Overview of Season 1 of Star Trek: Odyssey
“We’re over 100 thousand light years away from home, and you’re seriously suggesting that we take the long way home?”
“The Gamma Quadrant entrance to the Bajoran Wormhole may be closer, but that would require that we pass through Dominion space. The Dominion crippled a Galaxy-class with ease, just to prove a point. Do you think they would have any difficulty in taking us out for violating their space?”
“We don’t know that the Dominion will still be hostile then.”
“And we don’t know that the Wormhole will be open either. Starfleet is considering collapsing it to protect the Alpha Quadrant, as a last line of defence. I have the safety of not one, but three crews to consider, and I will not set out on a sixty year journey, only to find that we’re no closer than when we started. If you ask me, twenty years is more than enough of a price to secure that.”
“Captain, I must protest!"
“Your protest is noted. But right now, you are on my ship, and on my crew. You will obey my orders. Dismissed.”
- Captain Janeway and Commander Chatan discuss their route home, from “Parallax”.
Caretaker
In the Badlands, a Cardassian vessel pursues a Maquis ship, the Val Jean, when they are both caught by a displacement wave. On Earth, newly minted Captain Katherine Janeway of the starship Odyssey recruits disgraced Starfleet Cadet Nick Locarno to assist her in finding the Maquis ship, due to his ties with Maquis members. Janeway is hoping to find Tuvok, her new Chief of Security, who was undercover on the Maquis ship when it disappeared.
Upon departing Deep Space Nine, where the rest of the crew have been enjoying shore leave, the Odyssey enters the Badlands. The ship is scanned by a “coherent tetryon beam”, before it is caught by another displacement wave. The wave damages the ship, killing much of the crew, including the first officer, helm officer, much of the engineering staff, and the entire medical staff. The Emergency Medical Hologram is activated to treat the injured crew.
The bridge crew recovers, determining that they have been transported to the far side of the Delta Quadrant, over 120,000 light years from Federation space. Before they can determine their exact position, the crew finds themselves inside a holographic simulation on a nearby array, which is controlled by an advanced alien called “the Caretaker”. They see through the simulation, and find the unconcious Maquis and Cardassian crews undergoing medical experimentation. The Odyssey crew soon finds themselves subjected to the same experiments. The crews awake on their own ships, but each find themselves missing a crew member, Harry Kim from Odyssey, Kollin Torres from the Val Jean, and Gilora Rejal from the Cardassian ship. The three captains form an uneasy alliance to retrieve their lost crew members, then return to the Alpha Quadrant.
The ships follow energy pulses sent by the arrays to a nearby planet. On the way, they encounter a trader, Falox, who is willing to assist them in exchange for protection for him and his companion, the Ocampa Kes, who lives on the planet, under Kazon rule. The Ocampa live in a subterranean complex, with their needs provided for by the Caretaker, who asks that they care for any beings that the Caretaker sends them, each suffering an incurable disease.
The pulses increase in frequency, and Tuvok deduces that the Caretaker is dying, and making sure that the Ocampa have enough supplies, before he will seal them away. The crews find a way to bypass the complex’s shields, and the Cardassians send an away team down, rescuing Kim, Torres and Rejal while the Odyssey's crew works on repairing their ship. The crews ask for the Caretaker to return them to the Alpha Quadrant once more, and the Caretaker reveals that he was once part of an ancient race that accidentally destroyed the ecosystem of the Ocampan homeworld. As penance, he has devoted his life to ensuring that they endure, and has been searching for a species that would be a genetic match so that he could pass the responsibility on.
As he nears death, the Caretaker activates the facility’s self-destruct sequence, in order to prevent the Kazon from obtaining its technology. As he dies, a Kazon fleet arrives, and begins to attack the station and the ships. Janeway, Chatan, and Evek co-ordinate a counter-attack to stop the Kazon, but Chatan is forced to sacrifice his ship, while Evek’s is damaged beyond repair, and the crew is beamed out. The array is damaged beyond repair when a Kazon ship hits it, leaving the crews stranded in the Delta Quadrant. With only the Odyssey remaining, the three crews are all now living on the one ship.
