Product Description

In the first season of STAR TREK: VOYAGER, while in pursuit of a Maquis ship in the Badlands, Captain Kathryn Janeway and the crew of the U.S.S. Voyager are pulled into the Delta Quadrant. After making a decision that saves an entire species from being destroyed, but leaves both crews stranded, they must join forces to begin a 75-year journey across 70,000 light years of space to return to the Alpha Quadrant, the Federation and home.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #9253 in DVD
• Brand: PARAMOUNT HOME VIDEO
• Released on: 2004-02-24
• Rating: NR (Not Rated)
• Aspect ratio: 1.33:1
• Number of discs: 5
• Formats: Box set, Color, Dolby, DVD, NTSC
• Original language: English
• Subtitled in: English
• Number of discs: 5
• Running time: 733 minutes

Amazon.com
Star Trek: Voyager began life in 1995 with some truly fascinating prospects in its two-hour pilot episode. Opening in the 24th century, a setting contemporary with that of Star Trek: The Next Generation and Star Trek: Deep Space Nine and carrying over story elements from each of those series, "Caretaker" finds Starfleet Captain Kathryn Janeway (Kate Mulgrew) stepping into the middle of Federation troubles with the Maquis, an army of rebels violently resisting the interplanetary organization's treaty with the brutal Cardassians. In the process, both Voyager and the Maquis ship under surveillance are accidentally catapulted out of the galaxy's Alpha Quadrant (the familiar stomping grounds of Starfleet personnel) by a benign but dying being called the Caretaker. Voyager ends up in the unexplored Delta Quadrant, some 70,000 light years away.

So much seemed dramatically promising in this debut, especially the unwieldy alliance of Starfleet regulars and hostile Maquis, and the likelihood that a lifetime spent in isolation, trying to get home, would lead to the development of a self-contained society on the ship, yet Voyager never entirely made up its mind what it was supposed to be about. The curiously cheesy sets and fascinating, progressive management style of Janeway (half mommy, half taskmaster) were also new developments in Star Trek culture. As the 16-episode season continued, character backstories were developed in such episodes as "The Cloud" (arguably the best episode of the season), "Eye of the Needle" (underscoring Janeway and the crew's sadness), "State of Flux" (in which a search for a traitor reveals a past romance between Commander Chakotay, played by Robert Beltran, and sexy Bajoran engineer Seska, played by Martha Hackett), and "Jetrel" (which explores the character of Neelix, the Talaxian played by Ethan Phillips, during a parable about scientific ethics and moral responsibility).

Among other notable episodes, "Phage" strikes a nice balance among character development, story hook, and moral and emotional conflict when Neelix is literally robbed of his lungs by the Vidiians, a once-civilized people who are combating a deadly disease called the Phage by stealing organs. (The disease would return in "Faces," a fine showcase for Roxann Biggs-Dawson as Chief Engineer B'Elanna Torres.) "Emanations" stirred controversy among the series' producers and some fans for its philosophical look at death, and "Time and Again" is a unique time-travel story in which Janeway and Tom Paris (Robert Duncan McNeill) get caught in a subspace fracture that places them just hours before they know a planet is going to be destroyed. In "Prime Factors," latent tensions among Voyager personnel erupts into serious conflict, an issue revisited in the season finale, "Learning Curve." Despite a pat ending that resolves the Maquis conflict much too easily, the episode drives home the fact that Voyager and its crew are all alone, making the most of a difficult predicament. --Tom Keogh and Jeff Shannon

DVD features
There's a rare treat in the first-season set of Star Trek: Voyager: scenes from the pilot episode featuring the original captain Janeway, played by Genevieve Bujold. She was quickly replaced, and with the benefit of hindsight, it's easy to see that she lacked sufficient presence for the role. That segment is part of the set's 78 minutes of bonus features, including a spotlight on the eventual captain Janeway, Kate Mulgrew (mostly comprised of 1994 and 2003 interviews); a season overview; reflections by the cast; and spotlights on visual effects, location, Startrek.com, and the science behind the show (wormholes, time travel). The basic format of the discs is the same as The Next Generation and Deep Space Nine: full screen, 5.1 and 2.0 surround sound, English subtitles, and easy-to-find Easter eggs. The discs are housed in a nicely compact Digistak case like DS9, though with a bolder color scheme and a plastic outer casing that fits together awkwardly. But unlike any previous Star Trek DVD series, the opening credits of every episode come at the very end of track 1, making it easy to skip past them. --David Horiuchi

