So many horrible characters aboard the Voyager

[teacake]

Who?

[Guy Gardener]

Whoreshi's pet hound from the Mirror Universe Episodes of Enterprise.

That lad was in a few regular episodes of Enterprise too.

[King Daniel Into Darkness]

Hespen wrote:

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I liked the original star trek from way back in the day, I enjoyed the older movies, TNG and deep space nine. But Voyager is the first star trek series with so many uninteresting characters.

Have you watched TNG recently? Can you tell me whats interesting about any of those characters other than Picard and Data?

Neelix
Extremely annoying

Neelix was annoying as hell, BUT with good reason. He'd seen a lot of tragedy, he was pretty fucked up and very insecure. It was an act he put on and I think Ethan Phillips did a great job of showing that when he got time in the spotlight.

Commander Chipotle
Annoying, serves no purpose in the show. Constantly gives janeway bad advice. Native American angle is extremely boring. They should just replace his face with a freshly made chipotle and just play some mexican music in the background, maybe a drum with a buffalo running in the background. That would be far more interesting lol.

Chakotay was the dullest character on the show by far.

Tom Paris
Serves no purpose, annoying. If he wasn't on the show there would be no difference in anything.

I wish they'd kept Tom the cocky jerk he was in the lead-up to "Basics"

Torres
All she does is complain, it's annoying as hell.

Her depression episodes were the worst-handled thing in modern Trek with the exception of "Dear Doctor" and "The Outcast". But otherwise I found her inoffensive.

Harry Kim
Serves no purpose, annoying, the most boring character in all of star trek.

He was a bright eyed kid whose hopes were totally fucked when Voyager was stranded. He put on a brave face. Not used very well, but I liked the intent.

I can only assume you've repressed all memories of Wesley and Beverlump from Next Gen, to call Harry Trek's most boring character.

I think if they removed the above five characters the show would be a lot better.

I think cutting 3-5 parts would improve all the Trek series, with the exception of TOS.

Janeway, Tuvok, seven and the Doctor are very interesting characters. Kes was becoming interesting as well but then they removed her.

I'm just shocked at how badly they dropped the ball with this series.

I enjoyed it for what it was. But if you didn't, why are you torturing yourself by watching it?

[MacLeod]

teacake wrote:

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Enough! Enough with all this awful VOY bashing!!

So many mean posts, and here it is almost Valentines day!!

Well it being so close to valentines day which episode shold we go for DSN's "Trials and Tribble-ations" or VOY's "Flashaback. As they could in a loose sense be called love letters to the fans.

But I think what the OP might have meant was Bland Characters.

[Bry_Sinclair]

Some of the characters were pretty weak, added to that poor writing and all the fanwank over Seven and you get a bad situation for the series.

Janeway started off a good character, both Captain and scientist. But as the series progressed there was little consistency, swinging from upholding UFP law to the letter to attempted murder of Noah Lessing. Had they picked a direction and stuck with it (either as someone who will hold onto the rules and regs or someone willing to do whatever needed to be done to get home). She needed more to her, other than simply being billed as Star Trek's first female lead.

Chakotay was very dull. Aside from being a Native American Maquis there didn't seem to be much else to him. He should have been angrier and more abrasive, butted heads with Janeway at every opportunity, make him more focused on his people than the crew as a whole. This would change over time, as would his relationship with the Captain, both becoming far more complex.

Tuvok I loved. A proper Vulcan who showed us the logical use of violence. But of course he suffered from the Seven Syndrome, once she arrived he fell into the background as was his friendship with Janeway.

Tom Paris I have always been kinda 'meh' about. A decent enough character, a few interesting stories, though didn't understand the relationship with Torres, though it was well done. All in all pretty inoffensive.

Torres is another character I loved to fell victim to Seven Syndrome. All the things she would have done went to Seven in later seasons, leaving her with just the Paris relationship to develop. One thing they did with her that I hated was having her accept her Klingon side, she was far more interesting when she hated a big part of who she was.

Kim was dull from his first to last scene. The idea of a green ensign is interesting, but after a year lost in the unknown he'd have grown some balls and would begin to mature, instead he whines about wanting him mummy for years. He should have died in Scorpion (serious, who'd they poll to find him attractive?).

The Doctor was alright but over time he really started to annoy me. They did far too much with him, made him too great and wonderful at everything, even got him in command of the ship. They should've left him stuck in Sickbay.

Neelix. Where to start? A hated character, whose role as cook could have been held by some extra, as a guide he became useless, he never did anything as morale officer, and as ship's ambassador he was a joke. The character should have been more rugged and darker, more of a Han Solo scoundrel.

Kes came into her own after she finished being Neelix's girlfriend (to this day that is still creepy). She had potential and lots of directions open to her, but they got rid of her needlessly.

For me, Seven ruined VOY. If she wasn't the cause of storylines she was the cure for them. The idea of a former Borg recovering their humanity was interesting but poorly done. For one, her implants should have been removed over at least half the season, becoming less of a drone with each episode, but since she was just there as a sex symbol then they couldn't have that now could they.

[MacLeod]

Well to be fair, Picard has Borg implants removed in about an episode.

[Bry_Sinclair]

MacLeod wrote:

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Well to be fair, Picard has Borg implants removed in about an episode.

True, but he'd only been with the Borg for a few days, not the years Seven had been in the Collective.

