They're incomplete, and I haven't worked on them in months, but I'd like to share them nonetheless - and who knows, maybe discussion and feedback here may inspire my creativity again and get me to write up some more!
Anyways, here they are - first, the Season/Episode Listings and Cast of Characters:
Season Villains/Antagonists:
Season 1 - Kazon/Vidiians
Season 2 - Voth/Benthans
Season 3 - Species 8472/Borg
Season 4 - Krenim/Borg
Season 5 - N/A
Season 6 - Hirogen/Borg
Season 7 - Borg
Senior Staff Cast:
- Kathryn Janeway
- Chakotay
- Tuvok
- Harry Kim
- Nick Locarno
- The EMH Doctor
- B’Lanna Torres
Crewmen Cast:
- Kes
- Neelix
- Lindsay Ballard (a.k.a. Jhet’laya)
- Kate & Nina Delaney
- Seska
- Lon Suder
- Seven of Nine
- Naomi Wildman
- Forra Gegen
Hazard Team Cast:
- Alejandro Munro
- Telsia Murphy
- Chell
- Kendrick Biessman
- Austin Chang
- Juliet Jurot
- Les Foster
And my current episode line-up so far for Seasons 1 and 2:
Season 1 wrote:S1E001 – Caretaker Part 1: Series Premiere; the USS Voyager and its crew get dragged into the Delta Quadrant by an alien entity while on a mission gone awry to find and capture the missing Maquis ship the Val Jean. First introduces the main cast of the Voyager.
S1E002 – Caretaker Part 2: After being dragged into the Delta Quadrant by the alien known as ‘the Caretaker’, Voyager ends up getting itself entangled into the conflict between the Ocampa the Caretaker is protecting, and the local primitive alien thugs known as the Kazon, this sect led by Maj Cullah, one of the main recurring villains of Season 1. Voyager ends up trapping itself in the Delta Quadrant when forced to destroy the Caretaker Array that brought them there, to prevent the Kazon from hijacking it.
S1E003 – The Periphery: After having destroyed the Caretaker Array, thus trapping them in the Delta Quadrant, Voyager first takes stock of its situation, primarily its exact location in the quadrant: the Periphery, the farthest edge of the local galactic arm, and the most remote and backwater. To begin their trek home to the Alpha Quadrant, Voyager must first escape the Periphery – and to do that, it has to do a little exploring first.
S1E004 – Harassment: On its first few missions attempting to explore the local star cluster, Voyager finds itself continually harassed by Cullah’s Kazon fleet; while the Kazon are idiot savage brutes who don’t even know much of how their own ships work, they are numerous, and the crew has to devise a way to elude this annoyance long enough so they can get their jobs done.
S1E005 – First Encounters of the Friendly Kind: Having explored the local star cluster, Voyager hits the lucky break of encountering a space-faring race of all-female reptilians… the downside, Cullah and his thugs have followed them and crash the first-contact party between the two.
S1E006 – Organ Theft: While on a mission to obtain more Dilithium crystals, Neelix has his lungs stolen by the disease-ravaged Vidiians, the other recurring villains of Season 1. The EMH Doctor has to come up with a way to save Neelix’s life, while the rest of the crew tries to find the organ thieves responsible and recover the lungs.
S1E007 – Hazard Team: Having encountered numerous threats thus far to the ship, Tuvok decides to form a new special-forces group, called the Hazard Team, led by Les Foster (and later, Alejandro Munro). Naomi Wildman is born this episode as well.
S1E008 – House Call: A Vidiian doctor requests asylum aboard Voyager, asking for help on a cure for the Phage, the disease that’s consuming the Vidiians. The EMH Doctor, while working together with her via holographic projection, begins forming emotional feelings for her.
S1E009 – Mind of a Killer: After a brutal murder is discovered in Engineering, Tuvok’s investigation uncovers Maquis crewmember Lon Suder, a Betazoid devoid of the telepathy typical of his species. In a move ill-advised in hindsight, Tuvok attempts a mind-meld with the murderous Betazoid, and gets stricken with the same psychosis for his trouble.
S1E010 – The Cardassian Connection: After the latest Kazon attack, the crew discovers traces of Cardassian technology among the weapons the Kazon used… which may possibly indicate the existence of the CDS Vetar, the Cardassian warship that was pursuing the Val Jean before its disappearance.
S1E011 – Training Day: After the discovery of the potential existence of the CDS Vetar, Tuvok and Chakotay take it upon themselves to better integrate the Maquis and Starfleet crews aboard Voyager, the two groups still in conflict with each other since first being stranded in the Delta Quadrant.
S1E012 – Jetrel: A repentant Hakkonian scientist comes aboard Voyager asking for assistance in reversing the damage he had caused in creating the weapon that destroyed the Talaxian moon of Rainax, which killed Neelix’s family and ended the Talaxian-Hakkonian War.
S1E013 – Threshold: In a badly-conceived experiment to break the Warp 10 barrier, Nick Locarno is horribly injured by extreme radiation exposure, resulting in his body mutating and devolving at an unstable and unsettling pace. While the EMH Doctor attempts to reverse the damage and save Locarno’s life, the rest of the crew is left with figuring out what went wrong.
S1E014 – Spies Among Us: After a Kazon attack ends prematurely, it is discovered that someone aboard Voyager has been leaking information and faulty weapons designs to the Kazon. After lengthy investigation, it is discovered that Seska is actually a Cardassian! She ends up escaping on another Kazon ship and later rendezvous with the CDS Vetar, which is allied with Maj Cullah.
S1E015 – Dreadnought: Voyager encounters a Cardassian superweapon that also made its way into the Delta Quadrant… and is on a course to blow up an inhabited world. Worse still, the Vetar is also after it in an attempt to reclaim Cardassian property.
S1E016 –
S1E017 –
S1E018 –
S1E019 –
S1E020 –
Season 2 wrote:S2E021 – Distant Origin: Season 2 Premiere; the season begins with Voyager entering what would be known as Voth Space, after having left the Periphery the previous season. Unbeknownst to them, they are being tracked by a Voth paleontologist searching for evidence to support his controversial theory that the Voth originated elsewhere in the galaxy, rather than the Delta Quadrant as the Voth Council of Elders and Voth Doctrine dictate. Voyager’s appearance rather puts a dent in that conservatism, leading to them becoming the lead antagonists of Season 2. The Voth paleontologist, Forra Gegen, joins the crew at episode’s end in a bid for asylum and more opportunity for research.
S2E022 – Getaway Car: With the Distant Origin Theory debacle having resulted in the Voth Supreme Command putting out an arrest warrant on the Voyager crew’s heads, Voyager has to evade the Benthan Stellar Guard, the de facto police force of the quadrant.
S2E023 – On the Lam: With the Benthan Guard looking everywhere for them, Voyager has to resort to laying low until the heat cools off… unfortunately, to do that, they have to get past a Benthan security cordon around the planet they want to land on.
S2E024 – Everyone Hates Neelix: The EMH Doctor discovers something odd about the crew and their increasingly erratic behavior… turns out, Talaxians emanate psychotropic pheromones that slowly drive those affected crazy… and Neelix hasn’t gotten into the habit of showering daily yet; at least he does it bi-weekly.
S2E025 – Arming the Mob: In a bout of incredible stupidity, Harry Kim trades replicated old-Earth ballistic weapons to several dubiously-aligned merchants in exchange for supplies. Unfortunately, said ballistic weapons happen to be Kalashnikov assault rifles. Hilarity ensues as Voyager tries to clean up his mess before someone starts a revolution against the local planetary government. AK-47s for EVERYONE!