With the array destroyed, the Kazon disengage, though not before warning Janeway and the others that they have made an enemy. As Odyssey begins its 80 year journey back, Janeway integrates the Cardassian and Maquis crews into the ship, with Chatan and Evek as her first and second officers respectively. She also reinstates Locarno, giving him the provisional rank of Ensign, assigning him as the new helmsman. In exchange for continued protection, Kes and Falox also join the crew as a scout and guide.
Parallax
As the Odyssey begins its long journey back to the Alpha Quadrant, tensions arise among the crew. Janeway, Chatan, and Evek can agree that they need to integrate the crews to provide a unified identity, and fill the vacancies. Evek recommends that Rejal take the role of Chief of Engineering, though Janeway would rather appoint Lt. Joe Carey. Meanwhile, the ship passes by a quantum singularity, detecting a ship stuck in its event horizon, and decide to try to rescue it.
Recurring Cast: Josh Clark as Lt. Carey
Forget-Me-Not
After bartering for supplies at a local planet, the crew of the Odyssey find themselves affected by a virus that causes anterograde amnesia, meaning that none of the crew can form new memories. Only the Doctor remains unaffected, but he cannot leave Sickbay. As the factions in the crew grow more suspicious of each other as they wake each day to find the ship different to how they remember, the Doctor tries to find a cure before the crew tears itself apart.
Barefoot Through the Stars by
@The Chimera Virus
The Odyssey is investigating a strange hole in space in an attempt to work out if it can be used to get them home quicker. Everyone is astonished when, apropos of nothing, a group of people walk out of it. The leader, a woman named Peripa, moseys on over and sits down on the hull just outside the viewscreen, asking everyone how their day is going. This race, the Striders, have achieved the ability to walk through space without the need for spacesuits, and are quite happy to share the secret.
The crews come to a contentious agreement that this information may come in handy somehow, though the Cardassians are convinced this is secretly a moronically ballsy plan to do something to the Odyssey on the Striders’ part. However, the Striders’ uniqueness has earned them the ire of the Unctouin Confederation, which prizes fealty to their established scientific knowledge above all else. Any innovation or deviation is met with death. Should the Odyssey not give up the Striders to be massacred, then the UC will destroy all of them.
Recurring Cast: Diedrich Bader as Kel Aval and Tarik Ergin as Ensign Ayala
Guest Stars: Cree Summer as Peripa and John Carroll Lynch as UC Nepetor Boravnis
Duty and State
Evek raises concern with Janeway that he, despite being the leader of one of the contingents of the crew, is being ignored as second officer. He also submits evidence that someone in the crew is working for the Obsidian Order, and trying to access classified logs on the ship. The operative is revealed to be Chief Engineer Rejal, who was posted on Evek’s ship to monitor him. Evek and Rejal are forced to come to terms with their new home, and the way that things are different, in stark contrast to their previous duty to serve the Cardassian Order.
Eye of the Needle
The Odyssey detects a wormhole, and hopes that it can be used to shorten their trip back home. However, the crew find that it is a micro-wormhole, only 30 centimetres across. They realise that it may be possible to send a message to the Alpha Quadrant, and make contact with a Romulan ship on the other side. Complications reveal that the other side of the wormhole is 20 years in the past, but they are able to send messages through, to be relayed in 20 years time.
Time and Again
The Odyssey’s sensors detect “polaric” detonations on a nearby planet. Janeway and Torres beam down to investigate, finding the planet in ruins, with a number of temporal anomalies. Investigating one, they find themselves on the planet the day before the detonation, and try to find the reason for the explosion. Using Kes’ psychic abilities, they are able to determine that Janeway and Torres have been sent to the past, and try to create a new anomaly to rescue them.
Prime Factors
The Odyssey encounters a highly hospitable race, the Sikarians, who invite them to their homeworld. They find themselves transported over 40,000 light years away, and try to barter for the technology, but the Sikarians refuse to do so, citing their version of the Prime Directive. While Rejal, Carey, and Seska try to replicate the technology, with the assistance of Tuvok, Janeway and Evek discover that the Sikarians are a race of information brokers, acting as “the power behind the throne” in this portion of the Quadrant.
