After seven years making it so on the small screen, the Next Generation crew graduated to full-on movie star status with 1994's "Star Trek: Generations". But as Jean-Luc and co got busy meeting Starfleet royalty (hello, James T Kirk) and smashing the Enterprise into the surface of Veridian III, Paramount had decided they needed a flagship for their new United Paramount Network (UPN). Voyager was the vessel assigned to carry the franchise into a new frontier. It left Spacedock for the first time on January 16, 1995.
Although space station-set stablemate "Deep Space Nine" was carving out a new niche with its increasingly complex story arc, the new show would mark a return to the starship-based spirit of exploration that characterized the original "Star Trek". Even so, co-creators Rick Berman (the longtime steward of the franchise), Michael Piller, and Jeri Taylor knew they couldn't simply churn out a "TNG" clone.
