History YMMV / StarTrekVoyagerS1E1Caretaker

** For those AfraidOfNeedles, watching Janeway and Harry Kim StrappedToAnOperatingTable as very long needles sink into their stomachs.
* TroubledProduction: Oh boy, this episode probably is the poster child for this (at least in Star Trek terms). Even before the hairstyle debacle (which required massive and expensive reshoots and rehiring locations for said reshoots at even greater expense) the original Janeway (Geneviève Bujold) dropped out at the last minute after filming began which resulted in a scramble to recast. By the time all was said and done the episodes budget had ballooned to $20 million, no other episode ever cost as much (that's double what it cost to film ''The Wrath of Khan'' and more than half way to ''The Motion Picture'''s notorious budget). It's also (a decade later) roughly what one season of ''Enterprise'' cost to produce. While the episode looks spectacular on screen, it was a long slog getting there to say the least.

* TroubledProduction: Oh boy, this episode probably is the poster child for this (at least in Star Trek terms). Even before the hairstyle debacle (which required massive and expensive reshoots and rehiring locations for said reshoots at even greater expense) the original Janeway (Geneviève Bujold) dropped out at the last minute after filming began which resulted in a scramble to recast. By the time all was said and done the episodes budget had ballooned to $20 million, no other episode ever cost as much (that's double what it cost to film TWOK and more than half way to TMP's notorious budget). It's also (a decade later) roughly what one season of Enterprise cost to produce. While the episode looks spectacular on screen it was a long slog getting there to say the least.

* FunnyAneurysmMoment:
** Janeway switching off the Doctor when he gets in her face was funny at the time, but becomes a sore point later in the series when the Doctor [[WhatMeasureIsANonHuman becomes more aware of his rights]].
** Janeway assures Neelix that the transporter is quite harmless. Yeah, it's not like he's going to get [[Recap/StarTrekVoyagerS2E24Tuvix merged with another transportee or something]].

* FridgeBrilliance: Captain Janeway mentions having served with Tom's father. Given that she's later shown to be "on a first name basis" with several Starfleet admirals, it's not too much of a stretch that she's doing an under-the-table favor for Admiral Owen Paris by giving his son a chance to redeem himself.

* FridgeBrilliance: Captain Janeway mentions having served with Tom's father. Given that she's shown to be "on a first name basis" with several Starfleet admirals, it's not too much of a stretch that she's doing an under-the-table favor for Admiral Owen Paris by giving his son a chance to redeem himself.

* TroubledProduction: Oh boy, this episode probably is the poster child for this (at least in Star Trek terms). Even before the hairstyle debacle (which required massive and expensive reshoots and rehiring locations for said reshoots at even greater expense) the original Janeway (Geneviève Bujold) dropped out at the last minute after filming began which resulted in a scramble to recast. By the time all was said and done the episodes budget had ballooned to $20 million, no other episode ever cost as much (that's double what it cost to film TWOK and more than half way to TMP's notorious budget). It's also (a decade later) roughly what one session of Enterprise cost to produce. While the episode looks spectacular on screen it was a long slog getting there to say the least.

* TroubledProduction: Oh boy, this episode probably is the poster child for this (at least in Star Trek terms). Even before the hairstyle debacle (which required massive and expensive reshoots and rehiring locations for said reshoots at even greater expense) the original Janeway (Geneviève Bujold) dropped out at the last minute after filming began which resulted in a scramble to recast. By the time all was said and done the episodes budget had ballooned to $20 million, no other episode ever cost as much (that's double what it cost to film TWOK and more than half way to TMP's notorious budget). Its also (a decade later) roughly what one session of Enterprise cost to produce. While the episode looks spectacular on screen it was a long slog getting there to say the least.

** For those AfraidOfNeedles, watching Janeway and Harry Kim StrappedToAnOperatingTable as very long needles sink into their stomachs.

* FridgeBrilliance: Captain Janeway mentions having served with Tom's father. Given that she's shown to be "on a first name basis" with several Starfleet admirals, it's not too much of a stretch that she's doing an under-the-table favor for Admiral Owen Paris by giving his son a chance to redeem himself.

** The image, literally and mentally, of Neelix taking a bath.

* FridgeBrilliance: Captain Janeway mentions having served with Tom's father on the Orias expedition. Given that she's shown to be "on a first name basis" with several Starfleet admirals, it's not too much of a stretch that she's doing an under-the-table favour for Admiral Paris by giving his son a chance to redeem himself.

** This is also a big one on the "was ''Voyager''[='s=] writing '''hopelessly''' bad" argument, because for many, it sure seems like a couple ''tiny'' changes -- like, say, a massive warship crashing into the array resulting in the "send vessels across the galaxy" function being ''disabled due to damage'' and this being mentioned -- would undo the entire problem, yet the above writing quandary evidently never occurred to a single person in the production office during the entire production process and went to print as it was. Others argue that the stresses of production, especially with the way not just ''Trek'' but TV in general was produced at the time, are the exact sort of conditions that can make it hard to not realize this sort of thing until it's too late and you have no time for rewrites or reshoots.

