Star Trek Minutiae: Exploring the Details of Science Fiction

Sometimes it really helps to go back to the original source! But watching the episode—or even skimming it—can be time consuming. So why not let the computer search the text for you? I’ve collected the scripts of every episode of The Next Generation , Deep Space Nine , and the first 10 movies.

All episodes are stored in plain text format.

Archivist’s Note: All of these scripts were obtained from other published sources; the complete scripts for TOS, Voyager , and Enterprise are not available right now. (Please don’t ask me about getting more scripts added, I’ve posted all the files I’ve found.)

Star Trek: The Movies

All Movies [ZIP file, 612 KB]

  • Star Trek: The Motion Picture
  • Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan
  • Star Trek III: The Search for Spock
  • Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home
  • Star Trek V: The Final Frontier
  • Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country
  • Star Trek: Generations
  • Star Trek: First Contact (Draft Version)
  • Star Trek: Insurrection
  • Star Trek: Nemesis

Star Trek: The Next Generation

  • Episode 1-2: “Encounter at Farpoint”
  • Episode 3: “The Naked Now”
  • Episode 4: “Code of Honor”
  • Episode 5: “Haven”
  • Episode 6: “Where No One Has Gone Before”
  • Episode 7: “The Last Outpost”
  • Episode 8: “Lonely Among Us”
  • Episode 9: “Justice”
  • Episode 10: “The Battle”
  • Episode 11: “Hide and Q”
  • Episode 12: “Too Short A Season”
  • Episode 13: “The Big Goodbye”
  • Episode 14: “Datalore”
  • Episode 15: “Angel One”
  • Episode 16: “11001001”
  • Episode 17: “Home Soil”
  • Episode 18: “When the Bough Breaks”
  • Episode 19: “Coming of Age”
  • Episode 20: “Heart of Glory”
  • Episode 21: “The Arsenal of Freedom”
  • Episode 22: “Symbiosis”
  • Episode 23: “Skin of Evil”
  • Episode 24: “We’ll Always Have Paris”
  • Episode 25: “Conspiracy”
  • Episode 26: “The Neutral Zone”
  • Episode 27: “The Child”
  • Episode 28: “Where Silence Has Lease”
  • Episode 29: “Elementary, Dear Data”
  • Episode 30: “The Outrageous Okona”
  • Episode 31: “The Schizoid Man”
  • Episode 32: “Loud as a Whisper”
  • Episode 33: “Unnatural Selection”
  • Episode 34: “A Matter of Honor”
  • Episode 35: “The Measure of a Man”
  • Episode 36: “The Dauphin”
  • Episode 37: “Contagion”
  • Episode 38: “The Royale”
  • Episode 39: “Time Squared”
  • Episode 40: “The Icarus Factor”
  • Episode 41: “Pen Pals”
  • Episode 42: “Q Who?”
  • Episode 43: “Samaritan Snare”
  • Episode 44: “Up the Long Ladder”
  • Episode 45: “Manhunt”
  • Episode 46: “The Emissary”
  • Episode 47: “Peak Performance”
  • Episode 48: “Shades of Grey”
  • Episode 49: “The Ensigns of Command”
  • Episode 50: “Evolution”
  • Episode 51: “The Survivors”
  • Episode 52: “Who Watches the Watchers?”
  • Episode 53: “The Bonding”
  • Episode 54: “Booby Trap”
  • Episode 55: “The Enemy”
  • Episode 56: “The Price”
  • Episode 57: “The Vengeance Factor”
  • Episode 58: “The Defector”
  • Episode 59: “The Hunted”
  • Episode 60: “The High Ground”
  • Episode 61: “Déjà Q”
  • Episode 62: “A Matter of Perspective”
  • Episode 63: “Yesterday’s Enterprise ”
  • Episode 64: “The Offspring”
  • Episode 65: “Sins of the Father”
  • Episode 66: “Allegiance”
  • Episode 67: “Captain’s Holiday”
  • Episode 68: “Tin Man”
  • Episode 69: “Hollow Pursuits”
  • Episode 70: “The Most Toys”
  • Episode 71: “Sarek”
  • Episode 72: “Ménage á Troi”
  • Episode 73: “Transfigurations”
  • Episode 74: “The Best of Both Worlds, Part I”
  • Episode 75: “The Best of Both Worlds, Part II”
  • Episode 76: “Family”
  • Episode 77: “Brothers”
  • Episode 78: “Suddenly Human”
  • Episode 79: “Remember Me”
  • Episode 80: “Legacy”
  • Episode 81: “Reunion”
  • Episode 82: “Future Imperfect”
  • Episode 83: “Final Mission”
  • Episode 84: “The Loss”
  • Episode 85: “Data’s Day”
  • Episode 86: “The Wounded”
  • Episode 87: “Devil’s Due”
  • Episode 88: “Clues”
  • Episode 89: “First Contact”
  • Episode 90: “Galaxy’s Child”
  • Episode 91: “Night Terrors”
  • Episode 92: “Identity Crisis”
  • Episode 93: “The Nth Degree”
  • Episode 94: “Qpid”
  • Episode 95: “The Drumhead”
  • Episode 96: “Half a Life”
  • Episode 97: “The Host”
  • Episode 98: “The Mind’s Eye”
  • Episode 99: “In Theory”
  • Episode 100: “Redemption, Part I”
  • Episode 101: “Redemption, Part II”
  • Episode 102: “Darmok”
  • Episode 103: “Ensign Ro”
  • Episode 104: “Silicon Avatar”
  • Episode 105: “Disaster”
  • Episode 106: “The Game”
  • Episode 107: “Unification, Part I”
  • Episode 108: “Unification, Part II”
  • Episode 109: “A Matter of Time”
  • Episode 110: “New Ground”
  • Episode 111: “Hero Worship”
  • Episode 112: “Violations”
  • Episode 113: “The Masterpiece Society”
  • Episode 114: “Conundrum”
  • Episode 115: “Power Play”
  • Episode 116: “Ethics”
  • Episode 117: “The Outcast”
  • Episode 118: “Cause and Effect”
  • Episode 119: “The First Duty”
  • Episode 120: “Cost of Living”
  • Episode 121: “The Perfect Mate”
  • Episode 122: “Imaginary Friend”
  • Episode 123: “I, Borg”
  • Episode 124: “The Next Phase”
  • Episode 125: “The Inner Light”
  • Episode 126: “Time’s Arrow, Part I”
  • Episode 127: “Time’s Arrow, Part II”
  • Episode 128: “Realm of Fear”
  • Episode 129: “Man of the People”
  • Episode 130: “Relics”
  • Episode 131: “Schisms”
  • Episode 132: “True Q”
  • Episode 133: “Rascals”
  • Episode 134: “A Fistful of Datas”
  • Episode 135: “The Quality of Life”
  • Episode 136: “Chain of Command, Part I”
  • Episode 137: “Chain of Command, Part II”
  • Episode 138: “Ship in a Bottle”
  • Episode 139: “Aquiel”
  • Episode 140: “Face of the Enemy”
  • Episode 141: “Tapestry”
  • Episode 142: “Birthright, Part I”
  • Episode 143: “Birthright, Part II”
  • Episode 144: “Starship Mine”
  • Episode 145: “Lessons”
  • Episode 146: “The Chase”
  • Episode 147: “Frame of Mind”
  • Episode 148: “Suspicions”
  • Episode 149: “Rightful Heir”
  • Episode 150: “Second Chances”
  • Episode 151: “Timescape”
  • Episode 152: “Descent, Part I”
  • Episode 153: “Descent, Part II”
  • Episode 154: “Liaisons”
  • Episode 155: “Interface”
  • Episode 156: “Gambit, Part I”
  • Episode 157: “Gambit, Part II”
  • Episode 158: “Phantasms”
  • Episode 159: “Dark Page”
  • Episode 160: “Attached”
  • Episode 161: “Force of Nature”
  • Episode 162: “Inheritance”
  • Episode 163: “Parallels”
  • Episode 164: “The Pegasus ”
  • Episode 165: “Homeward”
  • Episode 166: “Sub Rosa”
  • Episode 167: “Lower Decks”
  • Episode 168: “Thine Own Self”
  • Episode 169: “Masks”
  • Episode 170: “Eye of the Beholder”
  • Episode 171: “Genesis”
  • Episode 172: “Journey’s End”
  • Episode 173: “Firstborn”
  • Episode 174: “Bloodlines”
  • Episode 175: “Emergence”
  • Episode 176: “Preemptive Strike”
  • Episode 177-178: “All Good Things...”

