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bulldogtrekker
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PostPosted: Fri Jan 16, 2015 9:15 pm    Post subject: Star Trek Voyager Thread Reply with quote

Star Trek Voyager Thread- Why Star Trek: Voyager Meant The World To Me
by Katharine Trendacosta, I09



Twenty years ago today, Star Trek: Voyager premiered. Of the five live-action Star Trek series, Voyager is not the best. If you were ranking them, Voyager and Enterprise would probably duke it out for last place. But none of that matters, because Star Trek: Voyager meant everything to me as a child.

I didn't actually see Voyager premiere twenty years ago. I was too young to have found it on my own. Hell, I was young enough that I'd only just started reading chapter books. It was halfway through the series, in season four, that I became an active watcher.

I have an insanely vivid memory of the first time I got into Star Trek as a child. We had gone over to my grandparents' house for dinner, and I had escaped the adults by going into the guest room and watching whatever I could get on the old television in there. And what I caught were some reruns of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine and Voyager. And I can tell you exactly why it wasn't Deep Space Nine that caught my attention: The episode was "Inquisition," which has a plot involving the Dominion War, Section 31, and Julian Bashir's background. You cannot start watching a show with that episode. Especially when you're ten.

Voyager, on the other hand, showed me an episode that didn't require that much background information. It was brighter and more episodic. And it had a female captain.



It is impossible to overstate how important it was for me to see that. I wanted to be Captain Janeway more than I've ever wanted to be any character. It was, hilariously enough considering this was a show that takes place in the future on a spaceship, the most attainable position of female leadership I'd ever seen.

I think it was because Star Trek never made a point in the show, I know it was mentioned in the press around the show but, again, I was ten, of her gender. Yes, it was briefly alluded to in the pilot, but they didn't dwell endlessly on it. Why would it? This was Star Trek at its most optimistic. Anyone good enough could be a Starfleet captain. Anyone smart enough. You didn't need to be a supermodel or an action hero to climb through the ranks. I loved Star Wars, but there is a strong element in both the original trilogy and a lot of the EU books of people being born into their abilities and roles. That was noticeably absent in Voyager. Star Trek, in all its incarnations, is not a "chosen one" narrative.

And Kathryn Janeway was a scientist, remember? We'd always been told that Starfleet wasn't a military organization, but its structure made that kind of hard to believe. Our main captains had always been strategy-obsessed. Even if Picard had an interest in archeology, what he was famous for was a tactical maneuver. I couldn't see myself in that kind of role, but a scientist? Yes. .....



As a latecomer in the age before DVRs, streaming, and even box-set DVDs, each night was spent with a TV Guide looking up the syndication airings of Star Trek episodes and setting the tape recorder. Episodes I liked were kept on tape. In my childhood bedroom there's probably still dozens of VHS tapes, labeled with every episode I'd recorded and saved. I was anxious to see everything I'd missed. As a Janeway/Chakotay shipper, the episode "Resolutions" was my white whale. I wanted to see it more than anything. Funny that it kind of makes me cringe to watch now......



Read more at this link:
http://io9.com/why-star-trek-voyager-meant-the-world-to-me-1679736359



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PostPosted: Sun Jan 18, 2015 1:11 pm    Post subject: 20 Years Ago Today... Voyager Debuted With "Caretaker&a Reply with quote

20 Years Ago Today- Voyager Debuted With "Caretaker"
StarTrek.com Staff


It was 20 years ago today -- January 16, 1995 -- that Star Trek: Voyager premiered with the two-hour pilot, "Caretaker." The feature-length presentation established the central storyline, with the U.S.S. Voyager thrown to the other side of the universe (a/k/a the Delta Quadrant), 70,000 light years from home, and introduced the primary characters: Captain Janeway, Chakotay, Tuvok, B'Elanna Torres, Tom Paris, Neelix, Harry Kim and Kes; Seven of Nine would come along much later. Here are some facts and trivia you might not have know about the "Caretaker" pilot:



-- Conversations (in the form of notes) about Voyager, then untitled, started in August of 1993, as executive producers and co-creators Rick Berman, Michael Piller and Jeri Taylor bandied about ideas.

