Basics: Part 1 (20 May 1996)

The Kazon take over Voyager and strand the crew on a desolate primitive planet. Only Tom Paris, Lon Suder, and The Doctor are on board Voyager to retake the ship.

Director:

Winrich Kolbe

Writers:

Gene Roddenberry (creator), Rick Berman (creator),

Stars:

Kate Mulgrew, Robert Beltran, Roxann Dawson

Cast

Episode credited cast:
Kate Mulgrew	...	Captain Kathryn Janeway
Robert Beltran	...	Commander Chakotay
Roxann Dawson	...	Lieutenant B'Elanna Torres (as Roxann Biggs-Dawson)
Jennifer Lien	...	Kes
Robert Duncan McNeill	...	Lieutenant Tom Paris
Ethan Phillips	...	Neelix
Robert Picardo	...	The Doctor
Tim Russ	...	Lieutenant Tuvok
Garrett Wang	...	Ensign Harry Kim
Brad Dourif	...	Crewman Lon Suder
Anthony De Longis	...	First Maje Culluh
John Gegenhuber	...	Teirna
Martha Hackett	...	Seska
Henry Darrow	...	Kolopak
Rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Majel Barrett	...	Voyager Computer (voice)

Storyline

The Kazon take over Voyager and strand the crew on a desolate primitive planet. Only Tom Paris, Lon Suder, and The Doctor are on board Voyager to retake the ship.

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Plot Keywords:

cliffhanger | 24th century

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Genres:

Action | Adventure | Sci-Fi

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Details

Release Date:

20 May 1996 (USA)

Filming Locations:

Lone Pine, California, USA

Company Credits

Production Co:

Paramount Television

Did You Know?

Goofs

The whole crew is displaced onto a planet and is shown to be made up of only about 30 individuals, though later in the episode the number appears to grow to closer to 60. Still this is far short of any of the official numbers for the crew, which vary around 140 to 160.

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Quotes

First Maje Culluh: [to Janeway, about Seska] What is it about the women from your quadrant? You know she contradicts me in front of the senior askara? My own woman, disputing her Maje in front of others. This is your fault. You've let your women get out of control.

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Soundtracks

"Star Trek: Voyager - Main Title"
(uncredited)
Written by Jerry Goldsmith
Performed by Jay Chattaway

User Reviews

The Best and First Multi-Ep Arc of Voyager

-Well, not taking into account some of those Borg arcs from later seasons.

This Cliffhanger is a resolution of something that has been building up on Voyager - The Tom Paris side-story, where he seemed to be becoming more and more unwilling to follow orders. Also, the Seska story, who began as a Bajoran but ends up being Fully Cardassian. And, the Kazon Nistrum(?) story.

Many things are happening at once - Paris leaves Voyager and joins a ship of Neelix's People, a Kazon in a Kazon shuttle is "saved" by Voyager, and even Ensign Sudor (Brad Dourif) - Who is still locked in his room as punishment for killing a crewman and enjoying it too much.

Voyagers Kazon "Guest" suggests to them a path they could take to escape from a huge gathering of Nistrum ships. But this is a trick, the question always is, "If it's a trick, why is it being done?" - Little attacks by smaller Kazon ships focus on one particular section of the ship - One which if hit too much, would cause the secondary command processors to fail.

But the little ships can't cause that much damage - The damage has to be done from Inside, therefore the Kazon Guest blows himself into tiny molecular chunks, and finishes the Job- Taking All of Voyager's BrainGel packs offline.

Seska (Martha Hackett who is always a great Romulan or Klingon) has been teaching the Kazon some Cardassian Tricks, this was a worthy adversary for Season 1-2. We know from DS9's "Garak" and "Dukat" that Cardassians have eidetic memory. So while Seska was still alive, Voyager had little chance of getting out of the Delta Quadrant. Obviously, this has to be dealt with in some way.

But Seska herself has taught Janeway how to be devious - And Paris was part of this deviousness. It was set up so he would be captured by Seska and "First Maje Culluh" of the Kazon Nistrum in an earlier episode, in fact it was so that he could find out what they were up to and then make contact with Neelix's people for support.

So - Paris barely gets away from the Kazon, but the Kazon have stopped Voyager dead in it's tracks - And they drop off the entire Voyager Crew onto a Volcanic World populated by Neanderthal Native Americans.

Every Voyager crewman but two: The Doctor, and Ensign Sudor. But we know that Sudor is capable of spanking the Kazon- If he could be talked into Killing, once again. But he wanted to "Do Something for The Ship"

• This is his chance.