‘CARETAKER’ (VOY)
Please feel free to comment on my review.
Welcome to the third ‘Star Trek’ spin-off series that is set in the 24th century. This is ‘Star Trek: Voyager’, a series about the crew of the starship Voyager stranded in the Delta Quadrant from the rest of the United Federation of Planets. Essentially, this is a ‘Star Trek’ show doing ‘Lost In Space’. 😀
Over the years, I’ve come to learn that ‘Voyager’ has divided a lot of fan opinion. Some love the show, some don’t. Personally, I like ‘Voyager’ as a series. I can’t deny there are flaws with this series, but I’ve found it very engaging in its seven seasons, which I hope to explore as I review each episode.
At the time this series was made, ‘The Next Generation’ had their first movie in ‘Star Trek: Generations’. ‘Deep Space Nine’ was in its third season by this point. ‘Voyager’ was made at the height of ‘Star Trek’ popularity in the 1990s. But how does this ‘Lost In Space’-styled TV show begin?
Like how ‘Emissary’ began in ‘DS9’, the opening episode of ‘Voyager’ called ‘Caretaker’ begins with a scroll text. The episode is essentially an hour and a half, matching to the lengths of ‘TNG’s ‘Encounter At Farpoint’ and ‘DS9’s ‘Emissary’ as series openers, which must have been the standard.
The scroll text gives us a background on what’s happening in the series. The conflict between the Maquis rebels against the Cardassians and the Federation is taking place, which was introduced in the ‘DS9’ two-part story ‘The Maquis’. This was also established in the ‘TNG’ story ‘Preemptive Strike’.
After the scroll text, we see a Maquis spacecraft being pursued by a Cardassian ship into the Badlands, a volatile nebula. The Maquis ship is captained by Robert Beltran as Chakotay who is joined by Roxann Dawson as chief engineer B’Elanna Torres and Tim Russ as the Vulcan called Tuvok.
After escaping the Cardassian ship, which gets damaged by a plasma storm in the Badlands, the Maquis ship soon gets caught up in a displacement wave. This leads us into the show’s opening title sequence and the opening theme tune composed by Jerry Goldsmith, which, I admit, is pretty good.
We then cut to the planet Earth where we meet Kate Mulgrew as Captain Kathryn Janeway of the Federation starship Voyager. I’ve had a photo with Kate Mulgrew at ‘Destination Star Trek Birmingham’ back in October 2018. This is also the first time we have a female ‘Star Trek’ captain. 🙂
Although technically, the first female captain of a Federation starship was seen in ‘Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home’, but this is the first time where we see a female ‘Star Trek’ captain take the lead in a ‘Star Trek’ show. This must have been pretty daring compared to captains like Kirk, Picard and Sisko.
Originally, Captain Janeway was going to be played by a different actress – a French-Canadian named Geneviève Bujold. Sadly she left the show due to the demanding schedule and was replaced by Kate Mulgrew. I like Janeway as a ‘Star Trek’ captain and I know she has won favour with her fans.
Sometimes Janeway can be strict in her views, especially when abiding by certain Starfleet protocols and the Prime Directive. But there are times where she can be very caring and compassionate. The decision she makes at the end of ‘Caretaker’ can be a little debatable, but we’ll get to that very soon.
Captain Janeway meets up with Robert Duncan McNeill as Tom Paris, a disgraced former Starfleet officer and now a captured Maquis member. Robert Duncan McNeill has been in ‘Star Trek’ before, as he was in the ‘TNG’ episode ‘The First Duty’, playing a different character called Nicholas Locarno.
Tom Paris is recruited to help Janeway and her Voyager crew to find the missing Maquis spacecraft commanded by Chakotay. Apparently, Tuvok is Janeway’s chief of security aboard Voyager and was working as a spy aboard Chakotay’s ship. Tom Paris agrees to help Janeway, but only as an observer.
Paris meets up with Janeway and Voyager at Deep Space Nine. It’s here where we have a special guest appearance of Armin Shimerman as Quark. I assume that everyone else from ‘DS9’ including Sisko, Bashir, Jadzia and Kira were busy during the events of the ‘DS9’ two-part story ‘Past Tense’. 😀
It’s also at DS9 where Tom Paris meets up with Garrett Wang as Harry Kim, who becomes the operations officer aboard Voyager. Tom and Harry become good friends in the series. Very soon, Voyager departs from DS9 and makes it way to the Badlands, as they hope to find the Maquis ship. 🙂
When they get to the Badlands, Voyager is scanned by a ‘coherent tetryon beam’ before a displacement wave hits and wreaks havoc on the ship. The crew recovers and they find themselves in the Delta Quadrant over 70,000 light years from Federation space. A number of fatalities occur. 😦
As well as Voyager’s second-in-command and helm officer, the chief engineer and medical staff have been killed. Tom Paris and Harry Kim activate the Emergency Medical Hologram (EMI) played by Robert Picardo in order to treat the injured. The EMI doesn’t have the bedside manner so to speak.
