Shuttlecraft Outings - Season One

Caretaker

• No shuttlecraft were harmed in the making of this episode. However, the same can't be said for the Maquis ship! Chakotay was driving at the time. Remember that, there may be a test later...
• The only shuttlecraft seen is the one used by Stadi to bring Paris to Voyager and give him the obligatory fly-past of the ship. It's not one of Voyager's shuttles anyway, as its registry is clearly shown to be NCC-71325.

Parallax

• Janeway and Torres use a shuttlecraft to force open a big enough exit for Voyager in the quantum singularity they are trapped in. Getting close enough to use their dekyon beam causes the shuttle to lose power and takes out the comms system, thereby ensuring that when a time distortion presents them with a choice of two Voyagers to return to they must guess which one rather than simply ask. Janeway guesses right, so they make it back to the shuttlebay okay.

Ex Post Facto

• Attempting to avoid getting involved in the conflict between the Baneans and the Numiri, Janeway sends an away team of Tom Paris and Harry Kim to Banea in a shuttlecraft so that they can avoid the Numiri patrols. Paris hides it behind the limb of the Banean moon before making a break for their defence perimeter, ensuring that by the time the Numiri sensors pick up the shuttle it is too late for them to catch it and open hostilities.
• After Paris is framed for murder, Harry Kim is interrogated for two days and then made to leave without him. His shuttle returns to Voyager with damage to various subsystems, which presumably means that someone took a potshot at it on route and took out communications.
• On the pretext of returning Paris to Banea, for the removal of the brain implant that threatens his life and for alternative sentencing, Janeway claims that they are concerned that the transporters might exacerbate his condition and are therefore sending him back by shuttlecraft instead. As passenger in a shuttle piloted by Harry Kim, Paris is bait for a trap... and the Numiri obligingly fall into it, sending a patrol ship to intercept the shuttle, grab it in a tractor beam and board it. They helpfully identify Paris as their target, the two Voyager crew beam out, and Janeway informs the empty handed Numiri that the shuttle carries forty tons of thalmerite explosives, which she will detonate - blowing up both the shuttle and their ship - unless it is released immediately. The Numiri promptly head for the hills, and Voyager tractors its shuttle back aboard unharmed.

Cathexis

• Chakotay and Tuvok's shuttle is returning from a trade mission with the Ilidarians when it encounters a dark matter nebula. When they start a routine analysis of the nebula the shuttle is attacked by an energy discharge which penetrates the shields and badly damages the hull, fracturing it in several places, before distributing itself throughout the cabin and hitting the crew. Chakotay's consciousness is displaced from his body; Tuvok is taken over by a hostile alien, and erases the sensor data files in such a way as to make it appear that the shuttle's computer core has been overloaded by the energy discharge. The shuttle returns to its rendezvous point with Voyager under autopilot, whereupon its damaged state and unconscious crew are picked up by the sensors.

The 37's

• When it proves impossible to transport to the surface of the planet due to the excessive trinimbic interference in the atmosphere, Chakotay suggests that he might be able to take an away team down to the planet in a shuttlecraft instead. Tuvok doesn't think it's at all a good idea, since the turbulence in the atmosphere would make it impossible to navigate the shuttlecraft safely through the air currents. Fortunately Janeway shows great foresight and decides to land Voyager instead and the shuttles get to stay safely tucked away inside the shuttle bay throughout the entire episode. Foresight? Well, yes. Take note of who proposed the shuttlecraft option in this episode and keep reading...