star trek voyager 1st episode

We will keep fighting for all libraries - stand with us!

Internet Archive Audio

• This Just In
• Grateful Dead
• Old Time Radio
• 78 RPMs and Cylinder Recordings
• Audio Books & Poetry
• Computers, Technology and Science
• Music, Arts & Culture
• News & Public Affairs
• Spirituality & Religion
• Radio News Archive

• Flickr Commons
• Occupy Wall Street Flickr
• NASA Images
• Solar System Collection
• Ames Research Center

• All Software
• Old School Emulation
• MS-DOS Games
• Historical Software
• Classic PC Games
• Software Library
• Kodi Archive and Support File
• Vintage Software
• CD-ROM Software
• CD-ROM Software Library
• Software Sites
• Tucows Software Library
• Shareware CD-ROMs
• Software Capsules Compilation
• CD-ROM Images
• ZX Spectrum
• DOOM Level CD

• Smithsonian Libraries
• FEDLINK (US)
• Lincoln Collection
• American Libraries
• Canadian Libraries
• Universal Library
• Project Gutenberg
• Children's Library
• Biodiversity Heritage Library
• Books by Language
• Additional Collections

• Prelinger Archives
• Democracy Now!
• Occupy Wall Street
• TV NSA Clip Library
• Animation & Cartoons
• Arts & Music
• Computers & Technology
• Cultural & Academic Films
• Ephemeral Films
• Sports Videos
• Videogame Videos
• Youth Media

Search the history of over 866 billion web pages on the Internet.

Mobile Apps

• Wayback Machine (iOS)
• Wayback Machine (Android)

Browser Extensions

Archive-it subscription.

• Explore the Collections
• Build Collections

Save Page Now

Capture a web page as it appears now for use as a trusted citation in the future.

Please enter a valid web address

• Donate Donate icon An illustration of a heart shape

Star Trek Voyager - Caretaker Part 1 - 2

Video item preview, share or embed this item, flag this item for.

• Graphic Violence
• Explicit Sexual Content
• Hate Speech
• Misinformation/Disinformation
• Marketing/Phishing/Advertising
• Misleading/Inaccurate/Missing Metadata

plus-circle Add Review comment Reviews

3 Favorites

DOWNLOAD OPTIONS

In collections.

Uploaded by Unknown on November 11, 2023

SIMILAR ITEMS (based on metadata)

Star Trek: Voyager

Caretaker Part 1

Cast & crew.

Basil Langton

The Caretaker

Gavan O'Herlihy

Scott Jaeck

Lt. Commander Cavit

Angela Paton

Armin Shimerman

Information

© 2007 CBS Corp.

Accessibility

Copyright © 2024 Apple Inc. All Rights Reserved.

Internet Service Terms Apple TV & Privacy Cookie Policy Support

Latest Tweets

• December 2023
• August 2022
• February 2021
• January 2021

ST: Voyager episode guide – Seven seasons of trekking through the Delta Quadrant

Of the three 1980s/90s Star Trek series, Voyager takes the longest to really get up  a head of steam. The very premise of the show, i.e. Federation citizens and members of a terrorist organization must learn to band together to survive in an unknown part of the galaxy, is mostly forgotten by episode 4 of season 1 . In addition, the show’s two most notable characters – the Doctor and Seven – don’t really take over the proceedings until season 4 or so. Nevertheless, Voyager does include some true ST classics in its run (e.g. “The Blink of an Eye”, the existential nightmare “Course: Oblivion”) that just about forgive all involved for “Threshold.”

Star Trek: Voyager – Season 2 episode guide

Star Trek: Voyager

• View history

Star Trek: Voyager is the fifth Star Trek series. It was created by Rick Berman , Michael Piller , and Jeri Taylor , and ran on UPN , as the network's first ever series, for seven seasons in the USA , from 1995 to 2001 . In some areas without local access to UPN, it was offered to independent stations through Paramount Pictures , for its first six seasons. The series is best known for its familial crew, science fiction based plots, engaging action sequences, and light humor. The writers often noted that many episodes had underlying themes and messages or were metaphors for current social issues. This is the first Star Trek series to feature a female captain in a leading role. However, Kathryn Janeway herself is not the first female captain to be seen within Star Trek as a whole. Additionally, the show gained in popularity for its storylines which frequently featured the Borg . Voyager follows the events of Star Trek: The Next Generation and ran alongside Star Trek: Deep Space Nine during its first five seasons.

• Main Title Theme  file info (composed by Jerry Goldsmith )
• 1 Series summary
• 2 Distinguishing Voyager
• 3 Reception
• 4.1 Starring
• 4.2 Also starring
• 5 Executive producers
• 6 Opening credits
• 7.1 Season 1
• 7.2 Season 2
• 7.3 Season 3
• 7.4 Season 4
• 7.5 Season 5
• 7.6 Season 6
• 7.7 Season 7
• 8 Related topics
• 9 Syndication
• 11 External links

Series summary [ ]

Launched in the year 2371 , the Intrepid -class Federation starship USS Voyager was a ship built to return to Starfleet 's founding principle of scientific exploration. It was fitting that the ship's captain , Kathryn Janeway , rose up through the science ranks rather than command. On the ship's first mission while departing the space station Deep Space 9 , which required it to find and capture a Maquis vessel that disappeared into the treacherous Badlands , the crew of Voyager , as well as that of the Maquis ship it was pursuing, were swept clear across the galaxy and deep into the Delta Quadrant . This was the doing of a powerful alien being known as the Caretaker . The seventy thousand light year transit cost the lives of over a dozen crew members. Captain Janeway was forced to destroy the massive alien array that housed the remains of the Caretaker. In doing so, she saved an alien race, the Ocampa , but stranded Voyager and the crew in the Delta Quadrant.

United in a common purpose, the surviving Maquis rebels joined with Janeway's Starfleet-trained crew on Voyager . Though a journey back to the Alpha Quadrant would have taken more than seventy years through unknown and treacherous territory , the crew of Voyager was well served by Janeway's skilled leadership and their own steadfast determination. Ultimately, Voyager returned to the Alpha Quadrant in seven years.

