Star Trek - Voyager, Episodes 1 & 2: Caretaker (1995)

A program that never entirely made up its mind what it's supposed to be about, Star Trek: Voyager began life in 1995 with some truly fascinating prospects in its two-hour pilot episode, "Caretaker."

"Caretaker" opens in the 24th century, a setting contemporary with that of Star Trek: The Next Generation and Star Trek: Deep Space Nine. Carrying over story elements from each of those series, Voyager's debut finds Starfleet Captain Kathryn Janeway (Kate Mulgrew) stepping into the middle of Federation troubles with the Maquis, an army of rebels violently resisting the interplanetary organization's treaty with brutal Cardassians. Janeway hopes to intercept a Maquis cell that unknowingly has a Starfleet spy, Tuvok (Tim Russ), in its midst. Instead, both Voyager and the Maquis ship under surveillance are accidentally catapulted out of the galaxy's Alpha Quadrant (the familiar stomping grounds of Starfleet personnel) by a benign but dying being called the Caretaker. Voyager ends up in the unexplored Delta Quadrant, some 70,000 light years away. Several of Voyager's key crew members are killed during the mishap, prompting an agreement with the skilled Maquis fugitives to cooperate on returning home.

So much seemed dramatically promising in this debut of Star Trek: Voyager, especially the unwieldy alliance of Starfleet regulars and hostile Maquis, and the likelihood that a lifetime spent in isolation, trying to get home, would lead to the development of a self-contained society on the ship. The curiously cheesy sets and fascinating, progressive management style of Janeway (half mommy, half taskmaster) were also new developments in Star Trek culture. Yet things didn't turn out to be quite so intriguing or original as the years passed--though that doesn't mean Voyager isn't a sporadically good show. It just isn't the one that "Caretaker" seemed to promise. --Tom Keogh Amazon.com

After watching "Caretaker", I was hooked

I'd watch an episode of Star Trek if there was nothing else on to watch, but for some reason, something about "Voyager" intrigued me. After watching "Caretaker", I was instantly hooked.

Kate Mulgrew makes a superb showing as Trek's first female captain. "Voyager" has many firsts that have never before been done in Star Trek, such as being so far away from home. Other episodes have lost contact with Starfleet, but they've still be close enough to home. Voyager is out there in the middle of no where.

This first episode reminded me of the Newbury Medal winning book "The Giver". The people were so sheltered in their world. They didn't know what it was like on the outside. Kes' people are kind of like that. The Caretaker provides everything for them, but he is dying and is looking for a replacement.

This was definitely a great beginning to the show. I can't wait to get the first season DVD set! January 7, 2004

Converted a non-trekkie

I watched the pilot and for a college woman who could care less about star wars or star trek, I was intrigued by the plot and eventually I came to find Voyager to be one of the best shows on TV simply because of the lessons we mere humans can learn from this utopia imagined by roddenberry. December 9, 2003

SIMPLY THE BEST

STAR TREK VOYAGER IS THE BEST BUT I NEED ALL SEASONS IN DVD PLEASE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! September 21, 2003

A Good Start For Voyager

"Star Trek-Voyager" is the fourth series in the ever-lasting sci-fi franchise, and it's like "Lost In Space", but with a Federation crew, and they have definitely gone where no man has gone before.
As Captain Kathryn Janeway, Kate Mulgrew surely commands respect as she and her crew are blasted 70,000 light years away from home by some array called the 'Caretaker'. The crew itself is quite diverse and interesting, especially Chakotay (Robert Beltran), Tuvok (Tim Russ), Tom Paris (Robert Duncan MacNeill), and B'elanna Torres (Roxann Dawson). I'm not very happy with Neelix (Ethan Phillips). I stick with the Doctor (Robert Picardo) as the most fascinating comic relief in the show.
"Voyager" might have gone through a bumpy start with critics and fans alike, but I believe that this pilot episode delivers the goods, and it's better than the one from "Deep Space Nine". September 14, 2003

The 1995 Pilot.

Days before this episode aired on UPN, Robert Picardo hosted a special, to tell the audience, what Star Trek: Voyager is about.

In late 2371, a renegade group known as the Maquis operate outside the law to right what they see as Federation injustices. After infiltrating a Maquis cell to apprise Starfleet of the group's activities, Lieutenant Tuvok, along with the crew of a ship commanded by the Maquis captain Chakotay, disappear in an area of space known as the Badlands. Tuvok's commanding officer, Captain Janeway, leads a mission to find the Vulcan lieutenant, enlisting the aid of Starfleet prisoner Tom Paris, a former Maquis member, to guide her ship, the U.S.S. Voyager NCC-74656, through the Badlands.

