History Recap / StarTrekVoyagerS1E1Caretaker

Neelix leads an away team to the Ocampan planet surface, where they meet another resident species, the Kazon, a barbarous people. Neelix offers to trade water for their help and insists on throwing in an enslaved Ocampan woman into the deal, but the Kagon want Starfleet's technology to create water itself, which Janeway says is impossible. Suddenly, Neelix takes the Kagon chief hostage and rescues the Ocampan slave, forcing the crew to beam away. Back on the ship, Neelix reveals that the former slave, Kes, is his lover whom he swore to rescue. Kes reveals that there are cracks in the planet's surface that can be used to reach her civilization underground and offers to lead a rescue party. Under the planet's surface, both sides meet up and head back to the surface, but a cave-in complicates matters, forcing Paris to rescue Chakotay.

* NoTimeToExplain

** '''Kim:''' Paris, she's just a hologram.\\

** Janeway pronounces "Kazon" with a hard "kh" sound ("[=KHazon=]"), which we never hear again from her or anyone else. She also seems to put an extra syllable in the name, so we get "[=KHazon=] Ogala? Who are the [=KHazon=] Ogala?" This is also dropped after the pilot episode.

** Janeway pronounces "Kazon" with a hard "kh" sound ("[=KHazon=]"), which we never hear again from her or anyone else.

** Voyager is equipped with two [[FantasticNuke tricobalt Devices]] which blow up the huge Caretaker Array in two shots. Despite the infamous InfiniteSupplies of ''Voyager'', they're never used again.

* ArmorPiercingSlap: Paris gets bitch-slapped across a barn by the FarmersDaughter.

During a fight with Cardassians a Maquis ship tries to flee into a plasma storm, only to be hit with a beam of mysterious energy. Back on Earth, Captain Janeway is putting together a mission to search for that missing Maquis ship, which has her Chief of Security as an undercover agent on it. She recruits the convict Tom Paris, a former Starfleet officer with a brief history in the Maquis, to serve as an expert observer. Janeway's high-tech new ship, ''Voyager'', is docked at Deep Space Nine, where they pick up their full crew. Paris meets Ensign Kim, a fresh recuit, by saving him from one of Quark's schemes.

While searching, ''Voyager'' is hit by the same tetryon beam as the Maquis ship. The blast kills a number of officers, including the first officer, helm and ship's doctor. They've been transported to a new location, 70,000 light years away. In front of them is a massive array firing energy bursts at a nearby planet. The crew struggle to repair the damage and treat the wounded. In lieu of the doctor, the crew activate the Emergency Medical Hologram, who is informed that he's the only medical personnel on the ship. As the ship starts to get under control, every living member is transported to some sort of old-fashioned, Earth-like farm, where they're greeted by a bunch of farm folk. The crew's tricorders reveal that everything around them is a hologram, but Paris and Kim locate a life form in a barn. The crew congregate there, and the holograms allow them to walk through a portal that opens up. Suddenly, the whole crew is captured and subjected to genetic tests. Both Maquis and Starfleet crews wake up back on their ships three days later, though Kim and the Maquis engineer Torres are still missing.

Neelix leads an away team to the Ocampan planet surface, where they meet another resident species, the Kazon, a barbarous people. Neelix offers to trade water for their help and insists on throwing in an enslaved Ocampan woman into the deal, but the Kagon want Starfleet's technology to create water itself, which Janeway says is impossible. Suddenly, Neelix takes the Kagon chief hostage and rescues the Ocampan slave, forcing the crew to beam away. Back on the ship, Neelix reveals that the former slave, Kes, is his lover whom he swore to rescue. Kes reveals that there are cracks in the surface that can be used to reach her people underground and leads a team to them. Under the planet's surface, Kes reunites with her fellow Ocampans. Both sides meet up and head back to the surface, but a cave-in complicates matters, forcing Paris to rescue Chakotay.

