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These Voyager first contacts were bad, but not USS Equinox bad.
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00:00Did you know that Squarespace are offering a free trial and 10% off your first purchase if you use
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00:11Handling something as delicate as first contact really takes a soft touch. When you're off in
00:18the Delta Quadrant that only becomes much more important because it's not exactly like you've
00:23got an entire fleet standing behind you ready to help. One ship did okay, another ship
00:29maybe was equinoxed by the first one? Not my best pun. With that in mind I'm Sean Farrick for
00:38Trek Culture and here are 10 disastrous USS Voyager first contacts. Number 10, deuterium, hydrogen
00:47sulfate and dichromates. First on this list is a bit of a strange case of a first contact really
00:54because initially the crew of Voyager didn't realize they were dealing with sentient life
01:00form. When in the episode Demon Voyager puts down on the planet in order to do a few repairs
01:05and to do this week's version of trying to get rid of Tom and Harry they come into contact
01:12with what would become known as the Silver Blood. Now there's a little bit of biomimetic
01:17life forms going on, a little bit of happiness here, a little bit of decomposition there,
01:22everyone has a good time. Later on however we come to the episode Course Oblivion and frankly
01:29yeah this gets a bit sad because you see Voyager allowed this Silver Blood life form to copy its crew
01:38and the ship itself but they then forgot that they weren't the originals which meant that when they
01:44designed a new type of warp core that let the ship travel faster they didn't realize it was toxic
01:50to their own genetic makeup which meant they all basically melted and died, all of their logs were
01:57lost and they were never spoken of again. Fun? Number 9, you appear to be leaking. The episode
02:05Knight is a great way to open the fifth season of Star Trek Voyager basically because well the production
02:12team got to just not bother putting in all the stars when they were doing the field surrounding the ship.
02:17What becomes a very introverted episode for some of the characters such as Janeway as she
02:23effectively locks herself in her quarters and feels sorry for herself for a long time
02:26haven't we all done that this week? We also get first contact with an alien race that would become
02:34known as the reason we got the Delta Flyer. Yeah okay they're also known as the Maelon. The Maelon
02:41come from a now beautiful planet that is as clean as anything and the way that they do that is
02:49by
02:49dumping all of their waste out into space. Definitely no timely messages going on there.
02:56Mmm. Well suffice to say that the Voyager crew and the Maelon do not become friends. Janeway decides to
03:05ponderfully destroy the first Maelon ship that she encounters and that sets up how the relationship
03:11between these two cultures goes from that point on. Um yeah they're not going to be on the Christmas card
03:18list.
03:18Number eight. The Tale of the Deadly Stranger. The Vadwar are an interesting case because
03:25the way that they were set up in the episode Dragon's Teeth really suggests that we're going
03:29to see them again and again and again in Voyager and of course we never do. So in this case
03:35first
03:35contact is in fact only contact but it's quite frightening because Voyager accidentally discovers
03:42this sub space corridor network that they're thinking deadly that's going to get us home no
03:50bother. Turns out it's been effectively co-opted by the Touré but it was originally used by these
03:58aliens the Vadwar in their attempt to conquer the galaxy. Not that much fun then when they are woken
04:07up by the crew of Voyager. In fact Seven is the one who's able to pass on this Tale of
04:13the Deadly
04:14Stranger because effectively the Borg have assimilated cultures in the past that tell of these
04:20mysterious demon creatures that just pop up out of nowhere and behind a grinning smile rain destruction
04:28and these are the aliens that the Voyager crew unwittingly have unleashed again on the Delta Quadrant
04:36and they did fire some fair amount of torpedoes at them before they got away so really if they do
04:43bump into them again we don't reckon second contact's going to go very well. Number seven
04:48more than a mild shock. When you think of the Hirogen now you think of these tall fearsome warriors
04:55you think of such actors as Tony Todd, Mark Metcalf, these seriously let's not mess with these folks kind
05:05of aliens. They are very clearly based around the Predator movies they keep trophies on the wall and
05:11so when you think back to the very first time we see them and the fact that Seven electrocutes one
05:16of
05:16them through the astrometrics bay it's actually quite funny. Voyager has found an old communications relay
05:22that they then want to use to connect with the Alpha Quadrant. Brilliant! Turns out the Hirogen have laid
05:27claim to it. They want to stop Voyager using it and Seven in what possibly they thought was going to
05:35be
05:35a momentary bit of comedy sends an electric shock through it they use the substation relay everyone's
05:40happy. Well that is until the rest of the hunters turn up. Maybe, maybe hold off on those impulses for
05:45now?
