Caretaker

An *Opinionated Voyager Episode Guide* review.

Review of the Season 1 two-parter pilot episode of *Star Trek: Voyager*.

## Episode information

* **Season:** 1
* **Episode:** 1 / 2
* **Original airdate:** 16 January 1995
* *Caretaker, Part I* & *Part II* at StarTrek.com, the official website
* *Caretaker, Part I & II* at Memory Alpha, a canon *Star Trek* wiki
* *Caretaker, Part I & II* at Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia
* *Caretaker, Part I & II* at the Internet Movie Database

## Review information

* Review link
* Published: September 8, 2011

## SF Debris synopsis

*Opinionated Voyager Episode Guide looks at the place where it all started, Caretaker. Watch rural people act rural, the bizarre tricorder fetish, and Janeway doing the opposite of what she does in every other situation, since this will make 150 people really miserable.*

## Post-Episode Follow-Up

### Final Score: 4

***Just Didn't Deliver***

"Final score for this episode is 4 out of 10.

The pilot just doesn't deliver, and time has not made that any better. The main misstep of this episode is the fact that so many things do not develop organically, such as the way the crew seems to suddenly be so taken and committed to being on the side of the Ocampa. When, in truth, these people are like the Eloi from *The Time Machine* - the book, not the movie - except, they're the ones that are underground. For all Janeway's talk about children needing to grow up, she seems committed to preserving their status quo.

ANother big one is obviously the decision to leave, which I've said enough about, as far as the logic of it goes. But, looking at it purely from a structural point of view, it's easy to see what they wanted. Janeway is supposed to be presented here as a strong leader, who's making a hard choice for moral reasons. And that, on paper, sounds fine. Make us understand that Janeway's firmly in control here and also that she's the kind of person who will stand up for her beliefs, no matter what the threat might be. But the way it's executed completely undermines that, because what she's doing has an obvious

flaw to it. There's no reason they can't get home and destroy the array *both* - not without - and this is key. Making Janeway choose to stay because she has to, and not because she chooses to, which would be counter to their goal. This decision then backfires. Instead of seeing the captain as she was intended by the writers, the audience sees her as someone who stranded these people because she missed the obvious. And that every tragedy that is encountered is her fault.

The only way to wallpaper over that are the kinds of excuses, that shift this back to the *has to* and not the *chooses to*. Which is a sign of failure, if those who want to defend her must resort to scenarios that are counter to what the writers were trying to achieve.

Later this month, we'll see how things continue to play out with this amalgamation of the crews, in 'Parallax'."

### Stupid Neelix Moment

***"Trust me, I know what I'm doing"***

"The Stupid Neelix Moment is him using the Voyager crew to rescue Kes instead of telling them the truth. I can't believe Janeway would ever consider trusting him again after that."

## See also

* Opinionated Voyager Episode Guide
* Voyager Season 1 reviews