[Anwar]

Seven's implants were more "covered up" than simply removed. One of her eyes is entirely artificial and later on we see that the thing on her forehead is actually a huge piece of machinery that's inside her skull.

Majority of her borg tech was internal, not external.

[stj]

Bry_Sinclair wrote:

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Janeway started off a good character, both Captain and scientist. But as the series progressed there was little consistency, swinging from upholding UFP law to the letter to attempted murder of Noah Lessing. Had they picked a direction and stuck with it (either as someone who will hold onto the rules and regs or someone willing to do whatever needed to be done to get home). She needed more to her, other than simply being billed as Star Trek's first female lead.

In the pilot, Janeway was clearly depicted as someone who would bend the regs to do what she thought was right, even at the cost of not getting home. You're imagining inconsistency because you've ignored what's on screen.

Chakotay was very dull. Aside from being a Native American Maquis there didn't seem to be much else to him. He should have been angrier and more abrasive, butted heads with Janeway at every opportunity, make him more focused on his people than the crew as a whole. This would change over time, as would his relationship with the Captain, both becoming far more complex.

There is no reason for such anger. Pointless conflict has no dramatic interest. Petty squabbles would have been dull.

Kim was dull from his first to last scene. The idea of a green ensign is interesting, but after a year lost in the unknown he'd have grown some balls and would begin to mature, instead he whines about wanting him mummy for years. He should have died in Scorpion (serious, who'd they poll to find him attractive?).

Kim wasn't in enough scenes to whine for years. The handful of Kim episodes was less than 5% of the series. 5% is the rule of thumb for negligible! Also, Garrett Wang was very good looking and certainly fit into the People magazine "Beautiful People" spread. It really seems as though the mere sight of the character enraged you, which is a little odd.

Kes came into her own after she finished being Neelix's girlfriend (to this day that is still creepy). She had potential and lots of directions open to her, but they got rid of her needlessly.

No, there were no directions for her to pursue on Voyager. It was never clear why the woman was there in the first place. You could have made a show following Kes on her adventures in the Milky Way, but it wouldn't have been Star Trek. Jennifer Lien was very attractive (the voice was gorgeous!) but the actress' sex appeal does not justify the character. If only they'd had enough ruthlessness to ditch Paris and/or Torres, who were also dead end characters.

[Relayer1]

Relayer1 wrote:

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Well, I didn't like the way the character was written, I didn't like Tim Russes portrayal and rather pathetically, I didn't like his hairline...

To elaborate, I'd say that Janeway and Tuvok are the only two lead characters in any Trek series that I disliked by the end of their run. I wasn't fond of Sisko but became so, I warmed a little to Neelix as time passed, and Torres became less annoying to me.

[flandry84]

The show had such great potential,a chance to be NuBSG before NuBSG.Instead the producers were too anxious to recreate the clean cool lines of TNG that the show suffered from the curse of the reset button.Consequently you got stories and concepts that had been done so much better by other sci-fi shows not least TNG itself.

I feel sorry for poor Chakotay (and Beltran)Chakotay should have been the type of guy you would bet on in a Klingon knife fight but the character was ignored and yes somewhat castrated(metaphorically)by a very strident captain.

[stj]

^^^Funny, when I watched the show, it sure seemed like it was Seska who wanted his testicles...and got them, too, at least their natural product.

[DalekJim]

The only Voyager characters I dislike are Chakotay and Harry Kim because they're bland, deeply boring fucks. Rest of the cast are alright, with The Doctor and Tuvok being particularly impressive.

[Dukhat]

DeepSpaceWine wrote:

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What is it with people appearing to proclaim their hatred of Voyager in great detail year after year? Is there some kind of Voyager Hate Club I don't know about? Does one get bonus points for how creative they get with their hate and how much they write about how much they hate Voyager (like frequent flyer miles)? What kind of parties do they throw? What kind of get togethers? Where is the Voyager Hate Convention held? Do they get Garrett Wang to appear so they can throw rotten produce at him? Do they get Robert Beltran to appear where they can simultaneously scold him for acting out such a boring character & cheer him for his dislike of the writers/producers? Do they burn effigies of the Transwarp Salamander from "Threshold"? How many card carrying members of the Voyager Hate Club are here at this site?

It's probably because the newbie cadet OP thought he was the first person ever to complain about it. Which is how a lot of newbie cadets think. But what's even more annoying is when newbie cadets post OP's like this, and then don't even bother to interact after the responses it gets.

[JirinPanthosa]

flandry84 wrote:

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The show had such great potential,a chance to be NuBSG before NuBSG.Instead the producers were too anxious to recreate the clean cool lines of TNG that the show suffered from the curse of the reset button.Consequently you got stories and concepts that had been done so much better by other sci-fi shows not least TNG itself.

I feel sorry for poor Chakotay (and Beltran)Chakotay should have been the type of guy you would bet on in a Klingon knife fight but the character was ignored and yes somewhat castrated(metaphorically)by a very strident captain.

I think the show could have been a much better show even without trying to be 'dark and gritty'. A ship constantly on the move at high warp is naturally an episodic setup. They could have had their 'alien of the week' and kept stories light and fluffy, if they had a rich cast of recurring characters and more consistent relationships between crewmembers, and lasting damage between episodes. Continuity on ship/alien of the week off ship would have been a really good formula.