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Introducing someone to Voyager

I don't like "Year Of Hell". Someone is definitely missing there! :(
Yeah, not everyone likes it, and different people dislike it for different reasons. My dad doesn't care much for it. But I think it's safe to say that the episode is generally popular, and while popularity doesn't make an episode objectively good (it's hard to say what would make any television show's episode objectively good), it does make the episode a fairly safe bet for newcomers.
 
Perhaps the question to ask would be what sort of stories does this friend like, more character based, more action based etc.. So we could perhaps offer suggestions more tailored for them.

And if we are being honest none of the ST pilots have been that great , sure each of the pilots have their moments but as I'm sat hear writing this if I was to be asked to name the best ST pilot I would be tempted to lean towards WNMHGB, and I think I would put "Encounter at Farpoint" last, with perhaps "Caretaker" taking the number 3 spot.

"The gift" was an ok episode when compared to other VOY episodes, as for "Scorpion" for me it had one of the last wow moments in that show when VOY is passed by 15 cubes and is virtually totally ignored. For me it marked the end of the Borg as a meancing adversary.

As for why "Year of Hell" might garner some more love for Trek fans who dont love VOY is perhaps because they feel it was more towards who they imagined the show would play it. Of course YoH is an worst case scenario.
 
"The Gift" is a horrible episode. No 2 on my "Voyager least like episodes"

Thin, unconvincing with an unrealistic scenario and full with holes.

That means you think Threshold is better than this one and Fury??
 
As for why "Year of Hell" might garner some more love for Trek fans who dont love VOY is perhaps because they feel it was more towards who they imagined the show would play it. Of course YoH is an worst case scenario.
I do think the extreme situation appeals to a certain contingent of fans who prefer darker Trek. On the other hand, while the ship ends up in a sort of worst case scenario, the morale of the characters holds up decently well, and their ethics hold up even better. Certain characters like Chakotay and the doctor wrestle with the kinds of ethical dilemmas that decent people wrestle with, but none of the characters decide to do evil so that good might prevail. I think that aspect of "Year of Hell" appeals to those of us who prefer optimistic stories that espouse the idealistic Trek values. And for those of us who prefer episodic storytelling over multi-episode stories, "Year of Hell" provides a completely self-contained narrative. There's something in that episode for (almost) everyone.
 
Its my opinion that anyone who thinks Voyager is an episodic series hasn't actually watched it from beginning to end.

Answering the question of the thread, Caretaker really is the best place to start, but if you're not going to do that, my picks would be Parallax or The Cloud.
 
Since VOY is basically an episodic show, all that person would need to see would be CARETAKER, SCORPION, THE GIFT and ENDGAME. These would basically tell them the "story" of Voyager.

However, this would be a very poor journey and they'd miss most of the fun.

That feels like introducing someone to a book by handing them the "Cliff's Notes" for it. Is the goal to tell the story of Voyager, or to showcase the "best" of Voyager? If it's the latter I'd spend a little thought on what this person likes in the rest of the Trek universe, and try to find episodes they would like based on it.

You pretty much have to show Caretaker at least to set up the premise, after that, particularly because it is episodic, I think your field is pretty wide open and I'd tailor it to your friend's preferences.
 
I have recently started watching Voyager. I saw a few episodes when it was first on, but was never a regular viewer. I've tried a time or two over the years to give it another chance, but it has just never clicked for me. This weekend I've decided to try again; I have made a little list of the most popular episodes from reading the comments on this site, as well as IMDB and Jammer's Reviews. It seemed like a good plan, but it has one major drawback - since I have very little knowledge of the characters, the important character moments lose a lot of their impact. And I'm sure some important moments fly by me without me ever realizing that they tied into a previous story.
 
I have recently started watching Voyager. I saw a few episodes when it was first on, but was never a regular viewer. I've tried a time or two over the years to give it another chance, but it has just never clicked for me. This weekend I've decided to try again; I have made a little list of the most popular episodes from reading the comments on this site, as well as IMDB and Jammer's Reviews. It seemed like a good plan, but it has one major drawback - since I have very little knowledge of the characters, the important character moments lose a lot of their impact. And I'm sure some important moments fly by me without me ever realizing that they tied into a previous story.

You need to go through the episodes more than once, and pay attention to different nuances when you do. It took me a few times through.

I never watched Voyager until it was on Netflix, I just didn't think I'd like a female captain, a ship other than Enterprise, among other things. When I finally gave up and started watching, Well... Janeway's now my favorite ST captain, I love the ship, Tuvok is my favorite Vulcan, and the doctor is my favorite doctor character.

Who knew.
 
Or DS9 for that matter. Enterprise had a pretty good pilot though.

Funnily enough, I rewatched Broken Bow the other night and my girlfriend, watching it for the first time, said it seemed to find its feet straight away whereas TNG took ages to get going. I'll be interested to hear how she takes the DS9 and Voyager pilots (I haven't introduced her to those yet as I don't want to jump ahead to post-Wolf 359 or post-Maquis stories so early on).
 
My Sales Pitch would be that VOYAGER is the second side of the TNG saga ... the furthering of that great and magnificent series' adventures, if you like.

... It would have me $old!
 
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