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Five Reasons I Am Still In Love With ‘Star Trek: Voyager’

There is a lot to love when it comes to 'Star Trek: Voyager', but here are my five most prevalent reasons.

By Monita MohanPublished 6 years ago 11 min read
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USS Voyager (Artist Credit: fallowbuck)

We are in 2017 and after more than a decade, a #StarTrek television show is scheduled to hit our screens. The majority of fans are approaching Star Trek: Discovery with a mixture of anticipation and trepidation – the Star Trek reboot films received middling reviews from critics and fans alike, and the television spin-offs of Gene Roddenberry’s series have seen diminishing returns.

But, given how vocal the audience of today is, we can hope that the Roddenberry estate and the franchise’s new creators make a show that upholds Star Trek’s inherent message of diversity, tolerance and friendship.

As someone who grew up with Star Trek and watched it get hacked to bits by J.J. Abrams, I am shelving my expectations for the new series. I have intentionally avoided all trailers, analyses and information about the show – I’m going in blind so let’s see where that takes us.

Much rests on Discovery capturing the magic of the original, while updating its principles to modern standards. While we wait for the September pilot of the series, I look back at the Star Trek show that I have loved for a good 15 years.

'Star Trek: Discovery' (Credit: CBS Television Studios)

Mention Star Trek: Voyager to anyone and they’ll tell you – having seen the series or not – that it brought the downfall of the Star Trek empire as we know it. We would never get a Star Trek show again (ahem, #Enterprise ran from 2001-2005), and the show was all about a Captain who got her ship lost in the Delta Quadrant and waited seven seasons to bring them back. Voyager has its issues, but I’m here to tell you five reasons why I fell in love (and am still in love) with the show. If you want, you can try and fall in love with it as well. Some spoilers ahead, so tread carefully.

5. Diversity

Diversity is synonymous with Star Trek, and it is partly because of Roddenberry that we have people of colour in genre fiction. ’Voyager’ includes more diversity than any of the other Star Trek shows, with a Native-American actor and character, a Latina, a Chinese actor and character, and an African-American among the main cast. First Officer Chakotay being Native-American is an intrinsic part of the show and he forms the spiritual centre of the show and for Captain Janeway. I feel that so much American media just doesn’t bother to connect with the various Native-American cultures, that it is refreshing and important for genre fiction to include at least one representation of the same.

The Crew (Credit: CBS Studios Inc.)

Along with Chakotay, Ensign Harry Kim occasionally discusses his Chinese heritage, and we even meet his Chinese parents a couple of times.

The crew, speaking and non-speaking, were often pitted with people of all races and nationalities, including a crewman who looked distinctly sub-continental. You can’t imagine the excitement of a young teenager seeing someone possibly from her part of the world aboard a starship. It kind of explains why I was (and still am) so fond of Doctor Julian Bashir on Deep Space Nine (a show I watched several years after it was first aired) and why Bodhi Rook is now my favourite #StarWars character. Representation matters, and Voyager did its part.

I would have loved the show to have included LGBTQIA+ characters, but unfortunately, by then, the Star Trek creators were completely against such inclusion. Apparently, this went against Roddenberry’s own plan, as he intended to include a gay character in #TNG. Unfortunately, after his death, the idea was scrapped, and subsequent shows, especially Voyager, were as heteronormative as they come. But, in Star Trek: Beyond Hikaru Sulu was made canonically gay, and Discovery will also have gay characters; so, there is hope.

4. Alone In A Crowd

If you are an ambivert or an introvert, you will understand the Voyager crew well. When Captain Janeway makes the decision to destroy the Caretaker ship and the sole device to get back to Earth, she and her crew are lost and alone in a vastly unknown part of the universe. They do their best to make allies, but also create a few enemies along the way.

Half of Voyager’s crew is made up of dissident Maquis crewmembers, who happen to be the reason the ship is stuck in the Delta Quadrant. But, the Captain and the writers work hard to make the divide between the two crews seem invisible. It was a true representation of celebrating our differences and getting the job done.

What their unique situation leads to is a camaraderie that will resonate with anyone who finds it difficult to fit in. Aboard the ship, a range of personalities work together on their mission to return home, and each main character has at least one trait that any viewer will identify with.

One of the reasons why I have watched many of Voyager’s episodes several times is because of the crew; everyone had at least one episode that made me analyse myself and come to terms with what made me different.

I still tear up at the memory of some of the episodes, especially ‘The Chute’, in the first half of season 3, when fast friends Tom Paris and Harry Kim are trapped in a space prison, which almost costs them their friendship and their lives. The final dialogue of that episode, for me, encapsulates what all Star Trek shows and films are (or should be) about – love and optimism.

Rumour has it that the series creators banned tears on the show because they were afraid fans would think a show led by a woman would automatically be a ‘weepy’. Garrett Wang, who portrayed Ensign Kim on the show, let the cat out of the bag, and suffered for it.

The restrained nature of the characters certainly didn’t affect the emotional impact the episodes had on the viewer, however, and you can expect many teary eyed moments.

3. A Captain Like No Other

In an alternate universe, Star Trek’s first captain was not James T. Kirk, but Christopher Pike. And his Number One was a woman, played by Majel Barrett. In that universe, I am pretty sure we would not have had to wait for three series or till 1995 to see a woman headline a Star Trek show.

