star trek voyager journey timeline

5.1.1 Lost in the Delta Quadrant

5.1.2 Starting points

While Voyager's journey through the Delta Quadrant was considerably better documented than for instance the subdivision of the Galaxy or the structure of the Federation at the beginning, and was more simple and logical than many other parts of the Star Trek Cartography, in the meantime this journey have rather complicated due to numerous continuity problems, contradictions, but also new basis information. The latter fact has lead to the problem that concerning Voyager's journey, one cannot simply use 1000 ly/year regularly travel distance per year plus the leaps made in the course of the seven year journey any longer. How Rick Sternbach, the "keeper" of the official route of Voyager (that we unfortunately will not know exactly until the ST:VOY TM is published) recently remarked correctly, the distance of Sol to the Galactic core, the initial distance of Voyager from Earth and her bearing are decisive for a depiction of Voyager's journey. A further cornerstone of the Voyager cartography is also Voyager's average speed which has been officially fixed recently. However, the problem arises that all these "fixed values" aren't that fixed in the end. This even applies to the distance of Earth from the center of the Galaxy. Yet, I tried to use the most recent and least contradictious values.

5.1.3 Overview of the journey

5.1.4 Calculation of the momentary distance

While the above table of course only shows Voyager's distance to Earth for selected key events, it is also possible to determine a precise distance at any time by not deducting the yearly covered distance abruptly at the end of each year, but distributing it equally over the whole year. We then get the momentary distance by deducting the already travelled percentage of the yearly covered distance from  the appropriate table distance before the given stardate

For the calculation of Voyager's distance to Earth at a particular time (and therefore the distance of the regions of space crossed and the planets visited at this time etc.), you can use the following step-by-step instructions.

1. Look up the stardate of the episode, e.g. in the ST:VOY Guide .

Example: For [VOY] Message in a Bottle Stardate 51461.5

2. Choose a reference distance to Earth from the above table by comparing the stardate with the table stardates. Important: You have to ignore all yearly covered distances (Stardate xx0000-xx999)!

Example: Stardate 51461.5 is bigger than 51268 in 6., but smaller than 51978 in 8.; the  reference distance to Earth is therefore 62134 ly.

3. Beside the now following normal deduction of the percentage of the yearly covered distance (1), 2 special cases have to be considered: (2) in the first year (stardate 48317-48999), Voyager only travelled 300 ly, therefore the yearly distance being accordingly smaller, and (3) between stardate 51008 and 52619, a Borg correction factor has to bee added to the distance, because during this period of time, Voyager's journey became 2 years longer because of avoiding Borg space.

Example: Stardate 51461.5 is between 51008 and 52619, thus variant (2) has to be used. Enter the stardate and reference distance 62134 ly at (2) and click on the button to calculate the momentary distance of Voyager from Earth at this time.  

With the locations of Voyager's journey and a possibility to calculate her exact positions, we also know the positions of all planets visited by Voyager and the territories crossed by the ship. Consequently, the "official" Delta Quadrant is paradoxically much better known than the Alpha or Beta quadrants. Therefore, the following passages deal with the significant locations of the journey of the USS Voyager. Finally, at the end of the chapter a short prospect for the further course of the still continuing journey will be given.

5.1.5 The first year

Since the USS Voyager was taken to the Delta Quadrant by the Caretaker not before stardate 48317 (that is in April 2371), the first "year" of Voyager's journey covers only 683 stardate units or 249 days. Consequently, at an average speed of warp 6.2 (438c), Voyager can only travel 300 ly out of the usual 438 ly in 2371. With such a short annual distance, the galactic surroundings has to remain the same to a large extent during this first year - and indeed, Voyager stays the entire year in the sphere of influence of the Kazon-Ogla, Vidiians and Talaxians, who they contacted already in the first weeks in the Delta Quadrant.

5.1.6 The second year

During the second year of her journey, Voyager seems to get on as slowly as in the first year, still passing colonies of the Talaxians, Vidiians and Kazons (mainly Ogla and Nistrim, but also other sects). The reason for this congruence are the diverse delays and course deviations due to the fights with the Kazons, which make a lower speed than the average warp 6.2 and therefore a annual distance of less than 438 ly plausible. However, there were further events in this year that delayed the voyage home, what is proven by the following example  

Involuntary "shore leave"

Only after six weeks, during which Voyager kept on flying with normal speed and, according to Tuvok, covered 70 ly in this time, what corresponds to an average speed of warp 6.8 , Voyager has the opportunity to get a cure from the Vidiians. Although Tuvok set a speed of warp 6 after they escaped the Vidiian trap, it is unlikely that Voyager stayed at that speed for the whole time of the flight back to the planet, because then they would have needed a longer time than for the outward flight. Therefore, we can assume that it took Voyager between 3 weeks (at warp 8) and 5 weeks (at warp 7) to travel back to "New Earth". Using the first, more optimistic figure, the crew therefore loses 80 d all in all, what corresponds to a annual distance shortened by 95.998 ly at an average speed of warp 6.2. At the end of the episode, Captain Janeway resumed the course home at warp 8 in order to make up the lost time, but is this possible at all? Day 24 of the involuntary "shore leave" (probably counted without the 17d stasis) corresponds to stardate 49690.1 according to the episode, what places the resumption of the voyage home on stardate 49892.7 . In the remaining 107.3 stardate units or 39.1645d, Voyager could have indeed make up the lost distance of 95.998 ly with an average speed of nearly warp 8 ( warp 7.684 ) , and with an average speed of somewhat more than warp 8 ( Warp 8.66 ), she could additionally travelled the rest of the annual distance of 46.9974 ly that has still to be managed in the remaining time.

During her journey without captain and first officer, the crew has contact to the Vidiians for the last time, therefore Voyager definitely leaves the sphere of influence of this species. Provided that Voyager made first contact with the Vidiians on stardate 48532.4, their territory seems to cover at least 535 ly , although a large extension "above" Voyager's position at the time of first contact is not impossible.

5.1.7 The third year

Despite no large leaps and the usual annual distance of 438 ly, the third year is a year of changes for Voyager's journey. After two years, she finally leaves the known space populated by the Kazons and Vidiians and ventures to new, unknown regions of the Delta Quadrant.

Leaving Kazon space

Already just at the beginning of the year, on stardate 50032.7, the crew of Voyager has the last contact with the Kazon, what seems to imply that they finally leave their "territory" (better called the space dominated by the - nomadic - Kazon sects). It is unknown how far Kazon space extends "above" the Ocampa homeworld, where first contact were made by the crew of Voyager on stardate 48317. However, this planets seems to be located in the border zone rather than in the center of their space, which is dominated by more powerful sects than the Kazon-Ogla, for instance the Kazon-Nistrim. Regarding the space crossed by Voyager within the last 2 years (since the arrival in the Delta Quadrant on stardate 48317), this leads to a diameter of about 750 ly , what can be considerably less (using a lower  annual average speed of Voyager in the first year) or more (based on the assumption that Kazon space extends over several hundred light years above the Ocampa homeworld. A diameter of this magnitude seems to be plausible in view of the fact that the Kazon, being nomadic living traders and conquerors, must naturally populate a larger region of space, what necessarily means that every single planet within this territory must be in their hands, but that the region can have larger "gaps". At any rate, these extensions of the influence spheres of the Vidiians and Kazons support the low annual average speed of 6.2, since based on the maximum cruising speed of Voyager (warp 8 = 1000c), the territories of this rather insignificant species would cover 1500-2000 ly.  

The Barzan Wormhole

The territory of the Swarm

The Nekrit Expanse

The Nekrit Expanse is described as an extensive, not surveyed, instable region of space which is full of interstellar dust clouds and plasma storms, but contains only few planets. The expanse has a width of several thousand light years , but seems to be not very deep since Voyager can cross the region in relatively short time. She enters the Nekrit Expanse in "Fair Trade" and apparently already leaves it sometime between "Unity" and "The Darkling", because in the first episode, the expanse is explicitly mentioned (and shown), while in the latter one, with the arrival at the Mikhal outpost Voyager enters a completely new, unknown region of space, and the expanse does not play any part in the following episodes. Consequently, Voyager was definitely inside the Nekrit Expanse between stardate 50443 and 50654 - what results in a total time of 211 stardate units or 77d . If Voyager travelled only at an average speed of warp 6.2 during this two and a half months, then the expanse has a depth of 92.398 ly . However, it is more likely that Voyager travelled at a considerably faster speed during that time. In "Fair Trade", it was mentioned that there are only few planets within the expanse and Voyager loads all necessary supplies for the journey in this episode so that regular stops aren't necessary in the end. This assumption is confirmed by the small number of missions while they travelled through the expanse (visit of four planets). Therefore using the maximum cruising speed of Voyager - warp 8, we get a depth of 216.017 ly for the Nekrit Expanse, a figure, that is considerably more plausible in view of the large width and the ignorance of the people in the regions explored by the USS Voyager about the space behind the expanse. Based on a constant cruising speed of warp 8 and the stardates of the single episodes we can now calculate the distances of the visited planets and crossed regions within the Nekrit Expanse from the border of the expanse:

5.1.8 The forth year

The Mutara class nebula

Note : Because of the incorrect stardate calculation (2.7 days / unit instead of the correct 2.7 units / day) this episode overlaps with the next one, [VOY] Hope and Fear.

5.11 Conclusions

Summarizing, most episodes seem to confirm the calculated route of Voyager. However, there are countless possible variants that would roughly match with the distances given in the episodes. Surely the ST:VOY Technical Manual - should it ever be published - will show a completely other picture of the journey, but until then, the depicted table is as exact and "canon" as possible in view of the many variables that have to be taken into consideration and the many discrepancies and errors in the show itself. Concluding, the following table lists some of the congruences as well as the discrepancies of the calculated route and the actual distances mentioned in the series.

In the end, the last leap on stardate 53329 and the distance Voyager has bridge since then results in a distance of 30067 ly to Earth in the middle of season 7 (by stardate 54500), if the already covered part of the annual distance (219 of 438 ly) is included in the calculations. Consequently, at this time Voyager is only 1944 ly away from the border of the Delta Quadrant, using the revised distance of Earth from the Galactic core (25,800 ly). Hence, she will probably never reach the Beta Quadrant, which is inexplicably a taboo in Star Trek: Voyager, but will surely directly travel back to Earth (by slipstream, transwarp or whatever propulsion technology or powerful being) by the end of season 7, if the "policy of small leaps" of the recent episodes is kept up.

� 1999-2001 by Star Trek Dimension / Webmaster . Last update: February 14th, 2001

Memory Beta, non-canon Star Trek Wiki

A friendly reminder regarding spoilers ! At present the expanded Trek universe is in a period of major upheaval with the continuations of Discovery and Prodigy , the advent of new eras in gaming with the Star Trek Adventures RPG , Star Trek: Infinite and Star Trek Online , as well as other post-57th Anniversary publications such as the ongoing IDW Star Trek comic and spin-off Star Trek: Defiant . Therefore, please be courteous to other users who may not be aware of current developments by using the {{ spoiler }}, {{ spoilers }} OR {{ majorspoiler }} tags when adding new information from sources less than six months old (even if it is minor info). Also, please do not include details in the summary bar when editing pages and do not anticipate making additions relating to sources not yet in release. THANK YOU

• Memory Beta articles sourced from comics
• Missions and expeditions

Journey of the USS Voyager

• View history

From the year 2371 , the USS Voyager was under the command of Captain Kathryn Janeway . During her tenure as captain, Voyager was the first Federation starship to explore the Delta Quadrant . Voyager had major impact on the Delta Quadrant with first contact with new species, the Borg and other missions.

