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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
00:38track 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 lifeform.
01:00When in the episode Demon Voyager puts down on the planet in order to do a few repairs and to
01:06do this week's version of trying to get rid of Tom and Harry they come into contact with what
01:12would become known as the Silver Blood. Now there's a little bit of biomimetic lifeforms going on,
01:18a little bit of happiness here, a little bit of decomposition there. Everyone has a good time.
01:23Later on however we come to the episode Course Oblivion and frankly yeah this gets a bit sad
01:32because you see Voyager allowed this Silver Blood lifeform to copy its crew and the ship itself but
01:39they then forgot that they weren't the originals which meant that when they designed a new type of
01:45warp core that let the ship travel faster they didn't realize it was toxic to their own genetic
01:51makeup which meant they all basically melted and died, all of their logs were lost and they were
01:58never spoken of again. Fun? Number 9, you appear to be leaking. The episode Night is a great way to
02:07open the fifth season of Star Trek Voyager basically because well the production team got to just not
02:13bother putting in all the stars when they were doing the field surrounding the ship. What becomes
02:18a very introverted episode for some of the characters such as Janeway as she effectively
02:23locks herself in her quarters and feels sorry for herself for a long time? Haven't we all done that
02:28this week? We also get first contact with an alien race that would become known as the reason we got the
02:37Delta Flyer. Yeah okay they're also known as the Malon. The Malon come from a now beautiful planet that is as
02:45clean as anything and the way that they do that is by dumping all of their waste out into space.
02:53Definitely no timely messages going on there. Mmm. Well suffice to say that the Voyager crew and the Malon do
03:01not become friends. Janeway decides to ponderfully destroy the first Malon ship that she encounters
03:09and that sets up how the relationship between these two cultures goes from that point on. Um yeah they're
03:17not going to be on the Christmas card list. Number 8, the tale of the deadly stranger. The Vadoor are an
03:23interesting case because the way that they were set up in the episode Dragon's Teeth really suggests that
03:29we're going to see them again and again and again in Voyager. And of course we never do. So in this case
03:35first contact is in fact only contact but it's quite frightening because Voyager accidentally discovers
03:42this subspace corridor network that they're thinking deadly. That's going to get us home no bother. Turns out
03:51it's been effectively co-opted by the Touré but it was originally used by these aliens, the Vadoor,
03:59in their attempt to conquer the galaxy. Not that much fun then when they are woken up by the crew of Voyager.
04:09In fact Seven is the one who's able to pass on this tale of the deadly stranger because effectively the Borg
04:17have assimilated cultures in the past that tell of these mysterious demon creatures that just pop up out of
04:23nowhere and behind a grinning smile rain destruction. And these are the aliens that the Voyager crew
04:31unwittingly have unleashed again on the Delta Quadrant. And they did fire some fair amount of
04:38torpedoes at them before they got away so really if they do bump into them again we don't reckon second
04:46contact's going to go very well. Number Seven, more than a mild shock. When you think of the Hirogen now you
04:53think of these tall fearsome warriors, you think of such actors as Tony Todd, Mark Metcalfe, these
05:01seriously let's not mess with these folks kind of aliens. They are very clearly based around the
05:08Predator movies, they keep trophies on the wall and so when you think back to the very first time we see
05:14them and the fact that Seven Electrocute's one of them through the astrometrics bay, it's actually
05:19quite funny. Voyager has found an old communications relay that they then want to use to connect with
05:24the Alpha Quadrant. Brilliant! Turns out the Hirogen have laid claim to it. They want to stop Voyager
05:30using it and Seven, in what possibly they thought was going to be a momentary bit of comedy, sends an
05:37electric shock through it, they use the sub-state relay, everyone's happy. Well that is until the rest of
05:41the Hunters turn up. Maybe, maybe hold off on those impulses for now?
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06:52Number 6. One Sporocystean? Two Sporocysteans? Well, the alien race that Voyager first encountered
07:02was of course the caretaker, although they didn't realise they were encountering them at the time.
07:06The caretaker and, though we wouldn't discover her for a while, later on Suspiria are members of
07:12a Sporocystean life form called the Nacine. This caretaker has been caring for the Ocampa,
07:19another first contact race, for an age because he accidentally made their homeworld barren.
07:26He has been looking for compatible member races to, you know, to create a new caretaker for the Ocampa.