Star Trek: Deep Space Nine

  • Episode 1-2: “Emissary”
  • Episode 3: “A Man Alone”
  • Episode 4: “Past Prologue”
  • Episode 5: “Babel”
  • Episode 6: “Captive Pursuit”
  • Episode 7: “Q-Less”
  • Episode 8: “Dax”
  • Episode 9: “The Passenger”
  • Episode 10: “Move Along Home”
  • Episode 11: “The Nagus”
  • Episode 12: “Vortex”
  • Episode 13: “Battle Lines”
  • Episode 14: “The Storyteller”
  • Episode 15: “Progress”
  • Episode 16: “If Wishes Were Horses”
  • Episode 17: “The Forsaken”
  • Episode 18: “Dramatis Personae”
  • Episode 19: “Duet”
  • Episode 20: “In the Hands of the Prophets”
  • Episode 21: “The Homecoming”
  • Episode 22: “The Circle”
  • Episode 23: “The Siege”
  • Episode 24: “Invasive Procedures”
  • Episode 25: “Cardassians”
  • Episode 26: “Melora”
  • Episode 27: “Rules of Acquisition”
  • Episode 28: “Necessary Evil”
  • Episode 29: “Second Sight”
  • Episode 30: “Sanctuary”
  • Episode 31: “Rivals”
  • Episode 32: “The Alternate”
  • Episode 33: “Armageddon Game”
  • Episode 34: “Whispers”
  • Episode 35: “Paradise”
  • Episode 36: “Shadowplay”
  • Episode 37: “Playing God”
  • Episode 38: “Profit and Loss”
  • Episode 39: “Blood Oath”
  • Episode 40: “The Maquis, Part I”
  • Episode 41: “The Maquis, Part II”
  • Episode 42: “The Wire”
  • Episode 43: “Crossover”
  • Episode 44: “The Collaborator”
  • Episode 45: “Tribunal”
  • Episode 46: “The Jem’Hadar”
  • Episode 47: “The Search, Part I”
  • Episode 48: “The Search, Part II”
  • Episode 49: “The House of Quark”
  • Episode 50: “Equilibrium”
  • Episode 51: “Second Skin”
  • Episode 52: “The Abandoned”
  • Episode 53: “Civil Defense”
  • Episode 54: “Meridian”
  • Episode 55: “ Defiant ”
  • Episode 56: “Fascination”
  • Episode 57: “Past Tense, Part I”
  • Episode 58: “Past Tense, Part II”
  • Episode 59: “Life Support”
  • Episode 60: “Heart of Stone”
  • Episode 61: “Destiny”
  • Episode 62: “Prophet Motive”
  • Episode 63: “Visionary”
  • Episode 64: “Distant Voices”
  • Episode 65: “Through the Looking Glass”
  • Episode 66: “Improbable Cause”
  • Episode 67: “The Die Is Cast”
  • Episode 68: “Explorers”
  • Episode 69: “Family Business”
  • Episode 70: “Shakaar”
  • Episode 71: “Facets”
  • Episode 72: “The Adversary”
  • Episode 73-74: “The Way of the Warrior”
  • Episode 75: “The Visitor”
  • Episode 76: “Hippocratic Oath”
  • Episode 77: “Indiscretion”
  • Episode 78: “Rejoined”
  • Episode 79: “Starship Down”
  • Episode 80: “Little Green Men”
  • Episode 81: “The Sword of Kahless”
  • Episode 82: “Our Man Bashir”
  • Episode 83: “Homefront”
  • Episode 84: “Paradise Lost”
  • Episode 85: “Crossfire”
  • Episode 86: “Return to Grace”
  • Episode 87: “Sons of Mogh”
  • Episode 88: “The Bar Association”
  • Episode 89: “Accession”
  • Episode 90: “Rules of Engagement”
  • Episode 91: “Hard Time”
  • Episode 92: “Shattered Mirror”
  • Episode 93: “The Muse”
  • Episode 94: “For the Cause”
  • Episode 95: “The Quickening”
  • Episode 96: “To the Death”
  • Episode 97: “Body Parts”
  • Episode 98: “Broken Link”
  • Episode 99: “Apocalypse Rising”
  • Episode 100: “The Ship”
  • Episode 101: “Looking For par’Mach in All the Wrong Places”
  • Episode 102: “...Nor the Battle to the Strong”
  • Episode 103: “The Assignment”
  • Episode 104: “Trials and Tribble-ations”
  • Episode 105: “Let He Who Is Without Sin...”
  • Episode 106: “Things Past”
  • Episode 107: “The Ascent”
  • Episode 108: “Rapture”
  • Episode 109: “The Darkness and the Light”
  • Episode 110: “The Begotten”
  • Episode 111: “For the Uniform”
  • Episode 112: “In Purgatory’s Shadow”
  • Episode 113: “By Inferno’s Light”
  • Episode 114: “Doctor Bashir, I Presume?”
  • Episode 115: “A Simple Investigation”
  • Episode 116: “Business as Usual”
  • Episode 117: “Ties of Blood and Water”
  • Episode 118: “Ferengi Love Songs”
  • Episode 119: “Soldiers of the Empire”
  • Episode 120: “Children of Time”
  • Episode 121: “Blaze of Glory”
  • Episode 122: “Empok Nor”
  • Episode 123: “In the Cards”
  • Episode 124: “Call to Arms”
  • Episode 125: “A Time to Stand”
  • Episode 126: “Rocks and Shoals”
  • Episode 127: “Sons and Daughters”
  • Episode 128: “Behind the Lines”
  • Episode 129: “Favor the Bold”
  • Episode 130: “The Sacrifice of Angels”
  • Episode 131: “You Are Cordially Invited...”
  • Episode 132: “Resurrection”
  • Episode 133: “Statistical Probabilities”
  • Episode 134: “The Magnificent Ferengi”
  • Episode 135: “Waltz”
  • Episode 136: “Who Mourns for Morn”
  • Episode 137: “Far Beyond the Stars”
  • Episode 138: “One Little Ship”
  • Episode 139: “Honor Among Thieves”
  • Episode 140: “Change of Heart”
  • Episode 141: “Wrongs Darker Than Death or Night”
  • Episode 142: “Inquisition”
  • Episode 143: “In the Pale Moonlight”
  • Episode 144: “His Way”
  • Episode 145: “The Reckoning”
  • Episode 146: “ Valiant ”
  • Episode 147: “Profit and Lace”
  • Episode 148: “Time’s Orphan”
  • Episode 149: “The Sound of Her Voice”
  • Episode 150: “Tears of the Prophets”
  • Episode 151: “Image in the Sand”
  • Episode 152: “Shadows and Symbols”
  • Episode 153: “Afterimage”
  • Episode 154: “Take Me Out to the Holosuite”
  • Episode 155: “Chrysalis”
  • Episode 156: “Treachery, Faith, and the Great River”
  • Episode 157: “Once More Unto the Breach”
  • Episode 158: “The Siege of AR-558”
  • Episode 159: “Covenant”
  • Episode 160: “It’s Only a Paper Moon”
  • Episode 161: “Prodigal Daughter”
  • Episode 162: “The Emperor’s New Cloak”
  • Episode 163: “Field of Fire”
  • Episode 164: “Chimera”
  • Episode 165: “Badda-Bing, Badda-Bang”
  • Episode 166: “Inter Arma Enim Silent Leges”
  • Episode 167: “Penumbra”
  • Episode 168: “‘Til Death Do Us Part”
  • Episode 169: “Strange Bedfellows”
  • Episode 170: “The Changing Face of Evil”
  • Episode 171: “When It Rains...”
  • Episode 172: “Tacking Into the Wind”
  • Episode 173: “Extreme Measures”
  • Episode 174: “The Dogs of War”
  • Episode 175-176: “What You Leave Behind”

Star Trek: Voyager

  • Episode 34: “Death Wish”
  • Episode 68: “Scorpion, Part I”
  • Episode 69: “Scorpion, Part II”
  • Episode 74: “The Raven ”
  • Episode 89: “The Omega Directive”
  • Episode 93: “One”
  • Episode 94: “Hope and Fear”
  • Episode 30: “Death Wish”
  • Episode 44: “False Profits”
  • Episode 53: “The Q and the Grey”
  • Episode 95: “Night”
  • Episode 104: “Counterpoint”
  • Episode 110: “The Disease”
  • Episode 111: “Dark Frontier, Part I”
  • Episode 112: “Dark Frontier, Part II”
  • Episode 120: “ Equinox , Part I”
  • Episode 121: “ Equinox , Part II”
  • Episode 129: “The Voyager Conspiracy”
  • Episode 140: “Good Shepherd”
  • Episode 157: “Shattered”
  • Episode 158: “Lineage”

Star Trek: Enterprise

  • Episode 1: “Broken Bow” (Draft Version)
  • Episode 69: “Azati Prime”
  • Episode 76: “Zero Hour”

It was made at the Paramount Studios from 1994 to 2001. The show followed directly on from The Next Generation, but was located in the Delta Quadrant. This gave it a different feel from that series in that there was no contact with Starfleet or the Federation. .The journey home meant there was little scope for any meaningful on-going alien development until the Borg were brought in from season four. It ran alongside the very popular Deep Space Nine for five years, and was very much a child of the internet age, with the Star Trek website up and running at the same time. With the instant feedback and criticism that forums are famous for generating, Voyager became the most derided of the shows amongst the online fans until Enterprise.

Season one was cut short and four episodes were held over to season two. It should have finished with Projections, Elogium, Twisted and then The 37's, which makes a lot more sense when viewed in that way.

In this section - Transcripts of the 7 seasons episodes.

Examples of number 47 in the series. If you spot any I have missed, let me know.

Tables of 'line count' for the main characters split into two sections - with Kes, and then with Seven of Nine. This was to address the accusation that when the Borg character was introduced, she took the lion's share of the stories. These pages use frames, which were the latest thing at the time. Sorry.

Kate Mulgrew as Captain Kathryn Janeway Robert Beltran as Commander Chakotay Roxann Biggs-Dawson as Lieutenant B'Elanna Torres Jennifer Lien as Kes (seasons 1-3) Robert Duncan MacNeill as Lieutenant Tom Paris Ethan Phillips as Neelix Robert Picardo as the EMH (Doctor) Tim Russ as Lieutenant Tuvok Garrett Wang as Ensign Harry Kim Jeri Ryan as Seven of Nine (seasons 4-7)

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Script to Screen - Star Trek: Voyager: Scorpion Pt. 1

Go behind the script on this classic episode with StarTrek.com.

StarTrek.com highlights a notable scene from Star Trek: Voyager's " Scorpion, (Part 1)"

Star Trek: The Cruise VII: fans wearing yellow t-shirts celebrating on the pool deck and cheering

Memory Alpha

Parallax (episode)

  • View history

Investigating an apparent distress call, Voyager becomes trapped inside the event horizon of a quantum singularity.

  • 1.2 Act One
  • 1.3 Act Two
  • 1.4 Act Three
  • 1.5 Act Four
  • 1.6 Act Five
  • 2 Memorable quotes
  • 3.1 Story and script
  • 3.2 Cast and characters
  • 3.3 Production
  • 3.4 Creating the shuttlecraft, shuttlebay, and spatial effects
  • 3.5 Continuity and trivia
  • 3.6 Reception
  • 3.7 Video and DVD releases
  • 4.1 Starring
  • 4.2 Also Starring
  • 4.3 Guest Stars
  • 4.4 Co-Star
  • 4.5 Uncredited co-stars
  • 4.6 Photo double
  • 4.7 Stand-ins
  • 4.8 References
  • 4.9 External links

Summary [ ]

Carey, broken nose

Joseph Carey, after getting into a fight with B'Elanna Torres

In sickbay , Lieutenant Carey is being treated by The Doctor after getting into a conflict over the power grid in engineering with B'Elanna Torres . He is extremely furious with Torres, telling Chakotay and Tuvok that he wants her kept away from engineering after Chakotay tells Carey that he will have a word with Torres. Carey yells at Chakotay to " keep that woman out of my engine room and everything will be fine! " The two officers leave sickbay and discuss the situation in the corridor . A difference in opinion occurs when Tuvok wants Torres confined to the brig with the possibility that she'll receive a court martial on the ship, while Chakotay prefers to deal with her on his own. Chakotay is able to persuade Tuvok to let him deal with Torres and enters a turbolift alone, while Tuvok warns that he intends to make a full report in his security log . While proceeding to Torres' quarters, Chakotay is met by Crewman Jarvin and Ensign Seska , who let him know that they will support him if he seeks to take over the ship. Chakotay's bad mood becomes worse at being told this and threatens to personally throw them in the brig for mutiny if he hears it again, leaving Jarvin and Seska shocked.

