Star Trek 10 Disastrous USS Voyager First Contacts

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Squarespace.com forward slash trekculture. What are you waiting for? Handling something as delicate as first contact really takes a soft touch

When you're off in the Delta Quadrant, that only becomes much more important

because it's not exactly like you've got an entire fleet standing behind you ready to help

one ship did okay another ship maybe was equinoxed by the first one not my best pun

with that in mind I'm Sean Ferrick for Trek Culture and here are 10 disastrous USS Voyager

first contacts number 10 deuterium hydrogen sulfate and dichromates first on this list is a bit of a

strange case of a first contact, really, because initially the crew of Voyager didn't realize they

were dealing with sentient lifeform. When in the episode Demon, Voyager puts down on the planet in

order to do a few repairs and to do this week's version of trying to get rid of Tom and Harry

they come into contact with what would become known as the Silver Blood. Now there's a little

bit of biomimetic lifeforms going on, a little bit of happiness here, a little bit of decomposition

there. Everyone has a good time. Later on, however, we come to the episode Course Oblivion

and frankly, yeah, this gets a bit sad. Because, you see, Voyager allowed this Silverblood lifeform

to copy its crew and the ship itself, but they then forgot that they weren't the originals

which meant that when they designed a new type of warp core that let the ship travel faster

they didn't realize it was toxic to their own genetic makeup, which meant they all basically melted and died

all of their logs were lost, and they were never spoken of again

Fun? Number nine, you appear to be leaking. The episode night is a great way to open the fifth season of Star Trek Voyager

basically because, well, the production team got to just not bother putting in all the stars when

they were doing the field surrounding the ship. What becomes a very introverted episode for some

of the characters such as Janeway as she effectively locks herself in her quarters and

feels sorry for herself for a long time. Haven't we all done that this week? We also get first

contact with an alien race that would become known as the reason we got the Delta Flyer

Yeah, okay, they're also known as the Malon. The Malon come from a now beautiful planet that is as clean as anything, and the way that they do that is by dumping all of their waste out into space. Definitely no timely messages going on there

mmm well suffice to say that the Voyager crew and the Malon do not become friends Janeway decides to

ponderfully destroy the first Malon ship that she encounters and that sets up how the relationship

between these two cultures goes from that point on um yeah they're not going to be on the Christmas

card list number eight the tale of the deadly stranger the Vadoor are an interesting case

because the way that they were set up in the episode Dragon's Teeth

really suggests that we're going to see them again and again and again in Voyager

And of course we never do. So in this case, first contact is in fact only contact

But it's quite frightening because Voyager accidentally discovers this subspace corridor network that they're thinking

deadly, that's going to get us home, no bother. Turns out it's been effectively co-opted by the Ture, but it was originally used by these aliens, the Vadoor, in their attempt to conquer the galaxy

Not that much fun then when they are woken up by the crew of Voyager

In fact Seven is the one who able to pass on this tale of the deadly stranger because effectively the Borg have assimilated cultures in the past that tell of these mysterious demon creatures that

just pop up out of nowhere and behind a grinning smile rain destruction, and these are the aliens

that the Voyager crew unwittingly have unleashed again on the Delta Quadrant, and they did fire

some fair amount of torpedoes at them before they got away so really if they do bump into them again

we don't reckon second contact's going to go very well. Number seven more than a mild shock

when you think of the Hirogen now you think of these tall fearsome warriors you think of such

actors as Tony Todd, Mark Metcalfe these seriously let's not mess with these folks kind of aliens

They are very clearly based around the Predator movies, they keep trophies on the wall

and so when you think back to the very first time we see them, and the fact that Seven electrocutes one of them through the astrometrics bay

it's actually quite funny. Voyager has found an old communications relay that they then want to use to connect with the Alpha Quadrant

Brilliant! Turns out, the Hirogen have laid claim to it. They want to stop Voyager using it, and Seven, in what possibly they thought was going to be a momentary bit of comedy

sends an electric shock through it, they use the sub-space relay, everyone's happy. Well, that is until the rest of the Hunters turn up

