven isn't an officer and shouldn't have that kind of authority. Second, even if she did have that kind of authority the command should not have been instantly obeyed by the computer without at least a warning. Third, it's a fictional weapon in a fictional setting - it should STILL be harmless. I get that it's a gag, but it's a very poorly thought out and utterly dumb one.

bunchOFcryBabies

Really love the scene where the lights go out. How cool was that? Didn't bother reading any other posts since I'm sure most of them are people who try to analyze and cry about petty stuff. Nerds.

You can turn an enormous cargo bay int oa holodeck just by installing a few emitters? Aren't the emitters those huge X shaped panels?

Agreed with AJ: just like that decided to destroy the vortex. Agreed with Eric: How are those aliens living there?

I thoroughly enjoy reading these reviews, but they really are biased against this show. I'd rather it would be rated for what it is and not for not being DS9. Don't get me wrong, I respect your point of view and the time/thoughts you put in these reviews. Granted, it would have been great to have the crew remaining a bit more in the Void, there are many shuttle crashes, there are no long story-arcs, many plot-holes and easy ways out. However, there are often some nice subtle character developements that you don't talk about in favor of deploring plots and/or metaphors that are simply dismissed. In this episode, it's nice to see how the staff react in their own particular ways. Though Neelix isn't my favorite character (by far :p), his panic attacks were very much in character and I felt for him. About Janeway, I don't agree it's not like her: a depression may "fall on" everyone, wether the time is right or wrong (well... usually, there's never a right time). One of the symptoms of depressive episodes is isolation. I certainly would have liked it not being magically cured at the end of this episode, but it's very consistent for a person who's had heavy weight on her shoulders - totally alone - to get depressed. I know it's totally silly to write this comment years after you wrote your reviews, but as I'm overcoming my shyness to write in english, it felt good to type it ;-).

This episode benefited from its slot as a season premiere. You could imagine that the ship spent most of the summer break in the dark void. That gimmick would not have been possible if Season 4 had ended with a cliffhanger.

Jo Jo Meastro

A nice start to season five. I loved the concept of the void and the effects it had on the crew. The void was almost like a physical manifestation of the emotional place the crew was at. I'm guessing it was Joe Manosky who contributed this approach to the story as its very consistent with this style. On top of that, I actually appreciated the aliens of the week and they bring much more than the usual action. They were right at home with the story instead of being a distraction. Janeway got the chance to confront the guilt she'd been harbouring for so long and the way this situation parallels the events of Care Taker let her find redemption and gives renewed hope. Tackling and escaping the void had emotional under currents I'd like to see resurface more often. The wonderful special effects, strong direction, intriguing change of pace, impressive story telling, great acting and characterisation all add up to a classic season opener in my eyes. 4/4

First Emck isnt allowed to go further then the transporterpad next thing hes walking in engineering

Seems unrealistic for Janeway to casually murder 100 or so people aboard the Freighter...

I agree with everyone but what bothered me about Janeway's depression is that the Doctor wasn't consulted. There should have been a discussion btwn the Dr. & Chakotay where they acknowledge that the Captain is having a hard time of it and they may need to do something. Or perhaps Chakotay lying a bit to the Dr. the the Captain isn't all that bad. Having personally battled depression, you don't just throw it off that fast.

I always have to laugh at the extras on the bridge. They never notice anything going on around them. It was weird when Janeway said "assemble the crew" and only the senior staff and a few busy extras were on the bridge to hear her plan.

This is an example of the frustrating aspects of trek in general, especially Voyager. Take an episode that would work as an psychological adventure and make it another silly Bad Aliens (TM) of the week episode. Also the Politically Correct silliness. Toxic waste dumping in space? Oh Please... It is one thing to maybe do an episode based on a planet where environmental poisoning is being dramatized, but in space? Space is BIG, really big remember? Already full of stuff like Cosmic radiation, Gamma rays, X-rays, etc... If anything just dumping the waste near a star would do the trick to incinerate it. Also how do Aliens living in a void have spaceships? Finally, any business person worth a damn would love to get on the ground floor of a new and revolutionary discovery that is sure to be worth a fortune like the malon was offered.

There were a lot of good parts but also a lot of bad parts in this episode. It could have been a great episode if it had been given the "page 1 rewrite" treatment. Some of the problems: - Janeway's sudden personality change was jarring and not convincing (I'm talking about the concept, not Mulgrew's acting, which actually seemed really good). It just seemed so sudden and to come out of nowhere. They could have foreshadowed it in the first couple of scenes instead of wasting time on Captain Protein. - The aliens live in a vast void thousands of light years across. Where did they come from? Where do they get sustenance? More importantly, they have ships! What do they use these ships for if they have nowhere to go? On the bright side, the black slimy aliens were really well-done, and I like the "greedy selfish garbage man" concept. Oh, the costuming and ship design for the garbage aliens was good too. I'll also note this is one of the few episodes where I thought Janeway's usually cheesy one-liner worked. Time to take out of the garbage.

Oh yeah... I'll say again Robert Beltran's acting always looks especially terrible when he is in a scene with Mulgrew. And the line, "Chakotay, there's no one I trust more than you" was ridiculous. We all know Janeway trusts Tuvok the most, and that she only picked Chakotay to be F/O to help the Maquis feel at home.

@Domi, I agree on much (including Beltran's acting), and I agree that she chose Chakotay as her XO to make the Maquis feel at home. Still, it's been four years since then, much of it spent basically alone with Chakotay ("Resolutions"); things have changed.

I think that this rating is really unfair. Here you have a new concept, character moments, original aliens... and basically Voyager gets bashed for not being DS9. So Janeway hasn't been gnashing her teeth about her decision in front of us for the last few years- as she herself says, she's had other things to do, now she's in pure blackness. I wish that Voyager had been rated on its merits, not as a comparison with "the Sisko".

Where did these indiginous aliens get the materials to build vessels out of?

@T'Paul I agree with you. Yes, DS9 was awesome; I'm not going to disagree with anyone who says that. At the same time, however, Jammer's incessant bitching that Voyager sucks largely because it wasn't DS9, does grow tiresome. In terms of the characters, if nothing else, I've come to realise that Voyager is my favourite Trek series; and I've seen them all at this point, although I haven't spent as much time re-watching TOS. Granted, the writing a lot of the time was awful. I'm not going to deny that. But I also think that the Voyager crew had some of the most charismatic and likeable actors that I've ever seen on television; and that in addition to that, their characters were all the more interesting, because of the fact that they were flawed. I've also realised more recently, that it is actually Voyager's flaws that are a big part of what has made it so endearing to me, as well. I tend to be a strange person, in the sense that I usually find myself deriving value from things which most other people think are of terrible quality. Voyager is no exception. At the moment, I'm also currently in my second playthrough of the Voyager PC game, Elite Force, which I've always really enjoyed as well. In other words, although I like your reviews, please lighten up, Jammer. Yes, Voyager is genuine drek in places; but there are other places where it really isn't.

One of the oddities about having comments on reviews I wrote 15 years ago is that it means I'm sometimes asked to adjust behavior (e.g., "lighten up") for a future that is more than a decade in the past.

@Jammer, True. I realised that not long after I finished that post, and felt exceptionally stupid. My apologies.

No need to apologize. It's just one of those weird and interesting things -- and it makes me feel old.

I liked this episode, it had a bit of everything. However, Chakotay was especially annoying, especially his apparent readiness to mutiny (yet again) - but of course everything gets neatly tied up in the last five minutes. Voyager is constantly compared to TOS, which is fair. However, it just goes to show how strong the Kirk/Spock/McCoy relationship was that served to sustain the fabric of that show. Chakotay is the weakest link in voyager. They should have killed him off - then we'd have been left with Janeway, a promoted Tuvok, combined with Seven, and the Doctor - every other character would have remained cardboard cutouts and the show would have been perfectly fine and much stronger for it. Lastly, one key of TOS success is many of the best episodes were written by dyed in the wool sci-fi writers. Voyager clearly benefited from this tradition. Meanwhile, DS9 wasn't much more than a soap-opera (space-opera - with a high dose of melodrama)- not true science fiction.

Ah, another new season ... and, sadly, another new mess. I'd really, really love to like Voyager as a series - but the writers just make it impossible for me. The amount of things that just make no sense, be it practical stuff or crew behaviour, piles up to a point where I just can't ignore it, try as I might. It's a shame, 'cause the show actually has a lot of good stuff tugged inbetween the total brainfarts. Oh, and: The power goes out all over Voýager. On the holodeck, Paris and Seven turn on a flashlight and we see that: 1) Although there's apparantly no power on the holodeck (lights went out), Paris and Seven are still surrounded by the set from the Holonovel 2) ... and everything is in black and white (or rather: grey). *tripple facepalm*

@Jammer yes that's quite an amusing effect :) I've also been guilty countless times of sayings things like "I hope they improve the writing of soandso". In the back of my mind I know it already finished over a decade ago and the writers have long since packed up gone home and written other things. But sometimes you get so immersed in the show (especially if you do things like watching early Voyager and mid-late DS9 in parallel to match how they aired) that you kind of forget it was all done and dusted years ago. It's interesting :)

Excellent episode. The alien plot was unnecessary, but still, the character moments were touching.

karatasiospa

I think this episode is the perfect example of what was wrong with Voyager. A crew alone thousands of light years from home, fighting for their lifes for 4 years, alone and tired and now they have to face the reality of a years long journey through nothingness! That could be a great psychological episode ( even a thriller) and a good chance for the writers to give us a closer look to the crew. But what they did instead? The alien of the week again and in the end a cheap trick to get them out of the difficult situation! The first 16 minutes were very good and Janeway rethinking her decisions was a nice moment but the writers didn't elaborate. A pitty.

One thing I'll say about Brannon Braga he does a good job at writing stand alone episodes and big two parters. I love the episodes he wrote with Ronald Moore, Joe Menosky, and Rick Berman. With episodes like All Good Things, Year of Hell, Broken Bow, he could easily write a big epic stand alone Trek movie that would appeal to Trek fans and non Trek fans. Considering how hard it must had been to produce 24 episodes a season I'm surprised the creative staff didn't attempt to expand theme in this episode and other episodes such as Parallax, The Cloud, Basics, The Swarm, Year of Hell, The Void and etc into more than one episodes.

Why didn't Voyager just wait for the Malon to go home since they knew where the vortex was. It's not like the Malon would have hung around for years guarding the vortex.. It can't take them that long to dump their waste and leave (and since they stranded the Malon on the other side their waste is still going to be dumped there, and more of the aliens are going to die as they battle it out). This is the issue I guess when the story needs for the crew to be unusually stupid (like why did they let Arturis hang out on the bridge of their new ship in Hope & Fear, where he could cause a problem.. and when they found out he had tampered with the message, why didn't they just beam him to the brig? Because the story would have ended, that's why...)

I was fine with most of the episode. There's only one small thing I would've liked to see changed. I would have preferred the Malon ship to be incapacitated by Voyager (or those Void aliens) as Voyager uses the vortex to escape and permanently shuts the door behind them, thus leaving the Malon stranded in the void and at the mercy of all the victims they themselves created. It just would have made for a more poetic justice kind of ending, but it's not essential, I guess. I just like to see the bad guys get their comeuppance in ways that aren't just 'kill them somehow'.

Malon captain - "You've scanned my vessel. You've seen my firepower. You wouldn't last ten seconds in a battle with me!" Begs the question: Why does a garbage truck have more firepower than Voyager? o.o

I lost interest the moment the aliens came into the episode

It's nice for Janeway to finally express some serious guilt but too unbelievable for Tuvok to claim she felt it from the beginning and for no one else to question or disagree with her decisions (or to act as if the main cast are the only crew who matter). I don't usually mind un-subtle but the Malon were such black hat wearers the episode felt silly and uninteresting in its preaching.

So once again, just like in Caretaker, Janeway violates the Prime Directive by closing the wormhole and stopping the aliens from dumping their toxic waste. Doesn't Starfleet have rules about not interfering in the internal affairs of a species which is at war with a different species? And I'm not even going to mention the stupidity of not knowing where to dump your toxic waste in space, except to say - throw it into the sun, dumbasses! Oh yeah, and plothole: Seven tells the computer to disengage holodeck safety protocols despite the fact that in TNG's Descent Part 1, Data says to Geordi that the computer requires two senior officer authorizations to disengage holodeck safeties.

skadoo - Wed, Jul 10, 2013 - 11:32am (USA Central) "I agree with everyone but what bothered me about Janeway's depression is that the Doctor wasn't consulted. There should have been a discussion btwn the Dr. & Chakotay where they acknowledge that the Captain is having a hard time of it and they may need to do something. Or perhaps Chakotay lying a bit to the Dr. the the Captain isn't all that bad. Having personally battled depression, you don't just throw it off that fast." @Skadoo - Janeway's depression wasn't a clinical or medical matter. It was not some "chemical imbalance" or whatever horseshit psychiatry is peddling these days. It was her personality's natural reaction to her situation, combined with guilt for what she did in Caretaker. To try to take that away from her via "medication/poisoning," or trivialize it by saying it's a "chemical imbalance," thus implying that it isn't a normal part of her personality adjusting to her actions and her environment, is a grave and dehumanizing insult to her. The reason she was depressed is because she has a conscience and is a good person, not because of some medical nonsense! I'm sorry that you have been brainwashed by psychiatry's crap. P.S. No, I'm NOT a Scientologist (they're fraudulent too). I just have commonsense!

I'd say this was an acceptable start to the season. It sounds like everyone already said most of the important stuff. Yes, the atmosphere was amazing. Yes, the design of the two aliens were cool. Yes, the final part of the story is pretty derivative. Such is life... The big question is Janeway's attitude during this episode. It's about time to have some introspection from her, and this giant cloud of whateverness was a perfect opportunity to examine it. I know people think of Janeway as psycho, or think that she's bipolar, or (perhaps most accurately) that the writers just wrote her however they wanted. But in reality, she had a character arc, even if it's not a positive uplifting one: she went from being a fine upstanding Federation officer to someone desperate to get home that she was willing to bend the rules. It's been brought up a bit before, albeit not directly. Now, she questions the decision to save the Ocampa rather than herself. And she questions whether to ignore the night-people here. Sure, she ends up helping them out anyway, but she's definitely far more uncertain these days. Hopefully it'll be consistent that she's more ruthless this season. That said, the complete isolation was a bit of overkill, especially its execution. Janeway was brooding in her quarters, well, ok. I can live with it. Chakotay being the public face of the captain worked pretty well, as was his private talk with Janeway. But then, the night people appeared, and she became all action-girl, running around. Then she went right back to being moody. It just seemed awkward and forced. I mean, I guess it makes sense that she would come out when her ship is threatened, but narrative-wise I didn't care for it. It was also a bit too happy of an ending, Janeway's all better? Doesn't need to say anything to the crew? No apologies, no awkwardness? Oh well, captain's prerogative, I guess. By the way, one other nice part of this episode was that all the regular characters worked well in their bit parts. Kim taking the night shift was long overdue, and perhaps is an outgrowth of Demon. Captain Proton is absolutely hilarious; I love it. Spot on parody of Ming the Merciless, too. As I said, Chakotay did well as the Mouth of the Captain. B'Elanna's outburst in the dining room was kinda dumb, I admit, but everyone else had a solid showing. This was especially true after the night people attacked and we ended up with a few minutes of Disaster-esque action. Given Voyager's penchant of late of focusing on Janeway/Seven/Doctor to the exclusion of everyone else, it was a pleasant site to see. Now that everyone's used to Seven being on the show, hopefully it can become a bit more balanced, character-wise.

I guess 24th century technology hasn't invented remote detonators or even delay timers. Seriously, they couldn't just have set the torpedos to detonate 90 seconds after they left and were well clear? Whatever. Another missed opportunity. If they had any guts and inventiveness, this void could have been a two-parter or even more. The first 15 minutes of the episode are great. Then it's back to the alien of the week. Sigh.

icarus32soar

Agree with Tim. One if my fave EPS, I watch it again and again. Compelling as a "lost in space" metaphor... And Chakotay has depth for once, he's not just eye candy or Janeway's yes man. The visuals of Voyager's power systems shutting down are stunning, eerie atmosphere. The early staff meeting scene without Janeway has some brilliant dialogue. Humour me. All systems operating within normal parameters. Love it.

I loved the part when in the holodeck program with Tom, facing the robot, said "I am Borg" and ripped out the circuitry of the robot. LOL

Actually if safety protocols are deactivated weapons on the holodeck are lethal. The same thing happened on the TNG when protocols were deactivated and bullets were deadly probably because they become solid projectiles.

Diamond Dave

A very odd feeling episode for a series opener, and a real mish-mash of ideas and moods. It almost - almost - works, but in the end fails because it doesn't really know what it wants to be. What works well is the feel - the imagery of the Void is different and interesting. The initial 'something in the dark' encounter with the aliens is great. The FX work is marvellous. Captain Proton looks fantastic even if it's, yes, another holodeck theme. And as noted above, when Seven flatly declares "I am Borg" before disabling the robot, its arms lengthening, head down death may be single funniest thing I have yet seen on any Trek. On the downside, Janeway definitely feels off character to me, the 'mutiny' doesn't really have any tension because it's all been revealed up front what is going to happen, and the heavy handed environmental message comes straight out of The Voyage Home style moralising. 2.5 stars overall.

T'Paul Mon, Sep 16, 2013, 7:56pm (UTC -5) I think that this rating is really unfair. Here you have a new concept, character moments, original aliens... and basically Voyager gets bashed for not being DS9. So Janeway hasn't been gnashing her teeth about her decision in front of us for the last few years- as she herself says, she's had other things to do, now she's in pure blackness. I wish that Voyager had been rated on its merits, not as a comparison with "the Sisko". =============================================================== ^^ So much this... This episode was wonderful. It isn't about the technobabble that plan "B" was it was the fact that Janeway was to the point of just sacrificing herself. This situation, nothing for months, was probably the toughest situation for our always on the hop doing things coffee slamming Captain. She actually had time to stop and reflect. then of course with that comes questioning ones self and decisions. Aside from the fact she is bored to tears, now blame creeps in because it was her choice that landed them here. At least the crew had their daily routine and each other to keep the mundane at arms length... Janeway just shut everything out. She really has no peer. I thought the dark aliens were just fantastic. Probably one of trek's finest. The Malon ship and Emck were cool as well. I just loved how the crew banded together and disobeyed their Captain. 3.5 star episode for me. Very good season opener.

Enjoyed this episode but would have liked more insight on these aliens. How did they happen to be in the void? Where is there home? They did say there are a million of them in the void. I've read all the reviews posted here but I am puzzled that no one spotted an out of sequence scene. I am referring to Chakotay and Tuvok in the briefing room. It happens just after the scene where we see Chakotay and Janeway in sickbay. I am positively sure that the Chakotay-Tuvok scene should have taken place earlier, rather than after the sickbay scene. Any thoughts?

Yes Jammer, you did go out of your way to say that "Voyager is bad and DS9 is good". Everyone knows that you are a DS9 fanboi and that you really can not stand Voyager. Voyager was a better series. It did not take place on a space station and revolve around wormhole prophets.

I'm enjoying these reviews while watching the show for the first time since it aired (I don't think I saw most of seasons 4-7 so I know they get home but don't remember how). I have lived with people suffering depression most of my life and I found Janeway's actions consistent with my experience. The point about depression is that people act atypically. The lack of ship's counselor has been a major plot hole that could have been used throughout the series. Most ships would have people who might be interested in the role and who could "go to school" in the holodeck to develop their skills. In fact, the whole ship's counselor ethos in TNG era shows always bothered me because it clearly showed the idea that they were still dividing health care into mind and body elements. The new fields of study like neuroscience and epigenetics are showing us that one cannot view human health as a set of silos. The doctor in ENT offers hints of the way medicine may be practiced in our future. At any rate, I found Janeway's depression consistent with the weaknesses she has displayed in the past. I thought the writers did a reset with Tuvoc and Chakoty's relationship. Now, as Jammer often points out, it will be interesting to see if that change persists. I do think that the "mutiny" may help the captain accept that she cannot redeem her past actions and that she is accepted--warts and all--by her crew--that she is "not alone" (as she commented in Scorpion).

This is like a TOS episode in the Delta quadrant. The classic Trek morality is in play. There's "bad guys" versus "innocents." The worst you can say is that they had a chance to do something different and really didn't.

"Time to take out the garbage!" LOL awesome, almost AHNULD-like. Just watched 5 episodes back to back at random that I never saw before (Scorpion 1 & 2, Living Witness, Hope & Fear, and this one) and I gotta say I may have wrongly pegged Voyager as being piss because I've really enjoyed all of them. The plot for this one reminded me a lot of a TNG episode for some reason, but hey that's not a bad thing.

hmmmummmm ... what happened? ...nvm

I think it's only an average episode, but ever since I first saw it, some of the imagery stayed with me. The thought of being on a deep space voyage, far from home in the endless void, losing power, even the lights on the ship go out, leaving total blackness... I think I've had some fascinating dreams over the years thanks to this episode.

Pretty good episode but I didn't buy Janeways behaviour. I don't think what she was going through should be classified as depression, but more of a crisis of conscience. If that was the case then she was merely wallowing in self-pity, rather than suffering a depressive episode, which I think is very un-captain like. It would explain why she recovered so quickly. All she really needed was to be told that she had made the right decision, and that everyone still wanted her around.

dave johnson

Hm... 15+ years later and we are still having childish debates about "MY Trek series is better than your Trek series.. nah nah nah". He wrote these reviews over 15 years ago, in the context of both shows happening at the same time. They were VERY different shows and it is natural for a person to favor one over the other. A DS9 fan would be driven nuts by all the continuity errors and short term thinking on Voyager after enjoying a series with multi year storylines and dozens of recurring characters.... I don't think that could have been avoided. This is a good episode, I enjoyed watching it again tonight. One thing that I thought about....... they get assaulted by diseases and aliens wanting to kill them on a weekly basis; so they get into a region of space where they can cruise for a few months with nobody bothering them and that leads them to essentially get depressed, panic, go mad, etc..... I guess they do need to be attacked on a regular basis or they get bored?

Bored? Crew have nothing to do? Create a massive, multiplayer holodeck world and have the crew rotate in and out depending on their shifts. You can even create a couple of rich brats who need Janeway to play governess to.

