Thirty years ago, with the birth of Star Trek: Voyager, we entered a new golden age for our beloved franchise. But this new show wasn’t just taking us on another trek across the stars. It was doing so in a dangerous region of unexplored space, seventy-thousand lightyears away. To celebrate its thirtieth anniversary, let’s take a trip down memory lane through the two-parter that began a daring seven-year journey – Star Trek: Voyager’s ‘Caretaker’.
Welcome to Voyager
‘Caretaker’ begins in a similar format to movies from a galaxy far, far away. This text crawl introduces the Maquis, a group of outlaws defending their home colonies from the Cardassians. From there, we’re straight into the thick of it as a Maquis raider flies into view, fleeing a Cardassian warship. The Maquis, led by former Starfleet officer Chakotay (Robert Beltran), escape into a plasma storm. Not long after, they are scanned from an unknown source before being swept away by a massive displacement wave.
Enter Kathryn Janeway (Kate Mulgrew), captain of the recently commissioned starship Voyager. Janeway enlists the support of former Starfleet officer Tom Paris (Robert Duncan McNeill), granting him a temporary reprieve from prison. Then we’re introduced to the series’ namesake with a traditional tour of the starship exterior while docked at Deep Space Nine. We visit Quark’s bar briefly, where we find the shady yet lovable Ferengi trying to con an enthusiastic, naïve ensign. Paris swoops in to save the day and new operations officer Harry Kim (Garrett Wang) can breathe a sigh of relief.
Aboard Voyager, it becomes apparent that Paris is not a welcome sight to the rest of the crew. We soon discover he was involved in a piloting accident which he tried to cover up, then came clean. It seems he’s found an ally in Kim though, who stands by his new friend despite warnings from other officers.
We’re Not In Kansas Anymore
Voyager sets sail from Deep Space Nine in search of the Maquis ship that went missing in the plasma storm. They arrive at the Badlands, only to be swept away by the same displacement wave that took the Maquis. Voyager takes damage, and several key officers are killed including the first officer and chief medical officer. Ironically, these are two officers who took an immediate dislike to Paris earlier in the episode! But then the crew learns the unimaginable – they’ve been pulled seventy-thousand lightyears away, to the Delta quadrant.
Paris and Kim head to sickbay, where they activate the Emergency Medical Hologram (EMH) – aka The Doctor (Robert Picardo). Moments later, Voyager’s crew is beamed off the ship, leaving The Doctor alone. They are transported to the Caretaker’s array, the large structure responsible for stealing them from the Alpha quadrant. The crew is incapacitated, experimented on, and wakes up on Voyager three days later. The Maquis crew are also returned to their ship, at which point both crews confirm they are each missing someone. Voyager is missing Kim, while the Maquis are missing their half-human, half-Klingon engineer, B’Elanna Torres (Roxann Dawson).
Tensions rise when Chakotay beams to Voyager to discuss the situation with Janeway. He brings a Vulcan with him, who Janeway immediately acknowledges as Tuvok (Tim Russ). Tuvok had infiltrated the Maquis with a mission to obtain information before leading them into a Starfleet trap. As Chakotay recovers from this revelation, Kim and Torres awaken on a nearby planet, infected with an unknown disease. The subterranean species caring for them, the Okampa, confirm they have no cure. They reveal the Caretaker sends them infected aliens, to care for before they die.
With New Friends, Come New Enemies
Getting nowhere with the Caretaker onboard the array, Janeway and Chakotay set a course for a nearby planet. The Caretaker is sending energy bursts to it, so they surmise this is the most likely place to find their missing crew. Along the way, they encounter their second Delta quadrant alien, Neelix (Ethan Phillips). The Talaxian agrees to help Janeway find Kim and Torres, in exchange for a valuable commodity – water. It seems species in the Delta quadrant live a much harder life, despite their access to spacefaring technology.
Unfortunately, they do not avoid confrontation for long. Their new friend leads them to the Okampan home world, where they encounter a camp of bandits. They are from a species called the Kazon, a society of multiple warring clans. Neelix uses water from Voyager to save his love, Kes (Jennifer Lien), an Okampa they were holding hostage. The parties leave on less than hospitable terms, and it’s clear to Janeway that they’ve made their first enemy.
With Kes’ help, Kim and Torres are reunited with their crews. The Doctor cures them of whatever disease they have been infected with as a battle with the Kazon begins. It is revealed the Caretaker has been trying to procreate so the Okampa will continue to have protection. He decides to sacrifice the array to ensure the Kazon cannot take control of it, leaving Janeway in a predicament. Use the array to get home but leave the Okampa at the mercy of the Kazon who’ll take control of it afterwards. Or allow the array to be destroyed to protect the Okampa and strand herself and her crew in the process.
A New Mission
Janeway defines herself as the courageous captain we see throughout the series and makes the difficult decision to destroy the array. In doing so she makes an enemy of the Kazon and leaves Voyager and the Maquis stranded in the Delta quadrant. And there are more tough decisions to come, including how to integrate the maquis crew successfully into her own.
‘Caretaker’ provides a solid foundation for Star Trek: Voyager to build on. The characters and settings introduced open many new avenues that future writers and directors explored over seven seasons. Not to mention the lore that branched from the series into other media, including MMORPG Star Trek Online. ‘Caretaker’ is a beautiful start to a brave show, following a crew boldly going where no one has gone before. And they do so whilst trying not to betray their beliefs and ideals on a daunting and long journey home.
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