Star Trek-Voyager: Caretaker

                      Captain Kathryn Janeway,commander of the Starship Voyager journeys to a Federation Penal Colony in Australia to temporarily release imprisoned Marquis sympathizer Tom Paris to help her pilot Voyager through the Badlands,an area of intense fire storms,to locate a Marquis vessel containing her undercover chief of security Tuvok. Upon arriving at the Badlands,Voyager is thrown forward by a powerful energy field and half the crew either killed or knocked unconscious. When the captain awakens,her operations officer Harry Kim informs her they are now 70,000 light years from from where they started-in the distant delta quadrant. They find a mysterious alien array before them,firing energy pulses to a dead planet below. After they revive the EMH (emergency medical hologram) to treat the injured,they suddenly disappear. With the array as the only possible culprit the Captain,Harry and Tom transport on board to find what seems like an Earth style barn yard dance. In a barn on the premises,Harry detects indications of Sporosystian life. They suddenly find themselves dangling on platforms,in an enormous chamber,with the rest of their own and the Marquis crew. When they are returned to their own ship,Janeway finds Harry is missing. He is being held with Marquis engineer B'lanna Torres by a race calling themselves the Ocampa. 

                   The Ocampa claim the two have a disease they are asked to treat by an alien called the Caretaker,who overseas their world after their planet turned into a dessert and the Ocampa were forced to live underground. Voyager,for their part,soon encounter a Talaxian scavenger called Nelix who promises he can help them find their missing crew member. He takes them to the surface to a group of aliens called the Kazon Ogla who,in exchange for water,release Neelix's Ocampa lover from their custody. Despite Neelix's  odd methods,this allows the Voyager crew and the Marquis team,who've elected to join forces to get to their home quadrant,to rescue their crew mates and confront this caretaker. Turns out the caretaker blames himself for what happened to the surface of the Ocampa home world,and has been bringing aliens from other parts of the galaxy to try and procreate. Because the Kazon wish to commandeer the array,Janeway is forced to destroy it-along with the crews one chance of getting home,in order to maintain the balance of power in this region. While making an enemy of the Kazon,Janeway manages to unite Starfleet and Marquis personal in a mission of exploration of the Delta Quadrant,while searching for another way to get home.

               As with the Deep Space Nine pilot,this is a very busy story. Not only are we introduced to a one set of new characters but two,as the central theme of the show is two divergent crews coming together for a common goal. And a diverse group it is. We have Torres,an intelligent but aggressive Klingon/Human hybrid. There's the holographic doctor with no bedside manner. There's the new alien Neelix,a mildly mischievous rogue who is looking for little more than love and to reform his vagabond ways. And his girlfriend Kes,who offers their services to Janeway as guides to the quadrant. The title character is one we learn very little about. He comes off as compassionate but too powerful to fully comprehend human needs and therefore has a mildly sinister quality. One theme that carried on from this story through the rest of the series was Janeway's controversial choice to destroy the crews one way of getting home-to keep from violating the Federation's Prime Directive. While it shows her strong moral fortitude,which is at the heart of Star Trek itself,it is a source of contention between her and Voyager's crew on many occasions throughout the series.