I really wish Star Trek and especially Voyager was at least trying to stick to a fictional world that makes sense. I mean the aliens are cool and all, but "they might be indigenous to the void"? Well, they have a very humanoid form, so obviously they evolved similar to apes on a "Class M" planet. Obviously they only came to the void after they already had a space faring civilization - there is nothing in the void to provide energy and nothing to build ships out of. Energy: It's been established at least twice in this episode - first they explicitly said they need to conserve energy, then at a random scene I think Harry says "not a single electron". Voyager should have been *extremely* interested in how the aliens get the energy to power their ships, since we have seen Voyager run out of energy just a couple of episodes ago in "Demon". Back to the aliens: They have "adapted" to the void and are very sensitive to light and everything. Why? Since they could have only come to the void after already having space ships, there is no reason they should have no light on their ships. Did I mention the aliens have space ships? Which they could use to simply fly away and leave the void? Sure, people might not want to leave their home, but come on, before every is going to die from theta radiation, you might want to consider it. Wait, what did the villain waste dumper say how many aliens there are? And ones who are technically advanced enough to disable Voyager? Why didn't they try to fight? There is only one ship, that inexplicably is much more powerful than Voyager, but am I to believe it is more powerful than all the alien forces combined? Why is the villain so hard headed anyway? He is concerned about being put out of business while being the guy who brings his people new technology and a solution to their problems? In any reasonable society he would be a hero and wouldn't have to worry about anything anymore at that point! Speaking of technology, why is Voyager just giving away their technology to random people they encounter? Remember the Kazon and the replicators? Are we not doing this Starfleet thing anymore? I mean I understand if they'd made a value judgement here, but it wasn't even mentioned at all... Janeway's attempt so sacrifice herself just boggles the mind. If you keep an eye out for it you notice soon how Star Trek always avoids looking at how the software and automation technology they have actually works. You could maybe try to argue that they consider this to be too complicated for their audience, but plots like this here shows that the writers just have no idea how stuff works. Occasionally the crew is even just plain voice commands to accomplish tasks of about this complexity: "Computer, hold this position and in fifteen minutes, shoot X photon torpedos at coordinates XYZ". If that's not good enough this should be most trivial to directly program. If that's not good enough, the entertainment system routinely creates fully fledged human like characters that are more than qualified to carry out this task. It's not just that you have to suspend your disbelief - I'm really trying to come up with an in-universe explanation why there should be any reason for anyone - especially the captain - to have to control a shuttle for this task manually, but I come up empty. I'm rambling and complaining a lot, but only because I'm so disappointed over the wasted potential. As others have said, the premise and beginning of the episode was great, they should have just continued what they started with. Instead they decided to shoehorn this weird stuff into it that just doesn't feel right. I mean come on. Dumping toxic waste where other people live and harming them is bad! Duh! I'm glad Star Trek told me this. It's not like we don't all know that we shouldn't dump toxic electronic waste into poor african etc. countries and leave it to the local poor population to risk their health to recycle whatever valuable materials may be left...

It would've been interesting if they kept the Void setting going for a few episodes. They could have easily made up for it with the "skip-2 years" Void at the end of it as a satisfying reward. It would've allowed for an extended process by which they encountered the Voidians (or whatever), fought them off, communicated, learned of their plight, learned of the Melons, tried diplomacy, etc. Maybe even flesh out how they could've evolved/developed in total darkness! How about there was a Precursor species who did something to create the void and died out. And the Voidians were a primitive species who adapted to the darkness over time on one of the planets within, found the technology and adapted it to their own needs. What if it turns out there ARE stars and planets, etc. but the Void obscures it all (a kind of dark matter? and there's the answer to the energy problem) and God help you if you steer into one of them!) I agree with TMRN above regarding the Melon dumper. I understand they're trying to depict a good guy/bad guy duality, but c'mon! It's like the writers have no understanding or consistency of people who are motivated by profit. They offered him a means of addressing a species-wide environmental problem. And given that he literally had a monopoly on the Vortex, he would've had a monopoly on the technology. If he were that saavy, he would be able to see how much of a win this is for him as well as a benefit for his people, but NOOOOOOO! He has to be lazy too, otherwise we'll be giving his character more than one dimension and then how can we artificially depict our heroes as the righteous ones. So many chances of exploring issues in a deep and meaningful manner just cast aside for the ease of black and white preaching.

Okay, Captain Proton is easily the best "holodeck reactional activity of the season" so far. I actually started watching few old serials to get what they are making fun of. Thanks Voyager. Anyway, I agree with others have said, the first half is great, once we get to the aesop plot with the aliens it's meh. The problem isn't really that the episode has the need to add it, that's a matter of personal preferences and I don't want to whine that they didn't do what I wanted. Problem is that as Tmrn explained above, it's not very good. I think the garbage men aliens are actually a pretty good idea-at very least, they are a bit more original than just another xenophobic power-but they are once again, written as boringly one-dimensionally evil. You couldn't have the leader guy at least be skeptical of the solution, instead of just being a greedy bastard?

People who are saying that Jammer is being harder on Voyager because he just likes DS9 better, instead of judging Voyager episodes based on their own merits, here me out on this: I watched DS9 and Voyager side by side from ages 8 to 12. I LOVED Voyager, and I thought DS9 was ok. Now I'm 30 and watching them all, and I went in saying, "seriously, Voyager is the best series. I love how they get put through the ringer, and they meet all these new species, etc etc" But now I find, Voyager episodes almost always have the same problem: They usually start with a good idea, but then it's got too many flaws to take seriously, or they don't explore the good idea enough, or they skip over interesting possibilities, or the execution just makes no sense. The not making sense thing has been a big problem for me. I pause it several times an episode to say, "wait a minute, how did they accomplish x if they just said y like, last episode." or things like that. And I always want to get into it because I like the good idea it started with! But it rarely goes anywhere that I care about. With the exception of Seven of Nine and the Doctor (and Kes during her time on the show), Voyager hasn't really developed its characters and their backstories. This episode, I didn't mind it, but wow they only spent 2 minutes on Janeway's depression. The show is too scared to commit to anything. I was immediately caught off guard watching the second episode in the series, and noticing that no one seemed to consider it a big deal that they were 70 years from home. The second episode was about whether it would be a good idea to make B'Elanna the chief engineer or not. I actually really enjoyed this episode, funny enough. But again, the lack of impact that this event had on the crew, not only threw me off, but it set the tone for the entire series: Voyager would not be about feelings. And this is why I defend Jammer's continued comparisons to DS9 because while it is not perfect, DS9 gives generous amounts of time to developing its characters and their feelings. And as a person who went in thinking Voyager was great and DS9 was just ok, I can say it's not bias that makes me so disappointed in Voyager. It's the constant lack of character development, repercussions and normal cause & effect. I really want to see people's inner struggles. That's what I'm in it for most of the time when I watch a series. So DS9 wins. Interesting sidenote: While Jammer and I are of the same mind re: Voyager vs DS9, I don't agree with a lot of the points he talks about in his DS9 reviews. Haha! PS: Whenever ST does deal with personal repercussions, I call it a "crying in the mud" scene, because of the absolutely fantastic TNG episode "Family." All shows need to have episodes like this once in awhile, where a character has to take some reflective time to accept what has happened to them.

This episode was a metaphor for the writing staff admitting they had run out of ideas and were bored.

I thought Voyager's "Night" was original and contained a good message. The stand alone plot was resolved in a satisfactory way, while the writers also revisited and clarified past themes. The Voyager crew stood up for good ideals and helped those in need. There may have been some elements of that could have benefited from further development (how did the aliens who live in the dark evolve that way?), but it was a legitimately interesting and effective episode.

I enjoyed it more than any other premiere save Scorpion II, at any rate. (I will maybe revisit Caretaker at some point to see if it works better for me in a different mood, since it's so important an ep.) The episode's first half (two-thirds?) is very good -- lots of character moments followed by a Disaster-style set of unusual character pairings, with great, moody visuals and a good score. And then, yeah, it becomes pretty rote for a while. What was interesting about the first half was seeing the crew interact with no threat except themselves and darkness; the initial threat was interesting because it still emanated from the void and manifested itself as a total power shutdown -- so a more extreme version of what had already been going on. The environmental stuff with the Malon and the Void Lifeforms wasn't *bad* exactly but jettisons much of what had been interesting. If I force it I can probably come up with some thematic link here -- the Malon are the villains of the episode because they produce a lot of garbage and try to dump it in the Void where no one can see, but in fact you have to deal with your garbage, and Janeway's attempt to dump *herself* in the Void, and thus also her guilt, is misguided, because it's better to actually deal with it. Or something. I'm not sure what to say about the life forms there though. As to the Malon characterization -- I agree that it seems that under most circumstances, Emck would prefer to have a ready-made working technology fall in his lap, since that surely would lead to greater profits. And it's especially true because it's not as if Emck seems to be the owner of the Malon garbage disposal technology, but the captain of a lowly freighter who happens to know a sweet shortcut, and so it seems obvious that he would be trading up within his society considerably. If they did want to go the "personal gains over society gains" route, though, they could have done so plausibly; Emck could have revealed, for instance, that his species does not have an intellectual property system, and only compensates people for services rendered (or something), and thus that any technology he brought to his people would lead to no personal gain for him and would also put him out of a job. Or, maybe another way is if either the government, or perhaps his corporation, owns the intellectual property of any discoveries he makes, so that he would basically end up with nothing as a result of it; the only reason he's able to do as well as he can right now is because no one else knows about the Void, but it'd be impossible to keep the *technology* secret, especially given the technical resources required to actually implement it. I think there are lots of ways in which the economic system could severely dis-incentivize progress plausibly, but it'd be nice to have at least another line of dialogue explaining why Emck wouldn't get the obvious potential financial benefit from the tech. Anyway I found Janeway isolating herself, as we do see, a little sudden and extreme, even with the multi-month in darkness backstory, but basically plausible. I think had the episode more explicitly tied this to the end of Hope and Fear -- reveal that after the initial feeling of optimism from Seven's lack of desire to return to the Collective, the grief over another missed opportunity home and the shame over Arturis' accusations and the reveal of his world destroyed by the Borg might well have started to crush her, and then lead her back to the initial decision (mistake?) that stranded them all, back from Day One, and which also led to her dubious decisions taken to try to get them home. And absolutely, Jammer is entirely correct that actually mentioning the number of dead crew members would have strengthened this episode considerably. (I'm reminded of the BSG scene SPOILER in Scar, where Starbuck starts going through the lost crew members, and imagining an equivalent here.) I think Jammer's statement in the review that this seems to make Janeway a bad captain is maybe broadly "true," but that's not really the point, is it? Over on DS9 (SPOILERS for those who haven't seen it), Sisko was at this very moment taking months off from his position at the most strategically important station in the cataclysmic, quadrant-threatening war effort, because he was broken by recent events. Janeway continuing to run herself but isolating herself when the ship is completely out of crisis mode seems to me to be an appropriate equivalent for a long chance to catch up with years' worth of unprocessed baggage, in comparison to the sudden shocks at the end of DS9 s6. Chakotay doesn't have that much good material these days, but I was impressed with most of his scenes this episode. The Tuvok scene I thought was strange -- are they really still at each others' throats? Really? -- but basically this episode does plausibly show a Chakotay who can handle command but also who does not want to go without Janeway, and recognizes his responsibility to help her. Most of the cast has some good scenes or moments -- for example, the Chaotica simulation was pretty funny, particularly Seven's neutralizing of the robot and Neelix' snapping at Tom and B'Elanna that they are SENIOR OFFICERS and need to behave like it was a great way to take him out of his usual benign persona in a character-specific way. But anyway! The ending: the Caretaker dilemma repeats itself and Janeway realizes she can't go through with stranding the ship again, so she comes up with a new plan. I know that (SPOILER) this eventually sort of ends with the have-a-cake-and-eat-it-too solution in Endgame. I guess I'll see how things go with that, but I find it unsatisfying in Endgame, as a series finale. As much as I think Caretaker botched the execution, I think the idea there was that there was no third option where Janeway got to both protect the Ocampa and save her crew, not that she simply wasn't trying hard enough. Here, I'm not so sure. I think Janeway has isolated herself enough and gotten herself into enough of a funk that it makes sense she'd fail to consider all the options, and pick a way that protected the crew at the expense of herself as a kind of punishment rather than see that in this *particular* case they did have a better option. The crew's "mutiny" is cute, and emphasizes the idea that they have moved into a sort of family unit where there are things greater than the chain of command -- namely, the captain's life, and her membership in the family. Of course this scene really strongly emphasizes how much the non-main cast do *not matter at all* anymore; the extras milling around on the bridge don't even pay attention, which is surely bad directing, but in general it basically remains that the entire crew is reduced to the main cast. I talked about this in the s4 recap post but I think what I'd add is that in season 1-2, it wasn't just that there were some recurring supporting players (Seska, Carey, Jonas, Hogan, Suder, Wildman, etc.), but that most of the time the ship just *felt* like there were other people on the ship besides the main cast who had opinions and thoughts and agendas, even if they didn't frequently come forward and sometimes those agendas were mishandled by the show. Maybe we didn't see them, but they were there. This is sort of similar to the Enterprise-D, where there were, yes, many recurring players, but in general the tone suggested a huge flagship with a lot going on at all times, of people transferring on and off the ship. Episodes like this one really emphasize the idea that the crew is a family, but ONLY a family of nine characters, and everyone else is basically irrelevant. Wow, the destruction of the Malon vessel with all hands seems a bit extreme, huh? And "time to take out the garbage"!!! Oh well. I guess it couldn't be helped, maybe? I guess I'll go with 2.5 stars too.

Since I'm posting this years later, I'll be repeating some things other's said, but they bear repeating. The whole concept of this episode makes no sense on virtually every level. Why wouldn't they be able to see any stars? Because radiation is messing up their sensors, they say. But I guess it just blocks all em radiation from everything so no one can see anything with their naked eyes either. Yet they can use the sensors to tell how far they have to go to get out somehow? These void aliens couldn't live there, and certainly couldn't have evolved there. No energy at all. Why not leave the void? Why not destroy the Malon ship? Why not destroy the Vortex? Why is everyone all panicky and depressed and on edge? Because they can't see stars out of their window? Who cares? They are starfleet personnel who live on a starship in outer space. They can't handle it being dark outside for a couple months without going all bonkers? There is plenty to do on Voyager to keep everyone occupied and entertained for years, much less a couple months. Why did the holodeck have a blackout too? LOL. And the biggest plot-hole of all is, this area is a void because it's filled with theta radiation. That's why they can't see anything. At least that's what they say in the episode. Is it because that one dude is dumping antimatter there? And if the void was there already as implied by the fact that the void aliens lived in the void for millions of years, why was there a void in the first place without the radiation? Did this one ship dump enough antimatter into this area and completely fill up 2500 light years worth of space with radiation, and millions of years in the past? Or if it was filled with radiation already, the void aliens would all have been dead a long time ago. None of that makes any sense. There shouldn't be a void at all, or at least not because of theta radiation. And the ending. Oh boy. There are basically three choices of what to do presented in the episode. One is, keep going like they were, through the void, having made friends with the void aliens, and take two years to get through it. Reasonable choice. Or two, Janeway can basically kill herself to destroy the vortex and let everyone else go through and save two years. Completely stupid choice, buy hey, if she wants to kill herself, that's her business. And three, destroy the Malon ship, murdering the entire crew, and destroy the vortex, and everyone gets to save two years. An insane psychotic choice. And guess which one Janeway ends up choosing? Right! The insane psychotic choice, because Janeway is the worst captain in the history of starfleet. 1 1/2 stars. Bad start for the season if you ask me.

I just thought of something else. Janeway MURDERS the crew of that Malon ship, and they were the only ones who knew about the vortex, so why destroy it? No one else knew about it? Why not just fly through it once she had MURDERED them? No need to risk their lives after that.

Harry Kim playing the clarinet for tuvok on the bridge has to be a lowpoint in his life.

KB Murphy Mon, May 30, 2016, 3:27pm (UTC -5) "In fact, the whole ship's counselor ethos in TNG era shows always bothered me because it clearly showed the idea that they were still dividing health care into mind and body elements." @KB Murphy: Yes, that's called "human dignity." If you're going to reduce consciousness itself to nothing more than brain chemicals, then you are erasing the distinction between "living" and "non-living." Treating human beings like cars with not enough, or too much, oil trivializes the entire human experience, as well as the concept of life itself. I'm glad no one in the 24th century thinks like you. Death to psychiatry!

Some good ideas here and some bad ones too -- probably makes this a fairly typical VOY episode. The opening felt original and more realistic in that the ship is going through a void, crew have too much time on their hands and are going stir crazy. This is what literally must happen for 90% of the time Voyager is stuck in the DQ (and almost as much for TOS, TNG as their Enterprises explore). So to acknowledge this aspect was good. But the huge issue I have here is Janeway -- what a character assassination "Night" is. All the guilt attacks her and she withdraws and stops caring about the crew. And then she wants to sacrifice herself when it's painfully obvious there's a viable plan where she doesn't have to. I liked the scene with Chakotay and Tuvok -- they know they're not exactly buddies but as it relates to Janeway, Chakotay needs to know what's up. VOY never played up Janeway's guilt enough for me -- I think there's a potential wellspring of material here. It pops up here but is used stupidly. The part about the 2 new alien species whose roles/intentions get reversed is decent. And Voyager takes the righteous Trek stance of helping the oppressed. Interesting that the environmental analogy is the profit-at-all-cost Malon dumping toxic waste and harming a more or less helpless species. And also the Malon is not willing to learn Voyager's technology for fear he might be out of his current job. Chakotay has a prescient point about him then being able to do better things when given Voyager's knowledge...but then we wouldn't have a spaceship battle scene to end the episode. 2.5 stars for "Night" -- the episode felt different at the start, like something new was being explored (adapting to nothingness). The alien confrontation wasn't bad, but I was not a fan of how Janeway's character was written here -- at the start she was a just simply going to be a non-leader as the crew faced 2 years of nothingness. But then the episode goes down a more traditional route. So much more could be done with a haunting judgment error for the captain.

grumpy_otter

I just re-watched this, and literally spit my drink out in the first minute. Chaotica brags to Harry that he is using their rocket to "lead my Space Force into battle!" For context, Trump recently blustered about wanting to create a "Space Force" to protect Earth from . . . alien invaders? I dunno. Something. I could not find the clip online, so I filmed it off my computer so I could share it with my friends on facebook. They are cracking up.

The concept of that Void was great, with well done effects to give us that sense of the crew's loneliness and isolation. The ep explores how guilt and pain and inner conflicts can overwhelm us in the absence of distraction, how important it is be able to focus outward. Keeping oneself distracted, adapting as Seven says, is an individual obligation. It's no surprise that Janeway and Neelix, our two characters most burdened with guilt and pain, begin to succumb to the circumstances. The void aliens, with their strange dark appearance, were nicely done. The social message of the week was, well, classic Trek. The holodeck was fun, particularly Seven and Paris. Jeri Ryan is just a delight. The whole black and white motif, I think, was a deliberate reference to the general colorless world outside, and to how few things in life, how few of our choices, are truly black and white. Though the concept of the Void was fascinating, I was glad when the crew got out of that black, starless vacuum. I was beginning to get the creeps, myself.

Sean Hagins

I really liked this episode, but then again, I actually like Voyager better than DS9. Jammer, you always talk about reset buttons, and this one actually didn't have it! At the end of the show the crew actually are 2 years closer to home! This episode reminds me of the 1970 Dr Who episode Doctor Who and the Silurians. The "ugly" aliens are actually not bad guys (*well, most of them) and the humans were bad in this one. The way this episode played out made sense to me-last episode an alien was yelling at Janeway for the genocide of his race! That definitely would affect anyone who wasn't a complete sociopaths (although they should have mentioned that as the cause for Janeway's depression too) I have no problem with Seven being able to disengage safety protocols-one would think the computer would be smart enough to just do it when a hostile was on the ship I also like how this episode has gotten away from Voyager being a Captain-Seven show-something I actually began to get bored with (probably because I actually never found Seven attractive), and I would think that the Captain would have put her in her place long ago! (For her attitude I mean) Star Trek was always an allegory-like the half black/white aliens. So, the toxic waste element was good-I don't care if it was in space or not (besides, we have no idea how the properties of the void work-it's not normal space.)

Peter Stoll

Loved the moment in the opening Capt.Proton scene where the woman keeps screaming, and Harry quietly grimaces in the background! (and also the commenter above who called this "Captain Protein"; a new breakfast cereal perhaps?) :)

Well the first 1/3 of this episode started out with promise. The idea of having Voyager go through complete dark with no stars for months was a good idea. Would have been a great opportunity to explore interpersonal relationships between the crew. Even the captain feeling guilty and depressed would have made sense because she would have been stuck alone with her feelings. Captain Proton was fun even though it only amounted to about three minutes screentime. But then the episode slid into alien of the week mode and that is where the episode fell apart and turned into something we have seen over and over and over. This episode has some moments at first but ultimately I’d have to give this one a pass it’s nothing special at all

I enjoyed this quite a bit. But I knew someone was going to comment on this: “Why did the holodeck have a blackout too? LOL.” That’s definitely a bit silly, but I was willing to just go with it.

Sarjenka's Brother

I liked the episode. One of the more interesting aspects of this is another segment of DQ space that tends to keep inhabitants separated from each other. This dark void, the Nekrit Expanse and large portions of normal space controlled by xenophobic aliens help explain some things, such as the Kazon and species on the far edges of the galaxy not having the same level of technology, etc. I wish they had given us a little more lay of the land, as it were, of the DQ.

This episode's worst aspect is that it had the writers commit themselves to an aspect of the show that was essentially a 5-year insult to our intelligence. I am referring to the matter of Harry Kim. Simply put, when something wasn't happening to show how "green" he was, he was shown to be unfailingly loyal, highly capable, and completely trustworthy. Given that even a mediocre officer typically makes lieutenant in three years, it is simply not plausible that an excellent one remain an ensign for seven. This episode held the perfect opportunity for the writers to quietly, painlessly sweep their mistake under the rug. Two months have passed. All they need to do is have Harry show up at the initial briefing with a black pip on his collar. No "Janeway sticks a pip on Harry's collar and everyone claps" ceremony required. No fanfare. It's just "Harry's a lieutenant now, we've all moved on." The writers chose not to do this. I can infer from this decision that they thought the viewers were too stupid to notice a glaring and completely unnecessary inconsistency. That is an insult. As a writer who has never profited from his craft (and likely never will), it offends me that professional writers could be so incompetent.

The second the scene changed to the bridge and the camera started panning around, I immediately said to myself: This is Harry "Can't-Get-A-Lock-On-Anything" Kim blowing some wood... ...den instrument" :D And sure enough, it bore out! LOL! The holodeck that retains the objects even though all energy is gone from the ship? The stupidest thing ever, surpassed only by the whole Bride of Bullshitica C-story. The preachy P.C. theme rubbed me all the wrong ways but okay, I could look past it. I also really appreciated the Tuvok-Chakotay angle. They had hardly any interaction over the four previous seasons and it was interesting to see that dynamic play out, even if only very briefly. At least a three-star-er.

