Taken Care: That Final Eaglemoss Special

First of all... this is a bit weird... but this will be the 1000th published post on this site. It feels somewhat crazy that after 10 and a half years I'm still here and still writing about Star Trek. Thank you to anyone who has followed since the beginning, to all those who read and comment along the way. You've helped keep me going and I've loved meeting and talking to every single one of you.  Here's to the next 1000....!!!!

We were excited, giddy even at the thought that Eaglemoss would be producing the Caretaker Array from Voyager’s pilot episode. 

Hurrah! Prepare the pre-orders! Donate that final irrelevant lung and stand by the post box!

A year later and the landscape is quite different yet somehow, models find a way. That Caretaker Array did finally ship but via Master Replicas who have bought a considerable chunk of Eaglemoss' remaining catalogue including several of their unreleased models (see also XL USS Stargazer).

What is perhaps most surprising is the size of this special. Certainly the smallest space station in the series, the Array is only just twice the length of the familiar black base. It’s virtually all plastic with the two central rings acting as metal ballast. To be honest I’m not entirely sure what I was expecting here nor am I sure what I actually got.

The detailing is pretty minimal and comparing what we have in the box to the item on screen is not the easiest of jobs. I’d even go as far as saying that this gives an air of being unfinished although it’s actually comparable to the station on screen.

Those antennae/sensor arrays are indeed skeletal if you watch the episode back so there is a decent level of accuracy when it comes to the station's extremities.  In fact they're fairly well detailed too in terms of surface greebling if not that strong. There's a fair bit of give in the larger ones in particular yet it is as screen accurate as you would hope.

Both the outer arms and that central core do have a level of grubbiness to them indicating the grand old age of the array. Problem is, it's just not that exciting as a station or as a product.

The top and bottom assemblies aren't that intricate but do at least bear some resemblance to their vaguely seen "real" versions in Caretaker. I guess this one is a bit of a kicker though thanks to its size and the mix of well detailed elements to that rather plain central core. Yes, there is hull panelling but the single tone colour scheme lies a bit flat and the station feels somewhat lifeless.

As to the stand fit, this one's pretty good, clipping right around the lower elements of the central core and holding the whole station very firmly in place. Nicely constructed and provides a stable base.

Ok, it is just a model but Eaglemoss managed to successfully convey signs of life on many of their other products however it falls a little flat here. The lack of an accompanying magazine is conspicuous too and would probably have helped answer a lot of questions about the resulting build however that's one thing that concretely never saw the light of day.

For now the Caretaker Array rests as a tantilising glimpse at some of the possibilities that might have emerged in 2023 but also represents that final crumbling moment in what was once a huge part of the merchandising market. 

Is it a "must have"? Yes if you're a completist or a Voyager fan but no in every other sense. It's only really gained notoriety because it's Eaglemoss' unreleased special. For me it might even rank below the stick that is Relay Station 47 and maybe as the weakest of the space station/stationary structures. Functional - absolutely but just super, super dull and a disappointing way to have closed down the specials series of models. Who knows what could have been next...

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Les(s) Than Miserable: Val Jean Attack Wing Expansion Pack

Struck another bargain this month!

In a continuing search for some sort of completism, I've managed to pick up a Maquis Raider Val Jean expansion for a few quid (less than a fiver including postage!). Not a bad find and one I had looked at in order to build up a ragtag Independent fleet.

How I'll integrate it I'm not sure but at present I'm just planning on getting used to adding this one in and seeing how quickly I end up losing.

A rather compact little ship, this pack is themed off the back of Voyager's pilot Caretaker and I do see some possibilities of playing a scenario versus the Kazon to recreate that final battle which stranded Janeway and Chakotay's crews in the Delta Quadrant.

Anyhow, let's dive in with our usual first look at the model. Well....for effort it would get a solid eight out of ten just for the fact that the hull has some fantastic surface panelling and detailing but the paint scheme is a flippin' nightmare. 

The red highlights aren't really picking up any of the finer points of the Val Jean leaving it feeling a bit stale and half-finished. Honestly, there's some cracking surface mechanics coupled with a capable mould but the final touches do ruin this one and I'm left to begrudgingly like it. I do have a suspicion that in the near future it may get at least a dirt wash if not significantly more TLC.

