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As Star Trek: Strange New Worlds premieres its third season this week, it has become increasingly clear that the franchise needs someone like J.J. Abrams to lead it and mould it in his vision. The franchise has been led by multiple producers and showrunners from the beginning, but it finally needs some consistency in quality.

Paramount needs to hire a head for the franchise, as they have with Taylor Sheridan’s batch of shows. Beginning with Yellowstone, Sheridan has tapped into a demographic that other streamers have yet to dominate, and all the shows coming under his brand have been carefully curated by him, keeping most of them consistent in quality.

Taylor Sheridan’s Involvement Has Led to Some Incredible Shows for Paramount Taylor Sheridan | Credits: CBS News

Taylor Sheridan began his tenure with Paramount with the neo-Western series Yellowstone. The show was a runaway hit, with the Succession-in-the-West type storyline resonating with viewers.

A year before he became a pop culture icon as Doc Brown in Back to the Future, Christopher Lloyd also played the Klingon captain Kruge in Star Trek III: The Search for Spock. The third Star Trek movie with the original series cast was a direct follow-up to Wrath of Khan, and was directed by Leonard Nimoy.

Lloyd played the Klingon commander who is in search of the Genesis planet and is a ruthless leader who does not take failure lightly. The actor mentioned that he had a lot of fun playing the part and had to come to set as early as 4 Am to put on the makeup for the role (via Variety).

I’d come to the Paramount Studio at four in the morning to get that makeup put on — the way it built up my forehead — and then the costume. How can you not feel like you...

Robert Beltran mentioned that his constant criticism of Star Trek: Voyager in interviews and press meets probably put him at risk of being fired. Beltran, who played first officer Chakotay in Voyager, was publicly unhappy with the direction of the show, especially after the introduction of Jeri Ryan’s Seven of Nine, and was a vocal critic while it was airing.

Despite his dissatisfaction with how his role was heading in the show, he mentioned that he would not hesitate to do it all over again, and he ultimately loved working with the cast and crew of Voyager (via Star Trek).

I didn’t like some of the things that were going towards the last three years, and I risked being fired because I wasn’t happy creatively. But I was happy working and especially with the people I was working with. That was the main thing for me. I still enjoyed the work.

Fans of a particular Star Trekseries may have heard a familiar voice in Disney and Pixar’s newest animated movie, Elio.The film, which follows the titular Elio, a young boy who connects with aliens after he is mistaken for an ambassador of Earth, stars Oscar-winner Zoe Saldaña as the voice of Olga and Yonas Kibreab as the boy. It also features the voices of Everybody Loves Raymond’sBrad Garrett and The Good Place’s Jameela Jamil.

But one particular voice is proving to be an Easter egg of sorts for fans of Star Trek.Per ComicBook.com, in Elio’s first scene, the titular young boy and his Aunt Olga (Saldaña) struggle to connect at an astronaut museum. In the movie, Elio’s parents suddenly die, and Olga is left to care for him.

A Fitting Scene for the Voice of a Former Starfleet Captain

In the scene, Elio goes...

Star Trek fans around the globe are still celebrating the 30th anniversary of Voyager, which debuted on January 16, 1995. However, there’s another Voyager anniversary worth making note of, and that’s the 24th anniversary of the show’s finale, “Endgame,” which premiered on May 23, 2001.

To this day, fans debate the merits of “Endgame,” and we get it… both sides of the conversation. Among the pros, audiences saw Janeway and… Janeway, with Kate Mulgrew killing it as both Captain Janeway and Admiral Janeway. Tim Russ got the chance to let loose as a deeply disturbed, super-emotional, even delusional Tuvok. B’Elanna Torres (Roxann Dawson) and Tom Paris (Robert Duncan McNeill) welcomed a baby daughter into the world. Fans got to see recurring characters/actors one last time, including Dwight Schultz as Barclay, Richard Herd as Owen Paris, and Alice Krige as the Borg Queen. Krige had played the Borg Queen to...

The crew of Star Trek: Prodigy’s U.S.S. Protostar is, for now, without a streaming home. Netflix quietly passed on a third season of the animated, kid-friendly Star Trek series just last week and is removing the series’ first two seasons by January.

The show’s creators, however, are not giving up hope for the animated series, which boasts a nearly perfect 97% on Rotten Tomatoes. Dan and Kevin Hageman, the co-creators of Prodigy, took to the social media site X to address the removal of Prodigy from Netflix and what the future holds for the animated series that follows a group of ragtag aliens who work together after they find an abandoned ship.

While the future removal of #StarTrekProdigy on Netflix is disconcerting, it has little to do with lack of viewership or anything nefarious. The license for S1 is up June 24, and S2 Dec 31. We hold out...

The Star Trek franchise has seen multiple crews handle spaceships and go where no man has ever gone before. However, Voyager seems to be the only one that had to chart a course back to Earth instead of its traditional exploratory travel. Transferred to a different dimension and led by Captain Janeway, the Voyager had to travel for years.