Bob (a different one)

A group of people who have been in space for years have claustrophobia because they haven't seen stars for a few weeks. The have access to an almost endless supply of music, movies, and literature from god only knows how many planets, not to mention a freakin' holodeck and they are still stir crazy. Janeway, who never seems to have a second of self doubt, crumples into a ball and crawls into her quarters to hide for a couple of months. She finally pops out at the end with a brilliant plan...to commit suicide. See, it turns out there actually were other, obvious options in Caretaker and the entire series has been based on a screwup. Don't worry, fans - this introspective version of Janeway is here for one week only. We'll be back to the "my way or the highway" version we all know and love soon we promise. Tom and B'Ellanna are fighting. That's new. The EMH, a computer program, needs to practice his opera. Harry is busy dividing his time between playing second banana to Tom or and playing his clarinet. The holodeck loses lights, but still, somehow, works. The villain, who seems perfectly reasonable at first, turns on a dime to become another Voyager trademarked Hardheaded Alien of the Week. Voyager offers a business man technology that would make him the richest man on his planet, but he says "Heck no - this would ruin my career as garbage scow owner who is constantly bombarded by deadly and disfiguring radiation!" The ending: Janeway: "The only option is for me to make a suicide run!" Crew: "umm...how about we just fly by the bad guys really fast while shooting at them?" /Janeway steps off ledge /shit blows up /wrasslin' is up next on UPN The only good thing about this episode? Satan's Robot, of course. He should have replaced Harry on the bridge.

MidshipmanNorris

If nothing else, this episode's approach to "trekking through the stars" was never done before this, and arguably could be done better, but it's frankly interesting. What if you find a pocket of space where there just plain ain't none? In a way, it almost seemed like a metaphor for writer's block, to me (being a writer). You just sort of wade through the nothingness and keep holding on, until you finally reach the other side of it.

The Real Trent

Like Jammer, most commenters agree that this episode's "Stuck in the Void" plot is excellent. There's something eerie and disturbing about a space devoid of stars. And the crew's discomfort in the face of this is both understandable and an interesting topic to explore. The lack of starlight also lends this episode a wonderfully lonely vibe. Scenes with Janeway bathed in shadow, or Kim playing his flute on an empty bridge, create a really affecting, sombre mood. All this good work is destroyed, however, by this episode's introduction of "pollution aliens". They're a hokey, cartoonish race, aesthetically at odds with the tone seen in the rest of the show. Thematically the aliens work wonderfully . They pollute a region of space which is "out of sight and so out of mind", dumping toxic waste on another race with impunity, in much the same way the poor and third world currently get garbage/pollutants dumped on them. In this regard, this episode's "night time" plot is intimately connected with its "pollution" plot; one is the obscene underside of the other, no light shone on whole cultures in order to perpetuate the dumping of waste. What's bad is the direction and the conceptual design work behind these "pollution aliens". They should be more mysterious. They should never speak English, never come aboard Voyager, and never be engaged with directly. Keep them at a distance. Maintain the elegant, more cerebral tone established by the "Stuck in the Void" half of the show. You can intellectually understand why this episode takes the approach it does - the "pollution aliens" are meant to be Ferrengi-styled caricatures of a certain social class - but such satire is hard to get right, and generally didn't work well in 90's Trek. That said, while this episode isn't a success, there's something admirable about it. It has a decent concept, it makes an effort to convey Trekkian/political themes, tries hard to be an action spectacle, and its Epic Janeway Sacrifice tries to say something about the character, and the show's central premise. It's an episode which you sense had quite a bit of thought put into it, and which is at least trying hard to be something special.

Voyager's episode "Night" took on new relevance for me in the age of Covid and Ukraine. Its first chapter explores the mental effects on the crew of a seemingly endless journey through a starless, monotonous sector of space. Good scenes of Neelix losing stability, and of Janeway secluded and depressed. Beltran's performance in the confrontation with Mulgrew was really rather strong. I like those two together very much and with the rest of the cast, they sell the idea of how resilient people can become brittle and even a little weird when diversion is lacking. Tedium leads to angry, destructive behaviors. Shades of life in the pandemic. Its second chapter, derided by many as yet another formulaic alien argument sub-plot, actually mapped rather well to the conflict in Ukraine. One nation just crashes on in senselessly where it doesn't belong hoping to profit from the destruction of its neighbor. Janeway's famous line, "Time to take out the garbage" was clearly over-the-top, uttered as the heavily armed garbage scow was destroyed. I nevertheless thought the whole scene was eerily prophetic of the mussile cruiser Moskva's demise several days ago. The show held my interest. A definite 3.5 star episode for me.

*missile* cruiser Moskva Laid down 1976 - sunk of Odessa April 14, 2022

*Sunk Off Odessa* Flagship of the Black Sea Fleet

On my 3rd viewing of the series in 3 decades, I find Janeway a rather bad Captain. She should have felt depressed. Her blowing up the array was the worst choice. I find her choices often wrong. I was glad she was feeling bad. It was overdue.

This was an awful episode for Janeway as a character. I suppose this is a key one where Mulgrew complained the character was written extremely inconsistently. Unless she's suffering from actual clinical depression, this is simply drastically out of character. Normal Janeway would have worked with Neelix to set up anything and everything to help the crew's moods. I'm not sure I really bought everyone getting so depressed just because there are no stars. Neelix, yes perhaps, and perhaps even more so Seven since she might well have the literal experience of living in the stars, since a Borg cube is part of the collective. (Hmm... a premise that I don't think was ever explored.) But it seems like there are few portals other than in crew quarters, but Shirley they could find some way to fake it? And I agree this one still had potential until the moment the clichéd Voyager Aliens of the Week showed up.

Also, I'm hardly a feminist, but would they have written a male captain having a breakdown like this? (That wasn't caused by an alien force of some kind, or whatever.)

Umm, yes. That's Archer's entire character arc across Season Three of ENT.

"Umm, yes. That's Archer's entire character arc across Season Three of ENT." Yeah, but it was unintentional...

Aaron Bryant

There was a bizarre line near the end of this episode, after voyager leaves the spatial rift. Kim says "we're still 200000 km from the boundary", and we see a dispirited look from Janeway implying she doesn't want to do another stretch in the void. But.... that distance would take less than a second at warp 1.

Gilligan’s Starship

“I am Borg.” Seven of Nine deactivating the robot is the funniest scene out of the whole dang series. It’s the main reason I rewatch this ep. I enjoy the first part of this episode and the whole concept of being in “space” and nothing BUT space. When Chakotay wonders how they are going to survive 2 years in the void, it’s chilling. Would have been a better episode to focus on the psychological trauma of the crew surviving completely alone — that could’ve been powerful. That being said, some of the visuals of Voyager traveling through the starless expanse & the power blackout were eerie & superbly done.

All in all, it's a fine episode that stands the passage of time. It's just that I can't get past an empty area of space. The light we see at night comes from billions, and trillions of miles away. We even get light from other galaxies. Just because there are no stars within that 'void" wouldn't stop the light from stars farther away from shining. Good sci-fi needs to be both good sci and good fi.

Michael Miller

As someone who majored in Psychology in College, they didn't seem to get the Nihlophobia thing right. A simple lack of seeing stars in the distance wouldn't by itself cause the crew to go insane. Everyone is already confined to the ship 24/7/365 and probably only the senior officers go on the away missions. So it's not like they really had it any different than normal, aside from their jobs being less stressful if anything. Not to mention the massive number of giant stars they show whipping by is unrealistic anyway, given that they only appear as tiny dots in the distance in Real life. Space does look mostly black, and the small difference being in the void shouldn't have caused anyone to lose their sanity. I could see being bored because of not having any planets to go visit and are just stuck at their stations..etc, but the whole thing with Waking up terrified in the middle of the night for no reason was ridiculous. I could also nit pick at the questionable physics of heavy radiation absorbing all the light or whatever, but who cares. I agree with whoever mentioned the "warp flare" comment by Kim, it's just a flare, torpedoes probably have nothing to do with warp drive.

@ Michael Miller, "A simple lack of seeing stars in the distance wouldn't by itself cause the crew to go insane." I would think it would be unethical to conduct psych studies of people being thrown into distant spatial anomalies where they see no stars. I guess it's lucky you can outsource the quant studies to local alien races for low wages.

And yes the other plot holes and flaws everyone else brought up are even more obvious. You need stars to have a habitable planet (that enterprise episode suggesting otherwise) was laughable. And there's no way radiation being dumped would fill up 2,500+ light years. Along with the idea of a garbage ship having more powerful weaponry than Voyager. The objects in the holodeck should have disappeared when the power went down. As well as the fact that if the radiation is what caused the void, and the aliens call it their home, how is the radiation harmful to them at the same time? Direct contradiction.

@Peter G My point was that they acted like the sheer lack of stars was the cause of them going insane. The fact that you have to deliberately look out the window/airlock to notice the difference from any other normal day would imply Neelix wouldn't be waking up in a Panic in the middle of the night. They were almost equating it to sensory deprivation which was laughable. The ship is 99% their normal environment, and space is 90% dark (in real life) even with the stars, so the whole nothingness thing when the got 24th century tech right there at their disposal didn't make sense.

I enjoyed this episode overall, very eerie feeling at the beginning and it’s good to see voyager dealing with the potential psychological effects of such a prolonged stay on one ship. I was thrown for a loop by janeway’s situation in this episode, she was acting so out of character I initially thought it was going to be one of those alien possession things. But rather it was some solid work to expand on what should be a very complicated character. I took her isolation to mean that she’s essentially an adrenaline junkie, and in the absence of an emergency she spirals. Obviously her guilt over some of her choices, particularly in light of Arturis calling her out in the last episode, is creating major introspection. But what’s surprising is that what she sees when she looks inward is apparently depressing her into a near catatonic state. Thus without the safe harbor of a crisis she’s adrift. Kind of a disturbing personality trait for a captain, but also some long overdue depth to her character. A few questions: -was this “void” a physical structure or was it just a sparse area of the galaxy? I got the impression that it was just a pocket of low star density, which means the view out of the windows shouldn’t have been pure darkness. You’d still be able to see stars. I understand that the pitch blackness was an important part of the mental stress component of the plot, and I’m willing to look the other way on this one, but it still bugged me a bit. Of course, if the void is an actual thing, obscuring starlight in every direction then it’d make sense I guess. -why are these space garbage men dumping their waste in open space? Wouldn’t shooting it into a star or a gas giant be better and presumably cheaper? Their whole economy seems weird. I suppose it’s possible they’re just idiots.

I got the impression that the blackness was a combination of both the extra low star density, and all the radiation that the Malon were ejecting there. Tuvok said at one point that the reason they couldn't see any stars beyond it was an "unusually high amount" of theta radiation. Maybe that radiation was actually the build up of all the anti-matter waste they were dumping there for decades/centuries. But I doubt that would ever fill up 2000 cubic light years with it or whatever! Maybe the vortex also had something to do with it.

I realize I'm responding to comments from 10 years ago, but I just wanted to say that I think it's unfair that people oversimplify Jammer's critique as "bitching that Voyager isn't DS9". That's not the point we (Voyager's detractors) are making, at all. The complaint is that Voyager doesn't show the same devotion to originality and lasting consequences that DS9 does, something that really would have aided *Voyager's own premise* of a lost starship exploring an unknown region. We don't want Voyager's *premise* to be altered to be more similar to DS9. We just lament/regret Voyager having squandered its premise so badly, especially when we know that better Trek writing was *possible* in the 90s, as exemplified by DS9. The comparison is mostly between the approaches, not the content. I thought that was obvious. Yes, in terms of story content, Jammer does point out that "starship exploration" Trek was starting to get old by then, but that was...true. It was a valid critique as well. My biggest hangup with this episode wasn't Janeway's depression, but rather just the Malon themselves, and the resolution to the central conflict in the plot. I'm actually all for an environmentalist message, but the need to dump toxic materials just wasn't justified in a plausible way. Literally every spacefaring society in Trek has warp drive that operates on the principle of matter-antimatter annihilation, which is clean (in real life its only byproducts are photons, and yes these are high energy, but you can just absorb them). Even dumb-dumbs like the Kazon have this tech. I'm supposed to believe that the Malon, who are somehow so advanced that their armaments surpass the Federation's, haven't figured out a way to make warp power non-toxic, when it seems like you'd have to try extra hard to make it toxic in the first place? Colour me unconvinced. The Void naturally lends itself to a multi-episode arc (much like Year of Hell) and I wish the writers had been brave enough to take that on. It would have allowed more time for a sensible resolution, including maybe actually having a conversation with the aliens about whether they actually *want* the vortex (their only connection to populated interstellar space) destroyed. The logic for doing so was flawed here. Emck made it clear that he was the only one on the outside who knew about the vortex. So Voyager inadvertently brought about a complete solution: destroying Emck's ship with the loss of all hands. After that they could have kept the vortex in place and used it to escape without risking the destruction of their ship. Is it *possible* that more Malon could happen across the vortex? Yeah, I guess. And Voyager wanted to eliminate that possibility. But if, instead of contacting the Malon and "blowing the whistle on Emck", they could just leave well enough alone, and that would go a long way towards protecting the Void aliens. That might be the more prudent step tactically as well. Janeway's plan, as stated in the episode, was to deliberately seek out more Malon and tell them "Oops we destroyed one of your freighters. Btw, here's some clean warp drive tech, feel free to use it." I understand the Federation desire to make Malon society non-polluting and hence protect the Quadrant, but this might be one of those instances where non-interference actually makes more sense. Ultimately the episode introduced new elements and new players (antagonists) only to employ the reset button and have their presence be largely removed. Sure, the Malon came back another couple of times, but not in a compelling way.

"...but this might be one of those instances where non-interference actually makes more sense." As a quick follow up: the more I think about my own comment above, the more it makes sense. As an analogy, you don't see the Federation actively trying to upend Ferengi society and make its distribution of resources more egalitarian. That's despite the fact that a better economic system that doesn't exploit anyone is *demonstrably possible* (much like clean warp power). Sure, you could call out the Ferengi's system as a glaring plot hole in TNG/DS9 (just as the Malon's system of power seems like a glaring plot hole in Voyager): if technology enables the Federation to be post-scarcity, then why is the Ferengi Alliance *not?*. But if you just accept the conceit that the Ferengi are hyper-capitalist because they want to be, it's their religion (or whatever), then the Federation's established approach to that would be totally consistent with Janeway *not* sticking her nose into Malon affairs.

EventualZen

@11001001 >Literally every spacefaring society in Trek has warp drive that operates on the principle of matter-antimatter annihilation, which is clean... https://memory-alpha.fandom.com/wiki/Trilithium_resin You must have skipped "Starship Mine".

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Star Trek: Voyager premiered in January 1995 as the flagship for the nascent United Paramount Network. The network didn't survive, but the show completed seven lively seasons and 172 episodes, joining the ranks of other classic Star Trek series of the era. The show trapped its crew in the Delta Quadrant: decades from the nearest Starfleet outpost, they were left to find a way home. It was intended to return to The Original Series' loose idea of a starship left to its own devices deep in unexplored space.

Today, Voyager is noted for taking big creative risks, resulting in both classic and risible episodes. But through it all, the sterling cast and unique characters always provided a strong reason to tune in. Below is a breakdown of the ten main members of the Voyager's crew.

RELATED: Star Trek: Lower Decks Just Simplified Voyager's Biggest Moral Dilemma

Kate Mulgrew as Captain Kathryn Janeway

Janeway is notable for being Star Trek's first female lead: a no-nonsense leader willing to make hard choices to keep her people safe. With her ship stranded far from home, she places the crew above all other considerations, often finding bold, unorthodox methods to get them out of trouble. After successfully returning to Earth in the series finale, she's promoted to the rank of admiral, which she holds when she returns to the franchise in Star Trek: Prodigy .

Kate Mulgrew cut her teeth on the soap opera Ryan's Hope, the short-lived Mrs. Columbo series, and a bevy of made-for-TV movies. She stole the show in Danny De Vito's Throw Momma from the Train as Billy Crystal's scheming ex-wife and made a prominent appearance in the cult classic Remo Williams: The Adventure Begins . She has continued to work steadily in television since her stint on Voyager , most notably as one of the leads in Orange Is The New Black, for which she received an Emmy nomination in 2014.

Robert Beltran as Lieutenant Commander Chakotay

Chakotay begins Voyager as a member of the Maquis, a terrorist organization in conflict with Starfleet, shortly before the Dominion War. His ship is thrown to the far side of the galaxy along with Voyager's, forcing his crew to integrate with Starfleet to survive. He becomes Janeway's second in command: quick to support her actions and ultimately evolving into a stalwart officer. He's notable for his Native American ancestry – a first for a Star Trek lead character – and returns to the franchise as a captain in his own right in the animated series Star Trek: Prodigy .

Besides Voyager , actor Robert Beltran is best known for the 80s cult movies Eating Raoul and Night of the Comet . He also appeared in Barry Levinson's Bugsy , Oliver Stone's Nixon , and many guest roles on television series throughout the 80s and 90s. Like many Star Trek actors, he has a prominent history in the theater as well, with an emphasis on Shakespearean productions.

RELATED: Star Trek: Prodigy Season 2 Clip Brings Back Voyager's Robert Picardo as The Doctor

Robert Picardo as The Doctor

The Doctor is a singular character in the Star Trek franchise: a living hologram created out of necessity after Voyager's chief medical officer is killed in the series premiere. Originally intended as a short-term stop-gap, the "Emergency Medical Hologram" soon grows beyond his programming into a full-fledged crew member. He's often played for comic relief, with a snippy bedside manner and difficulty understanding the nuance of human emotions. Despite that, his unique capabilities and stalwart loyalty make him one of Voyager's most popular characters.

Picardo has enjoyed a long and successful career both before and after Star Trek: Voyager . His IMDB page lists a staggering 250 credits as an actor – including multiple upcoming projects – that speaks to his versatility and range. Outside Star Trek, he's probably best known for his long association with celebrated director Joe Dante , with prominent roles in The Howling, Small Soldiers , and Matinee.

Jeri Ryan as Seven of Nine

Star Trek: Voyager explores the Borg in more detail than any other series, as Janeway's crew must pass through the heart of their territory. That leads to the arrival of Seven of Nine onboard: a former Borg drone disconnected from the collective and returning with the crew to the Alpha Quadrant. She initially struggles to shed her cybernetic chilliness and adapt to life onboard. She eventually finds acceptance, thanks partly to her friendship with The Doctor and Janeway's dogged efforts to connect with her human side.

Like many Star Trek actors, Jeri Ryan found steady work guest starring on television series in the 1980s and 1990s before becoming famous as Seven. After Star Trek: Voyager , she starred in the final three seasons of Boston Public and appeared in the James Woods legal drama Shark . Her return to the franchise in Star Trek: Picard has been cause for celebration among fans, many of whom are actively lobbying for further Seven of Nine stories.

RELATED: Star Trek: Voyager's Seven of Nine and Chakotay Romance Was a Mistake

Tim Russ as Lieutenant Commander Tuvok

Tuvok opens Voyager as a Federation mole inside Chakotay's Maquis crew. Once the ruse drops, he becomes the Voyager's chief of security and top tactical officer, serving as Janeway's trusted advisor during their long journey home. Tuvok is notable for being the first Vulcan to appear as a series regular since Leonard Nimoy's legendary run as Mr. Spock. He's different from his predecessor in many ways – moodier and more introspective – while never being less than logical.

Tim Russ guested on several TV series before playing Tuvok, including several appearances as different characters on Star Trek: The Next Generation . He continues to work on television to this day. Notable roles include Principal Ted Franklin in i Carly and Frank the Doorman in Samantha Who? and one-off appearances in American Horror Story and Poker Face . He returns as Tuvok – now promoted to captain – in the third season of Star Trek: Picard .

Roxann Dawson as B'Elanna Torres

B'Elanna is a Maquis engineer who takes over the spot on Voyager when her crew transfers to the Federation ship. She's half-Klingon, with an ambivalent attitude about her heritage and trouble controlling her temper. She runs the engineering department with little concern for protocol or even safety at times, pushing Voyager's capabilities further in the process. She and Tom Paris fall in love, and she eventually becomes the mother of his child.

Roxann Dawson had minor appearances on various television shows before landing the role of Torres. Like many other franchise alum, she parlayed her experiences on Voyager into a career behind the camera: directing numerous episodes of Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. , Under the Dome and Bates Motel , among others. She remains active in that capacity as of this writing.

RELATED: Star Trek: Lower Decks Supervising Director Reveals How They Animated the USS Voyager

Robert Duncan McNeill as Tom Paris

Paris is the Voyager's helmsman, the first franchise character to hold the position permanently since Mr. Sulu in The Original Series . The son of a prominent Admiral was drummed out of Starfleet and later joined the Maquis, only to be caught and sentenced to prison, where Janeway finds him in the series premiere. He's released to help her hunt down his former compatriots, then becomes Voyager's pilot throughout its journey through the Delta Quadrant. His is a redemption story, as he goes from bitter washout to valued and respected crew member. He and Torres fall in love during the events of Voyager , and the series ends with the birth of their child.

Robert Duncan McNeill is known among Star Trek fans for playing Cadet Nicholas Locarno in The Next Generation : a one-shot character almost identical to Tom Paris, who never appears again. That came atop a number of TV and movie appearances before Voyager , most notably the cult classic Masters of the Universe starring Dolph Lundgren. He used his experience on Star Trek to springboard into a director's career, and has amassed a prolific resume behind the camera since. He remains active as of this writing, and returned to the role of Paris in the animated Star Trek: Lower Decks .

Garrett Wang as Ensign Harry Kim

Harry Kim is Starfleet's perennial ensign: a top-flight Starfleet cadet assigned to Voyager just before it was lost in the Delta quadrant. He serves as the ship's chief of operations during its journey home, remaining a stalwart member of the bridge despite his low rank. He's dependable and intelligent, with a love for the clarinet and a firm grounding in several scientific fields. He's also a little unsure of himself, at least in the beginning. He and Tom Paris quickly become friends on their long trip home.

Garrett Wang had only been acting a short time when he was cast as Kim, previously appearing in just a single episode of All American Girl . He has worked sporadically since then, and appears regularly at Star Trek conventions and expos. He co-hosts a podcast with fellow Voyager alum Robert Duncan McNeill called The Delta Flyers.

RELATED: Voyager's 'Dark Frontier' Episode Foreshadowed Picard Season 3

Ethan Philips as Neelix

Neelix is a Talaxian trader, native to the Delta Quadrant , who finds himself onboard Voyager and opts to stay. He serves as a guide to the region for the Voyager crew and the ship's cook, morale officer, and general jack of all trades. He's gregarious and friendly, with an eccentric sense of humor and an eagerness to please. He stays behind in the Delta Quadrant when the Voyager completes its mission to return home.

Neelix was played by veteran actor Ethan Phillips, who boasts many supporting roles in film and television. Prominent appearances include Glory, Critters , and Lean on Me on the big screen, though TV fans know him best as sensitive press secretary Pete Downey on Benson . He's still active as of this writing, with regular guest appearances on numerous TV shows.

Jennifer Lien as Kes

When the series begins, Kas is Neelix's lover and a native of the Delta Quadrant. Her species, the Ocampans, age much more quickly than most humanoids, growing old and dying after just a handful of years. She serves as the ship's botanist and medical assistant to The Doctor and displays mild telepathic abilities. She departs the series midway through Season 4 – effectively giving way to Seven of Nine – though she returns in Season 6 to give her character closure.