Maybe, maybe hold off on those impulses for now? Hi, I'm award-winning journalist and all-round truth seeker L.E. Fontana

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and remember, the truth will set you free. Number six, one sporocystian, two sporocystians

Well, the alien race that Voyager first encountered was, of course, the caretaker

although they didn't realize they were encountering them at the time. The caretaker, and, though we wouldn't discover her for a while, later on Suspiria are members of a sporo-cystian

life form called the Nacine. This caretaker has been caring for the Ocampa, another first contact

race, for an age because he accidentally made their homeworld barren. He has been looking for

compatible member races to, you know, with to create a new caretaker for the Ocampa. Unfortunately

by the time Voyager reaches them, they're out of luck. The caretaker dies before any of the

secrets, really, of the Nacine can be passed over to the Voyager crew. The caretaker's array is

destroyed by Voyager to save the Ocompa from the Kazon, another point for a first contact there

and later on, when Voyager encounters Suspiria, who had in fact just been left in Voyager as a

sort of ace-in-the-hole-get-Voyager-home-to-the-Alpha-Quadrant-if-the-show-wasn't-doing-very-well, card, she doesn't really do much to help them either. So, in terms of let's all be friends

with the Naceen, wasn't a good first look. Number five, once more without Kronitons

This is a funny one because we're not sure if this actually counts or not, because which first

contact with the Krenim are we actually going to look at here So you have first contact with the Krenim which was a little scout ship basically firing torpedoes attempting to play the Chihuahua to Voyager Bull Mastiff

That one, not very good. Then, off in the distance, you've got Krenim on his time ship erasing the

Zol from existence. Suddenly, this little scout ship, Krenim ship, becomes a bit more of a beefy

, and it's got something a little bigger in its torpedo tubes, and suddenly Voyager is

getting crippled and we get this whole year of hell. That's a good title for an episode. I wonder

if anyone will ever make it. Then, of course, by the end of this year, Janeway pilots Voyager into

the timeship, causing an inversion within the ship, which resets the clock. Everyone goes back

and First Contact now becomes the bigger, beefier security ship piloted by the first guy

who then just advises Voyager here, take the long way around our space

there's a bit of dispute going on. She says, thanks very much. Everyone says, good journey. So actually that wasn't that bad

But then when you count Kes in before and after... Time travel hurts my head

Number four, biomolecular warheads first, class reunions later. So first Connig with Species 8472

effectively put Harry Kim on his deathbed. And then the ship was nearly destroyed

a lot of Borg were killed. It was a good time. Then we start reaching out to try and understand

who Species 8472 are. The weak shall perish. Okay, cool. Not going to go for dinner with them

Then Voyager ends up in fluidic space because the Borg brought them there. They fire some

modified torpedoes. They get the upper hand. The Borg go on their usual rampage through the Delta

Quadrant. Whoops. So pretty bad first contact, right? You'd think that might be it. Let's stay

away from them forever. Bit odd then when Voyager finds a holograph or a hologram ship floating in

space and they beam over and they're at Starfleet Academy. What? What's this doing here? Let's test

these. Oh my good Christ, they're 8472. They were preparing a full invasion of Starfleet. Thankfully

there's a lot more communication going on this time. So you could argue that this is the proper

first contact between 8472 and Voyager. And if that's the case, it shouldn't be on this list

So we're going to go back to the first first contact, which was one tripedal alien

one swipe of its claw, and Harry Kim's face eating itself. Number three, going through a

difficult phage? The Videans are effectively the vampires of the Delta Quadrant, and there's so

much tragedy attached to them. However, they're also horrible because of how they try to combat

their tragedy. Our very first experience of them is Neelix having his lungs stolen because the lungs

in the people that stole them are rotting away. That's how they stay alive, by harvesting organs

from other aliens. In this episode, which is aptly called The Phage, these same Videans do in fact

save Neelix's life. Now, while Neelix's own lungs are now fully integrated into another person who

will die if they're removed, Kes, thankfully, the Okampa are able to effectively live perfectly fine

with one lung. She can donate one lung to Neelix. The Vidians can make it happen. Okay, sounds like

we got a good ending to a bad situation. Janeway does take the time to say, listen, if we see you

again, we're going to blow you out the sky. I'm paraphrasing, but that's effectively the message. As time goes on and we encounter more of the Vidians, turns out Janeway made the right call