The crew's journey home was eventful. Voyager made first contact with over four hundred completely new species in the Delta Quadrant, discovered links to Earth 's early space exploration history , utilized and even pioneered new technologies, all the while engaging in countless other adventures. (" Distant Origin ")

The crew encountered species ranging from the violent and ruthless Kazon , the Phage -afflicted Vidiians , the colorful Talaxians and the ephemeral Ocampa . The crew's other encounters included run-ins with the temporal sophistication of the Krenim , the predatory Hirogen , the toxic Malon and the scheming Hierarchy . The crew picked up passengers along the way, including the wily but extremely resourceful Talaxian Neelix (who served, at times, as Voyager 's ambassador , morale officer , and even head chef ), along with the Ocampan telepath Kes (who, as a parting gift to the crew, used her powers of telekinesis to thrust Voyager 9,500 light years closer to the Alpha Quadrant).

Most memorable, however, were Voyager 's repeated clashes with the dreaded Borg . While each encounter posed grave danger, Voyager was able to prevail every time. At one point, Janeway actually negotiated a temporary peace with the Borg when they perceived a common threat in a mysterious alien species from fluidic space . (" Scorpion ") At other times, she was able to liberate drones from the Borg Collective , including Seven of Nine (who became a permanent member of the crew), Mezoti , Azan , Rebi , and Icheb . Other instances pitted Voyager against not only the Borg, but also against the nightmarish Borg Queen herself.

Several years after Voyager 's disappearance into the Delta Quadrant, Starfleet Command learned of the starship's fate. Subsequently, the Pathfinder Project was created, a Starfleet Communications project that attempted to communicate with Voyager through the MIDAS array , via a micro-wormhole and the Hirogen communications network . Thanks to the hard work and enthusiasm of Lieutenant Reginald Barclay , the communications technology improved to a level whereby contact could be made on a regular basis. In 2377 , the crew was able to receive monthly data streams from Earth that included letters from the crew's families, tactical upgrades, and news about the Alpha Quadrant.

By the end of the year, Voyager made a triumphant return to the Alpha Quadrant, under the guidance of Starfleet and the Pathfinder Project, by utilizing and then destroying a Borg transwarp hub , and after a turbulent trip, a celebration was held in honor of Voyager 's return back home.

Distinguishing Voyager [ ]

Despite the general prosperity of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine , Paramount pressured Rick Berman for yet another Star Trek television series. Although it was decided very early on that the new series would be set aboard a starship once again, it was important for the writers to vary the series from Star Trek: The Next Generation in other ways. Berman stated, " When Voyager came around and we knew we were going to place the next series back on a starship we wanted to do it in a way that was not going to be that redundant when it came to The Next Generation . So we had a certain amount of conflict on the ship because of the Maquis. We had a different dynamic because we were not speaking every day to Starfleet and because we had a female captain. Those were the major differences that set this show apart from the others… It had the core belief of what Star Trek was all about, both in terms of the excitement and the action and in terms of the provocative elements of ideas that Star Trek has always been known to present to the audience. " ( Star Trek: Voyager Companion , p. ? )

The series' premise of being lost in deep space was itself a variation on a theme explored in The Next Generation . Michael Piller explained, " We remembered the episodes, many episodes, where Q would show up and throw one of our ships or one of our people off to a strange part of the universe. And we'd have to figure out why we were there, how we were going to get back, and ultimately – by the end of an episode – we'd get back home. But […] we started to talk about what would happen if we didn't get home. That appealed to us a great deal […] You have to understand that Rick, Jeri and I had no interest in simply putting a bunch of people on another ship and sending them out to explore the universe. We wanted to bring something new to the Gene Roddenberry universe. The fans would have been the first people to criticize us if we had not brought something new to it. But everything new, everything was… a challenge, in the early stages of development of Voyager." ("Braving the Unknown: Season 1", VOY Season 1 DVD special features)

Jeri Taylor concurred that Voyager had to be different from its predecessors. She stated, " We felt a need to create an avenue for new and fresh storytelling. We are forced into creating a new universe. We have to come up with new aliens, we have to come up with new situations. " Taylor also recalled, " We knew we were taking some risks. We decided, in a very calculated way, to cut our ties with everything that was familiar. This is a dangerous thing to do. There is no more Starfleet, there are no more admirals to tell us what we can and cannot do, there are no Romulans, there are no Klingons, there are no Ferengi, no Cardassians. All those wonderful array of villains that the audience has come to love and hate at the same time will no longer be there. This is a tricky thing to do. " ("Braving the Unknown: Season 1", VOY Season 1 DVD special features)

Differentiating the new series from what had gone before hardened the challenge of inventing the series' main characters. Jeri Taylor recounted, " It took a long, long time, it took us weeks and weeks and weeks, even to come up with a cast of characters, because we found that so many wonderful characters had already been done and we didn't want to exactly repeat ourselves. We'd come up with an idea then say, 'No, that's too much like Data ,' or, 'That's too much like Odo ,' or, 'That's too much like Worf .' So to try to find the right balance of characters, in terms of gender and alien species and that kind of thing, really took a long time. " ("Braving the Unknown: Season 1", VOY Season 1 DVD special features)

↑ John Van Citters listed "VGR" as the series' official abbreviation when announcing the "DSC" abbreviation for Star Trek: Discovery . [1] MA , among other venues, will continue to use the abbreviation VOY for Voyager , for historical reasons.

Reception [ ]

During its seven-year run, Star Trek: Voyager was nominated for 34 Emmy Awards , mostly in "technical" categories such as visual effects and makeup. It won seven, including "Outstanding Individual Achievement in Main Title Theme Music" for Jerry Goldsmith 's theme.

Main cast [ ]

Starring [ ].

• Kate Mulgrew as Captain Kathryn Janeway

Also starring [ ]

• Robert Beltran as Commander Chakotay
• Roxann Biggs-Dawson as Lieutenant B'Elanna Torres
• Jennifer Lien as Kes ( 1995 - 1997 )
• Robert Duncan McNeill as Lieutenant Tom Paris
• Ethan Phillips as Neelix
• Robert Picardo as The Doctor
• Tim Russ as Lieutenant Commander Tuvok
• Jeri Ryan as Seven of Nine ( 1997 - 2001 )
• Garrett Wang as Ensign Harry Kim

Executive producers [ ]

• Rick Berman – Executive Producer
• Michael Piller – Executive Producer (1995-1996)
• Jeri Taylor – Executive Producer (1995-1998)
• Brannon Braga – Executive Producer (1998-2000)
• Kenneth Biller – Executive Producer (2000-2001)

Opening credits [ ]

The opening credits for Star Trek: Voyager contained imagery of USS Voyager passing near various spatial phenomena.