So to the stats and this one's no heavyweight capital ship. Punching at featherweight levels with a two for attack and threes on defence, hull and shields, the Maquis Raider is one of those ships you're more likely to be using to dip in and out of the fight in support of your larger craft sticking in four or five dice attacks at minimum. 

That's not to say that she's without any teeth because the Val Jean is complete with the Scan, Target Lock, Battle Stations and Evade Actions plus two optional Crew and Weapon slots with a cost of 22 points. Don't underestimate her defensive capabilities either because the small raider can add up to three defence dice to its roll in the Combat Phase at the cost of up to three equipped Upgrades. She's not big on armament but there's a fair certainty this one will be in the fight to the end.

As to the fancy footwork and with a top speed of four, the Val Jean offers a full set of banks and turns at speeds two and three with banks and forward at speed one. Add in there a 180 spin at speed three and this one can be weaving in and out of larger ships all day long. If you want to take the generic version out for a run, you'll lose a shield point, the Unique Action and one of the Crew upgrades with a slight cost reduction down to 20 points.


So who's in the hot seat for this expansion? 

Taking a closer line to Caretaker than any other episode, the pack comes with (Maquis) Chakotay costing four points and a skill of six. Now, I've never really taken advantage of the characters where you can add additional upgrade slots because I've usually maxed out in other areas when squad building and here Chakotay provides one more Crew or Weapon for your craft. 

He also lets you perform a second maneuver from your dial with a speed of three or less at the cost of an Auxiliary Power Token. Again, this makes the raider very useful in skitting in and out of the way of your opponents since effectively you could perform a seven forward move to escape!

Lining up as your alternative pack commander is The Maquis two-parter's Calvin Hudson. Costing three and skilled to level five, Hudson does open the chance to add a Tech slot to your craft alongside a Crew or Weapon option as provided by Chakotay. For usefulness at helping max out your craft, Hudson, in my opinion is actually the better choice since he also reduces the cost of all your upgrades on the Independent ship he captains by a point - and thus makes the additional upgrade slot more tempting.

The Caretaker dominant theme runs off into the Crew cards too with all four being members of Chakotay's ensemble that joined Voyager.

Costing a high five points we have Seska in her Bajoran disguise and acting in a Support Services capacity. For such a high cost she also requires a fairly sizeable sacrifice of both herself and another upgrade card to target a ship within range three and stop it from attacking. Seska continues the "indestructible and annoying" theme of the Val Jean  keeping it alive and out of trouble for one more round.

B'Elanna Torres (four points) takes a more offensive stance for the ship, allowing the Val Jean to maximise its firepower at long distance. Your opponent gains an additional defence die at range three but with B'Elanna disabled you gain one attack die or TWO if the ship she's aboard has a hull value of three or less. That means the raider would gain the latter advantage and attack with four.

Classed as an Independent (but I reckon he could have been dual-faction), Tuvok (three points) adds more manoeuvrability to the Val Jean with a potential one move after you've attacked. He is disabled to make this happen, allowing for multiple uses and I can see this being most effective when coupled with Torres and Chakotay - lots of moves plus a big attack at long range that can't be returned.

Finally the two point Kenneth Dalby provides further regenerative abilities to be either disabled to repair a shield or a hull point or discarded to repair two hull or shield points. He's one more useful towards the later stages to ensure the longevity of the Raider - and I've experienced this when I played it out against Kazon opposition last week.

Two Weapon choices come with the pack to fill out the other two Upgrade slots on the Val Jean. The tried and tested Photon Torpedoes card for five points is the early wave variant with the card disabled to perform the five dice attack at ranges two or three. One Battle Station result can be converted to Critical Damage and it allows the ship to launch attacks from the rear as well as the primary forward facing weapons.

Ramming Attack is a bt more severe. Taking a lead from Chakotay's final action in command of his ship, you can discard the card and perform a speed one move forward. It's a card you need to be in a specific location to use since if the Raider is over the base of another craft it is destroyed and you get to roll six attack dice against which your enemy rolls three less defence dice than usual. Ramming Attack can only be used for smaller ships with hull values of three or less and, understandably you can't use it alongside the USS Enterprise's Cheat Death Elite Action. 