S2E026 – Heresy, Heresy Everywhere: Forra Gegen tries making his case on the Voth Extranet in an attempt to garner more public support for his theories… it goes about as well as one would expect.
S2E027 – Dinosaurs on Spaceships: The Hazard Team must face off against the Voth in a fight for survival after the ship is cornered and boarded by an army of weaponized cloned dinosaurs. Yes, you heard that right.
S2E028 – Blockade Runner: With their hiding spot on the planet compromised, Voyager has to blast their way past the Benthan security cordon and the Voth fleet without dying.
S2E029 – The Thaw: After making their daring escape and reaching deep space, Voyager is back on track with its journey homeward, when they casually come across a barren planet with five surviving inhabitants in cryogenic-stasis, who are trapped within a virtual-mental prison ruled by a terrifying, despotic clown.
S2E030 –
S2E031 – Death Wish for Q: Voyager stumbles across an asteroid containing an imprisoned member of the Q Continuum, locked in there as punishment for attempting suicide. Upon making the discovery, another Q comes in to demand they put things back as they were.
S2E032 –
S2E033 –
S2E034 – Chronosphere: [Part 1 Rewrite of "Future's End", Details Pending]
S2E035 – Chronoshift: [Part 2 Rewrite of "Future's End", Details Pending]
S2E036 – An Offer You Can’t Refuse: Voyager reaches the Nekrit Expanse, a massive nebula cluster that serves as the de facto border of Voth space, and with that, safe haven. However, realizing that he does not have any knowledge of the Delta Quadrant beyond the Expanse, Neelix takes it upon himself to find maps and star-charts for his adopted crew… via his unscrupulous connections from his days as a smuggler.
S2E037 –
S2E038 –
S2E039 –
S2E040 –
Season 3 wrote:S3E041 – Scorpion and the Fox: Season 3 Premiere (Part 1); having escaped Voth Space and the Benthan Guard, Voyager ends up entering a region far worse: Borg Space. Though seemingly finding a safe passage through it, they discover another new threat that is at war with the Borg: Species 8472. Having no way to safely traverse between the two mortal enemies without being caught in the crossfire, Voyager has to cut a deal with the devil in order to survive. Borg drone Seven of Nine makes her first appearance.
S3E042 – Scorpion’s Sting: Season 3 Premiere (Part 2); having made a deal with the Borg (mostly through blackmail), Voyager now has to develop a superweapon to counter Species 8472 without getting killed by them in the process… as well as dodging the eventual Borg betrayal. Seven of Nine officially joins the crew after being severed from the Collective.
S3E043 – Rogue Element: Having fended off both the Borg and Species 8472, Voyager still finds itself targeted by both, having possession of the singular trump card that could decide the fate of the war. Meanwhile, Seven of Nine begins adjusting to being a member of the crew… with great difficulty… and to the concertation of many on-board.
S3E044 – Run For Your Life: Voyager is relentlessly pursued by a Borg cube; with no recourse other than to run away like cowards, the crew has to get pretty creative in running away really fast.
S3E045 – Viva La Resistance: Voyager comes across an alien planet being invaded by both the Borg and Species 8472; however, rather than being destroyed by the two rival invaders, the planet’s inhabitants are successfully holding their ground… with the help of AK-47s?
S3E046 – What Lurks: After a run-in with an 8472 Bio-Frigate, the crew finds that its pilot managed to sneak onboard Voyager, and is now lurking in the Jefferies tubes. The crew has to hunt it down before it kills any unsuspecting victims doing work down there.
S3E047 – Assimilate This: The Hazard Team faces off against the Borg. The poor fools won’t know what hit them.
S3E048 – Slithering: Species 8472’s rampage continues unabated, as another bystander star system comes under attack while Voyager was taking a brief reprieve to rest and resupply.
S3E049 – Peace Treaty: With the Borg-8472 War grinding to a halt due to neither side making any progress in capturing or destroying Voyager, Janeway decides to take advantage of the situation. How? Why, through more blackmail, of course.
S3E050 – Reanimation: Lindsay Ballard comes back from the dead… though with a change in species and name. Lindsay Ballard as the Kobali Jhet’laya rejoins the crew.
S3E051 – Red vs. Q: Voyager ends up entangled in a massive war-game being played by the entire Q Continuum. While said war-game is harmless for the Q themselves, it is… less so for stellar bodies in real space.
S3E052 –
S3E053 –
S3E054 –
S3E055 –
S3E056 – Embracing the Venom: Voyager comes across a remote planet inhabited by a Borg splinter-group called the Borg Cooperative, composed of former drones that were freed after their cube was rendered derelict by a battle with Species 8472.
S3E057 –
S3E058 –
S3E059 –
S3E060 – Scorpion and the Eagle:
And here's the Character Bios:Season 4 wrote:S3E061 – Year of Hell – Envoy of the Beginning: Season 4 Premiere: As if the perils of Borg space weren't enough, Voyager crosses over into the realm of the Krenim Imperium… and thus the dark descent into the Year of Hell begins.
S3E062 – Hell March: The Krenim Imperium, formerly a frail shadow of an interstellar nation, miraculously becomes a powerful resurgent empire almost overnight, and begins a campaign of conquest against its neighbors – with Voyager caught in the crossfire and no idea what has happened.
S3E063 – Bigfoot: Finding evidence of temporal manipulation being behind the Krenim resurgence, Voyager attempts to track down the mysterious superweapon behind it.
S3E064 – Time Bomb: When a Krenim chroniton torpedo fails to detonate and imbeds itself inside Voyager, Seven of Nine and Kes have to figure out a way to disarm it without blowing themselves and the ship up.
S3E065 – Militant Force: In spite of repeated Krenim temporal shifts, one thing remained constant throughout all the timeline changes – the AK-47, being foreign to the Delta Quadrant, and thus immune to the time shifts.
S3E066 – Display of Power: Growing ever more aggravated by Voyager’s presence interfering with its mission, the Krenim Timeship attempts to force it to leave by demonstrating its power firsthand.
S3E067 – Beauty of Annihilation: The Hazard Team defends itself against waves of anomalous, horrific echoes of the dead, brought about the repeated fluctuations of Krenim temporal incursions.
S3E068 – Lone Troop:
S3E069 – Trenches:
S3E070 – Crush:
S3E071 – Burn:
S3E072 – Destroy:
S3E073 – No Mercy:
S3E074 – Face of the Enemy, Part 1: Voyager at last meets Annorax, commander of the Krenim Timeship, face-to-face.
S3E075 – Face of the Enemy, Part 2: Annorax abducts Chakotay and Locarno, in a bid to decapitate Voyager’s chain of command and cripple its operations.
S3E076 – Impending Doom:
S3E077 – March to Doom:
S3E078 – Doom of the Aliens:
S3E079 – Chrono Storm:
S3E080 – Year of Hell – Envoy of the End:
Kathryn Janeway wrote: Captain Janeway originally started out her career wanting to be a science officer in Starfleet; however, due to her abrasive attitude towards her coworkers and failure to adhere to proper scientific procedure (often causing disasters in the laboratory), she was transferred to Security and shuffled away to an out-of-the-way trade outpost... which was located, unfortunately, near Breen territory. A few months after being stationed there (and making a lot of enemies with its inhabitants), the station comes under attack by Breen traders (said Breen were provoked by Janeway's antagonizing them during an argument, which resulted in a fight). After the Breen killed most of the station's crew (incidentally, the ones who were nearby witnessing Janeway starting the fight), Janeway somehow manages to rally the survivors and retake the station.