Episode list [ ]

Season 1 [ ].

Season 1 , 15 episodes:

Season 2 [ ]

Season 2 , 26 episodes:

Season 3 [ ]

Season 3 , 26 episodes:

Season 4 [ ]

Season 4 , 26 episodes:

Season 5 [ ]

Season 5 , 25 episodes:

Season 6 [ ]

Season 6 , 26 episodes:

Season 7 [ ]

Season 7 , 24 episodes:

Related topics [ ]

• VOY directors
• VOY performers
• VOY recurring characters
• VOY studio models
• VOY writers
• Recurring characters
• Character crossover appearances
• Undeveloped VOY episodes
• Paramount Stage 8
• Paramount Stage 9
• Paramount Stage 16

Syndication [ ]

With five seasons, Voyager reached syndication in some markets airing in a daily strip on weekdays in most markets or as a weekly strip on weekends in selected markets, with the first cycle of episodes from the first five seasons began airing on 13 September 1999 , with the second cycle of episodes covering the 25 episodes of Season 6 and the final episode of Season 5 beginning on 13 November 2000 and the final cycle of episodes covering episodes of the final season and the final episode of Season 6 beginning on 25 October 2001 . Voyager was broadcast in syndication for four years until 12 September 2003 , with some stations continuing to carry Voyager after leaving syndication.

• Star Trek: Voyager novels
• Star Trek: Voyager comics (IDW)
• Star Trek: Voyager comics (Malibu)
• Star Trek: Voyager comics (Marvel)
• Star Trek: Voyager soundtracks
• Star Trek: Voyager on VHS
• Star Trek: Voyager on LaserDisc
• Star Trek: Voyager on DVD

External links [ ]

• Star Trek: Voyager at Wikipedia
• Star Trek: Voyager at Memory Beta , the wiki for licensed Star Trek works
• Star Trek: Voyager at the Internet Movie Database
• Star Trek: Voyager at TV IV
• Star Trek: Voyager at StarTrek.com
• 1 Daniels (Crewman)
• 3 Calypso (episode)

Log in or sign up for Rotten Tomatoes

Trouble logging in?

By continuing, you agree to the Privacy Policy and the Terms and Policies , and to receive email from the Fandango Media Brands .

By creating an account, you agree to the Privacy Policy and the Terms and Policies , and to receive email from Rotten Tomatoes and to receive email from the Fandango Media Brands .

By creating an account, you agree to the Privacy Policy and the Terms and Policies , and to receive email from Rotten Tomatoes.

Email not verified

Let's keep in touch.

Sign up for the Rotten Tomatoes newsletter to get weekly updates on:

• Upcoming Movies and TV shows
• Trivia & Rotten Tomatoes Podcast
• Media News + More

By clicking "Sign Me Up," you are agreeing to receive occasional emails and communications from Fandango Media (Fandango, Vudu, and Rotten Tomatoes) and consenting to Fandango's Privacy Policy and Terms and Policies . Please allow 10 business days for your account to reflect your preferences.

OK, got it!

Movies / TV

No results found.

• What's the Tomatometer®?
• Login/signup

Movies in theaters

• Opening this week
• Top box office
• Coming soon to theaters
• Certified fresh movies

Movies at home

• Fandango at Home
• Netflix streaming
• Prime Video
• Most popular streaming movies
• What to Watch New

Certified fresh picks

• Hit Man Link to Hit Man
• Am I OK? Link to Am I OK?
• Jim Henson Idea Man Link to Jim Henson Idea Man

New TV Tonight

• Star Wars: The Acolyte: Season 1
• Ren Faire: Season 1
• Sweet Tooth: Season 3
• Clipped: Season 1
• Queenie: Season 1
• Mayor of Kingstown: Season 3
• Becoming Karl Lagerfeld: Season 1
• Criminal Minds: Season 17
• Power Book II: Ghost: Season 4
• Erased: WW2's Heroes of Color: Season 1

Most Popular TV on RT

• Eric: Season 1
• House of the Dragon: Season 2
• Evil: Season 4
• Dark Matter: Season 1
• Tires: Season 1
• Star Wars: Ahsoka: Season 1
• Best TV Shows
• Most Popular TV
• TV & Streaming News

Certified fresh pick

• Star Wars: The Acolyte: Season 1 Link to Star Wars: The Acolyte: Season 1
• All-Time Lists
• Binge Guide
• Comics on TV
• Five Favorite Films
• Video Interviews
• Weekend Box Office
• Weekly Ketchup
• What to Watch

Glen Powell Movies Ranked by Tomatometer

Star Wars TV Shows Ranked by Tomatometer

What to Watch: In Theaters and On Streaming

Movie Re-Release Calendar 2024: Your Guide to Movies Back In Theaters

Vote For the Best Movie of 1999 – Round 4

• Trending on RT
• Movie Re-Release Calendar
• Vote: 1999 Movie Showdown
• Star Wars TV Ranked
• Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes

Season 1 – Star Trek: Voyager

Where to watch, star trek: voyager — season 1.

Watch Star Trek: Voyager — Season 1 with a subscription on Paramount+, or buy it on Fandango at Home, Prime Video.

What to Know

Star Trek: Voyager breaks the Star Trek mold with a brand new final frontier and the fierce leadership of the franchise's first female captain.

Critics Reviews

Audience reviews, cast & crew.

Kate Mulgrew

Capt. Kathryn Janeway

Robert Beltran

Roxann Dawson

B'Elanna Torres

Robert Duncan McNeill

Jennifer Lien

Ethan Phillips

More Like This

Season info.