While The Next Generation enjoyed global success and Deep Space Nine developed a cult following later, Voyager seemed to strike a balance with its popularity. Many have appreciated its storylines, which came back to the episodic format after DS9. However, fans have found another reason for its greatness: there are three Roberts in the main cast.

Star Trek: Voyager is better than any other show in the franchise because of the abundance of Roberts in the cast The cast of Star Trek: Voyager | Credits: Paramount

Robert is one of the most common names in America,...

If you’re still awaiting another season of Star Trek: Prodigy, the tenth series in the reputable sci-fi franchise, Netflix has seemingly cancelled it in a quiet move this week. What’s on Netflix first reported the news, adding that the animated series will depart the streamer soon, one season after the other. Created by Kevin and Dan Hageman for a younger audience, Star Trek: Prodigy centers on a group of young aliens in the 24th century who find the abandoned starship Protostar and learn about Starfleet.

The 3D animated show debuted on Paramount+ on October 28, 2021, and began airing on Nickelodeon on December 17. Later in December 2023, after departing the streamer, it landed on Netflix, followed by a second season in July 2024. Season 2 of Star Trek: Prodigywas already in development before leaving Paramount+ in June 2023 and was first released in France on france.tv in March 2024.

Meanwhile, following its Netflix release,...

"Star Trek: Prodigy" is dead. Again. 

The Nickelodeon-branded animated "Star Trek" series has had a rough go of it. Infamously, the series was aired on a weird schedule. Its first 20-episode season was aired in two parts, with the first part coming in October of 2021 and the second part not dropping until the following year. Then, while the second season was still in production, the series was hastily and inexplicably canceled by Paramount, upsetting its slowly growing continent of fans. Not only that, "Prodigy" was also bafflingly removed from Paramount+, making it immediately unavailable. This was a startling decision, as Paramount has long held the reins on "Star Trek," and Trekkies assumed the company would want to keep all the components of its most lucrative franchise close to them.

Its cancellation came during a great culling at Paramount+ which saw the end of most of its "Star Trek" shows.

The crew of the U.S.S. Protostar is looking for a new home. The 3D-animated Star Trek: Prodigywill not be getting a Season 3 - at least on Netflix, according to What’s on Netflix. The animated Prodigy featured the story of a crew of young aliens who work together after finding an abandoned starship. The series premiered in October 2021 on Paramount+ and later that year aired on Nickelodeon.

In 2023, Netflix picked up the series created by Dan and Kevin Hagemanand confirmed a second season would be on the way. Season 2 began airing on the streamer last year. Now, it seems the streamer has said no to a new season, and its exclusive license to carry Seasons 1 and 2 is ending. Prodigy starred Ella Purnell (Yellowjackets) as Gwyn, Rylee Alazraqui as Rok-Tahk, Brett Gray as Dal, Agnes Imrie as Zero,K, and Jason Mantzoukas as Jankom Pog. It also featured the...

While most "Star Trek" shows are ensemble dramas, one can always tell when the series' writers favor one character over another. On "Star Trek: The Next Generation," for instance, Captain Picard (Patrick Stewart) and Data (Brent Spiner) received the lion's share of stories, while some of the other characters -- Dr. Crusher (Gates McFadden) especially -- got hardly any. The same can be said of "Star Trek: Voyager." The show's writers clearly loved Captain Janeway (Kate Mulgrew), and she became the crux of most "Voyager" plots. The wealth was shared a little bit on "Voyager," though, as characters like Chakotay (Robert Beltran), Neelix (Ethan Phillips), and the Doctor (Robert Picardo) all got their moments to shine.

But when Seven of Nine (Jeri Ryan) joined the show in its fourth season, she more or less became the star, siphoning much of the writers' attention toward herself. The writers loved Seven so...

Kate Mulgrew headlined Star Trek: Voyager as Captain Kathryn Janeway but any Trekkie knows that the franchise is built on its supporting characters. Robert Beltran’s Commander Chakotay was a necessary truth bomb for the crew every time something went wrong and the actor, reportedly, was the same off-screen.

Beltran was reportedly vocal about his creative misgivings with the part and would often air his grievances during public appearances. While he maintained that he never directly received flak for it from the makers of the show, producer Kenneth Biller was reportedly tired of his antics and asked him to ‘stop whining and do his job.’

It is a miracle Robert Beltran lasted in Star Trek: Voyager for so long Chakotay in Star Trek: Voyager | Credits: Paramount

Robert Beltran’s Commander Chakotay was the first Native American main character in a Star Trek franchise, despite the portrayal not being very accurate...

"Star Trek: Voyager" debuted in 1995, making it the third show of the franchise's most prolific heyday. "Star Trek: The Next Generation" made a hugely successful run from 1987 to 1994, and had recently moved to the big screen with "Star Trek: Generations." In 1993, a darker counterpart to "Next Generation," "Star Trek: Deep Space Nine" debuted, setting a lot of older Trek tropes on their ear. Feeling ambitious, Trek-makers Rick Berman, Michael Piller, and Jeri Taylor tried to keep the ball rolling with "Voyager," a more traditional series about, well, Trekking.