As a result of Janeway's 'heroic' actions (and the remaining survivors having no proof of her actual involvement), Janeway was promoted up the ranks, and after a series of similar such incidents, eventually reached Captain. However, thanks to the numerous incidents she was involved in (and the testimonials of her former co-workers during each event), she obtained the reputation of being a disaster magnet - wherever she goes, disaster follows. Along with her abrasive and unpleasant personality, this resulted in being widely hated and held in contempt by other Starfleet captains, saying that "she gives Starfleet a bad name".
Eventually, she was given command of the USS Voyager, and given the supposedly-simple task of finding and arresting the Maquis vessel theVal Jean, which had gone missing somewhere in the Badlands region near Cardassian space. When Voyager was docked at DS9 prior to its launching of the mission, Janeway was personally briefed and warned by Ben Sisko (one of the said captains who hated her) that she was on thin ice with her track record, and that "if you screw this mission up, so help me I will have you thrown against the wall so hard you'd think you've landed in the Delta Quadrant!". Ironically, these words turned out to be quite prophetic; for as soon after Voyager set off on its intended short mission, it was dragged into the Delta Quadrant by an alien force.
Janeway's personality here takes cues from SF Debris' interpretation of her: arrogant, abrasive, egotistical, and a tad sadistic, while also exuding a pretentious, condescending 'holier-than-thou' attitude; but her unpleasant exterior covers up her extensive inferiority complex, paranoia, and slight bipolar symptoms. An extreme coffee addict, barely a day goes by without her with a cup of coffee at some point - without said coffee, her sharp edge becomes even sharper, becoming bitter, touchy, irritable, and tad more irrational. However, despite all her faults, she is at least passably competent when in top form, and she somehow manages to get herself out of whatever mess she put herself through this time.
Chakotay wrote: Though a man of Native-American descent, and of mixed Sioux-Navajo heritage, Chakotay is not what one would expect: he is very modernist and progressive, and while respectful and faithful to his birth culture’s traditions, he is willing to leave it behind for his desire for exploring the wider galaxy.
Born on Earth to Native-American parents, his mother a Sioux and his father a Navajo, much of Chakotay’s early life was spent travelling – a majority of that time spent on and around Earth, as his father was an activist for Native-Americans and other native tribes (such as New Zealand’s Maori tribes, which is where Chakotay received his signature tattoo as an honorary gift of friendship). Despite his father’s social activism and traditionalism, however, Chakotay preferred the actual adventuring and exploring they did while travelling. It was this wanderlust that gave Chakotay his interest in archeology, paleontology, and anthropology. He also took up boxing as a sporting hobby thanks to numerous exhibition fights showcased at various festivals.
Eventually, his exploratory and scientific interests led him to enroll at Starfleet Academy, much to his family’s disapproval – however, while they did not personally approve of his life choices, it was his life to live, and they let him be peacefully. It was around this time anyways that the Native-American request to colonize Dorvan V got approved, and Chakotay’s parents moved there along with the rest of their tribes while Chakotay continued on with the Academy.
While at the Academy, Chakotay was discovered to be a natural leader and rather brilliant tactician during his Tactical 101 training courses, and while he still excelled at his scientific interests in archeology, paleontology, and anthropology, it was decided he would be placed on the Command School track. Though Chakotay disliked this change of career path, he nonetheless dedicated himself to his studies, partly in the hope that one day he’ll receive a science ship of his own to continue his actual dreams (much like his personal hero, Captain Jean-Luc Picard).
Sadly, this was not to be: shortly after graduating, the Cardassian Border Wars flared up, and he was assigned to fight on the front lines. During this time, Chakotay excelled in combatting the Cardassians, his clever tactics inspired by his Native heritage winning the day numerous times. However, this would not be enough in the end: the war dragged on into a bloody stalemate, and both the Cardassian Union and the Federation were forced to the negotiating table to hammer out a peace deal. Negotiations dragged on for years, but eventually the treaty was signed… but this would also end up being the end of Chakotay’s Starfleet career. For in the details of the peace treaty, several border changes resulted in Cardassian colonies ending up on the Federation side… and Federation colonies on the Cardassian side… including Dorvan V, Chakotay’s family’s adopted homeworld. His love and loyalty to his family still going strong after all these years, a furious Chakotay resigned from Starfleet in protest.
It was such protest resignations and civil outrage that spawned the group known as the Maquis, a terrorist and rebel organization founded by the Federation colonies trapped on the Cardassian side of the border, feeling betrayed by their government and refusing to bow down the Cardassian tyranny that they suffered during the border wars. It was here that the next chapter of Chakotay’s career began, and it would be one of notoriety. Starting off as a simple no-name cell leader, he soon rose to prominence within the Maquis as an excellent leader and fighter, and eventually received command of a junk freighter named the Val Jean. Along with fellow rebels such as B’Elanna Torres (an Academy dropout but resourceful engineer) and Seska (a Bajoran who had the predictable hatred of Cardassians), they got together like a house on fire – and set many Cardassian houses on fire as well.
Chakotay’s luck wouldn’t last forever, though, as he eventually crossed paths with a young man going by the name of ‘Tom Paris’. Chakotay wasn’t fooled by the alias though, and he immediately recognized the infamous Nick Locarno, the former Academy student who was expelled for his causing the Nova Squadron Tragedy. The two of them immediately despised each other, Chakotay’s reason being that Locarno was a disgrace to Starfleet and a duplicitous little weasel. Chakotay needed his piloting skills, however, so he reluctantly accepted Locarno into his cell. This would prove to be a mistake: for while he continued his smuggling operation around Dorvan V, Locarno’s false identity attracted the attention of Admiral Owen Paris, who soon had the Maquis operation smashed; Locarno took the coward’s way out and ratted out his Maquis comrades, forcing Chakotay and the Val Jean to flee.
Soon after that disaster, the Val Jean was quickly hunted down by the Cardassian Union and eventually found itself pursued by a Cardassian Galor-class cruiser near the Badlands. Chakotay attempted to outmaneuver the Galor by retreating into the Badlands, hoping that the violent and unstable anomalies would either slow it down, force it to retreat, or destroy it. None of these turned out to be the case: for as soon as he had the Val Jean enter the region, it and its crew was dragged into the Delta Quadrant by the alien being known as the Caretaker.
Contrary to what many would think, Chakotay is not a stereotypical Native-American: he very much embraces modern technology and science, and believes that his people should move on towards the future instead of dwelling on their misfortune-ridden past. Despite that, Chakotay still maintains his people’s traditions and practices, even if just out of respect for his heritage and love for his family; even then, he keeps it a personal and private affair, and remains professional and disciplined while on duty. His efforts to keep his religious beliefs out-of-sight still end up being the occasional butt of a joke among those under his command, with him upon finding out giving the offender a stern irritated glare and punishment duty in cleaning up plasma manifolds. Paradoxically enough, though he keeps his religious beliefs a private matter, his tactical acumen revels in drawing inspiration from Native-American history, partly a result of his fascination with archeology. He also occasionally draws some wisdom from his father’s recounting of Native-American folklore, his most memorable one being the parable of “the Fox and the Scorpion”.
