Captain Kathryn Janeway (Kate Mulgrew)
According to early promotional materials, the character of Janeway was treated
very carefully to balance her authority with her femininity, and avoid presenting her as a stereotype in either situation. Thus, Janeway prefers to be called
'Captain' over 'Sir' or 'Ma'am.'The character was originally named
Nicole Janeway until French-Canadian actress Genevieve Bujold (who was the first choice for the role) backed out of the series (reports conflict on exactly why she left). Instead we got Kate Mulgrew, who did the best she could despite being quite annoyed with the constant shifts in her character. It
is generally agreed that, given the scripts she had to work with, Mulgrew did a pretty awesome job.
- Badass In Charge
Janeway: Well, Mister...?
Malon: Vrelk. Controller Vrelk.
Janeway: Vrelk. We have a little expertise of our own; we're a very determined crew, so my suggestion is that you leave orbit, and in the future, if you come across anything that bears the insignia of the USS Voyager, head in the other direction.
- The Captain
- Catch Phrase: "Do it!" and "Coffee. Black."
- Celibate Hero: Avoided having a relationship due to the Subordinate Excuse. And the fact that Q is a Jerkass. Hooked up with a holodeck character in later seasons.
- Character Tic: Janeway putting her hands on her hips. Spoofed in one episode where an alien race that communicates via body language regards this as "the worst insult imaginable."
- The Danza
- Death Glare
- Depending on the Writer: Is she a by-the-book hardass, an empathetic mother over her crew, a loose-cannon with a tendency to give in to her emotions and curiosity, a moral victor who upholds the ideals of the Federation in a savage galaxy, or a pragmatist who is very willing to play dirty to get her crew home? The writers had seven years to work on this, and they never figured it out.
- Heroes Love Dogs: She's a dog person, but is thousands of light-years from her own dog Mollie.
- Hot Amazon
- The Kirk
- The Leader: Generally Type III, but often Type I towards villains. Likes viewing herself as Type IV, but usually isn't. (Although to be fair, there are times when she *does* give a good speech)
- Lawful Stupid
- Mama Bear
- Must Have Caffeine: Arguably Janeway's most endearing personality quirk. She equates replenishing a dwindling Antimatter fuel supply with regaining the ability to order coffee from the energy-intensive replicators.
Janeway: There's coffee in that nebula.
- More Deadly Than The Male - Janeway is not often physically violent, (that usually only happens if pretty much everyone else has been incapacitated) but she at times employs the Machiavellian angle, and is usually good at it.
- No Sense of Personal Space
- The Other Marty: See here
. - Parental Substitute: For B'Elanna, Paris and Seven in particular.
- Power Hair
- Puppy-Dog Eyes
- Significant Monogram: Perhaps a "happy accident" but...compare to Kirk's name. Now widen eyes.
- Small Girl, Big Gun: Vertically-challenged Janeway brandishes a big compression phaser rifle whenever it's time to go Sigourney Weaver on the Monster of the Week's butt.
- Team Mom
- Trademark Favorite Food: "Coffee. Black."
- Unresolved Sexual Tension: With Chakotay.
Commander Chakotay (Robert Beltran)
A member of the Maquis, a group of
freedom fighters contesting Cardassian activities, Chakotay's ship was yanked into the Delta Quadrant shortly before
Voyager was. Over the course of the pilot episode, he and his crew join forces with Janeway. Since he was a former Starfleet officer, Janeway re-activated his commission and made him her
Number Two. Seven years later, nothing had changed.
Lieutenant Commander Tuvok (Tim Russ)
A Vulcan in the Maquis (assigned by Starfleet to infiltrate them), Janeway's best friend and (indirectly) the reason
Voyager ended up stranded in the Delta Quadrant in the first place, he took up the positions of Tactical Officer and Security Officer on the consolidated crew.
Was the first Vulcan to be played by an African-American actor, after which the show's creators suddenly realized that a desert planet would likely produce skin tones rich in melanin. Russ' performance is generally regarded as the best portrayal of a Vulcan since
Leonard Nimoy's
Spock, and the second-best in the
Trek Verse as a whole.