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06:53Number six, one sporo cysteine, two sporo cysteine. Well the alien race that Voyager first encountered
07:02was of course the caretaker although they didn't realize they were encountering them at the time.
07:07The caretaker and though we wouldn't discover her for a while later on Suspiria are members of a
07:12sporo cysteine life form called the Nacine. This caretaker has been caring for the Ocampa,
07:20another first contact race, for an age because he accidentally made their home world barren. He has
07:27been looking for compatible member races to, you know, to create a new caretaker for the Ocampa.
07:37Unfortunately by the time Voyager reaches them, they're out of luck. The caretaker dies before
07:42any of the secrets really of the Nacine can be passed over to the Voyager crew. The caretaker's
07:48array is destroyed by Voyager to save the Ocampa from the Kazon, another point for a first contact
07:55there. And later on when Voyager encounters Suspiria, who had in fact just been left in
08:01Voyager as a sort of ace in the hole get Voyager home to the Alpha Quadrant if this show wasn't
08:06doing
08:06very well card, she doesn't really do much to help them either. So in terms of let's all be friends
08:13with the Nacine, wasn't a good first look. Number five, once more without chronitons.
08:20This is a funny one because we're not sure if this actually counts or not, because which first
08:25contact with the Krenim are we actually going to look at here? So you have first contact with
08:30the Krenim, which was a little scout ship basically firing torpedoes attempting to play the Chihuahua to
08:36Voyager's Bull Mastiff. That one, not very good. Then, off in the distance you've got Krenim on his
08:42time ship erasing the Zol from existence. Suddenly this little scout ship, Krenim ship, becomes a bit
08:49more of a beefy bastard and it's got something a little bigger in its torpedo tubes. And suddenly
08:55Voyager is getting crippled and we get this whole year of hell. That's a good title for an episode,
09:02I wonder if anyone will ever make it. Then, of course, by the end of this year,
09:07Janeway pilots Voyager into the time ship, causing an inversion within the ship, which resets the
09:13clock. Everyone goes back and first contact now becomes the bigger, beefier security ship piloted
09:22by the first guy, who then just advises Voyager here, take the long way around our space,
09:27there's a bit of dispute going on, she says thanks very much, everyone says good journey.
09:30So actually that wasn't that bad, but then when you count Kess in before and after...
09:38Time travel hurts my head. Number four, Biomolecular Warheads first, class reunions later.
09:45So first conning with Species 8472 effectively put Harry Kim on his deathbed and then the ship was
09:53nearly destroyed, a lot of Borg were killed, it was a good time. Then we start reaching out to try
09:59and understand who Species 8472 are. The weak shall perish. Okay, cool, not going to go for
10:05dinner with them. Then Voyager ends up in fluidic space because the Borg brought them there, they
10:11fire some modified torpedoes, they get the upper hand, the Borg go on their usual rampage through
10:16the Delta Quadrant. Whoops. So, pretty bad first contact, right? You'd think that might be it,
10:21let's stay away from them forever. Bit odd then, when Voyager finds a holograph,
10:26or a hologram ship, floating in space and they beam over and they're at Starfleet Academy.
10:31What? What's this doing here? Let's test these... Oh my good Christ, they're 8472.
10:37They were preparing a full invasion of Starfleet. Thankfully, there's a lot more communication going
10:44on this time. So you could argue that this is the proper first contact between 8472 and Voyager.
10:51And if that's the case, it shouldn't be on this list. So we're going to go back to the first
10:57first
10:57contact, which was one tripedal alien, one swipe of its claw, and Harry Kim's face eating itself.
11:05Number three, going through a difficult phage? The Vadians are effectively the vampires of the
11:10Delta Quadrant and there's so much tragedy attached to them. However, they're also horrible because of
11:17how they try to combat their tragedy. Our very first experience of them is Neelix having his lungs
11:22stolen because the lungs in the people that stole them are rotting away. That's how they stay alive,
11:30by harvesting organs from other aliens. In this episode, which is aptly called The Phage,
11:37these same Vadians do in fact save Neelix's life. Now, while Neelix's own lungs are now fully
11:44integrated into another person who will die if they're removed, Kes, thankfully, the Ocampa are
11:51able to effectively live perfectly fine with one lung. She can donate one lung to Neelix,
11:57the Vadians can make it happen. Okay, sounds like we got a good ending to a bad situation.
12:03Janeway does take the time to say, listen, if we see you again, we're going to blow you out the
12:07sky.