Jennifer Lien's career began promisingly, with a recurring role in the TV series Phenom and a part in the animated Men in Black series after departing Voyager . She also had a prominent role in American History X alongside fellow Star Trek alum Avery Brooks. She was let go from Star Trek after mental health issues began to affect her performance. She has since retired from acting and remained largely out of the public eye.

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Star Trek: Voyager - Full Cast & Crew

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A starship is stranded in the uncharted Delta Quadrant in this fourth 'Star Trek' series, the first to feature a female captain. Here, the crew grudgingly teams with Maquis rebels to try to return to Earth after Voyager is hurtled 70,000 light-years from Federation space.

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The 'Star Trek Voyager' Cast Then and Now, Sharing What They Thought of Their Characters (EXCLUSIVE)

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One of the revolutionary aspects of the Star Trek Voyager cast was the fact that sitting in the captain's seat was a woman, which was a much bigger deal when the show premiered than people today might realize. "I'm not even remotely surprised at how much attention the fact that the show had a female captain attracted," says Kate Mulgrew , who portrays Captain Kathryn Janeway. "This is the human condition. It's a novelty. I think that it piqued a mass kind of curiosity and it's very typical of our nature as human beings. I do suppose that one has to always refer to the gender in this regard. I am a woman, and that lends itself to maternity, to compassion, to warmth — to a lot of qualities which our culture has encouraged in women."

Airing from 1995 to 2001 for a total of 172 episodes, Voyager was actually the fourth live action Star Trek series, following on the heels of William Shatner as Captain James T. Kirk on the original series (1966 to 1969), Sir Patrick Stewart as Captain Jean Luc Picard on Star Trek: The Next Generation (1987 to 1994) and Avery Brooks as Captain Benjamin Sisko on Star Trek: Deep Space Nine (1993 to 1999). All in all, an impressive history, yet, again, Voyager had that one element that none of the others did.

In the series, the starship Voyager has mysteriously found itself transported to the distant fringes of the galaxy and has begun the 75-year trek back home. Complicating matters is that the Voyager had been pursuing a vessel, commanded by a crew of Maquis rebels (Federation-born colonists and disaffected Starfleet officers organized against the Cardassian occupation of their homes in a Demilitarized Zone), and has been stranded with them, resulting in the crews having to be integrated, offering the potential of inherent conflict between these characters.

What follows is a look at how the Star Trek Voyager cast came together and where they've been since the series ended.

Kate Mulgrew as Captain Kathryn Janeway

The casting of Captain Janeway was an arduous process, with a wide variety of possible names being bandied about, including Lindsay Wagner ( The Bionic Woman ), Linda Hamilton ( Beauty and the Beast, The Terminator ), Erin Gray ( Buck Rogers in the 25th Century ), Susan Gibney (who had appeared on a pair of Next Generation episodes), Joanna Cassidy ( Who Framed Roger Rabbit? ) and Kate Mulgrew.

The first person hired for the part was French actress Genevieve Bujold, but shortly after shooting of the pilot began, it was obvious that she was not the right person for the job. She herself was terribly unhappy, used to the schedule of shooting films and not the rapid-fire nature of television production. So Mulgrew auditioned.

"I came in," the actress explains, "and they gave me two very big scenes. One was the monologue, 'We're lost in an uncharted part of the galaxy....,' and the other was with Tuvok, establishing the depth and breadth of our friendship. I loved them both. And I made two very bold decisions in the room... not bold, but I played the scene with Tuvok with high humor, as Janeway did throughout her entire relationship with Tuvok, because he's so Vulcan. I was always trying to ruffle his feathers.

"So," she continues, "that was full of laughs, and a certain underlying vulnerability, which I thought was very important to show; that her capacity for friendship was great indeed. And necessary to her, as a person. And with the monologue, I did it to them. I gave it to the producers. I turned to them as if they were my crew, looked right at them and I said that I would get us through this. And I remember thinking, 'Well, now it's up to you.'"

Needless to say, she was brought aboard to command the starship. Prior to doing so, Mulgrew, born April 29, 1955 in Dubuque, Iowa, appeared in eight movies, including Remo Williams: The Adventure Begins (1985) and Throw Momma from the Train (1987), but had really made her mark earlier as Mary Ryan Fenelli on the soap opera Ryan's Hope (1975 to 1978). Additionally, she played the title role in the ill-fated Mrs. Columbo (1979 to 1980, which went through a title change to Kate Loves a Mystery ); made many episodic guest appearances, including three episodes of Cheers in 1986; and starred in HeartBeat (1988 to 1989) and Man of the People (1991 to 1992).

It should be noted that Mulgrew had pressures added to part of Janeway that her preceding captains decidedly did not . "For months," she says, "they came to the set. — the brass, not just my producers. The Paramount guys came and stood at the lip of the bridge and scrutinized me, my hair, my bosom, my heels ... All of which was meant to inform me of the importance of this part, and that I was being watched. It was very simple. Nothing was stated. I'm sure they did it with Patrick Stewart... for two seconds. And Shatner for even less. But millions, if not billions, of dollars were at stake with this franchise, so they had to make sure. I think in the end they were pleased. It did work, but I would really say that it wasn't easy.

"Comparisons," she adds, "as Oscar Wilde would say, are odious, but the men never had to deal with the physical component, the sexual component, the way that I did. I was scrutinized because of my gender, by all of these guys. 'She's got a big bosom, she's got beautiful hair, she's still of childbearing years, how are we going to make this thing work?'"

She found herself in makeup and having her hair worked on constantly, and all of the arguments and conversations were about her physicality, not about her characterization of Janeway.

"I really grew to envy, especially, Patrick Stewart," Mulgrew laughs, "who probably had nothing to do except walk from his trailer to the set. He had a great ease. I had to add an additional three hours to my day, with two young sons at home, and all this technobabble, and wanting to be able to ace that, wanting to be able to understand it, and get underneath it, was quite challenging for the first year. I'm sure there was some resentment there on my part. I'm sure there was some frustration and anger. Of course, I'm human and, my God, I was tired. But I'm Irish, so the 'I'll show them!' part of me surpasses every other thing. Which is why she not only succeeded, she thrived, Janeway, because I was determined."

Following Voyager , Mulgrew starred in the comedy NTSF:SD:SUV (2011 to 2013), the critically acclaimed Orange is the New Black as Galina "Red" Reznikov (2013 to 2019), Mr. Mercedes (2019), The Man Who Fell to Earth (2022) and has even reprised Janeway, vocally, on the animated Star Trek Prodigy , which launched in 2021. Married twice, she's the mother of three and is 68.

Robert Beltran as First Officer Chakotay in the Star Trek Voyager Cast

Chakotay is the Native American captain of the Maquis vessel, who ends up serving as first officer aboard the Voyager under Janeway’s command. The actor cast in the role was Robert Adams Beltran, born on November 19, 1953 in Bakersfield, California. Graduating with a Theater Arts degree from California State University, Fresno, he scored his first film role in 1981's Zoot Suit , which was followed by a part in the television series Models, Inc. , and, in 1982, by Paul Bartel’s cult classic Eating Raoul, 1983's Lone Wolf McQuade, 1984's Night of the Comet, 1990's El Diablo .

He also achieved extensive stage experience, appearing in 22 shows between 1979's California Shakespeare Festival and 2011's Devil's Advocate . On television, there have been a dozen TV movies and guest appearances.

As to Star Trek: Voyager , says Beltran, "At that point in my career, I was thinking it would be good to do a television series, and so I began to concentrate on finding one. Then, when my agent called me to tell me about the Voyager pilot, I thought, ‘Great, I’ll be happy to audition for it.' It could be an important gig in that it could be a substantial amount of years with steady employment that would make my old age much more comfortable."

“I wouldn’t have auditioned,” he adds, “if I didn’t find something valuable in the character. I liked the script very much, and I auditioned wholeheartedly to get the role. It was one of the easiest processes I’ve ever gone through in getting a job, ironically. I like the role of Chakotay. I thought that he was open-ended and could really go somewhere with the right kind of writing. I was very much interested in playing the role and seeing what I could do with it.”

Since being a member of the Star Trek Voyager cast, Beltran has appeared in seven films. He most recently provided the voice of Chakotay in the animated series Star Trek: Prodigy . Now 70, the actor is the father of one child.

Tim Russ as Second Officer/Security Officer/Tactical Officer Tuvok

Serving as Science Officer amongst the Star Trek Voyager cast is Tuvok, a full-blooded Vulcan (unlike Leonard Nimoy 's Spock on the original Star Trek ), who is played by Mr. Saturday Night 's Tim Russ . Born January 22, 1956 in Washington, D.C., prior to becoming part of the show, he guest starred on a number of different series, and starred in nine episodes of The Highwayman (1987 to 1988).

Says Russ, "There was a very big victory for me in getting this. I had been interested in working on Star Trek ever since the original Next Generation was created, and I read for a role back then. I did not know at the time that LeVar Burton was also ging to be considered for the role of Geordi La Forge. So it was in retrospect that I realized that producer Rick Berman had been in my corner ever since. Tuvok was similar to his predecessor, Mr. Spock, in that he has to maintain a certain consistency with the Vulcan principles and philosophy that we upheld. But there was also an exploration of my character as an individual in terms of the intricacies of his personality and what his intentions may be."

He believes he had the edge over most people reading for the part, because of how well he intrinsically knew who this character was. "Tuvok is definitely based on Spock," Russ explains. "Why does everybody like Spock? Why was he genuinely — over Captain Kirk, even — the most popular character on that show? It's because he was what we all want to be. We want to be perfect, we want to be able to overcome all the trials we have to deal with. The character is so interesting to watch, because every situation that came up, you'd want to see what Spock would do, you wanted to see how he reacted — and you enjoyed watching him just completely confused and baffled by human beings. You could forget that he was part human.

"So, coming into the reading, I was armed to the teeth with this character. And casting is generally 80 percent personality and 20 percent talent. I'm not saying I'm able to do the things the way Tuvok does, it's just that I do like to approach things from an analytical or logical standpoint. If you are 100 percent Vulcan, obviously there's no choice between being human or Vulcan. Spock had to maker a choice. Tuvok never had to make that choice. It's like an athlete who trains to do the decathlon and an athlete who's born to do the decathlon. The person who comes into this world destined by nature to do it, has the edge."

Since being a part of the Star Trek Voyager cast, Russ has worked steadily in television, including 11 episodes of iCarly (2007 to 2012), 35 episodes of Samantha Who? (2007 to 2009), reprising the role of Tuvok, promoted to captain, in a pair of episodes of Star Trek: Picard (2003) and as an E.R. doctor in Seth Macfarlane's TV version of Ted (2024). Now 67, Russ has one child.

Garrett Wang as Operations Officer Harry Kim

Harry Kim, played by Angry Cafe 's Garrett Wang, is fresh out of Starfleet Academy in the premiere, and serves as the starship's ops and communications officer. For his part, Wang was born December 15, 1966 in Riverside, California. Prior to joining the Star Trek Voyager cast he appeared in a few commercials and made a guest appearance in a 1994 episode of All-American Girl . Playing Harry Kim was his big break.

"I remember thing at the time," he reflects, "that this must have been a dream that I was going to wake up from soon. It is kind of amazing when you think about the legacy we were following, because there really isn't any other TV series I can think of that originally aired in the Sixties and kept on going and going and going. it's kind of like an intergalactic Energizer Bunny."

Since the end of the series, he's been in about half a dozen films and made a couple of TV guest appearances. He's currently 55.

Roxann Dawson as Chief Engineer B’Elanna Torres

Voyager 's seemingly requisite alien-human hybrid was B'Elanna Torres ( with Roxann Dawson joining the Star Trek Voyager cast), the half-Klingon chief engineer who, like Spock on the original series, wages an inner war with the intertwining blood of two species. The actress was born on September 11, 1958 in Los Angeles, and she made her acting debut in a Broadway production of A Chorus Line . A few film roles would follow as would TV guest appearances and regular roles in Nightingales (1989) and The Round Table (1992).

"I'm of Latino descent, but that something that wasn't brought up in any way, because it really doesn't make a difference," points out Dawson about being made part of the Star Trek Voyager cast. "I love that the attention was brought to the fact that she's half-human and half-Klingon. I love that the conversation regarding Tuvok centered around the fact that he is Vulcan and that we don't discuss that he's a black Vulcan. And I love the fact that nobody on the crew, except for one little moment, discusses that it's a big deal that we have a female captain. What matters is character, how we're coming across and who we are as people."

The interesting thing for her to explore was the turmoil and continuing attempt to reconcile the two sides of her, which formed the conflict she wanted to explore. "One of the reasons fans identified with B'Elanna is that we all, to a certain degree, have two or more sides to us that are at war. It's a universal idea and I loved that the character could explore that so tangibly."

"She’s so afraid of being abandoned that she will leave every situation first. That’s why she left Starfleet Academy before she could be expelled, even though she was never going to be expelled. She operates very much on fear. This is not uncommon; we all do that to some degree. A lot of people will often want to have the control in their hands and move away from any situation that would put them at risk or make them vulnerable."

During the run of Voyager , she began directing episodes and since the show concluded, that's been the focus of her career, having amassed 61 behind-the-camera credits. Most recently she's directed episodes of Penny Dreadful: City of Angels, The Horror of Dolores Roach and Apple TV Plus' Foundation . Married twice, she's the mother of two. Roxann Dawson is 65.

Robert Picardo as Chief Medical Officer The Doctor

One of the show’s most offbeat characters is the Doctor ( Robert Picardo , then known for The Wonder Years ), an Experimental Medical Program (EMP). The holographic Doctor is a virtual medical officer taking care of the crew’s needs and serving as ship doctor when the vessel is stranded in the Delta Quadrant.

Offers producer Rick Berman, "Robert Picardo was just wonderful in the same way that we always have characters that served as a mirror to human culture. Spock did that in the original series, Data did it The Next Generation and here our decision was to create a doctor who was, in fact, a hologram. Like Data, someone who was not human but wanted to be human. We also wanted this character to be poignant at times, but to be quite funny, because he was nothing but a program — but one who would have a sense of ascension to him. That's a very important word in Star Trek , ascension. It ends up not meaning what anybody thinks it means, but Picardo was one of the truly natural and talented actors that we have worked with and he provided us with some of the funniest stuff we've ever done."

Picardo was born on October 27, 1953 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Since the end of the series, he's appeared in 17 films and dozens of television episodes, including as Richard Woolsey on both Stargate SG-1 (seven episodes between 2004 and 2007) and Stargate: Atlantis (26 episodes between 2006 and 2009). He portrayed Ithamar Conkey in the 2019 to 2021 Apple TV+ series Dickinson . Now 70, he's been married once and has two children.

Robert Duncan McNeill as Helmsman Tom Paris in the Star Trek Voyager Cast

One of the early characters to be part of the Star Trek Voyager cast was Lieutenant Tom Paris, a member of the Maquis who comes to serve as the helmsman of Voyager . The role would go to actor Robert Duncan McNeill . Born November 9, 1964 in Raleigh, North Carolina, although he enjoyed some early TV guest appearance and stage work, he played Charlie Brent on the daytime soap opera All My Children from 1985 to 1988. He was in four episodes of Homefront (1992) and 17 episodes of Going to Extremes (1992 to 1993).

Says producer Rick Berman of McNeill joining the Star Trek franchise, "It had been a while since we had a young, attractive white guy on the show. It just turned out that most of the characters were either alien or black in the previous shows and here we had a woman in a major role. With Robbie, there was something very charming and delightful about him. He was a very good choice."

For his part, McNeill notes, "One thing that I think was interesting about Voyager is that every character had a great backstory. That's what made it interesting. Everybody's got sort of a dark side – an edge – which is different than the other Star Trek shows. A great thing about the show is that as an actor, sometimes you do work and then it's forgotten or you do a play and 50 people see it. One thing that's great about this is that for the rest of our lives, people will know this part of our work and it's great to have that sort of longevity."

Like Roxann Dawson, following Voyager he made the shift to directing and hasn't looked back, helming dozens of episodes, most recently True Lies in 2023. From 2007 to 2012, he was a director and producer on the spy series Chuck. Married twice, the 59-year-old is the father of three.

Ethan Phillips as Cook and Morales Officer Neelix

Winrich Kolbe, who directed the pilot episode "Caretaker" and was very involved with the casting, states, "Neelix was rather easy to cast. We narrowed it down to three actors, and Ethan Phillips was the one who pulled out. He was an inspired choice, and he was the life of the party on the set."

Ethan Phillips was born on February 8, 1955 in Garden City, New York, and came to be part of the Star Trek Voyager cast after an extensive career in theater, with dozens of shows to his credit. He's also been in 40 films between 1981's Ragtime and 2018's Most Likely to Murder . There are dozens of TV appearances, though viewers probably recognize him best from playing Pete Downey on the 1980 to 1985 sitcom Benson .

"I think Neelix is a pretty lovable guy," opines Phillips of his Star Trek character. "It's an amazing role, because there are so many colors to the man and it may be one of the best roles I've ever had an opportunity to play. There's something deep and heightened about him, and playing him is an incredible challenge."

Now 69, he was married to Patricia Cresswell from 1990 until her death in 2022. They have three children.

Jeri Ryan as Seven of Nine in the Star Trek Voyager Cast

In season four, with the intent of improving ratings, the decision was made to add a sexier character to the Star Trek Voyager cast in the form of actress Jeri Ryan as a Borg — member of the cybernetic race — who has been separated from the hive collective and is gradually reclaiming her humanity. While dressing the character in a skintight outfit had the desired impact on ratings, she also introduced a dynamic character ripe with the possibility of evolution and created a strong connection between Seven and Captain Janeway.

Jery Lynn Ryan was born on February 22, 1968 in Munich, West Germany. Her father, a master sergeant in the U.S. Army, retired when she was 11, and the family moved to Paducah, Kentucky. Her earliest TV roles were as a gust star in Who's the Boss?, Melrose Place, Matlock and The Sentinel , before she was cast as a series regular in the sci-fi drama Dark Skies (1996 to 1997). Star Trek Voyager was next in 1997.

Comments series writer Bryan Fuller, "Seven of Nine was raised in the wild by wolves, if you will, and now has to be trained to be human again. It was such a beautiful story and I love the dynamic between Seven of Nine, Janeway and the Doctor. That's the triumvirate from Voyager that I thought was so effective emotionally and that kind of harkened back in a different way to the triumvirate of Kirk, Spock and McCoy on the original series."

Adds executive producer Brannon Braga, "Each character on the show was affected by this new infusion of energy and it reinvigorated the show. What was genius about the character is that she was utterly oblivious to her own sexuality and found it irrevelevant."

Concurs Ryan herself, "I had no problem with an overtly sexual physical appearance, because it was the complete opposite — such a polar opposite — to the character herself. I'm not saying that's why the character works, but it's a huge part of why she worked as well. Look, I'm a mom, so my number one priority when I pick a role is to pick something I'd be proud for my daughter to watch, or my son at the time because I didn't have a daughter then. I'm proud of this character for any young girl growing up to look at as a kind of role model. It's part of life. You have incredibly intelligent people in all types of appearances."

"You can be a bombshell and be really intelligent - you're not a ditz because you're blond and have a figure," she elaborates. "And people stereotype someone dressed in tight or sexy clothing and assume you're stupid. That's one of my biggest pet peeves with Hollywood and that's why the role of Seven of Nine was so refreshing. When I read the scene they'd written for her and talked to the producers and listened to what they were going to go with her, it was just the opposite of that. I'm a National Merit Scholar. I was not a dumb kid growing up, but to be assumed to be stupid is something that drives me crazier than anything."

Following Voyager, she appeared in 59 episodes of legal drama Boston Public (2001 to 2004), and had recurring roles in Two and a Half Men (2004 to 2011), The O.C. (2005), Shark (2006 to 2008), Leverage (2009 to 2011), Body of Proof (2011 to 2013), Bosch (2016 to 2019) and, reprised the role of Seven of Nine in the third and final season of Star Trek: Picard (2020 to 2023). Most recently she appeared in four episodes of Dark Winds (2023). Ryan, 55, has been married twice and is the mother of two.

Enjoy more of our Classic TV coverage

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Season 5 – Star Trek: Voyager

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Kate Mulgrew

Capt. Kathryn Janeway

Robert Beltran

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Star Trek: Voyager - Episode Guide - Season 7

Aside from the clear awareness on the part of the Star Trek: Voyager production team, what’s markedly different about season 7? The special effects, easily better and more gorgeous than any Star Trek iteration going into Discovery. Check out Voyager trawling the remnants of a destroyed Borg cube in “Imperfection” or nearly any exterior in “Inside Man” – here Voyager signals that this show has brought the franchise a long way from The Original Series.

The strengths of Voyager season 7 are hardly limited to looks, however. Despite a last-ditch attempt to foster an interpersonal relationship between Seven and Chakotay that features the least chemistry of any Star Trek couple since... well, since Neelix and Kes, really.