If you're still looking to fill slots, Chakotay has the Elite Action emblem which provides you with Be Creative or Evasive Pattern Omega if you're running pack pure. 

Be Creative certainly is that, letting you disable the card at any time (wow!) to then swap an Evade, Scan or Battle Stations token in play beside the ship with one of those three choices. A nice way to mislead your opponent or cleverly change strategy if something comes up you weren't expecting. For five points this might be a useful card to have ready...

Then finally we come to the three point Evasive Pattern Omega which is one of those annoyingly situational cards that can only be played when you are in the forward arc of another ship but it is not in yours. Definitely a chance to spin in a chance attack off the cuff , it's not labelled as an Action so this "freebie" can be played alone but only after everyone has moved, allowing you to work out the tactical advantage first!

Packed in with your upgrades, the Val Jean's mission is Escape which sees it navigating the Badlands plasma storms to evade an enemy craft. Ideally it's noted as a Galor Class Cardassian ship as per the opening minutes of Caretaker and on a twist, you have to keep touching at least one mission token in play and for the Maquis ship it needs to touch and therefore collect seven of these before leaving the play area. This means there are less for the Cardassian/Dominion ship to be able to touch on each move, leading to it gaining damage - which means it will need to eliminate the Val Jean before it's too late!

The Val Jean is surprisingly nimble and can really be maxed out even with just the Independent pack that you get with it, especially when linked in with the Calvin Hudson card to reduce costs and even open up a Tech slot if required. It's a real Fly in the Ointment ship, one that will be buzzing around and taking a point here, a shield there just to wear down the enemy fleet. I love the concept behind this and in reviewing it I've seen a lot more opportunities to utilise the pack to its full potential that I didn't explore in my first exploitative game with the pack.

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Eating My Words: Caretaker

For years I regarded it as the lesser Star Trek, the series too far, the show that really disappointed and a point in my full run-through that I wasn't sure I was going to enjoy.

Star Trek: Voyager is, as you might have noticed, 20 years old and recently I finally finished Deep Space Nine (massively let down with that last episode this time round) which meant lining up Caretaker. 

For us in the UK, today has even more significance. It's 20 years exactly since we hurried down the high street to Woolworths and purchased the pilot of the third spin-off, cracked open the plastic case and digested all the wonderful tech info and teasers contained on the sleeve. It was a wonderous experience and these were the days when the box was more than just a transportation item - it was a way into the franchise before you even stuck the tape into the player - and hoped it didn't get chewed on first viewing.

I still recall that first watching; being amazed at the Doctor, loving the hand-over at Deep Space Nine and finding it such a different take to the previous two incarnations. We were back on a starship, somewhere new; the unknown with possibilities galore.

I haven't seen Caretaker since the early 2000's - most likely around the time I watched Endgame and even then it would have been on that very same VHS; Volume 1.1 from CIC Video. 

I flashback to 1994 and remember the rumours, the cast suggestions, the arrival and speedy departure of Genevieve Bujold as Nicole Janeway which only mounted more expectation and hype onto this new child of the franchise. When it did arrive on UK shores some seven months later in July of 1995 to say excitement and anticipation were at fever pitch was very far from the truth; we were way beyond that mark by about March.

Two decades on and Caretaker is, honestly, a great pilot episode. I've derided Voyager a lot in my time for Warp 10, cheese, Neelix, making the Borg all cuddly, having an infinite number of shuttles/torpedoes/crew (delete as applicable) but in Caretaker there is a gold (maybe latinum) mine worth of potential - and the show literally threw it away by the end of the first year and chose another path.

Caretaker is action and adventure to Emissary's more cerebral, philosophical and typically Roddenberry approach to Star Trek. It opened an arc, set the pieces in place and laid out a gameboard that could be developed over subsequent seasons. It would be in one place (which was also true of The Next Generation to some degree) but with Voyager they were alone, lost and would be constantly on the move. Change would be the most constant element and that was one of its unique selling points.