In her quarters , Torres is fuming to the point that when she hears the door chime, she throws a plate at the door, which misses hitting Chakotay. He hands her a PADD containing information on Joe Carey's medical status, and furiously tells her that if she'd hit him a little harder she might have caused serious and permanent injury and now he has a Vulcan wanting to court martial her on one side and the Maquis ready to mutiny on the other. Torres mentions how much Carey irritates her. Chakotay tries to coax Torres into apologizing to Carey and getting to know him over a hot cup of pejuta , but Torres scoffs at the very idea. Chakotay then tells her that she could use the help and support of people like Carey if she wants to be the next chief engineer . Torres is suspicious about this, pointing out that Carey is next in line. But Chakotay tells her that she is the better engineer. He moves to leave her quarters, and Torres asks about what Captain Janeway thinks of the situation; Chakotay replies that he hasn't told her – yet.

Act One [ ]

In the briefing room , the senior staff members are discussing the situation of the power and personnel shortage, as Neelix and Kes invite themselves into the meeting. Given the energy shortage, dwindling rations and problems with the replicators , Kes recommends converting a cargo bay into a hydroponics bay so they can grow their own vegetables. Ensign Kim suggests cargo bay 2. Janeway agrees, and puts Kes in charge of the project. Janeway then brings up the open positions on the ship, and Chakotay passes her a list of former Maquis crew members he believes would make good officers. Seeing B'Elanna Torres' name on the list, Janeway wonders – following all the complaints she has heard about Torres – exactly what job it is that Chakotay thinks she can do. His response is " Chief engineer ." Somewhat taken aback, Janeway changes the topic to medical staff due to the fact that the the Emergency Medical Hologram , which is substituting as the chief medical officer, is unable to leave sickbay and also has no bedside manner. It is decided that someone should train as a field medic, and Tom Paris is unhappy at being selected (having taken two semesters of biochemistry in Starfleet Academy , he is the most qualified candidate). The staff briefing is interrupted when Voyager violently shakes; those present at the meeting all proceed to the bridge .

Janeway and Chakotay, 2371

Janeway and Chakotay discuss options

On the bridge, Seska reports that Voyager has encountered a spatial disturbance which is actually a type-4 quantum singularity . A ship is caught near the event horizon and sends a transmission to Voyager . The message is erratic and cannot be understood. Voyager sends a transmission back, but there's no response. Janeway inquires about a tractor beam , but Harry Kim reports that subspace interference in the area is extremely heavy. Chakotay contacts engineering and asks Torres, who recommends remodulating a tractor beam to match the subspace interference. Janeway, who is upset at Chakotay contacting Torres directly rather than consulting the senior officer in charge, interrupts Chakotay and puts Carey in charge. She then asks Chakotay to see her in her ready room .

In the ready room, Janeway tells Chakotay that his behavior on the bridge was unacceptable. Chakotay states that he contacted Torres because he felt that she would give him a quicker answer. He explains that, if she received a senior position and if the former Maquis crew members were granted more responsibility in general, they would finally become more loyal. Janeway argues that all the Starfleet officers have worked hard and earned their commissions, while the Maquis (apart from Chakotay, who was a command-level officer before his resignation from Starfleet) are untrained and undisciplined so it would be asking too much that the Starfleet crew be forced to accept a Maquis being promoted above them, especially one like Torres, who has already shown she can't control herself and couldn't handle the Academy. She then tells Chakotay that he needs to stop seeing them as specifically his crew. Chakotay retorts that he won't be Janeway's "token" Maquis officer and the reason he treats them as his own people is that, if he didn't look out for them, no one else would. Janeway tells him that she'll consider any other Maquis officer he wants to recommend, but he insists Torres is the right choice for chief engineer and asks Janeway to at least talk to Torres and get to know her better.

Act Two [ ]

Kes enters sickbay to retrieve some nitrogenated soil for her hydroponics bay. The Doctor begins commenting on how he is going to be used for every minor medical problem that's going to occur. Kes notices The Doctor's sensitivity in his behavior, but also notices that he appears shorter. The Doctor performs a diagnostic on his imaging processor and discovers he has decreased in height by 10.4 centimeters . He contacts Harry Kim and asks for assistance, but he's too busy. Before Kes leaves with her soil samples, she inquires if The Doctor has chosen a name, which he has not. She deactivates his program and leaves.

The subspace tractor beam has been completed and is used. The beam is able to penetrate the singularity's event horizon , but the new power relays installed begin to fail. Voyager is jolted and begins to be pulled into the singularity. Full reverse is engaged but the tractor beam cannot be disabled, causing massive hull stress. Janeway orders the impulse engines disengaged and Voyager begins moving forward again. She then orders the tractor beam disengaged, at which Carey cuts the power feed, manually; the tractor beam is disengaged. In need of help, Janeway orders setting a course for Ilidaria (a nearby, technologically-advanced society which Neelix had suggested might be willing to help) at full impulse.

Janeway addressing Torres

" Well, I think I know my way around an engine room, if that's what you mean. "

Janeway decides to follow Chakotay's suggestion to talk with Torres and invites her to her ready room. The captain tries to bond with Torres, by talking to her about her past, especially with Starfleet Academy. Torres then notes that she didn't like Starfleet 's system and angrily leaves, saying that she didn't want anything to do with Starfleet then and is sorry that she has to now. After Torres leaves, The Doctor contacts Janeway, using monitor input 47 , and notifies her of the error in his imaging system. He also relays news to her that nine crew members have reported severe headaches , muscle spasms , sudden waves of dizziness, all of which are possibly related to the quantum singularity. The ship jolts and Janeway returns to the bridge, while leaving the channel to The Doctor open.

Tom Paris, quantum singularity

" This isn't another singularity, it's the same one. "

Apparently, Voyager has found another type-4 quantum singularity that has all the same properties as the one discovered earlier. Reports indicate, however, that Voyager is back to the same position as before, and that it is the same quantum singularity.

Act Three [ ]

Voyager is turned in the opposite direction from the singularity and warp is engaged. At twelve million kilometers from the singularity, it appears ahead of the ship again. All departments are ordered to submit reports and a staff meeting is planned. Chakotay requests that Torres be invited along if she is still being considered as Chief Engineer, and Janeway decides to include her. In Engineering shortly beforehand, Carey submits news of the briefing to Torres, but tells her that he speaks for Engineering and warns her not to say anything unless directly asked, which prompts Seska to privately comment after he leaves to Torres that she should have broken more than his nose.

Kim dizzy

" Just dizzy, can't… can't focus. "

In a corridor, Tuvok and Kim discuss the singularity situation. Kim changes the subject and inquires about the conflict in engineering, noting that he has heard Starfleet and Maquis are figuratively at each other's throats. Kim, all of a sudden, collapses, complaining of extreme dizziness . Tuvok helps him up and begins to escort him to sickbay.

During the staff briefing, The Doctor reports that 27 more crew members have since encountered the symptoms he mentioned earlier (a number that includes Kim). The Doctor has no idea what's going on and therefore cannot provide a treatment. The shrinking is still occurring; at this point, he has lost 68 centimeters of height. The staff moves onto the subject of the singularity, for which no progress has been made. However, using the problem with the Doctor's imaging system, Torres (who has, in fact, been behaving herself) is able to determine that she could use a localized dampening field around the external sensors to contact the other ship. Janeway agrees with this idea and dismisses the staff to begin work. As Chakotay leaves, Janeway gives him a small nod to communicate that Torres is starting to impress her.

The deflector dish is modified and the dampening field is deployed. The crew receive the transmission from the ship again. It is cleared up and it becomes evident to the crew that it is the same message Janeway transmitted earlier. Torres applies the dampening field to the visual sensors, and the image of the ship resolves; it is Voyager .

Act Four [ ]

Paris confused

" Am I making any sense here? "

Torres has an explanation for the seeming duplication of the starship, so the staff returns to the briefing room. Torres uses a reflection in water as a metaphor for the current situation, except that what the Voyager 's crew is viewing is a time-delayed image of themselves. They estimate it will take nine hours until Voyager is destroyed by the singularity, so Torres recommends that they find a "crack" to escape. Remembering when they first entered the anomaly, Janeway and Torres think that Voyager made a hole in the event horizon and that they will need to find the same hole. Finishing each other's sentences, " warp particles " is the idea developed by Torres and Janeway; if all goes to plan, such particles will make the crack visible, allowing Voyager to fly out.

The deflector dish is deactivated and warp particles are routed to the deflector. The particles are deployed and Paris locates an irregularity in the event horizon. The hole is too small, so they will have to expand it. Torres recommends using a dekyon beam to expand the hole. Voyager is too far to emit the beam, so a shuttlecraft has to be used. With their understanding of the "finer points" of temporal mechanics , both Janeway and Torres board the shuttle and leave Voyager .

Act Five [ ]

On the shuttlecraft, the dekyon beam is prepared. Torres decides to use this moment to apologize to Janeway about her earlier behavior and also recalls that she left the Academy because she felt she couldn't make it in Starfleet. Janeway notes that Professor Chapman thought Torres was a promising cadet and, disappointed that she had quit, went as far as noting in her permanent record that he would support her re-entry if she ever decided to reapply. Torres is surprised to hear that, because she always felt that Chapman hated her and couldn't wait to see her kicked out of the Academy, but Janeway explains that some professors like students who challenge their assumptions, and many of Torres' teachers agreed that she had the potential to be an excellent officer. The shuttle arrives at the irregularity and the dekyon beam is charged. They get close enough to fire the beam and do so, causing the hole to start widening. It reaches a 65% increase in growth, as the shuttle starts to lose power. They turn around and return to find two Voyager s: they only have enough power to reach one with no way to communicate with the rest of the crew. Guessing, Janeway chooses the Voyager on the starboard side of the shuttlecraft while Torres chooses the one on the port side. Janeway realizes that the port one is moving towards the rift, which the real Voyager did, twenty minutes prior whereas the starboard one is pointed away to give them easier access to the shuttlebay . They go with Janeway's suggestion, which is indeed the correct one.

Chakotay and Torres in engineering

" There they are – your staff. " " I'll try not to break any of their noses. "

Voyager begins to move towards the rift, which is slowly closing. The rift length reaches 110 meters, which is too small to facilitate the ship's exit. Knowing this is their only chance of escape, Janeway decides they're going to smash their way through and orders full power to the impulse engines as they approach the rift. Shields fail and the port impulse engines lose power. Despite the problems, Voyager is able to punch its way out and clears the singularity. Relieved, Janeway orders that Voyager be at least a hundred million kilometers away from the singularity before commencing repairs.

The Doctor, tiny

" You know, I like you better this way. "

In engineering, Torres has earned the position of chief engineer. Her first duty is to bring the warp drive online by 1300 hours, which she says is impossible. Chakotay suggests she break a few noses, or at least bend a few to make it happen. After the commander departs, she orders some officers to work on getting the isolinear bank up and running but they don't respond until she says "please." Torres confronts Carey and asks for his help in her promotion as the new chief engineer. He gladly accepts, stating that she will never get anything less than his best, and they both shake hands. Meanwhile, on engineering's upper level, Janeway is observing Torres and the staff, as Chakotay joins her. Two crew members have already filed complaints about Torres' promotion and she may be in for a rough period of adjustment, Janeway notes, but she has a feeling that Torres will be a fine addition to the crew. Chakotay asks Janeway a question – off the record – if things had happened differently and they were on the Maquis ship now instead of Voyager , would Janeway have served under him? She responds, " One of the nice things about being captain… is that you can keep some things to yourself. "

And back in sickbay, The Doctor contacts Janeway again and once again requests a repair crew to fix his imaging systems, as he is now only several centimeters tall and unable to treat Lieutenant Paris' scratched hand, much to Tom's amusement.