1. Unimatrix Zero, Part II – Apparently, Janeway, B’Elanna and Tuvok are able to stay cool and individual despite apparent assimilation because of magic drugs – until, oddly, Tuvok loses it temporarily. Naturally, everything else goes swimmingly accord to plan and dreams may somehow defeat the wussified Borg. **

2. Imperfection – Seven’s cortical implant begins to break down, thereby triggering a quick demise for the former drone. Until a possible donor steps forth… ***

3. Drive – In a very exciting and sadly underdeveloped idea, Paris gets wind of a local starcraft race and enters the Delta Flyer. With the buildup within the episode about as palpable as that within the show, how come this script doesn’t get to the race more quickly and why didn’t the director show us more? ***

4. Repression – A few Maquis Red Shirts are killed or apparently assaulted. Chakotay likewise goes into a coma (or so we’re told; sometimes it’s very difficult to tell). Tuvok and the Doctor take excruciatingly long to figure out what’s going on. **

5. Critical Care – The EMH as anarchist: A scammer steals Voyager’s EMH and sells him to a nearby hospital on an alien world which some twisted economic beliefs Satire, suspense, hospital-based drama, lots of Robert Picardo... what more do you want? ****

6. Inside Man – If you have managed to heretofore avoid synopses of this episode and are thus blissfully spoiler-free, you’ll dig on this one all the more. Here’s what we can tell you: A hologram of the indomitable Reg Barclay is transmitted to Voyager; the Barclay hologram is to help modify Voyager (with the latest in Starfleet™ technology!) so as to immediately get the ship back into the Delta Quadrant. Seven quickly becomes suspicious of the proposed technology involved in Reg’s plan; the twists and intriguing reveals snowball thereafter. ****

7. Body and Soul – On an away mission, Harry Kim, Seven and the Doctor are captured (imagine that), and the Doctor takes refuge “inside” Seven’s circuitry, thereby triggering the Brain Uploading trope . And for much of the episode, Jeri Ryan just kills it as EMH-inhabiting-Seven – very funny stuff. ****

8. Nightingale – Kim comes to the aid of a ship whose entire command crew has been wiped out; naturally all is Not As It Seems. The plot twists here are not quite enough to detract from the very predictable “Captain Kim” storyline. Plus, Neelix gets annoyingly shoehorned in here at an even greater level of toxicity than usual. ***

9-10. Flesh and Blood, Parts I and II – The Hirogen’s use of hologram technology has resulted in holographic prey capable of turning the tables on the hunters. The Doctor sympathizes with their plight and assists on their mission to find a new world to colonize, while Janeway must deal with the consequences of (let’s face it) another shaky decision. An okay story is well too stretched, and is anyone really buying the Doctor leaving Voyager? Also, what is up with B’Elanna’s continued racism (speciesism?) toward *holographic* Cardassians? ***

11. Shattered – Head trip for Chakotay … or it would be, if this character had the depth to freak out. Instead, when he finds himself in different time periods as he moves about Voyager, it’s an easily sussed non-problem. Interesting enough stuff for a bit of a “greatest hits” episode, and the pseudo-dream team earlier Janeway and current Chakotay assemble is fun. ****

12. Lineage – After this episode, can we finally acknowledge the dangerous stupidity that is B’Elanna Torres’s self-loathing? After finding out that she is pregnant, B’Elanna becomes obsessed with eradicating all traces of Klingon DNA from her unborn daughter. And just to prove this goes well beyond hormonal imbalance due to pregnancy, she psychotically reprograms the EMH to agree with her genetic manipulation plan. All this goes back to an ostensible childhood trauma that, while sad, hardly justifies the sudden wrought plea of victimization. Awful, just awful. 0

13. Repentance – A group of guards and prisoners are rescued from a crippled prison ship and are subsequently uneasily housed on Voyager. And then the Doctor discovers that at least one may be cured of his psychotic tendencies… ***

14. Prophecy – O, those kooky Klingons! Voyager happens upon a Klingon cruiser that has traveled for 70 years on a mission to find an afore-destined spiritual leader and/or a new homeworld. When said Klingons discover the presence of B’Elanna – a pregnant B’Elanna, no less – aboard Voyager, well, that’s clearly a sign and/or omen, right? ***

15. The Void – As in “Night,” Voyager enters an apparently boundless void. Unlike that other classic Voyager-in-emptiness story, however, Neelix does not lose his marbles, nor does Janeway get all pouty/depressed. Instead, Janeway manages to band together with various other ships who’ve also been sucked into the void. A decently paced story that defies its Beckettesque surroundings. ***

16. Workforce, Part I – Head trip for the audience: The WTFs come early and often, as Janeway, Tuvok, Paris, B’Elanna and Seven all occupy jobs in a blue-collar manufacturing district. Meanwhile, Chakotay, Kim and Neelix returned to find an empty ship piloted by the Emergency Command Hologram. (Yes!) ***

17. Workforce, Part II – Chakotay and Neelix pose as (un-brainwashed) workers to infiltrate the plant floor, and ultimately the fairly easily guessable antagonist’s motivation is revealed. (Sudden thoughts: When the entire Voyager crew was rounded up, did they get Naomi Wildman, too? Did they put her to work as well? Come to think of it, where the hell has Miss Wildman been for the past 1½ seasons, anyway?) ***

18. Human Error – What does Seven do on the Holodeck? Incredibly, she imagines everyday scenarios with crew members. Unfortunately, a dinner date with holographic Chakotay almost kills her. Also, Icheb comes around to drop a few quotes from classic thinkers. **

19. Q2 – Remember when Q wanted to, likesay, get with janeway to perpetuate the species and/or create a new leader for the Continuum? Well, the son he later had with another Q is her approximated as a human teen. Naturally, Q is all to willing to ditch junior with Janeway and the crew. Though the lad’s treachery is predictable, the plot machinations thereafter keep things interesting. And a decent enough sendoff for Q. ***

20. Author, Author – Yet another clever use of the holodeck by the Voyager folks which unfortunately shifts into an inexplicable “Measure of a Man” redux with the Doctor in the Data role and Tuvok serving as Picard. **** for the first half featuring the Doctor’s purple “prose” and Paris’s ingenious response; ** for the unsatisfying legal argument that’s founded in the Doctor suddenly acting oppressed and bitchy. Overall, then it’s a ***.

21. Friendship One – Tracking a 21st-century unmanned craft now in the Delta Quadrant leaders Voyager to a planet whose citizens blame Earth for their own destructive folly. ***

22. Natural Law – Chakotay and Seven crash land a shuttle (imagine that) nearby a group of Stone Age people. In the much more watchable subplot, Paris is busted for an orbital traffic violation in the Delta Flyer and is given a penalty of mandatory piloting lessons. Again, a split rating gets this episode a ***.

23. Homestead – Neelix departs Voyager about 168 episodes too late when a colony of Talaxians is found, and he decides to stay on with his compatriots. And o, hey, Naomi Wildman sighting! ***

24. Renaissance Man – Another straightforward, fast-moving script as aliens manipulate the Doctor into posing as various members of the crew as a means to stealing Voyager’s warp core technology. ***

25-26. Endgame – Like the great majority of the Star Trek: Voyager series throughout its run, the ending of it all is so very muted, the stakes set lower and the victory smaller. Set some 10 years after Voyager’s return to Earth, 33 years after its diverted maiden voyage, Admiral Janeway conceives of a way to change the past and return the ship home 26 years more quickly (and also nullify Noami Wildman’s daughter’s existence, apparently). At least we get a penultimate dalliance with the Borg – and resolution, rushed though it is. ***

The Cast of Star Trek Voyager – Then and Now

By: Author Brad Burnie

Posted on Published: January 30, 2022  - Last updated: September 22, 2022

Share the Universe!

The Star Trek Voyager is the fifth series and fourth sequel to Star Trek: The Original Series. It originally aired on the then United Paramount Network (UPN) from January 1995 to May 2001 and lasted 172 episodes spanning over seven seasons.

The pilot episode, Caretaker , was actually shot in September 1994, meaning the cast had worked together on set for more than six years, making them almost family.

The series was a big hit as it introduced new ideas to the franchise, like the first female captain of a Starfleet vessel, new alien species, and the use of CGI technology for the first time on Star Trek, which rendered better space shots.

The show’s success meant the cast also became household names, and it was a defining period in their careers.

Because we (Trekkies) were stranded right there with them in the uncharted Delta Quadrant, 70,000 light-years away from the Earth, we became invested in their lives as well. We were together for an entire seven seasons, trying to find the way back to Earth through seemingly insurmountable obstacles. Therefore, it should not be a surprise that we have been keeping up with them beyond Star Trek: Voyager. Here is what they have been up to.

Katherine Kiernan Maria Mulgrew (Kate Mulgrew)

She played Captain Kathryn Janeway, Commander of the USS Voyager . The first-ever female captain to be featured in a Star Trek series and the lead character.

During the Voyager filming, Kate was also featured in animations like Aladdin as Queen Hippsodeth’s voice and Gargoyles as Titania. She has been cast in several other animations since Stretch Armstrong and the Flex Fighters , Infinity Train, and other cameo roles. She has also done voice-overs for a host of video games, Star Trek-related and otherwise.

Her television presence is also flourishing as she has been cast in some highly-rated shows like Mr. Mercedes , Warehouse 13 , Mercy , The Black Donnelly’s, and Orange Is the New Black . She won the Critics’ Choice Television Award for the Best Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series in 2014 for her role as Galina Red Reznikov in Orange Is the New Black . The same year she was nominated for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series in the Primetime Emmy Awards for the same role.

Since then, she has also featured in a number of movies, documentaries, short films, and Broadway productions.

She is still involved in expanding the Star Trek franchise and has been cast in the upcoming animated series Star Trek: Prodigy, currently in production for Nickelodeon.

Personal Life

Kate was finalizing her divorce with Robert Egan, with whom they had two children when the Voyager was first airing in 1995. She was still searching for the daughter she had placed for adoption earlier in her career as a single terrified actor. She got married to Tim Hagan in 1996, but they later divorced in 2014. She reconnected with the daughter she had placed for adoption in 2001.

Robert Adame Beltran

He played Commander Chakotay, the Native American First Officer of the USS Voyager. He reluctantly assumes the position after his crew of Maquis rebels is forced to join forces with the USS Voyager when they are both stranded in the Delta Quadrant.

Robert won the Outstanding Actor in a Television Series at the Nosotros Golden Eagle Awards in 1997 after getting nominated for Outstanding Television Series Actor in a Crossover Role at the NCLR Bravo Awards the previous year.

Beltran would get nominated again in 1998 and 1999 at the same awards, now renamed the American Latino Media Arts (ALMA) Awards for the same role in the category Outstanding Individual Performance in a Television Series in a Crossover Role.

Playing Chakotay remains his most celebrated television presence, although he has made cameo appearances in many TV series, films, and documentaries since then. He has appeared in a few movies and is also featured in Star Trek Voyager’s game : Elite Force .

Robert lives in Los Angeles and is a big supporter of the National Down Syndrome Society. He even hosts an annual Galaxy Ball as a fundraiser for the Down’s Syndrome Association of Los Angeles to connect those afflicted with the condition and their families with resources and support systems. He says he is driven to do something because his youngest sibling has down syndrome and knows what the children go through without professional help.

Roxann Dawson

She was Lieutenant B’Elanna Torres, the Klingon-Human hybrid who got to be Chief Engineer of the USS Voyager after the unplanned merger of Voyager and Val Jean crews in the Delta Quadrant. She remains relevant throughout the series for many reasons, the least of which is her long courtship with Lieutenant Junior Grade Thomas Eugene Paris, which leads to marriage and their daughter Miral Paris’s birth.

Dawson got to direct two episodes of the Star Trek: Voyager while still a part of the cast: Riddles and Workforce , then went on to direct 10 episodes of Star Trek: Enterprise. This means she was already a director and an actor while shooting the Voyager.

She won an ALMA Award in 2001 for Outstanding Achievement in a Television Series for her role in the Star Trek Voyager after being consistently nominated in different categories in 1996, 1998, 1999, and 2000. She was also involved in other award-winning during this period, like the Foto Novelas, which took ALMA Awards in 1998 for Outstanding Latino Casts.

She has since focused on directing several episodes from a host of TV shows, documentaries, and films under her belt. In 2008 she was nominated in 3 separate awards, the ALMA, Hugo, and NAACP Image Awards, for her directed episodes in Heroes.

Dawson has two adopted daughters, Emma and Mia (who was adopted from China), from her marriage to Casey Biggs before the voyage. She is currently married to casting director Eric Dawson.

Robert Duncan McNeill

He played Thomas Eugene Paris, a disgraced pilot from a renowned family who gets a chance to redeem himself when assigned to spy on the Marquis rebels. He will proceed to be the helm engineer and supporting medic of the USS Voyager.

After the Star Trek Voyager, he has featured in the Voyager video game ‘Elite Force ’ and Star Trek Online. He has also acted in a couple of episodes in TV shows. He focused on directing and producing and has quite a number of films and TV shows to his credit. Most notable is the series Chuck which he was involved in all 73 episodes.

Robert lives in Los Angeles and has three children, Taylor McNeill, Kyle McNeill, and Carter Jay McNeill.

Brad Burnie is the founder of Starships.com. He loves all video game genres. In his spare time, he loves reading, watching movies, and gaming

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Star Trek: Voyager

Pulled to the far side of the galaxy, where the Federation is seventy-five years away at maximum warp speed, a Starfleet ship must cooperate with Maquis rebels to find a way home. Pulled to the far side of the galaxy, where the Federation is seventy-five years away at maximum warp speed, a Starfleet ship must cooperate with Maquis rebels to find a way home. Pulled to the far side of the galaxy, where the Federation is seventy-five years away at maximum warp speed, a Starfleet ship must cooperate with Maquis rebels to find a way home.

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Did you know

• Trivia When auditioning for the part of the holographic doctor, Robert Picardo was asked to say the line "Somebody forgot to turn off my program." He did so, then ad-libbed "I'm a doctor, not a light bulb" and got the part.
• Goofs There is speculation that the way the Ocampa are shown to have offspring is an impossible situation, as a species where the female can only have offspring at one event in her life would half in population every generation, even if every single member had offspring. While Ocampa females can only become pregnant once in their lifetime, if was never stated how many children could be born at one time. Kes mentions having an uncle, implying that multiple births from one pregnancy are possible.

Seven of Nine : Fun will now commence.

• Alternate versions Several episodes, such as the show's debut and finale, were originally aired as 2-hour TV-movies. For syndication, these episodes were reedited into two-part episodes to fit one-hour timeslots.
• Connections Edited into Star Trek: Deep Space Nine: Inter Arma Enim Silent Leges (1999)

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Star Trek: Voyager Cast List

Star Trek: Voyager cast list, including photos of the actors when available. This list includes all of the Star Trek: Voyager main actors and actresses , so if they are an integral part of the show you'll find them below. You can various bits of trivia about these Star Trek: Voyager stars, such as where the actor was born and what their year of birth is. This cast list of actors from Star Trek: Voyager focuses primarily on the main characters, but there may be a few actors who played smaller roles on Star Trek: Voyager that are on here as well.

Examples of items on this list include Andy Dick and Sarah Silverman

If you are wondering, "Who are the actors from Star Trek: Voyager?" or "Who starred on Star Trek: Voyager?" then this list will help you answer those questions.

In most cases you can click on the names of these popular Star Trek: Voyager actors and actresses to find out more information about them. If you're looking for a particular Star Trek: Voyager actor or actress, then type their name into the "search" bar to find them directly.

Alexander Enberg

Ethan Phillips

Garrett Wang

Jennifer Lien

Kate Mulgrew

Majel Barrett

Jason Alexander

Robert Beltran

Robert Duncan McNeill

Robert Picardo

Roxann Dawson

Kristanna Loken

LeVar Burton

Manu Intiraymi

Martha Hackett

Nancy Hower

Sarah Silverman

Simon billig.

Dwayne Johnson

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Whatever Happened To The Cast Of Star Trek: Voyager?

The third "Star Trek" series to air in the 1990s, "Star Trek: Voyager" was also the flagship series for the all-new Paramount television network UPN. Making its debut in January of 1995, the series saw Captain Kathryn Janeway command the state-of-the-art starship Voyager on a mission to pursue a group of Maquis rebels. However, when a phenomenon envelops them both and hurls them to the distant Delta Quadrant, Starfleet officers and Maquis terrorists become one crew on a perilous journey home.

Despite a few cast shake-ups, "Voyager" ran for seven seasons and featured a consistently stellar ensemble. The series helped launch the careers of several of its lesser-known actors, while others can count the series as the highest point in their filmography. Some walked away from Hollywood after it concluded, while a few have since made big comebacks, returning to the roles that made them famous.

Since it ended in 2001, "Voyager" has aged like fine wine, earning new fans thanks to the magic of streaming where new generations can discover it anew. Whether seeing it for the first time — or even if you're watching it for the umpteenth — you may be wondering where the cast is now. Well, recalibrate the bio-neural gel packs and prep the Delta Flyer for launch because we're here to fill you in on what's happened to the cast of "Star Trek: Voyager."

Kate Mulgrew as Captain Kathryn Janeway

It's no secret that Kate Mulgrew wasn't the first choice to play Captain Janeway in "Star Trek: Voyager." Academy Award-nominee Geneviève Bujold was famously cast first  but filmed only a few scenes before quitting the show during the production of the series pilot, leading to Mulgrew being brought in. Today it is difficult to imagine anyone else in the role, though it's hardly Mulgrew's only iconic TV series.

Following the show's conclusion in 2001, Mulgrew took a few years off from acting, returning with a small role in the 2005 film "Perception" with Piper Perabo. After a guest appearance on "Law & Order: Special Victims Unit," Mulgrew snagged a recurring role on "The Black Donnellys" in 2007 alongside Jonathan Tucker and Olivia Wilde and another in the short-lived NBC medical drama "Mercy" in 2009. Her return to a main cast, however, came in the Adult Swim series "NTSF:SD:SUV::," where she played an eye patch-wearing leader of an anti-terrorism task force alongside future "Star Trek" star Rebecca Romijn .

Of course, Mulgrew found a major career resurgence in 2013, starring in one of Netflix's earliest forays into original programming, "Orange is the New Black." In the series she stars as Red, an inmate at a women's prison, a role that would earn her an Emmy nomination. Mulgrew returned to "Star Trek" in 2021, voicing both Kathryn Janeway and a holographic version of the character in the Nickelodeon-produced CGI-animated series  "Star Trek: Prodigy."

Robert Beltran as Commander Chakotay

Sitting in the chair next to Captain Janeway for seven seasons was Robert Beltran as Commander Chakotay, a former Maquis first officer. Though Beltran counts his heritage as Latino, Chakotay was actually the first Native American series regular in the franchise but was sadly under-used, a fact that the actor has  commented on . Following "Star Trek: Voyager," Beltran's work on the small screen was mostly limited to guest appearances, popping up in episodes of "CSI: Miami" and "Medium" in the 2000s while filling roles in movies like "Taking Chances," "Fire Serpent," and "Manticore." 

Beltran's first recurring part on TV after "Voyager" was in the series "Big Love," starring Bill Paxton and Jeanne Tripplehorn. In the series, he played Jerry Flute — another Native American — who has plans to construct a casino on a reservation. However, over the next decade, Beltran seemed to move away from acting, with a sparse handful of minor roles. He revealed on Twitter that he turned down a chance to play Chakotay one more time in the revival series "Star Trek: Picard," as he was unhappy with the part they'd written for him. 

Nevertheless, Beltran did come back to join Kate Mulgrew for the animated children's series "Star Trek: Prodigy." Voicing Chakotay in his triumphant return to the franchise, the series sees the character lost in space and his former captain on a mission to find him.

Tim Russ as Lt. Tuvok

Actor Tim Russ had already made a few guest appearances in "Star Trek: The Next Generation," "Star Trek: Deep Space Nine" and even the film "Star Trek Generations" before joining the main cast of "Star Trek: Voyager" in 1995. Russ became a fan-favorite as Vulcan Lt. Tuvok, who was later promoted to Lt. Commander. However, after seven seasons playing the stoic, emotionless Tuvok, Russ kept busy with a variety of different roles, mostly guest-starring in popular TV hits.

This includes guest spots in everything from "ER" and "Law & Order: Criminal Intent" to episodes of "Hannah Montana" and "Without a Trace." He even appeared on the big screen with a small role in "Live Free or Die Hard" in 2007, but it didn't keep him away from TV, as he also had a multi-episode appearance on the hit soap "General Hospital." That same year, Russ joined the main cast of the Christina Applegate comedy "Samantha Who?" and later began working in video games, providing voice work for "Wolfenstein II: The New Colossus" and "The Last of Us Part 2." 

Since then, the actor has kept busy with countless roles in such as "Criminal Minds," "NCIS: New Orleans," "Supergirl," and "The Good Doctor." More recently, Russ turned up in an episode of Seth MacFarlane's "Star Trek" homage "The Orville,"  and in 2023 voiced Lucius Fox in the animated film "Batman: The Doom That Came to Gotham."

Roxann Dawson as B'Elanna Torres

On "Star Trek: Voyager," the role of chief engineer was filled by Roxann Dawson who played half-Klingon/half-human B'Elanna Torres. Starting out as a Maquis rebel, she eventually becomes one of the most important members of the crew, as well as a wife and mother. Following her run on the series, Dawson had just a handful of on-screen roles, which included single episodes of "The Closer" and "Without a Trace." That's because, like her franchise cohort  Jonathan Frakes , Dawson moved behind the camera to become a director full-time.

Getting her start overseeing episodes of "Voyager" first, Dawson moved on to helm entries of "Star Trek" spin-off "Enterprise" before broadening to other shows across television. Since 2005, Dawson has directed episodes of some of the biggest hits on TV including "Lost" and "The O.C." in 2006, eight episodes of "Cold Case," a trio of "Heroes" episodes, and more. 

We could go on and on rattling off the hit shows she's sat behind the camera for but among her most notable might be the David Simon HBO series "Treme" in 2011, "Hell on Wheels" with future starship captain Anson Mount, and modern masterpieces like "Bates Motel," "The Americans," and "This is Us." Her most recent work saw her return to sci-fi, helming two episodes of the Apple TV+ series "Foundation."

Garrett Wang as Ensign Harry Kim

Despite never seeing a rise in rank and perpetually remaining a low-level ensign, Harry Kim — played by Garrett Wang – often played a crucial role in defeating many of the enemies the crew would face in the Delta Quadrant. When "Star Trek: Voyager" left the airwaves, though, Wang bounced around, with his biggest role arguably coming in the 2005 Steven Spielberg-produced miniseries "Into the West." He has continued embracing his role as Ensign Kim by appearing at many fan conventions, where he found an entirely new calling. 

Beginning in 2010, Kim embarked on a career as an event moderator, serving as the Master of Ceremonies at that year's FedCon (a science fiction convention held in Germany). Later, he was the Trek Track Director at the celebrated Dragon Con event, held annually in Atlanta, Georgia. Over the course of his new career, Wang has held moderating duties and hosted panels and events at major pop culture conventions in Montreal, Edmonton, Phoenix, and Denver. According to Wang, his biggest role as a moderator came at the Calgary Comic and Entertainment Expo in 2012, where he interviewed the legendary Stan Lee .

In 2020, Wang joined forces with co-star Robert Duncan McNeill to launch "The Delta Flyers," a podcast that discusses classic episodes of "Star Trek: Voyager."

Robert Duncan McNeill as Lt. Tom Paris

Robert Duncan McNeill guest-starred in an episode of "Star Trek: The Next Generation" as a hotshot pilot who broke the rules and wound up booted from Starfleet. So when producers developed a similar character, they brought in McNeill to play him, resulting in brash, cavalier helm officer Tom Paris. In 2002, after "Star Trek: Voyager" ended, McNeill starred in an episode of  "The Outer Limits" revival  and a few more small roles. However, like Dawson, McNeill left acting not long after the series ended to become a director and producer, starting with four episodes of "Star Trek: Enterprise."

Into the 2000s, McNiell helmed episodes of "Dawson's Creek" and "One Tree Hill" before becoming an executive producer on the action-comedy series "Chuck" starring Zachary Levi. Ultimately he'd direct 21 episodes of that series across its five seasons. From there, McNeill went on to sit behind the camera for installments of "The Mentalist," "Blue Bloods," and "Suits." 

Since the 2010s, McNeill has served as an executive producer on further shows that included "The Gifted," the Disney+ reboot of "Turner & Hooch," and the SyFy series "Resident Alien." In addition to hosting "The Delta Flyers" podcast with co-star Garrett Wang, McNeill came back to "Star Trek" in 2022 when he voiced the character of Tom Paris in a cameo on the animated comedy "Star Trek: Lower Decks."

Ethan Phillips as Neelix

Another actor to appear on "Star Trek" before taking a leading role on "Voyager," Ethan Phillips played the quirky alien chef Neelix for all seven seasons of the show's run. A well-established veteran, his TV roles prior had included dramas like "NYPD Blue" and family hits like "Doogie Howser, M.D." Unfortunately, his role on "Voyager" never translated to big-time success after, though he hardly struggled for work. That's because he went back to his former career as a character actor.

