Out of the 3 Kes seasons, I always found Season 1 was the weakest. Really "Parallax" was a weak follow-up to "Caretaker" and I could never understand why two time-travel stories were aired back to back right at the start of the show ("Parallax" and time And Again"). "Heroes And Demons" I think was the low point of Season 1. "Twisted" I found to be a great episode, plus I really like how "Learning Curve" introduced us to just how different Voyager's bio-neural circuitry was to TNG & DS9's Duotronic-based circuitry, or whatever the conventional 24th century circuitry was being called. I'm surprised that in "Basics" Seska didn't have that Kazon release a virus into the ships systems.
Filming Seasons vs. Broadcast Seasons
- Thread starter Daddy Todd
- Start date
Season One
20 episodes shot
16 episodes broadcast (Projections, Elogium, Twisted and The 37s held back)
There would've been more episodes but Caretaker ran horrifically over budget after two lots of reshoots.
Season Two
26 episodes shot
4 season one episodes + 22 season two episodes broadcast (Basics Pt 2, Sacred Ground, False Profits and Flashback held back)
Season Three
22 episodes shot
4 season two episodes + 22 season three episodes broadcast
It is possible some episodes were planned to have been filmed and held back but the proposed change in cast at the start of the following season likely nixed that. Year of Hell was the planned season three finale but was changed.
Season Four, Five, Six and Seven
26 episodes shot
26 episodes broadcast
Interesting to read that The Gift in season four where Kes leaves was supposed to be broadcast as ep405, but scheduling issued meant it was screened as ep402.
20 episodes shot
16 episodes broadcast (Projections, Elogium, Twisted and The 37s held back)
There would've been more episodes but Caretaker ran horrifically over budget after two lots of reshoots.
Season Two
26 episodes shot
4 season one episodes + 22 season two episodes broadcast (Basics Pt 2, Sacred Ground, False Profits and Flashback held back)
Season Three
22 episodes shot
4 season two episodes + 22 season three episodes broadcast
It is possible some episodes were planned to have been filmed and held back but the proposed change in cast at the start of the following season likely nixed that. Year of Hell was the planned season three finale but was changed.
Season Four, Five, Six and Seven
26 episodes shot
26 episodes broadcast
Interesting to read that The Gift in season four where Kes leaves was supposed to be broadcast as ep405, but scheduling issued meant it was screened as ep402.
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The Gift cannot have been filmed to be episode 5, Seven gets fully "de-Borged" in the episode, so continuity would be shot to hell if they moved it more than one spot. (Nemesis does not feature Seven, so that means they could have switched those two if they wanted to.) The Gift was intended to be a later ep only in the pre-production stage.
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Is that really the reason, though? DS9 and VGR both had 20-episode first seasons and January premieres. Since VGR's first season followed the same pattern as DS9's, I've always assumed it was intended all along to have a shortened first season. Having extra time and money to spend on development and the pilot may have been part of the reason, but that would've been planned in advance rather than a reaction after the fact.
I never said it was filmed to be fifth; Jennifer Lien was contracted for the first five episodes but her next project required more of presence sooner, and so her departure was brought forward.
Well, Caretaker cost between $19-23 million after the Genevieve recasting, and then the whole fiasco with Mulgrew's hair. The production team wanted their own shuttle for Parallax but there was nothing left in the budget; they had to redress TNG's Type 6 shuttle instead.
I'm just guessing had Caretaker gone to budget there could've been more episodes.
I never knew that. Is this referenced somewhere? I always thought because of budget reasons, they wanted to get Lien out the door as quickly as possible.
I'm having a little trouble with your figures. $19-23 million??? If after the reshoot the entire thing had gone that big, then that would've been the most costly pilot in all of TV to date, not just Star Trek. As I recall from the commentary on the Blu-Ray for "Fringe"'s pilot, and other news programs calling the "Fringe" pilot back in 2009 the costliest ever at between $10 and $11 million dollars, while the average "Fringe" episode was shot at I believe somewhere in the $5-$6 million dollar range I don't see how "Caretaker", made 14 years earlier, would have that budget. And for TNG & DS9, for a 2-part episode it was in the $4-$5 million range, when you combine the budget of two episodes into one, with the pilot for DS9 maybe being closer to $6 million, if Paramount really wanted to spend more on the pilot. But for "Caretaker" to have had a budget of nearly 5 times the size of a regular 2-part episode seems highly questionable.
Just found this from the Globe and Mail in 2011:
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/arts...e-tv-pilots-and-how-they-fared/article595287/
With the pilot for "Lost" being the most expensive pilot as of 2011, at $14 million, I don't see where you get $19-23 million.
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My apologies. I think I can be forgiven for thinking that's what you meant, considering the way it was worded.
And there's no source for that claim on "Memory Alpha". And surely before publishing that list of expensive pilots, the Globe and Mail would've cross checked to have made sure that the pilot to "Lost" was indeed the most expensive pilot to date, and if Caretaker had cost 23 million, it surely would've made the list.