Memorable quotes [ ]

" I didn't even come close to hitting him that hard. " " So, on the one side, I'm facing a Vulcan who wants to court martial you. And on the other, I'm facing all the Maquis who are ready to seize this ship over this. You've turned this into one lousy day for me, Torres! "

" Engine efficiency is down another fourteen percent. If we don't get more power to the warp drive, we're all going to have to get out and push. "

" I can do some wonderful things with vegetables, captain! My feragoit goulash is known across twelve star systems. "

" We have a problem. "

" Lieutenant, I understand you studied biochemistry at the Academy? " " Uh, only two semesters. " " Close enough. You've just volunteered to be a field medic. Report to The Doctor as soon as we're finished here. " " But, captain… "

" If I ever hear you talk that way again, I'll personally throw you in the brig for mutiny! "

" I've made a list of several Maquis candidates who would make good officers. " " B'Elanna Torres? She was the one involved in that incident with Mr. Carey? " " That's right. " " Just what job do you think she's suited for? " " Chief engineer. " " You're serious? " " Very. " " Regarding sickbay… "

" Now I know how Hippocrates felt when the king needed him to trim a hangnail."

" I've never found your twisted sense of humor very funny, Chakotay. "

" She struck a fellow officer. That is a court martial offense. " " She's a Maquis, and in the Maquis, sometimes you have to push people out of your way to get things done. "

" I will never cease to be amazed at the Human capacity for hyperbole. "

" Mr. Paris is about to impress us with his piloting skills. "

" Wait a minute, wait. Wait a minute. Let me get this straight. We were cruising along at warp seven. Then, we picked up a distress call and moved in to investigate. But now, you're saying that the other ship is actually just a reflection of us and that the distress call is actually just the captain's opening hail. But we picked up the distress call before she sent the hail. How could we have been seeing a reflection of something we hadn't even done yet? Am I making any sense here? " " No, but that's okay. "

" This isn't another singularity… it's the same one! "

" She's the best engineer I've ever known. She could teach at the Academy! You're right, captain; I do consider these to be my people because nobody else on this ship will look out for them like I will. And I'm telling you: you're going to have to give them more authority if you want their loyalty. " " Theirs or yours, commander? "

" I have no intention of being your token Maquis officer! "

" In command school, they taught us to always remember that maneuvering a starship is a very delicate process, but over the years, I've learned that, sometimes, you just have to punch your way through. Mr. Paris, full impulse power. "

"' 'Sometimes you just have to punch your way through.' I'll have to remember that one. "

" Can I ask you a question, off the record? If things had happened differently, and we were on the Maquis ship now instead of Voyager , would you have served under me? " " One of the nice things about being captain is that you can keep some things to yourself. "

Background information [ ]

Story and script [ ].

  • Jim Trombetta pitched the premise for this Star Trek: Voyager episode after having pitched several tech-heavy installments to Star Trek: Deep Space Nine . ( Captains' Logs Supplemental - The Unauthorized Guide to the New Trek Voyages , p. 135) At this early stage, the story had the working title "Ghost Ship". ( Information from Larry Nemecek ) Supervising Producer Brannon Braga said of the Voyager pitch, " His concept was that there was a ship trapped in a quantum singularity and how do we get it out? " ( Cinefantastique , Vol. 27, No. 4/5, p. 34) The pitch was considered to be hard to execute, however. Trombetta noted, " That story was very complicated and possibly wasn't completely doable. " ( Captains' Logs Supplemental - The Unauthorized Guide to the New Trek Voyages , p. 135) Braga similarly thought the pitch was "a highly technical premise to get working." ( Star Trek Monthly  issue 7 , p. 8) However, he also particularly liked the premise, referring to it as "a very cool idea." Executive Producer Jeri Taylor commented, " ['Parallax'] started as a really high-concept show right up Brannon Braga's alley, because it was some weird time distortion thing. " ( Cinefantastique , Vol. 27, No. 4/5, p. 34)
  • The story pitch was bought early in the development of Star Trek: Voyager . Jeri Taylor noted, " 'Parallax' was one of the first concepts that we bought as we started into story development. " ( Cinefantastique , Vol. 27, No. 4/5, p. 34)
  • One influence on this episode was the prospect of bonding the Voyager crew. Executive Producer Michael Piller stated, " I wanted the ship out there and into danger to see how the crew reacted. So we created this strange time-space anomaly that we were involved with, and then we were going to see how this crew would work together. " ( Captains' Logs Supplemental - The Unauthorized Guide to the New Trek Voyages , p. 135) Brannon Braga remarked, " We knew we wanted to do a Maquis/Starfleet adjustment episode; and it needed to come early. It turned out that would be 'Parallax.' " ( Cinefantastique , Vol. 27, No. 4/5, p. 76) Indeed, at least one of the reasons that Braga was eager to become involved in the early stages of Star Trek: Voyager (having missed the chance to work on the writing of the script for the pilot episode, " Caretaker ", due to having been on vacation) was that he wanted to have a hand in developing the characters. Of his earliest influence on the series, he said, " I was involved in developing the stories, and wrote the first episode after the pilot. I was very eager to get involved from the beginning, for all the obvious reasons. I wanted to see what it was like to shape characters. " ( The Official Star Trek: Voyager Magazine  issue 5 , p. 45)
  • The idea of B'Elanna Torres' promotion to the head of her department was transplanted into this episode. Jeri Taylor recalled, " We had planned originally to make B'Elanna the chief engineer and Tom Paris the conn officer in the pilot, and then it just seemed overkill, so we lifted that out and attached it to this. " ( Captains' Logs Supplemental - The Unauthorized Guide to the New Trek Voyages , p. 135) Having Torres become the chief engineer in this episode not only set her up in that position for the rest of the series but also provided motive for the tension between the Maquis and Starfleet sides of the crew. Brannon Braga explained, " The [series] bible said the Chief Engineer is B'Elanna Torres. Well, she's not made chief engineer in the pilot. Her earning the job probably should be her first episode, which can also embody the Maquis-Starfleet conflict that is going on, because if you make a Maquis chief engineer, there are lots of Starfleet people in line for that job who are going to be pretty pissed off. So that was a good character situation to exploit. " ( Cinefantastique , Vol. 27, No. 4/5, p. 76) Braga also stated, " One of [the] things we wanted to accomplish with the first episode was getting B'Elanna into position as chief engineer, so that concept fit a lot of criteria. " ( The Official Star Trek: Voyager Magazine  issue 5 , p. 45)
  • The "Ghost Ship" pitch was discussed by the VOY writing staff at a story meeting in late May 1994 . Some of the ideas they discussed for this initial episode were B'Elanna becoming chief engineer and conflict with the crew. In the minutes from the meeting (dated 31 May 1994), the episode was referred to as including not only these two elements but also "Tuvok relationship", "pressure on Janeway and Chakotay", and the crew feeling a lack of connectedness. Additionally, a bracketed note concerning this first episode stated, " Possible marriage to 'Ghost Ship'. " [1]
  • "Ghost Ship" wasn't the only working title this episode had, as it was also initially called "Deep Time". [2] The episode was renamed this after the pitch was bought. ( Information from Larry Nemecek )
  • From the pitch, Brannon Braga developed the script, with help from some other contributors. Jeri Taylor recalled, " We bought the idea of the quantum singularity and then tried to make a story out of it, and several people added to it. The original writer had a vision for it and Brannon [Braga] took it over. " ( Captains' Logs Supplemental - The Unauthorized Guide to the New Trek Voyages , p. 135)
  • The episode's script was a difficult one for Brannon Braga to pull together. ( Captains' Logs Supplemental - The Unauthorized Guide to the New Trek Voyages , p. 136) He noted, " 'Parallax' was a story that had some problems. " ( The Official Star Trek: Voyager Magazine  issue 5 , p. 45) While he was trying to write the script, Braga was also taking pitches – two or three a day, every day – as Jeri Taylor and Michael Piller (the only members of the series' writing team, at that point) were both busy with helping to cast the series, and stories were needed for the rest of the first season . ( A Vision of the Future - Star Trek: Voyager , p. 260)
  • Brannon Braga was unsure, while writing this episode, how the members of the series' main cast would perform the teleplay. " I wrote 'Parallax' without having seen any of the actors perform the roles, " he explained. " I didn't know how they were going to do it. " ( A Vision of the Future - Star Trek: Voyager , p. 171)
  • It was Brannon Braga who introduced the concept of a duplicated Voyager into the story. " Jim Trombetta [had come] up with the idea of our finding a ship in a quantum singularity, " Braga recalled, " and there were aliens trapped in there that we helped. What I did was cut the aliens out and say, 'Wouldn't it be cool if in fact it wasn't another ship, it was us and we've been trapped all along?' " ( Captains' Logs Supplemental - The Unauthorized Guide to the New Trek Voyages , p. 136) Braga also said, " My only twist [to Trombetta's pitch] was that there is no ship; it's really us, and we've been trapped the whole time, we're just looking at a reflection, like being at the bottom of a lake looking up at the ice above. I thought that was kind of a cool thing. And there is the twist about seeing two Voyager s at the end. One is the reflection and one is real. Which one is which? " ( Cinefantastique , Vol. 27, No. 4/5, p. 34)
  • Another facet of the story that Braga introduced related to the hardship of life aboard Voyager . Jeri Taylor stated, " Brannon set up the conditions of the crew and the ship [....] For instance, the replicators are not fully functional, so people are on replicator rations. They have to get food and grow food. " ( Captains' Logs Supplemental - The Unauthorized Guide to the New Trek Voyages , p. 135)
  • Brannon Braga lost no sleep worrying about the particulars of the technobabble used for the anomaly of this episode, as his top priority was dramatizing the plot itself. He explained, " Normally, the way we write stories is we come up with what we want to do dramatically […] We add science later. And it works out much better that way. Though 'a quantum singularity' is a mouthful, I decided to use it anyway; but I literally could have called it 'a quantum fissure ,' 'a quantum sinkhole,' anything. And who cares? Who really cares? " ( Cinefantastique , Vol. 27, No. 4/5, p. 34)
  • The first draft of the episode's script was issued on 19 August 1994 . ( Information from Larry Nemecek ) In that draft of the teleplay, the Maquis, as a group, weren't referred to as having problems with Voyager 's Starfleet contingent. On the contrary, an initial captain's log which would have started the episode included Janeway saying, " So far, the Maquis are working well with the rest of the crew… and seem to be willing to put aside their differences. It's an encouraging sign… "
  • Rather than begin with Carey in sickbay, the teaser of the first draft script focused on repairs to Voyager following the Kazon attack that takes place in "Caretaker". The maintenance work was to be shown with a montage accompanying Janeway's voiceover log entry.
  • In the scene where Kes takes some soil samples from sickbay, the first draft script had Tom Paris casually namecalling The Doctor – addressing him as "photon-face" and "Doctor Smoke and Mirrors" – and, after The Doctor revealed to Kes that Paris was attracted to her, she and Paris had a conversation about Human sexuality which ended with Paris uncertain, as he exited, about how Kes felt about him. She subsequently assumed "Doctor Smoke" might be The Doctor's real name.
  • B'Elanna was eating P'tokian spikefish , a Klingon food she had volunteered to receive from the ship's emergency rations, in the mess hall when Chakotay arrived there. They proceeded to have a discussion much like the one they have in the episode's teaser, though it took place later in the first draft script (i.e., as part of the second act). While arm wrestling, they reminisced about having served on the Zola together, where they had previously arm wrestled, and made mention of Torres having shattered the sternum of a crewmember named Jenkins on the ship, a long time ago. Chakotay admitted that he believed Jenkins had deserved the injury.
  • On the way to the Ilidaria system , Neelix mentioned to Janeway that he was familiar with the commander of the Ilidarian merchant fleet and advised her, when she began suffering a slight headache, to pinch her big toe, apparently an ancient Talaxian remedy. He was even about to demonstrate this medical treatment on her when she declined.
  • Janeway only approved of B'Elanna Torres as the chief engineer in the penultimate scene of the first draft script, talking directly with Chakotay as they walked through a corridor. In the last scene of the script, Chakotay showed B'Elanna her engineering staff, much as he does in the final version of the episode.
  • Brannon Braga had completed the teleplay by September 1994 . ( A Vision of the Future - Star Trek: Voyager , p. 323) The installment's final draft script was submitted on 11 October 1994 . [3] In summation of the writing process, Braga noted, " What I tried to do is come up with some interesting twists. " ( Cinefantastique , Vol. 27, No. 4/5, p. 34) He elaborated, " I tried to put as many twists and turns in there as possible. It seemed like a good idea to do a weird time anomaly show, because they're generally very popular, and it afforded us the chance to develop conflict between some of the characters. " ( The Official Star Trek: Voyager Magazine  issue 5 , p. 45)
  • The scripted scene description for the moment when the distant and as-yet-unidentified future Voyager appears on the viewscreen stated, " We see the image of a distorted spacecraft – the ship is a ghostly smear, murky and wavering, as though seen through a funhouse mirror. " ( Star Trek Magazine  issue 128 , p. 94) Hence, the concept of essentially a "ghost ship" was retained despite the story and script having meanwhile undergone multiple changes.