Lieutenant junior grade Tom Paris (Robert Duncan McNeill)
A superb pilot who was drummed out of Starfleet after some sort of training accident, then joined the Maquis...but was caught and arrested on his very first Maquis mission; the opening scene of the show is Janeway securing his release from prison. His
backstory is similar to that of
TNG guest character Nick Locarno, who was also played by McNeill; lawyers claim the show would've had to pay royalties to that episode's writer, while
VOY's creative staff claim that they thought Locarno was
irredeemable and so replaced him with someone new on purpose. Draw your own conclusions.
Lieutenant junior grade B'Elanna Torres (Roxann Biggs-Dawson a.k.a. Roxann Dawson)
A
Human/Klingon hybrid engineer from the Maquis who gets put in charge of
Voyager's engines. She technically counted as a
Threefer Token Minority, although
Star Trek's
optimistic vision meant nobody gave her crap about being a woman...and
Voyager's poor writing left any exploration of her Spanish-speaking heritage out in the cold.
Ensign Harry Kim (Garrett Wang)
An ensign who somehow managed to get on the bridge crew (he's in charge of the Ops console, which essentially makes him a glorified administrator), Kim plays the role of
New Meat. The show being what it is, he stays that way.
The Doctor (Robert Picardo)
Originally,
Voyager had an actual doctor, but despite wearing a blue Sciences shirt, he died in the transit to the Delta Quadrant. Fortunately,
Voyager was outfitted with an experimental new technology: An "Emergency Medical Hologram" who can hold down the job in a pinch. Sarcastic, snarky, pushed
way beyond his comfort zones and (initially) unable to leave Sickbay, The Doctor naturally became a fan favorite.
- Aesop Amnesia: Several episodes had some malfunction occur in his matrix as a result of his own attempted self-improvements. Among these are him turning into a total psychopath and losing his grip on reality. He never simply took the advice of getting some help in installing these improvements.
- Badass Automaton: Although usually also as Plucky Comic Relief.
- Breakout Character
- Catch Phrase: "Please state the nature of the medical emergency."
- Character Development: Instead of A.I. Is a Crapshoot, the drama was from this computer program—designed for limited supplementary work as basically a glorified nurse—-having to transcend his own hard-coded limitations.
- Dr. Jerk
- Everyone Calls Him Barkeep
- Hard Light Hologram: Though he can toggle this at will. His substantiation is effected through projected forcefields as with any holographic projection in Star Trek.
- Heroic BSOD: A literal one, brought on by a Sadistic Choice of saving Harry's life or that of another crewman. This wreaks havoc with the Doctor's ethical subroutines, which aren't equipped to make such a judgement.
- I Am The Noun: "I am the embodiment of modern medicine."
- I Can't Dance: The Doctor in one episode
- I'm a Doctor, Not a Placeholder: He actually used this line more than Bones did, believe it or not (helps that the show ran for over twice what the original did).
- Incidentally, during his audition, Picardo, a non-Trekkie, ad-libbed the line, "I'm a doctor, not a lightbulb," despite having no clue that it was McCoy's catchphrase back in TOS. He got the part.
- Insufferable Genius
- Last of His Kind: The EMH Mark 1's lousy bedside manner meant that the program was considered an abysmal failure in the Alpha Quadrant and they were repurposed to mine dilithium. The Doctor is the only EMH Mark 1 still in service as a Physician. Except that other Federation ship lost in the Delta Quadrant which also had one, but that EMH was evil and got deleted.
- Morality Chip: "Ethical subroutines"...which can be deactivated if you need him to cross a Moral Event Horizon.
- Projected Man
- Soul Jar: The Doctor eventually got a "mobile emitter" which made him a self-sustaining hologram and allowed him to roam the halls. As a plot point, this could always be stolen from him to de-activate him.
- Super-Powered Robot Meter Maids: Especially in the episode "Renaissance Man".
- Tinman Typist
- Weak Willed
- Well Done Son Guy: The Doctor is eager to show Dr Zimmerman how much he's evolved — unfortunately his creator turns out to be a Jerkass who's embarrassed about the Mark One's very existence.