Voyager underwent a final inspection by Captain Janeway and Admiral Theoderich Patterson at Utopia Planitia . Janeway discusses her mission to find the Maquis under former Starfleet Commander Chakotay and her Chief of Security, Lieutenant Tuvok with Patterson. Voyager undertook a shakedown cruise near the Demilitarized Zone 's border. Unfortunately, Voyager 's bio-neural gel packs malfunction and Voyager had to be towed back to Utopia Planitia for repairs by the USS Hood under Captain Robert DeSoto .( VOY episode : " Relativity "; VOY - The Brave and the Bold novel : The Third Artifact )

• Stardate 48315.6-48317 Following the repairs at Utopia Planitia, Voyager traveled to Deep Space 9 for it's first official mission: to find the Maquis ship under Commander Chakotay near the Badlands following Gul Evek's attempt to purse the Val Jean near a plasma storm. Upon Voyager 's arrival at the badlands, the ship was scanned by a Coherent tetryon beam . A Displacement wave then took Voyager to the Delta Quadrant at a array built by a Nacene known as the Caretaker . The caretaker examine both Voyager 's and the maquis' DNA. He sent Ensigm Harry Kim and Maquis engineer B'Elanna Torres to be treated by the Ocampans . Voyager worked with Maquis to find their people on Ocampa V . They were succesful, but upon their return realized that the Caretaker was dying and the Kazon - Kazon-Ogla under Maje Jabin were trying to take control of the array. When the caretaker died, Janeway decided to destroy the array. Despite making enemies of the Kazon, Janeway invited the Maquis to join her crew and accepted Chakotay as her new XO .( VOY episode & novelization : Caretaker )
• Stardate 48975.1 Voyager discovers a 1936 Ford Pickup truck floating in space and later detects a SOS coming from a planet .( VOY episode : " The 37's ")

Voyager made contact with the Sky Spirits of the ancient Rubber Tree People and Chakotay's tribe . Despite their reluctance, the Spirits gave Voyager some of their Polyferranide to help continue their voyage home.( VOY episode : " Tattoo ")

• Stardate 49208.5 Voyager comes under attack by the Kazon-Nistrim under First Maje Culluh and his mistress Seska . They are successful in stealing a Transport module until Chakotay destroys it.( VOY episode : " Maneuvers ") Stardate 49640.1 Following a attack by the Kazon-Oglamar , Voyager travels to Praja for repairs.( VOY - Homeostasis comics : " Part One ", " The Conclusion ")
• Stardate 50312.5 Voyager encounters the USS Aeon under Captain Braxton , who claims that Voyager was responsible for the Sol system 's destruction in the 29th century . Janeway refused to believe Braxton and stopped his attempts to destroy Voyager . Unfortunately, the Aeon was thrown back in time to 1967 while Voyager arrived in 1996 .( VOY episode : " Future's End ") Stardate 51123.9-51124.8 Voyager is stranded at the planet Denar .( VOY - Relicquest comics : " Part One ", " Part Two ", " Conclusion ") Stardate 51126.3 Voyager becomes stranded in a place known as the Dead zone . ( VOY comic : " Dead Zone ") Stardate 50672.1 Voyager joins several Elessian ships in answering a distress call.( VOY - Leviathan comics : " Part One ", " Part Two ") Stardate 50798.5 Voyager travels to Thesskira for supplies.( VOY - Telepathy War comic : " Cloud Walkers ")
• Stardate 50984.3-51003.7 Voyager enters Borg space, encounters Species 8472 and are drawn into the borg's war . Janeway is succesful in negotiating a alliance with the Borg and forcing Species 84722 into returning to Fluidic space . However, the borg's liason, Seven of Nine is ordered by the Borg Collective to end their alliance and to assimilate the crew. However, Chakotay was able to disconnect Seven from the collective and resume their voyage through the Delta Quadrant.( VOY episode : " Scorpion ") Stardate 51019.3 Voyager answers a distress call from a Orsorian ship.( VOY - Survival of the Fittest comics : " Part One ", " Part Two ")

Voyager discovers the USS Equinox under Captain Rudolph Ransom attempting to Earth as well. They discover that Ransom and his crew are using Nucleogenic lifeforms to enhance their warp drive. Janeway attempts to put an end to Equinox 's experiments but Voyager is left under attack by the lifeforms. However, Janeway is able to convince the lifeforms to stop attacking Voyager by promising Equinox 's destruction. The Equinox , Ransom, and several of it's crew are killed when the lifeforms destroy the ship with Voyager 's help. The surviving Equinox crew join Voyager 's crew as crewman.( VOY episode & novelization : Equinox )

• Stardate 53167.9 Voyager discovers the Underspace and Vaadwaur Prime . There, Captain Janeway, Seven, and Tuvok make first contact with the Vaadwaur and forge a alliance with them against the Turei . However, the Vaadwaur attempt to take Voyager , but fail when the Turei bombard the surviving Vaadwaur. 53 Vaadwaur ships escape into the underspace's Subspace corridors .( VOY episode : " Dragon's Teeth ")

Voyager is able to re-establish contact with Starfleet and the Federation.( VOY episodes : " Pathfinder ", " Life Line ")

• Stardate 54014.4 Voyager later helps the borg of Unimatrix Zero resist the Borg Collective .( VOY episode : " Unimatrix Zero ")

Voyager is able to establish face-to-face contact with Starfleet and the Federation.( VOY episode : " Author, Author ")

Chronology [ ]

• 1 Ferengi Rules of Acquisition
• 2 The Chase
• 3 Preserver (race)

Den of Geek

Star Trek Voyager: An Episode Roadmap

Our viewing guide for Star Trek Voyager, if you want to get going quickly...

• Share on Facebook (opens in a new tab)
• Share on Twitter (opens in a new tab)
• Share on Linkedin (opens in a new tab)
• Share on email (opens in a new tab)

This article originally ran on Den of Geek UK .

Maps To TV Shows: Is there a popular show you’d really like to watch but you just don’t have time to wade through years of it all at once? Do you just want to know why that one character keeps turning up on Tumblr? Do the fans all tell you ‘season one is a bit iffy but stick with it, it gets great!’, leaving you with absolutely zero desire ever to watch the boring/silly/just plain weird season one? Then Maps To TV Shows is for you!

In these articles, we’ll outline routes through popular TV shows focusing on particular characters, story arcs or episode types. Are you really into the Klingon episodes of Star Trek: The Next Generation ? Do you want to get the overall gist of the aliens arc on The X-Files ? Or perhaps you’d rather avoid aliens and watch the highlights of their Monsters of the Week? Do you just want to know who that guy dressed like Constantine is? In these articles, we’ll provide you with a series of routes through long-running shows designed for new viewers so that you can tailor your journey through the very best TV has to offer. While skipping most of season one. It gets better.

N.B. Since part of the aim of these articles is to encourage new viewers, spoilers will be kept to a minimum. However, be aware that due to the nature of the piece, certain elements of world-building, bad guy-revelation, late character arrivals etc. will be spoiled, and looking at the details of one suggested ‘route’ may spoil another.

Ad – content continues below

Poor Voyager is probably Star Trek ’s least loved child overall. It competes with Enterprise for the dubious honour of the title Least Popular Series of Star Trek , and unlike Enterprise , it is rarely defended on the grounds of trying to do something interesting at some point its run or just starting to get good when it got cancelled. It also produced the only episode seriously considered as a rival to Spock’s Brain for the position of Worst Episode of Star Trek  Ever Made, and the fact it later produced two episodes that might be said to be even worse doesn’t really help its case.

Watch Star Trek: Voyager on Amazon Prime

However, Voyager is my personal favorite series of Star Trek . For all its many flaws, it offered a likeable set of characters who often didn’t seem to be taking any of it too seriously. It is, to date, the only Star Trek series with a female captain in the starring role, and for those of us of the feminine persuasion, that’s a draw (plus Kate Mulgrew’s Janeway is her own breed of awesome, even if she seems to change her mind about the Prime Directive from week to week). It boasted two talented actors in Robert Picardo and Jeri Ryan and made use of them – too much, perhaps, but if you’ve got it, flaunt it. The rest of the crew were also good actors when given good material, and pleasant company to be in on a weekly basis.

When I was growing up, we watched Voyager as a family (two teenagers, two parents) and everyone was able to enjoy it equally, while its episodic nature, so frustrating to those who preferred Deep Space Nine ’s more arc-based structure, was perfect for the four of us to relax with from week to week without worrying if we missed an episode. I also watched it with friends from school, and again, being able to jump around the series picking whichever episode we felt like watching without explaining a complicated arc to someone who hadn’t seen it before was a bonus. It’s purely a matter of personal taste, but some of us actually like episodic television.

I’m pretty sure I’ll never convince Voyager ’s detractors to see it in a fresh light, but for anyone who’d like to give the show a go to see if it was really as bad as all that, these suggested routes through the series may help. Alternatively, if you’re curious to see why the show has such a bad reputation (or if you hate Voyager and want to revel in how right you feel you are), there is a hate-watch route and for all that I love it, it had to be said, Voyager did produce some real stinkers in its day. Entertaining stinkers in some cases, at least!

Route 1: Honestly, this show is really good

There are a few of us for whom Voyager is our favourite series of Star Trek , and hopefully these episodes will show you why. Even season two produced some gems among what was, overall, a rather dull experience (one of Voyager ’s problems was that the first series featured the usual teething troubles, and the second series was really quite bad, which presumably put off a lot of viewers).

Season One:

Eye Of The Needle

Get the best of Den of Geek delivered right to your inbox!

Caretaker is one of Star Trek ’s best pilots; many were disappointed with the show because they felt its promise was not followed up on (those of us who started watching later in its run were less likely to be disappointed, of course). To describe what makes Eye Of The Needle great would be to spoil it so we won’t, while Faces features some fine character work from Roxann Dawson as B’Elanna Torres. Add Ex Post Facto , a fairly bland but quite fun episode, if you like whodunnits.

Season Two:

Tuvok’s dark side was always worth seeing and it comes out the strongest in Meld , while ‘the holographic doctor falls in love’ is a much better episode than it sounds in Lifesigns , which explores illness and self-confidence, among other things. Death Wish is probably the best Q episode in all of Star Trek , while Deadlock toys with being really quite brutal for a moment (before pulling back – this is still Star Trek , after all). If you enjoy more experimental episodes, add The Thaw , which appears on some people’s ‘best of’ lists and others’ ‘worst of’ – it’s certainly an acquired taste but it’s genuinely creepy (on purpose) and please note, its virtual world pre-dates The Matrix . Tuvix is also rather controversial, but raises some interesting issues and features some good performances.

Season Three:

Future’s End Parts 1&2

Before And After

Scorpion Part 1

The Chute features energetic performances from Robert Duncan McNeil and Garrett Wang, and some lovely cinematography in a fairly intense story. Future’s End is good time travel-based fun while Before And After features a teaser for one of the series’ best stories, season four’s Year Of Hell . The first two-parter to feature the Borg, Scorpion Part 1, was really excellent – the Borg were rather over-used later in the series, but in this initial appearance, they are as terrifying and as impressive as ever. Add Basics Part 2 for a great performance (as always) from Brad Dourif. Add Macrocosm if Die Hard on Voyager with giant bugs, starring Janeway in a vest, is your particular cup of tea.

Season Four:

Scorpion Part 2

Year Of Hell Parts 1&2

Message In A Bottle

Living Witness

Latest TV reviews

Star trek: discovery season 5 episode 5 review – mirrors, the red king review: uneven folk horror crime mash-up, red eye review: itv thriller starts silly, gets great.

Hope And Fear

Season four was Voyager ’s strongest season overall and included of its best overall episodes – Scorpion Part 2 , Year Of Hell (in which the use of the reset button is entirely justified) and Living Witness , an exploration of the nature of history which also finds time for the always enjoyable Alternate Evil Crew trope. Much of the season was dedicated to developing new character Seven of Nine, somewhat to the detriment of the other regulars at times, but Seven is a genuinely fascinating character and most of the episodes exploring her slow transition back to humanity were good hours, One among them. Voyager didn’t have much of an arc plot, but season four also saw major developments in what arcs it did have, particularly in the hilarious Message In A Bottle . Add The Killing Game Parts 1&2 for a story that doesn’t make much sense if you look at it too closely, but it isn’t half fun to watch.

