By Steve Krutzler / 00:01, 13 February 2004 / Reviews - Products

STAR TREK: VOYAGER Complete First Season
DVD

Price: $90
Pub Date: February 2004

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Set a course for home. Well, at least, now we can. It won't be easy for everyone, but taking a look back at STAR TREK: VOYAGER, debuting on DVD this month, could be good medicine for many STAR TREK fans.

VOYAGER premiered on January 16th, 1995 to the largest television audience ever in franchise history. The pilot episode "Caretaker" presented an interesting crew comprised of Starfleet and renegade characters, a strong female captain, and the unique premise of stranding them in a far corner of the galaxy. The beginning was auspicious in more ways than one and what followed was a series that divided fans and critics alike over its tumultuous seven years.

We now have an opportunity to evaluate the series from a fresh perspective. Although the love fest I experienced with last year's DEEP SPACE NINE is unlikely to recur, I look forward to seeing VOYAGER from start to finish and examining both the myth and the reality of the fourth STAR TREK series. With "Caretaker" leading the way, it isn't difficult to be hopeful once again.

The pilot accomplishes the tough task of inventing a new perspective for the TREK universe. Although set on a Starfleet vessel, the make-up of the crew distinguishes VOYAGER from TREK's other three starship-shows. The influence of DEEP SPACE NINE's conflicted characters can be seen in a crew constructed of Starfleet pros and renegade Maquis operatives, striking a compelling balance between the perfection of Roddenberry's TNG crew and the imperfection of DS9's denizens. Shoving the crew 70,000 light years to an unexplored quadrant of space also means that we're not going to get the same kind of stories we're used to--ostensibly. We're going to see a crew struggling for their very survival despite advanced technology and one of those famed Starfleet captains, as enlightened in the art of war as in diplomacy, philosophy, and science. For at least one season, that's exactly what we got.

"Caretaker" blends the best of DS9-style character work with a TOS-like sci-fi adventure. In fact, the pilots of all three 24th century-era TREKs involve strange, ethereal, alien life forms, and it's a great way to set the stage for a sci-fi series while paying homage to the franchise's roots. The moral dilemma that forces Janeway to strand the crew in the Delta Quadrant puts the kind of intellectual debate that STAR TREK is famous for at the very heart of the series while at the same time giving Janeway a kind of onus unlike any other captain we've seen before. There are several break-out characters in this first episode, from Janeway herself, firmly under the command of Kate Mulgrew; to Tom Paris, who gets many of the best lines; to Tuvok, who is the rightful green-blooded successor to Spock; and Robert Picardo's The Doctor, right up there with Quark as one of the franchise's best-conceived characters.

Harry Kim is as green as Wesley Crusher but with a firm scientific background and a surprisingly strong performance from Garrett Wang, he's never nearly as annoying. Torres is a logical extrapolation of the Spock formula grafted onto Worf, one of fandom's most loved characters, and Roxann Dawson is no slouch, either. You can't even bring yourself to despise Robert Beltran's Chakotay in this first season set. In fact, he's one of the most interesting to watch in these first 15 episodes. Neelix and Kes are welcome deviations from the "magnificent seven" and the former's vital function in this first season mitigates the fatigue you probably felt for his character in the last few years.

The first 15 episodes are startlingly good. There, I said it. If STAR TREK: VOYAGER went wrong (and I'm not willing to make that judgment definitively until I've reviewed all seven seasons again), then most of it didn't happen here. OK, I'm going out on a limb here considering I only had time (and the sanity) to watch 7 of the 15 for this review. But in the bunch, only one stood out as a harbinger of the flaws to come. One of the biggest criticisms about VOYAGER has always been an over reliance on fictitious science, aka "technobabble." NEXT GENERATION began the tradition of triallic waves, tachyon emissions, and anti-time time-traveling tongue-twisters, but arguably VOYAGER perfected the technobabble script to high art. But season one offers a few explanations.

