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| NAME/TERM | DESCRIPTION | PICTURE |
| Beltran, Robert | A member of the ensemble cast (i.e. the main cast or the regular cast). Plays Chakotay. |  [#25 Tattoo] |
| Berman, Rick | One of three co-creators and co-producers of [Voyager]. He is the chief executive (the ultimate boss) of Star Trek who was passed on the role by Gene Roddenberry (see Gene Roddenberry) when his health began to fail. Berman was Executive (Co-)Producer throughout [Voyager], sharing the role with (at various times) Michael Piller, Jeri Taylor, Brannon Braga and Kenneth Biller. |  |
| blue screen | see green screen | |
| bottle show | In showbusiness, one which uses the standing sets.
It is not a bottle show if a holodeck program is shown activated where that holoprogram set has not already been built e.g. [#12 Heroes And Demons] is not a bottle show because the Beowulf holoprogram sets had to be constructed (and also, there are a number of guest-stars and extras in that episode). [#19 Twisted] is a bottle show because although the Chez Sandrine holoprogram is seen in it, that set had already been built; that episode has only one guest star. [#145 The Haunting Of Deck 12] is a bottle show, with four guest stars (the children formerly Borg). [The Haunting Of Deck 12] has minimum opticals (see opticals), and required no additional sets to be constructed, and it thereby released funds for the costly [#146 and #147 Unimatrix Zero] which followed it. As a bottle show is often done to claw back overspending of the budget on other shows (or done as deliberate foresighted planning as, obviously, some episodes cost more than others to produce), it tends to employ few or no guest-stars in order to keep down the salary bill. It also tends to use inexpensive opticals or, depending on the situation, just one or two expensive ones e.g. [#3 Parallax]. A 'bottle show' is done usually for budgetary reasons, but that does not mean a poor quality episode. Indeed, many top class episodes are 'bottle shows'. |
 Voyager's transporter room set (part) Picture source: ? ST:M
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| canon | There are several definitions, but I use that which is most commonly accepted: "canon" is the approved history, culture, equipment and people of the Star Trek universe as portrayed, explained or discussed in the Star Trek televisions series, films, and books, technical manuals, merchandise e.g. calendars, which are published by or approved by Paramount Pictures. Approved publishers to look for include Simon & Schuster and Pocket Books which, if the publication is canon, states that it is approved by Paramount. In addition, despite Paramount Pictures' disclaimer regarding cast and staff interviews (which disclaimer appears, for instance, on ST DVD), I tend to treat such interviews as being as good as canon because they deal with the making of the show, the actor/staff member's experience on the show etc. The interviews also almost always appear in Paramount-approved publications e.g. ST:M, ST Monthly, ST DVD and TOSTW. See SOURCES.
What most people, including Paramount Pictures, would not class as "canon" is fan fiction. Much of that available in book shops is well-thought of and much forms a body of history which many fans would like to see considered as canon. But it is not. (However, it is possible that Jeri Taylor's novels have tacit blessing. Technically, I suppose, any book that has been allowed to be published has tacit blessing.) For instance, Tom Paris jokingly mentions in [#88 Vis à Vis]) the holoprogram 'The Dancing Girls of Nanipia Prime'. Now if I were to write a novel in which the crew visit the holoprogram and are forced to do wild dances wearing environmental suits...that would NOT be canon. |
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| CGI | CGI is an acronym (not coined by Star Trek) for computer-generated image(s) particularly in an animated sequence. CG is an acronym (again, not coined by Star Trek) for computer-generated. Due to the high cost of good CGI, CGI was introduced mainly during Season 3. The macroviruses in [#54 Macrovirus] proved what could be done, encouraging the creation of Species 8472 in [#68 and #69 Scorpion] which is a wholly-CGI creation.
Eventually the USS Voyager model was replaced by a CGI model, thus increasing the flexibility of movement and what happens to the starship e.g. in battle sequences. The opening titles sequence was CGI right from the outset:  |
 work for [#54 Macrocosm] "1st picture: temp shot - the CGI macrovirus will be inserted in post-production. 2nd picture: the finished result i.e. with macrovirus." |
| compositing | The assembling of various elements that go to make a scene, including live action and any visual effects, to produce finished footage which can then be combined with the sound track (and maybe receive a final edit for length) onto the one final digital videotape master. | |
| dailies | All the footage filmed the day before. Every morning Rick Berman, Jeri Taylor, Michael Piller, Peter Lauritson, Supervising Editor J.P. Farrell, and others, would screen the dailies. This is to ensure that everything looks alright before moving to the next step of production, which is to edit the footage to insert or amend the footage with post-production visual effects etc. before putting it all onto the master videotape. | |
| Dawson, Roxann | A member of the ensemble cast (i.e. the main cast or the regular cast). Plays B'Elanna Torres. In early episodes the actress is credited as Roxann Dawson-Biggs. |  [#3 Parallax] |
| episode | One episode of [Voyager] is shown on television on a regular basis, usually one each week. Each episode is exactly 46 minutes long excluding titles (if shooting the script results in more or less time, additions or cuts have to be made accordingly).
