voyager alliances cast

Alliances (episode)

• View history
• 1.2 Act One
• 1.3 Act Two
• 1.4 Act Three
• 1.5 Act Four
• 1.6 Act Five
• 2 Log entries
• 3 Memorable quotes
• 4.1 Production
• 4.2 Continuity
• 4.4 Reception
• 4.5 Video and DVD releases
• 5.1 Starring
• 5.2 Also starring
• 5.3 Guest stars
• 5.4 Co-star
• 5.5 Uncredited co-stars
• 5.6 References
• 5.7 External links

Summary [ ]

Crewman Kurt Bendera, mortally wounded in the Kazon attack on Voyager

The USS Voyager is under attack by two Kazon raiders . Voyager is able to destroy one Kazon raider with its phasers , but the other keeps firing as it retreats. Voyager is left with massive damage to its energy systems which causes the engines to go off-line and is left without weapons and shields. As the crew in engineering scramble to repair the damage, Crewman Kurt Bendera is found to have been seriously injured in an explosion and Torres initiates an emergency transport to sickbay which is already full of wounded crew. Bandera's injuries are too severe and all attempts to revive him fail and The Doctor declares him dead . Torres, in shock, reveals that Bendera had saved her life once, near the Cardassian border.

In Janeway 's ready room , Chakotay enters with the news about Bendera's death. Janeway expresses her sorrow and asks him to arrange a memorial service . Chakotay, somewhat hesitantly, begins a discussion about their situation, explaining to Janeway that the rules have now changed in the Delta Quadrant and that maybe Voyager 's crew should start changing too. He understands that Janeway made it clear to the crew from the beginning that this would be a Starfleet ship with a Starfleet crew, following Starfleet rules. However, he argues that while Starfleet works well in the Alpha Quadrant , here in the Delta Quadrant, it is just a different game. He suggests they try to adopt some Maquis policies. Janeway is somewhat taken aback by this, arguing that they should not throw away their principles, simply because they are out of com range with Starfleet. Chakotay bluntly tells her that their approach needs to change because this attack was the fourth in two weeks, three crewmembers are dead and Voyager cannot afford to lose any more personnel or sustain any more damage.

Act One [ ]

In Voyager 's mess hall , crewmembers are seated as Chakotay remembers Bendera. After the speech, the crewmembers gathered stand and the service concludes. As Janeway is about to leave the mess hall, a frustrated Crewman Hogan walks up to her and asks what she is planning to do about the Kazon, now that they have stepped up their attacks. He tells her that most people on the ship think they won't make it out of Kazon space alive. Hogan thinks she should hand over all of the technology that the Kazon want so that they can continue safely with their journey. Janeway reminds him that doing so would be a clear violation of the Prime Directive . Hogan snaps back that he knows all about the Prime Directive but that Starfleet is over 70,000 light years away from Voyager . Janeway, with a serious look on her face tells him that she'll destroy Voyager before she hands any part of it over to the Kazon.

Chakotay follows an upset Janeway down the corridor , telling her that the Maquis on the ship still believe that the Federation abandoned them years ago. He tells Janeway that she may be willing to die for Federation principles, but that they are not and Starfleet procedures may not be applicable to Voyager since being stranded. Although Chakotay certainly doesn't agree with Hogan's view that they should hand over technology to the Kazon, he feels there must be another solution. Janeway realizes that Chakotay has a suggestion in mind and asks him about it. Chakotay finally comes around and tells her she should seek an alliance with a Kazon faction. Janeway is appalled by the very idea of getting into an alliance with the untrustworthy and violent Kazon she has met but Chakotay tells her that she may be blinded by Starfleet protocols but that she still must make the best decisions for the crew, as she is the captain.

Tuvok's hybrid orchid

Later in Tuvok's quarters , Janeway tells him of Commander Chakotay's plan to seek an alliance with the Kazon. She tells Tuvok that it goes against everything she believes. The Vulcan tells her that although she is "quite right" in her opinion, Chakotay's suggestion has some merit. He recalls a time when a great visionary named Spock proposed an alliance between the United Federation of Planets and the Klingon Empire . Tuvok himself spoke out against such an alliance, as the Klingons were outlaws, employing violence and brutality. Despite his objections however, the alliance was forged and the Alpha Quadrant enjoyed a new peace between Klingons and Humans . Tuvok tells her that since Voyager is on its way home an alliance with the Kazon would only be temporary, and could in fact end up stabilizing the whole region as the Kazon may come to appreciate peace between the factions. Janeway reflects on this and calls the senior staff to the briefing room for a meeting.

Janeway tells them that after much thought, she has decided to seek an alliance with one of the Kazon factions and, when Ensign Kim voices his objection, that her decision is not up for debate. Neelix informs her that a Kazon faction called the Pommar has a settlement on a nearby planet called Sobras . Kim sarcastically says they should call up Seska and form an alliance with her. Torres thinks that this is actually a good idea, as she would jump at the chance to form an alliance with Voyager , since she has been trying to unite all Kazon factions. Chakotay is aghast at the idea of allying with the Nistrim , but Janeway reminds him that he was the one who suggested the alliance and can't have it both ways by deciding who they should and shouldn't get down in the mud with. Chakotay relents, and offers to contact Seska but Janeway tells him she'll do it herself since he has already been through so much with her.

Act Two [ ]

The exotic dancer on Sobras

Culluh and Seska speak to Janeway and Chakotay. Janeway suggests rendezvousing at designated coordinates. Meanwhile, Neelix, in a Type 8 shuttlecraft , arrives at Sobras. He enters a bar , where an exotic alien woman is dancing. Kazon males populate the bar. Neelix asks around where his Kazon friend, Jal Tersa may be. He eventually finds him. Neelix tells Tersa all about Voyager and about them seeking an alliance with the Kazon. Suddenly, two Kazon take Neelix into custody.

In Voyager 's briefing room, Janeway tells Culluh that she hopes the Nistrim will be an honorable ally and adhere to the conditions of the alliance. Janeway tells Culluh that Voyager will assist any Nistrim ship or colony that is in distress and will provide supplies but reassures him that they will not supply the Kazon with any of their technology or weapons. Culluh agrees and suggests another condition. He asks for an exchange of crewmembers. Janeway tells him that she would never agree to that. Seska, sitting in on the briefing, tries to tell Culluh that that proposal could wait until later but Culluh silences her and tells Janeway he will not have a woman run the negotiations. Janeway tells Culluh that she always thought that seeking an alliance with him was a distasteful idea but that she was willing to explore the possibility. She now realizes that her instincts were exactly correct. She declares the meeting over and Culluh is sent back to his ship. On Sobras, Neelix is held captive in a cavern where several people are being imprisoned, including young children.

Act Three [ ]

Neelix introduces himself to a man named Mabus . He reveals the people imprisoned are Trabe , sworn enemies of the Kazon. Mabus tells Neelix he has been trapped in the cave for five days after he was attacked in space. Mabus tells Neelix that help is on the way and that the Trabe will eventually escape from their prison. Mabus asks Neelix if they can count on him during their escape.

Michael Jonas decides to betray Voyager and contact Seska

Voyager arrives at the rendezvous coordinates. However, Neelix's shuttle is nowhere to be found. Janeway tells Paris to hold position and wait for Neelix for two hours. If he does not show up by then, Voyager will head to Sobras. In engineering, Crewman Hogan asks B'Elanna Torres about the possible alliance with the Kazon. He does not know what to make of the news as there are many rumors flying around the ship. Torres tells him that Seska's talk with Janeway fell apart quickly. Hogan is convinced that nothing will come of Janeway's negotiations with the Kazon. He tries to talk Torres into speaking to Seska and convince her to create an alliance. Torres tells him that isn't possible, since Seska didn't turn out to be what they thought she was and she doesn't trust her. After Torres walks away, Crewman Michael Jonas sits at his engineering console, thinking about what Torres and Hogan just said to each other.

On Sobras, Neelix, along with Mabus and the other Trabe, are preparing to escape when a sudden fire fight erupts outside the cave. Neelix takes as many Trabe children as he can with him and the Trabe escape. On Voyager , Neelix has still not returned, so Captain Janeway orders Paris to set a course for Sobras. She also orders Tuvok to power up weapons, in case Voyager runs into the Kazon again. At Harry Kim's operations console, he reads Kazon ships closing in on Voyager 's position. An armada of Kazon raiders and their weapons are charged.

Act Four [ ]

Mabus, governor of the Trabe

Janeway prepares to go into battle with the Kazon. She has Kim hail them, but Kim reveals that they are being hailed. On screen, it is revealed that Neelix and Mabus are on the lead ship. Chakotay asks what Neelix is doing on a Kazon vessel. Neelix reveals that it is actually a Trabe vessel. The Kazon stole all of the Trabe's technology, including their ships. Neelix tells Janeway that he will explain everything that has happened over dinner on Voyager . While eating, Mabus recalls the way the Kazon were treated by the Trabe when he was eight years old; how the Kazon were treated like animals by the Trabe. The Kazon then became extremely violent. When the Kazon finally realized that the Trabe were their true enemies, the Trabe didn't stand a chance against the Kazon. Mabus managed to escape from the Kazon by leaving on a ship. Janeway relates the story of the Trabe to Voyager and their struggle to find home. Mabus reveals to Janeway that the Kazon's desire for revenge on the Trabe is still as strong as it ever has been.

A Kazon man named Rettik talks to someone on Voyager through a desktop monitor . It is revealed to be Michael Jonas. Rettik is suspicious and wonders how Jonas can talk to him without ship's security finding out. Jonas tells him that he is very experienced in communications protocols. He asks to speak to Seska. He says that he and Seska knew each other for a long time. Rettik still doesn't know if Jonas can be trusted, but he agrees to relay his message to Seska. Rettik asks Jonas to contact him again the next day and he promises to let him know if Seska will want to talk to him.

In Janeway's ready room, Neelix explains that before the Kazon uprising, the Trabe had produced widely admired artists and scholars as well as impressive technology however no one really knew about how the Trabe were treating the Kazon. Janeway remarks that slavery is not the kind of thing that would go unnoticed. Neelix tells her that the Trabe were wealthy and manipulated information about the conditions of the Kazon. Chakotay believes that the Trabe have learned their lesson about the way they treated the Kazon. Tuvok states that it would not be wise to seek an alliance with the Kazon's blood enemies since it may end up uniting all the factions against Voyager . Chakotay reminds them that the Trabe have an impressive number of ships and weapons at their disposal and prefers an alliance with them over none at all. Janeway decides that as they have no friends among the Kazon anyway, they will seek an alliance with the Trabe.

At sickbay, The Doctor and Kes are treating the Trabe who were imprisoned. Most of them are suffering from malnutrition but it is easily remedied by bio-nutrients. Janeway asks Mabus to talk to her about a possible alliance together. Mabus has no objections to her idea but he also has another suggestion: bring all the Kazon factions together and convince them to peacefully co-exist. On Culluh's ship, Culluh receives news that Voyager and the Trabe have developed an alliance together. He wonders how this could have happened. Seska bitterly tells him that it happened because he let Voyager slip away because he wanted an exchange of crews. Seska reminds him they have a spy on Voyager who could prove to be a massive benefit to them in the long-term, but for now there is a way to turn the newfound peace between Voyager and the Trabe to their advantage. She tells Culluh that he will attend a conference of all first Majes. By going to the conference, he can assess the Trabe's weakness and eliminate them once and for all. Culluh is pleased with Seska's plan.

Neelix reveals a Takrit was making a sketch of the conference site on Sobras. Neelix believes that one of the First Majes is going to take a chance to wipe out all of his enemies, since the conference presents a perfect opportunity to bring all of the rival factions together. Tuvok points out that if this is the case, then they'll be able to tell who it is as the one responsible will try and leave before the meeting is finished. Janeway refuses to cancel the conference but has Voyager put them on a constant transporter lock, so they can get beamed away at the first sign of trouble.

Act Five [ ]

On Sobras, Neelix and Tersa inspect the conference site. Tersa tells Neelix he chose a triangle -shaped table for the Majes to sit at. Neelix asks Tersa if he has heard anything else about the matter they discussed. Tersa tells him to be quiet, since the piece of information Neelix asks for could mean his head. Tersa tries to change the subject to the triangle-shaped table again. Neelix tells Tersa that he has a powerful ship in orbit this time and he had better be telling the truth. Tersa assures Neelix that he is and that he is being paid handsomely for having the conference on Sobras. The Maje appreciates the prestige it affords him.

Janeway and Tuvok enter the conference room. Neelix tells them that Tersa has told him everything he knows. Soon after, the first Majes begin to enter. The first to enter is Minnis of the Pommar, Surat of the Mostral , Loran of the Hobii , Valek of the Oglamar , and Culluh of the Nistrim. Culluh talks to Janeway about how they seem destined to run into each other. She introduces Culluh to Mabus. Culluh remarks that he never thought he'd see the day when he would sit at a table with the Trabe. Mabus tells him that times change. The conference begins when all the Majes are seated at the table. Janeway tries to put all of the people at the table at peace. Culluh is very skeptical about the alliance. He gets up from his chair. Tuvok thinks Culluh is leaving to allow the assassination to take place and goes for his phaser. However, Culluh is simply getting refreshment. Janeway affirms that all that Voyager and the Trabe want is peace.