First of all, remember all the times I complained that Janeway had no use for a science officer because she seemed well-versed in all these strange phenomena? If I had watched closer (or had a better memory) I'd have realized that Janeway was indeed a science officer on Admiral Paris's former ship, so as STAR TREK's first captain to rise through the blue-uniform ranks (yes, I know Spock was eventually promoted to Captain), it suddenly doesn't seem so out of place for Janeway to be running her own analyses all the time. In fact, it's somewhat economical because we doesn't always have to stand there with that dumbfounded "in English, please" look on her face that even Kirk, Picard, and Sisko too often displayed.

Secondly, Janeway makes clear in "Caretaker" that the primary mission of the ship will be to find a way home that takes less than 75 years. I believe she even directly refers to spatial anomalies. So in effect, we shouldn't be so surprised that many VOYAGER episodes had as their domain the fringe hypotheses of astrophysicists or the weird meanderings of science enthusiasts. Simply put, the whole point of the show was to find a way home, and that meant stopping for every wormhole, subspace distortion, Borg conduit, and every other whachamacallit that crossed their path. This first set is full of episode titles that defy understanding (and perhaps even pronunciation): "Parallax," "Cathexis," "State of Flux," "Emanations."

But it's not always bad. In fact, let's remember that STAR TREK has always labored to imbue its storytelling with a level of scientific veracity. As Brannon Braga once remarked, "on STAR TREK, we can't have a ghost because we have to explain why there is a ghost." The problem arrives when technobabble overwhelms the story and becomes the story; when [usually made-up] technology conveniently removes agency from the characters. But VOYAGER didn't start out this way, and "Parallax" provides a paradigm for a "good" way to write a technobabble story.

VOYAGER is caught in the event horizon of a black hole-like object, causing (apparently) effect to precede cause and trapping to ship as it responds to its own distress signal. OK, the first sign of a good tech story is when you say to yourself, "hey, that's pretty cool" rather than "hey, this is stupid." I don't hold a degree in quantum mechanics, but the logic works for me and the setup is intriguing (Braga penned this episode, and he also penned TNG's "Cause and Effect"). But what makes the story successful beyond the mere novelty and in a way that the TNG classic could never have been, is that it's not about the dilemma so much as it is about the characters. As the second episode of the series, a crucial point to be resolved was the promotion of Maquis B'Elanna Torres to Chief Engineer. Chakotay champions her but Janeway is hesitant. The story is essentially about Janeway and Torres bonding in pursuit of the solution, and it works very well. The final touch is when the technobabble comes into play, creating a double Voyager for the two to choose between when returning in a shuttle craft. Trust comes into play here, and lucky for us, the writers made the right choice with this script.

As excited as "Parallax" makes you for a series that will blend technobabble with relevant "ideas," an episode like "Cathexis" is a dangerous warning sign of things to come. Surprise, this is an example of how NOT to do a technobabble episode. Channeling the infamous "Spock's Brain," Chakotay is diagnosed as brain-dead ("His brain is dead!") while the ship fights off a non-corporeal body-snatcher. Yeah, exactly. It's not so much that we know the crazy "intruder" point of view shot is Chakotay's spirit flying around the ship the moment Torres unveils his Indian spirit wheel over the body; I mean, after all, the subject of the out-of-body experience is a well-trodden cultural myth and if VOYAGER was the first STAR TREK series you'd ever seen, it's a competent and interesting episode.

The problem is, of course, that the idea has been done so many times that it's just tired and what's worse--there's really no reason that VOY is redoing it. The notion that we're somehow getting an insight into Chakotay's heritage is just lip service. In the end, the script's lack of relevance just magnifies gaps in logic, such as why the alien entity is suddenly visible when it leaves the bodies of crewmembers in the climactic bridge scene; the fact that suddenly the Doc knows how to reintegrate Chakotay's "soul" with his brain after the threat has passed; or the fact that Chakotay has to draw a map using stones on the wheel rather than just using Neelix's body to call Janeway and give her directions.