In countries where commercial advertising occurs for that tv channel, adverts are inserted at intervals to take the programme to a total of 1 hour. (In the UK, the BBC is not run by commercial advertising. That accounts for why, after long programmes e.g. films, very occasionally the National (power) Grid cannot cope when millions of people rush for the toilet or to put the kettle on afterwards. This is not a problem for 50-minute programmes like a [Voyager] episode.) Because [Voyager] originally aired, and still airs in syndication, for tv networks in the USA which are financed mainly by commercial adverts, each episode is (like a play) divided into five Acts, though on tv each Act is of specific pre-determined length throughout the series. Some kind of cliff-hanger occurs to end an Act which it is hoped will keep the audience watching that channel despite the adverts. The Act also tends to close, depending on the nature of the cliffhanger, with tense dramatic music. There are several [Voyager] stories which are composed of two episodes e.g. [#68 and #69 Scorpion]. The two episodes of [#86 and #87 The Killing Game] aired back-to-back on the same night when first aired in the USA. [#109 and #110 Dark Frontier] was the first two-part story planned as a movie event since the opening (two-part) series première [#1 and #2 Caretaker]. Often a Season ends with Part 1 of a story, which ends with a cliff-hanger, in the hope of encouraging viewers to watch Part 2, which starts the next Season, (and thereby also encourage them to watch the rest of the new Season). Part 2 of a story starts with a short recapitulation of events in Part 1 (usually voiced by Majel Barrett a.k.a. Majel Barrett-Roddenberry, the voice of the LCARS computer). In the US and UK, a Season (at least for first broadcasting) ends for a break in the summer with the new Season starting sometime in the autumn. |
 USS Voyager, captured by the Kazon-Nistrim, lifts off from Hanon IV, stranding the crew - a dramatic situation which ends Part 1 of [Basics], bringing Season 2 to a close.
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| Great Bird of the Galaxy, the | Nickname of Gene Roddenberry - see Gene Roddenberry | |
| green screen | Also known as blue screen. A background of plain bright green (or plain bright blue), against which live action is shot for any scene where one or more visual special effects are to be inserted later. The green screen is then removed from the footage (being a plain bright green makes it easier to do this) and replaced by visual effect(s). Sometimes actors read for a part in the show against a green screen so that, if necessary, footage can be inserted behind them in order to give the producers and casting staff a better idea of what that person would potentially look like in the role. It is the principle of a plain bright colour that matters, hence sometimes the Voyager model was shot against an plain bright orange screen. |
 an actor reading for a part against a green screen
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| Jeri Taylor | see Taylor, Jeri | |
| LCARS | The operating system of Starfleet computers (LCARS was first introduced in [TNG]). LCARS control panels, interfaces and monitors (including wall-mounted) can be seen throughout USS Voyager and in Starfleet facilities. (LCARS stands for Library Computer Access and Retrieval System.) The furniture which LCARS sits in is built, usually from wood, by Al Smutko (head of construction) and his staff (Al Smutko is the only head of construction who can boast his own fan club). Then Dan Curry and his visual effects team install video monitors and play and/or light graphics created by the art department on them. Therefore, the LCARS displays are a combination of graphic design and video playback elements. A moving animation also has the slang term of Okudagram, which is an in-joke on Star Trek only - see Okudagram. |
 a display at the Ops station [#20 The 37's]
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| Lien, Jennifer | A member of the ensemble cast (i.e. the main cast or the regular cast). Plays Kes. |  [#26 Cold Fire] picture: TOSTW |
| McNeill, Robert Duncan | A member of the ensemble cast (i.e. the main cast or the regular cast). Plays Tom Paris. |  [#23 Parturition] |
| Michael Piller | see Piller, Michael | |
| Mulgrew, Kate | A member of the ensemble cast (i.e. the main cast or the regular cast). Plays Kathryn Janeway. |  [#159 Repentance] |
| Nielsen rating | In the USA, the method, based on audience figures, by which the "success" of an episode (or series) is determined from a corporate television point of view. For instance, [#144 Life Line] earned a 3.7 Nielsen rating and 6% audience share, giving [Voyager] an historic victory in the U.S. television May Sweeps. Comparing those figures with those for episodes in the rest of the series, [Life Line] was the series' most watched episode of the year 2000 after [#135 Tsunkatse] and [#140 Good Shepherd] and, in addition, represents the show's best Nielsen rating during the extremely competitive May Sweeps since the transmission of the Season 4 finale [#94 Hope and Fear]. Nielsen ratings give a snapshot of an episode's popularity for its first broadcast and are affected by subsequent episodes. Fans, however, tend to ignore Nielsen ratings as regards enjoying the show, but if a series gains consistently poor ratings then studio executives might consider cancelling the show and that is a fact which would definitely make fans concerned...causing palpitations aplenty for fans, as