However that's not what appealed to me at the start. I was sold on the conflict, the inter-crew relationships, the difficulty of two crews that disliked each other having to work together for the sole goal of getting home - with the more than occasional detour to look at the anomaly of the week or for Janeway to waste some resources playing at Victorian nanny.

Deep Space Nine had two crews united for the good of Bajor and the Federation who wanted to work together because there was a bigger vision while on Voyager the crews were only looking to be comrades for a short time (maybe) with a sole purpose in mind. But, all the conflict was ditched as soon as the credits rolled on Parallax and Torres was made Chief Engineer. There were touches during the second season's Kazon arc that culminated in Basics and then Worst Case Scenario in year three would drop like a stone to remind us of what could have been - imagine if the season one cliffhanger had been the Maquis trying to take the ship rather than Tuvok playing teacher to some dropouts? Imagine a second year with the Maquis taking priority.

The show chose to play it safe and avoided playing to whatever made it different but Caretaker remains that snapshot of what could have been. The anger and mistrust that could have developed from the Chakotay/Tuvok relationship would have been great to see evolve as would the slow, difficult integration of the two crews. It's perhaps only in season two with that Kazon/Michael Jonas story that we see that thread gather any pace. When we do have stories about the Maquis crew though it makes their swift amalgamation into the crew even more obvious and makes the landmark decisions of the pilot episode seem a distant memory.

But let's focus on Caretaker some more before discussing the rest of the show as I will in my season reviews. Harry Kim has a huge role within the pilot, being captured by the title character and being the audience's eyes and ears within the Ocampan city. His role is pivotal alongside B'Elanna to give the viewpoints of both crews which is something that no other Star Trek series had previously attempted. The #eternalensign ends up spending the rest of the season scanning nebulas and it's only the late second and early third seasons where we see him begin to shine in episodes such as The Thaw, The Chute and getting to take command in Future's End.

While Harry might spend his entire trip home on the bottom rung of the ladder, it's amazing how much of the other characters' backgrounds is laid aside. Janeway's boyfriend is only mentioned fleetingly, Tuvok's age and experience are rarely impressed upon and Paris' rebellious nature gets parked for less a less than desirable womanising aspect of his personality notably until Thirty Days which is a fair way off at this point.

The Doctor at least was given the chance to develop as was the nature of his program within the story although in Caretaker he's not actually used that much. Mind, he is one of the best bits even if he has minimal screen-time. Then there's Neelix and Kes. who certainly polarised fans nearly to Wesley/Keiko levels and while only one of them made it to the seven year distant finishing line, some would argue it was the wrong one.

Caretaker has one element that is consistent with these latter pilots - a distinct, huge alien issue. For Picard's crew it was Q, for Sisko it was the wormhole aliens/the Prophets and pushes the crew to the limit from day one. Having the female version mentioned gave us something to look forward to and a lot of fans including myself may well have believed that her appearance - or at least her final appearance - would close off the show. In reality it provided a simple get-out clause if the concept of a lost starship didn't work and from the fact they sunk Cold Fire into season two and never mentioned Suspiria again you kind of tend to believe it had worked or at the least garnered enough support not to require a quick trip back to the Alpha Quadrant. The Caretaker is unusually not the threat here, desiring to find a solution to his Ocampan issue while holding off the hippie Kazon.

Encounter at Farpoint embraced its predecessor's episodic formula and drove that forward across its seven years, not setting too much up or expecting too much up from its cast. Yes, the first year is barrel-scrapingly bad on occasion but there were signs of gradual improvement once we skip over Code of Honor and get to know the developing characters. Deep Space Nine set a couple of bits in place - the wormhole, the Cardassians, but its fixed point in the Alpha Quadrant meant that these points could never be evaded, they had to be addressed and managed over seven seasons. Voyager could on the other hand escape plot points, move from one arc to another over the course of its trip and explore those differing opinions by placing the crew(s) into a variety of situations where one side might not always be right.

On that front it failed, perhaps in that there was too much front-loaded into the pilot that could not be effectively carried into subsequent single-length episode stories. Considering how the nine characters in this, the largest ensemble in Star Trek were managed, its not a surprise that balls were dropped and might explain why so few of the cast were given any considerable amount of time as the show evolved.