-- Robert Beltran, as Chakotay, uttered the very first line of dialogue: "Damage report!"

-- In those initial notes, the Tom Paris character was named Locarno... the character Robert Duncan McNeill had played on The Next Generation.

-- James Conway, a frequent and respected TNG director, was initially asked to direct "Caretaker," but he was not available. Thus, the late Rick Kolbe landed the job.

-- Day one of production was September 6, 1994. Genevieve Bujold shot her first scene as Janeway on September 8, but beamed off the bridge for good soon after. Kate Mulgrew, who replaced Bujold (after having nearly won the role outright during an exhaustive search process), shot her first scene on September 19.



-- Janeway drank coffee with... creamer. She never did that again.

-- Guest stars included Armin Shimerman and Mark Allen Shepherd, playing their respective Deep Space Nine characters, Quark and Morn. And then there was Richard Poe, who played the Cardassian, Gul Evek, whom he'd previously played on both DS9 and TNG.

- Basil Langton, who played the Caretaker, passed away on May 29, 2003 at the age of 91.

-- Robert Picardo, talking to StarTrek.com a couple of years ago, remembered where he was when "Caretaker" debuted: "They flew Ethan Phillips and me to New York City and we were there the night it premiered. That's the night I met Sumner Redstone. The pilot must have screened at a theater or in a screening room, and I remember a big party somewhere in Times Square, but what I remember most about the night was that they ran a promo or something on the Jumbotron in Times Square. That was pretty cool, seeming my face on the Jumbotron. How often does that happen? It was all to celebrate the launching of the United Paramount Network (UPN), and not just the show, but Voyager was originally the cornerstone of UPN's programming. So, that whole night was pretty exciting and it doesn't seem that long ago."

-- Rick Berman, discussing his feelings about Voyager with StarTrek.com in 2011, comment as follows: "It was difficult. We had just ended TNG and DS9 was in its third year, and they immediately wanted another show to take the place of TNG. We asked them to wait a couple of years. They said, 'We have all these time slots available. We don't want to lose them.' They felt very strongly about a new series. The fact that TNG, a ship-based show, was going off the air and that we had a space station-based show on the air, meant that the obvious thing to do was create a new ship, which we did with the Voyager. We came up with a premise that, I think, was fresh or that certainly was different. We didn't just want to have another ship, give it the name Voyager as opposed to Enterprise, and fill it with a nice balance of humans and aliens. This was a show that I asked Jeri Taylor to join Michael (Piller) and me in creating. The whole idea of being thrust to a far-off part of the galaxy and being out of touch with Starfleet, out of touch with instructions and rules, in a sense, and having to join together with Maquis that we run into in the pilot episode, the whole of idea of getting back at any cost, question mark; it shouldn't be at any cost, I think, allowed us to do some new stuff, which was important. We were all aware that these things could get stale. A lot of the writers were the same writers and a lot of the writers were new writers, but we didn't want to do TNG again."

link:
http://startrek.com/article/20-years-ago-today-voyager-debuted-with-caretaker


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bulldogtrekker
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PostPosted: Wed May 27, 2015 7:06 pm    Post subject: Star Trek: Voyager Guide Reply with quote

Star Trek: Voyager Guide
Graeme McMillan, WIRED

{BDT: In my opinion, Voyager had the highest ratio of good episodes over 7 years.I am a fan of Next Gen seasons 3-7.}



If space was the final frontier, the thinking behind Star Trek: Voyager goes, then a wholly-unexplored region of space must be the most final-est frontier of all.

That's why the crew of the eponymous starship end up trapped on the other side of existence from their home for the seven-year run of the third Star Trek series from the franchise's 1980s/1990s heyday, and although the franchise was beginning to look a little tired by this point, there was still a lot of juice left in those dilithium crystals when it counted.

