Star Trek: the little sci-fi drama that, well, couldn't that then became the biggest sci-fi success story ever.

   Star Trek started in the 60's as a short lived science fiction drama on NBC that was canceled after only three seasons. Thanks to the wonders of syndication, it became a post-cancellation hit spawning tons of movies and multiple follow up series.

   The first two follow ups, Star Trek: The Next Generation and Star Trek: Deep Space Nine played in first run syndication with much success. The third follow up and fourth Trek series overall, Star Trek: Voyager premiered as the flagship show of the new UPN network.

   Maybe its just me but I think Trek should stay away from networks. The original got canceled from network TV. The two syndicated shows were great. Then it went back to network with Voyager which was... well... it's not the best of the Trek shows.

   I view it like cars. The original show was like tooling around in a cool 60's car with a cool bunch of people. The Next Generation was like zipping around a sleek 80's sports car again with a cool group of people. Deep Space Nine was hanging around with a bunch of people who were working on a beater car trying to get it to work. They weren't the "A" list people and they fought a lot but they were low class cool. And even though the car was a beater, it had personality. Voyager... Voyager is like going on a ride in a station wagon with your mom and all your brothers and sisters. You all get along okay, its sort of boring and eventually you wonder when the hell it's going to end. Sorry. I call 'em like I see 'em.

   In addition to just existing in the same Universe as the original Trek series, Voyager did have one actual crossover with the original series... sort of (almost all Voyager crossovers are "sort ofs" - see Voyager/Next Gen page for more info).

   The crossover came in the form of a flashback. Voyager's Vulcan security officer Tuvok began having strange mental flashbacks, thinking he was actually in the midst of past events in his memories. Not a good thing. On top of that, with every attack Tuvok suffers more and more damage to his brain. In an attempt to save him, Captain Janeway mind melds with Tuvok. A mind meld is a Vulcan technique where they telepathically connect their minds to another. Janeway intends to go into Tuvok's memories to try and find what the problem might be. She's like someone walking through a previously filmed movie - she can watch but not interact with what she sees. Only instead of being in the memory she was expecting, she ends up in a memory of when Tuvok was serving on the Starship Excelsior under the command of Captain Sulu. Sulu was an officer from the original Trek series. Also on the ship was one of the original Trek's supporting players, Janice Rand. The Excelsior was also a ship featured in the Star Trek feature films featuring the original Trek cast.

   Well, having Jaeneway walk through a movie would be dull and so as it happens inexplicably Janeway finds herself able to interact in the memories!

   In the end it turns out that Tuvok has a being in him that is basically a living thought! That's the short version. My memories on this episode are admittedly sketchy so forgive any errors in my description.

   And like I said, I'll cop to not being a huge fan of the show but I did give it a try for some time and, mainly due to the Sulu element, I enjoyed this episode more than most. I just wish it had been a REAL crossover, not a flashback. Even with Janeway interacting with Sulu and company, it still wasn't really him. Sulu and Janeway still have never met. Part of the problem with any Voyager crossover is that the premise of the show is that Voyager is lost in deep space and so most of the time any crossover has to be couched in some way so that no one back home can discover they are lost in space and not, in fact, dead. This evenutally changed when folks on Earth were allowed to find out their fate but only after many faux crossovers. Voyager's central conceit of being lost in space was it's biggest flaw as it cut the show off from the rest of the established Trek universe.

Other Star Trek Crossover Links
Star Trek and Enterprise
Star Trek and Star Trek: The Next Generation
Star Trek and Star Trek: Deep Space Nine
Star Trek and Team Knight Rider

Other Star Trek: Voyager Crossover Links
Star Trek: Voyager and Enterprise
Star Trek: Voyager and Star Trek: Deep Space Nine
Star Trek: Voyager and Star Trek: The Next Generation

Links To Star Trek Related Web Sites
Cynics Corner (Star Trek Episode Reviews)
The Official Star Trek Web Site

Click here to return to main Crossover List

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