• Rent or buy
• Categories Categories
• Getting Started

Star Trek: Voyager

• Store Filled Season 1
• Store Filled Season 2
• Store Filled Season 3
• Store Filled Season 4
• Store Filled Season 5
• Store Filled Season 6
• Store Filled Season 7
• Episode number
• Newest episodes
• Available to watch

Customers also watched

Cast and Crew

Other formats

2130 global ratings

How are ratings calculated? Toggle Expand Toggle Expand

• Amazon Newsletter
• About Amazon
• Accessibility
• Sustainability
• Press Center
• Investor Relations
• Amazon Devices
• Amazon Science
• Sell on Amazon
• Sell apps on Amazon
• Supply to Amazon
• Protect & Build Your Brand
• Become an Affiliate
• Become a Delivery Driver
• Start a Package Delivery Business
• Advertise Your Products
• Self-Publish with Us
• Become an Amazon Hub Partner
• › See More Ways to Make Money
• Amazon Visa
• Amazon Store Card
• Amazon Secured Card
• Amazon Business Card
• Shop with Points
• Credit Card Marketplace
• Reload Your Balance
• Amazon Currency Converter
• Your Account
• Your Orders
• Shipping Rates & Policies
• Amazon Prime
• Returns & Replacements
• Manage Your Content and Devices
• Recalls and Product Safety Alerts
• Conditions of Use
• Privacy Notice
• Consumer Health Data Privacy Disclosure
• Your Ads Privacy Choices

A Regrettable DS9 Cameo Hamstrung Star Trek: Voyager's Initiations Episode

In the "Star Trek: Voyager" episode "Initiations" (September 4, 1995), Chakotay (Robert Beltran) undertakes a personal mission on a shuttlecraft only to be attacked by a Kazon teenager named Kar (Aron Eisenberg), an adolescent out on his first mission. In the brief battle, Chakotay accidentally destroys Kar's ship, but takes the time to rescue him. Kar explains that the Kazon are an honor-bound species and that Chkotay, in rescuing him, robbed him of his ability to prove his worth to his elders. Kar is furious and embarrassed. Kar's superiors find Chakotay and explain that the only way to restore Kar's honor is for Chakotay to kill him or for Kar to kill Chakotay. The Starfleet officer and the Kazon go on the lam, trying to find a solution to their plight that doesn't involve murder.

Aron Eisenberg was already known to Trekkies as Nog, the Ferengi teen on "Star Trek: Deep Space Nine," which debuted in 1993. Eisenberg was 26 when he filmed "Voyager," but his youthful features and boyish voice allowed him to play adolescents for many years. They also, rather unfortunately, made him immensely recognizable. His striking features allowed fans to spot him in films like "House III" and "Puppet Master III" and TV shows like "Parker Lewis Can't Lose," but made his presence distracting in "Initiation." Trekkies would have trouble relating to the young Kar if all they saw was Nog.

In the oral history book "Captains' Logs: The Unauthorized Complete Trek Voyages" edited by Mark A. Altman and Edward Gross, longtime "Star Trek" scriptwriter Jeri Taylor expressed trepidation to this very point. "Star Trek" has always been good about offering multiple gigs to its myriad supporting players , but Eisenberg was too major a player in "Deep Space Nine" to play a one-off character in "Voyager."

Breaking the suspension of disbelief in Voyager

Jeri Taylor pointed out that casting a 14-year-old on "Star Trek" was troublesome. There had been many kids on "Star Trek" in the past, but writing Kar was an issue as they needed a young actor who could convincing play a Kazon murderer. The Kazon, some Trekkies have said, are essentially Diet Klingons, making them brutal and honor-bound in a very similar way. "Star Trek" had never featured a Klingon teen before (Alexander notwithstanding), so there was no precedent. When it came to the casting process, Taylor said the following:

"I thought it was reasonably successful. [...] We gave ourselves a very difficult task by writing a part for a 14-year-old young man. We ended up casting Aron Eisenberg, who plays Nog on 'Deep Space Nine,' and more people were aware of that than I would have thought. He didn't look anything the same, but he has a very distinctive voice. It broke the suspension of disbelief and made people say not, 'Oh, there's a young man in pain,' but 'Oh, it's Nog from 'Deep Space Nine.” As soon as the mind is doing that, it's not involved in the story."

The Kazon have orange-ish skin like Ferengi, but sport outsize Klingon-like foreheads and shell-liked "horns" on their heads. Ferengi, meanwhile, have outsize ears , large ridged noses, fangs, and lumpy, hairless heads. Despite the makeup, though, Eisenberg was easy to recognize.

Dubious Star Trek casting

Something similar happened in "Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country" in 1991. Michael Dorn was, at the time, better known to Trekkies as Worf, the Klingon security officer on "Star Trek: The Next Generation." In "Country," however, he played an unnamed Klingon defense lawyer in a key courtroom scene. Only fans have postulated that the lawyer was directly related to Worf in any way; there hasn't been any on-screen canonical connection between the characters.

Additionally, actor Ethan Phillips, who played the jolly Talaxian Neelix on "Voyager ," had a cameo as a human maître d' in "Star Trek: First Contact." Except, because Phillips appeared out of makeup, he might not have been instantly recognizable to audiences, making his appearance a cute cameo rather than a major distraction. For Eisenberg's appearance in "Voyager," sadly, it was a distraction, seeing as he was playing the main character of the episode. Taylor was happy with Eisenberg's performance but not with the pigeonholing:

"Aron is a wonderful actor, and we cast him because the boys that we read were simply not able to bring to it the richness and depth that we wanted. We got the good actor, but we got a recognizable one."

The first few seasons of "Voyager" flagged in ratings and no one really liked the Kazon as the show's greatest threat. Luckily, the premise of "Voyager" required the ship to fly away from new enemies as they traveled back to Earth, so eventually, the Kazon was abandoned. "Initiations" remains, then, an oddity for the series, providing a great Eisenberg performance and little else.

Ronald D. Moore's First Star Trek Episode Foreshadowed His DS9 & Battlestar Galactica Future

• Writing "The Bonding" for ST: TNG was a pivotal moment for Ronald D. Moore, setting the stage for his darker, character-driven work on future shows.
• Moore's focus on Klingon culture in TNG & DS9 laid the groundwork for his exploration of complex political and moral conflicts in Battlestar Galactica.
• Moore's impact on the Star Trek franchise cannot be overstated, as his scripts for TNG and DS9 reshaped Klingon lore and deepened the exploration of death and grief in the Trek universe.