Voyager took some important steps forward for Trek, not least of which was bringing a female captain onboard the mission but it's not the most highly-regarded of Treks by fans. If that suspicion has kept you away from the show until now, then it's clearly time to take the plunge. Here's a how-to join the voyage for yourself.
Star Trek: Voyager Number of Seasons: 7 (172 episodes)

Time Requirements: Consider yourself exiled in the Delta Quadrant for the next three months, making your way back to civilization at a rate of two episodes per day (three on weekends).

Where to Get Your Fix: Netflix, Amazon Prime, Google Play, iTunes, CBS.com

Best Character to Follow:.....


Seasons/Episodes You Can Skip:.....

Voyager is actually a relatively consistent series in terms of quality, especially compared with something like Star Trek: The Next Generation. The problem is the series as a whole is less exciting overall. As a result, it's not as if there are a number of episodes or seasons to avoid altogether; if you make it through the pilot and are into it, you're pretty much set for the long haul. With the exception of the following, of course......

Why You Should Binge:.....

Voyager holds a strange place in the Star Trek franchise, being a series that simultaneously goes furthest in exploring the new frontiers that Star Trek should be visiting; they're on the other side of the universe, cut adrift from Starfleet! while also feeling like the most conservative and safe of all the series to date. Despite that confusion, those that love Star Trek will find a lot to enjoy in Voyager, not least of which is the show's increasing weirdness in the third and fourth seasons as it starts to play with audience expectations and starts to do things that you just know aren't going to last. When Voyager played against its inherent safeness, fun things happened.


YouTube video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Erb5DdMW4jU

LINK for full story:
http://www.wired.com/2015/05/binge-guide-star-trek-voyager


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Zackuth
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PostPosted: Sun Aug 30, 2015 9:24 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

I wanted to like Voyager but couldn't. It seemed as though Voyager was plagued with missed opportunities. Bulldogtrekker mentioned the two-part Year of Hell episodes. If they would have ended it differently, there would have been plot ideas for the rest of the season and into the next. The Vidiians were never really explored which could have had some interesting developments in the series. By the 4th season, I had lost interest in Voyager and the Year of Hell really ended my watching it. I did watch the final episode and I was not impressed with it.
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Custer
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PostPosted: Mon Aug 31, 2015 7:39 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

The series certainly had its moments; such as a group of bewildered, lost alien children who, we finally discovered, were actually extremely old people who had regressed, and would soon disappear.

Didn't one of our main heroes die in one episode? However, they'd encountered a mirror-image Voyager, and while that ship got destroyed, they managed to save that vessel's Harry Kim, so he quickly settled in as a replacement, and the fact that he wasn't the original version was, tactfully, never mentioned again...
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Pow
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PostPosted: Mon Aug 31, 2015 12:23 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

I'm a fan of Voyager.

Like any show with a long run (7-seasons) it had its weak episodes but so did the original ST series. Including almost all of the third season.

Kate Mulgrew is a terrific actress & did a fantastic job as Janeway.
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PostPosted: Tue Sep 08, 2015 4:25 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

As a continuing viewer of The Walking Dead series, I can't help but notice its similarity in theme to various Gene Roddenberry productions. In TWD the main characters are wandering around looking for refuge from the zombies and encountering pockets of other survivors along the way. Each "civilization" they encounter has established itself in some unique way.

After comparing TWD with ST:TOS, ST:TNG, and Genesis II, I settled on ST:Voyager as being closest. The other Star Trek series, as well as GII, depict the regulars embarking from an established base to explore the neighborhood and seek out "new civilizations", along with undertaking other assignments in the mix. But Voyager's crew is lost and trying to make their way back home. They just happen to bump into other life on that journey, much like TWD regulars.

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PostPosted: Sun Sep 11, 2016 1:49 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

________________________________

While watching Voyager episodes and chatting on Facebook with Bulldogtrekker (a devoted Star Trak fan like me) we started discussing the Doctor's holocam.






Bulldogtrekker did some research while we were watching the episode, and he found out that the holocam was a highly modified remote control unit from an R/C car.





The prop people did a great job of jazzing up the R/C controller and making it look like a convincing 24th Century device.



