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The newest product from Paramount's Star
Trek stable began shooting almost as soon as the final tv episode of
The Next Generation finished, with a first showing on US tv
screens in January 1995. The series focused on the crew of a new
starship, USS Voyager, and was set contemporary to TNG
and Deep Space Nine.
Smaller than Enterprise, Voyager, NCC 74656, had a crew of
141 and there were no families aboard. First of the new Intrepid-class
starship, it was capable of Warp 9.975, had only fifteen decks and
bio-neural circuitry. It was far from being flagship material, being
rougher, tougher, and not nearly so large as Enterprise.
In the
90-minute pilot, Voyager was sent on a routine mission to find a
Starfleet agent planted aboard a rebel Maquis ship. The Maquis had been
taking the law into its own hands, both in TNG and Deep Space
Nine, combating Cardassian raids along the Cardassian/Federation
border. Through an unfortunate set of circumstances, both ships are sent
hurtling to the other side of the galaxy, 70,000 light years away, a
distance that will take them approximately 75 years at maximum warp to cover.
Forced to band together to survive, the two crews search for the
technology to get them home. Obviously, this far out, the Federation is
unknown, and the alien races the combined crews meet are completely new
to them.
There was a four month hiatus between
the end of ST:TNG and the beginning of Voyager, so the
programme did not start shooting until autumn 1994, and casting and
final characterisations, kept absolutely secret until shortly before
transmission, were not announced. Voyager's commander was a woman
in her thirties, played by Kate Mulgrew in a style very reminiscent of
Kathleen Hepburn, who evokes a similar sense of brashness as did Kirk in
the original Star Trek, and she is joined by Tom Paris, rogue
officer with a conscience, a half human/half Klingon chief engineer,
B'Elanna Torres, a young black Vulcan tactical and security chief, a
holographic doctor, Asian-American communications officer Harry Kim, who
is fresh out of Starfleet Academy, Native American first officer
Chakotay, and the ship's emergency holographic doctor, who never seems
to gain a name. The first episode also introduced two characters native
to the new region of the galaxy in which Voyager found itself.
The female character, Kes, was from a telepathic species with a much
shorter life span, only nine or so years, so her appreciation of life
was much different from anyone else's. The other was an ugly alien
scavenger, Neelix.
The star originally chosen for the role
of Captain Janeway, after the other front runner, Lindsey Wagner, was
discounted, was Genevieve Bujold, who quit after just a few days, unable
to handle the rigours of the filming schedule. Computer animation was by
Steven Spielberg's Amblin company. The new series was created by the men
responsible for the invention of Deep Space Nine and for
engineering the greater part of The Next Generation, Rick Berman
and Michael Pillar.
Four episodes from the first season were held over to
form the start of an increasingly ridiculous and unbelievable Season 2.
Things did not really improve until Jennifer Lien was replaced by Jeri Ryan
at the start of Season 4. After that the series finally found its feet.
Stardates listed in italics were never actually given on screen but form
part of the studio's documentation concerning those episodes. Shortly
before the programme began screening on Sky One, the station gave viewers
the chance to see behind the scenes in a thirty-minute special entitled Star
Trek: Voyager - The Making of a Legend, shown at 9.20pm on Tuesday 3rd
October 1995.
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Creators and Executive Producers: Michael Pillar,
Rick Berman and Jeri Taylor
Producers: Peter Lauritson and Merri Howard,
with Brannon Braga (Ep 2 Onwards)
Co-Producer: Wendy Neuss
Supervising Producer: David Livingston
Theme: Jerry Goldsmith
Music: Dennis McCarthy, David Bell
and Jay Chattaway
A Paramount Production
172 colour episodes, pilot 90-minutes, rest x 44-minutes
(Sky One/BBC2)
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US Production/UK Screenings:
Season
One: 16 Episodes 1
1994-95/21st October 1995 - 18th February 1996
Season Two: 26 Episodes 2
1995-96/25th February 1996 - 17th March 1997
Season
Three: 26 Episodes
1996-97/24th March - 22nd September 1997
Season
Four: 26 Episodes
1997-98/20th April - 12th October 1998
Season
Five: 26 Episodes
1998-99/26th April - 15th September 1999
Season
Six: 26 Episodes
1999-00/1st May - 20th November 2001 3
Season Seven:
26 Episodes 4
2000-01/27th November 2001 - 27th August 2002
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