For me, Caretaker represents a dream, a possibility and a vision of Star Trek that may have truly offered that diversity and conflict that we couldn't get from the tight-knit crew of Picard's Enterprise while also giving us the week on week changes that Deep Space Nine's set location could not. However, this all said there would be some truly excellent stories, appearances and ultimately I believe that Voyager is the greatest Star Trek series for concepts - Timeless, Living Witness, Blink of an Eye...the list could easily go on as it tried to push the envelope knowing that each week it could dare to do something different.

Perhaps that gaggle of characters weren't too bad after all and their idiosyncracies really made the adventures into adventures, perhaps this was the ultimate Star Trek action show that occasionally just used a little too much technobabble to dodge a sticky ending. It perhaps was never meant to be a people show, rather about the phaser fights and the big set pieces with those bits of character detail purely there to make these people a bit deeper than action heroes. I now look forward to my own journey through the show and while it isn't Emissary, Caretaker is still a damn good place to meet these guys for the first time.

FCD: Five Minutes with Garrett

Here it is - our 300th post!

A couple of weeks ago we trekked off to First Contact Day run by the fantastic Wil Ross, David Limburg and a team of dedicated miracle workers.

I also managed to grab a five minute chat with the one and only Garrett Wang just before he headed off for the evening.

The consummate professional, Garrett had captivated an audience of some 200+ Star Trek fans with a brilliant 45 minute talk and Q&A which was undoubtedly one of the top highlights of the Saturday.

But what could we ask Garrett? Well, we gathered from his talk that he was enjoying himself (although there could have been some sunshine) over the weekend but I wanted to find out a bit more and seeing as how I'm currently running through the early seasons of Voyager, what better place to start than there. How did he feel about being effectively sidelined for most of those first two seasons?

"I felt underused and that I was the victim of a nine-person ensemble cast....there wasn't a lot of character development. It led me to be in a bit of a state of depression for the first few years. Now when you're depressed one thing happens, you sleep longer than you normally need to sleep because you want to keep sleeping - you don't want to wake up to reality."

"I was late to work maybe two or three times; I came very close to being fired from Voyager because I was late...it was because I was depressed. I was so on top of the world when I got the role because my momentum was moving - I turned down three projects to do Voyager. I was supposed to be in the Mortal Kombat movie playing Lu Kang's younger brother in the opening scene."

I went from being the toast of the town to being someone who was getting 1.2 episodes per season. When you sit there and say "Shields down to 30%" you're not really exercising your acting muscles. So that's where it all came from."

It seems that people in the rumour mill tend to suggest Garrett was doing drugs or partying but the truth was, as revealed, very different.

Garrett noted that Caretaker was all Ensign Kim and his assumption was that the character would be a major part of every single episode.

"But then they started focusing on all the other characters and it all kind of built up on me. By season three I was super bombed-out. I wasn't focused and I felt I had a lot more to give and I wasn't able to stretch my wings. I felt the character needed more humour, the character should have been more human, there should have been more emotion in the characters - but that was negated by Rick Berman. He asked the actors to downplay the human roles in order for the aliens to look real."

Garrett explained that it was desired for the actors playing the human roles to be more wooden, more militaristic and if they did try and do something else they were informed they would be sent a memo requesting them to reshoot the relevant scene.

"Because you put in too much emotion." recalled Garrett, "I had two notices like that in season one and I reshot two scenes and I learned my lesson. I shut up and I was a good company man."

Garrett said how Kate Mulgrew had to reshoot 30 to 40 scenes in season one such as where the character had been crying; "You don't see Janeway cry in season one because they wouldn't allow it! So the show would have been even more amazing if you let the actors just act."

Personally I've found Voyager much better on this rewatch (OK - aside from Threshold) and the Kim character does evolve as the series moves along. Garrett's best moments certainly come when he's given that wing-spread opportunity in episodes such as Emanations, The Thaw and The Chute to name one from each of the first three years. I still have Scorpion to hit which almost looked like Harry was going to go the way of the dodo for season four after being infected by CGI baddies Species 8472. As we all know, it would be Jennifer Lien's Kes that took the hit to make way for Seven of Nine.

Of all the cast I find Kim one of the most fascinating to watch as while he may not get a lot of time, when he does, the ensign gets to shine. 

