The Number of Episodes in Season 1

[Ro_Laren]

Does anyone know why Season 1 of Voyager only had 16 episodes? Doesn't each season of every other Star Trek series have about 20+ episodes in it? Maybe TOS is different, but I thought that from TNG onwards, each series had 20+ episodes a season.

 

[Tosk]

Didn't an episode or two get held over to second season? I seem to recall something about that.

And DS9's first season had 19 eps, so it's not unheard of to drop below 20.

 

[jaz'a]

Season 2 had 26 episodes- same as every other season so it seems unlikely this is what happened to season 1.

 

[Tosk]

Just looked it up on MemAlpha...

This episode was written and produced for Star Trek: Voyager's first season. Brannon Braga noted, "This is the episode we designed to be the final show of the season." (Cinefantastique, Vol. 27, No. 4/5, p. 81)

And it was four eps that were held over, apparently.

CIC Video released the four season 1 "hold-over" episodes in their production order, as part of the first season release. This is the second episode in Volume 1.10, which begins with "Twisted". Volume 2.1 begins with "Initiations".

 

[Ar-Pharazon]

Didn't the series debut in January?

Maybe just a sort of mid-season thing.

 

[Enterprise is Great]

I believe that they didn't want the final 4 episodes to air after the final Sweeps month was over. Networks really try to get all new episodes of a season in before Sweeps ends so they don't lose ad revenue.

 

[cylkoth]

Didn't the series debut in January?

Maybe just a sort of mid-season thing.

Precisely. The show debuted in January, so a full 22/24/26 episode order wasn't done. There were 20 eps produced for season 1, with ''Caretaker'' counted as eps 1 & 2. ''Learning Curve'' ended the May sweeps ratings period. The last 4 of the season were held over for an 'early' start to season 2 (rather than running them on thru June), airing at the end of August '95.

DS9's 26 episode seasons would often see at least 2 new eps running during June. It also had a 20 ep first season, with the final two, ''Duet'' & ''In the Hands of the Prophets'', shown the 1st two weeks of June. But as VOY was on a network, UPN probably didn't feel the need/want to have fresh episodes on the air during-for them, the traditional network rerun graveyard.

 

[Finn]

Yeah, because Voyager started mid-season. TNG started in September, I believe.

 

[Christopher]

Precisely. The show debuted in January, so a full 22/24/26 episode order wasn't done. There were 20 eps produced for season 1, with ''Caretaker'' counted as eps 1 & 2. ''Learning Curve'' ended the May sweeps ratings period. The last 4 of the season were held over for an 'early' start to season 2 (rather than running them on thru June), airing at the end of August '95.

Additionally, the last four episodes produced as part of season 2 were held over for the start of season 3, for the same "early start" purposes, but this time they knew in advance that it would happen, so they did the season finale "Basics, Part I" four episodes early. In production order, the last four shot as part of season 2 (but written for season 3) were "Sacred Ground," "False Profits," "Flashback," and "Basics, Part II." They waited to film part 2 because it was location-heavy and they wanted to wait until the daylight hours got longer. (http://en.memory-alpha.org/wiki/Basics,_Part_II_(episode)#Production)

Therefore, in terms of production schedules, the first season was 20 episodes, the second 26, the third 22, and the rest 26; whereas in broadcast schedules, the first was 16 and the rest were all 26.

 

[Isolinear]

Projections
Elogium
Twisted
The 37's

were all Season-1 episodes. Originally, the 37's was supposed to be the final episode of the season. It definitely works better as a season-finale than Learning Curve.

Didn't know that about season 3 Christopher! Do you know what happened on TNG season 2 and DS9 season 1?

 

[Captain Kathryn]

I believe that the first season of any show commonly has a standard of 13-20 episodes, which is oftentimes LESS than the following seasons. The first season is a kind of test to see how the show will respond and how the ratings will be. Once they know people are watching, I believe the following seasons are more likely to contain more episodes.

Also, yeah, like someone else said...if a show/season is a mid-season replacement, then it will have less episodes.

 

[Christopher]

Didn't know that about season 3 Christopher! Do you know what happened on TNG season 2 and DS9 season 1?

The 1988 Writers' Guild of America strike delayed the beginning of season 2, so it was shortened by four episodes. There's a popular misconception that the season 2 finale "Shades of Gray" was a consequence of the strike, but that's completely wrong; the strike was over well before that point, and even clip shows still need to be written. (It was made as a budgetary compromise, so they'd have more money to spend on important episodes like "Q Who.")

