fandom primer - Voyager
This fandom primer for Voyager was originally posted at the FFN forum Caesar's Palace but I'm also posting it here for anyone who wants a short(ish) lowdown on my first fandom ;) It will probably be tweaked continually as time goes on because I'm not 200% satisfied with certain bits of it.
**please note there are general spoilers for the entire series.**
[background]
In the preceding series of The Next Generation and Deep Space Nine, the United Federation of Planets and the Cardassian Union had endured a conflict that spanned over two decades, finally ending in an uneasy truce that was declared in 2367, with an official treaty not signed til 2370. Part of the treaty created a “Demilitarized Zone” of space that lay between the two borders; the DMZ held dozens of former Federation colonies now ceded to Cardassia. The treaty also ensured that the neither side would interfere in the matters of the other when it came to their handling of the new territories. Some worlds were able to be evacuated, but many were not, and many of the colonists refused to leave the worlds they called home. Those who elected to stay (or had no choice) soon found themselves at the mercy of Cardassian rule and, when things became ugly at their hands, requests for aid sent to the Federation were ignored.
A combination of the treaty’s results, the vile behavior of the Cardassians against civilians and the inaction of the Federation led to the formation of small groups determined to fight back against the Cardassians. They became known as the Maquis. Their numbers not only included the affected colonists, but their supporters and also many Starfleet officers, both native colonists and non-native sympathizers, who resigned their commissions to join the cause. Due to the treaty, both the Federation and the Cardassians denounced them. The Federation considered the Maquis outlaws, Cardassia dubbed them terrorists.
[premise]
In 2371, the Federation starship USS Voyager under the command of Captain Kathryn Janeway was sent out on her maiden mission to track down and apprehend the Maquis ship Val Jean that had gone missing in a treacherous area of space known as the “Badlands”. Both the Val Jean and Voyager separately encountered a displacement wave that quickly overtook each ship and flung them more than 70,000 light years across the galaxy, into the Delta Quadrant. The origin of the displacement wave was due to an entity calling himself the “Caretaker”, an extremely powerful being who cared for an alien race known as the Ocampa. The Caretaker had realized he was dying and so had been using his considerable power to abduct ships from the far reaches of the galaxy and bring them to his area of space, hoping to find a compatible DNA match so that he could create an heir. He was unable to do so before his death, however, and begged Janeway to destroy his Array satellite in order to protect the Ocampa from the barbaric Kazon. During a battle with the Kazon over control of the Array, Chakotay, the Maquis leader, sacrificed the Val Jean after ensuring that his crew had safely transferred aboard Voyager. Janeway acquiesced to the Caretaker's wishes in order to protect the Ocampa, but the drawback of this action meant that the two crews were now stranded in the Delta Quadrant, 75-some years’ journey from Federation space. Janeway approached Chakotay and proposed that their two crews unite together under her command. He agreed and, with a combined Starfleet-Maquis crew, Voyager traversed the Delta Quadrant in search of the way home.
[Main characters]
Captain Kathryn Janeway - A native of rural Indiana, Kathryn is the elder daughter of Admiral Edward Janeway and his mathematician wife, Gretchen. Edward and Gretchen were "traditionalists" and young Kathryn chafed under her parents' old-fashioned ideals and ways of living. She followed in her father's footsteps by joining Starfleet, though her passion lay in the sciences and she originally had no intentions of pursuing a path in command. She has little patience for those who prey on the weak and will take threats to any member of her crew personally. To her crew, friends and family, she is compassionate and amiable.
Kathryn has suffered a few hard-hitting personal tragedies - most notably a brief stint as a Cardassian prisoner of war and the deaths of her father and first fiancé Lieutenant Justin Tighe in a shuttle accident on Tau Ceti Prime. When Voyager was thrown into the Delta Quadrant, she was engaged to a childhood friend, Mark (Hobbes) Johnson; this relationship officially ended in the S4 episode "Hunters" when she received a "Dear John" letter. Despite her strength, she is not fully immune from the shadows of the past, suffering occasional bouts of deep depression and allowing herself to be plagued by guilt over stranding the crew so far from home.
Commander Chakotay - Chakotay grew up on a Federation colony founded by Native Americans that had left Earth in the 22nd century. He hated his tribe’s insistence on wanting to live a more traditional way of life and applied for Starfleet at the age of fifteen; this and his distaste for tribal traditions and practices caused a severe rift between him and his father. He majored in tactics and also spent time teaching at the Academy after graduation. His homeworld was one of the many colony worlds ceded to the Cardassians in the treaty; the murder of his father led him to resign his commission and join up with the Maquis, channeling his anger against the Federation into his cause.
