**INTRO MUSIC**
Sue: Hi and welcome to Women at Warp, join us as our crew of four women Star Trek fans boldly go on our biweekly mission to explore our favorite franchise. My name is Sue, and thanks for tuning in. With me today are Grace…
Grace: Hey everybody.
Sue: Andi…
Andi: Hello.
Sue: And our special guest Char.
Char: Hey!! It’s good to be back. How are you guys? I missed you!
Andi: We missed you, too.
Char: Aww, feeling loved.
Sue: Yes, Char is the former host of the Star Trek Voyager podcast, “To The Journey”.
Everybody: To the journey!!
**laughter**
Char: Awesome. You know to be honest, since I’m not doing the show anymore, it doesn’t matter as much to me.
Sue: But, you're currently doing a show on the Nerd Party Network, called Punch It.
Char: That’s right. Yes, I’m now on a show called Punch It, it is on The Nerd Party Network, and it is with my long time co-host, that I did To The Journey with, and that is Tristan Riddell, we talk all sorts of things about writing in pop culture, we branched out. We talk much more than just Voyager, we do pretty much whatever show we want. We talk about the writing, we talk about the process, we will write episodes on the fly, we do all sorts of fun stuff. And so, if you’ve not picked it up since we ended our journey on To The Journey, please give us a try and let us know what you think.
Sue: Awesome! So, today we’re going to be talking about season one of Star Trek Voyager. Sort of, like, in the past we’ve talked about season on of DS9, when Andi finished watching it the first time.
Andi: Finally.
Sue: Since she is our First Time Trekker.
Char: Good job, Andi!
Grace: You just got to experience a fantastic Voyage---er.
**laughter**
Sue: But, before we jump into the Delta Quadrant, we have our typical housekeeping. So, as always we want to remind you about our Patreon. Patreon is a platform that allows listeners and supporters to help us out by pledging anywhere from $1 to as much as you want to give dollar, per month, to help us produce this content, to upgrade equipment, and to start new things like the Women at Warp blog which we launched at the beginning of this year. So, if you’re interested in helping us out, you can find our Patreon over at . We also want to mention the Women at Warp book club, which operates through goodreads.com. We’re currently reading the Legacy series, which is the 50th Anniversary collection of three books, focusing on Una, or as we know her, Number One. So, we’ll be covering those books in an upcoming episode. [
Grace: *sings* Take a look, it’s in a book, the Women at Warp book club.
Char: Nice!
Sue: And, as I said, we launched our Women at Warp blog at the beginning of January, we are publishing a piece of original content, and then usually a cross post of some kind each week. So, that’s two pieces every week at this point, and if we meet our next Patreon goal, we’ll be able to increase the number of original posts that we publish. So...
Andi: Give us money!
Grace: Let’s see that cash! Throw some mo’, throw some mo’, throw some mo’.
Sue: I was trying to be, you know, polite about it.
Char: Shut up, and give ‘em your money!
Grace: Well, I went for the Nicki Minaj quote, so I stand by that choice.
Sue: Alright, so, let’s jump into Voyager. And, I’m going to kick it over to Char, as our resident Voyager expert, what would you say are the defining characteristics of season one?
Char: Okay, season one of Voyager, I feel, I mean it’s a shorter season than the norm, right, and I feel that it has some major highs and some major lows. I mean, it is kind of a typical Star Trek season and that it has some rocky points, but it also has some really brilliant, exceptionally well written episodes that let us know who these characters are, and embraces the mission of Voyager so beautifully, and so you get sort of a little bit of a grab bag. You've got really good, and you've got really bad, but compared to other first seasons of Star Trek shows...
Grace: *coughs* TNG…
Char: This one overall is… Yes! I wasn’t going to name names, but since you went there, yeah, this one is much easier to stomach, it's a lot smoother, they've learned some lessons over time. You can tell, and it's kind of nice and so, just as an overview, that’s what I’m going to say about that.
Andi: I mean, I thought it was pretty strong right out of the gate. I really liked the pilot, “Caretaker” [VOY Season 1, Ep. 1 & 2], thought it was a solid pilot. Like, it was a little bit too much plot, a little bit, but overall I thought they did a really good job of introducing the characters which I think are the strength of Voyager so far, is got some really amazing, sharply drawn characters on this crew.
Grace: And when you were getting into that pilot, what were you expecting, what did you think a lay ahead of you?
Andi: Janeway.
**laughter**
Char: That is the correct answer.
Grace: There for the hype, man, you were there for the hype.
Andi: I was, I mean I’ve been wanting to watch Janeway since I started watching Star Trek. I've always been looking forward to that, it is one reason why I decided to layer my live Tweeting with Voyager into DS9 is because I wanted to get to Voyager faster, because I wanted to see Janeway!