The premise was fun: a super-powerful alien reaches out across the galaxy and magically whisks the U.S.S. Voyager -- a brand-new, super-advanced vessel -- 70,000 lightyears away from Earth, depositing it in the Delta Quadrant. By Trek's own science, 70,000 lightyears would ordinarily take 75 years to traverse, so the Voyager is essentially stranded. The series follows their long journey home. To add drama,...

It's taken a while, but it feels like we're hitting peak "Star Trek: Voyager" nostalgia these days. It was not always like this: On the heels of "The Next Generation" movies and the sprawling war saga of "Deep Space Nine," the premise of "Voyager," which hurled a Federation ship to the other side of the universe where it presumably would encounter nothing familiar, wasn't as compelling. Initial new aliens like the Kazon were duds, and when the show tried to course-correct, it may have overdone it on the Borg storylines. For the first time, but not the last, it began to feel like there was too much "Star Trek."

However, fans have been going back to "Voyager" and discovering it more old-school charms since the streaming era kicked in -- and especially during the pandemic lockdown.The animated "Star Trek: Prodigy" serves as a sequel of sorts, bringing back multiple...

Plenty of actors are interested in shaping their characters themselves. They want to give input to the writers and producers to make the role their own, but Star Trek: Voyager's Robert Beltran kept his requests to a minimum largely due to the number of characters on the show and the number of episodes that ran each season.

In an interview in the August/September 1997 edition of Star Trek Communicator, the Magazine of the Official Star Trek Fan Club, Beltran acknowledged that "we have basically 26 episodes to do a year, divided by nine characters." He went on to say that he was "content to be a good support for somebody else's episode."

Though there were a few times he asked for a little more, for the most part, he didn't try to get at the forefront of more episodes. He did mention he made some minor requests and there was...

It is Star Trek: Voyager's turn for a glorious comeback after The Next Generation's cast and the Enterprise-d had their big nostalgic moment in 2023. Star Trek: Picard didn't start as a feelgood tribute to Jean-Luc Picard's heyday, but the spinoff certainly reached that point in season 3. After finally reassembling the main cast of The Next Generation, the crew went into battle, slightly wearier than before, on a secretly restored Enterprise-d. It was an unapologetic throwback designed to rekindle memories of a bygone era. By any measure, that goal was achieved.

Star Trek: Voyager celebrates its 30th anniversary in 2025, and despite never hitting the same mainstream heights as The Next Generation, Voyager and its crew reserve a special place in fans' hearts. Modern Star Trek rarely turns down an opportunity to reference - or, indeed, repeat - the past, but such tributes have largely been restricted to The Original...

Star Trek: Voyager premiered 30 years ago with a unique premise that's still among the best of any Star Trek show. The Starship Enterprise's original mission—in both Star Trek: The Original Series and Star Trek: The Next Generation—was to explore strange new worlds. Star Trek: Deep Space Nine was entrusted with guarding the Bajoran wormhole, ultimately protecting the Alpha Quadrant from the Gamma Quadrant's invading Dominion forces. While the Tng cast moved on to movies and DS9 set the stage for its Dominion War, Star Trek: Voyager promised an interesting twist on the familiar Star Trek formula.

Star Trek: Voyager's premiere episode, "Caretaker", opened at the by-then-familiar locale of Deep Space Nine, where Captain Kathryn Janeway's (Kate Mulgrew) USS Voyager launched its inaugural mission to retrieve Commander Chakotay's (Robert Beltran) Maquis raider from the nearby Badlands. Both ships were flung across 70,000 lightyears to the Delta Quadrant, an as-yet-unseen...

Star Trek: Voyager's Robert Beltran was introduced as a Maquis leader who had been misled by Tuvok [Tim Russ]. Of course, he didn't find out about that until he was aboard Voyager. Fans wondered how he was so easily fooled, and that wonder escalated when we discovered he'd been duped by Seska [Martha Hackett] as well. How could someone who was supposed to be in command be so easily manipulated?

Sometimes, when rewatching Voyager, we can still find ourselves asking the same question, mainly because we're on the outside looking in. We think it's something we ourselves would have seen. But Beltran himself doesn't see it that way. Beltran was interviewed in Star Trek: Voyager magazine during the series' second season, and he wasn't concerned about Chakotay being deceived as he called Tuvok and Seska "formidable, intelligent, and subtle people who could fool most anyone and get away with it.

Everyone has their favorite "Star Trek" captain. Ever since the '90s, debates have raged as to whether Kirk could beat Picard, and once Sisko came along, all bets were off. Just as every Klingon warrior needs a cha'Dich, even the best captain needs a solid second behind them. Over the years, many have tried to follow in the footsteps of Starfleet greatness, sometimes even exceeding it. As great as the limelight is, however, the position of reliable backup can be even harder. 

It's time for the first officers to shine. Who are the greatest seconds-in-command? Like asking what makes a great vice president, that can be tough. Do we want someone who can and will take over or just the very best at carrying out their orders?

For the purposes of equal ranking, we haven't included absolutely every main crew in the franchise -- the musical chairs of the...