Cast and characters [ ]

  • Jeri Taylor was pleased that this episode develops the relationship between Janeway and Torres. " We were able to put in place the whole arc of B'Elanna and Janeway, " Taylor noted. ( Cinefantastique , Vol. 27, No. 4/5, p. 34) She also remarked, " I think a nice arc occurs between B'Elanna and Janeway from conflict and skepticism to a real bonding, problem solving and, ultimately, affection. " ( Captains' Logs Supplemental - The Unauthorized Guide to the New Trek Voyages , p. 135)
  • Michael Piller liked the character development of not only Janeway and Torres but also Chakotay. Piller commented, " What appealed to me most about 'Parallax' was how it illuminated the relationship between Chakotay and B'Elanna and Janeway; how Janeway was going to deal with this first issue with the Maquis, how Chakotay was going to be the man in the middle and how, ultimately, B'Elanna was going to fit into this crew. Essentially she went from being the most outside force on the ship to being brought into the inner circle […] Ultimately, what worked was the triangle between Chakotay, Janeway and B'Elanna. The more time we spent with that, the better the show became. " ( Captains' Logs Supplemental - The Unauthorized Guide to the New Trek Voyages , p. 135)
  • As Brannon Braga had been unsure how the regular cast members would perform this episode's script, he found that their interpretations of his written material were completely different from his own. " Of course none of them did it the way I imagined it, " he noted. ( A Vision of the Future - Star Trek: Voyager , p. 171)
  • Actress Martha Hackett was cast in the role of Seska by Director Kim Friedman , who – a few months beforehand – had helmed the Star Trek: Deep Space Nine outing " The Search, Part I ", in which Hackett had portrayed T'Rul . Regarding Seska, Martha Hackett recalled, " When they first gave me the role, they said, 'You know, she's a member of the Maquis and she's one of Chakotay's gang before they joined up here. She's vigilant about the beliefs of the Maquis, the energy behind that kind of rebel: "We're gonna do it a little differently."' That was the background they gave me. " ("Saboteur Extraordinaire: Seska", VOY Season 2 DVD special features) The actress also remembered, " It was clear that her point of view was, we shouldn't have done this, why did we join up with the Federation? We should have stayed a splinter group. That was all that had been spelled out for me. " [4]
  • Robert Picardo has revealed that this episode provided him with a better understanding of his character of The Doctor than he had previously had. Picardo remembered, " I didn't quite get the joke […] until the third episode of the series, where Kes comes into The Doctor's office and asks for soil samples, and The Doctor goes off on this tirade about how he was designed for emergency medical use only and now every tiny, banal medical or scientific need was gonna be funneled his way and he was gonna be forced to do all these demeaning things, in his eyes. Here he was, the combination of everything that we know about medicine in the 24th century, so he has all of this wealth of knowledge. And yet anyone, any idiot on the crew, can turn him on or off like a light switch. Now that would piss me off. And that's what it did to The Doctor. It made him mad, and I think that that was the first major clue. " (" Voyager Time Capsule: The Doctor", VOY Season 7 DVD special features)
  • At the 2009 DragonCon, Garrett Wang recalled that Kim Friedman sent the cast of Voyager a video tape along with a letter shortly before "Parallax" was to begin shooting. The letter advised the cast to practice shaking before filming, as this episode had several scenes where Voyager was rocked by the quantum singularity. Friedman had included clips on the video tape of the Deep Space Nine episodes she had directed, where she felt the cast of that show had perfected the shaking she wanted. [5]

Production [ ]

Quantum singularity graphic

A graphic created for this episode but unused herein

  • A graphic of this episode's singularity was created for the episode but was ultimately not used here, subsequently being reserved as stock animation in case it was ever needed in later episodes. ( The Official Star Trek: Voyager Magazine  issue 8 , p. 44) The graphic was later reused in the third season episode " Displaced ".
  • This episode is a bottle show , the first such installment of Star Trek: Voyager . ( Delta Quadrant , p. 14)
  • The episode began shooting on Monday, 24 October 1994 , a date that did not leave much time for "Caretaker" to finish shooting and made filming of visual effects – which was busily being undertaken on "Caretaker" – even more hectic than it already was. When production on this episode was well under way, it was decided that several scenes of "Caretaker" would be reshot. ( A Vision of the Future - Star Trek: Voyager , pp. 316, 321 & 325)
  • Although this episode's credits name Tom Benko as the episode's editor, the official reference book A Vision of the Future - Star Trek: Voyager (p. 318) claims that the episode was edited by Daryl Baskin .
  • The opening credits changed in this episode from how they were displayed in "Caretaker", with ranks being added to all of the "also starring" roster, except for B'Elanna Torres, who would have her rank added to the credits in the following episode.

Creating the shuttlecraft, shuttlebay, and spatial effects [ ]

Tereshkova

The Type 8 shuttlecraft eventually named the Tereshkova

  • This episode marks the first appearances of both a Type 8 shuttlecraft as well as Voyager 's shuttlebay .
  • Despite both Production Designer Richard James and Scenic Art Supervisor/Technical Consultant Michael Okuda firmly believing that Voyager should have a shuttlecraft design of its own, the series had no money in its first season budget for the design and construction of such a craft. Consequently, the interior of the shuttlecraft shown here was a slightly modified reuse of sets that had been used as the inside of the Type 6 shuttlecraft in Star Trek: The Next Generation . The Type 8 shuttlecraft's exterior was similarly a modified reuse of the Type 6 shuttlecraft miniature. ( A Vision of the Future - Star Trek: Voyager , pp. 67 & 68) James and Okuda later got their wish with the creation of the Class 2 shuttle , which was first introduced in the second season episode " Threshold ".
  • The name of the Type 8 shuttlecraft in this episode, the Tereshkova , was only decided upon after Michael Okuda had suggested several names that had been rejected by either Richard James or the producers. On 5 December 1994 , Okuda considered the name Einstein , but he really wanted a female explorer's name to be used. For several minutes, he brainstormed for names with Assistant Art Director Louise Dorton and Senior Illustrator/Technical Consultant Rick Sternbach , tossing suggestions back and forth. These names included Amelia Earhart , Mary Leakey , Marie Curie , Christa McAuliffe , and Mae Jemison . Each suggestion was quickly discarded, however, either because it had been used before or was deemed inappropriate (such as out of deference to the woman's family members). Richard James, Art Director Michael L. Mayer , and Scenic Artist Wendy Drapanas arrived and joined in the discussion. James finally suggested Valentina Tereshkova , a Russian cosmonaut who became the first woman into space, and Okuda liked the suggestion immediately. ( A Vision of the Future - Star Trek: Voyager , pp. 69-70)
  • To create the effect of the shuttlecraft landing in Voyager 's shuttlebay, Visual Effects Coordinator Joe Bauer created a low-budget model of the bay and optically married it to the Voyager studio model . " There you have […] [a] situation of sizing, " Bauer explained, " because the Voyager model is five feet and the shuttle model is a foot and a half to two feet, but if it were in scale it would be about an inch. The shuttle bay doesn't exist as a full set or even as a nice model so it was a matter of scrounging through some throw-away DS9 models from last year and I ended up rebuilding in cardboard a docking bay. We ended up doing a move going back into the Voyager and then did a match move, scaled to size, of the inside bay and then just composited it. Thank God it all lined up. This was something Amblin Imaging was approached to build, but it became expensive and we needed it quickly, so in this case it was faster to build a physical model. " ( Cinefantastique , Vol. 27, No. 4/5, p. 83)
  • A reflection of the shuttlebay is shown in the shuttlecraft's windshield as the craft approaches the bay. Explaining how the bay footage was altered to feature as the reflection, Joe Bauer stated, " We flopped it for that shot, defocused it, then used a device called a System G that can warp a piece of video and just warped it around the edges so it looked like it was defining a bent piece of plexi-glass. Then at the point in the POV shot where they are going in the door we raised the light level inside, just the kind of detail that tries to sell the shot. " ( Cinefantastique , Vol. 27, No. 4/5, p. 83)
  • The event horizon of the black hole was essentially a completely new effect. However, it was actually a mix of not only elements that were specially photographed for this episode but also images from Star Trek 's extensive library of stock elements. More specifically, the effect married cloud elements with silver cloth viewed through ripple glass, and liquid nitrogen filmed on the motion control stage at Image G. Philip Barberio , the visual effects supervisor on this episode, commented, " I actually had some money for that show to develop a whole effect so I played with stuff from our elements books and put this effect together with a cloud element made from liquid nitrogen, put into a Sony System G, then colorized and wrapped in clouds. " ( Cinefantastique , Vol. 27, No. 4/5, p. 82)

