To The Journey: A Star Trek Voyager Podcast

Season Four Essential Voyager Here they go again, Char and Tristan are back with Essential Voyager! This time, they tackle Season Four and examine each episode for essential-worthy status. If the episode has meaning to Voyager's mission home or contains essential character moments, it remains in the timeline. Otherwise, it's chucked from the season faster than Janeway can say "TIIIIME'S UP!" Which...

"11:59" Commentary. For many the holiday season is a time filled with food, festivities, and family. It is also a time for reflection — to remember those before us, what has happened in the past year, and look to the future as we approach a new year. In this episode of To The Journey, Char and Tristan wax sentimental as they deliver a commentary on the Voyager Season Five episode "11:59." They ref...

Voyager's Mirror Universe, Part Three. One of the most original things Char and Tristan have created on To The Journey is a vision of what Voyager might look like in the Mirror Universe. In previous episodes, they established how the ISS Intrepid got lost in the Delta Quadrant, gave backstory to the characters, and rewrote "The 37s" in Mirror Universe style. Now they're at it again, and in this ep...

Top Five Tuvok and Neelix Moments. Like Quark and Odo on Deep Space Nine, Neelix and Tuvok are the resident odd couple on Voyager. By their very nature, they are a juxtaposition. Tuvok is disciplined and orderly, whereas Neelix will improvise and work his way through things as he goes. Tuvok is a master at controlling his emotions, while Neelix expresses his emotions with exuberance. When it comes...

"Nemesis" Rewrite. Chakotay-centric episodes are typically not highly-rated among the Star Trek fanbase. Most of them leave a lot to be desired, but "Nemesis" might be an exception. The episode explores what war does to the mind, and may have greater significance in our post-9/11 culture than it did when it first aired in 1997. In this episode of To The Journey, Char and Tristan take another look...

Episode Comparison. Would you believe Will Riker if he said he wasn't putting the moves on a woman? What about former inmate Tom Paris if he claimed he didn't murder someone, but the victim's memories show otherwise? If you said "no," watch TNG's "A Matter of Perspective" and Voyager's "Ex Post Facto." Each episode uses the reputations of the story's main characters, Riker and Paris, against them....

Essential Voyager, Season Three. The time has come again for Essential Voyager! This time, the victim...er, subject, is Season Three. Char and Tristan review each episode and determine if it's necessary viewing or if it's better off being destroyed by sweaty Janeway and her phaser rifle. It is a season that arguably has the greatest ups and downs in terms of story quality. Does that make Char and...

Top Five Favorite Moments from Season Six. You know Char and Tristan love their top five lists. You know that they also love their multi-part series, dissected season by season. In this episode of To The Journey, they do both! Char and Tristan looked through everything in Voyager's sixth season, exploring all the nooks and crannies, and made a list of their top five moments. In a season with serio...

"The Q and the Grey" Commentary. It's time to break out the Civil War costumes and take sides, because the Q Continuum is at war! Wait, what? That's right, war, conducted by an omnipotent species that has claimed it is above such barbaric acts in the past. It is issues like that (and more) that Char and Tristan point out in this episode of To The Journey, where they deliver a commentary on the Sea...

Recasting Voyager & "The Supercrew." They're younger, they're hotter...they're the crew you've never seen before and never will...because it's all hypothetical! Char and Tristan take two questions held over from their Reddit-style AMA in episode 137, "TTJ AMA OMG!" Kicking things off with who they would choose from all Trek series for key positions on their "supercrew." They then jump into their c...

Top Five Out-of-Character Moments. Whether it's due to a temporal rift or an alien virus, one of the most common ways that we as a Star Trek audience know that something isn't right is by making a character say or do something they normally would not. Our heroes sift through clues that help them determine what is going on so they can make things right...usually. There are times that these out-of c...

Ask Us Anything. When Char and Tristan get a little personal on episodes of To The Journey listeners respond with the utmost feedback. This episode provides a more intimate look at the people behind the mic. Inspired by Reddit's popular "Ask Me Anything" Q&A format, Char and Tristan opened the floodgates on Twitter, Facebook, and the Trek.fm website to let listeners ask them any question their hea...