As repairs to the ship are made, the Voyager crew is transported to a holographic simulation aboard a nearby array, controlled by a being called the Caretaker. As the Voyager crew see through the simulation, they discover the unconscious Maquis crew undergoing strange medical experiments. 😐
The Voyager crew end up being subjected to the same experiments. Three days later, the Voyager and Maquis crew wake up to find themselves back on their ships. Harry Kim from Voyager and B’Elanna Torres from the Maquis ship are the only ones missing. Voyager and the Maquis work together.
The Voyager and Maquis crews attempt to negotiate with the Caretaker on getting their people back, but the Caretaker is cryptic and insists there’s ‘not enough time’. We do find out what happened to Harry and B’Elanna though, as they’re on the Ocampa planet protected by the Caretaker.
The Ocampa are a peace-loving race. They’re telepathic, but happen to have a short lifespan. Harry gets to know B’Elanna and it’s revealed she’s half-human, half-Klingon. The half-Klingon aspect to B’Elanna makes her angry some of the time. It’s an aspect that B’Elanna finds very hard to control. 😐
On their journey to the Ocampa planet, the Voyager crew meet up with Ethan Phillips as Neelix, a Talaxian space trader. He’s eager to assist the Voyager crew in exchange for water. Ethan Phillips had a previous ‘Star Trek’ appearance before ‘Voyager’. He played a Ferengi in the ‘TNG’ story ‘Ménage à Troi’. 🙂
In helping the Voyager crew to find their friends, Neelix and the Voyager away team attempt to make negotiations with the Kazon-Ogla. Their endeavours to find B’Elanna and Harry in the Ocampa subterranean complex are met with hostility by the pretty violent Kazon who want Voyager’s water.
The Voyager crew and Neelix also rescue Jennifer Lien as Kes, a young Ocampa woman who escaped from the Ocampa subterranean complex. And I guess Kes and Neelix instantly became a couple upon first sight when she was rescued. Gosh, I wish romances were easy as that with instant love at first sight.
I mean, one can assume Neelix and Kes met each other beforehand, hence why he and the Voyager crew went to the Kazon-Ogla to begin with. I’m not sure if that’s made clear in the episode, but I would have to say it was an ‘instant love at first sight’ meeting between them, which I find very weak.
Eventually, the Voyager rescue B’Elanna and Harry from the Ocampa planet and are returned to Voyager. Very soon, a battle occurs between Voyager and the Kazon at the Caretaker’s array. Tuvok deduces that the Caretaker is dying and is ensuring the Ocampa are kept safe from the evil Kazon. 😐
Attempting to ask the Caretaker to return Voyager and the Maquis ship back to the Alpha Quadrant, this fails as the Caretaker initiated the array’s self-destruct sequence to prevent it falling into the Kazon’s hands. The self-destruct fails during the battle between Voyager, the Maquis and the Kazon.
Chakotay sacrifices his Maquis ship to destroy a Kazon ship. Ideally, the Caretaker’s array being destroyed by the self-destruct would have been ideal in the ‘Voyager’ series. It would’ve meant Voyager having to take the long way home when their chance of hope with the array was taken away, but it would’ve been effective.
Instead, when the self-destruct failed, Janeway takes the decision to respect the Caretaker’s wishes and orders the array destroyed in order to save the Ocampa from the Kazon. This is in spite of the fact that the array was Voyager’s chance to get home anyway and it could be against the Prime Directive.
Okay, so I’ve wondered whether Janeway’s decision at the episode’s end was the right thing to do. I know there are arguments against that being the case and perhaps with more time to debate the choice, it might’ve been more effective. This is probably what the episode lacked in its closing scenes. 😐
With that said, I can see the compassion behind Janeway’s decision to make that choice. It’s not an ideal one and I know it meant the journey back home for Voyager would be longer. But considering Janeway did this in order to spare the Ocampa from being attacked by the Kazon, it’s a fair decision.
At least that’s what I think at any rate. It makes Voyager enemies with the Kazon of course, but the Kazon were always going to be bullies anyway. Very soon, the Voyager begins its journey home to the Alpha Quadrant. It’ll be 75 years to get back home, but Janeway is hopeful they’ll return home soon.
Janeway integrates the Maquis into the Starfleet crew. Chakotay becomes her second-in-command, Tom Paris is reinstated as lieutenant and becomes the ship’s helmsman, and Neelix and Kex join the Voyager crew as guides. Thus the ‘Voyager’ TV series begins as the ship explores the Delta Quadrant.
‘Caretaker’ is a pretty solid opening episode in Season 1 of ‘Voyager’. I enjoyed watching the episode again on DVD and it’s nice to see how the Voyager crew are introduced. The choice Janeway makes at the end of the episode is debatable, but it’ll be intriguing to see how the decision affects her crew.
‘Caretaker’ (VOY) rating – 8/10
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