"That's because as time moves on I got more episodes that could revolve around me," said Garrett, "and I got the 100th episode - that was the best - which was the signature episode of Voyager."

Hey, he's not quite eternally the ensign anyway, making that brief rise to captain in the alternative future of Endgame and perhaps that was another payoff for Wang in that he finally got at least one extra pip in some way.

Brannon Braga, as Garrett continued, wrote him the number one episode - period - hands down. It was Voyager's City on the Edge of Forever according to the series producer. 

And there's no question Timeless is one of the show's best - and I'm very much looking forward to seeing it again after a fair few years (couple of seasons to go yet...) but from memory even when he wasn't in the limelight, Harry was better fed with material in the later years, being much more an integral part of the cast than just telling us what percentage of the shields were left.

"After that it went along the lines of the Doctor, Seven, Janeway show," said Garrett, "and I didn't care because I'd already gotten the best episode so I was like that's fine if you want to focus on those guys! 

Thanks to Brannon Braga and Rick Berman for that! [Timeless]."

Was Kim served better in later years? There's some space below to add your thoughts! Thanks to Garrett Wang for his time and to Wil, David and the First Contact Day team for hosting the event.

If you'd like to know more about First Contact Day 2016 there is some info available HERE

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19 Today!

Marking 19 years since the first episode of Star Trek: Voyager aired on the United Paramount Network we're posting a different image and quote from the show on each of our networks...just a little something different!

UPDATED 18/01/14

For those who weren't able to see them, here are all the images we published on Voyager's 19th birthday!

Mr Kim, At Ease Before You Sprain Something

Welcome to two of our latest additions to the SKoST Contingent with their first post - also our first JOINT post - Hayley and Mark...

WARNING: This article may contain spoiler for those of you who have never seen Star Trek Voyager. If you are one of these people A) How do you live with yourself? B) How did you end up here?

Garrett Wang is known for portraying what started out as a naive Harry Kim, but after seven years stranded in the Delta Quadrant, he ended up evolving into an experienced officer with the respect of the entire crew.

Thursday (December 12th) marked #HarryKimDay; granted we're not exactly sure this is an officically recognised calendar holiday, but since the 15th marks Garrett Wang's birthday - we felt it necessary to celebrate both the actor and the character he portrayed so well.

We're sure if we took census on fans' memories across the seasons, everyone would have very different accounts of the ensign; his defining moments were many, his friendly demeanour infectious.

Speaking of infections... If memory serves right, our loveable ensign was quite the hypochondriac. However to his credit, his fear was well justified! The only other characters to suffer so much infliction were the infamous red shirts of The Original Series. At least Harry made it back alive!

From macrobiotic plagues to Species 8472 attempting to devour him from the inside out, Harry could best be described as a 'walking Petri dish' in this respect. For those of you who again, are strangely unfamiliar with the series (shame on you!), Voyager's Operations Officer was subject to many trials and (tribble)ations. As a broad list, here are his 'finest' moments...

• Converted into energy (Heroes & Demons)
• Infected by the Caretaker (Caretaker)
• Infected by Species 8472 (Scorpion)
• Infected by the Varro mating process (The Disease)
• Incarcerated in two alien prisons (The Chute, Body and Soul)
• Duplicated by silicon-based lifeforms (Demon)
• Died twice! (Emanations, Deadlock)

As a side note to this resume and space-time paradoxes not withstanding, he also managed to kill the entire crew except for himself and Chakotay (Timeless). We won't hold this against him though, but Deanna Troi never brought the Enterprise-D back...

For us over the span of the series, the dynamic that existed between Harry Kim and Tom Paris was fundamental to the success of the show. What at first seemed an unlikely friendship developed into an emotional equilibrium for both characters. Tom Paris, the rebel without a cause, gave Harry much needed confidence and in return Harry was Tom's moral compass. This friendship has much to do with the character development of Harry Kim. The pilot showed the eager young ensign being outmaneuvered by Quark during one of his typical scams, luckily for Harry, Tom was on hand to show him the ropes.

