Skimmed over, not cut through
Voyager did not cut through the rings of that alien planet - it skimmed over them.
Don't you remember seeing the ship's reflection in them?
The series makers did that scene in the opening credits as a tribute to the
Voyager name, as the pretend starship was named after the two famous
real outer planet probes of the 1970s and 1980s. But has NASA/JPL kept
their original designation of Mariner 11 and 12, would the ST folks have
called the ship Mariner?
And since this is Star Trek - shouldn't we be launching Voyagers 3 through 6
real soon? Otherwise the first film will never happen! And despite how people
griped about it back then, it was one of the best of the series. My goodness,
it actually made you think!