Chakotay’s relationships with his fellow Voyager crewmembers are… diverse. His hatred of Nick Locarno has already been noted. His fellow Maquis member and current Chief Engineer, B’Elanna Torres, is a longtime and dependable friend, but they still frequently butt heads and get into heated arguments over ship protocol and regulations (especially in regards to Captain Janeway’s… borderline insanity at times). Speaking of Janeway, Chakotay is the straight man to his captain’s increasingly-erratic eccentricities, and is continually exasperated and distressed at whatever cockamamie scheme Janeway plans to employ this week. He tries his best to rein her in, but often fails to Janeway’s stubbornness, to his irritation. To this end he often employs Lt. Commander Tuvok in his efforts to curb Janeway’s excesses. His opinion of Tuvok is mixed: on the one hand, he is aggravated that Tuvok turned out to be a Starfleet spy during his time aboard the Val Jean; on the other hand, the Vulcan is exceptionally competent and efficient, despite being rather… cold and calculating even for a Vulcan. So all things considered, Chakotay and Tuvok maintain a professional working relationship, and don’t really interact much outside of work. Ensign Harry Kim, however, he just feels pity for and ignores him as much as possible, except when to reel back Janeway’s abuse of the poor sod.
What may be his most significant relationship, however, is with Seska, who he for a while entertained some romantic interest in her, before it was eventually revealed she was actually a Cardassian in disguise, and an Obsidian Order agent to boot – which came as a particular shock to Chakotay, who later sarcastically asked whether or not there was anybody on the Val Jean who was actually working for him. Working with Seska after the reveal turned out to be a particularly difficult challenge for him, given his own opinion that they should’ve just shot her dead instead of taking her back alive and imprisoning her. Seska’s frequent mockery of him doesn’t help matters either.
Harry Kim wrote: “Poor, dumb Harry” – that one statement sums up the man known as Harry Kim. A newbie Starfleet ensign straight out of the Academy, Harry Kim has all the hallmarks of one: naive, idealistic, gullible, and so far out of his depth.
Having been raised by overly-protective parents and having a rather sheltered childhood on Earth, Harry Kim grew up knowing virtually nothing of life outside of the utopian society that is 24th century Earth. Thus, wanting to make his parents proud and add some adventure to his life (though not too much, he was raised prim and proper!), he decided to enroll in Starfleet Academy in 2366, aspiring to eventually land a position on a starship (hopefully one that stayed close to home, he wasn’t that eager for excitement). For the next four years of Academy life, Harry Kim worked hard and tirelessly in his studies, becoming valedictorian in his class and receiving top marks in all of his courses (with the exception of anything to do with Earth History, which he was infamously terrible at). Of course, this resulted in him having nearly zero active social life – despite his friendly demeanor toward everyone – which earned him mocking derision from his peers behind his back, having been nicknamed “momma’s boy”, “teacher’s pet”, and most notably “poor, dumb Harry” (no one, however, ever made fun of him to his face, having too much pity for the nice idiot).
Upon graduating in 2370, newly-commissioned Ensign Harry Kim received his first posting on Earth Space-Dock One, a simple and quiet shakedown position as a minor Operations officer in one of the many subsections in the bowels of the station. Over the next year, Harry Kim proved to be quite competent and capable in his assigned duties, though his social standing improved little with his new co-workers: an incredible suck-up to his superior officers, far too eager to please, astoundingly gullible enough to fall for numerous pranks, and visiting his parents far too often when given shore leave, the nicknames given to him unknowingly back in the Academy followed him into his Starfleet career. Not that he ever learned of it, though: Harry remained oblivious throughout all of it, having yet to learn the harsh reality that is real life – this lesson, unfortunately for him, he’ll be learning when he was assigned to the USS Voyager in 2371.
Harry’s string of bad luck starts off when he first steps onto DS9’s Promenade: instead of the usual cordialness he received when meeting people back home, he is met with open scorn and contempt from everyone he ran into (both figuratively and literally), and at one point is almost brazenly scammed by the Ferengi bar owner Quark, were it not for the timely intervention of Nick Locarno (who was still using the alias of “Tom Paris”). The two of them immediately struck up a friendship – though in Harry’s case out of genuine appreciation, while Locarno did it out of concerned pity for the hapless softy. Things really started going downhill for Harry upon boarding the USS Voyager and meeting his new boss, Captain Janeway: within the first 15 minutes of meeting him, Janeway took an instant disliking to the newbie goldshirt, resolving to make his time aboard Voyager as miserable as possible. His service aboard Voyager would turn out to be a very long time, as soon after Voyager departed DS9 to carry out its mission to apprehend the Maquis ship Val Jean, they were dragged 70,000 light-years into the Delta Quadrant by an alien force.
To be Harry Kim is suffering. Though friendly like a dog to others, deep down he has an incredibly screwed-up psyche: his sheltered childhood under his overbearing and overprotective parents resulted in him becoming unhealthily attached to authority figures (practically a borderline Oedipus complex). Consequentially, he is also an incredible wimp, a pansy and doormat who folds under the slightest push over. Combined with Kathryn Janeway’s own neurotic psychoses, it is a recipe for an abusive working relationship: his every attempt at brownnosing results in him verbally slapped; his hard work ethic exploited for purposely impossible tasks to humiliate him; his deference to authority taken advantage of for petty favors; his ignorance and naiveté of the realities of starship life thoroughly mocked and sneered at openly. This mistreatment only expands when B’Elanna Torres – and later on, Seven of Nine – join the crew.
Harry’s other relationships aren’t any better: having spent so much of his time in school and later on in the Academy being a studious little bookworm, Harry Kim has had few real friendships in his life, and even fewer romantic interests. The only two romantically-inclined encounters he ever had was 1) George Mathers, his gay first roommate at the Academy, who had a crush on Harry but later moved out due to Harry never noticing (on account of him being too focused on schoolwork), and 2) Libby, a girl he ended up meeting at a Ktarian music festival, whom he only dated because of egging from his parents (his focus on schoolwork also prevented him from having much contact or interest in her). As a result, Harry never had any real grasp on love, leaving him very sexually confused as time went on aboard Voyager – numerous awkward and embarrassing incidents at his expense become a running joke with the ship’s crew. His confusion is most evident with his friendship with Nick Locarno, his only real friend aboard Voyager; due to how much time they spend together (and how many compromising mishaps occur between the two), the most prominent joke with the crew is of the Harry/Locarno “bromance”. The fact that Harry plays the clarinet with him does not help matters.
With all the above misfortunes that Harry suffers, along with the traumatizing future events to happen (among them being killed, infected with alien cells, captured and imprisoned, killed again, repeatedly mind-screwed, forced through temporal-warfare hell, killed yet again, etc.), it’s not a matter of if, but when he eventually snaps.
Nick Locarno wrote: Nick Locarno was a disgraced Starfleet Academy cadet who was expelled after a flight accident where one of his classmates was killed; he attempted to cover up the actual cause of the accident until Wesley Crusher (another classmate of his) revealed the truth, where he then came clean and took the blame for the tragedy. Now expelled and his future career in shambles, Locarno began drifting across the Federation going from one small job to another, going by the alias "Tom Paris" in an attempt to hide his identity and begin a new life. He eventually was hired by the Maquis for a smuggling operation around Dorvan V, home to a Native American colony. There he met Maquis member Chakotay, a former Starfleet officer; seeing through Locarno's false identity, they immediately came to hate each other.
Locarno's stint of working with the Maquis was short-lived, however, as news of the Maquis operation around Dorvan V came to the attention of Starfleet - and more specifically, Admiral Owen Paris. Admiral Paris was overjoyed to hear that his son, Tom Paris - who had dissappeared at some point a few years before - was alive and well, and ordered that he be recovered and the Dorvan V smuggling operation dismantled. The operation was swift: soon after the Maquis operation at Dorvan V was quickly scattered, and Chakotay with the Val Jean fled; "Tom Paris" himself captured after he ratted out his former Maquis partners. Admiral Paris's hopes of seeing his long-lost son again were soon dashed, however, upon learning of "Tom Paris's" real identity of being Nick Locarno. Furious at both the deception and seeing the infamous disgraced cadet brought before him, Admiral Paris had Locarno thrown into prison.
