I'm watching the re-runs of Voyager on Virgin, but missed the first few. Who can fill me in on this Maquis business, why are half the crew supposedly the enemy? And what do you think of Voyager anyway? Janeway: a bit headmistressy, but she's growing on me.

======= Date Modified 22 Sep 2008 13:51:44 =======
Because writing anbout national identity and empire in the eighteenth-century is so much harder....



... Did you see Deep Space Nine ever? There is a region of space nearby called 'The Badlands' : it is an area of space in which energy storms or suchlike make it difficult to navigate. It is a region of space on the border of the United Federation of Planets and the Cardassian Union. There are a few colonies on different planets here that although once belonging to the Federation had to be ceded to the Cardassian Union as terms for a peace accord. Although the Federation tried to remove its citizens - many chose to stay and illegally occupy this area. They fight the Cardassians and cause friction with the Federation whom they now mistrust and even hate. They are called the Maquis.



...meanwhile the USS Voyager is launched on a mission by Starfleet (military wing of the Federation) to The Badlands to sort things out with the pesky Maquis. They encounter a Maquis ship (the captain is Chakotay, B'Elanna, etc etc on board) which they engage but then they are both sent by the entity known as 'The Caretaker' to the Delta Quadrant 70,000 lightyears from Federation Space. Having to both fight to stay alive and with the Maquis Ship damaged/destroyed the two crews merge to join as one Starfleet crew on Voyager.



Tensions arrive because the Maquis hate the Federation whom they believe abandoned them to the Cardassians (who have genocidal tendencies when they occupy planets: c.f. Bajor in Deep Space Nine) , and Federation citizens believe they threaten to trigger a war with the Cardassians again. The Starfleet officers on Voyager have been through years of training and drilling in procedures - the Maquis crew have not. These all cause tensions.



*ahem* :$ I've never watched Startrek in my life. :p

Some of the later episodes of Voyager are fantastic, especially those that deal with Federation timeships from the 29th century! I also like episodes where they interact with cultures that are either non-humanoid, or many centuries more technologically advanced.

Sad Sad Sad :p

I did used to watch this quite a lot a few years ago. Although i tend to keep this hidden from most as i dont think it ads too much to my image of doing a physics degree and PhD. I already get a lot of stick from my family:$. secretly though, it was watching stuff like this as a kid that got me into this mess in the first place. Anyways for your update, the Maquis was a bunch of rebel fighters who voyager was trying to catch in the alpha quadrent. Unfortunaltey both ships got knocked far from home in the delta quadrant by some big machine called the caretaker. Now they are all trying to get back home (which will take many years) and have formed an alliance. i think the first series has a lot of them arguing and mistrusting each other. Anyway i will not reveal too much, but enjoy;-)

I always liked to watch this kind of thing with my dad when I was little, but haven't really since I left home. It's not the sort of thing my boyfriend likes to watch!

Thanks for the illuminating response, Chrisrolinski: I had noticed that several crewmembers were more rebellious than you usually see in the goody-goody Federation (cf: Wesley Crusher:-s). That explains it.

You'd probably love a book (which I don't have, honest:$) called "The Physics of Star Trek", which tells you, amongst other things, how to detect if you are stuck in a time loop, and how to modify your tricorder to send your future self a message telling you how to escape. Useful.