The death of his father led Chakotay to embrace many of the traditions that his younger self had shunned, including using vision quests to seek the advice of his animal spirit guide (the guide is known to be female). He sometimes acts as the crew's unofficial counselor and mediator. However, he has no problem pointing out flaws in a tactical plan, though he will often attempt to do it diplomatically.
Lt. Commander Tuvok - Tuvok is Voyager's Vulcan chief of security and, at the beginning of the series, was working undercover in Chakotay's Maquis cell. His career in Starfleet has included time as an Academy professor as well as two different assignments; he resigned for a time and then returned to the service. Like all Vulcans, he is unaffected by emotions and relies on logic. He is devoted to T'Pel, his wife of many decades, and his four grown children (three sons and a daughter). He and Janeway have been friends as well as colleagues for close to twenty years.
Lieutenant Thomas Eugene Paris - Tom comes from an illustrious family full of high ranking Starfleet officers; growing up, he chafed under the pressure of the Paris family reputation and particularly his father's scrutinizing his every move. A piloting accident that resulted in the deaths of three fellow officers led to Tom's dismissal from Starfleet. Angry and disillusioned, he went "looking for a fight" and joined Chakotay's Maquis cell, but was caught within weeks and sent to prison. Starfleet Command permitted Janeway to "bail" him out temporarily so he could act as an observer for her mission. When Voyager ended up in the Delta Quadrant, Janeway granted him the field commission of lieutenant and assigned him to be Voyager's pilot, giving Tom a second chance that he seized with both hands. Tom evolves a great deal throughout the series, going from a snarky bastard only looking out for number one to becoming part of the Voyager family.
Lieutenant B’Elanna Torres - Half-human, half-Klingon, B’Elanna was one of Chakotay’s Maquis cell members and eventually became chief engineer. She has a brilliant mind, often thinks outside the box and loves a difficult challenge. On the other hand, she can also be prickly and quick to judge, due to the insecurities rooted in her past, which includes her father abandoning her as a child and dropping out of Starfleet Academy halfway through her second year. She has a volatile temper, inherited from her Klingon side, and has reluctantly learned to live with it.
Ensign Harry Kim - Harry is the operations officer and also the youngest member of the senior staff, Voyager being his first mission straight out of the Academy. His youth and inexperience mean he can be somewhat naïve at times; however, there are times that he shows a maturity that will surprise his often-skeptical superiors - especially when it comes to extending the hand of friendship. He is an accomplished clarinet player and once belonged to the Juilliard Youth Symphony.
The Doctor - The Emergency Medical Hologram (EMH) was a supplemental prototype program created for the purpose of assisting the medical staff during a crisis. In 2371, it was installed for testing on a handful of ships and starbases, including Voyager. When Voyager's chief medical officer and nurse were killed as a result of the Caretaker's pulling the ship into the Delta Quadrant, the Doctor was activated and he remained the chief medical officer during their journey.
The unique nature of the situation allowed the Doctor to progress far beyond his creator's original intentions, evolving into a self-aware being who developed his own distinct personality (hobbies, close friendships with many of the crew and even occasional forays into romance). He did not have his own name and never took one (except twice in alternate timelines that were subsequently erased), though he spent some time considering all the possibilities.
Neelix - Neelix is a Talaxian and Delta Quadrant native working as a junk trader. The crew initially meet him when they were searching for lost crewmembers taken by the Caretaker. After Janeway destroyed the Caretaker's Array, he offered his services to her as guide/navigator and cook to Voyager's crew and also served as an unofficial "ambassador". His typically cheerful, extrovert nature is a shield for his own troubled past as well as memories of Talax's devastating war with the Haakonian Order and the murder of his family at the hands of the Metreon Cascade, a Haakonian weapon of mass destruction.
Kes (S1-3) - Kes is a young Ocampan who had a yearning to know more beyond the sheltered world the Caretaker had created for her people. Defying her elders, she snuck her way to the surface and was captured by the Kazon, who used various methods of torture and coercion in a failed attempt to get her to give them information. She met Neelix during one of his trade outings with the sect leader who had enslaved her and he later rescued her with the help of the crew. On Voyager, she worked as both the Doctor's assistant and set up a hydroponics bay to grow edible foods as well as flowers. She also discovered that she had the mental abilities her ancestors had been rumored to possess (telepathy, telekinesis) and sought to practice them. At the end of season three, Kes' abilities began to force her body into a higher state of evolution and, knowing that staying on Voyager would endanger the crew, she chose to leave before that evolution was complete. Her final act was to use her newfound powers to throw the ship almost ten thousand light years forward on their journey, past a dangerous area of space and ten years closer to the Alpha Quadrant.