Suddenly, Mabus approaches Janeway and asks her to come with him. Janeway casts a suspicious look at Tuvok. Mabus insists they leave immediately. Janeway gets up to leave and the table starts to shake. Janeway, realizing this is an assassination attempt, warns all the Majes to get down on the floor. She taps her combadge and signals red alert to Voyager . Tuvok, Janeway, and Mabus are beamed up to Voyager .

Voyager fends off the Trabe vessel

Fire blasts from a Trabe vessel pound the conference room. Voyager fires photon torpedoes at the Trabe vessel, until it retreats. All the Kazon Majes leave in anger. Culluh has a smile on his face, realizing that Voyager is now hated by the Kazon.

In Voyager 's transporter room, Mabus tells Janeway she has ruined what could have been the greatest step towards peace in decades. Neelix, disgusted by Mabus' actions, wonders how a massacre could be considered peace. Janeway is furious that Mabus used their good will to make sure he was successful in his plan to kill the First Majes. He calls Janeway a fool and asks her how Voyager is to survive alone in the Delta Quadrant. Janeway replies that she won't make deals with executioners and throws him off the ship, having him beamed to his vessel. Janeway taps her combadge and tells Paris to lay a course away from Sobras before the Kazon attack again. In the briefing room, Janeway tells her senior staff that they are more vulnerable now than ever. Janeway wants to make sure the crew is prepared for any attack by the Kazon. Tuvok tells Janeway that he will schedule battle drills for all hands. Neelix reports that the food supply is in good shape so that they will not have to stop anywhere for several weeks. Torres tells Janeway that their antimatter is in reasonable supply and they will have maximum performance of warp and impulse engines.

Janeway tells her crew one more thing: most of the species the crew have encountered in the Delta Quadrant are peaceful, but some seem governed by their own self-interests. Janeway believes that, in a region where shifting allegiances are common, the crew needs something to lean and rely on, which are the principles and ideals of the Federation. As far as she's concerned, those are the best allies the crew could have.

Log entries [ ]

• " Captain's log, stardate 49337.4. After sending a subspace message to Seska and the Nistrim Maje Culluh, we have received a quick response. "
• " Captain's log, supplemental. We're on our way to rendezvous with Mr Neelix. I can only hope that he had more luck with the Kazon than we did. "
• " Captain's log, stardate 49342.5. Neelix has returned from Sobras, where he learned a disturbing piece of information that may require us to rethink our plans. "

Memorable quotes [ ]

" Make a deal. An alliance. " " With the Kazon? "

" Consequently, after much consideration, I've decided to seek an alliance with one of the Kazon factions. " " Captain, you can't be serious! "

" Holding an entire culture in virtual slavery is not the kind of thing that would go unnoticed. "

" I won't have a woman dictate terms to me! " " Culluh, I found the idea of an alliance with you distasteful. I was willing to explore the possibility, but now I see my instincts were dead-on. "

" I appreciate your concerns crewman, but let me make it absolutely clear; I'll destroy this ship before I turn any part of it over to the Kazon. "

" This isn't a democracy, Chakotay. I can't run this ship by consensus. "

" So that's how the Maquis would do it, hmm? "

" Long range sensors indicate no sign of Mr. Neelix' shuttle within a radius of two light years. " " The Kazon have him. "

" Chief, beam our former guest back to his vessel! " " Captain, don't do this. You're going to need us. " " I don't think so. " " The Kazon will be determined to seek revenge. How can this one ship hope to survive? " " Not by making deals with executioners. Energize! "

" In a part of space where there are few rules, it's more important than ever that we hold fast to our own. In a region where shifting allegiances are commonplace we have to have something stable to rely on. And we do. The principles and ideals of the Federation. As far as I'm concerned, those are the best allies we could have. "

" Do I hear a 'however' coming? " " You are perceptive, Captain. "

Background information [ ]

Production [ ].

• A working title of this episode was "Untitled Kazon". [1]
• Originally, Culluh was to die in this episode. The performer of Culluh, Anthony De Longis , later recalled, " When I got to the end of the script, the last scene was like something out of The Godfather Part III , where all the mobsters are in one room and the helicopter attacks, killing everyone. I went in to see Jeri Taylor the next day and begged her to let Culluh at least be seen twitching at the episode's end. She told me that the script had already been changed and said, 'We've decided not to kill you.' Whew! " ( The Official Star Trek: Voyager Magazine  issue 18 )
• The creation of this episode made use of a paper – an elaborate, invented sociological backstory for the Kazon, explaining their history (including involvement with the Trabe) and their customs – that originally transpired from research that executive story editor Kenneth Biller did for the episode " Initiations ", for which the document was also used. ( Captains' Logs Supplemental - The Unauthorized Guide to the New Trek Voyages )
• Tuvok actor Tim Russ was challenged by his character's speech to Janeway regarding the orchid. He later said, " I don't remember the line. It was about a flower I had to describe. They wrote it one way, but the next day they changed it and it was twice as long and it was suddenly all this scientific description of a flower. " ( Starlog , issue #231, p. 51)
• The final script draft of this episode was submitted on 18 October 1995 . [2]
• There are two scenes from this episode in which the character of Hogan appears. A combination of both were used to audition actors for the role. Simon Billig , who ultimately portrayed the character, found the dialogue in the pair of scenes entailed "a lot of technical stuff." ( TV Zone , Issue 93, p. 30) Regarding his work on the installment, Billig said, " I had an evening call, so, I waited around all day and when I got to the studio I was called to the set at five o'clock. We worked from that time until about 10.30 that night. I spent the first hour watching other scenes being shot and then it was my turn. " The second of the two scenes, involving Hogan and Torres in Engineering, was actually filmed first. " I think I was a bit overwhelmed not only by the sets but by all the people, lights and cameras around me. I was also a little scared that I wasn't going to remember my lines, all of which I had studied thousands of times, " Billig laughed. " Everyone there made me feel extremely comfortable including the director Les Landau , who [...] was very helpful. My first day ended up going so well that I almost didn't get any sleep that night because I wanted so badly to go back the next day and do my other scene which was with Kate Mulgrew [....] She [...] gave me a bit of advice while I was doing my scene with her. I was a little worried because it was so confrontational but Kate sort of hinted that what I was doing was OK. She put her hand on my shoulder and said, 'I want you to go for it,' and I did, much to the director's chagrin. " ( TV Zone , Issue 93, p. 32)
• Michael Jonas actor Raphael Sbarge found this episode's production particularly challenging. His difficulty was partly because he felt he was "playing catch-up," due to the principal cast members generally being more prepared and having much more of an idea about what their requirements were. Another reason he found the making of the installment hard was dealing with the technobabble in his character's dialogue, even though Sbarge was otherwise very good at remembering his lines. " It was difficult and it really kicked my ass [...] Garrett Wang [Ensign Harry Kim] was a real friend to me about it, " Sbarge recalled. " He took me aside and told me about the tricks he used to help memorize things when he first started and gave me some tips on how to make things work for me. He said, 'During our first year everyone really had a hard time with the words. It's even harder for the guest-stars because they're saying these things for the first time.' Simon Billig [Mr. Hogan] and I used to get together and commiserate on how hard it was to learn the lines, but all that aside, it was just a thrill to be up there and doing it. " ( TV Zone , Special #29, pp. 25-26)
• Regarding the politics of Chakotay's recommendation to form an alliance with the Kazon, Chakotay actor Robert Beltran mused, " It's no different than the United States giving nation status to China , when we know full well what goes on over there, or any other despotic government that we recognize for our own convenience. " ( Cinefantastique , Vol. 28, No. 4/5, p. 100)
• At one point of the episode's production, Anthony De Longis made a particular jestful comment to Janeway actress Kate Mulgrew . " I remember working late one night while filming 'Alliances,' " De Longis said. " While we were waiting around for them to set up the shot, I told her, 'I really liked the way you played that last scene. Boy, I thought outer space was cold,' more or less meaning that she could play cold and distant really well. " ( The Official Star Trek: Voyager Magazine  issue 18 )
• It took seven hours for make-up artists and hairdressers to complete their work on Symba Smith ( Sobras bar dancer ). Days before the shoot, a cast was made of her head for her facial applications. Her scene was shot on 30 October 1995. Smith has revealed that " having a cast made of your head is NOT too much fun! But, I really enjoyed playing an alien – that WAS a lot of fun! " She added, " The sad thing is that I shot the show on October 30th... if I could have just shot it one day later... I would have had a really GREAT Halloween costume! " [3] (X)

Continuity [ ]

• This episode revisits Tuvok 's interest in orchids , originally mentioned in " Tattoo ".
• This episode features the second conference between the First Majes of the principal Kazon sects. They were last seen together plotting against Voyager in " Maneuvers ", but this time they are joined by Janeway, Tuvok, Neelix and Mabus.
• The Trabe were mentioned in two prior episodes (specifically, in " Initiations " and " Maneuvers ") before appearing, finally, in this episode.
• This episode introduces the recurring characters of Michael Jonas and Hogan . When first conceived, however, Hogan was not planned to become a recurring character; actor Simon Billig 's performance as Hogan here impressed Star Trek: Voyager 's producers so much that they subsequently began to repeatedly reuse the character. ( Star Trek Monthly  issue 15 )
• This episode introduces a story arc that culminates in VOY : " Investigations ". The arc revolves around Michael Jonas and later Tom Paris .
• Tuvok mentions to Janeway in this episode the actions taken by Spock in Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country to unite the Klingon Empire and the Federation as an allegory to the possibilty of an alliance with the Kazon. It was later revealed in VOY : " Flashback " that Tuvok served as an ensign aboard the USS Excelsior under Captain Sulu during that time period.
• Voyager uses 3 photon torpedoes in this episode, having previously used one in " The Cloud ". This brings the total number of torpedoes used to 4, of the irreplaceable complement of 38 established in that episode.
• Following Kurt Bendera 's death in this episode, Chakotay mentions that they have had three deaths resulting from Kazon attacks (the other two not seen on-screen). This brings the total number of confirmed crew deaths since the series premiere " Caretaker " to 4, the previous death having occurred in " Faces ". This leaves Voyager with a crew of 149, given Voyager 's crew compliment of 152 established in " The 37's " (after the first of these deaths).
• On Netflix , when the Majes of the Kazon Sects are being introduced, the sound of trumpets along with fanfare and applause is heard for each one. However, as of December 2017 this seems to have been removed. On Amazon.com 's streaming Prime service, the trumpet fanfare and applause are still present as of September 2021.
• Many of the metal ornaments on the Kazon costumes are pieces of hardware and tack for horses.

Reception [ ]

• Jeri Taylor ultimately had mixed feelings about this episode. She commented, " I liked the dilemma that Janeway was put in; I thought that was interesting. I regret the final speech I put in her mouth, because it came across as exactly that, one of these preachy, Picard -like moments where she has to lecture people about the importance of something. It seemed like a good idea at the time. " ( Captains' Logs Supplemental - The Unauthorized Guide to the New Trek Voyages )
• This episode achieved a Nielsen rating of 5.4 million homes, and an 8% share. [4] (X)
• Cinefantastique rated this episode 2 out of 4 stars. ( Cinefantastique , Vol. 28, No. 4/5, p. 93)
• Star Trek Magazine scored this episode 2 out of 5 stars, defined as "Impulse Power only". ( Star Trek Monthly  issue 15 , p. 60)
• The unauthorized reference book Delta Quadrant (p. 94) gives this installment a rating of 7.5 out of 10.
• A costume worn by a background Kazon actor in this episode was later re-used by Bob Rudd (as Brell ) in the Season 7 episode " Nightingale " and by stuntman Eric Norris (as an unnamed Illyrian crew member ) in the Star Trek: Enterprise episode " Damage ". The same costume was subsequently sold off on the It's A Wrap! sale and auction on eBay. [5]

Video and DVD releases [ ]

• UK VHS release (two-episode tapes, CIC Video ): Volume 2.5, 13 May 1996
• As part of the VOY Season 2 DVD collection

Links and references [ ]

Starring [ ].