Tuvok has theorized that the Caretaker is dying, so time is running out to convince him to send them home. Janeway and company return to the Array, where they meet the Caretaker in his guise as the old man. He reveals that he is atoning for destroying the environment of the Ocampans planet and now must seal the fissures in the surface so that the Ocampans will be protected from the Kagon, who want their water. He's been abducting people because he's trying to find someone he can procreate with and create a new caretaker, but he's run out of time. Janeway convinces him that the Ocampans will be able to stand on their own if given the chance. The Caretaker tries to activate the Array's self destruct so that it cannot fall into the Kagon's hands, but it's been rendered inoperable. He then dies, shrinking down to a small chunk of crystal.

The Kagon have shown up in a massive battleship, which fights both Alpha Quadrant vessels. It's too much for both ships, so Chakotay orders all hands to beam to ''Voyager'' and rams it with the Maquis ship, beaming away just in time. The Kagon vessel is crippled, and the Kagon vow that they have made an enemy. Janeway is faced with the decision to use the Array to go home--dooming the Ocampans--or destroy it, stranding them all in the Delta Quadrant. She decides that she cannot have the destruction of an entire people on her conscience and destroys the Array.

Now trapped 75 years away from home at maximum warp, Janeway stitches together the two crews into a single Starfleet crew, with Chakotay as her First Officer. She also grants Paris a field commission of lieutenant. Neelix and Kes also volunteer to accompany them as guides. Janeway gives a speech and promises that, whether through new technologies, wormholes, or finding another Caretaker, they will find their way back to their loved ones. She then orders a course for home.

* TeleportersAndTransporters: Neelix is astounded when ''Voyager'' beams him onto their ship, the technology being something new in the Delta Quadrant, though the Caretaker has no trouble teleporting people around whether they like it or not.

* [[TrashOfTheTitans Trash of the Talaxians]]: Neelix has to clear the salvaged debris piled on his spaceship away from his viewscreen before he can talk to Captain Janeway.

Tuvok has theorized that the Caretaker is dying, so time is running out to convince him to send them home. Janeway and company return to the array, where they meet the Caretaker in his guise as the old man. He reveals that he is He is atoning for destroying the environment of their planet and now must seal the fissures in the surface so that the Ocampans will be protected from the Kagon, who want their water. He's been abducting people because he's trying to find someone he can procreate with and create a new caretaker, but he's run out of time. Janeway convinces him that the Ocampans will be able to stand on their own if given the chance. The Caretaker tries to activate the array's self destruct so that it cannot fall into the Kagon's hands, but it's been rendered inoperable. He then dies, shrinking down to a small chunk of crystal.

The Kagon have shown up in a massive battleship, which fights both Alpha Quadrant vessels. It's too much for both ships, so Chakotay orders all hands to beam to the ''Voyager'' and rams it with the Maquis ship, beaming away just in time. It works, as the Kagon vessel is crippled, though the Kagon vow that they have made an enemy. Janeway is faced with the decision to use the array to go home, dooming the Ocampans, or destroy it, stranding them all in the Delta Quadrant. She decides that she cannot have the destruction of an entire people on her conscience and destroys the array.

Now trapped 75 years away from home at maximum warp, Janeway stitches together the two crews into a single Starfleet crew, with Chakotay as her first officer. She also grants Paris a field commission of lieutenant. Neelix and Kes also volunteer to accompany them as guides. Janeway gives a speech and promises that, whether through new technologies, wormholes, or finding another Caretaker, they will find their way back to their loved ones. She then orders a course for home.

During a fight with Cardassians, a Maquis ship heads for safety on a nearby planet when they're hit with a beam of mysterious energy. Back on Earth, Captain Janeway is putting together a mission to search for that missing Maquis ship, which has her chief of security as an undercover agent on it. She recruits the convict Tom Paris, a former Starfleet officer with a brief history in the Maquis, to serve as an expert observer. Janeway's high-tech new ship, ''Voyager'', is docked at Deep Space Nine, where they pick up their full crew. Paris meets Ensign Kim, a fresh recuit, by saving him from one of Quark's schemes.