Seven of Nine (S4-7) - Born Annika Hansen, she was the only child of eccentric scientists who defied common sense in order to more closely study the nefarious Borg. In doing so, the Hansens ended up becoming assimilated by the Collective when Annika was only seven. The young girl forgot her original life under the influence of the Borg and became Seven of Nine, Tertiary Adjunct of Unimatrix Zero-One. During an encounter Voyager had with the Borg ("Scorpion pts 1 and 2"), Seven acted as intermediary between the Collective and the crew during a tenuous alliance. When she attempted to betray the alliance, the crew managed to sever her mental connection to the Collective. Rehabilitating Seven became a pet project of Janeway's and, while Seven resisted individuality at first and her relationship with much of the crew was contentious, she eventually grew to accept the concept and found her place among the crew.
[Prominent minor characters]
Ensign Samantha Wildman - Sam is a member of the science staff whose specialty is xenobiology. She is married to a Ktarian named Greskrendtregk. She had become pregnant without realizing it shortly before the ship left the Alpha Quadrant and so her daughter was born onboard in the Delta Quadrant.
Naomi Wildman - The only child born in the Delta Quadrant, Naomi is the daughter of Samantha Wildman and her Ktarian husband. Her Ktarian genetics cause her to grow far more quickly as a human child and by her third year, she appears about ten years old. Despite being the sole child on a ship full of adults, Naomi possesses a keen mind and an exuberant personality, styling herself the "captain's assistant".
Lieutenant Ayala - security officer on Tuvok's staff and former member of the Maquis. Ayala left behind a wife and had two young sons when Voyager was pulled to the DQ and the separation was difficult for him. [He was often seen but rarely given dialogue. Never given a first name in canon, the majority of fic writers often use the name Miguel (Mike) and have named his wife Carmen.]
Lieutenant Joe Carey - assistant chief engineer. He and B'Elanna got off to an extremely rocky start when they were both up for the job of chief engineer (the original chief was a casualty of the Caretaker's actions), but grew to respect her ability and become a valuable member of her staff. He was killed near the end of the final season. [Carey was mentioned more than he was seen, and fanon has written more about him than canon did, most making him and B'Elanna close friends as well as colleagues. Like Ayala, Carey had a wife and two sons left behind in the Alpha Quadrant. Josh Clark, the actor who portrayed Carey, wrote up a small background for his character, including his birthplace as Ireland, naming his wife Sarah and his sons Hunter and Joseph, Jr., and this is the info that most writers tend to use.]
Ensigns Jenny and Megan Delaney - the "infamous" Delaney twins went five seasons only being mentioned by name, both in the capacity of their duty (stellar cartographers) and as early potential love interests for Paris and Kim, often double dating with them in season one. Jenny was described as more assertive by Kim, while Megan was considered to be quieter and softer.
Icheb - Icheb is a Brunali teenager and, like Seven of Nine, was liberated from the Borg when an away team found a damaged Borg cube with him and five other children onboard. His parents were found on the Brunali homeworld, but Icheb and the crew learned that his parents were using him as a biological weapon; he had been born with a deadly Borg pathogen and his parents had repeatedly sent him into space to be assimilated. After he was rescued by Voyager, he opted to remain board. He had a keen interest in astrophysics and genetic science and was determined to attend the Academy when Voyager returned to the Alpha Quadrant. Icheb is reversed and somewhat shy, but can be enthusiastic when asked about his projects. (The other children eventually were either returned to their biological parents or adopted)
Crewman Tal Celes - Tal Celes is a Bajoran crewman who works under Seven in Astrometrics as a sensor analyst. Celes has a lack of self-esteem and struggles to understand some key aspects of her duties, which leads Seven to double-check nearly all her work and perpetuates a vicious cycle. She feels that she doesn’t belong on Voyager and that the only reason she made it into the service was due to sympathy for her people due to Cardassian occupation. She and Crewman Billy Telfer are close friends.
Note: The above are just a few of Voyager’s important minor characters. There are several more who have more than one appearance or mention onscreen, but I have decided to stick to those who are seen/heard of with the most frequency in fanfic.