• Kate Mulgrew as Captain Kathryn Janeway

Also starring [ ]

• Robert Beltran as Commander Chakotay
• Roxann Biggs-Dawson as Lieutenant B'Elanna Torres
• Jennifer Lien as Kes
• Robert Duncan McNeill as Lieutenant Tom Paris
• Ethan Phillips as Neelix
• Robert Picardo as The Doctor
• Tim Russ as Lieutenant Tuvok
• Garrett Wang as Ensign Harry Kim

Guest stars [ ]

• Charles O. Lucia as Mabus
• Anthony De Longis as Culluh
• Martha Hackett as Seska
• Raphael Sbarge as Michael Jonas
• Larry Cedar as Tersa
• John Gegenhuber as Surat
• Simon Billig as Hogan

Co-star [ ]

• Mirron E. Willis as Rettik

Uncredited co-stars [ ]

• Kimberly Auslander as Voyager command ensign
• Michael Beebe as Murphy
• Jeff Cadiente as Loran
• Tracee Lee Cocco as alien bar patron
• Brian Donofrio as Voyager sciences officer
• Tarik Ergin as Ayala
• Heather Ferguson as Voyager command officer
• Ken Gruz as Kurt Bendera
• Kerry Hoyt as Fitzpatrick
• Dennis Madalone as Kazon guard
• Johnny Martin as Valek
• Tom Morga as Minnis
• Louis Ortiz as Culhane
• Dean Rubin as Trabe prisoner
• Lydia Shiferaw as Voyager command officer
• Symba Smith as Sobras bar dancer
• Kazon-Pommar barkeeper
• Two Kazon guards

References [ ]

22nd century ; 2338 ; 2346 ; ability ; alliance ; Alpha Quadrant ; battle drill ; Baxial ; bio-nutrient supplement ; blood enemy ; Calogan dog ; Cardassian border ; cortical stimulator ; damage report ; dancer ; Delta Quadrant ; democracy ; dilithium chamber ; dodecahedron ; dozen ; drawing ; emergency transport ; executioner ; favinit plant ; Federation ; First Maje ; flower tool ; gesture ; governor ; grafting ; Hobii ; homeworld ; hull breach ; hybrid ; icosahedron ; imagination ; impedrazine ; Intrepid class decks ; Kazon ; Kazon fighter ( unnamed ); Kazon Order ; Kazon raider ( unnamed 1 and 2 ); Kazon territory ; Klingons ; Klingon Empire ; lead ship ; lunatic ; malnutrition ; Maquis ; medical tricorder ; memorial service ; Milky Way Galaxy ; milligram ; miner ; Mostral ; navigational deflector ; Nistrim ; nomad ; odds ; Ogla ; Oglamar ; orchid ; outlaw ; photon torpedo ; Pommar ; precept ; Predator -class ( unnamed ); Prime Directive ; puzzle ; red alert ; Relora ; repair crew ; replicators ; sense of humor ; slavery ; Sobras ; Spock ; Starfleet ; Takrit ; Talaxian ; Telfas Prime ; Trabe ; Trabe convoy ; Trabe Governing Council ; transporters ; transporter lock ; triangle ; turbolift ; Type 8 shuttlecraft ( unnamed ); villain ; visionary ; Vulcan ; Vulcan spice tea ; yellow alert

External links [ ]

• Alliances at StarTrek.com
• " Alliances " at Memory Beta , the wiki for licensed Star Trek works
• " Alliances " at Wikipedia
• " "Alliances" " at MissionLogPodcast.com , a Roddenberry Star Trek podcast
• 2 Star Trek: The Next Generation
• 3 USS Enterprise (NCC-1701-G)

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Star Trek: Voyager – Alliances (Review)

This September and October, we’re taking a look at the 1995 to 1996 season of Star Trek , including Star Trek: Deep Space Nine and  Star Trek: Voyager . Check back daily for the latest review.

One of the more persistent and convincing criticisms of Star Trek: Voyager is the idea that it was very narrative conservative; that the show got comfortable playing out the familiar formula that had been established by Star Trek: The Next Generation , and so never attempted to innovate or experiment in the way that Star Trek: Deep Space Nine (or eventually Star Trek: Enterprise ) did. This is a perfectly valid criticism of the show as a whole, but it does ignore some of the weird tensions that played out across the first two seasons.

It is fair to say that Voyager never truly experimented. However, there are several moments in the first two seasons where it looks like the show was considering doing something unique or unprecedented. The show walked up to the edge, looking up and down; it never quite made the leap, but it seemed to weigh the possibility of jumping headlong into uncharted territory. However, it ultimately only dipped its toes in the water before getting cold feet and returning to the comfort of the familiar.

“Everyone liked Godfather III, right?”

The sad truth about the second season of Voyager is that the show made a number of attempts to do something different or unique, only to botch each and every one of those attempts so completely that the production team learned not to even try. The second season’s more adventurous creative decisions all ended in humiliation and farce, explaining why the show desperately sought the warm blanket of a familiar format and an established template. After all, it was the more conventional episodes of the second season that had been (relatively) well received.

The second season of Voyager turned the process of trying something moderately ambitious and failing spectacularly into something of an artform. Of course, given the simmering tensions behind the scenes, it often seemed like the show wanted to fail. Michael Piller desperately wanted to do new things, only to meet resistance from his fellow producers and writing staff. Writers like Kenneth Biller would publicly criticise assignments they had been handed, offering a sense of just how much faith the staff had in these ideas.

“You wouldn’t like me when I’m angry…”

Alliances marks perhaps the most ambitious element (and most spectacular failure) of the second season of Voyager . It is the centrepiece of Michael Piller’s attempts to develop the Kazon into a credible (and convincing) alien threat, while also setting up a recurring arc that will allow Piller to push Tom Paris into the role of “lovable rogue” of which Piller was so fond. These were elements that excited Piller a great deal, but left most of the rest of the production team relatively cold.

So there is a great deal of irony in the fact that Alliances is ultimately written by Jeri Taylor, who was increasingly at loggerheads with Piller over the direction of Voyager . In light of that context, it makes sense that Alliances is an episode that aggressively critiques its own existence. Janeway spends most of the episode frustrated at the fact that the story is happening at all, and Alliances builds towards a climax that seems designed to convince the viewer that this whole idea is misconceived on just about every possible level.

Blooming disaster…

One of the more interesting aspects of the creative conflict over the direction of the second season of Voyager is that there is no clear right and wrong party. Piller was trying to innovate and experiment, but his experiments tended to be spectacular failures. Piller is a producer who thought that Tattoo was a good idea, and that the episode was boldly pushing the franchise forward. It is perfectly understandable that the writers on staff would question his direction and guidance.

Jeri Taylor might have been advocating for the conservative and formulaic approach that would come to define Voyager , but it is hard to vilify any creative voice advocating for less exposure of the Kazon. Quite simply, the Kazon are the most spectacularly racist Star Trek aliens since the Ferengi. While the Ferengi were ultimately redeemed (somewhat) by Ira Steven Behr, it seems unlikely that Michael Piller was going to let his staff radically reimagine the Kazon to the extent that they might seem less like racial caricatures.

Janeway feels be-Trabe-d…

The unfortunate racial subtext of the Kazon has been bubbling away since they were introduced in Caretaker as a generic “primitive” species to play up the “western” sensibilities of the new Star Trek show. The Kazon at once embodied stereotypical portrayals of Native Americans in classic westerns and also reflected contemporary anxieties about “gang” culture in Los Angeles itself. The writing staff on Voyager was predominantly white and middle-class, so that intersection of racial “other” went about as well as one might expect.

The Kazon are a bunch of primitive savages without the technology of the explorers who have arrived in their territory. Voyager and its crew are presented as a civilised and progressive influence on Delta Quadrant politics; the Kazon are consistently portrayed as a barbaric and backwards species who pose a threat to everything around them. In Mortal Coil , Seven of Nine makes a passive-aggressive dig at the Kazon, suggesting that they are “unworthy of assimilation.” She ponders, “Why assimilate a species that would detract from perfection?”

“It’s on, like Kaz-on!”

The Kazon were originally conceived as a vehicle through which the production team could explore the increasing gang violence in contemporary urban society; given that Star Trek was produced in Los Angeles, this made a great deal of sense. As Jeri Taylor explained in Captains’ Logs Supplemental :

We felt with the Kazon we needed to address the tenor of our times and what […] was happening in our cities and recognizing a source of danger and social unrest. We wanted to do that metaphorically.

The Kazon might be named as an allusion to “the Kazan Phenomenon” , but they are clearly rooted in Los Angeles gang culture. (Early production documents suggest sects like “the Crips” and “the Bloods.” ) The Kazon were introduced in Caretaker at around the same time as  Deep Space Nine was dealing with the issue in The Abandoned .

Slaves to fate…

This is already a highly questionable creative choice. Street gangs in Los Angeles were frequently the subject of sensationalist news coverage , presented in a manner that tended to heighten racial tensions in the community . The reality of the situation was often more complex and nuanced than the twenty-four-hour news cycle would allow; the emergence of gang culture was rooted in all manner of complex socio-economic factors that were less compelling than urban legends about crazy initiations or reports of drive-by shootings.

All indications are that the production staff probably should have been quite careful when dealing with the racial subtext that came with the Kazon; they were obvious stand-ins for a contemporary subculture that was associated in popular media with young black men. As a result, the decision to portray the Kazon as inherently violent primitives was a risky proposition at best. It suggested that the production team were rather tone-deaf when it came to issues of racial politics and subtext.

“Racial caricatures? Never!”

The second season decided to double-down on this uncomfortable metaphor by revealing that the Kazon had a history of slavery. Kenneth Biller prepared a memo outlining Kazon history, explaining that a race known as “the Trabe” had kept the Kazon as slaves until the Kazon rebelled against their masters and vanquished them. This is a rather awkward addition to an already loaded racial metaphor; the addition of slavery to the history of the Kazon even more explicitly ties them to the African American experience.

In this context, there is absolutely no justification for the decision to repeatedly and consistently portray the Kazon as violent savages incapable of self-government. The treatment of the Kazon in episodes like State of Flux and Alliances seems to suggest that maybe the Delta Quadrant was a much safer place when the Trabe kept the Kazon as slaves; the Kazon seem barely capable of taking care of themselves, they are a major risk to just about any civilised society in the region.

“Who died? … Oh, right.”

Alliances allows the show to compare and contrast the Trabe with the Kazon. The Kazon are repeatedly and consistently portrayed as backwards. Maj Cullah is repeatedly portrayed as misogynistic in his attitude towards Janeway. ( “I won’t have a woman dictate terms to me,” he insists.) At the same time, Cullah is completely oblivious to how thoroughly Seska is manipulating him. While the Trabe share fine wine with crew of Voyager, Neelix meets his old Kazon friend at a strip club; that friend is unable to solve a basic trigonometry problem.

In contrast, the Trabe are portrayed as much more civilised and advanced. “They produced scholars and artists who were widely admired and their technology was among the finest in the quadrant,” Neelix tells Janeway. Mabus enjoys a nice civilised meal with the crew, in which he is allowed to argue that the Trabe were somewhat justified in “protecting” themselves from the Kazon. “I was told they were violent and dangerous, and had to be kept isolated so they wouldn’t get loose and kill us. Which is exactly what they did, but we brought it on ourselves.”

“But, hey, we’re better dinner guests… right?”

There is something quite reactionary about all of this, as if Alliances is suggesting that the Kazon were better kept enslaved. Even allowing for the end of the episode, the script is sympathetic to Mabus and the Trabe. “Most of the Trabe who persecuted the Kazon are either dead or old men by now,” Mabus tells Janeway over dinner. “Most of us were children when the uprising occurred, and our children are innocent, but the Kazon’s desire for revenge is as strong as ever.” He makes it sound almost unreasonable that the Kazon would harbour resentment and anger.

There are obvious uncomfortable parallels running through all this. Race can be a particularly complicated and sensitive issue in the United States, but Alliances is blunt and offensive on almost every level. It seems like the Trabe were entirely right to keep the Kazon in bondage, given the violence that occurred when they were released; when Mabus complains about the Kazon’s reluctance to move past atrocities that occurred outside living memory, he is repeating a lot of the rhetoric that attempts to divorce current racial tensions from their historical context.

“We’ll meet in approximately twenty hours. It’s best not to question the geography.”

To be fair, Alliances makes it pretty clear that the Trabe are not nice people. Mabus conspires to assassinate the leadership of the Kazon factions in a sequence that borrows rather directly from The Godfather: Part III . However, it does not use Janeway’s experience with the Trabe to inform her other dealings with the Kazon. Indeed, there is a rather unfortunate subtext to Janeway’s different behaviour towards the Trabe as compared to the Kazon. Janeway is willing to ally with former slavers, but finds the prospect of dealing with former slaves “distasteful.”

As such, Alliances becomes a story about how Janeway finds it easier to trust a bunch of white former slave-owners than a group of dark-skinned former slaves. Of course, it is ultimately revealed that Janeway is wrong to trust anybody , but Jeri Taylor refuses to allow that Janeway made any errors in judgment. The message that Janeway learns at the end is not that you shouldn’t trust people who owned slaves; instead, Janeway learns that you shouldn’t trust anybody, not even nice middle-class white people.

The hovering Kazon Raider made the rest of the delegates a little uncomfortable. And dead. But mostly uncomfortable.

Which, of course, suggests another problem with Alliances . Even aside from the uncomfortable racial subtext, the episode is written terribly . The script is credited to Jeri Taylor, but it feels like she drew the short straw. Various elements of the plot seem to reflect Michael Piller’s aesthetic: the emphasis on the Kazon, the moral ambiguity, the sense of compromise, the desire to play up the conflict between the Maquis and the Starfleet crew. These are all elements more in line with Piller’s vision of the show than Taylor’s.

