Happy 25th Birthday, Star Trek Voyager

That's right, one of my favorite television shows turns 25 today, so I would be remiss if I didn't dedicate an entire blog post to this amazing show.  First of all, I know a lot of Trekkies aren't a huge fan of Voyager, and that's fine, that's their opinion.  I, however, absolutely love it and have really gotten more into it in recent years.

I know I watched Voyager growing up, I knew the characters (especially Seven of Nine since she was my dadś favorite, along with just about every other man on the planet), but I didn't really remember the plot all too much.  I remembered a lot more of Next Generation, which is ironic because it was on before Voyager, so I was significantly younger when I watched it.  About three years ago, however, I was on vacation in New York City (it was, ironically, around this time of year), and I was spending some time relaxing in my hotel room when I came across an episode of Voyager.  I even remember what episodes I watched ¨The Thaw¨ and ¨Tuvix¨ (episodes 23 and 24 respectively of season 2).  I forgot how much I loved the show and all the characters.  When I got home from my trip, I began watching all the episodes available on BBC America.  They weren't in order, but I was able to piece together the plot.

Unlike Star Trek: the Original Series, Next Generation  and Deep Space Nine, Voyager doesn't take place in the Alpha Quadrant where Earth, Vulcan and all the other planets you encountered so far reside.  Instead, the series starts out with Kathryn Janeway and her crew leaving Deep Space Nine to rescue a Maquis ship that disappeared without a trace.  For lack of a better word, the Maquis are freedom fighters who work outside the law to fight against the Cardassians, an alien species who has waged war against the Federation and committed horrible atrocities against the Bajoran race.  Eventually, the Federation brokered a peace with the Cardassians, but the Maquis still weren't happy and continued their fight against the Cardassians.  The Federation sees them as working outside the law and thereby acting illegally, although many members of the Maquis were at one point a part of Starfleet.  I just summarized half a season of The Next Generation and seven seasons of Deep Space Nine in just a few sentences.

So, with Janeway in charge, Voyager heads off in the direction that the Maquis ship, the Val Jean was last seen.  Once there, they're sucked to the furthest reaches of the Delta Quadrant by a being called the Caretaker, who is in charge of taking care of the Ocampa species.  On the way, many members of Voyager's crew are killed, including their doctor, first officer and lead engineer.  They also find the Val Jean, which is in a dire situation as well and has lost many members of its crew on the way to the Delta Quadrant.  Unfortunately, the Kazon, a species that is technologically inferior to many other species in the galaxy, wants the technology the Caretaker uses, but they want it to enslave the Ocampa.  Janeway is forced to make a difficult decision: save her crew (along with the crew of the Val Jean) by using Caretaker's technology to go back to the Alpha Quadrant, or destroy the Caretaker's array and save the Ocampa from the Kazon.  Janeway makes the agonizing decision to save the Ocampa race, thereby sentencing both crews to a journey of over 75 years to get back home.  Both crews are forced to work together as they journey across the uncharted Delta Quadrant.  Unlike the Enterprise in Next Generation and the Deep Space Nine Space Station, Voyager has no one they can rely upon, they have to forge their own alliances and use any technology available to shorten their journey so they can make it home in their lifetime.

As you can see, Voyager is completely different from other Star Trek series.  The Delta Quadrant is the wild west of the galaxy, it's every man for himself and danger around every corner.  In addition to the Kazon, the Borg control a huge portion of the Delta Quadrant.  For those of you unfamiliar with Star Trek, the Borg is the galaxy's greatest enemy.  A cyborg-type group, they assimilate anyone they encounter into their collective where the hive mind reign supreme and individuals lose their autonomy, along with all memories of their former lives.  Millions, if not billions, have been assimilated into this cyborg collective, and the Borg's goal, along with achieving perfection, is to assimilate the entire galaxy.  The have huge cubes (pictured above), significantly larger than most ships.  Once you encounter a Borg vessel, it's pretty much assumed that you will be assimilated.