[ships]
Note - Voyager predates the idea of pairings being given "nicknames" and even to this date, fandom just use their initials.
Janeway/Chakotay (J/C) - J/C is one of the primary and, by far, one of the two most popular het ships in Voyager fandom, largely due in part to the explosive chemistry and sexual tension established in “Caretaker” and witnessed constantly throughout the series. Despite their original status as former enemies on opposite sides of the law, J/C built and developed a working relationship that flourished into a deep and abiding friendship. That friendship also laid clear grounds for potential that could have easily developed into a romantic relationship (but unfortunately TPTB continually refused to go that route, citing a variety of BS reasons). But where canon has failed to produce, their shippers have picked up the slack in copious spades.
Significant J/C episodes -
The Cloud, Elogium, Maneuvers, Alliances, Resolutions, The Q and the Grey, Coda, Scorpion, Hunters, Timeless, Unimatrix Zero, Shattered
Paris/Torres (P/T) - P/T is the other primary het ship, popularity wise, and falls under the trope of “rebel reforms and finds the love of his life”. B'Elanna despised Tom in the first couple years and made every attempt to ignore or deflect his obvious interest in her, though they did begin building a friendship and there were signs that she was developing potential feelings for him. They first were made to address the spark between them when B'Elanna was affected by a young Vulcan crewmember's hormonal imbalance. Facing the reality of her feelings came about six months later during an away mission where B'Elanna and Tom were left floating in space after their shuttle was destroyed and nearly ran out of air. They began dating shortly after their near-death experience and were married about two years later. Their daughter was born in the series finale.
Significant P/T episodes -
Faces, Blood Fever, Day of Honor, Revulsion, Scientific Method, Random Thoughts, Extreme Risk, Course: Oblivion, Drive, Lineage, Prophecy
Janeway/Seven (J/7) - J/7 is the most prominent and longest lasting femslash ship of Voyager fandom. They not only show compassion towards each other as mentor and pupil, but Seven is able to eventually strip away the idea that Janeway is just the "captain" and challenge her as an actual human being. Janeway helping Seven on her journey to regain her humanity is seen by shippers of this pair as a friendship that builds into the potential for romance. Seven's occasional admittance of the most significant times that Janeway has helped her through the trials of learning to be human again is the best example of this subtext.
Significant J/7 episodes -
Scorpion, The Gift, Raven, The Omega Directive, Hope and Fear, Dark Frontier, Think Tank, The Voyager Conspiracy, Unimatrix Zero, Imperfection.
[the books]
Numbered novels - starting with a novelization of the series premiere, these books are set during the series run and are largely ignored by fanfic writers. There were about twenty in total, including the String Theory trilogy.
Mosaic - authored by show co-creator Jeri Taylor, this novel combines Kathryn Janeway's backstory from childhood to first command and the important events that shaped and defined her character, along with an action/adventure plot set during mid-to-late season two in which Voyager is attempting to rescue a group of crewmembers stranded on an uninhabited planet, while being forced to play hide and seek with a Kazon ship. Meanwhile, the Kazon are not only attempting to capture Voyager's crew, but have their sights set on the planet for their own reasons.
Pathways - also authored by Jeri Taylor, this novel's A-plot centers around a group of crewmembers including many of the senior staff who been taken hostage by hostile aliens and sent into slavery on a mining colony. The senior staff takes turns telling their histories to the group as a way to end each night and encourage each other to keep surviving; these chapters are portrayed in flashbacks. (Note: Neelix tells Kes' story from memory as she is no longer with the crew at the point in canon that this book takes place.)
Novellas/collections - some of the multi-series omnibuses published over the years have included Voyager short stories set in a variety of time periods throughout canon. The most notable of these is the 10th anniversary Voyager collection Distant Shores, an omnibus of 12 short stories by various authors.
Post-canon novels - beginning with the two-parter Homecoming/The Farther Shore, these novels continue the story of Voyager's crew beginning directly after they arrive home in the series finale and adventures that occur as they reintegrate into life in their home quadrant. They are usually "divided" into two "sections" and labeled by the names of the two authors who have written each set of books. The current set ties in together with plots from novels based on the other Trek series at specific stages.
Post-canon books by Christie Golden - Homecoming/The Farther Shore and the Spirit Walk duology (Old Wounds and Enemy of my Enemy)
Post-canon books by Kirsten Beyer - Full Circle, Unworthy, Children of the Storm, The Eternal Tide, Protectors, Acts of Contrition, Atonement, and Pocket Full of Lies. Future upcoming titles that will be written by Beyer are Architects of Infinity and To Lose the Earth.