* FranchiseOriginalSin: Even ''here'' the "Native American" stuff is happening with Chakotay. Granted, here it's largely used as a trivia point and is mostly used in service of providing (quickly-dropped) antagonism between Chakotay and Tom and is largely used to make clear that Tom's kind of a dick and at the ''start'' of his CharacterDevelopment, but especially in hindsight, it's discouraging to see the seeds of the issues being planted right on day one (and one has to imagine what Robert Beltran thought of it coming up that early).

* BrokenBase: Janeway's decision to destroy the Caretaker's array without attempting to use it to get home split the fanbase right down the middle from day one. While the episode tries to make it clear that ''Voyager'' would never have been able to use the array, as it would have taken hours to activate (and ''that's'' assuming that they could've made it work properly and survived the attempt after taking heavy damage the first time it was used) and more Kazon ships were en route, the way it's depicted gives ''both'' sides ammunition for their arguments; on the one hand, Torres comes across as a complete idiot for thinking that ''Voyager'' trying to take on a Kazon armada without shields or phasers is going to end in anything other than them being on the losing side of a CurbStompBattle, but on the other hand, Janeway makes the decision to destroy the array ''before'' finding out about the reinforcements, meaning that it just comes across as a lucky guess rather than a carefully considered decision, and she does a poor job of explaining the situation to Torres (though to be fair, Torres shouldn't have needed it explained, considering she found out about the reinforcements at the same time as Janeway).

* FunnyAneurysmMoment: Janeway switching off the Doctor when he gets in her face was funny at the time, but becomes a sore point later in the series when the Doctor [[WhatMeasureIsANonHuman becomes more aware of his rights]].
* HilariousInHindsight: Janeway assures Neelix that the transporter is quite harmless. Yeah, it's not like he's going to get [[Recap/StarTrekVoyagerS2E24Tuvix merged with another transportee or something]].

* BrokenBase: Janeway's decision to destroy the Caretaker's array without attempting to use it to get home split the fanbase right down the middle from day one. While the episode tries to make it clear that ''Voyager'' would never have been able to use the array, as it would have taken hours to activate (and ''that's'' assuming that they could've made it work properly and survived the attempt after taking heavy damage the first time it was used) and more Kazon ships were en route, the way it's depicted gives ''both'' sides ammunition for their arguments; on the one hand, Torres comes across as a complete idiot for thinking that ''Voyager'' trying to take on a Kazon armada without shields or phasers is going to end in anything other than them being on the losing side of a CurbStompBattle, but on the other hand, Janeway makes the decision to destroy the array ''before'' finding out about the reinforcements, meaning that it just comes across as a lucky guess rather than a carefully considered decision, and she does a poor job of explaining the situation to Torres (though to be fair, Torres shouldn't have needed it explaining, considering she found out about the reinforcements at the same time as Janeway).

** For those AfraidOfNeedles, watching Janeway and Harry Kim StrappedToAnOperatingTable as a very long needle sinks into their stomach.

* BrokenBase: Janeway's decision to destroy the Caretaker's array without attempting to use it to get home split the fanbase right down the middle from day one. While the episode tries to make it clear that ''Voyager'' would never have been able to use the array, as it would have taken hours to activate (and ''that's'' assuming that they could've made it work properly and survived the attempt after taking heavy damage the first time it was used) and more Kazon ships were en route, the way it's depicted gives ''both'' sides ammunition for their arguments; one the one hand, Torres comes across as a complete idiot for thinking that ''Voyager'' trying to take on a Kazon armada without shields or phasers is going to end in anything other than them being on the losing side of a CurbStompBattle, but on the other hand, Janeway makes the decision to destroy the array ''before'' finding out about the reinforcements, meaning that instead of a shrewd and principled leader she just ends up coming across as RightForTheWrongReasons, and does a poor job of explaining the situation to Torres (though to be fair, Torres shouldn't have needed it explaining, considering she found out about the reinforcements at the same time as Janeway).

* {{Squick}}: The image, literally and mentally, of Neelix taking a bath.

* BrokenBase: Janeway's decision to destroy the Caretaker's array without attempting to use it to get home split the fanbase right down the middle from day one. While the episode tries to make it clear that ''Voyager'' would never have been able to use the array, as it would have taken hours to activate and more Kazon ships were en route, the way it's depicted gives ''both'' sides ammunition for their arguments; one the one hand, Torres comes across as a complete idiot for thinking that ''Voyager'' trying to take on a Kazon armada without shields or phasers is going to end in anything other than them being on the losing side of a CurbStompBattle, but on the other hand, Janeway makes the decision to destroy the array ''before'' finding out about the reinforcements, meaning that instead of a shrewd and principled leader she just ends up coming across as RightForTheWrongReasons, and does a poor job of explaining the situation to Torres (though to be fair, Torres shouldn't have needed it explaining, considering she found out about the reinforcements at the same time as Janeway).

* HarsherInHindsight: Janeway switching off the Doctor when he gets in her face was funny at the time, but becomes a sore point later in the series when the Doctor [[WhatMeasureIsANonHuman becomes more aware of his rights]].

* HarsherInHindsight: Janeway switching off the Doctor when he gets in her face was funny at the time, but becomes a sore point later in the series when the Doctor [[WhatMeasureIsANonHuman becomes more aware of his rights]].