When Star Trek: Voyager began, it had built in tension with the Maquis and Starfleet officers at odds with one another. The Maquis were considered criminals, and that was what had started Voyager's journey. The ship went after a missing Maquis spacecraft that had Captain Janeway's [Kate Mulgrew] friend and security officer, Tuvok [Tim Russ], aboard. But once the Caretaker flung the ship so far away from home, the crew of Voyager were forced to work alongside those they considered enemies. But that animosity didn't last long. And fans have often wondered why Voyager writers didn't keep the two factions at each others' throats for a while longer.

In an interview in Starlog's Star Trek: Voyager Magazine during Voyager's second year, Robert Beltran explained that he understood why the writers chose to go in a different direction. The writers believed there was more drama that could be brought about by...

Three accomplished Star Trek captains and one admiral came from Star Trek: Voyager, but Star Trek: The Next Generation has an even more impressive record. Throughout Voyager's seven seasons, Captain Kathryn Janeway (Kate Mulgrew) led the USS Voyager on its unprecedented journey home from the unexplored Delta Quadrant. She not only kept most of the crew safe throughout this journey, but also made numerous first contacts with alien species and faced off against the Borg Queen herself. Janeway went on to become one of Star Trek's most impressive admirals and three of her best officers became accomplished captains.

Modern Star Trek has yet to reveal the status of the USS Voyager's remaining crew members, but three captains and an admiral is quite impressive. Still, Captain Jean-Luc Picard (Patrick Stewart) and Star Trek: The Next Generation's crew have Voyager's cast beat. With its premiere in 1987, Star Trek: The Next Generation...

Star Trek: Voyager premiered when Star Trek: Deep Space Nine was almost halfway through its third season. A darker version of Star Trek, Deep Space Nine had more convoluted storylines that did require regular watching unlike its predecessor Star Trek: The Next Generation. Voyager was much like The Next Generation in that it returned to episodic viewing, allowing fans to tune in as they would like and not miss too much character formation or big issues.

Voyager struggled a little bit in the ratings as did all the Star Trek series. There was never one that was a massive hit out the door during the Berman era. But Voyager held its own with tight storylines and characters that made viewers tune in weekly. Though not everyone was thrilled with certain characters, that didn't stop them from watching.

Over the years, fans have expressed discontent with Neelix [Ethan Phillips], Kes [nm0000497 autoJennifer...

Action, horror, killer Santa movies, Gremlins, deep cut horror, The Silent Partner, Trancers, Anna and the Apocalypse, The Ref, Kiss Kiss Bang Bang, the first Black Christmas remake – we shared a lot of Christmas movie recommendations over the holidays… and now Arrow in the Head founder John “The Arrow” Fallon and Lance Vlcek are here to talk about another unconventional holiday pick: the 1984 sci-fi horror comedy Night of the Comet, which begins with the Earth passing through the tail of a comet eleven days before Christmas. You can find out what The Arrow and Lance have to say about the movie by checking out the video embedded above.

Here’s what Lance and Arrow at the Movies is all about: Join hosts The Arrow and Lance as they engage in colorful debates about old and recent genre films. With a vibe that’s both groovy and a little rough around the edges,...

It may not immediately seem that way, but Star Trek actually had a great 2024. Between Paramount+ and Netflix, Star Trek spanned two streaming services in 2024, with three series delivering a total of 40 episodes. Star Trek: Discovery season 5 was the franchise's only live-action outing, offering 10 hour-long episodes and an extended series finale. Star Trek: Prodigy season 2 dropped 20 half-hour episodes on Netflix, the most Star Trek ever in one day. Finally, Star Trek: Lower Decks season 5 closed out the year with its final 10 half-hour episodes on Paramount+.

2024 isn't regarded as prolific a year as 2022 and 2023 were for Star Trek. In 2022, all five Paramount+ Star Trek series dropped a new episode nearly every Thursday of the calendar year. 2023 kicked off with the blockbuster Star Trek: Picard season 3, galvanizing fans old and new by reuniting the cast of Star Trek: The Next Generation aboard the USS Enterprise-d. Star Trek: Strange New Worlds season 2 made...

Netflix would be wise to not only renew Star Trek: Prodigy, but also benefit from the rising star power of Ella Purnell. Star Trek: Prodigy season 2 is the only current Star Trek series that boasts a perfect 100% Fresh rating on Rotten Tomatoes, along with a stellar 96% audience score. Despite widespread critical and fan acclaim, and charting in Netflix's top 10 in several countries, however, Star Trek: Prodigy didn't reach the same heights in the United States, and the streamer has yet to green light Star Trek: Prodigy season 3.

Star Trek: Prodigy cast Ella Purnell as Gwyndala just as the British actress was starting to make inroads. Purnell had lead roles in Ordeal By Innocence, Sweetbitter on Starz, and Belgravia, but she began to gain fame from playing Dave Bautista's daughter in Zack Snyder's Army of the Dead and as Jackie Taylor in Showtime's hit series Yellowjackets. Star Trek: Prodigy...