Ronald D. Moore's first Star Trek script for Star Trek: The Next Generation hinted at the types of stories he would go on to write on Star Trek: Deep Space Nine and Battlestar Galactica. Following the adventures of Captain Jean-Luc Picard (Patrick Stewart) and the USS Enterprise-D, TNG is Star Trek at its most optimistic. Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry remained involved during TNG's early years, and he wanted to depict a utopian, conflict-free version of humanity's future. Still, TNG occasionally tackled tough issues, such as its exploration of death in Star Trek: The Next Generation season 3, episode 5, "The Bonding," the first Star Trek episode written by Ronald D. Moore.

A fan of Star Trek: The Original Series, Ronald D. Moore got the chance to visit the set of Star Trek: The Next Generation during the show's second season, and he handed a script he'd written to one of Gene Roddenberry's assistants. While working on TNG season 3, executive producer Michael Piller found Moore's script, purchased it, and it became "The Bonding." Moore was then selected to write another episode, "The Defector," and he went on to join TNG's writing staff, writing or co-writing 27 episodes. Moore then joined the production staff of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, and Star Trek: Voyager, before eventually moving on to develop the 2004 reboot of Battlestar Galactica .

7 Streaming Sci-Fi Series To Watch In Between Star Trek Shows

There may be a long wait between live-action Star Trek series, but here are seven other sci-fi shows worth checking out in the meantime.

How Ron Moore's First Star Trek: TNG Episode Foreshadowed DS9 & Battlestar Galactica

"the bonding" deals with themes of death, grief, and loss..

Ronald D. Moore's first Star Trek: The Next Generation episode , "The Bonding", centers on young Jeremy Aster (Gabriel Damon), whose mother Marla (Susan Powell) is killed while on an away mission. Having previously lost his father, the now-orphaned Jeremy struggles to come to terms with his mother's death. As the leader of the ill-fated away mission and a fellow orphan, Lt. Worf (Michael Dorn) feels responsible for Jeremy and offers to perform a Klingon bonding ritual with the young boy. Jeremy's struggle is further complicated when a non-corporeal alien takes the form of Marla, claiming to be Jeremy's mother returned from the dead.

"The Bonding's" alien plotline, added to appease Gene Roddenberry, feels somewhat disconnected from the story's main theme as an exploration of death and grief. Still, there are some great character moments throughout "The Bonding," from Worf's anger and discussion about his own parents to Wesley Crusher's (Wil Wheaton) memories of his father's death. It's these character moments that feel like foreshadowing for the character work Moore would do as a writer on Star Trek: Deep Space Nine and Battlestar Galactica . Not only are both of these shows darker in tone than TNG, but they also regularly explore death, grief, and loss.

Ronald D. Moore also developed Starz's Outlander and Apple TV+'s For All Mankind , and he currently serves as an executive producer on both series.

Ronald D. Moore Became Star Trek's "Klingon Guy"

Moore helped shape the klingon culture and politics of the tng era..

Throughout Star Trek: The Next Generation and Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, Ronald D. Moore penned some of the franchises's most significant Klingon episodes. Moore's first Klingon-centric episode, TNG season 3, episode 17, "Sins of the Father," not only dove into Worf's past, but also introduced the Klingon home world of Qo'noS , the Klingon High Council, and the Klingon Chancellor. Moore also wrote the excellent TNG two-parter "Redemption," which continued to explore Klingon politics. On DS9, Moore wrote several more episodes that dealt with Klingon culture, including "You Are Cordially Invited...," which saw Worf marry the love of his life, Jadzia Dax (Terry Farrell).

Ronald D. Moore's contributions to the Star Trek franchise cannot be overstated.

Ron Moore's obvious interest in Klingon culture and politics also foreshadows his eventual work on Battlestar Galactica . Centering on the surviving remnants of a devastated civilization, Battlestar Galactica is full of complex political and moral conflicts as the titular battleship leads the surviving fleet of fugitives in search of safety. Having written several of the TNG era's most iconic films and episodes (including TNG's series finale and Star Trek: First Contact with co-writer Brannon Braga), Ronald D. Moore's contributions to the Star Trek franchise cannot be overstated. And it all began with a spec script written for Star Trek: The Next Generation .

Star Trek: The Next Generation & Star Trek: Deep Space Nine are available to stream on Paramount+.

Battlestar Galactica is available to stream on Amazon Prime Video.

Star Trek: The Next Generation

Cast Michael Dorn, LeVar Burton, Brent Spiner, Wil Wheaton, Jonathan Frakes, Patrick Stewart, Marina Sirtis, Gates McFadden

Release Date September 28, 1987

Writers Jeri Taylor, Michael Piller, Rick Berman, Brannon Braga, Ronald D. Moore

Showrunner Jeri Taylor, Michael Piller, Rick Berman

Star Trek: Deep Space Nine

Cast Terry Farrell, Cirroc Lofton, Rene Auberjonois, Nicole de Boer, Michael Dorn, Andrew Robinson, Nana Visitor, Avery Brooks, Colm Meaney, Armin Shimerman, Alexander Siddig

Release Date January 3, 1993

Writers Ira Steven Behr, Michael Piller, Ronald D. Moore

Showrunner Ira Steven Behr, Michael Piller

Battlestar Galactica

Cast Alessandro Juliani, Tahmoh Penikett, Aaron Douglas, Grace Park, Tricia Helfer, Katee Sackhoff, Edward James Olmos, Mary McDonnell, Michael Hogan, Kandyse McClure, Jamie Bamber, James Callis

Release Date October 18, 2004

Writers Ronald D. Moore

Showrunner Ronald D. Moore

• The Original Series
• The Animated Series
• The Next Generation
• Deep Space Nine
• Strange New Worlds
• Lower Decks
• Star Trek Movies
• TrekCore on Twitter
• TrekCore on Facebook

We are still waiting to learn if this will be a full-season, 20 episode drop all at once, or if Netflix is planning to roll out Prodigy Season 2 in some sort of weekly release strategy; there are even some Netflix series which release on a multiple-episodes-per-week schedule, stretching a season over a three to five-week timetable.

