TF01 3,Voyager - Caretaker 4, Star Trek: Voyager - "Caretaker" ---------------------------------- Written by Rick Berman, Michael Piller and Jeri Taylor -------------------------------------------------------- Tim Smith --------- Whilst on a mission to find a Maquis ship that has mysteriously disappeared in an area of space known as the Badlands, Captain Janeway and the crew of the USS Voyager are drawn to the edge of the galaxy by a strange being known as the Caretaker. One there the Maquis and Federation crews must band together in an effort to find two missing personnel and return home... So after months of speculation, what is Star Trek: Voyager actually like? Well the look of the show borrows from not only Next Gen and Deep Space Nine, but the motion pictures as well. The Voyager looks like a cross between the Enterprise A and the Enterprise D. The uniforms are a jumpsuit version of those worn on Deep Space Nine, and the communicators are those first seen in Generations. The inside of the ship bears a strong resemblance to the bridge of the Enterprise seen in Star Trek II and III, but has enough modifications to mark its own individuality. Even the transporter effect has its origins in the movie series. None of these comments are criticisms, merely observations. One of the most impressive things about Voyager is the opening title sequence. Featuring an extremely impressive theme tune by Jerry Goldsmith, it has some incredible shots of the USS Voyager travelling through various astral features. It all adds up to the most stunning opening sequence in Star Trek history. The characters also owe something to previous Trek outings. Captain Janeway (a female captain at last!) is a mixture of both Kirk and Picard. Tuvok (the Vulcan security officer) is alot like Spock. B'Elanna Torres seems like an angry young version of K'Ehleyr. Tom Paris must be Nick Locarno in disguise, and finally Doc Zimmerman could have been programmed by Data. Perhaps some of the characters are too much like others but it's early days yet, and they all fit together as a family teriffically well. Something that The Next Generation crew never quite achieved, and that the crew of Deep Space Nine have only just begun to do. The plot is a typical Star Trek plot. That is not to say that actual scenes or details have been in previous episodes or films, but that the themesand ideals explored in "Caretaker" are what Star Trek is all about. There are many fine moments in this pilot, and the whole thing reminds me alot of Classic Star Trek. As long as the ship, and its crew is seen to make progress home, the characters continue to develop, and the whole show maintains the standard set by this pilot, Star Trek: Voyager will be a worthy addition to the Star Trek legend. 9/10 Sven Harvey ----------- Space, (beyond,) beyond the final frontier (of Deep Space Nine) a mish mash crew continue Starfleet's primary mission to explore strange new worlds and seek out new civilizations in a region of our galaxy where no one has gone before. The ship is an Intrepid class exploration starship. The series is Star Trek: Voyager! As many of our long term readers will know, Star Trek: Voyager has been in production for quite a while and finally we get to see the result, after they nicked our new mags name (now called Visions!) and the loss of the Captain after two days filming. We finally ended up with Kate Mulgrew, Mrs Columbo but probably better known in the UK as the army sargeant who helps Remo Williams in the film "Remo: Unarmed and Dangerous" (the film was called "Remo Williams: The Adventure Begins" in the USA), as Captain Kathryn Janeway, the commanding officer of the 141 strong crew of one of Starfleet's latest ships. The opening scenes show the attack on a Maquis vessel by a Galor class Cardassian vessel in the de-militarized zone but the small vessel under the command of ex-Starfleet officer Chakotay (Robert Beltran) and crewed by a Vulcan tactical officer, Tuvok (Tim Russ) and half-Klingon hispanic engineer B'Elanna Torres (Roxann Biggs- Dawson) manages to make it into an area of plasma storms known as the Badlands. The larger Cardassian vessel doesn't stand a chance and is soon badly damaged while the more manoeuvrable Maquis vessel manages to navigate around the lethal storms. That is until a mysterious energy wave hits the ship... New Zealand, Earth, Captain Janeway of the newly comissioned USS Voyager briefs prisoner Tom Paris (Robert Duncan McNeill) - a former Starfleet and Maquis officer - on the apparent disappearance of Chakotay's Maquis ship in the Badlands and with it the disappearance of Janeway's head of security, Lieutenant Commander Tuvok. Paris agrees to join the mission as an observer as he knows the Badlands, Chakotay and the Maquis and he was one of the best pilots in Starfleet (hey, I wonder if he, Will Riker and Geordi La Forge had the same instructor?). The Voyager is receiving its last crew compliment on route to the Badlands at everyone's favourite space station (well DS9 had to be there somewhere didn't it?). Paris and Harry Kim (Garrett Wang) meet up in Quarks where the Ferengi is trying to swindle Ensign Kim but Paris deals with the hustler in a particularly Will Riker-ish fashion. Everyone joins the ship and they head out for the Badlands. Unfortunately the moment the Voyager enters the Badlands a mysterious energy wave hits the ship... Those lucky enough to make it claw back their conciousness and find the ship in a non-too good state. The crew of 141 has been severely cut back including the medical staff, the first officer and many other key crew members. Ensign Kim reports that the Voyager is in close proximity to the missing Maquis ship and a large space platform but is located in the Delta Quadrant, 70,000 light years away from the Federation. It will take the ship 75 years to make it to the nearest Starbase at maximum warp! The alien space platform is sending enormous energy pulses out into space while Captain Janeway deals with an imminent warp core breach down in engineering (at least no-one shouted "coolant leak"!). Suddenly everyone dematerialises and find themselves on what seems to be a farm somewhere in Kansas (but it sure ain't Smallville!). Some rustic old woman welcomes them and starts offering everyone food as further picnicers appear at the gate. Tricorders reveal it is all a holographic projection and that the crew have only been beamed a relatively short distance and are within the alien array platform. However Paris' tricorder reveals that there are life signs in what seems to be an old barn. After the rustic people try to stop them with pitchforks the crew of the Maquis ship are reveals floating above anti-grav slabs with VERY large painful looking needle like probes stuck in their chests. There is a flash of light and the Voyager crew find themselves also on anti-grav slabs as the large probes move towards and penetrate their chests... they all pass-out. Three days later the crew awaken aboard the Voyager with only Ensign Kim missing. They contact the Maquis ship and Chakotay informs Janeway that a member of his crew, his engineer, B'Elanna Torres, is also missing. Chakotay and Janeway decide to co-operate to find their people. After Tuvok is re-united with his starship crew and his uniform he joins a Maquis/Starfleet away team to the array to find the same rustic setting but only the old banjo man from earlier is seen. He informs the crews that the missing people are no longer with him and that they may have what he needs but he is running out of time at which the away team find themselves on the Voyager. Ensign Kim awakens to find himself in a hospital room where an alien doctor and nurse are attending to him and he is horrified to find tumours on his chest and arms. He is distarcted by a similarly aflicted half-Human half-Klingon woman who cries out as she struggles with two hospital staff. She is sedated in the strugle. Back aboard the Voyager Tuvok has concluded that the engery pulses, aimed at a barren, sort of class M world, strange because no rain clouds can develop and that Torres and Kim may have been transported along it (are we sure Tuvok is just chief of security and not also a science officer?). The Voyager sets course for the planet and along the way meets up with a pleasant alien called Neelix. Neelix reveals that they are not the only beings to have been brought to the array and they bargain for his further help, with him only wanting... water?! After beaming over to the Voyager, Tuvok suggests that Neelix takes a bath, something that Neelix has not heard of. Back in the hospital, Torres and Kim are getting acquainted when the doctor re-appears offering them fresh clothes and informing them of their guest - not prisoner - status and that they can leave the hospital. They warily make it outside into an underground city, where this race called the Ocampa have lived for hundreds of generations under the benevolent "Caretaker". Unfortunately, as Kim and Torres realise, the society is sterile with little in the way of joy or real freedom. Meanwhile Neelix has enjoyed a VERY large meal and wallowing in a steaming bath, astonished by the waste of water! He discusses the missing crew and suggests beaming down to the surface of the planet. They materialise in front of a mining camp, but the inhabitants immediately recognise Neelix and manoeuvre him to a wall before a rag-tag firing squad. After a word with the leader of this band of Kazon-Ogla Neelix tries to negotiate for his life and the release of his beloved Kes, an Ocampa, by Janeway beaming down two vats of water. The Kazon leader, Jabin explains that the Ocampa live only nine years and are fed and given power by the entity on the alien array and that getting into the Ocampa city is near impossible due to a energy field around the complex. Jabin decides he wants the water replicating technology and tries to take everyone hostage. However Neelix pulls out a concealed phaser-like energy weapon and points it at Jabin's head forcing the Kazon to surrender. Neelix blasts the vats of water and the Voyager crew with Neelix and Kes beam up leaving