But, in our universe, we did have to wait, but it was well worth it. #KateMulgrew, for an entire generation, will always be Red on Orange is the New Black; for the rest of us, she was our captain who got her crew and us fans through a lot of tough times.

Janeway was the right mix of bold and nurturing. One can imagine that had their mission gone as planned and Voyager not been thrown off course during the chase in the Badlands, Janeway may have been an intimidating captain to work under.

Once in the Delta Quadrant, Janeway adapts to their new circumstances, easing some of Starfleet’s rules, and being generally accessible and friendly to her crew. Unlike most bosses in the real world, she often takes her senior staff’s suggestions onboard and allows them to execute projects to their fullest capability. Sometimes her faith in her staff results in disaster – Tom’s insistence on breaking the warp barrier turns him (and the Captain) into mutated reptiles in ‘Threshold’ (the less said about that episode, the better), while Chief Engineer B'Elanna Torres’ attempts to revive a robot in ‘Prototype’ almost leads to the destruction of the ship.

But, for the most part, Captain Janeway’s reliance on her crew gets them out of plenty of hairy situations and that much closer to home. #Teamwork

2. Subverting The Norm

By dint of including a woman captain, the show was (and still is, unfortunately) way ahead of the game when it comes to the majority of science-fiction media. Even in the 21st Century, many struggle to accept the idea of female leadership (look no further than the 2016 American elections and its aftermath), and films and television in the genre are especially guilty of this omission.

Janeway aside, the show included plenty of storylines and character arcs that went against the grain. Torres is the hot-headed engineer, always ready to talk with her fists (I see her as a precursor to #KateeSackhoff’s gender-bent #Starbuck in the Battlestar Galactica reboot), while Seven of Nine is the super-strong no-nonsense Borg defector who takes the place of Kes, the only normcore female role among the main cast.

Interestingly, when Kes, who acts as the medical assistant and nurse for the Emergency Medical Hologram The Doctor, leaves the ship, her duties are passed on to…. Tom Paris. Even today, our screens prefer to show women as being more adept when it comes to medical emergencies or medical aid (but not as doctors, unless it’s a medical soap opera). So, Tom being the nurse is fairly ground-breaking!

Tom starts the show as the quintessential playboy, but the writers hardly ever write him as being disrespectful of women. I really loved that about his character. He’s not only in it for the looks, in which case, he would have been chasing Seven of Nine the moment she stepped out in her silver body suit. Somehow, the two of them remain platonic colleagues, and he has a happy relationship with an older woman who he (and the fans) love to bits.

The show often juggled our expectations of what romances were eventual. While most pan out as expected, it still surprises me how heart-breaking The Doctor’s unrequited love feels in ‘Someone to Watch Over Me’ (someone has kindly uploaded the final scene of the episode on Youtube). As I mentioned earlier, Voyager loves messing with your emotions, so keep some tissues handy at all times.

It was always the little things that ‘Voyager’ did right and those were exactly what made some of us fall in love with the show.

1. B'Elanna Torres

B'Elanna (image: CBS Studios Inc.)

Who dat? I hear you ask. B’Elanna is the half-Klingon and half-Human Chief Engineer, who was Chakotay’s Number One on the Maquis ship. She’s rebellious to the core, grating against the Captain and Chakotay on more than a few occasions. But, she knows her way around a ship’s engine and gets the job done.

To teenage me, B’Elanna was unlike most other female characters I had come across. She didn’t care what other people thought of her and didn’t put up with any nonsense. She was a petite creature, whose strength (physical and emotional) came from the pit of anger that burned inside her.

Us sci-fi fans are lucky to have a few stoic, strong female characters today, but Torres was something of a prototype. But, instead of being devoid of all femininity, Torres was allowed to balance hers. She wore her emotions on her sleeve (as is evident from the descriptions above), loved whole-heartedly, and embraced marriage and motherhood despite the many obstacles along the way.

What I loved most about Torres was her constant tussle with her two ethnicities – her Human side and her Klingon side. Her warring personalities, as showcased in season 1’s ‘Faces’, will certainly feel familiar to many viewers. Irrespective of whether you are mixed-race, mixed religion, or just don’t fit the norm, B’Elanna’s struggle is a reflection of what most people go through on a daily basis. If you don’t feel like you belong in a particular label, B’Elanna will mean something special for you. Just as she does with me and many other viewers. It is almost cathartic to watch B’Elanna overcome each of her struggles, with a little help from her friends, and come to terms with her heritage and herself.

The beauty of Voyager was that it gave young me a bunch of friends to hang out with each evening. That warm feeling of happy camaraderie never dissipates in the show, despite the many bumps in the road. The theme tune helps, too.

I could wax eloquent about the show for the rest of my life, and there’s no convincing me that it deserves being maligned as universally as it does. Perhaps nostalgia clouds my feelings for the show; but I’d like to think that irrespective of its sometimes poor plotting and cop-out climaxes (though hardly in the numbers that critics would make one believe), the show basks in an optimistic humour that is central to Star Trek’s message.

So, while The Original Series was ground-breaking in representing a world beyond intolerance and TNG took a philosophical look at the world we live in, Voyager was about friendship, love and working through our differences to accomplish a unified goal – the voyage home.

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About the Creator

Monita Mohan

When not dreaming of a one-way trip to Coruscant, I'm usually staring at a blank page, hoping my articles write themselves.

Website: lightspeedwriter.wordpress.com

Twitter: @Monita_Mohan

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