Recurring Cast: Martha Hackett as Seska, Josh Clark as Lt. Carey
Living in the Moment
The Odyssey is hailed by a trader from Falox’s past. He reveals that Falox is held in low repute in this section of space, due to various events in his past. Falox reveals that he used to run illegal substances across this area of space, but does not do so after he was caught by the Trabe. Suspicious, Janeway orders his ship, the Baxial, which is stored in the shuttle bay, to be searched. They discover multiple illegal substances, and are forced to weigh up whether Falox’s assistance in navigating local space is more trouble than it is worth.
The Enemy of My Enemy
The Odyssey encounters another Kazon fleet, the Kazon-Nistrim, who explain to them the way Kazon society works. As the Odyssey is being continually attacked by other sects as they travel through a more disputed region of space, Evek and Chatan temporarily put their differences to one side, and start working on a plan to arm the smaller sects so that they can gain control of local space, in exchange for free passage.
Stuck in the Middle by
@The Chimera Virus
Attempting to skirt around an active warzone, the Odyssey becomes embroiled in a skirmish at the edge of the action. The belligerents, the Ojentor and Morthlan, both attack the Odyssey to force it out of the way. In doing so, they cripple one of the warp nacelles, preventing the ship from leaving. The Morthlan board the ship, attempting to exterminate everyone onboard. They are repelled by security, but it’s a near thing. The Morthlan ship is called away, regardless, leaving several injured Morthlan behind. The Ojentor come to help after some discussion, offering their expertise. However, upon discovering the Morthlans being treated in sickbay, the Ojentor demand to extradite them to their homeworld so they may be publicly executed. When Janeway and Chatan refuse, Evek attempts to circumvent them to ensure the ship is repaired more quickly. Things go from worse to terrible when the lead Morthlan invader dies. His body produces a Morthlan imp, which escapes into the Jeffries tubes and begins to wreak havoc on the Odyssey’s innards.
Recurring Cast: Diedrich Bader as Kel Aval
Guest Stars: Michael Jeter as Sulpori and Chris Ellis as Keatrukhys, the lead Morthlan invader
Cabin Fever
While training Kes as a nurse to assist him, the Doctor expresses frustration at his inability to travel beyond Sickbay and holodecks. As he tries to convince Rejal and Janeway to fit the rest of the ship with holoemitters, they find that their supplies are dwindling, and there are no major trading posts nearby for them to restock. Kes suggests that they begin to grow their own food on the ship, using one of the unused cargo bays, converting it to a hydroponics lab. They fit the lab with holoemitters so that he can assist with the loose botanical knowledge in his database, beginning to form a proper friendship.
Strange Bedfellows
The Odyssey continues to be attacked by Kazon-Ogla ships. While they are fending them off easily, they are taking a heavy amount of attrition, with more and more systems failing. The Odyssey manages to make contact with the Trabe, the Kazon’s former overlords. Janeway strikes up a deal to supply the Trabe in exchange for passage, unaware of Evek and Chatan’s plan to do the same with the smaller Kazon sects. When Tuvok is asked to inspect the disappearance of weapons, he is made privy to the plan to supply the other Kazon, creating a new plan to supply both the Kazon and the Trabe, providing them free passage, no matter who wins.
State of Flux
While the crew forages for food on a nearby planet, the Odyssey is attacked by a cloaked Kazon vessel. While the crew returns to the ship, Chatan remains to search for Seska. After finding her, they return to the ship, having dinner together, but Chatan discovers that it has been made with ingredients stolen from the hydroponics bay by Maquis crewmembers. Later, the Odyssey answers a distress call from a Kazon ship, which is destroyed by a malfunctioning piece of equipment that is found to be Starfleet in origin. Janeway orders an investigation, but begins to suspect a plot on the ship to prevent the investigation from discovering anything meaningful.
Recurring Cast: Martha Hackett as Seska, Josh Clark as Lt. Carey
Extravagance in Violence by
@The Chimera Virus
In an intriguing turn of events, the Odyssey has been invited to a nearby planet, Seliskan Prime, for their annual Existential Festival. As honored guests, the crew is celebrated for several days. On the fourth day, they’re informed that it’s now time for the Ceremony of Blood to begin. The crew doesn’t meet this with the same rapturous applause as the native Selisk-Waru. It may be due to the fact that Nick Locarno, Harry Kim, and Rejal are expected to perform a lavish staging of the local creation myth. One that ends with the Prime Mother executing the Noble Lovers and fertilizing the land with their blood.