Star Trek's use of the Mirror Universe has been an iconic addition to the franchise. It's stretched into all parts of pop culture and has become a staple of the franchise. Ever since the Original Series released the first episode, "Mirror, Mirror" in season two, the concept of other universes, different timelines, and the entire concept of the multiverse theory has become a huge aspect of the franchise.

Yet, while we've had some really good "else world" stories,, maybe the one that took the cake for me was the 100th episode of Star Trek: Voyager, "Timeless".

We've talked about this episode before on the site. It's one of the best episodes not just in Voyager history but in Star Trek history. It features Chakotay and Harry Kim as the sole survivors of a warp drive experiment that ends in disaster as Voyager crashes, killing everyone on board. Years after they arrive home,...

The final episode of "Star Trek: Voyager" was called "Endgame," and it began with a flash-forward to the year 2404, ten years after the U.S.S. Voyager returned to Earth in 2394. For context, "Voyager" began in the year 2371, so by the timeline of "Endgame," it took the title ship about 23 years to return home from the Delta Quadrant. By 2404, some of the old "Voyager" crew had all settled into cushy new jobs. Notably, Harry Kim (Garrett Wang) was finally a starship captain. Kim's promotion was well-deserved, as he had spent his entire stint on the U.S.S. Voyager as a mere ensign. He was never promoted as a way to retain a certain sense of status quo. 

The plot of "Endgame" follows the now-admiral Janeway (Kate Mulgrew) realizing that 23 years wasn't fast enough, and that she could have done a better job getting her crew home. As such, she...

Over the many decades since Star Trek began in 1966, fans have their favorite couples as well as those pairings they want to happen. Kathryn Janeway [Kate Mulgrew] and Chakotay [Robert Beltran] were one as was Spock [Leonard Nimoy] and Captain Kirk [William Shatner] for others. There were plenty of characters that fans believed belonged in relationships that never came to fruition. Two of those characters were T'Pol [Jolene Blalock] and Trip Tucker [Connor Trinneer] from Star Trek: Enterprise.

T'Pol and Trip had chemistry, but it was like the producers/writers of Enterprise weren't quite sure what to do with it. They brought the couple together in such a short span of time, it was almost like it didn't happen. Then they eradicated any hope fans had that the romance could happen when Trip died at the end of the series finale.

Trip was brought back to life in novels, but,...

"Star Trek," which a very progressive franchise in many respects, has always had something of a fraught relationship with queerness. Gay or lesbian characters weren't wholly visible on the series, and dating couples tended to fall into the heteronormative. Near the end of his life in the early 1990s, "Star Trek" creator Gene Roddenberry once idly mused that he'd like to depict two background male characters holding hands in a romantic way, but that's hardly a great spearhead for a progressive ideal. 

There were occasional attempts to include queer stories in "Star Trek" throughout the 1990s, but they were few and far between. The "Next Generation" episode "The Outcast" was controversial even at the time (and one can read all about "The Outcast" in the pages of /Film), and the "Deep Space Nine" episode "Rejoined" did allow Jadzia Dax (Terry Farrell) to have a romantic relationship with a woman, but...

Warning: Spoilers for Star Trek: Lower Decks Season 5, Episode 6 - "Of Gods and Angles"

Star Trek: Voyager proved that one of Starfleet's enemies in Star Trek: Deep Space Nine could be reformed. Star Trek: Deep Space Nine's Maquis were a guerrilla resistance group started by civilians whose homes had been annexed by the Cardassians and disillusioned former Starfleet officers. The Federation considered the Maquis traitors, and vehemently pursued their capture. DS9's Captain Benjamin Sisko (Avery Brooks) had a particularly difficult time with Starfleet officer turned Maquis fighter Michael Eddington (Kenneth Marshall), and infamously resorted to poisoning the atmosphere of Eddington's safe haven in order to draw him out.

Captain Kathryn Janeway's (Kate Mulgrew) first mission as captain of the USS Voyager was to recover the Maquis raider ValJean from the Badlands after leaving DS9. When both Commander Chakotay's (Robert Beltran) ValJean and Voyager were swept to the Delta Quadrant,...

Star Trek: Voyager got the movie fans wanted and financed. Produced by David Zappone's 455 Films, To The Journey: Looking Back At Star Trek: Voyager premiered at Paramount Studios in Los Angeles on November 7, 2024, and at Symphony Space in New York City on November 11. To The Journey screened for backers of the retrospective documentary's Indiegogo campaign, which raised over $1.2 million, making it the most successful Indiegogo fundraiser of all time.

The flagship series of the United Paramount Network (Upn), Star Trek: Voyager ran for seven seasons from 1995-2001. To The Journey will be released in 2025 to mark Voyager's 25th anniversary. Unlike Star Trek: The Next Generation, Star Trek: Voyager did not transition into feature films. However, Voyager delivered several two-part episodes throughout its seven seasons, which were TV movies in their own right. To The Journey's bi-coastal premieres was a chance for Voyager's most loyal fans to see it on the big screen.

Critics may not have been fond of this 1980s Chuck Norris Western, but it's one of my guilty pleasures. Norris was part of a wave of action stars to emerge during the 1970s and 1980s, with his roundhouse kicks and trademark beard becoming part of his star persona. The '80s featured some of Chuck Norris' best action movies like the Missing in Action trilogy or, my personal favorite, Code of Silence, but his film career faltered by the time the 1990s arrived. While Norris had a compelling look, he just wasn't that great of an actor.