the Kazon trying to preserve the water flowing out of the vats. Aboard the Voyager everyone is stunned to hear Neelix tell Kes "My dearest - didn't I promise I'd save you?!" Back in the underground city Kim and Torres discover that some Ocampa have left the city and started other colonies and that they may be able to escape through one of the still open tunnels to the surface. A young nurse says she will help them escape. On the Voyager, Neelix wants to leave the system but Kes insists on helping the Starfleet crew find the missing people. An away team beams down to the city where Kes is recognised and they are informed that Kim and Torres maybe at the central clinic. Meanwhile Kim and Torres are slowly making their way to the surface with Kim complaining and Torres finally telling "Starfleet" that she too was at the academy until she and they decided it would be to their mutual benefit that she left. Kes returns from the clinic reporting that neither Kim nor Torres had been seen for a while. However the city suddenly shakes and on contacting the Voyager, Captain Janeway is informed that the array is now firing on the planet, attempting to close off all the passageways to the surface. Tuvok concludes that the Caretaker is dying. The crew realise that if he is dying, how the hell do they get home? Paris finds Torres and Kim but the Voyager informs Janeway that radiation from the firing pattern from the array has made transporter lock-ons impossible within the Caretakers shield. The crew have to get out of the shield. Janeway leads the crew up the shaft that Torres and Kim are climbing. Paris reaches Kim and helps he and Torres to the surface and goes back to save Chakotay as the staircase in the shaft collapses. Kes leads them all to a breach in the barrier and they all beam up with Chakotay complaining that Paris was a fool to try and rescue him. Once aboard the holographic emergency doctor fixes everyone up but it appears that the Kazon are approaching the array in their ships. The Voyager sets course for the array. The cured Torres and fixed up Chakotay return to the Maquis ship and the two ships arrive at the array to find it still firing on the desert planet of the Ocampa. Janeway declares a Red Alert (obviously because she doesn't have a first officer to do it for her) as the lead Kazon ship hails the Voyager. However Jabin, in command of the vessel, informs Janeway that he cannot allow her to beam over to the array and fires on the Voyager. The shield hold and while the Maquis ship holds off the Kazon, Janeway and Tuvok beam over to the array. They materialise in the dimly-lit barn where a fading Caretaker solidifies at Janeway's approach. He informs her that he cannot return them to the Alpha Quadrant and that he has been trying to procreate as the Ocampas' survival is his responsibility. Janeway's com-badge chirps and Kim informs her that an enormous Kazon warship has arrived and is pounding the Voyagers shields. The Voyager sustains a serious hit and Chakotay orders his Maquis crew to beam to the Voyager while he plots a collision course for the Kazon warship. He is beamed out just in the nick of time as both the Maquis and Kazon war vessels explode. Tuvok finds the system to get them back home but it will take him hours to set it up and the Caretaker has set a self destruct mechanism that will blow in minutes! However a large chunk of the destroyed warship hits the array and the self destruct program along with the holographic systems goes off-line. The Caretaker is revealed as a Horta like blob which dies leaving an ore-like lump. Janeway decides to bend the Prime Directive and stop the array falling into the hands of the Ocampas enemies in accordance with the Caretakers wishes. She beams up to the Voyager and orders that a tricolbalt device is readied. She then informs Jabin of her intentions and warns them to put a safe distance between them and the array. Torres protests, but Chakotay tells her that Janeway is making these decisions because she is the Captain! The tricobalt device is launched and the array is destroyed. In a brief message Jabin says "You have made and enemy today" before withdrawing. The Maquis crew are offered field commissions aboard the Voyager with Chakotay taking the place as the Voyager's first officer and Torres taking engineering. Paris is offered a Lieutenant's grade and the posting as helmsman, while Kes and Neelix join the crew as guides. Janeway describes their plight to the newly assembled Maquis/Starfleet but now totally Starfleet crew, and that along the way they will find a way back home, ending with... "Mr. Paris, set a course... for home". Well that is the story but what is it really like? Voyager is very reminicent of Classic Trek and makes no apologies for it. From what I have seen the new series seems to be classic Star Trek brought up to date with some characterisation spice added to taste! The crew initially seem to gel together better than the crew of the Enterprise-D did (but they need to go a long way to match up to the poker game at the end of "All Good Things..."