07:36Unfortunately, by the time Voyager reaches them, they're out of luck. The caretaker dies before any
07:42of the secrets, really, of the Nacine can be passed over to the Voyager crew. The caretaker's array
07:47is destroyed by Voyager to save the Ocampa from the Kazon, another point for a first contact there.
07:55And later on, when Voyager encounters Suspiria, who had in fact just been left in Voyager as a sort of
08:01ace-in-the-hole-get-Voyager-home-to-the-Alpha-Quadrant-if-this-show-wasn't-doing-very-well card,
08:08she doesn't really do much to help them either. So, in terms of let's-all-be-friends-with-the-Nacine,
08:14wasn't a good first look. Number five, once more without chronitons.
08:19This is a funny one because we're not sure if this actually counts or not, because
08:24which first contact with the Krenim are we actually going to look at here? So, you have first contact
08:29with the Krenim, which was a little scout ship basically firing torpedoes, attempting to play
08:34the Chihuahua to Voyager's Bull Mastiff. That one, not very good. Then, off in the distance,
08:40you've got Krenim on his timeship erasing the Zal from existence. Suddenly, this little scout ship,
08:47Krenim ship, becomes a bit more of a beefy bastard, and it's got something a little bigger in its torpedo
08:53tubes. And suddenly, Voyager is getting crippled, and we get this whole year of hell. That's a good
09:00title for an episode. I wonder if anyone will ever make it. Then, of course, by the end of this year,
09:06Janeway pilots Voyager into the timeship, causing an inversion within the ship which resets the clock.
09:13Everyone goes back, and first contact now becomes the bigger, beefier security ship piloted by the first
09:22guy who then just advises Voyager here. Take the long way around our space. There's a bit of dispute
09:27going on. She says, thanks very much. Everyone says, good journey. So, actually, that wasn't that bad.
09:32But then, when you count Kess in before and after... Time travel hurts my head.
09:40Number four. Biomolecular warheads first. Class reunions later.
09:44So, first contact with Species 8472 effectively put Harry Kim on his deathbed, and then the ship was
09:52nearly destroyed. A lot of Borg were killed. It was a good time. Then we start reaching out to try and
09:58understand who Species 8472 are. The weak shall perish. Okay, cool. Not gonna go for dinner with them.
10:05Then, Voyager ends up in fluidic space because the Borg brought them there. They fire some modified torpedoes.
10:12They get the upper hand. The Borg go on their usual rampage through the Delta Quadrant. Whoops.
10:17So, pretty bad first contact, right? You'd think that might be it. Let's stay away from them forever.
10:22Bit odd, then, when Voyager finds a holograph, or a hologram ship, floating in space, and they beam over,
10:28and they're at Starfleet Academy. What? What's this doing here? Let's test these people. Oh, my good.
10:35Christ, they're 8472. They were preparing a full invasion of Starfleet. Thankfully, there's a lot more
10:43communication going on this time. So, you could argue that this is the proper first contact between
10:498472 and Voyager. And if that's the case, it shouldn't be on this list. So, we're gonna go back
10:55to the first first contact, which was one tripedal alien, one swipe of its claw,
11:02and Harry Kim's face eating itself.
11:04Number 3. Going through a difficult phage?
11:07The Vedians are effectively the vampires of the Delta Quadrant, and there's so much tragedy
11:12attached to them. However, they're also horrible because of how they try to combat their tragedy.
11:19Our very first experience of them is Neelix having his lungs stolen because the lungs in the people
11:26that stole them are rotting away. That's how they stay alive, by harvesting organs from other aliens.
11:32In this episode, which is aptly called The Phage, these same Vedians do in fact save Neelix's life.
11:40Now, while Neelix's own lungs are now fully integrated into another person who will die if they're removed,
11:47Kes, thankfully, the Ocampa are able to effectively live perfectly fine with one lung.
11:54She can donate one lung to Neelix, the Vedians can make it happen.
11:58Okay, sounds like we got a good ending to a bad situation.
12:02Janeway does take the time to say, listen, if we see you again, we're gonna blow you out the sky.
12:06I'm paraphrasing, but that's effectively the message. As time goes on and we encounter more of the Vedians,
12:11turns out Janeway made the right call. They're not very nice.
12:15Danara Pell is one of the few Vedians who shows their humanity, if you like, has not been lost to the Phage.
