On the planet where Voyager's crew had previously been marooned, Professor Gegen and his assistant Veer, two paleontologists of a space-faring saurian species known as the Voth, discover the skeletal remains of a human, most likely Lt. Hogan.
Veer responds instinctively by releasing sedative-tipped needles that strike Chakotay; Gegen grabs the human and transports him aboard his ship, fleeing from Voyager.
The Doctor examines Veer and identifies the similar genetic structure; he and Captain Janeway use simulations to determine that the Voths descended from a species of dinosaur known as the hadrosaurs, of genus Parasaurolophus.
A variety of variants on the Voth were created that had not been seen in "Distant Origin", such as those in powered armour as well as raptors – an enemy type far more similar to typical dinosaurs.
[3] Michael Piller, who had left the production team on Voyager at the beginning of the third season to work on Star Trek: Insurrection, described "Distant Origin" as the best episode of the series so far.
[5] When Dreamwatch magazine reviewed the episode for the VHS release, it rated it as seven out of ten, calling it a "welcome breath of fresh air" but felt that the alien characters were initially played more for comedy value than they should have been.
[8] This episode was released on DVD on July 6, 2004 as part of Star Trek Voyager: Complete Third Season, with Dolby 5.1 surround audio.
[11] In 2017, the complete Star Trek: Voyager television series was released in a DVD box set, which included it as part of the season 3 discs.