Neelix (Ethan Phillips)
:
A Talaxian denizen of the Delta Quadrant which
Voyager runs into not long after arrival, Neelix is supposed to be
Fun Personified. This didn't work out right. In the meanwhile, he runs the ship's galley, serves as "morale officer," helps in trade and barter, acts as a native guide for the crew and wears really awkward costumes that look like they were salvaged from upholstery.
Kes (Jennifer Lien)
Until the third season, Kes traveled with
Voyager. Neelix's girlfriend until they broke up in the third season, she was the medical assistant in Sickbay, and a counterpoint to the Doctor's sardonic wit and non-existent bedside manner. Shortly after she joins the ship, she begins to help the Doctor in developing himself as a
Hologram. Eventually she was written out, with the excuse that her latent telepathic powers were getting out of control.
Seven of Nine (Jeri Ryan)
Kes' replacement on the main cast was a disconnected member of the Borg, a species dominant in the Delta Quadrant. Once a young human girl named Annika Hansen, born to parents who liked to explore the unknown, she and her family were basically the first members of
Homo sapiens to be assimilated by the Borg. Eighteen years later, she was assigned to
Voyager as a liaison between the Starfleet ship and the Borg Collective, and was later liberated (against her will) from the Borg and made an individual again. While there was a lot of snark over the fact that Jeri Ryan is a living incarnation of
Ms. Fanservice, viewers were pleasantly surprised that the first thing thrown at Seven of Nine was a healthy dose of
Character Development. (The
second thing was the
Spy Catsuit.) She eventually became
The Spock of the main
Power Trio, alongside
The Doctor and
Janeway.
- Berserk Button: Oh my, did you just call Seven imperfect? You, sir, may now kiss your ass goodbye.
- Breakout Character
- The Cast Showoff: In "The Killing Game," that is Jeri Ryan singing for real, not lip syncing.
- The Chanteuse: Seven of Nine plays one in a holoprogram set in German-occupied France.
- Character Development
- Cyborg
- Deadpan Snarker
- Deuteragonist: Later seasons can fairly be called "The Janeway and Seven Show, featuring The Doctor*
and the rest
". - Fascinating Eyebrow
- Foil: To Captain Janeway.
- Future Spandex: Where's the zipper? Oh right, there isn't one — it was GLUED ON.
- Dangerously so, in fact- Jeri Ryan passed out twice due to how tight her first outfit was around the neck.
- Hot Scientist
- Humanity Ensues / Humanity Is Infectious
- Kuudere
- The Lancer
- Mama Bear: Not quite to Janeway's level, but she's definitely protective. Seven is shown to have grown a very strong bond with the Borg children she helped rescue and shows considerable concern for their well being. She even verbally attacks Icheb's birth parents on a few occasions in the episode "Child's Play".
- She's also very protective of the crew as a whole. She's single-handedly saved all of them on a few occasions, almost killing herself in the procces. And when everyoone else wanted to make nice with (Evil Kes), she just pointed a phaser at her and said. "State your intentions!" In a way that sounded more like, you lay a hand on anybody here, and I will kick your ass!
- Ms. Fanservice
- In fairness, Jeri Ryan is pretty darn talented. Witness her flawless imitation of The Doctor in the Season 7 episode "Body & Soul".
- Raised by Orcs
- Rogue Drone: Her basic character concept as an ex-Borg.
- The Snark Knight
- Some Call Me Tim
- Split Personality: A techno-virus in one episode gives her at least seven alternate personalities. She's cured by the end of the episode.
- The Spock
- Spotlight-Stealing Squad: Her presence diverted a lot of attention away from the original cast.
- Star Making Role: For Jeri Ryan. While still busy, for a time in the late 90's she was everywhere.
- Toplessness From the Back: We see Seven naked in two different episodes, but only a top-half rear view is shown.
- You Are Number Seven
- Wetware Body: This occurs in the Season 7 episode "Body & Soul". Hilarity Ensues when The Doctor is forced to download his program into Seven's consciousness.