That's why his most successful movies leaned on his physicality and cut way back on his dialogue. His appearance in The Expendables 2 really exposed this, as the veteran star badly fumbles his own Chuck Norris joke meme. Despite his limits as a performer, I still think Norris made some gems in his career,...

Reading this article before watching the latest episode of "Star Trek: Lower Decks" would be highly illogical. Spoilers abound.

The more you think about it, the more it makes sense that the writers of "Star Trek: Lower Decks" would find something of a kindred spirit in "Voyager." Both shows deal with Starfleet crews that ended up overlooked and almost completely forgotten, both feature unusual protagonists that we've never seen as a functioning part of the Federation before, and both ended up embracing a certain tone that could only ever exist in their specific shows. While the track record of the animated series is much smoother than "Voyager," nobody should be surprised by the fact that creator Mike McMahan continues to pay homage to arguably the most maligned show in all of "Trek."

Where the season 5 premiere decided to include a deep-cut reference to "Voyager" character Naomi Wildman (a name that...

For its 100th episode, Star Trek: Voyager copied one of the greatest episodes of Star Trek: The Original Series in a unique way. "Timeless," aired at the beginning of season 5 and is still seen as one of Voyager's best episodes. The plot featured a twist on the franchise's usual time travel storyline, set mainly in an alternate future 15 years ahead where Chakotay (Robert Beltran) and Harry Kim (Garrett Wang) were attempting to send a message back through time to stop Voyager's cast of characters from going through with a plan to get home that would end in disaster.

The Tos episode that "Timeless" attempted to copy was "The City on the Edge of Forever," the penultimate episode of season 1 and one of the best Star Trek episodes in TV history. "The City on the Edge of Forever" featured Captain Kirk (William Shatner) and Spock (Leonard Nimoy) using the Guardian of...

One of Star Trek: Voyager's most important episodes chose to center its storyline on an unlikely character. Voyager ran for seven seasons after it aired in 1995, with nearly every season of the show clocking in at 26 episodes, aside from season 1 which was only 16. Therefore, Voyager reached its 100th episode at the beginning of season 5, marking a momentous occasion for the show which had struggled to find its footing in the first few seasons. With the 100th episode, Voyager aimed to create a truly memorable installment, and the series did not disappoint.

Season 5, episode 6, "Timeless," remains one of Voyager's best episodes, with an interesting take on Star Trek's usual exploration of time travel. "Timeless" featured a storyline set 15 years in the future after most of Voyager's cast of characters were killed when the ship crashed into an ice planet. Only Commander Chakotay (Robert Beltran) and Ensign Harry Kim (Garrett Wang) made it home,...

Throughout its seven seasons, Star Trek: Voyager featured several callbacks to Star Trek: The Next Generation. Less than a year after the 1994 series finale of Star Trek: The Next Generation, Star Trek: Voyager promised a return to form for Star Trek television shows after Star Trek: Deep Space Nine's space station setting. Like Captain Jean-Luc Picard's (Patrick Stewart) USS Enterprise-d, Captain Kathryn Janeway's (Kate Mulgrew) USS Voyager took viewers on episodic journeys through the final frontier, with stops along the way to explore the strange new worlds of the Delta Quadrant.

To reinforce the idea of Star Trek: Voyager as a worthy successor to Star Trek: The Next Generation, Voyager rarely shied away from making references to the earlier Star Trek show. From familiar concepts to series regulars, Star Trek: Voyager found ways to incorporate characters from Star Trek: The Next Generation, despite being set on the other side of the galaxy.

Because Star Trek: Lower Decks takes place in the early 2380s, shortly after the USS Voyager's return to the Alpha Quadrant in 2378, cameos from Star Trek: Voyager characters are not only possible, but expected, in Lower Decks' nearly-overflowing basket of Star Trek Easter eggs. Star Trek: Voyager characters crossing over to Star Trek: Lower Decks establishes the continuity between the two shows, and also helps viewers catch up with USS Voyager crew members after Voyager ended. This is especially interesting for the Voyager characters who aren't in Star Trek: Prodigy or Star Trek: Picard.

In the few years since Captain Kathryn Janeway's (Kate Mulgrew) homecoming, the details of the USS Voyager's perilous journey from the Delta Quadrant have become common knowledge among Lieutenants Beckett Mariner (Tawny Newsome), Brad Boimler (Jack Quaid), Sam Rutherford (Eugene Cordero), D'Vana Tendi (Nol Wells), and T'Lyn (Gabrielle Ruiz). The USS Voyager's place in Starfleet history...

We've already talked about the news that Robert Beltran was allegedly set to return to Star Trek in a live-action setting. To recap, according to the former Star Trek: Voyager star, Beltra was set to return to the franchise in Star Trek: Picard's second season. Before he was set to return in Star Trek: Prodigy, he was asked about reprising his role for Picard.