By the penultimate episode, there was Starfleet's brightest, attempting to convince the now responsible Tom, to 'fly into a Borg-infested nebula'. Never was there such a fundamental change in a character since Data started laughing.

We could go on reminiscing about Harry's best and worst moments, suffice to say he was an integral member of the crew and in many ways was considered by most to be the baby of the show even until the bitter end. Although never promoted(!) he served Voyager well demonstrating his command experience numerous times and when needed, going above and beyond the call of duty. His judgement may however have been lacking in the female department, as we must remember he turned Seven of Nine down!

Twelve years on, we salute you Ensign Harry Kim and Happy Birthday Garrett Wang.

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It Is the Unknown that Defines Our Existence: Why "Emissary" is Star Trek's Greatest Pilot

Twenty years and nine months have passed since Star Trek: Deep Space Nine premiered in January 1993 and for me it remains the definitive series of the franchise.

Deep Space Nine is my favourite of all the Star Trek series even though during those unsteady first season episodes I even considered walking away. I can say now that I'm glad I didn't and this rewatch is something I have been gearing up to for a while. What better way to start (and none less obvious) than with the brilliant pilot episode.

Emissary is one of the reasons I stuck with the show. Watching it again I found it much more enjoyable and made even more sense. It had given me a totally different feeling about the Star Trek universe. Things were unusual, the characters darker, the setting bleak. A lot of the hope and prosperity from The Next Generation had been stripped away. I actually find Picard's appearance a bit of a drag now even though it does help the story along. Sisko getting all grumpy with him isn't a highlight and initially I really didn't like the guy. Who was he to stick two fingers up at Picard and hold that kind of a grudge? It wasn't Picard's fault he got assimilated! In another sense this is only a small indication of just how hardcore the station commander would get later on. For reference see anything after the introduction of the beard and shaved head.

For me, Deep Space Nine's first story is the best example of the Gene Roddenberry vision even though, ironically, it's probably the one that appears as far away from the origins and basis of the Great Bird's concept as possible. It ticks almost every box in the Big List of Star Trek Must Have's and even more so with the opening of so many recurring themes as we'll mention shortly. I think the only thing it doesn't have is a bare knuckle fistfight but hey, who would commission a series based on having one of those in the first episode?!

Star Trek was to be a show about the final frontier, exploration, the human condition, diverse characters, humanity's ability to put aside it's differences and in my opinion Deep Space Nine manages to do this in spades. But is it fair to say that Encounter at Farpoint or Caretaker do not fulfil the Star Trek "mission statement" as such? Probably not, but the space station based series really is right on the edge of the frontier - placing the "perfect world" of Starfleet into conflict with the Bajorans while also dumping the crew on the business end of an artificially created wormhole. 

Couple that with the fact that the crew are manning a Cardassian mining station not a Federation/Starfleet vessel with cutting edge technology and we can see how Roddenberry's vision is both highlighted and tested to the extreme. There is nowhere to hide and that comfortable, cuddly humanity is going to be in for a rough ride. Even Sisko's arrival and first meeting with Kira, his liasion and first officer is far from the warm handshakes of Encounter at Farpoint. 

Uniquely the wormhole and the Bajorans mean that Deep Space Nine has a head-on conflict with religion and the uniform from day one which none of the other shows even come close to attempting. Deep Space Nine was a true pioneer and while this theme was not overly popular it gave the series a heap of backstory, a lot of substance and a unique identity. Notably the first season is almost devoid religious aspects bar one or two episodes. 

Now add into that the way from Emissary to What You Leave Behind we are constantly reminded of Sisko's links to the Bajorans and their beliefs as the eponymous Emissary of the Prophets. Look at the other shows and aside from Picard acting as arbiter of succession to the Klingon Empire he is the only commanding officer who stands astride such a division of culture, acting as a distinct bridge from the comfort of Starfleet to the mystery of the Bajorans. 

As well as that, actions from Week A could affect Week B and Week C. There was continuity and questions that needed to be answered from the start but no doubt would take a long time to uncover - Odo's origins, the non-linear time wormhole aliens, the shadowy Cardassian Dukat, the Cardassian occupation and resource-stripping of Bajor; all elements that are introduced here and would play out across the show's 176 episodes. No other Star Trek series allowed events to echo through into other stories as they did here. Brilliantly this construction of the "world" of Deep Space Nine would not finish here. A lot of the subsequent episodes would run with themes suggested here and build even more story elements that would be loved for the next seven years.