As a result, it seems like Taylor absolutely skewers the very idea of Alliances . With the Kazon growing ever more bold in their attacks on the ship, the crew of Voyager find themselves wondering if their idealistic principles are outdated and irrelevant. Starfleet regulations may not have been written for this particular situation, so why not compromise? The crew are dying in this region of uncharted space, perhaps it is time to accept that tough decisions have to be made. It is a very Deep Space Nine set up. However, Jeri Taylor is not at all interested in any of that.

“You can tell I’m allied with Mabus because he’s the whitest guy in the room.”

At its core, Alliances is the story about how Janeway thinks that this particular plot is a bad idea. While everyone around her convinces her to at least try an alternative approach, Janeway remains steadfast in her absolutist rejection of what she sees as a violation of the crew’s core values. Reluctantly and half-heartedly, Janeway attempts a compromise to appease her restless crew and save lives. However, the entire episode is just a set-up to prove Janeway right. She even gets an “I told you so” speech at the end.

Alliances is an episode entirely structured to validate Janeway’s black-and-white morality. At Crewman Bendara’s funeral, Ensign Hogan asks Janeway what she plans to do about the situation. Janeway assures the young officer that he can speak freely; he does so. Almost immediately, Janeway outlines her position. “I appreciate your concerns, crewman, but let me make it absolutely clear. I’ll destroy this ship before I turn any part of it over to the Kazon.” It is more than just an ironic foreshadowing of Basics, Part I . It is a statement of principle.

“The Kazon are dying!” “Let them die!”

Janeway is incredibly stubborn and self-righteous here. While still in earshot of Hogan, Janeway practically snaps at Chakotay, “So that’s how the Maquis would do it?” The script for Alliances brings up the conflict between the Maquis and the Starfleet crew for the first time in what feels like ages. Chakotay argues that the desire to strike a deal with the Kazon comes from the Maquis crewmembers. “A lot of the Maquis feel the Federation abandoned them years ago. You may be willing to die for Federation principles, but they’re not.”

In a way, this foreshadows the issues with Alliances . It seems strange that the Maquis should be the only members of the crew vocal on the subject; surely some Starfleet officers have to feel the same way? If Tuvok feels comfortable enough to suggest the alliance to Janeway, then surely there must be a large number of Starfleet personnel who would support a proposed alliance with the Kazon? Either way, Janeway is immediately paranoid. “I can’t believe you’d support that man’s position,” she accuses Chakotay.

This funeral really blows…

“I don’t,” Chakotay responds. “But isn’t there something in between your position and his?” It is a perfectly reasonable and justifiable position. After all, Star Trek has always been built around the idea of integration and understanding. Deep Space Nine and Voyager were airing in an increasingly multicultural world. Would it be so bad for Janeway to learn to work with outsiders; whether those outsiders were the Maquis on her crew or the Kazon in the Delta Quadrant?

Tuvok makes a similar appeal to Janeway, drawing on the history of the Star Trek franchise. “When I was a young man, a great visionary named Spock recommended an alliance between the Federation and the Klingon empire,” Tuvok recalls, another nice piece of foreshadowing of future developments. Tuvok is entirely right here; if the Federation can make peace with the Klingons, why can’t Voyager make peace with the Kazon? It makes Janeway uncomfortable, but all world-changing ideas must seem frightening at first.

Spaced out…

However, Alliances eventually validates Janeway’s perspective. She is right; everybody else is wrong. Alliances suggests that it is impossible to make peace with the Kazon, and that it is impossible to trust anybody in the Delta Quadrant. It is a ruthlessly cynical ending, but one that is quite jarring. The ending of Alliances should be a bleak and nihilistic rejection of the franchise’s utopian idealism, given that the crew just learned that they are truly and completely alone in this strange part of the universe. Instead, Taylor’s script plays it as an upbeat ending.

“This appears to be a region of space that doesn’t have many rules,” Janeway tells her crew. “But I believe we can learn something from the events that have unfolded. In a part of space where there are few rules, it’s more important than ever that we hold fast to our own. In a region where shifting allegiances are commonplace we have to have something stable to rely on. And we do. The principles and ideals of the Federation. As far as I’m concerned, those are the best allies we could have.” Janeway was right; it’s easiest to stick to the principles.

Cullah and Seska. The new sitcom, coming this fall on UPN.

Of course, this all misses the point of principles. People don’t adhere to principles because they make things easy. The true test of a principle is not whether you would adhere to it if the alternative were chaos and horror; the true test of a principle is whether you adhere to it when it makes things tougher and harder. Janeway’s decision to stand by her principles would be easier to admire if the entire forty-five minute episode weren’t a Rube Goldberg machine designed to prove that everybody should have just listened to Janeway in the first place.

Discussing Janeway’s reluctance to break from protocol, Chakotay observes, “Frankly I’m not sure they were ever intended for situations like this.” Janeway responds, “I haven’t seen any evidence that they’ve let us down.” She is entirely right; but only because Voyager has been structured so as to give the crew a seven-year pleasure cruise. It doesn’t take courage or conviction to stick to your principles when life is easy. Voyager has made sure that its characters have never been hungry, never been stranded, never been desperate. Principles are easy in those cases.

A puzzling alliance…

After all, the teaser to Alliances opens with the ship under siege from the Kazon. Voyager takes a pounding; a crewmember is killed, consoles explode, smoke billows. It really feels like the ship is in trouble, as the crew read out damage reports. However, the damage is not substantial. No character we care about is harmed during the teaser; everything is conveniently tidied away after the credits have rolled. Half-way through the episode, there is absolutely no indication that the crew have been under strain at all. As such, it is hard to take the pressure or anxiety seriously.

It doesn’t help matters that Alliances has the crew compromising their principles in the stupidest manner possible. The crew doesn’t fail because the idea is bad, the crew fail because the execution is spectacularly awful. In a way, it feels like the production team are holding up a mirror to the second season as a whole; the second season of Voyager is populated with interesting ideas that are realised in the most atrocious manner possible. Here, it feels like Janeway is actively sabotaging her attempts to strike an alliance, so that she can ultimately be vindicated.

Chakotay is a pretty impressive eugooglist…

Why would Voyager consider an alliance with the Nistrim? The ship has a long record of dealing with Maj Cullah and Seska, and knows that they cannot be trusted; in fact, Seska sexually assaulted one of the senior staff. Of all the other Kazon sects out there, the Nistrim are the least trustworthy and would be the hardest with which to deal. On a similar note, why ally with the Trabe? How does Janeway imagine that the Kazon will react once she shows up aligned with their former slaveowners?

Maj Cullah is pretty much a two-dimensional villain, but he gets perhaps the most pressing line of the episode. “I find you nothing but a hypocrite, Captain, allying yourselves to the greatest villains this quadrant has ever known,” he remarks. “If this is where your revered Federation values have taken you, I want no part of it.” The episode suggests that Janeway was wrong to compromise her values at all, but it does seem like she made the worst possible choice she could make in choosing to violate those principles. Just to repeat, Janeway allies with slavers.

It is so tough being right all the time.

(The script tries to suggest that this is inevitably where compromise leads. When Chakotay raises the obvious objections to allying with Seska, Janeway reflects, “You can’t have it both ways Commander. If you want to get in the mud with the Kazon you can’t start complaining that you might get dirty.” Of course, this is a rather glib deflection; it is quite easy to set limits on just how dirty you are willing to become, and what compromises you are willing to make. Still, the issue is not about degrees of compromise; instead, these are simply stupid decisions.)

This is to say nothing of just how hypocritical Janeway can be. Her refusal to parlay with the Kazon in Alliances stands at odds with her willingness to negotiate with the Borg in Scorpion, Part I . The show hasn’t yet allowed Janeway’s inconsistencies and contradictions to reach critical mass; however, episodes like Alliances are establishing firm absolutist principles that the show will violate with increasing frequency in the years ahead. Janeway’s self-righteousness is not an appealing character trait, but neither is the fickleness set up here.

“Slaver” is such a harsh term…

In a way, the way that Janeway botches (or sabotages) her attempts at moral compromise reflects the way that Voyager is botching its own attempts at embracing serialisation. The Kazon arc running through the second season of Voyager is perhaps the longest arc running through the seven seasons of Voyager . It is, in no uncertain terms, a complete travesty. It is a disaster on a truly epic scale, and seems quite likely to have contributed to Michael Piller’s departure from the franchise.

Alliances itself has some issues that result from botched serialisation, even if it is only really setting the larger arc in motion. Most obviously, the idea that the Kazon attacks on the ship are taking their toll on crew morale seems to come out of nowhere. Crew morale seemed pretty okay in Resistance and Prototype ; it certainly doesn’t take a knock in Threshold . This is the first indication that the show has given of a recurring Kazon threat since Manoeuvres . (Which, of course, reopens the whole “how big is Kazon space?” or “how slow is Voyager moving?” debate.)

“We hardly knew ye. No, really.”

Similarly, the plot is spurred by the death of Crewman Bendera. He is a character who does not have any lines; he dies in the teaser, having never appeared on the show before. It is hard to get too shaken up by all this, despite laboured exposition about his history with Chakotay or Torres. Voyager does not have a recurring cast with the same depth or nuance as Deep Space Nine . Joseph Carey has already vanished into history. Alliances introduces Hogan and Jonas; the two characters recur throughout the season, but are both dead by the end of the production year.

In short Voyager is very bad at serialisation. It is a problem that becomes more pronounced as the Kazon arc kicks into high gear. The show awkward shoehorns stilted scenes into standalone episodes, refusing to let organic character development or integrated plot threads map out a larger story. The second season’s Kazon arc is handled horribly, perhaps contributing to the decision to steer away from longer plot arcs in the later seasons of the show; it is understandable that the production team would not want to repeat the experience.

Frazzled…

In his infamous exit interview, Ronald D. Moore was extremely critical of the lack of serialisation on Voyager . He argued that the show was patronising and condescending to its viewers :

It’s very hard to write in continuity, because of the nature of television. You are writing ahead, and you are writing at the moment, and you are changing things in post. It’s really hard to keep all the ducks in a row, which we found at Deep Space Nine. In that last ten-episode run, where it was almost completely serialized, that’s a tough act to carry off. But it’s also worth the effort, because the payoff is the world has more validity. The audience can sense there is truth in it. It’s a better show, and it will last longer as a result. If you are really just so concerned that this week’s episode won’t make sense because you didn’t see that episode three years ago, why can’t Star Trek do like Ally McBeal, or The Practice, or ER, all the big successful shows do. Put a little recap at the top of the show: ‘Previously, on Star Trek: Voyager…’ — even if it’s an episode from two years ago. You just quickly get the audience up to speed, because the audience is not stupid. The audience has watched television for a long time. They understand that they have missed some things, that perhaps this is a reference to a show that they didn’t see. They aren’t just going to throw up their hands and move on. If you are pre-supposing that, you are aiming towards the person that is grabbing a beer, and isn’t really paying attention, and is walking out of the room every ten minutes and coming back and sitting down; all you are going to do is dumb down the show. You are reducing it to its lowest common denominator, and what’s the point of that? What do you get out of that? You just get a so-so kind of television experience.

Deep Space Nine was experimenting with serialisation and embracing the future of televised storytelling. Ironically, Voyager would end up being the Star Trek show that boldly and stubbornly remained in place.

Hardly a blast…

Alliances is a misfire on a fairly spectacular level, one that is often overlooked in examining the context and legacy of Voyager . The fact that it aired right before the broadcast of Threshold probably offers insulation and protection that it doesn’t really deserve. It is one of the worst episodes of Voyager ever produced; if not one of the worst episodes the franchise every produced. It is certainly among the most toxic, tainting both the racial politics of the show itself and also sabotaging any credible attempt to modernise storytelling on Voyager .

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Filed under: Voyager | Tagged: absolutism , alliances , gangs , history , janeway , Jeri Taylor , kathryn janeway , kazon , los angeles , Michael Piller , race relations , racial politics , reactionary , serialisation , Slavery , star trek , star trek: voyager , trabe , voyager |

24 Responses

You’re right that DS9 is the more logical successor to The Original Series, in tone and themes. (Just compare The Armageddon Factor to For the Uniform. ) And yet defenders of VOY tend to compare it TOS. This proves that the show is strongest when it jettisons the serial approach (as you said) and focuses on standalone stories. To paraphrase Winston Churchhill, you can always count on Voyager to do the right thing after everything else has been tried!

“Everything else” being a DS9 retread. TNG retread. Retread of popular movies. Retread of SG1. Retreads of itself (!!).

On VOY, you have episodes like “Meld”, “Remember”, “Night”, “Nemesis”, “Timeless”, “Memorial”, and particularly “Workforce”, which brings out some inspired performances in the actors and put them in uncomfortable places.

Paradoxically, the fact that VOY’s cast were such “blank slates” lends them to episodes where their sense of identity is challenged or questioned. On TNG we roll our eyes when Riker suddenly thinks he’s in a mental institution. Even on DS9, one has to swallow a lot of disbelief to watch O’Brien in “Hard Time”. Because we see so little of the senior staff outside of their assigned “roles”, there are precious moments where we learn something new about them.

