Eye of the Needle

This Story: Season 1 Episode 7 (production code 107)
VOY Overall: Episode 7
Trek Overall: Story 438, Episode 463
Airdate: 20 Feb 1995
Story by Hilary Bader
Teleplay by Bill Dial & Jeri Taylor
Directed by Winrich Kolbe

Notes

• Running fired torpedo count: 1
• Neelix does not appear in this episode.
• The first tease at getting home quickly in the series.  There will be several.
• The first appearance of Vaughn Armstrong in Voyager (Telek R’Mor).  He would play a total of 13 different characters in the Berman era of Star Trek on TNG, DS9, VOY, & ENT.
• Tom Virtue plays Walter Baxter here.  He will reprise this character in the season 2 episode “Twisted“.  He also plays a Quarren Work Supervisor in the Season 7 two parter “Workforce“.
• It is the first of four Romulans that appear in Voyager.
• The first episodes that establishes the parentage of B’Elanna.
• It is established that the Season 4 episode “Message in a Bottle” is the first time Starfleet learns that Voyager is still alive, which means the messages in this episode were never delivered. However, there’s a fan theory that the messages ended up with the Romulan government as a Season 7 episode (“Inside Man“) implies that the Romulans have always been interested in Voyager, which could have come from the messages in this episode.

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