Season Five:

Counterpoint

Latent Image

Bride Of Chaotica!

Someone To Watch Over Me

Equinox Part 1

Unintentional hilarity aside, Voyager often did comedy really quite well, and Bride Of Chaotica! is surely its funniest hour. Timeless , the show’s 100th episode, is excellent, Drone is less about the Borg than you might think, while Counterpoint and Latent Image are strong, bittersweet instalments. The season once again goes out with a strong cliffhanger in Equinox Part 1 .

Season Six:

Equinox Part 2

Blink Of An Eye

Equinox Part 2 continues Voyager ’s tradition of providing mostly satisfying resolutions to cliffhangers, while Riddles and Memorial once again give the cast a chance to shine with dramatic material. Add Muse for some fun meta-fiction.

Season Seven:

Body And Soul

Workforce Parts 1&2

Author, Author

Body And Soul and most of Author, Author continue Voyager ’s strong set of light-hearted episodes, while Lineage is one of its best character pieces as well as a nice little science fiction story, and a perfect bookend to season one’s Faces . Add Endgame for a finale that does the job well enough, though it included some serious misfires that mean it would be left off most people’s Best Of lists.

Route 2: Crossovers and connections

Voyager is, so far, the latest-set Star Trek series – only the Next Generation feature film Nemesis (plus the odd time travel story) is set further in the future. As a series, then, it offers conclusions rather than foundations for later series. There’s still some crossover fun to be had, though.

As is usually the case, the pilot episode features as appearance from a regular character from another series of Star Trek , in this case, Deep Space Nine ’s Quark (logically enough, as the ship sets off from Deep Space Nine). Add Eye Of The Needle for a rare appearance of a Romulan in the Delta Quadrant.

Projections

Star Trek: The Next Generation ’s Reg Barclay made a number of appearances on Voyager , beginning with Projections . Death Wish also features a very brief (one-line) cameo from another Next Generation regular.

False Profits

Flashback is Voyager ’s celebratory episode marking 30 years of Star Trek , and it lives in the shadow of Deep Space Nine ’s spectacular Trials and Tribble-ations , but is decent enough itself, featuring appearances from Original Series characters Hikaru Sulu and Janice Rand. False Profits is a direct sequel to Next Generation episode The Price .

There were no crossovers as such in season four, but Message In A Bottle and Hunters refer to events from Star Trek: Deep Space Nine .

Voyager ’s 100th episode features a cameo from The Next Generation ’s Levar Burton, who also directed.

Pathfinder , featuring Barclay and another Next Generation character, Deanna Troi, was the beginning of a new plot development that would see Barclay and other Alpha Quadrant characters appearing more regularly, including in Life Line .

As in season six, we get a couple more forays into the Alpha Quadrant, mostly featuring Barclay.

Route 3: The shipping news

As ever, romance is not entirely Star Trek ’s forte, but Voyager did manage to produce one of its better-realised romantic couplings, as well as a relationship or two that had audiences rooting for further developments (and, it has to be said, some less successful efforts….).

State Of Flux

Faces lays the groundwork for Voyager ’s most successful romantic pairing, while Caretaker and The Cloud feature both the early stable relationship of Neelix and Kes and the quick establishment of a relationship and a dynamic between Janeway and Chakotay that had large numbers of fans hoping for further romantic developments between them. State Of Flux focuses on one of Chakotay’s more tumultuous romantic entanglements.

Non Sequitur

Parturition

Resolutions

Elogium is pretty terrible, but it’s one of the more significant Neelix/Kes episodes, though Tuvix is much better. Parturition is even worse, largely because it focuses on the early Neelix/Kes/Paris love triangle (though on the plus side, it features an actual food fight). Non Sequitur features one of Harry Kim’s least disastrous romantic interludes, while Resolutions is the only episode that properly addresses the Janeway/Chakotay connection that was so popular among fans. Technically, Threshold , an episode so bad it was later written out of Star Trek canon, features two regular characters having sex with each other (and babies, even). It’s not exactly romantic, though – but earlier scenes do play up the Paris/Kes and (more briefly) Paris/Torres ships in a more serious way, before it all goes totally bonkers. Add Persistence Of Vision for visuals on B’Elanna’s sexual fantasies.

The Q And The Grey

Blood Fever

Harry finds a woman who is a) not real and b) prefers a Vulcan over him in Alter Ego , so his romantic prospects continue to worsen. The Q And The Grey suggests that Janeway’s pulling power is really quite extraordinary and Coda plays up the Janeway/Chakotay relationship a little, though by Unity he’s gone off her and started pursuing Borg. Blood Fever properly kicks off the Paris/Torres relationship, but Displaced features a rather more nuanced look at that pairing. Add The Chute if you’re a fan of slash fiction (all potential subtext, this being 1990s Star Trek ) and Remember for B’Elanna experiencing someone else’s romantic relationship. Favorite Son features another of Harry Kim’s doomed romances, but it’s not worth watching for that reason. Or any reason, really, except to laugh at rather than with it.

Day Of Honor

The Killing Game Parts 1&2

Unforgettable

This is Paris and Torres’ season as far as romance goes, though Chakotay gets it on with Virginia Madsen in Unforgettable . Add The Gift for the resolution of Kes’s relationships, and Waking Moments for a glimpse into Harry Kim’s romantic fantasies.

Nothing Human

Romance for Chakotay in Timeless , Janeway in Counterpoint , Janeway’s ancestor in 11:59 , Tuvok (well, romantic feelings directed at Tuvok) in Gravity and unrequited love for the Doctor in Someone To Watch Over Me . Nothing Human is probably the best episode for Paris/Torres in this season; in Extreme Risk , B’Elanna’s friend and former crush actually does more to help her than her boyfriend. Add Course: Oblivion for more romantic scenes.

Ashes To Ashes

Alice (along with, to an extent, Memorial ) is the main Paris/Torres episode from this season. Theoretically, Fair Haven and Spirit Folk are romantic episodes, but that’s no reason to watch quite possibly the worst episodes of any series of Star Trek ever made. Ashes To Ashes is rather nonsensical, but as Kim’s annual doomed romances go, it’s a sight better than Favorite Son or The Disease .

Human Error

Natural Law

Making up for lost time and tying off some loose ends, romance was everywhere in season seven, for Paris and Torres ( Drive , Lineage , Prophecy , Workforce , Endgame ), Janeway ( Shattered , which revisits Janeway/Chakotay briefly, and Workforce ), the Doctor ( Body And Soul , Endgame ) and Neelix ( Homestead) . The main relationship highlighted in Human Error and Natural Law and also concluded in Endgame was, shall we say, not very popular, but if it has any fans, those are the episodes to watch.

Route 4: OK, this might be why Voyager isn’t everyone’s favourite…

Like all series of Star Trek , Voyager also produced some entertainingly bad stinkers that are truly entertaining when hate-watched with friends. Maybe even a higher than usual number. We’ve still avoided the truly dull episodes for the most part, though – these are terrible in a hilarious and sometimes spectacular way.

It’s a classic Voyager quote – “There’s coffee in that nebula!” – but that doesn’t make The Cloud any good. It does, however, make it entertaining. Parallax and Learning Curve are pretty bad too, but also very dull ( Learning Curve is worth watching only for the equally classic line “Get the cheese to sickbay!”).

It’s tempting, even as a fan, to say ‘all of it’, but some season two episodes are actually quite good (see above) while most of the rest are deathly dull. However, Elogium features space sperm trying to have sex with the ship, Twisted has everyone get lost on Deck 6 (a normal day for some of us who are navigationally challenged) and Parturition features two senior officers having a food fight in the mess hall. For some people, add The Thaw , which is Voyager ’s equivalent of Marmite.

And then there’s Threshold . Threshold , frequently derided as the worst episode of Star Trek ever made, is truly glorious in its awfulness. One of the tragedies of the episode is that Robert Duncan McNeil puts in a really passionate performance and some of the material, if attached to a different story, would be some really nice body horror stuff. But all you have to do is read a summary of the events of the episode (including impossible speeds, a shuttle that turns into the Infinite Improbability Drive from The Hitchhiker’s Guide To The Galaxy , crew members turning into giant lizard-slug-things, and giant lizard sex) to see how stupendously ridiculous, but importantly also truly entertaining in its own special way, it is. If you haven’t heard of it, though, skip the online summaries and just watch it, preferably with a very large drink in hand, and let the B movie daftness wash over you. It’s so, so very awful, I think I kinda love it.

Favourite Son

Nothing can quite compare to the high/low that was Threshold , but The Q And The Grey follows up one of the best Q episodes with one of the daftest, Blood Fever demonstrates that the practicalities of ponn farr were probably best left behind in the 1960s, and Favorite Son is… well it’s nearly as ridiculous as Threshold , actually, but not quite so spectacularly entertaining, as Harry Kim falls for a lure so transparent only someone as stupid as the Cat from Red Dwarf (in series six’ Psirens , when the same trick is tried on him) could be expected to fall for it.

Season Four is Voyager ’s strongest season overall, and its mis-fires tend to be dull or dubious rather than entertainingly hilarious, though if you enjoy ridiculous ‘science’, you might enjoy Demon .

Once Upon A Time

The Disease

Once Upon A Time ’s main plot is just a bit dull, but it features one of those horrifying children’s holodeck programmes also sometimes seen on The Next Generation . The Disease is another Harry Kim romance episode. It is, in its defense, slightly better than Favorite Son .

Spirit Folk

Everyone talks about Threshold , but for me, these are by far the worst episodes of Voyager , and probably of all of Star Trek (yes, including Spock’s Brain ). Offensive on every level, especially if you have Irish ancestry, and don’t even think about the practicalities of the captain retiring to a private room with a holographic character, on a holodeck – that is, a small, square room with no real walls, furniture etc. in it, that could easily malfunction at any moment – still also inhabited by other people, to have sex. Ew.

Prophecy revolves around a Klingon messianic prophecy, while Q2 features Q’s teenage son (played by John de Lancie’s real life son Keegan, who is a perfectly good actor, but the material is cringe-inducing). ‘Nuff said.

Route 5: Time travel

In season three, Captain Janeway expressed her extreme dislike of time travel and time paradoxes. She might as well have been a horror movie character saying “I’ll be right back.”

Time And Again

Time And Again is by the numbers but perfectly serviceable Star Trek , while Eye Of The Needle is Voyager ’s first really classic episode – perhaps that’s why they decided to feature the wonders of time travel quite so often in later years.

Technically there are no real time travel episodes in this season, though a couple of characters appear out of time in Death Wish .

Some of the Voyager crew’s ongoing problems with time travel are kicked off in Future’s End , while Before And After is a rather good backwards episode. Flashback , as the title implies, features flashbacks, though not actual time travel.

Add The Killing Game for a holodeck-based episode in which much of the crew believe they are people living in Earth’s past.

Timeless Relativity

Like Year Of Hell , Timeless is a really great episode, and things aren’t entirely re-set by the end (only mostly). Relativity is also good fun and features a visual homage to classic Powell and Pressburger film A Matter Of Life And Death . 11:59 is composed primarily of extensive flashbacks to the past, but not actual time travel.

Blink Of An Eye is more about time differential than time travel, but it represents this season’s game of playing with the fourth dimension.

Shattered uses a rather dubious time-related incident to revisit some of the show’s highlights and point to its future, while Endgame , like The Next Generation finale All Good Things , shows us a possible future for the crew, but by the end of the episode, everything may have changed.

