Star Trek: Voyager began life in 1995 with some truly
fascinating prospects in its two-hour pilot episode. Opening in the 24th
century, a setting contemporary with that of Star Trek: The
Next Generation and Star Trek: Deep
Space Nine and carrying over story elements from each of those series,
"Caretaker" finds Starfleet Captain Kathryn Janeway stepping into
the middle of Federation troubles with the Maquis, an army of rebels violently
resisting the interplanetary organization's treaty with the brutal Cardassians.
In the process, both Voyager and the Maquis ship under surveillance are
accidentally catapulted out of the galaxy's Alpha Quadrant (the familiar
stomping grounds of Starfleet personnel) by a benign but dying being called the
Caretaker. Voyager ends up in the unexplored Delta Quadrant, some 70,000
light years away.
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