Star Trek Primer Vol. 5

When trying to understand why producers make the decisions they do, it is important to understand the business model of the television industry. Basically, they don't sell the program to you, they sell you to the advertisers. Advertising is all about finding your target demographic. Television is all about building a target demographic.

As TNG went off the air to pursue feature films, the remaining writing staff moved over to their new spin-off. It was important when creating a new series that it didn't seem too similar to Deep Space Nine, which was predominant a masculine show with their focus on war. Even the two women of the cast are both warriors, surpassing many of their male colleagues in combat ability.

To appeal to a primarily female demographic, Voyager was given a distinctly feminine flavor... so much so that I'm surprised people don't mention it more often. The captain is a Mid-Atlantic Victorian with an air of Kathryn Hepburn about her, the first officer is a rugged (and ultimately vapid) Native American, the helmsman is a young rogue, the engineer is hot-tempered young woman struggling to control her anger... and then there is Harry Kim who is the male equivalent of an ingenue. It's like a romance novel in space. Even the goddamn spaceship looks like a vagina! It's like an instruction manual to help nerds find the clitoris. (Just remember, "red alert" means go to the bridge.)

The Premise and The Problems

The pilot episode, The Caretaker, features the first mission of the USS Voyager when the newly commissioned ship is assigned to locate a Maquis raider lost in the Badlands, an area of space known for its large plasma fields that can hide or destroy a starship. Upon arriving, they are pulled by a mysterious all-powerful entity to the far side of the galaxy called the Delta quadrant. Even at full speed, it would take them seventy-five years to get home to the Alpha quadrant. In short order, the Maquis ship is destroyed, the all-powerful Caretaker dies, and Voyager is stranded on the other side of the galaxy headed home.

In season six, following the conclusion of Deep Space Nine, writer Ron Moore, who had also worked on TNG, moved over to the writing staff of Voyager. The experience was so profoundly bad that he actually explained it in great detail in other interviews. Public bitching is actually fairly uncommon amongst professional writers because the guy you are insulting today could be hiring tomorrow. You also don't want to get a bad reputation because writers in Hollywood are more disposable than toilet paper. So when a professional writer criticizes his boss, my ears perk up.

In a nutshell, I have to hold the responsibility for the fall of the franchise at the feet of producers Rick Berman and Brannon Braga. Even before Roddenberry's death, Paramount groomed Berman as the successor to the franchise. Usually when studios choose a producer, they don't choose them for creative vision. They choose someone who works well with their corporate side and puts the bottom line ahead of their creative vision.

By most accounts, Berman was holding back the creativity of the series. By insisting on more episodic plots with an eye toward syndication, Berman created a show where very little changed over the course of the series. While this worked on a show like TNG whose premise involved encountering new things, Voyagers premise was based on being alone and far from home so the fact that the characters and ship seemed unphased from day-to-day really undermined the central premise.

Berman also instituted a constrained and uniform style of direction and score which contributed to the continuing marginalization of Star Trek, whose style had now grown a bit too familiar. It seems that he was worried that too much attention on the direction or music would detract from the script and the actors.

However, one of the biggest criticisms of Star Trek is laid at the feet of Brannon Braga, the show's co-producer, who was apparently the one who implemented a "don't ask, don't tell" policy in Starfleet. Normally I don't think there would be so much pressure to have a gay character on a show, but since Star Trek has had a policy of representing diversity and it had now produced four successful television shows and several movies, but never even made mention of homosexuality... well, you don't have to be gay to be offended by that. The effect was to suggest that homosexuality was, at best, a passing fad and there was no place for it in the future. By their inaction, they effectively perpetrated discrimination and provided a homo-free vision of the future to all young homophobes.

I think Moore hit the nail on the head when he says the biggest mistake the show made was in the pilot when the Maquis crew puts on Starfleet uniforms. It is a statement to the characters, actors, fans, and even other writers that this show would avoid conflict instead of embracing it. Rather than utilizing the strengths of the premise, the show consistently defuses these matters in the most unsatisfying of ways.

If one of the primary themes in DS9 is to challenge Federation idealism (Past Tense, Homefront/Paradise Lost, The Siege of AR-558), one of the primary themes in Voyager is a blind obedience to that same ideology (Alliances, Thirty Days, Equinox). It is a philosophy which resonates to the core of both shows, with Voyager continuing in the style of TNG while DS9 tried to establish itself apart from the old formula.