Juliette Harrisson | @ClassicalJG

Juliette Harrisson is a writer and historian, and a lifelong Trekkie whose childhood heroes were JRR Tolkien and CS Lewis. She runs a YouTube channel called…

Star Trek timeline: Boldly go on a chronological journey through the Trek universe

From the Original Series to Discovery, here’s how the Star Trek timeline fits together

The Star Trek timeline becomes more sprawling every week. There's little chance Gene Roddenberry, when he created the series back in the '60s, could have guessed that there would be a new episode of Star Trek made available every week (sometimes even two!).

With hundreds of hours of television spread across several TV shows and over a dozen movies, knowing where to begin with the Star Trek timeline is something of a challenge. The events of the ongoing series Star Trek: Discovery and Star Trek: Picard don't exactly fit in seamlessly at the end. And if you're wanting to include Voyager or Nemesis on a watch/rewatch, then you're in for some complications.

With that in mind, we’ve assembled all the key events that shaped Federation history into one massive Star Trek timeline. We’ve even included the parallel "Kelvin" continuity of the J.J. Abrams Star Trek movie and its sequels, an alternative sequence of events kickstarted when a rogue Romulan ship from the future destroyed the USS Kelvin – killing James T. Kirk’s dad, George, and forever altering Kirk and Spock’s destinies. 

That said, because the numerous spin-off Trek comics and novels aren’t traditionally considered part of the official Star Trek timeline, we’ve left them out. We’ve also steered clear of the Mirror Universe, so there isn’t quite so much timey-wimey stuff going on that you’d have to be Spock or Data to understand it. But before we engage the warp drive and explore the history of the future, here’s an at-a-glance guide to how the various movies and TV shows fit into the Star Trek timeline:

The Prime Star Trek timeline

• Star Trek: Enterprise (2001-2005)
• Star Trek: The Cage (1965)
• Star Trek Discovery pre-time jump (2017-2019)
• Star Trek: The Original Series (1966-1969)
• Star Trek: The Animated Series (1973-1974)
• Star Trek: The Motion Picture (1979)
• Star Trek 2: The Wrath of Khan (1982)
• Star Trek 3: The Search for Spock (1984)
• Star Trek 4: The Voyage Home (1986)
• Star Trek 5: The Final Frontier (1989)
• Star Trek 6: The Undiscovered Country (1991)
• Star Trek: The Next Generation (1987-1994)
• Star Trek: Deep Space Nine (1993-1999)
• Star Trek: Generations (1994)
• Star Trek: Voyager (1995-2001)
• Star Trek: First Contact (1996)
• Star Trek: Insurrection (1998)
• Star Trek: Nemesis (2002)
• Star Trek: Picard (2020-ongoing)
• Star Trek: Discovery post-time jump (2020-ongoing)
• Star Trek: Strange New Worlds (2022-ongoing)

The Kelvin Star Trek timeline

• Star Trek (2009)
• Star Trek Into Darkness (2013)
• Star Trek Beyond (2016)

Star Trek timeline

Around 200,000 years ago:  An ancient alien species is wiped out by an uprising of synthetic beings. They leave eight stars in an implausible arrangement, the Conclave of Eight, to serve as a warning to future generations. (Star Trek: Picard) 

1893 - The time-travelling crew of the USS Enterprise-D encounters The Adventures of Tom Sawyer author Mark Twain in San Francisco. (Time’s Arrow, Star Trek: The Next Generation)

1930 - Having been sent back to 20th century New York by the malevolent ring the Guardian of Forever, James T Kirk is forced to allow peace campaigner Edith Keeler to die in order to save millions of lives in World War 2. (The City on the Edge of Forever, Star Trek: The Original Series)

Sign up to the SFX Newsletter

Get sneak previews, exclusive competitions and details of special events each month!

1947 - Ferengi Quark, Rom, and Nog crash land in 20th century Roswell, New Mexico, and are captured by US authorities who (correctly, to be fair) think they’re aliens. (Little Green Men, Star Trek: Deep Space Nine)

1986 - Kirk, Spock, and the rest of the original Enterprise crew kidnap a pair of humpback whales to save the future from an alien probe. (Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home)

1996 - Genetically enhanced tyrant Khan Noonien Singh and 84 of his followers escape the Eugenics Wars on Earth (remember those?), going into suspended animation on the SS Botany Bay. (Space Seed, Star Trek: The Original Series)

2024  – Picard and La Sirena crew arrive in the 21st century to fix the event that's created a dystopian alternative timeline. Along the way they meet a younger version of Guinan and an ancient ancestor of Data's creator. (Star Trek: Picard)

2063 - In the wake of World War 3, Zefram Cochrane makes Earth’s first successful warp flight, attracting the attention of some passing Vulcans who subsequently introduce Earth into the interstellar community – all while the crew of the Enterprise-E fight to stop the Borg assimilating the planet. (Star Trek: First Contact)

2151 - Suliban fighting in a Temporal Cold War shoot down Klingon warrior Klaang over Broken Bow, Oklahoma – bringing about humanity’s first contact with a Klingon. The prototype USS Enterprise (NX-01) sets off on a mission to return him to Qo’noS – against the wishes of the Vulcans and their massive superiority complex. (Broken Bow, Star Trek: Enterprise)

2153 - An alien probe fires a massive energy beam at Earth’s surface, causing destruction across the American continent. The Enterprise is redeployed to the Delphic Expanse to fight back against the perpetrators, the Xindi. (The Expanse, Star Trek: Enterprise) A group of Borg who survived the attempted invasion of Earth in 2063 are accidentally thawed by a research team in the Arctic. It doesn’t end well. (Regeneration, Star Trek: Enterprise)

2164 - The USS Franklin, commanded by Captain Balthazar Edison, goes missing – that might just prove important later… (Star Trek Beyond)

2230 - Spock is born on Vulcan.

2233 - James T Kirk is born. 

2233 (Kelvin timeline) - The USS Kelvin is destroyed by time-travelling 24th century Romulan ship Narada, kickstarting the so-called the Kelvin timeline. (Star Trek, 2009)

Every Star Trek Discovery Easter egg and hidden reference you might have missed

2230s (exact date unknown) - After her parents are killed in a Klingon attack, Michael Burnham is adopted by Sarek and Amanda Grayson on Vulcan. Her adoptive brother, Spock, has his first sighting of a “ Red Angel ”. (Will You Take My Hand?, Star Trek: Discovery)

2254 - The USS Enterprise, captained by Christopher Pike, discovers the survivors of crashed survey ship SS Columbia on Talos IV – though it turns out they’re an illusion created by the telepathic Talosians. (Star Trek: The Cage)

2256 - The USS Shenzou’s first officer, Commander Michael Burnham, defies the orders of Captain Philippa Georgiou, and is charged with mutiny. The Federation/Klingon War begins at the Battle of the Binary Stars. (The Vulcan Hello/The Battle at the Binary Stars, Star Trek: Discovery)

2257 - The Federation/Klingon War ends, with the hydro bomb Section 31 plant at the heart of Qo’noS helping maintain peace between feuding Klingon houses. (Will You Take My Hand, Star Trek: Discovery) With the Enterprise under repair, Christopher Pike assumes command of the Discovery on a mission to understand the so-called “Red Angels” – and track down his AWOL science officer, Spock. (Brother, Star Trek: Discovery)

2258 –  In order to save all life in the universe from a rogue Federation AI known as Control, Michael Burnham uses the Red Angel time travel suit (created by her parents) to carry data collected by a millennia-old alien probe into the future. The USS Discovery and its crew follow her on a one-way trip through the wormhole. (Star Trek: Discovery)

2258 (Kelvin timeline) - The Narada reappears and destroys Vulcan, as an act of revenge on Spock. The Enterprise (commanded by Christopher Pike) engages the Romulan ship, but with Pike incapacitated, James T Kirk eventually assumes command of the ship – and defeats the Narada. In the wake of Vulcan’s destruction, Admiral Alexander Marcus tries to increase Starfleet’s military capabilities – and subsequently discovers the SS Botany Bay years earlier than in the Prime timeline. Khan Noonien Singh is revived and recruited by shadowy spy branch Section 31. (Star Trek Into Darkness)

2259 (Kelvin timeline) - Going under the name John Harrison, Khan wages a one-man war on the Federation – all in the name of recovering his crew from suspended animation. The Enterprise crew eventually defeat him and put him back into stasis, but Kirk dies in the process. Luckily Dr McCoy is able to use some of Khan’s blood to revive his captain – phew! (Star Trek Into Darkness)

2260 (Kelvin timeline) - The USS Enterprise begins its (other) famous five-year mission. (Star Trek Into Darkness)

2263 (Kelvin timeline) - Three years into the five-year mission (with things starting to get boring), the Enterprise is destroyed by Krall’s swarm ships, marooning the crew on an alien planet. It turns out Krall was the captain of the aforementioned USS Franklin, who’s spent the last century using alien tech to keep himself alive – and developing a colossal grudge against the Federation. He’s eventually killed on new Federation starbase, the USS Yorktown. James T Kirk and crew are assigned to a new ship, the Enterprise-A. The original Spock Prime – the one who travelled back in time – passes away on New Vulcan (Star Trek Beyond).

2266 - The USS Enterprise’s five-year mission to explore strange new worlds, to seek out new life and new civilisations, to boldly go where no one has gone before, begins under the command of Captain James T Kirk. (Star Trek: The Original Series)

2267 - After Spock mutinies, a gravely injured Christopher Pike is taken to the off-limits Talos 4, and lives out a “normal” life thanks to the illusions of the telepathic Talosians. (The Menagerie, Star Trek: The Original Series) The Enterprise discovers SS Botany Bay, and awakens Khan Noonien Singh from suspended animation. After he tries to take over the ship, Khan and his crew are exiled to Ceti Alpha 5. (Space Seed, Star Trek: The Original Series)

Early 2270s (exact year unknown) - The refitted USS Enterprise (commanded once again by Admiral James T Kirk) encounters V’Ger, a 20th century space probe (Voyager 6 under an alias) that has gained sentience and threatens to destroy planet Earth. (Star Trek: The Motion Picture)

2285 - While on a training mission, the USS Enterprise is critically damaged by Khan Noonien Singh, who has escaped exile on Ceti Alpha V and wants revenge on Kirk. The Genesis planet is created by detonation of the top secret Genesis torpedo, and Spock dies after sacrificing himself to save the Enterprise. (Star Trek 2: The Wrath of Khan) Kirk, McCoy and the rest of the surviving Enterprise crew defy Starfleet orders to commandeer the ship for a mission to the Genesis planet to recover Spock’s body. After they unexpectedly encounter a hostile Klingon Bird-of-Prey, Kirk self-destructs the Enterprise – but Spock is resurrected. (Star Trek 3: The Search for Spock)

2286 - A mysterious space probe appears in Earth orbit, attempting to make contact with now-extinct humpback whales. Kirk and co pilot their commandeered Bird-of-Prey back to 20th century Earth to find some whales. Admiral Kirk is demoted to captain as punishment for his insurrection, and the USS Enterprise-A goes into active service. (Star Trek 4: The Voyage Home)

Live long and prosper with the best Star Trek merchandise around

2287 - The new Enterprise is commandeered by Spock’s half-brother, Sybok, who plans to meet God (yes, really) at the centre of the galaxy. The question “What does God need with a starship?” has never felt so pertinent. (Star Trek 5: The Final Frontier)

2290 - Hikaru Sulu assumes command of the USS Excelsior, breaking up the Enterprise “dream team” – it was probably about time, to be fair.. (Star Trek 6: The Undiscovered Country)

2293 - Praxis, the Klingon moon responsible for most of the empire’s power production, explodes. With Kirk and the classic crew due for retirement, they set off on one last mission to escort the Klingon ambassador to peace negotiations with the Federation – and end up having to foil a complex plot to scupper the whole thing. (Star Trek 6: The Undiscovered Country) Captain James T Kirk is presumed dead when the Nexus energy ribbon has a close encounter with the newly launched Enterprise-B. Predictably, it’s not the end, though… (Star Trek: Generations)