Guest Star: Anne Francis as Forbanet, Ivar Brogger as Giibrodas, and Ray Reinhardt as the Lorekeeper
Learning Curve
Tuvok expresses concern that the Maquis and Cardassian crew are becoming more and more hostile towards each other, especially in light of the plan to supply the Kazon being revealed. Janeway is still hesitant to trust Tuvok, but agrees to let him run the crew through team-building exercises. Meanwhile, Kes and the Doctor attempt to find the source of an infection in the bio-neural circuitry that runs many of the ship’s systems, tracing it to an unknown pathogen on some of the supplies they picked up in a recent trade. Torres encourages Tuvok to loosen his approach, and try to bend Starfleet rules when he has difficulty in controlling the Maquis and Cardassian crew. The crew’s teamwork is put to the test when the Doctor breaks down as the infection spreads through other ship systems.
Phage
The Odyssey encounters the Vidiians, the “pariah” of this region of the Delta Quadrant, when they steal Falox’s lungs. The Doctor is able to save Falox, but he is confined to Sickbay, only able to talk, as the Doctor creates a pair of artificial lungs for him. Odyssey tracks the Vidiians down, finding that they suffer from an incurable degenerative disease called the Phage that forces them to harvest organs from other species in order to survive. The Vidiians express remorse at having stolen Falox’s lungs, and Janeway offers to help them find a cure for their disease in exchange for their not using the crew as organ “donors”. The Vidiians offer to help Falox, providing them with the medical expertise to transplant a lung from another crew member to Falox, something the Doctor thought impossible, due to Falox’s physiology. Kes, Falox’s partner, provides the lung, and the Vidiians decide to travel with Odyssey to provide medical assistance, while they try to find a cure for the Phage.
Vengeance
The smaller Kazon sects and the Trabe discover Odyssey’s plan to supply them both with weapons, to maintain safe passage, causing them to unite against Odyssey for using them for their own gain. Janeway tries to explain that she was unaware of the plan to supply the Kazon, and the deal had been done in good faith, but finds that the Trabe and Kazon do not accept this. As they near the edge of Kazon/Trabe space, the Odyssey makes a mad dash for safety, hoping that they will not be pursued further.
The Trabe attack, disabling the Odyssey’s warp core, and boarding the ship. The Trabe plan to use the Odyssey as a weapon to win their war. The crew are sent to the Vidiian ship, and ordered to leave. However, despite the Vidiian ship’s lack of weaponry, they decide to go after the Odyssey, and beam over an away team, as the ship’s shields are still down.
Evek, Torres, Seska and Tuvok are sent over to begin recapturing the ship, using their knowledge of the inner workings to their advantage. They retake one of the transporter rooms to bring in reinforcements if they require them, and start to section off the ship with force fields to retake it in sections.
Meanwhile, the Odyssey joins with the rest of the Trabe fleet to destroy the Kazon Alliance fleet, as they begin to turn the tide of battle. As the away team secures the Odyssey again, they take out the Trabe, and hail the Kazon, coming to an agreement that they will not be attacked provided that the Odyssey no longer interferes in Kazon affairs.
The Odyssey, under a skeleton crew, returns to the Vidiian ship, leaving Kazon space. As they ask Falox whose space they are nearing, he replies that the Sikarians control much of the local space indirectly, as a series of tributaries. As Janeway recalls having upset the Sikarians by the crew attempting to steal their technology, she realises that their troubles may have only just started.
Recurring Cast: Martha Hackett as Seska
A few alterations here that I didn't bring up earlier, either because I forgot or just hadn't quite finalised plans yet. One: Seska is Bajoran, not Cardassian. The Obsidian Order operative is Rejal, but she's not got a huge amount to do with that just yet. Two: Hydroponic bay doesn't get made until later, and the Doctor is highly involved with it. Also, in case you didn't guess, the Sikarians are going to be Season 2's big bad, with the Vidiians playing a major role. Right, next update will be next Monday, with some DS9. I'll still answer questions and respond to comments here and there, but don't expect anything major until then.