USS Voyager escapes through event horizon

Voyager flies through the event horizon

  • The tear in the event horizon proved to be the hardest element of the anomaly to visualize. Phil Barberio stated, " In 'Parallax,' I was drawing a blank on the tear. I asked [the writers] about it and they said, 'You know, a tear you can see space through.' " Fortunately, Visual Effects Producer Dan Curry had devised an inventive tearing effect using acetone dripped onto Styrofoam in front of a light that, as the foam was eaten away, would shine through, producing a very organic-looking effect. " We used that image to start with, " Barberio explained, " and then we created this background that was moving in four directions at the same time very slowly behind the hole so it gave it the look that it was being pulled toward the hole. Then we darkened that and reddened it. The first hole was roundly rejected, because it was too big and looked like the ship could sail through easily. They wanted it to be gummy, where the Voyager could barely squeeze through, so we made it smaller and added more veins originally used on the goo monster [the alien Caretaker ] from the pilot. They had some tests that weren't used and we put those into the opening as strands that would attach themselves to the ship as it goes through. As it punches through you see some residual stuff on the engine. Nothing's ever thrown away. " ( Cinefantastique , Vol. 27, No. 4/5, pp. 82-83)

Continuity and trivia [ ]

  • When Janeway and Torres are returning from their shuttle trip and are faced with both Voyager s, Janeway says she is receiving identical readings from both ships. However, since neither she nor Torres are back on board Voyager at the time, the real ship should have a personnel count of two fewer than its reflection.
  • After being introduced in this episode, Seska went on to become a recurring character of the first two seasons of Star Trek: Voyager and eventually reveals – in the later first season installment " State of Flux " – that she is a Cardassian spy, surgically altered to look Bajoran . Martha Hackett knew, from the time she was first hired for this episode, that the role of Seska would be recurring, "but [the writers] didn't know what that would mean – they came up with the storyline as it went," Hackett explained. [6] In a retrospective interview, Hackett also said of the role, " It just kinda evolved […] They had no idea what direction Seska was gonna go in. It hadn't been… decided […] I think, with a new show, they're trying things out and, with this show in particular, they had all these new enemy species and they were in a new quadrant that they had never gone before. I think they were just trying things on for size, so it wasn't as if they were promising me this or that. " ("Saboteur Extraordinaire: Seska", VOY Season 2 DVD special features) Consequently, Martha Hackett was unaware, while acting in this episode, of her character's deviousness. " In the beginning I was just an energetic, contrary Maquis member, " she recalled. " I didn't know I was a spy. " [7] Hackett further explained, " When I first appeared on the show, Seska was just a member of the crew. It was only after I had done an episode that someone said, 'We may be making you a spy', but even then they weren't sure. " ( Star Trek Monthly  issue 34 , p. 37) The actress also stated, " They had it vaguely in mind that they were going to have this spy, but they hadn't worked it out yet. " [8]
  • In this episode, Seska is wearing a blue sciences division uniform but is sitting at the engineering station on the bridge . She appears in a yellow operations division uniform in later episodes. Martha Hackett has since stated that, in this episode, she was mistakenly costumed in the wrong color uniform. [9]
  • With the writers still finding their footing in the series at this point, Tom Paris exclaims, " It's the Voyager," instead of, " It's Voyager" (without the definite article). This was, in fact, the way that the ship was commonly referred to (at this point in the series and in the future) in interviews, etc., in keeping with previous Star Trek shows ("It's the Enterprise", or "It's the Defiant").
  • This episode includes the first appearances of not only a Type 8 shuttlecraft and Voyager 's shuttlebay but also the starship's conference room .
  • This episode marks the first occasion of many where Voyager encounters some sort of temporal phenomenon, in which the crew either visit the past, are visited from the future, or experience an alternate timeline. Voyager would go on to encounter these phenomena in " Time and Again ", " Eye of the Needle ", " Non Sequitur ", " Future's End ", " Future's End, Part II ", " Before and After ", " Year of Hell, Part II ", " Timeless ", " Gravity ", " Relativity ", " Blink of an Eye ", " Fury ", " Shattered ", and " Endgame ".
  • Tuvok wears the insignia of a lieutenant commander in this episode, as he does throughout the first season, despite being a lieutenant.
  • The Doctor also later requests Captain Janeway to access monitor input 47 when he informs her of his decreasing size due to the spatial distortions.
  • In this episode, Paris is tapped to become the Doctor's assistant, an idea described in an interview in Star Trek Magazine with writer Brannon Braga as a major intention which "soon went by the wayside." Despite this, the idea would resurface in the program's fourth season following the departure of Kes from the program.

Reception [ ]

  • Brannon Braga ultimately felt that, in this episode, he had written the characters as slightly too hard-edged and that it had taken a while for him to find their proper "voices." ( Captains' Logs Supplemental - The Unauthorized Guide to the New Trek Voyages , p. 136) Shortly after working on the episode, he noted, " Now I know how these actors are, and it's helping a lot. The actors definitely contribute to the creation of the character. " ( A Vision of the Future - Star Trek: Voyager , p. 171)
  • Of this episode's completed version, Braga remarked, " Too much tech, but some clever twists and some great character work. All in all, a good episode. " ( Captains' Logs Supplemental - The Unauthorized Guide to the New Trek Voyages , p. 136) He elaborated, " It's a very techy episode, and some people weren't too thrilled with it for that reason […] I thought it had some great character work in it. I also thought it was a good time anomaly show, something we had never seen, and it had a good twist when you realized the ship was Voyager . The 'lady or the tiger' gag at the end was a lot of fun, and I thought it had some good stuff in it. " ( The Official Star Trek: Voyager Magazine  issue 5 , pp. 45 & 46) Another reason why Braga was pleased with this episode was that both the character development herein and the episode's scientific plotline are very much connected. He observed, " I've always felt the best storytelling on TNG and on Voyager are stories that may have an A-and-B plot, but the A-and-B plots are integrally connected, as in 'Parallax,' or at least thematically connected. " ( Cinefantastique , Vol. 27, No. 4/5, p. 84) Braga also found, however, that the anomaly was ultimately too complex for viewers. He opined, " The quantum parallax is hard to grasp. " Braga took full responsibility for this level of complexity, adding, " Regretfully that's my fault. " ( Cinefantastique , Vol. 27, No. 4/5, p. 34)
  • Both Jeri Taylor and Michael Piller liked how this episode balances character work with high-concept science fiction. Piller declared, " What made this show work for me was that this was a show about a crew coming together and not about a ship in jeopardy. " ( Captains' Logs Supplemental - The Unauthorized Guide to the New Trek Voyages , p. 135) Jeri Taylor stated that, even though the episode evolved from a highly technical premise, " Brannon was able to write a script that I think made the crew struggle with 'We're out here and things are not working and what do we do? Who's going to be The Doctor and who's going to be the Chief of Engineering?' […] So even though it felt high concept, it was very strongly rooted in character. " ( Cinefantastique , Vol. 27, No. 4/5, p. 34) In addition, Taylor expressed approval of how Braga used the episode to establish some of the circumstances that the starship Voyager and its crew find themselves in, saying that introducing these elements was "giving us [the series' writing staff] things that we were able to have fun with." ( Captains' Logs Supplemental - The Unauthorized Guide to the New Trek Voyages , p. 135)
  • This episode achieved a Nielsen rating of 9.2 million homes, and a 14% share. It was the most watched episode of Voyager 's first season (on first airing) except for the series pilot, "Caretaker". [10] (X)
  • Cinefantastique gave this installment 3 out of 4 stars. ( Cinefantastique , Vol. 27, No. 4/5, p. 34)
  • In their unofficial reference book Trek Navigator: The Ultimate Guide to the Entire Trek Saga (pp. 166-167), co-writer Mark A. Altman rates this episode 2 and a half out of 4 stars (defined as "average") while fellow co-writer Edward Gross rates the installment 3 out of 4 stars (defined as "good"). Altman describes the outing as "a surprisingly effective technoromp," enthusing about how the plot's technicalities are offset by the way that the episode embraces character problems "with gusto" and how it presents the technobabble in a more-or-less straight-forward manner. He approves of the way in which the episode tackles the simmering conflict between the two portions of Voyager 's crew, saying that the episode does so with "wit and intelligence" that "elevates" it. He raves, " The show succeeds marvelously in further defining the series ensemble in an effective and satisfying way. " In addition, Altman characterizes the time-related briefing room discussion between Janeway and Paris as "amusing" but is less enthusiastic about the storyline involving The Doctor's shrinking, saying the joke "doesn't quite work." Gross remarks on the originality, for an anomaly episode, of having a duplicate Voyager as a conceit and says that "the real meat" of the outing is the character interactions, especially the choosing of the ship's chief engineer. He concludes that the slowly developing relationship between Janeway and Torres is "both fascinating and believable to watch."
  • The unauthorized reference book Delta Quadrant (p. 16) gives the episode a rating of 7 out of 10.
  • In its retrospective "Ultimate Guide", Star Trek Magazine gave this episode 3 out of 5 Starfleet-style arrowhead insignia. ( Star Trek Magazine  issue 164 , p. 29)
  • Ultimately, Jim Trombetta wished that Voyager 's regular writing team had taken his pitch in a slightly different direction than they had. " The way it should have come out was there really shouldn't have been two Voyager s, there should have been three, " he mused. " I wanted them to send the hologram doctor to each ship by crushing him into a burst of energy, sending him to the next one to warn them. It would have started out with him arriving on their ship trying to warn them but not being able to do it because he's all garbled. The original idea was more metaphysical and less character. It was what's going on and how do I figure it out? " ( Captains' Logs Supplemental - The Unauthorized Guide to the New Trek Voyages , p. 135)

Video and DVD releases [ ]

  • UK VHS release (two-episode tapes, CIC Video ): Volume 1.2, catalog number VHR 4002, 10 July 1995
  • As part of the VOY Season 1 DVD collection

Links and references [ ]

Starring [ ].

