Voyager's "Coda" Debuted 20 Years Ago Today

Janeway dies and meets her dad, Vice Admiral Janeway, but she's just not buying it. Such is the plot, or part of it, of the Star Trek: Voyager episode, "Coda," which first aired on January 29, 1997 -- or 20 years ago today. To commemorate the occasion, StarTrek.com is pleased to share several facts, figures and anecdotes about the hour.

"Coda" was the 15th episode of Voyager's third season.

Jeri Taylor wrote the "Coda" teleplay, incorporating elements of her Janeway-heavy novel Mosaic into the captain's background.

Memorable bit of dialogue #1:"Maybe," Janeway suggested to Chakotay, "I could stand with an apple on my head and you could phaser it off.""Sounds great," Chakotay replied. "If I miss, I get to be captain."

According to Memory Alpha, "The visual effect for the anomaly Janeway and Chakotay see from the shuttlecraft is a re-use of the anti-time anomaly encountered by the USS Enterprise (NCC-1701-D) in TNG: 'All Good Things...'"

Emmy Award-winning actress-producer-director Nancy Malone directed "Coda" and, later, "Message in a Bottle." Malone, who played Millie Frazier in The Twilight Zone episode "Stopover in a Quiet Town," also had the distinction of being the first female vice president of television at 20th Century Fox. She passed away in 2014 at the age of 79.

According to Memory Alpha, the episode's working title was "Fractals."

Memorable bit of dialogue #2:I know Captain Janeway wouldn't want us to be sitting around moping," Harry Kim said at Janeway's memorial, as the captain looked on. "She'd want us to be cheering each other up remembering the good times, like that away mission when we found all those bushes of overripe fruit. I must have eaten half a kilo. My hands and mouth were all purple, and the captain... the captain came and sat down next to me, and her mouth was all stained too. She put her arm around my shoulder and she said... she said... 'Ensign, these are the times we have to remember."

"Coda," per Nielsen, was seen in 4.6 million homes and achieved a 7% share.

Veteran Broadway star and Tony Award winner Len Cariou played Captain Janeway's father. The actor currently co-stars as Tom Selleck's father on Blue Bloods.