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PostPosted: Sun Sep 18, 2016 8:28 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

DESIGNING VOYAGER'S BRIDGE
Forgotten Trek

The interior sets for Star Trek: Voyager were erected in their place on Stages 8 and 9 at Paramount -- literally in their place, for the bridge set occupied exactly the same spot as the Star Trek: The Next Generation set. Similarly the other standing sets of Voyager's interiors occupied the same relative spaces, including orientation on the stage, as their predecessors.

Richard James, production designer on Star Trek: Voyager, kept to a particular design concept used for sets on previous Star Trek shows. Typical TV production sets have only three sides; rarely will they have a fourth wall to make it into an enclosed room and the camera shoots from where the missing wall would normally be. But on Star Trek, most standing sets are six sided sets: four walls, a fully detailed floor and a fully detailed ceiling. The extra work involved in construction and sorting out the accompanying logistics pays dividends in that the set gives the TV viewer a far stronger sense of the room being real no matter what angle the camera shoots from, even through a window, there is always a sense of completeness. Sets are designed to have wild walls, that is, walls which can be removed so that the camera can be positioned there.

Traditionally the design of all Star Trek interior sets has begun with the bridge, for it is the focal point of the action in an episode, being the show's actual as well as symbolic command center. After decades of Star Trek, the bridge of a Starfleet vessel is an instantly familiar place to almost any TV viewer in the world. The design which Richard James needed to produce would be critiqued or approved at the highest level, by Rick Berman, the executive producer and the man to whom Gene Roddenberry had passed the burden of the Star Trek inheritance. Berman's continuing demand for quality was legendary and very reactive. For his first meeting with the show's creators and producers, Richard James decided to push the boundaries of everything that had gone before. Did the bridge have to be dominated by a single large viewscreen? Could command functions be decentralized? Was it time to break the traditional bridge mould?

Richard James asked for concept sketches for Voyager's bridge from set designers, illustrators and scenic artists including Louise Dorton, Gary Speckman, Doug Drexler, John Chichester and Jim Martin. Because Voyager would be smaller, sleeker and faster than the Enterprise-D, Richard James asked for designs that were more like a military ship. His basic instructions were to look at everything. No concept is too far out.

I just wanted to feel like we'd explored all avenues by the time we came up with the finished design. I wanted to feel a certain satisfaction that other avenues had been explored. We arrived at the look -- we have for certain reasons, not just because it was the only thing we considered, which it wasn't. We went through the gamut of ideas and concepts.

Putting aside all preconceptions, Richard James examined exhaustively the dramatic requirements and technological underpinnings of the Star Trek bridge.

However, the further afield he went, the more he confirmed that the designs just weren't Star Trek and thereby rediscovered the strengths of the basic template laid out by Matt Jefferies for The Original Series nearly thirty years earlier. For example, that a TV audience still relates to the main bridge viewscreen like a car windscreen, therefore the viewscreen has to be mounted on the chosen wall dead center when aligned horizontally and it will be the point of reference toward which all bridge personnel face. It was realized that it was important to do this on Star Trek: Voyager even though, technically speaking, Voyager's bridge did not need a back and front.

The concept sketches which Richard James liked best -- a bridge obviously different and more advanced in appearance and more innovative -- were the ones that Rick Berman approved. The bridge was to have a layered look, starting from the back of the room and then tiered downwards in three levels to the conn position in front of the main viewscreen and all main officers facing the viewscreen. This design gave the bridge a new type of dimension, making it unique for a Starfleet vessel and thus desirably setting it apart from previous Star Trek series. At the same time, it is instantly recognizable as a Star Trek starship bridge, thereby maintaining the familiarity which fans love.

From Designing the USS Voyager, Star Trek: The Magazine 1, 19 (November 2000)

LINK: http://ottens.co.uk/forgottentrek/designing-voyagers-bridge/


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PostPosted: Tue Dec 26, 2017 9:29 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

________________________________

One of the best moments in Voyager occurred in an episode about how The Doctor reprogramming himself so he enjoy his own personal fantasies! Very Happy

The episode opens with the scene below, in which The Doctor performs a bit of opera for the crew. Suddenly his song is interrupted by Tuvok going into Pon Far, and The Doctor deals with the situation in a suave and intelligent manner . . . while continuing to sing.