This also created a schism amongst fans which exists to this day. Voyager fans believe that the dark themes of DS9 essentially betrayed idealistic Utopian vision of Gene Roddenberry while DS9 fans believe that Rick Berman spent all of his time trying to recreate the magic of TNG instead of boldly going where no writer had gone before. (You can probably tell which side of the argument I fall on.) Of course, there was also a schism amongst hard core TNG fans who hated both of them. Then there were hard core TOS fans who hated all of the later stuff.

I think Futurama's Church of Star Trek is very possible, but it will be torn apart by violent disagreements about what should be considered canon. The separate denominations will then be loosely held together by a mutual fear and hatred of Star Wars.

The series also suffered from a few conceptual problems based on the premise. By having the series take place on the other side of the galaxy, it made it difficult to feature popular Star Trek races like the Vulcans or the Klingons. Also, because they were constantly headed away, they could not establish on-going relationships with races or individuals. It became increasingly unbelievable when they would encounter the same species year after year.

In the end though, I suppose I should be grateful that Voyager took place on the other side of the galaxy. When TNG ended, DS9 was essentially allowed to do whatever they wanted. If Voyager was set in the usual Star Trek world, it is unlikely that DS9 could have had the sort of epic plots that really made it stand out.

Cast/Crew

Captain Kathryn Janeway (Kate Mulgrew)

Continuing their tradition of promoting diversity, this series featured the first female captain in Kathryn Janeway. Mulgrew's performance always struck me as borrowing something from Katherine Hepburn, so if you like her, this might be a good sign that you'll like Janeway. Personally, Katherine Hepburn always struck me as both prudish and stuck up, so Janeway didn't fair any better.

Commander Chakotay (Robert Beltran)

Possibly the most underutilized character in the series, Chakotay was supposed to be a rugged spiritualist but the stories captured the Native American spirit about as well as Disney's Pocahontas. There is one or two "vision quest" episodes, but if you asked me what he added to the show, I couldn't tell you. Frankly, I don't think it would have been the least bit different if he had died in the first season. The actor actually had to fight with the writing staff when he felt his character was both being neglected and inconsistently represented.

Lt. Cmd. Tuvok (Tim Russ)

Third in command on the starship Voyager is the first Vulcan in the regular cast since Spock. I always liked Tim Russ, although I'm not entirely certain why. There are plenty of clips out there of him pulling practical jokes on the set. I think that playing an emotionless character tends to bring out the prankster in actors. Unfortunately, I have to again state that I felt the character was underutilized and the writers didn't show us anything about Vulcans we hadn't seen before.

Lt. B'Elanna Torres (Roxann Dawson)

Probably one of the better characters on the series, B'Elanna Torres is half-human and half-Klingon so she has a quick, violent temper that she is always attempting to control. Like most of the Maquis, she attended Starfleet Academy but dropped out when her temper got her in trouble. She and Chakotay represent the only two Maquis officers, and despite a few conflicts in the first season, they quickly integrate with the rest of the crew in a manner that makes you wonder why they had this element to begin with.

Lt. Tom Paris (Robert Duncan McNeill)

The son of Admiral Paris, McNeill was originally supposed to reprise his role as Nick Locarno from the TNG episode The First Duty, but when the producers realized they would have to pay royalties to that episode's writer, they changed his name to Tom Paris and came up with a rivalry between him and Chakotay. The character is little more than a stereotypical bad boy who isn't really bad. In later seasons, they developed his love of ancient 20th century entertainment which often provided an interesting perspective, but by and large, he was their Fonzie.

Ensign Harry Kim (Garrett Wang)

Oh god, I hate Harry Kim. It's like they took Geordi and said, "How can we make him less interesting?" The show lasts for seven years with Kim supposedly being an integral part to the senior staff, but he never receives a promotion. For those not versed in the military ranking system, ensign is the lowest rank, right above cadet. Hell, Paris got demoted and promoted in the time it took Kim to do... nothing. He was a soulless void when the series began and he was exactly the same when it ended. A long walk out a short airlock would have done wonders...

The Doctor (Robert Picardo)

This is my favorite character by far. When Voyager's doctor dies, he is replaced by the ship's new Emergency Medical Hologram (EMH). Designed by Dr. Lewis Zimmerman, the EMH was designed for temporary use when the regular doctor is incapacitated. Because it wasn't designed for long-term use, he was programmed to be professional and efficient, but not particularly personable. As his program runs beyond its expectations, he starts to become a more complex individual by asking simple questions like "What do I want?" It's an interesting new twist to themes that were largely explored with Spock, Data, and Odo.

