Headings: USS Voyager personnel. Apparent blooper. Bloopers. Personal. Behind-the-scenes Page

USS Voyager personnel

USS Voyager has two crewmembers called Kaplan, both with the rank of Ensign, namely the one who dies in [#59 Unity], presumably the Marie Kaplan noted on the astrometrics viewscreen list (see screenshot extract below), and another whose existence was decided upon by TOSTFF in 2001-02 in order to eliminate the blooper that Ensign Kaplan (seen in [#51 Future's End, Part Two]) is killed in [#59 Unity] is mentioned as being alive in [#88 Vis à Vis]. However, although TOSTFF is a canon source, the statement was not supported by any other canon source until VC which was published in the UK in June 2003. For personal comment about the unluckiness of the name "Kaplan", see the heading Personal. In 2370, Commander Donald Kaplan, possibly an older relative of at least one of Voyager's Kaplans, was the chief engineer of the Federation Starship Intrepid, as noted in [TNG: Force of Nature]. That Intrepid was presumably at least the second starship to bear the name Intrepid, since an earlier Intrepid was destroyed in [TOS: The Immunity Syndrome], and USS Voyager, Intrepid-class, despite being noted by Admiral Patterson in [#118 Relativity] as possessing revolutionary new state-of-the-art systems cannot be the first starship of its class as, traditionally in Starfleet, the first starship of the class names the class, with the exceptions being the starships named Enterprise. Encyclopaedia says "There was presumably yet another U.S.S. Intrepid that served as the prototype for the Intrepid-class U.S.S. Voyager." suggesting that prototype was not Kaplan's ship.

Apparent blooper The episode [Drive], in which Paris and Torres get married, is shown after [Imperfection], although according to the stardates events in [Drive] happen first. This means there seems to be a blooper in [Imperfection], but it is not a blooper, during the surgical operation when there is a (wedding) ring visible on the ring finger of Robert Duncan McNeill/Tom Paris. The picture shows it during the holosimulation of the operation on Seven.

Continuity

Neelix plays kadiskot with Seven in Sickbay during her confinement there. He will play Seven regularly at the game via long-distance communications after he leaves Voyager permanently in [#169 Homestead]. In late 2372, in [#41 Resolutions], Voyager can stay in contact with the planet that Janeway and Chakotay are on for only approximately 36 hours after leaving orbit but in 2374 onwards Seven upgrades and extends the range of the Astrometrics instruments which means that when Neelix and Seven play kadiskot via comms. as depicted in [#171 and #172 Endgame], it is likely they will be able to play for longer.

Bloopers

The salvage alien's ship is the same as Nocona's in [#169 Homestead]. There is no reason why the same model of ship should be used, if one is prepared to believe that the ship manufacturer has a wide sales territory or else used spaceships get handed on then on and on again etc. over very vast distances.

Bartlett's rank, namely that of Commander, is superior to Cavit's rank of Lieutenant Commander. I surmise that if Bartlett was a Starfleet officer i.e. present when Voyager set off in 2371 for the Badlands to seek the missing Maquis ship, then Bartlett would, or should, have been First Officer rather than Cavit, even though in [TNG: Arsenal Of Freedom] it is possible for those with apparently inferior rank to act with higher. Possibly Bartlett was a Maquis member, and a member of Chakotay's crew. But it seems odd that both he and Chakotay have the rank of Commander, though we have to take it that they both did because the evidence of Bartlett's rank is there on the tv screen, and of course only one could be Voyager's First Officer; the logical choice is Chakotay. To conclude: Bartlett's rank of Commander does not not plausible and I believe it is a blooper, with the show's production staff forgetting to add, say, "Lt." in front of it though giving Bartlett the rank of "Lieutenant Commander" would still make him of sufficiently high rank (equal to Tuvok after Tuvok's promotion to Lieutenant Commander in early 2374, in [#73 Revulsion]) that we wonder why Bartlett is not seen on the bridge at least occasionally; however, we know from canon commentary on earlier Star Trek that lieutenant commanders tend to be in charge of a division and I assume therefore would be present in the division concerned, which would not necessarily be on the bridge. To get round the difficulty, I suggest that Bartlett was promoted to Commander when Chakotay was inoperative or absent e.g. when he leaves Voyager without permission to retrieve the transporter module stolen by Seska and the Kazon-Nistrim in [#27 Maneuvers], and upon Chakotay's return Bartlett handed back the duties of First Officer but retained the rank. My suggestion, however, is flawed in that if Chakotay was replaced at any time why Tuvok was not promoted to First Officer instead. Considering the rather unorthodox assignment of ranks at the end of [Caretaker] and Torres' appointment as chief engineer in [#3 Parallax], as well as Janeway obliging Ensign Rollins to defer to Paris after order Paris, who at that stage is merely a 'Starfleet observer', to take the conn in [Caretaker], and considering that Voyager is far from Starfleet's normal crossfeed of personnel, rigid face-value adherence to rank is rather academic. (This note, in shortened form, appears also in the CREW: Minor Named Crew entry for Bartlett.)

Deceased crewmember names and "The West Wing"

The names of the deceased as displayed on Voyager's astrometrics screen to Janeway by Seven are the names of the main characters in "The West Wing":

[Voyager]	"The West Wing"
Commander J. Bartlett	Jed Bartlet, President
Lt. Cdr. L. McGarry	Leo McGarry, Chief of Staff
Lt. Cmdr. T. Ziegler	Toby Ziegler, Director of Communications
Lt. J. Lyman	Josh Lyman, Deputy Chief of Staff
Lt. S. Seaborn	Sam Seaborn, Deputy Director of Communications
Ensign Claudia J. Craig	Claudia Jean "C.J." Craig, Press Secretary (spelled, presumably misspelled, "Cregg" on a "The West Wing" website I visited)
Ensign Charles Young	Charlie Young, Assistant to the President

Thanks to Matt Strauch who contacted me about the tie-in with "The West Wing" and provided the details in the table above. According to one of the two "The West Wing" websites I have since visited, the NBC television show, starring Martin Sheen, "provides a glimpse into presidential politics in the USA's capital as it tells the stories of the members of a fictional presidental administration." I have not seen "The West Wing". It was shown on UK television a while ago, as a few friends saw trailers for it but that is all. I have seen trailers on videos or DVDs.

"The West Wing" protagonist is spelled "Bartlet". The [Voyager] one is spelled "Bartlett". One character not included as a [Voyager] character is Donna Moss, Josh's aide, who has a large role in "The West Wing". Other [Voyager] characters noted as deceased appear or are mentioned in other [Voyager] episodes e.g. Ballard. Technician Timothy Lang is presumably the Crewman who was part of the away mission in [#119 Warhead]. He cannot of course be the female Ensign Lang in [#66 Displaced]. I have just noticed, and should have noted before, that the television screen spells Ballard's first name "Lyndsay", whereas many sources and thus this website, spell it "Lindsay". As I defer to the episodes wherever possible, I shall amend the spellings in due course, and no later than when I upgrade the Episode Guide for [Ashes To Ashes].

Personal

Crewmembers Kaplan and (Timothy Lang) die during USS Voyager's time in the Delta Quadrant. Those surnames seem to be unlucky because in 2267 in [TOS: The Apple] Lt. Kaplan (male) is killed by Vaal and Lt. Lang (male) is killed in 2267 in [TOS: Arena] by the Gorn. Captain Kirk's crew in 2267, in 2267, includes a Crewman Russ, seen in [TOS: The Doomsday Machine] - nice to think that for Tim Russ, a [TOS] fan and who plays Tuvok, one of his descendants will enter Starfleet.

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