JUNE 4 UPDATE: We’ve confirmed with CBS Studios that all 20 episodes of Season 2 will be dropping at once on July 1, on Netflix in the United States and all other regions worldwide where Netflix has distribution rights.   Netflix does NOT have distribution in Canada, Nordics, CEE, Netherlands, Spain, Portugal, Poland, Russia, Belarus, or Mainland China. The release schedule for both Canada (on CTV Sci Fi) and SkyShowtime (for the Nordics, Netherlands, Spain, Poland, Portugal, Central and Eastern Europe) is still unknown.

As soon as we have confirmation of more scheduling plans for Star Trek: Prodigy Season 2, along with any new promotional images or trailers, we’ll be sure to update this post with that information. In the meantime, mark your calendars for the return of Dal, Gwyn, Rok-Tahk, Jankom Pog, Zero, Murf, and Admiral Janeway!

Keep your sensors locked on TrekCore for all the latest  Star Trek: Prodigy news!

• PRO Season 2
• Star Trek: Prodigy

Related Stories

The wand company’s star trek: the original series tricorder get a closeup on adam savage’s tested, star trek: discovery’s ending moment was planned for season 6 (spoilers), exclusive preview — inglorious treksperts set to curate 2024’s stlv convention with dozens of in-depth star trek panels, search news archives, new & upcoming releases, featured stories, lost-for-decades original star trek uss enterprise model returned to roddenberry family, star trek: lower decks cancelled; strange new worlds renewed for season 4, our star trek: discovery season 5 spoiler-free review.

TrekCore.com is not endorsed, sponsored or affiliated with Paramount, CBS Studios, or the Star Trek franchise. All Star Trek images, trademarks and logos are owned by CBS Studios Inc. and/or Paramount. All original TrekCore.com content and the WeeklyTrek podcast (c) 2024 Trapezoid Media, LLC. · Terms & Conditions

Filed under:

Star Trek: Discovery tore itself apart for the good of Star Trek’s future

And it helped set the tone for where Star Trek is now

Share this story

• Share this on Facebook
• Share this on Reddit
• Share All sharing options

Share All sharing options for: Star Trek: Discovery tore itself apart for the good of Star Trek’s future

If you were to jump directly from the first episode of Star Trek: Discovery to its finale — which just debuted on Paramount Plus — the whiplash would throw you clear out of your seat like your ship had suffered an inertial damper malfunction. Since its first two chapters premiered on CBS All Access in 2017, the series has moved to a different ship and a different century, and has acquired an almost entirely different set of characters. Moreover, Discovery has received a radical tonal refit, evolving in fits and starts from a dark and violent war story to a much sunnier action-adventure serial.

Though it never won the mainstream attention or critical acclaim of its spinoff, Strange New Worlds , nor the gushing fan adulation of Picard ’s Next Gen reunion , Discovery spearheaded Star Trek’s return to television , the franchise’s maiden voyage into the frontier of premium streaming content. Like any bold pathfinder, Discovery encountered obstacles, suffered losses, and made some major course corrections. But, if you ask the cast and crew, the adventure has been more than worth the tumultuous journey.

Tacking into the wind

“We were on wobbly legs for a long time,” admits star Sonequa Martin-Green, whose character, Michael Burnham, has had the rug pulled out from under her a number of times over the course of the series. In the first season and backstory alone, Burnham lost her parents, saw her mentor murdered, was tried for mutiny, discovered that her first love is a Klingon sleeper agent, and was betrayed by not one but two Mirror Universe doppelgängers of trusted Starfleet captains.

Move over, Deep Space Nine — this was instantly the grimmest canonical depiction of the Star Trek universe on screen. Season 1 of Discovery was rated TV-MA and featured more blood and gore than the franchise had ever seen, not to mention an instance of graphic Klingon nudity. (Actor Mary Wiseman recalls seeing her co-star Mary Chieffo walking the set wearing prosthetic alien breasts and thinking, What the hell? ) The corpse of Michelle Yeoh’s character is cannibalized by Klingons off screen, and her successor, portrayed by Jason Isaacs, turns out to be a manipulative psycho from the Mirror Universe who tries to mold Burnham into his plaything.

The bleak, adult-oriented tone was not the only sticking point with Star Trek purists, as Discovery would take place a decade before the original 1960s Star Trek but have a design aesthetic much closer to that of the 2009 movie reboot, leading to some irreconcilable clashes with continuity. The show’s serialized, season-long arcs were a far cry from the familiar “planet of the week” stories of most previous incarnations of the franchise. Then there was Burnham’s backstory as the never-before-mentioned human foster sister to Trek’s iconic Vulcan Spock , a creative decision that has “clueless studio note” written all over it. Even ahead of its debut, Discovery faced vocal opposition from the fan base for straying so far from their notion of what Star Trek was supposed to be. (Not to mention the revolting but quite vocal faction of fans who were incensed that Star Trek had “gone woke,” as if it hadn’t been that way the whole time.) Many of Discovery ’s detractors flocked toward The Orville , a Fox series starring and created by Seth MacFarlane that was essentially ’90s-style Star Trek with the occasional dick joke thrown in. The Orville offered fans alienated by Discovery ’s vastly different approach to Star Trek a more familiar (but far less ambitious) alternative.

The grim Klingon War story was the brainchild of co-creator Bryan Fuller, who had been a member of the Star Trek: Deep Space Nine and Voyager writers rooms before creating cult series like Pushing Daisies and Hannibal . Fuller would end up departing Team Discovery before production even began, asked to resign after a string of creative differences with the studio. New showrunners Aaron Harberts and Gretchen J. Berg carried out a version of Fuller’s plans without him, and then oversaw the show’s first major pivot. Discovery ’s second season was immediately brighter, more colorful, and cozier with established Star Trek lore. (This is the arc that would introduce the versions of Pike , Spock , and Number One who now lead Strange New Worlds .) But things weren’t so sunny behind the scenes — Harberts and Berg were fired midway through the season after writers accused the duo of creating an abusive work environment.

As different as Discovery would eventually stray from the HBO-style drama of its first season, co-creator Alex Kurtzman feels that the mission of the series has never changed.

“One of the things that we set up in season 1 is that we knew that Burnham would start as a mutineer and end up a captain,” says Kurtzman. “What was exciting about that is that we knew it would take time.”

