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Caretaker

Production Number: 721 (40841-101 and 102)
Original air date: 1/16/95

Written by: Michael Piller & Jeri Taylor (Teleplay);
Rick Berman & Michael Piller & Jeri Taylor (Story)
Directed by: Winrich Kolbe

The Starship USS Voyager, captained by renowned Starfleet commander Kathryn Janeway (Kate Mulgrew), is sent on a mission to rescue a renegade Maquis ship from "The Badlands", a dangerous region of space. An inexplicable force transports both ships to a distant, uncharted region of space. After the Maquis ship is destroyed, the two different crews must learn to work together in order to find their way home.

Caretaker has won an Emmy:

Outstanding Individual Achievement [OIA] in Special Visual Effects

And was nominated for others:

OIA in Costume Design for a Series
OIA in Hairstyling for a Series
OIA in Music Compositon for a Series (Dramatic Underscore)

Starring:

Captain Kathryn Janeway ....... Kate Mulgrew
Chakotay ...................... Robert Beltran
B'Ellana Torres ............... Roxann Biggs-Dawson
Kes ........................... Jennifer Lien
Lt. Tom Paris ................. Robert Duncan McNeill
Doc Zimmerman ................. Robert Picardo
Neelix ........................ Ethan Phillips
Tuvok ......................... Tim Russ
Harry Kim ..................... Garrett Wang

Guest Stars:

Josh Clark as Lt. Carey
Alicia Coppola as Lt. Stadi
Bruce French as the Ocampa Doctor
Stan Ivar as Mark
Scott Jaeck as Cavit
Eric David Johnson as Daggin
Basil Langton as the Banjo Man
Scott MacDonald as Rollins
Jeff McCarthy as the Human Doctor
Gavan O'Herlihy as Jabin
Jennifer Parsons as the Ocampa Nurse
Angela Paton as Aunt Adah
Richard Poe as Gul Evek
Keely Sims as the Farmer's Daughter
David Selburg as Toscat
Armin Shimerman as Quark
Majel Barrett as the Computer Voice

Spellings: "Talaxian", "Ocampa", "Kazon Ogla", "Maquis"

Notes:

This was the first episode to appear on the United Paramount Network (UPN) on January 16, 1995. Areas without a UPN station showed the episode later in the week.
Scott Jaeck, the First Officer, was also the Ressican administrator in TNG's The Inner Light".
Scott MacDonald, who played Rollins here, was also Tosk in DS9's "Captive Pursuit" and N'Vek in TNG's "Face of the Enemy".
Bruce French, the Ocampa doctor, also played Sabin in TNG's "The Drumhead".
David Selburg, who played Toscat, was also Lit-Historian Whalen in TNG's first season episode, "The Big Goodbye" and Dr. Syrus in "Frame of Mind".
Scenes from "Caretaker" are re-shown as an introduction to the Second Season episode, "Cold Fire". Another scene was re-done in "Projections", and Kes experienced a different version of her meeting with Captain Janeway at the end in "Before and After".

The Stars Speak:

[[8/29]] Roxann Dawson:
Did you get a chance to work with Genevieve Bujold before she left?
(laughs) Everybody is still asking about it. Did I get a chance to work with Genevieve Bujold. Um, I'll answer that first. No, I didn't, but it was a very frightening period of time because I got the call at home that suddenly production was shutting down. I wasn't there the day... Do you know that Genevieve Bujold was the original captain that they hired? And it didn't work out and then she left and they found Kate. But we were basically a crew without a captain for a while and we didn't know what they were going to do and I didn't know if I had a job at that point. I didn't know if they were going to continue with the series, so, it was... In fact, at that time they still were... shortly before Genevieve came in, they were still toying with whether they were going to have a man or a female captain. They were going back and forth with that quite a bit. And at one point, even though I was one of the first people cast, they asked, they said, "Have you ever played an Indian before? Do you have Indian blood or..." I said, "No, no, not really." Because they were thinking that if they went with a man captain they might go with me as Chakotay in the role of Chakotay. You know, so they were really toying with stuff in those early stages. It's funny how it all worked out.
[[8/29]] Roxann Dawson:
Why don't they ever use seatbelts? (laughter and smattering of applause) Do you know our shaking stories? When we first got these jobs, we all received a video tape at home, okay? We had shot maybe two days of the very first episode ever on "Voyager". We received a tape at home and it shows a tape of "Deep Space 9" and they're all in this like terrible thing and they're all like shaking and everything. It says, "This is the correct way to shake." Then it shows our first two days of shooting. We're like this (demonstrates) "This is the wrong way to shake." And there's the detailed form that tells us how we should loosen the knees, do this... All this stuff and I'm saying, "Is this a joke?" We have to learn... take shaking classes. (laughter) So, for the first week or so, through the entire pilot, I'm walking around at home and I'll be walking on the stairs or be sitting at the table with my husband and all of a sudden he'll go, "Shake!" And I go like this (demonstrates again!) And you have to have a shake from one to ten. They're yelling "One" it's like this. You're shaking ten you're all over the place. And it's like... I would just practice at home constantly. We must have looked like complete idiots. All of a sudden my husband goes, "Shake!" And I'm (demonstrates, yet again!) (Honestly, this is hard to describe. Use your imagination!) But how did I get to shaking? What was the question?
Seatbelts.
Oh, seatbelts! Oh, very good. So, basically, if we had seatbelts, all those shaking lesson would be for naught! (laughter) So, we can't have seatbelts. We can't.

It's the 24^th Century, and a renegade band of freedom fighters known as the Maquis are operating outside of Federation guidelines. When one of their ships gets stranded in an area of space known as "The Badlands," the Federation decides to send the Starship USS Voyager, captained by Kathryn Janeway (Kate Mulgrew), to its rescue. Upon arriving in "The Badlands," both the Maquis vessel and Voyager are swept up in a bizarre phenomenon that catapults them 70,000 light years away to a previously uncharted area of space.

The two crews must band together to escape the clutches of an alien force they come to know as "The Caretaker." Along the way, the Maquis ship is destroyed, and its crew must board Voyager to survive. These two crews encounter several new alien lifeforms, and ultimately invite two--Neelix (Ethan Phillips) and Kes (Jennifer Lien)--to join them aboard the ship. Together, this disparate group of people must work together to find their way back home.