Yep. I worry that it sounds like I hate Voyager in these reviews. I actually like it a lot. It’s probably my least favouritye Star Trek show, but that still leaves a lot of affection for it. (Funny you should mention “Meld”, it might be my favourite episode.)

Do you still like it a lot after this most recent re-watch?

You know, I do.

The sixth and seventh seasons are a slog. But if you asked me after the fifth season, I’d be much more enthusiastic. The fourth season is great fun from beginning to end, and the fifth season has any number of really great episodes.

It’s funny. A little while ago, my Voyager reviews got shared on TrekBBS. They met with the same sort of response you’d expect – this guy is no fun , this guy hates Star Trek , this guy over-thinks it , this guy hasn’t done enough research – but what was remarkable is how they fixated on my negative reviews. Which, to be fair, are a lot of them.

But that involves overlooking the fact that Voyager gave us Counterpoint or Gravity in the space of a handful of episodes, or the steps the series made in producing blockbuster spectacle on a television budget in Future’s End or The Killing Game , or the wry self-aware deconstruction of Course: Oblivion or Child’s Play .

I still think Voyager is (by far) the weakest Star Trek show and the one that doomed the franchise. But I also think there’s a lot here to like.

Yep, I don’t hate Voyager either. I’m frustrated by its worldview and its creative choices, but there is a point where I’m being unfair. “Voyager” wasn’t the only Trek show to struggle mightily. In fact, as far as I’m concerned, it’s all been going downhill since the end of DS9. There hasn’t been a truly great season of Trek since 1999.

The modern shows do exactly what we all criticized “Voyager” for not doing, and they still misfire hugely. And neither “Enterprise”, “Discovery”, “Picard”, or “Lower Decks” ever came close to reaching the heights of “Voyager”.

“If you want to get in the mud with the Kazon you can’t start complaining that you might get dirty.”

Bluh…!? Who was that forging an alliance with the Borg in “Scorpion”, then?

And Chakotay is the one insisting on playing by the rules four years later…I’ve heard of alternate continues but not in the same series.

“‘Previously, on Star Trek: Voyager…’ ”

Right here. Moore has stumbled on the reason for the Kazon’s failure.

If we recap what happened in Caretaker, we will be reminded of that nonsensical episode from here to perpetuity. It’s the same reason why Kes must go.

Well done, Mr. Mooney. This was a good read.

Thanks! Glad you liked it. I’m actually quite happy with how the second season reviews of Voyager turned out. Turns out that there is a lot to talk about when it comes to the show.

Ouch, you were certainly not kind towards this episode. I have to say it is completely justified, however. This episode feels like a mission statement from the creators of voyager. There will not be consequences and any kind of risky storytelling will not be tolerated. What amuses me about the deaths of hogan and Jonas is that two other engineers at least will bite the dust before too long in Suder and the man he kills. It makes me wonder how on earth voyager has any engineers left besides B’Elanna.

Well, Carey is still present. Lieutenant Carey of seasons one and two, never to be seen again until “Friendship One”. That’s when the fans wrote in to remind the writers about him. The staff mistakenly thought they had killed Carey, so they bring him back at the end of season seven to kill him off.

That is not a joke. (Same with that Bolian man, Chell I think, who “survived” in the sense that he was forgotten about and then killed by Psycho!Tuvok once they realized he still draws breath.)

I remember thinking that everytime they brought back Samantha Wildman.

“Voyager only remembers it has recurring guest stars among the Starfleet crew when it needs to kill somebody off.”

When did Chell die? I remember he wanted the job of chef after Neelix left Voyager in Homestead and that was only two episodes before the end.

I don’t think Chell dies. I think he is attacked by Tuvok in Repression, though. Although I might have referenced him dying in a later review. If you catch it, let me know and I’ll correct.

Clearly, all the real work was being done on Voyager’s bottom deck by Mortimer Harren. They conscripted B’Elanna’s people from security, which is why Tuvok never delegates work.

Ha! I also suspect Tuvok never delegates work because… well, would you trust the rest of the crew?

“You know, you’d imagine security’d be the riskiest profession on Voyager, but no!”

I think I mentioned a few weeks back that Alliances is probably my second least favourite episode of the season, behind (or ahead of, depending on how you look at it) Tattoo. It is just a spectacularly ill-judged piece of television. Janeway meets a bunch of slavers and declares, “These are my kind of people!”

I never saw “Alliance,” but your review makes me glad that I missed it.

Reading you analysis of this episode, it makes me appreciate all the more how the reboot of Battlestar Galactica was, at least in part, the show that Voyager was originally supposed to be in concept but which was completely lacking in the actual execution. Battlestar Galactica was a continual exercise in demonstrating the ongoing struggle between principles and practicalities, and it was most definitely not afraid to depict the regular characters in a morally ambiguous, if not outright negative, light.

Yep. Alliances is the episode where Janeway meets a bunch of slavers and sighs in relief, “These are my kind of people.” And the writing staff thought it was a good idea.

I dislike the Kazon’s misogyny because it wasn’t hard wired into their characters when we first met them. Is it supposed to be some sort of (arrested) development on their parts, and whose bright idea was it anyway?

It’s interesting that Janeway and Tuvok liken what’s happening with the Kazon to when the Federation tried to make peace with the Klingon Empire, since the Kazon have often been accused of being a substandard replacement in the absence of the Empire, right down to the cranial ridges (although Tuvok is unaware of Federation relations with the Empire at this point in time).

It is nice to see there are still some Maquis conflicts on Voyager which always makes for good drama. I enjoyed both scenes with Hogan where I felt he held his own against Mulgrew and Dawson. In fact, Simon Billig impressed the producers enough to expand his character throughout the season from what was intended to be a one-shot appearance (and why I was so angry when they disposed of him in a most callous way in S3).

I found it unusual that Hogan and Jonas trust Seska since she is a Cardassian and they were Maquis terrorists, but that never even comes up. And I suspect the reason Janeway didn’t want Chakotay opening negotiations with Seska was because she might manipulate him into worsening their situation in the Delta Quadrant, instead of strengthening it.

I think Jeri Taylor’s script lays it on a bit thick here. You know Janeway is setting herself up to be disappointed when she says the Trabe can change and especially the ending with Janeway’s speech just in case we missed the point.

Is Hogan an ensign or a crewman? I think Harry said he was a crewman in Resolutions. The crewman killed in the teaser was called Kurt Bendera.

Yep, there is some irony in Tuvok’s whole “the alliance with the Klingons worked out pretty well” speech, to the point that I almost imagine a Family Guy style cutaway gag to the events of The Way of the Warrior.

I agree with your nuanced analysis, yet I found this episode all in all well paced, densily packed, and at times quite intriguing. As you mention, it asked a lot of good questions but cut the answers short. Janeway, especially her arrogant stance that the ship is not a democracy (which is true, but the wording and the strictness is awful) and her “told you so”-speech in the end were unwatchable. In some ways the ending seemed to indicate Roddenberry’s optimism, but it also sounded heavily “end of history”-like and arrogant, especially since she seemed to believe the Trabes’ intentions to be good at first and that history and its debts are forgotten. The Kazon, though obviously no realiable partners either, at least pointed the finger at Janeway. But despite the obvious weaknesses of the show and putting lack of serialization aside I could not see a better way to resolveor continue this dilemma once it is there. Sticking to principles – what story would you tell? Continue the deal with the Trabe – impossible. Maybe Janeway should have tried allying with another Kazon tribe, just to prove that they are not all bad, brown, evil idiots.

The one aspect were Voyager did serialization – Seska – keeps on annoying me. Why don’t we get any sense of her motivation? What does she believe to gain by joining the Kazon? It seems to be not really a pleasant or safe environment. The little power she might gain could be lost any minute.

The whole episode, btw, could indeed have come from Piller’s mind – it reminded me a lot about Star Trek IX in which the Federation’s moral ambiguity was critizised in order to restore it more fully at the end.

In that conversation where MAbus was explaining the history of the kazons, it wasn’t saying that the Kazon were inherently violent and that the trabe were right in enslaving them, it was saying that had become violent BECAUSE they had been enslaved by the trabe, and mentioned that they made them fight each other so that they wouldn’t turn on their masters.

As for Janeway allying herself with former slavers, in her defence, the crew did seem to genuinely believe that the trabe had learnt their lesson and they were willing to give them a second chance, not to mention that they seemed easier to get along with compared to the Kazon (plus they probably had that whole without a home thing that gave them extra sympathy points). Of course, this proved to be a farce as it became clear that MAbus had no intention of wanting to make peace with the Kazon, and the episode doesn’t condone his racial argument that the kazon no nothing but violence, with Janeway saying that maybe he’s the one who knows nothing but violence.

Also when I was going to add this comment, I was surprised to see you say in one response that you actually like voyager, as in nearly every review I’ve read about Voyager you’ve been critical of the show, or at least there’s less to be wanting.

There’s still a huge difference in how Janeway treats the Trabe as opposed to the Kazon. She pops the champagne for the former slavers, and doesn’t subject them to anything close to the level of scrutiny that she has had for the Kazon since the outset.

With regards to Voyager, I’d point you to me reviews of episodes like Prey , Gravity , Counterpoint , Course: Oblivion , Child’s Play , Tinker, Tenor, Doctor, Spy and lots of others. If you’re reading Alliances , you’re probably reading reviews of the show’s second season, which is (I would contend) one of the worst seasons in Star Trek history. It’s highly likely that most will be skeptical of the show. Even then, it still produces episodes like Meld or The Thaw or Lifesigns . I even really loved Projections , although it’s debatable to which season it belongs.

You mean the descendants of the former slavers, as mabus had only been a child when the Kazons rose in revolt.

As for the episodes you pointed out, I’ll look out for them, as previous articles and reviews looked at episodes like Fortunate son, family, displaced, day of honor, lineage, and author author, reviews that contain aspects of just how horrible a series voyager is (And I don’t mean badly written, although I’m sure there’s that as well, I mean how it the series portrayed horrible values).

That said, I do agree with a couple of points you made, like pointing out the uncomfortable comments about race, such as splitting torres up created a more ‘genetically aggressive’ individual, or the negative portrayal of klingons in family. It’s funny to think how in comparison to a show like ds9 where a klingon restaurant was an option for food, characters drank ratkajino and klingon opera was part of the school curriculum, voyager seemed to emphasise just how negative the Klingon culture was.

(Oh since I came up with this, I did read about one, and yes it was surprisingly positive. Mind you it’s not that I haven’t come across the odd positive review (or at least a neutral one), it’s just more often than not I come across a review that seems to focus on the worst of this series, so much that it has potential to put me off a series that I had enjoyed when it was on, even though it was no deep space nine).

Sorry! I shouldn’t put you off. Just ignore me. The worst thing in the world I can do is kill somebody’s enthusiasm for something they love. All I am doing here is arguing for my own reading of the series. It’s not absolute, nor should it be. It’s just one guy writing about what runs through his head when you pour hundreds of episodes of Star Trek into it.

One of the most disheartening things that I ever read was one of my reviews shared on reddit and somebody saying that I was right and that they were wrong to enjoy the show. Which is the exact opposite of the point of this.

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Et in Arcadia Ego, Part 1

Terra firma, part 1, vaulting ambition.

The USS Voyager is on a mission to a distant region of space and is searching for a potential alliance with a previously unknown alien species. Captain Janeway has decided to take a risk and reach out to the species, who are known as the Kazon. Although the Kazon are hostile and mistrusting of the Voyager crew, Janeway remains hopeful that an alliance can be made.

The Voyager crew is soon met by a Kazon representative, Maje Culluh, who begins to negotiate a potential alliance between the two species. He puts forth a number of conditions, such as allowing the Kazon access to advanced Federation technology, and unlimited access to Voyager’s resources. These conditions are met with some resistance from Janeway and her crew, but ultimately they are willing to make a deal.

Meanwhile, tensions between the Voyager crew and the Kazon are on the rise, and a fight soon breaks out between the two sides. In an effort to maintain peace, Janeway decides to make an offer to the Kazon: a joint expedition to explore a nearby star system. The Kazon are intrigued by this idea and agree to join the mission.

The expedition soon proves to be more than a simple exploration mission, as the crew discovers that the star system is home to an ancient alien species. This species, the Trabe, were once a powerful species, but were eventually defeated by the Kazon many years ago. The Trabe now live in exile, and are struggling to survive in the harsh environment.

Janeway realizes that the alliance between the two species, the Kazon and the Trabe, is the only way to ensure peace in the region. She begins to negotiate a truce between the two sides, and eventually an agreement is reached. The Kazon and Trabe agree to work together to protect and explore the star system, and both sides agree to share resources and technology.

The alliance is not without its challenges, as the Kazon and Trabe must adjust to living and working together. Janeway and her crew offer their assistance in any way they can, and soon the crew finds themselves in the middle of a full-scale war between the two species.

The crew of the Voyager must find a way to broker a lasting peace between the two sides, and ultimately Janeway must make a tough decision that could mean the difference between peace and war. In the end, Janeway’s alliance proves successful, and the two species are able to coexist in relative peace. The crew of the Voyager is able to return home, their mission complete.

