Starring: Kate Mulgrew, Robert Beltran, Roxann Biggs-Dawson, Robert Duncan McNeill, Jennifer Lien, Ethan Phillips, Robert Picardo, Tim Russ, Garrett Wang.
Screenplay by: Michael Piller & Jeri Taylor
Story by: Rick Berman & Michael Piller & Jeri Taylor
Directed by: Winrich Kolbe
SAM'S MARK:
SYNOPSIS
A Maquis ship, escaping from a Cardassian attack, is lost in the Badlands.
Starfleet launches the U.S.S. Voyager, commanded by Captain Kathryn Janeway,
to find it when it's been lost for a week. While investigating the Badlands,
Voyager is swept up by an anomaly, and transported 70,000 light years to
the opposite side of the galaxy. At maximum warp, it would take 75 years
for Voyager and her crew to return to earth.
In the Delta Quadrant, they discover an Array, and the missing Maquis ship. Exploring the Array, the crew of both Voyager and the Maquis ship are kidnapped, and tested upon by the Array. Three days later, they are returned to their ships, except for Voyager's Ensign Harry Kim, and the Maquis's chief engineer B'Elanna Torres.
The Maquis and Voyager join forces to find their crew members and return to the Array. There, they meet the Caretaker, who tells them that it is impossible to find their friends again, and also impossible to return home, because he has a debt that cannot be repayed, and he is running out of time. He looks after the Ocampa on a nearby planet by sending energy pulses every few minutes to help the Ocampa survive. With that, Janeway and Chakotay are returned to Voyager.
They detect a nearby planet, and make a course for it. Along the way, they meet Neelix, a trader, who claims to be able to help them find their missing crew members, who he says are with the Ocampa, who live on the planet they're heading for. Neelix is brought onboard Voyager to assist them with the rescue.
Voyager arrive at the Ocampa Homeworld, and Janeway, Chakotay, Neelix beam down to the surface. Instead of meeting the Ocampa, they have an unpleasant encounter with the Kazon, but manage to rescue Kes, an Ocampa prisoner of the Kazon. The Ocampa live underground, and Kes is one of few who have managed to escape to the surface. Escaping from the Kazon, Kes volunteers to help them get Harry and B'Elanna back.
Meanwhile, Harry and B'Elanna are in the Ocampa settlement, and looking for a way to escape and get back to their crews. They are told the only way to get to the surface is through old escape tunnels.
The Voyager crew find a small crack in the Ocampa defence, and beam into their settlement. There they discover that Harry and B'Elanna have already escaped. The Caretaker's energy pulses start becoming more frequent, and the crew realise that he's dying. He is sending enough energy to the Ocampa for them to survive for at least five years. The pulses disrupt Voyager's transporter, and Janeway and the others are forced to follow Harry and B'Elanna out through the ancient tunnels.
As the pulses become more frequent, the passage through the tunnel becomes more and more dangerous, and they barely manage to escape to the surface before the tunnels collapse. Making a direct course for the Caretaker, in the hopes that he will be able to send them home before he dies, Voyager and the Maquis encounter the Kazon again, and engage in a fercious battle.
In the midst of the fray, the Caretaker tells Janeway that the Array must be destroyed or else the Kazon will destroy the Ocampa. It is the Caretaker's last dying wish. He brought the crew to the Delta Quadrant becuase he was searching for a suitable mate, because the second Caretaker ran away in pursuit of more exciting adventures, abandoning her duties to the Ocampa.
Faced with a decision to either protect the Ocampa or go home, Janeway makes the difficult choice, and chooses to save the Ocampa, stranding the crew 70,000 light years from home, and facing a 75 year journey.
Meanwhile, in the battle between Voyager, the Maquis and the Kazon, the Maquis ship is destroyed. Janeway returns to Voyager, and orders the Array destroyed. Once it's destroyed, the Kazon retreat, leaving Captain Janeway and the crew to begin their life-long trek to return to Earth.