Neelix (Ethan Phillips)

When Voyager reached the other side of the universe, they quickly made new friends with the happy couple Neelix and Kes. Neelix billed himself as both chef and guide to this new region of space. Personally, I found the character extremely annoying. His dopishly upbeat manner frequently rubbed me the wrong way. Unlike Guinan, Quark, and Vic Fontaine, Neelix was really a host to be avoided. Even the crew was constantly mocking his cooking.

Kes (Jennifer Lien)

Neelix's committed girlfriend was very pixie-ish. She comes from a race with a lifespan of only 9 years and latent telepathic powers. Primarily, her role on the ship was as the nurse. Again, the word ingenue definitely applies as Kes had a child-like sense of wonder and optimism which was more than a little redundant on a Starfleet ship. Early in the fourth season, she was killed off to make room for...

Seven of Nine (Jeri Ryan)

In order to bring up ratings and attract a larger male audience, the producers stuck a new pair of boobs on Voyager and quickly worked to form a plot around them. Lacking strong recognizable villains, Voyager encountered the Borg at the end of season three and abducted one of them in the process. Taking a play from the TNG playbook, they removed most of her Borg implants and made her a member of the ship. In all fairness, Seven of Nine was one of the better characters on the show, but her role quickly expanded and overshadowed the others. She was restricted to a skin-tight catsuit, instead of getting a uniform like the rest of the cast, just so they could show off her rack. Like the others, she basically did all of her character development early on and became a self-parody as the show went on.

Episodes

Since Voyager put so much emphasis on being episodic, it is much easier to pick and choose your episodes than DS9. Like TOS or TNG, you can pretty much skip whatever you want and watch them in any order. Despite my misgivings about the show as a whole, there are quite a few really good episodes so I encourage you to watch any that sound interesting.

Future's End

This two-part episode from the third season features guest appearances by Ed Begley Jr. and Sarah Silverman. It's something of an homage to (or rip-off of) Star Trek IV since it features the crew traveling to present day Earth and trying to figure out how to blend in. Paris, the resident expert on 20th century Earth, muddles his dialog with old fashioned slang and out of date cultural references while Neelix and Kes become addicted to television.

Real Life

To get a sense of how normal people live, the Doctor creates an artificial family on the holodeck, but they end up a bit too perfect like a 1950s sitcom. When Torres offers to fix his program, he's left with a career oriented wife, a rebellious son, and a daughter with a love for dangerous games. Consequently, he needs to decide whether to "fix" his new family or deal with them as they are.

Scorpion

This was the formative episode that introduced Seven of Nine and the Borg to Voyager. Voyager makes a surprising alliance with the Borg to face a common enemy which they call Species 8472. Always pushing the boundaries of credibility, Voyager managed to prove itself roughly five times as resourceful as the entire Federation fleet which could barely defend Earth against one Borg cube. However, as of this episode, the Borg had not become such an overused plot device.

The Gift

Directly following Scorpion, The Gift refers to Seven of Nine who is liberated from the Borg collective by Captain Janeway. Jeri Ryan gives a great performance as she goes from drone with no sense of individuality into an odd mixture of individualist and collectivist traits. For better or worse, most of her character is developed in this episode, so it does a really good job establishing why she is more than a pair of boobs.

Year of Hell

Finally, in the fourth season, Voyager and her crew started showing some signs of wear. The crew is bitter, tired, and demoralized after what they refer to as "the year of hell." While it's fun to see what a desperate Voyager is like, the Year of Hell is retroactively undone by the end of the episode and both ship and crew happily return to their fucked up lives.

Message in a Bottle

After discovering an alien communication system capable of reaching the Alpha quadrant, Voyager sends the Doctor as their distress signal to the USS Prometheus, a starship on the far edge of Federation space. When he arrives, the Doctor discovers the ship has been taken over by Romulans. Activating his counterpart on Prometheus, he meets the EMH Mark II played by Andy Dick. Together, they manage to take over ship and let Starfleet know that Voyager is still out there and headed home.

