10 Greatest Star Trek Cave Episodes
8. Parturition
You may be wondering why the Paris and Neelix jealousy-fuelled parenting episode with the practically unpronounceable title (my apologies to the presenter in advance!) makes it to a 'greatest' list. It might not quite hit that high mark, but it does have a great cave story to tell, and some fairly fine puppetry!
As Captain Janeway says — hair down, even though it's season two — at the end of the episode's opener, "Set a course for Planet Hell, Commander". Thinking there is a food source on the inhospitable planet, Paris and Neelix are sent to the surface to investigate, but promptly crash land, winding up in a set of caves playing "godmother" to a very hungry, freshly hatched lizard.
Janeway's name for the planet is no coincidence — it's a nod to where it was filmed. As The Star Trek Encyclopedia states, "Planet hell was the […] production crew's tongue-in-cheek nickname for stage 16 at Paramount Pictures, where many planet sets for Star Trek: Voyager and Star Trek: The Next Generation were built". Stage 16 might have earned its reputation for infernal (cavernous) habitats, but it did later house the likes of Astrometrics where Voyager is concerned. Incidentally, Jonathan Frakes — a man no stranger to the cave set — directed Parturition.