^Maybe the $19-23million figure is accurate, but with amortization, the cost effectively comes down? The bridge cost a fortune, but if you spread the cost out over the whole 7 seasons (because the bridge was used as a main set piece for the whole time) the 'official' cost is then lower? Just a guess on my part...
The original VHS releases for New Zealand (at least) for season one contained ten tapes, with those four on tapes 9 and 10. They were also broadcast like that here too.
Yea... Thats just a random Chakotay episode. I love Voyager and especially think it gets better as it goes on. I wouldn't stop now just because of the occasional dud.
Season 2 has been rough sledding. Finally finished "Manuvers" last night. The Kazon and Seska come across as less compelling than the moustach-twirling villains in a Scooby Doo cartoon.
In the first 4 episodes of the season, they destroyed three shuttles. The writers seriously need some new schtick.
All 3 Chakotay episodes have been dire. Beltran looks embarrassed by some of the business in "Tattoo" which is only right and proper, as it's pretty embarrassing business -- like getting naked to meet his mythical Sky People. Oh my!
I hate to say this, as I was a fan of Robert Beltran from his "Eating Raoul" days, but the writing for Chakotay is destroying the character -- and destroying Beltran's performances. Olivier couldn't make this stuff work.
Someone apparently decided, over the break between seasons, that there needed to be more Starfleet/Maquis conflict. They also decided that the Kazon needed to be the Big Bad for the season, despite those elements being something like 5 and 8 months in the past, in series time. They should've come up with a different Big Bad race, but I suppose they already had a ton of money invested in ratty wigs...
I'll keep watching, but I'm really missing the quality of the first season.
In the first 4 episodes of the season, they destroyed three shuttles. The writers seriously need some new schtick.
All 3 Chakotay episodes have been dire. Beltran looks embarrassed by some of the business in "Tattoo" which is only right and proper, as it's pretty embarrassing business -- like getting naked to meet his mythical Sky People. Oh my!
I hate to say this, as I was a fan of Robert Beltran from his "Eating Raoul" days, but the writing for Chakotay is destroying the character -- and destroying Beltran's performances. Olivier couldn't make this stuff work.
Someone apparently decided, over the break between seasons, that there needed to be more Starfleet/Maquis conflict. They also decided that the Kazon needed to be the Big Bad for the season, despite those elements being something like 5 and 8 months in the past, in series time. They should've come up with a different Big Bad race, but I suppose they already had a ton of money invested in ratty wigs...
I'll keep watching, but I'm really missing the quality of the first season.
Basics P2, Sacred Ground, False Profits, and Flashback may have been FILMED as part of the Season 2 schedule, but they were never intended to be part of that season.
As far as Projections, Elogium, Twisted, and The 37s go, they belong in Season 1 because that's where they were clearly intended to go and because they give the season a complete narrative arc.
Regarding Initiations, I actually like that episode and think it makes for a very effective season premiere, but to each their own.
As far as Projections, Elogium, Twisted, and The 37s go, they belong in Season 1 because that's where they were clearly intended to go and because they give the season a complete narrative arc.
Regarding Initiations, I actually like that episode and think it makes for a very effective season premiere, but to each their own.
Yea... they didn't write him well and in turn he didn't act it well. By the end, he basically just showed up and they gave him pretty much minimal lines.
But there are amazing characters too (Seven, Janeway, The Doctor) and great characters (Tuvok, B'Elanna, Tom Paris). Harry Kim and Chakotay sort of got the short end of the stick, but even they aren't that bad I think. I like Chakotay's interactions with Janeway, especially in the early seasons. By the end, he was just... there.
I do enjoy his character in most of the relaunch novels though.
And oh yeah...the Starfleet vs. Maquis conflict came too little too late. Although I personally greatly enjoy the eventual family-like feel Voyager has by Seasons 4-7.
From memory - and this is very hazy - there was a memo passed around the production team reminding them that Voyager didn't lose any shuttles in the first season, so they planned to shake things up a little. Unfortunately they all took the memo to heart and bottlenecked the start of the season with crashing shuttles!
Season two is just killing me. I've only been able to get through 9 episodes so far.
I'm struggling to define what changed between the seasons. One thing that comes immediately to mind is that Kes has all but disappeared. Harry is way in the background, Tom seems like a day-player. Only Torres and Chakotay are getting much to do. Unfortunately, the Chakotay episodes have been abysmal, and Torres's episodes are only marginally better.
Oh, and Kazon. Ugh!
I'm struggling to define what changed between the seasons. One thing that comes immediately to mind is that Kes has all but disappeared. Harry is way in the background, Tom seems like a day-player. Only Torres and Chakotay are getting much to do. Unfortunately, the Chakotay episodes have been abysmal, and Torres's episodes are only marginally better.
Oh, and Kazon. Ugh!
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