Caretaker (Star Trek: Voyager)

"Caretaker"
Star Trek: Voyager episode
The Caretaker’s Array
Episode no.	Season 1 Episode 1 & 2
Directed by	Winrich Kolbe
Written by	Michael Piller Jeri Taylor
Production code	101 & 102
Original air date	January 16, 1995 (1995-01-16)
Guest stars
Richard Poe as Gul Evek Josh Clark as Lieutenant Carey Alicia Coppola as Lieutenant Stadi Gavan O'Herlihy as Jabin Armin Shimerman as Quark Bruce French as Ocampan Doctor Jennifer Parsons as Ocampan Nurse David Selburg as Toscat Jeff McCarthy as Dr. Fitzgerald Stan Ivar as Mark Johnson Scott MacDonald as Lieutenant Rollins Scott Jaeck as Lt. Commander Cavit
Episode chronology
← Previous — Next → "Parallax"
List of Star Trek: Voyager episodes

"Caretaker" is the first episode of Star Trek: Voyager. It was originally shown as one double-length episode, but has been split into two parts for repeats. The episode (and the series) features Kate Mulgrew as Captain Kathryn Janeway, but footage was shot with this role played by Geneviève Bujold, who quit before completion.

Plot

The USS Voyager is launched from Deep Space Nine and ordered in to the Badlands to find a missing Maquis ship. Upon entering the Badlands, Voyager is scanned by a "coherent tetryon beam" before being struck by a displacement wave of some type of "polarized magnetic variation", wreaking havoc on the ship.^[1] When the crew recovers they find themselves in the Delta Quadrant, over 70,000 light years from Federation space. A number of the crew are dead, including the second-in-command, helm officer, and chief engineer; the medical staff are also dead, forcing the crew to rely on the Emergency Holographic Doctor for aid. However, before they get their bearings, they are brought aboard a nearby array by the "Caretaker". Aboard the array, the crew see through a holographic simulation and discover the Maquis crew, unconscious and undergoing strange medical experiments. Before they can react, the Voyager crew are also subjected to the same experiments. Later, both crews recover consciousness and find they are each missing one crew member; Harry Kim from Voyager, and the Maquis B'Elanna Torres. Further attempts to negotiate with the Caretaker are fruitless as he insists there's no time for such talk. Captain Janeway offers to work with the Maquis leader Chakotay to unite their crews to find their missing persons and return to the Alpha Quadrant.

The two ships follow pulses of energy sent from the array to a nearby arid planet. En route, they encounter Neelix, a space trader who is eager to help them out in exchange for helping to rescue his companion, the Ocampa Kes, from the violent Kazon which inhabit the planet's surface. Kes explains that her people live in an underground complex beneath the surface, and are cared for by the Caretaker who supplies them with energy, with the only expectation in turn that they care for the beings that he sends to them, each who are infected with a strange disease that appears incurable. As the crews determine how to rescue Kim and Torres, the Caretaker moves the array closer to the planet and begins firing more lethal bursts of energy. Tuvok deduces that the Caretaker is dying, and is making sure that the Ocampa are kept safe by destroying the only means of access into the complex. With time running short, a combined away team is able to penetrate the shields protecting the complex and rescue Kim and Torres.

The crews again attempt to engage the Caretaker to help return them to the Alpha Quadrant. The Caretaker reveals that he was part of an alien race whose technology had long ago accidentally caused the rainfall cycle on the Ocampa planet to become disrupted and leaving it arid, due to the destruction of that particular M-class planet's atmospheric "nucleogenics".^[2] To make up for the error, he and another of his race stayed behind to care for the Ocampa. His companion having long moved on, the Caretaker has used the Array to seek species from distant galactic sectors with the potential to help him reproduce and maintain the array; the strange disease that Kim and Torres had was a result of that test. The Caretaker explains that with his impending death, he has started the self-destruct sequence on the array to prevent the technology from falling into the hands of the Kazon. As the Caretaker dies, the ships are attacked by a Kazon fleet. Janeway and Chakotay coordinate the counterattack with both Voyager and the Maquis ship to protect the array; Chakotay sacrifices his vessel to destroy one of the Kazon ships, but the remains strike the array and disable the self-destruct sequence. Janeway opts to respect the Caretaker's wishes and orders the destruction of the array despite it being their only chance at returning home. With the array destroyed, the Kazon fleet disengages from battle.

As Voyager starts on a 75-year journey back to the Alpha Quadrant, Janeway integrates the Maquis crew into the Starfleet crew, with Chakotay as her First Officer, and accepts Neelix and Kes' offer to remain on board as a guide to the local area of space.

Production

Geneviève Bujold was the first actress chosen to play Captain Nicole Janeway and several scenes were filmed with her. She was later replaced with Kate Mulgrew as Captain Kathryn Janeway. Several pieces of Bujold’s filmed scenes can be found in the Season One DVD extras.

References

1. ^ Paramount Star trek Voyager "Caretaker"
2. ^ Paramount Star Trek: Voyager "Caretaker" (pilot episode)

External links

• Caretaker at the Internet Movie Database
• "Caretaker, Part I" at TV.com
• "Caretaker, Part II" at TV.com
• Caretaker at Memory Alpha (a Star Trek wiki)
• Caretaker, Part I at StarTrek.com
• Caretaker, Part II at StarTrek.com