Star Trek: Voyager was the first series in the franchise to accomplish one amazing starship feat that TOS and TNG never managed to depict.

Star Trek: Voyager was the first show to accomplish a starship feat that Star Trek: The Original Series and Star Trek: The Next Generation never could. Although Voyager was the fourth Star Trek series overall, the show represented a lot of firsts for the franchise. The biggest and most obvious was that Voyager was the first series with a female lead, in the form of Captain Janeway (Kate Mulgrew). Voyager also explored a completely uncharted region of space, the Delta Quadrant, during its run. However, one of the other firsts was that the USS Voyager was the first Starfleet ship to successfully land on a planet and take off again.

Voyager’s landing came in season 2, episode 1, “The 37’s” which featured the crew following a series of bizarre clues to an alien planet. Because of atmospheric interference, Captain Janeway made the decision to land the entire ship on the planet rather than beaming an away team down or taking a shuttlecraft. Tom Paris (Robert Duncan McNeill) executed the landing with minimal damage to the ship, and at the end of the episode, Voyager took off again without issue. While landing a starship was clearly something that had been done before in-universe, Voyager became the first time the act was depicted on-screen.

Star Trek’s Voyager Managed 1 Incredible Feat Kirk & Picard’s Enterprise Never Did

Despite the odds, the USS Voyager managed an impressive feat that neither version of Star Trek’s USS Enterprise was able to accomplish.

Why Voyager Landing A Starship Was Something Star Trek TOS & TNG Never Did

The reason the Star Trek franchise never showed a Starfleet vessel landing before Voyager is complex, but mainly comes down to real-life budgeting issues. Early on in the run of Star Trek: TOS, creator Gene Roddenberry realized that the show simply didn’t have the budget to depict the USS Enterprise landing on a planet every episode. This problem was solved by the creation of the transporter, a quintessential piece of Star Trek technology that became an important part of the franchise. If any issues cropped up with the transporter in a storyline, a smaller vessel like a shuttlecraft could be shown landing without too many budgetary concerns.

The combination of transporter and shuttlecraft worked so well on TOS that Star Trek: TNG kept the trend going. Although TNG had a larger budget and more sophisticated graphics, the show chose to stick with already-established methods since they had become ingrained in the Star Trek mythos. One of the TNG movies, Star Trek Generations, did show the USS Enterprise-D crash-landing, but TNG never executed a successful landing and take-off. The same thing can be said for Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, mainly because the show didn’t even feature a starship for a long time. By the time Voyager rolled around, the franchise was overdue to depict a starship landing.

Voyager Still Holds The Record For Most Successful Starship Landings

Along with being the first show to ever land a Starfleet ship, Voyager still holds the record in the franchise for most successful starship landings. Since Voyager aired, newer Star Trek shows have depicted starships landing. Star Trek: Discovery season 3 showed the USS Discovery crash-landing on a planet and eventually successfully taking off again despite some interference. Star Trek: Prodigy, the animated spiritual successor to Voyager, also had the USS Protostar land and take off from two separate planets during season 1.

However, Voyager showed the ship landing an impressive total of five times throughout its run after its first landing in “The 37’s.” Interestingly, Prodigy may end up having a version of Voyager beat this number since the USS Voyager-A is set to be the main ship of season 2. Regardless, Star Trek: Voyager will always be the first show in the franchise to show a Starfleet ship landing, an impressive feat considering how legendary TOS and TNG‘s Enterprises have become.