!). As far as the characters are concerned they all work well together. Tom Paris is very much the Will Riker/Jim Kirk character while Janeway is a mixture of the other Captains we have seen and seems VERY similar to Captain Rachel Garrett (NCC-1701-C - ST:TNG "Yesterdays Enterprise"). Tuvok is Spock, just more likely to use his phaser while Torres is very much an extension of the K'Ehleyr character killed off in ST:TNG "Reunion" with a lot of fleshing out. Chakotay is hard to categorise as he doesn't seem to make much of an impact in Caretaker but I am sure the character will grow during the first season of Voyager and beyond. The first impression that Neelix gives is 'Ferengi' but reveals more depth and becomes more of a benevolent imp/guide who wants to please everyone and is quite fascinating. Kes is quite a flat 2 dimensional character to me in the pilot and really exists to me as a plot device for the storyline and I hope they do more with the character later on. The un-named holographic doctor (who will be known as Doctor Zimmerman) only makes a couple of appearances with a couple of extrenuated Bones McCoy lines adapted for a Hologram which likes to be turned off when finished with. Finally Ensign Harry Kim is very much the new officer, straight out of Starfleet, naieve, a little hot headed, but one to watch. Together they form a more initially interesting cast than Deep Space Nine did at this point (saying that "Emissary" wasn't the best way to start) and certainly a lot better than the Next Gen crew where in the first few episodes of TNG's season 1 but the question is, will they develop as well as the characters on TNG and now DS9 (especially now that Sisko has, eek!, emotions!)? Time as ever will tell. The story is, itself, exciting and dramatic, more than can be said of other Star Trek pilots and a more importantly, a lot of fun to watch. this is real Star Trek how it should be. It's more of a mixture of Classic Star Trek's and The Next Generation's best bits and deserves to be bigger than Next Gen was, while Picard and co. scale new heights in Star Trek 8 and onwards (unlike Generations but I would rather not talk about that particular bug-bear until next issue). However I do hope that the Voyager makes it back to Earth in its fifth season approximately so that Kes lives long enough to see the Federation! Along the way there are storylines they can finish such as the "Blue Gills" story (ST:TNG "Conspiracy"). A few things did bug me on technical grounds. Firstly, what the hell is a tricobalt device? I don`t ever remember them!? Are they some sort of anti-Borg weapon or something? Secondly is the major battle sequence toward the end. Now let's get things straight. The Voyager's shields are up. The Maquis shields are up. So how the hell is so much beaming going on?! Janeway and Tuvok to the array and back and the Maquis from their ship to the Voyager! Excuse me, but isn't beaming through a shield a little difficult except if you know the shield harmonic and when the transport window will appear (as in ST:TNG "The Wounded"). The Maquis certainly aren't going to know the harmonics of the Voyager's shields! mind you there are only those major mistakes and they are excusable and help the story along, probably. One thing is for certain though, this is the best Star Trek pilot since "The Cage"! Simon Plumbe ------------ I won't spend any time here describing the plot, even in a brief way as it's already been done in enough detail to keep you all more than happy, and I'd rather not bore you all by going through it all over again! Now I have to be honest when I say that upon hearing about Voyager I was less than enthusiastic. I didn't really warm to the idea of what seemed to be little more than a cross between Star Trek and Lost In Space, and my reservations regarding the entire concept of the Maquis made matters worse. There were so many things missing from the show that has made Star Trek what it is for me as a fan over the last 20 years. For the first time, we were going to be with a ship on a regular basis that WASN'T the Enterprise; the crew wasn't comprised fully of Starfleet officers, and in fact many of those crewmembers disagreed strongly with the way Starfleet operated. To say that I had grave doubts would be an understatement. To top things off, I was wary of many of the characters. B'Elanna Torres appeared to be just a clone of K'Ehleyr albeit in a different post, Doc Zimmerman immediately conjured up images of Red Dwarf's Rimmer and Tuvok... Well, unlike some Star Trek fans I had no problems with the supposedly controversial idea of a black Vulcan (in fact, it had been done before in the TNG episode "Preemptive Strike"), but I felt that the role of Chief Of Security was one that would NEVER be filled by a Vulcan. While I can understand that Vulcans would abhor violence and criminal acts, the role of chief of security requires, as we have seen in the past, a character of action, who has no qualms over getting involved in a combat-oriented situation if necessary. Despite these