This would have seen him back as Chakotay once again but with a twist. He would be a villain. Luckily for fans, this wouldn't have been Prime Chakotay, the soft-spoken, earnest man who was Kathryne Janeway's dutiful number two for seven years. No this would've been an evil, more Mirror Universe version. He would have been married to Seven of Nine and would have been a vile man.

Beltran, luckily, saw how bad this idea was and turned them down. Opening up his return to...

When Star Trek: Voyager was nearing the end, the producers introduced a romance between Robert Beltran's Chakotay and Jeri Ryan's Seven of Nine. The fans didn't see that one coming as there'd not previously been any type of chemistry between the two characters, and the relationship just didn't make sense. Nevertheless, Voyager ended with the pair still a couple as far as we knew.

Before the beginning of the second season of Star Trek: Picard, Beltran was contacted about a part in the first two episodes of the season, which were "Penance" and "Assmiliation." [Via Slashfilm] In those two episodes, Admiral Picard and his crew are sent to an alternate timeline by Q [John de Lancie] where Earth is an evil empire ruled over by a fascist dictator and her husband. Ryan's character was the president of this evil Earth, and Beltran was offered the role of her husband,...

Although "Star Trek: Voyager" concluded in 2001, multiple characters from the series have returned throughout the franchise at large to remind Trekkies that they all still exist and are still going about their Starfleet careers. Both Seven of Nine (Jeri Ryan) and Tuvok (Tim Russ) appeared on "Star Trek: Picard," with the former playing a regular role on the series. The reference-heavy "Star Trek: Lower Decks" makes "Voyager" references all the time, and even had an episode set on board the U.S.S. Voyager. 

Most notably, Captain Janeway (Kate Mulgrew) not only had a cameo in the 2002 film "Star Trek: Nemesis," but a holographic version of the character played a large role in the animated series "Star Trek: Prodigy." That same show also featured the real-life Janeway, the Doctor (Robert Picardo), as well as a subplot involving Chakotay (Robert Beltran), the captain of the experimental ship the U.S.S.

This article contains discussions of depression, self-harm, and suicidal ideation.

Robert Duncan McNeill and Roxann Dawson were split over one complicated storyline in Star Trek: Voyager season 5. McNeill and Dawson played Tom Paris and B'Elanna Torres, two members of Voyager's cast of characters. Besides being main characters on Voyager, Tom and B'Elanna's arcs became closely involved after the two began a romantic relationship in season 4. However, both characters still had their own storylines which involved the other to greater or lesser degrees depending on the episode. One episode that was more B'Elanna-focused was the Voyager season 5 episode "Extreme Risk."

The episode dealt with B'Elanna putting herself in increasingly dangerous holodeck simulations with the safety protocols off to test her ability to feel strong emotions. B'Elanna's suicidal ideation came from her depression over Star Trek's Maquis, who had been wiped out in the Alpha Quadrant earlier in the season. Despite their romance,...

In the premiere episode of Star Trek: Voyager, "Caretaker", Tom Paris (Robert Duncan McNeill) was a prisoner of the United Federation of Planets serving time in a New Zealand penal colony. At the time, Paris was a former Starfleet pilot who became a jaded loner with low self-esteem, and lost trust in the system that had repeatedly failed him. Captain Kathryn Janeway (Kate Mulgrew) knew Tom Paris as the son of her former commanding officer, Admiral Owen Paris (Richard Herd), and specifically sought Tom out to pilot the USS Voyager's risky Badlands mission in search of Chakotay's (Robert Beltran) Maquis raider.

One early Star Trek: Voyager concept was the blending of Captain Janeway's Starfleet officers with Commander Chakotay's Maquis fighters to create a single crew that had to work together in the Delta Quadrant. The Maquis in Star Trek: Deep Space Nine were comprised of former Federation citizens whose homes...

Technobabble. It's the bane of every Star Trek actor's existence, especially if their character is in the science department. Still, even those characters who aren't a part of that division can have their fair share of difficult scientific language specific to Star Trek to memorize. On Star Trek: Voyager, Garrett Wong used a workaround by writing his lines on black tape over the Voyager bridge console. Then Tim Russ and Robert Beltran created their own formulas for keeping their lines straight.

So it shouldn't come as any surprise that the tried and true methods are still being used in today's Star Trek. Christina Chong, who plays Lt. Noonien Singh on Star Trek: Strange New Worlds admitted at Creation's Trek to Chicago Convention that she cuts her lines up really small and puts them on the bridge. [via Screenrant].

I put my lines on the bridge. I cut them up really small. ... There's...

Star Trek: Prodigy is an exceptional animated series. Not only is it Star Trek-centric with episodic storylines interwoven with season long arcs, it's a masterful way of teaching new viewers about the franchise. A non-Star Trek viewer could start watching season one of Prodigy, and, by the end of the season two, they'd have a strong knowledge of the Federation and Starfleet, which are key to understanding Star Trek.

But some people don't like animation no matter how good it is. Some fans hesitate to give it a chance because they don't feel it's canon even though they've been assured that it is. They want to see it in live-action. They want to see actual actors and not just hear their voices. That's understandable. You like what you like.