One thing I love so much about Voyager is the colorful cast of characters.  Not only do they all have diverse, unique backstories that give them far more depth than many previous Star Trek characters, but if you look at the photo of the crew at the beginning of this post, you'll also notice that they are a racially diverse group as well.  This includes a black Vulcan and a Native American first officer.  It was definitely a challenge, but I did manage to make a list of my top three characters (although, honestly, I like all of them except one or two).  These are my top three in no particular order:

So I might have lied a little bit just now.  I said I didn't have any favorite characters, but I kind of do, and Chakotay is absolutely one of them (along with another character whom he's connected to in a somewhat controversial way).  Chakotay was captain of the Val Jean when the Caretaker brought it to the Delta Quadrant.  Like many Maquis, Chakotay began his career in Starfleet.  He served on several ships and even made it to the rank of Lieutenant Commander (third highest on an average ship).  Eventually, however, he left Starfleet to join the Maquis after his home planet came under the control of the Cardassians.  After the Val Jean was destroyed, and his crew merged with Voyager's, Janeway made him first officer as a way to bring both crews together and ensure favoritism wasn't shown towards one crew over the other.  Chakotay has a deep rooted hatred for Cardassians, which sometimes comes out in unconventional ways.  One thing I love about Chakotay is his wisdom and compassion.  Voyager doesn't have a counselor on board, and he sometimes serves as the voice of wisdom, even when his advice isn't necessarily what people want to hear.  The writers of the show also worked extremely hard to incorporate aspects of his culture.  During his time in the Delta Quadrant, Chakotay encounters a tribe very similar to his own, and he discusses his own culture, which originated on Earth, but his tribe eventually moved to their current planet.  In order to not show favoritism towards any one tribe, Chakotay's tribe is never outright named.

I guess it's appropriate to talk about the other half of my absolute favorite Star Trek couple (I know I'm part of an extremely small group who would say that, but I adore Chakotay and Seven of Nine together).  Out of all of Voyager's characters (maybe out of all Star Trek characters in general), Seven of Nine has the most interesting back story.  Seven of Nine is a human from Earth.  As a small child, she and her parents set off on their own to explore the galaxy and learn about the Borg.  It is important to note that they did this without the sanction or protection of Starfleet or the Federation.  Eventually, Seven's family is captured and assimilated by the Borg, where she spends the next several years of her life.  Janeway even speculates that her family were the first humans the Borg encountered.  In order to safely cross Borg space, Voyager tries to cross through what they call "the Northwest Passage".  Unfortunately, that territory is occupied by Species-8472, the only species that can fight off the Borg.  Because of this, Janeway decides to create an uneasy alliance with the Borg, something that has been done in the past with Captain Picard in Next Generation.  The Borg assign Seven of Nine to be their spokesperson.  In true Borg fashion, however, they destroy Species-8472 with the crew of Voyager and want to assimilate the crew.  Janeway and Chakotay, however, find a way to sever Seven's connection with the Borg, thereby giving her back for autonomy and individualism for the first time since she was a small child.  Seven becomes a reluctant member of the crew.  Eventually, however, she grows fond of the crew and starts to explore her lost humanity..  She creates personal relationships with members of the crew, even having a romantic relationship with Chakotay, much to the chagrin of many fans of the show (there was considerable sexual tension between him and Janeway, although that one always felt forced to me).

I really went back and forth about who to include in my top three, whether it should be the Doctor or Tom Paris.  Tom is considerably better looking than the Doctor, so he ultimately won out (sorry Robert Picardo).  Tom Paris' allegiances are complicated.  He started out in Starfleet as a pilot.  He had quite big shoes to live up to, as his father was an admiral in Starfleet.  His career in Starfleet, however, was short-lived.  He lied to try and cover up a pilot error that lead to the deaths of three other officers.  He was promptly discharged from Starfleet, and he wandered around looking for a fight.  He found this with the Maquis, but that was also a short lived, as he was quickly captured and sentenced to eighteen months at a penal colony.  This was where Janeway found him and enlisted him to pilot Voyager to find the Val Jean and attempt to redeem himself.  Tom is often the comic relief of the crew.  He's impulsive and often acts first with little to no regard for the consequences later.  He's an amazing pilot, however, which sometimes gets Voyager both into and out of trouble.  At first, Tom often butts heads with B'Elanna, who was a member of Chakotay's Maquis crew, but eventually they start dating, which leads to them getting married and having a daughter together.

I was going to spend some time talking about my favorite Voyager episodes, but that's a lot to write about because it was hard to pick which ones to do.  I did make a list of my top ten.  I definitely want to write about my top ten episodes at some point, but I think I'm going to save that for a later blog post.  In the mean time, happy birthday to the cast and crew Star Trek: Voyager.  Despite what some fans might say, you're an amazing addition to the Star Trek universe and add far more depth than people realize.  You created a wonderful show with complex characters put in nearly impossible situations and opened up an entire quarter of the galaxy for future Star Trek series to explore.