Char: Well sure, I mean this is a women based podcast, we have to talk about the woman captain, the first two command a series, and of course there was a bunch of drama even leading up to, prior to the release of the show, Geneviève Bujold bowing out, and Kate Mulgrew coming in, she just, you know, was shot out of a cannon, and she embraced it so incredibly, and did such a beautiful job of just taking the reins, being the leader that the show needed, and becoming Janeway. I mean, this character, she strikes you from the get go. Am I right Andi?
Andi: Absolutely. In the very first episode, the very first shot of her, and she's got her hands on her hips and she just looks so commanding, and you can just, I don’t know, I don’t know if it’s just the strength of Kate Mulgrew as an actress, but you feel like her warmth, but her strength at the same time which I think is really hard to pull off. And something that took time for Picard, Picard came off as pretty cold at the beginning, and it took a little time before you could really see all of the the layers that he had there. I feel like I got to know Janeway a lot faster.
Grace: Well, just that first appearance of her is just so well set up, and she looks magnificent, it's like the entire scene just came together around her.
Char: It did, the camera work, you can't... That's probably the best thing they could possibly done to introduce Janeway, they nailed it.
Grace: You could almost believe that she'd been standing there posing for days and everyone just walked on set.
**laughter**
Grace: “Oh are we starting? Here I am.”
Char: Yeah, that's right. I am Kathryn Janeway, bow down to me.
Grace: Hello, plebs, it is I your captain queen.
Sue: So the premiere was actually very close to the day we’re recording but in 1995, almost exactly 22 years ago.
Char: Yes, indeed. We are not that old!
**laughter**
Char: I watched the show when it debuted! I was 13! That just is unreal to me. Aging is weird.
Andi: It is weird.
Sue: This was the first Star Trek show where I remember the press leading up to the start of it.
Char: I do too.
Sue: And I don't know if that's because they made a bigger deal out of it, or because it was just the first I was the age that now I was paying attention and now I can remember it. But there were you know TV Guide after TV Guide, magazine after magazine, all focusing on this new show, and especially on on Kate Mulgrew and Janeway.
Char: Yeah, oh definitely especially because of Kate Mulgrew and Janeway. I think it's a little bit of both, though, I remember a little bit of hype for Next Generation, I do remember a little bit of it but I also think it was a little too young to know the scale of that hype, so I can really measure that. But, oh my gosh, I gobbled up all of that press leading up to Voyager and, I think the series premiere “Caretaker” is one of the best pilots Star Trek has done. They did a great job of introducing these characters, getting it setup, you know they set up the stage for Voyager’s journey home, I felt they did a very decent job, but these characters especially, from day one, from the first episode forward I am on board these characters, I fell in love with them.
Andi: yeah, I think that they did a good job of balancing everyone in making sure that everyone got a chance to shine, and giving us a sense of each and every one of them, which is tough, it's a tough thing to balance.
Char: Totally.
Grace: Also comparatively speaking, it's a very well paced pilot, it’s really difficult to be able to give an entire ensemble of cast members each a little moment where they get their due, and you get your introduction to them as a character, while establishing a complex premise to a show, and while giving us a bunch of back story that goes along with it. I loved Deep Space Nine, but that was something their pilot really struggled with. There were points where it just kind of goes on and on and on, but with Voyager, you really are, you are quite literally in the action from the very first second, and that really does it a credit.
Andi: The other big moment from the pilot that I loved, is the very first big Janeway speech at the end. Where she’s basically the laying it out that their mission of getting home in the fact that they’re going to have to work together, and that she's the captain for both crews, and like taking that authority but also kind of trying to fuse them together into some sort of family. I feel like that is such a highlight of that pilot, and something that continued on throughout the first season, is this idea of integrating both crews together into a cohesive whole.
Char: Now, Andi, there is something I wanna know from you. As you watched the first season, were you thinking there is going to be more tension between the Maquis and Starfleet crews than what you saw, or did you think it was decently balanced?
Andi: I thought they did a good job. They kept bringing the tension back up, which I liked because I didn't think it would be realistic for them to just be like, “Okay, we’re friends now!” So, we had several episodes that were structured around the tension of the Maquis, the very last episode, “Learning Curve” [VOY Season 1, Ep. 16], is... That's the whole point of that episode is that there’s still tension and the character of Seska obviously, lots of tension left over from that, and bringing kind of the Maquis/Cardassian/Starfleet conflicts with her, basically, and then also the… What’s the episode where they want to take that technology, and both B’Elanna and Tuvok make the decision basically to betray Janeway…
Char: “State of Flux” [VOY Season 1, Ep. 11]. Oh wait, no no, sorry “Prime Factors” [VOY Season 1, Ep. 10], I always mix those two up.