Captain on deck

It was after Harberts and Berg’s departure that Kurtzman, who had remained involved but been primarily occupied with the development of the growing television Star Trek franchise as a whole, took the helm of Discovery himself. Before long, he would promote writer and co-executive producer Michelle Paradise to the role of co-showrunner, which she would retain for the remainder of the series. Just as the late, great Michael Piller did during the third season of The Next Generation , Paradise brought a sense of stability and confidence to Discovery , which reverberated onto set.

“I commend Michelle Paradise and the rest of the writers because this show evolved ,” says Martin-Green. “Our initial showrunners, Aaron Harberts and Gretchen Berg, they made their impact and that’ll never be erased, but landing where we did with Michelle co-showrunning with Alex Kurtzman, jumping farther than any Trek had gone before, I feel that’s when our feet were solid on the ground and when we really established our identity.”

Season 2 fell into a steady rhythm that felt more in tune with Kurtzman’s “movie every week” philosophy, never far in tone from the reboot film trilogy on which Kurtzman served as a writer and producer. The steady presence of Michelle Yeoh’s deliciously amoral Emperor Georgiou was a major boon, essentially becoming Star Trek’s answer to Buffy ’s Spike or Dragon Ball Z ’s Vegeta. However, Discovery was also undeniably borrowing clout from legacy characters Pike and Spock, and the constant friction with established canon wasn’t sitting well with Kurtzman or the audience.

The season ended with a surprising twist that resolved the continuity problems but also changed the entire nature of the show. The titular starship and its crew would be propelled 930 years into the future, past the furthest fixed point in Star Trek’s continuity. No longer forced to tiptoe around the sacred canon, Discovery was free to sprint in a bold new direction. Once again and in a more tangible way, it was a whole new show.

“If the folks who came in had sort of taken us off the rails that would have been a very different experience,” says Anthony Rapp, who portrays the prickly Commander Paul Stamets. “But Michelle Paradise came through as such a shining light and a beautiful presence in our lives. She took the show into this territory of being able to have the heart in its center in a way that felt very grounded and meaningful, and really helped us to make that transition.”

An open sky

Season 3 of Discovery offered Kurtzman, Paradise, producing director Olatunde Osunsanmi, and the rest of the creative team a rare opportunity to completely rewrite Star Trek’s galactic map . Not since the launch of The Next Generation in 1987 had a writers room been able to venture onto such “fresh snow,” as Paradise puts it. In the 32nd century, beyond the furthest point explored in the established Trek canon, the righteous United Federation of Planets has all but collapsed in the aftermath of “the Burn,” a mysterious space calamity. Some longtime friends are now adversaries, and even Earth has become an isolationist state. The USS Discovery, displaced in time, becomes the means by which to reconnect the shattered galaxy. It’s not hard to read this as a mission statement for Star Trek as a whole — a relic from another time, back to offer hope to a bleak present.

Season 3’s 13-episode arc restored a bit of Star Trek’s space Western roots, with warp drive a rare and costly luxury in the ravaged 32nd century and half the galaxy dominated by a vast criminal empire known as the Emerald Chain. Michael Burnham spent much of the season out of uniform, having found a new purpose as a more roguish freelance courier alongside the sweet and savvy Cleveland Booker (David Ajala). This is arguably the most interesting version of the show, as Michael questions whether or not Starfleet — the institution whose trust she has worked so hard to restore — is still her home.

By the end of the season (and right on schedule with Fuller and Kurtzman’s original plans), Michael Burnham finally accepts her destiny and becomes captain of Discovery. More subtly, this altered the premise of the show for a third time, as the central question of “Will Michael ever become captain?” had been answered in the affirmative. But, since she’d already been the central character and a figure of improbable cosmic import, the change was mostly cosmetic. And symbolic — Martin-Green considers her presence “being Black, and a woman, and a captain sitting in that chair” to be her greatest contribution to Star Trek. After three seasons of struggle and uncertainty, Burnham could now be as aspirational a character as Picard , Sisko, or Janeway .

The tone on which the show settled at the end of season 3 would be the one that finally stuck. Where the series had initially been bloody and brooding, it was now squarely an adventure show featuring a cast of characters with a boundless and demonstrative love for each other. The crew would face mortal danger each episode and a galactic-level threat each season, bolstered by very expensive-looking visual effects and a rousing score. At the same time, many conflicts both large and small would eventually be resolved by characters talking through their feelings and finding common ground. This was exhausting as often as it was compelling, but it was consistent. For its final two seasons, viewers could finally know what to expect from Star Trek: Discovery .

Discovering itself

This “feelings over phasers” approach was not for everyone, but it was never intended to be. Even from the outset, before Paramount began pumping out more Star Trek series to target different facets of the fan base, Discovery was never meant to be a definitive Star Trek experience that checked every box.

“You’ll never be able to be everything to everybody,” says Michelle Paradise. “The goal was always to make the best version of Discovery . It’s a different kind of Star Trek. It’s serialized, it’s fewer episodes, it’s a movie every week. That’s a thing that will appeal to many people, and for some people it won’t be their cup of tea.”

Discovery has bounced up and down my personal ranking of Star Trek series a number of times during its run, more than any of its past or present siblings. I have begun each season of the show with great excitement, and that excitement is frequently exhausted by season’s end. Most Trek series have good years and bad years. To me, Discovery suffers from being simultaneously brilliant, innovative, lazy, cringe, inspiring, and eye-rolling at all times, only in different measures. It features the franchise’s strongest lead actor since Patrick Stewart, and a supporting cast that has never been leveraged to my satisfaction. In my career, I have written more words about Star Trek: Discovery than any other television series, and I still haven’t made up my mind about it. For as many cheerleaders and haters as the show must have, I imagine there are many more viewers who feel the way I do — it’s a show that I wanted to love, but never fully fell in love with.

As Discovery disappears in the aft viewport, some will bid it a fond farewell, some will be blowing it raspberries, and some will turn away with total disinterest. But regardless of how well Discovery itself is remembered in the coming years, it has already made a substantial impact on the franchise. It paved the way for every Trek series that followed, including three direct spinoffs. Its second season was the incubator for Strange New Worlds , now the most acclaimed Trek series in a generation. Michelle Yeoh had such fun in her recurring role on Discovery that, even after winning an Academy Award , she was still keen to return for the upcoming Section 31 TV movie . Discovery ’s 32nd-century setting will continue to be explored in the new Starfleet Academy series , leaving the door open for some of its characters to return.