reservations, I tried to watch "Caretaker" with an open mind and boy was I in for a surprise! Within a few minutes of the teaser starting I was hooked! The Maquis characters appeared to hold a genuine passion and belief in what they were doing. They weren't just seen as being a group of disgruntled Starfleet officers who decided to take action against the Cardassians, they were portrayed sensitively as a group of freedom fighters who honestly felt that the actions of the Cardassians left them with no alternative but to retaliate. As has been said by almost everyone who has seen the show, all of the characters seemed to gel right from the start - just seeing the characters interact with each other, you could almost smell the quality of the show. You can tell that not only did the cast enjoy their roles, but they also seemed to get on very well with each other - a vital element for an ongoing series like Star Trek. The acting from all concerned was superb, especially Kate Mulgrew, causing great waves of relief after the disasterous start the series made with Genevive Bujold. Captain Janeway made a refreshing change from the cool, calm style shown by Picard and Sisko, and instead harked back to the days of Classic Trek - Janeway is certainly a captain in the classic James T Kirk mould, relishing the opportunity to be a hands on commanding officer. Not that the rest of the cast aren't any good - it's just that Janeway stands out from what can only be described as the best Star Trek cast ensemble since 1966. From a technical viewpoint, the sets and special effects must be the best yet that we've seen in Trek. Again, there is a strong Classic Trek feel here - the bridge resembles the Enterprise B bridge from "Generations" (and if I'm not mistaken, it is the same set re- dressed), and wouldn't look out of place in Kirk's era. The effects in the Badlands were simply stunning, and you can see that certainly a vast amount of care and attention must have gone into their creation. However, what made the effects stand out for me were the little details. The transporter effect has now been changed to resemble a cross between the original series transporter and the movie era transporter effects, and looks far nicer that TNG's transporters ever did! Also, the inclusion of many of the background sound effects from the original series make way to enhancing the feel further. However, my favourite of all of the effects has to be when the Voyager enters warp. For those of you who haven't seen it, as the ship is about to enter warp, the two nacelles fold backwards so that they are positioned above the main hull of the ship and THEN the ship flies off at warp speed. It's a gorgeous effect to watch, but even more importantly, it seems to be techincally accurate in line with the Voyager's supposedly greater top speed in comparison with the Enterprise. Without going into too much detail, when a ship travels at warp speed, a warp field "bubble" is created around the ship. Now, if the nacelles are closer to the main body of the ship, then it makes sense that a smaller warp filed is required, or at least less energy is needed to maintain a stable field. Therefore a ship with the same warp core capabilities should be able to reach higher speeds when a smaller warp field is created. In fact if you look back to Star Trek III, the Excelsior's nacelles were far closer to the main hull than those of other Starfleet vessels of the time, so the theory seems true. Finally, the story itself. It may seem strange coming to the story last, but there were so many elements of the show's production, cast ensemble, and the whole feel of everything that the story seems a little overshadowed, but again, the production team have managed to come up trumps with this one. The story has an incredible amount of depth and can certainly be enjoyed on a number of levels. As with previous Trek pilots, if you look below the surface there is a fairly strong moral being told (in this case dealing with the two crews as they try to come to terms with the fact that they MUST work together), but no matter how you view "Caretaker" you'll find something to appeal to all tastes. There is a fair sprinkling of humour, mainly in the scenes involving Neelix (who I'm certain is going to become a VERY popular character), strong drama, plenty of edge-of-the-seat action sequences and, unusually for Star Trek, a helping of romance thrown in for good measure. It all adds up to make a thoroughly enjoyable 90 minutes of viewing, and I must say that I found "Caretaker" to be completely flawless, and I have to say, honestly, that this is the first time I have felt that way towards a Star Trek pilot. Let's just hope they can keep the momentum up. From what I have seen of Voyager, I think I'm going to enjoy this show more than both Deep Space Nine and The Next Generation and I even think it's going to be as good as Classic Trek - I can't give anything a higher recommendation than that. Congratulations are definitely in order to Rick Berman and co. for creating another Star Trek legend.