Voyager's Caretaker is also about exploration of the unknown and the beginning of a physical journey for the crew, but the staff here are placed at a crossroads and a place and time that will change the very nature of the Alpha Quadrant and the Star Trek universe that we have known for over 25 years. Voyager's foes are far away in the Delta Quadrant but the new frontier for Sisko is right on his doorstep and will fundamentally alter the future of the galaxy in virtually every way possible, a thought not lost on Major Kira in Emissary. The danger is just a footstep away and boy, would it prove to be more than interesting. Enterprise was equally about the unknown but being a prequel we knew what those elements would turn out to be (perhaps with the exclusion of the Xindi and Suliban). Their unknowns formed the universe that Deep Space Nine would rip apart at the very core.

Roddenberry's vision was, of course, to show that humanity could come together, cast aside its differences and work to better itself through exploration of the stars - perhaps moreso the human condition. It's almost as if you had held a mirror up to The Next Generation and done everything as opposite as possible to amplify the very reason for Deep Space Nine's existence. Even the guy at the top, only a commander here not a captain, doesn't want to stick around. There's not a lot of hope and the start out here is the attempt to rise from the ashes and start afresh.

Look back at Encounter at Farpoint and also to Enterprise where they are at the cutting edge of technology and knowledge. For them in their respective timeframes there is nothing better, they are the explorers heading out on new adventures and to final frontiers tooled up for the job in hamd but here that frontier is initially nothing new and nor is it particularly desirable. The equipment itself is substandard even for the environment we are greeted with in Emissary svae nothing of what would come later. For reference it would take until The Way of the Warrior for there to be any major improvements - and an additional Klingon. Maybe that's actually a strong point about the pilot. It's the unexpected. We don't see Sisko as being someone who will be cold to Picard. We expect everything to be cool, sleek and fully functional, we expect the crew to all get on and be reading from the same hymn sheet. Well, they aren't.

While the Enterprise-D had families on board, here on Deep Space Nine it's families and alien races that could change daily with the coming and going of ships at this vital Federation outpost. You get the feeling that Picard might even be a little jealous when he leaves at the end of the pilot. Nothing is the same from day to day and even more significant  these guys can't just fly off and leave whatever incident they've just managed to contain. It will always be on their doorstep be it a passing Kai or a suspicious Cardassian Gul.

What I really like is that Sisko is placed into a situation where he has to justify humanity and his own existence. Now, yes, if we look back at Where No Man Has Gone Before and certainly to the Q storyline from Encounter at Farpoint, this point is there. The man who is a god in the former becomes "better" than human while Q places Picard's crew on trial as representatives of a "savage child-like race" but with Deep Space Nine it is about choice, the element of the unknown which is what life is about as well as the very nature of exploration; it is the unknown, says Sisko, that defines our existence.

Here there is true exploration and what marks this against the previous two shows is the addition of a foreign power into the mix. It's a first that, to some degree would also appear in Voyager with the inclusion of the Maquis. Deep Space Nine just hits a bigger target as the Bajoran militia and Odo have never had any experience of Starfleet. They are truly stepping into unknown waters. The nature of the mission to bring Bajor into the Federation might underpin the series from this point but it takes a backseat to the wormhole in every respect here. 

In another sense Deep Space Nine really hit the ground running in relation to the cast and their abilities. In Encounter at Farpoint it is very hard not to feel uneasy with Picard's bark and stern nature or the cringeworthy Troi. Mulgrew in Caretaker took some serious getting used to - maybe one or two seasons - and in Enterprise everything felt a little untested and uncertain. Here in Emissary I don't think there's a bad performance across the board. OK, there are some makeup issues in relation to Odo and Quark has the wrong nose but these are resolved in the first year. Nothing requires serious adjustment and it truly develops and flourishes from this point.

Now I'm off to hit the first season. I think it's been a good 10 to 15 years since I've watched most of them and undoubtedly my opinion should/will have changed. It's time to take a trip to the New Frontier.....