But enough of that. The truth is that season one actually has some very good material on it. Take "Eye of the Needle," where communication with a Romulan brings momentary hope for the stranded crew, only to find out in a classic sci-fi twist that he's from the past--and died before delivering the crew's messages for home. "Prime Factors" starts out innocent enough with a Risian-like culture of pleasure-seeking aliens who invoke their own Prime Directive when Janeway asks for the use of space-folding propulsion technology. This is an episode that speaks directly to the STAR TREK philosophy and Tuvok's choice is surprising and compelling, definitely a tale worthy of the franchise's very best traditions. There's also "State of Flux," a very DS9-like arc episode revealing Seksa to be a Cardassian spy and doing something that couldn't be done on any other TREK. Again, we have an episode specifically dealing with Voyager's unique circumstance--how far are they willing to go to get home?

"Learning Curve," the de facto season finale (since the last few eps were held over as part of season two, even through produced as part of season one), is another great example of a VOYAGER-specific story. Here, we get the best balance of technobabble with real drama. When the bio-nerual gelpacks fall ill with a viral infection, it brings to light startling discipline problems with several Maquis crewmembers. Tuvok has to give them a crash course in Starfleet Academy and they aren't exactly up for it. There are quite a few rewarding moments in this story, such as when Chakotay punches out a whining member of the former Maquis to remind him that their old ways aren't going to work out here in the Delta Quadrant. Beltran's reaction after the guy stands back up--slapping his cheek like an insolent child--is priceless. The techno-story makes use of Voyager's unique bio-neural design and in a nod to clever thinking, both the cause and solution to the problem are surprisingly down to Earth (Neelix's cheese-making provides a bacterial carrier for a virus to infect the packs, and the Doc prescribes giving the ship a fever to remedy them). It's all tied up in a neat little character package as Tuvok takes Neelix's advice and makes like a stem--bending the rules to earn the respect of his Maquis trainees.

This is the kind of writing that makes season one a pleasure to reexamine and well worth the hard-earned money of any self-respecting STAR TREK fan.

Technobabble of a Different Kind

My TV speakers are blown and the screen is nothing to cheer about. Consequently, I'm happy to be able to see the things at all, let alone be able to judge the technical aspects of the transfers or surround sound. The audio sounds a hell of a lot better on my computer speakers with subwoofer, though. I also noticed no errors in the episodes and features sampled, and they may have finally figured out how to get the title sequence properly chaptered on all the episodes to facilitate easy skipping.

Packaging and Menus

The most disappointing thing about the VOY season one set isn't the episodes--as many vocal fans would probably expect. Rather, it's the way they're presented. Let me just say that I have nothing against color, but the transparent neon orange case doesn't do it for me; and neither do the two outer plastic pieces you have to remove to get to the discs. How many times before those things crack and you just throw them away all together? The package front and back cover art is adequate, with a nice shot of Voyager and a cool astronomical effect. But the discs themselves are utterly naked--don't misplace them or you're liable to confuse them for the unlabelled CD-Rs you've probably got lying around.

The menus are also wholly unimpressive. The music doesn't kick until after the menus have fully assembled and they're not very interesting: just a couple shots of Voyager flying around with a nebula in the background. The quadricular design of the menus again lacks the handy clip reels that sparkled on the TNG sets, and if you're anything like me, most of the episode titles alone aren't much help. Each quad holds a different view of the starship--whoop-dee-doo. You'd really expect a better effort with this caliber of product.

The Extras

So this is what you've all been waiting for. Not my daring willingness to forgive and forget the blasphemous VOYAGER's missteps from a revisionist perspective. But what did they put on here to compensate us for only 15 lousy episodes?!

BRAVING THE UNKNOWN is the writers' featurette. Rick Berman, Michael Piller, and Jeri Taylor all ponder the development of the show. Making history with the first female captain, coming up with something new in the TREK universe. Berman and Piller are new, from a few months ago, while Taylor lives in archival footage only. There's a lot of discussion in general about creating the show but the real let down is nothing from the likes of Brannon Braga or Joe Menosky, whose voices were pretty strong throughout most of the series run. There's also no detailed talk about season one episodes beyond the pilot and even so, most of the discussion surrounds the series development as a whole. A competent effort.