Considered a traitor by most of Voyager's crew, Paris strikes up a friendship with Ensign Harry Kim, a naive young Starfleet Academy grad. Kim learns that Paris was drummed out of Starfleet after his piloting error caused the deaths of three officers. The outcast joined the ranks of the Maquis, but was soon arrested by Federation authorities.

After reaching the Badlands, the U.S.S. Voyager encounters an inexplicable phenomenon that sends the ship hurtling to the far side of the Delta Quadrant, located 70,000 light years from their former position. The catapult effect kills a number of crewmembers, including the Chief Medical Officer, who is replaced by an Emergency Medical Hologram (EMH) that attends to the wounded. But the EMH has barely begun his work when the entire crew of Voyager is transported to what appears to be a pastoral farm, populated by friendly humans. But it's only an illusion; the farm is actually the interior of the Array, a huge space station, and the residents are holograms. The crew is imprisoned within a strange laboratory facility, alongside the missing Maquis.

After being subjected to a painful examination, the crews of Voyager and the Maquis vessel are returned to their respective ships, docked outside the Array. But two crewpersons are missing: Harry Kim and B'Elanna Torres, the half-Klingon, half-human engineer from the Maquis vessel. Returning to the "farm," Janeway confronts the only remaining inhabitant, an old man playing a banjo. But the man cares nothing about their dilemma and offers them no information about the missing officers.

Noting that the Array is sending energy pulses toward the fifth planet of a neighboring system, Janeway sets course in that direction. Far beneath the surface of that planet, an ailing Kim and Torres regain consciousness in a medical facility. But what they're doing there â€" and why â€" they have yet to discover.

En route to the fifth planet of a neighboring system, Voyager's crew encounters Neelix, a Talaxian scavenger. He explains that the Array has been bringing ships into the region for many months. Neelix guesses that the "Caretaker," who controls the Array, may have sent the missing crewmembers to the Ocampa, a race that lives two miles below the surface of the fifth planet. Neelix volunteers to be their guide and they accept.

Meanwhile, Kim and Torres are being cared for in the Ocampa medical facility. Although they now live in a subterranean society, the Ocampa inhabited the planet's surface until it was struck by an environmental disaster 500 years ago. Since that time, they have lived underground, with all their needs provided by the man they refer to as the Caretaker.

Beaming down to the planet's surface, Neelix introduces Janeway to the Kazon, a savage alien species that has taken possession of the arid Ocampan world. Janeway asks Jabin, the Kazon leader, if he can help them, but he refuses.

Neelix is hoping Jabin will trade Kes, an Ocampan woman he is holding captive, for some of Voyager's precious water. But the Kazon are more interested in obtaining all of Voyager's technology â€" forcibly. When Jabin tries to take the crew hostage, Neelix helps them escape and beam back to the ship, along with Kes.

Kim and Torres persuade an Ocampan nurse to show them a route that could lead to the surface. On Voyager, Kes agrees to lead Janeway and the others through the tunnels to her underground city to search for the pair.

As the Array increases the rate of the energy pulses that power the city, Kim and Torres begin their journey, narrowly missing the search party from Voyager. Tuvok theorizes that the increased activity of the Array may indicate that the Caretaker is dying; he is clearly attempting to give them a surplus of power that will sustain the Ocampa after he is gone.

The search is complicated by a new turn of events. The Array is now firing a weapon at the planet to seal up all of the energy conduits, the tunnels that provide the only access to the city. This will protect the Ocampans, but prevent the others from escaping. Splitting up, Paris, Neelix and Kes find Kim and Torres, and send them up to Voyager. Then Paris and Neelix go back for Janeway, Tuvok and Chakotay. Chakotay's skepticism towards Paris' loyalty is erased when Paris saves his life.

Returning to the Array, Janeway again encounters the old man, whom she realizes is the Caretaker. He explains that he was bringing beings from across the galaxy to the Array in the hopes of finding a compatible species with which he could procreate, thus providing the Ocampa with someone to care for them after he dies. But no species has been a match so far.

Janeway tries to convince the Caretaker to send Voyager and the Maquis ship back home, but he refuses. Apparently, the Caretaker wants to destroy the Array so that it won't fall into the invading Kazon's hands. But he dies before he can carry out his plan, and Janeway is left to decide whether to use the Array to get home â€" which would leave it intact for the Kazon â€" or to destroy it and save the Ocampa. She chooses what seems to be the only moral option and makes a mortal enemy of the Kazon, even it meant violating the Prime Directive.

With Chakotay's ship destroyed in the battle with the Kazon, Janeway asks the Maquis to become part of Voyager's crew. She also allows Neelix and Kes to stay aboard. With Chakotay her First Officer, Tom Paris reinstated as a Starfleet lieutenant, and Torres and Kim cured by the Emergency Medical Hologram, Janeway and her new crew set course for the long trip home, 70,000 light-years away. July 13, 2003

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