The Voyager Crew Compliment Question

The Voyager Crew Compliment Question

Something that has long been debated and discussed at length by fans and something I wonder about is the crew of USS Voyager.  Specifically how many crew members were lost in the ships 7 years in the Delta Quadrant and how many made it back to Earth.  I have decided thus to deep dive this.  Some caveats: there are some big uncertainties which make determining a true count impossible, and for the most part the numbers given throughout the series cannot all be reconciled with each other due to continuity issues.   That said, I'm going to go season by season, noting the losses and gains to the crew and the effect of the count of the crew compliment.  I will not be mentioning changes that reverse in the same episode (i.e. Harry Kim and Naomi Wildman dying in "Deadlock" and being replaced by their duplicates, etc.) as these are inconsequential.  Without further ado... 

Season 1

In the pilot "Caretaker", Stadi mentions that the crew compliment is 141.  This obviously does not count Paris (a guest and not a crewmember) or the EMH (a hologram, and not activated yet).  And then we get some uncertainty.  A concrete number is never given for how many crewmembers were lost when the ship was thrown across the galaxy.  Some episodes later mention "a score".  From "Caretaker" and "Parallax" we know for sure 7 people: Stadi, Cavit, the chief medical officer and nurse, the chief engineer, the transporter chief and the astrogation plotter.  For the purpose of this count I will assume 10 casualties.  That leaves 132.  We also don't know how many Maquis came aboard from Chakotay's ship.  I will assume 20 for the purposes of this count, a logical guess given the apparent size of the Maquis ship.  That brings us to 152.  Neelix and Kes bring the number to 154, which actually matches the dialog in early episodes.  In "State of Flux" Seska turns out to be a Cardassian spy and defects to the Kazon, bringing the compliment down to 153.  "Faces" sees Peter Durst killed by a Vidiian scientist, bringing the compliment to 152.  This matches with dialog stating that the crew compliment at that time is 152.

Season 2

"Alliances" sees Crewmen Bandera, Lyman and Young killed in Kazon attacks, leaving 149 crew.  "Meld" seeks Frank Darwin murdered by Lon Suder bringing the number to 148.  "Investigations" ends with Michael Jonas, having been outed as a spy for Seska, die while trying to kill Neelix bringing the compliment down to 147.  The compliment gains 1 person when Naomi Wildman is born in "Deadlock", brining the number back up to 148.  Ensign Bennett died in a shuttle crash in "Innocence" taking us back down to 147.  The battle with the Kazon in Basics part 1 resulted in two unnamed casualties, ending the season with a compliment of 145.

Season 3

Season 3 opens with "Basics part II", the conclusion of the season 2 ending cliffhanger, in which crewman Hogan and an unnamed female crewmember are killed on Hanon IV while the entire crew were stranded on the planet following the Kazon capturing Voyager and Lon Suder sacrifices himself to help regain control of Voyager, bringing the count down to 142.  "The Swarm" saw the death of an unnamed crewman bringing the count to 141.  Ensign Kaplan was killed on the Borg Cooperative planet in "Unity" and Ensign Martin was killed in "Warlord" by a possessed Kes, leaving the count at 139.  Season 5's "Latent Image" retcons the death of Ensign Ahni Jetal to about this point in the third season, putting the compliment at the seasons end at 138.

Season 4

Season 4 begins by introducing Seven of Nine in "Scorpion part II", while "The Gift" says goodbye to Kes who ascends to a higher plane of existence.  The aliens experimenting on the crew in "Scientific Method" caused the death of an unnamed female crewmember dropping the number to 137.  Season 6's "Ashes to Ashes" established that ensign Lyndsey Ballard was killed at about this point, giving us a crew compliment of 136.  The takeover of Voyager by the Hirogen to use the crew as prey in holodeck simulations in "The Killing Game" two-parter caused the death of an unnamed crewman according to Janeway's log entry, giving us 134, while the Kyrian historical records as corrected by the backup EMH established that 3 crewmembers died during Voyagers encounter with the Vaskans and Kyrians, leave us with 132.  In "One" a male unnamed crewmember died on the bridge from nucleonic radiation when Voyager attempted to enter the nebula, ending season 4 with a crew compliment of 131, the lowest in the entire series.

Seasons 5 and 6

Season 5 would only see one crew loss with an unnamed crew member being killed during the attack on Voyager by nucleonic lifeforms during the Equinox incident, however the season 6 opener Equinox part 2 saw the addition to the crew of the 5 surviving Equinox crewmembers, bringing the compliment up to 135.  The Borg children rescued in "Collective" bring the compliment up to 139, however at the end of the season the three younger children left for one of their homeworlds, ending season 6 with a compliment of 136.

Season 7

The long unseen Lieutenant Joe Carey makes a return only to be killed off during an away mission in "Friendship One", reducing the compliment to 135.  The series penultimate episode "Homestead" saw Neelix leave Voyager to take up residence on a Talaxian colony asteroid, bringing the number to 134.  The series finale "Endgame" ends with Miral, the daughter of Tom and Be'lanna being born as Voyager is in the Borg transwarp conduit on the way back to Earth, giving us 135.  Adding one more for the Doctor (who I have not counted so far since he's a hologram) gives us a final count when Voyager made it's triumphant return to Earth of 136.

Overall this is not by any means an unreasonable number, given what Voyager went through over the years.  A total of 36 crew losses (assuming 10 losses when the ship was thrown to the Delta Quadrant) is understandable given the trials and tribulations of the intrepid ship and its crew.  USS Equinox shows how easily that number could have been much higher.  As would be expected, given the length of time the ship spent in the Delta Quadrant they gained some new crewmembers along the way: Neelix, Kes, Seven of Nine, Naomi Wildman was born, the Borg Children, the Equinox survivors.  Of course some people were not killed but left the ship for various reasons (Seska, Kes, Neelix, the younger Borg Children).