Locarno's luck took a turn for the better (or worse, depending on point of view) when Captain Janeway offered him a chance of freedom: in exchange for assisting in tracking down the Val Jean, Locarno will recieve a cut sentence and leniency. Not seeing much other options (or what misery waited in store for him) Locarno grudgingly accepts. He was then yanked out of prison and placed in Janeway's custody on the USS Voyager for the duration of the mission.
Formerly a cocky, confident, hot-shot pilot trainee, Locarno has become bitter and cynical thanks to his long string of bad luck and worse life choices. The events of his life tracing back to his one biggest mistake, Locarno regrets ever attempting the stunt that cost him his future career. With the Academy incident being a high-profile case, virtually few people have not heard of him and his involvement, and thus Locarno recieves thinly-veiled (if not open) contempt from his peers and Voyager crewmates. He and Chakotay have an open hatred of each other because of this, and Captain Janeway uses it to belittle and mock him (and occasionally blackmail him with) whenever she feels like doing so; about the only person where he has any real friendship with is Ensign Harry Kim, a naive and idealistic newbie who (somehow) has not heard of the Nova Squadron Tragedy, and thus has no preconception and prejudice against Locarno.
(OOC: In this Voyager reboot, Locarno is used as was originally intended before they decided against paying the royalties for using him. As for the Harry/Locarno!Paris relationship: think of the Griff/Simmons dynamic from Red vs. Blue... and a bit of SF Debris' gay humor as well.)
Tuvok wrote: When asked to describe Tuvok, most people would say that he’s a typical Vulcan: stoic, unemotional, and unfailingly logical. His fellow Voyager crewmates, on the other hand, all subscribe to the words of Nick Locarno: “He’s the coldest son-of-a-bitch you’ll ever meet… which is ironic considering he’s from a scorching desert hell-world.” While Locarno’s statement is inaccurate in regards to Tuvok’s home planet, it is accurate in regards to his personality: that of a cold, icy demeanor that chills the hearts of everybody in the room, his every word frosted with ruthless, cold-blooded pragmatism. Tuvok is a man not to be crossed, lest one falls through into the icy abyss of his cruelty.
Born on the Vulcanis Lunar colony in 2264, Tuvok grew up the same as any Vulcan youth did: rebellious, passionate, and temperamental, but soon enough immersed in the Vulcan traditions of Surakian logic and philosophy. Spending several months in isolation with a Vulcan monastic master learning to control and compose his emotions, before surviving in the Vulcan desert for four months as part of his tal’oth coming-of-age ritual, Tuvok eventually entered Starfleet Academy in 2289 at age 25, reluctantly at his parents’ insistence. Despite his personal objections, Tuvok nonetheless felt obligated to satisfy his parents’ wishes – something that he would come to regret during his time at the Academy.
His four years at the Academy were incredibly frustrating to Tuvok, who could not stand being around humans, their egocentric nature and irrational behavior a continual strain to endure. His Academy experiences soured him to pursuing a scientific career path, finding that cooperating with his fellow students to be an exercise in futility, more often than not ignoring his strict and regimented research methodology, instead pursuing more offbeat and unconventional approaches to their assignments… to the praise of the instructors, leaving him indignant.
Upon graduating in 2293, Tuvok was soon assigned a junior science officer to the USS Excelsior, under the command of Captain Hikaru Sulu, a veteran of the original USS Enterprise. Two months later, the USS Excelsior attempted to rescue Captain James T. Kirk and Doctor Leonard McCoy from the Klingon penal colony of Rura Penthe, despite direct orders from Starfleet Command that no rescue attempt should be tried. Tuvok protested the breach of orders to Captain Sulu, but to no avail. The incident further soured Tuvok’s opinions of humans, and after completing his tour of duty aboard the Excelsior after its three-year mission exploring the Beta Quadrant, he resigned his Starfleet commission in 2296 and returned to Vulcan. Decades later, he would privately admit that he was not necessarily correct about his protests in hindsight.
Tuvok spent his time back on Vulcan teaching archery at the Vulcan Institute for Defensive Arts, before secluding himself for several years studying the kolinahr. He eventually came to meet a Vulcan woman named T’Pel, and marries her in 2304, having four children: three sons, Sek, Varith, and Elieth, and one daughter, Asil. Over the years raising his children with his wife, Tuvok came to realize what his own parents went through in raising him, and that he did not always make the correct decisions when he was young. As a result, after a fifty-year absence, he decided to return to Starfleet in 2349.
However, he did not return to the sciences as he was originally intended for by his parents; instead, he enlisted under the tactical and security branches, finding those fields much more suited to his abilities. The rigid orderliness and discipline appealed greatly to the logic-driven Vulcan, and after serving a tour aboard the USS Wyoming as an ensign, he proceeded to become a security training instructor at Starfleet Academy for sixteen years, where he gained a reputation of excellence and efficiency from the senior administrative staff… and one of fear and terror from those students he taught.
He eventually crossed paths with Kathryn Janeway, who would one day become his commanding officer aboard the USS Voyager. It was a fateful meeting in 2356, when he dressed her down in front of three Starfleet admirals for failing to observe proper tactical procedures during her first command. The incident humiliated Janeway, and wounded her massive ego – but oddly enough, it did not add Tuvok to her list of hated enemies: instead, she was impressed by his audacity to confront her like that, knowing what sort of reputation she has. Since then, she added Tuvok to her small circle of ‘friends’ (more like confidants)… though it took until 2365 for her to finally start listening to his advice.
Eventually, in 2371 Tuvok received orders to infiltrate the Maquis raider the Val Jean, commanded by Maquis cell leader (and former Starfleet officer) Chakotay. During the few short months he was aboard, Tuvok performed his duties of spying on the Maquis rebels, meticulously detailing their every movement, while never being suspected of treachery by his fellow crewmates. It was Tuvok’s intelligence that tipped off Admiral Paris of the Dorvan V smuggling operation, and of the presence of “Tom Paris” (in reality Nick Locarno under an assumed alias), and as a result, the impetus behind the swift destruction of the Maquis operation, though the Val Jean managed to escape with Tuvok still onboard.
It was when the Val Jean fled into the Badlands that Tuvok was subsequently thrown into the Delta Quadrant, along with his Maquis associates. Soon after, the USS Voyager, which was assigned to search for the missing Val Jean, was also dragged into the Delta Quadrant by the Caretaker’s Array – reuniting Tuvok with his ship and Captain… much to Chakotay’s dismay, who was incensed that Tuvok was a Federation spy the whole time and he did not detect it. From then on, Tuvok served aboard Voyager as Captain Janeway’s second officer and chief of security and tactical… much to the terror of everyone on board.
Tuvok is a complete enigma to the crew of the starship Voyager, as the Vulcan was not one for small talk, and always kept a stern, professional presence at all times. What is not hard to decipher, though, is his clear and open contempt of every human aboard the ship, his experiences from his first tour of duty in Starfleet still present after all these years. The two people he was most contemptuous of, by far, were Nick Locarno and Harry Kim: the former, for being a disgrace to the uniform and a perfect example of the failings of human egotism; and the latter, for being so utterly pathetic and naïve, a living tribute to human frailty. Tuvok takes every chance he gets in disciplining Locarno, and revels in humiliating Harry Kim in the Vulcan game of kal-toh, which Kim has never been able to beat him at.