While searching, ''Voyager'' is hit by the same tetryon beam as the Maquis ship. The blast kills a number of officers, including the first officer, helm and ship's doctor. They've been transported to a new location, 70,000 light years away. In front of them is a massive array firing energy bursts at a nearby planet. The cres struggle to repair the damage and treat the wounded. In lieu of the doctor, the crew activate the Emergency Medical Hologram, who is informed that he's the only medical personnel on the ship. As the ship starts to get under control, every living member is transported to some sort of old-fashioned, Earth-like farm, where they're greeted by a bunch of farm folk. The crew's tricorders reveal that everything around them is a hologram, but Paris and Kim locate a life form in a barn. The crew congregate there, and the holograms allow them to walk through a portal that opens up. Suddenly, the whole crew is captured and subjected to genetic tests. They all wake up back on their ships three days later, though Kim and the Maquis engineer Torres are still missing.

The Maquis and Starfleet agree to work together. When the Maquis captain Chakotay beams aboard ''Voyager'', Janeway reveals that his companion, Tuvok, is really her chief security officer spying for her. Chakotay is also angry to see Paris working for Starfleet against him. However, they all agree to beam aboard the array to get their people back. They find themselves back on the farm, where a lone old man tells them that Torres and Kim might have what he needs to honor a debt that can't be repaid. He is running out of time, so he refuses to return the pair and beams the rescue party away.

Back on the ship, the crew trace the array's energy pulses to an M-class planet that nonetheless lacks any rainfall. They deduce that Kim and Torres were sent there. After meeting with a Talaxian named Neelix, who is scavenging the local debris, they recruit him to serve as their guide in exchange for water.

Torres and Kim awaken in a hospital and find themselves sick with lesions over their bodies. They are greeted by the Ocampans, natives of the planet who assure them that they are not holding them prisoner. The pair have been sent to them by the Caretaker, a powerful entity who provides for all of their needs as they live underground. However, they also inform the pair that their mysterious condition is a fatal one. Luckily, an Ocampan nurse who secretly rebels against reliance on the Caretaker tells them about a secret passage to the surface.

Neelix leads an away team to the Ocampan planet surface, where they meet another resident species, the Kazon, a barbarous people. Neelix offers to trade water for their help and insists on throwing in an enslaved Ocampan woman into the deal, but the Kagon want Starfleet's technology to create water itself, which Janeway says is impossible. Suddenly, Neelix takes the Kagon chief hostage and rescues the Ocampan slave, forcing the crew to beam away. Back onthe ship, Neelix reveals that the former slave, Kes, is his lover whom he swore to rescue. Kes reveals that there are cracks in the surface that can be used to reach her people underground and leads a team to them. Under the planet's surface, Kes reunites with her fellow Ocampans. Both sides meet up and head back to the surface, but a cave-in complicates matters, forcing Paris to rescue Chakotay.

** There's a mention of the Chief Engineer being killed off-screen. B'Elanna will take this position in the following episode.

* [[HeroesLoveDogs Heroines Love Dogs]]: Janeway is shown persuading her fiancé back on Earth to look after her pregnant dog while she's away.

* [[HumanShield Kazon Shield]]: Neelix holds Maje Jabin at phaser point in exchange for Kes.

* ConvectionSchmonvection: Averted; Harry pulls on protective gauntlets before fighting a fire.

The Kagon have shown up in a massive battleship, which fights both Alpha Quadrant vessels. It's too much for both ships, so Chakotay orders all hands to beam to the ''Voyager'' and rams it with the Maquis ship, beaming away just in time. It works, as the Kagon vessel is crippled, though the Kagon vow that they have made an enemy. Janeway is faced with the decision to use the array to go home, dooming the Ocampans, or destroy it, stranding them all in the Gamma Quadrant. She decides that she cannot have the destruction of an entire people on her conscience and destroys the array.

* ClarkesThirdLaw: The Kazon-Ogla are mystified by ''Voyager'''s transporter, and decline their gift of water in favor of their transporter tech, which they describe as "making water out of thin air".

** Janeway's first appearance shows her [[DynamicAkimbo with her hands on her hips]], trying to establish her as a superheroine.
** Harry Kim is nearly swindled by Quark, a sign of his extreme naïveté. (And, as mentioned above, he suffers the most at the Caretaker's hands, establishing him as the show's official ButtMonkey.)
** B'Elanna raises hell in the Ocampan hospital, showing her volatile temperament which she then blames on her Klingon side, [[InternalizedCategorism showing her issues]] with being a HalfHumanHybrid.