The Killing Game

This is an odd little episode from the fourth season where the ship is taken over by the Hirogen, an alien race of Hunters, who programs the holodeck to represent the worst wars in Voyager's data banks. Using brain implants, they manage to program the crew to act like holodeck characters as they engage in a series of hunting exercises. The majority of this two-part episode takes place in a recreation of World War II with the Hirogen as the Nazis and the crew of Voyager as a mixture of French resistance and American troops. As the Hirogen hunt down their prey, the Doctor is instructed to patch them up. As the only member of the crew whose memory is intact, it's up to him to rescue the others.

Living Witness

Another odd little episode, this one is set 700 years in the future where a duplicate of the Doctor's program is recovered in the museum of an alien race where they tell the story of their brave battle against the warship Voyager. The Doctor remembers things a little bit differently. After finally learning to accept that all of his friends have been dead for centuries, the Doctor must work with a local historian to try to repair their misconceptions, particularly when he is accused of warcrimes.

Bride of Chaotica!

Tom Paris has been running a new holodeck program based on an old film serial called The Adventures of Captain Proton where Paris plays the roll of Captain Proton while Harry Kim plays his dopey sidekick (what a stretch), but when a group of peaceful photonic lifeforms attempt to make contact, they mistake the programmed villain of the holodeck for a real person, thus starting a war between an actual race of non-organic beings and a overly ambitious video game. To stop the war, Captain Janeway must adopt the role of Arachnia, Queen of the Spider People.

Someone to Watch Over Me

When Seven of Nine starts studying human mating rituals, the Doctor tries to give her the benefit of his experience with a series of lesson plans. It's sort of like the blind leading the blind. It becomes yet another adaptation of Pygmalion when the Doctor makes a bet with Paris that he can make a lady out of Seven. This episode builds a romantic angle that, like most things in Voyager, never really goes anywhere over the course of the series.

Equinox

When Voyager receives a Federation distress call, they move in to investigate only to discover the USS Equinox, another ship that had been pulled across the galaxy by the ironically named Caretaker. Although the crews are initially happy to see one another, they are soon assaulted by a hostile, energy-based alien lifeform. When Janeway learns that the Equinox has been capturing their people and using them to power the ship's engines, the two ships find themselves at a moral impass.

Pathfinder

This is perhaps the one episode of Voyager that barely features the regular cast or ship. This episode takes place back on Earth where former Enterprise engineer Reg Barclay is hard at work trying to find a way to establish ongoing communication with Voyager. He has been spending all of his time in a holographic recreation of Voyager interacting with the crew (who naturally think he is a hero amongst men). Concerned with the state of the project, Barclay's boss threatens to have him removed from the project unless he sees Counselor Troi about his holo-addiction.

Blink of an Eye

When Voyager investigates a temporal anomaly above an oddly shaped planet, it becomes stuck in the atmosphere. While days go by on Voyager, millenia passes on the planet. We get to see the people of planet evolve from the stone age to the middle ages to the industrial age, each influenced differently by the ever present "sky ship." It's a religious metaphor that echoes the parable of the three blind men who try to define an elephant.

Life Line

After re-establishing communication with Earth in Pathfinder, the Doctor receives a message that his creator, Dr. Louis Zimmerman (who based the EMH image on himself), is dying of a progressive disease. Believing that the research he has done in the Delta quadrant can save his "father's" life, the Doctor has his program transferred to the Alpha quadrant. However, his creator dismisses the Doctor as antequated technology, informing him that his program is no long in use for medical purposes, but instead has been reassigned for menial labor. The episode features guest appearances by Barclay and Troi just so Robert Picardo doesn't have to spend the whole episode talking to himself.

Flesh and Blood

At the end of The Killing Game, Janeway offers her holographic technology to the Hirogen as a peace offering, thinking that this might help them curb their violent tendencies, but in order to make a more challenging prey, the Hirogen expanded the program until the holograms rebelled and began attacking them back. When the holograms abduct the Doctor, he comes down with a case of Stockholm Syndrome and becomes an advocate for their civil rights.

Author, Author

Following on plots from previously recommended episodes, this one features the Doctor's attempts to write a holo-novel to express the plight of holographic beings, particularly the menial laborers who are his counterparts. However, the story is a thinly veiled adaptation of Voyager and its crew, portraying the others in a as petty, selfish, or downright totalitarian. When the Doctor finds that his editor has been distributing an early release, the Doctor begins to worry that he is smearing the reputation of his friends.

Bonus!



Next

After the completion of Voyager, Berman and Braga were given a chance to revitalize the ailing franchise. Instead, they drove it straight into the ground. Come back here at an undefined later date for the conclusion to this Star Trek primer.