Captain’s log: stardate 48439.7

Brannon Braga pens the first episode following the series opening, from a story by Jim Trombetta. It debuted on 23 January, 1995.

Voyager has begun its journey home, and as the Starfleet and Maquis crews attempt to integrate, they receive a distress call from a ship, a ship stuck in a quantum singularity – which could be a way home.

But things aren’t going to be that easy.

Chakotay (Robert Beltran) argues for Torres (Roxann Dawson) to take over engineering but her partial Klingon heritage is causing problems, and this serves as the tip of the iceberg in dealing with the two crews becoming one.

The EMH (Robert Picardo) is wonderfully dry and sarcastic, and even this early in the series it’s easy to see why he’s a fan favourite. He also seems to be having some problems of his own in terms of his holographic emitters.

Captain Janeway (Kate Mulgrew) brings her full scientific know-how to bear on the singularity, the ship, and the possibilities presented by both. But things aren’t going to be that easy for them, and the ship isn’t all it appears to be.

The situation puts Janeway and Torres head to head, and they begin to realise that they can work together, and do it well. I like their pairing, both are smart and unstoppable, I like seeing them share scenes.

This is a good episode that sets up the continuing storyline of crew integration, while building on the characters we were introduced to in the pilot.

Captain’s log: stardate unknown

Micheal Piller and David Kemper pen this episode from a story created by Kemper. It first aired on 30 January, 1995.

Janeway and Paris (Robert Duncan McNeill) are at the centre of this tale that sees Voyager arriving at a planet that has lost all life on it due to an explosion. When they move to investigate the pair find themselves back in time before the explosion, and must decide whether they let it happen, or try to stop it.

The story is smart, and it also does something really important this early in the series, which is build characters, and relationships. It also deals with the idea of if you knowledge of a future event would you change it?

Back in their own time Tuvok (Tim Russ), Chakotay, Torres, and Harry (Garrett Wang) try to figure out how to get the captain and Paris back.

The episode has the first mention of the Delaney sisters, which Paris is eager to get in on, with Harry at his side. And Neelix (Ethan Phillips) and Kes (Jennifer Lien) try to settle in with the crew, while the young alien suffers psychic problems related to the explosion.

The series is off to a great start and the Human Adventure will continue Thursday when I continue my exploration of DS9, and next Tuesday I continue my journey home with Voyager… The Complete Series, now available from Paramount Pictures.