**please note there are general spoilers for the entire series.**
[background]
In the preceding series of The Next Generation and Deep Space Nine, the United Federation of Planets and the Cardassian Union had endured a conflict that spanned over two decades, finally ending in an uneasy truce that was declared in 2367, with an official treaty not signed til 2370. Part of the treaty created a “Demilitarized Zone” of space that lay between the two borders; the DMZ held dozens of former Federation colonies now ceded to Cardassia. The treaty also ensured that the neither side would interfere in the matters of the other when it came to their handling of the new territories. Some worlds were able to be evacuated, but many were not, and many of the colonists refused to leave the worlds they called home. Those who elected to stay (or had no choice) soon found themselves at the mercy of Cardassian rule and, when things became ugly at their hands, requests for aid sent to the Federation were ignored.
A combination of the treaty’s results, the vile behavior of the Cardassians against civilians and the inaction of the Federation led to the formation of small groups determined to fight back against the Cardassians. They became known as the Maquis. Their numbers not only included the affected colonists, but their supporters and also many Starfleet officers, both native colonists and non-native sympathizers, who resigned their commissions to join the cause. Due to the treaty, both the Federation and the Cardassians denounced them. The Federation considered the Maquis outlaws, Cardassia dubbed them terrorists.
[premise]
In 2371, the Federation starship USS Voyager under the command of Captain Kathryn Janeway was sent out on her maiden mission to track down and apprehend the Maquis ship Val Jean that had gone missing in a treacherous area of space known as the “Badlands”. Both the Val Jean and Voyager separately encountered a displacement wave that quickly overtook each ship and flung them more than 70,000 light years across the galaxy, into the Delta Quadrant. The origin of the displacement wave was due to an entity calling himself the “Caretaker”, an extremely powerful being who cared for an alien race known as the Ocampa. The Caretaker had realized he was dying and so had been using his considerable power to abduct ships from the far reaches of the galaxy and bring them to his area of space, hoping to find a compatible DNA match so that he could create an heir. He was unable to do so before his death, however, and begged Janeway to destroy his Array satellite in order to protect the Ocampa from the barbaric Kazon. During a battle with the Kazon over control of the Array, Chakotay, the Maquis leader, sacrificed the Val Jean after ensuring that his crew had safely transferred aboard Voyager. Janeway acquiesced to the Caretaker's wishes in order to protect the Ocampa, but the drawback of this action meant that the two crews were now stranded in the Delta Quadrant, 75-some years’ journey from Federation space. Janeway approached Chakotay and proposed that their two crews unite together under her command. He agreed and, with a combined Starfleet-Maquis crew, Voyager traversed the Delta Quadrant in search of the way home.
[Main characters]
Captain Kathryn Janeway - A native of rural Indiana, Kathryn is the elder daughter of Admiral Edward Janeway and his mathematician wife, Gretchen. Edward and Gretchen were "traditionalists" and young Kathryn chafed under her parents' old-fashioned ideals and ways of living. She followed in her father's footsteps by joining Starfleet, though her passion lay in the sciences and she originally had no intentions of pursuing a path in command. She has little patience for those who prey on the weak and will take threats to any member of her crew personally. To her crew, friends and family, she is compassionate and amiable.
Kathryn has suffered a few hard-hitting personal tragedies - most notably a brief stint as a Cardassian prisoner of war and the deaths of her father and first fiancé Lieutenant Justin Tighe in a shuttle accident on Tau Ceti Prime. When Voyager was thrown into the Delta Quadrant, she was engaged to a childhood friend, Mark (Hobbes) Johnson; this relationship officially ended in the S4 episode "Hunters" when she received a "Dear John" letter. Despite her strength, she is not fully immune from the shadows of the past, suffering occasional bouts of deep depression and allowing herself to be plagued by guilt over stranding the crew so far from home.
Commander Chakotay - Chakotay grew up on a Federation colony founded by Native Americans that had left Earth in the 22nd century. He hated his tribe’s insistence on wanting to live a more traditional way of life and applied for Starfleet at the age of fifteen; this and his distaste for tribal traditions and practices caused a severe rift between him and his father. He majored in tactics and also spent time teaching at the Academy after graduation. His homeworld was one of the many colony worlds ceded to the Cardassians in the treaty; the murder of his father led him to resign his commission and join up with the Maquis, channeling his anger against the Federation into his cause.