The only two humans he has any real respect for aboard Voyager are its captain and commander themselves: Kathryn Janeway, and Chakotay. Tuvok’s relationship with Janeway is… strange, to put it lightly – by all reasonable measures, Janeway should be the one person Tuvok hates the most, given her abrasive personality and suspicious career record (and her growing insanity, over the course of the journey home); instead, though, he tolerates her eccentrics and more-often-than-not assists in her endeavors… though not without moderating her decision process with his expert advice. A common conspiracy theory among the crew is that Tuvok realizes Janeway’s skill in unleashing disaster upon those who cross her, and that he wishes to exploit this to the Federation’s advantage by directing her towards its enemies.
Chakotay, on the other hand, receives much more genuine respect from Tuvok, who sees Chakotay as reasonable, competent, intelligent, and an example of humanity’s more positive traits (as few there are, in Tuvok’s mind). While Tuvok is not in the business of making friends, he maintains a congenial and professional working relationship with Chakotay, willing to assist in Chakotay’s efforts to curb the excesses of their Captain.
Above all, though, the one person he holds true, absolute hatred and irritation for is: Neelix, the Talaxian freeloader who has taken up residence aboard Voyager. Ever since “the Hedgehog” stepped aboard the ship, Tuvok was continually besieged by the annoying Talaxian, who went by any lengths to try to befriend the Vulcan… only to fail repeatedly. His bubbly, happy, cloyingly upbeat personality only drives Tuvok up the wall, and sinks him deeper into the icy abyss of loathing antipathy. Even after learning of Neelix’s history of PTSD, Tuvok remains disgusted by the Talaxian (not only by his smell… and madness-inducing pheromones), but also by his cowardice and uselessness. The highest running bet among the crew places Tuvok as the one to finally strangle Neelix in a fit of irascible rage.
Aside from Tuvok’s (lack of) friendships, he is a competent and diligent security and tactical officer, unerring in his efficiency and accuracy (to the crew’s dismay, never to be able to get away with anything). One thing of particular note is that, unbeknownst to most others, Tuvok actually took several courses in intelligence work alongside his tactical and security training courses in the Academy; as a result, Tuvok is an utmost expert in knowing how to effectively lie and deceive… along with knowing how to detect if someone is lying. Combined with his skills in deductive reasoning and crime-scene investigation, Tuvok makes for an excellent detective, as well as exceptional defense counsel and prosecution if the situation calls for it (in fact, this is what inspired his daughter Asil to become a police detective on Vulcan).
Finally, along with being a devoted husband and father, his personal interests include the Vulcan lute, playing kal-toh, practicing various martial arts, meditating, and orchid-breeding (for which he was a prize-winning champion, having developed a new breed of Vulcan favinit plant, which he created by taking the favinit plant itself and grafting it together with a South American flower from Earth).
B'Elanna Torres wrote: If you ask nearly anyone on the USS Voyager to describe B’Elanna Torres, the most immediate answer they will give you is “oh, you mean the engineer who couldn’t identify shit even with a tricorder?” – A common misconception that became a mocking and derisive meme among much of the crew… one that should best be said outside of her earshot, lest she proceed to beat you to death with a big heavy wrench. Short-tempered and irritable, she does not suffer ridicule lightly, especially towards her intelligence. Rule #1 of Voyager’s Main Engineering: Do Not Cross B’Elanna Torres.
Born on the Federation colony Kessik IV of the Kessik system, in the Kessik Sector (an unimaginatively redundant name), she was a half-Klingon, half-human daughter of her human father, John Torres, and her Klingon mother, Miral. Despite the inter-species marriage, Federation and Klingon relations at the time weren’t exactly “cordial”, so for much of her early life living on Kessik IV, B’Elanna and her mother were the only Klingons living on the planet. This was not a particularly healthy environment for a hybrid child to grow up in, given the Kessik system’s status as basically “out in the Boonies of the Federation” – the other colonists on the planet were hardly as ‘enlightened’ as their core-world counterparts, which resulted in an atmosphere of tension and uneasiness, something that only grew as B’Elanna grew older.
B’Elanna’s alienation and insecurities had their roots during her early kindergarten years, being teased of her appearance as a result of her Klingon heritage. One particular incident involved a bully named Daniel Byrd, who tormented her constantly by laughing at her cranial ridges and name-calling her “Miss Turtlehead”. She was so angered by the constant insults that one day she had enough, and during recess she sabotaged the gyro-swing that Daniel was playing on, causing him to spin around so fast that he was catapulted off and thrown several feet away, whereby B’Elanna proceeded to pound his face in, which went on until their teacher forcibly separated them. This early incident demonstrated two things about the young B’Elanna: one, she can be brutally violent when pushed hard enough; and two, even at a young age, she demonstrated unusually-high technical aptitude, given her skill in disabling the gyro-swing’s centrifuge limiter (which should’ve been a difficult task for a child to pull off).
Between ages five through twelve, B’Elanna’s family life underwent complete implosion: her three cousins, Elizabeth, Dean, and Michael Torres, persistently tormented her during camping trips with her father and her uncle Carl; Carl Torres himself was not particularly fond of Klingons either, and got often got into arguments with his brother John over his marriage to Miral. B’Elanna’s maternal grandmother L’Nann dying when she was six only deepened the divide, when Miral punched Carl when he inadvertently insulted her during the funeral. This further strained John and Carl’s relationship, and was the start of John and Miral’s own gradual separation. John’s own mother harassed him about his marriage, deriding him for believing “that he even had what it took to love a Klingon”, and with his troubles keeping up with his own half-Klingon daughter, the seeds of doubt were planted within his mind. John and Miral’s relationship would continue to degrade, as John grew more and more distant with his wife and daughter, and Miral became ever more overbearing and wearisome.
Things finally reached the breaking point at age twelve, when B’Elanna went on one last camping trip with her father, uncle, and cousins: during the middle of the night, she overheard her father confessing his frustrations with his brother Carl, complaining that it was getting harder and harder to live with Miral, and his own daughter was taking after her mother’s angry and moody behavior. Upon hearing this, B’Elanna grew furious and got out of her tent to yell at her father, eventually cumulating in her saying “If you can't handle it any more, why don't you just leave!” …Which was exactly what he did twelve days later: John Torres left Kessik IV, abandoning his family, never to see them again. The experience was a scarring one for B'Elanna: for months after, she cried herself to sleep every night, blaming both herself and her Klingon parentage for her father’s leaving. With John gone, Miral decided to try moving back to the Klingon homeworld of Qo’noS – but B’Elanna refused to go along, wanting nothing to do with anything Klingon-related. Her stubbornness persisted for the next five years, until she became seventeen years old, getting into one final fight with her mother; fed up with her daughter’s obstinacy, Miral simply left on her own for Qo’noS, leaving B’Elanna behind alone. B’Elanna on her part decided to join Starfleet Academy, leaving Kessik IV herself with no desire to come back ever.
B’Elanna Torres’ attendance at Starfleet Academy starting in 2367 was a mixed bag: while she was a member of the Academy’s decathlon team, and proved herself highly skilled in mechanics and engineering, she was nonetheless again the target of bullying and ridicule. Despite her high marks in starship engineering and warp-field dynamics, she was slandered by her classmates as “simplistic”, “brutish”, “incapable of conceiving solutions beyond using brute-force”; while there was a grain of truth to these insults, as she did indeed (one more than one occasion) resorted to the tactic of “percussive maintenance” (i.e. hitting things with a crowbar until it worked again), it nevertheless still worked, and she just as often attempted ever more inventive – and outlandish – solutions to engineering problems in an effort to prove her naysayers wrong about her intelligence.