2330s (exact year unknown) - Data is created by pioneering scientist Dr Noonian Soong. (Datalore, Star Trek: The Next Generation)

2344 - The USS Enterprise-C answers a distress call from a Klingon outpost on Narendra III. Surrounded by Romulan Warbirds, it faces certain destruction until it disappears into a mysterious temporal rift… (Yesterday’s Enterprise, Star Trek: The Next Generation)

2356 - Future Seven of Nine Annika Hansen is assimilated by the Borg, along with her parents on their ship, The Raven. (The Raven, Star Trek: Voyager)

2364 - Commander William T Riker joins the crew of the USS Enterprise-D, under the command of Jean-Luc Picard. Omnipotent being Q appears and puts humanity on trial. (Encounter At Farpoint, Star Trek: The Next Generation)

2365 - Q shows up again, and transports the Enterprise to uncharted space for Starfleet’s first encounter with the Borg. (Q Who, Star Trek: The Next Generation)

2366 - The Enterprise-C emerges from that aforementioned temporal rift and creates a new timeline where the Federation is at war with the Klingons. (Yesterday’s Enterprise, Star Trek: The Next Generation) The Borg show up in Federation space to start an invasion. Jean-Luc Picard is assimilated, becoming Locutus, and Starfleet is almost wiped out at the Battle of Wolf 359. (The Best of Both Worlds, Star Trek: The Next Generation)

2368 - Now an ambassador, Spock turns up on Romulus trying to reunify the Vulcan and Romulan races. (Unification, Star Trek: The Next Generation)

2369 - The Cardassians cease their occupation of Bajor and vacate their space station, Terok Nor. Starfleet moves in and renames it Deep Space Nine, with Benjamin Sisko taking command. It should be a relatively straightforward gig – until a wormhole opens to the Gamma Quadrant on the other side of the galaxy. (Emissary, Star Trek: Deep Space Nine)

2370 - Starfleet makes first contact with the Dominion, an alliance of races led by shapeshifting Founders from the Gamma Quadrant. (The Search, Star Trek: Deep Space Nine)

2371 - Turns out James T Kirk wasn’t dead after all – he was just living inside the Nexus energy ribbon where all your dreams come true. When El-Aurian scientist Dr Tolian Soran threatens to destroy entire worlds to get back inside the Nexus, Jean-Luc Picard enlists Kirk’s help to stop him – which doesn’t end well for Kirk, who ends up dead for the final time. The Enterprise-D also meets its end. (Star Trek: Generations) USS Voyager and a ship of Maquis freedom fighters are transported to the distant Delta Quadrant by an alien “caretaker”. The two crews become BFFs implausibly quickly – and for some reason, invite Neelix on board. (Caretaker, Star Trek: Voyager)

2373 - The Borg have another crack at invading Earth. Seemingly defeated, they launch a last ditch attempt to assimilate humanity in the past – so Jean-Luc Picard and crew take their shiny new Enterprise-E back in time to stop them. (Star Trek: First Contact) Meanwhile, back in the Borg’s home territory of the Delta Quadrant, Voyager forms an unlikely alliance with the Collective to battle Species 8472 from “fluidic space”. Borg drone Seven of Nine, Tertiary Adjunct of Unimatrix 01 (AKA, Seven of Nine) joins the Voyager crew. (Scorpion, Star Trek: Voyager) The Dominion War kicks off between the Dominion and the Federation. (Star Trek: Deep Space Nine)

2375 - The Dominion War ends. Benjamin Sisko, the Bajoran “emissary” moves into the wormhole to commune with its residents – aliens who have no sense of linear time. (What You Leave Behind, Deep Space Nine) The Enterprise crew uncovers a shady Federation plot to relocate the near-immortal inhabitants of a paradise planet, to harness its youth-giving properties. It’s difficult to care about any of it. (Star Trek: Insurrection)

2378 - USS Voyager finally makes it back to Federation space. After seven years away, Ensign Harry Kim is still an Ensign. (Endgame, Star Trek: Voyager)

2379 - Shinzon, a clone of Jean-Luc Picard, takes control of the Romulan senate – and his overtures towards peace with the Federation turn out to be a front for war. The Enterprise eventually stops him, but Data has to sacrifice himself to save the day… (Star Trek: Nemesis)

2380  – The crew of the USS Cerritos travel around the galaxy, specialising in "second contact" situations. (Star Trek: Lower Decks)

2385  – Members of the Romulan Zhat Vash experience the Admonition on the “grief world” of Aia, driving many to madness and suicide. Their leader, Commodore Oh, instigates the uprising of synthetic workers at the Utopia Planitia Fleet Yards on Mars, leaving 92,143 people dead and the planet burning. Facing heavy losses, Starfleet abandons its rescue mission to help rescue the residents of Romulus from an upcoming supernoval. Admiral Jean-Luc Picard resigns in protest. (Star Trek: Picard) 

2387 - With a supernova threatening to destroy Romulus, Spock – still active after all these years, remarkably – attempts to save the planet by using “red matter” to create a black hole that will engulf the exploding star. He fails – and he, and Romulan ship the Narada, are sucked into the black hole, and back into the newly created parallel Kelvin timeline. (Star Trek, 2009)

2390  – Starfleet vessel the Ibn Majid encounters a pair of synthetic lifeforms. Under orders from Commodore Oh, the captain executes the two androids before taking his own life. First Officer Chris Rios is so traumatised by the experience – expunged from Federation records – that he leaves Starfleet six months later. (Star Trek: Picard)

2399  – The long-retired Jean-Luc Picard ventures back into space after years living on the family vineyard. Having discovered that the late Data had a pair of ridiculously advanced twin daughters, the long-retired Jean-Luc Picard ventures back into space after years on the family vineyard. EXTRA BITS After some close encounters with rogue Romulans, militant AI, and a few Borg, Picard succumbs to his terminal Irumodic Syndrome – but is reborn in a new android body. (Star Trek: Picard)

2400 –  Now running Starfleet Academy, Picard finds himself back on a starship when a spatial anomaly appears, broadcasting his name in multiple languages. After ending up in a totalitarian alternative timeline – possibly with a bit of help from Q – he gathers up the crew of La Sirena to travel back to a pivotal event in 2024. (Star Trek: Picard)

3069  – The so-called Burn causes the cataclysmic destruction of dilithium across the galaxy. The Federation is involved in a Temporal War that leads to a galaxy-wide ban on time travel. During this period, Temporal Agent Daniels travels back to 2151 to infiltrate Captain Archer's Enterprise, and overthrow a Suliban plot. (Star Trek: Enterprise/Star Trek: Discovery)

3188 –  Michael Burnham emerges from the wormhole, and joins forces with courier Cleveland 'Book' Booker. (Star Trek: Discovery)

3189 –  DIscovery arrives in the 32nd century and discovers a universe where the Federation has been decimated by the Burn – the biggest power is now criminal syndicate the Emerald Chain. With the spore drive now one of the most important resources in the galaxy, Captain Saru and crew work to discover the cause of the Burn – and restore the Federation to past glories. (Star Trek: Discovery)

3190  – As numerous worlds sign up to rejoin the resurgent Federation, a mysterious Dark Matter Anomaly destroys Book's homeworld and threatens all life in the Alpha Quadrant. (Star Trek: Discovery)

All caught up? Great, now come and discover the best Star Trek episodes that every Trekkie should watch right now, or watch the video below for a complete guide to the Star Wars timeline – that other sci-fi galaxy far, far, away... 

Richard is a freelancer journalist and editor, and was once a physicist. Rich is the former editor of SFX Magazine, but has since gone freelance, writing for websites and publications including GamesRadar+, SFX, Total Film, and more. He also co-hosts the podcast, Robby the Robot's Waiting, which is focused on sci-fi and fantasy. 

Believe your eyes: apes on horseback have been spotted ahead of Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes

Denis Villeneuve compares Dune to The Godfather with Paul Atreides being "the Michael Corleone of sci-fi"

My favorite Spelunky character is a masterclass in roguelike risk versus reward: "Stealing in games is fun in the same way running across the top of the screen is in Super Mario"

Most Popular

• 2 Broken Roads review: "Systems that sound good on paper don't work as intended"
• 3 Open Roads review: "A cozy, nostalgic road trip that can't quite get into gear"
• 4 Dragon's Dogma 2 review: "Embrace the chaos and there's nothing quite like it"
• 5 Rise of the Ronin review: "A decent PS5 exclusive action RPG that's driven and hamstrung by its ambition"
• 2 Rebel Moon Part Two – The Scargiver review: "Zack Snyder’s sci-fi epic stumbles towards the finish line"
• 3 Abigail review: "A blood-bomb of fun that needs more narrative meat"
• 4 Sometimes I Think About Dying review: "Daisy Ridley demonstrates her star power"
• 5 Challengers review: "A pulsating tale that's sure to get deuces flowing"
• 2 Alien RPG Building Better Worlds review: "Carrying on the quiet momentum of one of the best TTRPGs out there"
• 3 X-Men '97 episode 6 review: "The heart of the X-Men has triumphantly returned, but at what cost?"
• 4 X-Men '97 episode 5 review: "Heartbreaking at the most catastrophic level"
• 5 Fallout review: "A big Vault Boy-style thumbs up"

'Star Trek: Voyager's' triumphant creation stars in crowdfunded documentary 'To the Journey'

Engage this new teaser for the upcoming doc project "To the Journey: Looking Back at Star Trek: Voyager."

These are grand times to be a "Star Trek" fan, as the rising tide of new "Trek" TV series, classic show anniversaries, concept art books, tie-in novels, video games and comics set in the Starfleet sphere are all contributing to a blossoming renaissance of interest.

Riding that surging swell is an upcoming documentary on the making of one of the most popular "Star Trek: The Next Generation" spinoffs, "Star Trek: Voyager." 

A new teaser video for "To the Journey: Looking Back at Star Trek: Voyager" was recently released to give followers of the pioneering series a hint of what's to come. The show, which ran from 1995 to 2001 on UPN, lasted for 172 episodes over seven seasons and depicted the USS Voyager's endeavors while traversing the galaxy's remote Delta Quadrant. 

You can check out our Star Trek streaming guide to see where to watch "Star Trek: Voyager" and any other Trek series that may catch your fancy. That includes " Star Trek: Discovery, " " Star T rek: Picard " and a preview for the May 5 release of " Star Trek: Strange New Worlds. "

• Want to try Paramount Plus? Here's a free one-month trial
• Subscribe to Paramount Plus for $5.99/month

"Voyager" represented milestones in "Star Trek" lore as it became the first series to feature a female commander, with Kate Mulgrew 's solid performance as Capt. Kathryn Janeway , as well as the only Asian male co-starring as a series regular at the time, with Garrett Wang (Ensign Kim). The new making-of retrospective highlights that "Voyager's" unique cast chemistry remains intact after 20 years.

Packed with fresh interview snippets with cast members Wang, Robert Duncan McNeill, Robert Beltran, Ethan Phillips, Tim Russ, Robert Picardo and Kate Mulgrew, in addition to "Voyager" executive producers Jeri Taylor and Rick Berman, this project's preview promises a definitive exploration of how this successful spinoff was created and has endured.

"To the Journey: Looking Back at Star Trek: Voyager" has been years in the making, as producer/director David Zappone first announced back in early 2020 that shooting would start aboard Star Trek: The Cruise. The COVID-19 pandemic put a swift but temporary halt to those plans, and filming picked up in late 2020. 

Get the Space.com Newsletter

Breaking space news, the latest updates on rocket launches, skywatching events and more!

— Kirk vs Picard: Who is the best Star Trek captain?

— Could we really build Star Trek's USS Enterprise?

 — Star Trek movies, ranked worst to best

A crowdfunding effort provided more momentum in March 2021, when the campaign blasted through its goal of $150,000 less than a day after it launched, eventually collecting over $1.3 million — the most money ever pledged for a crowdfunded documentary.