happened with [Enterprise]. Nielsen ratings are not the sole means of gauging an episode's or series' popularity e.g. Paramount Pictures runs focus groups comprising fans who give feedback. Other countries have their own ratings systems, although not all (probably few or none) of the tv networks rely solely on ratings. Britain's BBC, for instance, often depends on the whim of the executive in charge of programme planning, which once led to several years of a sci-fi wilderness when the post was occupied by someone who openly admitted in an interview to hating sci-fi; after that executive was 'kicked upstairs' in the due course of his career, the BBC then aired numerous sci-fi series and films including a lot of Star Trek together with a 'Dr Who' Night, a 'Red Dwarf' Night and of course a Star Trek Night. The all-evening 'Night' shows were hugely popular. |
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| opening titles | see titles | |
| Okudagram | A visual effect created by [Voyager]'s art department, such as the display on an LCARS monitor. It is actually a piece of animation or drawing which is shown on screen by a combination of graphic design and video playback - see also LCARS. "Okudagram" is the affectionate name used by the staff, and is named after Michael 'Mike' Okuda, the Scenic Arts Supervisor (he also co-wrote Encyclopaedia with his wife Denise Okuda). Okudagrams can be seen in every Star Trek series, except [TOS], and in the films. | [#20 The 37's] |
| opening titles | see titles | |
| optical | An optical is a visual special effect - see special effects | |
| Paramount Pictures | Often abbreviated to Paramount. Paramount Pictures, now a Viacom company, owns the Star Trek franchise. Its logo appears at the start and finish of every [Voyager] (and Star Trek) episode and film. Information about Paramount Pictures is in STARTING THE SERIES: Conceiving [Voyager] (frames format): Retrospect. |
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| Phillips, Ethan | A member of the ensemble cast (i.e. the main cast or the regular cast). Plays Neelix. |  [#139 Child's Play] |
| Picardo, Robert | A member of the ensemble cast (i.e. the main cast or the regular cast). Plays the Doctor. |  [#151 Critical Care] |
| Piller, Michael | One of three co-creators and co-producers of [Voyager]. Stayed as Executive (Co-)Producer throughout Seasons 1 and 2, then stopped writing stories for [Voyager] and acted as Creative Consultant in the remaining Seasons. |  |
| pilot | In the terminology of television production, a pilot is an episode of a potential new television series which is produced to test the water as regards reaction from the network and, later if network approval is given, from the television audience. It is the network's way of hedging its bets - if the pilot does not deliver to expectation or its production qualities are considered substandard or even just if the network decides the would-be series would not be popular, the network can choose not to proceed further. If the network approves a pilot, then production goes into even higher gear to produce the series.
[TOS], the very first Star Trek series, did not receive the go-ahead to air until its pilot received network approval. In the case of [TOS] the network took the unusual step of asking for a second pilot. Once Star Trek, with its consistently high television production values, had become known and established, and with Paramount Pictures launching its own television network with [Voyager] (the fourth Star Trek television series), a pilot in the old sense of requiring initial network approval and then an interval taken up with producing a series no longer applied. Accordingly, [Voyager]'s first story, [Caretaker], was both its pilot and its première, launching straight into [Voyager]'s first Season of episodes. Therefore, if someone in Star Trek or Paramount refers to [Voyager]'s pilot episode, they mean [#1 and #2 Caretaker]. |
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| read/read for | Audition/audition for. At the audition, the actor reads from the script i.e. she/he will "read (for)" the part. |  Kate Mulgrew reads for the role of Janeway |
| Rick Berman | see Berman, Rick | |
| Roddenberry, Gene | Eugene Wesley Roddenberry (1921-1991) invented [TOS] and the Star Trek universe, assisted ably by employees such as Walter 'Matt' Jefferies who contributed substantially to the look of the show. (The Jefferies tubes are named for Matt Jefferies.) (Tom Paris' middle name Eugene is a tip of the hat to Roddenberry.) To cast, staff and fans Roddenberry is affectionately known as 'the Great Bird of the Galaxy' after a line in [TOS: The Mantrap] (he was called it by George Takei, who plays Sulu, and the nickname stuck). Roddenberry's wife Majel Barrett (a.k.a. Majel Barrett-Roddenberry) has appeared in all the Star Trek tv series as various characters and as the voice of the LCARS computer. |
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| Russ, Tim | A member of the ensemble cast (i.e. the main cast or the regular cast). Plays Tuvok. |  [#32 Meld] |
| Ryan, Jeri | A member of the ensemble cast (i.e. the main cast or the regular cast). Plays Seven of Nine. |  [#85 Retrospect] |
| sides, the | The term for just the pages of the script with the relevant scene, or even part of a scene, required to be read by an actor at their audition, as opposed to the whole script. | an actor reads for the part of Janeway but it later goes to Genevieve Bujold then Kate Mulgrew |
| special effects | (Sometimes abbreviated to FX.)