  • Kate Mulgrew as Captain Kathryn Janeway

Also Starring [ ]

  • Robert Beltran as Commander Chakotay
  • Roxann Biggs-Dawson as 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 [ ]

  • Martha Hackett as Seska
  • Josh Clark as Carey

Co-Star [ ]

  • Justin Williams as Jarvin

Uncredited co-stars [ ]

  • Derek Anthony as operations ensign
  • Jasmin Bischoff as operations officer
  • Tarik Ergin as Ayala
  • Gunnel Eriksson as operations officer
  • Kerry Hoyt as Fitzpatrick
  • Julie Jiang as operations lieutenant junior grade
  • Katsuki Kazuhiro as command officer
  • Hubie Kerns, Jr. as operations officer
  • Dennis Madalone as sciences officer
  • Coleman McClary as operations officer
  • Jordan Monheim as sciences officer
  • Trina Mortley as sciences officer
  • Tami Peterson as sciences ensign
  • Jerry Quinn as command officer
  • Simon Stotler as operations ensign
  • John Tampoya as Kashimuro Nozawa
  • Ondar Tarlow as sciences officer
  • Rod Wallace as operations officer
  • Debra Waters as command ensign
  • Audrey Williams as operations officer

Photo double [ ]

  • Mike Fujimoto – hand double for Garrett Wang

Stand-ins [ ]

  • Steve Giralo – stand-in for Josh Clark
  • Melba Gonzalez – stand-in for Roxann Biggs-Dawson
  • Sue Henley – stand-in for Kate Mulgrew
  • Cy Kennedy – stand-in for Robert Beltran
  • Nora Leonhardt – stand-in for Roxann Biggs-Dawson
  • Susan Lewis – stand-in for Martha Hackett and Roxann Biggs-Dawson
  • Zack Milan – stand-in for Robert Picardo and Justin Williams
  • Lemuel Perry – stand-in for Tim Russ
  • Jerry Quinn – stand-in for Robert Duncan McNeill
  • Ron – stand-in for Josh Clark
  • Jennifer Somers – stand-in for Jennifer Lien
  • Simon Stotler – stand-in for Ethan Phillips
  • John Tampoya – stand-in for Garrett Wang

References [ ]

47 ; ability ; Alpha Quadrant ; analogy ; assault ; astrogation ; astrogation plotter ; auxiliary power ; bedside manner ; biochemistry ; black hole ; bow ; brig ; cargo bay ; cerebellum ; Chapman ; cheek ; chief engineer ; chief medical officer ; confined to quarters ; court martial offense ; cranium ; cup ; dampening field ; Deep Space 9 ; dekyon ; department ; distress call ; dizziness ; Emergency Medical Hologram ; Emergency medical holographic channel ; energy matrix ; engine efficiency ; ethmoid fossa ; event horizon ; Feragoit goulash ; field medic ; gravimetric flux density ; gravimetric force ; hangnail ; headache ( splitting headache ); height ; Hippocrates ; holodeck ; holodeck reactor ; hull stress ; hydroponics bay ; hyperbole ; ice ; Ilidaria ; Ilidaria system ; imaging processor ; Intrepid class decks ; isolinear bank ; Keloda ; Maquis ; medical practitioner ; medical support personnel ; meter ; methodology ; microscope ; modern medicine ; muscle spasm ; navigational array ; navigational scan ; nitrogen ; nitrogenated soil ; Ocampa ; pejuta ; permanent file ; physical dimension ; pimple ; plasma conduit ; pond ; port ; power grid ; quantum singularity ; runny nose ; sculpture ; semester ; senior officer ; seniority ; sense of humor ; speaker ; staff meeting ; Starfleet ; Starfleet Academy ; General Orders and Regulations ; statue ; subspace tractor beam ; tachyon signal ; Talaxian ; temporal dimension ; temporal mechanics ; Tereshkova ; theodolite ; trade mission ; transporter chief ; Type 8 shuttlecraft ; Val Jean ; Voyager 's original chief engineer , Voyager 's original transporter chief , Vulcan

External links [ ]

  • " Parallax " at Memory Beta , the wiki for licensed Star Trek works
  • " Parallax " at Wikipedia
  • "Parallax" at StarTrek.com
  • " Parallax " at MissionLogPodcast.com , a Roddenberry Star Trek podcast
  • " Parallax " at the Internet Movie Database
  • 3 Marlys Burdette

star trek voyager script

Star Trek: Voyager's Robert Picardo Begrudgingly Auditioned For The Doctor

P rior to his seven-year stint on "Star Trek: Voyager," Robert Picardo had a lengthy and storied acting career. He was a Joe Dante regular, appearing in "The Howling," "The Explorers," "Innerspace," "The 'Burbs," "Matinee," and "Gremlins 2: The New Batch." He appeared in "Star 80," Ridley Scott's "Legend," the zombie cop film "Dead Heat," and Robert Englund's directorial debut "976-EVIL." This was all mixed in with plentiful TV work and multiple appearances on stage. Picardo has never been not busy, most recently appearing on a 2024 episode of "Young Sheldon."

Had Picardo never taken the "Star Trek" gig, he still would not have been hurting for work. "Voyager" just happened to be a sizable feather in his cap. "Voyager" simply boosted the actor's visibility and gained him legions of Trekkie fans. On "Voyager," Picardo played the U.S.S. Voyager's nameless Doctor, an Emergency Medical Hologram that had to be activated when the ship's entire medical staff died in an accident. At first the Doctor was snippy and mechanical, being only a hologram. Eventually, however, the Doctor began to develop personality traits and a consciousness. Soon, the Doctor was considered an invaluable part of the crew.

Picardo talked to StarTrek.com in 2022 , explaining that he was reluctant to take the role. Because the Doctor was a hologram, Picardo felt he would be stuck playing the part as stiff, computerized, and android-like, which wouldn't have been very interesting as a performer. Instead, Picardo revealed, he would have preferred to play Neelix, the jolly hobbit-like chef on the U.S.S. Voyager. When a colleague of his, Ethan Phillips, landed Neelix, Picardo thought he was out. Only constant pressure from friends and a pushy agent got him back into the audition room for the Doctor.

Read more: The 21 Best Star Trek Original Series Episodes, Ranked

What The Heck Is This Star Trek Thing All About?

Picardo was one of many "Star Trek" actors who wasn't wholly familiar with the franchise going in. When he learned that he was auditioning to play a hologram, he figured his character would essentially be a beam of light. He hadn't known about the holodecks on "Star Trek: The Next Generation" that can simulate touch with force fields. Regardless, he wasn't impressed with the character:

"My agent sent me the script, and I remember that the character description was 'a computer program of a doctor, colorless, humorless.' I didn't know what that meant, and then I heard that he was a hologram. I knew a little more about the original ' Star Trek ,' but I wasn't very knowledgeable about ' The Next Generation ,' so I didn't know about the Holodeck. I couldn't understand how a hologram could handle real instruments. I said, 'How does he pick up a hypo? How do you grab something when you have no material density?'"

It was a friend of his, his "China Beach" co-star Megan Gallagher, that encouraged him to read for Neelix instead. Gallagher had appeared on the 1993 "Star Trek: Deep Space Nine" episode "Little Green Men," so he was familiar with Paramount and all the ins-and-outs involved with "Star Trek" auditions. Incidentally, Gallagher eventually appeared on "Voyager" in the 2000 episode "Body and Soul."

But Neelix wasn't in the cards for Picardo, which, he admitted, was something of a blessing. "I didn't get that part, thank God, because I would never have had the patience with the make-up that Ethan Phillips did," he confessed. Neelix is a Tallaxian and required contacts, false teeth, and extensive facial prosthetics. Picardo didn't care for that.

Picardo Landed His Star Trek Role Thanks To Some Ad-Libbing

Picardo assumed that once he was rejected for Neelix, he would be forgotten by Paramount forever. "Normally," he explained, "once you have tested and you didn't get the part, you are a used Kleenex and are discarded immediately."

But Picardo's agent was persistent and kept telling him to stick with the "Star Trek" gig. The agent also noted that the Doctor was supposed to be a comedic character, something Picardo hadn't picked up on before. Picardo wasn't a comedic actor, but he had performed in comedies on stage, notably "Gemini" (wherein he appeared opposite Danny Aiello) and "Tribute" (which he acted in opposite Jack Lemmon). With only rudimentary "Star Trek" knowledge and a little comedic twinge, he went back to Paramount. In his audition, he even broke a cardinal acting rule. Weirdly, it got him the job:

"The Doctor was cranky, and I didn't know why he was cranky. I didn't understand the role at all. I faked my way through the audition and ad libbed a DeForest Kelley joke without knowing it was a DeForest Kelley joke. My last scripted line was roughly, 'I believe someone has failed to terminate my program.' I added, 'I'm a doctor, not a nightlight.' I ad libbed that line, which you shouldn't do in an audition, but it got a big laugh and I was hired the next day. Then I had to figure out what the role was."

Luckily, Picardo had seven years on the air to figure out the character. He ultimately appeared in 166 episodes of "Voyager."

Read the original article on SlashFilm

Star Trek: Voyager Doctor

'Star Trek: Discovery' season 5 episode 9 offers a tense but questionable cliffhanger

It's the old enemy infiltration by way of cunning disguise chestnut, but once you've seen The Orville's take on this, it's hard to take seriously.

 a humanoid alien with pink skin and several deep clefts on its face, wearing a blue tunic

Warning: Spoilers ahead for "Star Trek: Discovery" season 5, episode 9

Here we are then, just two episodes away from the very end of "Star Trek: Discovery," but we'll save the nostalgic look back over the last six years, eight months, one week and two days for next week. And no doubt there will be some kind of emotional farewell at the end of next week's installment, but just how cringeworthy that will be remains to be seen. 

Best non-cancellation last episode of a TV sci-fi show ever, in the "Five Seasons or More" category? Well, it certainly isn't " Enterprise ," sadly, and let's face facts, it's got to be the " The Next Generation " episode "All Good Things" (S07, E25) with "Unending," the "Stargate SG1" episode (S10, E20) in second place. 

And as we've seen, the quality of writing on this fifth and final season of "Discovery" has picked up, arguably an improvement the last three seasons, but unquestionably over the last season, which was the switching off point for many who had given "Discovery" the benefit of the doubt for so very long. And, despite this installment, entitled "Lagrange Point," being directed by Jonathan Frakes, it's not terrible. 

Watch Star Trek on Paramount Plus: Get a one month free trial 

Watch Star Trek on Paramount Plus: Get a one month free trial  

Get all the Star Trek content you can possibly handle with this free trial of Paramount Plus. Watch new shows like Star Trek: Discovery and all the classic Trek movies and TV shows too. Plans start from $4.99/month after the trial ends.

two humanoid aliens wearing black armor and helmets hold laser rifles

While Frakes has some excellent examples of episodic television under his belt, including "Falling Skies," "The Orville" and even "V," plus both "The Next Generation" and "Deep Space Nine" and "First Contact" of course, he has also helmed a few episodes –— almost always of "Star Trek" — that are...well, the sci-fi TV franchise equivalent of the Roger Moore Bond movies. And let's leave it at that. 