"To the Journey" is currently moving into the final stages of production, and the documentary is slated to start appearing at fan events and on streaming services, and will become available for purchase in late 2022.

For more "Voyager" goodness, dive into our guide to the best episodes of Star Trek: Voyager !

Follow us on Twitter @Spacedotcom and on Facebook . 

Join our Space Forums to keep talking space on the latest missions, night sky and more! And if you have a news tip, correction or comment, let us know at: [email protected].

Jeff Spry is an award-winning screenwriter and veteran freelance journalist covering TV, movies, video games, books, and comics. His work has appeared at SYFY Wire, Inverse, Collider, Bleeding Cool and elsewhere. Jeff lives in beautiful Bend, Oregon amid the ponderosa pines, classic muscle cars, a crypt of collector horror comics, and two loyal English Setters.

Netflix releases official trailer for Jennifer Lopez mech combat sci-fi film 'Atlas' (video)

James Webb Space Telescope documentary returns to IMAX theaters this week for Earth Day. Watch exclusive clips here (video)

Buried in the Cat's Paw Nebula lies one of the largest space molecules ever seen

Most Popular

• 2 Netflix releases official trailer for Jennifer Lopez mech combat sci-fi film 'Atlas' (video)
• 3 Ancient rocks hold proof of Earth's magnetic field. Here's why that's puzzling
• 4 Hubble telescope celebrates 34th anniversary with an iridescent Dumbbell Nebula (image)
• 5 The mystery of how strange cosmic objects called 'JuMBOs' went rogue

Star Trek: Voyager

• Kate Mulgrew as Capt. Kathryn Janeway
• Robert Beltran as Cmdr. Chakotay
• Roxann (Biggs-)Dawson as Lt. B'Elanna Torres
• Robert Duncan McNeill as Lt. (later Ensign) Thomas Eugene Paris
• Ethan Phillips as Neelix
• Robert Picardo as the Doctor
• Tim Russ as Lt. Tuvok
• Garrett Wang as Ensign Harry Kim
• Jeri Ryan as Seven of Nine [ 4-7 ]
• Jennifer Lien as Kes [ 1-3 ]
• Majel Barrett as the Voice of the Computer
• recurring characters:
• Nancy Hower as Ensign Samantha Wildman [ eps 20- ]
• Scarlett Pomers as Naomi Wildman [ eps 99-172 ]
• Martha Hackett as Seska [ eps 3-66 ]
• Manu Intiraymi as Icheb [ eps 136-172 ]
• Marley S. McClean as Mezoti [ eps 136-148 ]
• Kurt Wetherill as Azan [ eps 136-148 ]
• Cody Wetherill as Rebi [ eps 136-148 ]

Mid-Atlantic Nostalgia Convention, Sep 7 - 9, 2023, Hunt Valley, MD

• Cast & crew

To the Journey: Looking Back at Star Trek: Voyager

The documentary explores the legacy of Star Trek: Voyager (1995). The documentary explores the legacy of Star Trek: Voyager (1995). The documentary explores the legacy of Star Trek: Voyager (1995).

• David Zappone
• Rick Berman
• Michael Piller
• Gene Roddenberry
• Dwayne Johnson
• Brad Dourif

• (archive footage)

• All cast & crew
• Production, box office & more at IMDbPro

More like this

Did you know

• Connections Follows What We Left Behind: Looking Back at Star Trek: Deep Space Nine (2018)
• When was To the Journey: Looking Back at Star Trek: Voyager released? Powered by Alexa
• Will this documentary include HD transfers of footage from "Star Trek: Voyager?"
• United States
• Official site
• See more company credits at IMDbPro

Technical specs

Related news, contribute to this page.

• See more gaps
• Learn more about contributing

More to explore

Recently viewed

To The Journey: Looking Back at Star Trek: Voyager

• View history

To The Journey: Looking Back at Star Trek: Voyager is an upcoming production from David Zappone 's 455 Films [1] and Le Big Boss Productions (Canada) [2] set to examine what made Star Trek: Voyager special twenty-five years after the series premiere, through new interviews with the cast and crew. The documentary conception came about because of the success of Zappone's prior Star Trek: Deep Space Nine documentary, What We Left Behind . [3]

The working title had previously been A Long Way Home: The Star Trek Voyager Documentary . [4] By March 2021, the film was being reported as yet untitled. [5]

Fundraising campaign [ ]

Production launched an Indiegogo crowdfunding campaign on 1 March 2021 , raising more than $450,000 in the first twenty-four hours. [6] By 15 March 2021 , the campaign had become the most successful Indiegogo documentary campaign ever, reaching more than US$740,000. On March 28, the campaign funding reached and exceeded one million dollars. [7]

Features made possible by having reached various fundraising goals include additional 3D graphics and animations, filming a November 2021 cast reunion in London, expanding the film from 60 to 90+ minutes, composition of an original score for the film, and licensing the original title music from Jerry Goldsmith . [8]

The Indiegogo concluded on 31 March 2021 , having collected $1,260,245 from 11,728 backers, almost double the $630,000 raised by What We Left Behind , and breaking the record for most successful crowdfunded documentary (a title previously held by Who the F*@% is Frank Zappa (Save the Vault, Tell the Story) , at $1,126,036.) [9]

External links [ ]

• VoyagerDocumentary.com (X) – official website
• IndieGoGo campaign page
• The Voyager Documentary  at Facebook
• The Voyager Documentary at X (formerly Twitter)

• Entertainment
• How <i>Picard</i> Fits Into the <i>Star Trek</i> Timeline

How Picard Fits Into the Star Trek Timeline

I t’s been 26 long years since Star Trek: The Next Generation graced the small screen. But beginning Jan. 23, a new series centered around that show’s captain, Jean-Luc Picard (Patrick Stewart), will “boldly go” to the network’s streaming service, CBS All Access. Star Trek: Picard is about our titular captain’s life many years after his last fateful mission for Starfleet.

But how does Picard fit into the larger Star Trek timeline? The CBS series is set where no Trek has gone before, well past the events of TV’s Star Trek: Voyager and the last film of the Picard era, Star Trek: Nemesis. Many fan favorite characters are expected to return, including Commander William T. Riker (Jonathan Frakes) and Seven-of-Nine (Jeri Ryan).

For Trek nerds out there, this means Picard takes place in the “prime” timeline, which is where each of the television series and the original films live. In 2009, J.J. Abrams rebooted the series with the film Star Trek, creating a new timeline for the already confusing Trek universe. In the film, a bad guy travels back in time and destroys the USS Kelvin, killing Captain Kirk’s father, George Kirk, in the process. All three of J.J. Abrams’ movies take place in this alternate timeline called the “Kelvin Timeline,” after the annihilated ship.

To familiarize yourself with the Trek universe, here are the two timelines:

Prime Timeline

Star Trek: Enterprise (2151-2161)

Airdate: 2001-2005

Plot: Set 100 years before the Enterprise ‘s mission in the original Star Trek , this series traces the adventures of the first Warp 4 capable Starfleet ship, also called Enterprise . Scott Bakula starred as the human captain Jonathan Archer, and Jolene Blalock as the Vulcan officer T’Pol.

Star Trek Discovery (2255)

Airdate: 2017-

Plot: Sonequa Martin-Green plays officer Michael Burnham, a human who was raised by Spock’s parents, Amanda and Sarek. Burnham has suppressed her human tendencies in order to assimilate into the hyper-logical Vulcan society but tries to reconnect with her emotional side when she serves Captain Philippa Georgiou (Michelle Yeoh) and then Captain Gabriel Lorca (Jason Isaacs).

Star Trek (2265-2269)

Airdate: 1966-1969

Plot: The original Star Trek series created by Gene Roddenberry featured Captain James Kirk (William Shatner), First Officer Spock ( Leonard Nimoy ), Officer Uhura (Nichelle Nichols), Dr. McCoy (DeForest Kelley), Montgomery “Scotty” Scott (James Doohan), Hikaru Sulu (George Takei) and the other Starfleet members on a mission of exploration and self-improvement. One of the most diverse shows on television at the time, Star Trek ran for three seasons and inspired future space sagas like Star Wars and Battlestar Galactica .

Star Trek: The Animated Series (2269-2270)

Airdate: 1973-1974

Plot: After the original series went off the air, Roddenberry created an animated series that continued the stories of Star Trek and reunited much of the same cast to do voice work for cartoon versions of their characters.

Original Star Trek movies (2273-2293)

Airdate: 1979-1991

Plot: Roddenberry leveraged the massive success of the syndicated series into a number of feature films starring Shatner and Nimoy. Star Trek: The Motion Picture , Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan , Star Trek III: The Search for Spock , Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home , Star Trek V: The Finale Frontier and Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country continued established storylines.

Star Trek: The Next Generation (2364-2370)

Airdate: 1987-1994

Plot: Set 100 years after the events of the original Star Trek , this series followed Captain Jean-Luc Picard and his crew (Jonathan Frakes, LeVar Burton and Marina Sirtis, among them) on the fifth iteration of the Enterprise , USS Enterprise-D .

Next Generation Movies (2293-2379)

Airdate: 1994-2002

Plot: In Star Trek: Generations (1994), Captain Picard teams up with the once-presumed-dead Captain Kirk. The story unites the casts from the two Star Trek series at the time, effectively passing the baton from Shatner to Stewart. The Next Generation cast went on to star in three more movies, sans the original cast: Star Trek: First Contact , Star Trek: Insurrection and Star Trek Nemesis .

Star Trek: Deep Space Nine (2369-2375)

Airdate: 1993-1999

Plot: Set on a space station rather than a starship, Deep Space Nine focuses on the adventures of the people charged with guarding the opening to a wormhole at the end of the galaxy. Deep Space Nine was helmed by Trek’ s first black captain, Benjamin Sisko (Avery Brooks). It was also the first Trek series created without Roddenberry, who gave the concept his approval before he passed away in 1991.

Star Trek: Voyager (2371-2378)

Airdate: 1995-2001

Plot: After the ship Voyager gets stranded in the Delta Quadrant (the far side of the Milky Way galaxy) while searching for a renegade ship, they must make the 75-year journey home. Voyager was fronted by Trek’ s first female captain, Kathryn Janeway (Kate Mulgrew).

Star Trek: Picard (2399-?)

Airdate: 2020 — ? (A second season is already in the works)

Plot: Many years after a daring mission to save a dying planet, Captain Picard — now an Admiral — has left Starfleet (or, more accurately, Starfleet has left him). But when a mysterious young woman with a potential connection to a certain beloved android shows up at his doorstep, it sets in motion events that lead Picard back into space — albeit with a crew that’s more swashbuckler than Starfleet.

Kelvin Timeline

Star Trek (2233-2258)

Release date: 2009

Plot: A bad guy named Nero (Eric Bana), angry that his planet is destroyed in the future, travels back in time and kills Kirk’s father (in 2233). He then hangs out for a long time to destroy Vulcan (in 2258) in front of old Spock who has also traveled back in time (and is played by Leonard Nimoy) because Spock failed to save the baddie’s home planet. Current-day Kirk (Chris Pine) encounters old Spock who explains all the confusing time-jump mechanics to him. Together, current-day Kirk and Spock (Zachary Quinto) become begrudging friends and save the universe.

Star Trek: Into Darkness

Airdate: 2013

Plot: The second J.J. Abrams film stars Benedict Cumberbatch as a villain that the marketing team really tried to convince people was not genetically-engineered superhuman Khan. (He was Khan.) Kirk leads a mission to capture Khan after her murders a bunch of Starfleet officers.

Star Trek Beyond

Airdate: 2016

Plot: Justin Lin took over for the third reboot film and threw in some motorcycles because he has a thing for fast vehicles. In this one, a baddie named Krall (Idris Elba) kidnaps part of Kirk’s crew in hopes that Kirk will exchange a powerful McGuffin for their safety.

