I wouldn't either... though to give the benefit of the doubt, there are only so many ways you can do a robotic skull.
That's true. Maybe it was designed that way to keep the robots from being a threat--it didn't work, as we all see. The Heavenly Host did the null face even more creepily.
My point is that it COULDN'T be designed that way. If a power core won't work with a different robot, then why does it work if you replace half the components? The episode is contradicting itself.
Full on robotic enemies would be interesting, but not those robots.Their design and back story didn't work for that. and yes the Kazon weren't working well, but this was well before the Borg even appeared so the producers couldn't say they were going to stuff it in the long run. As a pure concept it sounds a slam dunk.
They tried repeatedly to create alien species that could be used in recurring roles. The Kazon, the Vidiians, the Krenim, the Hirogen, etc. The audience didn't like a single one of them and continually pointed out how it didn't make sense how a constantly moving ship shouldn't have recurring enemies. What makes you think these robots would work out any better than any of those others? The audience already made it perfectly clear they didn't want any new aliens to begin with.
There are only so many ways that you can take a skull and mechanize it- the T2 one is one of my favorites. It would have been nice to have had some additional re-occurring villains on the show, mix things up a bit with the Hirogen and Vidians. The Robots could have been one if they developed the idea better for the one time you saw them. Bill the Robot example reminded me of what does happen when you upgrade a computer too often- Windows detects too many changes and requires you to log on and re-register the OS before it will work again. I know this because the only thing original in my machine is the address it resides at...
Forbid the concept that people didn't like the Vidiians and Hirogen because they were one dimensional. All the Viidians did was harvest organs. All the Hirogen did was glorify hunting. There was no substance to them, just frosting.
DS9 was able to use the Dominion through out the run of the show, how many people thought the Dominion were lame villains? The problem with a lot of the Voyager created villains, many of them were not memorable or menacing or interesting and felt like cheap knocks off other villains. If the Kazon are just the poor man's Klingons, why should I care about them? At least the robots could have been a unique enemy species in Star Trek lore.
So was the Dominion. They tried to do more with the Vidiian Doctor who was willing to kill another dude and take his face because he thought it would B'Ellana like him. And they also tried for more with that Vidiian Doctor the Doctor fell in love with. What do they get for these attempts at depth? Critical panning. There's no point in trying to give depth when the audience reaction will always be the same. All you've done then is waste effort for folks who will never ever have anything appreciative to say. Double Standard. If the Dominion had been a VOY enemy no one would like them. It helped that DS9 could use their new enemies alongside existing ones to help ease them in. VOY didn't have that luxury. Hell, go with the Robots and the only reaction you'd get would be that VOY ripped off the Jem'Hadar concept only as robots vs Clones.
I've been putting up with them for over 20 years, I think I get them quite well. Them, their double standards, their biased preferences, their lack of patience, the whole load. Honestly, look around you'll see folks way more willing to take pot shots at Voyager rather than say anything nice about the show. Same goes for anyone who dared to enjoy the show in the first place. Voyager introduces the Vidiians, audience complains that they lack depth. Voyager tried to give individual Vidiians with depth, audience complains they shouldn't be giving them depth. What's the point?
Who's them again? This imaginary group of people you see slighting something you like? And I'm sorry but ripping off Leatherface and a romance of the week doesn't qualify as depth.
They ain't imaginary pal... The Borg can rip off the Cybermen, no one cares. One Vidiian takes a small point from some Horror film and the result is critical panning. A sympathetic, 3-Dimensional alien is shown from an antagonistic race and again there is no appreciation. Meanwhile DS9 gets away with 1-Dimensional bozos like the Breen or the Founders. I suppose you'd dislike it if the Vidiian Doctor stayed on as a recurring character? Certainly no room for depth there, huh? Let me guess, you found the aliens in "Living Witness" to be 1-Dimensional as well? Nevermind this is mainly the result of Voyager's "Always on the move" premise inherently limiting what they could do in the first place.
I don't deny maybe I get a little too defensive, but it doesn't change that VOY is more heavily criticized than the rest of Trek. And it gets less appreciation for whenever it pulled off anything folks didn't automatically hate.