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Equinox (part 2), persistence of vision.

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Captain Janeway reluctantly tries to form an alliance with the Kazons and their longtime enemies in order to strengthen Voyager's position in the quadrant.

Martha Hackett

Simon Billig

Raphael Sbarge

Anthony De Longis

John Gegenhuber

Larry Cedar

Charles Lucia

Mirron E. Willis

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Kate Mulgrew

Robert Beltran

Roxann Dawson

Jennifer Lien

Robert Duncan McNeill

Ethan Phillips

Robert Picardo

Garrett Wang

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Screen Rant

Star trek: voyager cast & character guide.

In its seven seasons, Star Trek: Voyager introduced many new faces to the Trek universe. Here is a breakdown of the show's main cast and characters.

As the fifth official Star Trek series, Star Trek: Voyager introduced audiences to an entirely new Starship and her intrepid crew. After the stationary setting of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine , Voyager brought things back to the stars by flinging the titular ship into an unexplored part of the galaxy. As Captain Kathryn Janeway (Kate Mulgrew) fought to bring her crew home, the USS Voyager encountered all kinds of new life forms and strange new worlds. In addition to Captain Janeway, Voyager would introduce several new characters to Star Trek , some of whom have made appearances in current Star Trek shows

The series began with Captain Janeway leading a mission to find the missing Maquis ship the Val Jean, on which her colleague and friend Tuvok (Tim Russ) was serving undercover. After Janeway found the Maquis ship, both ships were thrown 70,000 light-years across the galaxy, from the Alpha Quadrant to the Delta Quadrant, by a dying entity known as the Caretaker. Over the course of the seven seasons of Star Trek: Voyager , Captain Janeway and her crew encountered alien species both old and new, as they made their way home through the uncharted Delta Quadrant.

10 Kate Mulgrew as Captain Kathryn Janeway

The Captain of the USS Voyager, Kate Mulgrew's Kathryn Janeway has the distinction of being the first female Captain to lead a Star Trek show. Janeway initiated first contact with many new alien species across the Delta Quadrant and would eventually become an Admiral in Starfleet . As Captain of Voyager, Janeway had the difficult task not only of navigating the unfamiliar Delta Quadrant, but also of merging a crew of Starfleet officers with a crew of rebel Maquis. She managed both tasks admirably and did her best to uphold the ideals of Starfleet even 70,000 light-years from home.

9 Robert Beltran as Commander Chakotay

Captain of the Val Jean, Chakotay (Robert Beltran) was a former Starfleet officer turned Maquis who became First Officer of the USS Voyager after the destruction of his ship. Chakotay helped smooth over relations between the Starfleet officers and the former Maquis, and devoted himself to serving Voyager and Captain Janeway. Despite Robert Beltran being Mexican American, his character Chakotay was of Native American descent and had a strong connection to the spirituality of his tribe. He also had a strong sense of justice and, while he mostly supported Janeway, would occasionally speak up against her, particularly if he felt she was being reckless with her own life.

8 Tim Russ as Lieutenant Tuvok

Lt. Tuvok served as the Chief Security and Tactical Officer aboard Voyager, as well as Janeway's Second in Command. When Star Trek: Voyager began, Tuvok was undercover as a member of the Maquis abroad the Val Jean, but he was quickly reinstated as a security officer after the ships were thrown into the Delta Quadrant. As a Vulcan, Tuvok valued logic and reason , and Janeway often relied on him for advice and counsel. Tuvok and Janeway had served together before their time on Voyager and had become close friends. Despite his Vulcan stoicism, Tuvok seemed to feel deeply and often expressed himself with biting sarcastic remarks.

7 Roxann Biggs-Dawson as Lieutenant B'Elanna Torres

Though B'Elanna Torres (Roxann Dawson) initially attended Starfleet Academy, she eventually dropped out to join the Maquis. As a half-Klingon half-human, B'Elanna struggled with her anger and was prone to lashing out, which was part of the reason why she chose to join the rebels. She and Chakotay would become friends as they fought together with the Maquis, and Chakotay helped her work through some of her anger. When she joined the crew of Voyager, B'Elanna became the Chief Engineer after she saved the ship from a quantum singularity. She would eventually begin a romantic relationship with pilot Tom Paris (Robert Duncan McNeill​​), and the pair got married early in season 7.

6 Robert Duncan-McNeill as Lieutenant Tom Paris

The USS Voyager's helmsman Tom Paris had been kicked out of Starfleet and was serving prison time when Janeway approached him to join Voyager's crew. Janeway had previously served under Tom's father, Admiral Owen Paris, and she wanted to help Tom turn his life back around. Due to Tom's less-than-stellar reputation, it took time for his Voyager crew mates to trust him. He would eventually become close friends with Ensign Harry Kim (Garrett Wang) and enter into a romantic relationship with B'Elanna Torres. Tom had a particular fascination with 20th-century American culture, and created a holodeck program called The Adventures of Captain Proton inspired by the science fiction serials of the 1930s.

5 Robert Picardo as The Doctor

After Voyager's first Doctor was killed when the ship entered the Delta Quadrant, the Emergency Medical Hologram or EMH known as The Doctor (Robert Picardo) became the ship's Chief Medical Officer. In the Star Trek: Voyager season 3 two-part episode "Future's End," The Doctor acquired a futuristic mobile emitter, which allowed him to move freely about Voyager and even join away missions. Since he was a created hologram, The Doctor's rights were sometimes called into question, much like the android Data (Brent Spiner) from Star Trek: The Next Generation. The longer he stayed active, the more human traits The Doctor acquired, and his crewmembers on Voyager stuck up for him when his sentience was questioned.

4 Garrett Wang as Ensign Harry Kim

Eternal Ensign Harry Kim (Garrett Wang) had recently graduated from Starfleet Academy and was on his first deep space mission when Voyager was flung across the galaxy. Over the course of his time on Voyager, Harry became close friends with Tom Paris, and the two would often go on adventures together in the holodeck. Though Harry was a bit naive and overeager when he first joined Voyager's crew, he had a brilliant mind and was valedictorian of his class at the Academy. He had always wanted to join Starfleet and requested Voyager as his first assignment.

3 Ethan Phillips as Neelix

When Voyager first arrived in the Delta Quadrant, they found a Talaxian named Neelix (Ethan Phillips) near the Collector, as well as the Ocampa homeworld. He helped them navigate the underground Ocampan city where Harry Kim and B'Elanna Torres were being held prisoner. Neelix and the Voyager crew also rescued Kes (Jennifer Lien), an Ocampan woman and Neelix's romantic partner. Neelix and Kes then joined the crew of Voyager and Neelix acted as a guide for their journey through the Delta Quadrant. Neelix would serve as Voyager's chef as well as the "chief morale officer," a title he created for himself. Though Neelix was not the most popular character among fans, his stories improved after Kes left the show.

2 Jeri Ryan as Seven of Nine

Assimilated at the age of six when she was still Annika Hansen, Jeri Ryan's Seven of Nine joined Voyager's crew for the show's fourth season after she was disconnected from the Borg collective. After their introduction in Star Trek: The Next Generation , the Borg became one of the Federation's most dangerous foes, and Seven was the first former Borg drone to join the crew of a Federation Starship. It took Seven a while to adapt to her newfound humanity and Captain Janeway became a mentor to her. Seven used her knowledge of the Borg and their technology to build an astrometrics lab on Voyager, and she would prove instrumental in helping the ship make it back to the Alpha Quadrant. Seven would become a fan-favorite character, and Jeri Ryan later reprised Seven in Star Trek: Picard .

1 Jennifer Lien as Kes

As a member of the Ocampan species, Kes had a very short life span of only eight or nine years, as well as a natural telepathic ability. Kes chose to join Voyager's crew with Neelix after they helped rescue her, and she soon began studying medicine with The Doctor. She and The Doctor became close friends and she fought for him to be treated better by the crew. She also worked with Tuvok to hone her telepathic abilities. At the start of the series, Kes was involved in a romantic relationship with Neelix, but they broke up in season three. Kes left Voyager early in season 4 after her psychic abilities grew too strong, but she returned for one episode of season 6. With Kes and the rest of the USS Voyager's crew, Star Trek: Voyager introduced some truly compelling characters to the Star Trek universe.

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Recap / Star Trek Voyager S 2 E 14 "Alliances"

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I don't think we can afford to keep doing business as usual. — Chakotay