DS9 and VGR both started in midseason (January) rather than the usual September premiere date, so they were started out with 20-episode first seasons. Maybe this was to avoid the September rush of other season premieres, or maybe doing fewer episodes in the first season let them allocate more of the season's budget to initial set construction, miniature-building, and other startup costs.

I believe that the first season of any show commonly has a standard of 13-20 episodes, which is oftentimes LESS than the following seasons. The first season is a kind of test to see how the show will respond and how the ratings will be. Once they know people are watching, I believe the following seasons are more likely to contain more episodes.

That's not a universal rule by any means. Many shows' first seasons are full-length. Yes, often the initial season order will be 13 episodes (sometimes even fewer, like 7-9), and if it does well, there will be more episodes ordered, typically a "back nine" to fill out a season to a full 22 episodes, which has been the standard for the past couple of decades. (The Trek shows were just about the last ones to have 26-episode seasons after everyone else had dropped to 22 as the standard. These days, though, season lengths have become more variable, it seems.)

 

[LOKAI of CHERON]

I literally have all of Star Trek ripped to hard disk uncompressed for instant episode selection/playback from a media player. Organised in folders by Show>Season, I have VOY Season One arranged as 19 episodes ending with "The 37's" - as originally released on VHS in the UK. Season Two begins with "Initiations".

"The 37's" is far, far more satisfying as a season finale than "Learning Curve". Also, the 4 "hold-overs" truly feel like they belong in S1 - including Janeway's bun hairstyle!

 

[DigificWriter]

Amazon's video streaming service has all 7 seasons of Voyages available for free to Amazon Prime subscribers, and lists all of the episodes that were produced during Seasons 1 and 2 but we're held off for broadcast until the seasons after they were produced during the seasons they were produced for, although not in their correct production order. In case anyone's interested, here's the order in which Amazon has the eps listed, followed by a list that places them in their correct placement by production number.

Amazon Voyager Episode Order
Season 1:
Caretaker
Parallax
Time and Again
Phage
The Cloud
Eye of the Needle
Ex Post Facto
Emanations
Prime Factors
State of Flux
Heroes and Demons
Cathexis
Faces
Jetrel
Learning Curve
The 37s
Projections
Elogium
Twisted

Season 2:
Initiations
Non Sequitur
Partuition
Persistence of Vision
Tattoo
Cold Fire
Manuevers
Resistance
Prototype
Alliances
Threshold
Meld
Dreadnought
Death Wish
Lifesigns
Investigations
The Thaw
Tuvix
Basics (Part 1)
Basics (Part 2)
Flashback
False Profits
Sacred Ground

Voyager S1/S2 Production Order
Season 1:
Caretaker
Parallax
Time and Again
Phage
The Cloud
Eye of the Needle
Ex Post Facto
Emanations
Prime Factors
State of Flux
Heroes and Demons
Cathexis
Faces
Jetrel
Learning Curve
Projections
Elogium
Twisted
The 37s

Season 2:
Initiations
Non Sequitur
Partuition
Persistence of Vision
Tattoo
Cold Fire
Manuevers
Resistance
Prototype
Death Wish
Alliances
Threshold
Meld
Dreadnought
Investigations
Lifesigns
Deadlock
Innocence
The Thaw
Tuvix
Resolutions
Basics (Part 1)
Sacred Ground
False Profits
Flashback
Basics (Part 2)

 

[Guy Gardener]

So you simultaneously think that Caretaker is a single episode, but Basics is two?

 

[DigificWriter]

So you simultaneously think that Caretaker is a single episode, but Basics is two?

I listed the episodes in question exactly as they're listed both on Amazon Instant Video and on Memory Alpha.

 

[Guy Gardener]

I gave a winky face!

If you don't agree with the data, then you shouldn't have posted it.

 

[DigificWriter]

^ Huh? You lost me.

 

[Guy Gardener]

Do you think that two parters count as 1 episode or two episodes?

You figured out in your heart what the truth is?

Now remember that number.

1 or 2.

"Your" Amazon list agrees and disagrees with your truth no matter your decision because it is irrational and logically inconsistent since if Caretaker is one episode, then Basics must be one episode, but if Basics is two episodes then Caretaker must also be two episodes.

Which makes the episode count for season one very, very Schroedingery

 

[DigificWriter]

^ I'm still not entirely following you.

Memory Alpha - which I would consider to be about as official a resource regarding Star Trek as the official Star Trek website itself - lists Caretaker as a single episode and Basics as two, but assigns Caretaker two production numbers (101 and 102). It also does this for Dark Frontier (listed as one episode but assigned two production numbers).

All of the other multi-part eps for the series are listed on Memory Alpha as separate (I.E. Scorpion Part 1 and Scorpion Part 2) and are assigned production numbers accordingly.