In the ensuing years, Phillips could be seen all over the dial and beyond, with parts in "Touched by an Angel" and "8 Simple Rules" among many others, even popping up in a guest-starring role in an episode of "Star Trek: Enterprise" in 2002. Later he did a three-episode run on "Boston Legal," another Beantown-based legal drama from David E. Kelley, this one starring "Star Trek" legend William Shatner and "Deep Space Nine" alum René Auberjonois. Some of the biggest shows he's found work on during the 2010s meanwhile include "Better Call Saul" and a recurring role in the Lena Dunham comedy "Girls." He's also had roles in major movies, showing up in "Inside Llewyn Davis," "The Purge: Election Year," and "The Island."

Though he hasn't come back to "Star Trek," Phillips did return to sci-fi in 2020, joining the main cast of the HBO space comedy "Avenue 5" alongside Hugh Laurie and Josh Gad.

Jeri Ryan as Seven of Nine

Though she didn't arrive on "Star Trek: Voyager" until Season 4, Jeri Ryan arguably became the series' biggest star. She came in to help liven up a series that was struggling and joined the cast as a former Borg drone named Seven of Nine . It proved to be just what the series needed and a career-defining role for Ryan. One of the few cast members of "Voyager" to parlay her role into bigger success, Ryan immediately joined the David E. Kelley legal drama "Boston Public" after the series ended.

There she had a three-season run and in 2006 she secured another starring role on another legal drama, this time in the James Woods series "Shark," with Danielle Panabaker and Henry Simmons. Smaller recurring roles came after, including multi-episode stints on "Law & Order: Special Victims Unit," "Two and a Half Men," and "Leverage," before Ryan returned to a main cast with her co-starring role in "Body of Proof" in 2011 alongside Dana Delany. Parts in "Helix" and "Bosch" came after, as well as brief recurring roles in "MacGyver" and "Major Crimes," leading right up to her return to "Star Trek" in 2020.

That year, Ryan joined the cast of the revival series "Star Trek: Picard." Returning to the role of Seven of Nine, she supported series lead Patrick Stewart by appearing in all three seasons, and rumor has it she may even star in a spin-off. 

Jennifer Lien as Kes

Joining the Starfleet and Maquis crew aboard Voyager was Kes, a young alien woman with mild telepathic powers and just a nine-year lifespan, and played by Jennifer Lien. Unfortunately, her character never quite gelled, and in Season 4 Lien was written out to make way for Jeri Ryan as Seven of Nine.

Leaving the series in 1997, Lien's career stalled in front of the camera, though she did manage a role in "American History X" alongside "Star Trek: Deep Space Nine" star Avery Brooks. However, most of her subsequent work came in animation, with voice work in "Superman: The Animated Series" — where she played Inza, the wife of Doctor Fate — and a starring role as Agent L in "Men in Black: The Series." 

Unfortunately, Lien pretty much left acting shortly after that. She married filmmaker Phil Hwang and started a family but has faced personal problems along the way. While struggling to deal with her mental health, Lien was arrested in 2015 for indecent exposure and again in 2018 for driving without a license. 

If you or someone you know needs help with mental health, please contact the Crisis Text Line by texting HOME to 741741, call the National Alliance on Mental Illness helpline at 1-800-950-NAMI (6264), or visit the National Institute of Mental Health website .

Manu Intiraymi as Icheb

Late in Season 6 of "Star Trek: Voyager," a storyline saw the ship rescue a stranded vessel commanded by a group of wayward Borg children. At the conclusion of the story, four young drones join the crew, becoming a surrogate family of sorts to Seven of Nine after jettisoning their Borg identities. The eldest of them is Icheb, a teenager who becomes like a brother to Seven, played by actor Manu Intiraymi. The young actor went on to make 11 appearances across the final two seasons of the show. 

When "Voyager" ended in 2001, Intiraymi continued acting, with his largest role coming in "One Tree Hill." There he played Billy — a local drug dealer — in a recurring role in 2012. Further projects were mostly independent films like "5th Passenger" in 2017 and "Hell on the Border," a 2019 Western starring David Gyasi, Ron Perlman, and Frank Grillo. 

In 2017, Intiraymi came under fire for criticizing fellow "Star Trek" actor Anthony Rapp, who'd made accusations of sexual assault against Kevin Spacey . A few years later, fans speculated those comments may have been why he wasn't asked to return to the role of Icheb in "Star Trek: Picard," with a new actor playing the part in a scene that killed off the character.

Scarlett Pomers as Naomi Wildman

Plenty of TV shows have added a kid to shake up the status quo late into their run, and "Star Trek: Voyager" was not immune to this trope. In addition to Borg kids like Icheb, Samantha Wildman — the newborn daughter of a crewperson — became a recurring character beginning in Season 5, played by Scarlett Pomers. She'd wind up in 16 episodes, including a few where she played a leading role. In the aftermath of the end of the series, Pomers appeared in the Julia Roberts film "Erin Brockovich," and in 2001 joined the cast of the sitcom "Reba."

For six seasons Pomers starred as Kyra Hart, daughter of the show's star played by Reba McEntire. Appearing in a whopping 103 episodes, it was only Pomers' second regular role but also her last on-screen performance. When that series concluded, Pomers essentially retired from acting. Unfortunately, her exit from the stage was at least partly due to her ongoing battle with an eating disorder, and Pomers has since become an outspoken advocate for those struggling with anorexia and mental illness. In a 2019 interview with StarTrek.com , Pomers also talked about her subsequent career as a photographer, musician, and jewelry designer.

If you are struggling with an eating disorder, or know someone who is, help is available. Visit the National Eating Disorders Association website or contact NEDA's Live Helpline at 1-800-931-2237. You can also receive 24/7 Crisis Support via text (send NEDA to 741-741).

Martha Hackett as Seska

In the early seasons of "Star Trek: Voyager," one of the most compelling ongoing storylines was that of Seska, a Bajoran and former Maquis rebel and on-again-off-again lover of Chakotay. Played by recurring guest star Martha Hackett, it was later revealed that Seska was actually an enemy agent in disguise. Hackett would appear in a total of 13 episodes of the series, making it by far the largest role in her career. Still, she has appeared in some big hits over the last two decades.

Those included a small role in "Kiss Kiss Bang Bang" in 2005 and an appearance in the cult horror movie "The Bye Bye Man" in 2017. It also includes one-off appearances in episodes of popular projects on the small screen, like "The Mindy Project" in 2014, "Masters of Sex" a year earlier, and a recurring role in the daytime soap "Days of Our Lives" between 2016 and 2018. Thanks to her iconic role as Seska, though, Hackett continues to be a regular on the "Star Trek" convention circuit and was interviewed for the upcoming "Star Trek: Voyager" documentary "To the Journey."

Robert Picardo as the Doctor

For 30 years, the world of science fiction meant one thing when the moniker of "The Doctor" was uttered, but that all changed in 1995 with the launch of "Star Trek: Voyager." There, actor Robert Picardo — already known for antagonistic roles in "Gremlins 2: The New Batch" and "InnerSpace" — starred as the Doctor, the nameless holographic chief medical officer aboard the Voyager. Known for his offbeat humor and cantankerous attitude, he was played to perfection by Picardo, and it would become the actor's signature role. 

Still, even after leaving sickbay as the Doctor, Picardo had a healthy career, moving quickly into a role in "The Lyon's Den" starring Rob Lowe and Kyle Chandler in 2003. A year later he joined another iconic sci-fi franchise when he secured a recurring part in "Stargate SG-1"  as Richard Woolsey, a grumpy U.S. official who opposed the Stargate program. Following a string of appearances on the flagship series, Picardo joined the main cast of "Stargate: Atlantis" in 2006. A few years later, Picardo had another repeat role, this time as Jason Cooper on "The Mentalist," and he later enjoyed a stint on the Apple TV+ drama "Dickinson."

In 2023, the actor made a guest appearance on the "Quantum Leap" revival playing Doctor Woolsey, whose name is a clear tribute to his two biggest TV roles.

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1 of star trek: voyager’s best episodes was saved by rick berman.

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20 Best Episodes Of Star Trek In TV History, Ranked

This fallout season 2 update has me a little worried about lucy’s future now, meemaw actor's young sheldon cancelation criticism is proven right by new cbs data.

• Rick Berman's story change transformed Star Trek: Voyager's "Distant Origin" into a great episode, thanks to a "Galileo" figure.
• "Distant Origin" is classic Star Trek, holding similarities with TNG's best episodes.
• Berman's influence brought TNG features to Voyager, enhancing the series' quality and storylines.

A great episode from Star Trek: Voyager season 3 was saved from obscurity by Rick Berman, according to writer Joe Menosky. Rick Berman became Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry's right-hand man at the beginning of Star Trek: The Next Generation , and ascended to the role of franchise leader after Roddenberry passed away during TNG 's run. Berman was responsible for shepherding the Star Trek timeline through its most popular era in the 1990s and early 2000s , and this included being an executive producer on all seven seasons of Voyager .

Although later seasons of Voyager were undoubtedly better than earlier ones, season 3 was arguably where the show began to turn a corner. The seasons contained some incredible episodes, such as the two-part-time-travel epic "Future's End," and storylines tended to be better overall as the series picked up momentum and Voyager 's cast of characters gelled with each other. However, one great episode toward the end of Voyager season 3 might never have been a hit if it weren't for Rick Berman.

Across almost 60 years, 11 TV shows, and hundreds of episodes, the Star Trek franchise has provided some of the greatest hours of television drama.

Joe Menosky Explained How Rick Berman Saved An Important Star Trek: Voyager Season 3 Episode

Berman's story change ensured the "distant origin" went from good to great.

In an interview with Cinefantastique in 1997, Joe Menosky detailed how Berman was instrumental in making sure that Voyager season 3, episode 23, "Distant Origin" succeeded. "Distant Origin" dealt with the crew of the USS Voyager encountering an alien race, the Voth, who were descended from a species of dinosaur on Earth. The episode had a great classic Star Trek premise, incorporating real-world science and allegory , but according to Menosky, it only got that way because of Berman's suggestions when the idea was pitched. Read Menosky's full quote below:

"He happened to come into the room when we were talking about this show. The first story notion that Brannon laid out to Rick in Jeri's office was the action-oriented story idea and Rick just hated it. He said, 'All I see is a bunch of lizards with AK-47s. Where's the Humanity? This should be Galileo.' As soon as he said Galileo, I thought, that's perfect. I've done a lot of research in Italian history, so I knew exactly what he was talking about. Rick Berman's participation at that basic story level made this episode happen."

Thanks to Berman's suggestion of including a " Galileo " figure as the episode's protagonist, "Distant Origin" became one of Voyager season 3's better episodes. The character of Gegen (Henry Woronicz) added a wonderfully humanizing element to the plot, and basing most of the episode from the Voth's point of view brought in a more exciting perspective than the traditional Voyager episode . Additionally, "Distant Origin" ended up being very popular among Voyager ’s creative team, receiving praise from several writing and production staff members. This also spoke to the impressiveness of the episode's story overall.

Voyager’s “Distant Origin” Is A Classic Star Trek Episode Thanks To Berman

"distant origin" has all the hallmarks of the greatest star trek episodes.

Without its connection to real-life events, “Distant Origin” might never have become so popular. Joe Menosky further enthused in the same Cinefantastique interview that the episode had a lot of unique things going for it, even going so far as to say that it was like a great episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation . According to Menoksy, the episode “ ...felt as close to TNG in spirit, as anything I've ever been involved on since I've been writing for Voyager ," and was " frankly closer to the spirit of the kind of best TNGs than a lot of TNGs I've done. "

This is high praise, considering that TNG was the gold standard for Star Trek TV shows at the time. "Distant Origin" does have many of the hallmarks of a great TNG episode, including the very human debate about science versus religion from an alien perspective . Given that Rick Berman began his Star Trek tenure on TNG , it isn't surprising that he would be able to shape episodes for other series like Star Trek: Voyager that included some of TNG 's distinctive features.

Source: Cinefantastique , Vol. 29

Star Trek: Voyager

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The fifth entry in the Star Trek franchise, Star Trek: Voyager, is a sci-fi series that sees the crew of the USS Voyager on a long journey back to their home after finding themselves stranded at the far ends of the Milky Way Galaxy. Led by Captain Kathryn Janeway, the series follows the crew as they embark through truly uncharted areas of space, with new species, friends, foes, and mysteries to solve as they wrestle with the politics of a crew in a situation they've never faced before. 

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Star Trek: Voyager cast reunion discovers Kate Mulgrew would redo the first season if she could

Credit: CBS

It took Captain Janeway and crew seven years to get out of the Delta Quadrant — and a quarter century more to share their adventures online.

The cast of Star Trek: Voyager reunited on a Stars In The House livestream Tuesday night to celebrate the fourth Star Trek series' 25th anniversary as well as help raise money for The Actors Fund to assist those in the entertainment industry left unemployed due to the coronavirus pandemic.

Kate Mulgrew (Captain Kathryn Janeway), Garrett Wang (Starfleet Officer Harry Kim), Roxann Dawson (Chief Engineer B'Elanna Torres), and Robert "Robbie" Duncan McNeil (Helmsman Tom Paris) zoomed in to answer the first round of questions from SiriusXM hosts Seth Rudetsky and James Wesley, as well as Netizens beaming in from around the globe.

Joining the conversation a little later were Robert Picardo (The Doctor), Robert Beltran (First Officer Chakotay), Jeri Ryan (Seven of Nine), and Ethan Phillips (erstwhile cook turned Ambassador Neelix).

The Voyager alums traded old stories, cracked jokes, and caught fans up on how they view the iconic show, which ended its seventh season run on UPN way back in 2001.

Here's a roundup of some of the biggest revelations, including what Mulgrew would do over again if she had the chance!

When asked by a fan in Australia what it was like to be the first female captain in the Star Trek universe, Mulgrew compared it being "shot out of a cannon" — especially since she came in as a last minute replacement when Geneviève Bujold, the actress originally hired to play Janeway, quit on the second day of shooting the pilot (apparently she wasn't accustomed to the pressures of working on a weekly TV series ).

"It was terrific. It was overwhelming," said Mulgrew, now 65. "I was not the first choice [for the role]. Geneviève Bujold had it for two seconds. I had about four days to collect myself and then I started Monday morning. It was a formidable undertaking but once I got my sea legs it was great."

Added McNeil: "There was a lot of uncertainty when Geneviève left…and the moment you said the first line on the bridge, personally I said this show is gonna work. We were gonna make it."

Quizzed about what they liked least about their characters, some of the cast members noted the challenges posed by the uniforms (Garrett: "It pulled in all the wrong places") and long hours getting into and out of makeup (Dawson: "the makeup… was 2 ½ hours to put on and 45 minutes" to take off). Others noted the difficulty of portraying a character sans emotion — like Picardo's Chief Medical Officer (Picardo: "at first he was a blank slate").

For her part though, Mulgrew spoke candidly about the toll Voyager 's production took on her home life, since the long hours kept her away from her two young children.

"I think the most favorite is obvious because I was the captain and what could be more gratifying than that? Not much," she said. "But my least favorite was the conflict that I still say today that exists for all women in a leading role who are raising children by themselves. That was a very difficult conflict… but it was ongoing for seven years because those were their formative years. They were 10 and 11… and to this day they have not seen [ Voyager ]. Kids are tough. They want their mother… and they did not understand it, especially with two boys."

When not going out of their way to praise each other, the show's inclusiveness, or their fans, the cast couldn't resist poking fun at each other. They also revisited old jokes — like the irony of the Doctor finally getting a proper name, "Joe," in the series finale.

"I think the joke over the seven years was that once my character was given the freedom to select his name, he couldn't make up his mind," said Picardo. "The fact that they gave me Joe was a personal joke to me cause every male in my family was named Joe. Joe is the most popular name in my family. So it tickled me."

When asked about revisiting Seven of Nine in CBS All Access' Picard , Ryan waxed poetic about her character's "resiliency and guts" and how "she's trying and struggling... she's just awesome."

When Mulgrew wondered out loud about the future of the new Star Trek spinoff, Ryan also revealed that Season 2, which CBS already greenlit, was scheduled to start shooting in the middle of June, but due to the coronavirus, has been temporarily postponed.

"They're hoping we can start shooting in the fall," she said.

Towards the end of the Q&A, Mulgrew dropped perhaps the biggest bombshell about her taking on Janeway: what the stage and screen veteran would do over again, given how quickly she had to take on the role in the first place.

Mulgrew: "A lot… I would certainly go back and redo the first season and endow that language which was diabolical with real meaning… those were terribly long days and I didn't know what I was doing. Had I had the guts to endow her more completely with knowledge of what she was saying, I would have felt steadier on my feet."

As for this being a pandemic, when asked how to avoid COVID-19, Mulgrew suggested doing what any good Starfleet officer would do: stick to the science.

"I would certainly abide by what science dictates to the letter. That would be wearing the mask at all times, wearing the gloves at all times, keep social distancing at six feet, and stay in at all times as much as you can," the thesp said.  

Now that's the way to live long and prosper.

• Kate Mulgrew
• Star Trek: Voyager

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Published Jun 10, 2024

Star Trek Honored at 84th Annual Peabody Awards

Alex Kurtzman paid tribute to Bjo Trimble who was also in attendance.

Getty Images for Peabody Awards

Last night, the Star Trek franchise received the Peabody Institutional Award , which is given annually to recognize an organization or long-running television program that has made an indelible mark on the American broadcasting landscape.

Alex Kurtzman accepted on behalf of the Star Trek franchise, and was joined on stage by Patrick Stewart, LeVar Burton, Scott Bakula, Jeri Ryan, Anson Mount, Rebecca Romijn, Ethan Peck, Wilson Cruz, Doug Jones, Tawny Newsome, Sam Richardson, Akiva Goldsman, Henry Alonso Myers, Michelle Paradise, Olatunde Osunsanmi, Noga Landau, Jenny Lumet and Trevor Roth.

Kurtzman spoke about the almost 60 year legacy of the franchise that has given hope to us all and that no matter who you are there is a place for you in the Star Trek family. He also recognized Bjo Trimble, who was in attendance, and had launched an unprecedented letter writing campaign to save Star Trek after it was canceled in its second season.

The  original  Star Trek  television series  aired on NBC for only three seasons, from September 1966 to June 1969. It was fresh, prescient, and so ahead of its time that it couldn't quite capture the mainstream audience required for hits during a particularly insipid time in television. But fast forward nearly 60 years, and creator Gene Roddenberry's vision is alive and well, having spawned a media franchise of 13 feature films, 11 television series, and numerous books and comics, with a legendary fan following. Today  Star Trek  is more vibrant, imaginative, funny, entertaining, and progressive than ever. And these days, we’ve got the special effects to make it look stellar.

The original science-fiction series was set aboard a starship,  Enterprise , whose mostly human crew encountered alien life as they traversed the stars, led by the iconic Captain James T. Kirk (William Shatner). It was groundbreaking for its diverse cast and for its unapologetically progressive values — exploration over colonialism, cooperation over violence. Its fandom grew over time, and the successors to the original series have updated the franchise without losing its moral core — the dream of a future free from human destruction, poverty, and bigotry. Subsequent captains have served as models of ethical and diverse leadership:  The Next Generation 's Jean-Luc Picard (Patrick Stewart),  Deep Space Nine 's Benjamin Sisko (Avery Brooks), and  Voyager 's Kathryn Janeway (Kate Mulgrew) among them.

With every passing decade, new versions have proliferated, attracting new generations of fans. Film reboots directed by J.J. Abrams and Justin Lin revived Kirk and his crew with new, young actors, zippier dialogue, and vastly improved effects in the 2000s and 2010s. The Streaming Era has brought a raft of reimaginings with a variety of sensibilities, from the dark and complicated  Star Trek: Discovery  to the crowd-pleasing prequel  Star Trek: Strange New Worlds  to the hilariously meta cartoon  Star Trek: Lower Decks . As the latest versions of  Star Trek  invite in a new generation of viewers, the interstellar travelers still encounter danger and difficulty, of course. But the Starfleet crew always comes out on top — and without sacrificing essential values that seem quintessentially human: valor, self-sacrifice, curiosity, compassion, broadmindedness.

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The Cast of Gremlins : Where Are They Now?

How have Phoebe Cates, Corey Feldman and the rest of the cast coped with being terrorized by little green monsters in the 1984 classic?

Warner Bros. Pictures/Amblin E/Sunset Boulevard/Corbis via Gett

This story has been updated.

Forty years ago, somebody didn’t follow the very strict and very clear rules about their new pet, unleashing havoc in the process.

Director Joe Dante’s 1984 horror comedy Gremlins saw a horde of frighteningly hilarious little monsters take over a small town at Christmastime, and film-goers ate it up — but hopefully not after midnight! The film came in second at the box office on its opening weekend (behind another ’80s classic, Ghostbusters ), and in the four decades since it’s become not only a cult favorite, but also something of an off-beat holiday staple .

In 1990, the film spawned an even more wild sequel, Gremlins 2: The New Batch , and more recently Netflix revived the franchise in an animated series, Gremlins: Secrets of the Mogwai .

On the 40th anniversary of Gremlins ’ release, let’s check in on the film’s cast to see how they’ve faired since being tormented by the little green ghouls.

Zach Galligan as Billy

Zach Galligan was 20 years old when he made his film debut as small-town teen Billy in Gremlins , and would go on to reprise the role in 1990’s Gremlins 2: The New Batch . He’s also appeared in a slew of horror films, erotic thrillers and other B movies over the past 40 years, including 1988’s Waxwork and its 1992 sequel, 1993’s Warlock: The Armageddon and the 1993 sex comedy All Tied Up . He’s also had guest roles on hit TV series like Melrose Place , Tales from the Crypt , Star Trek: Voyager and Law & Order: Criminal Intent .

In recent years, he’s also dipped back into the Gremlins universe, first with a 2021 Mountain Dew commercial in which he appeared alongside furry mogwai companion Gizmo (voiced by Howie Mandel), and again last year when he voiced a supporting character in Netflix’s animated series Gremlins: Secrets of the Mogwai .

Galligan married Ling-Ling Hu Ingerick in 2005. The couple divorced five years later.

Phoebe Cates as Kate

Warner Bros. Pictures/Amblin E/Sunset Boulevard/Corbis via Getty; Jim Spellman/WireImage)

After making a splash in an iconic bikini scene in 1982’s Fast Times at Ridgemont High , Phoebe Cates again stole the spotlight in the role of Billy’s love interest Kate in Gremlins , delivering a memorably chilling monologue about why she hates Christmas — a moment she would later spoof in Gremlins 2 .

She continued to work steadily throughout the ’80s and early ’90s, appearing in comedies like Date with an Angel (1987) and Drop Dead Fred (1991), and dramas like Bright Lights, Big City (1988).