The death of his father led Chakotay to embrace many of the traditions that his younger self had shunned, including using vision quests to seek the advice of his animal spirit guide (the guide is known to be female). He sometimes acts as the crew's unofficial counselor and mediator. However, he has no problem pointing out flaws in a tactical plan, though he will often attempt to do it diplomatically.
Lt. Commander Tuvok - Tuvok is Voyager's Vulcan chief of security and, at the beginning of the series, was working undercover in Chakotay's Maquis cell. His career in Starfleet has included time as an Academy professor as well as two different assignments; he resigned for a time and then returned to the service. Like all Vulcans, he is unaffected by emotions and relies on logic. He is devoted to T'Pel, his wife of many decades, and his four grown children (three sons and a daughter). He and Janeway have been friends as well as colleagues for close to twenty years.
Lieutenant Thomas Eugene Paris - Tom comes from an illustrious family full of high ranking Starfleet officers; growing up, he chafed under the pressure of the Paris family reputation and particularly his father's scrutinizing his every move. A piloting accident that resulted in the deaths of three fellow officers led to Tom's dismissal from Starfleet. Angry and disillusioned, he went "looking for a fight" and joined Chakotay's Maquis cell, but was caught within weeks and sent to prison. Starfleet Command permitted Janeway to "bail" him out temporarily so he could act as an observer for her mission. When Voyager ended up in the Delta Quadrant, Janeway granted him the field commission of lieutenant and assigned him to be Voyager's pilot, giving Tom a second chance that he seized with both hands. Tom evolves a great deal throughout the series, going from a snarky bastard only looking out for number one to becoming part of the Voyager family.
Lieutenant B’Elanna Torres - Half-human, half-Klingon, B’Elanna was one of Chakotay’s Maquis cell members and eventually became chief engineer. She has a brilliant mind, often thinks outside the box and loves a difficult challenge. On the other hand, she can also be prickly and quick to judge, due to the insecurities rooted in her past, which includes her father abandoning her as a child and dropping out of Starfleet Academy halfway through her second year. She has a volatile temper, inherited from her Klingon side, and has reluctantly learned to live with it.
Ensign Harry Kim - Harry is the operations officer and also the youngest member of the senior staff, Voyager being his first mission straight out of the Academy. His youth and inexperience mean he can be somewhat naïve at times; however, there are times that he shows a maturity that will surprise his often-skeptical superiors - especially when it comes to extending the hand of friendship. He is an accomplished clarinet player and once belonged to the Juilliard Youth Symphony.
The Doctor - The Emergency Medical Hologram (EMH) was a supplemental prototype program created for the purpose of assisting the medical staff during a crisis. In 2371, it was installed for testing on a handful of ships and starbases, including Voyager. When Voyager's chief medical officer and nurse were killed as a result of the Caretaker's pulling the ship into the Delta Quadrant, the Doctor was activated and he remained the chief medical officer during their journey.
The unique nature of the situation allowed the Doctor to progress far beyond his creator's original intentions, evolving into a self-aware being who developed his own distinct personality (hobbies, close friendships with many of the crew and even occasional forays into romance). He did not have his own name and never took one (except twice in alternate timelines that were subsequently erased), though he spent some time considering all the possibilities.
Neelix - Neelix is a Talaxian and Delta Quadrant native working as a junk trader. The crew initially meet him when they were searching for lost crewmembers taken by the Caretaker. After Janeway destroyed the Caretaker's Array, he offered his services to her as guide/navigator and cook to Voyager's crew and also served as an unofficial "ambassador". His typically cheerful, extrovert nature is a shield for his own troubled past as well as memories of Talax's devastating war with the Haakonian Order and the murder of his family at the hands of the Metreon Cascade, a Haakonian weapon of mass destruction.
Kes (S1-3) - Kes is a young Ocampan who had a yearning to know more beyond the sheltered world the Caretaker had created for her people. Defying her elders, she snuck her way to the surface and was captured by the Kazon, who used various methods of torture and coercion in a failed attempt to get her to give them information. She met Neelix during one of his trade outings with the sect leader who had enslaved her and he later rescued her with the help of the crew. On Voyager, she worked as both the Doctor's assistant and set up a hydroponics bay to grow edible foods as well as flowers. She also discovered that she had the mental abilities her ancestors had been rumored to possess (telepathy, telekinesis) and sought to practice them. At the end of season three, Kes' abilities began to force her body into a higher state of evolution and, knowing that staying on Voyager would endanger the crew, she chose to leave before that evolution was complete. Her final act was to use her newfound powers to throw the ship almost ten thousand light years forward on their journey, past a dangerous area of space and ten years closer to the Alpha Quadrant.