Pairing Off. In Voyager's earlier years, 75,000 light years was a long way from home. It seemed inevitable that the crew would spend the rest of their lives en route to the Alpha Quadrant. As Captain Janeway said, "All we have is each other," so it made sense that some members of the crew began falling in love and pairing off. What if we had seen more examples of this? In this episode of To The Jo...

The Season Four "Replacement." In the summer hiatus of 1997, fans were on edge after viewing part one of the explosive "Scorpion" cliffhanger. With the news of a main cast member making an exit, fans did not know what to think. It was not known who was leaving until Season Four drew closer and Paramount revealed that Jennifer Lien (Kes) was being replaced by another actress.  Picture yourself in t...

Season Two Essential Trek. Every season of every Star Trek show there are some episodes that stand out more than others — but which ones are essential to their respective shows as a whole? Char and Tristan try to answer this question by continuing their series of "Essential Voyager," with Season Two. They examine each episode's importance to the season, the show as a whole, as well as its overall...

"Worst Case Scenario" Commentary.  If you could go back to the start of Voyager's mission and join the crew, would you sign on as a Starfleet officer or a member of the Maquis? Would you lead in a mutiny or fight back? The crew played around with this idea when they uncovered a holonovel Tuvok created at the start of Voyager's journey home as a way of preparing for such a scenario. Now, three year...

Star Trek Las Vegas 2015. When it comes to Star Trek conventions, none is bigger and better than Star Trek Las Vegas. With Voyager's 20th anniversary as the main focus of the 2015 event, this was a party Char could not miss. In this episode of To The Journey, Char helps Tristan experience STLV 2015 vicariously by telling him all about what she did at the convention and what happened when the entir...

Top Five Season Five Moments. Like Voyager's fourth season, the fifth season was solid throughout. Standouts such as "Bride of Chaotica!," "Night," "Counterpoint," "Timeless," and several others really made this year of Voyager's journey home shine. In this episode of To The Journey, Char and Tristan slip into their Captain Proton cosplay and take on the painstaking task of choosing their top five...

"Ashes to Ashes" Rewrite. Hey, do you remember that ensign who died three years ago? No? It's okay, neither do we. But guess what, she's back! And she looks nothing like her former self! What the heck is going on?  The above is the essential premise for "Ashes to Ashes," a Voyager Season Six story that had several interesting ideas behind it, but fell short of its potential. In this episode of To...

Top Five Tom/B'Elanna Moments. Some couples were simply meant to be. That was the case for Tom and B'Elanna on Voyager, where a series of innocent flirtations eventually blossomed into a beautiful marriage that eventually included a child. It was one of the few couplings in Star Trek that was built to last and portrayed with realism. From hot 'n steamy romance to standing by their commitment to on...

"Rise" Commentary. In this episode of To The Journey, Tristan and Char deliver a commentary on the often forgotten Season Three episode "Rise." From the moment Tuvok and Neelix met in "Caretaker," it was painfully obvious how different the two characters were. Tuvok was driven by logic and discipline, as is the Vulcan way. Neelix, however, often worked on gut instinct and had no problem improvisin...

Essential Voyager. The episodic television format has its strengths and weaknesses. The advantage is that the viewer can tune into just about any episode, any time and enjoy it without having to know what happened in previous installments. The downside being that it's harder to build momentum with self-contained episodes. That means that some episodes will shine, while others downright stink. In t...

Writer's Room. It's time again to break out the white board, erase it clean, and write another story on the fly! Join Tristan and Char in the writer's room as they break an episode featuring Kes, as voted on by TTJ listeners on Facebook and Twitter. With no preparation prior to recording, Char and Tristan develop a full five-act episode on the spot. Listen on, see how they did in the heat of the m...

Top Five Season Four Moments.  Countless fans consider Voyager's fourth season the series' finest. With impressive installments such as "Message in a Bottle" and "Hope and Fear" and amazing two-parters like "Year of Hell" and "The Killing Game," it's no shock that Char and Tristan agonized over their lists of top Season Four moments from Voyager and miraculously narrowed their picks down to five*...

"Extreme Risk" Rewrite. When Char and Tristan choose an episode that deserves a rewrite, it's usually an episode with untapped potential. This time, things are different. In this episode of To The Journey, Char and Tristan rewrite "Extreme Risk" with one major change: Janeway takes B'Elanna's place as the character who's numbed from depression. Since Janeway was dealing with depression in "Night,"...