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 [#41 Resolutions]
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| standing sets | On [Voyager] these are the USS Voyager interiors:
The cargobay/holodeck is one set which is redressed appropriately whenever it is used. The same applies to the private quarters set, which is constructed in three sections so that it can be partitioned off to create a small or big room depending on the rank of the character occupying it. The doctor's lab and the science lab sets were later added. The standing sets are built literally in the place of previous Star Trek sets (e.g. Voyager's bridge was placed where the Enterprise-D's bridge had been) and re-use many components from them. For instance, Voyager's transporter room (pictured) utilises the transporter platform used in [TOS] for the starship Enterprise NCC-1701. The ready room windows were recycled from [TNG]'s Ten-Forward. When [Voyager]'s sets were struck (i.e. dismantled) approx. April 2001, they were replaced, literally in the same place, by the standing sets for [Enterprise]. |
Voyager's transporter room set (part) Picture: ?ST:M or ?TOSTW or ?both
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| Star Trek | Although the original series created by Gene Roddenberry in the 1960's was/is called [Star Trek], with the advent of [Star Trek: The Next Generation], it became known as [TOS] (for [The Original Series]. "Star Trek" has come to mean the whole franchise i.e. all the television series, films and even the canon books/technical manuals. The standard abbreviations for the tv series are [TOS] for [Star Trek]/The Original Series, [TNG] for [Star Trek: The Next Generation], and [DS9] for [Star Trek: Deep Space 9]. On this site, although [Enterprise] was renamed [Star Trek: Enterprise] for its third Season onward, I still call it [Enterprise] for past consistency, otherwise I suppose [Ent] would have to be used which, while a common abbreviation, is not the common abbreviation, at least not yet. (I do not mention [Enterprise] much on this site, as it was/is aired after [Voyager], although its events are set earlier, in the 22nd century.) A distinctive font is often introduced for a new Star Trek series. That for [Voyager] is called Final Frontier font (you can download it at FONTS), and is sometimes used on this site for titles. |
     source: TOSTW |
| Taylor, Jeri | One of three co-creators and co-producers of [Voyager]. Stayed as Executive (Co-)Producer throughout Seasons 1-4, then stopped writing stories for [Voyager] and acted as Creative Consultant in the remaining Seasons. |  |
| titles | The footage seen after the teaser and that seen after the end of the episode. The opening titles show USS Voyager cruising in flight with the names of the ensemble cast superimposed in alphabetical order of surname (the alphabetical order is a Star Trek tradition which started with [TNG]), and end with the names of the three co-creators and co-producers, Rick Berman, Michael Piller and Jeri Taylor. The closing titles display the acting and production credits, ending with information required to be shown by law or regulations. Both the opening and closing titles are accompanied by the show's theme music, which is based on the original [TOS] theme (as is [TNG]'s and [DS9]'s). |  part of the opening titles |
| United Paramount Network | see UPN | |
| UPN | United Paramount Network. Paramount Pictures launched its own television network in 1994/95 with [Voyager] as the centre of its initial programming. This put additional pressure on the show's production staff not just to create a good première story for a new Star Trek series (this was the story [#1 and #2 Caretaker], first broadcast in January 1995) but one worthy of its position in UPN's core programming. |  |
| USS Voyager: design and model | Voyager was designed by Rick Sternbach, Senior Illustrator, and Richard James, Production Designer. Tony Meininger created the five-foot long model. When CGI became affordable (the show's title sequence was CGI from the outset), digital models of Voyager were created by Santa Barbara Studios, Digital Muse and Foundation Imaging. |  the orange backdrop and the model's mount will be replaced by space graphics |
| Wang, Garrett | A member of the ensemble cast (i.e. the main cast or the regular cast). Plays Harry Kim. The actor's surname is pronounced "Wong" to rhyme with "wrong". |  [#104 Counterpoint] |
Screenshots by Janet from episodes and ST DVD articles unless otherwise stated.
In the navigation array below "B-T-S" means Behind-the-scenes.
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