While auditioning for a role in The Big Chill (which would ultimately go to Meg Tilly), Cates met future husband, Kevin Kline . The couple married in 1989 and appeared in two films together: 1990’s I Love You to Death and 1994’s Princess Caraboo . After Princess Caraboo , Cates stepped away from acting to focus on raising her two children with Kline . In 2001, she briefly returned to the screen, appearing in Fast Times costar Jennifer Jason Leigh’s directorial debut The Anniversary Party . She also reprised her Gremlins role in 2015, voicing the character in the video game Lego Dimensions .

Howie Mandel as Gizmo

Pictorial Press Ltd / Alamy Stock Photo; Steve Granitz/FilmMagic

Already a star of NBC’s St. Elsewhere , in 1984 Howie Mandel lent his voice talents to the role of adorable fuzzy mogwai Gizmo in Gremlins , creating the character’s distinctive coos and squeals. He went on to star in ’80s comedies like A Fine Mess , Walk Like a Man and Little Monsters , while also voicing several characters in Muppet Babies . Mandel returned to voice Gizmo again in Gremlins 2 , and created and starred in an animated series of his own, Bobby’s World , which aired on Fox Kids from 1990 to 1998. 

Mandel has continued to work in films and TV series, frequently appearing as himself, over the past two decades. More recently, he’s become a go-to game show host and reality competition judge, most notably on Deal or No Deal and America’s Got Talent . Last year, he even competed as the Rock Lobster on The Masked Singer .

Mandel met wife Terry while they were both still in their teens. The couple married in 1980 and have three children . Mandel has talked openly about his struggles with obsessive compulsive disorder, a condition he shares with his eldest daughter, Jackelyn .

Corey Feldman as Pete

Warner Bros/Kobal/Shutterstock; Phillip Faraone/Getty 

After starring as Billy’s kid sidekick Pete in Gremlins , Corey Feldman went on to appear in some of the most iconic movies of the ’80s, his roles in The Goonies , Stand by Me and The Lost Boys making him one of the biggest child stars of the decade. He appeared alongside fellow teen star Corey Haim in License to Drive (1988) and Dream a Little Dream (1989), and the pair became inextricably linked as “The Two Coreys.”

Like Haim, however, Feldman struggled with addiction and has frequently been a magnet for controversy . In early 2018, Feldman was cleared of a sexual battery allegation following an LAPD investigation. In 2020, Feldman released a documentary My Truth: The Rape of 2 Coreys , in which he alleged that both he and Haim had been sexually abused as child stars. That same year, Deadline reported that Feldman stepped down from SAG-AFTRA's Sexual Harassment Committee following reports of sexual misconduct allegations against him made by several former members of his band, Corey’s Angels, according to Variety . Feldman has vehemently denied the allegations, and charges were not filed.

“As a victim myself of sexual predators and an avid spokesperson on behalf of victims everywhere, I welcome an investigation. Beyond that, I don't care to dignify the alleged claims of women who have been stalking me and harassing me endlessly for some time, for which I have contacted police,” he said in a statement at the time. “The same girls made the same claims 2 years ago and it was investigated and I was cleared by both LAPD and the DA.”

He has also released several albums since 1992, and recently appeared on The Masked Singer as the Seal . Next up, Feldman will have a single, "The Joke," dropping on June 22, and his 2004 film The Birthday is set to hit theaters this fall through Drafthouse Films.

Feldman has been married three times, first to actress Vanessa Marcil from 1989 to 1993, to Susie Sprague from 2002 to 2014 and most recently to Courtney Anne Mitchell from 2016 to 2023. He shares one son with Sprague.

Hoyt Axton as Billy's Dad

Warner Brothers/Getty; Ron Galella Collection via Getty

A prolific singer-songwriter — he penned Three Dog Night’s “Joy to the World” — and actor in the ’60s and ’70s, Hoyt Axton was the perfect choice for Billy’s father in Gremlins , bringing an earthy warmth to the role.

After Gremlins, Axton continued to act in small roles on shows like Diff'rent Strokes , Murder, She Wrote and an episode of Shelley Duvall’s Faerie Tale Theatre . In the ’90s, he returned to music, releasing three albums between 1990 and 1998.

Axton married and divorced three times before marrying his wife Deborah. He was the father of five children, including musician Max Axton. He died at the age of 61 in 1999 .

Keye Luke as Mr. Wing

United Archives GmbH / Alamy Stock Photo; Jim Smeal/Ron Galella Collection via Getty 

Before appearing as elderly antiques dealer Mr. Wing in Gremlins , Keye Luke had a long and storied Hollywood career, beginning in the 1930s with his roles in the Charlie Chan films and as Kato in the Green Hornet film serials.

Already in his 80s at the time, Luke continued to work throughout the 1980s, with appearances on The A Team , Miami Vice , MacGyver and The Golden Girls following Gremlins . In 1990, he returned for a cameo as Mr. Wing in Gremlins 2 , and appeared that same year in his final role in Woody Allen’s Alice .

Luke was married to wife Ethel from 1942 until her death in 1979. He died at the of 86 in 1991.

Dick Miller as Mr. Futterman

Warner Bros. TCD/Prod.DB / Alamy Stock Photo; Oliver Walker/FilmMagic

Veteran character actor Dick Miller appeared in hundreds of film and TV roles over the course of his 60-year career, including all of Gremlins director Joe Dante’s films. Dante tapped Miller to play town drunk Murray Futterman in the 1984 horror comedy, and Miller returned to the role six years later in Gremlins 2. Small roles in films like The Terminator , Innerspace and The ’Burbs followed Gremlins in the ’80s, and Miller also voiced a character on Batman: The Animated Series and appeared on Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman and Star Trek: Deep Space Nine in the ’90s.

In 2014, he was the subject of a documentary, That Guy Dick Miller , and his final film, 2019’s Hanukkah , was released following his death in that year .

Miller was married to wife Lainie from 1959 until his death at the age of 90. The couple had one daughter.

Polly Holliday as Mrs. Deagle

Warner Bros./Courtesy Everett Collection; Evan Agostini/ImageDirect/Getty

Best known as sassy waitress Flo in CBS’s Alice (1976–1980), Polly Holliday went from sassy to nasty for her role as the sinister Mrs. Deagle in Gremlins .

Guest and recurring roles on shows like The Golden Girls and Home Improvement followed in the ’80s and ’90s, and Holliday also appeared in beloved films Mrs. Doubtfire and Nancy Meyers’s 1998 remake of The Parent Trap alongside a young Lindsay Lohan. She was last seen in 2010’s Fair Game , playing CIA officer Valerie Plame’s mother opposite Naomi Watts and Sean Penn.

Judge Reinhold as Gerald

Warner Bros./courtesy Everett Collection; Mark Davis/Getty

Phoebe Cates’s Fast Times at Ridgemont High costar Judge Reinhold appeared in Gremlins as Billy’s rival both at work and for Kate’s affection. The same year, he starred as Detective Billy Rosewood opposite Eddie Murphy in 1984’s Beverly Hills Cop , a role he would return to in the film’s two sequels.

A decade later, Reinhold landed another recurring role in 1994’s The Santa Clause , returning for that film’s two sequels as well. His memorable appearance as “the close talker” in a 1994 episode of Seinfeld earned him an Emmy nomination. In the 2000s, Reinhold has appeared in guest roles on series like Monk , Arrested Development and The Detour .

Later this year, Reinhold will return to the Beverly Hills Cop franchise once again, reprising his role in the fourth installment, Beverly Hills Cop: Axel F .

Reinhold was married to Carrie Frazier in the '80s, but the couple later divorced. He married film director Amy Miller in 2000, and their daughter Haley was born in 2013.

Jonathan Banks as Deputy Brent Frye

Warner Bros.; Stewart Cook/Getty

Jonathan Banks has been bringing his gruff, no-nonsense vibe to film and TV roles for decades, appearing in a small role as a local cop in Gremlins and alongside Judge Reinhold in Beverly Hills Cop that same year.

But today he’s perhaps best known to Breaking Bad fans as cop-turned-drug cartel enforcer Mike Ehrmantraut. Banks has reprised the role in both Breaking Bad prequel series Better Call Saul and in the Netflix film El Camino , earning five of his six Emmy nominations for his performance. His first Emmy nod came in 1989, for his role in the CBS crime drama Wiseguy .

Banks was married to his first wife Marnie from 1968 to 1970. The couple share one daughter, and Banks shares twins and a stepdaughter with his second wife, Gennera.  

Most recently, Banks starred opposite Noomi Rapace in this year’s AppleTV+ sci-fi series Constellation . He’ll next voice a character in Max’s Harley Quinn spin-off series Kite Man: Hell Yeah! , due out later this year.

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Tuvix will never die

How an ethical debate and endless memes keep Star Trek’s most infamous one-shot character in the conversation

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One day in the Delta Quadrant, Captain Janeway and the crew of the USS Voyager find themselves on a planet so unremarkable we never even learn its name. Lost 70,000 light-years from home, the team is there to retrieve some flowers that might be a “valuable nutritional substitute,” as the captain’s log puts it. Tuvok, the steely Vulcan head of security, and Neelix, the gregarious Talaxian morale officer and chef, go down to take some samples.

But as the familiar whir of the transporter beams the away team back, it’s not Tuvok or Neelix who emerge back onto the pad, but a single life-form. And when we cut back from commercials, just as a phaser-holding Harry Kim barks, “Identify yourself!” we read the episode’s title, and everything becomes clear. It isn’t an intruder. It’s “Tuvix.”

As vice president of franchise planning & Star Trek brand development at ViacomCBS, John Van Citters spends a lot of time talking to creatives and fans about the Trek franchise. And those conversations often turn toward the accidental hybrid who appeared on a single hour of Star Trek: Voyager in 1996. “Tuvix,” he tells me, “is definitely over-indexed for a character that’s only made one appearance.”

When “Tuvix” first aired in the back half of season 2, it was just another hour of television during a period of tremendous franchise activity. Now, decades later, it is a flashpoint for the fandom. There are entire subreddits dedicated to the character and the conundrum faced by Captain Janeway of what to do with her two melded co-workers. Even Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez recently joined in on Tuvix fever (though in a rare case of her acting like a typical politician, she dodged the main question). As Star Trek: Lower Decks showrunner Mike McMahan tells me, “Tuvix is now a big part of the experience of being a Deep Lore Trekkie.”

That’s because Tuvok, Neelix, and those pesky flowers didn’t emerge from the transporter as a doomed, disgusting Brundlefly. They became Tuvix, a functional fusion of both crew members, played with precision and warmth by renowned character actor Tom Wright. Tuvix was healthy, strong, and capable, and a being who very much wanted to live on in his new identity. Janeway’s solution to the Tuvix problem spawned, by internet standards, one of science fiction’s greatest in-jokes.

In 1995, with the Star Trek: The Next Generation cast making the jump to feature films and the station-based Star Trek: Deep Space Nine dipping a toe into the Great Link of serialized storytelling, Voyager was meant as a throwback. Franchise overseer Rick Berman, along with co-creators Michael Piller and Jeri Taylor, hoped to get a crew back zooming across space on a starship, and sell a new, highly visible show to the fledgling network UPN. This was a bragging point, but also a detriment, as the new channel wasn’t available in all markets. Early, muted ratings, mixed with some gender-based anxiety, begat an awful lot of post-launch tinkering. Just Google “ Kate Mulgrew hair changes .”

Led by Mulgrew’s Captain Janeway, Voyager took place on the fringes of the known Trek universe with a blended crew of Starfleet personnel and Federation dissidents looking to make their way home. Helping them navigate unknown space was jolly junk trader Neelix, played by Ethan Phillips, who Captain Janeway appoints as morale officer and chef. Also in the crew was a Vulcan named Tuvok, played by Tim Russ. For comparison, the famously stern and calculating Spock was a half-Vulcan. Tuvok was all Vulcan. Serious business.

Trapping frenemies in tight quarters is a classic Trek trope. In The Original Series , Spock and Bones were cornered together in a shuttlecraft facing down savage giants in the episode “The Galileo Seven.” Decades later, Deep Space Nine echoed the relationship with stern police chief Odo and shifty, not-quite-honest Quark, who found themselves wounded, cut off from communication, and climbing a mountain on a freezing Class L planet in “ The Ascent.” Even The Next Generation ’s Captain Picard got stuck in a turbolift with his least favorite people — children — in “Disaster.” For Voyager ’s spin on the trope, Tuvok and Neelix wouldn’t just be stuck in some treacherous location, but the same consciousness.

When Tuvok and Neelix actors Tim Russ and Ethan Phillips emerge from the transporter as actor Tom Wright, even their uniform is stitched together. Early in the episode, the tone is intentionally goofy, according to Kenneth Biller, the writer of the episode, who eventually became the series’ showrunner in its seventh and final season. He admits that the members of the Voyager brain trust were basically making fun of Tuvix as they were breaking the story.

“We were thinking it would be wacky, like Steve Martin and Lily Tomlin in All of Me. [Trek producer] Brannon Braga and I were cracking ourselves up with a sitcom theme song,” Biller says. He sings a bar with the appropriate amount of jazz hands: “It’s Tuvok, it’s Neelix! It’s two guys, in-a-fix! It’s Tuuuuvix!”

Though Biller wrote “Tuvix,” two additional writers, Andrew Shepard Price and Mark Gaberman, earned a “story by” credit on the episode. Their involvement was part of a great Star Trek tradition: During Star Trek: The Next Generation , the late showrunner Michael Piller “realized how difficult it was to find enough great, high-concept ideas to fill out a season,” recalls Biller. “A brilliant idea could come from anywhere.” As such, he and Rick Berman did the unheard of, and threw the door wide open to freelance scripts from hardcore fans, even from people without any sort of Hollywood representation.

Naturally, this mostly led to garbage, but occasional gold. Television veterans Jane Espenson ( Buffy the Vampire Slayer ) and Bryan Fuller ( Hannibal ), as well as sci-fi luminaries Robert Hewitt Wolfe and René Echaverria, all kickstarted their careers through the submission process. But the rare people who got a meeting at all sold an idea, got a check, and were told thanks. The flyby was Price and Gaberman’s specialty.

“They came to pitch for us a bunch of times,” Biller remembers. (Indeed, they have five “story by” credits from throughout the series.) “What’s best is they had the weirdest day job: They wrote for Jeopardy! ”

Price and Gaberman’s idea for “Tuvix’’ was simple, and riffed on previous successes. A transporter malfunction tore Captain Kirk into his “good” and “evil” halves in the season 1 Original Series episode “The Enemy Within,” while The Next Generation character Thomas Riker was an accidental transporter-created clone of Commander William Riker. (“When it’s a ‘transporter episode,’ it is very basic to what makes something Star Trek,” McMahan summarizes. “The transporter causing problems is essentially saying Starfleet is causing problems.”) Since Biller had written the Voyager season 1 episode “Faces,” in which B’Elanna Torres is split into her human and Klingon halves (by non-transporter means), showrunner Michael Piller assigned him to bring Price and Gaberman’s story to life.

“Price and Gaberman got their $7,000 and a story credit, and I took it from there. Originally we called it ‘Symbiogenesis,’” — the evolutionary concept of a new life-form emerging from two or more distinct life-forms” — “but it was Michael Piller who called it ‘Tuvix.’ So that just inspired me to lean fully into the comedy.”

The first half of “Tuvix” is good fun, mostly due to Tom Wright, a prolific actor who’s played just about every type of character. “How I get recognized a lot of times depends on ethnic makeup,” Wright says. “White people spot me and ask, ‘ Seinfeld ?’ Black people come up and ask, ‘ Barbershop ?’ But quite a few pick me off as Tuvix.”

Even though he wasn’t well-versed in Voyager , Wright thinks he had an edge during the audition because he knew Russ and Phillips. “They really are two different types of people,” Wright says. “Tim is very reserved, and Ethan has that big personality.” Walking the line between the two sounds like an exacting science. In some scenes, when he had to be attentive to Neelix’s kinda-sorta girlfriend Kes or work in the kitchen, Wright had to “favor the Neelix side, but I would shade in a Tuvok reference, like a glance.”

Robert Picardo, who played The Doctor on Voyager for seven seasons, recalls Wright stepping up to the challenge. “The fans already knew how Neelix and Tuvok behaved,” Picardo says of the tall order. “Neelix is so busy and high-paced, and Tuvok has the emotional range of A to B. How the heck do you combine those two? One character won’t stop moving; the other barely raises an eyebrow. Somehow, he did it.”

Picardo’s praise elucidates part of why the episode is talked about so fervently today. Wright, as Tuvix, emerges as an exemplary replacement both at Tuvok’s tactical station and in Neelix’s galley. He’s forthright and strong in the presence of Captain Janeway, he’s fun hanging out with Tom Paris over billiards, and he connects with Kes on his own terms. “He was a boon to the ship,” Picardo says. “So I remember being surprised when I read the script. I knew, given the nature of television, that everything had to be fixed in 43 minutes. But I was not expecting to read Tuvix saying, ‘I don’t want to die.’”

As the Voyager crew presses on for weeks with Tuvix filling in for both crewmen, The Doctor and Harry Kim (played by Garrett Wang) keep plugging away at a cure. They want their friends back, and eventually, they figure out how to split the hybrid. But Tuvix isn’t particularly keen on being zapped out of existence.

“[Michael Piller] was always looking for the moral angle, the emotional journey, the dilemma,” Biller says. “My original draft ended with them splitting Tuvix, him saying something very Starfleet about sacrifice, and Janeway was off the hook. Michael’s note was, ‘Make him fight for his life.’”

So Biller rewrote the script with the mandate that Tuvix was a new person, an individual. Janeway would decide whether to execute him. She settles on returning Neelix and Tuvok to their original selves, and in the final minutes of the episode, after begging for his future, Tuvix is suddenly gone.

“Much like the episode itself,” Biller says, “the making of the episode had an arc. It began silly [...] then turned into something dark and even profound. I mean, what could Janeway do? What would you do?”

Star Trek: Discovery and Star Trek: Picard writer-producer Kirsten Beyer made her bones as an author of Voyager novels. As the writer of 10 of the 14 post-finale books, she knows more about the inside of Janeway’s head than most. And she’s ready to stand behind the captain.

“If they weren’t lost in the Delta Quadrant, they might have found an option that didn’t include killing a new life-form for the sake of saving two officers,” Beyer says. “Starfleet medical might have been able to help. We would feel better at the end with a third option. But we are denied that precisely because we are alone, far from home, and Captain Janeway is only given a choice between two terrible alternatives.”

Even though Beyer is, wisely, not on Twitter, she is aware of the memes. There was always chatter about “Tuvix,” but the riffs kicked into overdrive in the last five years, according to Ken Reilly, the editor of fan site TrekCore . Most of them are jokes, though many like to tag our beloved Captain Janeway with the epithet “murderer.”

“I notice those who disagree strongly with her choice are quick to add it to a list of failings ascribed to her character, and most often these failings are ones that might be seen as virtues in our male captains,” Beyer observes. “That’s always troubling. But in her shoes, I don’t know that any of them would have made a different choice. Sometimes, that’s what leadership requires.”

Jarrah Hodge, co-host of the Women at Warp podcast , concurs, telling me that this episode is frequently used as a “gotcha” to take Janeway down a peg when compared to the ethical standards found in other captains, like Picard. “I think we see a gendered double standard,” she says, while “questionable decisions from other captains fly under the radar.” She cites the time Picard forced two societies into breeding relationships in the episode “Up the Long Ladder.”

Claire Little, who works at NASA and boasts a remarkable “Live Long and Prosper” tattoo in Vulcan down her arm, adds that the increase in Tuvix-talk has its pros — like seeing a Punk Janeway cosplayer with “FUCK TUVIX” on the back of her vest at a recent convention — but concludes that “the topic is too polarizing.” This wasn’t always the case. Jim Moorhouse, a Trek podcaster and longtime convention attendee whose philanthropic zeal won him an auction to fire the phasers of the NX-01 , recalls that, early on, the episode with the silly name didn’t become an ethical flashpoint. “The narrative when it aired was that people didn’t really like the episode,” he tells me. “And I think that was because of the unsettling performance from Tom Wright, who was just so good.”

TrekCore writer Alex Perry thinks today’s fans get so worked up over the episode because, at the end of the day, there’s no uncomplicated right answer. “She probably did the right thing for Voyager, but she murdered poor Tuvix with her choice.”

And it is very much her choice. Once Tuvix says he’s not interested in reverting to the Tuvok-Neelix split, Captain Janeway spends some time gazing out at the galaxy from her briefing room, talking things over with her first officer, Chakotay. “If we’d had the ability to separate Tuvok and Neelix the moment Tuvix came aboard, I wouldn’t have hesitated,” Janeway says, later wondering, “At what point did he become an individual and not a transporter accident?”

“It became inherently political,” Biller recalls. “Personally, I do not believe in capital punishment, and we see later [in the season 7 episode “Repentance”] that Janeway does not either. But then there were shades of the pro-life argument. Of course, so many people who are pro-life are also pro-capital punishment, which is a very weird irony, in my opinion.”

After a scene of Tuvix trying to coerce Kes to convince Janeway to spare him, the drama cuts to the bridge, and the darkest moment in the entire Star Trek franchise. Tuvix is at his post, and Janeway orders him to step away, so she can speak to him alone. Tuvix knows his leola root stew is cooked. He looks to his crewmates, the people he was just playing pool with at Sandrine’s, and they all turn their backs. Tom Paris can’t even look him in the eye.

“No!” Tuvix shouts, and finally, most devastatingly, utters some truly chilling words. “Each of you is going to have to live with this, and I’m sorry for that. For you are all good, good people. My colleagues, my friends, I forgive you.”

“Those final scenes couldn’t be done half-assed,” Wright says. “I think for a few takes I tried to finesse it with ‘actor stuff.’ We got it to a place where I knew what I had to do.”

Do no harm. https://t.co/ChMEnRbv3b — Robert Picardo (@RobertPicardo) May 7, 2021

In sickbay, Janeway presents Tuvix to The Doctor, who had discovered a way to dehybridize flowers. But The Doctor will not perform the actual act that will end Tuvix’s life. Though a hologram, he’s been programmed to follow the Hippocratic oath, and, as they say, he can do no harm.

“It was the first time I disobeyed a direct order,” Robert Picardo remembers. “And Janeway takes it in stride. She doesn’t repeat herself, doesn’t accuse me of insubordination, doesn’t deactivate my program.” Though Picardo admits that many specifics of shooting Voyager have blurred a bit these decades later, he remembers “that moment when Janeway marches in. It was so out of the ordinary.”

After Janeway pulls the switch, Tuvok and Neelix return, and seem eerily fine. Janeway storms out of sickbay, with the weight of many worlds on her shoulders. Author Robb Pearlman, whose fandom-saturated, officially licensed work includes the bestselling Fun With Kirk and Spock and Redshirt’s Little Book of Doom , thinks Janeway is actually relieved The Doctor cites his oath. “She doesn’t want to put any of that on anyone from her crew, to make them live with that for the rest of her lives.”

While “Tuvix” concludes with an act many would classify as murder, there are certainly extenuating circumstances. McMahan asks, “Does the good of the many [argument from Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan ] also mean the good of the two?” The text does not really support the theory that Janeway needs Tuvok and Neelix back to get the ship home. Things are running smoothly with just Tuvix.