This episode provides examples of

• Action Prologue : The episode opens in the middle of a battle where Voyager is getting hammered by two Kazon warships.
• Aggressive Negotiations
• The Alliance : Attempted. Voyager tries to make an alliance with one or two of the Kazon sects, but each attempt falls apart. Janeway then starts negotiating with the Trabe, former masters of the Kazon who were overthrown, and this leads to a proposal to bring peace to all the Kazon. However, when the Trabe leader betrays her trust and the Peace Conference nearly becomes a bloodbath, Janeway breaks off all negotiations.
• All Is Well That Ends Well / Debate and Switch : This episode raises the Starfleet principle vs. Maquis pragmatism conflict on which Star Trek: Voyager is supposed to be based, only to shut it down with An Aesop that the Starfleet way is the only way. Maquis dissidence is transferred to a single traitor , and continual use of the Reset Button ensures that Voyager is never put in the position of Equinox .
• Snipe Hunt : The dancer did say she'd sleep with the man who solved the puzzle. Seems a good way to get rid of an Abhorrent Admirer .
• That, or it forms the net of a polyhedron. It wouldn't be hard to count the sides and verify that they're all triangles.
• A Shared Suffering : Janeway assumes their own situation is similar to that of the refugee Trabe.
• Baby Trap : When Culluh threatens Seska, she taunts Culluh that he'd never harm his own child.
• Back-to-Back Badasses : Chakotay and Bendera when they first met during a Bar Brawl .
• Badass Boast : When Hogan suggests they just give the Kazon what they want, Janeway replies thus: "I appreciate your concerns, crewman, but let me make myself absolutely clear. I'll destroy this ship before I turn any part of it over to the Kazon."
• Bad Vibrations : Heralding the arrival of the Trabe warship.
• The Trabe appear as an alternative to Voyager allying with the untrustworthy Kazon. Then they betray Janeway as well.
• Voyager's crew thinks one of the First Majes is planning to assassinate his rivals. Knowing the person responsible will leave during the conference, they tense when Maje Culluh stands up from the table...to get himself a drink. Then Mabus urges Janeway to step outside for a quiet word...
• Beauty Equals Goodness : Subverted with Mabus, whose people (the Trabe) look more human than the Kazon. He starts out amiable and penitent for his people's treatment of the Kazon, yet turns out to be just as devious and violent.
• Be Careful What You Wish For : Chakotay has second thoughts when the other senior officers endorse bringing Seska into the negotiations.
• Beware the Nice Ones : Mabus appears a Reasonable Authority Figure . Turns out the Peace Conference he suggests is just so the Kazon leaders will be Lured into a Trap .
• Blatant Lies : When Neelix is seized by two Kazon thugs, the man he's negotiating with claims that Neelix is some unknown lunatic who sat down next to him and started babbling.
• Blood Knight : Bendera's reason for helping Chakotay during the Bar Brawl : "I like a good fight."
• Call-Back : Tuvok compares their current situation to the controversial Federation/Klingon peace treaty in Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country .
• Character Tics : Janeway paces the bridge in her hands-behind-back posture, and there's a close-up of her fingers twitching in impatience.
• Chekhov's Gunman : Jonas begins a Story Arc that culminates in "Investigations", by secretly trying to make contact with Seska.
• Children Are Innocent : An Invoked Trope by Mabus, who points out that those responsible for oppressing the Kazon are old men or dead by now, yet the Kazon want them all dead.
• Chronic Backstabbing Disorder : It's no surprise the Alliance doesn't last.
• Commercial Break Cliffhanger : After their negotiations with the Kazon fail, a fleet of their warships bear down on Voyager. Turns out they're actually Trabe vessels, which the Kazon have been using all this time.
• The Consigliere : Chakotay finally confronts Janeway and informs her that they are on their own in this Quadrant and they need to start changing in order to survive, which might mean bending the rules a little. He makes Janeway realize that the interests of the crew are her main concern, and he questions if she is actually prioritizing that by sticking so rigidly to Starfleet rules.
• Continuity Nod : Seska is pregnant, though she's pretending to Culluh that it's his child instead of Chakotay's. It really is Culluh's.
• Decapitated Army : Mabus plans to take out the First Majes of the major Kazon factions with one strike.
• Democracy Is Flawed : "This isn't a democracy, Chakotay! I can't run this ship by consensus!"
• Due to the Dead : Bendera avoids the Red Shirt treatment when we see his memorial service.
• Enemy Mine : Rather than handing over weapons or technology, Chakotay suggests a temporary alliance with the largest Kazon factions, agreeing to defend them if attacked.
• Explosive Instrumentation : Sparks are flying all over the ship during the Action Prologue . Crewman Bendera is killed after a console explodes in his face.
• Facial Dialogue : Plenty of this from all concerned — Janeway whenever Chakotay or Maje Culluh pisses her off. Seska's reaction when Culluh suggests his crew exchange program. Jonas' thoughtful look when B'Elanna shouts down Hogan's idea of contacting Seska again.
• Gut Feeling : For once, Janeway's gut lets her down when she elects to trust Mabus.
• He's Dead, Jim : Bendera
• Idealist vs. Pragmatist : Janeway wants to stick to Starfleet principles, while Chakotay thinks it would be better to break them in emergency situations since they're lost in space. The two have many debates over this.
• Idiot Ball : It seems strange that Janeway and Tuvok don't discuss the possibility that the Trabe might have a hidden agenda.
• Is That a Threat? : The First Majes think Janeway's Appeal to Force is this. She urges them to think otherwise, but the subsequent ambush does not help her case. Janeway: I won't pretend that our alliance wasn't an attempt to make a show of strength. Separately, we and the Trabe are vulnerable. Together, we are stronger. Surat: Are you threatening us, Captain? Janeway: It is important that you understand our determination, but it's not a threat, it's an offer. A negotiated peace among all of us would provide a greater stability in this quadrant. How could that do anything but benefit us all?
• The Lancer : Chakotay and Tuvok act in this role over the course of the episode.
• Male Gaze : We get a lingering close-up of the scantily-clad buxom dancer in the Bar Full of Aliens .
• Manipulative Bastard : Seska is shown flattering and cajoling Culluh into going to the conference, while Mabus plays Janeway so admirably she never suspects a thing until it's too late to stop him.
• Mauve Shirt : This episode introduces Hogan and Jonas, former Maquis crewmembers who would become recurring characters this season (and both would end up dead by the start of Season 3). Kurt Bendera who dies in this episode can be seen as one of the male Bridge Bunnies in "Resistance".
• No Kill like Overkill : The Trabe fly a warship down into the atmosphere and fire directly through the window into the conference room.
• Noodle Incident : The "slight misunderstanding" between Neelix and his Kazon-Pomar contact.
• The crew does a lot more shouting than usual during the opening battle, and Janeway looses a few strands from her Bun of Steel.
• Tuvok knows that the rare event of Captain Janeway turning up at his quarters means she's troubled and wants his advice.
• Out-of-Character Moment : All throughout Season 1, B'Elanna would attempt to subvert Captain Janeway's orders to help get the ship home. Here, she's the captain's staunchest defender and threatens to beat the crap out of Hogan if he second-guesses her again. And then of course after this episode she goes right back to being skeptical of Janeway's decisions...
• Outside-the-Box Tactic : Chakotay urges Janeway to think Maquis instead of Starfleet, saying the latter is only good for the Alpha Quadrant where the power of the Federation backs it up.
• Peace Conference : One that backfires spectacularly.
• Permission to Speak Freely : Hogan doesn't have to ask; Janeway gives it to him preemptively.
• Plot Hole : The episode acts like the five Majes who attend the conference are the entire Kazon leadership, which isn't the case. note  Back in " Initiations ", Kar stated that the number of sects changes every day, but the last count was eighteen. In particular, the two most powerful sects — the Ogla and the Relora — are both notable by their absence, yet nobody considers the possibility that either of them may attack the conference. This also means that Mabus' plan would likely have blown up in his face : while the elimination of a substantial swath of the competition might leave the other Kazon too busy fighting over the scraps to bother anyone else, their mutual hatred of the Trabe is the one thing to have united the Kazon in the past; a bunch of their fellow Majes being wiped out by them in an attempt to destroy the Kazon leadership might well be enough to get them to call a truce for long enough to hunt every last Trabe down.
• Politically Incorrect Villain : Maje Culluh's misogyny towards Janeway and Seska is pretty much not veiled at all.
• Power Trio : After Chakotay urges a more flexible attitude, Janeway goes to her other adviser, Lieutenant Tuvok , to talk over the matter.
• Properly Paranoid : Janeway is rightly opposed to Culluh's idea of a crew exchange program, which would provide him with hostages while Kazon warriors are Not Afraid to Die . Averted when she takes Mabus on face value.
• Protagonist-Centered Morality : Janeway decides An Aesop of the episode was that she was right all along, and Starfleet principles rather than pragmatic adaptation to circumstances will see them through. Thanks to the Reset Button , the fact that Voyager is in exactly the same position as before doesn't bother anyone.
• Reconcile the Bitter Foes : Doesn't work.
• Maje Culluh gives one to Captain Janeway over her hypocrisy in allying herself with the Trabe, who have violently oppressed them in the past.
• Janeway then gives one to Mabus for turning the Peace Conference into an attempted massacre.
• After the Action Prologue we never see a hint of the damage being repaired; Voyager is its usual pristine self inside and out.
• B'Elanna reports that the warp engines are in good condition, despite Chakotay reporting to Janeway earlier that he wasn't sure if they could ever get them running again.
• The episode begins with Voyager having suffered its fourth attack from the Kazon in two weeks. After this the only sect that bothers Voyager is the Kazon-Nistrim, and that's only due to Seska's scheming. While it's possible the others were too afraid to pursue them (either because of the attack on the conference or thinking the Trabe would continue attacking them whether or not they were allied with Voyager), or that Voyager finally ended up beyond Kazon territory (with the Nistrim only dogging their trail due to Seska and Culluh's vendetta), none of this is ever explained onscreen .
• Save the Villain : Janeway warns the Kazon majes Just in Time to stop them from being Board to Death . Unfortunately this includes Maje Culluh.
• No Sense of Energy : A Trabe vessel fires its weapons at point-blank range into a building and only breaks a window.
• Shout-Out : The ambush resembles the helicopter ambush in The Godfather Part III , including a conspirator leaving the conference early to avoid getting killed.
• Sins of Our Fathers : Mabus says that the Trabe responsible for the atrocities against the Kazon are all dead or close to it by now, and it's time to leave the past in the past and try to work out a peace. Then he goes on to commit some sins of his own.
• Table Space : The representatives to the Peace Conference are seated at a triangular table, so all factions are represented equally.
• Take a Third Option : Chakotay urges this between the options suggested by Hogan (give the Kazon the technology they want) and Janeway (give them nothing at all).
• Tastes Like Friendship : Another Invoked Trope by Mabus, who prepares a Fancy Dinner for Janeway and her officers.
• "It's hard to imagine things getting much worse."
• In dealing with the Trabe, Janeway says "It's always been Starfleet's policy to deal with new species on a basis of openness and trust until proven otherwise." Brace yourself, Kathy...
• Too Dumb to Live : The Kazon, once again. One of the guards sees a grenade roll towards him and nudges it with his foot.
• Turned Against Their Masters : The Kazon were once a slave race of the Trabe, penned up in slums, bullied by the police and encouraged to fight among themselves . They banded together long enough to overthrow the Trabe, only to revert to their previous inter-clan conflicts .
• Uncomfortable Elevator Moment : Chakotay and The Captain have a terse conversation in the turbolift about their situation.
• Villain Ball : Seska is entirely for an alliance with Voyager as it's what she wanted all along. Culluh however overplays his hand during negotiations with Janeway, insults them both , and gets thrown off the ship.
• Violence is the Only Option : Mabus' view of dealing with the Kazon.
• With All Due Respect : Chakotay does one to the captain that, unusually for him, verges on insulting. "With all due respect, maybe your imagination is limited by Starfleet protocols."
• You Have GOT to Be Kidding Me! : Harry's reaction to Janeway announcing an alliance with the Kazon. Also, Chakotay's reaction when B'Elanna takes Harry's quip about contacting Seska seriously.
• Star Trek Voyager S 2 E 13 "Prototype"
• Recap/Star Trek: Voyager
• Star Trek: Voyager S2E15 "Threshold"

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Star Trek: Voyager - Full Cast & Crew

• 66   Metascore
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A starship is stranded in the uncharted Delta Quadrant in this fourth 'Star Trek' series, the first to feature a female captain. Here, the crew grudgingly teams with Maquis rebels to try to return to Earth after Voyager is hurtled 70,000 light-years from Federation space.

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Sound effects, special effects, line producer, assoc. producer, executive producer, cinematographer, production company.

Star Trek: Voyager

Cast & Crew

Charles Lucia

Anthony De Longis

First Maje Culluh

Martha Hackett

Raphael Sbarge

Michael Jonas

Larry Cedar

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© 2009 CBS Corp. All Rights Reserved.

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Star Trek: Voyager – Season 2, Episode 14

Where to watch, star trek: voyager — season 2, episode 14.

Watch Star Trek: Voyager — Season 2, Episode 14 with a subscription on Paramount+, or buy it on Vudu, Prime Video, Apple TV.

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Cast & crew.

Kate Mulgrew

Capt. Kathryn Janeway

Robert Beltran

Roxann Dawson

B'Elanna Torres

Robert Duncan McNeill

Jennifer Lien

Ethan Phillips

Episode Info

Whatever Happened To The Cast Of Star Trek: Voyager?

The third "Star Trek" series to air in the 1990s, "Star Trek: Voyager" was also the flagship series for the all-new Paramount television network UPN. Making its debut in January of 1995, the series saw Captain Kathryn Janeway command the state-of-the-art starship Voyager on a mission to pursue a group of Maquis rebels. However, when a phenomenon envelops them both and hurls them to the distant Delta Quadrant, Starfleet officers and Maquis terrorists become one crew on a perilous journey home.

Despite a few cast shake-ups, "Voyager" ran for seven seasons and featured a consistently stellar ensemble. The series helped launch the careers of several of its lesser-known actors, while others can count the series as the highest point in their filmography. Some walked away from Hollywood after it concluded, while a few have since made big comebacks, returning to the roles that made them famous.

Since it ended in 2001, "Voyager" has aged like fine wine, earning new fans thanks to the magic of streaming where new generations can discover it anew. Whether seeing it for the first time — or even if you're watching it for the umpteenth — you may be wondering where the cast is now. Well, recalibrate the bio-neural gel packs and prep the Delta Flyer for launch because we're here to fill you in on what's happened to the cast of "Star Trek: Voyager."

Kate Mulgrew as Captain Kathryn Janeway

It's no secret that Kate Mulgrew wasn't the first choice to play Captain Janeway in "Star Trek: Voyager." Academy Award-nominee Geneviève Bujold was famously cast first  but filmed only a few scenes before quitting the show during the production of the series pilot, leading to Mulgrew being brought in. Today it is difficult to imagine anyone else in the role, though it's hardly Mulgrew's only iconic TV series.

Following the show's conclusion in 2001, Mulgrew took a few years off from acting, returning with a small role in the 2005 film "Perception" with Piper Perabo. After a guest appearance on "Law & Order: Special Victims Unit," Mulgrew snagged a recurring role on "The Black Donnellys" in 2007 alongside Jonathan Tucker and Olivia Wilde and another in the short-lived NBC medical drama "Mercy" in 2009. Her return to a main cast, however, came in the Adult Swim series "NTSF:SD:SUV::," where she played an eye patch-wearing leader of an anti-terrorism task force alongside future "Star Trek" star Rebecca Romijn .

Of course, Mulgrew found a major career resurgence in 2013, starring in one of Netflix's earliest forays into original programming, "Orange is the New Black." In the series she stars as Red, an inmate at a women's prison, a role that would earn her an Emmy nomination. Mulgrew returned to "Star Trek" in 2021, voicing both Kathryn Janeway and a holographic version of the character in the Nickelodeon-produced CGI-animated series  "Star Trek: Prodigy."

Robert Beltran as Commander Chakotay

Sitting in the chair next to Captain Janeway for seven seasons was Robert Beltran as Commander Chakotay, a former Maquis first officer. Though Beltran counts his heritage as Latino, Chakotay was actually the first Native American series regular in the franchise but was sadly under-used, a fact that the actor has  commented on . Following "Star Trek: Voyager," Beltran's work on the small screen was mostly limited to guest appearances, popping up in episodes of "CSI: Miami" and "Medium" in the 2000s while filling roles in movies like "Taking Chances," "Fire Serpent," and "Manticore." 

Beltran's first recurring part on TV after "Voyager" was in the series "Big Love," starring Bill Paxton and Jeanne Tripplehorn. In the series, he played Jerry Flute — another Native American — who has plans to construct a casino on a reservation. However, over the next decade, Beltran seemed to move away from acting, with a sparse handful of minor roles. He revealed on Twitter that he turned down a chance to play Chakotay one more time in the revival series "Star Trek: Picard," as he was unhappy with the part they'd written for him. 

Nevertheless, Beltran did come back to join Kate Mulgrew for the animated children's series "Star Trek: Prodigy." Voicing Chakotay in his triumphant return to the franchise, the series sees the character lost in space and his former captain on a mission to find him.

Tim Russ as Lt. Tuvok

Actor Tim Russ had already made a few guest appearances in "Star Trek: The Next Generation," "Star Trek: Deep Space Nine" and even the film "Star Trek Generations" before joining the main cast of "Star Trek: Voyager" in 1995. Russ became a fan-favorite as Vulcan Lt. Tuvok, who was later promoted to Lt. Commander. However, after seven seasons playing the stoic, emotionless Tuvok, Russ kept busy with a variety of different roles, mostly guest-starring in popular TV hits.