Unfortunately, bigotry was the realm of the willfully ignorant, thus B’Elanna still was subjected to insipid ridicule of her talents, and as a result got into constant numerous fights with her antagonistic classmates – she even managed to start a brawl in Astrotheory 101 of all things – leading to at least four disciplinary hearings and one outright suspension. Despite her brilliance, it was just too much for her to handle in the end, and after only two years in the Academy heading towards an engineering specialty, dropped out at the age of 19. One of her own instructors, Professor Chapman, even stated disappointment at her departure; despite their frequent arguments, he considered her one of his finest students.
Dropping out did nothing to silence the mockery that B’Elanna endured: now disgraced as an Academy dropout, she was forced to take a job as a engine mechanic on a civilian freighter headed out to the Federation-Cardassian DMZ; this decision turned out to be a fateful one, as the freighter was almost forcibly impounded by an overzealous Cardassian patrol ship looking for an excuse to cause some grief. As the freighter was on the verge of being boarded by the Cardassian ship’s impatient captain, the cargo vessel was saved by the appearance of several Maquis raiders, led by the Val Jean. With some convincing from the Val Jean’s leader, former Starfleet officer Chakotay, B’Elanna Torres decided to join up with the Maquis, out of her desire to take out her life’s frustrations on the Cardassians.
Together with Chakotay, along with a fellow Maquis member named Seska, B’Elanna spent the rest of 2370 committing terrorism against the Cardassians while serving aboard the Val Jean. Relishing the outlet for her violent tendencies and self-loathing, B’Elanna grew very, very skilled in producing ad-hoc repairs on the junk freighter’s obsolete engines, along with fashioning a variety of tricks and ruses to outsmart Cardassian patrols. Still, even being with the Maquis, B’Elanna didn’t quite fit in: while the Maquis hardly discriminated much at all (if you hated Cardassians, and were willing and able to kill them, you were good enough for them) even they looked down on Academy dropouts – either for moral reasons (distaste for not following through with commitments), or for practical ones (not being an Academy graduate meant you weren’t as skilled as you should be in aiding the cause).
Things began going downhill when Chakotay made the mistake of recruiting Nick Locarno (who was hiding under the guise of ‘Tom Paris’): like Chakotay, B’Elanna knew who Locarno really was, having heard of the Nova Squadron Tragedy soon after she dropped out from the Academy. She couldn’t stand to be around him, the former pilot’s fractured ego and his shameful conduct leading to his expulsion being more than enough reason to avoid being in the same room as him onboard the Val Jean. Her distaste was not entirely unfounded, as when a Starfleet anti-piracy flotilla busted the Val Jean’s Dorvan V smuggling operation, Locarno went turncoat and ratted out his Maquis associates; the betrayal enraged B’Elanna, more than enough to make her swear that she will kill him the next time she saw him. Of course, fate believed itself amusing, given that not long after, the Val Jean was pulled into the Delta Quadrant by an unknown force, with the USS Voyager following them only a few days later… where it just so happened that Nick Locarno was aboard as well. The rest, they say, is history.
B’Elanna Torres is a walking demonstration of Freudian psychology: much of her anger issues and inferiority complexes stem from her horrendously broken relationships with her parents; though her father was placed on a broken pedestal, she scorned her Klingon lineage and outright disowned her mother, and she constantly went to great lengths to change her appearance to look more human. She covered up these insecurities with simple blunt rage and violence, punching the lights out of anyone who slighted her in any fashion; at the same time, she blamed her violent streak on her Klingon genetics, using that as an excuse to project all her troubles on her mother. As a result, she has only token knowledge or connection to Klingon culture or society, and she remains perfectly fine with that; as far as she cares, it has nothing to do with her.
Her relationships with her crewmates aboard the USS Voyager are… mostly what one would expect – hostile. B’Elanna despises Harry Kim, finding his stable and (somewhat) healthy relationship with his parents to be disgustingly offensive to her, and she continually bullies and abuses Harry as a means of revenge (the fact that the poor idiot was completely oblivious to their shared attendance at the Academy – however short-lived and tangential it was – is another justification she uses at times). Her friendship with Maquis comrade Seska – as vitriol-filled as it was – was shattered upon the discovery that Seska was really a Cardassian spy in disguise, and B’Elanna underwent a complete 180-reversal in response to the revelation, coming to completely loathe the Cardassian (both for being a traitor, and for being a bitch in general). She regards Tuvok with paranoia and suspicion, given that he was also a spy for Starfleet Intelligence, and is outright unnerved by the Vulcan’s cold-heartedness. Her hatred of Neelix hardly needs much explanation, given that virtually everybody else on the ship shares in her hatred of the Talaxian.
Of the crew, B’Elanna has only a few true friends: her longtime Maquis superior, Chakotay, remains a trusted and dependable friend, despite continuing to have the occasional argument or fight about ship protocol (Captain Janeway’s instability notwithstanding). Her friendship with fellow engineering officer Lindsay Ballard, on the other hand, is almost remarkable in its civility: Ballard’s sarcastic streak manages to complement (perhaps almost moderate) B’Elanna’s furious outbursts, saving many a hapless engineer from a potential wayward wrench to the head; even after Ballard’s death-and-resurrection as Jhet’laya, they continued to remain amicable co-workers. Most surprising of all, however, is her relationship with Nick Locarno: in spite of their mutual animosity (i.e. B’Elanna’s vow to kill him for his betrayal), being forced to work together has made them, over time, grow to tolerate each other, and – after quite the up-and-down rollercoaster ride – come to like, even love, each other, finding themselves sort of ‘kindred spirits’ given their ostracism from Starfleet Academy.
Of particular note, though, is B’Elanna Torres’ association with former Borg drone Seven of Nine: while B’Elanna held the former drone in contempt with her perfectionism, obsession with efficiency, and her Borg-centered ‘holier than thou’ attitudes, B’Elanna eventually came to tolerate Seven, respecting her technical skills on a professional level, and after undergoing her own experiences being assimilated as a Borg drone (under the designation Twelve of Fourteen), found herself sympathizing with the ex-Borg on a more personal level as well.
Lastly, my first attempt at writing an episode: Arming the Mob! https://forums.spacebattles.com/threads ... t-18756285 (Linking it here since copying it here would make this post even longer than it already is.)Neelix wrote: If there was one thing that everyone on the USS Voyager could agree on, it was this: they all hated Neelix. Given the mocking nickname “the Hedgehog” in reference to his facial hair, Neelix has been described as irritating, repulsive, and most of all an idiotic buffoon. It was a wonder how he managed to remain onboard at all, given how few people even tolerated him during the journey across the Delta Quadrant. Despite what little respect he had, though, the crew wouldn’t have made it as far as they did without him… much as they are loath to admit it.
Neelix was born and raised on the Talaxian homeworld of Talax Prime, and had a fairly normal childhood, with loving parents and siblings and other family members… up until his early adult years: by which point he would lose everything he cherished.
The Talaxians, as a species, were fairly spread-out and well-known across the Delta Quadrant as merchants and traders – and were not well-liked by its denizens, especially their closest neighbors, the Hakkonians. Considered pests and nuisances, they were nonetheless adept at creating an expansive trade network – largely in part thanks to a peculiar evolutionary trait of theirs: the secretion of psychotropic and hallucinogenic pheromones, that caused increased irrationality, mood alteration, and recklessness in those affected, which the Talaxians expertly and ruthlessly exploited to their advantage.
Unfortunately for them, their widespread presence across the quadrant, along with continual exposure to the pheromones over the centuries, resulted in nearly every species in the quadrant becoming practically immune to its effects… which turned out to be bad thing for the Talaxian societal elites, who were planning to turn their trade empire into an actual empire… which was right around when a young-adult Neelix got entangled in a pro-war demonstration turned ugly.
