The Most Beautiful Work Of Art In Star Trek History Just Returned For A New Voyage
Over the course of four seasons, Star Trek: Lower Decks has proven itself as the ultimate celebration of everything Star Trek is or can be. Last season the show brought us back to Deep Space Nine and this week they brought us back aboard the original USS Voyager.
Best of all, they didn’t just give us a Voyager cameo, Mike McMahan and the Lower Decks team brought us aboard Voyager for a full-on, Voyager-style adventure through the show’s very freaky past. In doing so, they put their animators to work on lovingly recreating the USS Voyager as she’s supposed to be, both inside and out.
Here she is, the most beautiful work of art in Starfleet history, the USS Voyager.
So what happened to the USS Voyager after the show ended and her crew went home? She went to a restoration expert who spent years working to turn one of the most famous ships in the Federation into a traveling museum. The entire ship is now an homage to the bravery and ingenuity of Captain Janeway and her crew.
Every inch of the ship was lovingly recreated in animated form by the Star Trek: Lower Decks crew.
Even Voyager’s interiors have been brought over to animation in an extremely accurate, loving transport into animation.
Here’s the Voyager bridge in animated form…
And here’s the way you remember in live action…
The Voyager transporter room in animated form…
And the live-action transporter room for comparison…
Seven of Nine’s Borg regeneration alcoves in animated form…
And here they are as you remember them in live-action…
Hallways? Animated Voyager’s corridors…
look the same as the live-action ones…
Even Neelix’s kitchen is on the animated ship, complete with a Neelix stand-in…
I think Neelix would be proud, even though it seems his kitchen has been moved to a slightly different spot in the mess hall, for the museum. Also, nothing is on fire.
This isn’t the first time we’ve seen the USS Voyager since Star Trek: Voyager ended. The ship showed up for a brief, one-shot cameo in Star Trek: Picard season 3.
Star Trek: Picard season 3 takes place many years after Lower Decks. By then, the USS Voyager has finished her museum tour and taken her permanent place in the larger Starfleet ship museum alongside other iconic vessels.
It’s hard not to notice that the animated Voyager from Lower Decks is actually a much better recreation.
The live-action version from Star Trek: Picard doesn’t really get the ship’s color right and there are a few other shape oddities.
Voyager’s appearance in Star Trek: Lower Decks season 4 is proof that no one loves, cares for, and respects Star Trek more than showrunner Mike McMahan and his animation crew.