Seven of Nine (S4-7) - Born Annika Hansen, she was the only child of eccentric scientists who defied common sense in order to more closely study the nefarious Borg. In doing so, the Hansens ended up becoming assimilated by the Collective when Annika was only seven. The young girl forgot her original life under the influence of the Borg and became Seven of Nine, Tertiary Adjunct of Unimatrix Zero-One. During an encounter Voyager had with the Borg ("Scorpion pts 1 and 2"), Seven acted as intermediary between the Collective and the crew during a tenuous alliance. When she attempted to betray the alliance, the crew managed to sever her mental connection to the Collective. Rehabilitating Seven became a pet project of Janeway's and, while Seven resisted individuality at first and her relationship with much of the crew was contentious, she eventually grew to accept the concept and found her place among the crew.
[Prominent minor characters]
Ensign Samantha Wildman - Sam is a member of the science staff whose specialty is xenobiology. She is married to a Ktarian named Greskrendtregk. She had become pregnant without realizing it shortly before the ship left the Alpha Quadrant and so her daughter was born onboard in the Delta Quadrant.
Naomi Wildman - The only child born in the Delta Quadrant, Naomi is the daughter of Samantha Wildman and her Ktarian husband. Her Ktarian genetics cause her to grow far more quickly as a human child and by her third year, she appears about ten years old. Despite being the sole child on a ship full of adults, Naomi possesses a keen mind and an exuberant personality, styling herself the "captain's assistant".
Lieutenant Ayala - security officer on Tuvok's staff and former member of the Maquis. Ayala left behind a wife and had two young sons when Voyager was pulled to the DQ and the separation was difficult for him. [He was often seen but rarely given dialogue. Never given a first name in canon, the majority of fic writers often use the name Miguel (Mike) and have named his wife Carmen.]
Lieutenant Joe Carey - assistant chief engineer. He and B'Elanna got off to an extremely rocky start when they were both up for the job of chief engineer (the original chief was a casualty of the Caretaker's actions), but grew to respect her ability and become a valuable member of her staff. He was killed near the end of the final season. [Carey was mentioned more than he was seen, and fanon has written more about him than canon did, most making him and B'Elanna close friends as well as colleagues. Like Ayala, Carey had a wife and two sons left behind in the Alpha Quadrant. Josh Clark, the actor who portrayed Carey, wrote up a small background for his character, including his birthplace as Ireland, naming his wife Sarah and his sons Hunter and Joseph, Jr., and this is the info that most writers tend to use.]
Ensigns Jenny and Megan Delaney - the "infamous" Delaney twins went five seasons only being mentioned by name, both in the capacity of their duty (stellar cartographers) and as early potential love interests for Paris and Kim, often double dating with them in season one. Jenny was described as more assertive by Kim, while Megan was considered to be quieter and softer.
Icheb - Icheb is a Brunali teenager and, like Seven of Nine, was liberated from the Borg when an away team found a damaged Borg cube with him and five other children onboard. His parents were found on the Brunali homeworld, but Icheb and the crew learned that his parents were using him as a biological weapon; he had been born with a deadly Borg pathogen and his parents had repeatedly sent him into space to be assimilated. After he was rescued by Voyager, he opted to remain board. He had a keen interest in astrophysics and genetic science and was determined to attend the Academy when Voyager returned to the Alpha Quadrant. Icheb is reversed and somewhat shy, but can be enthusiastic when asked about his projects. (The other children eventually were either returned to their biological parents or adopted)
Crewman Tal Celes - Tal Celes is a Bajoran crewman who works under Seven in Astrometrics as a sensor analyst. Celes has a lack of self-esteem and struggles to understand some key aspects of her duties, which leads Seven to double-check nearly all her work and perpetuates a vicious cycle. She feels that she doesn’t belong on Voyager and that the only reason she made it into the service was due to sympathy for her people due to Cardassian occupation. She and Crewman Billy Telfer are close friends.
Note: The above are just a few of Voyager’s important minor characters. There are several more who have more than one appearance or mention onscreen, but I have decided to stick to those who are seen/heard of with the most frequency in fanfic.
[ships]
Note - Voyager predates the idea of pairings being given "nicknames" and even to this date, fandom just use their initials.