“It’s a decision with which I disagree,” Mohamed Noor, a science adviser for the Star Trek franchise, says, “but it wasn’t irrational. I can’t say it is completely immoral.”

Along with his role in the current iterations of Trek, Noor is a professor of biology and dean of natural sciences at Duke University, and his work on fruit flies is weirdly relevant to the symbiogenesis scene in “Tuvix.” Not only do extra-chromosome organisms like Tuvix (called polyploids) exist, but Noor’s experiments with forced interbreeding have actually resulted in inherited behaviors from both parent species. It isn’t too common in mammals, but it does sound very Star Trek.

Though it was on a much larger scale, Noor compares Janeway’s action to Kodos from The Original Series ’ “The Conscience of the King,” in which Governor Kodos, facing a food crisis on the colony of Tarsus IV, divided the colony of 8,000 in half and put 4,000 to death. “He wanted to guarantee the survival of the Tarsus colony by sacrificing ‘the many’,” Noor says, “and Janeway wanted to guarantee the survival of Neelix and Tuvok by sacrificing Tuvix.” Of course, Kodos is remembered as one of the galaxy’s most heinous executioners, while Janeway is the hero who brought Voyager home from the Delta Quadrant.

The proliferation of Tuvix jokes is likely born from years of distance. “I’d forgotten how dark the episode was!” was the refrain from nearly everyone who rewatched it before speaking to me. “Citing it as a comedy episode is like people who choose ‘I Will Always Love You’ as a wedding song,” Pearlman says with a sigh. “They don’t realize it’s about a breakup.”

And Voyager didn’t dwell on the magnitude of Janeway’s decision. Another wish most people had was for there to have been some further reference to Tuvix later in the series. He is never spoken of again. At no point in subsequent seasons was there even an acknowledgment between Tuvok and Neelix that they had once shared the same consciousness. Kirsten Beyer says she “filed that episode away” for when she needed to explore “how Janeway would act when there are no good options ” while writing the many Voyager books, but as far as on-screen consideration, there’s zip. The silence sits in contrast to Picard’s noteworthy mind meld with Sarek, which was referenced in later Next Generation episodes, even though that show was similarly episodic. “It’s like Tuvok and Neelix were friends that hooked up at a bar late one night, then never wanted to acknowledge it again,” says Pearlman.

Despite a lack of aftershocks, “Tuvix” still brings the goods years later. “The way they designed everything was really smart,” McMahan says. “The audience knows, from the minute we see him on the transporter pad, that this guy is out of here at the end of the episode. No one is going to think Tim Russ and Ethan Phillips have both been killed off the show. But it still works.”

Every “will they survive?” beat in Star Trek automatically had more oomph than on a typical show because of The Next Generation ’s first season. When Tasha Yar, a main character, got whacked by the big blob of tar known as Armus in “Skin of Evil,” it seeded paranoia with fans that anyone could go at any time. (Or maybe that’s just me, a fan who never quite got over that childhood TV trauma from 1988.) Even though I and many other fans — CBS’s John Van Citters tells me the second most joked-about single-appearance character after Tuvix is the interstellar Hefty bag that killed Lt. Yar — knew that the chances of two series regulars vanishing were next to none, disbelief was suspended in subspace.

Janeway? You got some splaining to do. pic.twitter.com/wXPqnvvbiu — Tom Wright (@_Tom_Wright_) April 22, 2021

McMahan says the Lower Decks staff has spent its fair share of time thinking about Tuvix, and that maybe there was a way to save the hybrid crew member. “Manipulate the transporter to create a clone, make a Thomas Riker of Tuvix, but don’t let him ever gain consciousness. You don’t let him become aware. You take that Tuvix and split him in two. Now you’ve got Neelix and Tuvok back, plus Tuvix is still alive. Everyone is happy. Dammit, it’s sci-fi! You can do whatever you want!”

But in the same breath, McMahan lands on a possible real reason we all keep making jokes about the cursed half-Vulcan half-Talaxian, about why “Tuvix” is one of the essential episodes of Star Trek.

“Finding a solution isn’t what this episode is for,” he says. “This episode wants you to feel bad .”

And so we try to work through the pain. Tuvix will never die, so long as we remember him. And so long as we’re bored at work, and texting dumb pictures to our Star Trek friends, we always will.

Polygon at SDCC 2021

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Im Excited About Whats Next For Star Trek

• Star Trek: Discovery paved the way for an era of new Star Trek shows on Paramount+ with its success.
• Star Trek: Starfleet Academy and Star Trek: Prodigy season 2 offer exciting new perspectives and adventures.
• The future of Star Trek includes a mix of series and movies, with upcoming projects showcasing diverse storytelling.

Star Trek: Discovery is over, but I'm excited for what's coming up for Star Trek . Star Trek: Discovery kicked off a new golden age for Star Trek on Paramount+. After no new Star Trek TV shows for 12 years, Star Trek: Discovery 's success led to Star Trek: Picard, Star Trek: Lower Decks, Star Trek: Prodigy , and Star Trek: Strange New Worlds . In 2022, there was a new episode of Star Trek streaming on Paramount+ almost every Thursday. With Star Trek: Discovery concluded and Star Trek: Lower Decks ' upcoming season 5 set to also be its final season, there will be less new Star Trek on TV, but there's still a great deal of good stuff to look forward to.

Star Trek is, undoubtedly, in a state of transition, which is a result of the uncertainty surrounding the movie and TV industries. The streaming business is changing, while Paramount, which owns Star Trek , is reportedly being sold to Skydance Media. Although Skydance, which co-produced J.J. Abrams' Star Trek Into Darkness and Star Trek Beyond , looks to be friendly toward Star Trek as an IP and franchise, it does seem like Star Trek is on the wane with Star Trek: Picard, Star Trek: Discovery, and Star Trek: Lower Decks finished or about to be. Yet there is still new Star Trek being produced and in the development stages, and what's still to come has exciting possibilities.

Alex Kurtzman and his Secret Hideout production company oversee all of Star Trek on Paramount+, while X-Men producer Simon Kinberg is in talks to oversee the Star Trek theatrical feature films made by Paramount Pictures.

Every Upcoming Star Trek Movie & TV Show

Star Trek is ending series like Discovery and Lower Decks but renewed Strange New Worlds while setting up new streaming and theatrical movies.

Star Trek Has Exciting New Seasons & New Shows On The Way

Star trek will keep taking big swings.

After Star Trek: Lower Decks ends, the remaining Star Trek on Paramount+ series will be Star Trek: Strange New Worlds and Star Trek: Starfleet Academy , which are both spinoffs of Star Trek: Discovery. Strange New Worlds is already a hit with audiences and a critical darling, and the USS Enterprise-set series has already delivered classic episodes like Star Trek 's first-ever musical and a comedy crossover with Star Trek: Lower Decks . Strange New Worlds season 3 has wrapped filming, and its contents are top-secret. Strange New Worlds is my favorite Star Trek on Paramount+ series, and I'm dying to see season 3's new episodes. It's safe to expect the same level of "big swings" as in previous seasons. Best of all, Strange New Worlds season 4 is already greenlit to film in spring 2025, so its immediate future is assured.

Star Trek: Starfleet Academy is the next new Star Trek series, which begins production in fall 2024, and essentially follows up the events of Star Trek: Discovery . Starfleet Academy is the first young adult-aimed Star Trek series, but it's also the first to delve into what life is like for cadets hopeful of a career in Starfleet. Starfleet Academy offers an intriguing new perspective that will look at Star Trek through younger eyes , and it will hopefully bring a new and younger audience to Star Trek . Other cool things about Starfleet Academy are that it will be set in both San Francisco and outer space, and the show stars Academy Award-winner Holly Hunter as the Academy Chancellor. Starfleet Academy will also be a visual feast since it will film on the largest set ever constructed for Star Trek.

Star Trek: Starfleet Academy will also have humor, with Star Trek: Lower Decks' Tawny Newsome as one of the show's writers.

Possibly the upcoming Star Trek series with the most unlimited possibilities is Star Trek: Prodigy season 2 on Netflix . The next 20 episodes of the beloved, all-ages CGI animated series premiere July 1st, and Star Trek: Prodigy season 2 promises an epic intergalactic adventure involving time travel, alternate timelines, and tie-ins to every prior iteration of Star Trek . Star Trek: Voyager is especially a focus of Star Trek: Prodigy , which features the return of The Doctor (Robert Picardo) and the launching of the new Lamarr Class USS Voyager-A. Star Trek: Prodigy is perhaps the purest Star Trek of all, and it might be the grandest voyage the franchise has coming in the next few years.

It's impossible to predict what we'll get from any of the series besides excellent Star Trek at their core.

Regrettably, it's coming to an end, but the irrepressible Star Trek: Lower Decks season 5 is still going to deliver 10 new episodes that may even surpass the sensational prior seasons. Star Trek: Lower Decks has created some of the most endearing new Star Trek characters in years, led by Tawny Newsome's Lt. Beckett Mariner and Jack Quaid's Lt. Brad Boimler, and the USS Cerritos has become a celebration of the best (and most obscure) of Star Trek. Lower Decks proved Star Trek can be incredibly funny, and it's bound to go out with a bang. Best of all, Star Trek on Paramount+'s series are so varied and multidimensional that it's impossible to predict what we'll get from any of the series besides excellent Star Trek at their core.

Star Trek Movies Are Coming Back

In theaters and on streaming.

After nearly a decade since Star Trek Beyond, I'm optimistic that Star Trek movies are finally coming back. Star Trek: Section 31 , starring Academy Award-winner Michelle Yeoh, launches Star Trek 's movies made for streaming on Paramount+ initiative, and the inside word is it's a very different type of Star Trek . I always enjoy when Star Trek takes chances, even if they don't always work, but the already announced tie-in to Star Trek 's lost era and meeting legacy characters like the young Rachel Garrett (Kacey Rohl) sounds exciting. So does the return of Michelle Yeoh as Emperor Philippa Georgiou, one of the most fascinating characters Star Trek: Discovery ever introduced. If Section 31 is a hit, it opens the door to numerous possibilities for Star Trek streaming movies.

While I don't know what to make about Toby Haynes' Untitled Star Trek Origin movie , or how it will slot in (but hopefully not reboot) the Star Trek movie timeline, a new Star Trek movie finally hitting theaters is a win in and of itself. Meanwhile, the prospect of Star Trek 4 has become a running joke for years, but I'll certainly be there on opening night if Chris Pine's Captain Kirk reunites with the USS Enterprise crew on the big screen. I feel Star Trek works and thrives best on television, but Star Trek movies are a fun, and often influential, compliment to the TV franchise. Overall, while Star Trek is reducing the number of series on Paramount+, we're going to see an expansion of different types of Star Trek across TV and movies going into Star Trek 's 60th anniversary in 2026 - and that's exciting.

Cast Bruce Horak, Celia Rose Gooding, Jess Bush, Melissa Navia, Ethan Peck, Babs Olusanmokun, Rebecca Romijn, Paul Wesley, Christina Chong, Anson Mount

Streaming Service(s) Paramount+

Franchise(s) Star Trek

Writers Bill Wolkoff, Akiva Goldsman, Henry Alonso Myers

Showrunner Akiva Goldsman, Henry Alonso Myers

Cast Robert Beltran, Kate Mulgrew, John Noble, Jason Mantzoukas, Brett Gray, Angus Imrie, Jameela Jamil, Robert Picardo, Jimmi Simpson, Ella Purnell, Dee Bradley Baker

Streaming Service(s) Netflix

Writers Kevin Hageman, Dan Hageman

Showrunner Kevin Hageman, Dan Hageman

Cast Holly Hunter

Writers Noga Landau, Gaia Violo, Alex Kurtzman, Tawny Newsome

Showrunner Noga Landau, Alex Kurtzman

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Star Trek Luminaries Including Patrick Stewart And Scott Bakula Assemble For Franchise Peabody Award

| June 10, 2024 | By: TrekMovie.com Staff 46 comments so far

On Sunday night, a mix of stars and producers of Star Trek gathered for the Peabody Awards, where the franchise was being honored this year by the prestigious institution.

Peabody Trek

The 2024 Peabody Awards ceremony was held Sunday night, June 9, at the Beverly Wilshire Hotel, where Star Trek was presented with the Institutional Award, an honor which has previously been given to other groundbreaking media institutions like The Simpsons ,  60 Minutes ,  Sesame Street ,  FRONTLINE , and  The Daily Show with Jon Stewart .

A number of Star Trek stars (past, present, and future) were on hand for the event, including Scott Bakula ( Enterprise ) Patrick Stewart (TNG, Picard ), Jeri Ryan ( Voyager , Picard ), LeVar Burton (TNG, Picard ), Tawny Newsome ( Lower Decks ), Anson Mount ( Strange New Worlds ), Ethan Peck ( Strange New Worlds ), Rebecca Romijn ( Strange New Worlds ), Wilson Cruz ( Discovery ), Doug Jones ( Discovery ), and Sam Richardson ( Section 31 ). Also on hand were a number of producers, including J.J. Abrams, Alex Kurtzman, Terry Matalas, Olatunde Osunsanmi, Akiva Goldsman, Jenny Lumet, Michelle Paradise, Noga Landau, and Trevor Roth.

The Institutional Award was the final presentation of the night, where many of the above accepted the award on stage after Abrams introduced the award and Alex Kurtzman, who oversees the Star Trek television franchise for Paramount, accepted the award on behalf of the franchise. Kurtzman spoke in part  of Star Trek creator Gene Roddberry’s enduring vision of “hope that our better angels will lead us across the frontiers of space and ourselves with modesty, dignity and respect” and the conviction that “we are all made of the same stardust.”

You can see parts of Abrams and Kurtzman speaking below…

During the event host Kumail Nanjiani went into the audience to hear from Sir Patrick Stewart at one of the Star Trek tables. The actor spoke about how honored he felt being there, “unlike any award ceremony I have ever imagined.” You can watch his comments below …

In a nod to fans, Paramount invited Bjo Trimble to the event. She, along with her recently passed husband John Trimble , were instrumental in the campaign to save the original Star Trek from cancellation. Trimble joined Kurzman and the award for a special portrait as well (see below).

More photos

Here are more photos from the Peabody Awards show (via Getty images).

And here are more official portraits (also via Getty).

Official Peabody Award announcement

In case you missed it, here is the original release from the Peabody Awards from May on why Star Trek was being bestowed with the Institutional Award this year.

Here is the full text of the announcement for Star Trek:

The Institutional Award –  Star Trek

The original  Star Trek  television series aired on NBC for only three seasons, from September 1966 to June 1969. It was fresh, prescient, and so ahead of its time that it couldn’t quite capture the mainstream audience required for hits during a particularly insipid time in television. But fast forward nearly 60 years, and creator Gene Roddenberry’s vision is alive and well, having spawned a media franchise of 13 feature films, 11 television series, and numerous books and comics, with a legendary fan following. Today  Star Trek  is more vibrant, imaginative, funny, entertaining, and progressive than ever. And these days, we’ve got the special effects to make it look stellar.

The original science-fiction series was set aboard a starship,  Enterprise , whose mostly human crew encountered alien life as they traversed the stars, led by the iconic Captain James T. Kirk (William Shatner). It was groundbreaking for its diverse cast and for its unapologetically progressive values—exploration over colonialism, cooperation over violence. Its fandom grew over time, and the successors to the original series have updated the franchise without losing its moral core—the dream of a future free from human destruction, poverty, and bigotry. Subsequent captains have served as models of ethical and diverse leadership:  The Next Generation ’s Jean-Luc Picard (Patrick Stewart),  Deep Space Nine ’s Benjamin Sisko (Avery Brooks), and  Voyager ’s Kathryn Janeway (Kate Mulgrew) among them.

With every passing decade, new versions have proliferated, attracting new generations of fans. Film reboots directed by J.J. Abrams and Justin Lin revived Kirk and his crew with new, young actors, zippier dialogue, and vastly improved effects in the 2000s and 2010s. The Streaming Era has brought a raft of reimaginings with a variety of sensibilities, from the dark and complicated  Star Trek: Discovery  to the crowd-pleasing prequel  Star Trek: Strange New Worlds  (featuring a young Spock!) to the hilariously meta cartoon  Star Trek: Lower Decks . As the latest versions of  Star Trek  invite in a new generation of viewers, the interstellar travelers still encounter danger and difficulty, of course. But the Starfleet crew always comes out on top— and without sacrificing essential values that seem quintessentially human: valor, self-sacrifice, curiosity, compassion, broadmindedness.

“From a groundbreaking television series to an expansive collection of films, novels, comic books and so much more,  Star Trek  has been delivering joy, wonder, and thought-provoking stories since the 1960s,” said Jones. “With powerful anti-war and anti-discrimination messages, it has blazed trails for all science fiction franchises while winning over passionate fans across the globe. We’re proud to honor  Star Trek  with Peabody’s Institutional Award.”

Keep up with news about the  Star Trek Universe .

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Will Archer return? Please 『Star Trek Archer』

He’s looking great, ready for the part!

He was supposed to have become president of the UFP… I think a series focusing on him in that capacity might be fun… the post-Romulan War political environment could spawn a few good plot lines…

So totally agreed! Even though I don’t want more prequels an Archer streaming movie or show when he becomes Federation President would be the only real exception Outside of the Legacy show that would be my other choice for a future show.

I really just want Archer back!

Seeing Bjo arm-in-arm with Kurtzman feels really sweet and kind of made my day for some reason. Glad they thought to invite her.

The most wholesome thing I’ll see today, no doubt.

Agreed. Very sweet.

Now there’s a cast for a movie if I don’t say so myself..

So this is me being a stickler and officious but shouldn’t the writers of this article have stated the following credits:

Anson Mount ( Strange New Worlds ), Ethan Peck ( Strange New Worlds ), Rebecca Romijn ( Strange New Worlds )

Anson Mount ( Discovery, Strange New Worlds ), Ethan Peck ( Discovery, Strange New Worlds ), Rebecca Romijn ( Discovery, Strange New Worlds )

After all, these versions of Pike, Spock and Una/Number One all started on season 2 of Discovery and if not for that, we never would have gotten “Strange New Worlds”.

Haha, and don’t forget Patrick Stewart (TNG, Picard and DS9)

For that matter: LeVar Burton (TNG, Voyager , Picard) and so forth… if there’s one thing this franchise knows how to do, it’s cross the streams with actors and characters. In the words of Khan, “Of course. We’re one, big, happy fleet!”

Is zippier dialogue what they call that modern Gen Z type speak?

Only if they high key got the rizz, fam.

I don’t care how the zoomers speak I just hope their humor is better than the millennials and gen x who write modern dialog – the humor is so forced and awkward it makes me want to barf. You thought that was gonna make people laugh? Please.

Zippier dialogue? Juvenile dialogue is a better adjective.

My understanding is that zippier dialog is more like Gilmore Girls cadence.

If Kurtzman could pass that trophy down three people to his right and then exit the photo, it would be a keeper.

To who? Which picture? Which right?

To His right.

Let me help you with this. Edit: Congratulations to everyone on this well deserved honor.

See, that wasn’t so hard….

Anson Mount is a gorgeous man…

For a second I thought, “No one’s there from the original series,” and then I remembered that barely anyone’s left from it, and they’re not young.

Well, Shatner is young, but you know what I mean. :-)

It’s a shame none of the people involved with making star trek (I may have missed the them) from TNG all the way through to ENT aren’t there. People like Rick Berman, Ronald D Moore, Michael Westmore, and others who made Star Trek so popular with its comeback from TNG onwards. Star Trek would most likely not have been as big or as popular as it is now if it wasn’t for the work done from TNG onwards.

It is possible many others were invited and simply could not (or chose not to) attend.

That’s a good point.

They help define what Star Trek is for millions of fans to this day. They created an era of shows that have become timeless to many of us fans and I been one since 1968.

It is good to see the new shows bringing back so many of those characters and storylines back today like Discovery just did both for TNG and Enterprise. Don’t forget the classic shows.

For that they do deserve tremendous credit.

Don’t Shatner and Takei both live in the LA area, so I would have thought they might have been able to make it? And no Rod Roddenberry? But happy to see that Bjp Trimble was part of it!

Congratulations to everyone on this well-deserved honor. It’s good to see a solid cross section of Trek talent at the ceremony.

Aww man I love this so much 🥰 I really love this Star Trek family that has been built over the decades. I agree with others saying it would’ve been nice to see some TNG producers and TOS people at the event, but really really glad they invited Bjo – without her and John, none of us would be here :)

It’s too bad that Shatner or Takei or Koenig weren’t there… at least one of the remaining from TOS representing that era. But it is nice to see so many of the previous casts there. And a great thing for the franchise to receive. Bravo!

It would be great if Archer at Bakula’s current age appeared in Strange New Worlds and met Pike, with a reference made to his older self having attended the launch of April’s Enterprise.

Congratulations to everyone involved with Star Trek, for a well-deserved award!

Is Jeri Ryan okay? She looks kind of strange in these pictures.

Wow this was such a great honor and so happy to see the wonderful Scot Bakula with Patrick Stewart, Jeri Ryan and Levar Burton among all the other actor who has given us this wonderful franchise for nearly 60 years now. Well deserved.

Saw Patrick Stewart give a small speech on YouTube talking about how honored he was at the ceremony. It was very touching.

And love to see Matalas and Roth there as well. They given me a beautiful season of Star Trek and easily my favorite since 2005 😊

I hope they give us a true celebration for the 60th Anniversary. Bring back Scott Bakula, William Shatner and some more.

Say what you want about Alex Kurtzman, but the speech was really good.

At least one of the remaining actors of TOS should have been here, I wonder why they couldn’t get at least one of Takei, Shatner or Koenig involved. Also it would be nice if Rod Roddenberry appeared. I know guys like Ron Moore could be busy. I found Bakula’s appearance here interesting, I wonder if its some sort of a tease as he seems to be only actor here who isn’t involved in the New Treks in some capacity. Also I wanted to shout out to how gorgeous Tawny Newsome is.

Chances are they asked some of these people but they could not make it (or they didn’t want to). For example, Trevor Roth (COO of Roddenberry Entertainment) was there, so it’s highly unlikely Rod Roddenberry wasn’t invited too.

Some potential observations/theories..

Scott Bakula is there bc hes going to guest star as Archer in SNW or in a Enterprise/Legacy P+ movie for the anniversary..

Patrick Stewart is there bc hes not yet done with Trek (ST Legacy movie?) same with Jeri Ryan

JJ Abrams is there bc hes coming back to direct the final Kelvin movie for 2026

Or they could be there because they were invited and decided to attend.

We’ll see ..

Archer Comeback? They should bring the Rise of the Federation novel series to film.

the group picture up top with J J is great.

those old scientists, writers, directors, showrunners…

I would love to see Archer again in ANY capacity.

Why does it seem Shatner is never invited? Perhaps he turns it down, but it just seems like Trek is boycotting him