More Must-Reads From TIME

• The 100 Most Influential People of 2024
• Coco Gauff Is Playing for Herself Now
• Scenes From Pro-Palestinian Encampments Across U.S. Universities
• 6 Compliments That Land Every Time
• If You're Dating Right Now , You're Brave: Column
• The AI That Could Heal a Divided Internet
• Fallout Is a Brilliant Model for the Future of Video Game Adaptations
• Want Weekly Recs on What to Watch, Read, and More? Sign Up for Worth Your Time

Write to Eliana Dockterman at [email protected]

• More to Explore
• Series & Movies

Published Apr 24, 2024

Stuck in a Loop: The Best of Star Trek's Time-Jumping Episodes

From The Next Generation to Discovery, going around and around is sometimes very revealing.

StarTrek.com

In the Star Trek: Discovery Season 5 episode, " Face the Strange ," Captain Burnham and Commander Rayner find themselves both stuck in a loop, but also, jumping all around the timeline of the titular starship. From the point before the U.S.S. Discovery was launched, to pivotal moments in Season 4, Season 3, Season 2 and even very early in Season 1, Rayner notes at one point that, "We’ve gone back in time to when you went forward to the future. That’s a little confusing."

Throughout all of Star Trek 's history, time travel has been just as propulsive to the narratives as space travel. But, within the various time travel stories of Trek , there is a special kind of time-skipping episode — the time loop story. Discovery has recently shaken-up this formula with "Face the Strange," but many elements of this episode pay homage to a proud Star Trek tradition. Here’s the history of the best time loop, and time-jumping episodes across the entire Final Frontier.

" Cause and Effect ," Star Trek: The Next Generation (Season 5, Episode 18)

"Cause and Effect"

Perhaps one of the greatest science fiction episodes of all time, The Next Generation set the gold-standard for how to do time loop episodes.

When the Enterprise collides with another starship in the first scene, this episode poses one question right off the bat: What happens after you blow up the ship — and everyone on it — before the credits roll? The answer is mostly connected to whether or not we can even remember when we're stuck in a loop. Without actually spoiling this classic episode, let's just say thank the stars for Dr. Crusher and Data.

The brilliance of "Cause and Effect" cannot be overstated, but the 21st Century legacy of this episode is utterly appropriate. When Geordi reveals how the time loop works, Riker says, "You mean we could have come into this room, sat at this table and had this conversation a dozen times already?" This scene has become a popular meme format across various social media platforms, satirizing the time loop of some aspects of the internet experience.

" Parallels ," Star Trek: The Next Generation (Season 7, Episode 11)

"Parallels"

Arguably, when Worf starts slipping between realities in "Parallels," the story is more focused on other dimensions, rather than a true time loop. But, each time he pops into a new reality, Worf does tend to reply to his own personal log, which is what began the episode.

Obviously, in each new timeline, Worf's personal log is different, and because he checks it so often in the episode, this gives "Parallels" the feeling of a time loop story, even though Worf is technically moving both forward in time, and also, side-to-side.

On top of all of this, "Parallels" feels time-loopy because so many ideas and plot points from previous seasons of The Next Generation are revisited here. From references to " The Best of Both Worlds ," to the return of Wesley Crusher, "Parallels" brings all the good things of TNG back around again for another look, from a different point of view.

" All Good Things... ," Star Trek: The Next Generation (Season 7, Episode 25)

"All Good Things..."

Speaking of the best of The Next Generation , the immortal series finale is, from a certain point of view, one big time loop. As Jean-Luc Picard shifts between past, present, and future, the biggest mystery of "All Good Things…" is what caused the anomaly in the Devron system? Eventually, we learn that the ending and the beginning of this story are inextricably connected, a paradox that creates a kind of loop that must be broken.

Twenty-nine years later, in the Star Trek: Picard episode, " Imposters ," Captain Liam Shaw references this moment, and notes that Picard and Riker have a "real chicken and egg thing going on." It doesn’t get any more time-loopy than that!

" Visionary ," Star Trek: Deep Space Nine (Season 3, Episode 17)

"Visionary"

When O'Brien starts seeing another version of himself appearing randomly throughout the station, Dr. Bashir briefly floats the idea that he's just having really boring hallucinations. But, as the episode goes on, it becomes clear that O'Brien is actually seeing brief moments in the future, and then, catching up to those moments in the present.

"Visionary" messes with what we expect from a time loop episode, because in all instances of future occurrences, there are literally two O'Briens present, and, when the past O'Brien catches up to the future moment, the duplication effect happens again, creating a kind of visual loop for the audience. The funny thing is, in several instances, the future doesn't play out exactly the way past O'Brien saw the first time, making this one of the wobblier time loops in all of Star Trek .

" Relativity ," Star Trek: Voyager (Season 5, Episode 24)

"Relativity"

In a move very similar to Discovery 's "Face the Strange," this unforgettable episode of Voyager briefly takes us back to a point before the series even begins, showing us Janeway's first moments on Voyager before the ship left the Utopia Planitia Shipyards on Mars. (In "Face the Strange," Burnham and Rayner see Discovery in a drydock on Earth well before the events of Season 1.)

But, Voyager 's jaunt into its own prehistory is just the beginning of a very specific type of time jumping episode. Here, Seven of Nine isn't exactly repeating a loop, but, making several attempts at different times, to prevent a bomb from destroying Voyager . As Tuvok aptly puts it when encountering one version of Seven from the future, "Like many time paradoxes, it's improbable, but not necessarily illogical." Because this episode features multiple versions of Seven, and leaps to various eras of Voyager , it pairs very nicely with Burnham and Rayner's similar jumps in "Face the Strange." Especially the moment where Seven meets herself.

" Shattered ," Star Trek: Voyager (Season 7, Episode 11)

"Shattered"

Does Voyager have the best timey-wimey episodes in all of the Trek franchise? It's hard to say, but if there's another Trek episode that feels like an older sibling of Discovery 's "Face the Strange," it's almost certainly "Shattered," a fan-favorite episode from Voyager 's final season. Here, the captain and the first officer — Janeway and Chakotay — find themselves on a version of the ship that has been split into different time periods.

"Shattered" is one of Star Trek 's greatest retrospective episodes, touching on moments across all of Voyager 's story, and teaming past versions of characters with ones closer to the present. It's a touching story, and, structurally, it's wonderfully homaged in Discovery .

" Magic to Make the Sanest Man Go Mad ," Star Trek: Discovery (Season 1, Episode 7)

"Magic to Make the Sanest Man Go Mad"

One of Discovery 's stand-out moments from Season 1 fully set the stage for "Face the Strange" in Season 5. In "Magic to Make The Sanest Man Go Mad," Harry Mudd sets the ship on a true time loop, in which only Stamets can truly remember what is going on. Like in "Face the Strange," Stamets has a perception that exists outside of time, thanks to taking on the Tardigrade DNA in "Choose Your Pain."

This detail comes in handy in "Face the Strange," where Burnham and Stamets again have to re-team to get Discovery out of a time loop caused by nefarious enemies using time travel technology as a weapon. In Season 1, Burnham and Stamets barely knew each other, much like Burnham and Rayner's relationship in Season 5. But, if there's one thing a time loop or time-jumping episode can do, it’s make people who are just colleagues into best friends for life.

Get Updates By Email

Ryan Britt is the author of the nonfiction books Phasers on Stun! How the Making and Remaking of Star Trek Changed the World (2022), The Spice Must Flow: The Journey of Dune from Cult Novels to Visionary Sci-Fi Movies (2023), and the essay collection Luke Skywalker Can’t Read (2015). He is a longtime contributor to Star Trek.com and his writing regularly appears with Inverse, Den of Geek!, Esquire and elsewhere. He lives in Portland, Maine with his family.

Star Trek: Discovery Seasons 1-4 are streaming exclusively on Paramount+ in the U.S., the UK, Canada, Switzerland, South Korea, Latin America, Germany, France, Italy, Australia and Austria. Seasons 2 and 3 also are available on the Pluto TV “Star Trek” channel in Switzerland, Germany and Austria. The series streams on Super Drama in Japan, TVNZ in New Zealand, and SkyShowtime in Spain, Portugal, Poland, The Nordics, The Netherlands, and Central and Eastern Europe and also airs on Cosmote TV in Greece. The series is distributed by Paramount Global Content Distribution.

Screen Rant

Star trek: discovery season 5 episode 4 ending explained.

Moll and L'ak send Burnham, Rayner and Stamets hurtling through their past, present, and future as Star Trek: Discovery's treasure hunt continues.

WARNING: Contains SPOILERS for Star Trek: Discovery, season 5, episode 4, "Face the Strange".

• Captain Burnham and Commander Rayner navigate through time to stop the time bug, showcasing their growth and teamwork.
• A Voyager connection reveals the menacing Krenim "time bug" and its catastrophic effects on the USS Discovery's crew and timeline.
• Burnham reflects on her journey as she faces challenges from her past while navigating through alternate futures in "Face the Strange."

Captain Michael Burnham (Sonequa Martin-Green) and Commander Rayner (Callum Keith Rennie) find themselves hurtling through the USS Discovery's past, present, and future in Star Trek: Discovery season 5, episode 4, "Face the Strange". Written by Sean Cochran and directed by Lee Rose, "Face the Strange" demonstrates how far Burnham and Commander Paul Stamets (Anthony Rapp) have come since Discovery season 1 . It's also a chance for Burnham and her new Number One, Rayner, to finally work as a team, as they literally race against time to get Discovery 's hunt for the Progenitors' treasure back on track.

"Face the Strange" reveals that Moll (Eve Harlow) planted a Krenim " time bug " on Ensign Adira Tal (Blu del Barrio) at the end of Star Trek: Discovery season 5, episode 3 . Having worked its way into the USS Discovery's systems, the time bug traps the crew in their own history, randomly cycling the ship through the past, present, and future, freeing Moll and L'ak to retrieve the next clue . Burnham, Rayner, and Stamets are unaffected and work together to get the USS Discovery back to the 32nd century in time to stop Moll and L'ak from completing the next step in Discovery 's treasure hunt.

Star Trek: Discovery Season 5 Returning Cast & New Character Guide

How burnham, rayner & stamets beat star trek: discovery's time bug explained.

The time bug in Star Trek: Discovery is a particularly nasty piece of temporal technology, which proves hard for Burnham, Rayner, and Stamets to beat. Their first attempt to nullify the device fails, because time inside the surrounding field is moving at a rapid pace. Anything that enters the field to remove the time bug will cease to exist within seconds , forcing Stamets to come up with a far riskier strategy.

the warp bubble is what protects the crews of Star Trek 's starships from the effects of relativity...

The trick to beating the time bug is to reduce the flow of time in the surrounding field , but to do that, the USS Discovery has to break the warp bubble and throw relativity out of sync. As they travel faster than the speed of light, the warp bubble is what protects the crews of Star Trek 's starships from the effects of relativity . Abruptly breaking the warp bubble means that the time bug has less time to readjust to relative time outside the USS Discovery. This would weaken the surrounding field for long enough for Rayner to remove the time bug.

The main issue with Commander Paul Stamets ' plan was that the time-traveling trio were in the worst possible time period when it comes to Burnham's standing aboard the USS Discovery. The time bug's final cycle took Burnham, Rayner and Stamets to an early point in Star Trek: Discovery season 1, when Michael was still seen as a dangerous mutineer. For Stamets' plan to succeed, Burnham had to make her way to the bridge, fight and incapacitate her younger self, then successfully convinced the bridge crew to follow the orders of their future captain .

A line of dialog places these scenes at some point between episodes 3 and 4 of Star Trek: Discovery season 1, as Commander Landry is said to still be alive.