12:24So, with that and the knowledge that the members of the think tank which Voyager encounters a few years later have cured the Phage,
12:33time might be right for second contact with the Vedians now.
12:38Number two, most storms don't rain nanoprobes.
12:42In the finale of the fourth season of Star Trek Voyager, we meet Arturus, and he initially seems to be a friendly alien
12:50who can speak all 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, everyone's happy, we'll be home for tea.
13:04You never really thought that was going to happen, did you? Turns out Arturus was a member of a species that was directly counting on Species 8472 to effectively destroy the Borg.
13:16When Voyager made the deal with the Borg that saw Species 8472 sent back to their own fluidic space,
13:23the Borg then turned around and assimilated Arturus' culture, leaving Arturus, a little understandably, infuriated.
13:33Knowing that he can't take on the entire collective, he effectively settles his rage on Voyager itself.
13:40He uses the line that the Borg are like a storm on the horizon, you don't get angry with the storm.
13:45But if the Voyager crew were the ones who sort of pushed the storm in their direction, they can be blamed.
13:53And I could sort of see his point. Voyager does survive the day and, you know, Dauntless unfortunately ends up in the hands of the Borg,
14:01having transwarp ability already, possibly just don't care about Slipstream.
14:05But it's quite a sobering thought to think that this final, to date, encounter with Arturus' species,
14:13I mean he says a few other survivors got away, but was one of pure rage, pure blame, and, quite frankly, ends in sadness for Arturus.
14:22I'd be a bit concerned, really, for Voyager if they're nipping back to the Delta Quadrant any time soon.
14:27Number one. No more scarves on Sicaris.
14:30Very early on in Voyager's journey to the Delta Quadrant, they encounter the Sicarians.
14:35Now, initially, these are a hedonistic, sort of, you know, up their own backsides, but not overtly unpleasant kind of people.
14:45In hosting the Voyager crew, they reveal that they have a technology, which they call a spatial trajectory,
14:52which can send people, or even starships, up to 40,000 light years away.
14:57At this point, Voyager was still 75,000 light years from Earth.
15:01That would have made a serious, serious chunk of their journey gone like that.
15:07Unfortunately, the Sicarians were like, we kind of have this directive thing where we don't share technology.
15:12Although Janeway sort of, well, she has to accept this, she does attempt to negotiate, she does attempt to explain their position,
15:20and, alas, the Sicarians won't budge.
15:23So, when Seska and B'Elanna basically hatch a plot to steal some of this technology, a plot that Tuvok gets involved in as well,
15:34they are then left in a position when, it turns out, the technology is completely incompatible with Voyager.
15:41They can't exactly ask the Sicarians for help either, because they've just stolen from them.
15:46So, it's all a bit of a disaster, really.
15:49And it gets a little bit more awkward when, years later, Seven of Nine reveals the fact that the Borg have assimilated this spatial trajectory technology,
15:58which is saved only for the use of the Queen, and why it wouldn't be used for a full-scale assimilation of the galaxy, God only knows.
16:06But, yeah, does that mean that the Sicarians didn't have a happy ending?
16:12I'm not sure I like this list.
16:14Thankfully, though, that's the end of it.
16:15Thanks very much.
16:16What do you think should be on this list?
16:18Thank you so much to Jack Kiley for writing this list originally.
16:21Go check it out over on whatculture.com.
16:23Thank you to the wonderful Tom for making this look pretty.
16:27Don't forget to follow us along on Twitter at TrekCulture,
16:30and then you can follow us over on Instagram at TrekCultureYT.
16:33Remember, every Tuesday we have a podcast that drops,
16:36so that will be on all of the podcast catchers of your choice.
16:39Don't forget to follow Jack over on Twitter.
16:42He's at Jack Riley.
16:44I'm at Sean Ferrick.
16:45Tom is at Tom C. Finn or Tom Roberts Finn.
16:48I think that's everyone.
16:50You are all awesome.
16:51Make sure that you look after yourselves until I see you again.
16:53Make sure that you live long and prosper.
16:55Our friends in Ukraine, Slava, Ukraine.
16:57Everyone, have a wonderful however long it is until I see you again.
17:00Make it so.
17:02I'll see you again soon.
17:03Bye.
17:04Bye.
17:05Bye.
17:06Bye.
17:07Bye.
17:08Bye.
17:09Bye.
17:10Bye.
17:11Bye.
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