They're not very nice. Dinara Pell is one of the few Vidians who shows their humanity, if you like, has not been lost to the Phage

So with that and the knowledge that the members of the think tank, which Voyager encounters a few years later, have cured the Phage

time might be right for second contact with the Vidians now. Number two most storms don rain nanoprobes In the finale of the fourth season of Star Trek Voyager we meet Arturus and he initially seems to be a friendly alien who can speak all of the languages and understand absolutely everything

and totally coincidentally, Voyager also encounters the USS Dauntless, which is equipped with a new slipstream drive, everyone's happy, we'll be home for tea

You never really thought that was going to happen, did you? Turns out Arturus was a member of a species that was directly counting on Species 8472 to effectively destroy the Borg

When Voyager made the deal with the Borg that saw Species 8472 sent back to their own fluidic space

the Borg then turned around and assimilated Arturus' culture, leaving Arturus, little understandably, infuriated

knowing that he can't take on the entire collective he effectively settles his rage on Voyager itself

he uses the line that the Borg are like a storm on the horizon you don't get angry with the storm

but if the Voyager crew were the ones who sort of pushed the storm in their direction

they can be blamed and I could sort of see his point Voyager does survive the day and you know

Dauntless unfortunately ends up in the hands of the Borg who having transwarp ability already

possibly just don't care about Slipstream, but it's quite a sobering thought to think that

this final, to date, encounter with Arturus's species, I mean he says a few other survivors

got away, but was one of pure rage, pure blame, and quite frankly ends in sadness for Arturus

I'd be a bit concerned really for Voyager if they're nipping back to the Delta Quadrant anytime

soon. Number one, no more scarves on Sicaris. Very early on in Voyager's journey to the Delta

Quadrant, they encounter the Sicarians. Now, initially, these are a hedonistic, sort of

you know, up their own backsides, but not overtly unpleasant kind of people. In hosting the Voyager

crew, they reveal that they have a technology, which they call a spatial trajectory, which can

send people or even starships up to 40,000 light years away. At this point, Voyager was still 75,000

light years from Earth. That would have made a serious, serious chunk of their journey gone like

that. Unfortunately, the Sicarians were like, we kind of have this directive thing where we don't

share technology. Although Janeway sort of, well, she has to accept this. She does attempt to

negotiate, she does attempt to explain their position, and alas, the Sicarians won't budge

So, when Seska and B'Elanna basically hatch a plot to steal some of this technology, a plot that

Tuvok gets involved in as well, they are then left in a position when, it turns out, the technology

is completely incompatible with Voyager. They can't exactly ask the Sicarians for help either

because they've just stolen from them. So it's all a bit of a disaster, really

And it gets a little bit more awkward when, years later, Seven of Nine reveals the fact that the Borg have assimilated this spatial trajectory technology

which is saved only for the use of the Queen and why it wouldn't be used for a full-scale assimilation of the galaxy

God only knows. But, yeah, does that mean that the Sicarians didn't have a happy ending

I'm not sure I like this list. Thankfully, though, that's the end of it. Thanks very much. What do you think should be on this list

Thank you so much to Jack Kiley for writing this list originally. Go check it out over on whatculture.com

Thank you to the wonderful Tom for making this look pretty. Don't forget to follow us along on Twitter at TrekCulture, and then you can follow us over on Instagram at TrekCultureYT

Remember, every Tuesday we have a podcast that drops, so that will be on all of the podcast catchers of your choice

Don't forget to follow Jack over on Twitter. He's at Jack Riley

I'm at Sean Ferrick. Tom is at Tom C. Finn or Tom Roberts Finn

I think that's everyone. You are all awesome. Make sure that you look after yourselves until I see you again

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