Right now, Prodigy has been successful at Netflix with all forty episodes available for viewing, but we don't have...

Captain Chakotay's (Robert Beltran) return in Star Trek: Prodigy can fix 7 problems that the USS Voyager left in the Delta Quadrant in Star Trek: Voyager. As the USS Voyager crew blazed a trail through the Delta Quadrant on their 70,000 lightyear journey back to Earth, Captain Kathryn Janeway (Kate Mulgrew) sometimes had to play pretty fast and loose with Star Trek's Prime Directive, leaving problems in Voyager's wake. With a lifetime of travel ahead, and no guarantee that wormholes or anomalies would speed up the trip, Janeway couldn't stay long, and follow-up missions were just about impossible.

Star Trek: Prodigy's USS Protostar was originally commanded by Captain Chakotay on a mission to return to the Delta Quadrant and fix the problems caused by Voyager's homeward trip. A temporal anomaly diverted the Protostar, leaving Captain Chakotay stranded on the planet Solum in an alternate 25th century future timeline. In Star Trek:...

I've never seen a Star Trek character go from hated to beloved as fast as this Star Trek: Picard character. Star Trek has had its fair share of characters that I've grown to love, but it's always been a slow burn as Star Trek reveals characters' sympathetic backstories or understandable motives. Star Trek: Deep Space Nine's Quark (Armin Shimerman) took a while for me to warm up to, and I've changed my mind on Lwaxana Troi (Majel Barrett-Roddenberry) over the years. And after nearly 30 years, Star Trek: Prodigy made me like Captain Chakotay (Robert Beltran) from Star Trek: Voyager.

Making the unlikable actually likable is one of the things that Star Trek does best, of course. Star Trek's aliens become more sympathetic when we know what makes them tick, and communication helps us find meeting points between alien values and human morals. Star Trek has always wrapped "the other" in an alien metaphor,...

Both the first and second season of Star Trek: Prodigy are available now on Netflix, and by now, most fans know the series brought Wesley Crusher into the mix with Wil Wheaton returning to reprise his character from Star Trek: The Next Generation. It was a the perfect set-up for the Traveler, and he fit in wonderfully with the band of kids who were trying to get into Starfleet.

It was a welcome return and gave us a better look at what Wesley's life is like as as a Traveler as opposed to the brief scene we saw with him at the end of Star Trek: Picard's second season. Prodigy was able to build the character more and gave Wheaton more room to grow into the character.

In an interview with Daily StarTrekNews, Wheaton shared his excitement about being brought back to the universe and how "extremely into it" he was.

Star Trek: Voyager went where no other series had gone before or has gone since when it debuted "Threshold" during its second season. Although I didn't despise it as much as many fans, there were plenty who couldn't get past Tom Paris [Robert Duncan McNeill] and Captain Janeway [Kate Mulgrew] morphing into large lizards. Paris then kidnapped Janeway, took her to another planet, where they created some lizard babies which got left behind on the planet after Paris and Janeway were rescued by Voyager. While I personally think the episode had its good parts, I can understand why it would rank low in the ratings.

Hold onto your hats, though, because according to the Internet Movie Database [IMDb], Threshold is actually two points higher than the worse ranked episode which is "The Fight." Chakotay [Robert Beltran] begins hallucinating about boxing, seeing pairs of boxing gloves randomly. This is all because...

Captain Seven of Nine (Jeri Ryan) got to skip a huge step on the path to commanding the USS Enterprise in Star Trek: Picard season 3. Because the USS Enterprise is usually Starfleet's flagship, commanding the Enterprise is a noble aspiration for Starfleet Academy cadets that most never achieve. Even after waiting 15 years to become Captain, Captain William Riker (Jonathan Frakes) didn't become Captain of the Starship Enterprise, since Riker took command of the USS Titan instead. Like the Enterprise, the Titan became a legacy ship, and it's on the USS Titan-a where we find Seven of Nine in Star Trek: Picard season 3.

In Star Trek: Voyager, former Maquis crew members were given a provisional rank based on previous experience working in a command structure similar to Starfleet's. Most of the USS Voyager's crew members from the Maquis were either former Starfleet officers, like Commander Chakotay (Robert Beltran), or Starfleet Academy dropouts,...

The premise of "Star Trek: Voyager" was full of promise. In the pilot episode, "Caretaker," the title ship is assigned to apprehend a rogue vessel piloted by a terrorist group called the Maquis. The Maquis were an anti-Federation group that resented the organization's clumsy diplomacy, and tendency to kowtow to violent species like the Cardassians. The Maquis played a small role in late episodes of "Star Trek: The Next Generation" and on "Star Trek: Deep Space Nine," and they provided a tantalizing philosophical counterpoint to Gene Roddenberry's utopian future; we seem to be living in a universe without want, and the Federation seems to exist to provide equity to the galaxy, but there are still many people who aren't getting what they need. The Maquis aimed to rectify that.

During the scuffle, the U.S.S. Voyager and the Maquis ship are both unexpectedly whisked clear across the galaxy by a godlike alien being.