Neelix was among the dozens that were arrested during the debacle, in which sixteen people died, among the dead being an anti-war protester being beaten and tortured to death by some of the pro-war demonstrators (who were also among those arrested). The whole affair took weeks to be fully sorted out, leaving Neelix stuck in police custody during the opening stages of the Talaxian-Hakkonian War.
Nobody quite remembers how the war started, or who started it, but at the time nobody really cared either way, since both the Talaxians and the Hakkonians were quite eager to fight it to the finish… except for a small minority, including the incarcerated Neelix, who, after being released from jail for the protest incident, immediately tried to dodge the draft that was imposed when the war officially began… and was promptly arrested again, before being carted off to the front lines.
For six long years, the Talaxians and Hakkonians fought viciously and atrociously with other, hundreds upon thousands of soldiers on both sides left bleeding and dying for no discernable cause. And amidst the crossfire, Neelix was stuck in the middle, forced into fighting for his life while watching his fellow soldiers die horribly in front of him. It was far too much for a young man entering the prime of his life to take, and he made several attempts at desertion, only to fail and be caught again every time. It was his final attempt to go AWOL that landed him court-martialed and shipped back home to Talax, barely escaping summary execution thanks to being diagnosed as suffering post-traumatic stress disorder.
It was during his stay at a military prison hospital, recovering from his experiences and awaiting proper sentencing, that he would lay witness to the event that would end the war: an atrocity that would kill 30 million Talaxians, among them being Neelix’s entire family. In a desperate last bid for victory, the Hakkonians deployed a weapon called the Metreon Cascade, developed by a renowned scientist named Jetrel, who originally was trying to develop a new means of terraforming – but instead created a bomb that virtually destroyed the Talaxian moon of Rainax, vaporizing all the 300,000 inhabitants within the initial blast zone, and irradiating the rest of the moon, leaving it a dead, barren husk, as the remaining 29.7 million inhabitants were left to die a slow, painful, horrible death by radiation poisoning in the coming weeks.
As abominable the attack was, it was successful in its goal: the Talaxian high command capitulated almost immediately due to the staggering loss of life, and surrendered to the Hakkonians, who swiftly came in and occupied Talax Prime, finally ending the war. As for Neelix, he was soon released from the prison hospital, essentially a free man, due to the government collapsing soon after the declaration of surrender was announced… but that was little comfort to the man who just lost his entire family, after having fought for years in a pointless, futile war.
The Talaxian people were left scattered to the four winds, forced into an exodus from their own homeworld after having their dreams of empire crushed, much to the gleeful satisfaction of the entire quadrant, who had long wished to see them put into their place as the nuisance they are. Among the many refugees fleeing Talax, Neelix was left a broken man, having lost everything dear to him, and so shortly after becoming a full contributing citizen to society.
For fifteen years, Neelix made ends meet as a drifter, hauling garbage, scavenging for parts off of derelict starships, and engaging in (largely illicit) trade across the backwater region known as the Periphery. Bullied and harassed by the local Kazon thugs, Neelix was a miserable excuse of a man with nothing to live for… until he stumbled across the planet known as “Caretaker’s Folly”: Ocampa. There, he met Kes, a young Ocampan girl who escaped to the surface of the world, having never seen the planet’s sun before… or any sort of alien life from outside the world either. Ecstatic at her discovery, she immediately struck up a friendship with Neelix, who, after years of aimless wandering and with no family left to speak of, was pleasantly surprised by the adventurous curiosity of the Ocampan girl… and said good feelings were ruined soon after, when the local Kazon gang managed to kidnap and enslave her.
However, refusing to let his first feelings of joy in years be taken away from him, Neelix resolved to rescue Kes from the Kazon ruffians. Unfortunately, though, he didn’t have much in the means of fighting off an entire horde of savage brutes, but luckily for him, there was a whole boneyard full of abandoned ships located nearby what was known as the Caretaker’s Array, orbiting just outside Ocampa’s own orbit around its star.
It would be here, searching for whatever he could find and use for his rescue attempt, that he would meet the USS Voyager, having been freshly plucked from the Alpha Quadrant half a galaxy away. From there, it’s history… much to the chagrin of the Voyager crew.
Personality-wise, Neelix is… quite the complicated conundrum. Among the crew, he is bubbly, cloyingly (and some may say annoyingly) happy and upbeat, constantly trying (and often failing) to cheer up everybody he comes across. In reality, however… he’s a nervous wreck. Having suffered years of PTSD with no proper treatment to speak of, and constant loneliness and isolation with no real interpersonal interaction, Neelix’s act of silly buffoonery is merely that: an act – so desperate for attention and communication, he overcompensates with his cheerful behavior, hoping that, aside from becoming the very mask he wears, it’ll allow him to remain onboard the ship, where he can at least remain somewhat useful for once in his life. Unfortunately, this very overcompensation is what drives his fellow shipmates up the wall in irritation. The fact that his Talaxian pheromones, being entirely new to the Alpha Quadrant foreigners, are also unknowingly driving them mad does not help matters.
Annoying personality traits aside, Neelix does at least have some level of competence in various fields: he recalls his survival training from his time as a soldier in the war (though he is rather rusty at it these days), and he still retains a love of cooking, something that is both a Talaxian societal trait, and a personal remembrance of happy days with his family. However, this latter skill of his is… widely debated among the Voyager crew: for while he is competent at cooking, he loves to experiment too much for his own good, and Talaxian tastes are… how you say… a bit too exotic for most other species. His time as a drifting space-bum has left him wholly inexperienced in proper cookware as well, as a lack of resources on his part had forced him to… improvise much of the time in order to eat. This comes to the aggravation of many of the Operations and Engineering staff, who have to clean up whatever mess Neelix makes in the process of his cooking.
Aside from the survival training and cooking skills, Neelix is also knowledgeable of much of the local politics and stellar cartography, having spent years crisscrossing the region making ends meet through smuggling and trading scrap. Though, this also counts as a downside, given that many aliens across the Delta Quadrant hate Talaxians, so any dealings that Neelix had to make during those years were short and terse, with little in the way of personal relations.
In short, Neelix, while practically skilled, is socially oblivious, for all intents and purposes a complete idiot who knows nothing of life aboard a Starfleet ship – let alone one as dysfunctional as the USS Voyager. Mere luck is what kept Neelix alive so far in his miserable life, but sooner or later that luck has to run out at some point, and running bets among the crew call for him to potentially meet his end via getting strangled to death by an annoyed crewmember pushed a bit too far.
I'd love to hear your thoughts and comments on this, fellow Trek and SFDebris fans! Enjoy!
EDIT 1: Sorry about the formatting, copying it from Spacebattles to here borked it up; XenForo is more what I'm used to (the forum board here could really use an upgrade to XenForo too, actually).
EDIT 2: Fixed the formatting to make it a bit neater.
EDIT 3: Fixed a minor formatting slipup. Also, a couple more VOY Rewrite snippets I've forgotten to link to as well:
https://forums.spacebattles.com/threads ... t-20922703
https://forums.spacebattles.com/threads ... t-20987322
You make some fair points, but hear me out here, okay? Some counterpoints I'd make:
Plus, the number 47 has been a running gag in Star Trek for ages, so it's strangely fitting here. The Hazard Team episodes are also silly episodes, but they're intentional tongue-in-cheek action segments meant to act as a breather for the serious stuff. In any case, the silly episodes are only a handful of the total number, with the Hazard Team and the AK-47 running gag only getting one episode every season. The rest will be taken (mostly) serious, with any humor being more in-setting, and driven more by character interaction than the sheer absurdity of the situation.