This includes guest spots in everything from "ER" and "Law & Order: Criminal Intent" to episodes of "Hannah Montana" and "Without a Trace." He even appeared on the big screen with a small role in "Live Free or Die Hard" in 2007, but it didn't keep him away from TV, as he also had a multi-episode appearance on the hit soap "General Hospital." That same year, Russ joined the main cast of the Christina Applegate comedy "Samantha Who?" and later began working in video games, providing voice work for "Wolfenstein II: The New Colossus" and "The Last of Us Part 2." 

Since then, the actor has kept busy with countless roles in such as "Criminal Minds," "NCIS: New Orleans," "Supergirl," and "The Good Doctor." More recently, Russ turned up in an episode of Seth MacFarlane's "Star Trek" homage "The Orville,"  and in 2023 voiced Lucius Fox in the animated film "Batman: The Doom That Came to Gotham."

Roxann Dawson as B'Elanna Torres

On "Star Trek: Voyager," the role of chief engineer was filled by Roxann Dawson who played half-Klingon/half-human B'Elanna Torres. Starting out as a Maquis rebel, she eventually becomes one of the most important members of the crew, as well as a wife and mother. Following her run on the series, Dawson had just a handful of on-screen roles, which included single episodes of "The Closer" and "Without a Trace." That's because, like her franchise cohort  Jonathan Frakes , Dawson moved behind the camera to become a director full-time.

Getting her start overseeing episodes of "Voyager" first, Dawson moved on to helm entries of "Star Trek" spin-off "Enterprise" before broadening to other shows across television. Since 2005, Dawson has directed episodes of some of the biggest hits on TV including "Lost" and "The O.C." in 2006, eight episodes of "Cold Case," a trio of "Heroes" episodes, and more. 

We could go on and on rattling off the hit shows she's sat behind the camera for but among her most notable might be the David Simon HBO series "Treme" in 2011, "Hell on Wheels" with future starship captain Anson Mount, and modern masterpieces like "Bates Motel," "The Americans," and "This is Us." Her most recent work saw her return to sci-fi, helming two episodes of the Apple TV+ series "Foundation."

Garrett Wang as Ensign Harry Kim

Despite never seeing a rise in rank and perpetually remaining a low-level ensign, Harry Kim — played by Garrett Wang – often played a crucial role in defeating many of the enemies the crew would face in the Delta Quadrant. When "Star Trek: Voyager" left the airwaves, though, Wang bounced around, with his biggest role arguably coming in the 2005 Steven Spielberg-produced miniseries "Into the West." He has continued embracing his role as Ensign Kim by appearing at many fan conventions, where he found an entirely new calling. 

Beginning in 2010, Kim embarked on a career as an event moderator, serving as the Master of Ceremonies at that year's FedCon (a science fiction convention held in Germany). Later, he was the Trek Track Director at the celebrated Dragon Con event, held annually in Atlanta, Georgia. Over the course of his new career, Wang has held moderating duties and hosted panels and events at major pop culture conventions in Montreal, Edmonton, Phoenix, and Denver. According to Wang, his biggest role as a moderator came at the Calgary Comic and Entertainment Expo in 2012, where he interviewed the legendary Stan Lee .

In 2020, Wang joined forces with co-star Robert Duncan McNeill to launch "The Delta Flyers," a podcast that discusses classic episodes of "Star Trek: Voyager."

Robert Duncan McNeill as Lt. Tom Paris

Robert Duncan McNeill guest-starred in an episode of "Star Trek: The Next Generation" as a hotshot pilot who broke the rules and wound up booted from Starfleet. So when producers developed a similar character, they brought in McNeill to play him, resulting in brash, cavalier helm officer Tom Paris. In 2002, after "Star Trek: Voyager" ended, McNeill starred in an episode of  "The Outer Limits" revival  and a few more small roles. However, like Dawson, McNeill left acting not long after the series ended to become a director and producer, starting with four episodes of "Star Trek: Enterprise."

Into the 2000s, McNiell helmed episodes of "Dawson's Creek" and "One Tree Hill" before becoming an executive producer on the action-comedy series "Chuck" starring Zachary Levi. Ultimately he'd direct 21 episodes of that series across its five seasons. From there, McNeill went on to sit behind the camera for installments of "The Mentalist," "Blue Bloods," and "Suits." 

Since the 2010s, McNeill has served as an executive producer on further shows that included "The Gifted," the Disney+ reboot of "Turner & Hooch," and the SyFy series "Resident Alien." In addition to hosting "The Delta Flyers" podcast with co-star Garrett Wang, McNeill came back to "Star Trek" in 2022 when he voiced the character of Tom Paris in a cameo on the animated comedy "Star Trek: Lower Decks."

Ethan Phillips as Neelix

Another actor to appear on "Star Trek" before taking a leading role on "Voyager," Ethan Phillips played the quirky alien chef Neelix for all seven seasons of the show's run. A well-established veteran, his TV roles prior had included dramas like "NYPD Blue" and family hits like "Doogie Howser, M.D." Unfortunately, his role on "Voyager" never translated to big-time success after, though he hardly struggled for work. That's because he went back to his former career as a character actor.

In the ensuing years, Phillips could be seen all over the dial and beyond, with parts in "Touched by an Angel" and "8 Simple Rules" among many others, even popping up in a guest-starring role in an episode of "Star Trek: Enterprise" in 2002. Later he did a three-episode run on "Boston Legal," another Beantown-based legal drama from David E. Kelley, this one starring "Star Trek" legend William Shatner and "Deep Space Nine" alum René Auberjonois. Some of the biggest shows he's found work on during the 2010s meanwhile include "Better Call Saul" and a recurring role in the Lena Dunham comedy "Girls." He's also had roles in major movies, showing up in "Inside Llewyn Davis," "The Purge: Election Year," and "The Island."

Though he hasn't come back to "Star Trek," Phillips did return to sci-fi in 2020, joining the main cast of the HBO space comedy "Avenue 5" alongside Hugh Laurie and Josh Gad.

Jeri Ryan as Seven of Nine

Though she didn't arrive on "Star Trek: Voyager" until Season 4, Jeri Ryan arguably became the series' biggest star. She came in to help liven up a series that was struggling and joined the cast as a former Borg drone named Seven of Nine . It proved to be just what the series needed and a career-defining role for Ryan. One of the few cast members of "Voyager" to parlay her role into bigger success, Ryan immediately joined the David E. Kelley legal drama "Boston Public" after the series ended.

There she had a three-season run and in 2006 she secured another starring role on another legal drama, this time in the James Woods series "Shark," with Danielle Panabaker and Henry Simmons. Smaller recurring roles came after, including multi-episode stints on "Law & Order: Special Victims Unit," "Two and a Half Men," and "Leverage," before Ryan returned to a main cast with her co-starring role in "Body of Proof" in 2011 alongside Dana Delany. Parts in "Helix" and "Bosch" came after, as well as brief recurring roles in "MacGyver" and "Major Crimes," leading right up to her return to "Star Trek" in 2020.

That year, Ryan joined the cast of the revival series "Star Trek: Picard." Returning to the role of Seven of Nine, she supported series lead Patrick Stewart by appearing in all three seasons, and rumor has it she may even star in a spin-off. 

Jennifer Lien as Kes

Joining the Starfleet and Maquis crew aboard Voyager was Kes, a young alien woman with mild telepathic powers and just a nine-year lifespan, and played by Jennifer Lien. Unfortunately, her character never quite gelled, and in Season 4 Lien was written out to make way for Jeri Ryan as Seven of Nine.

Leaving the series in 1997, Lien's career stalled in front of the camera, though she did manage a role in "American History X" alongside "Star Trek: Deep Space Nine" star Avery Brooks. However, most of her subsequent work came in animation, with voice work in "Superman: The Animated Series" — where she played Inza, the wife of Doctor Fate — and a starring role as Agent L in "Men in Black: The Series." 

Unfortunately, Lien pretty much left acting shortly after that. She married filmmaker Phil Hwang and started a family but has faced personal problems along the way. While struggling to deal with her mental health, Lien was arrested in 2015 for indecent exposure and again in 2018 for driving without a license. 

If you or someone you know needs help with mental health, please contact the Crisis Text Line by texting HOME to 741741, call the National Alliance on Mental Illness helpline at 1-800-950-NAMI (6264), or visit the National Institute of Mental Health website .

Manu Intiraymi as Icheb

Late in Season 6 of "Star Trek: Voyager," a storyline saw the ship rescue a stranded vessel commanded by a group of wayward Borg children. At the conclusion of the story, four young drones join the crew, becoming a surrogate family of sorts to Seven of Nine after jettisoning their Borg identities. The eldest of them is Icheb, a teenager who becomes like a brother to Seven, played by actor Manu Intiraymi. The young actor went on to make 11 appearances across the final two seasons of the show. 

When "Voyager" ended in 2001, Intiraymi continued acting, with his largest role coming in "One Tree Hill." There he played Billy — a local drug dealer — in a recurring role in 2012. Further projects were mostly independent films like "5th Passenger" in 2017 and "Hell on the Border," a 2019 Western starring David Gyasi, Ron Perlman, and Frank Grillo. 

In 2017, Intiraymi came under fire for criticizing fellow "Star Trek" actor Anthony Rapp, who'd made accusations of sexual assault against Kevin Spacey . A few years later, fans speculated those comments may have been why he wasn't asked to return to the role of Icheb in "Star Trek: Picard," with a new actor playing the part in a scene that killed off the character.

Scarlett Pomers as Naomi Wildman

Plenty of TV shows have added a kid to shake up the status quo late into their run, and "Star Trek: Voyager" was not immune to this trope. In addition to Borg kids like Icheb, Samantha Wildman — the newborn daughter of a crewperson — became a recurring character beginning in Season 5, played by Scarlett Pomers. She'd wind up in 16 episodes, including a few where she played a leading role. In the aftermath of the end of the series, Pomers appeared in the Julia Roberts film "Erin Brockovich," and in 2001 joined the cast of the sitcom "Reba."

For six seasons Pomers starred as Kyra Hart, daughter of the show's star played by Reba McEntire. Appearing in a whopping 103 episodes, it was only Pomers' second regular role but also her last on-screen performance. When that series concluded, Pomers essentially retired from acting. Unfortunately, her exit from the stage was at least partly due to her ongoing battle with an eating disorder, and Pomers has since become an outspoken advocate for those struggling with anorexia and mental illness. In a 2019 interview with StarTrek.com , Pomers also talked about her subsequent career as a photographer, musician, and jewelry designer.

If you are struggling with an eating disorder, or know someone who is, help is available. Visit the National Eating Disorders Association website or contact NEDA's Live Helpline at 1-800-931-2237. You can also receive 24/7 Crisis Support via text (send NEDA to 741-741).

Martha Hackett as Seska

In the early seasons of "Star Trek: Voyager," one of the most compelling ongoing storylines was that of Seska, a Bajoran and former Maquis rebel and on-again-off-again lover of Chakotay. Played by recurring guest star Martha Hackett, it was later revealed that Seska was actually an enemy agent in disguise. Hackett would appear in a total of 13 episodes of the series, making it by far the largest role in her career. Still, she has appeared in some big hits over the last two decades.

Those included a small role in "Kiss Kiss Bang Bang" in 2005 and an appearance in the cult horror movie "The Bye Bye Man" in 2017. It also includes one-off appearances in episodes of popular projects on the small screen, like "The Mindy Project" in 2014, "Masters of Sex" a year earlier, and a recurring role in the daytime soap "Days of Our Lives" between 2016 and 2018. Thanks to her iconic role as Seska, though, Hackett continues to be a regular on the "Star Trek" convention circuit and was interviewed for the upcoming "Star Trek: Voyager" documentary "To the Journey."

Robert Picardo as the Doctor

For 30 years, the world of science fiction meant one thing when the moniker of "The Doctor" was uttered, but that all changed in 1995 with the launch of "Star Trek: Voyager." There, actor Robert Picardo — already known for antagonistic roles in "Gremlins 2: The New Batch" and "InnerSpace" — starred as the Doctor, the nameless holographic chief medical officer aboard the Voyager. Known for his offbeat humor and cantankerous attitude, he was played to perfection by Picardo, and it would become the actor's signature role. 

Still, even after leaving sickbay as the Doctor, Picardo had a healthy career, moving quickly into a role in "The Lyon's Den" starring Rob Lowe and Kyle Chandler in 2003. A year later he joined another iconic sci-fi franchise when he secured a recurring part in "Stargate SG-1"  as Richard Woolsey, a grumpy U.S. official who opposed the Stargate program. Following a string of appearances on the flagship series, Picardo joined the main cast of "Stargate: Atlantis" in 2006. A few years later, Picardo had another repeat role, this time as Jason Cooper on "The Mentalist," and he later enjoyed a stint on the Apple TV+ drama "Dickinson."

In 2023, the actor made a guest appearance on the "Quantum Leap" revival playing Doctor Woolsey, whose name is a clear tribute to his two biggest TV roles.