S1 E01: Caretaker

So, here it is, the pilot episode.

It's actually a very solid Trek Episode.

The first part does a decent job of introducing the characters. Particularly good was the first Paris/Kim scene, which was helped a lot by Quark. We get information about the characters without too much exposition.

"Oh god, I'd forgotten about her voice," a quote from my wife from the first scene with Janeway.

Why couldn't Paris be Nicholas Locarno? I mean, there are reasons offered by that link, but I'd forgotten that they even went so far as to give the two essentially the same backstory. Not a big deal, I just don't get it.

A note: every crew member who is a jerk to Paris dies. Let that be a lesson to others.

The Caretaker's illusion is pretty classicly Trek odd-choice-for-a-setting. Of everything in the computer's database, the Caretaker chose this? The end of the scene is pretty sinister, and gets you ready for the entire rest of the 2-part episode to be an illusion - I'll spoil this: thankfully, it isn't.

Our first Tuvok/Neelix encounter reminded me a lot of one of the things I liked about DS9: the banter. Even in the rockier first season, you could count on lively back and forth between, at the very least, Odo and Quark. The mix of contempt and grudging respect must've made their dialogue particularly fun to write, and the actors pulled it off well. I could talk all day about how much I like the DS9 scriptwriting (don't even get me started on Bashir and Garak), so I won't. This space is for Voyager.

The first time around, Neelix annoyed me more than Wesley annoyed most other Trek fans. So far, he's a bit grating, but his exchanges with Tuvok have kept the jury out. Tuvok nails the Vulcan condescension, but rather than fight it like McCoy, Neelix embraces it in a way that must be infuriating. And even better: Tim Russ is good enough at Vulcan that he doesn't act infuriated. We know he's frustrated, because we know Vulcans, and he's with it enough to let that be enough.

It's been a couple days since I watched the episode, so I'll just insert this here: The Doctor is awesome from the start. For every time Janeway uncomfortably moves her face around trying to show some emotion, The Doctor makes everything better with a flash of his grimace. His timing and delivery are excellent. You also get the impression that they've got some real life ER doctors around, because his humor and dialogue is reminiscent of many of the ones I've met.

We glaze over Neelix's betrayal, but that's OK because the Kazon are clearly bad guys. The Kazon feel more like a one-off villain here, but the goofy makeup doesn't really bother me.

Kes quickly establishes herself as the Deanna of the series, and we move on. The Ocampan society is pretty interesting - at one point, the leader refers to something like "a hundred generations" which, when you think about it, is not really that long. It's cool to think how much faster something like improved psychic powers could become something of legend in such a society. To me, this is Trek; interesting new civilizations that you can just think about the ramifications of elements like a short lifespan for hours afterwards, even if they don't explore it much in this particular episode.

The resolution of the episode with the array is interesting too, but feels a bit cheap if you think too much about it. Couldn't they have used those explosives on the Kazon, and taken their time getting the array running and set it to blow once they returned home? It doesn't really matter, the point is that the crew in this show is not made of the kind of people who would sell out an entire race for their own benefit. Also classic Trek.

The clean-up at the end doesn't sit very well with me though. They integrate awfully quickly (I mean, uniforms right away?), as if they've come to terms with being stranded for 75 years right away. In the Trek universe, where fantastical things happen every episode, you'd think the characters wouldn't grasp the reality of the situation immediately. This is all stuff they could have put off for a later episode; distribution of uniforms to the maquis would have made a nice B-plot later on. It feels like the writers are just cynically getting ready for a continuity-less show from the start. Not that I think continuity is the be-all-end-all of television. I love TNG and it has next to none. But Voyager has a premise that is built for continuity, and more of it could have gone a long way.

Watchability: 4/5

Bottom Line: Good Trek elements, several compelling members of the crew, and the scriptwriting isn't bad if you're OK with the cleanup.