** Tom Paris may be a rogue and a bit of a {{Jerkass}} early on, but his desire to help his new buddy Harry shows that [[JerkWithAHeartOfGold he does have a heart of gold]] and he does care about his friends.

* FaceNodAction: When Captain Janeway suggests to Chakotay that they work together to find their missing crew, Chakotay looks to Tuvok who gives a nod of approval. Well, he would, seeing as he's actually working for Janeway!

The newly-commissioned Federation starship ''Voyager'' is assigned to locate a missing Maquis raider, only for both ships to be snatched into the Delta Quadrant by a powerful alien called TheCaretaker. The Caretaker is dying, and is searching the galaxy for compatible genetic material to create offspring to carry on his life's work: the protection of the Ocampa. When the Caretaker dies before accomplishing his goal, Captain Janeway is forced to destroy the Caretaker Array to stop it falling under the control of a hostile alien species who would destroy the Ocampa, leaving ''Voyager'' stranded on the far side of the galaxy.

* BoxedCrook: Tom Paris is introduced in a penal colony on New Zealand. Janeway recruits him to find his former colleagues in the Maquis.

* AcePilot: When Janeway tells Tom he'll only be on the mission as an observer he objects, claiming he's the best pilot she could have. When Janeway orders him to take the helm in the final battle, Tom's face lights up.

** Ensign Rollins is there to provide someone Janeway can [[TheMainCharactersDoEverything hand over the ship to]] after Cavit is killed, because Chakotay hasn't taken on the role of her First Officer yet.

-->'''Tuvok:''' My mission was to accumulate information on Maquis activities...and ''then'' deliver you into their waiting hands. That is correct.

* TheCallKnowsWhereYouLive: When Tuvok points out the PrimeDirective would apply in this case, Janeway replies, "We never asked to be involved, Tuvok, but we are."

'''Neelix:''' Sadly, yes; thousands of times! Well, hundreds of times...maybe fifty times.

* TheDeterminator: Even at maximum speed it will take ''Voyager'' 75 years to get back to the Alpha Quadrant. Janeway declares they're going to head home regardless, though with an eye for shortcuts that will cut things down to the length of a seven-year TV series.

* DoYouWantToHaggle: Janeway encounters Neelix scavenging a spaceship debris field, and tries to get his help finding their missing crew. They immediately begin [[IKnowYouKnowIKnow some unsubtle haggling]] towards [[WillTalkForAPrice suitable compensation]] for his services, which Janeway is surprised to find out is...[[MarsNeedsWater water?]]
* EarlyInstallmentWeirdness

* EndlessCorridor: Janeway and her crew find themselves looking into a corridor so long it vanishes into the distance, lined with people suspended in mid-air--all of the beings who have been abducted by the Caretaker. Next moment they're transported there themselves, helpless to move as a [[MedicalHorror surgical probe is pushed down into their chest.]]

* FaceNodAction: When Captain Janeway suggests to Chakotay that they work together to find their missing crew, Chakotay looks to Tuvok who gives a nod of approval. Well he would, seeing as he's actually working for Janeway!

** Janeway pronounces "Kazon" with a hard "kh" sound ("KHazon"), which we never hear again from her or anyone else.

** Voyager is equipped with two [[FantasticNuke tricobalt Devices]] which blow up the huge Caretaker Array in two shots. Despite the infamous InfiniteSupplies of ''Voyager'', they're never used again. [[spoiler:However the episode "The Voyager Conspiracy" establishes that those weapons are not standard issue for an ''Intrepid''-class starship, yet beyond Chakotay explaining to Seven that their presence in the ship is unusual, it was never explained why they were equipped onboard ''Voyager''.]]
** ''Voyager'' (and the ''Val Jean'') being outclassed by a single Kazon carrier vessel. [[spoiler:In "Basics - Part 1", ''Voyager'' goes up against several Kazon carrier ships at the same time, destroys one completely with only three photon torpedoes and is able to hold off the others pretty well until they're double-crossed by a supposed Kazon defector whose body has been chemically altered into a suicide bomb.]] Though it may be because the Kazon carrier ship got a lucky hit on ''Voyager'' just after it arrived.

-->'''Tuvok:''' My mission was to accumulate information on Maquis activities and ''then'' deliver you into their waiting hands, that is corrent.