Even the new shows that have no direct relationship to Discovery have benefitted from the precedent it set by being different from what came before. Lower Decks is an animated sitcom, Prodigy is a kid-targeted cartoon , Picard is… a bunch of different things that don’t work together , but they are all different shows. Star Trek was one thing, and beginning with Discovery , it became many things. And for Star Trek, an institution that preaches the value of infinite diversity in infinite combinations, that’s a legacy to be proud of.

Star Trek: Discovery is now streaming in full on Paramount Plus.

Star Trek: Discovery boldly goes where no Trek has gone before by saying religion is... OK, actually

Star trek: discovery is cracking open a box next gen closed on purpose, star trek: discovery is finally free to do whatever it wants, loading comments....

• Cast & crew
• User reviews
• Episode aired May 13, 1998

Travel through a toxic nebula puts nearly all the Voyager crew in stasis, restricts the Doctor to sickbay, degrades the ship's systems and leaves Seven solely in charge. Travel through a toxic nebula puts nearly all the Voyager crew in stasis, restricts the Doctor to sickbay, degrades the ship's systems and leaves Seven solely in charge. Travel through a toxic nebula puts nearly all the Voyager crew in stasis, restricts the Doctor to sickbay, degrades the ship's systems and leaves Seven solely in charge.

• Kenneth Biller
• Gene Roddenberry
• Rick Berman
• Michael Piller
• Kate Mulgrew
• Robert Beltran
• Roxann Dawson
• 12 User reviews
• 7 Critic reviews

• Capt. Kathryn Janeway

• Cmdr. Chakotay

• Lt. B'Elanna Torres

• Lt. Tom Paris

• Seven of Nine

• Ensign Harry Kim

• Trajis Lo-Tarik

• Voyager Computer

• (uncredited)

• All cast & crew
• Production, box office & more at IMDbPro

Did you know

• Trivia Doctor: "If you had even the slightest sense of humor, you'd realize I was making a small joke." Seven: "Very small." This is reminiscent of a scene between Chekov and Spock in The Trouble with Tribbles (1967) .
• Goofs When Seven reads off Paris' vital signs, the tricorder provides his body temperature in Fahrenheit. Since the metric system is used in all other Starfleet units of measurement, it is unlikely body temperature would be any different.

Captain Kathryn Janeway : We've come 15,000 light years. We haven't been stopped by temporal anomalies, warp core breaches or hostile aliens, and I am damned if I'm gonna be stopped by a nebula!

• Connections References Star Trek: The Trouble with Tribbles (1967)
• Soundtracks Star Trek: Voyager - Main Title (uncredited) Written by Jerry Goldsmith Performed by Jay Chattaway

User reviews 12

• haldamere-92631
• Jun 17, 2018
• May 13, 1998 (United States)
• United States
• Official site
• Paramount Studios - 5555 Melrose Avenue, Hollywood, Los Angeles, California, USA (Studio)
• Paramount Television
• See more company credits at IMDbPro

Technical specs

• Runtime 46 minutes
• Dolby Digital

Related news

Contribute to this page.

• IMDb Answers: Help fill gaps in our data
• Learn more about contributing

More to explore

Recently viewed.

We Finally Know When 'Star Trek: Prodigy' Season 2 Will Hit Netflix

Your changes have been saved

Email Is sent

Please verify your email address.

You’ve reached your account maximum for followed topics.

The Big Picture

• Star Trek: Prodigy's second season premieres on Netflix on July 1, 2024.
• The story continues as the group embarks on a mission to find Voyager's Chakotay in the Delta Quadrant with the guidance of Admiral Janeway.
• The show's creators hint at a potential seven-season run, promising more adventures and excitement for fans of the series.

It's been a long year for fans of Star Trek: Prodigy , but the animated series' long-awaited next season is finally in sight. Netflix will reportedly release the second season of the kid-aimed Star Trek series on July 1. TrekCore.com reports that the release date can be seen on Netflix's app.

The second season of the series, which follows a ragtag group of alien teenagers in the galaxy's Delta Quadrant as they try to use an experimental Starfleet ship, the USS Protostar , to escape an evil dictator, didn't seem like a sure thing at one point. Last year, the series was canceled and deleted from its original streamer, Paramount+, even though its second season was nearly complete. Fan outrage ensued over the well-received show's cancelation, and a letter-writing campaign was launched ; Prodigy was eventually picked up by Netflix , who are currently streaming the show's first season. Fans have been waiting for the next season's release ever since, although it was released in France several months ago.

What Do We Know About 'Star Trek: Prodigy' Season 2?

In "Supernova", the two-part finale of Prodigy 's first season, the USS Protostar was destroyed, as was the cadets' mentor, a holographic avatar of legendary Starfleet commander Kathryn Janeway ( Kate Mulgrew ). However, the group escaped their foes, saved Starfleet, and made it to Federation territory. There, they met the real Janeway, who took them on as warrant-officers-in-training aboard a new Protostar-class ship. Janeway wants them on a mission to return to the Delta Quadrant to find her Voyager first officer Chakotay ( Robert Beltran ), who was lost in the region aboard the Protostar in the first place. The series will presumably also deal with the fate of Gwyn ( Ella Purnell ), who departed the group in the first-season finale to try and bring peace to her people, the Vau N'Akat. A clip of the second-season premiere was also released last year, which reveals that a familiar Star Trek voice will have a part to play in the series. In it, the Prodigy cadets meet the holographic Doctor ( Robert Picardo ), who was Janeway's chief medical officer on the original Voyager .

Will there be more Prodigy after its second season? Only time can tell, but in an interview with Collider , Prodigy writers and executive producers Dan and Kevin Hageman said "We wrote this thing to go seven seasons at least."

Watch on Netflix

Season 2 of Star Trek: Prodigy will debut on Netflix July 1, 2024 . Stay tuned to Collider for future updates.

Star Trek: Prodigy

A group of enslaved teenagers steal a derelict Starfleet vessel to escape and explore the galaxy.