Andi: Okay, “Prime Factors”, yeah the first like 2/3rds of that episode was kind of boring, but the very end when, you know, you see both B’Elanna and Tuvok make this choice to undermine Janeway and her reaction to that, I thought that was brilliant.
Char: Oh yeah, the way that she dresses down B’Elanna, and then rips into Tuvok.
Andi: Oh gosh…
Char: It is so emotional and you never would have thought that Tuvok was going to do something like that and his reasoning is really interesting, and it's because she can't do it, but you're going to? I love what Janeway says about how you can use logic to justify just about anything, that's its strength and its weakness. She’s so right!
Andi: Absolutely. I remember when Tuvok walked in, and B’Elanna was in the middle of doing her shady shenanigans, and I was like “Well, that’s it.” You know, I thought they were caught. And then, the fact that Tuvok was like, “I'll do it,” I was like “WHAT?!?” Do you know how rare it is for me to be shocked by a moment like that? I usually see twists coming, but that one I just, it never occurred to me ever that Tuvok would betray Janeway in any way, shape or form, and would not follow the solid chain of command, and would not go completely by the book, so, that was a real highlight for me that episode. I mean the first 2/3rds are basically that dude with the man bun being creepy, but the last third was good.
Char: You are immediately onto him like that is a creeper creeper creeper creeper creeper, you're absolutely right. That dude just gives me the chills.
Andi: Okay my creep meter, it’s good.
Char: He's also got that weird empty stare which that, it… No… Any guy who has that you know, get away, he's not good news.
Grace: Well a good indicator also, is anytime a woman is interested in Harry, that's when you know something hinky is up, also.
**laughter**
Andi: Yeah he was having like a super epic date, and I was like “When’s the console going to blow up?” Like, that’s my metaphor, whenever anything terrible happens to either O'Brien or Harry, like the console’s going to blow up right in their face.
Grace: Let’s face it, Harry’s life is a long stream of exploding consoles.
Char: Yeah I mean it's pretty well established in season one already, Harry is going to be the whipping boy. He’s either going to die, he’s going to get injured, something is going to happen to poor, poor Harry.
Andi: Well, one of my favorite episode was the “Heroes and Demons” [VOY Season 1, Ep. 12], which is the Beowulf one.
Grace: Oh that is a very fun one.
Andi: And it made me laugh that like the whole episode is like, “Harry’s disappeared, but like we don't actually even see Harry for 99% of that episode.”
Grace: Harry is his own B plot in an episode that should be about him.
Andi: Exactly. It’s like a Harry episode, but he’s not there. And then at the very end, he just pops back up, dressed like Beowulf, just like, “What happened??”
Grace: I want to see more episodes like that, where just Harry isn’t there the whole time and in the third act he shows up dressed like Beowulf like “What was going on?”
Char: It would have been funny.
Grace: And they’re like “Harry, you missed the whole thing!”
Andi: There’s also that episode where they’re in like that's spider cave, with all the spider webs or whatever, and they transfer, I’m like, “They totally left Harry.”
Char: Oh yeah, “Emanations” [VOY Season 1, Ep. 9].
Andi: Transported to another world.
Grace: When they literally swap Harry out for a corpse and it takes him a minute to realize it.
Char: And he has to die, to get back to Voyager.
Sue: Not going to be the last time!
Char: Yeah, this is an omen Harry. Get off the ship while you still can buddy, it’s not going to get any better. No spoilers.
Grace: Harry, just find an asteroid. Set yourself down there, you'll be better off.
Char: Seriously.
Grace: You'd be better off walking home, man.
**laughter**
Char: Might get home just as fast, you never know.
Sue: So, I want to jump back for half a second to the Janeway/Tuvok relationship, because I want talk about how absolutely fantastic their friendship is, and how supportive they are of each other, and that we have a captain who is besties with their Vulcan senior staff and it is not just a Kirk/Spock rip off.
Char: That is a really good point.
Grace: It really has it’s own dynamic.
Char. Yeah. That could have been just a clone of that relationship, and it's nothing even close.
Grace: We could have definitely seen a repeat of the failed attempts to redo McCoy with Pulaski, but no we get something completely new and different here. And that’s great!
Andi: I love Tuvok, I think Tuvok is my favorite character, so far, except for Janeway, but she's just like in a completely different class of her own, but Tuvok, man I just love… First of all he pulls off troll Vulcan very well, which is very, very important.
Grace: So, Troll-Can?
Andi: Troll-Can? And I just love him, and i love it that he's got kind of an Odo-esque, mystery solver appeal to him as well.