Star Trek: Discovery's Time Bug Is A Voyager Connection

Commander Rayner reveals that the time bug is a " Krenim chronophage " left over from Star Trek 's Temporal Wars . The Krenim are a technologically advanced species first introduced in Star Trek: Voyager 's season 4 two-parter, "Year of Hell." The USS Voyager's first encounter with the Krenim went so badly wrong that it created an alternate timeline that descimated the majority of the ship's crew .

This forced Captain Kathryn Janeway (Kate Mulgrew) to make the ultimate sacrifice to restore history. Hailing from the Delta Quadrant, the Krenim had devastating temporal weapons that were capable of removing entire species from existence. While Star Trek: Discovery 's time bug is much smaller, it can still have a devastating impact on its victims , as shown by what will happen if Moll and L'ak get their hands on the Progenitors' technology.

Voyager Is Why Star Trek Is Replacing Discovery’s Spore Drive

Burnham and stamets’ time travel shows how much they've changed on star trek: discovery.

Burnham and Stamets are forced to relive some painful moments from their pasts, but these incidents remind viewers just how far the Star Trek: Discovery characters have come. Stamets hilariously draws on his angrier, snarkier past self from Discovery season 1, which helps him swiftly empty engineering. It's a fun callback to the person that Stamets used to be, before his tardigrade DNA made him more mellow, making him a better husband to Dr. Hugh Culber (Wilson Cruz) and a father figure to Adira. However, Stamets' tartigrade DNA has one drawback; he still experiences the pain of being impaled during the Battle of Control .

Burnham also gets a welcome reminder of how far she's come, courtesy of the Krenim time bug and some words of encouragement from Rayner. Rayner reminds her that she never gave up on her path from prisoner to starship captain , and so she shouldn't give up when faced with their bleak alternate future. Captain Burnham stirring the crew of the USS Discovery on the same day that her younger self came aboard as a prisoner is a strong affirmation of her journey between Star Trek: Discovery seasons 1 and 5.

Burnham's awkwardness around Book seems more rooted in her suppressing her attraction than trying not to change the future

Burnham also gets a chance to reflect on her relationship with Booker (David Ajala), when she meets his past self, fresh out of the shower. Burnham's awkwardness around Book seems more rooted in her suppressing her attraction than trying not to change the future. It's another hint that Burnham and Book's Star Trek: Discovery love story isn't over yet.

Star Trek: Discovery Finally Solves Its Biggest Short Trek Mystery

In the fan-favorite Short Trek , a soldier, Craft (Aldis Hodge) was picked up by the USS Discovery after his escape pod had drifted through space for a month. Craft formed a bond with Zora (Annabelle Wallis) who had been left behind by the USS Discovery a thousand years earlier. For years, fans speculated over where "Calypso" fitted into the Star Trek: Discovery timeline, something that the showrunners promised would come further down the line. Now, Discovery season 5, episode 5 "Face the Strange" provides the answer. "Calypso" takes place in an alternate version of the 42nd century, a thousand years after the Progenitors' technology had fallen into the wrong hands .

Star Trek Needs To Bring Back Short Treks

Burnham and Rayner's jump into the future reveals that Star Trek: Deep Space Nine 's Breen got hold of the Progenitors' technology and used it to destroy Starfleet and the Federation. As the USS Discovery hangs in space, Burnham and Rayner look out at a devastated Federation Headquarters, as Zora pleads with them to change the future. The use of a calypso version of Doris Day's "Que Sera Sera" is Star Trek: Discovery 's subtle confirmation that it's this catastrophe that left Zora abandoned for a thousand years before Star Trek: Short Treks .

Did Star Trek: Discovery Retcon Airiam’s Season 2 Sacrifice?

While convincing the crew of the USS Discovery to help with her plan to return to the 32nd century, Captain Burnham reveals that Lt. Commander Airiam (Hannah Cheeseman) will sacrifice her life to save her crew mates. Airiam accepts Burnham's future knowledge, because she knows that she would sacrifice her life in those circumstances. Airiam's knowledge of her own future is what eventually convinces her to follow Burnham's orders by breaking the warp bubble . In normal circumstances, knowledge given to her by a time-traveling Burnham would mean that Airiam will sacrifice her life in Star Trek: Discovery season 2 because she knows she has to.

However, due to the nature of the Krenim time bug, and Stamets' solution, Burnham telling Airiam about her tragic future doesn't retcon Star Trek: Discovery season 2. By removing the time bug before the next loop, Burnham, Rayner and Stamets negate everything that they did, meaning that, for example, young Burnham won't remember her fight with her future self. This means that Airiam will still make the decision to sacrifice her life in Discovery season 2, independently, not because she was inspired to do so by Captain Burnham .

Rayner Is Finally “Connecting” With USS Discovery's Crew

Callum Keith Rennie's Commander Rayner continues to go from strength to strength in Star Trek: Discovery season 5. Following Burnham's orders to " connect " with the Discovery crew in the previous episode, Rayner demonstrates how much he was paying attention during his brisk one-on-one meetings. Not only does Rayner give Burnham the encouragement she needs not to give up, he and Stamets appear to bond over being " old dogs " who specialize in " gruff candor ".

Why I'm On Rayner's Side In Star Trek: Discovery Season 5

Rayner's most notable connection is with Gen Rhys, whose theory about Moll and L'ak he brusquely dismisses at the start of the episode . Thrown back into time when Rhys was just a lieutenant, Rayner gets through to the young officer by bonding with him over a love of Constitution-class starships. Rayner's connection with Rhys is enough to convince the officer to lower his phaser and let him and Stamets proceed with their plan. Back in the 32nd century, Rayner finally acknowledges the value of Rhys' tactical assessment that Moll and L'ak would just follow Discovery to the next clue .

Rayner also tells Rhys that he's lost his family, teasing more about the new Star Trek: Discovery character's backstory.

Where Have Moll And L’ak Gone In Star Trek: Discovery Season 5, Episode 5?

The Krenim time bug caused the USS Discovery crew to lose six hours to Moll and L'ak in Star Trek: Discovery season 5, episode 4 . Returned to Tzenkethi space in the 32nd century, Lt. Commander Joann Owosekun (Oyin Oladejo) picks up Moll and L'ak's trail, but it quickly stops dead , meaning that they've seemingly disappeared. A starship trail that drops dead just before an episode called "Mirrors" would certainly play into Star Trek: Discovery season 5's Mirror Universe theory . Perhaps the reason that Moll and L'ak's trail stops dead is because they've phased into another reality altogether.

It's possible that Moll and L'ak picked up more than a Romulan puzzle box...

Alternatively, given Star Trek: Discovery season 5's Romulan connection, their ship could have used an interphasic cloak, first seen in the Star Trek: The Next Generation episode "The Next Phase". Interphasic cloaking technology effectively turned Lt. Geordi La Forge (LeVar Burton) and Ensign Ro Laren (Michelle Forbes) into ghosts, unable to be seen by their crewmates. It's possible, therefore, that Moll and L'ak picked up more than a Romulan puzzle box in Star Trek: Discovery 's season 5 premiere, meaning that they could have a considerable tactical advantage over Burnham and the crew in the next stage of the treasure hunt.

Star Trek: Discovery streams Thursdays on Paramount+.

Star Trek May Be Returning To Rick Berman’s Era In 1 Big Way

• Alex Kurtzman's Star Trek era may be returning to a pattern resembling the 1990s Star Trek franchise executive produced by Rick Berman.
• Star Trek on Paramount+ looks to have two live-action shows and a movie every 2-3 years.
• This is similar to how Star Trek: Deep Space Nine and Voyager were on TV while The Next Generation released theatrical movies in the 1990s.

The modern Alex Kurtzman era of Star Trek seems to be set to follow a familiar programming pattern established by the show's former showrunner, Rick Berman . Changes in technology and the way audiences consume media have shifted the approach to creating and releasing Star Trek content. Throughout Star Trek' s history, control of the series and movies has changed hands multiple times, leading to variations in programming styles and episode lengths. The traditional seven-season runs with over 20 episodes each, as seen in the previous Star Trek series in the 1990s, are now less common due to budget constraints and evolving viewing habits.

Star Trek: Lower Decks and Star Trek: Discovery are set to end after their fifth seasons, in contrast to the longer runs of Rick Berman's Star Trek shows . From 1987 to 2005, Berman oversaw Star Trek: The Next Generation , Star Trek: Deep Space Nine , Star Trek: Voyager , and Star Trek: Enterprise , which expanded the Star Trek universe and created beloved characters and storylines. However, franchise fatigue and internal management issues ultimately led to Star Trek' s decline. Since taking over in 2017, Alex Kurtzman has brought a new vision to the franchise, with some of the newer Star Trek series sparking mixed reactions among fans but still marking a fresh chapter in the iconic show's legacy. Despite the changes resulting from Star Trek becoming a streaming franchise, recent developments suggest a return to the programming patterns established during Berman's tenure .

The Complete Star Trek Timeline Explained

Star trek on paramount plus may return to rick berman’s 1990s era, star trek: strange new worlds has been renewed for a fourth season, with season 3 due for release in 2025..

Star Trek: Discovery concluding with its fifth and final season and the recent announcement that Star Trek: Lower Decks will not be renewed after season 5 marks a departure from the recent trend of multiple concurrent Star Trek shows. The forthcoming Star Trek: Starfleet Academy series will continue the franchise’s modern storytelling approach under Alex Kurtzman’s guidance, exploring new perspectives within the Star Trek universe. With Star Trek: Prodigy having moved to Netflix, Paramount is poised to enter 2025 with a focus on only two live-action shows – Starfleet Academy and Star Trek: Strange New Worlds – and plans for TV movies every 2 years.

Star Trek: Section 31 , Paramount+'s first upcoming streaming movie, stars Michelle Yeoh as Emperor Philippa Georgiou from Star Trek: Discovery .

This schedule is a nostalgic nod to the successful formula of Star Trek ’s Rick Berman era in the 1990s , with Star Trek: Deep Space Nine and Star Trek: Voyager on television, with Star Trek: The Next Generation movies releasing every few years. This strategic shift not only harkens back to a proven business model, perhaps more sustainable for Paramount+ than multiple high-budget multiple-season series, but it also sets the stage for a successful new modern approach to the beloved Star Trek franchise by catering to both existing fans and potential new audiences seeking consistent content and ensuring a cohesive storytelling experience.

Why 5 Star Trek Shows At The Same Time Won’t Happen Again

Star trek: discovery & star trek: lower decks will air their final seasons in 2024.

The modern era of Star Trek has seen a resurgence with a plethora of new series and characters readily available to fans. However, the landscape of on-demand streaming is constantly evolving, reshaping how audiences interact with content as streaming services continuously adapt to meet viewer expectations. Paramount+ has positioned itself as the go-to platform for Star Trek content, but a focus on subscriptions over user experience has resulted in the temporary leasing of some Star Trek shows to other providers. The potential sale or merger of Paramount raises questions about the future of the platform and its commitment to long-term plans for established franchises like Star Trek .

Looking ahead, it seems unlikely that Paramount will invest in developing multiple simultaneous new Star Trek shows, opting instead to focus on quality over quantity. The emphasis will likely be on maintaining a smaller number of current shows, TV movies, and access to the extensive Star Trek back catalog . While the Star Trek franchise remains a valuable asset for Paramount, the days of having five Star Trek shows airing concurrently like in 2022 may be a thing of the past. Although Star Trek is secure in its place at Paramount , the focus seems to have shifted towards financial considerations rather than expanding the franchise with multiple new shows.

All Star Trek shows (except Prodigy) are available to stream on Paramount+.

Star Trek: Starfleet Academy

Writers Gaia Violo, Tawny Newsome

Star Trek: Strange New Worlds

Writers Bill Wolkoff, Akiva Goldsman, Henry Alonso Myers

Star Trek: Voyager

Writers Kenneth Biller, Jeri Taylor, Michael Piller, Brannon Braga

Star Trek: Deep Space Nine

Writers Ira Steven Behr, Michael Piller, Ronald D. Moore