This is a laugh-your-ass-off scene, guys. Watch for the "drop the mic" moment at the end, after The Doctor is finished with the hypospray! Laughing

Enjoy!


_____ Star Trek: Voyager - The Doctor Sings for Tuvok


__________

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PostPosted: Thu Mar 08, 2018 9:34 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Interview: Tim Russ Talks ‘Personal Space’ And Why He Is Happy He Wasn’t Cast As Geordi On Star Trek: TNG
By: Anthony Pascale, Trekmovie



Tim Russ spent seven years in the Delta Quadrant as Tuvok on Star Trek: Voyager and has kept busy as an actor and director since the show wrapped up almost two decades ago. With the release of the new sci-fi dramedy series Personal Space (on Amazon now), TrekMovie decided to catch up with the actor to talk about his time with Trek on (and before) Voyager, the new show Personal Space and his other projects.

Happy with Tuvok’s journey on Star Trek: Voyager

Your connection with Star Trek goes back to 1987 when you auditioned for the role of Geordi La Forge for The Next Generation. Can you talk about that audition?

I went in to read for it once or twice and I subsequently went in to read for the doctor’s role in Deep Space Nine and then eventually Voyager. At the time I wasn’t aware that LeVar Burton was also up for it. That might have been a straight offer [without audition]. He was the only well-known name from the States that was in that series, that is one of reasons they brought him in.

They did end up hiring you a few times before Voyager. You had guest roles on both TNG and DS9, and then again for Generations. Did you know you were being considered for the Voyager role when you did Generations?

No. At the time the producer [Rick Berman] told me they were developing a series that was going to be called Voyager. But, they didn’t have all the characters in place yet and he did mention the series was coming and said if there was a role in there for me, he would love for me to come in and read for it.

But yeah, I did audition for all of those shows. Over the course of a year or two, off and on, and finally just booked a few of them. So, I had already been in their wheelhouse prior to Voyager, which was an advantage in my case.......

For full story, click at this link:
https://trekmovie.com/2018/03/07/interview-tim-russ-talks-personal-space-and-why-he-is-happy-he-wasnt-cast-as-geordi-on-star-trek-tng/
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PostPosted: Fri Nov 29, 2019 4:20 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Custer wrote:
Didn't one of our main heroes die in one episode? However, they'd encountered a mirror-image Voyager, and while that ship got destroyed, they managed to save that vessel's Harry Kim, so he quickly settled in as a replacement, and the fact that he wasn't the original version was, tactfully, never mentioned again...

That episode did indeed raise some interesting questions.

Harry was easily able to relate to his new "duplicate" crewmates because . . . well, they were perfect duplicates! And since he was a duplicate of their Harry Kim, they never encounter situations where they noted any differences.

We could, I suppose, wonder if Harry ever missed the friends he lost . . . but since he had perfect duplicates of them all, what exactly would trigger such remorse?

Harry: (sigh) I sure miss my friend, Tom Paris.

Tom: Yeah, I know what you mean. Sometimes I really miss Harry Kim.

Harry: I wonder what we'd each be doing with them right now if they hadn't died.

Tom: Ummm . . . dating the Delaney sisters? Confused

Harry: Ah- ha! Good idea. Let's go pay 'em a visit!
Very Happy
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PostPosted: Sat Nov 30, 2019 6:00 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

I was sorry to read that producer Rick Berman did not care at all for Garrett Wang during the run of the series.

Wang was the first Star Trek actor ever to be denied the opportunity to direct episodes of the series he starred on.

Wonder what the details are?
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Eadie
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PostPosted: Sun Jan 05, 2020 5:46 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Scarlett Pomers, who played Naomi Wildman, certainly turned into nice young lady!



This picture was found by Pye-Rate.

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PostPosted: Sun Jan 05, 2020 7:50 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

________________________________

"Nice" is putting it . . . nicely. Wow. Wink

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