12:07I'm paraphrasing, but that's effectively the message. As time goes on,
12:10we encounter more of the Vadians, turns out Janeway made the right call. They're not very nice.
12:16Dinara Pell is one of the few Vadians who shows their humanity, if you like, has not been lost to
12:24the Phage. So, with that and the knowledge that the members of the think tank which Voyager encounters
12:31a few years later have cured the Phage, time might be right for second contact with the Vadians now.
12:38Number two, most storms don't rain nanoprobes. In the finale of the fourth season of Star Trek
12:45Voyager, we meet Arturus, and he initially seems to be a friendly alien who can speak
12:51all of the languages and understand absolutely everything, and totally coincidentally,
12:56Voyager also encounters the USS Dauntless, which is equipped with a new slipstream drive,
13:02everyone's happy, we'll be home for tea. You never really thought that was going to happen,
13:06did you? Turns out Arturus was a member of a species that was directly counting on species
13:138472 to effectively destroy the Borg. When Voyager made the deal with the Borg that saw species 8472
13:22sent back to their own fluidic space, the Borg then turned around and assimilated Arturus' culture,
13:29Voyager leaving Arturus, a little understandably, infuriated. Knowing that he can't take on the
13:36entire collective, he effectively settles his rage on Voyager itself. He uses the line that the Borg are
13:42like a storm on the horizon, you don't get angry with the storm, but if the Voyager crew were the
13:47ones who sort of pushed the storm in their direction, they can be blamed. And I could sort of see
13:55his
13:55point. Voyager does survive the day and, you know, Dauntless unfortunately ends up in the hands of the
14:01Borg, who having transwarp ability already, possibly just don't care about slipstream. But it's quite a
14:06sobering thought to think that this final, to date, encounter with Arturus' species, I mean he says a
14:14few other survivors got away, but was one of pure rage, pure blame, and quite frankly ends in sadness
14:22for Arturus. I'd be a bit concerned really for Voyager if they're nipping back to the Delta Quadrant
14:26anytime soon. Number one, no more scarves on Sicaris. Very early on in Voyager's journey to the Delta
14:33Quadrant, they encounter the Sicarians. Now, initially these are a hedonistic, sort of,
14:40you know, up their own backsides, but not overtly unpleasant kind of people. In hosting the Voyager
14:48crew, they reveal that they have a technology, which they call a spatial trajectory, which can send
14:53people, or even starships, up to 40,000 light years away. At this point, Voyager was still 75,000
15:00light years from Earth. That would have made a serious, serious chunk of their journey gone like
15:07that. Unfortunately, the Sicarians were like, we kind of have this directive thing where we don't
15:12share technology. Although Janeway sort of, well, she has to accept this, she does attempt to negotiate,
15:19she does attempt to explain their position, and alas, the Sicarians won't budge. So, when Seska and
15:27Balana basically hatch a plot to steal some of this technology, a plot that Tuvok gets involved in as
15:34well, they are then left in a position when, it turns out, the technology is completely incompatible
15:40with Voyager. They can't exactly ask the Sicarians for help either, because they've just stolen from
15:46them. So, it's all a bit of a disaster really, and it gets a little bit more awkward when, years
15:52later,
15:52Seven of Nine reveals the fact that the Borg have assimilated this spatial trajectory technology,
15:59which is saved only for the use of the Queen, and why it wouldn't be used for a full-scale
16:04assimilation of the galaxy, God only knows. But, yeah, does that mean that the Sicarians
16:11didn't have a happy ending? I'm not sure I like this list. Thankfully though, that's the end of it.
16:16Thanks very much. What do you think should be on this list? Thank you so much to Jack Kiley for
16:20writing this list originally. Go check it out over on whatculture.com. Thank you to the wonderful Tom
16:26for making this look pretty. Don't forget to follow us along on Twitter at TrekCulture, and then you can
16:31follow us over on Instagram at TrekCultureYT. Remember, every Tuesday we have a podcast that drops,
16:37so that will be on all of the podcast catchers of your choice. Don't forget to follow Jack over on
16:43Twitter. He's at Jack Reilly. I'm at Sean Ferrick. Tom is at Tom C. Finn or Tom Roberts Finn. I
16:49think
16:49that's everyone. You are all awesome. Make sure that you look after yourselves until I see you again.
16:54Make sure that you live long and prosper. Our friends in Ukraine, Slava, Ukraine. Everyone,
16:59have a wonderful however long it is until I see you again. Make it so.