TIME CAPSULE is a pretty impressive program with Kate Mulgrew talking in archival as well as new interview footage about Janeway. She goes from auditions (including rare audition footage) to the end and even fits in a plug for her TEA AT FIVE play. Mulgrew has often been lambasted for her character, and she probably bore a lot of the criticism for things out of her control--like the writing. Altough she does talk about getting some modicum of creative input after the first couple of seasons. Mulgrew is probably the most grateful actor to ever play a STAR TREK captain, going as far as to say that she's ready to play Janeway again as soon as the call comes. As ingratiating as she is about the experience, why should anyone hold her personally in disdain?

THE FIRST CAPTAIN: BUJOLD is the featurette many hardcore fans want to see--the Janeway that could have been. All I can say is, thank goodness she wasn't. There's a lot of footage here, entire scenes from the pilot episode, and Bujold is absolutely horrible on just about every level. I for one am glad we didn't have to listen to her deep, droning delivery for seven years. Mulgrew is snappy and decisive by comparison. Berman tip-toes around the reasons for her departure but I think it's easy enough to see it for ourselves: she just plain sucked.

CAST REFLECTIONS aren't really reflections. Well, yes they are, but they're just culled from series-ending circa 2001 interviews. Only Armin Shimerman gets more recent minutes to express his appreciation for being written in to the series pilot. Everyone gets in there, though.

ON LOCATION WITH THE KAZON is just five minutes of footage from the location shooting of the pilot episode that probably should've been part of the first featurette, or the next one. RED ALERT: VISUAL EFFECTS is probably one of the best visual effects features on any of these TREK sets so far. At ten minutes, it goes in-depth on several sequences in the pilot and other episodes. There's a lot of footage of the Voyager model and other ship models, as well as segments on explosions and other pyrotechnic-laden shots. One of the interesting things, for instance, is that the models for all the various ships -- Voyager, shuttle, Kazon -- weren't built to scale and the crew had to use a bit of ingenuity to pull off the scaling we see on screen.

LAUNCHING VOYAGER ON THE WEB is a great archival look at one of the first official online ventures for the franchise. It's also somewhat of an advertisement for the official web site, but designer Marc Wade shows us the original VOYAGER launch site and describes the way it was a pioneering effort for the Internet of 1995. REAL SCIENCE WITH ANDRE BORMANIS is particularly appropriate since, as previously mentioned, VOYAGER had lot of run-ins with strange astronomical phenomena. Bormanis was science consultant all throughout the series (and now a writer on ENTERPRISE) and he gives some very useful insights into the way fact blends with fiction to makr the show both intellectually interesting and dramatically effective.

Photo gallery--does anyone really care? Ironically, if they didn't include this, we'd be screaming bloody murder. But how many of us really look at it and how many of us could really care if it was on there?

But wait! There's more. As with the DS9 sets, there are a few extra little trinkets on here. As far as I can tell, there are only four, but following in the tradition of the SECTION 31 HIDDEN FILES, they contain some of the more interesting anecdotes about specific scenes or episodes. Braga finally pops up to comment on the beginning of Janeway's overall character arc in "Phage", her maternal relationship to the crew. Piller reveals that the studio actually insisted on Mulgrew's "bun" hairstyle after significant portions had been filmed with it down. Vaughn Armstrong comments on guesting in "Eye of the Needle" and Mulgrew talks in 1994 about an important scene in "Caretaker."

Final Thoughts

Alas, VOYAGER doesn't really suck. Well, at least not yet it doesn't. There's plenty of solid work in this first season and there's really no reason not to own it if you're a fan. Besides, now that we've finished DS9 we're in desperate need of content, and most of the episodes play as if you've never seen them before (unless you're some kind of VOY fanatic who's seen every episode ten times, doubtful considering the show hasn't been rerun as much as TNG). The bonus materials are on par with the DS9 sets, nothing more, nothing less. Although there are a few more OF them this time around.

Go ahead, indulge in this guilty pleasure. I won't tell if you don't.