Customer Reviews

Content's decent, but Paramount misses the mark
Star Trek Voyager has taken a lot of flack. 'The Red Headed Step Child' of the Trek family took a lot of shots for being mediocre retreads of other Trek stories which had to resort to some cosmic eye-candy to pull in new viewers. Frankly, I think the series has been given the short end of the stick. The ensemble does a fine job, and its good to see a Trek show visiting 'strange new worlds' once more. Its great to see Jennifer Lien(Time and Again) again, and Bob Picardo's Doctor is especially comical in this first season(Heros & Demons). So aces for the episodes found in this collection. The extras are pretty good, too. The piece on Captain Bujold is nearly worth the price of admission alone.

But speaking of the price... C'mon Paramount ! You've been slowly dropping the price on the Trek boxed sets, but we're not nearly where we should be. ESPECIALLY when there are only 15 episodes in this first 'season' of Voyager. And the packaging is truly horrendous. I'm sure this was someone's idea of a clever novelty, but its just downright awkward and cheap. If you're going to ask us to pay upwards of a hundred bucks, at least give us something worthwhile. So as I say, the material is good, but there should be more to offset the price, and the packaging should rise to the quality of the content !

I LOVE VOYAGER! BEST STAR TREK EVER!!
I think that Voyager is the best Star Trek series ever! TOS is good but not the best, TNG was really good, I thought it was the best until I saw Voyager. DS9 a little to calm. Enterprise is horrible!!
Great things about Voyager:
1. Finally a female captain.
2. More then one plot in each episode, making it more complicated.
3. All the characters are different. (Seven and Tuvok can be a lot alike but what can you expect from a ex-borg and a Vulcan?!?!)
4. New aliens!! At last!!
5. Morals.
6. Janeway is the perfect captain, part Picard part Sisko, part Kirk.
7. Out in the Delta quatrent no orders from Starfleet!!
8. Good character devolment. (Neelix can really get on my nerves but he is very realilistic. I know people like him, several.)

I could go on forever on how great Voyager is. They also have to only theme song in Star Trek that I don't have cover my ears when I hear.

I really think that they should make a movie on Voyager.

PLOT: If you haven't seen the 1st episode DON'T READ!
Captain Kathryn Janeway is trying to get her officer Tuvok back. Tuvok was spying on the Maquis. Pick up Tom Paris from a penal coliny in New Zealand. Can't find Tuvok. All of a sudden, they are in the Delta Quadrent. They find out that the Caretaker brought them there and also brought the Maquis ship that Tuvok was on. Meet up with a Talixian named Neelix and he makes them rescue this Ocampa girl named Kes. The Caretaker is the only person who can take them home. The Caretaker dies and Janeway blows up he's equitment to bring them home for reasons I am not going to say. She meets up with Tuvok but many of her crew have died. The captain of the Maquis ship Chackoty becomes 1st officer and B'Elanna becomes Cheif enginer. Tom Paris becomes "helm boy" and the two ships come together and go onto Voyager for one reason. To get home. Back to Earth.

I love this series and I really hope you watch it.
Live long and Prosper!

A Different Kind of Star Trek
Fans of Star Trek DS9, TNG etc. dislike Voyager with a passion, I don't know why. It's possibly because Voyager is a different kind of Star Trek, comparing Voyager and TNG is like comparing apples and oranges, they're two different series and two different types of Star Trek. I don't know how to compare and contrast them, but a common theme among Voyager fans is that they are fans of Enterprise too (the latest Star Trek series).

Anyways, I enjoy Voyager very much. I started to watch it after I started watching Enterprise (since the first Episode) and I'm now hooked. I stay up to 12:30am to watch it on UPN! People say Janeway plays a bad captain, but I disagree... she is a wonderful actress and I love how she interacts with the crew, especially 7 of 9. I can't wait until this DVD comes out, definatly a must have for Voyager fans!