Janeway/Chakotay (J/C) - J/C is one of the primary and, by far, one of the two most popular het ships in Voyager fandom, largely due in part to the explosive chemistry and sexual tension established in “Caretaker” and witnessed constantly throughout the series. Despite their original status as former enemies on opposite sides of the law, J/C built and developed a working relationship that flourished into a deep and abiding friendship. That friendship also laid clear grounds for potential that could have easily developed into a romantic relationship (but unfortunately TPTB continually refused to go that route, citing a variety of BS reasons). But where canon has failed to produce, their shippers have picked up the slack in copious spades.
Significant J/C episodes -
The Cloud, Elogium, Maneuvers, Alliances, Resolutions, The Q and the Grey, Coda, Scorpion, Hunters, Timeless, Unimatrix Zero, Shattered
Paris/Torres (P/T) - P/T is the other primary het ship, popularity wise, and falls under the trope of “rebel reforms and finds the love of his life”. B'Elanna despised Tom in the first couple years and made every attempt to ignore or deflect his obvious interest in her, though they did begin building a friendship and there were signs that she was developing potential feelings for him. They first were made to address the spark between them when B'Elanna was affected by a young Vulcan crewmember's hormonal imbalance. Facing the reality of her feelings came about six months later during an away mission where B'Elanna and Tom were left floating in space after their shuttle was destroyed and nearly ran out of air. They began dating shortly after their near-death experience and were married about two years later. Their daughter was born in the series finale.
Significant P/T episodes -
Faces, Blood Fever, Day of Honor, Revulsion, Scientific Method, Random Thoughts, Extreme Risk, Course: Oblivion, Drive, Lineage, Prophecy
Janeway/Seven (J/7) - J/7 is the most prominent and longest lasting femslash ship of Voyager fandom. They not only show compassion towards each other as mentor and pupil, but Seven is able to eventually strip away the idea that Janeway is just the "captain" and challenge her as an actual human being. Janeway helping Seven on her journey to regain her humanity is seen by shippers of this pair as a friendship that builds into the potential for romance. Seven's occasional admittance of the most significant times that Janeway has helped her through the trials of learning to be human again is the best example of this subtext.
Significant J/7 episodes -
Scorpion, The Gift, Raven, The Omega Directive, Hope and Fear, Dark Frontier, Think Tank, The Voyager Conspiracy, Unimatrix Zero, Imperfection.
[the books]
Numbered novels - starting with a novelization of the series premiere, these books are set during the series run and are largely ignored by fanfic writers. There were about twenty in total, including the String Theory trilogy.
Mosaic - authored by show co-creator Jeri Taylor, this novel combines Kathryn Janeway's backstory from childhood to first command and the important events that shaped and defined her character, along with an action/adventure plot set during mid-to-late season two in which Voyager is attempting to rescue a group of crewmembers stranded on an uninhabited planet, while being forced to play hide and seek with a Kazon ship. Meanwhile, the Kazon are not only attempting to capture Voyager's crew, but have their sights set on the planet for their own reasons.
Pathways - also authored by Jeri Taylor, this novel's A-plot centers around a group of crewmembers including many of the senior staff who been taken hostage by hostile aliens and sent into slavery on a mining colony. The senior staff takes turns telling their histories to the group as a way to end each night and encourage each other to keep surviving; these chapters are portrayed in flashbacks. (Note: Neelix tells Kes' story from memory as she is no longer with the crew at the point in canon that this book takes place.)
Novellas/collections - some of the multi-series omnibuses published over the years have included Voyager short stories set in a variety of time periods throughout canon. The most notable of these is the 10th anniversary Voyager collection Distant Shores, an omnibus of 12 short stories by various authors.
Post-canon novels - beginning with the two-parter Homecoming/The Farther Shore, these novels continue the story of Voyager's crew beginning directly after they arrive home in the series finale and adventures that occur as they reintegrate into life in their home quadrant. They are usually "divided" into two "sections" and labeled by the names of the two authors who have written each set of books. The current set ties in together with plots from novels based on the other Trek series at specific stages.
Post-canon books by Christie Golden - Homecoming/The Farther Shore and the Spirit Walk duology (Old Wounds and Enemy of my Enemy)
Post-canon books by Kirsten Beyer - Full Circle, Unworthy, Children of the Storm, The Eternal Tide, Protectors, Acts of Contrition, Atonement, and Pocket Full of Lies. Future upcoming titles that will be written by Beyer are Architects of Infinity and To Lose the Earth.