Not knowing more about the writing and production procedure employed on "Discovery," it's hard to know if the writers know what director will be assigned to which episode and whether or not they therefore cater for that individual, or if the director just takes the script and alters it as much or as little as they like. That's ultimately what contributes to the often-seen inconsistency that we talked about a week or so ago.

This week, a few select members of the command crew of the USS Discovery attempt to infiltrate a Breen dreadnought. And to be perfectly honest, after having watched the epic "Orville" episode "Krill" (S01, E06) it's a little hard to take this somewhat clichéd tactical approach seriously. But, for the most part, it's carried off with too much of a hitch. 

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two people who appear to be white-skinned humanoid aliens with bony ridges on their faces stand in black armor

The Breen have successfully snuck in under the nose of the USS Discovery and half-inched the Progenitors Puzzle. You know, like Belloq in "Raiders of the Lost Ark," and we get to see them attempting to open the final clue, a little like the wonderfully hilarious slaves-get-killed-horribly-first approach that was used to great affect in "The Mummy." Missed opportunity there for a couple of really creative and horrific sacrificial deaths Frakes. Being dragged into an unknown dimension just wasn't unpleasant enough. Also, Wilhelm Scream?!

That said, there is some nice, creative choices of edits and a Starfleet commendation should be awarded to whichever writer championed a line of dialogue where Captain Rayner (Keith Rennie Callum) finally tells Lt. Sylvia Tilly (Mary Wiseman) to shut up . Sure, some fans adore her innocent, bumbling, comedy relief-style appeal, but it's not always conducive to Every Single Scene. 

And finally, breaking news this week as, according to The Hollywood Reporter , longtime "X-Men" producer Simon Kinberg is in talks to produce a "Star Trek" movie franchise for Paramount. Toby Haynes, who directed episodes " Andor " is on board to direct the new feature, with Seth Grahame-Smith writing the script. The project is said to be set decades before the events of the dreadful 2009 movie that was directed JJ Abrams, likely around modern times.

a man in a red tunic stands at the helm of a starship

It is said to involve the creation of the Starfleet and humankind’s first contact with alien life. This is music to the ears of all fans who believe that keeping Trek ridiculously far flung into the future is an awful, awful idea. Also, someone other than Alex Kurtzman and Akiva Goldsman calling the shots is an excellent, excellent idea. 

And while this period in Trek history is so very interesting as we saw in the vastly underrated "Enterprise," it does feel like everyone either wants to fast forward into the future or slam the franchise into reverse and go all the way back...but always, always leapfrogging over the most underutilized period, which is "The Wrath of Khan" movie era: Monster Maroons, Admiral Kirk, the USS Excelsior ... and all of that unexplored wonder. 

The fifth and final season of "Star Trek: Discovery" and every other episode of every " Star Trek " show — with the exception of "Star Trek: Prodigy" — currently streams exclusively on Paramount Plus in the US, while "Prodigy" has found a new home  on Netflix.  

Internationally, the shows are available on  Paramount Plus  in Australia, Latin America, the UK and South Korea, as well as on Pluto TV in Austria, France, Germany, Italy, Spain and Switzerland on the Pluto TV Sci-Fi channel. They also stream on Paramount Plus in Italy, France, Germany, Switzerland and Austria. In Canada, they air on Bell Media's CTV Sci-Fi Channel and stream on Crave.

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When Scott's application to the NASA astronaut training program was turned down, he was naturally upset...as any 6-year-old boy would be. He chose instead to write as much as he possibly could about science, technology and space exploration. He graduated from The University of Coventry and received his training on Fleet Street in London. He still hopes to be the first journalist in space.

'Alien' heard us all scream 45 years ago today. Here's what it was like on opening day

This Week In Space podcast: Episode 112 — Mars on Pause?

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star trek voyager script

Star Trek: Voyager (1995–2001): Season 1, Episode 7 - Ex Post Facto - full transcript

Tuvok play detective when Paris is wrongfully convicted by an alien race of murder.

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  4. Star Trek: Voyager Scripts original prod. material

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  6. Star Trek Voyager “The Fight” Script & VFX guides

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VIDEO

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COMMENTS

  1. Voyager Transcripts

    The Voyager Transcripts - Episode Listings Season One. Episode Name: Production: Airdate: Caretaker. 101 & 102: 16 Jan 1995. ... The Voyager Conspiracy. 229: 24 Nov 1999. Pathfinder. 230: 1 Dec 1999. Fair Haven. 231: 12 Jan 2000. Blink of an Eye. 233: ... Star Trek Home ...

  2. Collected Star Trek Scripts » Star Trek Minutiae

    (Please don't ask me about getting more scripts added, I've posted all the files I've found.) Star Trek: The Movies. All Movies [ZIP file, 612 KB] Star Trek: The Motion Picture; Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan; Star Trek III: The Search for Spock; Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home; Star Trek V: The Final Frontier; Star Trek VI: The ...

  3. The Voyager Transcripts

    Star Trek: Voyager is the fourth series in the Star Trek franchise. It was made at the Paramount Studios from 1994 to 2001. The show followed directly on from The Next Generation, but was located in the Delta Quadrant. ... In this section - Transcripts of the 7 seasons episodes. Examples of number 47 in the series. If you spot any I have missed ...

  4. Star Trek: Voyager Episodes' Transcripts

    Star Trek: Voyager (1995-2001) - episodes with scripts. The Federation starship USS Voyager, chasing a band of Maquis rebels, enters the dangerous space nebula known as the Badlands. Both ships are transported by a distant space probe to the Delta Quadrant, 75,000 light-years from Federation space. Voyager's crew and the Maquis form an uneasy ...

  5. Star Trek: Voyager

    Star Trek: Voyager. 1995. Action, Adventure, Sci-Fi. One-Hour TV. Pulled to the far side of the galaxy, where the Federation is seventy-five years away at maximum warp speed, a Starfleet ship must cooperate with Maquis rebels to find a way home. Writers: Rick Berman, Michael Piller, Jeri Taylor. Companies: Paramount Pictures.

  6. Star Trek Voyager

    Topics. Star Trek: Voyager, Star Trek. While on a short-term mission to track an infiltrated Maquis cell, Capt. Kathryn Janeway and her newly launched U.S.S. Voyager crew -- and the Maquis fighter crew -- are drawn 70,000 lightyears to the far side of the Delta Quadrant by an alien seeking survival, calling itself "the Caretaker."

  7. Star Trek: Voyager: Season 1, Episode 1 script

    Star Trek: Voyager (1995-2001): Season 1, Episode 1 - Caretaker - full transcript. Both the Voyager crew and the Maquis have to deal with the powerful alien - the Caretaker - who transported them 70,000 light-years across the galaxy, to see if he will send them back home. At the same time, a group of warrior aliens called the Kazon strive to ...

  8. Script to Screen

    Go behind the script on this classic episode with StarTrek.com. StarTrek.com highlights a notable scene from Star Trek: Voyager's "Scorpion, (Part 1)" Related. The Epic Voyage of Star Trek: The Cruise VII. Star Trek Universe. 03:07. Happy International Women's Day from the Women of Star Trek.

  9. Equinox (episode)

    Story and script [] At the end of Star Trek: Voyager's fifth season, Brannon Braga and Joe Menosky required a season finale. The previous episodes of the season had tired them, however, and one of the few elements they knew they wanted to include in the forthcoming finale was a cliffhanger.

  10. Star Trek: Voyager: Season 3, Episode 7 script

    Star Trek: Voyager (1995-2001): Season 3, Episode 7 - Sacred Ground - full transcript. After Kes is injured by an energy beam on a planet's sacred ground, Janeway must undergo a spiritual quest in order to save her life. Captain's Log, Stardate 50063.2. on their worId.

  11. Scientific Method (episode)

    " (Star Trek Monthly issue 36, p. 13) Neither the Srivani nor any of its members are named in this episode; their titles and names coming from the installment's shooting script. (Star Trek: Voyager Companion (p. ?)) In addition, the call sheets for the episode also feature the species and the individual names. Cast and characters []

  12. Star Trek: Voyager: Season 6, Episode 4 script

    Star Trek: Voyager (1995-2001): Season 6, Episode 4 - Tinker Tenor Doctor Spy - full transcript. The Doctor's experiment with daydreaming gets out of control when his program is compromised by an alien race. The aliens bully passing ships for supplies, but, before doing so, they first ...

  13. Parallax (episode)

    Investigating an apparent distress call, Voyager becomes trapped inside the event horizon of a quantum singularity. In sickbay, Lieutenant Carey is being treated by The Doctor after getting into a conflict over the power grid in engineering with B'Elanna Torres. He is extremely furious with Torres, telling Chakotay and Tuvok that he wants her kept away from engineering after Chakotay tells ...

  14. Star Trek: Voyager's Robert Picardo Begrudgingly Auditioned For ...

    On "Voyager," Picardo played the U.S.S. Voyager's nameless Doctor, an Emergency Medical Hologram that had to be activated when the ship's entire medical staff died in an accident. At first the ...

  15. Star Trek: Voyager: Season 1, Episode 15 script

    Star Trek: Voyager (1995-2001): Season 1, Episode 15 - Learning Curve - full transcript. While Voyager's mixed Starfleet/Maquis crew seem to be working out, a few rogue Maquis are fighting the integration. Chakotay selects the most resistant of the group and Tuvok decides to ... Good morning, children. Mrs. Davenport. Too formal.

  16. 'Star Trek: Discovery' season 5 episode 9 offers a tense but

    Space Movies & Shows. 'Star Trek: Discovery' season 5 episode 9 offers a tense but questionable cliffhanger. News. By Scott Snowden. published 23 May 2024. It's the old enemy infiltration by way ...

  17. Interview: 'Discovery' Writer Eric J. Robbins On Efrosians And More

    The eighth episode ("Labyrinths") of season 5 of Star Trek: Discovery was co-written by Eric J. Robbins who also happens to be a lifelong Trek fan. TrekMovie had a spoilery chat with the ...

  18. Star Trek: Voyager: Season 2, Episode 16 script

    Star Trek: Voyager (1995-2001): Season 2, Episode 16 - Meld - full transcript. Tuvok mind-melds with a murderous Maquis crewman to better understand the roots of serial killing, losing control of himself in the process. - Game.

  19. Star Trek: Voyager: Season 1, Episode 7 script

    Star Trek: Voyager (1995-2001): Season 1, Episode 7 - Ex Post Facto - full transcript. Tuvok play detective when Paris is wrongfully convicted by an alien race of murder. Captain's log, stardate 48579.4. The crew scans constantly for. anomalies to shorten our journey home.